Within weeks of announcing his exit as executive chairman of the global software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Freshworks, its founder Girish Mathrubootham appears to be on an investment spree.
Indian startups raised a total of $1.65 billion (about Rs 14,418 crore) in funding at a median valuation of $83.2 million in February 2025, according to data from Traxcn. This brings the total funding in FY25 (April-February) to $25.4 billion, spread across 2,200 rounds, the data showed.
The tide of startup-funding is turning in India, with a rising trend of overall funding while the deal sizes grow bigger. However, the spotlight now is on late-stage startups, many of which are seen to be headed for initial public offerings (IPOs). Record surge in stock markets and consistently improving performances of listed startups are understood to have turned the sentiment for the better, especially for those that exhibit a clear path to an IPO.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI), climate tech and fintech sectors will be the hot areas for venture capitalists and founders in the next year, according to the prediction by Prashanth Prakash, founding partner of the global venture capital firm Accel Partners in India and the chairperson of Karnataka Startup Vision Group. Prakash said that about $25 billion has been invested into building Gen AI globally. But a lot of that capital has not yet come to India, opening up huge opportunities for startups in the country.
Food and grocery delivery major Swiggy on Thursday filed its updated draft papers with capital markets regulator Sebi to raise funds through its much anticipated initial public offering (IPO). The proposed IPO comprises a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 3,750 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of 18.52 crore equity shares by existing shareholders, according to the updated draft red herring prospectus (UDRHP). Market sources have pegged the company's IPO size at over Rs 10,000 crore.
Finally, some good news for the Indian startup ecosystem. After four consecutive half-year periods of declining funding since 2022, the first half (H1) of 2024 has shown an upward trend compared to the second half (H2) of 2023. According to the India Tech Semi-Annual Funding Report H1 2024 by Tracxn, Indian technology (tech) startups raised $4.1 billion in H1 2024, marking a 4 per cent increase from $3.96 billion in H2 2023.
The past few years have seen the first cycle of mergers and acquisitions, exits, and track-records being created.
'It's the second-largest market for us after the US, and should be the largest market at some point.'
Food delivery app Swiggy on Wednesday launched a Rs 11,330-crore initial share sale, asking investors to take a pie of Indian middle class' rising propensity of online ordering. The company, which is present in over 650 cities and towns of the country, is launching the initial public offering (IPO) amid heightened concerns on urban demand slump, and the management stressed that it is unaffected by the broader trends in the economy. "We are also reading about it, but we are not seeing that yet in the business... So far, we have not seen the impact of demand on our business," its chief financial officer Rahul Bothra said.
At least 14 of the top 20 venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds in India reduced new deals with start-ups by a fifth in 2022. The number fell from 572 in 2021 to 456 this year, according to data from Venture Intelligence. Sequoia Capital, a leader in investments, retained its top slot but its number of deals fell from 110 in 2021 to 70 this year.
Three marquee exits accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the total exit value -- BillDesk's acquisition by PayU for $4.7 billion, Paytm's $2.5 billion initial public offering (IPO), and Zomato's public market debut of $1.3 billion.
Recently, Slice, a payment app, acquired a 5 per cent stake in North East Small Finance (NESF) for $3.42 million - the first such deal by a fintech in a small finance bank. Slice (valued at $1.5 billion, and backed by Tiger Global, Blume Ventures and Axis Bank) will technically get a toehold in a scheduled commercial bank if NESF were to get a licence to morph into one down the line Such a transition is well within the banking regulator's declared framework. The transaction has to be seen in a larger context.
Foreign investment in India's start-ups has plummeted 72 per cent to $4.58 billion so far, from $16.2 billion during the same period last year.
'In India, the GenAI startup ecosystem is unfolding with remarkable speed, signalling a new era of technological advancement and investment opportunities.'
