From Juspay To Noise — Indian Startups Raised $195 Mn This Week

With around eight startups solidifying their public listing plans, multiple new fund launches and consolidation activities, the Indian startup ecosystem was buzzing with activity in the second week of April. 

Amid all this, investment activity in the world’s third largest startup ecosystem also went up a notch.

Between April 7 and 12, Indian startups cumulatively raised $195.1 Mn across 20 deals, marking a 35% surge from the $144.4 Mn raised by 22 startups in the preceding week. 

With that, here’s a recap of what happened over the past week in the Indian startup ecosystem. 

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Apr 7 – Apr 12 ]

Date	Name	Sector	Subsector	Business Model	Funding Round Size	Funding Round Type	Investors	Lead Investor
7 Apr 2025	Juspay	Fintech	Payments	B2B	$60 Mn	Series D	Kedaara Capital, SoftBank, Accel	Kedaara Capital
7 Apr 2025	Easebuzz	Fintech	Fintech SaaS	B2B	$30 Mn	Series A	Bessemer Venture Partners, 8i Ventures, Varanium Capital	Bessemer Venture Partners
9 Apr 2025	Noise	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$20 Mn	–	Bose	Bose
10 Apr 2025	Mosaic Wellness	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$20 Mn	–	Think Investments	Think Investments
7 Apr 2025	Innovist	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$15.8 Mn	Series B	ICICI Ventures, Mirabilis Investment Trust, Niveshaay Investment, Sauce.vc	ICICI Ventures
10 Apr 2025	EloElo	Media & Entertainment	Social Media	B2C	$13.5 Mn	Series B	Play Ventures, Kalaari Capital, MIXI Investments, Gameskraft Technologies, Griffin Gaming Partners, Waterbridge Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Rocket Capital	Play Ventures
10 Apr 2025	Xindus	Logistics	Ecommerce Logistics	B2B	$10 Mn	Series A	3one4 Capital, Orios Venture Partners, Shastra VC, Caret Capital	3one4 Capital
9 Apr 2025	AgroStar	Agritech	–	B2B	$6.7 Mn	–	Accel India, Aavishkaar India, Bertelsmann, Evolvence India, Chiratae Ventures, Hero Enterprises	Accel India
8 Apr 2025	OUTZIDR	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$3.5 Mn	Seed	Stellaris Venture Partners, Ramakant Sharma, Ghazal Alagh	Stellaris Venture Partners
7 Apr 2025	Vimano	Cleantech	Climate Tech	B2B	$2.9 Mn	Seed	Ankur Capital	Ankur Capital
9 Apr 2025	Let’s Try	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$2.5 Mn	Pre-Series A	SWC Global, Wipro Consumer, 100Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Aman Gupta	SWC Global
8 Apr 2025	Eat Better	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$2 Mn	Pre-Series A	Prath Ventures, Spring Marketing Capital	Prath Ventures, Spring Marketing Capital
10 Apr 2025	Bower School of Entrepreneurship	Edtech	Cohort Based Courses	B2C	$1.4 Mn	Seed	Astir Ventures	–
8 Apr 2025	Cautio	Deeptech	IoT & Hardware	B2B	$1.3 Mn*	Seed	100Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Antler India, Infynite Club, PIEDS-BITS Pilani, Gajendra Jangid, Vikram Chopra
10 Apr 2025	AskMyGuru	Consumer Services	–	B2C	$1.2 Mn	–	Lumikai, Amarnath Thombre	Lumikai
4 Apr 2025	Better Nutrition**	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$1.2 Mn	–	–	–
7 Apr 2025	Calligo Technologies	Deeptech	IoT & Hardware	B2B	$1.1 Mn	Pre-Series A	Seafund, Artha Venture Fund	Seafund, Artha Venture Fund
10 Apr 2025	Bhagva	Consumer Services	–	B2C	$1 Mn	Pre-Series A	Pradeep Nain	–
9 Apr 2025	Amicco	Ecommerce	B2B Ecommerce	B2B	$1 Mn	Seed	Eximius Ventures, FJ Labs	Eximius Ventures
10 Apr 2025	DRIVE FITT	Healthtech	Fitness & Wellness	B2C	–	–	Glenn Maxwell	–
	Source: Inc42 *Part of a larger round **Included this week as it was skipped last week Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

• The week’s largest funding round saw fintech major Juspay raising $60 Mn in its  Series D round led by Kalaari Capital. While the valuation at which the funding round was materialised is yet to be discerned, reports suggest that the round catapulted the startup into the unicorn club. 
• Juspay’s fundraise, along with Easebuzz’s $30 Mn round, ensured that fintech remained the investor favourite segment this week as it has over the past few weeks.
• While fintech remained the most funded sector this week, ecommerce saw the greatest number of eight deals materialise during the week. Startups, including Mosaic Wellness and Noise, among others, raised $66 Mn this week. 
• The most active investors this week were Accel and 100Unicorns, backing two startups apiece. 
• Five startups at the seed stage raised $10.1 Mn this week, down slightly from the $11 Mn raised by seven startups at this stage last week. 

Startup IPO Developments This Week

• SEBI announced the approval of the INR 1,000 Cr IPO of jewellery startup BlueStone and INR 1,450 Cr IPO of NBFC Aye Finance this week.
• Taking its second stab at the bourses, bOAt’s parent Imagine Marketing filed its IPO papers via the confidential filing route this week.
• Enroute to the bourses, fintech major Pine Labs got NCLT’s final approval to reverse flip to India. With this, the startup will be merging its Singapore entity with its Indian entity.
• Amid the ongoing market volatility, EV major Ather Energy is mulling to trim its IPO size from $400 Mn to $350 Mn. Some of its shareholders are likely to cut their stake sales.
• Urban Company’s board approved raising up to INR 528 Cr (about $60 Mn) via a fresh issue in its IPO. The startup’s total IPO size, including the offer for sale component, could go up to INR 3,000 Cr. 
• Peak XV-backed Turtlemint is said to be in talks with bankers to launch a $200-250 Mn IPO within this year.

Fund Updates This Week

• US-based VC firm Expert Dojo launched its third global fund with a target corpus of $100 Mn this week and plans to invest about $15 Mn in Indian startups.
• Asha Ventures secured a commitment of $10 Mn from the British International Investment for its maiden fund.
• InCred Capital’s investment arm InCred Alternatives announced the final close of its maiden private equity fund, InCred Growth Partners Fund-I (IGPF-I), with commitments exceeding INR 575 Cr this week. 
• Neo Asset Management marked the first close of its second private credit fund at INR 2,000 Cr. 

Updates On Startup M&As

• In an announcement on Saturday last week, Delhivery announced the proposed acquisition of rival Ecom Express for $165 Mn.
• Aurionpro announced the acquisition of Fintra Software to enhance its transaction banking offerings this week.
• IndiGo parent InterGlobe Aviation and French hospitality major Accor will soon be picking up a majority stake in hotel chain startup Treebo.
• IPO-bound PhysicsWallah is evaluating seven to eight entities in the UPSC preparation space to strike a buyout deal.

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