ETtech Deals Digest: Rate hikes, dried up liquidity keep investors from betting on new ventures

Funding taps have been running dry for Indian startups for quite some time now. Investors globally have been jittery towards pouring money into new ventures. The Federal Reserve’s decision to hike interest rates by 75 bps also comes as a sign of caution for investors. Major Central banks including the Bank of England have hiked the interest rates, as a result, liquidity in the market has dried up, making it tough for investors to place their bets on new ventures.

The startup ecosystem in India is not only seeing a finding crunch but is also being forced to cut the workforce and lay off people in a bid for survival.

With the conventional sources of funding not proving to be fruitful, startups have also been using convertible notes.

Icertis raises $150 million in convertible finances from Silicon Valley Bank: SaaS startup
raised $150 million through a revolving credit facility and convertible financing from US-based Silicon Valley Bank. The company said on Monday that it would use the funds to further accelerate the adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain.

Premji Invests backs D2C startup The Sleep Company: Direct-to-consumer sleep-tech startup,
The Sleep Company, has raised Rs 177 crore (about $21.3 million) as part of a fresh funding round led by Premji Invest with existing investor Fireside Ventures also participating. The capital raising round also includes a debt component of up to Rs 8.2 crore ($1 million) from Alteria Capital. Premji Invests now owns 15%-20% stake in the company, according to sources.

Crypto app Settlemint raises $16 million: SettleMint, the blockchain application development platform for private and public sector has
raised $16 million in Series A funding, in a round led by UK-based Molten Ventures. New investors including co-lead investor OTB Ventures, Fujitsu Ventures, Allusion and Bloccelerate along with existing investor Medici Ventures, L.P also joined the funding round.

CashKaro raises $15.8 million from Affle Global: Cashback and coupon startup
CashKaro raised 130 crore ($15.8 million) from Affle Global Pte Ltd This minority investment has flowed into Pouring Pounds UK, the parent entity of Pouring Pounds India which houses the CashKaro and EarnKaro brands.

Cleantech startup SolarSquare raised $12 million in funding: SolarSquare, which operates in the B2C solar products space,
has raised Rs 100 ($12 million) crore Series A funding in a round led by Elevation Capital and LowerCarbon, billionaire venture investor Chris Sacca’s climate-tech fund. The round also saw participation by existing investors Good Capital and Rainmatter as well as angel investors, including Meesho founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal.

AlmaBetter raises $2.7 million from Kaalari Capital and others: Upskilling platform AlmaBetter has
raised a seed round of $2.7 million from Kalaari Capital, 15+ angel investors and founders of marquee technology companies, including Vidit Aatrey (CEO, Meesho), Sanjeev Kumar (CTO, Meesho), Rajesh Yabaji (CEO, Blackbuck), Varun Alagh (CEO, MamaEarth), and Rahul Dalmia (early backer in Polygon Technology) among others.

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