India is still plagued by the corona pandemic, even if the numbers are now lower.

In the medium term, however, the chaos in the country will lead to the establishment of technology-based companies, such as the rapidly growing delivery or payment services.

Large investors such as Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC have long recognized this - and are betting billions on a new India in which consumers can satisfy their wishes digitally.

The Flipkart trading platform is currently in the spotlight. The subsidiary of the American Walmart group is perhaps the most promising unicorn in India. “Unicorns” are startups valued at more than a billion dollars. The development of the company, which was set up in 2007 by two former engineers from Amazon, sets the course: Long-term investors Softbank, sovereign wealth funds such as GIC or the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and large investors are queuing up to service the next round of financing for the American Indians, which is estimated to be at least three billion dollars . Funders estimate that Flipkart will have a market value of around $ 40 billion if the company is likely to hit the floor next year. Corona has also given digital ordering services wings in India.It was only in 2018 that the Japanese Softbank passed its stake in Flipkart on to the Americans and was able to post a profit of around 1.5 billion dollars within a year.

$ 124 billion difference

Little attention from the western public, start-ups are growing up in Asia's third largest economy, which in the long run will be able to compete with their already world-famous Chinese competitors.

The Indians are still far behind China's 138 start-ups worth billions of dollars.

The same applies to the size of the individual companies: Tiktok operator Bytedance is valued at 140 billion dollars, India's largest unicorn One97 Communications, which owns the payment service Paytm, comes to just 16 billion dollars.

Last year, 15 Indian companies raised at least one billion dollars in capital for the first time.

Ten of them grew into unicorns in 2021.

If the food supplier Zomato succeeds in going public this year - and nobody doubts it - it would open the way for others.

Zomato aims to raise at least $ 1.1 billion on the Bombay (Mumbai) stock exchange.

Profit in the pandemic

In general, the Internet in India was only connected to the data service providers in the software metropolis Bangalore. But now almost 1.4 billion people, a still ailing infrastructure and the lockdown under Corona have given the digital business a boost. "Many traditional retailers are now trying to get their goods online," says Harshil Mathur, co-founder of the fintech start-up Razorpay. “More and more people are also simply selling via Internet services such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.” His own service is the best example: within a year, the payment service increased its processed volume from twelve to almost 40 billion dollars a year. The valuation of Razorpay by investors rose from one to three billion dollars in just six months. GIC and Sequoia Capital are on board.In the footsteps of the market leaders, almost unknown unicorns are still working their way forward, such as Chargebee, which produces company software, Meesho, a marketplace for individual sellers, and Cred, which rewards credit card holders who pay on time.

In India, there is particular demand for this: with its licensing, the state ensures that selected foreign companies such as Walmarts Flipkart or Amazon have to assert themselves against the start-ups of the giants in their own market. Not only investment money, staying power and fast supply chains count, but also communication: Flipkart, for example, already offers its order service in eleven national languages.