In order to assist and facilitate the formation of at least 5,000 startups by 2035, the Delhi government has produced the draft “Delhi Startup Policy, 2025”. The government plans to launch a venture capital fund with a value of INR 200 Cr under the draft policy.
Benefits for Startups: Rentals, Patents, and Operating Expenses
According to the draft policy, the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) may host experiential learning workshops in collaboration with prominent investor networks to educate high-net-worth individuals and prospective investors on the ins and outs of startup investing.
Additional benefits include a 100% reimbursement of leasing rentals for a maximum of three years, up to INR 10 lakh annually. Full reimbursement for filing patent designs up to INR 3 lakh for foreign filings and INR 1 lakh for domestic filings. For a year, a monthly allocation of INR 2 lakh will be given for operating expenses.
New Incubation Centres and Coworking Spaces in Delhi
In addition to the funding, the programme suggests establishing new coworking spaces or incubation centres to offer operational and capital support “over and above” the current Central government subsidies for a five-year term.
In order to mentor businesses situated in the nation’s capital, the Delhi government will also look into forming alliances with academic institutions, incubators, government labs, and financial organisations.
Virtual Incubation and Mentor Network via Delhi Incubation Hub
Through the Delhi Incubation Hub network, the Delhi government will offer entrepreneurs virtual incubation services so they can connect with mentors and experts. A policy monitoring committee will also be established by the BJP government, with the commissioner of industries serving as its head.
The group will also include a few industry specialists, the secretary of the planning department, and the deputy commissioners of the industries department.
Startup Task Force to Monitor Policy Implementation
Additionally, the policy suggests forming a “Startup Task Force” to review and approve applications submitted to obtain benefits under the programme. Five industry experts and two commissioners from the industries department would lead this force.
Every six months, the task team will be in charge of assessing the state of implementation. The state government’s emphasis on encouraging entrepreneurship coincides with the rapid expansion of the startup scene in the nation. With about 1.9 lakh firms that have funded over $164 billion to date, the Indian startup ecosystem is currently the third largest in the world.
Comparison with Haryana and Andhra Pradesh Startup Policies
States around the country are enacting specific laws to support startups in an effort to boost the local economy and generate employment. For example, as part of its state startup policy, the state of Haryana recently asked private investors to donate INR 2,000 Cr to a “Fund of Funds”.
In addition, the government of Andhra Pradesh recently unveiled the “AP Innovation & Startup Policy (4.0) 2024-2029”, which aims to establish 20,000 new companies over the course of the following five years.
Quick
Shots
•INR 200 Cr VC Fund – Govt to launch
venture capital fund to boost startup financing.
•Financial Support – 100% reimbursement
on rentals (up to INR 10 lakh/year for 3 years) & patent filing costs.
•Startups to get INR 2 lakh/month for
1 year.
•New coworking spaces & incubation
centres planned in Delhi.
After Union Minister Piyush Goyal questioned the direction and focus of India’s startup ecosystem, entrepreneurs and leaders have risen to the occasion to defend it. Piyush Goyal critiqued the present trajectory of Indian companies, despite the fact that the country has the third-largest startup environment globally, behind the US and China. He noted that Chinese companies are focused on electric vehicles, battery technology, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, many Indian businesses are concentrating on food delivery, betting, and fantasy sports. During his address at Startup Maha Kumbh, Goyal questioned if we needed to create chips or ice cream. “Dukaandari hi karna hai” means “want to do shopkeeping only?” Instead of striving for greater innovation and long-term advancement in critical technologies, he questioned whether the nation was satisfied with the creation of gig jobs.
Big Players Strongly Defer from the Minister
These comments have led to significant replies from well-known names in the startup and tech sector. Prominent investor and former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai claimed the comparison to China was unjust and useless. He expressed concern about how government regulations are impeding the development of deep technology in India. These are poor analogies, Pai wrote on X. India has small startups in each of those fields as well. Instead of criticising the nation’s startups, Minister @PiyushGoyal ought to consider what he has done in his capacity as India’s minister to support the expansion of deep tech start-ups in his home country. He also attributed the obstacles to India’s financial structure and legislation. Pai further added that for long years, India’s hostile @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman harassed start-ups on angel tax, prohibited institutions from investing, and prevented insurance companies from investing, even though they did so all over the world. Due to FE regulations, @RBI frequently harasses foreign investors regarding remittances and AIFs and treats them poorly. Between 2014 and 2024, China made 845 billion dollars in investments. Just 160 billion dollars for India! He asked, “Why isn’t Minister @PiyushGoyal @AshwiniVaishnaw contributing to the resolution of these problems?” Ashneer Grover, a former co-founder of BharatPe, also blasted Goyal for disparaging the startup scene in India. According to him, India’s leaders are the only ones who require a “reality check.” Everybody else is living in India’s harsh reality.
Zepto’s Palicha Defended India’s Startup Sector
In response, Zepto founder Aadit Palicha praised Indian consumer internet businesses and emphasised the company’s effect, given that it was founded just 3.5 years ago. One of the pioneers of the fast e-commerce sector, Zepto became a unicorn in 2023. Through its online app, it launched the 10-minute delivery service, which its rivals have now embraced. According to Palicha, it is simple to condemn consumer internet companies in India, particularly when contrasting them with the advanced technological capabilities being developed in the US and China. In reality, there are currently around 1.5 lakh genuine people making a living on Zepto. Zepto has brought in over a billion dollars in foreign direct investment and paid over INR 1,000 crore in taxes to the government annually. On top of that, Zepto has spent hundreds of crores in India’s supply chains, particularly for fresh fruits and vegetables, he added. Palicha went on to say that big internet firms are crucial to the advancement of new technology. Why doesn’t India have a large-scale foundational AI model of its own? he asked.
