From smallcase To Lendingkart — Indian Startups Raised $144 Mn This Week

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.