Starting troubles

Falling investment in early stages of start-ups is a worry

Overall fund-raising by start-ups in India has registered a quantum jump. According to the latest report by information technology industry body Nasscom, the total start-up ecosystem funding rose 167 per cent to touch $6.4 billion in the first half of 2017 against $2.4 billion in the same period last year. In any case, a start-up universe of more than 5,000 companies is no mean achievement. Fin-tech and health-tech start-ups have shown healthy growth at 31 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively, this year. E-commerce firms and aggregators – where India shines in terms of the number of unicorns, typically