The capital of Tamil Nadu has seen a considerable rise in respect to the startup culture in the last couple of years. The Tamil Nadu government continues to aggressively promote the blossoming of a startup ecosystem in the state. Hence, the sudden increase in the number of startups in Chennai and Chennai becoming India’s fourth most active startup ecosystem needs no justification. Here are some of the top startups in Chennai.
Here’s a list of the best startups in Chennai.
1. Sulekha
2. Netmeds
3. BankBazaar
4. Flintobox
5. Zoho
6. Chrysalis
7. Lawbot
8. Freshworks
9. Wandertrails
10. PipeCandy
11. BigFday
12. Perfint Healthcare
13. Avaza
14. Financial Software Systems (FSS)
15. Servion
16. Adjutas
17. SkillAngels
18. Waygum
19. Vue.ai
20. Kobzo
21. Chargebee
22. Galaxeye
23. Caratlane
24. ThoughtBit
25. Aquaconnect
26. Trivitron Healthcare
27. Vivriti Capital
28. CredAvenue
29. CreditMantri
30. TenderCuts
Flaunt your startup with StartupTalky
800+ stories, thousands of founders, and millions of visitors. Want to be the next?
StartupTalky is where founders, entrepreneurs, startups and businesses hang out and look up to for inspiration. If you have the means, we have the medium! Inviting founders and startups who are building sustainable solutions from ground zero! Startups who run the show, StartupTalky will let the world know!
1. Sulekha
Founder: Satya Prabhakar
Year Founded: 1996
Industry: Service Directory
Sulekha is a platform for consumers and businesses to connect with each other. Satya Prabhakar is the founder and CEO of Sulekha. Sulekha employs more than 1,300 people and has 14 offices around the globe in countries like the United States, Canada, the UK, and UAE.
Satya is originally from Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Satya did his undergraduate studies in B.E. from NIT, Trichy and has worked with Philips. A studious and academically proficient individual, he secured admission to all the top four IIMs (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, and Lucknow), but chose to pursue a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Florida, Gainesville.
2. Netmeds
Founder: Pradeep Dadha
Year Founded: 2015
Industry: Online Pharmacy
Netmeds is an online pharmacy that delivers pharmaceutical products at the customers’ door. Netmeds has a wide range of healthcare products on its website. With strong marketing strategies and Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the brand ambassador, the startup is swiftly moving towards success.
Netmeds was founded by Pradeep Dadha, one of the most successful entrepreneurs to emerge out of Chennai. He worked at Dadha & Co., his family business. Netmeds has acquired several health startups over time, including the recent acquisition of KiViHealth in 2019.
3. BankBazaar
Founder: Rati Shetty
Year Founded: 2008
Industry: FinTech
BankBazaar is a Chennai-based fintech startup that has established a solid presence in India in just a few years. It allows customers to make payments and get loans online. BankBazaar essentially functions like a bank minus the fact that you don’t have to go to different counters. The work is done in a jiffy while sitting at home.
Rati Shetty is the founder and chief product officer at BankBazaar. She did her graduation from the University of Madras.
4. Flintobox
Founders: Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam
Year Founded: 2013
Industry: Education
Every child is special and is inherently engineered to learn something new everyday. When parents let their children use the internet, it puts a stop to the kid’s imagination and creativity. Childhood is the time when engaging in physical activities should be at its peak, and not with the computer or mobile screens. Flintobox is a startup working to solve this problem. Parents can order a Flintobox, which is a combination of different activity toys. The startup sends the box directly to your house every month. You can select the package which suits you the best.
Flintobox was founded by Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam in 2013. They started the company to solve the problem of television addiction in children.
5. Zoho
Founders: Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas
Year Founded: 1996
Industry: Software Development
Zoho is among the top companies in Chennai. Zoho Corporation is a unicorn SaaS founded by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in 1996. Zoho provides a suite of products for all your business needs. It includes an email-sending client, a finance management tool, and a project management tool with over 40 million users across the globe. The Indian company also has offices in Singapore, Japan, China, Tenkasi, Pleasanton, and California.
6. Chrysalis
Founder: Chitra Ravi
Year Founded: 2001
Industry: Education
Chrysalis has innovated an academic program for the formative years (2-12) of a child’s education – “ThinkRoom”. ThinkRoom has been designed with the vision of awakening the dormant potential in every child. The curriculum (pedagogy) is created with a child-centric philosophy. It is an integrated academic program for maths, English, science, and social studies in schools.
