Indian startups raise $356.8M this week across 23 deals

Indian startups raised $356.8 million this week across 23 deals, according to Entrackr’s weekly funding report. The figure was up from about $303.7 million raised by 25 startups in the previous week, marking an over 17% increase in weekly funding. The report also recorded five key appointments, one departure, two mergers and acquisitions, and one new fund launch.

Growth-stage startups raised $182 million across six deals during the week. Bengaluru-based restaurant company Popo Global led this category with $56 million from Artal Asia, followed by women’s wellness brand Nua, which raised $50 million in a Series C round led by Peak XV Partners. Other notable growth-stage deals included HerSpace Manufacturing, Swish, Carrum Mobility and Lickicious.

Early-stage startups raised $174.8 million across 15 deals, with spacetech startup Pixxel leading the list through a $100 million Series C round co-led by Temasek and Seraphim Space. QNu Labs raised Rs 200 crore in a Series A1 round co-led by the National Quantum Mission and Speciale Invest. Other funded companies included Piston, Graph AI, Theater, Circolife, Navana.ai, Fundly.ai and DigitalPaani, while YoLearn.ai, SpeakX, Neurotech and BQP also raised capital with amounts undisclosed.

Bengaluru topped the city-wise funding chart with 14 startup deals, followed by Delhi-NCR with four. Mumbai, Thane and Kerala also recorded deals during the week. By segment, AI startups led with five deals, followed by foodtech, healthtech, fintech, F&B and deeptech with two deals each.

In M&A, Swiggy agreed to sell its retail distribution business Lynk Logistics to Udaan for Rs 500 crore, while Cyrix Healthcare acquired the MedTech Solutions business of Blue Star Engineering & Electronics. Leadership updates included Whatfix appointing co-founder Vara Kumar as CEO, NIIF naming Gauravjit Singh as managing partner and global head of capital formation, and Snap naming Ronan Harris as chief commercial officer after Ajit Mohan stepped down. W Health Ventures closed its second fund at Rs 700 crore, above its initial Rs 630 crore target, with plans to build 8–10 healthcare companies over four years.