List of Unicorn Startups in India

With 100 Unicorn Startups by 2022, India will have the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem. In today’s environment, unicorn firms are not as rare as they once were; yet, developing a unicorn startup is difficult. To climb the unicorn ladder, requires a lot of hard work, devotion, and tenacity throughout the startup’s journey, and the ones that have done so are detailed in this article.

The phrase “Unicorn Startup” is made up of two words: “Unicorn” and “Startup.” A unicorn is a business phrase that refers to a startup with a valuation of more than $1 billion. Aileen Lee, a venture capitalist and seed investor, originated the phrase. Startups, on the other hand, are privately owned businesses that are often in their early phases of development.

The country has been named the third-best country for hosting unicorn enterprises in 2021. With 33 Indian firms reaching the unicorn club, India has ousted the United Kingdom from third place, which had just 15 unicorns in the same year. The leading countries gained 254 unicorns in 2021, while China saw 74 unicorns, bringing their total to 487 and 301 firms with above $1 billion valuations, respectively.

In 2021, Indian entrepreneurs are expected to raise over $42 billion in investment across 1,584 transactions. The Indian startup ecosystem, in which over 60,000 new firms have been founded across 56 different industries since 2016, has also managed to produce over 6 lakh job possibilities in the country. This was even mentioned by President Ram Nath Kovind in his Presidential speech on January 31, 2022, when he stressed the new prospects that India’s entrepreneurs are ushering in.

FLIPKART

With Flipkart’s Big Billion Days being one of the most anticipated online events for millions of Indians, it’s no surprise that Flipkart is the most popular e-commerce site in the country. Flipkart, the second Indian unicorn after InMobi, was among the first to reach unicorn valuation in 2011-2012. Flipkart is the most popular shopping site among Indians, with over 150 million goods in 80+ categories.

• Startup Name – Flipkart
• Headquarters – Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
• Industry – E-commerce, Marketplace
• Founders – Binny Bansal, Sachin Bansal
• Founded – 2007
• Investors – Walmart, Tencent, Softbank and more
• Products and Services – E-commerce marketplace that offers over 150 million products
• Valuation – $37.6 Billion (July 2021)

In 2018, Walmart paid a whopping $16 billion for the e-commerce behemoth, allowing it to rapidly grow. Amazon, established by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, is the most valuable business in India as of 2022, with a valuation of more than $37.6 billion.

BYJU’S

Byju’s platform is run by an edtech business situated in Bangalore. It began offering online tuition and coaching services in 2011 and operates on a freemium basis. Byju’s is used by over 15 million students globally, including over 900,000 paying customers. Byju Raveendran established it. Byju is currently valued at $16.5 billion. Learn about BYJU’s income and business models.

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

BHARAT PE

BharatPe, an Indian payment app, merchant aggregator, and payments provider, encourages digital payments via QR and POS. Resilient Innovations Private Limited is a for-profit enterprise, not a government body. In 2021, the company’s worth quadrupled to $2.85 billion, and it became a member of the unicorn club located in New Delhi, India. Ashneer Grover, a co-founder of BharatPe, was recently accused of harassing a Kotak employee over the phone. Grayder was also notably featured on various social media sites and news outlets as a result of his reckless behaviour and outspoken words.

“Naukri dhoond,” he remarked to one of the other pitchers. According to sources dated January 29, 2022, he was recently accused in a financial scam involving BharatPe, Madhuri, and five others, which is still under investigation. According to the corporation and its board of directors, Ashneer is presently on leave. Greer’s job may not be returned, according to people close to the situation, and he is likely to be sacked.

• Startup Name – Bharatpe
• Headquarters – New Delhi, India
• Industry – Payments platform, Fintech, Financial Services
• Founders – Ashneer Grover, Bhavik Koladiya, Shashvat Nakran
• Founded – 2018
• Investors – Steadfast Capital, Coatue, Dragoneer, Sequoia
• Products and Services – Payments App
• Valuation – $2.85 Billion

PAYTM

Paytm is the largest among India’s unicorn firms. According to statistics obtained in June 2021, it contributes to around 11.63 per cent of India’s digital payment market share and is the third most popular UPI service in India. The startup’s key selling point is its payment gateway service, which allows customers to make smooth payments to merchants straight from their bank accounts. Paytm was admitted into the unicorn club in 2015. The firm was valued at more than $7 billion in 2017, and it will now be valued at more than $16 billion by 2020. The firm was valued at more than $7 billion in 2017, and it will now be valued at more than $16 billion by 2021.

