In order to resolve a case with SEBI about alleged violations of the standards for the technical fault framework, Paytm Money, the wealthtech subsidiary of Paytm, has paid a fine of INR 45.50 lakh. The market’s watchdog stated in a settlement decision that it had sent Paytm Money a show-cause notice for breaking multiple SEBI Act, 1992 provisions:
•Failure to establish the permissible threshold of 70% for the generation of timely notifications for all critical assets.
•Absence of documentation pertaining to the inspection period’s peak load.
•Failing to integrate the Logs Analytics and Monitoring Application with all of its vital systems.
•For the first half of fiscal year 2023–2024 (H1 FY24), there will be no live DR drills.
“With a settlement order and a September 17, 2024, settlement application filed with SEBI, the noticee (Paytm Money) proposed to settle the current proceedings brought against it, pending adjudication proceedings, without acknowledging or disputing the findings of facts and conclusions of law,” the order stated.
Regulatory Bodies Putting Strict Scanner on Paytm
Earlier, Paytm and its directors and officials, both present and past, settled a complaint with SEBI by paying a total of INR 3.32 Cr. It is important to remember that for the past two years, regulatory agencies have been closely examining Paytm. In 2015, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted in-principle approval to 11 applicants to establish a payments bank, including Paytm.
Due to alleged violations of know your customer (KYC) standards, the central bank prohibited Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new clients and taking deposits using its services, including FASTag and wallet, in 2024. The payments bank is essentially unable to conduct business as a result of the RBI’s crackdown.
The Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) fined Paytm Payments Bank INR 5.49 Cr in March 2024 for breaking the nation’s money laundering regulations. The stock of Paytm Payments Bank plummeted as a result of the RBI’s crackdown. Additionally, Paytm’s market share in the UPI industry has decreased as a result of this.
Response from Paytm
Rajeev Krishnamuralilal, a former IRS and SEBI long-time member, has joined Paytm Money’s board as a non-executive independent director, the company announced in a statement. It is important to remember that One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, already has Krishnamuralilal on its board. Apart from his position as a non-executive independent director, Krishnamuralilal will also be the chairwoman of Paytm Money’s risk management and corporate social responsibility committees and a member of the audit committee.
Rajeev Agarwal Officially Joins Paytm
Rajeev Krishnamuralilal Agarwal was appointed as an extra non-executive independent director at One97 Communications’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Paytm Money, on 13 February 2024.
Agarwal will also assume important responsibilities, such as chairing the Paytm Money Risk Management and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committees and being a member of the Audit Committee. Having worked for the Indian Revenue Services (IRS) for 28 years, Agarwal brings more than 40 years of expertise to the position. He has worked for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as a full-time member.
The Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Department has penalised the fintech business Paytm and its CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, for allegedly failing to issue tax bills to its clients in a compliant manner. Sharma was penalised INR 59.94 lakh for the penalty, while One97 Communications, the company that runs the Paytm brand, was fined INR 1.19 crore.
The Noida-based business stated that it was considering all of its options, including appealing the Joint Commissioner, CGST Delhi North’s ruling. According to Paytm’s official statement, the business is considering all of its options, including appealing the order, and feels that the penalty demand cannot be maintained based on its evaluation and professional counsel.
Earlier, RBI Also Imposed Penalty on Paytm
The company’s affiliated entity, Paytm Payments Bank, was fined INR 5.39 crore by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in October 2023 for a number of violations, including Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.
In the third quarter of the fiscal year 2025 (Q3FY25), the company’s losses decreased from INR 219.8 crore in Q3FY24 to INR 208.3 crore. The loss comes after the company recorded a profit of INR 928.3 crore for the September quarter, which was primarily driven by the sale of its movie and ticketing business to Zomato.
Sharma Positive for Business Operations in 2025
Regarding the company’s financial future, Sharma told a media outlet that the company is determined to turn a profit the following quarter—EBITDA before ESOP. He continued by saying that the company’s substantial cash reserves and cost-effective cost structure are key factors in the company’s impending profitability.
Sharma voiced hope about regaining lost ground regarding Paytm‘s market share in the UPI ecosystem, which has significantly decreased to 5.5%. “We weren’t allowed to onboard at all,” he explained, attributing the fall to regulatory obstacles rather than problems with trust. The regulatory understanding caused us to halt our operations. After that, I’m thrilled that we’re gaining millions of new clients without spending any money on marketing.”
Sharma outlined a well-defined recovery plan that prioritised product innovation and increased UPI ecosystem engagement. “It’s a product gap, deeper integration into the UPI ecosystem, and more merchant acquisition, which creates a flywheel that will bring our consumer back,” he stated. Sharma pointed out that Paytm has a competitive advantage thanks to its robust product features and well-known brand.
Paytm Looking to Expand Its Market Share
Regarding market share, Sharma said that it must increase rationally and that there is a network impact at the same time. “The major thing is still bigger, and there is a small amount; we could attract more clients if we could add additional features and services. Retaining customers is more about the qualities of the product and how it fits into their life. I can assure you that the best part is that our brand remembers the features and the service; if we can restore them, market share will return,” he added.
According to a regulatory filing, Paytm Cloud Technologies Limited (PCTL), the firm’s wholly owned subsidiary, has authorised a $1 million (INR 8.7 crore) investment to purchase a 25% share in Seven Technology LLC, the parent company of the Brazilian integrated finance startup Dinie. Following the deal, Dinie and Seven Technologies will join One97 Communication, the parent company of Paytm, as associate businesses.
The payments company stated in the filing that this investment will aid in comprehending the business environment and opportunities for merchants in the Brazilian market. The purchase supports Paytm’s goal of growing its financial services and merchant payments business model globally, especially in developing nations with significant fintech potential. Paytm will make the cash investment, and the agreement should be finalised in 45 days.
Dinie’s revenue dropped significantly over the last three years, from BRL 4.01 million (INR 6.11 crore) in 2022 to BRL 357,920 (INR 0.56 crore) in 2024, despite Seven Technology having no independent operations.
Paytm Exploring International Market
In order to utilise its tech-enabled merchant payments and financial services in “similar” international markets, Paytm had discussed opening businesses in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore during its most recent quarterly earnings on January 20.
The company also sought local licenses and alliances.In addition to investigating other possibilities like organic expansion as well as local licenses, strategic investment, and partnerships in these foreign markets, the board of the company has approved the establishment of wholly owned subsidiaries (step-down subsidiaries) in the aforementioned locations.
With an initial investment of up to INR 20 crore (in tranches) apiece, the subsidiaries were to be created within six months. While discussing the Q3FY25 earnings, chief financial officer Madhur Deora stated that the company is looking to rationalise its other overseas companies, many of which are connected to One97 Communications’ legacy business, which is mostly devoted to providing services to telecom enterprises.
The CEO disclosed that the business has numerous direct or step-down subsidiaries in Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East. Almost none of them have anything to do with Paytm’s primary business; instead, they are related to the former One97 (Communication) company, which offered marketing services to telecom operators. Local subsidiaries were frequently mandated to conduct business in particular areas. The CFO stated, “Brans is looking to reduce the number of these subsidiaries over the next three to six months.”
Indian Fintech Testing International Waters
International markets are becoming a greater focus for Indian fintech startups. Razorpay, a payment processing company, is rapidly growing its global footprint. It currently operates in the Middle East and Malaysia and shortly will open in Singapore.
Roughly 10% of Razorpay‘s total revenue comes from overseas markets. Leading the charge to expand UPI internationally is the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). UPI has already been implemented in Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates. Establishing cross-border digital payment networks that enable Indian users worldwide to conduct real-time transactions is the goal of NPCI.
Prominent fintech companies, such as Paytm and PayU, have refuted claims that they are one of a few payment gateways under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a cryptocurrency scam.
In response to the account freezing reports, Paytm denied receiving any notice of this kind from the Enforcement Directorate. The company also confirmed that it has not received any new notices, communications, or enquiries from the Enforcement Directorate about the subject matter covered in the media articles. The published material is misleading and factually inaccurate, as per Paytm.
Paytm went on to explain that the cases being covered by the media right now are related to similar previous enquiries about third-party merchants. Furthermore, it stated that Paytm would want to make it clear that these merchants are separate businesses and are not affiliated with its organisation. It attested to the company’s complete cooperation with the authorities and compliance with all of their directives, Paytm continued.
In response to the reports, PayU also said that it strongly rejects any misrepresentations and that there are factual errors in the reports about PayU. PayU has consistently upheld the highest standards of governance and transparency in all of our activities and has remained dedicated to abiding by all applicable laws and regulations.
ED Reportedly Frozen INR 500Cr
A renowned media house has reported that the ED had frozen about INR 500 crore in virtual accounts of eight payment gateways, including Razorpay, PayU, Easebuzz, and Paytm, as part of its investigation into one of the biggest cryptocurrency scams in India, the HPZ Token scam, which was run by ten Chinese nationals and allegedly involved the collection of over INR 2,200 crore from investors across 20 states. WunderBaked, AgreePay, and SpeedPay were also allegedly involved.
Company
Amount Upheld by ED
Easebuzz
INR 33.4 crore
Razorpay
INR 18 crore
CashFree
INR 10.6 crore
Paytm
INR 2.8 crore
PayU
INR 130 crore
Step by Step- How Scam was Piloted?
Through the smartphone app HPZ Token, the accused reportedly persuaded others to invest in cryptocurrency mining, including Bitcoin. Through the incorporation of businesses in at least 20 states and the usage of more than 200 bank accounts, they ran a pan-Indian network. During the holding period, the ED used payment gateways to intercept the funds that were sent overseas.
According to reports, the ED was investigating if the payment gateways notified the Financial Intelligence Unit and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and produced Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs).
Periodically, all financial institutions must submit STRs, which the RBI then forwards to the Financial Intelligence Unit for additional analysis. A Nagaland PMLA court on January 22, 2025, declared Bhupesh Arora, a major accused, a fugitive economic offender. After the ED started its investigation and disregarded a non-bailable warrant, Arora fled to Dubai in 2022. 298 participants in the scheme are named in the chargesheet.
India is becoming theworld’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem with 118 Unicorn Startups, as of January 2025. In today’s world, unicorn startupsare not as uncommon as before; however, building a unicorn startup is not easy. It takes a lot of hard work, commitment, and perseverance throughout the startup’s journey to climb the ladder of unicorns, and the ones that have bagged the title of unicorns are discussed in this article.
Unicorn Startup consists of two words, “Unicorn” and “Startup”. Unicorn is a business term used to define a startup with a valuation of over $1 billion. The term was coined by a venture capitalist and a seed investor, Aileen Lee. On the other hand, Startups are privately owned companies typically at the early stages of their development.
Being hopeful and supportive of the unicorn culture of India, the Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship, Skill Development, Electronics & Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that India will see a 10X increase in its unicorn count, in the next 2-3 years, which will reach more than 1,000. The Indian government also mentioned that it expects the next wave of startup founders to come from the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India.
The Indian startups have reportedly raised around $42+ billion in funding across 1,584 deals in 2021. The startup ecosystem of India, where 90,000+ new startups have been established since 2016, across 56+ different sectors in the country, has also managed to create over 4.5 lakh job opportunities in the country. This has even got a special mention from President Ram Nath Kovind in his Presidential address on 31 January 2022, where he emphasized the new opportunities that the startups of India are ushering in.
A Celebration for 100 Indian Unicorns
With Neobank Open achieving unicorn status, India became a country of 100+ unicorns. The first unicorn was seen in India in 2011, and after a decade, India crossed the mark of 100 unicorns. The boasting of 100 unicorns is not a regular affair, and this is why the startup ecosystem has been tossing in joy and swelling with pride for quite some time now. In the meanwhile, many distinguished founders also voiced their thrill and joy for such an achievement.
“Crossing the 100th unicorn milestone is a proud moment for the country and the entire startup ecosystem. This is just the beginning of a long journey,” said Sujeet Kumar, the cofounder of B2B marketplace unicorn Udaan.
Vamsi Krishna of Vedantu also relished the mood that the startup ecosystem is in, and said, “The rise of India as a global superpower is inevitable and entrepreneurs will be the ones driving it. 100 unicorns are just a start. We will soon become the startup capital of the world.”
Divya Gokunath, the cofounder of Byju’s and the wife of Byju Raveendran also said, “We became India’s 16th unicorn, just seven years after we started operations. The valuation did not matter to us, but the milestone did because it was one of the few at that time which put India on the map. Today, for the first 100 Indian companies which made it, it’s a mark that we are on a mission to create something of value and something from India for the world.”
The faster growth of companies and the sprouting of more unicorns is what India wishes for now. This means that the companies should definitely have to be more serious, and resourceful, and work with an integrated team of specialists to reach the unicorn milestone and beyond. It also means that the Indian startups should forget racial, gender and caste divides, and work with all of their strength, and resources. Here, what is striking among the present unicorns is the apparent gender divide. Yes, only 15% of the present unicorns of India have at least one female founder, while the remaining companies have no female as their founders. This certainly needs to improve to give the upcoming companies a fresh gear of growth. Though the situation is improving, for around 79% of the Indian unicorns with female founders were incorporated after 2011, it still needs to be given considerable thought and a whole lot of action.
Here we have listed 118 Indian Unicorn Startups, which is the total number of unicorns in India at present in 2025! Don’t miss out on the regular updates in this list by bookmarking the article.
The following table is sorted by the year startups are turned into a unicorn (Latest to oldest).
Abhay Singhal, Amit Gupta, Mohit Saxena, Naveen Tewari, Piyush Shah
Founded
2007
Investors
Lightbox, Softbank Group, Kleiner Perkins
Products and Services
InMobi Pulse, Mobile Marketing
Valuation
$12 billion (April 2021)
InMobi is a Bengaluru-based mobile advertising platform that helps in optimizing the ranks of the advertisements offered on mobile phones. InMobi was founded in January 2007 and has been the first unicorn startup of India and thus, a torchbearer of the unicorn league of Indian startups that followed. Glance, a subsidiary company of InMobi, has also turned a unicorn in 2020.
Ecommerce marketplace that offers over 150 million products
Valuation
$37.6 billion (July 2021)
Being the most favored eCommerce marketplace in India, Flipkart needs no introduction simply because the Big Billion Days are one of the most sought-after online events that millions of Indians look up to. Flipkart was among the first Indian unicorns that achieved the unicorn valuation during the 2011-2012 era after inMobi, which was the first Indian unicorn. With over 350 million users, and 150+ million products, which are distributed across 80+ categories Flipkart is a household for the Indian masses. This ecommerce giant was acquired by Walmart in 2018 for a whopping $16 billion, which helped it scale fast and easily. The Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal-founded company currently boasts of a valuation of over $37.6 billion and is the highest-valued Indian company, as of 2023.
BharatPe is an Indian digital payments app, merchant aggregator, and payments platform that encourages digital payments via QR and POS. It is not a government company but a private limited company that goes by the name, Resilient Innovations Private Limited. Headquartered in New Delhi, India, the company tripled its valuation to $2.85 billion and joined the unicorn club on August 4, 2021.
BharatPe Co-founder Ashneer Grover was recently engaged in a telephone controversy where he allegedly abused a Kotak employee. Grover was also infamously featured on various social media and news platforms several times due to his rash behaviour and his blunt remarks where he also said “naukri dhoond” to one of his fellow pitchers. Furthermore, he is also associated lately with a financial fraud concerning BharatPe along with his wife Madhuri and five others, the investigation of which is continuing, as per reports dated January 29, 2022. Ashneer is currently observing a mandatory leave of absence, as mentioned last by the company and its Board. Grover might not see his place back and is likely to get fired, mentioned sources close to the matter.
Steadview Capital, Tencent, Tiger Global Management, Falcon Edge
Products and Services
Dream11 sports platform
Valuation
$8 billion (November 2021)
Dream11 is an Indian fantasy sports platform, which brings a host of sports including but not limited to cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, handball, futsal, and rugby, for the Indian sports fanatics to delve into their favourite games. A homegrown sports platform, Dream 11, aims to help Indian sports enthusiasts to expand and showcase the sports knowledge they boast of!
Earlier in April 2019, Dream11 raised funding worth $60 million from Steadview Capital and others and joined the unicorn league of Indian startups. The last valuation of Dream11 was recorded at $8 billion, after the company completed an investment of $840 million in November 2021.
