India's 100 unicorns

100 Unicorns: India’s changing
corporate landscape
India Market Strategy
Asia Pacific/India, Equity Research, 10 March 2021
Research Analysts
Neelkanth Mishra, Abhay Khaitan, Varun Ahuja, Krati Sanklecha, Anubhav Aggarwal, Lokesh Garg , Ashish Gupta, Arnab Mitra,
Prateek Singh, Satyam Thakur, Rikin Shah, Kush Shah, Garima Bharti, Gaurav Birmiwal, Jayant Kharote, Sayantan Maji, Pratik
Rangnekar, Viral Shah
DISCLOSURE APPENDIX AT THE BACK OF THIS REPORT CONTAINS IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES, ANALYST
CERTIFICATIONS, LEGAL ENTITY DISCLOSURE AND THE STATUS OF NON-US ANALYSTS. U.S. Disclosure: Credit Suisse
does and seeks to do business with companies covered in its research reports. As a result, investors should be aware that the Firm
may have a conflict of interest that could affect the objectivity of this report. Investors should consider this report as only a single
factor in making their investment decision.
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India Market Strategy 3
Contents
Focus charts.................................................................................4
100 Unicorns ................................................................................5
List of Unicorns ............................................................................7
Transformation in the corporate landscape ................................9
The Enablers: Funding, infrastructure, regulation.....................15
The beginning, not the end of unicorn seeding.........................21
FinTech ....................................................................................21
EdTech.....................................................................................24
Indian SaaS...............................................................................27
E-commerce .............................................................................31
Discretionary .............................................................................33
Pharmaceuticals/Bio-Tech.........................................................36
A virtuous cycle?........................................................................39
List of firms.................................................................................43
Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD) ............................. 43 Innovaccer..............................................................93
Anthem Biosciences................................................ 44 Intas Pharmaceuticals..............................................94
Aptus Finance......................................................... 45 Joyalukkas .............................................................95
Atria Convergence Technologies............................... 46 Kurl-on...................................................................96
Bharat Biotech........................................................ 47 Lenskart.................................................................97
BharatPe................................................................ 48 Macleods Pharmaceuticals.......................................98
Bhilosa Industries Pvt Ltd ........................................ 49 Manipal Hospitals....................................................99
Bigtree Entertainment (BookMyShow) ...................... 50 Medha Servo Drives ..............................................100
Bill Desk ................................................................ 51 Meesho................................................................101
BrainBees Solution (FirstCry) ................................... 52 Mu Sigma.............................................................102
BrowerStack........................................................... 53 MX Player ............................................................103
Bundl Technologies (Swiggy) ................................... 54 Mytrah Energy ......................................................104
CarDekho (Girnarsoft Automobiles Pvt Ltd) ............... 55 National Stock Exchange.......................................105
Cars24................................................................... 56 Nykaa E-Retail......................................................106
Chargebee ............................................................. 57 Ola Cabs (ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd)......................107
CitiusTech.............................................................. 58 Ola Electric Mobility...............................................108
CLP Wind Farms (India) Pvt Ltd............................... 59 Oravel Stays (Oyo Rooms) .....................................109
CureFit................................................................... 60 Parle Products......................................................110
Dailyhunt VerSe...................................................... 61 Paytm ..................................................................111
D’decor.................................................................. 62 PharmEasy...........................................................112
Deccan Fine Chemicals ........................................... 63 PhonePe..............................................................113
Delhivery Pvt Ltd..................................................... 64 Pine Labs.............................................................114
Digit....................................................................... 65 Piramal Glass........................................................115
Druva Data Solutions............................................... 66 PlayGames24x7 (RummyCircle) .............................116
Ecom Express......................................................... 67 Policybazaar..........................................................117
Eightfold................................................................. 68 Postman...............................................................118
Emcure Pharmaceuticals ......................................... 69 Rategain...............................................................119
Enzen Global Solutions Pvt Ltd................................. 70 Razorpay ..............................................................120
Eruditus Education .................................................. 71 ReNew Power Ventures.........................................121
Essar Ports............................................................. 72 RSPL Limited .......................................................122
Five Star Business Finance...................................... 73 Serum Institute of India..........................................123
Flipkart................................................................... 74 Sharechat.............................................................124
Freshworks............................................................. 75 Sorting Hat Technologies (Unacademy).....................125
Galactus Funware Technology (MPL)........................ 76 Sporta Technologies (Dream11).............................126
Gharda Chemicals................................................... 77 Sri Chaitanya ........................................................127
Glance ................................................................... 78 Star Health...........................................................128
GlobalLogic ............................................................ 79 Supermart Grocery Supplies (BigBasket).................129
Greenko Group....................................................... 80 Synechron............................................................130
Grey-Orange .......................................................... 81 Think and Learn (Byju’s)........................................131
Groww ................................................................... 82 Udaan..................................................................132
GRT Jewellers Limited............................................. 83 UrbanClap Technologies (Urban Company)..............133
Haldiram’s.............................................................. 84 UST.....................................................................134
Headspin................................................................ 85 Vini Cosmetics......................................................135
Hero Fincorp Ltd..................................................... 86 Vishal Mega Mart ..................................................136
Hetero Labs ........................................................... 87 Wonder Cement....................................................137
HighRadius............................................................. 88 Zenoti ..................................................................138
IBS Software.......................................................... 89 Zerodha ...............................................................139
Icertis..................................................................... 90 Zoho....................................................................140
Infra.Market............................................................ 91 Zomato ................................................................141
InMobi.................................................................... 92 Zoomcar...............................................................142
9
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21
39
43
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4
Focus charts
Figure 1: Indian equity fundraising—private tops public Figure 2: Sectoral split by number—highly diverse
Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse Source: Credit Suisse
Figure 3: Two-thirds of unicorns started after 2005 Figure 4: 87% of the BSE-500 started before 2000
Source: Credit Suisse Source: CMIE, Credit Suisse
Figure 5: More than 6k startups were funded in 2019 Figure 6: Number of millionaires in India rising sharply
Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse Source: CS Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Private Equity Deals Public Offerings
US$ bn
9%
13%
7%
4%
3%
10%
4%
2%
12%
10%
2%
4%
3%
3%
2%
12%
Healthcare
Financials
Others
Energy
Staples
Discretionary
Logistics
Industrials
IT/Tech
E-commerce
Foodtech
Education
Mobility
Gaming
Insurance
SaaS Split of 100 unicorns by sector
1% 9%
9%
15%
35%
31%
Before 1950
1950-1975
1975-1990
1990-2000
2000-2010
2010-2020
Split of unicorns by year of incorporation
16%
20%
26%
25%
9%
4%
Before 1950
1950-1975
1975-1990
1990-2000
2000-2010
2010-2020
Split of BSE500 firms by year of incorporation
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Funded Startups (k)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Number of millionaires in India (k)
Increase of 569k in last 2 years
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100 Unicorns
India’s corporate landscape is undergoing a radical change due to a remarkable confluence of changes in
the funding, regulatory and business environment in the country over the past two decades. An
unprecedented pace of new-company formation and innovation in a variety of sectors has meant a surge
in the number of highly-valued, as-yet unlisted companies. While conventional Unicorn lists show 30-35
names for India, our exploration reveals a 100 of them!
Transformation in the corporate landscape
Against 336 listed companies with billion dollar-plus market
capitalisation, there are now 100 unicorns in India with a
combined market capitalisation of US$240 bn. Two-thirds of
these firms started after 2005, whereas only 46 of the listed
firms were founded this century, and as many as 112
started before 1975. The sectoral split is highly diversified:
in addition to the largely expected e-commerce, FinTech,
education technology, food delivery and mobility companies,
there is a rapidly growing number of such firms in Software-
as-a-Service (SaaS), gaming, new-age distribution and
logistics, modern trade, bio-tech, pharmaceuticals, and even
fast-growing consumer brands benefitting from accelerating
penetration and formalisation. These are only at the top of a
fast-growing pyramid of 80,000 start-ups in India, which are
incrementally now nearly 10% of new companies formed
every year; the number of firms is up 70% in 8 years. There
is some geographical diversity in the cities where these firms
started, though there is some concentration in Bengaluru,
Mumbai and the National Capital Region (NCR), Delhi.
The Enablers: Funding, infrastructure, regulation
The growth in highly valued companies has been enabled by
a range of factors: (1) the natural shortage of risk capital in
an economy with low per capita wealth has been addressed
by a surge in (mostly foreign) private equity: these flows
have exceeded public market transactions in each year of
the last decade; (2) increase in teledensity and smartphone
and internet penetration. Till 2005 less than 15% of Indians
had a phone, versus 85% now; 700 mn-plus people have
internet access now due to cheap data and falling
smartphone prices (40% penetration now); (3) deep-rooted
physical infrastructure changes: nearly all habitations are
now connected by all-weather roads compared to only half
in 2000, and all households are electrified now vs. just 54%
in 2001; (4) financial innovation is accelerating, courtesy the
world-leading “India stack”, which has innovative applications
like UPI built on a base of universal bank account access,
mobiles, and the biometric-ID (Aadhaar), helped by greater
data availability; and (5) development of ecosystems in
several sectors that now provides a competitive advantage
versus global peers; for example in technology (4.5 mn IT
professionals) and pharma/biotech (several Indian firms can
now afford US$200-300 mn of annual R&D).
The beginning, not the end of unicorn seeding
We dig into segments that have a concentration of unicorns:
FinTech, e-commerce, SaaS, EduTech, pharma/ biotech and
consumer discretionary. In addition to the common drivers, each
of these also has several idiosyncratic catalysts, like the
astonishing surge in the number of SaaS unicorns being driven
by the changing nature of software and software development,
and enabled by a very large available pool of trained software
engineers, many of whom accidentally discovered their work had
business value. Similarly, e-commerce, modern-trade and
regulatory tightening by the government are driving formalisation
of erstwhile mature but extremely fragmented businesses like
that of jewellery, as well as creation of new consumer brands in
novel and fast-growing categories supported by new advertising
channels and the rise of professional distributors. Elsewhere,
while technology was anyway considered critical to solve India’s
troubling education problem, the pandemic last year catalysed a
level of penetration that may have taken several years otherwise.
In pharma/biotech, India’s switch to process patents in the
1970s and the US’ 1984 Hatch-Waxman Act supported the
development of a large and complex ecosystem, which has now
scaled up. Each of these segments can continue to throw up
innovative and high-value companies, in our view.
A virtuous cycle?
In a country notorious for stifling entrepreneurship, new company
formation was quite strong even in the 1980s, though lack of
access to capital was a challenge. This changed as economic
reforms freed up capital access, but sizeable investments were
still limited to a handful of family-owned dynastic businesses. The
surge in unicorns creates numerous large pools of risk capital:
even at 15-20% residual ownership on average of these
businesses, US$35-50 bn of wealth has likely been created.
This has contributed to the growth in the number of millionaires in
India (as also Ultra High Net Worth Individuals), which had
stagnated for several years, but has started to rise rapidly of late.
Unlike for family-owned, generations-old businesses this capital
once monetised is likely to be deployed in new ventures. Exits for
private equity investors should also trigger more interest in Indian
businesses. These businesses are also likely to impact the
broader economy: combined revenues were Rs2.4 tn in FY20
(1.2% of GDP), but growing rapidly. If growth rates sustain,
incremental revenues could be 5.3% of incremental GDP in 5
years. The second-order effects: indirect employment,
improvement in economy-wide productivity, are harder to
quantify, but are also likely to be meaningful, in our view.
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6
We found 100 unicorns in India in a
diverse set of industries: not just the
usual technology or tech-enabled
sectors, but also in pharma/biotech and
consumer goods, benefiting from
formalisation and accelerating adoption.
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List of Unicorns
Company Sector Company Sector
Wonder Cement Cement Sporta Technologies (Dream11) Gaming
Deccan Fine Chemicals Chemicals Anthem Biosciences Healthcare
Gharda Chemicals Chemicals Bharat Biotech Healthcare
Enzen Global Solutions Pvt Ltd Consulting Emcure Pharmaceuticals Healthcare
Mu Sigma Consulting Hetero Labs Healthcare
Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD) Discretionary Intas Pharmaceuticals Healthcare
D'Decor Discretionary Macleods Pharmaceuticals Healthcare
GRT Jewellers Limited Discretionary Manipal Hospitals Healthcare
Joyalukkas Discretionary Pharmeasy Healthcare
Kurl-On Discretionary Serum Institute of India Healthcare
Oravel Stays (Oyo Rooms) Discretionary Infra.Market Industrials
Piramal Glass Discretionary Medha Servo Drives Industrials
Rategain Discretionary Digit Insurance
Vini Cosmetics Discretionary Policybazaar Insurance
Vishal Mega Mart Discretionary CitiusTech IT/Tech
Bigtree Entertainment (BookMyShow) E-commerce Dailyhunt Verse IT/Tech
BrainBees Solution (FirstCry) E-commerce Glance IT/Tech
CarDekho (Girnarsoft Automobiles Pvt Ltd)E-commerce GlobalLogic IT/Tech
Cars24 E-commerce Grey-Orange IT/Tech
CureFit E-commerce Headspin IT/Tech
Flipkart E-commerce InMobi IT/Tech
Lenskart E-commerce Meesho IT/Tech
Nykaa E-Retail E-commerce MX Player IT/Tech
Supermart Grocery Supplies (BigBasket) E-commerce Sharechat IT/Tech
UrbanClap Technologies (Urban Company)E-commerce Synechron IT/Tech
Eruditus Education Education UST IT/Tech
Sorting Hat Technologies (Unacademy) Education Delhivery Pvt Ltd Logistics
Sri Chaitanya Education Ecom Express Logistics
Think and Learn (Byju's) Education Essar Ports Logistics
CLP Wind Farms (India) Pvt Ltd Energy Udaan Logistics
Greenko Group Energy Ola Cabs (ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd) Mobility
Mytrah Energy Energy Ola Electric Mobility Mobility
ReNew Power Ventures Energy Zoomcar Mobility
Aptus Finance Financials BrowerStack SaaS
BharatPe Financials Chargebee SaaS
Bill Desk Financials Druva Data Solutions SaaS
Five Star Business Finance Financials Eightfold SaaS
Groww Financials Freshworks SaaS
Hero Fincorp Ltd Financials HighRadius SaaS
National Stock Exchange Financials IBS Software SaaS
Paytm Financials Icertis SaaS
PhonePe Financials Innovaccer SaaS
Pine Labs Financials Postman SaaS
Razorpay Financials Zenoti SaaS
Star Health Financials Zoho SaaS
Zerodha Financials Haldiram's Staples
Bundl Technologies (Swiggy) Foodtech Parle Products Staples
Zomato Foodtech RSPL Limited Staples
Galactus Funware Technology (MPL) Gaming Atria Convergence Technologies Telecom
PlayGames24x7 (RummyCircle) Gaming Bhilosa Industries Pvt Ltd Textiles
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8
The corporate landscape in India is
rapidly transforming: 66 firms in our list
did not exist till 2005, whereas 180 of
the BSE500 started before 1975.
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Transformation in the corporate
landscape
Fast growing and innovative (unlisted) firms are sprouting up in new sectors and locations across India;
many have rapidly gained scale
A fast-growing but less familiar part of the economy
With a rapidly growing economy, the market capitalisation of
listed equities in India has risen too (Figure 7), making India
the 8th
largest market globally, and only 7% away from
being the 6th
largest, after the US, China, HK, Japan and
the UK. The number of listed companies with market
capitalisation above US$1 bn has risen to 336 from 178 in
2010 and just 72 in 2005 (Figure 8). Remarkably, while
some standard unicorn lists, which count unlisted firms
valued above US$1 bn mention 30-35 companies, a more
rigorous investigation reveals as many as 100 unicorns in
India, with a combined valuation of US$240 bn.
We spread our net wider, looking beyond the ‘normal’
technology or technology-enabled sectors, which are
expected to have unicorns, but also in conventional sectors
like non-banking finance, bio-tech and pharmaceuticals,
modern trade, consumer goods as well as infrastructure (e.g.
new ports or renewable energy generation). We screened for
unlisted firms with large profit pools and strong growth,
tabulating the list of investments by major private equity
investors, digging into deals news flow, and then meeting
several PE firms to make sure the list was comprehensive.
Focussing only on deals is a natural limitation: firms that
generate sufficient cash for reinvestment get excluded.
Conversely, a better assessment of the value of loss-making
firms may come from funds who invest in them.
Inclusion: We include firms that meet one of the three
criteria below:
 have seen a funding round at a valuation exceeding
US$1 bn;
 reported an EBITDA in FY20 that, at the average
valuation multiples of listed peers, would give them a
valuation in excess of US$1 bn; or
 where the last funding round was at less than US$1 bn
some time back, but the business momentum has been
strong since then, implying higher current valuations.
Exclusion: We have excluded several firms that had
received funding at unicorn valuations, but have since then
slipped in their business, and have either already had a
“down round”, or are likely to have one. We also exclude
firms that are subsidiaries of listed companies. We have also
excluded Indian subsidiaries of global firms, some of which
have become sizeable. Some firms which often appear in
new reports as unicorns, either as exploring mergers with
SPACs, or having raised capital but do not have an
understandable business model are also excluded.
Figure 7: Market capitalisation of listed equities has risen Figure 8: No. of listed $bn+ firms have risen steadily
Source: The BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONALTM
service, Credit Suisse Source: The BLOOMBERG PROFESSIONALTM
service, Credit Suisse
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
Market cap (US$ bn) Mcap to GDP (%, RHS)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
Number of US$1 bn+ listed companies
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10
A highly diverse sectoral mix
The sectoral-split of firms in the list show a high level of
diversification (Figure 9 shows the split by number and
Figure 10 by value). The largely expected e-commerce,
education technology (EduTech), food-tech and mobility
companies account for less than a fourth of the total.
The largest number of firms are in finance (all non-banks),
which includes a few conventional NBFCs (non-banking
finance companies) in addition to the highly disruptive
financial technology (FinTech) companies: given the unique
position India is in (low financialisation and at the same time
world-leading financial infrastructure: discussed in detail in
the third section of this report), this is not surprising.
Software as a Service (SaaS), niche IT Service providers,
gaming companies, insurance technology, and even new-
age distribution and logistics firms enabled by technology
have also achieved sufficient scale to be included in this list.
In addition, there are purely conventional companies that
are growing rapidly as they drive, and at the same time
benefit from, formalisation of their industries, e.g.
jewellers, upcoming retail chains, providers of fabric and
mattresses, or even in packaged food.
In the process of discovering these companies we came
across several more in each of these categories that are
innovative, fast growing and led by strong promoters, but
are not large enough yet to be included in this list.
Corporate rejuvenation? Most firms started post-2005
While there are a few firms of old vintage, particularly firms
in conventional businesses like the National Stock
Exchange, Transunion CIBIL (consumer credit data provider)
or Parle Biscuits, most of these firms have been formed
after 2005 (Figure 11). This is noteworthy, as just 13% of
the BSE500 firms have started after 2000 (Figure 12), and
36% had started before 1975 (the year in which the oldest
of this report’s authors was born).
As we are only considering companies with valuation in the
neighbourhood or in excess of US$1 bn, and only 336 of
BSE500 firms cross that threshold, this is an extraordinary
episode of new-company formation in what has traditionally
been a slow process.
Figure 9: Sectoral split by number: highly diverse Figure 10: Sectoral split of unicorns by value
Source: Credit Suisse Source: Credit Suisse
Figure 11: Two-thirds of unicorns started after 2005 Figure 12: 87% of the BSE500 started before 2000
Source: Credit Suisse Source: CMIE, Credit Suisse
9%
13%
7%
4%
3%
10%
4%
2%
12%
10%
2%
4%
3%
3%
2%
12%
Healthcare
Financials
Others
Energy
Staples
Discretionary
Logistics
Industrials
IT/Tech
E-commerce
Foodtech
Education
Mobility
Gaming
Insurance
SaaS
Split of 100 unicorns by sector
7%
15%
17%
4%
14%
8%
7%
5%
5%
3%
1%
2% 3%
1%
3% 3%
Discretionary
Healthcare
Financials
Others
E-commerce
SaaS
Education
Energy
IT/Tech
Logistics
Insurance
Gaming
Staples
Industrials
Mobility
Foodtech
Split of 100 unicorns by valuation
1% 9%
9%
15%
35%
31%
Before 1950
1950-1975
1975-1990
1990-2000
2000-2010
2010-2020
Split of unicorns by year of incorporation
16%
20%
26%
25%
9%
4%
Before 1950
1950-1975
1975-1990
1990-2000
2000-2010
2010-2020
Split of BSE500 firms by year of incorporation
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As we discuss in detail in the next section, several enabling
conditions improved to boost the number of start-ups: an
estimated 80,000 by 2019 (Figure 13). These include
(1) availability of risk capital, which improved meaningfully
after 2005, (2) a fertile ecosystem in several of the sub-
segments: e.g. a massive number of software engineers
facilitated the creation of Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS
start-ups, a critical transition from services to products at the
cutting edge of developer needs; the near universal reach of
bank accounts and creation of the “India Stack” enabled
financial innovation; better road networks and media access
provided an opportunity to formalise and consolidate
erstwhile undeveloped markets in consumer goods; (3)
examples of wealth creation by first-generation
entrepreneurs inspired new ones to start businesses, or
experienced professionals to join hands with private-equity
investors in return for stock; and (4) a general pick-up in
new company formation in India (Figure 16), with the active
companies growing to 1.3 mn vs just 700k in 2012.
Start-ups account for a reasonably high 6-7% of these
firms, and the ratio has risen over the past decade, with new
start-ups incrementally 10% of the new firms created
(Figure 15). Not every new company is classified a “start-
up” as several are created as subsidiaries of existing large
firms. Several headline-grabbing funding transactions in the
2013-15 period led to a surge in the number of start-ups in
2015, as well as funding deals.
The dip in average deal sizes to US$7-10 mn showed these
firms were still in early stages of development. Since then, as the
euphoria has subsided, the number of transactions has come
down, but, reflecting late-stage transactions, the average deal
size has picked up, taking total funding to US$40 bn in CY2019.
A third of the US$45 bn of funds raised in CY2020 are for
the telecom/internet subsidiaries of Reliance Industries.
However, the year saw 1,338 transactions despite the
pandemic-induced uncertainty slowing deal-making in the
first nine months of the calendar year (Figure 16).
Information technology, discretionary and healthcare
continued to be the dominant sectors in 2020. The decline
in volumes from peak in percentage terms has been the
worst for industrials: from 113 in 2008 to just 56 in CY20.
Staples saw a record high 106 deals in 2019, but the value
per deal was just US$6 mn. Financials and materials have
fewer deals but the average deal size is larger.
Figure 13: No. of start-ups has surged in recent years Figure 14: As has new-company registrations
Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse Source: MCA, Credit Suisse
Figure 15: “Start-ups” account for 7-10% of new firms Figure 16: Sectoral split of deals in CY2020
Source: VCCedge, MCA, Credit Suisse Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse
6.4%
6.6%
6.8%
7.0%
7.2%
7.4%
7.6%
7.8%
8.0%
8.2%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Total (k) Funded as % of Total (RHS)
Number of start-ups
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2021
Total companies in MCA database (k) Active
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Startups as % of total new companies
57%
17%
8%
6%
6%
4% 1%
1%
0%
0%
IT
Discretionary
Healthcare
Staples
Financials
Industrials
Materials
Utilities
Telecom
Energy Sectoral split of deals in CY2020
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12
Transaction values in IT, discretionary and financials
continued to be strong in 2020 (Figure 17). Overall
transaction values were still higher, as the average deal size
climbed (Figure 18). Business momentum for most of the
technology and tech-enabled firms though remained robust,
and in fact picked up meaningfully in several sectors. For the
non-technology sectors, investors likely held back, but as
the economy continues to recover, and medium-term growth
expectations start to see upgrades, deals may restart.
Geographical spread is wide as well
In the past firms have chosen to shift their corporate offices
to one of the metros as they gained scale. This is primarily
to tap into a bigger talent pool of senior management, as
well as easy global connectivity. However, most tend to
retain their registered offices; assuming that these reflect
the city of origin, we find that about half of BSE500 firms
started in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru (Figure 19), and
about 20% started outside the top 10 cities.
The spread of unicorns is different, with Bengaluru the
dominant centre (Figure 20), followed closely by Delhi NCR
and Mumbai. FinTech firms are concentrated in Mumbai and
Bengaluru: the first due to the preponderance of financial
services firms and personnel, and the latter due to the
technology talent and a vibrant VC ecosystem. Segments
that focus on export markets, like SaaS and
pharmaceuticals/BioTech have mostly emerged in hubs that
have both human resource and funding ecosystems in place,
as well as global connectivity. Interestingly, some SaaS firms
have also emerged from smaller towns. Some of the
consumer discretionary names have emerged in smaller
towns, and then grown their business nationally. Others like
the formal jewellery retailers have grown on the back of
strong local markets in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Figure 17: IT, Discretionary & financials led by deal value Figure 18: Quantum of funding up due to deal sizes
Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse
Figure 19: Geographical split of the BSE500 Figure 20: Geographical split of Unicorns is wide too
Source: CMIE, Credit Suisse Source: Credit Suisse
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
IT Disc. Health Fin. Materials Util. Industr. Oth
US$ bn
0
7
14
21
28
35
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019
Number of Deals Avg deal size ($ Mn) (RHS)
32%
13%
6%
6%
5%
5%
4%
4%
2%
1%
1%
1%
1%
1%
1%
18%
Mumbai
Delhi
Bengaluru
Kolkata
Chennai
Pune
Ahmedabad
Hyderabad
Vadodara
Thane
Kochi
Noida
Aurangabad
Gandhinagar
Gurgaon
Others Geographical split of BSE500 firms
6%
28%
8%
20%
8%
5%
5%
7%
13%
Delhi
Bengaluru
Hyderabad
Mumbai
Gurgaon
Pune
Noida
Chennai
Others Split of unicorns by founding location
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Figure 21: Geographical spread
Source: Credit Suisse
Hyderabad
Bharat Biotech
Deccan Fine
Chemicals
Greenko
Hetero Labs
HighRadius
Medha Servo
Drives
Mytrah Energy
Zenoti
Nimbahera
Wonder Cement
Jaipur
CarDekho
Macleods Pharma
Delhi
BharatPe
Ecom Express
Grey-Orange
Hero FinCorp
Lenskart
RateGain
Gurgaon
Cars24
Delhivery
Oyo Rooms
Policy Bazaar
Renew Power
Urban Company
Vishal Megamarts
Zomato
Noida
EightFold
Global Logic
Innovaccer
PayTM
Pine Labs
Kanpur
RSPL
Nagpur
Haldiram
Vijaywada
Sri Chaitanya
Chennai
Aptus Finance
Chargebee
Freshworks
Fivestar Finance
GRT Jewellers
StarHealth
Zoho
Kochi
UST Global
Trivandrum
IBS Software
Ahmedabad
Vini Cosmetics
Intas Pharma
Hazira
Essar Port
Thrissur
Joyalukkas
Bengaluru
ACT
Anthem
Biosciences
BigBasket
Byju’s
CureFit
DailyHunt
Digit
Enzen
Flipkart
Glance
Groww
Headspin
Icertis
Kurl-On
Manipal
Hospitals
Meesho
MPL
MuSigma
Ola
Ola Electric
PhonePe
Postman
Razorpay
Sharechat
Swiggy
Udaan
Unacademy
Zerodha
Zoomcar
Pune
Firstcry
Druva Data
EmCure
Serum Inst
Synechron
Mumbai
Allied Blenders
Bhilosa
BillDesk
BookMyShow
Browser Stack
CLP Wind
Farms
Citius
D’ Decor
Dream11
Eruditus
Games 24x7
Gharda
Chemicals
InMobi
Infra Market
Parle Biscuits
MX Player
NSE
Nykaa
Pharmeasy
Piramal Glass
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14
The surge in private equity funding
has helped address the shortage of risk
capital; ground-up infrastructure
improvements (roads, electricity, data,
computing) have widened market access.
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The Enablers: Funding, infrastructure,
regulation
Not just rapid economic growth, but a range of enabling trends have helped the
growth of Unicorns: surge in private funding, grassroots physical and virtual
connectivity, and set-up of digital infrastructure.
The growth in highly valued companies has been enabled by
a range of factors that we explore in this section: (1) the
growth in private equity helping address the shortage of risk
capital; (2) increase in teledensity, data usage and
smartphone penetration; (3) development of the “India
stack”; (4) improvement in ground-level infrastructure like
rural roads and electrification; (5) development of
ecosystems in technology and pharma/biotech.
Scarcity of risk capital solved: private now > public
The surge in private equity flows for Indian firms has been
such that private market fund-raising has exceeded public
market transactions in each year of the last decade (Figure
22). This may not be a permanent phenomenon, given the
generally much larger liquidity and size of public markets, but
this is definitely not a fluke either.
While private equity firms tapping into domestic pools of
capital are emerging too (more on this in the fourth section
of this report), much of the current inflow is foreign. The rise
of private equity has been a global trend over the past
decade (Figure 23), and as pension and insurance fund
managers switch to alternate assets in their allocations in
response to record low interest rates, is likely to persist.
This inflow has helped address a significant shortage of risk
capital in India. Low per-capita-GDP economies like India
are generally short of equity capital. Not only do they have
low wealth per capita (Figure 24), most household wealth is
in hard assets like the land they own, the house they live in,
the shop they own, the vehicle they use, or gold. The share
of their wealth in financial assets is low (Figure 25). Further,
even for financial wealth the first investment preference for
households tends to be capital-assured asset classes like
bank deposits. It is only beyond a certain quantum of weatlh,
and usually after the purchase of a house that households
begin to invest in equity of firms they do not run themselves.
How did this happen in other economies when they were at
the per capita income and wealth of India? First, the
transition of currently developed markets out of their
emerging market status occurred over a much longer period,
with growth averaging 2-3% a year over a century or more.
Wealth thus accumulated over a period of time, and was
able to provide the risk capital necessary to finance this level
of growth. To grow at 6-8% annually for a few decades
though one needs significantly large amounts of risk capital.
Some emerging markets (including the US in the early 19th
century) also used debt as risk capital, and had several
boom-bust cycles in debt. The Chinese model of growth has
also relied on debt-funded growth, with state ownership
reducing the risk of systemic instability when loans go bad.
Figure 22: Indian equity fundraising: private tops public Figure 23: Private equity deals have risen globally too
Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Private Equity Deals Public Offerings
US$ bn
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019
Global private capital raised ($Bn)
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16
Given an aversion to boom-bust cycles of debt, and low
availability of locally available risk capital, India has been
short of risk capital. If a business needed Rs1 bn of equity
capital, only a handful of business families could afford that.
As these unicorns (started by mostly first-generation wealth
creators) start deploying their capital, this problem would be
less acute in a few years’ time.
Rise in telecom, data and smartphone penetration
Till 2005, less than one in six Indians had a phone, and
while rural teledensity today is just 60%, it was less than
10% as recently as 2008 (Figure 26). The recent apparent
decline, particularly in urban areas is due to the drop in dual-
sim usage. Without a phone, economic scale is hard to
achieve, with costlier economic linkages as well as elevated
friction in the job market making large parts of the economy
inaccessible for various products and services.
Even today products that cost more than Rs200-300/month
per capita struggle to reach penetration exceeding 70%.
Innovative pre-paid subscription models that provided
connections at ARPU as low as Rs30-40 makes the
individuals more productive.
Similarly, a sharp drop in data prices has led to a dramatic
jump in data usage (Figure 27). Total data usage per capita
in India remains low, given the very weak fixed-line
broadband penetration, but India leads in mobile data usage.
This was enabled by a precipitous drop in data costs in
2016-17, and appears to be stabilising now. Even as fixed-
line broadband data penetration rises steadily (ADC, one of
the unicorns, operates in this space) from its low base, the
rapid rise in smartphone ownership (Figure 28) has brought
cheap computing and through that, usable internet
connectivity to the masses.
Reach is thus no longer a bottleneck—not just for Business-
to-Consumer business models in goods (e.g., groceries,
medicines) and services (e.g., education, health), but also
Business-to-Business expansion, for instance, for logistics
companeis like Udaan connecting with millions of retailers
efficiently, or share-cab operators tracking their fleets.
Figure 24: India has low wealth per capita Figure 25: Financial share of wealth low for poor nations
Source: CS Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse Source: CS Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse
Figure 26: Tele-density has improved in last 20 years Figure 27: Data usage rose sharply after 2016
Source: TRAI, Credit Suisse Source: TRAI, Credit Suisse
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
400,000
450,000
500,000
BD KE ID VN IN ZA TH CH JP UK US
Wealth per adult (US$), 2019
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
BD KE ID VN IN ZA TH CH JP UK US
Financial wealth as % of Gross Wealth, 2019
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Dec-03
Sep-04
Jun-05
Mar-06
Dec-06
Sep-07
Jun-08
Mar-09
Dec-09
Sep-10
Jun-11
Mar-12
Dec-12
Sep-13
Jun-14
Mar-15
Dec-15
Sep-16
Jun-17
Mar-18
Dec-18
Sep-19
Jun-20
Teledensity (per 100 people) Urban Rural
0
50
100
150
200
250
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
Jun-16
Sep-16
Dec-16
Mar-17
Jun-17
Sep-17
Dec-17
Mar-18
Jun-18
Sep-18
Dec-18
Mar-19
Jun-19
Sep-19
Dec-19
Mar-20
Jun-20
Sep-20
Data Usage (MB/month) Outgo per GB (Rs)
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Better physical reach, household productivity
The past 20 years have also seen an inflection in rural all-
weather road connectivity, courtesy the Pradhan Mantri
Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and several similar state-level
schemes (Figure 30). Not only has this enabled labour
mobility, but also expansion of fulfilment networks for larger
firms, as well as efficient extraction of production from the
villages, not only of dairy, poultry and meat, but also
handicraft and products.
