50% of the funds are out there raising now, and they are having a hard time doing it.
Data from the last 5 years shows it’s one of the worst years for the VC‑PE market.
The funding winter in India is officially over.
All In Capital had its best month in February 2025, with 4 portfolio companies closing rounds.
India VC funding in January 2025 rose to $883.2 million, up from $520.5 million in January 2024.
The number of VC deals in January 2025 increased to 131 deals, versus 93 deals in the same month last year.
Year‑on‑year funding increase was 70 %.
23 new VC funds launched in India this quarter.
Over $3.2 billion raised.
Venture Capital investments in India dropped 14% YoY in Q1 2025.
I observed that after a 18‑ to 24‑month funding slowdown, India is entering the early phase of a potential IPO wave, with a large pipeline of late‑stage firms across fintech, consumer tech, logistics, SaaS and deep‑tech preparing to go public.
Nearly 20 startups have already filed DRHPs with SEBI.
Another 25 or more are in various stages of IPO preparation.
Given this pipeline, I recommend that investors and founders shift strategic focus from private funding rounds to public listings, allocating capital to IPO preparation—including legal, compliance and investor‑relations support—for late‑stage companies.
I argued that the current “funding winter” narrative is a misnomer; capital has instead poured into three buckets – AI, deep‑tech, and consumer – while most other sectors are drying up.
US AI investment last year totalled $222 billion.
India’s total VC market last year was $16 billion.
Freshworks generated $839 million in revenue last year.
I decided not to copy the Valley playbook of raising huge rounds to out‑build competitors, because the Indian market’s funding pool is smaller than a single slice of US AI funding.