ThinkRoom is the synthesis of a product (subject books called ‘studios’), service design (continuous professional development training for teachers), and technology (‘Mitra Tab’). In 2017, Chrysalis raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Manterra and Gray Matters Capital (GMC).
7. Lawbot
Founder: Manasvini Krishna
Year Founded: 2016
Industry: LegalTech
Manasvini Krishna is a lawyer and a successful entrepreneur. He pursued his Bachelor of Legislative Law from National Law University, Bhopal. He then pursued his Master’s degree from the University of Oxford. Before starting his own venture, he co-founded Samvad Partners in 2012. In 2016, Manasvini started Lawbot.ai.
Lawbot.ai is a legal AI platform that analyzes contracts through machine learning and natural language processing.
8. Freshworks
Founder: Girish Mathrubootham
Year Founded: 2012
Industry: Cloud-Based Business Management Applications Provider
Freshworks provides cloud-based business management applications to companies. The applications provided by Freshworks are:
- Freshdesk: Cloud-based customer support software.
- Freshservice: Online IT service management software.
- Freshcaller: Cloud-based call center software.
- Freshchat: Enterprise chat application.
- Freshsales: Sales CRM software.
- Freshmarketer: Marketing software for digital marketers.
- Freshconnect: Enterprise collaboration software.
- Freshping: Website monitoring tool.
- Freshteam: Recruit people, and manage employee data and time in one place.
- Freshrelease: Agile project management software for developing teams.
- Freshstatus: Setup your hosted public page with one click.
Freshworks offers a subscription-based pricing model. It has worked with companies such as Honda, Toshiba, Cisco, Lenskart, Zoom, Zomato, UNICEF, Team Viewer, Carat Lane, and Money Corp.
9. Wandertrails
Founders: Vishnu Menon, Pranav Kumar, Sruti Chander, Hari Nair, and Narayan Menon
Year Founded: 2016
Industry: Travel and Tourism
Wandertrails is a travel tech company. It offers an online platform that enables the on-demand booking of experiences indigenous to a particular location as well as related experiential accommodation to complement these experiences.
Wandertrails is operating through a curated marketplace model with a strong emphasis on integrity and depth of listings. The authenticity of every experience is ensured. Wandertrails does it through an on-ground audit and professional creative shoot. It raised 1 million US dollars in March 2020.
Ashwini
10. PipeCandy
Founders: Murali Vivekanandan, Ashwin Ramaswamy, and Shrikanth Jagannathan
Year Founded: 2016
Industry: E-commerce Analytics
PipeCandy is a Chennai-based e-commerce startup focused on a predictive insights platform. It tracks over 500,000 modern e-commerce companies and delivers insights to marketers, investors, and analysts. The founders of PipeCandy are Murali Vivekanandan, Ashwin Ramaswamy, and Shrikanth Jagannathan. The company also functions in San Francisco, California.
Pipecandy has raised around $1.1 million. It has attracted many investors who are curious about hunting down the nuances in the system to increase sales and therefore, a higher probability to seal the deal. ‘Emergent Ventures India’ is funding the startup; many other entities such as ‘IDG Ventures’, ‘Axilor Ventures’, and the ‘Indian Angel Network’ are also supporting PipeCandy.
11. BigFday
Founder: Utkarsh Singhania
Year Founded: 2014
Industry: Event Management
BigFday is an online marketplace for event services, be it weddings, birthdays, corporate events, or just a night out with friends. BigFday helps occasional and professional planners with the services required to host the event. Presently serving in Chennai, it works with 500+ venues and hundreds of professionals in the event industry.
Utkarsh Singhania is the founder and CTO of BigFDay. He has an MBA from Sikkim Manipal University and is a graduate of Anna University.
12. Perfint Healthcare
Founder: S Nandakumar
Year Founded: 2005
Industry: Healthcare
Perfint Healthcare develops diagnostic equipment for the oncology space. Its image-guided equipment uses medical image processing and robotics to help clinicians plan and execute CT-guided cancer biopsies, drug delivery, and ablation of small tumours. The product catalogue includes:
- MAXIO: An image-guided, physician controlled stereotactic accessory to a computed tomography (CT) system.
- ROBIO EX: A CT & PET-CT guided robotic positioning system that assists with fast and accurate tumour location.
