India will be home to 10,500 start-ups by 2020: Report

India continues to harbour the third largest start-up base, marginally behind the U.K., according to a Nasscom-Zinnov start-up report.

The report, titled “Indian Start-up Ecosystem Maturing – 2016,” says that the ecosystem is poised to grow by an impressive 2.2X to reach more than 10,500 start-ups by the year 2020 despite the popular belief that the Indian start-up ecosystem is slowing down.

There is an increased interest from student entrepreneurs this year, according to the report. A remarkable growth of 25 per cent has been witnessed in 2016 with over 350 ventures founded by young students. The median age of start-up founders has reduced marginally from 32 years in 2015 to 31 years in 2016.

“Technology start-ups are creating a new identity for India and its technological prowess,” said R. Chandrashekhar, President of the IT industry body Nasscom, in a statement. “They are defining the way the world operates making life better and easier for people and businesses alike.”

Some of the notable findings of the report include; continued growth in the number of start-ups in 2016, with Bengaluru, the National Capital Region, and Mumbai continuing to lead as major start-up hubs for the nation.

In terms of vertical growth, investors are looking at the domains like health-tech, fin-tech, and edu-tech. With a total funding of approximately $4 billion, close to 650 young firms were funded signifying an aware and healthy growth of the ecosystem, according to the report.
The number of technology firms in India is expected to grow by 10-12 per cent to over 4,750 start-ups by the end of 2016, according to the report. Interestingly over 1400 new ventures have emerged in 2016 denoting that the ecosystem is becoming prudent with both investors and start-up founders focusing on profitability and optimising the overall spend.

With this impetus, India will become home to over 10,500 start-ups by 2020, employing over 210,000 people reveals the report.

“Today, India is brimming with new ideas which need the right guidance and funding to be scalable for the market,” said C.P. Gurnani, Chairman, Nasscom, in a statement.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/india-will-be-home-to-10500-startups-by-2020-report/article9272293.ece