This past week investments in Indian Startups surged by a significant margin of 45.01%. The total amount invested this week was $272.39M. The consumer services provider operating in the B2C space, the Urban Company raised the maximum money in the Secondary round. The amount infused in the firm was $50M. The Mumbai-headquartered firm Auxilo Finserv secured $30M in Equity round. This investment was led by LeapFrog Investments. Among the early-stage startups, the D2C-modeled Newme raised the highest amount of funds ($18M), led by Accel.
According to Infomance Research and Data Available on Public Sources, Indian startups raised $272.39 million across 32 deals this week. This included 09 growth-stage deals totaling $160.8 million and 19 early-stage deals totaling $111.59 million. Additionally, there were 03 undisclosed rounds, predominantly in the early stage.
| INDEX | STARTUP NAME | FUNDING AMOUNT ($) | STAGE | ROUND | MODEL | CITY | SECTOR | LEAD INVESTOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | UptimeAI | 14M | Early | Series A | B2B | Bengaluru | AI | WestBridge Capital |
| 02 | Perpetuity Capital | 0.9M | Early | Debt | B2C | Kolkata | FinTech | N+1 Capital and RevX Capital |
| 03 | SkinInspired | 1.33M | Early | Seed | B2C | Udaipur | Beauty-Commerce | Unilever Ventures |
| 04 | Validus | Undisclosed | Early | Seed | B2B | Hyderabad | FinTech | AUM Ventures |
| 05 | Namma Yatri | 11M | Early | Pre-Series A | B2C | Bengaluru | Transportation | Blume Venutres and Antler |
| 06 | Frendy | 0.23M | Early | Debt | B2C | Ahmedabad | E-Commerce | UC Inclusive Credit |
| 07 | Boon | 5M | Early | Series A | B2B | Gurugram | WaterTech | Spanish Roca Group Ventures |
| 08 | Multipl | 1.5M | Early | Seed | B2C | Bengaluru | FinTech | Blume Ventures and MIXI Global Investments |
| 09 | Icanheal | 1.17M | Early | Seed | B2C | Mumbai | HealtTech | IvyCap Ventures |
| 10 | Ninecamp Ventures | 2M | Early | Seed | D2C | Delhi | FMCG | Mohit Gupta and Gaurav Gupta |
| 11 | Corvi LED Light | 8M | Growth | Series B | D2C | Mumbai | EnergyTech | Enam Investments |
| 12 | Seeds Fincap | 8.5M | Early | Series A | B2C | Gurugram | FinTech | Lok Capital, Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) |
| 13 | OmniCard | 3M | Early | Pre-Series A | B2C | Noida | FinTech | Ankurit Capital and Taisys of Taiwan |
| 14 | byteXL | 5.9M | Early | Series A | B2C | Hyderabad | EduTech | Kalaari Capital |
| 15 | FreshBus | 5.3M | Early | Series A | D2C | Bengaluru | Transportation | Maniv Mobility |
| 16 | Newme | 18M | Early | Series A | D2C | Bengaluru | E-Commerce | Accel |
| 17 | MyPickup | 0.12M | Early | Seed | B2C | Bengaluru | EV | Inflection Point Ventures |
| 18 | Honestly | 0.34M | Early | Pre-Seed | B2B | Delhi | SaaS | Better Capital |
| 19 | LensKart | 20M | Growth | Secondary Round | D2C | Gurugram | E-Commerce | Peyush Bansal, Neha Bansal and Amit Chaudhary |
| 20 | Fibr | 1.8M | Early | Seed | B2C | Bengaluru | AI | Accel |
| 21 | Slice | 7.8M | Growth | Debt | B2C | Bengaluru | FinTech | Neo Asset Management |
| 22 | Aereo | 15M | Growth | Series B | B2B | Bengaluru | DroneTech | 360 ONE Asset |
| 23 | Bitscale | Undisclosed | Early | Maiden Round | B2B | Gurugram | SaaS | India Quotient’s First Cheque |
| 24 | Blacksoil Group | 25M | Growth | Debt | B2B | Mumbai | FinTech | HNIs, Ultra HNIs and Family Offices |
