[Weekly funding roundup Sept 20-26] VC inflow slips due to uncertain macro environment

The last week of September has not been encouraging for the Indian startup ecosystem as venture capital (VC) funding slipped back into a lower value, largely impacted by the volatile macroeconomic environment and absence of large deals.

The total funding for the week came in at $155 million across 29 deals. In contrast, the previous week saw a total amount of $245 million. Last week’s rise in VC funding gave some hope that this would be sustained, but it again dropped into the familiar territory of weekly fundraising being in the $100 million range.

This week, the number of deals was at a respectable number of 29, but there were no large-value deals. In fact, the highest value transaction was just $23 million. These trends actually show the challenging environment that Indian startups continue to face in raising capital as investors continue to remain on the sidelines.

The external environment has definitely been volatile, primarily due to the decisions being taken by US President Donald Trump. The hike in H-1B visa fees and the fresh announcement of tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry are a dampener. These changes have a serious impact on the fund flow into Indian startups.

The amounts raised across various stages of funding have also been in double digits, and this is not an encouraging sign for the ecosystem. The only hope is that next year will be better.

Key transactions

Deep-tech startup Chakr Innovation raised $23 million from Iron Pillar, SBI Cap Ventures, ONGC, IAN, and Inflexor.

Curefoods raised Rs 160 crore ($18 million approx.) in a pre-IPO placement from 3State Ventures, the investment arm of Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.

Speciality chemicals startup Distil raised $7.7 million from Jungle Ventures, CE-Ventures and angel investors.

AI startup Rocket raised $15 million from Salesforce Ventures, Accel and Together Fund.

Edtech startup Vedantu raised $11 million from ABC World Asia, Accel and Omidyar Network.

EV startup Simple Energy raised $10 million from Arokiaswamy Velumani, Balamurugan Arumugam and the Haran family office.

Fintech startup Gullak raised $7.5 million from Chiratae Ventures, White Venture Capital, Samved Ventures, Y Combinator, GMO Fintech Fund, and Rebel Fund.

AI startup Oolka raised $7 million from Lightspeed India Partners, Z47, 8i Ventures and angel investors.