Indian start-ups breathed a sigh of relief after the UK government facilitated the acquisition of the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB's) British arm by HSBC. In a bid to allay fears, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FIDC) announced recently that it had transferred all deposits of start-up-focused SVB to a newly created bridge bank and all depositors would have access to their money. President Joe Biden also sought to reassure jittery depositors that they can have confidence that the US banking system is "safe".
Leading the Indian-Americans on the list is 49-year old Aneel Bhusri.
On a cloudy Monday this month, Mohammed Irshad flew from Kochi to Gurugram to attend an exclusive investor networking event. Among a handful of founders selected for the event, Irshad was to pitch his peer-to-peer learning start-up Notespaedia for funding in front of top venture capital investors such as AngelBay, Elevation Capital, and Inflection Point Ventures. He failed to woo them, but the feisty entrepreneur was determined to continue his hunt.
With 16 start-ups gaining unicorn status in 2021, India's tally has touched the 50 mark. The newest entrant to this list include Pune-based MindTickle, which is close to finalising a $100-million funding round from Softbank's Vision Fund 2, taking the company's valuation to $1.1 billion.
Food delivery major Swiggy has received approval from its shareholders for a $1.25 billion initial public offering (IPO), according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies sourced by Tofler. The Bengaluru-based firm plans to raise as much as Rs 3,750 crore (around $450 million) via a fresh issue and up to Rs 6,664 crore (around $800 million) through an offer-for-sale (OFS) component, the filings stated.
Venture capital investments in India's start-ups nearly halved to $1.5 billion in fourth-quarter 2015
As consumers in India seek variety and innovative products, there's a lot of interest among investors for healthier products.
Koo has so far raised $4.1 mn in Series A funding from existing investors Accel, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures and 3one4 Capital.
TaxiForSure's Aprameya Radhakrishna's new venture, Vokal, is a peer-to-peer content generation platform that is a cross between Reddit and Quora.
The family office category was up 38 per cent, led by names such as Ratan Tata, Ronnie Screwvala and various Infosys co-founders.
Who invested how much into Flipkart in its latest round of $1 billion funding? Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com finds out.
Amphibious drones for maritime inspection... devices that extract pure oxygen from water for patients in need... self-balancing electric bikes...
India's tech start-ups are following Silicon Valley's lead and embracing the "fail fast" culture.
GlowRoad, a business network for homemakers, is helping women who want to earn from home.
After a recent spate of big-bang funding of food discovery and delivery apps, experts believe the sector's consolidation might be over and the remaining players are here to stay and thrive.
Companies don't have to be in the field to nudge people to return money they owe lenders.
An increasing number of b-school graduates are exploring tea-based services and products for businesses and some of them have tasted success too.
The company is in talks with investors and the deal could be closed in a few weeks. At present, it operates in 37 cities in India.
The latest round of funding values the company at $10.7 billion, almost doubling it from the $5.5 billion valuation during the $1.25 billion fund raise in July 2021 when investors including SoftBank, Prosus and Accel pumped in capital in what was the company's biggest funding since its inception. The other new investors in the latest round of funding include Baron Capital Group, Sumeru Venture, IIFL AMC Late Stage Tech Fund, Kotak, Axis Growth Avenues AIF- I, Sixteenth Street Capital, Ghisallo, Smile Group and Segantii Capital, Swiggy said in a statement.
The ban on taxi aggregators can put at risk investments of at least Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion), made by private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investors.
Ratan Tata has made investments in his personal capacity in more than 15 start-ups over the last 20 months.
Koo, which works on similar lines as Twitter, was born with a focus on regional language, unlike Twitter and Facebook, which are very popular but primarily cater to an English-speaking audience, reports Neha Alawadhi.
The investor has now put together a fund of $3.75 billion to back private companies.
Yuri Milner is focussing on on consumer-driven Internet start-ups.
After four years in the making, a band of 20 film-makers were left with 400 hours of footage for what is now India's first blue chip natural history film.
Investors spent much of 2016 cleaning house. And a VC tells Ranju Sarkar, "There's still some bad news left in the portfolios (of VC firms). What happens to Ola and Flipkart will drive sentiment in future."
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