Next three years will see 25 unicorns hit capital markets, predicts Accel’s Prashanth Prakash

This is one of the three predictions Prakash made at the inaugural of the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2002 on the top three trends that will dominate the narrative in the startup and venture capital industry over the next five years.

“From less than 1,000 funded startups by angels and venture capitalists a decade ago, we now have 15,000 startups which have absorbed more than $ 150 billion and we project this to double in the next five years to 30,000 funded startups raising more 300 billion,” he said.

Exits help catalyse the whole ecosystem, they complete the loop and once investors see money coming back, they want to double down and put more money. Our Venture and PE Industry has returned more than 80 million dollars to the global investors in the last five years, Prakash, who is also a founding partner at the venture fund, Accel, said.

Looking ahead our 100 plus unicorns with a lion share from Karnataka will provide a massive IPO supply chain, he said.

His second prediction was technology products built by Indian Startups will participate more aggressively in the global economy of SaaS, and B2B marketplaces.

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Prakash’s last prediction was that the startup tech for next gen will have a new purpose. “Startups through their innovation and scale have a responsibility to deliver on the promise of a sustainable, equitable and inclusive growth of our health, education and livelihood sectors. AI in agritech, deeptech and climatetech will collectively provide the same kind of seismic transformation we have seen in mobile based ecommerce and digital payments.”

The most dramatic transformation, he said, will be in our rural ecosystems where startups will help a majority of the 150 million digitally enabled farmers double their incomes fulfilling the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Karnataka as the epicentre and the growth engine of these sectors can make this noble mission a reality.”