19 March 2024 – Rajan Anandan, Managing Partner of venture capital firm Peak XV Partners (previously Sequoia India), gave a positive opening speech for the Startup Mahakumbh conference, which kicked off in New Delhi on Monday. He alluded to a reversal of the financing winter. Anandan predicts that this year, $8–12 billion in capital will be raised by Indian companies.
Anandan estimated that $10 billion, or around ₹80,000 crore, would be needed for the Indian startup ecosystem to expand. According to Tracxn statistics, startup funding reached a record high of $41.4 billion in 2021. It was valued at $25 billion in 2022. Then, in 2023, it had dropped to $7 billion, a small amount compared to earlier years.
Anandan made note of the fact that financing would increase gradually over the following several years. He said that prior to the historic funding figures of 2021 and 2022, India’s yearly run rate was about $8–10 billion.
Conclusion
He said, “At the moment, the startup ecosystem has $20 billion—roughly ₹1.6 trillion—in dry powder that needs to be distributed.” Indian companies are preparing to receive billions of dollars in capital, and industry players are cautiously hopeful about the future development of the business.
