Trends That Will Rule India’s Startup Ecosystem In 2017
Although 2016 ahd however ended as a bonanza year for the fintech startups due to demonetization, 2017 so far it is however looking rather mixed. In 2017, the readers can however expect a consolidation which is required to be the underlying theme in the India’s startup ecosystem, with the country’s capital operators that will be continuing to realign their portfolios and also search for the exits.
The purpose of this article is to make the reader aware of the 5 trends that will rule India’s startup ecosystem in 2017.
The following are the 5 trends :
1. Continuity in the growth of SaaS
One of the areas in which the investors will however continue in order to back is the players who are operating in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry. As it is however opposed to the horizontal SaaS – software technology which could however be used across the different industry domains, vertical SaaS thus caters to a specific vertical, like the hospitality or either retail. In order to fulfill the specific and the critical business needs of a large retail player, a vertical player that however specializes in the retail solutions thus stands out as an obvious choice. This has however also thus led to the success of the players According to the data from Tracxn, over 60 startups who are however operating in the vertical SaaS domain had thus received funding in 2016, comprising 50% of the overall SaaS funding which is during the year.
3. Consolidation in the e-commerce and also the real estate sector
The real estate sector has however resulted in being consolidating over the past few months. A couple of interesting deals however say it all: PropTiger and also Housing.com’s announcement in order to merge and the online classifieds firm Quikr’s purchase of the Tiger Global-backed Commonfloor.
Also , In the e-commerce sector, there are however huge obstacles when it always comes to generating the cash flows. The combined losses of the Big three e-commerce players who are Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal had however surged from $60 billion (Rs 6,021 crore) in the FY15 to $117 billion (Rs 11,754 crore) in the FY16. The Revenue had however doubled to $68 billion (Rs 6,802 crore). Also , according to a report which was provided by the Kotak Institutional Equities, the e-commerce sector is however expected in order to see steady growth and is thus likely in order to register a 45% annual growth which is thus over the period of 2017-2020. What it’s however likely to happen for the common investors is thus to combine and then consolidate their holdings rather than be however pitted against one another.
4. Emergence of robust drug Industry
It is thus however estimated that the pharmaceutical sector has the potential in order to grow to $55 billion in its revenues by 2020 from however $20 billion in 2015. The sector has also attracted foreign investment (FDI) which is worth $14 billion since 2000 and it’s thus the sixth-largest recipient of the FDI which is across all the industry categories. Also , in a major overhaul of the country’s drug policy, the Indian government is however likely to soon be disband the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) thus in its present form. It will also thus assume the power in order to set the prices of the essential drugs, as it however seeks to address the concerns regarding the excessive controls that were however stifling innovation and also competitiveness in the industry. The revamped policy will thus also delink the price control from the essential drugs. The NPPA was however set up as an independent drug price regulator in 1997 and also currently, it thus also controls the price of over 450 medicines. The new system will however be more flexible and the prices will however be regulated only it is thus when needed.
An apt time for investors to exit
Also , According to the data by the startup analytics firm Tracxn, in 2016, the country’s startup ecosystem had however witnessed a total of 165 mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The major M&As however included MakeMyTrip buying Ibibo Group and also Flipkart’s Myntra taking over Jabong.
What’s however more, to say is that the pressure is thus high on the Venture Capitalists (VCs) is just an understatement.
Also , Meanwhile, the valuation markups of the India’s largest internet companies are however increasingly coming as an under pressure. Many of the VCs however have not been able to cash in on the valuation boom which is thus in 2014 and 2015, during which the global late stage investors had however rushed into the Indian market. Therefore, 2017 will also thus prove to be a watershed year for the investors, who will however be tempted to exit.