UK overtakes India in global unicorn rankings as AI-driven valuations surge: Hurun

India has slipped to fourth place in the world’s unicorn rankings, overtaken by the United Kingdom, according to the Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2026, released on Thursday.

India now counts 61 unicorns—companies valued at $1 billion or more that are not yet publicly listed—down by three from last year. The UK climbed to 70 unicorns, up by nine, pushing past India for third place globally, as of the index’s January 1 cut-off. The United States remained the runaway leader with 806 unicorns, followed by China with 381.

India added just 16 new unicorns this year, as per the index—a slower pace than the US (156) and China (80). However, the country saw several unicorns go public via IPO, including Lenskart, Groww, and Ather Energy.


The country’s leading homegrown unicorns listed in the index are online stockbroking platform Zerodha ($9 billion), Zepto ($7 billion), and payments company Razorpay ($6 billion). Bengaluru remains India’s top unicorn hub with 25 companies, followed by Mumbai with 13.

Overseas unicorn sightings

Indian businessmen have a larger footprint outside the country. According to the index, Indians have co-founded 217 unicorns worldwide, valued at a combined $599 billion, with 156 of these based outside India. A vast majority are in the US, including AI search engine Perplexity AI and coding startup Anysphere, with four in the UK, two in Singapore, and one in Germany.

AI the biggest industry

AI saw the largest growth during the period under evaluation, with 215 unicorns—up by a massive 87 in a single year—and accounting for 36% of total unicorn value, the highest share of any sector. Together with fintech and SaaS, these three sectors account for roughly one-third of all unicorns.

Leading firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Anduril are driving outsized valuations as AI embeds itself across enterprise and consumer platforms in both the US and China.

Another sector that received a fillip thanks to AI was cybersecurity. Amid escalating digital threats, 75 cybersecurity unicorns represent 2% of total unicorn value. This sector is led by the US, with active ecosystems in Israel and Canada. Threat detection, identity protection, and cloud security are among the fastest-growing sub-sectors.