Startup Funding Trends: $75.35 Million Raised This Week
This week, Indian startups secured approximately $75.35 million, which includes three growth-stage deals and nine early-stage initiatives, with two startups choosing not to disclose their funding amounts. In comparison, the previous week saw 14 startups collectively raising around $128.36 million.
Growth-stage Deals
Growth-stage startups attracted a total of $32.09 million in three deals this week. Synthetic biology company StrainX Bioworks led this round with $13 million, co-led by Prime Venture Partners and Leo Capital. D2C food brand Anveshan raised Rs 121 crore ($12.7 million) in a Series B funding round led by Vertex Ventures, which saw participation from the International Finance Corporation, Titan Capital, and others. Meanwhile, the grab-and-go coffee chain abcoffee acquired Rs 61 crore ($6.39 million) in a pre-Series B round led by Kliff Ventures.
Early-stage Deals
Early-stage startups gathered $43.26 million across 10 different deals this week, with B2B quick commerce platform Fairdeal.Market leading the way by raising $15 million in a Series A round, led by Bertelsmann India Investments. Following closely, AI training data provider Human Archive raised $8.2 million with backing from Wing Venture Capital, NVP Capital, Y Combinator, and others. Additionally, Tiea Connectors secured Rs 77 crore ($8 million) in a Series A round led by IvyCap Ventures. Home salon services platform Yes Madam made its inaugural funding with Rs 50 crore ($5.2 million) from Info Edge in a Series A round. Other early-stage companies also received funding this week, including D2C footwear brand Yoho, semiconductor startup C2i Semiconductors, and usage-based billing startup Flexprice.
City and Segment-wise Deals
In terms of city-based funding, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru topped the charts with five deals each, followed by Mumbai with two. Bhopal, Nagpur, and Rishikesh recorded one deal each. Segmentation-wise, e-commerce startups dominated with three deals, while funding activity was seen in home services, healthtech, AI, manufacturing, F&B, fintech, deeptech, among others.
Series-wise Deals
This week was led by Series A rounds which featured five deals, followed by three seed rounds. Other rounds such as Series B, pre-seed, pre-Series B, and angel rounds also observed significant activity.
Week-on-week Funding Trend
Startup funding decreased by over 41% to $75.35 million this week, compared to the previous week’s $128.36 million. Over the last eight weeks, the average funding stands at approximately $201.6 million, with an average of 20 deals per week.
Key Hirings and Departures
This week saw notable leadership changes. EMotorad appointed Himanshu Ratnoo, a former executive from CARS24, as co-founder. UpGrad welcomed Mukesh Mundra as its new CFO, taking over from Venkatesh Tarakkad. Lightspeed Venture Partners bolstered its leadership with Rohit Kaul as head of marketing. Anthropic brought in Sangeeta Bavi to lead the Digital Natives, Startups, and Growth division in India to enhance Claude adoption among startups and mid-market firms. In a separate incident, Pocket FM faced another senior-level exit, as Mayank Sancheti stepped down as Senior Vice President.
In terms of departures, Pocket FM’s leadership faced significant exits, including CFO Anurag Sharma and Mayank Sancheti. Mansi Chugh also left Lightspeed Venture Partners after nearly four years as VP of Marketing and Communications, while Sanjay Byalal Jagannath exited EV rapid-charging startup Exponent Energy, which he co-founded in 2020.
Mergers and Acquisitions
The corporate travel and expense management platform Ziptrrip acquired the online travel marketplace HelloTravel Online, aiming to enhance its reach across business leisure, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions), and experiential travel sectors.
Fund Launches
Alternative investment funds continued to gain traction this week. JM Financial Asset Management introduced its second credit AIF, JM Financial Select Credit Fund II, targeting a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore. Ashish Kumar, co-founder of Fundamentum Partnership, launched the frontier-tech investment platform F2A, receiving SEBI approval for its Rs 2,000 crore AI and DeepTech-focused fund. Furthermore, growth-stage VC firm Physis Capital announced the closure of its maiden Rs 400 crore fund dedicated to supporting startups from Pre-Series A to Series B stages. Also, Himalaya Wealth Managers LLP initiated the Himalaya SME Scheme-I, a Category I AIF with a target corpus of Rs 250 crore to invest in high-growth SMEs across India.
New Launches and Partnerships
Neocambrian AI introduced an India-focused robotics data factory for Physical AI models. CRED unveiled an AI-powered engineering platform.
News Flash This Week
Indian gaming companies could face a tax blow exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore, as the Supreme Court endorsed a 28% GST. PhonePe achieved a new milestone with over 10 billion UPI transactions for the second consecutive month in April. A91 Partners-backed spice maker Pushp submitted its DRHP for an OFS-only IPO. After receiving NBFC approval, MobiKwik secured RBI nod for its offline payment aggregator business. Go Digit Life Insurance settled a Rs 4.5 crore death claim in Maharashtra within five days.
Summary
Overall, startup funding saw a significant decline this week, reaching $75.35 million from $128.36 million in the prior week. PhonePe maintained its top position in the UPI ecosystem, processing over 10.33 billion transactions in April. The Supreme Court’s ruling affirmed the government’s decision on GST for online gaming, impacting several companies. Pushp’s IPO plans have been positioned under the Securities and Exchange Board of India, while MobiKwik’s new RBI approval aims to bolster its offline payment capabilities across India.
