ETtech Deals Digest: A tepid week for startups as funding nosedives 72% YoY

Total funding in Indian startups continues to remain tepid amid the ongoing funding winter. During the week of February 11-17, venture funding in local startups saw a slight decline even as PhonePe and InsuranceDekho emerged as exceptions to the broader trend.

Indian startups raised $304 million, including venture debt, during the week under review, spread across 21 rounds. This is an over 10% decline compared to the previous week but a significant 72% drop against the same week last year. Indian startups raised $1.09 billion across 66 deals, in the same period last year, according to data provided by market intelligence platform Tracxn.

During the first week of February, new-age tech companies in the country garnered $338 million in total funding across 22 funding rounds.


Venture capital firm JAFCO Asia and early-stage investor Kae Capital were the most active investors this week, signing two deals each.

InsuranceDekho’s $150-million funding was the biggest during the week under review. It marked the first institutional round for the company from external investors. InsuranceDekho was previously funded by parent GirnarSoft which also owns car buying marketplace CarDekho.

The second major funding was of PhonePe which raised another $100 million as part of its ongoing round from fintech-backer Ribbit Capital, TVS Capital Funds (TCF) and New York-based investment firm Tiger Global at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion.

Here is a list of startups that received funds this week:

Insurtech platform InsuranceDekho raised $150 million in a mix of equity and debt funding, led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital Fund. Investcorp, Avataar Ventures and LeapFrog Investments also invested as part of the equity funding. The round includes around $40 million in debt capital.

Walmart-owned PhonePe raised another $100 million in primary funding from investors like Ribbit Capital, TVS Capital Funds (TCF) and New York-based investment firm Tiger Global at a pre-money valuation of $12 billion. The fresh funding comes close on the heels of a $350-million capital raising from private equity firm General Atlantic in January.

HRtech company, HireSure, announced that it has secured $2.5 million in seed funding from leading investors such as YCombinator and Binny Bansal’s Three State Capital, as well as San Francisco-based Tribe Capital and Pioneer Fund.

With the fresh funding, the company intends to bolster its community, create innovative products and expand its engineering and product teams.

Venwiz, a digital platform that streamlines procurement services for the manufacturing industry, announced that it has raised $8.3 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by Sorin Investments, the venture capital firm established by Sanjay Nayar, former head of KKR India.

Other investors that participated in the funding round include Accel and Nexus Venture Partners, both of which are returning investors, as well as JAFCO Asia, Riverwalk Holdings and Force Ventures. The funding round also saw contributions from former ITC agri-business CEO Sanjiv Rangrass, Anshuman Sinha of AT Kearney, and Prabhav Kashyap, a partner at Bain & Co, along with other angel investors.