Despite an unprecedented rise of Indian unicorns in the past couple of years, the country's global share at 6%, in producing unicorns, is still far behind the U.S. and China at 51% and 17%, respectively. However, it's better than developed countries like the UK, Germany and France.

The tech industry in India is booming, with $42 billion raised by startups in 2021 alone. There are over 10,000 funded startups, and the total value of 58 cloud unicorns built in India at $198 billion.

The pace at which unicorns are being created is also increasing. India created 53 unicorns in 2021, an over two-fold rise from 19 in 2020 and 13 in 2019. Some of the consumer tech unicorns (13) like BJYU's, Zomato, Ola, Paytm, OYO, etc, are expanding well beyond India.

Moreover, unicorn exits and mergers & acquisitions are also increasing in size and frequency. The last high-profile listing by an Indian startup on the US-based NASDAQ stock exchange was Zscaler at a $32.7 billion valuation. Flipkart, one of the early unicorns in India, was bought by the US-based retail behemoth Walmart Inc for $16 billion.

An increasing number of Indian tech founders building for global markets from India are choosing to base themselves in the US, the report shows. Region-wise, 31% of the startup unicorns in India have their headquarters in the US, followed by 28% in Bengaluru, 21% in Delhi-NCR and 12% in Mumbai. The number of unicorns choosing their base in the US increased from 36 in 2021 to 40 in 2022.

However, Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner, Iron Pillar told Fortune India it's not a sign of worry but a proud moment for India. "As you would probably know, Indian origin founders are already the largest set of non-US born Unicorn founders in US (please refer to data below published by Stanford University in January). The fact that Indian founders are building global tech companies from the US, using Indian technology prowess, and winning against other global companies, should be a matter of pride for all Indians. Not a matter of worry. Please note that these companies are building for global markets (not Indian market)," said Prasanna.

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