Paytm was founded in the year 2010 by Vijay Shekar Sharma headquartered in NCR region in the nation’s capital. It was started as an online wallet and since then had revolutionized the retail industry. Paytm offers a wide variety of services from prepaid mobile recharge, paying utility bills online, booking train tickets, booking movie tickets, pay insurance premiums, shopping bills and get in the fast lane with Paytm FasTag, shopping for clothes and appliances.
The term startup mafia is derived from the term ‘PayPal mafia’ where former employees of PayPal begin their own ventures. The startup mafia helps one another by providing support, investments, and mentoring to help upcoming startups.
The startup mafia accounts for a sizeable portion of the Indian startup ecosystem, as former employees of unicorns such as Flipkart, Paytm and Ola have gone to begin their ventures.
Well, Paytm is a huge organization that has hired more than 5,000 employees. Some of these employees quit their jobs to build a new venture after growing experience in building scalable products.
Junio is a fintech startup that build products for children, such as a pocket money app. Founded by ex-Paytm employees Shankar Nath and Ankit Gera, they received funding of $1 million from angel investors. The company targets kids in the range of Class 4 to Class 10 and plans to onboard over 2.5 million users by 2024.
One of the vital things, the former Paytm executive learned from his tenure in Paytm is the power of collaboration. Where they worked with more than 100 brands on their consumer promotions.
Another takeaway from their experience in Paytm is to build a product in a simple and usable manner. One needs to understand where the system breaks and move carefully while building a product. The only competitor right now to Junio is sequoia funded Fampay that also exclusively caters to children.
The idea of letting your kid manage their financials by providing them money is quite a new concept in India. Junio seeks to digitize pocket cash and nurture finance knowledge in children at quite an early age.
Park+
Park+ is an app-based platform for B2B businesses and daily commuters that offers smart parking automated solutions. The cloud-based app caters to car owners. The solutions offered in this app include parking reservations to FasTag recharge and a lot of other solutions offered. Park+ was founded by ex-VP of Paytm Amit Lakhotia. He founded this app to solve the parking problem people face in their day to day lives in India.
Park+ has raised over $11 million in funding from Sequoia, Matrix Partners.
Indiagold
Indiagold is the only app in India where you can buy and sell 24 karat gold online with BIS Hallmark certification. It was founded by Deepak Abbott, a former employee of Paytm. You can also buy gold coins and jewels on easy instalments with UPI or debit cards. This app also provides instant gold loans and a secure gold locker facility currently available in Delhi NCR.
The services will soon be opened all across India. Indiagold is now trusted by over 5 lakh customers.
GOQii is an Indian startup founded in 2014 by Vishal Gonda. It specializes in building a preventative healthcare ecosystem. It promotes a healthy and balanced lifestyle with a combination of advanced wearable technology, personal coaching. It has received an undisclosed investment sum from Paytm founder.
GOQii on Harvard business publishing platform
Unacademy
This Indian startup Unacademy started its journey as a YouTube channel back in 2010. It became an EdTech unicorn after its official launch in 2015. This Bangalore based company provides educational content and online classes for various competitive exams like GATE/NET, NEET, CAT, UPSC, Railways, bank officers. The Paytm founder had invested twice in this EdTech unicorn.
Flyrobe
Flyrobe is a startup which is an online fashion rental platform. The platform allows users to rent designer clothes for a fraction of the MRP. It is India’s largest such platform. This startup received funding from the Paytm founder.
Flyrobe
The Ken
Ken is a subscription-driven business news website founded in 2016 by a team of experienced journalists based out of Bangalore. Their goal is to promote content every morning by publishing fresh and original business insights to professionals, entrepreneurs and investors. It received an undisclosed amount of funding from Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2016.
FAQ
Who is the current owner of PayPal?
Paypal is owned by eBay which acquired it for $1.5 billion in October 2002.
Who is the CEO of Paytm 2020?
Varun Sridhar is the current CEO of Paytm.
Is Paytm an Indian company?
PayTM is owned by an Indian company by the name of One97 Communications Ltd.
