Tag: startup ecosystem in India

  • List of 118 Unicorn Startups in India and Counting | 2025 Updated

    India is becoming the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem with 118 Unicorn Startups, as of January 2025. In today’s world, unicorn startups are 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).

    Startup Name Industry Founding Year Unicorn Entry Year Profit/Loss Current Valuation Acquisitions Status
    Netradyne AI, SaaS, Fleet Management 2015 2025 $1.34 Billion Private
    Moneyview FinTech 2014 2024 $19.4 Million $1.2 Billion 1 Private
    Ather Energy Electric Motor Vehicle Manufacturing 2013 2024 -$102.9 Million $1.3 Billion Private
    Rapido Transportation, Mobility Tech 2015 2024 -$52.4 Million $1 Billion 2 Private
    Porter Logistics 2014 2024 -$2.10 Million $1 Billion Acquired/Merged
    RateGain SaaS, Travel Tech 2004 2024 $17.13 $1 Billion 4 Public
    Perfios SaaS, Fintech 2008 2024 0.94 Million $1 Billion 3 Private
    Krutrim Research Services, AI 2023 2024 $1 Billion Private
    Zepto Quick Commerce 2021 2023 -$47.1 Million $1.4 Billion Private
    Molbio Diagnostics HealthTech, MedTech 2010 2022 NA $1.5 Billion 1 Private
    Tata 1mg HealthTech 2015 2022 -$65 Million $1.25 Billion Acquired
    Shiprocket Logistics 2017 2022 -$11.67 Million $1.3 Billion 5 Private
    5ire Fintech 2021 2022 NA $1.5 Billion 1 Private
    OneCard Fintech 2018 2022 -$22.8 Million $1.4 Billion 0 Private
    PhysicsWallah Edtech 2016 2022 $16.4 Million $1.1 Billion 6 Private
    LeadSquared SaaS- CRM 2011 2022 -$7.7 Million $1 Billion Private
    ElasticRun E-commerce Logistics 2015 2022 -$45.1 Million $1.5 Billion Private
    LEAD Edtech 2012 2022 -$49.6 Million $1.1 Billion 2 Private
    Purplle E-commerce Personal Care 2012 2022 -$25 Million $1.1 Billion 1 Private
    DealShare E-commerce 2018 2022 -$53.8 Million $1.7 Billion 0 Private
    Xpressbees E-commerce Logistics 2015 2022 -$3.39 Million $1.2 Billion 1 Private
    Open Fintech 2017 2022 -$20.9 Million $1 Billion 2 Private
    Games24x7 Gaming 2006 2022 -$39 Million $2.5 Billion 0 Private
    Amagi Media, Advertising 2008 2022 NA $1.4 Billion 1 Private
    Fractal SaaS- Analytics 2000 2022 -$18.4 Billion $1 Billion 7 Private
    Darwinbox SaaS- HR 2015 2022 -$7.6 Million $1 Billion 0 Private
    Livspace E-commerce Interior Design 2014 2022 -$51 Million $1.2 Billion 4 Private
    Uniphore SaaS- Conversational Automation 2008 2022 NA $2.5 Billion 5 Private
    Hasura SaaS- Programming Tools 2017 2022 NA $1 Billion 0 Private
    Yubi (Formerly CredAvenue) Fintech 2017 2022 -$7 million $1.5 Billion 3 Private
    CommerceIQ E-commerce Management Platform 2012 2022 NA $1 Billion 0 Private
    Oxyzo Fintech 2016 2022 $8.6 Million $1 Billion 0 Private
    Moglix E-commerce 2015 2021 -$2.5 Million $2.6 Billion 2 Private
    NoBroker PropTech 2014 2021 NA $1 Billion 1 Private
    MobiKwik Fintech 2009 2021 -$16 Million $0.9 Billion 1 Private
    Spinny Automotive, E-commerce 2015 2021 -$61.2 Million $1.75 Billion 3 Private
    MPL ESports 2018 2021 -$56 Million $2.3 Billion 3 Private
    Acko Insurtech 2016 2021 -$45.1 Million $1.1 Billion 2 Private
    ShareChat Media & Entertainment 2015 2021 -$373 Million $5 Billion 6 Private
    Eruditus Edtech 2010 2021 -$386.8 Million $3.2 Billion 1 Private
    upGrad Edtech 2015 2021 -$78.3 Million $2.25 Billion 14 Private
    Apna Marketplace- Employment 2019 2021 -$14 Million $1.1 Billion 0 Private
    Urban Company Home Services 2014 2021 -$64 Million $2.8 Billion 3 Private
    BharatPe Fintech Payments 2018 2021 -$702 Million $2.9 Billion 2 Private
    CarDekho E-commerce Automotives 2007 2021 -$29 Million $1.2 Billion 3 Private
    Licious E-commerce Meat Products 2015 2021 -$106 Million $1.5 Billion 0 Private
    Zetwerk Manufacturing 2018 2021 -$10.4 Million $2.7 Billion 4 Private
    Meesho E-commerce 2015 2021 -$406 Million $4.9 Billion 0 Private
    Blinkit (ex-Grofers) E-commerce- Groceries 2013 2021 -$127 Million $0.568 Billion Acquired
    Pristyn Care Healthtech 2018 2021 NA $1.4 Billion 1 Private
    Vedantu Edtech 2011 2021 -$87 Million $1 Billion 3 Private
    Upstox Fintech 2010 2021 -$55.5 Million $3.4 Billion 0 Private
    Slice Fintech 2016 2021 -$31 Million $1.5 Billion 1 Private
    CRED Financial Technology 2018 2021 -$160 Million $6.4 Billion 4 Private
    Cult.fit Healthtech 2016 2021 -$85 Million $1.5 Billion 14 Private
    Mamaearth E-commerce Personal Care 2016 2021 $2.8 Million $1.2 Billion 4 Private
    Infra.Market B2B E-commerce 2016 2021 $28.3 Million $2.5 Billion 3 Private
    Five Star Business Finance Financial Services 1984 2021 $1.4 Billion 0 Listed
    OfBusiness Building Materials 2015 2021 $34.4 Million $4.8 Billion 1 Private
    CoinSwitch Kuber Cryptocurrencies 2017 2021 NA $1.9 Billion 0 Private
    CoinDCX Cryptocurrency Exchange 2018 2021 $5.1 Million $2.15 Billion 0 Private
    BlackBuck Logistics 2015 2021 -$35 Million $1.02 Billion 0 Private
    Droom Marketplace- Automotives 2014 2021 -$17 Million $1.2 Billion 1 Private
    PharmEasy Online Pharmacy 2015 2021 NA $5.6 Billion 3 Private
    MyGlamm (Good Glamm Group) Personal Care Marketplace 2015 2021 -$36 Million $1.2 Billion 7 Private
    Digit Insurance Insurance 2016 2021 NA $4 Billion 1 Private
    Innovaccer Healthcare 2014 2021 NA $3.2 Billion 0 Private
    Groww Fintech 2017 2021 -$29.5 $3 Billion 1 Private
    Gupshup Enterprisetech 2004 2021 $7.06 Million $1.4 Billion 5 Private
    Chargebee Financial Services 2011 2021 $3.9 Million $3.5 Billion 3 Private
    Zeta Fintech 2015 2021 NA $1.5 Billion 0 Private
    BrowserStack Cloud Infrastructure and Software 2011 2021 $12.5 Million $4 Billion 3 Private
    Mohalla Tech (Moj) Software 2015 2021 NA $5 Billion 6 Private
    Polygon (Formerly Matic Network) Blockchain 2018 2021 NA $10 Billion 3 Private
    MindTickle Saas- Enterprise Software 2011 2021 $3.5 Million $1.2 Billion 1 Private
    Rebel Foods E-commerce Food Delivery 2011 2021 -$66.7 Million $1.4 Billion 1 Private
    Mensa Brands Ecommerce, Financial Services 2021 2021 -$12 Million $1.2 Billion 20 Private
    GlobalBees E-commerce Retail 2021 2021 -$4.4 Million $1.1 Billion 11 Private
    DailyHunt Media & Entertainment 2007 2020 $5 Billion 2 Private
    Unacademy Edtech 2015 2020 -$357 Million $3.4 Billion 12 Private
    Cars24 B2C E-commerce 2015 2020 -$31 Million $3.3 Billion 0 Private
    Glance, Inmobi Mobile Technology 2019 2020 NA $1.7 Billion 2 Private
    RazorPay Fintech 2014 2020 $1.14 Million $7.5 Billion 7 Private
    Zerodha Stockbroker 2010 2020 $349.9 Million $2 Billion 0 Private
    PhonePe Fintech 2015 2020 -$251.6 Million $12 Billion 6 Acquired by Flipkart
    FirstCry E-commerce 2010 2020 $6.39 Million $3 Billion 2 Public
    Nykaa E-commerce 2012 2020 $4.96 Million $4.44 Billion 6 Public
    Pine Labs Fintech 1998 2020 NA $5 Billion 6 Private
    HighRadius Fintech 2006 2020 NA $3.1 Billion 0 Private
    Verse Innovation Media & Entertainment 2007 2020 -$320 Million $5 Billion 3 Private
    Zenoti Saas- Spa and Salon Services 2010 2020 NA $1.5 Billion 1 Private
    Postman Saas- API Development and Testing 2014 2020 NA $5.6 Billion 0 Private
    Delhivery E-commerce Logistics Services 2011 2019 -$128 Million $3.27 Billion 5 Listed
    Icertis Saas- Contract Management 2009 2019 NA $5 Billion 0 Private
    Ola Electric Automotive 2017 2019 NA $5 Billion 1 Private
    Druva Saas- Data Management 2008 2019 NA $2 Billion 3 Acquired
    BigBasket E-commerce- Groceries 2011 2019 -$100 Million $3.2 Billion 6 Acquired
    Rivigo Logistics 2014 2019 -$21 Million $1.05 Billion 0 Private
    Lenskart E-commerce- Eyewear 2010 2019 -$13.4 Million $4.5 Billion 2 Private
    Dream11 Fantasy Sports 2008 2019 $37.8 Million $8 Billion 0 Private
    CitiusTech Healthcare Technology 2005 2019 NA $2.4 Billion 3 Private
    Freshworks SaaS – CRM 2010 2018 -$220 Million $4.53 Billion 13 Listed
    Udaan E-commerce 2016 2018 -$220.9 Million $3.1 Billion 0 Private
    OYO Travel Tech, Hospitality 2013 2018 -$263 Million $10 Billion 8 IPO-Bound
    Paytm Mall E-commerce 2017 2018 -$65.6 Million 0 Private
    Swiggy Foodtech 2014 2018 -$453 Million $5.5 Billion 6 Private
    BYJU’S Edtech 2011 2018 NA $5.1 Billion 19 Private
    Policybazaar Insurance company 2008 2018 -$104 Billion $3.38 Billion 0 Listed
    Billdesk Fintech 2000 2018 $27 Million $2 Billion 0 Private
    ReNew Power Renewable Energy 2011 2017 NA $8 Billion 3 Listed
    OLA Transport Tech 2010 2015 NA $7.4 Billion 8 IPO-Bound
    Zomato Foodtech 2008 2015 -$153 Million $5.4 Billion 15 Public
    Paytm E-commerce Finance 2010 2015 -$214 Million $16 Billion 12 Listed
    Mu Sigma SaaS- Analytics 2004 2013 NA $1.5 Billion 1 Unlisted
    Flipkart E-commerce 2007 2012 -$307 Million $37.6 Billion 18 Unlisted
    InMobi Adtech 2007 2011 -$9 Million $1 Billion 10 Unlisted
    MakeMyTrip Online Travel 2000 2010 -$56 Million $2.52 Billion 9 Listed

