From Zepto To Kuku FM — Indian Startups Raised $737 Mn This Week
Ahead of Diwali, the Indian startup ecosystem saw a sharp uptick in funding this week. Thirty Indian startups raised $737.4 Mn during October 13-17, marking a jump of 159% from $284.6 Mn raised by 26 startups in the previous week.
The funding number received a boost fromZepto’s $450 Mn raise this week. Excluding it, startup funding rose 1% to $287.4 Mn.
Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [Oct 13-18]
| Date | Name | Sector | Subsector | Business Model | Funding Round Size | Funding Round Type | Investors | Lead Investor |
| 16 Oct 2025 | Zepto | Consumer Services | Quick Commerce | B2C | $450 Mn* | – | California Public Employees Retirement System, Avenir, Avra, Lightspeed, Glade Brook, Stepstone Group, Nexus Venture Partners | California Public Employees Retirement System |
| 16 Oct 2025 | Kuku FM | Media & Entertainment | OTT | B2C | $85 Mn | Series C | Granite Asia, Vertex Growth Fund, Krafton, International Finance Corporation, Paramark, Tribe Capital India, Bitkraft | Granite Asia |
| 17 Oct 2025 | EKA Mobility | Clean Tech | Electric Vehicles | B2B | $56.9 Mn | – | National Investment and Infrastructure Fund | National Investment and Infrastructure Fund |
| 13 Oct 2025 | Dezerv | Fintech | Investment Tech | B2C | $39.4 Mn | Series C | Premji Invest, Accel, Elevation Capital, Z47 | Premji Invest, Accel |
| 14 Oct 2025 | HouseEazy | Real Estate Tech | Property Listing & Discovery | B2C | $16.9 Mn | Series B | Accel, Chiratae Ventures, Antler | Accel |
| 14 Oct 2025 | SpeakX | Edtech | Digital Learning Platform | B2C | $16 Mn | Pre-Series B | WestBridge Capital, Goodwater Capital, Elevation Capital, Ronnie Screwvala (cofounder, upGrad), Shyamal Anadkat (executive, OpenAI) | WestBridge Capital |
| 13 Oct 2025 | GoodScore | Fintech | Lending Tech | B2C | $13 Mn | Series A | Peak XV Partners, Stellaris Venture Partners, Saison Capital | Peak XV Partners |
| 13 Oct 2025 | Two Brothers Organic Farms | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $12.4 Mn | Series B | 360 ONE Asset, Rainmatter, Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office, Rahul Garg (managing partner, IGNITE Growth Solutions) | 360 ONE Asset |
| 14 Oct 2025 | Airbound | Advanced Hardware & Technology | Aerial Vehicles | B2B, B2G | $8.7 Mn | Seed | Lachy Groom (founder, Physical Intelligence), Humba Ventures, Lightspeed | Lachy Groom |
| 13 Oct 2025 | smallest.ai | AI | Application Layer | B2B | $8 Mn | Seed | Sierra Ventures, 3one4 Capital, Better Capital, Upsparks Capital, Schema Ventures, DeVC, peercheque, Mission Street Capital, Boris Wertz (founder, Version One Ventures), Raveen Sastry (founding partner, Multiply Ventures), Shyamal Hitesh Anadkat (applied AI, OpenAI) | Sierra Ventures |
| 13 Oct 2025 | Chara Technologies | Clean Tech | Electric Vehicles | B2B | $5.8 Mn | Series A | Arkam Ventures, IIMA Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital | Arkam Ventures |
| 15 Oct 2025 | Matters.AI | AI | Application Layer | B2B | $4.7 Mn | Seed | Kalaari Capital, Endiya Partners, Better Capital, Carya Venture Partners | Kalaari Capital, Endiya Partners |
| 16 Oct 2025 | Graph AI | AI | Application Layer | B2B | $3 Mn | Seed | Bessemer Venture Partners | Bessemer Venture Partners |
| 14 Oct 2025 | Airoclip | Media & Entertainment | Gaming | B2C | $2.8 Mn | Seed | T-Accelerate Capital, Centre Court Capital, BITKRAFT Ventures | T-Accelerate Capital, Centre Court Capital, BITKRAFT Ventures |
| 17 Oct 2025 | HooLiv | Real Estate Tech | Property Listing & Discovery | B2C | $2.7 Mn | Pre-Series A | Negen Capital | Negen Capital |
| 15 Oct 2025 | Fragaria | Agritech | Modern Farming | B2B | $2 Mn | Seed | WEH Ventures, Rainmatter, Spiral Ventures, Sashi Kumar (founder, Akshayakalpa Organic) | WEH Ventures |
| 19 Oct 2025 | Fundamento | AI | Application Layer | B2B | $1.9 Mn | Pre-Series A | IIFL, The Players Fund, Venture Catalysts, Lead Invest, Epic Angels | – |
| 13 Oct 2025 | Without | Clean Tech | Climate Tech | B2B, B2C | $1.9 Mn | Seed | Rewilding Wealth, Spectrum Impact, Dia Mirza (Actor), Veena More (ex-Unilever exec), Vishwanath Ramarao (cofounder, Acko) | Rewilding Wealth |
| 16 Oct 2025 | Dashamlabs | Advanced Hardware & Technology | Internet Of Things (IoT) & Hardware | B2B | $1.4 Mn | Seed | Speciale Invest, IIMA Ventures | Speciale Invest |
