As 2018 comes to an end, it is safe to say that it was one of the most happening years in Indian startup ecosystem with lots of big acquisitions, emotional step downs(Sachin and Binny Bansal), and a lot of drama and controversies.
Apart from all the drama 5 Indian startups enter the prestigious Unicorn club of India in 2018. From PolicyBazaar and BYJU’s to OYO, Freshworks, and Swiggy.
In this blog post, we have rounded up 5 Indian startups who raised most fundings in 2018. The list also contains several young companies like Udaan, and some big names like Swiggy, Paytm, and Zomato. So let’s get started with the list.
#1 Swiggy
Food delivery startup Swiggy posted a 220% jump in revenue for FY18 and ended the year with a bang with a $1 Bn funding led by Naspers, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, Wellington Management Company, DST Global, Meituan Dianping, and Coatue Management also participated in the round.
The Valuation of the company has jumped to 3.3 Billion Dollars after it raised total 1.3 Billion Dollars this year.
| Total Funding Raised in 2018 | Key Investors |
| 1.31 Billion Dollars | Naspers, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, Wellington Management Company, DST Global, Meituan Dianping |
#2 Oyo
Oyo entered the prestigious Unicorn club this year as the Bengaluru-based company raised $800 Mn from SoftBank and other investors in September, with $100 Mn funding from Indonesia’s Grab, taking the total to $900 Mn. The company has also received a commitment for another $100 Mn from undisclosed investors.
Oyo has reached the total valuation of 7 Billion dollars this year and expected to grow to around $13 Bn by 2020.
| Total Funding Raised in 2018 | Key Investors |
| 1 Billion Dollars | Soft Bank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital Fund, LightSpeed Venture Partners and more. |
#3 Byju’s
Founded by Byju Raveendran in 2011, Byju’s has become the biggest ed-tech company in India with more than 20 Mn registered students and 1.26 Mn annual paid subscriptions, adds 1.5 Mn registrations to its kitty every month. This year the company raised $540 Mn funding from Naspers with a significant contribution from Canada’s pension fund’s investment arm, Canada’s Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB). The company also hit a valuation of $4 Bn, achieving a growth rate of 100% in the last three years.
| Total Funding Raised in 2018 | Key Investors |
| 540 Million Dollars | Naspers, Canada’s Pension Plan Investment Board, Canada’s pension fund’s investment arm. |
#4 Paytm Mall
Vijay Shekhar‘s Paytm Mall is another entrant to Unicorn club after raising $445 Mn in a funding round led by SoftBank and Alibaba. Paytm mall has also achieved $3.5 Bn in annual gross sales this year and recorded a jump of 104.42% in its revenues for FY18.
| Total Funding Raised in 2018 | Key Investors |
| 445 Million Dollars | SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba |
#5 Zomato
Apart from the food tempering controversy, raised $410 Mn in two rounds first was of $200 Mn led by Ant Financial in February and $210 Mn from Alibaba’s digital payments subsidiary Alipay in October.
Zomato has recorded a 40% growth in its revenues for FY18 and targeted expansion to 100 cities across India.
| Total Funding Raised in 2018 | Key Investors |
| 410 Million Dollars | Ant Financial and Alibaba’s digital payments subsidiary Alipay |
