According to the 6th edition of “Global Unicorn Index 2024”report published by Hurun Institute, India is ranked at 3rd position in the index with 67 unicorns(down to 1 compared to 2023).
i.While, Indian Ed-tech giant Byju’s and PharmEasy were dropped out from the index.
ii.United States of America(U.S.A.) continued to be at top position with 703 unicorns which accounted for 48% of world total number of unicorns.
- China also retained its 2nd position in the index with 340 unicorns.
Top 5 Countries with most number of unicorns:
| Rank | Country | Number of Unicorns | Up/down compared to 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | U.S.A. | 703 | +37 |
| 2. | China | 340 | +34 |
| 3. | India | 67 | -1 |
| 4. | United Kingdom(U.K.) | 53 | +4 |
| 5. | Germany | 36 | 0 |
Top5 Global Unicorns 2024:
| Rank | Unicorn | Valuation(USD billion) | Country | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Byte Dance | 220 | China | Social Media |
| 2. | SpaceX | 180 | U.S.A. | Aerospace |
| 3. | OpenAI | 100 | U.S.A. | AI |
| 4. | Ant Group | 80 | China | Fin tech |
| 5. | Shein | 65 | China | E-Commerce |
Key Points:
i.The index listed total 1453 unicorns(up by 37% compared to 2023) in the world based in 53 countries.
- The total value of the world’s unicorn reached USD 5 trillion, which is equivalent to the Gross domestic product (GDP) of Japan.
ii.ByteDance owned by Tik-Tok remained as the world’s most valuable unicorn worth USD220 billion(up USD20 billion compared to last year).
iii.As per index, 1 unicorn minted every 2 days in last one year. US led this list of new unicorns with 70 followed by China with 56. Total number of new unicorns in the world, established in past year is 171.
iv.Fin tech, Software as a service (SaaS) and AI(Artificial Intelligence) accounted for 33% of all unicorns on the list. AI replaced E-Commerce to 3rd place in the list.
v.The most active city for unicorns outside of the US and China was London(the United Kingdom-UK), followed by Bengaluru(Karnataka, India), Paris(France) and Berlin(Russia).
vi.As per the Index, for the 1st time ever, Tiger Global(U.S.) named as the “World’s Most Successful Unicorn Investor ” investing into 205 unicorns.
- Soft Bank(Japan) ranked at 2nd position in terms of most successful unicorn investor investing into 169 unicorns followed by Hong Shan(China).
- Hong Shan has replaced Sequoia from the list and Sequoia slipped to 4th position.
Cities:
i.San Francisco(U.S.) retained the title of “World Unicorn Capital” with 190 unicorns(up 9) followed by New York(U.S.) with 133 unicorns(up 7) and Beijing(China) with 78 unicorns(down 1).
ii.While, Indian cities: Bengaluru (Karnataka) and Mumbai (Maharashtra) were ranked at 7th and 19th position in the list respectively.
India-Specific:
i.India was ranked 3rd with 67 unicorns led by on-demand food delivery start-up Swiggy (USD8 billion) followed by Dream11(USD8 billion) and Razorpay (USD7.5 billion).
ii.The report highlighted about India’s start up ecosystem which has slowed down. The main factors underscored by the report which attributed to this:
- The lack of investment into start-ups.
- The number of Indian unicorns established outside of India is higher compared to the number of unicorns based in India.
Note:
i.Out of total 176 unicorns, 109 were established by Indian co-founders based outside India and remaining 67 are based in India.
ii.Unicorns based outside India in other countries: US(95), U.K.(4), Singapore(3) and Germany(2)
Drop Outs:
i.According to the report, 128 unicorns witnessed a drop in their valuation from the last year i.e. losing USD210 billion in the year.
ii.42 unicorns from 2023 list dropped out from the list, as their valuation fell below USD 1 billion.
About Global Unicorn Index:
i.It is compiled by Hurun Research Institute and includes companies founded in the 2000s with a current valuation of USD1 billion, not yet list on public exchange.
ii.The data is for January2023 toJanuary2024, compared with January 2022 to January 2023.
iii.Hurun Research has been tracking unicorns since 2017.
