With around eight startups solidifying their public listing plans, multiple new fund launches and consolidation activities, the Indian startup ecosystem was buzzing with activity in the second week of April. 

Amid all this, investment activity in the world’s third largest startup ecosystem also went up a notch.

Between April 7 and 12, Indian startups cumulatively raised $195.1 Mn across 20 deals, marking a 35% surge from the $144.4 Mn raised by 22 startups in the preceding week. 

With that, here’s a recap of what happened over the past week in the Indian startup ecosystem. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Apr 7 – Apr 12 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• The week’s largest funding round saw fintech major Juspay raising $60 Mn in its  Series D round led by Kalaari Capital. While the valuation at which the funding round was materialised is yet to be discerned, reports suggest that the round catapulted the startup into the unicorn club. 
• Juspay’s fundraise, along with Easebuzz’s $30 Mn round, ensured that fintech remained the investor favourite segment this week as it has over the past few weeks.
• While fintech remained the most funded sector this week, ecommerce saw the greatest number of eight deals materialise during the week. Startups, including Mosaic Wellness and Noise, among others, raised $66 Mn this week. 
• The most active investors this week were Accel and 100Unicorns, backing two startups apiece. 
• Five startups at the seed stage raised $10.1 Mn this week, down slightly from the $11 Mn raised by seven startups at this stage last week. 

Startup IPO Developments This Week

• SEBI announced the approval of the INR 1,000 Cr IPO of jewellery startup BlueStone and INR 1,450 Cr IPO of NBFC Aye Finance this week.
• Taking its second stab at the bourses, bOAt’s parent Imagine Marketing filed its IPO papers via the confidential filing route this week.
• Enroute to the bourses, fintech major Pine Labs got NCLT’s final approval to reverse flip to India. With this, the startup will be merging its Singapore entity with its Indian entity.
• Amid the ongoing market volatility, EV major Ather Energy is mulling to trim its IPO size from $400 Mn to $350 Mn. Some of its shareholders are likely to cut their stake sales.
• Urban Company’s board approved raising up to INR 528 Cr (about $60 Mn) via a fresh issue in its IPO. The startup’s total IPO size, including the offer for sale component, could go up to INR 3,000 Cr. 
• Peak XV-backed Turtlemint is said to be in talks with bankers to launch a $200-250 Mn IPO within this year.

Fund Updates This Week

• US-based VC firm Expert Dojo launched its third global fund with a target corpus of $100 Mn this week and plans to invest about $15 Mn in Indian startups.
• Asha Ventures secured a commitment of $10 Mn from the British International Investment for its maiden fund.
• InCred Capital’s investment arm InCred Alternatives announced the final close of its maiden private equity fund, InCred Growth Partners Fund-I (IGPF-I), with commitments exceeding INR 575 Cr this week. 
• Neo Asset Management marked the first close of its second private credit fund at INR 2,000 Cr. 

Updates On Startup M&As

• In an announcement on Saturday last week, Delhivery announced the proposed acquisition of rival Ecom Express for $165 Mn.
• Aurionpro announced the acquisition of Fintra Software to enhance its transaction banking offerings this week.
• IndiGo parent InterGlobe Aviation and French hospitality major Accor will soon be picking up a majority stake in hotel chain startup Treebo.
• IPO-bound PhysicsWallah is evaluating seven to eight entities in the UPSC preparation space to strike a buyout deal.

The post From Juspay To Noise — Indian Startups Raised $195 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Funding momentum seems to have stabilised at the onset of the fiscal year FY26 sans large ticket-sized transactions. Although small deals pulled up around 32% of the investment activity in the final week of March, overall funding across the Indian startup ecosystem still hovered around the $144 Mn mark in the beginning of April.

Between March 31 and April 5, startups cumulatively raised $144.4 Mn across 22 deals, a meager 0.5% increase from the $143.7 Mn raised by 16 startups in the preceding week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Mar 31 – Apr 5 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• As has been the story for the past few weeks, fintech continued to be the ‘flavour of the season’ for investors. At least five fintech startups raised $65 Mn during the week, about two-third of the $98.1 Mn raised across five deals last week.
• While healthtech saw a similar number of deals materialise this week as fintech, the sector saw a capital infusion of a mere $4.2 Mn. This comes on the back of Indian Angel Network cofounder Padmaja Ruparel saying that the Indian healthtech sector is witnessing an overall slowdown sans funding and consolidations. He was addressing a session at the Startup Mahakumbh.
• Investors Peak XV Partners, Y Combinator and Antler were the most active investors this week, backing two startups each.
• Seven startups at the seed stage raised about $11 Mn this week, down about 41% from the $18.6 Mn raised by four startups last week.

IPO-Related Developments This Week

• Lendingtech startup Kissht is said to be looking to file for a $225 Mn IPO. According to reports, the startup has ICICI Securities, UBS Securities, and Motilal Oswal as the investment bankers for the proposed public issue.
• During the Startup Mahakumbh, Navi Fintech’s founder Sachin Bansal announced that the startup would look to go for an IPO within the ongoing fiscal year.
• Coworking space provider DevX refiled its IPO papers this week, raising the fresh issue size to 2.75 Cr equity shares from 2.47 Cr shares earlier. Meanwhile, its competitor, IndiQube received SEBI’s approval for its $100 Mn (INR 850 Cr) IPO this week.
• Logistics tech Shadowfax has taken its first step towards public listing, omitting the ‘private’ from its erstwhile name ‘ShadowFax Private Technologies Limited’.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Sustainability-focussed VC firm ZeCa Capital received approval from the markets regulator SEBI to launch its maiden fund with a corpus of INR 150 Cr this week.
• Walmart-owned Flipkart infused $379 Mn in its marketplace arm Flipkart Internet through its Singapore-based holding company.
• Recently launched talent mobility startup BorderPlus acquired German healthcare recruitment firm Onea Care to expand its operations in Germany.
• Car marketplace unicorn Spinny reportedly raised $131 Mn in a round led by US-based Accel Leaders Fund at a flat valuation. However, the startup didn’t announce the funding round this week.
• SpaceBasic, a B2B SaaS company that automates student housing and cafeteria operations, acquired attendance automating platform CAMPUS during the week to expand its university automation operations.

The post From Scapia To Pratilipi — Indian Startups Raised $144 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The final week of March was full of activity for the world’s third largest startup ecosystem. As the final quarter of FY25 comes to an end this month, multiple new-age tech companies announced investments within their own subsidiaries, acquisitions, as well as some startups charging up their plans for a public listing in the near future.

Amid this, investment activity in the Indian startups saw a significant uptick during the week. Between March 24 and 29, Indian startups cumulatively netted $143.7 Mn, a 32% increase from the $109.2 Mn raised by startups last week. Meanwhile, the number of funding deals that materialised during the week stood at 16, slightly lower than the 18 funding deals in the preceding week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Mar 24 – Mar 29]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Fintech continued to assert dominance in the funding trends this week. The sector saw five startups raise $98.1 Mn during the week, more than double from the fresh capital influx in the sector in the past week.
• While fintech saw the greatest number of funding deals materialise during the week, enterprise tech and ecommerce segment saw three startups apiece raise $15.6 Mn and $9 Mn over the past week.
• ah! ventures was the most active this week, backing early stage startups Zealopua and Konnect U during the week. Besides, prominent startup investors like Accel, BII, SenseAI Ventures, among others were active during the week.
• Four startups at the seed stage raised $18.6 Mn this week, marking an 84% increase from the $10.1 Mn netted by four startups at this stage last week.

M&A Activities This Week

• Conversational AI startup Observe.AI acquired text-to-speech AI startup Dubdub.ai to bolster its voice AI agents offerings for contact centres. With this, the US-based startup will look to double down on its efforts to develop its conversational AI capabilities.
• SaaS company JungleWorks acquired a majority stake in Outplay to enhance its offering suite. JungleWorks will also be investing $14 Mn to further the growth of Outplay moving forward.
• B2B manufacturing and supply chain enablement startup Groyyo bought a majority stake in Oussum Inc to strengthen its presence in the US B2B fashion retail market.

IPO-Related Developments This Week

• The SEBI has kept coworking space provider WeWork India’s IPO papers in ‘abeyance’. In SEBI’s parlance, “kept in abeyance” means that the regulator’s observations on draft papers are temporarily put on hold, usually pending investigation or regulatory action.
• Ecommerce major Meesho is said to have picked Morgan Stanley, Kotak Mahindra Capital and Citi to helm its $1 Bn IPO that is likely to value the startup at $10 Bn.
• Fitness unicorn Cult.fit has shortlisted Axis Capital, Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JM Financial to helm its INR 2,500 Cr IPO.

Other Developments Of The Week

• 2am VC2 launched its second fund to back 30 Indian seed stage startups operating in sectors like consumer tech, fintech, food and beverage, AI and SaaS.
• Daily essentials delivery startup Pluckk is eyeing the raise of $10 Mn in its Series A round from Euro Gulf Investment.
• Gaming giant KRAFTON’s India arm increased its shareholding to 75% in Nautilus Mobile with an additional investment of INR 118 Cr.
• Kouzina Food Tech has acquired a majority stake in Delhi NCR-based cloud kitchen startup MOPP Foods for an undisclosed amount.
• SaaS company Zaggle will be acquiring a 45.33% stake in POS software solutions provider Effiasoft for INR 36.72 Cr in an all-cash deal.
• Quick commerce startup Apna Mart will be raising $25 Mn in funding from Nandan Nilekani-led Fundamentum Partnership Peak XV Partners and Sparrow Capital. The transaction will be a mix of equity and debt.
• Country Delight will be raising about $25 Mn in its Series E funding round, from Temasek’s subsidiary V-Sciences Investments.
• Before its IPO, investment tech major Groww is said to be in advanced talks with GIC and Tiger Global to raise $200 Mn at a valuation of around $6.5 Bn.

The post From smallcase To Lendingkart — Indian Startups Raised $144 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After seeing an increase in funding for two weeks, the Indian startup ecosystem witnessed a lull in the third week of March. Indian startups only managed to raise $109.2 Mn between March 17 and 22, a decline of 75% from $428.8 Mn raised by startups last week.

