The Indian startup ecosystem is going through a downturn after a blockbuster fundraising year in 2021. While the total investment in homegrown startups until the first half of 2022 is at par with the previous year, growth and late-stage companies are now finding it difficult to raise capital and are bound to see further correction in valuations. Indian startups saw a steep fall in funding in the second quarter of 2022 $12 billion in Q1 to $7.56 billion in Q2.

Again a fantastic weekend for India's startup ecosystem wowed us, with some launching new products, others raising millions of dollars while also acquiring other companies, with some startups focusing on expanding their presence in several other cities. This week, Vishko22, Infibeam Avenues said it has picked up a 50% stake in Gurgaon-based software startup, Cofounded by Neha Sharma and Shweta Gaur last year, the startup develops omnichannel enterprise software products and services for domestic and international ecommerce marketplaces, While Privado, Data Privacy startup, raised $14 million in a Series A round co-led by New York- based fund Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital India.

Vishko22

Infibeam Avenues said it has picked up a 50% stake in Gurgaon-based software startup, Vishko22. Cofounded by Neha Sharma and Shweta Gaur last year, the startup develops omnichannel enterprise software products and services for domestic and international ecommerce marketplaces.

“It’s a strategic investment to cater to the growing demand for omnichannel software with the existing suite of e-commerce offerings,” said Vishal Mehta, managing director of Infibeam Avenues, adding that the company will continue to make more such investments in technology startups over the next one year.

T-Hub

T-Hub, which leads India’s innovation ecosystem, today announced its partnership with Hyderabad Angels, the Leading angel Investors in Hyderabad, for more than a decade and also in India. With this collaborative partnership, T-Hub and Hyderabad Angels aim to drive innovation and venture investment opportunities for technology startups in the country.

Through its vast network, Hyderabad Angels will provide access to investment opportunities from India, the USA, the UK, Singapore, Dubai, and UAE, among other countries, to the startups. It will also have a presence at the new facility of T-Hub, the world’s largest innovation campus, creating substantial synergies between Hyderabad Angels and T-Hub stakeholders, especially the startups. The collaboration paves the way for the technology-driven startup with growth opportunities and global exposure.

Jar

Investment platform Jar has raised $22.6 million in the Series B funding round. The funding was led by Tiger Global Management. Existing investors including Arkam Ventures, Eximius Ventures, Force Ventures, LetsVenture, Rocketship Venture Capital and WEH Ventures, also participated in the funding round. Post the funding, the startup is valued at $300 million.

The latest funding round saw new investors including 1Finance, Capier Investments, Cloud Capital, Folius Ventures, Panthera Capital, and Prophetic Ventures among others. Alex Cook, Partner at Tiger Global said, "By starting with digital gold, a well-understood and well-loved asset class in India, Jar’s savings app has quickly gained trust and traction with young earners interested in developing a saving and investment strategy. We are impressed with the company’s rapid growth and are excited to double down as they expand into new asset classes."

Winuall

Social commerce startup Winuall has raised Rs 17 crore in funding from Dream Incubator, Inflection Point Ventures, and Beenext, among others. Founded in 2019 by Ashwini Purohit and Saurabh Vyas, Winuall provides tutors the tools to expand their business by sharing curated online courses.

Over the last six months, the company claims to have witnessed a 100% month-on-month growth, and sold over 35,000 courses in the last four months. More than 1,200 tutors have onboarded the platform. “We are break-even and on track to make our marketplace business profitable in the next three months,” said Ashwini Purohit, chief executive officer of Winuall. “We are humbled by the massive adoption of our platform across India and we are now excited to double down on building the company.”

Privado

Data privacy startup Privado said it has raised $14 million (about Rs 111 crore) in a Series A round co-led by New York- based fund Insight Partners and Sequoia Capital India. Existing investors Together Fund and Emergent Ventures also participated in the financing round.

This comes close on the heels of Privado’s seed funding of $3.5 million in January this year. The funding will be used to enhance Privado’s technology stack, build out the team and grow its open-source community. Founded in 2020 by Jasdeep Cheema, Prashant Mahajan, and Vaibhav Antil, Privado addresses privacy issues facing businesses. The company is an open-source code scanning solution built for privacy that identifies data usage, discovers data flows and flags issues like excessive user permissions or data leakages to logs.

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