INDIA STANDS 3rd IN STARTUP ECOSYSTEM

The country has seen an addition of over 1,000 startups IN 2017, strengthening its position as the third largest startup ecosystem across the world, amidst intensifying competition from countries like UK and Israel. This takes the total number of technology startups to nearly 5,200, according to the Nasscom Startup Report. It further said that the country is witnessing a rapid rise in the business to business startups focused on verticals like healthtech, fintech, ecommerce and aggregators. While Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai retained their position as the key start-up hubs in India, 20 per cent of the start-ups emerged from tier II and III cities, the report noted. "India is one of the fastest growing start-up landscape in the world and every major accelerator, investor, angel group, is participating in becoming a part of this growth journey. "Today, Indian ecosystem is flooded with innovative ideas and needs the right channel and guidance in terms of acceleration, scaling up and funding," Raman Roy, Chairman, NASSCOM, and CEO and MD, Quatrro Global Services said in a statement here. With 40 per cent of startups in the B2B segment, B2B’s share in the overall tech start-up funding is over 30 per cent the report noted. Fin-tech start-up base is estimated to be 360 in 2017 indicating at 31 per cent year on year growth with over USD 200 mn funding received in the first half of 2017, recording a growth of 135 per cent since the comparable period in 2016, it said. The healthcare technology vertical saw a 28 per cent annual growth, with an estimated base of 320 startups. The vertical also garnered a total funding of USD 160 mn in the first half 2017, up by 129 per cent since 2016. With over 60 per cent start-ups, the business to consumer technology start-up segment focused on creating innovative business models and taking the vertical approach, securing close to 70 per cent of the overall tech start-up funding in the first half of 2017, the report said.