Mumbai is the financial hub of India and among the wealthiest city globally. Headquarters of most financial institutions like the Bombay Stock Exchange, RBI, National Stock Exchange, and the Mint are located in Mumbai. Even the HQs the giant business groups like Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Essel Group, and Reliance Industries are situated in this city. It has also become the startup hub of India and has given rise to numerous startups recently. Here we have listed down a few successful startups in Mumbai.
Also, read – If you are looking for a list of startups in Mumbai here is our exhaustive list of all recently funded startups in Mumbai and other cities.
We have also covered startups from Pune, Nagpur, and other major cities of India.
- BOOKMYSHOW
- Ola
- Cleartrip
- Jio Saavn
- Chillr
- PepperFry
- Toppr
- Nykaa
- Faasos
- GrabHouse
- HOUSING
- Weddingz
- ImpactGuru
- Guiddoo
- BAJAAO
- Ithaka
- PaisaDukan
- Heckyl Technologies
- Fruzzante
- Tsara
- SpiceTree Design Agency
- TAC Security
- Monk Entertainment
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List of Startups in Mumbai
BOOKMYSHOW
Founders: Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar & Rajesh Balpande
Year Founded: 1999
Industry: Ticket Booking
Funding: $224.5 Million
BookMyShow is India’s largest online entertainment ticket booking brand. People can easily buy movie and shows’ tickets on their website. BookMyShow has also helped less popular theatres and their artists to gain an audience. The company provides ticket management software to cinemas. Along with that, the company promotes movies and shows on their website which generate good revenue for them.
BookMyShow was founded by Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar, and Rajesh Balpande. In 1999, they began from a small room in Mumbai and now have spread themselves globally. BookMyShow acquired 7 startups including MastiTickets, Townscript, Burrp, and Nfusion.
OLA
Founders: Bhavish Agarwal & Ankit Bhatia
Year Founded: 2010
Industry: Taxi Aggregator
Funding: $4.3 Billion
Ola is a taxi aggregator and bridges the gap between cab owners and commuters. Ola doesn’t own any cars but partners with a number of taxi drivers and owners. The company also owns the food startup “Foodpanda”. Owned by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Ola was started in Mumbai, it is now headquartered in Bangalore. Ola has continuously been expanding its range of services. Ola has its own e-wallet called Olamoney which makes it convenient for riders to pay for the rides.
The startup was founded by Bhavish Agarwal and Ankit Bhatia in 2010. You can read our Ola Startup Story to know more about the startup.
Cleartrip
Founders: Stuart Crighton, Hrush Bhatt & Matthew Spacie
Year Founded: 2006
Industry: Travel booking
Funding: $56.4 Million
Cleartrip is an online travel booking company. It lets travelers book anything from flights to hotels. The startup started in Mumbai but now has offices in Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Dubai too. Along with B2C services, Cleartrip provides B2B services like “Cleartrip for Business”. A corporate travel management tool. AgentBox is another B2B tool for travel agents.
Cleartrip was founded by Stuart Crighton, Matthew Spacie, and Hrush Bhatt in 2006. It has raised a total of $56.4 million of funding from Concur Technologies Inc., DAG Ventures, and Gund Investment Corporation.
Rishita Jain
Jio Saavn
Founders: Rishi Malhotra, Vinodh Bhat, & Paramdeep Singh
Year Founded: 2007
Industry: Music Streaming
Funding: $131.6 Million
Saavn is a music streaming freemium service which offers songs in Hindi, English, and other regional languages. It works on the freemium model. With the free version, there are ads and some limitations whereas, in the paid version, there will be better streaming quality and many other features. The company has the rights to over 50 million songs. Later, saavn was acquired by Jio for more than $1 billion and it became JioSaavn.
The startup was founded by Rishi Malhotra, Vinodh Bhat, and Paramdeep Singh in 2006 as “BODVOD Network”. Before it was acquired, Saavn had raised funding of a total of $110 million.
Manav Makhija
Chillr
Founders: Mohamed Galib, Sony Joy, Lishoy Bhaskaran & Anoop Sankar
Year Founded: 2013
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $7.5 million
Chillr allows instant money transactions directly through the individual’s bank account through the app itself. However, after the launch of the UPI system, Chillr is has nothing new to offer. But as Chillr was already running a kind of “UPI” system from 2013, they have a lot of Banks as their partners.
