Venture Capital | Page 2

Consuma operates by helping brands derive insights from digital behaviour data at scale. The company was publicly launched six months ago and has worked with more than 35 global brands, including Godrej and Britannia.

The firm said that AVF II's core strategy is to focus on fewer, higher-conviction investments and will selectively back startups that are post-seed, post-revenue, and raising INR 4–10 crore rounds. Capital will be reserved to provide consistent support for breakout performers.

According to the company, the capital infusion will fuel technology advancements, geographic expansion, and brand growth, while strengthening HouseEazy's portfolio of services.

Airoclip said that the fresh capital will be used towards accelerating the development of its proprietary game personalization technology and strengthening its teams across game development, data, design, and marketing.

The fund typically invests between seed and Series A stages.

Through the program, Arkam aims to collaborate with 100 students across four cohorts annually, and each cohort will deep dive into themes such as FaithTech, Digital Gold, and Microdramas.

He pointed out that India's real entrepreneurial engine lies in its small and medium businesses, with the MSME sector having 67 million entrepreneurs producing 6–7 per cent of GDP.

Homegrown brands have increasingly gained a foothold in Indian consumerism, with 58 per cent of the respondents saying that they like to shop for products mainly from local or small businesses, with 76 per cent of the group saying they appreciate authentic communication by local brands, along with innovative solutions for everyday problems.

The company said the funding will be used towards scaling Oolka's engineering, data science, and product teams, while accelerating the rollout of advanced AI features.

The company has said the new identity marks a deliberate shift, "moving beyond document workflows to orchestrating collaborative intelligence across enterprises, where AI and human judgment combine to accelerate decisions, remove friction, and create measurable business outcomes."

The brand says it now aims to deepen expansion across these regions, driven by growing demand for sustainable, wellness-focused lifestyle products.

With the fund closing, Good Capital said that it aims to double down on its strategy of supporting new-age, technology-first startups, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence-driven companies.

Before this pre-seed round, Paar has so far raised an angel round with the participation of two experts from the Indian drone industry.

The round also saw participation from investors Rubamin, PI Industries Vice Chairperson Mayank Singhal, and India Quotient. Distil has raised a total funding of USD 10.8 million.

To date, the sector has raised USD 989 million across 203 equity rounds, a steady expansion despite current cautious funding activity. India's Fitness Tech ecosystem is currently comprised of more than 600 active startups, of which 96 have secured equity funding.

The motivations stem from a combination of market dynamics, growth ceiling concerns, and changing preferences among limited partners (LPs).

While overall deal volumes have moderated, the size of individual investments has grown, underscoring the new mantra of 'fewer but bigger' bets.

The Bain India VC Report 2025 highlights a shift: venture funding jumped to USD 13.7 billion in 2024, a 1.4 times increase over the previous year, while deal volumes grew 45 per cent. Yet, nearly all of that growth came from small- and mid-ticket deals, with mega-rounds slowing sharply, a sign that investors are tightening standards.

The firm's Fund II has made nine investments so far, in tech-led firms across consumer internet, Bharat, fintech, B2B commerce, enterprise tech, and emerging sectors in India. According to Fundamentum, the portfolio has delivered nearly 80 per cent revenue growth over the last year.

In 2024, Bain & Company's India Venture Capital Report finds that CVCs stepped up meaningfully: their deal volumes increased approximately 1.8 times versus 2023, and their share of India's overall VC deal volume rose to 20 per cent, up from 16 per cent in 2023.

Insights captured from nearly 100 deeptech founders in India revealed that over 53 per cent of the founders maintain that funding in the sector remains difficult to access, while 44 per cent found it reasonably available. Only 3 per cent of the study group said that the funds were abundantly available.