This access to roads also improved the ability to provide
electricity connections, pushing India’s household
electrification to nearly 100% from less than 60% in 2001
(Figure 31). While rural electrification has been a
government priority since the 1970s, achieving the objective
first needed a rural road network to be built.
Most than just stringing a wire to every house, the availability
of power has improved as well, from being avaialble for 5-6
hours a day to 20-23 hours a day in most areas, and 24
hours a day in some states.
Not only does electricity help extend the working day (light
from other sources is expensive), it also allows productivity-
enhancing appliances like fans, refrigerators, induction
cooktops and mixer-grinders to be used in more households.
Phone usage as well as the maintenance of phone networks
has also improved due to these changes.
Phones, roads and electricity have driven the Silent
Transformation of India that we first wrote about in 2013.
A leapfrog in financial penetration: the India Stack
India’s bio-metric ID system, Aadhaar, now has 1.29 bn
registrations. Not only has it significantly expanded state
capacity, but it has dramatically reduced the cost of setting
up and conducting financial operations, starting with KYC.
Without Aadhaar and mobile phones, the nearly universal
availability of bank accounts would not have been possible
(Figure 32). This has allowed the government to clean-up
fiscal transfers to the poor, but also allowed for a new open-
architecture for India’s financial system: the India Stack.
Figure 28: Smartphone ownership has risen sharply Figure 29: Also boosting internet penetration
Source: TRAI, Credit Suisse Source: TRAI, Credit Suisse
Figure 30: Road connectivity has surged esp. in rural Figure 31: Household Electrification has reached 100%
Source: CMIE, Credit Suisse Source: CMIE, Credit Suisse
5%
11%
18%
24%
29%
33%
36%
38%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Smartphone penetration In India
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Dec-14
Jun-15
Dec-15
Jun-16
Dec-16
Jun-17
Dec-17
Jun-18
Dec-18
Jun-19
Dec-19
Jun-20
Internet Subscribers (Per 100) Urban Rural
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010
2013
2016
Rural Urban
Length of roads (Mn Km)
56
67
88
100
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2001 2011 2016 2019
% of Households having electriicy
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18
The India Stack, unlike the closed and/or silo-ed systems
seen in the developed world and China, works with
interoperability across multiple systems. Forming the base of
the stack are the JAM trinity: Jan Dhan (Banking for All),
Aadhaar (unique biometric ID) and Mobile connectivity,
which enable financial firms to uniquely identify individuals
with their bank accounts with a two-layer verification using
one-time passwords (OTP) sent on mobile phones. Consent
and privacy are also integrated into this stack by design.
Above this are the application layers that allow paperless Know-
Your-Client (KYC) checks, provide digital storage for IDs (e.g.
once verified on a Central KYC registry say for a mutual fund
folio, the person can use the same verification across all MF
providers), as well as a pathbreaking application layer for
cashless transactions: the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
UPI allows peer-to-peer or even merchant payments with
the convenience of sending a message. UPI transactions
have been growing at a rapid pace, and have already
crossed Rs1 tn daily (Figure 34).
In this process, as India leapfrogs over a cards-based
payment system, straight to the more efficient digital
system, the share of digital transactions has increased to
30% in FY2021 from just 5% in FY2016 (Figure 35). This
has been led by the sustained 100%-plus growth in UPI
transactions, and continued growth in IMPS (Immediate
Payment Service), which was the precursor to UPI.
While the cards ecosystem is still growing rapidly from a low
base, the rapid spread of smartphones has enabled FinTech
firms to enrol a large number of merchants for UPI-based
payments. Wallet operators like Paytm, WhatsApp Business,
PhonePe and Khatabook each already have more
merchants signed up than the POS machines set up by all
banks cumulatively in the last two decades (Figure 36).
Not surprisingly, therefore, while most UPI payments are
Person-to-Person (P2P), the Person-to-Merchant (P2M)
transactions have already become comparable to the POS
transactions (Figure 37).
Figure 32: Nearly every household has a bank account Figure 33: India Stack builds on Aadhaar, Jan Dhan
Source: Saubhagya, Credit Suisse Source: Credit Suisse
Figure 34: UPI transactions (daily average) rising sharply Figure 35: Digital payments gaining share from cash
Source: RBI, Credit Suisse Source: RBI, Credit Suisse
35.0%
53.0%
80.0%
99.6%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
2011 2014 2017 2020
Percentage of Indians (15+) with bank accounts
350 mn bank accounts
opened so far
Average balance > Rs 2,700
~1.2bn Aadhaar cards issued
(> 90% of the population)
~850nm mobile phone users
Smartphone penetration at
~50% and rising
~700mn smartphones by
2020E
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
140%
160%
180%
200%
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Apr-16
Aug-16
Dec-16
Apr-17
Aug-17
Dec-17
Apr-18
Aug-18
Dec-18
Apr-19
Aug-19
Dec-19
Apr-20
Aug-20
Dec-20
UPI Transactions
Volume (mn) Value (₹ bn) Growth YoY (RHS)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
-
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
FY12
FY13
FY14
FY15
FY16
FY17
FY18
FY19
FY20
FY21E
Digital Cards Cash Share of digital (%) (RHS)
US$ bn
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Rapid growth in IT-trained manpower
The growth in India’s IT services industry triggered a
significant increase in the number of engineering colleges
and gradates: so much so that there was an overshoot in
the number of graduates, forcing closure of many such
colleges that could not compete in placing their graduates
(Figure 38). This ended up being a market-based
mechanism for weeding out poor quality capacity.
Many, if not most, of this cohort of engineers still needed
retraining by IT services firms. Despite a slowdown in growth
in headcount of the sector, there are now 4.5 mn individuals
that know programming and have a functional knowledge of
developing or maintaining software.
This has helped create the manpower for companies driving
technology-led innovation, not just in old-economy firms or
consultancies, but also new-age firms in e-commerce,
financial technology, education technology as well as
software product companies in the Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) space.
Ease-of-doing-business and formalisation
Government efforts to widen the tax base and simplify the
start and end of companies has helped faster-than-market
growth in segments that had significant fragmentation and
informality. Some of the changes triggered by the
simplification of India’s labour code and the Ease-of-Doing-
Business are of recent vintage, and are likely to encourage
several more entrepreneurs to embark on their own
ventures.
In the next section we will explore the sector-specific
changes in some sectors that have a meaningful and rapidly
growing number of unicorns.
Figure 36: Payment/wallet firms onboarding merchants Figure 37: UPI P2M now comparable to POS spends
Source: NPCI, Credit Suisse Source: RBI, Credit Suisse
Figure 38: India adding 3.5 mn engineering graduates
p.a.
Figure 39: India employs 4.5mn IT engineers
Source: CMIE, Credit Suisse Source: Nasscom, Credit Suisse
17
15
13
8
5 5
3 3
1.4
0.2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
PayTM
Whatsapp
Bussiness
PhonePe
Khatabook
System
POS
Razorpay
Google
Pay
Mobikwik
Mwipe
Pine
Labs
Merchants (mn)
208
322
428
456
503
511
647
624
230
376
473
498
543
548
686
674
231
287
338
394
419
466
554
610
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20
Rs bn
Credit Card usage at POS Debit Card usage at POS UPI P2M
2.4
2.9
3.0
3.3
3.5 3.5 3.4
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Annual engineering graduates (mn)
0%
7%
14%
21%
28%
35%
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
IT Employees (mn) IT Employees growth (RHS)
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20
Several sector-specific changes like
ecosystem maturation in IT (for SaaS
and e-commerce), firms reaching scale
in pharma/biotech, and the India Stack
for FinTech are likely to accelerate
innovation.
“
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The beginning, not the end of unicorn
seeding
We explore in detail the sectors that have a clutch of unicorns: FinTech, education,
SaaS, e-commerce, discretionary, and pharmaceuticals/biotech
FinTech
Financial services have low penetration in India. Over the past decade, capability has been improving step-by-
step. Starting with universal banking access, spread of computing/internet and Aadhaar helped the
development of the India Stack. The growth in digital payments and data generation has now set the stage for
innovative and scalable solutions across lending, insurance, investing and wealth management.
~30% of retail spends now through digital means
Riding on a public payments infrastructure, digital
payments have leapfrogged in India, growing ~10.5x over
the past five years to an annual payment run-rate of
US$450 bn and now constituting ~30% of retail
transactions. We note that UPI is the major driver of this
accelerated payment digitisation as it opened up an
interoperable payment network to large tech companies.
Within 4-5 years of their launches, Google Pay and
PhonePe have built 75-100 mn users each, transacting
through their UPI-based payments app: together they
account for ~83% of total UPI volumes. To address
concerns on concentration and monopoly risks though,
recently UPI’s self-regulatory body, National Payment
Corporation of India (NPCI), has proposed a 30% market
share cap per firm.
Figure 40: Large user base for wallets/payment cos. Figure 41: UPI has led surge in digital transactions
Source: RBI, NPCI, Credit Suisse Source: RBI, NPCI, Credit Suisse
Figure 42: ~75-100 mn users for Google Pay/PhonePe Figure 43: These two are 80%+ of UPI transactions
Source: Company data, NPCI Source: NPCI
603
459
150
120
100
75
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Smartphone
users
Whatsapp PayTM Mobikwik PhonePe Google
Pay
Users (mn)
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20
POS IMPS Prepaid UPI Share of UPI (RHS)
22
67
75
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
Dec-18
Aug-19
Apr-20
May-20
Jun-20
Jul-20
Aug-20
Sep-20
Oct-20
Nov-20
Google Pay
Monthly UPI trnx (Rs bn)
Monthly active users (mn; RHS)
50
60
100
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
Dec-18
Aug-19
Apr-20
May-20
Jun-20
Jul-20
Aug-20
Sep-20
Oct-20
Nov-20
PhonePe
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Dec-18 Aug-19 Apr-20 May-20 Jun-20 Jul-20 Aug-20 Sep-20 Oct-20 Nov-20
UPI market share
PhonePe Google Pe PayTM Others
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22
Specialised POS terminal/payment gateways for P2M
PI payments, while growing fast, are still predominantly used
for P2P (Peer-to-Peer or Person-to-Person) payments
(85% share). There are, however, specialised POS terminal
and payment gateways which process an annualised
US$140 bn of card and UPI P2M (Person-to-Merchant)
payment transactions. On the off-line side, players such as
Pine Labs, MSwipe and Paytm, comprise ~10-15% of total
P2M payments and together account for ~25% of total
POS terminals installed in the country, whereas Bill Desk is
the market leader in the online payment gateway,
processing US$80 bn of bill payments annually.
FinTech unlocking consumer credit for >150 mn users
Having acquired a substantial user base, FinTechs and e-
commerce players have started offering small-ticket
personal loans or short-term credit to monetise their user
base—mostly in partnership with banks/NBFCs. At the
same time, many specialised digital consumer financiers
have emerged, providing EMI or Buy-Now, Pay Later
(BNPL) credit either at POS terminals (for offline payments)
or as a payment mode on checkout pages (for online) for
more than 150 mn users. Paytm, Flipkart and Amazon
provide short-term credit (15-30 days) of Rs5-60k for online
spends, helping increase financing options especially when
credit card penetration in India remains low at ~4%. On the
other hand, specialised players such as KrazyBee, LazyPay,
Zest Money, Simpl, provide transactional credit with an
intent to provide longer tenure, higher ticket personal loans
to existing customers having good repayment behaviour.
Retail digital lending: US$110 bn by 2019 itself
Retail digital lending has delivered ~43% CAGR over the past
seven years, reaching US$110 bn in size by 2019. This has
been led by the emergence and growth of many specialised
digital lenders like pay day, SME, unsecured retail and BNPL
(Book Now, Pay Later) lenders who differentiate mainly
through faster disbursements (often within minutes for small
ticket consumer/personal loans), using alternative data
sources for underwriting and reach to customers who were
hitherto outside formal credit due to lack of bureau records.
They have gained more than a 40% market share in new
personal loans and 20%+ in unsecured retail loans.
Figure 44: Retail digital lending—43% CAGR in 7 years Figure 45: Share of FinTech rising across segments
Source: Experian Source: Experian
Figure 46: FinTech loan ticket-size is smaller… Figure 47: …but growing, as underwriting matures
Source: Experian Source: Experian
9
14
23
33
46
58
75
110
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Digital lending in India (US$ bn)
1%
23%
41% 44%
8%
23%
40%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
4Q17 4Q18 4Q19 Jan & Feb
20
4Q18 4Q19 4Q19
Share in personal loans sourced (nos) Share in retail
unsecured loans
(nos)
Share in
consumer
durable
loans (%
YoY)
FinTech lenders
394
76
8
30 18 24
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
Banks NBFCs FinTechs Banks NBFCs FinTechs
Personal loans Consumer durable loans
Avg ticket size (Rs '000; 4Q19)
61%
48%
42%
33%
40%
45%
3%
9% 9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
4Q18
4Q19
Jan&Feb'20
4Q18
4Q19
Jan&Feb'20
4Q18
4Q19
Jan&Feb'20
< Rs5K Rs5K-10K Rs10K-20K
Share of FinTech personal loans - according
to Avg ticket size
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Providing small ticket, contextual unsecured credit has been
the primary target segment for a large section of digital
lenders, as they lend to customers having no/limited credit
record. According to data from Experian, the average ticket
size for personal loans by FinTechs is 0.02x of the average
ticket size for banks and is 0.8x in case of consumer durable
loans. That said, the average ticket size for digital lenders is
increasing, as they add new loan products with higher ticket
size and tenure based on confidence in their underwriting
models, and where lending to existing non-delinquent
customers helps improve profitability, given better asset
quality and otherwise high customer acquisition cost.
Digital lenders worst impacted by COVID-19
Pre-pandemic, digital lenders were growing at 70-330% YoY
across personal, consumer and retail business loans riding atop
the India stack and alternative underwriting models. They were
impacted the most by lockdowns with consequent moratoriums
over collections and containing delinquency losses becoming
the main focus. Growth took a back seat. Disbursement
volumes are now gradually recovering, and though still below
pre-pandemic levels, given the short-cycle nature of these
loans, are likely to resume rapid growth once lenders see the
economy is back on the growth path.
Figure 48: FinTechs expanding into newer segments to increase engagement, the addressable market and drive
monetisation
Source: Company data, Credit Suisse
PhonePe Payments E-commerce Investing (MF/Gold) Insurance
Off-line merchant
tieups
Online merchant
tieup – presence
within app
PayTM
Payments &
wallet
E-commerce
Investing
(MF/Gold/FDs)
Equity broking &
Insurance
Off-line merchant
tieups & VAS
Consumer internet
(gaming, travel,
entertain)
Consumer lending
(BNPL, PL)
Offline merchant
lending
Mobikwik
Payments &
wallet
Consumer
lending (PL, CL)
Investing (MF/Gold) Insurance Payment gateway
Google Pay Payments
Consumer
lending (PL)
Investing (MF/Gold) Merchant lending
Pine Labs
POS player
(larger ent)
VAS for
merchants
GC, loyalty and
rewards mgmt
Consumer financing
at POS
(BNPL, EMI)
Digital platform for
business bank
(Neo bk)
Merchant lending
Mswipe
POS player
(SMEs)
VAS for
merchants
Pay-by-link and
micro websites
Consumer financing
at POS (EMI)
Merchant lending
Razorpay
Payments
gateway
VAS for online
merchants
Pay-by-link and
ePOS
Digital platform for
business bank
(Neo bk)
Merchant lending
Yono
Mobile / internet
bnkg
New customer
acq
Pre-approved PL Insurance E-commerce
Khatabook
LendingKart
Digital MSME
loans
Co-lending
platform
Digital ledger
(kirana & small
merchants
Payments Merchant lending
KrazyBee Digital PL
BNPL/
consumer loans
Co-lending
platform
Capital Float
Digital MSME
loans
BNPL/
consumer loans
Zest Money
BNPL for e-
commerce trnx
BNPL for off-line
trnx
Simpl
BNPL for e-
commerce trnx
Merchant loyalty
prgm
PolicyBazaar
Insurance
aggregator
Lending
(retail, business)
Investing
(MF, FDs)
Zerodha Broking MF investing
Loan against
shares / MF
Smallcase Basket investing
Advisory platform
for RAs
Trading gateway
natively
InsurTech
WealthTech
Open banking / Digital lending
Merchant payments / POS / payment gateway
Payments / wallets
Core offering Expansion into new segments
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24
EdTech
While India solved the enrolment problem last decade, education outcomes continue to be a challenge.
The advent of cheap computing, internet access, global innovations in pedagogy and the accelerated
adoption driven by the pandemic have boosted the business opportunity.
Total learners base in India is c.360 mn
Education in India is one of the big sectors with a total
learners’ base of c.360 mn and total education spending of
US$110 bn in FY20. However, the sector has been plagued
by legacy issues—quality of teachers, archaic teaching
methodology and poor infrastructure. Hence, online education
(EdTech) is seen as a solution for some of these problems.
But, the penetration of online education (as % of total
education spending) has remained low (less than 1%) despite
the emergence of many start-ups over the last 5-10 years.
COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of online learning
That said, COVID-19 is seen as the inflection point in the
sector with online learning seeing accelerated adoption with
c.320 mn students impacted by the lock down and several
social distancing measures taken by government/authorities
to contain the pandemic. These restrictions forced the
students and parents to evaluate the online mode of learning
thus significantly lowered the psychological barriers. Byju’s,
one of the leading EdTech companies in India, added 20 mn
users in the first four months after the lock down compared
to the 40 mn user base the company added in the first 4.5
years before the pandemic. Unacademy, the second most
valuable EdTech in India, registered an 82% rise in revenue
for Apr-2020, which was 10x higher compared to the same
period last year. The strong growth in the sector can also be
gauged by the increased investments from PE/VC in 2020.
As per PGA Labs, total EdTech funding in India increased
by 4x to US$2.2 bn in 2020 compared to 2019.
Figure 49: Education in India is one of the big sectors with a total learners’ base of c.360 mn
Source: DICE, AISHE, AICTE, Mettl report, PGA Labs
Figure 50: Total EdTech funding in India increased by 4x in 2020
Source: PGA Labs deal database
K-G5, 49%
G6-8, 26%
G9-10, 15%
G11-12, 10%
Grade-wise
Rural,
70%
Urban,
30%
Location
Govt,
56%
Priavte,
44%
Management type
English,
24%
Others,
76%
Medium of
instruction
<INR 12K,
87%
INR 12-18K,
7%
INR 18-30K,
3%
>INR 30K,
3%
School fee
261mn
Pre-K, 9%
K-12, 73%
College, 9%
Corporate, 9%
Total learner's
universe
360mm
258 211
805
553
2,215
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Total funding in Edtech sector (US$ mn)
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K12 and test preparation is the largest sub-segment
The EdTech sector in India can be sub-segmented in to:
 Pre-school (0-5 years): includes play schools, day care
etc.
 K–12 and test competition (6-17 years):
supplemental school education and competitive exam
preparation (engineering, medical college entrance
exams, etc.)
 Higher education (18–23 years): products and
services focussed on college students to improve their
employability, job test preparation, personality
development, etc.
 Continued learning (24+ years): product and services
focussed on skill enhancements, certifications, language
courses, etc.
 B2B: products and services sold to schools, colleges,
companies etc. that enable them to offer online
learnings, enhance their services, improve employee
productivity etc.
K12 and test preparation is the largest sub-segment in the
EdTech space in India and has attracted the most
investments so far. However, continued learnings and higher
education have also witnessed increased investments over
the last 12 months.
While currently most of the EdTech content is standardised
and on-demand basis, there is an increasing trend towards
personalised learning with more engagement through
gamification/entertainment and immersive learnings (AI/VI).
The other key trend emerging in the sector is consolidation.
Byju’s, inundated with the recent funding, acquired WhiteHat
Jr and Aakash Institute in 2020 to expand its product
offerings. There are media reports that Byju is looking to
competing K-12 and test competition platform, Toppr, for
US$150 mn in order to strengthen in its market positioning.
Unacademy, the other leading EdTech platform in India, has
also been very active in M&A over the last 12-18 months. The
company has made seven acquisitions since 2020 with the
latest being that of Tap Chief in Feb-2021.
Figure 51: K12 and test preparation is the largest sub-segment in the EdTech space in India
Source: PGA Labs
Figure 52: K-12 and test preparation accounted for 70-90% of funding over the last four years
Source: PGA Labs
 Play schools
 Day care
 Educational
games
 Supplemental
school
education
 Competitive
exam prep i.e.
Civil services,
CAT, etc.
 For college
students: Skills
assessment, job
search, test
prep and
personality
development
 For corporate
training and
development
 Vocational
training
 B2B sales to
schools,
colleges,
companies etc.
 Online learning
modules,
training courses,
Edtech SaaS,
etc.
Pre-school
(0 – 5 yrs)
K-12 and test
preparation
(6 – 17 yrs)
Higher
education
(8 – 23 yrs)
Continued
learning
(24+ yrs)
B2B
200
700
500
1980
21
30
58
142
40
98
48
84
10
6
11
12
9
13
2
7
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
2017 2018 2019 2020
K-12 & test prep Continued learning Higher Education Pre-K B2B
Total funding in Edtech sector (US$ mn)
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EdTech market is expected to reach US$4 bn by 2025
Given the high under-penetration of online education and
inherent legacy issues in the current education system,
EdTech in India is well poised for strong growth over the
medium to long term. Further, COVID-19 has facilitated the
adoption of online learning. According to Blumes Venture,
one of the leading VC funds in the EdTech space in India,
the size of the EdTech market was US$750 mn in 2020
which is expected to reach US$4 bn by 2025.
That said, we believe price points of current offerings will
need to come down for mass scale adoption. For example,
the cost of a class 10 math and science product is
c.US$350 which is higher than average annual school fees
of 94% of the K-12 students. Further, EdTech platforms will
need to develop credible measuring mechanisms to show
the effectiveness of their online education.
Figure 53: EdTech market in India is expected to grow by 5x by 2025
Source: Blume Ventures
Current Education market:
US$135bn
K-12:
US$1.5bn
Continued learning:
US$964mn
Higher education:
US$884mn
Pre-school:
US$180mn
B2B:
US$341mn
Others:
US$95mn
Current
Edtech
market:
US$750mn
Estd size of
EdTech market
by 2025
US$4bn
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Indian SaaS
Even as “software takes over the world”, the nature of software is changing as is the process of software
development sales. Indian businesses, once relegated to services, are now making rapid strides in
product development.
27% of technology unicorns are SaaS
Compared to the consumer internet sector, Indian SaaS
industry has largely remained under the radar for most part of
the last decade until recently when the current pandemic
(COVID-19) accelerated the adoption of digital technology
and provided an impetus to the Indian SaaS sector. There are
currently 12 Indian SaaS unicorns out of total 44 technology
unicorns, highlighting the importance of the sector.
Indian SaaS companies have doubled over the last
five years
The genesis of the new age India SaaS companies dates back
to 2005 with the incorporation of Zoho followed by emergence
of other start-ups such as Freshworks (earlier known as
Freshdesk), Unmetrics, Chargebee, Qubole, etc. However,
India’s SaaS ecosystem has flourished over the last five years
with the number of SaaS companies doubling during the
period. According to the recent Bain report, there are 7-8k
Indian SaaS companies currently vs. 4-5k five years ago.
The strong surge in Indian SaaS companies can be
attributed to
 Vast availability of IT trained professionals. The success
of the Indian IT services sector is instrumental in enabling a
strong IT-trained work force in India. Besides many global
tech and non-tech companies have opened their IT back
offices or R&D centres in India which has also added to the
growth of IT workforce. As per Nasscom, there are currently
4.45 mn professional working in the IT services sector out of
which 25% are trained in new digital technologies. Also,
there are over 3 mn software professional in India and 100k+
SaaS professionals (as of 2019).
 Relatively economical cost of business set up.
Compared to other internet businesses, the initial cost of
setting up a SaaS business is not high as the
requirement of workforce is low. A SaaS business can
be founded and tested for business case with the
number of employees being in single digit or low double
digit. We note that Postman had 250 employees when it
received series C funding of US$150 mn, valuing the
company at US$2.0 bn valuation.
Further, the salary levels in India are lower than that in other
developed countries such as the US, UK, etc. Additionally,
even in India SaaS companies are being incorporated in
non-traditional places such as Chennai. Chennai has
emerged as the centre of SaaS innovation in India. There
are 15k+ software professionals in Chennai.
 Increased adoption of digital technologies. The
emergence and adoption of new technologies such as
cloud, mobile, RPA, AI, and the like over the last 5-10
years has not only facilitated increased penetration of the
SaaS business model but also brought about new
verticals/areas where SaaS can be deployed. For
example cyber security, API, analytics, have become
emerging areas of focus for SaaS companies.
 Increased availability of funding. VC and PE funding
has also increased over the last five years with some of
the early Indian SaaS companies establishing their
business models, thus providing support to the Indian
SaaS ecosystem.
The valuation of some of the SaaS companies has seen
considerable growth during the current pandemic.
Figure 54: There are 7k-8k Indian SaaS start-ups currently (vs. 4k-5k in Dec-2015)
Source: Tracxn, Bain India SaaS report 2020
4K - 5K
7K - 8K
5 yrs ago Now
SaaS companies founded
~10
40+
5 yrs ago Now
SaaS companies raising late stage funds
~500
~1200
5 yrs ago Now
SaaS companies raising funds
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 A more developed ecosystem. Over the last decade, the
Indian SaaS ecosystem has gained strength with the
participation from many VCs/PE (global and domestic),
emergence of active angel investor community, government
support, SaaS community development (SaaSBoomi,
Nasscom and the like). We also highlight that the success
of first generation entrepreneurs has aided in the creation of
the SaaS ecosystem in India. According to Nasscom, at
least 22 start-ups have been formed by the alumnus of
Zoho (founded by Sridhar Vembu).
Figure 55: Funding for Indian SaaS companies has improved considerably over the last two years…
Note: 2020 data as of June 2020. Source: Pitchbook; https://www.svb.com/blogs/priya-rajan/the-indian-saas-landscape
Figure 56: …and, also the valuations of Indian SaaS companies have surged
Source: Nasscom; Credit Suisse
0.1
0.1 0.1
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4
1.0
0.7
24
28
37
76 82
121
176
222
174 174 169
57
0
50
100
150
200
250
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Capital invested (US$ bn) Deal count
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
-
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
8.0
8.5
9.0
9.5
10.0
10.5
11.0
11.5
12.0
12.5
13.0
13.5
14.0
Freshworks (Yr 0: 2011) Postman (Yr 0: 2014) iCertis (Yr 0: 2009) CitiusTech (Yr 0: 2005)
Browserstack (Yr 0: 2011) Zenoti (Yr 0: 2010) Innovaccer (Yr 0: 2014)
Time (yrs)
Valuation
($
bn)
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Product offerings of Indian SaaS companies have
evolved over the last five years
Further, Indian SaaS companies have evolved in their
product offerings as well from a decade ago. While the initial
Indian SaaS companies were largely focussed on horizontal
product offerings such as ERP or CRM solutions, over the
last five years Indian SaaS enterprises have expanded in to
vertical SaaS solutions (targeting specific industry verticals
such as retail, logistics, healthcare, travel, etc) and also in to
emerging technologies such as API, AI/ML, security etc.
COVID-19 has also accelerated demand for SaaS services
for work for home, business continuity, e-commerce
enablement tools and other related services even within the
domestic market. Indian SaaS companies are now focussing
on both enterprises and SMBs covering global as well as
domestic markets.
Figure 57: Indian SaaS companies have broadened their product offering to vertical SaaS and emerging technologies
Source: Bain India SaaS report 2020
Figure 58: Indian SaaS companies are now focussing on both enterprises and SMBs across geographies
Source: Bain India SaaS report 2020
Horizontal business products targeting
SMBs globally (2011 – present)
Description
• Rise if horizontal solutions, primarily ERP or
CRM related
• Targeting global SMBs using cost arbitrage
and benefiting from strong customer service
talent
Enablers
Examples
• Indian IT giants (TCS, Infosys) developing
customer service & engineering talent en-
masse
• Setup of Indian operations by big tech
companies (Google, Microsoft), gradual return
of trained product managers
• Zoho, Kissflowm, Freshworksm, Chargebee,
Agile, CRM
Vertical SaaS businesses disrupting
underserved markets (2015 – present)
• Companies disrupting underserved markets
and verticals by replacing legacy processes
• Rise of public cloud with entry and growth of
Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud
Platform and Azure
• Zenoti, Innovapptive, Innovaccer, CareStack,
DataWeave, Tookitaki
Broad-based horizontal and vertical
solutions serving enterprises & SMBs
(2018 – present)
• SaaS companies witnessing bottom-up
adoption within enterprises and catering to
different verticals
• Building category leadership in emerging tech
(e.g., APIs, GraphQL, cybersecurity)
• Rise of trained SaaS talent from Wave 1 and
Wave 2 SaaS companies
• Development of ecosystem and better access
to capital
• Postman, Hasura, BrowserStack, Yellow
Messenger, Acceldata
Replacing legacy processes with SaaS solutions
driven by shift of workloads to cloud
Examples: Freight Tiger, Darwinbox
Rising software adoption by value-seeking SMBs in
the increasingly digitized domestic market
Examples: OkCredit, Kahatabook, Instamojo, Teachmint,
LoveLocal
Globally competitive product-led companies
differentiated on tech; strong network effects
driving bottom-up adoption
Examples: Postman, BrowserStack, Hasura, DataWeave
Underpenetrated, fast-growing global SaaS SMB
market; cost arbitrage vs global peers through
inside sales focus
Examples: Freshworks, Zoho, Chargebee, Hubilo
Enterprises
SMB
India for India India for the world
Customer geography
Customer
scale
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30
Indian SaaS market share likely to increase to 5% by
FY25
According to Nasscom, the size of the Indian SaaS market
was US$3.5 bn in FY20 growing at a two-year CAGR of
c.30% from US$2.1 bn in FY18. Also, the components of
domestic revenue increased from 21% in FY18 to 25% in
FY20. Further, pure play Indian SaaS companies
contributed 70-72% of SaaS revenues in FY20 while the
contribution from global SaaS companies was 16-18% and
that of Indian IT service providers was 10-12%.
According to IDC, the size of the SaaS market (Applications
and system infrastructure software) was US$148.5 bn in
2019 and is expected to grow at a five year CAGR (2019-
24) of 13.2% to reach US$276.6 bn by 2024. Also, the
penetration of SaaS—% of total software (cloud and
traditional)—is expected to increase to c.51% by 2024 from
c.34% in 2019. Nasscom estimates the revenue for pure
play Indian SaaS companies can increase by 6x to US$13-
US$15 bn by FY25 from US$2.5 bn in FY20, suggesting
the market share of pure play Indian SaaS companies could
increase to c.5% by FY25 from c.2% in FY20.
We believe Indian SaaS companies are well placed to
capture the strong growth potential in the SaaS market
globally driven by the key competitive advantages the Indian
IT sector enjoys. With the high valuation multiples that SaaS
companies enjoy compared to IT services or other
technology sectors, due to highly scalable and recurring
business models with high margin, we see more Indian
SaaS unicorns emerging over the next 3-5 years.
Figure 59: India SaaS revenue increased at a two-year
CAGR of 30% to US$3.5 bn by FY2020
Figure 60: Figure 12: Pureplay Indian SaaS companies
accounted for 70-72% of India’s SaaS revenue
Source: Nasscom Source: Nasscom
Figure 61: Global SaaS market expected to grow at a
five-year CAGR of c.14% by 2024
Figure 62: Indian SaaS revenue to grow by 6x to US$13-
15 bn by FY25, suggesting market share rise of ~3%
Source: IDC Source: Nasscom
2.1
3.5
0
1
2
3
4
FY18 FY20
Indian SaaS revenues (US$ bn)
79%
21%
FY18
75%
25%
Exports
Domestic
FY20
70%
20%
10%
Pureplay
Global SaaS
ISP
122.5 135.2 151.2 171.6
196.8
224.8
26.0
29.3
33.2
38.4
44.9
51.8
148.5
164.5
184.4
210.0
241.7
276.6
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Applications System Infra software
SaaS market (US$ bn)
2.5
13 - 15
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
FY20 FY25
Indian SaaS revenues (US$ bn)
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E-commerce
India lagged the world in e-commerce adoption, challenged by weak internet access, outdated payment
systems and a shallow market. This is changing rapidly, as e-commerce itself adapts to India.
E-commerce penetration in India is 6.5%, offering
significant growth potential
E-commerce is one of the oldest internet economy sectors
in India. And the sector has been through various phases of
competition and consolidation over the last ten years.
Currently, the market is largely dominated by Amazon and
Flipkart with more than 70% market share. However, we
note that more competition is on the horizon with Reliance
Industries looking to aggressively expand its e-commerce
business in the coming months.
From a long-term growth perspective, the sector continues
to offer strong prospects with e-commerce penetration at
6.5% as of 2020 vs c.30% for China.
COVID-19 accelerated e-commerce adoption
Further, COVID-19 provided a boost to e-commerce
penetration in 2020 (it increased by 1.5%) as e-commerce
sales increased by 28% YoY while offline retail sales
declined by c.4% YoY as various lock down measures
increased sales activities on the online platforms. As a
result, total retail sales declined by 2.6% YoY in 2020.
