BENGALURU: The Indian start-up ecosystem faced a challenging first half of 2023 as the total funding- $5.5 billion- declined by over 72% compared to H1 2022. Start-ups had raised $19.7 billion in H12022. While there were no new unicorns in the first six months, the period saw 74 acquisitions, as per a report from SaaS-based market intelligence platform Tracxn. While still ranking among the top three funded geographies globally after the US and the UK, the region’s funding trend mirrored the declining trend witnessed across the world.
The total funding in H1 2023 declined by 24% compared to H2 2022 - $7.3 billion. The number of funding rounds also experienced a substantial decrease in H1 2023 (536), with a drop of 43% compared to H2 2022 (946) and 66% compared to H1 2022 (1586), the report said.
Neha Singh, co-founder, of Tracxn, said, “As per our latest semi-annual India tech report, despite India being one of the top-performing countries across the globe with respect to funding in the private sector, it is facing a deceleration in funding due to inflation and other macroeconomic factors.”
“India still continues to be one of the fastest-growing economies. India’s start-up ecosystem ranked third in terms of funding in 2022, and it moved up to second in Q1 2023, and there is a tremendous amount of growth potential,” she added.