Indian transportation and logistics start-ups attracted $2.4 billion in 2019: Report

January 7, 2020: A new study by the global research company HexGn on funding trends in the global start-up ecosystem in 2019 revealed that transportation logistics start-ups in the country attracted funding of over $2.4 billion by riding on the success of bike-sharing, mobility, and freight aggregators.

The study analysed over 60,000 deals and one million data points for the report. Globally, the total funding for technology Start-ups this year dipped by 22 percent to $293 billion from $375 billion in 2018, with a 27 percent drop in deals. Start-up funding in Asia dropped by a whopping 56 percent from $158 billion to $83 billion.

Indian start-ups

Despite the turmoil in global and even Asian markets, India has performed better both in the number of deals as well as funding in value terms. While the number of start-up deals in India fell by only 15%, funding in value terms rose by 18% to $14 billion in 2019.

Delhi NCR and Bengaluru

For the first time, two Indian cities, New Delhi and Bengaluru debuted in the HexGn “Global Top 10 cities for Start-up funding”. This is when quite a few global heavyweights didn’t make it, including Hong Kong, Berlin, Boston, Paris, and Shenzhen.

India also joins a select group of only three countries, with more than one city in the top ten along with the US and China. Bengaluru moved up one rank from 11th in 2018 to 10th in 2019. However, the biggest surprise has been New Delhi, which leapfrogged Bengaluru, to debut for the first time in the top 10 at the 6th place. The emergence of New Delhi as the new Start-up capital of India has been steered by the likes of Paytm, Oyo, and Zomato, among others. New Delhi attracted $7.4 billion in Start-up funding compared to $4.4 billion attracted by Bengaluru.

Delhi NCR & Bengaluru Beat Global Bigwigs in 2019 & Now Rank In Top 10 Startup Cities Globally. India also joins a group of only 3 countries, with more than 1 city in the top 10 list of startup hubs, along with the US and China #startupindia - https://t.co/HE0JANTBua pic.twitter.com/f4gQceqt3L

— HexGn (@Hex_Gn) December 31, 2019

Fintech and E-commerce

Fintech remained the leader garnering over $4.1 billion in funding, given the huge potential of the Sector and thrust towards transparency and digital payments from the Government of India. While E-commerce has customarily been the sector to attract the most funding in India, this year, too, it has continued its strong march, attracting $2.2 billion in funding.

Top 10 start-up cities

In the 2019 annual Start-up report, HexGn announced the Top Ten Start-up Cities for 2020. In the order of global ranking, they are, San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Beijing, London, Shanghai, Delhi NCR, Singapore, Los Angeles County, Hangzhou, and Bengaluru. These top ten cities from five countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, India, and Singapore, account for 58 percent of global funding, signifying its standing.