Indian Startup Funding — Startups Raised $635 Mn This Week

From Rebel Foods To CarDekho – Indian Startups Raised $635 Mn This Week

SUMMARY

Between December 9 and 13, Indian startups cumulatively raised $635.8 Mn via 25 deals, up 155% from the $249.6 Mn secured across 18 deals in the preceding week

The week saw two mega funding deals materialise in the form of Rebel Foods and Mintifi

With MobiKwik set to list next week, Bluestone and IndiQube began their IPO journeys this week

As 2024 comes to an end, investor interest in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem has started picking up the pace. Startup funding in the second week of the year’s last month grew leaps and bounds on a week on week basis.

Between December 9 and 13, Indian startups cumulatively raised $635.8 Mn across 25 deals, marking a 155% jump from the $249.6 Mn secured via 18 deals in the preceding week.

With the funding trends gaining momentum, the ecosystem continued to show some signs of maturity. Already seeing a great number of listings coming out of the startup world this year, more startups began their bid to become public entities in the final month of 2024.

With that said, let’s take a look at the happenings of the week.

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News

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [ Dec 9 – Dec 14 ]

Date	Name	Sector	Subsector	Business Model	Funding Round Size	Funding Round Type	Investors	Lead Investor
12 Dec 2024	Rebel Foods	Consumer Services	Hyperlocal Delivery	B2C	$210 Mn	Series G	Temasek, Evolvence	Temasek
10 Dec 2024	Mintifi	Fintech	Lendingtech	B2B	$100.1 Mn*	Series E	Teachers’ Venture Growth, Prosus, Premji Invest	Teachers’ Venture Growth, Prosus
11 Dec 2024	CarDekho SEA	Ecommerce	B2C Ecommerce	B2C	$60 Mn	–	Navis Capital Partners, Dragon Fund	–
9 Dec 2024	Wooden Street	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$43 Mn	Series C	Premji Invest	Premji Invest
12 Dec 2024	K-12 Techno Services	Edtech	Edtech SaaS	B2B	$40 Mn	–	Kenro Capital, Piyush Gupta	–
12 Dec 2024	SolarSquare	Cleantech	Solar Tech	B2C-B2B	$40 Mn	Series B	Lightspeed, Lightrock, Elevation Capital, Lowercarbon, Rainmatter, Gruhas Proptech	Lightspeed
10 Dec 2024	LambdaTest	Enterprisetech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$38 Mn	–	Avataar Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures	Avataar Venture Partners
9 Dec 2024	Pixxel	Deeptech	Spacetech	B2B	$24 Mn*	Series B	M&G Catalyst, Glade Brook Capital Partners	–
12 Dec 2024	Snapmint	Fintech	Lendingtech	B2C	$18 Mn	pre-Series B	Prashasta Seth, Perpetuity Ventures, Pegasus Fininvest	Prashasta Seth
9 Dec 2024	Varthana	Fintech	Lendingtech	B2C	$15 Mn	Debt	BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund	BlueOrchard Microfinance Fund
11 Dec 2024	Avanti Finance	Fintech	Lendingtech	B2C-B2B	$14.2 Mn	Series B	Dia Vikas Capital, IDH Farmfit Fund, NRJN Family Trust, Rabo Partnerships	Dia Vikas Capital
12 Dec 2024	FirstClub	Consumer Services	Hyperlocal Delivery	B2C	$8 Mn*	Seed	Accel, RTP Global, Blume Founders Fund, Quiet Capital, 2am VC, Binny Bansal, Kunal Shah, Mukesh Bansal	Accel, RTP Global
12 Dec 2024	FinX	Edtech	Skill Development	B2C	$6 Mn	Seed	Elevar Equity	Elevar Equity
11 Dec 2024	Haber	Enterprisetech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$6 Mn*	Series C	Creaegis, BEENEXT, Accel India	Creaegis, BEENEXT, Accel India
13 Dec 2024	Inkers Technology	Real Estate Tech	Real Estate SaaS	B2B	$3 Mn	Series A	Ashish Kacholia	Ashish Kacholia
11 Dec 2024	Culture Circle	Ecommerce	B2C Ecommerce	B2C	$2 Mn	Seed	Info Edge Ventures	Info Edge Ventures
12 Dec 2024	Superfone	Enterprisetech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	$1.9 Mn	pre-Series A	YourNest Venture Capital, Ankur Capital, Finsight Seed Fund	YourNest Venture Capital
10 Dec 2024	Sustainiam	Cleantech	Climate Tech	B2B	$1.5 Mn	pre-Series A	Orios Venture Partners, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Rajesh Sawhney, Harsh Vardhan Bhagchandka, Vinit Bhansali	Orios Venture Partners
11 Dec 2024	Power Gummies	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	$1.2 Mn	–	Jaipuria family office, Quadrant, 100Unicorns, DSGCP, Wipro Consumer, Venture Catalysts, Agility	Jaipuria family office, Quadrant
10 Dec 2024	Netrasemi	Deeptech	Hardware & IoT	B2B	$1.2 Mn	pre-Series A	Unicorn India Ventures	Unicorn India Ventures
10 Dec 2024	Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions	Edtech	–	B2B	$1.2 Mn	Debt	Recur Club	Recur Club
11 Dec 2024	Navanc	Fintech	Fintech SaaS	B2B	$1 Mn	Seed	Prarambh Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures, Brigade REAP FirstPort Capital	Prarambh Ventures
14 Dec 2024	VOICE	Logistics	Last mile deliveries	B2B	$590K	–	BizDateUp	BizDateUp
10 Dec 2024	Fuzen.io	Enterprisetech	Horizontal SaaS	B2B	–	–	ah! Ventures	ah! Ventures
11 Dec 2024	MHYTH	Ecommerce	D2C	B2C	–	–	Sandeep Daga, Snehal Shah	Sandeep Daga, Snehal Shah
	Source: Inc42 *Part of a larger round Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

