One of India’s Edtech giants BYJU’s recently laid off its 500 employees. Similarly, other well-recognized Edtech companies like Unacademy, Vedantu, Whitehat jr., etc. have also handed pink slips to hundreds of their employees in the latest Edtech crisis.
So, is the Indian Edtech market actually coming to its end? When did it start to crash and what are the causes? Which of the brands will survive the situation?
In this blog, we will find the answer to all these questions.
The coaching centers have been a part of our education system for a long time. Beginning with the small tuition classes with 5-10 students to the big coaching institutes with hundreds of students, this business has travelled a long way.
Mostly, the inability of the school curriculum to prepare students for competitive examinations and the lack of well-trained teaching staff are considered to be the reason for the advent and proliferation of these coachings.
Well, whatever the reason be, the truth is that today coaching centers have become an indispensable part of the Indian education system.
These coaching centers charge high fees, sometimes even higher than the school fees for an entire year, to prepare the students for different exams. They offer classes, study material, question banks, test series, and even hostel facilities for the students.
Several cities have emerged as coaching hubs for different examinations, such as Kota for IIT-JEE coaching, or Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar for UPSC coaching.
In continuation of this, with the arrival of new technology, online coaching centers came into the picture. The major advantage of these Edtech companies over offline coaching centers was their cost-efficiency.
They offered the same course to the students as the offline coaching center but at a very low price, comparatively. It was owing to the lower expenditure needed to run these businesses.
Actually, to run an offline coaching center one has to spend a humongous amount of money on infrastructure, teaching staff, admin, support staff, housekeeping, electricity & water bill, etc.
Other than this these coaching centers also have to take care of marketing through billboards, seminars, etc. which further escalates their running cost. In the end, students are the ones who have to pay for these expenses in terms of the high fees charged by these institutes.
On the other hand, the online coaching centers do not have to spend money on infrastructure, extra staff, or other facilities. All they need are a few experienced teachers who would record the subject-wise lectures for them.
So, even for the teachers instead of regular monthly payments they only had to pay them once. These companies also hire the teachers on a profit basis to organize doubt-clearing sessions for the students.
This made their functioning expense go really low. Moreover, back when these companies actually started, the digital modes of marketing, such as YouTube or Instagram, were cheaper. Due to this, they were also saving on their advertisements and marketing costs.
However, owing to the soaring internet costs this market did not grow much until 2017 when “Jio” entered the Indian telecommunication industry. With its extremely low-cost internet connection, Jio revolutionized the way the coaching industry of India functioned.
Growth of the Edtech Industry in India
Owing to the availability of cost-effective internet connections, this led to the rise of digital coaching institutes in India. The market of these institutes was not restricted to a particular city or zone. They could actually approach any student across the country.
Moreover, with the pre-recorded lectures they could even sell customized courses or subject-specific courses to students. If a student only wanted to study Physics, he/she was not compelled to pay for other subjects as well. Therefore, initially, the Edtech market required ultra-low working capital and was a high-profit margin business with boundless potential to scale.
Due to all these advantages, a large number of investors with billion-dollar funds approached these companies even turning many of them into unicorns.
VC Investments in Indian Edtech Startups
But, here is the twist, as the entry barrier to starting an Edtech company was quite low the competition started to increase. The cost for course making was low and the selling was easy. This invited countless individuals to enter the field.
This sudden increase in competition led to a number of other changes in the digital market. Owing to the increased number of advertisements for similar products, the cost per conversion escalated multiple times.
This drastically increased the cost of investment in the Edtech business as the margin between investment and profit shrank to become thinner. This led to incurring losses in most of these companies.
Effect of the Pandemic on the Edtech Market
Although COVID-19 brought the entire world into turmoil, bringing several challenges for the entire human community, this pandemic was bliss for the Indian Edtech companies.
With the shutting down of schools and offline coaching centers, the Edtech industry saw its boom in 2020. The edtech companies utilized this as an opportunity to habituate customers to online learning.
Resultantly, while they offered more discounts, more free sessions, and other free services to the customers, they also hired more staff and gathered more funding for themselves.
This was the time these companies invested all their energy and resources to bring the Edtech market to its hype as almost all the students were using online classes.
The Edtech companies at this point exploded like no one could have imagined inviting more players to join the field.
The Post-pandemic Struggle of Edtech Companies
Later in 2021 or the beginning of 2022, the pandemic started to fade away leading to the re-opening of schools, coaching centers, and other institutions. As the students rejoined their respective institutes the resources gathered by the Edtech companies were no longer required.
The students got involved in their offline activities as earlier, preferring a physical classroom over the virtual one. This led to the major collapse of the Edtech industry in India.
Finally, the companies began to suffer heavy losses and had to fire the surplus staff including both the teachers as well as the sales team. But, is this Edtech crash occurring for real?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. So, the next question appears, who will survive it? To get the answer we have to know who all are the participants in this struggle.
Who Will Survive the Edtech Race?
There are three types of players in the Edtech market. First are the super-brands like BYJU’s, Unacademy, etc. These companies have made a name and reputation in the market which is exceptional and considered quite reliable by the customers.
Second, are the companies with huge funding with which they are able to promote and advertise their products much more efficiently and effectively.
Third are the personal brands such as Study IQ, Physics Wallah, etc. These are the brands that have grown organically on the basis of their content instead of marketing. These are the most powerful and most profitable players in the field.
Amongst the three categories, the first ones to get out of the race are the high-funding companies. Even when these companies are able to attract customers with their advertisements, the lack of content and inability to produce results causes trust issues with customers. This causes an early detachment of customers ensuing huge losses for these companies.
The super brands have no doubt made an irreplaceable image in the market and have earned trust with their services. So, it is expected that they will remain a part of the industry maybe but will have to incur some losses. However, the top players in the game will always be the personal brands. They will always remain profitable and if they stay on the right path they could even become bigger than the super brands one day.
