Survival of the fittest! Lenskart, Healthkart, others eyeing big ticket fund raising drives, says report

Having survived the Covid onslaught and surged thereafter some startups are eyeing big fund drives. Leaders include Lenskart, Healthkart, Purplle and others.

After surviving the Covid-19 onslaught and ensuring their steady march towards profitability thereafter, is paying off for a number of startups who have laid strong foundations for their businesses. And now, they are eyeing some really big-ticket fund drives. The leaders among these are startups like Lenskart, Purplle, Healthkart and more.

Lenskart, Healthkart, Purplle and some others are eyeing over 100 mn funding drives.

According to a report by the Economic Times, the startups scene in India is surging to new highs and it is likely seeing the return of massive, over $100-million deals. Notably, this applies especially to startups with strong business models who are marching steadily on a path to profitability after ruthlessly cutting costs and ensuring the same happens to losses too during the tough Covid years. This comes in the wake of a long dry spell that technology ventures have gone through till recently.

Among the startups in the spotlight is Lenskart with early talk valuing the company at around $6 bn. Then there is Purplle, whose performance has been stellar last year, where negotiations are on for a $100 million investment, Economic Times reported and added that these deals are likely through existing investors diluting their stakes to log some returns on their investments. In Lenskart’s case, this may include SoftBank and Chiratae Ventures.

As far as Purplle is concerned, the last valuation puts its worth at $1.1 bn.

Others going through such exercise are HealthKart. The startup is eyeing a $100-150 million secondary transaction and is in talks with ChrysCapital. While it has been valued at $370-400 million, ET quoted sources as saying that will likely go up to $500 mn courtesy the new financing round.

Rapido’s funding round too is under discussion and indications are that its valuation will likely rise well over the its 2022 valuation of $830 mn.

Who are the new investors?

After having stayed away since virtually 2021, venture capital investors are showing renewed interest in these top-performing startups. The sectors they are eyeing, according to Economic Times are healthcare, beauty, quick commerce, hyperlocal mobility and more.

Notably, all of these are early figures being bandied about. ET revealed that it has sent emails to the companies concerned but is yet to receive responses from them.