2021 was an ordinary year for Indian startups despite the noise over 46 unicorns
2021 was probably the best year for the Indian startup ecosystem when it raised over $42 bn which was more than the combined total of 2019 & 2020, we saw the rise of 46 unicorns, so on and so forth. Many experts said that it was a golden year and we are in a gold rush etc and many laymen even believed that. However, despite all the positive records the year was pretty ordinary or rather nothing different for the Indian startups.
Why was the year bad for the Indian startups?
A bulk of the huge $42 bn funding went to the already established players or superstars of the startup ecosystem like Meesho, Byjus, Sharechat, Unacademy, Bharatpe, Zomato etc. who had been in operation since years and most importantly have IIT/IIM or Ivy league founders or founders who have worked in foreign MNCs for years where they cultivated contacts thus leading to easy access to growth capital. According to data tracking firm Fintracker, only $3.6 billion funding went into early stage deals in 2021 highlighting the vast divide and inequality within the Indian startup ecosystem.
- Meesho raised $570 million
- Flipkart raised $3.6 billion
- Sharechat raised over $913 mn,
- Byjus raised $1.3 billion
- Unacademy raised $440 million
- Erudtitus $650 mn
- Bharatpe raised $458 mn,
- Zomato raised $250 mn.
As you can see a huge chunk of the funding went into only the established startups which had been in existence since years leaving very little for new and emerging startups especially the grass root level ones. So essentially the scenario was no different in 2021 for an ordinary startup. Due to such discrepancies and divide and and lack of opportunities its rightly said that India is a land of contrast where we have the world’s richest as well as the poorest living adjacent to each other.
The success of an ecosystem does not d isn’t in how much funding the established players who have a mirage of networks gets but how easy it is for a newbie entrepeneur, a new grass root level entrepreneur to get access to funding, support and help in scaling up.
