BM

Lift off Bro. India will have 400 new unicorns in the next 5 years. 400 startups worth more than $1 billion each. By the fifth year, more than two new Indian unicorns will be minted every week. Sounds mad, right? It isn't. It is called escape velocity. Here is the data. India already has 161 future unicorns worth about $66 billion. India is ranked third in the world for future billion dollar startups, and it is still climbing. The front of the line is 51 private startups valued between $500 million and $1 billion, on track to cross $1 billion within three years. 15 of them joined just this year. Nine climbed up from the group behind, and Bengaluru fintech Scapia and EV maker Simple Energy jumped straight in. Right behind them are 110 more, valued between $200 million and $500 million, on track to go unicorn within five years. Together they are worth about $32 billion, and that group has doubled since 2021, when there were just 54. These 161 companies employ more than 170,000 people. The 51 at the front alone have raised about $9 billion. The 41 that disclosed revenue reported $3.5 billion for FY25, growing 50% on average. Seven from last year's list have already crossed $1 billion: Twin Health, KreditBee, Cloudnine Hospitals, Dhan, La Renon Healthcare, Neo Wealth Management and InVideo AI. Twin Health more than tripled its valuation, from $700 million to over $2 billion. Two more, Shadowfax and Turtlemint, have already listed on the stock market this year. It is not just apps. Fintech leads, with names like InsuranceDekho and Finova Capital. But Agnikul is building rockets, Lohum is refining critical minerals for batteries and Rayzon Solar is making solar modules. Ema AI, UnifyApps and Observe AI are building AI. This week Agrani Labs, a Bengaluru AI chip startup founded by former Intel and AMD engineers, is closing a $108 million round led by Peak XV, with Google joining in. Its valuation is about $350 million, ten times what it was just a year ago. Today Bengaluru's EloElo, the company behind microdrama app Story TV, raised $80 million co-led by Hollywood's NBCUniversal, at a $500 million valuation. That is almost five times its last round, and its apps have 40 million monthly users. Matter is building India's first geared electric motorcycle in Ahmedabad. EVs, aerospace and defence are rising fast in the next wave. Bengaluru has 53 of them, Delhi NCR has 36 and Mumbai has 24. Just wait for the next wave from Pune, Ahmedabad, Indore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Kochi. And the IPO door is now in India. Companies once expected to raise in the US are looking at India instead. In October, India was the world's largest IPO market, raising $4.8 billion, more than double the US. Jio Platforms led with a $3.2 billion offering, the biggest IPO in India's history. The next wave of global unicorns is already here. They are being built in India, backed by money from around the world, and listing at home. Do you still think I am wrong? I offer you this. SpaceX needed four attempts to get Falcon 1 into orbit. Skyroot Aerospace, a startup from India, did it with Vikram-1 on its very first try.