Fintech
Travel Tech
Electric Vehicle
Health Tech
Edtech
IT
Logistics
Retail
Ecommerce
Startup Ecosystem
Enterprise Tech
Clean Tech
Consumer Internet
Agritech
SUMMARY
Between March 17 and 22, Indian startups cumulatively raised $109.2 Mn across 18 deals, a 75% decline from from the $428.8 Mn raised last week across 14 deals
Fintech continued to reign as investors’ favourite sector during the week, with Nivara Home Finance and Navadhan cumulatively raising $40.8 Mn.
The week saw a host of fresh fund launches, acquisitions of multiple startups and certain startups taking the next step to becoming a public entity
After seeing an increase in funding for two weeks, the Indian startup ecosystem witnessed a lull in the third week of March. Indian startups only managed to raise $109.2 Mn between March 17 and 22, a decline of 75% from $428.8 Mn raised by startups last week.
However, the number of startups which raised capital saw an upturn this week. As against 14 startups that raised funding last week, 18 deals materialised this week.
Meanwhile, this week also saw a host of fresh fund launches, acquisitions of multiple startups or substantial stakes in certain new-age tech companies, and certain entities in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem taking the next step to becoming a public entity. With that said, here’s a financial round up of what happened over the past week.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Mar 17 – Mar 22]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 17 Mar 2025 | Nivara Home Finance | Fintech | Lendingtech | B2C | $28 Mn | Series B | True North, Baring Private Equity, Sunil Rohokale, Monik Koticha | True North |
| 18 Mar 2025 | Pilgrim | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $23 Mn | – | Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office, Vertex Ventures SEAI, Mirabilis Investment Trust, Vertex Growth Fund, Anicut Equity Continuum Fund | – |
| 19 Mar 2025 | Navadhan | Fintech | Lendingtech | B2B | $12.8 Mn | Series A | NabVentures, Prime Ventures, LNB Group, Varanium NexGen Fintech Fund, Gemba Capital, Faad, VC-Grid, Anicut | NabVentures, Prime Ventures |
| 21 Mar 2025 | STAGE | Media & Entertainment | OTT | B2C | $12.5 Mn | Series B | Goodwater Capital, Blume Ventures, Physis Capital, Venture Catalysts, Inflection Point Ventures, Mumbai Angels, The Chennai Angels | Goodwater Capital, Blume Ventures |
| 20 Mar 2025 | Magenta Mobility | Cleantech | Electric Vehicle | B2B | $11.5 Mn | pre-Series B | BP Tech Ventures, Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure | – |
| 18 Mar 2025 | Protectt.ai | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $8.7 Mn | Series A | Bessemer Venture Partners | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 18 Mar 2025 | Go Zero | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $3.5 Mn | Series A | DSG Consumer Partners, Saama Capital, V3 Ventures, Aman Gupta, Namita Thapar | – |
| 18 Mar 2025 | Slikk Club | Consumer Services | Hyperlocal Delivery | B2C | $3.2 Mn | Seed | Lightspeed, Multiply Ventures, Abhishek Goyal, Madhav Tandan, Abhinav Pathak | Lightspeed |
| 19 Mar 2025 | Nourish You | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $1.8 Mn | Series A | SIDBI Venture Capital | SIDBI Venture Capital |
| 20 Mar 2025 | Lighthouse PropTech | Real Estate Tech | Listing & Discovery Services | B2B-B2C | $1 Mn* | – | Turbostart, Dabur family office | Turbostart |
| 20 Mar 2025 | Qila Games | Media & Entertainment | Gaming | B2C | $1 Mn | pre-Seed | Chimera VC, Visceral Capital, Atrium Angels, Ventatana Ventures, 91 ventures, Untitled Ventures | Chimera VC |
| 18 Mar 2025 | Hypergro.ai | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $814K | pre-Series A | Eternal Capital, Silver Needle Ventures, VCats, Astir Ventures, FAAD Network | Eternal Capital |
| 19 Mar 2025 | Harvested Robotics | Agritech | Precision Agriculture | B2B | $582K | pre-Seed | Arali Ventures, Anand Mahindra, Chakradhar Gade | Arali Ventures |
| 18 Mar 2025 | iHub Robotics | Deeptech | IoT & Hardware | B2B | $520K | pre-Seed | – | – |
| 17 Mar 2025 | The Bear House | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $349K | – | Namita Thapar | Namita Thapar |
| 18 Mar 2025 | Broadway | Ecommerce | Social Commerce | B2C | – | – | Gruhas | Gruhas |
| 20 Mar 2025 | My Pahadi Dukan | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | – | pre-Seed | Inflection Point Ventures | Inflection Point Ventures |
| 20 Mar 2025 | Kraftshala | Edtech | Online Certification | B2C | – | pre-Series A | Phanindra Sama, Sujayath Ali, Pallav Jain, Tie Nizamabad | – |
| Source: Inc42 *Part of a larger round **Included this week as it was skipped last week Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included |
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Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week
- Fintech continued to reign as investors’ favourite sector during the week, with Nivara Home Finance and Navadhan cumulatively raising $40.8 Mn.