However, the number of startups which raised capital saw an upturn this week. As against 14 startups that raised funding last week, 18 deals materialised this week.

Meanwhile, this week also saw a host of fresh fund launches, acquisitions of multiple startups or substantial stakes in certain new-age tech companies, and certain entities in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem taking the next step to becoming a public entity. With that said, here’s a financial round up of what happened over the past week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Mar 17 – Mar 22]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Fintech continued to reign as investors’ favourite sector during the week, with Nivara Home Finance and Navadhan cumulatively raising $40.8 Mn.
• Meanwhile, ecommerce saw the highest number of deals materialise this week. Six startups in the segment netted $28.7 Mn this week.
• Five seed stage startups netted $5.2 Mn this week, a decline of 48% from $10.1 Mn netted by four startups at this stage last week.
• Inflection Point Ventures was the most active investor this week, investing in OTT player STAGE and D2C startup My Pahadi Dukan.

Fund Updates 

• Early stage VC firm All In Capital has launched its second fund with a target corpus of $23.2 Mn to invest up to INR 5 Cr each in 50 startups.
• Shikhar Dhawan’s sports-focussed VC fund Yashaa Global Capital plans to establish its $75 Mn first fund in Abu Dhabi. It is preparing to initiate a call for capital, and claims to have already secured commitments for the first close.
• Venturi Partners plans to invest $15 Mn to $40 Mn each in 10 startups under its second fund with a corpus of $225 Mn. It is eyeing the first close of the fund at $130 Mn by June this year, with backing from existing investors.
• Nikhil Kamath’s Gruhas has partnered with Brigade Group to launch INR 300 Cr earth fund. The fund will invest in 10 to 15 startups providing solutions in real estate technology, construction tech, clean tech and climate tech.

M&A Activities This Week

• Gaming major Nazara Technologies has acquired 100% stake in Absolute Sports, the parent entity of Sportskeeda. Nazara has bought the remaining 8.97% stake in the company for INR 69.17 Cr.
• US-based Omnia has acquired SpotKwik to boost its extended reality innovation for businesses.
• SaaS major Unicommerce has completed the acquisition of courier aggregator platform Shipway by purchasing the remaining 57.24% stake this week.
• Digital marketing startup Wubba Lubba Dub Dub (WLDD), which recently bought ScoopWhoop from The Good Glamm Group, has acquired a 70% stake in D2C sneaker brand 7-10,

IPO-Related Developments This Week

• Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for $531.4 Mn IPO via the confidential filing route.
• After months of speculation, fintech major Pine Labs is now planning to launch its IPO in the second half of 2025, its CEO Amrish Rau said.

Other Developments Of The Week

• World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) is looking to infuse $35 Mn in VC firm A91 Partners’ third fund. Besides, the firm is also considering an additional co-investment of up to $30 Mn in the new fund.
• Hero Motorcorp is investing INR 525 Cr in electric three-wheeler manufacturer Euler Motors. In an exchange filing, the company said that its board has approved a proposal to acquire a “significant stake” in the company  soon.
• Fintech company PayU has acquired a 43.5% stake in Mindgate Solutions to expand its presence in the real-time payments space in India.
• Pet care startup Supertails is said to be in talks to acquire veterinary clinic Blue 7 Vets as part of its efforts to expand its offline services.
• Info Edge’s Jeevansathi will be infusing $3.5 Mn in its subsidiary Aisle.
• SaaS unicorn Icertis plans to raise $50 Mn in an equity funding round. As per a Form D filed by the startup with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the round will see participation from five undisclosed investors.

The post From Nivara Home Finance To Pilgrim — Indian Startups Raised $109 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The funding momentum which the Indian startup ecosystem gained in the first week of March continued this week as well. On the back of a mega funding round raised by fintech startup Zolve, the cumulative startup funding between March 10 and March 14 raced to $428.8 Mn across 14 deals, the second-highest weekly funding in 2025. 

This marked an 11% increase from $385.5 Mn raised by 29 startups in the first week of March. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Mar 10- Mar 15 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• On the back of Zolve’s $251 Mn fundraise and InCred Finance’s $30 Mn debt raise, fintech emerged as investors’ favourite sector this week. 
• Enterprise tech saw the highest number of deals (3) materialise this week, with Scimplify, Infinite Uptime and Neural Defend cumulatively netting $75.6 Mn. 
• Four startups at seed stage netted $10.1 Mn, down about 47% from $19.1 Mn raised by startups at this stage last week. 
• 3one4Capital was the most active investor this week, backing Scimplify and Felicity games.

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• Fintech SaaS unicorn Perfios acquired debt collection startup CreditNirvana to enhance its debt management capabilities.
• DSP Group acquired fintech startup Volt Money to meet the rising demand of instant loans against mutual funds. 
• Groww plans to acquire wealthtech startup Fisdom as part of its plans to enter the wealth management space to expand its offerings.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Bessemer Venture Partners closed its second India-focussed fund with a corpus of $350 Mn to support early-stage startups.
• Ather Energy is said to be chasing a valuation of $1.6 Bn for its IPO, which is expected to be launched this month or in April.
• Nazara Technologies-backed Rusk Media is eyeing raising around $8.5 Mn in its Series B funding round led by Woori Venture Partners.
• VC firm Playbook Partners is planning to invest $20 Mn apiece in about 12-15 startups over the next couple of years. 
• After receiving its NBFC licence from RBI, fintech Vayana is planning to raise an additional $20 Mn funding to fuel its NBFC business
• To foster the development of spacetech startups in Tamil Nadu, the state’s finance minister Thangam Thennarasu proposed the establishment of a spacetech fund with a corpus of INR 10 Cr.

The post From Zolve To Scimplify — Indian Startups Raised $429 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Emerging from a gloomy month in terms of private funding, investor interest in the Indian startup ecosystem seems to have gained new wings in the third month of 2025. 

On the back of two mega funding rounds and an over 80% increase in the number of funding deals that materialised, the first week of March saw a substantial increase in Indian startup weekly funding trends. 

Between March 3 and 8, Indian startups cumulatively raised $385.5 Mn across 29 deals. This is over 4X of the $88.3 Mn raised by 16 startups in the preceding week. 

However, despite the funding numbers going up significantly over the past week, the number of startup consolidation deals and IPO related developments failed to keep up their momentum. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Mar 3 – Mar 8]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• The past week saw two startups raising over $100 Mn- Darwinbox’s $140 Mn fundraise and Leap Finance’s $100 Mn debt raise.
• On the back of Leap’s fundraise, fintech emerged as the investor favourite segment over the past week, with six startups in the sector raising $179.7 Mn. 
• Meanwhile, enterprise tech saw the highest number of eight funding deals materialise over the past week. Startups in the sector cumulatively netted $165.6 Mn during the week. 
• Ten startups at the seed stage raised $19.1 Mn this week, over 3X the $5.7 Mn raised by startups at this last week. 
• AC Ventures emerged as the most active investor during the week, partaking in Phot.AI’s seed funding round and spacetech TakeMe2Space’s maiden funding round.

Fund Updates This Week

• VC firm Prime Venture Partners announced its fifth fund with a corpus of $100 Mn to invest $2 Mn to $4 Mn in 16-18 early stage startups.
• SoftBank’s former chief Rajeev Misra’s son Rohan Misra raised $150 Mn for his India-focussed fund Gravity Holdings during the week. The fund made its first investment in Darwinbox during the week. 
• A Junior VC (AJVC) closed its first INR 100 Cr fund targeting pre-seed investments in India this week. Further, the VC is aiming to exercise a greenshoe option to raise another INR 50 Cr for the fund.
• Together Fund is eyeing the final close of its $150 Mn Fund II by June. The VC’s cofounder and managing director Manav Garg claims that it has made 31 investments across its two funds through the second fund.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Infibeam Avenues’ board approved divestment of 49% stake in Pirimid Technologies Limited to its subsidiary Rediff.com India for a consideration of up to INR 27 Cr. 
• Ola Electric chief Bhavish Aggarwal pledged 5.88 Cr shares of the EV major to raise additional debt for his AI unicorn Krutrim from investors Avendus, lnCred, others.
• Healthtech startup Truemeds is eyeing the raise of $44 Mn in a fresh funding round which is scheduled to be led by Accel.
• Info Edge informed that its portfolio startup NoPaperForms’ board has approved the proposal to go for an initial public offering soon. The startup has reportedly roped in IIFL Capital and SBI Capital for its IPO. 
• Groww has issued bonus compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) to existing investors Peak XV Partners, Ribbit Capital and Y Combinator. 
• Workforce management startup BetterPlace received approval from its shareholders to raise $3.6 Mn from Jungle Ventures and Capria Ventures this week.
• D2C menswear brand XYXX is seeking approval from its shareholders to raise $3.4 Mn from Niveshaay Sambhav Fund.
• Fintech soonicorn M2P Fintech is currently in talks to acquire enterprise AI startup Mad Street Den to bolster its AI and data playbook.
• Fintech SaaS startup Mintoak acquired Digiledge to add bill payments and CBDC solutions to its digital payments platform. 
• B2B fintech startup Rupifi is eyeing the raise of $2 Mn from existing investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Ankur Capital and Quona Capital in a bridge funding round.

The post From Darwinbox To InsuranceDekho — Indian Startups Raised $386 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Caught among disinterested foreign institutional investors, geopolitical tensions and uneven consumption, February remained mostly gloomy for the Indian markets. 

Amid this bearish market, investor sentiment towards the Indian startup ecosystem also went down significantly throughout the month. In the final week of February, startups cumulatively raised $88.3 Mn via 16 deals. This marks a near 43% decrease from the $152.9 Mn raised across 17 deals in the preceding week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Feb 24 – Mar 1 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• The week’s biggest funding round, Geniemode’s $50 Mn fundraise, helped ecommerce retain its spot as the investor favourite sector this week. Besides Geniemode, D2C startup Earthful also secured $572K in the week. 
• Fintech sector saw five startups, Oxyzo, Niyogin, HiWiPay, Dodo Payments and Hornet, cumulatively raising $21.5 Mn. 
• However, no investor made more than one bet this week. Among the active investors in the week include Flourish Ventures, Piper Serica, Unicorn India Ventures, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalyst.
• Seven startups at the seed stage raised $5.7 Mn this week, marking a 62% decline from the $15.1 Mn raised by startups at this stage last week. 

