1947 Tech 🇮🇳: 148

6 new unicorns in 4 days, aggressive Tiger, crypto in India & more!

1. Unicorns in India: 6 new unicorns in 4 days marks historic boom for India tech

Well, it’s nuts in India currently. And I’m digging it.

It’s raining Unicorns in India and Tiger isn’t stopping anytime soon.

For context, India had a total of seven new unicorns in all of 2020, according to market researcher CB Insights. In 2019, it had six.

It was an historic week for India’s technology industry. In the space of four days, the country minted at least six new startups with a valuation of $1 billion or more — what techies call unicorns because they’re supposed to be such rarities.

In rough order of size: The investment platform Groww raised money at a valuation of more than $1 billion, messaging bots startup Gupshup hit $1.4 billion, digital pharmacy API Holdings Pvt. was valued at close to $1.5 billion, app developer Mohalla Tech surpassed $2.1 billion, social commerce startup Meesho Inc. also reached $2.1 billion and financial-technology provider Cred rounded out the blessing of unicorns at $2.2 billion.

Unicorns in India: 6 new unicorns in 4 days marks historic boom for India tech

2. Add Crypto to IndiaStack

Use the digital rupee to facilitate domestic commerce and crypto protocols to attract international investment.

Fantastic piece by Balaji S. Srinivasan. Balaji is currently advocating and pushing India to embrace crypto. 

He talks about how India can leverage crypt and become a crypto powerhouse globally.

Related: Can digital currencies and crypto investors help close India’s SME financing gap?

Add Crypto to IndiaStack

A tweet

Paul Graham @paulg

It wasn't long ago when people were surprised to hear that YC funded Indian startups. Now YC spends a whole day just interviewing Indian startups.

Anu Hariharan @anuhariharan

Happy Monday! YC India interviews for S2021 batch - ALL day today 😇

Worth your attention:

1. VC Firm India Quotient’s First Investment In ShareChat Grew 540 Times. They Say That’s Just The… Link

2. India vs US IPOs: Our views for startups in India — Sequoia Capital India Link

3. Tiger Global goes super aggressive in India Link

4. Trifecta Capital to launch $200M fund to invest in IPO-bound Indian startups Link

5. PhonePe becomes first player to cross billion-transaction mark on UPI Link

Funding news:

1. India’s Sharechat enters unicorn club with $502 million funding round Link

2. PharmEasy owner joins unicorn club, raises $323 million Link

3. Gupshup becomes tenth startup to attain unicorn status in 2021 Link

4. Exclusive: Urban Company to enter unicorn club with $2 Bn valuation Link

5. Investment app for millennials, Groww, raises $83 million at over $1 billion valuation Link

6. Exclusive: CarTrade set to become unicorn as valuation inches close to $1 Bn Link

Thank you for reading. Please share any feedback, questions or comments with me on Twitter :)