Its a brand run and owned by Backwater Technologies Pvt Ltd. Mohamed Galib, Sony Joy, Lishoy Bhaskaran, and Anoop Sankar together started Chillr in 2014.
Anagha S
PepperFry
Founders: Ashish Shah
Year Founded: 2011
Industry: Furniture
Funding: $245.3 Million
Pepperfry was founded with an idea to make furniture shopping online convenient for married couples who aim to start their life afresh with a new home. The company sells sells home décor and furniture. Launched in 2011, Pepperfry is facing tough competition from FabFurnish and Urbanladder.
Ashish Shah, founder, and CEO of PepperFry is a graduate of Pune University. He later did a diploma course in Ghaziabad and has 15 years of work experience in the market.
Toppr
Founders: Hemanth Goteti and Zishaan Hayath
Year Founded: 2013
Industry: E-Learning
Funding: $112.1 Million
Toppr is an e-learning app trying to make studies fun with its interactive content. It provides study material to students from class 5th to 12th standard and also for students appearing for entrance examinations and scholarship exams.
The ed-tech startup was founded by Hemanth Goteti and Zishaan Hayath, graduates from IIT Bombay. Toppr has raised a total of $65.1 million of funding mainly from Milestone Trustee Services and Alteria Capital.
Nykaa
Founder: Falguni Nayar
Year Founded: 2012
Industry: Beauty Products
Funding: $341.9 Million
Nykaa is one of the top from the list of entrepreneurs in Mumbai. It is an e-commerce website that offers beauty and wellness products from all the leading brands such as Lakmé, Kaya Skin Clinic, L’Oréal Paris, M.A.C, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Estee Lauder, and many more. Nykaa follows inventory–led model. It has inventory spaces in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
Falguni Nayar who founded Nykaa in 2012, is a former managing director of Kotak Mahindra Capital Company. Nykaa has 35 stores. Nykaa launched its collection of in-house beauty products in 2017.
Manav Makhija
Faasos
Founders: Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee
Year Founded: 2011
Industry: Food Delivery
Faasos is a “food on demand” service. You can order the delicacies of your choice through its app or website. Faasos operates in more than 15 cities of India and 200+ locations. The company promises to provide a refund of up to INR 200 in case of late delivery. It shows how committed Faasos is towards giving customers the best service.
Faasos was founded by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee in 2011. This Mumbai-based startup has raised $60 million in funding. Faasos is rapidly growing in India with the help of social media influencers.
GrabHouse
Founders: Prateek Shukla & Pankhuri Shrivastava
Year Founded: 2013
Industry: Real Estate
Funding: $13 Million
With growing economic opportunities, people are moving from small towns and districts to big cities. For this, people require accommodation. GrabHouse helps people rent an apartment, find a PG, and a house where they can stay while working or studying in the city. What was unique in GrabHouse was that they provided fully furnished sharing or private homes with only 2 months security deposit. This is what attracted everyone towards the company.
The startup was founded by Prateek Shukla and Pankhuri Shrivastava in 2013. In 2016, Quikr acquired GrabHouse for $10 million and rebranded it as QuikrHome. Now, the website of GrabHouse redirects users to Quikr’s website.
HOUSING
Founders: Rahul Yadav + 11
Year Founded: 2012
Industry: Real Estate
Funding: $147.8 Million
Housing is a marketplace platform that has interactive maps allowing the visitor to look deep into the real estate market. People get a huge option of property on the website and can contact the owner to make the deal. Launched in 2012, the company claims to have more than 6,000 brokers with 1500 employees across 45 cities.
Housing.com is the mind-work of Rahul Yadav along with his team of 11 Co-founders. The startup acquired Indian Real Estate Forum in 2015 for $1.2 million. They also acquired HomeBuy360 in the same year for $2 million. Later, housing merged with PropTiger.
Baishali Das Adhikari
Weddingz
Founders: Sandeep Lodha
Year Founded: 2015
Industry: Wedding
Funding: Acquired
India is the world’s largest destination for wedding marketing. Keeping this fact in mind, Weddingz was founded to make it easier to choose the wedding venue online. The soon-to-be-married couples can book a venue, rooms, and other wedding related items online quickly and fast.
Weddingz.in was founded by Sandeep Lodha. Sandeep is a graduate of Wharton Business School and IIT-Delhi. The startup was acquired by OYO in 2018. OYO bought 100% stakes of Weddingz in a cash-and-stock deal.
