Page 6 - Indian Startups

PayU-backed Vayana raises $20.5 million in Series D funding round

The company said the fundraise saw participation from family offices such as Quantum State Investment Fund and Emerald Company

Cross-border payments fintech Skydo raises $5 mn from Elevation Capital

The firm had previously raised $5.2 million in a seed round led by Elevation Capital in 2022

Rediffusion launches Konjo, specialist agency for Indian startups

The agency will help startups at various stages of brand development

Google set to lead $250 mn round by Indian mobile startup Glance InMobi

Outlay would increase Google's bets in the world's most populous country, where it vies with local contenders as well as global peers Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Amazon.com for new growth areas

India's first pvt deeptech hub launches in NCR, aiming to mobilise $100 mn

Collectively, the hub targets to mobilise $100 million in the Indian deeptech ecosystem

Volatile market, policy issues cause a drop in India's AI startup funding

The drop recorded for the April-June quarter this year was 91 per cent from the previous quarter and 82 per cent from the same period last year

BNPL startup Simpl undertakes second round of layoffs in less than a month

It says the decision is in "continuation of our organisation-wide efforts to become fiscally prudent" and to achieve profitability by mid-2025

Pixxel, Sarvam AI among 10 Indian startups in WEF's Tech Pioneers list

Ten Indian startups including Pixxel, Niramai and Sarvam AI have made to the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers 2024 list published on Thursday. The list has total 100 leading tech startups which are focused on applying new breakthroughs in AI to develop clean energy solutions, healthcare innovation and progress in biotech, space and neurotechnology. Those having been named on the list in the past include tech giants like Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter and Spotify. Niramai is developing a novel AI-based test for detecting early-stage breast cancer, which is affordable, portable and non-invasive. Pixxel is developing hyperspectral satellite imagery to capture geospatial data, while Sarvam AI is building foundation AI models and platforms for their use with a focus on Indian languages and use cases. Indian entrants also include Amperehour, which is creating dispatchable renewable energy generating plants, and Cropin which is developing a farm monitoring and management solution

Lenskart raises $200 million in secondary round at $5 billion valuation

Lenskart continues to deepen its penetration in India while rapidly scaling its international presence in Asia, including Southeast Asia and the Middle East

Indian startup ecosystem is mature, set to bolster economy: AWS' Raghavan

The Indian startup ecosystem is mature, with multiple tailwinds that are poised to escalate India to become the third largest economy in the world, said AWS' Kumara Raghavan. In a conversation with PTI, Raghavan, Head, Startups, Amazon Web Services (AWS) India, and South Asia, discussed the vibrant Indian startup scene, noting its strength and innovation potential. "We are the 5th largest economy, we are trending towards becoming the 3rd largest... factors that will contribute to it are labor addition, infrastructure growth, and efficiency improvements, where technologies like GenAI will play their part, a large developer ecosystem, the ability to build products in the country and serviced all over the world, then there are regulatory tailwinds as well," he said. Raghavan lauded the maturity of the Indian startup ecosystem, noting the significant contributions of experienced founders who have embarked on multiple entrepreneurial ventures. "We are the third largest startup ecosystem

40 start-ups extend support to Digital Competition Bill in a letter to MCA

In the letter, the start-ups have also requested an upward revision of the thresholds for designating Systematically Significant Digital Enterprises (SSDEs)

Amazon's accelerator aims to launch 50 Indian startups in global markets

The applications for the programme open today, will close on June 14, 2024. It will culminate in a demo day where participants will get chance to pitch their business propositions to leading VC firms

Good Capital plans to invest $25 million in Indian AI startups this year

Mauritius-based venture capital firm Good Capital on Friday said it plans to invest USD 25 million, about Rs 200 crore, in Indian AI startups this fiscal. The investment will be made from the corpus of USD 50 million Good Capital Fund II, which is expected to be used by 2027. "The total fund is USD 50 million which is planned to be used by 2027. Out of which Good Capital is deploying USD 25 million in AI startups empowering intermediaries and plans to deploy this by 2025, Arjun Malhotra, General Partner at Good Capital said. "Investing in technology products solving India-centric problems, the firm has announced plans to invest USD 25 million in AI startups by FY25. These investments will primarily target sectors such as cleantech, e-commerce, edtech, healthtech, SaaS, and deeptech, Good Capital said. The firm plans to invest in 15-20 AI startups across early-stage and Series-A funding stages utilising AI and LLM (large language models) to create novel businesses through an investm

In red-hot AI space, funds for Indian startups cooling down: Traxcn

PE/VC funding down 71% in CY23; it has slowed further in this year

IvyCap plans to invest Rs 2,100 cr in Indian startups in next 12 years

Venture Capital firm IvyCap Ventures has raised Rs 2,100 crore through its Fund III, with 90 per cent of the corpus coming from domestic investors. Fund III had a basic corpus of Rs 1,500 crore and a provision to raise an additional Rs 600 crore as greenshoe option. "We have raised Rs 2,100 crore. Majority of the fund has come from our existing investors and 90 per cent is domestic capital," IvyCap Ventures Founder and Managing Partner Vikram Gupta told PTI. "Despite challenges in domestic capital flow, we have stuck to our theory that there is enough domestic capital which will continue to grow. With Fund III we have proved it," he said. The Fund III is almost 4 times the size of Fund II, IvyCap said, adding that it plans to invest in Indian startups over a period of 12 years. The Fund plans to invest in about 25 companies at Series A with an average starting investment amount of Rs 30-50 crore. "We are sector agnostic fund. We have already committed around 40 per cent of the fu

Indian startup funding declines 3.1% to $2.3 billion in Q1 CY2024

The country saw the creation of two unicorns - companies valued at over $1 billion - during the quarter, namely Ola Krutrim and fintech Software as a Service (SaaS) firm Perfios

Aramco's VC arm building an India team to bet on early-stage opportunities

Prosperity7 Ventures, Saudi Aramco's venture capital arm, manages over $3 billion in assets worldwide

BS Manthan: Never had a funding winter, says Sanjeev Bikhchandani

The comment from Bikhchandani--who's sometimes referred to as the father of Indian startups-came in the backdrop of Indian startup funding hitting a seven-year low in 2023

Never had a funding winter: Sanjeev Bikhchandani at BS Manthan

The Indian startup ecosystem never faced a funding winter, said Sanjeev Bikhchandani, serial entrepreneur and co-founder, Info Edge at the Business Standard Manthan event.

Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal's comment on Indian tech founders sparks debate

Country lacks culture of research and innovation but Indian entrepreneurs found solutions to country's problems