Working Wonders: A Lost Person, A Great Company Powered by Explosive Startup Ecosystem Growth

I would like to come back to the topic on the enablers behind my American stint – my organization. It is one of the biggest factor behind my near 4 year tenure in US. I am amazed by the simple fact – Organizations become a key propeller moving countries, and I keep repeating this every now and then how my work has potential to move two nations and beyond. In this day and age, a common man like me working in US for 4 years is not a joke. I was put into one project after another, one client after another by my organization or I was in a safe zone due to this great company where a single termination doesn’t mean end of my salary. Coming to the point, I was released from my last client after a short duration of 7 months. I take it positively because everything happens for our own good. The fact that the gravity and severity increased exponentially where every step I make have huge ramifications made my last tenure extremely tight rope to walk on. How can I work under these circumstances, how can I reduce the severity, how can I pretend it is normal and how can I keep my job. Ofcouse it is a matter of shame for me and for every right thinking person to see this sorry state of an ordinary IT employee camouflaged as a head of state. Unless this severity reduces, unless we are brought under control, unless the amazing things become less wonderful, unless the full blown excitement dies down, unless the epic effects subside to null impacts, unless the epic visions becomes less and lower, unless you step down, I am afraid to work as a normal IT employee working for peanuts. I am afraid. I am a small IT employee and I need to be brought down as such, not for the sake of world but for my own sake. Anyone expecting anything extraordinary does only harm. I tell no one mother and son should have done more service than me and my mother. It has increased by a lot in the recent past. Why should a poor mother and son work in service of the world much to the entertainment and benefit of everyone else. When can we escape this horror. Is there any liberation in sight. The point is how hard shall I try getting into a job, how hard shall I try retaining it, how hard shall I serve one and all through it and how easily can I get terminated and repeat the cycle all over again. I may be put in a spot of bother for the want of funds and there is no one helping me with funds but try to take advantage and defraud. How long can I survive safely in this mode searching for funds. Some consider I am past my expiry date and I don’t feel they are wrong. It leads me thinking a poor person sacrificing for nations in broad day light while the world revels and entertains in the sacrifice. 

The silver lining behind this is my organization cares for me, did not put me in a spot of bother by terminating me completely because I am on bench in onsite for 45 days. The salary didn’t stop either and it is a moment of hope that I am getting paid in this wretched state. A bench period of this long will be dealt differently by some lesser and evil players. As mentioned, due to my limited capabilities, I was laid off multiple times and each time I was given an opportunity to find another project, another client by my organization. Despite the wretched external circumstances as I mentioned above, the inner help I received is only from my great organization. No one else gave me a penny. Even if I leave what I did to outside world and the two nations, my organization did a lot to me and I am grateful for it. Simply, I went above and beyond the orbit in the last 8 months by virtue of my organization. We are living in the times of a company enabling people who in turn move nations. Once again, bringing down this severity is very much required. Nevertheless, I dedicate this blog post to the startups of India, US and everywhere else who are in a pursuit of creating the next great company. Because I am saying with all my heart that my organization, Infosys is the greatest start up of the world. I can see the greatness in sustaining me and serving the world at large. An individual is a part of team, a team is part of unit, a unit is part of organization. Coming together of all these individuals to synergize the energies and deliver through a organization is the greatest effect of positive, good and righteous people on the Earth. This is the effect we are living through, with or without exaggeration, but which is true. What more can good people do. 

Infosys is a model to emulate for any startup and the journey of this company has changed the startup ecosystem in India. Let me delve into the explosive growth of startups in India which has come in the last decade from 2014. Isn’t it true that every startup wants to become Infosys and every startup draws inspiration and add power to Infosys. I will tell two great stats of volume of startups powering bigger startups to create exponential outcomes. India went from a nearly nonexistent unicorn ecosystem in 2014 to one of the top three globally by 2025 — behind only the U.S. and China — in terms of the number and collective valuation of unicorn startups. No other major economy has, in one decade, combined this scale and speed—multiplying startups from the hundreds to the hundreds of thousands, while also creating over a hundred unicorns from an almost non-existent base. This is the bottom-up revolution of India sprouting new organizations, taking existing organizations to even greater heights and creating wonders around the orbit. 

