Technology
India is outperforming China in terms of developing latest innovation unicorns, though Pakistan is also waiting for its first domestic unicorn.
India is quickly catching up to China in terms of creating new unicorns, or privately owned companies worth $1 billion or more.
According to Nikkei Asia, 15 Indian firms raised money for the first time in the last year at a valuation of $1 billion or more. In the year 2021, ten of them had evolved into unicorns. Just two of the 15 Chinese firms that entered the list in the previous year did so in 2021.
India's digital economy has lagged behind China's, but it is catching up quickly.
With 138 unicorns, China continues to lead the total unicorn list in Asia, more than four times the number of unicorns in India.
Some of China's most valuable unicorns are also even bigger, including Tiktok operator Bytedance, which is valued at $140 billion. One97 Communications, the electronic payments platform Paytm, is India's most valuable unicorn, with a market capitalization of $16 billion.
Pakistan, on the other hand, only has three unicorns in the form of Careem ($3.1 billion), Afiniti ($1.6 billion), and KeepTruckin ($1.25 billion). These businesses, on the other hand, were either established by non-resident Pakistanis or are based in Silicon Valley. Pakistan is yet to produce its own unicorn.
