From Darwinbox To InsuranceDekho — Indian Startups Raised $386 Mn This Week

SUMMARY
Between March 3 and March 8, Indian startups cumulatively raised $385.5 Mn across 29 deals, marking an over 4X of the $88.3 Mn raised last week by 16 startups
The past week saw two startups raise over $100 Mn in funding – Darwinbox’s $140 Mn fundraise and Leap Finance’s $100 Mn debt raise
AC Ventures emerged as the most active investor during the week, partaking in Phot.AI’s seed funding round and spacetech TakeMe2Space’s maiden funding round

Emerging from a gloomy month in terms of private funding, investor interest in the Indian startup ecosystem seems to have gained new wings in the third month of 2025.
On the back of two mega funding rounds and an over 80% increase in the number of funding deals that materialised, the first week of March saw a substantial increase in Indian startup weekly funding trends.
Between March 3 and 8, Indian startups cumulatively raised $385.5 Mn across 29 deals. This is over 4X of the $88.3 Mn raised by 16 startups in the preceding week.

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However, despite the funding numbers going up significantly over the past week, the number of startup consolidation deals and IPO related developments failed to keep up their momentum.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week (Mar 3 – Mar 8)

Date
Name
Sector
Subsector
Business Model
Funding Round Size
Funding Round Type
Investors
Lead Investor

5 Mar 2025
Darwinbox
Enterprise Tech
Horizontal Saas
B2B
$140 Mn
–
Partners Group, KKR, Gravity Holdings
Partners Group, KKR

5 Mar 2025
Leap Finance
Fintech
Lendingtech
B2C
$100 Mn
Debt
HSBC
HSBC

4 Mar 2025
Insurance
Fintech
Insurtech
B2B-B2C
$70 Mn
–
Beams Fintech Fund, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, BNP Paribas Cardif
Beams Fintech Fund, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, BNP Paribas Cardif

6 Mar 2025
Swish
Consumer Services
Hyperlocal Delivery
B2C
$14 Mn
Series A
Accel, Hara Global, Gaurav Munjal
–

6 Mar 2025
MaxIQ
Enterprise Tech
Horizontal Saas
B2B
$7.8 Mn
Seed
Dell Technologies Capital, Intel Capital
Dell Technologies Capital

5 Mar 2025
Beacon.li
Enterprise Tech
Horizontal Saas
B2B
$7 Mn
Series A
Sorin Investments, Sanjay Nayar, Athera Venture Partners, Jafco Asia, Unicorn India Ventures, Aneesh Reddy, Aravind Sanka, Kapil Bharti
Sorin Investments

7 Mar 2025
Furlenzo
Ecommerce
D2C
B2C
$7 Mn
Debt
Northern Arc, CredAvenue
–

5 Mar 2025
Suppository
Enterprise Tech
Enterprise Services
B2B
$5 Mn
–
Arc Investments, Oriental Biotech Limited
Arc Investments, Oriental Biotech Limited

7 Mar 2025
poison Wild
Ecommerce
D2C
B2C
$5 Mn
–
Unilever Ventures, SoGal Ventures, True
Unilever Ventures

4 Mar 2025
Nuuk
Ecommerce
D2C
B2C
$4.6 Mn
Series A
Vertex Ventures
Vertex Ventures

6 Mar 2025
Innovit
Fintech
Payments
B2B
$4 Mn
–
Ashutosh Joshi, Bessemer Venture Partners
–

4 Mar 2025
I solve
Fintech
Fintech SaaS
B2B
$3.5 Mn
Seed
3one4 Capital
3one4 Capital

4 Mar 2025
FluxGen
Cleantech
Water Tech
B2B
$3.4 Mn
pre-Series A
IAN Alpha Fund, Rainmatter, Gameskraft Technologies, Intersection Ventures, Force Ventures, Axilor Ventures, Arali Ventures
IAN Alpha Fund

4 Mar 2025
Deciml
Enterprise Tech
Horizontal Saas
B2B
$3 Mn
Seed
Jainam Broking Limited
Jainam Broking Limited

6 Mar 2025
Phot.AI
Enterprise Tech
Horizontal Saas
B2B
$2.7 Mn
Seed
Info Edge Ventures, Together Fund, AC Ventures, Saahil Goel, Akshay Ghulati, Aakash Anand, Arjun Vaidya, Prabhkiran Singh, Puneeet Gupta, Anmol Jain, Sandeep Agagarwal, Vish Khurana, Raja Snehil Junej, Pawan Gupta
Info Edge Ventures

7 Mar 2025
Bacca Bucci
Ecommerce
D2C
B2C
$2.5 Mn
–
JP Tap
JP Tap

3 Mar 2025
CredResolve
Fintech
Fintech SaaS
B2B
$1.1 Mn
Seed
UNLEASH Capital Partners, CDM Capital
UNLEASH Capital Partners

