Indian startups stood next to Chinese counterparts in terms of venture capital (VC) funding value among the Asia-Pacific (APAC) countries during January to May 2021. A total of 499 VC funding deals were announced in India during the period while the corresponding disclosed funding value of these deals stood at US$8.1bn, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that VC funding activity in India fluctuated during the first five months of 2021 with May witnessing decline in deal value after three months of consecutive month-on-month growth while deal volume growing in February and March but declining in April and May.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic has hurt the investor sentiments badly and the caution in committing big-ticket investments still prevails. This is also evident from the fact that India did not see the announcement of any billion-dollar deal. Nevertheless, there were some US$100m+ VC deal announcements.”

Some of the notable VC funding deals announced during January-May 2021 in India were US$502m raised by Mohalla Tech, US$500m funding in Zomato Media, US$400m raised by Dream11 Fantasy, US$400m raised by Dream Sports and US$343m funding in Swiggy.