This week, 24 Indian startups raised $218.69 million across 2 growth-stage deals, 22 early-stage deals and 2 undisclosed rounds. The week also saw 7 key hires, 2 mergers & acquisitions, 2 fund launches and 350 employees got laid off. In contrast, 21 startups had collectively secured about $198.33 million in the previous week. Growth-stage startups raised $68 million across two deals this week. Bengaluru-based coffee chain Third Wave Coffee raised Rs 408 crore ($43 million) in a round led by existing investor WestBridge Capital. Ahmedabad-based electric motorcycle maker Matter secured $25 million (around Rs 250 crore) in growth equity from existing investors, including Helena, Capital 2B, Japan Airlines, TransLink Innovation Fund, and SMSC. Early-stage startups raised $150.69 million across 22 deals this week. Bengaluru-based aerospace startup Airbound led the funding activity with a $37 million Series A round led by Greenoaks, with participation from DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed and Humba Ventures. Agentic AI startup Runable raised $21 million in a Series A round co-led by Susquehanna Venture Capital and Nexus Venture Partners. New Delhi-based wealth management firm Nexedge Capital raised $20 million in its maiden funding round led by Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Elev8 Venture Partners. Gurugram-based digital spiritual wellness platform InstaAstro secured $12 million in a Series A round led by Singularity AMC and Artha Venture Fund, with participation from its founders. Other startups that raised funding this week included spacetech startup InspeCity, voice AI startup Ringg, D2C skincare brand Asaya, logistics platform TrucksUp and EV motorcycle maker Omega Seiki Mobility, along with 13 other startups, including two undisclosed deals. Bengaluru continued to lead the funding charts with 12 startup deals during the week, followed by Delhi-NCR with 6 deals. Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Trichy also recorded deals this week. Segment-wise, AI startups led the week with five deals, followed by e-commerce with three. Spiritual Tech, Logistics and EV startups secured two deals each, while F&B , Aviation, Fintech, Spacetech and other sectors also recorded deals. Series A rounds led the week with 11 deals, followed by seed and pre-seed rounds with five deals each. Series C, Series B and pre-Series A also recorded one deal each during the week. On a weekly basis, startup funding fell over 10% to $218.69 million from $198.33 million raised in the previous week. The average weekly funding over the past eight weeks stood at around $192.5 million across 20 deals. This week, BharatPe hired two senior Paytm executives for key roles. Kamal Sharma joined as AVP, Engineering, Consumer, while Yugal Tiwari is set to join as Chief Product Officer. Digital and AI-native bank slice appointed Samir Sawhney as Executive Director and Ramesh Kumar as Independent Director to its board. Raise Financial’s Pluto Insurance appointed Abhishek Singh as CE