Startup IPO Updates Of The Week

• The board of consumer electronics major bOAt cleared changes in its articles of association (AoA) this week, as per its regulatory filing with the MCA. This clears the path for its IPO. 
• Fintech unicorn PhonePe has reportedly picked four investment bankers, Kotak Mahindra Capital, JP Morgan, Citi, and Morgan Stanley, to helm its initial public offering (IPO). The startup is likely to file its IPO papers in the first week of March.
• About six months after filing its DRHP, meat delivery startup Zappfresh is eyeing its BSE SME listing at the start of FY26, the founder said. 

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• Titan Capital-backed SaaS startup Zenduty was acquired by US-based Xurrent for an undisclosed amount.
• Listed edtech company Veranda Learning Solutions acquired 40% stake in BB Virtuals and 65% stake in Ahmedabad-based online CA coaching institute Navkar Digital.
• Fintech superapp super.money bought BNPL fintech startup BharatX to strengthen its credit offerings, particularly in the checkout financing space.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Tiger Global-backed B2B ecommerce unicorn Moglix bagged $12.3 Mn from its Singapore parent since December last year in four tranches.
• Air mobility startup The ePlane Company is planning to raise $30-50 Mn in its Series C funding round.
• Wipro has committed $200 Mn to its venture arm, Wipro Ventures, to accelerate investments in early to mid-stage startups. 
• Edtech unicorn upGrad launched its ‘upGrad AI Incubator’ with an allocation of INR 100 Cr to back 5-6 homegrown AI startups over the next few months.
• HRTech unicorn Darwinbox is in talks to raise $120-150 Mn in a down round that could be led by global private equity firm KKR and Partners Group.

The post From Geniemode To Quick Clean — Indian Startups Raised $88 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Adding on to the volatility that private funding trends have been witnessing in recent months, investment activity in the world’s third largest startup ecosystem dipped this week. Between February 17 and 22, Indian startups raised $152.9 Mn across 17 deals, a 43% decline from $270.2 Mn raised across 22 deals in the preceding week. 

While funding trends declined this week, pertinent developments like prominent startups disclosing their public listing plans and multiple startup acquisitions over the week drove optimism across the ecosystem. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Feb 17 – Feb 22 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Ecommerce toppled fintech this week to emerge as the investor favourite startup sector this week. Six ecommerce startups, including Udaan, The Whole Truth, raised $109.9 Mn over the past week. 
• LetsVenture emerged as the most active investor this week, leading The Energy Company’s Pre-Series A funding round and partaking in NOTO’s $1.7 Mn funding round. 
• Four startups at the seed stage raised $15.1 Mn this week, marking a 39% week on week increase of investments in startups at this level.

Startup IPO Updates Of The Week

• Bidding to become the third fintech major emerging from the Indian startup ecosystem, PhonePe announced that it has started preparation for a listing on the Indian bourses. 
• Online meat delivery startup Licious is eyeing a public listing next year after attaining profitability. The startup is planning for an IPO that values it at $2 Bn, a 33% jump from its last private valuation of $1.5 Bn.
• Shortly after roping in bankers like Kotak Mahindra Bank and Morgan Stanley for its much awaited IPO, Lenskart is now eyeing to file its DRHP by May. The startup is eyeing a valuation of $10 Bn for the offer, which is double its last private valuation. 
• Eyeing a public listing in the second half of FY26, Sachin Bansal’s fintech startup Navi has initiated discussions with merchant bankers to finalise the valuation, timeline for the offering. 
• About three years after dropping its IPO ambitions, boAt is now looking to file for an IPO to raise INR 2,000 Cr in FY26. It is planning to file its DRHP for the IPO soon and is likely to take the confidential filing route.

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• Real money gaming startup A23 parent Head Digital Works Private Limited (HDW) acquired Adda52’s holding company Deltatech Gaming Limited (DGL) for INR 491 Cr.
• Shortly after selling the feminine hygiene brand Sirona to Good Glamm Group for INR 450 Cr, its cofounders Deep Bajaj and Mohit Bajaj have bought back the feminine hygiene brand.
• Workforce skilling platform NextLeap acquired PM School, a product management education provider, via an undisclosed deal. 
• Good Glamm Group sold its digital media unit ScoopWhoop to marketing firm Wubba Lubba Dub Dub (WLDD), a source close to the matter confirmed Inc42.
• Visa processing platform Atlys acquired visa service company Artionis’ UK subsidiary in an all-cash deal to expand overseas.
• InCred acquired Dubai-based Arrow Capital (DIFC) Limited to expand its operations in the Middle East and Africa regions.

Other Developments Of The Week

• POP is eyeing the raise of $10-15 Mn from payments giant Razorpay. It is also open to an acquisition if deal terms materialise.
• Listed dronetech company ideaForge invested $1.8 Mn in California-based UAV manufacturing company Vantage Robotics via compulsorily convertible promissory note.
• IN-SPACe rolled out its Technology Adoption Fund (TAF) worth INR 500 Cr to back spacetech startups and enable them to build commercially viable products while reducing dependence on imported solutions.

The post From Udaan To The Whole Truth — Indian Startups Raised $153 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After weeks-long lull in private investments, funding momentum picked up in the world’s third largest startup ecosystem during the second week of the ongoing month. Between February 10 and 15, Indian startups raised $270.2 Mn across 22 deals, a more than 2X jump from the $124.6 Mn raised across 21 deals in the previous week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Feb 10 – Feb 15 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Fintech reaffirmed its dominance in the sector-wise funding trends this week, seeing the highest fund deployment and funding deals materialise. Seven startups operating in the sector raised $136.2 Mn last week.
• Trailing fintech, enterprisetech and ecommerce segment also saw four deals materialise over the past week with startups in the sectors raising $81.9 Mn and $8 Mn respectively.
• Seven startups at the seed stage raised $10.9 Mn this week, marking a 35% week on week increase of investments in startups at this level.
• CaratLane’s founder Mithun Sacheti was the most active investor this week, backing BorderPlus and Bold Care.

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• Recently launched quick commerce startup KiranaPro announced the acquisition of hyperlocal grocery delivery service Joper.app to boost its footprint in the hyperlocal retail space.
• BSE SME listed fintech SaaS company Veefin Solutions will be acquiring a controlling stake in digital marketing agency White Rivers Media for $16.7 Mn via its subsidiary Infini Systems Limited.
• Zaggle will be acquiring more stake in digital payments service provider Mobileware to up its stake in the company to 42.67%.
• California-based LaunchDarkly announced its acquisition of  product analytics solution Houseware to deepen its product stack.
• B2B digital marketplace Solv is in advanced negotiations for a merger with Bengaluru-based B2B company Jumbotail in a transaction valued at around $50 Mn. The merger will likely be a mix of cash and equity. 

Fund Updates This Week

• PE firm JV Ventures’ Innovation Acceleration Platform (IXP) launched its first fund with a target corpus of INR 200 Cr to invest in early stage startups. It aims to invest in B2B startups at pre-seed to Series A stages to build a portfolio of 20-25 startups.
• Mumbai-based VC firm White Whale Ventures has received SEBI approval to float a Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) secondary deals-focussed fund with a total target corpus of INR 250 Cr.
• VC firm Triton marked the first close of its INR 240 Cr second fund at INR 120 Cr. The firm will invest an average of INR 8 Cr to INR 16 Cr in startups in early stage startups operating in sectors like enterprise SaaS, SMB tech, agentic AI, deeptech and tech-enabled services.

Startup IPO Updates Of The Week

• SEBI returned the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) of managed office space provider DevX (Dev Accelerator Ltd) on February 5.
• Zetwerk is likely to file its draft papers for an $400-500 Mn IPO in the upcoming six months. It has also reportedly appointed Axis Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Kotak Mahindra as the investment bankers for the IPO.
• Last week, IPO-bound Urban Company converted itself into a public entity, renaming the company from “Urbancalp Technologies India Private Limited” to “Urbanclap Technologies India Limited”.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Inflection Point Ventures announced the launch of the third cohort of its early stage accelerator programme, IPV Ideaschool, to support early stage startups in refining their ideas, developing business models and helping with an initial investment of INR 1 Cr.
• Lahori Jeera’s parent Archian Foods is reportedly nearing the close of INR 400 Cr to INR 450 Cr (about $46-52 Mn) funding round from Motilal Oswal’s private equity arm and other investors.
• Nikhil Kamath-led WTFund has selected nine startups for its second cohort. The selected startups under the second cohort will receive a grant funding of up to INR 20 Lakh.
• Rapido is set to raise about $29 Mn from Prosus, in what seems like its ongoing Series E round. It has sought the approval from its shareholders to issue 47,743 Series E CCPS to Prosus at an issue price of INR 52,467 per share.
• Lending startup Finnable is set to raise INR 30.5 Cr (about $3.5 Mn) in a Series B funding round from investors like TVS Capital and Malpani Group, its regulatory filings showed.

The post From ToneTag To BorderPlus — Indian Startups Raised $270 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

A slump in the investment activity across the Indian startup ecosystem which was evident over the past couple of weeks further deepened in the month of February. 

Just like the last week of January, which witnessed a dearth of fresh mega funding rounds hurting the weekly investment activity trends, the first week of February also failed to buck the trend.

Between February 3 and 8, Indian startups cumulatively raised $124.6 Mn via 21 deals, marking a 36% decline from the $195.5 Mn raised across 24 deals in the preceding week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Feb 3 – Feb 8 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Fintech emerged as the top sector in terms of investment this week, on the back of the biggest funding round which saw B2B fintech startup Cashfree raising $53 Mn in its Series C funding round. Cashfree, along with Quicklend, together raised $53.8 Mn during the week.
• The greatest number of deals materialised in the enterprisetech segment, where seven startups cumulatively raised $25.7 Mn over the week.
• Seven startups at the seed stage raised $7.1 Mn during the timeframe. This marked a 67% decline from the $21.8 Mn raised by startups at the seed stage in the week prior.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Mumbai-based Veefin Group announced its fifth strategic acquisition over the past year in the form of Dubai-based TradeAssets through its subsidiary Estorifi Solutions.
• Quick commerce major Zepto is in talks with a host of top mutual fund houses to oversee a $300 Mn secondary deal.
• Listed TAC Security is eyeing to buy Rhodes-based Web3 security firm CyberScope to expand its global footprint in the Web3 security space.
• Fintech SaaS unicorn Perfios acquired CustomerXPs to strengthen its position in the domestic as well as global markets.
• FMCG giant ITC has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100% stake in D2C meat delivery startup Meatigo’s parent.
• Info Edge has gotten its board’s approval to invest up to INR 1,000 Cr in IE Venture Investment Fund III, a SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF).

