Swiggy, ShareChat, Byju’s lead the funding race as Indian startups raised $6.5 billion between April and June

• Indian startups have raised $6.5 billion across 160 deals in the second quarter of 2021.
• Eleven startups also turned unicorns, companies valued at above $1 billion, in the same quarter.
• Nearly 50% of the $6.5 billion fundraise was clocked in by top 10 deals of the April-June quarter of 2021.

The April-June quarter of 2021 turned out to be a great one for the Indian startup ecosstem despite the second wave of COVID-19 wreaking havoc across the country. As per the latest NASSCOM-PGA Labs report, India’s startups have raised $6.5 billion across 160 deals in the second quarter of 2021.

Eleven startups also turned unicorns — companies valued at above $1 billion — in the same quarter, taking the total tally to 53. While many reports had previously suggested that India would have 100 unicorns by 2025, the number has been revised to 150 due to the massive uptick in funding as well as unicorn rounds..

Interestingly, 11 startups had entered the unicorn club in 2020.

"Q2 2021 has been impeccable for the startup growth story. From being the most funded quarter, it has also added the most number of unicorns. Standing tall during the pandemic second wave headwinds, the Indian startup ecosystem has shown a strong resilience in this quarter," the report said.

Nearly 50% of the $6.5 billion fundraise was clocked in by top 10 deals of the April-June quarter of 2021.

Company	Funding	Key investors
Swiggy	$800 million	Falcon Edge Capital, Goldman Sachs, Think Capital, Amansa Capital and Carmignac
ShareChat	$502 million	Tiger Global Management
Byju’s	$340 million	UBS, Blackstone, ADQ
PharmEasy	$323 million	Prosus Ventures, TPG Growth
Meesho	$300 million	Softbank Vision Fund, Prosus Ventures, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway
Pine Labs	$285 million	Baron Capital Group
Delhivery	$277 million	Fidelity Investments
Zeta	$250 million	SoftBank Vision Fund
Cred	$215 million	Falcon Edge Capital, Coatue Management
Urban Company	$188 million	Prosus Ventures, Tiger Global Management, DF International Partners
Total of top deals	$3.4 billion

Innovaccer, Infra.market, Digit and Five Star Finance became unicorns in the first quarter of 2021. Urban Company, Cred, Meesho, Groww, PharmEasy, ShareChat, GupShup, Chargebee, Moglix, Zeta and BrowserStack turned unicorns in the April-June quarter.

In the ongoing third quarter of July to September, another 10 startups have been added to the unicorn club. This includes, BlackBuck, Droom, OfBusiness, BharatPe, MindTickle, UpGrad, CoinDCX, Eruditus, Grofers and Zetwerk.

Overall, 25 startups have entered the unicorn club in 2021 so far.

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