Startups get $7 bn from PEs, VCs in 2018; lions share goes to Oyo, swiggy

E-commerce and consumer Internet companies have raised over $7 billion in private equity and venture capital funds in 2018, says a report.

Of the total investment, startups such as Oyo, Swiggy, Byjus, Paytm Mall, Pine Labs, Zomato, Udaan, Policybazaar and Curefit collectively raised the lions share of $4.6 billion in 2018, says an EY report.

The report covers sectors such as travel and hospitality, edutech, payments and wallets, fintech and healthtech, among others, as part of the e-commerce and consumer internet segment.

A few large deals included Walmarts acquisition of Flipkart for $16 billion, Alibabas investment in Bigbasket and Paytm, Tencents investment in Dream11, and Naspers investment in Byjus and Swiggy.

"This massive opportunity has been unlocked by the increasing number of digital transactions, digital literacy and the rise of rural e-commerce, growing use of vernacular content, adoption of the omni-channel strategy, low mobile data tariffs coupled with data-driven personalization," says the report.

The stimulus provided by Digital India, Start Up India and Make in India also helped, it added and expects the trends in terms of consolidation will continue in 2019 as well.

"Companies will need to consolidate to add more services and segments to expand the level of engagement with customers and leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things, among others, to service the market better," it said.