2014 saw the much awaited funding rush in the Indian startup ecosystem, an industry which otherwise has been driven by only passion. Startups grew exponentially and so did the aspirational value of working in a startup. Freshers from top engineering and management institutes considered working in a startup at par (or even better) with that of MNCs of the world. Senior management was also opening up to experiment to the roller-coaster ride of startups and many of them decided to steer the ships for them.
In all, one can confidently say that the Indian startups have moved from being ‘just a cool place to work for’ to ‘an aspirational place to make dreams come true, for yourself and for others. We, at YourStory, have always believed in the power of dreams and encouraged the young professionals to be a part of startups through our sincere efforts in the form of series like Awesome Startup Employee or the Fabulous Startup Workplaces.
Here’s another humble attempt to showcase India’s top startup destinations which promises a great deal of work, values and learnings to the professionals and freshers out there.
These companies have been selected based on the following parameters:
1. Founded in 2010 or later
2. Minimum revenue and/or funding of INR 3 Cr
3. Minimum team size of 20
Helpshift Technologies Pvt Ltd
Founding year – 2010
Location – Pune
Sector – CRM Product
Revenue Slab – 3-10 cr
Investor – Nexus Ventures
Why you should work here - They are building an on-demand product and scaling it quickly which can take the SaaS mobile industry by storm. And if you become the new joinee in the existent pool of talented people at HelpShift, you get a Macbook Pro, all day food and a good amount of amusement in office like Foosball, XBox 360 and PS3.
91mobiles.com
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Goregaon
Sector- Customer Internet
Revenue Slab- 3-10 cr
Investor- India Quoitent
Why you should work here – Being VC funded, and having achieved break-even, this high growth company offers a stable opportunity. Core team members share in the upside through ESOPs. Clearly, there’s an opportunity to take part in building a large consumer internet company.
Aryaka Networks
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Milpitas, California
Sector- Networking, Enterprise Services
Revenue Slab - >20 crores
Investor- Interwest Partners, Trinity Ventures, Mohr Davidow, Nexus Venture Partners, Presidio Ventures
Why should you work here - It’s a product company seeing a huge traction in the market with disruptive technology, sales and partnership models. Working environment is challenging with tremendous exposure and learning opportunity.
Zoomcar
Founding Year – 2013
Location – Bangalore
Sector- Personal Transportation
Revenue Slab - >20 crores
Investor - 20 crores
Why should you work here - Besides everything, a lot of focus is on personal growth of the employees.
Teabox
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Ecommerce
Revenue Slab – 3 to 10 cr
Investor – Accel Partners
Why should you work here - You can be a part of the team that is changing the 150 year old tea industry.
Thrillophilia
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Travel Technology
Revenue – 3 to 10 cr
Investor- CIIE, Hyderabad Angels
Why should you work here- Passion(for their work) is in the DNA of Thrillophilia team. Along with whatever they do, team members also live travel, breathe travel, and even dream about it sometimes. They are trying to change the way the local experiences and activities are booked in India till date. Here is a quick overview of what it is like working at Thrillophilia! – http://www.slideshare.net/thrillophilia/why-work-at-thrillophilia
Housing.com
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Mumbai
Sector – MarketPlace / Ecommerce
Investor - Yuri Milner, Softbank, Nexus VP, Helion VP, Qualcomm Ventures
Why should you work here- You will get to do work that makes you feel proud!
LimeRoad
Founding Year - 2012
Location– Gurgaon
Sector- Online Lifestyle Discovery & Commerce
Revenue - >20 cr
Investor - Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Ventures & Tiger Global
Why should you work here - Limeroad consists of some revolutionary thinkers and execution team in the lifestyle discovery content & commerce space. In last 12 months, they have grown 1900%, and are always looking out for smart people. Additionally, they claim to have best-in-class venture syndicate backing their business.
Shopsense
Founding Year- 2012
Location – Mumbai
Sector – Retail Technology
Revenue - <3 cr
Investor - Kae Capital, Powai Lake Ventures
Why should you work here - They are a bunch of fighter, jugaadu, enthusiastic (and cracked up) people with an aim to change the world using technology.