PhonePe is a digital payment and merchant aggregator platform that has already had a huge contribution to making digital payments smooth, fast, and easy for Indian customers and merchants. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Andheri, Maharashtra, India, the company boasts of having the largest market share among the UPI apps. The company showed a huge potential for growth and has already achieved unicorn status before 2020. The company was acquired by Flipkart in April 2016 and has witnessed a considerable amount of growth since then. The PhonePe Business Model and “how PhonePe earns money?” is pretty interesting too.
Byju’s is a Bangalore-based edtech platform. It is an online tutoring and coaching firm that started in 2011 and runs on a freemium model. Launched by Byju Raveendran, Byju’s is used by more than 15 million students all over the world and has over 900,000 paid subscribers. Byju’s Current valuation has reached 16.5 Billion USD. Know in detail about BYJU’s business and revenue model.
SoftBank Group, Tiger Global, Tencent, Matrix Partners, and DST Global
Products and Services
Mobile app, website, Vehicle for hire, Goods and food delivery, Mobile payment and digital wallet
Valuation
$6.5 billion (FY20)
Ola is an Indian ride-sharing company that was launched on 3rd December 2010. As of 2019, Ola has expanded to over 1.5 million drivers across 250 cities. Ola has also expanded its network into its first overseas market, Australia, and New Zealand in September 2018. Ola began its operations in the UK introducing auto rickshaws.
SoftBank Group, Didi Chuxing, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise, Airbnb, and China Lodging Group.
Products and Services
OYO Rooms, OYO Hotels & Homes
Valuation
$9 billion (July 2021)
OYO is among the top travel startups in India. Founded by 21-year-old Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, India’s largest hospitality startup comprises budget hotels. The startup works in liaison with existing hotels and offers travellers vacant rooms at a cheaper price. OYO rooms start at a nominal price of Rs 999. Besides bulk renting hotels, they have also invested in their own properties as well.
Norwest Venture Partners, Naspers, Accel, SAIF Partners, Meituan-Dianping
Products and Services
Food delivery
Valuation
$5.5 billion (July 2021)
Swiggy is one of the most valuable online food ordering and delivery platforms. Swiggy was founded by Nandan Reddy, Sriharsha Majety, and Rahul Jaimini in 2014. In early 2019, Swiggy expanded into general product deliveries, under the brand name Swiggy Stores. Swiggy today has more than 5,000,000 mobile application installations.
Zomato is an Indian food delivery startup restaurant aggregator. Zomato was founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. Zomato primarily provides concrete information, menus, and user reviews of the restaurants. Along with this, Zomato also has food delivery options from partnered restaurants in the selected cities. The pandemic was dangerous indeed for everyone, and it is almost as dangerous to the food tech companies as it is for every other individual and business, if not more. The food delivery unicorn, Zomato also fought the pandemic hard and thrived.
Freshworks offers innovative customer engagement software for a diverse range of businesses of varying sizes and kinds. Founded in 2010 in Chennai, the company now has its headquarters in San Mateo, USA, the products which help provide a 360-degree view of the customers. The Saas products brought in by FreshWorks are designed to be used instantly. Besides, they are easy to use, and also offer quick returns on investments.
Freshworks attained the prestigious unicorn club of the Indian companies in July 2018, thereby becoming the first unicorn startup belonging to the Saas market that the country has seen. Now, increasing the customer engagement and the retention rate for Saas companies is not as difficult as it was earlier
Moglix is an Asia-based B2B E-commerce company that was founded by Rahul Garg in 2017. The company has its headquarters in Singapore and head offices in India. The startup ambitions to digitally change the chain of manufacturing areas in India. Moglix wants to digitize and seriously change every component of the delivery chain, and B2B commerce which is unorganized and increases options to seriously change the grant chain via technology.
Moglix, presently serves the manufacturing sector, institutional clients (B2B), and private clients (B2C). The automotive sector, metals and mining, and FMCDs are the best three sectors they cater to. The platform provides Industrial products and services such industrial products and services such as Safety equipment, Electrical and Lighting products, Cleaning and Laundry products, Office Supplies, and Industrial Tools, among others. Moglix is one of the most trusted eCommerce sites for industries as it is known to deliver world-class services worldwide. So far the company has 150,000 industry essential products from 30 different categories and 25,000 SME clients.
upGrad is an online coaching program for all students opting for higher education. Partnering with some of the top universities of the world, upGrad brings a wide range of industry-ready courses including Bachelor’s degrees, MBA, Data Science, Machine Learning courses, and more. The company has grown to attain unicorn status on August 6, 2021, with the help of a $185 million fundraising.
Prosus & Nasper, Sierra Ventures, Helion Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Tiger Fund
Products and Services
Booking tickets for shows, movies, flights, hotels, holidays, buses, trains, etc.
MakeMyTrip is one of the top online travel companies in India that was founded by Deep Kalra in 2000. The company has its headquarters based in Gurgaon and is known for its services such as booking holiday packages, hotel reservations, movies or even booking tickets for everyday traveling through fights, buses, trains, cars, etc. MakeMyTrip is currently operating in 14+ cities around the world with over 30 franchise stores and in 28 cities in India alone. The MakeMyTrip route planner feature allows its user to access basic information on over one million routes across India.
Steadview Capital, Fidelity, TPG Growth, Hero Corporate Service Private Limited
Products and Services
Cosmetics, skin & wellness products, etc.
Valuation
$2.3 billion (June 2021)
Nykaa is a leading cosmetic-based eCommerce platform that was founded in 2012 by Falguni Nayar. Nykaa has its headquarters based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and is known for its app and website that sells a wide range of cosmetics, skin, and wellness products. The company also has over 26 offline stores across India and became a Unicorn startup in 2020. The platform has a huge range of 200,000 products from 2000 national and international brands, as of 2020. Many Bollywood actresses like Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif have been the brand ambassadors of Nykaa.
Intel Capital, Wellington Management Group, Inventus Capital Partners, Softbank Group True North and IDG Venture Partners
Products and Services
Life, Health, Motor, travel insurance, etc
Valuation
$2.4 billion (July 2021)
Policybazaar is one of the most well-known and trusted insurance companies in India. The company was started in 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal, and Avaneesh Nirjar. The company initially started out as an insurance comparison website, but later on started providing different types of insurance plans like Life insurance, Health, Motor, and even Travel. Policybazaar.com is currently the largest insurance company in the country and is also popular in UAE. Policybazaar has both a website and an app, which allows its users to compare financial services from the top insurance options. Here’s knowing how Policy Bazaar witnessed an overwhelming growth via its marketing strategies.
CoinDCX is an Indian cryptocurrency exchange aggregator based in Mumbai. The company specializes in crypto-enabled financial services. CoinDCX aims to develop financial services without any borders to enable a simpler and seamless flow of capital powered by impregnable security. CoinDCX raised $90 mn in Series C funding to emerge as a unicorn. Thus, the company became India’s first cryptocurrency unicorn.
Mastercard, Lone Pine Capital, Flipkart, Temasek, Sequoia
Products and Services
POS devices and software solutions
Valuation
$5+ billion (Marh 2022)
Pine Labs is an Indian merchant platform, equipped with financing and last-mile retail transaction technology, which helps merchants and institutions receive their payments via easy and secure POS apps and devices. Pine Labs collaborated with the New-York based financial services giant, Mastercard in January 2020, and shortly after it attained unicorn status. It was the first company to have turned unicorn in 2020.
Highradius
Startup Name
Highradius
Industry
Fintech, AI, Saas, Software
Founder
Sashi Narahari
Founded
2006
Investors
Tiger Global, D1 Capital Partners, ICONIQ and more
Products and Services
AI-based order-to-cash and treasury management software
Valuation
$3.1+ billion (March 2021)
Highradius is an AI-powered, data-driven fintech enterprise software as a service (Saas) platform that extends autonomous software for smooth and easy management of order to cash (O2C), treasury, and record to report (R2R). Headquartered in Houston, Texas, US, Highradius claims to be the world’s number 1 data-driven AI software platform that helps “lower DSO, optimize working capital, fast-track financial close, and improve productivity.”
Raising $125 mn right at the start of 2020, Highradius turned into India’s first unicorn company in 2020 in a Series B funding round led by ICONIQ Capital, along with some of its existing investors like Susquehanna Growth Equity and Citi Ventures.
Zetwerk emerges as a B2B marketplace for manufacturing items. The online marketplace based out of Bengaluru connects large manufacturing companies with vendors and suppliers, who help them get various components of industrial tools and machinery that they require from time to time. The company joined the unicorn club on August 20, 2021, and became India’s youngest billion-dollar company.
Chanakya Hridaya, Rajesh Yabaji, Ramasubramaniam B
Founded
2015
Investors
Trifecta Capital Advisors, Sequoia, Accel, InnoVen Capital
Products and Services
Trucks, logistics and transportation services for shippers and fleet operators
Valuation
$1.02 billion (August 2021)
BlackBuck is a truck aggregator and one of the largest truck aggregators operating in India that aims to solve the transportation and logistics problems of countless Indians. Today, BlackBuck boasts of being the largest trucking network in India that is equipped with freight and fleet management technology platforms. Blackbuck entered the unicorn club on July 23, 2021, after it raised $67 mn as part of its Series E funding round at a valuation of $1.02 bn.
The company currently has a collection of 12,00,000+ trucks and extends its services to over 2000 locations with 15,000+ happy clients.
Lightbox, Toyota Tsusho, SevenTrain Ventures, Integrated Capital
Products and Services
Marketplace for used cars, bikes, scooters and other merchandise
Valuation
$1.2 billion(August 2021)
Droom is a marketplace for used cars, bikes, scooters, and other automotive, along with other products and merchandise. Powered by cutting-edge data science technology, the company helps its customers to buy and sell automobiles and other products seamlessly.
Droom has around 600K automobiles and dominates with a massive 80% market share of the automobile transactions online, Droom is India’s largest automobile platform online and is counted among the biggest E-Commerce companies in the country.
OfBusiness or OFB Tech, as it is often referred to, is a raw material procurement and credit platform for SMEs. The company focuses primarily on the manufacturing and construction industries. OfBusiness leverages state-of-the-art technology to integrate the same into the buying behaviors of the SMEs. This way it makes better products available at better prices and in the right timelines.
Internet, Mobile Apps, Social Media, Social Network
Founder
Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Faris Ahsan
Founded
2015
Investors
Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tiger Global Management, Twitter Ventures, SAIF Partners, Shunwei Capital, and Xiaomi
Products and Services
Social Networking and Regional Contents
Valuation
$3.7 Billion (December 2021)
ShareChat is an Indian video-sharing social networking service, developed via Mohalla Tech Private Limited in the year 2015, established by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
ShareChat App acts as a content consumption and sharing platform solely in Indian vernacular languages, which caters to over 1.17 billion wifi customers of India. The company offers features such as messaging, sharing different kinds of media, tagging, etc. ShareChat enabled user-generated content creation on its platform, permitting customers to share their very own posters and innovative content. The company also has 400 plus employees and more than 50 million creator communities. The company went on to raise $500 mn from investors, which increased its valuation to $3 billion.
Verse Innovation
Startup Name
VerSe Innovation
Industry
Content, Technology, Social Media, Internet
Founders
Umang Bedi, Virendra Gupta
Founded
2007
Investors
Google, Sequoia Capital, Microsoft, ByteDance, B Capital and more
Products and Services
Powers Josh, Dailyhunt with technological support and expertise
Valuation
$5 billion (April 2021)
VerSe Innovation is the parent company of the leading vernacular news aggregating platform, Dailyhunt. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Verse Innovation is a local language technology platform that is currently powering two of the leading names among the Indian applications – Josh and Dailyhunt and boasts of an amazing reach of over 300 million users.
VerSe Innovation has raised funds close to $100 mn in December 2020 from a clutch of investors including Google, Microsoft, Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation, Sequoia Capital India, Sofina Group, and others to enter the coveted club of unicorn companies in India. With this, Verse became the 10th Indian startup to attain the unicorn valuation in 2020.
B Capital, Prosus, Temasek, Think Investments, Tiger Global, A Velumani, etc.
Products and Services
Online pharmacy services, medicines, healthcare products, diagnostic test, etc.
Valuation
$5.6 billion (JuOctoberne 2021)
PharmEasy is an online healthcare delivery platform that was founded by Mikhil Innani, Dharmil Sheth, and Dhaval Shah in 2015. The company has its headquarters in Mumbai Maharashtra and is currently the leading online healthcare aggregator in India. Besides selling medicines online, the platform also helps connect patients with the closest local pharmacy and diagnostic center based on their medical needs. It delivers medicines in over 1000 plus cities and across 22,000 pin codes. PharmEasy claims to have delivered more than 1.5 crore orders and has over one lakh medicines available on its website.
MyGlamm (The Good Glamm Group)
Startup Name
MyGlamm
Industry
Cosmetics, Beauty, Marketplace
Founder
Darpan Sanghvi, Priyanka Gill
Founded
2015
Investors
Prosus, Warburg, Trifecta, Amazon and more
Products and Services
Beauty and cosmetics products marketplace
Valuation
$1.2+ billion (November 2021)
MyGlamm is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) beauty and cosmetics startup that extends an e-commerce marketplace with a wide range of products for stylists, beauticians, and others. The Mumbai-based D2C brand combines technology with content and social media in order to help the customers to shop for their preferred products along with gaining rich, personalized content and tutorial from the experts.
MyGlamm has turned into a unicorn company when it raised $150 mn in funding from Prosus Ventures and others on November 9, 2021. MyGlamm was the 34th Indian startup to turn a unicorn in the year 2021 and the 76th Indian company overall to enter the coveted club of unicorn companies of India.
Rentpay, CRED Stash, Store, Credit Card Payments and Cred Pay
Valuation
$2.2 billion (April 2021)
CRED is an upcoming Fintech startup that was started by Kunal Shah in 2018. The company has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka, and is known for its app that allows users to make credit card payments and even get rewarded. Besides rewards, CRED also gives its customers access to a wide range of additional services such as credit and a premium catalog of products from top brands. So far the platform has over 5.9 million users and has processed about 20% of all credit card bill payments in the country. CRED services are divided into five major products which are CRED RentPay, CRED Cash, CRED Pay, CRED Store, and CRED Travel Store. The Cred Business and Revenue Model depends on the app, its customers, and the business partnerships it sees.
Meesho is a popular Indian social ecommerce company that was founded in 2015 by batchmates, Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. The company has its headquarters in Bengaluru Karnataka. Meesho helps small and medium businesses or even individuals to start their online stores through social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp. Meesho also has an online reselling website and app that allows people to sell their products without investments. So far it is known to have 2.6 million resellers across the country.
Meesho became a unicorn on April 6, 2021, after raising $300 mn in funds in a funding round that was led by Japan’s Softbank Corp. Group. Know more about Meesho Business Model & Revenue Model.
professionals for cleaning, beauticians, masseurs, carpenters, etc
Valuation
$2.8 billion (June 2021)
Urban Company is said to be Asia’s largest home services company as it is an all-in-one platform that helps users find professionals for different home services. The platform has its headquarters in Gurgaon and offers professional home cleaning services to beauticians, masseurs, and even carpenters. Urban Company was founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, and Raghav Chandra, while the platform currently has served over 5 million customers across India, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sydney, and Singapore. As of 2021, it is also known to be the UAE’s largest home services company. Here’s knowing all about Urban Company’s business model, and the marketing strategies that Urban Company uses.
Construction Materials, Infrastructure, and Heavy Equipment Rental
Valuation
$2.5 billion (August 2021)
Infra.Market is one of the best construction solutions companies and an online procurement marketplace that uses technology to provide an enhanced procurement experience. The company provides its services to the real estate and construction materials industry. The company was started by Souvik Sengupta in 2016 and has its headquarters in Thane, Maharashtra. Infra.Market specializes in manufacturing construction materials, infrastructure, and heavy equipment rental for all the sectors of a construction ecosystem. It caters to both institutional customers and the construction materials sector to build their projects. Infra.Market turned unicorn with a $100 mn funding on February 25, 2021
Insurance for Car, Health, employee, 2 Wheeler, 3 Wheeler, etc.
Valuation
$4 billion (May 2022)
Digit Insurance is one of the top general insurance companies offering health, car, bike, and travel insurance. The company was founded in 2016 by Kamesh Goyal, and has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The company is popular for Go Digit Mobile Insurance, a tailor-made mobile insurance that covers damages related to different mobiles or Smartphones such as accidental damage, etc. Digit Insurance was the first Indian Unicorn of 2021 and has been successful in achieving the feat in less than 4 years. Besides, Digit Insurance is one of the companies that are endorsed by Virat Kohli, who is the brand ambassador of Digit.
