Year 2019 Remained Action Packed for Startups

Indian start-ups witnessed more investment in 2019 with the amount increasing to Rs 639 crore in the year from Rs 334 crore in 2018, said a report.

This was driven by a 22 per cent increase in the number of deals and a 70 per cent increase in deal size, said the report by InnoVen Capital, a leading venture debt firm.

The report revealed that investors are more open to funding start-ups in the pre-revenue stage, which is reflected in the share of pre-revenue funded start-ups increasing to 17 per cent this year from 12 per cent in 2018.

This trend is driven by concept stage ventures launched by second time entrepreneurs and experienced first-time operators.

The report also revealed that investors continue to show preference to backing more experienced founders, with the proportion of founders with at least five years experience going up from 55 per cent in 2017 to 82 per cent this year.

"Early stage investment activity has been very robust this year, with increased deal flow, bigger transaction sizes and higher valuations," Ashish Sharma, CEO, InnoVen Capital India, said in a statement.

"The competitive intensity in early stage has gone up, with a large set of institutional and angel investors looking to find the right opportunities," Sharma said.

The research revealed that Bengaluru, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai continue to form the core of the start-up eco-system.

The share of Bengaluru (37 per cent) and Mumbai (20 per cent) hovered around 2018 levels while NCR saw a significant rise, increasing from 17 per cent in 2018 to 29 per cent this year.

Consumer Internet, enterprise tech/Artificial Intelligence (AI), fintech and ed-tech emerged as the most active sectors for early stage investors.

Investors believe that this trend will continue but indicated that they would like to do more in enterprise tech & AI and fintech in 2020.

Almost 50 per cent of early stage investors felt that the valuations in 2019 were on the higher side due to intense competition for quality deals, said the report titled "InnoVen Capital: Early Stage Investment Insights Report 2019".

However, the majority (56 per cent) foresee some correction in the valuations in 2020.

This report is based on inputs from reputed early stage institutional investors.