Chennai: India's startup funding experienced a major recession in April, totaling $745 million, down sharply by $1.76 billion raised in January. This steep decline is mainly due to the decline in large transactions, while growing investors focus on the public markets.
Startups totaled $745 million in 116 transactions in April – a 34.65% drop in funding compared to March, which is $1.14 billion, according to The Kredible. This also marks the minimum funding in April of the past five years.
Spinny, an e-commerce platform for used cars, earned $131 million in revenue in the E-Series, followed by Juspay, whose series is $60 million.
In April, the startup ecosystem saw major mergers and acquisitions, with Delhivey buying Ecom Express for $166 million in the largest deal. Findi acquired fintech company Bankit for $18.7 million, while Accenture and Ampivo AI made strategic acquisitions in DeepTech and AI. In the Edtech space, Arihant Academy acquired the Carmel class for $1.2 million, while CreativeFuel bought Missmalini Entertainment for $6.69 million.
Other notable deals include CARS24's acquisition of BHP, Jaipuria Group's acquisition of Cleardekho and Nabard's acquisition of 24*7 MoneyWorks Consulting.
Fintech led the segment’s funding in April, raising $189.1 million in nine deals. E-commerce then received $64.88 million from 17 transactions, while the food technology sector received $4.484 million through 13 transactions.
Zomato is now a publicly traded company with the highest layoffs as it has shot 600 employees recently. Guppshup and Zopper also fired 200 and 100 employees respectively.