Innovaccer
Startup Name
Innovaccer
Industry
Healthcare
Founders
Abhinav Shashank, Kanav Hasija and Sandeep Gupta
Founded
2014
Investors
Steadview Capital, Dragoneer, B Capital Group, Mubadala Capital Microsoft Venture Funds.
Products and Services
Clinical Integration, Health Management, Big data analytics, Quality Reporting, Healthcare data platform
Valuation
$1.3 billion (February 2021)
Innovaccer is one of the top healthcare companies that is known for its top-notch healthcare services and products that are done through pioneering analytics and accurate data. Innovaccer was founded in 2014 by Sandeep Gupta and has its headquarters in San Francisco. It has head offices in India and America. Innovaccer products are available in over 500 locations and it also has more than 10,000 providers. The company has helped thousands of institutions, governmental organizations, hospitals, clinics, and healthcare organizations such as Mercy ACO, StratiFi Health, Catalyst Health Network, and Osler Health Network.
Innovaccer has turned into a unicorn after it received $105 mn of funding from Tiger Global Management on February 24, 2021. With this, Innovaccer also became the first health tech unicorn in India to turn unicorn.
Sequoia Capital India, Norwest Venture Partners, KKR, TVS Capital, Matrix Partners
Products and Services
Small Business Loans, Mortgage Loans, Home Loans, Property Loans
Valuation
$1.4 billion (March 2021)
Five Star Business Finance (FSBF) is one of the oldest Indian investment firms that was started by V.K Ranganathan in 1984. The company provides different kinds of loans like Small Business Loans, Mortgage Loans, Home Loans, Property Loans, among others. The company has been making strides in the financial industry over the last three decades. Five Star Housing Finance Private Limited which is the company’s subsidiary is designed to help its clients with small housing loans.
Stock broking services, direct mutual funds, IPO, ETF, digital gold
Valuation
$1 billion (May 2021)
Groww is one of the most popular online investment platforms in India. The company was started in 2017 by Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal, and Neeraj Singh. The company has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka, and has so far raised over $14 million as of April 2021. This mutual fund investments platform started out by offering wealth management and currently offers direct investments in mutual funds, stocks, digital gold, and exchange-traded funds, among others. The parent company of Groww is Nextbillion Technology.
Tiger Global Management Llc, Think Investments, Malabar Investments, Harbor Spring Capital, White Oak , Fidelity Management
Products and Services
Chatbots
Valuation
$1.4 billion (July 2021)
Gupshup is an upcoming Software company that provides services such as SMS, email, voice, and IP messaging. Gupshup company operates in India, America and UK and is known for its chatbox development services to retail and eCommerce companies. The company developed a smart messaging app called Teamchat and handles over 6 million messages every month. Gupshup is one of the first companies to launch the chatbot building platforms known as gupshup.io which currently offers its services to over 30,000 developers. The platform also has 30,000 chatbots across 22 different social media channels.
Eruditus is an Edtech platform headquartered in Mumbai. Founded in 2010, the company collaborates with the leading universities from across the globe in order to make executive education accessible globally. Eruditus Executive Education boasts of partnering with over 30 universities with a collection of more than 100 courses that extends to the students of around 80 countries. The company has recently turned into a unicorn with a $650 million fundraise as part of its series E funding round!
invoicing, taxes, SaaS metrics, accounting and customer management.
Valuation
$1.4 billion (April 2021)
Chargebee is a SaaS Company with its headquarters in San Francisco, California. The company specializes in providing subscription and recurring billing based SaaS and E-commerce services like invoicing, taxes, SaaS metrics, accounting and customer management. The company also supports over 100 currencies and numerous well-known payment gateways such as Stripe, Braintree, WorldPay and PayPal. The SaaS startup has gathered 3,000 customers most of whom are from America, Europe, and India.
cloud-native, API-first neo-banking and other Fintech services.
Valuation
$1.45 billion (May 2021)
Zeta is a financial technology company that provides a full-stack, cloud and API first neo banking services. The fintech company was founded in 2015 by Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati with its headquarters based in Los Angeles, California, and has head offices in India. It is known for its Omni stack that includes modern credit and debit processing, BNPL, banking, and mobile experiences. The company products are used by banks like RBL Bank, IDFC First Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank, along with 14000 corporates. So far Zeta has over 2 million users with over one million transactions per day.
Zeta is a budgeting app for couples. It integrates personal and shared accounts, which include bank accounts, loans, and credit cards. Connect your account immediately for automated updates or manually add an account to manage it yourself.
You can see your joint incomes, expenses, and financial savings in one place. It lets you create more than one budget for private and shared expenses. Plus, you can set precise monetary goals for you and your partner, such as saving for a holiday or placing up an emergency fund.
BrowserStack is a cloud net and mobile testing platform, which is used by two million developers in around a hundred thirty-five countries. The product’s price proposition is to assist groups to fasten up launch cycles and develop websites and mobile app that work seamlessly on any user interface. The aim is to limit the time, price, and protection overhead related to testing.
More than 25,000 world corporations use BrowserStack, which includes Microsoft, ING, MasterCard, Dow Jones, Garmin, National Geographic, Volvo, NRK, HubSpot, Walt Disney, and AngularJS. BrowserStack has offices work in San Francisco, Mumbai, Dublin, and is privately held and backed by Accel.
Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments Bank, Paytm Money, Gamepind, Paytm Smart Retail, Payment system, Mobile payments, Online shopping
Valuation
$16 billion (June 2021)
Paytm is one of the biggest unicorn startups in India. It is among the largest digital payment service providers in India with a market share of 11.63% and is currently in the third position in the list of top UPI apps in India, as recorded in June 2021. The fintech startup is famous for its payment gateway service, which helps consumers to make seamless payments to the seller from their bank accounts. Paytm entered the unicorn club in 2015. Paytm’s valuation was over $7 billion, and it has now increased to $16 billion in 2020.
Paytm Mall is a B2C model inspired by China’s largest B2C retail platform TMall. Paytm Mall was launched by Paytm in 2017. Launched in 2016, as a hyperlocal offline-to-online (O2O) business, Paytm Mall turned unicorn in 2018 on raising half a billion from Softbank and others.
Kite, Coin, Console, Varsity, Equity Trading, Currencies and Commodities Trading, Mutual Funds and Bonds
Valuation
$2 billion (June 2021)
Zerodha is an Indian fintech startup that offers retail and institutional broking, currencies and commodities trading, mutual funds, and bonds. The Company was founded in the year 2010 in order to achieve the goal of breaking all the barriers traders and investors face in India. Zerodha is headquartered in Bangalore and has a physical presence in several major Indian cities.
In Dec 2020, Zerodha was the largest retail stockbroker in India by active client base and contributes upwards of 15% of daily retail volumes across Indian Stock Exchanges. Zerodha entered the unicorn club in July 2020 with a self-assessed valuation of about $1 billion. This valuation was based on the ESOP buyback exercise the company undertook valuing each share at more than four times the book value of ₹700 per share. Know why is Zerodha not raising funds for its operation?
Disruptive pricing models and in-house technology have made Zerodha the biggest stockbroker in India in terms of active retail clients. Over 5+ million clients place millions of orders every day through our powerful ecosystem of investment platforms, contributing over 15% of all Indian retail trading volumes.
ReNew Power Limited is an Indian renewable energy company. It is an independent power producer which was founded by Sumant Sinha in 2011. ReNew Power has a pipeline of close to 1400 MW solar and wind projects. It has a current valuation of $8 billion, which makes it one of the most valuable startups in India in 2021.
Hari Menon, V.S. Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari and V.S. Ramesh
Founded
2011
Investors
Alibaba, CDC Group, Ant Financial, Intel Capital, and Berkshire Hathaway
Products and Services
Grocery Delivery
Valuation
$1.85 billion (March 2021)
BigBasket is India’s largest online grocery store which was founded by Hari Menon, V.S. Sudhakar, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari, and V.S. Ramesh in 2011. BigBasket founder Hari Menon is one of the most revered entrepreneurs, who deserves a place among the top entrepreneurs of India. It has gained popularity among the Indians and receives over 100,000 orders per day. BigBasket has also launched 3 new businesses BB Daily, BB Instant, and BB Beauty. Here’s something that might interest you – JioMart VS BigBasket: Top Contenders Of Online Grocery Market
Udaan is a B2B e-commerce platform that provides a wholesale product solution to different vendors in all categories. It was founded by Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya, and Vaibhav Gupta in 2016. Udaan is a B2B (Business to Business) marketplace for trade that is working for connecting retailers, wholesalers, traders, and manufacturers using technology as the main tool. Udaan turned a startup unicorn in 2018, which is just after 2 years and 2 months since it was launched in 2016. It is thus, the first startup to be called the fastest unicorn.
SoftBank, Tiger Global, Ratan Tata, Hyundai Motors, Matrix Partners, Tiger Global and The Munjal Family.
Products and Services
Electric two and tree wheeler vehicles
Valuation
$5+ billion (January 2022)
Ola Electric is a brainchild of Ola which is currently one of the largest ride-hailing companies. Ola Electric is a tech mobility startup that provides transit services. Besides that, the company also offers a platform to work with driver-partners, vehicle manufacturers, and battery companies and also advance into making future technology for daily mobility. The company was founded in 2017 by Ankit Jain and Anand Shah and had its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Ola Electric is also known to be the fastest unicorn after Udaan.
Lightspeed Ventures, Tiger Global, Twitter, India Quotient,
Products and Services
MOJ and Sharechat
Valuation
$3.7 billion (December 2021)
Mohalla Tech is a software company that was founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Singh in 2015. The company has its headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka, and is known for its platforms – MOJ and Sharechat. Mohalla Tech designs and develops social media platforms for sharing various quotes, videos, images, and news content. Currently, Moj and Sharechat are known to have a combined user of 340 million. According to some reports, an average user will spend over 34 minutes on the MOJ platform every day, which also gets 4.5 million views every day.
TPG, Chrys Capital, Premji Invest, Elevation Capital, MegaDelta and Vertex
Products and Services
Baby and Kids Products
Valuation
$2 billion (March 2021)
FirstCry is one of the top E-commerce companies for Baby and Child products. The company was founded by Supam Maheshwari, Amitava Saha, Prashant Jadhav, and Sanket Hattimattu in 2010, with its headquarters based in Pune, Maharashtra. Currently, the company has 380 plus stores across the country and also has a hospital contact program that helps in reaching out to more than 70,000 new parents every month. Firstcry has over 100,000 plus baby, kids, and new mom products from more than 1000 international and national brands.
Temasek, Falcon Edge Capital, KKR, Bay Capital, and Chiratae
Products and Services
Eyewear, opticians
Valuation
$4.32 billion (April 2022)
Lenskart is a leading eyewear company that was started by Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, Sumeet Kapahi in 2010. The company has its headquarters in Faridabad and has manufacturing facilities in Delhi, Zhengzhou (China). The company is known to manufacture over 300,000 eyewear every month, as it has more than 500 stores in over 70 cities across India. Besides having a huge range of eyewear it also offers its users branded contact lenses and sunglasses.
And this is not the end of the story. There are many new entrants to this unicorn club. Multiple startups strive hard to reach the top 10 unicorn startups but only a few make it to the top. India is the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world. It can be said that India is the future of great startups.
Grofers is an Indian online supermarket that helps in the home delivery of food, grocery products, and essentials. Founded in 2013, Grofers started with groceries and gradually expanded to a whole list of categories that includes beauty products, household care, baby care, and more. The company is now a unicorn with a $120 million fundraising round from the food aggregator, Zomato. Grofers was rebranded to Blinkit after a rebranding attempt on December 13, 2021.
A subsidiary company of inMobi, Glance is an artificial intelligence platform that offers customized lock screen content to the owners of the smartphones of the present. The company was founded in 2019 as a subsidiary of inMobi, a Bengaluru-based mobile ad network, and turned unicorn on December 22, 2020. Its parent company had already become a unicorn company back in 2011.
Google, Alphawave, Microsoft, Sequoia Capital, Falcon Capital
Products and Services
Dailyhunt app
Valuation
$1 billion (March 2021)
Dailyhunt is an Indian content and news aggregator services platform that helps its users access updates on trending topics along with online news, books, and magazines. The company is popular for offering content in 14 different local languages for a wide variety of Indian readers. The company raised around $100 million from Google and Microsoft and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave to become India’s first tech unicorn focused on vernacular content on December 22, 2020.
Accel, Norwest Venture Partners, Steadview Capital, Tiger Global Management
Products and Services
Salon software, spa software, med spa software
Valuation
$1.5+ billion
A cloud-based software platform for spa and salon services of the country, Zenoti was founded in 2010 with its headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, United States, and Hyderabad. Zenoti has been since the day it was founded and is now used by over 10,000 customers and has already established its presence in 50+ countries. With a fundraise that amounted to $160 million, the company entered the unicorn club on December 15, 2020.
Cars24 website/app, cars buying and selling service
Valuation
$1.6 billion (July 2021)
Cars24 is an online marketplace that encourages the buyers and sellers of used cars and helps them to buy and sell automobiles online without any hassles. Via an AI-enabled pricing algorithm, Cars24 displays the appraisal price along with the market price of the vehicles. Furthermore, it also arranges appointments for vehicle inspection, thereby making the selling process as transparent as possible.
The Gurgaon-based company, Cars24 was founded in 2015 and has already become a unicorn on November 24, 2020, with the $200 million Series E funding round led by Yuri Milner’s DST Global fund, Exor Seeds, Moore Strategic Ventures, and more. The company was valued at over $1 billion when assessed in November 2020.
RazorPay is a digital payment gateway that enables businesses and individuals to process, receive and disburse payments smoothly and securely. Razorpay accepts a wide range of the latest payment devices and platforms to improve the customer’s payment journeys online.
RazorPay is among the last year unicorn companies in India, which joined the unicorn club of Indian startups on October 11, 2020, when the company raised around $100 million. The company was valued at around $3 billion in April 2021.
Gaurav Munjal, Hemesh Singh, Roman Saini, Sachin Gupta
Founded
2015
Investors
Temasek Holdings, Dragoneer Investment Group, Softbank, Facebook, Sequoia Capital
Products and Services
Courses and classes
Valuation
$3.44 billion (August 2021)
Unacademy is an Indian unicorn Edtech company based in Bangalore, which climbed to unicorn status on September 2, 2020, thereby becoming the second e-learning startup to achieve the status.
Founded in 2015, Unacademy offers educational content for competitive examinations and other video lectures, some of which are also freely accessible for students. With the latest fundraise where the company received $440 million, Unacademy is now valued at $3.44 billion, as of August 2021. Here’s a List of Startups Acquired by EdTech Giant Unacademy
Postman raised $150 million in June 2020 to turn into a unicorn. The API development environment is used by around 6 million developers worldwide across 200,000 companies located globally. Postman serves as a platform that makes it easy for developers and enterprises to build, test, and debug their APIs.
With a valuation of $5.6 billion, as per the reports in August 2021, after the company received funding of around $225 million, Postman is presently acknowledged as the most valued Saas startup in India.
CitiusTech
Startup Name
CitiusTech
Headquarters
Princeton, New Jersey, United States
Industry
Healthcare Technology
Founders
Jagdish Moorjani, Rizwan Koita
Founded
2005
Investors
Baring Pvt. Equity Asia, Bain Capital
Products and Services
Consulting, Digital & Product Engineering, Data & Analytics
Valuation
$2.4 billion (May 2022)
CitiusTech is a major technology service and solution provider for the healthcare industry. CitiusTech boasts of having over 4000 professionals worldwide. With its workforce, the company aims to empower the healthcare and life sciences companies with reassuring consultation and digital technology services and drive clinical value chain excellence across integration and interoperability, data management, data science, performance management, and more.
CitiusTech was acquired by Baring Private Equity Asia, after the Hong Kong-based company signed a definitive agreement on July 12, 2019. This deal has valued the company at a little over a billion dollars, thereby granting its entry into the unicorn club of Indian companies.
As per the news dated May 5, 2022, Bain Capital has bought 40% of the stakes of CitiusTech from Baring Private Equity Asia, as the latter sold half of its tech to the American private investment firm. Apax Partners and Fujitsu of Japan were the other contenders for the stake. The 40% stakes of CitiusTech were valued between $960 mn to $1 bn, which has successfully catapulted the valuation of CitiusTech to around $2.4 bn, as of May 2022. The other 40% stakes of the firm are with Baring, while the remaining stakes are held by the company’s founders.