Conclusion
Paytm mafia has nurtured and supported the growth of the Indian startup ecosystem. The Paytm mafia has been through the highs and lows. For them every day even tiny mistakes cost a lot. They bring a lot to the table which they gained in working among top companies. They also understand the mindset of the consumer which helps them build products that can thrive in the current market.
Entrepreneurship is one of the growing niche in recent times, and the startup ecosystem is evolving as more individuals are gearing up to work on their own startups with unique and actionable ideas. Startups with a vision and a roadmap to make a fortune out of it are often funded by venture capital and investment firms. Such firms offer private equity finances to startups in need of funds, for a fraction of the company itself. Larger corporations including Google and Jio haven’t held back from this either.
Flipkart has made quite some investments in the recent times, and has invested in startups both in India and abroad. As of now, Flipkart has made 24 investments along with 15 acquisitions including Scapic, Walmart India, eBay and others. Flipkart also has a separate program for Indian startup funding called the Flipkart Leap. Here we discuss and compare the top 10 startups funded by Flipkart, their solutions and funding amounts.
PhonePe is an Indian digital payments service founded in the December of 2015, and has raised since $1.4 billion in 12 rounds of funding. Walmart and Flipkart are the most recent investors of PhonePe, and while its latest funding round closed in the December of 2020, PhonePe acquired Zopper back in 2018. PhonePe allows users to recharge their mobile phones, pay bills, find stores that accept digital payments and make digital transactions, and a lot more. PhonePe has recently rolled out a new solution for business called the PhonePe Switch, that furnishes users with access to over 273 million PhonePe users, while being cost effective.
Mech Mocha
Mech Mocha is India’s first real-time multi-player social gaming platform based in Bengaluru. It was founded in 2014 and has since raised about $9.9 million from 5 funding rounds and 8 investors including Blume Ventures and Flipkart. While their latest funding closed in the November of 2018, Shunwei Capital and Neoplux are its most recent investors. While its lead investors were Shunwei Capital and Accel, Mech Mocha was recently acquired by Flipkart, the E-commerce giant of India in November of 2020 for an undisclosed amount.
Universal Sportsbiz is an Indian youth-centric fashion brand house, and has so far raised over $33 million from 3 investors including Flipkart, Accel, and Alteria Capital over 4 funding rounds. Universal Sportsbiz has catered to the Indian Fashion Industry with trending products and celebrity tie-ups. Based in Bangalore, Universal Sportsbiz was quick to be recognized by the youth and fashion enthusiasts, and became a key player in its category with its portfolio including Wrogn and Imara. Moreover, with amenities such as order tracking, shipping, order cancellation, and return and exchange, it has made a firm grip in the Indian market, and is looking to expand further.
Liv.ai
Liv.ai is an AI based speech recognition startup founded in 2015, and was only funded by Astarc Ventures in the May of 2017 until it was acquired by Flipkart in the August of 2018 for an undisclosed amount. Liv.ai comprises of a team of innovative tech and AI enthusiasts who are committed to deploying and integrating Deep Learning with products that can easily manage routine and repetitive tasks with ease. Flipkart’s acquisition of Liv.ai would mean that it is keen to develop a competitor to one of its key rivals in the Indian markets, Amazon and Amazon Alexa.
Ninjacart is a B2B produce supply chain for farmers and manufacturers to connect to retailers, and has raised over $192 million in 11 funding rounds from 19 investors including 6 lead investors. While the investors of Ninjacart include some big names such as Walmart and Flipkart, its latest funding round was closed in the October of 2020. Through the use of innovation in technology, Ninjacart strives to offer solutions on supply chain problems, and delivers fresh produce from farmers to businesses within 12 hours. It helps farmers with faster payments along with a revenue hike by about 20%, along with doorstep delivery for retailers.
ANS Commerce
ANS Commerce, founded in 2017, is a complete solution for E-commerce business, connecting brands to their customers and allowing business owners to focus on the products. ANS Commerce has so far raised $25K in the Grant round from Flipkart leap, Flipkart’s accelerator for Indian startups, and offers a Brandstore, performance marketing, marketplace management, along with warehousing and fulfillment, as a complete suite of business and E-commerce solutions. Moreover, with its onboarding support, sales focused approach, along with omnichannel strategies help you enhance revenue growth seamlessly.