The post From Cashfree Payments To Shadowfax — Indian Startups Raised $125 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The momentum that was evident in the Indian startup ecosystem for the better part of January loosened at the end of the month. With no mega funding rounds materialising in the final week of the month, the fresh capital infusion in the world’s third startup ecosystem shrunk to $195.5 Mn across 24 deals, marking a 29% decline from the $275.2 Mn raised across 28 deals in the preceding week. 

Despite the declining funding numbers, the week was rife with headlines about more potential startup listings, new fund launches and prospects of fresh, unconfirmed funding rounds that materialised. Prominently, ecommerce unicorn Meesho was reported to have  closed another $250-270 Mn in a funding round in a mix of primary and secondary funding. However, the startup neither confirmed or denied the development. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Jan 27 – Feb 1 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• The week’s top sector in terms of investment was edtech on the back of the biggest funding round which saw edtech Leap raise $65 Mn in its Series E round.
• Closely trailing edtech at a sectoral level was enterprise tech with four startups cumulatively raising $57.7 Mn. 
• Deeptech saw a similar number of funding deals materialise in the past week with four startups raising $12 Mn. 
• Eight startups at the seed stage raised $21.8 Mn in the past week. This marked a near 30% dip from the $31.2 Mn raised at this stage last week. 
• Peak XV emerged as the most active weekly investor for the second time this month, backing Leap, Atomicwork and Ambak this week. 

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• Logistics unicorn Shadowfax announced the acquisition of critical logistics service provider CriticaLog India to optimise its last-mile delivery capabilities.
• Continuing its acquisition spree, gaming major Nazara-owned NODWIN Gaming acquired esports broadcasting platform StarLadder for an initial consideration of $5.5 Mn.
• Investment platform Dhan parent Raise Financial acquired new-age media startup Filter Coffee to expand its content capabilities, offer data-driven insights and further expand to video and storytelling. 

Fund Launches This Week

• Ex- IIFL Asset Management CEO Prashasta Seth’s venture capitalist (VC) firm Prudent Investment Managers floated a INR 500 Cr fund (about $57.8 Mn) to invest in early stage startups. 
• Trifecta Capital marked the first close of its INR 2,000 Cr Trifecta Venture Debt Fund IV this week. The firm plans to invest in more than 100 startups, with an average ticket size of INR 25 Cr to INR 30 Cr with the fund. 
• Institutional finance firm Veloce Fintech announced the raise INR 140 Cr ($16.22 Mn) for its fund Veloce Opportunities Fund. It plans to offer venture debt and pre-IPO funding to MSMEs with ticket sizes ranging from INR 1 Cr to INR 20 Cr.

Startup IPO Updates Of The Week

• B2B marketplace unicorn OfBusiness converted into a public company this week, rechristening its registered name to OFB Tech Limited from OFB Tech Private Limited.
• Device management startup Servify has roped in three investment bankers for a $400 Mn to $500 Mn IPO that will value it at $1.5 Bn, sources told Inc42. The startup plans to get listed by the first quarter of 2026.
• Eyewear brand Lenskart is said to have roped in Kotak Mahindra Bank and Morgan Stanley for its potential IPO later this year.
• Used car marketplace startup Droom will be filing for an INR 1,000 Cr (about $115 Mn) IPO that will value it in the range of $1.2 Bn to $1.5 Bn by June this year. Sources told Inc42 that it has already finalised two middle market banks for the public issue and it is in active discussions with one more investment banker. 
• Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods is likely to float an $300-$400 Mn IPO in the latter part of the financial year 2025-26 (FY26), reports said.
• In the run up to its IPO, quick commerce major Zepto has shifted its domicile back to Bengaluru from Singapore. 
• Fintech major Pine Labs may file for its much anticipated IPO by the middle of February, reports said. 
• Logistics unicorn Shiprocket’s board passed a resolution to convert the startup into a public company from a private one as it aims to list in the next fiscal year.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Fintech startup Juspay is likely to enter the unicorn club with the raise of $150 Mn in a funding round led by Kedaara Capital.
• Fintech major slice is looking to raise $250 Mn – $300 Mn from a group of financial investors and family offices.
• D2C wellness brand Scentials will soon be announcing the raise of $4 Mn (INR 34.62 Cr) in a mix of debt and equity funding from Indus Way Emerging Market Fund and TIW Private Equity.
• D2C startup P-TAL is in advanced discussions to raise INR 30 Cr (about $3.5 Mn) in its pre-Series A funding round from its existing investors and a new investor, sources told Inc42.
• Listed geotech company MapmyIndia acquired a 9.37% stake in Kanpur-based AI startup SimDaaS Autonomy for about INR 3 Cr.

The post From Leap To Innov8— Indian Startups Raised $196 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The world’s third largest startup ecosystem was bustling with activity in the third week of January. While we saw major startup acquisitions that made entrepreneurs and their investors big bucks this week, the fresh capital infusion in the Indian startup ecosystem slumped on a week on week basis. Although, the number of startups that received investor interest this week went up from last week. 

Between January 20 and 25, Indian startups cumulatively raised $275.2 Mn across 28 deals. This marked a 10.7% decline from $308.1 Mn raised across 24 deals in the previous week. 

While the funding trends remained lukewarm this week, prominent developments including multiple new fund launches, updates on major new age tech stocks as well as a healthy increase in the number of mergers and acquisitions drove optimism across the ecosystem. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Jan 20 – Jan 25 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Not unlike the past two weeks, we saw another startup bag mega funds this week. IPO-bound Infra.Market raised $121 Mn in its Series F round. The round, which saw participation from the likes of Tiger Global, Nuvama and Abhijit Pai, saw the startup’s valuation jump 10% to $2.8 Bn. 
• On the back of Infra.Market’s mega funding round, ecommerce emerged as the investor favourite sector this week. Five startups in the sector cumulatively raised $143 Mn across six deals. 
• Ten startups at the seed stage raised $31.2 Mn in the past week. 
• Indian Angel Network emerged as the most active investor this week, backing two seed stage healthtech startups SVASTEK and Prantae Solutions.

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) will be acquiring 90.5% stake in D2C brand Minimalist for a cash consideration of $309 Mn by Q1 FY26. The founders, Mohit Kumar Yadav and Rahul Yadav, will continue to helm the startup for two years post the finalisation of the deal.
• PE firm Everstone has entered into a deal to acquire a majority stake in SaaS startup Wingify for around $200 Mn. 
• Agritech startup DeHaat bought farm advisory platform AgriCentral through an all-cash business transfer agreement to expand its suite of digital services for farmers. The startup didn’t disclose the details of the financial transaction.
• Listed agritech company Hatsun Agro bought Milk Mantra for $26 Mn to expand its geographical footprint in Odisha and the eastern dairy market.
• Edtech BrightChamps bought Mumbai-based K12 education platform Edjust in a cash and stock deal to enable geographical presence across 30 geographies.
• BSE SME listed DroneAcharya has signed a term sheet for a “strategic company merger” with agri-drone company AITMC Ventures to bolster their presence in the Indian drone market but also firm up their play to take Indian drones global. The resultant entity is expected to get listed next year.
• Ambulance startup RED.Health acquired a majority stake in healthcare training institute TACT Academy for Clinical Training for an undisclosed amount. 

Fund Launches This Week

• Venture capital fund SamVed launched a $50 Mn fund this week to back early stage startups across sectors like AI, agritech, healthcare, fintech, e-commerce, upskilling and consumer services.
• Gurugram-based Eximus Ventures launched its second fund with a target corpus of $30 Mn to back 25-30 entities across fintech, AI, software-as-a-service (SaaS), frontier tech and consumer tech. 
• Kotal Alternate Asset Managers marked the first close of its life sciences fund at $29 Mn. The fund, which has a target corpus of $185 Mn, will back early to growth stage startups building solutions in the medical devices, digital health, consumer wellness, diagnostics and delivery space.
• Bharat Value Fund announced the first close of its third investment fund at $144 Mn. The VC firm is targeting investments in mid-market, high-growth enterprises with revenues between INR 300 Cr and INR 1,000 Cr.
• IIFL Fintech Fund marked the final close of its second fund at $23 Mn. It aims to invest in GenAI-focused fintech startups. 

Startup IPO Updates Of The Week

• Sources told Inc42 that Capillary Technologies has restarted the preparations for its IPO and is likely to file the draft papers for a $200 Mn public offering by June this year. The IPO size would be almost double from the $114 Mn public offering it planned to raise when it filed its DRHP in 2021. 
• Quick commerce major Zepto is likely to increase its IPO size to $800 Mn–$1 Bn, including secondaries.
• Investment tech major Groww is likely to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) by April-May for an initial public offering (IPO) worth over $1 Bn. The fintech unicorn is eyeing a public listing by the end of FY26. According to reports, it has picked bankers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Kotak Mahindra Bank for its $750 Mn IPO that will value it at $7-$8 Bn. 

Other Developments Of The Week

• Nazara Technologies’ board approved the proposal to raise INR 495 Cr from Axana Estates LLP through a preferential allotment of shares. The company’s extraordinary general meeting to approve the allotment is scheduled for February 13. 
• Sources told Inc42 that cold-chain marketplace Celcius Logistics is in advanced discussions with investors to raise around $14.5 Mn in its Series B funding round from investors like agritech focus venture fund Omnivore

The post From Infra.Market To ArisInfra — Indian Startups Raised $275 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

With the Centre’s flagship programme ‘Startup India’ entering into its tenth year this week, investors continue to remain bullish on the Indian startup ecosystem. Between January 13 and 18, startups cumulatively raised $308.1 Mn across 24 deals. While the deal count went up from last week’s 20 deals, funding dipped 28.7% from last week’s $432.4 Mn. 