    Top Unicorn Startups in India as of 2024

    1. InMobi
    2. Flipkart
    3. BharatPe
    4. Dream11
    5. PhonePe
    6. BYJU’S
    7. OLA
    8. OYO Rooms
    9. Swiggy
    10. Zomato
    11. Freshworks
    12. Moglix
    13. upGrad
    14. MakeMyTrip
    15. Nykaa
    16. Policybazaar
    17. CoinDCX
    18. Pine Labs
    19. Highradius
    20. Zetwerk
    21. BlackBuck
    22. Droom
    23. OfBusiness
    24. ShareChat
    25. Verse Innovation
    26. PharmEasy
    27. MyGlamm
    28. CRED
    29. Meesho
    30. Urban Company
    31. Infra.Market
    32. Digit Insurance
    33. Innovaccer
    34. Five Star Business Finance
    35. Groww
    36. Gupshup
    37. Eruditus
    38. Chargebee
    39. Zeta
    40. BrowserStack
    41. Paytm
    42. Paytm Mall
    43. Zerodha
    44. ReNew Power
    45. BigBasket
    46. Udaan
    47. Ola Electric
    48. Mohalla Tech (Moj)
    49. FirstCry
    50. Lenskart
    51. Blinkit (ex-Grofers)
    52. Glance, Inmobi
    53. Dailyhunt
    54. Zenoti
    55. Cars24
    56. RazorPay
    57. Unacademy
    58. Postman
    59. CitiusTech
    60. Icertis
    61. Druva
    62. Rivigo
    63. Matic Network / Polygon
    64. MindTickle
    65. Delhivery
    66. Billdesk
    67. Mu Sigma
    68. Info Edge
    69. MPL
    70. Apna
    71. Vedantu
    72. Licious
    73. CoinSwitch Kuber
    74. Rebel Foods
    75. CarDekho
    76. MobiKwik
    77. Acko
    78. CureFit
    79. Mensa
    80. NoBroker
    81. Spinny
    82. Upstox
    83. Slice
    84. Pristyn Care
    85. GlobalBees
    86. Mamaearth
    87. Fractal Analytics
    88. LEAD School
    89. Darwinbox
    90. DealShare
    91. ElasticRun
    92. Livspace
    93. Xpressbees
    94. Uniphore
    95. Hasura
    96. CredAvenue
    97. Amagi
    98. CommerceIQ
    99. Oxyzo
    100. Games 24×7
    101. Open
    102. PhysicsWallah
    103. Purplle
    104. LeadSquared
    105. OneCard
    106. 5ire
    107. Shiprocket
    108. Tata 1mg
    109. Molbio Diagnostics
    110. Zepto
    111. Krutrim
    112. Perfios
    113. Porter
    114. Rapido
    115. Ather Energy
    116. Moneyview
    117. Netradyne

    Former Indian Unicorn Companies

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    Why Are There So Many Unicorn Startups in India?

    InMobi

    Startup Name InMobi
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Industry Advertising, Digital Media
    Founders 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.

    Flipkart

    Startup Name Flipkart
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
    Industry Ecommerce, Marketplace
    Founders Binny Bansal, Sachin Bansal
    Founded 2007
    Investors Walmart, Tencent, Softbank and more
    Products and Services 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

    Startup Name Bharatpe
    Headquarters New Delhi, India
    Industry Payments platform, Fintech, Financial Services
    Founders Ashneer Grover, Bhavik Koladiya, Shashvat Nakrani
    Founded 2018
    Investors Steadfast Capital, Coatue, Dragoneer, Sequoia
    Products and Services Payments App
    Valuation $2.85 billion (February 2022)

    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.

    Dream11

    Startup Name Dream11
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Fantasy Sports, IT
    Founders Bhavit Sheth, Harsh Jain
    Founded 2008
    Investors 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

    Startup Name PhonePe
    Headquarters Andheri, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Fintech, Mobile Payments
    Founders Burzin Engineer, Rahul Chari, Sameer Nigam
    Founded 2015
    Investors Flipkart, Walmart
    Products and Services Phonepe payments app
    Valuation $5.5 billion (December 2020)

    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

    Startup Name BYJUS
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Industry Edtech, Distance education, M-learning
    Founder Byju Raveendran & Divya Gokulnath
    Founded 2011
    Investors Aarin Capital, BOND
    Products and Services BYJU’S – The Learning App
    Valuation $16.5 Billion (July 2021)

    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.

    OLA

    Startup Name Ola
    Headquarters Bangalore, India
    Industry Transportation
    Founder Bhavish Aggarwal & Ankit Bhati
    Founded 3 December 2010
    Investors 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.


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    OYO Rooms

    Startup Name OYO Rooms
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry Hospitality
    Founder Ritesh Agarwal
    Founded 2013
    Investors 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.

    Swiggy

    Startup Name Swiggy
    Headquarters Bangalore, India
    Industry Retail
    Founder Nandan Reddy, Sriharsha Majety, and Rahul Jaimini
    Founded 2014
    Investors 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.


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    Zomato

    Startup Name Zomato
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry Online food ordering and Retail
    Founder Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddah
    Founded 2008
    Investors Info Edge, Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital, Ant Financial, Baillie Gifford
    Products and Services Restaurant Search & Discovery, Online Ordering, Table Reservations & Management, POS Systems, Subscription Services
    Valuation $8 billion (July 2021)

    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.


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    Freshworks

    Startup Name Freshworks
    Headquarters San Mateo, California, United States
    Industry IT, CRM, Saas
    Founders Girish Mathrubootham, Shan Krishnasamy, Vijay Shankar
    Founded 2010
    Investors Accel, Steadview Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management
    Products and Services CRM software, Software suite
    Valuation $3.5 billion (August 2021)

    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

    Startup Name Moglix
    Headquarter India
    Industry Internet
    Founder Rahul Garg
    Founded 2015
    Investors Tiger Global Management, Composite Capital Management, Sequoia Capital India and Harvard Management Company
    Products and Services B2B Trade Platform, e-commerce, Mobile, Supply Chain Network
    Valuation $2.6 Billion (January 2022)

    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

    Startup Name upGrad
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Edtech, E-learning
    Founder Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, Ravijot Chugh, Ronnie Screwvala
    Founded 2015
    Investors IIFL, Temasek Holdings
    Products and Services Learning courses and materials
    Valuation $1.2 bn (August 2021)

    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.

    MakeMyTrip

    Startup Name MakeMyTrip
    Industry Online travel
    Founder Deep Kalra
    Founded 2000
    Investors 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.


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    Nykaa

    Startup Name Nykaa
    Industry E-commerce
    Founder Falguni Nayar
    Founded 2012
    Investors 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.

    Policybazaar

    Startup Name Policy Bazaar
    Industry Insurance Company
    Founder Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar
    Founded 2008
    Investors 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

    Startup Name CoinDCX
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Fintech
    Founder Neeraj Khandelwal, Sumit Gupta
    Founded 2018
    Investors B Capital Group, Polychain
    Products and Services Cryptocurrency buying, selling and exchange services
    Valuation $2+ billion (April 2022)

    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.


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    Pine Labs

    Startup Name Pine Labs
    Headquarters Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
    Industry Fintech, Financial Services, Payments
    Founders Rajul Garg, Tarun Upaday
    Founded 1998
    Investors 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

    Startup Name Zetwerk
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
    Industry B2B, Marketplace, Consumer goods
    Founders Amrit Acharya, Rahul Sharma, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Vishal Chaudhary
    Founded 2018
    Investors IIFL, Accel, Sequoia Capital
    Products and Services Manufacturing and supply chain systems
    Valuation $1.33+ bn (December 2021)

    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.

    BlackBuck

    Startup Name BlackBuck
    Headquarters Bangalore, India
    Industry Logistics, Transportation
    Founders 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.

    Droom

    Startup Name Droom
    Headquarters Haryana, India
    Industry Automotives, B2B, Marketplace
    Founder Sandeep Aggarwal
    Founded 2014
    Investors 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.


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    OfBusiness

    Startup Name OfBusiness
    Headquarters Haryana, India
    Industry Building Materials, FinTech
    Founders Asish Mohapatra, Bhuvan Gupta, Chandranshu Sinha, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Vasant Sridhar
    Founded 2015
    Investors Falcon Edge Capital, Softbank, Matrix Partners
    Products and Services Raw materials for SMEs
    Valuation $5+ billion (December 2021)

    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.

    ShareChat

    Startup Name ShareChat
    Headquarter Bangalore, India
    Industry 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.

    PharmEasy

    Startup Name PharmEasy
    Industry Healthcare and Online Pharmacy
    Founder Mikhil Innani, Dharmil Sheth and Dhaval Shah
    Founded 2015
    Investors 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.

    CRED

    Startup Name CRED
    Industry Financial Technology
    Founder Kunal Shah
    Founded 2018
    Investors Falcon Edge Capital, Coatue Mnagement LLP, Insight Partners, Tiger Global, RTP Global, DST Global, Greenoaks Capital, etc.
    Products and Services 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

    Startup Name Meesho
    Industry E-commerce
    Founder Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal
    Founded 2015
    Investors Softbank, Facebook, Prosus Ventures, Shunwei Capital, venture highway and Knollwood Investment
    Products and Services Clothes, cosmetics, household items, etc
    Valuation $4.9 billion (September 2021)

    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.

    Urban Company

    Startup Name Urban Company
    Industry Home Services
    Founder Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra
    Founded 2014
    Investors Prosus Ventures, Dragoneer, Wellington Management, Vy Capital, Tiger Global, and Steadview
    Products and Services 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.

    Infra.Market

    Startup Name Infra.Market
    Industry Building material
    Founder Souvik Sengupta
    Founded 2016
    Investors Nexus Venture Partners, Foundamental, Tiger Global, Accel Partner
    Products and Services 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

    Digit Insurance

    Startup Name Digit Insurance
    Industry Insurance
    Founder Kamesh Goyal
    Founded 2017
    Investors Sequoia Capital, IIFL Alternate Asset Managers, Fearing Capital, TVS Capital, etc
    Products and Services 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.


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    Five Star Business Finance

    Startup Name Five Star Business Finance
    Industry Financial Services
    Founder V.K Ranganathan
    Founded 1984
    Investors 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.

    Groww

    Startup Name Groww
    Industry Financial Technology
    Founder Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal, and Neeraj Singh
    Founded 2017
    Investors Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, YC Continuity, Kauffman Fellows, Insignia Venture Partners and Propel Venture Partners
    Products and Services 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.

    Gupshup

    Startup Name Gupshup
    Industry Software
    Founder Beerud Sheth
    Founded 2004
    Investors 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

    Startup Name Eruditus
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Edtech, Education
    Founder Ashwin Damera, Chaitanya Kalipatnapu
    Founded 2010
    Investors Accel, Softbank Vision Fund, Prosus Ventures
    Products and Services Education, E-learning
    Valuation $2.5 billion

    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!

    Chargebee

    Startup Name Chargebee
    Industry Financial services
    Founder Krish Subramanian
    Founded 2011
    Investors Sapphire Ventures, Tiger Global, Insight Venture Partners
    Products and Services 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.

    Zeta

    Startup Name Zeta
    Industry Financial Technology
    Founder Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati
    Founded 2015
    Investors SoftBank, Avendus Capital, Sodexo, Directi .
    Products and Services 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

    Startup Name BrowserStack
    Headquarters Mumbai, India
    Industry Cloud Infrastructure and Software
    Founder Ritesh Arora & Nakul Aggarwal
    Founded 2011
    Investors Insight Partners, Accel and Bond
    Products and Services Cloud Web and Software Testing
    Valuation $4 Billion (June 2021)

    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.


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    Paytm

    Startup Name Paytm
    Headquarters Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
    Industry E-commerce Finance
    Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma
    Founded August 2010
    Investors Alibaba, Ant Group, AGH Holdings, SAIF Partners, T Rowe Price, Discovery Capital, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway
    Products and Services 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

    Startup Name Paytm Mall
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry E-commerce Finance
    Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma
    Founded 2017
    Investors Alibaba, Elevation Capital, SoftBank, eBay
    Products and Services Online Shopping
    Valuation $3 billion (July 2019)

    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.

    Zerodha

    Startup Name Zerodha
    Headquarters Bangalore, India
    Industry Stockbroker
    Founder Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath
    Founded 2010
    Investors Bootstrapped
    Products and Services 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

    Startup Name ReNew Power
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry Renewable energy
    Founder Sumant Sinha
    Founded 2011
    Investors Sylebra Capital and Goldman Sachs
    Products and Services Wind Power, Solar Power, Solar Rooftop Power
    Valuation $8 billion (March 2021)

    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.

