Top 20 Startups In India

Introduction

India’s startup ecosystem is a vibrant tapestry of innovation and entrepreneurship. This flourishing sector has experienced unprecedented growth, giving rise to leading startups that are redefining both the Indian and global markets.

Spanning diverse industries such as technology, healthcare, e-commerce, and financial services, these startups showcase the breadth and depth of Indian entrepreneurial talent. With new Indian startups emerging regularly, they bring fresh perspectives and solutions, adding to the richness of this dynamic ecosystem.

The best startups in India distinguish themselves through their unique solutions, scalability, and their ability to tackle significant challenges. These top companies are not only leaders in the startup world but also embody the spirit of India’s dynamic startup culture. Focusing on innovation and sustainability, these startups are setting new standards and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Let’s dive into the top 20 startups that are leading the way.

Note: The valuation of the startups mentioned below has been obtained through publicly available information. It may change mean-time or vary slightly.

1. CRED

CRED is a members-only credit card bill payment platform that rewards its members for clearing their credit card bills on time. CRED members get access to exclusive rewards and experiences from premier brands upon clearing their credit card bills on CRED. CRED partners with the best premier and luxury brands to bring you an unmatched experience at the end of every credit card bill payment cycle.

Business Model of CRED

CRED is a credit card payments app with a direct-to-the-consumer (D2C) marketplace and P2P lending via CRED Mint. The company claims to have 22% of the overall credit card users on its platform, with a higher share by value.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: Fintech 
• Founded year: 2018
• Founder & CEO: Kunal Shah (Founder & CEO)
• Current Valuation: $6.4 billion

2. PharmEasy

Launched in 2015, PharmEasy is pharmacy made easy! It was started with the sole purpose of making healthcare accessible and affordable to all. PharmEasy today is India’s leading and most trusted online healthcare aggregator. They help patients connect with local pharmacy stores and diagnostic centres to fulfil their extensive medical needs.

Today, they deliver medicines in 1000+ cities in India, covering 22000+ pin codes. They offer diagnostic test services across Mumbai, including Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan & Dombivali, Delhi with Noida, Gurgaon, Faridabad & Ghaziabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Gandhi Nagar, Surat, Vadodara, Lucknow, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Jaipur.

Business Model of PharmEasy

PharmEasy is an online pharmacy company that offers a variety of pharmaceutical products. It provides services such as delivering products through delivery personnel, leasing software and hardware, warehousing, and earns commissions from facilitating diagnostic tests through its marketplace.

It also offers services like ordering medicine, healthcare products, and lab tests, along with a PharmEasy Plus membership that provides benefits like extra cashback, free delivery, and doctor teleconsultation.

• Headquarter: Mumbai
• Industry: Healthcare
• Founded year: 2019
• Founder & CEO: Siddharth Shah ( Co-Founder & CEO), Dr. Dhaval Shah (Co-Founder)
• Current Valuation: $458 million

3. Meesho

Meesho is India’s fastest-growing internet commerce company. They want to make eCommerce accessible to all. Their vision is to enable 100 million small businesses in India, including individual entrepreneurs, to succeed online. Their mission is to democratize Internet commerce by bringing a range of products & new customers online. What started as a reseller-focused platform six years ago has now emerged as a single ecosystem connecting millions of sellers, consumers and entrepreneurs.

Business Model of Meesho

Meesho is a social commerce platform that enables small businesses to sell products using social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp. Its offerings span categories, including fashion, accessories, electronics, home and kitchen items, health and fitness equipment, and office supplies. Additionally, Meesho enables users to become resellers, sharing and selling products to their contacts with the opportunity to earn a profit margin.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: E-commerce
• Founded year: 2015
• Co-Founder & CEO: Vidit Aatrey (Co-Founder & CEO), Sanjeev Barnwal (Co-Founder & CTO)
• Current Valuation: $3.9 billion

4. Digit Insurance

Digit Insurance is one of India’s leading digital full-stack insurance companies. On a mission to make insurance simple.

