Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [Apr 6 – Apr 11]

This week, 31 Indian startups raised around  $594.39 million, comprising 2 growth-stage, 26 early-stage deals and 3 startups kept their funding undisclosed.

In contrast, 21 startups had collectively secured about $100 million in the previous week.

[Growth-stage deals]

Growth-stage startups saw just two deals this week but raised a total of $430 million, led by digital lending platform KreditBee, which secured $280 million in a Series E round led by Motilal Oswal Alternates at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation, turning it into a unicorn. SaaS firm Wingify also raised $150 million from majority shareholder Everstone Capital and existing investors.

[Early-stage deals]

Early-stage startups raised $164.39 million across 26 deals this week. Product design startup Noon led with a $44 million round backed by Chemistry, First Round Capital, Scribble Ventures, Elevation Capital, and Afore Capital, while AI infrastructure firm Nava raised $22 million from Greenoaks Capital, along with RTP Global and Unicorn India Ventures.

Tsecond.ai raised over $21.5 million (around Rs 190 crore) in a round led by MSN Holdings, while Aman Gupta’s new venture Off Beat secured Rs 100 crore in seed funding from Bessemer Venture Partners. Meanwhile, D2C farm produce platform Pluckk also raised Rs 100 crore (around $10.8 million) from existing investor Euro Gulf Investment.

Design-led manufacturing platform BIDSO, EV financing and asset management platform Astranova Mobility, AI firm Atlas, asset-based rewards platform GoSats, MSME-focused embedded credit platform GLAAS, skincare brand ClayCo, and 15 other early-stage startups secured funding this week.

Cybersecurity startup Satark AI, seafood infrastructure company Dam Good Fish and wealth management and private markets platform ILIOS 72 also raised funding this week, although the amounts remain undisclosed.

[City and segment-wise deals]

Bengaluru topped the city-wise deal count with 14 deals, followed by Delhi-NCR,  which secured 10 deals. Mumbai, Jaipur, Mysore, Kochi and Ahmedabad also recorded deals this week.

Segment-wise, AI startups led the week with 8 deals. Fintech and e-commerce followed with 6 deals and 4 deals respectively. Deeptech, F&B, SaaS, energy, logistics and other sectors also recorded funding activity during the period.

[Series-wise deals]

Series A rounds led the week with 10  deals, followed by seed and pre-seed deals with 9 deals and 5 deals respectively, along with a few angel, pre-Series A, Series E, and undisclosed transactions.

[Week-on-week funding trend]

On a weekly basis, startup funding jumped nearly 6X to $594.39 million as compared to around $100 million raised during the previous week.

The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $390.6 million with 27 deals per week.

[Key Hirings/Departures]

Key leadership moves this week: Cult.fit strengthened its board with the appointment of Kalpana Morparia, Arun M. Kumar, Indu Bhushan, and Pragya Misra as independent directors. Policybazaar named Sajja Praveen Chowdary as CEO and principal officer, replacing Tarun Mathur. VerSe Innovation appointed Prasanna Prasad as Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) to lead engineering, product, and data science.

GLAAS onboarded Devesh Sachdev as co-founder and managing director, while ONDC elevated Vibhor Jain to Managing Director and CEO from COO. Stripe appointed Manish Maheshwari as Head of Revenue and Growth for India, and Numeros Motors named Arun Srivastava as CEO. Scaler also announced leadership changes, appointing Amar Srivastava as CEO, with Vidit Jain heading offline education units and Ratnakar Reddy leading enterprise partnerships across India and MENA.

Swiggy co-founder and Head of Innovation Nandan Reddy has stepped down to pursue independent ventures, while Pine Labs announced the resignation of Navin Chandani, President and Chief Business Officer (Issuing).

[Mergers & Acquisitions]

Fashinza has acquired manufacturing-focused design-to-delivery startup Qckin, while Exotel has acqui-hired the core team of voice AI startup Dubverse, including cofounders Anuja Dhawan and Varshul Gupta. One Hand Clap, backed by Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, has acquired seeding and distribution firm Agenseed, and Quest Global has acquired semiconductor design services firm BITSILICA to bolster its end-to-end engineering capabilities.

[Fund Launches]

InCred Alternative Private Investments has closed its maiden special opportunities credit fund at a hard cap of Rs 1,500 crore, while Masters’ Union has launched a Rs 100 crore early-stage fund, MU Ventures, to back founders under 25 with cheques ranging from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

[Shutdowns]

Cloud kitchen unicorn Rebel Foods has shut down its 15-minute food delivery app QuickiES, less than a year after launch, citing high cash burn.

[ESOP Buyback]

Atlys has announced its first ESOP buyback worth Rs 4 crore, allowing employees across roles to liquidate up to 25% of their vested stock options.

[New Launches and Partnerships]

▪️ Zerodha rolls out fixed deposits on Coin app 

▪️ Beep App launches to turn content consumption into career outcomes

▪️ Veranda Learning launches scholarship initiative for CA aspirants

▪️ Healthians founder Deepak Sahni announces new startup ‘Un:Bloc’ on World Health Day

[Financial result this week]

[News flash this week]

▪️ Nexus Venture Partners offloads Rs 530 Cr stake in Delhivery via block deals 

▪️ Zepto secures SEBI approval for $1.3 Bn IPO

▪️ RBI proposes 1-hour delay for UPI, IMPS transfers above Rs 10,000

▪️ Groww surrenders PA licence two years after RBI approval

[Summary]

On a weekly basis, startup funding jumped nearly 6X to $594.39 million as compared to around $100 million raised during the previous week.

Nexus Venture Partners sold a 1.6% stake in Delhivery for about Rs 530 crore via bulk and block deals on the NSE, offloading nearly 1.2 crore shares at Rs 442 each. Nippon India MF and SBI MF led the buying, picking up 45.75 lakh shares each, with participation from BNP Paribas, ICICI Prudential MF, Edelweiss MF, and Alphamine.

Zepto has reportedly secured SEBI approval for its IPO and is looking to raise $1.2- 1.3 billion (Rs 10,000–12,000 crore) through a mix of fresh issue and OFS by early investors. The approval follows its confidential filing route, allowing flexibility on timing and issue structure.

The Reserve Bank of India has proposed a one-hour cooling period for digital payments above Rs 10,000 via UPI and IMPS to curb fraud. The move will mainly apply to P2P transfers, while payments to verified merchants are likely to remain unaffected.

Deepak Sahni, founder of Gurugram-based Healthians, has launched a new venture, Un:Bloc, a platform-led initiative aimed at addressing systemic inefficiencies across large-scale service ecosystems. The announcement was made on World Health Day.

Stockbroking platform Groww has surrendered its payment aggregator licence after securing RBI approval for Groww Pay in April 2024, signaling a strategic shift away from operating as a payments intermediary.