Mumbai: Fundraising by Indians startup Crossed $10 billion in July-September 2021 for the first time in a three-month period as investors – global and local – remained bullish on prospects IndiaInternet economy amid pandemic-induced boom in digitization.

According to a PwC India report titled ‘Startup Perspectives – Q3 CY21’ released on Monday, new-age companies generated a total of $10.9 billion in 347 deals in the third quarter of calendar year 2021. This is double the amount raised in the year-ago period and 41% more than in April-June.

Amit Navka, Partner, Deals and Startups at PwC India said, “Startups have leveraged accelerated digital adoption among businesses and individuals to create new business models and this is driving investor interest in a big way.” We are seeing an increase in average deal sizes and faster funding rounds, which has led to a pick-up in deal activity across sectors since the beginning of this year.

But there were some outliers – such as fintech, edtech and software-as-a-service (SaaS). The three sectors accounted for about 50% of the total funding activity in the three months ended 30 September.

Highlights of the report

1. Fintech all the way: At $4.6 billion, India’s fintech industry saw a nearly four-fold increase in fundraising in the first nine months of 2021 compared to the year-ago period. Thirty-three deals were registered in the third quarter alone. Companies dealing in fintech offshoots-insurtech, wealthtech, neobanking, etc. gained the interest of investors.

According to ETtech, six fintech unicorns have been mined so far this year – Digit Insurance, Five Star Finance, Cred, Grow, Zeta and BharatPe.

• EdTech: The sector has gained significant traction during the pandemic. The user base and engagement metrics have grown manifold – resulting in an increase in the concentration of consolidating companies in the industry as well as raising funds. Edtech Decacorn, Byju’s, is and is the most valuable startup in the country Initial Public Offering (IPO) Weight Sometime next year. its smaller rival UpGrad, Educated And See Achieved unicorn status this year.
• mother-in-law: Indian mother-in-law, the poster child of Freshworks Listed on Nasdaq last month, even as their domestic mates postman, innovator And whatsfix Investors rake in dollars. According to the PwC report, this sector has attracted more investment than any other sector.
• food Tech: Post-pandemic revival in the online food service industry Zomato has been made a listed firm, Withdraw millions for Swiggy, and changed Rebel Foods in a Unicorn. Other cloud kitchens have also seen good business and investor interest.
• E-commerce (B2B): Funding for startups working in B2B ecommerce has increased nearly seven times in 2021, driven by big deals by Udaan, Meesho, Zetwork, Infra.Market and Moglix.
• D2C Retail: Looking at the changing behavior of the buyers, in the last 12-15 months many new players have seen success and get money.

2. Stages of Financing: In value terms, approximately 89% of funding activity so far this year was driven by growth- and late-stage companies, which represent 39% of total deal activity in terms of volume. The pre-IPO fundraising so far is around $880 million.

City wise funding: Bengaluru and Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) remain major startup cities in India, accounting for 76-78% of total funding activity in the first three quarters of both 2020 and 2021, followed by Mumbai and Pune.