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Flipkart among world's 10 most valuable start-ups

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
Pius Heinz of Germany poses after beating Martin Staszko of the Czech Republic to win the championship bracelet and $8.7 million in prize money during the World Series of Poker.

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
An illustration picture shows a projection of binary code on a man holding a laptop.

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
Flipkart office at Koramangala, Bangalore.

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
SpaceX rocket taking off to deliver cargo to International Space Station.

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
Treasury Analyst sporting a classic Lending Club t-shirt.

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
Jawbone's wrist band.

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
VANCL Style Guide

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
Pure Storage stall at the VMworld in Las Vegas.

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
Legendary Entertainment at the San Diego Comic-Con

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST
Bloom Energy's fuel cell server at Softbank, Japan

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

Last updated on: August 05, 2014 10:56 IST

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.