The Indian startup economy has ended 2019 on a positive note with India being tagged as the world’s third largest ecosystem for startup. We saw the rise of many Indian tech startups with ideas that clicked and changed the game in the Indian market. The overall startup scene displayed exponential growth.
Presently providing payments solutions that allow businesses to accept, process, and disburse payments; Razorpay is all set to become one of India’s best technology Company. The fintech startup raised $75 million (about ₹525 crore) in its latest round of equity financing bringing the total valuation of the company to around $450 million. They are presently catering to around 3,50,000 merchants on their platform and are planning on taking this number to 4,50,000.
Meesho caters to businesses that focus on customers who buy and sell products through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. With the startup already claiming a network of more than 2 million resellers from over 700 towns, Meesho is making its presence felt in a subtle manner in the Indian market. A majority of these resellers are women and homemakers dealing with apparel, home appliances and electronics items. After a successful round of fund raising, Meesho plans to use the new funding of $125 million to bulk up its technology platform further in order to accommodate new product lines.
The issue of global warming has been taken up very seriously last year after protests worldwide and the rise of youth activists. The realization of a whole new market focusing on renewable energy led IIT-Madras graduates Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain to establish Ather Energy, the newest Indian tech startup to join the wagon of sustainable energy. The company targeted the electric vehicle category and launched their first product Ather-S340 vehicle powered by lithium-Ion battery pack. IT features a digital touchscreen dashboard, a light-weight aluminum chassis, and can reach speeds of 75 kmph. Post raising $51 million in Series C funding round led by Sachin Bansal and InnoVen Capital in May 2019, Ather said it intends to utilize the fresh capital in setting up a new manufacturing facility in terms of expansion.
Blackbuck was founded by IIT-Kharagpur graduates Chanakya Hridaya and Rajesh Yabaji. The company provides B2B logistics solutions for long-haul trucking. It brings together shippers and truckers through its online marketplace to facilitate inter-city freight transportation. The tech startup has closed a $150 million round of equity funding led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners and Silicon Valley-based Accel in 2019, taking the total funding raised by the company to over $230 million. The fresh funds will be used by Blackbuck in building new trucking partners along with the existing ones, as well as exploring new transportation corridors. The company also aims to invest heavily in product and data sciences capabilities, and to enable more efficient freight matching processes.
Many Indian tech startups are coming up with revolutionary ideas and are building niche markets which is what has contributed to their success. Such success stories help in attracting angel investments and domestic funding into the country thereby boosting the startup scene even further in India.
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