Startup funding report shows Indian startups securing $61.8 million in the latest week across 17 deals, comprising 1 growth-stage round, 14 early-stage deals and 2 undisclosed rounds. The week also saw 15 key appointments and 1 merger and acquisition, marking a sharp decline in overall funding activity compared to the previous week.

Key Highlights

• Startup Funding Report shows Indian startups raised $61.8 million across 17 deals, led by Flam's $40 million round.
• Bengaluru led the funding charts with 7 deals, while e-commerce topped sector-wise activity with eight deals.

Growth-Stage Deals Total $40 Million

There were a total of 15 investments, totaling $40 million, in growth-stage startups this week.This week saw a total of 15 investments in growth-stage startups, valued at $40 million. Led by Claypond Capital, Martin Chavez, Olivier Pomel, Venky Harinarayan, Shah Rukh Khan, and others, Bengaluru-based AI interactive content startup Flam raised $40 million in a Series B round.

Early-Stage Startups Raise $21.8 Million

A total of $21.8 million was raised by early-stage startups in 14 deals during the week. AI-native semiconductor verification startup VerifAIX has secured Rs 5 million in its seed round with Avaana Capital and Bluehill VC, while the deeptech startup, DheyaTech has raised Rs 43 crore in pre-Series A round led by Avaana Capital. Beauty quick commerce platform Firi also raised $3 million in a round led by 360 ONE Asset, who is also based out of Gurugram.

D2C fashion startup UniqYou raised Rs 15.8 crore in a seed round led by Arkam Ventures and Antler. Metal procurement platform Enlight Metals secured $1.5 million from Exar North Group at a $10 million valuation, while aesthetic surgery platform TRUE ARTIS raised Rs 11.4 crore in a seed round led by Zeropearl VC.

Other funded startups during the week included baby-focused quick commerce platform Kiddo, gaming startup 1312 Interactive, industrial workforce platform Factrika, and five others. Digital physiotherapy platform Physioplus Healthcare and eye beauty brand Peep Beauty also raised funding this week, though the amounts remained undisclosed.

City and Sector-Wise Funding Trends

Bengaluru again led the funding charts with 7 startup deals during the week, followed by Delhi-NCR with 6 deals. Mumbai, Chennai and Jaipur also recorded funding activity.

E-commerce startups led the sectors with eight deals, followed by healthtech with two deals, while AI, semiconductor, deeptech and gaming sectors also saw funding activity. In terms of funding stages, seed rounds led the week with 9 deals, followed by pre-seed and pre-Series A rounds with four and two deals respectively, while Series B and angel funding each recorded one deal.

Weekly Funding Trend Shows Sharp Decline

On a week-on-week basis, Indian startup funding dropped over 82% to $61.8 million, compared to $356.8 million raised the previous week. The 21 deals averaged about $219.6 million per week over the last eight weeks, which was significantly less than the trend seen in recent weeks.

Key Hires

Bluestone appointed CarDekho co-founder and CEO Amit Jain as a Non-Executive Non-Independent Director. Info Edge appointed former Adobe Systems India MD Naresh Chand Gupta as an Independent Director and Himanshu Agarwal as its new CFO.

Fintech platform super.money appointed Rohan Khara as Chief Product Officer. Practo elevated founder and CEO Shashank ND Singh as Managing Director and Executive Chairman, while former COO Jagnoor Singh was appointed CEO.

OTPless elevated co-founders Satyam Nathani and Tanmay Sagar as CEO and COO, respectively. Avendus Wealth Management appointed Umang Papneja as Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, while BikeWo Green Tech named Sumanth Badiga to its Advisory Board.

RTP Global elevated Smita Goel to Chief Operating Officer of its Asia operations. PointAI appointed Afshan Banu as Global Head of Fashion & Beauty, while Leverage Edu named former KPMG and IASB executive Prabhakar Kalavacherla as an Independent Director and Chair of its Audit Committee.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Unstop acquired talent assessment platform PerspectAI, with its founders and team joining Unstop. The deal will add PerspectAI's AI and game-based assessment capabilities to Unstop's hiring platform.

Also Read: Startup Funding in August Nears $1 Bn as 88 Startups Raises $955 Mn

New Launches and Partnerships

Swiggy introduced a new option for its food delivery partners in India called 'Early Cashout', enabling them to receive their earnings at any time rather than waiting for weekly payments and getting the cash credited to their Swiggy Partner app within an hour.

Puresta Lifestyle launched EVERQ an AI-powered skin health platform that is based on a "Diagnose First. Then Treat." concept.

Major News and Developments This Week

Sustainable footwear brand Neeman's is targeting Rs 1,000 crore in revenue over the next three years, with plans to expand its offline footprint to 500 stores across India, after crossing Rs 185 crore in revenue last year.

IPO-bound Zetwerk is expanding its owned manufacturing footprint, with three new facilities under construction as of March 2026, as the technology-led manufacturing platform continues scaling its "universal factory" model across 26 facilities in four countries.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) raised Rs 6,746 crore from 189 anchor investors ahead of its IPO, which opened for public subscription on September 17, allotting 3.78 crore shares at Rs 1,785 apiece - the upper end of its price band. The anchor book included LIC, Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, ADIA, GIC Singapore, Fidelity and Societe Generale, among others.

Kissht parent OnEMI Technology Solutions approved a fundraise of up to Rs 832.2 crore through a preferential issue, planning to issue up to 2.64 crore shares at Rs 314.11 apiece to 34 non-promoter investors, including Axis Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund, WhiteOak and Groww Mutual Fund.

On September 17, furniture and appliance rental platform RentoMojo announced a stock market debut, listing its shares at nearly 19% premium to the IPO price of Rs 404, as it was met with huge demand from investors for its IPO, which was valued at Rs 1,256 crore.

PhonePe has achieved 11 billion UPI transactions in August and has captured 45.64% of the UPI transaction volume of the month, whereas Google Pay is processing 7.91 billion UPI transactions and has a market share of 32.26% in volume.

NPCI introduced a 0.4% MDR on select merchant UPI payments above Rs 2,000, effective October 15, 2026, capped at Rs 300 for transactions of Rs 75,000 and above, with payments up to Rs 2,000 remaining free and no charges applicable to consumers.

Indian wealthtech startups have gone through 26 deals worth approximately $317M in the first eight months of 2026, with just four rounds being above the $30M threshold, with the top four being led by Veriqus Group, Neo, Sahi, and Centricity, reports indicated.