This week investments in Indian startups experienced a significant decline of 48.99% with a total of $384.35mn raised across 28 deals which marks a notable contraction compared to the previous week.
Among the key investments are FirstCry, Visit Health, and Neo. A leading E-commerce startup, FirstCry, raised the highest capital this week i.e., $216 million, while Visit Health, a HealthTech Startup based in Gurugram raised a total of $30mn in its Growth stage led by Docprime Technologies and Neo, a B2C modeled Fintech startup secured $26.5mn in a Series B round with funding led by Crystal Investment. Together, these 3 companies account for approximately 70.91% of the total investment this week.
| INDEX | STARTUP NAME | FUNDING AMOUNT ($) | STAGE | ROUND | MODEL | CITY | SECTOR | LEAD INVESTOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Neo | 26.5M | Growth | Series-B | B2C | Mumbai | FinTech | Crystal Investment |
| 02 | Country Delight | 8.45M | Growth | Debt | D2C | Gurugram | FMCG | Alteria Capital |
| 03 | CURRYiT | 0.5M | Early | Seed | D2C | Delhi | FoodTech | RK Family Trust of Apollo Group |
| 04 | Agrizy | 9.8M | Early | Series A | B2B | Bengaluru | AgriTech | Accion and Omnivore |
| 05 | Neuron Energy | 2.5M | Early | Series A | B2C | Mumbai | EV | Chona Family Office and Capri Global Family |
| 06 | Unicommerce Esolutions Ltd | 15M | Growth | Equity Round | B2B | Gurugram | E-Commerce | Anchor investors |
| 07 | Hyperbots | 2M | Early | Seed | B2B | Bengaluru | AI | Kalaari Capital |
| 08 | IppoPay | Undisclosed | Early | Angel Round | B2B | Chennai | FinTech | Mithun Sacheti and Siddhartha Sacheti |
| 09 | EtherealX | 5M | Early | Seed | B2B | Bengaluru | SpaceTech | YourNest |
| 10 | Punch | 7M | Early | Seed | B2C | Mumbai | FinTech | Stellaris Venture Partners, Innoven Capital |
| 11 | Burma Burma | 2M | Early | Equity Round | D2C | Mumbai | FMCG | Negen Capital |
| 12 | FirstCry | 216M | Growth | Undisclosed Round | B2C | Pune | E-Commerce | SBI Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and Goldman Sachs |
| 13 | Juleo | 2.5M | Early | Angel Round | B2C | Delhi | AI | Ramakant Sharma, Kunal Shah |
| 14 | VisitHealth | 30M | Growth | Secondary Round | B2C | Gurugram | HealthTech | Docprime Technologies |
| 15 | SigTuple | 4M | Growth | Series-C | B2C | Bengaluru | MedTech | SIDBI Venture Capital |
| 16 | Kindlife.in | 8M | Early | Series-A | B2B | Gurugram | Beauty-Commerce | JB-Dooeun TK Fund and MIXI Global Investments |
| 17 | Cellivate Technologies | 1M | Early | Seed | B2B | Singapore | BioTech | Antler |
| 18 | FINQY | 2M | Early | Seed | B2B | Mumbai | FinTech | Angel Bay India Accelerator |
| 19 | Karma Primary Healthcare | 1.3M | Early | Series-A | B2C | Hyderabad | HealthTech | UBS Optimus Foundation |
| 20 | BlueBinaries | 7.2M | Growth | Undisclosed Round | B2C | Chennai | AutoTech | Anicut Capital |
| 21 | Metadome.ai (formerly Adloid) | 6.5M | Early | Series-A | B2C | Gurugram | AI | Siana Capital and Chiratae Ventures |
| 22 | Blitzscale Technology | 7.85M | Growth | Series-B | B2C | Bengaluru | E-Commerce | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 23 | Aukera | 3.1M | Early | Series-A | B2C | Bengaluru | FashionTech | Fireside Ventures |
| 24 | FlexiBees | Undisclosed | Early | Pre-series A | B2C | Mumbai | Social Networking | Inflection Point Ventures |
| 25 | BiofuelCircle | 5.3M | Early | Series A | B2C | Pune | Renewable Energy | Spectrum Impact |
| 26 | Scimplify | 9.5M | Early | Series A | B2B | Bengaluru | ChemTech | Omnivore |
| 27 | Oneiric11 Gaming | 1M | Early | Pre-series A | B2C | Chandigarh | Gaming | NG Family Trust and TAC Holdings |
| 28 | NuvoRetail | 0.35M | Early | Seed | B2B | Delhi | E-Commerce | Undisclosed Investor |
[Stage-Wise Analysis]
Early-Stage Deals
In early-stage funding news, a total of 18 startups collectively raised $69.35 million. This included Agrizy, an AgriTech startup based in Bangalore, which secured the largest investment of $9.8 million. Following closely was Scimplify, a ChemTech startup, which raised $9.5 million in a series A round.
