India is the world's 3rd largest ecosystem for startups - Here are all the numbers

India is the 3rd largest ecosystem for startups after the US and China, with over 62,200 recognised startups across 636 districts of the country, according to the Economic Survey 2021-22 tabled in Parliament.

While the Economic Survey presented stats up to January 14, 202, as per the numbers of InvestIndia, as of January 28, 2022, India is home to 85 unicorns with a total valuation of $287.89 billion. Out of the total number of unicorns, 44 unicorns with a total valuation of $90.67 billion were born in 2021 and 4 unicorns with a total valuation of $4.72 billion were born in 2022.  Today, 1 out every 10 unicorns globally have been born in India.

Further, the Indian Startup ecosystem has seen exponential growth in past few years (2015-2021): It has witnessed a 9-times increase in the number of investors, a 7-time surge in the total funding of startups and 7-fold increase in the number of incubators.

Till FY 2016-17, approximately one unicorn was being added every year. But since 2017-18, there has been a 66% Y-on-Y growth in the number of additional unicorns being added every year.

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Now, Delhi leads the startup boom

The startups cover 56 diverse industrial sectors with 13% from IT services, 9% healthcare and life sciences, 7% education, 5% professional and commercial services, 5% agriculture and 4% food & beverages.

Tech companies, which have become household brands, are contributing to the unicorn boom in India, as smartphone penetration and digitization of commerce in every aspect of life has increased manifold. Besides fintech, e-commerce grocery, SaaS and marketplace players are contributing the most to the unicorn universe.

As per the Economic Survey 2021-22, over the recent years, Delhi has replaced Bangalore as the startup capital of India. Over 5,000 recognised startups were added in Delhi, while 4,514 startups were added in Bangalore between April 2019 to December 2021. With a total of 11,308 startups, Maharashtra has the highest number of recognised startups.

Nearly 555 districts had at least one new startup last year. This compares to only 121 districts which had at least one new startup in 2016-17.

While every startup has its unique journey to becoming a unicorn, the minimum and maximum time taken by a startup to become a unicorn are 6 months and 37 years, respectively. Mensa Brands took only 6 months to become a unicorn in 2021, making it one of fastest unicorns in Asia.   

Also, for the record, four Indian startups --- Flipkart, BYJU’s, Paytm and Swiggy --- have become decacorns (attained a valuation of more than $ 10 billion).

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