B Capital Group, Ignition Partners, Eight Roads Ventures
Products and Services
Contract Management Software
Valuation
$2.8 billion (March 2021)
Icertis is designed as a powerful AI-enabled contract management platform that promises ultimate compliance and aims to reduce the risks involved in it. Being an enterprise contract management platform, Icertis extends easy solutions to hard contract management issues.
When the company raised $80 million in March 2021, at a valuation of $2.8 billion, Icertis was declared as the second most-valued startup unicorn of India. The company turned into a unicorn even before that in 2020.
Druva
Startup Name
Druva
Headquarters
Sunnyvale, California, United States
Industry
Software, Cloud Data Services, Cloud Security, Saas
Sequoia Capital India, Viking Global, Indian Angel Network
Products and Services
Data protection solutions
Valuation
$2 billion (April 2021)
Druva is an Indian enterprise software platform that is designed to protect and manage enterprise data across endpoints, data centers, and cloud workloads. Built on AWS, Druva offers a Saas platform that extends superior data resiliency options, which is infinitely scalable, for the companies operating across the globe.
The India-based Saas company headquartered in the US is one of the earliest companies of India that turned into a unicorn. Druva attained unicorn status in 2019.
Rivigo is a logistics platform empowered by the latest technologies that extend effective transport services for a wide range of industries including clothing, eCommerce, automotive, automobiles, and more. The company was founded in 2014 in Gurgaon, Haryana, and was valued at $1.05 billion when it turned unicorn in September 2019.
Polygon or Matic Network, as it was named previously, is a Bengaluru-based blockchain startup that was founded as a result of the infamous RBI ban of cryptocurrencies that came in April 2018. Founded by Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun, Matic Network focussed on solving the “scalability and usability issues, without compromising on decentralization”. It was on February 9, 2021, that Matic was renamed into Polygon.
Polygon is already a unicorn when last reported in May 2021 and is currently valued at over $10 bn, as of February 2022. The market capitalization of its native MATIC token has crossed the $20 billion mark once in December 2021.
MindTickle is a sales readiness platform founded in 2011, which helps in onboarding, product training, coaching, and ongoing readiness. The company offers a vital sales solution to the fast-growing startups to prepare their sales team in a scalable and effective way. MindTickle was founded in 2011 and turned a unicorn on August 6, 2021, with the influx of $100 mn in Series E funding led by Softbank Vision Fund II.
Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati, Mohit Tandon, Sahil Barua, Suraj Saharan
Founded
2011
Investors
FedEx, Fidelity, Steadview Capital, Tiger Global management
Products and Services
Cargo and freight services
Valuation
$4 billion (June 2021)
Delhivery was founded in 2011 in Gurgaon, Haryana, as a logistics and supply chain startup that aims to provide seamless transportation, warehousing, freight, and order fulfillment services. Delhivery Pvt. Ltd. turned unicorn back in 2019 where it raised around $413 million and was valued at $1.5 billion.
Billdesk is a company conceived in 2000 as IndiaIdeas.com Ltd., which helps Indian customers pay their bills safely and easily. Powered by the latest advancements in the electronic medium, BillDesk offers its customers better ways to organize and manage their payments online. Billdesk has already achieved unicorn status in 2018 when it mopped up nearly $300 million in a fundraising round led by Visa.
The company is currently acquired by PayU, a Prosus-owned company headquartered in the Netherlands via a deal worth $4.7 billion, one of the biggest deals in the Fintech range of India.
Mu Sigma was founded in 2014 as a data analytics services platform that offers data analytics services along with developing decision support system tools and software for Fortune 500 companies. Mu Sigma offers a range of services including market measurement, product/customer segmentation and profiling, prospecting, RFM analytics, and more. It was in 2016 when Fortune declared Mu Sigma a unicorn company.
Info Edge
Startup Name
Info Edge
Headquarters
Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Industry
Enterprisetech
Founders
Sanjeev Bikhchandani
Founded
1995
Investors
Temasek Holdings, Lightbox
Products and Services
Employment, Education, Real estate, Matrimonial service
Valuation
$6.6 Billion (May 2023)
Info Edge, founded by Sanjeev Bikhchandani in 1995, is a technology-driven Indian internet company offering a wide range of online services in sectors such as recruitment, matrimony, real estate, and education. The company is well-known for its flagship platforms, including Naukri.com for jobs, Jeevansathi.com for matrimonial services, 99Acres.com for real estate listings, and Shiksha.com for educational resources.
The company attained a valuation of over $1 billion in 2014 and became an elite member of the Indian unicorn club.
Sai Srinivas Kiran G, Shubh Malhotra, Shubham Malhotra
Founded
2018
Investors
Sequoia, Moore Strategic Ventures, Legatum Capital
Products and Services
EGaming platform
Valuation
$2.3 Billion (September 2021)
Mobile Premier League, now if the name rings a bell, then you’re right! MPL is another fantasy gaming and esports platform from India after Dream11 that has turned unicorn. The Sequoia Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures-backed startup was founded in September 2018, just 3 years ago by Sai Srinivas Kiran G and Shubh Malhotra, which emerged as the second gaming unicorn from the subcontinent.
Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management, Lightspeed
Products and Services
Professional networking platform and job portal
Valuation
$1.1 Billion (September 2021)
Apna is a leading professional networking platform that helps the rising workforce of India stay updated in terms of professional requirements and recruitment and grab them anytime and anywhere. Apna is currently available across 28+ cities in India for students and blue-mand gray-colored working professionals to get the best communities and land jobs.
The Series C round was on September 15, 2021, where Apna raised around $100 million from investors like Tiger Global, Sequoia, and others and turned into a unicorn within just 21 months of its foundation. This makes Apna the fastest unicorn in India.
Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena, and Anand Prakash
Founded
2011
Investors
Coatue, Tiger Global Management, WestBridge Capital, Accel Partners
Products and Services
Online tutoring, courses and classes
Valuation
$1 Billion+ (September 2021)
Vedantu is an Edtech platform that offers online e-learning courses and classes to empower real-time personalized learning experiences. Vedantu believes in bridging the gaps between a student and his/her tutor to enjoy the benefits of real-time one-to-one teaching. Vedantu can help students pursue online tuitions for Maths, Physics, Chemistry, English, French, Hindi, Social Studies, German, Computer Science, and more.
Vedantu raised $100 mn via its Series E round led by ABC World Asia, Coatue, Tiger Global, WestBridge, and others on September 29, 2021, and became the 27th Indian unicorn of 2021 and the 69th unicorn startup in the country.
Bertelsmann, Mayfield Fund, Vertex Growth Fund, 3one4 Capital
Products and Services
Meat, fish, eggs packaging and delivery services
Valuation
$1 Billion+ (October 2021)
Licious was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Bengaluru as a Direct-to-consumer brand that offers fresh meat, eggs, fish, and seafood, which the customers can order online to receive the same at their doorsteps. The meat industry in India is largely unorganized and Licious is born out of the sole aim of organizing this sector and delivering fresh, trustworthy, delicious meat and fish to the house of the Indians.
The company raised $52 million in its latest funding round led by IIFL AMC’s Late Stage Tech Fund, emerging as the 29th Indian unicorn company of 2021 so far, and the first unicorn from the D2C segment, as of October 5, 2021.
Paradigm, Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management
Products and Services
Cryptocurrency exchange platform
Valuation
$1.9 Billion (October 2021)
CoinSwitch Kuber is hailed as a cryptocurrency exchange platform that encourages users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies via their platform, ensuring secure and convenient transactions. The company supports a wide list of over 100 cryptocurrencies from which the customers can buy cryptos at the best rates, through a range of payment options.
CoinSwitch Kuber turns into India’s 30th unicorn startup in 2021 so far. The company raised a Series C funding round worth $260 million on October 6, 2021, led by a16z (Andreesen Horowitz) and Coinbase Ventures to join the coveted club of the unicorn companies. CoinSwitch Kuber boasts of being the second crypto unicorn of India, which crossed the 1 billion dollar mark in less than 2 months after CoinDCX was hailed as the first crypto unicorn of the country in August 2021. CoinSwitch Kuber is reportedly valued at $1.9 billion on October 2021, which is higher than what CoinDCX announced in August, which was $1.1 billion.
Rebel Foods, also termed Faasos Food Services Pvt. Ltd., is a food delivery platform of India that takes care of the food delivery requirements across the country, delivering food products at the doorsteps of the customers. Besides, the company also boasts of a huge network (over 450) of dark kitchens that operates in over 10 countries. Rebel Foods currently serves over 10,000 Indian customers, the numbers of which are jumping rapidly.
The Indian cloud kitchen and food delivery startup becomes the 31st unicorn of India in 2021. Rebel Foods has raised $175 million via its Series F funding round led by the investors like Qatar Investment Authority, Coatue and Evolvence, and more, to be valued at $1.4 bn, as of October 7, 2021.
Sequoia Capital India, HDFC Bank, LeapFrog Investments
Products and Services
Cars, Used cars retailing services
Valuation
$1.2 billion (October 2021)
CarDekho is a leading name in the used car retailing space. Headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, CarDekho helps users browse through a wide selection of cars and select one that fits them in all aspects. The platform of CarDekho is equipped with the relevant details about the car, along with other detailed specs, experts’ reviews, comparisons, and more. All of these further ease the selection process of the car models and are some of the reasons that have contributed to the rising popularity of the company.
CarDekho has turned into a unicorn following its recent Series E and Debt financing rounds dated October 13, 2021, and led by LeapFrog Investments. The company has successfully raised around $200 mn and $50 mn respectively, with the last funding rounds that it saw. With the recent funding, CarDekho becomes the 33rd unicorn and the 3rd unicorn startup in the used car retailing space in India so far in 2021.
Sequoia Capital India, Hindustan Media Venture, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority
Products and Services
Digital payments platform
Valuation
$1 billion (October 2021)
MobiKwik is a Fintech company founded in 2009 as digital payments platform that offers phone-based payment options along with the facility of a digital wallet for its users. Headquartered in Gurgaon, MobiKwik is one of the trusted names in the digital payments space that also provides payment gateway and other financial services.
MobiKwik turned unicorn on October 12, 2021, after the conclusion of its secondary ESOP sale round led by Mathew Cyriac, former Head of Blackstone India.
Insurtech, Insurance, Health insurance, Auto insurance
Founders
Ruchi Deepak, Varun Dua
Founded
2016
Investors
Munich Re Ventures, Amazon, General Atlantic, Multiples Alternate Asset Management Private Limited
Products and Services
Car, bike and health insurance products
Valuation
$1.1 billion (October 2021)
Acko is a digital insurance provider of India, dubbed as the first insurance startup that efficiently processes car, bike, and health insurance without any paperwork. Furthermore, Acko also possesses the license, which allows the company to underwrite and distribute bite-sized insurance products.
Acko raised around $255 million in its Series D round led by General Atlantic and Multiples Private Equity and turned a unicorn on October 27, 2021. The unicorn insurance provider is the 34th Indian company to join the unicorn club in 2021 and is currently valued at $1.1 bn.
CureFit
Startup Name
CureFit
Headquarters
Bengaluru, India
Industry
Healthcare, wellness
Founders
Ankit Nagori, Mukesh Bansal
Founded
2016
Investors
Temasek Holdings, Accel, Tata Digital, Zomato, Axis Bank
Products and Services
Nutrition products, Consultation services for mental and well-being
Valuation
$1.5 billion (November 2021)
CureFit is a health and fitness company that extends online and offline experiences to bring in adequate nutrition, foster physical fitness, and mental well-being via improved yoga and meditation, medical and lifestyle care consultation.
The Bangalore-based fitness brand turned unicorn on November 10, 2021, in a deal where the foodtech giant Zomato sold its fitness facility arm Fitso for $50 mn and infused another $50 mn in CureFit. This helped Zomato own 6.4% shares in CureFit, worth $100 mn. As a result of the cross-selling, CureFit joined the unicorn club of Indian startups as the 36th company to turn unicorn in 2021 and the 77th company overall among the Indian startups.
Mensa
Startup Name
Mensa
Headquarters
Bengaluru, India
Industry
Financial services, Venture capital
Founders
Ananth Narayanan, Pawan Kumar Dasaraju
Founded
2021
Investors
Alpha Wave Incubation, Norwest Venture Partners, Accel, Falcon Edge Capital
Products and Services
finance, working capital
Valuation
$1 billion+ (November 2021)
Brands’ aggregator and roll-up firm, Mensa has been founded by former Myntra CEO and Medlife cofounder, Ananth Narayanan and Pawan Kumar Dasaraju. Mensa Brands stands as an investment firm that strives to partner with entrepreneurs to build digital brands and scale them. The company embraces a Thrasio-based model via which it invests working capital and picks up equity in other D2C startups, thereby scaling the presence of the brands online. The platform that Mensa offers helps in driving growth, product, merchandising, technology, supply chain, product, and access to global markets, which eventually lets the founders get lucrative financial exits along with transforming their business through a stable and successful partnership.
Mensa raised $135 mn in a new Series B funding round led by Alpha Wave Ventures (Falcon Edge Capital) on November 16, 2021, and has joined the coveted club of unicorn companies in India. The company turned unicorn within just 6 months since it started its operations, thereby emerging as the fastest Indian startup to turn unicorn.
Tiger Global Management, General Atlantic, Trifecta Capital, BEENEXT
Products and Services
Peer-to-peer property listings platform
Valuation
$1 billion+ (November 2021)
NoBroker, as the name states, is designed on the concept of building a brokerage-free real estate platform, which will take care of the entire journey of a customer from choosing a house, listing it, securing a home loan, contacting the packers and movers, opting for painting and other services and more. Founded by Akhil Gupta, Amit Kumar Agarwal, Saurabh Garg in 2014, NoBroker is based in Bengaluru and is currently hailed as a unicorn.
NoBroker is, in fact, India’s first proptech (property tech) startup that has achieved a unicorn status on November 23, 2021. The company is the 38th Indian startup to emerge as a unicorn in 2021. The unicorn valuation of the company was disclosed after it raised around $210 Mn in its Series E funding round on the same date.
Tiger Global Management, General Atlantic, Trifecta Capital, BEENEXT
Products and Services
Used car listing and selling platform
Valuation
$1.7 billion+ (November 2021)
Spinny is a used-car buying platform that is powered by new-age technologies and enables reliable and hassle-free transactions in used cars. Founded in 2015 in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, Spinny is built on a full-stack business model with the aim of making the process of buying used cars simple and transparent and ultimately helping the customers to buy cars that match their aspirations.
Spinny has turned unicorn after it received its Series E funding round of $248 million (Rs 1,849 crore), as of November 24, 2021. The company received an investment of Rs 739.7 crore each from Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, while the remaining funds poured in from Somerville SPV and Aveni Spinny. Spinny is now officially the fourth Indian startup from the used car space to join the unicorn club, where Droom, CarDekho, and Cars24 have already joined earlier.
Upstox is a fintech company that offers innovative investment solutions for users, including securities brokerage and stock trading services. Based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, the company extends equity trading opportunities for retail investors via the platform, promising their clients to be benefited from their cutting-edge trading platform that brings in the best-in-class services.
Upstox turned unicorn with the recent fundraising round led by Tiger Global Management, as of November 25, 2021. The company agreed to allot around 18761 Series C preference shares at an issue price of Rs 98,608 in order to raise the sum of $25 million (Rs 185 crore) from Tiger Global. Upstox has raised the recent funds at a post-money valuation of an estimated $3.4 bn, which pushes it past its rival Groww, which was recently valued at $3 bn in October 2021. Upstox thus became the 40th unicorn startup in India in 2021.
Slice is a financial startup based out of Bengaluru, India that focuses on payment cards/credit cards, and extends them to their target audiences, mostly comprising Gen Z and millennials.
Slice has mopped around $220 mn in the recent funding round dated November 29, 2021, led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners to achieve a unicorn valuation. The series B round that Slice witnessed included participation from Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and Checkout co-founder and CEO, Guillaume Pousaz, along with a list of existing investors that includes Sunley House Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Anfa, Gunosy, Blume Ventures, and more. Slice is currently the 41st Indian startup unicorn of 2021.
