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These five Indian startups are at forefront of innovation
Mumbai: India’s thriving startup ecosystem has gained the trust of investors, customers and employees alike. Entrepreneurs from various parts of the country have come up with innovative solutions and profitable businesses that are no less than a Silicon Valley company. Let’s take a look at give such Indian startups which are at the forefront of innovation:
1. Paytm
Paytm has been at the forefront of UPI and payments innovation in the country. It was among the first to introduce QR codes for UPI payments, way back in 2015. In a country dependent on either cash transactions or expensive debit or credit card transactions, the QR codes made it easy to receive payments from customers seamlessly and instantly and at minimal cost. Since then, the company has branched out into becoming a full fledged fintech company. Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2011.
Paytm was also the company to introduce the SoundBox. This made it easy for a merchant to keep track of UPI payments, as the SoundBox would announce the payments that they received. Recently, the company has also come up with two different kinds of sound boxes – one that plays music, and another that can be carried around in the pocket.
The company also has a widely used online payment gateway. It is also in the business of providing merchant loans, and enabling merchants to have their businesses discovered through its app.
2. Wahter
Wahter, the brainchild of founders Amitt and Kashiish A Nenwani, is set to transform the packaged water industry in India. With its innovative idea of providing clean, premium-quality drinking water at an unbelievably low price of just Rs 1 per bottle, Wahter is not only addressing the need for clean water but is also making a powerful statement about fairness and accessibility.
Additionally, the company is providing brands with an impactful advertising medium for the first time in the country – brands can actually advertise themselves on the labels of Wahter bottles. This way, they are not only visible to a larger audience but can measure the reach and impact of their message through Wahter’s proprietary tech.
Wahter’s MRP is just Rs 1 for a 250mL bottle, and Rs 2 for a 500mL bottle, which makes it very economical for all categories of consumers. Demonstrating a commitment to sustainability, Wahter uses fully recyclable bottles. Wahter will be available everywhere — from a paan shop, all the way to flights. The problem of clean accessible drinking water is very old, but Wahter will solve this once and for all.
3. Blusmart
BluSmart is a ride-sharing company that operates a fleet of about 5500 electric vehicles in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. Unlike competitors, Ola or Uber, which are aggregator platforms, BluSmart, owns its own fleet of cars and employs drivers on a contract basis. This reduces the problem of cancellations and ensures uniform service. The company was started by Anmol Singh Jaggi, Punit K Goyal and Puneet Singh Jaggi in 2019.
The company is looking to capitalise on the government’s clean energy push and rising concerns around air pollution. BluSmart has so far received around $133 million in debt and equity funding from various investors.
The company plans to scale this to 8000 cabs by next year. The company also owns and operates over 4000 charging stations in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. It plans to open these up for commercialisation in 2024, meaning other EV owners and fleet operators can use these for charging their vehicles.
Tech-enabled transit retail network Yatrikart raises $450 K in the seed round of funding | Startup Story
4. Yatrikart
Yatrikart is a tech-enabled company that focuses on retailing-on-the-go. The company has around 40 branded roadside retail shops and carts on long-distance trains. It ties up with hawkers and vendors and provides them with inventory, training and a vending license. In exchange, the hawkers — who are called “captains” by the company — get to keep a 20 per cent commission on the products, while 20 per cent is retained by Yatrikart.
The company has raised Rs 450,000 in seed funding so far. Founded by Gaurav Rana and Shivangee Sharma, Yatrikart is a tech-enabled transit retail chain, enabling micro-entrepreneurship by empowering hawkers and retailers who sell to those traveling by road or train. These hawkers and retailers get the advantage of not being harassed by the police for illegal vending and gain respectability. The company has partnered with brands such as Dove, Colgate, Colorbar, Pepsi, PeeSafe, Unilever and ITC. In addition, the startup offers channel partnerships to help small businesses get higher profit margins and foster growth.
5. Zoho
Zoho is an Indian multinational software-as-a-service company that was started by Sridhar Vembu in 1996. Zoho is popular for its product Zoho Office Suite, and serves over 100mn customers worldwide.
Recently, Zoho made news when it revealed that it is in the process of developing its own large language model (LLM), although this will be smaller than existing ones like GPT by OpenAI and Gemini by Google. While Zoho recently integrated several generative AI tools including ChatGPT into its products, its long-term intent is to develop its own LLM based on 7 million to 20 million parameters. For context, GPT 4 has 1.76 trillion parameters. The project is being supervised by Vembu, who is also the CEO of the company. The company also intends to have its own GPU (graphics processing infrastructure) to save on long-term costs.
Zoho’s focus is on getting talent from rural India, and focusing on building innovation ecosystems in rural India. Vembu himself operates out of the company’s office in Tenkasi, a village in Tamil Nadu.
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UK’s OnlyFans seeks US investor at $3bn valuation after owner’s death
The adult video platform is seeking stability after the death of its billionaire owner
LONDON: OnlyFans is looking for a new partner. The London-based adult video platform is in advanced talks to sell a minority stake of less than 20 per cent to Architect Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, in a deal that would value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).
The move is driven by an urgent need for stability. Leonid Radvinsky, the Ukrainian-American billionaire who owned OnlyFans, died of cancer last month at the age of 43, leaving the future of one of Britain’s most profitable privately held businesses suddenly uncertain.
The choice of Architect Capital is not arbitrary. The firm has deep expertise in financial services, which aligns neatly with OnlyFans’ ambitions to offer banking products to its creators, many of whom have long struggled to access basic financial services because of the nature of their work.
The numbers behind OnlyFans are, by any measure, staggering. The platform posted revenues of $1.4bn in the year to 30th November 2024, with a pre-tax profit of $684m, up four per cent on the prior year. Payments to creators totalled $7.2bn over the same period, a rise of nearly ten per cent. Radvinsky personally collected $701m in dividends from the business in 2024 alone, on top of more than $1bn in such payments he had already received. The platform, run through its parent company Felix International, hosts 4.6m creator accounts, with performers keeping 80 per cent of subscription proceeds and the platform pocketing the remaining 20 per cent. It has 377m fan accounts in total.
The current minority stake talks represent a notable scaling back of ambitions. In January, OnlyFans was reported to be in discussions with Architect about selling a majority stake of 60 per cent. Before that, the company had explored a sale to a consortium led by Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm. Neither deal materialised.
OnlyFans has built an enormously lucrative business on content that mainstream finance has long refused to touch. Now, with its owner gone and a $3bn valuation on the table, it is looking for the kind of respectable institutional backing that might finally persuade the banks to take its calls.
