Indian start-ups raised $38.3bn funding in 2018

Indian start-ups are estimated to have raised $38.3 billion in funding in 2018, behind only the US and China, a report by Yostartups said. Flipkart′s $16 billion deal with American retailer Walmart accounted for the biggest piece of the pie, followed by Swiggy raising about $1.3 billion over three deals, and OYO picking up $1 billion in 2018, the report said. Other big funding deals included those by Paytm Mall ($895 million), ReNew Power ($495 million), Byju′s ($422 million) and Zomato ($410 million). Around 1,000 deals were signed by Indian start-ups in 2018 with areas like e-commerce, fintech, sustainability and renewable energy, transportation and logistics, health and wellness, and travel and tourism attracting the highest investments, it added. Jappreet Sethi, CEO, Yostartups, said: “There has been a meteoric rise of start-up funding for Indian start-ups. Asia has emerged as a key contender for start-ups globally, beating the Americas and Europe. In 2018, start-ups in Asia raised $172 billion, compared to $162.9 billion in the Americas and $46.2 billion in Europe.” Globally, about 14,300 funding deals were struck by start-ups in 2018, raising over $400 billion, an increase of more than 23 per cent from the previous year, the report said. It added that over 3,700 seed funding deals (totalling $6.9 billion) were struck, while 7,357 venture funding deals - ranging from series A to Series I - were signed in 2018 to raise $217.9 billion.