This week, 22 Indian startups raised around $162.98 million, comprising 6 growth-stage and 16 early-stage deals.
In contrast, 14 startups had collectively secured about $105.08 million in the previous week.
[Growth-stage deals]
Growth-stage startups raised $120.3 million across six deals this week, led by Mozark which secured $40 million in a Series B round led by International Finance Corporation. Captain Fresh followed with Rs 290 crore in sustainability-linked financing from Blue Earth Capital. Mosaic Wellness raised Rs 200 crore ($21 million) from 360 ONE Asset, with partial exit for early investor Spring Marketing Capital. KaarTech also secured $11 million from Playbook Partners, while Skye Air Mobility and AquaExchange raised funds during the week.
[Early-stage deals]
Early-stage startups raised $29.05 million across 16 deals this week. Newtrace led the activity with $6.3 million in a pre-Series A round from HDFC Bank and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital. Coreworks.AI secured $5 million in a seed round led by Together Fund, while Namma Yatri raised Rs 39.75 crore ($4.4 million) in a pre-Series A extension led by Vimal Kumar. Other startups that raised funds include Boba Bhai, Aditi Toys, Verdant Impact and DrinkPrime.
For a detailed funding breakdown, visitTheKredible.
[City and segment-wise deals]
Bengaluru topped the city-wise deal count with 9 deals, followed by Delhi-NCR which secured 5 deals. Mumbai, Chennai, Thane, Vijayawada, Jaipur and others also recorded deals this week.
Segment-wise, F&B startups led the week with four deals, followed by AI startups, which bagged two deals. SaaS, agritech, fintech, e-commerce and other sectors also recorded funding activity during the period.
[Series-wise deals]
This week seed deals led the funding with 6 deals each, followed by Series B and pre-Series A with 5 deals and 4 deals each. Series A, Series C, pre-seed, Series F and others also recorded deals.
[Week-on-week funding trend]
On a weekly basis, startup funding increased 55% to $162.98 million as compared to around $105.08 million raised during the previous week.
The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $346.6 million with 30 deals per week.
[Key Hirings]
Key leadership moves this week: Practo appointed C. K. Mishra as independent director, while Gupshup named Ravi Dugar as CFO. Slice appointed Sreedevi Pillai as independent director, while Housing.com named Aditya Singh Sandhu as CRO and Cleartrip appointed Pallavi Saxena as CMRO. Daimler Truck Innovation Center India appointed Radhakrishnan Kodakkal as MD & CEO, while TechnoSport named Achal Sharma as CTO and Altimetrik appointed Dhirendra Nath as CHRO.
[Mergers & Acquisitions]
CARS24 has acquired Vehicle Info as the company aims to build a full-stack vehicle ownership platform. In another development, Eat App has acquired ReserveGo, which serves more than 1,500 restaurant brands.
[Layoffs]
Dream Sports, the parent of Dream11, has reorganised its operations following regulatory challenges in the real-money gaming (RMG) sector, leading to the exit of more than 100 executives.
[ESOP Buyback]
Higher-education embedded training and employability platform Emversity has bought back employee stock options worth Rs 6.5 crore from 20 employees as part of a liquidity programme.
[New Launches and Partnerships]
▪️ RateGain partners with Juspay to power embedded payments platform
▪️ Satchmo Foods launches ready-to-cook staple range
▪️ Garuda Aerospace partners with Airbus to develop advanced global drone solutions
▪️ Whatfix launches AI roleplay training capability on its Mirror platform
[Financial result this week]
[News flash this week]
▪️ NSE appoints 20 bankers, 8 law firms for long-awaited IPO
▪️ Revised FDI policy likely reopen Chinese funding for Indian startups
▪️ Dhan crosses 1 Mn users mark in Feb; Groww continues to lead stockbroking space
▪️ Warburg Pincus-backed Truhome Finance files DRHP for Rs 3,000 Cr IPO
▪️ PhonePe continues to rule UPI transactions with over 45% market share in Feb
[Summary]
On a weekly basis, startup funding increased 55% to $162.98 million as compared to around $105.08 million raised during the previous week.
National Stock Exchange of India has appointed a consortium of 20 merchant bankers and eight law firms for its long-awaited IPO. The move marks the highest number of book-running managers for a public issue on Dalal Street, with advisors such as Kotak Mahindra Capital, ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, JM Financial, IIFL Capital Services, SBI Capital Markets, Avendus Capital, Nuvama Wealth Management, along with global banks Morgan Stanley India, Citigroup Global Markets India and J.P. Morgan India.
The Union Cabinet of India has approved amendments to India’s FDI policy for countries sharing land borders with India, including China, in a move aimed at easing funding access for startups and deep-tech firms. The decision, chaired by Narendra Modi, revises provisions introduced under Press Note 3 (2020), which mandated government approval for investments from entities based in such countries or where the beneficial owner was located there.
India’s retail broking industry saw moderate growth in February as active users rose by over 3.5 lakh to 4.54 crore. Groww led additions with 2.65 lakh new clients, while Dhan crossed 1 million users after adding 19,000. Zerodha and Angel One each added over 10,000 clients. Groww’s user base rose 2.13% MoM to around 1.27 crore, taking its market share to 28.03%, according to National Stock Exchange of India data.
Truhome Finance has filed its DRHP with Securities and Exchange Board of India to raise Rs 3,000 crore through an IPO, comprising a fresh issue of Rs 1,500 crore and an OFS of Rs 1,500 crore by promoter Mango Crest Investment Limited.
PhonePe continued to dominate India’s UPI ecosystem among third-party apps in February with 45.5% share by volume and 48.8% by value, processing 9.28 billion transactions worth Rs 13.1 lakh crore, according to National Payments Corporation of India data, while Google Pay and Paytm retained the second and third spots.