Additionally, Kindlife.in, a B2B-focused beauty commerce enterprise, successfully raised substantial funding of $8 million led by JB-Dooeun TK Fund and MIXI Global Investments. Other noteworthy early-stage startups that secured investments were Punch, a FinTech startup, and EtherealX, a Bengaluru-based SpaceTech company, which raised $7 million and $5 million respectively in their seed rounds.
Growth Stage Deals
Subsequently, in the growth-stage deals, a total of 8 startups raised significant funding where leading the pack was FirstCry with $216 million, followed by Visit Health with $30 million, and Neo which garnered $26.5 million.
Unicommerce, a Gurugram-headquartered e-commerce startup, raised $15 million in an equity round led by anchor investors. In addition, Country Delight, a direct-to-consumer model FMCG startup, secured $8.45 million in debt funding.
Furthermore, Bengaluru-based Blitzscale Technology completed a Series B round, raising $7.85 million. According to Infomance Research and data available on public sources, growth-stage startups collectively raised a significant value of $315 million this week.
Round-Wise Analysis
Considering all the deals closed this week, the Series A round, featuring a total of 8 deals emerged as the most prevalent investment stage, closely followed by the Seed round with 7 deals. Additionally, there were 2 deals each in the Undisclosed, Equity, Angel, Pre-Series A, and Series-B rounds, whereas, the Debt, Secondary, and Series-C rounds saw the fewest deals made i.e., 1 highlighting a diverse range of investment activities across different stages.
Business Model-Wise Analysis
The B2C model emerged as the most dominant, securing 15 deals and significantly outpacing other business models in terms of deal volume, closely followed by the B2B model, with 10 deals closed, demonstrating substantial traction in the market.
The D2C model, while exhibiting growth potential with 3 deals concluded, constituted a smaller segment representing 10.71% of the total deal share, indicating a small surge in the percentage of companies selling directly to consumers without intermediaries and bypassing traditional retail channels.
Sector-wise Analysis
This week, Fintech and e-commerce emerged as the most sought-after sectors, closing 4 deals each, while AI saw 3 investments. FMCG and HealthTech attracted investor interest with 2 deals each. Some other sectors that received attention included EV, SpaceTech, Renewable Energy, Social Networking, Fashion Tech, Auto Tech, and Med Tech, with each sector represented by a single deal.
City-wise Analysis
The largest number of investments were observed in Bengaluru with 7 investments, accounting for nearly 25% of the total deals finalized. This was followed by 6 deals in Mumbai, 5 deals in Gurugram and 3 in Delhi. Additionally, investments were also made in other cities such as Chennai, Pune, and Hyderabad.
Undisclosed deals
This week saw 2 undisclosed deals with Chennai-based FinTech, Ippo Pay, and social networking startup Flexi Bees.
