2021 has been a pretty incredible year for India’s startup ecosystem -  with everything that's happened in the year let's take a look at the 10  biggest highlights of India's startup ecosystem in our 2021 Rewind video.

Younger Indian startups acquiring older companies: We witnessed this really interesting phenomenon where young startup companies were acquiring traditional businesses that’d been around for decades. For example, 5-year-old stock trading unicorn Groww acquired the mutual funds business of India Bulls, a 21-year-old company, for ₹175 Crore. We also saw India’s only online pharmacy unicorn Pharmeasy acquiring a  majority stake in India's largest diagnostic solutions provider  Thyrocare, which is 25 years old, in a deal worth ₹4,546 crore.

Byju's acquisition spree worth $2.5 billion: In 2021, Byju's took their acquisition spree to new heights by pouring in $2.5 billion to acquire  10 companies including the $1 billion acquisition of the offline coaching institute Aakash.

Crypto unicorns are born despite the uncertainty: Despite all the uncertainty that surrounds India's crypto industry, we saw CoinDCX and  CoinSwitch becoming India's first and second crypto unicorns respectively. Another great example of the crypto revolution in India is Polygon - a layer 2 protocol for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks which began its journey in  India.

Skyroot Aerospace prepares for space launch: Skyroot Aerospace, the first Indian startup to successfully test a rocket engine last year, in  2020, and this year they set another record too, becoming the first Indian startup to successfully test a cryogenic rocket engine, taking  India one step closer to launching privately-built rockets into space the same way American companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are in the  United States.

Byju's edtech, lawsuit and controversy: Byju's was shrouded in controversies throughout the year bringing into focus their alleged unethical practices and the $2.6 million lawsuit that was filed against  Pradeep Poonia.

Ola Electric's grand EV plans for India: They announced their S1 and S1  Pro electric scooters back on India’s Independence Day, and started taking orders in October. During the first two days of this booking period, Ola received orders worth Rs 1,100 crore - that’s more than  80,000 scooters! Ola single-handedly tripled the size of India’s electric two-wheeler market, and on top of that, they started work on what was supposed to be the world’s largest electric scooter factory before Simple Energy announced that they were gonna build an even bigger one.

Superfast grocery delivery takes the front seat: Thanks to two  19-year-old Stanford dropouts building a startup called Zepto, 10-minute  grocery delivery is becoming more and more commonplace in India’s metros. Following Zepto’s lead, Grofers, which has been around since 2013, rebranded themselves to Blinkit, ensuring that everyone knew they were as serious about super fast delivery as Zepto, and these kinds of high-speed deliveries are also happening now with Swiggy Instamart, too.

Mensa Brands - India's fastest unicorn: The Thrasio-style D2C house of brands - Mensa Brands became the fastest Indian startup to join the unicorn club, entering the club in just six months.

Nykaa's IPO: Nykaa's IPO was arguably the most successful startup IPO of  2021. Anyone who got an allotment in this IPO saw their investment double when Nykaa hit the stock market, and it also made Falguni Nayar, the nayika of Nykaa, India’s wealthiest self-made woman.

Zomato - the startup that kicked off the IPO craze: Zomato was the first  Indian startup to IPO in 2021 and also became the first-ever Indian unicorn to IPO.

This week in Indian startup news, Blinkit temporarily shuts down 18  locations, Urban Company sues women partners for protesting, Byju’s in talks to go public via SPAC, Snapdeal files for IPO to raise Rs 1,250 crore and Cult.fit acquires four fitness equipment brands.

In funding news, Cars24 raises $400 million, Razorpay raises $375  million, OfBusiness raises $325 million, Bizongo raises $110 million and  Zepto raises $100 million.

Blinkit temporarily shuts down 18 locations: Last week, Grofers rebranded themselves as Blinkit to reflect their pivot to 10-minute  grocery delivery. With the pivot to Blinkit, the startup has announced  that they are temporarily shutting down operations in 18 cities where they are unable to serve their customers in 10 minutes.

