Venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funding for Indian startups in the artificial intelligence sector has seen a dramatic decrease with deal sizes shrinking, notwithstanding the buzz around the country's potential as a major AI hub. Data from research agency Traxcn, which tracks PE/VC investments, shows that total funding for AI startups in India, which started with a bang in 2022 at $599 million, dropped sharply in 2023 to $168.4 million - a decrease of over 71 per cent.
With funds from SoftBank, Delhivery plans to rapidly scale up its reach from 15,000 pin codes to 20,000 by the June quarter of 2019-20.
Foreign investment in India's start-ups has plummeted 72 per cent to $4.58 billion so far, from $16.2 billion during the same period last year.
Education topped the table with nearly $1.755 billion as against $379 million last year, followed by real estate which received $754 million.
Venture Intelligence data shows that during January to July 2020, investors infused $998 million in 31 deals. The total number of deals reported in 2019 was 42 worth $404 million.
After multiple attempts at selling itself, including to larger e-commerce player Snapdeal, ShopClues has found a buyer in Singapore-based e-commerce platform Qoo10 in an all-stock deal.
In India, where it is tougher to do business, a start-up gets established by the Series-B stage, and it gets expensive for investors.
The pandemic has confined students across all ages to home and digital education is the only way to continue learning.
Start-ups that did not have a business model and, hence, could not grow or attract new funding, are shutting shop.
With a new $100-billion technology fund, SoftBank is likely to go after market leaders.
Shopclues, the latest unicorn, was at the bottom of the sector loss pie.
Investors spent much of 2016 cleaning house. And a VC tells Ranju Sarkar, "There's still some bad news left in the portfolios (of VC firms). What happens to Ola and Flipkart will drive sentiment in future."
E-commerce is awash in money, raising concerns about whether this is just another unsustainable internet trend headed for a bust.
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