Mumbai’s every move is meant to be watched as it transforms into a startup hub while remaining the country’s financial center.
In recent years, numerous Indian startups have launched and garnered great fame and success all over the world. And several of them trace their origins back to Mumbai.
It’s no wonder that innovative entrepreneurs have been chasing their startup’s dream and taking their first steps in the tech marketplace here.
Let’s take a closer look at the startups and companies that have transformed Mumbai’s reputation as a hub for technological innovation and created a prosperous startup ecosystem.
1. Purplle
You must have seen or heard about the beauty online store called Purplle before. The now well-known eCommerce store for personal care and beauty products traces its roots in Mumbai.
Customers may request a variety of services, ranging from botox treatments to beard styling, via the website thanks to Purplle’s affiliations with more than 13,000 salons, spas, skincare, as well as hair care businesses throughout Mumbai. A variety of tools and items for beauty and personal grooming are also available for customers to purchase.
Founded In: 2011, Mumbai
Founded By: Manish Taneja, Rahul Dash
Industry: Online Beauty And Personal Care Store
Competitors: Nykaa, Foxy, Voonik, And Belita
2. BookMyShow
BookMyShow, a website that offers a myriad of choices when it comes to booking tickets, is one such platform that connects all moviegoers and film enthusiasts. Movies, parties, events, and just about anything you can think of are all catered to by BookMyShow.
In 2017, BookMyShow also released a “progressive web app.” Users of the app may read reviews, watch trailers, check showtimes, and book tickets among other things. Moreover, BookMyShow offers customer support around-the-clock.
Founded In: August 1999
Founded By: Ashish Hemrajani, Rajesh Balpande, Parikshit Dar
Industry: Entertainment
Competitors: Flipkart, Inox Leisure, And Paytm
3. OLA
Online cab aggregators have become more popular in several Indian cities as a result of the demand for trustworthy alternatives to public transportation and “black and yellow” metered taxis. One of the top companies offering these transportation services today is Ola Cabs. The business quickly expanded to include a network of over 200,000 taxis spread across 85 cities.
The Ola network had been further expanded by the end of 2014 to include auto rickshaws, thanks to a service named Ola Auto. Customers have passionately embraced the company’s offerings due to its dependability, excellent customer service, and user-friendly platform.
Founded In: 3 December 2010, Mumbai
Founded By: Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati
Industry: Transportation
Competitors: Uber, Lyft, Gett, And TaxiForSure
4. Mydentist
Mydentist currently offers the largest network of dental clinics in India under one single platform. A variety of restorative and cosmetic dentistry services are provided by the start-up, which Vikram Vora launched in 2009.
Mydentist has gained a lot of traction in not just Mumbai, but also in cities like Pune, Surat, and Ahmedabad, thanks to its clinics that are open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm and its more than 550 dentists who provide services that are generally reasonable.
Founded In: 2011, Mumbai
Founded By: Parth and Vikram Vora
Industry: Medical
Competitors: Medikabazaar, Toothsi, Sabka Dentist, And Paras Healthcare
5. ClearTrip
The online travel agency Cleartrip helps customers in finding and make reservations for flights to any location. To provide you with the finest travel experience, they are committed to clarity, comprehensibility, dependability, and responsibility.
With the broadest range of hotels and flights, intuitive products, a customer-centric orientation, and a highly differentiating value proposition, Cleartrip offers ease, choice, low prices, and exclusive content.
Founded In: 4 July 2006
Founded By: Stuart Crighton, Hrush Bhatt, Matthew Spacie
Industry: Travel And Tourism
Competitors: Goibibo.Com, Makemytrip.Com, Ixigo.Com, And Yatra.Com
6. Justdial
Given that it offers search services all throughout the nation, Justdial is promoted as being the top local search engine in India. Customers can receive the information via SMS, mobile apps, the Internet, or the phone.
