Quick take:
India’s top tech industry advocacy group, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), has just published its first-ever study on the Web3 landscape in the country.
According to the NASSCOM report, there are over 450 active Web3 startups in India, including four unicorns as of Q2 this year. Compared to 2015, this number has increased about sixfold. Over 60% of those startups have gone global, with headquarters around the world, although their largest talent base remains in India.
Indian Web3 startups are creating solutions in areas including finance, gaming, infrastructure, decentralised communities, and more to bridge the gap between Web2 and the new iteration of the internet.
Since 2020, over $1.3 billion has been invested in Web3 in India, the report stated. Furthermore, India has the world’s third-largest Web3 talent pool, with nearly 75,000 blockchain professionals employed today. The number is expected to grow by over 120% in the next 1-2 years.
India is poised to emerge as a key player in the global Web3 landscape as the country foresees over 900 million active internet users by 2025, up from 750 million in 2021, largely driven by 5G adoption.
“India’s rapid adoption of new age technologies, its growing startup ecosystem, and the large-scale digitally skilled talent potential are all the right building blocks for India to emerge as a key player in the global Web3 landscape. On the consumption side also, India has the right economic and demographic elements to become a high-growth Web3 market,” Sangeeta Gupta, senior VP and chief strategy officer at Nasscom, told Times of India.
Some notable Web3 companies from India include Polygon, co-founded by Sandeep Nailwal; and NFT analytics startup, bitsCrunch, which partnered with Mastercard in April to help non-crypto natives secure their digital assets.
Indian e-commerce company Flipkart has also jumped into Web3 with an NFT drop in partnership with London-based consumer tech company, Nothing, as well as a collaboration with Polygon-incubated web3 firm eDAO to launch Flipverse.
Last month, Meta announced that it is collaborating with India’s IT ministry to launch a metaverse accelerator program that targets extended reality startups in the country.
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