Indian Startup Funding — Startups Raised $377 Mn This Week

SUMMARY

Twenty eight startups cumulatively raised $377.4 Mn during September 22-27, making it the highest weekly capital infusion in the Indian startup since June

On a weekly basis, this marked an over 19% jump from the $316.6 Mn raised by startups during September 15-20

IndiaQuotient, Rainmatter and Lightspeed were the most active investors this week

Indian startup funding continued to pick up pace for the second consecutive week at the end of September. Twenty eight startups cumulatively raised $377.4 Mn during September 22-27, making it the highest weekly capital infusion in the Indian startup since June.

On a weekly basis, this marked an over 19% jump from the $316.6 Mn raised by startups during September 15-20. The investor interest in the Indian startup ecosystem is expected to continue to rise in the near future, with multiple VC firms announcing closure of their funds this week.

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News

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Sep 22 – 27 ]

Date	Name	Sector	Subsector	Business Model	Funding Round Size	Funding Round Type	Investors	Lead Investor
24 Sep 2025	PharmEasy	Health Tech	Online Pharmacy	B2C	$191.7 Mn	Debt	–	–
24 Sep 2025	Emergent	AI	Application Layer	B2C, B2B	$23 Mn	Series A	Lightspeed, Y Combinator, Together Fund, Prosus, Jeff Dean (Google’s chief scientist), Devendra Chaplot (AI researcher), Balaji Srinivasan (cofounder, Coinbase)	Lightspeed Ventures
22 Sep 2025	Chakr Innovation	Clean Tech	Climate Tech	B2B	$23 Mn	Series C	Iron Pillar	Iron Pillar
26 Sep 2025	Curefoods	Foodtech	Cloud Kitchen	B2C	$18 Mn	–	3State Ventures	3State Ventures
25 Sep 2025	Handpickd	Consumer Services	Hyperlocal Services	B2C	$15 Mn	Series A	Bertelsmann India Investments, Titan Capital	Bertelsmann India Investments
23 Sep 2025	Rocket	AI	Application Layer	B2B	$15 Mn	Seed	Salesforce Ventures, Accel, Together Fund	Salesforce Ventures, Accel
26 Sep 2025	Vedantu	Edtech	Digital Learning Platform	B2C	$11 Mn	–	–	–
25 Sep 2025	Simple Energy	Clean Tech	Electric Vehicles	B2C	$10 Mn	–	Dr Arokiaswamy Velumani (founder, Thyrocare)	Dr Arokiaswamy Velumani (founder, Thyrocare)
26 Sep 2025	KisanKonnect	Agritech	Market Linkage	B2B-B2C	$8.1 Mn	Pre-Series A	Bajaj Finserv Group, Mistry Ventures, Desai Foods, Dhanuka Agritech, Action Tessa Family Office	Bajaj Finserv Group
23 Sep 2025	Distil	Ecommerce	Marketplace	B2B	$7.7 Mn	Series A	Jungle Ventures, CE-Ventures, Rubamin, IndiaQuotient, Mayank Singhal (vice chairperson, PI Industries)	Jungle Ventures, CE-Ventures
24 Sep 2025	Gullak	Fintech	Investment Tech	B2C	$7.5 Mn	Series A	Chiratae Ventures, White Venture Capital, Samved Ventures, Y Combinator, GMO Venture Partners, Rebel Funds	Chiratae Ventures
24 Sep 2025	Oolka	Fintech	Lendingtech	B2C	$7 Mn	Seed	Lightspeed, Z47, 8i Ventures, Vidit Aatrey (cofounder, Meesho), Sanjeev Barnwal (cofounder, Meesho), Ramakant Sharma (cofounder, Livspace), Abhishek Goyal (cofounder, Tracxn), Rajesh Yabaji (cofounder, BlackBuck), Nitin Gupta (cofounder, Uni Cards), Madhusudan R (cofounder, M2P Fintech), Anil Goteti (founder, Scapia), Arnav Kumar (cofounder, Leap)	Lightspeed India, Z47
23 Sep 2025	PRISM	Travel Tech	Hospitality	B2C	$5.6 Mn	–	InCred, Analah Capital	InCred, Analah Capital
22 Sep 2025	OnFinance	AI	Application Layer	B2B	$4.2 Mn	Pre-Series A	Peak XV (Surge), Groww Founder Fund, MarsShot VC, Climber Capital, Shyamal Hitesh Anadkat (head of Applied AI, OpenAI), Indian Angel Network, Silverneedle Ventures	Peak XV (Surge)
23 Sep 2025	Amwoodo	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$4 Mn	Pre-Series A	Rainmatter, Adventz Group, Thinkuvate, Caspian	Rainmatter
25 Sep 2025	Cosmoserve Space	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Space Tech	B2B	$3.2 Mn	Pre-Seed	AVCF, AUM Ventures, Shakti VC, Ram Shriram (Google’s early angel investor)	AVCF
24 Sep 2025	P-TAL	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$3 Mn	Series A	Venture Catalysts, Rainmatter, Connecticut Innovations, Zero Pearl, Anicut Capital, Jaipur Rugs Family Office, Ramakant Sharma (cofounder, Livspace), Sanjay Kapoor (founder, Genesis Luxury), Avnish Anand (consumer investor, Singularity AMC), Sibabrata Das (cofounder, Atomberg), Ritesh Malik (founder, Innov8)	Venture Catalysts, Rainmatter
24 Sep 2025	Xbattery	Clean Tech	Electric Vehicles	B2B	$2.3 Mn	Seed	Bipin Patel Family Office, Jhaveri Credits	Bipin Patel Family Office
23 Sep 2025	Grest	Ecommerce	Recommerce	B2C	$1.8 Mn	–	Equentis, The Chennai Angels, Lead Invest, India Accelerator	Equentis
22 Sep 2025	VyomIC	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Space Tech	B2B	$1.6 Mn	Pre-Seed	Speciale Invest, BYT Capital, DeVC	Speciale Invest
26 Sep 2025	Akashalabdhi	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Space Tech	B2B	$1.2 Mn	Pre-Seed	LVX, 1Crowd, Riceberg Ventures, Aeroflex Enterprises, Uday Chatterjee (angel investor), Romesh Sobti (angel investor), Suraj Nalin (angel investor)	–
24 Sep 2025	Navo	Ecommerce	Vertical Marketplace	B2B	$902K	Seed	IndiaQuotient, Antler, Bharat Founders Fund	IndiaQuotient
25 Sep 2025	Bharat Intelligence	Agritech	Farmtech	B2B	$790K	Pre-Seed	Sahyadri Farms	Sahyadri Farms
25 Sep 2025	Recove	Clean Tech	Climate Tech	B2B	$598K	–	Momentum Capital, Ganesh Natarajan (ex-CEO, Aptech & Zensar), Ashish Goel (cofounder, Urban Ladder)	Momentum Capital
23 Sep 2025	Paar Autonomy	Advanced Hardware & Technology	Robotics	B2B	$500K	Seed	Venture Catalysts	Venture Catalysts
25 Sep 2025	Samaaro	Enterprise Tech	Vertical SaaS	B2C	$500K	Pre-Series A	Inflection Point Ventures, Silver Needle Ventures, Lets Venture, SucSEED Indovation Fund	Inflection Point Ventures
26 Sep 2025	Gaadimech	Consumer Services	Hyperlocal Services	B2C	$169K	–	AJVC	AJVC
23 Sep 2025	Gabit	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	–	–	Ranbir Kapoor (Actor), Badshah (Musician)	–
	Source: Inc42 Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

