Startups are coming again to India after the removing of the angel tax, highlighting constructive shifts within the enterprise panorama, said Amardeep Singh Bhatia, Secretary of the Division for Promotion of Trade and Inside Commerce (DPIIT).

The DPIIT is working to boost capital influx by means of numerous efforts, together with collaborations with worldwide companions and funding schemes to help the startup ecosystem.

In July 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman abolished the ‘angel tax’ to bolster entrepreneurial spirit and help innovation as she offered the Budget 2024-2025 in Parliament. The angel tax handled investments acquired by startups from exterior buyers as ‘earnings from different sources’ and levied a 30% taxation on them. Typically in need of funds, startups are inclined to lose cash as angel tax would require them to share a major a part of the funding in direction of paying taxes.

The DPIIT is actively boosting capital circulate with a number of initiatives, similar to partnerships with overseas organizations and funding packages to bolster the startup ecosystem. Moreover, native startups have generated more than 1.6 million jobs, with the DPIIT formally recognizing 157,000 startups as of December 25. 

The South Asian powerhouse boasts over 73,000 startups with at the least one feminine director. Pushed by reasonably priced Web entry and a youthful workforce, India’s thriving ecosystem has produced over 100 unicorns and performed an important function in shaping world innovation.

9 years of Startup India initiative

On January 16, 2025, India celebrated nine years of Startup India. Designated as Nationwide Startup Day, this event celebrates the nation’s strides in fostering a strong and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

“Startups in fintech, edtech, health-tech, and e-commerce have tackled native challenges and gained world recognition. Corporations like Zomato, Nykaa, and Ola showcase India’s shift from job seekers to job creators, driving financial progress,” the Ministry of Commerce & Trade said in a statement. 

India has firmly established itself because the third-largest startup ecosystem on the earth. This vibrant ecosystem, pushed by over 100 unicorns, continues to redefine innovation and entrepreneurship on the worldwide stage.

By the Startup India initiative, the DPIIT has executed numerous initiatives and undertaken recurring fashions to propel the native startup ecosystem. Qualifying corporations can achieve recognition as startups by DPIIT and avail of advantages similar to tax exemptions, simplified compliance, and expedited IPR processes.

“StartUp India has given wings to the aspirations of so many children,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in January 2025, marking the ninth anniversary of the Startup India initiative. 

“The excellent news is: small cities are more and more turning into startup centres. Equally glad to see girls take the lead in so many startups,” Modi stated. “Sectors like waste administration, non-renewable power, biotechnology, and logistics are witnessing the utmost variety of startups.”

The federal government has additionally urged startups to use ‘Entity Locker,’ which permits startups to securely retailer and entry very important enterprise paperwork anytime, decreasing dependency on bodily information.

The Nationwide eGovernance Division (NeGD), underneath the Ministry of Electronics and Data Expertise (MeitY) has developed Entity Locker, a cutting-edge digital platform designed to rework the administration and verification of enterprise/group paperwork.

Entity Locker is a safe, cloud-based platform that simplifies doc storage, sharing, and verification for numerous entities, together with startups, small and medium companies, and trusts. It helps India’s Digital Public Infrastructure targets and the Union Budget 2024-25 imaginative and prescient for improved digital governance. The platform integrates with authorities techniques and gives real-time doc entry and verification, consent-based safe data sharing, 10 GB encrypted cloud storage, in addition to legally legitimate digital signatures. 

As a part of the Digital India program, Entity Locker showcases how expertise can be utilized innovatively to deal with advanced administrative challenges and drive financial progress.

NetraDyne first unicorn of 2025

NetraDyne, a supplier of logistics artificial intelligence (AI) options, has turn out to be the first unicorn of 2025 in India’s startup ecosystem after securing $90 million in its Collection D funding spherical, led by its present investor, Point72 Personal Investments. Avneesh Agrawal, cofounder and chief government of NetraDyne, said that the funding spherical pushed the startup’s post-money valuation to $1.34 billion.

Netradyne is concentrated on AI-powered fleet security and video telematics options. 

“The profitable completion of our Collection D funding spherical is a major milestone for Netradyne and a testomony to the arrogance our buyers have in our imaginative and prescient and modern method to AI-powered fleet security options,” Agrawal said in a statement. 

“This funding supplies us with the sources to speed up progress, broaden our expertise capabilities, and ship even better worth to our prospects worldwide,” Agrawal added.

Previous to this, Netradyne raised $65 million in 2022 from Silicon Valley Financial institution by means of a mix of debt and fairness, with a valuation of slightly below $1 billion. With the most recent funding spherical included, the corporate has secured a complete of $317 million throughout 4 funding rounds from buyers similar to Reliance, M12, SoftBank (NASDAQ: SFTBF), Qualcomm Ventures, and Pavilion Capital, amongst others.

Based in 2015, Netradyne now serves over 3,000 prospects and 450,000 energetic subscribers throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and India, with plans to broaden into Europe and Japan. Its purchasers embody main gamers in retail, meals, oil and fuel, transportation, utilities, discipline providers, transit, and development.

Walmart initiative with startups

World retailer, Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT), has announced trials with three India-based startups to discover options for its U.S. provide chain and sourcing operations. The startups—Pune’s KBCols Sciences, Chennai’s GreenPod Labs, and Bengaluru’s Cropin—had been chosen following their participation in Walmart’s Progress Summit final yr.

These pilot packages aim to improve product availability, cut back waste, and develop sustainable alternate options for manufacturing processes, similar to changing artificial textile dyes to decrease environmental affect.

Cropin, a Bengaluru-based AgTech platform, supplies AI-driven insights on crop yields, productiveness, useful resource optimization, and constant harvest high quality. The pilot will take a look at this expertise on produce provide chains, doubtlessly enhancing the effectivity of sourcing perishable items, enhancing information accuracy, and decreasing waste. This initiative, a part of Walmart World Tech’s Sparkubate program, will assist startups scale their options to deal with key retail challenges.

Watch: India goes to be the frontrunner in digitalization

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