ETtech Deals Digest: Amid ‘Tech Winter’, dry funding taps, startups set to face turmoil

Last week, speaking at the Economic Times Startup Awards 2022, Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said Indian startups will go through a lot of turmoil and volatility over the next 12-18 months, as the funding crunch will start to affect new-age tech companies only by the early part of next year.

“It is going to be tough next year. I think a lot of people will hit the market (for fundraising) between April and June next year. That’s probably the moment of truth for all of us in the ecosystem,” Krishnamurthy added.

With funding continuing to be scarce, Indian startups are looking at debt and convertible notes as alternatives to raise money. B2B startup Udaan announced raising $35 million through debt and convertible notes this week and led the funding charts.
Here is a look at all the startups that raised money in funding this week:

Udaan raises another $35 million from EvolutionX via convertible notes and debt: Business-to-business ecommerce startup
Udaan has raised another 35 million in debt and convertible notes from debt financing platform EvolutionX, a person aware of the matter told ET. EvolutionX, started by DBS and Temasek, did not disclose the amount it has invested in Udaan, in its press statement. The latest funding comes close on the heels of Udaan raising $120 million through convertible notes and debt from existing shareholders and bondholders in October.

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Redbrick AI raises $4.6 million funding from Sequoia India, Surge: Redbrick AI, a health-tech platform that harnesses artificial intelligence,
said it raised $4.6 million in a funding round led by Sequoia India and its Southeast Asia startup accelerator, Surge. The round also saw participation from Y Combinator and angel investors.

Fresh From Farm raises over Rs 3.2 crore in funding: Food-agri startup
Fresh From Farm has raised over Rs 3 crore in seed funding led by Inflection Point Ventures. Fresh From Farm is a demand-and data-based aggregation ecosystem that recognises retailer demand trends and buys the precise amount from farmers.

Soptle raises angel investment from Kube VC, Soonicorn among others: Soptle, a B2B commerce company,
has raised $300k in an angel round led by global early-stage venture firm Kube VC and Soonicorn LLP. A clutch of industry veterans such as Vaishnav Shetty, executive director of All-Cargo Group, Pirojshaw Sarkari, CEO of Gati, Ankur Agarwal, co-founder of Dunzo, Saurabh Aggarwal, co-founder of Fitso, Himanshu Periwal, co-founder of Unlu, and others also participated in the round.