India currently has 67 unicorns, which is lower as compared with 68 such startups last year, according to the latest Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024. It, however, said India produced more offshore unicorns than any other country, co-founding 109 unicorns outside of India compared with 67 in India.
“India’s start-up ecosystem has slowed, with the number of unicorns down for the first time since the launch of Hurun list,” according to the report.
Explaining reasons for the slowdown in India, Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher of Hurun India, said, “India currently has 67 unicorns. India’s start-up ecosystem has slowed, with the number of unicorns down for the first time since the launch of our list. This is primarily fuelled by lack of investment into start-ups despite the recent stock market record highs. Another factor is that founders from India produced more offshore unicorns than any other country, co-founding 109 unicorns outside of India compared with 67 in India.”
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, he added.
The report said while it’s encouraging to see the rise of Krutrim, India’s first AI unicorn, there remains a substantial gap when compared to the United States and China, which lead with 60 and 37 AI unicorns respectively. Infact, the top 3 sectors contributing to new unicorns in China hail from New Energy, Semiconductors and AI Notably, the Aerospace or SpaceTech sector emerges as a critical frontier where India lacks unicorns, a domain where both the US and China have advanced with 10 unicorns each.
“This situation presents a crucial juncture for India. Failure to seize this moment risks India falling further behind the US and China in AI, New Energy, Semiconductors, and potentially Aerospace — a sector likely to rely on domestic innovation due to security considerations,” Junaid said.
Unicorn Startups Across The World
Hurun Research found 1,453 unicorns in the world, based in 53 countries and 291 cities. 430 unicorns saw their valuations rise, of which 171 were new faces. 170 saw their valuations drop, of which 42 were ‘demoted’ as their valuation no longer made the cut of $1bn. 37 were ‘promoted’ out of the list, of which 29 went IPO and 8 were acquired. 895 saw no change to their valuations. Their total value was $4.6tn.
The world’s unicorns are disrupting financial services, business management solutions and healthcare. A total of 78 per cent sell software and services, led by FinTech, SaaS and AI, whilst 22 per cent have a physical product, led by New Energy, Biotech, F&B and Semiconductors.
Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said, “The world has minted one unicorn every two days over the last year to take the total of known unicorns in the world to a new record of just under 1500. Despite the slowdown of the economy, China still managed to keep up with the US in terms of new unicorns, each minting more than one unicorn a week for every week of the year.”
A key feature of the Global Unicorn Index is that it is compiled using data from the world’s leading investors, the ‘entrepreneurs behind the entrepreneurs’, making this the most comprehensive list of the world’s unicorns, he added.
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