Tag: unicorn business

  • List of Top 14 Unicorns in the United States

    Ever heard of a unicorn? If you are imagining the beautiful mythical creature then you are wrong! Today’s generation has a different understanding of unicorns, thanks to Mr Aileen Lee, who popularized the term in 2013. So, what exactly is a unicorn? It is a private startup company that has a valuation of over $1 billion.

    What is more shocking is that there are more than 900 unicorns across the world as recorded till December 2021. It makes you think the world is rich, isn’t it? Some of the former popular unicorns around the world are Facebook, Google, and Airbnb. Did it ring a bell? Well, it should! These unicorns later went on to become some of the largest companies in the world. We are here to look into the unicorns that are currently ruling the US.

    Given below is a list of the top unicorns in the United States. We have curated a list of the best startup companies that have made a mark in the US market in a very short period.

    1. SpaceX
    2. Stripe
    3. Epic Games
    4. Instacart
    5. Databricks
    6. Chime
    7. Fanatics
    8. Gopuff
    9. Plaid Technologies
    10. Grammarly
    11. Faire
    12. Brex
    13. JUUL Labs
    FAQ

    1. SpaceX

    Country- USA

    Valuation- $100 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2012

    SpaceX Logo
    SpaceX Logo

    SpaceX or Space Exploration Technologies Corp. was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. Its headquarters are in Hawthorne, California. Musk founded SpaceX with the aim to reduce space transportation costs and to conduct the colonization of the planet Mars. The company has developed a liquid propellent rocket, a spacecraft, and an orbital rocket among its many products. It is on the verge of creating a mega constellation named Starlink for providing commercial internet services.

    2. Stripe

    Country- United States

    Valuation- $95 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2014

    Stripe Logo
    Stripe Logo

    Stripe is a financial services company that is headquartered in San Francisco. However, it also has another headquarter in Dublin, Ireland. Stripe usually works with e-commerce websites and mobile applications. One of its major achievements includes the introduction of Radar, an anti-fraud tool to block fraud transactions.

    3. Epic Games

    Country- United States

    Valuation- $42 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2018

    Epic Games Logo
    Epic Games Logo

    Epic Games is a popular video game and software development company is headquartered in Cary, California. This unicorn was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991. It was earlier named Potomac Computer Systems. Its first commercial video game release was ZZT in 1991. It is mostly known for developing the commercially available game engine, Unreal Engine. It is also used to power internally developed video games.

    4. Instacart

    Country- United States

    Valuation- $39 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2014

    Instacart Logo
    Instacart Logo

    This popular retail company operates both in the US and Canada. Instacart operates a grocery delivery service and a pickup service in both countries. The company’s services are offered through its web and mobile app.

    5. Databricks

    Country- United States

    Valuation- $38 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2019

    DataBricks Logo
    Databricks Logo

    Databricks is a popular software company that was founded in 2013. The creators of Apache Spark created this unicorn with the aim of creating multiple open-source projects. Most of them spin around data science, data engineering, and machine learning. It mostly develops and sells cloud data platforms.


    Top 15 Unicorn Startups in Europe to watch out for in 2021
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    6. Chime

    Country- United States

    Valuation- $25 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2019

    Chime Logo
    Chime Logo

    This financial technology company provides free mobile banking services owned and provided by Central National Bank or The Bankcorp Bank. It issues Visa debit cards to the account holders and they also get access to the online banking system. The company earns a majority of its revenue through the collection of interchange fees.

    7. Fanatics

    Country- United States

    Valuation- $18 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2012

    Fanatics logo
    Fanatics logo

    This popular American retailer unicorn, Fanatics was developed in 1995 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It mostly deals with sports merchandise, equipment, and sportswear. Founded by Alan Trager, Fanatics proudly boasts of having connections with over 1080 product vendors and companies like Majestic, Adidas, Reebok, Nike, and more.

    8. Gopuff

    Country- United States

    Valuation- $15 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2020

    Gopuff Logo
    Gopuff Logo

    This food delivery company operates not only in the US but also in England. Its headquarters are currently in Philadelphia. The unicorn boasts of operating in over 650 cities in the US. You will also be shocked to know that the company’s worth as of 2021 is $15 billion. It makes for a huge amount, isn’t it?

