Indian Start-ups that promise of entering Unicorn Club this year
2023 has begun with great news for India with some of the massive deals that are happening with multiple sectors. Despite the pandemic, India saw a growth in the number of startups that have made it to Unicorn status. Until the last year we had around 106 companies entering the Unicorn status which is a valuation of more than USD 1 Billion. A lot of factors in India have made it conducive for startups to grow. We are having talented professionals, our governments have attractive startup policies, and there are more SEZ [Special Economic Zones] that have come up. These are just some policies to name, more such factors make startups quite feasible.
A lot of professionals have figured out more untapped areas, people know how to add innovations to the existing operations, and monetize their ideas. IT is the icing on to cake for businesses in our country, we began the idea of UPI systems and the idea is now gaining popularity across the globe. TalentStack has taken an account of all such progress and we would like to share with you the 10 startups that are almost in the Unicorn club for the year, you can have a look at the startups by reading further;
PhysicsWallah is an edtech business that has become the startup to touch a billion-dollar value. The Noida-based edtech business received $100 MM in funding from Westbridge and GSV Ventures as part of a Series A funding round. PW is now India's seventh edtech unicorn with a post-money valuation of $1.1 Bn, thanks to this investment. The invested money will be used for business growth, branding, the introduction of more courses, and the opening of more learning centers around India. In 2020, Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari started an Indian firm that specializes in NEET and IIT/JEE competitive exam preparation. In 2020, the platform, which had initially been a YouTube channel, was expanded to include an app and a website. According to the edtech startup, more than 10,000 of its pupils have cleared NEET and JEE in the last year.
2. Purplle
With its Series E fundraising round, the Nykaa's competition and beauty ecommerce business 'Purplle' has recently joined the billion-dollar valuation club. The Indian business received $33 million in funding from Paramak Ventures, Premji Invest, Blume Ventures, and Kedaara, raising its worth to $1.1 billion. Purplle is an online store that Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash founded in 2012 to sell appliances and cosmetics. According to its website, more than 1,000 companies are included in it, including Lakme, Plum, WOW Skin Science, Maybelline, and SUGAR Cosmetics. The recently created unicorn intends to use the infusion of cash to scale its brands and concentrate on national investments in technology. It fights fiercely with its rival brands thanks to the five D2C brands that make up its house of brands.
3. OneCard
OneCard, situated in Pune, has reached the unicorn status in India after raising $100 Mn in a Series D investment. Sequoia Capital, QED Holdings, Matrix Partners, and Hummingbird were among the existing investors who took part in the round, which raised the startup's valuation to almost $1.25 Billion. The fintech business, founded in 2018 by Anurag Sinha, Rupesh Kumar, and Vibhav Hathi, debuted its mobile-only metal credit card, dubbed "OneCard," in 2020. In collaboration with banks including IDFC Bank, South Indian Bank, Federal Bank, Bank of Baroda Financial, and SMB Bank, the recently formed unicorn also provides Visa credit cards. The company also features OneScore - a no-spam, digital credit score platform delivering free credit score checks to its subscribers. OneCard is the 22nd financial company in India. It has disbursed cards to over 2.5 lakh customers so far.
4. Shiprocket
With a $1.2 billion value, third-party logistics (3PL) service provider Shiprocket is the newest firm to join the unicorn club. At a Series E2 round led by Lightrock India, the business raised $33.5 million. In addition to Temasek, other investors in the round included Bertelsmann, Moore Strategic Ventures, PayPal, March Capital, and Huddle. Over ten months have passed since Zomato and Lightrock India led a $185 million round of funding for Shiprocket. The Zomato-backed business has joined the ranks of companies like Delhivery, Xpressbees, and BlackBuck as the sixth logistics unicorn. Saahil Goel, Vishesh Khurana, Gautam Kapoor, and Akshay Gulati founded Shiprocket in 2017, a company that says it can meet the logistical needs of 2.5 Lakh vendors.
5. Amagi
Amagi, a media-focused SaaS firm, has joined the unicorn club after earning $95 MM in a funding round headed by Accel. The round also included previous investors including Norwest Venture Partners and Avataar Ventures. In September of last year, Amagi secured $100 million from Accel, Avataar Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and current backer Premji Invest. As part of the agreement, the venture funds purchased out the stakes owned by the Mayfield Fund and Emerald Media, an investment platform sponsored by KKR, allowing them an exit. Amagi, a company founded in 2008 by Baskar Subramanian, Srinivasan KA, and Srividhya Srinivasan, provides broadcast and streaming TV platforms with cloud broadcast and targeted advertising solutions. The firm asserts that it would make it possible for content owners to monteise live channels on free-ad-supported TV and video service platforms.
