🚀 Medial Secures Investment on Shark Tank India - Fueling the Future of Professional Social Networking. 🔥
Login

News on Medial

Indian startups mop up $2.77 Bn in March 2024 quarter: Report

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Indian startups mop up $2.77 Bn in March 2024 quarter: Report
Medial

Indian startups registered a steady growth in fund inflow during the first quarter of 2023 as they managed to cross $2.75 billion in funding. Importantly, funding in March stood out for crossing the $1 billion threshold for the first time in 2024. However, even as funding recovers, layoffs, shutdowns and departure of top-level executives continue to loom. Indian startups mopped up $2.77 billion across 326 deals in the March quarter or Q1 2024, as per data compiled by TheKredible. This included 74 growth-stage deals worth $1.87 billion and 213 early-stage deals amounting to $898 million. There were 39 undisclosed rounds. Unlike in the first quarter of 2023, two startups – Krutrim SI Designs and Perfios – entered the unicorn club after their latest fundraise in the first quarter of 2024. [Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year trend] March saw a decent jump in funding to $1.18 billion from $875 million in February and over $700 million in January. However, on a year-on-year basis, Q1 2024 recorded a fall from $12 billion in Q1 2022 and $3.4 billion in Q1 2023. [Top growth stage deals] Biotech startup Engrail scooped up $157 million in its Series B funding round to become the top-funded growth stage company in the first quarter of 2024. Audio series platform Pocket FM and logistics company Shadowfax managed to go past the $100 million funding mark in Q1 2024. Capillary Technologies, Perfios, Vivifi, Lohum, AiDash, ShareChat and Wow! Momo, were among the top 10 growth-stage deals. [Top early-stage deals] Digital lending platform mPokket, AI company Krutrim, energy tech company International Battery Company (IBC), blockchain company Avail, and generative AI startup Ema topped the list of early-stage startups. Check TheKredible for a full list. [City and segment-wise deals] City-wise, Bengaluru-based startups remain on top with 122 deals, contributing around 54% of the overall funding in the first quarter of 2024. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai followed with 77 and 54 deals, respectively. The list further counts Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Thane among others. Segment-wise, e-commerce startups (including D2C brands) led the list with 64 deals followed by fintech (47), healthtech (31), SaaS (26), EV (15), AI (13), and edtech (13) startups. The complete breakdown of the city and segment can be found at TheKredible. [Stage-wise deals] Series-wise, 95 startups raised funding in Seed round followed by 71 Series A, 35 Pre-Series A, and 33 Pre-seed deals. Among early-stage, as many as 4 startups raised funding in their angel round. While 22 startups raised debt funding worth $276.65 million during the period. [Most active investors] Early-stage venture capital firm Inflection Point Ventures and Blume Ventures have emerged as the most active investors in Q1 2024 with 11 and 10 investments, respectively. Venture Catalysts was next on the list with nine deals followed by Fireside Ventures, Anicut, Accel, and Stride Ventures. The full list can be found at TheKredible. [Mergers and acquisitions] The first quarter of 2024 registered 26 merger and acquisition deals. Acquisition of Tapasya Educational Institutions by Veranda, InSemi by Infosys, Qdigi Services by Onsitego were the top 3 disclosed mergers and acquisitions deals. During the period, listed gaming firm Nazara’s subsidiary Nodwin acquired two startups: Comic Con India and Ninja Global FZCO. Among the undisclosed deals, Kuvera was acquired by fintech unicorn CRED, Captain Fresh took over CenSea while OneVerse acquired three startups including Spartan Poker, BatBall11, and Calling Station. Check the full list here. [Layoffs, shutdowns and departures] Layoffs continued in the March quarter as more than 1,100 employees received pink slips. Among them, foodtech company Swiggy topped the list with laying off of 350 employees followed by Cult.fit, InMobi, and Pristyn Care with 150, 125 and 120 employees, respectively. During the first quarter, five companies shut their operations. The list includes Resso, Rario, OKX India, GoldPe, and Muvin. Rario, however, added that it will launch a brand new platform that will enable users to play new and engaging cricket-based games. Besides layoffs and shutdowns, nearly two dozen top-level executives hung up their boots. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm Payments Bank, resigned as the part-time non-executive chairman and board member of the company. Meanwhile, Third Wave Coffee’s chief executive officer Sushant Goel stepped down from his position to become a board member. The list also includes Indus Appstore CEO Rakesh Deshmukh, DealShare’s co-founder Sourjyendu Medda, and Fashinza’s co-founder Jamil Ahmed. [ESOP buyback] Amid all the ups and downs, the startup ecosystem witnessed employees stock buyback by growth and late-stage companies. For context, e-commerce company Meesho rolled out its largest ESOP buyback worth $25 million for 1,700 employees. Community management app MyGate and edtech company Classplus also announced their employee stock buyback program earlier this year. The full list can be found here. Visit TheKredible to see series-wise deals along with amount breakup, complete details of fund launches, and more insights. [Conclusion] As funding revives, it is safe to say that the trend in layoffs will also subside in the coming months, if not weeks. The strength in fintechs continues, and the category will continue to seek more money and throw up the next big startups, as scale arrives faster for many. Newer categories, be it AI, Chip Design, or niche parts of healthtech look set to emerge soon, going by the churning in the markets. The big hope is that the many corporate governance issues that have plagued the ecosystem in the past two years will also take a backseat now, thanks to lessons learnt hopefully. Looking at the numbers, especially for Q1 2022 ($12 billion), many would say that opportunities and capital have been wasted. But that is the very nature of the Startup world, with tiny amounts of money and a dollop of innovation sometimes achieving what no amount of money thrown at a problem doesn’t. We remain optimistic that by Q4 of this year, India’s startup ecosystem will be stronger and more diversified than ever before.

