10 years since the country saw the creation of its very first Unicorn, the Indian tech startup ecosystem has come a long way indeed. The third largest startup ecosystem after America and China has been home to some prolific startups that have redefined their respective categories while generating immense value for investors and stakeholders.

Till date India has seen the emergence of 44 unicorns that have generated a total value worth $106 billion said The Indian Tech Unicorn Report 2020 by Orios Venture Partners, a seed-stage VC fund with a focus on tech startups. Released to commemorate the 10 years of those startups who have reached the milestone of becoming unicorns and have contributed significantly to the Indian economy, the report also stated that these startups have created direct and indirect employment for over 1.4 million people annually.

Of these 44 companies, three, namely MakeMyTrip, JustDial and Naukri.com have since become listed companies while Flipkart was acquired by Walmart in 2018 for $16 billion.

While 2020 was a tough year for the entire Indian economy as a whole, it is interesting to note that it was this year that saw the emergence of most number of unicorns ever. A total of 11 startups namely, Postman, Pine Labs, Nykaa, First Cry, Razorpay, Postman, Zerodha, Unacademy, Cars24, Zenoti, and PharmEasy joined the coveted club in 2020.

The report also delves into the average time period that a company has taken to become a unicorn which is an average of eight years. The trend that is noticeable here is that time has been reducing, as founders with prior founding or startup experience are coming into play. Startups like naukri.com, MakeMyTrip which had been founded pre-2005, have taken more than 14 years to achieve that status, while Zomato, Flipkart and Policy Bazaar (2007-2009) have taken almost 8.7 years. Nykaa and OYO (2012-13) have taken even less time at 5.8 years while Udaan and OLA Electric (2016-17) have taken only three years to achieve that status.

The report noted that a majority of the Indian unicorns have come from the B2C space. Fintech has emerged as the most sought after sector with 11 fintech startups reaching the billion dollar valuation. Coming a close second and thirs were retail and SaaS that had 6 and 5 startups respectively joining the unicorn club. Other sectors to have contributed to the unicorn club are data analytics & BI, online classifieds, logistics, travel, food and education among others.

India’s Silicon Valley, Bangalore has been the highest contributor with 41 percent of Indian unicorns being based in the city. Delhi NCR contributed 34 percent, Mumbai 14 percent, Pune seven percent and Chennai & Hyderabad with two percent each. Another interesting finding is that 86 percent of unicorn founders are engineers with the maximum of them belonging to the IITs.

Commenting on the report, Rehan Yar Khan, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners said, “Our report shows that the Indian startup ecosystem has generated tremendous value for founders, employees, investors and the economy. Most of these are backed by technology and that is the key differentiating factor between unicorns of the 21st century vs the prior era. We are proud to be associated with 3 unicorns - Ola, Druva, Pharmeasy since their early days and look forward to being part of another 3-5 unicorns over the next few years”.

The stage is all set for the Indian tech startups to mark 2021 as another lucrative year.