Funding squeeze hit brakes on startups' unicorn race in 2024: Tracxn

Time taken to become unicorn fell by half in four years till 2023; back to 2019 levels again

Startups in India that became unicorns in 2019 took over 10 years on average to reach the milestone of a $1 billion valuation.

But just four years later, in 2023, the average time to achieve the same status was cut in half to just five years, as private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) firms poured cash into these companies to scale their businesses without focusing much on profitability, according to data from research agency Tracxn. 

But that is not the whole story.

  Startups that became unicorns in 2024 took an average of nine years and six months to reach $1 billion