On investments in startups, Hurun report said that the year 2024 has seen a slowdown in new unicorn investments in comparison to 2021.
India currently has 67 unicorns with co-founding 109 unicorns outside of India compared to any other country as per Hurun report.
The unicorns founded outside of India, significantly all were in the USA (95), led by the Bay Area, with 4 in the UK, 3 in Singapore and 2 in Germany as per the report.
The evaluation is based on regulatory filings, feedback from other entrepreneurs, and some of the active India-focused VC funds and angel investors, Hurun said.
Key Pointers of Hurun report:
The Hurun report says the Indians start up ecosystem has slowed in investment scenario due to lack of investments; the result is number of Unicorns down. Moreover founders in start-up ecosystem are more offshore based unicorns than any other country.
The report said while it’s encouraging to see the rise of Krutrim, India’s first AI unicorn, there remains a substantial gap when compared to the United States and China, which lead with 60 and 37 AI unicorns respectively.
The report listed the comapnies like Zomato and ship rocketthe quick commerce companies and Zepto, electric vehicle maker Ather Energy, mobility startup Rapido and agritech company Ninjacart, among others, as the top contenders for entering the unicorn club.
There are 122 startups in India who are likely to enter the country’s unicorn club, according to a report by research company Hurun.
It added that there are 51 ‘gazelles’, or startups that are likely to become a unicorn in the next two years, and 71 ‘cheetahs’, or those that could achieve the milestone in the next four years. Cumulatively, these 51 startups in the index have received $10.1 billion of funding.
What are Cheetahs as per Hurun report?
Hurun report underlines “Cheetah” like start up to grow at fastest level and compared them are the fastest mammals on land over short distances and have exceptional stride length. The cumulative valuation of cheetahs featured in ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Future Unicorn Index 2022 increased by 13% year-on-year to $17.9 billion. With 14 startups in the grouping, fintech led the Cheetah index, followed by e-commerce with 10.
The fintech sector contributed 13 gazelles to the index, followed by SaaS with five, while edtech, e-commerce and shared economy with four each.
The top 3 sectors contributing to new unicorns in China hail from New Energy, Semiconductors and AI Notably, the Aerospace or SpaceTech sector emerges as a critical frontier where India lacks unicorns, a domain where both the US and China have advanced with 10 unicorns each.
The report also highlights emergence of new unicorns in various sectors and regions, with fintech, AI, blockchain, and new energy being the fastest-growing sectors this year and fintech leading the pack.
“This situation presents a crucial juncture for India. Failure to seize this moment risks India falling further behind the US and China in AI, New Energy, Semiconductors, and potentially Aerospace — a sector likely to rely on domestic innovation due to security considerations, ”Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher at Hurun India, said.
From the report we can understand that big investments in startup companies are not happening withing India specifically Semiconductors, manufacturing, defense. The investments have taken back seat and unicorn start ups are now looking for overseas based operations.
As more unicorns come up abroad Start up ecosystem in India will feel the heat as investments in India based start Up may reduce. Further if starts up fail to scale up important sectors are neglected like energy, quantum computing, AI, semiconductors and manufacturing based startups.
(Image courtesy: StartUp crow)
