New Delhi, Feb 25: There is a surge in the creation of unicorns (startups with a valuation of $1 billion and above) in the AI era, according to a new report, adding that AI companies now achieve unicorn status in an average of 4.7 years.
According to a report by global venture capital firm Antler, the unicorn creation has accelerated from an average of four companies per year between 2003-2013 to 148 per year between 2014-2024.
The findings also showed that India has emerged as a key contributor within the Asia-Pacific region, producing 109 unicorns between 2014 and 2024.
Bengaluru (46 unicorns), Mumbai (19) and Gurugram (15) feature among the leading unicorn hubs.
The report said that Indian institutions such as IIT Delhi rank among the top global universities producing unicorn founders.
The report analysed 1,629 unicorn companies and 3,512 founders between 2014 and 2024.
In today’s decentralised world, innovation can come from anywhere. With rapid advances in AI, billion-dollar companies are emerging faster than ever — and that pace is only set to accelerate, said Fridtjof Berge, co-founder and chief business officer at Antler.
The data shows that repeat founders account for approximately 40 per cent of unicorn creators, and around 26 per cent of unicorn founders are immigrants, 81 per cent of whom are based in the United States.
Notably, STEM backgrounds dominate among unicorn founders, making up roughly 60 per cent.
At the same time, women represent only 6 per cent of total unicorn founders, despite an increase in female founder representation over the past decade, said Divita Aggarwal, associate at Antler India, and Susmit Patodia, ex-associate partner at Antler, who co-led the research.
The ‘India AI Impact Summit 2026’ last week closed not with finality but with forward motion. What emerged is a portrait of India as both host and heavyweight.
On the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a roundtable with CEOs of AI and deep tech startups pioneering innovative initiatives in agriculture, healthcare, cybersecurity, etc.
The startups praised India’s sustained push to strengthen its Artificial Intelligence ecosystem, sector’s rapid expansion, and noted that global momentum of AI innovation and deployment is increasingly shifting towards India.
—IANS