Startups in these industries overcome the funding crisis and draw in fresh talent and cash

For the once-booming startups, 2023 has been a dismal year because the funding winter has gotten worse. Due to a decrease in funding, several individuals were laid off by startups.

According to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2023, startups from a select group of industries, where the majority of the world’s most successful unicorns originate, continue to draw top young talent and shrewd funding.

India is in the lead among nations that have experienced a unicorn boom outside of the US and China. With 68 unicorns, India continues to rank among the top three nations for having the most unicorns.

BYJU’S, a $22 billion online education firm, is the most valuable unicorn, and it is followed by the $8 billion apiece valued Swiggy on-demand delivery venture and Dream11 fantasy sports platform. It’s interesting to note that India has co-founded 70 unicorns outside of India against 68 inside. With this, there are now 138 unicorns that have been created by Indians worldwide.

Here are the top industries where unicorns are found.

Fintech: As of now, there are 171 unicorns in the fintech sector worldwide, up 32 over the previous year, making it the sector with the most unicorns. 20% of the unicorns in fintech are involved in payment technologies.

E-Commerce: Ant Group, a fintech unicorn valued at $120 billion, Stripe, a payments platform valued at $50 billion, and WeBank, a fintech unicorn valued at $33 billion, round out the top three. The $728 billion overall value of fintech unicorns—17% of the total value of all unicorns—emphasizes the dominance of fintech in the unicorn ecosystem. E-commerce unicorns are most prevalent in the United States, where there are 35 of them, followed by China with 24 and India with 17.

Artificial intelligence: With 105 unicorns overall—an increase of 21 from the previous year—artificial intelligence (AI) is the fourth industry with the most unicorns. OpenAI, situated in San Francisco, is the market leader with a $20 billion valuation, followed by Grammarly ($13 billion) and Talkdesk ($10 billion).

HealthTech: With 92 unicorns, up 12 from the previous year and accounting for 6.8% of all unicorns, health tech is the fifth-largest sector. In the HealthTech sector, San Francisco has seen the highest unicorn activity and is home to 18 of them. Ro, located in New York, and WeDoctor, based in Hangzhou, are the two most valuable HealthTech businesses, valued at $7 billion apiece, followed by Hinge Health, valued at $6.2 billion.