    BigBasket

    Startup Name BigBasket
    Headquarters Bangalore, India
    Industry Retail
    Founder 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

    Startup Name Udaan
    Headquarters India
    Industry E-commerce, Supply chain management, B2B
    Founder Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya, and Vaibhav Gupta
    Founded 2016
    Investors Tencent Holdings, Altimeter Capital, Octahedron Capital, GGV Capital, Moonstone Capital, DST Global, and Lightspeed Venture Partners
    Products and Services B2B trade platform
    Valuation $3.1 billion (Jan 2021)

    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.

    Ola Electric

    Startup Name Ola Electric
    Industry Automotive
    Founder Ankit Jain and Anand Shah
    Founded 2017
    Investors 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.


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    Mohalla Tech (Moj)

    Startup Name Mohalla Tech
    Industry Software
    Founder Ankush Sachdeva, Farid Ahsan and Bhanu Singh
    Founded 2015
    Investors 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.

    FirstCry

    Startup Name FirstCry
    Industry E-commerce
    Founder Supam Maheshwari, Amitava Saha, Prashant Jadhav, Sanket Hattimattur
    Founded 2010
    Investors 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.

    Lenskart

    Startup Name Lenskart
    Industry Eyewear
    Founder Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, Sumeet Kapahi
    Founded 2010
    Investors 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.

    Blinkit (ex-Grofers)

    Startup Name Blinkit (ex-Grofers)
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry Ecommerce, Grocery, Delivery
    Founders Albinder Dhindsa, Saurabh Kumar
    Founded 2013
    Investors Tiger Global Management, Softbank Vision Fund
    Products and Services Grocery, body care and essentials delivery
    Valuation $1 billion(June 30, 2021)

    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.

    Glance, Inmobi

    Startup Name Glance
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Industry Mobile, Technology
    Founder Naveen Tewari
    Founded 2019
    Investors Lightbox, Softbank Group, Kleiner Perkins
    Products and Services Mobile lock screen content
    Valuation $1 billion (December 2020)

    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.

    Dailyhunt

    Startup Name Dailyhunt
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Industry Social News, IT, Language learning
    Founders Umang Bedi, Umesh Kulkarni, Virendra Gupta
    Founded 2007
    Investors 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.

    Zenoti

    Startup Name Zenoti
    Headquarters Bellevue, Washington, United States
    Industry CRM, Enterprise software
    Founders Dheeraj Koneru, Saritha Katikaneni, Sudheer Koneru
    Founded 2010
    Investors 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

    Startup Name Cars24
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry B2C, Ecommerce, AI
    Founders Gajendra Jangid, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal, Vikram Chopra
    Founded 2015
    Investors DST Global, KCK Global, Sequoia Capital
    Products and Services 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

    Startup Name RazorPay
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Industry Fintech, Financial Services
    Founder Harshil Mathur, Shashank Kumar
    Founded 2014
    Investors GIC, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global Management
    Products and Services Payment gateway services
    Valuation $3 billion (April 2021)

    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.


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    Unacademy

    Startup Name Unacademy
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Industry Edtech, E-learning
    Founders 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

    Startup Name Postman
    Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
    Industry Software, Developer Tools, Developer APIs,
    Founders Abhijit Kane, Abhinav Asthana, Ankit Sobti
    Founded 2014
    Investors Insight Partners, CRV, Nexus Venture
    Products and Services Postman app, Postman Workspace, Built-in tools
    Valuation $5.6 billion (August 2021)

    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.

    Icertis

    Startup Name Icertis
    Headquarters Bellevue, Washington, United States
    Industry AI, Cloud Data Services, CRM, Saas
    Founders Monish Darda, Samir Bodas
    Founded 2009
    Investors 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
    Founders Jaspreet Singh, Milind Borate, Ramani Kothandaraman
    Founded 2008
    Investors 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

    Startup Name Rivigo
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry Automotive, Logistics
    Founders Deepak Garg, Gazal Kalra
    Founded 2014
    Investors Elevation capital, Trifecta Capital
    Products and Services Cargo and freight services
    Valuation $1.09 billion (January 2021)

    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.

    Matic Network / Polygon

    Startup Name Polygon Technology
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
    Industry Blockchain
    Founders Anurag Arjun, Jaynti Kanani, Mihailo Bjelic, Sandeep Nailwal
    Founded 2018
    Investors Sequoia Capital, Mark Cuban, Coinbase Ventures
    Products and Services Ethereum scaling platform
    Valuation $10 billion (February 2022)

    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

    Startup Name MindTickle
    Headquarters San Francisco, California, U.S
    Industry Saas, Enterprise software
    Founders Deepak Diwakar, Krishna Depura, Mohit Garg, Nishant Mungali
    Founded 2011
    Investors Softbank Vision Fund, Qualcomm Ventures
    Products and Services Enterprise software
    Valuation $1.2 billion (August 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.

    Delhivery

    Startup Name Delhivery
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry E-commerce, Freight services
    Founders 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

    Startup Name Billdesk
    Headquarters Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
    Industry Fintech, Finance, Payments
    Founders Ajay Kaushal
    Founded 2000
    Investors Visa, TA Associates, SBI, General Atlantic
    Products and Services Payment services
    Valuation Over $1 billion (December 2020)

    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.


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    Mu Sigma

    Startup Name Mu Sigma
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
    Industry Analytics, IT, Software
    Founders DHIRAJ C RAJARAM
    Founded 2004
    Investors Mastercard, General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital
    Products and Services Saas, Big Data Analytics software
    Valuation $1.5 billion (2013)

    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.

    MPL

    Startup Name MPL
    Headquarters Bengaluru
    Industry Gaming, ESports
    Founders 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.

    Apna

    Startup Name Apna
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra
    Industry Employment, Recruiting, Human Resources
    Founders Nirmit Parikh
    Founded 2019
    Investors 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.

    Vedantu

    Startup Name Vedantu
    Headquarters Bangalore
    Industry Edtech
    Founders 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.

    Licious

    Startup Name Licious
    Headquarters Bangalore
    Industry Ecommerce, Food delivery, Meat packaging
    Founders Abhay Hanjura, Vivek Gupta
    Founded 2015
    Investors 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.

    CoinSwitch Kuber

    Startup Name CoinSwitch Kuber
    Headquarters Bengaluru, India
    Industry Cryptocurrencies, Financial Services
    Founders Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, Vimal Sagar Tiwari
    Founded 2017
    Investors 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

    Startup Name Rebel Foods
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Ecommerce, Food Delivery
    Founders Jaydeep Barman, Kallol Banerjee
    Founded 2011
    Investors Coatue, Alteria Capital, Irving Investors
    Products and Services Food Delivery platform
    Valuation $1.4 billion (October 2021)

    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.

    CarDekho

    Startup Name CarDekho
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry Automotive, Ecommerce
    Founders Amit Jain, Anurag Jain
    Founded 2007
    Investors 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.

    MobiKwik

    Startup Name MobiKwik
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry Fintech, Payments, Mobile Payments
    Founders Bipin Singh, Upasana Taku, Chandan Joshi
    Founded 2009
    Investors 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.

    Acko

    Startup Name Acko
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry 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.

    NoBroker

    Startup Name NoBroker
    Headquarters Bengaluru, India
    Industry PropTech, Real State, Property Management
    Founders Akhil Gupta, Amit Kumar Agarwal, Saurabh Garg
    Founded 2014
    Investors 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.

    Spinny

    Startup Name Spinny
    Headquarters Gurgaon, India
    Industry Automotives, Used car marketplace
    Founders Mohit Gupta, Niraj Singh, Ramanshu Mahaur
    Founded 2015
    Investors 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

    Startup Name Upstox
    Headquarters Mumbai, India
    Industry Fintech, Financial services, Trading platform
    Founders Raghu Kumar, Ravi Kumar, Shrinivas Viswanath
    Founded 2010
    Investors Tiger Global Management, GVK Davix Technologies
    Products and Services Trading platform
    Valuation $1 billion+ (November 2021)

    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

    Startup Name Slice
    Headquarters Bengaluru, India
    Industry Fintech, Financial services, Banking
    Founders Deepak Malhotra, Rajan Bajaj
    Founded 2016
    Investors Insight Partners, Tiger Global Management
    Products and Services Credit cards, Payment cards
    Valuation $1 billion+ (November 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.

    GlobalBees

    Startup Name GlobalBees
    Headquarters New Delhi, India
    Industry Investment
    Founders Nitin Agarwal, Supam Maheshwari
    Founded 2021
    Investors FirstCry
    Products and Services Working capital, Resources
    Valuation $1.1 billion+ (December 2021)

    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.

    Mamaearth

    Startup Name Mamaearth
    Headquarters Gurgaon, India
    Industry Ecommerce, Health and Wellness
    Founders Varun and Ghazal Alagh
    Founded 2016
    Investors Sofina, Sequoia Capital
    Products and Services 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 Analytics

    Startup Name Fractal
    Headquarters New York, United States
    Industry Analytics, Artificial Intelligence
    Founders Ramakrishna Reddy, Pranay Agrawal, Srikanth Velamakanni
    Founded 2000
    Investors Apax Partners, Khazanah Nasional, Aimia
    Products and Services Consultancy services
    Valuation $1 billion+ (January 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

    Startup Name LEAD School
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Edtech, E-learning, Education
    Founders Smita Deorah, Sumeet Mehta
    Founded 2012
    Investors GSV Ventures, Westbridge Capital, Elevar Equity
    Products and Services Educational services
    Valuation $1.1 billion (January 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

    Startup Name Darwinbox
    Headquarters Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
    Industry Saas, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning
    Founders Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti, Rohit Chennamaneni
    Founded 2015
    Investors TCV, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Partners
    Products and Services Enterprise HR software
    Valuation $1 billion+ (January 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.

    Livspace

    Startup Name Livspace
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
    Industry Ecommerce, Furniture, Interior design
    Founders Anuj Srivastava, Ramakant Sharma, Shagufta Anurag
    Founded 2014
    Investors 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.

    Xpressbees

    Startup Name Xpressbees
    Headquarters Pune, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Ecommerce, Logistics, Supply Chain Management
    Founders Amitava Saha, Supam Maheshwari
    Founded 2015
    Investors Blackstone Capital, TPG Growth, Gaja Capital, Alibaba Group, InnoVen Capital and more
    Products and Services Express delivery services, ecommerce logistics services
    Valuation $1 billion+ (February 2022)

    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.

    Amagi

    Startup Name Amagi
    Headquarters New York, US
    Industry Media, Advertising, Entertainment
    Founders 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.

    CommerceIQ

    Startup Name CommerceIQ
    Headquarters Palo Alto, California, USA
    Industry Machine Learning, AI, Ecommerce
    Founders Guru Hariharan
    Founded 2012
    Investors Softbank, Insight, Shasta Ventures and more
    Products and Services Tools and technology for bettering ecommerce
    Valuation $1 billion+ (March 2022)

    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.

    Oxyzo

    Startup Name Oxyzo
    Headquarters Gurgaon, Haryana, India
    Industry Fintech, Financial Services, Lending
    Founders Asish Mohapatra, Bhuvan Gupta, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra, Vasant Shridhar
    Founded 2016
    Investors 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

    Startup Name Open
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Industry Fintech, Financial Services, Banking
    Founders Ajeesh Achuthan, Anish Achuthan, Deena Jacon, Mabel Chacko
    Founded 2017
    Investors Temasek, IIFL, Trifecta and more
    Products and Services Neobanking services
    Valuation $1 billion+ (May 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.

    PhysicsWallah

    Startup Name PhysicsWallah
    Headquarters Noida, UP, India
    Industry Edtech, Elearning
    Founders Alakh Pandey
    Founded 2016
    Investors Westbridge, and GSV Ventures
    Products and Services 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.

