Six Startups That Entered The Unicorn Club In 2025

The late stage Indian startup ecosystem rediscovered its rhythm in 2025 in terms of IPOs, but the number of unicorns in India is growing at a much slower clip than ever before. Is this a sign of maturity or corrected valuations?

Following a lean 2023 with just two new unicorns, India’s new-age tech ecosystem bounced back in 2024, minting seven billion-dollar startups.

In 2025, there was a dip again with six startups – Netradyne, Porter, Drools, Fireflies.ai, Jumbotail and Dhan – entering the unicorn club. With this, India is now home to 125 unicorns, which have cumulatively raised more than $115 Bn to date and currently command a combined valuation of over $366 Bn.

Despite the steady numbers, the sectoral profile of 2025’s new unicorns was largely predictable. Logistics (Netradyne and Porter) and ecommerce (Drools and Jumbotail) led with two unicorns each, while AI (Fireflies.ai) and fintech (Dhan) contributed one apiece. More than 125 startups are waiting on the wings to enter the unicorn club, as revealed in our latest soonicorn tracker.

This year, Bengaluru emerged as the home to three new unicorns this year, followed by Mumbai with one. The remaining two are based in the US with operations in India. 

Meanwhile, the unicorn pipeline remains robust. Listed D2C jewellery brand BlueStone is inching closer to the billion-dollar mark on the bourses, while proptech player Square Yards is raising a round targeting a valuation above $1 Bn. In the best-case scenario, 2025’s unicorn count may climb higher before the year ends.

As part of Inc42’s annual ‘Year in Review’ series, here’s a detailed look at the startups that entered the coveted unicorn club this year.

Editor’s Note: This is not a ranking of any kind. The startups have been listed alphabetically.

The Unicorns Of 2025

Dhan

Stock trading platform Dhan became a unicorn in October after its parent Raise Financial Services bagged $120 Mn (about INR 1,065 Cr) in its Series B funding round at a valuation of over $1.2 Bn.

The funding round, which was a mix of primary and secondary transactions, was led by Hornbill Capital and Japan’s MUFG. It marked the second institutional fundraise for Dhan after its $22 Mn funding round led by BEENEXT in 2022.

Founded in 2021 by former Paytm Money CEO Pravin Jadhav, Jay Prakash Gupta and Alok Pandey, Dhan is an online stock trading and investing platform. Its parent operates a suite of tech-driven financial products, including ScanX (a real-time market research and analytics platform), Upsurge (an education platform for investors and traders), Filter Coffee (a media platform offering bite-sized financial content), and Fuzz (an AI model delivering contextual and verified financial insights). 

Like other fintech companies, Dhan has been looking to diversify its revenue base. Cofounder and COO Gupta told Inc42 that the startup would deploy the fresh capital to double down on its margin trading facility (MTF) book and diversify into complementary businesses targeting its core audience.

On the financial front, Dhan reported a profit after tax of around INR 400 Cr in FY25, more than double of INR 177 Cr in FY24. Its top line surged 2.4X to about INR 900 Cr from INR 373 Cr in FY24.

Drools

D2C petcare startup Drools said in May that it became a unicorn, without disclosing further details. The announcement came after Swiss food giant Nestle acquired a minority stake in the startup.

Founded by Fahim Sultan in 2010, Drools offer 650+ SKUs, including high-protein, prescription, and value-for-money diets, serving the full spectrum of pet nutrition needs. 

The Bengaluru-based startup sells its products via its own website, major ecommerce marketplaces, and offline stores. It also exports its products to more than 40K retail outlets across 22 countries, including Australia, Israel and the UAE. 

Drools also counts L Catterton, which invested $60 Mn in the startup in 2023, among its backers.

In July, CEO Shashank Sinha said that Drools’ cat food subsidiary, Purepet Cat, now accounts for 35-40% of the revenue of the brand. 

Drools is yet to file its financial statements for FY25. It slipped into the red in FY24, posting a net loss of INR 14 Cr as against a profit of INR 28 Cr in the previous year. Operating revenue rose 50% YoY to INR 715 Cr. 

Fireflies.ai

AI-powered meeting assistant platform Fireflies.ai joined the coveted unicorn club in June this year following its first tender offer, which is a secondary transaction in which existing shareholders can sell their shares to outside investors at a pre-determined price. While no fresh capital was raised, the valuation ascertained was more than $1 Bn. 