Urban Company sues women partners for protesting: Urban Company, which offers home services to their customers, has filed a lawsuit against their own women gig workers for protesting against their ‘minimum guarantee plan’. After failing to remove them from the premises, the  company filed a lawsuit against the protestors calling their actions ‘illegal’ and ‘unlawful’.

Byju’s in talks to go public via SPAC: According to a Bloomberg report,  India’s most valuable startup Byju’s is in talks with Churchill Capital to go public via SPAC or a blank cheque company in the US at a valuation of over $45 billion. If the deal goes through, it will be the biggest  SPAC deal - overtaking Singapore’s super app Grab. Byju’s is also considering listing in India after they’ve listed in the US.

Snapdeal files for IPO to raise Rs 1,250 crore: Snapdeal, an e-commerce platform now focused on tier 2 and beyond users, has filed for an IPO in a bid to raise ₹1,250 crore. Snapdeal was once a unicorn before it crashed and burned in a bid to out-compete Flipkart and Amazon - both of which are rich in cash. While Snapdeal on the other hand has failed to raise funds from investors since 2019. So going public might have been their only option to raise some cash.

Cult.fit acquires four fitness equipment brands: Health and fitness startup Cult.fit has acquired three at-home fitness equipment brands -  RPM Fitness, Fitkit and Onefitplus. And also an outdoor fitness brand called Urban Terrain - which makes bicycles. These acquisitions will enable Cult.fit to strengthen their at-home fitness product offerings and also create an umbrella brand for D2C fitness brands - riding the at-home fitness trend kicked by the pandemic and the growth of D2C  brands in India.

Cars24 raises $400 million: Cars24, an online platform for buying and selling used cars, has raised $400 million in a round led by Alpha Wave  Global at a $3.3 billion valuation – raising their valuation almost 2X  in just three months from $1.84 billion.

Razorpay raises $375 million: Payment gateway provider for SMEs and large enterprises Razorpay has raised $375 million in a round led by  Lone Pine Capital, Alkeon Capital and TCV at $7.5 billion valuation –  making them India’s most valuable fintech startup.

OfBusiness raises $325 million: B2B commerce platform OfBusiness, which helps businesses in procuring raw materials like steel, cement,  chemicals and leather, has raised $325 million in a round led by Alpha  Wave Global, Tiger Global Management and SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 at a  $5 billion valuation.

Bizongo raises $110 million: B2B packaging solutions provider Bizongo has raised $110 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management at a  $600 million valuation to help digitize their entire vendor ecosystem.

Zepto raises $100 million:  10-minute grocery delivery startup by two 19-year-old Stanford dropouts – Zepto has raised $100 million in a round led by Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund at a $570 million valuation.

In today’s video, we look at how Licious turned a simple idea into a billion-dollar startup.

Abhay Hanjura’s shattered dream: When Abhay was younger, he wanted to be a soldier. He went to army school for 13 years in preparation for this and he had his whole life mapped out. But at the age of 17, less than a  year before he’d be eligible to enlist, he was in a motorcycle accident and lost one of his legs. This is when he took his life into his own hands and looked for success in a corporate career. He went on to have a  successful corporate career spanning decades and he also became the  Vice President of an insurance broking company called Futurisk. He was on his way to becoming a CEO but Abhay still didn’t feel fulfilled, so he started looking for opportunities to start up and that’s when he discovered the meat industry which was waiting to be disrupted.

Abhay Hanjura, Vivek Gupta and the Meat Project: After failing to convince his dad, Abhay met up with his old friend and a VC Vivek Gupta.  He tried to make him understand how the meat industry was a perfect market for them to start up. But coming from a vegetarian family and asked him if it was such a great idea why hadn’t no one disrupted it yet? This led Abhay to start what he called ‘The Meat Project’ to understand the market and gathered evidence to prove to Vivek that it was in fact a great idea. And while it was enough to convince Vivek, he still didn’t think that Abhay would simply leave his high-paying job to go start something from scratch. This was a key moment for both of them.  Right then and there Abhay not only wrote his resignation letter but even sent it to his bosses and this inspired Vivek to do the same. And just like that, they were entrepreneurs.

