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From Emergent To Juspay — Indian Startups Raised $303 Mn This Week
Samira Vishwas | January 24, 2026 1:24 PM CST

SUMMARY

Indian startups raised $302.8 Mn between Jan 19 and 23, marking 13% jump from $268.6 Mn bagged in the preceding week

Fintech topped sectoral funding this week, with four startups in the space raising $87.2 Mn

Fireside Ventures, Kae Capital, and Rainmatter were the most active institutional investors this week, backing three startups apiece

It was an action-packed week for the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. While overall funding momentum continued to build, the ecosystem saw Juspay emerge as India’s first unicorn of 2026Amagi make its public market debut, alongside a host of other headline-making developments.

Between January 19 and 23, Indian startups managed to secure $302.8 Mn across 37 funding deals. This marked a near 13% uptick from the $286.6 Mn raised by 28 startups over the past week.

Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week (Jan 19 – 23)

Date Name Sector Subsector Business Model Funding Round Size Funding Round Type Investors Lead Investor
20 Jan 2026 Emergent AI Application Layer B2C $70 Mn Series B Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Prosus, Lightspeed, Together Fund, Y Combinator Khosla Ventures, SoftBank
23 Jan 2026 Juspay Fintech Banking B2B $50 Mn** Series D WestBridge Capital WestBridge Capital
20 Jan 2026 Unbox Robotics Advanced Technology & Hardware Robotics B2B $28 Mn Series B ICICI Ventures, Redstart Labs, F-Prime, 3one4 Capital, Navam Capital, Force Ventures ICICI Ventures, Redstart Labs
22 Jan 2026 Escape Plan Ecommerce Verticle Marketplace B2C $25 Mn Series A Jungle VC, Fireside Ventures, IndiGo Ventures Jungle VC
19 Jan 2026 AssetPlus Fintech Investment Tech B2C $21 Mn Nexus Venture Partners Nexus Venture Partners
20 Jan 2026 Whizzo Enterprise Services Manufacturing Solutions B2B $15 Mn Series A Fundamentum, LB Investment, Lightspeed, BEENEXT Foundation
21 Jan 2026 Air Solutions Fintech Lending Tech B2C $15 Mn Pre-Series B SMBC Asia Rising Fund, British International Investment, The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, Blume Ventures, Avaana Capital, Riverwalk Holdings, SE Ventures SMBC Asia Rising Fund
22 Jan 2026 Optimist Ecommerce D2C B2C $12 Mn Pre-Series A Accel, Arkam Ventures Accel, Arkam Ventures
21 Jan 2026 Painful AI Application Layer B2B $6.3 Mn Seed General Catalyst, Y Combinator, Blume Ventures, Orange Collective, Pioneer Fund, Transpose Capital, Eight Capital General Catalyst
21 Jan 2026 WanderOn Traveltech Online Travel Agency B2C $5.9 Mn Series A DSG Consumer Brand and CAAF DSG Consumer Brand and CAAF
21 Jan 2026 Ringg AI Application Layer B2B $5.5 Mn Series A Arkam Ventures, Groww’s Founder Fund, CRED founder Kunal Shah, White Venture Capital, Capital2B Arkam Ventures
21 Jan 2026 Enerzolve Advanced Technology & Hardware Internet Of Things (IoT) & Hardware B2B2C $5.1 Mn Seed Jungle Ventures, Kae Capital, Amrit Acharya (Zetwerk) Srinath Ramakrrushnan (Zetwerk), Ramakant Sharma (Livspace), Roman Saini (Unacademy), Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy), Amal Mishra (Urban Vault), Nikhil Bhandarkar (Panthera Peak) Jungle Ventures, Kae Capital
21 Jan 2026 Cumin Co. Ecommerce D2C B2C $5 Mn Pre-Series A Fireside Ventures, Huddle Ventures, Alteria Capital Fireside Ventures
22 Jan 2026 Troovy Ecommerce D2C B2C $5 Mn Series A Fireside Ventures, Sharrp Ventures, Spring Marketing Capital, Veltis Capital ireside Ventures, Sharrp Ventures
23 Jan 2026 Dhun Wellness Consumer Services Hyperlocal Services B2C $4 Mn SRF Ltd, Havells India, Arushi Aayush Agrawal (Inspira), Ash Lilani (Saama Capital), Abhishek Goyal (Tracxn), Sanjay Kapoor (Genesis Luxury) SRF Ltd, Havells India
19 Jan 2026 Salty Ecommerce D2C B2C $3.3 Mn MG Investment, Anicut Capital, All In Capital, JK Group MG Investment
19 Jan 2026 Gully Labs Ecommerce D2C B2C $3.3 Mn Series A Saama Capital, Zeropearl VC, Sangeet Agrawa (Mokobara), Viraj Bahl (Veeba), Sanjay Kapoor (Genesis Luxury), Radhika Gupta (Edelweiss Mutual Fund), Roman Saini (Unacademy), Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy) Saama Capital
22 Jan 2026 Raana Semiconductor Advanced Technology & Hardware Semiconductors B2B $3 Mn Seed Equirus Innovatex Fund, Artha Venture Fund, IvyCap Ventures, PointOne Capital, IIMA Ventures, Garimella Laxminarayana (Angel) Equirus Innovatex Fund, Artha Venture Fund
21 Jan 2026 Sensesemi Advanced Technology & Hardware Semiconductors B2B $2.7 Mn Seed Piper Serica, LetsVenture, Sun Icon Ventures, MyAsiaVC, Whitepine Investments, Jain Oncor Serica pepper
22 Jan 2026 PropertyPistol Real Estate Tech Real Estate Services B2C $2.7 Mn Pre-Series B Ashish Kacholia Ashish Kacholia
22 Jan 2026 Chargeup Cleantech Electric Vehicles B2C $2.4 Mn IAN Group, Capital A IAN Group
20 Jan 2026 SuperLiving Healthtech Fitness & Wellness B2C $2 Mn Kae capital, All In Capital Kae Capital
21 Jan 2026 archhub Cleantech Climate Tech B2C $2 Mn Seed Kae Capital, Sparrow Capital, Antler Kae Capital, Sparrow Capital
21 Jan 2026 GREST Ecommerce Vertial Marketplace B2C $1.7 Mn Equentis Wealth, JIIF, The Chennai Angels, India Accelerator, Lead Invest, 8i Ventures Equentis Wealth
22 Jan 2026 StepOut Consumer Services Hyperlocal Services B2B $1.5 Mn Pre-Series A Rainmatter, SucSEED Innovation Fund, Misfits Capital Rainmatter
20 Jan 2026 Intellend Fintech Lending Tech B2B $1.2 Mn Seed Incubate Fund Asia, M Venture Partners, Atrium Angels, Dhananjay Tiwari Incubate Fund Asia
22 Jan 2026 My Electric Cleantech Climate Tech B2B $750K Pre-Seed Antler, Rebalance, Venture Catalysts, gradCapital, AIC-AU Incubation Foundation, Alexander Hogeveen Rutter (Third Derivative)
20 Jan 2026 FireAI AI Application Layer B2B $675K Seed Inflection Point Ventures, Venture Catalyst, SucSEED Indovation Fund
22 Jan 2026 Cosmoserve Advanced Technology & Hardware Spacetech B2B, B2G $598K Arokiaswamy Velumani (Thyrocare), Shivam Mishra (String Ventures), Srini Sriniwasan (Kotak Alternate Asset Managers) Arokiaswamy Velumani (Thyrocare)
22 Jan 2026 Zerocircle Cleantech Climate Tech B2B $545K Pre-Series A 3one4 Capital, Rainmatter 3one4 Capital, Rainmatter
22 Jan 2026 Lorazzo Ecommerce D2C B2C $545K Seed Sprout Venture Partners, India Quotient, Chandigarh Angel Network Sprout Venture Partners, India Quotient
20 Jan 2026 For Real Ecommerce Vertical Marketplace B2B2C $349K Pre-Seed Titan Capital Titan Capital
22 Jan 2026 Brisil Technologies Clean Tech Climate Tech B2B $327K Pre-Seed Momentum Capital Momentum Capital
19 Jan 2026 Culture Media & Entertainment Social Networking Platform B2C $218K Seed Acuvest Infra Acuvest Infra
21 Jan 2026 Care Dale Ecommerce D2C B2C $180K ajvc ajvc
21 Jan 2026 Hohoday Enterprisetech Horizontal SaaS B2B -** Series C Apis Partners, 57 Stars Apis Partners, 57 Stars
20 Jan 2026 PolyCycl Cleantech Climate Tech B2B Series A Rainmatter Rainmatter
Source: Inc42
*Mix of equity and debt
**Part of larger round

