Freshworks Has Acquired Nine Capital Efficient Startups

Six months back, B2B SaaS vendor Freshworks, formerly known as Freshdesk, raised $100 million at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion, marking its entry into the Billion Dollar Unicorn Club. It recently reported profitability in FY2017-2018 ending March 2018. Unlike most other unicorns, Freshworks has an eye on fundamentals, a byproduct, I should like to

Read Full Article »

CarDekho Bootstrapped First, Raised Money Later, Acquiring Bootstrapped Startups

According to IBEF, the Indian automotive industry is expected to reach INR 16.16-18.18 trillion (US$ 251.4-282.8 billion) by 2026. The growth is expected to be driven by increasing middle-class income and a young population. Auto portal CarDekho was bootstrapped and profitable for six years before it raised external funding. It is a textbook case study of

Read Full Article »

Is Zomato acquiring Bootstrapped Startups in India?

A couple of years back, Zomato was floundering as a restaurant search, discovery, reviews, and ratings service. However, with the help of several acquisitions, it diversified into the food delivery sector and has now bounced back into the Billion Dollar Unicorn Club.

BigBasket Focusing on the Big Picture

According to Crisil, online grocery in India is expected to grow between 65-70% annually to $1.4 billion by 2020. According to market intelligence provider Kalagato, BigBasket leads the online grocery market with a 35.2% share followed by rival Grofers at 31.5% and AmazonNow at 31.2%.

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Bird Delivers Meteoric Growth

A survey of 7,000 people conducted by the research firm Populous found that 3.6% of those surveyed had used a dockless scooter recently. Given the short period of time that dockless scooters have been in business, that is believed to be a much quicker adoption rate than that of dockless bikes. The market is currently

Read Full Article »

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Ola at Crossroads

The constant strikes at both Ola and Uber following a cut in driver incentives have taken a toll on their growth. Ola and Uber together grew just 20% to 3.5 million rides per day in 2018 across all segments, including taxis, autorickshaws, and shared cabs. Compare this to 2016 when they collectively grew 90% to

Read Full Article »

Indian Music App Gaana Topping the Charts

According to the Ficci-EY media and entertainment industry report 2018, the Indian music industry was worth $179 million in 2017 and is expected to grow to $434 million by 2020. Digital channels accounted for around 65% of overall music sales. Gaana is a rising star in the Indian music streaming space.

Billion Dollar Unicorns: India’s OYO Rooms Checks In

In September this year, OYO Rooms checked into the Billion Dollar Unicorn club with a massive funding of $1 billion from Softbank and other investors. It is now the second most valuable startup after Paytm.