BigBasket, an online grocery startup based in India, has raised $150 million in a funding round led by Abraaj Group. New investors such as International Finance Corporation and Sands Capital and existing backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Advisors, Zodius Capital and Ascent Capital all participated. “The fresh funds will be used to build one of the largest grocery businesses in the country, increase the reach of its just launched one-hour express delivery service and also to launch a marketplace for speciality stores,” V.S. Sudhakar, co-founder of BigBasket, said in a statement.
BYJU, an education app for schoolchildren in India, has raised $75 million from Sequoia India and Sofina. The company has now raised a total of $90 million since it was founded in 2011. The app was launched six months ago and the company say it has been downloaded 2.5 million times so far. BYJU plans to use the funds to create new products and learning formats with the new funds.
Sight Machine, which offers a big data platform for manufacturing, has raised $13.5 million in Series B funding. Jump Capital led the round, with participation from GE Ventures, Two Roads Group and Pritzker Group Venture Capital. “Manufacturing industries are at an inflection point,” said Saurabh Sharma, principal at Jump Capital. “In the past 12 to 18 months, manufacturing CEOs and CIOs have realized they are missing opportunities to drive significant benefit from digitization of manufacturing and have launched strategic initiatives to catch up. Every innovative manufacturer should be looking to partner with a company like Sight Machine to remain competitive.”
Acutus Medical, a startup using electrophysiology to diagnose and treat complex arrhythmias, has closed $75 million in Series C financing. Deerfield Management Company, Xeraya Capital and an undisclosed strategic investor all participated, as did existing backers Advent Life Sciences. “The Acutus Medical AcQMap™ technology has the potential to play an important role in the detection and treatment of atrial fibrillation (AFIB),” said Steve Hochberg, partner at Deerfield. “Presently, EPs are only able to map the inside of the heart chamber by actually touching the heart wall with a catheter one location at a time. This limitation prevents the EP from truly seeing the AFIB in a complete, full chamber, high-resolution view, leading them to treat the patient via an empirically-based approach versus an evidence-based approach. AcQMap allows EPs, for the first time, to see a three dimensional, high-definition view of the heart chamber and its electrical activity in real-time, helping them to make critical treatment decisions based on clear evidence of the abnormality causing the arrhythmia.”