Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [09 May-14 May]

This week, 39 Indian startups raised funding, of which 33 received a total of about $395.7 million. Ather Energy raised the highest funding of about $128 million, followed by SironLabs, GoKwik and Vivriti Capital which raised $85 million, $35 million and $30 million respectively. Last week, 29 homegrown startups raised funding worth about $676.2 million.   

Meanwhile, the funding of six of the total funded startups remained undisclosed.

Growth/late-stage deals 

This week, 6 growth and late-stage startups have scooped up funds which include Ather Energy’s $128 million Series E round, SirionLabs’ $85 million, GoKwik’s $35 million Series B round and Vivriti Capital’s $30 million round. 

Details of the 38 funding rounds can be found here.

Early-stage deals 

In the early-stage deals, 32 startups have raised funds which also include six undisclosed rounds. B2B wholesale startup Apnaklub and EV startup MoEVing were on top of the list with a $10 million round and $5 million respectively. The list also includes HRtech startup HONO and fintech startup BharatX.

 Undisclosed deals  

Nova Benefits, House of Kieraya, AyuRythm, Ultrahuman, The Legal Capsule and Cloutflow did not disclose their financial details.

City and segment-wise fundings 

This week, Bengaluru was on top in terms of the number of startup deals and the amount raised by them. According to Fintrackr’s data, 17 Bengaluru-based startups have raised funds this week amounting to $163 million or 52.48 % of the total funding. During the week, Delhi-NCR and Pune-based startups raised $53.9 million and $10.94 million respectively across 10 and 3 deals respectively, followed by Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Haryana with 2,1, 2 and  1 deals respectively.

Edtech and AI startups were the top segment in terms of the number of deals as startups in this space raised $16.42 million and $10.32 million across 4 and 3 deals respectively. SaaS, fintech, Healthtech and D2C brands were next on the list. 

 Acquisitions this week

Apart from more than three dozen fundraisings, the week also saw four notable acquisitions. The list includes the acquisition of restaurant table reservation platform Dineout by Swiggy, Europe-based vacation rental company Direct Booker by Oyo, wealth management company Sqrrl by CASHe and Northwest Executive Education by Byju’s-owned Great Learning.

ESOP buybacks/sales

This was one of the most interesting weeks in terms of employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) buybacks, sales, grants and expansion of pool size. One97 Communications, the parent company of digital payments company Paytm, has granted new stock options worth Rs 222 crore or close to $30 million under its existing ESOP plan to its employees. 

Last week, Morgan Stanley-backed supply chain company Leading Enterprise in Advanced Pooling (LEAP) adopted a new ESOP plan worth Rs 36 crore or $4.8 million whereas online beauty and grooming products marketplace ​​Purplle expanded its ESOP pool to $40 million. 

During the week, business-focused payment gateway and neo banking platform Razorpay announced its ESOP sale as part of a $75 million transaction. SaaS-based travel and expense management platform ITILITE also announced its maiden ESOP buyback program. However, the Tiger Global-backed company did not disclose the size of the buyback.

*Back next week with another funding and acquisitions roundup