India startup funding: Bengaluru swaps numero uno position with Delhi-NCR in terms of funding raised over Jan-Sep 2018

Delhi-NCR topped the charts with $3.73 billion raised in startup funding versus Bengaluru’s $3.13 billion raised over January to September 2018. However, Bengaluru bagged the highest number of deals (208) while Delhi could only manage 173.

Delhi-NCR’s numbers were propped up by a host of late-stage deals, including Zomato’s $200 million, PolicyBazaar’s $238 million, Paytm’s $300 million funding round, Paytm Mall’s $450 million and OYO’s $1 billion fund raise.

Bengaluru, on the other hand, didn’t have any billion-dollar funding rounds. Its top deals included Swiggy ($310 million over two rounds), BigBasket ($300 million) and Udaan ($275 million). During the same period last year, India’s startup capital had raced ahead thanks to large funding rounds raised by Flipkart ($3.97 billion) and Ola ($520 million).

[Read our full coverage of the funding raised by startups over January to September 2018.]

Mumbai stayed steady in the third spot this time too, raising $842 million across 129 deals vs $772 million across 126 deals in 2017. There were over 21 deals where the funding remained undisclosed. 

Series D rounds by Nykaa ($25 million) and Raw Pressery ($10 million), also a Series D round, were the stand-outs in Mumbai as of September this year.

Chennai edged up to the number 4 spot this time, clocking $453 million across 32 deals. What worked in Chennai’s favour was Freshworks’ $100 million fund raise, as well as the $35 million each raised by NetMeds and enterprise software player FourKites.

Hyderabad slipped a notch with $373 million in funding across 25 deals. The biggest was financial services Spandana Spoorthy raising $63 million and AI startup ThinIC raising $65 million in Series C funding.

Beyond the major hubs, Ahmedabad stayed in the running with 11 deals raising over $110 million in funding (vs 10 deals raising $185 million in the 9 months ended September 2017). The biggest deals here were fintech major LendingKart with $87 million in a Series C round and wellness startup IbaHalalCare with $2 million in a Series A round.

[Also read: Fintech, Foodtech find favour in startup funding over January to September 2018]

Jaipur too did better with 11 deals raising close to $90 million (vs. just $810,000 across 7 deals in the year-ago period). Notable rounds included SaaS startup Login Radius with $17 million (Series A) and healthcare startup Lifcare ($11 million, Series B). The number for Jaipur was boosted by the $32 million PE found for EssKay Fin Corp and a $20 million Series B round for the US and Jaipur-based Punchh.

[Also read: Bhopal - in the very heart of India, a quiet startup revolution is taking root]

While state governments continue to try and encourage startups through their policies and allied benefits, the real impact of these policies will probably be visible only in the next 12-18 months. In the meantime, the money continues to go where the talent is. The first 9 months of this year saw funding of $500,000 or more go to cities like Rourkela, Udaipur, Vadodara, Chandigarh, Kanpur, Goa, Bhubaneshwar, Patna, Guwahati, and Indore. 

Several state governments have launched startup policies this year and earmarked hundreds, if not thousands of crores to develop the startup ecosystem.