Top 30 Startups in India - 2023
With 68 businesses valued at over $1 billion, India is third in the world for its thriving unicorn startup scene. The nation’s startup scene is thriving, presenting a wide range of cutting-edge businesses in several areas. Paytm, a leader in digital payments, and Practo, an innovator in healthcare, are two well-known names. The revolution in electric vehicles is being led by Ola Electric. These top startups in India firms serve as a representation of India’s entrepreneurial spirit, fostering economic expansion while arousing curiosity and appreciation around the world.
Top Startups in India
SNo. | Startup | Valuation | Sectors | Headquaters | Founders |
1 | $12.0B | Fintech | Bangalore | Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, Burzin Engineer | |
2 | $10.32B | Food&Drinks, Delivery | Gurugram | Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddah | |
3 | $8.0B | Fantsay Sports | Mumbai | Harsh Jain, Bhavit Sheth | |
4 | $8.0B | Hospitality | Gurugram | Ritesh Agarwal | |
5 | $7.5B | Fintech | Bangalore | Shashank Kumar, | |
6 | $6.4B | Fintech | Bangalore | Kunal Shah | |
7 | $6.5B | Food&Drinks, Delivery | Bangalore | Sriharsha Majety, | |
8 | $5.6B | Healthcare, E-commerce | Mumbai | Dhaval Shah, Dharmil Sheth | |
9 | $4.9B | E-commerce | Bangalore | Vidit Aatrey, | |
10 | $4.8B | Transportation | Bangalore | Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati | |
11 | $4.8B | Fintech, E-commerce | Noida | Vijay Shekhar Sharma | |
12 | $4B | General Insurance | Bangalore | Kamesh Goyal | |
13 | $3.4B | EdTech | Bangalore | Hemesh Singh, Roman Saini | |
14 | $2.15B | FinTech | Mumbai | Sumit Gupta, Neeraj Khandelwal | |
15 | $2.1B | Consumer Service | Gurugram | Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan, Raghav Chandra. | |
16 | $1.4B | E-commerce | Mumbai | Aadit Palicha, Kaivalya Vohra | |
17 | $1.25B | FinTech | Pune | Anurag Sinha | |
18 | $1.2B | Healthcare | Bangalore | Mukesh Bansal, | |
19 | $1.2B | E-commerce | Gurgaon | Sandeep Aggarwal, | |
20 | $1.2B | Interior Design | Bangalore | Ramakant Sharma, | |
21 | $1.2B | E-commerce | Mumbai | Darpan Sanghvi | |
22 | $1.1B | Employment, Human Resources | Bangalore | Nirmit Parikh | |
23 | $1.0B | FinTech | Gurgaon | Bipin Preet Singh, | |
24 | $815M | E-commerce | Bangalore | Kartheeswaran KK | |
25 | $711M | Banking | Mumbai | Jitendra Gupta | |
26 | $700M | FinTech | Bangalore | Archit Gupta, Raja Ram Gupta, Srivatsan Chari, Ankit Solanki | |
27 | $456M | Car Rental | Bangalore | Greg Moran, | |
28 | $400M | FinTech | Bangalore | Vimal Kumar Ramanathan | |
29 | $300M | Healthcare | Bangalore | Shashank ND, Abhinav Lal | |
30 | $300M | Drinks | New Delhi | Ankur Jain |
1. PhonePe
PhonePe, launched in December 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer, has grown to become one of the biggest fintech platforms in India with headquarters in Bengaluru.
The PhonePe app has over 20 crore monthly active users and 44 crore registered users. It is also accessible in 11 Indian languages. April 2022 saw daily transaction volume surpass 10 crore.
This year, PhonePe revealed that it has raised an additional $100 million in primary capital at a $12 billion pre-money valuation.
Additionally, the company has effectively digitalized 3.5 crore offline retailers located in Tier 2, Tier 3, and higher, covering 99% of the nation’s pin codes.
According to the Brand Trust Report 2022, PhonePe has recently been named the Most Trusted Brand for Digital Payments.
2. Zomato
In 2008, Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, who were both employed by Bain & Company, established Zomato under the name FoodieBay. In the future, it was determined to change the name in case they didn’t want to “stick to just food.”
In more than 1,000 Indian cities and villages, Zomato offers restaurant information, menus, and user ratings in addition to food delivery choices from partner eateries.
Zomato introduced a service called Intercity Legends in Delhi NCR in August 2022 that allows customers to order meal delivery within a few days from renowned eateries in other cities.
Feeding India, a nonprofit that provides free meals to the impoverished with the help of volunteers, reportedly served over 200,000 meals daily under its Daily Feeding Program in May 2022, according to Zomato.
