This week, 17 Indian startups raised nearly $82.2 million across 2 growth stage deals, 13 early stage deals, and 2 undisclosed deals. The week also witnessed 8 key hires, 4 fund launches, 1 M&A deal, and 1 ESOP buyback. In contrast, 16 startups had collectively secured about $164 million in the previous week. Growth-stage startups raised a total of $21.1 million across two deals this week, led by Apna Mart, which raised Rs 120 crore (around $12.7 million) in its Series C round co-led by Accel India and Fundamentum, with participation from Peak XV Partners. Hyderabad-based dairy brand Sid’s Farm followed with over Rs 81 crore (around $8.4 million) in a pre-Series B round led by Omnivore, NSFO, Dodla Dairy, Next Bharat Ventures, and LIO. Early-stage startups raised $61.1 million across 13 deals this week, led by Arboreal Bioinnovations, which secured Rs 230 crore (over $24 million) in a Series A round co-led by EAAA and Omnivore. Aham Housing Finance followed with Rs 100 crore in a follow-on funding round led by The Sanmar Group, while Omega Seiki Mobility raised Rs 50 crore from Securocorp Securities, Sangeeta Pareekh, Saket Aggarwal Family Office, and Vanshika Sharma. Among the other notable deals, healthtech startup Fixxly, Bengaluru-based AI startup Revspot, agriculture drone startup SUIND, global student living technology company House of Student, and six other early-stage startups also raised funds this week. Bengaluru continued to lead the funding charts with 7 startup deals during the week, followed by Delhi-NCR with five deals. Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai also recorded deals. Segment-wise, fintech, edtech, e-commerce startups led the week with two deals each. Foodtech, FMCG, dairy tech, EV, Proptech, AI and others also bagged deals during the week. Seed rounds led the week with 7 deals, followed by 6 Series A deals. Series C, and pre- Series B rounds also witnessed activity during the week. On a weekly basis, startup funding declined 50% to $82.2 million, compared to around $164 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, Instamart appointed former Myntra CEO Nandita Sinha as its Chief Executive Officer, while Nykaa named former Instamart COO Ankit Jain to lead its quick commerce arm, Nykaa Now. JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation (JIIF) appointed Anshu Jain as its Chief Operating Officer, and Neo Group named Anirban Banerjee as Co-founder and Chief People and Transformation Officer. Separately, a company appointed Subhasis Chaudhuri, Suman Gopalan, and Anand Vora as independent directors. This week, Cactus Partners announced its second fund with a target corpus of Rs 1,600 crore, while Inflexor Ventures marked the first close of its third fund at Rs 400 crore against a target of Rs 1,250 crore. Anicut Capital launched a Rs 250 crore seed fund for early-stage startups, and Groww’s co-founders are planning a sec
