PitchBook: Indian startups raised $7.8B from Jan. to Apr 2021, ~70% of $12.1B raised in 2020; average funding size is $25.21M in 2021, up from $14.94M in 2020
Startup funding party continues amid second wave of Covid-19 — Risk investors continue to pump in record funds …
Context & Ripple Effects
This May 2021 snapshot arrived mid-surge: $7.8B across just four months nearly matched India's almost-$10B full-year total back in 2017, and it did so while the country fought Covid-19's second wave. The mechanism behind the headline number is deal size, not deal count — the average check jumped to $25.21M from $14.94M.
The run rate held. By December, researchers put the full-year 2021 tally at a record ~$36B, triple 2020's ~$11B, with SoftBank investing $3B+ and Tiger Global among the most active buyers. Within another year the cycle turned: Venture Intelligence counted just 18 $100M+ rounds worth $3.6B in Q2 2022, down from 29 worth $6.7B in Q1.
First-order effects
- Capital is concentrating into fewer, larger checks: at $25.21M per deal versus $14.94M in 2020, the same dollars reach roughly half as many companies, favoring later-stage founders while earlier-stage teams face thinner allocation.
- Indian startups are raising at record pace despite the Covid-19 second wave — the Jan-Apr figure already covers ~70% of all of 2020, putting the year on track to blow past the prior $12.1B.
Second-order effects
- Cross-border growth capital — SoftBank's $3B+ and Tiger Global's heavy activity per the December tallies — bid up the same late-stage assets, pulling Indian rounds toward the size norms of US and Chinese markets.
- Sustained large-check supply triggered follow-on momentum: the full-year record of ~$36B shows the Jan-Apr acceleration attracted successive raises rather than a single quarter's spike.
Third-order effects
- The reversal came fast: within a year of this report, $100M+ round counts halved quarter-over-quarter (18 for $3.6B in Q2 2022 versus 29 for $6.7B in Q1), showing how quickly large-check liquidity exits an emerging market when global risk appetite shifts.
- India's venture base behaves cyclically with global capital rather than on domestic fundamentals — a pattern that recurs, as the 2026 data showing Asia's $27.4B quarter with India at $3.8B suggests these surges and contractions repeat.
The trend: Indian venture funding moves in globally driven waves — concentrating into ever-larger checks during upswings like 2021's record ~$36B, then contracting sharply when cross-border risk capital retreats, as the 2022 pullback showed.