In 2021, total funding for Indian startups increased thrice over the previous year, reaching $39 billion. According to the most recent data from, a company that tracks startups and private enterprises, while the overall number of startups formed during the time was 3,476, about 1,700 organisations saw 2,055 investment rounds.
Out of 76 unicorns (valued at over $1 billion each)( created in India so far, 40 joined the club this year. Around 40% (85) of the overall number of ‘soonicorns’ (companies with potential to become a unicorn in the near future) were created in 2021.
Indian Startups record $39 Billion Investments in 2021
Some of the largest rounds in Indian Startups, excluding debt funding, were raised by companies such as Flipkart ($3.6 billion), Swiggy ($1.3 billion), Paytm ($1.1 billion), Eruditus ($650 million and Pine Labs ($600 million). Among the top 15 business models that attracted the most capital from investors, social platforms ($1.4 billion), foodtech ($1.3 billion) and K-12 edtech ($1.1 billion) topped the charts.
Sportstech, healthcare IT and social commerce brought up the rear with a funding of $0.5 billion each. Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management and Accel are the top three venture capital companies in 2021, while Temasek, Westbridge and Lightrock stood at the top of the list of private equity firms.
“Ten years ago, we had less than a billion dollars of funding going into startups every year. This year, we will have over $30 billion. And I credit a large part of it to the extraordinary focus that our honourable PM and the government have had on startups. The real startup India movement started accelerating in 2015,” Rajan Anandan, MD at Sequoia India, said earlier.