Fabfurnish.com
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Gurgaon
Sector – Retail Technology
Revenue - >20 cr
Investor – Rocket Internet
Why should you work here - The company promises candidates with the right set of skills for the right kind of job, a handsome pay package, a work-life balance and a positive environment to work in.
Exotel
Founding Year – 2011
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Cloud Telephony
Revenue – 3-10 cr
Investor - Blume Ventures,Mumbai Angels
Why should you work here - A great team with a wonderful product promises carrier growth, flexible hours and office parties.
Foradian Technologies Pvt. Ltd
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Education
Revenue – 3-10 cr
Investor - William Bissel, MD Fab India
Why should you work here - Join them to change the Education map. They also claim to have almost 0% attrition.
Deck
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Productivity
Revenue- 3-10 cr
Investor - Qualcomm Ventures, Amit Gupta, Sabeer Bhatia
Why should you work here - The company offers a decent pay, collegial meritocratic environment, challenging yet fun work, opportunity to impact millions of users globally.
Are you interested in working for one of these startups? Let us know here
Grabhouse.com
Founding Year – 2013
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Real Estate
Revenue - <3 cr
Investors - Kalaari Capital, India Quotient
Why should you work here - GrabHouse gives their employees: a) Ownership – Be it any position or department, every person in the team sits in the driver seat from day 1; b) Culture – Open and people friendly culture where work is not counted by hours but by impact; c) Impact – Everyday people get to work on ideas that changes the way Grabhouse works and real estate industry in India operates; and d) Peers – Every person teaches something to another.
The pie-chart depicting the team size of startups in India
Grofers
Founding Year – 2013
Location – Gurgaon
Sector- Hyper-local activities
Revenue - <3 cr
Investors - Sequoia Capital
Why should you work here - According to them, you shouldn’t. As a job – the hours are long, the work is tough, the pay is low and the future is unclear. If it’s still fascinating, go join the mission.
OYO Rooms
Founding Year – 2013
Location – Gurgaon
Sector – Travel
Revenue - >20 cr
Investors - Sequoia Capital
Why should you work here - Fastest growing technology-based hotel chain based and a good travel place to work for.
Hike Limited
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Gurgaon, Haryana
Sector – Mobile Internet
Investor - Tiger Global & Bharti SoftBank
Why should you work here - If you’re passionate about making an impact on millions of lives, Hike might excite you. Apart from the challenging work environment, they also give to our employees a lot of perks – http://get.hike.in/career.html
JustUnfollow
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Mumbai
Sector – Social Media/Mobile
Revenue – 3 to 10 cr
Why should you work here - They believe happy people build great products and they do everything possible to keep the team in a good state of mind. You can read about our culture here http://qr.ae/lNIJh
Ad Pushup
Founding Year – 2013
Location – New Delhi
Sector – SaaS Ad Tech
Revenue - <3 cr
Investor - 50 angels
Why should you work here – The company prefers to leave it to the jobseekers and expects them to take a call after going through this: http://careers.adpushup.com
Pricebaba.com
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Mumbai
Sector – Ecommerce
Revenue - <3 Cr
Investor - 500 Startups, Karamveer Singh & Others
Why should you work here - The company says, “Anyone interested in solving some real problems should consider PriceBaba.”
Webengage.com
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Mumbai
Sector – SaaS
Revenue – 3 to 10 cr
Investor - Rajan Anandan (IAN), GTI Capital, Blume Ventures
MadRat Games
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Board Games
Revenue – 3-10 cr
Investor – Blume Ventures, Angels
Why should you work here – People in MadRat are generally hyper. They’re very curious and almost restless to a point. At the same time they’re very focused on what they do. Making world class games and products is on everybody’s mind. So if you have a spring in your step and appetite for challenge, then press the Play button!
Sigmoid
Founding Year- 2013
Location – San Francisco
Sector – Big Data
Why should you work here – The company maintains an open source tech work culture with flat organizational structure and flexible work timings.
TestBooks.com
Founding Year- 2013
Location – Navi Mumbai
Sector – E-Learning
Revenue – <3 cr
Why should you work here – The company says that the atmosphere (no dress-code) and the impact you create while working here should be encouraging enough to join the team.
