The new India is rapidly snowballing into a unicorn hub. Year 2021 proved to be a blockbuster year for startup funding as the country saw creation of 42 unicorns, a three times jump from 11 new unicorns in 2020 and nine in the previous year. More than $10 billion were raised by Indian startups in Q3 CY21 ( approx. 41% increase) driven largely by three sectors: FinTech, EdTech and SaaS. This was the first time that funding into privately-held Indian start-ups crossed $10 billion in a single quarter (Q3 CY21) across approximately 350 deals. What is most surprising on top of this is the fact that entrepreneurs, the government and the likes have started transitioning from the age of Unicorn to the age of Decacorn already. Every move and strategy of all the stakeholders involved, is now swirling around the same as India emerges as the third largest ecosystem for start-ups globally – after the US and China. 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.
A recent report named ‘Tech Unicorns Market landscape Report IV’ by venture growth investor – Iron Pillar, predicted that India will have more than 250 Unicorns by the year 2025. The report also highlights that the Unicorns in India include 58 global cloud companies, 59 B2C companies and 13 B2B companies. 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. Iron Pillar expects more Indian companies to expand outside the subcontinent over the coming years and focus on the Middle East & Southeast Asian regions. The public listing of 12 unicorns is another indicator of the increasing maturity of the Indian tech ecosystem.
In January 2022, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had 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. Certain factors have led to such a rapid growth of Unicorns across the country. 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. Today, 1 out of 10 unicorns globally have been born in India. Overall, 2021 experienced an exceptional boom in this sector. Soonicorns too are waiting in line to contribute to the shining startup ecosystem of India.
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