Key Startup Funding Highlights Of The Week

  • Juspay became India’s 127th unicorn this week, raising $50 Mn at a valuation of $1.2 Bn. On the back of this, fintech topped sectoral funding this week, with four startups in the space raising $87.2 Mn.
  • AI sector trailed fintech closely, with four startups in the segment cumulatively bagging $82.5 Mn. AI startup Emergent bagged the biggest cheque of the week worth $70 Mn from marquee investors like Khosla Ventures and SoftBank.
  • Ecommerce continued to dominate the overall deal count this week, with 10 startups in the segment raising $56.4 Mn
  • Fireside Ventures, Kae Capital, and Rainmatter were the most active institutional investors this week, backing three startups apiece.
  • Seed stage funding zoomed 32% week-on-week, with nine startups at this stage raising $21.7 Mn.

Startup IPO Updates This Week

  • After closing its IPO with an overwhelming investor interest last week, media SaaS giant Amagi made a muted debut on the stock exchanges on Wednesday. After listing at a discount of 12.2% on the BSE at INR 317, the company’s shares gained 19% to end the week at INR 375.7. This represents a 4% jump from its IPO price of INR 361.
  • Logistics startup Shadowfax’s IPO closed with an oversubscription of 2.72Xreceiving total bids for 24.23 Cr shares against 8.9 Cr shares on offer. The company’s shares are set for a public markets debut on January 28.
  • Startups like Phonepe, Purple Style Labs and Infra.Market received SEBI approval for their respective IPO papers this week. Post getting the regulatory approval for its confidential DRHP, fintech major PhonePe filed its updated DRHP for an IPO that will solely consist of an offer for sale (OFS) component of 5.06 Cr equity shares.
  • Amid heightened public anticipation, RIL’s telecom arm Jio is likely to file its DRHP in the coming months. As per the management, the company has internally zeroed in on its IPO but is awaiting the final notification from the SEBI on minimum IPO dilution norms..

Other Developments Of The Week


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