India Funding Roundup: The 25 Highest Funded Tech Startups of 2015

Looking back, 2015 has been a landmark year for India's tech startup landscape, with a total of 111 startups that filed series A rounds by December in the calendar year, with total funding amounting to $542 million (roughly Rs. 3,595 crores). If you do the math, the average funding round in a Series A comes to $4.88 million (roughly Rs. 32 crores).
Series A is usually the first stage of funding a company receives from institutional investors, following seed funding rounds. This happens when a company has just started to earn some revenues or otherwise proves its business model, but is typically not making a profit and will require the infusion of funds to scale up. Most series A investors are venture capital funds, or angel investors, who are willing to accept the high risk involved.
Most startups try to build an maintain a defensible position in their sector harnessing the best talent, technology, and design to harness network effects. If the product or service continues to show a promising growth rate, and the sector shows headroom for growth, they raise subsequent funding rounds - some on this list are up to Series H already.
The data on the top 25 funded startups, courtesy Tracxn, reveals plenty of insights on the startup ecosystem.
The largest funded player on this list is Ola, which came in with $900 million (roughly Rs. 6008 crores) in funding, while the smallest is Cardekho, which secured $50 million (roughly Rs. 333 crores) in funding. The average age of a 'startup' on this list is five years -- the youngest is Jaipur-based Netmeds, which was founded in 2015, while the oldest is 11-year old Bengaluru-based Manthan Systems.
The data indicates a two way fight among taxi aggregators sector - with no other player other than Ola featuring in the top 25 list as it takes on US-based decacorn (a startup valued at $10 billion or more) Uber. E-commerce and mobile commerce players such as Paytm, Flipkart, and Snapdeal dominate the VC funding landscape, followed by plays in the e-commerce logistics space (Delhivery, Ecom Express), and home decor and furniture platforms (Pepperfry, Urban Ladder, Homelane). The last 12 months saw plenty of funding activity in the online healthcare sector as well - Practo and Netmeds feature on this list.
From a funding perspective, Sequoia Capital leads the pack, with investments in nine of the top 25 players, followed by Tiger Global with six, Steadview with five. SoftBank has four, while Accel and Helion have three each. As per news reports, the three startups became unicorns (crossed a $1 billion valuation) this year -- Quikr, Zomato and Paytm. Notable omissions in this list are Housing.com and Tinyowl, two startups that garnered a lot of attention and growth, but then saw significant layoffs this year.
Here's a quick look at the 25 highest funded Indian tech startups this year.
1) Ola
India's largest taxi aggregator secured $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,299 crores) in funding in November, catapulting it to the pole position in this roundup. In the funding announcement, Ola quoted a growth rate of 30 times in the last one year, and now fields over one million booking requests a day.
Founder(s): Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Website: www.olacabs.com
Type of Business: Taxi aggregator
Funding in 2015 ($ Million): 900
Founded In: 2011
Investors: Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, SoftBank, Steadview Capital, Sequoia Capital, Falcon Edge Capital, DST Global, Didi-Kuaidi, Accel Partners, ABG Capital, GIC
2) Paytm
Valued between $3-4 billion, Paytm is arguably India's most used mobile wallet, with a claimed user base of over 100 million. Paytm provides apps for shopping on almost every mobile platform, and got a license from RBI to set up a payments bank, enabling it to offer current and savings account deposits.
Founder(s): Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Headquarters: Noida
Website: www.paytm.com
Type of Business: Mobile wallet and e-commerce
Funding in 2015 ($ Million): 890
Founded In: 2010
Investors: Alibaba Group, SAIF Partners, Intel Capital, Reliance Capital
(Also read: Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Plans for the Payment Bank)
(Disclosure: Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.)
3) Flipkart
Arguably India's most popular e-commerce marketplace, Flipkart is certainly the most capitalised, valued at over $15 billion, according to news reports. The company pivoted to a mobile first model, threatening to go app-only, and then bowled a googly with Flipkart Lite, providing an app-like experience on Chromium-based mobile browsers.
Notable launches this year include a messaging layer called Ping, and the company moved to its homegrown data centre in Chennai this year. It also sold approximately 8 million items, and had a GMV of over $300 million (approximately Rs. 1,945 crore) during the Big Billion Days Sale. Major acquisitions this year include FX Mart, Appiterate, and AdIQuity.
