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This week, 24 Indian startups raised $411.46 million across five growth-stage deals, 13 early-stage deals, and 6 undisclosed rounds. The week also saw 3 key appointments, one fund launch and three mergers & acquisitions and one ESOP buyback. In contrast, 17 startups had collectively secured about $188.49 million in the previous week. [Growth-stage deals] Growth-stage startups raised $357 million across just five deals this week. Electric two-wheeler maker Simple Energy led with a $182 million Series C round, followed by physical AI company SiMa.ai with $150 million. Balwaan Krishi raised Rs 100 crore in Series B funding, while Seeds Fincap secured over Rs 100 crore. Quick-commerce fulfillment startup Blitz also raised Rs 28.7 crore in a pre-Series B round led by IvyCap Ventures. [Early-stage deals] Early-stage startups raised $54.36 million across 13 deals this week. Premium home interior materials startup Gravity led with $15 million in equity and debt funding, followed by edtech startup Arivihan with $10 million. Arovia Consumer secured a Rs 100 crore capital commitment from Fireside Ventures, while beauty and wellness startup Amaani and Bharat Housing Network raised $5 million each. Other funded startups included EDT, Bangalore Watch Company, Alive App and Vytalyou, among others. FIG Living, Prodocv AI, Nudge and three others also raised funding this week but did not disclose the amounts. [City and segment-wise deals] Bengaluru again led the funding charts with 13 startup deals during the week, followed by Delhi-NCR and Mumbai with three deals each. Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad also recorded deals. Healthtech startups led the sectors with four deals, followed by AI and e-commerce startups which grabbed three deals each. Meanwhile interior design, fintech, EV, edtech, quick commerce and others also saw funding activity. [Series-wise deals] Seed rounds led the week with nine deals, followed by Series A with three. Series B, Series C, pre-seed and pre-Series A recorded two deals each, while pre-Series B and angel rounds saw one deal each. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding jumped over 2X to $411.46 million from $188.49 million raised in the previous week. The average weekly funding over the past eight weeks stood at around $236.34 million across 21 deals. [Key Hirings] Only three key hirings were recorded this week. Bessemer Venture Partners appointed Mayank Khanduja as Partner for its India practice, nearly nine months after his exit from Elevation Capital following a 15-year stint. Identity and access management startup OTPless elevated early team member Manas Poddar as Chief Business Officer, while Chiratae Ventures appointed Keshav R. Murugesh to its Global Advisory Board. [Mergers and Acquisitions] Three acquisitions were recorded this week. FMCG major ITC completed its acquisition of Yoga Bar parent Sproutlife Foods after acquiring the remaining stake in the Bengaluru-based company. OpenMetal acquired cloud cost management platform Economize, while Zigly Pet Care acquired Prolife Speciality Vet Clinic in Mumbai to strengthen its veterinary healthcare network. [Fund Launches] Seed-stage venture capital firm WEH Ventures announced the first close of its third fund, which has a target corpus of Rs 250 crore. The fund plans to back 20 to 25 early-stage Indian startups catering to domestic and global markets. [ESOP Buyback] Stable Money completed its second ESOP buyback within four years of its launch, founder Saurabh Jain announced in a LinkedIn post. [Financial results this week] [New launches and partnerships] ▪️ Apple Pay launches in India with Axis Bank cards; Razorpay, Cashfree and others enable merchant support Apple has launched Apple Pay in India with Axis Bank as its first banking partner, initially supporting Visa and Mastercard credit cards. The service enables contactless payments across stores, apps and online platforms, with the rollout supported by payment players including Razorpay, Cashfree, Mswipe, Paytm, PayU, Pine Labs, Juspay and Worldline. ▪️ Flipkart expands warehouse capacity by 14 Mn cubic feet ahead of festive season Flipkart has expanded its supply chain ahead of the festive season, adding 14 million cubic feet of warehousing capacity and extending its delivery network to over 750 new PIN codes. The expansion increased storage capacity by 50%, while automation and technology upgrades boosted peak processing volumes by more than 30% ahead of its Big Billion Days sale. ▪️Actor Ranbir Kapoor enters FMCG with Flux Theory, launches body-care range Actor Ranbir Kapoor has entered the FMCG space with the launch of body-care brand Flux Theory, co-founded with Advay Jhunjhunwala and venture-building platform Think9. The brand has launched