(Weekly funding roundup Jan 16-20) Fundraise by PhonePe provides a boost

The $350 million fund raise by fintech unicorn PhonePe shows the potential of Indian startups to raise large rounds of capital despite the environment of a funding winter.

This fundraise gave a boost to the overall venture capital raised by Indian startups for the third week of January, with the week set to touch $438 million as compared to $217 million in the comparable previous week.

This week there was a break in the trend where late-stage deals came into prominence to garner larger amounts of capital unlike in the past, where majority of the funding came from early-stage deals.

It would, however, be too early to call this a new trend as the push to funding came from a single transaction and this might not be the case every week. Added to this, negative news still flowing out from the startup ecosystem of layoffs and financial mismanagement.

Uncertainty remains on what would be the future trajectory of tventure funding into Indian startups but leading VC firms have already started opening their purses, which is a good sign.

Key transactions

Fintech company PhonePe raised $350 million at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion from private equity firm General Atlantic with participation from other investors.

Speciality coffee startup Blue Tokai Coffee raised $30 million from A91 Partners, White Whale Ventures, 8i Ventures, Grand Anicut Fund, and leading family offices.

Log9 Materials, a EV related startup raised Rs 91.25 crore from PTV International Ventures, SiriusOne Capital, Cornorstone Ventures, Anicut Capital, and others.

Digital lending startup NeoGrowth raised $10 million from US-based global investment firm MicroVest Capital Management.

Oncology startup Mumbai Oncocare Centre (MOC) raised $10 million from Tata Capital Healthcare Fund (TCHF).

Diabetes reversal startup Breathe Well-being raised Rs 50 crore ($6.1 million) from 3One4 Capital, Accel Partners, General Catalyst and FounderBank Capital.

Deeptech startup Chara raised $4.75 million from Exfinity Venture Partners, Big Capital, Log9 Materials, Kalaari Capital and ciie.co.

HR tech startup Darwinbox raised $4 million from Microsoft.