Emerging from a gloomy month in terms of private funding, investor interest in the Indian startup ecosystem seems to have gained new wings in the third month of 2025.
On the back of two mega funding rounds and an over 80% increase in the number of funding deals that materialised, the first week of March saw a substantial increase in Indian startup weekly funding trends.
Between March 3 and 8, Indian startups cumulatively raised $385.5 Mn across 29 deals. This is over 4X of the $88.3 Mn raised by 16 startups in the preceding week.
However, despite the funding numbers going up significantly over the past week, the number of startup consolidation deals and IPO related developments failed to keep up their momentum.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Mar 3 – Mar 8]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 5 Mar 2025 | Darwinbox | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $140 Mn | – | Partners Group, KKR, Gravity Holdings | Partners Group, KKR |
| 5 Mar 2025 | Leap Finance | Fintech | Lendingtech | B2C | $100 Mn | Debt | HSBC | HSBC |
| 4 Mar 2025 | InsuranceDekho | Fintech | Insurtech | B2B-B2C | $70 Mn | – | Beams Fintech Fund, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, BNP Paribas Cardif | Beams Fintech Fund, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, BNP Paribas Cardif |
| 6 Mar 2025 | Swish | Consumer Services | Hyperlocal Delivery | B2C | $14 Mn | Series A | Accel, Hara Global, Gaurav Munjal | – |
| 6 Mar 2025 | MaxIQ | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $7.8 Mn | Seed | Dell Technologies Capital, Intel Capital | Dell Technologies Capital |
| 5 Mar 2025 | Beacon.li | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $7 Mn | Series A | Sorin Investments, Sanjay Nayar, Athera Venture Partners, JAFCO Asia, Unicorn India Ventures, Aneesh Reddy, Aravind Sanka, Kapil Bharti | Sorin Investments |
| 7 Mar 2025 | Furlenco | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $7 Mn | Debt | Northern Arc, CredAvenue | – |
| 5 Mar 2025 | Zetwerk | Enterprise Tech | Enterprise Services | B2B | $5 Mn | – | Arc Investments, Oriental Biotech Limited | Arc Investments, Oriental Biotech Limited |
| 7 Mar 2025 | indē wild | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $5 Mn | – | Unilever Ventures, SoGal Ventures, True | Unilever Ventures |
| 4 Mar 2025 | Nuuk | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $4.6 Mn | Series A | Vertex Ventures | Vertex Ventures |
| 6 Mar 2025 | Innoviti | Fintech | Payments | B2B | $4 Mn | – | Ashutosh Joshi, Bessemer Venture Partners | – |
| 4 Mar 2025 | Rezolv | Fintech | Fintech SaaS | B2B | $3.5 Mn | Seed | 3one4 Capital | 3one4 Capital |
| 4 Mar 2025 | FluxGen | Cleantech | Water Tech | B2B | $3.4 Mn | pre-Series A | IAN Alpha Fund, Rainmatter, Gameskraft Technologies, Intersection Ventures, Force Ventures, Axilor Ventures, Arali Ventures | IAN Alpha Fund |
| 4 Mar 2025 | Deciml | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $3 Mn | Seed | Jainam Broking Limited | Jainam Broking Limited |
| 6 Mar 2025 | Phot.AI | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $2.7 Mn | Seed | Info Edge Ventures, Together Fund, AC Ventures, Saahil Goel, Akshay Ghulati, Aakash Anand, Arjun Vaidya, Prabhkiran Singh, Puneet Gupta, Anmol Jain, Sandeep Aggarwal, Vishesh Khurana, Raj Snehil Junej, Pawan Gupta | Info Edge Ventures |
| 7 Mar 2025 | Bacca Bucci | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $2.5 Mn | – | JP Taparia | JP Taparia |
| 3 Mar 2025 | CredResolve | Fintech | Fintech SaaS | B2B | $1.1 Mn | Seed | UNLEASH Capital Partners, CDM Capital | UNLEASH Capital Partners |
| 6 Mar 2025 | Yenmo | Fintech | Lendingtech | B2C | $1.1 Mn | – | Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Zaka VC | Y Combinator |
| 3 Mar 2025 | Arva Health | Healthtech | Healthcare Services | B2C | $1 Mn* | pre-Seed | ||
| 7 Mar 2025 | Vobble | Media & Entertainment | OTT | B2C | $1 Mn* | Seed | MIXI Investments, Lumikai, Namita Thapar, Sattva Investments | MIXI Investments |
| 4 Mar 2025 | TakeMe2Space | Deeptech | Spacetech | B2B | $633K | pre-Seed | Seafund, Ventures, Artha Venture Fund, AC Ventures | Seafund, Ventures |
| 4 Mar 2025 | NapTapGo | Travel Tech | Accommodation | B2C | $500K | pre-Seed | T9L Qube | – |
