Start-Ups That Became Unicorns In 2018

Calendar year 2018 saw the rise of several start-ups to unicorns. As many as eight start-ups - from hospitality chain Oyo Rooms to food delivery services Swiggy and Zomato - achieved a valuation of at least $1 billion this year, according to IT industry body Nasscom. With addition of start-ups (about 1,200 till September), about 40,000 jobs were created during the year. With that, the total number of jobs in the ecosystem of 7,200-7,500 firms rose to 1.6-1.7 lakh, according to Nasscom. Unicorns are companies with a valuation of at least $1 billion without tapping stock markets. Here are some of the start-ups that achieved the title of unicorn in year 2018.

Oyo Rooms

Launched in 2013, Oyo Rooms is a hospitality company based in Gurugram. Oyo Rooms, which received $1 billion in funding from a consortium of investors in September 2018, is worth an estimated $5 billion.

Zomato

Gurgaon-based Zomato, a food delivery and restaurant search platform, raised over $600 million since its founding in 2008.
Swiggy

Bengaluru-based Swiggy has raised a total of $1.26 billion (roughly Rs. 8,800 crores) since it was founded in 2014, including the latest round.
Byju's

Byju's is an online tutoring platform based in Bengaluru.

Freshworks

Freshworks a business software company based in Chennai.
Among other start-ups joining the $1 billion club in terms of valuation in 2018 were retailer marketplace Udaan, e-commerce platform Paytm Mall and online insurance aggregator Policybazaar, according to Nasscom.