Mydentist
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Mumbai
Sector – Healthcare
Revenue – >20cr
Investor – Seedfund, Asian Healthcare Fund
Why should you work here – MyDentist team embrace diversity to create a place where everyone can be themselves. They treat each other with respect and dignity.
Akosha
Founding Year – 2011
Location – New Delhi
Sector – Customer Services
Revenue – <3cr
Investor – Sequoia Capital
Why should you work here - They are building the go-to platform for customer service. If you’ve ever faced a product / service issue, you’ll know the pain and willing to work with them to ease that out.
Power2SME
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Gurgaon
Sector – Metals, Chemicals, Plastics, Paints, Polymers
Revenue – >20cr
Investor – Inventus Capital, Kalaari Capital, Accel Partners
Why should you work here – What makes an organization successful, are two key factors: People working in the company and its culture. The team at Power2SME are amongst the best in the business and make it a point to value each and every employee and aim at honing their skills. They’re sure that anyone joining our company, will help them in carve out a niche for them and gradually becoming the best in the business. They strongly believe in ‘Happy People makes a happy organization’.
Simplilearn
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Bangalore
Sector – E-learning
Revenue – >20cr
Investor – Helion Ventures and Kalaari Capital
Why should you work here – They have grown in leaps and bounds in last four years. The company is continuously growing and that ensures growth for the employees too. Associating with the company will definitely provide a learning curve as well a chance to grow. If you are a performer and have the zeal to learn and explore new avenues, they are the right choice as an employer.
Are you interested in working for one of these startups? Let us know here
Unicommerce
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Delhi
Sector – Ecommerce
Investors – Nexus Ventures
Why should you work here – It’s a product company with an exceptional growth record, equally huge growth potential and the average age below 25 yrs making it suitable for young professionals.
instamojo.com
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Payments
Investors – Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, 500Startups, Rajan Anandan & more
Why should you work here - They want to democratize payments — if the vision excites you, go join them in their mission.
BuyT
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Gurgaon
Sector – Content Monitization
Revenue – 3-10 cr
Investors – ValueFirst Digital Media
Why should you work here – BuyT is all about performance and ROI driven marketing. Leaving behind successful careers in technology, corporate strategy and finance, they are motivated by the challenge to revolutionize advertising in today’s platform-focused, hyper-connected and mobile-first world. Young, eclectic, vibrant – if you can identify with these, BuyT is the place for you!
Toppr.com
Founding Year – 2013
Location – Mumbai
Sector – Edutech
Revenue – <3cr
Investor – SAIF Partners, Helion Ventures
Why should you work here – Solid team that loves customer, technology and design equally.
Kartrocket
Founding Year – 2012
Location – New Delhi
Sector – Ecommerce
Investor – Nirvana Venture Advisors, 500 Startups, Beenos
Why should you work here – The Delhi-based startup work, play and party together. They believe in passion driven work more than anything else. At Kartrocket, you are your own boss. They also claim to pay good salaries(10-15% higher than the industry standard). The company says, “In short, We are the company you will miss on Sundays.”
Healthkart.com
Founding Year – 2011
Location – Gurgaon, Haryana
Sector – Ecommerce
Revenue – >20 cr
Investor - Sequoia Capital, Intel Capital, Omidiyar Network, Kae Capital
Why should you work here – HealthKart’s goal is the create the trusted consumer brand which makes any quality health product available in the globe to consumer’s doorstep. People passionate about healthcare and technology should consider joining the 350+ motivated team in company’s growth journey. The association will offer rapid development platform, where you would be challenged to get the best amongst you.
Pepperfry.com
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Mumbai
Sector – Ecommerce
Revenue – >20cr
Investor – Norwest Venture Partners (NVP) and Bertelsmann India Investments (BII)
Why should you work here – Pepperfry has built a leadership position in the online home and furniture segment with its scale and strengths in sourcing products, strong logistics, ably supported by a highly experienced management team. Working at Pepperfry guarantees that people would handle large areas of responsibility, be business owners and actively influence the future course of the company.
Papertrell
Founding Year – 2013
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Digital Publishing
Revenue – <3cr
Why should you work here – At Papertrell, you’ll be reimagining books; be a leader, not a follower; play a direct role in the future of publishing; you can argue with the CEO, he’ll like you for it; you’ll work for the ‘Most Innovative Publishing start-up in the world’(according to Frankfurt Book Fair 2014); you get top $; and you get free lunch every day, beer during IPL matches.