    9. Plaid Technologies

    Valuation- $13.4 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2018

    Plaid Technologies Logo
    Plaid Technologies Logo

    This is also a fintech startup that is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It is responsible for building a data transfer network that is known to power Fintech and other digital finance products. The company also hosts a technology platform that enables the applications to connect with the bank accounts of the users. Apart from the US, Plaid Technologies also operates in the UK, Canada, Spain, France, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

    10. Grammarly

    Valuation- $13 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2019

    Grammarly Logo
    Grammarly Logo

    Who doesn’t know Grammarly? This popular cloud-based writing assistant has helped millions of users around the world correct their grammar and tone. It uses a special AI method to identify mistakes and search for an alternative for those words in the platform. It was initially released in 2009 and remains one of the most popular writing assistants in today’s world. Right from reviewing spellings, punctuation, grammar, engagement, and clarity, it looks for everything in content.


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    11. Faire

    Valuation- $12.4 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2019

    Faire Logo
    Faire Logo

    It is another popular eCommerce platform based out of the US. Users can shop from over 40,o00 independent brands through Faire’s website. It acts as a wholesale marketplace for both brands and retailers. It mostly helps the retailers find and buy unique merchandise as per their demands or requirements.

    12. Brex

    Valuation- $12.3 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2018

    Brex Logo
    Brex Logo

    This technology company deals in financial services and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It not only offers cash management accounts but also business credit cards to other technology companies who require them. The cards offered by Brex are business charge cards and are issued by the Emigrant Bank.

    13. JUUL Labs

    Valuation- $12 billion

    Unicorn Entry- 2017

    Juul Labs Logo
    Juul Labs Logo

    It is an electronic cigarette company that was carved out of Pax Labs a few years ago in 2017. The electronic cigarette made by JUUL labs atomizes the nicotine salts that are derived from tobacco. Moreover, one-time-use cartridges are used to provide the products for the same. This popular company headquarters is in San Francisco. If you are not aware, JUUL even became the most popular e-cigarette in the US back in 2017.

    Conclusion

    With the advent of growing competition in the market, unicorns are striving hard and leaving no stone unturned to remain in the field. This is happening in every part of the world and the US seems to be leading the way here. Multiple unicorns have already reached heights of success while a few others have just entered the market. Only time will tell what lies in the fate of these non-mythical, real unicorns that are currently running for success and fame.

    FAQ

    How many unicorns are there in the United States?

    There are approximately 487 Unicorns in the USA.

    Which city has the most unicorns in the United States?

    San Francisco has the most unicorns with a total count of 203 unicorns.

    How many unicorns are there in the world?

    As of January 2022, there are more than 1000 unicorns in the world.

  • Top 5 Startups Funded by Tiger Global Management

    Tiger Global Management is known to be the most statistical and voracious startup investors among all. It has developed with a great prospect and is proceeding towards investing in more prominent startups, especially those who hold the potential to earn unicorn status someday. And in recent years, Tiger Global Management has made hostile growth.

    Tiger Global Management is a New York-based investing firm, built in the early 2000s. The firm not only made remarkable progress but also became one of the most prolific investment firms among the billion-dollar startups. The estimated value of the total assets of Tiger Global Management is around $65 billion.

    In the initial days, Tiger Global Management invested in private companies in India and China but now, the firm invests in some of the biggest startups companies. But, how does the firm gain such progress? Well, to understand it better we need to know the strategies and portfolio for Tiger Global Management.

    According to the Crunchbase data, Tiger Global Management has invested in 118 companies in 2021. The firm has made ten times more growth in the initial months of 2020. In this article, we have presented some of the biggest investments made by Tiger Global Management. Let’s get started!

    Infra.Market
    Innovaccer
    Ola
    Brex
    Flipkart
    FAQ

    Infra.Market

    Infra.Market Website
    Infra.Market Website

    Infra.Market is a well-established technology firm that offers a one-stop marketplace for manufacturing materials and goods. Recently the firm has raised its Series C funding to $100 million led by Tiger Global Management along with some other potential investors like Nexus Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Sistema Asia Fund and Fundamental and Evolvence India Fund.

    The largest funding amount received by Infra.Market is $1 billion making its absolute way to the unicorn list. This funding is intended for the advancement of the seed market and their private label brands enhancements, technological offerings and direct-to-direct channels and exports. The company founded by Aaditya Sharda and Souvik Sengupta in 2016 has made quite an impactful position in the market.

    Innovaccer

    innovacer Website
    Innovaccer Website

    The very prominent Innovaccer is a healthcare software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup. The company has recently gained unicorn status after the tremendous fund-raising session by Tiger Global Management, which helped it reach a valuation of $1.3 billion.