Online pharmacy startup PharmEasy raised a debt of $191.7 Mn (INR 1,700 Cr) this week by pledging shares of its listed subsidiary Thyrocare to repay existing obligations.
While PharmEasy’s debt raise propelled healthtech to the top spot in sector-wise weekly capital inflows, AI saw the second highest weekly funding. Three AI startups – Emergent, Rocket and OnFinance – together raised $42.2 Mn.
The ecommerce sector saw the highest number of deals materialise this week, with six startups, including Distil, Amwoodo, among others, raising $17.4 Mn.
IndiaQuotient, Rainmatter and Lightspeed were the most active investors this week.
Seed funding surged to $32.5 Mn with nine deals materialising this week, an increase of 40% from $23.3 Mn raised by 10 startups last week.

Fund Updates Of The Week

Micro VC firm Zeropearl VC closed its maiden fund at around $18 Mn. It plans to invest in 45 early-stage startups across several sectors.
Good Capital closed its second fund at $30 Mn. With the fund, the firm would look to invest $1.5 Mn each in 30-35 startups over the next four years.
Chiratae Ventures marked the second close of its fifth fund at $150 Mn to back early-stage startups in AI, deeptech, healthtech and spacetech sectors.
Early-stage accelerator 888VC launched its maiden $19 Mn AIF to back early-stage startups operating in sectors like AI, deeptech and sustainability. It plans to invest in startups from these sectors over the next three years, with an average ticket size between INR 2 Cr to INR 4 Cr.

Startup IPO Updates This Week

Fintech major PhonePe pre-filed its DRHP with the SEBI this week. While details are scant, the company’s IPO is likely to solely comprise an offer for sale of up to $1.4 Bn.
Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop parent Purple Style Labs filed its DRHP for its IPO that will solely comprise a fresh issue of up to $75 Mn (INR 660 Cr).
Contract manufacturing company Aequs received SEBI’s nod for its confidential IPO papers this week. It is planning to raise up to $200 Mn (around INR 1,700 Cr) through its IPO.
Zapppfresh’s BSE SME IPO opened on Friday to a lukewarm 21% subscription. The public issue comprises a fresh issue of up to 55.8 Lakh shares. At the upper end of the price band of INR 96 to 101, it expects to raise INR 59.6 Cr via the IPO.
Furniture rental startup RentoMojo has begun preparations for its public listing, onboarding IIFL and Motilal Oswal as the book running lead managers for its IPO. The company is targeting a public listing by FY27.

Other Developments Of The Week

Swiggy’s board approved the sale of its stake in bike-taxi startup Rapido to the latter’s existing investors Westbridge and Prosus for about INR 2,400 Cr ($270.4 Mn).
Including Swiggy’s secondary sale, Rapido is looking to close its latest funding round at $500 Mn to $550 Mn. The primary component of the deal would be of $300 Mn, with Prosus looking to pump in $240 Mn to $250 Mn.
Peak XV Partners launched the 11th cohort of Surge, its accelerator and incubation programme. Twelve of the 23 startups in this cohort are based out of India. Under Surge, Peak XV invests $3 Mn seed capital in selected startups along with other incubation support.