Despite a decline in investment activity over the past week, several positive developments unfolded for startups. Notably, Netradyne became the first startup to join the unicorn club in 2025. Additionally, companies such as Zetwerk, InMobi, and Groww provided clearer timelines for their public listing plans, while multiple new fund launches also hogged the headlines.

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Jan 13 – Jan 18 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• After raising $90 Mn in its Series D funding round at a valuation of $1.34 Bn, logistics tech startup Netradyne entered the unicorn club this week. Solely, the funding round propelled the logistics sector to scoop up maximum capital infusion this week.
• With four startups, Bolt.Earth, WeVOIS, Euler Motors and BGauss, cumulatively raising $47.8 Mn this week, cleantech saw the largest number of deals materialising this week.
• Seed stage funding zoomed this week to $8.2 Mn, up 215% from the $2.6 Mn raised by startups at this stage in the previous week.

Funds Launches This Week

• Debt marketplace Recur Club has launched a $17.5 Mn fund to accelerate growth of D2C brands in the quick commerce space. It will provide financing to 80-100 D2C brands with ticket sizes ranging from INR 80 Lakh to INR 10 Cr.
• Equity management platform Hissa has announced the launch of Hissa Fund I, a $35 Mn investment vehicle to enable employees of growth-stage startups to convert their vested stock options into cash.
• Riceberg Ventures has launched a $20 Mn fund to back 25-30 deeptech startups with an average cheque size of $500K.
• Avendus marked the first close of its Future Leaders Fund III (FLF III) with INR 850 Cr commitments from leading domestic family offices and Indian institutions.
• SaaS-focussed VC firm Cornerstone Ventures announced the first close of its $200 Mn fund at about $40 Mn. 

Startup IPO Updates Of The Week

• B2B marketplace unicorn Zetwerk shortlisted Axis Capital, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JM Financial, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Kotak Mahindra Bank as bankers for its upcoming $500 Mn IPO.
• Urban Company is set to file its draft papers for an INR 3,000 Cr initial public offering (IPO) before the end of March. It has reportedly appointed Kotak Mahindra Capital, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as bankers for the IPO.
• Groww is reportedly looking to file for a public offering within 10-12 months. The startup is seeking a valuation between $6-8 Bn for its IPO.
• EV startup Ather is eyeing $2.4 Bn valuation for its upcoming IPO this year, about 80% premium from its last private valuation.
• IPO-bound Zepto has received National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approval to reverse flip to India. The court has approved the merger of Mumbai-based Kiranakart Technologies with its Singapore-based affiliate, Kiranakart Pte Ltd.
• Adtech unicorn InMobi will be filing its IPO of more than $1 Bn in the next 2-3 months. The startup is eyeing a public listing by October this year. InMobi is targeting a valuation of $8 Bn to $10 Bn for the IPO.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Private equity firm Kedaara Capital made an investment of $350 Mn in California based enterprise AI solutions provider Impetus Technologies.
• Ecommerce major Flipkart is in talks to lead a $35-40 Mn funding round of fintech startup Super.money.
• EV fleet startup MoEVing bought Euler Motors’ mobility business to expand its fleet.

The post From Netradyne To Foxtale — Indian Startups Raised $308 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Indian startup ecosystem seems to be firing on all cylinders after an initial lull over the past two weeks. Over the past week, the fresh capital infusion in the world’s third largest startup ecosystem went up exponentially to $432.4 Mn across 20 deals, about 30 times the $14 Mn raised by startups in the first week of 2025 via a measly 5 deals. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Jan 6 – Jan 11]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• The week saw the first mega funding deal materialise for an Indian startup in the form of healthtech unicorn Innovaccer’s $275 Mn Series F fundraise. On the back of this, healthtech emerged as the most funded startup sector this week. Besides Innovaccer, BrainSinghtAI and Zoplar also raised $5 Mn and $3.4 Mn this week.
• Besides, sectors fintech, cleantech and ecommerce all saw three funding deals materialise this week, leading to fresh capital infusion of $48.9 Mn, $14.2 Mn and $13.3 Mn respectively.
• After months of speculations, Ritesh Agarwal increased his stake in his startup OYO with a capital infusion of $65 Mn via his venture capital firm Redsprig Innovation Partners. This funding round made travel tech the second most funded sector this week.
• This week’s most active investor was VC firm Alteria Capital, investing in BrainSightAI’s $5 Mn pre-Series A funding round and Pratilipi’s $1.2 Mn funding round.
• Seed stage funding zoomed this week to $2.6 Mn, up 225% from the $787K raised by startups at this stage last week.

Funds Launches This Week

• NBFC Avendus launched its third private credit fund with a target corpus of up to INR 4,000 Cr through its asset management arm Avendus PE Investment Advisors.
• Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched an Angel fund, ‘Telugu Angels’, dedicated to the state’s entrepreneurs’ bid to scale globally. 

Other Developments Of The Week

• Eyewear major Lenskart is said to have initiated talks with bankers for a $1 Bn IPO that could value it in the range of $7 Bn to $8 Bn. Its IPO could hit the Indian bourses toward the end of the next financial year.
• Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) in partnership  with IIMA Ventures have jointly launched the third cohort of women-focused fintech programme to benefit female entrepreneurs in the country.
• EV startup Zypp is looking to raise $35 Mn from investors like Nuvama Private Wealth and other Southeast Asia-based funds.
• Early-growth technology investor Z3Partners bought a stake worth $8.2 Mn in SaaS startup Mintoak from its early backers HDFC Bank and Pravega Ventures.
• National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has suggested setting up an INR 10,000 Cr fund for early-stage deeptech startups.
• BluSmart will be raising $50 Mn in its Series B funding round at a pre-money valuation of $335 Mn from some of its existing investors including responsAbility Investments AG, Sumant Sinha, MS Dhoni Family Office, among others.
• LEAP India has acquired logistics company CHEP India for an undisclosed amount to solidify its supply chain footprint in the country.
• Beauty and skincare startup WOW Skin Science is said to be on the lookout for a buyer at a reduced valuation of $250 Mn.
• Early-stage VC South Park Commons (SPC) is planning to raise $40 Mn for its India-focused fund over the six months after it entered the South Asian market.
• B2B manufacturing and supply chain enablement startup Groyyo is in talks to raise about $40 Mn, primarily in equity, from Tiger Global and other investors at a valuation of about $200 Mn.
• D2C startup The Whole Truth Foods is in talks to raise around $25 Mn in its Series C funding round at a valuation of $240 Mn from investors Peak XV Partners, Accel Partners, Matrix Partners, Sauce.VC. 

The post From Innovaccer To Beyond Snack Indian Startups Raised $432 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

While optimism is high when it comes to funding trends in the year 2025, the deals that materialised in the first week are indicative of an opposite year-long fate. Between December 30 and January 4, Indian startups managed to raise a meagre $14 Mn across five deals. This marked a 46% dip from the $26 Mn capital raised across six deals in the preceding week.

Pertinent to mention that a similar downturn in capital influx was seen in the first week of January last year. In the first week of 2024, startups raised just $58 Mn across just nine deals. 

As we enter the year, investors and founders both are projecting an upturn in funding trends in the world’s third largest startup ecosystem. According to Inc42’s Annual Investor Survey 2024 “The Pulse Of Tech”, 91% of over 75 investors surveyed expressed increased confidence in startup investments for 2025, surpassing the 82% optimism shown by about 100 founders.

With that said, let’s take a look at the grim funding week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Dec 30 – Jan 4 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• This week, IPO-bound non banking financial company Aye Finance raised $12.8 Mn in debt from a clutch of investors, including Northern Arc, ASK Financial Holdings. This was the largest funding round of the week.
• Edtech emerged as the most funded sector this week. While Klassroom secured an undisclosed amount in a Pre-Series A funding round led by ah! Ventures, NumberOne Academy also raised $350K from angel investor Santosh Nair.
• Two startups at a seed stage, CargoFL and Flo Mobility, raised $787K this week.

Other Developments Of The Week

• In what seemed to be a tumultuous week for hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo, the startup is reported to look for a distress sale as the company to address its financial woes as cofounder Kabeer Biswas looks to jump ship.
• US-based venture capital firm Accel raised $650 Mn for its eighth India fund from 131 undisclosed investors.
• Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) cleared Ather Energy’s INR 3,100 Cr IPO this week.
• D2C brand Minimalist is likely to be acquired by FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) in a deal that will value the startup at $350 Mn, about 5X its last private valuation.
• Healthcare unicorn Pristyn Care is reported to be in preliminary discussions to raise between $50 Mn to $100 Mn in a fresh funding round.

The post From Aye Finance To Klassroom – Indian Startups Raised $14 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

It’s the final few days of the year 2024! For the world’s third largest startup ecosystem, the final week of December marks the end of a period which was perhaps one of the best years for the ecosystem. 

From a high number of listings, controversies, pertinent regulatory developments, the year had it all. After a year-long hustle, investors and startup founders seemingly embraced a break in the past week. 

This was reflected in the weekly funding numbers as we witnessed perhaps the lowest number of startup investments in the week between December 23 and 28. 

In the final week of December, startups raised a mere $25.9 Mn across six deals, an 85% decline from the $171.2 Mn raised via 20 deals last week. 

This number adds on to the over $12 Bn raised by Indian startups across 933 in the year till December 21, an increment of 20% from the $10 Bn raised last year. 

As we turn the chapter on the year, investors are optimistic of observing a bump in the startup funding numbers in the coming year. 

