Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, is much more than its delicacies and vibrant cultureâit’s the financial and commercial hub of the eastern and north-eastern parts of India. Most of us aren’t aware of the large number of startups based out of Kolkata. In fact, it’s an entrepreneurial hub bustling with activity. Many successful ventures had their beginnings in the ‘City of Joy’. As a result, it’s our duty at StartupTalky to cover some of the best startups in Kolkata and shower them with the spotlight they deserve.
We have also covered startups in Vizag, Gurgaon, Lucknow, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Guwahati, Jaipur, and Hyderabad. Without further ado, here is a list of top startup companies in Kolkata.
- Taxmantra
- Labkafe
- Wow! Momo
- Notebook
- CBNITS
- Sleepycat
- Karma Kettle
- Sasta Sundar
- Quriox
- Be Awara
- iKure Techsoft
- Sweethandi
- Meraqi Digital
- Tripmamu
- Pickji
- EazyCoach
- Zeroinfy
- MindHour
- FusionChart
- InSync
- TruckHall
- Atlas Software
- Oxedent Technologies
- Amar Canvas
- Bandhan Bank
- Rare Planet
- Data Sutram
- iMerit Technology Services
- Mihup
- Kompanero
- Glocal Healthcare
- Arohan Financial
- StockEdge
- Legal Salah
- Brickcells Technologies
- mPokket
- Britannia
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Taxmantra
Founder: Alok Patnia
Industry: FinTech
Taxmantra is a fintech startup from Kolkata that helps its customers with fundraising, legal services, and cross-border tax & legal compliances. Alok Patnia, the founder and CEO of Taxmantra, is a Chartered Accountant by profession and used his work experience of a couple of years to set up Taxmantra. He is an alumnus of St. Xavierâs College, Calcutta, and aims to make Taxmantra a global powerhouse with respect to tax and legal affairs. The company is present in India, the United States, and Singapore. It also assists Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) with their taxes and legal issues.
Labkafe
Founders: Aniket Thakur, Hitesh Kuma
Industry: FinTech
Labkafe is counted amongst the top startups of Kolkata. Labkafe provides laboratory equipment and furniture at affordable prices. It offers numerous products such as glassware, chemicals, labware, and the accessories required for Biology labs, Physics labs, Chemistry labs, pharmacy, and much more. The average order basket is valued at around INR 1 lakh. Aniket Thakur and Hitesh Kumar started Labkafe in 2015. Sunil Panda and Amrit Raj later joined the duo as co-founders. The company has clients from India such as Baidyanath Pharma, NIT Rourkela, NIT Allahabad, and ONGC; it also exports equipment to countries such as Canada, Nigeria, and Bhutan.
Wow! Momo
Founders: Binod Kumar Homagai, Sagar Daryani, Shah Miftaur Rahman
Industry: Food Delivery, Retail
Wow! Momo was founded back in 2008 as a fast-food retailing chain and has witnessed major growth ever since. As the name signifies, Wow! Momo is designed as a food manufacturing and delivery chain that specializes in the world-known Nepali/Tibetan specialty, momos, in their own patent style.
Notebook
Founders: Achin Bhattacharya, Subhayu Roy
Industry: EdTech
Notebookâs vision is to enable access to high-quality education for every child. It strives to establish a benchmark in educational content quality for Indian schools. Notebook is a subscription-based service operating on a freemium model. Notebook operates on Google Cloud and delivers video streams through the same pathway as YouTube. It has implemented best-in-class DRM to protect itself against piracy. The Notebook has attempted the creation of audio-visuals that students find interesting and informative. The course currently available in Notebook is English for the 8th, 9th, and 10th grades of CBSE schools. Study notes and solved questions are also included in the course.
CBNITS
Founders: Rajdeep Bose & Naveen Chand Bachkethi
Industry: Information Technology
CBNITS specializes in Software, IT, ERP, Cloud, Blockchain & Cybersecurity. They are a Great Place to Work-Certified company with 300+ Expert-level Software Engineers, Cloud Engineers, Automation Engineers, Cybersecurity Experts, Blockchain Developers, Full-Stack Developers, Data Scientists, and UX/UI Designers. Their expertise in streamlining complex mission-critical processes and delivering results that exceed expectations sets them apart from the rest in the global IT & Software arena.
