It’s raining unicorns in India this year. There are two months left in 2021 and at least 30 startups have already made it to the precious unicorn club. India has added three ‘unicorns’ per month in 2021 to nearly double the overall number of startups valued at over $1 billion to 51 as of end-August, as per a report by the Hurun India. At present, India is the third in the list of countries having the most unicorns, trailing the US (396) and China (277), but ahead of UK (32) and Germany (18), it said.
Unicorn startups are those with a valuation of over $1 billion or more. India is becoming the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem with over 60 unicorn startups as of now. This year’s unicorns include gaming platform Mobile Premier League, groceries platform Grofers, cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX and fintech platform BharatPe. The number of unicorns that India has been producing has been increasing for the years. Bengaluru continues to be India’s Silicon Valley with nine of this year’s unicorns coming from there. With seven unicorns in its bag, Mumbai comes right after it. Gurgaon follows it with three unicorns. Delhi, Noida, and Pune have two each and Thane has one unicorn as of September-end.
Here is the list of other Indian startups that marked their spots in the unicorn club this year
Licious: This Bengaluru-based direct to customer startup is currently at a valuation of $1 billion. Founded by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta in 2015, Licious is a fresh meat and seafood brand.
Vedantu: The Edtech startup incorporated in 2011 stands at a valuation of $1 billion. Headquartered at Bengaluru, the startup was founded by four IIT graduates, Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena and Anand Prakash.
Mobile Premier League: The three-year-old startup is presently at a valuation of $2.3 billion. Started by three IIT graduates, the Bengaluru based company is the second gaming platform to enter the unicorn list after Dream11.
Grofers: The E-commerce grocery deliver platform, Grofers was founded by Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar in 2013. The Gurgaon-based startup is valued at $1 billion at present.
CoinDCX: Another cryptocurrency exchanging platform, CoinDCX has a valuation of $1.1 billion. The Mumbai based startup founded by Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal entered the unicorn club in just three years of its inception.
upGrad: Started in 2015, this Mumbai based higher education platform currently stands at a valuation of $1.2 billion. The startup was founded by two IIT Delhi alumni, Mayank Kumar and Phalgun Kompalli and the famous entrepreneur, Ronnie Screwvala.
BharatPe: This Delhi-based fintech startup has a current valuation of $2.8 billion. The company was started by Ashneer Grover and Shashvnat Nakrani.
Cred: Known for its strong advertising game, Cred entered the unicorn club in 2021 with a valuation of $2.2 billion. This fintech (payments and credit card rewards) startup was founded in Bengaluru by Kunal Shah.
Other companies which entered the unicorn club this year are
- Digit $3.5 billion
- Innovaccer $1.3 billion
- Market $2.5 billion
- Five Star Business Finance $1.4 billion
- FirstCry $1.7 billion
- Meesho $4.9 billion
- PharmEasy $4 billion
- Groww $1 billion
- ShareChat $2.8 billion
- GupShup $1.4 billion
- ChargeBee $1.4 billion
- Urban Company $2.1 billion
- Moglix $1 billion
- Zeta $1.4 billion
- BrowserStack $4 billion
- Blackbuck $1 billion
- Droom $1.2 billion
- OfBusiness $3 billion
- MindTickle $1.2 billion
- Eruditus $3.2 billion
- Zetwerk $1 billion
- Apna.co $1.1 billion
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Source: News18