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This week, 28 Indian startups raised $113.35 million across 3 growth-stage deals, 22 early-stage deals, and 3 undisclosed rounds. The week also saw 8 key appointments, 3 fund launches and 2 mergers & acquisitions. In contrast, 24 startups had collectively secured about $411.46 million in the previous week. [Growth-stage deals] Growth-stage startups raised $55.3 million across three deals this week, led by lifestyle-tech brand DailyObjects, which secured Rs 332 crore (nearly $35 million) in a Series C round led by Xponentia Capital Partners, Anicut Capital and Axiom Asia Private Capital. Smart kitchen appliance startup Beyond Appliances raised Rs 110 crore ($11.4 million) in a Series B round led by Fireside Ventures, while MSME-focused digital lender NeoGrowth secured Rs 85 crore in equity and debt funding from FMO and LeapFrog Investments. [Early-stage deals] Early-stage startups raised $58.05 million across 22 deals this week, led by photonic quantum technology startup Quanfluence, which secured $10 million from Chiratae Ventures and Rainmatter, followed by edtech startup byteXL with $9 million from Elevar Equity. Medtech startup Sunfox Technologies raised $7 million in a Series A round co-led by Ashish Kacholia, Lashit Sanghvi, Alchemy Capital and 3one4 Capital, while quantum computing startup QpiAI secured Rs 50 crore in debt funding from InnoVen Capital. Other funded startups included Omnichannel menswear brand Kisah, Wealth management startup Zomint, AI startup Desible.ai, healthtech SuperMush, Cold-pressed oil brand Gramiyaa, among others. Travel tech platform TravClan, financial information platform MoneyTruVa, and Biofortified staples brand Better Nutrition also raised funding this week but did not disclose the amounts. [City and segment-wise deals] Bengaluru again led the funding charts with 10 startup deals during the week, followed by Delhi-NCR and Mumbai with 6 deals and 3 deals respectively. Hyderabad, Dehradun, Chandigarh and others also recorded deals. E-commerce startups led the sectors with 8 deals, followed by AI and healthtech startups which grabbed 5 deals and 4 deals respectively. Meanwhile fintech, foodtech, SaaS, edtech, deeptech and others also saw funding activity. [Series-wise deals] Seed rounds led the week with 13 deals, followed by pre-seed and Series A startups which grabbed 5 deals each. Series C, Series B, debt and pre-Series A recorded a deal each. [Week-on-week funding trend] On a weekly basis, startup funding dropped over 72% to $113.35 million from $411.46 million raised in the previous week. The average weekly funding over the past eight weeks stood at around $231.6 million across 22 deals. [Key Hirings] Eight key appointments were announced this week. Sorry Sugar named Palash Arneja as Founder and CEO, while Google Cloud appointed Amit Kumar as interim India head. Snabbit appointed Ramesh Srinivasan as Head of Growth and Revenue, ALTEN India named Prabhakar Atla as CEO, and Eggoz onboarded actor Boman Irani as its brand ambassador. Meanwhile, Genefied promoted Krishna Khandelwal to Chief Sales Officer, Sarvam AI appointed former Google Cloud India MD Sashikumar Sreedharan as President and Chief Business Officer, and OTPless named Geetanshu Singla as CTO. [Mergers and Acquisitions] FMCG major Marico acquired an additional 24.09% stake in Plix parent Satiya Nutraceuticals for Rs 1,012.03 crore, while paediatric healthcare company Hoola Health acquired early-childhood development platform UpTodd. [Fund Launches] Entrepreneur Navya Naveli Nanda launched Naveli Ventures, the venture arm of the Nanda Family Office, to invest in deeptech, AI, clean energy, space and healthcare startups. Meanwhile, NABVENTURES secured Rs 450 crore in the first close of its second fund, while Recur Club announced a Rs 500 crore fund to provide growth capital to 150-170 D2C brands in FY27. [New launches and partnerships] ▪️ PhonePe partners with DPCGC to strengthen regulatory compliance in OTT ecosystem PhonePe has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Digital Publisher Content Grievances Council (DPCGC), a