Examples of success. The best startups in Russia and around the world

Startups have long been one of the main driving forces of the modern economy. The number of successfully implemented ideas testifies to the attractiveness of the state's business climate. It's no secret that most of the big startups originate in the US, but there are a number of successful companies that have seen the light of day in Europe and China. Let's talk about them in more detail.

JAWBONE ($3.5 billion)

JAWBONE manufactures headphones and wireless speakers for smartphones. They are bought by both lovers of quality music and athletes for whom mobility is important. It is interesting to note that initially the company's specialists worked for the government, developing technologies for the military. Over time, they came in handy for a wide consumer market.

UBER ($3.7 billion)

UBER is a taxi locator operating in most major US cities. In total, the startup raised about $500 million. Today, experts value the company at $3.7 billion. The price is quite justified, given that on good days the company earns about $3 million.

PINTEREST ($4 billion)

PINTEREST is a new type of social Internet service. It is based on pictures and photos that users share, drop on each other's wall, discuss and comment. The first investment came to the company in 2012, it was an amount of $100 million. The next tranche in 2013 is $230 million. At that moment, the estimated value of the company doubled.

SPOTIFY ($4.1 billion)

Considering the best startups, one cannot help but recall the well-known European company - the Spotify music service. The total audience of the service is 30 million people, each 5 of which uses paid services. Many famous personalities and corporations invested in the company, among them even Coca-Cola.

SPACEX ($4.9 billion)

The risky SpaceX project was not widely popular among investors. Only $100 million was invested in the startup, but this did not prevent its creator, Elon Musk, from succeeding in the field of space exploration. The main goal of the project is to transfer space research exclusively to commercial funding, directing American taxpayer money to other, more pressing programs.

ZALANDO ($5 billion)

Zalando is a German startup selling clothes online in more than 15 countries around the world. Initially, the company offered only shoes, but today customers can even get magazines with detailed product descriptions. It is noteworthy that only 50 million dollars were invested in Zalando, while its estimated value increased 100 times.

JINGDONG ($7.5 billion)

Jingdong online store is the largest online service in China in terms of annual turnover. You can find absolutely any product there, which is why it is compared with the American Amazon. It is one of the best startups in the world even though it is over 10 years old.

PALANTIR ($9.5 billion)

An ambiguous startup that causes a lot of controversy. PALANTIR technology allows US intelligence agencies to monitor the population by filtering various information flows. In any case, the project has already raised over $500 million.

Do not miss:

DROPBOX ($10.2 billion)

More than 205 million people around the world use the DROPBOX cloud storage service. The idea of ​​creating a service arose at a time when the classical methods of data transmission over the Internet (e-mail, instant messengers) could no longer cope with large files. As a result, DROPBOX was created, which allows you to not only send, but also store data. Today there are many cloud services, but DROPBOX rightfully occupies a leading position.

XIAOMI ($10.5 billion)

Startups have long been one of the main drivers of the modern economy. By the number of successful companies promoted from scratch, one can judge the level of development of the countries' business space. And although it is obvious that most of the startups valued at $ 1 billion have an American registration, some successful companies operate in Europe and China. We bring to your attention a list. This is not exactly a ranking: all 40 startups can be considered winners by default.

40. Evernote, $1 billion

Evernote, a note-taking service and suite of software, is worth at least $1 billion. It entered the elite club of most valuable startups in May 2012 when it raised $70 million in a D-funding round. Since then, the company has raised $240 million. An interesting list of investors: Allen & Co., China Broadband Capital Partners, DoCoMo Capital, Harbor Pacific Capital, m8 Capital, Meritech Capital Partners, m8 Capital, Morgenthaler Ventures, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price and Valiant Capital Partners.

39. Eventbrite, $1 billion

A ticketing and marketing campaign service for social media ticket sales, Eventbrite made the list just a month ago. The company recently managed to attract funding in the amount of $60 billion. After that, the entire startup, which, of course, does not yet trade shares on the stock exchange, was estimated by experts at $1 billion. Eventbrite’s total funding at the moment is $197 million. a long time ago - in 2006, but at that time it could not quickly unwind, because the social networks of the new generation were in their infancy. Facebook, for example, was just beginning its global expansion.

38. Nutanix, $1 billion

The first representative of cloud systems for business in our list. Nutanix provides cloud storage for companies. The company managed to attract an impressive amount of funding, which currently stands at $1 billion. But against the backdrop of fierce competition in this niche, experts estimate the total cost of a startup at the same $1 billion.

37. Dianping.com, $2 billion

The first Chinese startup to reach the billionaire rating. The restaurant review portal is valued at $1.8 billion, or even $2 billion, and has raised $164 million since its inception. Insiders say Dianping.com turned down a takeover bid by Google China last year. In addition, it is known that the telecommunications company from the Middle Kingdom, Tencent, earlier this year invested a large amount of money in Dianping.com - that same $1.8 billion or $2 billion.

