In the first quarter of this year, startups raised more over $10 billion 

According to a report by PwC India, Indian entrepreneurs have raised more than $10 billion for three consecutive quarters, with the world's third-largest startup ecosystem raising $10.8 billion in the first quarter of calendar 2022.

The $10.8 billion in the capital was spread across 334 deals between January and March, according to the research titled 'Startup Deals Tracker - Q1 CY22,' with software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies receiving the largest portion of $3.5 billion.

Moreover, throughout the quarter, investors spawned as many as 14 unicorns, or firms valued at over $1 billion, bringing the total number of privately held startup unicorns in the country to 82 as of March 31, 2022, according to the research. According to the research, five of the newly minted 14 unicorns were software startups.

Growth-stage and late-stage agreements accounted for 89 percent of fundraising activity in the first quarter of 2022 in terms of value, while they accounted for 44 percent of overall deal volume, according to the research. According to the research, fintech, SaaS, Edtech, Logitech and Autotech, and e-commerce B2C (business-to-consumer) were the top five sectors in the last several quarters, accounting for approximately 60% of total funding activity.

The report also revealed that over the last three quarters, growth-stage funding totaled nearly $6.5–7 billion, with an average deal ticket size of $55–70 million, while early-stage funding rounds totaled $761 million, with an average ticket size of $4 million per round, accounting for 55% of total deal activity.

"Despite global economic uncertainty, Indian entrepreneurs have continued to attract money, particularly at the growth capital stage," says the report "PwC India Partner - Deals & India Startups Leader Amit Nawka remarked.

"As more start-ups develop, corporate governance discussions are becoming more popular. It will become increasingly crucial for Indian start-ups to develop a corporate governance strategy that is aligned with their growth goals "Nawka went on to say.

However, the average ticket size of late-stage deals has decreased over the last two quarters, according to the report, with seven big-ticket deals in the third quarter of 2021, each with a ticket size of over $200 million—PineLabs, PharmEasy, Swiggy, Dailyhunt, Unacademy, Gupshup, and Delhivery—compared to three in the fourth quarter of 2021 and five in the first quarter of 2022, when Byju's Pine Labs

According to the research, Bengaluru, and NCR (National Capital Region) where India's top startup cities, accounted for about 65 percent of overall investment activity in January-March, followed by Mumbai, Chennai, and Pune.

In the first quarter of 2022, 38 percent of merger and acquisitions deals were in the e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) area, while 22 percent were in the SaaS space, according to the research. Reliance Retail's acquisitions of the majority ownership in Addverb Technologies and Clovia for $132 million and $125 million, respectively, were the largest acquisitions by deal size among corporate acquisitions in Jan-Mar, according to the report. According to the research, domestic deals accounted for 90% of all deals, with outward and inbound sales accounting for the remaining 10%.

According to the report, 110 unicorns were born globally in the January-March quarter, bringing the total unicorn count to 1,000, implying that investors created at least one unicorn every day.

However, the report stated that there was a 20% decline in percentage terms from the preceding quarter. More than 56 percent of the 110 new unicorns came from the United States, with India coming in second with 12 percent.

SaaS has also dominated this quarter globally, with around 43 percent of new unicorns coming from the industry, according to the research. In India, the pattern was similar, with a fourfold rise in SaaS investment activity in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.

"Given the increased relevance of remote working, productivity, and overall digital transformation," the research noted, "the Covid-19 pandemic has strengthened the SaaS ecosystem globally."

"Among Indian start-ups, the past year has seen the emergence of 15 unicorn SaaS enterprises, including Darwinbox, Fractal, Uniphore, Hasura, and Amagi Media Labs. "Mature SaaS players are increasingly considering a public listing," according to the research, citing Freshworks' spectacular Nasdaq debut in 2021.

Furthermore, 52 private firms worth $10 billion are globally acknowledged as "decacorns," with ten additional arrivals in the first quarter of 2022. Swiggy, an Indian decacorn, joined the list of decacorns in January-March.