India is the third-largest hub for startup unicorns, with a total of 68 companies in the billion-dollar valuation club, according to The Hurun Research Institute’s Global Unicorn Index 2023.
Edtech giant BYJU’S topped the list for India with a valuation of $22 billion – the 10th biggest rise in valuations since before the pandemic. It was followed by food delivery and quick commerce startup Swiggy and fantasy sports platform Dream11 (each worth $8 billion).
While none of the Indian startups featured in the list of top 10 startups globally, logistics unicorn Delhivery bagged the 14th spot on the list of top IPOs last year. Additionally, 70 unicorns were started by Indian co-founders outside of India, bringing the total number of unicorns founded by Indians globally to 138.
Most of the unicorns founded outside of India were in the US (64), with two in the UK, and one each in Germany, Singapore, Indonesia, and Mexico.
India’s co-founded 70 unicorns outside of India compared with 68 in India, whilst Chinese co-founded 32 outside of China, compared with 316 in China,” the report noted. According to the report, there are currently 1,361 unicorns globally—up 303 from last year.
The US leads with 666 unicorns—an increase of 179 and representing 49% of the world’s total unicorn count—while China comes second with 316 unicorns. The period since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic saw the fastest unicorn creation rate in history, averaging one new unicorn per day.