Zomato’s market capitalization stood at $10.32 billion as of September 2023. By market cap, Zomato is now the 1449th most valuable company in the world, according to our data.
3. Dream11
In 2008, Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth co-founded Dream11. Users can play fantasy baseball, American football, basketball, volleyball, rugby, kabaddi, handball, and cricket on the Indian fantasy sports website Dream11.
Dream11 became the first unicorn fantasy sports firm in India in April 2019. It had 160 million active users in India as of December 2022.
The Indian Premier League has been sponsored by Dream11 for the previous three seasons, and a number of A-list cricketers have signed on as brand ambassadors.
Before the fantasy gaming platform was able to raise its first check, Dream11 Co-Founder and CEO Harsh Jain estimates that he received 150 rejections.
Later, the parent company Dream Sports raised $840 million at a $8 billion valuation amid the pandemic-driven fundraising boom.
4. OYO Rooms
Ritesh Agarwal started Oravel Stays in 2012 to facilitate the listing and booking of inexpensive lodging; in 2013, he changed the company’s name to OYO.
OYO Rooms is a transnational Indian hotel brand that consists of rented and franchised lodgings. When OYO was first established in 2012 by Ritesh Agarwal, it mostly featured cheap hotels.
In 800 cities in 80 countries, including India, Malaysia, the UAE, Nepal, China, Brazil, Mexico, the UK, Philippines, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the United States, it has over 43,000 properties and one million rooms as of January 2020.
OYO records over 150% Y-O-Y growth in travel agent network in FY23, and is currently valued at $8 Billion.
5. Razorpay
Due to the epidemic, many small firms in 2020 had significant losses, and cash flow was also severely impacted. To address this issue, Razorpay unveiled Cash Advance, a line of credit without collateral designed to save MSMEs from precarious situations.
Razorpay is an online platform created to manage end-to-end payments that can also be integrated with various websites and apps. Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, former students of IIT Roorkee, launched the business in 2014. Bangalore serves as the organization’s primary location.
When Razorpay secured $375 Mn in its Series F round in 2021 from investors including Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital, and TCV for a valuation of $7.5 Bn, it was the highest valued fintech company at the time.
6. Cred
CRED is a Bangalore-based fintech business in India. It is a reward-based credit card payments app, founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah.
Cred was founded by Kunal Shah as a TrustTech firm rather than a FinTech company with the goal of addressing trust difficulties in Indian society, which he views as being essential for economic growth.
From 2020 to 2023, Cred served as the Indian Premier League’s official sponsor.Cred’s internal films and advertising materials involving Indian celebrities will debut in 2021.
According to the firm, 11.2 million of these active customers are eligible for BNPL and loans, with a $6.4 billion valuation.
7. Swiggy
An online store named Bundl was created in 2011 by Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy to make couriering and shipping throughout India easier. In order to penetrate the meal delivery sector, Bundl was halted in 2014 and rebranded.
As of September 2021, Bangalore-based Swiggy, is active in more than 500 Indian cities. In addition to meal delivery, the platform also offers same-day package delivery service under the brand Swiggy Genie and on-demand grocery deliveries under the name Instamart.
In the food delivery and hyperlocal sector, it competes with the homegrown business Zomato.
Drone delivery trials were started by Swiggy and the drone manufacturer ANRA Technologies in January 2022.
Currently valued at $6.7B, has worked with Sodexo to enable meal card payments and Google Local Guide to encourage customer evaluations.
8. PharmEasy
Dhaval Shah and Dharmil Sheth launched the business in Mumbai in 2015.Other online pharmacies, such as Netmeds, are in competition with PharmEasy.
PharmEasy’s creator, Dharmil Sheth, is a pharmacist by trade. He founded the business with the intention of increasing the general public’s access to and affordability of medications.
It remains at number eight on our ranking of the best startups in India.
Over a million people use PharmEasy, which is supported by investors like Sequoia Capital, Orios Venture Partners, and InnoVen Capital. It remains at number eight on our ranking of the best startups in India.
9. Meesho
The Indian business Fashnear Technologies Private Limited owns Meesho, an online marketplace.With a significant emphasis on external social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, it is an online marketplace that allows trade between suppliers, resellers, and buyers.
In just two years, its gross merchandise value (GMV) surged ninefold, reaching $5 billion in 2022 (in contrast, Flipkart’s GMV was $23 billion).
Meesho was recognized as one of the most influential businesses of 2023 by Time (magazine).The same year, Meesho broke the 500 million download barrier more quickly than any other shopping app.
The business declared that it had raised about US$1.1 billion in 2021, making the company worth $4.9 Billion.
