NEW DELHI: The acceleration in funding and capital being raised at high valuations in the past couple of years has totally transformed the startup landscape.Indian tech, startups raised about $42 Bn across 1,579 deals in 2021, leading to a unicorn spree.

With 44 unicorns last year, all previous long-term predictions about the number of unicorns were out of the window. And a new benchmark was set as far as startup projections and expectations.

For instance, as per an Inc42 report at the end of 2019, India would have 100 unicorns by 2025. The expected trajectory was totally changed by the mass adoption for digital products and services by consumers and businesses in the wake of the pandemic and over the past two years. But accounting for the growth in 2021, Inc42 had revised this to 100 startups before the end of 2022. And with 100 unicorns coming even before half the year is over, it is believed that by 2025, India will have 250 unicorns.

Since 2020, Indian startups have grown and scaled rapidly, and with this growth, came the flood of capital from foreign investors, while even the domestic investor pool expanded. Now the sights are set on the next major milestones. Already, the government is proclaiming a target of 1,000 unicorns within the next two-three years, and predicts that a vast number of the new unicorn startups will come from India’s hinterlands.

However, the fact that the past two years has accelerated the pace of unicorn creation is plain to see. Here are some interesting insights from India’s 100-strong unicorn club.

Unicorns In India: Total Valuation of Over $333 Bn

India’s 100 unicorns have a cumulative valuation of $333 Bn, with Flipkart and BYJU’S being the two highest valued privately-held startups with a valuation of $37.6 Bn and $21 Bn respectively.  Among publicly-listed companies with a market cap of over $1 Bn, Nykaa currently leads the charts with a valuation of over $10.6 Bn as of last Friday.

E-commerce Leads; Fintech Second

Not only did Open become the 100th unicorn in India, it is also the 20th unicorn from the fintech sector. Besides this, Open is also the third neobanking startup to enter the club after Zeta and Razorpay that also offer neobanking services. Fintech is only the second startup sector to cross the 20 unicorns mark, after e-commerce which leads with 23 unicorn startups.

Looking at the Next Unicorns:

A record number of unicorns in 2021had already set high expectations for 2022 and now, all eyes are on the next batch of startups that will make it to the unicorn club and take it beyond 100. Like the unicorn rush, we also saw more Soonicorns or potential unicorns than any year in the past in 2021. Many of the 73 startups from the Soonicorn club have now graduated to unicorns. As per data in 2021, Bengaluru was home to 31 Soonicorns, while 19 came from Mumbai, and 13 from Delhi-NCR.