Kolkata is often referred to as a City of Joy as it offers experience across all colours of life and people in the city never fail to love and live life. Kolkata reminds everyone about trams, sweets, literature, and Eden gardens, but the city is also home to many interesting startups active in India.
The Government of West Bengal established Startup Bengal, an initiative that facilitates startups to access the various resources of the startup ecosystem available in the State. The State has established Startup Resource Hub in Kolkata and 23 Startup Accelerator centres across districts in line with the state government’s continued commitment to developing the startup ecosystem in the State.
The City of Joy is home to many interesting startups, and here is an in-depth look at the top 20 Startups in Kolkata:
- StockEdge
- TaxMantra
- Bandhan Bank
- ReadOn
- mPokket
- Videonetics
- Mihup
- FusionCharts
- Superprocure
- Nestasia
- Karma Kettle
- Labkafe
- Nowpurchase
- iKure
- Legal Salah
- Lexplosion
- Wow! Momo
- Notebook
- Reloy
- Data Sutram
Fintech Startups in Kolkata:
Stockedge
Name: StockEdge
Founded in: 2016
Founders: Vivek Bajaj, Vinay Pagaria and Vineet Patawari
Size: 101-250
Total Funding: $1.9M
Stockedge was founded by Vivek Bajaj, Vinay Pagaria and Vineet Patawari in 2016.
- Stockedge empowers the users to do self-research by providing all essential tools which are appropriate for doing fundamental research, technical research and derivatives research.
- Stockedge helps the stock market traders and investors make better decisions by providing them with end-of-day analytics and visualisations.
- Apart from the premium plan, Stockedge offers a premium club, Stockedge club a subscription plan that is inclusive of 3 different apps to help customers in their financial journey.
- Stockedge club is an active stock market community to connect with top analysts and market experts and discuss stock ideas and strategies.
Taxmantra
Name: Taxmantra
Founded in: 2010
Founders: Alok Patnia
Size: 600+
Taxmantra is a global consultancy firm providing advisory, tax, and regulatory services in India, Singapore, and the US. Alok Patnia, founded Taxmantra in 2010 after he understood various pain points in the industry when he started practising CA with his father.
- Initially, Taxmantra helped individuals file taxes and over time started helping businesses with regulatory filing.
- Currently, Taxmantra has 600+ professionals with multi-sector experience and subject matter expertise with global delivery centres in Singapore, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Delhi.
- Taxmantra has a portfolio of 40K+ clients globally ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies to investors.
Bandhan Bank
Name: Bandhan Bank
Founded in: 2015
Founder: Chandra Shekhar Ghosh
Size: 60K+
Bandhan Bank was founded by Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, in 2015 to serve the unbanked and the under-banked and provide last-mile banking for all.
- Chandra Shekhar Ghosh observed that Kolkata’s small-time traders had no option to lend for their business except for high-interest loans from traditional moneylenders.
- Chandra Shekhar Ghosh's desire to help these small traders led to creation of Bandhan, a microfinance institution.
- Today, Bandhan has truly expanded having 5639 banking outlets across 34 states serving 2.63Cr customers and 35Lakh+ people benefitted from its various CSR programmes.
Readon
Name: ReadOn
Founded in: 2021
Founders: Shantanu Jain and Yavantika Malani
Size: 0-10+
Total Funding: $150K
Shantanu Jain and Yavantika Malani founded Readon in January 2021. Readon aims to bring stories from the world of business and finance in a simple, jargon-free, easy-to-understand language.
- ReadOn handpicks the most relevant news, does a deep dive and presents it in a non-overwhelming and jargon freeway.
- Apart from curating top updates, ReadOn explains the context behind the news and provides insights on the topic.
- ReadOn declutters news from the noise for 300 million+ online newsreaders and the content is read across social media channels more than 1.5 million times every month.
- Readon also offers a pro membership, an active community to discuss high-growth potential startups, crypto projects, and stocks with peers and experts.
mPokket
Name: mPokket
Founded in: 2016
Founders: Gaurav Jalan
Size: 101-250
mPokket was founded by Gaurav Jalan in 2016 to provide loans for students and young professionals who were not eligible for loans via traditional lending institutions.
mPokket allows users to get instant loans based on their credit profile and provides flexible repayment options with nominal interest rates. mPokket enables users to submit the loan application through their app and claims to have 2 Million+ customers so far.
