Indian startups raise $17 bn in Jan-July period this year

Bengaluru, 21 August Indian startups have raised the second highest VC funding in the Asia Pacific region during January-July period of this year despite the COVID pandemic creating disruption in their operating models.

According to GlobalData's Financial Deals Database, a total of 828 VC funding deals were announced during this period, with the total funding value of $16.9 bn.

While China led the pack with the highest funding in the APAC region, Indian startups continue to see growing interest from VC & PE investors.

The most notable VC funding deals during the first seven months of 2021 include $3.6 billion raised by Flipkart, $502million raised by Mohalla Tech (ShareChat), Zomato's capital raising of around $500million, and $460million raised by Think and Learn (Byju's).

Interestingly, India has also added a record number of startups into the unicorn club (with a valuation of over $1 billion) in January-July period. The country has added a total of 25 unicorns -- the highest ever added in a single calendar year, taking the total count to 61 now.

In 2020, India added 12 unicorns and 1,600 tech startups as per the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) estimates.

Rising pace of digitalisation among enterprises amid the pandemic, rising penetration of internet, and adoption of digital platforms have given rise to a host of tech-based startups in India. These startups are also witnessing rising adoption of their offerings with many successful startups going public in the recent months.