According to data from Tracxn’s India Tech H1 2026 report, seed and early-stage start-ups raised a combined $3.34 billion across 608 funding rounds in the first half of 2026
Indian venture capital firms are writing significantly larger cheques at the seed and early stages, even as the number of start-ups raising capital has fallen sharply, signalling a shift towards backing fewer companies with greater conviction.According to data from Tracxn’s India Tech H1 2026 report, seed and early-stage start-ups raised a combined $3.34 billion across 608 funding rounds in the first half of 2026, compared with $2.96 billion across 1,055 rounds in the year-ago period. The average cheque size across the two stages nearly doubled to around $5.5 million, up from $2.8 million.The trend was led by early-stage funding, which rose to $2.8 billion from $2.2 billion, despite the number of deals declining to 188 from 258. At the seed stage, start-ups raised $541 million, down from $758 million a year ago; however, the number of rounds almost halved to 420 from 797, lifting the average cheque to about $1.3 million, compared with less than $1 million last year.Cheque sizesInvestors say the increase in cheque sizes reflects both the changing profile of founders and the capital requirements of new-age businesses.“I think founders today come better prepared regarding their problem statement and what they are trying to solve for with the capital they are raising,” said Archana Jahagirdar, founder and managing partner at Rukam Capital.She said investors have also become more discerning in matching capital to business models rather than following a one-size-fits-all approach.“Today, it’s a much more sophisticated investor who understands that businesses of different shapes and sizes require a different kind of capital,” Jahagirdar said.She, however, cautioned that raising larger rounds is not always a positive signal.“There’s always a danger of over-capitalisation, and no founder should think that raising a large round is necessarily a vote of confidence, but getting enough runway from the beginning is important,” she said.A Bengaluru-based venture capital investor, who wished to remain anonymous, said the decline in deal activity is being felt more among smaller investors than established venture firms.“Funds of our size or bigger ones are doing more or less the same amount of activity. But angel syndicates are fewer and smaller firms are tighter or doing more shared deals,” the investor said.Series A environmentAs smaller-ticket investments become less frequent, larger institutional seed and early-stage rounds now account for a greater share of the market, pushing up average cheque sizes even as fewer start-ups secure funding.The investor added that founders are increasingly raising more capital at the seed stage to prepare for a more challenging Series A environment.“Median seed deal size has also gone up in response to the toughness of Series A,” the investor said.Published on July 3, 2026
