months with a lineup that includes insurance marketplace policybazaars parent etechaces marketing consulting pvt logistics provider delhivery pvt and ani technologies pvts ola ridehailing service the ipos will give retail investors a chance to own a stake in the startups which had been available only to global private investorsin those private markets india has been minting startups valued at 1 billion or more in recent months at unprecedented speed in april halfadozen unicorns were born within a span of four days while intervals between fundraising rounds have contracted to weeks for many startups a credit suisse group ag report this year found there are about 100 unicorns in india with a combined market value of 240 billion in sectors from ecommerce and fintech to education logistics and food delivery1 billion is the new 100 million said krishnan ganesh a serial entrepreneur who now promotes companies that have attracted investors such as sequoia capital lightspeed venture partners and qualcomm ventures global investors see the potential upside in indias huge underpenetrated market and capital flows have multiplied 10 timesoptimism about india is tempered as one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world threatens to erode decades of economic gains with over 31 million infections and more than 400000 deaths at least 200 million indians have regressed to earning less than the 5 minimum daily wage bangalorebased azim premji university estimates while the middle class shrank by 32 million in 2020 according to the pew research institutenor are investors in india free of political risks technology startups also face a tightening regulatory regime with narendra modis government clamping down on foreign retailers social media giants and streaming companies the administration is expected to present a bill on data ownership and storage during the monthlong parliament session starting monday that would restrict the ways they can handle user informationon top of that some analysts are concerned that stock markets are a bubble waiting to burst and that many company valuations are far above their fundamentals they caution that retail investors in newage companies that have yet to generate profits will need to look beyond traditional value measures like eps and pe and must be able to assess factors such as investment in building a loyal customer base as the startups scale uphabitformingmany of these businesses are in habitforming stage of acquiring customers and hence the losses can be frontloaded said ramesh mantri a director of investments at mumbaibased white oak capital what really matters is the potential to generate cash flowsthe new ventures also have competitive advantages over many traditional bricks mortar rivals which have high real estate costs and often suffer from broken distribution chains and complicated structures those constraints mean the many retail banking and healthcare chains havent arrived at even the smaller cities let alone the millions who live in remote rural areasthe proliferation of smartphones and the internet has allowed tech entrepreneurs to create new age business models to reach the countrys farthest corners said entrepreneur ganeshand