The reason for this is that they have a brand value like nobody else. It separates them from the commoditized Edtech market. As they have gained this place due to their quality content and customer trust there is the least possibility of collapse.
Moreover, they have incredible distribution channels with their customers being the source of their publicity. They are able to connect students without even running any ads so their acquisition costs are very low. Therefore, they have an edge over their competitors and run their businesses without even funding.
Conclusion
Presently, the Edtech market in India is under heavy loss. The industry is at its worst and facing a huge crisis. The reason for this is the re-opening of schools, universities, and offline coaching centers.
However, like any other market, the best players in the field who have gained the trust of the customers and built a reputation for themselves will always stand strong with a profitable business, surviving the highs and lows.
FAQs
What is the future of EdTech in India?
Edtech is growing rapidly in India and is estimated to reach around $30 billion in the next 10 years
How many EdTech companies are there in India?
There are nearly 9,043 EdTech startups in India.
How big is the EdTech market in India?
The market valuation of the Indian Edtech industry is $2.8 billion and is expected to reach $10.4 billion by 2025.
The worldwide education sector is seeing a major shift towards online platforms in the quickly changing field of educational technology (EdTech), where digital transformation impacts the future of learning. As the need for customized and easily accessible learning experiences grows, EdTech is essential in meeting the many needs of students in today’s dynamic learning environment.
In the evolving EdTech landscape, Toppr stands out as a dynamic platform, redefining learning by placing students at its core. It addresses the changing demands of learners in the digital era by exploring the larger EdTech context. Toppr anticipates a time when learning is an immersive experience and responds to the demands of education today with tailored learning paths and creative solutions.
In this article, let’s explore the world of Toppr—its founders, business and revenue model, funding, growth, and more
Even amidst the unprecedented times of the Covid19, one sector that has seen exponential growth is the EdTech industry. With the nationwide lockdown, as announced at the end of March, and many other successive lockdowns and strictures in numerous Indian metropolitan cities, most industries faced severe roadblocks to barely run their operations let alone, maintain or improve profitability. However, amidst the pandemic, online education and e-learning platforms have seen astonishing adoption and growth. This, however, is not surprising because the educational institutions are shut, making 1.5 billion students resort to a variety of digital education sites like Toppr to ensure learning continues. The company had seen good growth before it was acquired by Byju’s on July 24, 2021, in a deal consisting of cash and equity shares, as it acquired Great Learning.
According to a report by BARC India and Nielson, there has been a 30% increase in the time spent on education apps on smartphones since the lockdown. The Edtech sector worth Rs 15,000 crore, has been battling challenges with the low B2C market penetration. The current surge of usage is thus, proving to be pivotal.
Edtech startups are attracting many more investors in the post-Covid19 world, thanks to the increased adoption of digital learning during the lockdown. The learning app Toppr focused on students in classes 5 to 12 and had managed to raise around $112.1 million till July 29, 2020, it’s Series D funding round. Toppr had previously competed with unicorn companies like Byju, Unacademy, Vedantu, Meritnation and more. However, after it was acquired by the edtech giant, Toppr’s revenue declined. The revenue of Toppr noticeably shrunk by 40% in FY21, as per the reports dated January 19, 2022.
After the lockdown subsided, and the coronavirus became less active in terms of potency and the people affected, the edtech sector has been seeing a huge downfall. Layoffs or job cuts and decreased security now wrap the edtech domain. So, here’s learning about when Toppr was founded, how it has served in the pandemic, Toppr’s funding, Toppr’s business model, Toppr revenue, valuation and more.
Toppr is a Mumbai-basedEdtech startup, which had seen a 100% growth in paid users on a monthly basis, with free user engagement witnessing a 100% spike. The company was founded in 2013 and offered questions, solutions, concepts, practice tests, videos, and more to students. It also prepared them for competitive entrance exams such as IIT-JEE mains, BITSAT, and NEET.
When the platform announced free access to live classes and video classes, the CEO and Founder of Toppr, Zishaan Hyath said, “in the view of the evolving situation around the Covid19 pandemic, many schools are shut, hence why we are making Toppr live classes completely free for all students in classes 5 to 12. Besides that, our video classes have always been available as a free learning resource”.
Growth of Toppr During Covid Pandemic
Toppr Operational Revenue FY18-FY21
The Edtech firms have also taken to the digital media to acquire users and inform people about the free live classes on offer. There had been a 128% growth in digital ad spending by edtech apps during the lockdown, as per the BARC Nielson report. It is not just the big players that spent on advertising as they also acquired an impressive count of users abroad.
Amid Covid, there were more than a dozen Edtech startups including Byju’s, Vedantu, etc., that have raised funding as investors through platforms that have registered strong growth during the pandemic. The learning sessions on its app per month had also witnessed a 2x growth, which was 14 to 15 million before Covid and became 32 million post-lockdown.
Toppr already had around 60,000 students on its learning platform and was aggressively seeking to bring around 2.4 lakh students onboard. The Edtech segment is likely to be on a roll ahead as investors globally are expected to put $87 billion in the world market over the next 10 years. The Indian market is also believed to grow at over 20% per annum to hit $2 billion sizes by 2021.
Though Toppr, which is now a part of Byju’s, showed good growth in FY20’s financials when the company recorded its operational revenues at Rs 84.3 crore from Rs 56.4 crore, which it saw in FY19, FY21’s revenues for Toppr dipped by 40% to stand at Rs 50.6 crore. The last known Toppr valuation was over $100 mn, when it was sold to Byju’s.
The company had emerged as the highest traffic destination for K-12 learning and hosted over 1 million sessions every day. The community of 50,000 educators from across the country had contributed to the platform with over 35 lakh learning pieces, including questions, solutions, concepts, games, and videos curated for the students.
