This week, 28 Indian startups raised nearly $383.5 million across 5 growth stage deals, 21 early stage deals, and 1 undisclosed deal. The week also witnessed 8 key hires, 2 fund launches, 3 M&A deals. In contrast, 17 startups had collectively secured about $82.2 million in the previous week. Growth-stage startups raised nearly $273.7 million across six deals this week, led by River Mobility's $120 million Series C round from Elev8 and Claypond Capital. Leap India also raised Rs 371.3 crore in a pre-IPO placement from GIC subsidiary Gamnat Pte Ltd. It was followed by AI unicorn Sarvam’s $74 million in an extension of its Series B round, led by NVIDIA Corporation. Among other deals, BlissClub secured Rs 160 crore in Series B funding from Singularity AMC, Matel Motion & Energy Solutions raised Rs 130 crore (around $15 million) from UC Impower, while Mintoak bagged Rs 80 crore (about $9 million) in acquisition financing from BlackSoil. Early-stage startups raised $109.8 million across 19 deals this week, led by InRisk Labs' $27 million Series A round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Northpoint Capital. HomeRun followed with a $12 million Series A led by Nexus Venture Partners, while Mitti Labs and Pinegap raised $9.5 million and $8 million, respectively. Other startups that secured funding this week included Vaaree, GetVantage, Kaapi Machines, Solinas Integrity, Benne, and 14 more early-stage ventures. Bengaluru continued to lead the funding charts with 16 startup deals during the week, followed by Pune and Delhi-NCR with 4 deals each. Mumbai and Chennai also recorded deals. Segment-wise, AI led the week with six deals, followed by fintech and deeptech with 4 deals each. E-commerce, manufacturing, mobility, supply chain and others also bagged deals during the week. Seed rounds led the week with 11 deals, followed by 8 Series A deals. Series B, pre- Series A, Series C, pre-IPO, debt and angel rounds also witnessed activity during the week. On a weekly basis, startup funding jumped 4.7X to $383.5 million, compared to around $82.2 million raised during the previous week. The average funding over the last eight weeks stands at around $316 million, with an average of 21 deals per week. This week, Razorpay strengthened its AI leadership by appointing Sudhir Reddy from Divyam.ai, Abhishek Agarwal from Microsoft, Bhavya Shivaprakash from Salesforce, and Anuj Mathur from CRED. InsuranceDekho named Rohan Mittal as Group CFO, Honasa Consumer elevated Nilesh Kotalwar to Chief Marketing Officer, Atoms appointed Gautam Gupta as CFO, InCred Capital named Abhinav Khanna as CEO of Capital Markets, and Medi Assist appointed Gaurav Bhatnagar as Chief TPA Officer. This week, Lighthouse Canton closed a Rs 105 crore private credit investment in Emerald Leisures through its India-focused Category II AIF, while Piper Serica announced the first close of its Rs 800 crore Bharat Tech Fund at Rs 300 crore. The Category II AIF will invest in Indian deeptech startups acros