    The last year estimated valuation of Innovaccer was $350 million after the Series C funding round but when the SaaS startups were globally increasing their capital and catching investors attention, Innovaccer raised the valuation to $105 million in the new round.

    Innovaccer has many potential investors such as Dragoneer, Steadview Capital, M12, B Capital Group and Mubadala Capital. These investors participated in the new round of funding along with the OMERS Growth Equity. And so far, Innovaccer raised $225 million.


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    Ola Electric Mobility

    The widely famous Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd is a well-established private company in India for its cab services. Recently, Ola received a great investment from the ride-hailing unicorn’s investor, Tiger Global Management.

    Ola is aimed to enhance its Mission Electric programme which was announced last april. In this programme, Ola will launch 10,000 electric vehicles, mainly three-wheelers and intended for promoting one million electric vehicles by 2022.

    Ola is currently testing several commanders to deploy electric vehicles and their charging solutions. Moreover, it is working on the advancement of battery swapping stations and two or three-wheeler electric services.

    Ola is making its strong uphold position among the industries and currently working with many prominent automobile industries in order to enhance the functioning of electric vehicles.

    Brex

    Brex Website
    Brex Website

    The prominent San Francisco based startup, Brex Inc., offers corporate cards to several companies as well as venture capital-backed companies. It received a major uplift of $425 million through a funding round investment by Tiger Global Management.

    Previously, Brex valuation was estimated as $7.4 billion from the investment from TCV, Ribbit Capital and many other firms.

    Brex entered the sector which was majorly dominated by the likes of either American Express Co. or JPMorgan Chase & Co. The company experienced progressive growth together with manufacturing other products such as business cash accounts and bill pay software. This brought a clear targeting measure for traditional established small to the big businesses.

    Brex received incredible support from the customers and in fact, within three months its customer count climbed by 80%.


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    Flipkart

    Flipkart is a well-known E-commerce company, whose $14 million worth of shares has been sold to the Tiger Global Management firm by its co-founder Binny Bansal. Ever since Walmart grasped its hands around the E-Commerce firm, this would be the third time when Binny Bansal sold a tranche of his share.

    The shares holding of Binny Bansal has been transferred to two types of Tiger Global Management funds. The first part of the share i.e., 47,756 equity is transferred to the existing Internet Fund III Pte Ltd. and the other 54,596 is to incoming Tiger Global Eight Holdings.

    Conclusion

    Tiger Global Management has made great progress in recent years and the firm has gained many portfolios as well. The firm is going for every potential startup doesn’t matter how established they are in the market. It is investing in many new potential startup companies through millions of shares.

    In other words, Tiger Global Management is acquiring every opportunity of investing in independent potential startup companies. And with this exponential graph flow, Tiger Global Management is estimated to grow even more aggressively.

    Today, almost every startup aspires to secure investment from Tiger Global Management. However, there are still many heights that Tiger Global Management has to reach.

    FAQ

    What is Tiger Global Management?

    Tiger Global Management is an American investment firm that focuses on internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries.

    What are the top startups funded by Tiger Global Management?

    Flipkart, Brex, Infra.Market, Innovaccer and Ola Electric Mobility are top startups funded by Tiger Global Management

    Who is the founder of Tiger Global Management?

    Chase Coleman is the Founder of Tiger Global Management.

  • Tracing the Business Model of Vedantu

    As we move higher in the digital realm,  education is also undergoing significant changes. Since the last decade we have seen a lot of E-learning platforms mushrooming across the world and India was not an exception. As pandemic held on to their natural course of life, digital learning platforms were an abode of hope and connectivity.

    Even before the pandemic, these firms had significantly reduced the issues of physical accessibility, unequal distribution of facilities etc. Among a large variety of online learning platforms Vedantu was one platform that stood out  and was committed to providing quality education to every student associated with it.

    Vedantu was founded in 2011 by Vamshi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Saurabh Saxena and Anand Prakash. The firm is owned by Vedantu Innovations Private Limited. Their business model is explicated below.

    Key Resources of Vedantu
    Key Activities of Vedantu
    Value Proposition of Vedantu
    Cost Structure of Vedantu
    Revenue Stream of Vedantu
    Funding of Vedantu
    FAQ

    Key Resources of Vedantu

    The most important resource that the firm relies upon is the quality of the teachers and the skill set of the technical team. The live interaction of the teachers along with their ability to adapt and improvise depending on the requirements of the students have significantly helped in the growth of Vedantu.

