Indian startups raised $ 12.1 billion from venture capitalists and private equity firms in the first six months of this year, surpassing the previous calendar year’s total. financing $ 1 billion, data collected Venture exploration shared with ET showed.
Ongoing inflow of overvalued funds helped catapult record numbers of startups in
a club of private companies valued at $ 1 billion or more.
Venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and industry insiders said that new funds have been lined up to support young and mature startups with the growing adoption of digital technologies in enterprises after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The data showed that there have been more funding rounds in excess of $ 100 million in the past six months, with later-stage startups raking in larger rounds of sensational valuation.
Some of the big fundraising deals between January and June included deals from the leader ed-tech.
- Byju’s ($ 1 billion), food delivery platforms
- Swiggy ($ 800 million) and
- Zomato ($ 576 million), regional language social media app
- ShareChat ($ 502 million) and a fantasy gaming startup
- Dream11 ($ 400 million).
In the first half of this year, 31 such deals were concluded, compared with 19 in the second half of 2020. In the first half of 2020, there were nine deals worth over $ 100 million.
“While global investor interest in the leaders of the Indian consumer technology market is consistently high, we are now seeing several software companies pulling out of India … raising over $ 100 million in growth,” said Sveta Bhatia, Partner at Head of Technology Investment Department. for India at Eight Roads Ventures.
There were 382 in total VC deals valued at $ 12.1 billion in the six months ended June 30.
By comparison, in the full year ended December 31, 2020, there were 764 closed deals valued at $ 11.1 billion.