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Road to Hyperscaling in India: Decoding the Good-to-Great Journey of India’s Late-Stage Startups

Rajiv Gupta Nimisha Jain Shaleen Sinha Sidharth Madaan Geetika Dayal Rohan Joseph Abhinav Bansal

The digital startup landscape in India has witnessed breakout growth over the last few years, transforming India into the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world, just behind USA and China. Growth in smartphone and data consumption, strengthening online payments ecosystem, pandemic-induced digital acceleration, favorable demographics and conducive public policy have contributed to the rise of 100+ unicorns and 40,000 active start-ups by 2022. Cumulatively, Indian startups have raised over $130Bn since 2014, with nearly 65% of funding attracted by the top 3 sectors: E-commerce, fintech, and enterprise tech.

To decode the learning from good-to-great journeys of India’s late-stage startups, BCG partnered with Times Bridge and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Delhi-NCR Chapter for this report. Leveraging conversations with leading startup founders and investors, the report uncovers stories of successful Indian and global late-stage startups along eight key themes that helped them hyperscale in India. Finally, the macro environment has changed massively in the last 12 months, with investors taking a much more cautious approach to funding and many startups feeling the heat. The report gives a path forward for the survival and long-term growth of Indian start-ups amid the funding slowdowns.