Continuing with its upward momentum in the second week of December, the Indian startup ecosystem managed to secure $527 Mn across 21 deals, marking one of the highest funding weeks in the past two years, ever since the funding winter set in early 2022. This marks a 520% jump from $85 Mn raised across 18 deals in the preceding week.
Besides, the week also witnessed a mega deal in the ecosystem with Udaan raising $340 Mn in its Series E funding round.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Dec 11 – Dec 16]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 14 Dec 2023 | Udaan | Ecommerce | B2B Ecommerce | B2B | $340 Mn | Series E | M&G Prudential, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DSG Global | M&G Prudential |
| 13 Dec 2023 | VeGrow | Agritech | Market Linkage | B2B-B2C | $46 Mn | – | GIC, Prosus Ventures, Matrix Partners India, Elevation Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners | GIC |
| 13 Dec 2023 | Aye Finance | Fintech | Lendingtech | B2B | $37.3 Mn | Series F | British International Investment, The Waterfield Fund of Fund, A91 Partners | |
| 14 Dec 2023 | Exponent Energy | Cleantech | Electric Vehicle | B2B | $26.4 Mn | Series B | Eight Road Venture Partners, TDK Ventures, Lightspeed, YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital, AdvantEdge VC, Pawan Munjal’s Family Office | Eight Road Venture Partners |
| 15 Dec 2023 | Ather Energy | Cleantech | Electric Vehicle | B2C | $16.8 Mn | – | Hero Motocorp | |
| 13 Dec 2023 | Snitch | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $13.19 Mn | Series A | SWC Global, IvyCap Ventures | SWC Global, IvyCap Ventures |
| 13 Dec 2023 | Agilitas Sports | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $11.9 Mn | – | Nexus Venture Partners | |
| 12 Dec 2023 | Nat Habit | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $10.2 Mn | Series B | Bertelsmann India Investments, Fireside Ventures, Amazon India Fund, Mirabilis Investment Trust and Sharrp Ventures | Bertelsmann India Investments |
| 14 Dec 2023 | QNu Labs | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $6.5 Mn | Pre-Series A | Ashish Kacholia, Speciale Invest | |
| 15 Dec 2023 | GoApptiv | Healthtech | Healthcare SaaS | B2B | $5 Mn | – | Cipla | |
| 14 Dec 2023 | Pirimid Fintech | Fintech | Fintech SaaS | B2B | $3 Mn | – | Infibeam Avenues | |
| 11 Dec 2023 | HairOriginals | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $2.75 Mn | Pre-Series A | Anicut Capital, Kesh Kala Family Office, Lets Venture, Dexter Angels, JITO Angel Fund, Pankaj Chaddah, Ahana Gautam | |
| 13 Dec 2023 | Absolute Brands | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $2.5 Mn | Seed | Capstone Vetntures | Capstone Ventures |
| 14 Dec 2023 | SimYog | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $2.4 Mn | Pre-Series A | Mela Ventures, 1Crowd, IdeaSpring | Mela Ventures, 1Crowd |
| 12 Dec 2023 | Twyn | Enterprisetech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $1.25 Mn | Pre-Series A | ah! Ventures, JITO Incubation | ah! Ventures |
| 12 Dec 2023 | Aliste Technologies | Deeptech | Hardware & IoT | B2C | $1 Mn | – | YourNest Venture Capital, Artha Venture Fund, Dholakia Ventures, KRS Jamwal, Anikarth Ventures | YourNest Venture Capital |
| 13 Dec 2023 | ofScale | Ecommerce | B2B Ecommerce | B2B | $375K | Seed | First Cheque, Matrix Partners India DeVC, Relentless VC, Abhishek Goyal, Mekin Maheshwari, Revant Bhate | |
| 12 Dec 2023 | ChargeZone | Cleantech | Electric Vehicle | B2B-B2C | – | – | Macquarie Capital | |
| 14 Dec 2023 | BurgerSingh | Consumer Services | Hyperlocal Delivery | B2C | – | Pre-Series B | Turner Morrison Ltd, Homage Ventures LLP | |
| 15 Dec 2023 | Delta X Automotive | Cleantech | Electric Vehicle | B2C | – | – | ah! Ventures | |
| 13 Dec 2023 | GRM Foodkraft | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | – | – | Sauce vc |
Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week
- Business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce giant Udaan raised $340 Mn in its Series E financing round led by UK-based M&G Prudential, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global, making it the biggest funding deal of the week.
- Fuelled by Udaan’s funding, the ecommerce sector not only emerged as the most funded sector this week with $380.9 Mn funding but also witnessed a maximum number of deals with eight deal counts.
- Lightspeed Venture Partners emerged as the busiest investors as it participated in two deals each.
- Seed funding took a backseat this week with a mere $2.8 Mn across two deals.
Startup Acquisitions This Week
- US-and India-based CareStack, a cloud-based dental practice management platform acquired Kerala-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup Waybeo for an undisclosed amount.
- Direct-to-consumer (D2C) superfood brand Nourish You acquired Bengaluru-based One Good (erstwhile Goodmylk) for an undisclosed sum.
- Fintech startup M2P acquired big data analytics and intelligence platform Goals101 for $30 Mn in a cash-and-equity deal.
- Kunal Shah-backed Anq Finance acquired healthcare-focussed lending startup Kiwimoney for an undisclosed amount.
- Indian mobile gaming company Octro acquired Israel-based DGN Games for an undisclosed amount.
Other Major Developments From This Week
- Aditya Birla Group’s Hindalco Industries will invest INR 800 Cr to set up a battery foil manufacturing facility in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.
- Climate-focused Asha Ventures marked the first close of its debut fund at $50 Mn, which will have a total corpus of $100 Mn.