In what should come as heartening news for Indians after yesterday’s heartbreak at being placed at No. 142 in the Doing Business ratings released by the World bank, India has been found to be the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world, behind only the USA and UK and also the fastest growing one says the India Start-up Report 2014 read at the three day National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Product Conclave 2014 in Bangalore.

At an event attended by more than 225 international and national speakers where more than 120 product companies will be showcased, Indian startups being listed among the top three in the world is a remarkable achievement indeed.

The following were the key findings of this study:

More than 800 start-ups are being set up in the country every year.

There are nearly 3,100 start-ups in India at present. Their number is expected to grow to 11,500 by the end of 2020. A phenomenal increase of 270% within the coming six years!

The exponential rise in the number of start-ups will also lead to more employment opportunities. They will employ almost 250,000 people by the end of 2020, as opposed to 75,000 being employed currently. An increase of more than 230% once again.

There have been more than 70 VC/PE investments in the last five years in the domestic start-up ecosystem, with an investment involving more than $2 billion.

20 mergers and acquisitions have been affected over the last three years, the total worth of deals exceeding $ 1 billion.

More than 90% of the start-up activity comes from bigger cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Chennai and Hyderabad.

“The Indian start-up ecosystem is rapidly evolving driven by extremely young, diverse and inclusive entrepreneurial landscape,” said Nasscom President R. Chandrashekhar. “An additional driving force is a four-fold increase in access to capital through VCs, angel investment and seed funding for the Indian entrepreneurs.”

Some of the main factors which have contributed towards this robust growth are:

A rapid growth in the software product industry in the last few years over the country (and across the globe)

Availability of capital, and

Acquisitions

The Indian startup ecosystem is today, as a result of this healthy growth and changing mindset, all set to take on the challenges in the Asian market, and become a major force to reckon with at the international level.

Speaking on the sidelines of the conclave, Mr. Ravi Gururaj, Chairman, NASSCOM Product Council, said “Scaling up, Design and Growth Hacking are the key priority for startups today. On the innovation front, it is imperative to increase collaboration and partnerships for product companies with platform players, IT Services, Global MNCs and CIOs. The conclave this year will showcase interesting technologies that are evangelizing the product space and that are poised to become ubiquitous across both the consumer and industrial fabric of our society.”