Dreams rise beyond the concrete jungles

Hello reader,

When we think of the hottest trends in ecommerce, the first images that come to mind are skyscrapers and city lights. The sector is so much more than that, though. In fact, in India, non-metro cities are now leading in orders on ecommerce platforms.

The company dominating this week’s list of top deals backs this up. CityMall, which services mainly non-metro consumers in the country, is living proof that ecommerce is too big to be put in a box.

You can find all other important investment deals that happened in the last few days in our weekly funding news wrap-up.

Let’s dive into the biggest deals and M&As that recently took place.

— Winston

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The biggest deals by country

🇮🇳 CityMall, a community ecommerce startup focused on non-metro consumers in India, has raised US$47 million in a funding round led by Accel. Other participants in the round – which combined US$41 million in equity, with the rest as debt – were existing investors including Waterbridge Ventures, Citius, General Catalyst, Elevation Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Jungle Ventures.

🇨🇳 BrainCo, a Chinese AI company, has secured US$30 million from Dowstone.

🇰🇷 South Korean firm Gravity Labs, which operates global digital healthcare app Moneywork, has received US$12.6 million in series A funding. Participating investors included Schmidt, Goodwater Capital, and Seoul Techno Holdings.

🇸🇦 Headquartered in Saudi Arabia, Intella is a speech intelligence company focused on Arabic dialects. It has scored US$12.5 million in a series A round led by Prosus, with participation from 500 Global, Wa’ed Ventures, Hala Ventures, Idrisi Ventures, and HearstLab.

🇦🇪 WheelsOn, a digital car rental platform based in the United Arab Emirates, has raised US$12.5 million in a new funding round to expand its fleet and enhance its tech. The company secured US$2.2 million in equity from private investors focusing on the Middle East and North Africa, US$6.5 million for fleet expansion, and US$4 million in local bank financing.

Here’s the complete list of this week’s funding chart: 73 deals worth over US$305 million.

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Behind the Glasswall

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Lists of most active investors in the region

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