Indian startups raise $42 bn in 2021 says Orios Venture Partners

Indian startups raised $42 billion in 2021 as compared to $11.5 billion in 2020, as per a report by Orios Venture Partners. The report stated that India saw 46 unicorns coming up in 2021 alone, more than doubling their number to 90. "These startups are...generating large-scale employment. India - with 90 unicorns - is the third-largest unicorn hub behind the US (487) and China (301), and ahead of the UK (39). India has the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world with about 60,000 startups. These startups are not only developing innovative solutions and technologies but are generating large-scale employment. Today, one out of 13 unicorns globally was born in India.

As per the report, Bengaluru was the city with the most unicorns. Fintech, e-commerce and SaaS (software as a service) have seen the maximum number of unicorns, while health-tech, ed-tech, D2C, Gaming and Crypto are also close behind. India has seen four decacorns (companies with a valuation of $10 billion and above) so far - Flipkart, Paytm, Byju's and Oyo Rooms, the report stated. The year 2021 was a landmark year for Indian startups going public.

Today, one out of 13 unicorns globally [is Indian]. A total of 11 Indian startups (including 8 unicorns) raised about $7.16 billion through public offerings...One97 Communication (Paytm) raised India's largest-ever IPO with an issue size of Rs 18,300 crore (about $2.46 billion),'' it said. Further, Zomato has the highest market capitalisation ($14.8 billion), among the listed Indian startups, followed by Nykaa ($13.5 billion) and Freshworks ($6.9 billion), the report added.

Despite witnessing an economic downturn in the first half, it has been an exciting and tremendously promising year for tech startups. In terms of measuring scale for the ecosystem, our report is a clear validation of the value creation that has been achieved through technology innovation, both in terms of IPO and unicorns. The report also noted that 20 per cent of unicorn founders are non-engineers, two-thirds of the Indian unicorns have at least one or more founders from IITs, IIMs or ISB.

The report also highlighted that there are 13 female unicorn founders, 8 out of which have emerged in the year 2021 - Falguni Nayar (Nykaa), Gazal Kalra (Rivigo), Ruchi Kalra (OfBusiness), Divya Gokulnath (Byju's), Ghazal Alagh (MamaEarth) and Saritha Katikaneni (Zenoti), among others.