2024 In Review: The Best Of Inc42’s 30 Startups To Watch

Indian startups charted a notable turnaround in 2024. After enduring a prolonged funding winter over the past two years, the homegrown new-age tech ecosystem displayed promising signs of recovery, with funding numbers rebounding as investors started to deploy dry powder, albeit cautiously.

It is imperative to mention that Indian startups cumulatively netted more than $12 Bn in fresh funds during the year. This was a promising more than 20% increase from the $10 Bn raised last year. Similarly, funding volume or number of deals saw an over 11% spike this year, paving the way for 1K+ deals in the entirety of 2024. 

With this, the homegrown startup funding paradigm has settled at the 2020 levels, before the Covid-19 pandemic brought the world to its knees. 

However, what truly turbocharged the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem was a surge in startup IPOs, ensuring investors got the bang for their buck.

The year was also a testament to the grit and innovation of Indian startups. The ecosystem rapidly embraced emerging technologies, such as GenAI, and joined the semiconductor revolution amid a fluctuating but steady flow of investor capital.

Now as we stand on the cusp of 2025, it is time to glean the spotlight on some of the hottest startups that caught our attention in 2024. 

For the past four years, the Inc42 team has been cherry-picking the cream of Indian startups and putting them in the public domain via its flagship ‘30 Startups To Watch’ series. Since the start of the initiative, we have been able to spot and bring to the limelight nearly 1,500 startups across 53 editions of our flagship series. 

Continuing the tradition in 2024, 10 editions of “30 StartupsTo Watch” put the spotlight on 300 startups that disrupted various facets of India’s tech ecosystem. 

Now, as part of our “2024 in Review” series, we are showcasing the crème de la crème of all the startups that featured in the 10 editions of “30 Startups To Watch” this year. 

This special edition, part of Inc42’s 2024 in Review, brings forth more than 30% of ventures that hail from the burgeoning AI space. Meanwhile, familiar sectors like ecommerce and enterprise tech contribute significantly to the tally. Another key takeaway is that 90% (or 27) of the startups in this special edition were founded within the last three years.

As we step into 2025, we present the 54th cohort of 30 Startups To Watch, featuring a curated selection of the budding ventures that shone the brightest in 2024. 

Editor’s Note: The list below is not a ranking of any kind. We have listed the startups alphabetically.

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Athina AI

Offering Tech To Eliminate AI Hallucinations

While GenAI has emerged as a major buzzword in the global business environs this year, popular large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini still produce inaccurate or biased outputs. 

This is where Athina AI steps in to help organisations adopt GenAI seamlessly by circumventing hallucinations. Founded in 2022 by Shiv Sakhuja, Himanshu Bamoria and Akshat Gupta, the startup’s proprietary evaluations help organisations detect when AI churns factually incorrect information, leaks personal or sensitive information, or says something that is racially biased or toxic towards certain groups. 

Besides, it also ensures the correctness of AI outputs on a number of other dimensions, including conversation coherence, answer relevance, truthfulness and other domain-specific criteria.

In 2024, the startup claims to have onboarded several unicorns, including the likes of Meesho, PhysicsWallah, Perplexity, and Doximity, as its customers. Growing its user base by 30% month-on-month, Athena AI’s total user base stood at 50 by the end of 2024. 

The rapid expansion aligned with new product launches for Athina, include Athina ID, a spreadsheet for LLM engineering; Athina Flows, which helps companies build powerful AI workflows in a Notebook format, and Athina Annotation, which allows teams to manage the human review of AI-generated responses alongside automatic testing.

Including its latest seed funding round of $3 Mn, the startup has raised a total of $4.1 Mn so far. With the fresh capital, Athina AI plans to expand its platform as a unified stack for teams to build, test, and monitor production-ready AI features in the coming year. 

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Agnit Semiconductor 

Future Of Gallium Nitride Semiconductors

Founded in 2019 by seven semiconductor experts – Hareesh Chandrasekar, Madhusudan Atre, Mayank Shrivastava, Digbijoy Nath, Muralidharan Rangarajan, Shankar Kumar Selvaraja, and Srinivasan Raghavan — AGNIT Semiconductors is a Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor startup

With the founders’ cumulative 100-year experience in GaN technology, AGNIT Semiconductors bids to capture the GaN wafer tech market. The founders are leveraging their technical know-how to build 4-inch wafers on silicon carbide, which is also more expensive than building larger GaN wafers on silicon that Infineon has manufactured.