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6. Darwinbox
Darwinbox is a cloud-based HRtech firm that was founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti, and Rohit Chennamaneni. It enables businesses to automate the complete employee lifecycle on one HR platform. It meets the HR requirements of businesses in a variety of areas, including hiring, 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 just a few of the significant organisations and large IT companies that the company claims to work with on a regular basis in India and Southeast Asia. It raised USD 76 Million in one of the recent rounds, and until date has raised $107 Million funding in the last 7 rounds. Currently it has been valued to over USD 1 Billion+ making it attain the Unicorn status.
7. LEAD
The most recent edtech startup to join the Indian unicorn club is Mumbai-based LEAD. The business was valued at $1.1 Bn after raising $100 Mn in a round led by WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures in January. The company had received funding five times, with the most recent round occurring in April 2021. Throughout the course of 5 rounds, LEAD School has raised a total of $166 Mn in investment. Only the ecommerce ($10.7 Bn) and fintech ($8 Bn) sectors attracted more investment in 2021, making edtech startups the third-most financed Indian startup sector. Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah created the edtech business LEAD in 2012. The business makes it possible for schools to integrate technology, curriculum, and pedagogy into integrated teaching and learning system. LEAD has made it to 5000 schools to more than 500 cities and serving 2 Million+ students.
8. Fractal
With its most recent round of funding, the AI and advanced analytics solutions provider Fractal become the first member of the unicorn club. TPG Capital Asia funded $360 million for the private equity transaction, and funds advised by Apax Partners purchased secondary shares. Over 5 rounds, Fractal has secured $685 million in investment. Nearly two years after it received $200 Mn from Apax Partners, it received a new investment. Moreover, Fractal received $100 million from Malaysia's Khazanah sovereign fund. A group of five individuals, including Ramakrishna Reddy, Nirmal Palaparthi, Pradeep Suryanarayan, and IIM Ahmedabad alumni Srikanth Velamakanni, started it in 2000. The 21-year-old business offers Fortune 500 companies artificial intelligence and cutting-edge analytics solutions. Fractal analytics took two decades to enter Unicorn club where a lot of startups took 6 years average time to make attain the status.
9. ElasticRun
ElasticRun, has it's roots in Pune, and was the first to join the unicorn club in February. A new round of funding for the Kirana commerce firm totaled $300 Mn, with SoftBank serving as the lead investor. Innoven Capital, New York-based Goldman Sachs, Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures), and Abu Dhabi's Chimera Investment, a unit of the Abu Dhabi Royal Group, all took part. As per Inc42's estimations, the Series E round valued ElasticRun at roughly $1.5 Bn. It had raised $75 Mn in a Series D capital round headed by Avataar Venture Partners, roughly a year prior to the current investment. Prosus Ventures and Kalaari Capital, among others, also participated in the round. The startup was valued at about $400 million in the financing. It was founded in 2016 by Sandeep Deshmukh, Saurabh Nigam, and Shitiz Nigam. It enables these businesses reach small Kirana stores. The startup also engages with banks and financial institutions to give them access to underserved SME customers from its Kirana network. Through data analytics, the platform also helps Kirana businesses sharpen their marketing strategy.
10. Uniphore
Uniphore recently joined the unicorn club after raising $400 million at a $2.5 billion value. NEA led the investment round, in which its current investors also took part. Ravi Saraogi and Umesh Sachdev established the conversational automation unicorn in 2008. To transform and democratise customer experiences across sectors, the startup has blended conversational AI, workflow automation, and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) into a single integrated platform. Uniphore acquired two companies in 2021: Emotion Research Lab for expanded emotion AI capabilities and Jacada for improved low-code/no-code capabilities. The unicorn has received $610 million in total fundraising as of this round.
Which startups have you come across so far? What are your views with the increasing number of startups in India? Are you having any business idea which you would like to add to practice, let us know, if any. Let us know the comments if you like our blogs, follow us and stay tuned for more such great content regularly.