The birth and almost death of Licious: Since neither of them had any experience in the meat industry, they decided to onboard their third co-founder named Joe Manavalan. He helped them understand the key issues with starting a fresh meat business and how difficult it was to create a  supply chain as they needed to keep the meat between 0-4 degrees  Celsius in order to keep it fresh. They zeroed in on 30 meat vendors and animal farms whose meat met their quality standards. Then, they opened a  meat processing centre in Hennur, in Bengaluru and filled it with experienced butchers, and they set up a meat delivery hub in  Marathahalli, bringing in a crew of delivery partners to transport this meat into their customer’s hands. Everything seemed to be coming together - Licious was all set to kick off India’s meat revolution! In  August of 2015, Licious began their first day of operations… and it was a  complete and utter disaster. Their supply chain collapsed under the weight of just 35 orders, and they immediately shut down operations.

Licious re-launch and initial struggles: They spent the next two weeks training everyone, intensively, ensuring that a greater emphasis was placed on timeliness, hygiene, and keeping orders between 0 and 4  degrees. And then, they re-launched. And this time, things went better.  In their first full month of operations, they received 1,300 orders, after this first month, 90% of their customers came back again for more.

Making of a billion-dollar D2C fresh meat brand: Today, Licious is available in 14 cities across India - they deliver fresh meat to a million homes every month, and they’ve expanded their product portfolio,  too, selling ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook products alongside their fresh meat items. Unlike most startups, pandemic even accelerated their growth – making them a unicorn and a rare D2C brand serving fresh meat to millions of happy customers in India.

This week in Indian startup news, Log 9 Materials partners with Hero  Electric for their disruptive 15-minute battery technology, Ola begins delivery of their electric scooters and Polygon acquires Mir Protocol for $400 million.

In funding news, Sharechat raises $266 million, Ninjacart raises $145  million, Uni raises $70 million and Juspay raises $60 million.

Log 9 Materials partners with Hero Electric for their disruptive  15-minute battery technology: Earlier this year, Log 9 Materials had announced that they were piloting their disruptive battery technology that lets you charge the battery in just 15 minutes. The startup has now partnered with Hero Electric – allowing the company to use Log 9’s batteries in all their electric scooters.

Ola begins delivery of their electric scooters: After multiple delays,  Ola has finally started shipping out their electric scooters to the customers in Bengaluru and Chennai who have been waiting for months. However, it looks like that some of the key features like cruise control, voice commands and Bluetooth might not be available for the customers just yet and they might have to wait a little longer to have these features enabled through an OTA software update.

Polygon acquires Mir Protocol for $400 million: Indian Ethereum-based layer 2 scaling solution Polygon has now acquired another Ethereum-based scaling startup Mir in a deal worth $400 million. With the acquisition of Mir, Polygon will get access to their Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proof solution – which will allow them to verify many Ethereum transactions with just a single tiny proof without sharing any details about the transaction. 

Sharechat raises $266 million: Mohalla Tech, the owner of Indian language social media platform Sharechat and short video app Moj, has raised $266 million in a round led by Alkeon Capital at a $3.7 billion valuation as they plan to strengthen their live and social commerce play.

Ninjacart raises $145 million: B2B agritech startup Ninjacart has raised  $145 million in a round led by Walmart and Flipkart – making this the largest ever funding round for an agritech startup in India. This will allow Ninjacart to improve their technology and invest in upgrading its infrastructure to optimize their supply chain, while enabling  Flipkart to expand their grocery delivery presence.

Uni raises $70 million: Fintech startup Uni – which offers pay-later cards like recently turned unicorn Slice, has raised $70 million in a  round led by General Catalyst to help them launch four new products including a credit card.

Juspay raises $60 million: Digital payments platform Juspay has raised  $60 million in a round led by Softbank’s Vision Fund II enabling them to invest in technology and product development to scale their digital payments business.

In this video, we will try to understand why are so many used car startups becoming unicorns in India.