Pristyn Care
Startup Name
Pristyn Care
Headquarters
Haryana, India
Industry
Healthtech, Health care
Founders
Harsimarbir (Harsh) Singh, Dr. Garima Sawhney and Vaibhav Kapoor
Founded
2018
Investors
Tiger Global Management, Hummingbird Ventures
Products and Services
Healthcare services
Valuation
$1.2 billion (December 2021)
Pristyn Care is a healthcare startup founded in September 2018, which is designed to disrupt elective surgery procedures. Headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, Pristyn Care believes in leveraging cutting-edge technology and advanced procedures to simplify medical care and surgery experiences.
The startup successfully raised $84 Million on December 7, 2021, via new funding round, Series E, led by Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Hummingbird Ventures, Epiq Capital, QED, and others to enter the unicorn club of Indian startups. With its unicorn valuation, the health tech startup from Gurgaon has turned to be the fourth startup to achieve the feat in its space in India after Innovaccer, PharmEasy, and CureFit.
Founded in 2021, GlobalBees is a Thrasio-style startup focused on acquiring other companies, especially startups, and scaling them with adequate funds and resources to extend joyful product experiences. GlobalBees can also be considered as the venture arm of FirstCry.
GlobalBees has already been in talks ever since it raised $150 mn in India’s largest Series A funding round. Furthermore, the company has become a unicorn when it again raised around $111.5 mn in a mix of equity and debt round of Series B led by a clutch of investors including FirstCry, SoftBank, Premji Invest, Chiratae Ventures, Trifecta Capital, and others.
Beauty, baby care, skin care, body care products and more
Valuation
$1.1 billion+ (December 2021)
Founded in 2016, Mamaearth is a personal care brand that was established as an organic alternative to the baby, hair, face and skincare products in the market. Headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, Mamaearth extends the best organic products for babies and their mothers.
Mamaearth turned unicorn after the latest funding round that it raised on December 28, 2021, worth $80 million led by Sequoia Capital. Gurugram-based organic skincare, haircare, and body care brand, Honasa or Mamaearth became the first unicorn in India in 2022.
Fractal Intelligence is a Mumbai-based analytics startup founded in 2000 by Ramakrishna Reddy, Pranay Agrawal, Srikanth Velamakanni, Nirmal Palaparthi, and Pradeep Suryanarayan and is currently headquartered in New York, US. Primarily established as a strategic analytics partner to the most sought-after Fortune 500 companies globally, Fractal empowers every human decision by bringing analytics, AI, and other cutting-edge technology to the decision-making process.
Fractal Analytics currently has its presence across 15 countries including the United States, UK, Ukraine, and India. The company has recently turned unicorn by raising $360 million from a fundraising round led by TPG Capital, and Apax Partners, as per the reports dated January 5, 2022. Fractal is one of the leading players in the AI space with Qure.ai, Crux Intelligence, Theremin.ai, Eugenie.ai and Samya.ai as its flagship products. It is also important to note that Fractal is the second Indian unicorn of 2022.
LEAD School is a Mumbai-based edtech company that helps bring in improved marketing and academic solutions for educational institutions to transform their school education in India. Founded in 2012 by Smita Deorah and Sumeet Mehta, LEAD School helps digitize and transform private schools to help them serve students from varying economic backgrounds better.
LEAD School turned unicorn on January 13, 2022, thereby becoming the first Indian edtech startup to achieve a unicorn valuation in 2022. LEAD raised a funding round worth $100 mn today, led by GSV Ventures and WestBridge Capital to attain unicorn status. The Deorah and Mehta-led startup has thus become the third unicorn startup in India in 2022.
Darwinbox has been founded by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti and Rohit Chennamaneni as a cloud-based Hr technology product, which serves as an end-to-end HR software that helps enterprises automate the entire employee lifecycle. The HR software that the company provides the organizations, helps them manage all of their HR requirements including recruitment, payroll, employee engagement, talent management, and people analytics across the employee life cycle under one platform.
Darwinbox has already served 1.5 million employees across 650+ organizations from over 90 different industries. The company claims to be the third-largest HRTech platform after SAP and Oracle. The growing HR Tech platform has raised $72 million in its Series D funding round from TCV on January 25, 2022, to attain the unicorn club of Indian companies. The unicorn valuation obtained by Darwinbox has made it the first Indian Saas unicorn of 2022 and the fourth unicorn overall that the country has seen this year.
DealShare
Startup Name
DealShare
Headquarters
Bengaluru, Andhra Pradesh, India
Industry
Ecommerce, Grocery
Founders
Rajat Shikhar, Sankar Bora, Sourjyendu Medda, and Vineet Rao
Founded
2018
Investors
Tiger Global, Alteria Capital, Alpha Wave Global, Innoven Capital and other
Products and Services
Grocery and other consumer products via its ecommerce business
Valuation
$1.62 billion+ (January 2022)
DealShare is a social eCommerce startup based in Bengaluru. Founded in 2018 by Rajat Shikhar, Sankar Bora, Sourjyendu Medda, and Vineet Rao, DealShare boasts of having multi-category consumer goods that are available at affordable prices.
DealShare has turned into a unicorn, as per the reports dated January 27, 2022. The Bangalore-based grocery and essentials delivery eCommerce platform have raised $130 million via a Series E funding round led by Tiger Global, Alpha Wave, Kora Investment, and others for this recent round in funding.
ElasticRun
Startup Name
ElasticRun
Headquarters
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Industry
Ecommerce, Logistics, Transportation
Founders
Sandeep Deshmukh, Saurabh Nigam, Shitiz Bansal
Founded
2015
Investors
Softbank, Kalaari, Prosus, Innoven, Norwest Venture Partners and more
Products and Services
Online system, logistics and transportation support
Valuation
$1 billion+ (February 2022)
ElasticRun is an eCommerce logistics and transportation-based startup headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, which is designed to serve as an online system that will empower the eCommerce and distribution industry of India by improving the reception of orders from customers and the dispatch of delivery drivers.
In a recent round of funding dated February 8, 2022, ElasticRun has raised over $300 million from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Goldman Sachs with some of its existing investors including Prosus Ventures. At the conclusion of the fresh funding round, the company posted a post-money valuation of $1.44 bn. ElasticRun was just valued at $400 mn during the last round that it saw in April 2021, thereby implying that the valuation of the company saw a 3X rise. With this round, the Kirana commerce platform becomes the 6th unicorn startup in India in 2022.
Trifecta, Saint Gobain, Bessemer Venture, Helion Venture, Kharis Capital, and more
Products and Services
Interior Design solutions
Valuation
$1.44 billion+ (February 2022)
Built with an aim to connect individuals with designers, services, and products, Livspace is an interior designing startup that works as an omnichannel home interior and renovation platform. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Livspace helps homeowners to find pre-created looks for rooms, kitchens, and storage areas on the platform. Furthermore, Livspace also extends the opportunities to its customers to choose and buy the designs they want, along with further options for customization.
The Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma-led startup raised $180 Mn in a Series F funding round led by American investment giant KKR & Co. and other existing investors of Livspace including Jungle Ventures, Venturi Partners, Ingka Group (Ikea), and Peugeot Investments. This has lifted the valuation of Livspace to $1.44 bn. With the unicorn valuation that Livspace attained with the funding round dated February 8, 2022, the company witnessed a 2X jump in its valuation since December 2019, when it was valued at $500 million. The company became the 7th Indian unicorn in 2022 and is the 50th unicorn since January 2021.
Founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, Xpressbees is an eCommerce logistics platform that extends reliable delivery solutions to its partners along with customized delivery solutions. Headquartered in Pune, India, the company offers a wide range of delivery and logistics-oriented services including comprehensive last-mile delivery, reverse logistics, payment collection, drop shipping, vendor management, cross-border services, fulfilment services, and more. Furthermore, Xpressbees also boasts of bringing in tailored software solutions to clients.
Xpressbees is the 8th unicorn company in India, which raised $300 million worth of funds in its latest Series F funding round led by Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth, and ChrysCapital on February 9, 2022. The funding round via which it raised the funds that will support the next phase of business growth of Xpressbees also saw participation from its existing investors including Investcorp and Norwest Venture Partners.
Uniphore
Startup Name
Uniphore
Headquarters
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and Palo Alto, California, USA
Industry
AI, Saas, Software
Founders
Ravi Saraogi, Umesh Sachdev
Founded
2008
Investors
IIFL, Sorenson, March Capital, Chiratae Ventures and more
Products and Services
auMina and akeira and other software products
Valuation
$2.5 billion+ (February 2022)
Uniphore is a Conversational Automation platform founded by Ravi Saraogi and Umesh Sachdev in 2008. The customer service platform developed by Uniphore is powered by AI and automation technologies the vision of which is to bridge the gap between people and machines through voice. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Uniphore extends first-rate customer service to global businesses and helps them benefit from the integrated suite of software products for conversational analytics, assistance, and security that Uniphore provides. auMina and akeira, two proprietary AI solutions are already developed by Uniphore in the speech analytics and virtual assistant verticals.
Uniphore raised $400 million in a Series E round led by NEA, March Capital, and others to become the eighth unicorn of India in 2022, as per the reports dated February 16, 2022, at the end of which the company was valued at $2.5 billion.
Hasura
Startup Name
Hasura
Headquarters
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Industry
Software
Founders
Rajoshi Ghosh and Tanmay Gopal
Founded
2017
Investors
Greenoaks, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vertex Ventures and more
Products and Services
GraphQL development platform
Valuation
$1 billion+ (February 2022)
Hasura is a Bengaluru-based GraphQL development platform that has built its platform with an aim to boost web application development. The Rajoshi Ghosh and Tanmay Gopal-led startup plan to do this by reducing the roadblocks, thereby making data access easy for the frontend and full-stack developers. The platform turned into an open-source platform in July 2018 and since then developers from around the world have used Hasura to help themselves build the data layer for modern applications.
This developer-focused tooling products platform turned into a unicorn on February 22, 2022, thereby becoming the 10th Indian startup to enter the coveted unicorn club in 2022. It raised a funding of $100 million to obtain unicorn status in its Series C funding round.
CredAvenue
Startup Name
CredAvenue
Headquarters
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Industry
Fintech, Finance, PaaS
Founders
Gaurav Kumar and Vineet Sukumar
Founded
2017
Investors
Dragoneer, B Capital Group, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital and more
Products and Services
CredLoan, CredCo-Lend, Plutus
Valuation
$1.3 billion+ (March 2022)
Termed as a complete corporate debt solution, CredAvenue is founded by Gaurav Kumar in 2017 and is designed as a fully integrated, unified digital platform, which helps investors discover, trade, execute and fulfil debt solutions for investors. Vineet Sukumar, who joined the startup in October 2020 also stands as the Founder and Director of CredAvenue.
CredAvenue turned into a unicorn on March 6, 2022, by raising $137 million worth of funds in a series-B round led by Insight Partners, B Capital Group, and Dragoneer. The company is currently valued at over $1.3 billion, which is more than double the valuation of CredAvenue that was measured in September 2021. The Chennai-based debt marketplace startup becomes the 11th Indian startup to attain unicorn status in 2022.
Baskar Subramanian, Srinivasan KA, Srividhya Srinivasan
Founded
2008
Investors
Accel, Mayfield, Premjiinvest, Emerald Media and more
Products and Services
Cloud solutions for broadcasting
Valuation
$1 billion+ (March 2022)
Founded in 2009, by Baskar Subramanian, Srinivasan KA, Srividhya Srinivasan, and originally headquartered in Bengaluru, Amagi is a media-tech and broadcasting startup that helps target TV advertisements geographically. As a Cloud Saas technology provider, Amagi offers a mix of media and innovation to bring services that are powerful, cost-effective, and result-oriented, thereby making a way for a new TV-media advertising platform.
Amagi raised $95 million in funding on March 16, 2022, led by Accel and a clutch of existing investors like Norwest Venture Partners and Avataar Ventures, which helped it attain a unicorn valuation. With this funding round, Amagi becomes the 12th Indian startup to enter the unicorn club in 2022. It is also presently hailed as one of the highest valued media tech companies in the world.
Started as Boomerang Commerce, founded by Guru Hariharan, CommerceIQ is an omnichannel management platform that is currently headquartered in Palo Alto, California, US. Founded in 2012, CommerceIQ uses cutting-edge technologies including Machine Learning and Automation to multiply e-commerce sales.
CommerceIQ raised $115 million in its Series D funding round dated March 21, 2022, led by Softbank to turn a unicorn. This funding round made CommerceIQ the 13th unicorn that India has seen so far in 2022 and the second Indian company to turn unicorn by a funding round led by SoftBank after ElasticRun.
Alpha Wave, LLC, Matrix, Capital Management, Tiger Global, Norwest and more
Products and Services
Financial Services
Valuation
$1 billion+ (March 2022)
Oxyzo is a credit solutions provider, working as the lending arm of the unicorn industrial goods and services procurement platform, OfBusiness. Founded by Asish Mohapatra, Ruchi Kalra, with a deep understanding of the SMEs’ business trends, Oxyzo aims to transform small and medium-scale enterprises into something bigger in terms of operations, revenue, and profit margins.
In the latest Series A funding round that Oxyzo witnessed on March 23, 2022, where it received $200 million from a clutch of investors including Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and more, the company turned unicorn. This was the first external round of investment that Oxyzo received that has made it attain unicorn status. Owned by OfBusiness, Oxyzo is the second unicorn of the group. Raising such a large amount in the Series A round, Oxyzo has also been recorded as the first Indian startup to do so to date.
Games 24×7
Startup Name
Games 24×7
Headquarters
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Industry
Gaming, Fantasy Sports
Founders
Bhavin Pandya, Trivikraman Thampy
Founded
2006
Investors
Malabar Investment and more
Products and Services
Gaming platform
Valuation
$1 billion+ (April 2022)
Games 24×7 is India’s leading scientific gaming company. Founded by Bhavin Pandya and Trivikraman Thampy, on June 1, 2006, headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Games 24×7 offers real money skill gaming, daily sports fantasy games, and casual gaming for its users.
The leading games platform recently turned unicorn on March 30, 2022, by raising $75 mn of funds led by Malabar India Fund and is currently valued at $2.5 billion. Tiger Global was an existing investor who also took part in the same funding round. Games 24×7 is currently hailed as India’s 99th unicorn company, as per the reports dated 30th March 2022.
Open is a neobanking startup that was founded in 2017 and is headquartered currently in Bangalore. Ajeesh Achuthan, Anish Achuthan, Deena Jacon, and Mabel Chacko were the minds behind the foundation of Open.
The neobanking culture is rapidly influencing the Indian banking and financial system and Open has been one of the major players in this growing culture. Open is currently powering 2.3+ million SMEs and processing over $30 billion in annualized transactions, which is certainly huge. This neobanking startup has put another feather in its cap by raising $50 mn in its Series D round on May 2, 2022, and turning into a unicorn, led by IIFL, Temasek, 3one4 Capital, and Tiger Global. With this, Open has seized the title of being the 1st Indian unicorn from the neobanking space and the 16th unicorn that India has seen so far in 2022.
It is also important to note here that Open has resumed India’s unicorn streak, which showed an unprecedented pause towards the end of March 2022, after Games 24×7 achieved the unicorn status.
Tutoring, Study materials for Classes 6-12, and Live Courses for them and for the other entrance examinations like JEE, NEET and more
Valuation
$1.1 billion+ (June 2022)
PhysicsWallah is an edtech company founded by Alakh Pandey in 2016, where Prateek Maheshwari. It offers online and offline courses and study materials for engineering and medical entrance examinations like JEE and NEET along with various entrance and state board exams. Video lectures, live classes, test series, and dynamic exercises are some of the main services that PhysicsWallah offers.
PhysicsWallah had last seen the Series A funding round, which was the maiden fundraising round that poured $100 mn into the startup. This round was led by Westbridge and GSV Ventures and helped the bootstrapped startup turn into an Indian unicorn company on June 7, 2022, thereby making PhysicsWallah the 101st Indian unicorn. PhysicsWallah, which was valued at $1.1 bn post the infusion, is currently hailed as the second bootstrapped Indian company that turned a unicorn. PhysicsWallah belongs to the edtech space that is seeing a huge upheaval after the unwinding of the country post-pandemic. Losses rage the edtech sector now, and layoffs are the new normal for the Edtech space in India.
