[Weekly funding roundup April 18-24] VC inflow continues to decline
Venture capital funding into Indian startups continues to remain below the $100 million level and this is largely due to the absence of large value deals.
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Venture capital inflow into the startup ecosystem continues to decline as the total this week was less than $100 million for the second time this month. This was largely due to absence of large value deals.
The total funding for the fourth week of April came in at just $81 million from 22 deals. This has not been any appreciable increase when compared to the previous week where the funding amount was $70 million.
This is the fourth time in the year till now that weekly VC funding has been below the $100 million level and this reveals the challenges the Indian startup ecosystem continues to face in raising capital.
In the current week, only in the pre-Series A and Series A stages of funding saw any activity, which has been the trend for the last two years. These two stages have seen the most number of deals but the capital invested has remained low as they are early-stage.
This decline in the funding momentum has been largely due to two factors. Firstly, given the tough macro economic conditions which has been made worse due to the ongoing tension between US and Iran has stymied the fund inflow. Secondly, a large part of VC money has been flowing into artificial intelligence (AI) startups.
In India, the number of AI startups continue to remain low in number though there has been some uptick in the recent past.
Given this scenario, the hope is that the second part of the year will see a revival in VC funding.
Key transactions
Fintech startup Oolka has raised Rs 130-crore ($13.7 million approx.) from Accel India, Lightspeed and Z47.
Dunzo co-founder Kabeer Biswas raised Rs 102 crore ($11 million approx.) for his new venture, M, from Peak XV Partners, Blume Ventures, and CRED.
LightFury Games, a game-tech studio, raised $11 million from Blume, V3 Ventures, MIXI, Times Internet and several Indian cricket team members.
STCH, a textile tech startup raised $5.5 million from Omnivore, Kae Capital and WVC.
AI startup NudgeBee raised $3 million led by Kalaari Capital.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti