MCommerce, mobile payment startups attracted US$ 7,930mn investment in last 5 years: News Corp VCCircle

New Delhi: MCommerce, video streaming, gaming and MPayments startups have attracted $8,053 million worth funding through 394 early stage funding deals since 2011, News Corp VCCircle and News Corp reported on Tuesday. 

According to its 'Annual Indian Mobile Ecosystem Report', the year 2015 saw a surge in terms of deal volumes to 115 early stage funding deals amounting to $2,857.73 million across the 4 segments. This is against 87 deals amounting to $3,285 million in 2014. 

With majority of mobile centric start-ups still being in the early funding stage, the likelihood of them achieving scale and breaking even in the absence of adopting successful monetization strategies is still low, the report said. 

Startups in MCommerce category witnessed 263 e arly s tage f unding deals amounting to $7,479.64 million. This segment has seen an increase of 42% in deal volumes in 2015 with deal value falling from $3,128 million in 2014 to $2,623 million in 2015.

Startups in p ayments/wallets segment saw 66 e arly stage f unding d eals amounting to $450.90 million. Deal volume saw a year on year surge of 21% while deal value rising from $124.48 million in 2014 to $184.16 million in 2015.

Startups in the gaming space have garnered 38 e arly stage f unding d eals , amounting to $87.35 million since 2011. The segment witnessed an increase of 22% in deal volumes and 128% in deal value in 2015 as against 2014.

Startups in the field of v ideo s treaming also garnered 27 e arly stage f unding d eals amounting to $35.24 million. Despite the sector heating up with the influx of over 20 players, deals headed south registering 6 early stage funding deals to the tune of $2.90 million in 2015 as against 7 deals to the tune of $12.51 million in 2014.

With mobile phones contributing 40% of all ecommerce sales in India as of 2015, start-ups across sectors are building businesses to reach customers using mobile phones as a channel of choice. 

Speaking on the report highlights, Nita Kapoor, head - India, New Ventures, News Corp and chief executive officer, News Corp VCCircle, said, "The numbers are suggestive of India being an evolving 'data' story. Growth in data consumption will drive the next wave of growth for this industry." 

This is validated by telcos such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL planning capex towards setting up telecom data infrastructure in excess of Rs. 60,000 crore. This potential rise in capex will not only help mobile enabled businesses by creating a facilitative ecosystem but will also help in boosting the mobile economy as a whole. 

"While our data shows growth of early stage investments into mobile centric start-ups over the last five years, the challenge now is for them to identify the right monetization model to scale up and break even," Kapoor said.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.