6 Mar 2025
Yes
Fintech
Lendingtech
B2C
$1.1 Mn
–
Y Combinator, Pioneer Fund, Zaka VC
Y Combinator

3 Mar 2025
Arva Health
Healthtech
Healthcare Services
B2C
$1 Mn*
pre-Seed

7 Mar 2025
Vobble
Media & Entertainment
OTT
B2C
$1 Mn*
Seed
Mixi Investments, Lumikai, Namita Thapar, Sattva Investments
Walking investments

4 Mar 2025
TakeMe2Space
Deeptech
Spacetech
B2B
$ 633k
pre-Seed
Seafund, Ventures, Artha Venture Fund, AC Ventures
Seafund, Ventures

4 Mar 2025
Naptapgo
Travel Tech
Accommodation
B2C
$500K
pre-Seed
T9L Qube
–

4 Mar 2025
Beautywise
Ecommerce
D2C
B2C
$345K
–
Aman Gupta, Kunal Bahl, Ritesh Agarwal
–

5 Mar 2025
DOT
Consumer Services
–
B2C
$150K
–
Mirza L. Baig
Mirza L. Baig

6 Mar 2025
Zuppa Neo Navigation Technologies
Deeptech
Dronetech
B2B
$115K
–
Garuda Aerospace
Garuda Aerospace

4 Mar 2025
Fuzen.io
Enterprise Tech
Horizontal Saas
B2B
$100K
pre-Seed
ah! Ventures
ah! Ventures

5 Mar 2025
Naarica
Ecommerce
D2C
B2C
–
–
Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal

4 Mar 2025
UptimeAI
Enterprise Tech
Horizontal Saas
B2B
–
–
ABB Motion
ABB Motion

4 Mar 2025
Bull Agritech
IRRED
Market Linkage
B2B-B2C
–
–
iCreate
iCreate

Source: Inc42*Part of a larger round**Included this week as it was skipped last weekNote: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

The past week saw two startups raising over $100 Mn- Darwinbox’s $140 Mn fundraise and Leap Finance’s $100 Mn debt raise.
On the back of Leap’s fundraise, fintech emerged as the investor favourite segment over the past week, with six startups in the sector raising $179.7 Mn.
Meanwhile, enterprise tech saw the highest number of eight funding deals materialise over the past week. Startups in the sector cumulatively netted $165.6 Mn during the week.
Ten startups at the seed stage raised $19.1 Mn this week, over 3X the $5.7 Mn raised by startups at this last week.
AC Ventures emerged as the most active investor during the week, partaking in Phot.AI’s seed funding round and spacetech TakeMe2Space’s maiden funding round.

Fund Updates This Week

VC firm Prime Venture Partners announced its fifth fund with a corpus of $100 Mn to invest $2 Mn to $4 Mn in 16-18 early stage startups.
SoftBank’s former chief Rajeev Misra’s son Rohan Misra raised $150 Mn for his India-focussed fund Gravity Holdings during the week. The fund made its first investment in Darwinbox during the week.
A Junior VC (AJVC) closed its first INR 100 Cr fund targeting pre-seed investments in India this week. Further, the VC is aiming to exercise a greenshoe option to raise another INR 50 Cr for the fund.
Together Fund is eyeing the final close of its $150 Mn Fund II by June. The VC’s cofounder and managing director Manav Garg claims that it has made 31 investments across its two funds through the second fund.

Other Developments Of The Week

Infibeam Avenues’ board approved divestment of 49% stake in Pirimid Technologies Limited to its subsidiary Rediff.com India for a consideration of up to INR 27 Cr.
Ola Electric Chief Bhavish Aggarwal pledged 5.88 Cr shares of the EV major to raise additional debt for his AI unicorn Krutrim from investors Avendus, lnCredothers.
Healthtech startup Truemeds is eyeing the raise of $44 Mn in a fresh funding round which is scheduled to be led by Accel.
Info Edge informed that its portfolio startup NoPaperForms’ board has approved the proposal to go for an initial public offering soon. The startup has reportedly roped in IIFL Capital and SBI Capital for its IPO.
Groww has issued bonus compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS) to existing investors Peak XV Partners, Ribbit Capital and Y Combinator.
Workforce management startup BetterPlace received approval from its shareholders to raise $3.6 Mn from Jungle Ventures and Capria Ventures this week.
D2C menswear brand XYXX is seeking approval from its shareholders to raise $3.4 Mn from niveshay sambhav fund.
Fintech soonicorn M2P Fintech is currently in talks to acquire enterprise AI startup Mad Street Den to bolster its AI and data playbook.
Fintech SaaS startup Mintoak acquired Digiledge to add bill payments and CBDC solutions to its digital payments platform.
B2B fintech startup Rupifi is eyeing the raise of $2 Mn from existing investors, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Ankur Capital and Quona Capital in a bridge funding round.

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