Mumbai Startup Pulse 2013 – Trends and Insights

Third in our Startup Pulse 2013 series, we bring you what the Mumbai entrepreneurs think of the startup ecosystem there.

Composition:

• Consumer Internet startups form 19% of the survey respondents.
• Only 25% of the startups are revenue generating and only 19% are profit making.
• 50% of the startups are leveraging iOS while iOS and Windows are being leveraged by 31% of the startups.
• Only about 13% of the startups are leveraging Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine for their Cloud requirements, which is relatively lower compared to other cities.
• 31% of all startups have headcount growth plans of 6-20 in the coming 6-12 months.

Funding:

• 67% of the startups were bootstrapped and 10% were seed funded.
• 45% of the startups were looking for seed funding and 12% for Series A in the next 6-12 months.
• 52% of the startups were undecided on the preferred exit strategy.
• 69% of the startups had not pitched to an investor till date.

What they felt was missing:

• Ecosystem level – 56% felt that access to mentors was lacking; 44% felt that access to investors and big technology firms for collaboration were lacking.
• Organization Capability level – 75% felt that the biggest help needed was in the fund raising area, followed by 38% who felt that they needed help with marketing.
• Talent level – 44% felt that great designers and 31% felt good sales and business development professionals were in short supply in the local talent market.

Sector insights:

• 66% of Consumer Internet startups had growth plans of 2-10 employees in the next 6-12 months.
• 100% of all B2B Software and Clean Tech startups were bootstrapped by the founders.
• 100% of all Consumer Internet and Lifestyle startups felt that they needed help and guidance in fund raising.
• 19% of all startups felt that Government grants to encourage startups and co-working spaces would benefit the overall ecosystem hugely.