five body-wash variants and will follow an omnichannel strategy, with products available across Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Zepto, Tira, Instamart and its own website. [News flash this week] ▪️ Indian startups raise $2.9 Bn in Q3 2026 as EV, AI drive funding Indian startups raised less than $3 billion in Q3 2026, compared to $3.5 billion in Q2 and $3.87 billion in Q1. Simple Energy led the quarter with a $182 million round, followed by SiMa.ai with $150 million, while Emergent, River Mobility, Navi, Slice and Pixxel raised over $100 million each. ▪️ TVS retains EV two-wheeler lead in September as Bajaj, Hero see strong growth India’s electric two-wheeler registrations rose over 12% month on month to 2.07 lakh units in September from 1.85 lakh in August. TVS Motor retained its lead with 53,989 registrations and a 26.06% market share, while Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp also recorded strong growth during the month. ▪️UPI transaction volume stays above 24 Bn despite 1.8% M-o-M dip in September UPI processed 24.07 billion transactions worth Rs 29.37 lakh crore in September 2026, with volume and value declining 1.8% and 1.5% month on month, respectively. However, average daily transactions rose 1.4% to 802 million. On a year-on-year basis, UPI volume grew 23%, while transaction value increased 18%. ▪️ Moneyview shares debut at 64% premium after 100X IPO subscription Digital lending platform Moneyview made a strong stock market debut on Thursday, listing at over 60% premium to its IPO price of Rs 34. Its shares opened at Rs 55.61 on the BSE and Rs 55 on the NSE. The Rs 1,092 crore IPO comprised a Rs 750 crore fresh issue and an OFS worth around Rs 342 crore. ▪️ Smartworks secures managed office deals worth Rs 305 Cr from new clients Smartworks has signed new leasing deals with large corporate clients across multiple cities, adding around Rs 305 crore in contracted rental revenue over engagements of up to 60 months. The deals take its contracted rental revenue base beyond Rs 5,400 crore as of June 2026 and follow Rs 235 crore of incremental rental revenue announced from existing client expansions. ▪️CtrlS has deployed Ciena’s optical technology to power managed optical fiber networks for hyperscalers. CtrlS Datacenters has partnered with Ciena to build five metro networks connecting nine data centers across Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi and Noida, with capacity of up to 100 Tb/s. The deployment will support growing bandwidth demand from cloud and AI services. ▪️ DraperU India Demo Day: 13 Startups Pitch to Investors; Ordo and WearSynapse Secure Rs 25 Lakh Each DraperU India concluded its latest Founders Program with a Demo Day in Hyderabad, where 13 startups pitched to over 150 investors and industry leaders. Ordo and WearSynapse secured Rs 25 lakh investment commitments each from DraperU India and were selected to represent the program at Draper University’s Hero Training Program in Silicon Valley. Ordo, WearSynapse and Creator Studio also shared a Rs 90,000 prize pool from IDFC FIRST Bank. ▪️ SUJÁN has acquired Chiawa Camp and Old Mondoro, expanding its conservation-led safari portfolio into Africa. Luxury hospitality company SUJÁN has acquired Chiawa Camp and Old Mondoro from Chiawa Safaris, marking its first major international expansion beyond India. The deal establishes SUJÁN’s presence in Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park and expands its conservation-led safari portfolio into Africa. ▪️ Zelio E-Mobility to raise Rs 168 Cr through preferential issue EV manufacturer Zelio E-Mobility’s board has approved raising up to Rs 167.95 crore through a preferential issue of equity shares and convertible warrants. The BSE SME-listed company will issue 9.73 lakh shares at Rs 853 apiece to investors including Motilal Oswal Financial Services, Calliope Capital Advisors, Param Value Investments and Hem Growth Opportunities Fund. ▪️ CoinSwitch turns profitable in FY26 as revenue surges 150% to Rs 324 Cr Crypto investing platform CoinSwitch turned profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis in FY26 as revenue surged 150% to Rs 324.19 crore. Adjusted EBITDA jumped to Rs 86.38 crore from Rs 1.65 crore in FY25, while its margin expanded to 27%. Operating costs rose 37% to Rs 270.07 crore during the year. ▪️ PayMe nearly doubles monthly disbursals to Rs 200 Cr, targets Rs 2,000 Cr annually Fintech firm PayMe crossed Rs 200 crore in monthly loan disbursals in September 2026, nearly doubling from the Rs 100 crore mark reached earlier this year. The Noida-based NBFC, which disbursed over Rs 1,300 crore in FY26, is targeting more than Rs 2,000 crore in FY27 and aims to reach a monthly run rate of Rs 500 crore by the end of the fiscal year.
document fetched 2026-10-04 02:51