Unicorn, in business, refers to a startup campaign that is confined to those who are intimately concerned and has a value of more than 1 billion dollars. This term was coined by a stakeholder Aileen Lee in 2013. Similarly, decacorn is the term used for those campaigns having a value of more than 10 billion dollars and hectocorn for those having a value of more than a hundred billion dollars. Aileen lee chose the word Unicorn who is a mythical animal to describe the methodically uncommon triumphant project. So unicorn club is a group of such ventures.
This year 13 startups of India have entered the Unicorn club in the first 4 months only. These startups include health tech, infrastructure technology, social commerce, online pharmacy, etc. Altogether India has 55 startups that entered this club to date.
1) Digit Insurance- It is the first startup to enter the Unicorn club in 2021. It is a Bengaluru-based insured tech startup founded by Kamesh goyal and Prem Watsa's Fairfax holdings in 2016. The company provides custom-tailored schemes on travel, health, auto, commercial properties, etc. It also provides an illness insurance plan which safeguards against covid-19 and some tick-borne disease. Due to which it performs to record growth of 31.9 % between March 2020 and December 2020. Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma invested $340,000 during the second round of external funding. Entirely the company has augmented 200 million dollars till date.
2) Meesho- It is a Bengaluru-based social commerce platform. It has raised funds 300 million dollars in a Series E round of funding. This round was led by Softbank along with existing investors which are Facebook, Prosus, Shenowei capital venture highway, and Knollwood investment advisory. The total valuation is raised to 2 billion dollars.
Meesho completed its round D of funding in 2019 and raised the total valuation to 700 million dollars. It provides social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook to buyers and sellers. Meesho has a network of 13 million entrepreneurs and 100000 suppliers. It has a strong geographical presence in 5000+ cities and towns. Their suppliers largely deal with grocery, apparel, home appliances, and electric items.
3) CRED- It is a Bengaluru-based financial technology startup. It has raised funds of 250 million dollars in the Series D funding round. Due to this, CRED's get appraised of almost triple the amount from 800 million dollars to 2.2 billion dollars. This round was led by Falcon edge capital as its new investor along with the existing ones Coatue management, Insight partners, DST, Tiger, RTP global, Green oaks, and Sofina.
CRED provides rewards to credit card users who pay their bills timely. A person should have a minimum of 750 credit scores if he wants to register on CRED. It also maintains a database of premium credit cardholders. CRED has a user base of above 6 million users.
4) Pharmeasy- It is the first e-pharmacy Unicorn of India. API, the holding company of pharmeasy raised funds of 350 million dollars in series E of funding round. Prosus ventures and TPG growth participated in this round. This took pharmeasy to a total valuation of 1.5 billion dollars.
It is a digital healthcare platform that connects over 60,000 brick-and-mortar pharmacies and 4000 doctors in 16000 zip codes across India. Pharmeasy merged with medlife in 2020.
5) Innovaccer- It is the first Indian health-tech Unicorn that provides an effective health care platform for systemic innovation and transparent data. It was founded by Abhinav Shashank and Kanav Hasija, IIT Kharagpur graduates, and Sandeep Gupta, an IIM Ahmedabad alumnus. It has raised 105 million dollars in a Series D funding round and is valued at 1.3 billion dollars. This round was led by Tiger Global management.
6) Inframarket- It is a B2B online acquisition marketplace for territory and construction material. It provides a fair price and smooth acquisitive experience to its customers. The company was found by Aditya Sharda and Souvik Sengupta in 2016.
It is one of the mushrooming startups of India. It has raised a hundred million dollars in a Series C funding round led by Tiger Global. Its existing investors also participated and took it to the unicorn club.
7) Groww- Bengaluru-based company, Groww provides an online funding platform that gives opportunity to stockholders to invest in direct mutual funds and stocks. It was found in 2017 with the mission to make funding straightforward and clear. The company has raised 83 million dollars in series D of a funding round led by Tiger Global management.
8) Sharechat- Social network founded in 2015 by IIT Kanpur alumni Farid Ahsan, Bhanu Singh, and Ankush Sachdeva has taken it to the total valuation of 2.1 billion dollars after series E of funding round which raised the funding of 502 million dollars by Twitter, Tiger Global, and Lightspeed venture partners.
9) Gupshup- Casual texting platform founded by Beerud Sheth in 2004 has now entered unicorn club with the total valuation of 1.4 billion dollars after raising funds of hundred million dollars in series F of funding round which led by Tiger Global management.
10) Chargebee- Chennai-based billing software platform founded by Rajaraman S, Thiagarajan T, KP Saravanan, and Krish Subramanyam in 2010 has raised 1 25 million dollars in series G of the funding round and entered unicorn club with a total valuation of 1.4 billion dollars. Investors involve Tiger Global, Sapphire ventures, Insight venture partners, and Steadview capital.
11) Urban company- Gurugram-based company, provides home services of maintenance, repair, installation, beauty, and wellness, etc. in more than 10 Indian cities was founded in 2014 by Abhiraj Behl, Raghav Chandra, and Varun Khaitan.
The company has entered the Unicorn club with a total valuation of 2 billion dollars after series F of a funding round that raised the fund to 188 million dollars. This round was led by Prosus along with DF international and Wellington management.
12) Moglix- It is a leading B2B e-commerce platform for industrial tools. It has a supply chain network of 16000+ suppliers. Moglix crossed 1 billion dollars after fundraising an amount of 120 million dollars in series E of a funding round and entered Unicorn club. This round was led by Falcon Edge Capital and Harvard Management Company along with Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital India, and Venture Highway.
13) Zeta- Bengaluru-based company, Zeta is a fintech firm that issues credit, debit, and prepaid products on a virtual basis. The company was found by Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015. Recently, on May 24, it has crossed 1 billion dollars and entered Unicorn club after fundraising an amount of 250 million dollars in series C of funding round by Sodexo and Softbank vision fund.