The start-up ecosystem, fundraising and investments in India

Abstract

With 10 000 startups, India represents the third startup ecosystem of the world. Known as an IT hub since the beginning of the years 2000, India is now also establishing itself as one of the main actor of the worldwide startup ecosystem. India’s reputation has been growing as many Indian unicorns have emerged during the last five years: Flipkart’s valuation is today US$ 16 billion high, Snapdeal’s US$ 7nb, while Ola reached US$ 5bn this year. Thanks to the the emergence of these unicorns, but also to the Indian market opportunity and the penetration of mobile and IT, a new generation of Entrepreneurs have felt inspired and the number of new startups is booming. At the same time, Indian startups have been increasingly under the light of internal and foreign investors. More than 600 startups have raised funds in 2015 for a total amount of US$ 6.7Bn.Thus, the growth of this ecosystem has been supported by increasing investments in this market, both leading to the emergence of a real startup spirit in India. This trend could not have been avoided by the government, and especially by Prime Minister Modi, who is currently launching a set of measures to ease the creation of startups in India and in this manner supporting the new startup economy which allows India to shine worldwide.