Even as 2022 included what many have called a funding winter for startups, it still ended on an optimistic note as Indian tech companies managed to raise over $25 billion in 12 months. While this was a significant drop from the blockbuster funding of $38 billion in 2021 when the ecosystem broke all records in terms of fundraising and minting unicorns, it’s still more than two times the $11.3 billion funding during 2020. Nothing captured the heady spirit of 2021 like the launch of startup series Shark Tank India in December 2021. With a bunch of mostly startup founders from unicorns and soonicorns, the series made the business of funding took hitherto unknown corners of the country. As for 2022, one feels, has really missed its defining moment. According to data compiled by Fintrackr, 1,327 startups raised $25.2 billion across 1,556 deals. This includes $21 billion from 330 growth stage startups and $4.2 billion from 1012 early stage startups. The funding details of 214 startups, mainly in the early stage, remained undisclosed.
Year-on-Year trend
The overall funding declined by more than 30% in 2022 when compared to 2021. In the past five years, the Indian startup ecosystem has raked in around $100 billion in venture capital funding. The year-on-year chart reflects the volume and value of deals since 2018.
Month-on-month trend
The year 2022 kicked off with startups raising $4.57 billion in the very first month but as months progressed, the pace lowered and the first quarter ended at $12 billion. The second quarter saw a further dip at nearly $8 billion in funding with May being the month with the lowest amount. During the second half of 2022, the monthly average stood at around $1 billion, a steep fall against more than $3 billion per month during the first half. This was the actual period when startups saw fewer big rounds while many deals reportedly got delayed due to the economic downturn.
Top 25 growth stage deals in H1, 2022
To understand the deal flow during the first half or H1 of 2022, Entrackr has prepared a list of the top 25 deals across early and growth stages. During H1, DailyHunt’s parent company VerSe Innovation scooped up a whopping $805 million, which turned out to be the largest round of 2022. Edtech firm Byju’s also announced an $800 million round whereas foodtech major Swiggy raised $700 million to enter the decacorn club in January.
Blockchain startup Polygon and SaaS startup Uniphore also joined the list of startups that raised larger rounds with $450 million and $400 million respectively. Importantly, startups in the top 25 growth stage list raised at least $150 million or more in their funding round.
Top 25 early stage deals in H1, 2022
Cricket NFT platform Rario raised $120 million in one of the largest Series A funding rounds in the Indian startup ecosystem. E-commerce roll up company GOAT Brand Labs, game streaming app Loco, B2B manufacturing Groyyo and B2B digital marketplace Solv also raised over $40 million and became top fundraisers amongst early stage startups.