If Bangalore and Mumbai are the only cities that come to your mind when we talk about startups, let us use this blog to alter and expand your perspective. Odisha is now one of the most important states in India that has been fostering brilliant ideas and nurturing them to take off as startups in the dynamic market.

With 1,300+ (approx) startups in our state, Odisha created close to 10,000 new jobs. 400 startups have also gone commercial. So there is no doubt that the state has seen a significant influx of startups. However, the true picture still remains largely unknown to the country. So, let’s talk about top startups in Odisha that reflect the state’s vast growth potential:

OfBusiness

Founders: Ashish Mohapatra, Ruchi Kalra & Others

OfBusiness is a modern fintech and B2B startup that offers smart financing and procurement to small and medium-sized businesses, through its tech-enabled platform. They seek to assist SMEs by providing them with unsecured credit limits that can be used to buy various types of raw materials that will aid in their industry’s expansion. It has now joined the unicorn league and was even mentioned among Emerging Startups of the Year 2022.

BookingJini

Founder: Sibasish Mishra

A one of its kind concept, BookingJini is a SaaS product that enables hotels with online bookings and improves guest experiences. According to BookingJini, it has signed up more than 2,200 B2B (business-to-business) clients and processed more than 1.27 lakh direct reservations totalling Rs 261 Cr. Through its platform, it has impacted 1.3 million transactions and 2.3 million travellers. Their ‘lookers to bookers’ policy has also helped them bag around 3000 hotel partners in the kitty.

NestAway

Founders: Amarendra Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev

NestAway is a home rental network based out of Bangalore with services in various locations across India. However, the brains behind the organisation emerged from our own Odisha. Amarendra Sahu, hailing from Dhenkanal district, having gained primary education from an Odia-medium institution has on several occasions, recalled the impact of his journey in making one of India’s leading brands for home solutions. Nestaway offers attractive homes and PG rentals to Indian youth, as well as hassle-free on boarding and services for both landowners and tenants. The company raised $4.9 million for its series D fundraising round.

Milk Mantra

Founders: Srikumar Misra

Operational since 2012 and headquartered in Bhubaneswar, Milk Mantra is the first venture capital-backed agri-foods firm in India. It was established to address the state’s milk shortage issue. Milk Mantra was established as a purpose-driven, socially conscious company that aims to rebalance capitalism by utilising brand capital to make a large-scale effect. A group of 20 angel investors contributed a total of USD 19 million (about 140 crores) to Milk Mantra between 2010 and 2017.

VillaMart

Founder: Dr. Ramesh Chandra Biswal

Founded in 2017, Villa Mart is a mobile rural market that pays farmers double the market price for their products when it is purchased from their doorstep. Dr. Biswal explained the startup and the problem they solve in the following words:

“Middlemen fetch the farmers nearly 40-50 percent of the market price and take some extra vegetables free of cost. But with a direct link with us, a farmer gets nearly 1.5 to 2 times of his previous income.”

Villa Mart presently has a strong network of over 50,000 people and 2,000 farmers from roughly 40 villages.

Prantae Solutions

Founder: Sumona Karjee Mishra

The biotech start-up with headquarters in Bhubaneswar creates diagnostic tools and services with a primary focus on prenatal care and illnesses that are related to it. It emerged from the personal experience of the founder, who resolved to find a solution of affordable diagnosis to such prenatal diseases which had no means of early detection. EyeRa, the company’s first offering, is a platform for early detection of Pre-eclampsia. Prantae Solutions has received accolades such as 40 under 40 Entrepreneur Award by Edex and The New Indian Express, 2018 award and Finalist Science Start-up of the Year, Falling Wall Ventures, Berlin Germany 2018.

Innocule Materials

Founder: Gyan Ranjan Das

Due to the shortage of premium raw materials, India’s mineral industry, a significant economic driver, is currently facing several difficulties. Low quality ores are now a necessity for the business, but this has a significant impact on both price and productivity. With the help of extensive research and development, Innocule has created a variety of specialty chemicals that improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of processing low grade Indian ores.

In order to alleviate the current bottlenecks caused by the usage of low-grade iron ore in the steel industries, Innocule develops unique specialty chemicals, solving an urgent yet lesser-known issue of the country.

Future of Startups in Odisha

While these are just 7 impactful stories, Odisha is bustling with innovative ideas and startups worth mentioning. MedTel in the health sector, Grozip in grocery deliveries, Classy Street for ecommerce, Vasitars for industrial solutions, MacPhy Solutions for commercial real estate; there is an exhaustive list if we were to dive in.

Sectors like healthcare, agriculture and ecommerce are gaining much traction in the state. From founders to startups, people have gone over and beyond to put out some of the most successful ventures out there and we can only expect Odisha to become a bigger hub of innovation in the near future.