Weekly Rundown: Paytm stumbles; Mensa becomes India's fastest unicorn, Flipkart forays into e-pharmacy

Fintech giant Paytm's public market launch turned out to be a disappointing deal for investors as the company lost more than a quarter of its value on the first day of trading. 

After its $2.5 billion initial public offering (IPO), which was India's largest stock market debut, Paytm's shares tanked more than 27%, wiping out close to Rs 40,000 crore of investor wealth on the first day. The company's IPO price was Rs 2,150, and its stock traded at Rs 1,560 apiece by the end of the day. The disappointing launch brought down Paytm's market capitalisation to $13.6 billion from its pre-IPO valuation of $16 billion.

The other startup listing of the week PB Fintech, the parent company of digital insurance marketplace Policybazaar, gained more than 20% over the IPO price on the first day. The company's shares were listed at a 17 per cent premium over its issue price of Rs 980 per share.

Also Read: Will Paytm's poor debut hit Indian start-up ecosystem's funding and valuations?

Meanwhile, private market investors seem to have their feet firmly pressed down on the gas pedal as aggressive equity investors created India's fastest unicorn this week. 

Mensa Brands, an e-commerce rollup firm launched by former Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan, secured a Series B funding of $135 million led by Alpha Wave Ventures, a growth-stage fund, which is a part of the US investment firm Falcon Edge. 

Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers) came in as a new investor in the round. All of Mensa's existing investors such as Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management, participated too. 

The investment makes the six-month start-up India's fastest unicorn and the first e-commerce brand aggregator to become a unicorn. The company has raised over $300 million in equity and debt so far.

The week also saw Walmart-owned e-commerce marketplace Flipkart foraying into the e-pharmacy space with an acquisition. The Bengaluru-based company snapped up digital healthcare platform Sastasundar Marketplace Limited and launched a new vertical named Flipkart Health +.

Also Read: Flipkart forays into e-pharmacy space; acquires SastaSundar.com

Sastasundar is an online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform that offers consumers access to affordable and convenient healthcare. 

The deal takes Flipkart into the crowded and competitive online pharmacy space where a handful of heavily funded players including Amazon Pharmacy, Reliance-backed NetMeds, Tata-owned 1MG, and IPO-bound PharmEasy are striving to gain an early lead in market share.

The week also saw a number of venture capital houses raising funds for the Indian markets. Singapore-based Leo Capital announced a third fund with a corpus of Rs 12.5 crore for early-stage financing in India while Solo-GP (general partner) fund Better Capital marked the final close of its maiden fund of $15.8 million to back pre-seed and seed startups in India.

Early-stage venture fund 3one4 Capital raised Rs 1,000 crore for its third fund, overshooting its initial target of Rs 750 crore. Trifecta Capital made a $100 million first close of its third venture debt fund in just two months since the launch of the fund.

Also Read: Ex-Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan's Mensa Brands is India's first e-commerce rollup unicorn