Launched in 2016 by Krish Ramineni and Sam Udotong, Fireflies.ai started in San Francisco and has a team based in India. It provides an AI meeting assistant, which has been used by 75% of Fortune 500 companies. 

Fireflies supports more than 20 Mn users across 500K+ organisations, catering to the demand for AI tools that help manage meetings, automate tasks and retain organisational knowledge. It claims to have processed over 2 Bn meeting minutes to date.

The startup offers enterprise-grade security, supports private data storage, and ensures that customer meeting data is not used to train its AI models.

Since its inception, Fireflies has raised over $19 Mn in funding from investors like Khosla Ventures, Canaan Partners, among others. The startup operates as a remote-first team, with 120 employees spread across more than 20 countries.

Jumbotail

B2B ecommerce platform Jumbotail became the fifth unicorn of 2025 after raising $120 Mn (around INR 1,028 Cr) in June.

The unicorn valuation came after Jumbotail acquired Standard Chartered-back B2B digital marketplace Solv India. The $120 Mn funding round was led by Standard Chartered’s investment arm SC Ventures. 

With the acquisition of Solv, Jumbotail said its reach expanded to over 5 Lakh small retailers across more than 400 cities and towns in India.

Founded in 2015 by Karthik Venkateswaran and Ashish Jhina, Jumbotail offers a suite of go-to-market products and services to connect emerging brands with mom-and-pop stores. It runs a B2B marketplace for groceries and food, which primarily caters to wholesale buyers. 

Jumbotail has raised $263 Mn since its inception from investors like Nexus Venture Partners, Arkam Ventures, Kalaari Capital, among others. 

In FY24, the unicorn’s net loss rose 4.8% to INR 276.74 Cr from INR 264.16 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Its revenue grew 7.9% YoY to INR 884 Cr. 

Netradyne

Logistics AI startup Netradyne became the first unicorn of 2025 after raising $90 Mn in its Series D funding round, led by existing backer Point72 Private Investments, in January. The funding saw the startup’s post-money valuation soar to $1.34 Bn.

Founded in 2015 by Avneesh Agrawal and David Julian, Netradyne offers AI-powered fleet safety and video telematics solutions. It also sells AI-enabled dashcams that process vehicle data and video to improve driver safety. 

It provides fleets of all sizes with features such as fleet performance analytics tracking and driver awareness tools to help reduce risky driving behaviour and reward safe driving decision-making. 

The Bengaluru-based startup claims to have analysed over 18 Bn driving miles and catered to fleet owners across the US, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Australia, and India. 

Netradyne caters to over 3,000 customers, including Indian Oil, GreenLine Mobility, Writer Safeguard, among others. It has over 4.5 Lakh active subscribers spanning sectors such as online retail, oil and gas, transportation, and utilities. 

Overall, the startup has raised more than $317 Mn in funding from investors like Reliance, M12, SoftBank, Qualcomm Ventures, Pavilion Capital, among others.

Porter

Hyperlocal logistics startup Porter became the second unicorn of 2025 after raising about $200 Mn, in a mix of primary and secondary, in a round led by Kedaara Capital and Wellington Management.

The funding round valued the startup at $1.1 Bn to $1.2 Bn. Peak XV Partners and Kae Capital diluted their stakes in the startup as part of the round. 

Founded in 2014 by Pranav Goel, Uttam Digga, and Vikas Choudhary, Porter offers B2C and B2B logistic services, including enterprise-level goods movements and management, packers and movers service for relocation, and intercity courier services. 

The startup claims to work with over 3 Lakh driver partners and have over 20 Lakh SME customers. It is looking to expand its SME pool to over 1 Cr by 2030, and increase the number of driver partners to 12 Lakh.

Last month, Porter laid off over 350 employees in a restructuring exercise, impacting at least 18% of its total workforce, following its decision to merge truck and two-wheeler business verticals to streamline operations and eliminate overlaps between the two verticals.

On the financial front, Porter turned profitable in FY25, posting a profit after tax of INR 55.2 Cr as against a loss of INR 95.7 Cr in FY24. Its revenue from operations skyrocketed nearly 58% to INR 4,306.2 Cr during the year under review from INR 2,733.7 Cr in FY24.