By 
The Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem is considered to be the world’s third-best and is host to some of the greatest success stories from startups. Some of the startups in the country have reached international heights, while some have become a household name. If you’re looking for inspiration or are in sheer awe of these geniuses, let us introduce you to the 10 successful startups of India and their founders.
VIJAY SHEKHAR SHARMA – PAYTM
Image Courtesy: Paytm Blog
Paytm was founded in August 2010 by its founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, in Noida. It is an Indian payment system e-commerce and financial technology company headquartered in Noida, India.
Started as a prepaid mobile and DTH recharge platform, and later introduced a data card, postpaid mobile, and landline bill payments in 2013. Over the years, it has evolved and taken on different verticals within payments.
Paytm received total funding of over $3.5 billion. Paytm has raised investments from SoftBank, Berkshire Hathaway, Alibaba, SAIF Partners, and several others. As of November 2019, Paytm has hit a reported valuation of $16 billion.
Twitter: @vijayshekhar
Linked in: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
BHAVISH AGGARWAL AND ANKIT BHATI – OLA CABS
Image Courtesy: Daily Hunt
Ola Cabs was founded as an online cab aggregator in Mumbai on 3 December 2010 by its founder Bhavish Aggarwal and co-founder Ankit Bhati. It is now headquartered in Bangalore. It is an Indian ride-sharing company providing services that involve peer-to-peer ride-sharing, hailing, taxi service, and food delivery.
It raised total funding of $3.28 billion. The startup founder has raised money from Steadview Capital, Hyundai, Kia, Sachin Bansal, and several others. As of 2019, the company has expanded to a network of more than 15 lakh drivers across 250 cities.
Linked in: Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati
SRIHARSHA MAJETY AND NANDAN REDDY – SWIGGY
Image Courtesy: k4feed
Swiggy is India’s biggest and most popular online food order and delivery platform.
Two founders, Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy designed an e-commerce website called “Bundl” in 2013 to facilitate service to couriers and ship goods within India. Bundi was paused quickly, and they moved into the food delivery business. At the moment, the food distribution market was in chaos as many prominent companies were struggling, such as Foodpanda, TinyOwl, and Ola Cafe. Majety and Reddy, formerly with Myntra, approached Rahul Jaimini and in 2014 formed Swiggy and the parent holding company Bundl Technologies. The company set up a dedicated delivery network and expanded quickly, driven primarily by concentrating on logistics and locking in key resources.
Foodtech giant Swiggy raised more than $1.5 billion from investors including Accel, SAIF Partners, Naspers, DST Global, and Tencent. Swiggy has over 1,60,000 restaurant associates across 500 Indian cities. This also has a fleet of more than 2.25 Lakh active supply partners.
Twitter: @harshamjty, @nandanreddy
Linked in: Sriharsha M., Nandan Reddy
SUMANT SINHA – RENEW POWER VENTURES
Image Courtesy: livemint
ReNew Power Limited is a renewable energy Indian company headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
Sumant Sinha founded ReNew Power in 2011 and received an equity infusion from Goldman Sachs in September of the same year. The company commissioned the first project in Jasdan, Gujarat, on 6 May 2012 and has expanded since then. In 2016, ReNew became the first IPP renewable energy firm to develop rupee-denominated masala bonds and reached 1GW potential in the same year, becoming the first company in India to do so.
Over the years it has raised more than $1.4 billion. The organization already has more than 8 GW of renewable reserves. More than 5 GW of this is operational.
Twitter: @sumant_sinha
Linked in: Sumant Sinha
SAURABH KUMAR AND ALBINDER DHINDSA – GROFERS
Image Courtesy: Deccan Herald
Grofers was founded in December 2013 by its founders Saurabh Kumar and Albinder Dhindsa and is headquartered in Gurugram. It is an Indian online grocery service.
