Indian startups have attracted far more venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds than their Southeast Asian peers in the past few years.
Since 2015, Indian tech companies have attracted nearly 70% of all PE and VC funding flowing into the region, beating other startup hubs like Singapore and Indonesia, according to a report by Kroll, a US-based corporate investigations and risk consulting firm.
This huge quantum of funds received by Indian startups was mainly a result of its unicorns (private companies valued at over $1 billion) sealing some mega funding rounds in the last couple of years. For instance, in August 2017, homegrown e-commerce firm Flipkart raised a massive $2.5 billion from Japanese investment giant Softbank to become the world’s third-highest funded startup. This was the biggest-ever funding round by a tech startup in India.
Later in 2017, India’s largest digital payments firm, Paytm, raised $1.4 billion from Softbank and ride-hailing company Ola raised $1.1 billion from Softbank and Tencent.
Besides, some smaller healthcare and fintech startups, too, attracted big money. ”India’s fintech appeal lies in the sheer size of its unbanked population, paired with its reputation as a strong regional technology hub,” Kroll said in the report.