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Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [14 - 19 Oct]

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During the week, 39 Indian startups raised around $449.33 million in funding. These deals count 12 growth-stage deals and 16 early-stage deals while 11 startups kept their transaction details undisclosed. Last week, 32 early and growth-stage startups cumulatively raised over $134 million in funding. [Growth-stage deals] Among the growth-stage deals, 12 startups raised $389.62 million in funding this week. Edtech startup Eruditus spearheaded with a $150 million funding round. Omnichannel beauty platform Purplle raised $60 million followed by cloud-based service intelligence platform Neuron7.ai, D2C jewelry startup Giva, and SaaS platform Everstage with $44 million, $30.3 million, and $30 million in funding, respectively. [Early-stage deals] Further, 16 early-stage startups secured funding worth $59.71 million during the week. Elder care startup Primus Senior Living led the list followed by cloud-based MLOps workflow orchestration platform Simplismart, a platform for teacher workforce development and global teacher mobility, Suraasa, AI startup Budy.bot, and gallium nitride (GaN) startup AGNIT Semiconductors among others. Meanwhile, Traqo, Brown Living, SuperUs, Evenflow, ANNY, Healspan, Magnus Farm Fresh, SportsSkill, PetStrong, Kingdom of White, and Medprime Technologies also raked in funding but did not disclose the transaction details. For more information, visit TheKredible. [City and segment-wise deals] In terms of the city-wise number of funding deals, Bengaluru-based startups led with 16 deals followed by Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, et al. Segment-wise, E-commerce startups are on the top spot with 12 deals. Fintech, AI, Edtech, Healthtech, Logistics, and Biotech startups followed the list among others. [Series-wise deals] During the week, seed funding deals are on top, with 15 deals followed by Series B, pre-Seed, pre-Series A, Debt, and Series A deals among others. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding jumped 234.27% to $449.33 million as compared to around $134.42 million raised during the previous week. The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $353.43 million with 30 deals per week. [Fund launches] Anicut raised $11 million for its Private Credit Fund 3 through the GIFT City Structure. SBI Foundation and Villgro launched a fund called “Innovators for Bharat” focused on agritech startups. Tetr College of Business launched a $10 million fund to invest in early-stage student entrepreneurs. Additionally, Sundaram Alternates launched its PCOF – Series I fund. [Key hirings and departures] The startup ecosystem witnessed 6 notable hirings this week. AuthBridge onboarded Naveen Goyal as Chief of technology and products. Invest4Edu welcomed Manish Sahijwani as chief business officer, and DMI Finance hired Niraj Khandelwal and Rachit Gupta to take on different roles. Meanwhile, Mamaearth’s chief product and technology officer Jayant Chauhan, upGrad’s co-founder and managing director Mayank Kumar, and Krutrim’s business head Ravi Jain resigned. [Mergers and Acquisitions] This week, four notable acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem. Licious acquired My Chicken and More, IBM purchased Prescinto, Indium took over Experion, and Jetapult acquired UMX Studio. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals along with amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [Potential Deals] OYO eying $200 Mn funding for US expansion strategy Temasek’s Fullerton to take control of Lendingkart in distressed acquisition Zepto to rake in $100 Mn funding from Motilal Oswal and family offices [Financial results this week] Qure.ai revenue soars 83% to Rs 141 Cr in FY24, slashes losses Licious reports Rs 685 Cr revenue in FY24; cuts losses by 44% BharatPe revenue climbs to Rs 1,426 Cr in FY24, losses shrink 50% Tractor Junction revenue soars 2.3X in FY24; cuts losses by 51% Acko hits Rs 2,000 Cr revenue threshold with lower losses in FY24 Rentomojo posts Rs 193 Cr revenue in FY24; profits jump 3.6X [News flash this week] RBI bars NAVI, DMI Finance, and others from loan sanctioning and disbursal Navi breaks into top 5 UPI apps in September as PhonePe maintains lead 8i Ventures earns 12X return on full exit from M2P Fintech Mamaearth ranks as India’s 3rd largest skincare brand: Euromonitor Zomato to raise $1 Bn funds via QIP Temasek files notice to CCI for investment in Rebel Foods CleverTap and Mensa Brands plan India return to pursue IPO BlueStone plans Rs 2,100 Cr IPO by Q2 2025 PayU defers IPO plan to next fiscal year Ola Electric taps EY to address service challenges Zerodha launches fund to support open-source projects Government to introduce social security policy for gig workers Karnataka to impose a transaction fee on online aggregators Swiggy executives and investors sell shares worth Rs 670 Cr ahead of IPO [Conclusion] After two weeks of a slow funding inflow, the weekly funding bounced back with 39 startups raising $449.33 million this week. The week saw four startup-focused fund launches namely Anicut Capital, Innovators for Bharat, Tetr College of Business, and Sundaram Alternates. Ola Electric has engaged consulting firm EY India to help improve its after-sales service operations. EY is expected to provide advice on streamlining business processes, inventory management, and expanding the company’s on-ground presence. This move comes in response to increasing customer complaints and declining sales volumes. Zerodha, a leading fintech unicorn, has launched a new fund called FLOSS/fund to support Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects. The fund aims to provide financial assistance to these projects, which often face challenges in financial sustainability. Zerodha believes that open-source software played a crucial role in its growth and development. The Indian government is working on a new policy to provide social security benefits to gig workers. The policy is expected to be rolled out early next year and will include features such as a unique identification for gig workers, employer contributions to social security schemes, and a registration module on the e-Shram portal. The government is actively engaging with gig workers’ associations to gather their input and ensure that the policy adequately addresses their needs. Meanwhile, Karnataka is set to introduce a 1-2% transaction fee on online aggregator platforms like Zomato, Uber, and others. The revenue generated from this fee will be used to fund the welfare of gig workers in the state. The Karnataka Labour Minister confirmed the decision and clarified that the fee will not be applicable to products or goods purchased through these platforms but only on transportation services. Swiggy’s founder Sriharsha Majety and several investors sold shares worth Rs 670 crore in the days leading up to the company’s updated DRHP filing with SEBI. The transactions involved multiple entities, including Torroz Fintech, Norwest Ventures, Strootaay Unlisted Brokers, and Moksh Capital Partners. These sales likely provided partial exits for investors ahead of the highly anticipated Swiggy IPO, which has generated significant interest from HNIs and companies.