The trend can also be seen from the value contribution of e-
commerce to FMCG sales which increased from 2.6% in 1Q
2020 to 3.1% in 3Q 2020 on an all India basis. In metros, it
increased from 6.4% to 8.6% in 3Q 2020. The YoY growth
of FMCG e-commerce sales is also rising steadily. Card
transaction data from SBI cards also shows increased
spending on the online platforms in 2020. The share of online
retail spend increased to 55% during April-Sep 2020.
Figure 63: E-commerce penetration in India was 6.5% in
2020
Figure 64: Offering strong growth prospects when
compared to China/US
Source: Euromonitor, Credit Suisse Source: e-marketer, Euromonitor, Credit Suisse
Figure 65: Offline retail sales declined in 2020 while e-
commerce witnessed strong growth…
Figure 66: …leading to the total retail sales declining by
c.3% in 2020
Source: Euromonitor, Credit Suisse Source: Euromonitor, Credit Suisse
9
13
20
26
33
42
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
e-commerce (US$ bn, LHS) % of retail sales (%, RHS)
31% 31%
15%
9%
7% 7% 6% 6%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
CH UK US ID MX IN VN BR
-20.0%
0.0%
20.0%
40.0%
60.0%
-5.0%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Offline (% YoY; LHS) Online (% YoY; RHS)
436
487
542
599
657 640
-5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Total retail sales (US$ bn, LHS) % change YoY (%, RHS)
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32
High unorganised contribution presents strong growth
prospects for online platforms
One of the key unique aspects of the India retail market is the
higher contribution from the unorganised sector especially in
the grocery space. The unorganised segment is more than
80% of the total Indian retail market while the same for
grocery is c.96%. Also, the online contribution in grocery is in
low single digit while in non-grocery the online contribution is
in the teens. We note that grocery’s share of the total retail
market was c.65% in 2020 increasing from c.60% in 2019.
With total retail market growth due to go back to 9-10% by
2021, we believe the e-commerce market size in India can be
c.US$100 bn by 2025, representing c.10% total retail sales.
Given massive growth opportunities in the grocery vertical, the
sector has seen the emergence of many vertical players—Big
Basket, Grofers, Nykaa, etc. Even established horizontal
companies, such as Flipkart and Amazon, are making increasing
investment in to the segment. The other key theme is hyperlocal
or modernisation of mom-and-pop stores so as to provide
inventory fulfilment and enabling them to do last mile delivery.
Reliance Industries is looking to play a big role in the segment.
We expect e-commerce to remain one of the largest sub-
segments of India’s internet sector due to the strong growth
prospects in organised Indian retail and, thus, support
emergence of more unicorns in the sector.
Figure 67: E-commerce’s contribution to FMCG sales has
inched up in 2020
Figure 68: And also has the share of online retail spend
for SBI cards
Source: Nielsen, Credit Suisse Source: SBI Cards, Credit Suisse
Figure 69: Unorganised segment is more than 80% of
the total Indian retail market…
Figure 70: …while the same for grocery is c.96%.
Source: Euromonitor, IBEF, Credit Suisse Source: Euromonitor, Credit Suisse
Figure 71: Online contribution in grocery is the lowest Figure 72: E-commerce market size in India can
potentially be c.US$100 bn by 2025
Source: Euromonitor, Credit Suisse Source: Euromonitor, BCG, Credit Suisse]
0
2
4
6
8
10
1QCY20 3QCY20
All India Metros
Vaue contribution of E-commerce to FMCG Sales
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 1H21
Share of online retail spends
84%
9%
7%
Unorganised
Organised
e-commerce
Non-Grocery
34%
Traditional
96%
Modern
3%
Online
1%
Grocery
66%
17%
1%
7%
% online,
Grocery
% online,
Non-Grocery
% online,
Total retail
sales
42
101
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
2020 2025E
Offline Online
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1,007
5-year
CAGR of
9.5%
Penetration
6.5%
Penetration
10.0%
US$ bn
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Discretionary
That rapid economic growth boosts discretionary demand is well understood. In India this has been
accompanied by governemnt support for formalisation, development of efficient advertising channels and
professional distributors. Brand owners are developing in several categories.
Strong demand growth in discretionary goods
India’s GDP growth has been remarkably consistent over
various time periods since 1991: over 30, 20, 10 as well as
5 years real growth has averaged 6.5-7.0%. Nominal growth
slowed in the last decade due to slowing inflation, but real
growth held up (Figure 73). Weakness in FY20 (pre-
pandemic) was in our view due to economy-wide destocking
triggered by stress in the financial system; the inevitable
restocking now under way should bring medium-term growth
back to the “normal” range. Outperformance over global
growth in all these periods has been a steady 5-7%.
Steady “excess” growth over a sustained period starts to add
absolute GDP in increasingly large numbers: despite the
outperformance in percentage terms being steady, India’s
incremental share of global GDP has been steadily climbing,
and after the blip of FY20 and FY21, is likely to rise again
(Figure 74).
Affordability of several discretionary goods has increased
meaningfully, even if rising income inequality has dampened
that trend a bit. At India’s current level of per capita GDP
and sustained growth, consumption of several discretionary
items like in personal care (Figure 75) can be substantial. A
similar trend is visible in other segments like spirits (Figure
77) and packaged foods (Figure 76). Consumption of
processed food in the top 10% of the population is 3x that
in the middle-rung, and only 3% of India’s food is
processed.
Rapid growth in these segments has provided an opportunity
for Indian brands to establish themselves: in our list of
unicorns there are names like Vini Cosmetics, Haldiram’s,
Parle Biscuits, and Allied Blenders that have built strong
businesses over many years. At the same time, there are
dozens of new emerging names in food processing and
nutrition in particular, catering to growing health awareness,
affordability and the shift from loose grains/spices/tea to
packaged and branded goods.
Broad-based and easier brand-building/distribution
Even as recently as a decade back, the market for branded
goods was largely urban: this was partly due to challenges in
brand-building (TV penetration as well as newspaper
readership were mostly urban), affordability (low rural per
capita GDP meant low penetration of most categories), and
distribution costs (lack of roads meant low retail penetration
in villages and infrequent replenishment which raised supply-
chain costs, as inventory-holding is the most important cost
element for distributors and retailers). In several categories
like perishables that need a cold-chain, or consumer
appliances that need electrified households, large parts of
the Indian market were inaccessible.
Further, advertising platforms were mostly national: national
newspapers and broadcast TV, which restricted brand reach to
those firms that could amortise those costs over a national
distribution setup. This itself acted as a barrier to entry. So was
distribution: the retail channel was highly fragmented, as were
the intervening layers of wholesalers and distributors. Most
large companies therefore owned their distribution channels.
Figure 73: Steady GDP growth and outperformance Figure 74: India’s share of incremental global GDP rising
Source: World Economic Outlook, Credit Suisse Source: World Economic Outlook, Credit Suisse
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
30Y 25Y 20Y 15Y 10Y 5Y
World GDP India GDP
Growth CAGR (Nominal)
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
Incremental share of India's GDP in
world GDP growth (Trailing 10 years) Projection
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Figure 75: The S-curve for personal care
Source: World Economic Outlook, Euromonitor, Credit Suisse
Figure 76: The S-curve for packaged foods
Figure 77: The S-curve for spirits
China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Malaysia
Thailand
Australia
Russia
Brazil
South Africa
Canada
USA
France
Germany
UK
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
- 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000
Consumption
per
capita
(US$)
GDP per capita (US$)
Personal care
China
India Indonesia
Japan
Malaysia
Thailand
Australia
Russia
Brazil
South
Africa
Canada USA
France
Germany
UK
-200
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
- 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000
Consumption
per
capita
(US$)
Packaged foods
China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Malaysia
Thailand
Australia
Russia
Brazil
South
Africa
Canada USA
France
Germany
UK
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
- 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000
Consumption
per
capita
(US$)
Spirits
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All these challenges are now less severe. Specialised
distribution firms have come up (like Delhivery and Udaan
in our list), and modern trade is gaining share steadily
along with e-commerce, providing distribution for new
innovative products and brands to get set up without the
need for scale. New firms need only focus on production
and branding, and the distribution, from small-volume/
numerous-SKUs (Stock-Keeping Units) like nail-polishes
to large-volume/few-SKUs like processed food.
The ability to reach a wider audience through a more
selective advertising channel has also improved, as
smartphone penetration in many areas exceeds TV
penetration (still low: Figure 79). Cheap data has driven
up mobile video viewing, and provided firms the ability to
build brands deep into the income pyramid both in rural
(Figure 80) and urban areas (Figure 81).
Figure 78: Modern-trade/e-commerce gaining share Figure 79: TV penetration is low in India
Source: World Economic Outlook, Credit Suisse Source: World Economic Outlook, Credit Suisse
Figure 80: Expanding advertising reach with data (rural) Figure 81: Expanding advertising reach (urban)
Source: NSSO, Credit Suisse Source: NSSO, Credit Suisse
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
Traditional Grocery Specialist stores
Modern Grocery E-commerce
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
India Rural
India
China
India Urban
Germany
UK
Japan
France
USA
Spain
Russia
TV Penetration in Households
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
In Advt Reach in 2012 Incremental by 2020 Out of Advt Reach
Branded Rural Consumption by
Fractiles (% of Total Rural branded)
4%
76%
20%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
In Advt Reach in 2012 Incremental by 2020 Out of Advt Reach
Branded Urban Consumption by
Fractiles (% of Total Urban branded)
67%
32%
1%
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36
Pharmaceuticals/Bio-Tech
India’s switch to process patents between 1971 and 2005, and then the growth in the US generics
industry have helped create a large and vibrant ecosystem of companies and people. With expanding R&D
budget pools, Indian industry is also now starting to move beyond generics.
Domestic pharma market supported cash flows
The Indian domestic pharma market has grown by 15% CAGR
over the last 20 years (Figure 82). India is mostly a branded
generics market with high operating profit margins. In such
markets, brands, while hard to build, once established can drive
sales for multiple decades sometimes, similar to consumer
products, and unlike the 10-12 years of patent protection that
innovator drugs effectively get. These firms therefore tend to
generate significant amounts of cash over time.
Growth in the domestic market has been supported by a
steady increase in the number of doctors (Figure 85):
earlier, a shortage of doctors writing prescriptions was and
remains a challenge. As medical college capacity is still
increasing, the number of doctors is likely to rise further,
particularly after recent reforms in medical education.
Similarly, the physical infrastructure has improved
meaningfully as well, with the private sector starting to
invest, and several new chains coming up (Figure 84).
Similar improvements are visible in diagnostic chains as well.
Given low healthcare spending in healthcare and ~80% of
that being out-of-pocket, the government has been boosting
public expenditure on healthcare. The Ayushman Bharat
insurance scheme launched a few years back focusses on
tertiary care, and built on earlier schemes that were much
smaller in size. The government’s priority now is on
improving primary care infrastructure: a focus over the next
five years.
Figure 82: Domestic Indian market grew 15% CAGR 2000-
20
Figure 83: Number of doctors in India has been rising
Source: CMIE, Credit Suisse Source: World Bank, Credit Suisse
Figure 84: Private sector hospital bed capacity expanding Figure 85: Pharmaceutical industry employment
Source: World Bank, Credit Suisse Source: CMIE, Credit Suisse
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
0
300
600
900
1,200
1,500
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
India Market (₹ bn) YoY % (RHS)
0.40
0.50
0.60
0.70
0.80
0.90
1.00
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Physicians (per 1000 people)
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2.0
2010 2020
Government Private
Hospital beds per 1000 people
0%
12%
24%
36%
48%
60%
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Employment (k) YoY growth % (RHS)
Pharma employment of listed corporates
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A large and vibrant ecosystem is now in place
After the introduction of process patents in 1971, tens of
thousands of firms were set up: from companies processing
intermediates, producing bulk drugs and packaging material
to formulations firms building brands and selling to doctors.
Just the listed firms now employ more than 400k workers
on their rolls, having grown 4x over the past decade (Figure
85). The number of unlisted firms is many times the number
of listed ones and so would be their employment.
This ecosystem takes advantage of skills available in other
firms, and many a times one firm meeting with success in a
market (e.g. Cipla, Dr Reddy’s and Ranbaxy in the 1990s in
the US, or Torrent in Brazil) drives a string of others, often
with the same team.
Strong growth in exports has helped with scale
This ecosystem set-up provides competitive strength in
export markets. While growth over the past five years has
been slightly lower in the domestic market, it has been
compensated by faster growth in export markets (Figure
86): exports are now 72% of revenues for the Indian
pharmaceutical industry (Figure 87). Generics exports
require some upfront investments in filings and regulator-
approved manufacturing plants.
Most if not all of these sales are in generics, primarily
unbranded generics. However, despite the 98-99% price
declines for manufacturers after a molecule goes off-patent,
in a stable market 40% gross margins are possible, and
given a largely institutional sales force, the flow-through to
operating and net profits is meaningful.
Return ratios in pharma have seen a few cycles over the past two
decades: there is a period of high returns, which then attracts
new (primarily Indian) competitors, pushing down returns over the
next several years. Over a cycle, though, the returns are strong
and have provided funding support to the industry.
Innovations in sales and marketing
While the domestic pharmaceutical industry has seen some
consolidation over the past decade, with the share of top 10
firms rising from 68% in FY11 to 74% now (Figure 88),
several domestic-only pharmaceutical firms have used
innovative sales and marketing techniques to sharply expand
the market, and have in the process risen up the ranks:
several (Intas, Macleods, Bharat Biotech) appear in our list.
Industry has gained scale: can invest in R&D now
As a result of growth, the R&D budgets of the industry have
risen from Rs20 bn to Rs130 bn now (Figure 89), with
several of the larger firms now having annual R&D budgets
exceeding US$200-250 mn/year. While this is not enough
to develop new molecules, several are now investing in
specialty pharma pipelines.
Indian firms are also investing in upcoming opportunities like
biosimilars early enough to participate in the high-margin phases.
The development and availability of skills in biotech are also now
showing up in the growth of firms like Anthem Biosciences.
Figure 86: Pharma/biotech exports continues to grow Figure 87: Exports are now 72% of industry revenues
Figure 88: The industry has consolidated a bit 2010-20 Figure 89: R&D budgets of Indian pharma firms rising
-8%
0%
8%
16%
24%
32%
0
5
10
15
20
25
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Pharma exports (US$ bn) YoY growth % (RHS)
64%
66%
68%
70%
72%
74%
76%
FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20
Export share of revenues
62%
64%
66%
68%
70%
72%
74%
76%
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Share of top 10 pharma as % of total listed
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
7%
8%
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
120,000
140,000
160,000
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
R&D Expense (₹ bn) As % of sales (RHS)
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38
Wealth created by the unicorns for
mostly first-generation entrepreneurs
more likely to be invested again in new
start-ups, and also attract new
entrepreneurs as well as private equity
investors.
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A virtuous cycle?
In a country notorious for stifling entrepreneurship, new company formation had
been strong even pre-1991. The change came from availability of capital; wealth
from these unicorns can further speed up the process.
Not entrepreneurship, but capital was a problem
Tomes have been written on the difficulty of starting,
running and closing a business in India. Despite that, even in
the 1980s, the pace of new company formation was quite
strong, with double-digit growth in numbers every year
(Figure 90). The number of non-government companies
grew from 56k in 1980 to 223k by 1991, even before the
big reforms were announced. This may have been because
some regulatory easing had started in the 1980s itself.
There are limitations in using new company registration data
to measure new business formation: existing firms set up
subsidiaries sometimes for regulatory reasons (e.g. recently
GST may have necessitated state-wise subsidiaries in some
businesses). Tax evaders can also use shell companies to
launder money or create fictitious costs: e.g. Government
crackdown on shell companies in recent years to reduce tax
evasion has led to the closure of several thousand firms.
With digitisation the abilities of investigative agencies have
improved, and such vigilance is possibly a reason that
growth in formation of new companies has slowed a bit.
Nevertheless, it would be myopic to think that all new
company registrations were for spurious reasons and new
businesses did not get formed. The challenge though was in
getting access to risk capital, as discussed in the second
section of this report. From 1980-1992, average paid-up
capital for non-government firms was unchanged despite
double-digit inflation (Figure 91). As with the number of
companies registered, there are challenges in using paid-up
capital as a measure of risk capital availability, but this may
be the best proxy we have. Controls on capital issuance (A
Controller of Capital Issues was established in 1947 itself)
and the need for multiple approvals may have kept this
number low, as also the preference for complex holding
structures in Indian business groups. However, the sharp
growth in paid-up capital per company in the decades that
followed, and the continuing acceleration in this number
suggests that the availability of risk-capital may have been a
bigger constraint, and it is starting to get addressed now.
Notwithstanding the limitations of using paid-up capital as a proxy
for risk capital, steady mid-teens annual growth, driven largely by
non-government organisations is an encouraging trend (Figure
92). Mostly because of the government relinquishing its
monopoly on capital intensive sectors like steel, power and
telecom, but also because of investment opportunities and
improvements in risk capital availability, the share of government
in paid-up capital has fallen sharply since the 1980s (Figure 93).
We note, however, that since 2005, capital injection into
government firms had been faster than in private companies.
At least in the last five years, this may have been skewed by
large re-capitalisation of PSU banks. Similarly, slowing
growth in the private sector may be a reflection of
bankruptcies as well as a cyclical downturn in private capex.
Figure 90: Growth in no. of firms strong since 1980s Figure 91: The challenge was in availability of capital
Source: MCA, Credit Suisse Source: MCA, Credit Suisse
-4%
0%
4%
8%
12%
16%
1980-
85
1985-
90
1990-
95
1995-
00
2000-
05
2005-
10
2010-
15
2015-
19
Government Private Total
CAGR of number of companies
0
5
10
15
20
25
1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
Paid-up capital/company for Private companies
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40
Entrepreneurship by example
Capital formation was earlier the forte of dynastic business
conglomerates, but the quantum of wealth created by the
current crop of unicorns would trigger not only new
entrepreneuers but also attract new pools of capital.
As discussed briefly in the second section, India’s low per-
capita wealth (Figure 94) has been a constraint in the past.
Further, even this wealth was largely in non-financial assets
(Figure 95): the ownership of the house and land that
passed through generations remained a substantial part of
the physical assets for households, as also gold and
jewellery. Net financial assets for most households on
average are too low to seed sizeable new businesses.
The creation of 100 unicorns in a short space of time means
that large pools of capital are reaching a few hands. Unlike
the problems created by the growth of billionaires in the
developed world, this level of wealth creation can in fact be
a positive for the economy.
Two-thirds of firms in our list started before 2010, even if
the growth acceleration may have occurred in the last few
years. While some firms in our list were formed as recently
as 2018 and 2019, and the time taken to become a unicorn
has been shrinking globally, it would take at least 7-10 years
for most firms to hit unicorn status.
The new-business-formation triggered by the success of the
much feted unicorns would only show up in such lists a few
years from now. The ecosystem effects discussed in the
previous section should keep the size of the pie attractive.
The number of millionaires in India had stagnated for several
years, but has started to rise rapidly in the last two years
(Figure 96) a trend that we believe can persist for several
years going forward. The number of Ultra High Net Worth
individuals (assets exceeding US$50 mn) has been rising
too, and is being boosted meaningfully by the surge in new
businesses started by first-generation entrepreneurs. Even
at 15-20% residual ownership on average of these
businesses, at a total market cap of US$240 bn for these
hundred firms, US$35-50 bn of new wealth has been
created. Not only is this likely to inspire new businesses, but
a meaningful part of this wealth is also likley to end up in
new investments targeting bolder problems.
Figure 92: Growth in paid-up capital led by Private firms Figure 93: Non-government share has continued to rise
Source: MCA, Credit Suisse Source: MCA, Credit Suisse
Figure 94: India’s total wealth has surged in last 10 years Figure 95: Share of non-financial assets still high
Source: CS Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse Source: CS Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1980-
85
1985-
90
1990-
95
1995-
00
2000-
05
2005-
10
2010-
15
2015-
19
Government Private Total
CAGR of paid-up capital of companies
73% 74%
65%
43%
30% 26% 25% 30%
27% 26%
35%
57%
70% 74% 75% 70%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
1980-
85
1985-
90
1990-
95
1995-
00
2000-
05
2005-
10
2010-
15
2015-
19
Government Private
Share of paid-up capital
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
India's total wealth (US$ tn)
-20%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
120%
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
Financial Non-Financial Debt
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Major liquidity events in these businesses are listings, though
some private funding rounds also tend to have a meaningful
secondary component. The number of US$1 bn-plus IPOs
slowed in 2019-20 due to the economic slowdown and
thereafter the COVID-19 pandemic. However, several firms in
our list are likely to tap the public markets going forward.
Meaningful contribution to economic growth
Aggregating for all the unicorns in our list, the total annual
revenues come to Rs2.4 tn in FY20: 1.2% of India’s GDP
that year. E-commerce, healthcare and discretionary
contribute ~50% to all revenues, despite being only 28% of
total companies. This is due to the presence of companies
with high-ticket items (jewellers), big unlisted pharma
companies (Intas, Macleods, Hetero) and Flipkart. On the
other side, tech companies (including SaaS) add only 8% of
the revenues, despite being a quarter of total companies,
likely because two-thirds of these firms started after 2010
and are at early stages of revenue creation. Given the
annuity revenues of these businesses, they tend to get
valued on high multiples of revenues.
For companies where the data for the last two years is
available, aggregate revenue grew by 28% in FY20. If this
continues for the next five years, as appears to be the
expectation behind lofty valuations, and supported by their track
record, incremental revenues in FY25 can be 5.3% of
incremental GDP.
Figure 96: Rising no. of millionaires -> more risk capital Figure 97: No. of US$ bn+ IPOs slowed in 2019-20
Source: CS Global Wealth Report, Credit Suisse Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse
Figure 98: Revenues from the 100 companies Figure 99: Incremental sales as % of incremental GDP
Source: Credit Suisse Source: Credit Suisse
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Number of millionaires in India (k)
Increase of 569k in last 2 years
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Number of IPOs in India $Bn IPOs
17%
9%
9%
6%
8%
14%
2%
1%
4%
18%
2%
1%
1%
2% 1%4%
Healthcare
Financials
Others
Energy
Staples
Discretionary
Logistics
Industrials
IT/Tech
E-commerce
Foodtech
Education
Mobility
Gaming
Insurance
SaaS
Annual Revenue contribution of ₹2.4 tn
by sector
3.0%
3.4%
4.0%
4.7%
5.5%
0%
1%
2%
3%
4%
5%
6%
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Incremental Revenues as % of Incremental GDP
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42
The combined market capitalisation
of the 100 unicorns in our list is
US$240 bn; their annual revenues were
US$34 bn in FY20, ~1.2% of GDP.
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List of firms
Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD)
Discretionary Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Reason for inclusion: Valuation <US$1 bn, but strong growth since
Company profile
The company produces and supplies alcoholic beverages with branded presence in whisky, brandy, rum and vodka. Its key
brand is the Officer’s Choice whisky which sells c.35 mn cases annually and was introduced in 1988. Kishore Chabbria the
founder of ABD was the managing director of Shaw Wallace with his brother Manu Chhabria. Post a fallout, Mr Kishore
Chhabria took the Officer’s Choice brand with him and joined Vijay Mallya in a company called Herbertsons. Later, Mr
Kishore Chhabria split from the Mallya Group and founded ABD in 2008 with the sole brand as Officer’s Choice.
Funding history
The company has not raised funding so valuation history is unavailable. Valuing at a discount to listed peerset we estimate
the company to be worth c.US$750 mn.
Management profile
Name Position Profile
Mr Kishore Chhabria Founder Chairman Has 30 years of experience in the Alcobev industry. From 1987 Mr Chhabria
started working at Shaw & Wallace where he introduced several new offerings to
the portfolio. Later he was also the executive vice chairman till 2005 at
Herbertsons which was later merged with United Spirits.
Source: Company data
Figure 100: Steady revenue growth with margin
improvement
Figure 101: PAT CAGR from FY17-19 has been 32%
Source: Company data, Euromonitor, Credit Suisse Source: Company data, Credit Suisse
3.2%
3.3%
3.4%
3.5%
3.6%
1,000
1,100
1,200
1,300
1,400
2018 2019
Revenues (US$ mn) EBITDA (% of gross sales) (RHS)
0.0%
0.1%
0.2%
0.3%
0.4%
0.5%
0
1
2
3
4
5
2018 2019
PAT (US$ mn) PAT % (RHS)
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Anthem Biosciences
Healthcare Anubhav Aggarwal, Sayantan Maji
Reason for inclusion: Valuation >US$1 bn at latest EBITDA and multiple
Company profile
Anthem Biosciences, which commenced its operations in 2007 as an Export Oriented Unit, is a Contract Research and
Innovation Service Provider (CRISP). It has a built-in capacity to house 1k+ researchers and manufacture novel commercial
drug actives from its two sites in Bengaluru. It offers early-stage drug discovery services with services encompassing
medicinal chemistry, process chemistry, custom synthesis, discovery research and analytical research and development. Over
the years, the company has forward-integrated into contract manufacturing. It has leveraged its core competency in organic
synthesis to develop nutritional and wellness products. Anthem has a high product concentration, with more than half of
FY19 revenues accruing from its top five customers and the US market.
Funding history
True North has reportedly acquired an 8% stake in Anthem for US$85 mn in Mar-2021, valuing the company at US$1 bn+.
Figure 102: Funding history
Management profiles
Ajay Bharadwaj Chief Executive Officer Prior to founding Anthem, Ajay Bharadwaj was one of the earliest employees in Biocon,
and served in the firm for 21 years. He was president of marketing and technical
services at Biocon, and has also worked in Ranbaxy. He is an alumnus of Indian
Institute of Technology, Delhi, and was based out of the US till 1985.
Ganesh Sambasivam Chief Scientific Officer Ganesh Sambasivam, one of the co-founders of Anthem, was serving as chief scientific officer
in Syngene (Biocon’s subsidiary) before founding Anthem. He was associated with Syngene for
12 years. He completed his PhD. in organic chemistry and MSc in Chemistry from Savitribai
Phule Pune University. He holds Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Madras University.
Ravindra KC Chief Operating Officer Ravindra KC, one of the co-founders of Anthem, was head of manufacturing at Biocon and
helped the company set up 11 manufacturing plants between 1999 and 2006.
Figure 103: Anthem revenue grew at 32%+ CAGR in
FY16-FY20
Figure 104: Anthem’s EBITDA margin was >30% in FY19
and FY20
Source: Prowess Source: Prowess
True North
0
350
700
1,050
1,400
0
30
60
90
120
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Funding (US$ mn) Estimated valuation (US$ mn, RHS)
Founded in 2007
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
Revenue (₹ mn) YoY growth (RHS)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
EBITDA (₹ mn) EBITDA margin (RHS)
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Aptus Finance
Financials Ashish Gupta, Jayant Kharote
Company profile
Aptus is a Chennai based housing finance company (HFC), promoted by Mr M Anandan and incorporated in December
2009. The company’s target borrowers are from the low to middle-income segments, with an average ticket size of about
Rs0.8-0.9 mn. Its target geographies are the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Puducherry (~54% of book), Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with a focus on rural and semi-urban areas. It is largely focussed on self-employed
customers with limited or no documentary evidence of their income, and with limited access to funding from banks and larger
HFCs. Its consolidated AUM as on 1H21 was Rs35.3 bn with a net worth of Rs18.3 bn. Home loans account for 52% of
book while 15% is towards house construction, renovation or purchase and the rest is towards LAP/SME.
Funding history
Aptus had raised Rs0.3 bn from Impact investor Caspian's India Financial Inclusion Fund in 2012. Two years later, the
homegrown private equity firm WestBridge put in around Rs1 bn. More recently, it has raised US$122 mn in an equity
funding round led by existing investor WestBridge Capital where new names like Steadview and Sequoia participated. PE
firms now hold >55% stake in the company which is looking to tap public markets in FY22.
Source: Factset, Crunchbase, Company data
Management profiles
A Anandan Chairman & MD A Anandan is a former Murugappa group executive with three decades of
experience. He was executive director (1997-2000) and managing director (2000-
06) of Cholamandalam Investments and Finance.
Balaji P ED & CFO Mr Balaji has 20+ years of experience and was previously associated with SKS
Microfinance, Cholamandalam MS General Insurance, Hutchison Max Telecom
Limited and The Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company.
Figure 106: AUM compounded at ~52% CAGR over
FY16-1H21
Figure 107: Return profile of the company has been
improving
Source: Company data Source: Company data

0
350
700
1,050
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2009
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
FY16
FY17
FY18
FY19
FY20
1H21
Loan assets (₹ bn)
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
0%
4%
8%
12%
16%
20%
ROE % ROA % (RHS)
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46
Atria Convergence Technologies
Others Varun Ahuja, Viral Shah
Reason for inclusion: Valuation >US$1 bn at last reported EBITDA and industry average EV/EBITDA multiple
Company profile
Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT) is a home broadband operator operating in 19 cities and has a customer base of
1.8 mn. It is amongst the largest non-telco backed fixed broadband operators in India having ~8% market share. Its home
broadband subscriber base has grown at 14% CAGR over the last five years. Additionally, the company also provides digital
cable TV to its subscribers. Its revenues, EBITDA and profits have grown at 10.5%, 11% and 12% CAGR over two years
(up to FY19).
Funding history
Atria Convergence Technologies has raised US$500 mn in 2015 and is majorly owned (~90%) by True North and TA Associates.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Sunder Raju Founder and Director He has over 17 years of experience in the broadband internet sector and holds a
bachelor’s degree in engineering from Bangalore University.
Bala Malladi CEO Prior to ACT, Mr Malladi worked for over 17 years at Unilever and HUL across
India and Europe in finance, strategy, supply chain and new businesses. He has
been with ACT for 12 years.
Saurabh Mukherjee COO Mr Mukherjee is a member of the founding team at ACT. Prior to ACT, he has
worked with P&G and Tata Steel in addition to a teaching stint at MIT. He is an
IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta alumni and also holds a fellow MBA degree from
MIT Sloan School.
Figure 109: ACT’s home broadband subscribers have
grown at ~14% CAGR over last five years and had ~8%
market share
Figure 110: ACT reported ~Rs6 bn EBITDA in FY19
(₹ bn)
Source: TRAI Source: TRAI
0.0
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Funding (US$ mn) Estimated Valuation (US$ bn, RHS)
Founded in 2018
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Revenues EBITDA PAT EBITDA margin (%)
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Bharat Biotech
Reason for inclusion: Valuation <US$1 bn but strong growth since COVID-19
Company profile
Founded in 1996 by Krishna Ella, Bharat Biotech Ltd. is an Indian biotechnology company engaged in drug discovery, drug
development, vaccine manufacturing, bio-therapeutics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products. It derives 90% of its revenues
from the vaccine sub-segment, and has a high product concentration, with ~85% of its revenues accruing from rotavirus,
typhoid conjugate and oral polio vaccines. It was one of the first companies to develop vaccines for Chikungunya and Zika
viruses. It also developed India’s first indigenous COVID-19 vaccine, which was granted emergency use authorisation by Drugs
Controller General of India, Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (Government of India) in Jan-2021.
Funding history
The firm has raised funding worth ~US$14 mn so far in the form of grants and investment by private equity investors—ICICI
Venture, Subhkam Ventures and International Finance Corporation.
Source: The Economic Times
Management profiles
Krishna Ella Chairman and Managing
Director
Dr Krishna Ella is a research scientist in molecular biology. He completed his graduation
in agricultural sciences from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, and then
moved to the US for his MS from the University of Hawaii and PhD, from the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. He also worked as a research faculty at the Medical University
of South Carolina, Charleston.
Suchitra Ella Joint Managing Director Suchitra Ella co-founded Bharat Biotech. She has experience in customer operations,
finance, marketing and business development. She holds a BA in economics and social
sciences from the University of Madras and followed it up with a diploma in business
development from UWCU—Madison, diploma in real estate management from University
of South Carolina and post-graduate diploma in patent law from NALSAR, Hyderabad.
Figure 112: Stable revenue growth profile of Bharat
Biotech…
Figure 113: …with steady improvement in margin profile
Source: Orbis Source: Orbis
Valuation sought during
stake sale discussions
0
350
700
1,050
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1
2
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1996
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16%
24%
32%
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4,000
6,000
8,000
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FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19
Revenue (₹ mn) YoY growth % (RHS)
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48
BharatPe
Financials Ashish Gupta, Viral Shah
Company profile
Founded in 2018, BharatPe enables UPI-based payment acceptance for merchants through an inter-operable QR code
which is UPI payment app agnostic. Within three years, it has on-boarded ~6 mn merchants and processes US$1.4 bn of
payments annually. While it has acquired SME merchants by being a low cost payments service provider, its monetisation
rests on advancing credit to merchants on the back of transaction data in partnership with banks and NBFCs. It advances
short duration unsecured working capital and business loans for up to Rs0.7 mn. It has expanded to structure loyalty cards
for merchants to increase customer stickiness and has also launched POS terminals for card acceptance.
Funding history
BharatPe has raised a total ~US$250 mn till date and is valued at US$900 mn. Ribbit Capital, Steadview Capital, Insight
Partners, Coatue Management and Amplo are the key investors in BharatPe.
Source: Company data, Factset, Crunchbase
Management profiles
Ashneer Grover CEO & Co-founder Prior to BharatPe he was head of new business at PC Jewellers and was also
CFO at Grofers, a grocery e-commerce company. He also has over seven years
of deal-making experience at Kotak investment banking. He holds a PGDM from
IIM Ahmedabad and BTech from IIT Delhi.
Shashvat Nakrani Co-founder & CTO He is an IIT Delhi alumni.