- NAVIOS: A computer-based workflow assistance solution for CT guided percutaneous ablation procedures.
Norwest Venture Partners, Accel, and Chiratae Ventures have invested $ 40 million in Perfint.
13. Avaza
Founder: Ajit Narayanan
Year Founded: 2014
Industry: Technology
Avaza is a tech startup. It works for children challenged with communication disorders, autism, cerebral palsy and down syndrome. Avaza boasts of providing India’s first augmentative and alternative communication device for children with disabilities.
Ajit Narayanan is the founder of Avaza. He is a graduate of IIT, Madras with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. Before starting Avaza, he was the CEO of Chongchong English in California. He was awarded the ‘National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities by the President of India in 2010.
14. Financial Software Systems (FSS
Founder: Nagaraj Mylandla
Year Founded: 1991
Industry: Electronic payment
Financial Software Systems (FSS) offers business value in the areas of electronic payments and financial transaction processing solutions & services. Headquartered in Chennai, FSS has established a global footprint in Africa, Australia, Canada, Europe, Middle East, Singapore, and the United States of America. FSS delivers a complete spectrum of offerings through its two business divisions:
- FSSTechnologies: Offers clients with a single-window view of solutions and services like systems integration, offshore development, product sustenance, project management and implementation, upgrade and migration services, product testing and certification, application testing, onsite technical support, and 24/7 global helpdesk support.
- FSSNeT: Offers hosted payment processing services across all delivery channels; these include ATMs, POS, internet, and mobile with authorization by bank hosts, interchanges, and co-networks. Premji Invest, Jacob Ballas Capital, and New Enterprise Associates have invested $127 Million in FSS.
15. Servion
Founders: Kavikkal Balakrishnan and N Raghunandan
Year Founded: 1991
Industry: Application Software
Servion enables business transformation for enterprises in the area of customer experience management (CEM). Servion is a platform-led solutions provider focused on enhancing customer experience by automating and integrating customer interaction channels. Servion provides the following IP platforms:
- ServDesignSM: Knowledge-based consulting framework that enables you to deliver an on-brand customer experience.
- ServIntuitSM: Omni-channel customer experience platform that connects all enterprise channel applications such as chat, voice, website, mobile, email, video, and AR/VR.
- ServInsightsSM: Contact center analytics platform that enables multi-channel and enterprise integration.
- ServCloudTM: Adaptable cloud-based CX-platform that gives enterprises the power of optimal operations and omnichannel customer experience.
- ServCareSM: Offers the right support to contact centers through unified communication and collaboration solutions, enabling enterprises to deliver flawless customer experience.
These platforms enable enterprises to drive the true value of their CX investments and build their customer engagement hub. Over the past two decades, Servion has evolved from being a single channel (voice) interaction expert to becoming an industry pioneer in omnichannel customer experience.
16. Adjutas
Founder: Ani
Year Founded: 2016
Industry: IT Services
The essence of Adjutas is to deliver the best IT experience. It is trusted by more than 200 companies. Adjutas offers an intelligent cloud-based helpdesk-cum-service desk and asset management software. The offerings help in all of the major management areas along with multi-channel support and reports. Adjutas offers a 14-day free trial to gauge its products.
17. SkillAngels
Founder: Saravanan Sundaramoorthy
Year Founded: 2013
Industry: E-Learning
SkillAngels is a Chennai-based startup. It aims at helping kids in their cognitive development through various games present on its website. SkillAngels was founded in the year 2013.
SkillAngels wants to transform classroom students into the workforce of the future. The company is working with a team of education visionaries, development experts, and clinical psychologists who came together to go that extra mile, alter the average educational experience, and create the champions of tomorrow.
18. Waygum
Founder: Sundar Krish
Year Founded: 2015
Industry: Industry Software
With the increase in the rate of smartphone usage, industries are also embracing technology for operations. Waygum.io provides a smart way for factories to manage operations on mobile. With the Waygum app, managers can easily keep a tab on everything that’s happening in the factory. Their employees can report to them easily on the same application. Sundar Krish, the founder of Waygum, is an IIT, Madras graduate. Krish is currently working on his new startup AppSecFlo in Silicon Valley.