Blume Ventures, Kedaara Capital, PremjiInvest, Goldman Sachs and more
Products and Services
Ecommerce platform for cosmetics and beauty products including haircare, skincare products and more
Valuation
$1.1 billion+ (June 2022)
Purplle is an Indian multi-brand beauty retailing online marketplace that was founded in 2011. Founded by Rahul Dash and Manish Taneja, Purplle is an online store that offers a wide range of products spanning numerous categories like fragrances, cosmetics, hair and skincare, and more.
The Mumbai-headquartered D2C cosmetic ecommerce brand turned unicorn on June 7, 2022, by raising $33 mn of funding from South Korea-based Paramark Ventures and its existing investors including Kedaara Capital, Blume Ventures, and PremjiInvest.
LeadSquared
Startup Name
LeadSquared
Headquarters
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Industry
Saas, Technology
Founders
Nilesh Patel, Prashant Singh, and Sudhakar Gorti
Founded
2011
Investors
WestBridge Capital, International Finance Corporation, Gaja Capital and more
Products and Services
Marketing Automation, Field Force Automation, Self-serve Portal, Sales Execution CRM, Sales Performance Suite
Valuation
$1 billion+ (June 2022)
Raising $153 mn in its Series C funding round from WestBridge Capital and others, LeadSquared turned unicorn, thereby becoming the 103rd Indian unicorn, as of June 21, 2022. With this latest funding in its arsenal, LeadSquared is planning to invest more in its business in India and North America. It is also looking to foray into the APAC and EMEA regions ahead, and would also fund some acquisitions. Besides, it is also looking to increase its workforce, and might even double its headcounts in the next 18 months.
LeadSquared was founded by Nilesh Patel, Prashant Singh, and Sudhakar Gorti in 2011, and is currently headquartered in Bengaluru. New Jersey, Philippines, South Africa, Australia, and Indonesia are some other territories where the company has seen its expansion to date. As a company, LeadSquared offers solutions for end-to-end sales, marketing, and onboarding automation, making these processes easy for its customers. LeadSquared already has 2,000+ customers, which belong to a variety of industries, including education, BFSI, healthcare, real estate, automotive, hospitality,and more. Some of its customers include biggies like Byju’s, Godrej Housing Finance, Olx, Dunzo, Practo, Kotak Securities, Amazon Pay, NIIT, Uni,and more.
OneCard
Startup Name
OneCard
Headquarters
Pune, Maharashtra, India
Industry
Financial Services, Credit card challenger
Founder
Vaibhav Hathi, Rupesh Kumar, Anurag Sinha
Founded
2018
Investors
Sequoia Capital, Ocean View Investment, QED Holdings, Matrix Partners, Hummingbird and more
Products and Services
Metal credit cards, Visa credit cards, OneScore
Valuation
$1.3 billion (FY22)
OneCard was founded in 2018 by Vaibhav Hathi, Rupesh Kumar, and Anurag Sinha, and is a subsidiary of FPL Technologies. Being an Indian startup from the credit card challenger space, OneCard competes with companies like Slice, Karbon Card, Uni Card, and more. OneCard rolled out its first mobile metal credit card in 2020, which it offers as a service along with Visa credit cards in partnership with numerous banks, and OneScore, a digital credit score checking platform that helps users check their credit scores without paying anything and without even any spams. OneCard currently extends its services in 12+ states across India.
OneCard turned unicorn after it raised $100 mn in funds via its Series D funding round led by Temasek, Sequoia Capital, QED Holdings, Matrix Partners, Hummingbird, and others, on June 13, 2022. With this fundraising round, OneCard is now valued at around $1.3 bn, thereby turning into the 104th Indian unicorn in 2022. Its total funding now crossed $225 mn, as of July 14th, 2022. After Slice, OneCard is now the second unicorn Indian startup in the credit card challenger space now.
5ire
Startup Name
5ire
Headquarters
London, England, UK
Industry
Blockchain Network
Founder
Pratik Gauri, Prateek Dwivedi, and Vilma Mattila
Founded
August 2021
Investors
SRAM & MRAM, GEM Global Yield LLC SCS (GGY), Launchpool, Sanctum Global Ventures
5ire is a London-based 5th generation Layer-1 (L1) blockchain network founded by Pratik Gauri and Prateek Dwivedi, who are of Indian origin, and with the help of web3 financier Vilma Mattila, in August 2021. 5ire aims to build a space in the web3 revolution, just like Google did in the case of web1 revolution and Facebook revolutionised the web2 space, mentioned the company CEO Pratik Gauri. The name “5ire” came from the idea of the 5th industrial revolution.
5ire raised $100 mn in Series A funding from UK-based conglomerate SRAM & MRAM at a valuation of $1.5 Bn to be listed as the 105th unicorn of India.
Shiprocket
Startup Name
Shiprocket
Headquarters
New Delhi, India
Industry
Ecommerce, Logistics, Supply Chain Management
Founders
Gautam Kapoor, Saahil Goel, Vishesh Khurana and Akshay Ghulati
Founded
2017
Investors
Tamesek Holdings, Lightrock, Bertelsmann, Moore Strategic Ventures
Products and Services
Ecommerce Logistics and Shipping Software, Courier Delivery App
Valuation
$1.2 billion (August 2022)
Shiprocket was founded in 2017 by Gautam Kapoor, Saahil Goel, Vishesh Khurana and Akshay Ghulati. The startup is a developer of an eCommerce shipping and enablement application and is headquartered in New Delhi. The platform makes use of a machine learning-based data engine to recommend the best courier service for a business and select a courier company. Apart from this, it offers benefits like packaging, warehousing, printing shipping labels, and tracking orders from a single panel. This helps the merchants and sellers to manage the deliveries smoothly.
The Zomato-backed logistics startup has become the 106thunicorn startup in India after raising $33.5 million from Temasek Holdings and Lightrock raising its valuation to $1.2 billion. This makes it the 21st Indian startup to turn unicorn in 2022.
Tata 1mg (formerly 1mg) was founded in the year 2015 by Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal, and Vikas Chauhan. The startup is headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana. It is an online drug delivery platform that intends to make healthcare more accessible and affordable. The platform is known to offer medicines and other healthcare products, lab tests, and online consultations from healthcare professionals. All this makes it a one-stop solution for all of the customers’ healthcare needs.
The Tata-owned health tech platform has become the 107th unicorn startup in India after raising $40 million in an internal round of funding led by Tata Digital, raising its valuation to $1.25 billion.
Molbio Diagnostics
Startup Name
Molbio Diagnostics
Headquarters
VERNA, Goa, India
Industry
HealthTech, MedTech
Founders
Chandrasekhar Nair, Sriram Natarajan
Founded
2010
Investors
Temasek Holdings, Motilal Oswal Private Equity
Products and Services
Medical Diagnostics, TB Diagnostic Tools, RT-PCR
Valuation
$1.53 (September 2022)
Molbio Diagnostics is a manufacturer of molecular diagnostics. The company was founded by Sriram Natarajan and Chandrasekhar Nair and is headquartered in Verna, Goa. It operates as a platform that specializes in providing affordable diagnoses for tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.
After raising $85 million from Temasek and existing investor Motilal Oswal Alternates, Molbio Diagnostics became India’s 108th unicorn startup in September 2022 and the first unicorn startup from Goa, increasing its valuation to $1.53 billion.
Zepto was founded by Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha, both Stanford students who decided to drop out of the university to pursue entrepreneurship. The startup was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Mumbai. It is a quick commerce platform designed to deliver groceries to your doorstep within 10 minutes, ensuring convenient access to essential food items.
Zepto became India’s first unicorn in 2023 after a long 11-month unicorn drought. The startup raised $200 million in a Series E funding round led by StepStone Group with participation from Goodwater Capital and existing investors in August 2023. This funding round increased Zepto’s valuation to $1.4 billion, making it an exclusive member of the unicorn club.
Krutrim
Startup Name
Krutrim
Industry
Research Services
Founder
Bhavish Aggarwal
Founded
2023
Investors
Matrix Partners India and others
Valuation
$1 billion (January 2024)
Krutrim is an artificial intelligence startup launched by Ola founder and Chairman Bhavish Aggarwal in 2023. Krutrim AI is a part of the Ola group and is committed to building the entire AI computing stack for the future. It aims to provide an advanced AI computing stack for India, including infrastructure, cloud services, foundational models, and AI-powered applications. By offering a comprehensive AI computing stack tailored for the Indian market, Krutrim aims to empower consumers, startups, enterprises, and scientists with cutting-edge technology.
India’s own AI, Krutrim AI, raised $50 million at a valuation of $1 billion in a funding round led by Matrix Partners India and others. This not only makes Krutrim India’s first unicorn of 2024 but also represents a historic achievement as India gets its first artificial intelligence unicorn, marking it as Bhavish Aggarwal’s third unicorn startup.
Real-Time Credit Decisioning, Analytics, Onboarding Automation, SME Lending Solutions, and More
Valuation
$1 billion (March 2024)
Perfios Software Solutions is India’s leading B2B fintech software company. Headquartered in Bangalore, Perfios specializes in credit decisioning, analytics, and onboarding automation. Their core data platform seamlessly aggregates and analyzes both structured and unstructured data, providing tailored solutions for the BFSI sector. Perfios empowers financial institutions to make informed decisions while enhancing customer experiences across the banking, financial services, and insurance sectors.
Perfios raised $80 million from Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. This deal has raised Perfios’ valuation to $1 billion, making it a unicorn startup in India.
Porter
Startup Name
Porter
Headquarter
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Industry
Logistics, Transportation
Founder
Pranav Goel, Uttam Digga, Vikas Choudhary
Founded
2014
Investors
Tiger Global Management, Vitruvian Partners
Products and Services
Two-wheelers, Trucks, Packers and Movers, Porter for Enterprise, Courier Service
Valuation
$1 Billion (May 2024)
Porter is an online logistics marketplace that simplifies truck booking for businesses. They offer mini trucks and tempo rentals based on date and location, with real-time tracking for efficient logistics management.
Founded in 2014 by Pranav Goel, Uttam Digga, and Vikas Choudhary and headquartered in Bengaluru, Porter has disrupted logistics with its on-demand marketplace for LCVs, bikes, and specialised services like Enterprise and Packers & Movers.
Porter became the third unicorn startup in India in 2024 following a recent friends and family round, during which individuals purchased shares from the company’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) at a valuation of $1 billion. This came after a successful funding round in 2021, where Porter raised $100 million from investors like Tiger Global Management and Vitruvian Partners.
RateGain
Startup Name
RateGain Travel Technologies Limited
Headquarter
Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Industry
SaaS, Travel Technology, Hospitality Solutions
Founder
Bhanu Chopra
Founded
2004
Investors
Pinebridge Global Funds, Troo Capital, ICICI Prudential MF, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance
Products and Services
Hotel Distribution, Hotel Booking Engine, Travel-Intent, Competitor Pricing Intelligence
Valuation
$1 Billion
RateGain Travel Technologies Limited is a SaaS company in the travel and hospitality industry. It offers solutions for hotels, airlines, online travel agents, and more. Founded in 2004 by Bhanu Chopra, RateGain operates in over 100 countries.
In 2024, RateGain became the only listed company to reach unicorn status in India, with a valuation of $1 billion. Headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, the company helps businesses grow revenue through acquisition, retention, and wallet share expansion. It was one of the six companies that entered the Indian startup unicorn club in 2024.
Rapido
STARTUP NAME
Rapido
Headquarter
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Industry
Transportation, Mobility Tech
Founder
Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, Rishikesh SR
Founded
2015
Investors
WestBridge Capital, Nexus Venture Partners
Products and Services
Bike Taxi Service, Auto Rickshaw Services
Valuation
$1 Billion (July 2024)
Rapido is India’s largest and fastest-growing bike taxi app service. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Rapido offers two-wheeler ride services with transparent fares, making intra-city travel and last-mile connectivity affordable and fun. The platform also includes app-based auto rickshaws and delivery services, quickly expanding into various transportation solutions.
Founded in 2015 by Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli, and Rishikesh SR, Rapido raised $120 million in a Series E funding round in July 2024, led by WestBridge Capital. This funding round boosted Rapido’s valuation to over a billion, making it a unicorn startup in India.
Ather Energy
Startup Name
Ather Energy
Headquarters
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Industry
Automotive, Electric vehicles, Motor Vehicle Manufacturing
Ather Energy is a leading electric two-wheeler manufacturer in India, headquartered in Bengaluru. The company is known for its innovative and eco-friendly scooters, including the Ather 450 series and Ather Rizta, which feature advanced lithium-ion battery packs and digital management systems. Ather Energy’s products are designed to offer a cleaner, smarter mode of transportation.
Founded in 2013 by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain, Ather Energy secured $71 million in a funding round led by the existing investor National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) in August 2024. This funding round increased Ather Energy’s valuation to $1.3 billion, making it a unicorn startup in India.
Moneyview
Startup Name
Moneyview
Headquarters
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Industry
FinTech, Digital Lending, Personal Financial Management
Founder
Puneet Agarwal, Sanjay Aggarwal
Founded
2014
Investors
Accel India, Nexus Ventures, Tiger Global Management
Products and Services
Loans, Investments, Personal Finance Management Solutions, Smart Pay, Credit Tracker
Valuation
$1.2 Billion (September 2024)
Moneyview, a leading consumer lending platform, offers personalised financial products such as loans, credit tracking, investments, and personal financial management solutions. Headquartered in Bengaluru, the company enables users to access instant personal loans, track finances, and manage expenses through a seamless, paperless process.
Founded in 2014 by Puneet Agarwal and Sanjay Aggarwal, Moneyview became a unicorn startup in September 2024 after raising $4.6 million in a funding round from Accel India and Nexus Ventures, bringing its valuation to $1.2 billion.
Fleet Camera System, Driver•i One, Driver•i Hub-X, Driver Drowsiness with Driver Monitoring System (DMS) Sensor
Valuation
$1.34 Billion (January 2025)
Netradyne is a leading logistics AI startup, transforming fleet management with advanced technology. The company utilises artificial intelligence, machine learning, and edge computing to enhance driver safety by minimising accidents, identifying risky driving behaviours, and shielding drivers from false claims. Its flagship product, Driver•i, collects and analyses vast amounts of data to set new safety standards for commercial vehicles, helping businesses enhance safety, boost profitability, and build a driver-focused culture.
Founded in 2015 by Avneesh Agrawal, Netradyne became India’s first unicorn of 2025 in January after securing $90 million in a Series D funding round led by Point72 Private Investments, alongside Qualcomm Ventures and Pavilion Capital, bringing its valuation to$1.34 billion.
Former Indian Unicorn Companies
India has seen many unicorn companies to date and the above list containing is a testament to that. However, if you wonder about the total number of unicorns in India, then the numbers would be even more than what reflects in the list above because many of the unicorn companies in the country have either gone defunct or devalued thus, lost their unicorn status. Here’s remembering the prominent ones among them:
Quikr is a Bengaluru-based Indian online marketplace and classified advertising company that was founded in 2008 by Pranay Chulet. Quikr boasts of having its listings in over 1000 cities in India across a wide range of product categories including cars, mobile phones, household products, education, jobs, services, and more.
The online classified ads major was valued at over $1.5 billion on October 8, 2015. However, the company lost its unicorn status in February 2020.
Started as a social media instant messaging app, Hike Messenger was beyond a craze when it first launched. It was the time when Whatsapp was launched recently in India and was far from gaining the popularity that it is currently known for. Kavin Bharti Mitta, who was the founder and CEO of Hike, founded the company in December 2012.
Hike raised $175 million in a Series D funding round, which valued the startup at $1.4 billion in just under 3.7 years in August 2016, thereby becoming the then youngest startup in India to achieve the feat!
However, the company saw a massive drop in its revenue as Whatsapp rapidly rose to fame and dominated the market. The company tried some strategies to lift its brand value. It even tried a sticker-centric experience by rebranding itself as Hike Sticker Chat in April 2019. The company finally announced its shutdown on January 15, 2021.
ShopClues was founded by Sanjay Sethi, Radhika Aggarwal, and Sandeep Aggarwal in 2011 and has claimed to be India’s first and largest managed marketplace. It was once a promising company with over 2.5 crore listed products and 6,00,000+ merchants. Shopclues also turned into a unicorn back in 2016 and was hailed as the fourth unicorn startup in India. However, ShopClues has slowly and steadily collapsed from being a promising unicorn to an also-ran by the company and was finally sold to Singapore-based Qoo10 Pte Ltd at a valuation of just $70-100 million in an all-stock deal.
FAQs
What is the meaning of a Unicorn startup?
Startups with a valuation of over $1 Billion are known as Unicorns.
