The 5 richest startups in Delhi

Mention Indian startups and the world thinks Bangalore. But did you know some of the country’s top unicorn firms are based in Delhi?

In this city of traders, people love launching businesses. From housewives to college dropouts to retired men, they will find a garage, a patio, or even space under a flyover to groom a business. It is also home to the tech brains of IIT-Delhi and Delhi College of Engineering, many of whom go on to launch startups.

So let’s take a look at the five best startups of Delhi. By ‘best’, I mean the most valued. Three of these are ecommerce unicorns – Snapdeal, Paytm, and ShopClues. The fourth, Zomato, is fast getting there and our fifth pick, Oyo, has become a name to reckon with.

Snapdeal: Valued at US$6.5 billion

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread? Not quite. Remember how Snapdeal went ahead and announced the sale of Maggi welcome kits in India last year?

Never mind if the instant noodle brand was besmirched by controversy over the presence of lead and had just emerged from a five-month long ban. Some 60,000 kits were sold out in 5 minutes! Perhaps Wharton graduate Kunal Bahl and IIT-Delhi graduate Rohit Bansal – the founders of Snapdeal – had seen it coming.

The two have not been known to shrug off bold decisions. Inspired by Chinese giant Alibaba, they decided to turn their offline coupons business into an online marketplace in 2011. That was the birth of Snapdeal, now the second largest Indian ecommerce company.

It offers around 20 million products across more than 500 categories, with mobile phones and electronics helping it make a killing. Last year it acquired online recharge platform Freecharge. Valued at US$6.5 billion, it is backed by Alibaba, Foxconn, Softbank, and Ratan Tata.

Paytm: Valued at US$1.6 billion

Noida-based Paytm is a brand of One97 Communications. It started out in 2010 as a mobile top-up company, but founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma – a graduate of DCE – was quick to spot the gold mine that ecommerce was.

Today it is aiming to be the country’s first profitable ecommerce firm. Paytm has been making good use of the hyperlocal space by roping in local merchants. Last year, the company claimed to have 50,000 merchants on board and was processing over 75 million orders a month.  It is adopting the online-to-offline model of Alibaba, which is also a heavyweight investor in the firm.

ShopClues: Valued at US$1.1 billion

Zomato: Valued at US$900 million

Oyo Rooms: Valued at US$400 million