self-regulatory body under IAMAI, to strengthen regulatory compliance in the OTT ecosystem. The partnership aims to simplify self-regulatory organisation (SRO) certification for OTT platforms and online content publishers that use PhonePe’s payment gateway. It will also focus on merchant education and awareness of regulatory requirements under the IT Rules, 2021, which mandate SRO membership for grievance redressal. ▪️ 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. ▪️Pluckk takes its clean-label vision global with UK expansion Digital-first FMCG brand Pluckk has entered the UK market, with its products available in 17 stores and a 15% share of the protein bar category at these outlets within the first month. The company aims to expand to 100 stores within three months and 500 within a year. It also plans to increase its UK portfolio to over 50 SKUs across clean-label categories, including juices, functional drinks, snacks and salads. ▪️ Pine Labs launches unified payments and customer engagement platform in Singapore Pine Labs has launched a unified merchant platform in Singapore that combines payment acceptance, acquiring, installment payments and customer engagement services. The platform supports card and alternative payment methods, bank-backed installment plans and rewards through its Fave app. It aims to simplify merchant operations, improve checkout conversions and boost customer retention. [News flash this week] ▪️ Startup Policy Forum’s DeepVerse platform brings together 30 investors and founders to shape deeptech policy Startup Policy Forum (SPF) has launched DeepVerse, a deeptech policy platform with 30 partners, including Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners and Lightspeed. The initiative aims to address policy challenges across 10 sectors, including semiconductors, spacetech, defence technology, biotech, cleantech and robotics. ▪️ Flipkart’s Big Billion Days returns for 13th edition on October 9 with record seller participation Flipkart has announced the 13th edition of its flagship festive sale, The Big Billion Days, starting October 9, with early access for select members on October 8. The sale will feature record seller participation, AI-powered shopping experiences and an expanded supply chain network of over 8,200 fulfilment and delivery facilities across India, including Ekart and Flipkart Minutes. ▪️Bengaluru to host Climate Data Week 2026 with over 30 events The Climate Collective Foundation will host the first edition of Bangalore Climate Data Week from October 12 to 16, with over 30 events across Bengaluru. Supported by Google and Karnataka’s innovation bodies, the initiative is expected to attract over 2,000 participants, including climate tech founders, investors, researchers and policymakers, to explore the use of data and AI in addressing climate challenges. ▪️ Blinkit leads quick commerce in product availability, Flipkart Minutes ranks second: Bernstein Eternal’s quick commerce arm Blinkit led India’s major quick-commerce platforms in product availability with an average in-stock rate of 94.4%, followed by Flipkart Minutes at 88.7%, Swiggy Instamart at 83.8% and Zepto at 82.5%, according to a report by brokerage firm Bernstein. ▪️ Groww adds over 1 lakh active clients in September, Sahi clocks 11% growth Groww maintained its lead in India’s stock broking market in September 2026, adding over 1 lakh active clients, while Sahi recorded the fastest growth among the top 20 brokers at 11% month-on-month. According to NSE data, the industry’s active client base grew 0.35% to 4.61 crore from 4.60 crore in August, with nearly 1.6 lakh net additions. ▪️BofA cuts PB Fintech price target by 19%; anticipates strong Q2 for Paytm BofA expects PB Fintech and Paytm to report strong Q2 FY27 growth but flagged regulatory risks for PB Fintech following IRDAI’s proposed changes to insurance commissions. The brokerage cut PB Fintech’s price target by 19% to Rs 1,145, citing a potential 39-41% decline in EPS in FY28 and FY29, while maintaining a Neutral rating. It retained its Buy rating on Paytm with a target price of Rs 1,775.
document fetched 2026-10-11 02:45