That 2021 was a great year for Indian startups is by now undisputed. There were 33 Indian companies that achieved unicorn status (valued at over $1 billion) in 2021. Hurun Research, which has published its Global Unicorns Index 2021, says: “India is in the midst of a start-up boom, more than doubling its unicorns to take the country’s official tally of unicorns to 54, and overtake the UK to the third place in the world. Whilst there are a further 65 unicorns founded by Indians abroad, mainly in Silicon Valley, the percentage of homegrown unicorns has increased from one third to 45%, suggesting that the start-up ecosystem in India is maturing.”
Globally, 2021 was a successful year for unicorns. Hurun Research shows that this year, there were 1,058 unicorns globally, almost double the 586 of last year.