New Delhi: A major thrust of the Narendra Modi government since coming to power in 2014 was to promote entrepreneurial abilities among Indians, which was believed to go a long way in creating jobs and making the country financially ‘self-reliant’. will decide the way. For this purpose, the Center launched the ‘Startup India’ initiative on 16 January 2016 to develop a vibrant ecosystem that fosters innovation.
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With 72,993 start-ups recognized in six years, the initiative has been a resounding success, creating over 7.5 lakh direct jobs. The number of accredited start-ups is growing exponentially with each passing year – from a mere 417 in 2016 to 20,160 in 2021. Another 12,341 start-ups have been recognized as of June 30 this year, and the total number is expected to exceed. By the end of this year of 2020.
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Among the states, Maharashtra has the highest number of start-ups (13,519), followed by Karnataka (8,881) and Delhi (8,636). Metropolis like Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR are favorites among budding entrepreneurs for the investment-friendly infrastructure that they offer. However, Tier-II and III cities are also slowly gaining currency, and they account for almost half of India’s total start-ups.
There are also 105 unicorns in the country with a total valuation of $338.50 billion – 63 of them born in the previous year. In fact, one out of every 10 unicorns in the world is from India. Unicorns (companies with over $1 billion valuation) that offered IPOs to expand their growth include Zomato, Nykaa, Policybazaar and Paytm.
Bengaluru is the unicorn capital of India with 39 firms, followed by Delhi-NCR (32) and Mumbai (16). Bangalore is also among the top 10 unicorn centers in the world. While traditional sectors such as e-commerce, fintech, supply and logistics, and internet software unicorns dominate the list, unconventional sectors such as gaming, hospitality, cryptocurrency and data analytics are also making their way into the list.
In addition, four Indian start-ups – Flipkart, BYJU’s, Nykaa and Swiggy – are now Decacorns (valued at over $10 billion). The total number of Decacorns globally is 47.
According to Invest India, India is the world’s third largest ecosystem for start-ups and second in innovation quality. Start-ups cover 56 diverse sectors in the country, mostly in IT services (13 per cent), healthcare (9 per cent) and education (7 per cent). Over the past seven years, the start-up ecosystem has registered a 15x increase in funding and a 9x increase in the number of investors.