    Purplle

    Startup Name Purplle
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Beauty, Cosmetics, Ecommerce
    Founders Manish Taneja, Rahul Dash
    Founded 2012
    Investors 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
    Products and Services 5th generation Layer-1 (L1) blockchain network, 5irechain testnet, mainnet
    Valuation $1.5 billion (July 2022)

    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

    Startup Name Tata 1mg
    Headquarters Gurugram, Haryana, India
    Industry HealthTech
    Founders Prashant Tandon, Gaurav Agarwal, Vikas Chauhan
    Founded 2015
    Investors Tata Digital, KWE Beteiligungen AG, HBM Healthcare Investments, MAF Mauritius, MPOF Mauritius
    Products and Services Medicines, Lab Tests, Doctor consultation
    Valuation $1.25 (September 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

    Startup Name Zepto
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Delivery Service, Grocery Delivery, Quick Commerce
    Founders Aadit Palicha, Kaivalya Vohra
    Founded 2021
    Investors StepStone Group, Goodwater Capital
    Products and Services Online grocer
    Valuation $1.4 billion (August 2023)

    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.


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    Perfios

    Startup Name Perfios
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Industry Financial Services, SaaS, Fintech
    Founders Debasish Chakraborty, V.R. Govindarajan, Kunnath Santosh
    Founded 2008
    Investors Teachers’ Venture Growth, Kedaara Capital
    Products and Services 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
    Founder Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain
    Founded 2013
    Investors Hero MotoCorp, Caladium Investment, NIIF, Stride Ventures
    Products and Services Electric Two-Wheelers, Charging Infrastructure
    Valuation $1.3 Billion (August 2024)

    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.

    Netradyne

    Startup Name Netradyne
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
    Industry Logistics, AI, SaaS, Fleet Management
    Founder Avneesh Agrawal, David Julian
    Founded 2015
    Investors Point72 Private Investments, Pavilion Capital, Qualcomm Ventures
    Products and Services 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

    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.

    Hike Messenger

    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

    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:

    • Mamaearth
    • Fractal Analytics
    • LEAD School
    • Darwinbox
    • DealShare
    • ElasticRun
    • Livspace
    • Xpressbees
    • Uniphore
    • Hasura
    • CredAvenue
    • Amagi
    • CommerceIQ
    • Oxyzo
    • Games 24×7
    • Open
    • PhysicsWallah
    • Purplle
    • LeadSquared
    • OneCard
    • 5ire
  • More Than 12.42 Lakh Direct Jobs Created by 1,17,254 DPIIT-Recognized Startups

    Today, on the first day of the budget session, Nirmala Sitharaman, the union finance minister, presented the Economic Survey 2023-24 to the house. Tomorrow, she will present the Union Budget 2024-25.

    In it, the Modi government laid out its plans to improve India’s startup scene and tracked the progress of the sector over time.

    Interventions such as the Bharat Startup Knowledge Access Registry, the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) bill 2023, and the notification of Patent Rules 2024 all contributed to the expansion of India’s startup ecosystem.

    Multi-Sector Growth in DPIIT-Recognized Startups

    A total of 1,17,254 startups were recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as of 31 December 2023, up from 300 in 2016 (as reported in the Economic Survey), and these businesses have allegedly generated more than 12.42 lakh direct employment opportunities

    The government’s ongoing initiatives, including “simplification and handholding,” “funding support and incentives,” and “industry academia partnership and incubation,” are believed to be responsible for the significant increase in the figures. 

    There were about 2,000 tech startups in India in 2014, but by 2023, that number had jumped to about 31,000. 387 of the 1,000 agritech startups in the agricultural and related industries were founded by women. Over 13,000 AI, nanotech, and robotics startups recognised by DPIIT were also highlighted, showcasing the rise of deep tech in India. There was an emphasis on the growth of mental health startups as well.

    It goes on to say that over half of all acknowledged startups hail from India’s tier 2 or 3 cities, and that over half of those have a female director, a sign of gender inclusion. Stand-Up India has 77.7 percent female beneficiaries, while the PM Mudra Yojana has approximately 68% female beneficiaries. 

    Financial Support and Patents

    According to the survey, by the end of FY24, more than 135 Alternate Investment Funds had invested about INR 18,000 crore in startups, with over INR 10,500 crore allocated under the Fund of Funds for startups. 

    According to the report, between 2016 and March 2024, startups submitted over 12,000 patent applications, showcasing their commitment to innovation and its protection. The announcement of patent rules, 2024, which streamline the process of acquiring and managing patents, has further strengthened this. 

    Factors Boosting Startup Culture in India

    Startups have been on the rise in many different industries, and this is due to a number of causes. A rise in internet penetration and shifts in consumer habits created an ideal environment for new retail IT companies to emerge. Notable events, such as the launch of UPI, sparked a boom in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector’s startup activity beginning in 2016. There have been 21 unicorns since 2014 in the Software as a Service (SaaS) industry, driven by the need for efficient and scalable cloud solutions. Due to the surge in demand for tele-consulting and remote learning solutions, industries such as HealthTech and EdTech experienced rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    According to National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), India’s IT startup environment has outperformed both the United States and the United Kingdom, placing it third internationally. The capacity to scale, a big number of startups, and the presence of unicorns are the hallmarks of India’s tech startup ecosystem. India showcases its position as an innovation hub by rapidly adopting AI talents; it has 16% of the world’s AI talent.


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  • How Social Impact is Evolving the Startup Ecosystem

    A startup ecosystem is a creative environment to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. These days, startups are taking different approaches with a variety of innovative ideas and products to create Social Impact around the world. They are focussed towards creating social impacts on several sectors – Technology, Education, Health, and others.

    Aspire Impact is a Delhi based Impact Rating & Certification initiative. The startup is focused on leadership and ecosystem development in social and environmental impact space.

    StartupTalky interviewed Amit Bhatia, Founder & CEO of Aspire Impact to get insights on how he got the idea of building an Impact Rating Startup.

    Here is an excerpt of Interview with Amit Bhatia, Founder & CEO- Aspire Impact

    How did this idea of social impact come up which inspired you to make Aspire Impact?

    In 2020, after concluding my term (2017-2020) as Inaugural CEO of G7’s Global Steering Group for Impact Investment, I was convinced that we will not nudge the Impact Movement past its tipping point unless we get the world to agree on a common standards-based impact measurement system. Whereas there were couple of efforts underway around the world, as former Founding CEO of India’s Impact Investors Council, I believed I could deliver a breakthrough by making Impact empirical and comparable between companies. I believed that if a standardised impact measurement system, which subsumes ESG & Sustainability ratings is created, we will contribute solutions for the apparently intractable challenges like poverty and inequity and make corporations a partner in the solution. It was with this inspiration we created Aspire Impact, a start-up with an ambitious and audacious goal of creating world and India’s first Impact Rating venture.

    Do you think India has evolved and adapted the concept of social Impact?

    The ESG, Sustainability & Impact Movement has already attracted $59 trillion worldwide, ~40% of global Assets Under Management (AUM) and is an unstoppable trend. Despite the pressing need to address social and environmental challenges, India has attracted only -1% or $51 billion of this global capital pool: $30 billion in Responsible or ESG Investments, $10.3 billion of sustainable or green investments, and, $10.8 billion of impact investments. The root cause is lack of corporate alignment with impact, as there is no mandatory Sustainability or Impact Reporting framework.

    BRSR (Business Responsibility & Sustainability Reporting) for the top 1000 listed companies, India’s version of ESG, with >130 disclosures, requires much synthesis to be valuable. Moreover, the environment is opportune, and the need is clear, as a recent HBS publication of environment costs for top 250 Indian companies shows India Inc. is gravely uncompetitive in the global Impact economy:

    Company
    (2018 or 2019 data)

    Environment Cost ($mn)

    Net Profit
    ($mn)

    Company
    (2018 or 2019 data)

    Environment Cost ($mn)

    Net Profit
    ($mn)

    Tata Power

    126,389

    365

    TCS

    4,101

    118

    Reliance Industries

    7,503

    4,797

    Infosys

    2,006

    63

    State Bank of India

    145

    99

    Godrej Consumer

    239

    21

    Indian corporations must therefore prepare for the era of Impact Accounting, beyond ESG and must adapt to the era of social impact assessment, ratings, and reporting.


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    What would be the social impact areas in 2022 in the Startup Ecosystem?

    On the basis of historical evidence: Financial Inclusion, Renewable Energy, Agriculture, Health, Technology and Education have received the most impact investments over the last decade. However, in the decade ahead- the fastest growth will be delivered by Tech for Good sectors where technology intersects with traditional impact sectors like EdTech, HealthTech and AgriTech.

    Since Aspire Impact has launched a few social impact reports recently, which sector do you think has huge potential and how?

    We believe, India’s immediate goal should be growth with job creation and we have empirical evidence that Impact sectors create 10-14 x more jobs for each $1 mn invested. Therefore, India must focus on three areas:

    1. Catalyse Tech for Good sectors –  CleanTech, EdTech, HealthTech, AgriTech, FinTech & FemTech which promise steepest growth, from $65 bn to $177 bn market between 2020 to 2025;
    2. Support specific investment themes. Our analysis of five sectors (Agriculture, BFSI, Education, Water/Waste & Disabilities) shows India can create ~50 million new jobs in 5 years in Dairy Farming (22 mn) Tech-enabled K-12 (3 mn); Digital Consumer Savings Products (1.3 mn) Supplemental & Extra-Curricular Education (1 mn); Student Housing Solutions (1 mn); Neo-Banking (0.6 mn); & Digital Lending (0.5 mn);
    3. Promote Micro Entrepreneurship in rural India, i.e., job creators not job seekers as with small micro loans of INR 2-3 Lacs, a micro-entrepreneur can create self-sufficiency while creating 1-3 local jobs!

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    How are the key industry leaders supporting the concept of Aspire impact?

    Indian leaders realise that to deepen and widen the Impact Movement in India, the leaders must do the following:

    1. Enhance corporate alignment with impact, and in absence of regulatory Sustainability or Impact Reporting, voluntarily publish Impact Reports, to slowly but surely build an Impact DNA for an era of Impact Capitalism for risk management, brand building, fund-raising, future competitiveness and authentic citizenship;
    2. Support research & knowledge, education & training, and, awareness & advocacy about the sector. Last year, 207 India Inc. leaders came together for co-authoring and publishing 8 Impact Future Project reports- a rare collaboration. This year, in 2022, another group will take the initiative forward; and,
    3. Solve the missing piece of the Impact Economy jigsaw- i.e., a standards-based Impact Measurement framework. In 2022, along with partners like Capgemini & University of Chicago’s ESG Centre, 25+ CXOs will release a standards-based framework of Impact Measurement for India- another rare first!
  • Milan Ganatra on Investment in the Indian Startup Ecosystem in 2022

    Indian Startup Ecosystem is growing hugely with 60,000 startups creating opportunities of employment as well as investment opportunities for investors. StartupTalky got an opportunity to get an opinion of Milan Ganatra, founder of 1SilverBullet as an investor.

    1SilverBullet is a fully digitalized, cutting-edge investment and insurance B2B gateway that serves three financial services verticals: investments, insurance, and lending. Leveraging the power of technology such as Blockchain, the platform acts as a single point of contact for investors and financial institutions, linking them in one place via a secure API.

    Here is excerpt of the interview with Mr. Milan Ganatra, Founder & CEO of 1SilverBullet about Indian startup ecosystem.

    How was the year 2021 for you as an investor?

    As an investor, 2021 was highly promising, with massive investment opportunities in IT and technology-driven businesses, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With new models developing in the market, firms and young entrepreneurs can address problems in a timely and cost-effective manner.

    What is a warning sign for you when investing in a startup?

    Startups are young businesses, and it is critical that the vision be clear from the beginning, as this is the foundation of a successful enterprise. One of the red flags I would look for is a loss of vision—key employees or workers who have lost confidence in the company’s vision. The second sign would be a lack of messaging – nothing, or very little to talk about new product segments/ services, which leads to lower consumer satisfaction.

    We are seeing many startups exiting with IPO, what’s your opinion on that? How is it going to change the ecosystem?

