New Delhi: More than 2,250 startups were added in the year 2021, over 600 more than what was added in the previous year, a report by Nasscom and Zinnov said on Friday.

The study, titled "Indian Tech Startup Ecosystem: Year of The Titans', said that with rising investor confidence, startups-leveraging deep- tech, and tapping unexplored talent pool, the Indian tech startup base continues to witness steady growth. As per the report, startups raised $24.1 billion in 2021, a twofold increase over pre-Covid levels.

In comparison to 2020, there was a 3X increase in the number of high-value deals (deals more than $ 100 million), demonstrating investors confidence with a pool of active angel investors of more than 2,400 and a readiness to take significant risks, it said.

The report said the startup ecosystem saw a 2X gain in cumulative valuation from 2020 to 2021, with an estimate of $ 320-330 billion, demonstrating the sector's development and recovery throughout the pandemic.

It added that more than $ 6 billion has been raised via public markets. with 11 startup IPOs in 2021.

In the last decade, the ecosystem has played a key role in growing direct and indirect job opportunities, providing 6.6 lakh direct jobs and more than 34.1 lakh indirect jobs, The industries that saw the most net new job creation were banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), edtech, retail and retail tech. food tech, SCM (supply chain management), and logistics and mobility. While the US remains the leading source of foreign direct investment On the back of Internet com in startups, worldwide involvement, freelancers, and service industries, indirect jobs have also recovered, it said.

"The performance of the Indian startup ecosystem in 2021 has proved the resilience and dedication being put by multiple startups across segments. The ecosystem has grown immensely and positioned itself as a vital contributor to the growth of India's digital economy," Nasscom president Debjani Ghosh said.

"When compared to the UK, US, Israel, and China, 2021 has been an outstanding year for the Indian startup ecosystem, with the highest growth rate in terms of deals, both in seed-stage and late-stage funding, and a number of startups," Zinnov CEO Pari Natarajan said.

As per the report, factors such as building for 'Bharat", investments. talent availability and ecosystem support are driving entrepreneurs to use emerging hubs to create businesses. Entrepreneurs are developing solutions for the entire country, with a focus on fundamental and core requirements, localization. and the promise of delivering equality to the masses,

Diversity and inclusion are becoming hallmarks of the Indian tech startup ecosystem as at least one woman founder/co-founder is present in 12-15 percent of startups 10 unicorns.

India accounting for 70 unicorns (companies with over $1 billion valuations) added a record number of new unicorns (42) in 2021 across 18 sectors, third-highest after the US and China, with a cumulative valuation of newly added unicorns standing around $ 90 billion.

The pipeline of potential unicorns expanded dramatically through 2021 reaching 135, and a 6x increase in global unicorns with Indian technology centre as compared to 2015, the report said.

Source- PTI