Flashback 2018: Oyo, Swiggy, Policybazaar enter $1-billion club

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, this year has seen active fundraising in the startup space, where e-learning and online food ordering firms nabbed a majority of the big bags – six and three respectively. Here is a look at the top 10 startup deals in India in terms of capital till September 2020, according to Venture Intelligence (Image: Moneycontrol)

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Nearly half a dozen startups from across hospitality, foodtech and fintech achieved the status of a unicorn (startup with a valuation of $1 billion) in 2018, as per the data shared by data intelligence firm Tracxn.

Hospitality firm Oyo is the most recent entrant into this much coveted space of the startup ecosystem during its $800 million round led by existing investor SoftBank in September. Oyo's valuation saw a meteoric rise from $800 million earlier to $3-4 billion post this round of funding.

Oyo last raised around $250 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund, and another $10 million from Nasdaq-listed Chinese hotel operator China Lodging Group, an year ago.

Swiggy which ends the year with a big bang $1 billion funding round led by Naspers also became a unicorn this year. The company which was founded almost four years ago is also credited for being one of the fastest unicorn. It got the much talked about status during its $210 million funding led by Naspers and billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST Global. It was given the valuation of $1.3 billion. However as per the recent funding round of Swiggy which also saw the entry of Tencent, the company's current valuation is $3.3 billion.

Policybazaar which was founded in 2008 got the status of a unicorn in 2018. The company had raised $200 million in a round led by SoftBank Group's Vision Fund in June to which got it a unicorn status.

Udaan which is a business to business online marketplace became  a unicorn post its $225 million round from existing investors DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company was started by former Flipkart employees Sujeet Kumar, Vaibhav Gupta, and Amod Malviya.

Chennai-based Freshworks which provides software became a unicorn after raising $100 million from exiting investors such as Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and CapitalG.  Founded in 2010, the company has raised $250 million so far.

As per Tracxn, the country has around 20 companies with unicorn status.