Daily Indian Funding Roundup & Key News - 22 September 2026: Definedge Raises ₹22 Crore, Spinny Confidentially Pre-Files IPO, Snapdeal Parent AceVector Sets ₹420 Crore IPO Price Band

Four funding rounds closed on 22 September 2026, spanning wealth-tech and brokerage, AI product co-creation, clean-label protein food, and comfort footwear. Sharrp Ventures and Lumikai were among the day's lead investors. The headline raise is Definedge's INR 22 crore pre-Series A round to scale its trading and wealth-tech platforms.

Away from funding, Spinny confidentially pre-filed its IPO papers with SEBI, Snapdeal parent AceVector set a price band for its INR 420 crore IPO, PhonePe entered the UAE market with in-principle regulatory approval, and Lavni Ventures closed its second deep-tech impact fund at INR 200 crore.

Daily Indian Startup Funding Roundup - 22 September 2026

Definedge Raises INR 22 Crore Pre-Series A Funding

Definedge raised INR 22 crore in a pre-Series A round, taking its total funding to INR 30 crore. The round saw continued participation from existing backers Nitin Agarwal and D. Prasad, alongside new investors Anant Jain and Sachin Kasera. The funds will go towards infrastructure and low-latency execution, scaling its Zone and Opstra trading products, expanding Algostra into a no-code retail algo-trading platform, and advancing Momentify into a wealth creation platform.

Co-founded in 2021 by Prashant Shah and Rajesh Badiye, Pune-based Definedge operates a full-stack wealth-tech ecosystem of more than 14 platforms, including Opstra, Zone, Algostra, Momentify and Gurukul, offering trading, investing, research and learning tools for retail traders. The company is targeting INR 5,000 crore in AUM through Momentify over the next 24 months, up from the INR 1,000 crore it has already crossed, and says its user base has grown 10X over the last 36 months.

Protein Pantry Raises INR 9 Crore Seed Funding

Protein Pantry raised INR 9 crore in a seed round led by Sharrp Ventures, with participation from Peercheque, Consumer Collective by Atrium, Indian Silicon Valley Capital and angels including Mamaearth co-founder Varun Alagh and Saurabh Munjal. The fresh capital will primarily go towards setting up and scaling a manufacturing unit, along with continued investment in R&D and supply chain.

Co-founded in November last year by Disha Bhattacharya and Prashanth Bhushan, Delhi-based Protein Pantry is a clean-label frozen food brand building high-protein, ready-to-cook products made without refined flour, preservatives or palm oil. The brand has served more than 30,000 households through D2C and quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit and Flipkart Minutes, and plans to expand into six more cities on quick commerce by the end of the year.

Demoverse Raises $600K Pre-Seed Funding

Demoverse raised $600,000 in a pre-seed round led by gaming and interactive media-focused VC firm Lumikai, which invested $500,000 as part of its Pixels programme, with participation from UAE-based deep-tech investor Marlan and a group of angels. The funds will build out its design community, strengthen its consumer application, and support expansion into the US market.

Founded earlier this year by Akshay Mehta, Bengaluru-based Demoverse is building an AI-powered platform that lets brands involve consumers directly in product design and co-creation, rather than using them only for feedback after a product is built. The startup currently operates on a B2B2C model and has run around seven closed trials with brands including beauty e-commerce platform Purplle.

Nuvah Raises INR 4 Crore Pre-Seed Angel Round

Nuvah raised INR 4 crore in a pre-seed angel round backed by CarDekho co-founder Amit Jain, Bombay Shaving Company founder Shantanu Deshpande and GIVA founder Ishendra Agarwal. The funds will go into research and development, its proprietary footbed technology, and testing customer acquisition channels.

Founded by Avni Jain in October 2025, Nuvah is a comfort-engineered heels brand that sells pan-India through its own D2C channel, with products starting at INR 4,000. The company says its SteadyForm footbed went through 24 prototypes and more than 900 hours of wear testing before launch, and it plans a festive collection for Navratri.

Key Business News for 22 September 2026

Spinny Confidentially Pre-Files IPO, Appoints New Independent Directors

Used-car retailing platform Spinny has confidentially pre-filed its draft IPO papers with SEBI, looking to raise around INR 2,500 to 3,000 crore through a mix of fresh issue and offer for sale. The company is targeting a 2027 public market debut and is working with Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup on the proposed listing.

Alongside the filing, Spinny has appointed former Bharti Group CFO Akhil Gupta and Info Edge board member Geeta Mathur as independent directors. Founded in 2015, Spinny operates a full-stack used-car business spanning buying, selling, financing and insurance, and its FY26 revenue is expected to have touched around INR 6,000 crore, having raised roughly $780 million to date from investors including Tiger Global and Accel.

Snapdeal Parent AceVector Sets INR 420 Crore IPO Price Band

Snapdeal parent AceVector set a price band of INR 30 to INR 32 per share for its IPO, valuing the company at up to INR 1,741 crore at the upper end. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of shares worth INR 287 crore and an offer for sale of up to 4.16 crore shares, and will open for public subscription on 25 September, with listing expected on 5 October.

The issue marks AceVector's second attempt to list after it shelved a INR 1,250 crore IPO plan in 2022 amid market volatility, and follows a pre-IPO placement that let it trim the fresh issue by INR 13 crore. SoftBank's Starfish I Pte Ltd, AceVector's largest shareholder, will sell up to 2.76 crore shares through the OFS, which could fetch it up to INR 88.3 crore at the top of the price band.

PhonePe Enters UAE, Secures In-Principle Approval From Central Bank

PhonePe secured in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the UAE for two licences, Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes, and Stored Value Facilities, marking its entry into the UAE market. The approval follows the completion of initial regulatory due diligence and will let PhonePe work towards final approval to begin operations.

The company plans to collaborate with regional banks and licensed payment providers, and explore support for the UAE's domestic payment rails Aani and Jaywan, once it receives final regulatory clearance. PhonePe already enables Indian travellers in the UAE to pay via local QR codes through a partnership with NPCI International Payments, and says it has over 72 crore life-till-date registered users in India.

Lavni Ventures Closes Fund II At INR 200 Crore For Deep-Tech Impact Bets

Early-stage VC firm Lavni Ventures closed its second deep-tech impact fund at its INR 200 crore target in committed capital, a year after its first close in August 2025, with a green-shoe option of INR 100 crore. Fund II backs foundational technologies in health and climate, deploying INR 2 to 6 crore per seed opportunity and INR 8 to 15 crore in follow-ons.

Founded in 2020, Lavni Ventures has already made three investments through Fund II: sanitary-waste recycler Padcare Labs, remote cardiac monitoring startup Monitra Healthcare, and at-home diagnostics company Vidcare. The firm's Fund II is a scheme of Lavni Ventures Trust, a SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund.