Top10 Indian Startups In India 2022
COVID-19, the global virus that swept the planet, sparked a rollercoaster of highs and lows in 2013. Many great Indian businesspeople have leaped into the fray and put their concepts to the ultimate test.
While some have failed, others have exceeded all of their goals. Having access to low-cost trained labor and funding from domestic and foreign investors, India is an excellent place for entrepreneurs to thrive. Financial Express’s financing for startups is expected to hit a record high in 2021.
Investments by pension funds and insurance companies are becoming more common among online startups and significant venture capital organizations. In the initial three months of 2021, Indian entrepreneurs received $4.4 billion in investment, a 26% increase over the same period last year.
Fintech and Financial Services companies have reaped the most significant benefits in terms of investment deals, followed by retail and e-commerce enterprises and educational technology companies. Thus, despite India’s pandemic COVID-19-induced turbulence, the corporations have maintained their attitude.
As Walmart and Flipkart (which owns Myntra and PhonePe) are two of India’s most significant deals, it is not strange to see that India is growing as a hotspot for the most innovative companies. A few high-valued Indian companies doing well in the foreign market are One 97 Communications (PayTM), Dream 11, Swiggy, Ola taxis, and Razorpay.
Startup unicorns, such as those in health tech, social commerce, finance, and other related industries, are rising in the United States. Businesses with a market capitalization of more than $1 billion are known as unicorns in the corporate world. More than 600 unicorns are estimated to exist globally as of April 2021.
By 2021, Inc42 predicts that India will be home to ten unicorn companies, the first of which will be formed in Bangalore. Some of the most intriguing startups in India have been highlighted in this article. Many years later, these companies have done well enough to keep going, so they want to grow even more.
India’s top ten startups are listed below.
1. CREDIBILITY
CRED, which got established in 2018, is a platform that allows you to pay your credit card bills while also earning rewards. To encourage customers to utilize the CRED app to pay their bills, the platform has developed a new model in which they receive “CRED coins.”
Once accumulated, these coins can be exchanged for any product, entry into a sweepstake, or participation in an educational workshop of your choice. It is headquartered in Bangalore and offers various services to customers, including credit and a premium inventory of products to choose from. The firm’s founders believe that consumers will be more likely to modify their financial behavior by providing incentives.
According to TechCrunch, CRED is the most valuable Indian company, with over $2.2 billion market capitalization. This two-year-old firm has more than 6 million customers and accounts for around 22 percent of all credit cardholders in the United States. According to Kunal Shah, one of the country’s most talked-about businesses, the company’s founder and CEO focuses on affluent clients.
Only a few companies focus solely on the high-end market and achieve consistent growth over time. According to the business, CRED also plans to create a feature that will allow CRED currencies to be used in over a thousand stores. In addition, the company hopes to build an eCommerce site and do much more than only giving customers reward coins shortly.
2. Vernacular.ai is a vector illustration of a language.
To become the leading speech automation and artificial intelligence platform globally, this SaaS startup prioritizes AI development. Other businesses served by the corporation include banking food and beverage distribution and hotels, and their services require minimal human intervention, which can handle complex service issues. In 2020, the company, founded in 2016, will have raised $5.1 million in capital.
According to the Economic Times, Vernacular.ai is planning to hire 100 new employees by 2021, which will help them to improve their leadership team.
Even though there have been layoffs and wage cuts in the previous year, Vernacular.ai has increased its personnel fourfold. The organization is on its path to becoming the most appealing Voice AI platform globally, thanks to the multifaceted knowledge of its staff.
Most recently, the company announced the appointments of Gangadhar Kodandaram (a former Microsoft employee) as Chief Revenue Officer and Ankit Jain as Vice President of Product Management (Alumnus from Amazon). Vernacular.ai will undoubtedly reach new heights due to their expertise and intellect.
Because voice and automation are two popular technologies predicted to increase significantly, Vernacular.ai is also expected to expand its activities shortly.
PharmEasy is a third option
A leading online pharmacy and medical store in India, PharmEasy is a leading provider of over-the-counter (OTC) items and diagnostic tests and medical devices.
When a group of young entrepreneurs launched the company in 2015 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, it experienced tremendous development. It is an online pharmacy that carries every product that you might find in a traditional medical store.
Since the starting of the COVID-19 epidemic, the company has grown into an essential service that has expanded. 1mg and Netmeds are the companies that compete with PharmEasy in India.
After raising a staggering $350 million, this health-tech business has become the first Epharmacy unicorn in India and third globally. The funding has been extended due to the merger between PharmEasy and its competitor Medlife.
With the acquisition of Medlife, PharmEasy has acquired 100 percent ownership in the company, with the latter receiving a 19.95 percent stake in the combined organization. They have joined forces and united to compete against new entrants into the Indian pharmacy market, such as Netmeds (Reliance Jio), Flipkart, and Amazon Pharmacy.
Interestingly, the same investors in PharmEasy have also invested in other firms such as Swiggy and Byju’s. According to their plans, the founders Dharmil Sheth and Dr. Dhaval Shah’s goal is to reach more than 100,000 pharmacies in the next 12 months in India’s new geographical regions.
4. Digit Insurance is a type of insurance based on digital data
Digit Insurance is an insurance company that works to make insurance products easier to understand for everyone, intending to change people’s attitudes toward insurance products. The company was created in 2016 and has recently entered the Unicorn club by raising $18 million in fundraising.
It was founded in 2016 and has recently joined the Unicorn club by raising $18 million in funding. Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma, the Indian celebrity couple, have invested $340K of their own money in the firm, which intends to grow its first round of capital by 2020.
The company has raised around $200 in total capital and claims to have experienced a 31.9 percent increase in revenue between March 2020 and December 2020. The reason for this is that more than 20 lakh people from the Indian population have purchased illness insurance against COVID-19 and other diseases such as malaria, chikungunya, dengue, and other similar illnesses.
Digital is a Bangalore-based firm that expects to break even in 2020 due to its decreased operational costs and superior business metrics. The company’s chairman, Kamesh Goyal, acknowledged that the company could grow its business by 30% in 2020, even though the whole insurance market was ailing at the time.
Digit has received numerous accolades, including “Hottest Startups in India 2019,” “Asia’s Best General Insurance Company of the Year 2019,” “Fintech 250 List,” and other distinctions. Kamesh Goyal has also stated that the funds received will be used to expand the company’s operations and technological capabilities.
Meesho (number 5)
As a reseller platform, Meesho, founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi graduates, can become a vital e-commerce distribution channel, allowing homepreneurs to sell their products via social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook. The company has a market capitalization of $2.1 billion after raising $300 million in investment.
Small businesses can now operate on the internet thanks to the Meesho ecosystem. This platform has received $490 million in funding from investors such as Facebook. In addition to connecting vendors and customers, Meesho also provides sellers with logistics, order management, and payment processing services.
More than 13 million entrepreneurs in Indian cities are connected to it, working in various industries, including food, home and kitchen equipment, clothes, and more. It’s expected that social commerce in India would grow at a rate of 55% to 60% over the next few years, which means Meesho has a lot of room to grow.
Investors are lining up to back firms like GlowRoad, DealShare, and CityMall, who all compete for the same user base. Deal share raised a total of $21 million in December 2020, following the company’s inception in 2018.
Meesho claims to have completed deliveries from more than 100,000 registered suppliers, generating more than 500 crore rupees, or $68 million in revenue for the homepreneurs.
Groww (Growth)
The Groww investment platform allows its consumers to invest in equities, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, initial public offerings (IPOs), and more. The platform is compatible with mobile applications as well as the web.
It was created in 2016 by four former Flipkart workers who realized how tough it was to invest in India and decided to do something about it. Groww was born due to this realization, and it currently has more than 15 million members registered worldwide.
According to Groww, smaller Indian cities own more than 60% of their stock, even though they had never invested in the company before. Groww, according to one of the company’s founders, Lalit Keshre, is used throughout India, not just in major cities.
The users, primarily from the working class and young, are dispersed across all of the nation’s major cities and are looking to invest their hard-earned money.
In 2021, the company raised $83 million in funding and became a Unicorn club member. Groww is looking forward to utilizing this sum to develop new products, hire additional employees, and develop educational platforms for investors and other stakeholders.
Groww is also included in CB Insights’ list of the world’s most promising companies, with 250 of the world’s most profitable firms. Groww competes with platforms like Zerodha and PayTm Money, which are extremely popular among young people investing. Groww educates millennials on how to make sensible financial decisions with their money.
Nykaa is number seven on the list
Nykaa has grown from an online beauty store to a fashion e-commerce site since its inception in 2012. Customers can purchase affordable wellness and beauty goods.
