Cloudy with a chance of unicorns

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Hello readers,

For those unfamiliar with the sci-fi animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, it’s the story of an aspiring scientist who builds a device that turns water into food. One thing leads to another (as usual) and suddenly, there are cheeseburgers, meatballs, spaghetti, and a whole buffet falling out of the sky.

A few weeks ago, India witnessed a short shower too – only instead of food it was raining unicorns. It seemed like every time I checked Twitter there was news of a brand new unicorn minted in India. The Twitterverse erupted in excitement as a flurry of jokes and wisecracks around the flood of unicorns in the country came gushing through.

The downpour has stabilized since, but the drizzle is still on. Also, if you or someone you know is aiming to be a part of this shower, we’re helping founders find investors and raise funding. All you have to do is fill up this form to get your company featured on our list of fundraising startups.

Today we look at,

• India’s unicorns and their early investors
• Enterprise Singapore’s partnership with Wavemaker Impact
• Other newsy highlights such as a China-based robotics platform netting big money, and a Bangladeshi internet-of-things startup’s fund-winning pitch deck

Premium summary

A shower of unicorns

Image credit: Timmy Loen

It’s hard to talk of India’s tech ecosystem without talking about the influence of companies like Flipkart, Byju’s, Udaan, or Zomato.

The meteoric rise of these companies has encouraged a healthy supply of startup funding, as highlighted by the fact that India now has more than 65 unicorns.

• The 2021 downpour: While the country has been steadily minting new unicorns over the past few years, 2021 has seen more than 30 companies win the unicorn tag – a record for the South Asian nation.

• Room for everyone: Traditionally, verticals like ecommerce and fintech are big draws for VCs, but the rise of startups like Apna, a jobs and professional network platform, shows there’s hope for others too. Apna zoomed into the billion-dollar club within just two years of its inception.

• Cloud seeding the shower: Sequoia Capital and Accel have backed the most number of unicorns in India as of now. Tiger Global, Elevation Capital (SAIF Partners), and Nexus Venture Partners are among the top five VCs backing India’s unicorns.

Making waves for the planet