[Weekly funding roundup Oct 24-30] VC inflow continues to remain modest

Venture capital funding into Indian startups remained subdued in October, primarily due to the absence of large-value deals.

There was not a single deal worth more than $100 million during the month, while weekly funding remained below $200 million.

The last week of October saw total funding of $115 million across 29 deals, compared with $96 million in VC inflows during the previous week.

The largest deal of the week was a $15 million investment in healthtech startup Cent. Despite 29 transactions during the week, large-value deals remained absent.

Interestingly, two of the deals involved pure-play AI startups, a number that is expected to grow in the coming months.

As the year draws to a close, venture capital inflows into Indian startups are unlikely to differ significantly from 2025 levels. This underscores the challenges the ecosystem continues to face in attracting large volumes of capital, partly due to the lack of a strong AI investment story in the country.

The expectation is that 2027 could bring a turnaround.

Key transactions

Healthtech startup Cent raised $15 million from Blume Ventures, South Park Commons, and angel investors.

AI inference infrastructure startup Simplismart raised $14 million from Dallas Venture Capital, NVIDIA, Accel, Shastra VC and Micromax.

AI startup Live2 ai raised Rs 130 crore ($14 million approx.) led by IvyCap Ventures.

Food and snacks brand Troovy raised Rs 100 crore ($10.4 million approx.) from Fireside Ventures, Sharrp Ventures and other investors.

Social gaming platform Matiks raised $10 million from General Catalyst, Ronnie Screwvala, Info Edge Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Untitled Ventures.

Nutrition products company Ace Blend raised $9.91 million from 3one4 Capital and Fireside Ventures.

Luxury watchmaker Rotoris raised Rs 70 crore ($8.5 million approx.) from Blume Ventures, 9Unicorns, Centricity and angel investors.