Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [13-18 Nov]

This week, the Indian startup ecosystem witnessed only 12 funding deals raising $44.37 million. Following this, weekly funding dwindled by 78% from $201 million funds raised during the previous week.

The 12 deals comprised two growth stage deals grabbing $25 million and 10 early stage deals contributing $19.37 million in funding.

[Growth-stage deals]

During the week, two growth-stage startups raised funding. Online cake delivery startup Bakingo raised $16 million while consumer lending and payments firm Slice secured $9 million in debt from Stride Ventures.

[Early-stage deals]

In early-stage deals, healthcare-focused fintech platform CoverSelf led the pack with $8.2 million funding. Subsequently, medical technology startup Inito, robotics venture General Autonomy, and teacher accreditation platform Centa followed the list.

Other firms on the list include Breathe ESG, Happy Nature, and Airattix among others.

[City and segment-wise deals]    

In terms of city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru-based startups dominated this week with six deals while Delhi-NCR and Pune-based startups followed with two deals each.

Further, Mumbai and Surat-based startups saw one deal each.

Segment wise, e-commerce startups led the list in terms of number of deals. Healthtech startups achieved the second spot with two deals followed by Foodtech, Fintech, Robotics, Edtech, SaaS and IoT startups which saw one deal each.

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

[Series wise deals]

This week, four startups raised angel funding, Seed, pre-Series A, and Series A followed the chart with two deals each. Further the list counts one debt funding and one pre-seed funding round.

[Week-on-week funding trend]

On a weekly basis, funding saw a huge drop from $201 million last week to only $44.37 million this week. Meanwhile, the average funding in the last eight weeks stood at around $211 million with a deal size of 22 per week.

The week-on-week funding trend can be seen below:

[M&A]

During the week, full-stack agritech marketplace DeHaat entered into a business transfer agreement (BTA) with Freshtrop Fruits Limited to absorb the Ahmedabad-based firm’s export network and grading, packing and precooling centers as well as manpower.

WayCool exited from retail operations and sold SunnyBee Market retail stores to Fresh2Day for an undisclosed amount.

[New launches]

▪ InCred to enter insurance biz

▪ DailyHunt’s parent VerSe forays into kids entertainment space with HappyTopia

▪ Amazon Prime partners with FanCode to enter sports streaming space

[Financial results this week]

▪ Uber-backed Everest Fleet ends FY23 with Rs 466 Cr revenue and Rs 41 Cr profit

▪ Ustraa reports Rs 100 Cr revenue and Rs 40 Cr loss in FY23

▪ Byju’s-owned Great Learning nears Rs 400 Cr revenue in FY23, losses decline

▪ ElasticRun’s GMV crosses Rs 4,700 Cr in FY23, losses surge 72%

▪ IndiQube records Rs 592 Cr revenue and Rs 21 Cr profit in FY23

▪ The Ayurveda Experience crosses Rs 250 Cr revenue in FY23, eyes profitability

[News flash this week]

▪ Ola Electric converts into public company

▪ Finland’s Oura sues Ultrahuman

▪ Whatfix dragged to court by rival WalkMe 

[TheKredible’s analysis]

The weekly funding fell below $50 million after a long time. A couple of early stage deals pushed the total funding during the last week to over $40 million. General Autonomy, a new startup launched by co-founders of ShareChat, grabbed the headlines with $3 million in funding from India Quotient, Elevation Capital and a clutch of angels including ShareChat’s CEO himself.