These wafers primarily cater to RF applications and not the power electronics market. While it plans on developing and selling its wafers to semiconductor fab companies, it will also sell GaN devices or the discrete RF power transistors built on the wafers.

The startup’s immediate potential market entails applications in the strategic sector such as defence radar, electronic warfare, and others.

The startup raised $3.5 Mn in a seed funding round co-led by 3one4 Capital and Zephyr Peacock in October. It plans on utilising the fresh capital to further the reliability check of its devices and fuel its plans to make about 1 Lakh devices in the next two years. 

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Beatoven.ai

AI Embraces Music 

Musicians Mansoor Rahimat Khan and Siddharth founded Beatoven.ai in 2021 to pioneer the use of generative AI (GenAI) in music production.

The startup’s platform enables content creators to compose original background music using an AI music generator. By inputting text or genre prompts, users can create diverse soundtracks across multiple genres, including Indian classical and world music.

Beatoven.ai claims over 2 Mn tracks have been created on its platform, with more than 15,000 paying customers. It has raised $2.5 Mn from investors, including Info Edge, Entrepreneur First, IvyCap Ventures, Rukam Capital, and Upsparks Capital.

In 2024, the company introduced multi-modal generative AI, allowing users to create music by providing inputs like text, images, audio, or video. Looking ahead, Beatoven.ai plans to enter the B2B market with a marketing autopilot—a personal, data-driven assistant that automates marketing while learning from user data to drive growth.

The startup aims to achieve $5 Mn ARR and onboard over 50,000 businesses by the end of 2025.

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BeBetta

Empowering Gaming Enthusiasts

After observing gaps in casual real-money gaming apps, Meet Shah launched the social gaming and sports engagement platform BeBetta in 2023. 

BeBetta allows users to participate in sports betting and games without risking losing money. The platform uses BetCoins, its official social currency. 

Users earn BetCoins by playing games and placing sports bets, which they can redeem for real-life rewards through BeBetta’s partnerships.

The platform offers social betting options for popular sports like football, cricket, and kabaddi, enabling users to place bets against friends and rivals without financial risk, creating a more socially interactive environment.

The startup claims to have onboarded 10 Mn users since its inception. It expanded its sports offerings this year, potentially adding F1, NBA, and UFC to complement its existing options.

Further, it also got selected for Google For Startups and Forbes Select 200 this year.

As of now, BeBetta operates at a pre-revenue stage, which is something it plans on changing next year. Further, it also wants to expand to Southeast Asia and enhance its product offerings. Since its inception, it has raised an undisclosed capital from Adani Family Office this year. 

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BetterInvest

Financing Solutions Tailored For Content Producers

Founded by Pradeep VS, Sethu Rajendran and Sriram Anax in 2022, BetterInvest is an investtech startup that helps content creators get timely and reliable financing.

Its platform specialises in invoice discounting by advancing funds against future receivables from OTT platforms, satellite channels, and audio rights. This innovative model helps content producers access capital swiftly.

It has raised $1.1 Mn from investors like Isha Homes (India) Private Limited, SVF, and Sanjay Arjundas Wadhwa, among others. 

At the end of 2024, BetterInvest’s client base comprised 5,000 individual investors and over 50 production houses. With 1,744 new investors, the platform’s user base grew by 34.88% this year.

During the year, its Gross Transaction Value (GTV) in financing productions stood at INR 475 Cr. It funded over 600 deals across 165 movie and TV show projects and established partnerships with over 50 production houses. It also launched a Creator Financing program for digital content creators.

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Blip

Blinkit For Fashion

Founded in 2024 by Ansh Agarwal and Sarvesh Kedia, Blip is a hyperlocal fashion business offering 30-minute delivery of fashion items in Bengaluru. The company partners with a variety of local and national brands and operates dark stores to ensure quick deliveries. Blip’s model focusses on convenience by offering fast, localised service, and it is also planning to expand into physical retail with offline stores.