Found in 2016, Entropik Tech is an AI powered emotional intelligence platform based in Bengaluru, and has so far raised $9.3 million over 4 funding rounds from 9 investors, including the likes of Flipkart Leap and Bharat innovation fund. With a humongous database of 16 million unique user emotion data, 20K testings, along with 100 million testers on panel, Entropik uses human emotions for displaying ads customized to your specific interests and connections, develops custom UI/UX designs, and offers an amazing shopping experience. A leader in EmotionAI, Entropik helps brands measure customers’ cognitive responses to their content and products.
Shadowfax
Shadowfax, founded in 2015 and based in Bangalore, is an on-demand logistics network and a one stop delivery solution, and has raised over $119 million from 13 investors over 6 funding rounds. With some industry giants as their investors including Flipkart and Qualcomm Ventures, Shadowfax exhibits 4 lead investors, with the most recent fund raised in December of 2019 in Series D funding round. The solutions offered by Shadowfax include Now, a hyperlocal service, Connect, the logistics service, along with E2E and Next, an integrated 3PL service with tracking and system monitored pickup and assisted task management.
Scapic is an augmented reality startup founded in 2016 and based in Bangalore, and had initially raised $500K from 3 investors until it was acquired by Flipkart in the November of 2020, for an undisclosed amount. Scapic started out as a simple and intuitive tool to build AR, VR, and 3D experiences without the use of code, and has since endeavored to offer immersive commerce to viewers and E-commerce customers with 3 dimensional view of products. With Scapic, customers will be able to virtually try out wearable products, create and view realistic images, and also view and monitor metrics to see growth and performance.
Fashinza
Fashinza, founded in 2020 is a Gurugram based B2B fashion and apparel manufacturing marketplace, and has since raised $2.6 million over 2 funding rounds and 6 investors including Flipkart Leap and Accel. Fashinza connects you to the best manufacturers in the industry, and takes complete ownership of tasks ranging from design to delivery, with users getting to choose the fabrics and the techstack. Moreover, Fashinza sets you up with with the right manufacturer based on your budget and requirements, and strives to offer solutions for global supply chain challenges with technology and sustainability.
Conclusion
Flipkart, a startup founded in 2007 by Binny and Sachin Bansal, has grown immensely since its conception, and has come a long way from raising funds to investing in other startups. This depicts an exemplary growth of a startup with a vision, and speaks volumes, suggesting the Indian startup ecosystem has evolved under percipient entrepreneurship, and the future of the Indian startup ecosystem, although full of room for improvement, is on the right track.
The COVID-19 or Coronavirus outbreak has turned into a global emergency. It has no left no choice to entire nations but go into lockdown mode and economies prepare for impact. Many businesses across the world have already paused their operations as the pandemic requires social distancing, the closing down of services, offices and cancellation of events. Emergency preparedness plans have never been more in focus than this situation which has devasted many businesses.
It’s true, we can’t neglect the fact that the Coronavirus hasn’t spared the startup communities. Just the opposite, many startup founders are worried about the consequences of sweeping lockdowns and restrictions and difficulty in managing to stay afloat and keep their staff onboard. In such situations, startups are more vulnerable than established corporations because of limited access to services & capital. So startups are understandably more worried. Many startups are calling for hiring slowdowns as well as spending curbs, cutting out travel and preparing for a very tough time ahead. For startups, funding seems to be the first casualty and those that are in the middle of a fund-raise or have small reserves of cash are looking for solutions. Those that have already raised funds and have at least six months of operating capital should be fine too. According to reports, though overall funding has slowed down, the best companies will still get funded with delays.
However, pre-seed and seed-stage startups might find the going tough as burn rates rise and sales fall. It will be tougher for these startups to gain customers, find potential new business and scale-up. This, in turn, would make it more difficult to raise the next round of funding. Although we don’t know how the pandemic will play out over the rest of the year, it has many lessons on crisis preparation and management.
