[Weekly funding roundup May 17-23] VC inflow remains steady

Venture capital funding into Indian startups remained steady as there were no uplifting elements that could boost a higher inflow of investors’ money into the ecosystem.

The total VC funding for the third week of May came in at $232 million across 17 deals. In contrast, the previous week saw a total inflow of $200 million. This actually reveals that capital inflow has gone back to the familiar territory in the range of $100-200 million on a weekly basis.

Between May 3 and 9, the Indian startup ecosystem raised the highest amount of funding for the year so far, which was an exception rather than the norm. In general, venture capital inflow has remained tepid since the month of March.

Now, the large deals are certainly missing from the Indian startup ecosystem, and this has had an impact on the overall deal and money flow.

At the same time, this restricted flow of capital has also largely got to do with the macroeconomic environment, where there is still a great deal of uncertainty, which in turn has made the investors cautious. At the same time, the advent of AI has also put a reset on startup investments as one is still not sure how this is going to play out.

The Indian startup ecosystem continues to witness interesting developments. Logistics startup Shiprocket has announced plans to go public. At the same time, investors continue to place their bets on Indian startups and this week saw fresh announcements from Titan Capital and 360 One Asset. On the other hand, startups that have gone public continue to face challenges in delivering positive numbers as in the case of Mamaearth and MobiKwik.

Key transactions

EV manufacturer Euler Motors raised Rs 638 crore ($75 million approx.) from Hero MotoCorp and British International Investment (BII).

Healthtech startup CureBay raised $21 million from Bertelsmann India Investments, Elevar Equity and British International Investment (BII).

Cybersecurity firm CloudSEK raised $19 million from MassMutual Ventures, Inflexor Ventures, Prana Ventures, Tenacity Ventures, and others.

Content startup Mythik raised $15 million from Sakal Media Group, BITKRAFT, VC Grid, Visceral Capital, Shah Rukh Khan’s Family Office, Patni Family Office and others.

Alt Carbon, a deeptech science and data startup raised $12 million from Lachy Groom and others.

Tech startup Data Sutram raised $9 million from B Capital and Lightspeed.

Consumer startup Miraggio raised $6.5 million from RPSG Capital Ventures, Client Associates Alternate Fund and Prath Ventures.