Total funding for Indian startups increased threefold over last year, reaching $39 billion by 2021. While the total number of startups founded during the period was 3,476, approximately 1,700 companies saw 2,055 funding rounds, according to the most recent data from Tracxn, a company that tracks startups and private companies.
This year, 40 of India’s 76 unicorns (each worth more than $1 billion) joined the club. In 2021, approximately 40% (85) of the total number of’soonicorns’ (companies with the potential to become unicorns in the near future) were created.
Companies such as Flipkart ($3.6 billion), Swiggy ($1.3 billion), Paytm ($1.1 billion), Eruditus ($650 million), and Pine Labs ($600 million) participated in the rounds. Social platforms ($1.4 billion) and K-12 edtech ($1.1 billion) ranked first and second, respectively, among the top 15 business models that attracted the most capital from investors.
Sportstech, healthcare IT, and social commerce trailed in terms of funding, each receiving $0.5 billion. In 2021, the top three venture capital firms are Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, and Accel, while the top three private equity firms are Temasek, Westbridge, and Lightrock.
“Ten years ago, we had less than a billion dollars of funding going into startups every year. This year, we will have over $30 billion. And I credit a large part of it to the extraordinary focus that our honourable PM and the government have had on startups. The real startup India movement started accelerating in 2015,” Rajan Anandan, MD at Sequoia India, said earlier.