| 15 Oct 2025 | Consuma | AI | Application Layer | B2B | $1.3 Mn | Seed | Equirus InnovateX, Abhishek Goyal (cofounder, Tracxn), Mekin Maheshwari (ex-CPO, Flipkart), Bhavik Dholakia (founder, Swatantra Wealth), Harsh Shah (founder, Fynd), Arnav Kumar (founder, Leap Finance), Shiv Kapoor (VP, Titan Capital), Biswa Kalyan Rath (Comedian) | Equirus InnovateX |
| 15 Oct 2025 | Currently | Media & Entertainment | Social Networking Platform | B2C | $1 Mn | – | Aarvi Family Office LLP, LJ Knowledge Foundation, Dhruv Patel (angel investor), Pratik Patel (angel investor), Neerav Dad (founder, FinFirst), Arpit Patel (angel investor), Priyank Parmar (angel investor) | Aarvi Family Office LLP |
| 15 Oct 2025 | RARA Barefoot | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $500K | Pre-Seed | Prashant Tandon (cofounder, Tata 1mg), Akshat Babbar (managing director, ChrysCapital) | – |
| 14 Oct 2025 | Orange Sugar | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $455K | Pre-Seed | Consumer Collective by Atrium, Ramakant Sharma (cofounder, Livspace), Saurabh Jain (cofounder, Livspace), Srivatsan Chari (cofounder, Cleartax), Kunal Mahipal (cofounder, Onsitego) Meghana Agarwal (cofounder, Indiqube) Sunil Khaitan (MD & Head of India Capital Solutions Group, Goldman Sachs) | Consumer Collective by Atrium, Ramakant Sharma (cofounder, Livspace), Saurabh Jain (cofounder, Livspace), Srivatsan Chari (cofounder, Cleartax), Kunal Mahipal (cofounder, Onsitego) Meghana Agarwal (cofounder, Indiqube) Sunil Khaitan (MD & Head of India Capital Solutions Group, Goldman Sachs) |
| 16 Oct 2025 | FireAI | AI | Application Layer | B2B | $455K | Seed | Inflection Point Ventures | Inflection Point Ventures |
| 14 Oct 2025 | Muttley Crew | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $425K | Seed | – | – |
| 15 Oct 2025 | Flowatt Battery Science | Clean Tech | Climate Tech | B2B | $249K | Pre-Seed | PedalStart | PedalStart |
| 14 Oct 2025 | Fery Rides | Travel Tech | Ride Hailing | B2C | $236K | Seed | IAN Group | IAN Group |
| 13 Oct 2025 | Réia Diamonds | Ecommerce | D2C | B2C | $227K | Pre-Seed | Dinesh Talera (founder, Mysore Saree Udyog), Venture Catalysts | Dinesh Talera |
| 15 Oct 2025 | CoinDCX | Web3 | Digital Currencies & Assets | B2C | – | – | Coinbase | Coinbase |
| 13 Oct 2025 | AIensured | AI | Application Layer | B2B | – | – | Software Technology Parks of India, Pontaq | Software Technology Parks of India, Pontaq |
| *Mix of primary and secondary transactions Source: Inc42 Note: Only disclosed funding rounds have been included |
- Following Zepto’s mega round, consumer services became the most funded sector this week. The sector saw only one deal this week.
- On the sectoral level, AI continued to see a hefty investor interest. Seven AI startups raised $19.4 Mn this week.
- Accel continued to be the most active investor this week, backing two startups. Besides, IIMA Ventures, Lightspeed, and angel investor and OpenAI executive Shyamal Anadkat also backed two startups this week.
- Weekly seed funding stood at $36.3 Mn across 16 deals, a 48% jump from $24.6 Mn raised by 11 startups at this stage last week.
- Prosus acquired 1.3 Cr shares, or a 3.16% stake, of ixigo via an off-market secondary acquisition from Peak XV Partners for INR 414.4 Cr (about $47 Mn).
- Dronetech company AVPL International (AITMC Ventures) pre-filed its DRHP for INR 200 Cr IPO. While the filings were confidential, the company’s board approved increasing the size of the fresh issue in the IPO to INR 200 Cr from INR 125 Cr earlier this year.
- Artha India Ventures announced the first close of its INR 500 Cr ($56 Mn) Artha Venture Fund (AVF II) at INR 250 Cr ($30 Mn). The firm aims to invest in 36 seed stage startups focussed on premium consumption, fintech infrastructure, applied AI, and deeptech.
- BNPL startup Snapmint is currently in advanced talks to raise around $100 Mn (about INR 886Cr) in a new funding round led by General Atlantic.
- IIMA Ventures and Jaivel Aerospace launched an aerospace and defence acceleration fund to invest in 8-10 early stage startups developing technologies in autonomy, advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, and secure communications technologies.
- Ahead of filings its RHP, Lenskart is looking to raise INR 250 Cr to INR 300 Cr in its pre-IPO round from DMart founder Radhakishan Damani and SBI Mutual Fund.
The post From Zepto To Kuku FM — Indian Startups Raised $737 Mn This Week appeared first on Inc42 Media.
Next Story