'Tech startups raise $4.1 billion in 1st half of 2024'

Indian tech startups raised $4.1 billion in the first half this year (January to June to date), a 4 per cent increase from $3.96 billion in the second half of 2023, a report showed on Thursday, as the country witnessed three unicorns along with 17 IPOs in this period.

India remains the fourth-highest funded country globally in the tech startup landscape. The US led in overall funding volumes, followed by the UK and China, according to Tracxn, a leading market intelligence platform.

The month of April saw the highest monthly funding ($862 million) in the first half of 2024.
Bengaluru led the space in terms of total funds raised, followed by Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Retail, enterprise applications and fintech were the top-performing sectors in H1 2024 in this space, the report mentioned.

"Despite four consecutive half-year periods of declining funding since H1 2022, we are now showing signs of stabilization, going upward. India’s robust performance as the fourth-highest funded country in the tech startup ecosystem is encouraging," said Neha Singh, Co-Founder, Tracxn.

Seed-stage funding increased to $455 million, up by 6.5 per cent from H2 2023. Early-stage startups maintained a steady funding amount of $1.3 billion, consistent with H2 2023.
Late-stage funding rose to $2.4 billion, marking a 3.8 per cent increase from H2 2023.

The first half of 2024 witnessed eight funding rounds surpassing $100 million, such as Flipkart’s $350 million round led by Google; Apollo 24|7’s $297 million round and Meesho’s $275 million funding round.

Logistics company Porter was the third unicorn in the first half of this year, after AI startup Krutrim and B2B SaaS company Perfios.

Some of the top companies that went public were TBO, TGIF Agribusiness, Radiowalla and Trust Fintech.