India, being one of the world’s largest and most sophisticated economies, is a haven for entrepreneurs and tech companies, with a world-class support ecosystem and a substantial pool of venture capital eager to fund promising ventures. India is an ideal location for businesses seeking exponential growth and a wonderful base camp from which to conquer the world. Indian startups are leading the way in a variety of fields, mostly through technology. With over 37 unicorns, India also has the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem. We have identified our Top startup companies in India which are most profitable in 2021.
Some of them are already well-known in India and abroad, with their products and services reaching a big audience. Many of them, however, are less well-known since they focus on specialized business areas and address difficulties faced by specific professions.
While doing our research we have mainly emphasized the following aspects while choosing Top startup companies in India:
- Revenue potential
- Engagement
- Brand/product traction
- Profits in 2021
Furthermore, all businesses must be independent (not bought), privately owned, and employ 50 or more people. These businesses must be at least 12 years old and based in India. We’ve included a quick overview of the company in this post, including its founding history, headcount, top capabilities, and so on.
So, here it goes our list of Top startup companies in India:
10. Wakefit:
- Year Founded: 2016
- Headcount:2400(2021)
- Headquarter: Bengaluru, Karnataka
- Founders: Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and Ankit Garg
Wakefit, which was founded by Chaitanya Ramalingegowda and Ankit Garg in March 2016, began selling mattresses online in March 2016 and was already profitable six months later. Today, this direct-to-consumer mattress company sells 7500-9000 mattresses each month to its 500,000 consumers, earning a profit of Rs. 10 crores in FY20. Wakefit, a D2C startup, made Rs 410 crore in revenue in FY21, up to 2X from FY20.
Wakefit bills itself as a sleep solution provider. It is incorporating pregnancy pillows and fitted bedsheets into its product line. In 2019 this Bengaluru-based startup won the ‘Startup of The Year’ by ‘Home and Lifestyle Award’.
Wakefit’s key challenge in the initial years of operation was to establish customers’ trust because it was a newbie to the market.
Shopping for mattresses and other sleep and home solutions online was a fresh idea that demanded awareness and education to gather momentum.
“We developed our brand promises based on on-ground research, which included a 100-day trial policy with 100 percent refund, doorstep delivery, EMI options, and more. These promises — coupled with our innovation in the material sciences — helped us build customer trust and loyalty. Today, we have more than one lakh verified positive customer reviews across online platforms,” says Ankit. No doubt why we have included Wakefit in the list of Top startup companies in India.
9. Lenskart:
- Year Founded: 2010
- Headcount: 4000+(2020)
- Headquarter: Faridabad, Delhi NCR, India
- Founders: Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, and Sumeet Kapahi
Lenskart provides an omnichannel platform for selling eyewear and lenses online and also in their physical stores. Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, and Sumeet Kapahi started the company in 2010, along with Amit Chaudhary and Sumeet Kapahi. Peyush, who previously worked at Microsoft, also founded Valyoo Technologies, which is Lenskart’s parent company.
Customers can choose from over 5,000 frame styles and 45 types of high-quality lenses at Lenskart India. The designs are modern in terms of eyewear trends, thanks to an in-house staff of designers and stylists that stay on top of the latest trends.
It operates on an inventory-driven business strategy, passing these designs on to its manufacturers. This, combined with Lenskart’s supply network, allows them to keep production costs to a minimum. That is how it is one of the top startup companies in India. They also used AI-based Facial Recognition software so that users can try out different virtual 3D lenses.
The company has been significantly investing in the opening of additional physical stores, bringing the total number of offline outlets to over 750. When state-wide lockdowns are lifted, the firm aims to launch more than 300 new outlets, bringing the total to over 1,000, according to company founder Peyush Bansal.
According to regulatory filings, profit for FY20 was Rs 6.32 crore, up from a loss of Rs 31.57 crore the previous year on a consolidated basis.
Revenue from operations for the Bengaluru-based eyeglasses store was Rs 900.27 crores, up 89.81 percent from Rs 474.31 crore in FY19. The overall revenue for the period was Rs 969.52 crore, compared to Rs 485.59 crore the previous year.
8. Cashfree:
- Year Founded: 2015
- Headcount: 225(2020)
- Headquarter: Bengaluru, Karnataka
- Founders: Akash Sinha, Reeju Datta
Cashfree came into existence in Bengaluru in 2015 as a solution for restaurants seeking a more efficient way for their delivery workers to collect cash from customers.
The founders of Cashfree, Akash Sinha, and Reeju Datta have no prior background with payments. When their merchants requested if they might develop an online payment service, the founders quickly realized that Cashfree could be used for more than just that.
