Delhi-NCR has beaten Bengaluru to become the top-funded city in the country in H1 2018, according to a report by YourStory. Delhi received around ₹17,800 crores ($2.6 billion) from 119 deals compared to Bengaluru’s ₹12,300 crores ($1.8 billion) from 142 deals for the startups in the first half of 2018.
Delhi-NCR has beaten Bengaluru for the second time in a row to emerge the top funded city in the country. Mumbai occupied the third spot based on the H1 2018 data, receiving around ₹3,100 crores ($462.5 million) in funding from 97 deals.
Compared to the previous year, the funding has decreased for all these cities. In the first half of 2017, Delhi had received $3.1 billion, Bengaluru received $2.5 billion and Mumbai received $449 million. Along with the total funding, the number of deals by each country has also dipped except Mumbai. Delhi secured 139 deals, Bengaluru secured 128, while Mumbai secured 98 deals in H1 2017.
Comparing the data for funding received as per the seeding rounds, Bengaluru favoured the early stages of the startups while Delhi-NCR favoured the startups in their later stages. For Bengaluru, funding received for the pre-series A and series A amounts to about $161.7 million against Delhi’s $79 million.
Bengaluru still remains the favourite for early-stage startups compared to Delhi-NCR.
Apart from the top 3 cities, there were some changes in the top 10 cities compared to the previous year. Kolkata and Kanpur that were amongst the top 10 in H1 2017 were replaced by Jaipur and Surat in H1 2018. This shows a sharp contrast between the cities and how things have changed from the last year. Although the fourth spot remained with Hyderabad in both the years.
It is a welcome news for the Indian startups to have non-metros in the list of most-funded cities but the majority of the investment is still confined to the big metros. Some changes are necessary to bring the non-metros on par with the metros of this country.