Venture capital funding for Indian startups saw a sharp decline in the third week of March as a lack of major deals and global economic uncertainty weighed on the inflow of capital.
Total venture capital funding for week three was $339 million across 16 deals, up from $1.36 billion that startups across all sectors were able to raise last week.
The ongoing Ukraine-Russia crisis has made investors more cautious, limiting capital flows around the world. A rebalancing of financial investors on their priority investment areas is expected in the coming weeks.
Co-founder and CEO of Amagi Baskar Subramanian
This is likely to continue for at least a quarter, i.e. three months, before a sense of stability emerges and there is much more clarity on the direction in which capital would circulate.
Meanwhile, India’s startup ecosystem continues to see the emergence of another unicorn – an industry term for a private company valued at $1 billion and above – in the form of Amagi.
The next three months would be crucial for Indian startups on how they get through this period.
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Licious, the D2C (direct-to-consumer) meat brand, has raised $150 million from Amansa Capital, Kotak PE and Axis Growth Avenues AIF-I.
Amagi, the media technology company, raised $95 million in a round led by Accel, Norwest Venture Partners and Avataar Ventures at a valuation of over $1 billion.
Bluestone, an omnichannel jewelry retailer, raised $30 million from Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman of Hero Enterprise, at a valuation of $410 million.
UpScalio, the e-commerce deployment company has raised $15m from Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), Northern Arc and Unity Bank.
Healthcare startup ekincare has raised $15 million from HealthQuad, Saber Partners, Ventureast, Eight Roads Ventures and Siana Capital.
Employee experience platform inFeedo has raised $12 million with Jungle Ventures, Tiger Global and Bling Capital.
LILA Games, a mobile game studio, has raised $10 million from Rainfall Ventures, Bitkraft Ventures, Galaxy Interactive and Sequoia Capital India.
