India's Unicorn Club Sees A Faster Growth This Year

The desired club of unicorn startup companies in India, each of which is worth one billion dollars or more, is on a much faster increase than a few years ago. Only in 2019, there have been six newly-established unicorn startup companies.

A contract management firm, Icertis, attracted an investment of $115 million from Greycoft and Premji Invest, a venture capital company located in America, which is also billionaire Azim Premji’s family investment headquarters.

According to Venture Intelligence’s data, other newly-established unicorns in 2019 are BigBasket – a grocery startup, Rivigo – a trucking logistics company, Delhivery – an e-commerce logistics company, Druca – a software company, Dream11 – a startup of fantasy gaming, CitiusTech – an IT healthcare company, and Ola Electric – an electric vehicle company separated from Ola, a ride-hailing startup, which is also an early unicorn startup company in India.

Unitus Ventures’ investment director, an early-stage investor, Radha Kizhanattam, stated that:

In the first half of 2019, the number of newly-established unicorns is equal to the total number of unicorns last year. 2018 was also a year with the record-breaking number of unicorns, including Oyo Rooms – a hospitality startup, Policybazaar – an insurance company, Zomato and Swiggy – food delivery companies, Paytm Mall – an online shopping platform, Freshworks – a software company, Billdesk – a payment company, and Udaan – a B2B marketplace.

Moreover, as claimed by Venture Intelligence, until now, 15 out of 25 unicorns were established in only 2018, which indicates an increase in the number of scalable companies.

These highly-valued firms were successfully established thanks to the abundant capital available on the market, homegrown companies’ worldwide ambitions, and developers’ keenness to exploit Indian market.

Kizhanattam declared that:

The unicorns’ potential pipeline seems pretty strong, with various companies presently calling for investments at unicorn valuations, and startup companies worth more than $500 million. These firms come from different highly-valued sectors, including logistics, e-commerce, and fin-tech, and also in newer sectors, including mobility, content, and social commerce.