The term ‘Unicorn’ start-up was first conceived by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy ventures in 2013 when she referred to the 39 start-up companies that were valued at $1 billion. Initially, the term was used to lay emphasis on the rarity of such start-ups that reached the value of $1 billion. Ever since the definition of a unicorn start-up has remained unchanged. Since then, a lot of companies have joined the list of unicorn start-ups the world over.
Similarly, in India, some major unicorn businesses have emerged in recent times, which are firsts of their kind, customer-centred, high on tech, and bring disruptive innovation to the market. Following is the list of such new unicorn start-ups that are at the top of the game –
- BharatPe – BharatPe was founded by Ashneer Grover, Bhavik Koladiya, and Shashvat Nakrani together in 2018. BharatPe being one of the top unicorn businesses in India has its headquarters situated in New Delhi, India. The company operates in industries like Financial Services, Fintech, and Payments Platforms. BharatPe essentially is a digital payments platform that encourages digital payments via QR and POS. The company is currently valued at $2.85 billion being one of the topmost unicorns in India.
- upGrad – upGrad makes it to the list of unicorn start-ups in India by getting valued at $1.2 billion as of August 2021. The company was founded together by Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, Ravijot Chugh, and Ronnie Screwvala in 2015. upGrad operates in industries like EdTech and E-learning, providing products and services like learning courses and materials. The company partners with some of the top universities in the world to provide higher education to the students who opt for it. upGrad offers courses like bachelor’s degrees, MBA, Data Science, Machine Learning courses, and more to students to make them industry-ready.
- CoinDCX – CoinDCX is one of the Indian Unicorn start-ups that value at $1.1 billion. The company was founded in 2018 together by Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta. CoinDCX is an Indian cryptocurrency exchange aggregator that operates in industries like cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Fintech. The company is based out of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. CoinDCX aims to create financial services without any restrictions enabling a simpler and seamless flow of capital powered by inviolable security. It’s the first cryptocurrency unicorn of India.
- Zetwerk – Situated in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Zetwerk is an online B2B marketplace for manufacturing items. The company was founded in 2018 currently valued at $1.33 billion. Zetwerk was founded by Amit Acharya, Rahul Sharma, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, and Vishal Chaudhary together. The company has IIFL, Accel, and Sequoia Capital as its investors. Zetwerk connects large manufacturing companies with vendors and supplies that supply them with industrial tools and machinery that they need.
- BlackBuck – BlackBuck is a truck aggregator that is one of the largest truck aggregators operating in India. The company has the objective to solve the transportation and logistics problems of numerous Indians. The company was founded by Chanakya Hridaya, Rajesh Yabaji, and Ramasubramaniam B in 2015. The company has its headquarters situated in Bangalore, India. BlackBuck is valued at $1.02 billion as of August 2021, registering itself in the list of unicorn start-ups in India. The company provides logistics and transport services to shippers and fleet operators in India.
- ShareChat – ShareChat was founded by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Faris Ahsan together in 2015. The company is valued at a whopping $3 billion as of July 2021. ShareChat’s headquarters is situated in Bangalore, India. The company is an Indian video-sharing social networking service. The company has large investors that include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tiger Global Management, Twitter Ventures, SAIF Partners, Shunwei Capital, and Xiaomi. ShareChat app is a platform where content consumption and sharing happens solely in Indian vernacular languages to cater to over 1.17 billion Wi-Fi consumers of India.
- PharmEasy – PharmEasy is a company that operates in industries like Healthcare and Online Pharmacy. PharmEasy was founded in 2015 by Mikhil Innani, Dharmil Sheth, and Dhaval Shah. The company provides products and services like online pharmacy, medicines, healthcare and wellness products, diagnostic tests, etc. The company is valued at $1.8 billion as of June 2021, making it to the list of top Indian Unicorn start-ups. The company headquarters is situated in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is currently the leading healthcare aggregator in India.
- CRED – CRED was founded by Kunal Shah in 2018. It operates in the Financial Technology industry by providing an online platform to its customers to make credit card payments and even get rewarded in the process. The company has its headquarters situated in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The company offers services and products like Rentpay, CRED cash, Store, Credit Card Payments, and Cred pay, valuing currently at $2.2 billion.
- Meesho – Meesho is one of the popular Indian E-commerce companies that was founded by Visit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal in 2015. The company values at $3.5 billion as of July 2021. Meesho is a unicorn company that helps small or medium-sized businesses or even individuals to start their online stores through different social media platforms. Meesho provides services and products like clothes, cosmetics, household items, etc.
- Urban company – Urban Company was founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan, and Raghav Chandra together. It is said to be Asia’s largest home services company being an all-in-one platform that helps customers find professionals for different home services. It is valued at $2.1 billion as of June 2021, making it to the list of top unicorn businesses in India.