FreshDesk
Founding Year – 2010
Location – Chennai
Sector – SaaS
Investor – Accel Partners, Tiger Global, Google Capital
Why someone you should work here – At Freshdesk, they pride themselves on building powerful, sophisticated software that’s fun and easy to use. Their approach is to find the best people, empower them to succeed, and set them loose. They foster a workplace that makes people jump out of bed every morning with a smile on their face. Freshdesk has been consistently rated as one of India’s hottest startups, and is the only Indian company backed by Google Capital.
WAGmob
Founding Year – 2012
Location – Indore
Sector – Mobile
Revenue – <3cr
Why should you work here – They transform learning and training for millions. Discover why Google and Microsoft are GoSalesTrain customers.
Grey Orange Pvt. Ltd
Founding Year – 2011
Location – Gurgaon
Sector – Warehouse Automation
Revenue – 10-20 cr
Investor – Tiger Global, Blume Ventures
Why should you work here – Because they are creating the next billion dollar hardware company in India with a mini university-like, fun, energetic team (they have got Mechanical, Electronics, Computer Science, and Embedded Engineering departments apart from equally interesting Business Analysis, Development and Operations teams).
Ezetap
Founding Year – 2011
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Mobile Point of Sale solutions
Investors – AngelPrime, Social+Capital Partnership, Helion Advisors, American Express
Why should you work here – With industry-specific services built around payments, Ezetap is changing the way enterprises, small and home-run business are getting paid. Ezetap is live in multiple countries across Africa and South East Asia.
TaxiForSure
Founding Year – 2011
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Technology and Transport
Revenue – >20cr
Investors – Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Blume Ventures
Why should you work here – TaxiForSure combines the best of the start-up and corporate worlds. With freedom to innovate and a hands-on approach to work, the company is a young and energetic place to work in. TaxiForSure is seeing exponential growth and the company has attracted funding from leading national and international investors. The company boats of talent drawn from top Technology and B-schools in the country and abroad. Flexible work hours, open work spaces and a fun company culture are added positives of working with this company.
Must See India
Founding Year – 2011
Location – Bangalore
Sector – Travel
Revenue – 10-20 cr
Investors – K Ganesh
Why should you work here – The company says, “We hire rockstars who want to grow faster and take full ownership of work they do.”
Are you interested in working for one of these startups? Let us know here
And some more…
As a part of this survey, we reached out to several startups and we’re yet to here from the following companies:
Bluestone
An online portal that help you buy gold and other ornaments online with various discounts and offers.
Eventifier
Eventifier offers a complete view of pre and post-event data for both organizers and attendees.
Heckyl
Heckyl aims to be a global leader in the space of information analytics for worldwide financial markets. They strive to raise the bar with everything that they offer and shall continue to do so till hell freezes over.
Mindtickle
MindTickle’s online training software is a complete cloud-based training and mobile training solution.
Mobstac
It helps publishers build and manage their mobile websites and apps.
Portea Medical
Portea helps you connect with doctors, physiotherapist,trained attendants and many such things at your doorstep.
Ola
They help you book a cab in a very convinient way through mobile app and get notifications instantly.
Mettl
They provide Online Assessment-E Assessment-Software For Recruitment,Training and Exams-Free Trial-Request.
simplify360
Simplify360 is a Social Business Intelligence platform which has a suite of softwares for marketing and customer service departments.
knolskape
It is a Singapore/Bangalore based serious gaming and simulation software company focusing on management talent transformation. KNOLSKAPE is a portmanteau of the word Knowledge and Landscape.
UrbanLadder
They help you buy furnitures and similar products online in a very simplified and easy way.
zivame
Zivame provide a fantastic collection of Bras, Panties, Nightwear, and Sportswear.
CaratLane
CaratLane.com offers Gold Coins, Loose Diamonds, Solitaire Jewellery, Gold, Gemstone, Platinum and Diamond Jewellery Online for Men and Women at Best offers.
magzter
Magzter is a cross-platform, global digital magazine newsstand and book store with over 4500 magazines and 25000s of books and comic titles from over 1500 publishers.
