India Needs ‘Indicorns’ Over Unicorns

The Rise of Indicorns: Why India’s Startup Ecosystem Needs Profits Over Hype
For years, the startup world has been obsessed with unicorns—those mythical billion-dollar valuations that turn founders into rockstars and investors into overnight legends. But let’s be real, dude: how many of those so-called unicorns are actually making money? Or, you know, *employing people* without burning through cash like a Black Friday shopper with a platinum credit card? Enter Kunal Bahl, the co-founder of Snapdeal and Titan Capital, who’s calling BS on the unicorn chase and pushing for a new breed of startups: Indicorns. These aren’t just companies with flashy valuations; they’re profitable, sustainable, and *actually* contributing to India’s economy. Seriously, it’s about time someone said it.
Bahl’s argument isn’t just some theoretical econ-babble. The dude’s been in the trenches—he knows the difference between a startup that’s built to last and one that’s built to flip. Unicorns? They’re a Silicon Valley export, all about hypergrowth, blitzscaling, and (let’s be honest) a lot of smoke and mirrors. Indicorns, on the other hand, are rooted in reality: they prioritize revenue, jobs, and long-term viability. According to the Indicorn List 2025, there are already 202 Indian startups raking in over ₹100 crore annually, with combined profits of ₹7,393 crore and 1.46 lakh jobs created. That’s not just impressive—it’s a blueprint for what India’s startup ecosystem *should* be.

The Case for Ditching Unicorns (Because, Seriously, They’re Overrated)

1. Sustainability > Spray-and-Pray Growth

Let’s face it: unicorns are the startup equivalent of a sugar rush. They scale fast, spend faster, and often crash harder. (WeWork, anyone?) Bahl’s point is simple: valuation ≠ success. A company can be “worth” a billion dollars on paper and still hemorrhage cash like a leaky faucet. Indicorns flip the script by focusing on real revenue—not just vanity metrics. Take Zoho, for example: bootstrapped, profitable, and quietly dominating SaaS without burning VC cash. Or Zerodha, India’s largest stockbroker, which built a ₹2,500-crore profit machine *without* external funding. These aren’t flukes; they’re proof that sustainable growth works.

2. Jobs That Don’t Disappear After the Next Funding Round

Here’s a fun fact: many unicorns are job destroyers, not creators. They automate, outsource, and “optimize” headcount the second growth slows. Indicorns? They’re the opposite. The 202 Indicorns on the 2025 list employ 1.46 lakh people—real, stable jobs in sectors like logistics, SaaS, and fintech. That’s *huge* in a country where unemployment is a ticking time bomb. Bahl’s vision? 10,000 Indicorns, creating millions of jobs without the boom-bust whiplash of unicorn mania.

3. Keep It Local (Because Offshore Tax Havens Don’t Help India)

Bahl’s got another bone to pick: too many Indian startups incorporate in Delaware or Singapore to please foreign investors. That’s like opening a chai stall but banking your profits in Switzerland. His push for domestic incorporation isn’t just patriotic—it’s smart business. Indian VCs are sitting on dry powder, regulations are improving, and local compliance is (slowly) getting easier. Plus, when startups stay rooted in India, they’re more likely to solve *Indian* problems—not just copy-paste Silicon Valley ideas.

The Road to 10,000 Indicorns: Who Needs to Step Up?

This isn’t just a startup problem. Investors need to stop fetishizing valuation and start asking, “Hey, is this company *actually* making money?” Policymakers gotta cut the red tape and make it easier to build (and fund) homegrown businesses. And founders? They need to resist the siren song of “growth at all costs” and focus on building real businesses, not just exit strategies.

The Bottom Line

The unicorn era was fun while it lasted, but it’s time to grow up. India doesn’t need more overvalued startups—it needs Indicorns: profitable, job-creating, and built for the long haul. Bahl’s 10,000-Indicorn goal might sound ambitious, but it’s the only way to build an ecosystem that doesn’t collapse when the VC money dries up. So here’s to the mall moles of the startup world—the ones digging for sustainable gold, not just hype. Case closed.