Being key drivers of India's economic and social growth, Indian tech start-ups strengthened their presence last year. With the addition of more than 13,000 tech startups in 2022, India is now home to 25,000-27,000 start-ups, according to a report by industry body Nasscom.

According to the findings of the Nasscom Tech Startup Report 2022 – Rising Above Uncertainty: The 2022 Saga of Indian Tech Start-Ups, India, the world's third largest tech start-up ecosystem, added 1,400 unique funded tech start-ups in the calendar year 2022.

The report, co-authored by NASSCOM and Zinnov, states that India added 23 unicorns, bringing the total to 89, while the potential number of unicorns is 60. It further adds that the tech startup ecosystem is expected to grow sustainably through 2023.

Although there was a slowdown, with annual investments only slightly higher than the four-year average, a significant portion of these investments went to non-Unicorn startups. Furthermore, the increase in the number of unique start-ups receiving funding suggests that 2022 has marked a transition to a new normal following two exceptional years.

The change in valuations for technology companies in the public markets also affected the private markets. Investors have seen a decrease in unrealized Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and start-ups have had a harder time demonstrating their business metrics to justify the valuations they were asking for in follow-on rounds, which has slowed down the pace of deals.

Both early-stage and seed-stage investments grew by more than 20%, and 47% of all investment deals involved a start-up that had raised their first round.

The percentage share of women-founded startups across stages of growth is in line with their participation in the ecosystem indicating equal odds of success compared to their male counterparts. Thus, providing evidence of the women's intent and capability to play a role in the nation's economic growth and the crucial need for accelerating DE&I initiatives.