Many people often tend to have a negative notion when it comes to start-ups and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are a must for the overall growth and development of a country because they work along hard to transform their seed of an idea into a practical application which is definitely something that’s not everyone’s cup of tea. With the commercialization of this term all around the globe, even India has taken up this as a challenge to launch their own successful brands in India to bring about transformations and reforms too.
When we come to mention the wide range of amazing and successful start-ups in India, it means the ideas they had up in their heads actually performed like magic and weaved way for groundbreaking results. If you are looking for some motivation that how the Indian entrepreneurs started from nothing and gained success, then the best way is to look through their rising scale. 2018 was a massive success for a number of start-ups in India, in terms of not just their growth but their crowdfunding achievements too.
In this article, we are going to be discussing some of the best brands in India that 2018 witnessed throughout.
1.OYO
Irrespective of any kind of introduction, OYO is one of those amazing hospitality centric start-ups that have gained enormous popularity over the year. The company was initially started back in 2013 to revolutionize the way people book hotel rooms around in India and that too with the best deals and best discounts. It has become the largest hotel network in India and the same is constantly being upscale with every passing day. Currently, they have over 100,000 rooms across 213 cities all over India. This start-up has recently branched out into different countries like Malaysia, China, and the even the United Kingdom.
Headcount: 4700
Headquarters: Gurugram, India.
2.Rivigo
Yet another one of the successful brands around in India is the logistics services firm, Rivigo. The startup recently succeeded to raise an amazing crowdfunding of $50 million at a valuation of $495 million. While many people are still confused as to what is unique about this model as for investors to invest on this start-up, it is the effective driver relay model that has attracted the investors to this specific startup. This relay model helps the organizations reduce their turnaround time which is being quite helpful for not just the marquee clients, but the famous e-commerce platforms as well.
Headcount: 3700
Headquarter: Gurugram, India.
3.Cure.Fit
In a world where more and more people are becoming conscious about their health and physique, it was mandatory that a health and fitness start-up was what India needed for that overall completion of the entrepreneurial agenda. Cure. Fit is a wholesome fitness and health-related startup which focuses around providing the people with a life that they can appreciate and live healthily. The startup has a wide range of gyms and fitness centers along with restaurants that align to providing the people with fit meals to accompany their training sessions. Their main focus is on the no-equipment gyms, healthy food as well as yoga and meditation to achieve the fitness goals everyone aspires for. The startup is currently in the expansion state.
Headcount: 120
Headquarter: Bengaluru, India.
4.Little Black Book (LBB)
If you have been on Tumblr, you would recognize this specific startup from there that kicked off from that social platform itself. More than anything, they work around to provide the people with an interactive and easy lifestyle guide. The company kicked off with an initial investment of Rs. 80,000 and now is expanding out to be one of the best recommendation platforms when it comes to food, fashion, theatre or even shopping across eight big cities across India.
Headcount: 80
Headquarter: Delhi, India.
5.The Minimalist
We are currently living in an era where more and more people are driven towards minimalism and personalization and The Minimalist amalgamates both these ideas to produce an immaculate result. This is predominantly a design and digital agency that rose to fame with their Facebook page and their witty posts. The company is on the constant expansion and rise and is currently working around with some of the biggest organizations like Saint-Gobain, Coca-Cola, and Abbott etc.
Headcount: 60
Headquarter: Mumbai, India.
6.Souled Store
If you like t-shirts and pop culture, you are definitely going to know about the Souled Store. This startup is predominantly driver by youngsters who are bringing the most important thing that India lacked, the proper and affordable merchandise of some of the biggest and most popular pop fandoms across the world. From t-shirts to badges and notebooks to slippers, they have everything customized to suffice that child in your heart. The best part of this specific startup is that they recently generated an immense amount of funding and are on the role of constant expansion.
Headcount: 51
Headquarter: Mumbai, India.
7.Schbang
As hippy and fun the name of the company sounds, Schbang is quite a popular brand in India that did experience immense growth and development in the past year. They are known around to produce the best quality original content and their list of clients and testimonials include some of the biggest marquee names like Ashok Leyland, Hot Wheels, Amazon Fashion and so on and so forth. The drivers of the company have a future vision of becoming the first agency export and to expand their name and brand in the international borders as well.
Headcount: 240
Headquarter: Mumbai, India.