This company raised $25 million in March 2020 and is now worth $1.2 billion, a significant achievement. Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt, both well-known Bollywood actresses, are among the company’s investors.
Falguni Nayar, the platform’s founder, and a former investment banker, aim to create a platform with hundreds of product options. The company has around 55 retail locations in its current incarnation and fulfills roughly 1.5 million orders every month.
According to its website, Nykaa has over 5 million monthly active users and does business with over 500 brands through its online and physical storefronts. Nykaa Fashion, a new venture of the company that sells clothing and accessories, has recently opened its doors.
Nykd, the company’s intimate apparel private label, debuted this year. The Indian online beauty market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9%, according to a RedSeer Consulting survey.
Nykaa plans to extend its activities and expand even more in India. The company intends to raise roughly $3.5 billion from the general public in an initial public offering (IPO) in 2022.
Udaan is the eighth member of the Udaan family
In 2016, a technology-based firm that delivers business-to-business e-commerce solutions was established. Amod Malviya and Sujeet Kumar founded the company with the help of former executives from Flipkart.
The company has grown to have a network of more than 3 million members spread across 900 cities, and it aids in the connection of more than 25000 sellers around India. Thousands of brands have signed on with the company, including Boat Lifestyle, PepsiCo, LG, ITC, and many other notable names.
The company has achieved the unicorn title in 2018 and the lowest amount of time possible. Udaan has just raised $280 million from both existing and new investors, bringing the total amount raised to $380 million. Today, the firm has raised a total of $1.15 billion in funding and has a market capitalization of more than $3.1 billion.
COVID-19 has accelerated the expansion of the digital-led evolution of the unorganized Indian trade retail industry, according to Udaan’s co-founder, who is also the company’s CEO. This presents a chance for Udaan to maintain its position as the country’s premier e-commerce platform.
According to Entracker, Udaan is attempting to break into B2C markets using Pickily’s new app. The FMCG products are available in various locations throughout Bangalore utilizing the app, which is now available on the Google Play Store. Due to this cooperation, the company will compete with companies in the same segment as Big Basket, Swiggy Stores, Flipkart, and others.
9. DREAM 11
DREAM 11 is an Indian online fantasy sports platform founded in 2008 and now has over ten crore users. Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, two young cofounders, founded the company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Just days before the commencement of the Indian Premier League in 2021, DREAM 11 has raised $400 million.
TCV is one of the investors, alongside Airbnb and Netflix, and has previously backed industry titans such as Tumblr. DREAM 11 is India’s first unicorn startup and the country’s first unicorn firm, with a valuation of $5 billion. The company’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) has been 230 percent over the last three years.
Dream 11, India’s first and most popular fantasy game platform, has attracted many young people who are passionate about video games. It took the company three years to reach the one million user mark, and it only took less than two months to get the three million mark.
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in India, the firm had about 75 million users, and it now has over 100 million. According to Deloitte, the popularity of fantasy sports has risen by roughly 200 percent in India in recent years, fueling the company’s growth.
Swiggy is the nation’s tenth most popular app
Everyone is familiar with the moniker Swiggy. Consider this scenario: you’re at work on a Monday, and you’re craving cheesecake after lunch. Thanks to Swiggy, it’s never been easier to meet your demands while sitting at home.
Swiggy, India’s largest meal delivery service, is present in 27 cities and has partnered with over 40,000 restaurants, making it the world’s largest. The Bangalore headquarters recently raised $800 million in investment, boosting the company’s overall market worth to around $5 billion.
Swiggy’s target market has grown to 50 million people in the last year, presenting the company with a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Meal delivery services were first offered in 2014, when Zomato was already well-established in the market, with only five delivery boys and 25 restaurant partners.
However, in less than four years, the company has risen to the status of unicorn startup, posing a severe challenge to Zomato. The company’s success is founded on the excellent customer experience value chain.
Unlike other companies, the company has always put the requirements of its clients first. Swiggy thrived by separating itself from the competition when other meal delivery firms, such as TinyOwl and FoodPanda, struggled. As a result, it has become one of the country’s most successful startups.
This list could go on and on because India has a plethora of startups that excel in their respective industries. Flipkart, Big Basket, Ola cabs, InMobi, FirstCry, and CureFit are a few examples of well-known brands. Millions of new clients, India’s rising international presence, and education contribute to establishing these firms and are a new force in the global economy.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
