[Weekly funding roundup April 4-10] VC inflow sees a 4X rise due to large deals

Venture capital (VC) funding into Indian startups registered a 4X rise in the second week of April boosted by KreditBee's large funding rounds.

The total funding for the second week of April was $588 million across 27 deals. In contrast, the previous week saw a total amount of $117 million. The amount raised this week is also second highest on a weekly basis for the year till now as the largest funding was in the month of February at $705 million. Also, this is the second time in the year that weekly funding has crossed $500 million.

As much as this is a positive sign for the Indian startup ecosystem, this wild swing is also leading to a slight level of uncertainty as one is never quite sure what is the momentum of capital flow into the startups.

This could be attributed to the absence of a clear investment theme for Indian startups. Globally, the theme has remained consistent with much of the capital going into AI startups but this has not been the case in India. Though there are some AI startups which have raised funding, the quantum of money is still low.

During this week, there were a mix of startups which raised funding and these ranged from fintech, software, financial services and AI.

The expectations are that this momentum will continue in the months ahead but one is not quite sure as the global macro economic situation continues to remain tense and this will have a bearing on the fund inflow.

Key transactions

Fintech startup KreditBee raised $280 million from Motilal Oswal Alternates, Hornbill Capital, Dragon Funds, WhiteOak Capital, A.P. Moller Holding, Premji Invest and Advent International.

Deeptech startup Nava raised $22 million from Greenoaks, RTP Global and Unicorn India Ventures.

AI startup Tsecond.ai raised $21.5 million from MSN Holdings.

Food brand Pluckk raised Rs 100 crore ($10.7 million approx.) led by Euro Gulf Investment.

OFF/BEAT, a new venture founded by Aman Gupta, the co-founder of boAt raised Rs 100 crore ($10.7 million approx.) led by Bessemer Venture Partners.

EV financing and asset management platform Astranova Mobility raised Rs 60 crore ($6.4 million approx.) from IvyCap Ventures, Asian Development Bank, AdvantEdge Founders and Trucks Venture Capital.

Tech startup Atlas raised $6 million from Accel and Stellaris.

Asset-based rewards company GoSats raised $5 million from Konvoy, Y Combinator, Taisu Ventures and angel investors.

Fintech company GLAAS raised $5 million from Devesh Sachdev.