From Kuku FM To Eloelo — Indian Startups Raised $91 Mn This Week

SUMMARY

The Indian startup ecosystem secured $91 Mn across 15 funding deals in the third week of September

Mumbai-based vernacular audio platform Kuku FM raised $25 Mn in its Series C round, making it the biggest funding deal of the week

Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric has reportedly expedited its public listing plans and is likely to file the DRHP with SEBI for its $700 Mn IPO before the end of October

Following two weeks of consistent funding inflow, the Indian startup ecosystem witnessed a significant drop in funding during the third week of September. Indian startups raised $91 Mn across 15 deals during September 18 to 23, a substantial 78% decrease compared to the previous week’s $413 Mn across 21 deals.

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Sept 18 – Sept 23]

Date	Name	Sector	Subsector	Business Model	Funding Round Size	Funding Round Type	Investors	Lead Investor
20 Sept 2023	Kuku FM	Media & Entertainment	OTT	B2C	$25 Mn	Series C	The Fundamentum Partnership, International Finance Corporation (IFC)	The Fundamentum Partnership, International Finance Corporation (IFC)
20 Sept 2023	Eloelo	Media & Entertainment	Social Media & Chat	B2C	$22 Mn	Pre-Series B	Courtside Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners, Waterbridge Ventures, Lumikai Fund, Kalaari Capital, Convivialite Ventures, Rocket Capital	Courtside Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners
21 Sept 2023	Atlys	Travel Tech	Travel Planning & Activities	B2C	$12 Mn	Series A	Elevation Capital, Peak XV Partners, Chainsmokers, South Park Commons	Elevation Capital, Peak XV Partners
22 Sept 2023	Ergos	Agritech	Market Linkage	B2B-B2C	$10 Mn	Series B	Abler Nordic, Aavishkaar Capital, Chiratae Ventures, Trifecta Venture Deb	Abler Nordic
19 Sept 2023	Flash	Ecommerce	Affiliates	B2C	$6.7 Mn	Pre-Series A	Blume Ventures, PeerCapital, White Venture Capital, Emphasis Ventures	Blume Ventures, PeerCapital
21 Sept 2023	Everest Fleet	Travel Tech	Transport Tech	B2B-B2C	$6 Mn	–	Paragon Partners
18 Sept 2023	The Good Bug	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$3.5 Mn	Series A	Fireside Ventures
18 Sept 2023	EquityList	Fintech	Fintech SaaS	B2B	$2.2 Mn	Seed	AngelList India, Hustle Fund, Republic, Unpopular Ventures, Mana Ventures, Riverwalk Holdings, Super Capital, Tanmay Bhatt, Ramakant Sharma, Gajendra Jangid, Sairee Chahal, Rangarjan Krishnan, Sajid Rehman, Faiz Mayalkarra
20 Sept 2023	Offline	Media & Entertainment	Social Media & Chat	B2C	$2 Mn	Seed	–	–
22 Sept 2023	Aurassure	Cleantech	Climate Tech	B2B	$482K	Seed	Unicorn India Ventures	Unicorn India Ventures
22 Sept 2023	insideFPV	Deeptech	Drones	B2B-B2C	$422K	Seed	Mumbai Angels, IPV, Soonicorn, Kumar Sahu
20 Sept 2023	Peping	Healthtech	Telemedicine	B2C	$400K	Seed	Better Capital, Kunal Shah, Sandeep Kumar Dinodiya, Ganesh Balakrishnan, hubham Mishra	Better Capital
22 Sept 2023	EaseMyAi	Enterprisetech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$361K	Seed	IPV	IPV
18 Sept 2023	QubeHealth	FIntech	Lendingtech	B2B	–	Pre-Series A	IPV, Green Ivy Ventures, Keiretsu Forum
22 Sept 2023	Leverage Edu	Edtech	Online Discovery	B2C	–	–	Lohia Family
	Source: Inc42 *Part of a larger round Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

Mumbai-based vernacular audio platform Kuku FM raised $25 Mn in its Series C round from The Fundamentum Partnership and IFC, making it the biggest funding deal of the week.
Fuelled by Kuku FM and Eloelo’s fundraise, the media and entertainment sector emerged as the most funded sector this week, securing $47 Mn across two deals.
There were a total of five seed funding deals amounting to a combined investment of $5.4 Mn during the week.
Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) was the busiest investor this week as it participated in three deals.

Startup Fund Launches This Week

Indian private equity (PE) firm Creaegis announced the final close of its maiden $425 Mn (INR 3,529 Cr) fund to invest in homegrown startups.
Japanese VC firm Incubate Fund Asia concluded the first close of its third fund with a target corpus of $50 Mn (around INR 416 Cr). It will deploy the funds in 20 pre-seed and seed stage startups.
Antler India announced the first close of its maiden fund at INR 500 Cr and intends to complete the final close at INR 600 Cr. The fund will solely focus on funding early stage Indian startups.

Other Major Developments From This Week

Nikhil Kamath, the cofounder of Zerodha, is likely to join the captable of electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ather Energy via a secondary sale.
Walmart-owned ecommerce giant Flipkart is planning to invest $15 Mn to $20 Mn for an in-house credit marketplace ahead of the festive season.
Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric has reportedly expedited its public listing plans and is likely to file the DRHP with the SEBI for its $700 Mn IPO before the end of October.
Fintech SaaS startup Perfios has acquihired Chennai-based open finance platform Fego.ai.