BENGALURU: In the midst of job losses and sliding GDP growth, the upward trajectory shown by stock markets and start-up investments have brought some cheer.
Data shared by Venture Intelligence with this publication revealed that venture capitalists have poured in $10 billion so far this year into the tech start-up ecosystem across 304 deals.
Leading the pack of heavy fundings was New York-based Tiger Global and Japan’s Softbank, placing their bold bets on unicorns as well as disruptive start-ups.
The two investment giants have put in nearly $2.7 billion during 2020-21 with more funding on the way.
Sources said that Tiger Global may lead a $100 million funding round in ClearTax at a $1 billion valuation whereas Softbank will back Flipkart with a mega $600-700 million funds raise this year.
Flipkart like Zomato, Paytm , Delhivery is looking to raise significant capital before listing on stock exchanges.
Both Softbank and Tiger Global have announced a $30 billion and a $6.7 billion funds corpus, respectively for writing cheques for companies across the global tech ecosystem.
Softbank’s Vision Fund 2 unlike its earlier $100 billion Fund1 is a self investment vehicle, bullish on creating billion dollar startups.
Vision Fund 1 which had 50 per cent stake from sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi suffered setbacks on the back of huge losses reported by portfolio firms including WeWork, Uber and OYO.
However, Softbank’s Vision Fund 2 is in the thick of the investment game again by leading a $260 million funding raise in banking tech platform, Zeta, a $300 million investment into Meesho and $75 million round in Nykaa.
Tiger Global has alone helped six start-ups attain unicorn status this year including social networking firm Sharechat, Groww, credit cards payments firm Cred, B2B marketplace, Saas start-up
Innovacer and business messaging platform, Gupshup.
A recent note by Credit Suisse said that India may see the birth of 100 new unicorns by 2025 attributing it to innovation in new-age companies, friendly regulatory environment and widespread internet penetration.
$1.2 bn Softbank’s FY21 investment.
$1.5 bn Tiger Global FY21 investment.