Fastest Growing Indian Startups That Were Quick To Turn Unicorns

Gone are the days when becoming a unicorn was a rare feat for startups. In recent times, every other day we tend to come across the news of a startup turning unicorn. Especially in 2021, it's been literally raining unicorns, with 41 startups already reaching the $1 billion valuation mark. Let's have a look at some of the fastest-growing Indian startups that turned into unicorns quickly.

1. Mensa Brands

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Post its recent Series B funding of $135mn led by Alpha Wave Ventures-Falcon Edge Capital in November 2021, Mensa Brands has become India¡¯s fastest startup to turn into a unicorn, reaching this feat within barely six months of its launch. This D2C brand aggregator company operates by acquiring digital-first brands and scaling them domestically as well as overseas. Founded by former Myntra and Medlife CEO Ananth Narayanan, Mensa has already turned profitable, and intends to use the funding to continue partnering with founding teams of customer-loved brands and help them become household names through Mensa¡¯s expertise. Moreover, it also aims to invest in hiring across various functions and continue building its tech platform, besides putting money towards marketing and other growth capabilities as well.

Also Read: Hold Up, Zuckerberg: This Startup Applied For 'Meta' Trademark Before Facebook

2. Glance

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Mobile-advertising entity InMobi¡¯s artificial intelligence based software platform subsidiary Glance is also amongst the quickest startups to turn unicorn, achieving this feat in barely 20 months since inception. Glance had raised $145 million in a primary investment round from Google and existing investor Mithril Capital. Glance is an AI driven personalised content provider which delivers personalised content to the lock screens of smartphones. It had turned into a unicorn in December 2020.

3. Paytm Mall

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Another startup that was quick to turn into a unicorn, is the e-commerce platform Paytm Mall. The startup fetched $445 Mn in a funding round led by Paytm¡¯s largest shareholder Alibaba, along with Masayoshi Son¡¯s SoftBank in 2018, which turned it into a unicorn. Ever since its launch in 2017, this e-commerce arm of Paytm has been facing stiff competition from Amazon and Flipkart.

4. Udaan

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Founded in 2016 by three former Flipkart employees, Udaan is a B2B trade platform, designed specifically for small & medium businesses in India. In 2018, Udaan turned into a unicorn, thanks to a $225 Mn funding from DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners. It has a strong network of over 3 million registered users and 25,000-30,000 sellers across 900+ cities in the country, covering more than 12,000 pin codes. And with over 4.5 million transactions being done on its platform per month, Udaan has been a leader in the B2B e-commerce business. It also aims to go public within next 2 years.

5. Ola Electric

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Launched in Feb 2017, Ola electric, the brainchild of Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola cab¡¯s co-founder, raced its way to becoming a Unicorn in July 2019. Ola Electric secured its spot in the unicorn club after securing its $250 Mn funding in Series B round from SoftBank. Moreover, in October 2021, it further raised over $200 million from Falcon Edge, SoftBank and other investors, climbing up its valuation to about $3 billion.

Also Read: Chennai Startup Has Built Asia¡¯s First Made-In-India Flying Car At 120 Kmph Speed

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