$38.3B funding, 54 unicorns: The stellar FY 2022

Hello Readers,

FY 2022, the fiscal gone by, was a turning point for the Indian startup ecosystem in terms of funding momentum and investor interest. The fiscal saw a record 54 startups enter the coveted unicorn club — signifying a huge funding momentum despite the challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to data collated by YourStory Research, the year saw 1,633 deals across all stages — which was 16 percent higher than 1,406 deals seen during FY 2021. A majority of these deals — 82.4 percent — were disclosed, which totalled $38.3 billion in funding inflow.

While early-stage startups accounted for the lion share of the number of deals (1,210), late-stage startups attracted the most funding value — around 60 percent of the total disclosed funding. Meanwhile, growth-stage startups saw a major decline in terms of the volume (13.9 percent) and value (23.3 percent) of deals.

The top five sectors include fintech and financial services, edtech, direct-to-consumer brands, foodtech, and logistics and supply chain. They saw a cumulative fundraise of nearly $19 billion across 700 deals – contributing to 49.56 percent of the total value.

Editor’s Pick: Helping MSMEs leverage digital tools

The micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which form the backbone of the Indian economy, face the challenge of finding a single solution for their different needs such as accounting, generating GST reports, and more.

Bengaluru-based Imprezz is trying to solve this problem by providing various services such as generating invoices, accounting solutions, payments, and more. It is a part of the Germany-based Buhl Group. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Making business procurements seamless

Sameen Husain and Abhiroop Srivastava realised that India’s indirect procurement industry was plagued by poor service, lack of technology, transparency, access to sustained demand, and timely capital.

To transform the way businesses procure, the duo launched Gurugram-based Prodo in May 2021 by automating multiple touchpoints in the supply chain journey, from sampling to quality check. Read more.

News & Updates

• SoftBank has reportedly liquidated almost all the positions in the internal hedge fund SB Northstar following losses of between $6 billion and $7 billion from the so-called ‘Nasdaq Whale’ trades.

• Soonicorn Ventures (SV), an invite-only network of private equity investors, conducted its first offline investors' meetup. SV onboarded 300+ investors since its launch, including early-stage venture capital funds, private equity funds, family offices, angel funds, angel networks, etc.

• US-based private network for women in leadership, Chief has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by CapitalG, an independent growth fund of Alphabet, at a valuation of $1.1 billion. With this, the company has entered into the unicorn club.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“If that idea gets you going, go ahead and do it; the worst that can happen is you fail, and it's better to accept failure than to keep wondering ‘What if…’”

— Udita Pal, Co-founder, SALT

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