By Madhurima Ghosh –
A rare startup that attains a valuation of more than $1 billion are referred to as Unicorn and Neobank startup, Open becomes the 100th Unicorn of India. The country has witnessed rise of 14 unicorns within just four months of 2022 with a total valuation of $18.9 billion.
The ministry of Commerce and Industry stated that now 1 out of every 10 unicorns globally is from India. The Indian Startup Ecosystem which is the 3rd-largest in the world in number of unicorns, is now home to 100 unicorns with a total valuation of $332.7 billion.
Though each startup has its own unique journey to becoming a unicorn, the minimum and maximum time taken by a startup to become a unicorn in India are 6 months and 26 years, respectively.
About 1 unicorn was added each year until FY 2016-17. However, this changed over the past four years (since FY 2017-18) as the number has been increasing exponentially with a whopping 66% Year-on-Year growth in the number of additional unicorns being added every year.
The ministry data shows that since the launch of the Startup India initiative on 16th January 2016, with more than 69,000 startups been recognized in the country till 2nd May 2022. Various startups solving problems in 56 diverse sectors have come up with 13% from IT services, 9% from healthcare and life sciences, 7% from education, 5% from professional and commercial services, 5% agriculture, and 5% food & beverages. That is innovation is not limited to any particular sector.
Previous year, India got 44 unicorns with a total valuation of $93 billion. Neobank Open becomes the 100th unicorn in India with the latest funding of $50 million from IIFL along with existing investors. Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyal highlighted the achievement through his tweet.