The Hurun Research Institute’s report Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021, ranks India’s startups founded in the 2000s, worth at least $200 million, not yet listed on a public exchange, and most likely to ‘go unicorn’ within 2 years (Gazelles) or 4 years (Cheetahs).
Per the report, India is the third largest Unicorn ecosystem in the world after U.S. and China.
“Although the Indian startup ecosystem is growing, some of the startups that reach a certain scale migrate from India in search of better regulatory incentives and risk capital availability. For instance, some of the best Enterprise SaaS companies are born in India but “have flipped” to the U.S. This is a lost opportunity for India and it is important that these startups are incentivized to stay back in the country,” it added.
India is home to 51 Unicorns, up by 25 in 2021, 32 Gazelles, and 54 Cheetahs. The country added approximately 3 Unicorns every month over the last year. The top investors in the Gazelles and Cheetahs in the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021 are Sequoia, followed by Tiger Global with 37 and 18 investments respectively. India’s Unicorns are now worth $168 billion.
E-commerce, FinTech and SaaS comprise 49 percent of the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021. With 31 startups, Bangalore is the startup capital of India, followed by Delhi NCR (18) and Mumbai (13).
RateGain, MobiKwik, MedPlus, Fino Paytech and ixigo are preparing IPOs to raise over $1 billion by the end of this year. CoinSwitch Kuber is the only crypto startup in the list.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