| 4 Mar 2025 | Beautywise | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $345K | – | Aman Gupta, Kunal Bahl, Ritesh Agarwal | – |
| 5 Mar 2025 | DotMe | Consumer Services | – | B2C | $150K | – | Mirza L. Baig | Mirza L. Baig |
| 6 Mar 2025 | Zuppa Neo Navigation Technologies | Deeptech | Dronetech | B2B | $115K | – | Garuda Aerospace | Garuda Aerospace |
| 4 Mar 2025 | Fuzen.io | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | $100K | pre-Seed | ah! Ventures | ah! Ventures |
| 5 Mar 2025 | Naarica | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | – | – | Saina Nehwal | Saina Nehwal |
| 4 Mar 2025 | UptimeAI | Enterprise Tech | Horizontal SaaS | B2B | – | – | ABB Motion | ABB Motion |
| 4 Mar 2025 | Bull Agritech | Agritech | Market Linkage | B2B-B2C | – | – | iCreate | iCreate |
| Source: Inc42 *Part of a larger round **Included this week as it was skipped last week Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included |
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Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week
- The past week saw two startups raising over $100 Mn- Darwinbox’s $140 Mn fundraise and Leap Finance’s $100 Mn debt raise.
- On the back of Leap’s fundraise, fintech emerged as the investor favourite segment over the past week, with six startups in the sector raising $179.7 Mn.
- Meanwhile, enterprise tech saw the highest number of eight funding deals materialise over the past week. Startups in the sector cumulatively netted $165.6 Mn during the week.
- Ten startups at the seed stage raised $19.1 Mn this week, over 3X the $5.7 Mn raised by startups at this last week.
- AC Ventures emerged as the most active investor during the week, partaking in Phot.AI’s seed funding round and spacetech TakeMe2Space’s maiden funding round.
Fund Updates This Week
- VC firm Prime Venture Partners announced its fifth fund with a corpus of $100 Mn to invest $2 Mn to $4 Mn in 16-18 early stage startups.
- SoftBank’s former chief Rajeev Misra’s son Rohan Misra raised $150 Mn for his India-focussed fund Gravity Holdings during the week. The fund made its first investment in Darwinbox during the week.
- A Junior VC (AJVC) closed its first INR 100 Cr fund targeting pre-seed investments in India this week. Further, the VC is aiming to exercise a greenshoe option to raise another INR 50 Cr for the fund.
- Together Fund is eyeing the final close of its $150 Mn Fund II by June. The VC’s cofounder and managing director Manav Garg claims that it has made 31 investments across its two funds through the second fund.
Other Developments Of The Week
- Infibeam Avenues’ board approved divestment of 49% stake in Pirimid Technologies Limited to its subsidiary Rediff.com India for a consideration of up to INR 27 Cr.
- Ola Electric chief Bhavish Aggarwal pledged 5.88 Cr shares of the EV major to raise additional debt for his AI unicorn Krutrim from investors Avendus, lnCred, others.
- Healthtech startup Truemeds is eyeing the raise of $44 Mn in a fresh funding round which is scheduled to be led by Accel.
- Info Edge informed that its portfolio startup NoPaperForms’ board has approved the proposal to go for an initial public offering soon. The startup has reportedly roped in IIFL Capital and SBI Capital for its IPO.
- Groww has issued bonus compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) to existing investors Peak XV Partners, Ribbit Capital and Y Combinator.
- Workforce management startup BetterPlace received approval from its shareholders to raise $3.6 Mn from Jungle Ventures and Capria Ventures this week.
- D2C menswear brand XYXX is seeking approval from its shareholders to raise $3.4 Mn from Niveshaay Sambhav Fund.
- Fintech soonicorn M2P Fintech is currently in talks to acquire enterprise AI startup Mad Street Den to bolster its AI and data playbook.
- Fintech SaaS startup Mintoak acquired Digiledge to add bill payments and CBDC solutions to its digital payments platform.
- B2B fintech startup Rupifi is eyeing the raise of $2 Mn from existing investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Ankur Capital and Quona Capital in a bridge funding round.
The post From Darwinbox To InsuranceDekho — Indian Startups Raised $386 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.
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