Goyal bullish on Indian startup eco-system’s spread across 647 districts
One out of every 10 unicorns globally have been born in India, says Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal as he celebrated the birth of 100th unicorn in the country on 2 May 2022.
As of 5 May 2022, India is now home to 100 unicorns with a total valuation of US$332.7 billion, making the Indian Startup Ecosystem as the third-largest in the world in number of Unicorns.
The term ‘Unicorn’ refers to the rarest of the rare startups that attain a valuation of more than US$1 billion.
Forty-four Indian startups with a combined valuation of US$93 billion entered the Unicorn club in 2021, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry release on 6 May 2022.
In the first four months of 2022, India has given birth to 14 unicorns with a total valuation of US$18.9 billion, said the Minister.
“The entrepreneurial spirit exists throughout the length and breadth of the country and is evident by the spread of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) recognized startups across 647 Indian districts encompassing all 36 States and Union Territories,” said Goyal.
Since the launch of the Startup India initiative on 16 January 2016, more than 69,000 startups have been recognized in the country till 2 May 2022.
“Innovation in India is not just limited to certain sectors. We have recognized startups solving problems in 56 diverse sectors with 13% from IT services, 9% healthcare and life sciences, 7% education, 5% professional and commercial services, 5% agriculture and 5% food & beverages,” he said.
While every startup has its unique journey to becoming a unicorn, the minimum and maximum time taken by a startup to become a unicorn in India are 6 months and 26 years, respectively.
Till FY 2016-17, approximately one unicorn was being added every year. Over the past four years (since FY 2017-18), this number has been increasing exponentially, with a whopping 66% Year-on-Year growth in the number of additional unicorns being added every year.
“As we hit the milestone of a century in Indian unicorns, the homegrown startup ecosystem continues to work effectively towards the mission of self-reliance and self-sustainability as they have been in the past,” he said.
“The vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat is rooted deeply in the Startup Ecosystem and shall continue to prevail in the coming years.” fiinews.com
