New Delhi, Jan 23 (KNN) India's start-up funding experienced a significant decline of over 62 per cent in 2023, totalling Rs 66,908 crore compared to Rs 1,80,000 crore the previous year, according to a recent report by market intelligence platform PrivateCircle Research.

These figures represent the lowest funding levels since 2018 when Indian start-ups raised Rs 1,00,930 crore. The peak in funding was observed in 2021 at Rs 2,41,787 crore.

The 'Startup Deals Report 2023' further revealed a 72 per cent decrease in funding deal volume, totalling 1,444 deals in 2023 compared to 5,114 in 2022. This marks the lowest number of deals since 2018 as well when the total reached 4,122.

The report indicated a slowdown in the emergence of unicorns in India, with only two start-ups, Incred and Zepto, achieving unicorn status in 2023, compared to 23 in 2022.

Despite the overall slowdown, companies with strong business fundamentals still managed to secure significant funding rounds. Lenskart, for instance, raised the largest funding round of USD 500 million from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Venture capitalist firm ‘100X.VC’ emerged as the most active venture capitalist in terms of the number of investment deals, closing over 50 deals in 2023. Following 100X.VC, Inflection Point Ventures and Blume Ventures secured positions in the list.

The report highlighted the dominance of fintech in funding trends, with e-commerce leading secondary deals during the 2021 peak.

In 2022 and 2023, fintech continued to lead, followed by SaaS and agritech in 2023. There was also a notable decline in the number of secondary deals, with 13 reported in 2023, a significant 80 per cent drop compared to 84 in 2022 and 155 in 2021.

(KNN Bureau)