Weekly Musings – Big start-up updates for the week to September 08, 2023

11 Sep 2023 , 10:03 AM

Just about 2 weeks back, Indian start-ups had raised $231 million across 16 start-up deals. The previous week to September 01 2023 was relatively more subdued with just about $52 million raised across 12 deals. However, the picture has once again turned optimistic in the latest week to September 08, 2023 with start-up fund raising of $257 million in the week across 18 deals. It also shows a substantial improvement in the deal ticket sizes during the week. The biggest deal for the week was Ather Energy raising $108 million from Hero Motocorp and from the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) of Singapore. This promises to make the September quarter one of the best quarters for start-up fund raising in recent memory.

Start-up funding at $257 million across 18 deals in the week

For the week ended September 08, 2023 the start-ups saw fund raising of $257 million across 18 deals. While Ather Energy led the way on the funding rounds, there were other big participants too. Here is a quick take on the major deals in the start-up space during the previous week ended September 08, 2023.

1. In the largest deal of the week, cleantech start-up, Ather Energy, which is into the manufacture of electrical vehicles (EVs) has secured funding of $108 million as additional fund. The funding round was led by Hero Motocorp and the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) of Singapore.

    

2. In another major deal, listed gaming start-up, Nazara Technologies, raised $61.4 million to expand its games franchise at a national level and for expanding the technology stack. The funding came from SBI Mutual Fund and the Zerodha founders, Nitin, and Nikhil Kamath.

    

3. Pepperfry had been looking for funding to expand its B2C footprint in India and it raised $23 million during the week to expand its business across India on a larger scale. The identity of the funding partners was not disclosed by Pepperfry.

    

4. Agritech start-up, Captain Fresh, has also secured funding of $20 million during the week in the form of Series-C Extension funding. The funding came from SBI, Evolvence Capital, Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Matrix Partners and Prosus Ventures.

    

5. In another major round of funding, the fintech company, Brine FI (the decentralized crypto exchange) has raised $16.5 million as part of its Series-A funding to expand its Investech presence. The funding came from Pantera Capital, Elevation Capital, Spartan Group, Goodwater Capital etc.

    

6. Atomic Work, another horizontal SAAS B2B player also raised an amount of $11 million as part of its seed funding. The funding round was led by Blume Ventures and Matrix Partners, apart from Storm Ventures and Neon Fund.

    

7. Flipspace, the hyperlocal consumer service provider on a B2B basis has raised $4 million in Pre-series B funding. The funding was led by former IIFL AMC head, Prashasta Seth. In another deal, cleantech biotech company, ALTM, raised $3.5 million of seed funding from Omnivore, Theia Ventures and Thai Wah Ventures and other angel investors.

    

8. SpaceTech is growing rapidly and in the lates round, Manastu, the deeptech company has raised $3 million in Pre-Series A funding from Capital 2 B, Big Capital, and others. In another deal, LISSUN, the fitness and wellness app has raised $1.3 million in seed funding from IVY Capital and Rainmatter (the Nitin Kamath start-up fund). MapmyIndia has also funded $1 million to horizontal SAAS company, MAPPIS KOGO, which will help the financier to developer and expand its current mapping franchise.

In addition, there were several deals during the week with fund raising of less than $1 million. This include Sploot, Ellipsol, PrintBrix, MaxMix, GoodGudi, among others. Overall, it was a busy and eventful week for start-up funding in India.

Big start-up strategies in the week to September 08, 2023

Here is a quick take on some of the key start-up strategies evidenced last week.

• Apple is all set to capture 7% of the Indian market share by end of this year. Its shipments were already up 68% in the first half of the year. It currently dominates the premium market in the range of Rs50,000 to Rs100, and has a 6% market share today. It currently manufactures in India through its Foxconn factory and the I-Phone 15 is slated for launch shortly. However, Android phones may still dominate the mass market.

   

• Reliance is planning to foray into manufacture of semiconductors to make the best of incentives available and to create an ecosystem in India. Reliance sees huge demand for microchips locally, including its own insatiable appetite for chips. Reliance is talking to global technology partners for the same. Big global players in the semiconductor space like Micron, Applied Materials and Foxconn are already active in India.

   

• NVIDIA is planning to make a splash in the generative AI space in India in collaboration with Reliance group and the Tatas. NVIDIA and Tata group plan to develop India’s first AI Supercomputer that will offer Infrastructure as a platform (IAAS) for various AI services. They will also develop AI cloud for easy transfer of files. It will use the NVIDIA Grace Hopper super chip.

   

• Major telecom players in India like Jio and Airtel are seeking revenue share from OTTs to foot the network costs. The view is that the OTT players must contribute to the network costs based on the amount of traffic they consume.  While OTT players talk of net neutrality, telecom players have pointed out that exorbitant network cost are being worsened by the data guzzlers like OTT. It looks like interesting times.

   

• In an interesting development, the IFSCA chairman has announced that start-ups would be able to directly list on the GIFT IFSC Exchanges by end of 2023. Chairman, K Rajaraman, announced that framework for direct listing on IFSC will be finalized by end of 2023. This will need necessary amendments to the Companies Act. This syncs with the government plan to promote GIFT as the financial hub of India. 

Overall, it was a strong week for start-up funding during the week. The September quarter promises to be more fruitful for start-up funding compared to the June 2023 quarter.