    The IPO market had an outstanding year in the face of uncertainty, with government stimulus programs/regulations playing a big part in its amplification. Regulators and IPOs have played a critical role in attracting private investors and piqueing the attention of retail investors in the funding ecosystem. Previously, IPOs were only possible for companies that had made a profit in the previous three years, but when the regulations were altered to allow even loss-making companies to participate in the IPO pool, it completely changed the game for startups. So, where there were previously no exit options for some of the larger investors, this new move has fueled greater investment because a timely exit is now possible.

    High valuations and market liquidity will keep the IPO window open in 2022. Internet-based startups who have served their shareholder base well over the years, have shown growth in scale, and rewarded their investors, will continue to do well as a result of robust market demand.

    More than 42 unicorns in 2021. What do you think caused this wave? Is the valuation justified according to you?

    Unicorns are defined as disruptive, technology-driven, and innovative firms with the potential to be listed among the next Fortune 500 companies. In this tech-focused era, new-age company models are upending traditional ways of doing business, leveraging digital modes. So far, their valuation has been reasonably justified, and given the amount of areas they have covered thus far, most of them would expect to rise rapidly.

    The investor community has played a vital part in supporting compatible growth in the startup ecosystem and the company’s success in a relatively short period of time. New age entrepreneurs are planning for the future and embracing the post-pandemic digital wave. It is reasonable to expect a systemic shift in entrepreneur and consumer behaviour as a result of the rapid thinking that these unicorns have embraced.

    How can we support/ enable entrepreneurs in tier 2 and tier 3 cities?

    Entrepreneurs in tier 2 and 3 cities are now at par with tier 1 cities and good talent is not willing to migrate as everything is transparent, approachable and available at fingertips. Be it engaging with the target audience, running business operations, or connecting with potential investors/customers. As digital communication channels have grown in popularity over the previous two years, entrepreneurs from tier 2 and tier 3 cities have a far higher acceptance rate.

    What do you look forward to as an investor in the year 2022?

    For the year 2022, I hope to see a 50 percent increase in the ecosystem with 60+ unicorns. More worldwide inventions and solutions are projected as a result of the rise of new-age entrepreneurs and the emergence of unicorns. Investors are seeking business concepts that can demonstrate both long-term promise and dependable business procedures.

    What are a few sectors you think would be hot in the upcoming year?

    India presently has the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. We should expect a lot of M&As in the fintech area this year alone, with major players performing fantastic work and complementing larger companies on multiple fronts. Fintech companies that have already covered the market are expected to develop further. They have the capacity to overcome obstacles and become tomorrow’s unicorns.

  • Insights on the Indian Startup Ecosystem by Ankit Kedia, angel investor turned VC

    Ankit Kedia is the Founder of Capital A, a new-age venture capital firm for early-stage startups in India. He launched the fund formally in 2021 after having spent the last 14 years as a second-generation entrepreneur in his family business – Manjushree Technopack Limited. Ankit has been angel investing since 2017 and Capital A is the formalization of this passion and his USP as an angel investor turned VC. He comes with a rich operating experience across the B2B space including in verticals like manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, MedTech, fintech, and others.

    At Capital A, the team is on a mission to back meaningful startups and founders looking for smart capital instead of just going after the valuation frenzy. They have also backed consumer startups with a solid product-market fit and impact. Their focus is on highly promising Indian startups across different industries and it has made 20+ investments over the last six months of its existence.

    The following is an excerpt of the interview with Mr. Ankit Kedia, Founder & Lead Investor, Capital-A.

    1. How was the year 2021 for you as an investor/VC?

    The year 2021 was a solid one for investors. We saw an incredible amount of VC Capital being deployed across a highly diversified group of sectors. As far as Capital A is concerned, this was our maiden year and we have invested in over 20 early-stage startups across different sectors and have more in the pipeline for 2022.

    2. How often do you bet on the entrepreneurs and not on the ideas? And when/if you do that, what quality of the entrepreneur usually makes you do that?

    Given that we are an early-stage focused VC fund, we always end up in a dichotomy of choice between the founder and their idea. There is no binary answer for this. We have made bets on founders who are fresh out of college but come with great execution capability and zero experience. We have also backed seasoned professionals beginning their start-up journey after 10+ years of industrial experience.

    Typically, we look for founders who have absolute clarity in their ideas and basic commercial acumen. If both these qualities exist in them, it is easier to assess the business. This is because we are assured that the founder knows their territory well. While an educational qualification from top business schools and engineering institutes is good, we have never used this as a prerequisite for evaluating investment opportunities.

    3. What is a warning sign for you when investing in a startup?

    If the founder keeps wavering on his/her product idea and wants to pivot even before having secured seed funding, it usually is a red flag. Another aspect that we carefully evaluate is the future-proofing of the business model in terms of technology and scalability. If either of these isn’t likely to exist in the next 5 years, we tend to hold off any further discussions.

    4. What are some common biases you find in the Indian Startup ecosystem?

    While investing, many VC founders are most likely to pursue the crème de la crème from IITs and IIMs who they feel are capable of executing and scaling up to large businesses. In my view, we need to look beyond this bias and consider those from the non-premier institutes as well to democratize the startup ecosystem. Another bias which many early-stage investors have is that they tend to back founders and startups with other bluechip angels or VCs as their investors. While this is a good background, it displays the lack of understanding and belief of the incoming investors. It also displays a piggyback approach towards investing. Although we also consider such startups, only a small percentage of our fund is reserved for Series-B investment.


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    5. What are your views on the Shark Tank India Episodes until now?

    The Shark Tank show on Sony TV is an incredible start and will be a great way to get more and more entrepreneurs into the startup ecosystem. I love the section in which the sharks explain various VC jargon to viewers. From an investor’s point of view, I would like the producers to tighten the quality of startups pitching to the sharks and not just select those who are vying for publicity on national TV.


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    6. We are seeing many startups exiting with IPO, what’s your opinion on that? How is it going to change the ecosystem?

    India’s startup sector has seen a record number of IPOs in 2021. The reason is quite simple. There is a lot of pent-up appetite for investment amongst global investors. Many companies are also looking at leveraging the stock markets that are bullish about a strong recovery from the pandemic to fund their expansion plans and achieve financial security. The ecosystem will see an enormous amount of global capital being poured into the startup space in India. The pandemic-induced lockdown led to a record high adoption of digital technology, thereby helping startups fuel their growth. There is a renewed confidence amongst the investors and IPOs will become a realistic exit option for investors.

    7. More than 42 unicorns in 2021. What do you think caused this wave? Is the valuation justified according to you?

    India stands among the top 3 countries (behind US and China) witnessing a surge of unicorns. This surge can be explained by the massive interest from global investors aspiring to secure their territories within the Indian startup ecosystem. Some innovative startups amongst the unicorns including Zetwerk and Apna which made it to the list due to their offerings. There are a few unicorns that commanded ridiculous valuations. In my opinion, they were just fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.


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    8. How can we support/ enable entrepreneurs in tier2 and tier 3 cities?

    Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities have very innovative founders and business ideas. However, they sometimes lack the right connect, platforms, incubators, or accelerator programs to bring them to the forefront. In fact, many founders focus on solving problems specific to Tier 2 and 3 towns which could be a very big gap in the market. In my opinion, VCs should identify the right venture partners to find out these hidden gems and also actively partner with academic institutions to develop student interest in the startup ecosystem.

    9. What do you look forward to as an investor in the year 2022?

    The year 2022 will be similar to 2021 or even better as startups continue to attract capital from both private and public markets. The year 2021 saw one of the highest investments both from PE as well as VCs with many startups also going to the capital markets. The IPO frenzy has injected a lot of confidence among investors and startups will continue to benefit from the pent-up demand from 2020.

    10. What are a few sectors you think would be hot in the upcoming year?

    Sectors like EV, e-Commerce, logistics, and even fintech will continue to be the flavor of the seasons amongst the VCs.


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    11. One learning that you would like to share with founders who are looking to raise funds?

    One of the most common challenges that we face with founders looking for capital today is that they underplay their equity without understanding how valuations and captable work.  The founders end up giving a lot of equity to investors who barely bring value to the table other than wanting to spray and pray. Any founder looking for early-stage smart capital must be equally selective about their investors as much as the latter cherry-picks investment opportunities.

    Another challenge many founders are facing today is around individual investors on the captable who become extremely specific about their exits. In some cases, we have also seen their rigidity to sign on SHAs as they are entitled to the same rights as major investors. My advice to founders is that while your friends and family are one of the earliest believers in your ideas, it is very important to anticipate future rounds and draft agreements in the interest of your organization, and not the investors. Sometimes, the fundraising process can become very overwhelming, and hence, it is important to create a healthy mix of advisors, investment bankers and leverage early investors as your mascots for the same.

  • Startups That Are Funded By Deepika Padukone

    India is known to have the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world. According to the Nasscom report, the country will have more than 50 unicorns by the end of 2021 and more the 100 by 2025. This growth has only been made possible because of the venture capitalists, angel investors, businessmen and high net worth individuals that have been funding startups that have potential.

    Bollywood celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Suniel Shetty, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sonu Sood have also been investing for the past few years to give their career another direction.

    Deepika Padukone is one of the highest-paid actresses in India and among the 100 most influential people in the world, according to 2018 Time Magazine. She is the daughter of Prakash Padukone who is a well-known badminton player in India.

    Deepika Padukone is known for her work in movies like Om Shanti Om, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Piku, Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat, Cocktail, Chhapaak, etc. The actress has spoken up for issues such as Feminism and Depression, designed her own line of clothing called All About You and has been a celebrity endorser for brands and their products.

    Besides that, she is also the chairperson of the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image and also the founder of the Live Love Laugh Foundation bringing awareness about mental health.

    Deepika Padukone is now not only an investor but is also involved with the brand strategic decisions. The actress investments are made through the KA Enterprises which is her family office, in which she is a co-director along with her father Prakash Padukone. Through KA Enterprises the actress has invested in many startups such as Epigamia which is an FMCG brand of yoghurt products, FrontRow a hobby based EdTech startup, Blu Smart an electric taxi startup and even Bellatrix Aerospace which is an Indian space tech startup.

    List of Startups funded by Deepika Padukone

    BellatrixAerospace
    Blu Smart
    FrontRow
    Epigamia
    Supertails
    Frequently Asked Questions

    Bellatrix Aerospace

    Bellatrix Aerospace is an Indian private aerospace manufacturer and a small satellite company that was established in 2015. The Spacetech startup was founded by Rohan M Ganapathy and Yashas Karanam and is based out of the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

    The company is known to be evolving and growing in order to develop key technologies in electric propulsion, new generation propellants and launch vehicles. The company plans to launch its own rocket named Chetak in 2023, the speciality of this particular rocket is that it is powered by Aeon engines and that it uses liquid methane as fuel.

    The Space tech startup has so far raised over $3 million in a Pre-Series A round from venture capitalists like IDFC Parampara, Karsemven Fund, StartupXseed, Survam Partners, and actress Deepika Padukone through KA enterprise, etc.

    The funds generated will be used to expand its team and will help them demonstrate its thruster technology in space. The company has also partnered with Skyroot Aerospace in February 2021.  The Bengaluru based startup is now reviewing NASA and European Space Agency standards in order to make their tech reach the global standards. The company aims to build its own launch vehicle and make water-based propulsion systems.

    The startup is currently working on building an electric-based propulsion system which is the Microwave Plasma Thrusters (MPT). This supposedly will help their clients to take bigger payloads into space at a lower cost. The MPT propulsion system is also more eco-friendly, lightweight and costs less than compared to the chemical propulsion system. ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) is now on board to help develop this technology. According to the founder Rohan Ganapathy, Bellatrix will soon be setting up its offices in the US and Europe.


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    Blu Smart

    Blu Smart is an electric taxi startup founded in October 2018 by Puneet Singh Jaggi, Anmol Singh Jaggi and Punit K Goyal. The startup claims to so far have more than 20,000 customers in the Delhi NCR in just 3 months from its launch, scaling its ridesharing fleet to more than 200 electric cars. By 2019, the company has scaled to over 500 cars in Delhi and Mumbai making it the largest all-electric B2C ridesharing company in India and top 3 in Asia.