How many unicorn startups are there in India in 2024?
As of September 2024, there are 117 unicorns in India.
Which are the top Indian unicorns?
Some of the top unicorns that India boasts of today are:
Zomato
Nykaa
PolicyBazaar
OYO
Ola
Paytm
Swiggy
BYJU’S
FirstCry
Lenskart
Freshworks
Moglix
Nykaa
Swiggy
Pine Labs
BlackBuck
Which is India’s first unicorn startup?
InMobi, a Bangalore-based multinational mobile advertising technology company, founded in 2007 is the first to enter the unicorn club. InMobi became the first unicorn in 2011.
Is Nykaa a unicorn?
Nykaa entered the unicorn club in 2020.
Which country has the most unicorns?
The United States is at the top of the list with over 650 unicorns as of August 2023.
What is the obsession with unicorn startups?
Unicorn startups boast of their valuation, which has crossed the $1 billion mark, and are always at the edge of their gameplay. The companies grouped in as unicorns are forever in competition with each other, and always stand as inspirational figures for the rest of the startups and other budding companies.
How many companies turn unicorns?
Though startups are everywhere now around us, as per the recently conducted surveys, 9 out of every 10 startups fail. Therefore, being a successful startup and turning it into a unicorn is always difficult for startups. AngelList says that a venture-backed seed-stage startup has a 1 in 40 shot, which is equivalent to a 2.5% chance of achieving unicorn status today.
Is Zerodha a unicorn?
Yes, Zerodha entered the unicorn club in 2020 with a valuation of about $1 billion.
Which Indian startups became unicorns in 2020?
Pine Labs
FirstCry
Nykaa
Unacademy
Zerodha
Razorpay
Postman
Cars24
Dailyhunt
Glance, InMobi, and more.
Which Indian startups became unicorns in 2021?
BrowserStack
Moglix
PharmEasy
CRED
Meesho
Urban Company
Digit Insurance
Groww
Gupshup
Chargebee
Zeta
Infra.Market
Innovaccer
Five Star Business Finance
Licious
Vedantu and more.
How many startups turned unicorns in India in 2024?
As of September 2024, six startups turned unicorns including Krutrim, Perfios, Porter, Rapido, Ather Energy, and Moneyview.
What are the Indian companies that turned unicorns in 2022?
The Indian companies that turned unicorns in 2022 are:
As the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led fintech giant Paytm seeks to grow and monetise its tech-enabled payments and financial services in global markets, it intends to establish three new companies through its subsidiary Paytm Cloud Technologies in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. The company stated in an exchange filing on January 20 that the board of its wholly owned subsidiary, Paytm Cloud Technologies Limited (PCTL), had given its approval for the three new businesses to be incorporated. These companies will become Paytm’s step-down subsidiaries after they are established. Paytm thinks there is room for growth in comparable foreign countries with its technology-driven merchant payments and financial services distribution business strategy in India. According to Paytm, the company has created a portfolio of cutting-edge hardware, software, and services in India that can be used and profited from globally.
Options Considered by Paytm
According to the publicly traded fintech, Paytm is looking into a number of options in these foreign markets, such as partnerships, local licensing, strategic investment, and inorganic growth. Within six months, the wholly owned subsidiaries will be established, requiring an initial investment of up to INR 20 Cr in one or more tranches for each of these business units. The board of Mobiquest Mobile Technologies, another Paytm affiliate, has given the company permission to sell off all of its 100% ownership in Xceed IT Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary. Vineet Narang and Sabina Kamal, the current directors of Xceed IT, will purchase these shares for INR 60,728 in cash. In the information technology (IT) industry, Mobiquest Mobile Technologies offers computer programming, consulting, and associated services.
Financial Dynamics of Paytm
In the third quarter of the fiscal year 2024-25 (Q3 FY25), Paytm was able to reduce its consolidated net loss from INR 221.7 Cr in the previous quarter to INR 208.5 Cr, a 6% decrease. In the September quarter of the current fiscal year, the corporation declared a net profit of INR 930 Cr. From INR 2,850.5 Cr in the same time last year to INR 1,827.8 Cr in the current quarter, operating revenue fell 36%. On the other hand, it increased 10% from INR 1,659.5 Cr on a quarterly basis.
India’s Fintech Ecosystem Still Leading the Global Race
In spite of this downturn, the Indian fintech ecosystem is one of the top three globally financed fintech ecosystems in H1 2024, after the US and the UK. According to Tracxn’s Geo Semi Annual Fintech India Report for H1 2024, the ongoing funding winter and a number of other geopolitical challenges are to blame for the funding fall. Compared to one in H2 2023, two funding rounds totalling more than $100 million were observed during that time. These include the $120 million Series C funding round raised by lending platform Avanse and the $144 million Series D funding round raised by non-banking lender Credit Saison.
In our daily lives, making bill payments and transactions used to rely solely on handling cash. Nonetheless, the shortcomings of cash-based techniques have been brought to light by the changing needs of the market and the move towards digital transactions.
Enter Paytm, an innovative digital payment app that has been available in India since 2010 and has completely changed the way that transactions and bill payments are made. Paytm, a smooth substitute, has been important in the transition to digital financial transactions, signifying a noteworthy turning point in India’s payment history.
In this article, we will delve into the successful journey of Paytm, its founder, history, business model, funding, acquisitions, competitors, and more.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma launched Paytm, a well-known provider of digital payments and financial services. Paytm was initially designed to make online money transfers easier for consumers and businesses alike, but it has gradually expanded its services. Later, it offers financial services, eCommerce capabilities, and cell and DTH recharging assistance. Indians have come to love this platform since it is so convenient and easy to use. Paytm company was established in 2010.
With the goal of assisting Indian app developers and entrepreneurs, Paytm has expanded its offerings over time to include stockbroking, the National Pension System (NPS), Paytm First Games, Paytm Insurance, and a mini app store. Paytm’s dedication to provide its users a wide range of easily accessible financial products is reflected in this expansion.
Paytm – Industry
According to a Statista study report, the fintech industry in India with the biggest growth potential is expected to be investment tech, which is expected to develop at a rate of 30% between 2022 and 2030. The financial software as a service industry is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27% during the same time frame. Based on an informative analysis by Statista, the country’s fintech business is expected to be valued at over $2 trillion USD in 2030, indicating a dynamic and booming ecosystem.
Paytm – Founder and Team
Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Co-Founder and CEO of Paytm
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder and CEO of Paytm, made significant strides in the business world, earning recognition and accolades for his entrepreneurial prowess. In 2017, Forbes named him the youngest billionaire in India, putting his net worth at $1.3 billion. A notable winner of the Uttar Pradesh government’s highest civilian award, the Yash Bharati, Sharma cemented his standing in the corporate world. He was listed as the 62nd richest person in India by Forbes in 2020.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma started his academic career at Delhi College of Engineering, where he studied electronics and communications for his B.E. His career path led him through roles such as Business Development at RiverRun Software Group and Tech Head at India Today Group Online. Eventually, he founded One97 Communications Limited, the parent company of Paytm, and further expanded his influence by founding Paytm Payments Bank.
Sharma’s impressive career path highlights his business savvy and enduring influence on the financial technology scene in India.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s entrepreneurial journey commenced in Aligarh, where his middle-class upbringing instilled determination and resilience. Vijay was educated in Hindi, so he had to overcome a language barrier. Nevertheless, he performed well academically and was accepted to Delhi College of Engineering, where he eventually received a B.E. in Electronics and Communications Engineering.
Vijay’s entrepreneurial journey began when he created indiasite.net while still a college student in 1997. His ambition persisted even after selling the website after two years. He established One97 Communications in 2000 and provides services for mobile content. This business endeavor served as an introduction to Paytm, which began operations in 2010 in Noida with a $2 million initial investment. Under Vijay’s inspiring direction, Paytm quickly changed from a distributor of mobile entertainment to a pioneer in digital payments in India.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s startup story not only encapsulates his personal journey of overcoming challenges but also mirrors the transformative growth and impact of Paytm on India’s fintech landscape.
Paytm – Mission and Vision
Mission: The company mission on its website is “We will bring Half-a-Billion Indians to the Mainstream Economy.”
Vision: The company vision is to become India’s leading payments App.
Paytm – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Paytm Logo
Paytm is a venture under the umbrella of its parent company, One 97 Communications.
Paytm – Products and Services
Paytm Mall Launch (February 2017): Paytm introduced Paytm Mall in February 2017 as part of a calculated effort to break into the eCommerce space. Alibaba provided an initial $200 million capital infusion to Paytm Mall, which was then able to maintain steady backing from Ant Financial and Alibaba in order to strengthen the Paytm wallet.
Contactless In-Store Ordering Innovation (April 2020): Paytm introduced the concept of ‘contactless in-store ordering’ to promote minimal physical contact in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This initiative aimed to redefine the retail experience and enhance safety measures.
Paytm Contactless Ordering
Mini App Store Introduction (October 5, 2020): In an attempt to counter the Google Play Store’s hegemony in the digital space, Paytm launched a micro app store to assist Indian app developers and entrepreneurs.
Card SoundBox Design Launch (July, 2023): Paytm unveiled the Card Soundbox, a revolutionary device empowering merchants to seamlessly accept mobile and card payments across various networks, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and RuPay. The device simplifies transactions with a convenient ‘tap and pay’ feature, showcasing Paytm’s commitment to innovative payment solutions.
Pioneering India’s QR and mobile payments revolution, Paytm’s business model centers on advancing financial inclusion through a broad spectrum of payments and financial services. The key components of this model can be summarized as follows:
Comprehensive Payments Ecosystem: The core of Paytm’s business model is to attract merchants and customers by offering a wide range of payment options. With UPI acting as a low-cost acquisition channel, the platform cross-sells high-margin banking and merchant services by utilizing insights.
Empowering Customers: In addition to Paytm Payment Instruments, Paytm offers a variety of third-party payment choices, such as cards and online banking, to empower its users. They make it easier to pay for things online, promoting convenience with the Paytm app and allowing QR code-based in-store and third-party app transactions.
Subscription-Led Ecosystem for Merchants: Paytm provides its partners with technology tools so they may take payments using a variety of methods. Reconciliations are made easier by subscription-based devices, and beginning merchants can accept payments using a free mobile QR code, mostly using Paytm Payment Instruments or UPI.
Merchant Growth Through Platform Engagement: When customers use the platform’s payment options, it encourages merchants to sign up as well, which feeds back into itself and results in a high volume of repeat business. Significant consumer stickiness and retention are fueled by this combination.
Paytm – Revenue Model
Paytm generates revenue through a diversified set of streams, some of the prominent one are listed below:
Profitable UPI Use: Paytm makes money through the widely-used Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Monetization avenues: Paytm makes money on its platform through selling of loans and payment devices, as well as from subscription revenue, payment processing fees, and marketing services it offers to other companies via its Commerce and Cloud business.
Co-Branded Credit Cards: Co-branded credit card partnerships with banks such as SBI and HDFC generate income from upfront distribution and lifetime usage fees.
Diverse Revenue Streams: Paytm’s strong business strategy guarantees profits from non-UPI and UPI transactions, resulting in a steady and stable flow of income.
Paytm – ESOPs
As of August 15, 2021, 166 former and current workers of Paytm who exercised their options under the ESOP Scheme 2008 and ESOP Scheme 2009 have received approximately 10,11,582 equity shares valued at Rs 189 crore. This action is a component of Paytm’s continuous dedication to appreciating and thanking its employees. Employee incentives were further enhanced by the company’s May 2022 grant of stock options valued estimates at Rs 222 crore under the ESOP plan.
Furthermore, Paytm revealed the granting of 17,06,829 stock options through the ‘One 97 Employees Stock Option Scheme 2019’ to eligible employees. By providing perks to qualified workers, this program seeks to increase their involvement in the expansion of the business.
Based on the stock prices of One97 Communications of July, 2023, Fintrackr has estimated that the total value of the new ESOPs given by the company is around Rs 145 crore. Paytm’s attempts to promote employee involvement and connect their interests with the company’s long-term development are in line with this strategic allocation of equity shares.
Paytm – Challenges Faced
Paytm has encountered a series of challenges as it sought to reshape the cultural landscape of India, where both internet access and smartphones were once deemed unaffordable. The company has faced hurdles included critical issues such as transaction glitches, advertising missteps, and even a trademark infringement case against the Paytm brand.
In 2018, Paytm faced a significant challenge when its e-commerce arm, Paytm Mall, allegedly experienced a major data breach on August 30. Firefox Monitor reports state that the hacked data included sensitive information such phone numbers, email addresses, and dates of birth for approximately 3.4 million clients. However, according to reports dated July 28, 2022, Paytm denied these allegations and insisted that all users’ data was secure.
On September 18, 2020, the Google Play Store abruptly removed the Paytm app, purportedly for breaking rules regarding unlicensed gambling apps.
As for 2022, on August 1, 2022, reports surfaced that three Paytm employees had burned PhonePe QR codes in bulk. This presented a new challenge. PhonePe responded by reporting the incident to the police.
When the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting new clients owing to supervisory concerns, the bank faced a major obstacle in the regulatory environment of 2022.
Ultimately, Paytm made strategic steps to optimize costs in 2023 in response to financial concerns. On December 25, 2023, a news source stated that the corporation has started a workforce reduction program, with at least 1,000 employees being let go from a variety of divisions. This action showed the company’s dedication to solving problems by maximizing staff expenses.
In the wake of the Reserve Bank of India’s proceedings against Paytm Payments Bank, Paytm is facing regulatory issues. Because of continuous non-compliance and supervisory concerns, the RBI has prohibited fresh deposits from March 15, 2024, as per news report of February 18, 2024. This emphasizes how important it is for the fintech industry to follow regulations.
Paytm – Funding and Investors
The company has raised funding of around $3.54 billion over 15 rounds of funding.
Here are some of the most prominent funding rounds for Paytm:
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
November 2019
Series G
$1 billion
T Rowe Price
August 2018
–
$356 million
Berkshire Hathaway
February 2017
Funding Round
$29.64 million
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
March 2015
Secondary Market
–
–
February 2015
Private Equity Round
–
–
January 2014
Series A
–
–
Paytm – Investments
Paytm has invested in 19 companies to date. The Indian fintech unicorn further revealed on May 21, 2022, that it would be investing a total of Rs 950 crore in Paytm General Insurance Limited (PGIL) in multiple tranches over the next 10 years.
Here’s a list of the prominent investments in Paytm:
Company Name
Funding Amount
Funding Round
Lead Investor
Date
Fable Fintech
–
Series A
–
June 2, 2021
Rooter
$1.7 million
Seed Round
Yes
May 4, 2020
HungerBox
$12 million
Series C
–
December 17, 2019
Infinity Infoway
–
Corporate Round
Yes
December 3, 2019
HungerBox
$8.1 million
Series C
–
August 20, 2019
TapChief
$650K
Seed Round
–
June 26, 2019
HungerBox
$15 million
Series C
Yes
May 27, 2019
Paytm Entertainment
$9 million
Venture Round
Yes
June 26, 2018
Paytm Money
$1.3 million
Venture Round
Yes
June 6, 2018
Paytm Payments Bank
Rs 122 crore
Venture Round
–
November 23, 2017
Exit
The company has exited from four companies: Little, CreditMate, TapChief, and AbhiBus.
Paytm – Acquisitions
Here are the notable acquisitions made by Paytm:
Acquired
Date
Amount
CreditMate
October 4, 2021
–
Balance
August 9, 2018
–
NightStay
July 3, 2018
$20 million
Cube26
June 19, 2018
–
TicketNew
May 23, 2018
$40 million
Nearbuy
November 13, 2017
–
Little
November 13, 2017
–
Insider.in
June 20, 2017
$5.42 million
Shopsity
November 11, 2016
–
Edukart
September 26, 2016
–
Paytm – Growth
Since its establishment in August 2010, Paytm has firmly established itself as the most popular payments app in India, routinely ranking among the top UPI apps in the nation.
Furthermore, as per the company’s records with the Registrar of Companies, Paytm has rebranded itself as “Pai Platforms” in a calculated move, according to news dated February 9, 2024. This development is consistent with the company’s resolve to innovate and adjust to the changing Indian digital market environment.
Some of the prominent company’s growth highlights are:
Paytm monthly active users surpasses 10 crore as per the news report of January 23, 2024.
As of January 2024, Paytm boasts over 300 million wallets and 30 million bank accounts, reflecting widespread adoption.
