Unicorns in India Experience Sharp Decline, Byju’s Valuation Suffers Largest Global Decline: Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024

Byju’s, an edtech company, experienced a significant drop in its valuation, making it the largest dip across any startup globally, as reported by the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2024. The company, previously valued at over USD 22 billion, has now dropped off the list, indicating a current valuation of less than USD 1 billion. This decline in Byju’s valuation reflects its struggles with various issues, including increased losses, failure to meet revenue targets, and working to resolve a substantial debt of USD 1.2 billion. The restructured operations and cost-cutting measures undertaken by Byju’s resulted in the loss of its prestigious position.

In contrast, India maintained its status as the world’s third-largest hub for unicorns, with food delivery platform Swiggy and fantasy sports-focused Dream11 being the most valuable unicorns from the country, each valued at USD 8 billion. Additionally, Razorpay holds a valuation of USD 7.5 billion. These Indian unicorns are ranked 83rd and 94th globally, respectively. While there were new additions to the list of unicorns in India, the overall number of Indian companies in the list of 1,453 unicorns decreased.

The decrease is attributed to the lack of investments in startups, despite substantial gains in equity indices, as well as a growing trend among Indian founders to start companies outside the country. The Hurun report also highlighted the addition of 24 new unicorns in the global market, bringing the total number of companies valued at over USD 1 billion to 340. The list was led by Bytedance, the owner of Tiktok, with a valuation of USD 220 billion, followed by SpaceX at USD 180 billion and Microsoft-backed OpenAI worth USD 100 billion. *(This story has been republished from a syndicated feed.

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