The Game Of Indian Startups
The latest season of Game of Thrones has a lot to offer: more characters, more plot lines and even more gruesome deaths. Similarly, the Indian startup scene has got more players, more funding and bolder acquisitions. To celebrate all of the love blossoming out of the series, we have brought the Indian startup world to GoT.
The Game of Indian Startups
Goibibo needs no explanation. Founded by Ashish Kashyap in 2007, it allows you to book flights and fly high. Awarded the ET Most Promising brand award this year, it is indeed flying high.
Myntra was acquired by Flipkart, our Lannisters, in May 2014 for a whopping 2000-cr cash-and-stock deal. Now only time will tell whether they aligned with the right House.
Zomato has been on an acquiring spree since July 2014, when it first acquired New Zealand’s Menu-Mania. It has been unstoppable since – from the mighty US-based UrbanSpoon, to B2B players like MaplePOS, Zomato is making acquisitions left and right for a direct road to the Iron Throne. Even Tyrion would agree that the correct way to the Throne is through the stomach.
Flipkart are the indisputable Lannisters of the Indian startup scene. Having raised 2.5 billion dollars of money from various investors, they are flush with cash and are poised to take over Westeros.
Housing is a startup which has turned heads ever since founded. Apart from a meteoric rise, controversial emails and a whopping 1mn$ spent on the domain and a national number, 3 of the original founders had left (separately) to start their own ventures – TinyOwl, a food delivery service, and Leaf Technologies, which is a startup in the home automation space.
InMobi is competing against the like of Google and Facebook for a slice of the huge advertising market. Against tough and entrenched competition, it hopes to take on the mobile advertising world and revolutionize the industry.
Shaadi.com’s road to the Iron Throne is clear, like the Tullys – marriage! After the Red Wedding and the Purple Wedding, who can deny that marriages play a crucial game in the Game of Thrones?
Olacabs, founded in 2010 in IIT Bombay grads, has not only overcome regulatory pains like bans on cab services, but is actually flourishing against the likes of mammoths like Uber.
SnapDeal, after the acquisition of FreeCharge is consolidating in India and putting up a serious fight against the market-leading Flipkart. It plans to make 10 more acquisitions this year and is indeed growing strong.
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