Over the years, India has shown its potential as a lucrative market for doing businesses by offering a business-friendly ecosystem, wherein companies can make the most of their expansion plans by grasping the growth opportunities which led to the unprecedented pace of new company formation and innovation in a variety of sectors of the nation.
As a result, with reference to India’s startup industry, if seen 2021 at a glance, India currently has 54 unicorns, 33 more than what the country had last year, i.e 2020. With this, India has overtaken the United Kingdom to rank third – to lead in the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem. The report released by Hurun India indicated the Indian city Banglore itself has more unicorns than major hubs or cities including Boston, Palo, Alto, Paris, Berlin, Chicago among others. The Indian city of Bengaluru has 28 unicorns, thus, making it the seventh-highest tally in the world.
The word in Spotlight: Unicorns
You might have come across the word ‘Unicorn’ several times while reading about start-ups, but ever wondered why some of the startups are given the title of Unicorns and if given, what are the criteria of getting the concerned title?
In venture capital industry, the term unicorn refers to any Startup or unlisted company that reaches the valuation of $1 billion or more. The term Unicorn was first coined by Aileen Lee – founder of Cowboy ventures when she referred to the 39 startups that reached a valuation of over $1 billion as unicorns. Since then, the definition of a unicorn startup remained unchanged.
Follow NRI Affairs on Facebook and Twitter for latest updates.
A glance at India’s Unicorn Boom in 2021:
India in 2021 has 54 unicorns while the United Kingdom currently has 39 unicorns, 15 up from a year earlier, according to the Hurun report.
India currently has 54 unicorns, 33 more than what the country had in 2020, while the UK currently has 39 unicorns, 15 up from a year earlier, according to the Hurun report. Hurun Research also suggested in its report that India led the way for emigrant unicorn founders, followed by China, Israel and Russia. According to the report, Indians have founded 65 unicorns outside India, including Postman, Innovaccer, Icertis, Moglix among others.
While the whole industry in India is maturing to lead in the fastest growing Startup Ecosystem; the edtech platform Byju’s, owned and operated by Think and Learn Pvt Ltd and InMobi Technologies Pvt Ltd, are considered India’s most valuable unicorns, with valuation reaching upto $21 billion and $12 billion respectively. According to the reports, Byju’s is now the world’s 15th most valuable unicorn while InMobi is the 28th most valued unicorn. Moreover, Oyo is the third-most valued startup in the country and 45th most valued unicorn globally, with a valuation of $9.5 billion.
Some reports have suggested that 87% of unicorns products are software, 7% are hardware and 6% are other products and services. In India, about 15 unicorns are in the e-commerce space – which is, according to reports are the third-largest number after the US and China.