Figure 115: BharatPe has acquired ~6 mn merchants Figure 116: BharatPe financials
0
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100
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
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Founded in 2018
0
2
4
6
8
May-19 Dec-19 Jul-20 Feb-21
BharatPe merchants (mn)
0.04
(230.0)
(250)
(200)
(150)
(100)
(50)
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Revenues PAT
Financials ₹ mn- FY19
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Bhilosa Industries Pvt Ltd
Textiles Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Bhilosa Industries Private Limited (BIPL) is promoted by Mr Rameshchandra T Jain (CMD) in 1988 and it started operations
in 1990 in the name of Bhilosa Tex-N-Twist Pvt Ltd Subsequently, the name of the company was changed to Bhilosa
Industries Private Limited on 2 February 2007. Over the years, through continuous backward and forward capacity
expansion, BIPL has emerged as one of the leading integrated players in the polyester filament yarn (PFY) industry in India.
It offers a range of products such as polyester texturised yarn (PTY), partially oriented yarn (POY), fully drawn yarn (FDY),
knitted fabrics (KF), etc. The company has manufacturing facilities located in Silvassa in the Union Territory (UT) of Dadra
and Nagar Haveli.
Management profiles
Ramesh Jain Chairman & MD Ramesh Jain belongs to a family of textile entrepreneurs and has over four
decades of experience in the polyester filament yarn (PFY) industry.
Sandeep Jain CEO Sandeep is the son of Ramesh Jain and has an important role to play in the
administration and business operations with a streamlining efficiency and strong
desire to continue to achieve faster growth. Bhilosa under his efficient leadership
plans to expand and double the current production capacity.
Kumarpal Jain Director Kumarpal is the son of Ramesh Jain and has significant experience in the PFY
industry.
Source: Company data, CARE Ratings
Figure 117: Bhilosa’s revenue grew at 49% in FY19 due
to capacity expansion
Figure 118: Bhilosa has been earning EBITDA margin of
12-13% over FY17-19 period
Source: MCA Source: MCA
-40%
0%
40%
80%
120%
160%
0
20
40
60
80
100
Revenue (₹ bn) Revenue growth (RHS)
8%
9%
10%
11%
12%
13%
14%
0
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4
6
8
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50
Bigtree Entertainment (BookMyShow)
E-commerce Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Big Tree Entertainment Pvt Ltd is an online movie and entertainment ticketing company. It is engaged in providing
comprehensive ticketing, information, and analysis solutions. It also provides cinemas and event organisers, as well as
consumers, a complete range of solutions through call centres, internet ticketing, kiosk and a mobile ticketing platform. It
operates under the brand names Rentrak, White Label, Call Centre and Vista. The firm owns and operates an online ticket
booking platform, Bookmyshow.com. The company was founded in 1999 in Mumbai.
Funding history
Bigtree has raised a total of US$224 mn till date and was valued at US$850 mn in its last round of funding in 2019. It has
been funded by Network18 Media Investments, Accel India, Web18 Holdings, Elevation Capital India, Stripes Group and
TPG Growth.
Figure 119: In the Series-D funding in 2018, Bigtree was valued at US$800 mn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Ashish Hemrajani Founder & CEO Ashish Hemrajani started his professional journey after completing his MBA
specialising in marketing at Sydenham University in 1997.
Rajesh Balpande Founder Rajesh Balpande is an MBA in finance from Sydenham Institute of Management,
Mumbai University. He started his career in 1997 as an investment banker at
Chatterjee Soros Group. Post this stint, he helped set up Bigtree Entertainment
in 1999.
Figure 120: Sales have grown by 45% CAGR from
2015-19
Figure 121: Movie ticket sales expected to bounce back
Source: VCCedge, Credit Suisse Source: Statista, Credit Suisse
Series A, Accel
Series B, Elevation Capital
Series C, Stripes Group
Series D, TPG Growth
0
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50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Funding (US$ mn) Valuation (US$ mn, RHS)
Founded in 1999
0%
40%
80%
120%
160%
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Sales (₹ mn) Growth YoY % (RHS)
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20%
30%
40%
0
200
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600
800
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Industry sales (US$ mn) Growth YoY % (RHS)
Forecast
2020 and 2021 growth
normalised by taking 2Y
CAGR
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Bill Desk
Reason for inclusion: Recent funding round at a valuation >US$1 bn
Company profile
Founded in 2000, Bill Desk is the leading payment gateway in India, processing US$80 bn of payments annually. Over the
past two decades, it has built tie-ups with 100+ high volume billers like discoms, local government bodies, telcos, insurance
companies, and MFs. In 2016, Bill Desk acquired Loylty Rewardz, a loyalty rewards management solution provider to
enterprises. Through it, Bill Desk has built ~50% market share in debit card reward point management in India.
Funding history
Bill Desk has raised a total of US$285 mn till date and is valued at US$1.9 bn. General Atlantic, TA Associates, Temasek,
Visa are the key investors in Bill Desk.
Management profiles
Srinivasu MN Co-founder & CEO Srinivasu holds a PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to founding Bill Desk, Vasu
worked with ITC Limited and Arthur Andersen.
Ajay Kaushal Co-founder & director He graduated in electrical engineering from IIT Madras and completed his PGDM
from IIM Lucknow. Prior to setting up Bill Desk, he worked with SBI Capital
Markets and Arthur Andersen.
Figure 123: Payment gateway constitutes two-thirds of
its revenues
Figure 124: Bill Desk financials
Source: Company data Source: Entrackr
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2,000
3,000
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2000
66%
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9%
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Payment services
Loyalty point management
Sale of products
Others
14,050
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15000
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Revenues Profits Net cash flow from
operations
Bill Desk financials (₹ mn)
FY19 FY20
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52
BrainBees Solution (FirstCry)
Company profile
BrainBees Solutions Pvt Ltd owns and operates an online e-commerce portal, Firstcry.com. It has products in categories
such as clothing and fashion, toys, books and compact disks (CD), school supplies, birthday party supplies, baby diapering,
feeding and nursing, bath and skincare, health and safety, baby gear, nursery, moms and maternity, and gifts. The company
was founded in 2010 and is based in Pune, Maharashtra.
Funding history
FirstCry has raised a total of US$509 mn till date and was valued at US$1.1 bn in 2019. It has been funded by Elevation
Capital, Vertex, SoftBank, Chirate Ventures, Mahindra Partners, Schroder Adveq Management, Ratan Tata, among others.
Figure 125: BrainBees was valued at US$1.1 bn in 2019
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Amitava Saha Founder and CEO Amitava Saha has a BTech from Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu
University), Varanasi, and a PGDM from IIM Lucknow.
Supam Maheshwari Founder and MD Supam Maheshwari is an engineering graduate from DCE and PGDM from IIMA.
He had earlier founded BrainVisa Technologies before starting FirstCry.
Figure 126: Sales have grown at a CAGR of 50% from
2016-20
Figure 127: Cost-to-income ratio has been declining
steadily
Source: Company data, Credit Suisse Source: Company data, Credit Suisse
Series A, Elevation
Series B, Elevation
Series C, Vertex
Series D, Valiant
Series D, Mahindra
Series E, Softbank

0
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8,000
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BrowerStack
SaaS Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Reason for inclusion: Last funding round at a valuation <US$1 bn, but strong business growth since then
Company profile
Founded in 2011, in Mumbai, BrowserStack is the industry’s leading cloud web and mobile testing platform and is relied
upon by developers across the globe. It is critical for developers to ensure that software is free of bugs and agile to deploy in
order to deliver a high quality product and user experience. To serve this need, BrowserStack enables developers to test
websites and mobile applications across thousands of real mobile devices, browsers and operating systems. BrowserStack
has been bootstrapped since its inception, and built a global customer base primarily due to developers’ word-of-mouth.
Funding history
BrowserStack raised external funds for the first time in 2018 from Accel Partners. This round values the company at
US$400-500 mn.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Ritesh Arora Co-founder & CEO Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal are serial entrepreneurs who met while studying
computer science at IIT Bombay. Prior to BrowserStack, they co-founded
QuarkRank (one of the first AI-powered sentiment engines), QuarkBase (in the top
8,000 websites by traffic globally at the time) and Downcase (a consulting
company with global clients).
Nakul Aggarwal Co-founder & CTO Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal are serial entrepreneurs who met while studying
computer science at IIT Bombay. Prior to BrowserStack, they co-founded
QuarkRank (one of the first AI-powered sentiment engines), QuarkBase (in the top
8,000 websites by traffic globally at the time) and Downcase (a consulting
company with global clients).
Figure 129: Operating metrics
Metric Comments
Scale BrowserStack does 60 mn tests per month and allows customers to choose from over 2,000 real devices
and browser combinations to test on.
Revenue BrowserStack’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) was US$1 mn at the end of the first year, which increased
to US$20 mn in a span of four years. Currently its ARR is US$80+ mn.
Customers BrowserStack has well over 25,000 unique paying customers, from start-ups to large enterprises, including
Microsoft, Twitter, Mastercard, Barclays, Gap, TD Ameritrade, Lincoln Financial, mytoys and Yahoo! Japan.
Geographic and
segmental concentration
While it has customers in 135 countries, more than half of BrowserStack’s customers are based in North
America.
Series A, Accel Partners
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Bundl Technologies (Swiggy)
Food-Tech Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Bundl Technologies Private Limited, doing business as Swiggy, is an India-based provider of online food ordering and
delivery solutions from restaurants near-by. Swiggy’s customers' orders are placed through its website and mobile
application. It has a fleet of delivery personnel to pick up orders from restaurants and deliver them to customers. The
company was founded in 2014 and is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Funding history
Swiggy has raised a total of US$1.6 bn till date and was valued at US$3.65 bn in its last round of funding in May 2020. It
has been funded by Prosus, DST Global, Elevation Capital, Tencent, Naspers, HillHouse Capital, Norwest and Accel India,
among others.
Figure 130: In the latest round, Swiggy has raised US$158 mn at a valuation of US$3.65 bn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Sriharsha Majey Founder & CEO Sriharsha Majey completed his BTech from BITS Pilani, followed by an MBA
from IIM C, and after a stint with investment banking in London, he founded
Swiggy.
Rahul Jaimini Founder & Director After graduating from IIT Kharagpur, Rahul Jaimini worked for Netmap for two
years, and then joined Myntra as senior software engineer, before founding
Swiggy.
Figure 131: Sales have grown exponentially Figure 132: Cost-to-income ratio has been declining
steadily
Series A,B, Elevation Capital
Series C,D, Bessemmer
Series E, Prosus
Series F,G,H, Prosus
Series I, Naspers
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1,500
3,000
4,500
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2014
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CarDekho (Girnarsoft Automobiles Pvt
Ltd)
Mobility Satyam Thakur, Garima Bharti
Company profile
CarDekho is a platform which has used car classifieds wherein users can upload their cars for sale, and find used cars for
buying from individuals and used car dealers. In addition, it has automotive content such as reviews, specifications, prices,
etc. The company has also expanded to Southeast Asia and UAE with Zigwheels and Oto.com. Additionally, it is diversifying
into the car insurance space with Insurancedekho.com.
Funding history
CarDekho has raised cumulative funding of US$250 mn so far. In its last round of fund raising, it was valued at over
US$650 mn. Sequoia India, Tybourne Capital, HillHouse Capital, Alphabet’s growth investment arm Capital G and Axis Bank
are the key investors.
Source: Pitchbook, Tracxn
Management profiles
Amit Jain Co-founder and Chief
Executive Officer
Amit Jain is a graduate from IIT Delhi 1999 batch and has worked in the US for
eight years at Trilogy before he came back to India to set up CarDekho along
with his brother Anurag.
Anurag Jain Co-founder and Managing
Director
Anurag Jain, a 2002 graduate from IIT Delhi, worked for ~5 years at i2
Technologies and Sabre holdings before co-founding CarDekho in 2007.
Figure 134: Revenue CAGR of 74% from FY16-20 Figure 135: Indexed CarDekho vs Cars24 revenues
Source: Orbis, enTracker Source: Orbis, enTracker
Sequoia Capital and
Tybourne Capita
Sequoia India, Hillhouse Capital, Alphabet’s growth
investment arm Capital G and Axis Bank

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2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Cars24
E-commerce Satyam Thakur, Garima Bharti
Company profile
Cars24 is India’s largest platform for buying and selling of used cars. Founded in 2015, it now has a presence across 156
cities in India. Unlike a marketplace model, it follows a customer to business model where it buys used cars from individuals
or dealers and sells them to other individuals or dealers. While this increases inventory load for the company, it provides its
customers timely and efficient buying and selling services.
Funding history
Cars24 has raised a cumulative total of ~US$394 mn so far. It raised US$200 mn at a valuation of US$1 bn in its last round
of funding held in Nov-2020.
Source: Factset, Tracxn
Management profiles
Vikram Chopra Founder & Chief Executive
Officer
Vikram Chopra, a 2006 batch graduate from IIT Bombay, is a former co-founder
of Fab Furnish. Prior to his entrepreneurial stints, he has worked as an
investment analyst at Sequoia and business analyst at McKinsey and Co.
Mehul Agrawal Founder & Chief Operating
Officer
Mehul Agrawal, a 2009 graduate from IIM Calcutta, is a former founder of Fab
Furnish. Prior to this, he worked as a consultant with Boston Consulting Group.
Figure 137: Revenue CAGR of 153% over FY16-20 Figure 138: Losses as % of sales down to 9% in FY20
Source: Tracxn Source: Tracxn
Series C, Exor
Series D, Sequoia, Unbound
Series E, Unbound, Moore,
Digital Sky, Exor
0
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1,000
1,500
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200
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2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2015
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-40%
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Chargebee
Company profile
Founded in 2010 in Chennai, Chargebee helps businesses—mainly in the US and Europe—manage subscriptions, including
billing, invoicing, taxes and payment methods. It provides analytics as well. While managing subscriptions sounds pretty
straightforward, Chargebee claims its solutions are sector specific, company specific and beyond just billing, can plug
revenue leakage, increase customer loyalty, expand into new categories with the backend ready, and experiment with pricing
plans—introducing and removing them quickly.
Funding history
As per media reports (Moneycontrol), Chargebee will raise ~US$150 mn at a valuation of US$1.4 bn. The round will likely
be led by a fresh US-based investor, with existing backers Tiger Global Management, Steadview Capital and Insight Partners
doubling down on their bets.
Source: Crunchbase
Management profiles
Krish Subramanian Co-founder & CEO Krish Subramanian is an engineer from IIT Chennai. Prior to co-founding
Chargebee, Krish worked with TCS for six years and Cognizant for about two
years.
KP Saravanan Co-founder & CTO Prior to co-founding Chargebee, KP Saravanan was working as a technical
architect at Chargebee’s competitor, Zoho, for 12+ years.
Rajaraman S Co-founder Prior to co-founding Chargebee, Rajaraman S was working as a technical staff
member at Chargebee’s competitor, Zoho, for ten years.
Thiyagarajan T Co-founder Prior to co-founding Chargebee, Thiyagarajan T was working as a technical staff
member at Chargebee’s competitor, Zoho, for seven years.
Metric Comments
Revenue Chargbee currently has annualised recurring revenue (ARR) of about US$50 mn.
Clients Its customers include Freshworks, Calendly and Fujitsu.
Geographical split Chargebee is serving 15,000+ customers in 50+ countries. About 60% of Chargebee’s revenue comes from
the US, 35% from Europe and the rest from Asia-Pacific.
Competitors Chargebee’s major competitors include Zoho, Zuora, Chargify and Aria Systems.
Angel round
Series B, Tiger Global
Series C, Insight Partners
Series D, Steadview Capital
Series F, Insight Partners
Series G, Tiger Global Management,
Steadview Capital, Insight Partners
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Founded in 2010
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58
CitiusTech
Company profile
Founded in 2005 in Mumbai, CitiusTech offers analytical solutions and technology services for healthcare providers. The
company offers capabilities for shared risk management, population health management, and care coordination and provides
predictive analytics tools such as re-admission management, claim analytics, bundled payments, population viewer and value-
based purchasing; and offers clinical, financial, operational and regulatory reporting.
Funding history
General Atlantic acquired a 30% stake in CitiusTech for US$111 mn in 2014. General Atlantic sold its stake in 2019 when
Baring acquired 80% of Citius Tech at a US$1 bn valuation.
Source: Tracxn, Credit Suisse
Management profiles
Rizwan Koita Co-Founder
& CEO
Rizwan Koita drives CitiusTech’s worldwide business strategy. Before CitiusTech, Mr Koita
was the CEO and founder of TransWorks (now Aditya Birla Minacs). Earlier, he was a senior
consultant with McKinsey & Co., where he consulted transnational clients on exploiting
remote service opportunities.
Jagdish Moorjani Co-Founder
& COO
Mr Moorjani is responsible for project quality and delivery for all CitiusTech clients worldwide.
Before CitiusTech, he co-founded TransWorks, where he was responsible for global
operations, finance, infrastructure, commercial and legal.
Dr William Winkenwerder
Jr
MD & Chairman Dr William Winkenwerder Jr is the Chairman and CEO of Winkenwerder Strategies, a
healthcare advisory and investment firm. He is an influential and very well recognised leader
in American healthcare.
Figure 142: CitiusTech’s revenue grew by 38% CAGR
over 2011-17
Figure 143: CitiusTech has consistently been making
~40% PBT margin
General Atlantic
Baring PE
0
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1,500
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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CLP Wind Farms (India) Pvt Ltd
Energy Lokesh Garg, Gaurav Birmiwal
Company profile
Part of HK-based CLP Group, with investment by CDPQ as well. CLP entered the Indian market in 2002 with the acquisition of
Paguthan CCPP, a 655 MW gas-fired power station in Bharuch, Gujarat. CLP India has built a portfolio of over 3,000 MW.
Funding history
CLP Group has invested Rs145 bn so far in India (link), with investments by CDPQ.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Rajiv Ranjan Mishra Managing Director Mr Mishra joined the CLP Group in 2002 and has over 20 years’ experience in the
power industry, both in India and internationally, mostly involved in project financing,
investment appraisal, finance and accounting and general management. He has held a
variety of senior positions in the Power Industry viz. deputy managing director and chief
financial officer of BLCP Power in Thailand, finance director of PowerGen India and
finance director of LG Energy in Seoul, South Korea.
Naveen Munjal Business Development &
Commercial (Conventional)
With close to 19 years at CLP India, Naveen Munjal has been its CFO for about six
years. Prior to joining CLP, he has held several leadership roles at PowergGen, Lucent
Technologies, AT&T India and SB Billimoria & Co.
Mahesh Makhija Business Development &
Commercial (Renewables)
Before joining CLP India, Mr Makhija was responsible for the project financing of
Enercon India's wind power projects. He has also worked with Arthur Andersen & Co in
Mumbai where he dealt with a number of leading companies across pharmaceutical,
chemical, shipping and media sectors.
Figure 145: CLP’s revenue (Rs mn) grew by 10% CAGR
over the last six years…
Figure 146: …with strong and improving profitability
(Rs mn)
CDPQ
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Founded in 2007
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35%
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60
CureFit
E-commerce Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Reason for inclusion: Valuation <US$1 bn but strong growth since inception
Company profile
Founded by Myntra co-founder, Mukesh Bansal, and former Flipkart chief business officer Ankit Nagori in 2016, CureFit
started out with gyms across India under the brand name CultFit. It later expanded to provide healthy food options under the
brand name EatFit, and mental fitness under MindFit. At end of FY20, CureFit operated 180 fitness centres under CultFit,
35 centres under MindFit and claimed to deliver more than 35,000 orders daily under EatFit pre-COVID-19. CureFit is
aiming to broaden its scope of business further, to include groceries under its WholeFit brand and add dental and skincare
services to its healthcare brand, CareFit.
Funding history
The firm has raised funding worth ~US$405 mn across nine funding rounds. It signed Hrithik Roshan, an Indian actor, as its
brand ambassador for five years starting Aug-2017 in a deal worth Rs1 bn. Its key investors are Accel Partners, Temasek,
Kalaari Capital and Chiratae Ventures.
Management profiles
Mukesh Bansal Co-Founder, CEO and
W.I.P. (Work-in-Progress)
Mukesh Bansal had co-founded Myntra and served as its CEO. After Flipkart's
acquisition of Myntra, he joined Flipkart as head of commerce & advertising business.
He holds a BTech. degree in computer science engineering from Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur. He is also on the board of Olympics Gold Quest, a non-profit
foundation that promotes sports and games.
Ankit Nagori Co-Founder Ankit Nagori previously served as the chief business officer and senior vice
president at Flipkart. He holds a Bachelor of Design degree from Indian Institute of
Technology, Guwahati.
Figure 148: Monthly active user base remains steady Figure 149: Spike in app downloads in Apr-2020 due to
lockdown
Note: Data for Android users only. Source: SimilarWeb Note: Data for Android users only. Source: SimilarWeb
Series A, Accel
Series B, Accel
Series C, Accel
Series D, Accel
Series D, Temasek
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600
900
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100
150
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Founded in 2016
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800
Apr-
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May-
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Jun-
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Jul-
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Aug-
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Sep-
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Oct-
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Dailyhunt VerSe
IT/Technology Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Founded in 2007, in Bengaluru, as Newshunt by ex-Nokia employees, VerSe Innovation Pvt Ltd is home to multiple
businesses. The parent company of the news aggregation platform Dailyhunt offers mobile applications like NewsHunt
(regional language news and e-books) and iPayy (carrier-based billing platform). It has recently launched a short-video
platform called Josh. Then, there is Greynium Technologies, which runs around ten content platforms such as Oneindia,
Gizbot, Boldsky.com and CareerIndia. It also provides telco grade solutions in over 20 markets, including India, Africa and
Bangladesh, for delivery of information over unstructured supplementary service data, short messaging service, voice and
wireless application protocol. It also offers on-deck solutions for operators, which include job listings and career guidance,
real estate and property listings, educational listings and mobile-based testing, matrimonial and matchmaking services, deals
and discounts, location-based services, news and local information, and market place.
Funding history
Dailyhunt VerSe became a unicorn in Dec-2020 with valuation of US$1 bn+ after raising money in May-2020 at a valuation
US$650 mn. The company is backed by Google, Microsoft and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Umang Bedi Co-founder &
President
Umang Bedi served as the managing director (India & South Asia), Facebook and
managing director (South Asia), Adobe, MD (India & Emerging markets), Intuit Inc
before joining Dailyhunt VerSe. He is a management graduate from Harvard
Business School.
Virendra Gupta Co-founder & CEO Virendra Gupta is an IIT Bombay graduate and worked with Bharti Cellular as
general manager and telecom director at Trilogy before buying Newshunt from its
original founders and renaming it Dailyhunt VerSe.
Umesh Kulkarni Co-founder & Group CTO Before InMobi, Mr Kulkarni managed technology operations at Virgin Mobile,
designing and deploying its post-paid billing system and pre-paid revenue
recognition system. He earlier worked at AT&T and has contributed to many
patents filed in the telecommunications area.
VC, Matrix India
VC, Matrix India, Omidyar Network,
Sequoia
Series C, Matrix India, Omidyar
Network, Sequoia
Series D, Matrix India,
Omidyar Network,
Sequoia
Series E, Sofina SA,
Omidyar Network,
Sequoia
Series G&H, Goldman Sachs,
Advent Management, Alpha Wave,
Lupa Systems, Sofina SA
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62
D’decor
Reason for inclusion: Valuation <US$1 bn, but strong growth
Company profile
D'decor Home Fabrics Pvt Ltd is engaged in designing and manufacturing curtains and upholstery fabrics. Its product range
includes curtains and upholstery, bedding, rugs, towel, blinds and wallpapers. The company also provides water-repellent
fabric, flame-retardant fabrics and also has a robotic warehouse in India. The firm operates both retail stores and online
stores to sell its products. The company was founded in 1999 and is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra with additional offices at
Ahmedabad, Chennai and New Delhi.
Management profiles
Sanjay Arora Founder and MD Sanjay is an executive MBA from London School of Business. He has also
completed his technical training in the Japanese textile industry.
2015-19
Figure 152: EBITDA growth has been volatile
-6%
-3%
0%
3%
6%
9%
12%
5,000
5,300
5,600
5,900
6,200
6,500
6,800
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
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-14%
-8%
-2%
4%
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900
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1,500
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Deccan Fine Chemicals
Chemicals Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
Deccan Fine Chemicals was established in 2006 and provides contract manufacturing and CSM services to global
agrochemical players. Mitsubishi Corporation and Belchim Management of Belgium purchased a 39% stake in the company
in 2009. In addition to organic expansion, Deccan has also grown through outright purchase of plants in India that were
owned by Bayer CropSciences and Syngenta. The company has manufacturing sites in three states all three of whom are
classified as Export Oriented Units and has become a key player in the Indian agrochem CSM space with strong
relationships with global and Japanese innovators. The company’s business model is directly comparable to that of PI
Industries.
Funding history
The company has not raised funding in recent years. The last time was in 2009 when Mitsubishi picked up a stake at a very
early stage. At FY20 revenue and using a slight EV/EBITDA discount to listed comparable, we estimate the valuation would
be ~US$2.3 bn.
Management profiles
Name Position
Mr Vamsi Raju Founder and Director Mr Vamsi Raju is a graduate from Stephen M Ross School of Business
(University of Michigan). He is the founder and Managing Director of
Deccan Fine Chemicals
2015-20
Figure 154: PAT growth has been strong too
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20%
30%
40%
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400
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Delhivery Pvt Ltd
Logistics Satyam Thakur, Garima Bharti
Company profile
Delhivery, founded in 2011, is one of the leading India supply chain services company with presence across 2,300 cities in
the country. It offers a full range of services such as last-mile delivery, third-party and transit warehousing, reverse logistics,
payment collection, vendor-to-warehouse and vendor-to-customer shipping.
Funding history
Delhivery has raised a cumulative amount of US$953 mn so far and was valued at ~US$1.5 bn in its last fund raise in 2019.
Steadview, SoftBank, Nexus Venture Partners, Carlyle, Times Internet and Tiger Global are some of its key investors.
Figure 155: Funding History
Management profiles
Sahil Barua Co-founder and Chief
Executive Officer
Sahil Barua is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Delhivery. Prior to
this, he worked as a consultant with Bain & Company. He holds a master’s
degree from IIM Bangalore and a bachelor’s from NIT, Karnataka.
Ajith Pai Chief Operating
Officer
Ajith Pai joined Delhivery in 2013 and currently serves as the COO of the
company. Prior to this, he was working with the Lodha group. He holds a
master’s degree from IIM Bangalore and a bachelor’s from NIT, Karnataka.
Kapil Bharati Co-founder and Chief
Technical Officer
Kapil Bharati is the co-founder and CTO of Delhivery. He has a diverse
experience of ~20 years across different organisations and start-ups. He holds a
bachelor’s degree from IIT Delhi.
Figure 156: Revenue CAGR of 68% between FY15 and
FY20
Figure 157: Operations performance has improved in
FY20
Source: Orbis, Inc. Source: Orbis, Inc.
0
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1,000
1,500
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2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Digit
InsurTech Ashish Gupta, Viral Shah
Company profile
Founded in 2017, Digit is a general insurer with tech-enabled processes across distribution, policy issuance and claims
processing. It has an overall market share of 1.4% with a much higher market share in motor, fire and property, and liability
insurance. Its gross direct premiums have scaled to ~Rs28 bn (FY21 annualised) and has a customer base of 14 mn. Along
with rapid growth, the company has also been able to control costs—bringing down its combined ratio to 117% by FY20
from 205% in FY19. It has also developed digital claims settlement processes like self-inspection/self-survey approach
across products which has helped reduce turn-around time.
Funding history
Digit has raised a total ~US$250 mn till date and is valued at US$1.9 bn. Fairfax, Faering Capital and TVS Capital are the
key investors in Digit.
Management profiles
Kamesh Goyal Chairman and
Founder
Kamesh Goyal has decades of experience in the insurance industry working at
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance as both the CEO and COO and also at Allianz Asset
Management prior to that. He also worked at New India Assurance Company for
nine years. He graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and completed his
MBA from Delhi University.
Vijay Kumar CEO & Principal
Officer
Prior to joining Digit, he worked as president at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. He
started his career at Maruti and later worked at Hyundai as a deputy general
manager.
Figure 159: Digit has 3.1% market share in motor &
2.3% in fire
Figure 160: Motor & fire constitute ~90% of GDPI for
Digit
Source: IRDAI Source: IRDAI
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2,000
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Digit Gros direct prem (FY21 - upto Oct-20)
Motor
Fire
Health
Liability
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Druva Data Solutions
Company profile
Founded in 2008, in Pune, Druva Data Solutions delivers data protection and management for the cloud. Druva cloud
platform is built on Amazon Web Services and offered as-a-Service, delivering globally accessible, scalable and completely
autonomous enterprise data resiliency. The company provides solutions such as cloud backup and restore, cloud-native
disaster recovery, ransomware protection, data centre consolidation and compliance monitoring.
Funding history
Druva Data Solutions has raised a total of US$328 mn till date and is valued at US$1+ bn. Viking Global Investors,
Riverwood Capital and Sequoia Capital are the key investors in Druva.
Source: Factset, Credit Suisse
Management profiles
Jaspreet Singh Founder & CEO Prior to starting Druva, Jaspreet Singh held foundational roles at Veritas and Ensim Corp.
Additionally, he holds multiple patents and has a Bachelor of Science in computer science from
the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.
Milind Borate Founder & Chief
Development
Officer
Milind Borat has >20 years’ experience in enterprise product development and delivery. Prior to
co-founding Druva, he worked at Veritas Software. Milind holds several patents in storage
technology and co-authored the book Undocumented Windows NT.
Mike Gustafson Executive Chairman Mike Gustafson has been Executive Chairman and an Independent Board Director at Druva since
April 2016. He has an experience of 25+ years. Mike was previously CEO and Chairman of
Virident Systems and CEO of BlueArc Corporation
Figure 162: Druva’s revenue (US$ mn) grew by 21%
CAGR over 2013-18
Figure 163: Druva has been making 10% PBT margin on
an average over the 2016-18 period (US$ mn)
Angel, Indian Angel Network,
Accord International
Series A,
Sequoia Capital,
Indian Angel Network
Series B,
Nexus Venture Partners,
Sequoia Capital
Series C,
Nexus Venture Partners,
Sequoia Capital,
Tenaya Capital
Series D
Series E,
Sequoia Capital,
Blue Cloud Ventures,
Hercules Capital Series F,
Riverwood Capital
Series G,
Viking Global Investors
0
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Ecom Express
Logistics Lokesh Garg, Gaurav Birmiwal
Reason for inclusion: Valuation < US$1 bn, but strong growth since
Company profile
Provider of logistics services and solutions for e-commerce companies. Clients include Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, and more.
Competes with other players like Delhivery (raised ~US$800 mn so far), and Shiprocket.
Funding history
Company has raised around US$217 mn so far till Series C from investors like Warburg Pincus, CDC Group.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
TA Krishnan Co-Founder & CEO Mr Krishnan has over 26 years of experience in the courier and express delivery
services industry and has held various leadership roles. He was earlier working with
Blue Dart Express.
K Satyanarayana Director and
Co-founder
Mr Satyanarayana over 25 years of experience in varied functions of the finance,
legal and administration domain in the courier and express delivery services
industry. He has also held various leadership roles in several business controls
initiatives in the express industry in India.
Manju Dhawan Co-founder With over 25 years of experience in the courier and express delivery services
industry, Ms. Dhawan has co-anchored the initiative in conceptualising and
developing the delivery services and business distribution model for the e-
commerce Industry.
Figure 165: Ecom Express grew by 76% CAGR over last
six years (Rs mn)
Figure 166: Loss quantum increased in the last year
Series B,
Peepul Capital
Series C, Warburg Pincus
Series C,
Warburg Pincus Series C,
CDC Group
0
200
400
600
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2012
0.0%
0.6%
1.2%
1.8%
2.4%
3.0%
0
3,000
6,000
9,000
12,000
15,000
FY2014
FY2015
FY2016
FY2017
FY2018
FY2019
FY2020
Revenues YoY Growth % (RHS)
-36%
-27%
-18%
-9%
0%
-4,000
-3,000
-2,000
-1,000
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FY2014
FY2015
FY2016
FY2017
FY2018
FY2019
FY2020
PBT PBT % (RHS)
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68
Eightfold
Company profile
Founded in 2016 in the US, Eightfold is a provider of talent intelligence platform (TIP), which is built for enterprises to
address talent acquisition and management. Its TIP focusses on three key areas: talent, personalisation, and artificial
intelligence. The company's platform creates a comprehensive talent network for an organization by aggregating all internal
and external data for an enterprise—from applicants to alumni which is siloed across many different solutions. By using
artificial intelligence, its platform continuously learns from all the data, engagement and decisions in the enterprises to predict
future roles, career alternatives and support diversity and inclusion. Eightfold has offices in Noida and Bengaluru in India.
Funding history
The latest funding round in Nov-2020 which valued the company at US$1 bn was led by General Catalyst and also included
investors from previous rounds, including Capital One Ventures, Foundation Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and
Lightspeed Venture Partners. Total funding raised to date by Eightfold AI is more than US$180 mn.
Management profiles
Ashutosh Garg Co-founder &
CEO
Ashutosh Garg has 6,000+ research citations, 50+ patents, 35+ peer reviewed research
publications to his name and was awarded the PhD thesis award from UIUC for his PhD thesis
in machine learning.
Varun Kacholia Co-founder &
CTO
Prior to founding Eightfold, Varun Kacholia led the news feed team at Facebook and the
YouTube search and recommendations team at Google.
Kamal Ahluwalia President Kamal Ahluwalia brings extensive experience in creating software categories, scaling
businesses and ensuring that customer and partner success drive business success. As chief
revenue officer at Apttus, Kamal led the company to market leadership in multiple product
categories ahead of Salesforce, Oracle, SAP, IBM, and others.