Cashfree also failed to impress investors in the beginning, as many of them didn’t actually believe a payments processing company could grow in size – and do it quickly enough. However, the startup’s fate was altered when Y Combinator accepted its application, even though the founders who had missed the deadline were unable to join the batch on time. Cashfree’s seed round was later funded by Y Combinator.
With a workforce of only 225 individuals, Cashfree is a digital payment gateway platform that provides more than 100 payment ways to over 50,000 businesses across the world. Their ability to stay lean has allowed them to scale and stay profitable from the start. From 1.4 crores in FY18 to 20 crores in FY20, their earnings rose 14 times and it became one of the top startup companies in India.
7. BrowserStack:
- Year Founded: 2011
- Headcount:800 (2021)
- Headquarter: Mumbai, Maharashtra
- Founders: Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal
BrowserStack, India’s most valuable SaaS provider, enabling developers to test their apps remotely using their cross-browser testing platform. They provide over 2,000 devices and multiple Operating Systems like Windows, Android and it is utilized by over 50,000 enterprises worldwide. The company has been profitable from its inception since it has never spent a penny on marketing and instead invests all of its profits back into the business to develop better goods for its clients.
The entity receives all of its revenue from the holding company in the United States, and its revenue from operations increased by 70% from Rs 88.7 crore in FY19 to Rs 150.5 crore in FY20. In FY20, BrowserStack made a profit of Rs 28 crores, up from Rs 12.72 crores in FY19. That’s why we have included BrowserStack in the category of best startups in India.
6. Aye Finance:
- Year Founded: 2014
- Headcount: 3171(2020)
- Headquarter: Gurgaon, Haryana
- Founders: Sanjay Sharma, Vikram Jetley
Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley started AYE Finance in 2014 intending to revolutionize micro and small business lending in India. It is a new-age financing organization that offers business loans to micro-enterprises in India’s MSME sector. The start-up claims to have expanded at an incredible compounded yearly rate of over 350 percent in the last three years, despite only being four years old. Sanjay Sharma, MD & CEO of Aye Finance, stated,
“We will continue to grow at a rate of 100% in the next two years.”
Aye Finance intends to expand its operations by opening new branches, serving more business clusters, and eventually becoming a pan-India company.
“At the moment, we have over 100 branches across 11 states. Within the following two years, we intend to expand to 175 locations. By then, our loan book would have surpassed 2,500 crores,” Sharma said.
In India’s First Employee Choice Awards, Gurgaon-based Aye Finance is ranked fourth among “India’s 100 Best Companies to Work for in 2021.” Thus it is also one of the top startup companies in India to work for.
In the financial year ended March 31, 2020, the company reported revenue of INR 415 Cr, up nearly 2X from INR 210 Cr in 2019. Profits have also increased marginally from INR 35 crore in FY19 to INR 40 crore in FY20.
Now coming to our last 5 Top startup companies in India
5. Lendingkart:
- Year Founded: 2014
- Headcount: 779(2021)
- Headquarter: Ahmedabad, Gujarat
- Founders: Sanjay Sharma, Vikram Jetley
Lendingkart was launched in 2014 by ex-banker Harshvardhan Lunia and ex-ISRO scientist Mukul Sachan as a digital lending platform for SMEs. Lendingkart is a fintech business that provides SMEs and MSMEs with working capital loans. He claims to have discovered that the majority of SMEs in India lack the necessary capital and resources and that there is a significant market demand for working capital. Traditional banks and non-bank financial companies (NBFCs) were not the ideal options since they view borrowers through the prism of someone who might default.
The company disbursed 53,000 loans in FY20 alone. This was an 83 percent raise over the previous year, as per the company. From 2015 until the present, it has successfully extended its help to over 90,000 small businesses in over 1300 cities and towns. In this way, they became one of the top startup companies in India.
Lendingkart, an Ahmedabad-based fintech business, has had another lucrative year, with its margins before tax virtually doubling from INR 19 Cr in the previous year to INR 41.9 Cr in the fiscal year 2020, which ended in March. In the fiscal year 2019, Lendingkart became profitable. The company lost INR 52.26 crore in FY2018, despite revenue of INR 91.8 crore.
Lendingkart’s income has doubled to INR 464 crore, a 113 percent increase over the previous financial year, as per the company’s financial statement. The company has made INR 218 crore in sales in FY19. The company’s expenses also doubled, from INR 198 Cr to INR 422 Cr, resulting in an after-tax profit of INR 29.6 Cr.
