SUMMARY
Indian startups raised $381.4 Mn in funding across 27 deals this week, a 345% surge from the previous week
Logistics services startup Shadowfax raised $100 Mn from TPG NewQuest, making the biggest funding round of this week.
Reliance Industries and Disney made their joint venture official on February 28
After a slight dip, funding momentum across the Indian startup ecosystem shot back in the last week of February. Between February 26 and March 2, startups collectively raised $381.4 Mn across 27 deals, a 345% rise from $110.4 Mn secured across 15 deals in the previous week.
The week also saw a mega deal as logistics startup Shadowfax bagged $100 Mn in Series E funding round led by TPG NewQuest.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Feb 26 – Mar 2]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 27 Feb 2024 | Shadowfax | Logistics | Ecommerce Logistics | B2B | $100 Mn | Series E | TPG NewQuest, Mirae Asset Venture Investments, Flipkart, IFC, Nokia Growth Partners, Qualcomm, Trifecta Capital | TPG NewQuest |
| 27 Feb 2024 | Capillary Technologies | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $95 Mn | Secondary | – | – |
| 1 Mar 2024 | NewSpace Research & Technologies | Deeptech | Spacetech | B2B | $52 Mn | Bridge | SIDBI, Cornerstone Venture Partners, 360 ONE Asset, Volrado Venture Partners | |
| 28 Feb 2024 | Kushal | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $34 Mn | Series B | Lighthouse | |
| 27 Feb 2024 | Zeno Health | Healthtech | Online Pharmacy | B2B-B2C | $25 Mn | Series C | STIC Investments, Lightbox | STIC Investments |
| 27 Feb 2024 | MSwipe | Fintech | Payments | B2B | $20 Mn | Alpha Wave Global | ||
| 26 Feb 2024 | Mokobara | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $12 Mn | – | Peak XV Partners | |
| 26 Feb 2024 | Cult.fit | Healthtech | Fitness & Wellness | B2C | $10.2 Mn | Series F | Valecha Investments, L&K Wellness Services Private Limited, Extreme Brands | |
| 29 Feb 2024 | Smart Joules | Deeptech | Hardware & IoT | B2B-B2C | $8 Mn | – | Investment Fund for Developing Countries | |
| 27 Feb 2024 | CaratLane | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $7.2 Mn | – | Titan | |
| 29 Feb 2024 | IntrCity | Travel Tech | Transport Tech | B2C | $4.4 Mn | Series C | Mirabilis Investment Trust, Nandan Nilekani’s family trust, Omidyar Network India, Ujmaa Ventures | Mirabilis Investment Trust |
| 29 Feb 2024 | Silence Laboratories | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $4 Mn | Pre-Series A | Pi Ventures, Kira Studio | Pi Ventures, Kira Studio |
| 29 Feb 2024 | Zvolv | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $2 Mn | – | Silverneedle Ventures, JSW Ventures | |
| 28 Feb 2024 | Digantara | Deeptech | Spacetech | B2B | $2 Mn | Series A1 | Aditya Birla Ventures, SIDBI | |
| 28 Feb 2024 | TWF Flours | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $1.4 Mn | Pre-Series A | Rainmatter Capital | |
| 27 Feb 2024 | FarmTheory | Agritech | Market Linkage | B2B-B2C | $1.45 Mn | Seed | Merak Ventures | |
| 27 Feb 2024 | Reo. Dev | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $1.2 Mn | Seed | India Quotient, Adam Frankl, Savin Goyal, Shraddha Gupta | India Quotient |
| 27 Feb 2024 | Kocksense | Media & Entertainment | Digital Media | B2C | $1 Mn | Pre-Series A | Mohit Satyanand, Nitish Mittersain, Venus Dhuria | |
| 1 Mar 2024 | Nuturev | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $1 Mn | Seed | Antler India, Sparrow Capital, ISV Capital, Blume Founders Fund, Kunal Shah, Deepak Diwakar | |
| 1 Mar 2024 | CredShields | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $1 Mn | – | Draper Associates | |
| 29 Feb 2024 | Bandhoo | Real Estate Tech | – | B2B | $887K | Pre-Series A | Venture Catalysts | Venture Catalysts |
