India is likely to have a total of 250 unicorns by 2025 from the 129 at present, Amitabh Kant, the Chief Executive Officer of government think-tank NITI Aayog said, quoting a report by Iron Pillar.

According to the latest report by the investment fund, 100 unicorns were added to the list from January 2019 till now. A unicorn is a privately-held startup, which has a valuation of $1 billion or above. InMobi was the first startup to join the unicorn club in India in 2011.

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“India has 129 Unicorns of which 100 were added from Jan 2019 generating a value of $535 billion,” Kant said in a tweet.

India will have 250 unicorns by 2025 - Iron Pillar’s Tech Unicorn Report. India has 129 Unicorns of which 100 were added from Jan 2019 generating a value of $535 billion. Unicorns from India include 58 global Cloud Cos,59 B2C & 13 B2B Companies.

— Amitabh Kant (@amitabhk87) April 20, 2022

Among the current unicorns in India, 58 are global cloud companies, 59 B2C (business to consumer) and 13 B2B (business to business) firms, he said.

The report stated that 50 percent of the 130 companies became a unicorn within the first five years of their initial institutional fundraising.

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In the last 15 months, the number of unicorns jumped from 62 to 130, Business Standard quoted Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner of Iron Pillar, as saying.

"While we believe that this pace may reduce a bit in the next 24 months, creating 250 companies with over $1 billion in value by 2025 is an extremely achievable goal for Indian founders,” he said.

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Meanwhile, speaking at an event in New Delhi, Kant said India should aspire to become a high-income country by the year 2047, PTI reported. To achieve this target, the country would have to clock sustained economic growth year after year, which would be possible if India taps into the power of the private sector, the NITI Aayog CEO said.

“We have built rules and regulations which have killed entrepreneurship,” PTI quoted Kant as saying. He added that bureaucrats should make processes easy for businesses to grow and ensure more participation from the private sector.

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(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)