Indian startups have raised funds worth $10.9 billion across 347 deals during third quarter of the calendar year 2021, according to a recent report. Besides this record amount, the country has added close to 10 unicorns during the period, an achievement which places us ahead of many developed economies. Also, it is estimated that our startups have raised more than $24 billion in the first three quarters of the current year. This is, no doubt, a remarkable achievement.

A unicorn is a startup with a valuation of at least $1 billion, and according to data presented to the Parliament recently, India has some 53 unicorns currently, with a tentative valuation of Rs 1.4 lakh crore. Additionally, the country’s startup ecosystem has a total of 52,391 recognised entities as of July 14, 2021, and this data shows that we have huge potential to create more unicorns in coming days.

The report adds that while increase in funding activity was noted across all sectors, the top three hot investment sectors are fintech, edtech and SaaS. These three sectors together saw about 47 percent of the total funding activity. While total amount of funding in third quarter was twice the amount of funding received during the corresponding period of the previous year, the fintech sector saw a four-fold increase in funds raised.

These figures are encouraging, but it must be noted that the Indian startup sector still has a lot of scope for improvement. This view was also expressed by the Union Commerce Minister recently and according to him, our startup story is still in its infancy. It sounds quite true. Our startup system is considered as the third largest globally, and if provided with adequate support, it can certainly excel even further in the future.

I invite your opinions.