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Shubham Kumar
Sleepycat
Founder: Kabir Siddiq
Industry: E-Commerce Retail
SleepyCat is India’s first “mattress-in-a-box” brand. The box mattress is manufactured using a special technology that makes it compact enough to be packed in a small box. The USP of SleepyCat’s box mattresses is that these mattresses are compressed using automated compression technology. After compression, the mattress easily fits into a small box and eliminates any transportation-related hassle. SleepyCat delivers its mattresses right at your doorstep. It delivers a specialized gel memory foam-based mattress that comes packed in a box (straight from the factory) to customers without any shipping costs.
Within a span of 1.3 years, the company sold over 10,000 mattresses. SleepyCat is the highest-rated mattress on the internet across Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
Karma Kettle
Founders: Priti Sen Arora, Dhiraj Arora
Industry: Food and Beverage
Karma Kettle is one of Indiaâs finest artisanal tea blenders with 60+ different tea varietals. Karma Kettle, founded in 2015, has established itself as a specialist tea brand offering a wide variety of tea to choose from. Indians can enjoy an authentic cup of Moroccan Mint tea, Genmaicha tea, or Japanese Matcha at reasonable prices. It started as an online platform, acquired its customers online, and now sells products through its website and other e-commerce portals. Today, the company is also catering to some eminent five-star hotel chains in different countries. Karma Kettle teas can now be enjoyed in Novotel hotels, Le Meridien hotels, CGH Earth hotels, and many other hotels of repute.
Sasta Sundar
Founder: B L Mittal, Ravi Kant Sharma
Industry: EPharmacy, Healthcare, Beauty
Sasta Sundar is a West Bengal-based online pharmacy headquartered in Kolkata. Founded in 2013 by B.L Mittal and Ravi Kant Sharma, sastasundar.com offers quality medicines, healthcare, and beauty products. Furthermore, Sasta Sundar also brings a knowledge-based web portal that provides information on various medicines for the users to know all about their medications before selecting what they want. The platform also extends numerous ayurvedic and herbal medicines, orthopedic and surgical care units for the numerous ailments that the customers might be suffering from!
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Quriox
Founders: Raj Sarma
Industry: Premium perfume
Quriox is an e-commerce website that makes it easy to find the perfect gift for your special one. It also provides apparel and accessories to stand out in the crowd. The company strongly believes in the importance of gifts, particularly in relationships. Quriox was founded in April 2018.
Be Awara
Founder: Atish Kejriwal, Sushmita Kejriwal
Industry: E-commerce
Be Awara is a fast-growing e-commerce startup in Kolkata. You’ll find a huge catalog of quirky clothing, coffee mugs, coasters, and similar offerings on the startup’s website. The company’s name is derived from the Hindi word ‘Awara’; a traveler or vagrant who never settles.
iKure Techsoft
Founder: Sujay Santra
Industry: HealthTech
iKure Techsoft is a prominent health tech startup from Kolkata. Founded in October 2010, iKure Techsoft is a unique social enterprise working on making healthcare accessible and affordable to the people in rural India. iKure places a strong emphasis on the health of women and children in villages and small towns. It has opened rural clinics that have dispensed excellent healthcare facilities to around 3.5 million people to date.
Sweethandi
Founder: Abhirup Banerjee
Industry: Food
Kolkata is known for its sweets, particularly sandesh and rosogolla. However, there’s an entire spectrum of flavors that the city has to offer and Sweethandi simply exposes this spectrum. This Kolkata startup is an e-commerce setup that sells Bengali sweets across the country, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. It allows customers to place orders online. The order can be customized according to the geographical location. Sweethandi has collaborated with all the major sweets retailers in India; therefore, making the delivery of Bengali sweets across India as easy as ABC.
Meraqi Digital
Founders: Ankit Saraf, Sneha Sanganeria
Industry: Digital Marketing
This startup from Kolkata has served some of the biggest brands. The agency marked its presence by taking advantage of the rising social media usage in India. Within a short span, Meraqi Digital â focusing on digital marketing, content strategy and marketing, brand strategy, design, and communication â has made a huge name for itself in the market with clients such as WOW! Momo, MP Birla Group, Emami Group, PC Chandra Jewellers, Sreeleathers, Jindal India, Himalaya Opticals, The GRID, Chai Break, Rush Fitness, and others. The company helps its clients with everything â from strategy and brand creation to regular day-to-day tasks, thereby increasing their market outreach and ensuring that their business generates profits.
