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Edtech investments: While CY21 saw fintechs raise nearly four times more funds when compared to CY20, edtech startups came second, with almost 100 companies raising approximately $3.9 billion in CY21. UpGrad, Eruditus and Vedantu attained unicorn status in 2021, taking the tally of unicorns in the edtech sector in India to 5.

Stages of funding: Growth- and late-stage deals comprise around 85% of the total funding. Deals in all stages of funding showed growth in CY21 but growth- and late-stage deals stand out with about 50% growth in deal count and more than 2x growth in average deal ticket size.

Global and Indian unicorns: Globally, 510 new unicorns emerged in CY21. Almost 55% of all new unicorns are based in the US. In India, 43 startups attained unicorn status in CY21 compared to 9 unicorns in CY20. More than 50 Indian startups show the potential to enter the unicorn club in 2022 and most of these startups are in the fintech, logistics tech and SaaS segments.


M&A in the startup ecosystem: In 2021, close to 250 M&A transactions happened in the startup ecosystem, which is a big jump from earlier years. M&As in the startup ecosystem were fuelled by new business models with M&A being at the core of their business strategy.

From 'India's Unicorn Tally Set to Top 100 in 2022', PricewaterhouseCoopers