India has risen to become the third largest ecosystem for startups globally. The startup story of India can be traced back to 2008, when the global recession led businesses to reallocate their resources. Three years after the recession, the first Indian startup turned into a unicorn. A startup turns into a ‘unicorn’ once it attains a valuation of $1 billion. InMobi, an ad tech startup based in Bengaluru, was founded in 2007 by Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta, and Abhay Singhal. It turned into a unicorn in 2011, with the company raising $200 million from Sequoia Capital. Since becoming a unicorn, the company has turned profitable. After InMobi, the next startup, which was founded in 2007, and became a unicorn in 2012, was Flipkart. In the last ten years, the company has reached a valuation of $37 billion. In 2016, by launching the Startup India programme, the Government of India encouraged young entrepreneurs to develop something innovative and create new startups. In 2016, Hike and MakeMyTrip were the two startup companies that turned into unicorns by raising funds of $175 million and $180 million, respectively. A unique and sustainable startup called ReNew Power turned into Unicorn in 2017. Through a rights issue, ReNew Power raised $300 million. In 2018, startups from a wide variety of sectors, including EdTech, travel tech, financial technology, e-commerce, food delivery, etc, became unicorns. Today many of the companies that turned into unicorns in 2018 are receiving a lot of investors for their funding. At the same time, the accessibility of these companies to the consumers have also made them more popular. In April 2021, the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme launched by the Government of India promised financial support to early-stage startups. In 2021, Meesho became India’s first social commerce unicorn. On 16th January 2022, the Government of India announced a National Startup Day. The Centre has even launched a 59-minute loan platform that enables easy access to credit from the Ministry of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME). The Small Industries Devel- opment Bank of India (SIDBI) has also started offering long-term loans for up to five years online. On 2nd May, 2022, Bengaluru-based Neobank Open became the 100th unicorn in India by raising $50 million.
10 May 2022
Mayura Ghate