| 25 | Pintel.ai | 1M | Early | Seed | B2C | Noida | AI | IvyCap Ventures |
| 26 | Urban Company | 50M | Growth | Secondary Round | B2C | Gurugram | Consumer Services | Dharana Capital |
| 27 | Auxilo Finserv | 30M | Growth | Equity Round | B2C | Mumbai | FinTech | LeapFrog Investments |
| 28 | BluSmart | 24M | Growth | Pre-Series B | B2C | Gurugram | EV | Responsibility Investments and MS Dhoni’s Family Office |
| 29 | Nurture Well | 6M | Growth | Private Round | D2C | Noida | FMCG | India Inflection Opportunity Fund (IIFO) |
| 30 | Lifetime Health | 1.5M | Early | Seed | B2C | Bengaluru | HealthTech | The Garage Syndicate |
| 31 | Getepay | 4M | Early | Angel | B2B | Jaipur | FinTech | Virender Sehwag |
| 32 | Abhay HealthTech | Undisclosed | Early | Angel | D2C | Gurugram | HealthTech | Vindu Dara Singh |
[Stage-Wise Analysis]
- Growth Stage Deals
Among the growth-stage deals, 09 startups raised $160.8Mn in funding this week. The Gurguram-headquartered UrbanCompany secured the maximum funding this week. The amount raised was $50M, and the deal was led by Dharana Capital. Operating in the FinTech sector Auxilo Finserv managed to raise $30M. Mumbai-based The Blacksoil Group secured $25M in debt round. EV startup BluSmart secured $24M in the Pre-Series B round. The D2C firm LensKart raised $20M in the Secondary Round.
Other startups in the growth stage that managed to raise funds this week include EnergyTech Corvi LED Light which raised $8M, and the Bengaluru-based Aereo which secured $15M in a Series B round. Slice secured $7.8M from Neo Asset Management and Nurture Well raised $6M in a private round.
Early Stage Deals
Subsequently, 19 early-stage startups secured funding worth $111.59M during the week. Among the early-stage startups, the E-Commerce startup Newme raised the highest amount i.e. $18M, this investment was led by Accel. It was followed by B2B firm Uptime AI which raised $14M in Series A round. Third on the list was Bengaluru-based Namma Yatri with $11M secured in the Pre-Series A round. The FinTech startup Seeds Fincap managed a fund of $8.5M in a Series A round. The WaterTech firm Boon secured $5M in the Series A round.
Some noticeable investments among early-stage startups include the Kolkata-based Perpetuity Capital, Transportation-sectored NewBus, Hyderabad-headquartered Validus, and Fintech sectored Getepay.
Round-Wise Analysis
Among the 32 deals done this week, the maximum number of deals (9) were done in the Seed round. There were 6 deals made each in Series A. It was followed by Debt round which recorded 4 deals. Two investments each were made in Series B, Pre-Series A, Angel, and Secondary rounds. Additionally, there was a deal closed in rounds like Pre-Series B, Private, Equity, Maiden, and Pre-Seed.
Business Model-Wise Analysis
Maximum deals were closed by B2C-modeled firms, the number of deals being 17. It was followed by 08 deals by B2B companies and 07 deals were secured by D2C startups. 
City-Wise Analysis
Bengaluru-based startups led the list by closing in on 10 deals, followed by 7 deals from Gurgram-headquartered companies. There were 4 investments made in firms from Mumbai. It was followed by 3 deals closed by Noida-based firms. There were 2 fundings each secured by companies having bases in Hyderabad and Delhi. Kolkata, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur-headquartered startups closed in on a deal each. 