ImpactGuru
Founders: Piyush Jain & Khushboo Jain
Year Founded: 2014
Industry: Crowdfunding
Funding: $4.5 million
ImpactGuru provides complete crowdfunding solutions to empower individuals, NGOs, and social enterprises to raise funds for medical emergencies, personal needs, creative projects, or any social cause. It is also the first crowdfunding platform in India to launch a smartphone app for customers with an AI-supported story builder. Over 20,000 patients have benefited from 2 lac donors with ImpactGuru. Also, over Rs, 150 crores / $20 million has been mobilized across 15 countries on this online platform.
The startup was founded by Piyush Jain and Khushboo Jain. ImpactGuru has raised a total of $2.5 million from various investors.
Guiddoo
Founders: Vineet Budki, Nidhi Varma, Prashant Choudharya & Biswajeet Karmakar
Year Founded: 2014
Industry: Travel guide
Funding: $1.1 million
Guiddoo is a platform to discover and book in-destination experiences. It was initially started as an audio guide. Later, it turned into an app pivoted to tours and activities booking. The app helps travelers to discover and book in-destination activities across 15 countries.
This Mumbai based startup was founded by Vineet Budki, Nidhi Varma, Prashant Choudharya, and Biswajeet Karmakar. They have raised a funding of $1.1 million to expand their services in other countries.
BAJAAO
Founders: Ashutosh Pandey
Year Founded: 2005
Industry: ECommerce
Funding: Bootstrapped
Bajaao, a Mumbai-based e-commerce startup that sells musical instruments and other equipment online. The company also provides the servicing of musical instruments.
The startup was founded by Ashutosh Pandey in 2005. Aashutosh is himself a music lover and wishes to spread his love for music. So, he started his own commercial venture by selling instruments to young musicians and people who wish to take it up as a hobby.
Ithaka
Founders: Rahul Singh & Mithilesh Said
Year Founded: 2015
Industry: Travel
Funding: $325k
Ithaka is a chat-based travel planning app, that covers destinations from Thailand, Bali, Europe, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia, and Turkey. The startup was launched as an in-destination experience booking website but later pivoted to travel planning. This free platform is for the people who want to plan and execute their own trips and not to book a pre-made package.
Ithaka was founded by Rahul Singh & Mithilesh Said. Both the founders love to travel and found inspiration for their startup while traveling. Rahul is the CEO of the company while Mithilesh is the CTO.
PaisaDukan
Founders: Rajiv M Ranjan & Neeta Ranjan
Year Founded: 2018
Industry: Peer to Peer Platform for Lending
Funding: $1.1 million
PaisaDukan is a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending platform. PaisaDukan acts as a mediator between borrowers and investors. The company serves as a digital marketplace to enable borrowers to meet their financial needs, provide investors a safer and smarter investment option, and aid financial inclusion.
A creditworthy individual can borrow money for a variety of purposes like education, health care, marriage, small business, etc at a rate of interest as low as 12% p.a. And an investor (online money lender) can lend to borrowers at an interest rate which can be as high as 24% p.a. through an alternative financial channel. Investors can choose and fund borrowers based on their risk appetite.
Heckyl Technologies
Founders: Mukesh Madras
Year Founded: 2010
Industry: Tech
Funding: $7.5 Million
Heckyl Technologies is trying to get structured as well as unstructured data in real-time analytical products to financial institutions and corporates. Heckyl provides a Risk Early Warning System (EWS) Software Platform for managing credit risk. It gets millions of data as input for businesses from which it creates output to help the credit risk team to identify potential defaulters.
Heckyl Technologies was founded by Mukesh Madras in 2010. The startup has received a total of $7.5 million in funding.
Fruzzante`
Founders: Priyanka Save & Nagesh Pai
Year Founded: 2010
Industry: Wine
Funding: Bootstrapped
Fruzzante` is the world’s first and only producer of a cider-style alco beverage made from Sapodilla (chikoo) extracts. Fruzzante` is also the only company producing fruit-based (non-grape) bottled products in the wine category that is commercially available. It is both vegan and gluten-free which makes it a healthy choice. The company also makes wines in other flavours like mango, pineapple, and spice garden.
The startup was founded by Priyanka Save & Nagesh Pai in 2010.
