Top -10 Unicorns - Spearheading the Orientation of Indian Economy
In today's fast-paced and dynamic economy, Indian Unicorns are thriving and thumping. India has retained its vibrant entrepreneurial spirit and booming startup ecosystem. Owing to this India has witnessed the rise of numerous unicorn startups that are revolutionizing industries, reshaping markets, and making their mark on the global platform. According to the report of The Hurun Research Institute, presently India has 83 unicorns, 51 gazelles and 96 cheetahs. The report evidently showed that India’s position has been solidified in global level through this amazing execution. The report also admitted that India’s future unicorns are worth $57 billion.
What do you understand by the word Unicorn?
When a privately held startup company reaches to a value of $1 billion, it is known as Unicorn Company. Reaching to this highly acclaimed status is a rare feet is an easy task, if you have a really innovative ideas which are few steps ahead of time, as well as a viable way to get their message to venture capitalists and private investors. The term unicorn was first used by Aileen Lee, founder of Palo Alto-based Cowboy Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund. According to the report, Google was the first ever company achieving the status of Unicorn with a valuation of more than $100 billion.
Valuation of Unicorn
The value of the Unicorn is based on how investors and venture capitalists feel they will grow and develop, so it all comes down to longer-term forecasting. Their valuations have nothing to do with their financial performance. In fact, many of these companies rarely generate any profits when they first get running.
The concept of unicorn startups has gained traction in the startup ecosystem as a measure of success and potential. Unicorn startups are often innovative and disruptive companies that operate hailing from different sectors, such as technology, e-commerce, finance, healthcare, and more. These unicorns are the real game changer of Indian economy. In this article we will list out top 10 Indian startup companies which have achieved the status of Unicorn.
Zepto- ‘Groceries delivered in 10 minutes’
The online grocery company has become India’s first unicorn of 2023 which has pumped up a ray of hope in the Indian startup ecosystem, facing a prolonged funding winter. It was founded in 2021 by Stanford University dropouts Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, had raised $200 million in a Series D funding round led by US technology startup accelerator Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, which then valued the startup at $900 million.
The founder-duo announced that Zepto plans to add 40% more dark stores over the next 12 months while also reducing the time taken for each of these stores to turn profitable. The company claims to deliver over 6,000 grocery products in 10 minutes through a network of delivery hubs or dark stores. Each order typically ranges between ₹400 and ₹450.
“We’re going to push even harder towards profitability. The idea is to get to Ebitda positive in the next 12 to 15 months and do it at a scale of well over a billion dollars in sales annually," -Aadit Palicha, CEO, Zepto
Purplle
It is a beauty and personal care product retailer, like Nykaa. It was founded by Manish Taneja, Suyash Katyayani and Rahul Dash. Purplle has raised $33 million from Paramark Ventures to reach a valuation of $1.1 billion, and became India’s 102nd unicorn. Presently their sole investors are Premji Invest, Blume Ventures and Kedaara Capital. As its mighty consequence it has raised $215 million so far, including the latest round. Its previous investors include Goldman Sachs and Verlinvest.
While the other competitors like Sugar, Plum, Nykaa have aggressively marketed their expensive brand products while this company created plaforms for new potential Startup companies like Good Vibes, Alps Goodness, DermaDoc,Purito which are selling their products through this platform and now Good Vibes is a Big Name. Besides, driving the onlineB2C Market, Purplle’s private brand Faces Canada and Good Vibes have benefited from offline stores and their presences across 5,000 offline touch points. They have recently touched the valuation of $630 million during its last fundraising. Significantly, from the first quarter of FY22 to Q1 of FY23, their revenue has become more than double.
“My view is that if you're a good company, if your unit economics is in place, you are good founders and if your corporate governance is top notch then I don't think that there is ever a funding winter.”-Manish Taneja,CEO, Purplle
Physics Wallah
After the strike of giant pandemic, the whole world came to a standstill, and this Edtech Company bridged the gap between the students and their institutions and drove the whole economy besides helping the students. Many EdTech startups have been started in the past couple of years but a few accomplished to stay afloat amidst the deadly competition.
The passion for teaching has pushed the founder to start a YouTube channel for which it became the 101st Unicorn of India by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari. Presently this, Noida-based online learning platform has mentored over 6 million students and has over 13,700 video lectures on its platform. They have gained tremendous fame and currently has 5.2 million Android downloads and 6.9 million subscribers on YouTube. In 2020 and 2021, over 10,000 of their students cracked competitive exams like NEET and JEE.
