Indian Startups Raise $71.9 Million Across 17 Deals In Funding Slowdown
Inc42 reported that Indian startups raised about $71.9 Mn across 17 deals between July 4 and July 10, down 31% from the previous week. The weekly list named Elevate Education, Purple Style Labs and Aukera among the largest disclosed rounds, while the public record still lacks valuations, revenue figures or customer metrics for most recipients.
Indian startups raised $71.9 Mn across 17 deals between July 4 and July 10, a 31% decline from the previous week’s $104.6 Mn raised by 21 startups.
The funding was led by Elevate Education’s $17.7 Mn Series D, while ecommerce companies Purple Style Labs and Aukera raised $17 Mn and $10 Mn in debt, respectively, Inc42 reported.
Funding movement
Ecommerce attracted about $28.9 Mn across six deals, making it the week’s top-funded sector for the second consecutive week.
Purple Style Labs, the parent of Pernia Pop-Up, secured the largest ecommerce cheque through debt from Kairos Ventures, Real Capital Financial Services, Texport International and angel investors Rupendra Periwal, Satyen Jitendra Mamtora and Andy Iyer Sankaranarayanan.
Elevate Education’s Series D was led by WestBridge Capital.
Wheelocity raised $8.5 Mn from Lightspeed, Anicut Ventures, Elevar Equity and individual investors.
Other disclosed rounds included Econovus at $4.2 Mn, thumpN at $3.8 Mn, Mowito at $3 Mn, Milo Drive at $2.4 Mn, Doodhvale Farms at $1 Mn, Stylework at $1 Mn, Neothera at $943K, BAAS Technologies at $525K and Avni Wellness at $419K.
The Func Labs had raised $1.5 Mn in a seed round on July 1.
Five early-stage startups—three pre-seed and two seed-stage companies—collectively raised about $11.2 Mn. thumpN’s $3.8 Mn pre-seed round and Mowito’s $3 Mn pre-seed round made up the largest portions of that group.
Alteria Capital was the most active institutional investor, backing Aukera and Milo Drive.
Fund launches
Fundamentum Partnership, cofounded by Infosys’s Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal, launched its third fund with a target corpus of ₹2,200 Cr, including a ₹400 Cr greenshoe option.
The growth-stage investor plans to back startups in consumer tech, fintech and AI.
Suzuki-backed Next Bharat Ventures launched its second impact fund at ₹2,000 Cr.
It plans to invest in healthcare, financial services, agritech, cleantech and commerce, with cheques ranging from $500K to $1 Mn.
IPO and M&A activity
The week’s lower funding total coincided with several public-market developments.
Fitness unicorn Cult.fit filed a DRHP with SEBI for an IPO comprising a fresh issue of up to ₹950 Cr and an offer for sale of up to 17.86 Cr shares.
Temasek, Schroders Capital, Accel and cofounder Mukesh Bansal are among those participating in the OFS.
Girnar Software, the parent of CarDekho, is looking to file draft IPO papers with SEBI for a ₹3,000-3,500 Cr issue during the July-September quarter.
Axis Bank, IIFL, Goldman Sachs and Nomura have been picked as bankers.
Enterprise AI and analytics company C5i, formerly Course5 Intelligence, filed its DRHP through SEBI’s confidential route, its second attempt to go public after shelving IPO plans in 2022.
SEBI also cleared RentoMojo’s proposed IPO, which includes a fresh issue of up to ₹150 Cr and an OFS of up to 2.84 Cr shares.
Airties acquired Bengaluru-based Aprecomm to strengthen its AI-powered broadband management offerings and expand across India, Southeast Asia and South America.
Leverage Edu acquired Brazil-based Mundus Agency as it prepares for a ₹2,000-3,000 Cr IPO.
Info Edge will acquire the remaining 45.36% stake in Coding Ninjas for ₹39.9 Cr, while Credit Fair sold its rooftop solar financing business to BlackSoil for ₹45 Cr.
The Competition Commission of India approved upGrad’s proposed acquisition of Unacademy.
Other capital moves
ideaForge launched a QIP with a floor price of ₹835.86 per share to raise capital for working capital, debt repayment and product development.
Lissun was in advanced talks to raise ₹45 Cr in a Series A round led by Colossa Ventures at a valuation of about ₹140 Cr.
Graph AI was in talks to raise $14 Mn in a Series A led by Insight Partners, and Origin Fresh was discussing a $10 Mn Series A to expand its retail footprint, strengthen its supply chain and accelerate distribution.