    Being an online platform the structure and organisation is also as important as the skill sets of the teachers. They have a very well organised website at the perusal of the students.

    Vedantu Website
    Vedantu Website

    Key Activities of Vedantu

    The major activity that drives Vedantu forward are their live classes and materials. Apart from that they also provide various free courses and free materials that are useful for classes from 6 to 12 and also for students preparing for various competitive examinations.

    These free classes and materials are in fact testers which the students can use before they decide to sign up for their paid services. Their classes are mostly live and cover the syllabuses of all subjects from class 6 to 12. The price of the paid services vary depending upon the class of the student and also the courses that they wish to enroll in.

    Value Proposition of Vedantu

    One of the major highlights of this EdTech company is it’s personalised classes and live interaction. Unlike the pre-recorded classes of its competitors, it ensures that they hire skilled teachers who are capable of devising better learning methods based on the requirements and mindsets of the students.

    This unique customisation is inclusive of white boarding technologies, video, two way audio et cetera. This startup is also a favourite choice for students who are preparing for competitive examinations.

    Like most of the online classes Vedantu also records live classes for the benefit of absent students. They ensure better affordability and accessibility by providing classes and support that functions even with low internet bandwidth.


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    Cost Structure of Vedantu

    Vedantu has to incur a lot of expenses like any other offline operating firms. The company spends a large part of its revenue on the teachers, depending on their experience and their contribution of courses to the platform.

    Including the teachers there are over 1300 employees working in the firm whose salaries need to be catered to. Vedantu thrives on advertisements and promotions for which they spend another large part of their revenue.

    Revenue Stream of Vedantu

    Vedantu has only a single revenue stream which is through their subscription model. It is safe to conclude that this start-up follows a B2C formula to connect to it the end users. B2C stands for Business to Consumer.

    In the subscription model they charge students a certain amount of money depending on their class, course, duration of the course et cetera. These plans vary widely and hence his pocket friendly. You can choose one depending on your needs. So as to ensure credibility and assured quality they also have many demo classes.

    The popularity of these subscriptions are accelerating over the years and in 2019 the number of subscriptions almost doubled than that of the previous year. Although they have a single revenue stream, they make sure that they make the best out of it.


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    Funding of Vedantu

    Through their Unique Selling Proposition and marketing strategies, Vedantu have been successful in establishing itself as a reputed online learning platform. It has received various funding’s right from the pre-seed rounds.

    Investors like Ramaswamy, Accel, Trifecta Capital Advisors, GGV capital, KB Global Platform Fund, Legend Capital et cetera are a few of them. Recently this Bangalore-based educational startup raised $100 million during its series D funding round from a US-based investment firm named Coatue.

    After this, Vedantu is valued at $600 million from earlier $275 million as on February 2020. They have been able to raise nearly $200 million till now.

    FAQ

    What is the valuation of Vedantu?

    The valuation of Vedantu is $600 million as of 2021.

    Who is the founder of Vedantu?

    Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Anand Prakash, and Saurabh Saxena are the founders of Vedantu.

    Who are the competitors of Vedantu?

    Chegg, BYJU’S, Meritnation, Toppr, Wonderschool and Simplilearn are the competitors of Vedantu.

  • Top 15 Unicorn Startups in Europe to watch out for in 2021

    You might be wondering, which countries are known to have the highest number of unicorns around? Well, answering simple, countries in Europe have been known to have these numbers rising more by each year. Startups are majorly recognised by their valuation. And, in Europe, around 10 new unicorns have been recognised in the year 2020.

    Likewise, many more startups are on their way to join the billion dollars valuation list. Over the past years, the startups around Europe have grown in a wide number. And among these, many have made their way to the unicorn list of Europe.

    According to the database of 2021, many funding deals, M&A and IPOs are recorded to the mint condition of unicorns in Europe by the rising numbers. And many startups that reached the 1 billion valuation were found.

    That’s why we have made things quite easy for you and brought the list of unicorns in Europe. Stay tuned!

    Global Switch
    Klarna
    Revolut
    Hopin
    CureVac
    Nucom Group
    Monzo
    Greensill
    Bolt
    Shift Technology
    Epidemic Sound
    Atom Bank
    Auto1 Group
    Darktrace
    Dfinity
    FAQ

    Global Switch

    Global Switch Website
    Global Switch Website

    Global Switch is known to be the most valuable unicorn in Europe that regulates the data centres in Asia and Europe. By the year 2018, the company’s 25% stake worth $2.8 Billion, was sold to some consortium investors. This brought the company with the help of its expansion plans.