Founder(s): Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Website: www.flipkart.com
Type of Business: Online retail
Funding in 2015 ($ Million): 750
Founded In: 2007
Investors: Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Iconiq Capital, Naspers, DST Global, GIC, Morgan Stanley, Sofina, Steadview Capital, Vulcan Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, T. Rowe Price
4) Snapdeal
Valued at $6.5 billion according to news reports, Snapdeal acquired Freecharge, MartMobi, Exclusively, Letsgomo Labs, RupeePower,and Reduce Data this year. Snapdeal relaunched Shopo, an app-only zero commission marketplace in July, and is in a constant game of one-upmanship with its competitor Flipkart - launching one-hour refunds and Snap Lite in quick succession.
Founder(s):Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal
Headquarters:Delhi
Website: www.snapdeal.com
Type of Business: Online retail
Funding in 2015($ Million): $500 million
Founded In: 2010
Investors: Temasek, BlackRock, Myriad Group, SoftBank, Nexus Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, eBay, Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Saama Capital, Foxconn, Alibaba, InnoVen Capital
5) Grofers
Hyperlocal delivery platform Grofers was in the news late November for reportedly raising $120 million (roughly Rs. 800 crores) in its series D round. The two-year-old startup acquired MyGreenBox, Spoonjoy, and Townrush, all this year.
Founder(s): Albinder Dhindsa, Saurabh Kumar
Headquarters:Delhi
Website: www.grofers.com
Type of Business: Grocery delivery
Funding in 2015($ Million): 165
Founded In: 2013
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, SoftBank
6) Quikr
Online classifieds website Quikr launched a chat messaging feature earlier this year, and secured a $150 million (roughly Rs. 1,000 crores) funding round in April in its Series H from AB Kinnevik and Tiger Global. The company also launched QuikrJobs, a recruitment platform for blue collar, grey collar and entry-level jobs in in September.
Founder(s):Pranay Chulet, Jiby Thomas
Headquarters: Mumbai
Website: www.quikr.com
Type of Business: Online classifieds
Funding in 2015($ Million): 150
Founded In: 2008
Investors: AB Kinnevik, Nokia Growth Partners, Matrix Partners, Omidyar Network, Norwest Venture Partners, Warburg Pincus, eBay, Tiger Global, Steadview Capital
7) E-com Express
Founded by former Blue Dart employees, E-com Express received a $133 million (roughly Rs. 887 crores) investment from private equity firm Warburg Pincus in June this year. The firm, which handles deliveries for e-commerce companies, reportedly employs over 8,000 people and has presence in 210 cities and with 320 delivery centres.
Founder(s): TA Krishnan, K Satyanarayana
Headquarters: Delhi
Website: www.ecomexpress.in
Type of Business: E-commerce logistics provider
Funding in 2015($ Million): 133
Founded In: 2013
Investors: Peepul Capital, Warburg Pincus
8) Oyo Rooms
The two-year old startup, founded by 21 year-old Ritesh Agarwal became a household name after it received $100 million in funding from SoftBank in August this year. The startup operates in an asset-light model, tying up with existing hotels to offer a 'standardised experience', with rooms starting at Rs. 999 a night, offering amenities such as AC and Wi-Fi. Oyo Rooms offers apps on Google Play and App Store, and recently tied up with Airtel to offer Wi-Fi and DTH services.
Founder(s): Ritesh Agarwal
Headquarters: Gurgaon
Website: www.oyorooms.com
Type of Business: Budget hotel accommodation
Funding in 2015($ Million): 125
Founded In: 2013
Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners, DSG Consumer Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, VentureNursery
9) Practo
Online healthcare platform Practo raised $90 million in its Series C funding in August, and went on to acquire Insta Health, a provider of cloud-based hospital information management solutions, Qikwell, and hospital appointment scheduling platform a month later. Currently present in four other countries apart from India - Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia - it has global aspirations in the healthcare space.
(Also Read: Going Global, Indian Startups Learn the Importance of Thinking Local)
Founder(s): Shashank ND, Abhinav Lal
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Website: www.practo.com
Type of Business: Finding and booking doctors appointments/ Practice management for doctors
Funding in 2015($ Million): 120
Founded In: 2008
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners India, InnoVen Capital, Tencent, Sofina, Google Capital, Altimeter Capital
10) Zomato
Another Indian tech startup that is thinking global is restaurant search and discovery platform Zomato, which lists 1.4 million restaurants across 23 countries. Zomato shut down its Cashless business due to a lack of product-market fit, and laid off 300 employees in October. The startup is known to have a demanding work culture, its CEO's mail was widely circulated and dissected earlier this month. The seven year-old company has raised $223.8 million (roughly Rs. 1,450 crores) in eight funding rounds so far, having raised $60 million (roughly Rs. 400 crores) in its latest funding round in September.
