SUMMARY
The Indian startup ecosystem secured $72 Mn funding across 17 deals in the second week of May
Bengaluru-based Ripplr raised $40 Mn in its Series B funding round led by Fireside Ventures – making it the biggest fundraiser of the week
Four unicorns including Ola, Swiggy, Pine Labs, and PharmEasy saw their valuation trimmed by their respective investors
After an encouraging start of the month, funding again declined in the second week of May. Between May 8 and May 13, Indian startup ecosystem raised $72 Mn in funding across 17 deals. This is a 59% drop compared to the last week when startups collectively raised $174 Mn across 19 deals.
However, this is 76% more from the $41 Mn raised between April 24 and April 29, 2023 by the Indian startups.
Key Startup Funding Deals Of This Week
- Bengaluru-based distribution and logistics startup Ripplr raised $40 Mn in its Series B funding round led by Fireside Ventures – making it the biggest fundraiser of the week
- Logistics sector topped the funding charts this week with $46 Mn investment across three deals
- Enterpristech continued to bag the most number of deals. This week, the segment took home three deals
- Early-stage startups saw a drop in funding as compared to last week. This week this stage of startups collectively raised $5.2 Mn
- 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, and Agility Ventures were the busiest investors this week as they participated in two deals each.
Startup Fund Launches This Week
- Bengaluru-based venture capital (VC) 3one4 Capital has closed its fourth early-stage investment fund, the Fund IV, at $200 Mn to invest in deals ranging from Pre-Seed to Series-A, with cheques worth between $0.5 Mn to $5 Mn
- Early-stage VC fund AdvantEdge has unveiled its third fund worth $100 Mn to invest in seed stage, mobility solutions startups
- Venture debt firm Stride Ventures announced the first close of its third venture debt fund at $100 Mn fund to invest in fast-growing startups with strong unit economics.
Other Major Developments From This Week
- Investment firm Invesco slashed the valuation of one of its major Indian portfolio companies Swiggy to $5.5 Bn. This is the second time within a span of five months, Invesco has cut down the foodtech’s valuation
- Listed gaming startup Nazara Technologies is increasing its stake in its subsidiary Nextwave Multimedia (Nextwave) to 71.88% by investing INR 15.5 Cr
- US-based investment firm Vanguard Group trimmed Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola’s valuation by 35% from $7.4 Bn to $4.8 Bn
- NY-based Neuberger Berman marked down the valuations of two of its major Indian portfolio companies – PharmEasy and Pine Labs. The investment firm has slashed Pine Labs’ valuation by 38% to $3.1 Bn from $5 Bn, PharmEasy’s valuation was trimmed by 21% to $4.4 Bn from $5.6 Bn
- Aditya Kothari, the cofounder of social short video platform Chingari, has quit the startup without disclosing his future plans.
