Unicorn Club startups from IITs

I think all of us have been amused by the success of people who graduate from IITs. IIT is one of the most prestigious and well-respected institutions in India. IITians put in years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance that eventually leads to their success. The IITians have left an impression on the world with their high levels of productivity and imminence. They are numerous startups that have been established by IIT graduates.

Even though the main focus of IIT is engineering, we can witness numerous instances in which IITians steer towards entrepreneurship and establish their startups. Many alumni from IIT have made it big in the startup ecosystem and have led to the emergence of several multimillionaire startups.

IIT is known as the unicorn companies club. IIT produces more successful startups than MIT and Ivy League Colleges. Startups not only contribute significantly to the revenue it generates but also generate employment. 

Let’s have a look at the top 10 unicorn club startups from IIT.

Flipkart

Flipkart is one of India’s most prominent e-commerce sites, founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal & Binny Bansal. Sachin & Binny are both IIT Delhi graduates. Both of them wanted to provide Indians with an online store that has been developed in India, which led to the creation of Flipkart.

They started the company in 2007 as an online bookshop, similar to how Amazon began. They had no idea that Flipkart would be so successful and grow into a multibillion-dollar company employing thousands of people.

expanding onto new product categories including electronics, fashion, and other products In August 2018, the US-based retail group Walmart paid $16 billion for a 77 percent controlling stake in Flipkart, valuing the company at about $20 billion.

Ola Cabs

Ola Cabs is now a multinational ride-sharing company that provides services such as car rental and food delivery. Bhavish Aggarwal, an IIT Bombay Computer Science and Engineering graduate, founded the company in 2008. He began his professional career at Microsoft, where he spent two years working, filing two patents, and publishing three articles in international publications. In Jan 2011, he co-founded Ola Cabs in Bengaluru with Ankit Bhati.

To date, Ola cabs have acquired five new corporations. It had previously acquired FoodPanda India. In June 2015, another venture was Geotagg, which is an excursion planning application. OLA is the most well-known ride-hailing app in India, accounting for around 65 percent of the market. By 2018, the company had grown to more than 10,000 automobiles in 168 cities, with a revenue of 110 million dollars.

OLA now has a $320 million turnover and a $6.2 billion valuation. It employs over 6000 people and is presently offered in 169 locations across India. In 2018, it expanded into Australia and New Zealand, and in 2019, it launched its Auto Rickshaw service in the United Kingdom.

Zomato

Deepinder Goyal & Pankaj Chaddah were IIT Delhi alumni who worked for Bain & Co in New Delhi. Many individuals were waiting in their workplace for a long period merely to get a glimpse of the food menu. And that is when the seed of a solution was sown in their minds, leading to the birth of ‘Foodiebay.’

In 2008, the duo launched Zomato, a food delivery website. Zomato is now an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator & food ordering service that offers restaurant information, menus, and user ratings, as well as food delivery choices from partner restaurants in various locations. Since about 2019, the services are provided across 24 countries and over 10,000 cities worldwide.

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, the founder of the well-known job search engine Naukri, was intrigued by Zomato and began to invest in the business. He invested close to $1 million in Info Edge in 2010. (India). The same investors gave them a large investment of US$ 3.5 million the next year. The next year, an enormous sum of US$10 million poured in through Info Edge.

Quikr

Pranay Chulet & Jiby Thomas started Quikr in 2008. Pranay Chulet, the company’s CEO, grew raised in Rajasthan and received his Chemical Engineering degree from IIT Delhi. Quikr is a Bangalore-based online marketplace and classified advertising firm offering listings from over 1000 locations in categories including mobile phones, household products, automotive, real estate, jobs, services, and education. It serves as a marketplace for users to purchase and sell items and services to one another. A missed call service & instant messaging are also available. 

Quikr announced the acquisition of real estate vertical CommonFloor late in 2016. Tiger Global is the primary investor in this $200 million all-stock acquisition, making it the year’s first big consolidation. Pranay Chuliat, CEO of Quikr, believes that this breakthrough will not only enhance the development of QuikrHomes but their other verticals.

Snapdeal

Snapdeal carved out a space on its own in the Indian e-commerce market. When Kunal Bahl, who is an IIT alumnus & Rohit Bansal decided to start their firm in 2010, they picked an offline couponing business called MoneySaver. After selling 15000 coupons in three months, it was time to expand the business.

It is presently one of India’s most popular e-commerce platforms, with over 3 million sellers, over 3 million items over 800+ varied categories from over 1,25,000 regional, national, & international brands & merchants, and a reach of 6,000 towns and cities across the country.

