SUMMARY
Indian startups raised $133 Mn across 18 funding deals, a decline of 71% week-on-week
Peyush Bansal’s Lenskart acquired AI-powered computer vision startup Tango Eye for an undisclosed amount.
Karnataka-based precision manufacturing startup Aequs raised $54 Mn in a funding round led by Amansa Capital, making it the biggest funding deal this week
After witnessing a V-shaped rebound in terms of startup funding last month, November kicked off on a sombre note. In the first week of the eleventh month of 2023, the startup ecosystem secured $133 Mn in funding across 18 deals, marking a significant 71% decrease from the $466 Mn raised in the previous week.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Oct 30 – Nov 4]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 30 Oct 2023 | Aequs | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $54 Mn | – | Amansa Capital, Steadview Capital, Catamaran, family office of N. R. Narayana Murthy, Sparta Group, Amicus Capital | Amansa Capital |
| 30 Oct 2023 | Skyroot Aerospace | Deeptech | Spacetech | B2B | $27.5 Mn | Pre-Series C | Temasek | Temasek |
| 31 Oct 2023 | Vridhi Home Finance | Fintech | Lendigntech | B2B-B2C | $18 Mn | Series A | Elevation Capital | Elevation Capital |
| 31 Oct 2023 | Sugar.fit | Healhtech | Fitness & Wellness | B2C | $11 Mn | Series A | Cure.fit, Tanglin Venture Partners, Endiya Partners | |
| 2 Nov 2023 | Fibmold | Enterprisetech | Enterprise Services | B2B | $10 Mn | – | Omnivore, Accel | |
| 2 Nov 2023 | Growcoms | Agritech | Market Linkage | B2B | $3.5 Mn | – | JSW Ventures, Arali Ventures, InfoEdge Ventures | |
| 30 Oct 2023 | Sweet Karam Coffee | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $1.5 Mn | – | Fireside Ventures | |
| 31 Oct 2023 | Infurnia | Real Estate Tech | Real Estate SaaS | B2B | $1.2 Mn | – | Yogesh Choudary | |
| 30 Oct 2023 | Funstop Games | Media & Entertainment | Gaming | B2C | $1.5 Mn | – | Info Edge Ventures | Info Edge Ventures |
| 1 Nov 2023 | The 1% Club | Edtech | Skill Development | B2C | $1.2 Mn | Pre-Series A | Gruhas | |
| 1 Nov 2023 | Mikro Grafeio | Real Estate Tech | Shared Spaces | B2B | $1.2 Mn | Pre-Series A | ||
| 2 Nov 2023 | FroGo | Ecommerce | B2C Ecommerce | B2C | $1.15 Mn | Seed | IPV, Ritesh Agarwal, Ankit Nagori, Desai Ventures, FAAD Network | IPV |
| 31 Oct 2023 | Fresh Bus | Travel Tech | Transportech | B2C | $901K | Seed | Kunal Shah, Sudarshan Venu, Deepak Garg | |
| 1 Nov 2023 | Klassroom Edutech | Edtech | Edtech SaaS | B2B | $450K | – | ah! Ventures | |
| 3 Nov 2023 | Bull Agritech | Agritech | Market Linkage | B2B-B2C | $100K | Seed | PedalStart | |
| 3 Nov 2023 | Backlight Studio Works | Media & Entertainment | Gaming | B2C | – | – | Udyat Ventures, Manish Agarwal, Polygon Ventures, Dexter Ventures | |
| 31 Oct 2023 | Fruitfal | Agritech | Market Linkage | B2B | – | – | India Accelerator | |
| 1 Nov 2023 | MyEra | Enterprisetech | Vertical SaaS | – | – | EvolveX | ||
| Source: Inc42 *Part of a larger round Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included |
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Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week
- Karnataka-based precision manufacturing startup Aequs raised $54 Mn in a funding round led by Amansa Capital, making it the biggest funding deal of the week.
- Fuelled by Aequs funding, the enterprisetech sector emerged as the most funded sector this week, raising $64 Mn across three deals.
- The enterprisetech and agritech sector witnessed the most number of deals – three each. While enterprisetech startups bagged $64Mn, startups in the agritech sector raised $3.6 Mn.
- Seed funding continued to see a decline this week as well. In the first week of November, seed funding stood at $2.1 Mn across three deals
Startup Acquisitions This Week
- Cloud kitchen startup Curefoods acquired foodtech startup Yumlane for an undisclosed amount.
- Peyush Bansal’s Lenskart acquired AI-powered computer vision startup Tango Eye for an undisclosed amount.
- Angel One acquired the team of Bengaluru-based learning app Dstreet Finance
Other Major Developments From This Week
- Healthtech unicorn PharmEasy recently conducted an INR 3,500 Cr rights issue that was oversubscribed, claimed cofounder Dhaval Shah.
- Java Capital closed its INR 50 Cr fund, with participation from startup founders and HNIs located in India, the Middle East, and the United States.
- Anicut Capital received a commitment of over INR 30 Cr from HDFC AMC’s Fund of Fund, with possible additional allocation in the near future.
- Kratos Studios earmarked INR 50 Cr grant for Kratos Games Network to encourage gaming studios to migrate their games to its blockchain platform.
- JSW Ventures divested its stake in ecommerce unicorn Purplle by selling it to Manipal Education and Medical Group Family Office (MEMG)
