Meet India's 2021 Unicorn Startups that have brought the Historic Boom

In what has been a record-setting funding week in the Indian startup ecosystem, ten new startups have entered the unicorn club all in the beginning four months to 2021. The deals announced last week included sectors of healthcare (Pharmeas), social commerce (Meesho), fintech (Groww and Cred), and social and content platforms ( Gupshup and ShareChat parent Mohalla Tech).

With every startup trying to bag the title of unicorn, it is incredible to see Indian startups performing admirably well in the pandemic. Bringing to you all the more exclusive details of these ten new unicorn startups right here!  

Digit Insurance 

The first Unicorn title of 2021 is bagged by the general insurance startup Digit Insurance. Currently valued at 1.9 billion dollars, the company aims to simplify the insurance products for the general people. It claims to have 1.5 crore customers and has recently launched its first campaign featuring brand ambassador Virat Kohli ahead of the IPL season. Furthermore, it is fascinating that this is the first insurance company to introduce a COVID-19 insurance product and the response from the same is exceptional. 

InnovAccer 

Launched in 2014 as a big data startup under a healthcare sector, InnovAccer is now a leading healthcare tech company based in San Francisco valued at $1.3 billion led by Tiger Global Management. It has been recognized by Gartner in the US healthcare player CIOs report. Powering the healthcare sector, this startup has not only been the fastest-growing unicorn but also the world's most impactful technology company that has saved millions of lives.

Five Star Business Finance 

The non-banking finance company Five Star Business Finance valued at $1.4 billion comes under the unicorn tag by playing a crucial role in enabling timely and accurate credit to the large underserved sector with the mission of funding the small businesses and self-employed across covers of India. Most investments from Sequoia Capital, Norwest Venture Partner and private giant KKR have pushed this startup to the unicorn club.

Meesho

Meesho, a social commerce platform founded in 2015 by IIT batch mates with a simple goal of making small businesses' presence online so that it can sell through social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It has a USP of building entrepreneurs with zero capital and hence aiming to become a single digital ecosystem. It has come under the unicorn club after a 300 million dollar investment from Softbank, the largest foreign investor internet company making the startup valuation stood at $2.1 billion. The coronavirus pandemic had made this startup grow when small retailers and firms craved more online presence.

Infra.Market 

Infra.Market provides a B2B e-commerce marketplace of one-stop solutions for construction and its related services like procurement of raw materials to handle logistics for the projects. It also helps small manufacturers by making their business grow. It has raised $100 million funding from Tiger Global and existing investors like Accel Partners and making it valued at $1.2 billion. Majorly it believes in re-shaping the construction ecosystem through technology.

CRED

Fintech platform CRED founded in 2018 gives rewards for credit card timely payments through an application. Defining itself as a reward to the most creditworthy people,

CRED has become the youngest startup to be valued as a unicorn with a valuation of $2.2 billion. It has nearly 6 million members with 30% premium users. 

Pharmeasy

API Holdings, the parent company of health tech pharmeasy aims to digitalise health care setup with easy delivery of medicines. It has raised $350 million in funding and with this, it enters a unicorn club at a $1.5 billion valuation. The investments have come at a time when Reliance, Amazon and Tata have acquired some stake in online pharmacy. 

Groww

The fintech application Groww makes users digitally invest in multiple stocks, mutual funds, gold etc. It provides easy, fast and transparent investing in India and is the eighth unicorn that has raised $83 million funding making its valuation more than a billion dollars and claims to have 1 lakh, active investors, since its launch.

Sharechat 

Sharechat is an Indian social media application available in multiple languages. It caters to over 1.17 billion users and has done some acquisitions in the past. The recent funding backed by Tiger Global, Twitter and Snap Ice among others of $502 million making the startup valuation tops at $2 billion.

Gupshup

Founded in 2002, Gupshup is a messaging platform used for building conversational experiences for converting conversations into transactions to grow revenue as well as to retain customers. It enters the unicorn club with a valuation of $1.4 billion.

Currently, India is having around 40 unicorn startups. Going by the prediction of last year, it was said that the nation will have 50 unicorns in 2021. However, it is expected that the number will surpass as many startups have been mushrooming with higher funding, growth and performance. And the way the diversity of startups have reached a milestone of the unicorn in just four months into 2021 is exceptional. 

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