SaaS Startups in Kolkata
Videonetics
Name: Videonetics
Founded in: 2008
Founders: Dr Tinku Acharya
Size: 11-50
Total Funding: $5.89M
Videonetics was founded by Dr Tinku Acharya in 2008. Videonetics helps you make sense of surveillance, by providing you with an end-to-end solution for a wide range of applications.
Videonetics developed the world's first AI & DL powered Unified Video Computing Platform (UVCP™) encompassing Intelligent VMS, AI-enabled Video Analytics, Intelligent Traffic Management System, MeraFace Facial Recognition System and Video Computing Platform as a Service(VCPaaS).
Videonetics has been ranked the #1 Video Management Software provider in India, and among the top 5 in Asia according to IHS/Informa Tech Research report.
Mihup
Name: Mihup
Founded in: 2016
Founders: Tapan Barman and Biplab Chakraborty
Size: 11-50
Total Funding: $10M
Valuation: $20.8M
Mihup was founded by Tapan Barman and Biplab Chakraborty in 2016 with a mission to make technology inclusive for everyone irrespective of their language or dialect.
Virtual Interaction Analyst: VIA is an omnichannel solution that identifies business topics and provides actionable insights from all customer interactions. VIA allows visualisation of the analysis with dashboards and reports and enables businesses to conduct interaction analysis from calls, emails & chats to understand the customers.
AVA Call Center: AVA is an automated customer care platform that handles customer interactions in multiple languages and can be used in automated customer surveys, lead generation and payment reminders.
AVA Auto: AVA - Auto is a new-age smart virtual agent for hands-free interaction in all vehicle categories that allow the drivers to execute various in-vehicle functions through simple voice instructions.
In December 2020 Mihup raised $1.5 million in funding in a Series A round led by Accel Partners and Ideaspring Capital. Mihup aims to become the most trusted vernacular voice interface and offers below products:
FusionCharts
Name: FusionCharts
Founded in: 2002
Founders: Pallav Nadhani
Size: 51-200
FusionCharts was founded by Pallav Nadhani in 2002 when he was just 17.
FusionCharts Suite XT enables users to build dashboards for web and mobile applications and provides cross-browser support, and comprehensive documentation making it easier to develop interactive charts.
FusionTime, another product offering enables users to create high-performance time-series visualizations and stock charts in JavaScript.
Apart from creating dashboards, users can use FusionExport to download any dashboards which they are viewing in their browser, with just one click and customize them to include your logo, additional elements like data tables, or even the layout.
In March 2022, FusionCharts was acquired by Idera Inc for an undisclosed sum. Currently, FusionChart is used by over 800,000 developers from 28,000+ companies.
Superprocure
Name: Superprocure
Founded in: 2017
Founders: Anup Agarwal, Varun Biyani and Manisha Sharaf
Size: 51-200
Total Funding: $1.4M
Valuation: $5.74M
SuperProcure, a leading logistics and supply chain management solutions provider to manufacturing and infra companies was founded by Anup Agarwal, Varun Biyani and Manisha Sharaf in July 2017. Superprocure has a comprehensive suite of products including Spot Freight Negotiation, Trip Management System, Contract Management, Dispatch Planning and Freight Accounting which improves the quality of lives in logistics sector.
In April 2022, IndiaMART invested around Rs 7.5 crores to purchase compulsorily convertible debentures (CCDs) of Truckhall Private Limited (‘Superprocure’).
Food & Beverage Startups in Kolkata
Wow! Momo
Name: Wow! Momo
Founded in: 2008
Founders: Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai
Size: 1001-5000
Total Funding: $55M
Valuation: $165M
Wow! Momo, India’s largest food chain of momo delicacies was started by Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai in 2008 at Kolkatta. Initially Wow! Momo operated as kiosks inside Spencers, Big Bazaar before they opened up outlets in malls and IT parks. The company has different flavours of a friend, pan-fried and steamed momos with variations including Sizzler Momos and Momo burgers(MoBurg).
- In December 2018, Wow! Momo launched Wow! China to improve the eating experience of Chinese cuisine.
- In February 2022, they launched their third QSR brand Wow! Chicken to offers a delectable range of "NO MSG" fried chicken & grilled chicken with multiple distinctive flavours.
Wow! Momo is currently valued at $165 million after their $15 million in a Series C funding round led by Tree Line Investment Management and existing investors. Wow! Momo has over 300 outlets across 17 cities.
