🇮🇳 Roundup: Ola co-founder launches new SaaS startup, and more (Updated)

Update (January 7, 8:20 pm): Adds news on Ola co-founder’s new SaaS startup.

Startups in India, including Dunzo, Avataar, Rupifi, and Zuddl, collectively raised at least US$323.35 million in disclosed funding today from international and local investors.

Here’s a snapshot of fundraising:

Here’s some important tech news from India today:

Goldman-backed Livspace to turn unicorn after US$200 million raise

Livspace is reportedly in advanced talks with private equity firm KKR & Co to raise US$200 million, potentially bumping its valuation to US$1.3 billion.

To date, Livspace has raised more than US$200 million from Ikea’s Ingka Ventures, TPG Growth, Goldman Sachs, and EDBI. It has decorated more than 200,000 rooms and plans to launch operations in Saudi Arabia early this year.

Last month, the Bengaluru-based firm acquired a majority stake in Qanvast, a home decor firm in Singapore.

Ola co-founder launches SaaS startup Amnic

Ola’s co-founder Ankit Bhati is reportedly set to launch Amnic, which will operate in the DevOps (software development and IT operations) toolchain space, along with former  colleagues from the company, Satya Nagarajan and Nimish Joshi.

Sequoia Capital is likely to invest between US$15 million and US$20 million in Amnic as part of the company’s seed round.

Amnic will help businesses maintain a software development pipeline and make the process easier in the software as a service (SaaS) field.

Fintech unicorn BharatPe to raise US$150 million

Resilient Innovations, which operates the BharatPe payments service, is reportedly in talks to raise funding that could value the company at US$4 billion. It is currently in early discussions with several private equity and hedge funds.

Founded in 2018 as a payments app for SMEs, BharatPe currently has more than 7.5 million merchants and processes 110 million transactions per month.

In August last year, it bagged US$350 million in a series E round led by Tiger Global. The deal pushed BharatPe into the unicorn club with a valuation of US$2.8 billion.

Logistics aggregator Shiprocket set to acquire Wigzo Tech

Shiprocket said it will buy a 75% stake in Wigzo Tech, a customer data platform that was founded in 2013. The value of the acquisition remains undisclosed.

Wigzo Tech’s main offering is a marketing automation and business intelligence platform for online retailers, who are also Shiprocket’s primary customer. The service will also help the logistics firm’s users scale their businesses.

Last month, Shiprocket raised US$185 million in a series E round that boosted its total funding to date to US$280 million. The company said it will use a portion of the fresh funds for acquisitions and business expansion.

Ola’s electric scooters under fire due to customer complaints

Some customers of Ola Electric raised complaints about the vehicle’s low battery range and the delivery of used vehicles. They have submitted complaints to the Indian Federation of Automobile Dealers Association, which has asked the company to resolve the issue.

Ola Electric was also questioned for claiming it had dispatched 4,000 electric scooters, while only 500 vehicles were registered on the regulator’s dashboard. The company said that not all states require vehicle registration and some vehicles faced a lag in the registration process.

The distribution of Ola’s electric scooters is unique because it is the first automotive company to sell its products directly to consumers without going through a dealership network.

Xiaomi fined US$88 million in import duties due to tax evasion probe

Xiaomi India had not included royalty and license fees that it had paid to Qualcomm USA and Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co Ltd under the transaction value of the goods it had imported, according to a statement from Indian Finance Ministry.

As a result, regulators said the company, as the beneficial owner of the imported products, had evaded customs duty.

The findings were revealed after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence carried out a probe, which led to the recovery of documents during searches in Xiaomi India’s premises.

Follow the rest of our India coverage here.