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Bengaluru: Amidst a funding recovery, India raised a total of $2.5 billion in tech startup funding in the January to March quarter (Q1) of 2025. This marks a 13.64 per cent increase from October-December 2024 and an 8.7 per cent rise from the same period last year, according to a report by market intelligence platform Tracxn, on Monday.
India ranked third globally in Q1, surpassing Malta (fourth) and Germany (fifth). The top-funded countries were the United States and the United Kingdom.
Within the country, Delhi-based tech firms accounted for 40% of the funding, followed by Bengaluru at 21.64 per cent.
Amongst investors, Accel, Blume Ventures and Peak XV Partners were the overall all-time top investors for the quarter. For seed-stage, Venture Catalysts, Unicorn India Ventures and YourNest came out on top, while Avataar Ventures and Sofina invested most in late-stage. Accel, Peak XV Partners and Vertex Ventures were the top early-stage investors in Q1.
Sector-wise, auto tech, enterprise applications and retail received the most funds. Three startups (Erisha E Mobility, Darwinbox and Infra Market) received over $100 million each.
Auto tech received $1.1 billion, up a whopping 403.35per cent from $214.6 million raised in the previous quarter, and by 339.71per cent year-on-year (YoY). Enterprise applications received $650.7 million, rising by 21.94per cent sequentially and dropping by 8.12per cent YoY. Retail saw funding of $481.5 million, marking a 21.67per cent increase from Q4 2024 and down by 2.30per cent YoY.
A total of 38 acquisitions were also completed during the quarter, signalling a maturing market as per Tracxn. This marks a 15.15 per cent increase from the previous quarter and a 40.74 per cent rise YoY. The largest deal was Magma General’s $516 million acquisition by DS Group and Patanjali Ayurved.
Late stage companies saw the most funding, in fact, with $1.8 billion, an increase of 114.54 per cent YoY, marking a shift. Early stage, on the other hand, saw a drop of 52 per cent from the previous year to $528 million this quarter. Seed stage saw the steepest fall amongst the three, by 55.77 per cent YoY to $157 million.
Six companies publicly listed during the quarter (Nukleus, Maxvolt Energy, Volercars, and Harshil Agrotech). However, there were no unicorns created, while two were created in the same period last year.