Entrepreneurs From India Behind 96 U.S. Billion-Dollar Startups, Study Finds

Photo Credit (Left to Right): Ashutosh Garg, Jyoti Bansal, Mohit Aron (X)

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Entrepreneurs from India have founded or co-founded more billion-dollar startup companies in the United States than immigrants from any other country, according to a new report by the National Foundation for American Policy.

The study found that Indian-born founders were behind 96 U.S. startup companies valued at $1 billion or more. Israel ranked second with 60 such companies, followed by the United Kingdom with 47, China with 41, and Canada with 30.

The report also found that immigrants founded or co-founded 455 of the 775 privately held U.S. companies valued at $1 billion or more, accounting for 59% of all American unicorns. That share has increased from 55% in National Foundation for American Policy reports released in 2018 and 2022.

Overall, two-thirds of U.S. unicorn companies were founded or co-founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Nearly 80% have either an immigrant founder or an immigrant serving in a key leadership position, such as chief executive officer or vice president of engineering.

According to the study, the 455 immigrant-founded unicorn companies have a combined valuation of approximately $5 trillion. The study also found that founders of 183 billion-dollar companies attended U.S. universities as international students.

Reacting to the findings, political commentator Richard Hanania wrote on social media, “India has sent 96 people to America who started billion-dollar companies. No one else is even close. There’s only about 5 million Indians in America. Almost one in 50,000 of them is a unicorn founder! What a holy, special, beautiful people. I will always fight for them.”

Indian business tycoon Anand Mahindra also commented on the findings, writing on social media, “Time to use the old American phrase: ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet…!’ Despite the challenges, Indian Americans will remain as entrepreneurial as ever. But the new stage will be right here within India where the startup boom has only just begun. And it will surprise the world.”

The report also identified several Indian entrepreneurs who have founded two or more billion-dollar companies, including Mohit Aron (Nutanix and Cohesity), Jyoti Bansal (AppDynamics and Harness), Ashutosh Garg (Bloomreach and Eightfold.ai), Arvind Jain (Rubrik and Glean), Sachin Nayyar (Securonix and Saviynt), and Ajeet Singh (Nutanix and ThoughtSpot).