With that said, let’s delve into the funding trends in the final week of 2024. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Dec 23 – Dec 28 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• This week, deeptech emerged as the most investor favourite on the back of semiconductor startup Mindgroves’ $8 Mn fundraise, Proxgy’s Series A round and Naxatra Labs’ seed funding round.
• Fintech startup Univest raised the largest cheque this week worth $10 Mn from Bertelsmann India Investments.
• Together, Zerodha cofounders Nithin and Nikhil Kamath were the most active investors in the last week of 2024. While Nithin backed edtech Sparkl Edventure, Nikhil participated in Proxgy’s $3 Mn funding round. Meanwhile, Zerodha’s Rainmatter participated in Naxatra Labs’s seed funding round.
• With two deals materialising, seed funding plunged to under $1 Mn this week. This marked a 89% cut from the $9.2 Mn raised by startups at this stage last week.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Office space provider IndiQube filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) for an INR 850 Cr initial public offering (IPO) this week.
• Electric vehicle maker Greaves Electric Mobility (GEML) filed its DRHP for an IPO comprising a fresh issue of shares worth INR 1,000 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of up to 18.93 Cr shares.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Fintech SaaS Zaggle raised about $70 Mn via its qualified institutional placement (QIP) this week. The company issued 1.13 Cr equity shares to eligible qualified institutional buyers who partook in the round.
• Gaming major Nazara Technologies raised its stake to over 82% in Sportskeeda parent Absolute Sports with an investment of $8.4 Mn on Friday.
• TVS Motors picked up about 40% stake in Narain Karthikeyan’s two-wheeler startup DriveX Mobility for around $11.5 Mn. It now controls 87.38% of the startup.
• Supply chain solutions provider Leap India plans to raise about $63 Mn in a funding round led by KKR. The round is also likely to see participation from Sixth Sense Ventures, FirstBridge India, Madhurima International, among others.
• B2B seafood startup Captain Fresh plans on bagging about $12 Mn in a funding round led by Motilal Oswal Wealth Limited.
• Logistics unicorn Shiprocket will be raising $26 Mn in a funding round led by US-based venture capital firm KDT Ventures. The list of other investors participating in the round will include from Japan-based MUFG Bank, SAI Global, among others.

The post From Univest To Mindgrove – Indian Startups Raised $26 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After seeing a massive resurge, funding across the Indian startup ecosystem in the third week of December took a hit. Between December 16 and 21, startups cumulatively raised $171.2 Mn via 20 deals, marking a 73% decline from the $635.8 Mn raised in the preceding week through 25 deals. 

The decline is a result of no mega funding rounds materialising in the week. However, things also went south in terms of fresh capital netted by early stage startups. 

Despite startups experiencing volatility in terms of investor interest, the IPO momentum continued to prevail in the week. While non banking finance company Aye Finance filed its draft red herring prospectus this week, edtech unicorn Physics Wallah took its first step towards turning into a public entity.

With that said, let’s take a look at the key funding trends of the past week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Dec 16 – Dec 21 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Enterprisetech unicorn Zetwork raised $70 Mn this week, closing the year with $90 Mn in fresh capital. The IPO-bound startup bagged fresh funds from Indigo cofounder Rakesh Gangwal, Khosla Ventures, Greenoaks, Avenir Growth, among others this year.
• On the back of Zetwerk’s fundraise, enterprisetech emerged as the investor favourite sector this week. Startups in this sector raised $117.32 Mn this week via five deals.
• A same number of deals materialised in the fintech sector with five startups raising $23.7 Mn this week. Among this, BSE-SME listed Veefin bagged the biggest cheque in the sector this week, raising $16 Mn.
• In line with the substantial dip in the funding numbers this week, funding at the seed stage went down significantly. Startups at this stage raised $9.2 Mn, a 85% dip from last week’s $17 Mn.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Fintech Aye Finance filed for an INR 1,450 Cr IPO this week. Its public offer is expected to consist of  a fresh issue of equity shares worth INR 885 Cr and an offer-for-sale (OFS) amounting to INR 565 Cr by existing shareholders.
• Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah set the ball rolling on its much anticipated IPO by turning into a public company this week. Following this, it is eyeing a public listing in 2025.
• In its Board meeting on December 18, SEBI decided on introducing profitability requirements as well as put a cap on shares to be sold through the offer for sale (OFS) route for NSE SME IPOs.
• Fintech unicorn InCred Financial Services set its public listing plans into motion, planning to raise INR 4,000 Cr (about $470 Mn) to INR 5,000 Cr (about $590 Mn) via its initial public offering (IPO) late next year. 

Fund Launches This Week

• Fintech platform Velocity launched a new fund worth INR 200 Cr (around $23.5 Mn) to boost growth of India’s restaurant and cloud kitchens selling on food aggregator platforms.
• Micro VC firm Warmup Ventures floated its second fund, with a target corpus of $35.3 Mn. It aims to back 25-30 early-stage startups operating in segments like deeptech, climate and sustainability with an average ticket size of INR 5-7 Cr.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Amid a bull run, listed fintech SaaS company Zaggle announced a fundraise of INR 950 Cr ($112 Mn) via a qualified institutional placement (QIP). The fund raising committee of its board approved the opening of the offer this week and set a floor price for the QIP at INR 550.73 per equity share.
• Nazara’ NODWIN Gaming completely acquired gaming and esports media company AFK Gaming for INR 7.6 Cr via cash and equity swaps.
• Info Edge’s Redstart Labs plans on investing INR 3 Cr in Sploot to increase its stake in the pet care startup to 26.40%.
• Cornerstone Ventures completely exited retail analytics startup Intelligence Node, following the company’s acquisition by global advertising conglomerate Interpublic Group (IPG).
• Early stage investor Athera Venture Partners netted an undisclosed funding from HDFC AMC’s Select AIF FoF I Scheme for its fourth fund this week. It targets the closure of the fund, via which it will invest in consumer internet, enterprise software, AI startups, in 2025.

The post From Zetwerk To Veefin – Indian Startups Raised $171 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

As 2024 comes to an end, investor interest in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem has started picking up the pace. Startup funding in the second week of the year’s last month grew leaps and bounds on a week on week basis.

Between December 9 and 13, Indian startups cumulatively raised $635.8 Mn across 25 deals, marking a 155% jump from the $249.6 Mn secured via 18 deals in the preceding week.

With the funding trends gaining momentum, the ecosystem continued to show some signs of maturity. Already seeing a great number of listings coming out of the startup world this year, more startups began their bid to become public entities in the final month of 2024. 

With that said, let’s take a look at the happenings of the week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Dec 9 – Dec 14 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• The week saw two mega funding deals materialise in the form of Rebel Foods and Mintifi.
• On the back of Rebel Food’s $210 Mn fundraise, consumer service emerged as the investor favourite this week. Startups in the space raised $218 Mn across two deals.
• Due to Mintifi’s mega fundraise announcement, fintech emerged as the second most funded sector this week. Startups in the sector raised $148.30 Mn across 5 deals.
• Pertinent to mention that the ecommerce sector also saw a similar number of funding rounds materialise to fintech this week. Startups like Wooden Street, Power Gummies, among others, cumulatively raised $106.20 Mn in the week.
• Premji Invest emerged as the most active investor this week, backing Mintifi and Wooden Street.
• Seed funding zoomed 246% to $17 Mn from $4.9 Mn last week.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Fintech MobiKwik’s initial public offering (IPO) closed with an oversubscription of 119.38X. The startup is expected to get listed on December 18.
• Omnichannel jewellery startup Bluestone filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI for an IPO comprising a fresh issue of shares worth INR 1,000 Cr and an offer-for-sale component of up to 2.40 Cr equity shares
• Non-banking finance company Aye Finance’s board gave its nod to an IPO worth INR 1,450 Cr. The IPO will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth up to INR 885 Cr and an OFS component of INR 565 Cr.
• Coworking startup IndiQube turned into a public limited company from a private limited company, taking the first step to its IPO.
• According to reports, ecommerce major Flipkart received internal approvals to shift its domicile from Singapore to India for an IPO in the next 12-15 months.

Funds Launches This Week

• Deeptech venture capital firm growX ventures floated its second fund with a target corpus $47.12 Mn. The VC aims to deepen its focus on deeptech and enterprise tech via the fund.
• Stride Ventures launched its largest fund till date with a target corpus of $300 Mn. The VC plans on making investments across sectors with the fund.
• Amazon India will be investing $120 Mn in startups that digitise consumer goods manufacturing and cater to both domestic and global demand through its VC arm Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Ecommerce major Zetwork got board approval to raise $66.6 Mn. The round is expected to be led by Khosla Ventures, along with participation from The Schiehallion Fund and others.
• Listed fintech Veefin bought 50% stake in Singapore-based GenAI startup Walnut AI for $2 Mn.
• Edtech Veranda Learning Solutions will be raising $29.5 Mn through a preferential issue to fuel acquisitions, deferred consideration payouts and expanding its existing business operations,
• Recently launched ecommerce startup Worthy Cart is currently in discussions to raise $10 Mn its in Pre-Series A funding with investors.
• Mobile Premier League said that it has picked up a significant stake in gaming development tools provider CloudFeather Games this week.
• Dutch investor Prosus is reportedly in discussions to lead a $50 Mn funding round in fintech startup Jar.
• OTT platform STAGE will be raising $9.9 Mn from multiple investors via issuance of preference shares.

The post From Rebel Foods To CarDekho – Indian Startups Raised $635 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The last month of 2024 kicked off with a slew of interesting developments for the world’s third largest startup ecosystem. While Ecom Express and Smartworks received markets regulator SEBI’s nod for their initial public offerings (IPOs), fintech Mobikwik filed its red herring prospectus (RHP) within the first week of December.

The Indian startup ecosystem continued to show signs of maturity throughout the week propelled by an uptick in the funding momentum. Between December 2 and 7, startups cumulatively raised $249.6 Mn across 18 deals, marking a 72% surge from the $144.8 Mn raised across 14 deals in the preceding week.

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Nov 2 – Nov 7 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• One of the largest investors in the ecosystem, Prosus, said it infused fresh capital in two fintech startups, Mintifi and Vastu Housing Finance in October.
• Buoyed by large cheques, fintech took the top spot in terms of sector-wise capital infusion this week. Startups in the sector raised $185.4 Mn via four deals announced in the week.
• Peak XV was the most active investor through the week, backing RaptorX.ai, MasterChow and Enterpret.
• Seed funding revived this week with startups at this stage raising $4.9 Mn across five deals. This marked a 63% uptick from the $3 Mn raised by startups at seed stage in the previous week. 