These days we are getting almost everything at our doorsteps, thanks to all the great startups that have made it possible. But do you know that there are some great startups that provide you even real estate services at your fingertips?
Technology has made this process very easy. One can have all the information related to a property with just a click on the internet. The real estate industry is using enhanced technologies like Machine Learning, AI and other powerful tools to enhance customer services. Real estate has become the current hot industry among working employees and students who are away from their hometowns.
Everyone wants a piece of land. It’s the only sure investment. It can never depreciate like a car or washing machine. Land will only double its value in ten years. – Sam Shepard, American actor, and author
As per a report from Statistica.com 99% of the residents aged between 31-40 years use the internet while searching for a home in the US. India is also a developing nation and the internet has penetrated the entire country. So, one can expect more and more people to look for a home on the internet. Thus real estate has become a hot topic for tech-based startups. Let’s see what are some of the best Real Estate startups in India and what they offer.
Quikr is a Bangalore-based Indian classified advertising platform founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas in 2008. They provide platforms in various categories such as household goods, cars, mobile phones and also real estate. QuikrHomes is a merged property portal of Quikr with CommonFloor, launched in September 2015. It allows the users to search for residential, commercial and agricultural properties to either buy or rent out.
Founders: Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev
Founded: 2015
NestAway Homepage
NestAway is a Bangalore-based online platform founded by Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev in 2015. NestAway provides homeowners to list their properties for rent and home seekers to find furnished homes to choose from and book from. Their app provides furnished home bookings, services like home cleaning, electric and plumbing checks, and more.
NestAway allows its users to find, book, and move into a rental home of their choice across almost all Indian cities. They aim at providing better rental solutions with the help of design and technology. The company presently caters for all the major cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru and more.
PropTiger is a Noida-based property portal founded in 2011 that allows users to buy property in India. The users leave their required property specifications online and PropTiger offers solutions with a wide range of services including identifying apartment options, organizing site visits, budget and affordability analysis, helping with unit selection and application filing with real estate developers to facilitate housing loans.
PropTiger is currently present in 12+ cities, including major cities like Noida, Gurgaon, Ahemdabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata. They have over 30,000 properties listed on their website and have over 300 agents. PropTiger has sold over RS 15,000 crore worth of properties.
Colive
Founder: Sundari Rangarajan
Founded: 2016
Colive Homepage
Colive is a technology-powered network of branded serviced homes that offers rooms for high-end and well-located shared rooms that are a modern and sustainable lifestyle. The company was founded by Sundari Rangarajan in 2016 based in Bangalore. They provide an “all-in” solution including the layout of the house, services of cleaning, internet and TV, insurance, water, gas and electricity. Colive provides home rentals, shared living spaces, and PGs located near educational institutions and workplaces.
awfis
Founder: Amit Ramani
Founded: 2015
Awfis Homepage
awfis is a Delhi-based provider of managed coworking spaces founded by Amit Ramani in 2015. It allows users to browse for spaces based on the type of space, city, locality and capacity. On awfis’ platform, most of the facilities are on the managed aggregation model. The owner gives the property to the company at no upfront cost and takes a higher share of the revenue.
The users on awfis can book work desks, private cabinets, business centres, and meeting rooms and book them online. They provide a platform where its community members can regularly interact, network, and share ideas at events and seminars. It connects the members with service providers in the field of accounting, legal, recruitment, payments, web services and other services as well. To support its community members, awfis has partnered with Incubators/Accelerators, Angel Networks, VC Funds and Startup Mentors.
Ghar360
Founders: Ajesh Joy and Sanju Thomas
Founded: 2012
Ghar360 Homepage
Ghar360 is a Bangalore-based startup founded by Ajesh Joy and Sanju Thomas in 2012 it is a cloud-based 3D augmented reality platform that lets its users experience a virtual walk through the house with the digital platform even before it is constricted.
Ghar360 has developed a unique idea to reinvent the interior shopping experience by digitizing the floor plan into an interactive walkable space which is constructed to make customers an idea of the reality of the living space before purchasing it. The startup has raised total funding of $20k from TLabs.
ZoloStays
Founder: Akhil Sikri
Founded: 2015
ZoloStays Homepage
ZoloStays is a Bangalore-based provider of branded accommodations founded by Akhil Sikri in 2015. The startup offers PGs, serviced apartments and independent flats. They also provide amenities like TV, Wi-fi, fridge, washing machine, food, RO water facility, power backup and more.
ZoloStays associates with owners and offers the properties as managed accommodations. PG owners who manage their own properties can also affiliate with ZoloStays and accept non-Zolo tenants. The company has raised total funding of up to $100 million and earned revenue by charging a commission on the monthly rent.
