Paytm to Flipkart: List of Indian startups/companies funded by Chinese investors
India on Monday banned 59 apps Chinese Apps, including the hugely-popular TikTok and UC Browser, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country. The ban came in the backdrop of a standoff along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and the killing of 20 Indian Army personnel a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley. Apart from applications, Chinese investments are deep-rooted in the Indian economy in myriad sectors, including Indian startups and tech companies, like Paytm, Flipkart.
In 2019 alone, Chinese companies invested in about 19 projects from the IT and electronics sector in India, according to The Financial Times’ foreign investment monitor “fDi markets”.
Chinese investment giants like Alibaba Group, Tencent, Steadview Capital and Didi Chuxing dominate investments in over 18 of the 30 Unicorn companies in India. These 18 Unicorn companies in India like Bigbasket, Zomato, Delhivery, Byju’s Flipkart, Make my trip, Paytm, have over $3,500 million of Chinese investments.
Here's a list of Major Startups/Companies in India with Chinese investors:
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Paytm (Pay Through Mobile)
Founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010, Paytm started as online recharge platform for prepaid mobile, DTH and data card with an initial investment of $2 million from the founder himself.
Vijay currently owns less than 20% of his own company. Chinese technology giant Alibaba owns over 40% stake in Paytm. If we talk about overall Chinese ownership, both Alibaba and SAIF Partners together own about 60% of Paytm.It is the first Indian company to receive funding from Chinese e-commerce Company Alibaba which is now raised over $625 million.
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Ola
Founded by Bhavish Agarwal and Ankit Bhati in 2010, Ola got its first Chinese investment from Steadview Capital in 2014. In 2018, Chinese gaming behemoth Tencent Holdings participated in a massive $1.1 billion funding round along with Softbank and RNT Capital, making it a major shareholder with 10.4% stake in Ola.
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Swiggy
Founded by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy and Rahul Jaimini in 2014, Ola's first company was Hong Kong-based SAIF Partners along with US-based Accel to invest $2 million in its first institutional funding round in 2015.
Since then, Chinese giants like Meituan-Dianping, Tencent Holdings and Hillhouse Capital Group have invested an estimated more than $500 million. Till date, Swiggy has raised a total of $1.6 billion across multiple rounds.
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Hike Messenger
Instant messaging services for smartphones, is funded by Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group of Taiwan, valuing the company at about $1.4 billion.
Total (disclosed) funding raised so far: $261 million
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Snapdeal
Founded by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in 2010, Snapdeal is a value-focused online marketplace and India’s one of the largest e-commerce companies, which has raised a total of $1.8 billion. Its top investors are SoftBank, Kalaari Capital, Nexus Ventures, and eBay Inc.
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BigBasket
Founded by Abhinay Choudhari, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Sudhakar in 2011, BigBasket is one of India’s largest online food and grocery online store. Till date, BigBasket has raised over $1 billion and most of which has come from foreign investors. Alibaba became BigBasket largest shareholder when it helped the company raise $300 million in its series E round in 2018. As of 2019, Alibaba Group was still the largest stakeholder with 26.26% stake in the company.
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Zomato
Founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008, was funded by Indian online giant Info Edge. However, Alibaba’s financial services company Ant Financial became a stakeholder in Zomato in 2018 with an investment of $200 million. Later in the same year, Ant Financial invested another $210 million. Zomato has raised a total of $914.6 million.
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OYO
Founded by an 18-year-old college drop-out Ritesh Agarwal in 2012, OYO has raised $3.2 billion from its investors with Japan’s Softbank being its majority stakeholder with 48% ownership.
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Flipkart
Founded by Sachin and Binny Bansal, Flipkart was acquired by the American retail giant Walmart in 2018 for $16 billion. Even though Walmart owns 81% of Flipkart, there are still Chinese investors who own minority stakes in the company.
Till date, Flipkart has raised $7.7 billion from multiple investors and talking about Chinese investors we have investors like Tencent Holdings and Steadview Capital.
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Make My Trip
