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The Indian startup ecosystem has been witnessing a gradual downfall in late-stage investment. Evidence of the bear-like market gripping the private market with downround after correcting the public market with shrinking valuation is quite visible now. To say it in numbers, the first week of March saw a mere $223 Mn funding across 32 deals with no mega deal that touched or went above $100 Mn. 

The week also failed to produce any new unicorns. This week’s investment is 68% lower than the previous week’s when the ecosystem managed to raise $699 Mn across 48 deals and produced one unicorn. 

The busiest investor of this week was Vaibhav Domkundwar’s Better Capital which has doled out 3 cheques. Among angel investors, Kunal Shah and Jitendra Gupta have participated in two deals each. 

The Indian Startup Funding Deals Of The Week

Updates On Indian Startup IPOs

Meesho Eyes IPO In Early 2023

Facebook-backed social commerce platform, Meesho, is targeting an IPO by early 2023. The Bengaluru-based startup is reportedly working to be ready for a listing by the end of 2022. The report also claimed that Meesho was also mulling Indian and the U.S exchanges as prospective listing destinations.

From The Startup Acquisition Desk

• Ecommerce rollup startup UpScalio acquired a stake in consumer brands including Gizga, Tizum, Aircase, and HomePuff 
• Fantasy player MPL acquired GameDuell to expand operations across key global markets
• Anand Mahindra-led Mahindra Logistics Limited (MLL) acquired a 60% stake in a Telangana-based logistics service startup Whizzard for INR 72 Cr ($9.5 Mn approx)
• Bengaluru-based fintech startup, Uvik Technologies got into a merger and acquisition deal with a listed fintech and digital payment company, Infibeam Avenues Ltd for INR 75 Cr
• Bengaluru-based edtech startup Scaler acquired an online learning platform Applied Roots for $50 Mn
• Cloud kitchen startup, [email protected], has merged with Delhi-based Kitchens Centre 
• BikeWo announced the acquisition of Bengaluru-based staff management and business development platform Munim App

Startup Funds This Week

• Fintech-focussed venture capital firm, QED Investors is reportedly planning to deploy close to $500 Mn in the Indian startup ecosystem in the coming time
• Mindtree founders-led Mela Ventures announced the final close of its maiden fund, MV Core Tech Fund–I at INR 320 Cr
• Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Accel raised $650 Mn in its commitments towards the seventh fund, the Accel India VII, aimed at funding startups in India and Southeast Asia  
• Industry veteran and former managing partner at Arka Venture Labs, Radhesh Kanumury is setting up a new venture fund, Suvan Ventures, focused on B2B early-stage and Indian cross-border SaaS startups. The fund size is expected to be $10-15 Mn, making 20-25 investments
• Agritech startup Ninjacart announced a $25 Mn fund to back similar category startups. Dubbed as Agri Seed Fund, the investment plan will fund such startups by participating in the seed funding rounds 
• Former Reliance Capital executive Madhusudan Kela-backed Singularity AMC has set up Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund-I, or SGOF-I, a venture capital fund with a corpus of INR 600 Cr, to provide growth capital to tech startups across the country.

Other Developments From The Indian Startup Ecosystem

• Gurugram-based hyperlocal services provider, Urban Company announced a Partner Stock Ownership Plan (PSOP) for its service providers. Under this plan, the company will award stocks worth INR 150 Cr to thousands of service partners over the next 5-7 years
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and tech giant Google have announced a new cohort of 100 Indian startups under its AppScale academy initiative. Know about it here 
• Jitendra Gupta-led Jupiter has facilitated Employee Stock Options (ESOPs) for several of its employees across the company. The stock options, obtained from both present and past employees, have amounted to $4 Mn in liquidity transactions
• A grand jury in the U.S’ San Diego has indicted BitConnect founder, Satish Kumbhani, for ‘orchestrating’ a global crypto ponzi scheme worth $2.4 Bn. Read more here
• The US-based venture capital company, Accel announced the names of 14 Indian startups that were part of the first cohort of its Atoms programme being launched in October 2021. As part of the programme, the startups received $250K in non-dilutive capital
• In this week, we have decrypted the financials of three Indian startups – the profitable Zerodha, former Zomato founder Pankaj Chaddah and Pooja Khanna’s Shyft, and IPO-bound and Covid impacted Zoom Car.