NoBroker
Founders: Saurabh Garg, Amit Kumar Agarwal and Akhil Gupta
Founded: 2014
NoBroker Homepage
NoBroker is a Bangalore-based real estate search platform founded by Saurabh Garg, Amit Kumar Agarwal and Akhil Gupta in 2014. NoBroker eliminates brokers while connecting flat owners and landlords with tenants. It is a C2C model of property portal that uses advanced technologies like Machine Learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence to sort, select and list properties better by gathering data and extracting listing information from images of ‘to-let’ signs.
Nobroker has now forayed into a brokerage-free buy and-sell properties as well and the company also verifies each listing to make sure they are owners and not middlemen maintaining the authenticity of the platform.
StayAbode
Founders: Viral Chhajer and Devanshish Dalmiya
Founded: 2016
StayAbode Homepage
StayAbode is a Bangalore-based startup founded by Christ University alumni Viral Chhajer and Devanshish Dalmiya in 2016 that builds coliving spaces for the rental residential real estate market. In 2020, it was acquired by NestAway for an undisclosed amount. They thrive at providing a hassle-free abode to millennials looking for coliving spaces using the platform of technology as a source to offer small private spaces to its users that are elegant and fully furnished.
They also provide their users with a safe environment and cover utilities. They provide fully furnished rooms and amenities like wi-fi, water, electricity, maintenance, parking and DTH. StayAbode takes up entire building space on long-term leases and then re-works the interiors to convert it to a co-living space and then sub-rent it to their customers.
Square Yards
Founders: Tanuj Shori and Kanika Gupta
Founded: 2013
Square Yards Homepage
Square Yards is a Delhi-based online real estate advisory and brokerage services firm founded in 2013 by Tanuj Shori and Kanika Gupta – an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management. The company has a field employee base of about 500 across five countries and is active in 15 cities in India. On the platform, each client is assigned a unique relationship manager who handholds the clients throughout the asset ownership – similar to a private banking model.
It is currently located in ten countries and 31 cities and has more than 1000 employees. Square Yards has been valued at more than $288 million as of 2019 and has also banked the ‘Real-Estate Marketing Company of the year by Accommodation Times and ‘Startup of the year’ by Silicon India.
Grexter Living
Founders: Pratul Gupta and Nikhil Dosi
Founded: 2016
Grexter Living Homepage
Grexter Living is a coliving space startup founded by Pratul Gupta and Nikhil Dosi. Grexter Living offers functional and built-to-suit urban studio rooms that provide all the necessary amenities and, at the same time, are aesthetically appealing. Catering primarily to salaried employees, fresh graduates, and techies in the age group of 18-30 years, the spaces they provide consist of a large common kitchen with another huge designated area that has lounges, gaming consoles, and home theatres.
CoHo
Founder: Uday Lakkar
Founded: 2015
CoHo Homepage
CoHo is one of the country’s first coliving spaces was founded in 2015. It offers fully furnished accommodation on a sharing and individual basis with amenities such as hot food, wifi, laundry services, and 24/7 security, along with access to common spaces such as lounges, games and reading rooms and special events such as poker nights.All this without any security deposit, brokerage or furnishing costs.
CoHo raised funds from veterans like Sachin Bhatia (Co-founder, MakeMyTrip and TrulyMadly), Rajesh Sawhney (Co-Founder, GSF and InnerChef), Mahesh Parasuraman (Ex-MD, Carlyle PE), Dheeraj Jain (Partner, UK based Hedge fund), amongst others.
Conclusion
Real estate is one of the biggest industries in the world. The Indian real estate industry is expected to reach a US$1 trillion market by 2030. These startups are prominent contributors to the growing industry of real estate. They are making real estate easy to access and making it more affordable for a normal person to buy or rent a property.
FAQs
What are the top real estate startups in India?
QuikrHomes
NestAway
PropTiger
Colive
Awfis
Ghar360
ZoloStays
NoBroker
Grexter Living
Square Yards
CoHo
StayAbode
Is real estate a good business?
Yes, the scope for demand makes it a profitable business. The real estate market size will become USD 1 trillion by 2030, accounting for 18-20% of India’s GDP.
Startups are continuously making noise in every field and India has become the hub of startups. Fintech, digital marketing, cryptocurrency and so many companies related to other industries are now creating buzz all around. Among them Deep Tech is also peeking its head into the startup ecosystem.
Deep-tech, short for ‘Deep Technology’, is solving many real-world problems by developing an innovative idea of technology that can be used to make people’s lives easier. The startups and companies pertaining to deep-tech are based on some substantial scientific advances and high tech engineering innovation. It has gained boom interest from Indian investors and is rapidly growing its market.
Here is a list of Indian startups founded on scientific discoveries and meaningful engineering innovations that are making a big name for themselves:
Genrobotics is a Kerala-based startup that manufactured a robot – called Bandicoot – which is a spider-shaped robot that cleans sewage and aims to eventually end the barbaric practice of manual. This is a 50-kg pneumatic-powered remote-controlled robot that goes down into a manhole, spreads its expandable limbs like a spider and scoops out the solid and liquid garbage that blocks urban sewers. It has a 360-degree motion robotic arm that can sweep the floor of the manhole to collect the debris in a bucket that cleans the manholes in 20 minutes.
Bandicoot has been deployed in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Gujrat. Genrobotics was launched by engineers Vimal Govind MK, Arun George, Nikhil NP and Rashid Abdulla Khan in 2015. The Bandicoot uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine intelligence (ML) to determine the amount of unclogging needed and can complete the work in 45 minutes, which requires three or four hours of manual labour hours otherwise.
