A seed needs required amount of water and soil to grow into a sapling and from there to a tree. The same way a startup needs funding to grow their business to a larger scale. Funding is referred to the money or financial investment in a company for product development, manufacturing, expansion, sales and marketing, office spaces, and inventory. At the initial stage, Startups prefer not to rise funding from third parties to prevent debts and equity dilution. This funding can support you in beginning, but when they grow to a larger scale, they will need a continuous pool of funding. Whenever you approach for funding, you need to have a detailed plan about your products, business plan, market scenario, so that they can get a positive vibe from your ideas and see a good opportunity of return on their investment. The startup also needs to develop a milestone-based plan with clear timelines regarding what the startup wishes to do in the next 2, 4, and 10 years. The business plan should also incorporate the cost of Production, Prototype Development, Research, Manufacturing, and more should be planned well beforehand.

“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable”, - Robert Arnott

What do the investors look for before investing?

‘Always Look before you Leap’ most of us are widely aware of this proverb, for startups or entrepreneurs, this is very significant because, a moment of negligence or lack of knowledge will make them end up to a stony broke at any point of time. While as a startup organization, you search and survey to find the suitable investors or VCs to fuel your business up, they also scrutinize your background history and present condition before investing their money.

Learn the Actualities of Funding
First & foremost, investors always look for key characteristics including a product or service that stands out, a well-defined possibility for growth, and a sound financial strategy. Further, a well-structured growth possibility should include a plan for how to sustain your market position and a description of the major growth factors you will rely on after entering the market. In addition, always try to focus on your product, and check the market penetration of your product. You should always be ready with unique points of it and how it differs from the other counterparts in the market.

On top of that, a sound financial strategy and roadmap to achieve is very important in order to grab the attention of VCs. You need a clear understanding of the financials of your business, including revenue projections and a plan for profitability. You have to make them believe you have a competent team of personnel who are experts in the field to achieve the financial and development goals for the growth. At last, the experts will easily bring down the ideation into real ground.

The business plan you present to the investor should also include a good strategic exit plan, owing to the fact that by reviewing your documented exit strategy, investors will also see that you recognize their need to have their funds refunded at a certain juncture. Also you need to make it clear that you don't expect them to continue supporting your business indefinitely.

Funding Scenario of 2023
According to the report of startup intelligence platform ‘TheKredible’ 95 startups have mopped up $1.24 billion in October 23. This includes $1 billion in funding across 24 growth-stage startups while early-stage ventures scooped up nearly $200 million. E-commerce startups dominated the segment chart with 17 deals amounting to $355 million followed by Fintech startups which raised $248 million in 15 deals. Bengaluru cracked 39 deals and accounted for more than 60 percent of the total funding with $753 million. Generative AI (GenAI) startups raised $10 billion in venture capital globally in 2023.

Top 5 Successful Funding of Q3 of 2023
As we are standing at the precipice of 2024, we need to look back to mark the significant startups which have successfully encountered their growth confronting odds and challenges. Amidst a stormy landscape of economic headwinds where venture funding, layoffs, and leadership churn have taken a hit in the last financial year, Indian startups have kept their boat afloat.

Ola Electric
HQ- Bangalore
Inception- 2017
Series- Debt
Industry- Electric Vehicle
Founder- Bhavish Aggarwal

Electric vehicle manufacturer Ola has raised $385 million in a funding round mix of equity and debt from Temasek-led marquee investors and State Bank of India (SBI). The funds would be utilized towards expansion of Ola’s EV business and setting-up India’s first lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. Current valuation of the company is $5.4billion. Besides electric scooters, Ola has introduced its motorcycle which will be launched by the end of next year. Ola Electric will kick off its lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility with an initial capacity of 5 gigawatt hours in phase I which will be further scaled up in phases to 100 gigawatt hours at full capacity.