AcadBoost

Kalpit Veerwal received his diploma from IIT Mumbai in 2021. He began recording films on a variety of topics, including how he prepared for tests. What he learned in college, what he is interested in. Aside from that, he discussed a wide range of activities that students can engage in when preparing for any competitive examination.

Kalpit then called his Youtube account AcadBoost. He mentioned AcadBoost, an e-learning portal that will supply students with knowledge regarding JEE, NEET, as well as other Skills or Activities. Kalpit developed this course only with the assistance of students from prestigious universities such as IITs.

AcadBoost operates on a subscription-based model, with students paying a fee to enroll in any courses. According to Kalpit, he presently has over 5000 subscribers, and over 500k students are linked with AcadBoost over YouTube & Social Media.

ShopClues

Sanjay Sethi, an IIT Delhi graduate who previously worked in the US in the fields like e-commerce marketplace, online payments, & operations, founded the company. After being instrumental in the establishment of eBay in India, he co-founded Shopclues with Sandeep & Radhika Aggarwal. ShopClues offers wholesale prices on various categories such as home & kitchen, apparel, technology, and everyday utility products. The firm was bought by Singapore-based Qoo10 in an all-stock deal worth around US$70 million in 2019, indicating one of the highest valuation meltdowns for such an Indian-based startup.

In 2013, Shopclues generated a profit of over Rs. 350 crores in the merchandise business, which was a significant hit for the company. There was no turning back after that, as Shopclues established a strong presence in the internet industry.

tumbledry

Tumbledry has been founded by Naveen Chawla, Gaurav Nigam, Gaurav Teotia(alumunus from IIT) Tarun Arora, and Anuj Gupta.

Tumbledry was launched in 2019 to alleviate urban Indians’ laundry problems. It is now India’s largest laundry and dry cleaning network, with 250+ locations in 83 cities. Laundry, dry cleaning, and shoe cleaning are among their services. Tumbledry has changed the laundry industry by making world-class laundry and dry cleaning services easily available to every Indian household.

To maintain efficient operations, they deploy CRM software and provide mobile apps to its customers and delivery guys. This technologically advanced setup facilitates their activities. And their clients like the ease of free home pick-up and delivery, simple order placing, and monitoring via smartphone. To provide high-quality laundry and dry cleaning services, the company employs high-end Swedish technology and German eco-friendly chemicals.

They began in 2019. Tumbledry’s sales increased by 57% in the fiscal year 2020. Then, in 2021, it increased by 138 percent. And, as a result of present expansion, they anticipate a 175 percent increase in revenue by 2022.

 Housing.com

Rahul Yadav, a graduate from IIT Mumbai, established Housing.com. Housing.com is a real estate search portal based in Mumbai that allows clients to look for housing based on region, number of rooms, and a variety of other criteria. Rahul Yadav was included in Forbes’ list of the 30 Under 30 Young Entrepreneurs. 

Housing.co.in received two rounds of investment, one for INR 1.5 crores from Haresh Chawla, former CEO of Network18, in February, and the other worth ₹ 50 lakhs from Zishaan Hayath, co-founder of Chaupaati Bazaar, in March 2013.

Currently, housing.com has a very simple revenue model in which they charge a 6-monthly subscription of INR 5,000 or an annual subscription fee of INR 8,000 from agents and brokers for premium services, after which they can post as many listings and inventories as they want with the condition that their in-house team goes ahead and collects the data.

InMobi

Naveen Tewari, a graduate of IIT Kanpur, started the company. InMobi is a worldwide mobile advertising technology firm headquartered in Bangalore, India. Through relevant mobile advertising, its mobile-first platform enables brands, developers, & publishers to engage customers. It was dubbed InMobi in 2008 as it was upgraded from SMS-based solutions to mobile advertising. It is now vying for data-driven digital advertising with behemoths like Google and Facebook. InMobi is a top-five player in the United States, China, Southeast Asia, & India. Softbank has also invested $200 mn in it.

InMobi, founded in India, is now a global provider of enterprise marketing tools. By offering contextual, appropriate, and curated suggestions on mobile applications and devices, the platform helps users to discover new items and services. Their mobile-first platform enables companies, developers, & publishers to reach out to customers via mobile advertising. InMobi named one of Fast Company’s “2016 Most Innovative Companies in the World,” connects approximately 1.5 billion unique mobile devices globally. It has a presence across 12 countries spread over five continents.

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