The Manhole Monitoring System (MMS) is also manufactured by Genrobotics. MMS is a complete sanitation solution that monitors the manhole network, it collects the crucial data and processes it using machine learning and AI technology to give an overall idea about the health of the manhole and give an alert when it is getting clogged/overflowing.
G-Robotic Suit, manufactured by Genrobotics is a 10 ft. high robot that can be operated by an individual by placing himself inside. It’s a prototype of the technology that can be used for defence purposes, space applications, weight lifting and anywhere that requires some extra power and protection.
Cogknit
Cogknit Semantics Pvt. Ltd. is an ISO certified innovative product company based in Bangalore. It applies machine learning to text, speech and computer vision. The company’s Nimit is a personalized learning platform that uses data science and machine learning algorithms to identify users’ learning patterns and user activity to identify user context and deliver content based on the context, enabling them to receive an extended blended learning platform.
Congknit envisions that they are going to tap on the voice-based transactions that are going to disrupt industries. It runs many video content in its stores, and wants to make sure those have scripts that even a visually challenged customer can follow. The startup’s competence and innovation focuses on Semantics, Web 3.0, Big Data, system engineering and associated technologies to solve various market problems.
Cognitifai
Cognitifai is a startup founded by Kanishka Nithin that helps retrieve the exact information using cameras by using a video intelligence platform that uses computer vision to index physical world phenomena. They have specialized in urban monitoring such as surveillance, healthcare and hyper-local intelligence discovery for smart cities and retail enterprises.
Cognitifai can detect even one bottle from the store’s inventory through its computer vision so that the store can replenish the shelf much quicker than depending on a manual store worker to check and fill the stock. Thus enabling real-time intervention to facilitate inventory management.
Cognitifai has founded some products and they are:
Visionapi.ai is an open marketplace for the state of the art video intelligence use cases and algorithms, enabling diverse enterprises to effortlessly discover, access and consume use cases and algorithms. Focus on Solving your business problem instead of spending all your time researching.
DevSuite.ai is a suite of intuitive no-code visual modelling tools that supports the full lifecycle of AI algorithm or AI product development – From research to production.
HPCOS.ai is a fully managed highly parallel and distributed operating system for Training, inferencing and continuous learning of AI at scale. Automating and optimising the end to end operations lifecycle for the deployment of AI at scale. All agnostic to where to run AI and how AI was built. Therefore shrinking your time from months to minutes to production AI at scale.
Dataplatform.ai is a framework for secure distributed storage, governance and processing of large, multi-source data sets.
Nautilus Hearing
Nautilus Hearing Heath care is a startup founded by audiologist T. Uday Raga Kiran that is accessible and affordable. The startup makes a new kind of hearing care company products using the best technologies to make hearing care simple, accessible and reliable by providing revolutionary technology that opens up new possibilities in audiometric testing.
People often use their hearing aids for short durations and stop using them as soon as they find them unsatisfying. The company has developed a booth-less, portable audiometer that is helping doctors conduct ear tests with ease. Nautilus Hearing is available in two variations.
A diagnostic product for certified healthcare practitioners and a screening device that can be used at schools, colleges, NPOs, and industries with loud machinery and devices. Nautilus Hearing won the Karnataka Government’s ELEVATE 100 Programme, through which it raised an undisclosed round of funding. The startup has completed preliminary tests, and will soon start clinical trials. The team tested the device at the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing in Mysore.
Streamoid
Streamoid is an AI – Artificial Intelligence Stylist founded by Nvidia, Manthani, Rajesh Kumar and Haricharan Lakshman in 2014. Streamoid Technologies uses its expertise in image recognition and extracts product and style information from images and process it through its AI engine to give trendy or contextual and personalized results for fashion shopping.
The startup focuses on the fashion and retail industry. Streamoid understands the natural language, images, voice and the context of the user’s fashion query. The users can also interact with it like a highly knowledgeable fashion sales assistant. With the fashion and clothing industry booming more than ever, Streamoid is sure to make a big name soon.
Streamoid gives you, your own conceptualised, developed, hosted and maintained style bot. Streamoid enables you to guide your customers with personalized style advice in a natural conversational interface. Using advanced NLP and deep integration, style bots offer many advantages over human agents. Style bots are online 24×7, can reply instantly to concurrent conversations, deliver personalized support and offer cost savings.
Desintox Technologies
Desintox Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a Kerala-based startup that was founded by Sooraj Chandran and Don Paul in 2016. Desintox Technologies Pvt. Ltd deals with the design, manufacture and marketing of rehabilitation, and health equipment and currently, has four products called EasyMover, Hoist, Smartmotive and an Electric Wheelchair.
He started working as a design engineer at Crabwrist Technologies. When one of his friends got into an accident, Sooraj realized the need for supporting machines for paraplegic patients. And then, Desintox Technologies was born in Kochi’s Maker Village. The device called ‘Hoist’ transfers the patient from bed, chairs and toilets; it has a leg spreader facility with includes high quality imported motors controlled with a display and safety switch.
Smartmotive is a standing wheelchair that can help paraplegic patients stand and it does so by helping in muscle development and has the benefits of a wheelchair and tilting table. The Electric Wheelchair helps the paraplegic to travel by themselves and can be adjusted with a joystick switch with speed options.
