INDIA RETAINS THIRD POSITION AS THE WORLDS LARGEST STARTUP

BASE, expected to double by 2020

NASSCOM Zinnov START-UP REPORT 2016
Bengaluru, 26th October 2016: Amidst the popular belief of the Indian startup
ecosystems slowdown, India continues to harbor the third largest start-up base,
marginally behind the UK as per the NASSCOM-ZINNOV start-up report titled
Indian
Start-up
Ecosystem
KEY
HIGHLIGHTS
Maturing 2016.
The report further
states
that
the 1400 new start-ups expected in ecosystem is poised
2016, up by 8-10% from last impressive 2.2X to
to
grow
by
an
year
reach
more
than
10,500 start-ups by

80+ M&A deals expected in report

the year 2020. The
was
2016;
~60
already
successfully
launched on the sidelines of NASSCOM
executed;
95%
of
the
deals
by
Product
Conclave
2016 in Bengaluru
Indian organisations start-ups, of Mr. C.P. Gurnani,
today in the presence
unicorns and corporates
Chairman, NASSCOM;
Mr.
R.

140+
Accelerators/
Chandrashekhar,
President,
Incubators(Over 40% YoY growth Gururaj, Chairman,
NASSCOM, Mr. Ravi
in 2016
NASSCOM
Product
Council and Mr Pari

100,000
employed
at
startups
Natarajan,
CEO,
Zinnov.
350+ active angels, up 20%
from 2015; new breed of angels findings
Some of the notable
of
the
with domain experts
report
include;
continued growth in
the
number
of 8% increase in no. of deals, startups in 2016,
more investment in B2B;
with Bengaluru, NCR,
and
Mumbai
continue to lead as 8-10% of start-up from tier 2/3 the major start-up
cities broad basing the start-up terms of vertical
hub for the nation. In
ecosystem
growth, investors are
looking at domain

2x
growth
of
core
technology
like health-tech, fintech, and edu-tech.
(IoT, ML/AI, Robotics) start-ups
With a total funding of
approximately
~USD 4 billion, close to 650 start-ups were funded signifying an aware and healthy
growth of the ecosystem.
Speaking on the side-line, Mr. R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, said,
Technology start-ups are creating a new identity for India and its technological
prowess. They are defining the way the world operates making life better and
easier for people and businesses alike. Our start-up report is a testimony to the
potential of the start-up landscape and the scope of growth and opportunity that
India presents. NASSCOM has always been working towards creating a
heterogeneous bond between all stakeholders and craft a conducive and innovative
environment for start-ups to grow.

Mr. CP Gurnani, Chairman, NASSCOM, while talking about the growing start-up
ecosystem in India said, The start-up landscape in the country is becoming the
epitome of innovation, with companies bringing out solutions that are aimed at
solving locally relevant issues. Today, India is brimming with new ideas which need
the right guidance and funding to be scalable for the market. Its a great time to be
an entrepreneur in India with opportunities abuzz both globally and in domestic
markets. NASSCOM believes that the contribution by start-ups has been growing at
a rapid rate and the landscape has a huge potential in terms of business stability,
revenue growth and further innovation.
Mr. Ravi Gururaj, Chairman, NASSCOM Product Council, said, The start-up
landscape is undergoing great churn with fast-paced changes happening across the
board. Owing to focused funding and a growing need of scaling up capabilities,
Indian entrepreneurs will continue to attract global attention due to a perfect mix of
talent, technology, traction and transactions. With Indian start-ups now churning
out critical services and solutions for large multinationals, riding on the digital
revolution which is encompassing the world; the situation for Indian start-ups is only
going to get better.
Further, according to the report, the number of tech start-ups in India is expected to
grow by 10-12% to over 4,750 start-ups by the end of 2016. Interestingly over 1400
new startups have emerged in 2016 denoting that that the ecosystem is becoming
prudent with both investors and start-up founders focusing on profitability and
optimizing the overall spend. With this impetus, India will become home to over
10,500 start-ups by 2020, employing over 210,000 people reveals the report.
Furthermore, incubators and accelerators are playing a substantial role in
strengthening the startup community throughout India. The report highlights the
significant rise in number of accelerators to improve startups outcomes and provide
them with a support that they require. With impetus from Government and
Corporates, there is a 40% increase in the number of active incubators and
accelerators in 2016 with over 140 active incubators, helping entrepreneurs
experiment with new ideas by offering them functional expertise and resources.
Over 30 new academic incubators have been established under the Governments
Start-up India Stand-up India initiative this year. With the country showing signs of
increased interest in entrepreneurship, Tier-II/III cities have established 66% of the
new incubators.
Unbound by the fear of failure or downturns, a new breed of young entrepreneurs
is unleashing an incredible wave of start-up movement in the country. The report
reveals an increased interest from student entrepreneurs this year. A remarkable
growth of 25% has been witnessed in 2016 with 350+ start-ups founded by young
students. Median age of start-up founders has reduced marginally from 32 years in
2015 to 31 years in 2016.

Talking about investments, the report states that investors are increasingly looking
at opportunities in start-ups in areas other than online retailing. The sentiments are
high for ventures in verticals like Fintech, Healthtech, Edutech, data analytics, B2B
commerce and artificial intelligence.
About NASSCOM 10,000 Startups
10,000 Start-ups is an ambitious attempt by NASSCOM to scale up the start-up
ecosystem in India by 10x. 10,000 Start-ups aims to enable incubation, funding and
support for 10,000 technology start-ups in India over the next ten years. The programs
vision is to foster entrepreneurship, build entrepreneurial capabilities at scale and
strengthen early stage support for tech start-ups. The initiative brings together key
stakeholders of the ecosystem including start-up incubators, accelerators, angel
investors, venture capitalists, start-up support groups, mentors, and technology
corporations. The program is supported by Google for Entrepreneurs, Microsoft Ventures,
Kotak, Amazon Web Services and IBM.
For further information please contact:
Parekhit Bhattacharjee | Tripti Sharma
NASSCOM Press Office Genesis BM
Mobile: +91 9999380203 | +91 7838350189
Email: parekhit.b@bm.com| tripti.sharma@bm.com

Kavita Doshi
NASSCOM
Email:
Kavita@nasscom.in