    Klarna

    Klarna Website
    Klarna Website

    The very prominent company offering online payment services, Klarna, has recently made a great number of acquisitions. These have been recorded as the purchase of cart and checkout browser expansion Shop.co and then, its Germany based expenditure company Billpay worth $75 Million. Klarna is a very well established unicorn of Sweden, Europe.

    Revolut

    Revoult Website
    Revoult Website

    The fastest and the broadest growing digital banking company, Revolut is known widely across Europe. Revolut has broadly expanded its business from a mere travel currency card company to a well-established full-time range of digital banking services.

    Revolut has quite a tough competition with the N26 and it’s moving all the way out to beat its competitors.

    Hopin

    Hopin Website
    Hopin Website

    Hopin is a very well known Virtual events platform in Europe that made its fastest way towards the list of unicorns; within 8 months of its launch. And, by the end of 2020, it became the fastest-growing company in Europe.


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    CureVac

    CureVac Website
    CureVac Website

    The well-established biopharmaceutical company works with the usage of mRNA for various medical purposes but, most importantly for the development of vaccines. CureVac is a unicorn established in Germany worth $1.7 billion.

    Nucom Group

    NuCom Group Website
    NuCom Group Website

    The Germany-based startup, Nucom Group holds a portfolio of consumer & lifestyle brands. This also includes the Parship, Eharmony, Amoreli and Falconi.

    Nucom Group has a valuation of $2.2 billion with the prominent investment by General Atlantic, which holds around 30% of the company’s stake.

    Monzo

    Monzo Website
    Monzo Website

    Monzo is a startup established in the United Kingdom as a challenger bank. The valuation of Monzo is estimated at $2.5 billion. Monzo has raised a $144 million series F from its potential investors such as Stripe, Accel, Y Combinator and General Catalyst.

    Greensill

    Greensill is a supply chain finance company that carries the position of the third party between the solid suppliers and the businesses. They offer early supplier payment and business funding. Greensill has the investments of General Atlantic, SoftBank Group and many others.

    Bolt

    Bolt Website
    Bolt Website

    The leading transportation platform, Bolt is one of the European developing companies. Bolt was initially launched as Taxify which was an environmental influence fund along with a €10 million seed capital. It took the initiative of manufacturing such products that suit the global science and environmental advantages.

    With all means, Bolt now operates around 13,000 electrical Scooters and bikes.

    Shift Technology

    The company with a valuation of $1 billion, Shift Technology is known to be Europe’s largest insurance funding round which raised to $220 million Series D within a week. Shift Technology is a France based company that aimed the expansion of its casualty insurance market and its property along with health security.

    Shift Technology gained its unicorn status in May 2021 with total funding of €289 million.

    Epidemic Sound

    Epidemic Sound was launched in 2009 but, recently, in march 2021, it found its way to the unicorn list of Europe. It was raised with equity from fhe EQT Group and Blackstone, worth $450 million. Moreover, it also has its alignment with the Kichi Invest, SEB, Creandum and DS Asset Management.

    Epidemic Sound holds a valuation of €1.3 billion.


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    Atom Bank

    AtoM Bank is the first-ever app bank in the United Kingdom. It provides the offering of a wide range of personal and business banking products in a mobile banking application which can be protected by the voice of face lock. Atom Bank gained its unicorn status in 2018 when it raised $514 million and extended its valuation of $1.25 billion.

    Auto1 Group

    Auto1 Group is a European company that provides a marketplace where you can conveniently sell or buy a car. It’s a platform that connects the buyers and sellers to crack a potential deal.

    In the January of 2018, Auto1 Group received an investment worth €460 million from Softbank which led its way to the unicorn list.

    Darktrace

    Darktrace is a billion dollars tech company that works against cybercrime through machine learning and artificial intelligence that helps it to detect the assailant through its Enterprise Immune System. In May 2018, the country gained a valuation of $1.25 billion and made its way to the unicorn list.

    Dfinity

    Dfinity is a well-established company in Switzerland. It is a software company that designs to host the next level of services and technology through blockchain, decentralised networking.

    Dfinity was founded in 2015 and now, it aimed to develop the “Internet Computer”, prominently.

    Conclusion

    There are plenty of unicorns in the region of Europe and many are on their way to gain the status of one. Unicorns contribute an enormous role in the globalization of VC as well as the economy. Among the countries of Europe, Israel has the most number of unicorns, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany in line.

    Through this article, you would know some of the fastest-growing and developing unicorns of Europe.

