India overtakes China in tech exits, now ranks in global top 5

If there wasn’t enough reason already to invest in Indian startups this year, here’s another one: tech exits have gathered momentum. So much so that India has established itself among the top five markets for exits globally, and is now the leading one from Asia – ahead of even China.

China had some of the largest tech exits in 2014, including IPOs for Alibaba and Jumei, as well as UCWeb’s acquisition by Alibaba. But in overall tech exit activity – that is, the number of M&As and IPOs – India overtook China last year.

An analysis of exits around the world, just released by tech M&A tracker CB Insights, confirms a few trends and also throws up some surprises.

Canada is the new El Dorado

Canada is the newest El Dorado, jumping to the number three spot in tech exits, behind the US and UK. Germany comes in at number four, and India completes the top five. China is down to sixth place. Among other Asian markets in the top 20, Singapore is number 13, and Japan is 18th. Indonesia is ranked 26, Malaysia 29, and South Korea 34, while Vietnam and the Philippines are tied for the 38th rank.

Ecommerce drives exits in India

In India, internet firms took the lion’s share of exits, reflecting the investment momentum in the ecommerce space last year. Flipkart had a billion dollar funding round, then Japan’s Softbank came in to bolster Snapdeal with two-thirds of a billion dollars. They were among the highest funded Indian tech startups of 2014

One out of five exits were in mobile sector

While internet companies dominated deals not just in India but globally too, the ascent of mobile was evident. This sector accounted for out of every five tech exits in 2014. Facebook, Intuit, and Microsoft were the most active with multiple mobile company acquisitions. Interestingly, mobile firms had the highest share of exits in Canada and Germany.