Byju’s, Swiggy, and Dream11 were among the top ten startup deals of 2021, raising a total of $7.7 billion.
Since the beginning of the year, money has been pouring into the Indian startup sector. Following China’s app prohibition in 2020, international investors have turned their attention to Indian digital companies to fill the hole. It is reinforced by India’s growing internet use over the last two years.
The Indian startup sector had a banner year in 2021, and it’s safe to say, with close to $30 billion raised through November of this year. Up to December 6, the top ten investment rounds — excluding Walmart-owned Flipkart — raised $7.7 billion.
The following are the most crucial investment rounds for 2021:
1. Byju’s – $1.3 billion
BYJU’S is India’s leading educational technology company and the country’s most well-known school learning software. BYJU’S, founded in 2015, provides highly customised and effective learning programmes for students in grades one, children in grades K-12 and those studying for competitive exams like JEE, IAS, and others. BYJU’S has grown to become one of the most popular education platforms globally, with 50 million registered students and more than 3 million paid members.
Byju’s is a Bangalore-based Indian multinational educational technology corporation. Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath launched it in 2011. Byju’s is valued at US$21 billion as of November 2021, making it the most valuable educational technology business in the world.
Byju’s — dubbed Buy-because ju’s of its aggressive acquisition strategy — raised nearly a billion dollars in 2021. It also overtook Paytm as the most valuable startup and maintained its status as the world’s most valuable edtech company.
At a valuation of $18 billion, the company received funding from MC Global Edtech, Zoom founder Eric Yuan, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign fund ADQ, and others.
This year, Byju’s bought nine companies, including Aakash Institute, a chain of coaching centres, rival Toppr, Epic, a learning platform based in the United States, and Great Learning, an upskilling platform.
2. Swiggy – $1.2 billion
Swiggy was started in July 2014 and is India’s famous online food ordering and delivery platform. Swiggy office is in Bangalore and operates across 500 Indian locations as of September 2021. Apart from meal delivery, service like Instamart is also present which is an on-demand grocery delivery service, and Swiggy Genie, an immediate gift delivery service. Bundl Technologies Private Limited is the company that runs Swiggy.
Swiggy, a food delivery service, raised $1.2 billion in fundraising in July, days after Zomato completed its $1.3 billion IPO (IPO). Following the IPO, the company was estimated to be worth $5 billion.
The Bengaluru-based company wants to use the capital to grow its core business and put funds in its grocery delivery service, Instamart.
Swiggy will raise a $700 million investment round later this month, valued at $10-11 billion. Swiggy has not confirmed the rumours, although it has announced a $700 million investment in its rapid commerce subsidiary InstaMart.
3. Meesho- $870 million
Meesho is a social e-commerce firm based in Bangalore, India. In December 2015, IIT Delhi grads Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. Small enterprises can use it to sell products to consumers and resellers who can resale the products using social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.
In 2016, Meesho was one of three Indian startups accepted into Y Combinator, and it was a part of the Google Launchpad. Meesho was the most downloaded app on the Play Store in India in July 2021, according to reports.
Meesho, a social commerce platform, raised $870 million this year. In April, the firm raised $300 million at a valuation of $2.1 billion, and in October, it raised another $570 billion at a valuation of $4.9 billion.
Meesho is famous for being the first Indian social commerce business to be valued at over a billion dollars, and it is now competing with Flipkart.
The funds will expand the company’s research and development teams and gain new consumers. It aims to reach 100 million monthly transactional consumers by December 2022, up from 15 million.
4. Dream Sports- $840 million
Dream Sports is India’s most prominent sports technology company, with brands including Dream11, the world’s most known fantasy sports platform, FanCode, a leading digital sports marketplace that personalises content and commerce for all sports fans, DreamX, a sports accelerator, DreamSetGo, a sports experiences platform, and DreamPay, a payment solutions provider.
It founded the Dream Sports Foundation to support and champion athletes, and it is a member of the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports, India’s coordinating body for the industry. Dream Sports, based in Mumbai, was founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth to ‘Making Sports Better.’ Since 2018, the Great Place to Work’ Institute has ranked Dream Sports in the Top 10 ‘Great Places to Work’ in India’s mid-sized firm category every year.
In November, Dream Sports, the parent company of famous fantasy gaming site Dream11, raised $840 million. Falcon Edge, Tiger Global, and others led the round, valued at $8 billion.
FanCode, Dream Game Studios, Dream Capital, and DreamSetGo are all subsidiaries of the corporation, claiming to have over 140 million users worldwide.
Last year, Dream11 became the first Indian startup to be named the Indian Premier League’s title sponsor (IPL).
5. PineLab- $700 million
Pine Labs is an Indian merchant platform company that specialises in finance and last-mile retail transaction systems. It was formed in 1998. With a market capitalisation of above US$3.5 billion, it is considered a unicorn company. It creates software for point-of-sale equipment and provides a merchant platform.
PineLabs, a payments and merchant commerce business, has raised $700 million this year ahead of its US public offer. The company introduced the funds over the year, bringing its total worth to $3.5 billion.
