By Inc42 Media
SUMMARY
Indian startups raised $196.47 Mn via 17 deals, a 75% decline from last week’s $800.5 Mn raised across 21 deals
The week’s largest funding round saw NBFC Northern Arc bag a debt of $75 Mn from FMO
Seed funding dipped this week by 69% to $6.9 from last week’s $22.7 Mn
After a big funding week, investment activity across the Indian startup ecosystem has entered into the slow lane again. Between June 24 and 29, startups cumulatively bagged $196.47 Mn across 17 deals, a 75% decline from $800.5 Mn raised across 21 deals in the preceding week.
However, it would be unfair to say that funding trends plunged drastically this week. Of the $800.5 Mn secured last week, around $665 Mn was raised by quick commerce unicorn Zepto alone. Hence, the rest of the startup ecosystem only saw $135.5 Mn capital infusion in the week.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ June 24 – June 29 ]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 25 Jun 2024 | Northern Arc | Fintech | Lendingtech | B2B | $75 Mn | Debt | FMO | FMO |
| 25 Jun 2024 | Rocketlane | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $24 Mn | Series B | 8VC, Matrix Partners India, Nexus Venture Partners | 8VC, Matrix Partners India, Nexus Venture Partners |
| 27 Jun 2024 | Smartworks | Real Estate Tech | Shared Spaces | B2B | $20.2 Mn | – | Keppel Ltd, Ananta Capital Ventures Fund I, Plutus Capital LLC | – |
| 25 Jun 2024 | Zyod | Ecommerce | B2B Ecommerce | B2B | $18 Mn | Series A | RTP Global, Stride Ventures, Stride One, Trifecta Capital, Lightspeed, Alteria Capital | RTP Global |
| 24 Jun 2024 | Bluestone | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $12 Mn | Debt | Neo Markets | Neo Markets |
| 25 Jun 2024 | Cloudphysician | Healthtech | Healthcare SaaS | B2B | $10.5 Mn | Series A | Peak XV Partners, Elevar Equity, Panthera Peak | Peak XV Partners |
| 28 Jun 2024 | Matter | Clean Tech | Electric Vehicles | B2C | $10 Mn | – | Japan Airlines & Translink Fund, Capital 2B Fund, Helena Special Investments Fund, Abhay Shah | – |
| 25 Jun 2024 | Sid’s Farm | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $10 Mn | Series A | Omnivore, Narotam Sekhsaria’s family office | Omnivore, Narotam Sekhsaria’s family office |
| 26 Jun 2024 | Two Brothers | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $7 Mn | Series A | Rainmatter Capital, Raju Chekuri | Rainmatter Capital |
| 27 Jun 2024 | Morphing Machines | Deeptech | IoT & Hardware | B2B | $2.7 Mn | Seed | Speciale Invest, IvyCap Ventures, Golden Sparrow, Navam Capital, CIIE Initiatives, DeVC | Speciale Invest |
| 25 Jun 2024 | Nitro Commerce | Enterprisetech | Vertical SaaS | B2B | $1.8 Mn | Seed | Cornerstone Venture Partners, Warmup Ventures, Lead Angels, Dholakia Ventures, India Accelerator, Arjun Vaidya, Kunal Khattar | Cornerstone Venture Partners |
| 25 Jun 2024 | LetsDressUp | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $1.3 Mn | pre-Series A | GVFL Limited, Indian Angel Network, The Chennai Angels, Titan Capital | – |
| 25 Jun 2024 | LXME | Fintech | Investment Tech | B2C | $1.2 Mn | Seed | Kalaari Capital, Yash Kela, Amaya Ventures, Capri Holdings, Aditi Kothari, Vivek Vig, Sumit Jalan, Avinash Pahuja | Kalaari Capital |
| 25 Jun 2024 | Plus Gold | Fintech | Investment Tech | B2C | $1.2 Mn | Seed | JITO Incubation, Innovation Foundation, Venture Catalysts, Signal Ventures, Sonakshi Sinha, Sachin Shetty, Varun Dua | JITO Incubation, Innovation Foundation |
| 26 Jun 2024 | O Hi | Media & Entertainment | Social Media & Chat | B2C | $1 Mn | pre-Series A | JIIF | JIIF |
| 27 Jun 2024 | Machaxi | Consumer Services | Hyperlocal Services | B2C | $575K | pre-Series A | Inflection Point Ventures, Ankit Nagori | Inflection Point Ventures |
| 27 Jun 2024 | Celebal Technologies | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | – | – | BlackSoil | BlackSoil |
| Source: Inc42 *Part of a larger round Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included | ||||||||
Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week
- The week’s largest funding round saw NBFC Northern Arc bagging a debt funding of $75 Mn from FMO. On the back of this, fintech emerged as the investors’ favourite this week. Startup’s in the space cumulatively raised $77.4 Mn across three deals.
- The highest number of deals materialised for ecommerce startups this week as players in the space raised $48.3 Mn via five deals.
- However, seed funding dipped this week by 69% to $6.9 from last week’s $22.7 Mn.
Other Major Developments Of The Week
- Moving towards a public market debut, electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ather Energy’s board passed a resolution to convert the startup into a public company from private. The startup’s name has changed to Ather EnergyAther Energy from Ather Energy Pvt Ltd earlier, its regulatory filings revealed.
- Within a week of raising big bucks, quick commerce major Zepto has initiated conversations with multiple investors to raise $400 Mn at a likely valuation of $4.6 Bn. This will be 25% higher than the $3.6 Bn at which it raised $665 Mn last week.
- UK-based private equity (PE) firm Finnest has invested $160 Mn to acquire a majority stake in cloud kitchen startup Kitchens@. The fresh capital will be utilised to fuel the startup’s business operations and expand its footprint.
- Gold loan provider Rupeek is close to bagging $24 Mn in another down round. The funding is expected to be a mix of primary and secondary transactions and will be raised at a valuation of $250 Mn, a 60% cut.
- US-based ecommerce giant Amazon has infused $72 Mn in its Indian fintech arm Amazon Pay India. Amazon Pay allotted 59.99 Cr shares to Amazon Corporate Holdings and 59,952 Cr shares to Amazon.com for INR 10 apiece.
- Nazara-owned gaming company NODWIN has completed the acquisition of marketing services company Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH through a share swap valued at up to INR 271 Cr.
- Edtech unicorn upGrad is planning to allot 25 Lakh NCDs and 3.75 Lakh OCDs to EvolutionX Debt Capital to raise a debt of $34.4 Mn. The capital will be used to fuel growth and fund operating expenses.