This includes taking care of and preparing for impacts upstream and downstream as well as for potential impacts within the organization. Don’t forget that many of these ideas could also help lead generation and getting people to know about your company and your expertise, so the effort you invest in these good deeds will your company and help you too. Here are ten steps to keep top of mind while dealing with this crisis.
Employees’ Safety first
Your staff should always be your first priority. Make sure they are safe. That may mean rethinking some work practices – you may need to restrict travel and switch to meetings via video or audio conference calls. Some offices may need to temporarily shut and employees be asked to work from home; most companies have already implemented this for desk workers.
Offer products and services free of cost
During this coronavirus crisis, many messaging platforms,video conferencing companies, online learning platforms are free offering services and removing the limits on their services to help the students and employees working from home. Some startups have been wholeheartedly offering free or substantially discounted services and products to help. If your brand offers anything that can support either people hugely affected by the pandemic or those who are staying at home in a need of a boost to keep up with their lives, this is the right time to give a hand. This will leave a long lasting impression on people’s minds which will surely help in future.
Work on innovative tech solutions to fight the Coronavirus
What else could be better solution than finding the tool or technology that helps in containing the spread of Corona virus. If you have an idea for developing a tool that could in any way be of help in the fight of the COVID-19 virus, then start working on it right away. Even Government of India has also arranged COVID-19 Solution Challenge to encourage entrepreneurs to find a technology that helps find the coronavirus. The entrepreneur or startup providing the best solution will receive the money prize. So startups can see this as a good opportunity to earn funding during this crisis. Just act quickly and remember that even a simple app that would encourage the citizens to adapt more easily to the changed conditions can take your organization ahead. To know more about this challenge, visit the Official Website – https://innovate.mygov.in/covid19/
Connect with the startup community
Coronavirus outbreak has just started affecting the Indian market but it has affected Chinese and American market many weeks ago. So their experiences & mistakes in dealing the crisis can be used as guidelines on how to survive in the crisis. So it is advisable start connecting with the startup community not just in India but communities worldwide. Some ways and solutions can definitely hey be found be found by interacting with these tech and start up communities. Just take Estonia, for example, whose tech community has already been tackling the coronavirus through various activities. Portugal has also put together a page for collaboration. There are many ways to help in the quick and smart development and implementation of the necessary measures. So, get as involved as you can and encourage others in your community to do so as well.
Companies are organizing Hackathons for others to Participate remotely
Organise or attend hackathons
Many companies & startups have organised hackathon. This has paved the way and many innovative solutions that arose as a result of the to-date organised hackathons aimed against the Coronavirus are now on their way to be developed and implemented. So this can be done in India too. Many revolutionary products emerged exactly at these events and we now desperately need more of them to combat not only the emergency circumstances but effectively manage the post-crisis period and prevent further isolation and loneliness.
Host free online webinars, podcasts or Q&A sessions
In light of the latest developments, many event organisers are shifting their conferences online. It’s uncertain until when we’ll all be at home. So, people have enough time. This is the right time to stay connected. This can be done in many ways. One can go live – whether it’s alone, with your team or maybe with professionals from other startups. Online event, webinar, podcast, YouTube video, Q&A and what not available to keep in touch & increase the network. These platforms can be used to give advice based on your expertise and help people to stay motivated.
Offer your advice on remote working
Majority of the companies have asked their employees to work from home. As a member of a startup, you are probably very well acquainted with the ‘working from home’ concept. But, bear in mind that millions of people have just had their first day working remotely. The newly-created situation has given thousands of managers no other choice but to lead their teams online, completely unprepared. This situation can be used to help them with tips in a blog, LinkedIn post, webinar to encourage people to get in touch by recommending them video conference tools & software.
One of the biggest mistakes companies make in times like these is to cut back on marketing. It will be the end of you. At best, a slow death. Although, it is difficult to sell products & services in this time but it is a good opportunity to market your services & products. Do demand a better ROI on your marketing. This may be the right moment to expand and pick up the slack from your competitors and seized their market share.
Check your coverage
Business interruption coverage covers income lost when you close down your business due to a disaster. However, it typically doesn’t pay out unless there is physical damage to the business. Talk to your insurance agent to see what, if any, coverage you would have if coronavirus forces temporary closure. If got, this can be used to keep the money flow going.
