- By Aditya Pratap Singh
- Tue, 09 Apr 2024 04:43 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Hurun Report: The recent Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024 cliamed that India now has 67 unicorns, down from 68 startups last year. However, India claims to have produced more offshore unicorns than any other country, with 109 unicorns founded outside of India compared to 67 unicorns in India. The Hurun report said that India's startup ecosystem has slowed down as the number of unicorns fell for the first time since the Hurun list was released.
Anas Rehman Junaid, Founder and Chief Researcher at Hurun India, explained the reasons for the slowdown in India, saying that there are currently 67 unicorns in India. India's startup ecosystem has slowed down as the number of unicorns fell for the first time since our list was released. The primary cause for this is a lack of investment in startups despite the stock market's recent record highs. Another issue is that India's entrepreneurs have produced more offshore unicorns than any other country, with 109 unicorns founded outside of India compared to 67 unicorns in India.
The majority of the unicorns established outside of India are in the United States, with 95, followed by 4 in the United Kingdom, 3 in Singapore, and 2 in Germany. While the emergence of India's first AI unicorn, Krutrim, is encouraging, there is a significant gap when compared to the United States and China, which lead with 60 and 37 AI unicorns, respectively. According to the report, the top three sectors contributing to new unicorns in China are New Energy, Semiconductors, and AI. The aerospace or space tech sector has emerged as a significant frontier, where India lacks unicorns, while China and the US have emerged as leaders with 10 unicorns each.
Unicorn start-ups
Hurun Research discovered 1,453 unicorns in 53 countries and 291 cities. 430 unicorns saw their values rise, of which 171 were newcomers. 170 saw their valuations decline, of which 42 were "downgraded" because their valuations no longer met the $1 billion threshold. 37 were "promoted" from the list, of which 29 went public and 8 were acquired. There was no change in the valuation of 895 start-ups.
According to Hurun's report, the unicorns are disrupting the financial services, healthcare, and business management solutions industries. A total of 78 percent of them sell software and services, led by fintech, SaaS, and AI, while 22 percent have physical products, led by new energy, biotech, F&B, and semiconductors. Despite the economic slowdown, China still manages to keep pace with the United States in terms of producing a new unicorn each week of the year, which creates more than one unicorn.