India has emerged as the third largest start-up base and such ventures are poised to grow 2.2 times to reach 10,500 by 2020 despite a perception that the ecosystem in the country has slowed down in the last year, says a report.

India is in the third position just behind US and UK, and nearly 1,400 new start-ups are expected by end of 2016, up by 8-10 percent from last year, revealed the “Indian Startup Ecosystem Maturing – 2016” report by Nasscom-ZINNOV.

The report also finds that Bengaluru, NCR, and Mumbai continue to lead as the major start-up hubs in the country. In terms of vertical growth, investors are looking at domains like health-tech, fin-tech, and edu-tech. With a total funding of approximately USD 4 billion, close to 650 start-ups were funded signifying a healthy growth of the ecosystem, the report said.

“The start-up landscape in the country is becoming the epitome of innovation, with companies bringing out solutions that are aimed at solving locally relevant issues… Nasscom believes that the contribution by start-ups have been growing at a rapid rate and the landscape has a huge potential in terms of business stability, revenue growth and further innovation,” said Nasscom Chairman C P Gurnani.

According to the report, the number of tech start-ups in India is expected to grow by 10-12 percent to over 4,750 by the end of 2016. With this impetus, India will become home to over 10,500 start-ups by 2020, employing over 2,10,000 people, reveals the report. It added that there is a 40 percent increase in the number of active incubators and accelerators in 2016 with impetus from government and corporates.

Over 30 new academic incubators have been established under the government’s ‘Start-up India Stand-up India’ initiative this year, and tier-II/III cities have established 66 percent of the new incubators, it added. The report also reveals an increased interest from student entrepreneurs this year. A growth of 25 percent has been witnessed in 2016 with over 350 start-ups being founded by young students.

With regard to investments, the report states that investors are increasingly looking at opportunities in start-ups in areas other than online retailing. Ventures in Fintech, Healthtech, Edutech, data analytics, B2B commerce and artificial intelligence, are seeing interest, said the report.

Source: moneycontrol