2021 Rewind: The Year of Indian Startups

2021 has been a pretty incredible year for India’s startup ecosystem - with everything that's happened in the year let's take a look at the 10 biggest highlights of India's startup ecosystem in our 2021 Rewind video.

00:00 Introduction
01:38 Younger Indian startups acquiring older companies
02:21 Byju's acquisition spree worth $2.5 billion
03:08 Crypto unicorns are born despite the uncertainty
03:53 Skyroot Aerospace prepares for space launch
04:36 Byju's edtech, lawsuit and controversy
05:09 Ola Electric's grand EV plans for India
05:57 Superfast grocery delivery takes the front seat
06:28 Mensa Brands - India's fastest unicorn
06:57 Nykaa's IPO
07:46 Zomato - the startup that kicked off the IPO craze

Younger Indian startups acquiring older companies: We witnessed this really interesting phenomenon where young startup companies were acquiring traditional businesses that’d been around for decades. For example, 5-year-old stock trading unicorn Groww acquired the mutual funds business of India Bulls, a 21-year-old company, for ₹175 Crore. We also saw India’s only online pharmacy unicorn Pharmeasy acquiring a majority stake in India's largest diagnostic solutions provider Thyrocare, which is 25 years old, in a deal worth ₹4,546 crore.

Byju's acquisition spree worth $2.5 billion: In 2021, Byju's took their acquisition spree to new heights by pouring in $2.5 billion to acquire 10 companies including the $1 billion acquisition of the offline coaching institute Aakash.

Crypto unicorns are born despite the uncertainty: Despite all the uncertainty that surrounds India's crypto industry, we saw CoinDCX and CoinSwitch becoming India's first and second crypto unicorns respectively. Another great example of the crypto revolution in India is Polygon - a layer 2 protocol for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks which began its journey in India.

Skyroot Aerospace prepares for space launch: Skyroot Aerospace, the first Indian startup to successfully test a rocket engine last year, in 2020, and this year they set another record too, becoming the first Indian startup to successfully test a cryogenic rocket engine, taking India one step closer to launching privately-built rockets into space the same way American companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are in the United States.

Byju's edtech, lawsuit and controversy: Byju's was shrouded in controversies throughout the year bringing into focus their alleged unethical practices and the $2.6 million lawsuit that was filed against Pradeep Poonia.

Ola Electric's grand EV plans for India: They announced their S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters back on India’s Independence Day, and started taking orders in October. During the first two days of this booking period, Ola received orders worth Rs 1,100 crore - that’s more than 80,000 scooters! Ola single-handedly tripled the size of India’s electric two-wheeler market, and on top of that, they started work on what was supposed to be the world’s largest electric scooter factory before Simple Energy announced that they were gonna build an even bigger one.

Superfast grocery delivery takes the front seat: Thanks to two 19-year-old Stanford dropouts building a startup called Zepto, 10-minute grocery delivery is becoming more and more commonplace in India’s metros. Following Zepto’s lead, Grofers, which has been around since 2013, rebranded themselves to Blinkit, ensuring that everyone knew they were as serious about super fast delivery as Zepto, and these kinds of high-speed deliveries are also happening now with Swiggy Instamart, too.

Mensa Brands - India's fastest unicorn: The Thrasio-style D2C house of brands - Mensa Brands became the fastest Indian startup to join the unicorn club, entering the club in just six months.

Nykaa's IPO: Nykaa's IPO was arguably the most successful startup IPO of 2021. Anyone who got an allotment in this IPO saw their investment double when Nykaa hit the stock market, and it also made Falguni Nayar, the nayika of Nykaa, India’s wealthiest self-made woman.

Zomato - the startup that kicked off the IPO craze: Zomato was the first Indian startup to IPO in 2021 and also became the first-ever Indian unicorn to IPO. What a lot of people don’t realise is that when the company decided to go public, it wasn’t from a position of strength. They were gonna IPO to survive, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. And despite the fact that they are a loss-making company, everyone benefited from this IPO - it was oversubscribed, new investors grew their money, and old investors saw massive returns.

Follow Backstage with Millionaires to remain updated with our latest developments.

#2021 #startups #backstagewithmillionaires

[ipikluninja]

Thank you so much for introducing me/us to the Indian startup ecosystem. This is also inspiring to know how much investors in India are valuing new innovation. Hoping to see more of this entrepreneurial spirit among our generation!

[tariqulislam]

it was a very special and memorable year for the startup industry in India, it was great to see India going forward
love from Bangladesh to all of my neighbor brothers and

[ivinitmittal]

7:25 Nykaa of Nykaa!! That Wordplay!!🔥

[sarthakjaiswal]

I have been following BwM since 2020. The 3 words that summarises my experience Inspiration, Pride, Hardwork

[krishsingh]

for thoese wondering total no of unicorns it is equal to 81 till 8 january 2022 (includes aquired one also)

[randomperson]

Thank you for developing my interest in start ups

[kanekiken]

Happy New Year Caleb and happy new year to entire team of BwM.

[karthikranga]

Excellent Intro! Kudos to whoever edited the video!
What a great year! So many startups, Unicorns, etc. India has a long way to go though! Hope 2022 brings more good things from India to the World!

Wish BWM team a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

[Vrtpnwr]

Great Rewind! Hope we get even more success stories in 2022.

[kingKabali]

2021 was the unicorn year, 2022 will probably the IPO year for Indian startups.

[utkarshchaudhary]

Thanks for making amazing videos throughout the year.

[barryobrien]

Wonderful year. Thanks so much for all your work. Happy new year and best wishes in 2022

[AZHXD]

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR MAKING START UP NEWSWHOE YEAR

LOVE YOU :)

[TheCYBERTRON]

You are not good. You are excellent. Just love your content.

[abhishalsharma]

Please make a video on how to day a startup beginning from 0

[cliuucs]

41 plus 2 yesterday🤣 and also this channel growth🔥

[MultiLord]

Season's Greetings to BwM Team.
How about this BwM becomes Unicorn Startup in 2022 and filed for DRHP with SEBI

[Tarunratan]

i just want to say a lot of thanks to you guys who made me learn many new things in a intresting manner and the quality that you give is amazing and really love you and hope your subscibers count become a unicorn soon in 2022 and wish you a happy new year

[whatsnewnow]

Thanks man I followed each of your news. Keep continuing

[syedarfath]

The editing is brilliant. Happy New Year Caleb and Varun. Caleb the way you deliver the content is amazing.
Have been following you since 2021. Keep pumping the quality videos.