India's Startup Boom: Mohandas Pai Foresees 250 Unicorns by 2026
At a global talk at the Oxford India Forum, 'India's Economic Trajectory: India, a startup nation', former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai made some bold predictions about the Indian startup ecosystem. Pai said that India is on course to mint 250 unicorns in the coming two years, highlighting the country's rapid emergence as a global leader in startups. Pai further estimated that with this kind of growth, the startup sector would contribute hugely toward the economy of India and attain a valuation of US$10 billion by 2032-33. Standing at the global rank of three, India currently hosts 138,000 startups, out of which 23,000 are funded startups, all putting together a value creation of $550 billion.
Pai mentioned that India is strong in innovation across sectors, has 6,300 AI startups, 2,000 IoT startups, and AR, VR, and robotics are in a very strong development phase. He asserted that India featured very high in unicorn rankings globally and that the US startup ecosystem had a fair representation by way of Indian origin founders. Extremely impressed with India's contribution towards the digitization exercise round the world, Pai also threw kudos at the new digital public infrastructure being created within India, stating it could very well be a model for the rest of the world.
Pai applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that under his leadership, India had undergone the most unique transformation witnessed in human history. He further described India as a leader in innovation and entrepreneurship and added that the country would chart the course of global technology and the economy going forward.