Indian Startups Raise $130.2 Mn in Last Week of October, Down 29%

Indian startups raised $130.2 Mn between October 26 and October 30, a drop of 29.2% from $184 Mn the week before. Funding value stayed muted, but deal activity picked up: 32 startups secured capital, up 88% from 17 a week earlier.

Ecommerce and AI lead the charts

Ecommerce topped the sector rankings with nine deals worth $33.4 Mn. Troovy's $10.5 Mn and Ace Blend's $9.9 Mn rounds made up 61% of that total. AI came second, with five startups raising $30.4 Mn; Simplismart's $14 Mn and Live2.ai's $13.7 Mn rounds contributed 91% of it.

Five advanced hardware and technology startups raised $6.8 Mn, while three enterprise services deals added up to $9.5 Mn. Blume Ventures and Antler were the most active investors, each backing three startups.

IPOs, deals and funds in the pipeline

SEBI approved appliance maker Atomberg's proposed ₹450 Cr IPO, which combines a fresh issue of up to ₹450 Cr with an offer for sale of up to 7.65 Cr shares. Edtech firm Imarticus Learning plans to file its DRHP confidentially within two to three months and now targets a ₹1,000 Cr IPO, up from ₹750 Cr. CCI cleared Prosus' $100 Mn minority investment in IPO-bound fintech Navi, its first institutional round.

Sarvam AI is reportedly in talks to raise around $300 Mn from Cognizant at a valuation of $3.5 Bn-$4 Bn, more than double its earlier $1.5 Bn. Parsec Aerospace is in talks for about $10 Mn led by Nexus Venture Partners, and Tradl closed a $4.1 Mn seed round led by Nexus and Stellaris Venture Partners.

In M&A, Freshworks acquired Israel-based AI startup Robusta Dev to strengthen Freshservice, and Protectt.ai plans a controlling stake in Bosch-incubated AIShield. Unacademy cofounders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini are raising a ₹700 Cr fund, Longshot Capital, to back AI and deeptech startups. Meanwhile, two Baillie Gifford funds have marked down their VerSe Innovation holdings by as much as 80%.