Metric Comments
Revenue growth Eightfold has more than quadrupled its sales since the last round of equity funding in April 2019.
Customers Eightfold’s customers include Tata Communications, AirAsia, Bayer, Capital One, BNY Mellon, Dolby,
Booking.com, Bayer and Micron.
Geographic and
segmental concentration
Eightfold works with customers across 110 countries, 17 industries and 13 languages.
Series A
Series B, Foundation Capital,
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Series C, Foundation Capital,
Lightspeed, Institutional Ventures
Series D, Capital One, Foundation
Capital, General Catalyst,
Lightspeed, Institutional Ventures
0
500
1,000
1,500
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2016
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Emcure Pharmaceuticals
Company profile
Incorporated in 1981, Emcure is engaged in developing, manufacturing and marketing a broad range of pharmaceutical
products globally. It has its own sales and marketing infrastructure in the US through its subsidiary, Heritage. It is ranked as
the 13th largest company in the Indian pharmaceutical market, in terms of value share (source: AIOCD AWACS MAT Dec-
2020). The group has nine manufacturing facilities (eight in India and one in the US). It focusses its research on developing
a portfolio of differentiated products across several platforms, including chiral molecules and biosimilars, and novel drug
delivery systems.
Funding history
In 2006, Blackstone invested ~US$50 mn in Emcure for a 13% stake, which was bought out by Bain Capital in Dec-2013
for ~Rs7 bn. Currently, Bain Capital holds a 13% stake in the firm, with the remaining held by Satish Mehta and family.
Management profiles
Satish Ramanlal Mehta Founder and CEO Satish Mehta founded Emcure to serve multinationals as a contract manufacturer
before marketing and distributing its own branded generics. He completed his
Bachelor of Science in science and Master of Science in chemistry from Pune
University, and Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad. He is on the Board since 1981.
Samit Satish Mehta President, R&D Samit Mehta is a graduate and a post-graduate in commerce from Pune University
and holds an MBA degree from Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, US.
He has worked as a management consultant (strategy) at Ernst & Young.
Vikas Thapar President, Corporate
Development & Strategy
Vikas Thapar holds a bachelor’s degree in management science from University of
California, San Diego, US. He later obtained his MBA degree from University of
Southern California, US. He has worked in Agilent Technologies and e-bay.
Sanjay R. Mehta President, Commercial Sanjay Mehta has been associated with Emcure since 1989. He is a graduate in
BCom from Pune University.
Blackstone
Bain Capital
stake sale
0
800
1,600
2,400
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1981
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70
Enzen Global Solutions Pvt Ltd
Consulting Satyam Thakur, Garima Bharti
Company profile
Enzen Global Solutions Pvt Ltd is a consulting firm founded in 2006 which specialises in the energy and water industries. It
provides end-to-end services of transformation and advisory, digital enterprise, business operations along with specialist
knowledge in energy and water networks.
Funding history
Enzen is a profitable company with PBT margins of ~16% in CY18. Its last fund raise was in Sep-2019 when it raised
US$100 mn from Greater Pacific Capital at a valuation of ~US$675 mn.
Management profiles
Satheesh Kumar Chairman Satheesh Kumar is the founder and Managing Director of Enzen. He has more
than 27 years of experience across industries such as utilities, financial services
and telecommunications and has worked in the USA, UK, EMEA and India.
Kutty Prabakaran Chief Executive
Officer
Kutty Prabakaran was a founding member of the team in 2006. He is a certified
engineer and also is an alumnus of Wharton and Stanford Business Schools.
Rahul Choraria Chief Financial
Officer
Rahul Choraria heads Enzon group’s finance team and has more than 14 years
of experience in financial planning, investment advisory, corporate restructuring,
inorganic growth strategies, deal negotiations, structuring and fund-raising.
Figure 171: Revenue CAGR of 13% over FY13-18 Figure 172: PBT CAGR of 26%; stable double digit PBT
margins
0
250
500
750
0
50
100
150
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2006 Greater Pacific Capital
0%
4%
8%
12%
16%
20%
24%
0
3,000
6,000
9,000
12,000
15,000
18,000
CY13 CY14 CY15 CY16 CY17 CY18
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4%
8%
12%
16%
20%
24%
28%
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1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
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CY13 CY14 CY15 CY16 CY17 CY18
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Eruditus Education
Education Varun Ahuja, Krati Sanklecha
Company profile
Eruditus Education Pvt Ltd is engaged in providing executive education programmes to Indian corporate and other
participants. It offers executive education and management training programmes and accelerated development programmes.
The company was incorporated in 2010 and is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Funding history
Eruditus has raised a total of US$161 mn till date and was valued at US$0.8 bn in its last round of fund raising in 2020.
After seven years of incorporation, it received its first funding from Bertelsmann India, followed by Sequoia Capital, and Chan
Zuckerberg, among others.
Figure 173: Eruditus was valued at US$0.8 bn in its last round of funding in 2020
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Chaitanya Kalipatnapu Founder and ED An alumni of BITS Pilani, Chaitanya Kalipatnapu did his MBA from INSEAD. He
has over 15 years of experience in executive education.
Ashwin Damera Founder and CEO Ashwin Damera is a CA and MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked for
multiple years in Citigroup before founding Travelguru followed by Eruditus.
Figure 174: Revenues from online education in India Figure 175: Number of users in online education in India
Series B, Berelsmann
Series C, Sequioa
Series D, Chan Zuckerberg
0
350
700
1,050
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2010
30%
17%
38%
13%
2%
Revenues from online education in India
Primary
Test
Certificates
Higher Education
Language/Casual
30%
12%
32%
4%
22%
Number of users in online education in India
Primary
Test
Certificates
Higher Education
Language/Casual
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72
Essar Ports
Logistics Lokesh Garg, Gaurav Birmiwal
Company profile
Essar Ports is one of India’s largest private sector port and terminal developers and operators. It has invested US$1.45 bn in
developing world-class terminals in three Indian states. Its current operations span four terminals with a combined capacity of 110
MTPA, which is roughly 5% of India’s port capacity. The company is a leader in the non-containerised bulk cargo space. Having
clocked a throughput of 40 MT in FY19, Essar Ports is expecting to handle over 60 MT in the current financial year.
Funding history
Essar Ports was delisted in 2015 from the exchanges and has not raised external capital.
Management profiles
PK Srivastava Chairman Mr Srivastava has rich experience of 45 years in various commercial organisations in India and
abroad (mainly Public Sector undertakings in India and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) with about 15
years as director on the Board and ten years as the chairman and managing director of
Shipping Corporation of India Limited
Rajiv Agarwal Managing
Director &
CEO
Rajiv Agarwal was the chief executive officer of Modi Champion during 1992-94 and joint
managing director of Modi Korea Telecom during 1994-97. He joined the Essar Group in
1997 as chief operating officer in Essar Telecom. Mr Agarwal was the President of IndoRama
Synthetics Limited during 2002-04. He held the position of CEO and director of The Mobile
Store Limited and created a well-recognised and strong Indian telecom brand in just two years.
Figure 176: Essar Ports’ revenues have fallen (₹ mn)… Figure 177: …with losses in recent years (₹ mn)
-65%
-50%
-35%
-20%
-5%
10%
0
4,000
8,000
12,000
16,000
20,000
FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020
-80%
-60%
-40%
-20%
0%
20%
-1,000
-500
0
500
1,000
1,500
FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020
PBT PBT % (RHS)
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Five Star Business Finance
Company profile
Five-Star Business Finance Limited (FSBFL) is a Chennai-headquartered NBFC catering to small businesses and retail
customers. The company commenced operations in 1984, with a focus on consumer loans and vehicle finance. In 2005, it
shifted its focus to small business loans with typical loan tickets of Rs0.2-1 mn and an ATS (average ticket size) of Rs0.35
mn. As of 31 December 2020, secured business loans and mortgage loans to MSME (micro, small and medium-sized
enterprises) customers comprised 71% and 22%, respectively, of the total portfolio followed by small-ticket housing loans
(7%). These loans are predominantly backed by self-occupied residential properties.
Funding history
FSBFL started its funding journey in 2014. It raised Rs170 mn from Matrix Partners in Feb-2014 and Rs150 mn in a follow-
on round in Mar2015. In Jun-2016, Morgan Stanley Private Equity came in with an investment of Rs1.14 bn. Currently, the
five institutional investors (Matrix Partners, Morgan Stanley, TPG Asia, Norwest Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital) hold
a stake of 68.5% in the company with the promoter, Mr Lakshmipathy, holding 21.7% (fully diluted).
Source: Factset, Crunchbase, company data
Management profiles
D Lakshmipathy Chairman & MD Lakshmipathy was director at RKV Finance which was amalgamated into Five
Star Business Finance. His wide exposure in lending to small business
customers (SBCs) helped FSBFL scale up the franchise.
K Rangarajan CEO Rangarajan has 15 years of experience in finance. Prior experience was in
corporate banking at HDFC bank, and mid-market banking at Standard
Chartered. He has been with FSBFL since 2015.
Figure 179: AUM has grown over 3.8x over past three
years
Figure 180: Return profile on an improving track
0
400
800
1,200
0
40
80
120
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1984
0
10
20
30
40
50
FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20
AUM (₹ bn)
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
0%
4%
8%
12%
16%
20%
FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 1H21
ROE (%) ROA (%) (RHS)
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74
Flipkart
Company profile
Flipkart Pvt Ltd (formerly known as Flipkart Ltd.) owns and operates an e-commerce portal Flipkart.com. Its products include
electronics, household items, large and small appliances, apparel and accessories for men, women and babies, books, baby
and kids products, furniture, mobile phones, accessories, perfumes, headphones, home decor products, among others.
Flipkart was founded in 2007 and is based in Singapore. Flipkart Pvt Ltd operates as a subsidiary of Walmart Inc.
Funding history
Flipkart was acquired by Walmart in 2018 at a valuation of US$16 bn. S then it has raised a further US$1.2 bn at a
valuation of US$24 bn. It has been funded by Tiger Global, Qatar Investment, Tencent, SoftBank, Macquarie, among others.
Source: Factset
Management profile
Kalyan Krishnamurthy CEO Prior to joining Flipkart, Kalyan was director of finance at Tiger Global. He also
worked in ebay and P&G before that. He also holds an MBA degree from Asian
Institute of Management, Philippiines, and another MBA in Finance from UIUC
College of Business, Illinois (US).
2015-19
Figure 183: Cost-to-income ratio not declining
Series D, Tiger
Series E+, Tiger
Series E+, Steadview
Acquired by Walmart
Walmart
0
6,000
12,000
18,000
24,000
30,000
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2007
0%
7%
14%
21%
28%
35%
42%
49%
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
0.94
0.99
1.04
1.09
1.14
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Cost to income ratio
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Freshworks
Company profile
Founded in 2010 in Chennai, Freshworks is a software development company that offers customer relationship management
software. The company enables the streamlining of information technology services and manages internal requests. It offers
project management software for development teams that enables planning, tracking, testing and shipping. Its platform
enables organisations to support teams to work together and resolve customer issues. Freshworks’ competitor, Zoho (ex-
employer of the founders), has filed a lawsuit in the US against Freshworks in March 2020 for trade theft.
Funding history
Freshworks has been valued at US$3.5 bn at its recent funding round in 2019, where it raised US$150 mn from Accel,
CapitalG Management and Sequoia.
Management profiles
Girish Mathrubootham Co-Founder & CEO Girish Mathrubootham is an MBA from University of Madras. Prior to founding
Freshworks, Girish was the VP of product management at ManageEngine, a
division of Zoho Corp, where he was responsible for setting worldwide product
strategy and overseeing product marketing, product management, and customer
support.
Shah Krishnasamy Co-Founder & CTO Shan Krishnasamy is an engineer from TPGIT, Vellore. Prior to founding
Freshworks, he was a technical architect at Zoho.
Sidharth Malik Chairman Sidharth has served in senior positions at a number of tech companies including
Zacco India, Akamai Technologies, salesforce, and Microsoft
Metric Comments
Revenue
Freshworks’ surpassed US$300 mn in annual recurring revenue in 2020 as its revenue grew by 40% last year when
the pandemic forced companies to adopt digital transformation and strengthen their remote operations through
enterprise tech tools.
Customers 150k customers, 60% revenue from Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs).
Competitors Among Indian SaaS start-ups, Zoho is the closest competitor of Freshworks.
Source: Nasscom, Credit Suisse
Series B, Accel, Tiger Global
Series C, Accel, Tiger Global
Series D, Accel, Tiger Global,
CapitalG
Series E, Google Capital,
Tiger Global, Accel
Series F, Accel, Sequoia
Series G, Accel Capital,
CapitalG, Sequoia
Series H1, Accel Capital, CapitalG,
Sequoia
Series H2,
Steadview Capital
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
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50
100
150
200
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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76
Galactus Funware Technology (MPL)
Education Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
Galactus Funware Technology Pvt Ltd owns and operates a digital gaming platform, Mobile Premier League. It offers an e-
sports platform consisting of games such as bubble shooter, fantasy cricket, fantasy football, rummy, ludo, fruit slice, fruit
chop, runner no. 1, pool, carrom, etc. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Galactus
Funware Technology operates as a subsidiary of M-League Pte. Ltd.
Funding history
Galactus Funware has raised a total of US$185 mn till date and was valued at US$945 mn in its last round of fund raising in
2021. It has been funded by Cornerstone, Pegasus, Sequoia Capital, Composite Capital, Moore Capital, Base Partners, and
SIG Global Fund, among others.
Figure 186: MPL was valued at US$945 bn in its last round of funding in 2021
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Shubh Malhotra Founder and Director An alumni of BITS Pilani, Shubh Malhotra worked in software engineering and
product management roles before founding Teewe and CREO followed by MPL.
Sai Garimella Founder and CEO Sai Garimella holds a bachelors' degree in aeronautical engineering from IIT
Kanpur and previously did stints with Zynga and Bharti SoftBank.
2016-20
steadily
Series A, Cornerstone
Series B,C, Sequioa
Series D, Composite
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
0
20
40
60
80
100
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Founded in 2018
0%
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180%
270%
360%
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100
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200
2019 2020
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33%
11%
12%
Operating Expense
Advertising
Employee
Miscellaneous
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Gharda Chemicals
Chemicals Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
Gharda Chemicals, established in 1967, was set up as a manufacturer of dyes and dye intermediates but has over the years
diversified into generic agrochemicals, veterinary drugs dyestuff and also manufactures intermediates. It is one of the key
exporters of agrochemicals out of India with ~60% of its revenues coming from exports. With its focus on research and
building process developmental skills, and reverse engineering, Gharda has developed low cost alternatives of several
blockbuster off-patent products.
Funding history
Gharda Chemicals has never raised PE funding and hence does not have a valuation history. Nevertheless, based on listed
industry comparables, and considering that Gharda has very little debt, we estimate the valuation would be c. US$2.5 bn on
trailing FY19 financials.
Management profile
Dr Keki Gharda Founder & CEO Dr Keki Gharda has a Bachelor of Science from Institute of Chemical Technology
Mumbai University and then obtained a master’s degree and PhD in chemical
engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After returning to India he
worked as a faculty at UDCT before starting Gharda Chemicals in 1970.
Figure 190: Sales have grown at 11% CAGR from 2015-
19
Figure 191: Net income margins have increased further
0.0
0.4
0.8
1.2
1.6
2.0
0
100
200
300
400
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
CDPQ
Founded in 2007
-15%
0%
15%
30%
45%
60%
0
100
200
300
400
500
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Revenues (US$ mn) YoY growth % (RHS)
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78
Glance
Technology Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Founded in 2017 in Bengaluru, InMobi’s mobile-first content platform, Glance, helps users enjoy personalised content in
their favourite language on their lock screen. Glance is available in multiple languages like English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu
and also in the Indonesian language, Bahasa. This gives the start-up access to a wider captive audience. It aims to
democratise content and commerce on the internet.
Funding history
Glance became a unicorn in 2020 and has raised US$190 bn in funding till date.
Source: Factset, Crunchbase
Management profiles
Naveen Tiwari Co-founder & CEO Naveen Tiwari has a bachelor’s degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
(IIT) and a Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He
is involved in the fuelling of around 30 start-ups in India and has personally
invested and supported several start-ups like NestAway, SlideRule, Mettl,
Moneysights, Bombay Canteen, Zimmber, Razorpay, among others.
Rohan Choudhary Vice President, Product &
Founding Team
Rohan Choudhary is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and BTech & MTech from IIT
Delhi. Prior to Glance, he worked with InMobi for six years and Monitor Deloitte for
about a year.
Bikash Chowdhury Vice President of
Marketing
Bikash Chowdhury holds a Master’s in Business Administration from IIM
Bangalore.
Metric Comments
Glance customers Glance has 115 mn daily active users, largely in India, who spend an average of 25 minutes on the platform daily.
The platform has to date, partnered with about 1,000 media, agencies and smartphone makers such as Samsung,
Mi, Xiaomi, and Gionee to pre-install Glance in their popular model.
Geographical presence Apart from India, it has a presence in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand as well and its total
monthly active users in India plus the aforementioned markets stand at around 130 mn.
VC Round, Mithril Capital
VC Round, Mithril Capital, Google
0
300
600
900
1,200
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50
100
150
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2017
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GlobalLogic
IT/Technology Varun Ahuja, Krati Sanklecha
Company profile
GlobalLogic India Ltd. is an information technology solution provider. It offers content engineering services, product
engineering services, including system architecture design, software development, QA and testing, language localization and
project management, product experience services, big data and analytics, cloud, embedded, mobile and security
technologies. It serves automotive, business technology, communications, media, retail and e-commerce, finance, medical
technology and infotainment industries. The company was founded in 2000 and is based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
GlobalLogic India Pvt Ltd operates as a subsidiary of GlobalLogic Inc.
Funding history
GlobalLogic is backed by Apax Partners, Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital among others and was valued at US$2 bn in
2018.
Figure 194: GlobalLogic was valued at US$2 bn in 2018
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Sumit Sood APAC Head An alumni of XLRI, Sumit Sood has spent over 19 years in the IT services industry
including a 14-year stint at Virtusa prior to joining GlobalLogic.
Nitesh Banga CEO A chemical engineer from IIT, Nitesh Banga has spent over 20 years at Infosys at
different capacities before joining GlobalLogic.
2015-19
Figure 196: EBITDA growth has been strong too
Apax Partners
Apax Partners
0
800
1,600
2,400
0
500
1,000
1,500
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2000
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
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4,000
6,000
8,000
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
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30%
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2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
EBITDA (₹ mn) Growth YoY (RHS)
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80
Greenko Group
Utilities Lokesh Garg, Gaurav Birmiwal
Company profile
Greenko is one of India’s leading renewable energy companies, with a net installed capacity of 6.2 GW (DC) across 15
states in India. It has integrated renewable energy storage projects in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and
Karnataka.
Funding history
Greenko has raised US$2.9 bn from multiple investors like Global Environment Fund, TPG, Mirabaud, Arden Partners,
Standard Chartered, GE, GIC, ADIA and Orix.
Figure 197: Chart title
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Om Prakash Bhatt Chairman Mr Bhatt is the former chairman of State Bank of India. He holds a graduate
degree in physics and a post graduate degree in English literature. He currently
serves as an independent director on the Boards of Hindustan Unilever, Tata
Consultancy Services, Tata Steel and Standard Chartered PLC.
Anil Kumar
Chalamalasetty
CEO, MD Mr Chalamalasetty had an extended entrepreneurial career in IT, infra and
environmental sectors in the United Kingdom and India. He co-founded and
developed Greenko with Mahesh Kolli in 2004 and incorporated it in early-2006
to raise funds for financing early operations. Mr Chalamalasetty is a graduate in
computer science and holds a master’s from North West University.
Mahesh Kolli Joint Managing Director Mr Kolli started his career in the energy sector and went on to build his
entrepreneurial interests in the information technology and environmental space. His
entrepreneur journey started with an environmental solutions company focussed on
technology transfer from developed markets to India.
Figure 198: Revenues have ramped up with asset base
(US$ mn)…
Figure 199: …with profitability improving
Global Environment Fund
TPG, Mirabaud, Arden Partners
Standard Chartered, GE
GIC, Arden Partners
EIG GIC, ADIA
GIC, ADIA
GIC, ADIA
Orix
0
3,000
6,000
9,000
0
400
800
1,200
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2004
0%
200%
400%
600%
800%
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600
800
2017 2018 2019 2020
-80%
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PBT PBT % (RHS)
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Grey-Orange
Technology Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Founded in 2011 in Gurgaon, Grey-Orange develops warehouse automation systems. The company offers Butler, which is a
decision science driven robotic goods-to-person system. The GreyOrange Butler is a mobile robot that uses robotic goods-to-
person technology for automated put-away, inventory storage, replenishment and order picking in fulfilment and distribution
centres. The Butler system consists of Butler Robots (autonomous mobile robots), pick/put stations, mobile storage units
(MSU), auto-charging stations, and GreyMatte. GreyMatte is an end-to-end intelligent order fulfilment software platform that
controls and manages various devices to drive autonomous collaboration. It also offers Sorter, which is a warehouse sorting
system software, offering unmatched throughputs, package-handling capability and reliability.
Funding history
Blume Venture Advisors is the largest investor in Grey-Orange. Mithril Capital, a venture firm cofounded by Ajay Royan and
early Facebook investor Peter Thiel, has invested US$47 mn in Grey-Orange.
Source: Venture Expert
Management profiles
Samay Kohli Co-founder & CEO Samay Kohli is an engineer from BITS Pilani. He has shared his insights as a keynote
speaker at prominent technology conferences around the world and was named to MIT
Technology Review’s global list of “35 Innovators under 35”.
Akash Gupta Co-founder & CTO Akash Gupta was named to MIT Technology Review’s global list of “35 Innovators under 35”,
has designed and implemented an active underwater sonar stabilization system at University
of Louisiana and served on the Chief Organizing Committee of RoboCup 2011-12.
Vartul Jain CFO & Senior
Vice President
Vartul Jain has extensive expertise in shaping business and financial strategy for
multinational companies, including Samsung Electronics, Wipro GE Healthcare, and
General Electric. Named to the “Top 100 CFOs in India” by CFO Magazine, Vartul has
been instrumental in setting the framework for financial and people operations and has
been able to support co-headquarters and R&D centres in the United States and India as
well as regional operating centres in Germany and Japan.
Metric Comments
Scale As per 2018 data, Grey-Orange produces 1,500+ robots a month and has R&D centres in the US, China and India.
The company sees 60% of the revenue coming from repeat customers.
Clients Flipkart along with ecommerce platforms Myntra, Jabong and Pepperfry, besides logistics players such as Aramex,
DTDC, Delhivery and Mahindra Tractors are some of Grey-Orange’s customers in India. The company’s overseas
customers include Kerry Logistics (Hong Kong), Ninja Van (Singapore), Nitori, Trusco and Daiwa (Japan), Loggi
(Brazil), and Pos Indonesia (Indonesia).
Geographical split The Indian market currently contributes 10% to the company’s global business while the majority of the business
comes from the US, Japan and Europe, according to co-founder Kohli.
Series A, Blume Venture,
Tiger Global
Series B, Blume Venture,
Tiger Global
Series C, Blume Ventures,
Binny Bansal, Mithril Capital
Management
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450
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2011
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82
Groww
FinTech Ashish Gupta, Viral Shah
Company profile
Founded in 2018, Groww is an investment platform enabling direct MF investments (including SIPs), digital gold, fixed deposits
with banks and direct equity investing. It has grown to a registered user base of 10 mn users of which 0.4 mn are direct equity
users. It offers a low cost discount broking platform and has also enabled US investing on its platform. According to the
company, more than 60% of its users come from smaller cities and towns with three-fifths being new investors.
Funding history
Groww has raised a total of ~US$60 mn till date and is valued at US$275 mn. Ribbit Capital, Sequoia Capital and Propel
Venture Partners are the key investors in Groww.
In recent months, the start-up has expanded its offerings to allow users to buy stocks of Indian firms and digital gold, said
Lalit Keshre, co-founder and chief executive of Groww, in an interview with TechCrunch. Keshre and the other three co-
founders of Groww worked at Flipkart before launching their own start-up.
Management profiles
Lalit Keshre CEO & Co-founder Prior to starting Groww, Lalit Keshre successfully founded and led Flipkart Quick—a
logistics platform incubated within Flipkart and also founded an online learning company
Eduflix. He is an engineer in microelectronics from IIT Bombay.
Harsh Jain COO & Co-founder At Groww, Harsh Jain heads customer acquisition, retention and business
development. Prior to Groww, he was product manager at Flipkart. He holds a
BTech and masters from IIT Delhi and an MBA in product management and
marketing from UCLA.
Figure 203: Groww has ~10 mn registered users of
which ~0.4 mn are active direct equity investors
Source: Company data, NSE
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300
400
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20
30
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2018
8.0
10.0
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8.0
12.0
Sep-20 Feb-21
Total registered users (mn) Stock market users (active; mn)
Users (mn)
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GRT Jewellers Limited
Consumer discretionary Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
GRT Jewellers was in founded in 1964 by G Rajendran in Chennai and is now run by his two sons GR Anantha
Padmanabhan and GR Radhakrishnan. It has now become a large jeweller in the south of India with 55 stores and 1 store in
Singapore engaged in gold, diamond, platinum and silver jewellery with showrooms in 11 other southern cities. The group
has expanded beyond jewellery to hospitality, agri, education and renewable power.
Funding history
GRT Jewellers has not raised funding so valuation history is unavailable but valuing its as per its listed peerset we estimate
the company to be worth c.US$1.8 bn
Management profiles
G Rajendan Founder Though he comes from a family of jewelers, G Rajendan started his career as a
gold appraiser at the Chennai Central Cooperative Bank. In 1964 he started a
small gold retail store named GRT as a small 500 sq ft showroom in Chennai.
GR Anantha Padmanabhan
and GR Radhakrishnan
Managing Directors Both sons of the founder are Managing Directors at GRT.
Figure 204: Revenues have grown at 16% CAGR over
FY15-19
Figure 205: PAT margin has expanded sharply as well
Source: Company data, Euromonitor Credit Suisse Source: Company data, Credit Suisse
0%
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20%
30%
40%
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1,000
1,500
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2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
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0.8%
1.6%
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3.2%
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84
Haldiram’s
Consumer staples Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Reason for inclusion: Valuation> US$1 bn at latest EBITDA & multiple
Company profile
Haldiram’s is a popular brand of Indian sweet, savoury and salted snacks. The franchise as such has been in existence since
1937 when it was founded in Rajasthan. Over the years the franchise has split into three branches with Haldiram Snacks
focussed on the north India market which is the biggest of the three. The Nagpur based Haldiram Foods focusses on the
west and south of India with the third branch operating out of Kolkata looking at the east. Haldiram Snacks is present in 50
countries other than India and has also done a few acquisitions in the snacks and savoury segment.
Funding history
Haldiram’s has not raised funding so valuation history is unavailable but has been the subject of several discussions for
private equity stakes and outright sale as well. Reports in the Economic Times suggest Kelloggs was looking to buy a
majority stake in the company at a valuation of ~Rs3 bn in 2019. Valuing at a premium to the listed peerset we estimate the
company to be worth c.US$2.5 bn.
Figure 206: We estimate Haldiram’s valuation to be close to $2.5bn
Management profile
Dr AK Tyagi Executive Director Has be at this position for seven years and joined Haldiram Snacks seven years
prior to that. He holds an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad.
Figure 207: Steady revenue growth with margin
improvement
Figure 208: PAT CAGR from FY17-19 has been 32%
(US$ mn)
CDPQ
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1,500
2,250
3,000
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200
300
400
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2007
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10%
15%
20%
25%
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Headspin
Education Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
Headspin Inc. is engaged in providing mobile application testing and development services. It offers a connected intelligence
platform built for web, mobile, internet of things and 5G services. It offers solutions for mobile testing, mobile performance
monitoring, and mobile analytics, digital test automation, and benchmark reports. It caters to sectors like telecom, media and
entertainment, retail, banking, hi-tech and gaming sectors. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Palo Alto,
United States of America.
Funding history
Headspin has raised a total of US$80 mn till date and was valued at US$1.16 bn in its last round of fund raising in 2020, It
has been funded by Tiger Global, Alpha Square, EQT Ventures and Iconiq Capital, among others.
Figure 209: Headspin was valued at US$1.16 bn in its last round of funding in 2020
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Manish Lachwani Founder and CEO Manish Lachwani started Headspin after working at Youtube, Google Chrome and
Zynga in different capacities, and had founded another start-up, Appurify
Brien Colwell Founder and CTO An alumni of UC Berkeley and New York University, Brien Colwell worked with
multiple firms as a software engineer before co-founding Headspin.
2016-20
steadily
Series B, EQT
Series C, Iconiq
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800
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1,600
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40
60
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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30%
45%
60%
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86
Hero Fincorp Ltd
Company profile
Hero FinCorp Limited (HFCL) was incorporated in December 1991 as Hero Honda FinLease Limited. HFCL is engaged in
extending retail finance for the two-wheeler sales of HMCL, bill discounting for HMCL's suppliers, loans to small and medium
enterprises, loan against property (LAP), and used car financing. It also gives personal loans to its 2W customers with a good
track record. It has over 2.5 mn active customers and extends credit to underbanked communities, particularly those in rural
areas, with c.70% of retail loan customers being new to credit. As on 30 September 2020, the company’s consolidated loan
portfolio stood at Rs243.4 bn comprising of two-wheeler finance with a portfolio share of 34%, dealer inventory funding (2%),
pre-owned car finance (7%), personal loans (9%), home loans (6%), retail SME loans (22%), and corporate loans (20%).
Funding history
Hero Moto Corp (HMCL) and its promoter group (members of the Munjal family and their investment companies) together
hold a 79.5% ownership stake in HFCL. External investors such as Credit Suisse (Singapore) and Otter Ltd (Chrys Capital)
entered in a fundraise in FY17 which valued the company at Rs52 bn and now hold a 14% stake with the balance 6.4%
held by HMCL's dealers, employees, etc.
Management profiles
Abhimanyu Munjal Joint MD & CEO Abhimanyu Munjal has over 15 years of experience in strategic leadership and
people management and has successfully spearheaded international joint
ventures, M&As & complex transformations.
Ajay Sahasrabuddhe COO, Retail Finance With two decades of experience in finance in India, Mr Sahasrabuddhe heads
retail franchise since its inception in 2013. His earlier experience was in retail
lending with Tata Capital, HDFC BANK and Fullerton India.
Figure 213: AUM has compounded at ~50% CAGR over
FY15-20
Figure 214: Increasing retailisation in loan book mix
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250
500
750
1,000
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40
80
120
160
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1991
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4%
6%
8%
10%
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50
100
150
200
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Loans (₹ bn) GNPA
27% 26% 31% 32% 39% 49%
29% 32%
36% 36% 30%
23%
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Hetero Labs
Company profile
Hetero is one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies and the world’s largest producer of anti-retroviral drugs
for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. It has a presence in 126 countries and has 36 manufacturing facilities. Its businesses are
spread across APIs, Generics, Biosimilars, Custom Pharmaceutical Services and Branded Generics. Its portfolio includes
300+ products encompassing HIV/AIDS, oncology, cardiovascular, neurology, hepatitis, nephrology, urology, diabetes,
ophthalmology, hematology and immunology, among others. It also has vaccine manufacturing capability and could begin
production of COVID-19 vaccines in the near term.
Funding history
NA
Management profiles
Bandi Parthasarathy
Reddy
Chairman Before founding Hetero, Bandi Parthasarathy Reddy worked at Dr Reddy’s for 13
years and held the position of chief technologist. He is a scientist and has
experience across research and development, manufacturing and marketing with
leading pharmaceutical companies.
Vamsi Krishna Bandi Managing Director Vamsi Krishna Bandi is the son of Chairman and currently serves as Managing
Director in the company. He holds a bachelor’s in chemical engineering from
University of Mumbai and an MS in chemical engineering and biosciences from
Stanford University, US. He briefly served as Executive in Invagen
Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 2007.
Figure 215: Hetero’s revenues grew at a 3% CAGR in
FY14-FY18
Figure 216: Hetero’s PBT margin fell to 5% in FY18
(FY15: 25%)
-50%
-25%
0%
25%
50%
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350
700
1,050
1,400
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HighRadius
Company profile
Founded in 2006 in Hyderabad, HighRadius leverages artificial intelligence (AI)-based autonomous systems to assist
companies to automate accounts receivable and treasury processes. The company's HighRadius integrated receivables
platform automates receivables and payments processes across credit, electronic billing and payment processing, cash
application, deductions, and collections. Its products also include HighRadius Rivana, RadiusOne, and Freeda.
Funding history
Susquehanna Growth Equity is the largest investor in HighRadius. The company achieved unicorn status in 2020.
Source: Venture Expert
Management profiles
Sashi Narahari Co-founder & CEO Sashi Narahari holds a master’s in mechanical engineering from University of
Maryland, College Park and a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras. He has worked with many Fortune 1000
companies in implementing credit management, collections management, dispute
management, and invoicing and payments solutions.
Sayid Shabeer Chief Product Officer Sayid Shabeer has an MBA from Yale University, a Master of Science degree from
the University of Maryland College Park, and a Bachelor of Technology degree
from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Prior to joining HighRadius, he
was head of product for the merchant business unit at Vantiv. Before Vantiv, Sayid
held a leadership role in M&A Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill
Lynch.
