In January 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi envisioned that India would achieve the century mark in the Indian startups’ unicorn list, as last year, 42 new Indian startups joined the ‘unicorn club.’ Today, in the first week of May 2022, only after 5 months, India has got its 100th unicorn, adding to the landmark achievement for India’s Startup Economy.
The entry of Bengaluru-based neobanking startup Open, which raised a Series D funding round from IIFL with participation from Temasek, Tiger Global and 3one4 Capital, has claimed to have become the 100th unicorn in India.
In a celebratory tweet, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said, “India = Ideas+Innovation+Investments.
The 100th Unicorn of India – Open – states that it has increased its customer base to 2.3 Million in the past year and further plans to reach 5 million globally in the next year. The startup is founded in 2017 by Anish Achuthan, Ajeesh Achuthan, Mabel Chacko and Deena Jacob. Open is the platform that extends business banking, payments and expense management services to SMBs across India.
100 Unicorns: Indian Unicorn Landscape
The 3rd largest ecosystem for startups globally, India’s startup landscape has totally transformed in the past couple of years. In 2021, startups raised about $42 Bn across 1,579 deals, therefore leading to a unicorn spree. As of 25th March 2022, India registered 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.
The trend in the growth trajectory of unicorns can be understood by the fact that government interventions and private player participation have led to the scaling of the startups. The eye is now set on achieving a target of 1,000 unicorns within the next two-three years by the government.
Which sector is in lead?
Not only did Open become the 100th unicorn in India, but it is also the 20th unicorn in the fintech sector. Besides this, Open is also the third neobanking startup to enter the club after Zeta and Razorpay which also offer neobanking services.
Fintech is only the second startup sector to cross the 20 unicorns mark, after e-commerce which leads with 23 unicorn startups. Enterprise tech is on course to join this club next, with 17 unicorns from the sector.
