10 Enormously Successful Indian Startups that Stemmed from Bengaluru

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Over the course of the last two decades, Bengaluru has solidified its position as the IT hub of the country, with the coveted title of ‘India’s Silicon Valley’. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and the emphasis on startups, the city has also been quick to emerge as the playground for such entrepreneurial enterprises. The city’s work culture and infrastructure have made it hugely favorable for startups and many businesses that began elsewhere, have also started shifting their operations here. Here are 10 enormously successful Indian startups that were born in Bengaluru.

1. Flipkart

Flipkart is one of the oldest and best-known brands in the Indian e-commerce sector, having been founded back in 2007. The startup, which is today a household name, was established by IIT Delhi alumni Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. Flipkart best represents the tremendous success of e-commerce enterprises in India and has been attracting a flurry of investment for years. In 2014, the company raised over USD 1.2 billion from both existing and new investors, while it attracted an additional USD 550 million the following year. This year, the company was rated as having an investment value of USD 11 billion, according to Morgan Stanley.

2. HackerEarth

HackerEarth is a technology startup that was established by IIT Roorkee alumni Sachin Gupta and Vivek Prakash towards the end of 2012. The company is barely four years old, but it has already got heads turning in the IT world. Sachin even featured in a Forbes list of Asians under-30, who are transforming enterprise technology. The IT company specializes in providing recruitment solutions to corporate and it has an impressive list of clients, including names like Adobe, Wipro, InMobi, Symantec, and others. In 2014 HackerEarth made it to the finals of the Seedstars World startup competition that is held in Switzerland and they will be hosting the world’s largest developer confluence, IndiaHacks 2016.

3. BigBasket

BigBasket is the brainchild of Hari Menon, who today serves as the CEO and co-founder of the company. The startup was established to target the online food and grocery space in the e-commerce sector. Despite the fact that this is one of the most challenging ventures in the sector, the startup has been growing steadily attracting great interest from investors and consumers alike. This March, the company has already managed to raise USD 150 million in funding from investors and it plans to add 8 more cities to its area of operations, which presently cover 18 cities across the country.

4. Zoomcar

The concept of self-drive rental cars is something that never caught on India, although it has been hugely successful in many other parts of the world. American duo David Back and Greg Moran believed that the Indian market was ripe for such a venture and they decided to move to India and setup Zoomcar in Bengaluru. Since its establishment in 2013, the company has raised over USD 20 million and there are plans to raise an additional USD 50 million this year to facilitate expansion plans to other cities. The company which started out with a fleet of just 7 cars has already experienced tremendous growth. Today, Zoomcar as a fleet of over 2,000 cars and 50 Nanos were added to this, through a partnership with Tata Motors.

5. Housejoy

Entrepreneurs Sunil Goel and Arjun Kumar put their vast experience in the service industry to use, setting up Housejoy in January 2015. The startup was aimed at providing home services to consumers online, with a variety of offerings including home repairs and maintenance, plumbing, electrical services, cleaning, computer repairs, laundry, and lots more. Specialized beauty and bridal make-up services are also part of their growing portfolio. Since its inception there has been impressive growth and the company attracted USD 4 million in funding within five months. In less than a year, they also attracted around USD 22 million in funding from Amazon.

6. Moonfrog

Moonfrog is another Bengaluru-based startup that is generating waves in the country’s gaming community. The company that was founded by Tanay Tayal , Ankit Jain, Kumar Puspesh, Oliver Jones, and Dimpalkumar Maisuriya, in 2013, recently made an important acquisition. They got Mark Skaggs, one of the co-creators of Farmville, on board. After having served with Zynga, he will now be the director at Moonfrog Labs. The company already has an impressive portfolio with successful games like Smash Hit and Teen Patti Gold. Last year, Moonfrog attracted over USD 16 million in funding from Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital.

7. Myntra

Myntra may be a household name in the Indian e-commerce sector today, but it started out in the B2B sector back in 2007. The startup was created by IIT graduates Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania, and Vineet Saxena to supply on-demand personalized gifts. The company gradually moved towards the online retailing platform, focusing mainly on branded apparel. As the company continued to grow it was finally acquired by Flipkart for a whopping USD 330 million in May 2014. This remains the biggest deal to date in the Indian online consumer space. Myntra has set a target of March 2017 to achieve operation profitability and has a gross sales target of USD 1 billion for the fiscal year.

8. Practo

Practo was established by engineering graduates Shashank ND and Abhinav Lal, in 2008, when they were just 20 years old and in their final year of studies at National Institute of Technology, Suratkal, Karnataka. The idea for the startup came from Shashank’s personal experiences when he was trying to organize his father’s medical records and get a second opinion from a doctor overseas. They came up with an online health service platform that digitizes records and allows users to make appointments with doctors, as well as get online consultations. Today, their list of clientele includes over 2 lakh doctors, 10,000 hospitals, and 5,000 diagnostic centers, spread across 36 cities and 5 countries. The startup has already raised more than USD 124 million in funding so far, including an investment from Russian billionaire Yuri Milner last year. The future looks even brighter, as Practo has now expanded to Latin America as well, making its first entry in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

9. Swiggy

BITS Pilani alumni Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy established Swiggy, along with Rahul Jaimini, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, in late 2014. Their intention was to create a food delivery startup with a difference. Unlike most of the other businesses in the sector, Swiggy has its own delivery fleet, with personnel who pickup food from restaurants, delivering it directly to customers. The company claims that this makes almost all restaurants accessible to customers and it also ensures a better user-experience with reliable deliveries and real-time tracking. The company that is based out of Koramangala, Bengaluru, quickly generated investor interest, attracting USD 2 million in funding within 8 months. This year, Swiggy already drew additional funds of USD 35 million and has expanded operations beyond Bengaluru, to include major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkota.

10. CommonFloor

CommonFloor started out as a small company meant to provide apartment management solutions to gated communities. It was established in 2007 by Lalit Mangal, Sumit Jain, and Vikas Malpani, soon after they moved to Bengaluru and had trouble moving into a new house. Although the initial user-base was small, they quickly expanded the services to create a reliable platform on which home-owners and tenants could post their real estate requirements or offerings, whether buying or renting flats. CommonFloor soon grew to be a household name and is one of India”s leading real estate portals. After having attracted sizeable funding from investors like Google Capital and Tiger Global over the years the company was finally bought over by Quikr this year for USD 200 million.

With all of these startups emerging from Bengaluru, and many more deciding to make the city home, Bengaluru’s list of covetous titles only seems to keep growing; in addition to being the ‘Garden City’, ‘Lake City’, and ‘Silicon Valley’ of India, it is also the startup center of the nation.