“This latest development will help us further our vision and implement new initiatives to augment the journeys of students, enabling them to reach new heights in their careers. Our commitment remains ‘every dollar spent in PW is for the greater good of learners” -Alakh Pandey, Founder & CEO, PhysicsWallah
XpressBees Logistics
Indian Logistics farm has raised $300 million in a Series F funding round, entering the unicorn club as the 8th company in 2022 with a valuation of $1.2 billion. The funding round was led by private equity funds Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital, and includes a primary capital infusion of $100 million and a secondary share sale worth $200 million. This company becomes the 2nd Pune based unicorn startup to help more than 1000 consumers partnering with Paytm, Meesho, Netmeds, Xiaomi. It has already delivered various products across 3000 cities and towns and accomplishing to process around 3 million orders per day.
“With their (investors) vast network and operational expertise, we believe that they will further fuel our efforts in pursuing newer op opportunities and will help expand our footprint.” -Amitava Saha, Founder & CEO
Games24x7
Gaming platform is one of the latest entrants of the unicorn club as the 99th member with raising $75 million at a $2.5 billion valuation, founded by Trivikraman Thampy and Bhavin Pandya in Mumbai. The company has raised this funding in a funding round led by Malabar Investments, where the company's existing investors Tiger Global and Raine Group also took part. It became the third gaming start-up after Dream 11 and Mobile Premier League to achieve a billion-dollar valuation at a time when the e-gaming sector has received aggressive funding from both global as well as homegrown investors. Presently, it is working with more than 100 million users and acclaimed as one of the fastest growing online gaming companies in India. The company develops RummyCircle, a hugely popular game that has over 30 million players.
”We will also start actively looking for investment opportunities, where we can build synergies, meaningfully invest in them, work with them, guide them through our experiences, or learn from their experiences.”-Bhavin Pandya, Co-Founder, Games24X7
Molbio Diagnostics
This Goa-based farm is a renowned name for molecular diagnostic testing platform and currently they are present in over 40 countries and it plans to further add 20-25 countries every year. The company was founded by Sriram Natarajan, successfully raised $85 million from a Singapore based farm Temasek, with a valuation of $1.6 billion. Motilal Oswal Private Equity also invested up to $32.5 million. Fintrackr estimated, the company’s valuation jumped 8X to 1.53 billion from $182.7 million in their last fundraise.
“We see the partnership with Temasek accelerating our efforts to work on newer technologies that address the critical need gaps in diagnosis globally.”
-Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair, Director and CTO, Molbio Diagnostics
LivSpace
Omnichannel startup founded by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, offers end-to-end home interiors and renovation services raised $180 million in a funding round led by US-based private equity firm KKR, and with this investment, the company touched the valuation of over $1billion. Livspace currently serves Singapore and Malaysia, as well as 30 metro and non-metro areas in India. It claims to have delivered over 100,000 rooms and sold over 7.5 million SKUs through its platform. The company is planning to enter new markets, double down on brand building in India and Singapore, and continue investing in its platform technology and supply chain.
“Our business is growing exponentially in both India and Singapore and we aim to replicate this playbook, launch new solutions and accelerate our launches across new markets with operations across APAC, MENA and Australia.”-Anuj Srivastava, Co-Founder & CEO
OneCard
The pune-based credit card startup Onecard founded by Anurag Sinha, Rupesh Kumar and Vibhav Hathi entered the coveted unicorn club with over $100 million in Series D round from existing and new investors and valued $1.25 billion. Presently the company has raised around $325 million and it was valued at $720 million in the previous round. This company having nearly 70 million users offers one-of-a-kind experience to offer a virtual, cellphone-based card to build a credit score.
“The market is growing really fast and we will keep looking for the right investors who understand this space well. The market opportunity in the credit space is very large which is driving investments.” -Anurag Sinha, Co-Founder
Shiprocket
Logistics aggregator farm founded by Sahil Goel has successfully raised $32 million by famous Singapore based investors Temasek and Lightrock India, and with this it stands with a value of $1.3 billion, making it a proud member of Unicorn club. Shiprocket is the 20th unicorn to emerge in 2022. The company’s famous competitors are new-age logistics firms such as Delhivery, Ecom Express, and Xpressbees.
“Our mission is to democratize e-commerce by creating a simple, open and enabling platform for every independent business of the real Bharat.”- Sahil Goel, Founder & CEO
Uniphore Software Systems
A conversational AI platform, has proudly entered the unicorn club with a valuation of $2.5 billion,by freshly raising $400 million during a Series E round. The investors which helped the company to reach more than half a billion were global venture capital firm, NEA, March Capital and other. The demand of automating enterprise conversation has immensely accelerated in past couple of years and it has been penetrated so deeply in the business world that it is now nearly inseparable system.
