ET X Tracxn report on top soonicorns and minicorns across ten sectors: ET Soonicorns sundowner Hyderabad edition

Time of India

14-07-2025

Academy
Empower your mind, elevate your skills
The Economic Times, in collaboration with leading data intelligence platform Tracxn, announces the upcoming launch of its comprehensive 'ET Top Soonicorns and Minicorns X Top 10 Sectors Andhra Pradesh-Telangana' report for 2025–a first-of-its-kind analysis that reveals one of India's most extraordinary startup concentration phenomena.The report, which will be exclusively unveiled at the inaugural ET Soonicorns Sundowner on July 31, 2025, documents how a single city has systematically captured an almost unprecedented share of regional innovation capital. The findings are staggering: over 2,500 startups, $2.1 billion in funding, and 99.7% of the region's total startup capital–all concentrated within Hyderabad's metropolitan boundaries.This comprehensive analysis, spanning January 2020 to May 2025, adopts an ecosystem-first approach to examine startup formation, capital concentration, investor activity, and exit trends across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Unlike previous valuation-focused studies, the report analyses the complete investment landscape to understand not only where capital is going, but why it's going there, and what that reveals about the region's long-term startup viability.As part of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 series, now in its prestigious fourth edition, this joint initiative between the Economic Times (ET), in collaboration with research partner Tracxn—a data intelligence platform— represents a new approach to understanding regional startup dynamics– one that promises to reshape how we think about the geography of Indian innovation.The data reveals a startup landscape that defies traditional expectations of geographic distribution. Between January 2020 and May 2025, Hyderabad didn't just emerge as a leading startup hub; it became the complete ecosystem, accounting for a concentration of innovation capital across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.With 712 funding rounds generating $2.1 billion in capital deployment, Hyderabad has demonstrated what industry experts are calling 'deep centralisation'–a phenomenon where an entire state's startup ambitions converge on a single urban centre. The city's dominance extends beyond mere funding figures to encompass a remarkable pipeline of seven soonicorns and 42 minicorns, representing companies poised for billion-dollar valuations (soonicorns) and those already commanding $100M-$500M valuations (minicorns), respectively.This concentration becomes even more striking when viewed against the backdrop of other regional centers. While cities such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Secunderabad show early-stage promise, they remain at the periphery of venture capital flows and unicorn ambition, collectively accounting for a mere 0.3% of the region's startup capital.The ET X Tracxn report identifies a fascinating dichotomy in Hyderabad's startup ecosystem: while Healthcare Booking Platforms and HRTech have emerged as the undisputed leaders with over $640 million in combined funding, it's the emerging high-growth sectors that tell the real story of future potential.Electric Vehicles (EVs) stand out as arguably the most dynamic frontier, leading all sectors with 50 funding rounds and boasting the highest number of minicorns (5) alongside two soonicorns. This isn't just about transportation; it's about Hyderabad's EV startups positioning themselves as a category creator of India's mobility revolution.Perhaps most intriguingly, sectors such as Beauty Tech and Alternative Lending are attracting mega-rounds that rival traditional startup strongholds. Beauty Tech, with just 18 investors, secured $260.4 million–the third-highest funding amount in the entire dataset–demonstrating that investors are making concentrated, high-conviction bets on Hyderabad's potential.The NewSpace sector presents another compelling narrative, with $125.8 million in funding from only 14 investors and one soonicorn. This signals Hyderabad's ambition to carve out a significant role in India's burgeoning private space industry–a sector that could redefine the city's technological identity.Hyderabad's dominance represents more than just funding concentration–it demonstrates the emergence of what the ET X Tracxn report identifies as a 'complete ecosystem' model. The research reveals how this isn't simply about one city succeeding, but about the dynamics of how an entire region's innovation economy can be powered by a single urban centre.The concentration extends beyond funding to encompass talent, infrastructure, and institutional support. With 8,396 tech startups identified by Tracxn Technologies in its Telangana Tech Annual Report 2024, Hyderabad has created what experts describe as a comprehensive innovation hub–one capable of nurturing ventures from inception to industry leadership.This ecosystem strength was particularly evident in 2024, when Hyderabad-based startups raised $571 million across 81 funding rounds, a 160% jump from 2023, driven in part by a major $297 million investment in Apollo 24/7. This single investment demonstrates how mega-rounds can amplify the growth trajectory of already thriving innovation centres.The report's analysis extends beyond Hyderabad to examine the broader regional dynamics across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. While Andhra Pradesh's startup ecosystem remains nascent with no consolidated funding data reported publicly, the state has focused on large-scale industry investments. According to The Times of India (May 2024) , 91 companies have committed ₹91,839 crore (approximately $11 billion) in investments across the IT and electronics sectors in Andhra Pradesh, aiming to generate over 140,000 jobs.These figures, while reflecting broader industrial investment rather than pure startup capital, signal growing state-level emphasis on innovation-driven growth and suggest potential for future startup ecosystem development.The ET X Tracxn report identifies the key players driving this concentration. Firms such as SucSEED Indovation, Brand Capital, Endiya Partners, and Anthill Ventures appear repeatedly as notable investors in the top-ranked sectors. Incubators and ecosystem enablers such as T-Hub and IKP Knowledge Park have been instrumental in nurturing early-stage startups, particularly in HRTech and Healthcare IT.This consistent presence of committed investors provides startups with crucial access to capital, mentorship, and networks, creating a self-reinforcing ecosystem that continues to attract more talent and investment.The complete findings of this groundbreaking analysis will be unveiled at the inaugural ET Soonicorns Sundowner on July 31, 2025. This marks the beginning of the ET Soonicorns Sundowner series, a product of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 , now in its fourth edition. A first-of-its-kind report, this will offer fresh perspectives and foster new conversations.The sundowner will bring together the key players identified in the report–from unicorn, soonicorn, and minicorn founders to the investors powering their growth–for an evening of insights, networking, and strategic discussions about the future of India's startup ecosystem.As part of the broader ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 , this joint initiative aims to decode the real dynamics of regional startup power, going beyond celebratory lists to delve into the geography of entrepreneurship, the capital architecture of future unicorns, and the thematic bets that define this moment in India's startup journey.This report aims to serve as a roadmap for understanding how concentration, competition, and capital deployment are reshaping India's innovation landscape, one city at a time.360 One Wealth is the presenting partner of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025.