BENGALURU: Though Indian start-ups struggled to raise funds in 2023, December saw pick-up in
funding. Many early-stage start-ups managed to garner venture capitalists’ attention this month. On Friday, cloud kitchen start-up Kitchens@ bagged $65 million in its Series C funding from investment firm Finnest.
On Thursday, ready-to-wear zero power eyewear brand, Enrico Eyewear secured Rs 2.1 crore funding in a pre-seed round led by the 100X.VC. In December second week, Quick service restaurant (QSR) brand Burger Singh raised an undisclosed amount. According to reports, at least 20 start-ups have raised funding in December so far.
Last week, B2B Udaan raised $340 million in its Series E funding round. Data from Tracxn’s India Tech 2023 report reveals that throughout 2023, the start-up ecosystem witnessed funding slowdown as the year became the lowest-funded year in the last five years with just $7 billion raised compared to $25 billion raised in the previous year. Early-stage funding stood at $2.2 billion till the first week of December.
However, VCs and start-up founders are bullish about fundraising in coming months.
Vittal Ramakrishna, founder and CEO, Pod World, a full stack fundraising platform, said for 2024, there is an optimistic outlook with funding expectations potentially reaching $15–20 billion, and an increase in deals from 700–900 in early 2023 to 1,000–1,200 in 2024.
“Health-tech, Fin-tech and start-ups driving innovation in clean-technology and sustainability are set to grow. EVs and the automobile industry will also receive its due in the coming months. AI will continue to be a key investment area as well as a disruptor in the software category,” he added.