[Weekly funding roundup July 11-15] Venture capital inflow remains slow

Funding activity continues to remain tepid for the Indian startup ecosystem although one startup managed to enter the unicorn club.

The third week of the month saw a total venture capital inflow of $233 million cutting across 19 deals. Fintech startup FPL Technologies-owned OneCard, which raised $100 million, led the pack. In comparison, the previous week witnessed total funding of $153 million.

The slowdown in funding activity started in June. It is likely that this trend will get accentuated in the coming months due to macroeconomic changes taking place across the world.

This is also perhaps the time for the startups to assess the situation and change their priorities in order to pass through this challenging period.

Key transactions

Fintech startup OneCard raised $100 million from Temasek, QED, Sequoia Capital, Hummingbird Ventures at a valuation of $1.4 billion.

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) startup Detect Technologies raised $28 million from Prosus Ventures, Accel, Elevation Capital, Shell Ventures and Bharat Innovation Fund.

B2B (business-to-business) fruits marketplace startup Vegrow raised $25 million Prosus Ventures, Matrix Partners India, Elevation Capital, Lightspeed India, and Ankur Capital.

Mental health platform Wysa raised $20 million from HealthQuad, British International Investment (BII), W Health Ventures and Kae Capital.

Supply chain startup Wheelocity raised $12 million from Lightspeed India Partners, Anicut Capital, and other investors.

Biotech startup String Bio raised $20 million from Ankur Capital, Dare Ventures, Redstart, Zenfold Ventures, and Woodside Energy.

Rural tech startup FAARMS raised $10 million from Dr Cornelius (Conny) Boersch, Koh Boon Hwee, Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Ramit Mittal and others.

Fintech startup Hyperface raised $9 million from 3one4Capital, Global Founders Capital, Better Capital, Flipkart Ventures and Groww.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) luggage brand Mokobara raised $6.5 million from Saama Capital, Sauce VC and a group of angel investors.