In its first year of operations, Blip onboarded brands, including UCB, Raymond, TIGC, Celio, Inc 5, Metro Brands, House of Anita Dongre, and Jolger. The company aims to continue growing its brand portfolio while extending its geographic reach. In the short term, it plans to cover all pin codes in Mumbai and expand to cities such as Bengaluru and Delhi.

By 2026, Blip plans to diversify further by launching offline showrooms for mid- to large-scale D2C apparel brands, positioning itself as a “Shopify for offline retail”. 

It also intends to offer logistics services for D2C brands, facilitating same-day delivery and improving supply chain efficiency. Additionally, Blip plans to expand its marketplace and integrate with ONDC as a buyer app to enhance the customer experience and strengthen its market position.

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Clientell AI

Your RevOps & CRM Dream Team

In 2021, Neil Sarkar and Saahil Dhaka identified the growing demand for Revenue Operations (RevOps) in the US, where sales and marketing systems were often siloed and lacked integration. They also observed that while AI was transforming software, the user experience with Salesforce remained outdated, complicating SaaS sales. This insight led to the creation of Clientell.

Clientell develops AI tools for RevOps that integrate with existing Salesforce systems. These tools aim to streamline administration, boost go-to-market (GTM) efficiency, and lighten the load for RevOps teams. Key products include AI-powered data capture, on-demand analytics, and Salesforce administration. Clientell has already launched its AI agent and Chrome plugin for beta users. 

In 2024, the startup introduced an autonomous AI agent for data management and analytics within Salesforce, which was also selected for the Salesforce for Startups programme. The startup also netted $3.1 Mn this year in two tranches from investors like Bestvantage Investments, ah! Ventures, and Soonicorn Ventures.

In 2025, Clientell plans to launch a Salesforce Developer agent in beta, designed to create complex workflows for over 100 beta customers. By 2026, the company aims to introduce a fully autonomous AI Salesforce developer to handle all manual RevOps tasks, potentially reducing the need for large RevOps teams and consolidating multiple SaaS solutions.

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EcoRatings 

An ESG Rating AI Startup

EcoRatings, founded in 2023 by Aditi Balbir, Aqeel Ahmed, and Shruti Anand, is a cleantech startup that leverages AI/ML and Big Data to measure the environmental impact of products and services. 

The company’s methodology aligns with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals and ESG standards, responding to the growing consumer demand for transparency in product sustainability.

EcoRatings’ AI platform evaluates products through a comprehensive assessment, providing a sustainability rating on a scale of 10, based on verified data. This rating system helps consumers make informed, eco-friendly purchasing decisions, reflecting the global shift towards sustainable consumption.

In 2024, EcoRatings secured 15 corporate clients, generating $100,000 in revenue, with an additional 16 clients in the pipeline, valued at $250,000. The company also launched its US Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy, marking its entry into international markets. It raised $1 Mn in a pre-seed funding round and obtained a SEBI license for ESG Ratings.

Looking ahead, the startup aims to scale its operations, deepen client relationships, and expand into sustainability-focused regions such as Europe and Singapore. It plans to launch a Small Language Model with 10 Bn tokens, which will expand to 20 Tn tokens, offering advanced features and multimodal capabilities.

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ELIVAAS

Addressing Gaps In Luxury Property Rentals

Founded in 2023 by Ritwik Khare and Karan Miglani, Delhi NCR-based travel tech startup Elivaas serves two main segments — second homeowners and short-term luxury travellers. It offers a comprehensive 3M solution — maintain, monitor, and monetise — for property owners.

Elivaas simplifies property management by using advanced technology, enabling homeowners to manage and profit from their properties with ease. The startup operates on a revenue-sharing model, handling short-term rentals through its website, social media, online travel agencies, B2B agents, and corporate partners.

In 2024, Elivaas expanded to 10 cities, achieving 5x top line growth. The company raised over $8 Mn from investors such as Peak XV SURGE and 3one4 Capital.

The startup introduced several innovations, including 3D walkthrough videos, a tech-enabled central reservation system, AI chatbot assistance, a guest self-check-in portal, and an app-driven housekeeping audit.  