    An example of the Blusmart car
    An example of the BluSmart car

    The company is headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana; while it’s creating many job opportunities for drivers with a monthly revenue stream. Blu Smart is slowly transforming metropolitan cities in India by providing 100% electric, sustainable and most reliable mobility solutions.

    Blu Smart is aiming to make an all-electric ecosystem with funding from venture capitalists and partnerships across automotive, infrastructure and energy companies. It also is planning to board more than 15,000 electric cars and 2500 chargers on the platform by the end of 2021.

    The company generated $3 million funds from Deepika Padukone who invested through her family office KA enterprises, along with other investors like JITO Angel Network, Sanjiv Bajaj and Rajat Gupta from Bajaj Capital, Survam Partners and Rajesh Agarwal from Micromax.

    According to Punit Goyal the co-founder of BluSmart,

    “Blusmart is focused on providing superior mobility experience for its customers, cost savings, passenger safety and security. Our innovative mobility allows customers to travel whenever they want without the hassles of car ownership and stress of finding parking spots in densely populated urban areas.”


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    FrontRow

    FrontRow is an ed-tech startup that is based in Bengaluru and Mumbai with a 20 member multi-disciplinary team. The company was founded by Shubhadit Sharma, Mikhil Raj and Ishaan Preet Singh who were executives from the startup ecosystem before coming together and starting FrontRow.

    The Bengaluru based startup wants to make non-academic learning accessible and affordable for Indians in rural areas by getting funds from high profile investors. The company enables everyone to pursue their passion and learn from the best professional experts and celebrities.

    FrontRow claims to be Building ecosystems around passions like comedy, cricket, dance, music, cricket and fitness among others. There is a huge demand for learning non-academic subjects in India. This is why each course it provides contains 15 to 25 video lessons available at affordable prices like Rs. 500.

    These courses are taught by experts in that field like for example Singing is taught by Neha Kakkar, Standup Comedy taught by Biswa Kalyan Rath, Batting by Suresh Raina, Bowling Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rap by Divine, Music composition by Amit Trivedi, etc.

    Frontrow Website
    Frontrow Website

    Ishaan Preet Singh the founder of the startup says that they will be many more courses coming in 2021, and will also be doubling down on the categories. The company is bridging the gap between urban and rural cities by providing offline and online video lessons.

    It is also allowing its users to participate in daily challenges, peer to peer interactions, collaboration opportunities and activities featuring celebrity’s judges also receive feedback and tips from their mentors. FrontRow is also planning to expand to other channels like B2B partnerships besides the D2C one.

    The company is targeting hobby learning which is the Ed-tech sector’s next big thing. This is why the company managed to raise a seed funding of $3.2 million from Investors like Lightspeed India, Elevation Capital and Deepika Padukone through KA Enterprise.

    In an interview, Deepika mentioned her reason behind funding this startup saying that,

    “If there’s one thing I wish I had access to while growing up, it would be a platform like FrontRow, because its gives access to abundant knowledge in non-academic fields and connects them to a community of peers and professional of the fields of interest”


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    Epigamia

    Epigamia is an FMCG startup that was launched by Rohan Mirchandani, Uday Thakker, Chef Ganesh Krishnamoorthy and Rahul Jain in 2015. The company first started out being a Greek Yogurt brand and then went on to expand its products to artisanal curd, snack pack, Misti Doi and even smoothies.

    Epigamia markets its products through 21 different stock keeping units and 7000 retail stores which include Big Bazaar, Godrej Nature Basket, Big Basket, Amazon, Reliance Fresh in metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.

    The journey of Ghee spreads with Deepika Padukone

    The company has so far created more than 21 different products and plans to scale all over India and enter 50,000 stores in the coming years. The FMCG market is currently over $1.2 billion dollars, over 6% of the orders come from metro cities ordering through online channels of the FMCG total sales.

    The FMCG market in India is estimated over $104 billion in the year 2020 and is said to be growing at the rate of 28%. This is why Deepika Padukone decided to invest in the company in May 2019.

    The company has so far raised $51 million from investors like Verlinvest, Danone Manifesto Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners and Deepika Padukone from KA Enterprise in the 3rd round of funding.

    According to Rahul Jain the co-founder of Epigamia, the company aims to increase its consumer base and added that, “We believe that our association with Deepika Padukone will go a long way in making people aware of our brand and product. Deepika is a perfect fit to bring to life the brand ideology.”

    In a recent interview, the actress also stated that “not only do I love the products that the company makes but also connect very strongly with the brand philosophy, the team has big plans for future expansions and I am excited to be closely involved as we make new products and enter new cities.”

    The most recent product the company made was the Chocolate ghee spreads, which was marketed by Deepika Padukone as it was her idea to mix ghee and chocolate together. Deepika along with Epigamia also made an Instagram challenge called #DigSwirlSpread which took Instagram by storm, advertising the company and its products instantly.


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    Supertails

    Deepika Padukone, a global Indian icon, and other investors led a $2.6 million USD pre-series A investment for Supertails.com.

    Supertails.com, a Bangalore-based digital pet care start-up founded by Mr Varun Sadana, took an entry into India’s fast-developing pet care sector. Supertails.com is a one-of-a-kind platform that serves the growing pet parent community by offering dependable veterinarian services and a one-stop-shop for pet food and supplies.

    Supertails.com is distinguished by its one-of-a-kind offering of a fully digital telehealth consultation service provided by a team of highly skilled in-house veterinarians. The brand strives to bring pet parents closer to the widest choice of pet supplies from India and around the world, with doorstep delivery services available across the country.

    Supertails.com seeks to enrich this new adventure for them with items and services that they need the most as more people join pets to their families. The founders of Supertails.com and their team of pet care specialists and enthusiasts are united by a tireless love for the pet care ecosystem and a mission to make India a pet-friendly nation.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Who is Deepika Padukone?

    Deepika Padukone is one of the highest-paid actresses in India and among the 100 most influential people in the world according to 2018 Time Magazine.

    What are the startups funded by Deepika Padukone?

    Deepika Padukone has invested in many startups such as Epigamia which FMCG brand of yoghurt products, FrontRow a hobby based ed-tech startup, Blu Smart an electric taxi startup and even Bellatrix Aerospace which is an Indian space tech startup.

    What is the clothing line of Deepika Padukone called?

    The clothing line of Deepika Padukone is called All About You.

    What is the net worth of Deepika Padukone?

    The net worth of Deepika Padukone is Rs. 103 Crore.

    What is the KA Enterprise?

    KA Enterprises is the family office, in which she is a co-director along with her father Prakash Padukone. The actress funds startups through this office.

  • How the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program is helping Startups Grow

    One of India telecom giants Bharti Airtel launched its Startup Accelerator Program in 2019 to support growth of early stage Indian tech startups. With the advent of its Startup Accelerator Program, Airtel aims to support the creation of a vibrant startup ecosystem that contributes to Digital India. Airtel believes that new technologies like AI and Machine learning could be leveraged to aid the growth of startups.

    The program will help early stage startups get access to Airtel’s online and offline distribution network, deep market understanding and ecosystem of global strategic partners. With the Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) becoming the next big thing in technology, the program has also developed strong in-house capacities for using these new age technologies.

    Moreover, the startups will also get access to advisory services form Airtel executive team. Chief product officer of Bharti Airtel, Adarsh Nair on the launch of the accelerator program shared that early startups in India have exciting ideas but face multiple challenges in scaling up. He added, “With Airtels scale and digital capabilities around distribution and payments, we have the potential to drive the accelerated growth of emerging startups that are solving hard problems”.

    A Brief about Bharti Airtel
    How does the Startup Accelerator Program help Startups?
    Some Startups under the Accelerator Program
    FAQs


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    A Brief about Bharti Airtel

    Airtel is a global telecommunications company with operations in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa. The company ranks amongst the top three mobile operators globally and its mobile network covers a population of over two billion people. Airtel is India largest integrated telecom provider and the second largest mobile operator in Africa. At the end June 2020, Airtel had approx. 420 million customers across its operators.

    The portfolio of airtel includes high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1Gbps and converged digital TV solutions through the Airtel Xstream 4K hybrid box. It also has digital payments through Airtel Payments Bank as well as an integrated suite of services across connectivity, collaborations, cloud and security that serves over one million businesses.

    Airtel OTT services that includes Airtel Thanks app which is made for self-care, Airtel Xstream app for video, Wynk Music for entertainment and Airtel blue jeans for video conferencing. In addition, Airtel has forged strategic partnerships with hundreds of companies across the world to enable the Airtel platform to deliver an array of consumer and enterprise services.


    How does the Startup Accelerator Program help Startups?

    Airtel Startup Accelerator Program allows startups to leverage Airtels robust ecosystem including its core strengths in data, networks, payments and distribution. The program includes an access to a vast range of online and offline distribution network that touches 300 plus customers, deep market understanding and platform of global strategic partners.

    Madhav Krishna, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vahan with Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel
    Madhav Krishna, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vahan with Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel

    Further, startups also get access to advisory services from Airtel’s executive team. In India, Airtel serves customers across mobile, landline and DTH verticals. The program was introduced on 25th October 2019, Airtel will help early startups with its online and offline distribution network, deep market understanding and global strategic partner ecosystem.

    The company said in a statement, “With its Startup Accelerator Program, Airtel aims to support the creation of a vibrant startup ecosystem that contributes to Digital India”. Airtel has also developed in-house capabilities around machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), which could be leveraged to aid the growth of startups. The statement added that the startups will also get access to advisory services from Airtel’s executive team.

    Some Startups under the Accelerator Program

    the companies under the airtel startup accelerator program
    The companies under the airtel startup accelerator program

    Vahan

    Vahan is a Bengaluru-based tech startup and the first company to come under this program. The telecom has brought 8.8% stakes of the tech startup and will partner with them to achieve their visions of enabling jobs for the next billion internet users with the help of AI based technology. The company was founded in 2016 and is backed by YCombination and Khosla Ventures.

    The company is focused on finding blue collar jobs for millions of young Indians in Delivery, Driving, Retail, BFSI, BPO and Hospitality sectors with companies such as Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo as clients.

    Madhav Krishna, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vahan, in a statement said, “Most blue-collar job seekers are unaware of the opportunities that exist in the market, especially new-age on-demand jobs. Airtel’s distribution channels will help us reach the depths of the country and in turn, help them take control of their economic destiny.”

    Vahan leverages advanced Artificial Intelligence to match job seekers with employers inside messaging apps such as Whatsapp.

    Waybeo

    Waybeo is a Trivandrum headquartered startup which focuses on deep AI based analytics for cloud telephony, is the fifth to join the fast growing Airtel Startup Accelerator Program, which helps promises startups unlock their potential. Airtel has chosen Waybeo to be a part of the program as it is part of its strategy to scale up its cloud offerings. As per IDC, the public cloud services market in India is likely to reach US$7.1 billion by 2024.

    Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Airtel said: “Cloud technologies are transforming the way businesses serve and delight their customers. We are thrilled to onboard Waybeo to our Startup Accelerator program and provide them a platform to scale up their technologies as part of Airtel’s world-class cloud services ecosystem.”

    Waybeo has managed to build a cutting edge analytics tools for the enterprises cloud telephony segment. Under the Airtel Stratup Accelerator program, Waybeo solutions will get larger distribution reach while giving Airtel access to waybeo proven as well as emerging technologies. Airtel serves over 2,500 large enterprises and more than a million emerging businesses with an integrated product portfolio, including Airtel cloud, a multi cloud product and solutions business.


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    Voicezen

    The other company that came under the program was Voicezen, which is a Gurgaon-based startup that works on developing advanced solutions that leverage machine learning, AI, speech to text and voice technologies to offer real time analytics to help brands serve customers better. The global conversational AI market size is expected to grow from USD 4.2 billion in 2019 to USD 15.7 billion by 2024. The megatrend will be driven by surging demand for AI powered customer support services and Omni channel deployment.

    Increased customer engagement through social media platforms and integration of advanced AI capabilities will offer massive opportunity. The investment will give Airtel preferred access to Voicezen’s technologies, which can be deployed across its customer touch points in multiple languages. These intelligent solutions will offer real time analytics and insights to make Airtel’s conversations with its customers more engaging and frictionless and enable faster resolution.