Karma Kettle
Name: Karma Kettle
Founded in: 2015
Founders: Priti Sen Arora and Dhiraj Arora
Size: 11-50
Karma Kettle is an artisanal tea company established by Priti Sen Arora and Dhiraj Arora in 2015. Karma Kettle works directly with tea plantations to source fresh teas that were packaged and offered through their cafe and retail space in Kolkata. Karma Kettle began with 10 tea blends and today they have more than 100 tea varieties available across e-commerce portals, retail outlets and cafes.
Since 2020, Karma Kettle has taken on an important mission to embark on the path of sustainability in sourcing, production and packaging teas by shifting to biodegradable pyramid tea bags. Karma Kettle has collaborated with artisans in India to craft limited edition gift boxes, tea accessories and teaware, all of which can be purchased directly from their website.
B2B Startups in Kolkata
Labkafe
Name: Labkafe
Founded in: 2015
Founders: Aniket Thakur, Amrit Raj and Sunil Panda
Size: 11-50
Labkafe, the market-leading laboratory equipment and furniture manufacturer in India was founded by Aniket Thakur, Amrit Raj and Sunil Panda in 2015.
- Labkafe provides both prepackaged and custom solutions for all the laboratory needs, covering everything from furniture to equipment and apparatus to consumables.
- Labkafe aims to make quality education affordable, accessible & hassle-free even in the remotest corners of the country by offering all lab-related equipment at the best competitive prices.
Labkafe has a list of prestigious clients including the likes of DRDO, CSIR, AFMC Pune, Air Force-Gwalior, State Forensic science lab, NIT Rourkela, NIT Allahabad, IBSD, St. Xavier group, NIPER Kolkata, Techno India, St. Stephens, GD Goenka group, DPS group.
Nowpurchase
Name: Nowpurchase
Founded in: 2017
Founders: Naman Shah and Aakash Shah
Size: 11-50
Total Funding: $2.44M
Valuation: $8.64M
NowPurchase was founded by Naman Shah and Aakash Shah in 2017 to help metal manufacturers and other entities source raw materials with ease and transparency.
- NowPurchase is building a marketplace to make the overall procurement process autonomous for the metal manufacturers.
- NowPurchase provides proprietary software to help foundries select the right Charge Mix based on inventory, and market prices, provide complete ownership as a supplier ensure strict quality checks and provide real-time stock and price availability through their WhatsApp Bot.
In January 2022 NowPurchase raised $2.4 million in seed funding led by Oreos and others.
Legaltech Startups in Kolkata
Lexplosion
Name: Lexplosion
Founded in: 2007
Founders: Indranil Choudhary, Siddharth Singh, Srinivas Kilambi, Samir Bedi
Size: 51-100
Lexplosion was founded by Indranil Choudhary, Siddharth Singh, Srinivas Kilambi and Samir Bedi in 2007 to make the law more accessible and inclusive to businesses of all nature, scales and sizes. Lexplosion merges technology with the legal domain expertise to create solutions in areas of compliance management, audits, contract lifecycle management, litigation management and corporate governance. Lexplosion provides a comprehensive suite of software products specialized in compliance, audits, contracts, litigations and monitoring third-party compliance.
Legal Salah
Name: Legal Salah
Founded in: 2015
Founders: Abhinit Singh, Jay Malani, Subhash Jha, and Sujit Jha
Size: 11-50
Total funding: $1M
Legal Salah, an online legal advisory was founded by Abhinit Singh, Jay Malani, Subhash Jha, and Sujit Jha in 2015 with a motive to provide hassle-free online legal, tax, and compliance support to startups and SMEs with a limited budget.
- Legal Salah offers various services including Company registration, Trademark registration, Tax registrations and compliances.
- Legal Salah provides free preliminary tax and legal advice from a group of experts including the likes of lawyers, CAs and Company secretaries.
The company claims to have 1 million+ users, boasting 1% market share in company registrations and 3% market share in trade registrations in the country.
Social Startups in Kolkata
iKure
Name: iKure
Founded in: 2010
Founders: Sujay Santra
Size: 11-50
Total funding: $1.5M
iKure Techsoft was established by Sujay Santra in 2010 to deliver affordable, accessible and quality primary healthcare to the underserved communities across India beyond those Tier-I cities.
iKure is a population health management company that meets primary healthcare and prevention needs through a unique combination of health outreach initiatives, skills development and technology intervention.
iKure delivers health services through Hub & Spoke clinic setup, iKure iCHA Worker driven model, Health intervention programs and Health Tech Intervention.
iKure leveraging the power of ICT has developed a medical collaboration platform called Wireless Health Incident Monitoring Systems-WHIMS which helps in the diffusion of clinical, preventive and diagnostic services for the poor population.
iKure has 3 million people treated across 6400+ villages and has 220 technology, research and global partners.
