SUMMARY
Indian startups raised $58 Mn in funding across nine deals in the first week of 2024, a 35% decline from the previous week
US-based SentinelOne acquired Peak XV Partners-backed cybersecurity startup PingSafe in a cash and stock deal
Delhi NCR-based fintech unicorn MobiKwik refiled its DRHP with market regulator SEBI to raise INR 700 Cr via a fresh issue of shares
The year 2024 started on a sombre note for the Indian startup ecosystem in terms of funding, as nine startups collectively raised $58 Mn. This was a 35% decline from the $90 Mn that was raised in the last week of 2023 across 10 deals.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Jan 1 – Jan 6]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 5 Jan 2024 | Country Delight | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $20 Mn | – | Temasek, Venture Partners | |
| 4 Jan 2024 | Captain Fresh | Ecommerce | B2B | B2B | $13 Mn | – | Nekkanti Sea Foods, Shakti Finvest, Ravi Shankar Pemmasani, Shibu Mathai | |
| 4 Jan 2024 | OneCard | Fintech | Lendingtech | B2C | $11.4 Mn | Debt | Alteria Capital | |
| 4 Jan 2024 | Wiz Freight | Logistics | Supply Chain | B2B | $11.2 Mn | – | SBI Investments, Tiger Global, Nippon Express Fund, Axilor Technologies Fund | |
| 2 Jan 2024 | Settl | Real Estate Tech | Shared Spaces | B2C | $1.2 Mn | Pre-Series A | Gruhas, We Founder Circle, Anthill Ventures, IPV, ah! Ventures, Soonicorn Ventures, Awficacy Capital, Pai Ventures LLP, Nila Spaces Ltd | |
| 2 Jan 2024 | DevDham | Consumer Services | Hyperlocal Services | B2C | $721K | Seed | Titan Capital, All In Capital, Veda VC, TDV Partners | Titan Capital |
| 3 Jan 2024 | Larkai | Healthtech | Medtech | B2B | $500K | Seed | FAAD Network, QI Ventures, RTAF | |
| 4 Jan 2024 | Nawgati | Travel Tech | Transport Tech | B2B-B2C | $120K | – | GAIL | |
| 4 Jan 2024 | Maidaan | Edtech | Skill Development | B2C | – | Seed | IPV, We Founder Circle | IPV |
Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week
- Dairytech startup Country Delight is raising $20 Mn in what seems to be a bridge round from Temasek and other existing investors.
- Fuelled by Country Delight’s funding, the ecommerce sector not only emerged as the most funded sector this week with a total funding of $33 Mn funding but also recorded the most number of deal counts – two.
- Inflection Point Ventures and We Founder Circle emerged as the busiest investors as they participated in two deals each.
- This week, $1.2 Mn was raised in seed funding across three deals.
Other Major Developments From This Week
- Delhi NCR-based fintech unicorn MobiKwik refiled its DRHP with market regulator SEBI to raise INR 700 Cr via a fresh issue of shares.
- Nazara Technologies’ esports subsidiary NODWIN Gaming invested INR 33.26 Cr in Germany-based Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH via convertible note.
- Meesho’s angel investors and early institutional shareholders are mulling to sell their shares in a secondary round at a lower valuation, ranging between $3-$3.5 Bn. Meesho was last valued at around $5 Bn.
- US-based SentinelOne acquired Peak XV Partners-backed cybersecurity startup PingSafe in a cash and stock deal.
- Public listed Easy Trip Planners is going to raise up to INR 1,000 Cr (around $120 Mn) through a preferential issue.