| 28 Feb 2024 | Spacefields | Deeptech | Spacetech | B2B | $800K | Seed | HVB 88 Angels, O2 Angels Network | |
| 27 Feb 2024 | Beautywise | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $784K | – | AC Ventures, Fluid Ventures, Real Time Angel Fund, GSF, LetsVenture Angel Fund, Dinesh Agarwal, Murugavel Janakiraman, Akshay Gulati, Chakradhar Gade, Agam Khare, Arjun Vaidya, Sandeep Kohli, Bharat Kalia, Nitin Gupta, Siddhartha Pawa, Agastya Dalmia, Aman Arora | AC Ventures, Fluid Ventures |
| 29 Feb 2024 | DIAL4242 | Healthtech | Healthcare Services | B2C | $120K | – | Raj Neravati | |
| 27 Feb 2024 | Marrfa | Fintech | Investment Tech | B2C | – | Seed | Foundamental, Prashant Malik | |
| 27 Feb 2024 | Biggies Burger | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | – | Pre-Series A | – | |
| 29 Feb 2024 | Tui Bon Natural | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | – | – | ||
| 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
- Logistics services startup Shadowfax secured $100 Mn as part of its Series E round led by TPG NewQuest.
- Fuelled by Capillary Technologies’ secondary funding round, enterprisetech emerged as the most funded sector, bagging $104 Mn across six deals.
- The ecommerce sector reported a maximum of seven deals this week, bagging $55.4 Mn in funding.
- This week, seed funding jumped to $4.45 Mn across five deals, up from $4.1 Mn from last week.
- SIDBI emerged as the most active investor this week, investing in NewSpace Research & Technologies and Digantara.
Other Major Developments From This Week
- Market regulator SEBI has given a go ahead to Digital Insurance for its much-awaited IPO plans on March 1. The IPO would comprise a fresh issue worth INR 1,250 Cr and an OFS component of 10.94 Cr equity shares.
- After an intense faceoff with its investors last week, BYJU’S finally breathed a sigh of relief as the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) bench reserved its judgement on a petition filed by a group of its investors to put a stay on edtech major’s ongoing $200 Mn rights issue. The bench asked the startup to keep the proceeds from its rights issue in a separate escrow account and consider extension of the closure of the rights issue. The company was expected to close its rights issue on February 28.
- At a valuation of $8.5 Bn, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Viacom 18 Media Private Limited (Viacom18) and The Walt Disney Company have signed binding agreements to set up a joint venture (JV) on February 28. The resultant entity will be controlled by RIL.
- In a bid to raise the biggest private equity fund in India, Kedaara Capital will be raising $1.7 Bn. Of this, 80% will be raised from existing investors while the remaining will come from new backers.
- Asset management firm Rockstud Capital has marked the first close of its second alternative investment fund (AIF) at $8.2 Mn. The target corpus of Rockstud Capital Investment Fund II is $36 Mn.
- Venture capital firm Peak XV announced the third cohort of its women entrepreneurs-focussed Spark programme on February 26. 14 startups and 16 female founders have been selected under the initiative.
- Social media platform Koo is likely to get taken over by Dailyhunt as talks of the acquisition are reportedly in advanced stage. The deal includes a share-swap agreement and might be concluded within the upcoming weeks.
- Healthcare-focused fintech startup QubeHealth’s founder Chris George told Inc42 that the startup is looking to raise between $6-$9 Mn as a part of its Series A funding round.
- Fintech company Infibeam Avenues acquired a 20% stake in US-based enterprise app and AI development company XDuce for $10 Mn on February 25. The fintech company will leverage XDuce’s tech stack to bolster the growth of Infibeam’s payment gateway brand, CCAvenue, in the US.
