With a market capitalization of more than $1 billion, a unicorn is a privately held startup. With a total of 31 already this year, India has produced more than three unicorns per month on an average. 2021 might end with roughly 40 unicorns, if this rate of unicorn production continues. The great unicorn rush has spanned a wide range of industries, including financial and e-commerce. According to Venture Intelligence statistics, from January to September, the fintech sector saw a record $4.8 billion in funding across 143 deals. Here are the 8 Fintech Startups that gained Unicorn status this year.

Bharat Pe

An Indian merchant payment service, Bharat Pe, was valued at $2.85 million in a $370 million funding round led by Tiger Global, a US investment firm. BharatPe has developed a QR code-based payments service that uses India’s UPI infrastructure and enables offline merchants to accept electronic payments. This year it created its card acceptance terminal and is also providing working finance to small businesses. Along with new investors Dragoneer Investment Group and Steadfast Capital, investors like Coatue Management, Insight partners, Sequoia Growth, Ribbit Capital and Amplo, returned to the latest round.

CoinDCX

In a Series C fundraising, at a valuation of $1.1 billion, CoinDCX raised $90 million. It is the first Indian crypto exchange to achieve the designation of ‘Unicorn’. With simpler, secure, and compliant solutions, CoinDCX has been committed to making cryptocurrencies accessible to the Indian audience. It came into existence in 2018 and has onboarded over 3.5 million users so far. It is on its way to onboard 50 million Indians by the end of this year. Because of their lucrative yields and decentralised nature, the Covid-19 pandemic compelled many investors to invest in cryptocurrencies. Till now, CoinDCX has amassed a user base of over 3.5 million.

OfBusiness

Vasant Sridhar, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra and Bhuvan Gupta launched OfBusiness, which finances and provides raw material procurement services to small and medium companies. After raising $160 million from SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, the B2B Gurugram based firm made its way to the unicorn club. Existing investors Matrix Partners and Falcon Edge Capital also participated in the funding round. With a revenue run rate of more than $1.1 billion, by September 2021, OfBuisness hopes to be profitable.

Chargebee

With a valuation of $1.4 billion following a new round of $125 million in Series G funding, Chargebee, the premier subscription billing and revenue management platform is the city’s newest unicorn. Freshworks and Zoho are two other Chennai based unicorns. Chargebees customer portfolio includes Freshworks, Study.com, Okta, Calendly, and thousands of other high-growth subscription businesses in verticals ranging from OTT streaming, publishing, vertical and horizontal SaaS to D2C commerce, selling to end customers all over the world in over 60 countries.

Digit

With a valuation of USD 1.9 billion, Digit Insurance, a general insurer founded in 2017, has become India’s first unicorn of 2021. According to a statement, from April to December 2020, Digit’s premium income increased by 31.9 per cent to USD 186 million. Since its establishment, the company has served over 15 million consumers. The insurance was profitable in the first three quarters of fiscal year 20-21, despite the economic downturn.

Groww

In a Series D funding round led by Tiger Global Management, Groww, an investment platform raised $83 million, valuing the company at more than $1 billion. The existing investors included Ribbit Capital, Propel Ventures, Sequoia Capital and YC Continuity. In over 900 cities, the platform which was founded in 2017, claims to have over 1.5 million registered members. The company makes it simple for consumers to invest in mutual funds, IPOs, stocks, ETFs and gold. Groww competes with Paytm Money and online stock brokerages Upstox and Zerodha.

CRED

In a fundraising round led by new investment Falcon Edge Capital and existing investor Coatue Management LLP, Cred, a fintech startup has raised $215 million, valuing the company at $2.2 billion. The Kunal Shah led startup secured $81 million at an $806 million valuation just a few months ago. RTP Global, Greenoaks Capital, Sofina, DST Global, Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group were among the new investors. With an aim to make it easier for customers to pay their credit card bills and earn incentives, Shah founded Cred in 2018. Via Cred Cash, it has expanded into the financing as well as online commerce and brand discovery via its ‘Store’ and ‘Discover’ platforms.

Acko

In a Series D round headed by General Atlantic and Multiples Private Equity, a digital insurance provider, Acko General Insurance, has secured $255 million. In 2021, the firm became the 34th startup in India to become a unicorn, bringing its worth to $1.1 billion. The round also included Munich Re Ventures, Intact Ventures, Lightspeed and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Currently, the entire amount raised by Acko is $450 million.