Scott Buxton CFO Prior to joining HighRadius, Scott Buxton served as the VP of finance at Datadog
Inc., a monitoring platform for cloud applications. He led the company to an IPO at
a US$9 bn valuation and a current market capitalisation of over US$25 bn.
Metric Comments
Revenue growth Latest revenue growth was high at 70-75% with annual average revenue of more than US$50 mn
Clients HighRadius has 400 clients including over 200 of the Forbes Global 2000. Some of its clients are General
Electric, Hindustan Unilever, L’Oréal, P&G, Sony and Reebok, among others.
VC Round, Susquehanna
Growth Equity
Series B, Citi Ventures,
Iconiq Capital, Susquehanna
Growth Equity
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1,200
1,600
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IBS Software
Company profile
Founded in 1997 in Thiruvananthapuram, IBS Software is a leading global provider of new generation IT solutions to the
global travel, transportation and logistics industry. IBS Software provides comprehensive, end-to-end new-generation IT
systems to the global aviation industry across all process areas—airline passenger services, cargo operations, flight and crew
operations, airport operations and aircraft maintenance engineering. In the non-aviation sector, IBS Software's solutions are
used to manage certain mission-critical operations of major oil and gas companies, cruise lines, hotels and tour operators.
Funding history
As per some media reports in 2019, IBS Software was planning to go public in FY21 and market valuation was expected in
the range of US$1.5-2.0 bn.
Source: Crunchbase
Management profiles
VK Mathews Founder & Executive
Chairman
VK Mathews founded IBS in 1997 with a vision to redefine the way the global
travel, transportation and logistics industries managed their businesses. With over
17 years of in-depth understanding of the aviation industry, having served Emirates
for over a decade, Mathews set out to fulfil his vision for the industry with just 55
employees joining him in his entrepreneurial venture.
Anand Krishnan CEO Anand Krishna comes with a 20-year track record of building high-growth software
businesses. Most recently, he served as executive vice-president at Canonical
Software where he led the commercialisation and growth of the Ubuntu business.
Vikas Surekha CFO Vikash Surekha has over 19 years of experience, mostly in senior executive roles
managing businesses globally, with proven proficiency in investor relations and
various financial areas including P&L management, financial planning, accounting,
corporate audit, risk assessment, structuring deals and negotiating large
outsourcing contracts.
Metric Comments
Revenue IBS Software earned revenue of US$143 mn in 2018.
Scale IBS today is a multinational corporation, serving over 200 clients worldwide, employing over 3,000
professionals from 30 different nationalities.
0
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1,000
1,500
2,000
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100
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200
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1997
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90
Icertis
Company profile
Founded in 2009 in Bengaluru, Icertis provides an enterprise contract management platform in the cloud. The features of its
platform include smart contract initiation, intelligent contract authoring, negotiations and collaboration, contract approval and
execution, contract visibility and search, usability and productivity, risk management and compliance, contract analytics and
proposal management. Major customer wins around the world include Airbus, BASF, Bertelsmann, Blue Cross Blue Shield,
Cognizant, Daimler, Microsoft, Norfolk Southern, Sanofi and Treasury Wines. As per Nov-2019 data, Icertis is used to
manage 6.5 mn contracts in 40+ languages across 90+ countries.
Funding history
Icertis reached unicorn status in 2019 when it was valued at US$1 bn after series e fundings. It has been funded by Cross
Creek, Eight Roads and Ignition Partners, among others.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Samir Bodas Co-founder
& CEO
Samir Bodas has a 20-year track record of leading fast-growing, category-defining companies. Prior to
co-founding Icertis, Samir held multiple leadership roles at Microsoft and served as CEO for two IT
services firms, Disha Technology and Aztecsoft, overseeing rapid growth followed by successful exits.
Monish Darda Co-founder
& CTO
Monish Darda is a cloud-technology pioneer and serial entrepreneur with a 30-year track record in the
enterprise software space. With deep experience in distributed systems and cloud apps, he is the co-
inventor of two patents in cloud resource management and provisioning. Monish has a BE in
mechanical engineering and a master’s degree from Florida Atlantic University.
Anand Veerkar Chief
Revenue
Officer
Anand Veerkar brings with him over 25 years of global sales experience. He spent his early
professional career at Tata Unisys and then with Digital Equipment India. His last role before joining
Icertis was vice president of sales for Europe and APAC for KPIT Cummins.
Metric Comments
Revenue Icertis has an annual recurring revenue of ~US$100 mn.
Customers Customers include big names like Airbus, Daimler, Microsoft and Apple. The company has seen 400% increase in new
customers in mid-sized firms (US$100+ mn top line), which now contributes a third of its customer base.
Technology
partners
Adobe, Box, Salesforce, SAP, Workday, Whatfix, DocuSign.
Series A, Fidelity,
Greycroft Partners
Series B, Ignition Partners,
Fidelity, Greycroft Partners
Series C, Ignition Partners,
B Capital, Eight Roads and
2 others
Series D, Cross Creek,
Ignition Partners, B
Capital and 4 others
Series E, Cross Creek,
Eight Roads, Premji
Invest and 5 others
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
0
50
100
150
200
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2009
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Infra.Market
Industrials Lokesh Garg, Gaurav Birmiwal
Company profile
Infra.Market is an online marketplace for construction materials procurement. It has its headquarters in Mumbai, with regional
offices in Noida, Gurugram, Delhi, Kochi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, and Nashik.
Funding history
The company has raised US$149 mn from multiple investors like Tiger Global Management, Accel, Nexus Venture Partners,
Foundamental, Evolvence, Sistema Asia Capital, and Trifecta Capital.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Souvik Sengupta Co-founder Souvik Sengupta is a Chartered Accountant with over seven years of experience
in P&L ownership and management. An alumni of IIM Bangalore, Souvik did his
graduation from Sydenham College in Mumbai.
Aaditya Sharda Co-founder Aaditya Sharda heads operations at Infra.Market and brings to the table almost
ten years of entrepreneurial experience in the ﬁeld of infrastructure and
construction. He is an alumni of IIM Ahmedabad.
Figure 224: Revenues have ramped up recently (Rs mn) Figure 225: Consistently profitable (PBT = ₹ mn)
Series A - Tiger Global Management,
Accel, Nexus Venture Partners
Series B, C - Tiger Global
Management, Accel, Foundamental,
Nexus Venture Partners, Evolvence,
Sistema Asia Capital, Nexus…
0
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1,000
1,500
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Founded in 2016
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120%
123%
126%
129%
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600
800
2017 2018 2019
Revenue YoY growth (RHS)
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2017 2018 2019
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92
InMobi
Company profile
Founded in 2007 as MKhoj in Mumbai, InMobi is a global mobile ad network offering mobile web advertising solutions to its
partners. InMobi (and every other ad network) essentially matches publishers (who have users using their mobile assets and
want to monetise them) and advertisers (who are willing to spend money to reach these users). InMobi has built a strong
network in Asia, the Middle East and Africa and has grown into the leader as the largest ad network in Asia.
Funding history
InMobi became a unicorn in 2011.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Naveen Tiwari Co-founder &
CEO
Naveen Tiwari has a bachelor’s degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
(IIT) and a Master in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. Naveen is
involved in the fuelling of around 30 start-ups so far in India and has personally
invested and supported several start-ups like NestAway, SlideRule, Mettl, Moneysights,
Bombay Canteen, Zimmber, Razorpay, etc.
Abhay Singhal Co-founder & CEO
of InMobi Marketing
Cloud
Prior to his current role, Abhay Singhal held several different executive positions within
InMobi including chief revenue officer and head of human resources. He was
recognised as one of India's most influential and impactful young business leaders by
the Economic Times’ 40-Under-Forty in 2018.
Mohit Saxena Co-founder &
Group CTO
Before InMobi, Mohit Saxena managed technology operations at Virgin Mobile,
designing and deploying its post-paid billing system and pre-paid revenue recognition
system. He earlier worked at AT&T and has contributed to many patents filed in the
telecommunications area.
Metric Comments
Revenue and
profitability
InMobi Technology Services Private Limited, reported its revenues for financial year 2019-20 as Rs 432 crore,
a 12 per cent jump since the last financial year. The company further reported a net loss of Rs 77 crore during
the same fiscal. This is 41% increase from the last financial year
Competitors InMobi, which competes with Google and Facebook in the digital ads space
Source: YourStory, Credit Suisse
Seed, Mumbai Angels
Series A,
Sherpalo Ventures,
Kleiner Perkins
Series B, Kleiner
Perkins, Sherpalo
Ventures
Series C, Softbank
Series C, Softbank
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600
900
1,200
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100
150
200
250
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Innovaccer
Company profile
Founded in 2014 in Noida, Innovaccer is a leading healthcare data activation platform company focussed on delivering more
efficient and effective healthcare through the use of pioneering analytics and transparent, clean, and accurate data.
Innovaccer’s aim is to simplify complex data from all points of care, streamline the information, and help organisations make
powerful decisions and realise strategic goals based on key insights and predictions from their data.
Funding history
Innovaccer has raised US$229 mn till date and was valued at US$1.3 bn in its latest round of funding in 2021. It has been
funded by Tiger Global, Steadview Capital, Westbridge Capital and, Sequoia among others.
Source: Crunchbase
Management profiles
Abhinav Shashank Co-founder & CEO Abhinav Shashank is an engineer from IIT Kharagpur.
Kanav Hasija Co-founder & CTO Kanav Hasija is an engineer from IIT Kharagpur.
Sandeep Gupta Co-founder & COO Sandeep Gupta is an engineer and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Prior to co-
founding Innovaccer, he worked with TCS, Microsoft and Ingersoll Rand,
Metric Comments
Scale Innovaccer’s products have been deployed across more than 500 locations with over 10,000 providers
leveraging it at institutions, governmental organisations, and several corporate enterprises such as Mercy ACO,
StratiFi Health, Catalyst Health Network, Osler Health Network, and PHIX HIE. Innovaccer is based in San
Francisco with offices around the United States and Asia.
COVID In 2020, which was considered as the testing year for the healthcare sector, Innovaccer rose to the opportunity
and assisted the sector through their various COVID-19 tools—telehealth products, command centre for
healthcare executives, and a COVID-19 management system. Though Innovaccer is yet to attain break-even,
its road to profitability looks promising in the face of its over 500% YoY revenue growth within five years of its
inception.
Seed round
Series A, Sequoia Capital
Series B, WestBridge Capital
Series B, M12
Series C, Steadview Capital,
Mubadala, Westbridge
Series D, Tiger Global, Dragoneer, M12, OMERS,
Steadview Capital, Mubadala, B Capital
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500
1,000
1,500
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Funding ($ Mn) Estimated Valuation ($Mn, RHS)
Founded in 2014
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94
Intas Pharmaceuticals
Company profile
Intas, founded in 1977 as Intas Laboratories Private Ltd, is a vertically-integrated global pharmaceutical formulation
development, manufacturing and marketing company, based in India. Intas is present in 85+ countries worldwide, and
operates 13 formulation manufacturing facilities, of which ten are located in India, and the rest are in the UK and Mexico. It
primarily derives its revenues from EU (42%), India (31%) and US (18%), with total revenues exceeding US$2 bn in FY20
(note: figures in brackets denote revenue salience in FY19). Intas is ranked as the ninth largest company in the Indian
pharmaceutical market, in terms of value share (source: AIOCD AWACS MAT Dec-2020).
Funding history
Intas currently has two major PE investors: Temasek (10% stake) and Chrys Capital (6% stake). The promoters, the
Chudgar family, own the remaining 84% stake. As of Jun-2020, the firm was valued at US$4.25 bn.
Management profiles
Hasmukh Chudgar Chairman Hasmukh Chudgar founded Intas and has over 66 years of experience in the
pharmaceuticals industry. He holds a graduate degree in pharmacy (BPharm) from
Gujarat University.
Binish Hasmukh
Chudgar
Vice Chairman,
Managing Director
Binish Chudgar has 35 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals industry. He
holds a graduate degree in commerce from Gujarat University and is a Master of
Business Administration from SP Jain Management School, Mumbai.
Nimish Hasmukhbhai
Chudgar
Managing Director
& CEO
Nimish Chudgar has 38 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals industry. He
holds a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Gujarat University.
Urmish Hasmukh
Chudgar
Managing Director Urmish Chudgar has 39 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals industry. He
holds an MBBS degree from NHL Municipal Medical College, and a master’s in
pediatric hematology and oncology from the American Board of Pediatrics.
Figure 231: Intas’ revenues grew at 25%+ CAGR (FY15-19) Figure 232: Intas has healthy EBITDA margin of 18-22%
Chrys Capital
Chrys Capital
Temasek
Capital International
Chrys Capital
-500
1,500
3,500
5,500
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Funding (US $mn) Estimated valuation (US$ mn, RHS)
Founded in 1977
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10%
20%
30%
40%
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
Revenue (US$ mn) YoY Growth, RHS
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Joyalukkas
Consumer discretionary Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
Joyalukkas was established in 1988 after it commenced jewellery operations in the UAE though the Alukkas family has been
in the jewellery business since 1956 with its first showroom in Kerala. It is one of the leading south India-based jewellery
companies with focus on large format stores. The jewellery business consists of the sale of jewellery made of gold, diamond,
platinum and silver. It also sells textiles, apparel and accessories through its wedding centres in Kerala. The company has
160 stores with nearly half of these present outside India in the UK, US, Singapore and across the GCC.
Funding history
The company has not raised funding so valuation history is unavailable but valuing as per the listed peerset we estimate the
company to be worth c.US$1.4 bn.
Management profiles
Joy Alukkas Founder MD Joy Alukkas is the founder of the company and has ~32 years of experience in the
jewellery industry.
John Paul Joy Alukkas Managing Director John Alukkas joined the group as a trainee post his graduation in business
administration from the Manipal university. He focusses on marketing and brand
related initiatives
Figure 233: Revenue growth has slowed in line with the
industry
Figure 234: However control on costs has helped
support margin
-5%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
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1,000
1,500
2,000
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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96
Kurl-on
Consumer durables Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
The company was founded in 1962 as a part of the Manipal group and innovated the concept of the coir mattress in India.
Kurl-on is a prominent player in India’s c.US$2 bn mattress market, only a third of which is organised. Apart from retail sales
Kurl-on also sells to institutional clients like hospitals, hotels and hostels and has now started supplying to IKEA as well.
Besides mattresses, Kurl-on also manufacturers home comfort solutions and a wide range of pillows, cushions and bed
linen. Kurl-on has built a network of ~10k dealers and ~1,300 franchisees and is primarily strong in the south and east of
the country.
Funding history
Raised funding from Motilal Oswal PE in 2015 at a valuation of US$135 mn and was reportedly looking to raise money in
2017 from a clutch of PE players at a valuation of US$1.6 bn. Using current listed peer multiples, the company would be
valued c. US$900 mn.
Figure 235: Raised funding from Motilal Oswal PE in 2015 at a valuation of US$135 mn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
T Sudhakar Pai CMD A third generation member of the founding Pai family and has been working with
Kurl-on since 1982 and joined the board in 1990. He is an electronics engineer
and has studied management from IIM Bangalore.
Ms. Jyothi Pradhan CEO Took over the CEO role at Kurl-on from Oct-2020. She has 15 years of experience
across industries such as manufacturing, medical transcription and consumer products
and holds an MBA from University of California, Irvine.
Figure 236: Revenue has grown at 8% CAGR from
FY16-19
Figure 237: Margins have inched up and are now at par
vs peers
Motilal Oswal PE
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350
700
1,050
1,400
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10
20
30
40
50
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Funding (US$ mn) Valuation (US$ mn, RHS)
Founded in 1962
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4%
8%
12%
16%
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2016 2018 2019
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Lenskart
Company profile
Founded in 2010 in Delhi NCR, Lenskart is an India-based online shopping portal for eyewear. The company offers various
collections of eyeglasses, sunglasses, power glasses and contact lenses for men and women. It provides a range of
sunglasses for kids and teenagers in different shapes. For kids, it also offers accessories, including eyewear stand, eyewear
cases, contact lens cases and lens cleaner spray solution. Lenskart offers various brands eyewear, including John Jacobs,
Vincent Chase, Ray-Ban, Oakley, Carrera, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Vogue, TAG Heuer, Fastrack, Mask, IDEE, Bausch and
Lomb, Aqualens, Johnson & Johnson, Alcom, Acme and Silklens. It also provides various accessories for eyewear including
eyewear stands, cases, cleaning wipes, screw drivers, contact lens cases and lens cleaner sprays.
Funding history
Lenskart has raised a total of US$467 mn till date and is valued at US$1.5 bn. SoftBank Vision Fund is the largest investor
and has invested US$275 mn out of the total US$467 mn.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Amit Chaudhary Founder Amit Chaudhary is an engineering graduate from Birla Institute of Technology,
Mesra. Amit manages all technology operations at the company.
Peyush Bansal Founder & CEO Peyush Bansal has a BTech from McGill University, Canada and is an IIMC
graduate. He has worked as program manager at Microsoft, Redmond for a year.
Figure 239: Lenskart India’s operational revenues grew
at 75% CAGR over last two years
Figure 240: Lenskart turned profitable in FY20
Source: Inc24 Source: Inc24
Series A, Chiratae Ventures Series B, Unilazer Ventures
Series C, TPG Capital, TR Capital
Series D & E, Premji Invest, Steadview
Capital, Epiq Capital Advisors,
Schroder Adveq
Series F, Kedaara

Late VC & Series G, Softbank,
Kedaara Capital
0
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1,000
1,500
2,000
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100
200
300
400
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2008
2,923
4,742
8,937
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2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
FY18 FY19 FY20
Operational revenue (₹ mn)
-12%
-6%
0%
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12%
-400
-200
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FY18 FY19 FY20
PAT (₹ mn) PAT margin %
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Macleods Pharmaceuticals
Company profile
Established in 1986, Macleods specialises in the development and manufacturing of APIs and finished dosage
pharmaceutical formulations. It manufactures close to 25 bn units of finished dosages per year encompassing tablets,
capsules, liquid orals, powders for oral suspension, pressurised metered dose inhalers, single dose dry powder inhalers, dry
powders for injections (antiseptic fill) and a variety of topicals like lotions, creams, ointments and gels. It is ranked as the
10th largest company in the Indian pharmaceutical market, in terms of value (source: AIOCD AWACS MAT Dec-2020).
Funding history
Macleods had raised Rs794 mn in Feb-2008 from International Finance Corporation at an undisclosed valuation.
Management profiles
Girdhari Lal Bawri Chairman Part of the family which owned a pharmacy in Jaipur, Girdhari Lal Bawri set up
Macleods Pharmaceuticals to manufacture anti-TB medicines. He is the eldest of
the three brothers.
Rajendra Agrawal Managing Director Rajendra Agrawal is the youngest of the three brothers who founded Macleods
Pharmaceuticals in 1986.
Banwarilal Bawri Joint Managing
Director
Banwarilal Bawri is the second eldest of the three brothers who founded Macleods
Pharmaceuticals in 1986.
Figure 242: Macleods revenues grew at 12% CAGR in
FY14-18
Figure 243: Macleods’ PBT margin >20% since FY14
IFC
0
100
200
300
0
10
20
30
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1986
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8%
16%
24%
32%
40%
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15 FY16 FY17 FY18
Revenue (US$ mn) YoY growth (RHS)
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15%
20%
25%
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250
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Manipal Hospitals
Company profile
Manipal Hospitals is a chain of multi-specialty hospitals in India and, post the Columbia Asia acquisition in Nov-2020, it is
now India’s second-largest healthcare chain, behind Apollo Hospitals. The combined entity has a network of 27 hospitals
across 15 cities, with 7.2k+ beds, 4k+ doctors, and 10k+ employees. It was founded by Dr Tonse Madhav Ananth Pai in
1953 and is part of the Manipal Education and Medical Group.
Funding history
The firm raised Rs9 bn from TPG in Feb-2015 and Rs14 bn from Temasek in Mar-2017. TPG and Temasek currently hold
21.48% and 18.11% stake in the hospital chain, respectively. The balance ~60% stake is with the promoters. Temasek
bought out 18% stake of True North in Mar-2017.
Management profiles
Dr Ranjan Pai Chairman, Manipal Education
and Medical Group
Dr Ranjan Pai is Chairman of Manipal Education and Medical Group, which has interests across
education, healthcare and research. He is a medical graduate from Kasturba Medical College,
Manipal and later completed his fellowship in Hospital Administration in the United States. He
began his career as the Managing Director of the Melaka Manipal Medical College in Malaysia.
Dr H Sudarshan Ballal Chairman, Manipal Health
Enterprises
Dr Ballal is Director of Manipal Institute of Nephrology and Urology. He did his MBBS degree from
Kasturba Medical College, Manipal in 1977 and obtained his MD degree from the US. He did his
Residency at Deaconess Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri, USA and then pursued his Fellowship in
Nephrology at St Louis University Medical Centre, Missouri, US.
Mr Dilip Jose Managing Director & CEO Mr Dilip Jose has over 30 years of experience in various sectors and has spent his last 18
years in healthcare. He has earlier served as senior adviser, healthcare in TPG Capital, CEO
of CARE Hospitals and regional director in Fortis Healthcare.
Figure 245: Manipal generated 20%+ EBITDA margin in
FY20
Figure 246: RoCE of Manipal was >10% in FY20
* Kovai Medical Center & Hospital Ltd; ** Krishna Institute of Medical
Sciences; ^ Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd. Source: CRISIL
* Kovai Medical Center & Hospital Ltd; ** Krishna Institute of Medical
Sciences; ^ Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd. Source: CRISIL
TPG
Temasek
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KMCHL*
KIMS**
Manipal
Shalby
Apollo
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Max
Narayana
Fortis
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KIMS**
Narayana
KMCHL*
Apollo
Manipal
Fortis
Shalby
HCG^
RoCE (FY20)
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100
Medha Servo Drives
Industrials Lokesh Garg, Gaurav Birmiwal
Company profile
Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd, founded in 1984, is focussed on rail transportation. Medha’s vision is to become a world leader
in railway products and to achieve this it specialises in three areas: control electronics, power electronics and safety critical
signalling. In addition to the railway domain, Medha has now diversified its product portfolio to include solar inverters and
electric vehicle propulsion systems.
Funding history
There has been no PE funding.
Management profiles
Yugandhar Reddy Promoter and
Chairman
Mr Reddy has 30 years of experience in the railway industry. He has worked with
VV Rama Rao & Co., Yamuna Digital Electronics Pvt Ltd and Electronics
Corporation of India Limited, where he worked as technical officer for six years.
PS Babu Promoter and
Director
Mr Babu has more than 40 years of experience in product design, development
and engineering. He began his career with Electronics Corporation of India Limited,
where he worked for 16 years in mechanical design and product engineering of
servo components, servo systems, control instrumentation, and signalling for
defence, nuclear reactors and railways.
Y Kasyap Reddy Managing Director Mr Reddy began his career with Analog Devices Inc., USA, where he worked as an
applications engineer for three years prior to joining Medha.
Figure 247: Medha grew at a 25% CAGR over the last
five years
Figure 248: Strong profitability trends
0%
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Meesho
Company profile
FashNear Technologies Pvt Ltd owns and operates a social platform under the brand name of Meesho. It allows sellers to
set up an online shop through its platform and also facilitates sharing on other social media platforms such as WhatsApp,
Facebook, Pinterest, amongst others. Its features include order management, meesho bubble, online payments, real-time
shop updates, subscribe to new products in Facebook messenger, and beautiful online shop. The company was founded in
2015 and is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Funding history
Meesho has raised a total of US$190 mn till date and was valued at US$700 mn when acquired by Facebook. It is expected
to be valued at US$1.2 bn in 2021. It has been funded by Sequoia, SAIF Partners and Prosus Ventures, among others.
Figure 249: Meesho is expected to raise US$250 mn from SoftBank at a valuation of US$1.2-1.3 bn in 2021
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Vidit Aatrey Founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey is a BTech degree holder from IIT Delhi. Prior to Meesho, he has
worked for ITC in supply chain management and InMobi in strategy and sales
teams.
Sanjeev Barnwal Founder and CTO Sanjeev Barnwal completed his BTech in computer science from IIT Delhi. He
worked with Sony in Tokyo for five years before founding Meesho
steadily
Series A, SAIF
Series B, Sequioa
Series C,D, Prosus

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102
Mu Sigma
Consulting Satyam Thakur, Garima Bharti
Company profile
Mu Sigma, founded in 2004, is a consulting firm offering data analytics services. It uses big data analytics to drive data-
based decision making for its clients. It is headquartered in the US and has an India office in Bengaluru.
Funding history
Mu Sigma has raised cumulative funding of ~US$220 mn. It was valued at US$1.5 bn during the 2013 fund raise.
However, buyback of shares from its former CEO, Ambiga Subramaniam in 2016 valued the company at ~US$900 mn. FT
Ventures, Sequoia, General Atlantic, Fidelity and Mastercard are some of the key investors in the company. The current
valuation of the company is estimated to be US$1.2 bn.
Source: Tracxn
Management profile
Dhiraj Rajaram Founder and Chief
Executive Officer
Dhiraj Rajaram is the founder and CEO of Mu Sigma. Prior to this, he worked as
a management consultant in the United States. He holds an MBA from Booth
School of Business at University of Chicago.
Figure 253: Revenue growth low at 3% CAGR Figure 254: Business profitability remains high
Source: ICRA Source: ICRA
FT Ventures
Sequoia , General Atlantic
Mastercard, Fidelity

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2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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FY16 FY19 FY20
Revenue (₹ mn)
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FY16 FY19 FY20
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MX Player
IT/Tech Varun Ahuja, Krati Sanklecha
Company profile
MX Media and Entertainment Pte. Ltd. (formerly J2 Interactive Co. Ltd) is engaged in providing video streaming services
under the name MX Player. It offers movies, television shows, web series, music videos, and short videos. The platform
focusses on original content with emphasis on Hindi and regional languages. The language range includes everything from
Malayalam, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, and Kannada. The company is based in Singapore with an additional country
office in Maharashtra. MX Media and Entertainment Pte. Ltd operates as a subsidiary of Times Internet Ltd.
Funding history
MX Player was acquired by Times Internet from J2 Interactive Media in 2018 at a valuation of US$200 mn in 2018. Since
then, it has raised funds from Tencent Holdings at a valuation of US$500 mn.
Source: Factset
Management profile
Satyan Gajwani Founder and COO Satyan Gajwani is the Vice Chairman of Times Internet. He also serves on the
board of Bennett Coleman, the parent company of the Times Group.
Figure 256: Digital Ad revenues in India are going up Figure 257: EBITDA growth has been strong as well
Times Internet Acquired
Series A, Tencent
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104
Mytrah Energy
Company profile
Mytrah Energy (India) Pvt Ltd has the largest wind data bank in India, being the only Independent Power Producer having a
pan-India presence of over 240 wind masts. Mytrah has an operational portfolio of 2.3 gigawatts (GW)—including 1,700MW
of wind and around 535MW of solar—apart from 700MW of projects under development.
Funding history
In 2010, Mytrah listed on Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange after raising US$80 mn from
institutional investors. It delisted in May 2018. The company has mostly raised money as debt.
Management profiles
Ravi Kailas Chairman Ravi Kailas is the founder and Chairman of the London-based Mytrah Group, whose
mission is to deliver sustainable and unsubsidised renewable energy worldwide. An
entrepreneur with 25 years of experience, he has built successful companies across
diverse sectors including telecom, software, franchising, digital advertising, financial
options and infrastructure.
Vikram Kailas Vice Chairman, MD Vikram Kailas has worked in the energy & utilities investment banking group at
Credit Suisse in New York, where he was involved in a number of renewable
energy transactions, including a US$6 bn exit financing for Calpine and a US$300
mn loan for First Energy. Mr Kailas has also worked for Deloitte Consulting in India.
He has a bachelor in engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology,
Chennai and Master of Business Administration from Yale School of Management
Figure 258: Mytrah has ~Rs30 bn revenues (₹ mn) Figure 259: Profitability under pressure (₹ mn)
-100%
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200%
300%
400%
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2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
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National Stock Exchange
Company profile
The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) was incorporated in 1992 and is now the leading stock exchange in India
by market share. NSE has a fully-integrated business model comprising exchange listings, trading services, clearing and
settlement services, indices, market data feeds, technology solutions and financial education offerings.
Funding history
NSE was set up by a group of leading Indian financial institutions at the behest of the Government of India to bring
transparency to the Indian capital market. The key domestic investors include Life Insurance Corporation, State Bank of
India, IFCI Limited, IDFC Limited and Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited. Key global investors include Norwest
Venture, GS Strategic Investments Limited, SAIF Investments, Aranda Investments and PI Opportunities. Recently, an
American PE fund, TA Associates, invested US$150 mn in the exchange at a valuation of US$7 bn.
Source: VCC
Management profile
Vikram Limaye MD & CEO Prior to joining NSE, Mr Limaye was the managing director & CEO of IDFC, a
diversified financial services conglomerate. After completing his MBA in
Wharton, USA, he worked on Wall Street for eight years before returning to
Mumbai in 2004.
Figure 261: Consolidated gross and net margins have
been improving
Figure 262: Market share has increased across CM and
derivatives
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
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FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 9M21
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FY18 FY19 FY20 9M21
Cash Market Currency Futures Currency Option
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106
Nykaa E-Retail
Company profile
Nykaa E-Retail Pvt Ltd owns and operates an e-commerce platform nykaa.com for providing personal care products. Its
products include make-up kits, skincare, hair products, appliances, personal care, natural, mom and baby, wellness, men's
products and fragrances. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Funding history
Nykaa has raised total US$103 mn till date and was valued at US$1.2 bn in its last round of funding in 2020. It has been
funded by TVS Capital, Sunil Munjal, Lighthouse Funds, TPG Growth and Steadview Capital.
Figure 263: Nykaa was valued at US$1.2 bn in 2020
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Falguni Nayar Founder & CEO After graduating from IIM A, Falguni Nayan started her career in consulting with
AF Ferguson, followed by a 17-year stint with Kotak Bank before founding
Nykaa.
Adwaita Nayar CEO, Fashion Adwaita Nayan finished her graduation from Yale University, and started her
career with Bain. She completed an MBA from Harvard before taking on her role
as CEO of Fashion in Nykaa.
Figure 264: Sales have grown by 73% CAGR from 2018-
20
Figure 265: Nykaa has reported positive EBITDA since
FY19
Series A, Private
Series B, TVS Shriram
Series C, Sunil Munjal
Series D, Lighthouse funds
Series E, TPG Growth
Series F, Steadview
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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Ola Cabs (ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd)
Company profile
Ola Cabs was founded in 2010 and is now India’s largest mobility platform. The ride hailing company has presence in 250+
cities across India, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Funding history
Ola was valued at US$5.7 bn in the last fund raise round held in April 2019 where it raised ~US$450 mn. The company has
raised a cumulative funding of ~US$3 bn till date. Steadview, Tiger Global, SoftBank and Temasek are some of the key
investors in the company.
Management profiles
Bhavish Aggarwal Co-Founder and
CEO
Bhavish Aggarwal is the founder of Ola. He is a 2008 batch graduate from IIT
Bombay and prior to his entrepreneurial stint, worked in Microsoft Research.
Ankit Bhati Co-Founder and
CTO
Ankit Bhati is a 2010 batch graduate from IIT Bombay and has been associated
with Ola since its inception.
Figure 267: Revenue CAGR of 73% over FY15-18 Figure 268: High cash burn business with loss at ~99%
of sales
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2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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108
Ola Electric Mobility
Company profile
Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd was set up in 2017 by Ola, the ride hailing service provider. It aims to build electric vehicles
across segments while developing battery as a service application for shared mobility. The company is currently led by
Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder of Ola. Ola Electric Mobility has been piloting many projects around charging solutions,
battery swap options and electric vehicle technology. It is currently in the process of setting up its 2W manufacturing unit and
will be launching its e2W offering soon.
Funding history
Ola Electric has raised a total funding of ~US$339 mn, the bulk of which was raised in 2019 at a valuation of US$1.05 bn.
Hyundai, Kia, SoftBank, Tiger Global and Matrix Partners are some of the key investors in the company.
Management profiles
Bhavish Aggarwal Chairman and Group CEO Bhavish Aggarwal is the founder of Ola. He acts as the Chairman for Ola
Electric. He is a 2008 batch graduate from IIT Bombay and prior to his
entrepreneurial stint, worked in Microsoft Research.
Jose Pinheiro Head of Global
Manufacturing &
Operations
Jose Pinheiro has been appointed as the head of global manufacturing and
operations at Ola Electric since Nov-2020. He is a veteran from General Motors
where he spent close to ~45 years and held diverse portfolios across the
company including body shop process engineering, manufacturing engineering,
plant operations, director of manufacturing.
Acquisition
Ola Electric acquired Amsterdam-based innovative electric scooter manufacturer Etergo BV in May 2020. Etergo has
developed an all-electric state-of-the-art AppScooter, which has won multiple awards across the world for its innovative
design and engineering. Etergo’s app scooter has a range of 240 km, can accelerate from 0 to 45 km/h in 3.9s and has
50L seat storage.
Manufacturing set-up
Ola Electric is building its 2W electric vehicle manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu. The facility, the largest such unit in the
world, will have an initial capacity of 2 mn units per year. The land acquisition was completed in Jan-2021 and the company
will invest in Rs24 bn in setting up the unit. The plant will employ ~5,000 robots and is likely to be the most automated plant
in India.
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Oravel Stays (Oyo Rooms)
Company profile
Oravel Stays Pvt Ltd owns and operates an online hotel booking platform Oyorooms.com. It offers its services under the
brand name Oyo Rooms with facilities such as air-conditioned rooms, spotless linen, breakfast, WiFi, washroom, and cable
television. It allows users to book a room at an affordable price through its mobile application. The company was founded in
2013 and is based in Gurgaon, Haryana with a registered office in Ahmedabad.
