- Monday, April 29, 2024
The number of unicorns in the country were reduced to just 67 with ed-tech company Byju’s witnessing an unprecedented slide.
By: Twinkle Roy
INDIA has witnessed a drop in the number of its unicorns – companies worth over $1 billion (£803 million) — for the first time in the last four years to 67, according to a report published last week.
The South Asian nation, nevertheless, has remained the third biggest hub for unicorns across the globe, the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024 revealed.
Ed-tech start-up Byju’s, which has been grappling with economic challenges, tumbled out of the list, meaning its valuation stands below $1 billion currently. Even a year ago, it was valued at more than $22 billion (£17.6 billion).
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Such a dramatic drop in valuation for Byju’s made it the biggest dip across any startup globally, the Hurun report said.
It added that the company, founded in 2008, lost its coveted position as it restructured operations and slashed costs after growing losses.
“The former unicorn missed its revenue target for the financial year ending in March last year and is working to resolve a USD 1.2 billion debt,” the report said.
Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said while the downfall of startups is not something new and they storm the headlines in the process, such ventures are crucial for the economy.
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Delivery platform Swiggy and fantasy sports Dream 11 were the most valuable Indian unicorns valued at $8 billion (6.4 billion) each and ranked 83rd in the list globally.
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Razorpay followed them with a valuation of $7.5 billion (6 billion), and was ranked 94th.
Hurun India’s chief researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said there were some additions in the list such as Krutrim, an artificial intelligence platform.
However, the same year has seen 60 AI-focused startups from the US and 37 from China break into the unicorn club, he said.
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Explaining the overall fall in the number of Indian companies in the list of 1,453 unicorns, Rahman said lack of investments despite handsome gains on the equity indices was hurting them.
Also, he said the tendency among Indians to establish such entities outside of India is proving to be a disadvantage for the country’s potential. The number of unicorns started by Indians overseas stands at 109, compared to 67 within the country.
This led to the addition of 24 unicorns to take the overall number of companies valued at over $1 billion to 340 during the year.
Bytedance, the owner of TikTok and founded in 2012, topped the list with a valuation of $220 billion (£176.6 billion), followed by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX at $180 billion (£144.5 billion) and Microsoft-backed OpenAI worth $100 billion (£80.3 billion) at third.
