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

In the week of October 24-30, venture capital funding for Indian startups remained modest. There were no deals exceeding $100 million, and weekly funding stayed below $200 million. The final week of the month saw $115 million in total funding across 29 deals, up from $96 million in the previous week. The biggest investment was a $15 million round in healthtech startup Cent.

Notably, two deals involved pure-play AI startups, a trend projected to increase in the future. As the year concludes, venture capital inflows are not expected to deviate much from 2025 levels. This highlights the ongoing difficulty in attracting substantial capital to the ecosystem, partly attributable to the absence of a compelling AI investment narrative in India.

Experts anticipate 2027 to bring a shift. Key transactions include Cent's $15 million round led by Blume Ventures, South Park Commons, and angel investors; Simplismart's $14 million investment from Dallas Venture Capital, NVIDIA, Accel, Shastra VC, and Micromax; Live2 ai's Rs 130 crore ($14 million) led by IvyCap Ventures; Troovy's Rs 100 crore ($10.4 million) from Fireside Ventures, Sharrp Ventures, and others; Matiks' $10 million round by General Catalyst, Ronnie Screwvala, Info Edge Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Untitled Ventures; Ace Blend's $9.91 million from 3one4 Capital and Fireside Ventures; and Rotoris' Rs 70 crore ($8.5 million) investment from Blume Ventures, 9Unicorns, Centricity, and angel investors.