[Weekly funding roundup Feb 1-7] First week of the month sees steep drop in venture capital inflows

Venture capital (VC) funding into Indian startups on a weekly basis fell below the $100 million level for the second time till now for 2025, largely due to the absence of large deals.

The total VC funding for the first week of February declined to $80 million cutting across 20 deals. In comparison, the previous week saw total funding of $192 million.

This uneven flow of VC funding is on expected lines, considering challenging macroeconomic conditions due to a slowing domestic economy, coupled with the impact from the tariffs that the US government plans to impose on various countries.

Given this environment, there is no clarity on the outlook at least for the next two months as there is no certainty on how the VC inflow is likely to pan out. At least the cut in repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India is expected to revive the economy.

However, there is a silver lining with respect to artificial intelligence-focused startups as two of them—Cognida.ai and TrueFoundry—raised VC funding. Both these startups are of Indian origin but headquartered in the US.

Companies from the Indian startup ecosystem which are now public limited entities like Swiggy, Mobikwik and Ola Electric posted losses in the third quarter. These numbers reveal the challenging roadmap ahead for them in churning out profits.

Key transactions

Digital payments startup Cashfree Payments raised $53 million from KRAFTON and Apis Growth Fund II.

Apex Kidney Care (AKC) raised $9 million from Blue Earth Capital AG.

Personal care startup HairOriginals raised $5 million from 12 Flags Consumer Holdings, Anicut Growth Fund, and Peyush Bansal.

Women health focused startup Nua raised Rs 35 crore ($4 million approx.) from Mirabilis Investment Trust and angel investors.