Funding history
Oyo Rooms has raised a total of US$2.3 bn till date and was valued at US$10 bn in its last round of funding in 2019, which
has since dropped to US$8 bn. It has been funded by SoftBank, Lightspeed, Grab VC, Greenoaks Capital, and Sequoia
Capital, among others.
Figure 269: Oyo Rooms’ valuation has dropped to US$8 bn in 2020 from US$10 bn in 2019
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Ritesh Agarwal Founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal is an alumni of Indian school of Business and Finance in Delhi.
He dropped out of college and founded Oyo Rooms in 2013.
Mandar Vaidya CEO, Southeast Asia and
Middle East
Mandar Vaidya joined Oyo Rooms in 2019 after working with McKinsey and Co.
for 17 years.
Figure 270: Sales have grown exponentially since FY18 Figure 271: Cost-to-income ratio has been declining
steadily
Series A, Sequioa
Series B, Lightspeed
Series C, D, Softbank
Series E, Softbank
Series F, Softbank

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110
Parle Products
Consumer staples Arnab Mitra
Company profile
Parle Products started in 1929 as a manufacturer of confectionery and a decade later ventured into its current core area of
biscuits with the launch of the Parle Gluco brand of biscuits. The brand, now known as Parle-G, is the largest biscuit brand
in India. The company has several other brands in biscuits such as Monaco, Marie and the more recent Milano and Hide &
Seek cookies. While over the years it has lost its leadership position in overall biscuits to close competitor Britannia, it
remains a strong number 2 player with nearly 28% market share. Parle has now diversified to salted snacks, cake and rusk
as well.
Funding history
The company has not raised funding so valuation history is unavailable. However valuing using a discounted multiple to listed
peers and accounting for the lower share of premium biscuits, we estimate a valuation of ~US$3.6 bn.
Management profile
Chauhan family Founder Directors Parle remains a family-run enterprise to this day and most of the key management
personnel are members of the Chauhan family. The grandsons of the founder, Mr
Mohanlal, are the current MDs and their sons are also part of the board and involved
in the day-to-day operations of the business. Mr Vijay Chauhan, one of the current
MDs is ~80 years old and joined the business when he was 23 and is an engineering
graduate from MIT. His brothers Sharad and Raj Chauhan are also MDs.
Figure 272: Revenue has grown at par with industry and
margins have kept steady
Figure 273: Net profit margin is relatively lower than
peers (PAT = US$ mn)
0%
3%
6%
9%
12%
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Paytm
FinTech Ashish Gupta, Viral Shah
Company profile
Founded in 2010, Paytm was among the first wallet companies and has grown to have a user base of ~450 mn. It has also
adopted UPI payments with its proliferation having ~7.5% market share in it and has also on-boarded ~17 mn merchants,
most of which are QR code-based small merchants. It is evolving into a diversified FinTech platform, offering investment
(MF, FD, stock broking), protection (insurance), and lending (BNPL, personal loans), with an aim to drive monetisation
through cross-selling. It also has a payment banks and has raised Rs10 bn of deposits from ~60 mn accounts. Whereas, its
consumer internet offerings (travel, entertainment and shopping) help it to attract new customers and increase engagement
on the platform. Paytm has plans of being not just an originator but also to lend on its balance sheet and plans to convert its
payments bank into a small finance bank which would enable it to lend on its balance sheet as well as build a liability
franchise (the current payment bank licence restricts deposits to Rs0.1 mn per customer).
Funding history
Paytm has raised total US$4.4 bn till date and is valued at US$16 bn. SoftBank, Ant Financial, T. Rowe, and Hana
Investment are the key investors in Paytm.
Management profiles
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Founder &
CEO
Vijay Sharma was listed as one of Time Magazine’s most influential people and India’s
youngest billionaire by Forbes in 2017. He also invests in early-stage internet start-ups from
his Paytm’s One97 Mobility Fund. He has a bachelor's degree in electronics and
communication engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering.
Madhur Deora President &
CFO
Prior to Paytm, Madhur Deora worked in New York, London and Mumbai and served as
managing director in Citigroup’s investment banking business prior to joining Paytm in
October 2016.
Figure 275: Starting off with payments, Paytm has expanded to lending, broking, investing (MF + FD) & insurance
Source: Company data, NSE, NPCI, Credit Suisse
0
10,000
20,000
0
1,000
2,000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2010
60
mn
Rs15 bn Rs10 bn
Accounts Linked
FDs
Deposits
Paytments bank
6.6 mn
26 K
Rs 60 bn
Users Broking
users
MF AUM
PayTM Money
150 mn
7.4%
Wallet
users
UPI
market
share
PayTM Payments
7.0
mn
0.1
mn
Rs
5.5
bn
PayTM
postpaid
users
Merchant
borrowers
Merchant
loan disb.
PayTM Lending
28 nos
4.5
mn
Partners Daily
logins
Insurance
broking
Consumer
internet
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112
PharmEasy
Company profile
Launched in 2015, PharmEasy is an India-based health technology company and operates on a full stack model whereby it
claims to procure medicines directly from the manufacturers before delivering it to the customers. It offers a range of
products under various categories, which includes prescription and OTC drugs, personal care, wellness products and medical
equipment. It provides tele-consultation services with doctors to issue online prescriptions. It also enables booking of
diagnostic tests through the mode of home sample collection.
Funding history
PharmEasy has raised a total of US$328 mn till date across seven funding rounds and was last valued at US$700 mn (Nov-
2019). Key investors include Temasek, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Eight Roads Ventures. Post that, PharmEasy and
MedLife proposed a merger wherein the combined entity was valued at US$1.2 bn.
Source: FactSet, Crunchbase
Management profiles
Siddharth Shah Co-Founder & CEO Siddharth Shah heads Ascent Health and Wellness Solutions Pvt Ltd, which is a
pharmaceutical distribution platform and acts as a B2B distribution entity for
PharmEasy. He holds a BTech degree in computer science engineering from
Dwarkadas Jivanlal Sanghvi College of Engineering and an MBA from Indian
Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Dharmil Sheth Co-Founder In addition to PharmEasy, Dharmil Sheth founded Ekagrata, which supports quality
education especially among the under-privileged, and 91streets, which is a
marketing platform for retailers. He holds a BE degree in electronics engineering
from KJ Somaiya College of Engineering and an MBA from Institute of
Management Technology, Ghaziabad.
Dhaval Shah Co-Founder Prior to launching PharmEasy, Dhaval Shah worked with McKinsey & Company for
two years as a consultant. He holds an MBBS from Rajiv Gandhi Government
Medical College, and an MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur.
Series A, Bessemer
Series B, Bessemer
Series C1+C2,
Bessemer/Eight Roads
Series D, Temasek
MedLife
merger
0
500
1,000
1,500
0
100
200
300
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2015
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PhonePe
Company profile
Founded in 2015, PhonePe is a market leader in UPI payments, with 45% market share and a user base of ~250 mn
registered and ~100 mn monthly active users. It also cross-sells financial products like MF investments, digital gold and
insurance products. It is also on-boarding online and offline merchants—the former within the PhonePe app in a mini-app
form and 13 mn+ offline merchants through inter-operable QR codes. Its app also enables flight or movie bookings,
shopping, in partnership with existing players like Goibibo, BookMyShow, etc.
Funding history
PhonePe is almost wholly owned by Flipkart and its parent Walmart and has raised total funding of US$1.3 bn till date and is
valued at US$5.5 bn. While it was earlier an exclusive subsidiary of Flipkart, with its latest US$700 mn round, Walmart has
initiated steps to spin off PhonePe and onboard external investors with direct reporting to Walmart.
Management profiles
Sameer Nigam Co-founder & CEO Prior to founding PhonePe, Mr Nigam worked as senior vice president,
engineering, at Flipkart. He is an MBA from the Wharton School.
Rahul Chari Co-founder & CTO Previously, Mr Chari built the software stack for eKart logistics at Flipkart. Prior to
that he had 10+ years of experience in storage visualisation, content management,
and supply chain technology. He has a degree in computer science from IIT
Bombay.
Figure 278: PhonePe has 100 mn active users; 45% UPI
market share
Figure 279: PhonePe financials
Source: Company data, NPCI Source: Entrackr
0
3,000
6,000
0
500
1,000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2015
170 175
250
50 55
100
70
277
3 8 13
41%
45%
35%
40%
45%
50%
0
200
400
Apr-19 Dec-19 Nov-20
PhonePe
Reg. users (mn) Mnthly active users (mn)
Ann. TPV (US$ bn) Merchants (mn)
428 2,450 4,270
8,400
21,588 22,020
(7,910)
(19,047) (17,710)
(30,000)
(20,000)
(10,000)
-
10,000
20,000
30,000
FY18 FY19 FY20
PhonePe financials (Rs mn)
Revenues Expenses PAT
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114
Pine Labs
Company profile
Founded in 1998, Pine Labs is the largest POS player, processing US$30 bn of payments annually, representing 14% of
card spends through a network of ~600k POS machines. Its business model consists of fixed rental for POS machines and
bundling value-added services (analytics, billing and reconciliation, EMI financing, loyalty programmes, etc.). It has also
become a dominant player in offline POS consumer durable financing wherein it offers EMIs in a tie-up with 120+ brands,
35+ lenders, and 150k merchants for fees. It disbursed US$2 bn of consumer loans (no-interest EMIs) in FY20 with an
average transaction size of ~Rs25k in India and plans to expand the offering to five Southeast Asian markets in 2021.
Funding history
Pine Labs has raised a total of ~US$400 mn till date and is valued at US$2 bn. Sequoia, Temasek, Mastercard, Paypal,
Lone Pine and Actis are the key investors in Pine Labs.
Management profiles
Lokvir Kapoor Co-founder &
Chairman
Before Pine Labs, Lokvir Kapoor worked with Schlumberger in financial management and
business development in India and overseas. He has a Bachelor of Engineering from Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore.
Amrish Rau CEO Previously, Amrish Rau was the founder and CEO of Citrus Pay, a consumer payments
company, which was later acquired by PayU. Prior to that, he worked in NCR Corporation and
was also the CEO of First Data Corporation, an electronic payment services company. He was
also founder and MD of ICICI Merchant Services (a JV of FDC and ICICI Bank).
Figure 281: Pine Labs has 600k POS terminals; 150k
merchants
Figure 282: Pine Labs financials
Source: Company data, Credit Suisse Source: Entrackr
0
800
1,600
2,400
0
100
200
300
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Funding (US$ mn) Estimated Valuation (US mn, RHS)
Founded in 1998
600K
150K
120+
85mn
US$30bn
US$2bn US$1.5bn
POS MerchantsBrands tie
ups
Pre-
approved
EMI
customers
Payments
TPV
EMI /
BNPL
ann.
disbursals
Gift card
TPV
Pine Labs
1,910
3,323
4,916
(40) (25) (137)
-1,000
1,000
3,000
5,000
FY17 FY18 FY19
Pine Labs financials (₹ mn)
Total revenues PAT
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Piramal Glass
Consumer Discretionary Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Reason for inclusion: Recent funding round at a valuation > US$1 bn
Company profile
Piramal Glass is a leading provider of glass packaging solutions in to segments such as pharmaceutical, cosmetics &
perfumery, and specialty food & beverage. In pharma, Piramal provides glass bottles for syrups and vials for infusions and
injectables. Comestics include bottles for creams and nail polish which beverages include bottles for beer and alcohol. It has
a manufacturing footprint in the USA, India, and Sri Lanka with an overall capacity of 1,475 tpd, with 12 furnaces and 65
production lines. Piramal Glass started in 1984 when the Piramal group acquired Gujarat Glass in Kosamba. Over the years
it has grown through both organic capacity expansion as well as acquisitions that have added segments and markets. Firms
such as L'Oréal, Diageo, Pernod Ricard, and Sanofi are customers.
Funding history
Piramal Glass has not raised private equity funding. However, the company, which was once listed on the exchanges, was
delisted by the group in 2014. The last traded market cap was c.160 mn. In Nov-2020, Piramal Group announced the sale
of this business to Blackstone at a US$1 bn valuation.
Figure 283: Blackstone acquired the company from the Piramal Group at a valuation of US$1 bn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Ajay Piramal Founder chairman Chairman of the company and the chairman of the Piramal Group, a conglomerate
with interests in pharmaceutical, financial services, real estate, healthcare analytics
and glass packaging.
Vijay Shah Vice Chairman An old hand at the Piramal group, Mr Shah is a CA rank holder and has also done
the Management Education Programme from IIM, Ahmedabad and Advanced
Management Program from Harvard Business School.
Figure 284: Piramal Glass’s revenue CAGR over the
years has been muted
Figure 285: Margins have recovered after an interim dip
Management delisted
Piramal Glass
Acquired from Piramal by
Blackstone
0
750
1,500
0.0
0.5
1.0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1984
-2%
0%
2%
4%
6%
300
310
320
330
340
350
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Revenues (US$ mn) YoY % (RHS)
0%
3%
6%
9%
12%
15%
0
10
20
30
40
50
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
PAT PAT %
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116
PlayGames24x7 (RummyCircle)
Gaming Varun Ahuja, Krati Sanklecha
Company profile
Play Games24x7 Pvt Ltd owns and operates an online game platform. It offers rummy circle, Call it Right, Ultimate Rummy,
Ultimate Poker and Ultimate Teenpatti games. It also owns and operates platform RummyCircle.com. The portal brings
games of skill with cash prizes. It focusses on the online rummy game, multiplayer tournament platform, points rummy, and
knock-out tournaments. The company was founded in 2006 and is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Funding history
PlayGames reported close to US$200 mn in sales in FY20. Estimating the price-to-sales multiple as 7.5 (Dream 11), we
get a valuation of US$1.5 bn for PlayGames24x7.
Management profiles
Bhavin Pandya Founder and COO Bhavin Pandya completed his PhD in economics from New York University. Prior
to that, he had studied electrical engineering at Purdue University.
Trivikraman Thampy Founder and CEO Trivikraman Thampy is an IIT Bombay graduate with a PhD in economics from New
York University
2016-20
Figure 287: EBITDA growth has been strong as well
0%
50%
100%
150%
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
0%
30%
60%
90%
120%
150%
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
EBITDA (₹ mn) YoY growth % (RHS)
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Policybazaar
InsurTech Ashish Gupta, Viral Shah
Company profile
Founded in 2008, Policybazaar has >90% market share in online insurance aggregation and 50% market share in total
digital insurance sales in India, with a monthly run-rate of 1 mn policies. It originated Rs40 bn worth of premium in FY20,
growing at ~50% CAGR over the last two years. The platform has ~150 mn unique visitors annually with >90% from direct
channels. It has 8-10% market share in health insurance and 20-25% in term life insurance policies in India. PB Fintech,
also houses other verticals: Paisabazaar, an aggregator platform for various lending and investment products and a similar
insurance platform in the Middle East.
Funding history
Policybazaar’s parent, PB Fintech, has raised a total of ~US$550 mn till date and is valued at US$1.5 bn. Info Edge,
SoftBank, Intel, Inventus Capital, Tiger Global, Tencent are the key investors in PB Fintech (Policybazaar’s parent).
Management profiles
Yashish Dahiya Co-founder & group CEO Yashish Dahiya holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from IIT Delhi, a PGDM
from IIM Ahmedabad and an MBA from INSEAD. Previously, he worked at Bain
and then was CEO of a global online insurance broker. He also led an online
travel aggregator as its MD.
Sarbvir Singh CEO for Policybazaar Sarbvir Singh is an IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus and has over 20 years
of global experience in venture capital, senior corporate leadership and public
markets investing. Prior to Policybazaar, he was a managing partner at
WaterBridge Ventures.
Figure 289: Policybazaar is dominant in online insurance
aggregation
Figure 290: PB Fintech group financials
Source: Company data, Ken, Entrackr Source: Company data, Fintrackr, Ken
0
400
800
1,200
1,600
0
100
200
300
400
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2008
>90%
50-60%
7-10%
20-25%
1
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
125%
Online
insurance
aggregator
Online
insurance
policies
Health
insurance
Term life
insurance
Monthly
policies
Market share (%) Volume mn
Policy Bazaar 3,103
1,560
4
(2,131)
(970)
(127)
(4,000)
(2,000)
0
2,000
4,000
Policy Bazaar Paisa Bazaar Doc Prime
FY19 (₹ mn)
Revenues PAT
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118
Postman
Company profile
Founded in 2014 in Bengaluru, Postman is a collaborative testing and development suite. Postman is targeted at coders,
who create, test, and modify application programme interface (APIs). It has an understandable and intuitive user interface
and helps test APIs without creating code for testing, which was the norm earlier. Today, payments, communication and
collaborations are all API-centric. For example, when you check the weather on your phone, via a search engine or a
weather app, APIs bring that information to you. Google or the app does not own the weather data, so they use APIs to
source it.
Funding history
Postman has been the fastest SaaS start-up to enter the Unicorn club in 2020 with Nexus Venture Partners being the
largest investor driving ~40% of the total funding raised.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Abhinav Asthana Co-Founder & CEO Abhinav Asthana who was the CTO of photo app TeliportMe, started the project
during his spare time and later quit his job in order to pursue development of
Postman full time. He is an engineer from BITS Pilani.
Ankit Sobti Co-Founder & CTO Ankit Sobti is an engineer and holds an MBA from ISB. Prior to joining Abhinav to
co-found Postman, Ankit worked as a product manager at Media.net.
Abhijit Kane Co-Founder Prior to joining Abhinav to co-found Postman, Abhijit Kane worked as a software
engineer at Walmart.
Metric Comments
Revenue Postman clocked revenues of US$40 mn in 2019, according to an ET report while The Ken pegged its annual
recurring revenue from product subscriptions at US$30-40 mn. A look at the financials of Postman’s Indian
entity on Tofler reveals operating revenues of Rs154.4 mn in FY19 and Rs88.6 mn in FY18 which means the
lion’s share of the company’s revenue base is accounted for by its US entity.
Category wise
competitors
API Development: Swagger, Apiary, Gelato, MuleSoft, Smartbear
API Testing: Smartbear, Katalon, RapidAPI, JMeter, Karate
API Monitoring: Loggly, AlertSite, sematext, Appdynamics, dotcom-monitor
Series A, Nexus Venture Partners
Series B, Charles River Ventures,
Nexus Venture
Series C, Charles River Ventures,
Nexus Venture, Insight Venture
0
1,500
3,000
0
100
200
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2014
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Rategain
Discretionary Lokesh Garg, Gaurav Birmiwal
Company profile
Provider of cloud-based management solutions for the hospitality & travel industry. The company competes with players like
Sabre, Duetto, Travelport, and IDeaS.
Funding history
Rategain has raised around US$55 mn so far in Series A from investors like TA Associates.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Bhanu Chopra Founder and
Chairman
Bhanu Chopra founded the company in 2004 and has been with the company over
the last 17 years. He has completed his BS in finance and computer science from
Indiana University Bloomington
Harmeet Singh CEO Harmeet Singh has been with the company since 2019. He was earlier associated
with Madison Dearborn Partners, j2 Global. He has a BS in finance and accounting
from California State University
Aqeel Ahmed COO Aqeel Ahmed has been with the company almost since inception from 2005. He
has a BTech in mechanical engineering from College of Tech, Pantnagar.
Figure 294: Rategain grew by 20% CAGR over the last
four years (£ mn)
Figure 295: Consistently profitable (£ mn)
Avataar Ventures
TA Associates Management
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
0
20
40
60
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2004
-100%
0%
100%
200%
0
10
20
30
FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019
0%
6%
12%
18%
0
1
2
3
FY2015 FY2016 FY2017 FY2018 FY2019
PBT PBT % (RHS)
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120
Razorpay
Company profile
Founded in 2014, Razorpay operates a payment gateway with 5 mn online merchants, processing annual payments of
US$25 bn. Its target segment includes MSMEs seeking to build online presence and start-ups with its developer friendly and
easy to integrate single script APIs. It also offers value-added services like automating vendor payments, real time
reconciliation and analytics, GST invoicing, and the like. It is also building a neo-banking platform that offers business
banking and funding to merchants in partnership with banks.
Funding history
Razorpay has raised a total of US$204 mn till date and is valued at US$1 bn. Matrix, Tiger Global, Sequoia, DST, and GIC
are the key investors in Razorpay.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Harshil Mathur Co-founder & CEO Harshil Mathur previously worked at Schlumberger as a field engineer. He is an
engineering graduate from IIT Roorkee.
Shashank Kumar Co-founder Shashank Kumar has a graduate degree in computer science from IIT Roorkee.
Figure 297: Razorpay has 5 mn+ merchants processing
US$25 bn of payments annually
Figure 298: Razorpay financials
Source: Company data Source: Entrackr
-300
300
900
1,500
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2014
US$25 bn
5 mn
10 k+ 8 k+
0
10
20
30
Annual trnx
processed
Merchants RazorpayX
enabled
merchants
Razorpay Capital
enabled
merchants
-2000
0
2000
4000
6000
Revenues Total expenses PAT Net cash flow
from operations
(₹ mn)
FY19 FY20
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ReNew Power Ventures
Company profile
ReNew Power has a total asset base of 10.14 GW of which 5.73 GW is already commissioned. ReNew Power develops, builds,
owns and operates utility scale wind and solar energy projects as well as distributed solar energy projects that generate energy for
commercial and industrial customers. It today operates more than 110 utility scale projects spread across eight states in India.
Funding history
ReNew Power has been funded by Goldman Sachs, Global Environment Fund, Asian Development Bank and Abu Dhabi
Investment Authority, CPPIB and JERA.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Sumant Sinha Chairman and
MD
After starting his career in the Tata Administrative Service, Sumant Sinha worked as an investment
banker with Citicorp and ING Barings in the US and UK, before heading finance at Aditya Birla Group.
He was also COO of Suzlon. He has a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia
University, business management from IIM Calcutta and a BTech from IIT Delhi.
Michael Specht
Bruun
Goldman Sachs
Nominee
Director
Michael Bruun holds a bachelor’s in economics from University of Copenhagen and master’s in
economics from University of Copenhagen and Cornell University. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2004
and is currently working as a partner in the merchant banking division of Goldman Sachs in London.
Satoshi Yajima JERA Power
Nominee
Director
Satoshi Yajima works for JERA since 2016 and is responsible for business development of global
renewable project and thermal IPP power projects as senior operating officer at the business
development department at HQ in Tokyo. He has over 30 years of experience in development and
management of international and domestic power projects and during his career has served at
Marubeni, Enron and TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) before his association with JERA.
Figure 300: ReNew grew at 67% CAGR over last four
years (Rs mn)
Figure 301: Strong growth in asset base impacts
profitability due to fixed costs flowing through (Rs mn)
Goldman Sachs (GS)
GS, Global Env.
Fund (GEF), ADB
ADIA, GEF, GS
JERA
CPPIB
CPPIB, GS, ADIA
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
0
200
400
600
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2011
0%
50%
100%
150%
0
20,000
40,000
60,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
-12%
-6%
0%
6%
12%
18%
-6,000
-4,000
-2,000
0
2,000
4,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
PBT PBT % (RHS)
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122
RSPL Limited
Consumer staples Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
Mr Murlidhar and Bimal Gyanchandani founded this Kanpur-based consumer goods firm in 1987. The key segment of RSPL
is economy detergents with ‘Ghadi’ being its main brand. RSPL is a key competitor to Nirma and HUL’s lower end brands
and has a 10% share in the detergents market and is primarily strong in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh and also Western India. The company has expanded beyond fabric wash and detergents to dishwasher bars, body
soap and sanitary pads as well.
Funding history
The company has not raised funding so valuation history is unavailable but valuing as per the listed peerset in the tier 2 space
given its exposure to a single product and that too at the lower end, we estimate the company to be worth c.US$1.3 bn.
Management profiles
Murlidhar and Bimal
Gyanchandani
Founder MD RSPL is a largely family run business with the two founders continuing to be on the
board. They are responsible for group strategy including the key marketing
function. Growth planning as well as any foray into newer segments is also a part
of their scope. Murlidhar Gyanchandani is the executive chairman while Bimal
Gyanchandani is the MD.
Manoj, Rahul and Rohit
Gyanchandani
Director While Manoj Gyanchandani is involved in RSPL, he is more focussed on the other
business interests of the group such as leather and footwear. Rahul Gyanchandani
is a joint MD, joined the business 2004 and was key to diversifying into body soaps
and other home care segments. Rohit Gyanchandani joined the business in 2005
and is a graduate from SP Jain Institute of Management and looks after the
hygiene care part of the business.
Figure 302: RSPL’s market share has increased 3 pp to
25%
Figure 303: Margins have reduced from the peak of FY16
18%
20%
22%
24%
26%
550
600
650
700
750
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Revenues (US$ mn) Market share in detergents (RHS)
0%
5%
10%
15%
0
20
40
60
80
100
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
PBT (US$ mn) PBT % (RHS)
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Serum Institute of India
Company profile
Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced and sold globally
(more than 1.5 bn doses) which includes polio vaccine as well as diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, Hib, BCG, r-Hepatitis B,
measles, mumps and rubella, and COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines manufactured by Serum Institute are accredited by World
Health Organisation, Geneva and are being used in around 170 countries. The company was founded in 1966 by Dr Cyrus
Poonawalla with the aim of manufacturing life-saving immuno-biologicals, which were in shortage in the country and
imported at high prices.
Funding history
NA
Source: Mint
Management profiles
Cyrus Poonawalla Founder Dr Cyrus Poonawalla is Chairman of Poonawalla Group, which includes Serum
Institute of India. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in
2005 for his contribution to the field of medicine.
Adar Poonawalla CEO Adar Poonawalla joined Serum Institute of India in 2001 and became CEO in
2011. He was educated at The Bishop's School (Pune), St Edmund's School
Canterbury, followed by the University of Westminster.
Figure 305: Steady revenue growth profile of Serum
Institute of India…
Figure 306: …at high margins, as profitability is high in
the vaccine manufacturing industry
stake sale discussions
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
0
1
1
2
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1996
-15%
0%
15%
30%
45%
0
200
400
600
800
Revenue (US$ mn) YoY growth % (RHS)
48%
51%
54%
57%
60%
63%
0
100
200
300
400
500
PBT (US$ mn) PBT margin % (RHS)
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124
Sharechat
Company profile
Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd owns and operates an online social networking platform, Sharechat.com. It offers services such as
providing funny videos, songs, movies, advertisements, daily horoscopes, quotes, etc. It helps to create and share content in
the user’s own language. It is available in six languages namely Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati and Telugu. The
company was founded in 2015 and is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Funding history
Sharechat has raised a total of US$273 mn till date and is expected to be valued at US$1 bn in its latest round of fund
raising in 2021. It has been funded by Elevation Capital, Lightspeed, Twitter, Xiaomi and 5Y Capital, among others.
Figure 307: Sharechat is looking to raise US$300 mn in series E funding at a valuation of US$1 bn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Farid Ahsan Founder and CEO Farid Ahsan has a BTech degree in material science and engineering from IIT
Kanpur.
Ankush Sachdeval Founder and CEO Ankush Sachdeval has a BTech degree in computer science and engineering
from IIT Kanpur.
steadily
Angel, Elevation
Series A, Lightspeed
Series B, Xiaomi
Series C, 5Y Capital
Series D, Twitter
Series E
0
400
800
1,200
0
50
100
150
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2015
0%
300%
600%
900%
1200%
1500%
0
100
200
300
400
500
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Sorting Hat Technologies (Unacademy)
Education Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt Ltd owns and operates online education web portal Unacademy.in. It offers courses under
seven heads like test preparation, language, programming, job preparation, central board of secondary education,
engineering curriculum, lifelong learning. It also helps educators create these courses, which are then available on the
platform for free. It was founded in 2015 and is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Funding history
Unacademy has raised a total of US$400 mn till date and was valued at US$2 bn in its last round of funding in Nov-2020. it
has been funded by Tiger Global, Sequoia, General Atlantic, Nexus India, Facebook, Blume Ventures and Elevation Capital,
among others.
Figure 310: In the latest round, Unacademy has raised US$250 mn at a valuation of US$2 bn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Gaurav Munjal Founder & CEO After completing his BTech in computer science from Motilal Nehru Institute of
Technology, Gaurav Munjal founded Flatchat before starting Unacademy.
Hemesh Singh Founder & CTO Hemesh Singh has completed engineering from Motilal Nehru Institute of
Technology and was the CTO of Flatchat before founding Unacademy.
steadily
Series A1, Blume Ventures
Series A2 Nexus Ventures
Series B, Nexus Ventures
Series C, Sequoia
Series D, Steadview
Series E, General Atlantic
0
800
1,600
2,400
0
100
200
300
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2015
0%
250%
500%
750%
1000%
0
200
400
600
800
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
0
4
8
12
16
20
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Cost to Income ratio
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126
Sporta Technologies (Dream11)
Gaming Varun Ahuja, Krati Sanklecha
Company profile
Sporta Technologies Pvt Ltd (formerly known as Dream11 Fantasy Pvt Ltd) owns and operates an online gaming portal
Dream11. It offers fantasy sports, fantasy football, fantasy cricket, fantasy kabaddi, fantasy sports platform, cricket, games
of skill, among others. It also operates a multi-sport aggregator platform, Fancode, which focusses on long-tail sports
content and contextual commerce. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Funding history
Dream11 has raised a total of US$385 mn till date and was valued at US$2.5 bn in its last round of funding in Oct-2020. It
has been funded by Chrys Capital, TPG Capital, Kalaari, Tiger Global, Tencent, Multiples and Steadview Capital, among
others.
Figure 313: In the latest round, Dream11 raised US$225 mn at a valuation of US$2.5 bn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Harsh Jain Founder and CEO Harsh Jain graduated as an engineer from the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia and MBA from Columbia Business School in New York.
Bhavit Sheth Founder and COO Bhavit Sheth is an engineer with an MBA from Bentley University (Boston) and
has a Diploma in e-commerce strategies from Harvard.
Figure 314: Sales have shown a spike in 2020 Figure 315: Share of online retail spends has risen sharply
Series C, Multiples
Series D, Tencent
Series E, Steadview
Series F, Tiger
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
0
100
200
300
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2012
0%
150%
300%
450%
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
12.1
1.4 1.2
3.6
1.8
0
3
6
9
12
15
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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Sri Chaitanya
Education Varun Ahuja, Krati Sanklecha
Company profile
Sri Chaitanya Group is engaged in providing educational services. It operates under the name Sri Chaitanya Educational
Institutions. It provides coaching for entrance exams like Indian Institute of Technology joint entrance exam (IIT-JEE), pre-
medical test (PMT), chartered accountancy, Indian administrative service (IAS) exams, and the like. The group also operates
private schools, junior colleges, a] chartered accountancy academy and an Indian administrative service academy. The
company was founded in 1986 and is based in Hyderabad, Telangana.
Funding history
NA
Management profiles
Dr BS Rao Founder and Chairman A practicing doctor, Dr BS Rao opened the first school in 1986 with just one
branch of 56 students.
Sushma Bopanna Academic Director Mrs Sushma Bopanna completed her BTech from BITS Pilani and her master’s in
IT from US University.
Figure 316: Number of universities growing at a CAGR of
8%
Figure 317: Education industry grew by 10% in India
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19
Number of Universities in India
0
20
40
60
80
100
FY18 FY19
Number of Universities in India
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128
Star Health
Reason for inclusion: Emerging rural focus NBFC with US$3.5 bn AUM
Company profile
Provider of health insurance services founded in 2006 and based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Star Health specialises in health
insurance services and provides a wide range of medi-claim products, overseas medical coverage and personal accident
coverage for senior citizens and families. Star is the largest private health insurance provider in India, with a market share of
47.4% in the standalone health insurance segment, 22.2% in the private health insurance space, and 12.1% in the overall
health insurance segment in FY20.
Funding history
In August 2018, Safecrop Holdings Pvt Ltd, a consortium of investors including WestBridge AIF, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and
Madison Capital, signed definitive agreements with the shareholders of Star Health & Allied Insurance Company Ltd to pick
up 90% in the firm. Back then, the existing shareholders of Star Health included Star Health Investments Pvt Ltd and funds
managed/or advised by ICICI Venture, Tata Capital and Apis Partners.
Management profiles
V Jagannathan Chairman & CEO Founder of Star Health who was earlier heading United India Insurance and has
over 50 years’ experience in the industry.
Dr S Prakash MD A medical doctor who is the first of its kind to have two decades of clinical
experience from India and overseas and having more than a decade of
experience in health insurance.
Figure 319: Gross premium growth remains strong Figure 320: Combined ratio has come off and is stable
ICICI Venture Seqioua
Tata capital
Apis Rakesh
0
500
1,000
1,500
0
20
40
60
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2006
18.5
24.8
35.6
47.8
61.3
0%
20%
40%
60%
0
20
40
60
80
GWP (₹ bn) Growth (%)
113%
101%
93% 93% 93% 93%
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
125%
Combined ratio (%)
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Supermart Grocery Supplies
(BigBasket)
Company profile
Supermarket Grocery Supplies Pvt Ltd owns and operates an online food and grocery portal, Bigbasket.com. The firm offers
grocery items in categories such as fruits and vegetables, basmati rice, green tea, cheese, dry fruits, chocolates and sweets,
soft drinks, wheat atta, frozen food and chicken, diapers and wipes; sanitary pads, mosquito repellent, energy drinks, bread
dairy and eggs; olive oils, grocery and staples, sunflower oils, liquid soaps and bars, and meats. The company was founded
in 2011 and is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Funding history
BigBasket has raised a total of US$750 mn till date and was valued at US$1.2 bn in its last round of funding in Apr-2020. It
has been funded by Abraaj, Helion, Alibaba, Mirae, Ascent, Sands Capital, Trifecta and CDC Group, among others.
