With more than 7,000 start-ups, Delhi-NCR emerges as India's unicorn hub

NCR's start-up ecosystem has incredible momentum, says TiE Delhi-NCR and consulting firm Zinnov

TiE Delhi-NCR and consulting firm Zinnov on Tuesday released a report, ‘Turbocharging Delhi-NCR Start-up Ecosystem’.

Rajan Anandan, president of TiE Delhi-NCR, said, “NCR’s start-up ecosystem has incredible momentum. Despite the progress so far, we believe we are still in Day One. With concerted focus on the most important areas, the NCR has the potential to become a Top 5 Global hubs for start-ups, lead innovation across many sectors, create many more start-ups and have at least 30 unicorns in NCR by 2025.”
 

KEY FINDINGS
 

• Delhi-NCR has over 7,000 start-ups, 10 Unicorns and a cumulative valuation of $50 billion
• With appropriate interventions, Delhi-NCR will become one of the Top 5 Global Start-up hubs with 12,000 start-ups, 30 unicorns and cumulative valuation of about $150 billion by 2025
•  Delhi-NCR has the highest number of active start-ups in India
•  Has added at least one unicorn a year since 2013
•  Delhi-NCR ecosystem has the highest cumulative private market valuation in India, at $46-56 bn. Bengaluru has $32-37 bn, Mumbai has $10-12 bn
•  Three of the four most valuable Internet companies also based here - Info Edge (Naukri.com), Makemytrip, Justdial
•  Delhi-NCR has 22% of the country’s active angel investors, but base needs to increase

RECOMMENDATIONS TO STRENGTHEN START-UP ECOSYSTEM IN DELHI-NCR
 
Strengthen core

• Build world-class affordable start-up hubs
• Significantly increase the seed & early stage investment
• Improve quality of incubators and accelerators
• Develop tech and entrepreneurial talent

 
Prioritise 10 sectors: Consumer tech and products, logistics, next generation e-commerce, travel and hospitality, education, food and food tech, financial services, mobility and electric vehicles, smart cities, agriculture
 
Launch sector-specific initiatives