INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
the health of India's start-up ecosystem
In its report released in Bengaluru on Thursday, it declared that the industry, the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world, was doing
well.Investments are up to more than $4 billion this year - more than double the $2-billion investments last year
with investment of more than $1 billion - in any calendar year - was seen, with eight new unicorns.Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh told
TheIndianSubcontinent, "The trends we are seeing are absolutely in the right direction
It is a roughly 7,200 to 7,700 strong ecosystem
Indian has a total of 18 unicorns of which eight were last year alone
More interestingly, the time to unicorn has done down to about five to six years for India
And we are pretty much catching up with China where it is four to five years
What it is telling you is that there is market, the right kind of funding coming in - and of course the right kind of entrepreneurs with the
right kind of products."But the continuing fall in seed funding of brand new start-ups continues to be a concern with investors preferring
to put their money into tried and tested businesses
Nasscom hopes the government and industry will help.Ms Ghosh said, "Seed funding has continued to fall
Not a surprise given the way the ecosystem is maturing
It is quite normal for investor mindset to move towards the more mature companies
Usually in these scenarios the government steps in - with not just funds but a more structured approach to ensure that the seed stage is
We have to have enough room for failure
We have to create an environment where people can come in, experiment, fail, come up with the next idea.""The biggest thing government can
That is my biggest ask to government - more than funding, more than giving them space."The percentage of women founders of start-ups rose
slightly from 11 per cent to 14 per cent - and while this was in the right direction, Ms Ghosh said it was not much to celebrate
The movement is in the right direction
Can it move faster Absolutely
And I think that is what the focus is on
We are also seeing that women start-ups are no longer limited to 'woman areas' and I have no idea what that means! People used to think
women would only be in retail or cosmetics or whatever nonsense
We are seeing some absolutely brilliant women in deep tech."While Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai remained the biggest start-up areas, 40
per cent of start-ups emerged from smaller towns like Indore, Jaipur, Pune and Kochi
IT city Bengaluru is among the top three cities globally for the launch of tech start-ups.
