This past week investments in the Indian Startup Ecosystem surged by 5X. The total amount invested this week was recorded to be $756.625Mn. Bengaluru-based Electric Vehicle (EV) firm Ola Electric raised $332M in the Equity round. The B2C-modeled TravelTech startup Rapido secured $120M from WestBridge Capital. Operating in the FinTech space M2P raised $80M in debt. The B2C firm Navi Finserv managed to raise $38M.
According to Infomance Research and Data Available on Public Sources, Indian startups raised $756.625 million across 29 deals this week. This included 09 growth-stage deals totaling $663 million and 16 early-stage deals totaling $93.625 million. Additionally, there were 04 undisclosed deals, all coming in the early stage.
| INDEX | STARTUP NAME | FUNDING AMOUNT ($) | STAGE | ROUND | MODEL | CITY | SECTOR | LEAD INVESTOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | ToyStack.ai | 0.325M | Early | Pre-Seed | D2C | Bengaluru | SaaS | D. Devraj and Asit Shetty |
| 02 | Simple Energy | 20M | Early | Series A | B2C | Bengaluru | EV | Haran family, Vasavi family office |
| 03 | EMoMee | 1M | Early | Pre-Seed | B2C | Mumbai | EduTech | Whiteboard Capital, Gruhas Collective Consumer Fund, and DeVC |
| 04 | Moxie Beauty | 2M | Early | Seed | D2C | Gurugram | Beauty-Commerce | Fireside Ventures |
| 05 | KheloMore | 2M | Early | Pre-Series A | D2C | Mumbai | SportsTech | Rajdip Gupta and Ashwin Damera |
| 06 | Rapido | 120M | Growth | Series E | B2C | Bengaluru | TravelTech | WestBridge Capital |
| 07 | Latambarcem Brewers | 1.5M | Early | Pre-Series A | D2C | Goa | FMCG | SPV, Dhruv Agarwala, and Sheba Venture |
| 08 | M2P | 80M | Growth | Debt | B2C | Chennai | FinTech | Insight Partners |
| 09 | Meragi | 9.1M | Early | Series A | B2C | Bengaluru | E-Commerce | Accel |
| 10 | Gnani.ai | 4M | Early | Series A | B2C | Bengaluru | AI | Info Edge Ventures |
| 11 | ElectricPe | 3M | Early | Pre-Series A | B2C | Bengaluru | EV | Green Frontier Capital |
| 12 | BharatPe | 10M | Growth | Debt | B2B | Delhi | FinTech | Trifecta Capital and InnoVen Capital |
| 13 | Nected | 1.5M | Early | Seed | B2B | Gurugram | SaaS | Three State Ventures |
| 14 | GalaxEye | 6.5M | Early | Series A | B2B | Bengaluru | SpaceTech | Mela Ventures and Speciale Invest |
| 15 | Kinetic Green | 20M | Growth | Debt | B2C | Pune | EV | Greater Pacific Capital |
| 16 | Cogniquest | Undisclosed | Early | Seed | B2C | Bengaluru | AI | Cedar-IBSi Capital |
| 17 | Scimplify | 7M | Early | Series A | B2B | Bengaluru | ChemTech | Omnivore |
| 18 | Square Insurance | 3M | Early | Pre-Series A | B2B | Jaipur | InsurTech | Negen Capital, BizDateUp |
| 19 | Clix Capital | 26.5M | Growth | Equity Round | B2B | Delhi | FinTech | Apollo Global Management, Pramod Bhasin and Anil Chawla |
| 20 | Acculi Labs | 1.5M | Early | Seed | B2C | Bengaluru | HealthTech | Sabi Holding India Ltd. |
| 21 | Ola Electric | 332M | Growth | Equity Round | B2C | Bengaluru | EV | Anchor Investors |
| 22 | ShareChat | 16M | Growth | Debt | B2C | Bengaluru | Social Networking | EDBI |
| 23 | Navi Finserv | 38M | Growth | Debt | B2C | Bengaluru | FinTech | JP Morgan |
| 24 | Vayana Network | 20.5M | Growth | Series D | B2C | Pune | FinTech | SMBC Asia Raising Fund |
| 25 | BluPine | 28.2M | Early | Debt | B2B | Gurugram | SolarTech | Tata Capital |
| 26 | Boldfit | Undisclosed | Early | Undisclosed Round | D2C | Bengaluru | Fitness | KL Rahul |
| 27 | Game Theory | Undisclosed | Early | Undisclosed Round | D2C | Bengaluru | SportsTech | Pullela Gopichand, Saurav Ghosal and Sharath Kamal |
| 28 | Vitra.ai | Undisclosed | Early | Series A | B2B | Bengaluru | AI | India Infoline |
| 29 | Whizhack Technologies | 3M | Early | Pre-Series A | B2B | Gurugram | Cyber Security | SAAA Capital |
[Stage-Wise Analysis]
Growth Stage Deals
Among the growth-stage deals, 09 startups raised $663M in funding this week. The B2C firm Ola Electric which is headquartered in Bengaluru raised the maximum amount of funding this week. This investment was led by Anchor Investors. Second on the list was Bengaluru-based Rapido which secured $120M in the Series E round. The FinTech company M2P managed to raise $80M in debt, the investment was led by Insight Partners. The B2C-modeled Navi Finserv raised $38M from JP Morgan. Delhi-based Clix Capital secured $26.5M.
