What are Unicorn Startups? | Unicorn Analysis of India

There was a time about a decade ago when Unicorn startups are found to be rare and therefore “Unicorn” word coiner Aileen Lee (founder of the cowboy venture) came with this word because of its scarcity.

Before getting deeper into the world of unicorns, let’s start with its definition:

A Unicorn, of course, is also a mythical creature with the body of a horse and a single horn. But in the business world, any privately held company who has the valuation of more than 1 Billion Dollars is a unicorn. (In Indian Rupees over 7k crore)

While talking about India, India is now home to about 26 unicorns.

In 2017-unicorns like ed-tech startup Byjus, food delivery services like Zomoato and Swiggy, cloud-based customer engagement platform like Freshwork, policy bazaar, Paytm mall, and Oyo rooms like startup came up.

In 2018-Online grocery store like Bigbasket, online ticketing site BookMyShow, health and fitness startup CureFit, e-commerce focused delivery provider Delhivery, eyewear retailer Lenskart, B2B online marketplace Udaan, surface transport firm Rivigo, and online discount brokerage firm Zerodha, are investors’ top picks for joining the unicorns (or $1 billion valuations).

India’s unicorn club set to expand in 2019 with a host of startups—including Dream11, Zilingo, and MobiKwik.

And these are some other unicorns of India:
Paytm, Ola, Byju, Swiggy, Zomato, ReNew Power, Paytm mall, Billdesk, delhivery, Musigma, Dream11, Freshwork, Hike, Bigbasket, Shopclues, InMobi, Policybazaar, Udaan, Pinelab, Quikr, Snapdeal.

Sector Analysis:

While analyzing sectors of unicorns companies in the world about 25% of unicorns are from Internet Software & Services, followed by Other (14%), E-commerce (13%), and Fintech (10%).

Also, according to the report, the major sectors where unicorns in India will emerge are Internet software and services, and e-commerce, Fintech, healthcare, and artificial intelligence/robotics.

Interesting Facts:

• Udaan, a B2B online marketplace, and Zilingo online fashion market place have become one of the fastest unicorns of India which they have achieved within a span of about 2-3 years.
  
  

There was a time about a decade ago when India has a single unicorn but now due to continuous efforts from the government, the Indian unicorn scenario has improved a lot. Also, India has shown a record jump of 23 positions in ease of doing business against its rank of 100 in 2017 to be placed now at 77thrank among 190 countries assessed by the World Bank.

So, guys, this was a brief idea of unicorn startups, hope you guys like it. Also, do find useful startup resources and tools in our “Startup Resources” section, and do check out our Youtube Channel for more interesting Business case studies, Startup knowledge, and Startup founders podcast. (Link)

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