Enterprise capital (VC) funding into Indian startups for February 2025 declined by 25% on a year-on-year (YoY) foundation, primarily because of the noticeable absence of large-value offers.
The entire VC funding in February 2025 totalled $669 million, chopping throughout 100 offers, in contrast with $890 million raised a yr in the past. Additionally, it was a 6% decline in comparison with the earlier month of January 2025, when the whole quantity was $712 million, in response to knowledge from YourStory Analysis.
This fall in VC funding has been primarily because of the close to absence of any large-value offers. In February, there was not even a single VC deal valued at $100 million or above. As well as, there have been simply six offers with a price above $50 million.
The six startups which raised greater than $50 million: Cashfree, Zeta, ToneTag, SpotDraft, Udaan, and Geniemode. Actually, the month noticed the emergence of the primary unicorn—startups valued at $1 billion and above—in Zeta, which is now valued at $2 billion with its newest funding spherical.
This slowdown in VC influx has additionally bought to do with the macroeconomic challenges. The Indian inventory markets are bearish and this has a direct bearing on the VC influx into the ecosystem. Secondly, world commerce pressure emanating from the choice of the USA to impose tariffs has created uncertainty amongst traders. Lastly, the home financial system has not seen any main uptick.
It’s clear that solely these startups which can be class leaders will obtain the big worth cheques. Nearly all of the funding exercise in the course of the month has been from the early and progress levels of funding. These classes witness massive quantity when it comes to offers however the worth stays small.
In February, the early and progress classes of VC funding had been nearly related whereas the late stage got here in at third place. Surprisingly, the worth of debt transactions was simply $19 million.
The fintech phase raised the best funding in the course of the month at $143 million. Nevertheless, the remaining segments had been all under the $100 million degree. This reveals the challenges related to elevating capital.
The fintech phase has persistently maintained the place of being the sector that raises the biggest quantum of funding.
When it comes to cities that increase funding, Bengaluru topped the checklist adopted by Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. Sadly for the Indian startup ecosystem, these three cities have dominated the fund influx for fairly a while now and there’s lower-value exercise in different metros like Chennai, Hyderabad, or Pune.
The one hope is that the forthcoming months will develop into optimistic for the Indian startup ecosystem. As previously, the primary two months of the yr have historically been slower when it comes to VC funding after which there’s a pickup. The hope is that this pattern will likely be maintained even in 2025.