Other noticeable startups in the growth stage that managed to raise funds include Vayana Network which raised $20.5M in the Series D round. EV sectored Kinetic Green which secured $20M, Social Networkin site ShareChat which secured $16M, and FinTech firm BharatPe which raised $10M in debt.
Early Stage Deals
Subsequently, 16 early-stage startups secured funding worth $93.625M during the week. Among the early-stage startups, SolarTech firm BluPine raised the highest amount ($28.2M) in debt from Tata Capital. It was followed by Bengaluru-headquartered Simple Energy which raised $20M in the Series A round. The E-Commerce platform Meragi secured $9.1M , this investment was led by Accel. ChemTech startup Scimplify managed to raise $7M from Omnivore. SpaceTech firm GalaxEye raised $6.5M.
Other worth-mentioning early-stage startups that successfully raised funding this week include AI based Gnani.ai, Gurugram-headquartered WhizHack Technologies, InsurTech sectored Square Insurance, and B2C firm ElectricPe.
Round-Wise Analysis
The maximum number of deals (6) were done in debt and Series A rounds. Following this was the Pre-Series A round with 5 deals. There were 4 investments made as seed fundings. Rounds like Pre-Seed, Undisclosed round, and Equity rounds recorded 2 investments each. Additionally, there was a deal maed each in Series E and Series D rounds.
Business Model-Wise Analysis
Maximum deals were closed by B2C-modeled firms, the number of deals being 14. It was followed by 09 deals by B2B companies and 06 deals were secured by D2C startups.
City-Wise Analysis
Bengaluru-based startups led the funding list with 16 investments made in startups from this region. Next in the list were the Gurugram-headquartered firms with 4 deals. There were 2 funding deals made each in startups from Delhi, Pune, and Mumbai. An investment each was made in startups from Jaipur, Chennai, and Goa.
Sector-wise Analysis
Sector-wise, FinTech firms led the list with 5 investments. It was followed by Electric Vehicle (EV) based companies with 4 deals. Third on the list were Artificial Intelligence (AI) startups with 3 investments. There were 2 deals closed by SaaS and SportsTech-focused firms. An investment each was made in sectors including Cyber Security, SolarTech, Fitness, Social Networking, HealthTech, InsurTech, SpaceTech, ChemTech, E-Commerce, FMCG, TravelTech, Beauty-Commerce, and EduTech.
UNDISCLOSED DEALS
There were 4 deals recorded this week in which the amount raised remains undisclosed. This includes Fitness sectored firm Boldfit, the D2C-modeled Game Theory, the B2B startup Vitra.ai, and AI-focused Cogniquest.Interestingly, all these startups are headquartered in Bengaluru.
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Infibeam Avenues announced that it has come on common grounds for a 54% stake in Rediff.com India, one of India’s oldest and most renowned internet businesses. This acquisition marks marks a significant milestone for Infibeam Avenues, marking the beginning of its consumer-facing digital financial service as an aggregator backed by a mainstream news, cloud-based enterprise email storage, and collaboration platform.
SaveDesk which offers cross-border payment solutions for international money transfers has acquired a 90% stake in Fairexpay to strengthen its FinTech arm. The acquisition will enable SaveDesk to expand its footprint in the cross-border remittance and fund collection market.
Nazara Technologies’ mobile gaming arm, Next Wave Multimedia, has acquired the intellectual property rights of Ultimate Teen Patti from Games24x7 for ₹10 crore. Ultimate Teen Patti is a popular online version of the traditional Indian card game. The acquisition aims to expand Next Wave Multimedia’s offerings in the casual freemium gaming space, enhancing its portfolio with a well-known title. This strategic move aligns with Nazara’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its position in the gaming industry.
MANAGEMENT DEPARTURE & LAYOFFS
Hero Vired ropes in Prakhar Kasar as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO ). Backed by over 16 years of experience, Kasar began his professional journey with Pepsico India, as a management trainee. Kasar was brought on at a time when the learn tech platform, which is a part of the Hero Group, was trying to expand its reach and impact in the online education space.
CoinDCX, the crypto currency-focused firm has elevated Mridul Gupta as its founding partner. With this new role, Gupta will be responsible for meeting the company’s growth goals, focusing on international expansion, building teams, and driving profitability. In addition, he will continue to be responsible for the Indian market, strengthening the firm’s product portfolio, marketing, partnerships, and operations to accelerate its growth in the country.
E-commerce platform Meesho has brought on board four new independent directors: Hari S Bhartia, founder and co-chairman of Jubilant Bhartia group; Kalpana Morparia, former chairman for South and Southeast Asia at JP Morgan; Rohit Bhagat, former chairman for Asia Pacific at BlackRock and Surojit Chatterjee, founder and chief executive of the generative AI firm Ema.
After dedicating 5.7 years to growing Metadome.ai, formerly Adloid Technologies, the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer Mr. Prashant Sinha is leaving to embark on a new venture in the technology sector.
VC Fund Launched
Venture debt firm Trifecta Capital is gearing up to raise ₹2,000Cr, or $240 million, with its fourth fund, including a greenshoe of ₹500Cr. The fund will invest across sectors, consciously avoiding risky sectors such as cryptocurrencies, gaming, and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending.
Gemba Capital launches a second fund of ₹250Cr to invest in platform-first businesses over the next three years. The second fund will invest in nearly 30 early-stage platform-first businesses across three focus sectors – fintech, consumer tech, and B2B platforms with a first cheque of ₹5Cr and a 30% reserve ratio for making follow-on investments.
