Indian-Origin Founders Account for USD 560 Bn in Value at Overseas Unicorns: Report

Founders who grew up in India account for USD 560 billions of founder-share-attributed company value at current and former unicorns abroad, according to the Indian Diaspora Index, a new report by Prosus and Dealroom.

The Index tracked 205 overseas unicorns with at least one founder who grew up in India. Of these, 70 unicorns worth a combined USD 243 billion were built entirely by Indian-origin founding teams, including Jay Chaudhry of Zscaler; Arvind Jain, Arvind Nithrakashyap, Bipul Sinha and Soham Mazumdar of Rubrik; Ajeet Singh, Dheeraj Pandey and Mohit Aron of Nutanix; and Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta of Skild. Another 135 unicorns with Indian-origin founders as part of mixed founding teams, including Palo Alto Networks, Bloom Energy, Astera Labs and Perplexity, contribute an additional USD 317 billion on a founder-share basis.

By comparison, 102 unicorns based in India account for approximately USD 349 billion on a founder-share basis, led by Flipkart (USD 36 billion), Zomato (USD 30 billion) and Groww (USD 16 billion).

The report also included a separate, broader birth-origin analysis covering founders who left India as children, alongside India-based companies. This analysis found that 62% of its 323 companies are based in the United States, with 200 either started there (178) or relocated there (22), making the US the dominant ecosystem for Indian-origin founders building high-value companies. Within the narrower overseas unicorn index, 91% (187 of 205) of the companies are US-based.

“The footprint of India’s entrepreneurial talent extends well beyond the country’s borders. The index offers an important perspective on how Indian-origin founders are contributing to value creation across global markets, with the US emerging as a particularly significant ecosystem for this activity,” said Saurav Jain, Principal Investor, Prosus India.