Research shows that immigrants to the US play a significant role in entrepreneurship and the economy at large.
Ilya Strebulaev, a professor in the Venture Capital Initiative at Stanford Graduate School of Business, analysed data from 500 unicorns between 1997 and 2019. The dataset includes information on 1,078 founders, of whom 44% were identified as non-U.S.-born based on their places of birth.
“Nearly half of US unicorn founders were born outside the US. Immigrants are crucial for US innovation: our research revealed that 65 countries (apart from the US) have produced at least one founder of a US unicorn,” wrote Strebulaev on LinkedIn.
Indian-born founders form nearly one-fifth of all non-US-born unicorn founders, totalling 90 individuals from India. This is followed by Israel with 52 founders, Canada with 42, the UK with 31, and China with 27. In Asia, India leads the list of founders, followed by Israel, China, and Taiwan with 12 founders.
In Europe, the UK leads in the number of founders, followed by Germany with 18, France with 17, Russia with 14, Ukraine with 12, and Ireland with 10.
In Africa, South Africa has five non-US-born founders. In South and North America (excluding the US), Canada has the highest number of founders, followed by Brazil with 9 founders. In Australasia, no country reached double digits; Australia contributed eight founders, while New Zealand had six.
Countries with fewer than five unicorn founders include Switzerland (4), Japan (3), Sweden (2), Greece (2), and Turkey (2).
The study also concludes that relocating start-ups to the US significantly increases their chances of achieving unicorn status. Indian start-ups are 6.5 times more likely to reach unicorn status if they relocate from India to the US.
Whether this trend will continue is unclear. After all, immigration has been a significant debate issue in US politics for decades, and it remained a major concern in the 2024 election cycle. Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump clashed over immigration policy and disagreed on the economic benefits of immigration. Trump won the election, pledging to deport 20 million illegal immigrants and further tighten immigration rules for legal immigrants.
