Initial public offerings (IPOs) were a defining theme for the Indian startup ecosystem in 2025, with 18 startups making their public market debuts. Amid this run, private venture capital and angel investor funding in the Indian startup ecosystem remained more or less stable in 2025.
While this figure represents an 8% decline from the $12 Bn raised across 993 deals in 2024, it needs to be viewed alongside the IPO spring. For context, Indian startup funding stood at $10 Bn in 2023 amid the funding winter.
Investors Turn Selective: The overall funding volumes appear muted compared to peak years, as investors have become much more selective and are preferring to wait out cycles before investing.
This shift is being supported by a maturing entrepreneurial ecosystem, rather than cyclical capital flows alone. Plus, the IPO wave has driven more investors to pre-IPO rounds rather than risk-heavy capital for companies without a proven profitability pathway.
Improved digital connectivity, wider distribution of technical talent beyond metros, better institutional education and the rise of structured incubators and research-linked centres across India have expanded the pipeline of investable founders and ideas.
The IPO Factor: With many mature startups now raising capital from the public markets, private funding at the late stage declined 14% YoY to $6 Bn across 122 deals in 2025, compared to $7 Bn across 150 deals last year.
While late stage focussed investors took a back seat this year, early and growth stage investors like Peak XV Partners, Accel, and Kalaari Capital remained active, backing sectors such as AI, deeptech, climate tech, space, defence, biotech and advanced manufacturing.
There’s a lot more in Inc42’s Annual Indian Startup Trends Report, 2025, including our predictions for funding in 2026, the key sectors and the ever-evolving world of AI and its impact on the Indian economy. Get the full report for free here!
Finance teams have to juggle a lot of repetitive, rule-based tasks. Relying on outdated tools only compounds errors due to heavy manual effort and slow turnaround times. Enter Chop Finance, a startup that is building an AI-native automation layer for accounting and finance operations.
AI For Accounting: Founded in 2024, Chop Finance’s platform executes complex, multi-step workflows through natural language instructions, automating tasks that previously required sustained human effort. The startup helps tax professionals, CA firms and enterprise finance teams process structured and unstructured data, flag discrepancies and produce ready-to-file outputs.
Automating Workflows: Unlike traditional accounting software that requires structured inputs, the Guwahati-based startup uses agentic AI to understand context, interpret documents and execute end-to-end workflows autonomously. This allows finance teams to delegate entire processes, from invoice reconciliation to compliance to AI agents that learn, reason and adapt over time.
With the global AI-driven finance and expense automation segment projected to grow to $4.9 Bn by 2030, can Chop Finance become the operating system for modern finance teams?
Funding activity saw a massive decline as Indian startups raised a mere $49.2 Mn last week, down 86% from the $347.7 Mn in the preceding week. Here’s how the numbers stack up…