1

Related News

Indian startups attract $4 Bn in funding during September quarter

EntrackrEntrackr · 9m ago
Indian startups attract $4 Bn in funding during September quarter
Medial

Indian startups have shown impressive resilience in the third quarter of 2024, raising over $4 billion. This funding amount is nearly on par with the previous quarter and exceeds the total from the first quarter of the year. The landscape featured several significant deals, including multiple transactions over $300 million and $200 million, along with pre-IPO rounds and secondary market activity. This robust support, especially from early-stage startups, highlights a strong recovery and continued investor confidence, making it one of the most successful quarters during the ongoing funding winter. According to data compiled by TheKredible, Indian startups raised approximately $4.08 billion in funding during the third quarter of 2024. This amount included 85 growth and late-stage deals totaling $3.3 billion, along with 207 early-stage deals worth $754.26 million. Additionally, there were 58 undisclosed deals during this period. Notably, three new unicorns emerged in Q3: Ather, Rapido, and Moneyview. In total, six startups joined the unicorn club in 2024, all based in Bengaluru. In contrast, only two startups reached unicorn status in 2023, while 26 and 44 unicorns were born in 2022 and 2021, respectively. [Y-o-Y and M-o-M trend] In Q3 2024, Indian startups secured 352 deals totaling $4.08 billion, a slight decrease from the $4.27 billion raised across 363 deals in the previous quarter. Over the last seven quarters, Q3 2024 stands out as the second most funded period. Additionally, on a monthly basis, September achieved the second-highest funding with $1.63 billion, trailing behind the peak of $1.92 billion recorded in June. As of now, Indian startups have raised $11 billion in the first nine months of 2024, matching the total amount raised throughout 2023. [Top 10 growth stage deals in Q3] This growth can be largely attributed to Zepto’s remarkable $340 million funding round, closely followed by DMI Finance, which raised $334 million. Other significant contributors included PhysicsWallah, Rapido, Oyo, and Whatfix, each securing substantial funding. Notably, all top 10 growth-stage startups on the list have raised over $100 million each, including Purplle, Drip Capital, M2P Fintech, and InMobi. [Top 10 early-stage deals in Q3] Renewable energy services company BluePine led the early-stage startups with $28.8 million in funding. Following closely were AI firm Nutrix AI, EV companies Kinetic Green and Simple Energy, healthcare startup Even, fintech startup Centricity, and gen-z focused fast fashion D2C brand Newme, all of which made it into the top five. The complete list is available through TheKredible. [Mergers and Acquisitions] Merger and acquisition activity has surged to new heights. According to data compiled by TheKredible, Q3 saw 54 M&A deals, nearly matching the combined total of 55 deals in Q1 and Q2. The top acquisition in Q3 was OYO’s purchase of G6 Hospitality for $525 million, followed by Zomato’s acquisition of Paytm’s movies and ticketing business for $244 million. OYO also acquired Checkmyguest for $27.4 million. Other notable M&A activities included Nazara acquiring Pokerbaazi and Kiddopia, Redcliffe Labs acquiring Celara Diagnostics, HomeLane taking over Design Cafe, and Radio Mirchi’s parent company ENIL acquiring Gaana. [City and segment-wise deals] Bengaluru once again led the pack, with 122 startups from the city raising over $1.38 billion in funding during Q3, representing 34% of the total funding. Following closely, Delhi-NCR-based startups completed 91 deals amounting to $1.3 billion, accounting for nearly 32% of the total funding, putting them not far behind Bengaluru. Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Pune were next on the list. Notably, Mumbai-based startups contributed to more than 21% of the total funding in the last quarter. Segment-wise, fintech was at the top with 61 startups raising over $1.15 billion. E-commerce, healthtech, SaaS, and AI startups were next on the list. Amount-wise, automotive tech startups raised more money than SaaS and healthtech. Agritech, foodtech, edtech, and proptech saw their downfall during the first half of 2024. Edtech secured $233 million in funding during the period, with PhysicsWallah alone raising $210 million. Agritech was one of the least funded segments, contributing just 1.39% to the total fundraising, while the electric vehicle (EV) sector accounted for nearly 5% of the total. [Stage-wise deals] In Q3 2024, seed and pre-seed stage startups completed 138 deals totaling over $168 million. Series A and pre-Series A rounds recorded 73 and 37 deals, respectively. Additionally, there were 23 debt funding rounds worth $314 million, contributing 7.72% to the overall total. For more details, check TheKredible. [Layoffs, shutdowns and departures] Layoffs continued to impact the ecosystem in Q3, with 10 companies letting go of more than 1,200 employees. However, this figure is significantly lower than the over 2,200 employees dismissed in Q2. Overall, approximately 4,500 employees received pink slips in the first nine months of 2024. In comparison, this year’s layoffs are notably better than the 24,000 layoffs recorded in 2023 and the 20,000 in 2022. Recent market conditions have led to an increase in business closures. In Q3, eight startups announced their shutdowns, including Koo, Wynk Music, and Greenikk. This figure surpasses the six shutdowns recorded in Q1 and Q2 combined. Meanwhile, the startup ecosystem experienced notable departures of top executives in Q3. According to data, 16 top-level executives, including CEOs, CBOs, CFOs, co-founders, managing directors, and presidents, have resigned. During the period, there were 77 key hirings. The full list can be accessed here. [Trends in Q3 2024] Agritech: Agritech continues to be one of the least funded segments in 2024, with over 30 startups raising only $150 million by September. This trend reflects ongoing challenges, as last year saw just $178 million in agritech funding, a significant drop from $772 million in 2022 and $636 million in 2021. Wealthtech: Wealthtech is witnessing rapid growth, with venture capitalists making significant investments over the past 12 months. According to data intelligence platform TheKredible, Indian wealthtech startups raised over $100 million across five deals in Q3. IPOs from Bengaluru: Following a wave of startup IPOs from Delhi NCR and Mumbai, Bengaluru is making strides in 2024. Ola Electric and Digit Insurance have already been listed, while Ather and Swiggy have submitted their Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP). Additionally, co-working space startup IndiQube is also planning to launch its IPO soon. BharatPe settles with Ashneer Grover: Fintech company BharatPe has resolved its long-standing dispute with former co-founder and managing director Ashneer Grover. This settlement represents a significant development, particularly given the serious nature of the complaints filed by BharatPe against Grover. Titan Capital launches Indicorns: Titan Capital has introduced Indicorns, a new index that showcases profitable startups generating over Rs 100 crore in revenue. This initiative highlights the growing trend of self-sustaining businesses in India, illustrating that startups can achieve profitability without heavily depending on external funding.

Fintech funding in Jan-March down 57% year on year, but up 59% from last quarter

Economic TimesEconomic Times · 1y ago
Fintech funding in Jan-March down 57% year on year, but up 59% from last quarter
Medial

Funding for Indian fintech startups has decreased by 57% YoY in the first quarter of 2024, totaling $551 million. This is down from $1.3 billion raised in the same period last year. However, there was a 59% increase in funding compared to the previous quarter. Seed stage funding dropped 77%, early stage funding declined 42%, and late stage funding fell 60% YoY. Alternative lending, regtech, and banking tech were the top performing sectors, with alternative lending accounting for 89% of total funding. Some notable investments were made in Avanse, Perfios, IDfy, and Mswipe. The report also highlighted increased scrutiny and regulatory changes faced by the Indian fintech ecosystem. Perfios emerged as the only unicorn in Q1 2024.

Download the medial app to read full posts, comements and news.