Infosys is a model to emulate for any startup and the journey of this company has changed the startup ecosystem in India. When N.R. Narayana Murthy borrowed money in the 1980s to start what would become one of India's most successful companies, he could scarcely have imagined that his bootstrapped IT services venture would become the blueprint for an entire generation of entrepreneurs. The story—of perseverance through capital scarcity, building a services-first business model, and scaling globally from India—established the foundational DNA of what would eventually become the world's third-largest startup ecosystem. 

The Explosive Growth: 2014 and Beyond 

The decade from 2014 onwards witnessed an unprecedented transformation in India's entrepreneurial landscape that can only be described as explosive. As of December 2024, 157,066 startups have been recognized by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), representing a dramatic acceleration from the modest beginnings of the startup movement. In the last 10 years, over 120,000 startups have been registered in India, making it the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world. 

The unicorn story provides perhaps the most dramatic illustration of this growth. India saw its first unicorn in 2011, when Bangalore-based mobile ad network InMobi achieved its one-billion-dollar valuation, taking four years from founding to reach that milestone. As of January 2026, 127 Indian startups have entered the unicorn club, collectively raising over $117 billion and commanding a combined valuation exceeding $390 billion. 

The acceleration was particularly dramatic during the boom years. India minted a record 45 unicorns in 2021, though the number fell sharply to 22 in 2022 and just two in 2023, with 2024 seeing modest recovery with seven new unicorns and 2025 seeing six startups entering the unicorn club. Even during the funding winter, the pipeline remained robust, with an estimated 32,000-35,000 tech startups in the ecosystem as of 2024, representing a 2.1X increase in newly founded companies during the year. 

Exemplars of Success: Zerodha and Zepto 

Two startups illustrate India's diverse pathways to success. Zerodha, founded in 2010 by brothers Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, achieved a $50 billion valuation by 2025 while remaining completely bootstrapped. The discount brokerage attracted 6.3 million clients by eliminating traditional fees, mirroring Infosys's democratization model through cost innovation and profitability-first approach. 

Conversely, Zepto represents venture-backed hypergrowth. Founded in 2021 by teenage entrepreneurs Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, it reached $5 billion valuation within three years. Both founders became India's youngest billionaires, commanding 28% of the quick commerce market with 350 dark stores. 

Together, they demonstrate India's ecosystem supports both bootstrapped sustainability and venture-fueled rapid scaling—legitimate expressions of post-2014 entrepreneurial energy. 

The Catalytic Role of Government: Startup India and Beyond 

While Infosys and the first generation of IT companies laid the entrepreneurial foundation, the explosive growth from 2014 onwards was significantly catalyzed by targeted government intervention. The flagship Startup India program, launched in 2016, became a cornerstone initiative that fundamentally altered the ease of doing business for new ventures. Startup India has created over 1.6 million jobs across the country, demonstrating its profound impact on employment generation. 

The government's comprehensive support framework included multiple complementary initiatives. The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) was launched with a corpus of Rs 945 crore to support early-stage startups, and by 2024, 213 incubators have been approved, benefiting 2,622 startups. The Atal Innovation Mission, launched in 2015, established 3,556 startups in 72 Atal Incubation Centres, creating 41,965 jobs. 

These interventions addressed critical pain points that had historically constrained entrepreneurship in India—access to early-stage capital, mentorship infrastructure, regulatory complexity, and market access. The impact was measurable and dramatic: India's 100-plus unicorns and approximately 120,000+ startups have played a crucial role in contributing 10 to 15 percent to GDP growth between 2016 and today. 

