In the past year, India has added three unicorns every month, taking the total number to 51, ahead of the UK (32) and Germany (18). A privately held startup company worth over $1 billion is called Unicorn.
Data from the Hurun Research Institute shows that the US tops the list with 396 unicorns, while China is second with 277. India’s unicorn is currently worth $168 billion, which is more than Telangana’s GDP at current prices.
Hurun India Managing Director and Chief Researcher Anas Rehman Junaid said that apart from unicorns, the number of futuristic unicorns, called “gazzles” and “cheetahs”, is growing rapidly in India.
“Gazelle” is a startup founded after 2000 that has the potential to go unicorn in two years, while “Cheetah” could be unicorn in the next four years. Estimated valuations of gazelles range from $500 million to $1 billion and cheetahs range from $200 million to $500 million.
Junaid said, “Preparation of Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021 has been one of the toughest tasks, mainly because of the positive activism in the Indian start-up ecosystem.” “For example, at the beginning of our research we had as many as five start-ups jumped straight to unicorn valuations as Cheetah.”
Online retail store Zilingo is the most valuable Gazelle and digital furniture platform Pepperfry is the most valuable Cheetah. Mobile Premier League (MPL), Rebel Foods, Cure.Fit, Spinny and Mamaearth join a long list of unicorns of the future, worth $36 billion, equivalent to a third of Delhi’s GDP at current prices.
The top investors in Gazelles and Cheetahs are Sequoia, followed by Tiger Global with 37 and 18 investments, respectively. E-commerce, fintech and SaaS comprise 49% of the future Unicorn list.
Entrepreneurs on the Hurun India Rich List have invested in Ghazals and Cheetahs, the data showed. CRED founder Kunal Shah tops the list with nine start-up investments, followed by Binny Bansal with five and Ratan Tata with four. Infosys co-founders Nandan Nilekani (3), NR Narayana Murthy (2) and Kris Gopalakrishnan (1) have also invested in start-ups on the list.
With 31 start-ups, Bengaluru is the start-up capital of India, followed by Delhi NCR (18) and Mumbai (13). Bengaluru is home to 11 gazelles and 20 cheetahs with a cumulative valuation of $12.4 billion. 68% of these companies are headquartered in the top three cities.
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