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Fintech startup MobiKwik filed its RHP to raise INR 572 Cr via its IPO. It has fixed a price band of INR 265 to INR 279 for its IPO.
• Omnichannel jewellery startup Bluestone’s board has greenlit its INR 1,000 Cr IPO plans. The IPO is likely to see the startup’s valuation zoom to $1.4-$1.5 Bn.
• Markets regulator SEBI gave its go-ahead to IPOs of logistics startup Ecom Express and coworking space provider Smartworks.
• In its investor presentation, Prosus Ventures said that it sees PayU, Meesho and Bluestone go public in the next 18 months. 

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• Automation unicorn Uniphore acquired two data startups, ActionIQ and Infoworks, to bolster its AI-solutions stack.
• SaaS unicorn Amagi acquired California-based AI-driven SaaS startup Argoid AI to strengthen its content planning, distribution and monetisation offerings.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Venture capital firm Abyro Capital launched its maiden $25 Mn fund to back 12 to 15 early stage technology startups in India and the US over the next four years
• Gaming major Nazara announced plans to acquire additional stakes in three of its subsidiaries – NODWIN, Sportskeeda’s parent Absolute Sport, and adtech Datawrkz – and make investments in kids-play centre company Funky Monkeys and edtech Learntube.ai. Later in the week, it infused INR 64 Cr in NODWIN..
• Undergoing a cash crunch, edtech startup Unacademy is likely to get acquired by  Allen Career Institute at a likely valuation of $800 Mn.
• Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has pledged 4.83 Cr equity shares of Ola Electric to raise debt for his third unicorn, Krutrim.
• CCI has given a go ahead to Japan-based MUFG Bank and US-based KDT Venture Holdings for the acquisition of minority stakes in logistics unicorn Shiprocket.
• Captain Fresh is looking to raise fresh capital in the range of $50-100 Mn in a funding round which is expected to include both primary and secondary components. 
• D2C startup The Indus Valley is looking to raise about $2.7 Mn via its Pre-Series A funding round led by existing investor DSG Consumer Partners.

The post From Vastu To Ultraviolette – Indian Startups Raised $250 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

While the Indian public markets managed to beat a month-long downward slope in the final week of November, the investor interest in the private market took a plunge. Between November 25 and 30, Indian startups raised $144.8 Mn across 14 deals, down 75% from the $579.5 Mn raised across 18 deals in the preceding week.

However, one of the biggest fundraises in the Indian startup ecosystem materialised in the week. 

Foodtech major Zomato raised INR 8,500 Cr (slightly above $1 Bn) via its qualified institutional placement (QIP) round. The company opened the round for bidding on Monday (November 25) and announced the allotment of 33.64 Cr equity shares to qualified institutional buyers on November 28. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Nov 25 – 30]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• The week’s biggest funding round saw publicly listed gaming company Nazara raising $101.3 Mn (INR 855 Cr) via a preferential share issue. Investors like SBI Mutual Fund, Caratlane founder Mithun Sacheti and Aamara Capital cumulatively bagged 89.59 Lakh shares via the round.
• Startups in enterprisetech and cleantech sectors bagged the highest amount of funds this week. While enterprisetech startups ShopDeck and Elchemy together bagged $13.6 Mn, Alt Mobility, Ukhi and Althion cumulatively raised $11.6 Mn.
• Ecommerce sector saw the highest investor activity during the week, with investors cumulatively infusing $7.6 Mn in four startups this week.
• Seed funding plunged this week to $3 Mn, down about 73% from the $10.9 Mn raised at this stage last week.

Other Developments Of The Week

• With plans to take the public market plunge next year, coworking space provider Incuspaze has initiated discussions with investors to raise $25 Mn in its pre-IPO funding round.
• Nazara Technologies’ subsidiary NODWIN bought gaming agency and platform Trinity Gaming for $2.8 Mn to bolster its content offerings.
• OYO-backed Innov8 is looking to raise about $12 Mn via a funding round that will value it at $142.2 Mn. The fundraising efforts will be led by InCred.
• Fintech startup Pine Labs has onboarded investment banks Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Jefferies to run the books for its $1 Bn IPO.
• Fintech company Univest is eyeing to raise $16 Mn as a part of its Series A funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), along with participation from Innoven Capital.
• Over a year after moving away from the Indian market, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital is looking to reenter India by backing fintech startup Vance.
• Ex-Peak XV MD Piyush Gupta launched secondaries-focussed VC firm, Kenro Capital, with plans to make investments in the range of $20 to $30 Mn in growth stage startups.
• AI-driven robotics startup Miko has got its shareholder nod to raise $3.3 Mn from IvyCap Ventures through issuance of preference shares.
• VC firm Stellaris Venture Partners announced the final close of its third India-focused fund at $300 Mn. It plans to lead seed and Series A funding investments across 25-30 startups over the next three years.
• Hero MotoCorp launched an accelerator programme, Hero For Startups, to fund promising automotive industry startups across India.
• Beauty and fashion ecommerce major Nykaa completed the acquisition of D2C skincare and beauty brand Earth Rhythm via a combination of primary and secondary transactions.
• Competition commission of India (CCI) approved the stake acquisition of Temasek in Rebel Foods and Google parent Alphabet in ecommerce major Flipkart this week.
• Fintech unicorn Yubi will be looking to raise fresh capital in the range of $150-$200 Mn next year to fuel its expansion into the MENA region as well as help acquire more businesses.
• Vineeta Singh-led SUGAR will be raising $4.5 Mn from its existing investors Anicut Equity Continuum Fund, Elevation Capital, Malabar Investment, L Catterton, among others.

The post From Nazara To OneCard – Indian Startups Raised $145 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After months of speculations, Zepto finally sealed its third mega funding deal of the year this week. The quick commerce unicorn’s $350 Mn funding round fuelled overall funding momentum in the Indian startup ecosystem during the third week of November.

Between November 18 and 23, startups cumulatively raised $579.5 Mn across 18 deals. This marked a 212% increase from the $185.8 Mn raised across 21 deals in the preceding week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Nov 18 – 23 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Quick commerce major Zepto reaffirmed its position as the most heavily backed startup of the year. Bagging a mega cheque of $350 Mn from investors like Motilal Oswal, Sachin Tendulkar, Mankind Pharma Family Office this week, Zepto’s cumulative fundraise for the year now stands at $1.3 Bn.
• On the back of Zepto’s fundraise, the consumer services sector emerged as the investor favourite sector this week. Startups in the space bagged $354 Mn across three deals.
• Besides Zepto, the week also saw another mega funding round materialise in the form of HealthKart’s $153 Mn fundraise. With this, the ecommerce sector saw the second highest capital infusion this week. Startups in the space raised $163 Mn across three deals.
• Venture capitalist firm Blume Ventures was the most active investor this week, backing fintech startup Zopper and Mayank Bidawatka’s latest venture Billion Hearts.
• Seed funding continued its upward movement this week, with startups at this stage cumulatively bagging $10.9 Mn. This marked an 85% jump from the $5.9 Mn raised by startups at this stage last week.

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• The Good Glamm Group completed the acquisition of D2C mom and baby care brand The Moms Co this week. However, it did not disclose the terms of the transactions.
• Moglix bought eco-friendly paper products manufacturer Khatema Fibres for $9.4 Mn to bolster its sustainable packaging portfolio.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Reports this week said that B2B marketplace startup OfBusiness has roped in Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Bank of America for a near $1 Bn IPO in 2025.
• With its public issue seeing an oversubscription of 1.86X, shares of logistics major BlackBuck got listed on the BSE and NSE this week at a premium of 2.9%.
• Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Consumer initiated its IPO journey this week by receiving its shareholder nod to drop the word “private” from the company’s name.

Other Developments Of The Week

• IN-SPACe’s chairman Pawan Goenka told Inc42 that the Centre-led INR 1,000 Cr spacetech fund is set to become operational by the first quarter of fiscal year 2025-26 (Q1 FY26).
• Solar solutions startup SolarSquare plans to raise $30 Mn at a $130 Mn valuation. This marks a 2.7X jump from its previous valuation of $47.7 Mn.
• A secondary share sale at omnichannel eyewear unicorn Lenskart is likely to value $6 Bn, up 20% from its last valuation of $5 Bn.
• Hospitality unicorn OYO’s founder Ritesh Agarwal is looking to infuse $65 Mn to increase his stake in the startup.
• Listed online travel aggregator MakeMyTrip will be acquiring fintech unicorn CRED’s expense management platform Happay in a bid to become the go-to platform for comprehensive corporate travel and expense management solutions.
• Former International Finance Corporations’s executive Sayan Ghosh launched his own VC firm Ortella Global Capital (OG Capital) this week along with a $36 Mn fund.
• IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE) will be launching its maiden VC fund with a target corpus of $11.8 Mn. Through the fund, it aims to back 1,000 startups over the next 10 years with an average ticket size of INR 2-15 Cr.

The post From Zepto To HealthKart – Indian Startups Raised $580 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Amid rumblings in the broader public markets in India, the startup ecosystem saw an increased investor interest. Between November 11 and 16, startups raised $185.8 Mn across 21 deals. This marks a 49% increase from the $125 Mn raised by startups across 18 deals in the preceding week. 

Despite a bearish sentiment in the broader market, foodtech major Swiggy transitioned to become a publicly listed company this week. Besides, the coming week will also see logistics unicorn BlackBuck making its public market debut. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Past Two Weeks [ Nov 11 – Nov 16 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Despite a windfall of funding at early stages, the Indian startup ecosystem saw one deal materialise at the late stage level. Fintech startup SarvaGram raised the biggest cheque this week, bagging $67 Mn in its Series D round.
• While SarvaGram’s fundraise solely took fintech to the top of funding trends at a sectoral level, enterprisetech saw the most number of deals materialise this week. Startups in the sector raised $46.7 Mn across seven deals in the week.
• The most active investor this week was Lightspeed, backing edtech Bhanzu, agritech Wheelocity and deeptech Airbound this week. Peak XV and Elevation Capital also backed two startups apiece.
• Seed funding remained flat in the week, rising 10% to $5.9 Mn from last week’s $5.4 Mn.