Financials of four used car unicorns – Spinny, Droom, CarDekho and Cars24: Firstly, Spinny is the latest used car startup to become a unicorn. Spinny sells 3,000 cars every month and each car is sold for around 4 lakh – which brings their revenue to around Rs 100 crore every month. Then we have Droom which is raking in Rs 135.5 crore in revenue in FY21. Next we have CaDekho which has more than 8X their revenues in the last five years to reach Rs 884.4 crore in FY21 and finally we have Cars24 – the used car behemoth. They roughly sold 20,000 crore in FY21 – bringing in a revenue of Rs 2,793 crore – which is 8X of what they were doing five years back.

Changing consumer behaviour and growth of used car market: The reason why these startups have been able to grow at such a breakneck speed is because they are changing the consumer behviour, they are changing the way people are buying used cars – making this experience even better than buying a new car. Which is the reason why the used car market is predicted to be double in size of the new car market by 2025. While the used car market is expected to expand from 3.8 million in FY21 to 8.2 million by 2025. On the other hand, the new car market is only going to expand from 2.6 million in FY21 to 3.9 million by 2025.

How startups are incentivising you to buy used cars: They are doing is by obsessively focusing on their customers and giving them exactly what they need. When buying a new car, a consumer has limited options from fewer models to pick from and only a handful of choices are available for you and on top of that these cars are new which means if there are any glitches in their performance – you will probably not buy a car from the same brand again. Used car startups on the other hand have changed the entire game, they are able to offer a lot of choices to their customers from different colours to different variants to different prices. And the best part is, even though these are used cars – they are giving them an experience which is similar to buying a new car and sometimes even better. They not only give you are ride in the car that you might want to buy but will also give you financing options as well as deliver the car to your home. Since the used car market has been mostly unorganised until this point, customers were thrilled to see these startups offering everything from verified cars to a superior experience.

How pandemic accelerated the sale of used cars: Then we also have the pandemic to thank – which not only stifled the growth of new car sales. Since new cars need chips and thousands of them and with the supply chain completely disrupted, people were unable to buy new cars because they are simply not being manufactured. Also, people became a little more sceptical of public places and buying a car of their own seemed like a much better option to travel. But they couldn’t buy new cars at this point, so they turned to buying used cars. It might have been a challenge but thanks to these startups and their superior customer experience more and more people are now comfortable buying used cars over new cars.  

Organising the used car market: These startups are not just growing the entire used car market but also organising it as well. In 2011, only 10% of the used car market was organised and consumers weren’t sure of the quality of used cars they were getting. Now, however, it is expected that by 2025, 45% of the entire used car market would be organised. Thanks to these used car startups which are driving this change.

This week in Indian startup news, Simple Energy to build world’s largest scooter factory, Bounce Infinity E1 - India’s first electric scooter with swappable batteries, Byju’s acquires GeoGebra and Delhivery acquires drone manufacturer Transition Robotics.

In funding news, Ola raises $139 million, Ola Electric raises $52.7  million, Bizongo raises $110 million, Pristyn Care raises $85 million to become a unicorn and AgroStar raises $70 million.

Simple Energy to build world’s largest scooter factory: EV startup  Simple Energy is working on building their second electric scooter manufacturing facility at Dharampuri in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of  12.5 million units per year – which will make it the world’s largest scooter manufacturing facility leaving behind Ola’s Futurefactory which will have a capacity of 10 million at its peak.

Bounce Infinity E1 - India’s first electric scooter with swappable batteries: Bounce is the latest startup to enter the EV race in India by launching their own electric scooter named Bounce Infinity E1. Bounce  Infinity E1 buyers will have the option to buy the electric scooter with or without a battery – priced at ₹68,999 and ₹45,099 respectively.

Byju’s acquires GeoGebra: India’s most valuable startup Byju’s has now made its 10th acquisition in 2021 - their latest one being Austria-based  GeoGebra - which offers interactive learning tools for mathematics. The deal is estimated to be worth $100 million. With this acquisition,  Byju’s will get access to their 100 million students across 195 countries and enable them to create interactive and engaging new mathematics products for their students.

