Foreword (AIFs gain traction, Reverse-flipping continues)
Last quarter was marked by a number of difficult events. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the dreadful Ahmedabad crash. The world has also been witnessing increasing geopolitical tensions, and we hope that peace prevails soon.
Investments in Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) surged 32% year-on-year to INR 5.38 lakh crore in Q4 FY2025 from INR 4.07 lakh crore in Q4 FY2024. With increased market volatility, a constantly evolving macroeconomic environment and general unrest globally, HNIs have found it safer to invest in AIFs, which include private equity, hedge funds, real assets, private credit, and other non-traditional instruments that typically have low correlation with public markets. This suggests a clear shift in asset allocation strategy among HNIs and family offices.
Several notable startups such as PhonePe, Razorpay, Groww, Zepto, and Dream11 have completed their reverse flip in the last few years, with the most recent one being Meesho, which got its final approval in June 2025. This is a telling sign of the increasing maturity of the Indian startup ecosystem, with more startups seeing a stronger case for listing domestically rather than on foreign exchanges.
Startup funding in India experienced a significant downturn in April, totalling $745 Mn— a sharp contrast to the $1.76 Bn raised in January 2025 and $1.14 Bn in March 2025. Startup funding has remained relatively stagnant throughout the first four months of 2025. After a 35% drop in startup funding in April, Indian startups saw a strong recovery in May, reaching $1.14 Bn across 98 deals. Growth and late-stage funding accounted for more than half of the funding.
Portfolio Buzz In The Media
Addition
PowerUp Money is the most recent addition to our portfolio and we are extremely excited about it. They are providing users with a personalized wealth management platform starting with Mutual Funds. We are now entering the Wealth 2.0 era – a shift from Investment 1.0 (execution) to Investment 2.0 (advisory). Here, success will be defined by a platform’s ability to earn trust, deliver alpha, and guide users through the chaos of choice.
We’re delighted to have co-led the investment in PowerUp Money with our friends at Accel India and Blume Ventures. We have also written a blog on our thesis behind this investment, which you can check out here.
Prateek Jindal, Founder and CEO
Funding
Porter, India’s leading on-demand Goods Transport Agency (GTA), has successfully closed its Series F funding round led by Kedaara Capital and Wellington Management with participation from existing investor Vitruvian Partners. With this fresh capital, the company is set to expand operations across multiple cities, with the goal of serving millions of MSMEs and enabling livelihood opportunities for over 1 million gig workers.
We have had the privilege of being the first partners to these founders and are excited to welcome our friends at Kedaara and Wellington.
(L-R) Vikas Choudhary, Uttam Digga, Pranav Goel (Co-founders)
LoanTap, a digital lending platform, has raised INR 74 Cr in a pre-Series C round to scale up its supply chain financing offerings for small retailers. This round was led by July Ventures, and we participated in this as well.
Satyam Kumar, Co-founder and CEO
Beyond the $$
Eight, a full-stack audio and video storytelling platform, spoke with Campaign India regarding their latest offering, Vertical TV, India’s fastest-growing micro-drama storytelling platform. The piece goes deeper into the strides made by their team in this space and the potential for future growth.
(L-R) Mohit Paliwal, Yugal Tamang, and Mohit Goswami (Co-founders)
Nua, India’s leading women’s wellness brand, was covered by YourStory. In this interview, Ravi Ramachandran, Founder and CEO, talks about his personal journey and what led him to start Nua, always focusing on customer needs and rewriting the menstrual wellness narrative.
Ravi Ramachandran (Founder and CEO)
Hippo Video, which empowers businesses to create impactful videos at scale, has launched a new AI agent for hospitality sales. Initial customers reported 60% faster deal closures, 3X higher RFP engagement, 80% reduction in proposal clarifications, and a 1.6X boost in lead volume after implementing the video solution.
Zetwerk, India’s largest on-demand manufacturing network, opened its 7th manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur, Chennai. Boosting local production is increasingly being talked about, and the Zetwerk team has been working tirelessly to accelerate India’s manufacturing capabilities.
Kae Updates
Stories and Events
- Abhishek Srivastava spoke with Business Standard about the tech depth of AI startups in India, specifically Vertical SaaS startups and their potential to truly apply AI to fundamentally alter processes rather than force-fitting it with limited impact.spoke with Business Standard about the tech depth of AI startups in India, specifically Vertical SaaS startups and their potential to truly apply AI to fundamentally alter processes rather than force-fitting it with limited impact.
- Sunitha Viswanathan spoke at the World Fintech Summit 2025 about AI in financial services and the road ahead for founders building in the space.
- Natasha Malpani Oswal contributed to The Next 100 report by Antler, which consists of ideas from various experts in the startup ecosystem about themes that will become popular in AI. She shared her inputs on Consumer AI’s potential to grow across different fields.