Startup fuding report shows Indian startups securing $302.85 million in the latest week (October 12 to 17) across 28 startups, comprising 8 growth-stage deals, 21 early-stage deals, and 1 undisclosed round. The week also saw 5 key appointments, 1 departure, and 1 fund launch, marking a sharp rebound in funding from the previous week.

Key Highlights

• Indian startups raised $302.85 million across 28 deals, led by Tessolve Semiconductor's $75 million round.
• Bengaluru led with 19 deals, while e-commerce topped sector-wise activity with seven deals.

Weekly Funding Trend

On a week-on-week basis, startup funding surged 2.7X to $302.85 million from $113.35 million raised the previous week. The average weekly funding over the past eight weeks stands at around $244.6 million across 24 deals, so this week's total came in above the recent trend.

Growth-Stage Deals Total $220.37 Million

Growth-stage startups raised $220.37 million across eight deals. Tessolve Semiconductor, a Hero Electronix company, led with $75 million from US-based Vector Line Capital.

Homegrown sports brand Boldfit raised over Rs 400 crore in a Series B round led by Bharat Value Fund. AI startup RapidCanvas secured $29 million from Vertex Ventures, while Bengaluru-based Scimplify raised $25 million in a strategic round led by Hitachi Ventures.

Construction robotics startup Origin raised $20 million in a round co-led by Accel and Zacua Ventures. D2C personal care brand Nat Habit is raising Rs 142.6 crore ($15 million) in a fresh round led by Trident Growth Partners. Toothsi's parent MakeO raised Rs 90 crore from Singularity AMC, and B2B manufacturing startup CapGrid secured Rs 46.28 crore ($4.87 million) in a pre-Series B round led by Hero Enterprise Partner Ventures.

Early-Stage Startups Raise $82.48 Million

Early-stage startups collectively raised $82.48 million across 21 deals. Mesa School of Business led with Rs 110 crore, including around Rs 85 crore in Series A equity funding co-led by Dharana Capital and existing investor Elevation Capital. Healthtech startup Confido Health secured $12.5 million in a Series A round led by Z47.

Bengaluru's Spill Games raised $10.5 million in a Series A round led by Elevation Capital, while AI video platform Clueso secured $10 million from Dharana Capital. AI startups Parallel Loop and Shamrock AI raised $6.6 million and $5 million, respectively, in seed rounds led by 3one4 Capital and Endiya Partners.

Bengaluru-based chemical process innovation startup NuSynth Technologies raised Rs 36.5 crore (around $4 million) in a seed round co-led by Avaana Capital and Shastra VC. Other funded startups included edtech Bower School of Entrepreneurship, advanced materials and manufacturing startup ThinkMetal, enterprise AI startup RevRag AI, and pre-owned goods marketplace Circle.

City and Sector-Wise Funding Trends

Bengaluru once again led the funding charts with 19 deals, followed by Hyderabad (3) and Delhi-NCR (2). Mumbai, Shillong, and Chennai also recorded deals.

E-commerce startups led the sectors with seven deals, followed by AI (5) and manufacturing (4). Healthtech, edtech, spacetech, semiconductor, and robotics also saw funding activity. By stage, seed rounds led with 12 deals, followed by pre-seed (5) and Series A (4), while Series C, Series D, pre-Series B, and pre-Series A recorded one deal each.

Key Hires

Five key appointments and one departure were recorded this week:

• Nazara Technologies founder Nitish Mittersain will step down as MD to become founder and non-executive director. The company redesignated Mithun Padam Sacheti as executive director and appointed Arun Agrawal as CFO.
• Kamaldeep Singh, former CEO of DealShare, joined Indofast Energy, a joint venture between IndianOil and SUN Mobility, as CEO.
• InCred Capital appointed Abhinav Khanna as CEO of Capital Markets and Abhimanyu Kalra as managing director and co-head of equities, as it expands its institutional equities business in India.

Fund Launches

Fundamentum Frontier Advisors (F2A) secured Rs 3,000 crore in subscriptions from Indian and overseas investors for its growth-stage AI and deeptech investment strategy, with Nandan Nilekani joining as an anchor investor and mentor. Led by Ashish Kumar, Debraj Banerjee, and Vivek Singla, the fund plans to invest Rs 100 crore to Rs 200 crore each in 12 to 15 companies over the next two to three years.

Also Read: Startup Funding Report: 28 Firms Raise $113.35 Mn in the Latest Week

Major News and Developments This Week

Urban Company approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 2,500 crore through equity shares and convertible securities, including a QIP, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. The fundraise could support the expansion of its InstaHelp vertical, customer acquisition, and marketing as competition intensifies from rivals such as Snabbit and Pronto.

Zetwerk Manufacturing Businesses secured Rs 2,251 crore from anchor investors ahead of its IPO. Capital Group's two arms, Capital Research and Capital World, received around Rs 288 crore, or 12.88% of the allocation. The anchor book also saw participation from 3P India Equity Fund, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, Nomura, Société Générale, Manulife, and Prudential Assurance.

Groww's equity derivatives revenue declined 14.3% QoQ in Q2 FY27, largely due to SEBI's Closing Auction System (CAS), introduced on August 3. Despite this, parent Billionbrains Garage Ventures reported a 54% year-on-year rise in net profit to Rs 725.6 crore, while revenue grew 44% to Rs 1,541 crore.

NABVENTURES, NABARD's venture capital arm, plans to invest Rs 30 crore to Rs 70 crore per company through its second fund, which has raised Rs 450 crore at its first close against a Rs 1,500 crore target. The fund will back growth-stage and technology-driven businesses across agriculture and the rural economy.

NPCI deferred the implementation of MDR on select UPI transactions until after Diwali, postponing the October 15 rollout. Under the framework announced in September, eligible merchant transactions above Rs 2,000 will attract a 0.4% MDR, capped at Rs 300, while select sectors will face a flat Rs 5 charge. Capital market transactions will attract 0.02% MDR, capped at Rs 300.

Qualcomm Ventures sold 0.98% of Shadowfax Technologies for Rs 157.28 crore through an open market transaction, following a Rs 183.85 crore stake sale in August. Across the two transactions, the investor has offloaded shares worth around Rs 341 crore.

Agritech firm Nutrifresh reported a 51% year-on-year rise in revenue to Rs 219.3 crore in FY26 and expects to reach Rs 400 crore in FY27 as 105 acres of farms near Pune become operational. Profitable every year since its 2019 incorporation, it also secured a Rs 90 crore first tranche from the US DFC as part of a proposed Rs 400 crore investment.

New Launches and Partnerships

• boAt expanded into Sri Lanka and Bhutan, following more than 2X growth in international revenue in FY26, adding to its presence across Southeast Asia and the GCC.
• Swiggy launched Multi Restaurant Ordering, letting users order from up to five restaurants in a single transaction with one checkout and a shared tracking screen.
• CoinSwitch Ventures rebranded as BlackLane Capital, an independent global early-stage investment firm expanding beyond Web3 into fintech, enterprise infrastructure, consumer applications, and digital assets. It plans to invest up to $5 million per startup and facilitate over $100 million in funding over five years.
• HospitalStore launched HospitalCloud.ai to enter digital hospital infrastructure, with a portfolio including HospitraX.ai for hospital management and EquipTrax AI for medical equipment management.
• FinStackk launched SalesTaxx, an end-to-end US sales tax compliance platform for businesses and accounting firms, at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.