India has finally hit a century of unicorns after adding 16 startups with a valuation of over $1 billion in the first three months of 2022. By the end of 2021, India had increased its unicorn count to 84 and two publicly-listed companies – MapmyIndia and EaseMyTrip – also entered the unicorn club. In 2021, it added 42 unicorns.

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Open, a neobanking platform for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) becomes the country’s 100th unicorn after raising $50 million at a valuation of $1 billion from IIFL. The latest round comes six months after Open raised $100 million led by Google, Temasek, Visa and Japan’s SoftBank investments. The company’s valuation after the last round was $500 million.

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Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal wrote on Twitter, “India Hits A Century In Style”.

The company has become the 16th unicorn of 2022. Other unicorns of 2022 are Mamaearth, Fractal Analytics, LEAD School, Darwinbox, Dealshare, ElasticRun, Livspace, Xpressbees, Uniphore, Hasura, CredAvenue, Amagi, Oxyzo Financial Services, CommerceIQ and Games24x7.

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The boost in funding and capital being raised at high valuations in the past few years has completely transformed the Indian startup ecosystem. In 2021, Indian startups raised a record-breaking $42 billion across 1,579 deals.

India’s 100 unicorns have a combined valuation of $333 billion, with Flipkart and BYJU’s being the two highest valued privately-held startups with a valuation of $37.6 billion and $21 billion respectively. Among publicly-listed companies with a market cap of over $1 billion, Nykaa is the highest valued at over $10.6 billion.

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India is likely to add more than 250 unicorns or privately owned startups with over a $1 billion market cap by 2025, according to the latest report from investment fund Iron Pillar. In India, Iron Pillar has invested in startups like Uniphore, FreshToHome, Eatfit etc.