The Indian Startup ecosystem is known to be the third largest in the world, with around two to three new startups emerging in the country every single day and around 41,061 governments recognized startups as on Dec, 2020, as per a report issued by Economic Survey-2020-21.  The Government of India proposes several schemes and incubation opportunities to uplift the Indian Startup ecosystem. Some of these schemes include, tax exemptions and introducing around 10,000 crore fund of funds for startups that are operated under the Small industries development bank (Sidbi). It is predicted that the number of these startups will only increase in the forthcoming years, with the development and access to better technology. Further, despite the raging pandemic and its tumultuous effects on the country and its economy, the country addressed 12 new unicorns, diving into the Startup ecosystem.

Here is a list of 20 best Indian Startups functioning to their potential in the current ecosystem, some of whom are also looking forward to an Initial public offering (IPO).

• Dailyhunt

Dailyhunt is a feed aggregator also delivering Indian content. Initially, known as News hunt it was founded by Virendra Gupta with Co-founder Umang Bedi under their parent company, Verse Innovation which was founded in the year 2009and is based out of Bengaluru, Karnataka, the platform enjoys a place in the list of 20 best Indian startups, as Dailyhunt was reported to be the largest Indian language distributor of e-books in ten languages, having 70,000 titles. Over the years Daily hunt has held several funding rounds, the most recent round being held in 2019 was a Series F round where the startup raised around INR 21.75 Cr.  They are accomplishing their ultimate goal to onboard more publishers and partners building a platform product for Indian language speakers. They recently launched their short video app called Josh. 

• Ola Cabs

Multinational ridesharing and food delivery company, Ola Cabs  which operates in 250+ cities across India, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK has rightfully earned its place among the most exceptional and best Indian startups. Based out of Bengaluru, Karnataka, Founded in 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwala and Ankit Bhati. The company is known to acquire companies including taxi service TaxiForSure, a trip-planning applications company and foodpanda, a food tech company with around 1.5 million driver-partners. Ola is further planning on getting into electric mobility called Ola Electric Mobility, they have already raised US$ 56 million of funding for their newest unit. Its competing partner in the market is known to be Uber.

• Paytm

Financial Services Company, Paytm is another very successful startup already on its way to IPO, and is aiming to raise around Rs 21,800 crore and could be the largest IPO seen in India. This Noida based startup paved its way into the list of best Indian Startups. Paytm which was founded in 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma saw immense success since launch, its stakeholders include Alibaba Group, Saif Partners, AGH, Berkshire Hathaway and Softbank Vision Fund. Paytm facilitates funds to be transferred from one to another. It still seems Paytm seems to dominate almost all across India.

• Urban Company

Urban Clap now known as Urban company is a major Indian Gig marketplace offering varied services including maintenance, repair services, home installation and home beauty and wellness services. Founded by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra in the year 2014, headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana. It has seen a major development in the previous year 2020 and in April 2021 it had turned into a major Indian unicorn with a fresh funding of $190M. It is known to have acquired GoodService and assets of Glamazon. It is known to service in India and outside. The company is known to have recorded 25,000 professionals under them taking service up to 800,000 every month. 

• Classplus

Classplus, having recently raised a huge amount of funding $65M from Tiger Global, recently has gained attention across the country. The edtech startup founded in 2015 provides tutors a suitable platform with the digital tools and resources, with proper analytical data about the child’s performance and other engagements with the parents. It has been known to operate around 70 cities and is shooting towards the top and has already made it to the best startups in India. 

• Meesho

Meesho is one of India’s biggest reseller platform, Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka it has already made its way into the unicorn list. Started by Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal the platform enables small  businesses to connect through social media apps including Whatsapp, Instagram, Facebook etc. Its most recent funding was in 2021 where the company raised $300M from some renowned investors like Facebook Prosus Ventures, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway, Knollwood Investment and led by Softbank vision fund.

• Curefit

Health and fitness startup  Curefit, provides online and offline experience around fitness, nutrition and mental-wellness. The platform came into existence in the year 2016 and is one of the rapidly emerging unicorns in the country. The Bengaluru headquartered company was founded by Ankit Nagori, Mukesh Bansal. Its most recent funding round was held in the running year where they raised $479.6M, as per reports they have had 10 funding rounds and acquired 9 organizations amongst which the latest acquisition was TREAD. 

• Dunzo

Delivery service provider platform, Dunzo founded in 2017 by Kabeer Biswas, and Co-founders Ankur Agarwal, Dalvir Suri, and Mukund Jha. Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurugram, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Mumbai and Hyderabad are the cities where the delivery service provider actively functions. They recently raised a series E funding round and have had raised a total of $128.4M in the past. What throws limelight towards the company is it has raised funding from Google and its recent partnership with PepsiCo, during the difficult times faced due to the pandemic, this delivery service provider was immensely active.