    It will also allow Airtel to make contextual offers to customers based on real time conversations. Voicezen is the third startup to become a part of the Airtel startup accelerator program. By becoming a part of this program, Voicezen will get the opportunity to deploy its technologies on a massive scale and work closely with Airtel on developing India first platforms of the future. Voicezen helps brands deliver a better customer experience in Indian language using Conversational AI.

    Apurba Nath, founder Voicezen said , “Having worked on AI solutions in the past, we knew what works well in a lab most often doesn’t work in the real world, because either the training data is not large and relevant or the problem has little business significance. Our partnership with Airtel helps us solve these challenges. With this strategic investment, we will work even more closely with them to continuously improve our AI models and build out an enterprise grade battle hardened product that will make customer interactions more efficient, especially in this post Covid world where business operations are facing large disruptions.”

    Spectacom Global Pvt. Ltd

    Airtel has also picked stake in Spectacom Global Pvt. Ltd which is a fitness focused startup, through its Airtel startup Accelerator Program. Airtel will work with the startup to increase the adoption of its services by leveraging its digital platforms, including Xstream and Wynk Music. Adarsh Nair said that, “This also fits into Airtel strong focus on connecting with the youth and providing them digital platforms to fulfill their aspirations”.

    The Gurugram based Spectacom, set up by Adnan Adeeb and Zeba Zaidi, says it create digital content that allows consumers across geographies and languages to access health and fitness training initiatives and programs. The firm will also work to creating and promoting product lines such as training and nutrition videos along with live sporting events.

    Lattu Kids

    Foraying in the edtech sector, Bharti Airtel has acquired a 10% stake in Lattu Kids for as part of the Airtel Startup Accelerator Programme. The startup is Mumbai-based and was founded in 2017 by Vivek Lath, Vivek Bhutyani and Arvind Kumar. They offer learning and development content through streaming platform for kids between three to eight years of age.

    Bhutyani, CEO of Lattu Kids, commenting on the investment by stating, “With Airtel, we have found an equally passionate partner and our synergies in this space will allow us to scale Lattu to millions of kids in India across classes and make it a much-loved homegrownn edtech brand.”

    With the pandemic the edtech sector has seen a huge boost so this investment will pay off definitely. Airtel will be able to add edtech to its premium digital content portfolio and offer quality learning material compiled by the company.

    Conclusion

    With these investmet, Airtel will be able to capture a larger audience. They forayed into fitness, edtech, AI as well as blue collar job provider platforms. These startups will also be able to reach a wider audience and get mentorship from industry experts. Overall, it’s a win-win for all.

    FAQs

    How do Accelerator programs work?

    Accelerator programs are mainly programs of limited-duration that help startups with the new venture process. They usually provide a small amount of seed capital, plus working space and mentorship help with their growth in the ecosystem.

    What are the benefits of Airtel startup accelerator program?

    The program will help early stage startups get access to Airtel’s online and offline distribution network, deep market understanding and ecosystem of global strategic partners. With the Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) becoming the next big thing in technology, the program has also developed strong in-house capacities for using these new age technologies. Moreover, the startups will also get access to advisory services form Airtel executive team.

    What services does Airtel provide?

    Some Airtel services include high speed 4G/4.5G mobile broadband, Airtel Xstream Fiber that promises speeds up to 1Gbps and converged digital TV solutions through the Airtel Xstream 4K hybrid box. It also has digital payments through Airtel Payments Bank as well as an integrated suite of services across connectivity, collaborations, cloud and security that serves over one million businesses. Airtel OTT services that includes Airtel Thanks app which is made for self-care, Airtel Xstream app for video, Wynk Music for entertainment and Airtel blue jeans for video conferencing.

  • Startups That Are Funded By Madhuri Dixit

    In the recent years the number startups or ventures funded by well-known Bollywood celebrities have increased. In 2020, many celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Suniel Shetty, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif and Sonu Sood have helped the startup ecosystem rise during the hard times of global pandemic by investing or endorsing the products of startups. This also includes Madhuri Dixit Nene, as the iconic actress has also funded in a startup GOQii known for its fitness technology.

    The Padma Shri awarded actress, Madhuri Dixit has also launched her own online dance academy known as Dance with Madhuri which has increase 5 times because of the ongoing pandemic, she is also the co-founder of  the production company called RNM Moving Pictures with her husband Dr. Shriram Nene.

    Madhuri Dixit Nene is an Indian actress, producer, dancer and a popular television personality. She is known for her work in movies like Devdas, Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Khalnayak, Dil to Pagal Hain, etc.

    Madhuri has so far worked in over 70 Bollywood movies and is also one among the highest paid actresses of India, featured in the Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list for more than 7 times.

    Besides that Madhuri Dixit Nene is also known for her Philanthropic work as she is a part of UNICEF and has been vocal about the rights of children and child labor. She is a prominent name in India and uses her platform to endorse brands or even products from many small startups.

    GOQII
    The ventures started by Madhuri Dixit Nene
    The Growth and Future of Dance with Madhuri
    Upcoming Ventures of Madhuri Dixit
    FAQ


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    GOQII

    GOQii which is pronounced as Go-key, is a fitness technology company that is known for their range of wearable fitness bands with a mobile app and a personalized remote coaching.

    The company is founded by Vishal Gondal who was also the CEO and founder of Indiagames and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California with offices in Mumbai, Maharashtra and Shenzhen, China.

    An undisclosed amount was funded by Madhuri Dixit Nene and her husband Dr. Shriram Nene in 2014, as they liked that the company provided an end to end healthcare and wellness experience for users.

    GOQii products
    GOQii products

    The smart-tech enabled and integrated preventive healthcare platform has a long list of investors like Mitsui, Megadelta, Galaxy Digital, Edelweiss, Cheetah Mobile, Ratan Tata, Akshay Kumar, etc.

    The wearable fitness brand that GOQii makes collects the activity and sleep data of the user. The data is then reviewed by personal coach through the mobile app, after which the assigned coach guides the user towards a fitness or health goal for them. The app also has premium services which can be accessed after paying a subscription fee.

    The app allows its users earn karma points by meeting their target, these points are then donated to a charity of the user’s choice. It also allows users to share their stats on other social media sites.

    The mobile app of GOQii also includes health e-commerce store, scheduling health checkups, a health locker and exiting discounts. The company has also launched the personal health locker and a lifestyle doctor known as the GOQii Doctor for medical consultation in 2016.


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    The ventures started by Madhuri Dixit Nene

    RNM Moving Pictures Private Limited

    RNM Moving Pictures Private Limited is a non-government company which was founded by Madhuri Dixit Nene and her husband Dr. Shriram Nene in June of 2012. This company is an embodiment of Madhuri and Dr Nene as it is made with the 30 year old expertise in the Hindi cinema and technology & medical experience.

    It has a revenue of $5 million with its headquarters based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company is known for producing media and content across all platform by leveraging their individual and combined brand identities.

    The company is divided into the sections entertainment, lifestyle, interactive gaming and healthcare. RNM moving pictures combines the individual strengths, brand identities and unique strengths of the power couple Madhuri Dixit Nene and Dr. Shriram Nene in order to produce world class content and media across different platforms.

    The company produces digital products which are viewed on MadhuriDixit.com, the Madhuri Dixit app, Tophealthguru.com and DrNene.com across all Apple and Android devices.

    The motive of creating these websites is that the fans can connect with Madhuri Dixit, and get the latest information on Madhuri’s film, dance, art, music as well as he actress’s thoughts and recommendation on fashion, health and beauty.

    The DancewithMaduri.com which comes under this company is a dance initiative started by her for bringing her passion for dance to the world. The 10 year old company started with an idea of merging different sectors into one platform and giving the user a wide range to choose from.


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    Dance with Madhuri

    Dance with Madhuri is a well-established online gamified dance academy that allows its users to learn various dance styles. The Dance With Madhuri platform is the first ever celebrity backed online dance academy in the world and allows people to learn different forms of dancing.

    Madhuri says that she started this online dance academy because, “Dancing has been my passion since I was 3 years old, and it only grew stronger with time. Dance with Madhuri is an expression of my gratitude to my ever loving fans who have contributed to what I am today.”

    About Dance with Madhuri

    These dance forms are taught by renowned dancers/choreographers and the videos are designed to teach all levels of dancers from beginner to advance and are planned in a systematic, authentic and conveniently.

    DWM allows its users to exhibit their talents by uploading their videos of the same dance or even their progress videos and much more. DWM teaches dance forms like Bollywood, Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Folk, Club Dance Forms, Latin and Ballroom, Bollyhop, Street dance, Contemporary, Jazz, Ballet, Tap dance and Flamenco among others.

    Dance with Madhuri allows its users to learn various dance styles from the best teachers from their online dance courses and workshops. The website also promotes wellness and offers videos on exercise ranging from Core strengthening, stretching, functional training, Pilates, step burn, dancercise etc.

    The user can also apply for a certified courses and also connect with other dancers, participate in contest and events and showcase their talent to the world through this platform.


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    The Growth and Future of Dance with Madhuri

    The company started in February 2013, and was created in just three months with the help of online infrastructure and just three in house employees. When the website was launched it crashed after a while because of the overwhelming response that it received.

    According to Dr. Nene, they had over 6 million page views and 200,000 users just within a year. The couple and the team reworked upon it and then relaunched it in 2015.

    Earlier the DWM generated its revenue solely from sponsorship and advertisement model, but later changed to DTH subscribers in order to create a liner video channel. The company then got over 100,000 paid subscribers and turned profitable with over 50% of its users coming from India and rest the world. Currently in 2020, the business has grown over five times because of the covid 19 pandemic. The team is now planning to explore more avenues and introduce acting, scriptwriting, gourmet cooking, music and much more.

    With the global lockdowns in 2020, many dancers and choreographers had lost their daily living which is why DWM gave them an opportunity to have their classes on its platform.

    In an interview Dr. Nene added that, “Dance With Madhuri has been self- sustaining and could grow organically but looking at the potential it has, we are looking for strategic partners and funding so that we can expand it further.”


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    Upcoming Ventures of Madhuri Dixit

    The couple is now working on starting a new venture which will be dedicated for holistic healthcare. Dr Shriram Nene who is a cardiovascular surgeon in America, has been working on starting this healthcare startup from a long time and is said to launch it soon.

    In an interview Dr. Nene shares that, “We are trying to build is a holistic, personalized healthcare which can be used across different media platforms. What people really need is a trusted source which is aligned to their health needs from cradle to grave.”

    FAQ

    Who is Madhuri Dixit Nene?

    Madhuri Dixit Nene is an Indian actress, producer, dancer and a popular television personality.

    Which is the startup funded by Madhuri Dixit Nene?

    The startup funded by Madhuri Dixit Nene is GOQii is a fitness technology company.

    What are the ventures started by Madhuri Dixit Nene?

    The ventures started by Madhuri Dixit Nene in RNM Moving Pictures Private Limited and Dance with Madhuri.

    How much is Madhuri Dixit worth?

    Madhuri Dixit approximately has a net worth of $35 million which roughly translates to Rs. 264 Crores.

    What is the first movie of Madhuri Dixit?

    Madhuri Dixit made her debut with the 1984 film Abodh.

  • Startups That Are Funded By Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

    Over the past few years, there has been an increasing number of Bollywood stars trying to do different things to give their career a whole new direction. Some celebrities are investing in startups that align with their interests in order to enter the technological space that is booming in India.

    In 2020, many celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Suniel Shetty, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone and Sonu Sood have become angel investors to upcoming startups that have potential especially during the hard times of global pandemic.

    While some celebrities have become entrepreneurs themselves and are leaving no stone unturned to get into the competitive business world. The latest inclusion in the list of actors turned investors is a world renowned actress, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

    Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian actress, who was also crowned Miss World in the year of 1994. The former Miss World is one of the most influential celebrities in India and is a recipient of Padma Shri by The Government of India and The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France.

