Vaibhav Gupta, Sujeet Kumar and Amod Malviya had many things in common. All three hailed from small towns, raised up in middle-class families, did their bachelors in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, and worked at Flipkart at the same time. But what bound them together was an idea that was never conjured.

Udaan took its flight when the three youths gave their dreams a design. The wind beneath its wings was a thought and its impeccable execution blueprint. It took barely 26 months for the country’s fastest unicorn to fly into the $1-billion league.

It is this ability to ideate and the verve to pursue a dream that have propelled India to the 20th spot among the 100 top start-up ecosystems globally. The country’s conducive policy environment promises to cradle more than 100,000 start-ups by 2025, creating more than 3.25 million jobs, and driving home over $150 billion in funding to surpass a valuation of $500 billion.

What started as a disruptive move to wriggle out of a global recession in 2008-10, has grown up to support India’s dream to be a $5-trillion digital economy by 2030. Thousands of IT professionals were laid off during the sub-prime crisis and a fear of job-loss had gripped millions. A worsening economic depression had called for out-of-the-box solutions for every individual to stay afloat. That was the onset of an unstoppable rally for start-ups.

Seated comfortably at a demographic sweet spot with 65 per cent of its 133-crore population aged 25 to 35 years, India quickly embraced the challenge to break the mediocrity and emerge stronger with its supremely talented manpower resource. Technology laid the foundation for this digital revolution that India fostered.

The growth of the start-up ecosystem was aided by a huge untapped market. With smartphones penetrating deeper into rural India at a faster clip by the day, the country has emerged as the second largest internet user base after China. It became easy for start-ups to reach out to a wider audience through social media and instant messaging.

The boom in start-ups was amplified when people in hundreds and thousands turned to entrepreneurship after the Covid outbreak in 2020. The pandemic triggered large-scale job losses and a severe economic slowdown, pushing people to look for alternative income avenues. A year and a half later, a survey finds more than 60 per cent of salaried Indians aspire to be entrepreneurs.

Tech start-ups are the front-runners on the Indian turf. With over 1,600 tech start-ups and a record number of 19 unicorns getting added in first seven months of 2021 alone, the sector has logged in 8-10 per cent on-year growth.

“Deep-tech and new start-up hubs will continue to average 40-45 per cent annual growth. The future not only holds immense opportunity with strategic product innovation but also includes a rise in deep-tech-focussed solutions,” says Sangeeta Gupta, Senior V-P and Chief Strategy Officer at IT industry body Nasscom.

Technology has also paved the way for more inclusive growth with more and more women entrepreneurs joining the league to ensure financial security for themselves and their families. Like Udaan, which was conceived as an app-based B2B marketplace to connect small retailers with wholesalers and traders, tech start-ups offer platforms that help the new-age entrepreneurs do business.

Launching a start-up was the first step towards a journey of a thousand miles and India is well ahead on its course to secure a future of holistic economic growth. “From government initiatives to building infrastructure, strengthening policies, facilitating market access, widening corporate participation, increasing seed-stage investments and mentoring will go a long way in holistic development of the sector,” Gupta says.

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Number of Start-ups in India 55,000

Active Start-ups More than 40,000

Funding Raised by Indian Start-ups $63 billion

Funded Start-ups 3,200

Number of Investors 4,600

Unicorns in India

• Privately held start-up with a value of over $1 billion
• 16 start-ups became unicorn in 2021, raising India’s tally past 50
• Indian start-ups require around 7 years to touch unicorn status