205 unicorns abroad, 102 in India: The $560-billion Indian founder story

Founders who grew up in India have been involved in building 205 current and former unicorns outside India, accounting for about $560 billion in founder-share-attributed company value, according to the new Indian Diaspora Index, created by Prosus and Dealroom.

Of the 205 overseas unicorns tracked by the index, 187, or about 91%, are based in the US.

Instead of measuring the diaspora only through remittances or the number of people living overseas, the index looks at companies created by people who grew up in India and subsequently built businesses abroad.

The $560 billion is not the personal wealth of Indian-origin founders. It represents founder-share-attributed company value.

Dealroom’s methodology attributes a company’s value to its founders and then credits the share attributed to founders who grew up in India. The methodology divides each company’s value equally among its founders and counts the portion attributed to founders who grew up in India.

So, for example, if a company were valued at $10 billion and had five founders, the methodology would attribute $2 billion to each founder. If two of those founders grew up in India, $4 billion would be counted towards the Indian-founder value.

That does not mean those founders personally own $4 billion.

Actual founder ownership can be very different after years of fundraising, employee stock grants, dilution and share sales.

This distinction is crucial when interpreting the $560-billion figure.

205 unicorns: where did they come from?

The index tracks 205 current and former unicorns based outside India that have at least one founder who grew up in India.

A unicorn is a privately held startup that reaches a valuation of at least $1 billion.

The 205 companies fall into two broad groups.

70 companies were built entirely by Indian-origin founding teams.

According to Prosus and Dealroom, 70 unicorns with a combined $243 billion in founder-share-attributed value were built by founders who all grew up in India.

Some of the names are already well known in the global technology industry.

They include:

Zscaler
Rubrik
Nutanix
Skild

For example, Zscaler was founded by Jay Chaudhry, while Rubrik’s founding team included Arvind Jain, Arvind Nithrakashyap, Bipul Sinha and Soham Mazumdar. Nutanix was founded by Ajeet Singh, Dheeraj Pandey and Mohit Aron.

The index attributes approximately $243 billion of company value to this all-Indian-founder cohort.

Another 135 unicorns have Indian founders in mixed teams

The remaining 135 unicorns, with around $317 billion in founder-share-attributed value, were built by mixed founding teams that included founders who grew up in India.

This group includes companies such as:

Palo Alto Networks
Bloom Energy
Astera Labs
Perplexity
Toast
Rippling

Together, the two groups produce the headline figure:

70 all-Indian-founder unicorns → $243 billion

135 mixed-founder unicorns → $317 billion

205 overseas unicorns → about $560 billion

The US dominates the Indian founder story

Perhaps the most striking geographical finding is the concentration in the United States.

187 of the 205 companies — about 91% — are based in the US.

The broader analysis in the report uses a different definition — founders born in India, rather than founders who grew up in India.

Under that broader definition, Dealroom and Prosus identify 323 unicorns globally with founders born in India.

Of those:

102 were started in India

200 were started or relocated to the US

21 were started elsewhere

Founder DNA count: every founder born in India, and a company counts once per origin. The value charts apply stricter rules.

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

615 founder-company seats across 305 unicorns, placed where the company is based: 336 built theirs abroad, 310 of them in the United States, and 279 built theirs in India.

“The Indian Diaspora Index measures something we have seen and experienced first-hand in India: exceptional talent density with the ambition to build at enormous scale, often by solving some of the country’s most complex and consequential problems. Indian founders have the ability to turn technology, ingenuity and deep local insight into businesses that can fundamentally change how people live and work. That is what has kept us investing in the country for nearly two decades. What has changed in this period is that founders no longer have to leave to build at scale. The market, the capital and the operating talent are now here,” said Saurav Jain, Principal Investor, Prosus India.

The most valuable companies in the Indian Diaspora Index

205 unicorns based outside India with a founder who grew up in India

A striking finding is the geographic concentration of this success. The separate, broader birth-origin analysis shows that 62% of its companies are based in the United States, making it the dominant ecosystem for Indian-origin founders building high-value companies. In total, 200 of the 323 companies in this broader cohort were either started (178) or relocated (22) to the United States. This birth-origin analysis includes founders who left India as children and companies based in India; it is separate from the narrower overseas index of founders who grew up in India.

“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,” added Jain.

Every founder born in India counts, whatever age they left; a founder with two unicorns counts once for each. Team shares count the founders with a known origin. The index below keeps only the unicorns built abroad by founders who grew up in India an