🇮🇳 Roundup: Snapdeal next to join the IPO frenzy, and more

Startups including Jumbotail, Captain Fresh, Tyke, Deciwood, Yodacart, and TagHive collectively raised at least US$129.4 million today in disclosed funding from international and local investors.

Here’s a snapshot of the fundraising:

Here’s some important tech news in India today:

SoftBank-backed Snapdeal gears up for IPO

Ecommerce firm Snapdeal has filed a draft red herring prospectus with the Securities Exchange Board of India to raise US$165 million in its IPO.

Existing investors, including SoftBank, will sell over 30.7 million secondary shares. Founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, who collectively own 20.28% stake in the firm, will not dilute their shares.

Snapdeal, which once competed with Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart, plans to use funds from the IPO to improve its logistics capacity and tech infrastructure, among others. The company is likely to make its public debut early next year.

Urban Company faces backlash from gig workers, again

Women gig workers at the home services marketplace have reportedly launched a protest against the firm over the latter’s two new policies.

One of the new policies is a subscription service, which involves workers planning their monthly work calendar and paying an upfront subscription fee to the firm. Another is a categorization service, which includes penalizing workers for not participating in the subscription plan or “for low response rate.”

This is the second time Urban Company has faced backlash from its gig workers. In October, workers had gone on strike over several issues, such as a poor working environment.

Blinkit halts deliveries in areas outside its 10-minute delivery zones

Zomato-backed Blinkit, formerly known as Grofers, said the move will affect around 75,000 of the 200,000 daily customers it serves.

The company hopes to resume services in the affected areas within four weeks from today, Blinkit co-founder Albinder Dhindsa said in a tweet.