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

This week, 36 Indian startups raised funding of which 33 received a total of about $216 million. Wakefit was the top fundraiser which scooped up $40 million as a part of the Series D round. Last week, 16 homegrown startups raised funding worth about $273 million.  

Meanwhile, the funding details of the three startups remained undisclosed. 

Growth/late-stage deals 

This week, six growth or late-stage startups announced their new fundraise. The list includes Wakefit’s $40 million round along with LEAD, Park+, The Whole Truth, and CropIn among others. A clutch of these rounds kicked off in late 2022.

Details of the 36 funding rounds can be found here.

Early-stage deals 

In the early stage, 30 startups have raised funds including three undisclosed rounds. E-commerce startup VilCart was on top of the list with an $18 million Series A round. The list also includes edtech firm Toddle, Athulya, Qritrive, and Actyv.ai among others.

Undisclosed deals    

Badhaan, Gytree, and Awaz did not disclose their financial details.   

City and segment-wise deals    

This week, Bengaluru-based startups dominated the funding chart. According to Fintrackr’s data, 25 Bengaluru-based startups have raised funds this week amounting to $174 million or 79.7% of the total funding. During the week, Pune, Mumbai and Delhi NCR saw two deals each.

The complete breakdown of deals across cities and segments in the first half can be seen below: 

E-commerce (including D2C brands) and healthtech startups were the top segments in terms of the number of deals (eight deals each) as startups in these segments raised $77 million and $24 million respectively. SaaS, edtech, HR tech, and foodtech were next on the list. 

Acquisitions 

Besides fundraising, India's startup ecosystem saw a couple of merger and acquisition deals. 

Layoffs

This week nearly half a dozen companies laid off more than 500 employees. The list includes Ola, Skit.ai, Cashfree, LEAD, and Unacademy’s Relevel. Within the first two weeks of 2023, 10 startups have joined the list.

*Back next week with another deal roundup