Have Patience
This is the time wherein many entrepreneurs can lose their hope due to things not going well. It is hard to predict how long this is going to last. However, it is the most important to not give up. Though it may look difficult to put the things back on track, it is essential to have patience because like any other time, “ This too shall Pass.” Have faith.
For a business venture, funding is important to survive the market drill. From, time to time, the businessentrepreneurs and the business ventures, pitch their companies in front of the investors and Venture Capitalist, to get funding and grow their business. These funds are necessary to grow the market aspects of the business and good funding can change the whole face of the brand.
2019 has been a great year, in terms of Indian business and entrepreneurship. In just half way through the year (July report), there was total of $5.8 Billion were funded to Indian startups from different investors. The businesses were able to grow a lot because of the funding they have received.
So here are the Top 10 Funding rounds of 2019:-
Zomato
Zomato is an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery startup.It was founded in 2008 by Deepindar Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It is known for providing information, menus, user-reviews of restaurants and food delivery options from the partner restaurants.
Zomato has raised over $600 million of funding from Chinese investors Alibaba’s Ant Financial. The other important investors for Zomato are Infoedge, Temasek. Zomato’s valuation has crossed over $3 billion in the new funding round, as they have managed to raise over $2 billion in funding in the earlier part of 2019.
Zomato has acquired the Indian operations of Uber Eats for around $350 million. Uber Eats is the food delivery biz run by Uber.
Ola has been the dominating player in the Indian-ride platform. It is a service that allows booking a range of cabs, bikes, rentals and other vehicles through a mobile app.
Ola has raised a total of $3.8B in funding over 25 rounds. Ola has raised over 1 billion dollars in funding through seed funding in 2019 and the funding is provided by Tiger Global and Matrix India. It raised $250 million in funding from Softbank in JULY 2019.
After the successful e-wallet, paying bills, recharges, transferring money etc, PayTm introduced the Paytm Mall. It is a platform, where users can shop like any other e-commerce website or application. The user can sometimes get some extra benefits like cash backs,discounts, etc.
Paytm mall finalized investment deals from eBay of $160 at a 5.5% stake, at a valuation of $3 Billion. The investment also allowed eBay to sell their inventory on the platform of the Paytm mall.
PolicyBazaar is an Indian insurance aggregator and global financial technology startups. It was founded in June 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar. It is a digital platform where users can compare financial services from major insurance companies.
In 2019, PolicyBazaar raised over $150 million in funding from Chinese Technology giant Tencent Holdings Pvt.Ltd. The funding will be used to start newer financial services verticals and to venture into newer segments’ financial services, which will be a mix of B2B as well as B2C businesses.
Cure.fit is an Indian health and fitness company, which offers digital and offline experiences across various activities like fitness, nutrition, mental well-being and operates gyms under Cult.Fit and healthy food offerings under Eat.Fit.
In 2019, Cure.fit raised a funding of over $75 million in April 2019 as a part of their round and then, further raised about $45 million dollars, making it a close of $120 million of funding for the company. The funding is a mix of both debt and equity funding and is led by Chiratae Ventures, Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Oaktree capital. Some new investors who also took part in the funding round are Kotak Mahindra Bank, Epiq Capital, Unilever Ventures and Innoven capital.
BYJU’S
BYJU’S is one of the leading learning apps. It is the simple name of the brand “think and learn Pvt.ltd”. BYJU’S is a Banglore-based educational technology and online tutoring firm, which was founded in 2011 and gained its popularity in India. The founder of BYJU’S is Byju Raveendran.
In the year 2016, Byju’s became the first company in Asia to receive funding from Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, which is a joint initiative by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.By 2019, it has funded over $785 million by investors like Sequoia Capital India, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent, Sofina, Lightspeed Venture Partners, etc. In 2019, it has collected funding over $540 million. Recently in January 2020, Byju’s raised $ 200 million from Tiger Global Management, after which the company was valued at $8 Million. Again in February 2020, Byju’s confirmed raising another $200 Million from New York based private equity firm General Atlantic.
