Funding and acquisitions in Indian startup this week [Apr 27 – May 02]

This week, 17 Indian startups raised around $187.2 million, comprising 4 growth-stage and 13 early-stage deals and an undisclosed deal.

In contrast, 19 startups had collectively secured about $47 million in the previous week.

[Growth-stage deals]

Growth-stage startups raised a total of $126 million across four deals, led by quick home services platform Snabbit, which secured $56 million in a Series D round from Susquehanna VC, Mirae Asset Venture Investments, and Bertelsmann India Investments. This was followed by Sahi, which raised $33 million in a Series B round led by Accel, with participation from Elevation Capital.

Smart grid solutions startup Kimbal Technologies has raised $22 million (Rs 210 crore) in a Series B round led by GEF Capital Partners. Meanwhile, Battery Smart has secured $15 million in debt funding from Mirova, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers.

[Early-stage deals]

Early-stage startups raised Rs 510 crore across 13 deals this week, led by Oolka, which secured Rs 130 crore in a Series A round led by Accel with participation from Lightspeed and Z47, while HyugaLife raised Rs 100 crore in a Series A round led by IvyCap Ventures.

Fintech startup Novio, has raised Rs 100 crore ($10.5 million) in a Series A funding round led by Cornerstone Ventures. AI-driven supply chain optimization startup Mojro Technologies has raised $5.5 million in a Series A funding round.

Fintech firm Sahamati, electro-optics company Optimized Electrotech, sports-tech startups SportVot, women-led contemporary ethnic wear brand House of Chikankari, deeptech Ctruh and four other early-stage firms also secured funding this week.

[City and segment-wise deals]

Bengaluru and Mumbai topped the city-wise deal count with 6 deals each, followed by Delhi-NCR which secured 4 deals. Chennai, and Ahmedabad also recorded deals this week.

Segment-wise, fintech startups led the week with 4 deals. Gaming, E-commerce and deeptech startups followed with 2 deals each. Home services, energy, EV, SaaS and others also recorded funding activity during the period.

[Series-wise deals]

Series A rounds led the week with 6 deals, followed by 5 seed deals, along with one each in Series A, pre-seed, pre-Series B and Series B categories.

[Week-on-week funding trend]

On a weekly basis, startup funding jumped 4X to just $187.21 million as compared to around $47 million raised during the previous week.

The average funding in the last eight weeks stands at around $229.68 million with 23 deals per week.

[Key Hirings/Departures]

Key leadership moves this week: Perfios appointed Veena Rao as COO to lead global operations. Flipkart elevated Minutes head Kunal Gupta to SVP and Cleartrip’s Gaurav Patwari to VP. Meanwhile, Fractal Analytics strengthened its AI leadership, naming Kunal Jain as head of AI workforce transformation, Suraj Amonkar as chief AI research officer, and Matthew Gennone as chief commercial officer and CEO of Cogentiq.

Some key departures were also reported this week, as Cars24 saw multiple senior exits. Co-founder Gajendra Jangid stepped down, while co-founder and COO Mehul Agrawal moved on from his operating role after more than a decade.

Fractal Analytics announced the departure of its chief growth officer Shailendra Pratap Singh, who stepped down citing personal reasons. Meanwhile, Ujjwal Jain, CEO of PhonePe’s stockbroking platform Share.Market and its wealth management verticals, has exited after a four-year stint at PhonePe and TBO Tek COO Deepak Khanna also stepped down after nearly two decades at the company.

[Mergers & Acquisitions]

Pine Labs has acquired a 100% stake in Shopflo Technologies in a deal valued at up to Rs 88 crore. Meanwhile, RBS has acquired Zeko, an AI-driven platform built for the hotel industry. Additionally, California-based Palo Alto Networks is set to acquire Portkey to strengthen its enterprise AI security capabilities as businesses scale the use of autonomous agents.

[Fund Launches]

Early-stage VC firm Capital-A has secured the first close of its second fund at Rs 160 crore, as it looks to back startups across sectors such as aerospace, robotics, energy transition, and industrial hardware, with a target corpus of Rs 300 crore and a greenshoe option of Rs 100 crore.

[New Launches and Partnerships]

▪️  Dhan launches Gold Vault: Enables Indians to buy Gold & Silver directly from Exchange

▪️ Flipkart, Axis Bank and PayU Introduce Biometric Authentication For Card Payments

▪️ No More Sharing Flat Numbers: Mygate Launches ‘Safe Pickup Mode’

▪️ ixigo launches native travel apps on ChatGPT

[Q4 FY26 result this week]

[News flash this week]

▪️ Indian startup funding declines to $865 Mn in April: Entrackr Report

▪️ UPI remains above 22 Bn transactions for consecutive month in April

▪️ Ola Electric rises 20% even as EV two-wheeler registrations decline in April

▪️ Ather’s CEO Tarun Mehta counters govt stance on PLI, says startups are ‘engine’ of EV shift

▪️ Eternal’s reality check: Blinkit’s thin margins and District’s losses

▪️ PhonePe crosses 50 Mn registered merchants amid UPI dominance

▪️ Kissht files RHP to launch Rs 926 IPO; sets price band at Rs 162-171

[Summary]

On a weekly basis, startup funding declined nearly 64% to just $47 million as compared to around $129 million raised during the previous week.

After hitting peak volumes in March 2026, India’s electric two-wheeler market saw a 22% month-on-month decline in April, with registrations dropping from 1.92 lakh to 1.48 lakh units, while most major players reported sharp sales declines; however, Ola Electric stood out with over 20% growth during the month, according to Vahan data.

National Payments Corporation of India data showed that Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded a slight dip in April 2026 after hitting an all-time high in March, processing 22.35 billion transactions worth Rs 29.03 lakh crore; however, on a year-on-year basis, volumes grew 25% and value rose 21%, with average daily transactions at 745 million and daily value at Rs 96,766 crore.

PhonePe has crossed 50 million registered merchants, with its network now covering over 98% of India’s postal codes as of April 28, 2026. Earlier, in March, it became the first UPI app to surpass 10 billion transactions in a single month, accounting for over 46% of total UPI volumes and more than 49% by value, according to NPCI data.

Digital lending platform Kissht, operated by OnEMI Technology Solutions, has filed its RHP with Securities and Exchange Board of India and is set to launch its Rs 926 crore IPO on April 30; the company has reduced its fresh issue to Rs 850 crore (from Rs 1,000 crore earlier) and trimmed the offer for sale to 4.4 million shares, estimated at around Rs 76 crore.

Stock broking platform Dhan has launched ‘Gold Vault’, an investment product that enables users to buy physical gold and silver at live exchange-linked prices; operating within Securities and Exchange Board of India’s framework, it offers a compliant route to invest in bullion, with physical settlement and secure vaulting facilitated by Multi Commodity Exchange Clearing Corporation Limited.

MyGate has introduced Safe Pickup Mode, a new feature aimed at improving privacy during cab pickups in gated societies. The feature removes the need to share flat numbers with drivers or security staff, allowing verification through vehicle numbers instead; drivers are only given tower details, ensuring resident information remains private while maintaining a smooth and secure entry process.

Flipkart, in partnership with Axis Bank and PayU, has launched biometric authentication for card payments, allowing users to verify transactions via fingerprint or Face ID on supported devices, eliminating the need for OTPs; the feature is initially available for Axis Bank cardholders and positions Flipkart among the first major Indian e-commerce platforms to offer issuer-level biometric verification.