<p>Bengaluru: Considering the global geopolitical uncertainties and significant trade tensions with the US, Venture Capital (VC) investment in India remained slow in the third quarter (July-September). But given India’s strong macros and vibrant capital market and if trade uncertainties are resolved, there is good optimism that VC investment will begin to rebound, said KPMG in its latest Venture Pulse Q3 2025 report.</p> <p>The report pointed out that Asia continued to see relatively muted VC flows, reflecting a more cautious funding environment.</p> <p>Global VC investment rose to $120 billion in the third quarter of 2025, up from $112 billion in Q2. Mentioning the dominance of AI in July-September period, the report said Artificial Intelligence (AI) continued to attract massive deals, and it remains the top priority for VC investors globally.</p> <p>"While interest in India remains high, VC investors have found it difficult to predict what might happen day-to-day, leading them to hold back from making any major funding decisions," the report highlighted.</p> <p>The largest deal of the quarter in India was a $140 million raise by consumer goods delivery focused company Mitra.</p> .India's venture capital funding rises 43% to Rs 1.19 lakh crore in 2024.<p>"Despite the soft VC investment in Q3’25, there continued to be optimism in the market given the growth in startup exit activity — particularly in terms of IPO exits. During the quarter, IPO activity was quite strong compared to previous quarters; for example, rent-a-service company Urban Company held a very successful IPO on the NSE with shares rising 74% in first day trading," the report added.</p> <p>VC investors globally continued to double down on AI in the third quarter with companies such as Anthropic, xAI, and Mistral, securing more funding.</p> <p>Nitish Poddar, Partner and National Leader, Private Equity, KPMG in India said, “VC investment results in India this quarter were driven by the speed bump that was the US tariffs, but people expect that by the end of November that will settle. And macros are still strong, the capital markets are still vibrant, and a lot of capital has been raised that will need to get deployed — so funding should increase as uncertainties calm."</p> <p>But investors are going to be focused heavily on the path to profitability and cash flows because without those you won’t get a capital market exit, he added.</p> <p><strong>AI firms raise funds</strong></p> <p>Business AI company Uniphore has closed its $260 million Series F round. NVIDIA, AMD, Snowflake, and Databricks invested in the round and were joined by financial and sovereign investors including NEA, March Capital, BNF Capital, National Grid Partners, and Prosperity7 Ventures. The new capital will accelerate innovation on its AI and data platform – Business AI Cloud. Another startup UnifyApps, which is an enterprise AI platform service provider, announced $0 million fundraising, led by WestBridge Capital.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: Considering the global geopolitical uncertainties and significant trade tensions with the US, Venture Capital (VC) investment in India remained slow in the third quarter (July-September). But given India’s strong macros and vibrant capital market and if trade uncertainties are resolved, there is good optimism that VC investment will begin to rebound, said KPMG in its latest Venture Pulse Q3 2025 report.</p> <p>The report pointed out that Asia continued to see relatively muted VC flows, reflecting a more cautious funding environment.</p> <p>Global VC investment rose to $120 billion in the third quarter of 2025, up from $112 billion in Q2. Mentioning the dominance of AI in July-September period, the report said Artificial Intelligence (AI) continued to attract massive deals, and it remains the top priority for VC investors globally.</p> <p>"While interest in India remains high, VC investors have found it difficult to predict what might happen day-to-day, leading them to hold back from making any major funding decisions," the report highlighted.</p> <p>The largest deal of the quarter in India was a $140 million raise by consumer goods delivery focused company Mitra.</p> .India's venture capital funding rises 43% to Rs 1.19 lakh crore in 2024.<p>"Despite the soft VC investment in Q3’25, there continued to be optimism in the market given the growth in startup exit activity — particularly in terms of IPO exits. During the quarter, IPO activity was quite strong compared to previous quarters; for example, rent-a-service company Urban Company held a very successful IPO on the NSE with shares rising 74% in first day trading," the report added.</p> <p>VC investors globally continued to double down on AI in the third quarter with companies such as Anthropic, xAI, and Mistral, securing more funding.</p> <p>Nitish Poddar, Partner and National Leader, Private Equity, KPMG in India said, “VC investment results in India this quarter were driven by the speed bump that was the US tariffs, but people expect that by the end of November that will settle. And macros are still strong, the capital markets are still vibrant, and a lot of capital has been raised that will need to get deployed — so funding should increase as uncertainties calm."</p> <p>But investors are going to be focused heavily on the path to profitability and cash flows because without those you won’t get a capital market exit, he added.</p> <p><strong>AI firms raise funds</strong></p> <p>Business AI company Uniphore has closed its $260 million Series F round. NVIDIA, AMD, Snowflake, and Databricks invested in the round and were joined by financial and sovereign investors including NEA, March Capital, BNF Capital, National Grid Partners, and Prosperity7 Ventures. The new capital will accelerate innovation on its AI and data platform – Business AI Cloud. Another startup UnifyApps, which is an enterprise AI platform service provider, announced $0 million fundraising, led by WestBridge Capital.</p>