Private Eye

The word Unicorn in context of business was first published in 2013 by Venture Capitalist Aileen Lee to describe a privately held start-up company valued at over USD1 billion. The mythical animal was chosen to represent the statistical rarity of such successful ventures. With over 100 start-ups breaching the USD1 billion mark in the Indian private markets, it seems Unicorns are not as mythical as earlier thought. This surge has been fuelled by record Venture Capital investments of USD38.5 billion in 2021 making it a pivotal year for the Indian start-up ecosystem, now the third largest in the world after the US and China.