The year 2023 witnessed a slowdown in funding for startups nationwide, with Pune experiencing a notable decrease of approximately 65-70 per cent, according to data from TheKredible, a startup data intelligence platform.
Many industry insiders have interpreted this decline as a necessary course correction.
The scrutiny of corporate governance and ethical issues, particularly among Unicorns, has made fund managers increasingly cautious about investing in startups.
They now prioritise factors like customer base, profitability, and other metrics before committing funds.
As a result of these shifts, Pune’s startup ecosystem reported a total of 35 deals in 2023, garnering $359.94 million in funding.
This marks a significant decline from the previous year, where 51 deals were signed, securing a total funding of $1.06 billion.
Maharashtra’s tech startup ecosystem, meanwhile, is the second-highest region in India in terms of funding, after Karnataka, with an overall funding of more than $30 billion to date.
It is also the second highest-funded state in 2023 in the Indian tech startup space, according to Tracxn Geo Annual Report: Maharashtra Tech 2023
According to the report, the tech startup ecosystem in Maharashtra garnered a total funding of $2.1 billion in 2023.
This represents a sharp decline of 62.5% from the $5.6 billion raised in 2022 and a substantial drop of about 76% compared to the funding secured in 2021.
In detail, seed-stage investments saw a decline of 73%, totaling $108 million in 2023 compared to $404 million in 2022.
Early-stage funding also experienced a significant decrease, falling by 70% to $415 million in 2023 from $1.4 billion in 2022.
Late-stage funding in 2023 amounted to $1.6 billion, marking a 59% drop from the $3.8 billion raised in 2022
Meanwhile, the central government in February 2024, released the state-wise number of recognised startups during the last five years starting 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Over the course of five years, Maharashtra has seen a steady growth in recognised startups, with the numbers increasing from 1,987 in 2019 to 2,531 in 2020, 3552 in 2021, further rising to 4,763 in 2022 and finally reaching 5,801 in 2023, according to information provided by the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Som Parkash in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on February 2024.