A mere Rs. 50,000 was used as the company’s initial investment and Justdial started off with just six employees, but it now has over 7,400. In 2007 and 2011, respectively, JustDial released its web-based and Android applications.
With 28 integrated apps in their Android application, Search Plus, users can complete common tasks like supermarket shopping, flower delivery, cinema ticket booking, and online restaurant ordering from a single platform.
Founded In: 1996
Founded By: VSS Mani
Industry: Local Search Engine
Competitors: Zomato, 4INFO, and IndiaMART
7. Toppr
For students preparing for multiple entrance exams in India, Toppr is a platform for adaptive test prep. Initially, Toppr only served IIT JEE candidates, but it has since expanded and now provides foundational courses for students preparing for board and higher secondary exams, as well as pre-medical courses like AIMPT.
Toppr began with just 5 employees operating out of an apartment, but it now employs over 100 people and provides services to more than 1,50,000 students nationwide.
Founded In: 2013
Founded By: Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti
Industry: Edtech
Competitors: BYJU’S, Embibe, Unacademy and Vedantu
8. Acko
Acko is here to make purchasing insurance and utilizing it very simple. Technology and insurance have been merged in the best way possible by Acko. By incorporating technology, insurance has been transformed from a drawn-out process to one that is quick and easy.
Acko has also discovered a way to fit something as substantial as insurance into your pocket at the same time. Acko is digital first, so you’ll be just as open to using it as you are to use your own smartphone.
Founded In: 2017
Founded By: Varun Dua
Industry: Insurance
Competitors: RenewBuy, Origin, Goji, and Vouch Insurance
9. Bizongo
Bizongo strives to be the finest platform for all things packaging-related. It is a broad technology platform designed to meet the demands of businesses looking for solutions at any point along the packaging value chain.
The business started as a marketplace for businesses to identify, buy and sell material packing solutions across industries. For every packaging category, Bizongo’s unique business model expedites design, production, and sourcing solutions.
Founded In: 2015
Founded By: Aniket Deb, Ankit Tomar, Sachin Agrawal
Industry: Business to Business (B2B) E-commerce Venture
Competitors: Big Cartel, Zazzle, Olist and Fyndiq
10. Box8
One of Mumbai’s top startups is without a doubt Box8. In the beginning, BOX8 was a little kiosk in a business cafeteria. The idea was to serve enticing Indian dishes in an easy-to-deliver box.
Today, they operate more than 100 shops across the country and serve over 22,000 meals per day. Customers of Box8 Meals are prompted to choose a delivery location when they access the company’s website or mobile app.
Then, according to them, a lengthy menu with a broad variety of options is provided to them, including All-In-One Meals, Biryani, Wraps, Sandwiches, Salads, and Pizzas. The customer places their order with a confirmed delivery time of 28 minutes after choosing the dish they want to receive.
Founded In: 2012
Founded By: Anshul Gupta, Amit Raj
Industry: Food Delivery
Competitors: FreshMenu, Faasos and Swiggy
11. Pepperfry
Pepperfry is one of the most well-known brands in the e-commerce industry nowadays. The firm was established to provide customers with a selection of lifestyle products. It went on to evolve to sell furniture and home décor items, carving out a specific market niche.
The brand is already well-known in the majority of India’s major cities, and its enormous inventory contains more than 80,000 different furnishings and home décor items.
These are all sourced from merchant partners, which include small and large businesses as well as artisans and brands. Pepperfry business is well known for both its excellent customer service and the high quality of the goods it sells on the platform.
Founded In: July 2011
Founded By: Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah
Industry: Furniture and Home Décor
Competitors: Voonik, Livspace, Jaipur Rugs, Rentickle and GoRootz
12. Quikr
One of Mumbai’s most renowned startups, Quikr, has had tremendous success. After working in the US and experiencing the dot-com boom, Pranay Chulet founded the online classified advertising platform in 2008. He was motivated by Craiglist’s success there and believed that the idea might succeed in India as well, but investors at the time were hesitant.