Business Model of Digit Insurance

Digit is a general insurance company that deals in health, car, bike, and travel insurance. According to the company, Motor is the largest category for Digit followed by fire and health insurance.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: Fintech
• Founded year: 2016
• Founder & CEO: Kamesh Goyal (Founder ), Jasleen Kohli (CEO)
• Current Valuation: $4 billion

5. Ditto Insurance

Ditto Insurance redefines how you approach insurance. You don’t just compare insurance—you understand it. Their mission is to simplify the process, helping you narrow down choices, avoid pitfalls, and make better decisions. Instead of overwhelming you with options, they guide you through your choices, ensuring you know exactly what you’re getting. Ditto empowers you with the knowledge needed to make confident, informed decisions about your insurance needs.

Business Model of Ditto Insurance

Ditto provides insurance advisory services, offering a platform to compare health and term insurance policies. The company assists customers in understanding options and purchasing plans. It offers free consultations through its team of advisors and generates revenue through commissions from insurance companies when policies are purchased via its platform.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: Insurance
• Founded year: 2018
• CEO and Co-Founders: Pawan Kumar Rai(CEO), Bhanu Gurram (Co-Founder), Pawan Kumar Rai (Co-Founder), Shrehith Karkera (Co-Founder)
• Current Valuation: N/A

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6. Groww

Groww is a strong, enthusiastic team working to make financial services accessible to all Indians using a multi-product platform. They help millions of customers take control of their financial future.

They’re customer-obsessed. But every product, every design, every algorithm, right down to the smallest detail of what can be done or can’t, is done with the customers needs and convenience in mind.

Business Model of Groww

Groww is a full-stack financial services platform that offers an app-based trading and investment platform. Users can invest and trade in stocks, futures & options, mutual funds, and more. The platform provides charts, insights and other features for analyzing market movement. It also offers instant loans to users.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: Fintech
• Founded year: 2016
• Co-Founder & CEO: Lalit Keshre (Co-Founder & CEO), Harsh Jain (Co-Founder & COO), Neeraj Singh (Co-Founder & CTO)
• Current Valuation: $2 billion

7. Zepto

Zepto, founded in 2021 by Stanford dropouts Aadit Palicha and Kaivalya Vohra, is India’s fastest-growing e-grocery company. Headquartered in Mumbai, it operates in 10 cities with 1000+ employees, delivering 3000+ products, including fresh produce, essentials, and hygiene items, within 10 minutes. Leveraging advanced tech, an efficient model, and optimized delivery centres, Zepto is transforming India’s $600B grocery market. It also offers a café service, delivering Coffee, Chai, and other items alongside groceries.

Business Model of Zepto

Zepto is a quick commerce company which delivers grocery, FMCG products, vegetables, fruits and other essentials within 10-15 minutes in metros cities in India.

• Headquarter: Mumbai
• Industry: Quick Commerce
• Founded year: 2021
• Co-Founder & CEO: Aadit Palicha (Co-Founder & CEO), Kaivalya Vohra (Co-Founder & CTO)
• Current Valuation: $5 billion

8. Apna

Apna, India’s #1 professional app for the rising workforce, connects over 2 crore users with opportunities from 2 lakh+ employers. Trusted by leading companies like Zomato, Burger King, and Bharti AXA, Apna operates in 64 cities, rapidly expanding to meet growing job demand. Partners include organizations like NSDC, UNICEF, and the Ministry of Minority Affairs, supporting skilling and employment initiatives. They are actively seeking top talent in business, product, and tech to join their journey.

Business Model of Apna

Apna is a recruiting marketplace which offers job opportunities to candidates by enabling vertical communities for painters, field sales agents, and carpenters, among others, on its platform. It makes money via subscriptions from recruiters and premium listings on the platform.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: HR Tech
• Founded year: 2019
• Founder & CEO: Nirmit Parikh (Founder & CEO)
• Current Valuation: $1.1 billion

9. Slice

Slice app brings a fast and simple way to make payments for millions of users, whether credit or UPI. Credit card platform Slice helped along with a partnership with Visa and SMB Bank, Slice provides physical and virtual cards for students and young salaried professionals to avail of buy now pay later [BNPL] products.

