New Delhi, Aug 9 (IANS): One in two investors (50 per cent) are positive that the startup funding spring will return over the next 6-12 months in India, a report showed on Wednesday.

Nearly 17 per cent of investors surveyed think the funding winter may end even sooner and the rest believe it would be 12-18 months or more before the funding winter passes, according to the report by Bengaluru-based market research firm Redseer.

In all, the US, EU, the UAE and Japan are the largest source of funding for Indian startups, making up 5 per cent of total global funding and 20 per cent of total APAC funding.

According to the report, the next set of unicorns would emerge from sectors such as D2C-BPC, D2C-health and wellness, diagnostics and clinics, gaming and app studios.

“The expectation with funding patterns so far is that 2023 will revert to the long-term trends in line with the years CY17 to CY20, and hover between $12 to $15 billion, beyond which it is expected to be bullish into CY24 and touch $15-20 billion,” said Kanishka Mohan, a partner at Redseer.

The number of funding deals which dropped early in CY23 to 700-900 deals from 1,519 deals in CY22 is also expected to shoot back in CY24 to 1,000-1,200 deals.

“Moreover, VCs today have more dry powder than ever, also signalling a positive outlook are the total number of deals this year, 90 per cent of which are likely to be seed or early-stage deals similar in trend with what was seen since CY17,” Mohan noted.

The number of registered startups has grown 9X in the last four years, from about 10,000 startups in CY18 to about 90,000 startups in CY22.

At the same time, the number of active investors has grown 2X from 400 investors in CY18 to about 900 investors as of FY22, said the report.