Tsara
Founders: Tarun Jagwani and Natasha Jagwani
Year Founded: 2012
Industry: Jewellery
Funding: Bootstrapped
Tsara is a jewellery designing and manufacturing company. The main focus of Tsara is destination jewellery. The company has four lines of jewellery to complement various occasions and events and launches a new collection every few months.
The startup was founded by the couple, Tarun Jagwani, and Natasha Jagwani. The story behind this idea is that Natasha once lost her precious jewellery. So, the couple realised how important destination jewelries are. You can read the Tsara’s Startup Story to know more about them.
SpiceTree Design Agency
Founders: Shiraz Khan
Year Founded: 2004
Industry: Digital Marketing
Funding: Bootstrapped
SpiceTree Design Agency is a digital marketing firm that provides services in all the areas of digital marketing. Some of its services are web designing, print, social media design, SEO, SMO, re-targeting, etc.
SpiceTree Design Agency was founded by Shiraz Khan in 2004. The company was started with Shiraz’s saving of Rs. 1,00,000. You can read the Startup Story of SpiceTree Design Agency to know more about it.
TAC Security
Founders: Trishneet Arora
Year Founded: 2013
Industry: Cyber Security
Funding: $1.5 Million
TAC Security is a cyber-security solutions provider with a mission to anticipate, resolve, and mitigate cybersecurity risks and challenges. This Mumbai-based startup provides network, application, and web security solutions to corporates, banks, startups, governments, and law enforcement agencies.
Trishneet Arora founded TAC Security Solutions in 2013 at the age of 19. Trishneet has a strong inclination towards technology, gaming, and computers since he was a child. He is one of the youngest ethical cyber security experts in India. Its current client portfolio includes names such as Reliance Industries Limited, Gujarat Police, Punjab Police, AMUL, Avon Cycles, RALSON, and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), among others. TAC Security raised a funding of $500k from Vijat Kedia, MD, of Kedia Securities.
Monk Entertainment
Founders: Ranveer Allahbadia & Viraj Seth
Year Founded: 2017
Industry: Digital Marketing
Funding: Bootstrapped
Monk Entertainment or Monk-E is a digital marketing startup that works with influencers and manages their marketing. Brands also connect with them and the company finds the most suitable influencers for them. Along with that, they provide video production to influencers and brands.
The startup was co-founded by a popular YouTuber, Ranveer Allahbadia. He has a YouTube channel called “Beerbiceps” and his friends help him with managing it. So, he and his co-founder, Viraj Seth came up with the idea to help other fellow influencers. The startup is bootstrapped and was founded in 2017.
LabelBlind
Founders: Rashida Vapiwala
Year Founded: 2018
Industry: Health Tech
Funding: Bootstrapped
LabelBlind is a digital platform that gives out information about the nutritional value of food products. The main purpose of the platform is to provide nutrition literacy to the people. The platform reviews and rates food items so that customers can choose healthier food options for themselves after examining the value of different food products.
The company was founded by Rashida Vapiwala, an expert nutritionist in the year 2018. This startup is bootstrapped and has been one since its formation. Over 8000 packaged food labels reviews and ratings can be found here for the consumers to decide and choose from.
CoinDCX
Founders: Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta
Year Founded: 2018
Industry: Cryptocurrency
Funding: $109 Million
CoinDCX is a company that gives Cryptocurrency related financial services. It is a cryptocurrency trading network that ensures its customers a quick, risk-free, and effortless trading experience. It is said to be the largest and safest cryptocurrency legal exchange platform, where buying and selling of various types of cryptocurrency are possible.
Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta, two graduates from IIT Bombay decided to try their hand in the cryptocurrency industry when they realized that Bitcoin has gained quite a momentum in the world. Both of them decided to use Blockchain technology to deal with financial inclusions and now it has received$109 Million of funding.
MailIt
Founders: Mahesh Shirodkar
Year Founded: 1987
Industry: Mailroom Management
Funding: Bootstrapped
MailIt is a company that deals with dispatch aggregating and work on dispatching various types of packages and all types of mailroom management service. Apart from that, they also provides services involving dispatch of bulky documents and parcels nationally and internationally as well.
It was founded in the year 1987 by Mahesh Shirodkar. The company recently got funded by Ratan Tata in the year 2021, although the amount was not disclosed. The headquarters is situated in Mumbai, India. Many leading corporations are relying on the services of MailIt.
