Fintech
Kunal Shah of fintech company Cred is the leading startup founder-investor | Start Ups
Kunal Shah, the 41-year-old founder of fintech firm CRED, which currently has a valuation of $6.4 billion and is among the top 10 unicorns in India, has another feather in his cap: he is also the leading startup founder-investor in the country, having financed over 266 startups, according to data from research agency Traxcn.
Shah’s portfolio includes online payments firm Razorpay, e-commerce platform Snapdeal, manufacturing services firm Zetwork, electric transportation firm BlueSmart, edtech firm Unacademy, online apparel firm, among others Bliss Club and Spinny, an online platform for second-hand cars. .
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According to Traxcn, 11 of these are unicorns.
Shah has been on an investment spree in 2024. He signed his latest deal on June 17, with an initial investment in Propperr, a fintech company. This year he has also invested in financial services company Sipay, mobile game Lightfurry Games, mental health startup Mave Health and US AI risk management company SydeLabs.
Traxcn does not track specific investments of individuals as most of them invest money as part of a consortium of partners in a fundraiser. Therefore, individual episodes are not disclosed.
Shah is in good company in the prestigious list of top five startup founders based on the number of companies they have invested in. In second place is Anupam Mittal, 52, the Boston College alumnus who founded the matrimonial site shaadi.com, with stakes in 213 companies. Shaadi.com, according to reports, is valued at Rs 2500 crore.
Mittal rose to fame as one of the startup founders participating in the controversial but popular reality television show “Shark Tank,” in which new startups pitched to raise money from founder-investors. He has invested in a number of top companies, including Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola, Tata-controlled BigBasket, two-wheeler transport platform Rapido, Fab Hotels, payments app Mobikwik and Sugar Cosmetics. Three of these are unicorns: Ola, logistics company Porter and Mobikwik.
Like Shah, Mittal has also been prolific in 2024, and his investments this year include some ‘Shark Tank’ stuff, as in Bangalore-based ‘Uncle Peter’s Pancakes’.
Third and fourth place in the list of top startup founders are Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal. The fortunes of their own company have seen many ups and downs: once valued at a staggering $6.5 billion, Snapdeal has battled survival challenges along with a failed merger with Flipkart. But it has now filed a red herring draft prospectus to launch an initial public offering to raise Rs 1250 crore.
Bahl, who also co-founded Titan Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund that supports entrepreneurs with funding and mentorship, has invested in over 195 companies, including Ola, Razorpay, skincare brand Mamaearth, delivery of hyper-local e-commerce. Shadowfax platform, the Bira 91 brewing group, among others.
According to Traxcn, Bahl has seven unicorns in its portfolio: OfBusiness, a platform for buyers and suppliers, Mamaearth, Ola, grocery app DealShare, Razorpay, Snapdeal and messaging app Hike.
Rohit Bansal, co-founder of Bahl in Snapdeal, is also a prodigious investor. He has invested money in 165 companies, many of which are the same ones Bahl invested in.
In fifth place is Raman Roy, 67, one of the early BPO entrepreneurs who helped start the business in the country. He may be the oldest member of the group, but he too has the magic touch. He has invested in 111 companies, most in the form of seed funding. According to Traxcn, he has a unicorn among his investments: Uniphore, a US-based conversational automation technology company.