Indian Web3 startups saw significant growth in investment activity in 2024, raising $564 million, a substantial increase from the previous year. India now boasts the fastest-growing developer community and is projected to surpass the U.S. by 2028.
Funding Still Below 2022 Peak
In 2024, Indian Web3 startups raised $564 million, up from $270 million in the previous year, with investments in the infrastructure sector accounting for a disproportionate share of the total. However, as shown by data in Hashed Emergent’s latest report on India’s Web3 landscape, the funds raised by Web3 startups still fall short of the $1.4 billion raised in 2022.
The Hashed Emergent report also found that the number of funding deals recorded in the past year were 43% higher than those closed in 2023. Accelerators, Layer 1 and 2 ecosystems, and global Web3 funds contributed to the surge in deals closed.
Commenting on the infrastructure sector’s more than 200% growth in capital raised to fund mainly artificial intelligence (AI), middleware and data tooling projects, the report states:
“This sector [infrastructure] saw Indian founders who have settled abroad raise funding for global category-defining companies such as EigenLayer, Sentient and Avail. Additionally, other emerging areas such as DePIN and BaaS also raised funding as investors increasingly view a decentralized future for several industries, particularly in the age of AI, where costs of coordination are likely to compress.”
Meanwhile, the finance sector of India’s Web3 industry also saw a more than 50% surge in investment activity to $86 million, the first increase since 2021. Data shows that since peaking at $640 million, capital allocated to the finance sector had been declining and appeared to have bottomed in 2023, when only $55 million was raised. The report attributes the apparent recovery to a push toward liquid restaking, real-world asset tokenization and multi-chain financial tools.
Regarding developer activity, India, as indicated by data, had the fastest-growing developer community after it saw a 28% year-over-year increase in the number of open-source developers to 4.5 million. This figure dwarfs the combined number of such developers in the next four top ranked countries. According to the report, India is on course to leapfrog the United States and have the largest developer community by 2028.
