From Arya.ag To Knight Fintech — Indian Startups Raised $104 Mn This Week

Between December 29 and January 2, only gritech startup Arya.ag and fintech Knight Fintech announced fundraises, cumulatively amounting to $104.2 Mn

This marked a 112% increase from $49.2 Mn raised by seven startups last week

Investors like GEF Capital Partners, Accel, 3one4 Capital, were active investors in the final week of 2025

With the onset of new year and festive celebrations, the funding flow remained flat with merely two startups raising capital between December 29 to January 2. After the new year’s day celebration, agritech startup Arya.ag and fintech Knight Fintech announced their respective funding rounds on January 2.

These were the only two deals announced between Monday and Friday.

Agritech startup Arya.ag raised $80.6 Mn in its Series D funding round in a mix of primary and secondary transactions. Meanwhile, fintech SaaS startup Knight FinTech raised $23.6 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Accel.

Both the funding rounds were on the higher end, amounting a total capital infusion of $104.2 Mn in the startup ecosystem.

While the number of deals may appear muted, it is worth noting that startup funding activity typically tapers off in the final week of the year. For context, during the last week of December 2024, Indian startups raised just $25.9 Mn across six deals, reflecting the seasonal slowdown in capital deployment.

This adds to the total capital raised by Indian startups during 2025, which, according to Inc42’s Annual Indian Startup Trends Report, 2025, stood at over $11 Bn raised by Indian startups across more than 936 deals.

While this marked an 8% decline from the $12 Bn raised across 993 deals in 2024, the numbers need to be read in the context of a strong IPO cycle during the year. For comparison, startup funding had slipped to $10 Bn in 2023 at the height of the funding winter.

Looking ahead to 2026, funding is expected to rebound selectively, favouring high-conviction plays in AI, fintech infrastructure, real-economy and category-defining consumer and B2B startups, with IPOs and secondaries jointly shaping liquidity.