Since April, the funding scenario has not been favourable for Indian startups. The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, impending recession fears, and hike in Fed rate interest have caused a funding slowdown in the startup ecosystem. Still, India managed to turn 14 companies into unicorns between January and June 1, 2022, says a report by market intelligence provider Tracxn. Last year, the number stood at 13, in the same time frame.
Now, India ranks third in overall unicorns created. The United States and China hold first and second positions respectively. Fractal, a Saas firm, Lead School, an edtech startup, DealShare, an e-commerce platform, LivSpace, an interior design firm, Games 24×7, a gaming startup, Open Financial Technology, a fintech startup are some of the names that hit the unicorn list in the last five months.
Does this mean India’s unicorn trend will go on? Earlier this year, Piyush Goyal, the minister of commerce and industry, had said that the Indian Startup Ecosystem should aim is to raise 75 unicorns in 75 weeks. At that time, the target seemed feasible as 10 Indian companies became unicorns in the first 53 days. However, the situation slowed down since then, forcing many companies like Ola, Unacademy, Cars24 and others to lay off a part of their workforce. According to Gaurav Munjal, co-founder of Unacademy, this slowdown is expected to last for 12 to 24 months. So, we have to wait and see how the unicorn trend would unfold in the coming months.