4. OfBusiness:
- Year Founded: 2015
- Headcount: 620(2021)
- Headquarter: Gurugram, Haryana
- Founders: Asish Mohapatra, Bhuvan Gupta, Chandranshu Sinha, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Vasant Sridhar
OFB Tech (OfBusiness) is a tech-enabled platform that enables SMEs in the industrial and infrastructure sectors to acquire raw materials and obtain credit. It incorporates technology into SME purchasing behavior to provide clients with better items, at better costs, and in shorter time frames, as well as extensive online and offline support. Metals, chemicals, polymers, agricultural commodities, petrochemicals, and building materials are all important raw materials. Through its NBFC ‘Oxyzo Financial Services,’ OfBusiness provides SMEs with cash flow-based finance for the purchase of raw materials. ‘BidAssist’ for new growth opportunities is one of the company’s many software services for SMEs.
Because the income from interest hadn’t yet arrived, the company suffered large losses at first. However, as those earnings started rolling in, OfBusiness began to make money. It is now on its road to becoming a unicorn and one of the most valued top startup companies in India. ‘OfBusiness’ profits increased by 88 percent to Rs 32.29 crore in the fiscal year 2020. Revenue from activities increased by 34% to Rs 849.8 crore, up from Rs 635 crore the previous fiscal year. In the previous fiscal year, the total expenditure was Rs 815 crore.
3. CarTrade:
- Year Founded: 2010
- Headcount: 1400+(2020)
- Headquarter: Mumbai, Maharashtra
- Founders: Vinay Sanghi, Rajan Mehra
CarTrade, which was founded in 2010, is the only profitable online used automobile marketplace. This ten-year-old company has already filed for an IPO and is likely to go public soon. The company’s losses dropped dramatically from $20 million in FY16 to just $2 million in FY17. Internal restructuring, important acquisitions, and cost-cutting efforts helped them become profitable for the first time in FY18.
According to CarTrade, the company’s consolidated sales were above INR 318 crore, with a net profit of INR 31.2 crore. Furthermore, for FY21 the company reported an income of INR 189.6 Cr with a net profit of INR 85 Cr until December 2020. Since the beginning of FY2019, the business has been profitable. CarTrade is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in May 2021, with a target valuation of Rs 2,000 crore.
2. Boat LifeStyle
- Year Founded: 2013
- Headcount: 250
- Headquarter: New Delhi, India
- Founders: Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta
The history of boAt Lifestyle isn’t particularly illustrious. It is a Delhi-based firm founded by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta in 2016. The business describes itself as a lifestyle brand that sells trendy consumer electronics. boAt Lifestyle was founded with the express purpose of providing millennials with inexpensive, durable, and, most importantly, “fashionable” audio devices and accessories. They are now amongst the top startup companies in India.
boAt began selling charging cables in 2016 and was able to break even within the first year due to a glut of Chinese smartphones on the market. It began as a cable producer and marketer but has since expanded its product line. It now sells a wide range of trendy electronic items. Including portable chargers and luxury cables, as well as headphones, earphones, and speakers. The company is quickly expanding. Its services are now available to millions of ‘boAtheads’ (A term the company uses for all its consumers and brand ambassadors). Even though the voyage took only four years, the company now has over 800,000 satisfied consumers.
In FY20, boAt’s revenue surpassed Rs 704 crore, with profits increasing by 460 percent. From sales of Rs 239.4 crore in FY19 to Rs 700.44 crore in FY20, the five-year-old brand nearly tripled its earnings. They are now aiming for a revenue of Rs 1,000 crore in FY24.
Our no.1 in the list of Top startup companies in India is…..
1. Zerodha:
- Year Founded: 2010
- Headcount: 250
- Headquarter: New Delhi, India
- Founders: Sameer Mehta and Aman Gupta
To make stock investing simple and painless, India’s largest stockbroking platform was launched in 2010. Zerodha has single-handedly transformed the stock trading industry, and they did so without any outside funding or marketing.
Zerodha is based on the concept of discount broking, which means it charges a lower commission or low brokerage on transactions to entice investors to utilize the platform. This makes Zerodha well-known among traders, and it is the primary cause for Zerodha’s client base of over 1 million, making it the largest stockbroker in terms of clients. Thus we have included Zerodha amongst the Top startup companies in India.
Zerodha has a first-mover advantage because it was the country’s first bargain broker. “Zerodha was founded to remove barriers to trading, hence the name Zerodha, which means No Obstructions,” says Nithin Kamath. Another major reason for Zerodha’s rapid growth is that it makes constant efforts and continues to come up with novel ideas and distinctive techniques that have helped Zerodha get an advantage over its competitors.
Zerodha charges their consumers only Rs 20 for each intraday trade (or 0.03 percent commission – whichever is lesser). As a result, Zerodha generated a solid profit of Rs 10 crores in FY21. The fintech brokerage posted a profit of Rs 440 crore in FY20, which was underpinned by a strong 15 percent increase in revenue to Rs 1,093 crore. In FY19 and FY18, the company had earnings of Rs 350 crore and Rs 250 crore.