Startups in India raised a total of $6.9 billion across 1,013 venture capital (VC) funding deals announced during January-November 2023. This is a 65.8% drop in terms of value compared to the $20.2 billion worth of VC funding raised during the same period in the previous year, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals VC funding deal volume registered a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 38.4% compared to the announcement of 1,644 VC deals during January-November 2023.
Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “VC funding activity declined both in terms of volume and value, but the more prominent decline in terms of value suggest the prevailing harsh funding winter. The havoc funding winter has created in India in 2023 is also evident from the fact that the total VC funding value is yet to touch the $10 billion mark.”
It is noteworthy that it took only four months for India to surpass the $10 billion mark in total VC funding value during 2022.
Bose adds: “Nevertheless, startups are aware that VC firms continue to see India as an attractive market and they will not mind in placing bets in promising companies. India, apart from being a key APAC market for VC funding activity standing just next to China in terms of both deal volume and value, is also among the top five markets globally. Against this backdrop, startups have started undertaking restructuring exercises focusing on sustainable growth and profitability to navigate through this funding drought and gain investor confidence.”
India accounted for 5.5% of the total number of VC funding deals announced globally during January-November 2023 while its share of the corresponding disclosed deal value stood at 3.1%.
Some of the notable VC funding deals announced in India during January-November 2023 include $250 million fundraising by PhysicsWallah, $229 million worth of funding raised by Perfios Software Solutions, $200 million fundraising by PhonePe, $200 million worth of funding raised by Zepto, and $120 million worth funding raised by Zetwerk.
