Indian start-ups raised about $1.2 billion in January amid rough macroeconomic conditions and funding winter, IANS reported.

The growth-stage start-ups reportedly witnessed 22 deals worth $926 million in the first month of 2023 whereas early-stage start-ups received $265 million across 67 deals while 12 start-ups did not disclose transaction details.

It is said that the average deal size for early-stage start-ups was nearly $4 million. PhonePe's $350 million and KreditBee's $120 million funding round accounted for nearly 40 per cent of the overall financing in January. The e-commerce (including D2C start-ups) segment saw more deals and fintech continued to dominate with $587 million in total funding.

Bengaluru was the leading city with 60 deals while Delhi-NCR saw 15 deals, the report mentioned. The Indian start-up ecosystem witnessed 18 mergers and acquisitions across segments in January. In 2022, the funding for the Indian start-ups was nearly $24 billion, a drop of 33 per cent in comparison to the calender year 2021 (CY21) but was still more than twice the funds raised in CY20 and CY19 each, according to a PwC India report. 

Growth and late-stage funding deals accounted for 88 per cent of the funding activity in CY22 (in value terms). The average ticket size in growth-stage deals was $43 million and in the late-stage deals was $94 million during CY22, the PwC India report added.