OYO is an Indian hotel chain startup. It is the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes and a variety of living spaces. It was founded by the Ritesh Agarwal in 2013 and soon became one of the largest hotel chains in India. It has its services in cities of Malaysia, India, UAE, Nepal, China, Saudi Arabia, etc.
OYO has existing investors like Softbank, with a capital of $800 million and in 2019, the founder Ritesh Agarwal has raised over $2.2 billion in debt from a series of Japanese institutions, including Nomura Holdings and Mizuho
Swiggy
Swiggy is also one of the largest and popular online food ordering platform in India. As of 2019, it has been operating in more than 100 cities. It was founded in 2014 by Nandan Reddy, Sriharsha Majety and Rahul Jaimini. The services include restaurant search, online ordering and table reservations.
In 2019 , Swiggy raised over $1 billion in fresh capital which made it the biggest funding in India’s food-tech sector. The existing investors on Swiggy are DTS Global, China’s Meituan Dianping and Coatue Management and the new investors are Hillhouse Capital and Wellington Management CO. Swiggy raised over $2 million investment from Accel and SAIF partners in 2015, after their launch.
Razorpay is an online payment solution that enables Indian Businesses to accept, process and also arrange payments. It is known as the best payment gateway app in India. It grants access to multiple modes of payments including credit card, debit card, online banking, unified payments interface, etc.
Razopay has raised over $75 million dollars in 2019, in the latest round of equity financing which has led by financial technology-focused investment firm Ribbit Capital. Reportedly, Razorpay also managed to raise $450 million in funding from marquee venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, disclosed by a close source.
Snapdeal
Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce company, known for selling over 3 million products from 800+ categories from over 1,25,000 regional, national and international brands and retailers and has a reach in more than 6,000 towns and cities across the countries.
In 2019, Snapdeal raised over $1.8 billion in funding ad has been backed by investors like Alibaba, Foxconn, and Softbank.
2019 has been a very smooth and fast year for many startups while others were struggling hard. We hear the news about funding each and every day, which we even cover on StartupTalky’s social media handles. Funding has helped a lot to these companies to evolve and help the country to grow this year.
If you know any other startup which was funded in 2019, do let us know in the comments.
Crowdfunding is all about creating a community around your project. A community that funds the project and also helps in spreading the word about your project. It’s all about asking for small amounts of money from many people instead of finding that one or two people to cut you a large cheque.
The process of crowdfunding works on the accessibility of vast network of people which is easily available on the platform of the internet. There are many crowdfunding websites that can bring investors and entrepreneurs together and can help them raise or increase their funds that goes beyond the traditional circle of owners, relatives and venture capitalists.
Crowdfunding provides an opportunity to anyone with an idea to pitch it in front of waiting investors. Investors can select anyone from hundreds of projects and invest amounts that are little and large, as per their wish. Crowdfunding sites then generate revenue from a percentage of the funds raised and help innovators launch their ideas, help them in bringing a change and provide incentive to operate.
Nonprofit organisations use crowdfunding platforms to gather donations. They often refer to crowdfunding as “online donations or fundraising,” “social media fundraising” or “peer-to-peer fundraising”.
Here are 11 crowdfunding sites in India for startups that are shaping the way ideas and startups grow:
Kickstarter
Kickstarter Logo | Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups
Kickstarter is one of the most well-known name in crowdfunding and arguable the most active platform as well. It has raised over $2 billion since its launch in 2009. Kickstarter backs creative projects like film, music, games, technology, books, research, etc. Since our launch, on April 28, 2009, 17 million people have backed a project, $4.5 billion has been pledged, and 168,500 projects have been successfully funded.
The platform doesn’t accept humanitarian projects or charity or other personal use projects. Kickstarter charges a fee of 5% for every successfully funded campaign. The purpose of Kickstarter is to bring creative projects to life by focusing on the creativity and merchandising. But if you are not able to reach the target in the allotted time, you will not be assessed any receivables or fees in any payment.
