Fogg, Byju’s and PharmEasy grabbed the biggest investments of June 2021— here’s more

Jio investor KKR acquired 54% stake in Gujarat-based Vini Cosmetics, the maker of Fogg brand of deodorant. The deal cost KKR about $625 million, and private equity firm WestBridge Capital also participated in it. The investment has provided partial exit to existing stakeholders — Sequoia Capital and Vini Cosmetics’ founder group led by the father-son duo Darshan Patel and Dipam Patel.

BYJU’s, which became the highest valued edtech startup in the world in 2019, has now donned the hat of the most valued Indian startup, surpassing digital payments giant Paytm. BYJU raised $350 million last month from UBS Group, Zoom founder Eric Yuan, Blackstone, Abu Dhabi sovereign fund ADQ and Phoenix Rising–Beacon Holdings, at a valuation of $16.5 billion.

E-pharmacy unicorn PharmEasy raised about $300 million from its existing investors last month, in order to aid the acquisition of public-listed diagnostic chain Thyrocare for ₹4,546 crore ($612 million). TPG, Singapore’s Temasek, Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital, Prosus and Think Investments participated in this round. The company also noted that it will be looking to hit the public market in the next six to 18 months.

Hyperlocal service provider Urban Company was the latest entrant into the unicorn club, after raising $255 million in Series F round led by Prosus Ventures, Dragoneer and Wellington Management. Vy Capital, Tiger Global and Steadview also participated in the round. The company is now valued at $2.1 billion, nearly two times increase from its previous valuation of $933 million (2019).

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered talent intelligence platform Eightfold AI raised $220 million last month as a part of its Series E round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The company has raised more than $410 million to date, with $350 million coming in the last six months. It will use the funds to grow and develop its talent intelligence platform.

Browserstack has become the most valued venture capital-backed software-as-a-service (SaaS) company in India. Last month, it raised $200 million in its Series B round led by BOND at a valuation of $4 billion. Founded in 2011 by Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal, BrowserStack is a software testing platform used by developers to test their websites or mobile applications across browsers, operating systems and devices.

Norway’s state-owned Norfund and TPG Capital’s RISE Fund have invested about $120 million in Hyderabad-based Fourth Partner Energy (4PEL), which focuses on the commercial and industrial segment and has an operations portfolio of 550 megawatts.

Topical drug maker Encube Ethicals has raised about $100 million - $120 million from Quadria Capital and its co-investor Gulf Islamic Investment. The deal involves $15-25 million of primary capital that will be used to launch a new line of products.