“We gifted the device to help a child in Thrissur. I can never forget the tears in the mother’s eyes when she saw her child stand for the first time using our device,” says Don Paul.
Photom
Photom Technologies is a startup started by Himmant Singh which was incorporated in 2018. Photom Technologies provides solutions for Operation and Maintenance of renewable energy plants to increase their efficiency. Innovative products and solutions for renewable energy plants are what Photom aims at developing.
Their objective is to be a key stakeholder in establishing the renewable energy sector in India. Photom robots provide a fully dry system that cleans the solar panels without using any chemicals or water and thus can save more money. It is about two to four meters in length.
They are now planning to do pilots in Gujarat and will launch commercially soon. The startup has already received equity seed funding from iCreate. The founder, Himmant Singh, was among the fifteen entrepreneurs from India that were invited by the UK government’s Royal Academy of Engineer for Leaders in Innovation Fellowship.
Jumper.AI
Jumper.ai is an AI-enabled software co-founded by Nyha Shree that helps businesses connect with consumers on social media platforms to purchase their products. With the rise of mobile, social and cloud technologies, customer expectations continue to increase. More than ever, they demand seamless and hyper-personalized experiences.
For many businesses, customer experience is the new battlefield – a competitive advantage that attracts and retains loyal customers. It converts the social media pots into a shop-able post so that when customers comment on your post with their queries, Jumper will automatically answer them and talk to the customers on the company’s behalf and also walk them through the sale right within the platform so that they don’t have to go to another website.
The startup wants to make social commerce easier through hashtags and its artificial intelligence. The information given at the time of payment is secured and tokenized (encrypted by companies like VISA) with the payment gateways. Any company or startup which is regularly using social media as their major acquisition channel can get the utility of the platform.
Conclusion
The world is continuously evolving, thanks to the technology, it is now nothing less of a Sci-fi movie. Deep tech startups are also becoming a big part in the startup ecosystem. In India, some of these startups are already quite popular and are trying their best to offer innovative products and services to the people and solve their problems.
FAQs
What is deep tech?
Deep tech or technology is a types of organisation or startup companies that provides scientific technology based products and services to their customers.
Who founded Jumper.ai?
Jumper.ai was founded by Yash Kotak and Nyha Shree.
Many entrepreneurs are coming up with new businesses ranging from retailing sports apparel to providing analytics to improve performance. Sports is one of the biggest industries in India. In 2013, it was reported that the Sports Goods market was $2 Billion in India. Hence, it is clear that this market has a lot of potentials. Moreover, Sports startups promote health and passion. Here are a few sports startups in India that are evolving the Sports industry.
Sports in India is growing, with a newer generation of players coming in and that there is an increasing interest in luxury sports. – Vikrant Singh Mathur, RIPC
SportsApp is a leading sports startup in India that was founded by Shashank Mishra and Himanshu Nain in 2018. It is an aggregated platform built to provide ease for one to connect with another. Here they can follow one another, share relevant thoughts, get updates about upcoming events, sports job positions, apply for sponsorships, etc.
All of the team members at SportsApp have played sports at different levels and have experienced the pain that experienced by most of the players currently. So, the main idea behind this sports startup is to bind everyone together so that they can make this nation a good sporting nation by organizing this sector.
Sports365
Sports365 is a Bangalore-based startup founded by Chandra Sekhar Reddy and Aashutosh Chaudhari in 2011. This is one of the first professional sports companies in India that cater to the sports and fitness sector with their one-stop solution for users’ sporting requirements of both individuals and institutions.
They sell a wide range of sports products like sports and fitness equipment, apparel and accessories of leading national and international sports brands. They also provide services for events, infrastructure development, and consulting and merchandising as well to schools and colleges, corporates, clubs and real estate.
Sports365 raised a total funding of $1 million from investors such as Zolon Ventures and Powerhouse Ventures among others. The startup has also backed Yuvraj Singhand Lara Dutta as its sports ambassadors and owns as well as operates online portals like sports365.in, tennishub.in, and badmintonhub.in.
Protege Sports
Protégé Sports is a sports-tech startup founded by Pranesh Krishnamurthy, Rohit Narayan and Rahul Rane in 2014. They aim to bring sports technology to all. Protégé Sports supplies wearable technology for team sports like hockey and football that helps track players’ performance on the field.This helps clubs and coaches to set a benchmark for the players and manage training and trial sessions accordingly.
The startup also provides SAAS i.e. Software as a Service tool such as software licenses to use its academy or club management tools, training modules and communication modules among others. They also offer tournament management services, along with ticketing and merchandising services.
Live Your Sport
Live Your Sport (Azani) is Bengaluru-based online sports goods and fitness equipment store founded in 2012 by Siddharth Suchde. The startup provides an online store for sports and fitness enthusiasts where one can find quality equipment and accessories. It uses thirteen technology products and services including Google Analytics, G Suite and reCAPTCHA among others. They also offer helpful insights into various aspects related to sports and fitness like health, diet, injury, recovery, and more.
The online platform provides a sports and fitness-oriented services centre that strives to make the users’ sports and fitness journey easy, comprehensive access and hassle-free services. It lets the users browse through 20,000 sports and fitness equipment ranging from over 30 sports and various workout modules. They also provide information on workouts, training, diets and more on their blogs.
