Focusing on needs of consumer, India's unicorns are like workhorses

India's four largest unicorns are in online payments, e-commerce, ride-hailing and education

China has birthed some pretty impressive billion-dollar startups. Bytedance Inc’s TikTok is so hip it makes Snap Inc look like it’s for your parents. 

Sensetime Group Ltd and Beijing Megvii Co are masters of creepily powerful AI used in facial recognition and surveillance. Even in boring old hardware, Bitmain Technologies Ltd has a niche in bitcoin; SZ DJI Technology Co dominates the market for drones; and UBTech Robotics Ltd makes an IronMan robot. Bitcoin, drones and robots – that’s cool.

India’s four largest unicorns, by contrast, are in online payments, e-commerce, ride-hailing and education. No shame in meeting the simplest