19. Vue.ai
Founder: Ashwini Asokan
Year Founded: 2015
Industry: AI-Based Visual Search And Product Recommendation
Vue.ai is an image recognition platform by Mad Street Den, an artificial intelligence company. Vue.ai is an end-to-end retail automation platform that is redesigning the future of fashion retail through artificial intelligence. Using image recognition and data science, Vue.ai extracts catalog data, analyzes it for user behaviour, and helps companies improve customer experience, drive conversions, and reduce costs.
Vue.ai helps you digitally map your products’ DNA to create one-of-a-kind retail experiences for your customers and translates product information into a language your teams can understand and use to make business decisions. Vue.ai has received funding of $28 million from Falcon Edge Capital, Global Brain, and Sequoia Capital.
20. Kobzo
Founders: Vineet Neeraj, Mohan Gayam, and Karthik Ramaiah
Year Founded: 2012
Industry: Information Technology & Services
Formerly known as Kobster, Kobzo is an ecommerce website that caters to small and medium enterprises, startups, and home businesses for their office supply needs. Kobzo helps corporate buyers, retailers, SMEs, home offices, hotels, hospitals, etc. to meet organizational goals seamlessly and efficiently. Today, Kobzo has 1 lakh+ business products in multiple categories namely manufacturing, construction, office supplies, hospital and lab, electronics, automobile, education, hotels, and restaurants.
21. Chargebee
Founder: Krish Subramanian
Year Founded: 2011
Industry: Financial services
Chargebee is one of the leading SaaS companies in Chennai that provides subscription and recurring billing based systems for SaaS and e-commerce businesses so they can streamline their revenue operations. There has been a steady increase in subscription-based businesses worldwide and they need more options and flexibility for managing varied billing cases. The company has its headquarters in San Francisco, California but also has a head office in Chennai.
The platform integrates with Stripe, Braintree, and Paypal which are the top payment gateways to help your company automate recurring payment collection, including services like invoicing, taxes, SaaS metrics, accounting and customer management. It focuses on providing small businesses with flexible recurring experiences and managing their customer’s subscriptions.
22. Galaxeye
Founders: Satya Chakravarthy and Suyash Singh
Year founded: 2020
Industry: Defense and Space
Galaxeye is a company that focuses on space technology, technology that monitors Earth and outer space. The company also helps in accelerating the growth of space infrastructure that enables planetary evolution. It also enables other tech businesses to make better decisions and perform operations efficiently through space technology.
Galaxeye specializes in Remote Sensing, Earth Observation, Artificial Intelligence, Space Technology, Image Processing, Geospatial Analytics, among others. Their image dataset will provide numerous opportunities and benefits to analysts and consumers. Galaxeye currently operates on a subscription-based data as a service model and is a B2B and B2G company.
23. Caratlane
Founders: Mithun Sacheti, and Srinivasa Gopalan
Year Founded: 2008
Industry: Jewelry E-commerce
Caratlane is one of the top online jewelry retailers in India. As of 2020, the company has over 92 retail stores in over 36 cities across the country. The company was founded by Mithun Sacheti, and Srinivasa Gopalan in 2008 and has its headquarters based in Chennai, Tamilnadu. The company was purchased by Titan Jewelry in 2016 and is also marketed as a partnership with Tanishq.
The company also went on to launch its own app which included a feature of facial recognition and 3D imaging technology so that its customers can try the jewelry pieces virtually. According to a study done by Dataquest and JuxtConsult in 2011, Caratlane was among the top 20 e-commerce websites in India.
24. ThoughtBit
Founder: Sidharthan Panneerselvam
Year Founded: 2017
Industry: Information Technology and Services
ThoughtBit is an upcoming Information Technology firm that was started in 2017. The company focuses on Enterprise software and is known for its ThoughtAccess identity and Access management platform that help mid-market enterprises. ThoughtBit also specializes in the fields of GST, GST Compliance, cyber security, IAM, and SaaS.
One of the services that the company provides is ThoughtBit Access which is a Cognitive Identity and access management on a cloud platform designed especially for Mid-market enterprises. Whereas it also provides another intelligent solution called ThoughtGST, which ensures 100% GST compliance for small and medium businesses.
25. Aquaconnect
Founder: Rajamanohar Somasundaram
Year Founded: 2017
Industry: Aquaculture Technology
Aquaconnect is one of the leading aquaculture technology firms. The company provides end-to-end solutions to shrimp and fish farmers through artificial intelligence and satellite remote sensing technologies. Aquaconnect also provides advice for data-driven farms throughout the country and specializes in the areas of AI, Farm Management, and Data Analytics for aquaculture.