    FAQ

    How many unicorns are there in Europe?

    There are approximately 70 unicorns in Europe as of 2021.

    How many unicorns are there in the world?

    There are around 700 unicorns in the world as of July, 2021.

    Which country has the most number of unicorns?

    United States tops the list of most number of unicorns with 288 unicorns.

  • What Makes A Unicorn Startup & How To Build One

    People know about popular unicorn companies like Uber, Swiggy, Airbnb, Snapchat, and Pinterest and their journey to success, but most people don’t know what a unicorn company exactly means. What are the different criteria for a startup company to become a unicorn? A unicorn in the Business world indicates a privately owned startup company that has a valuation of $1 billion.

    The term was initially coined by a well-known venture capitalist Aileen Lee, who choose the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of successful startup companies. The simplest definition of a startup has remained unchanged ever since, while the number of unicorns has gone up. Unicorn has now become a catchphrase within the global startup market. When a startup becomes a unicorn, it shows how the business model of the company and its value proposition is in the eyes of the investors. The unicorn helps grows in both visibility and operational outlay, which often leads directly to greater business opportunities for the organization.

    The article ahead will give you an insight on How to become a Unicorn Startup, the Features & Characteristics of a Unicorn Company, and more.

    The Characteristics of Unicorn Startup
    Investors of the Unicorn Companies
    Can Only Startups be a Unicorn?
    Disruption and Value Seeding
    Market Size of the Unicorn Companies
    Maximizes Growth and Net Profit
    Which Indian Startups turned Unicorn in 2021?
    FAQ’s
    Conclusion

    The Characteristics of Unicorn Startup

    The process to be a unicorn is not easy and each and every unicorn has its own story. All the unicorn companies have a similar set of features that makes them a unicorn startup.

    • Groundbreaking innovations: The unicorn companies have brought a disruption in the field they belong to. Uber, for example, changed the way people commuted. While Airbnb is known to have changed the way people planned their way while traveling. The innovative strategies are what make them a unicorn company.
    • The First innovations: The unicorn companies are mostly the starters in their industry. They change the way people do things and gradually create a necessity for themselves. They are also known to continuously innovate and stay ahead of competitors which might later boom.
    • High Technology: Most unicorn companies have a business model run on a higher level of technology. Almost 87% of the unicorn products are software, 7% of them being hardware, while the other 6% of them being based on products and services.
    • Consumer-focused startups: Their main goal into simplify and make things easy for consumers and be a part of their day-to-day life. Over 62% of the unicorns are particularly B2C companies. Another key ingredient is keeping their products and services affordable.
    • Privately owned: Many known unicorn companies are nowadays privately owned which gets their valuation bigger when an established company invests in it. There are more than 361 private companies around the world valued at over $1 billion. India has 16 of these companies, that are taking up 4% of the overall share.
    Popular unicorn companies outside US
    Popular unicorn companies outside the US

    Key ingredients of a Unicorn

    • To make a simple solution to an existing problem
    • Make a strong and highly marketable value proposition
    • Make a plan in order to have a clear vision for the future of the company and the products and services they offer
    • Unicorn companies have Potential beta testers and customers
    • They usually have an easy-to-use UX that allows users to quickly adapt and get the product.

    Investors of the Unicorn Companies

    Great ideas usually don’t have value until you do something with them, which is what the unicorns companies are good at as they have the right people, skills, tools, and data to make the magic happen. This is taken into consideration by the investors for deciding which startup to fund. It is very important to project revenue and growth.

    Some projections need to be backed by hard data and the forecasting growth for the next 6, 12, or 18 months. If a startup in need of funding without any numbers to back up its claims, the potential investor may not be interested in good. Recent startups wait in order to seek out investors until they have a marketable product with proven demand as well as a number of opportunities coming your way.


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    Can Only Startups be a Unicorn?

    The answer is yes because the unicorn is a term given only to startups who have a valuation of over a billion. The only startups that have a valuation of 10 billion are grouped under the term called decacon (which is a super unicorn). Dropbox, SpaceX, and WeWork are some examples of decacon.

    For the startups that are based out of Canada, there is an exclusive term for what we call a unicorn. It is the narwhal. This means that any Canadian startup company with a valuation of over 1 billion is called a narwhal. Some of the famous narwhale companies are Hootsuite and Wattpad.

    How to become a unicorn startup in 2020

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    Which Indian Startups turned Unicorn 2021?

