The Indian startup industry is the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. With favourable government policies, increasing investor confidence, and a burgeoning market of digital-first consumers, There are more than ten Indian startups valued at over US$5 billion.
These financially giant companies are not only transforming the Indian startup market but reinforcing the country’s reputation as a global tech powerhouse.
A snapshot of the booming Indian startup ecosystem
In 2025, the Indian startup market is thriving with over 110 unicorns. As per Indian Tech Unicorns & Exits Report 2024, the total valuation of Indian startups is US$354 billion. Key drivers behind India’s startup boom include 1.5 billion people, an expanding middle class, countrywide digital penetration, and a growing emphasis on digital transformation across sectors such as fintech, edtech, health tech and e-commerce.
Other key drivers include high-speed internet connectivity, cheap smartphones, and an expanding fintech ecosystem, which are helping Indian startups reach a larger audience and make their operations smoother.
The government’s initiatives, such as Startup India and Digital India, have further propelled the Indian startup sector by offering tax incentives, funding support and infrastructure development. The Economic Times reports that India’s unicorn startups are likely to add US$1 trillion to the Indian economy, which would reach US$7 trillion size by 2030.
This article will teach us about 11 Indian Startups (in no particular order) valued at more than US$5 billion.
1. Zomato: Indian startup revolutionizing food delivery with AI-powered logistics and focus on sustainability
- Founded: 2008 | Founders: Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah
- Valuation: US$5.4 billion
- Sector: Foodtech
Zomato is a multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery Indian startup, headquartered in Gurugram, India. This Indian food delivery startup connects customers with restaurant partners and delivery partners through its website and app, available in both Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. This Indian food tech startup offers services like restaurant search and discovery, online ordering, food delivery, table reservations and payments. Zomato also operates Hyperpure, a procurement solution that supplies high-quality ingredients and kitchen products to restaurant partners. Recently, Zomato’s Hyperpure faced backlash for food with a “future date of packing” after an inspection at the Zomato warehouse located in Kukatpally, Hyderabad.
With a presence in over 10,000 cities and towns in India, Zomato has expanded internationally to several countries. In 2022, Zomato expanded into quick commerce after acquiring Blinkit in a US$569 million deal, aiming for 10-minute deliveries.
2. Swiggy: Expanded into Indian grocery delivery and quick commerce market with Swiggy Instamart
- Founded: 2014 | Founders: Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini
- Valuation: US$10.7 billion
- Sector: Foodtech
Swiggy is another leading food delivery startup in India. A competitor of Zomato, the Swiggy app connects its customers with restaurants and food delivery partners. This Indian startup expanded its services to include grocery deliveries with Swiggy Stores in 2019 and launched Swiggy Instamart for quick commerce in August 2020. According to reports, the startup is planning to launch a standalone Instamart app to enhance user experience.
Swiggy’s Makar Sankranti advertisement featuring a torn kite hoarding, promoting its 10-minute delivery service went viral and is getting widespread praise. Now available in over 76 cities across India, Swiggy went public in 2021 and continues to grow.
3. PhonePe: Market leader in UPI payments in India
- Founded: 2016 | Founders: Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer
- Valuation: US$12 billion
- Sector: Fintech
PhonePe, founded in 2016 by Sameer Nigam, Rahul Chari, and Burzin Engineer, is a leading Indian startup offering solutions for digital payments and financial services. Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, the platform allows users to make seamless payments through UPI (Unified Payments Interface), offering services like money transfers, bill payments and recharges.
According to The Economic Times, PhonePe is the first Indian payment startup to dip its claws into the fast-moving Indian quick commerce market. The company launched Pincode, an e-commerce venture that has now pivoted to quick commerce, offering 15-minute deliveries in several cities including Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, and Varanasi. The report also mentions that this move is part of PhonePe’s strategy to tap into the rapidly growing quick commerce sector ahead of its planned public listing in 2026.
Besides its core business of payments, PhonePe also offers insurance broking and wealth management services. The startup reduced its net loss by 29% in the last financial year to US$230 million (Rs 1,996 crore) from US$322 million (Rs 2,795 crore) in FY23. This improvement was driven by a 74% growth in operating revenue, which increased to US$584 million (Rs 5,064 crore) in FY24, from US$336 million (Rs 2,914 crore) a year earlier.