Campaign type
Reward
Industry focus
Creative arts
Funds you can keep
All or nothing
Funding fees
5% of successful campaigns
Payment fees (US)
3% + $0.20 per pledge $10 and over; 5% + $0.05 per pledge under $10
Startup locations allowed
US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands
Milaap
Milaap | Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups
Milaap is one of the most popular crowdfunding platform among Indians. Most of the people achieve their donation target on this platform. Although, maximum number of campaigns are for raising funding for health causes but many student entrepreneurs have successfully raised money to fund their startup ideas. The platform has raised over INR 330 Crore to support more than 100,000 people across the country.
GoFundMe Logo | Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups
GoFundMe is a donation crowdfunding site where people have raised an amount of more than $5 billion. The platform is entirely backed by donations and does not charge success fees. Since there is a huge audience over this platform, getting your startup funding campaign noticed is quite difficult. And projects also typically have lower dollar amounts. But the businesses which are important to their communities are often able to raise funds successfully.
GoFundMe does not charge any fees for the funds you raise and the money doesn’t have to be paid back. You are only responsible for the fees charged by the payment processor which is around 2.9% only.
Campaign type
Reward, Donation
Industry focus
People and Causes
Funds you can keep
Whatever you raise
Funding fees
0% for personal campaigns in the US; 5% for charities and countries outside the US
Payment fees (US)
2.9% + $0.30 per transaction
Startup locations allowed
19 countries
Indiegogo
Indiegogo Logo | Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups in India
Indiegogo was the first major crowdfunding platform that has raised over $1 billion since its release in 2007. The platform funded over 1,75,000 campaigns with contributions from 2.5 million across the globe in 2015. It is a crowdfunding site and also a marketplace platform. The campaigners can raise funds and continue raising funds pertaining to their idea as the site offers a “flexible funding” option.
The campaigners can also sell their products directly to the Indiegogo network of consumers. The platform focuses on product innovation and bringing innovative ideas to life. Indiegogo also has no prohibition against cause-related humanitarian projects. The site continues to serve as a Launchpad for entrepreneurial ideas.
Ketto is a crowdfunding platform that allows people and non-governmental organizations to raise money for their creative, social and personal causes. From 2012 to 2019, 500 crore was raised on the platform for over 1.5 Lakh campaigns and 25 Lakhs donors. The platform includes and features campaigns for health care, startups, education, personal campaigns, sports, children and women empowerment, animal welfare and alike causes.
Ketto also provides a section on its website called “Urgently Fund Required” and campaigns that can provide “Tax Benefit” to donors. The Kerala flood project called “Two Wheels of Hope” was a successfully funded campaign that was featured on Ketto and it provided cycles for schoolgirls, among other campaigns. The purpose of the platform is to being social change, raise awareness and of course raise funds.
Campaign type
Reward
Industry focus
Creative, Entrepreneurial, NGOs, Personal Causes, Education
CircleUp Logo | Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups
CircleUp is an equity-based crowdfunding company that is designed to help emerging brands and startups raise capital and grow their business. CircleUp, since its release in 2011, has helped 211 entrepreneurs raise $305 million, its average investment being $100,000. The site has a good reputation for elaborate due diligence on the companies it accepts.
Most of its investors have a deep experience in the field of retail and consumer brands and are willing to provide strategic guidance and support during the process. And hence, CircleUp is best for CPG focused businesses. It offers a line of credit up to $3 million with APRs ranging from 14-25% including all feels. This is still lower than most other online lending options. The fees that you will pay for equity crowdfunding will depend upon your business and will be determined by CircleUp at the time you apply.
Raise money with CircleUp and you can connect with experienced, knowledgeable investors in your industry, who can potentially help you grow your company faster and provide one-on-one guidance. You also get access to CircleUp’s network of operational partners, like Johnson & Johnson and eBay, who can share business expertise and potentially help with product development and manufacturing.
Patreon Logo | Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups
Patreon is a crowdfunding membership platform that provides creators business tools to run a subscription content service and has raised more than $350 million. The artists build relationships and provide exclusive experiences to their subscribers called “patrons”. It offers fundraising on an ongoing basis. The majority of the businesses on Patreon produces some form of entertainment.
