India has seen a unicorn rush in recent years, with the number of startups valued at more than $1 billion rising from a handful to around 35-40. But a new Credit Suisse report has claimed that by looking at sectors outside tech, and estimating the current valuation of companies, India might have as many as 100 unicorns.
“We have spread our net wider, looking beyond the normal technology or ‘technology enabled’ sectors, which are expected to have unicorns but also in conventional sectors like non-banking finance, bio-tech and pharmaceuticals, modern trade, consumer goods as well as infrastructure,” the report says.
The Credit Suisse report includes several companies which aren’t traditionally counted in the unicorn lists, including companies from sectors including pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery and manufacturing. This allows the list to include companies like Parle Products, Vishal Mega Mart, Wonder Cement, ReNew Power Ventures, Serum Institute of India and National Stock Exchange.
Interestingly, the list also includes companies that haven’t touched a billion-dollar valuation just yet, but based on their FY20 earnings and the average valuation of their peers, could be valued at over a billion dollars. By this criterion, companies including mutual fund investment app Groww, education firm Eruditus, social commerce firm Meesho, content firm MX Player, and QR code aggregator BharatPe also make the list.
“We screened for unlisted firms for large profit pools and strong growth, tabulating the list of investments by major private equity (PE) firms, digging into deals news flow, and then meeting several PE firms to make sure the list was comprehensive,” the report says.
The report, of course, doesn’t imply that the number of unicorns in India has doubled overnight, but focusses on sectors which are typically ignored by the tech press. It also includes companies that aren’t quite worth a billion dollars, but are unicorns in “real time” as per their earnings, and could well touch the $1 billion milestone in their next funding rounds. These could be heartening signs for India’s startup ecosystem, and its business community at large — there’s wealth and value quietly being built in sectors that don’t always get limelight and breathless media coverage.
Here’s the complete list of “unicorns” as per Credit Suisse report:
Ecommerce- BookMyShow, FirstCry, CarDekho, Cars24, Cure.fit, Flipkart, Lenskart, Nykaa, BigBasket, Urban Company.
Education- Byju’s, Unacademy, Eruditus, Sri Chaitanya. Energy- CLP Wind Farms, Greenko, Mytrah Energy, ReNew Power
Financials- Aptus Finance BharatPe, BillDesk, Five Star Business Finance, Groww, Hero Fincorp, National Stock Exchange, Paytm, PhonePe, Pine Labs, Razorpay, Star Health, Zerodha.
IT/Tech- CitiusTech, Dailyhunt, Glance, Global Logic, Grey Orange, Headspin, InMobi, Meesho, MX Player, Sharechat, Synechron, UST.
SaaS- BrowserStack, Chargebee, Druva, Eightfold, Freshworks, HighRadius, IBS Software, Icertis, Innovaccer, Postman, Zenoti, Zoho.
Healthcare- Anthem Biosciences, Bharat Biotech, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Hetero Labs, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Macleods Pharmaceuticals, Manipal Hospitals, PharmEasy, Serum Insititute of India.
Discretionary- Allied Blenders and Distillers, D’ Decor, GRT Jewellers, Joyalukkas, KurlOn, Oyo Rooms, Piramal Glass, RateGain, Vini Cosmetics, Vishal Mega Mart.
Logistics- Delhivery, Ecom Express, Essar Ports, Udaan. Mobility- Ola, Ola Electric, Zoomcar.Others- Swiggy, Zomato, Wonder Cement, Deccan Fine Chemicals, Gharda Chemicals, Enzen Global Solutions, Mu Sigma, Digit, Policybazaar, Haldiram’s, Parle Products, RSPL, Altria Convergence, Bhilosa Industries, Mobile Premier League, Dream11, Games 24/7.