It has been an active week of fundraising in the Indian startup ecosystem this time as 31 startups raised about $336.45 mn. Important developments can be read below:
Growth-Stage Deals
11 growth-stage startups received a total of $170.4 mn. Leading the pack was Battery Smart, a company working on battery tech that raised $65 mn.
Foxtale, a D2C skincare brand, with $18 mn.
Samunnati, agri-finance- $16 mn
RENEE Cosmetics, D2C brand- $12 mn
Smartworks, managed workspace- $12 mn
Early-Stage Deals
18 early-stage startups raised $166.05 mn amount.
Top early-stage startups are:
SCOPE, networking platform
Indkal, consumer electronics
Ethereal Machines, advanced manufacturing
Indigrid Technology, EV components
Trampoline, cross border B2B home décor
Further, two startups- Clapingo, while English tutoring and Eduport, in education services did not disclose their fundraising amount.
City and Segment Insights
On city-wise funding, Bengaluru led the hand with 11 deals, followed by Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Chennai. Segment-wise, e-commerce startups won prime deals with six ventures receiving funds, followed by fintech, EV, healthtech, edtech, and foodtech. Series-Wise Deals
Seed was the most proactive with 10 deals. Seven startups received Series A funding, while two bounced in for pre-Series A funding–Series B and debt funding, three in number. Funding Trends and Averages
The fundings this week was lesser compared with the last week by 16.38% at $ 336.45 mn. The average funding for the last eight week was ~$ 335.62 mn and ~27 deals a week.
New Fund Launches
Recur Club: Launched Recur Scale that provides debt financing of up to Rs 100 cr ($ 12 mn)
South Park Commons: Expanded to India in collaboration with Binny Bansal.
Pavestone VC: Raised INR 15 crore ($1.8 million) from Colruyt Group India.
Neo Asset Management: Closes first special credit opportunities fund at $308 million.
Unifi Capital: Announced two new funds through its subsidiary UIML at GIFT City, Gujarat.
Key Hirings and Departures
Aurm Appointed Vijay Arisetty as founder and CEO. He had founded MyGate.
hBits: Appointed Saumil Parekh, ex-Pharmeasy, as Chief Marketing Officer.
VS Mani & Co: Appointed music composer Anirudh Ravichander as co-founder and brand ambassador.
Unacademy Co-founder Hemesh Singh resigned from his post as CTO.
Layoffs
Kissflow: 45-50 employees laid off because of product shut offs and annual performance reviews. This is around 15% of the workforce.
ET Money will be acquired by 360 One_ from Times Internet for a value of ₹ 365.8 cr.
Suven Pharmaceuticals acquired 67.5% equity share capital of Sapala Organics Pvt Ltd for a consideration of ₹ 229.5 cr.
NODWIN Gaming acquired Ninja Global FZCO at a consideration of ₹ 29.8 cr.
ESOP Buyback
DeHaat did an ESOP buyback of Rs 10 cr or $1.2 mn. Buyback will benefit 153 team members
Potential Deals
82°E: Raising seed round of $6 mn
Zepto: To raise $650 mn
Purplle: Plans to raise $100 mn
boAt : In talks for fresh investment
New Launches and Financial Results
Hood launched Whistle, early health indication platform, early-stage.
Swiggy revived delivery services for grocery ‘Handpicked’
Games24x7 more than Rs 2,000 cr income in FY23.
InCred did Rs 1,267 crore revenue and Rs 316 crore PAT in FY24.
Go Digit crossed the Rs 7,000 crore revenue mark with a 5X increase in profitability in FY24.
Legal and IPO News
Pocket FM dragged Disney+ Hotstar to court for copyright infringement.
Ixigo listed one of the largest-ever IPO subscriptions, which got oversubscribed by over 98X, showing high investor interest in the travel-tech story.
Orios Venture Partners made a partial exit from Battery Smart with 29X return on investment as part of its $65 million Series B fund raise.
Overall, despite a dip in weekly funding, multiple funding activities, strategic hiring, and new product launches help keep the Indian startup ecosystem abuzz, indicating sustained confidence of investors coupled with growth potential.