Currently, the company works with more than 35,000 fish and shrimp farmers that are using AI-enabled tools to increase their productivity and connect their farming with players in the value chain. Besides providing farm advice, they also provide farm inputs marketplace, market linkage, and farm finance and insurance. Aquaconnect is considered to be the largest Aquaculture marketplace in Asia.
26. Trivitron Healthcare
Founder: Dr. GSK Velu
Year Founded: 1997
Industry: Healthcare and medical technology
Trivitron Healthcare is a Healthcare and medical technology company that is known for providing healthcare solutions at affordable rates to numerous healthcare providers. The company sells its products to over 180 and has more than 55,000 customers. It also has 1,200 channel partners and holds the record for more than 50,000 installations across the world.
Trivitron designs and manufactures products of medical technology for hospitals, other healthcare providers, clinics, laboratories, and care facilities. The company specializes in Vitro Diagnostics Products, Imaging & Radiology Products, Newborn Screening, Radiation Protection products & Imaging Accessories, Operating Room Solutions, and Intensive Care Unit Solutions among many others.
27. Vivriti Capital
Founder: Vineet Sukumar
Year Founded: 2017
Industry: Financial services
Vivriti Capital is a platform designed especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that don’t have proper access to financial services. The company’s customer base includes financial institutions, corporates, and small enterprises. Vivriti uses data analytics to determine the customer’s needs and then designs products according to them.
When it comes to banks, insurance companies, NBFCs, pension funds and other Debt investors use Vivriti Capital as it helps them with an intelligent system that targets investors. It is a one-stop shop for all the debt requirements of its target clientele.
28. CredAvenue
Founder: Gaurav Kumar
Founded: 2017
Industry: Fintech, Financial Services, PaaS
CredAvenue is a unified digital platform, which is fully integrated and built with an aim to help the investors discover, trade, execute and fulfill debt solutions. CredAvenue is hailed among the debt platform service providers for having the most comprehensive bouquet of debt products. CredAvenue is already a unicorn company, which joined the unicorn club of the Indian startups on March 6, 2022, after raising $137 mn in funding, and has huge potential for growth ahead!
29. CreditMantri
Founders: Gowri Thyagarajan Mukherjee, Ranjit Punja, Sudarshan Rajasundaram
Founded: 2012
Industry: Credit, Fintech, Financial Services
CreditMantri is a Chennai-based digital credit services management platform that provides credit and financial reports to users based on their credit history. CreditMantri helps the users to understand the status of their credit health, and build their credit profile, all driven by data.
30. TenderCuts
Founders: Nishanth Chandran, Sasikumar Kallanai, Varun Prasad Chandran, Venkkatesan R.
Founded: 2016
Industry: D2C Meat, Food and Beverage
TenderCuts is an online meat ecommerce company that offers a wide range of meat including chicken, mutton, seafood, eggs, cold cuts, ready-to-eat products, and more. With headquarters in Chennai, TenderCuts provides 120 minutes doorstep delivery of its products for the persons living in Chennai and Hyderabad.
Conclusion
This was our list of prominent Chennai-based startups. If you know about any other startups in Chennai that are not covered in this list please contact us. We would love to include them in this post.
FAQs
What are the Top 10 companies in Chennai?
The top 10 companies in Chennai are:
- Sulekha
- Netmeds
- BankBazaar
- Zoho
- Freshworks
- CredAvenue
- TenderCuts
- Wandertrails
- PipeCandy
- Chrysalis
What are the product based companies in Chennai?
Zoho Corporation and Freshworks are the top product-based companies in Chennai.
How many startups are there in Chennai?
There are over 500 startups in Chennai.
What are some effective small business ideas in Chennai?
Some of the most powerful small business ideas in Chennai are:
- Event planning
- Electronics repair
- Printing/photocopying
- Hotel business
- Eateries
- Tour guide
- Gift shops
- Tatoo parlour
What are some of the best IT companies in Chennai?
Some of the most popular IT company names in Chennai include:
What is the best software company in Chennai?
Zoho, the Chennai-based software suite provider is one of the best software company in Chennai. Some of the prominent software companies in Chennai are Cognizant, Advantix, Equiniti, Wipro, and more.
