The Start-up stories in India are gaining traction on the heels of government support and schemes that resulted in creating a startup ecosystem of 84 Unicorns with over USD 1 billion valuations in the country.
A recent report by venture growth investor – Iron Pillar, predicted that India will have more than 250 Unicorns by the year 2025. This prediction was stated in their report named – Tech Unicorns Market landscape Report IV.
InMobi, founded in 2007, became the first unicorn startup in India and thus, since then, the unicorn league of Indian startups followed. As of 25th March 2022, India is home to 94 unicorns with a total valuation of $319.67 Bn. From 2019 to 2021, India witnessed the birth of the maximum number of unicorns with 44, 10 and 9 unicorns coming each year respectively.
Pointers from the Report:
According to the report Indian companies are building cloud products for the world and are proving to be capital-efficient, as they have attained unicorn status with 42% less capital as compared to business-to-consumer (B2C) businesses.
The report also highlights that the Unicorns in India include 58 global cloud companies, 59 B2C companies and 13 B2B companies.
Iron Pillar is expecting more Indian companies to expand outside the subcontinent over the coming years and focus on the Middle East & Southeast Asian regions.
50% of the 130 firms reached unicorn status in the first five years after their initial institutional fundraising. The public listing of 12 unicorns is another indicator of the increasing maturity of the Indian tech ecosystem, the report by Iron Pillar has noted.
What triggered the growth of Unicorns lately?
In January 2022, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal expressed hope that the startup community of India should nurture 75 more unicorns in 2022. His optimism was based on the massive funding the Indian startups were getting, which continued to flow at a rapid pace and more new-age enterprises continued to reach a $1 billion value.
There are various factors that triggered the growth of Unicorns. During the peak of the pandemic, Indian Entrepreneurs encashed the opportunity to not only contribute to the economy but also to contribute toward Covid-19 relief efforts. “It is raining Unicorns” has been the motto of the year 2021 with 44 unicorns joining the star status. The contributing factors for fueling such growth include – a thriving digital payments ecosystem, a large smartphone user base, digital-first business models, attractive government schemes and policies, and investors’ interest in India.
It is indeed a note to mention that today, 1 out of 10 unicorns globally have been born in India. Overall, 2021 experienced an exceptional boom in this sector and soonicorns are waiting in line to contribute to the shining startup ecosystem of India.
What is Next?
Going by the order, after Unicorn, Decacorn comes. We are gradually transitioning from the age of Unicorn to the age of Decacorn. Simply put, the status of decacorn is extended to a company that has attained a valuation of more than $10 Bn.
As of January 2022, 46 companies globally have attained the decacorn status. India has four startups namely Flipkart, BYJU’s, Paytm and Swiggy – that have achieved this status.
