The number of Indian startups valued above USD 500 million increased to 51 in 2026, from 47 in the year-ago period, according to the 2026 ASK Private Wealth Hurun India Gazelle Index.
The 51 companies have a combined valuation of around Rs 3.3 lakh crore, or USD 34.1 billion. Their average valuation stands at approximately Rs 6,400 crore.
Together, these startups employ more than 60,000 people and reported combined revenue of Rs 33,233 crore, marking 50% year-on-year growth.
Indian AI startups remain limited
Despite the increase in the number of high-value startups, the report highlighted India’s relatively small artificial intelligence (AI) startup presence.
Only three companies in the list operate in the AI segment: Ema AI, Observe.AI and UnifyApps.
This compares with 54 AI companies in the US and 23 in China, said Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher at Hurun India.
He added that the number of Indian companies valued above USD 500 million had increased despite the limited presence of AI-focused businesses.
The report also identified AI and CleanTech as the largest among three frontier sectors, with three startups each. The CleanTech companies are Carbon Clean Solutions, Lohum and Rayzon Solar.
Seven startups achieve unicorn status in 2026
Seven startups crossed the USD 1 billion valuation mark in 2026, becoming unicorns, the report said.
Twin Health’s valuation increased to USD 2 billion from USD 700 million. Financial services and healthcare accounted for six of the seven new unicorns.
A total of 34 startups have moved to unicorn status on the CGU Index since its inception. Two companies from the index entered public markets in 2026: Shadowfax in January and Turtlemint in June.
ASK Private Wealth Co-Founder, CEO and Managing Director Rajesh Saluja said the findings reflected a startup ecosystem diversifying across sectors and geographies.
FinTech leads sector-wise distribution
FinTech emerged as the largest sector, with 13 startups in the list. SaaS and e-commerce followed with five companies each.
Bengaluru led the city-wise distribution with 17 startups, followed by NCR with 11 and Mumbai with eight.
The report also found that 10 startups maintain headquarters outside India. Seven are based in the US, two in Singapore and one in the UK.
India ranks third globally in terms of startups, behind the US and China, according to the report.
IIT Kharagpur leads founders’ educational backgrounds
IIT Kharagpur was the most common undergraduate institution among founders, with 13 alumni represented in the list.
IIT Bombay and IIT Kanpur followed with six founders each. For postgraduate education, IIT Bombay led with seven founders, followed by IIM Ahmedabad with five.
Women founders are represented across six startups: Prukalpa Sankar of Atlan, Shruti Aggarwal of StashFin, Sunita Sahney of Finova Capital, Amrita Sirohia of INDMoney, Pallavi Shrivastava of Progcap and Nikita Prasad of GIVA.