This is was because the annual subscription for the academic year 2020 to 2021 on Toppr started at Rs 20,000, which is cheaper than its competitors. For example, Vedantu’s annual subscription for all subjects for a class 10 student costs Rs 48,599. Given the high costs, the penetration of Edtech platforms was limited, which is why Toppr decided to bring down the cost of their subscription to get more users to the platform.
Some of the well-known competitors of Toppr
Furthermore, the company changed its product strategy and created packages of shorter duration to help people tide over the current crisis. Toppr now has a 3 month and six-month package, starting at just Rs 3000. Both Toppr and Byju’s have registered an increase in paid users during the lockdown, Toppr has seen a four-fold increase, while Byju’s has seen its paid subscriptions double. However, things toppled in FY21, when the company’s operational revenue plunged by 40%.
Apart from the main product, which is the school learning app, Toppr also spends on teaching coding to kids and their school operating system (OS) built for teachers and administrators. Toppr School OS is an app for schools and teachers through which they can map curriculum, plan lessons and manage class timetables, automate attendance, assign homework.
Toppr school is an artificial intelligence-based Operating System to run “in school” and “afterschool” learning, creating a standardized and personalized experience. This helps in continuing to engage and explore various features and includes parents and students who are trying online learning as a go-to learning resource in these difficult times.
It also helps in taking tests, correcting test papers, etc. during or after school hours to save time. On the other hand, the coding product, which is called Toppr codr, launched recently, is another opportunity for the company to raise at least $50 million, if let’s say, the overall opportunity for us in digital learning is around $200 million.
Toppr raised a total of $112.1M in funding over 11 rounds. The latest funding of Toppr was raised on Jul 29, 2020, from a Series D round as edtech startups continue to benefit from the pandemic-driven online learning boom. This last round of Toppr funding was worth $44.31 mn. A Dubai-based investment firm, Foundation Holdings, led the fresh investments into the Mumbai-based e-learning platform. Existing investors such as Kaizen Private Equity also participated, according to a statement.
Date
Name of the Funding Round
Deal Value
Lead Investors
July 29, 2020
Series D
$44.31 mn
Foundation Holdings
June 12, 2020
Series C
$189.90K
Kaizenvest
April 10, 2019
Debt Financing
$5.57 mn
Milestone Trustee Services
December 19, 2018
Series C
$35 mn
–
May 9, 2018
Debt Financing
$1.96 mn
Alteria Capital
October 23, 2017
Series B
$5.69 mn
–
April 24, 2017
Venture Round
$336K
WGG International
October 30, 2015
Debt Financing
$2 mn
–
May 7, 2015
Series B
$10 mn
Eight Roads Ventures, Helion Ventures, Elevation Capital
May 24, 2014
Seed Round
$2 mn
–
Toppr – Business and Revenue Model
The Toppr business model is similar to a freemium business model, which remains the same even after it is acquired by the edtech giant, Byju’s. The company offers free live and offline classes, which can be availed full-fledged if the users go for paid subscriptions. The majority of the Toppr income comes from the classes and their subscription fees. The Toppr revenues witnessed a 3X growth between 2016-2019, where revenues received from the students from 5th-12th grade was equally split.
Toppr – Growth and Revenues
The operating revenues of Toppr grew by 49.5% to $11.44 mn (Rs 84.3 crore) during FY20 from $7.65 mn (Rs 56.4 crore) earned in FY19. Furthermore, the income from financial assets of Toppr also witnessed a 46% growth to nearly $814K (Rs 6 crore) during FY20.
Looking at the side of expenses of the company, Toppr spent around $27.63 mn (Rs 203.7 crore) in total during FY20. Thus, it has registered a 31.6% increase when compared to the aggregate costs, which were Rs 154.8 crore during FY19. Coming to the unit level, Toppr has spent Rs 2.41 to earn a single rupee of revenue during FY20, which can be stated as a marginal improvement from what it was during FY19.
However, it is evident that Toppr failed to save its scale in terms of its financial performance in FY21 when BYJU’S acquired edtech startup reported a 6.2X of cash outflow, which increased from Rs 20.74 crore in FY20 to Rs 128.07 crore during FY21. The revenue of the company in FY20 was recorded to be Rs 84.32 crore, which plunged by 40%, thereby recorded at Rs 50.6 crore. The company has also been noted to have lost Rs 128.3 crore in FY21, which increased by 13.1%.
Coming to the unit level, Toppr spent Rs 3.54 to earn a single rupee of revenue. This is reported to be around 46.3% more in contrast to what Toppr spent (Rs 2.42) during FY20. Besides, the acquisition of the company might also be a result of Toppr’s inability to raise follow-on capital, and to scale.
Toppr – Layoffs
Toppr has announced that it would be firing close to 300 employees as of June 30, 2022. This news came when BYJU’S owned WhiteHat Jr. has already reported laying off around 300 employees. The Toppr layoffs would be close to 300 with immediate effect, and this can also go up to 500 later on, according to some reports.
FAQs
When was Toppr founded and who is the founder of Toppr?
Toppr edtech startup has been founded by Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti in 2013.
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.
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 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 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
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 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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
2021 was one year full of events. This was the year when the pandemic did not come to an end. It was the year when the vaccines started to pick up the pace. Not only the pandemic stayed but it transformed into many forms and variants. We were confined to our homes and were still connected with the help of technology.
This was the year when we saw how crucial healthcare workers really are. We learnt how to honour them. We learnt ways to heal, and we shared the ways we found. We learnt how we can be alone and together with everyone at the same time. We rediscovered that we can overcome anxiety to rise above our shortcomings. We learnt how to smile under our masks and how to appreciate friends and family and life. We learnt how to hit back from the setback.
