Indian startups and investors are coming to the conclusion of a year that included everything: record valuations, massive investment rounds, the birth of over 40 unicorns, and public listings in both directions.
India had a fantastic year in terms of the number of new unicorns. Only the United States and China were ahead of it, and it surpassed the United Kingdom. There were 54 unicorns from India, up from 33 the year before. With a valuation of $21 billion, India’s most successful unicorn is edtech behemoth Byju’s. It is ranked 15th in the world.
The Hurun Research Institute’s Global Unicorn Index 2021 is a ranking of the world’s start-ups that were created in the 2000s, have a market capitalisation of at least a billion dollars, and are not publicly traded. The deadline for submissions was November 30.
Ahead of many developed countries
With 54 unicorn startups, India came in third. In terms of total unicorn companies, India ranks ahead of numerous developed nations, including the United Kingdom (39), Germany (26), France (19), Israel (17), Canada (15), Brazil (12), and South Korea(10).
“India is in the midst of a start-up boom, more than doubling its unicorns to raise the country’s official tally to 54, and overtaking the UK to third place in the globe,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and Chief Researcher at Hurun India. While another 65 unicorns were formed by Indians outside of India, mostly in Silicon Valley, the percentage of domestic unicorns has increased from one-third to 45 percent, indicating that India’s start-up ecosystem is maturing.”
According to Rupert Hoogewerf, Chairman and Chief Researcher of the Hurun Report, countries with the most unicorns have a more dynamic economy. At least one unicorn can now be found in 42 economies, up from 25 just two years ago. However, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Poland are among 160 countries where no unicorns have been discovered. Mexico, the Netherlands, the Bahamas, Belgium, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Senegal, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam are among the thirteen countries that have produced unicorns for the first time.
Top Indian unicorns of 2021
In India, 54 unicorns were discovered, with Byju’s being the most popular. Second on the list is adtech unicorn InMobi, which is valued at $12B, followed by OYO ($9.5B), Razorpay ($7.5B), Ola ($7B), PharmEasy and Swiggy ($5.5B), Dream11 and OfBusiness ($5B), BrowerStack, CRED, Meesho, and Zerodha ($4.4B).
In addition, the top 100 unicorns in the world are Byju’s, InMobi, OYO, Razorpay, and Ola.
Fintech, edtech, e-commerce, and the shared economy are some of the sectors in India that have seen the most unicorns.
Global Unicorns
ByteDance is the most valuable company in the world, valued at $350B, followed by Ant Group at $150B, SpaceX at $100B, finch Stripe at $95B, Klarna at $46B, Canva at $40B, InstaCart at $39B, Databricks at $38B, Cainiao at $34B, and Revolut at $33B.
Sequoia Capital is the most successful unicorn investor in the world. According to Hurun, it invested in one out of every five unicorns on the planet. Tiger Fund has surpassed SoftBank to claim second place.
“Unicorns are supposed to be difficult to find,” Hoogewerf remarked, “but investors like Sequoia, Tiger Fund, and Softbank make it appear easy.”
