BY VEENA RAO
Indian immigrants have founded more U.S. billion-dollar startup companies than immigrants from any other country, according to a new report that highlights the outsized role of Indian entrepreneurs in shaping America’s innovation economy.
A study released by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) found that Indian-born founders have helped create 96 U.S. unicorn companies—privately held startups valued at $1 billion or more—making India the leading country of origin among immigrant entrepreneurs.
The report comes as immigrant-founded companies continue to drive growth in some of the nation’s most influential industries, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, healthcare, enterprise software, fintech, and data analytics.
Overall, immigrants have founded or co-founded 455 of America’s 775 unicorn companies, accounting for 59 percent of all privately held billion-dollar startups in the United States. When the children of immigrants are included, that figure rises to 66 percent.
“The evidence indicates that more open immigration policies will produce more startup companies in America,” the report states.
The collective value of immigrant-founded unicorns has reached $5 trillion, a figure larger than the total stock market capitalization of most countries in the world. The report estimates that these companies employ an average of 833 workers each.
Among the most prominent Indian-founded unicorns cited in the report are Perplexity, the artificial intelligence search company co-founded by Aravind Srinivas and valued at $20 billion; Cohesity, founded by Mohit Aron and valued at $9 billion; Glean, founded by Arvind Jain and valued at $7.2 billion; and Bloomreach and Eightfold.ai, both co-founded by Ashutosh Garg.
The report also highlights a remarkable pattern among Indian entrepreneurs: several have founded multiple billion-dollar companies. NFAP identified six Indian-born entrepreneurs who have built two or more unicorns, including Mohit Aron (Nutanix and Cohesity), Jyoti Bansal (AppDynamics and Harness), Ashutosh Garg (Bloomreach and Eightfold.ai), Arvind Jain (Rubrik and Glean), Sachin Nayyar (Securonix and Saviynt), and Ajeet Singh (Nutanix and ThoughtSpot).
Another striking finding is the role of higher education. Nearly one-quarter of all U.S. unicorn companies have a founder who first arrived in America as an international student. The report lists dozens of Indian entrepreneurs who followed that path, earning degrees from American universities before launching successful startups.
Among them are Sri Satish Ambati of H2O.ai, Gaurab Chakrabarti of Solugen, Kanav Hasija of Innovaccer, Chakri Gottemukkala of o9 Solutions, Prakash Govindan of Gradiant, and Arvind Jain of Glean.
Many of these companies have grown into major employers. Cohesity employs about 6,000 people, while o9 Solutions has 2,500 employees, Icertis has more than 2,300, Phenom employs over 2,000, and Innovaccer has more than 1,600 workers.
The report argues that immigrant entrepreneurs are critical to maintaining America’s technological leadership, particularly in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence.
The findings arrive amid continuing debates over immigration policy, H-1B visas, and pathways for international students to remain in the United States after graduation. The study notes that despite the economic impact of immigrant founders, the U.S. still lacks a dedicated startup visa that would allow foreign-born entrepreneurs to build companies more easily in America.
For the Indian-American community, the report offers another measure of the influence that Indian immigrants have had on the U.S. economy. From AI and cybersecurity to healthcare and enterprise software, Indian entrepreneurs are not only participating in America’s innovation ecosystem—they are helping lead it.
Indian Founders Who Came as International Students
The report includes a long appendix of immigrant founders who first arrived in America as international students. Among the Indian-born founders listed are:
- Milind Agarwal (GupShup)
- Sri Satish Ambati (H2O.ai)
- Mohit Aron (Cohesity)
- Aravind Bala (SeekOut)
- Hari Bayireddy (Phenom)
- Mahe Bayireddy (Phenom)
- Anant Bhardwaj (Instabase)
- Samir Bodas (Icertis)
- Viral Bajaria (6Sense)
- Gaurab Chakrabarti (Solugen)
- Jaswinder Chadha (Axtria)
- Navdeep Chadha (Axtria)
- Arun Chandrasekaran (FourKites)
- Viswa Colluru (Enveda)
- Monish Darda (Icertis)
- Piyush Desai (Turntide Technologies)
- Mathew Elenjickal (FourKites)
- Venky Ganti (Alation)
- Suryaprakash Ganti (Frore Systems)
- Ashutosh Garg (Eightfold.ai, Bloomreach)
- Vivek Garg (Zum)
- Rushil Goel (Nirvana)
- Ajay Gummalla (Bedrock Robotics)
- Chakri Gottemukkala (o9 Solutions)
- Prakash Govindan (Gradiant)
- Divey Gulati (ShipBob)
- Tanuj Gulati (Securonix)
- Abhinav Gupta (Skild AI)
- Anoop Gupta (SeekOut)
- Guru Hariharan (CommerceIQ)
- Kanav Hasija (Innovaccer)
- Arvind Jain (Glean)
Jobs Created by Indian-Led Unicorns
Several Indian-founded unicorns rank among the largest employers:
| Company | Employees |
|---|---|
| Cohesity | 6,000 |
| Axtria | 3,704 |
| Phenom | 2,058 |
| o9 Solutions | 2,500 |
| Icertis | 2,366 |
| Innovaccer | 1,645 |
| ShipBob | 1,500 |
| CommerceIQ | 425 |
Photos courtesy: Respective LinkedIn profiles/company profiles.