All these things happened in 2021, and now it is almost the end of the year. India too shared the pain and heals with the whole world. We too joined hands and faced the pandemic with courage. There was one new event that we witnessed this year and that set the tone for the rest of the year. The event we all saw was the uprising ‘valuations of startups’.
The Indian startup ecosystem saw unicorns from all directions, it was quite literally raining valuations. Companies raised a lot of capital, reached huge valuations and made a mark in this unusual year. This is the time for a startup rewind. Let us see back on this eventful year and bid farewell. This article entails everything that happened in our Indian startup ecosystem this year. First, the basics and then the technicalities, read on to witness glory.
There are many jargons that go without saying in the business world. One of the most (considered) prestigious words is Unicorn. A unicorn refers to a startup (A company) that is privately held and reaches or over a valuation of 1 billion dollars. The term was first officially coined in 2013 by Aileen Lee, a venture capitalist.
She chose the mythical creature (It does not exist in reality) ‘Unicorn’ to represent the rarity of such immense successful ventures. When Aileen coined the term ‘Unicorn’, there existed about thirty-nine companies that deserved to be called unicorns.
If we look at CB insights, we will find that there exist about 803 unicorns as of august 2021. If we sort the list of all unicorns on the basis of scale, the top tier will be reserved by ByteDance, SpaceX and Stripe. Some of them have already achieved valuations of 10 billion dollars like SpaceX and Stripe. They are to be called ‘Decacorns’.
Indian Startup Ecosystem in 2021 – A look back
This year was the year of many firsts, this year we saw many things that were never done before. America chose its first female vice president, NASA touched the sun for the first time ever, space tourism became a reality, and India won its first gold medal in the athletics category.
Neeraj Chopra Gold medal in Javelin Throw
Alongside all the worldly business, our country India saw something unusual in the startup ecosystem. We saw a boom of unicorns and many firsts in these many categories too. India witnessed the first health tech unicorn “Innovaccer”, the first social commerce unicorn “Meesho” and the first electronic pharmacy unicorn “PharmEasy”. These were the firsts (types) unicorns in their respective fields that India saw this year.
Well, startups are quite always the trailblazers for technology and innovation they bring to society but apart from these above mentioned ‘Firsts’, do you know how many Indian Startups became a unicorn?
The Indian startup ecosystem saw 33 startups that came under the definition of a Unicorn. That means in just twelve months, India produced something like three dozen unicorns in the country. This stunning number definitely improved India’s status in the world.
Moreover, India displaced the UK to become the third top country to have a flourishing startup hosting ecosystem. The cumulative valuations of these unicorns go over the value of 33 billion dollars and that is a new record in itself. The UK on the other hand produced 15 unicorns.
India now is ahead of the UK, France, Israel, Brazil, Canada and South Korea, on the list of top startup hosting countries. It added many unicorns, led by the online educator BYJU’S (worth the US $21 Billion), Mobile ad tech InMobi (the US $12 Billion), and travel stay finder (the US $9.5 billion). There are 33 stories to be celebrated. We will talk a little about some of them. Let us read the most glorious and biggest startups of the year for the Indian startup ecosystem.
BYJU’S (Education + Technology)
BYJU’S is an “ed-tech” platform which simply means the amalgamation of education and technology. It is one of the world’s leading ed-tech companies providing learning programs for students in LKG, UKG, classes One to twelve (K-12) and competitive exams like JEE, NEET and IAS. The mobile app uses a mix of video lessons and interactive tools to personalise learning for every student.
It has a valuation of about 21 billion US dollars. That is a massive number. The company is also in talks for a listing in the United States. It is expected that if the listing is successful, BYJU’S valuation will jump from 21 billion dollars to a whopping 48 billion dollars. It is headquartered in Bengaluru.
It is not just India’s topmost startup in terms of valuation but it is also one of the most valued ed-tech platforms in the whole world. BYJU’S has had and still has, a great growing perspective in India but the plans of this ed-tech giant is deviating a bit.
The company is planning to enter the United States and then on to other English speaking international markets. It tends to believe that these countries (like the United States) have a large untapped demand for a merger in the field of education and technology. These are developed countries with an already built strong payment infrastructure and the willingness to pay a fee. The subscription business model of BYJU’S, hopes for better demand and a better future in these outside countries.
It is here to be noted that it is not going to be easy. Conquering the education and technology amalgamation is a herculean task. That too in a foreign land where technology is already developed and flourishing. So, fighting in a market that is already a place of the target for many corporations will be difficult. The expansion is still in talks but the effect it has on India is nothing short of remarkable.
InMobi (Mobile Marketing platform)
Going by the most amount of valuations, InMobi lies second in this list. It is the country’s second most valued startup. It is valued at 12 billion dollars. Inmobi is based out of the most favourite city for startups, is Bengaluru. It is a mobile advertising platform that helps others in optimising the ranks of the advertisements which run primarily on mobile phones.
InMobi has raised a total of $320.6M in funding over seven rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jan 1, 2019, from a Venture-Series Unknown round. InMobi is funded by six investors. Lightbox and Tennenbaum Capital Partners are the most recent investors. InMobi has acquired 10 organisations. Their most recent acquisition was Appsumer on Oct 13, 2021.
InMobi has invested in NestAway on Mar 16, 2015. This investment – Seed Round – NestAway – was valued at $1.2M. InMobi has raised a total of $25M in a single venture fund, InMobi Indie Game Developers. This fund was announced on Jul 24, 2014, and raised a total of $25M. Data is sourced from Crunchbase.
One of the most interesting facts about InMobi is that it is India’s first Unicorn. Yes, it is true. In 2011, the startup was provided with a cheque of 200 million dollars from SoftBank and thus it became the first-ever unicorn startup in India.
