From Even Healthcare To Healthify – Indian Startups Raised $145 Mn This Week

After a rise in funding activity across the Indian startup ecosystem, investor interest again went down again in the past week. Between October 21 and 26, startups cumulatively raised $145.5 Mn across 10 deals, a 70% decline from $478 Mn raised in the preceding week.

Moreover, the deal count also went down sharply this week by about 65% from last week’s 29 deals.

It is pertinent to note that investor interest in the startup ecosystem has been volatile since the past month or so. The volatility comes as a result of the dearth in the mega funding deals. The month of October has seen only one mega funding round materialise with Eruditus securing $150 Mn last week. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Oct 21 – Oct 26 ]

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• Healthttech startup Even Healthcare bagged the biggest cheque of the week, raising $30 Mn in its Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, along with Founders Fund, 8VC and Lachy Groom.
• On the back of Even Healthcare’s fundraise, healthtech emerged as the investor favourite startup sector this week. Besides, Healthify (formerly Healthifyme) also raised $20 Mn in its pre-Series D funding round.
• Ecommerce sector saw the highest number of rounds materialise this week as it witnessed a fresh capital infusion of $10.4 Mn across 4 deals.
• Khosla Ventures emerged as the most active investor this week, backing Even Healthcare and Healthify.
• Seed funding plunged this week to $126K as compared to $26.5 Mn raised by startups at this level.

Mergers & Acquisitions This Week

• FirstCry’s rollup brand GlobalBees has invested INR 4.5 Cr in its subsidiary Dynamic IT Solution to acquire more stake in the company. Dynamic IT Solution builds sports & fitness accessories and other sports and fitness products under the brand name Strauss.
• While announcing its financial results for Q2 FY25, Zomato said that it has received its board’s nod to acquire an 8% stake in innovative kitchen appliances maker Byondnxt.
• Online travel aggregator announced the acquisition of 51% stake in train food delivery platform Zoop Web Services Pvt Ltd for INR 12.54 Cr this week.

Fund Launches This Week

• Venture capital firm Avaana Capital marked the final close of its early stage fund at $135 Mn. Via the fund, it plans to back 20-25 startups in the cleantech space.
• Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal led Titan Capital marked the final close of its new fund, Titan Capital Winners Fund, at $40 Mn.
• About three months after its announcement, the union cabinet has approved a spacetech VC fund with a corpus of INR 1,000 Cr under the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe).
• US-based venture capital firm General Catalyst launched its new fund, Fund XII, this week. The VC has raised $8 Bn fresh capital to back startups across the globe operating in sectors like artificial intelligence, defence and intelligence, climate and energy, industrials, healthcare and fintech.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

• B2B seafood chain Captain Fresh has initiated its public offer plans by roping in Axis Capital and Bank of America (BofA) as the bankers for its IPO.
• Swiggy backer Prosus’ CEO Fabricio Bloisi said that the VC firm is expecting more of its portfolio startups to go IPO in the next 12-18 months.
• Ahead of its IPO, Swiggy has reportedly cut down its valuation target to $12.5 Bn from the erstwhile $13.5 Bn.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Kerala Startup Mission invested INR 15 Cr in energy transition focused investor Transition VC.
• MUFG Bank and Koch Group approached the Competition Commission of India this week to pick a minority stake in Shiprocket.
• Peak XV Partners announced that it has selected 14 startups under its cohort, Surge. Each startup can receive up to $3 Mn in seed funding as part of the cohort.
• Logistics startup ShadowFax is likely to bag a fresh investment of around $45-$50 Mn in a round that will value it at $700 Mn.
• Foodtech major Zomato received board approval to raise $1 Bn via qualified institutional placement.
• B2B ecommerce unicorn Udaan is in talks with M&G Prudential to raise $80-100 Mn in a fresh funding round.
• Online classified company Info Edge’s will be investing INR 30 Cr in its wholly-owned subsidiary Redstart Labs.
• Investors like family offices of Manipal Group’s Ranjan Pai, Mankind Pharma’s Ramesh and Rajeev Juneja and Cipla are likely to be the new investors joining Zepto’s captable in its fresh funding round.

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