    Startup Unicorn 2021
    Indian Unicorn Startups 2021

    Here’s the list of Top Unicorn Startups in India 2021

    Disruption and Value Seeding

    The main reason behind the growth and success of each and every unicorn is the disruptive impact it has on its chosen market. A well-known example of this is the on-demand taxi aggregator Uber. Uber uses smartphones as a medium to connect consumers with their nearby cab drivers at the touch of the button, the only reason that has driven the massive success that the company continues to enjoy.

    Uber not only made booking a cab booking more convenient for the end-user but also headed more operational efficiency for cab drivers and taxi service providers by helping them optimize their revenue streams. As a result, the company is now one of the most successful unicorns with a valuation of 64.5 billion in 2020.

    Market Size of the Unicorn Companies

    It is important for startups aspiring to make the title of a unicorn in order to analyze the market they are operating in. Entrepreneurs must understand and analyze their target markets well in advance in order to aim for the title of a unicorn in order to analyze the markets they are operating in. They must analyze their target market and target audience well in advice before aiming to make their startups into the next big thing in the startup community.

    An example of the is Airbnb. Founded as an alternative lodging/hotel solution for business travelers all over the world, the company then changed its approach to target the much larger global hotel industry, which is currently worth 550 million.


    Where Can You Look For Ideas For Your Business
    There are so many different factors that contribute to the success of your startup. Business idea is an important factor among them. It has an important role in creating sales and profits. Where can you look for ideas for your business? There are so many ways.


    Maximizes Growth and Net Profit

    There no fixed rule that requires a company to be profitable in order to become a unicorn. In fact one of the earliest unicorns, Nutanix earned the status in 2013 despite a complete lack of profits. The point is that profits and growth don’t always go hand in hand. In fact, going after profit can sometimes slow your ability to increase revenue.

    The startups must work towards building sustainable growth rather than opting for a quick, short-sighted bump in profits. Instead of only focusing on growing your margins to impress investors with fast ROI, they must also focus on perfecting your product, increasing your total revenue, and growing your user base.

    FAQ’s

    What is a startup unicorn?

    A term that describes a privately-owned startup with a valuation of over $1 billion.

    What is a unicorn in a startup?

    In finance, “unicorn” is a term that describes a privately-owned startup. The term was introduced by venture capital investor, Aileen Lee, in 2013 to describe rare tech startups that were valued at more than $1 billion. The phenomenon of unicorns is quite controversial.

    Which Indian startup became unicorns in 2020?

    In all, 11 Indian startups — Unacademy, Pine Labs, FirstCry, Zenoti, Nykaa, Postman, Zerodha, Razorpay, Cars24, Dailyhunt, and Glance — became unicorns this year.

    Which is India’s fastest Unicorn startup?

    Bengaluru and San Francisco-based SaaS startup Postman became the fastest SaaS startup to reach unicorn status. In June 2020, the six-year-old startup secured a Series C funding of $150 million at a valuation of $2 billion.

    Which country has the most unicorns?

    The number of unicorn companies found in China in early 2020 was bigger than those of 29 other countries, including Germany, India, and the UK, combined.

    Conclusion

    Hope you got an idea on how to build a unicorn startup & what are the unicorn startups’ characteristics. Startups into tech will now embrace machine intelligence mostly in its devices or products. Artificial intelligence is the future and is making innovations in the tech industry for years. But its presence will become more in the coming years. This in turn will give rise to unicorn startups which will dominant the startup industry. The moto is not to make unicorn startups but to create something that takes away the human effort by making the world a little better.

  • Why are people excited for Zomato IPO when it’s in loss?

    The Initial Public Offering of Zomato is the much awaited IPO of 2021. It is considered to be one of the largest IPO’s of 2021. The company on 28 April 2021 has finally filed the draft papers with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Let’s look at why there is so much excitement in the market for the issue of Zomato’s shares even though they are a loss making company.

    Zomato IPO
    Losses of Zomato
    Zomato Warns losses to continue
    Bad Cash Flows
    IIFL Securities
    Motilal Oswal Financial Services
    Kotak AMC
    FAQ

    Zomato IPO

    Zomato has been one of the biggest successful startups in India in the last decade along with Flipkart, Byju’s and its rival startup Swiggy. The Initial Public Offering of Zomato is expected to increase the value of the company.

    The dealers in the unofficial or grey market who trades in unlisted shares said that the valuation of the company could be around INR 53,000 crores. The expected valuation of Zomato will make it larger than one-third of the companies that are listed on the index of Nifty 50.

