What unicorns' coming of age means for big business and retail investors

While foreign investors like Japan's Softbank, China's Alibaba, and the US' Sequoia are big players in the start-up space, India doesn't have a serious VC sector with risk appetite, writes T N Ninan

Is India’s start-up tech sector coming of age? That question could be interpreted in three or four ways. Start with valuation: Are unicorns (start-up tech companies valued at a billion dollars or more) getting respectable numbers on market capitalisation? And where does India stand in global unicorn rankings? Then, are these entities becoming real businesses rather than just a gleam in some venture capitalist’s eye? In other words, do they have large employee strength and enough sales revenue to make a difference to their business sector? And finally, are they profitable?
 
The answers will vary. For instance, as Business