SoftBank tops list of unicorn investments in India, followed by Tiger Global, Tencent
The report by CB Insights on the unicorns across the world has shown Tiger Global has the highest number of unicorn companies under its portfolio globally followed by Tencent and SoftBank
The SoftBank Group of Japan has the largest list of unicorn companies under its portfolio in India followed by Tiger Global and Tencent, according to data by CB Insights.
SoftBank, which has made aggressive bets on the Indian startup ecosystem, has seven Indian unicorns in its portfolio, while Tiger Global and Tencent have three each. Unicorns are those companies that enjoy a private valuation of $1 billion and above.
The CB Insights data on the global unicorn list as on May 5, 2019 has shown that SoftBank has investment in the following unicorns: Delhivery, Inmobi, Ola Cabs, Paytm, Oyo Rooms, Policy Bazaar, and Snapdeal.
According to CB Insights, there are 18 unicorns in India if one also includes Freshworks and MuSigma, which have their headquarters in the US.
The unicorn portfolio of Tiger Global in India are: Hike, Shopclues and Freshworks. In case of Tencent from China, the companies under its list are: Byju’s, Dream 11 and Hike. Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce, has two unicorns under its portfolio, which include Bigbasket and Paytm.
The other key investors among the unicorns in India are investment powerhouses such as DST Global and Sequoia.
However, in the global unicorn list of 344 companies, Tiger Global outstrips SoftBank with highest number of companies under its portfolio. It has 42 unicorns under its portfolio followed by Tencent Holdings at 40 and SoftBank has 38.
According to CB Insights, SoftBank’s unicorn portfolio globally has the cumulative valuation at $389 billion, which is 45 percent more than Tiger Global Management and more than double of Tencent Holdings’ cumulative unicorn valuation.
Sequoia Capital has backed the most deals to unicorns at 99 and CB Insights says there are now 143 institutional investors with at least five unicorns in their portfolio up from 76 such investors in February, 2017.
In the case of early -stage investors, which placed their bets on the unicorns, SV Angel has topped the list, according to CB Insights.