PineLabs raised $600 million in July of this year and plans to raise another $100 million in September 2021 to replenish its funds. The fintech business hopes to list in the stocks market in the next two years.
Sequoia Capital India, Temasek, PayPal, and Mastercard are the company’s early investors.
6.Eruditus- $650 million
Eruditus, a Mumbai-based edtech business, raised $650 million in August 2021 in a fundraising round spearheaded by Accel and SoftBank. Eruditus was valued at $3.2 billion in this round, making it India’s third most valuable edtech company.
Eruditus, founded in 2010 by Chaitanya Kalipatnapu and Ashwin Damera, collaborates with universities throughout the world to provide six to eight-month-long executive-level courses to students in over 80 countries.
These courses range in price from $5,000 to $40,000 and can be taken on-campus, off-campus, or online.
7. ShareChat- $647 million
Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd, based in Bangalore, developed ShareChat, an Indian social media and social networking tool. On January 8, 2015, it was started by Ankush Sachdeva, Bhanu Pratap Singh, and Farid Ahsan. In 15 Indian languages, ShareChat has over 250 million monthly active users.
ShareChat, a vernacular social networking platform, has raised about $650 million in two stages. In April, the company raised $502 million to promote its membership in the unicorn club. However, in July, it raised $145 million at a $2.88 billion value.
According to ShareChat, there are 180 million monthly active users. In the meantime, Moj, the business claims to have over 160 million monthly active users and 50 million creators on its roughly one-year-old short video app.’
8. CRED -$547 million
Cred is a Bangalore-based Indian finance business launched by Kunal Shah in 2018. The central feature of the CRED app is reward-based credit card payments. Later, CRED introduced short-term credit lines and allowed users to make rent payments.
Credit card payments app led by Kunal Shah CRED’s market capitalisation grew from $800 million in January to $4 billion in October 2021. DST Global, Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Sofina, and other significant investors have contributed close to $550 million.
CRED was founded in 2018 as a credit card bill paying software, and it has expanded into e-commerce, loans, payments, and even investment throughout the years. According to the corporation, it processes about a quarter of all credit card bill payments in India.
9. Ola- $500 million
Ola Cabs (stylised as OL) is an Indian ridesharing firm that provides vehicle rental and food delivery services. Bengaluru, Karnataka, is the headquarters of the company. Ola was valued at around US$6.5 billion in October 2019; however, after the Covid-19 slump in the Indian economy, it was valued at around US$3.3 billion. Several venture capitalists, including Softbank, own the company.
In January 2018, Ola entered its first international market, Australia, and in September 2018, it joined New Zealand. Ola began its operations in the United Kingdom in March 2019, bringing auto-rickshaws to the country. More than 10,000 drivers applied both online and offline before the launch in London. Ola began offering taxi services in February 2020, with over 25,000 drivers signed up.
Ola Cabs is a multinational Indian ridesharing firm that provides vehicle rental and food delivery services. Bengaluru, Karnataka, is the headquarters of the company.
Ola, the ride-hailing behemoth, has raised half a billion dollars in advance of its public offering this year. Temasek and Warburg Pincus and Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal were among the investors in the round.
Ola Electric, Ola’s sibling company, raised $200 million in October 2021 with the help of Falcon Edge, SoftBank, and others. Under the umbrella of ANI Technologies, Ola and Ola Electric are two different enterprises, and Ola focuses on the ride-hailing sector, but also Ola Electric manufactures and sells electric scooters.
10. Cars24 | $450 million
CARS24 is an Indian online used automobile marketplace located in Gurugram, Haryana. Every year, the company sells around 1,50,000 automobiles. The company is regarded as one of India’s four major organised participants in the secondhand car market.
Cars24, with a market capitalisation of $1.85 billion, is the most valuable of all vehicle business companies, having raised over $450 million this year. Even though Cars24’s chief executive officer Kunal Mundra claims that its IPO is still a year or two away, it’s worth noting that it has already converted to a public limited company.
Customers can sell their old automobiles through Cars24’s network founded by Vikram Chopra, Gajendra Jangid, Ruchit Agarwal, and Mehul Agrawal. A customer can easily schedule an appointment with whichever Cars24 location, visit the site, and sell a car in one visit. The business has lately extended to Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
11. Flipkart- $3.6 billion
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce corporation headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, and a Singapore-based private limited company. The company only sold books online before diversifying into other product categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, home goods, food, and lifestyle products.
The service’s primary competitors are Amazon’s Indian affiliate and homegrown rival Snapdeal. As of March 2017, Flipkart had a 39.5 per cent market share in India’s e-commerce business. Due to its acquisition of Myntra, Flipkart has a strong position in the clothing sector. PhonePe, a UPI-based mobile payment service, is also owned by it.
While e-commerce behemoth Flipkart may no longer be called a startup following its multibillion-dollar acquisition by retail behemoth Walmart, it did finish the year’s known investment round. The Walmart-owned company raised $3.6 billion (about Rs 26,800 crore) at a $37.6 billion valuation.
When Walmart bought the company in 2018, it was valued at $16 billion.
GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP investments), Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Walmart lead the newest round of funding for Flipkart. Other notable investors in the competition were Tiger Global and Qatar Investment Authority.
