ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 to unveil sectoral findings: Gurugram Sundowner will reveal Delhi-NCR’s powerhouse sectors

As the countdown begins to the Economic Times Soonicorns Summit 2025 Gurugram Sundowner on 11th September, anticipation builds around the comprehensive sectoral findings that will reshape our understanding of one of India’s most dynamic startup innovation clusters. Early glimpses from The Economic Times ‘Top Soonicorns and Minicorns of Delhi-NCR 2025 | Priority Sectors’ report, created in collaboration with research partner Tracxn, reveal a stunning transformation underway—one that positions the National Capital Region (NCR) not merely as a geographical powerhouse, but as the architect of India’s technological and sustainable future. This comprehensive report includes a sharp analysis and insights drawn from Tracxn’s curated data spanning January 2020 and June 2025.

The $2.0 billion EV revolution
Perhaps the most striking revelation emerging from the data is the Electric Vehicle (EV) commanding position as the most capital-intensive sector in Delhi-NCR’s startup landscape. With a staggering $2.0 billion in funding attracted from 219 investors, the EV sector demonstrates an average funding per round of $12.7 million; a figure that underscores the massive, strategic bets being placed on India’s green transition.

This investment surge extends far beyond vehicle manufacturing, encompassing the entire ecosystem from battery technology and swapping networks to charging infrastructure and sophisticated management software. The presence of seven soonicorns in this space confirms that Delhi-NCR has been building momentum in India’s sustainable mobility revolution, driven by government incentives, including the FAME-II scheme and growing consumer consciousness around environmental sustainability.

Consumer commerce titans emerge
The consumer-facing triumvirate of Online Grocery, FashionTech, and E-commerce Enablers forms another pillar of Delhi-NCR’s sectoral dominance. Online Grocery has emerged as a particular titan, with 312 investors pouring $1.1 billion into the sector across 222 rounds. The rise of “quick commerce,” promising deliveries in under 15 minutes, has transformed this into a high-stakes battleground of logistics, technology, and capital deployment.

Fashion Tech showcases the region’s creative and commercial prowess with an extraordinary 666 startups founded over the past five years—making it the most fertile ground for new venture creation amongst the top ten sectors. However, with only three soonicorns emerging from this vast pool, the data suggests a highly fragmented market where many compete, but few achieve significant scale.

Supporting this consumer boom are the E-commerce Enablers, the crucial business-to-business (B2B) infrastructure providers that have attracted $1.5 billion in funding. With a high average funding per round of $9.9 million, investors are clearly placing substantial, strategic bets on companies building the foundational digital plumbing for India’s e-commerce economy.

Double-engine FinTech frontier
The financial technology landscape reveals a fascinating dual narrative. Alternative Lending stands as a crown jewel, with 303 investors contributing a massive $1.7 billion in funding. This sector directly addresses India’s vast credit gap for individuals and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) underserved by traditional banking, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for sophisticated alternative credit scoring.

Meanwhile, InvestmentTech represents the democratisation wave of wealth management, with 368 startups founded despite a more modest total funding of $264.8 million. This divergence—between the capital-intensive lending space and the early-stage wealth tech ecosystem—illustrates the sector’s maturation trajectory.

Deep tech infrastructure building
The prominence of LogisticsTech, with $1.4 billion in funding from 219 investors, signals the ecosystem’s focus on foundational infrastructure. These startups are leveraging AI, Internet of Things (IoT), and automation to streamline supply chains, with a healthy average funding of $7.9 million per round, highlighting their critical role in optimising Indian commerce.

HRTech emerges as another significant domain, with 481 startups founded to address evolving workplace needs. The global shift towards remote and hybrid work models has created surging demand for tools that streamline recruitment, automate payroll, and enhance employee engagement in distributed environments.

Education’s twin pillars
The education technology space reveals two distinct yet powerful segments. K-12 EdTech, with $883.8 million in funding from 231 investors, experienced explosive pandemic growth and now evolves towards sustainable hybrid learning models. Its two soonicorns represent the sector’s leading edge.

Continued Learning, focused on upskilling and professional education, shows remarkable entrepreneurial activity with 556 startups founded. Most tellingly, its 16 acquisitions represent the highest amongst the top ten sectors, suggesting a mature market undergoing significant consolidation as larger players acquire innovative platforms.

Hidden giants and surprising standouts
Beyond the primary sectors lie some of Delhi-NCR’s most financially powerful domains. Payments, despite not ranking in the top ten by investor volume, has raised a colossal $1.8 billion and boasts five mega-rounds—the highest in the dataset. Its average funding per round of $18.0 million indicates a domain of established giants and highly-funded scale-ups.

Auto E-commerce & Content presents another compelling narrative, with an average funding per round of $25.5 million—the second-highest across all sectors. This reflects extraordinary investor confidence in a few dominant platforms focusing on online vehicle sales and related content.

Perhaps most intriguingly, Healthcare Payer Tech demonstrates the power of niche specialisation, with an astronomical average funding per round of $33.4 million. Though limited to eight funding rounds, these massive investments suggest exceptional capital intensity in health insurance and public payer technology.

The transformation trajectory
The sectoral data reveals a clear evolution from consumer-app dominance towards deep tech, enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS), and sustainability solutions. Delhi-NCR is positioning itself to lead India’s green transition through EV and cleantech dominance, whilst deepening FinTech specialisation moves beyond broad consumer platforms towards embedded finance and industry-specific solutions.

The high acquisition rate in sectors such as Internet-First Media, with 10 acquisitions despite modest $136.9 million funding, signals ecosystem maturity where valuable intellectual property and engaged user bases become attractive targets for larger corporations.

Awaiting the complete picture
As industry leaders Dr Panneerselvam Madanagopal, CEO of MeitY Startup Hub, Tarun Sharma, Head of Healthcare and Consumer at 360 ONE Asset, and Deepak Ajwani, Editor at EconomicTimes.com, prepare to unveil the comprehensive findings at the ET Soonicorns Gurugram Sundowner, the startup ecosystem awaits crucial insights into pipeline visibility, competitive dynamics, and future investment patterns.

The report’s wide-angle view encompasses not just the dominant Delhi-Gurugram-Noida triad, but emerging hubs, including Ghaziabad, Faridabad, and the slowly developing long tail of NCR cities such as Sonipat, Rohtak, and Palwal. This geographical expansion, combined with sectoral depth, promises to reveal the true complexity and potential of one of India’s most dynamic innovation clusters.

For investors seeking sectoral granularity, founders benchmarking against peers, and policymakers refining incentives, the unveiling of complete sectoral rankings, detailed competitive analysis, and strategic insights will provide the definitive roadmap for navigating Delhi-NCR’s transformed startup landscape. One where sustainable technology, enterprise solutions, and financial innovation converge to build not just India’s future, but solutions that will power the world.

360 One is the Presenting Partner of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, with Tracxn as Research Partner and Paul John Visitor Centre as Experience Partner.