This week, Indian startups achieved significant funding milestones, raising a total of $113.35 million, encompassing 3 growth-stage deals, 22 early-stage deals, and 3 undisclosed rounds. Additionally, there were 8 prominent appointments, 3 fund launches, and 2 mergers and acquisitions during the week. In comparison, the previous week saw 24 startups collectively secure around $411.46 million.
Growth-Stage Deals
Growth-stage startups have successfully raised $55.3 million through three deals this week. Lifestyle-tech brand DailyObjects led the way, acquiring Rs 332 crore (approximately $35 million) in a Series C round backed by Xponentia Capital Partners, Anicut Capital, and Axiom Asia Private Capital. Meanwhile, smart kitchen appliance start-up Beyond Appliances raised Rs 110 crore ($11.4 million) in a Series B round funded by Fireside Ventures. MSME-centric digital lender NeoGrowth received Rs 85 crore in a mix of equity and debt funding from FMO and LeapFrog Investments.
Early-Stage Deals
Early-stage startups garnered a total of $58.05 million across 22 deals this week. The frontrunner was photonic quantum technology company Quanfluence, which obtained $10 million from Chiratae Ventures and Rainmatter. Following closely, edtech company byteXL raised $9 million from Elevar Equity. Medtech startup Sunfox Technologies completed a Series A round, attracting $7 million co-led by Ashish Kacholia, Lashit Sanghvi, Alchemy Capital, and 3one4 Capital. Quantum computing company QpiAI also secured Rs 50 crore in debt funding from InnoVen Capital. Other startups that received funding included omnichannel menswear brand Kisah, wealth management firm Zomint, and healthtech company SuperMush, among others. Travel tech platform TravClan and Biofortified staples brand Better Nutrition raised funding but did not disclose amounts.
City and Segment-wise Deals
Bengaluru continued to dominate the funding scene with 10 startup deals this week. Following it were Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, which reported 6 and 3 deals, respectively. Other cities, including Hyderabad, Dehradun, and Chandigarh, also made their mark with funding activities. E-commerce startups led the charge with 8 deals, while AI and healthtech startups followed, securing 5 and 4 deals, respectively. In addition, sectors like fintech, foodtech, SaaS, edtech, and deeptech also experienced funding activity.
Series-wise Deals
Seed rounds had a significant presence this week, with 13 deals, while pre-seed and Series A startups each reported 5 deals. Series C, Series B, debt, and pre-Series A each had one deal registered.
Week-on-Week Funding Trend
Startup funding experienced a sharp decline of over 72%, dropping to $113.35 million from the $411.46 million raised in the preceding week. The average weekly funding over the last eight weeks stood at approximately $231.6 million across 22 deals.
Key Hirings
This week saw the announcement of 8 important appointments. Sorry Sugar appointed Palash Arneja as Founder and CEO, while Google Cloud named Amit Kumar as interim head for India. Snabbit introduced Ramesh Srinivasan as Head of Growth and Revenue, ALTEN India appointed Prabhakar Atla as CEO, and Eggoz welcomed actor Boman Irani as its brand ambassador. In addition, Genefied promoted Krishna Khandelwal to Chief Sales Officer, Sarvam AI appointed former Google Cloud India Managing Director Sashikumar Sreedharan as President and Chief Business Officer, and OTPless named Geetanshu Singla as CTO.
Mergers and Acquisitions
FMCG heavyweight Marico acquired an additional 24.09% stake in Plix parent Satiya Nutraceuticals for Rs 1,012.03 crore. Meanwhile, paediatric healthcare firm Hoola Health acquired early childhood development platform UpTodd.
Fund Launches
Entrepreneur Navya Naveli Nanda established Naveli Ventures, which is the venture arm of the Nanda Family Office, focusing on investments in deeptech, AI, clean energy, space, and healthcare startups. In a related move, NABVENTURES secured Rs 450 crore in the first close of its second fund, while Recur Club announced a Rs 500 crore fund aimed at providing growth capital to 150-170 D2C brands in FY27.
New Launches and Partnerships
PhonePe has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Digital Publisher Content Grievances Council (DPCGC) to enhance regulatory compliance in the OTT ecosystem. The partnership intends to simplify self-regulatory organisation certification for OTT platforms and online content publishers who utilize PhonePe’s payment gateway. It will also concentrate on educating merchants on and raising awareness about regulatory requirements under the IT Rules of 2021, which require SRO membership for grievance redressal.
Flipkart has expanded its supply chain in anticipation of the festive season by adding 14 million cubic feet of warehouse capacity and extending its delivery network into over 750 new PIN codes. This expansion has boosted storage capacity by 50%, and enhancements in automation and technology have improved peak processing volumes by over 30% in preparation for its Big Billion Days sale.
Digital-first FMCG brand Pluckk has made its UK debut, offering products in 17 stores and capturing a 15% market share of the protein bar category within its first month. The company has ambitious plans to scale up to 100 stores within three months and 500 by the end of the year, while also expanding its UK product line to over 50 SKUs across clean-label categories, including juices, functional drinks, snacks, and salads.
Pine Labs has introduced a unified merchant platform in Singapore that integrates payment acceptance, acquiring, instalment payments, and customer engagement services. This platform supports both card and alternative payment methods, bank-backed instalment plans, and rewards through its Fave app, aiming to simplify merchant operations, enhance checkout conversions, and improve customer loyalty.
News Flash This Week
Startup Policy Forum has unveiled DeepVerse, a deeptech policy platform involving 30 partners such as Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Lightspeed. This initiative seeks to tackle policy challenges across ten sectors, which include semiconductors, spacetech, defence technology, biotech, cleantech, and robotics.
Flipkart’s Big Billion Days event is set to return for its 13th edition on October 9, with early access available for select members on October 8. The event will showcase record participation from sellers, AI-powered shopping experiences, and an enhanced supply chain network featuring over 8,200 fulfilment and delivery facilities across India, including Ekart and Flipkart Minutes.
Bengaluru will host Climate Data Week 2026, featuring over 30 events from October 12 to 16, as orchestrated by the Climate Collective Foundation. Supported by Google and Karnataka’s innovation entities, the initiative aims to draw more than 2,000 participants, including climate tech founders, investors, researchers, and policymakers, to investigate the roles of data and AI in addressing climate challenges.
According to a report by brokerage firm Bernstein, Blinkit has emerged as a leader in India’s quick commerce sector in terms of product availability, achieving an average in-stock rate of 94.4%. Flipkart Minutes follows closely at 88.7%, with Swiggy Instamart and Zepto at 83.8% and 82.5%, respectively.
Groww reported significant growth in September, adding over 1 lakh active clients, while Sahi noted an 11% month-on-month growth, making it the fastest growing firm among the top 20 brokers. Based on NSE data, the overall active client base in the industry increased by 0.35% to reach 4.61 crore, compared to 4.60 crore in August.
Bank of America has reduced PB Fintech’s target price by 19%, while forecasting robust Q2 performance for Paytm. Despite expecting growth for both PB Fintech and Paytm in Q2 FY27, regulatory risks have been flagged for PB Fintech due to proposed changes by IRDAI affecting insurance commissions. The brokerage adjusted PB Fintech’s price target to Rs 1,145 based on anticipated EPS declines of 39-41% in FY28 and FY29 but maintained a Neutral rating. A Buy rating on Paytm was retained, with a target price set at Rs 1,775.