After a slump in the last quarter of 2015, investments in Indian startups are back with a bang.
After a slump in the last quarter of 2015, investments in Indian startups are back with a bang. However, much of the party is limited to early-stage startups.
Indian startups raised $1.73 billion during January-March 2016, according to a recent report(pdf) by venture capital and startup research platform, Xeler8. VC investments in startups had declined 46% quarter-on-quarter during October-December 2015, the report said.
The largest funding rounds during the first three months of 2016 were by online travel venture Ibibo ($250 million), e-commerce major Snapdeal ($200 million), online grocery retailer Big Basket ($150 million), online automobile classified portal Cartrade.com ($145 million) and online retailer Shopclues ($75 million).
Xeler8 did not have comparative data for any previous quarters.
“On an average, we’ve seen at least four startup fundings per day between January to March 2016,” Xeler8 said in its report.
Compared with just 114 deals during the three months ended December 2015, there were 344 investments during January-March 2016. As many as 388 startups raised funds in the first three months of 2016.
Despite this strong investment environment, there are clear signs of established players finding it hard to raise more money. While there were over 200 early-stage funding rounds, the number of investments fell with each new round.
