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It is no secret that India’s latest growth story is a tale of innovation and entrepreneurship. India’s unicorn club
is booming as is the overall startup landscape. Home to an impressive 107 unicorns with a total valuation of a
whopping $ 340.79 Bn, India has emerged as the 3rd largest ecosystem for startups globally (after US and
China) with over 77,000 recognized Startups as of 2022.
What’s more impressive is that 44 out of these startups shaping our economic landscape were born in 2021
alone! Building up on this established pace, the country further adorned its esteemed unicorn portfolio with 21
more unicorns in 2022 with a total valuation of $ 26.99 Bn. Today, 1 out every 10 unicorns globally have been
born in India.
With the foregoing snapshot of the latest data released by the DPIIT, it is crystal clear that in the backdrop of a
spirited and dynamic Indian economy, the Indian Unicorns have inked their thriving growth stories that have
become a global envy.
So, what exactly are these unicorns and what has led to this exponential growth in the number of Unicorns being
pumped out by the Indian economy? Let’s find out!
Page Contents
much anticipated 100th landmark with “Open”, a Bengaluru based neo-banking fintech portal.
The economy and the populace at large benefits from the innovation, development and improvement of products
and services introduced by these startups, and the resultant employment generation. In 2022 alone, for example,
startups created jobs to the tune of around 2,30,000, despite the layoffs.
Geographically, nation’s very own Silicon Valley, Bengaluru is India’s unicorn capital with the largest number
of unicorns headquarters, followed by Delhi (NCR) and Mumbai.
Evident from the graph above, till FY 2016-17, approximately one unicorn was being added every year,
followed by a remarkable boost from 2017, at a mighty 66% Year-on-Year growth rate.
Out of the total number of unicorns, 44 unicorns with a total valuation of $ 93.00 Bn were born in 2021, the
HIGHEST till date.
Apart from the colossal no. of new entries in the Unicorn club, 2021 also witnessed the following firsts:
Another achievement witnessed in 2021 was that the Indian Unicorn, Mensa Brands took only 6 months to
become a unicorn in 2021, making it one of fastest unicorns in Asia.
COVID-19 brought with itself, the age of digital businesses in India. The growth in the number of Unicorns in
India can thus be attributed to a trifecta of factors, as reiterated by Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala
Sitharaman:
Furthermore, the boom is largely led by tech companies, owing to increasing smartphone and internet userbase
in light of a much-needed digitization of economy during the pandemic.
India has emerged as the 3rd largest ecosystem for startups globally with over 77,000 DPIIT- recognized
startups, and ranks 2nd in innovation quality with top positions in the quality of scientific publications and the
quality of its universities among middle-income economies.
The perceived health of the Indian Startup Ecosystem is evident from the following data (2015-2022 till date), as
published by the Invest India:
With such a healthy functioning startup ecosystem, it is no surprise that we are witnessing an exponential
increase in the no. of new unicorns.
Incubation programs
Various Supportive Policies
Tax holidays
Tax benefit schemes
Emerging Trends
Sector Based Trends:
The lion’s share of India’s 107 unicorns is in the E-Commerce sector. It accounts for 23% of unicorns
and is followed closely by the Fintech Sector’s total of 22%.
Nykaa, LensKart, Flipkart, Cars24, and FirstCry are some e-Commerce names that have become a part of
most urban
FinTech is expected to take the crown of the ‘sector with most unicorns’ in the coming years, owing
largely to the fast economy-vide adoption of UPI as a payment system.
Surprisingly enough, the renewable energy sector has been graced with its very own Unicorn as well –
Renew Power, a company engaged primarily in assisting other companies with their ESG compliance.
Furthermore, the startup landscape is witnessing a strong wave of unconventional sectors as well, such as
Content, Gaming, Hospitality, Data management & analytics,
More and more Indian unicorns are aspiring to go public to tap into the enormous reservoirs of their
perceived growth potential. In fact, we have witnessed a number of big unicorns joining the IPO
bandwagon in the recent years, including Zomato, Nykaa, PolicyBazaar, Paytm and Freshworks, though
the success of their IPOs varies.
The alternative forms of finance, such as bank loans, venture debt, and revenue-based financing, appear
to be becoming more popular in India than the country’s more conventional methods of funding.
The creation of new unicorns without any investment to the tune of a billion dollars highlights the
changing funding situation in India. Zerodha, for example, bootstrapping since its inception, has changed
the game and serves as an example for the entire ecosystem.
A decacorn is company that has attained a valuation of more than $ 10 Bn. Unicorns no longer being a
rarity for the Indian startup landscape, the country’s aspirations are slowly venturing into the “Decacron”
zone. Indian Unicorns have now found themselves joining the quest for the esteemed Decacorn title,
following the trail set by their Majority of these decacorn club contenders are from the fintech sector.
Four Indian startups, namely, Flipkart, BYJU’s, Nykaa and Swiggy, have marked their presence in the
Decacorn club, adorned with a total of 46 companies globally.
Sector-wise, it is interesting to note that e-commerce unicorns lead the unicorn category in India as opposed
to the fintech sector that takes the lead on global platform.
Future Outlook:
Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics &
Technology anticipates that the nation would witness an augmented boost in the next 2-3 years in its current
unicorn count, as high as 10 times the current figures, which will round up to a total of more than 1,000. The
next wave of startup founders is expected to come from the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India, per the Central
Government’s estimates.
Whereas, a report titled “India Tech Trends” portrays a conservative yet promising estimate of a total of 250
Indian unicorns by 2025.
Furthermore, based on the established trends in the recent years, we can expect a significant number of the
Unicorns joining the IPO bandwagon in the upcoming years as well. The Decacorn club is also anticipated to
roll out the red carpet for more and more Indian unicorns in the near-future.
In addition, all major economies are intertwined with each other. Slow-down in another part of the world is
bound to affect another. It is also important to note that India only added around 21 unicorns in 2022, compared
to previous year’s 44. Despite this, the country still appears to be a very lucrative investment opportunity.
And if the experts’ estimations are correct, it will likely continue to rain unicorns in the future as well, as the
Indian middle class is only getting stronger.