Indian startups funding saw $383.5 million in the latest week across 28 rounds, including five growth-stage rounds, 21 early-stage rounds and one undisclosed round. The week also saw 8 key leadership hires, 2 new funds launched and 3 M&A deals, which was a huge turnaround in terms of startup funding activity from the last week.

Key Highlights

• Indian startups raised $383.5 million in 28 investments, rising 4.7X from the previous week's haul of $82.2 million
• Bengaluru was the top funder for the week, with 16 deals, while AI was the most active sector with six deals in the week.

Growth-Stage Deals Total $273.7 Million

Electric mobility startup River Mobility led the round with $120 million raised as part of a Series C funding round, followed by other growth-stage companies, which raised a combined total of nearly $273.7 million in six deals this week. India's Leap India has also raised Rs 371.3 crore through a pre-IPO placement from GIC subsidiary Gamnat Pte Ltd and AI start-up Sarvam has raised $74 million in an extension of its Series B round, led by NVIDIA Corporation.

Some other rounds include growth-stage activewear brand BlissClub getting Rs 160 crore in Series B funding from Singularity AMC, Matel Motion & Energy Solutions raising Rs 130 crore (about $15 million) in acquisition financing from UC Impower and fintech platform Mintoak raising Rs 80 crore (about $9 million) in acquisition financing from BlackSoil.

Early-Stage Startups Raise $109.8 Million

Total deals for early stage startups raised $109.8 million via 19 deals led by InRisk Labs with $27 million raised in a Bessemer Venture Partners/Northpoint Capital Series A round. HomeRun's Series A round was led by Nexus Venture Partners, at $12 million, and its other rounds went to Mitti Labs, which did a $9.5 million round and Pinegap, which did a $8 million round.

There were also 14 other startups who received funding during the week, including Vaaree, GetVantage, Kaapi Machines, Solinas Integrity, Benne and more.

City and Sector-Wise Funding Trends

Bengaluru continued to dominate India's startup funding landscape with 16 deals during the week, followed by Pune and Delhi-NCR with 4 deals each. Mumbai and Chennai also recorded funding activity.

Sector-wise, AI led the week with six deals, followed by fintech and deeptech with four deals each. E-commerce, manufacturing, mobility and supply chain startups also attracted investor interest. In terms of funding stages, seed rounds dominated with 11 deals, followed by 8 Series A deals, with Series B, pre-Series A, Series C, pre-IPO, debt and angel rounds also seeing activity.

Weekly Funding Trend Shows Sharp Rebound

On a week-on-week basis, startup funding jumped 4.7 times to $383.5 million, compared to around $82.2 million raised during the previous week. The average startup funding over the last eight weeks stands at around $316 million, with an average of 21 deals per week, indicating that this week's surge significantly outpaced the recent trend.

Key Hires of the Week

Fintech major Razorpay strengthened its AI leadership team, appointing Sudhir Reddy from Divyam.ai, Abhishek Agarwal from Microsoft, Bhavya Shivaprakash from Salesforce, and Anuj Mathur from CRED. InsuranceDekho named Rohan Mittal as Group CFO, Honasa Consumer elevated Nilesh Kotalwar to Chief Marketing Officer, Atoms appointed Gautam Gupta as CFO, InCred Capital named Abhinav Khanna as CEO of Capital Markets, and Medi Assist appointed Gaurav Bhatnagar as Chief TPA Officer.

New Fund Launches

Lighthouse Canton closed a Rs 105 crore private credit investment in Emerald Leisures through its India-focused Category II AIF, while Piper Serica announced the first close of its Rs 800 crore Bharat Tech Fund at Rs 300 crore. The Category II AIF is expected to invest in Indian deeptech startups across sectors such as semiconductors, defence, spacetech, fintech, robotics and biosciences.

Also Read: Indian Startup Funding: 17 Firms Raise $82.2 Mn in the Latest Week

M&A Activity

Imarticus Learning acquired Singapore-based BELLS Institute of Higher Learning, Mintoak acquired ICC Loyalty to expand its international presence, and Times Network acquired fintech startup OpiGo for an undisclosed amount to strengthen ET NOW's investor-focused financial services offerings.

Major Developments

Elevation Capital has realised a sum of almost Rs 6000 crore from selling a portion of its stake in listed Indian tech startups through IPO offer-for-sale transactions, block deals, and bulk deals, and has invested in listed startup shares valued at over Rs 20,000 crore across Meesho, Paytm and Urban Company.

Shiprocket cut the size of the IPO by 31% from the proposed Rs 2,342.35 crore to Rs 1,617 crore and the issue has been listed in the price band of Rs 92-97 per share, to open on 12 August. Meanwhile, Peak XV Partners and Elevation Capital offloaded 2.27% Meesho stake through block deals, while LEAP India, which is backed by KKR, has filed its RHP for an IPO of Rs 2,480 crore that will open on August 7.

In other developments, offshore betting platform 1xBet gained prominent visibility during India's recent Zimbabwe cricket tour, streamed on FanCode and Zee, despite repeated government advisories against advertising offshore betting platforms, raising fresh questions over the continued reach of such promotions in India.

New Product Launches and Partnerships

Mobility startup E3 Electric.AI launched its intelligent e-scooter, the E3 TRION, while super.money entered the commerce space with splitStore, an in-app instalment shopping platform. Probe42 launched two new offerings - P&P CERSAI and Mercury - to strengthen secured lending research for banks, and QubeHealth-Pay partnered with Petos Insurance to power pet healthcare payments through the Petos app, a tie-up expected to facilitate over Rs 50 crore in pet healthcare payments over the next 18 months.