Indian tech start-ups raised $7.2 billion in Q1 CY2022

The quarter saw 15 new unicorns in the Indian tech start-up ecosystem

Bengaluru

Indian tech start-ups remain attractive and raised $7.2 billion in the January-March quarter of calendar 2022, as per a Tech Startup Investment Factbook analysis prepared by Nasscom in association with PGA Labs.

The number of deals closed in Q1 CY22 increased by 34% when compared to Q4 CY21, however, the percentage of funding in large funding rounds reduced from 68% to 58% in Q1 CY22. Some 81% of the funding activity was driven by early-stage and growth-stage deals said the study released on Friday.

According to the factbook, Enterprise Tech and FinTech were the top sectors in Q1 CY22 and large ticket deals helped these sectors account for 41% of total funding. More than half, some 52%, of funding activity was driven by growth-stage companies. Some 58% of funding by deal size was in the ticket size of $100 million or above.

The first quarter also saw the emergence of 15 new unicorns in the Indian tech start-up ecosystem, and seven of these firms were from Enterprise tech, fintech, SCM and logistics spaces. Mamaearth, a beauty and personal care brand, was the first to turn unicorn in 2022 with $52 million funding led by Sequoia Capital, said the Nasscom study.

RetailTech continued to see good momentum with 8% of the total Q1 CY22 funding. E-commerce raised $588 million of the total funding. Dealshare and Udaan raised over $200 million each in Q1 CY22.

The report is a quarterly update on tech start-ups with a deep focus on five verticals: fintech, edtech, retailtech, health-tech, and enterprise-tech.