Founder(s): Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddah
Headquarters: Gurgaon
Website: www.zomato.com
Type of Business: Restaurant discovery/ Food delivery
Funding in 2015($ Million): 110
Founded In: 2008
Investors: Info Edge India Ltd, Sequoia Capital, Vy Capital, Temasek
11) Inmobi
Ad-tech player InMobi featured in MIT Technology Review's Top 50 Disruptive Companies in 2013. The company launched its mobile discovery platform Miip in August, bundling it over 40,000 mobile apps at launch, as a complement to walled-garden experiences like Facebook or Twitter. Its tie up with China's Apus in September, could potentially help it to reach 500 million new users. In October, the went live with its partnership with content recommendation engine Taboola.
Founder(s): Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Abhay Singhal, Amit Gupta
Headquarters:Bengaluru
Website: www.inmobi.com
Type of Business: Digital ads
Funding in 2015($ Million): 100
Founded In: 2007
Investors: Mumbai Angels, Sherpalo Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, SoftBank, Tennenbaum Capital Partners
12) Pepperfry
Furniture and home products marketplace Pepperfry secured $100 million (roughly Rs. 667 crores) in its Series D funding round led by Goldman Sachs Group and Zodius Technology Fund in July this year, which it plans to use to enhance its logistics and invest in its technology team, apart from adding new experience centres.
Founder(s):Ambareesh Murty, Ashish Shah
Headquarters: Mumbai
Website: www.pepperfry.com
Type of Business: Furniture marketplace
Funding in 2015($ Million): 100
Founded In: 2011
Investors: Bertelsmann, Norwest Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs, Zodius Capital
13) Saavn
Music streaming service Saavn closed a $100 million (roughly Rs. 635 crores) funding round led by Tiger Global Management in July this year. Saavn claimed a ten-fold increase in daily active users in India in September, and has recorded over 250 million streams a month.
(Also Read: Apple Music, Wynk, Gaana, Saavn, Rdio, Guvera, or Hungama: Which Is the Best Music Streaming Service in India?)
Founder(s): Rishi Malhotra, Vinodh V. Bhat, Paramdeep Singh
Headquarters: New York City
Website: www.saavn.com
Type of Business: Music streaming
Funding in 2015($ Million): 100
Founded In: 2007
Investors: Steadview Capital, India Internet Group, Tiger Global, Bertelsmann
14) Shopclues
Four year-old e-commerce marketplace Shopclues saw a $100 million funding round in January in its Series D in January. The company claims 50 million monthly visitors on its website, and targets tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Founder(s): Sanjay Sethi, Radhika Aggarwal
Headquarters: Gurgaon
Website: www.shopclues.com
Type of Business: Online retail
Funding in 2015($ Million): 100
Founded In: 2011
Investors: Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Tiger Global
15) Yepme
Yepme is an online private label fashion brand that targets customers in tier-2 and tier-3 towns, selling on other marketplaces, and also on its own site. The company offers apps on Android, iOS and Windows, apart for a mobile version of its website optimised for slow internet speeds.
Founder(s): Vivek Gaur, Anand Jadhav, Sandeep Sharma
Headquarters: Gurgaon
Website: www.yepme.com
Type of Business: Online fashion retail
Funding in 2015($ Million): 97
Founded In: 2010
Investors: Helion Venture Partners, Capricorn Investment Group, Khazanah Nasional Berhad
16) Delhivery
Gurgaon-based Delhivery is a logistics solutions provider for e-commerce companies owns and operates its own fulfillment centers, and is capable of fulfilling orders in a time-span of less than three hours. Its pan-India express delivery network is backed by in-house fulfillment and transportation management systems, customer analytics, geo-coding and route optimisation, and can enable delivery to customers within 12-48 hours.
Founder(s): Sahil Barua, Suraj Saharan, Mohit Tandon Bhavesh Manglani, Kapil Bharati
Headquarters: Gurgaon
Website: www.delhivery.com
Type of Business: E-commerce logistics provider
Funding in 2015($ Million): 85
Founded In: 2011
Investors: Times Internet, Nexus Venture Partners, Multiples Alternate Asset Management
17) Freecharge
Sequoia-backed FreeCharge offered recharge for prepaid mobile, postpaid bills, data cards, and DTH, when it was acquired by Snapdeal in April 2015. FreeCharge launched its own digital wallet for making transaction across FreeCharge and Snapdeal platforms in September 2015, and claims a user base of 10 million wallet users.