Business Model of Slice

Fintech startup Slice has switched from providing credit lines through its app to classic term loans. It uses technology and data-driven algorithms to evaluate creditworthiness and provide financial services to users. Slice runs a non-banking financial corporation (NBFC) named Quadrillion Finance Pvt Ltd to provide unsecured loans of up to Rs 50,000 to its customers.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: Fintech
• Founded year: 2016
• Founder & CEO: Rajan Bajaj (Founder & CEO)
• Current Valuation: $1.8 billion

10. Byju’s

Byju’s, a global ed-tech leader founded in 2011 in India, provides adaptive, engaging learning solutions to over 150 million students worldwide. Its brand portfolio includes BYJU’S Learning App, Disney-BYJU’S Early Learn, WhiteHat Jr, Tynker, Epic!, and more, catering to Pre-K–12 education and competitive exams. 

With 12,000+ teachers, Byju’S uses interactive, personalized methodologies to suit each learner’s style and pace. Partnerships with global giants like Disney and Google further enhance its mission to make high-quality learning accessible and engaging for students everywhere.

Business Model of Byju’s

Byjus is a leading ed-tech startup. Its flagship product, Byju’s-The learning app, offers learning programs for classes 4-12 & test preparation for JEE, AIPMT, CAT, IAS, GRE & GMAT. It has served learning solutions to more than 150 million students worldwide.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: EdTech
• Founded year: 2011
• Co-Founder & CEO: Byju Raveendran (Co-Founder & CEO), Divya Gokulnath (Co-Founder)
• Current Valuation: $0 billion

11. Tata 1mg

Tata 1mg, India’s leading consumer health platform, aims to be the trusted health partner for all Indians by making healthcare accessible, understandable, and affordable. It empowers users to learn about medicines, find cost-effective alternatives, and connect with the right healthcare professionals. Its diagnostics service ensures transparency and affordability in lab tests. Committed to public service, Tata 1mg strives to help consumers and caregivers access the best healthcare services at optimal prices.

Business Model of Tata 1mg

Health tech startup 1Mg is an online platform from where you can order all of your health needs, including allopathic, ayurvedic, and homoeopathic medicines, vitamins & nutrition supplements and other health-related products, which will be delivered at home.

• Headquarter: Gurugram
• Industry: Healthcare
• Founded year: 2015
• Co-Founder & CEO: Prashant Tandon (Co-Founder), Gaurav Agarwal (Co-Founder)
• Current Valuation: $1.25 Billion

12. Licious

Licious, founded by Abhay Hanjura and Vivek Gupta, is a leading consumer food company revolutionizing the $40 billion Indian meat market with premium quality meat and seafood products. Operating across raw, fresh, marinades, and ready-to-eat categories, Licious addresses customer needs for quality, hygiene, freshness, and convenience through its farm-to-fork model. It owns a robust cold-chain-powered supply chain, ensuring global standards of freshness from procurement to delivery. 

As the largest direct-to-consumer fresh meat and seafood brand, Licious leverages technology, data science, and consumer insights to redefine the highly unorganized meat industry, aiming to become India’s most loved meat brand.

Business Model of Licious

Fresh meat and seafood e-commerce platform Licious delivers packed fresh, marinated, or cold-cut non-vegetarian products like meat, fish, chicken, eggs, and seafood. It has 5 processing units in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Gurugram and Bangalore, with more than 90 delivery centres across all markets.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: Foodtech
• Founded year: 2015
• Co-Founder & CEO: Vivek Gupta (Co-Founder), Abhay Hanjura (Co- Founder)
• Current Valuation: $1.46 billion

13. BoAt

BoAt was Founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta. BoAt bridges the gap in India’s audio and wearable market by blending fashion with consumer electronics. Celebrated by the younger generation, lifestyle influencers, and audiophiles, BoAt champions self-expression, adventure, and exploration. Known for its passion for music and innovative spirit, BoAt offers more than just products—it fosters a community. Now the world’s 5th largest wearable brand and India’s top earwear brand, BoAt continues to shape culture and redefine audio and lifestyle technology.

