Here's how long Indian start-ups have taken to reach unicorn status

Average time from foundation to billion-dollar valuation - - or the unicorn valuation - - is nearly identical for start-ups in India and US. In India, the average time from founding to becoming a unicorn is seven years, six months, and 25 days and for US-based new age companies, it takes seven years, three months, and 13 days, reveals an analysis by digital business services platform ZenBusiness.

German start-ups hold the best average (among countries with more than two unicorns) with six years and 9 days. To be sure, speed averages are influenced by the number of unicorns. The rankings are based on data as of January 1, 2022.

In Pics: Road to unicorn stardom

The study, based on data collated from CB Insights and Crunchbase, named Chicago-based Avant as world’s fastest company to earn the unicorn status. Founded in November 2012, the fintech company became a unicorn in just one month and 16 days.

As per the study, Thrasio-style house of brands start-up Mensa Brands, founded by former Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan, became the fastest Indian firm to achieve unicorn status, in 10 months and 19 days. Second fastest Indian start-up unicorn too is an e-commerce roll-up firm -- GlobalBees – which achieved the feat in 12 months and one day.

Ola Electric Mobility, the EV arm of app-based cab aggregator Ola, came third at two years, one month, and seven days; B2B e-commerce company Udaan turned a unicorn in two years, eight months, and seven days and Apna, a professional networking platform for blue- and grey-collar workers, entered the coveted club in two years, eight months, and 18 days.

Esports and online gaming platform Mobile Premier League, credit card payment platform Cred, health-tech start-up Pristyn Care, merchant payments and financial services provider BharatPe and cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX are among the top 10 in the list of fastest Indian unicorns.

The study identified 959 companies classified as unicorns globally at the start of 2022. At 5.25 years, auto and transportation is ranked as the fastest to churn out unicorns globally. Artificial Intelligence (AI) came second with 5.92 years.

The number of newly minted unicorns with women founders (at least one woman on the founder's team) rose to 66 in 2021 in comparison to zero women-led unicorn businesses from 2007 to 2013. While it is an encouraging number, diversity is still years away for the start-up industry as only 12.9 per cent unicorns launched in 2021 were founded by women.