Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [Aug 31 – Sep 05]

This week, 25 Indian startups raised $303.7 million across five growth-stage deals, 16 early-stage deals and three undisclosed rounds. The week also saw seven key hires, four mergers and acquisitions, two startup shutdowns and 250 layoffs.

In contrast, 24 startups had collectively secured about $218.7 million in the previous week.

[Growth-stage deals]

Growth-stage startups raised $201.9 million across five deals this week. Digital banking startup Slice led the funding with a $100 million round at a $450 million valuation, led by Neo Wealth with participation from Kado Global, Moore Strategic Ventures and Raise Financial.

Wearable tech startup Ultrahuman has raised $70 million in a round led by Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from Labcorp, Alpha Wave, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Alteria and other investors. D2C skincare brand SUGAR Cosmetics has raised Rs 144.5 crore ($15.2 million) from existing investor A91 Partners at a valuation of Rs 755 crore, down 75% from its last valuation of Rs 3,000 crore.

Homegrown sneaker brand Comet has raised around Rs 100 crore in its Series B round led by Belgium-based investment firm Verlinvest. Pune-based deeptech company Aeron Systems has raised Rs 45 crore ($4.7 million) in a Pre-Series B funding round

[Early-stage deals]

Early-stage startups raised $101.8 million across 16 deals this week. BaaS provider Yuma Energy raised $35 million in Series A funding led by Magna International, while NextGen Finance raised Rs 215 crore led by Beams Fintech Fund.

Consumer health startup Cradlewise raised $12 million in Series A funding led by 3one4 Capital and Prudent Investment Management. Space infrastructure startup Kepler Aerospace raised $8 million in seed funding led by Blue Ashva Capital.

Former Google AI lead Prashant Jalan launched Guickly with $4.2 million in seed funding led by Engineering Capital. Deeptech startup Zenergize Technologies also raised $4 million in Pre-Series A funding led by Giraffe Studios.

Other startups that raised funding this week included deeptech firms Zenergize Technologies, Minimac Systems and Alteon, along with indoor air-quality company YOGa Clean Air and six other startups. 

Voice-first AI tutoring platform YoLearn.ai, English learning app SpeakX, neurotechnology startup Neurotech and deeptech firm BQP also raised funding this week, with amounts undisclosed.

[City and segment-wise deals]

Bengaluru led the funding charts with 14 startup deals during the week, followed by Delhi-NCR with five. Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad also recorded deals.

Deeptech startups led the sectors with five deals, followed by healthtech and AI with four deals each. E-commerce bagged 3 deals during the week while Fintech and edtech startups recorded two deals each, while e-commerce, EV, spacetech, manufacturing and other sectors also saw funding activity.

[Series-wise deals]

Series A rounds led the week with 8 deals, followed by Series A and pre-seed rounds with five  deals and four deals respectively. Series D, Series B, Pre-Series A, Series C  and pre-Series B also recorded one deal each during the week.

[Week-on-week funding trend]

On a weekly basis, startup funding surged over 39% to $303.7 million from $218.7 million raised in the previous week.

The average weekly funding over the past eight weeks stood at around $218.25 million across 20 deals.

[Key Hirings / Departures]

This week, Bengaluru-based digital healthcare platform MediBuddy appointed Shalabh Shrivastava as its Head of Operations to strengthen processes and technology-led execution. Fintech platform Pine Labs also appointed Jayaram Karthik, former SVP of Business Operations at Razorpay, as its chief operations officer.

Wingify has appointed Mehernaz Dalal as its chief financial officer. Boldfit has appointed former Lenskart chief business officer Oliver Kaye as its chief operating officer. Enterprise SaaS company Genefied has appointed Neha Lakhwara as Head of Investor Relations and Strategy. Technology-led credit inclusion platform BankSathi has appointed Nitish Kumar Bugalia as co-founder and chief operating officer.

[Mergers and Acquisitions]

Gurugram-based insurtech startups InsuranceDekho and RenewBuy have merged to create a unified pan-India insurance distribution platform under the InsuranceDekho brand, with founder and CEO Ankit Agrawal leading the combined entity. 

Bengaluru-based travel-fintech platform Niyo has agreed to acquire Capital India Finance’s forex and cross-border business, operated under the RemitX brand. The deal will bring RemitX’s branch network, distribution partners, employees and brand under Niyo.

Adobe has picked up India based marketing intelligence startup Rilo in a deal involving the licensing of its technology and acquisition of its team. This is Adobe’s second acquisition from India.