The week saw two mega funding deals materialise in the form of Rebel Foods and Mintifi.
On the back of Rebel Food’s $210 Mn fundraise, consumer service emerged as the investor favourite this week. Startups in the space raised $218 Mn across two deals.
Due to Mintifi’s mega fundraise announcement, fintech emerged as the second most funded sector this week. Startups in the sector raised $148.30 Mn across 5 deals.
Pertinent to mention that the ecommerce sector also saw a similar number of funding rounds materialise to fintech this week. Startups like Wooden Street, Power Gummies, among others, cumulatively raised $106.20 Mn in the week.
Premji Invest emerged as the most active investor this week, backing Mintifi and Wooden Street.
Seed funding zoomed 246% to $17 Mn from $4.9 Mn last week.

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

Fintech MobiKwik’s initial public offering (IPO) closed with an oversubscription of 119.38X. The startup is expected to get listed on December 18.
Omnichannel jewellery startup Bluestone filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI for an IPO comprising a fresh issue of shares worth INR 1,000 Cr and an offer-for-sale component of up to 2.40 Cr equity shares
Non-banking finance company Aye Finance’s board gave its nod to an IPO worth INR 1,450 Cr. The IPO will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth up to INR 885 Cr and an OFS component of INR 565 Cr.
Coworking startup IndiQube turned into a public limited company from a private limited company, taking the first step to its IPO.
According to reports, ecommerce major Flipkart received internal approvals to shift its domicile from Singapore to India for an IPO in the next 12-15 months.

Funds Launches This Week

Deeptech venture capital firm growX ventures floated its second fund with a target corpus $47.12 Mn. The VC aims to deepen its focus on deeptech and enterprise tech via the fund.
Stride Ventures launched its largest fund till date with a target corpus of $300 Mn. The VC plans on making investments across sectors with the fund.
Amazon India will be investing $120 Mn in startups that digitise consumer goods manufacturing and cater to both domestic and global demand through its VC arm Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund.

Other Developments Of The Week

Ecommerce major Zetwork got board approval to raise $66.6 Mn. The round is expected to be led by Khosla Ventures, along with participation from The Schiehallion Fund and others.
Listed fintech Veefin bought 50% stake in Singapore-based GenAI startup Walnut AI for $2 Mn.
Edtech Veranda Learning Solutions will be raising $29.5 Mn through a preferential issue to fuel acquisitions, deferred consideration payouts and expanding its existing business operations,
Recently launched ecommerce startup Worthy Cart is currently in discussions to raise $10 Mn its in Pre-Series A funding with investors.
Mobile Premier League said that it has picked up a significant stake in gaming development tools provider CloudFeather Games this week.
Dutch investor Prosus is reportedly in discussions to lead a $50 Mn funding round in fintech startup Jar.
OTT platform STAGE will be raising $9.9 Mn from multiple investors via issuance of preference shares.