[Weekly funding roundup July 6-12] Dip in VC inflow due to absence of large deals

The month of July has been lacklustre for Indian startups to date given the modest inflow of venture capital funding, largely due to the absence of large-value deals.

The total venture capital funding for the second week of July came in at $128 million cutting across 21 deals. In comparison, the previous week saw total funding of $257 million.

Venture capital funding has been hovering in the range of $100-200 million on a weekly basis so far except for a few weeks when a large deal is announced. This reveals that the startup ecosystem continues to be under the grip of a “funding winter”, and there is no clarity on when the fund flow will start to increase at a stable rate.

A combination of global and domestic factors has hindered the flow of capital into the startup ecosystem. The high interest rates in the US and an uncertain economic outlook in developed economies have become a stumbling block.

At the same time, the US has witnessed a rush of capital into AI startups. However, this trend has not materialised yet in the Indian startup ecosystem.

There are other positive developments for the ecosystem as financial firms continue to raise capital for venture-related activity, as evidenced by Anicut Capital and NABARD. The expectation is that this capital will move into Indian startups in the near future.

Key transactions

Wealth management platform Dezerv raised Rs 265 crore ($32 million) from Premji Invest, Elevation Capital, Matrix Partners India and Accel.

Agritech startup arya ag raised $29 million from Blue Earth Capital, Asia Impact and Quona Capital.

GOAT Brand Labs raised $21 million from BlackRock, Mayfield, NB Ventures, and others.

Cancer-focused biotech startup Immuneel Therapeutics raised Rs 100 crore ($12 million approx.) from TAIBA Middle East FZ LLC.

Marathi language video-streaming platform Planet Marathi OTT raised $5 million from A & MA Capital USA.

Tech startup Circuit House Technologies raised $4.3 million from Stellaris Venture Partners, 3one4 Capital and other angel investors.