[Weekly Funding Roundup] Indian startups see $191M in venture investment as investors stay cautious

Indian startups are seeing a funding 'winter' as the venture capital inflow into the Indian startup ecosystem has now dropped below the $200 million range this week.

From May 23-27, startups in India raised $191 million, $6 million short of the funding ($197 million) reported last week. Country Delight—a direct-to-consumer (D2C) milk and grocery delivery startup—secured the only major deal with a $108 million Series D round.

A slew of global events is making investors and startup founders nervous. A chain reaction has commenced in the investment community as the most influential VC firms—Tiger Global and SoftBank—adopt a defensive mode when it comes to writing big cheques. Both firms plan to scale down their investments and back more early-stage companies this year. 

Similarly, Y Combinator, Sequoia Capital, and Unacademy, among others have also issued a note of caution. The impact of the current liquidity crunch is also thwarting plans of startups that were either planning initial public offerings (IPOs) this year or have high burn rates with low runways. 

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Country Delight, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) milk and grocery delivery startup, raised $108 million in a mix of debt and equity in a Series D round from Venturi Partners, Temasek, SWC Global, Trifecta Capital, and others.

Electric ride-hailing platform BluSmart raised $25 million in an extended Series A round from BP Ventures, Green Frontier Capital, Stride Ventures, Alteria Capital, BlackSoil, and UCIC.

EV financing startup Three Wheels United raised $10 million in a Series A round led by Delta Corp Holdings, with participation from Techstars, Grip Invest, and other investors.

Supply-chain focused fintech startup NAKAD raised $7 million in a seed round from Accel, Matrix Partners India, AdvantEdge Founders, and angel investors.

Instant EMI startup ShopSe raised $6.1 million in a Series A round from BEENEXT, Chiratae Ventures, and White Venture Capital.

Edtech startup Infinity Learn invested $10 million to acquire a majority stake in WizKlub, a cognitive development startup.