We are living in an era where everyone wants to start their own business, be their boss. However, some ventures get success, while some fail. India’s becoming one of the fastest-growing startup countries with around 52 unicorn startups. Bagging a title of “Unicorn Company” is not a cakewalk as it takes immense hard work, commitment, and consistency throughout the startup journey to reach that level. “Unicorn” is a term used in the venture capital industry to describe a privately held startup company with a value of over $1 billion.

Here’s the list of some of the top unicorn companies in India in 2021

Paytm

Paytm is one of the biggest unicorn companies in India, founded in 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Paytm is India’s leading mobile payments and commerce platform. This fintech startup is famously known for its payment gateway service that has helped consumers to make seamless payments to the seller directly from their bank accounts. The company entered the unicorn club in 2015. In 2015 Paytm’s valuation was above $7 billion and surged to $16 billion by 2020.

Ola Cabs

Ola Cabs is an Indian multinational ride-sharing company launched in 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal & Ankit Bhati. As of 2019, the company has expanded to a network of more than 1.5 million drivers across 250 cities. Ola expanded its international operations with 22 new cities in Australia and New Zealand in February 2018. Ola had also launched its operations by introducing auto-rickshaws in London. Ola’s valuation is $3 billion by March 2021.

Swiggy

Swiggy is India’s largest online food ordering and delivery platform, founded in 2014 by Nandan Reddy, Sriharsha Majety, and Rahul Jaimini. In early 2019, Swiggy expanded into general product deliveries under the name of Swiggy Stores. In September 2019, Swiggy launched the instant pickup/drop-off service Swiggy Go. The service is used for a diverse array of items, including laundry and document or parcel deliveries to business clients and retail customers. Till today, Swiggy has more than 5 lakh mobile app installations. Swiggy has also partnered with Burger King to provide delivery services. It has also partnered with Google Local Guide to facilitate customer reviews, and with Sodexo to enable customers to pay through meal cards. Swiggy has partnered with Indifi Technologies to facilitate a financing program for partner restaurants. Swiggy launched a digital wallet, Swiggy Money, in partnership with ICICI Bank. Swiggy’s valuation is around $4.9 billion.

Zomato

Zomato is an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company founded by Pankaj Chaddah and Deepinder Goyal in 2008. The primary function of Zomato is to provide concrete information, menus, and user reviews of the restaurants. Moreover, Zomato also has food delivery options from partnered restaurants of the selected cities. Zomato’s releases of its IPO comprises Rs 9,000 crore of fresh fundraise and Rs 375 crore secondary share sale by Info Edge.

Zerodha

Zerodha is an Indian Fintech startup that offers retail and institutional broking, currencies and commodities trading, mutual funds, and bonds. It was founded in 2010 by Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath, headquartered in Bangalore. The aim of Zerodha was to break all the barriers traders and investors face in India. In Dec 2020 Zerodha was the leading retail stockbroker in India with an active client base and contributed upwards of 15% of daily retail volumes to Indian Stock Exchanges. In July 2020, the company entered the Unicorn club with a valuation of about $1 billion.

Udaan

Udaan is a B2B e-commerce platform that offers a wholesale product solution to different vendors in all categories. Udaan was founded in 2016 by Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya, and Vaibhav Gupta. It’s a B2B marketplace that connects retailers, traders, wholesalers, and manufacturers using technology as the main tool. Udaan is valued at $2.5 billion.

OYO Rooms

OYO Rooms, also known as OYO Hotels & Homes, is an Indian multinational hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes, and living spaces. Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, Headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana. The startup works in cooperation with existing hotels and offers travelers vacant rooms at a cheaper price to its customers. Along with bulk renting hotels, OYO has also invested in their own properties as well. The company is valued at $8.4 billion.

Pharmeasy

PharmEasy is a company developing a healthcare delivery platform. PharmEasy was founded in 2014 by Siddharth Shah. It helps patients to connect with local pharmacy stores and diagnostic centers enabling them to order medicines, healthcare products, and diagnostic tests. The company aims to improve the supply chain in the pharmaceutical sector by digitizing the process. The company is valued at $323 million in April 2021.

Cred

CRED is an Indian fintech company, based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, which was founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, based in Bangalore. CRED’s main feature is allowing users to make credit card payments through its app for which they get rewarded. Cred is currently valued at $2.2 billion.

Meesho

Meesho, is an Indian social commerce platform founded by IIT Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in December 2015. It enables small businesses and individuals to start their online stores via social channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Meesho is valued at $2.1 billion.

Infra.Market 

Infra.Market is an India-based technology company trying to change the way construction and real estate companies procure material for their projects. The company was founded in 2016 by Aaditya Sharda and Souvik Sengupta. The company is currently valued at $1 billion.

Innovaccer

Innovaccer is a healthcare data activation platform company that delivers healthcare through pioneering analytics and transparent data. Noida- and San Francisco-based Innovaccer has become the first Indian Health Tech unicorn after raising $105 Mn in a Series D round, led by Tiger Global Management. Innovaccer was founded in 2014 and Sandeep Gupta is the Co–Founder and Chief Operating Officer. The health tech startup is valued at $1.3 Bn after the current round.  

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