The future of this advertisement focussed startup is quite interesting. According to the March 2021 news, the company InMobi is planning for an IPO in the United States at a value of up to 15 billion dollars. After being founded in 2007, and becoming the first-ever unicorn in India, it is seen as a hopeful venture. It is also seen as the torchbearer of the unicorn league that started after this company entered the $1 billion mark of valuation. The company also has a subsidiary named “Glance”, which also turned a unicorn in the pandemic year, 2020. What the future holds for this venture, is yet to be seen, for now, it is expanding as much as possible.
OYO Rooms (Hotels and technology)
Ritesh Agrawal, a 19-year-old college drop-out released the nightmares of a traveller for an affordable place to stay in and then decided to develop an Airbnb inspired online homestay service. Spotting a perfect opportunity in the then unorganised hotel market, which was worth less than $7 billion, he founded OYO Rooms in 2013. 24-year-old Ritesh Agarwal had the solution to a backpacker’s ordeal of unpleasant surprises to horrors of the “budgeted” hotels is a booking app that promises clean, affordable and branded hotels.
OYO is a global travel technology company. The aim of this company is to help people find hotels and staying locations. It also works as a connection between patrons and guests. It was founded by Ritesh Agrawal and the startup is based out of Gurgaon (Now gurugram), Haryana, India. The company now has about 10,000 employees as of now.
The startup is financed through debt and is a privately held company. OYO has been able to raise about 4.5 billion dollars up till now and has made twenty-seven investors interested with their money in the venture. Let us see through the facts and figures that shaped the hotel retail chain OYO, here in the next para we discuss the founding and funding of this startup,
OYO has raised a total of $4.6 billion in funding over 21 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Dec 16, 2021, from a Debt Financing round. OYO has invested in OYO LIFE on Oct 30, 2018. This investment – Funding Round – OYO LIFE – was valued at ¥8.3B. OYO is funded by 27 investors. Microsoft and Värde Partners are the most recent investors. OYO has acquired a total of about 7 organisations. Their most recent acquisition was Danamica on Sep 2, 2019. They acquired Danamica for $10M.
Investments Analysis for the year 2021 (Investments behind valuations)
The Indian startup ecosystem saw a noticeable record on investments this rather unusual year. The startup ecosystem has witnessed an investment of $36 billion in privately held companies this year. This investment trend can be seen making sense as the demand for digitisation has grown many many folds amid the Covid 19 pandemic.
This year, the opus of seed-stage deals dominated nearly 396 deals aggregating to a value of 705 million dollars. Moreover, the number stood at 166 Investments at the “Series A” round of funding, which amounted to about 1.67 billion dollars. This is the data up till the 20th of December. It is to be carefully noted that most of the majority of the investments were in the direction of the IPOs that were listed in the year 2021. It was directed to the pre-initial public offering and nuanced rounds in companies like Zomato, PolicyBazaar, Ola and Paytm. If we count and add the top ten deals or investments, we will get the number 5.58 billion dollars.
In addition to the number of deals of investments, Indian startups also raised more than normal. Normal here refers to the compared rounds of the previous years that were preceding 2021. Startups raised much more than they normally do, this is quite unusual. Which matches the theme of the whole of the unusual year that we faced.
Risk capital funds stepped up the game to take bigger and bigger bets on high growth companies. Interestingly, they put all that risk of investing capital in these companies very early in time. This resulted in companies getting more and more valuations. These higher valuations inflated the worth of these newborn businesses and led the way of doubling and even tripling their value in each successive funding round.
VC Deals in India By Year
The graph above clearly shows the enthusiasm in investment deals this year. We can notice that venture capital deals in India are rising. The number is not even steady, it is mostly a jump. After a little slump in the year 2020, it picked up the pace again like before. Not only the pace and rapidness but the volume and magnitude grew too.
The aggregate value of deals that happened tripled from what it was in the initial year of the pandemic. The second year in pandemic saw an average deal of almost 33 million dollars. Such a jump in average deals proves the point that investors and Venture capital funds are bullish on companies. This year they took more risk in hope of expected future returns.
“Valuations are a reflection of an investor’s exit expectations. 2021 has proven the full venture cycle for India. Some fabulous exits like Zomato, Nykaa, PolicyBazaar and others have increased exit size expectations, and consequently the valuations,” said Alok Goyal, founder and investment partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, an early-stage VC firm.
He also sounded a cautionary note while pointing out that
“markets have a habit of overreacting on both sides – in bull and bear cycles. We are seeing a bull cycle reaction right now and (won’t) be surprised if there is a bearish overcorrection in the future.”
Many companies like Fintech startup, Cred, OfBusiness, Groww, Cars24, Licious, Spinny, InfraMarket, Good Glamm Group and Pristyn Care were among the firms whose valuations grew manifold in the last year.
Number of VC Deals in India in 2021
“Through 2021 we experienced a strong positive shift in the quality of founding teams, depth of markets, unit economics and exit opportunities via public markets. As a result, investors across stages felt comfortable writing larger cheques and taking more risk,” said Vaibhav Agrawal, partner at Lightspeed India, which has backed new unicorns of 2021 like ShareChat and Apna Co.
Seed VC Deals in India by Year
The above graph is the graph showing Seed Venture capital deals in India over the years. The number of capital deals was rising until a halt in 2020, that too got over and the growth continued in 2021. However, if we look at the average deal size, we can clearly see a good amount of growth. The average investment deal we saw was about 2.5 million dollars, which is the highest over the years preceding 2021. With this trend in the average deal size, aggregate deal value also grew to 700 from 400 in the year 2020.
With all this capital at ease and in their bank account, startups have been able to execute their strategies and thus are able to grow more than ever in the past twelve months. Moreover, they are seeking listing not only in our big nation but even in the foreign developed and technology-rich lands.
