A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017


There is a reason why every other startup in the world loves to call their startup the #UberofSomething. This is because when it all comes down to brass tacks, the startup company valuation Uber tops the charts, leading by huge margins. The current total valuation of the on-demand Taxi booking company is estimated to be around $ 68 Billion as of 2017. Then China's Didi Chuxing comes in with a total valuation of $50 Billion as another On - Demand Taxi booking company.
Now, you may be thinking, why are we talking about foreign startups like Uber and Didi Chuxing. Well, it is because startups are crucial for our nation's growth, we need to reflect on our Indian startups and save ourselves from getting into a pit from their learnings. We also need to work on crucial things that we are surely missing. It could be innovation that might be missing and a copy paste culture could be that one culprit which leads us down the wrong path or one where we just eventually become average in everything.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© The News Minute
As of now, in India, the unicorn-ship or one can say the Olympic torch relay is spearheaded by Flipkart with an approximate total valuation of $ 11.6 Billion. We are still lagging by the huge margin and in the number of startups as well. Young and even smaller(area wise) countries like Estonia are making their mark in innovation, then why not us? Why are we not competent enough in providing something more than a service and create something that is on par with the world-class market products? Why are we not able to excite, attract early customers and introduce more innovative products for them in the market? Maybe it is time to self-reflect and win everyone's trust back in India. We need to make India the market leader again and support more product startups.
Now, the question that arises is whether should we tighten the game like China and save our OlaCabs and Flipkart against Uber and Amazon or should we keep learning from the healthy competition they are keeping us in. Philosophically and with a futuristic vision, one may favor the latter but then that will also sprout the favorable results only if we are not cheated by our own system itself. Mission and vision should be one for the nation.
Total valuation: Indian Unicorns are valued at 35.45 B against $ 738 B of total 217 unicorn companies all over the world.

1. Flipkart

Total valuation: $11.6 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© PriceFixR
Flipkart, an eCommerce marketplace was founded in October 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (no relation) and is competing against the market leader Amazon. Will Flipkart thrive against such a fierce competitor? Only time will tell.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© NDTV Profit

Left to Right:
Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

2. Snapdeal 

Total valuation: $7 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© YourStory
Snapdeal is again an eCommerce marketplace which was started by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in February 2010. Once considered as the top e-commerce website, they are now struggling against Flipkart and Amazon. Also, at one point Flipkart were in talks to buy Snapdeal but the latter refused the offer and decided to stand strong alone.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Livemint
Left to Right: Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

3. One97 Communications (operates as Paytm)

Total valuation: $5.7 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Mi Shoppe


Paytm, as we are all aware of, partially due to demonetization, is a fintech sector company which facilitates users to make cashless digital transactions through a digital wallet. The company was founded in August 2010 by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The name Paytm has been derived from "Payment Through Mobile."
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Tech in Asia
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

4. Olacabs 

Total valuation: $3.65 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Tanay Sai
Ola is one of the first major, Indian on-demand taxi booking service companies that has made to the list of unicorns. Ola Cabs was founded on 3 December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal, and Ankit Bhati and is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Letsintern
Olacabs founder Ankit Bhatia
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

5. ReNew Power Ventures 

Total valuation: $2 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© CleanTechnica
ReNew Power Ventures is a renewable energy company headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana. The company was founded 6 years ago in 2011 by Sumant Sinha.
ReNew Power Ventures is an Independent Power Producer (IPP) of clean energy with an installed capacity of more than 1000 MegaWatt. It's power plant span across the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Gujarat,
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Livemint
ReNew Power Ventures founder Sumant Sinha
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

6. Hike 

Total valuation: $1.4 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Wikipedia
Hike is a cross-platform instant messaging service for smartphones that uses the internet for communication. The company was launched 4 years ago in December 2012 by Kavin Bharti. Its major competitor includes Whatsapp and WeChat.
Its valuation touched to $ 1.4 B when it received $175 million dollars in funding from the Chinese internet firm Tencent and manufacturing giant Foxconn. Now, this was the time when entrepreneurs and investors were scratching their heads due to the downfall in the industry and here on the other hand, Hike surprised everybody by raising a huge round of funding. A round of funding that made it a unicorn company.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© BW Disrupt
Hike messenger founder Kavin Mittal
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

7. Shopclues 

Total valuation: $1.1 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Owler
Shopclues is another major Indian eCommerce marketplace that is competing against the likes of Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong and more. The company was founded in California's Silicon Valley in 2011 by Radhika Aggarwal, Sandeep Aggarwal, and Sanjay Sethi. The company is headquartered in Gurugram, India.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© NewsBytes
Left to Right: Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, Sanjay Sethi, and Sandeep Aggarwal
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

8. Zomato Media 

Total valuation: $1 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Newsmobile
Zomato is a restaurant search and discovery service company founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008.
Zomato, as of now operates in 23 countries, including India, United States, and Australia. With the help of Zomato, one can get all the information and reviews on restaurants, including images of menus, and it comes handy when the restaurant does not have its own website.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© The Huffington Post India
Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

9. InMobi

Total valuation: $1 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Mobile App Marketing
InMobi is an ad tech company which functions as a global advertising and discovery platform that reaches over 1.5 billion unique mobile devices worldwide. InMobi was founded in 2007 by Naveen Tewari, Amit Gupta, Mohit Saxena, and Abhay Singhal.
InMobi's platform enables consumers to discover new products and services by providing contextual, relevant, and curated recommendations on mobile devices. The platform allows brands, publishers, and developers to engage consumers through mobile advertising.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© YourStory
InMobi founder Naveen Tewari
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights

10. Quikr 

Total valuation: $1 B
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© First Report.in
The last one on the list is Quikr which is another eCommerce marketplace that simply proves that eCommerce is the recipe for success and in a race to being a unicorn company too.
In other words, Quikr is a classified advertising platform which was founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas in 2008. The company is headquartered in Bangalore, India.
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© Property Portal Watch
Quikr founder Pranay Chulet
A Brief Look At The 10 Unicorn Companies Of India As Of 2017© cbinsights





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