Indian Startups Funding Update

During this week, Indian startups have seen a total of approximately $105.87 million in funding, comprising 3 growth-stage and 16 early-stage financing rounds, while 2 startups opted not to disclose their funding details.

Growth-Stage Funding

This week in the growth-stage funding sector, the B2B cross-border e-commerce startup Geniemode successfully raised $50 million in a Series C round, led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management. Meanwhile, MOC Cancer Care & Research Centre secured $18 million in a Series B round, guided by Elevation Capital, and a fintech unicorn raised $12 million in debt financing from AK Capital Finance.

Early-Stage Funding

In the early-stage funding arena, 16 startups acquired a total of $25.87 million throughout the week. Quick Clean, a provider of professional linen management solutions, led the early-stage investment with a $5.7 million Series A round. Other notable startups included the content platform on the Sui blockchain, FanTV, the comprehensive electric vehicle ecosystem platform, Vidyut, the fintech startup Lorien Finance, and the cross-border payments platform HiWiPay. Other startups, including KiranaPro and 1312 Interactive, also raised undisclosed amounts.

City and Segment-wise Insights

Regarding city-specific funding, Bengaluru startups led with 9 deals, followed by startups in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and other regions. From a segment perspective, fintech startups emerged as the leaders with 4 deals, while e-commerce, healthtech, spacetech, and gaming startups recorded 2 deals each.

Series-wise Funding

This week saw seed funding lead with 6 deals, followed by pre-Series A, pre-seed, and debt financing rounds.

Weekly Funding Trends

On a week-over-week basis, startup funding experienced a significant decline of nearly 43%, falling to $105.87 million from around $184.4 million in the previous week. The average funding over the past eight weeks has hovered around $317.35 million, with around 28 deals occurring weekly.

Leadership Changes

This week was marked by various critical leadership transitions. Santosh Agarwal was promoted to CEO of Paisabazaar, succeeding Naveen Kukreja. Additionally, Vishal Raj from Increff has taken the role of Co-founder, while Naina Lal Kidwani, formerly of HSBC, has joined Lightspeed as Venture Advisor. Noteworthy departures included Romil Jain, co-founder and former CTO of Increff, and Vivek Mathur, COO at Elevation Capital, who left after 14 years to pursue advisory and mentorship roles. Aakrit Vaish, co-founder of Haptik, stepped down as CEO, entrusting leadership to Ahshad Jussawalla.

Mergers and Acquisitions

This week, several significant acquisitions occurred across diverse industries. Veranda Learning has acquired stakes in BB Virtuals and Navkar Digital to bolster its position in India’s commerce education realm. Flipkart’s UPI app, Super.money, has acquired the fintech startup BharatX to enhance its credit services. Other acquisitions included Boss Wallah’s purchase of the edtech platform ffreedom from Suvision Holdings and US-based enterprise tech company Xurrent’s acquisition of Zenduty, a SaaS startup supported by Titan Capital, for an undisclosed amount.

Fund Launches

Wipro Ventures, the venture arm of Wipro, has committed $200 million to support investments in early to mid-stage startups. GetVantage has launched an AI-powered initiative named GrowthSahay and dedicated Rs 500 crores to transform MSME financing.

Employee Stock Options

Perfios, a SaaS-based B2B fintech company, has introduced a fresh employee stock option plan called “Perfios Employee Stock Option Plan 2025-A,” valued at $76 million (Rs 645 crore).

Shutdowns

Flipkart has announced the closure of ANS Commerce, its full-stack e-commerce enabler, three years after acquiring the Gurugram-based firm.

New Partnerships and Launches

Several new collaborations were established this week. ThunderPlus has launched a high-speed EV charging station. GalaxEye partnered with Impulso.Space for global expansion, while Glance has teamed up with Google Cloud. Additionally, Grant Thornton Bharat collaborated with Zoho to accelerate digital transformation, and SaaS leader Freshworks partnered with Unisys. The ePlane Company has joined forces with Empire Aviation to enhance eVTOL operations in the UAE and Southeast Asia. Meanwhile, CarDekho Group is entering the UAE market in partnership with Raya Holdings, and KiranaPro is collaborating with ZuperAI to provide AI-powered retail market solutions. Paytm has partnered with Perplexity to offer users real-time, AI-driven financial guidance. Times Internet has ventured into fantasy gaming with the launch of Cricbuzz11, and NoBroker has introduced ConvoZen.AI, a conversational AI platform dedicated to enterprises.

Financial Results This Week

This week saw notable comparisons among major retail brands: H&M, Zara, and Uniqlo in terms of their growth in India during FY24. Perfora reported a remarkable 30X revenue growth over three years, whereas Kinetic Green’s losses escalated 11X in FY24, with a revenue downturn of 3%. Wow! Momo showed a revenue of Rs 470 crore with a loss of Rs 114 crore in FY24, and Morgan Stanley-backed Recykal experienced a dip in scale during FY24, with losses increasing by 31%. Conversely, Progcap reached Rs 150 crore in revenue for FY24 while reducing losses.

Potential Deals

The ePlane Company is considering raising up to $50 million, and InCred Finance plans to acquire TruCap’s gold loan division for ₹330 crore.

News Flash This Week

This week saw Ola Electric achieving sales of 25,000 units in February, solidifying its 28% market share. Zomato made a substantial investment of Rs 1,500 crore in Blinkit, while Flipkart proceeded with the shutdown of ANS Commerce.