Digital Infrastructure: The Great Equalizer 

Perhaps the most transformative enabler of India's startup boom was the democratization of digital access. Internet subscribers in the country rose from 251.9 million in 2014 to 954.40 million in March 2024, with average monthly data consumption rising from 0.27 GB to 20.27 GB in the same duration. This represented not merely quantitative growth but a qualitative transformation in how entrepreneurs could access markets, talent, and capital. 

The India Stack—a set of standardized APIs for digital identity verification, payments, and data sharing—created infrastructure advantages that even the United States lacked during its comparable growth phase. Initiatives like the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and the Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) provided startups with ready-made digital infrastructure that would have taken Silicon Valley companies years to build individually. 

This digital democratization had profound geographic implications. Over 51% of startups now come from Tier II and III cities, fundamentally challenging the geographic concentration that characterized earlier entrepreneurial waves. An entrepreneur in Jaipur or Kochi could now access the same digital infrastructure, payment systems, and potential customer base as one in Bangalore or Delhi. 

Parallels with America's Silicon Valley Boom 

The comparison with America's Silicon Valley during its growth days reveals both striking parallels and important distinctions. During the 1990s dot-com boom, venture capital investments in Silicon Valley firms increased more than 90% from $3.2 billion to $6.1 billion between 1998 and 1999, with 457 IPOs in the USA in 1999. The 2021 unicorn boom in India showed similar characteristics of capital abundance and rapid valuations. 

The role of immigrant talent created interesting circular flows. By 1986, nearly 60 percent of Indian Institute of Technology engineering graduates were migrating overseas, mostly to Silicon Valley, and by 1998, 774 of the 11,443 tech firms started since 1980 had Indian CEOs. These successful Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley created network effects that eventually flowed back to India, bringing capital, expertise, and global market connections. 

The R&D activity in India's ecosystem accelerated significantly from the late-1990s, linked to the opening up of the Indian economy and foundations created by the first wave of IT businesses. Just as Silicon Valley benefited from decades of defense research and semiconductor manufacturing expertise, India's startup ecosystem built upon the credibility and talent pools created by Infosys, TCS, Wipro, and other IT services giants. 

However, significant differences emerged. By 2030, the enterprise software industry will revolve around two poles—Silicon Valley and Bangalore, with GitHub data showing that 9.75 million developers in India use its platform, with 2.5 million added in 2022—a 35% jump. At this pace, India's developer community would match or outnumber the United States, creating a talent depth that even peak-era Silicon Valley couldn't match. 

The Geographic Concentration: Bangalore's Dominance 

While geographic distribution was improving, certain hubs maintained dominant positions. Eight out of the 10 startups that joined the unicorn club in 2024 and 2025 are headquartered in Bengaluru, with Delhi NCR and Mumbai taking second and third spots with 40 and 18 unicorns respectively. Bangalore's emergence as India's startup capital mirrored Silicon Valley's rise, but with some unique characteristics. 

Walking the streets of Bangalore, one experiences tremendous energy, optimism, and ambition, with young engineers and aspiring founders eagerly discussing AI advances at bars and restaurants, reminiscent of early Internet boom years in Silicon Valley. The city benefited from decades of multinational presence—Oracle, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple all established major engineering centers—creating a talent recycling system similar to what made Silicon Valley successful. 

India's roots in the startup ecosystem can be traced back to the 1980s when the IT services industry began its journey, with pioneering IT companies capitalizing on the country's young English-speaking workforce to deliver cost-effective technology services. That foundation, combined with post-2014 policy support, digital infrastructure democratization, and demographic advantages, created explosive growth that positioned India as a permanent fixture in the global innovation economy. 

The decade from 2014 onwards proved that the Infosys journey was not an outlier but a template. When combined with enabling government policy, digital infrastructure, and access to global capital, Indian entrepreneurship could achieve explosive scale. The comparison with Silicon Valley's growth days reveals a fundamental truth: India's startup ecosystem is not merely catching up—it is creating its own distinct model of innovation-led growth, one that may ultimately prove more inclusive and sustainable than its American predecessor.