India startup funding hits $11B in 2025 as investors grow more selective | TechCrunch

"India's startup ecosystem raised nearly $11 billion in 2025, but investors wrote far fewer checks and grew more selective about where they took risk, underscoring how the world's third most-funded startup market is diverging from the AI-fueled capital concentration seen in the U.S. The selective approach was most evident in deal-making. The number of startup funding rounds fell by nearly 39% from a year earlier, to 1,518 deals, according to Tracxn. Total funding slipped more modestly - down just over 17% to $10.5 billion."

"That pullback was not uniform. Seed-stage funding fell sharply to $1.1 billion in 2025, down 30% from 2024, as investors cut back on more experimental bets. Late-stage funding also cooled, slipping to $5.5 billion, a 26% decline from last year, amid tougher scrutiny of scale, profitability, and exit prospects. However, early-stage funding proved more resilient, rising to $3.9 billion, up 7% year-over-year."

India's startup ecosystem raised about $10.5–11 billion in 2025 while the number of funding rounds fell nearly 39% to 1,518 deals. Seed-stage funding declined sharply to $1.1 billion (down 30%), late-stage funding slipped to $5.5 billion (down 26%), and early-stage funding rose to $3.9 billion (up 7%). Investors became more selective, favoring founders with stronger product-market fit, revenue visibility and unit economics, and concentrating capital toward early-stage startups. AI startups raised roughly $643 million across 100 deals, mostly at early and early-growth stages, emphasizing application-led businesses rather than capital-intensive model development. US AI funding surged past $121 billion in contrast.

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