India has the 6th largest economy in the world. How did India attain such huge success in its finance? Due to its start-ups. Indian startups are very inspiring and can be quite interestingly complex. While researching on the topic, one can find several captivating details. This article will be exploring this new and flourishing aspect of India, its start-ups.
What is a start-up? It is exactly what the name suggests, starting up something. To be more precise, starting up a business. It is what a business is called in its early stages when it has just started. All businesses were start-ups at one point of time. Start-ups can be of different sorts including non-profit businesses too. It can be started up by anyone, who is of course above the age of 18 years. The ones brave enough to start a business are what we call “entrepreneurs”.
Did you know that recently, in the Economic Survey 2021-22, India became the 3rd largest start-up ecosystem in the world overtaking the United Kingdom? India which had 300-400 start-ups in 2014 recently had over 14,000 new start-ups. This portrays that India is creating a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation of each Indian entrepreneur who has the courage to stand against their fear and open up their own business. It has also created more than 3 million jobs over the past 8 years not only for the entrepreneurs but also the other citizens who have experience in such fields.
What is truly fascinating is that even a large bump in the road like Covid-19 did not stop India from racing ahead in the start-up department. Even though there was a setback, Covid-19 accelerated all digital start-ups! According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India had a strong rebound in 2021, with its growth returning to the long-term trend of 7% to 8% over 2022 to 2025. The momentum of technology and software services went on with ease. $3 billion was raised by India-focused funds in 2020—40% higher than in 2019 meaning that India’s fund-raising activity also went on successfully. In 2020, 7000 new start-ups were founded. It is amazing how easily start-ups could adapt to such a pandemic.
Let us talk about some of the well-known Indian start-ups which have gained success recently:
Swiggy. We have all heard about this very successful food delivery app. It stands tall amongst its strong competition which includes Zomato. You might be wondering, is Swiggy still a start-up? A startup stops being a startup as soon as it crosses 100 crores turnover or ten years of incorporation. Swiggy was founded in 2014 making its 10 years of incorporation nearby but it still has two more years to go for it.
Nykaa. An online beauty store and a fashion e-commerce platform. The entrepreneur behind it is Falguni Nayar who wanted to create a platform with thousands of product options. Now, I think we can all see the result of her vision. Nykaa has more than 55 retail stores and fulfils around 1.5 million orders every month making that vision a reality.
PharmEasy. This company provides medical supplies through online ordering and home delivery. In simpler words, it is an online version of an offline chemist store. It started in 2015 and went on to grow into a well-known start-up. Covid-19 got its sales to grow quite a bit in its journey. The founders Dharmil Sheth and Dr Dhaval Shah envision reaching over 100,000 pharmacies in India in the next year.
Start-ups are a very crucial part of India now which benefits us in more ways than we can imagine. They are the ones who drive sustainable economic growth and generate large-scale employment opportunities. All this is possible because of the visions seen by Entrepreneurs. They envision their business and are ready to take huge risks. They also bear the stress and anxiety of risk and that their company might collapse any day if not taken proper measures and care. However, trust is what keeps them going. It is this belief that gets them through their journey. Belief in their judgement and their business. I have deep respect and gratitude for these inspiring Indian entrepreneurs who make the world a better place.
Bibliography:
Galav, Akriti. “Top 20 Startups in India – 2022” mygreatlearning. 25 Jul, 2022. Web. 12 Aug, 2022. <https://www.mygreatlearning.com/blog/top-startups-in-india/>
n.a. “India Venture Capital Report 2021” Bain. n.d. Web. 12 Aug, 2022. <https://www.bain.com/insights/india-venture-capital-report-2021/>
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