10. Ola
Ola Cabs, an international ride-sharing business with its headquarters in Bangalore, is an Indian corporation. It also operates in additional industry sectors, such as cloud kitchens and financial services.
Ola was founded in Dec 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati with a mission to build mobility for a billion people.
The parent company ANI Technologies also runs Ola Fleet, Ola Financial Services, and Ola Foods in addition to the ride-hailing firm Ola Cabs.In addition, as of September 2019, it has a 6% investment in Ola Electric, a manufacturer of electric scooters.
Despite having fired over 2,500 employees since the start of the previous year from a variety of teams and verticals, the company nonetheless managed to rank among the top companies with a valuation of $4.8 billion.
11. Paytm
A worldwide financial technology firm with headquarters in Noida, Paytm (short for “pay through mobile”) is an Indian corporation that specializes in digital payments and financial services.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the company’s creator, put down a $2 million initial investment when Paytm was established in August 2010.
A mobile app called Paytm Insider makes it easier to purchase tickets online for sporting events, live entertainment events, and cricket matches.
The Paytm app offers access to the Government ONDC, where you may order food and consumables.
From 1.18 crore in August 2014 to 10.4 crore in August 2015, Paytm’s registered user base increased.At the Global Fintech Fest 2022, Paytm took up the prizes for Best UPI App, Most Design User-Friendly Fintech App, and Most Innovative Use of Technology.
12. Dijit Insurance
“We believe this can be changed; the way insurance products are viewed, purchased, and claimed. Simply put, we are here ‘To Make Insurance Simple.’”, said Kamesh Goyal, Founder of Dijit Insurance.
Founder and chairman of Digit Insurance, Kamesh Goyal, says he started it with the goal of making insurance simple and claims faster for customers.
This is a well-liked B2C service across the nation because of how simple it is to process claims using technology (such as through your phone) and how clear it is regarding the terms and conditions for each policy. Almost anything you can think of is accessible.
The company just cleared two million customers and announced a 94% claims settlement rate, all despite being operational for only 16 months and is valued at $4 Billion as of May 2022.
13. Unacademy
Along with Hemesh Singh and Roman Saini, Unacademy, an Indian multinational educational technology company with its headquarters in Bangalore, was founded in 2015 from what initially started as a YouTube channel created by Gaurav Munjal while he was a Mumbai-based engineering student.
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The unacademy It delivers information on fundamental (K–12) and skill-building courses (programming, photography, entrepreneurship, etc.), as well as helps students get ready for a variety of competitive exams (such JEE, NEET, UPSC, Chartered Accountancy, GATE, UPSC NDA, CUET, Boards, etc.).
Ranked first on LinkedIn’s list of India’s Top Startups in 2021, was worth US$3.44 billion as of May 2022.
14. Coin DCX
In 2018, Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal co-founded CoinDCX, a platform for trading cryptocurrencies.
For those new to blockchain technology or cryptocurrency investing, the platform offers DCX Learn.
For novice retail investors, experienced cryptocurrency users, and cryptocurrency traders, the organization offers the two applications CoinDCX and CoinDCX Pro.
Its offerings for retail, HNI, and enterprise customers include crypto deposit and withdrawal solutions, investing and trading solutions, and financial products based on cryptocurrencies.
The company has 7.3 million members, and its total trading value for the year to date is $21.8 billion.
15. Urban Company
Urban Company, formerly known as Urban Clap, is an Indian gig marketplace founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Varun Khaitan, and Raghav Chandra.
It was created with the aim of providing reliable and professional services to urban customers.The platform provides a range of home services, including repairs, maintenance, and beauty and wellness treatments.
In June 2021, Urban Company achieved unicorn status, boasting a valuation surpassing $2 billion. This significant milestone reflects the company’s rapid growth and success in connecting customers with a diverse array of professional service providers, making it a prominent player in the Indian service industry.
16. Zepto
Together with CTO Vohra, CEO Palicha founded Zepto in 2020 when they were both 17 years old. Instead of enrolling in Stanford University, Palicha and Vohra chose to forgo college and secured their first external investment from the venture capital firm Contrary.
Their unique selling point is the incredibly fast delivery time of just 10 minutes.Zepto introduced Cafe in April 2022 as a new service that specializes on delivering coffee and prepared meals.
In Series-E fundraising round, reaching a $1.4 billion valuation,Zepto becomes the first unicorn of 2023. In the 18 months that followed, Zepto raised over $360 million through 4 rounds of funding and established over 100 operational centres all over India.
17. One card
OneCard, a fintech firm based in Pune, earned around $100 Mn (roughly INR 802 Cr) in a new fundraising round, making it the newest member of the unicorn club. After the new fundraising round, OneCard is valued at roughly $1.25 billion.
