India’s startup ecosystem has slowed, with the number of unicorns declining for the first time since 2017, according to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024 launched on Tuesday. Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said that the slowdown came despite the recent stock market record highs while one factor was that Indian founders produced more offshore unicorns than any other country.
Hurun’s previous years’ unicorn index reported 68 unicorns in India in 2023 and 2022, 54 in 2021, and 21 in 2020 and 2019.
According to the report, Indian founders co-founded 109 unicorns outside of India in comparison to just 67 in India. Hoogewerf said that of the unicorns founded outside of India, significantly all were in the USA (95), led by the Bay Area, with 4 in the UK, 3 in Singapore and 2 in Germany.
Rippling with $11 billion valuation, Alchemy ($10 billion), Lacework ($8.3 billion), FalconX ($8 billion), Netskope ($7.5 billion) were some of the biggest unicorns with an Indian co-founder outside of India.
The US continued to lead the unicorn tally with led with 703 unicorns followed by China with 340 and India with 67 unicorns, led by on-demand delivery start-up Swiggy and fantasy sports platform Dream11 worth $8 billion each and and fintech company Razorpay worth $7.5 billion.
The Global Unicorn Index is compiled by the Hurun Research Institute and includes unlisted companies founded in the 2000s with a current valuation of $1 billion.
According to the report, 42 unicorns globally were demoted from unicorn status with valuation dipping below $1 billion. The count was led by 21 companies from the US and 11 from China. However, the largest decline was at Indian edtech startup Byju’s valued last year at $22 billion.
However, on a positive note, the report noted that China and India have a higher percentage of Cheetahs, Gazelles and Unicorns, which over the course of the next five years ought to translate into a higher percentage of Hurun Global 500s — a list of the 500 most valuable non state-controlled businesses in the world.
Cheetahs are unlisted startups founded in the 2000s and are most likely to become unicorns within five years. Gazelles, on the other hand, are unlisted startups founded in the 2000s and likely unicorns within three years.
By city, Bengaluru was ranked seventh with 32 unicorns and Mumbai ranked 19th with 14 unicorns. San Francisco with 190 unicorns, New York with 133 unicorns and Beijing with 78 unicorns were the leading unicorn hubs in the world.
Globally, ByteDance remained the most valuable unicorn with a $220 billion valuation followed by SpaceX ($180 billion), OpenAI ($100 billion), Ant Group ($80 billion), Shein ($65 billion).
By industry, fintech had 24 per cent of all unicorns outside the US and China while e-commerce had a 15 per cent share. SaaS and blockchain each had a 7 per cent share in the total unicorn tally outside the US and China while AI had a 5 per cent share.