H1 2021 funding: $10.1 billion, 543 deals, 15 unicorns

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The funding momentum in the Indian startup ecosystem remains bullish as investments into Indian startups in the first six months of the year (H1 2021) touched $10.1 billion, already exceeding the $9.94 billion raised in the whole of last year.

The H1 2021 startup funding amount of $10.1 billion was raised across 543 deals from around 990 active investors — a 28 percent increase in the number of deals from the comparable period last year.

While June saw the highest number of deals — 121 deals — April stood out as the month that saw the largest funding amount raised at $3.5 billion across 94 deals. 

This comes on the heels of growing investor confidence, an increase in the number of seasoned second-time entrepreneurs, and a surge in new unicorn additions — with the number of unicorns for the year already touching 15, including fintech startup CRED. Meanwhile, edtech major BYJU’S saw its valuation increase to over $16.5 billion to become the most valued startup in the ecosystem.

"These founders are already experienced and know how to scale-up and this is exactly the reason why the ticket-size for early-stage funding is getting larger,” says Anuj Golecha, Co-Founder, Venture Catalysts.

By the end of this year, startups likely to raise anywhere between $12 billion and $17 billion in funding, according to YourStory Research.

The Interview

While ecommerce has been growing at an exponential rate, the pandemic has given a silver lining to the sector and accelerated the pace of growth.

Three seller representatives of the 3,50,000+ community of MSMEs on Flipkart along with Jagjeet Harode, Senior Director and Head - Marketplace, Flipkart give insights into the changing dynamics of the digital commerce landscape and why the pandemic has reinstated the value of online commerce for small and medium retailers across India.

Editor’s Pick: How Winuall is digitising coaching centres

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, India tutoring industry, which caters to 150-200 million students every year, was scouting for ways to go digital almost overnight.

Enter Bengaluru-based Winuall, a SaaS-based plug-and-play solution that enables private tutors and offline coaching centres to go online by letting them create, market, and teach courses by setting up their own brand on the platform. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Making hemp-based products cheap and affordable

While travelling, Vignesh Murthy saw hemp everywhere — on Himalayan roadsides and in the villages of Himachal Pradesh. He started observing how the villagers there used hemp in almost everything they ate, and stayed healthy till their 80s.

In 2016, he established Hemp Wildleaf —  a sustainable, farmer community-focused affordable hemp-based brand. With Wildleaf, Vignesh aims to make hemp-based products cheap and easily affordable. Read more.

News & Updates

• Amazon announced the launch of its Intellectual Property Accelerator (IP Accelerator) programme in India to provide sellers, who are also brand owners, with access to services from IP experts and law firms.

• Electric mobility startup Oye! Rickshaw plans to invest up to $500 million (over Rs 3,700 crore) in the next three years to set up battery swapping infrastructure for electric three-wheelers across India.

• Facebook's market cap crossed $1 trillion for the first time after a US federal court dismissed two antitrust cases against the social networking giant. This makes the social media company the youngest Silicon Valley tech giant to cross the 13-figure valuation.

• Zomato has approached the CCI to acquire a 9.3 percent stake in e-grocery startup Grofers, revealed the order, a copy of which YourStory has seen. 

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Structurally, a lot of money is getting into the stock market, into financial assets, and some of it is also finding its way into private markets.”

— Sajith Pai, Director, Blume Ventures

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