India has cemented its spot as the third-ranked nation with the highest number of unicorns, according to the Global Unicorn Index 2023 released by Hurun Report. This list includes three of India’s most valuable startups – BYJU’s, Swiggy, and Dream11.
The ed-tech decacorn, BYJU’s, is valued at a whopping $22 billion and has seen a significant increase in its valuation since the pre-COVID-19 era. Softbank-backed Swiggy and sports fantasy game Dream11 also feature in the top unicorn list, valued at $8 billion each.
India presently has 138 unicorns, including 70 established by Indian co-founders but headquartered overseas. Most unicorns formed outside India were in the United States, i.e. 64, with two in the United Kingdom. Germany, Singapore, Indonesia, and Mexico have one each.
The remaining 68 are based in India, demonstrating the promise of the Indian startup ecosystem. India is also ranked third in terms of the number of gazelles.
According to Hurun, gazelle is — a startup funded in the 2000s, worth more than $500 million, is not yet publicly traded, and is predicted to become a unicorn within three years.
Furthermore, India is ranked fifth on the Hurun Global 500 firms list, which includes the world's most valuable non-state-controlled corporations. However, due to a larger share of gazelles and unicorns, we can predict a higher number of Hurun Global 500 firms in the near future.
Goldman Sachs, Y Combinator, Accel, Tencent, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, are also among unicorn investors.
Lastly, the research says — there are presently 1,361 unicorns worldwide, an increase of 303 over the previous year. The US tops the globe with 666 unicorns, a gain of 179 and 49% of the entire unicorn count, while China ranked second with 316 unicorns.
— Kritika Singhal
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