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Flashaid

Making Health Insurance Affordable 

Founded in 2020 by Manoj Gupta and Gunjali Kothari, Flashaid aims to address the challenge of affordable health insurance in India, where access remains limited for millions. The startup’s mission is to promote health equity by making insurance both affordable and accessible.

Flashaid’s innovative distribution strategy focusses on a B2B2C platform, partnering with D2C brands, ecommerce marketplaces, and fintech companies. This approach enhances the reach of health insurance while integrating it into the digital lifestyles of Indian consumers.

In 2024, Flashaid raised $2.5 Mn in its Pre-Series A round, expanded into three new locations, and partnered with six large fintech and education firms. It also introduced its Unique Student Total Protect plans, which cover health, fees, and placement, gaining significant traction.

The startup reached a monthly revenue run rate of $100K and achieved profitability at the EBITDA level this year. Moving forward, Flashaid plans to sign agreements with 100 universities, covering 5 Lakh users, and aims to raise $15 Mn in its Series A funding round in 2025.

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Flutrr

Dating App For Real Bharat

Founded in 2021 by father-son duo Kaushik and Anirban Banerjee, flutrr is a vernacular dating app designed to cater to the unique needs of non-English-speaking users, particularly in tier II and tier III cities. The app focusses on ensuring women’s safety and addressing the gender imbalance.

Flutrr’s key differentiators lie in its emphasis on women’s privacy and security, with features such as face recognition, a no-screenshot policy, location-hiding, and AI-driven safety technology. The app also introduced features like ‘ghost mode’ and private mode messaging to protect users from cyber harassment. Its value proposition is to serve as a safe space for users seeking long-term, meaningful relationships rather than casual dating or arranged marriages.

In 2024, flutrr had more than 5 Lakh monthly active users (MAUs) and 9 Lakh+ app downloads. The startup generated a turnover of INR 2.5 Cr in FY24, up from INR 99 Lakh in FY23. It raised INR 3.75 Cr in a strategic funding round from Zee Media in October.

Flutrr generates revenue through microtransactions, ads, and its campus ambassador network. In FY25, the app plans to double its user base to 2 Mn downloads, aim for 1 Mn MAUs, and expand into offline experiences like singles meetups.  

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FRAMMER AI

Helping Companies Create Highly Discoverable, Monetisable Content

Frammer was founded by Arijit Chatterjee, Suparna Singh, and Kawaljit Singh, former management team members at NDTV, who bring extensive experience in the news and publishing industry. Recognising the growing demand for high-quality short-form content, they launched Frammer to help publishers create engaging, digital-ready videos for social media platforms

Frammer’s platform transforms any video into formats suitable for YouTube, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, ensuring accuracy and editorial integrity. Initially designed to create short-form videos, it has evolved into a comprehensive 360-degree platform capable of processing live feeds, not just video clips.

In 2024, Frammer secured six major clients, including a contract with Brightcove, an online video platform. The startup is now powering key features of Brightcove’s AI strategy, which serves over 2,000 clients globally.

Frammer raised $2 Mn in seed funding from VC firm Lumikai in October 2024. With this funding, the startup aims to scale globally and strengthen its position in news and news-adjacent content. It also plans to expand into sports and entertainment.

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GreyLabs AI

AI-Powered Speech Analytics Platform

GreyLabs AI, founded in 2023 by Aman Goel and Harshita Srivastava, aims to tackle the inefficiency and inconsistent performance of call centre agents. 

The startup offers a GenAI-powered speech analytics platform that analyses every interaction between agents and customers, providing insights that help improve sales conversions and ensure compliance, particularly in EMI collection calls.

GreyLabs AI follows a business model based on charging businesses per minute for processed recordings, with additional packages available on a per-agent, per-month basis.

Operating in India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, GreyLabs AI’s list of key clients include RBL Bank, AU Bank, HDFC Securities, SBI Life Insurance, Axis Finance, BankBazaar, and Groww.

The startup raised $1.6 Mn from Z47 and other angel investors. This funding helped GreyLabs AI scale its revenue by 47% MoM, and the startup plans to triple its top line in 2025.

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Kiko Live

Catalysing The Q-Commerce Plunge 

Founded in 2020 by husband-wife duo Alok and Neeta Chawla, along with their childhood friend Virendra Chouhan, Kiko Live addresses the challenges posed by the rapid growth of quick commerce, which has impacted small-scale retailers in India. 

