Top-earning businesses include Billdesk, Firstcry, Zerodha, Zoho, and a few others. A company valued at $1 billion or more is considered a unicorn.
According to market research platform Tracxn, India only has 17 profitable unicorn start-ups. 80 startups in the nation’s 114 unicorns have data that is readily accessible to the general public. A company valued at $1 billion or more is considered a unicorn.
The most profitable businesses include the stock brokerage platform Zerodha, the SaaS company Zoho, the e-commerce company Firstcry, the fintech company Billdesk, and a few others.
Profits totaling Rs 2,094 crore (FY22), Rs 2,747 crore (FY22), Rs 215.4 crore (FY21), and Rs 245.6 crore (FY21) were made by each of them, respectively. The information was taken from the FY21 and FY22 financial statements. The list also includes successful start-ups like Molbio Diagnostics, Uniphore, Xpressbees, Physicswallah, Mamaearth, CoinDCX, and others.
There are also a few unique situations.
For instance, the status of the fintech company PhonePe, which Flipkart purchased in 2016, is still unclear as it officially severed its ties with the Walmart-owned brand this year. Additionally, PhonePe changed its location from Singapore to India.
Additionally, businesses made their stock market debuts over the previous two years. Paytm, Zomato, Nykaa, Delhivery, PolicyBazaar, and Five Star Business Finance are on the list.
Tracxn data also showed that roughly 16 start-ups lost their unicorn status in the previous two years. These startups have either been acquired or listed on stock exchanges, so they are no longer unicorns.
As a result of being acquired, start-ups like Tata1mg, Blinkit, Rivigo, BigBasket, Flipkart, and ShopClues saw their unicorn start-up status change.
Tata Digital purchased BigBasket and Tata1mg. However, one of the most notable transactions involved retail behemoth Walmart and e-commerce behemoth Flipkart. Walmart purchased a whopping 77% of the market-leading e-tailer in 2018 and 100% of the Binny and Sachin Bansal-founded business in 2020 for a staggering $1.2 billion. Over time, Flipkart’s value has risen dramatically to about $37.5 billion.
Additionally, these companies’ valuations decreased after their listing.
According to a list by Hurun, PolicyBazaar, Paytm, Zomato, and Nykaa collectively lost Rs 2 lakh crore after seeing their stock prices decline by 68 percent, 59 percent, 50 percent, and 48 percent, respectively.
Aside from going public and being acquired, some startups had their valuations reduced, which resulted in them losing their unicorn status. These include Paytm Mall and Quikr. Following the sale of shares by Paytm Mall’s lead investors Ant Financial and Alibaba in September of last year, the company’s valuation dropped from $3 billion to $13 million. A similar scenario played out for Quikr when its Swedish investor Kinnevik reduced the value of the online classifieds marketplace by 45% after discovering that its revenue had been overstated and that there had been instances of fraudulent transactions in the nation.
After the US and China, India has the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world. In India, there are more than 92,000 start-ups that have been registered, according to estimates provided by the government.
It is crucial to remember that 2021 was a pivotal year for this ecosystem, even though they may be facing a funding crisis with investments falling by as much as 50%, particularly in the case of late-stage start-ups. A staggering $42 billion was raised for startups by international investors, including powerhouses like SoftBank, Accel, Tiger Global, and others.
The situation now is very different from what it was back then.
Even after February 2023, start-up funding will continue to decline as global VCs hold $590 billion in dry powder that is available for investment.
Note: All tech companies are classified by Tracxn as start-ups, and unicorns have been compiled based on valuation.