Since then, the market has seen a significant transformation, and Quickr—one of the founding members of India’s startup industry—has experienced exponential growth.
Founded In: 2008
Founded By: Pranay Chulet
Industry: Online Marketplace
Competitors: OLX, Snapdeal, Flipkart, NoBroker and Maihaoche
13. Snackible
Rather than reaching for those infamously deep-fried crisps, chocolate bars, and other sugar- and fat-filled snacks, Snackible fulfills your unexpected mid-meal hunger pains, whether during meetings, while enjoying your favorite shows, or while preparing for that exam.
You can get snacks from Snackible that are tasty and kind to your waistline at the same time. You can satisfy your impromptu hunger pangs with Snackible, a company that understands the Indian tastebud.
Founded In: 2015
Founded By: Aditya Sanghavi
Industry: Snacks (Food)
Competitors: Breadfast, Pumasera and Comidas Como En Casa
14. Doormint
Local consumer service provider Doormint began as a Mumbai-based startup that links customers with utility services on demand. The startup currently offers residential and business owners in Mumbai a unified platform where they can seek the services of many specialists, including carpenters, electricians, and plumbers.
Before hiring any service provider, the Doormint Corporation runs extensive background checks and seeks police verification. Given how seriously customers take safety, this just serves to increase their appeal.
Founded In: 2015
Founded By: Naman Lahoty, Abhinav Agarwal, and Piyush Ranjan
Industry: Housing and Real Estate
Competitors: Thumbtack, Handy, TaskRabbit, and Alfred
15. Pricebaba
Want to know the nearest location where you can get your desired phone, gadget, or item for the most reasonable price? Well, the destination is now brought to you by Pricebaba. Users here can look up and compare the costs and features of mobile phones, electronics, gadgets, and computers available across the country thanks to this Mumbai-based startup called Pricebaba.
Tirthesh Ganatra and Annkur P. Agarwal launched the business in 2012, and it has now spread to numerous locations. The website, Pricebaba, also helps customers locate nearby online merchants who sell the goods they want.
Founded In: 2012
Founded By: Annkur P Agarwal
Industry: Price Comparison Platform
Competitors: Smartprix, FindYogi, and MySmartPrice
16. Grabhouse
One of the most influential new real estate search portals to appear in recent years is Grabhouse. Users can locate rental housing and roommates among the high-quality listings on this broker-free house-renting service, which includes images, local details, and more.
Grabhouse is certainly one of the most useful applications to come across while living in a fast-paced, high-rent average city such as Mumbai. Bachelors, students, and those looking for accommodation can really take benefit from Grabhouse.
Founded In: 2013
Founded By: Pankhuri Shrivastava
Industry: Real Estate and Construction
Competitors: Roomi, ZiffyHomes, and USAJOBS
17. Haptik
Haptik is a mobile messaging service that also functions as a personal assistant. It enables customers to connect with specialists for a range of goods and services, who will work to meet their customer support needs in real-time. You can scale and execute conversational commerce experiences across all messaging platforms with the aid of Haptik.
Brands may mimic in-store purchasing experiences and dazzle their clients with precise suggestions in their native tongue. Haptik is one such concierge app that may be used to check movie ticket prices, reserve a table at a restaurant, get the greatest deal, and track the status of a flight.
Founded In: August 2013
Founded By: Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev
Industry: Enterprise Conversational AI
Competitors: Freshdesk, Zendesk, Intercom, Qualified, Birdeye, and Drift
These were some of the most popular and up-and-coming startups from Mumbai that you need to know and watch out for in 2022 and ahead.
You can also check out the lists for Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Gurgaon, and more.
It’s no wonder Mumbai has become a startup hub in India after attracting some of the best talents from across the country and being home to some of the finest educational institutions. Analysts and financial experts are saying Mumbai’s startup system is on a hike like never seen before.
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