Autumn Of Startups: 32 Indian Ventures Raise $135 Million In Funding This Week

At least 32 domestic startups secured nearly USD 135 million in funding this week, which saw four growth-stage deals and 22 early-stage deals in a significant jump of over 45 per cent from last week.

Deeptech Startup On The Rise

Deeptech startups emerged as leader this week as Industrial robotics maker Haber raised Rs 317.2 crore (approximately USD 38 million) in its Series C round, led by Creaegis with participation from Accel India and BEENEXT Capital.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Spry Therapeutics raised USD 15 million led by Flourish Ventures, Together Fund and Fidelity's Eight Roads and F-prime Capital. Cross-border speciality chemical manufacturing platform Mstack raised USD 40 million in its Series A funding round co-led by Lightspeed and Alphawave along with a debt from HSBC Innovation Banking.

Mstack is now planning to make inroads into agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. With the fresh proceeds, the firm will also hire talents across functions including R&D. Meanwhile, digital adoption platform (DAP) Whatfix introduced a USD 58 million liquidity programme for its employees and investors, marking the company's fourth buyback of employee stock options (ESOPs).

21 Startups Raise 93 Million

This week, Bengaluru-based startups led with 11 deals followed by Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Pune. Last week, 21 startups in India raised nearly USD 93 million in funding across 16 deals, which included four growth-stage deals and 12 early-stage fundings.

It was a big drop from nearly USD 461 million raised by 29 domestic startups in the previous week, which included 10 growth-stage deals. In the third quarter (July-September), domestic startups raised more than USD 4 billion, including several transactions over USD 300 million and USD 200 million, along with pre-IPO rounds. This included 85 growth and late-stage deals worth USD 3.3 billion, along with 207 early-stage deals worth USD 754.26 million