The platform enables retailers to create their online storefronts and go live within 24 hours, offering a large product repository and an easy-to-use seller solution. The quick commerce startup has raised $2 Mn to date from Powerhouse Ventures, 9Unicorns, SOSV, GSF and Venture Catalysts.

With around 800 active retailers and over 500K transactions processed to date, Kiko Live has partnered with ONDC, providing sellers visibility across buyer apps like Paytm, PhonePe, and Mystore. 

In 2024, Kiko Live was acknowledged by the Government of India in the Economic Survey, and recognised by ONDC as a key digital enabler for retailer-led grocery retail. 

Additionally, the startup has introduced automated WhatsApp orders for home deliveries, enabling D2C brands and B2B distributors to engage in quick commerce through local retailers.

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Mitra 

Nutrition-Focussed FMCG Startup

Founded in 2023 by Abhishek Kaushik, Mitra is an FMCG brand focussed on offering nutrition-driven products crafted using a traditional 300-year-old stone-grinding method. Its product range includes flour, gram flour, edible oils, millet-based goods, and spices. The startup operates a 1.5-acre manufacturing unit in Mathura, catering to consumers in tier II and III cities, who seek affordable, high-quality branded goods.

Mitra’s flagship products, including pearl millet, corn flour, black wheat flour, and keto flour, are stone-ground and rich in fibre. The brand has built a strong offline presence with 500 distributors and 15,000 retail points across Delhi NCR and western Uttar Pradesh.

In 2024, Mitra upgraded its production facility to full automation, improving filtration and fibre content. It also launched new product lines, including gram flour and oil, while continuing to emphasise its unique stone-grinding technique.

The startup raised $1.2 Mn in a funding round this year, achieving a valuation of INR 168 Cr. Mitra aims to expand its exports to the Middle East and Europe and plans for an IPO by 2026. 

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NeuralGarage

Studio-Quality Lip-Sync With AI

Founded in 2021 by Mandar Natekar, Subhabrata Debnath, Anjan Banerjee and Subhashish Saha, NeuralGarage is revolutionising video localisation with its proprietary tool, VisualDub. 

This tool syncs recorded voice overs with lip movements to ensure content looks authentically localised, addressing the common pitfall in dubbed videos where visual cues are out of sync with the audio.

VisualDub delivers lip-sync at 2K-4K resolution without artefacts, working across various screen sizes and transforming the face, including jaws, mouth and micro muscles to create a natural look. The startup serves clients in India and globally. Amazon, Coca-Cola and Microsoft are some of its key customers.

In 2024, NeuralGarage tripled its revenue and quadrupled its client base. It also filed patents in the US and EU and developed core models for 4K resolution. The startup has joined prestigious accelerators like AWS Global GenAI and Google APAC. It plans to raise Series A in 2025 and open an office in LA for Hollywood collaborations.

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Pepsales AI

AI Platform For Personalised Demos

Founded in 2023 by Ajay Singh and Abhinandan Sahgal, Pepsales addresses a critical gap in the B2B SaaS sector — ineffective live product demos. 

Reports show that 80% of demos fail due to their generic approach. Pepsales uses AI and machine learning to create personalised demos, enhancing engagement and interest in SaaS products.

In 2024, Pepsales launched its Discovery Copilot and Demo Copilot. Discovery Copilot empowers sales teams with tailored questions and real-time objection handling, while Demo Copilot streamlines the creation of personalised demos. 

Backed by Chiratae Ventures and angel investors, Pepsales has raised $1.1 Mn. The startup competes with global players like Consensus, Folio, and Demoboost.

In 2024, Pepsales secured partnerships with 10 prominent B2B SaaS companies, expanding its market presence in the US and India.

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Plane

Project Management Processes Made Seamless

Founded in April 2023 by brothers Vamsi and Vihar Kurama, Plane is transforming project management for teams across a range of industries. 

Vihar, an experienced consultant with over six years in sectors such as edtech, AI, and ecommerce recognised the limitations of existing tools, which led to the creation of Plane — a project management software designed to simplify the tracking of product roadmaps and progress.