Cloud-based lending platform Lenra AI has acquired Israel-based data science company Data Harbor in an undisclosed deal. Founded by Ephraim Goldin, Data Harbor provides real-time data consolidation, predictive analytics and data science services, with the acquisition aimed at strengthening Lenra’s Intelligence Stack and automation across the lending lifecycle.

[Layoffs]

Uber is set to lay off around 200-250 employees in India as part of a global restructuring, with cuts expected across its People and Earners teams, according to an ET report. Globally, the company is eliminating around 3,300 roles, or 10% of its workforce, in its largest workforce reduction since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Eternal, the parent company of Zomato and Blinkit, is set to lay off around 250 employees as part of a restructuring of its customer support operations.

[Shutdown]

Gurugram-based e-grocery startup Satvacart has shut down after 12 years, with August 28 marking its last day of operations. The shutdown follows years of funding challenges, with smaller capital tranches proving insufficient to rebuild and scale the business.

[Financial results this week]

[New launches and partnerships]

▪️ Swiggy’s CREW forays into travel with an always-on concierge app

▪️ Swiggy and Hero MotoCorp announce strategic partnership to strengthen delivery partners across India

▪️ Scapia Pay Launches biometric authentication for PIN-free UPI payments

▪️ MapmyIndia Mappls partners with ClarityX to launch ‘Geo-FI’

▪️ Flipkart enters microdrama space with short form content on app

[News flash this week]

▪️ Investors cash out over $2.77 Bn from Indian tech stocks in August

▪️ Unacademy closes UpGrad deal at $200 Mn

▪️ UPI hits new record with 24.51 Bn transactions in August

▪️ TVS retains EV two-wheeler lead in August as market declines 11%

▪️Flipkart Minutes’ order value nears Blinkit’s: UBS

▪️Rentomojo files RHP for Rs 1,256 Cr IPO; targets Rs 4,200 Cr valuation

[Summary]

On a weekly basis, startup funding surged over 39% to $303.7 million from $218.7 million raised in the previous week.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) recorded its highest-ever monthly transaction volume in August 2026, processing 24.51 billion transactions worth Rs 29.82 lakh crore, according to NPCI data. Transaction volume rose 3.6% MoM and 22% YoY, while transaction value declined 0.2% MoM but grew 20% YoY. UPI processed an average 791 million transactions worth Rs 96,205 crore daily during the month.

India’s electric two-wheeler industry recorded an 11% month-on-month decline in August to 1.82 lakh units from 2.05 lakh units in July, with most major players witnessing a steep drop. TVS Motor retained the top spot with 48,873 registrations and a 27.04% market share, despite a 12.45% MoM decline.

Indian new-age companies saw substantial secondary market activity in August, with 17 block and bulk deals worth Rs 26,337 crore ($2.77 billion) across 12 companies, including Lenskart, Groww, Meesho, Eternal and Paytm. The activity was largely driven by early-stage investors and promoters offloading their holdings, while mutual funds, insurers and global institutional investors emerged as key buyers.

CREW, the premium concierge platform from the Swiggy ecosystem, has entered the travel space with a dedicated personal travel concierge offering for avid travellers. The platform plans, books and curates journeys end to end, from discovery to on-site assistance. The move follows a year of learnings since CREW’s launch, with travel emerging as the category seeing the strongest demand for seamless, end-to-end convenience.

Swiggy and Hero MotoCorp have partnered to offer delivery partners exclusive pricing on Hero models, customised financing solutions with up to 90% LTV and competitive interest rates. The partnership will also provide road safety training under Hero MotoCorp’s Ride Safe India initiative, covering safe riding practices, traffic rules, hazard anticipation and emergency response.

India’s leading travel fintech platform has launched biometric authentication for UPI payments on Scapia Pay, allowing users to authenticate transactions below Rs 10,000 through a fingerprint or face scan instead of entering their bank-linked UPI PIN. Payments are verified using Face ID on iOS and fingerprint recognition on Android, making transactions faster and more secure.

MapmyIndia Mappls, in partnership with AI-driven data analytics firm ClarityX, has launched Geo-FI, a comprehensive geo-intelligence platform for lending. The platform integrates spatial insights into the lending process to help BFSI companies assess borrower risk and identify opportunities.

Edtech major Unacademy has been acquired by UpGrad for just over $200 million, marking a 94% decline from its peak valuation of around $3.4 billion in 2021. Unacademy cofounder and CEO Gaurav Munjal confirmed the deal, noting that the company had raised funds at its peak but is now being sold at a fraction of that valuation.