Indian technology start-ups got $885 million in funding in August in deals across 102 rounds and 9 acquisitions, according to a monthly report by tracking platform Tracxn.
Investments fell 20 percent, funding rounds by 8 percent and acquisitions dropped by 18 percent compared to July, said the report. Bangalore led in the total funding raised, followed by Mumbai and Delhi.
Quarterly funding for tech start-ups peaked in Q3 2021 at $14.8 billion and is on a steady decline since then. India’s funding winter is predicted to continue for the next 12-18 months.
Edtech is going through a rough time marked by companies sacking employees, but the report said the sector continued to attract investor attention. “Continued Learning, Alternative Learning, E-commerce Enablers, and Investment Tech are the top sectors that received the most funding from investors in August 2022,” said the report.
Despite the funding winter, edtech unicorn UpGrad raised $210 million in funding in August, with plans to hire 2,800 full-time and part-time faculty in the next three months. This comes on the back of fund raising of $225 million in June. This also comes at a time when other big players like Unacademy, Byju’s and Vedantu have collectively laid off about 2,500 employees this year, stated the report. “UpGrad plans to achieve $500 million in gross revenue in FY23,” the report said.
Among others that raised a big funding amount is Pune-based fintech start-up EarlySalary, which got $110 million. The company provides instant loans to young salaried individuals. Fintech unicorn Razorpay acquired Bangalore-based Ezetap, a POS solutions provider for $200 million in order to enter offline payments.
Beenext, LetsVenture, Accel, Blume Ventures were the top investors in August.
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