Venture capital funding into Indian startups saw a steep decline in the third week of September as the majority of the fund raise came from the very early stage category which generally accounts for a lower value. This is the seventh time in the year till now that VC funding on a weekly basis has come under the $100 million level and this reveals the challenges that the Indian startup continues to face in raising large amounts of capital. During this week, the two transactions of Flam and UGRO Capital were the saving grace. The total funding for the week came in $99 million across 22 deals. In comparison, theprevious weeksaw a total amount of $392 million. This week there were totally 22 deals but 14 of them came under the pre-Series A category. This category generally sees larger volume of activity and given the stage of funding but the value of money raised is low. There has also been an uneven nature of VC funding into Indian startups this year and in the weeks where the amount raised was at a higher level, it has been generally due to one or two large deals in the $100 million range which provided the overall boost. Though, this week there was no such transaction. The overall funding momentum into Indian startups is likely to remain modest for the remaining months of the year and the hope is that next year will be a better period for the Indian startup ecosystem. UGRO Capital, a lending platform raised Rs 380 crore ($39.6 million approx.) from Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V. (FMO). AI content startupFlamraised $40 million from QED Investors, Shah Rukh Khan, Claypond Capital, Martin Chavez, Olivier Pomel, Venky Harinarayan, RTP Global and Dovetail. Deeptech startupDheyaTechraised Rs 43 crore ($4.4 million approx.) from Avaana Capital and Unimech Aerospace and Manufacturing Limited.
