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Indian immigrants have founded more U.S. billion-dollar startup companies than immigrants from any other country, according to a new report.

The report released by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) found that Indian-born founders have launched or co-founded 96 U.S. unicorn companies—privately held startups valued at $1 billion or more – making India the leading country of origin of such immigrant founders. 

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Israel ranked second with 60 unicorn companies, followed by the United Kingdom with 47, China with 41 and Canada with 30.The findings underscore the dominant role immigrants continue to play in the U.S. startup ecosystem. 

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 software firms Bloomreach and Eightfold.ai, both co-founded by Ashutosh Garg.

The report also highlighted a growing group of Indian-born serial entrepreneurs who have founded multiple billion-dollar companies. NFAP identified six Indian-born founders who have built two or more unicorns: Mohit Aron, founder of Nutanix and Cohesity; Jyoti Bansal, founder of AppDynamics and Harness; Ashutosh Garg, co-founder of Bloomreach and Eightfold.ai; Arvind Jain, founder of Rubrik and Glean; Sachin Nayyar, founder of Securonix and Saviynt; and Ajeet Singh, co-founder of Nutanix and founder of ThoughtSpot.

According to the report, 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 country. When companies founded by children of immigrants are included, the share rises to 66 percent.

Higher education emerged as a major pathway for many immigrant founders. The report found that nearly one-quarter of all U.S. unicorn companies –184 firms – have a founder who first arrived in the country as an international student. 

Overall, 234 former international students have gone on to establish or co-found billion-dollar startups in the United States.

Among the Indian-born founders who came to the United States as international students are Sri Satish Ambati of H2O.ai, Mohit Aron of Cohesity, Hari and Mahe Bayireddy of Phenom, Anant Bhardwaj of Instabase, Samir Bodas and Monish Darda of Icertis, Viral Bajaria of 6Sense, Gaurab Chakrabarti of Solugen, Jaswinder and Navdeep Chadha of Axtria, Arun Chandrasekaran and Mathew Elenjickal of FourKites, Ashutosh Garg of Eightfold.ai and Bloomreach, Chakri Gottemukkala of o9 Solutions, Prakash Govindan of Gradiant, Divey Gulati of ShipBob, Kanav Hasija of Innovaccer, and Arvind Jain of Glean.

Several Indian-founded unicorns have grown into major employers. Cohesity employs about 6,000 people, Axtria has 3,704 employees, o9 Solutions has 2,500, Icertis employs 2,366, Phenom has 2,058 workers, Innovaccer has 1,645 employees, ShipBob employs 1,500 people and CommerceIQ has more than 400 employees.

The report noted that immigrant-founded startups have become particularly influential in sectors such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, healthcare, financial technology, enterprise software and data analytics. Perplexity, Glean and Cohesity are among a growing number of Indian-founded companies helping shape some of the fastest-growing areas of the technology industry.

The findings also arrive amid continuing debates over high-skilled immigration, H-1B visas and pathways for international students to remain in the United States after graduation. NFAP noted that despite the economic impact of immigrant founders, the United States still lacks a dedicated startup visa, requiring most foreign-born entrepreneurs to remain in the country through family-sponsored or employment-based immigration pathways.

The report argued that immigration remains closely linked to innovation and entrepreneurship in the United States.

"The evidence indicates that more open immigration policies will produce more startup companies in America, including cutting-edge companies that transform industries, satisfy consumers and employ many Americans," the report states.

The report estimates that immigrant-founded unicorns collectively are worth $5 trillion, a figure larger than the total stock market capitalization of all but seven countries. The companies employ an average of 833 workers each, with most of those jobs located in the United States.

Discover more at New India Abroad.