INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Indian tech startups have never had it so good.Local tech startups in the nation raised $14.5 billion in 2019, beating their previous best
increase in the number of financing deals they took part in this year
Cumulatively, at $2.6 million, their valuation also increased by 15% from last year.Overall, there were 81 financing deals of size between
$25 million and $100 million, up from 56 last year and 36 the year before, and 27 rounds above $100 million, up from 17 in 2018 and and nine
in 2017, Tracxn told TechCrunch.Also in 2019, 128 startups in India got acquired, four got publicly listed and nine became unicorns
the challenges they are beginning to tackle today, said Dev Khare, a partner at VC fund Lightspeed Venture Partners, in a recent interview
with TechCrunch.In 2014 and 2015, startups were largely focused on building e-commerce solutions and replicating ideas that worked in
But today, they are tackling a wide-range of categories and opportunities and building some solutions that have not been attempted in any
billion, followed by logistics startups such as Elastic Run, Delhivery and Ecom Express that secured $641 million.Also, 176 horizontal
marketplaces, more than 150 education learning apps, over 160 fintech startups, over 120 trucking marketplaces, 82 ride-hailing services, 42
insurance platforms, 33 used car listing providers and 13 startups that are helping businesses and individuals access working capital
secured funding this year
Fintech startups alone raised $3.2 billion this year, more than startups operating in any other category, said Tracxn.Sequoia Capital, with
with nine investments in startups, including ride-hailing service Ola, education app Unacademy and fintech startup BharatPe, led the way
among private equity funds
FMO, Sabre Partners India and CDC Group each invested in three startups.Venture Catalysts, with more than 40 investments, including in
HomeCapital and Blowhorn, was the top accelerator or incubator in India this year
startups also attracted a number of direct investments from top corporates and banks this year
Goldman Sachs, which earlier this month invested in fintech startup ZestMoney, overall made eight investments this year
financing round in local social networking app ShareChat.