Founder(s): Kunal Shah, Alok Goel
Headquarters: Mumbai
Website: www.freecharge.in
Type of Business: Mobile wallet
Funding in 2015($ Million): 80
Founded In: 2010
Investors:Sequoia Capital, InnoVen Capital, Sofina, ru-Net Holdings, Tybourne Capital
18) Bankbazaar
BankBazaar is a consumer-focused online marketplace for financial products, offering comparison tools and instant quotes for choosing loans, credit cards, and insurance. The company claims to have served over 50,000 customers, and works with over 35 partners.
Founder(s): Adhil Shetty
Headquarters: Chennai
Website: www.bankbazaar.com
Type of Business: Online marketplace for loans and insurance
Funding in 2015($ Million): 60
Founded In: 2008
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Walden International, Fidelity Growth Partners India, Amazon India
19) Manthan Systems
Manthan offers businesses big data analytics platforms and applications to enable them to take guided decisions in real-time. The company serves 170 customers across 21 countries.
Founder(s): Atul Jalan
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Website: www.manthan.com
Type of Business: Retail analytics
Funding in 2015($ Million): 60
Founded In: 2004
Investors:Fidelity Investments, Norwest Venture Partners, ePlanet Capital, IDG Ventures India, Fidelity Growth Partners India, InnoVen Capital
20) Netmeds
Online pharma aggregator Netmeds.com raised $50 million (roughly Rs. 324 crores) in funding led by OrbiMed, a healthcare-dedicated investment firm in October. You can use Netmeds to get medicines delivered from your local pharmacies. Netmeds has apps on the App Store and Google Play, and delivers across India on a cash on delivery basis.
Founder(s): Pradeep Dadha
Headquarters: Chennai
Website: www.netmeds.com
Type of Business: Online Pharmacy
Funding in 2015($ Million): 50
Founded In: 2015
Investors:MAPE Advisory Group, OrbiMed Advisors
21) Antuit
Big data startup Antuit generates business insights out of all forms of relevant business data using advanced analytics and visualisation techniques. Headquartered in Singapore, a majority of the team is based out of Bengaluru, with offices in Seattle, Auckland, and New York.
Founder(s):Arijit Sengupta
Headquarters: Singapore
Website: www.antuit.com
Type of Business: Business Analytics
Funding in 2015($ Million): 56
Founded In: 2013
Investors: Zodius Capital, Goldman Sachs
22) HomeLane
Homelane offers interior design solutions for homes, with a tech based portal that offers 3D visualisation features. The website boasts of over 500 interior designers in six cities, and promises delivery of the designs you choose in six weeks, with a five year warranty on purchases.
Founder(s): Srikanth Iyer, Rama Harinath, Prabhu Venkatesh, Srini Battula
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Website: www.homelane.com
Type of Business: Online Furniture Design
Funding in 2015($ Million): 54.5*(unconfirmed)
. Founded In: 2014
Investors:Sequoia Capital, Aarin Capital
23) Urban Ladder
Urban Ladder claims to be India's leading online furniture and home décor company, and aims to be a one stop shop for everything a user needs to make their home beautiful. The three-year-old startup has raised $77 million (roughly Rs. 513 crores) in funding from top tier venture capital firms and investors.
Founder(s):Ashish Goel, Rajiv Srivatsa
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Website: www.urbanladder.com
Type of Business: Furniture marketplace
Funding in 2015($ Million): 50
Founded In: 2012
Investors: Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners, Kalaari Capital, Sequoia Capital
24) BigBasket
Online grocery shopping startup Bigbasket claims to offer over 15,000 products for shopping on same-day delivery basis in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Mysore, Madurai, and Coimbatore. The site accepts cash payments, debit and credit cards and sodexo on delivery.
Founder(s): Vipul Parekh, Abhinay Choudhari
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Website: www.bigbasket.com
Type of Business: Online grocery retail
Funding in 2015($ Million): 50
Founded In: 2011
Investors: Helion Venture Partners, Zodius Capital, LionRock Capital (Hong Kong), Bessemer Venture Partners
25) CarDekho
CarDekho.com provides users car research, details on finance and insurance, and has tie-ups with car manufacturers, finance and insurance companies. The site facilitates the purchase of both new and old cars, searchable by budget and brand.
Founder(s): Amit Jain, Anurag Jain
Headquarters: Jaipur
Website: www.cardekho.com
Type of Business: Online automotive marketplace
Funding in 2015($ Million): 50
Founded In: 2008
Investors: Sequoia Capital, HDFC Bank, Tybourne Capital Management (HK) Limited, Hillhouse Capital

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