Indian biotech start-ups attract $2.8 bn in investments in last 5 years

Of the 3,000 entrepreneurs who've started biotech firms in the past 5 years, a third are women

India has over 3,000 entrepreneurs, one third of whom are women, who have started biotechnology firms in the past five years and have raised a combined total of $2.8 billion or Rs 18,700 crore in the same period.

These entrepreneurs have formed 1,022 biotechnology start-ups in the period between 2012 and 2016, with the major hubs for firms being Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, according to a report from the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE).

The numbers are promising for the biotechnology sector in India, which had identified start-ups as a key driver for growth as early as 2012. With over 470 biotech start-ups being formed in the last two years alone, the possibility of reaching a goal of 2,000 biotechnology startups by 2020 seems possible.

ABLE found that of these 1,022 start-ups 57 per cent of them were working in the field of Bio-pharma, 16 per cent in Bio-research services, 10 per cent in Bio-agri and 9 per cent in Bio-industrial sectors. The report also says that most biotech startups in the country have adopted a combination of products and services offerings.

"While bulk of the start-ups have been working with basic biochemical processes, the R&D kind of start-ups are on the rise too. Nearly 16 percent of the start-ups have showed their activity as research and experimental development," the report said.

With the help of government policy at both a centre and state level along with funds for biotech startups, entrepreneurs in India have begun giving the biotech space a harder look. The ABLE report paints a positive picture for biotechnology in India, with cutting edge research and development being driven out of these new companies.