Bengaluru, NCR and Mumbai accounted for nearly 82% of total Indian startups as of December 2022. Image for representation purpose only.
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Funding for Indian startups dropped by 33% to $24 billion in 2022 as compared to the previous year though it was nearly double the amount recorded in 2019 or 2020, said a PwC India report on January 11.
Global investors were still positive about the Indian startup ecosystem despite the global slowdown, as per the report titled ‘Startup Tracker-CY 22’.
“Funding for Indian startups in CY22 was nearly $24 billion, a drop of 33% in comparison to CY21 but was still more than twice the funds raised in CY20 and CY19 each”, it said.
The startups received total funding of $13.2 billion in 2019, $10.9 billion in 2020 and $35.2 billion in 2021.
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Despite the funding slowdown, Amit Nawka, Partner – Deals & India Startups Leader, PwC India, said, “Some areas like SaaS [Software as a service] and early-stage funding have remained upbeat. With significant dry powder waiting to be invested, it seems likely that the funding scenario will begin to normalise after 2-3 quarters.”
Meanwhile, he added, many startups were using the current situation to tighten operating models and optimise cash runway by deferring discretionary spends and investments.
The report said the early-stage deals accounted for 60–62% of the total funding in 2021 and 2022 in volume terms and average ticket size per deal was $4 million per deal.
In value terms, it added, early-stage deals contributed to approximately 12% of the total funding in 2022 compared to nearly 7% in 2021. Growth and late-stage funding deals accounted for 88% of the funding activity in 2022 in value terms, representing 38% of the total count of deals.
According to the report, average ticket size in growth-stage deals was $43 million and late-stage deal was $94 million during 2022.
As regards the city-wise startup funding, the report said, Bengaluru, NCR and Mumbai accounted for nearly 82% of total Indian startups as of December 2022. As many as 28% of startups in the top three cities have raised in excess of $20 million.
Bengaluru witnessed the highest number of unicorns, followed by NCR and Mumbai. Similar trends have been noted for other companies that have raised more than $50–100 million, the report said.
