Unicorn Companies

Deep tech to drive India's next Unicorn wave: Kris Gopalakrishnan

Moving beyond consumer internet and fintech, the next wave of billion-dollar Indian startups must be built on deep technology and advanced manufacturing to secure the country's strategic autonomy, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan said on Tuesday. Speaking at the CII Unicorn Summit 2026, Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, CII Centre of Excellence for Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Startups and Chairman, Axilor Ventures, defined this next phase as "Unicorn 2.0", urging founders to focus on proprietary technology and longevity rather than just chasing high valuations. "For me, Unicorn 2.0 is about deep tech," Gopalakrishnan said. While acknowledging that the first wave of consumer internet, edtech, and D2C unicorns made India proud, he noted that the next wave will determine if India becomes a truly developed economy. "Deep tech is harder, it takes longer, the capital cycles are different... and the failure rates are higher. But the rewards-economic, strategic, and civilisational-are ...

Unicorn creation surges 40x in decade as AI founders grow younger: Report

Unicorn creation has accelerated 40-fold worldwide in a decade, with AI startups reaching billion-dollar valuations faster and founder ages dropping significantly, an Antler report shows

Quick commerce unicorn Zepto converts to public company ahead of IPO

The Bengaluru-based qcom company, which is likely to go public next year, is expected to file its draft red herring prospectus soon

Indian tech ecosystem gets $7.7 bn in funding, down 23% from 2024

India's tech ecosystem attracted $7.7 billion in funding in the first nine months of 2025, down from $10.1 billion in 2024 and sharply below the $29.3 billion peak in 2021

Money meets innovation: The investors fueling India's Next-Gen startups

From Razorpay to FirstCry: Meet the Backers Behind India's Biggest Startup Wins

Good Glamm CEO Sanghvi blames 'too much, too fast' strategy for collapse

Good Glamm Group's Darpan Sanghvi says aggressive expansion across 11 acquisitions created a 'momentum trap' that led to the downfall of the $1.25 billion company

Beauty unicorn Good Glamm Group struggles to pay staff amid cash crunch

The Mumbai-based company has delayed employee salaries while seeking new funding, as three board directors from major VCs recently departed

India startup funding falls 25% in H1 2025, ranks 3rd globally: Tracxn

India saw a funding slowdown in H1 2025 but rose to third globally as sectors like transportation tech and retail attracted major investments; Bengaluru and Delhi led in total capital raised

India likely to see at least 30 GCCs with billion-dollar revenue this year

Data from Pune-based consultancy Wizmatic shows that there were about 24 GCCs with annual revenue of more than $1 billion in FY24; that number is expected to grow by five or six more such players

Ola Group leads innovation race, holds over half of unicorns' patents

Ola Group, spanning ride-hailing, electric vehicles, and AI, now holds over 50 per cent of all patents filed by India's 117 unicorns. India's unicorns collectively hold only 229 patents, with Ola Group owning more than half, according to data from the Indian Patent Advanced Search (IPAS) System. In a recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal shared, "Happy that Ola group @OlaElectric @Olacabs and @Krutrim have half of all granted patents for all Indian unicorns put together. Not happy with our number of 650 applied patents though. We will accelerate much much more in coming years!" Sources close to Ola confirmed that the group has filed over 650 patent applications, with 180 already granted. This includes filings by Ola Electric, Ola Consumer, and Krutrim, with Ola Electric accounting for the lion's share of about 70-80 per cent of the total. The report reveals that 101 of India's unicorns have filed zero patents, spotlighting a heavy tilt in the startup ...

Motive to hire hundreds as AI unicorns expand, follow Big Tech to India

Motive is among upstarts that are following major tech corporations like Meta and Microsoft into India, betting on one of world's deepest AI engineering pools to speed innovation

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

Indian startup unicorns grow far beyond IIT, IIM, and ISBs: Study

At the top of non-IIT/management institutes is Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), which has produced 10 startup unicorn founders in the US

Ed-tech unicorn LEAD Group eyes IPO within 2-3 years: Smita Deorah

The GSV Ventures- and Westbridge Capital-backed firm became a unicorn in 2022 and is now valued at $1.14 billion. The company currently services more than 8K schools and plans to add 3-4K schools

SaaS unicorn Perfios acquires financial crime management company Clari5

The company said the acquisition strengthens its fraud and risk management (FRM) capabilities and drives product-led synergies. Perfios said the move solidifies its presence across key global markets

Indian technology startup scene in 2024: More unicorns, more exits

Technology startups raised $11.3 billion, a six per cent increase from $10.7 billion raised in 2023

Unicorn startups' headcount declines 6.7k in a year: PrivateCircle Research

Mumbai unicorns saw a net decrease of 7,024 employees. Pune and Hyderabad too recorded a decrease in their overall workforce numbers

Focus on 'unicornism' in India overhyped, says Wipro's Rishad Premji

Wipro Executive chairman Rishad Premji on Thursday said that the whole focus on "unicornism" in the country is "overhyped" and being celebrated too much. "You want to focus on building businesses that sustain and then ultimately value will come. You cannot start your journey saying I want to (have) a value of X, Y and Z. That is very turning off. And so, I think it is the first red sign that pops up," he said when asked about the growing trend of startups looking to achieve Unicorn status within a few months of coming into being. Stating that people talk about valuation as opposed to building valuable businesses, he said, "We have overhyped in our country this whole focus on unicornism and we celebrate that too much. There are thousands of other companies that don't make it, but serve a need and are successful, but they don't make unicorn valuation and it doesn't make them non-successful companies, he said. A CII report, in collaboration with McKinsey & Co earlier this year said ..

Indian-born founders lead the charge in US unicorns, reveals study

India heads the list of non-US-born unicorn founders, with 90 from the country, followed by Israel with 52, Canada with 42, the UK with 31, and China with 27 founders

LEAD Group to seek PE funding after hitting profitability milestone

Edtech unicorn hopes to turn the corner by FY25-end, says CEO