Patreon is best for people indulged in creative businesses like creative projects like video and photography, music, writing, comics, podcasts, games, animation, vlogging, artists and other entertainment where content is produced on a regular basis. Patreon charges a fee of 5% for any payment made to the creator through its platform and typically around 3% transfer fee when you withdraw funds. The startups can use this platform to provide the access to their particular content & services.
Campaign type
Reward, subscription/donation
Industry focus
Artists and Creators
Funds you can keep
Whatever you raise
Funding fees
5% of successfully processed payments
Payment fees (US)
Varies, but 5% on average
Startup locations allowed
Worldwide
Wishberry
Wishberry Logo | Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups
Wishberry is India’s largest crowdfunding platform that was launched in 2012 and has a 70% success rate for creative projects. The platform is strictly for creative projects including ideas and startups related to arts & design, film & other video, music, dance, theatre, publishing, comics, photography and also support the creative startups.
Wishberry does not accept any product-based projects right now such as hardware products, IoT products, non tech products like fashion etc. Its purpose is to bring creative and innovative idea to life and build a community of donors for creative ideas, consulting and marketing services as well. Wishberry is a reward-based platform from the projects that they fund. They also provide personal consultation, social media management, PR & publicity, email marketing, global payments.
Campaign type
Reward
Industry focus
Creative projects
Funds you can keep
All
Funding fees
Rs. 3499 for less than 2 lakhs, Rs. 9999 for more than 2 lakhs, Rs. 2499 for student campaign
FuelADream is an online crowdfunding website that helps you raise funds for startup ideas, charities, social causes and disaster relief efforts. The platform is committed to radically changing the lives of 2.2 billion people in India and Africa. It gives campaigners the choice of AON i.e. All Or Nothing and KWYG i.e. Keep What You Get and believes in the motto – “quality more than quantity”.
FuelADream keeps the number of projects less in order to keep the authenticity and genuineness of the campaigns posted on the platform. They provide a section called “Crowd Favorite” lists and that includes the most-liked and most-funded campaigns. The platform focuses on community-led activities and creative ideas and aims to change the traditional methods of raising funds and simplifying the process.
Campaign type
Reward
Industry focus
Creative Ideas, Causes, Charities, Events, and Community-led Activities
Funds you can keep
All or Nothing and Keep What You Get
Funding fees
Rs. 3000
Payment fees
6% to 9% from funds raised
Startup locations allowed
India and Africa
Fundable
Fundable Logo | Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups
Fundable is a fee-based crowdfunding platform that offers the users both reward-based and equity-based campaigns for their startups. The focus is on small businesses and entrepreneurs. It deals with campaigns across all business sectors in India. Entrepreneurs and businesses across India have used this platform to raise funds for affordable clinical diagnoses to intellectual travel experiences.
The various sectors included in its domain are banking, food and beverage, travel, and fitness. Fundable also provides a section on its websites called “New and Noteworthy” that ensures that people who want to support can browse through the newest and most engaging campaigns. Fundable does not charge any kind of success fees. It’s simply a flat monthly charge per month.
Catapooolt is India’s first ever crowdfunding platform. Catapooolt is a platform for funding personal projects like art startups, films, music, art and technology, or enterprises and businesses. It gives additional feature to its campaigners to partner within their network of investors, accelerators, incubators, mentors, and for marketing, sales and distribution community endorsements.
Catapooolt will bring together communities, relevant partners, latest tools and resources to enable what every idea needs to be successful – Funds and Engagement. The platform becomes a comprehensive ecosystem for crowdfunding by focusing on individual projects, startups and enterprises.
Campaign type
Reward
Industry focus
Individual Projects, Startups, Enterprises
Funds you can keep
Whatever you raise
Funding fees
Not Available
Payment fees
10% + 18% of 10% (GST)
Startup locations allowed
India
Great innovation and ideas need a boost with funding for their startups. And with these great crowdfunding websites available to us at these times, founders and innovators have a range of options to choose from.
Please share more crowdfunding platforms for startups in India if we missed any of them. Lets make the strongest community of entrepreneur by helping each other.
Sweta