Business Model of boAt

boAt sells audio-focused gadgets like wireless speakers, earbuds (Airdopes), wired and wireless headphones/ earphones, home audio gear, premium rugged cables and others. As part of the brand, it commands five brands: boAt, Redgear, Tagg, Defy and Misfit.

• Headquarter: Delhi
• Industry: Consumer Tech
• Founded year: 2016
• Co-Founder: Sameer Mehta (Co-Founder), Aman Gupta (Co-Founder & CMO)
• Current Valuation: $1.32 billion

14. Skyroot Aerospace

The extraordinary opportunities in space depend on the transportation systems from Earth to Space, driving us towards our new space age. Skyroot is building technologies for responsive, reliable and economical access to space. Spaceflight, they say, should be as regular, as reliable, and as affordable as airflight.

Business Model of Skyroot Aerospace

Skyroot Aerospace’s business model is to offer cost-effective and customizable launch services for small and medium satellites. Skyroot has become the first Indian private aerospace firm to test its fully cryogenic rocket engine ‘Dhawan-1,’ named for eminent Indian scientist Satish Dhawan.

• Headquarter: Hyderabad
• Industry: Space Tech
• Founded year: 2018
• Co-Founder: Pawan Kumar Chandana (Co-Founder), Naga Bharath Daka (Co-Founder)
• Current Valuation: $519 million

15. LivSpace

Livspace, Asia’s largest omni-channel home interiors and renovation platform, offers homeowners a seamless, end-to-end solution for designing and renovating their spaces. It uses proprietary technology to organise a fragmented industry by connecting designers, brands, manufacturers, and contractors for a reliable, eCommerce-like experience. 

Operating in Singapore, Malaysia, and 30+ Indian cities, Livspace has delivered 125,000+ rooms and sold over 7.5 million SKUs. Backed by $450M in funding from global investors like KKR, Ingka Group, TPG Growth, and Goldman Sachs, Livspace continues revolutionising home interiors with trusted and predictable services.

Business Model of Livspace

Livspace is a home interior and renovation platform that acts more like a home design marketplace where homeowners connect with vendors and designers. LivSpcae earns commissions from its vendors for its marketplace interior services with more than 3,500 designers.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: E-commerce, Décor
• Founded year: 2014
• Co-Founder & CEO: Anuj S (Co-Founder & CEO), Ramakant Sharma (Co-Founder & COO)
• Current Valuation: $1.2 billion

16. PhonePe

PhonePe is a mobile payments app that allows you to transfer money instantly to anyone by using just their mobile number. It offer UPI based solutions for money transfer, online payment at retail merchants, mobile & DTH recharge, online shopping, travel tickets booking etc. PhonePe app is available on both android and ios devices.

Business Model of Phonepe

PhonePe is India’s biggest mobile payment platform, which allows you to transfer money using UPI, recharge phone numbers, pay utility bills, and more. PhonePe says it has digitised over 35 million merchants across these smaller cities and over 400 million registered users on its platform. It controls more than 45% of market UPI transactions.

• Headquarter: Mumbai
• Industry: Fintech
• Founded year: 2015
• Co-Founder & CEO: Sameer Nigam (Co-Founder & CEO), Rahul Chari (Co-Founder & CTO)
• Current Valuation: $12 billion

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17. Razorpay

Razorpay, India’s first full-stack financial solutions company, is transforming digital payments for over 300 million consumers while empowering businesses of all sizes to accept payments effortlessly. Evolving from a payment gateway provider to a solutions-driven organization, Razorpay offers a comprehensive suite of products for payment acceptance, disbursement, capital raising, and money management. 

Its offerings include Payment Gateway, Payment Links, Payment Pages, Subscriptions, Smart Collect, Razorpay Capital, RazorpayX, Payroll, and Thirdwatch, making it a leader in simplifying and enhancing the digital payment ecosystem.