It has so far raised more than $1.2 billion. SoftBank led a $200 million funding to the company in May 2019, bringing Grofers to the unicorn club door. Grofers has recently extended its operations to a total of 27 cities in India and also covering Tier 2 cities.
Twitter: @theknownface, @albinder
Linked in: Saurabh Kumar, Albinder Dhindsa
BYJU RAVEENDRAN – BYJU’s
Image Courtesy: The Week
The Learning App is the common brand name for Think and Learn Private Ltd., a Bangalore-based Indian education technology (edtech) and online tutoring firm founded by Byju Raveendran in 2011.
So far though, the first Indian edtech unicorn has raised $970 million from major investors such as Times Group, Qatar Investment Authority, Tencent, Lightspeed Venture Partners, among several others. Byju’s are currently projected to have an approximate valuation of $5.7bn, according to a few reports. The company said in May 2019 that it had turned profitable at 2.8 million, due to a rise in the number of paid users. The figure has doubled since last year, back in June 2018 it stood at 1.26 million.
Twitter: @ByjuRaveendran
V S SUDHAKAR, HARI MENON, VIPUL PAREKH, ABHINAY CHOUDHARI, AND V S RAMESH – BIG BASKET
Image Courtesy: Office Chai
Bigbasket company was founded in 2011 by V S Sudhakar, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari, and V S Ramesh and it is headquartered in Bangalore, India. Bigbasket is an Indian online grocery service.
The company provides its customers mainly with retail products sold in convenience stores, home essential goods, and food supplies. It has so far earned more than $885 million and also this year catapulted itself to the unicorn status. The company aims to double its revenue to INR 70 billion in FY20.
Twitter: @harimenon_bb
LinkedIn: Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari
SUJEET KUMAR, AMOD MALVIYA, AND VAIBHAV GUPTA – UDAAN
Image Courtesy: Forbes India
Udaan was founded in 2016 by Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya, and Vaibhav Gupta. It is based in Bengaluru, India. It has almost 10,000 employees and is in a rapid expansion mode.
The B2B e-commerce company, Udaan has so far raised $870 million and has also recently become a unicorn. It’s received capital from the Hillhouse Capital Group, GGV Capital, DST Global, Tiger Global Management, SoftBank, and several others.
Twitter: @Sujeet_fk, @amodm
LinkedIn: Sujeet Kumar, Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta
SAHIL BARUA, MOHIT TANDON, BHAVESH MANGLANI, SURAJ SAHARAN, AND KAPIL BHARATI – DELHIVERY
Image Courtesy: Business Today
Delhivery was founded in 2011 by Sahil Barua, Mohit Tandon, Bhavesh Manglani, Suraj Saharan, and Kapil Bharati. It is a third-party logistics service provider, operating in India’s more than 1,200 cities.
Delhivery has become India’s leading supply chain services company. It is also the first unicorn of 2019. Delhivery’s vision is to become the operating system for commerce in India, through a combination of world-class infrastructure, logistics operations of the highest quality and cutting-edge engineering and technology capabilities.
It has raised over $780 million so far. It shot to unicorn status after it raised $395 million from SoftBank. The Startup managed to create a stronghold with partners like e-commerce unicorns like Flipkart and Paytm amongst others.
Twitter: @tandonmohit, @surajsaharan, @dayski
Linked in: Sahil Barua, Mohit Tandon, Bhavesh Manglani, Suraj Saharan, Kapil Bharati
DEEPINDER GOYAL AND PANKAJ CHADDAH – ZOMATO
Image Courtesy: Images.jagran.com
Zomato is an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery startup established in 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. Zomato was founded in 2008 as Foodiebay, and in 2010 renamed Zomato.
Zomato provides restaurant details, menus, and customer feedback as well as food delivery choices from partner restaurants in selected cities. The company is operating in 24 countries and more than 10,000 locations as of 2019.
Zomato also continues delivering food in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Twitter: @deepigoyal, @pankajchaddah
Linked in: Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddah
