India's start-ups on a roll; nine unicorns produced in 2019 alone

The States’ Start-up Ranking 2019 report released by the government noted that the number of unicorns in India has increased significantly to 32 as of 2019 from 5 in 2014, thereby making the country the third largest ecosystem of unicorns in the world after the US and China.

Business Desk, ETV Bharat: The start-up ecosystem seems to be strongly flourishing in India, with the country producing nine new unicorns in the year 2019 alone, according to the States’ Start-up Ranking 2019 report released on Friday.

These included BigBasket (online grocer), Dream11 (fantasy gaming platform), Delhivery (logistics start-up), Lenskart (eyewear retailer), Rivigo (trucking logistics firm), Icertis (cloud-based contract management firm), Druva (data protection and management firm), Ola Electric (Ola’s electric vehicle arm) and Zoho (Web-based business tools and IT firm).

The report noted that India had only five unicorns in 2014. However, that number has increased significantly to 32 as of 2019, thereby making India the third largest ecosystem of unicorns in the world after the US and China.

Moreover, total number of unicorns in India is further expected to increase to 95 by 2025, according to Nasscom’s Indian Tech Start-up Ecosystem 2019 report.

To recall, edtech start-up Unacademy became the latest unicorn in the country earlier this month when it raised $150 million from SoftBank valuing it at $1.45 billion.

“Owing to the success of unicorns in India, start-ups are now being widely accepted as important engines of economic growth and hubs of jobs generation,” said the report.

For those unaware, a unicorn is a term used for a privately held start-up company that has a valuation of over $1 billion. Besides the names mentioned above, some other prominent Indian unicorns include Paytm, Oyo Rooms, Byju’s, Snapdeal, Policybazaar, etc.

Quicker growth

The report also noted that Indian start-ups are now taking less time to grow due to a significant increase in both investment activity and infrastructure facilities.

During the period of 2015 to 2019, the average time for a start-up to turn to a unicorn in India has reduced to just two years compared with 12 years before 2010 and 6 years during 2010 to 2015.

“Time taken to become a unicorn reflects the ability of a growing start-up to overcome financial and operational challenges. The growth includes constantly adapting the evolving technology and increasing market capitalization,” the report stated.

India is the 3rd largest start-up ecosystem in the world with over 28,000 start-ups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Internal Trade and Industry (DPIIT). The country’s entire start-up ecosystem has raised over $50 billion during 2014-2019.