Mergers and Acquisitions
To boost its core gaming business, India’s only listed gaming company, Nazara Technologies Ltd acquired UK-based Fusebox Games in a ₹228 crore deal, while, Instawork, a US-based leading flexible work app for local and hourly professionals acquired Bengaluru-based Able Jobs, marking its first acquisition in India.
In the entertainment space, the parent company of FM radio brand ‘Radio Mirchi,’ Entertainment Network India Limited (ENIL), acquired Times Internet and Tencent-backed music streaming platform Gaana for ₹25 lakh. This acquisition is part of Times Internet’s ongoing asset sell-off, amid the split of Times Group assets between Samir and Vineet Jain.
To deepen its presence in the gaming and esports media publishing sector in the US region, the parent company of Sportskeeda, Absolute Sports acquired the assets of US Gaming Content Platform DeltiasGaming.com in an all-cash consideration of USD 900K (around INR 7.5 crore).
The Fashion-startup ecosystem saw the acquisition of ready-to-wear saree brand, Isadoralife by the D2C ethnic fashion brand, Shobitam, to further strengthen ethnic fashion globally.
In a move to drive innovation in the EV segment and broaden its global reach, Exicom Tele-systems Limited, India’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicle chargers announced the acquisition of the global leader in DC Fast Chargers, Tritium group of companies by its subsidiary Exicom Power Solutions B.V. Netherlands.
Additionally, Apax Digital Fund II, a private equity fund managed by the global PE firm Apax Partners, acquired a 52.1% stake in Bengaluru-headquartered greytHR, a Cloud-based HRMS and Payroll software company, through an undisclosed strategic investment.
Management Departure & Layoffs
The quick commerce arm of leading food and grocery delivery firm Swiggy, Swiggy Instamart, appointed IIM-Bangalore Sairam Krishnamurthy as the firm’s senior vice president and chief operating officer. In contrast, in a strategic move to strengthen the company’s leadership, Core Integra, a leading HR, Labour Law Compliance, and Reg Tech company appointed Ramesh Padmanabhan as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Founded by former Uber and Glovo executive Utsav Agarwal in 2021, Evenflow, an e-commerce roll-up firm, elevated Shashank Ranjan as its co-founder. Ranjan joined EvenFlow in 2022 as the head of sourcing and has worked with brands like Udaan, Decathlon, and Tata Steel.
In an executive shuffle, e-commerce giant Flipkart appointed Ramesh Gururaja as SVP of Consumer Product after a similar rejig took place in its sister companies- Myntra, Shopsy, and Cleartrip.
An Arjun Gupta founded energy efficiency enterprise, Smart Joules appointed former Director and Entrepreneur in Residence at GreyOrange Pvt. Ltd, Gaurav Kejriwal as Chief of Product and Technology Officer in a move to enhance their innovation in automation, IoT, and artificial intelligence.
In a notable exit this week, Manish Tiwary, country manager for Amazon India, stepped down, ending an eight-year association with the global e-commerce major.
In response to ongoing financial pressures, two prominent Bangalore-based startups, BeepKart and ShareChat, announced significant workforce reductions. Founded in 2020 by Hemir Doshi and Abhishek Saraf, BeepKart, an online platform specializing in the sale of pre-owned two-wheelers, laid off over 100 employees as part of a major downsizing effort, affecting more than 20% of the workforce.
Concurrently, ShareChat, a popular social media platform, reduced its workforce by 5% amid strategic financial adjustments, including securing an additional $16 million in debt financing from EDBI, a Singapore-based fund as part of a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).
VC Fund Launched
The venture capital space witnessed the final close of Sauce VC’s third fund, raising $43 million to support early-stage consumer brands. Meanwhile, a new fund has been launched by Panomath Capital Management, targeting opportunities in the mid-market segment.
Additionally, a new quant fund has been introduced, focusing on data-driven investment strategies within the Indian market. These developments highlight the dynamic and evolving nature of the venture capital landscape as firms continue to pursue innovative investment opportunities.
