14 Indian Tech Startups That Have Transformed Into Billion-Dollar Businesses

In the last few years, India’s ecosystem for tech startups has seen great success. Some of the startups have joined the unicorn club or firms with value more than $1 billion. Here are 14 Indian-based startups that have transformed into billion-dollar businesses.

1. Lenskart

Lenskart, a well-known eye-wear retailer and e-retailer, succeeded in securing a fund of $350 million from the SoftBank Vision fund.

2. Big Basket

At the beginning of 2019, Big Basket, grocery e-tailer, called for a $150 million fund from the Mirae Asset Global Investments. After that, the company was valued at $1.2 million and this put BigBasket into the unicorn club.

3. Druva

Druva, a data protection firm from Prune, is the latest member of the unicorn club. The company succeeded in calling for a fund of $130 million from investors led by Atreides Management, Neuberger Berman and Viking Global Investors. The company now has a value of more than $1 billion.

4. Dream11

Dream11 is the only startup specializing in gaming that becomes a unicorn. Earlier this year, the company received an investment from Steadview Capital to reach a value of $1 billion dollars.

5. Policybazaar

The company was founded back in 2008 by IIT alumni. Softbank later invested $238 million in the company. Policybazaar’s parent company is ETechAces Marketing and Consulting. The main investors are Softbank, IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital, and Temasek.

6. Paytm Mall

Paytm Mall received investment from Softbank and Alibaba and get into the Unicorn club with a value of $1.9 billion. Paytm Mall competes against e-commerce giants like Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon. Paytm Mall’s investors include Alibaba, Softbank, and Ant Financial.

7. Oyo

Ritesh Agarwal founded Oyo in 2014. The company transformed into a billion-dollar business after it received $800 million in funding from Softbank. The value of the company is now close to $5 billion. Oyo’s investors are Softbank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital, Grab, Venture Nursery, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Hero Enterprises.

8. Swiggy

The field of startups has seen lots of food tech business came and gone. However, Swiggy has succeeded. The company was founded by Rahul Jaimini, Nandan Reddy, and Sriharsha Majety. Its valuation is now $3.3 billion after it got a funding of $1 billion from investors which include Tencent, Wellington Management, Naspers, Hillhouse Capital, and many more.

9. Byju's

In 2018, education technology platform Byju's received a funding of $40 million from South Africa-based Naspers Ventures. The company has a value of $3.6 billion. Investors include IFC, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sofina, Verlinvest, Sequoia Capital, and General Atlantic.

10. Freshworks

Freshworks, a software maker, received a funding of $100 million from Accel Partners and Sequoia India. The firm which is based in Chennai was founded in 2010. Its investors are Tiger Global, Accel Partners, and Sequoia Capital.

11. Udaan

Udaan, a B2B online market place, is viewed as India’s fastest startup to reach a value of $1 billion. In 2016, three former executives from Flipkart founded the company. Some of its investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners and DST Global.

12. Zomato

Another startup in the food tech business that survived the harsh competition is Zomato. Zomato received a funding of $210 million in October 2018 from Ant Financial which put its value to nearly $2 billion.

13. Billdesk

While BillDesk has been in the startup field for a while but not until last year did it get into the unicorn club. With an investment of $300 million from Visa, BillDesk’s value was close to $1.8 million. In 2000, the company was founded and since then it has become one of the largest online payments processing company in India. Some of its investors are Visa, Bank of Baroda, State Bank of India, and many more.

14. Delhivery

Prominent logistics startup Delhivery received a funding of about $143 million from Softbank Vision Fund in March to finally enter the unicorn club. In its equity financing round led by Softbank, the company raised $413 million.