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Daniel Tay · · 6 min readThe 10 Indian tech companies you should keep an eye on in 2019
2018 hasn’t ended yet, but India’s startup landscape is already proving more vibrant than last year. Investment more than doubled from 2017, achieving a total of US$4.3 billion from January to September 2018, according to a report from the National Association of Software and Services Companies.
India also added 1,200 new startups this year, the report stated. Eight of the country’s tech companies became unicorns – the most it has added in a calendar year – while more than 70 underwent mergers and acquisitions.
With such strong startup activity, India is a country to watch in 2019. Tech in Asia has picked out the top 10 local tech companies to look out for next year, based on the funding they received in 2018 and the plans they have for the future. The list is based on information from our own database, which mostly includes funding rounds covered by the media.
Oyo Rooms
Photo credit: Oyo Rooms
A common complaint about budget hotels in India is the major mismatch between the promises of marketing and the reality of accommodation.
Oyo Rooms aims to address that by connecting travelers to a network of budget hotels that meet around 30 standard measures, such as clean bed linen, free WiFi, 24/7 customer support, and air-conditioning in every room.
In September, the startup raised up to US$1 billion in a funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund. This boost will help Oyo expand to markets outside of Asia including the UK, where it plans to sign up 300 independent hotels by the end of 2019.
Paytm (One97)
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm / Photo credit: Tech in Asia
This ecommerce and payments platform claims to have pioneered the use of QR-based mobile payments in India. Around 7 million merchants in India use Paytm to receive payments directly into their bank accounts. It expects to soon process one billion transactions per quarter.
Paytm has also been focusing on improving banking compliance. In October, it appointed Satish Kumar Gupta, who had a 30-year stint with the State Bank of India, as the CEO of Paytm Payments Bank.
Meanwhile, it is building an online-to-offline (O2O) model for its marketplace, Paytm Mall.
Valued at US$10 billion, Paytm is owned by One97 Communications, which co-led a US$30 million funding round in February 2017.
PharmEasy
Swiggy
Udaan
Ekart Logistics
PolicyBazaar
Zomato
PhonePe
ReNew Power
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Venture funding in India has more than doubled from 2017, hitting a total of US$4.3 billion in 2018. And the year isn’t over yet.
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