India Startup Ecosystem TimeLine

The Indian startup ecosystem originated with software services startups serving Indian software needs, and later expanding to exporting software services. The next generation of Indian product startups had founders who had worked in these services startups, or were moving back from the Silicon Valley, having worked in product startups in the US. Venture Capital investments were kicked off by TDICI, a government entity, followed by other VCs from the Silicon Valley.

The third wave of startups were founded in the dot-com era, included marketplaces, e-commerce vendors, and portals. The fourth wave started around 2007-08, and comprised e-commerce, logistics, marketplaces, and advertising startups.

Ecosystem players such as TiE, NASSCOM, iSPIRT, and various incubators & accelerators such as CIIE, IIIT Hyderabad, Startup Village, 10000 Startups, Microsoft Ventures, have significantly increased the maturity of the ecosystem by providing a platform for entrepreneurs to learn and grow very quickly.

List of companies

Date	Key Event	Source
1968	TCS started
1981	Infosys started
1982	CyberMedia formed[1]
1986	Tally started[2]
1988	NASSCOM[3]
1988	First VC investment in India by TDICI[4]
1990	GVFC[5]
1991	STPI
1991	VSNL provides email
1992	iFlex founded[6]
1992	Newgen founded
1993	VSAT links allowed for pvt Internet links
1993	QuickHeal founded
1994	First Incubators - IITM Tenet Group
1995	VSNL provides public Internet access[7]
1996	Zoho Corporation founded
1997	APIDC [8]
1998	Intel Capital India[9]
1999	Fabmall, first Indian ecommerce site
1999	TiE Bangalore [10]
1999	ChrysalisCapital
2000	Westbridge Capital
2001	Foss.in
2004	Silicon Valley Bank sets up shop in Bangalore, invites US VCs to explore possibilities in India
2006	InMobi founded as mKhoj
2006	Pubmatic founded
2006	Bar Camp Bangalore [11]
2006	iFlex acquisition
2006	Mentor Partners and Morpheus - first Accelerators
2006	Helion[12]
2006	Cross border VC from India - Nexus [13]
2007	OCC Bangalore[14]
2007	Proto.in
2007	NASSCOM Product Conclave [15]
2008	Funding crossses 1B in one year[16]
2008	Travelyaari.com[17]
2012	SlideShare acquisition
2012	Microsoft Ventures India
2013	Redbus.in acquisition
2013	iSPIRT founded[18]
2013	NASSCOM 10000 startups
2013	Flintobox Founded[19]

Areas of interest

Areas of interest include SW services industry, MNC product industry, HW/Semiconductor, Indian product industry, 1st Ecom boom, Industry bodies, Ecosystem events, Startup publications, Forums, Roundtables, Key startup founding date, Key acquisition/M&A dates, Incubators/Accelerators, 2nd ecom boom, 2nd funding boom, Corp VCs, VCs.

References

1. "Cyber Media (India) > Company History > Media & Entertainment > Company History of Cyber Media (India) - BSE: 532640, NSE: CYBERMEDIA". Moneycontrol.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
2. "SS Goenka, founder of Tally Solutions, dies". CIOL. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
3. Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC). "THE SOFTWARE JOURNEY OF INDIA AND THE ROAD GOING FORWARD | Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC)". Iaccindia.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
4. "The Venture Capital Funds in India". Indianmba.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
5. "GVFL Limited". Gvfl.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
6. "i-flex solutions' Rajesh Hukku: 'No One Dreamed That $400,000 Would Become Almost $600 Million in 13 Years' - Knowledge@Wharton". Knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu. 2007-03-23. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
7. "VSNL starts India's first Internet service today". dxm.org. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
8. "Bizcircle.net | A company search service from The VCCircle Network". Vccircle.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
9. "Intel Capital Investing in Global Innovation" (PDF). Intelcapital.com. January 2014. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
10. "The Indus Entrepreneurs - Bangalore Chapter". LinkedIn. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
11. "BarCamp / PreviousBarCamps". Barcamp.org. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
12. "Home | Helion Ventures". Helionvc.com. 2015-10-05. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
13. "Nexus Venture Partners". crunchbase.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
14. "Google Groups". Groups.google.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
15. "Yusuf Motiwala's Blog » Blog Archive » Barcamp Bangalore 5 & NASSCOM Product Conclave 2007". Blog.motiwala.com. 2007-11-25. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
16. "Global venture capital insights and trends report 2011 - Venture capital perspectives - India - EY - Global". EY. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
17. "How IIM-A incubatee is changing bus ticketing". .rediff.com. Retrieved 2015-12-24.
18. "ISPIRT - Overview". Aihitdata.com. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
19. "Flintobox Making Learning Fun". thehindu.com/. Retrieved 2015-05-25.