LinkedIn recently revealed its seventh annual Top Startups List, featuring the top 20 emerging businesses in India. This list highlights the ongoing entrepreneurial surge, positioning India as the third-largest startup ecosystem globally, with over 1.25 lakh startups and 110 unicorns.
The Better India has consistently championed small businesses and startups that are reshaping India’s entrepreneurial landscape. Here are 10 such innovative ventures that go beyond LinkedIn’s top list:
Chennai-based Sankari Sudhar launched this startup, which has helped over 600 Indian women re-enter the workforce by providing job opportunities and upskilling programmes for those seeking flexibility after career breaks due to marriage and childcare.
2. Go Do Good
Founded by Khushboo Gandhi, this Pune-based startup repurposes agro-waste such as tamarind seeds, seaweed, and coir to create innovative packaging alternatives to replace toxic ink, bubble wrap, and plastic. So far, she has replaced up to 10 tonnes of single-use plastic, printed 1.5 lakh products with eco-friendly inks, and replaced seven tonnes of bubble wrap with biodegradable coir.
3. Plugzmart
This Chennai-based startup has innovated a fast EV charger that can charge electric cars within 30-45 minutes. It secured ARAI certification for its 60kW DC fast charger, marking a key step in advancing India’s electric vehicle infrastructure. The charger’s proprietary controller monitors critical parameters, such as voltage, current, and temperature to prevent overheating and overcharging, ensuring safe operation.
Launched by Radhesh Agrahari, this startup converts chicken butchery waste, including feathers, into a ‘wool-like’ fibre and handmade paper to make shawls, quilts, stoles, diaries, fish feed, and manure. With this, the Rs 1.5 crore startup has diverted 73 lakh kg of chicken butchery waste from polluting the environment.
Starting from selling pickles on the roadside, Krishna Yadav established a successful enterprise that manufactures 10 to 20 quintals of pickles daily. With only Rs 500 in her pocket, she had relocated from a small village in Uttar Pradesh to Delhi with her husband and their three young children. Today, she is a proud owner of a company that boasts an impressive annual turnover of Rs 5 crore.
6. Tocco
Founded by Reshma Suresh, this startup empowers home chefs – mostly in their 50s – helping them showcase their talents through homemade regional delicacies infused with nostalgia and local flavours. Prepared in small batches, these dishes also offer busy people easy access to healthy, wholesome meals. Starting with just Rs 5,000, the bootstrapped business achieved a turnover of over Rs 1 crore in the current year.
7. Sama
Co-founded by three friends, Pranjal Sinha, Akshetha Ashok, and Vikram Kumar, this legal startup is working to reduce the burden on courts with fast and cost-effective resolution of civil disputes online. Through online dispute resolution, it has settled over 35 lakh cases out of court, offering an affordable alternative.
Suhas B Shetty provides preservative-free, 100 percent natural and organic ice creams. In an effort to follow sustainable practices, he harvests solar energy to power his factories in Nellore. The brand currently makes a revenue of Rs 12 crore per year.
9. Mama Nourish
At the age of 62, Usha Shrotiya launched this food startup with the mission of preserving legacy laddoo recipes while giving them a modern twist. With her laddoo bars made using millets, fenugreek, dry fruits, ginger, and Kamarkas seeds, she has developed an impressive customer base in over 150 corporate establishments like Google, Netflix, and IKEA.
10. NariCare
Driven by her own experiences, former software developer Gayathri Kanumuri launched NariCare to revolutionise breastfeeding support. Through one-on-one consultations and a dedicated breastfeeding support group on WhatsApp, she has helped more than 400 mothers across Bengaluru, Australia, the USA, and Canada in navigating the complexities of breastfeeding with confidence and assurance.
Edited by Khushi Arora.
