Indian start-ups raised $660M in July
What's the story
Indian start-ups raised around $662 million across 85 deals in July, according to data from Entrackr. The total included 16 growth and late-stage deals worth $410 million and 64 early-stage deals worth $252 million. Five undisclosed deals were also recorded during the month. The funding amount is a sharp decline from June's whopping $2 billion, largely due to Meta's investment in CRED.
Funding leaders
Top 5 funding deals in July
AI start-up Emergent led the funding in July, raising $130 million in a Series C round.
Raghu Vamsi Aerospace Group, Veriqus, and BusinessNext followed with $40 million each while Neo Group raised $36.3 million in a Series C round.
Other notable deals included Limelight Diamonds, Elevate Education, Quick Clean, Apna Mart, and Naturis Cosmetics across sectors like AI, fintech, deeptech, consumer, edtech, and manufacturing.
Market trends
M&A activity, early-stage funding in July
Early-stage funding in July was led by Arboreal Bioinnovations, which raised $24 million in a Series A round.
Other notable deals included Dovetail Capital, Aham Housing Finance, E3 Electric. AI, CARPL.ai, and Aukera across sectors like foodtech, AI, fintech, mobility, healthtech, battery technology, and ecommerce.
M&A activity included Snitch acquiring fashion brand Berrylush to expand its presence in women's fashion while Aurum PropTech announced plans to acquire Housing.com for $46.2 million.
Regional breakdown
Bengaluru topped regional distribution of funding rounds
Bengaluru led the start-up funding in July with $323.93 million or 48.92% of total capital raised across 43 deals.
Delhi NCR followed with $136.35 million from 16 deals, while Mumbai raised $100.15 million across 13 deals.
Hyderabad raised $49.6 million through three deals while Pune recorded $11.6 million from four transactions, according to Entrackr data on regional distribution of funding rounds and amounts raised by Indian start-ups during the month under review.
Investor focus
AI sector attracted most investor interest in July
The AI sector attracted the most investor interest in July with 15 deals worth $201.62 million, accounting for 31.75% of total funding raised during this period.
Fintech followed with $141.5 million across eight deals, while e-commerce start-ups raised $55.15 million through 12 transactions, according to Entrackr data on sector-wise distribution of funding rounds and amounts raised by Indian start-ups during the month under review.