Indian Startups Secure Funding of $1.3 Billion This Week
This week, Indian startups collectively garnered roughly $1.3 billion in funding, which includes 3 growth-stage and 19 early-stage transactions, while 7 startups opted not to disclose their funding amounts. In comparison, 37 startups had raised approximately $236 million the prior week.
Growth-stage Deals
Growth-stage startups raised a substantial $1.24 billion across three deals this week, with AI acceleration cloud platform Neysa leading the pack by announcing $1.2 billion in a combination of debt and equity backed by Blackstone. This marks one of the largest fundraising efforts in India’s AI infrastructure sector. Wealthtech startup Stable Money also successfully raised $25 million at a valuation of $175 million during a pre-Series C round, led by Peak XV Partners. Additionally, EV charging startup Statiq secured $18 million (around Rs 163.2 crore) through a blend of equity and debt funding.
Early-stage Deals
Early-stage funding this week totalled $86.47 million across 19 separate transactions. Semiconductor startup C2i Semiconductors topped the list with a $15 million funding round, led by Peak XV Partners. Similarly, AI application platform Portkey raised $15 million in a Series A round, backed by Elevation Capital. Following closely, fabless semiconductor startup Vervesemi raised $10 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Ashish Kacholia and Unicorn India Ventures. Other startups, including Navikenz, Zeroharm Sciences, and LocalHost, experienced a successful funding week. The sports performance tracking app SportSkill Ladder and contactless payments firm ToneTag also raised undisclosed amounts, while Peak XV made investments of undisclosed values in five AI startups during the India AI Impact Summit 2026. For further details on funding, readers are encouraged to visit various sources.
City and Segment-wise Deals
Bengaluru led the city-wise deal count with 18 transactions, while Mumbai took the lead in total funding, raising $1.2 billion from just 2 deals. Delhi-NCR, Pune, Hazaribagh, and Bokaro also secured deals throughout the week.
Segment-wise, AI startups dominated with 9 deals, followed by fintech and EV startups with 5 and 3 deals, respectively. Other sectors, including semiconductor, healthtech, proptech, foodtech, and more, also saw funding during this time.
Series-wise Deals
This week, seed rounds captured the funding spotlight with 15 deals, while Series A and Series B followed closely with 7 and 2 transactions, respectively. Pre-Series C, angel, pre-seed, and pre-Series A also recorded successful deals.
Week-on-week Funding Trend
On a weekly basis, startup funding surged 5.6X to $1.3 billion, a striking increase compared to the approximately $236 million raised the preceding week. The average funding over the last eight weeks is roughly $340.21 million, involving about 27 deals weekly.
Key Hirings and Departures
Fintech company Slice has appointed its founder, Rajan Bajaj, as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. On a separate note, NeoLiv has selected Atul Nemani as Chief Financial Officer, where he will oversee financial strategy, capital allocation, fundraising, governance, risk management, compliance, and digital finance. Livspace has also confirmed layoffs of around 1,000 employees and a leadership change, as co-founder Saurabh Jain steps back after 11 years to focus on personal pursuits.
Fund Launches
Peak XV Partners announced the closing of $1.3 billion in new capital commitments across its India Seed, India Venture, and Asia Pacific funds, marking its first fundraising effort since parting ways with Sequoia Capital. Motilal Oswal Alternates successfully closed its fifth PE fund at Rs 8,500 crore, while Qualcomm plans to invest up to $150 million in Indian AI and deeptech startups through Qualcomm Ventures. Other notable fund launches include JM Financial Asset Management’s Rs 1,500 crore pre-IPO AIF and OTP Ventures’ debut fund closing at Rs 500 crore, along with ValueQuest Investment Advisors raising a Rs 1,500 crore PE fund. Equirus InnovateX Fund also closed a Rs 166 crore B2B tech fund, ValleyNXT Ventures launched a Rs 400 crore fund, and Udtara Ventures announced a Rs 250 crore growth fund aimed at defence and deeptech sectors.
Layoffs
Livspace has made the tough decision to lay off about 1,000 employees, equivalent to 12% of its total workforce. This restructuring is part of their transition towards becoming an AI-native organisation, amidst a prolonged funding drought and lack of a clear route to profitability.
ESOP Buyback
Crypto exchange CoinDCX has revealed its largest-ever ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) buyback, valued at Rs 111 crore. This strategic buyback aims to facilitate wealth creation for over 500 current and former employees of the Mumbai-based company.
New Launches and Partnerships
Tiger Global-backed Kutumb has entered the gay dating market with the launch of Polo. Digit Insurance has expanded its wellness offerings by rolling out eldercare services in conjunction with Anvayaa. Razorpay and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) have also introduced agentic payments to Claude, initially revealed at the India AI Impact Summit.
Financial Results This Week
Klassroom has filed a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) for a Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) IPO, noting a revenue surge of 120% in FY25. The Enforcement Directorate has provisionally attached overseas bank assets worth Rs 505 crore belonging to WinZO in relation to an ongoing money laundering investigation. Fractal Analytics made a subdued debut on the stock market, listing at nearly 3% below its initial public offering upper price range of Rs 900.
NODWIN Gaming has completed the sale of its full stake in the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) to RTS. Meanwhile, ICICI Mutual Fund has crossed a 5% shareholding in FirstCry’s parent company.
