[Weekly funding roundup March 14-18] Steep decline in venture capital inflow into Indian startups

Venture funding into Indian startups witnessed a steep decline in the third week of March with the absence of any large deals and global economic uncertainty weighing in on the capital inflow.

The total venture funding for the third week stood at $339 million across 16 deals, compared to $1.36 billion that startups across sectors were able to rake in last week.

The ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis has made investors more cautious, limiting capital flow across the world Some rebalancing by the financial investors on their priority areas of investment is expected in the next few weeks.

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It is likely that this would continue to at least one quarter i.e., three months before a sense of stability emerges and there is much more clarity on which direction the capital would flow.

At the same time, the Indian startup ecosystem continues to see the emergence of one more unicorn – an industry term for a private company valued at $1 billion and above – in the form of Amagi.

The next three months would be crucial for Indian startups on how they navigate through this period.

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Licious, D2C (direct-to-consumer) meat brand raised $150 million from Amansa Capital, Kotak PE and Axis Growth Avenues AIF-I.

Amagi, the media tech company raised $95 million in a round led by Accel, Norwest Venture Partners, and Avataar Ventures at more than $1 billion valuation.

Bluestone, an omnichannel jewellery retailer raised $30 million from Sunil Kant Munjal, Chairman, Hero Enterprise, at a $410 million valuation.

UpScalio, the ecommerce roll-up company raised $15 million from Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), Northern Arc and Unity Bank.

Healthcare startup ekincare raised $15 million from HealthQuad, Sabre Partners, Ventureast, Eight Roads Ventures and Siana Capital.

Employee experience platform inFeedo raised $12 million Jungle Ventures, Tiger Global and Bling Capital.

LILA Games, a mobile game studio raised $10 million from Rainfall Ventures, Bitkraft Ventures, Galaxy Interactive and Sequoia Capital India.