Business Model of Razorpay

Razorpay is a business-focused payment gateway and neo-banking platform. It allows businesses to accept payments online through various digital payment methods. Razorpay also offers other features, such as recurring payments, subscription billing, and in-app payments.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: Fintech
• Founded year: 2013
• Co-Founder & CEO: Harshil Mathur (Co-Founder & CEO), Shashank Kumar (Co-Founder)
• Current Valuation: $7.5 billion

18. Udaan

Udaan, founded in 2016 and headed in Bangalore, is a B2B platform connecting manufacturers, traders, retailers, and wholesalers. It offers over 15 lakh products across categories like electronics, apparel, grocery, and fresh produce, simplifying and streamlining B2B commerce. The platform’s chat feature enables secure, real-time negotiations in multiple languages between buyers and sellers.

With over 50 million SMBs in India, Udaan empowers these entrepreneurs by bringing digital solutions to the heart of the economy, helping them grow and succeed in an increasingly digital world.

Business Model of Udaan

Udaan is a B2B e-commerce cum lending platform that connects retailers to buy directly from large manufacturers across multiple categories such as staples, apparel, pharmacy, FMCG and electronics. Udaan has 20,000 suppliers and a million retailers. It claims to deal in 1.5 million products across 500 plus brands.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: E-commerce, B2B
• Founded year: 2016
• Co-Founder: Amod Malviya (Co-Founder), Sujeet Kumar (Co-Founder), Vaibhav Gupta (Co-Founder)
• Current Valuation: $1.88 billion

19. Postman Inc.

Postman is the world’s leading API platform. Postman’s features simplify each step of building an API and streamline collaboration to help create better APIs—faster. More than 25 million developers and 500,000 organizations across the globe use Postman today.

Business Model of Postman

Postman is an API development firm that offers a comprehensive set of tools to accelerate the API lifecycle, including design, testing, documentation, and mocking. Postman also provides an API repository for storing and collaborating on API artefacts, workspaces for organizing API work and collaboration, and governance features to ensure APIs meet organizational standards.

• Headquarter: Bengaluru
• Industry: SaaS (Software as a Service)
• Founded year: 2014
• Founder & CEO: Abhinav Asthana (Founder & CEO), Ankit Sobti (Co-Founder & CTO), Abhijit Kane (Co-Founder)
• Current Valuation: $3.4 billion

20. BharatPe

BharatPe, co-founded by Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani in 2018, aims to drive financial inclusion for Indian merchants. It introduced India’s first UPI interoperable QR code-based zero MDR payment service and the first UPI-backed merchant cash advance service. In 2020, it launched BharatSwipe, India’s only zero MDR card acceptance terminals. 

Serving over 50 lakh merchants across 35 cities, BharatPe processed 5 crore UPI transactions monthly, with an annualized TPV of $5 billion. The company is backed by marquee investors like Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, and Coatue Management.

Business Model of BharatPe

BharatPe is a merchant-focused payment app that runs on UPI’s QR codes to enable settlement of instant payments. The company offers a single interface for all UPI apps such as Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, Mobikwik, Freecharge, True Caller and others to credit directly to the merchant’s bank account. With more than 200,000 merchant bases, BharatPe claims to have processed over 700,000 transactions valued at over Rs 150 crore.

• Headquarter: Delhi
• Industry: Fintech
• Founded year: 2014
• Founder: Shashvat Nakrani (Co-founder), Ashneer Grover (Co-founder)
• Current Valuation: $2.7 billion

Conclusion

This list can go on as numerous startups in India are doing very well in their industries. To name a few, Flipkart, Big Basket, Ola Cabs, FirstCry, and CureFit are names that need no introduction. The emergence of these startups is driven by the new force in the global economy, millions of new customers, a new international presence of India, and education.

As the startup ecosystem continues to grow, many entrepreneurs are looking to upskill and stay ahead. If you’re looking to boost your skills and knowledge, check out these free courses with certificates to enhance your learning journey.

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