Jobs Galore: How Indian Unicorns Have Changed The Face Of India’s Job Market

At a time when Indian startups are infamous for handing out pink slips every now and then, the role of Indian unicorns in creating employment opportunities in the country must not be overlooked.

According to Inc42’s ‘Decoding India’s Unicorn Club Report, 2023’, India’s 110 Indian unicorns today employ more than 4.5 Lakh individuals directly, making the Indian startup ecosystem one of the largest job-creating industries in the country.

According to data compiled by Inc42 from various sources, Flipkart is the biggest employer among Indian unicorns, as the ecommerce platform has 47,859 employees on its payroll.

The ecommerce giant is trailed by edtech giant BYJU’S, boasting a workforce of over 35,000 employees, while ride-hailing platform Ola secures the third position with a strong workforce of 21,027 employees.

Interestingly, the top 11 unicorns employ a similar number of people as the remaining 99 unicorns, which operate across 12 different sectors.

Ecommerce, Fintech, Edtech Have The Highest Number Of Employees

Analysing the trends on a segment-by-segment basis shows that ecommerce has solidified its position as a prominent choice for the Indian workforce. A noteworthy statistic reveals that over a quarter of all employees in Indian startups are engaged with the 25 ecommerce unicorns.

As previously noted, Flipkart stands as the foremost contender within this category, accompanied by significant players such as IndiaMART (with 14,146 employees) and Udaan (with 11,233 employees). 

Further, 17 of the 25 ecommerce unicorns have more than 1,000 employees each. Rollup unicorn GlobalBees has the smallest workforce among ecommerce unicorns, with only 188 employees, per Inc42 data.

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Moving on, fintech is the second most favoured segment among startup employees, boasting an estimated workforce of 60,000 individuals working in fintech unicorns. Notably, the fintech giant, Paytm, leads the pack of fintech unicorns with a robust workforce of 19,657 employees, closely followed by PhonePe (8,883 employees), and Policybazaar (6,946 employees). Unfortunately, we lack data on the employee count for OneCard.

Edtech is the third-favourite startup segment among employees with 58,755 people working across seven unicorns. BYJU’S alone accounts for nearly 60% of all employees across edtech unicorns with a 35,094-strong workforce. 

Unacademy has the second-largest workforce in the segment with 7,648 employees, while Alakh Pandey’s PhysicsWallah completes the podium with 6,213 employees.

Other major startup sectors in terms of the number of employees include consumer services (56,492), enterprise tech (51,420), travel tech (41,330) and logistics (34,963).

Notably, these very segments have also experienced some of the harshest blows from the ongoing market corrections. According to Inc42’s ‘Indian Startup Layoff Tracker’, edtech has seen the most layoffs followed by consumer services and ecommerce.

The three sectors have collectively seen 50 startups laying off 20,469 employees since last year, per the layoff tracker.

ESOPs Aplenty

One of the perks of working at a startup is the employee stock option programmes (ESOPs), and Indian unicorns are famous for creating wealth for their employees. Recently, Flipkart was in the news for the $700 Mn payout to thousands of its employees.  

Over the past few months, Indian unicorns, including Zomato, Paytm, Policybazaar, Nazara, Swiggy, Delhivery and Rebel Foods have announced additional ESOPs or liquidity programmes. Further, per Inc42 data, Indian startup employees made $196.5 Mn through ESOP buyback programmes in 2022.

However, ESOPs are generally allotted to long-term employees and a large percentage of the current crop of employees at Indian unicorns might not be eligible for such value creation. Even so, it remains a major motivation for Indian employees to seek employment at startups.

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The Present And The Future Of The Indian Unicorn Job Market

While more than 100 startups have conducted layoffs so far, dozens of Indian unicorns have also been guilty of firing employees as investor sentiment for startups tempered significantly over the past 18 months.

As many as five unicorns – BYJU’S, Ola, Unacademy, Blinkit and Vedantu – have fired more than 1,000 employees each since the start of 2022, with BYJU’S and Ola firing nearly 2,500 employees each, per data compiled by Inc42.

While it is undeniable that India’s crop of 110 unicorns – valued at a combined $347 Bn – have created lakhs of jobs, they have also been responsible for scaling up too fast, which resulted in thousands of employees losing their jobs. According to Inc42, 28,816 employees have lost their jobs since the start of 2022. 

The current market sentiment, however, has seen investors advocate for sustainable growth, which, for the most part, also includes hiring responsibly. 

With India’s unicorn count expected to rise to 280+ by 2030, per Inc42’s latest report, the number of jobs created by these companies will also grow at a similar pace. In the next few years, the growing number of Indian unicorns will create hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs, thereby giving the country’s job market a much-needed boost.

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