Indian startups raise $184.75 million this week

New Delhi: Indian startups continued to attract investor interest as 20 startups raised around $184.75 million in funding this week.

The deals included five growth-stage and 14 early-stage startups, while one startup chose not to disclose its funding details.

Seed funding dominated the funding types this week, with several startups raising capital in their early journey.

Other rounds included Series A, pre-seed, pre-Series A, and even late-stage funding rounds like Series G.

The startup activity was also spread across cities. Bengaluru led with nine deals, followed by Delhi-NCR with five.

Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai also saw their startups securing investments. Sector-wise, fintech startups emerged at the top with six funding deals.

Deeptech and OTT sectors followed with two deals each, while other sectors such as aerospace, foodtech, e-commerce, and sportstech also saw positive movement.

Among the key highlights of the week was fintech unicorn CRED, led by Kunal Shah, which secured $72 million from investors, including Lathe Investment, RTP Global, Sofina Ventures, and QED Innovation Labs.

FlexiLoans, a fintech platform focused on MSMEs, also raised $44 million in its Series C round, while EV component startup Vecmocon raised a total of $18 million in its Series A round, with $8 million coming in this week through both primary and secondary transactions.

Other notable deals came from the popular QSR chain ‘Wow! Momo’ and drone technology startup Garuda Aerospace, both of which received fresh investments.

On the early-stage front, 13 startups raised a total of $49.75 million. The biggest among them was aerospace and defence startup Sanlayan Technologies, which raised $22 million.

Other early-stage startups that received funding include wealth tech firm PowerUp, fintech players Piston and Zype, and OTT platform FlickTV.

Earlier this week, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said there has been a surge in private investments in the last 11 years, with Indian startups and emerging entities attracting significant private funding to the tune of over $150 billion in the past decade.

IANS