India added the second-most number of unicorns after the US this quarter: NASSCOM

India added 13 unicorns in the third quarter (July-Sep) of calendar year 2021, second only to the US that added close to 68 unicorns, a latest report by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Praxis Global said. India has beaten developed economies like China, Hong Kong, the UK and Canada when it comes to quarter-on-quarter unicorn additions. As on September 2021, India had 66 unicorns, including upGrad, Droom, MPL, Blackbuck and others that were added in this quarter. "5 out of 13 Unicorns added in Q3 CY21 are from EdTech and Fintech sector," it said.

The report also added that a total of $6.1 billion was raised by Indian start-ups and large ticket deals helped EdTech and FoodTech companies account for more than 46 per cent of the total funding. These include companies like Unacademy that secured $440 million in late stage funding by investors like Temasek , Tiger Global, SoftBank, and others, and Swiggy which got $1300 million from SoftBank, Accel, Falcon Edge, etc. The study found that there was an increased focus towards late stage startups, accounting for more than 50 per cent of deal value.

However, the number of deals closed in the third quarter decreased by around 24 per cent as compared to 160 deals in the second quarter.

The EdTech sector demonstrated maximum traction and remained a favorite among global investor community this quarter, said the report which analyses the current investment scenario and trends defining the Indian tech start-up ecosystem across key verticals like Fintech, Healthtech, Retailtech, EdTech and Enterprise tech. FoodTech, though, stands high in terms of deal value but due to monopolistic model it lacks far behind in deal volumes, the report found.

When it comes to the investors, some of the most prominent investors were 3One4 Capital, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global which accounted for more than 16 deals across sectors. "FinTech, EdTech, HealthTech and Foodtech are the top three invested sectors. Edtech start-ups valuation rose significantly since pandemic. HealthTech is witnessing a surge as the pandemic pushed up demand for healthcare & life products," the report said.

It also found that there has been a growing investor interest towards DeepTech start-ups or start-ups that have business models focused on innovation, high-tech engineering and/or scientific advancements. DeepTech startups like Miko, Skit, Goodmeetings, and others raised around $ 80 million across 18 deals in Q3 CY21. "15 per cent of deals by volume were catering to start-ups leveraging DeepTech solutions and 15 deals were in early stage in DeepTech startups," the report said.

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