Delhivery acquires drone manufacturer Transition Robotics: Indian logistics unicorn Delhivery which has recently filed for an IPO has acquired a California-based drone manufacturing startup Transition  Robotics. This acquisition will give Delhivery access to all of  Transition Robotics’ intellectual properties (IPs) - which essentially means all their drone technology. With India’s drone policy much more liberalised - Delhivery could be looking to use Transition Robotics’  drones for their last-mile delivery of packages.

Ola raises $139 million: Ride-Hailing unicorn Ola has raised $139 million in a fresh funding round led by Edelweiss at a $7.3 billion valuation ahead of their IPO which is expected to be filed in the first half of next year.

Ola Electric raises $52.7 million: Ola Electric has raised $52.7 million in a round led by Temasek at a $2.7 billion valuation – which is slightly lower than $3 billion in October this year.

Bizongo raises $110 million: Bizongo, a B2B startup that offers packaging solutions to e-commerce companies, has raised $110 million in a  round led by Tiger Global Management at a $600 million valuation.

Pristyn Care raises $85 million to become a unicorn: Healthcare startup  Pristyn Care which offers its patients complete surgery care service right from finding the right doctor to getting a diagnosis to surgery and post-surgery care, has raised around $85 million from the likes of Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global and Winter Capital.

AgroStar raises $70 million: Agritech startup Agrostar – which helps farmers increase their produce by offering the right agricultural advisory services and access to good quality agricultural inputs, has raised $70 million in a round led by Evolvence, Schroder’s Capital, Hero Enterprise and UK’s CDC.

Link to the test assignment mentioned in the news video:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w86xLBBJ7clLGOjfc-Vw-JCf4nHIypnc/view?usp=sharing

This week in Indian startup news, India’s first crypto unicorn CoinDCX is planning for IPO, Snapdeal to file for IPO, Ather Energy to set up a  new manufacturing facility and CRED acquires Happay.

In funding news, Slice raises $220 million to become India’s 39th  unicorn this year, Curefit raises $145 million to become India’s 40th  unicorn this year and Simpl raises $40 million.

India’s first crypto unicorn CoinDCX is planning for IPO: India’s first crypto unicorn CoinDCX is planning to go public once the government’s regulations are in place. With more than 100 million crypto investors in  India, everyone is waiting for the government’s regulations on cryptocurrencies. CoinDCX believes that their IPO will bring a lot of confidence in India’s crypto market.

Snapdeal to file for IPO: Indian e-commerce startup Snapdeal is planning to raise $250 million from the public at a $1.5 billion valuation. They were previously planning to raise funds at a $2.5 billion valuation but seems to have valued their startup cautiously after an unsuccessful IPO  by Paytm. 

Ather Energy to set up a new manufacturing facility: EV startup Ather Energy is setting up their second manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu to expand their capacity from 1.2 lakh to 4 lakh scooters per year – due to the rising demand for their electric scooters in the market. Their sales have been growing at 20% year on year due to which their first manufacturing facility is already at full capacity.

CRED acquires Happay: Fintech startup CRED, which rewards you for paying your credit card bills, has acquired corporate expense management platform Happay - in a deal estimated to be around $180 million. This acquisition will give CRED access to Happay’s 1 million users and 6,000  businesses - while allowing CRED users to get access to Happay’s expense management platform.

Slice raises $220 million to become India’s 39th unicorn this year: Fintech startup Slice, which calls itself India’s best credit card challenger has raised $220 million in a round led by Tiger Global and  Insight Partners – valuing them at over $1 billion and making them India’s 39th unicorn this year.

Curefit raises $145 million to become India’s 40th unicorn this year: Curefit has raised $145 million in a round led by Zomato - valuing them at $1.25 billion and making them India's 40th unicorn this year.

Simpl raises $40 million: Buy now, pay later platform Simpl has raised  $40 million in a round led by Valar Ventures and IA Ventures to help enhance their customer and merchant experience by building a loyalty program and to bring Simpl solutions to offline neighbourhood stores.

