India surpasses UK to become the third top country with most ‘unicorns’

India secured the third position after displacing UK in terms of having the highest number of unicorns.

Unicorn is a term used for private start-up companies which are valued at more than $1 billion.

India has a total of 54 unicorns so far. With this number, India surpassed the UK to secure third place in having the largest number of unicorns according to a report by Hurun Research Institute. In 2020, India was at the fourth position. 

Since last year, UK successfully added 14 new unicorns to their previous numbers. On the other hand, India added 33 new unicorns to their previous numbers, displacing UK from the third spot. Apart from these numbers, there are as many as 65 unicorns that are started by Indians abroad at hubs like Silicon Valley etc. Summarising this, there is a total of 119 unicorn founded by Indians, out of which 54 are in India while 65 of them are abroad.

Education-technology company “Byju’s” secured first place in being the most valuable unicorn in India with a market value of $21 billion. Byju’s is backed by investors such as General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, Silver Lake and Tiger Global. The company might secure a partnership in US with Michael Klein’s Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), which can make Byju’s market value over $48 billion. 

InMobi, an advertisement technology-related company secured the second position in India with a valuation of $12 billion. Oyo Rooms secured the third position with a value of $9.4 billion. According to the information, it was found that Bengaluru is home to the most number of unicorns in India. Other cities including Mumbai, Gurugram, Pune, etc. also have a number of unicorns. 

The top two spots on the list were obviously secured by the United States of America and China adding 254 and 74 new unicorns to their previous numbers this year, respectively. In total, US has 487 unicorns, while China has 301 and together they make up the 74% of all unicorns in the world. UK stands at number 4 with a total of 36 unicorns, the highest in Europe.