Plane offers tailored solutions, including a one-time fee software for self-managed platforms, flexible cloud solutions), and Plane Self-hosted (available in Community, Pro, and Enterprise versions for full customisation). The platform is currently in its beta phase.

The startup has already secured partnerships with Fortune 500 companies and leading stockbroking firms in India.

The startup bids to use its simple, powerful, extensible and secure design to position Plane as a key player in enterprise project management, with plans to focus on closing more enterprise deals moving forward.

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Quinn

Help Businesses Boost Conversions

Founded by Mohit Kinra and Arvind Sasikumar in 2021, Quinn harnesses video assets, such as Instagram Reels, to enhance Shopify store revenue. The startup claims to help businesses boost their conversions by 68% using existing content from TikTok or Reels.

The platform is already live with over 100 leading brands, including Juicy Chemistry, Faces Canada, Arata, and The Face Shop, and is supported by the founders of Purplle, Snapdeal, Kwench, and Mamaearth. It has raised about $400K in funding to date. 

Quinn’s mission is to revolutionise ecommerce by leveraging the power of video. The company believes that video can provide more engaging, personalised, and interactive shopping experiences. By integrating shoppable videos into online stores, Quinn helps businesses effectively showcase their products, connect with their audience, and drive sales. Its solutions combine video and commerce, enriching the shopping experience and enhancing online retail.

In 2024, Quinn achieved profitability. Looking ahead, the company aims to scale further in 2025 by targeting larger enterprises.

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Reelo

Smart Marketing Platform For Small Businesses

Reelo was founded in 2021 by brothers Parin and Prit Sanghvi after recognising that small businesses, especially in the restaurant and retail sectors, often struggle with ineffective marketing.

Reelo brings enterprise-level customer data, loyalty, and marketing automation technology to small and mid-sized businesses. Its easy-to-use platform helps businesses increase revenue, attract more customers, and strengthen their brand.

Reelo’s loyalty programme builder enables restaurants to launch mobile-first programmes, while its library of 5,000+ ready-to-use templates allows for personalised campaigns across different channels like WhatsApp, SMS, and emails.

In 2024, Reelo secured $1 Mn in funding from Silicon Valley investor Gokul Rajaram. The startup grew its customer base by 3X and onboarded major brands like Punjab Grill, Bercos, and The Beer Cafe. Additionally, it expanded internationally, securing deals in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Looking ahead, Reelo plans to launch a marketing autopilot – a data-driven assistant to automate marketing efforts. It aims to reach an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $5 Mn and onboard 50,000+ businesses next year.

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Reo.Dev

Revenue Intel For Developer-Focussed Companies

Founded in 2023 by Achintya Gupta, Piyush Agarwal, and Gaurav Jain, Reo.Dev is an AI-driven revenue intelligence tool for developer-focused companies. 

It helps go-to-market teams identify accounts with the highest conversion potential by analysing anonymous developer activities around their products and communities.

Reo.Dev’s revenue AI engine converts these intent signals into actionable insights, enabling GTM teams to convert interested developers into customers. 

The startup serves companies like Aporia, Lightbend, and MEM Graph and has raised $1.2 Mn from India Quotient.

In its first year, Reo.Dev achieved an ARR of $600K and aims to cross $2 Mn in ARR in 2025. With plans for 4X top line growth in 2025, the startup targets securing 20 of the top 100 global DevTool companies as clients.

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Revrag AI

AI Agents For Revenue Teams

Revrag.ai, founded in 2022 by Ashutosh Prakash Singh, Neeraj Gupta and Pankaj Gupta, is a GenAI startup focussed on the B2B sales sector. The company’s goal is to automate repetitive tasks for revenue teams across industries to improve sales efficiency. 

In 2024, Revrag secured $600K in pre-seed funding led by Powerhouse Ventures, with participation from over 20 angel investors, including Kunal Shah of Cred and Vetri Vellore of Rhythms.

Revrag offers two GenAI products — Emma and Kristi. While Emma is an AI sales development representative designed to scale sales by prospecting, creating personalised emails, and scheduling meetings, Kristi is an inbound sales AI agent that engages website visitors, qualifies them based on intent, and schedules meetings directly on the calendar.

