India has highest number of unicorn start-ups outside the US

Key highlights:

• India has the second highest number of unicorn start-ups in the world
• India currently has 9 unicorn start-up firms
• So far in 2017, there have been 42 companies added to the global unicorn club

Outside the US, India has the second highest number of unicorn start-ups in the world. While China has the highest unicorn start-ups firms after the US, India still was ahead of countries such as the UK, Germany and South Korea, according to a CB Insights report.

India currently has 9 unicorn start-up firms including Flipkart, Hike, InMobi, Ola Cabs, Paytm, ReNew Power Ventures, ShopClues, Snapdeal and Zomato.

Source: CB Insights

“Following China, the most unicorn-rich countries are India and the UK, respectively. No “Other” country takes more than 2% of the world’s unicorns located outside the US,” said the report.

While China has 52% of the unicorn companies located outside the US, India has 9% and UK with 8% of the unicorn companies.

Today’s global unicorn club is comprised of 214 private companies that are each valued at $1 billion. Collectively, this cohort of the world’s most valuable private enterprises is worth approximately $745 billion.

While US has had the most number of unicorns, in recent years more and more unicorns have been popping up outside of the US.

Source: CB Insights

In 2014, 37% of all companies that achieved their first $1 billion valuation were based outside the US. In 2015 that number rose to 53%, and last year rose again to 58%. So far in 2017, there have been 42 companies added to the global unicorn club; of those, 24 are based outside of the US, said the report.

Outside of the US and China, the most valuable private companies are the Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart (most recently valued at $11.6 billion), followed by music streaming service Spotify in Sweden ($8.5 billion) and daily deal site Snapdeal in India ($7 billion).

China has far and away the greatest number of private unicorn companies, at 55 total. The country is also home to the world’s top 3 most highly valued private non-US companies, led by $50 billion ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing. Rounding out the top 3 are electronics company Xiaomi ($46 billion) and online lending platform Lu.com ($18.5 billion).

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