Deals shrink as investors shift focus to public markets
Chennai: Startup funding in India experienced a significant downturn in April, totaling $745 million, a sharp fall from $1.76 billion raised in January. This steep fall is primarily due to a decrease in large deals and a growing investor focus on public markets.
According to the data from TheKredible, startups raised a total of $745 million across 116 deals in April- a 34.65 per cent drop in funding compared to March, which recorded $1.14 billion. This also marks the lowest April funding in the past five years.
Spinny, an e-commerce platform for used cars, secured $131 million in Series E, followed by Juspay with $60 million in Series D.
In April, the startup ecosystem saw significant mergers and acquisitions, with Delhivery acquiring Ecom Express for $166 million in the largest deal. Findi acquired fintech company BANKIT for $18.7 million, while Accenture and Ampivo AI made strategic acquisitions in deeptech and AI. In the edtech space, Arihant Academy acquired Carmel Classes for $1.2 million, and Creativefuel purchased MissMalini Entertainment for $0.69 million.
Other notable deals included CARS24 acquiring Team-BHP, Jaipuria Group’s acquisition of ClearDekho, and NABARD purchasing 24*7 Moneyworks Consulting.
Fintech led the segment-wise funding in April, raising $189.11 million across 9 deals. E-commerce followed with $64.88 million from 17 deals, while the food-tech sector secured $44.84 million through 13 transactions.
Zomato, now a public company, saw the highest layoff as it fired 600 employees in recent times. Gupshup and Zopper also sacked 200 and 100 employees, respectively.