4. Ola Electric: Driving India’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution with cutting-edge electric scooters
- Founded: 2017 | Founder: Bhavish Aggarwal
- Valuation: US$5.4 billion
- Sector: Electric Mobility
Ola Electric, an Indian startup founded in 2017 by Bhavish Aggarwal, is a leading electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer in India. Headquartered in Bengaluru, this Indian startup focuses on producing electric two-wheelers, including scooters and motorcycles. Ola Electric aims to revolutionize the Indian automotive industry by promoting sustainable mobility solutions.
Ola Electric has ambitious plans to build India’s first Gigafactory for cell manufacturing in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu. This facility will produce lithium-ion cells, a critical component for EV batteries, and is expected to be operational by early next year. The company also raised INR 3,200 crore to scale up its EV business and expand its manufacturing capacity.
However, Ola Electric, like many Indian startups, has faced challenges, including an ongoing investigation by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) into consumer complaints about vehicle quality and after-sales service. Despite these hurdles, Ola Electric continues to innovate and expand its product portfolio, recently launching new Gen 3 models and introducing an 8-year extended battery warranty. With a rapidly expanding sales and service network of 4,000 stores nationwide, Ola experienced a 76.4% increase in month-on-month registrations.
5. OfBusiness: Streamlining SME financing and procurement with AI-driven tools
- Founded: 2016 | Founders: Asish Mohapatra, Ruchi Kalra, Bhuvan Gupta
- Valuation: US$5 billion
- Sector: B2B Commerce
OfBusiness was founded in January 2016 by Asish Mohapatra, Vasant Sridhar, Ruchi Kalra, Bhuvan Gupta, and Nitin Jain, along with Lokesh Garg, Dhruva Shree Aggarwal, and Pratyush Nalla. It is the India’s 18th unicorn startup to enter US$1 billion valuation club in 2021.
Headquartered in Gurugram, OfBusiness connects small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with suppliers of raw materials such as steel, chemicals, textiles, and agricultural products. This Indian startup also offers financing solutions through its platform Oxyzo, which is serving more than 5,000 MSMEs and works with over 40 lenders.
OfBusiness has plans to go public with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) targeted for 2025. This Indian startup has hired five investment banks including India’s Axis Capital, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan to manage the stock offering. OfBusiness aims to seek approval from India’s market regulator between March and June 2025 and list in late 2025.
Lastly, the company reported a significant after-tax profit of US$72.6 million on revenue of US$2.3 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2024.
6. Razorpay: Indian startup offering end-to-end payment solutions powering over 10 million businesses
- Founded: 2014 | Founders: Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar
- Valuation: US$7.5 billion
- Sector: Fintech
Razorpay, an Indian startup founded in 2014 by Harshil Mathur (CEO & Co-Founder) and Shashank Kumar (MD & Co-Founder), is the first and only Indian fintech startup to build a full-stack international Payment Gateway ‘Curlec by Razorpay’. Headquartered in Bengaluru, this Indian startup provides payment solutions for the local payment ecosystem. RazorPay powers online payments for 76 Of 100 startup unicorns and millions of businesses in India. The startup has been recognized for its innovative approach to digital payments to make money movement simpler and easier and has received several accolades, including being featured on the Forbes Cloud 100 list, with a valuation of US$7.5 billion.
Razorpay’s new initiative, UPI Switch, launched in partnership with Airtel Payments Bank to enable 5 times faster access to UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions. The UPI Switch would boost UPI transaction success rates by 4-5% and offer customised features to ensure smoother payment transactions. Razorpay’s other ventures include Razorpay PaaS, a unique podcast as a service platform and RAY, an AI assistant designed to enhance customer engagement.
7. Pine Labs: Leading Indian fintech startup for payment and retail solutions
- Founded: 1998 | Founder: Rajul Garg & Tarun Upadhayain
- Valuation: US$5 billion
- Sector: Fintech
Pine Labs is another Indian fintech startup started in 1998 by Rajul Garg & Tarun Upadhayain. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Pine Labs Pvt Ltd provides cloud-based point-of-sale (PoS) payment solutions, enabling merchants to accept credit and debit cards, e-wallets, QR codes and UPI. This Indian startup has expanded its services to over 17 countries, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa.