The greatest metal credit card in India. made using full stack technology. supported by the values of user control restoration, transparency, and simplicity.
This lifetime-free credit card is ideal for first-time credit card users who want to accumulate reward points from their transactions. One of the best aspects of this credit card is that it offers 5X rewards on the top 2 expenditure categories rather than restricting extra reward earning to certain categories.
18. CureFit
A healthcare and fitness company with its headquarters in Bengaluru, India, is called Cure.fit. Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori founded the company.
A healthcare firm called Cure.fit uses technology and data to help individuals lead healthy lifestyles and afford quality medical care.
Through its four fully integrated verticals, it offers experiences in fitness, nutrition, and mental wellbeing both online and offline.
While cult.fit focuses on physical fitness, mind.fit looks after mental health, eat.fit on nutritious food, and care.fit on caring.Fit examines individualized medical services, such as consultation and testing, offering zero wait time, 24*7 video consultation and free follow up for the users.
In June, Curefit had raised $75 million from Tata Digital, a wholly owned unit of Tata Group Holding entity Tata Sons.
19. Droom
In April 2014, Sandeep Aggarwal and Rishab Malik created Droom. Sandeep Aggarwal previously co-founded ShopClues with Sanjay Sethi and Radhika Aggarwal.
The Droom platform offers four different marketplace models, including B2C, C2C, C2B, and B2B, as well as three different pricing systems, including Fixed Price, Best Offer, and Auction.
Nobody else in India has been able to build an e-commerce platform that successfully combines a robust data science layer with the economic advantage and technological expertise of Droom.
After raising $200 million in a pre-IPO investment round at a valuation of $1.2 billion, Droom changed its name to Unicorn in July 2021.
20. LivSpace
Livspace, a three-sided marketplace and design automation platform, was established in 2015 by Ramakant Sharma and Anuj Srivastava to link homeowners, licensed designers, and merchants.
A home interior and renovation company called Livspace has its headquarters in Bangalore. In Singapore and India, it offers interior design and remodeling services. Customers can choose between Livspace Select (for modular products) and Livspace Vesta (for complete home interiors) as its two services.
For Best Residential Design in 2020, Livpsace received the Design Excellence Award (Silver).
Going forward, Livspace said it plans to expand to over 100 cities in India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
21. MyGlamm
Online cosmetics retailer MyGlamm is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
MyGlamm was established by Darpan Sanghvi in October 2017 and is a part of the Good Glamm Group.
Customers could book a home spa or beauty and hair care service through the business’s on-demand beauty service, which launched in 2015.
Following this deal, the company was valued at $1.2 billion (Rs 8,886 crore), making it the first beauty and personal care D2C (direct to consumer) brand to join the exclusive unicorn club.
The business describes itself as India’s fastest-growing direct-to-consumer beauty brand and offers more than 800 vegan and cruelty-free items in areas like cosmetics, skincare, and personal care. Moreover, it has more than 30,000 physical stores in 70 countries.
22. Apna
The creator and CEO of Apna, the platform for blue-collar work that became Covid-19’s youngest billion-dollar startup in India, is Nirmit Parikh.
An Indian internet recruitment firm called Apna connects businesses with millions of blue-collar workers.
With over 70 categories catered to specialist vocations like carpenters, painters, and field sales people, Apna has created a multilingual Android app.
By providing improved professional possibilities to the expanding workforce, Apna seeks to accelerate India.
With the goal of bringing about a “radical cultural and social change” through “ubiquitous technology,” brought Apna to a $1.1 billion valuation (about Rs 9000 crore as of May 2023) in just 21 months. Within two years, his business idea had grown by a whopping 125 percent.
23. MobiKwik
Co-Founder and COO Upasana Taku of unicorn fintech company MobiKwik told PTI that the company aims to keep up its momentum throughout the year and that it has become the first fintech company to record a consolidated profit.
Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, a husband and wife partnership, created MobiKwik in 2009.
A mobile phone-based payment system and digital wallet are offered by MobiKwik, an Indian company that was formed in 2009.
The firm released its MobiKwik Lite mobile app, which was created for people who use outdated 2G mobile networks and live in places with inadequate internet connectivity.
According to Forbes India Magazine, MobiKwik claimed to be attracting one million new subscribers each month and had 15 million users as of April 2015.80 in June 2017.
24. Ninjacart
Founded by Kartheeswaran KK, the largest fresh produce supply chain company in India, Ninjacart, is using technology to tackle one of the most difficult issues the world has ever faced.
