[Weekly funding roundup March 21-25] Venture inflow into Indian startups continues to decline

The month of March has not been particularly upbeat for the Indian startup ecosystem as venture funding inflow has been very subdued and looks there may not be any turnaround soon.

The last week of the month saw venture funding of $288 million cutting across 32 deals and this was a decline when compared to $339 million registered in the comparable previous week. The only highlight of the week was the emergence of Oxyzo as the latest unicorn from the Indian startup ecosystem.

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There is clearly the absence of large funding deals in the Indian startup ecosystem, save for one odd transaction during the week. Also, the majority of the transactions during the week fall into the category of early-stage funding where the quantum of deals is high but the value remains relatively small.

Now, it remains to be seen if this trend is going to continue for some months. The global economic situation is uncertain due to factors such as the US inflation rate, Fed raising interest rates, and the Ukraine-Russia crisis.

These developments will certainly affect the fund flow into the Indian startup ecosystem and this may bring about certain changes on how the startups were operating over the last two years.

Transactions

Oxyzo, a fintech startup raised $200 million from Alpha Wave, Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and Creation Investments at a valuation of $1 billion.

Vegan skincare brand Plum raised $35 million from A91 Partners, Unilever Ventures, and Faering Capital.

Edtech startup Leverage Edu raised $22 million from a consortium of funds, family offices, and angel investors as part of its Series B round of funding.

Aquaconnect, the tech-driven aquaculture-focused startup raised Rs 60 crore in venture debt round of funding led by Trifecta Capital.

Cab aggregator Ola has acquired Avail Finance, a fintech startup as the former looks to build a financial services business.