Bigbasket
BigBasket.com is the comprehensive online grocery store based out of Bangalore which help people shop groceries online with home delivery and cheap rates.
Zopnow
They are online grocery store currently running in Navi Mumbai and Bangalore.
Delhivery
They are a logistic chain which helps the customers send stuffs easily and cheaply.
Gramener
Gramener generates visual insights on large-scale data, making it easier for enterprises to consume and act on these insights.
LocalBanya
LocalBanya is one of the leading destination for online grocery shopping in Mumbai, offering some of the best prices and a completely hassle-free experience. Now shop for the freshest exotic Fruits, Vegetables, Pulses, Rice, Oil, Milk, Personal Care, Household supplies, Baby Care, Beverages and products from a host of other categories available.
MyNoticeBoard
It is an ad display website which help you display your ads to your target customers in a very effective manner.
Zipdial
Zipdial serves as one of the most effective marketing platform for the emerging businesses.
Vyome
Vyome is a research driven dermatology company which harnesses science and technology for various dermatological problems.
ShopClues
It is an online retail chain that directly connects the customers and the whoesale dealers thus providing stuffs at very reasonable rates.
Happiest Minds
Happiest Minds is a next generation IT company based out of Bangalore, with operations around the world. The company primarily focuses on providing services on disruptive technologies.
Tallenge
Tallenge is an online platform that conducts competitions and serves a platform for talented contestants.
Rangde
Rang De is a non-profit organisation that allows individuals to lend money to Indians from low income households that require a small amount of money for starting up.
Vaatsalya
They are building and managing hospitals/clinics in semi-urban and rural areas and bringing healthcare services where it is needed most. Vaatsalya is India’s first hospital network focused on Tier II and Tier III towns.
Canvera
Canvera is an online photography company providing mass customized printed products and e-commerce solutions to professional photographers.
Carwale
CarWale is one of the India’s most authoritative source of new car pricing. Focused around car buyers, CarWale promises to help you buy the right car at the right price.
Appsdaily
They help customers discover and buy mobile apps the way they buy almost anything – through Retail, the only channel to reach out to the mass audience.
Shephertz
ShepHertz is Cloud Ecosystem Provider with products like App42 Cloud API BaaS, Cloud Multiplayer Gaming Engine AppWarp, AppWarpS2 on-Prem etc.
Niqotin
Niqotin is an Enterprise Application Service provider based out of Chennai, India. We are developing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, named Rural ERP, for Indian Rural MSME’s.
Unmetric
Unmetric is the one social intelligence and benchmarking platform trusted by leading brands to understand their competitor’s efforts, uncover insights based on data and unlock new social strategies.
MomoE
Momoe enables users to pay with their mobile phone when they eat out, shop & commute.
Taxipixi
TaxiPixi is a Radio Taxi Cab booking smartphone application for India. It is the GetTaxi / Hailo for Indian Radio Taxis. TaxiPixi is a smartphone based taxi booking platform for India.
BluShift Technologies
BlueShift Technologies develops and markets vacuum automation products for semiconductor manufacturing. BlueShift’s linkable QuickLink wafer handling platform empowers semiconductor OEMs to cost-effectively adapt existing wafer processing tools to new process requirement while reducing equipment cost.
Wingify
Wingify develops Visual Website Optimizer(VWO) which is a tool for increasing website sales, signups, downloads and conversions.
Hector Beverages
Hector Beverages is focused on contributing to the consumer’s health-delivering macro- and micro-nutrient beverages.
Marketelligent
Marketelligent is a leader in advanced analytics. The company helps businesses make the leap from basic reporting to predictive.
Still not convinced!
If you’re still in double minds, here’s why you will be grateful to choose to work in a startup.
And, for those who are scared of going the unconventional path, this video by Varun Agarwal might just help you overcome your fears and listen to your heart (at least tickle it).
Are you interested in working for one of these startups? Let us know in the form below.
P.S. – We understand that in the process of defining the parameters, certain elements of the subjective nature of shortlisting might not have been captured. Therefore, we humbly request all such startups to drop in your details at jubin@yourstory.com and we’ll update the article after analyzing the same.