This week, startup funding reached new heights as 31 Indian startups raised roughly $594.39 million, which includes 2 growth-stage and 26 early-stage deals, alongside 3 startups that chose to keep their funding details private. In comparison, the previous week saw 21 startups collectively securing about $100 million.
Highlights
Growth-Stage Funding
Within the growth-stage segment, only two deals were reported this week, raising a total of $430 million. Notably, KreditBee, a digital lending platform, secured $280 million in a Series E round led by Motilal Oswal Alternates, achieving a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion and earning the title of unicorn. Another significant fundraiser was SaaS company Wingify, which secured $150 million from its majority shareholder Everstone Capital and existing investors.
Early-Stage Deals
Early-stage funding saw a total of $164.39 million distributed across 26 deals this week. The product design startup Noon made headlines by leading with a $44 million round supported by Chemistry, First Round Capital, Scribble Ventures, Elevation Capital, and Afore Capital. Additionally, AI infrastructure company Nava garnered $22 million from Greenoaks Capital, RTP Global, and Unicorn India Ventures. Tsecond.ai received over $21.5 million, approximately Rs 190 crore, in a round led by MSN Holdings, while Aman Gupta’s latest venture, Off Beat, acquired Rs 100 crore in seed funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. Furthermore, the D2C farm produce platform Pluckk also raised Rs 100 crore, around $10.8 million, from existing investor Euro Gulf Investment.
Companies such as BIDSO, Astranova Mobility, Atlas, GoSats, GLAAS, ClayCo, and 15 other early-stage startups also secured funding during the week. Meanwhile, Satark AI, focused on cybersecurity, along with seafood infrastructure firm Dam Good Fish and wealth management platform ILIOS 72, successfully raised funds although the exact amounts remain undisclosed.
City and Segment Breakdown
Bengaluru dominated the city-wise deal count with 14 transactions, while Delhi-NCR followed closely with 10 deals. Mumbai, Jaipur, Mysore, Kochi, and Ahmedabad also recorded significant activity this week. In terms of segments, AI startups led with 8 deals, followed by fintech and e-commerce, each with 6 and 4 deals, respectively. Other sectors like deeptech, food and beverage, SaaS, energy, and logistics also witnessed funding activities.
Series Negotiations
This week’s funding activity showed Series A rounds leading with 10 transactions, while seed and pre-seed rounds followed closely with 9 and 5 deals, respectively. Angel, pre-Series A, Series E, and undisclosed transactions also contributed to the overall funding landscape.
Week-on-Week Funding Changes
Comparatively, startup funding surged nearly six-fold to $594.39 million this week, sharply rising from about $100 million secured in the previous week. The average funding over the last eight weeks is approximately $390.6 million, involving 27 deals per week.
Key Appointments
This week saw several significant leadership changes: Cult.fit enhanced its board by appointing Kalpana Morparia, Arun M. Kumar, Indu Bhushan, and Pragya Misra as independent directors. Policybazaar introduced Sajja Praveen Chowdary as CEO, succeeding Tarun Mathur. VerSe Innovation appointed Prasanna Prasad as Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO), overseeing engineering, product development, and data science initiatives. GLAAS welcomed Devesh Sachdev as co-founder and managing director, while ONDC elevated Vibhor Jain to Managing Director and CEO from COO. Stripe named Manish Maheshwari as Head of Revenue and Growth for India, while Numeros Motors appointed Arun Srivastava as CEO. Scaler also announced leadership transformations, appointing Amar Srivastava as CEO, with Vidit Jain managing offline education units and Ratnakar Reddy heading enterprise partnerships across India and MENA. Additionally, Swiggy co-founder Nandan Reddy stepped down to explore independent ventures, while Pine Labs disclosed the resignation of Navin Chandani, President and Chief Business Officer (Issuing).
Mergers and Acquisitions
This week also featured notable mergers and acquisitions: Fashinza acquired Qckin, a design-to-delivery startup focused on manufacturing, and Exotel acquired the core team of voice AI startup Dubverse, which includes co-founders Anuja Dhawan and Varshul Gupta. One Hand Clap, backed by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, acquired Agenseed, a seeding and distribution firm, while Quest Global has acquired BITSILICA, a semiconductor design services firm, to enhance its engineering abilities.
Fund Initiatives
In terms of fund launches, InCred Alternative Private Investments closed its first special opportunities credit fund at a hard cap of Rs 1,500 crore, whereas Masters’ Union unveiled a Rs 100 crore early-stage fund, MU Ventures, aimed at supporting founders under 25 with investments ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.
Business Closures
In the realm of shutdowns, the cloud kitchen unicorn Rebel Foods shut down its 15-minute food delivery app QuickiES, citing significant cash burn shortly after its launch.
Employee Stock Options
Atlys initiated its first Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) buyback worth Rs 4 crore, enabling employees across various roles to liquidate up to 25% of their vested stock options.
New Initiatives and Collaborations
Zerodha introduced fixed deposits on its Coin app, while Beep App launched to transform content consumption into career opportunities. Veranda Learning initiated a scholarship programme for CA aspirants, and Healthians founder Deepak Sahni introduced a new startup, Un:Bloc, on World Health Day.
Financial Highlights This Week
In this week’s financial highlights: Nexus Venture Partners divested a Rs 530 crore stake in Delhivery via block deals. Furthermore, Zepto gained SEBI approval for a $1.3 billion IPO, and the RBI proposed a one-hour delay for digital transactions exceeding Rs 10,000 through UPI and IMPS to combat fraud. Notably, Groww surrendered its payment aggregator licence after receiving RBI approval for Groww Pay in April 2024, indicating a strategic alteration away from its role as a payments intermediary.
