Shopping your favorite brands at your choice and convenience was once a tough task. Hire a taxi or rent one, travel all the way to the mall in huge traffic, look for the brands that you’re willing to shop, choose your favorite one and buy it. After a tiresome shopping, go have a good meal at some nice restaurant enjoying your favorite food, watch a movie and return home hiring a taxi. This is how usually the entire shopping process was for many of us. Though many relished the stereotypical practice, yet with the busy schedules that everyone is indulged into these days, one merely gets time to do all that which was once fun. Time and technology, today’s synonyms, might not or could not, however, bring back the nostalgia, but have certainly delivered the compensation by making everything available in one’s palm.
The increasing momentum of technology has what made everything feasible now at our doorstep and all one has to do is just delight in it. Let’s talk about shopping your favorite brands or hiring a cab or booking a ticket or ordering your favorite food. Wouldn’t that be fascinating to know that everything is now available with just a tap! Absolutely! The internet has connected all of us to get these tasks done at our doorstep. Making the activity simpler, were few startups who took up our daily routines as challenging assignments and started delivering best outputs. And the result, they’re now into serious business expanding their territory across the nation and into the international market earning a place in the billion-dollar club.
These are the Indian Unicorn Startup Companies that have made our life worth living and enjoying the services they render:
Flipkart
Flipkart, headquartered in Bengaluru, is an electronic commerce company founded in 2007. It is India’s biggest online store for mobiles, electronics, home appliances, furniture, fashion(clothes/shoes), accessories, books, jewelry, sporting goods, beauty & personal care and many more. Flipkart brings everything under the single roof with the largest selection from all brands at the lowest price. Acquiring many small hold firms and other startups alike, adding them under its wings, Flipkart is now valued at $11.6 billion.
Ola Cabs
Ola, the Indian online transportation network company, was founded in 2010 and has been competing against Uber in the Indian ride-hailing market. Ola has more than 125 million users and 1-million-plus-driver partners across more than 110 cities in the country. Currently headquartered in Bangalore, the company has been enabling smart transportation across India benefitting the users with its rides and services. Ola has emerged as one of the most successful among the handful of esteemed Indian startups becoming the third-most valuable startup in the country. The company has a valuation of around $7 billion.
Paytm
Paytm, India’s largest m-commerce platform launched in 2010, facilitates in making Instant Digital & Utility Payments, grab latest Entertainment tickets online with great offers and discounts and lets your travel be much easier and fun-filled. In 2015, Paytm became the first Indian company to receive funding from Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, after it raised over $625 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion. Earlier last year, the digital payments giant had raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank, which valued the company at $7 billion at that time.The mobile wallet service provider has recently reached a valuation of USD 10 billion.
Snapdeal
The Indian e-commerce company started in 2010, had a 70 percent share in the daily deal business by 2011. Snapdeal has received several rounds of funding; it had a valuation of about $6.5 billion during its $200 Mn funding round in February 2016 led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and others.
ShopClues
The online marketplace owned by Clues Network Pvt. Ltd., was established in July 2011. In January 2016, ShopClues raised USD 100 million from Tiger Global Management and joined the Unicorn Club. The e-commerce firm is now valued at $1.1 billion.
Quikr
Quikr, the Indian classified advertising platform, was founded in 2008. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Quikr serves approximately 20 million monthly visitors. The online classifieds portal has thus far raised around $350 million and is among India’s leading internet companies with a valuation of nearly $1.5 billion.
Zomato
Indian restaurant search and discovery service founded in 2008, currently operates in 23 countries, including Australia and United States. According to reports, Zomato has raised close to $225 million in funding during the year 2017. Zomato has raised $150 million from Ant Financial, Alibaba’s payment affiliate, very recently, taking its valuation to $1.1 billion.