3 min readJun 5, 2026 01:09 PM IST
Indian-born entrepreneurs have emerged as the largest group of immigrant founders behind America’s billion-dollar startups, underscoring the growing influence of the Indian diaspora in the US innovation economy.
A new study by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), a US-based non-profit research organisation, found that Indian-origin entrepreneurs have founded or co-founded 96 American unicorns, privately held startups valued at more than $1 billion. The figure is the highest for any immigrant community in the United States.
PTI reported that Immigrants and US Billion-Dollar Companies, authored by NFAP Executive Director Stuart Anderson, highlights the central role immigrants continue to play in building some of America’s fastest-growing companies. According to the study, immigrants have founded or co-founded 455 of the 775 privately held US unicorns, accounting for 59 per cent of the country’s billion-dollar startups.
India leads a global list
India topped the list of countries of origin for immigrant founders, ahead of Israel (60 unicorns), the United Kingdom (47), China (41), Canada (30), Russia (23), France (21), Germany (18), Ukraine (16) and Australia (14). Pakistan and Romania each accounted for 10 unicorn founders apiece or 10 unicorns each.
Among the Indian-founded companies featured in the report is AI search startup Perplexity AI, co-founded by Aravind Srinivas. The company is valued at about $20 billion, placing it among the most valuable privately held startups in the United States.
The study also noted that six Indian-origin entrepreneurs, Mohit Aron, Jyoti Bansal, Ashutosh Garg, Arvind Jain, Sachin Nayyar and Ajeet Singh, have each founded two or more unicorn companies.
Immigrants power America’s startup economy
The NFAP report found that nearly two-thirds of US unicorns were founded by immigrants or their children. Almost 80 per cent of billion-dollar startups have either an immigrant founder or an immigrant serving in a key leadership role such as chief executive officer or vice-president of engineering.
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Collectively, the 455 immigrant-founded unicorns are valued at around $5 trillion, illustrating the scale of their contribution to the US economy. The research also found that these companies employ an average of 833 people each, making them significant engines of job creation.
Another notable finding is the role of international students. According to the report, 183 US unicorns were founded by entrepreneurs who first arrived in the country to study at American universities.
The biggest unicorns
The highest-valued US unicorns with at least one immigrant founder include SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks and Stripe. Other names on the list include Ramp, Safe Superintelligence, Anysphere, Cerebras Systems, Epic Games, Chobani, Perplexity AI and Miro.
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