Indian startups raised only $752 million in funding in the month of September 2022, down by 83 per cent as compared to the same period last year, amidst a sustained slowdown in the capital markets. The number of funding rounds also went down by 57 per cent compared to a year-ago period. On a month-on-month basis, funding dropped 15 per cent over August 2022, according to data from Tracxn. Abhishek Goyal, Co-Founder, Tracxn, shared, “The Indian startup ecosystem is still experiencing the ongoing funding slowdown and the severe macroeconomic conditions gripping the West. We are seeing large PE and VC funds treading cautiously led by significant changes in the investment environment in recent quarters. We expect this to continue until we see signs of stabilization globally.” India added just two unicorns during the month: Mobilo Diagnostics, a Goa-based PCR testing company, raised $85 million in a Series C round led by Singapore-based Temasek. It was also the highest single-round fundraise by any startup during the month of September. Tata Digital-owned 1Mg also entered the unicorn club, after its parent entity infused $41 million in the online pharmacy, valuing it at $1.25 billion. Besides Mobilo Diagnostics, the other top deals of the month included shared mobility operator Yulu Bikes raising $83 million in a Series B round led by Magna International; API-enabled insurance integration platform Zopper raising $75 million in a Series C round led by Creaegis; e-commerce business enabler DotPe raising $58 million in a Series B round led by Temasek; and D2C beauty brand Sugar Cosmetics raising $50 million in a Series D round led by Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh. Fintech, enterprise tech, and retail continued to be the top three sectors that received the most funding in 2022, Tracxn revealed. While seed and late-stage funding saw a month-on-month decline of 27 per cent and 31 per cent respectively in September, early-stage funding gathered some momentum, increasing by more than 23 per cent compared to August. Early-stage funds Blume Ventures, Beenext, IvyCap Ventures, and Venture Catalysts emerged as the most active investors during the month. Delhi-NCR led funding for the month with $244 million in investments, while Bengaluru followed with $233 million across 25 rounds. Interestingly, September saw 17 acquisitions in the startup space. The notable ones were fintech unicorn Razorpay’s buyout of loyalty management platform PoshVine, and Reliance Retail’s acquisition of internet-first beauty brand Insight Cosmetics. The month also saw two IPOs, including Kore Mobile and DreamFolks, bringing the total to 10 tech IPOs this year, Tracxn added. Also Read: Winter is here: Start-up funding drops by 80% in September quarter as VCs tighten purse stringsAlso Read: Why VCs and PEs think funding winter is good, and will end the “drunken” over-investing