Tripmamu
Founder: Somdev Dutta Gupta
Industry: Travel and Tourism
Holidays are worth remembering only if they are joyous, memorable, and exciting. Tripmamu helps people find the right travel agent for their holiday destinations at pocket-friendly prices. It also serves as a marketplace that allows customers to connect with each other. There’s a lot in store for the travel agents who sign up with Tripmamu.
Pickji
Founder: Abhishek Jalan
Industry: Logistics
Pickji is a home delivery venture. Grocery shopping for daily needs requires one to leave the comfort of his or her home. All of us remember being sent by our moms to get that occasional packet of milk or bread while we were busy watching our favorite T.V. shows. Only if someone could deliver the grocery at home! Pickji turns this dream into reality. The company has made online delivery methods easy, quick, and economical. A pickup from the nearby grocery store or Kirana can be done via the Pickji app, and the order will be at your doorstep in a matter of minutes. The app is available for iOS and Android phones.
EazyCoach
Founder: Om Agarwal
Industry: EdTech
EazyCoach connects students across India with coaching institutes, colleges, and schools. It is an easy way to get details about the various educational institutes in India. Students suffer when it comes to changing schools, especially those individuals whose parents relocate frequently due to job requirements. EazyCoach acts as a savior for such students.
Zeroinfy
Founders: Rohit Bajaj, Abhishek Bajaj, Aditya Bajaj
Industry: EdTech
Zeroinfy is an educational platform where students connect with each other for preparation talks and course discussions pertaining to national level examinations such NEET, chartered accountancy, engineering, CAT, etc. It has tie-ups with teachers from various Indian cities. Zeroinfy encourages peer-to-peer learning through notes that are shared with students by the participating faculty.
MindHour
Founder: Varun Choudhary
Industry: EdTech
MindHour, as the name suggests, focuses on imparting and propagating education in the areas of logical reasoning and aptitude. It has an app and a website where interactive courses and specially-designed curriculum are available for enrolled students. The company also takes into account the rural section of India so that students in villages and small towns aren’t left out. MindHour has around 25,000 questions for students studying in 6th-12th grades. According to its website, MindHour has around 5,00,000 happy students.
FusionChart
Founder: Pallav Nandhani
Industry: Visualization & Data Analytics
FusionChart is the industry leader in enterprise-grade charting components for web and mobile applications. Since its inception, FusionCharts has gone above and beyond to assist developers. Its motto is “by developers, for developers”. According to FusionCharts’ website, it has witnessed more than 1.4 million downloads by over 750,000 developers in 118 countries. It offers 90+ charts and 1400 data-driven maps. FusionCharts has been featured in Forbes magazine and is the recipient of various awards.
InSync
Founder: Atul Gupta
Industry: HealthTech
InSync was founded in Kolkata with the vision to provide digital assistance to small and medium enterprises. InSync helps businesses operate efficiently and grow faster. With the motto “We connect. You grow.”, InSync has enjoyed popularity and prominence amongst its customers. According to its website, InSync has provided solutions for over 650 businesses in 65+ countries. This venture has received various honors for its work.
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TruckHall
Founders: Anup Agarwal, Varun Biyani, Manisha Sharaf, Ankit Dudhwewala
Industry: Logistics
Anup, Varun, Manisha, and Ankit came together to start TruckHall in November 2015 with the aim of giving a new outlook to the Indian road transportation industry. Individuals in the road transportation segment don’t have an easy life. Goods movement involves intensive manual tasks. There is a chain of people involved in this segment; booking agents, truck drivers, and their assistants, who regularly encounter challenges in their jobs. They don’t get to see their families often and work at odd hours to make a living. The transportation industry has become synonymous with words such as corruption and in-efficiency, and the Kolkata-based company is cleansing this space by bridging the known gaps.
