This week, 23 Indian startups raised nearly $432 million across 21 disclosed deals, including 7 growth-stage and 14 early-stage rounds, while 2 startups did not disclose their funding details. The week also saw the emergence of a new unicorn, 10 key leadership hires, the launch of 4 new funds, one acquisition, and the shutdown of a startup. In contrast, 28 startups had collectively secured about $255.9 million in the previous week.
Growth-stage deals
Growth-stage startups raised a total of $380.4 million across seven deals this week, led by AI startup Sarvam, which raised $234 million in the first close of its $300 million Series B round at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion, becoming one of India's newest AI unicorns.
Residential solar startup SolarSquare raised $53 million in a Series C round led by B Capital, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed, Elevation Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, Rainmatter, and Good Capital. Pet healthcare startup Vetic secured $40 million led by Bessemer Venture Partners, joined by existing backers Greenoaks Capital, Lachy Groom, and JSW Family Office.
Clean-label nutrition brand TruNativ raised $30 million in a round led by OrbiMed Advisors, while digital entertainment startup Rusk Media secured Rs 100 crore ($10.6 million) in a Pre-Series C round led by Nazara Technologies, with participation from Info Edge Ventures, IvyCap Ventures, and Audacity VC. Biotech startup Zumutor Biologics and gourmet retail venture Foodstories also attracted fresh capital.
Early-stage deals
Early-stage startups raised $51.36 million across 14 deals this week, led by AI verification and accountability platform Pramaana Labs, which raised $27 million in a seed round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Accel, Boldcap, Nexus Venture Partners, Premji Invest, and Unbound.
Karo Sambhav raised $6 million in a pre-Series A round led by Rainmatter by Zerodha. ContraVault AI secured $3.1 million in a Pre-Series A round led by Chiratae Ventures, with participation from Titan Capital Winners Fund. CREST raised $3.1 million in a pre-seed round led by BEENEXT, and IHLD MedTech received a strategic investment from Singapore Exchange-listed UltraGreen.ai, including an initial $3 million commitment. Other startups that received funding included AutoVRse, Maya Research, and Speedioo.
City and segment-wise deals
Bengaluru continued to lead the funding charts with 10 startup deals during the week, followed by Mumbai and Delhi-NCR with 5 deals each. Pune, Hyderabad, and Udaipur recorded one deal apiece. Segment-wise, AI startups led the week with 6 deals followed by healthtech with 3 deals. EV, marketing, energy, e-commerce, and media and entertainment also recorded funding activity.
Week-on-week funding trend
On a weekly basis, startup funding surged 70.5% to $431.76 million, compared to around $253.34 million raised during the previous week. The average funding over the last eight weeks stands at around $211.61 million, with an average of 20 deals per week.
Key hirings and departures
Bigbasket, the Tata Group-owned quick commerce platform, appointed Amit Nanda as CEO, succeeding long-time CEO Hari Menon. Trupeer AI appointed Raghu Subramanian as President and Chief Business Officer. Online higher education platform UNIVO appointed Nitin Golani as CEO, and Grip Invest elevated Ankit Dokania as CFO. Kris@Work elevated Ananta Joshi, Samanvith Reddy Balugari, and Sunil Chandra Angara as co-founders.
Mergers and acquisitions
French beauty giant L'Oreal has agreed to acquire a majority stake in personal care startup Innovist, strengthening its footprint in India's beauty and personal care market. While deal terms were not disclosed, media reports had previously valued Innovist at $350-450 million (Rs 3,240-4,170 crore).
Fund launches
Quadria Group-backed HealthQuad announced the first close of its third fund, HealthQuad Fund III, securing commitments of Rs 550 crore. Deeptech VC YourNest Venture Capital closed a Rs 400 crore continuation fund anchored by HDFC AMC, to support portfolio companies including Miko, Dozee, Exponent Energy, Twid, Opkey, and Thriwe. Atom XVII launched a Category II AIF targeting Rs 75 crore for India's consumer sector, and Ideabaaz and BeyondSeed launched IdeabaazBeyondSeed100, a Rs 100 crore startup investment initiative.
Shutdown
Startup consulting and learning platform xto10x has shut down its HR tech product PeopleCues, ending its foray into employee engagement and performance management software due to a lack of desired growth, co-founder Neeraj Aggarwal confirmed.
News flash this week
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) filed its DRHP for a long-awaited IPO, structured entirely as an offer for sale of 14.89 crore equity shares. Insurtech firm Turtlemint set the price band for its Rs 883 crore IPO at Rs 144-152 per share, valuing the company at around Rs 4,513 crore. Jio Platforms filed its DRHP for a fresh-issue-only IPO, with reports estimating it could raise Rs 30,000-40,000 crore. Walmart-backed PhonePe retained its UPI dominance in May with a 46.3% share by volume, followed by Google Pay at 32.8%.
Source: Entrackr
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