Year in review | Top 5 smash-hit startups of 2016

One of the fastest growing startup hubs in the world, India stands at the number three position of the list of rapidly growing start-up nation in the world, according to NASSCOM. Indicating an upsurge in the growth of the startup ecosystem with each passing year, India is also the fifth largest startup communities in the world.

It is widely accepted that 2016 has not been an easy year for startups. Most investors were looking for profitability. Most startups found themselves struggling to raise funds. In Spite of all, following startups stood tall, proud and grabbed top position in our list of top startups of the year 2016.

Here are top 5 smash hit startups of the year 2016: 

Urban Clap

 A one-of-its-kind startup, Urban clap offers listings of home services and pricing information regarding the same. It also offers an appointment booking platform for convenient access to daily requirements. UrbanClap has become a household name for getting things done within the comfort of one’s home. In its initial year only, urban clap raised $45 million. Urbanclap is now available in over 8 cities and has more than 50k trusted professionals working for it.

Founder(s): Abhiraj Bhal, Varun Khaitan and Raghav Chandra

Website: www.urbanclap.com

Type of business: Online marketplace for household services

Founded: 2014

2. Tracxn

Tracxn combines big data aggregation with custom curation to create market intelligence for startups. Tracxn comes in handy for all the startups running in the race for success. The company raised $3.5 million in its series A funding. The startup is currently operational in India, China and USA.

Founder(s): Abhishek Goel and Neha Singh

Website: www.tracxn.com

Type of Business: Data Business

Founded: 2013

3.One97

One97 Communications is a flagship brand of India’s largest e-commerce platform, Paytm. Backed by Alibaba’s Ant Finance, the company has now over 80 per cent of the country’s e-wallet market. In five years, One97 aims to become India’s largest consumer technology company.

Founder: Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Website: www.one97.com

Type of business: Mobile wallet and e-commerce

Founded: 2000

4. Voonik

Voonik helps customers search for personalised fashion choices. It has over 12 million registered users with 10 million app downloads. Vonik features over 20,000 vendors.

In the past 2 years, Voonik has acquired men’s fashion site Getsty, fashion website Vilara (previously called Zohraa), silk saree e-commerce portal Picksilk, salon booking startup Styl, and virtual dressing room app TrialKart.

Founder: Aditya Chalsani and Varun Mathew

Website: www.voonik.com 

Type of business: Clothing

Founded: 2013

5. OYO rooms

Last but not the least, the famous startup which has really been successful- Oyo rooms. OYO is a platform that provides premium accommodations at cheap prices by acquiring and standardising small hotels all around India. By the end of 2016 Oyo rooms has around 6500 hotels in over 220+ cities in India. Incidentally, the bookings boomed to 15x times in the first quarter of 2016.

Founder: Ritesh Agarwal

Website: www.oyorooms.com

Type of business: Hotels

Founded: 2013