[Weekly funding roundup Feb 21-27] Steep fall in VC influx as a result of absence of enormous offers

Enterprise capital funding in Indian startups noticed a pointy decline within the final week of February, largely because of the absence of any high-value offers. This highlights the continued challenges confronted by the ecosystem in elevating capital.

The whole funding for the week amounted to $184 million throughout 32 offers. In distinction, the earlier week noticed VC funding of $705 million pushed by Neysa’s $600 million transaction.

This week, the variety of offers remained fairly excessive at 32, however the complete worth stayed low, as the bulk have been pre-Sequence A investments. This means that buyers are keen to again early-stage startups requiring smaller capital commitments however stay hesitant to put in writing giant cheques for late-stage funding.

These developments reveal the challenges the Indian startup ecosystem continues to face when it comes to elevating capital. There isn’t any particular theme or sector the place the buyers can put of their cash. Even the substitute intelligence (AI) section is just not gaining traction in India not like in different geographies just like the US or China.

Apparently, just a few AI startups with Indian origins however headquartered within the US proceed to draw funding, notably from marquee enterprise capital corporations. This week noticed Meltplan and Gushwork AI elevating capital.

Key transactions

Deepinder Goyal’s wearable startup Temple on Friday raised $54 million in its first spherical of funding, reaching a post-money valuation of roughly $190 million.

Creator commerce platform Wishlink raised $17.5 million from Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, Fundamentum and Elevation Capital.

Fintech startup XFlow raised $16.6 million from Common Catalyst, Sq. Peg, Stripe, Lightspeed, Moore Capital, and PayPal Ventures.

Chennai-based MSME lending platform Prayaan Capital raised Rs 110 crore ($12 million approx.) led by Peak XV Companions.

D2C model Dwelling Necessities raised Rs 70 crore ($7.6 million approx.) from 360 ONE Asset and India Quotient.

Wootzwork, an engineering and manufacturing startup raised $6.6 million from Z47, Nexus Enterprise Companions, AdvantEdge Founders, and Stride Ventures.

Monetary companies startup FREED has raised Rs 60 crore ($6.6 million approx.) from Aavishkaar Capital, Sorin Investments, Piper Serica, and Sattva Ventures.