New Delhi
Investor confidence in VC funding has started increasing in the country. With this, the domestic startup ecosystem has raised funding of more than $145 million. Publicly listed gaming firm Nazara raised $101.3 million through the issuance of preferential shares led by investors like SBI Mutual Fund, CaratLane founder Mithun Sacheti and Amara Capital. ShopDeck, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) e-commerce enabler, raised $8 million in funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Elevation Capital, Venture Highway and Chiratae Ventures.
ShopDeck empowers sellers across categories including apparel, jewelry, footwear, and home decor, generating more than $150 million in sales annually. MSME-focused digital lender NeoGrowth raised debt funding of up to Rs 42 crore (about $5 million) from UTI International Wealth Creator.
Tech-driven cross-border specialty chemical distribution platform Alchemy has raised $5.6 million in a Series A funding round. The round was led by Prime Venture Partners, with participation from existing investor InfoEdge Ventures. Biomaterials startup Ukhi has raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate its mission to develop new, biodegradable and compostable biomaterials aimed at transforming the sustainable packaging industry.
A total of 984 venture capital (VC) funding deals were announced in India during January-October 2024, an improvement of 5.8 per cent year-on-year in deal volume. The total announced funding value of these deals increased by 44.4 percent to $9.2 billion during the same period, according to leading data and analytics company GlobalData.
The report states that there has been a major improvement in VC funding activity in India during the year, due to which the confidence of investors is increasing again. India’s share in the total VC deals announced globally during January-October 2024 was 7.1 percent.