• InCred

Non-Banking Financial Company, Incred  facilitates Home Loan, Education Loan, Consumer Loan and SME Lending, The company was founded by Bhupinder Singh in the year 2017 and is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has made two acquisitions and raised total funding of $254.4M in 8 rounds.  The company is moving away from the traditional way of money lending, improvising into hassle free and making lending quick and easy. 

• Nykaa

Beauty, wellness, and fashion products retailer Nykaa based in Mumbai, Maharashtra founded in 2012, by Falguni Nayar. Currently Nykaa retails over 2,000 brands on its platform having started as online platform it is now has set up offline stores as well. It is among the best Indian startups and is now a major unicorn startup. Nykaa has held several rounds of funding and its most recent funding round making it a unicorn was $1.2B. As for acquisitions Nykaa acquired 20Dresses.com and Pipa Bella, moreover it also partnered with actress Katrina Kaif with her brand, Kay Beauty.

• Groww

Online investment platform, Groww launched in 2016 with headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The platform allows investors to invest in stocks and mutual platforms having started operating on Whatsapp groups, the company is now among a major unicorn of the country valued at $1B. It’s most recent funding was held in the year 2021, in its series D funding round. 

• Shuttl

Office commute bus aggregator, Shuttl is an ever growing startup functioning in around six cities around the country. Founded in 2015 by IIT graduates,  Amit Singh and Deepanshu Malviya. It has raised a total funding of $122.3M with the latest round held in 2020. 

• Sharechat

Social media application based in Bangalore, Sharechat  founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh and Farid Ahsan has made it as one of the unicorns in the country. The app was launched in 2015 and the app allows users to share videos, jokes, songs etc. On the whole it has raised around $824.8M in funding, its latest funding round was held in 2021. The platform was widely used and became popular after the Indian government banned Tik Tok, a Chinese application. It also launched a similar application called Moj in 2020.

• Swiggy

Food delivery app, Swiggy  founded in 2014 by Nandan Reddy and Sriharsha Majety successfully delivers in 100 cities in India. Swiggy had earned its place as a unicorn, being the second food delivery platform next to Zomato. Swiggy recently raised a Series J round of funding and has held 14 rounds in the past with a total funding of $2.4B. It has also acquired over 4 companies. As for partnerships, Swiggy is partnered with Burger King, Google local guide and Sodexo.

• Policy Bazaar

Indian insurance aggregator, Policybazaar based in Gurgaon is a global financial technology company. It was founded by Yashish Dahiya, in the year 2008 and has gained immense popularity since then. Since inception the company has had seven funding rounds. AS for the kind of insurance offered on the platform through tie ups they cover life insurance, health insurance, car insurance, travel insurance and corporate insurance.

• Razorpay

Razorpay a company enabling acceptance, processing and disbursing payments was founded in 2014 by Harshil Mathur, Shashank Kuma. The company has been growing steadily ever since and made it to the unicorn list, the company has made two acquisitions and raised a total of $366.6M in funding. It latest funding round, Series E was held in 2021.This Bangalore based company provides access to various payment modes including  net banking, UPI,  credit card and debit card, further it also facilitates payment wallets like Mobikwik, Airtel Money, JioMoney, Ola Money, and PayZapp.

• Byju’s

Byju’s, a renowned name amongst edtech in India is also an emerging unicorn and deserves its place amongst the best Indian startups. This Bangalore based startup was founded in 2011 by by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath.It si amongst the most valuable unicorns in the country valued at $16.5B. It has had a total of 18 funding rounds and its latest round was held in 2021, where it raised $2.7B. As for acquisitions it has made nine, some of them include, Aakash Educational Services Ltd,  Scholr, WhiteHat Jr etc. 

• Cars24

Online used car marketplace, Cars24 is amongst the major names in the car segment. Gurgaon headquartered company founded by Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Gajendra Jangid and Ruchit Agarwal in 2015. The company aims to revolutionize the used car reselling process. The company has had five funding rounds and its latest round was Series E round, They have raised a total of $393.8M and has made it to the unicorn list. 

• Urban Ladder

Furniture and decor retailer, Urban ladder distributes across more than 75 cities in the country online, Headquartered in Bangalore it has three stores there as well. It was founded in the year 2012. The company has had a total of 9 funding rounds and raised a total of $114.9M. The company is growing steadily and also offers its products on other platforms including Amazon and Flipkart.

• Medlife, now Pharmeasy

Bangalore based, Medlife, an Indian online pharmacy, e-consultation and diagnostics was founded in 2014 by Prashant Singh and Tushar Kumar. The company has come a long way in placing together doctors, pathology labs, pharmacies and patients through their app. They have had various acquisitions along the way including MyraMed, EClinic24/7 and Medlabz. It’s most recent development includes merged with PharmEasy, a Mumbai based health tech startup, founded in 2015 by Dharmil Sheth, Dhaval Shah, Mikhil Innani, It is the 7th unicorn in India, 2021.

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