In the last two months, the company has secured 13+ paid pilots and over five annual contracts. Looking ahead, Revrag aims to build advanced AI agents for revenue teams and achieve an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $3 Mn by 2025.

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Schmooze

India’s First Meme-Based Dating App

Schmooze, founded in 2021 by Vidya Madhavan and Abhinav Anurag, is a dating app that targets GenZ and millennials by leveraging memes to connect users. The platform matches individuals based on their preferences for memes, which include content from featured meme creators, an in-house meme officer team, and user-generated content. 

Schmooze’s proprietary compatibility algorithm analyses users’ meme swipes (likes and dislikes) and humour preferences to recommend the most compatible profiles. 

With $4 Mn raised this year, Schmooze has bagged about $7.5 Mn from investors Elevation Capital and Silicon Valley Quad. It also expanded its platform across India, collaborated with Swiggy for their Single’s Day campaign, and introduced AI-assisted dating to help users tackle ghosting with personalised ice-breakers and pick-up lines. 

With 25% more users joining each month, Schmooze claims a user base of 2 Mn within 14 months of launch. 

Moving forward, the startup plans to enhance its AI algorithm, which draws on over 1.5 Bn memes to provide personality insights.

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Scimplify

End-To-End Platform For Specialty Chemicals 

Scimplify is a B2B platform specialising in end-to-end sourcing and manufacturing of speciality chemicals. Founded in 2023 by Sachin Santosh and Salil Srivastava, it serves industries such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and flavours & fragrances, managing processes from contract research to commercial-scale production.

The company’s revenue model involves providing full-service solutions, handling R&D in its labs, managing production in dedicated manufacturing facilities, and ensuring high-quality products through rigorous checks.

Scimplify has raised $13 Mn from investors, including Omnivore, Bertelsmann, Beenext, and 3one4 Capital, with $9.5 Mn secured in August to enhance R&D capabilities and expand into new geographies. 

In 2024, the startup onboarded 300+ customers and over 150 manufacturing partners, working across 3,000+ chemical products in sectors such as agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals. With the establishment of two R&D centres, Scimplify has expanded its customer base to Europe and the Middle East.

Looking ahead, the startup aims to become a leading global marketplace for speciality chemicals, connecting suppliers and consumers worldwide.  

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Segwise

Copilot To Boost Return On Ad Spends

Founded in 2023 by Brijesh Bharadwaj and Shobhit Gupta, Segwise is an observability platform designed for fast-moving product and growth teams behind games and apps. 

It provides digital companies an AI monitoring of campaign data and analysis of the performance of their Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs). For this, it provides daily reports on the factors affecting metric fluctuations and automatically identifies long-term drivers and potential customer issues.

Bharadwaj and Gupta, former leaders at FamPay, saw firsthand the challenges product and growth teams face in understanding metric changes and identifying growth opportunities. To address this, they built Segwise, leveraging AI and ML, to automate data analysis and root-cause identification.

In 2024, Segwise launched several tools, including AI-powered marketing data monitoring, creative insights for ad components, and a predictive ROAS tool. 

The startup raised $1.6 Mn from Powerhouse Ventures, Antler, and Blume Ventures and achieved 8X revenue growth in 2024. 

It was also part of the Google AI Startup Accelerator and SaaS Spotlight APJ. Moving forward, Segwise plans to expand into the US market and raise another round of funding.

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Sports for Life

Changing India’s Sporting Culture

Founded by ex-DealShare founder Sourjyendu Medda and Armaan Tandon, Sports For Life (SFL) aims to transform India’s youth sports ecosystem by improving access to quality training and scaling mid-tier sports academies. 

The startup targets backing 2K to 3K academies with 15-30 coaches that cater to 300–500 students, offering high-quality coaching but lacking the resources to expand. SFL provides these academies with technology, branding, infrastructure, and access to a digital platform for scheduling, communication, and performance tracking.

SFL offers multisport training, including cricket, soccer, badminton, tennis, table tennis, and basketball, and plans to add swimming and martial arts. It also introduces value-added services like nutrition, physiotherapy, and mental health support.

