Funding and acquisitions in Indian startups this week [June 1 – June 6]

This week, 17 Indian startups raised around $165.3 million, comprising 5 growth-stage deals, 13 early-stage deals, while a startup kept its funding undisclosed.

In contrast, 15 startups had collectively secured about $75.35 million in the previous week.

[Growth-stage deals]

Growth-stage startups raised a total of $134.2 million across five deals this week, led by quick commerce startup FirstClub, which secured $55 million in a Series B round from Peak XV Partners and Sofina. It was followed by AI-powered national security firm Innefu Labs with a $30 million Series B round led by Panthera Growth Partners. Other notable deals included Simple Energy’s Rs 250 crore funding round, clean-label food brand Anveshan’s Rs 150 crore ($16 million) Series B raise led by Vertex Ventures and IFC, and WeRize’s $7 million pre-Series C round led by Sony Innovation Fund.

[Early-stage deals]

Early-stage startups raised $30.1 million across 13 deals this week, led by video generation startup TrueFan AI, which secured $10 million in a Series A round led by Baring Private Equity Partners India and Z3 Partners.

Seafood export startup Aquapulse followed with a Rs 45 crore funding round led by NABVENTURES. Meanwhile, protein snack brand Phab raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round co-led by OTP Ventures and Chona Family Office, while edtech startup ProLearn secured Rs 30 crore in a pre-seed round led by BEENEXT.

Other startups that attracted fresh capital this week included perfumery brand Fraganote, homebuyer advisory platform Propsoch, gifting platform Zuvees, and four more early-stage ventures.

[City and segment-wise deals]

Bengaluru topped the city-wise deal count with nine deals, followed by Delhi-NCR with five deals. Mumbai, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar recorded one deal each.

Segment-wise, e-commerce startups led the week with 6 deals. AI, healthtech, foodtech and fintech recorded 2 deals each. EV, edtech, Fintech, and proptech also recorded funding activity during the period.

[Series-wise deals]

Series B and Series A rounds led the week with four deals each, followed by three seed and pre-seed rounds. Pre-Series C and pre-Series A also witnessed activity during the week.

[Week-on-week funding trend]

On a weekly basis, startup funding surged 2.2X to $165.3 million, compared to around $75.35 million raised during the previous week.

The average funding over the last eight weeks stands at around $148 million, with an average of 18 deals per week.

[Key hirings/departures]

Several startups and tech firms announced key leadership appointments this week. ACKO strengthened its leadership team with the appointments of Apoorv Kalra, Kunal Kapur, Vivek Sharma, and Neha Gupta to lead its Auto, Health, ACKO Drive, and Assisted Experience businesses, respectively.

AI startup Emergent appointed Together Fund cofounder and managing partner Manav Garg as executive chairman, while Imarticus Learning named Rahul Jain as Chief Growth Officer – Enterprise.

Meanwhile, Zendesk appointed Tifenn Dano Kwan as Chief Marketing Officer, and BigBasket elevated Seshu Tirumala to Chief Operating Officer as it sharpens its quick commerce strategy.

Departures: BharatPe’s Group Chief Product Officer, Rohan Khara, resigned from the fintech unicorn, while Akash Dongre stepped down from PhonePe-owned Indus Appstore after more than a decade with the platform. Meanwhile, Ajay Pratap Singh resigned as CEO of Absolute Sports, the Nazara Technologies subsidiary that operates Sportskeeda, after serving in the role for over three-and-a-half years.

[Mergers & Acquisitions]

M&A activity remained steady this week. Wealth management platform Scripbox acquired the mutual fund distribution business of Bluechip Capital, while Ixigo parent Le Travenues Technology approved the acquisition of a 54.66% stake in hotel booking startup Brevistay Hospitality for Rs 65.69 crore. Apartment Eleven Eleven acquired AI-focused edtech firm Byte Band Technologies, and Atom Financial Services Group completed the acquisition of UAE-based Sirius Capital to bolster its investment banking and advisory capabilities.

[Fund Launches]

Anara Impact Capital has secured $48 million (around Rs 459 crore) in the first close of its debut fund, backed by investors including KfW Development Bank, Dara Holdings, and ISSF. The fund, targeting a corpus of $50 million, will invest in Seed and Series A startups across the Middle East and North Africa focused on scalable, impact-driven businesses.

[New launches and partnerships]

Employee liquidity continued to gain traction this week, with health benefits platform Plum announcing its first ESOP buyback programme worth Rs 15 crore for current and former employees. Meanwhile, tractor marketplace startup Traction Junction launched its second ESOP liquidity programme, buying back shares worth Rs 3 crore from 80 eligible employees exercising their vested stock options.

[New launches and partnerships]

▪️Momspresso founders unveil AI-powered creative intelligence platform Aigenc.ai

▪️Raise Financial Services, the parent of Dhan, launches Millions for new-age investors.

[FY26 result this week]

[News flash this week]

▪️RBI passes compounding order in FEMA violation case involving Myntra Designs

▪️Stable Money’s mutual fund distribution biz suspended by AMFI for 6 months

▪️Friale Fund offloads Rs 210 Cr worth of Groww shares in block deal

▪️Zepto responds to reports linking it to ED’s Parimatch probe

[Summary]

On a weekly basis, startup funding declined more than 41% to $75.35 million, compared to around $128.36 million raised during the previous week.

Aigenc.ai, launched by former Unilever and PepsiCo executives along with the founders of Momspresso (acquired by Mamaearth in 2023), is India’s first Creative Intelligence-led marketing platform. The AI-powered system helps brands understand why campaigns work, combining proprietary creative intelligence technology with human expertise to analyze, generate, predict, and deploy marketing campaigns end-to-end.

Dhan parent Raise Financial Services has launched Millions, an investing app aimed at Gen Z and first-time investors. Built around the theme “Your Journey to Millions,” the platform offers access to mutual funds, stocks, SIPs, and IPOs through a simplified, goal-based investing experience.

Myntra has settled a FEMA violation case with the RBI by paying a compounding fee of Rs 2.88 lakh, resulting in the closure of an ED investigation. The violations related to delayed filing of APRs for overseas investments worth Rs 42.85 crore and ODI-related financial commitments of Rs 3.03 crore despite pending filings.

Friale Fund IV LLC, an early investor in Groww, has sold shares worth around Rs 210 crore in the stockbroking platform’s parent entity, Billionbrains Garage Ventures, through a block deal. The investor offloaded 1.13 crore shares at Rs 185.50 apiece, with Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE acquiring the entire stake. The transaction was executed at a 2.4% discount to the stock’s previous closing price.

AMFI has suspended the mutual fund distribution activities of Stable Finserv, the distribution arm of Stable Money, until November 20, 2026, according to a report by The Economic Times. The suspension bars the company from issuing mutual fund products and has reportedly affected some users, with SIP transactions failing due to restrictions on the distributor code linked to investments.