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SUMMARY
Startups raised $478 Mn across 29 deals, marking a 319%% increase from the $114 Mn raised across 22 deals in the preceding week
Buoyed by Eridutus’s mega funding round, edtech emerges as the most funded sector for the week at $126.9 Mn
Seed funding for the week stood at $26.5 Mn, which was an increase of 48.8% from previous week’s $17.8 Mn
After two consecutive weeks of tepid funding, investment activity in the startup ecosystem gained significant momentum this week.
In the week between October 14 and 19, Indian startups raised $478 Mn across 29 deals. This was an increase of 319% from $114 Mn raised across 22 deals in the preceding week.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding This Week [Oct 14-19]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 18 Oct 2024 | Eruditus | Edtech | Online Certification | B2C | $150 Mn | Series F | TPG, Softbank Vision Fund II, Leeds Illuminate, Accel, CPP Investments, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative | TPG |
| 14 Oct 2024 | Purplle | Ecommerce | B2C Ecommerce | B2C | $60 Mn | Series F | ADIA, Premji Invest, Blume Ventures, Sharrp Ventures | ADIA |
| 16 Oct 2024 | Neuron7 | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $44 Mn | Series B | Smith Point Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Battery Ventures | Smith Point Capital |
| 14 Oct 2024 | GIVA | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $30.3 Mn | Series B | Premji Invest, Epiq Capital, Edelweiss Discover Fund | – |
| 16 Oct 2024 | Everstage | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $30 Mn | Series B | Eight Roads Ventures, Elevation Capital, 3one4 Capital | Eight Roads Ventures |
| 16 Oct 2024 | Primus Senior Living | Real Estate Tech | Shared Spaces | B2C | $20 Mn | Seed round | General Catalyst, Nikhil Kamath, Gruhas | General Catalyst |
| 15 Oct 2024 | Troo Good | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $9 Mn | – | Puro Wellness, Oaks Asset Management, V Ocean Investments | Puro Wellness |
| 18 Oct 2024 | WROGN | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $8.9 Mn | – | Aditya Birla Digital Fashion Ventures | Aditya Birla Digital Fashion Ventures |
| 15 Oct 2024 | Simplismart | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $7 Mn | series A | Accel, Shastra VC, Titan Capital | Accel |
| 18 Oct 2024 | Yu Foods | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $6.5 Mn | Series B | Ashish Kacholia, Asian Paints | Ashish Kacholia, Asian Paints |
| 17 Oct 2024 | Suraasa | Edtech | Online Certification | B2C | $6 Mn | – | Reach Capital, ETS Capital, NB Ventures, TSM ventures, TRTL Ventures | Reach Capital |
| 15 Oct 2024 | Evenflow | Ecommerce | Roll Ups | B2C | $5 Mn | Series A | Shail Patel and some existing investors | Shail Patel |
| 17 Oct 2024 | Budy | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $4.2 Mn | pre-Seed | BeeNext, The Neon Fund, BITS SPARK Angels, Raju Reddy, Abhinav Asthana, John Hayes, Bruno Kurtic | RTP Global |
| 17 Oct 2024 | AGNIT Semiconductors | Deeptech | IoT & Hardware | B2B | $3.5 Mn | Seed | 3one4 Capital, Zephyr Peacock, Lakshmi Narayanan | 3one4 Capital, Zephyr Peacock |
| 14 Oct 2024 | The Good Bug | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $3.5 Mn | Series A | Sharrp Ventures, Fireside Ventures, Keshav Biyani | Sharrp Ventures |
| 15 Oct 2024 | Yoho | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $3.2 Mn | pre-Series B | Gulf Islamic Investments, Rajeev Misra, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Rukam Capital, Pankaj Chaddah | Gulf Islamic Investments |
| 14 Oct 2024 | Perceptyne | Deeptech | IoT & Hardware | B2B | $3 Mn | Seed | Endiya Partners, Yali Capital, Whiteboard Capital | Endiya Partners, Yali Capital |
| 16 Oct 2024 | Optimized Electrotech | Deeptech | Defencetech | B2B | $2.9 Mn | – | Government of India | – |
| 17 Oct 2024 | Febi | Fintech | Fintech SaaS | B2B | $2 Mn | pre Series A | Lumis Partners, Virender Rana, Amit Chaudhary, Padmaja Ruparel, Rohan Bhargava, Rajat Jain | – |
| 14 Oct 2024 | Elixia | Logistics | Logistics SaaS | B2B | $1 Mn | pre-Series A | JIIF, Motilal Oswal , Vimal Shah, Sparsh Jain, Vinod Dugar, Vimal Khinvasara, Ashok Shah, Amit Chandwar | JIIF |
| 16 Oct 2024 | Tablesprint | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $1 Mn | – | Ankit Bhati, Ajeet Khurana, Sunil Sharma, BlueLotus Ventures, TDV Partners, DGC Ventures, Abhijeet Bhandari | – |
| 17 Oct 2024 | Lifechart | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $500K | – | Prajay Advisors, Agility Ventures, Expert Dojo, Ahana Gautam, Nitish Mittersain, Sarath Sura, Marwari Angels | Prajay Advisors |
