ISSUE 4 | 2021
40
UNICORN BOOM Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his recent Independence Day speech, said that “yesterday's start-ups are today's unicorns”, highlighting India's new age economy's record levels of fundraising and jump in valuations so far this year. 2021 has been one of the best years for the country’s start-up ecosystem with the emergence of 31 new Indian unicorns, the highest ever in a single year, reaching a total valuation of USD 60.6bn and showcasing a 'self-reliant' India as we enter the new normal in a post-pandemic world. The number of unicorns in India has been increasing steadily in recent years. In 2018, there were 8 (including BYJU’S, Paytm Mall, Swiggy and OYO Room). That figure rose to 9 in 2019 (including Dream11, BigBasket and Ola Electric), 10 in 2020 (including Nykaa, Unacademy, CARS24 and PhonePe), and a hugely impressive 31 so far in 2021 (including CRED, Meesho, PharmEasy and CoinSwitch Kuber) with the final quarter still to come.
Startup India, the government’s flagship initiative, was created to catalyse the country’s start-up culture and build a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship and its success is reflected by the fact that India’s ranking has risen to 20th in the top 100 countries in the 2021 Global Start-up Ecosystem Index.
From a sector perspective, the Fintech sub-sector has led the way with five unicorns so far this year, followed by the e-Commerce, SaaS, marketplace (manufacturing services, jobs, used cars and handyman services) sub-sectors with four unicorns each, followed by the edtech, NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Companies) and B2B (business to business) sub-sectors, each with two unicorns. The other unicorns in 2021’s list to date are in sub-sectors including gaming, cryptocurrency, logistics services, social media and conversational messaging and direct to consumer marketing. NASSCOM, the apex industry body, initially predicted that India would have 50 unicorns by the end of 2021. The country has already exceeded that figure with 68 and it looks set to further increase in the coming months.
SAMIR SHETH PARTNER
samirsheth@bdo.in
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