Kunal Bahl Assertes India Needs Indicorns In Thousands Instead Of Few Hundred Unicorns

Kunal Bahl, an entrepreneur and investor, asserted that India needs an increasing number of Indicorns, perhaps in thousands, instead of a few hundred Unicorns. Speaking at a media event, Bahl, co-founder of AceVector, which is the holding company for Snapdeal, wondered about India's obsession with a USD 1 billion company, a yardstick to accord Unicorn status.

"Isn't it better we build businesses with the intention of making them lasting and enduring and aimed for goals which enable us to get there," Bahl said.

The ace investor termed the unicorn valuation of USD 1 billion, which comes to about Rs 83,000 crore in Indian currency, as a "mythical figure" and asserted "it doesn't make sense". He suggested that what India now needs is not a large pool of unicorns but thousands of Indicorns. 

"What India probably needs right now is not 100, 200, 300 unicorns or 500 unicorns, we need 10,000 Indicorns, because that will form the bedrock of the startup ecosystem. That will create a steady flow of companies that eventually listed companies and large businesses," Bahl said.

Indicorns are companies that generate over Rs 100 crore in revenue, and at the same time become a profitable entity. Bahl has invested in and funded businesses that have over time become unicorns. Unicorns are basically startups worth at least a billion dollars and not yet listed on a public exchange. India now has over a hundred unicorns.

Startup India is a flagship initiative started by the Government of India in January 2016 to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and startups in the country which may drive economic growth and generate large-scale employment opportunities. 

As of June 2024, India has 140,803 entities as startups. Since the launch of the Startup India initiative in 2016, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) -recognised startups have created over 15.53 lakh direct jobs.