India is home to 21 unicorns, collectively valued at $73.2 billion: Hurun Global Unicorn List 2020

The Hurun Research Institute released Hurun Global Unicorn List 2020, a ranking of the world’s billion-dollar tech startups founded in the 2000s.

This is the second year of the list and valuations are a snapshot of March 31, 2020.

Hurun Research found 586 unicorns in the world, based in 29 countries and 145 cities, up 92 this year. On average, these unicorns were set up nine years ago, with 80 percent selling services and 60 percent consumer-facing. Five percent were in traditional sectors, with the majority offering disruptive technology. The total value of all known unicorns in the world is US$1.8 trillion, equivalent to the GDP of Italy.

With the USA leading China by 233 to 227, together they account for over 78 percent of the world’s unicorns. They are followed by the UK and India, who stand at the third and fourth position respectively.

 

India is home to 21 unicorns, valued at $73.2 billion. Fintech company Paytm is India's highest valued unicorn, at $16 billion. Top 10 Indian unicorns make up 78 percent of the total value of unicorns, while Paytm alone claims nearly 22 percent of the total valuation share of these unicorns, with a valuation of $16 billion.

The average age of Indian unicorns is seven years, of which two are less than four years old. Ola Electric is the youngest unicorn on the list, being founded in 2017. Ola Electric is followed by Udaan which was founded in 2016.

 

India has added three new unicorns to the list this year. Along with being the highest valued Indian unicorn, fintech company Paytm is also the highest gainer in the Indian unicorn category. Over a year's period, the company has managed to increase its valuation by a whooping $6 billion. The next highest gainer is OYO Rooms, who marked up its valuation by $3 billion.

Ecommerce, Fintech, AI and SaaS are top four core competence sectors of world’s unicorns, making up 45.9 percent of the sectoral universe of these unicorns, In India one-third of unicorns conduct business in the ecommerce sector. Some of the ecommerce unicorns are: Udaan, Oyo Rooms, BigBasket, Lenskart, Paytm Mall, First Cry.

 

Softbank takes the lead in investing into Indian unicorns, having invested in nearly 50 percent of all unicorns. Globally, Sequoia is world’s most successful investor into unicorns, being a key investor in one in five of the world’s unicorns. Others include Tencent, Softbank, Tiger, IDG, Goldman Sachs and Alibaba.

 

As per the report, Bengaluru is India’s unicorn capital with eight unicorns, followed by Gurugram and Noida, home to six and two unicorns respectively. Bengaluru contributes to the unicorn list by adding unicorns worth $29 billion in total, while Gurugram and Noida contribute by $19 billion each.