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
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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 |
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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.
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