Tech funding sentiment for homegrown startups remained largely muted through January, as concerns regarding inflation, uncertainties due to geopolitical tensions, and other domestic factors saw funding for tech startups remain mostly flat through last month.
According to data from statistics tracker Tracxn Technologies’ India Tech Monthly Funding Report, January 2023 published on Tuesday, January saw tech startups raise $962 million — up 3% sequentially from $935 million last month.
However, the total number of funding rounds among tech startups during the period dropped 22% sequentially to 84 rounds during January this year — from 108 rounds in December.
Late stage funding rounds, which refer to Series B and beyond among startups, largely drove the slim growth seen in January. According to Tracxn, the latter rose by 16% sequentially to $688 million in January.
However, overall funding sentiment remained largely unchanged over the period, with seed funding rounds down 9% to $56 million and early-stage rounds down 30% to $199 million.
Of course, the later funding rounds always accounted for the lion’s share of the overall investment corps.
According to Tracxn’s 2022 Annual Tech Finance Report, released last month, total tech finance in 2022 declined 34% YoY to $35.6 billion, down from $53.6 billion in 2021.
The decline was primarily due to a 45% year-over-year decline in late-stage startup funding, which fell from $16.1 billion in 2021 to $23.9 billion last year. GoMechanic has played a role in curbing investor confidence in Indian tech startups, along with the sharp decline in Adani Group stock, and may continue to do so in the coming months.
The January period also saw two funding rounds worth over $100 million. Fintech platform PhonePe has raised $350 million in Series D, and online personal loan marketplace KreditBee has also raised $120 million in Series D.
Fintech was one of the largest areas of investment growth in January, with total funding for fintech startups growing sequentially by 144% to $637 million.
Clearly, the major funding rounds in January were all in the fintech sector. But in January, the agtech startup saw a sharp drop in funding. Funding fell 82% sequentially to $56.8 million from $319 million a month ago.
Tracxn also noted that there were no new unicorns or public startup listings for January.
The absence of unicorns at the beginning of the year is in line with industry analysts’ expectations.
On January 17, Neha Singh, CEO of Tracxn, told VCCircle that the number of unicorns in India this year may be lower than in the past due to global uncertainty and concerns.
January was also a period of lean manufacturing for startups in the country.
On January 18, the Mint reported that more than 11 startups had laid off more than 1,400 employees, Mohalla Tech, the parent company of the ShareChat social media platform, was laying off 20% or 600 of its employees, and local delivery service Dunzo was doing the same. led , reducing the labor force by 3%. or 90 employees.
Originally published at https://businessdor.com on February 7, 2023.
No comments:
Post a Comment