India’s startup ecosystem continues to be a key and attractive investment destination for venture capital (VC) firms with the country’s deal activity standing just next to China in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) during Q1-Q3 2021. During the period, several startups have entered the unicorn club. A total of 1,179 VC funding deals were announced in India while the disclosed funding value of these deals stood at US$23.4bn, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that September witnessed a marginal decline in VC funding value after a growth of two consecutive months. However, deal activity in volume terms, which witnessed decline in August, rebounded strongly in September.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Innovative startups active in areas gaining relevance during COVID-19 are increasingly on the radar of VC investors and there cannot be a better testimony to this that several Indian startups (Meesho and BharatPe to name a few) have joined the unicorn club in 2021.”

Some of the notable VC funding deals announced during Q1-Q3 2021 in India include US$3.6bn funding raised by Flipkart Internet, US$870m funding raised by Meesho in two funding rounds, US$850m raised by Byju’s in three funding rounds and US$750m funding raised by Zomato in two funding rounds.

Mr Bose concludes: “Internet-driven themes such as e-commerce, fintech, social media and social networking, food delivery, digital payments and edtech are witnessing strong growth during the pandemic. GlobalData expects the strong unicorn momentum to continue into next year.