10 Successful Bootstrapped Startups of India
Do you have a great entrepreneurial idea to give a head start to your own startup? Invest your personal finances and bootstrap your way to success! As an entrepreneur, you should be an impeccable decision maker as well as a sharp-witted management savvy, to attract investors with outstanding performance. Proper bootstrapping could raise the valuability of your company and increase its chances of collaboration with high-end enterprises in the business markets.
Below we have shared 10 Indian startups that have “bootstrapped “their way to success without looking back:
1. Quick Heal
City: Pune
About: Quick Heal Technologies Ltd., was founded in 1993, is an IT security solutions. Having partnered with Microsoft and with Intel. Simple, effective and intelligent security solutions designed to protect home and business computers from the virus.
Traction: With a global spread of offices. Quick Heal has grown on the global footprint with a string of new offices recently set up in the US, UAE, Kenya, and Japan. Since their startup, Quick Heal has more than 24 million product installations and today they have an active license user base of more than 7 million.
That X-Factor: A business that was solely started with trials and errors, along with empathy towards its users.
2. Zoho
City: Chennai
About: Zoho is a technology company founded in 1996, which was originally known as AdventNet Inc. till 2009; later renamed Zoho Corporation along with its online office suite. Initially, the company started as a network management framework for telecommunications and network equipment. Later diversifying into IT management products, WebNMS framework, built on top of WebNMS codebase. Zoho Office Suite was launched with a web-based word processor and expanded to other applications, which includes spreadsheets, mail, a calendar, contacts list, and other business programs such as CRM.
Traction: Zoho as a company has bootstrapped itself. Although it does not disclose its revenue publicly, it was believed to be a quarter of Salesforce in 2012. Zoho spends the bulk of its revenue on product development. It provides services to over 10,000 customers worldwide.
That X-Factor: A high-end technology company, with innovate software tools that came into being, to make the collaborative business a simpler process.
3. Indibni
City: Jaipur
About: Inspired by the roots of India, Indibni is a comprehensive solution hub. They understand customers designing needs and convert them into results, beyond customer expectations. They love to talk to their customers via posters, ads, brands, graphics; you can have your pick. Indibni’s portfolio ranges from movies to television to big ad campaigns. They have a wide range of gift products varying from corporate gifts, souvenirs, personalized gift items, merchandised products.
Traction: The annual turnover for this firm is said to be in seven figures. They plan to contribute in expanding India market in gifting. Their major plan is to take hold of Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities and go overseas with their wide range of products.
That X-Factor: Since childhood, the founder of Indibni had an inclination towards creativity and unusual things. During his academics, he implemented innovate ideas using animation and discovered the ingenuity of design and creativity as a lucrative business tool. This very thought founded Indibni.
4. Itzeazy.com
City: New Delhi
About: A website that helps you get all your essential government/RTO documents and certificates with online assistance. This portal help you apply and arrange all government related documents. These documents can be filing income tax, getting a marriage certificate, company registration services, or applying for a passport.
Traction: Founded in 2013. The startup has provided its services across 20,000 customers. It has made tie-ups with 8 major corporate industries.
That X-Factor: Making lives simple for all.
City: Hyderabad
About: QuakQuak was founded in 2010, is one of the most reputed online matchmaking sites. India’s best dating and matchmaking website. This website helps you meet, chat, flirt, and date with eligible, and like-minded singles. QuackQuack is the only dating website in India where they match you with eligible singles within your city, of same age group and interests.
Traction: QuackQuack.in has 6.90 lac users with nearly 1.41 Million messages and chats exchanged per month and pairing 144,000 users in the last 12 months. It has crossed 1 million registered users in 2015.
That X-Factor: One fine morning an inquisitive guy asked his friend, why there was no platform for Indians to connect likeminded partners. A questioned thought and an idea shared gave birth to QuackQuack.
6. Drivojoy
City: Bangalore
About: Founded in March 2015. Drivojoy provides the convenience of your bike servicing at your doorstep. Owners of two-wheelers can simply call Drivojoy, and their trusted mechanics would service the bike right at the customer’s doorstep.
Traction: This startup has serviced over 400 bikes and is growing at 15% week-on-week. Generating a monthly revenue of 5 lakh. DrivoJoy makes a difference with its asset-light, low-cost structure, tie-ups with spares manufacturers, and a lean workforce.
That X-Factor: As they say, “Never visit a garage again!” Indeed.
7. FusionCharts
City: Kolkata
About: FusionChart was first launched in October 2002. By March 2003 they had 1000 customers. FusionCharts has since transitioned to use JavaScript, SVG, and VML to concentrate charts, widgets, and maps. This allows its components to be easily used in all mobile devices and cross-platform browsers. FusionCharts is a software provider of data visualization products (JavaScript Charts, Maps, Widgets, and Dashboards)
Traction: FusionCharts Suite XT, is used by over 80% of Fortune 500 companies. FusionCharts has 23,000 customers and approximately 500,000 users across 120 countries, including technology giants such as Apple, Google, ZOHO, Cisco, Facebook, Intel, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard to name a few. FusionCharts have earned 2010-11 revenue of $4.5 million and have revenues up to $7 million.
That X-Factor: This is a trial tribulation started by a 17-year-old boy with no business knowledge and bent on earning some more pocket money.
8. Kayako
City: Jalandhar
About: Kayako was founded in 2001. In August 2009, Kayako announced the availability of their cost-free licenses for charities. Till date, Kayako has not received any external funding from investors and is still profitable. Kayako is a customer support software and develops a cloud-based platform for customer service with the on-premises help desk. Enabling organizations in delivering customer support over emails, ticketing, and live chats, with remote desktop support, VoIP and self-help.
Traction: Spread across 8 countries. Kayako has more than 30,000 customers around the world. Kayako has an estimated 150 employees and annual revenue of $5M. Kayako main competitors being FreshDesk, Olark and ZenDesk.
That X-Factor: Kayako was formed by a college dropout, Varun Shoor. He learned to program at the mere age of 13 and founded Kayako at the age of 17. This indeed is a bootstrapping success story of a child entrepreneur.
9. RateGain
City: Noida
About: RateGain was founded in 2004, with 12,000 clients all around the globe. Their client base mainly includes hospitality and travel industry. RateGain provides a cloud-based software program that helps various organizations with rate intelligence, price optimization, brand engagement, and seamless electronic distribution. Their aim is to provide business with a price comparison products/tool for travel websites to target their product offers versus their competitors
Traction: RateGain had net new sales of $100,000 in its first year. RateGain now has over 500 employees with net new sales of $50 million. RateGain generated a revenue of Rs 135 crore from last fiscal year and aim at a 100% growth for the following fiscal year.
That X-Factor: RateGain not only identifies the business needs of price comparison for travel portals and hospitality management but also seen emerging as a learning organization.
10. Snackible
City: Mumbai
About: Founded in May 2015, Snackible offers all-natural and healthy snacks of fruits and roasted chickpeas, to easy grab whole-wheat waffles. The snacks are prepared using the method of baking rather than frying. To ensure the availability of healthy snacks, the team of Snackible has put together a box of healthy and tasty snacks using the best quality ingredients.
Traction: Snackible team is growing by 25% each week. Their customer base across India is in 38 cities and processed over 6,000 orders. They are currently working on growing their business into retail shops. The website value of snackible.com is estimated to be $ 3,426 USD.
That X-Factor: Noticing the absurd eating patterns of colleague and friends in the office, the founder of Snackible, Aditya Sanghavi executed the idea of bootstrapping his startup.