Online stock broking company Upstox, managed and operated by RKSV Securities India Pvt Ltd, has raised $25 million as a part of its Series C funding making it the 40th unicorn or a startup with over $1 billion valuation, in 2021 in India so far.
The fundraise values Upstox at $3.39 billion (Rs 25,454 crore) according to VCCircle estimates, based on filings made with the Registrar of Companies.
The funding round was led by Tiger Global Management’s affiliate Internet Fund V Pte Ltd, according to the filings. As a part of the transaction, the company issued 18,761 compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS), having a face value of Rs 30 each at a total issue price of Rs 98,608 each for consideration in cash.
The fresh capital has been raised for growth, expansion, marketing and general corporate purposes. News website Entrackr first reported the development, saying the funding was raised at a valuation of over $3.4 billion. An email sent to Upstox did not elicit an immediate response.
Upstox in 2019 had raised $25 million from Tiger Global Management, affiliate Scott Shleifer. The company had raised $4 million in 2016 in a Series A funding round led by Kalaari Capital.
The current week has seen three startups turning unicorns. Pre-owned cars platform, Spinny on Wednesday had raised Rs 1849.45 crore ($248.6 million)to enter the unicorn club, while real estate renting and buying platform, NoBroker, on Tuesday joined the club after raising $210 million. Upstox is also the sixth startup to turn unicorn in November alone with Mensa Brands, MyGlamm and Acko, being the rest as compared to 11 unicorns in the entire calendar year last year.
Many users of Upstox are first time and retail investors and the company is eyeing to make the most of the recent surge in first time and retail investors. Since the pandemic started last year, 14.2 million new demat accounts were opened in 2020-21 (FY21), according to the data from the National Securities Depository, and Central Depository Services, almost a near three-fold increase from 2019-20 (FY20)’s 4.9 million.
Upstox’s fundraise comes exactly a month after wealth management and investment platform Groww had raised $251 million as a part of its latest Series E funding led by IconiQ Growth. The fundraise by Groww had nearly tripled its valuation to $3 billion in a little over six months. Groww also counts Tiger Global as a backer. Groww had raised $83 million in its Series D round led by Tiger Global Management earlier this year, which helped the company to join the unicorn club.
Tiger Global has aggressively struck bets in India in 2021. In new investments made this year, Tiger Global led or co-led funding rounds in investment platform Next Billion Technologies Pvt Ltd or Groww, conversational messaging platform Gupshup Technology India Pvt Ltd, and Indian social network ShareChat (Mohalla Technology Pvt Ltd), making them all unicorns in the process. Tiger Global has also doubled down significantly on its existing portfolio firms this year. For instance, it made investments in two existing portfolio companies, both of which are infrastructure goods marketplaces Moglix and Infra.Market and turned them both into unicorns.
(additional reporting by Ankit Agarwal)
