Unicorns continue to sprout in India

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India’s envious list of unicorns has added yet another member– Rebel Foods, which operates a network of cloud kitchen brands such as Fasoos and Behrouz Biryani. Rebel Foods in series F round has raised $175 million at a valuation of $1.4 billion.

Unicorn rush

With Rebel Foods being the latest entrant, India has created 32 unicorns this year, starting with Digit Insurance. According to a report in the Business Standard, India has produced more than three unicorns a month, on average, in 2021 and could end the year with around 40 startups becoming unicorns. According to the tech industry body Nasscom, India may see a total of 76 unicorns by 2021-end.

Rebel Foods is the third startup to become a unicorn in as many days—in the previous two days Kuber and Licious had turned unicorns.

Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, with participation from existing investors Coatue and Evolvence, led the latest funding in Rebel Foods, a statement by Rebel Foods said.

Focus on tech

Of the 30+ unicorns added this year, 5 are in the fintech space, while 4 of them are SaaS segment, and 4 of them are in edtech, showing in clear edge to tech-focused entities in the unicorn club. E-commerce grocery and marketplace players are the other leading sectors in the unicorn world.

BharatPe, Digit, Grow, CRED, Zeta are the five startups in the fintech sector that became a part of the unicorn club this year.

Vedantu, Eruditius and upGrad are the three edtech firms.

MindTickle, BrowserStack, ChargeBee, Innovaccer are three focused on SaaS.

The Business Standard reported that work-from-home has pushed the growth of digital businesses in India. “Three factors — thriving digital payments ecosystem, larger smartphone user base and digital-first business models – have come together to attract investors, the news report said quoting industry experts.

Anup Jain, managing partner, Orios Venture Partners, is quoted as saying that tech companies are contributing to the unicorn boom. Growth in digital payment is reflected in the sector that has contributed the most to the unicorn list, he said.

The Business Standard further said that among investors Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital continued to rule the ecosystem

According to a Business Today report, unicorns have raised over $20 billion in 2021 so far.