Zetwerk

HQ- Bangalore
Inception: 2018
Series-F
Industry-E-commerce
Founders-Vishal Chaudhary, Amrit Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Rahul Sharma

B2B manufacturing services marketplace Zetwerk has raised around $120 million in debt capital, in series F, with a fund backed by the Edelweiss Groupcontributing the bulk of the financing. The debt was raised by issuing non-convertible debentures (NCDs) with around Rs.83 crore garnered from Edelweiss Credit plus Fund, which provides debt capital for early-to-mid stage private companies. This new funding will help them to further grow in the market and make few fresh deals of acquisitions to drive further growth. Earlier in 2022, this company acquired three companies for Rs.100 crore in a bid to strengthen its industrial verticals in the oil and gas, aerospace, defence and infrastructure component segments.

Zolve

HQ-Bangalore
Inception-2020
Series-Debt
Industry- Fintech
Founder- Raghunandan G

Cross border neo bank Zolve has raised $100 million in a warehouse debt facility from US-based impact investor Community Investment Management. This is one of the largest debt rounds for an Indian origin company in 2023. The company offers immigrants an FDIC-insured US bank account and a credit card without the need for a social security number in the United States. Through this organization, you can create a bank account from anywhere in the world in under five minutes. Their high-limit Credit Card helps build a healthy credit score and provides easy, lightning-fast, cross-border money transfers with the best rates in the market. The startup earlier raised $40 million in its 'Series A' round led by DST Global in October 2021. Zolve has bagged $155 million in equity and debt financing to date.

Mensa Brands

HQ- Bangalore
Inception-2021
Series-Debt
Industry-Fintech
Founder-Ananth Narayanan

This company has secured $40 million in growth capital from EvolutionX Debt Capital. The deal is a combination of debt facility and convertible investment. This freshly raised funding will be used in brand building, making use of the strong capabilities across technology, operations, and marketing. This company owns and operates over 20 consumer brands across fashion, beauty and home, including Pebble (smart wearables and audio),MyFitness (peanut butter), Dennis Lingo (men’s lifestyle and apparel) and Villain (perfume and personal care). Earlier in Novemeber 2021, Mensa Brands raised $135 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Overall, the startup has raised $200 million in equity from investors, including Accel Partners, Falcon Edge Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Prosus, Ventures and Tiger Global Management. It has also secured debt financing from Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital, Stride Ventures, and TradeCred.

Insurance Dekho

HQ- Gurugram
Inception-2016
Series-B
Industry- Fintech
Founder-Ankit Agrawal

Insurtech startup Insurance Dekho has raised $60 million in its ongoing ‘Series B’ funding round. The latest capital infusion is a mix of equity and debt and has on-boarded new investors, including Japanese giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG), the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif, through its insurtech fund managed by European investment major Eurazeo, the India-focused Beams Fintech Fund, and Yogesh Mahansaria Family Office. The company is planning to invest the capital to boost its marketing activities, expand its distribution presence in the Indian hinterland, scale up its tech platform, explore inorganic growth opportunities, and fund new initiatives such as Reinsurance to continue democratizing and revolutionizing the insurance landscape in India. Till date they have offered deals to around 6 million customers and they are targeting to incorporate 2,00,000 agent partners on its platform by March 2024. It is the only startup which raised funds twice this year, in February, they raised $150 million in ‘Series A’ funding.

To Encapsulate

After the pandemic the industry was quite shattered and all its operations witnessed a situation of downfall. Investing and fund raising was in freezing condition. This year seed stage funding has declined by 66 percent. Till now more than near 2 billion funding, has been raised and more than 450 investors participated. Women led startups raised 24 million fund. A few successful venture capital firms who have participated and topped the list of most active investors in 2023 to date are Lets Venture, Accel and Blume Ventures.
According to the report of Entrackr, 20 Indian startups have raised $130 million in funding from December 4 to December 9, including four growth-stage deals and 14 early-stage funding deals. Report by The Kredible showcased that, 102 startups raised $643.6 million in November as compared to $1.24 billion. Bangalore topped the list this quarter with 30 deals worth $165 million, followed by Delhi NCR cracked 28 deals raising $300 million. Abiding by all the parameters of successful deals India stood at fifth position in 2023 according to Tracxn.

“Startups are motivated by innovation, backed by brilliance and supported by unwavering bravery”