SportzVillage
Sportz Village Homepage
SportzVillage is a Bangalore-based sports startup founded in 2003 by Jitendra Joshi and Saumil Majmudar. It is one of the oldest Indian sports startups and a leading provider of sports education and management to schools and corporates. The startup offers sports marketing, ticketing, and infrastructure services, SportzConsult and EduSports being two of its subsidies.
The startup has built an ecosystem of relationships across federations, media, brands and sponsors through its subsidies. SportzVillage capitalizes on emerging sports and health & fitness-related markets in India. They have a presence in five cities across India and raised total funding of $10 million.
Also, watch this to get some tips on starting your own sports business.
Rooter
Rooter is a Delhi-based social network for sports enthusiasts that connects people with similar interests in sports, the app was founded by Piyush Kumar in 2016. It allows users to predict scores and events with friends during the live game.
The startup assigns a passion score to each of its users and the passion score is generated by an algorithm that crawls the user’s social media activity and engagement with the app. The users can also connect to other enthusiasts based on passion score and distance. Their app is available on both iOS and Android platforms.
Dream11
Dream11 Homepage
Dream11 is a Mumbai-based online platform founded in 2009 by Bhavit Sheth and Harsh Jain. The startup is an official partner of BCCI’s IPLused for playing real-time fantasy cricket and football leagues.
The startups started with cricket and then launched football fantasy leagues as well in the year 2014. The users can form leagues and invite friends to play and compete for scores.The startup raised total funding of $100 million from investors such as Tencent, Kalaari Capital and Multiples Equity among others.
BookMySports
BookMySport Homepage
BookMySports is a digital sports platform founded by Sanjeev Sinha that is a handy interface between the public and their access to avail sports facilities covering major sports such as cricket, football, tennis, basketball and more. The platform lets users book sports facilities or create their own sports tournaments online within a matter of minutes. They aim at increasing the capacity utilization of sports facilities across cities by connecting sports enthusiasts to them through their online platform.
The startup has a wide range of products tapping the entire value chain spanning across the sports ecosystem. It enables the users to drive benefits from better management of demand and supply, introducing operational efficiencies and transparency in pricing and service delivery for users. They are currently present across six cities in India.
KOOH Sports
KOOH Sports is founded by Prabhu Srinivasan & Susir Kumar in 2010. KOOH Sports is headquartered in Mumbai.It is an international sports startup that provides sports education, training, and technology.
KOOH Sports was founded to develop sporting habits in children in order to promote a healthy lifestyle.It organizes grass root sports programs at schools to generate interest in sports among children. Its sports development centres are dedicated to nurturing and promoting sporting talents.
KOOH Sports is backed by private equity fund Faering Capital, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Ltd and sports promotion service Elevate Sports. Existing investors together hold a 70% stake in the company and the rest is with promoters.
Conclusion
Sports is a very important part of India. It is not only an activity, entertainment or about health, it’s about emotions. Each Indian love to watch at least one sport. Also, during critical matches, it brings families and society together.
So, this was a list of sports startups in India. Hope you enjoyed reading our article and found this informative.
FAQ
Which are some of the top startups of India?
Dream11, SportsApp, Sportz Village and Rooter are some of the top startups of India.
How many sports companies are there in India?
There are approximately 30,000+ sports companies in India
“It will be much more about responsible travel now. We are going to value our freedom a lot more” – Deep Kalra, Founder of MakeMyTrip on impact of Covid on travel industry
The travel and tourism industry is one of the largest industries in India, it’s a major driver of economic growth globally. India’s tourism industry is experiencing a good period of growth, driven by the flourishing Indian middle class, growth in high spending foreign tourists and coordinated government campaigns to promote ‘Incredible India’. But Due to restrictions linked to Covid-19, the number of foreign tourist in India during 2021 decreased to 1.52 million compared to 2.74 million in 2020, dropping by 44.5%, though foreign exchange earnings grew during the same period, as per the India Tourism Statistics 2022 report. In 2019, India saw 10.93 million foreign tourist arrivals, which dropped by 75% in 2020.
In 2021, the travel and tourism industry in India contributed around 178 billion U.S. dollars to the country’s GDP. Just a few days ago the Indian government has said that the country’s tourism sector will recover to the pre-pandemic level by mid-2024 , they also said that by 2030, the tourism sector will contribute $250 billion to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).According to the recent India Travel Market Report by Phocuswright, the total Indian travel market stood at US$19.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $40.4 billion in 2025, with online penetration reaching 58% in 2025.
The booming IT and outsourcing industry has led to a growing number of business trips made by foreigners to India. After Covid, along with work from home, a new trend has come, i.e., workcation for which travel companies are coming up with very good offers and packages. These plans comprise elegant and peaceful places to work with sightseeing and event sports in the evening. These packages are varied and diverse.
From choosing destinations to connecting with locals and customizing the holiday, the travel startup business in India is looking to add a new dimension to the ever-evolving traveling story.
Here is the list of successful tour and travel startups.
Best Travel and Tourism Startup in India – MakeMyTrip
MakeMyTrip is one of the oldest travel startup in India . The inspiration for this startup came to Kalra when he was booking a holiday to Thailand. He realized that the internet could offer more competitive prices by cutting out the middleman. MakeMyTrip’s mission is to provide customers a one-stop-shop for all their travel needs by providing online travel services that include flight tickets, domestic and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets.
