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Top News of the Week 1. Funding: - Not unlike the past two weeks, we saw another startup bag mega funds this week. IPO-bound Infra.Market raised $121 Mn in its Series F round. The round, which saw participation from the likes of Tiger Global, Nuvama and Abhijit Pai, saw the startup’s valuation jump 10% to $2.8 Bn. - On the back of Infra.Market’s mega funding round, ecommerce emerged as the investor favourite sector this week. - Five startups in the sector cumulatively raised $143 Mn across six deals. -Ten startups at the seed stage raised $31.2 Mn in the past week. Indian Angel Network emerged as the most active investor this week, backing two seed stage healthtech startups SVASTEK and Prantae Solutions. 2. Mergers & Acquisitions This Week - Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) will be acquiring 90.5% stake in D2C brand Minimalist for a cash consideration of $309 Mn by Q1 FY26. The founders, Mohit Kumar Yadav and Rahul Yadav, will continue to helm the startup for two years post the finalisation of the deal. - PE firm Everstone has entered into a deal to acquire a majority stake in SaaS startup Wingify for around $200 Mn. - Agritech startup DeHaat bought farm advisory platform AgriCentral through an all-cash business transfer agreement to expand its suite of digital services for farmers. The startup didn’t disclose the details of the financial transaction. - Listed agritech company Hatsun Agro bought Milk Mantra for $26 Mn to expand its geographical footprint in Odisha and the eastern dairy market. Edtech BrightChamps bought Mumbai-based K12 education platform Edjust in a cash and stock deal to enable geographical presence across 30 geographies. - BSE SME listed DroneAcharya has signed a term sheet for a “strategic company merger” with agri-drone company AITMC Ventures to bolster their presence in the Indian drone market but also firm up their play to take Indian drones global. The resultant entity is expected to get listed next year. - Ambulance startup RED.Health acquired a majority stake in healthcare training institute TACT Academy for Clinical Training for an undisclosed amount. 3. Other Developments: - Venture capital fund SamVed launched a $50 Mn fund this week to back early stage startups across sectors like AI, agritech, healthcare, fintech, e-commerce, upskilling and consumer services. - Gurugram-based Eximus Ventures launched its second fund with a target corpus of $30 Mn to back 25-30 entities across fintech, AI, software-as-a-service (SaaS), frontier tech and consumer tech. - Kotal Alternate Asset Managers marked the first close of its life sciences fund at $29 Mn. The fund, which has a target corpus of $185 Mn, will back early to growth stage startups building solutions in the medical devices, digital health, consumer wellness, diagnostics and delivery space. - Bharat Value Fund announced the first close of its third investment fund at $144 Mn. The VC firm is targeting investments in mid-market, high-growth enterprises with revenues between INR 300 Cr and INR 1,000 Cr. - IIFL Fintech Fund marked the final close of its second fund at $23 Mn. It aims to invest in GenAI-focused fintech startups. 4. IPO Updates: - Capillary Technologies has restarted the preparations for its IPO and is likely to file the draft papers for a $200 Mn public offering by June this year. - The IPO size would be almost double from the $114 Mn public offering it planned to raise when it filed its DRHP in 2021. - Quick commerce major Zepto is likely to increase its IPO size to $800 Mn–$1 Bn, including secondaries. - Investment tech major Groww is likely to file its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) by April-May for an initial public offering (IPO) worth over $1 Bn. The fintech unicorn is eyeing a public listing by the end of FY26. It has picked bankers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Kotak Mahindra Bank for its $750 Mn IPO that will value it at $7-$8 Bn. - Nazara Technologies’ board approved the proposal to raise INR 495 Cr from Axana Estates LLP through a preferential allotment of shares. The company’s extraordinary general meeting to approve the allotment is scheduled for February 13. - Cold-chain marketplace Celcius Logistics is in advanced discussions with investors to raise around $14.5 Mn in its Series B funding round from investors like agritech focus venture fund Omnivore Stay Updated. Stay Informed. Stay Ahead. Share the Medial App with your network, colleagues, and friends. Let's brainstorm, discuss together and help each other achieve our goals. And don't forget to rate us on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store to help us reach even more amazing people like you.