More and more investments are enabling them to grow both vertically and geographically. Most investors said that sectors that dominated 2021 like web3/ crypto, SaaS, direct-to-consumer or D2C brands and tech, business-to-business (B2B) commerce, edtech and healthcare will continue to attract funding next year as well.
“ Cycles will come and go, but the important takeaway here is that Indian entrepreneurs have access to the equity needed to get closer to their vision of being market leaders,” said Pranav Pai, cofounder, 3one4 Capital, an early-stage venture fund with investments in Licious and Koo.
“They are also taking this opportunity to strengthen balance sheets and prepare for the resilience needed to face a correction when it comes,” he added.
Today, most mature startups have dedicated corporate development teams and an exit by sale is a real option for founders now, according to Kashyap Chanchani, managing partner, The Rainmaker Group, a Mumbai-based investment bank. “Till two years ago a majority of M&As would have been out of distress and lack of options,” he said.
Some time ago, we feared that the covid 19 pandemic will impact and eventually affect the listings this year. We were surprised by startups as if they were ready for the magic trick. Initial public offerings were not in the options for startups this year but 2021 changed that.
This year we witnessed monumental shifts in how technology-led businesses expand at the maximum. Smaller startups like gaming firm Nazara Technologies went public this year but it was food delivery from Zomato’s Rs 9,000-crore IPO that really set the stage for at least half-a-dozen top-league startups seeking an IPO in India.
Country
No. of Unicorns
USA
487 (+254)
China
301 (+74)
India
54 (+33)
UK
39 (+15)
Germany
26 (+16)
France
19 (+12)
Israel
17 (+9)
Canada
15 (+12)
The above list is the list containing “Top countries and cities where the world’s unicorns are based out of”. We can see India is ranked third in this list of countries. It has added 33 new unicorns in this year alone.
City
No. of Unicorns
San Francisco
151(+83)
Beijing
91(-2)
New York
85(+52)
Shangai
71(+24)
Shenzhen
32(+12)
London
31(+15)
Bengaluru
28(+20)
Hangzhou
22(+2)
The top cities where the Unicorns are based are also listed. San Francisco is the top tier city where startups foster growth the most. SF is the home of the startup world, the presence of Silicon Valley makes it a very favourable place to be.
If we move down on the list and see the number 7, it is Bengaluru, the startup hub of India. Later in the list, we can also see Gurugram and Mumbai. All these cities because of their business environment and with the help of the government have turned out to be a growth nest for new-age startups.
Industry
No.of Unicorns
% of Total Value
FinTech
139
19.5%
SaaS
134
10.4%
E-commerce
122
8.4%
AI
84
6.0%
HealthTech
80
4.7%
Cyber Security
40
2.5%
The above list is an excerpt that we are linking to our blog. We can see that FinTech (Finance and technology) has incorporated the most number of unicorns. Not to mention that technology has occupied a huge part of our daily life amid the pandemic. This can be safely assumed as the reason why technology has grown at this pace.
During the pandemic, people began questioning a lot of things like their finances and the security that they get from money and the likes. Thus, these questions and the revelation of the fact that life is fragile led to the growth in people investing their money into stocks. We can safely say that people began thinking long term because of the pandemic. The second and third rank is held by SAAS (Software as a service) and E-commerce startups, which too is crucial to normal life in the pandemic.
Unicorns Founded by Indians (Abroad)
We read about the data about startups that went on to become unicorns in Indian borders or boundaries, but Indians won’t stop here. There are some startups that are helmed by Indians that went unicorns outside of the Indian borders.
Indians now can be seen running about 119 unicorns in India and around the world. This cumulative number contains 54 unicorns that are in India and 65 outside Indian borders. Let us talk about a few unicorns that are either founded by Indians or who have at least one co-founder who is an Indian.
Instacart – Instacart is an on-demand delivery startup based in the United States.
Clip – Clip is a finance technology (Fintech) company based out of Mexico. It is founded by an Indian,
Improbable – gaming company based out of the United Kingdom.
Moglix – E-commerce platform based out of Singapore.
Determining Valuations
When we think about valuations, we might think about some graphs and numbers and more data and more numbers. Well, you are right, it is number crunching and data drives but there is one more aspect to it, the story behind the data. And oftentimes the story enjoys more space than numbers. There are three things that need to be kept in mind,
Valuation is simple, we choose to make it complex.
Every valuation has a narrative behind it. A good valuation is more about the story than about the numbers. When valuations go bad, it’s not because of the numbers, it’s because of biases, uncertainty and complexity.
When valuations go bad, it’s not because of the numbers, it’s because of biases, uncertainty and complexity
Why we are seeing a surge in Unicorns (What explains India’s Unicorn boom ?)
It was a wonderful year for the Indian startup ecosystem. It is really interesting to see that in an unusual year like 2021, startups were able to get impressive valuations. Not only impressive valuations but they were able to become unicorns with a worth of over a billion dollars. This requires an explanation. Let us see how these new businesses with literally no past record of profit-making are even able to hold great valuations. Let us see the most expected view that the experts are saying.
Technology Sector Uprising
Before the pandemic started in the year 2020, India was a developing nation (still is). India was adapting to the major shifts in the sector of technology and slowly but surely was on the path of making the new behaviour (of using technology on a regular and normal basis) a reality.
At that time, there was a chief technological officer in almost every Indian household, who was under the age of 20 and above 12. That person was the chief in the technology sector of the house. He/She was the person if the other members of the home (who are not that tech-savvy) wanted any sort of help in that domain.
As the pandemic hit, everything came to a standstill and our dependence on technology grew manifolds. This growth made the public procure more and more technology in houses all over the country.
The CTO of the house also became the chief procurement officer for the household. As the reliance on technology became broader and broader, people became more used to it. We are seeing a massive change in consumer behaviour, and we don’t think that the change is irreversible.
