India Deals Barometer Report: Startup funding slips to $1.47b in March following Feb surge

After a sharp, single-deal-driven spike in February, venture capital and private equity investments into Indian startups cooled in March.

Funding halved to $1.47 billion across 110 deals in March 2026, from $2.21 billion across 123 deals in February, with the earlier surge largely driven by Neysa’s $1.2-billion fundraise, according to proprietary data compiled by DealStreetAsia.

Stripping out the outsized February transaction, the March numbers point to a steadier, albeit more cautious, funding environment, as overall investment levels were above January’s $1.11 billion across 119 deals.

On a year-on-year basis, too, the fundraising showed improvement: both deal value and volume increased compared to March 2025, when startups raised $1.4 billion across 105 deals.

The values of nine deals were undisclosed in March 2026.

Startup fundraising in India

March saw two megadeals—transactions valued at $100 million or more—by Allfleet and Weaver Services.

Allfleet India Private Limited, an electric bus operations platform, secured up to $310 million in funding from global private equity firm KKR, which will acquire a majority stake to scale the company’s e-bus footprint across India.

Meanwhile, Weaver Services, a tech-driven housing finance platform, raised $156 million in a two-tranche round led by Premji Invest and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Other prominent deals in the month included Shubham Housing ($96 million), Rocketlane ($60 million), Cult.fit ($47 million), Euler Motors ($47 million), and Ecofy ($42 million).

Top 10 deals in March 2026

Financial services leads March funding race

In March, the financial services sector emerged as the most funded, attracting $394.3 million across 18 deals—a significant jump from $87.1 million across 12 deals in February.

Leading the activity was Weaver Services’ $156 million raise, followed by housing finance company Shubham Housing ($96 million) and non-banking financial company Ecofy ($42 million). Other notable deals included fintech platform Easebuzz ($30 million), MSME lender Prayaan Capital ($12.1 million), digital fintech platform True Balance ($10 million), and solar financing platform Metafin ($10 million).

Transportation services ranked second, raising $318.4 million across just three deals. The segment was dominated by Allfleet’s $310 million funding round, alongside smaller investments in Namma Yatri ($4.4 million) and LetzRyd ($4 million). This marked a sharp increase from February, when transportation startups secured only $80 million from a single deal.

The software sector came in third, garnering $231.7 million across 18 deals. Key transactions included Rocketlane ($60 million), Mozark ($40 million), Atlys ($36 million), Deccan AI ($25 million), Aerchain ($12 million), and KaarTech ($12 million). While robust, this was a slowdown compared to February’s $1.25 billion across 19 deals, driven largely by Neysa’s $1.2 billion raise.

Together, the three industries—financial services, transportation services, and software—raised $944 million or 64% of the total deal value.

Late-stage startups take spotlight

While growth-stage funding declined in absolute terms in March, its share of overall startup investment increased compared to the previous month.

Growth-stage startups—defined as companies raising Series B rounds and beyond, including private equity—secured $835.6 million, accounting for nearly 56.8% of total capital deployed during the month. In contrast, these later-stage deals had attracted around $1 billion in February, but comprised a smaller share of approximately 45% of overall funding.

Funding by stage

Startups that raised growth rounds in March include Euler Motors ($47-million Series E), Fullife Healthcare ($32-million series D), Akshayakalpa Organic ($19-million Series D), Rocketlane ($60-million Series C), Atlys ($36-million Series C), Mozark ($40-million Series B), Swish ($38-million Series B), Rozana ($31.6 million Series B), Pronto ($25-million Series B), among others.

Pre-seed and seed-stage startups saw a decline in funding value in March, raising $59.7 million compared with $76.9 million in February. The number of deals also declined to 32 in March from 39 in the previous month.

Notable seed deals in the month included funding rounds by Gushwork ($9 million), VerbaFlo ($7 million), Pranos Fusion ($6.8 million), Coreworks.AI ($5 million), Aditi Toys ($3.9 million), Uncia ($3 million), and Verdant Impact ($3 million), among others.

Meanwhile, early-stage funding—spanning pre-Series A and Series A rounds—saw a sharp decline, falling nearly 36% month-on-month to $170.4 million across 23 deals in March, compared to $264.8 million across 37 deals in February.

The largest Series A round during the month was raised by payments platform Easebuzz, which secured $30 million in a mix of primary and secondary funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Other notable Series A deals included Deccan AI ($25 million), Bonkers Corner ($15 million), Aerchain ($13 million), Prayaan Capital ($12.1 million), MTandT Rentals ($10.5 million), Inamo ($8 million), and BIDSO ($6.7 million).

Debt funding declined to $36.5 million in March from $600 million in February.

Top investors

Venture capital firm Accel was the top investor in March, with seven deals. These included healthtech startup Dognosis, spacetech startup Ethereal Exploration Guild, lifestyle-first chronic care platform Praan, deep tech startup QOSMIC, fintech platform for fixed-income investments Jiraaf, food delivery startup Swish and EV startup Bounce.

Peak XV Partners followed with six investments, backing Plum, Prayaan Capital, BambooBox, Grapevine, Atlys, and Newtrace.

Blume Ventures and Prosus were tied for third, each participating in five deals. Blume’s March investments included BIDSO, Mave Health, Euler Motors, OZi, and Namma Yatri, while Prosus backed Dognosis, Ethereal Exploration Guild, Praan, QOSMIC, and Deccan AI.