An analysis by YNOS Venture Engine revealed a surprising report about the startup ecosystem of India. It unearthed that over 67% of Indian unicorn startup founders comes engineering backgrounds. YNOS Venture Engine is an incubated organization at IIT Madras. The report mentioned that Just two years ago approximately 85% of the founders in this elite startup club, each valued at over $1 billion, were engineers.

The number of unicorns has increased to 114 in 2023 from 100 in 2022, the startup ecosystem has become so diverse and the founders and co-founders also grown with experience.

Among the 206 co-founders and founders of unicorn ventures, there is a notable presence of individuals with expertise in business, economics, architecture, hotel management, and fashion technology.

Individuals who are not engineers, such as those with degrees in business, commerce, and economics, account for 9% of this demographic, whereas women make up approximately 7.2%. It is worth mentioning that India boasts more than 300,000 registered startups.

The founder of GSF Accelerator, Rajesh Sawhney, mentioned, "Today, there is more diversity among startup founders compared to a decade ago, with sectors like D2C and deep tech seeing a wider variety of educational backgrounds and gender. Engineers still maintain an edge due to their ability to iterate quickly and their high confidence and risk-taking capabilities."

Among the successful engineers who are successful entrepreneurs are reportedly constitutes 60% of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) from different cities of India. Among them 7% have completed their graduation from Delhi Technology University and another 6% from the Birla Institute of Technology.

A professor in the Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras, Thillai Rajan who is also the founder of YNOS, underscored the significance of study of engineering and emphasized that entrepreneurs are increasingly recognizing the importance of diverse skills in founding teams and the improved ability to find co-founders with complementary skills over time.