While India may have found it difficult to catch up to its Asian arch rival China on various business and commercial fronts, Indian startups are making sure that they keep the Chinese under check, at least when it comes to clinching the most number of Venture Capital deals.
A recent report by New-York based research firm CB Insights states that Indian startups overtook their Chinese counterparts in the number of VC deals being clinched in the first quarter of 2015. And even though the margin is very thin (just 3 more deals for Indians, to be specific) the lead is significant for India considering how far it lagged behind its northern neighbour in previous quarters.
In the first quarter of 2015, Indian startups clinched a total of 69 deals, out of which Bangalore came on top with 19 deals, Mumbai came second with 14 while Delhi/NCR came 3rd with 12 deals for 2015’s first quarter.
In the same time frame though, Chinese startups clinched 66 deals, 3 less than their Indian counterparts. However, when it comes to valuation of these deals, China’s is more than double of what Indian startups managed. CB Insights totalled the valuation of all Chinese deals to a staggering $2.99 Billion, while India lagged behind with a totalled valuation of $1.35 Billion.
While Indians lag significantly behind China in terms of valuation, the lead for India in the number of deals is significant considering that the subcontinent witnessed just 59 deals in the last quarter of 2014, as compared to 82 in China. The CB Insights’ recent Asia Tracking report further states, that India saw a 225% rise in terms of deals’ valuation when compared to the same quarter in previous years. In 2014, Indian startups were successful in clinching a total of 207 deals.
In Asia, China and India took the first and second spot respectively in total number of deals in 2015’s first quarter while Japan stood third with 28 deals. In all, the top three accounted for 66% of the total deals which Asia saw in that timeframe.