ClearTrip
Founders
Stuart Crighton; Matthew Spacie; Hrush Bhatt
Founded In
2016
Headquarters
Mumbai
Top Travel Startup – Cleartrip
Cleartrip, headquartered in Mumbai, was founded by Stuart Crighton, Hrush Bhatt in the year 2005. The company operates an online travel aggregator website for booking flights and train tickets, hotel reservations, and activities in India and the Middle East countries. Cleartrip is one of the few business travel startups in India. It has offices across India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Cleartrip is another travel tech company in India, started its services to the Persian Gulf nations of Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt. On June 21, 2018, Cleartrip announced the acquisition of Saudi Arabia-based online travel aggregator (OTA) Flyin.
Clear trip also operates –
Cleartrip for Business, an online corporate travel management tool. It is a business travel solution for companies
Agent Box, a travel tool for travel agents.
Cleartrip Mobile, a travel booking app for consumers.
Expressway, to let users store traveller profile and payment details securely to make one-click bookings.
Flexifly, a solution that enables flyers to change their travel date and time and switch flights between airlines without any hefty penalties.
Within few years goibibo became a big payer in travel industry. Goibibo acquired redBus in 2013 to enhance its product offering. The 2016 merger of MMT and Goibibo gave MMT depth of content and an access to a bigger consumer base. It’s core value differentiator is the most trusted user experience, be it in terms of quickest search and booking, fastest payments, settlement or refund processes. Along with the usual services travel startups provide, Goibibobecame the no 1 travel startup to introduce real travel booking currency named as Go Cash which can be used without any restrictions or limits of use.
In small towns, this start up company has built up good trust and about 48% of new users are associated with tier 2 and tier 3 cities, it has seen a 65% increase in transacting users since January this year and that it has been ‘successful’ in consolidating its position as the ‘second largest’ OTA brand in the country.
It is the largest hospitality startup from the list of top hospitality startups in India comprising budget hotels. It is usually one of the first names that pop up in people’s minds when they think of cost efficient hotel bookings in India. 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. Click here to know how exactly OYO Rooms work.
The users can also opt for OYO Premium which provides a more-than-basic experience. OYO Rooms are located in the prime areas of the city and therefore they ensure travellers of having the best experience, it is also close to the best sight-seeing destinations and various dining options. The startup also raised an investment of $90 million from Softbank earlier in 2016. In 2019, OYO raised $1.5 Billion in Series F funding led by SoftBank Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia India.
Travel and Tourism Startup in India – Pickyourtrail
Hari Ganapathy and Srinath Shankar got the idea of the startup after their experience from a self-planned trip to Europe in 2012. This platform uses deep tech to let travellers create, customize and book international vacations. Pickyourtrail considers more than 40 factors like duration, travel time, ratings, etc to build personalized itineraries that travellers can further customize & book.
After the trip is booked, travellers can use Pickyourtrail’s app to keep track of bookings and get real-time information on flight and weather updates, restaurant recommendations, and on-trip chat support.
Their goal is to perform best in the tour and travel business when it comes to international trips.
Best Travel and Tourism Startup in India – SCOUT MY TRIP
ScoutMyTrip is a road trip planner ,It works for all sorts of outings, from short weekend travels to long excursions.
The motive that the duo has been able to solve through their startup is to collate information that is currently very diversified. Basically it is an information portal that makes travel easy and accessible for anyone. The company plans to connect travellers with people who want to travel on any particular vehicle. It will also facilitate customised tour packages.
With artificial intelligence, customers can create an itinerary containing the information necessary for their road trip—gas stations, toilets, restaurants, hotels to stay, and points of interest. The human intelligence aspect brings in the ability to personalize information as per one’s needs.
The corporate outdoor and experiential learning model adopted by Thrillophilia in its early days, has proven to be of great significance since it was fairly new concept in India.
Thrillophilia provides you with handpicked adventure travel options. It is best suited for travellers seeking an off-the-beaten-track package for sightseeing, sports, and adventurous activities like water rafting, snorkelling, bungee jumping, and skydiving. The travellers can also curate the best tours and authentic suppliers.
Travel Triangle operates their services with a versatile team of 450+ people. Travel Triangle is operating as an online marketplace model bringing both travellers and trusted & expert travel agents on a common platform. Travel Triangle is a SaaS-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform to help them manage and analyse customer interactions and data.
goMowgli
Founders
Anil Alur and Sunil Abhilash
Founded In
2013
Headquarters
Mysuru, Karnataka
Top travel and tourism Startup – goMowgli
goMowgli is a travel startup that had its name inspired by the fictional character we all loved growing up –Mowgli from Jungle Book. It has a fleet of buses across different states (using the concept of “hop-off buses”) and the travellers can buy a pass for a fixed number of days – a week or two. It is suitable for solo travellers and backpackers who want to travel without a fixed plan or do not want to get in trouble of booking cabs while traveling the city.
goMowgli claims to be India’s first flexible bus network for travellers. Flexible bus network mean is you can catch the bus anytime you want from any place in their network, and get off anytime, at any place.
goMowgli will tell you the exact location of the nearest bus when you switch on the GPS feature on your smartphone. The app is growing in popularity very fast. At present, their revenue generation is basically based on the passes they sell (Rs. 1700/day) . And their marketing is mainly based on social media and word of mouth.
