India displaces UK to be 3rd top country hosting unicorns

NEW DELHI: With 54 unicorns in total, India has displaced the United Kingdom (UK) to bag the third top spot in list of countries with most number of such companies, a report released by Hurun Research Institute showed on Wednesday.

Last year, India was ranked at the fourth spot.

Unicorns are privately held start up companies having a valuation of more than $1 billion.

The start-boom helped it to add 33 unicorns during the entire year. This is higher than UK which added 14 such companies during the year.

In addition to the domestic companies, there are 65 unicorns founded by Indians abroad, mainly in Silicon Valley, the report noted.

In total, Indians founded 119 unicorns of which 54 are in India and 65 of them are abroad.



Byju's most valuable unicorn
Edtech company Byju's emerged to be the most valuable unicorn in India, with a total valuation of $21 billion.

The company is in advanced discussions for a public listing in the US in partnership with Michael Klein's special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that could value it at $48 billion, news agency PTI said quoting sources.

Byju's is backed by marquee investors, including General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Naspers, Silver Lake and Tiger Global.

Mobile ad-tech firm InMobi was the second most valuable unicorn in India with a valuation of $12 billion.

While, Oyo rooms stood at the third spot with a valuation of $9.4 billion.

Bengaluru has most number of unicorns
The report further noted that Bengaluru is home to the highest number of unicorns among Indian cities.

Mumbai, Pune, Thane and Gurugram also have certain number of unicorns.

In fact, Mumbai broke into the top 30 cities list for the first time. It is placed at the 22nd spot.

US, China comprise 74% of unicorns
The United States (US) and China still continue to bag the top two spots in the list by adding 254 and 74 unicorns, respectively.

With this, the US now comprises 487 unicorns in the coveted list. While, China's total tally jumped to 301.

Together, they are home to 74 per cent of the total unicorns.

By industry, the top 5 in each country represent half of their unicorns. However, the US unicorns belong to SaaS and fintech sectors. While, those in China belong to the e-commerce and health tech space, the report said.



Most successful investors
The report noted that Sequoia was the most successful unicorn investor in the world. While, Tiger Fund overtook Softbank to make up the 'big three' of the world's most successful unicorn investors.

Majority of such investors are based in US, followed by China, Singapore and UK.