Sector-wise Analysis
Sector-wise, the maximum number of deals (9) were secured by brands operating in the FinTech sector. Other than this there was no significant separation to be noticed in the number of deals secured among different sectors. There were 3 investments made in sectors like AI, E-Commerce, and HealthTech. Sectors such as SaaS, EV, FMCG, and Transportation closed in on 2 deals each. Additionally, investment was made in beauty-commerce, watertech, energytech, edutech, drone-tech, and consumer services. 
UNDISCLOSED DEALS
There were 3 deals this week in which the amount remains undisclosed. All of them come from early-stage startups. This includes Gurugram firm Abhay HealthTech which raised an angel investment from Vindu Dara Singh. The Software as a Space(SaaS) company Bitscale also raised a funding round in which the amount remains undisclosed. The investment was led by India Quotient’s First Cheque. Lastly, the B2B-modeled Validus raised an undisclosed amount of money in the Seed round, AUM Ventures led the deal.
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
The esports and gaming firm Nazara Technologies Ltd. announced the acquisition of an additional 48.42% stake in Paper Boat Apps Pvt. Ltd. (PBA) from its promoters Anupam and Anshu Dhanuka for ₹300 crore to be paid in cash in tranches to take its ownership in PBA to 100%. This step will allow Nazara to benefit from healthy cash flows that can be reinvested for organic as well as inorganic growth.
India’s leading new media company Collective Artists Network which focuses on pop culture announced the acquisition of AI-based influencer marketing analytics and content management platform, Galleri5. It is at the forefront of AI-powered content solutions and influencer marketing technology.
MANAGEMENT DEPARTURE & LAYOFFS
Wealth-tech startup Fisdom has appointed Girish Venkat as the head of its wealth management business. Venkat has nearly 30 years of experience in wealth management, broking, and banking. According to Fisdom, Venkat pioneered wealth management in PSU banks in the country. Venkat has earlier served as the head of SBI Wealth.
The prominent logistics unicorn, Delhivery has appointed Prashant Gazipur as its new senior Vice President for operations. Gazipur will focus on capacity building and optimizing pickup and delivery operations. This strategic move highlights the firm’s commitment to enhance operational efficiency.
Early-stage venture capital (VC) firm Orios Venture Partners has onboarded former Omidyar Network India executive Madhav Tandan as a senior partner. Tandan brings in over 11 years of investing experience and oversaw Omidyar’s investments in DealShare, FarMart, CityMall, IDfy, IntrCity, Spyne, and Tazapay.
Blackstone-backed edtech startup Simplilearn chief product officer (CPO) Anand Narayanan has resigned, a few months after the firm rejigged the leadership team to scale up operations with new appointments.
Unacademy, the edutech giant has elevated Jagnoor Singh as a chief operating officer (COO) of its offline centers business. The reorganization comes in a series of top-deck changes at the Bengaluru-based startup that focuses on test preparation as a segment, largely offline now.
VC Fund Launched
The former partner at 9Unicorns (now 100Unicorns) namely Raghav Bahl- former investment head of Alibaba Group India and Sohnam Avlani have officially launched their venture capital firm PROMAFT Partners. The firm unveiled its inaugural fund valued at ₹1000Cr, aimed at investing in proven product-market fit startups.
Deep-tech-focused venture fund Yali Capital on Monday announced the launch of its maiden fund with a target corpus of ₹810 crore, including a greenshoe option of ₹310 crore.
Altern Capital has launched its maiden SEBI-approved Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) named JIRAAF AU INDIA REAL ESTATE FUND – I (JIREF I). The target size of this fund is ₹250 cr, with an additional greenshoe option of ₹100 cr.
Defense startup-focused early-stage venture firm Jamwant Ventures marked the first close of its angel fund this week. This is the first investment vehicle of the firm that has been co-founded by former Indian Navy officers Kartik Gopal and Navneet Kaushik. The amount raised remains undisclosed.
