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

This week, 26 Indian startups raised about $319 million in funding. Crossborder neo-banking platform Zolve made headlines with its $100 million debt funding. Other than this, only InsuranceDekho managed to cross the $50 million funding mark during the period.

Last week, 14 startups, comprising 3 growth/late stage and 11 early stage deals, raised around $128 million in funding.

[Growth-stage deals]

This week, nine growth-stage startups raised funding. The list also includes crossborder neo-banking platform Zolve which raised $100 million in debt followed by insurance tech firm InsuranceDekho and employee healthcare platform Onsurity which secured $60 million and $24 million in funding, respectively.

Among the growth stage firms, FabHotels, SuperOps.ai, Shiprocket, Age Care Labs, Apex Kidney Care and Jiraaf raised funding this week.

[Early-stage deals]

AI startup Krutrim SI Designs led the pack with debt funding followed by Gold loan startup Oro Money and Lifestyle retailer Bagzone. Other firms in the list include iSprout, Pep, Meolaa, Proxgy and KiVi, among others.

Besides this, the details of three funding deals remained undisclosed. It includes AI-based port automation platform Docker Vision, fuel discovery startup Nawgati, and food and beverages company Greto. For more information, visit TheKredible.

[City and segment-wise deals]

This week, Bengaluru-based startups co-led the funding chart with Delhi-NCR based ones. As per TheKredible, eight Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR-based startups collectively raised funds this week amounting to $263 million or 82% of the total funding. Mumbai-based startups were third in the list in terms of number of deals followed by Chennai. Hyderabad and Kochi saw one funding deal each during the period.

Segment wise, fintech startups led the list followed by E-commerce, Healthtech, SaaS, Logistics and Proptech. Surprisingly, no agritech and edtech startup raised funding this week.

The complete breakdown of city and segment can be found at TheKredible.

[Series wise deals]

Seed, Series B, pre-Series A and debt stage startups dominated the chart with 7, 5, 3 and 3 deals, respectively. This was followed by pre-Series A and pre-seed funding deals.

[Week-on-week funding trend]

On a weekly basis, startup funding has crossed the $300 million mark after a gap of three weeks. This also marks over 2.5X jump in weekly fundraise as compared to $128 million funding raised last week.

[Exits/departures]

This week, the Indian startup saw three exits or departures including chief corporate development officer of Dream Capital – Dev Bajaj who is reportedly leaving the firm. Finance head of Dunzo – Sudharshan N and founding team member of CRED – Ashray Iyengar also left their firm.

Visit TheKredible to see fund launches, series wise deals and amount breakup, and more.

[New launches]

▪ NoBroker launches new business with conversational AI platform CallZen

▪ Zomato launches merchant-focused parcel delivery app Xtreme

▪ Kareena Kapoor forms JV with Sugar Cosmetics’ founders to sell Korean products

[Fintrackr’s picks]

▪ Udaan’s gross revenue shrinks 43%, losses reduce 33% in FY23

▪ Moglix’s gross scale spikes 83% to Rs 4,500 Cr in FY23; losses down

▪ Classplus’ revenue grows 3.3X to Rs 149 Cr in FY23

▪ Understanding Eloelo’s $22 Mn pre-series B round

▪ Pocket FM’s scale soars 9X to Rs 150 Cr in FY23

[Entrackr’s exclusives]

▪ Bhavish Aggarwal’s AI startup raises $24 Mn debt from Matrix

▪ Gold loan startup Oro Money raises $12.5 Mn in new round

[News flash this week]

▪ Groww surpasses Zerodha in terms of active users

▪ Ex Myntra CEO’s startup Virgio pivots after raising $37 Mn

▪ EV maker Ather Energy goes international

▪Venture Highway gets 50 fold returns in secondary sale of stake in Meesho

[Entrackr’s analysis]

Of the total funding, over 40% came through debt across three deals. This counts cross border neobank platform Zolve, Bhavish Aggarwal’s new venture Krutrim SI Designs and proptech startup iSprout. Insurtech company InsuranceDekho has become one of the few startups to raise two rounds (Series A and Series B) in 2023. While investment in FabHotels is coming after a gap of more than three years, elder care startup Age Care Labs grabbed one of the largest funding in this space with $11 million in pre-Series B. 

This week, movement of top level employees continued further. Finance head of quick commerce platform Dunzo is the latest top executive to quit the firm. 

Meanwhile, the discontinuation of Dream Capital, a venture capital and merger and acquisition arm of Dream Sports, came as a big surprise. The vertical’s head Dev Bajaj is also leaving. Meanwhile, Ashray Iyengar, founding team member of fintech unicorn CRED, has left the firm to join VC firm Elevation Capital.

*Back next week with another deal roundup