ETtech Deals Digest: Weekly funding crashes to $41.5 million; early-stage funds hedge bets

Early stage funds, on the other hand, made small deployments accounting for the bulk of funding activity in the week of July 22-28.

Funding in the penultimate week of July plunged by 88% to $41.5 million, with just one of the total 18 rounds managing a double-digit-million ticket size. This compares with $109 million coming in from 18 rounds during the previous week.

ETtech

The largest deal during the week was New Delhi-based telecom and technology startup Wiom’s $17 million round led by RTP Global.

Rutvik Doshi, managing director, Athera Venture Partners, told ET that early-stage funds continue to deploy money with a focus on 6-7 year horizons for exits, typical of most funds operating at the seed and early stages.

Discover the stories of your interest

ETtech

“There might not be spikes of growth in this market, but the goal is to have the companies survive for at least the next two years,” Doshi said, adding that sustainable business models with clear lines of commercialisation appear as the safest bets currently.Sajith Pai, an investment partner at another early-stage venture capital firm, Blume Ventures, told ET that funds are largely deploying capital in business-to-business (B2B) companies as they prioritise models with low customer acquisition costs, which are higher at their B2C (business-to-consumer) counterparts.

“The growth market is choked. No big moves except very few and exceptional companies in this segment. Late-stage funding is essentially the dog that did not bark… While we continue to identify more sober companies in early-stages, we also know that it will take 18-24 months for the growth-stage market to improve,” Pai added.

Here are the startups that got funded this week:

Wiom raised $17 million: Delhi-based telecom and technology startup Wiom raised Rs 140 crore ($17 million) in a Series A round led by RTP Global. YourNest and Omidyar Network India also participated in the round, along with Global Brain, Blume Founders Fund, Alteria Capital, Stride Ventures, Stride One and 9 Unicorns.

Ethereal Machines raised $7.3 million: The manufacturer of multi-axis Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines raised $7.3 million in a funding round from various investors, including Peak XV’s Surge and Blume Ventures.

Effectiv raises $4.5 million: Effectiv, a real-time fraud and risk management platform for financial institutions and fintech companies, raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Silicon Valley-based Better Tomorrow Ventures. The round also saw participation from Accel, among others.

Kapture raises $4 million: Bootstrapped for nine years since inception, customer experience platform Kapture CX raised $4 million as part of its latest round of funding led by venture capital firm Cactus Venture Partners.

Beyond Snack raises $3.5 million: Kerala banana chips brand Beyond Snack raised $3.5 million in a pre-series-A funding round from Nabventures Fund.