Over 1,300 start ups, 7 unicorns added in 2019

Around 1,300 startups were added to the tech startup ecosystem so far in 2019. India also witnessed emergence of seven unicorns this year.

With the addition of 1,300 ventures, the total number of tech startups in the country has grown to 8,900-9,300. By the emergence of 7 unicorns, India now has a total of 24 unicorns. In terms of startups as well as unicorns, India continued to hold the third position in the globe, according to Nasscom. These startups have created an estimated 60,000 direct jobs and 1.3-1.8 lakh indirect jobs.

Around 450 startups received investments valued $4.4 billion between January-September this year — up 5 per cent year-onyear (YoY). Early stage funding saw 70 per cent spike to $1.6 billion. This year, investments have been flowing largely into B2B space and almost half of the country’s start-ups are offering enterprise focused services, it said.

Over 18 per cent or 1,600 startups are now leveraging deep-tech and this has grown from 8 per cent in 2014 and has seen a 40 per cent CAGR over the past five years, the report said.

According to Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh, the start-up ecosystem is innovating and bringing out solutions for locally relevant issues. “However, to simulate innovation, government and corporates need to focus on increasing their role as prominent stakeholders playing the part of venture capitalists and providing the appropriate market access, funding, and guidance to seed stage start-ups,” she said.

Nasscom aims to accelerate the startup ecosystem in India significantly by 2025. This includes increasing the number of unicorns to 95105 potentially and the cumulative valuation to $350-390 billion.