Recently, Groww has released the IPO details of Pine Labs targeting a valuation of Rs 50,000 crores (US$6 billion). The startup is also considering moving its domicile back to India from Singapore, joining other Indian startups like Zepto and Meesho in the “reverse flipping” trend (reverse flipping is process to shift domicile of an Indian company back to India). Pine Labs has recently expanded its 12-year-long relationship with SBI Payments to revolutionize digital commerce.
8. Flipkart: The giant Indian startup with a US$36 billion valuation
- Founded: 2007 | Founders: Sachin and Binny Bansal
- Valuation: US$36.7 billion
- Sector: E-commerce
Flipkart, founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, is one of the largest Indian startups in the e-commerce sector. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Flipkart offers a wide range of products, including electronics, fashion, home appliances and groceries.
Just like Pine Labs, this Indian startup is also changing its domicile to India before its ambitious plan to go public with an IPO. The Indian e-commerce giant is expanding its quick commerce services, aiming to compete with other major players like Swiggy and Amazon and turn their valuation from US$6.1 billion in 2024 to US$40 billion by 2030.
9. Dream11: India startup focusing on fantasy sports with over 200 million users
- Founded: 2008 | Founders: Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth
- Valuation: US$8 billion
- Sector: Fantasy Sports
Dream11, an Indian startup founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, is a leading fantasy sports platform in India. The company allows users to create virtual teams and compete in various sports like cricket, football, kabaddi, and basketball1. Dream11 gained popularity for its freemium fantasy cricket model introduced in 2012 and became the first Indian gaming startup to enter the unicorn club in April 2019.
Dream11 has been in the news for challenging a ₹40,000 crore GST evasion notice in the Bombay High Court. The Indian startup argues that the tax authorities’ claim is arbitrary and unreasonable, as it seeks to levy GST on the entire nominal value of bets. Despite this legal challenge, Dream11 continues to grow, boasting a user base of over 200 million and a recent valuation of US$8 billion.
Dream11 secured a sponsorship deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), becoming the new lead sponsor for Team India for three years since 2023, replacing Byju’s. This partnership highlights Dream11’s strong presence in the sports and gaming industry.
10. CRED: Indian startup redefining credit management with a gamified platform
- Founded: 2018 | Founder: Kunal Shah
- Valuation: US$6.4 billion
- Sector: Fintech
CRED, founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah, is a Bengaluru-based fintech startup that rewards users for paying their credit card bills on time. This Indian startup has expanded to offer various financial services, including bill payments, UPI transactions, and personal finance management through Cred Money.
Last year, the Economic Times reported a 66% jump in revenue to US$285 million (Rs 2,473 crore) for 2023-24 from US$171 million (Rs 1,484 crore) in the previous financial year. Cred has grown rapidly, with over 13 million users and a valuation exceeding US$6 billion.
11. Dailyhunt: Leading content aggregation platform with a regional language focus
- Founded: 2009 | Founders: Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni
- Valuation: US$5 billion
- Sector: Digital Media
Dailyhunt, an Indian startup originally named Newshunt, was created in 2009 as a Symbian app by former Nokia employees Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni. In 2011, Newshunt became available on Android, and Virendra Gupta, the founder of Verse, acquired it. Newshunt was rebranded as Dailyhunt in 2015. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Dailyhunt offers a wide range of content in multiple Indian languages, including news, entertainment, sports, lifestyle, etc.
Other Indian startups that deserve a mention are
- Zepto with a valuation of US$5 billion
- Polygon with a valuation of US$10 billion
- Postman with a valuation of US$5.6 billion
- Icertis with a valuation of US$5 billion
- Ola Cabs with a valuation of US$7.3 billion
Conclusion
India’s 110 unicorns are a testament to the country’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovative prowess. As Indian startups disrupt industries and create lasting value, they pave the way for the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. From transforming education to revolutionizing commerce, these Indian startups are not just reshaping India but inspiring the world.
