3 Most Active VC Funds In India: Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2017

This article is an extract from Inc42’s recently released Annual Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2017 which provides a meticulously detailed analysis of the funding trends, VC funds analysis, and Merger & Acquisitions (M&As) in the Indian startup ecosystem for the period 2014-2017. To read more articles of this report, click here.

According to Inc42 DataLabs’ annual Indian tech startup funding report 2017, Indian tech startups raised $13.5 Bn in funding across 885 deals in 2017. The investor wise breakdown of deals revealed that 302 VC funds participated in 2017.

As revealed in Inc42’s earlier Indian tech startup funding report, during H1 2017, about 191 VC funds participated in tech startup funding.

Breaking down the data further revealed that, over the years, VC participation in Seed and late stage funding has also increased by a significant percentage.

Most Active VC Funds: Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2017

In this article, we would like to highlight the top VC funds that participated in Indian tech startup funding in 2017, based on the number of publicly disclosed deals they were a part of.

Once again, the top three spots were claimed by the 2016 trio. However, this time, it was in the reverse order.

According to Inc42 DataLabs’ Indian tech startup funding report 2016, Accel partners was the third most active VC fund and the top spot was grabbed by Sequoia Capital.

However, in 2017, Accel Partners took the first spot, registering 25 deals. Blume Ventures maintained its second spot with 20 deals. However, the number of deals was significantly lower as compared to 2016. Sequoia Capital India, on the other hand, took the third spot with 20 deals.

Further, IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital took the fourth and the fifth spots respectively, with no change in their rankings in comparison to 2016.

VC investments in Indian startups have seen a lot of change in the past few years. Over 302 VC firms participated in 650 deals in 2017 alone. After some digging into historical VC investments, we found many interesting facts to highlight:

1. From 70 active VC firms in 2014, this number grew to 230 in 2015 and 253 in 2016. In 2017, this number jumped by 19.3% to 302 active VCs.
2. The number of deals that VCs have participated in, has grown over the years. Starting with a figure of 291 in 2014, the number grew to a staggering figure of 711 in 2015. However, it fell to 634 in 2016. But, it reported a small hike in 2017, with 650 deals. 

3. Over the years, VC participation in seed funding has also increased. While in 2014, 18.5% of the total VCs participated in seed funding, this number reached 38.74% in 2017.

Liked what you read so far? We have a lot more insights and data in our full report which covers the funding trends across Tier I, Tier II, Tier III cities, across 14 industries & sectors segregated by the funding stage with details on average ticket size, investor types and a lot more for the duration of 2014 to 2017.