India’s year of the unicorn and its many high points

• Indian startup IPOs raised $6.1 billion from the public market, which is nearly 70% of $8.8 billion raised in IPOs this year.
• Indian fintech companies raised $10.6 billion in 2021 till December 22, and continued to be the highest funded sector this year.
• Nine ecommerce players were valued over $1 billion this year, doubling the total tally of unicorns in the industry.

The year 2021 will be remembered for massive tech startup initial public offering (IPOs) ⁠— nine public issues raising ₹46,045 crore ($6.1 billion) of the total $8.8 billion⁠ raised in public market this year— and the creation of four unicorns every month.

While nine Indian startups — including digital payments giant Paytm, food delivery business Zomato and fashion ecommerce platform Nykaa — caught the fancy of India’s stock market investors, the unlisted space saw the creation of 42 unicorns, more than the total of the last three years combined.

Fintech and ecommerce remained the most sought after segment within startups in 2021, now two years in a row. But the excitement was palpable in other areas like edtech, and software solutions. The biggest fundraising this year was still Byju’s, which once again raised $1.3 billion across multiple tranches.

Let’s look at how it played out, what were the catalysts for such a boom in unicorns this year, and who were the big winners.