Thanks to the recent bidding war over India’s e-commerce market, total venture funding for India-based startups has surpassed $5.4 billion in 2014.
After Amazon launched its service in India in 2013, India’s leading online shopping platforms Flipkart and Snapdeal raised nearly $3 billion combined this year to keep up with the competition.
Funding totals shot up in the last two quarters as these e-commerce mega-rounds rolled in, along with millions for startups like on-demand taxi service Olacabs, classifieds site Quikr, and restaurant platform Zomato.
With the latest $700M addition to its war chest, Flipkart is currently the most well-funded startups out of India. And the rumored $11M valuation means it will rise up through the ranks of Unicorn companies, by far the highest valued Indian startup.
Flipkart investor Tiger Global has made some big bets on Indian startups this year, topping the 2014 Investor Leaderboard with a list of 15 investments that range from mobile messaging app Hike to online real estate platform CommonFloor.
Tiger Global has yet to see any big exits in the region, but we can expect this to change in the coming year or two as its India-based companies continue to see rapid growth.
Photo via Flickr user Just Jimish.