    She is also regarded as the most beautiful woman in the world, often times by the media. The actress is known for work in movies like Devdas, Hum Dill De Chuke Sanam, Jodhaa Akbar, Mohabbatein, Enthiran, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, among others. But besides that she is also known for her humanitarian work as she is also the Goodwill ambassador for UNAIDS.

    Aishwarya is now an angel investor to a company known as Ambee, which is an environment intelligence startup. The actress has also recently funded in a nutrition based healthcare startup called Possible. This is however, not her first investment as she had also funded in a wind power project in Maharashtra over ten years back.

    Possible
    Ambee
    Frequently Asked Questions


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    Lets look at the Startups Funded By Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

    Possible

    Possible is a nutrition based startup earlier known as Truweight Wellness which was founded by Vishnu Saraf and Megha More in 2015. The company offers research driven nutrition service and healthy food products through its website. It also helps in leading a sustainable health, wealth loss and management of lifestyle diseases.

    The startup claims to help over 40 thousand people in losing weight and managing diseases and aims to transform lives of more than 10 million people by helping them fight Lifestyle Disease.

    founders of Possible, Vishnu Saraf and Megha More
    Founders of Possible, Vishnu Saraf and Megha More

    The website has over 50,000 success stories with more than 100 nutritionists and doctors and sells more than 50 super foods. The company excels in providing services and products to Combat Obesity, Thyroid, PCOS, Diabetes’s and others.

    The company offers a wide variety of services like video tutorials, personal nutritionists, online consultations with doctors, customized meal plans, super foods including a tech based scientist’s analysis with constant mentoring. The strategy of the company is to provide physician supervision by an ayurvedic doctor, a personal health coach that will guide you in dietary habits.

    The healthcare startup also offers a Pocket clinic to get on spot advice from doctors and a wide range of nutrient rich food products that are designed by food scientists.

    Possible aims to helps people live a long life by converting their own kitchen into a pharmacy and using food as their medicine. Which is why the startup managed to raise Rs. 5 Crore from Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as a part of a larger funding round which raised over Rs. 15 Crore in total.

    Possible is also backed by Blacksoil and Kalaari Capital and has also offered letters to raise Rs. 6.69 Crore from six investors. There are over 90 million health conscious people in Indian by 2018, which is expected to reach 130 million by 2022, according to the Redseer report.

    With Covid 19 Pandemic, the customers in the country are becoming health conscious and are preferring to eat healthy food to build their immunity.


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    Ambee

    Ambee is a well-known Bengaluru based, environmental intelligence startup that makes a mobile box which measures particulate matter and high density to better analyze and predict immediate timely emergency warnings.

    The company provides data on hyper local air quality for developers, consumers, health researchers and media companies. The company aims to measure the quality of air around the world, the ration sources of emissions, create emission inventory not just for urban but even in rural places around the world.

    Aishwarya Rai Bachchan funding Ambee

    The company was founded by Akshay Joshi, Jaideep Singh and Madhusudhan Anand in 2017. Ambee provides solutions for indoor air quality of different places like offices and commercial spaces like malls, hotels and cinemas, etc.

    The platform helps its users make informed decisions or take preventive measures by providing data and analytics in the times environment distress. The data that the company provides includes sensor data, weather patterns, traffic data, ratio of diesel to petrol vehicles and even contextual data such as road repair, garbage burning and density of diesel generators.

    The company monitors air quality with data through 100 sensors that has already been installed across Bengaluru. India has over 14 out of 20 of the most polluted cities in the world. According to World Health Organization (WHO), more than 10% to 50% of the indoor environments in countries like North America, Europe, Australia, Japan and India are polluted.

    India has also witnessed a sudden growth in the number of cleantech/air purifier startups like Nanoclean, Clairco, Phoenix Robotix, Chakr Innovation, etc that are trying to solve India’s energy and pollution issues.

    They have a variety of air quality monitors that can track a wide variety of pollutants and real time analytics in order to ensure that spaces know what people are breathing at that time and take corrective actions where necessary.

    Which is why Aishwarya Rai Bachchan along with her mother Vrinda KR invested over Rs 50 lakh each at Ambee. The IoT startup has so far raised over Rs. 3.22 Crore from multiple investors Techstarts Bangalore, Touchstone Venture LLP, Motivated Minds Wealth LLP and Shekhar Kamal Lodha HUF.


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    Frequently Asked Questions

    Who is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan?

    Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is an Indian actress, model, a former Miss World and one of the most influential celebrities in India.

    What are the startups funded by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan?

    The startups funded by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are Ambee and Possible.

    What is the net worth of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan?

    The net worth of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is 100 million

    The actress is known for work in movies like Devdas, Hum Dill De Chuke Sanam, Jodhaa Akbar, Mohabbatein, Enthiran, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, among others.

  • Startups That Are Funded By Shilpa Shetty Kundra

    From the past few years there has been an increase of Bollywood celebrities backing startups as investors or even launching their own ventures. Many celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Suniel Shetty, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif and Sonu Sood have recently started investing or endorsing the products of startups during the Covid 19 Pandemic in order to help maintain the startup ecosystem.

    This also includes Shilpa Shetty Kundra who has launched her own fitness and health app called Simple Soulful and also invested in a Gurugram based startup known as Mamaearth.

    Shilpa Shetty Kundra is an Indian actress, film producer, dancer and also is known to be businesswomen and author. The actress is popular for her roles in movies like Baazigar, Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Life in a Metro, etc.

    Shilpa Shetty Kundra has been a part of various fitness campaign such as the Fit India movement which was lauched by the Government of India.

    She has also been a part owner of the Indian Premium League (IPL) team Rajasthan Royals from 2009 to 2015. Besides that she is also known to be a devote fitness enthusiast and celebrity endorser for brands and products and has been vocal about issues like feminism and animal rights.

    Which is why the Shilpa started her own fitness and health app (Simple Soulful) and has also funded a startup Mamaearth that sells mother and childcare products. The startups funded by Shilpa Shetty Kundra are:

    Mamaearth
    Simple Soulful
    Frequently Asked Questions


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    Mamaearth

    Mamaearth was founded in 2016 by a couple Varun and Ghazal Alagh, the company is owned and operated by Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. The company is known for its product line that includes toxin free body lotions, rash creams, shampoos, body wash, massage oils and even bug sprays which are curated for the children up to the age of five years.

    The company concentrates on making products that are for stress relief, postpartum weight loss for new mothers and non-preservative products for lactation.

    Shilpa Shetty with Varun and Ghazal Alagh the founders of Mamaearth
    Shilpa Shetty with Varun and Ghazal Alagh the founders of Mamaearth

    The company sells most its products on its own website and other online ecommerce platforms like Amazon, FirstCry, Nykaa, Flipkart and Paytm. Shilpa Shetty Kundra has funded over $250,000 to the startup in April of 2018 and has backed the company ever since.  

    In an interview Shilpa disclosed that she decided to fund the startup because it offered natural and chemical free nature of products. Over 90% of company’s sales are done online but are also available in more than 300 stores across cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi and are planning to expand to ten other cities in the country.

    The company has its headquarters in Gurugram and has raised over Rs 6.5 crore in just the second round of funding by Fireside Ventures and other investors. It also managed to raise Rs 130 crore from the Sequoia Capital India, Fireside Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners and Sharp Ventures.

    It has so far acquired over 5 million new customers and aims on making the company over Rs 500 crore brand by 2023. The company also plans on launching more products and expanding operation to parts of Southeast Asia.


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    Why fund Mamaearth?

    According to the founders Mamaearth, it is a pioneer in selling safer products curated specially for mothers and kids of India. The company is aiming to build a brand that is friendly to parents and intends to make lives of the mothers and pregnant woman better and beautiful. Mamaearth is also Asia 1st brand which sells the Made Safe Certified Products. Most the products are made by mothers as nobody else understands a baby’s needs like a mother does.

    Which is why the company has a working panel of mothers who give genuine reviews to all the products. For the past 15 years the GDP per capita has become 4 times more especially in the urban cities, while the childcare has increased eight fold.

    There has also been a rise in new mothers looking for customized products for themselves and their children. Mamaearth is helpful in reducing parental stress amongst young parents. In an interview, Varun Alagh disclosed how he got Shilpa Shetty Kundra to invest in the startup.

    “The process started over a year back with finding ways to get a window with her which took nearly 3 months after sending many pitches. But after the meeting we gave her all our products to try it herself and on her son.” He also added that the actress did her own in-depth research on Mamaearth after which she went on to backing the startup as an equity investor.


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    App launched by Shilpa Shetty Kundra

    Simple Soulful

    Simple Soulful is a holistic wellness and Health App launched by Shilpa Shetty Kundra and designed by experts of Yoga, Exercise, Immunity and Diet Programs.

    The 45 year old Bollywood actress made this app because she is a fitness enthusiast, has active lifestyle and lives by the philosophy of “Swasth Raho, Mast Raho” which translates to “Stay Healthy, Stay Happy.” The app encourages a healthy lifestyle and offers a customized goal based yoga and fitness programs.

    An example of the Simple Soulful video by Shilpa Shetty

    These programs are specifically designed to help its customers lose weight, improve flexibility, strengthen core muscles, tone arms and legs. They also have programs that will help customers with special ailments like focusing of diabetes, low and high blood pressure, immunity, sleep and stress management.

    Simple Soulful has free and has easy to do yoga asanas with step by step instructions, other exercise, diet plans, recommendations and delicious yet nutritious recipes to maintain a healthy balance in life. The target audience of the app is working women and men but it also caters to young mothers and youngsters.

    The features and pricing of the app

    The cost of Simple Soulful is Rs. 499 for a month, Rs 999 Quarterly and Rs 2499 annually. The app/website also allows its customers to purchase single videos for a minimum cost of Rs 99.

    These subscriptions give its customers an access to 60 plus yoga and meditation programs by experts, daily diet plans, recommendations, asanas, exercises and healthy recipes. The app is available for iOS 11.0 and Android 5.0 with a lifetime of access. The special features of simple soulful are:

    • The users of the app can work out with Shilpa Shetty Kundra as she is the one that performs them while being mentored by experts.
    • The workouts are designed in a way that it is easy, quick and home based that can be performed anywhere and anytime.
    • The programs help people in boosting their immunity especially during the Covid 19 pandemic.
    • The recipes require simple and less ingredients which are also highly nutritional.
    • Their special program made only for women, like exercising videos for pregnancy, post pregnancy weight loss and menstrual pain.
    • The app allows you to download programs and workout without Internet along with tracking and displaying their fitness journey.

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    Benefits of Simple Soulful

    Shilpa Shetty Kundra is a well-known yoga practitioner which is why the app has a whole section of yoga programs which made specifically for different levels like the beginners.

    They also have an Office yoga section where working men and women can practice simple workouts around their office chair. Like the yoga videos the exercising videos also come with many difficulty levels and have an apt description of the benefits of each workout. Another main benefit is that once the videos are downloaded, you can keep up with your training with without data or Wifi.

    Shilpa Shetty in an interview mentioned that she not tech savvy but made sure to work with the apple accelerator team to make sure that the interface of Simple Soulful is simple to navigate and easy to use.

    The app is also on iPad and Apple watch integration and plans to integrate siri for voice commands. Shilpa loves the app and has put a lot of effort into making it, she has also shot for videos eight hours in one go.

    According to Shilpa, “I started learning advanced yoga and have achieved my own fitness goals while working on the app”. Her point is that, If she can do it, so can you.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Who is Shilpa Shetty Kundra?

    Shilpa Shetty Kundra is an Indian actress, film producer, dancer and also is known to be businesswomen and author.

    What is the startup that is funded by Shilpa Shetty Kundra?

    The startup that is funded by Shilpa Shetty Kundra is Mamaearth.

    What is the fitness app of Shilpa Shetty Kundra?

    The fitness app of Shilpa Shetty Kundra is Simple Soulful

    What is Mamaearth?

    Mamaearth is a startup that is known to sell mother and childcare products that are safe to use.

    What is Simple Soulful?

    Simple Soulful is a holistic wellness and Health App launched by Shilpa Shetty Kundra and designed by experts of Yoga, Exercise, Immunity and Diet Programs.