SFL also arranges tech-enabled tournaments and partners with educational institutions, housing societies, and corporations. With plans to expand into 30 Indian cities in five years, SFL seeks to democratise access to world-class sports training, capitalising on India’s growing youth sports market.

SFL has raised $1.5 Mn from investors like Blume Ventures, Roots Ventures, and Kunal Shah’s QED Innovations Lab. With this, it aims to scale academies across India through its roll-up strategy, acquiring minority stakes in academies and gradually increasing control, to drive growth and expand operations.

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Swish

Instant Food Gratification

Swish, a 10-minute food delivery startup launched in August 2024, aims to fill a gap in the food delivery market where larger players have struggled. 

Founded by Aniket Shah, Ujjwal Sukheja and Saran S, Swish operates cloud kitchens in Bengaluru, delivering fast food within a 1.5 km radius. It has seen impressive early growth, with 150-200 orders daily and plans to expand rapidly.

Unlike its competitors, including Zomato and Swiggy, who have struggled with 10-minute delivery services, Swish stands out by optimising food preparation and delivery within minutes. 

The startup’s model focusses on hyperlocal deliveries, low operational costs, and a high-margin food offering. With a team of 15-20, Swish operates with low overheads, no marketplace fees, and an efficient delivery process.

Swish’s future plans include scaling its operations across Bengaluru and offering healthier menu options.  

In November, the startup raised $2 Mn in a seed funding round led by Accel. The round also saw participation from angel investors such as ex-Swiggy Instamart head Karthik Gurumurthy, and Urban Company founders Abhiraj Bhal and Varun Khaitan.

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Vodex.ai

GenAI Powered Sales Agent

Founded in 2022 by Anshul Shrivasthava and Kumar Saurav, Vodex aims to streamline voice-based communications using GenAI. The startup offers an AI-powered sales agent for outbound calls that can automate up to 10,000 calls daily, providing a human-like voice.

Vodex’s tool is used in the ecommerce, fintech, and real estate sectors. For example, ecommerce businesses can use it to recover abandoned carts, while fintech companies can cross-sell or upsell to existing customers.

In FY24, Vodex claims to have reached an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $1 Mn, with plans to achieve $4 Mn by FY25. In April, Vodex raised over $2 Mn from investors Unicorn India Ventures, Pentathlon VC, and 100x.vc. 

With an additional $2.32 Mn in funding, it claims to have scaled to $10 Mn in contracted revenue with an average order value (AOV) of over $1 Mn in 2024. Vodex now aims to replicate this success and reach $10 Mn in contracted revenue in 2025.

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Whatmore

AI-Powered Video Commerce Platform

Founded in 2022 by Shaym Srinivas and Prabhu Dayal Sahoo, Whatmore aims to transform the way ecommerce stores showcase their products. 

Specialising in short video content, Whatmore creates dynamic, engaging videos tailored for platforms like Instagram, TikTok, marketplaces, and websites.

The platform quickly turns product images into video compilations synced with trending music, allowing users to create captivating videos in just 60 seconds. Since its launch, Whatmore has raised $650K from Goodcapital and Callapina Capital.

In 2024, the startup launched its flagship product, Studio, enabling ecommerce businesses worldwide to create product videos in minutes. Its customer base grew from 100 to 1,500, with 20% of revenue coming from US, Canada, and EU customers. Whatmore plans to expand its customer base to 10K by 2025.

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Zippee

Enabling Same-Day Deliveries For D2C Brands

Founded in 2021 by Madhav Kasturia, Zippee is India’s first quick commerce logistics-as-a-service platform, designed to support over 1 Lakh ecommerce brands. 

The platform enables brands to offer two-hour or same-day delivery through their websites and channels, supported by an extensive network of dark stores and last-mile fleets across India.

Zippee’s flagship product, Zippee Blaze, helps brands boost web conversions, reduce RTO rates, and increase customer loyalty. The startup has raised $8.5 Mn from investors including Haldiram’s, South Asia Technology Partners, and CRED’s Kunal Shah.

In 2024, Zippee expanded its services to 12 cities and launched super-fast deliveries for marketplaces. Moving forward, it plans to extend operations to 20 cities and introduce 30- and 60-minute delivery-as-a-service for ecommerce platforms.

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[Edited by: Shishir Parasher]