India adds 28 unicorns in 2021 to take total to 66; over 3.3 lakh people employed: Nasscom

India added 28 new unicorns in the first nine months of 2021, taking the total number of unicorns in the country to 66, industry body Nasscom said. This gives the country a chance to double the number of unicorns from last year. India had 38 unicorns at the end of 2020.
 
In the startup world, a company which is valued at over $1 billion is called a unicorn.
 
The 66 unicorns in India have a total of revenue of over $15 billion, while they employee over 3.3 lakh people, Nasscom said in a blog post. Out of these, seven unicorns have employee count of over 10,000 each. Cumulatively, these companies have raised over $51 billion in funding over their lifetime, with 18 per cent of them have raised over $1 billion each.
 
In term of their incorporation, 75 per cent unicorns were incorporated in the last 11 years (2010 and onwards) out of which more than 50 per cent were incorporated in 3 years (2010 - 8, 2011 - 9 and 2015 - 10), it said.
 
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Nasscom said e-commerce, SaaS (Software as a service) and fintech firms account for more than 60 per cent of the total unicorns in the country, with the sectors also accounting for 60 per cent of the total cumulative funding. These sectors were followed by edtech and logistics in terms of number of unicorns.
 
In terms of the customers they serve, business-to-business (B2B) firms account for 50 per cent of unicorns, while 24 per cent are business-to-consumer (B2C). 16 per cent of unicorns serve both B2B and B2C, said Ashish Gupta, the blog post's author.
 
Bengaluru has the maximum number of unicorns with one-third of country's unicorns headquartered in the southern city, followed by Delhi-National Capital Region with 20 per cent.
 
"About 90 per cent of startups turned unicorns in 10 or less number of years from their year of incorporation out of which 70 per cent turned unicorns in less than 5 years," it said.
 
India currently has three decacorns, companies with valuation of over $10 billion -- Byju's, Paytm and Flipkart, it said.

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