Atlas Software
Directors: Deepak Kumar Walia, Ashok Walia, Pradeep Kumar Walia
Industry: Information Technology & Services
Atlas Software is an IT solutions company in Kolkata offering world-class application services to help organizations exceed their technological expectations. Atlas Software provides services from SharePoint and SalesForce CRM implementations to web/app development projects and SAP architecture. It provides other services such as technical staffing, IT infrastructure planning, recruitment process outsourcing, SAP management, Microsoft SharePoint deployment, SalesForce.com implementation, network virtualization, off-site development services, SaaS implementation, and custom software development.
Oxedent Technologies
Founder: Biplab Poddar
Industry: Digital Marketing, Advertising
Oxedent is a Kolkata-based digital marketing agency that aims to help small and medium-sized businesses to boost their online visibility, traffic, and enhance their sales. The company engages Google-certified experts to work on the various Adwords campaigns that come their way. Furthermore, they also claim to offer affordable rates on the services they provide.
Amar Canvas
Founder: Rahul Basak and Amit Kumar Mahishya Das
Industry: eCommerce, Artistsâ marketplace
Amar Canvas, founded by Rahul Basak, the CEO, and COO, Amit Kumar Mahishya Das, is an online marketplace for artists and artisans who can hope to sell their precious artworks through this new platform aimed at empowering them. The platform is built in such a way that it will extend a 100% profit to those artists and artisans who would want to embrace Amar Canva, according to the CEO and Cofounder, Rahul.
Bandhan Bank
Founder: Chandra Shekhar Ghosh
Industry: Banking, Financial Services, Lending
Founded by Chandra Shekhar Ghosh in Kolkata in 2015, Bandhan Bank is established as a commercial bank that focuses on micro banking and general banking services with microfinance lending at its core. With the license of providing banking services to pan-India across consumer segments, Bandhan bank offers a wide selection of assets and liability products and services designed for its consumers across the country.
Rare Planet
Founder: Ranodeep Saha, Vijay Kumar TR
Industry: Handicrafts, Marketplace
Rare Planet is a company founded in 2015 by Ranodeep Saha and Vijay Kumar TR as a platform that empowers artisans by helping them in selling their handicrafts to customers based around the country. Rare Planet focuses on the promotion of indigenous handicrafts made of terracotta, copper, ceramic, brass, wood, marble, and more to extend the local karigars a sustainable income.
Data Sutram
Founder: Aishik Pyne, Aisik Paul, Alok Mani, Ankit Das, Rajit Bhattacharya, Soumik Chakrabarty
Industry: Saas, AI & ML, Data Analytics
Data Sutram was founded in 2018 and is based in Kolkata. The company is designed as an AI-based Location Intelligence Enterprise for businesses to leverage their location-based insights. Equipped with a Cloud-based B2B product, Data Sutram offers the business a bunch of services including new and accurate facilities to discover new locations for expansion, determination of the right audiences, and the enhancement of the performance of their physical and digital assets.
iMerit Technology Services
Founder: Radha Basu
Industry: AI, ML, Computer Vision, NLP
iMerit, also known as iMerit Technology, is designed as an organization that helps in enhancing and annotating data to power the algorithms in Machine Learning, Computer Vision, and Natural Language Processing. Starting in 2012 in Kolkata, West Bengal, iMerit has seen tremendous growth in India as well as overseas so much so that the organization is also headquartered in San Francisco, USA. This makes it easy for iMerit to work with its global customers to enrich and label their data and achieve the best results from their algorithms.
Mihup
Founder: Biplab Chakraborty, Sandipan Chattopadhyay, Sandipan Mandal, Tapan Barman
Industry: AI, Android, IT
Mihup Communications is an Intelligence-based personal mobile assistance app headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal that claims to have opened a new frontier in Conversational AI. The platform that Mihup boasts of, empowers enterprise developers to develop customized voice interfaces that give them full control over their brand identity and privacy. Besides, the company also offer unique and powerful interaction analytics solution to provide a 100% analysis of the customer interactions of a call center to derive actionable insights, boost sales, collections, and customer services.
Kompanero
Founder: Aditya Vikram Bhuwania
Industry: Consumer Goods, Handicrafts, Fashion Accessories
Kompanero is a handicrafts and leather accessories brand that brings premium leather bags and genuine and pure leather accessories including classic, vintage, and a wide range of other handpicked designs from which the customers can buy their own products online.
Glocal Healthcare
Founder: Meleveetil Damodaran, Richa Azim, Sabahat Azim
Industry: Healthcare
Glocal Healthcare is a disruptive healthcare service provider based in Kolkata that aims to deliver premium healthcare solutions through hospitals, digital dispensaries, and apps, to make healthcare affordable, accessible, and accountable everywhere. The USP of the brand is that it even manages to reach the remoter districts and areas where it is difficult for the organized sector to reach.
Arohan Financial
Founder: Shubhankar Sengupta, Vineet Rai
Industry: Financial Services, Personal Finance, Credit
Arohan Financial by Aavishkaar Group is a financial institution based in Kolkata, West Bengal that extends personal and business loans to budding entrepreneurs, small and medium-sized businesses and individuals to fulfill their dreams. The company works with a strong network of people on the ground, which further helps the company improve its reach in the remotest of locations and low-income geographies, across the country.
StockEdge
Founder: Vinay Pagaria, Vineet Patawari, Vivek Bajaj
Industry: Fintech, Analytics, Elearning
StockEdge, also known as Kredent InfoEdge Private Limited, is founded in Kolkata, West Bengal, and is known as one of the best Indian stock market apps for android and iPhone users. StockEdge believes in empowering individual investors to enable them to make independent financial decisions with the help of adequate learning, accurate data, and effective analytics. The unique platform from StockEdge is built to enhance personal financial management in India and help the entire population of the country gets onboarded into the fast-paced financial ecosystem.
Legal Salah
Founder: Abhinit Singh, Jay Malani, Subhash Jha, Sujit Jha, Tausif Warsi
Industry: Information Technology, Legal, Consulting
Legal Salah Solutions Pvt Ltd. is a Kolkata-based legal solutions company that aims to bring in value-based legal and consultancy services for the users. The company aims to reconstruct the substructure of the Indian legal and consultancy services which not only enables the affluent section of the society but also empowers the startups, medium and small enterprises to avail of the legal tax and compliance services.
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Brickcells Technologies
Founder: Sunandan Mukherjee
Industry: Biopharma
Brickcells Technologies Pvt Ltd. is a biopharma company founded in 2016 and designed as a unique, sustainable, and profitable solution to eradicate the various problems faced by fish farmers. With the humified natural, non-chemical, bio-active nutrient-cum-pond conditioner that the company manufactures, Brickcells aims to increase the yield of the fishes, reducing the mass mortality of the fishes and controlling pond pollution at the same time.
mPokket
Founder: Markus Demirci, Gaurav Jalan, Samarjit Choudhury
Industry: Digital Lending, Fintech
mPokket, also known as Maybright Ventures Pvt. Ltd., is a mobile-based platform founded in 2016 that acts as a digital lending marketplace with an aim to let its customers achieve financial independence. With the help of the instant loan app for the students and the salaried professionals, the mobile app, mPokket, the customers can hope for receiving credit anytime and anywhere.
Britannia
Founder: C.H. Holmes
Industry: Food Processing
Britannia is a household name in India. The company that was founded in the year 1892 is one that provides food and bakery products like biscuits, cakes, and dairy products. The brand is serving many generations since its establishment and has now made a name worldwide as it now operates in 60 different countries. It has become one of the biggest food and beverage companies in India.
FAQs
What are some low-Investment Business Ideas in Kolkata?
Kolkata is known for being home to foodies. A venture in the eatables/dining segment ought to be profitable. You can open a fast-food snack stall, tea and breakfast stall, a small bakery, etc. You can look into clothing stores as well.
What is the most profitable business in Kolkata?
Food and Beverages is a thriving industry in India and will never go out of business. So cafes and stalls are a good investment.
What are some top startups in Kolkata?
Some of the best startups in Kolkata are Be Awara, Taxmantra, Labkafe, Karma Kettle, iKure Techsoft, Sweethandi, SleepyCat, and MindHour to name a few.
Conclusion
This was our comprehensive list of Kolkata-based startups. If you know about any other startup or entrepreneur from Kolkata or want to get your company featured in this list, then kindly contact: shubham@startuptalky.com