Funds Launches Of The Week

• Venture capital (VC) firm Pavestone VC marked the final close of its Pavestone Technology Fund at $97 Mn. It is looking to back 8-10 growth stage startups with an average ticket size of $5-10 Mn.
• Sandiip Bhammer-led VC firm Green Frontier Capital launched its Green Frontier Capital India Climate Opportunities Fund with a target corpus of INR 1,500 Cr.
• Orios Venture Partners’ managing partners Anup Jain and Rajeev Suri launched VC firm BlueGreen Ventures with a $75 Mn fund. The firm will back early-stage and IPO bound startups.  

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Swiggy made its public market debut on Tuesday ((November 13), with its shares listing at INR 420 on the NSE, a premium of nearly 8% from its IPO issue price of INR 390 per share.
• Shortly after its portfolio company Swiggy made a positive market debut, its largest stakeholder Prosus said that it is exploring an IPO for PayU in India in 2025.
• Amid the ongoing IPO boom, B2B marketplace Zetworks is looking to get listed by 2025 in an IPO that will see it raise over $1 Bn.
• D2C electronics major bOAt has reportedly finalised ICICI Securities, Goldman Sachs and Nomura as bankers for its $300-$500 Mn IPO slated for next year.
• Ahead of market close on Friday, BlackBuck’s IPO saw a muted subscription of 32% for its IPO. The issue will close on November 18.

Other Developments Of The Weeks

• Reliance Consumer Product is acquiring D2C snacking startup TagZ Foods for INR 28 Cr ($3.5 Mn).
• Fintech unicorn Razorpay joined forces with Peak XV Partners and Lightspeed to launch a venture investment programme. With this, the trio will be looking to back early stage B2B startups across sectors.
• Sanjeev Bhikchandani-led Info Edge will be investing INR 4 Cr in its portfolio company LegitQuest via its wholly owned subsidiary Startup Investments (Holdings) Ltd.
• Nazara Technologies and Nikhil Kamath’s WTFund will jointly invest INR 2 Cr in two gaming startups, Norian Games and Xigma Games.
• Zomato plans to launch its INR 8,500 Cr qualified institutional placement (QIP) in December, depending on market conditions.
• Proptech startup bought 11% stake of Mumbai-based real estate advisory Guardians for $12 Mn. It intends to increase its stakeholding to 50% in the coming three years.
• Unicommerce acquired 42.7% stake in Shipway for INR 68.4 Cr and plans on acquiring the remaining stake in Shipway within a year via a merger or stock swap.
• Coimbatore based SaaS startup Kovai.co announced the acquisition of US based Floik to enhance its Document360 knowledge management platform.
• Online travel aggregator EaseMyTrip’s board approved the acquisition of 49% stake in Planet Education Australia for INR 39.20 Cr and a 50% stake in Jeewani Hospitality Private Limited for INR 100 Cr.

The post From SarvaGram To Equal- Indian Startups raised $186 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

This year, festivities in India fuelled a mixed bag of funding trends for the world’s third largest startup ecosystem. After seeing a renewed vigour in investor interest between October 28 and November 2, the fresh capital infusion subsided in the first week of November.

Between November 4 and 9, Indian startups secured $125 Mn across 18 deals. This marked a 51% decline from the $256.9 Mn secured via 8 deals in the preceding week. Pertinent to note that funding trends have remained volatile in the final quarter of 2024. 

Note: This week’s funding galore also includes deals from the preceding week

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Past Two Weeks [ Oct 28 – Nov 9 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• While a mega deal materialised in the form of NBFC Finova Capital’s Series E funding round in the final week of October, no deals worth over $100 Mn took place in the first week of November.
• Fintech startup Easy Home Finance secured $35 Mn in its Series B funding round on November 6, making it the biggest cheque secured by a startup in the past week.
• On the back of Easy Home Finance and MODIFI’s funding rounds of $15 Mn, fintech topped the sectorial list with heaviest capital influx of the week.
• At a sectoral level, deeptech was close on the heels of fintech in the past week. Startups in the space cumulatively raised $33.9 Mn via the highest six deals in the week.
• Seed funding in the week stood at $5.4 Mn.

Mergers & Acquisitions From The Past Two Weeks

• Gladiators Esports bough gaming company Gods Reign for what the startup claims to be the biggest acquisitions in the Indian esports space. However, no details of the financial details of the transaction were disclosed.
• Marking its fourth acquisition in the fiscal year 2024-25, listed fintech company Veefin Solutions picked up a 50% stake in Singapore-based GenAI startup Walnut in an all-cash deal.
• Continuing its purchase streak, gaming major Nazara bought UK-based growth marketing agency Space & Time for around INR 52.3 Cr in a cash and stock deal via its subsidiary Datawrkz.
• Wealth management startup Wealthzi was acquired by Nivesh for INR 9 Cr.
• In what could be one of the biggest startup mergers in the insurance space, Inc42 learnt that InsuranceDekho and RenewBuy are looking at finalising a merger that would value the combined entity at $1 Bn.

Funds Launched In The Last Two Weeks

• Bipin Shah, who previously served as a managing partner for VC firm Titan Capital, floated his micro VC firm Zeropearl. The firm will look to back 12-15 high-stakes investments in a year.
• VC firm Inflexor Ventures announced the first close of its Opportunities Fund at $33.7 Mn on November 6.
• Listed NBFC Northern Arc disclosed that it has secured debt commitments of $65 Mn for its maiden climate focused fund. 

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• Foodtech major Swiggy’s IPO closed with an oversubscription of 3.59X on November 8. The startup is scheduled to get listed on November 13.
• Logistics unicorn BlackBuck filed its RHP for an IPO consisting of fresh issuance of equity shares worth INR 550 Cr and an offer for sale of 2.06 Cr shares by several existing shareholders. The startup’s IPO will open on November 13 and close on November 18.
• NBFC Avanse Financial Services received approval from the SEBI for its INR 3,500 Cr public issue on October 23.

Other Developments Of The Weeks

•  VC firm First Cheque will likely back 15-20 startups with investments of up to $500Kapiece from its third cohort over the next 18 months.
• Agritech startup Arya.ag secured a debt commitment of $19.8 Mn from US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to extend a debt facility for its agri commerce subsidiary Aryatech. The funding commitment is for .a period of seven year.

The post From Easy Home Finance To Boldfit – Indian Startups Raised $125 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After a rise in funding activity across the Indian startup ecosystem, investor interest again went down again in the past week. Between October 21 and 26, startups cumulatively raised $145.5 Mn across 10 deals, a 70% decline from $478 Mn raised in the preceding week.

Moreover, the deal count also went down sharply this week by about 65% from last week’s 29 deals.

It is pertinent to note that investor interest in the startup ecosystem has been volatile since the past month or so. The volatility comes as a result of the dearth in the mega funding deals. The month of October has seen only one mega funding round materialise with Eruditus securing $150 Mn last week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Oct 21 – Oct 26 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Healthttech startup Even Healthcare bagged the biggest cheque of the week, raising $30 Mn in its Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, along with Founders Fund, 8VC and Lachy Groom.
• On the back of Even Healthcare’s fundraise, healthtech emerged as the investor favourite startup sector this week. Besides, Healthify (formerly Healthifyme) also raised $20 Mn in its pre-Series D funding round.
• Ecommerce sector saw the highest number of rounds materialise this week as it witnessed a fresh capital infusion of $10.4 Mn across 4 deals.
• Khosla Ventures emerged as the most active investor this week, backing Even Healthcare and Healthify.
• Seed funding plunged this week to $126K as compared to $26.5 Mn raised by startups at this level.

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• FirstCry’s rollup brand GlobalBees has invested INR 4.5 Cr in its subsidiary Dynamic IT Solution to acquire more stake in the company. Dynamic IT Solution builds sports & fitness accessories and other sports and fitness products under the brand name Strauss.
• While announcing its financial results for Q2 FY25, Zomato said that it has received its board’s nod to acquire an 8% stake in innovative kitchen appliances maker Byondnxt.
• Online travel aggregator announced the acquisition of 51% stake in train food delivery platform Zoop Web Services Pvt Ltd for INR 12.54 Cr this week.

Fund Launches This Week

• Venture capital firm Avaana Capital marked the final close of its early stage fund at $135 Mn. Via the fund, it plans to back 20-25 startups in the cleantech space.
• Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal led Titan Capital marked the final close of its new fund, Titan Capital Winners Fund, at $40 Mn.
• About three months after its announcement, the union cabinet has approved a spacetech VC fund with a corpus of INR 1,000 Cr under the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe).
• US-based venture capital firm General Catalyst launched its new fund, Fund XII, this week. The VC has raised $8 Bn fresh capital to back startups across the globe operating in sectors like artificial intelligence, defence and intelligence, climate and energy, industrials, healthcare and fintech.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• B2B seafood chain Captain Fresh has initiated its public offer plans by roping in Axis Capital and Bank of America (BofA) as the bankers for its IPO.
• Swiggy backer Prosus’ CEO Fabricio Bloisi said that the VC firm is expecting more of its portfolio startups to go IPO in the next 12-18 months.
• Ahead of its IPO, Swiggy has reportedly cut down its valuation target to $12.5 Bn from the erstwhile $13.5 Bn.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Kerala Startup Mission invested INR 15 Cr in energy transition focused investor Transition VC.
• MUFG Bank and Koch Group approached the Competition Commission of India this week to pick a minority stake in Shiprocket.
• Peak XV Partners announced that it has selected 14 startups under its cohort, Surge. Each startup can receive up to $3 Mn in seed funding as part of the cohort.
• Logistics startup ShadowFax is likely to bag a fresh investment of around $45-$50 Mn in a round that will value it at $700 Mn.
• Foodtech major Zomato received board approval to raise $1 Bn via qualified institutional placement.
• B2B ecommerce unicorn Udaan is in talks with M&G Prudential to raise $80-100 Mn in a fresh funding round.
• Online classified company Info Edge’s will be investing INR 30 Cr in its wholly-owned subsidiary Redstart Labs.
• Investors like family offices of Manipal Group’s Ranjan Pai, Mankind Pharma’s Ramesh and Rajeev Juneja and Cipla are likely to be the new investors joining Zepto’s captable in its fresh funding round.

The post From Even Healthcare To Healthify – Indian Startups Raised $145 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.