New Delhi-based Castler, a global escrow banking platform, has raised pre-Series A funding of $5 million (Rs 41 crore) co-led by IIFL fintech fund and Info Edge’s fund Capital 2B, per an announcement.
The financing also saw participation from Piper Serica and Stride Ventures along with returning investors Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, FAAD Network, and Zerodha, the startup said in a statement.
The fresh proceeds will be deployed to further grow its domestic and cross-border escrow product portfolio, expand its banking partnerships to 25 banks, and grow its business 10x over the next couple of years.
Castler offers both domestic and cross-border escrow solutions to enterprises. Since its launch in April 2021, the company has partnered with 10 banks and claims to have offered solutions to over 500 enterprises. The startup manages over Rs 5,000 crore in transactions every month.
INDIA DEAL MONITOR
Here are the prominent venture capital transactions in India announced from May 9-12, 2023.
| Startup | Headquarter | Investment Size (USD) | Investment Stage | Lead Investor(s) | Other Investor(s) | Industry | Verticals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castler | Delhi | 5,000,000 | Pre-Series A | IIFL fintech fund, Info Edge’s fund Capital 2B | Stride Ventures, Piper Serica, with existing investors Zerodha, Venture Catalysts, 9Unicorns, Faad Network | Financial Services | Fintech |
| TagZ Foods | Bengaluru | 2,000,000 | Pre-Series A | 9 Unicorns, Dexter Angels, Agility Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Klub, Indifi, Rannvijay Singha | – | Food | E-commerce |
| Aqex Technologies India | Mumbai | 7,500,000 | – | Hindustan Media Ventures | – | Financial Services | Blockchain |
| Doppelio | Bengaluru | 1,200,000 | Pre-Series A | Axilor Ventures, Mela Ventures | – | Software | Internet of Things |
| Shipturtle | Ahmedabad | 426,623 | Seed | Inflection Point Ventures | – | Software | SaaS |
| Ripplr | Bengaluru | 40,000,000 | Series B | Fireside Ventures | Bikaji, Neo Foods, 3one4 Capital, Zephyr Peacock, Sojitz Corporation | Logistics/Distribution | SaaS |
| SquareX india | Bengaluru | 6,000,000 | Seed | Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia | – | IT Security/Cybersecurity | – |
| Agrizy | Bengaluru | 5,000,000 | Debt | SBI, Yes Bank, Vivriti Capital | – | Agribusiness | Agtech |
| Soptle | Gurugram | 1,000,000 | Pre-Seed | Kube VC, We Founder Circle | Iceland Venture Studio (IVS), Nyra Ventures, Ankur Agarwal (Dunzo) | Software | SaaS |