The Hurun Research Institute has released the ‘Hurun Global Unicorn List 2020’, a ranking of the world’s $1 Billion+ valued startups which are not yet listed on a public exchange. This is the second year of the list and valuations are a snapshot of 31 March 2020.
There are 21 unicorns in the list from India. With the USA leading China by 233 to 227, together they account for over 78% of the world’s unicorns. They are followed by the UK and India, who stand at the third and fourth position respectively.
Hurun Research’s report estimates there are 586 unicorns in the world, based in 29 countries and 145 cities. On average, they were set up nine years ago, with 80% selling services and 60% consumer-facing. 5% were in traditional sectors, with the majority offering disruptive technology. The total value of all known unicorns in the world is US$1.8tn, equivalent to the GDP of Italy.
City-wise, Bengaluru is India’s unicorn capital with 8 unicorns, followed by Gurgaon and Noida, which have 6 and 2 unicorns respectively. Gurgaon and Noida are satellite cities of the national capital Delhi. Analysing the data on the basis of valuation, Bengaluru is home to unicorns with a total worth US$29bn, while Gurgaon and Noida are home to startups with a value of US$19bn each. Despite being home to only 2 of India’s unicorns, Noida has a 24% share when it comes to total value, as fintech company Paytm is headquartered in the city.
The average age of Indian unicorns is 7 years, of which 2 are less than four years old. Ola Electric is the youngest unicorn on the list, being founded in 2017.
Globally, 89 unicorns saw their valuations rise, 23 saw their valuations drop. There were 142 ‘new faces’ and 50 drop-offs. Of the drop-offs, 30 were because they went public or were acquired and 20 saw their valuation drop below US$1bn. Top 10 Indian unicorns make up 78% of the total value of India’s unicorns, while Paytm alone claims nearly 22% of the total valuation share of these unicorns, with a valuation of US$16bn.
There are 61 global Unicorn companies in the Hurun Global Unicorn List 2020 who have Indian origin founders. A total of 40 companies who are located outside India have at least one founder having an Indian origin, the report added.
