There was hardly any hot space that Tiger didn’t cut checks for. The American VC co-wrote eye-popping checks totaling USD 1.28 billion for credit care payments startup Cred, stock trading app Groww, social media platform ShareChat, enterprise conversational firm GupShup, SaaS-based billion platform ChargeBee, and home service firm Urban Company, turning them into unicorns. The list includes credit card startup Slice, stock trading Upstox, used car retailing platform Spinny, and proptech startup NoBroker, as well as D2C rollup startup Mensa Brand.Įarlier in April, Tiger Global created six billion-dollar companies. Just last month, it led funding rounds along with other marquee investors worth USD 838 million and minted five unicorns in a row. Since its entry into the South Asian nation almost 15 years ago, 2021 has turned out to be perhaps the most eventful year for the New York-headquartered hedge fund. One of its portfolio companies, logistics firm BlackBuck also became a unicorn, although Tiger didn’t chip in during the follow-on round. This is nearly half of all the companies that joined the billion-dollar club in 2021. Tiger Global has turned 18 startups into unicorns, often leading the funding rounds. KrASIA looked at these unicorn-hunters-the VCs that turned the most numbers of Indian startups into billion-dollar companies this year-and their investment theses. It is these bigwigs of the VC world that fueled the funding deluge in the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem.
Among the investor community that pumped over USD 30 billion into the country so far this year, a few stand out with their ability to churn out unicorns. As we write this piece, 40 unicorns have been created in India in the first 11 months this year, and the number is expected to climb. The local startup community sizzled throughout the year as unicorns kept popping up, one after another, on the back of fat checks and expensive valuations. But there was also mounting pressure to perform, justify valuations, become profitable, and offer good exits. For Indian startup entrepreneurs, it’s the year that brought unprecedented amounts of capital, investor interest, growth opportunities, and IPO ambitions.