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From Zepto To Kuku FM — Indian Startups Raised $737 Mn This Week

Inc42 October 18, 2025 01:39 PM

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

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

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.

Other Developments Of The 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.

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