    On July 8, 2021, Zomato is one week away from launching its debut IPO. The company has already filed its red herring prospectus with the Bombay Stock Exchange, and in the same, Zomato has also revealed some much-awaited details of its upcoming IPO.

    According to the prospectus, the shares that Zomato would offer would be priced between Rs 72-76 each, which would make the whole issue worth between Rs 9,357 – 11,198 crores. The food delivery giant would issue its shares for a period between July 14 – 16, 2021. Furthermore, as per the reports, there will be a total of 1,30,20,83,333 equity shares of face value Re 1 each on offer for bids.

    Zomato had initially disclosed that the total amount of its IPO would be Rs 7,500 crores last month. However, the company eventually had to increase the total size of the issue due to rising demands from the investors. The portion of the IPO, as offered to the retail investors, has been limited to 10% of the total size of the issue. This is because the brand has not achieved profitability yet.

    Losses of Zomato

    The difference between Zomato and the other companies listed on the Nifty50 index is that they are profit making companies for several years or at least from the last decade. Whereas Zomato is recording losses continuously for the past 4 years.

    For the last nine month period which ended in December 2020, the company has reported a net loss of INR 682 crores and INR 2,385 crores for the year 2019-2020, INR 1,010 crores for the year 2018-19 and INR 107 crore for the year 2017-18.

    In the draft red herring prospectus, which was submitted to the Securities and Exchange Board of India the company has mentioned that they have a history of net losses and are expecting an increase in the expenses in the future.

    Prior to the launch of its debut IPO, Zomato is spending Rs 1.3 to earn a single rupee of operating revenue in FY21, which has improved from Rs 1.92 that the company had to spend in FY20.

    Furthermore, the company has also witnessed an improvement of around 66% in terms of the total losses. Zomato suffered an annual loss of Rs 2385.6 crore in FY20, which came down to be Rs 816.4 crore in FY21. The company, which is going live with its IPO next week, still has outstanding losses worth Rs 5,600.3 crore at the end of FY21  


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    Zomato Warns losses to continue

    Zomato has warned the investors that the company expects the expenses to increase in the future and their losses to continue for a period of time. The company said that from the significant investments it would require some time to grow the business.

    The company has plans to pump in a lot of money into the marketing, advertising and promotion. They also have plans to expand its services to new markets in India and develop its platform in addition to expanding its delivery partner network.

    The company said that these efforts would be costlier than they expect and added on saying that it may not result in the increase in revenue or growth of the business. The company said that the increase in revenue and the investments received will be spent on other expenses. This would prevent the company from increasing or maintaining its profitability at a consistent level or a positive cash flow.

    Zomato Revenue Growth
    Zomato Revenue Growth

    Bad Cash Flows

    Zomato has not just struggled in generating profit but has a bad track record of generating cash flows from its operations. The cash outflow of Zomato from operations is INR 269 crore in the year ended in December 2020.

    The company has reported negative cash flow in the past 3 financial years. Most of the negative cash flows are due to the high promotion and advertising expenses of the company to attract new customers to scale up their operations on the platform.


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    IIFL Securities

    The brokerage firm IIFL Securities said in a report that it expects Zomato to earn an operating profit in the current financial year due to the increase in the demand of delivery business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

    IIFL securities have an expectation that Zomato will increase its net revenues at a growth of 48 % on a yearly basis for the next 5 years. They expect the fixed costs to grow at a rate of 27 % on a yearly basis which would provide an improvement in the operating margin for the next decade.

    Motilal Oswal Financial Services

    Raamdeo Agarwal who is the chairman and co-founder of Motilal Oswal Financial Services has said that by giving valuations one wouldn’t look for what the company has earned in the past 5 years but will be looking at what the company will earn in the next 25 years.

    Kotak AMC

    Anshul Saigal who is the head of portfolio management services at Kotak AMC has said that it is confusing for investors, but he wants the investors to ask themselves a question before investing that is if the company stopped growing today will its business model earn profits. He added that the answer to this question is the heart of valuing a tech company.


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    FAQ

    Is Zomato listed in stock market?

    Zomato is planning to go public in 2021.

    Who is the CEO of Zomato?

    Deepinder Goyal is the CEO of Zomato.

    Is Zomato an Indian company?

    Zomato, is one of India’s largest food delivery company.

    Conclusion

    Zomato’s IPO will be more like a leap of faith for the Indian investors. The traditional way of valuing a business cannot be used by the Indian investors when it comes to valuing a business model like Zomato.