In today’s video, we cover the story of Nykaa’s nayika – how Falguni Nayar built a profitable $13 billion startup in India.

A rewarding experience at Kotak and learnings from Uday Kotak: When Falguni Nayar joined Kotak Mahindra – it was just an NBFC. She was responsible for setting up their investment banking arm – Kotak Mahindra  Capital. However, when Falguni decided to follow her husband to London,  Uday Kotak didn’t want to lose one of his best employees – so he asked her to set up Kotak Mahindra’s London office from scratch and when her husband moved to New York, she followed him to the US and also established Kotak Mahindra’s New York office as well. This experience gave her an experience for a lifetime.

An itch to start up before 50: While working at Kotak, Falguni had the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs like Ronnie Screwvala – who went on to build a media and entertainment empire when the sector was in its nascent stages, which  Falguni helped him take public in 2005. She also helped take PVR Cinema to IPO – a company built by Ajay Bijli, which was responsible for building India’s first multiplex cinemas. These experiences had a  profound impact on her and she decided that she wanted to plunge into the world of entrepreneurship before she was 50.

Birth of Nykaa: For a large majority of India’s female population, that’s kajal and lipstick was all there was when it came to beauty, and a major reason for this was the lack of education around these products. She had a  hunch that if she could somehow introduce these women to this new world of beauty, if she could educate them on these products and how to use them, then her idea would be successful. And so, in April of 2012, Nykaa was born.

Building from scratch and early challenges: When she started building Nykaa – things didn’t go easy for her. In the first three years of building Nykaa, she had lost three CTOs consecutively. On the operations side, the company was struggling to fulfil 10 orders per day, and getting them delivered on time was a pipe dream. Angry customers were calling at all hours, demanding an explanation for why their products hadn’t shown up yet. Needless to say,  things were stressful at Nykaa, and the startup’s team of 7 quickly became a team of two. Falguni and her daughter would stay up until 3 AM  some nights, packing boxes in between customer support calls - but these nights were important. Falguni and her daughter spent time in the trenches, they suffered, they lost sleep building the company, and so as it slowly grew.

3 C’s of Nykaa - Curation, Content and Convenience: When she started building Nykaa – things didn’t go easy for her. In the first three years of building Nykaa, she had lost three CTOs consecutively. On the operations side, the company was struggling to fulfil 10 orders per day, and getting them delivered on time was a pipe dream. Angry customers were calling at all hours, demanding an explanation for why their products hadn’t shown up yet. Needless to say,  things were stressful at Nykaa, and the startup’s team of 7 quickly became a team of two. Falguni and her daughter would stay up until 3 AM  some nights, packing boxes in between customer support calls - but these nights were important. Falguni and her daughter spent time in the trenches, they suffered, they lost sleep building the company, and so as it slowly grew.

From sustainable growth to IPO: he didn’t want to sacrifice equity to grow quickly if she could grow sustainably, and so that’s what she did. She was planning the startup’s  IPO as early as 2017, and as we all know today, looking back, this initial public offering was arguably the most successful in Indian history.

This week in Indian startup news, Ola Electric’s S1 and S1 Pro scooters delivery delayed, Bounce to launch their first electric scooter Bounce  Infinity, Skyroot Aerospace successfully tests India’s first privately built cryogenic rocket engine and Mobikwik to delay IPO after Paytm debacle.

In funding news, NoBroker raises $210 million to become a unicorn,  Spinny raises $285 million to become a unicorn, Dream Sports raises $840  million, Purplle raises $65 million and Upstox raises $25 million to  become a unicorn.

Ola Electric’s S1 and S1 Pro scooters delivery delayed: Three months back in September, Ola Electric booked ₹1,100 crore worth of their electric scooter Ola S1 and S1 Pro in just two days with a promise of starting deliveries in October. It’s the end of November but the startup is yet to start shipping their scooters and they have now moved the date to 2nd December – citing shortages of chipsets and electronic components.

