Indian startups raised about $14.5 Bn equity funding in 2019

After the US and China, India has emerged as one of the biggest startup ecosystems in the world in recent years.

In 2019 alone, close to two thousand startups were incorporated in India, out of which about 50% got funded, said Tracxn's yearly report India Tech 2019.

The annual report gave an overall picture of how startups fared in 2019.

According to the Tracxn fact sheet, close to 1,894 startups were founded whereas 887 were funded this year. Among the top equity rounds of the year include OYO Rooms ($1.5Bn - Series F), Paytm ($1 Bn - Series G) and Udaan ($585Mn - Series D).

The hotel brands OYO, Treebo Hotels and FabHotels raised the most amount at $1.69 billion. E-commerce logistics firms such as  Delhivery, Ecom Express, Elastic Run, emerged as the second most popular business model raising $641 million this year.

Sequoia Capital emerged as the top venture capitalist (VC) with about 60 investments across stages in 2019. Accel and Tiger Global followed with about 40 and 20 investments respectively this year.

Steadview Capital and General Atlantic were top PEs in 2019.

The decade saw an impressive 25X growth from a tiny $550 Mn in 2010 to $14 Bn in 2019 in terms of the total funding raised by Indian startups.

In the last three years, Delhi-NCR led the market share with 33% (2562) in the number of startups founded in the city. Bengaluru and Mumbai followed Delhi-NCR with 21% and 13% market share respectively.

Bengaluru-based startups raised most of the equity funding- about 47% ($16799 Mn in last three years). Delhi-NCR and Mumbai followed with 35% and 11% respectively in the same period.

IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur figured among the top three colleges that dominate the startup ecosystem due to their strong culture of entrepreneurship. IIT Delhi based startups raised most equity funding (27%) and funding rounds (277) in three years.

The report further listed the number of startups entering the unicorn club. In the last ten years, India witnessed the most number of startups. In 2019, nine startups entered the unicorn club. Delhi-NCR has about the most number of unicorns- eleven, in India.

And there are about 60 soonicorns which hold the potential to become a unicorn in the near future.