Indian Unicorn Startups

With a high population and countless talented people, India is one of the developing countries when it comes to technology. Owing to the country’s improvement, Indian Unicorn start-ups are making it into the global list. However, it is not easy to reach this mark. It takes a passionate and talented team to build a company. One of the biggest pain points of launching a start-up is that the failure rate after five years is over 50% and in ten years, it increases to 70%. Despite all these challenges, Indian start-ups are reaching the grim milestone and making it into the global unicorns list. In 2021 alone, around 12 Indian start-ups made their debut in the international space by gaining over US$1 billion in value. Remarkably, most of them were from the education, finance, and retail sector. All Indian unicorns on the top list took technology as a major accelerator. IndustryWired has listed some of the top Indian Unicorn Startups that are representing the country in the global market. 

Top Indian Unicorn start-ups in 2021

Paytm

Valuation: US$16 billion

Paytm is one of India’s largest and leading financial services companies that offer full-stack payments and financial solutions to consumers, offline merchants, and online platforms. Founded in 2010, Paytm started its business with online bill payments and prepaid mobile recharge services. Today, the company has evolved to become a marketplace for all financial services. Paytm aims to bring Indians into the mainstream of the economy through payments, commerce, banking, investments, and financial services.

Byju’s

Valuation: US$16.5 billion

Byju’s is India’s largest Edtech Company that develops personalized learning programs for K-12 students, and competitive exams like JEE, NEET, and IAS. Founded in 2011, Byju’s launched its flagship product ‘BYJU’s- The Learning App,’ which received plenty of recognition. Today, the app has over 95 million registered students and 6.5 annual paid subscriptions. The success of the start-up is its effort to make the learning experience more contextual and visual.

National Stock Exchange of India

Valuation: US$6.5 billion

The National Stock Exchange of India is the largest financial exchange in the Indian market. Founded in 1992, the platform is a suggestion by the Indian government to provide solutions to simplify participation in the stock market and make it more accessible to all interested parties. NSE has a fully integrated business model comprising its exchange listing, trading services, clearing and settlement services, indices, market data feeds, technology solutions, and financial education offerings.

Pine Labs

Valuation: US$3 billion

Pine Labs is a merchant commerce platform that provides financing and last-mile retail transaction technology to merchants. Pine Labs is shaping the future of merchant commerce in Asia and is delivering cutting-edge fintech solutions, built using the company’s technology prowess and fuelled by its zeal to innovate and solve problems. Founded in 1988, Pine Labs started by engineering a solution for a large-scale, card-based payment, and loyalty program in the retail petroleum industry.

Unacademy

Valuation: US$3 billion

Unacademy is an online learning platform that provides educational content in form of video lectures and conducts examinations. The company is aiming to democratize high-quality education through online learning. Founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hamesh Singh in 2015, Unacademy leverages content for major competitive examinations as well as offers short lectures in the form of videos on different subjects, which can be accessed for free.

Firstcry

Valuation: US$1.1 billion 

Firstcry is online shopping, offering a range of baby care products and toys. The company has over 20,000+ items from 250+ top international and Indian brands including Mattel, Ben10, Pigeon, Funskool, Hotwheels, Nuby, Farlin, Medela, Pampers, Disney, Barbie, etc. Founded in 2010, Firstcry acquired babyOne from Mahindra Retail in 2015 and included its services in its platform. Today, the company is planning to expand its presence in the Middle East and looks to set up shops in markets such as Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Meesho

Valuation: US$2.1 billion

Meesho is an online reselling platform that enables anyone to start a business without investment. Founded in 2015, Meesho helps resellers to start selling with zero investment and from anywhere in the world. The company works on the business model like many other e-commerce players and gains income in form of commission, logistic streams, rank push, etc. As a reseller, the app users have to share a product that is listed on the Meesho app around their network on social media platforms to earn a commission based on its sales.