Paytm revealed that merchants’ Gross Merchandise Values (GMV) increased by an astounding 39% year over year to Rs 1.47 lakh crore as per news report of August 2023.
Merchant subscriptions experienced substantial growth, reaching 82 lakh, with an addition of 41 lakh new subscriptions as per news report of August 2023.
The number of monthly users on the platform increased significantly by 19%, to an astounding 9.3 crore as per news report of August, 2023.
The user base of Paytm exceeded 58 million account holders as of March 2022, highlighting its continuous growth and popularity in the digital payments landscape.
Paytm became India’s first payment app to cross 10 crore app downloads in 2017, which was a major milestone.
Paytm Quarterly FY25 Financials
Paytm Quarterly FY25 Financials
Q3FY24
Q3FY25
Operating Revenue
INR 2850 crore
INR 1828 crore
Total Expenses
INR 3216 crore
INR 2220 crore
Profit/Loss
INR -222 crore
INR -208 crore
Paytm Quarterly FY25 Financials
In Q3FY25, Paytm reported an operating revenue of INR 1828 crore, down from INR 2850 crore in Q3FY24. Total expenses also reduced from INR 3216 crore to INR 2220 crore. As a result, net loss improved slightly from INR 222 crore in Q3FY24 to INR 208 crore in Q3FY25.
According to the news report of January 19, 2024, the company’s income from operations increased by 13.2% to INR 2,850.5 crore in the third quarter of the fiscal year that ends in March 2024, from Rs 2,518.6 crore in Q2 FY24. When compared to Rs 2,062.2 crore in Q3 FY23, the operating revenue grew by 38.2%.
Comparing Q3 FY24 to Q2 FY24, the company’s overall expenses increased to INR 3,216.3 crore from INR 2,936.7 crore. Interestingly, Paytm’s losses in Q3 FY24 dropped to INR 221.7 crore from INR 291.7 crore in Q2 FY24, a 24% decrease.
Expenses Breakdown FY22-FY23
Paytm Expenses Breakdown
FY22
FY23
Payment Processing
Rs 2,454 crore
Rs 2,958 crore
Employee Benefits
Rs 2,432 crore
Rs 3,788 crore
Marketing and Promotions
Rs 855 crore
Rs 1,076 crore
IT Infrastructure
Rs 500 crore
Rs 694 crore
Others
Rs 1,360 crore
Rs 1,624 crore
EBITDA FY22-FY23
Paytm FY22-FY23
FY22
FY23
EBITDA Margin
-38.95%
-14.54%
Expense/Rs of Op Revenue
Rs 1.53
Rs 1.27
ROCE
-15.67%
-12.66%
Paytm – Sponsorship
Paytm has emerged as the official sponsor of the 37th National Games, which took place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, South Goa, The competition was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We are excited to be the official sponsor for the National Games in Goa. As pioneers of mobile payments in India, we have been working towards our mission to bring half a billion Indians into the mainstream economy. From our leadership in in-store payments, empowering merchants with digitalization of their business to enabling users with seamless and accessible payments, we are championing Digital India.” said Abhay Sharma, Chief Business Officer.
BCCI awards Paytm the company its title sponsorship rights for BCCI International and Domestic seasons between 2019 and 2023. However, Paytm asked to pull out of the deal, and Mastercard replaced Paytm, as per the reports dated July 26, 2022.
Paytm was the associate sponsor of the Sony TV network, which was awarded the telecast rights of IPL.
Paytm – IPO
One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, filed a draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India in July 2021, indicating its intention to begin an initial public offering (IPO), which was a big step toward becoming public.
Then, in November 2021, Paytm pulled off a successful IPO, raising a whopping Rs 18,300 crore (US $2.3 billion) and reaching a US $20 billion valuation. This accomplishment represented a turning point in the business’s history, demonstrating the trust of investors and adding to the changing Indian financial market environment.
Paytm – Value Proposition
Paytm’s primary service proposition was initially centered around recharging, which remains a prominent aspect of its business. Over time, the company diversified its services, introducing the Paytm Wallet, e-commerce vertical, Digital Gold, and more.
Paytm creates value for Merchants
The company adds value to businesses by providing a variety of digital payment methods, encompassing traditional options like debit and credit cards and innovative solutions like QR codes, email links, text messages, and its digital wallet. Additionally, Paytm supplies the necessary hardware for in-store purchases and integrates payment services into its Smart Retail platform, offering retailers a comprehensive solution for managing payments, analytics, inventory, and customer engagement.
Paytm creates value for individuals
Paytm garnered recognition for empowering customers to go cashless without the hassles of opening a bank account, generating value for consumers in a nation where cash payments have historically been the norm.
Paytm – Awards and Achievements
Paytm has won numerous accolades. Following is a list of a few of the well-known ones:
2012: Paytm received the ‘Most Innovative Startup of the Year’ Award from Franchise India.
2013: The company was recognized with the Knowledge Fabre Best Mobile Wallet Program Award.
2014: Paytm achieved ‘Gold Winner’ at the MMA Smarties in the Mobile App category and was the winner of the Indian Express IT Award.
2015: Paytm secured the Best Digital Wallet Award at IAMAI India Digital Award.
2016: Paytm was the winner of the FT Future of Fintech Award and also received the ET Brand Equity Most Trusted Brand of the Year.
2017: Paytm was honored with the Diamond SABRE Award in the Company of the Year category at SABRE Awards.
Paytm – Partnerships
October 22, 2018: Paytm has collaborated with Softbank Group and Yahoo Japan to launch its e-wallet service in Japan called PayPay.
Paytm was also announced as the official partner of the Mumbai Indians.
June 22, 2020: Paytm partnered with Tata Starbucks on June 22, 2020, which is a pan-India partnership for a contactless dining solution.
February 26, 2021: Paytm and Ola partnered with IndusInd Bank and applied to the RBI for the NUE license.
April 19, 2021: Paytm saw a partnership with the Life Insurance Corporation of India to help facilitate digital payments.
July 19, 2021: Paytm partnered with IndusInd Bank to enable payments from the fixed deposit accounts held by the users of the latter.
August 23, 2021: Paytm partnered with HDFC Bank to provide solutions across payment gateways, POS machines, and other credit products.
September 27, 2021: Paytm brings real-time international remittances into the Paytm mobile wallet by partnering with Ria Money Transfer.
December 3, 2021: Paytm partnered with PMS Bazaar with a view to helping manage the portfolio of HNIs, who have a minimum investment of Rs 50 lakh.
November 15, 2023: Paytm has partnered with Amadeus, and for the next three years, it will include the travel technology company’s platform into search, booking, and payment processes.
In August 2024, Zomato acquired Paytm’s movie and event ticketing business for $244.2 million (20.5 billion rupees). This deal allows Zomato to expand its services beyond food delivery into ticketing. Paytm customers can still use their tickets for current and future events.
Paytm, an Indian digital payments company, is focusing on strengthening its core payment business, using new technologies like AI, and rebuilding trust with investors and regulators. It plans to cross-sell financial services, apply for a payment aggregator license from the RBI, and focus on distributing financial services for long-term growth. Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma emphasized a compliance-first approach for the company’s future success.
The company, known for its innovative financial services platform, is set to extend its footprint to the global market, signaling a significant leap in its reach and influence.
Notably, Paytm envisions not only broadening its geographical presence but also aspiring to become a leader in AI technology within the financial services sector.
FAQs
What is Paytm?
Paytm is an Indian digital payments and financial services company. It offers services like mobile payments, online shopping, ticket booking, and financial services such as loans and insurance. Founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm aims to simplify financial transactions for consumers and businesses.
Who is the current owner of Paytm?
Paytm is owned by the Indian company One97 Communications Ltd.
Is Paytm a Chinese company?
Paytm is an Indian company, but one of its major investors is Ant Financial, which is a major Chinese investor. Resilient Asset Management, wholly controlled by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, received a 10.3% shareholding in the Noida-based business from Ant Financial in 2023.
What is Paytm launch date in India?
Paytm was launched in 2010.
Why was Paytm banned?
Paytm was banned from the Play Store for allegedly violating its gambling policies.
Is Paytm for businesses free?
Yes, there are no charges for setting up your Paytm for Business account.
What is the Paytm CEO’s name?
The name of the Paytm CEO is Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who has been the founder and CEO of the company since it was founded back in 2010.
What is vision of Paytm?
Paytm vision is to become India’s leading payments App.
What is Paytm origin country?
Paytm is an Indian fintech company that specializes in digital payments and ecommerce and comes with the facility of digital wallets.
Paytm operates in how many countries?
Paytm currently operates in India, where the Paytm payments bank was founded, and in two other countries, namely Canada and Japan, as of now.
Which country made or developed the Paytm app?
Paytm is developed in India, and the development of Paytm and its processes happens internally. Therefore, even the Paytm app and numerous other things associated with the brand and its functioning are developed internally by the brand itself.
Is Paytm profitable?
In Q3FY25, Paytm reported an operating revenue of INR 1828 crore, down from INR 2850 crore in Q3FY24. Total expenses also reduced from INR 3216 crore to INR 2220 crore. As a result, net loss improved slightly from INR 222 crore in Q3FY24 to INR 208 crore in Q3FY25.
What are the countries where Paytm is available?
Though Paytm is an Indian company, it supports international payments from over 200 countries with the help of all major international cards, even without any additional API integration.
By offering 2.03 Lakh (2,03,137) stock options under its ESOP Plan 2019, Paytm has increased the scope of its employee stock option plan (ESOP). The company stated in an exchange filing on January 17 that it would like to notify the exchange that 2,03,137 stock options have been granted to eligible employees under the One 97 Employees Stock Option Scheme 2019 (“ESOP 2019”) by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the Board of the Company (“Committee”) at its meeting on January 17, 2025.
The business added that each stock option has the potential to be converted into a single, fully paid-up equity share, each of which has a face value of INR 1. The projected total value of these stock options is INR 18.27 Cr, based on Paytm’s stock closing price of INR 899.65 a share on Friday. Paytm reported the cancellation or lapse of 17,68,469 stock options in addition to the fresh ones. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the ESOP 2019 plan, this includes the cancellation of 44,848 stock options.
Various ESOP Pool Launched by Paytm
Paytm distributed 1.48 lakh equity shares to qualified workers earlier this month through a number of employee stock option plan (ESOP) programs. In recent months, Paytm has witnessed a number of ESOP-related changes. Under its ESOP 2019 and ESOP 2008 schemes, the fintech giant distributed 2.44 lakh equity shares to qualified employees in December 2024. In November 2024, it additionally reserved 4 lakh equity shares under ESOP 2019 for its qualified employees. In addition, eight Paytm representatives reached a settlement with the market watchdog. These individuals settled the matter by paying a cumulative sum of INR 3.32 Cr, without acknowledging or denying the findings of SEBI.
Paytm’s Current Financial Outlook
In terms of finances, the fintech giant made money in the second quarter of FY25, reporting a net profit of INR 930 Cr as opposed to a loss of INR 292 Cr in the same period last year. Profitability resulted from the business selling Paytm Insider, its ticketing division, to Zomato for INR 2,048 Cr during the September quarter. For INR 2,364 Cr ($279.19 Mn) in the December quarter, Paytm sold SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 its stock acquisition rights (SARs) in the Japanese digital payments company PayPay Corporation. On January 20, the business is scheduled to release its Q3 FY25 financial results.
For $279.2 million, the Singapore-based affiliate of Paytm recently sold Softbank Vision Fund 2 all of its stock acquisition rights in Japan’s PayPay. As Paytm strives to reduce operations to concentrate on its main business in India, the sale is anticipated to enhance the company’s consolidated cash balance.
One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, has distributed 2.44 lakh equity shares to qualified workers through its different employee stock ownership programmes (ESOPs). During its meeting on December 5, 2024, the company’s nomination and remuneration committee approved the distribution of 244,801 equity shares with a face value of INR 1 each, fully paid up, to eligible employees upon exercise of vested options, according to a filing made by Paytm. Of these, 2,006 shares were distributed under ESOP 2008, while 242,795 shares were awarded under the ESOP 2019 programme. The company’s issued and paid-up equity share capital has increased from INR 63.71 Cr to INR 63.73 Cr (or INR 63,73,82,630 to be exact) as a result of this allocation. The newly allotted shares are worth INR 23.41 Cr based on the stock’s most recent closing price on 5 December 2024.
Giving ESOPs in Massive Capacities
Paytm has been giving out ESOPs in large quantities at the moment. The fintech giant gave its staff members 4 lakh stock options in November. Before that, in October, it granted 4.81 lakh stock options, increasing the size of its ESOP pool. Shares of Paytm have been rising recently. Several broking firms praised the company for reducing losses and increasing income, and a few days ago, the stock reached a new 52-week high of INR 951.90 per share.
Bernstein also boosted its price objective for Paytm from INR 750 per share to INR 1,000, while UBS lifted its price goal from INR 490 per share to INR 1,000. Paytm has unveiled UPI Lite, a new Unified Payments Interface (UPI) product that enables users to set up pin-free automated top-ups for daily payments under INR 500.
Current Financial Dynamics of Paytm
In contrast to the INR 292 Cr loss reported in the same period last year, Paytm declared a consolidated profit after tax (PAT) of INR 930 Cr in the September quarter (Q2) of the fiscal year ending March 2025 (FY25). However, a one-time exceptional gain of INR 1,345 Cr from the sale of its entertainment ticketing business was the reason for the profit. From INR 2,519 Cr in Q2 FY24 to INR 1,660 Cr during the quarter, revenue from operations fell 34% year over year (YoY). On December 5, Paytm’s stock ended the day 1.8% higher on the BSE at INR 956.5.
ESOP’s Popularity is Rising in India’s Startup Sector
As part of their initiatives to reward staff, several modern internet businesses have issued ESOPs this year, including Delhivery, Nykaa, ixigo, and ideaForge, among others. The travel tech business ixigo gave 17.57 lakh stock options last month, while logistics giant Delhivery increased its ESOP pool by allocating 73K stock options. Only a few days after raising INR 8,500 Cr through the placement of eligible institutions—its first significant fundraising effort since its 2021 IPO—Zomato announced its ESOP.
Paytm’s parent company, One 97 Communications Limited (OCL), declared on 25 November that Paytm UPI Lite now offers automatic top-up. In order to ensure smooth small-value transactions without requiring a PIN, the feature will enable users to immediately replenish their UPI Lite balance when it drops below a predetermined level. It is perfect for regular daily payments because it allows payments of up to INR 500 each transaction and has a daily cap of INR 2000.
By doing away with the requirement for a PIN, Paytm UPI Lite simplifies everyday activities like managing subscriptions, paying for transportation, buying groceries, and paying small invoices. Because regular payments are handled via an on-device wallet rather than gaining direct access to the primary bank account, it helps keep bank accounts clear of congestion.
UPI Statement Download Feature
A UPI statement download tool has also been added by the firm, allowing users to view and download comprehensive records of all UPI transactions, including those done through Paytm UPI Lite. According to the firm, the Paytm UPI Lite auto top-up feature is currently available for a limited number of users on Yes Bank and Axis Bank accounts and will shortly be extended to all consumers and the remaining partner banks.
According to a Paytm spokeswoman, the addition of automatic top-up to Paytm UPI Lite speeds up and simplifies daily payments for everything from daily meals and tea to bus, subway, and car rides. It ensures that tiny, regular transactions don’t overtake the main bank statement by keeping it clear of clutter. Users can efficiently track and manage all of their payments with the Paytm app’s comprehensive UPI statement, which also includes Paytm UPI Lite expenditures.
Paytm’s Partners
To facilitate UPI payments, Paytm has worked with institutions such as State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, and Yes Bank. For peer-to-peer transactions, online and offline payments, self-account transfers, and account balance checks, the platform lets users link their bank accounts and get UPI IDs. It improves the entire payment experience by providing auto-pay, RuPay Credit Card linkage on UPI, and UPI Lite for small-value transactions. According to Paytm, the platform has expanded its reach by enabling international UPI payments in countries including the UAE, Singapore, France, Mauritius, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal where UPI is accepted.
By enabling cashless payments for dining or shopping, the international UPI service streamlines spending at well-known locations across the globe. As leaders in mobile payments, Paytm is excited to provide its services to Indian tourists, particularly as the holiday season draws near, a Paytm representative stated. The company’s dedication to empowering users anywhere in the world is demonstrated by this invention.
Nitin Konde
