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The month of July signalled the possible start of the much-dreaded ‘funding winter’ in the Indian startup ecosystem as the weekly inflow of venture capital remained under the $100 million level.

Many stakeholders had projected that the second half of the year could witness a steep drop in venture funding for startups due to macroeconomic factors such as rising interest rates around the globe and the war in Europe. The month of July has now set the precedent for the rest of the year.

The last week of the month saw total venture funding of just $80 million spread across 23 deals, as compared to $103 million in the previous week.

The majority of the deals have been overwhelmingly in the early-stage category. Though these startups are seeing the participation of marquee VCs, the quantum of funding remains low. As expected, early-stage funding into startups will continue to garner investor attention but the case is not the same with growth-stage companies, where deceleration in the capital inflow is very apparent.

Now the million-dollar question is how long this funding winter is going to continue? Whatever may be the case, it is unlikely for any turnaround to happen till the end of this year.

Key transactions

Rural fintech startup Jai Kisan raised $50 million from GMO Venture Partners, Yara Growth Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, Blume Ventures, Arkam Ventures, Mirae Asset, Snow Leopard Ventures, Northern Arc, Alteria, and MAS Financial.

Content sharing app SuperShare raised $6.5 million from Lachy Groom, Accel India, Lightspeed, Tanmay Bhat and MythPat.

Ecommerce startup ChattyBao raised over $5 million from Vertex Ventures, Info Edge Ventures, 7Square Ventures and angel investors.