As funding activity has grown, several startups have crossed the $1 billion valuation mark to become unicorns, including recent entrants SkyRoot Aerospace and KreditBee.
Coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, the term unicorn describes startups valued at more than $1 billion. India’s unicorn journey began with InMobi in 2011 and has since been driven by rising investor interest, digital adoption and policy support.
Per data from market intelligence platform Tracxn, India has created 131 unicorns so far, with four added in 2026, as of May 7. However, only 93 of these unicorns remain active
The country added nine unicorns in 2025, compared with seven in 2024 and two in 2023. India saw its biggest unicorn boom in 2021, when 44 startups entered the club, followed by 24 in 2022
Here’s the lowdown on what’s happened in and around the unicorn stable so far this year:
Skyroot Aerospace
ET reported on Thursday that Skyroot Aerospace has raised $60 million (around Rs 570 crore) in a funding round co-led by Sherpalo Ventures and GIC, with participation from BlackRock, the founders of Greenko Group, Arkam Ventures, Playbook Partners, and the Shanghvi Family Office.
The funding values the Hyderabad-based startup at $1.1 billion, more than doubling its 2023 valuation of around $519 million, making it India’s first space-tech unicorn and among the country’s most well-funded private space startups.
Skyroot, which has now raised more than $160 million in total funding, is preparing for the upcoming launch of Vikram-1, India’s first private orbital-class rocket, in the coming weeks.
The fresh capital will be used to increase the launch frequency of its Vikram-1 rocket, scale manufacturing, and develop Vikram-2, a one-tonne class launch vehicle powered by an advanced cryogenic stage.
“Vikram-II is already under development and will share the same first-stage architecture as Vikram-I, which is a major advantage since that portion of the rocket would already be proven through this mission. The key difference in Vikram-II will be its upper stage, which will allow heavier payloads,” CEO Pawan Chandana told ET.
KreditBee
Digital lending platform KreditBee raised $280 million last month, in a funding round that values the Bengaluru-based startup at $1.5 billion, marking its entry into the unicorn club. The round is the company’s last private raise before a planned IPO. It comprises $220 million in primary capital for growth and technology investments, and $60 million in secondary transactions that provided exits to existing investors.
“We are hopeful that in the next two to three months the merger of our technology and NBFC (non-banking financial company) entity will be completed,” cofounder Madhusudan Ekambaram told ET.
The round was led by Hornbill Capital, Dragon Funds (backed by Japanese banking company MUFG), and Motilal Oswal Alternates. Other participants included WhiteOak Capital, A.P. Moller Holding, Premji Invest and Advent International.
Founded in 2016 by Ekambaram, Karthikeyan Krishnaswamy and Vivek Veda, KreditBee offers digital loans through its NBFC arm Krazybee Services and a network of around 10 partner financial institutions.
In February, US alternative asset manager Blackstone led a $1.2 billion (around Rs 10,867 crore) investment in cloud infrastructure startup Neysa. ET had reported that the transaction included an equal split of primary equity and debt financing, and values the Mumbai-based company at about $1.4 billion.
The investment will give Blackstone a majority stake in Neysa. The round also saw participation from TVS Capital, 360 One Asset Management and existing investor Nexus Venture Partners. Other backers include Z47, Blume Ventures and Japanese technology conglomerate NTT.
Founded in 2023 by Netmagic founder Sharad Sanghi and former Netmagic executive Anindya Das, Neysa provides GPU-led cloud infrastructure and software tools for building and managing AI applications. The company serves enterprises, startups and government clients across various sectors, including banking, healthcare, manufacturing and media.
Sanghi told ET that the fresh capital will help Neysa deploy more than 20,000 GPUs and leverage Blackstone’s network to engage potential clients such as OpenAI and Anthropic, where Blackstone is an investor.
Sarvam
India’s homegrown AI startup Sarvam AI is close to raising $300-350 million in a funding round that could value the Bengaluru-based company at around $1.5 billion to $1.55 billion, according to a Bloomberg report.
Per Bloomberg, the round is being led by Bessemer Venture Partners alongside Nvidia, Amazon and Prosperity7 Ventures.
Founded in 2023 by AI researchers Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, Sarvam’s AI models are voice-enabled and support 22 Indian languages, which the company sees as a key advantage in a country where a large share of the population does not use English fluently.
Last July, ET had reported that Sarvam AI has secured the largest subsidy granted so far under the Centre’s flagship IndiaAI Mission, receiving Rs 98.68 crore toward a total bill of Rs 246.71 crore for access to 4,096 Nvidia H100 GPUs over a six-month period.
The startup was among the first companies selected by the IndiaAI Mission to begin work on an indigenous foundational AI model as part of the programme’s initial approval phase. The government has been pushing for India to develop domestic AI capabilities rather than relying on technology from the US and China.