Cube Wealth
Founders: Satyen Kothari
Year Founded: 2016
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $500000
Cube Wealth is a automated wealth technology application that helps people investing in a simple manner. All these are done under the guidance of well known Investment manager. All the investment of the user are managed in this app and one can do that without facing any problem.
Cube Wealth was founded in the year 2016 by one of the most successful person from the fintech industry in India that is Satyen Kothari, the person who founded Citrus pay. He is also the current CEO of Cube Wealth.
ePayLater
Founders: Akshat Saxena, Aurko Bhattacharya and Uday Somayajula
Year Founded: 2015
Industry: Fintech
Funding: $180 Million
ePayLater provides people an option to buy now and pay later like a credit card card from online portals. Basically it is a platform that provides an instant credit limit where one can buy whatever they want quickly with just a single click and pay for that item later.
ePay Later was formed in the year 2015 and is now on the path to simply the customer experience with their innovations. Recently the company has raise $2.5 Million by Pravega Ventures in the February of 2021.
Dream11
Founders: Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth
Year Founded: 2008
Industry: Fantasy Gaming
Funding: $1.62 Billion
This is an application that allows its users to creat imaginary team and play matches with them, through which they can also win money if the players performs well in the actual matches. The games that can be played here are Cricket, Football, Kabaddi and Basketball.
It is India’s biggest sports gaming platform and have over 140 million users. Both of the founders Harsh Jain and Bhavit Seth are an ardent sports lover and they founded the sports gaming platform in 2008. Recently the company has collabed with popular TiktOk star Khaby Lame in their new campaign #Dream11PeDimaagLagaNa.
Acko
Founders: Varun Dua and Ruchi Deepak
Year Founded: 2016
Industry: Insurance
Funding: $458 Million
This is a private insurance company in India and offers its customers insurance facilities, products and commissions. It is a digital platform and everything that is done here is online. It has become the first digital service provider in the country, India.
It was founded in the year 2016 by Varun Dua and Ruchi Deepak, the company has received fundings from Catamaran Ventures, Accel Partners, SAIF Partners. The current CEO is Varun Dua and the headquarters of the insurance company is located in Mumbai, India.
Apna
Founders: Nirmit Parikh
Year Founded: 2019
Industry: Employment
Funding: $193.5 Million
Apna Jobs is all about providing job opportunities to the people of India. Unemployment is a big concern in this huge country so digital recruitment can help in solving that, that is what the motive is. It is a job platform where one can find jobs and mingle with the community.
Through this app one can find job as per their skills. It was founded in the year 2019 by former Apple executive, Nirmit Parikh and with its work it was able to become the fastest Unicorn in the country.
This is the list of startup companies in Mumbai. Hope you liked it.
If you know any other Mumbai-based startups, please contact us. We will connect with them to feature in the list of startups in Mumbai.
FAQs
How many startup companies are there in India?
India has about 50,000 startups India in 2018; around 8,900 – 9,300 of these are technology-led startups 1300 new tech startups were born in 2019 alone implying there are 2-3 tech startups born every day.
How can I get startup benefits in India?
Benefits of Startup India Scheme:
- Self Certification under Labor and Environmental Laws.
- Tax Exemption for Three Years.
- Tax Exemption on Investment Above Fair Market Value.
- Easy Winding Up of Company.
- Startup Patent Application and IPR Protection.
- Relaxation in Public Procurement Norms.
- SIDBI Fund of Funds.
Is Oyo a startup?
Oyo Hotels and Homes are raising $1.5 billion from founder Ritesh Agarwal, SoftBank Group Corp. Agarwal, who founded Oyo in 2013, has built it into India’s second-most valuable startup with a valuation of about $10 billion. Its service covers 1.2 million rooms in over 80 countries, including 590,000 rooms in China.
What are the top Mumbai based startups in India?
Some of the top mumbai based startups are:
- BookMyShow
- Ola
- Chillr
- Grabhouse
- Pepperfry
- Housing
- Ola Cab
- Toppr
- Nykaa
- Impactguru
Is Mumbai good for startups?
Mumbai is an attractive startup hub which is contributing highly in Indian startup eco-system. It has great connectivity with other countries and a growing number of co-working spaces. The presence of prominent venture capital firms in Mumbai makes it best for startups.
