[Weekly funding roundup Aug 15-19] Venture investments decline in absence of large deals

The Indian startup ecosystem continues to witness a funding crunch as the absence of large deals in the third week of August has led to a decline in the venture capital inflow.

The third week of the month saw total funding of $135 million across 24 deals. In comparison the previous week saw total funding of $298 million.

During this week, there was not even a single deal that was above $50 million in value reflecting the trend of cautiousness among the large venture capital investors to commit capital for the startups.

This trend is expected for some more time, though it is anybody’s guess on how long it is going to last. A fast recovery, however, is unlikely.

The week saw two positive developments. Digit Insurance, the insurtech unicorn has filed its papers with the regulator for its initial public offering (IPO). Reports say the company is looking to raise around Rs 5,000 crore.

The week also saw the emergence of a new unicorn—private company which is valued $1 billion above—in Shiprocket, the logistics aggregator startup.

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Edtech startup Sunstone Eduversity raised $35 million in a Series C round led by WestBridge Capital, which also saw participation from Alteria Capital.

Logistics startup Shiprocket raised $32.6 million at a $1 billion valuation from Lightrock India, Temasek, Bertelsmann, Moore Strategic Ventures and Paypal.

EV startup Exponent Energy raised $13 million from Lightspeed. Existing investors YourNest VC, 3one4 Capital and AdvantEdge VC also participated.

Digital content startup Rusk Media raised over $9.5 million from DAOL Investment, Audacity Ventures, InfoEdge Ventures (IEV) and Mistry Ventures.