Photographs: Steve Marcus/Reuters
When Flipkart raised $1 billion, and the deal made it s $7 billion company, many raised questions on the valuations as the start-up is yet to make any profit.
To put thing in perspective, the seven-year old company is now among the country’s 50 most valuable firms.
According to Economic Times, Flipkart now has twice the market value of Colgate, which was set up in India in 1937, and it is 10 times the size of Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail (which is profitable).
Globally, investors have been raising question on internet start-ups that are still under the wings of Venture Capitalists. Uber is the best example of this.
The company’s service connects passengers with driver of vehicle available on rent using a mobile app. The five-year old start-up is valued at $18.2 billion.
Wall Street Journal has compiled a list of most valuable start-ups in the world that have managed to reach valuations unheard of before. Let's take a look at them.
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Disclaimer: Rediff.com also has an e-commerce business which competes in some areas with Flipkart.
Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Uber
Valuation: $18.2 billion
Rank: 1
Year founded: 2009
Country: US
Uber is primarily a mobile app that connects passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Airbnb
Airbnb
Valuation: $10 billion
Rank: 2
Year founded: 2008
Country: US
Airbnb connects users looking for accommodation with the people willing to rent out their places.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Dropbox
Dropbox
Valuation: $10 billion
Rank: 3
Year founded: 2007
Country: US
Dropbox is a service that lets users share their photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. It is primarily a file hosting service.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Xiaomi
Xiaomi
Valuation: $10 billion
Rank: 4
Year founded: 2010
Country: China
Xiaomi is one of the fastest growing smartphone manufacturer that’s taking the world by storm. The company offers high-end mobiles at an extremely affordable cost.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Kacper Pempel/Reuters
Palantir
Valuation: $9.3 billion
Rank: 5
Year founded: 2004
Country: US
Palantir Technologies is a computer software and services company, specialising in data analysis. Its primary clients are the US government department.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Jingdon
Valuation: 7.3 billion
Rank: 6
Year founded: 2004
Country: China
JD.com or Jingdong Mall is a Chinese electronic commerce company headquartered in Beijing. It is one of the largest B2C online retailers in China by transaction volume, according to Wikipedia.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Flipkart
Flipkart
Valuation: $7 billion
Rank: 7
Year founded: 2007
Country: India
Flipkart is India’s largest online retailer. It sells everything from mobiles to clothes. It is addressed as the Amazon of India.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Pinterest
Valuation: $5 billion
Rank: 8
Year founded: 2008
Country: US
Pinterest describes its service as a ‘visual discovery tool’. Its users collect pictures for project or interests and share the collection.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Zalando
Zalando
Valuation: $4.9 billion
Rank: 9
Year founded: 2008
Country: Germany
Zalando is an online retailer that specialises in selling shoes. Slowly, the company has added garments and other lifestyle products.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, SpaceX
SpaceX
Valuation: $4.8 billion
Rank: 10
Year founded: 2002
Country: US
SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company plans to be at the forefront of space tourism and take people to the moon and other planets.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Cloudera
Cloudera
Valuation: $4.1 billion
Rank: 11
Year founded: 2008
Country: US
Cloudera is the developer of the open-source database software. Some of the investors in the company include Intel, Accel Partners, and Google ventures.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Spotify
Spotify
Valuation: $4 billion
Rank: 12
Year founded: 2006
Country: Sweden
Spotify let’s users listen to music of their choice on internet. Users can stream audio and make playlists. Premium users can keep music on their computer for a specific time and listen offlie.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Lending Club
Lending Club
Valuation: $3.8 billion
Rank: 13
Year founded: 2006
Country: US
Lending Club let’s users lend money to each other. It's a revolutionary system that does not involve banks.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Jawbone
Jawbone
Valuation: $3.3 billion
Rank: 14
Year founded: 1999
Country: US
The consumer technology company, Jawbone has wearable products such as wrist bands, portable audio devices, and Bluetooth headsets.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Square
Square
Valuation: $3.3 billion
Rank: 15
Year founded: 2009
Country: US
Square Inc is a mobile payments service company. It has several proprietary software and hardware.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy VANCL
VANCL
Valuation: $3 billion
Rank: 16
Year founded: 2005
Country: China
VANCL is an online clothes retailer.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Pure Storage
Pure Storage
Valuation: $3 billion
Rank: 17
Year founded: 2009
Country: US
Pure Storage sells flash storage equipments. Samsung is one of the investors in the company.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Legendary Entertainment
Legendary Entertainment
Valuation: $3 billion
Rank: 18
Year founded: 2005
Country: US
This is a film production company. It was earlier co-producing films with Warner Bros. and now has Universal Studios as partners.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy
Valuation: $2.9 billion
Rank: 19
Year founded: 2001
Country: US
The company promises affordable and clean energy using an innovative new fuel cell technology.
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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups
Photographs: Courtesy, Box
Box
Valuation: $2.4 billion
Rank: 20
Year founded: 2005
Country: US
Box Inc. is an online file sharing and personal cloud content management service for businesses. The company adopted a freemium business model, and provides up to 50 GB of free storage for personal accounts, according to Wikipedia.
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