Now, it has been about two full years in the pandemic and the need for technology has not slowed. It has risen and only risen in the past year. This rise in the usage of technology has made possible such growth trends in this unusual year.
Each and every business, or startup has become a technology business, without them realising this thing. Today even before anything, they want to work on the technology behind the company, because they know that it will be the face of the company in the future. The future is already here.
Cheaper Accessibility to technology
The lockdown and the fact that people spent most of their time at home has led to more technology boost. We have used technology for quite everything except a few things. Phones and laptops were seen as the most important technological devices in a household. We attended virtual meetings, went on to more virtual meets, dated on our phones and ordered food from our mobiles.
This dependence has led to a huge demand for not only the technology sector but the wearable sector as well. The cheaper accessibility of smartphones and the wide range of tech devices has also led to a boost in this technology race. This race has opened the door for a fully digital economy that India will become in the upcoming years. This boost in technology has enabled a new playground for startups and thus, we see huge and handsome valuations and of course “Unicorns”
Thriving Payments ecosystem
Led by Paytm and Google pay, India is paying digitally. We are using net banking, Unified payments interface or UPI, credit cards, debit cards and all sorts of things to make our payments easy and convenient. This has led to startups expanding their respective user bases. This has also led to the digital and cashless and paperless economy that the government of India supports.
A thriving payments infrastructure also has led to growth in the valuations of startups. The reason is the fact that as paying someone becomes easy and it alters the behaviour of people transacting something, it boosts it.
A good and smooth payment gateway also lubricates the payments made to a business. This lubrication has penetrated every business in this tech-savvy India and led to more and more payments. As paying becomes easier and business transactions become more and more accessible, startups are able to maintain a healthy user base and even they are able to increase their user base in the previous year.
This increase in user base and the loyalty customers show startups are able to generate some income that proves the point of investing in them. Thus, they get more and more money from investors and Venture capitalists as they are able to see and witness a good and healthy user base.
Digital-first approach
Every business, be it a newborn startup or a 100 year old national or a multinational company, eerie business is operating with a target of a “Digital-first approach”. Going by this approach, the businesses are starting to maintain and take their online business very seriously and make their digital hand the strongest among all. This will not only help in maintaining that already established user base but it will also help them to establish themselves as a brand in this technology world.
Moreover, it is online and in the digital space than in the offline space that people discover new businesses to get their work done. Thus, digital businesses are also good at generating new customers from zero. This has also helped startups to establish themselves as a trustworthy investment for both venture capitalists and potential customers.
IPOs of startups
This year we all have witnessed that startups that are relatively young than that of established brands went ahead and listed themselves. They had, what we call an Initial public offering in financial terms. IPOs of Zomato and Paytm proved the might of these young startups.
Venture capitalists used to invest in tech companies. The reason behind that is that software is easy to scale, In fact, the software is the most scalable thing in the whole world. Softwares and digital assets can give you returns as much as 10X a year in some cases.
Now, as we all know that pandemic accelerated that trend of dependence on software and led to our more use of technology on a daily basis. When everything came to a halt, like restaurants, retail businesses and theatres and other businesses, the only sector that shined through that rough phrase was the technology sector. This is why capitalists and investors invested their money in tech businesses because it is the hottest available option of investment right now and possibly in the future as well.
Future Predictions of Indian Startup Ecosystem
The future is going to be interesting at this pace. We don’t know when this cycle of great valuation will stop and it is hard to tell. The pandemic taught everyone that technology is the sector that is the best for investments. The best way and most efficient way to invest in technology is through the hands of venture capitalists. This is the trend that we saw recently in the pandemic years. We can safely and surely say that technology is going to be something that will drive growth in the future.
If we talk about the future predictions, then boss, it is on the positive side of the slope. As things get normal, people will resume working on their laptops and smartphones. This pandemic altered the behaviour of people from all over India, also the whole of the world saw a change in behaviour.
Some are saying that these valuations are just vanity metrics and some are promoting the fact that Indians will run the world and tech is the next big thing (already is). Some are even thinking of a correction in the market that the market will correct itself in the future time to come. Some are also saying that it is a unicorn bubble. What is a unicorn bubble? let us find out,
A unicorn company is one that is valued at, or above, $1 billion US dollars. A unicorn bubble is a theoretical economic bubble that would occur when unicorn startup companies are overvalued by venture capitalists or investors. This can either occur during the private phase of these unicorn companies or in an initial public offering. This is what we call a unicorn bubble.
The term is as weird and mythical as the term ‘Unicorn’ itself, but in this uncertain and unusual world, we are now probably ready for each and every ‘weird’ and mythical thing that crosses our path. Let us then witness the future with our own eyes.
Conclusion
This year, the volume of seed-stage deals dominated with nearly 396 deals aggregating to $705.86 million while about 166 investments series A amounted to about $1.67 billion, this data is until December 20. India is now the third most destination in terms of startups produced per year. We produced 33 this year. That is the highest of many countries.
We did even better than the United States and other developed countries in this category. India is growing insanely when it comes to the startup world. There are so many unicorns in India these days. The reasons we discussed already in the blog above. We have been betting on technology for two years now. It is the foreseeable future as far as we can see, the pandemic only accelerated it. We are seeing a massive change in consumer behaviour, and we don’t think that the change is irreversible.
All these things happened in 2021, and now the year is ending. What you want to take with you depends heavily on you. As we come to the end of the year, it’s time to reflect back and set the tone for the new year. It is that time of the year when we get ready to start something again and try again, and/or continue doing successful ventures in the future.
The startups in India made us proud and had shown us a ray of hope in a rather dull year. We all hope that this ray of hope broadens in the new year as explorers from all over the world continue to make our world better equipped for the future.
FAQ
How many unicorns are starting in India in 2021?
