Unicorn Club: How Indian start-ups are making their mark

The Unicorn Club is a group of new-age start-ups with a valuation above a billion-dollar. Any new start-up that emerges in the ecosystem aspires that one day it will reach this exclusive club. But not everybody is welcome. The term was first coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, choosing the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of such successful ventures.

According to the latest data, there are about 250 start-ups globally who have achieved this milestone. Out of these start-ups, only a handful of Indian start-ups have made big to this club.

Here is a list of a few Indian start-ups who made their way to this prestigious club.

1.) PayTM ($18bn)

Founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010, PayTM is an e-commerce payment system. The company is based out of Noida with more than 1000 employees. The company is backed by SoftBank, Alibaba Group and AntFinancial. PayTM has emerged as a leading payment gateway in India from just being a website to pay your DTH bills. With the launch of its payment wallet in 2013, PayTM created an entirely new space in people’s lives. It got a major boost in 2016 after the demonetization of old currency notes by the government.

2.)OYO ($10bn)

Founded by 26-year old Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, OYO has become the world’s third-largest hotel chain in record time. Currently, the company has its footprint in 80 countries worldwide. Based in Gurgaon, the company has more than 10000 employees in its workforce associated with different branches of the company. From providing uniform budget hotels to tapping into the vacation homes market, OYO has gathered a huge customer base for itself. The company is backed by SoftBank, Sequoia Capital India, and Airbnb. With this company, Ritesh Agarwal has become the poster-boy of the Indian start-up ecosystem.

3.) Ola Cabs ($9bn)

Founded in 2010 by two IIT graduates Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola is the country’s first cab aggregator. With a simple business model of connecting users to cab drivers directly via an app, the start-up has managed to ease up people’s daily commute. Based in Bangalore, the company has a presence in more than 169 cities globally with 15lakh driver-partners, directly competing with Uber in many markets. Backed by SoftBank, the company has even acquired its Indian rival TaxiForSure in 2015. In an attempt to compete with Uber’s food delivery business UberEats in India, the start-up also acquired FoodPanda.

4.) Byju’s ($8bn)

Founded in 2011 by celebrity tutor turned tech entrepreneur Byju Raveendran, Byju’s has undoubtedly become the world’s biggest ed-tech company with a valuation of more than $8bn. The company has tapped the untouched market of online education with a personalized learning process based on the student’s learning pace. Based in Bangalore, the company has more than 8,000 employees. Byju’s is Asia’s first company to be funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The company is backed by Tiger Global, Tencent and Sequoia Capital India. The company has recently also launched its Disney Byju’s app in partnership with The Walt Disney Company. The app is specifically targeted to children who just started learning. The company’s flagship product, Byju’s The Learning App has 2.8million paid users out of a total of 40 million registered users.

5.) Swiggy ($3.3bn)

Founded in 2014 by IIM-Calcutta alumnus Sriharsha Majety with his friends, Swiggy is India’s largest and most-valued online food ordering and delivery platform. Based out of Bangalore the company has operations in more than 100 cities and an employee base of 218,000. In just a few years of operations, the company has crossed its direct rival Zomato in valuation. The company is backed by Accel Partners and SAIF Partners along with Norwest Ventures Partners. The company clocks nearly 1.4 million food orders daily across India. The company has also partnered with Burger King to provide delivery assistance in India and Sodexo to enable customers to pay through Sodexo meal passes. Moving beyond food delivery the company in 2018 acquired hyper-local delivery startup Supr Daily and has launched Swiggy Stores, a service to deliver household items like groceries, flowers, medicines, among others, at a customer’s doorstep.

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Sandeep is a journalism and mass communication graduate with a keen interest in politics and business. He is a part of Research & Content team at HrNxt.com.

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