CHENNAI: The startup scene is seeing the return of the good days of 2015. Investments in
July 2018 reached $2.42 billion, which is nearly equal to the numbers of July 2015 when a record $2.79 billion was committed. The current investment figures are substantially higher than the deals made during July in 2016 and 2017, which saw $878 million and $1.5 billion being committed respectively, data from research firm Venture Intelligence showed.
The deal sizes are, however, higher this year compared to 2015. While the total investment in July 2018 is
13% lower than in 2015, the money was pooled in through 53 PE/VC investments this year, in comparison to 84 investments in 2015. Arun Natarajan, founder, Venture Intelligence, said that while 2015 saw investments in e-commerce companies such as
Flipkart, there were fewer early-stage deals.
“This year, we saw
startups such as Curefit, Swiggy, PolicyBazaar rake in series E & F deals, while 2015 saw some interest in earlystage startups in the hyperlocal space,” he said.
“Startups which were relatively early-stage enterprises in 2015 that stood the test of time in 2016 and 2017 are now attracting investors. While Freshworks is a winner in the B2B space, PolicyBazaar, BookMyShow are attracting attention in the consumer-facing segment,” Natarajan said.
Investors such as Blume Ventures said that funding mostly came into newly-formed unicorns that have been showing steady revenues and traction.