Figure 321: In the latest round, BigBasket has raised US$50 mn at a valuation of US$1.2 bn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Hari Menon CEO An alumni of BITS Pilani, Hari Menon has held top positions with IT majors like
Wipro, country head of Planetasia and CEO of Indiaskills.
Vipul Parekh Founder, Head of
Marketing & Finance
An alumni of IIM B, Vipul Parekh has worked as investment director for Peepul
Capital and business development head for Wipro, before founding BigBasket.
2015-20
Figure 323: Cost-to-income ratio still high
Series A, Ascent
Series B, Helion
Series C, Zodius
Series D, Sands Capital
Series E, Alibaba
Series F, Mirae
Series G, CDC
0
1000
2000
0
200
400
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2011
0%
40%
80%
120%
160%
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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130
Synechron
IT Services Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Founded in 2001 in Pune, engaged in the provision of hardware consultancy, computer programming, data processing, and
other computer related services. Synechron is involved in writing, modifying, testing, and supporting software to meet the
needs of a particular customer; planning and designing computer systems that integrate computer hardware, software, and
communication technologies; on-site management and operation of clients' computer systems and/or data processing
facilities; and other professional and technical computer-related advice and services.
Funding history
In 2019, there was media speculation (Economic Times) that Synechron is being seen as a potential acquisition target for
global IT services companies like Cognizant and NTT. At that time, the company was being valued at US$1.2-1.3 bn.
Synechron has not raised any PE/VC funding.
Management profiles
Faisal Husain Co-founder & CEO Prior to founding Synechron, Faisal Husain was responsible for developing
enterprise-level applications for Merrill Lynch and Dun & Bradstreet. He holds a
bachelor's in aeronautical engineering and a master's in computer science.
Tanveer Saulat Co-founder & CPO Tanveer Saulat has 20 years of experience. He started his career in HR at Deepak
Nitrate Limited. He graduated as Master of Personnel Management from the
University of Pune. As the CPO of Synechron, Tanveer has built and shaped the
growth of the company in becoming a leading digital, business consulting &
technology services company over the last 18 years.
Zia Bhutta Co-founder & COO Zia Bhutta manages global operations, sales force, and finance and client
relationships at Synechron. He is an engineer from Rutgers, The State University
of New Jersey-New Brunswick
Metric Comments
Revenue Synechron earns more than US$500 mn in revenues annually.
Profitability Synechron’s EBITDA stood at US$60-70, suggesting an EBITDA margin of 12-14%.
Organic/inorganic
growth
The company has steadily grown organically as well as inorganically. It has acquired a series of smaller IT firms
in the US and Europe. The recent acquisition of Attra (company focussed on banking solutions) is expected to
add US$100 mn to Synechron’s revenues.
Geographies Synechron has presence in the US, Canada, Europe and Middle East with US being the dominant market.
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Think and Learn (Byju’s)
Ed-Tech Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Think and Learn Pvt Ltd owns and operates an online learning application Byju's. It is engaged in providing online
educational services. It offers test preparation courses like a common admission test, union public service commission,
graduate management admission test, graduate record examination, and Indian administrative service. It also offers
supplemental school curriculum classes for class 4-12. The company was founded in 2011 and is based in Bengaluru,
Karnataka.
Funding history
Byju’s has raised a total of US$1.8 bn till date and was valued at US$12 bn in its last round of funding in Nov-2020. It has
been funded by Tiger Global, Sequoia, QIA, Blackrock, Silver lake, Sofina, Aarin Capital and Lightspeed India, among
others.
Figure 325: In the latest round, Byju’s raised US$200 mn (valuation of US$12 bn) led by BlackRock and T Rowe Price
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Raveendran Byju Founder & CEO After completing his BTech in mechanical engineering from Government
Engineering college in Kannur, Kerala, Raveendran started Byju in 2011.
Ranjit Radhakrishnan CPO After graduating from IIMK in 2008, Ranjit Radhakrishnan worked in multiple
start-ups like Zynga, Hike, before joining Byju’s in 2015.
2015-20
Figure 327: Byju’s has reported positive EBITDA since
FY18
Series A, Aarin Capital
Series B,C, Sequioa
Series D, Verlinvest
Series E, Naspers
Series F, QIA
Series G, Silverlake
0
3,000
6,000
9,000
12,000
0
300
600
900
1,200
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2011
0%
60%
120%
180%
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10,000
20,000
30,000
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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-400
-200
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400
600
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132
Udaan
Logistics Satyam Thakur, Garima Bharti
Reason for inclusion: Recent funding round at a valuation = US$3 bn
Company profile
Udaan is a B2B logistics operator founded in 2016. It is a business marketplace where manufacturers and wholesalers can
sell their products to retailers via an online app on their mobile. The company facilitates buying and selling with secure
payments and smooth logistics.
Funding history
Udaan has cumulatively raised US$1.15 bn so far and was valued at US$3 bn during its last fund raise of US$280 mn in
Dec-2020. Some of its key investors are Lightspeed Venture Partners, DST Global, Tencent and Moonstone Capital.
Management profiles
Sujeet Kumar Founder Sujeet Kumar co-founded Udaan in 2016. He is a 2003 batch graduate from IIT
Delhi and worked in Flipkart prior to founding Udaan.
Amod Malviya Co-Founder Amod Malviya also worked at Flipkart prior to co-founding Udaan. He is a 2002
batch graduate from IIT Kharagpur.
Vaibhav Gupta Co-Founder Vaibhav Gupta, a graduate from IIT Delhi and MBA from University of Virginia,
co-founded the company in 2016. Prior to this, he worked with Flipkart and
McKinsey.
Figure 329: Revenue grew 19x between FY19 and FY20 Figure 330: While absolute losses almost doubled, loss
as % of sales came down to ~41% in FY20
Source: TechCircle Source: TechCircle

0
2,000
4,000
0
500
1,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2016
118
2,256
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
FY19 FY20
Revenue (₹ mn) Linear (Revenue (₹ mn))
(444)
(923) -400.0%
-300.0%
-200.0%
-100.0%
0.0%
-1,000
-800
-600
-400
-200
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FY19 FY20
PBT (₹ mn) PBT Margin (RHS)
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UrbanClap Technologies (Urban
Company)
Company profile
UrbanClap Technologies India Pvt Ltd owns and operates an online marketplace for urban lifestyle services known as Urban
Company. It offers mobile application and website for finding and hiring services such as home service and repair, beauty
and wellness services, lessons and hobbies, event and wedding services, business services, personal services. The company
was founded 2014 and is based in Gurgaon, Haryana.
Funding history
Urbanclap has raised a total of US$188 mn till date and was valued at US$0.9 bn in its last round of funding in 2019. It has
have been funded by Bessemer, Vy Capital, Steadview Capital, Tiger Global, Accel India and Elevation Capital, among
others.
Figure 331: Urban Company was valued at US$933 mn in its last round of funding in 2019
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Varun Khaitan Founder and CEO An Alumni of IIT Kanpur, Varun Khaitan has worked with Qualcomm and BCG in
the US before returning to India to find UrbanClap in 2015.
Raghav Chandra Founder and CTO Raghav is an alumni of University of California, Berkeley and has worked at
Infosys, Roamware and Yelp as a software engineer prior to founding UrbanClap.
Figure 332: Sales have grown exponentially since FY18 Figure 333: Cost-to-income ratio has been declining
steadily
Series A, B, Bessemer Series C,
Vy Capital
Series D, Steadview
Series E, Tiger
0
500
1,000
0
50
100
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2015
0%
300%
600%
900%
1200%
1500%
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
0
20
40
60
80
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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134
UST
IT Services Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
UST is a provider of custom computer programming services. The company offers content management, cloud services,
continuous improvements, enterprise content management, information management, IT services, Six Sigmas, objectives, IT
solutions, mobiles. The company was founded in 1999 in Kochi.
Funding history
UST raised funding only once in 2018 from Temasek.
Source: Crunchbase
Management profiles
Paras Chandaria Executive Chairman A leader with over 25 years of international business experience, Paras Chandaria
works alongside the leadership team to define and articulate UST’s long-term
strategy. Education: BA, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE),
graduate of executive programs at INSEAD, Oxford University, and Singularity
University.
Krishna Sudheendra CEO With more than 25+ years leading high-growth organisations, Krishna Sudheendra
is responsible for growing the business at scale and creating shareholder value.
Before joining UST in 2004, he was corporate controller for First Apex, and held
FP&A leadership positions at General Electric. He began his career as a consultant
with SB Billimoria, a Deloitte partner company.
Arun Narayanan President Since 2000, Arun Narayanan served in several executive positions at UST and was
previously the chief operating officer (COO) of the company. Prior to UST he was
with HCL and IMR Global in delivery leadership roles.
Metric Comments
Revenue UST’s annual revenue is more than US$500 mn.
PE Round, Temasek
0
500
1,000
1,500
0
100
200
300
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1999
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Vini Cosmetics
Company profile
Vini Cosmetics Pvt Ltd is engaged in manufacturing personal care products. Its provides beauty and personal care products
like ladies and gents deodorants, talc powder, perfume, and face powder under the brands Fogg, 18+ Deodorants, Glam Up
and White Tone Talc. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Funding history
Vini Cosmetics has raised a total of US$194 mn till date and was valued at US$1.1 bn in 2020. It has been funded by
Sequoia Capital, Bay Capital, Westbridge and Sixth Sense Ventures.
Figure 336: Vini Cosmetics was valued at US$1.1 bn in 2020
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Darshan Patel Founder and MD Darshan Patel was born in Ahmedabad, but brought up in Sambalpur, Orissa. He
co-founded Paras Group (Livon), but moved out of it in 2010 to found ini
Cosmetics. Paras group was subsequently sold to Reckitt Benckiser.
2016-20
Figure 338: Steady earnings growth at 28% CAGR in the
last five years
Series A, Bay Capital
Series B, Sequioa
Series C, Westbridge
0
500
1,000
1,500
0
100
200
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2009
-8%
0%
8%
16%
24%
32%
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
EBITDA (₹ mn) YoY growth % (RHS)
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136
Vishal Mega Mart
Consumer Discretionary Arnab Mitra, Pratik Rangnekar
Company profile
Founded by Mr Ram Chandra Agarwal in 1994, Vishal Mega Mart started off as a value retailer franchising out ~170 stores
across India mainly outside the metros. However, saddled with debt, the company was sold to TPG Private Equity and
Shriram Group for Rs700 mn in a fire sale. In 2018, the company changed hands again with Kedaara Capital and Global
investment firm Partners Group acquiring it. The network has grown to 375 franchised stores across 241 cities mainly in
north, south and east of India with an area of 6.4 mn sq ft. Its presence in under-penetrated markets and a value positioning
have driven a 35% CAGR over the last three years with a wide offering of private label fast fashion and other general
merchandise and grocery.
Funding history
Vishal Mega Mart was sold to TPG Private Equity and Shriram Group for Rs700 mn in a fire sale. In 2018, the company
changed hands again with Kedaara Capital and global investment firm, Partners Group, acquiring it for a deal reported in
media at ~US$700 mn (source: Mint).
Figure 339: Kedaara Capital and Partners Group acquired Vishal from TPG capital in 2018
Source: Factset
Management profile
Gunendar Kapoor CEO Has been the CEO since TPG took over and has overseen a turnaround in the
company. Prior to this he has been a veteran in Unilever/HUL for 12 years and
thereafter was the CEO at Reliance Retail for c.4 years.
Figure 340: Revenues have grown at a 16% CAGR over
FY15-19
Figure 341: PAT margin has expanded sharply as well
(EBITDA = US$ mn]
TPG Capital purchased in
slump sale
Kedaara Capital and
Partners Group
0
400
800
1,200
0
1
1
2
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 1994
30%
32%
34%
36%
38%
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2017 2018 2019
Revenues (US$ m) % YoY (RHS)
9%
10%
10%
11%
0
20
40
60
2019 2020
EBITDA EBITDA % (RHS)
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Wonder Cement
Cement Lokesh Garg, Gaurav Birmiwal
Company profile
Wonder Cement is a major cement producer, with current capacity of 11 mn tpa. Upcoming expansions will take the capacity
up to 13 mn tpa in 2021. Its major plant in Nimbahera, district Chittorgarh in Rajasthan has three lines with 8 mn tpa
capacity. It has commissioned grinding units in Dhule (Maharashtra), and Bhadnawar (Madhya Pradesh), with a capacity of 2
mn tpa each. Current expansion of the third grinding unit in Jhajjar, Haryana is under way.
Funding history
The company has not been PE funded.
Management profiles
Ashok Patni Chairman Ashok Patni is chairman emeritus of RK Group. From his native place in Kishangarh, with the
legacy of a family-run wholesale business in grains, Mr Patni set up Wonder Cement in May
1989 with a clear vision and objective to establish the nascent company as a major player in the
national and international market.
Vimal Patni Vice Chairman Vimal Patni was instrumental in setting up the factory right from the time of winning the
limestone mine at Nimbahera and is now involved in day-to-day operations.
Vikas Patni Joint Managing
Director
After completing graduation in economics & management from Cardiff University, UK, Vikas
Patni joined the accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCooper, After joining the business, he brought
about a directional change by shifting Wonder Cement’s policy of only processing marble from its
own mines to importing of marble, thus becoming one of the largest suppliers of imported marble
in India. He was instrumental in creating a footprint for the company in Turkey by acquiring mines
and establishing Wonder Cement on a firm footing in international markets.
Figure 342: Wonder grew by 21% last year (Rs mn)… Figure 343: …with profitability improving (Rs mn)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
FY2014
FY2015
FY2016
FY2017
FY2018
FY2019
FY2020
-8%
0%
8%
16%
24%
32%
-2,000
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
FY2014
FY2015
FY2016
FY2017
FY2018
FY2019
FY2020
PBT PBT % (RHS)
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138
Zenoti
Company profile
Founded in 2010 in Hyderabad, Zenoti offers cloud-based software solutions for the beauty and wellness industry. The
company's touchless and mobile solutions serve all aspects of consumer engagement, allowing for appointment scheduling,
self-check-ins and automatic payments. Zenoti’s products include appointments, billing and payments, reporting and
analytics, marketing, employees and inventory. The company's software solutions include salon, spa, medi-spa and fitness.
Funding history
Tiger Global is the largest investor for Zenoti. Zenoti became a unicorn in 2020.
Management profiles
Sudheer Koneru Co-founder & CEO Sudheer Koneru did his engineering in computer science from Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras. Later, he went on to pursue post-graduation in computer
science from The University of Texas at Austin. He started his career with
Microsoft and spent about eight years with the company.
Srinivasan
Chandrasekar
COO Srinivasan Chandrasekar is a veteran SaaS executive with previous experience at
Aztecsoft and SumTotal. Chandrasekar joins Zenoti after a successful 17-year
career at Microsoft, where he was responsible for leading global services on Azure
in the company's India Development Centre in Hyderabad.
Metric Comments
Customers Zenoti has about 12,000 business customers across 50 countries with the US being its largest market,
contributing around 60% of its topline.
Ex-US markets Around 20% of Zenoti’s sales comes from the UK and the rest from Australia, New Zealand, Middle East,
India and Southeast Asia.
Scale Zenoti is said to be managing around 50 mn bookings. It has a total of 550 employees across the globe with
around 400 in India, where it is looking to add another 300.
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Zerodha
Reason for inclusion: Based on self-assessed valuation >US$1 bn
Company profile
Founded in 2010, Zerodha has grown to become the largest retail broker in India with an active customer base of 2.9 mn
(18.3% market share) and handles 5-7 mn trades from 1 mn+ users on a daily basis. It disrupted the broking industry with a
discount broking model. According to the company, ~35% customers account for ~85% of its revenues. Recently, it has
also partnered with IDFC Bank to offer a 3-in-1 account (demat, savings and trading) making its offering comparable to
bank-led brokers. It also intends to enable direct US markets investing from its platform and has also launched loan against
shares/MF units through its NBFC to monetise its customers beyond broking.
Funding history
Zerodha is a bootstrapped venture with the company not raising any external funding. However, the founders recently bought
back employee ESOPs at a valuation of US$1 bn. It is almost entire owned by its founders, Nithin and Nikhil Kamath.
Management profiles
Nithin Kamath Co-founder & CEO Nithin Kamath was a trader for a decade before he bootstrapped and founded
Zerodha in 2010. He has won numerous awards for pioneering and scaling
discount broking in India.
Nikhil Kamath Co-founder & CIO Nikhil Kamath has a decade of experience in investment management. He heads
investments and risk management at Zerodha.
Figure 345: Retail broking growth accelerated post
COVID-19…
Figure 346: …led by Zerodha and Upstox
Source: Company data, Ken, Entrackr Source: NSE
Figure 347: Discount brokers have been gaining market
share
Figure 348: Zerodha financials
Source: Company data, Credit Suisse Source: Company data, Ken
4.3 5.1 5.2 6.0
8.3 8.8
10.8
14.8
16.0
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
Mar-14
Mar-15
Mar-16
Mar-17
Mar-18
Mar-19
Mar-20
Oct-20
Dec-20
Broking accounts (unique) - in mn
+48%
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
Zerodha Upstox
Broking accounts (active) - mn
0.5%
0.7%
1.4%
3.1%
7.5%
12.7%
22.9%
33.8%
36.0%
99.5%
99.3%
98.6%
96.9%
92.5%
87.3%
77.1%
66.2%
64.0%
0%
50%
100%
Mar-14 Mar-16 Mar-18 Mar-20 Dec-20
Broking accounts (active) market share (%)
Discount / FinTech brokers Traditional brokers
4,500
9,000
11,000
2,500
3,500
4,300
0
400
800
1,200
1,600
0
3,000
6,000
9,000
12,000
FY18 FY19 FY20
Zerodha
Revenues PAT Nos of active customers ('000; RHS)
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140
Zoho
Company profile
Founded in 1999, in Chennai, Zoho offers customer relationship management software (CRM). Zoho’s CRM can be easily
customised to meet the specific needs of any business type and size. Start-ups, large enterprises, and verticals like real-
estate, healthcare, insurance, legal, media, restaurants, travel, banking, tax, freelancers, and non-profits all use a customer
relationship management software for increasing their sales, marketing, and customer support efforts.
Funding history
Zoho reported revenue of US$470 mn for FY19 and SaaS companies command median valuation multiple of 10+ annual
average revenue. Hence, Zoho should have a valuation upwards of US$4 bn.
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Sridhar Vembu Co-founder &
CEO
Sridhar Vembu was awarded the Padma Shri, on the occasion of India's 72nd Republic Day
(2021). He completed his bachelor’s from IIT Madras and did his PhD in electrical engineering
from Princeton University. He started his career in Qualcomm in 1994 and privately held Zoho
two years later.
Raju Vegesna Chief
Evangelist
Raju Vegesna is an evangelist for Zoho and is one of the foremost thought leaders in the
Office 2.0 revolution. Raju is one of the key people responsible for developing the strategic
direction of the Zoho Suite. Prior to joining AdventNet, Raju co-founded an internet services
company serving the educational market. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Ian Wenig VP, Business
Development
Ian Wenig has more than 20 years’ experience creating partnerships and driving revenue
growth in the software industry. Ian is President of Channel-Dev Consulting, a full service
consultancy specialising in channel and partner development.
Metric Comments
Revenue Zoho recorded a 37.1% growth in operating revenue to Rs33 bn in FY19 from Rs24 bn in FY18. For the very first
time, Zoho has made a revenue of Rs1.21 bn from India while export of services stood at Rs32 bn during FY19.
Profitability The company’s profit surged by 26.3% to Rs5 bn in FY19 from Rs4 bn in FY18. Zoho made a profit margin
of 15% in FY19.
Major expense head Advertising expenses stood out as the single biggest cost element for the company, growing by almost 68%
to reach Rs11 bn in FY19 from Rs7 bn in FY18.
Competitors Among Indian SaaS players, Freshworks is the closest competitor of Zoho.
Customers Zoho has 50+ mn users in more than 180 countries.
Geographic concentration 50%+ sales for Zoho come from US small and medium businesses.
Seed round, Zetron Labs
Series C, Zenedge
0.0
0.5
1.0
0
5
10
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Funding (US$ mn) Estimated valuation (US$ bn, RHS)
Founded in 1999
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Zomato
Food-Tech Varun Ahuja, Krati Sankhlecha
Company profile
Zomato Pvt Ltd (formerly known as Zomato Media Pvt Ltd) owns and operates the online platform, zomato.com. It provides
an online food guide and restaurant directory. The firm offers lists of menus, prices, reviews, ratings and contact details of
restaurants. It also provides online food delivery services. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in Gurgaon,
Haryana with a registered office in New Delhi.
Funding history
Zomato has raised a total of US$1.5 bn till date and was valued at US$4 bn in its last round of funding in Nov-2020. It has
been funded by Sequoia, Temasek, Alibaba, Tiger Global, Mirae, Kora Investments, Ant Group and Nexus, among others.
Figure 351: In the latest round, Zomato has raised US$158 mn at a valuation of US$3.65 bn
Source: Factset
Management profiles
Mohit Gupta Founder & CEO After graduating from IIM C, Mohit Gupta has worked in marketing in Makemytrip
and Pepsi foods before founding Zomato in 2008.
Deepinder Goyali Founder & CEO After graduating from IIT Delhi, Deepinder Goyali started his career as a
consultant in Bain & Co, before founding Zomato in 2008.
steadily
Series A,Sequioa
Series B, Info Edge
Series C,D, Temasek Later stage, Alibaba
Later stage, Temasek
Later stage, Tiger Global
0
2,000
4,000
0
500
1,000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Founded in 2008
0%
50%
100%
150%
200%
250%
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
0.0
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1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
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142
Zoomcar
Reason for inclusion: Ongoing round of funding could put the company’s valuation at US$1 bn
Company profile
Zoomcar, founded in 2013, is a self-drive rental company where consumers can rent a car for short durations. It operates a
fleet of ~6500 vehicles and is present in ~28 Indian cities.
Funding history
Zoomcar has received a cumulative funding of US$152 mn. It was valued at US$170 mn in the 2018 funding round led by
Mahindra & Mahindra and is estimated to be valued at US$1 bn in the current ongoing funding round. Sequoia, Sony
Innovation and Empire Angles are some of the other key investors in the company.
Management profiles
Greg Moran Co-Founder and Chief
Executive Officer
Greg Morgan co-founded Zoomcar along with David Back in 2013. Prior to co-
founding Zoomcar, Greg studied at USC's Marshall School of Business. Greg is
also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he holds a degree in
international relations.
Sudhindra Reddy Chief Operating
Officer
Sudhindra Reddy is the COO of the company and prior to joining Zoomcar, he
spent ~8 years with P&G. He is an alumnus of School of Management, IIT
Bombay, and also holds a civil engineering degree from NIT Bhopal.
Figure 355: Revenue CAGR of 34% from FY17-20 Figure 356: Operations performance has worsened
Source: TechCircle Source: TechCircle
0
500
1,000
1,500
0
20
40
60
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Mahindra & Mahindra Sony Innovation
Mahindra & Mahindra Sony Innovation
Founded in 2013
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20
-200%
-150%
-100%
-50%
0%
-5,000
-4,000
-3,000
-2,000
-1,000
0
FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20
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144
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Companies Mentioned (Price as of 08-Mar-2021)
Alphabet (GOOGL.OQ, $2007.5)
Disclosure Appendix
Analyst Certification
Neelkanth Mishra and Abhay Khaitan each certify, with respect to the companies or securities that the individual analyzes, that (1) the views
expressed in this report accurately reflect his or her personal views about all of the subject companies and securities and (2) no part of his or her
compensation was, is or will be directly or indirectly related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this report.
3-Year Price and Rating History for Alphabet (GOOGL.OQ)
GOOGL.OQ Closing Price Target Price
Date (US$) (US$) Rating
20-Apr-18 1077.32 1350.00 O
16-Jul-18 1196.51 1330.00
24-Jul-18 1258.15 1375.00
19-Oct-18 1105.18 1500.00
26-Oct-18 1083.75 1450.00
05-Feb-19 1151.87 1400.00
26-Jul-19 1245.22 1500.00
23-Oct-19 1257.63 1700.00
20-Apr-20 1261.15 1500.00
29-Apr-20 1342.18 1600.00
20-Jul-20 1563.84 1850.00
30-Oct-20 1616.11 1950.00
22-Jan-21 1892.56 2000.00
03-Feb-21 2058.88 2360.00
* Asterisk signifies initiation or assumption of coverage.
As of December 10, 2012 Analysts’ stock rating are defined as follows:
Outperform (O) : The stock’s total return is expected to outperform the relevant benchmark* over the next 12 months.
Neutral (N) : The stock’s total return is expected to be in line with the relevant benchmark* over the next 12 months.
Underperform (U) : The stock’s total return is expected to underperform the relevant benchmark* over the next 12 months.
*Relevant benchmark by region: As of 10th December 2012, Japanese ratings are based on a stock’s total return relative to the analyst's coverage universe which
consists of all companies covered by the analyst within the relevant sector, with Outperforms representing the most attractive, Neutrals the less attractive, and
Underperforms the least attractive investment opportunities. As of 2nd October 2012, U.S. and Canadian as well as European (excluding Turkey) ratings are
based on a stock’s total return relative to the analyst's coverage universe which consists of all companies covered by the analyst within the relevant sector, with
Outperforms representing the most attractive, Neutrals the less attractive, and Underperforms the least attractive investment opportunities. For Latin America,
Turkey and Asia (excluding Japan and Australia), stock ratings are based on a stock’s total return relative to the average total return of the relevant country or
regional benchmark (India - S&P BSE Sensex Index); prior to 2nd October 2012 U.S. and Canadian ratings were based on (1) a stock’s absolute total return
potential to its current share price and (2) the relative attractiveness of a stock’s total return potential within an analyst’s coverage universe. For Australian and
New Zealand stocks, the expected total return (ETR) calculation includes 12-month rolling dividend yield. An Outperform rating is assigned where an ETR is
greater than or equal to 7.5%; Underperform where an ETR less than or equal to 5%. A Neutral may be assigned where the ETR is between -5% and 15%. The
overlapping rating range allows analysts to assign a rating that puts ETR in the context of associated risks. Prior to 18 May 2015, ETR ranges for Outperform and
Underperform ratings did not overlap with Neutral thresholds between 15% and 7.5%, which was in operation from 7 July 2011.
Restricted (R) : In certain circumstances, Credit Suisse policy and/or applicable law and regulations preclude certain types of communications,
including an investment recommendation, during the course of Credit Suisse's engagement in an investment banking transaction and in certain
other circumstances.
Not Rated (NR) : Credit Suisse Equity Research does not have an investment rating or view on the stock or any other securities related to the
company at this time.
Not Covered (NC) : Credit Suisse Equity Research does not provide ongoing coverage of the company or offer an investment rating or
investment view on the equity security of the company or related products.
Volatility Indicator [V] : A stock is defined as volatile if the stock price has moved up or down by 20% or more in a month in at least 8 of the past
24 months or the analyst expects significant volatility going forward.
Analysts’ sector weightings are distinct from analysts’ stock ratings and are based on the analyst’s expectations for the fundamentals and/or
valuation of the sector* relative to the group’s historic fundamentals and/or valuation:
Overweight : The analyst’s expectation for the sector’s fundamentals and/or valuation is favorable over the next 12 months.
Market Weight : The analyst’s expectation for the sector’s fundamentals and/or valuation is neutral over the next 12 months.
Underweight : The analyst’s expectation for the sector’s fundamentals and/or valuation is cautious over the next 12 months.
*An analyst’s coverage sector consists of all companies covered by the analyst within the relevant sector. An analyst may cover multiple sectors.
Target Price Closing Price GOOGL.OQ
01- Jan- 2019 01- Jan- 2020 01- Jan- 2021
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
O U T PERFO RM
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Credit Suisse's distribution of stock ratings (and banking clients) is:
Global Ratings Distribution
Rating Versus universe (%) Of which banking clients (%)
Outperform/Buy* 52% (32% banking clients)
Neutral/Hold* 35% (27% banking clients)
Underperform/Sell* 11% (22% banking clients)
Restricted 2%
Please click here to view the MAR quarterly recommendations and investment services report for fundamental research recommendations.
*For purposes of the NYSE and FINRA ratings distribution disclosure requirements, our stock ratings of Outperform, Neutral, and Underperform most closely
correspond to Buy, Hold, and Sell, respectively; however, the meanings are not the same, as our stock ratings are determined on a relative basis. (Please refer to
definitions above.) An investor's decision to buy or sell a security should be based on investment objectives, current holdings, and other individual factors.
Important Global Disclosures
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Any information relating to the tax status of financial instruments discussed herein is not intended to provide tax advice or to be used by anyone to
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The analyst(s) responsible for preparing this research report received compensation that is based upon various factors including Credit Suisse's
total revenues, a portion of which are generated by Credit Suisse's investment banking activities
See the Companies Mentioned section for full company names
Credit Suisse currently has, or had within the past 12 months, the following as investment banking client(s): GOOGL.OQ
Credit Suisse provided investment banking services to the subject company (GOOGL.OQ) within the past 12 months.
Within the last 12 months, Credit Suisse has received compensation for non-investment banking services or products from the following issuer(s):
GOOGL.OQ
Credit Suisse has managed or co-managed a public offering of securities for the subject company (GOOGL.OQ) within the past 12 months.
Within the past 12 months, Credit Suisse has received compensation for investment banking services from the following issuer(s): GOOGL.OQ
Credit Suisse expects to receive or intends to seek investment banking related compensation from the subject company (GOOGL.OQ) within the
next 3 months.
Credit Suisse currently has, or had within the past 12 months, the following issuer(s) as client(s), and the services provided were non-investment-
banking, securities-related: GOOGL.OQ
Credit Suisse currently has, or had within the past 12 months, the following issuer(s) as client(s), and the services provided were non-investment-
banking, non securities-related: GOOGL.OQ
Credit Suisse or a member of the Credit Suisse Group is a market maker or liquidity provider in the securities of the following subject issuer(s):
GOOGL.OQ
A member of the Credit Suisse Group is party to an agreement with, or may have provided services set out in sections A and B of Annex I of
Directive 2014/65/EU of the European Parliament and Council ("MiFID Services") to, the subject issuer (GOOGL.OQ) within the past 12 months.
Credit Suisse beneficially holds >0.5% long position of the total issued share capital of the subject company (GOOGL.OQ).
For date and time of production, dissemination and history of recommendation for the subject company(ies) featured in this report, disseminated
within the past 12 months, please refer to the link: https://rave.credit-suisse.com/disclosures/view/report?i=597341&v=-
1yidn0323835aj7ulb80eq666 .
Important Regional Disclosures
Singapore recipients should contact Credit Suisse AG, Singapore Branch for any matters arising from, or in connection with, this research report.
The analyst(s) involved in the preparation of this report may participate in events hosted by the subject company, including site visits. Credit
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For Credit Suisse Securities (Canada), Inc.'s policies and procedures regarding the dissemination of equity research, please visit
https://www.credit-suisse.com/sites/disclaimers-ib/en/canada-research-policy.html.
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Investors should note that income from such securities and other financial instruments, if any, may fluctuate and that price or value of such
securities and instruments may rise or fall and, in some cases, investors may lose their entire principal investment.
To the extent any Credit Suisse equity research analyst employed by Credit Suisse International (a "UK Analyst") has interactions with a Spanish
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Pursuant to CVM Instruction No. 598/2018, of May 3, 2018, the author(s) of the report hereby certify(ies) that the views expressed in this report
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Suisse. Part of the author(s)´s compensation is based on various factors, including the total revenues of Credit Suisse, but no part of the
compensation has been, is, or will be related to the specific recommendations or views expressed in this report. In addition, Credit Suisse
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Neelkanth Mishra is a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.
This research report is authored by:
Credit Suisse AG, Singapore Branch ...........................................................................................................................................Varun Ahuja, CFA
Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Limited.......Neelkanth Mishra ; Abhay Khaitan ; Krati Sankhlecha ; Anubhav Aggarwal ; Lokesh Garg ;
Arnab Mitra ; Prateek Singh ; Satyam Thakur ; Rikin Shah ; Kush Shah ; Garima Bharti ; Gaurav Birmiwal ; Jayant Kharote ; Sayantan Maji ; Pratik
Rangnekar ; Viral Shah ; Ashish Gupta
To the extent this is a report authored in whole or in part by a non-U.S. analyst and is made available in the U.S., the following are important
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Credit Suisse AG, Singapore Branch ...........................................................................................................................................Varun Ahuja, CFA
Credit Suisse Securities (India) Private Limited.......Neelkanth Mishra ; Abhay Khaitan ; Krati Sankhlecha ; Anubhav Aggarwal ; Lokesh Garg ;
Arnab Mitra ; Prateek Singh ; Satyam Thakur ; Rikin Shah ; Kush Shah ; Garima Bharti ; Gaurav Birmiwal ; Jayant Kharote ; Sayantan Maji ; Pratik
Rangnekar ; Viral Shah ; Ashish Gupta
Important disclosures regarding companies that are the subject of this report are available by calling +1 (877) 291-2683. The same important
disclosures, with the exception of valuation methodology and risk discussions, are also available on Credit Suisse’s disclosure website at
https://rave.credit-suisse.com/disclosures . For valuation methodology and risks associated with any recommendation, price target, or rating
referenced in this report, please refer to the disclosures section of the most recent report regarding the subject company.
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148
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