• Startup Name – Paytm
• Headquarters – Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
• Industry – E-commerce Finance
• Founder – Vijay Shekhar Sharma
• Founded – August 2010
• Investors – Alibaba, Ant Group, AGH Holdings, SAIF Partners, T Rowe Price, Discovery Capital, and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway
• Products and Services – Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments Bank, Paytm Money, Gamepind, Paytm Smart Retail, Payment system, Mobile payments, Online shopping
• Valuation – $16 billion (June 2021)

LEAD

LEAD, situated in Mumbai, was the first edtech business to join the Indian unicorn club in 2022. In January, the business secured $100 million in a round led by WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures, valuing it at $1.1 billion. This was the company’s fifth investment round, with the final one scheduled for April 2021. Over the course of five rounds of investment, LEAD School has raised a total of $166 million. In 2021, edtech startups received more than $4.7 billion, making them the third-most financed Indian startup industry, after only eCommerce ($10.7 billion) and fintech ($8 billion).

Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah created LEAD, an edtech business, in 2012. The organisation allows schools to integrate technology, curriculum, and pedagogy into a unified teaching and learning system. After BYJU, Unacademy, Eruditas, UpGrad, and Vedantu, it is the country’s sixth edtech unicorn. LEAD claims to have over 5,000 schools from 500 Indian cities on board, serving over 2 million children.

DARWINBOX

Darwinbox, based in Hyderabad, earned $72 million in a fundraising round headed by Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) in January of this year, making it the third Indian unicorn minted in 2022. Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Endiya Partners, 3one4Capital, JGDEV, and SCB 10X were among the existing investors that took part in the round.

In January of last year, it secured $15 million in fundraising led by Salesforce Ventures. It had previously secured $15 million from Sequoia Capital in 2019 and $4 million in a Series A round in 2017. It has raised a total of $107 million in investment over seven rounds.

Darwinbox, a cloud-based HRtech firm founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti, and Rohit Chennamaneni, enables organisations to automate the whole employee lifecycle in a single HR platform. It meets firms’ HR needs in areas like recruiting, onboarding, core transactions (leaves, attendance, directory), payroll, travel, and people analytics.

Tokopedia, Indorama, Zilingo, Fave, Adani, Mahindra, Kotak, TVS, National Stock Exchange, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Swiggy, Bigbasket, and others are among the 500 organisations and significant IT firms that the company claims to have as clients in India and Southeast Asia. In 2020, the worldwide HRtech market was estimated to be worth $22.89 billion. It is expected to expand at a 5.8 per cent CAGR from $24.04 billion in 2021 to $35.68 billion in 2028. According to projections, India will account for $3.6 billion in that industry by 2021.

DEALSHARE

The Indian social commerce market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55 per cent to -60 per cent by 2025, reaching $16 billion to $20 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV). Meesho’s admission to the unicorn club was the segment’s most significant achievement last year.

Dealshare joined the unicorn club in 2022, with a $1.62 billion valuation. In a Series E fundraising round, the Bengaluru-based social commerce business raised $165 million. Existing investors Tiger Global and Alpha Wave Incubation joined the round, as did new investors Kora Investment, DF International Partners, and Twenty Nine Capital Partners.

DealShare has raised around $330 million to date with the latest round. Since its previous financing in July 2021, the startup’s valuation has more than quadrupled. The startup’s gross revenue has more than doubled in the previous year, with an ARR of $750 million for FY22.

DealShare is a social e-commerce platform founded in September 2018 by Vineet Rao, Sourjyendu Medda, Sankar Bora, and Rajat Shikhar. It enables first-time internet users to purchase online, with a focus on the middle class. The firm offers food and home essentials via social media and messaging networks such as WhatsApp.

It employs two strategies to reduce the cost of necessary products for the mass market segment: directly procuring household items from lesser-known companies and selling products through community sales.

ELASTIC RUN

ElasticRun, located in Pune, was the first firm to join the unicorn club in February. The Kirana commerce firm has secured $300 million in a new round of investment backed by SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son. It also included New York-based Goldman Sachs, Prosus Ventures (formerly known as Naspers Ventures), Innoven Capital, and Abu Dhabi’s Chimera Investment, a subsidiary of the Royal Group of Abu Dhabi.

According to Inc42, ElasticRun was valued at roughly $1.5 billion in the Series E investment. The latest investment comes nearly a year after it secured $75 million in a Series D capital round headed by Avataar Venture Partners. Prosus Ventures and Kalaari Capital, among others, participated in the financing. The startup was valued at roughly $400 million in the financing.