{"id":823298,"date":"2026-07-24T15:20:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/823298\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T15:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:20:50","slug":"selective-funding-slows-startup-creation-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/823298\/","title":{"rendered":"Selective funding slows startup creation in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: A calibrated funding environment coupled with a cautious investor approach appears to be affecting the appetite of aspiring entrepreneurs, as fewer startups are being founded this year than last.<\/p>\n<p>In India, 314 startups were founded in the first half of 2026, compared with 3,222 in 2025 (January-December), according to data from Tracxn, which tracks startups in the tech sector. <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/tracxn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tracxn<\/a> tracks the founding year of startups in the tech space, not the specific dates of their founding. While breakup for the first half of 2025 isn&#8217;t available for a like-for-like comparison, the data still indicate a significant slowdown this year. This &#8220;should be viewed within the context of a more measured funding and operating environment rather than as a sign of weakening entrepreneurial ambition&#8221;, said Tracxn co-founder Neha Singh.<br \/>According to Tracxn, the bulk of funding in 2026 has gone to tech startups in the enterprise applications ($2.0 billion) and enterprise infrastructure ($1.6 billion) spaces. In environment tech, which attracted $1.6 billion in 2025, it slipped to $921 million. Overall, equity funding levels in tech startups have remained broadly stable, with over $6 billion raised in the first six months of both 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"It\u2019s Not Starting Up Well this Year amid Selective Funding\" alt=\"It\u2019s Not Starting Up Well this Year amid Selective Funding\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/et-logo.jpg\" class=\"lazy gwt-Image\" data-msid=\"132469499\" data-original=\"https:\/\/img.etimg.com\/photo\/msid-132469499\/its-not-starting-up-well-this-year-amid-selective-funding.jpg\"\/>Investors are focusing more on startups with clear business models in domains such as artificial intelligence, <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/deeptech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">deeptech<\/a>, manufacturing, climate tech, enterprise SaaS, fintech and consumer tech.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Investors today are prioritising startups with differentiated technology, strong execution, clear paths to profitability and the ability to scale globally,&#8221; said Vikram Gupta, founder and managing partner at <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/ivycap-ventures\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IvyCap Ventures<\/a>. &#8220;While early-stage innovation remains active, high-quality Series A and Series B companies with proven product-market fit and capital-efficient growth are attracting the strongest investor interest,&#8221; Gupta said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ET logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/118783427.cms.png\" width=\"90%\"\/>Live Events<br \/>According to <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/nishit-garg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nishit Garg<\/a>, partner, <a ref=\"dofollow\" data-ga-onclick=\"Inarticle articleshow link click#News#href\" href=\"https:\/\/m.economictimes.com\/topic\/asia-investment-team\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Asia Investment Team<\/a> at RTP Global, the seed stage is in a better shape now than a couple of years ago. &#8220;The bigger problem is that companies are maturing from an early stage (Series A and B) and beyond-that has gone slower,&#8221; said Garg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi: A calibrated funding environment coupled with a cautious investor approach appears to be affecting the appetite&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[288013,45,49,48,24083,137,35600,288015,288014],"class_list":["post-823298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneurship","tag-asia-investment-team","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-deeptech","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-ivycap-ventures","tag-nishit-garg","tag-tracxn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}