Indian start-up funding dwindles by 33% to reach $24 billion

NEW DELHI: Funding for the Indian start-ups in CY22 was $24 billion, a drop of 33 per cent in comparison to CY21 but was still more than twice the funds raised in CY20 and CY19 each, a report showed on Wednesday.

Early-stage deals accounted for 60-62 per cent of the total funding in CY21 and CY22 (in volume terms). Average ticket size per deal was $4 million per deal, according to the PwC India report.

“With significant dry powder waiting to be invested, it seems likely that the funding scenario will begin to normalise after 2-3 quarters,” said Amit Nawka, Partner-Deals and India Startups Leader, PwC India.

Many start-ups are using this time to tighten operating models and optimise their cash runway by deferring discretionary spends and investments, he added. The software-as-a-service segment witnessed an increase of 20 per cent in funding values during CY22 compared to CY21 and accounted for nearly 25 per cent of all funding activity.

Growth and late-stage funding deals accounted for 88 per cent of the funding activity in CY22 (in value terms). Average ticket size in growth-stage deals was $43 million and late-stage deals was $94 million in CY22.

Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai account for about 82 pc of Indian start-ups.