India added over 33 unicorns in 2021 which takes the total count to 54.
Which industry added the most unicorns in 2021?
The fintech sector added the most unicorns in 2021 with 139 unicorns.
In the year of 2020, online fantasy gaming has gained a strong foothold within the Indian entertainment Industry. Our country now has a projector user base of 628 million gamer’s which gives boost to the gaming ecosystem within the Indian economy. This ecosystem contains of a variety of gamers of all ages, game designers, developers, investors and marketers all working together to come up with the latest cutting edge games. All this has made India to be the top contender among the top gaming markets amongst the emerging global economies. At present there 400 gaming startups in India with whooping number of 500 million smartphone users.
According to a report released by boutique investment bank Maple Capital Advisors the online gaming industry in India is growing at a rate of CAGR of 22%.
The reports also claim that the Industry is expected to grow 41% yearly due to the growth of digital infrastructure and rise in the quality of gaming content.
The gaming Industry is set to be valued at $3, 750 million by the end of 2024.
India’s online gaming industry has already attracted $350 million in investments from venture capital firms between the years 2014 to 2020.
The report highlights that the three key segments of online gaming are Real Money Games (RMG), Mobile centric or casual games and E- sports such as Counter strike, DOTA 2.
The E-sports federation of India reports that 264 million Indian gamers and the competition prize money is increasing annually.
When it comes to online fantasy sports gaming it gained a lot of popularity in India as another genre of online gaming, where sports fans can create their own team out of the real life players from the upcoming matches with specific conditions and environments. The fantasy sports gaming in the Indian market is expected to reach over $5 billion in the Equity Investors. Cricket by far is the most popular as 85% of users engage in this sport, while the other sports that Indians venture into are football, basketball and kabbadi. Online game companies have risen up to 275 in 2019 which is a huge increase considering there were only 25 startup companies in 2010.
Facts on Online Sports Gaming
Because of this new booming industry many job opportunities have opened up in a non-conventional sectors such as tech oriented careers and game development which king of new in India. From just a handful of companies until few years ago, there are an estimated 60 fantasy sports platforms in India at present. India also recently got its first Gaming Unicorn called Dream11 is known to be changing ways in the gaming Industry. Let us learn on how exactly the company is doing that.
Dream11
Dream11 is a Mumbai based fantasy game startup which was founded in 2012 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth is now backed by Tencent making its value $1.1 billion after its successful fundraiser from Steadview Capital. According to a report by the Indian federation of Sports gaming, Dream11 is currently occupies 90 percent of the domestic fantasy sports market. Dream11 has an overall user base of 51 million with about 15% of them being the paid players.
The CEO of the company, Harsh Jain says that the times are changing in the fantasy gaming industry as the competition is increasing and so is the higher cash rewards at stake. The company became a trend because of cricket game which coincided with the India Premium League in 2008 and became its sports partner until 2022. Now the company offers an array of sports such as Football, Carom, Pool, Kabbadi, Basketball, Badminton and Hockey for the gamer’s to pick from. With the advent of 4G mobile services provided by Reliance Jio, fantasy gaming has become popular along with services in India.
IFSG says that two out of three sports fans in India are aware of fantasy gaming today and an estimated 100 million more will join by downloading any of these platforms or their fantasy apps by 2020.The reason to the success of Dream11 is because it allows its users to create its own imaginary teams and earn cash based on selected players actual match performance. Every move made by the gamers gets them cash rewards, while the company also pockets 15 to 20 percent of the winnings. This Mumbai based startup is looking to double its user base to 100 million by 2020.
The logos of Dream11 and Mobile Premium League (MPL)
Mobile Premium League (MPL)
Mobile Premium League is a Bengaluru based startup and is the fastest growing fantasy sports platform which has also achieved #1 app in the casual section of the Google Play store India. MPL was founded in 2018 by Srinivas Kiran Garimella and Shubham Malhotra who are also the founders of Creo which was brought over by Hike in 2017. Mobile Premium League is funded by Sequoia making it the latest startup in India fantasy sports market.
The company is growing at the speed of light as it now has 10 million users in 7 to 8 months. The app based platform allows fans to compete in skill based sports and win the real rewards. Indian team captain Virat Kohli is its brand ambassador with a deal reportedly at Rs 12 crore. It is rumored that Indonesia Go-jek is looking to invest $30 million in MPL.
Fantasy Gaming Startups During a Global Pandemic
Due to the nationwide lock down, people who are staying at home are turning to gaming platforms to kill their boredom. These platforms are provided by these startup gaming companies in order to attract hundreds and thousands of new visitors in online traffic. Many land-based casinos have switched to online platforms and discounts and bundle offers are being promoted online by gaming companies and online gaming stores to encourage people to play video games.
According to Ranjana Adhikari the co-head of media, entertainment & gaming at Nishith Desai Associates, “We also saw a 24% increase in traffic for online gaming between February and March. India is a developing nation, but during lock down it has seen an acceleration of people moving to online in general and getting used to it. While wider regulation might still be a way off, the pandemic might have accelerated this process.’’
In view of these new trends the importance for self-regulation within this Industry cannot be emphasized enough especially when it comes to responsible gaming which is still a new concept in India than compared to other countries like US. Further regulation would help with pushing gaming companies to talk about gaming responsibly via information on identifying gaming addiction and how to manage it, implementing self-checks, timeouts and even limits upon their accounts.
A fantasy sport is a type of game, often played using the Internet, where participants assemble imaginary or virtual teams composed of proxies of real players of a professional sport.
How much does it cost to start a gaming company?
From initial incorporation ($500, excluding lawyer costs) to equipment ($3,120 per person, including $800 per PC) and salaries (roughly $3,250 per person), running a relatively small studio is a cash-drain, even before you throw in legal and accounting fees, advertising, and the cost of attending conferences.
