New Delhi, March 27 (IANS): A global study of 845 unicorns and more than 2,000 tech leaders has revealed that most companies with a valuation of $1 billion and above have "underdog" founders and female entrepreneurs are on the rise.

The study, titled "Unicorn Founder DNA Report" by Defiance Capital found that 70 per cent of unicorns have "underdog founders" (like immigrants, women and people of colour).

According to a TechCrunch report on Wednesday, unicorns used to earlier have only male founders "but this is changing with 17 per cent having a female founder in 2023".

About half of them (53 per cent) have earned degrees from the top 10 global universities and 49 per cent of unicorn CEOs had STEM degrees, the findings showed.

The study also revealed that unicorns were dominated by white founders, but that every third unicorn had an Asian founder.

Several unicorn founders were forced to develop a growth mindset, "with values, work ethic, and ambitions all established during childhood".

Meanwhile, India is now home to more than 8,000 startups that have women founders with a cumulative funding of nearly $23 billion to date, according to the latest report by Tracxn, a leading market intelligence platform.

Women entrepreneurs' share of startups in the Indian tech industry exceeds 18 per cent, and among funded companies, the share is more than 14 per cent. Women-led startups represent a significant 14.8 per cent share of the overall Indian tech funding pie at nearly $155 billion.