Exciting unicorn news- 4th unicorn startup of the year 2022 announced
Unicorn startups are increasing. The year 2021 is said to be a year of unicorns. We hope that this year turns out to be luckier in terms of unicorn startups.
Let us talk about unicorn startups. Defining what a unicorn startup is, it is a privately held organization or entity the value of which is more than USD 1 billion. The term unicorn for the startups became popular in the year 2013, when Aileen Lee, who is the founder of Cowboy Ventures and a venture capitalist used this term.
The specific reason for using the term unicorn for such startups back at that time was because in the year 2013 there were only 39 unicorn startups, so in order to emphasize that such startups are so rare, she used the term “Unicorn Startup”. In an altogether different study which was conducted by Harvard Business Review, it was found out that the startups between the years 2012 to 2015 were growing in valuation twice as quickly as the startups which were founded in the year range of 2000 and 2013.
A startup reaching the status of unicorn is like a milestone achieved. The unicorn startups bring a change, a disruption in the business line. It requires an innovative idea, a good bunch of interested investors, and days and sleepless nights of hard work and dedication.
Let us now talk about a startup that has turned into a unicorn recently and has been all over the papers and media.
Announcement of a new unicorn startup
The startup, Darwinbox has raised funds worth USD 72 million, as announced on January 25, 2022. This round of funding that has taken place was led by TCV, which is a US-based investor. The other participants of this round of funding were the existing investors of the startup, which were Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Endiya Partners, 3One4Capital, JGDEV, and SCB 10X.
The startup is planning to use the funds which it has raised in doubling its expansion around the globe. The startup also plans to use a portion of the funds raised in increasing its plans on product development. With this round of funding, the total funds raised by the startup have come up to USD 110 million. Coming to the value of the startup after this round of funding, it has come up to more than USD 1 billion. The startup thus has entered the “Unicorn Club”. The startup is the fourth unicorn startup of the year 2022.
About the newly turned unicorn startup
The startup, Darwinvox was founded in the year 2016 and is based in Hyderabad and Singapore. The startup believes in the power of people. It is of a strong belief that people build the Next Big Thing. The New. The Never-Seen-Before. People are responsible to push the boundaries of what is possible and imaginable. The startup says that empowering people to become their best is the biggest competitive advantage the organization can build.
The Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of the startup is increased to double to around USD 30 million years on year. The startup is also one of the only Indian unicorns that are working in the software industry, the revenue of which is mainly from India and not the US. The startup had a huge benefit during the lockdown which was imposed because of COVID 19. During the lockdown, people adopted digital means, and it eventually bought millions of users to the market from industries like real estate, manufacturing, and healthcare.
Last year, the number of customers of the startup has increased from 500 to 650, and surprisingly the new 150 customers bought the revenue equivalent to the revenue 500 customers were bringing. For the future, the startup has plans to build technology in order to integrate with other functions which are built by other companies. It also has plans to increase the number of employees to 1400 by the end of this year. The startup works with old and new-age companies like Swiggy, MakeMyTrip, Adani Group, and many others.
The company says that it will think about the public offering in the coming two to three years. The startup is building a leading technology brand from Asia for the world. It has more than 1.5 million users,12 global offices, and more than 700 Darwinians.
About TCV
Founded in the year 1995 by Jay Hoag and with headquarters in Menlo Park, California, United States, TCV comes into the partnership with CEOs and founders of public and private growth-stage technology companies as they compete and strive to achieve market leadership. The capital funding company provides the management teams with data-driven insights, sector enterprise, access to world-class talent, and connections with category leaders. The company takes a long-term perspective, committing important capital, time, and internal resources to support and partner with the companies on their journey.
TCV is best known for its investment in Airbnb and Netflix. Recently it has made investments in Dream11 and Razorpay too.
The unicorn startup is bringing a change in the HR industry, which is apparently considered to be boring and mundane. We wish the startup a stroke of good luck and hope it is able to fully bring technology to the HR industry and make it an interesting and exciting one in the coming future!
Edited and published by Ashlyn Joy