“Our conversational automation engine has been delivering powerful and innovative solutions to help enterprises not just survive but thrive amidst all the demands placed on them by customers.”- Umesh Sachdev, Co-Founder & CEO
Last but not the least, startups are the anchor of economy, which uplifts the economy from its root and take it to the zenith of earning global acclamation. Few economic reports of India apprehended that, India’s future unicorns are worth $57 billion. In the decades to come India will surely ascend the throne in the economy backed by startups and will brightly retain its position with prowess.
What do you understand by the word Unicorn?
When a privately held startup company reaches to a value of $1 billion, it is known as Unicorn Company. Reaching to this highly acclaimed status is a rare feet is an easy task, if you have a really innovative ideas which are few steps ahead of time, as well as a viable way to get their message to venture capitalists and private investors. The term unicorn was first used by Aileen Lee, founder of Palo Alto-based Cowboy Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund. According to the report, Google was the first ever company achieving the status of Unicorn with a valuation of more than $100 billion.
Valuation of Unicorn
The value of the Unicorn is based on how investors and venture capitalists feel they will grow and develop, so it all comes down to longer-term forecasting. Their valuations have nothing to do with their financial performance. In fact, many of these companies rarely generate any profits when they first get running.
The concept of unicorn startups has gained traction in the startup ecosystem as a measure of success and potential. Unicorn startups are often innovative and disruptive companies that operate hailing from different sectors, such as technology, e-commerce, finance, healthcare, and more. These unicorns are the real game changer of Indian economy. In this article we will list out top 10 Indian startup companies which have achieved the status of Unicorn.
Zepto- ‘Groceries delivered in 10 minutes’
The online grocery company has become India’s first unicorn of 2023 which has pumped up a ray of hope in the Indian startup ecosystem, facing a prolonged funding winter. It was founded in 2021 by Stanford University dropouts Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, had raised $200 million in a Series D funding round led by US technology startup accelerator Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, which then valued the startup at $900 million. The founder-duo announced that Zepto plans to add 40% more dark stores over the next 12 months while also reducing the time taken for each of these stores to turn profitable. The company claims to deliver over 6,000 grocery products in 10 minutes through a network of delivery hubs or dark stores. Each order typically ranges between ₹400 and ₹450.
“We’re going to push even harder towards profitability. The idea is to get to Ebitda positive in the next 12 to 15 months and do it at a scale of well over a billion dollars in sales annually," -Aadit Palicha, CEO, Zepto
Purplle
It is a beauty and personal care product retailer, like Nykaa. It was founded by Manish Taneja, Suyash Katyayani and Rahul Dash. Purplle has raised $33 million from Paramark Ventures to reach a valuation of $1.1 billion, and became India’s 102nd unicorn. Presently their sole investors are Premji Invest, Blume Ventures and Kedaara Capital. As its mighty consequence it has raised $215 million so far, including the latest round. Its previous investors include Goldman Sachs and Verlinvest. While the other competitors like Sugar, Plum, Nykaa have aggressively marketed their expensive brand products while this company created plaforms for new potential Startup companies like Good Vibes, Alps Goodness, DermaDoc,Purito which are selling their products through this platform and now Good Vibes is a Big Name. Besides, driving the onlineB2C Market, Purplle’s private brand Faces Canada and Good Vibes have benefited from offline stores and their presences across 5,000 offline touch points. They have recently touched the valuation of $630 million during its last fundraising. Significantly, from the first quarter of FY22 to Q1 of FY23, their revenue has become more than double.
“My view is that if you're a good company, if your unit economics is in place, you are good founders and if your corporate governance is top notch then I don't think that there is ever a funding winter.”-Manish Taneja,CEO, Purplle
Physics Wallah
After the strike of giant pandemic, the whole world came to a standstill, and this Edtech Company bridged the gap between the students and their institutions and drove the whole economy besides helping the students. Many EdTech startups have been started in the past couple of years but a few accomplished to stay afloat amidst the deadly competition. The passion for teaching has pushed the founder to start a YouTube channel for which it became the 101st Unicorn of India by Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari. Presently this, Noida-based online learning platform has mentored over 6 million students and has over 13,700 video lectures on its platform. They have gained tremendous fame and currently has 5.2 million Android downloads and 6.9 million subscribers on YouTube. In 2020 and 2021, over 10,000 of their students cracked competitive exams like NEET and JEE.