Other Startups in Kolkata
Notebook
Name: Notebook
Founded in: 2018
Founders: Achin Bhattacharya and Subhayu Roy
Size: 11-50
Notebook was founded by Achin Bhattacharya and Subhayu Roy in 2018 with a vision to enable students to learn anywhere, anytime, and on any device with an internet connection. Notebook is a mobile-first learning product that combines video and text content to deliver best-in-class education according to the board curriculum. Notebook has covered the syllabus of CBSE, ICSE, West Bengal Board and UP Board with 10,000+ videos across topics with 720 hours of video content. In November 2021, the platform has crossed 2 million + users and is working to add more State Boards and languages to the coverage.
Reloy
Name: Reloy
Founded in: 2018
Founders: Akhil Sharaf
Size: 11-50
Total funding: $671K
Valuation: $2.3M
Reloy(formerly Loyalie) was founded by Akhil Sharaf in 2018 to help real estate brands increase their sales through referrals. Reloy, through their digital platform ConnectRE helps real estate brands to increase sales conversion through referrals by creating customer delight throughout the buying process and with customer loyalty programmes. In March 2022, HDFC invested Rs. 1.1Cr for a 7.2% stake in Loyalie IT Solutions Pvt Ltd(Reloy).
Data Sutram
Name: Data Sutram
Founded in: 2018
Founders: Rajit Bhattacharya, Aisik Paul, and Ankit Das
Size: 11-50
Total funding: $2.44M
Data Sutram was founded by Rajit Bhattacharya, Aisik Paul, and Ankit Das in 2018.
- Data Sutram is an AI platform that creates insights from 250+ sources to give accurate micro-market and place data to help businesses make informed decisions.
- Data Sutram 's micro-market data provides valuable insights into how people behave at any given location including 150+ socio-economic attributes such as life quality, Population and spending capacity.
- Data Sutram 's places data helps us to understand how people engage in various activities at different places around their location such as shops, establishments, health centres, hospitals, offices, commercial spaces, market areas, and societies.
- Data Sutram solutions are leveraged across financial institutions for various use cases like Customer Acquisition, Customer Profiling and are used by companies including Amazon Pay, IIFL, Open, and Rupeek.
- Apart from the finance sector, Data Sutram data is used by the manufacturing sector for Distributor Network Planning & Management, territory Planning and by retail brands for site selection, customer acquisition and profiling.
In February 2022, Data Sutram raised $2.07 million in a funding round led by Varanium Capital, Yatra Angel Network and a few other investors.
Nestasia
Name: Nestasia
Founded in: 2018
Founders: Aditi Murarka Agrawal and Anurag Agrawal
Size: 11-50
Total funding: $4M
Valuation: $24.2M
Nestasia was founded in 2018 by Aditi Murarka Agrawal and Anurag Agrawal. Nestasia aims to curate artisanal home decor products uniting the culture of Southeast Asian countries, and the traditional techniques and skills of the artisans with a blend of modern sensibilities.
Nestasia has over 6000 products across categories including kitchen and dining, decor, garden, bath and storage, garden, soft furnishing and stationery items. In December 2021, the company has raised a Series A round of $4 million led by Stellaris Venture Partners and other angel investors.
FAQs
1. Is Kolkata good for startups?
Traditionally Kolkata was known for being the cultural hub of India, however recently city is in limelight because of its startups. The city is seeing a rapid increase in tech startups and has a blooming ecosystem with various programmes promoting entrepreneurship.
2. What are some of the top startups in Kolkata?
Kolkata is home to a bunch of interesting Startups across fintech, legal tech and SAAS. Some of the top startups in Kolkata include Wow! Momo, Videonetics, StockEdge and FusionCharts.
3. Is Kolkata a good place for entrepreneurs?
Kolkata is the third-largest economy in India after Mumbai and Delhi.
According to “Kolkata 4.0: Developing an innovation ecosystem”, Kolkata has the opportunity to leapfrog other cities in India to establish a digital industry hub, with a focus on smart manufacturing, analytics, AI and related disciplines.
With increasing startup initiatives from the Bengal government, access to an affordable workforce and programs providing guidance, and access to funds Kolkata is turning out to be an exciting place for entrepreneurs.