Tripoto is a Delhi-based startup founded by Anirudh Gupta and Michael Lyngdoh and one of the best travel startups in India. It allows users to create itineraries for their future trips that they can also share with other travelers.They can share their travel experiences, related content and pictures, itineraries, maps, stories, and reviews.
The startup has one of the largest communities of travellers in the world where people get a chance to share their travel experiences, discover unique trips and travel itineraries by other travelers and connect with them around the world through the website. Tripoto’s aim is to become the largest source of crowd-sourced travel content platforms in the world by enabling users to share their credible travel information.
ExTravelMoney
Founder
George Zachariah
Founded In
2015
Headquarters
Kochi, Kerala
Travel Startup in India – ExTravel Money
ExTravelMoney is an online aggregator and marketplace for forex services that bring the hyperlocal eCommerce model to foreign exchange business and is helping users save money on currency exchange and money transfer from and to abroad. Users can use this platform to search for banks and money changers near them who offer these forex services. They can also compare the exchange rates and total cost of a forex service including the services fees, tax charges, even the rating of each forex store they are searching for.
The users can therefore make an informed decision based on this knowledge and book the cheapest and the best forex services near them directly from their app ExTravelMoney. If you are traveling in a foreign country, foreign exchange is an important component to plan. It isn’t easy to purchase forex due to the time and the hassle it takes in finding the best exchange rates. The website provides travelers with forex dealers across the country to bring them the best available exchange rate in the market and all they need to do is log in to their website, state their forex requirement, and then it connects you to the nearest forex dealer.
Nearify is an app founded by Mayank Kumar, Saurav Singh and Vivek Srivastava in 2012 that provides users with updated information on events that are happening around them. Like information on the city, major tourist attractions, and fairs & festivals happening in the area. All the user needs to do is to key in the name of the city to find listings of meet-ups, workshops, music concerts, and cultural hangout places in their close proximity.
It is best suited for travelers who want to know what’s happening in other locations of the place they are traveling to and wish to plan their itinerary and also don’t want to miss out on the social events happening in nearby cities or locations.
TripHobo
Founders
Praveen Kumar, Saket Newaskar, and Karthik Ramachandra
Founded In
2012
Headquarters
Pune, Maharashtra
Travel Planning Startup – TripHobo
TripHobo is a Pune-based travel startup that has an innovative new travel platform where the collective effort of their dedicated team of travel enthusiasts. They are trying to transform its user’s travel experience by making travel more sharable and personally tailored. The platform lets you connect with travel buddies around the world and hence makes your experience even richer and memorable.
TripHobo is a vacation planning website that is also the world’s leading vacation planning platform on which you can plan trips to about 150,000 destinations worldwide. It lets users discover great itineraries created by travellers just like them.
iTraveller
Founders
Shiju Radhakrishnan and Sanjay Kumar
Founded In
2011
Headquarters
Banglore
Top Travel Startups – iTraveller
It’s an online travel platform for travellers to explore travel destinations, plan and book their trips in advance. It allows users to dynamically create self-serviced customized travel packages after receiving inquiries from clients.
The users can also compare reviews and plan their activities and sightseeing for their trips, it also involves native wholesale suppliers who are responsible for the operational aspects of the business of your trip that includes ground handling and fulfillment. iTraveller has created more than 2 lakh trips featuring over 20 travel destinations across the globe and more than 60 native wholesale suppliers from across these destinations. The brand of iTraveller is now changed to Lastminute.
SeekSherpa
Founders
Sukhmani Singh and Dhruv Raj Gupta
Founded In
2014
Headquarters
Delhi
Top Travel and Tourism Startup in India – Seek Sherpa
The mobile marketplace connects travellers with the local people in the city you are traveling to. These people are called “Sherpas” and are chosen after a thorough background check and verified authenticity. They offer numerous itineraries, popularly known as “micro tours”, from sightseeing, photography tours, and heritage walks and food walks to explore a location from the eyes of a local guide – Sherpa.
Sherpas can be from any profession and list experiences that will cost you less than Rs. 3,000 per participant. This is a unique feature that SeekSherpa offers, it helps you in traveling better by interacting with the residents of the place you are seeking to explore. This way, your trip is better, well experienced, and more memorable.
SOTC
Founder
Mr. Vishal Suri (Managing Director)
Founded In
1949
Headquarters
Mumbai, India
Top travel and Tourism Startup in India – SOTC
SOTC India is a leading travel and tourism company active across various travel segments including Leisure Travel, Incentive Travel and Business Travel. It is one of the leaders in segments, namely Escorted Group Tours, Customized Holidays, and Incentive Travel amongst others. SOTC offers customized holidays around the world, Corporate Tours and provides packages for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) related travel needs.
Conclusion
Travelling is one of the most exciting and important parts of our life. It teaches us a lot. These startups in the tourism industry in India are helping us to make our journey better, safer, and easier. If we have missed out on any travel startup in India, do let us know in the comments.
FAQs on Travel Startups in India
How to start a travel business in India or how to start a travel company in India?
Best tips to start a travel business in India or a travel company in India:
Step 1: Prepare a plan for your travel business.
Step 2: Brand your travel business along with dealing in legal formalities.
Step 3: Manage your funding strategy.
Step 4: Pick a great location and hire employees.
How to start an online travel agency in India?
The list of requirements to start an online travel agency in India:
Make a thorough research on your competitors and the market.
Find your own niche in the travel industry.
Build your team.
Take a call on a travel website or a travel software, or both.