Bounce to launch their first electric scooter Bounce Infinity: Bounce, a  dockless scooter rental startup, had announced the launch of their own electric scooter Bounce Infinity - it will now be available for booking on 2nd December. Bounce’s Infinity is expected to be a rebranded version of 22Motor’s Flow electric scooter – which you can buy with or without the battery – making them affordable. You can simply rent the batteries from Bounce later.

Skyroot Aerospace successfully tests India’s first privately built cryogenic rocket engine: Skyroot Aerospace has made the headlines once again by becoming the first Indian spacetech startup to successfully test India’s first privately built cryogenic rocket engine – which is named Dhawan 1 and will be used as an upper stage engine in their Vikram  2 rockets.

MobiKwik to delay IPO after Paytm debacle: Indian fintech startup  MobiKwik was planning to raise Rs 1,900 crore in their IPO in November.  However, after seeing Paytm’s disastrous IPO debut, MobiKwik is looking to delay their own IPO and they are also having a hard time getting qualified institutional investors onboard – who are valuing the startup  20-40% lower than their current valuations.

NoBroker raises $210 million to become a unicorn: NoBroker, a property buying and rental platform, has raised $210 million at a $1.01 billion valuation – making them India’s first proptech unicorn.

Spinny raises $285 million to become a unicorn: Online used car marketplace Spinny has raised a massive $285 million in a round led by Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund at a $1.75 billion valuation –  making them India’s 37th unicorn this year.

Upstox raises $25 million to become a unicorn: Online investment platform stox has raised $25 million – which is expected to be a part of a larger round led by Tiger Global at a $3.4 billion valuation.

Dream Sports raises $840 million: Dream Sports, the parent company of fantasy gaming unicorn Dream11, has raised $840 million at an $8 billion valuation to help them expand beyond fantasy gaming and build a  comprehensive sports and gaming empire.

In today’s video, we explore how Bengaluru became India’s Silicon Valley:

Foundation of Bengaluru as Gandubhūmi or Land of Heroes: Kempe Gowda, a  chieftain of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 16th century, laid the foundation of what we now know today as the city of Bengaluru, although at the time, it was called gandubhūmi or Land of Heroes. The chieftain,  of course, had no idea how fitting this name would prove to be nearly half a millennium later.

Jamsetji Tata’s dream to set up a world-class university: Jamsetji Tata,  the founder of the Tata group wanted to set up a world-class university in  Mumbai but then Viceroy of India Lord Curzon chose Bengaluru to be the right place for this university. But Jamsetji Tata passed away before he could see IISc open in Bengaluru.

Role of HAL and ISRO in building Bengaluru as the hub of innovation:  IISc played a pivotal role in attracting talent in and around Bengaluru which lead to the formation of HAL – India’s first aerospace company and  ISRO being set up in Bengaluru in the 20th century. This helped develop  Bengaluru into the manufacturing hub of the country and a hotbed for innovation.

Ram Krishna Baliga and India’s Silicon Valley – India’s first electronic city: A student of IISc named Ram Krishna Baliga was busy developing residential colonies for BEL when he realised that Bengaluru was the perfect place to set up India’s own electronics manufacturing hub – it had everything talent, innovation and a thriving manufacturing ecosystem. So, he started building India’s first Electronic City in  Bengaluru – all but cementing Bengaluru’s place as the innovation hub of the country.

Infosys comes to Bengaluru: Until now, most of the projects and companies were driven by the government and focused on the manufacturing sector but soon Infosys became one of India’s first IT companies to set up its headquarter in Bengaluru and with the success of Infosys, more and more companies like Wipro and TCS decided to set up shop in  Bengaluru to access quality talent and its thriving ecosystem.

More IT companies and more tech talent flocks to Bengaluru: Once India’s economy was liberalised in 1991, not just domestic IT companies but international tech giants like Texas Instruments, IBM, Sun Microsystems,  and Intel flocked to Bengaluru – bringing with them more talent and laying the foundations of Bengaluru as the Silicon Valley of India.