In the wake of coronavirus pandemic, Indian startups had to go through one of the most challenging times in recent memory. However, despite all the gloom and doom and overarching shadow of the pandemic, the Indian startup industry managed to show some resilience. In a way 2020 was like a litmus test with an unprecedented global pandemic putting the startup industry into a tailspin – testing their patience and inner strength like never before.
But as special annual startup factsheets prepared by market intelligence platform Tracxn shows that Indian startups managed to find more than a ray of hope amid the pandemic crisis. Tracxn had also prepared a semi-annual factsheet (January – June 2020).
Below Techpluto has shared the key findings of Tracxn’s annual fact sheets of Indian startups, 2020.
The figures enlisted below gives a fare idea about how Indian startups fared in the pandemic hit era…
Funding Data
The below chart shows current as well as historic data on the funding raised and no. of funding rounds differentiated by stages in the last 10 years.
Top Investors
Among the Indian VC firms, Sequoia Capital emerged as the most active investor, investing big-ticket funding rounds in Unacademy, Zomato, and Bounce. Accel and Infection point ventures were the 2nd and 3rd most active investors of 2020.
City Wise Trends
Bengaluru continued to hold down to the title of India’s numero uno startup hub. According to the Tracxn report, Bengaluru saw the birth of 1514 startups between 2018-20. India’s financial capital Mumbai was in the second spot with 769 startups..
Unicorn Club
12 Indian startups saw their market valuations surpassing $1 Bn and entering the coveted unicorn club. Last year (2019), total 13 startups were crowned as unicorns.
Complete list of 12 Unicorns
- First Cry
- Cars24
- Pine Labs
- Unacademy
- Zenoti
- DailyHunt
- Nxtra Data
- Postman
- Razorpay
- Glance
- Nykaa
- Zerodha
Latest entrants to the Soonicorn club
Startups in the Soonicorn club are those startups that have the potential to become a unicorn. In other words, they are the future unicorns of India.
- LivSpace – Online Interior design service provider
- MedGenome – offers research and clinical genomics solution
- Zolo – offers branded accommodation
- KhataBook
- TurtleMint
- Zivame – online women lingerie marketplace
Biggest acquisitions of 2020
- Byju’s acquires WhiteHat Jr: Byju’s acquisition of online coding platform WhiteHat Jr for a whopping $300 Mn was the biggest acquisition of 2020.
- Netmeds: Online pharmacy market acquired by Reliance retail for $83.1 Mn
- ACL: ACL acquired by Sinch for $70.6 Mn.
- Prepladder: Prepladder acquired by Unacademy for $50 Mn.
- Urban Ladder: Acquired by Reliance Retail for $24.5 Mn