India likely to have 2nd biggest start-up ecosystem by 2017

IT-BPO industry body Nasscom today said the country saw 800 new technology start-ups setting shop so far this fiscal and is poised to house the second biggest eco-system for them after the US in the next two years on account of the ongoing high growth rates.

"We expect that within the next couple of years, we will have the second biggest start-up ecosystem in the world," Nasscom, President, R Chandrashekhar, told reporters here.

He said the rate at which the start-ups are growing is much faster than Britain and Israel, which are ranked between India and worldwide leader US at present.

In 2014, the country witnessed 800 new companies starting up, taking the total number of start-ups to 3,100, Nasscom said.

Chandrashekhar said there is a difference between the scene here and the one outside, and pointed out that domestic companies address both opportunities within the country as well as internationally.

Nasscom said such companies have received over USD 2.3 billion in funding since 2010, while over 70 private equity and venture capital funds remain active in the segment.

It added that apart from this, there were over 62 angels active in 2014. Apart from that, there are over 80 incubators and start-up accelerators operating in the country at present, Nasscom said.

Among the areas in which the start-ups are engaged includes wearable technologies, big data and analytics, augmented reality, cloud computing, hardware, education, advertising and healthcare, Nasscom said.

Chandrashekhar said the country will be having a large number of successful small companies, as against the global experience of having small number of mega successful companies who command huge valuations.