India becomes world’s third-largest Startup Ecosystem after US & China: 25 unicorns listed in 2021 alone
India’s total 51 Unicorns till date are now worth over $168 billion and the average age of founders in the list was 39 years.
India has emerged as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China and the pace of growth is not showing any signs of slowing down.
Over the last year, India has added three unicorns every month taking the total count to 51, ahead of the UK (32) and Germany (18).
A privately-held startup company valued at over $1 billion is called a unicorn.
The US tops the list with 396 unicorns, while China is at the second spot with 277, showed data from Hurun Research Institute. India’s unicorns are currently worth $168 billion.
Hurun India report said, “India is the third-largest Unicorn ecosystem in the world and the number of Gazelles (starups that will go unicorn in 2 years) and Cheetahs (starups that will go unicorn in 4 years) in India is growing at an exponential pace.
India is now a home to more than 600 million internet users and is expected to have 900 million users by 2025. The adoption of internet in rural areas will further compliment the rise of technology start-ups. Fintech companies operating in mobile payments, insurance, blockchain, stock trading and digital lending will grow further to capitalize the internet penetration.”
The average age of founders in the list was 39 years. Most of the founders of the start-ups featured in Hurun Future Unicorn List graduated/ post-graduated from either IIT Delhi or IIM Ahmedabad.
Eight startups — fintech startup CRED, social media startup ShareChat, wealth management company Groww, messaging platform Gupshup, social commerce startup Meesho and epharmacy PharmEasy — entered the unicorn club in April 2021. In May, Moglix and Zeta turned unicorns, while June saw the entry of BrowserStack. In July, logistics tech startup BlackBuck became a unicorn, followed by Droom and OfBusiness. In August last month, BharatPe followed by the entry of Mindtickle, upGrad and crypto exchange CoinDCX.
At this rate, India will manage to get more than 100 unicorns by 2023, much earlier than the previous estimation of 2025 as suggested by reports in the past.
E-commerce, FinTech and SaaS comprise 49 per cent of the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021 With 31 start-ups, Bengaluru is the start-up capital of India followed by Delhi NCR (18) and Mumbai (13). RateGain, MobiKwik, MedPlus, Fino Paytech and ixigo are preparing for IPO to raise Rs 6,840 crore by the end of this year. CoinSwitch Kuber is the only crypto start-up in the list.
