This week, the Indian startup sector saw a sharp decline in funding. Startups raised just $70.4 million across 18 deals this week, compared to $137 million last week. Elevate Education raised $17.7 million and Aukera raised $10 million. Among the cities, Bengaluru was the biggest winner, while AI-based startups were the biggest winners in the regions.
This week saw six major acquisitions, including upGrad’s acquisition of leading edtech platform Unacademy. Apart from this, new funds were announced by Fundamentum, Next Bharat Ventures and B Capital. Meanwhile, startups like Klydo and PicSee, which was started by the co-founder of Koo, have shut down within a year of their launch. There are also reports of new leadership being appointed at companies like Pocket FM and PhonePe.
Other major news items include Flipkart expanding its zero commission policy for fashion sellers and Groww retaining its top spot among stockbrokers. Leading fitness startup Cult.fit has filed for an IPO with SEBI, targeting a fresh share sale of Rs 950 crore. Apart from this, Rentomojo has also received approval for an IPO of Rs 150 crore. Axis Max Life and Bharat Stars Services have also announced new partnerships this week to leverage AI technology.
