MUMBAI: The Hurun Research Institute Wednesday released the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021, a ranking of India’s start-ups 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).
The cut-off date was 31 August 2021.
Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021 is a snapshot of India’s start-up ecosystem. This is a list of the most valuable private equity or venture capital-funded companies in India founded after 2000, ranked according to their latest funding round valuation.
To enter the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021, the start-up is required to have a value of US$200mn (INR 1,500 crore).
Anas Rahman Junaid MD and Chief Researcher, Hurun India said: “Preparing the Hurun India Future Unicorn List 2021 has been one of the most daunting tasks, primarily due to the positive hyperactivity in Indian start-up ecosystems. For instance, 5 start-ups that we had as Cheetahs at the beginning of our research, jumped straight to Unicorn valuations. The list has inputs from India’s startup investor ecosystem including some of the top VC funds and hence could serve as a good source for
investors and family offices to understand more some of the most exciting start-ups in the country.”
India’s future top 10 unicorns
The Hurun report identified the top 10 future unicorns of 2021 and they are a diverse group hailing from e-commerce, travel, beauty, and fintech sectors, among others.
Zilingo, the online retail store, Mobile Premier League, the gaming company, and Rebel Foods, India’s first cloud kitchen startup, are listed as the top three Indian unicorns.
Zilingo has raised a total investment of $310 million to date and is backed by marquee investors such as Sequoia Capital, Temasek Holdings, Beenext, EDB Investments and others, according to the report.
Also part of the list is fitness startup Cure.Fit, which ranks fourth; and RateGain, a SaaS company in the hospitality and travel industry, at sixth.
Mamaearth, a D2C personal care brand founded in 2016 by Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh, is eighth on the list. Mamaearth raised a total investment of $73.6 million from global investors such as Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Fireside Ventures, Stellaris Venture and Kunal Bahl.
Gurugram-based auto marketplace CarDekho was eighth in the list, followed by GreyOrange, which is a Singapore-based robotics startup. The wildly popular digital payments startup MobiKwik is also featured in the list at number 10.
The list also evidences the ballooning investor interest for Indian start-ups. More than 300 investors that include angel investors, corporates, AIFs, family offices and institutional investors have invested into the Cheetahs and Gazelles. Sequoia is the top investor in these start-ups, followed by Tiger Global.
