During the second week of September 2022, venture capital inflow to the Indian startup ecosystem continued to be sluggish mode as investors are highly cautious about conducting new investments in new-age ventures.
Statements made by US Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell regarding interest rate hikes and unhappy news coming from Europe about a possible recession and high inflation rates are keeping investors away from large funding deals in the startup. The Indian startup ecosystem also suffered due to negative sentiments despite the strong resistance and performance of Indian stock markets.
From September 5th to 9th, the Indian startup ecosystem witnessed a total venture funding of 132 million dollars, that too across 39 deals. The absence of any high-voltage funding deals made things more disappointing. In the previous week, Indian startups had raised more than 190 million dollars across several deals.
Increasing inflation rates across the globe and policy actions taken by central banks to control inflation are creating an atmosphere of distrust among investors. Increasing crude oil prices and the possibilities of a lengthy Russian war in Ukraine also make things more difficult for startups to attract venture funding.
Even though a prediction regarding an uptick in funding is impossible now, newly incorporated start-ups that participate in early funding rounds are expected to get funding in the upcoming weeks.
Major Funding Transactions
Tata 1mg – The healthcare platform based in Gurgaon raised 40 million dollars in a fresh series of funding led by Tata Digital, a Tata Group subsidiary. Venture investors and healthcare funders such as KWE Beteiligungen, HBM Healthcare Investments, MPOF Mauritius, and MAF Mauritius also participated in the funding round. With the latest funding round the overall valuation of the e-health company is above 1 billion dollars making it a unicorn company.
Tata 1mg which is in the business of pharmacy services, e-commerce, and health IT services was founded in 2015 by Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal and Vikas Chauhan. Indian multinational conglomerate, Tata Group acquired the business in the previous financial year.
Akshayakalpa Organic, Series B – The Agri farming company based in Tiptur, Karnataka raised 15 million dollars in a series B funding round led by renowned British financial institutions, British International Investment (BII). The series b funding round also witnessed the participation of investors such as Rainmatter Foundation, and Venture Dairy. Venture Diary is an existing investor in the entrepreneurship platform for young farmers.
GroMo, Series A – Fintech startup founded by Ankit
Khandelwal and Darpan Khurana raised 11 million dollars in a Series A funding round led by prominent international venture investment group, SIG Venture Capital. The funding round also saw the participation of investors such as Y-Combinator, Das Capital, Goodwater Capital, Beyond Next Ventures, Soma Capital, Ace & Company and Hauz Khas Ventures.
ZippMat, Seed fund – This full-stack SCaaS enterprise based on B2B transactions raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by the Indian arm of Boston-based Matrix Partners, Matrix Partners India. The funding round also saw the participation of investors such as Zephyr Peacock, HDFC Bank, and TradeCred.
While Matrix partners India and Zephyr Peacock conducted equity financing, HDFC Bank and TradeCred took part in the debt funding.
CashFlo – The fintech startup based in Mumbai raised 8.7 million dollars in a funding round led by American venture capital firm, General Catalyst. The funding round also saw the participation of existing investors such as Elevation Capital. Several angel investors, namely, Jitendra Gupta, Amrish Rau, Nitin Gupta, Rangarajan K (FiveStar), Gokul Rajaram and Whiteboard Capital also participated in the funding round.
