India’s Growth Stage Startup Ecosystem Centred Around Fintech, Ecommerce And Enterprise Tech Amid Rising Investments

As the name suggests the growth stage (series A and B) in a startup business cycle is the stage where the company scales its operations aggressively at the cost of capital, commonly referred to as blitzscaling. The importance of a healthy, capital-abundant growth stage ecosystem in a startup economy can be ascertained from the fact that a long runway at growth stage paves the way for a startup to become a unicorn.

Between 2014 and 2018, a total of 753 unique startups were funded at the growth stage. The combined value creation by these startups in the context of capital raised was $10.25 Bn across 1,072 investment deals. A common trait in the startups in the Indian unicorn club right now is that they had access to funds at the right time, which helped them scale and capture a substantial market share.

Some of the current Indian unicorns which were funded at growth stage include BYJU’s (approximately $100 Mn raised in growth stage), OYO ($125 Mn), Swiggy ($18.5 Mn) and others.

In our latest report titled “The Indian Growth Stage Startup Trends Report 2019” we have collated insights on the overall state of Indian growth stage ecosystem along with an emphasis on the trends evident from the investment activity. Here is a summary of the insights derived after a comprehensive study by DataLabs by Inc42 on the growth stage startup ecosystem of India.

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H1 2019 Records Historical Peak in Growth Stage Funding

In H1 2019 a total of $2 Bn was invested into Indian startups at growth stage across 127 funding deals. The total value of funding in the growth stage made 34% of the total recorded funding amount in H1 2019 whereas in the context of deal count the contribution was 35%. In both cases, the contribution by growth stage was the second-highest.

On a macro level, the growth rate of growth stage funding amount is 32% (2014-2018) whereas, for the deal count, the growth rate is 24%.

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Fintech: The Most Funded Sector At Growth Stage

The fintech sector with a total capital inflow of $1.86 Bn across 158 funding deals from 2014-2018, emerged as the startup sector with the most investments, followed by ecommerce ($1.84 Bn) and enterprise tech ($1.44 Bn). These top three sectors accounted for almost 50% of the total $10.25 Bn poured into Indian startups at growth stage during that time.

Although fintech emerged as the sector with the highest funding amount, it wasn’t the top sector in terms of the growth rate of funding amount or the deal count. A sector-wise look at Indian growth stage startups is part of the latest growth stage ecosystem report, but it also includes some insights on Indian startups as compared to their global counterparts, especially with regard to funding at the growth stage.

As the two prime indicators of the state of a startup ecosystem — funding amount and deal count — have recorded a positive growth rate (32% and 24% respectively), one could say that the future looks bright for Indian startups looking to raise funds at the growth stage.

However, when compared to the growth stage ecosystem of the United States and China, the Indian growth stage story is tame. For instance, the total number of funding deals recorded in the growth stage between 2014 to 2018 for India (1,072) was 38% of the total growth stage deals recorded in China (2,782) during the same period. Compared to the United States, where there were over 15K growth stage deals recorded, the Indian ecosystem reaches just 7% of the tally.

Given that both China and the US are considered as the leading startup ecosystems in the world, India should not be too worried about the state of the growth stage startups in the domestic context. But the global view definitely shows what needs to be done to get startups on the same global scale as the US and China. It also indicates the areas in which there is room for development in the Indian growth stage startup ecosystem.

Identifying the gaps in the ecosystem is crucial to help it grow in a sustainable and holistic manner. Such insights and the data behind them are part of the “The Indian Growth Stage Startup Trends Report 2019”, which is now available for download.

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