90 Founders Across 500 US Unicorns Were Born in India: Study

90 out of 1,078 founders across 500 US unicorns are of Indian origin, followed by founders fromIsrael (52), Canada (42), UK (31) and China (27), according to a study conducted by Ilya A. Strebulaev, Finance Professor atStanford Universitys Graduate School of Business. Indian entrepreneurial talent gained recognition from this study and also matched the recent figures of the Indian entrepreneurial startup era.

Indian startups raised USD 42 billion in 2021 with an increase of USD 30.5 billion from 2020. The country saw 46 unicorns and four decacorns (with a valuation of USD 10 billion or above) in 2021.The most valuable 2021 unicorn was Flipkart (USD 37.6 billion) and the fastest (6 months) to become a unicorn was Mensa Brands. Among the listed startups, Zomato (USD 14.8 billion) had the highest market capitalization followed by Nykaa (USD 13.5 billion) and Freshworks (USD 6.9 billion).

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The decacorns of the market include Flipkart, Paytm, Byjus and Oyo Rooms. The newest entrants to the unicorns list included ShareChat, Cred, Meesho, Nazara, Moglix, MPL, Grofers(now Blinkit), upGrad, Mamaearth, GlobalBees, Acko, Spinny, etc.

India (90) follows the US (487) and China (301) as the third-largest unicorn hub and is followed by the UK (39). Bengaluru (18) contributed with the highest number of unicorns followed by Delhi (13), Mumbai (11), Chennai (2) and Jaipur (1). Jaipur became a fresh entrant with CarDekho a subsidiary of GirnarSoft Pvt. Ltd. (parent company of CollegeDekho).

Baiju Bhatt (Robinhood), Rohan Seth (Clubhouse), Apoorva Mehta (Instacart), Dheeraj Pandey, Mohit Aron and Ajeet Singh (Nutanix), Arun Murthy and Suresh Srinivas (Hortonworks), Aayush Phumbhra (Chegg), Gagan Biyani (Udemy), Dhiraj Rajaram (Mu Sigma), Nirmal Palaparthi, Pradeep Suryanarayan, Pranay Agrawal, Ramakrishna Reddy and Srikanth Velamakanni (Fractal Analytics) are some of the recognised Indian founders of US unicorns.

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In the last few years, Indian immigrants are increasingly opting to return from the US, the reason being visa issues and thriving and lucrative startup opportunities in India. Comparing the situation with the fact that Indians are handling the elite executive positions in US tech giants, it seems that the retaining power of the American dream is loosening its hold on Indian immigrants in the wake of India becoming a startup hub.

Source: The Economic Times