- Meanwhile, ecommerce saw the highest number of deals materialise this week. Six startups in the segment netted $28.7 Mn this week.
- Five seed stage startups netted $5.2 Mn this week, a decline of 48% from $10.1 Mn netted by four startups at this stage last week.
- Inflection Point Ventures was the most active investor this week, investing in OTT player STAGE and D2C startup My Pahadi Dukan.
Fund Updates
- Early stage VC firm All In Capital has launched its second fund with a target corpus of $23.2 Mn to invest up to INR 5 Cr each in 50 startups.
- Shikhar Dhawan’s sports-focussed VC fund Yashaa Global Capital plans to establish its $75 Mn first fund in Abu Dhabi. It is preparing to initiate a call for capital, and claims to have already secured commitments for the first close.
- Venturi Partners plans to invest $15 Mn to $40 Mn each in 10 startups under its second fund with a corpus of $225 Mn. It is eyeing the first close of the fund at $130 Mn by June this year, with backing from existing investors.
- Nikhil Kamath’s Gruhas has partnered with Brigade Group to launch INR 300 Cr earth fund. The fund will invest in 10 to 15 startups providing solutions in real estate technology, construction tech, clean tech and climate tech.
M&A Activities This Week
- Gaming major Nazara Technologies has acquired 100% stake in Absolute Sports, the parent entity of Sportskeeda. Nazara has bought the remaining 8.97% stake in the company for INR 69.17 Cr.
- US-based Omnia has acquired SpotKwik to boost its extended reality innovation for businesses.
- SaaS major Unicommerce has completed the acquisition of courier aggregator platform Shipway by purchasing the remaining 57.24% stake this week.
- Digital marketing startup Wubba Lubba Dub Dub (WLDD), which recently bought ScoopWhoop from The Good Glamm Group, has acquired a 70% stake in D2C sneaker brand 7-10,
IPO-Related Developments This Week
- Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for $531.4 Mn IPO via the confidential filing route.
- After months of speculation, fintech major Pine Labs is now planning to launch its IPO in the second half of 2025, its CEO Amrish Rau said.
Other Developments Of The Week
- World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) is looking to infuse $35 Mn in VC firm A91 Partners’ third fund. Besides, the firm is also considering an additional co-investment of up to $30 Mn in the new fund.
- Hero Motorcorp is investing INR 525 Cr in electric three-wheeler manufacturer Euler Motors. In an exchange filing, the company said that its board has approved a proposal to acquire a “significant stake” in the company soon.
- Fintech company PayU has acquired a 43.5% stake in Mindgate Solutions to expand its presence in the real-time payments space in India.
- Pet care startup Supertails is said to be in talks to acquire veterinary clinic Blue 7 Vets as part of its efforts to expand its offline services.
- Info Edge’s Jeevansathi will be infusing $3.5 Mn in its subsidiary Aisle.
- SaaS unicorn Icertis plans to raise $50 Mn in an equity funding round. As per a Form D filed by the startup with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the round will see participation from five undisclosed investors.
