Of 100 Indian unicorns, 25 will go IPO in the next 3-5 years: Accel’s Prashanth Prakash 

At least 25 start-up unicorns in India will hit the public market by launching an initial public offering (IPO) in the next three to five years, venture capital firm Accel's founding partner Prashanth Prakash said. 

Speaking at the inaugural function of the 25th edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS), Prakash said that it is time Indian start-ups focus on profitability which will create multigenerational companies and great IPOs so that the ecosystem can return the $150 billion of venture investment the country has absorbed back to investors.    

“If we don’t return money back to our investors, we are not going to get new capital into this country.  My prediction is that of the 100 unicorns, we will have a massive supply chain of IPOs, at least 25 of these unicorns will go IPO in the next 3-5 years, and through this we will be able to create multiple billion dollars of exit that is required to return money back to our investors globally and in India which will create a virtuous cycle of more investments coming into the start-up ecosystem,” Prakash said. 

As per Invest India’s web portal, the country is home to 107 unicorns with a total valuation of $340.79 billion as of September 7, 2022. 

He said the 15-year-old start-up and venture capital ecosystem in Karnataka and Bangalore has really come-off age that it is the fastest growing technology hotspot in the world today and a bright spot in an otherwise challenging macroeconomic environment. “It (the growing tech ecosystem) is helping Karnataka and Bangalore garner a disproportionate share of talent and venture capital investments. With this, Karnataka and Bangalore are becoming the epicentre and engine for creating economic value of over $200 billion in the next 3-5 years,” he said. 

He also made two other predictions at the event. First, Indian start-ups will garner a larger share of the global economy and secondly, a major portion of Indian farmers will be able to double their income using technology in the next five years. 

“Indian start-ups which have hitherto remained largely domestic and have tackled solutions within our country led by enterprise tech or SaaS start-ups which have already got a global recognition for delivering great value at a great price. We have also started to see B2B and B2C e-commerce companies starting to pan out in the ASEAN and MENA region. My prediction is that in the next 3-5 years, we will see a large portion of our start-ups showing more and more global ambition and garner a larger pie of the global economy,” Prakash added. 

For inclusive and equitable growth, he called up on the entrepreneur community to build solutions for the 300-500 million Indians who are digitally enabled but have very different problems and need different solutions from what urban consumers want. “We have 150 million farmers with cell phones today but less than 10 million farmers are being served (technologically). So we need agritech start-ups to focus on providing the right agronomy support, the right inputs, and the right market linkages and with this, my prediction is that in the next 5 years, a major portion of our farmers will be able to double their income to fulfil the mission and vision of our honourable PM Narendra Modi,” he added.

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