Trends that will rule India's startup ecosystem in 2017

Although 2016 ahd however  ended as a bonanza year for the fintech startups due to demonetization, 2017 so far it  is however  looking rather mixed. In 2017, the readers can however expect a consolidation which is required  to be the underlying theme in the  India's startup ecosystem, with the country's capital operators that will be continuing to realign their portfolios and also  search for the  exits.

The purpose of this article is to make the reader aware of the 5 trends that will rule India’s startup ecosystem in 2017.

The following are the 5 trends :

1.      Continuity in the growth of SaaS

One of the areas in which the investors will however continue in order  to back is the  players who are operating in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry. As it is however  opposed to the horizontal SaaS -  software technology which could however  be used across the  different industry domains, vertical SaaS thus  caters to a specific vertical, like the  hospitality or either  retail. In order  to fulfill the  specific and the  critical business needs of a large retail player, a vertical player that however specializes in the  retail solutions thus stands out as an obvious choice. This has however also thus  led to the success of the players According to the  data from Tracxn, over 60 startups who are however  operating in the vertical SaaS domain had thus  received funding in 2016, comprising 50% of the overall SaaS funding which is during the year.

3. Consolidation in the  e-commerce and also the real estate sector

The real estate sector has  however resulted in being consolidating over the past few months. A couple of interesting deals however  say it all: PropTiger and also  Housing.com’s announcement in order to merge and the online classifieds firm Quikr's purchase of the Tiger Global-backed Commonfloor.

Also , In the e-commerce sector, there are however huge obstacles when it always  comes to generating the cash flows. The combined losses of the  Big three e-commerce players who are  Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal  had however  surged from $60 billion (Rs 6,021 crore) in the FY15 to $117 billion (Rs 11,754 crore) in the  FY16. The Revenue had however doubled to $68 billion (Rs 6,802 crore). Also , according to a report which was provided  by the  Kotak Institutional Equities, the e-commerce sector is however  expected in order  to see steady growth and is thus likely in order to register a 45% annual growth which is thus  over the period of 2017-2020. What it's however  likely to happen for the common investors is thus  to combine and then consolidate their holdings rather than be however  pitted against one another.

4. Emergence of robust drug Industry

It is thus however  estimated that the pharmaceutical sector has the potential in order  to grow to $55 billion in its revenues by 2020 from however  $20 billion in 2015. The sector has also  attracted foreign investment (FDI) which is worth $14 billion since 2000 and it's thus the sixth-largest recipient of the FDI which is across all the  industry categories. Also ,  in a major overhaul of the country's drug policy, the Indian government is however  likely to soon be  disband the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) thus  in its present form. It will also thus assume the power in order  to set the  prices of the  essential drugs, as it however  seeks to address the  concerns regarding the excessive controls that were however  stifling innovation and also  competitiveness in the industry. The revamped policy will thus also delink the price control from the essential drugs. The NPPA was however set up as an independent drug price regulator in 1997 and also  currently, it thus also controls the price of over 450 medicines. The new system will however  be more flexible and the  prices will however be regulated only it is thus  when needed.

An apt time for investors to exit

Also , According to the  data by the  startup analytics firm Tracxn, in 2016, the country's startup ecosystem had however  witnessed a total of 165 mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The major M&As however  included  MakeMyTrip buying Ibibo Group and also  Flipkart's Myntra taking over Jabong.

What's however  more, to say is that  the pressure is  thus high on the Venture Capitalists (VCs) is just  an understatement.

Also , Meanwhile, the valuation markups of the  India's largest internet companies are however increasingly coming as an  under pressure. Many of the VCs however have not been able to cash in on the valuation boom which is thus   in 2014 and 2015, during which the global late stage investors  had however rushed into the Indian market. Therefore, 2017 will also thus  prove to be a watershed year for the  investors, who will however be tempted to exit.

This article has been contributed by Simmi Setia, Content Writer at LegalRaasta, an online portal for GST Software, GST Return Filing, GST Registration, Section 8 Company Registration, Nidhi Company Registration, IEC Registration, Fssai License, File ITR Online.