[Weekly funding roundup Oct 7-13] VC inflow continues to rise

The month of October continues on a positive momentum for the Indian startup ecosystem as venture capital (VC) funding shows a steady increase for the second week in a row with reasonably sized deals providing the lift.

The second week of October saw total venture funding of $184 million cutting across 23 deals. In comparison, the previous week saw total funding of $120 million.

The boost in VC funding during the week was led by insuretech startups like InsuranceDekho and Onsurity. For InsuranceDekho, it was the second fundraise in the last eight months and it is a big positive for this insurtech startup given the current environment.

The week saw eight transactions whose value was above $5 million, and this is a positive sign for the ecosystem.

However, this does not mean the startup ecosystem is back on the flight higher in terms of venture capital funding. There are still grave macro economic challenges in terms of slowness in capital inflow and startups are finding it hard to raise fresh rounds of money.

The expected trend for 2023 is likely that venture capital funding will most probably see just half the amount that was raised in 2022. The only hope is that 2024 will be much better.

Key transactions

Insurance distribution platform InsuranceDekho raised $60 million from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, BNP Paribas Cardif, Beams Fintech Fund, and Yogesh Mahansaria Family Office.

Insurtech platform Onsurity raised $24 million IFC, Nexus Venture Partners and Quona Capital.

Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal's artificial intelligence firm Krutrim SI Designs raised $24 million in funding in debt from Matrix Partners.

SaaS startup SuperOps.ai raised $12.4 million from Addition, March Capital, and Matrix Partners India.

Logistics platform Shiprocket raised $11 million in additional funding during an extended Series E round from McKinsey.

Eldercare platform Age Care Labs raised $11 million from Rainmatter Capital, Gruhas and angel investors.

Lifestyle retailer Bagzone raised $9 million from First Bridge India Growth Fund.

Fixed income platform Jiraaf raised $8.7 million from Accel, Harmony Partnerswhile Capital A and angel investors.