| 16 Oct 2024 | Alchemyst AI | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $300K | pre-Seed | Inflection Point Ventures, 100Unicorns, Early Seed Ventures | Inflection Point Ventures |
| 15 Oct 2024 | SportsSkill | Enterprise Tech | Entetprise Services | B2B | – | – | KP Balaraj | KP Balaraj |
| 16 Oct 2024 | ANNY | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | – | – | FAAD Capital | FAAD Capital |
| 14 Oct 2024 | Brown Living | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | – | pre-Seed | Blink Digital, Sanjay Nayar, Sorin, Bharat Iyer | Blink Digital |
| 15 Oct 2024 | PetStrong | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | – | – | Auxano Capital | Auxano Capital |
| 15 Oct 2024 | Traqo.io | Logistics | Logistics SaaS | B2B | – | pre-Seed | We Founder Circle | We Founder Circle |
| 15 Oct 2024 | Healspan | Healthtech | Healthcare SaaS | B2B | – | Seed | Lead Angels, Ankitt Jain, Srijith Nair, The Doctorpreneur Academy | Lead Angels |
| 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
- The biggest cheque this week was pocketed by edtech unicorn Eruditus secured $150 Mn in its Series F funding round led by TPG’s global impact investing platform The Rise Fund.
- Buoyed by Eruditus’ mega funding round, edtech emerged as the most funded sector for the week at $156 Mn.
- However, ecommerce witnessed the most number of deals materialise this week at 12.
- Seed funding for the week stood at $26.5 Mn, an increase of 48.8% from previous week’s $17.8 Mn.
Startup Fund Launches Of This Week
- Nikhil and Nithin Kamath-led fintech unicorn Zerodha launched a new fund, FLOSS/fund, aimed at supporting Free/libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects globally. The fund will provide annual funding of $1 Mn.
- In another development, alternate investment firm Anicut Capital raised $11 Mn (about INR 92 Cr) through a feeder fund based out of GIFT City for its Private Credit Fund III.
- Besides this, airline major Indigo received approval from the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to float its venture capital (VC) arm IndiGo Ventures.
- Masters’ Union founder’s global business school Tetr College of Business floated a $10 Mn fund to back student entrepreneurs
Updates On Indian Startup IPOs
Omnichannel jewellery startup BlueStone is preparing to go public by the second quarter of next year. The Prosus-backed startup is expected to raise $200 Mn to $250 Mn (about INR 1,681 Cr to INR 2,100 Cr) through its IPO at an estimated valuation of $1 Bn to $1.5 Bn.
Mergers and Acquisitions This Week
- D2C foodtech unicorn Licious acquired Bengaluru-based offline retailer My Chicken and More in a cash and equity deal, expanding its offline footprint by adding 23 stores to its network.
- MSME-focused fintech startup Lendingkart said that Temasek’s subsidiary Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH) will acquire a controlling stake in the startup with an additional investment of INR 252 Cr.
Other Developments Of The Week
- Tiger Global-backed Mensa Brands, which operates consumer brands such as Pebble, MyFitness, Dennis Lingo, among others, is shifting its domicile from Singapore to Mumbai.
- Customer engagement and retention startup Clevertap is also in discussions with advisers to relocate its headquarters from San Francisco to India.
- Two major exits were reported this week. Early stage VC firm 8i Ventures made a full exit from fintech startup M2P Fintech with 12X returns in 4.5 years. Besides, Zodius Capital marked its full exit from B2B marketplace OfBusiness via a secondary share sale of around $100-120 Mn, against its initial $8 Mn investment.
- Singapore’s state investor Temasek is eyeing acquiring a 20-25% stake in Rebel Foods via a mix of primary equity infusion and secondary share sale for around $180 Mn to $200 Mn.
- Zomato’s board will meet on October 22 to consider raising funds via qualified institutional placement (QIP). As per reports, the board will consider raising INR 8,500 Cr (about $1 Bn).
- Zepto is in advanced discussions to raise $100 Mn from asset management company Motilal Oswal, as well as high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) and family offices.
- Bengaluru-based Jetapult made its maiden investment in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region by acquiring a stake in Saudi Arabia-based game developer UMX Studio for $4.5 Mn.
- Edtech unicorn upGrad’s cofounder and managing director Mayank Kumar stepped down from his executive role to launch a new venture.
- Listed gaming major Nazara received the approval from its shareholders to acquire a 47.7% stake in Pokerbaazi’s parent company Moonshine Technology for INR 831 Cr.
