Investments in Indian tech start-ups touched USD 14 bn in 2019: Report

Investments in Indian tech-enabled start-ups grew 18 per cent to USD 14 billion (about Rs 99,400 crore) in 2019, with Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru accounting for a lion's share of the funds, a report by research and consulting firm HexGn said.

India has performed better both in the number of deals as well as funding in value terms with companies like Oyo, Paytm, Ola Electric, Udaan, Bounce and Delhivery raising large rounds, the report said.

"While the number of startup deals in India fell by only 15 per cent (down 27 per cent globally and in Asia), funding in value terms in startups rose by 18 per cent (compared to a 22 per cent decline globally and 56 per cent fall in Asia)," it added.

Globally, the total funding for technology start-ups is estimated to have dipped by 22 per cent to USD 293 billion from USD 375 billion in 2018, with a 27 per cent drop in deals, the report said.

In Asia, funding dropped by 56 per cent to USD 83 billion in 2019 from USD 158 billion in the previous year.

HexGn analysed over 60,000 deals and 1 million data points for the report.

Delhi-NCR attracted USD 7.4 billion in funding, while Bengaluru-based start-ups received USD 4.4 billion in 2019, it said.

E-commerce has customarily been the sector to attract the most funding in India and in 2019 too, it continued its strong march and attracted USD 2.2 billion in funding, the report added.

Transportation and logistics start-ups attracted funding of over USD 2.4 billion, while fintech companies raised over USD 4.1 billion, given the considerable potential of the sector and thrust towards transparency and digital payments from the Indian government, it noted.