NEW DELHI :
Eight startups became unicorns in the first nine months of the previous year, including BigBasket, Delhivery, Ola Electric, US-based SaaS firm Druva Software, US-headquartered Cloud-based software developer Icertis Software, gaming startup Dream11, healthcare startup CitiusTech and logistics startup Rivigo.
According to data by YourStory Research on Indian startup ecosystem and January-September 2019 funding, investors expect India’s next batch of unicorns to emerge from the pool of B2B startups, building global solutions and attracting marquee investors like Tiger Global due to their scalability and market opportunity.
As per YourStory Research, Oyo is the top acquirer by M&A deal size, while Reliance Industries is the top acquirer by M&A deal volume.
The top 10 VCs list contains several familiar names, while Tiger Global, Lightspeed, and IAN made their entry in last year’s period ending September.
The top 10 active VC investors participated in 186 deals out of the total 1,606 deals made in the first nine months of 2019.
The total number of deals for the corresponding period of 2018 was 1,478 and the top 10 investors contributed 147 deals. Tiger Global, Flipkart’s early backer, which had decided to take a step back from making fresh investments for about 2-3 years, has come back with a roar last year.
The top trends during the period were that despite a slowdown in the economy, startups continued to hold their ground in terms of raising funds.
Despite the slowdown, the funding in the startup ecosystem in nine months of 2019 saw a marginal fall of 4 per cent when compared to the corresponding period of 2018.
During this period, funding amounted to $7.67 billion across 603 deals. And, much like last year, the trio of Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Blume Ventures topped the chart of the most active investors in the Indian startup ecosystem.
Bengaluru topped the list of Indian cities attracting startup funding. Delhi-NCR, despite housing the highest number of startups, holds the second spot.
After losing out to Delhi-NCR in the first nine months of 2017, Bengaluru topped the list of Indian cities, attracting highest startup funding for the same period in 2018 and 2019. While the ‘Silicon Valley of India’ secured 190 deals in nine months of 2018, the city saw 204 deals totalling $3.46 billion in the same period of 2019.
Sequoia, Accel and Blume are top three active investors, while eight startups became unicorns in this nine-month period. However, there is no mega funding round yet of over $500 million.
Ola, which raised $514 million in the nine months of 2019, did so through six deals for its Series J round and other rounds, while Delhivery, which raised $528 million in the same period, made it through two deals.
So there was no single mega round of $500 million and above in the nine months ending September 2019, but a few are expected in the fourth quarter.
Twenty-one firms secured more than $100 million in funding in the nine months. It was across 41 deals and contributed more than half (about $4.07 billion) of the total funding raised ($7.6 billion).
Ecommerce and marketplace firms occupy the third spot in terms of amount of funds raised.
Gurugram-based logistics startup Delhivery topped the chart by securing $528 million, closely followed by ride hailing giant Ola, which secured $514 million in the first nine months of 2019.
Other startups that raised $100 million and above were DMI Group, Udaan, Ola Electric, Grofers, FirstCry, BigBasket, BlackBuck, Zomato, Avaada Energy, Northern Arc, CureFit, CarDekho, OYO Rooms, Ninjacart, Meesho, Cred, ShareChat, Rebel Foods and Byju’s.
In terms of the value of funding, transport and logistics startups raised 23.3 per cent of the total funding raised by startups in fist nine months of 2019.
The corresponding figures for 2017 and 2018 were 7.7 percent ($793.8 million) and 7 per cent ($562.6 million), respectively.
Next come fintech and financial services startups, which raised $1.66 billion in the first nine months of 2019, compared to $1.84 billion raised in the corresponding period of 2018, seeing a fall of 9.7 per cent.
