The engrossing story of tech startups in the year of SoftBank’s India invasion

Most of the time, numbers hide the real story. But at times, they show the complete picture. Consider this: of the $13.5 billion invested in the Indian tech startup ecosystem last year, about $4 billion was invested by Japanese internet giant Soft-Bank, and the top five funding consumed about $8 billion of the total amount. “2% deals cornered 75% of the funding,” reveals the latest ‘Indian Tech Startup Funding Report’ by Inc42.

“There is no doubt that 2017 can be termed as a Year of SoftBank India invasion,” says Pooja Sareen, cofounder of Inc42, a tech startup media platform. Last year, she says, witnessed a series of billion-dollar funding raised by the Indian consumer companies such as Flipkart (approx $4 billion), Paytm ($1.4 billion), Ola ($1.1 billion). “Most of these fundings were led by Softbank,” says Sareen.

Overall, 2017 ended on a happy note for startups. Though there was a 7% fall in deals, there was a 189% jump in funding amount last year over 2016, which saw 953 deals and $4.68 billion funding.

ET Magazine brings you an exclusive synopsis of the 2017 annual report by Inc42.

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