Founders who grew up in India account for $560 billion of founder-share-attributed company value across 205 current and former unicorns abroad, according to the new Indian Diaspora Index from Prosus and Dealroom. The report demonstrates the significant value created by founders from India who built businesses across global markets. Tracking 205 overseas unicorns with at least one founder who grew up in India, the index finds that 70 unicorns totalling $243 billion in value were built by all-Indian founders, while another 135 unicorns with Indian-origin founders in the core team contributed $317 billion on the founder-share basis. The methodology divides each company's value equally among its founders and counts the portion attributed to founders who grew up in India, with the index excluding founders' personal wealth or actual equity ownership. Based on the methodology used by the index, the value is an indicative figure and not based on actual shareholding of the individual founders.
The all-Indian founder companies include notable success stories such as Zscaler, founded by Jay Chaudhry with a value of $25 billion, Rubrik, founded by Arvind Jain, Arvind Nithrakashyap, Bipul Sinha and Soham Mazumdar at $18 billion, Nutanix, founded by Ajeet Singh, Dheeraj Pandey and Mohit Aron at $17 billion, and Skild, founded by Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta at $14 billion. Companies with Indian-origin founders in core teams include Palo Alto Networks, Bloom Energy, Astera Labs, Perplexity, Toast and Rippling. In contrast, 102 unicorns based in India account for nearly $349 billion on a founder-share basis, led by Flipkart ($36 billion), Zomato ($30 billion), and Groww ($16 billion).
A striking finding reveals the geographic concentration of success, with the separate birth-origin analysis showing that 62% of companies are based in the United States, making it the dominant ecosystem for Indian-origin founders building high-value companies. In total, 200 of the 323 companies in the broader cohort were either started (178) or relocated (22) to the United States. About 91% (187 of 205) of overseas unicorns in the Indian Diaspora Index are based in the US. The broader analysis found that founders born in India have started 323 unicorns globally, with 102 in India, 200 in the US, and 21 elsewhere. This birth-origin analysis includes founders who left India as children and companies based in India, separate from the narrower overseas index of founders who grew up in India.
According to Prosus principal investor Saurav Jain, the Indian Diaspora Index measures exceptional talent density with ambition to build at enormous scale, often solving complex problems. Jain noted that Indian founders have the ability to turn technology, ingenuity and deep local insight into businesses that fundamentally change how people live and work. He emphasized that what has changed is that founders no longer have to leave to build at scale, as the market, capital and operating talent are now available in India. The findings point to the increasingly global nature of India's entrepreneurial footprint, extending the country's influence far beyond its domestic startup landscape. The comparison with Indian-based unicorns highlights the scale of value creation by founders who grew up in India but built companies outside the country.