“This latest development will help us further our vision and implement new initiatives to augment the journeys of students, enabling them to reach new heights in their careers. Our commitment remains ‘every dollar spent in PW is for the greater good of learners” -Alakh Pandey, Founder & CEO, PhysicsWallah
XpressBees Logistics
Indian Logistics farm has raised $300 million in a Series F funding round, entering the unicorn club as the 8th company in 2022 with a valuation of $1.2 billion. The funding round was led by private equity funds Blackstone Growth, TPG Growth and ChrysCapital, and includes a primary capital infusion of $100 million and a secondary share sale worth $200 million. This company becomes the 2nd Pune based unicorn startup to help more than 1000 consumers partnering with Paytm, Meesho, Netmeds, Xiaomi. It has already delivered various products across 3000 cities and towns and accomplishing to process around 3 million orders per day. “With their (investors) vast network and operational expertise, we believe that they will further fuel our efforts in pursuing newer op opportunities and will help expand our footprint.” -Amitava Saha, Founder & CEO
Games24x7
Gaming platform is one of the latest entrants of the unicorn club as the 99th member with raising $75 million at a $2.5 billion valuation, founded by Trivikraman Thampy and Bhavin Pandya in Mumbai. The company has raised this funding in a funding round led by Malabar Investments, where the company's existing investors Tiger Global and Raine Group also took part. It became the third gaming start-up after Dream 11 and Mobile Premier League to achieve a billion-dollar valuation at a time when the e-gaming sector has received aggressive funding from both global as well as homegrown investors. Presently, it is working with more than 100 million users and acclaimed as one of the fastest growing online gaming companies in India. The company develops RummyCircle, a hugely popular game that has over 30 million players.”We will also start actively looking for investment opportunities, where we can build synergies, meaningfully invest in them, work with them, guide them through our experiences, or learn from their experiences.”-Bhavin Pandya, Co-Founder, Games24X7
Molbio Diagnostics
This Goa-based farm is a renowned name for molecular diagnostic testing platform and currently they are present in over 40 countries and it plans to further add 20-25 countries every year. The company was founded by Sriram Natarajan, successfully raised $85 million from a Singapore based farm Temasek, with a valuation of $1.6 billion. Motilal Oswal Private Equity also invested up to $32.5 million. Fintrackr estimated, the company’s valuation jumped 8X to 1.53 billion from $182.7 million in their last fundraise.“We see the partnership with Temasek accelerating our efforts to work on newer technologies that address the critical need gaps in diagnosis globally.”
-Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair, Director and CTO, Molbio Diagnostics
LivSpace
Omnichannel startup founded by Anuj Srivastava and Ramakant Sharma, offers end-to-end home interiors and renovation services raised $180 million in a funding round led by US-based private equity firm KKR, and with this investment, the company touched the valuation of over $1billion. Livspace currently serves Singapore and Malaysia, as well as 30 metro and non-metro areas in India. It claims to have delivered over 100,000 rooms and sold over 7.5 million SKUs through its platform. The company is planning to enter new markets, double down on brand building in India and Singapore, and continue investing in its platform technology and supply chain.“Our business is growing exponentially in both India and Singapore and we aim to replicate this playbook, launch new solutions and accelerate our launches across new markets with operations across APAC, MENA and Australia.”-Anuj Srivastava, Co-Founder & CEO
OneCard
The pune-based credit card startup Onecard founded by Anurag Sinha, Rupesh Kumar and Vibhav Hathi entered the coveted unicorn club with over $100 million in Series D round from existing and new investors and valued $1.25 billion. Presently the company has raised around $325 million and it was valued at $720 million in the previous round. This company having nearly 70 million users offers one-of-a-kind experience to offer a virtual, cellphone-based card to build a credit score. “The market is growing really fast and we will keep looking for the right investors who understand this space well. The market opportunity in the credit space is very large which is driving investments.” -Anurag Sinha, Co-Founder
Shiprocket
Logistics aggregator farm founded by Sahil Goel has successfully raised $32 million by famous Singapore based investors Temasek and Lightrock India, and with this it stands with a value of $1.3 billion, making it a proud member of Unicorn club. Shiprocket is the 20th unicorn to emerge in 2022. The company’s famous competitors are new-age logistics firms such as Delhivery, Ecom Express, and Xpressbees.“Our mission is to democratize e-commerce by creating a simple, open and enabling platform for every independent business of the real Bharat.”- Sahil Goel, Founder & CEO
Uniphore Software Systems
A conversational AI platform, has proudly entered the unicorn club with a valuation of $2.5 billion,by freshly raising $400 million during a Series E round. The investors which helped the company to reach more than half a billion were global venture capital firm, NEA, March Capital and other. The demand of automating enterprise conversation has immensely accelerated in past couple of years and it has been penetrated so deeply in the business world that it is now nearly inseparable system.“Our conversational automation engine has been delivering powerful and innovative solutions to help enterprises not just survive but thrive amidst all the demands placed on them by customers.”- Umesh Sachdev, Co-Founder & CEO
Last but not the least, startups are the anchor of economy, which uplifts the economy from its root and take it to the zenith of earning global acclamation. Few economic reports of India apprehended that, India’s future unicorns are worth $57 billion. In the decades to come India will surely ascend the throne in the economy backed by startups and will brightly retain its position with prowess.
