Despite the on-going pandemic and its severe impact across all industries, Indian start-ups raised over a whopping $4.6 Bn in April 2021. The month bore witness to the emergence of several new unicorns, their mega rounds and more.
Let’s take a look at the top 10 start-ups that recently made it to India’s unicorn club.
- Digit Insurance: Valued at around $1.9 billion, this cloud-based general insurance company is India’s first unicorn. The company raised over $18 Mn from its existing investors including Faering Capital and TVS Capital earlier in January 2021.
- PharmEasy: By raising over $323 million as a part of its series E round from Prosus Ventures and TPG Growth, API Holdings-owned PharmEasy joined the most coveted unicorn club in April. Its valuation stands at $1.5 billion.
- Innovaccer: Innovaccer is the first health-tech unicorn in India. It develops cloud-based healthcare applications for both healthcare professionals and patients alike, to improve overall clinical, operational and financial outcomes.
- Meesho: An online reseller platform, Meesho raised about $300 million in its recent funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. This led the start-up’s valuation to reach $2.1 billion.
- Infra.Market: Unlike most of the other start-ups, the B2B online marketplace for real estate and construction material entered the unicorn club due to its strong growth and profitability.
- CRED: With only around INR 57 lakh as its operating revenue in FY2020, this fintech platform entered the club, owing to the big names that it has been backed with – DST Global, RTP Global, Greenoaks Capital, etc.
- ShareChat: ShareChat also became one of the most recent unicorns after having captured attention of the users across tier 2 and 3 cities. The start-up was founded by 3 IIT-Kanpur alumni in 2015.
- Gupshup: Catering to clients like Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, etc., San Francisco-headquartered Gupshup made its way into the unicorn club after raising about $100 Mn in its series F funding round led by Tiger Global Management.
- Chargebee: Chargebee is an automated subscription billing and revenue management platform. Based in Chennai, it is the tenth unicorn of 2021.
- Moglix: Raising about $120 million in a fresh fundraise led by Falcon Edge Capital and Harvard Management Company on May 17, Moglix became the latest entrant in the unicorn club.
India has had 13 new unicorns this year so far. Consulting and business research firm Praxis Global Alliance opines that there are at least 35 start-ups that have the potential to cross a billion-dollar valuation. Hopefully, by the time 2021 wraps up, we will have witnessed many more start-ups make their way to the unicorn club.
