As of March 21, 2022, India flourished as the world ‘s third largest startup ecosystem, with over 66,359 DPIIT-acknowledged enterprises spread over 642 districts. Within middle-income nations, India stands second in terms of entrepreneurial performance, with high places in terms of the efficiency of scientific publications as well as the standard of its institutions. India’s entrepreneurship is not confined to a few areas. There are startups overcoming challenges in 56 varied economic areas. Invest India identified more than 13% of start-ups in the IT sector, 9% in healthcare and life sciences, 7% in education, 5% in professional and commercial services, 5% in agriculture, and 5% in food and beverages.

Indian Unicorn Start-ups are thriving in today ‘s rapidly versatile market. These companies not only are creating unique solutions and technology, but they are also making massive jobs. Until financial year 2016-17, roughly one unicorn was incorporated per year. This figure has been expanding rapidly throughout the last four years (from Financial years 2017-18), with a remarkable 66 percent rise in the number of potential unicorns launched each year. India has 94 unicorns having a combined value of $319.67 billion as of March 25th, 2022. In 2021, 44 unicorn start-ups with a potential value of $ 94.77 billion were born, while 13 unicorn startups with a valuation of $ 25.4 billion were born during 2022.

And the year 2022 has started off on a high note. Thirteen Indian firms have joined the unicorn club during the first three months of 2022. With this, the overall number of Indian startups to have ever achieved the unicorn club now rests at 94, which successfully generated a total of $83 billion in investment and are collectively valued at $ 319.67 Billion.

What is a Unicorn?

The word “Unicorn” is used in the venture capital sector to represent a new firm with a valuation of more than $1 billion. Aileen Lee, the creator of CowboyVC, a seed-stage venture capital firm located in California, introduced the word. She wanted to assess the likelihood of identifying and supporting a viable business. She conducted research in 2013 and determined that just 0.07 percent of venture-backed enterprises were valued at more than $1 billion. In order to explain her findings, she wanted to first invent a phrase that might accurately describe such businesses.

What led to the growth of Unicorns?

As of April 2021, there are over 600 unicorn enterprises in the globe. Getting to a billion-dollar value is difficult, especially when the market is experiencing a liquidity crisis amid a global pandemic. These freshly minted Indian unicorns certainly deserve a standing ovation.

While working from home during the epidemic aided the growth of digital enterprises in India, it also resulted in a long unicorn list. A growing digital payments environment, a massive smartphone user base, and digital-first company models have mostly attracted investors. As smartphone usage and digitalization of commerce in all aspects of life has expanded exponentially throughout the epidemic, tech businesses that have become household names are contributing to India’s unicorn boom. Aside from finance, e-commerce groceries, SaaS, and marketplace firms are the most important contributors to the unicorn ecosystem.

The majority of Indian unicorns were born in the years 2021, 2020, and 2019, with 44, 10, and 9 unicorn startups hatched each year, respectively. COVID-19 has generated a huge deal of economic misery throughout the world, however it is during these times that the hard – working entrepreneurs have gone to great lengths not only to enhance the economy but also to COVID-19 humanitarian initiatives. More than ten unicorns were expected to be born in 2020. ‘It’s raining unicorns,’ was the year 2021’s mantra, with 44 unicorns poured into the environment and numerous start-ups lining up.

Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, and Mumbai remain the most popular destinations for unicorn offices in 2021. Innovative industries, such as NBFCs, Conversational Messaging, Cryptocurrency Exchanges, D2C, Cloud Kitchens, and many more, made their way through into the unicorn realm.

Indian unicorns are also looking at public listing options as a next step in realizing their development potential. Zomato, Nykaa, PolicyBazaar, Paytm, and Freshworks are among the notable unicorn brands that have issued an IPO, with many more on the way, including Delhivery, Mobikwik, and CarDekho.

Here is a list of 10 Indian Unicorn start-ups:

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