India is home to more than 61,400 startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), as per the Economic Survey. The services sector has the maximum number of startups in the country.

In 2021, DPIIT recognised over 14,000 new startups in comparison to 733 new startups recognized in 2016-17.

The Delhi-NCR is now officially the startup capital of India as per the Economic Survey for 2022. The national capital region replaced India's silicon valley Bengaluru as home to the most number of new startups getting created in the country. The government recognised over 5,000 new startups in Delhi-NCR compared to 4,514 startups in Bengaluru between April 2019 and December 2021.

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In fact, some of the recently listed startups like Zomato, Policybazaar and Paytm are all headquartered in Delhi-NCR. The top two startup cities house some of the most valued startups in the country like Byjus, Swiggy, Oyo, Ola, PhonePe, Delhivery, OfBusiness, Razorpay and Cars24 among others.

At 11,308, Maharashtra has the highest number of recognised startups in the country. In terms of distribution, the survey said, 555 districts had at least one new startup in 2021 when compared to 121 districts with at least one new startup in 2016-17.

India's startup ecosystem has been cruising on top gear with investors betting big on the India story, pandemic led the shift to digital and the opportunity in the ‘Bharat’ market. Indian startups raised a record 35+ billion dollars in venture capital in the last year as per data from Venture Intelligence.

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2021 has also been a historic year for the Indian startup ecosystem with a record 44 startups hitting billion-dollar valuations entering the coveted 'Unicorn Club’.

India has now overtaken the UK to become the third country with the most number of unicorns after the US and China. The US added 487 unicorns in 2021 while China saw the creation of 301 billion dollar firms in the year.

India's 83 unicorns are valued at $277.77 billion as per the survey, interestingly more than half of them were created in 2021. The trend seems to continue into 2022, January has seen four new startups enter the billion-dollar club which translates to one unicorn a week in the first month of the year.

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(Edited by : Jomy Jos Pullokaran)

First Published:Jan 31, 2022 4:11 PM IST