8.Acko
Insurance is quite an important factor in today’s date, right, from every aspect of health to even the materialistic things like that of cars as well as your phone. Acko is a start-up aimed to secure every single aspect, from your in-trip covers when you are traveling via an Ola cab to ensuring your phone screen in case something happens to it and you drop your phone. The company raised a total of around $30 million even before their launch and then went on to secure an additional amount of $12 million following their launch from Amazon and that too within a year itself.
Headcount: 115
Headquarter: Mumbai, India.
9.Treebo
Yet another one of the hospitality related startups is Treebo. They did have a lagging start and didn’t reach to fame and popularity right off the bat but as said, good things happen to people who wait and much like that, even Treebo gained their fair share of success with the later years. They gained over 9000 rooms in a matter of three years. Irrespective of the steeped growth, Treebo is also facing a lot of setbacks because of the overwhelming amount of competitors in the market.
Headcount: 800+
Headquarter: Bengaluru, India.
10.InCred
The credit industry in the country has seen rapid and abrupt growth over the years. InCred is the living example of how a simple ideology can actually convert to something bigger and better with the correct resources and implementation. This evolving startup predominantly is being accountable as one of the best Indian brands in 2019 owing to the scope and market it is building for itself. Their main area of expertise revolves around providing with secure loan and credit options as personal, education or even home loans. Apart from that, they also provide with loans to the small and big businesses. Anshu Jain, who was the former co-CEO of the Deutsche Bank, is the backer for their overall process.
Headcount: 100
Headquarters: Mumbai, India.
11.Udaan
Next on the list of the fruitful startups in India in the year 2018 include is Udaan. This startup was established and launched by three former Flipkart employees who aim to target the B2B marketplace. Their main niche of items and products focus around food, electronics as well as clothing but the platform still needs that extra push for better recognition across the globe. On the brighter side, this was the startup that did gain the unicorn status only in a matter of two years. This B2B platform is now active across over 500 cities all across India and the realm of expansion is still on the rise.
Headcount: 400
Headquarter: Bengaluru, India.
12.Upgrade
Quite a smart name for a smart business idea. The upgrade is predominantly a cloud-based learning platform which provides the aspirants with industry aligned courses for a better career path. Their main niche of classes works around digital marketing, data science as well as product management. The company was launched by the media magnate Ronnie Screwvala and claims to have reformed the career paths and capabilities of over 300 aspirants from all across India. They have also expanded their services to South East Asia and the Middle East as well.
Headcount: 300+
Headquarter: Mumbai, India.
13.InterviewBit
InterviewBit is primarily a tech support start-up initiated in India. You must be wondering what even is different and unique about a tech support company for it to listen under the best Indian start-ups, right. This is predominantly a preparation website for the job aspirants wherein you can prepare yourself to the optimum to take on any kind of interview without any hurdle because you will be prepared for it. This specific start-up is completely self-funded and the talent acquisitions are from some of the well-known sources around like Facebook, Google, and Amazon etc.
Headcount: 45
Headquarter: Pune, India.
14.Shuttl
Shuttl is yet another one of the amazing top 5 Indian brands which provide with share cab and bus facilities to the office goers. The company clocks a total of around 45,000 rides across five popular cities across India. They have already risen over $12 million from famous multinational organizations like Amazon, Dentsu Ventures etc. The company is aspiring to expand their services to two more cities across the country by the end of the year.
Headcount: 300
Headquarter: Gurugram, India.
15.Exadatum
With the consistent growth and importance of big data, it is not surprising that more and more start-ups are venturing into this specific niche to get their ideologies recognized. Exadatum is one such startup that has outshone the other in terms of aligning their work with big data. This startup defines themselves as a one-stop solution for everything Big Data. Their services include offering Big Data implementation to the organizations in a much simpler, efficient and faster way. They have around 500 clients in their funnel as of now and the number is on the constant rise. They are also expanding their services in alliance with machine learning as well as artificial intelligence.
Headcount: 70
Headquarters: Pune, India
Concluding Note
The constantly evolving thought leaders around in India are what is paving its way for the consistent growth of the Indian startups. The ideologies are getting shape and form and that is what is taking the Indian economy and name to the next best level. If you have been curious as to what kind of ideologies and business proposals are currently gaining an uproaring upscale, these startups can give you a quick glance into the same. With the rapidly growing competition of startups in India, it is not surprising that the ones paving their way to the top are the ones with the unique ideologies and thoughts about their products or services. Long gone are the day when the same old ideas worked, with the new generation evolving, the ideas are too. These above mentioned startups are nothing but a source of inspiration for the ones that are looking to “MAKE IT BIG!”