Venture capital inflows into Indian startups remained consistent in the first half of calendar year 2025, with startups raising nearly $7 billion. Startup funding in 2025 is closely tracking last year's trend, thanks to several deals worth more than $100 million, including four that exceeded $200 million. Furthermore, tighter layoff controls, an increase in IPO filings, and the formation of large funds have all contributed to overall stability.
Key Highlights
- Indian startups raised $5.7 billion across 470 deals in H1 2025, marking an 8% year‑on‑year growth.
- Despite macroeconomic headwinds, IPO momentum picked up with Pine Labs filing IPO and HDB Financial debut.
Overview
According to data compiled by TheKredible, Indian startups received approximately $6.72 billion in funding in the first half of 2025. This figure included 148 growth and late-stage deals totaling $5.15 billion, as well as 404 early-stage deals worth $1.57 billion. In addition, there were 74 undisclosed transactions during this time period.
During this time, five startups joined the unicorn club: Jumbotail, Drools, Porter, Netradyne, and Juspay. Interestingly, they are all based in Bengaluru.
According to a recent Tracxn report, India is the world's third largest recipient of startup funding, trailing only the United States and the UK. However, the report oddly excluded China, which raised $6.9 billion in the first quarter of 2025 alone.
Also Read:HDB Financial IPO Day 3: Subscribed Nearly 4x, GMP Sees an Uptick
Year-on-year and month-on-month trends
The H1 funding closely mirrors the same period in 2024, when the ecosystem received approximately $7 billion over six months. While funding in the last six months has surpassed the H1 2023 numbers, it is still significantly lower than the $20 billion raised in H1 2022 and $13 billion in H1 2021. On a month-to-month basis, June saw just under $1 billion in funding, a decrease from $1.14 billion raised in May. This is the third time that total monthly funding has fallen below $1 billion in the first half of 2025.
