New Delhi: According to Hurun’s Global Unicorn Index 2023, India maintained its lead in the global unicorn race with 68 unicorns, led by online education platform BYJU’s valued at $22 billion, followed by on-demand delivery start-up Swiggy and fantasy sports platform Dream11, both valued at $8 billion each. However, India failed to make it to the top 10 in the Hurun index for 2023.
India’s total number of new unicorns increased by 14 to 68 unicorns year-on-year and by 47% since pre-Covid. Moreover, Indian co-founders started an additional 70 unicorns outside of India, taking the total number of unicorns founded by Indians globally to 138. The majority of unicorns founded outside of India were in the USA (64), with two in the UK and one each in Germany, Singapore, Indonesia, and Mexico.
After the USA and China, India has been leading the charge in the boom of unicorns worldwide, followed by the UK and Germany. Additionally, India led the way for emigrant unicorn founders, followed by China, Israel, and Russia.
The Hurun report states that “Founders from India, China, and Russia are producing more offshore unicorns than any other country. India’s co-founded 70 unicorns outside of India compared with 68 in India, while Chinese co-founded 32 outside of China, compared with 316 in China.”
The USA topped the chart with the most number of unicorns, with 666, followed by China with 316 in 2023. The US added 250 ‘new faces’ to the list, while China added 107, and India added 22. Of the 23 ‘promotions’ from the Hurun index in the US, 16 were IPOs, and seven were acquisitions. In China, 36 were promoted, of which 35 were IPOs.
The UK ranked fourth with 49 unicorns, while Germany retained the fifth position with 36 unicorns. San Francisco remained the ‘World Unicorn Capital’ with 181 unicorns, followed by New York with 126 unicorns. Beijing, with 79 unicorns, was down 12 to the third position, followed by Shanghai with 66. London, with 42 unicorns, was fifth, followed by Bengaluru and Shenzhen, with 33 unicorns each.
Hurun Research found 508 new unicorns from 16 countries in 2023, with the USA leading the way with 250, followed by China with 107 and India with 22. The new unicorns were valued at $938 billion, which is more than the GDP of Saudi Arabia.
The USA has the largest number of e-commerce unicorns, with 35, followed by China with 24 and India with 17. China and India have a higher percentage of Gazelles and Unicorns, indicating that over the next five years, they are likely to have a higher percentage of Hurun Global 500s.
In contrast, France, Canada, and Australia have a smaller percentage of start-ups, indicating that they are likely to lose ground in the Hurun Global 500. The USA has half of the world’s known unicorns and Global 500s, so it is expected to retain its dominance for the next five years.
The Hurun unicorn list found 1,361 unicorns globally, up 303 or 29% from the previous year and up 867 or 175% since Covid in India.