The business Ninjacart wants to upend the supply chain for fresh produce. The risk of picking up the produce from the farmers and delivering it to the small retail stores is taken on by Ninjacart.
Currently, their supply chain is able to transport 1400 tonnes of perishables daily, in less than 12 hours, from fields to companies.
The most recent capital follows a $145 million investment by Flipkart, which is supported by Walmart, in the business in December. By the end of 2022, 200 cities will be served by Flipkart’s 90-minute online grocery service, Flipkart Quick, thanks to the investment in Ninjacart.
25. Jupiter
Jitendra Gupta, a pioneer in the fintech industry, launched Neobank Jupiter, which announced on Monday that it is increasing its customer base in India.
One of the promising startups in digital banking that is based on the neobanking idea is Jupiter. Jupiter, which has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, promises a broad range of banking and account-related services, special savings accounts, in-the-moment spend breakdowns and insights, in-the-moment monitoring of your net worth, and more.
All of these services could also win you fantastic rewards. There are no unforeseen costs at Jupiter. Over 100 crore in consumer deposits were made through the app in the previous 30 days, it noted.
26. ClearTax
In 2011, Archit Gupta, his father Raja Ram Gupta, Srivatsan Chari, and Ankit Solanki established ClearTax.
The Bangalore-based Fintech business ClearTax specializes in taxation SaaS and provides financial services and SaaS in India. For businesses, MSMEs, tax professionals, and taxpayers, it offers cloud-based tools for GST, e-Invoicing, e-Waybill, income tax, investments, and tax deductions. For Indian enterprises and people, the organization seeks to streamline finances and save money and time.
Over the past five years, 40,000 businesses and more than a million people have trusted us with their tax records.Known for being trustworthy include companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Yes-Bank, Toyota, Standard-Chartered, ICICI Bank, Infosys, CYIENT, IDBI Bank, and PayTM.
27. Zoom Cars
The motto of Zoomcar, an Indian car-sharing service with its headquarters in Bangalore, is “Never Stop Living.” Greg Moran and David Back started the company in 2013. It is currently active in over 34 cities. Zoomcar has made it possible for travelers to drive conveniently across the nation, and it is quickly extending its reach to cities. Self-drive automobiles from Zoomcar have provided customers more power, privacy, and independence.
Revv Cars, Drivezy, MylesCars (supported by Carzonrent), Ola Drive by (Ola Cabs), and other comparable car rental businesses compete with Zoomcar.
To speed up EV-based travel across the nation, the firm recently announced a partnership with domestic electric vehicle (EV) charging network startup Statiq.
The combined business, which will be called Zoomcar Holdings after the purchase, is valued at $456 million.
28. JUSPAY
Founded in 2012 by Vimal Kumar and Ramanathan, Juspay aims to do secure, 1-click payments on mobile for one billion people and catalyze the convergence of online and offline payments.
Globally, 21% of online shoppers abandoned their carts due to the process of payment taking too long.
Bangalore-based Juspay Technologies has come a step further with their latest offering, Juspay Safe. Juspay Safe is a specially designed browser for online banking and payment applications.
With both flagship products, the company processes more than 4 million transactions per month.
29. Practo
Founded in May 2008 by Shashank ND and Abhinav Lal, Practo, headquartered in Bengaluru, India, emerged from a personal need.
Shashank ND’s quest to share his father’s non-digitized medical records led to the creation of Practo, an integrated healthcare company.
Serving as a comprehensive platform, Practo connects patients, doctors, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, and diagnostics, aiming to make quality healthcare accessible and affordable to over a billion Indians.
With over 10,000 doctors on Practo Ray, the platform has amassed more than 10 million electronic patient records, doubling annually, while facilitating over 7.5 million unique patients and 7 million appointments a year.
30. Bira 91
Bira 91 is an international craft beer brand that was developed by Indian businessman Ankur Jain in 2015.
With ingredients from France, Belgium, the Himalayas, and Bavarian Farms, with the goal of providing distinctive and varied refreshment options.
The fourth-largest brewery in the nation, Bira 91, asserts a 5% market share throughout India’s most important markets. To improve its presence in bars, it purchased the pub chain The Beer Cafe.
It is now valued at $300 million after receiving $10 million from Japan’s biggest bank, MUFG.
Final Thoughts
Innovation is more than just a catchphrase in the exciting world of India’s top 30 startups as of 2023; it’s a way of life. These innovators work in a variety of fields, including technology, healthcare, finance, and transportation. They exemplify the force of creativity.
They show us how to change course and succeed in the face of difficulties. They are more than simply businesses; they are rays of hope, demonstrating to us that we can forge a better, more empowered future through tenacity, teamwork, and unflinching belief.
