The month of May started off on a positive note with venture capital funding touching a new weekly high for the year till now, but post that it dropped to a more moderate level, primarily due to smaller deal values.
The total funding for the last week of May amounted to $209 million across 18 deals. In contrast, the previous week saw a total fund raise of $232 million. Since mid-March, VC funding on a weekly basis has been in the range of $100 million and $200 million.
This lower amount of VC funding reflects the current investment climate, where investors continue to remain cautious about investing in a larger number of startups as well as writing bigger value cheques. It is likely that this trend is going to persist for some more time.
In the last week of May, the majority of the deals were in the early and growth stage of funding. The large deals, which come under the late-stage funding category, have few and far in between. The hope is things will turn for the better in the near future.
On the other hand, the Indian startup ecosystem continues to witness interesting developments. The interest among the startups to the IPO market has not waned despite a not so encouraging stock market, and this week saw three of them–Razorpay, Groww, and Amagi taking definite steps towards that goal.
In terms of financial performance of those companies which are now publicly listed entities and once were part of the Indian startup ecosystem it has been a mixed bag. Nykaa brought out positive numbers in terms of profitability while Ola Electric and FirstCry continue to struggle with widening losses.
Key transactions
Value fashion retail chain CityKart raised Rs 538 crore ($63 million approx.) from TPG NewQuest and A91 Partners.
NBFC startup Saarathi Finance raised Rs 475 crore ($55.4 million approx) ,from TVS Capital Funds, Lok Capital, Evolvence Equity Partners, Paragon Partners, and others.
Fashion brand Snitch raised Rs 278.9 crore ($32.6 million approx.) from 360 One Asset Management Fund, SWC Global and IvyCap Ventures.
Quick service provider Snabbit raised $19 million from Lightspeed, Elevation Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners.
SaaS startup Fleetx.io raised Rs 113 crore ($13.2 million approx) from IndiaMART Intermesh and BEENEXT’s Accelerate Fund.
Fashion delivery platform Slikk raised $10 million from Nexus Venture Partners and Lightspeed.
Deeptech startup Frinks AI raised $5.4 million from Prime Venture Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Navam Capital, and Ashok Atluri (Founder, Zen Technologies).
Edited by Megha Reddy
