In the Indian startup ecosystem, one constantly hears about how IITs and BITS produce some incredible founders. But there is a large cohort of founders that doesn’t get as much airtime despite quietly outperforming any single IIT when it comes to unicorn creation. Meet the BARBIE founders — those who did their Bachelors Abroad and Returned to Build in the Indian Ecosystem.
The term, coined by Sajith Pai, a Partner at Blume Ventures, has gained traction as a shorthand for this distinct founder archetype. From Lenskart co‑founder Peyush Bansal to Zepto’s Aadit Palicha, these founders have moved back to India to build audacious, ambitious and enduring businesses in the country. The numbers speak for themselves — of the roughly 300 BARBIE founders we identified, 3.7% have gone on to build unicorns, a rate higher than IIT Delhi (2.7%) and IIT Bombay (2%). BARBIE founders have started 11.5% of all active unicorns in the country.
Why this cohort is growing
In 2024, there were 70,000 Indian students studying for undergraduate degrees in the US and UK according to Open Doors and HESA, compared to 20,000 students a decade ago. While this is a tiny minority of the overall Indian undergrad population of 33m students, this number has been growing fast due to rising income levels in India and a myriad of problems with the Indian college experience. Importantly, many of these students are now returning to build in India. Though there is no reliable data on this reverse brain drain, anecdotal evidence suggests that return rates among Indian undergrads are on par with, or slightly higher than, earlier cohorts, likely influenced by recent geopolitical concerns.
(...)