36. Beats Electronics, $1 billion

Rapper Dre and producer Jimmy Iovine created one of the most successful music startups, which is gradually developing into new niches and growing into a full-fledged large company. Beats started with the production of headphones, proving to the whole world that the “basya shakes”, and then organized their own online music service where you can listen to any music, but it’s better, of course, to do it in Beats headphones. Beats Electronics has raised $560 million in funding and is worth about $1 billion.

35. Xunlei Network Technologies, $1 billion

Xunlei Network Technologies, a Chinese peer-to-peer service backed by Internet giant Google, has grown into one of the world's largest next-generation file sharing services. The company was founded in 2003, when the whole world was gradually moving to Soulseek, Bear Share and other first generation peer-to-peer networks. But the Chinese decided to take an evolutionary path, which allowed them to survive in the face of the emergence of new types of peer-to-peer platforms, such as torrent trackers. Xunlei supports a huge number of protocols and works with torrents as well. The startup managed to raise $111 million, and today the company is valued at $1 billion. Investors include Ceyuan Ventures, Fidelity Growth Partners Asia, Google, IDG Capital Partners, Morningside Group, Primavera Capital Group and RW Investments.

34. Good Technology, $1 billion

The American company Good Technology specializes in security systems for mobile devices. Its main clients are companies that want to secure their internal data streams. The startup has already begun acquiring smaller players and recently acquired BoxTone, expanding its mobile computing capabilities. In April, the company received funding in the amount of $50 million. In total, it has received $396 million from investors - this is since 1996. Good Technology is now worth about $1 billion.

33. Coupons.com, $1 billion

Discount service Coupons.com recently filed for an IPO. The company helps stores attract customers by distributing discount coupons. Despite the fact that there are dozens of portals like Coupons.com in the world, the startup has attracted the attention of investors. In 2013, he received $115 million, which prompted the founders of a successful business to conduct an initial public offering.

32. Pure Storage, $1 billion

Pure Storage offers an extraordinary business-focused storage product. We are talking about a kind of solid-state drives for corporate use, based on flash memory. The acceleration of computer systems allows companies to reduce costs, so Pure Storage products are selling very well. The startup has raised $245 million since its founding in 2009. Investors include Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Samsung Venture Investment and Sutter Hill Ventures.

31. CloudFlare, $1 billion

CloudFlare is a system that allows you to speed up websites and protect them from external threats. This startup was liked not only by companies, but even by the authorities of some countries, including Turkey. In December 2012, CloudFare raised $50 million in funding for a total of $72 million. Investors include Greenspring Associates, New Enterprise Associates, Pelion Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, and Venrock.

30. Tango, $1.1 billion

The free Tango messenger works in difficult conditions. Its competitors, such as WhatsApp and Viber, are much more popular and have already sold out to larger players for billions (in the case of WhatsApp, tens of billions) of dollars. Nevertheless, Tango received funding from the Chinese Internet giant Alibaba in the amount of $250 million. Against this backdrop, investors believe in a bright future for the startup. Experts estimate its value at $1.1 billion. Since 2009, Tango has received $367 million from investors.

29. LaShou Group, $1.1 billion

LaShou Group's Chinese service thrives, not least because it's Chinese. This is another portal that provides discounts to customers, but its model, in which discounts are provided for a limited time, that is, there are constantly changing "offers of the day", is completely copied from the American Groupon. The closeness of the Chinese market provided LaShou Group with $166 million in funding and a total cost estimate of $1.1 billion.

28. Gilt Groupe, $1 billion

Gilt Groupe is an American online retailer. The marketplace for a variety of goods is used by 6 million people. In order to buy something, you must register. In addition, the number of brands and the duration of the offers are limited. In 2011, the startup received additional funding in the amount of $138 million. Experts estimate the value of Gilt Groupe at $1.1 billion. Insiders say that this year the company may conduct an IPO.

27. Fab, $1.2 billion

Fab is an even more successful online trading platform. From 175 thousand participants in 2011, its audience has increased to 10 million, and the number of visitors per month reaches 6 million. The company has managed to sell 7 million products, it already operates in three countries and in two languages ​​- English and German. The startup has raised $335 million from investors. Among them are Andreessen Horowitz, Atomico, Baroda Ventures, Docomo Capital, First Round Capital, German Startups Group Berlin, ITOCHU, Mayfield Fund, Menlo Ventures, Phenomen Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, RTP Ventures, ru-Net Ventures, SingTel Innov8, SoftTech VC, Tencent Holdings, VTB Capital, Washington Post, Zelkova Ventures, A-Grade Investments and SV Angel.

26. MongoDB, $1.2 billion

MongoDB provides its customers with the ability to create NoSQL type databases. The startup's services are used by major corporate players such as eBay, MetLife, and The New York Times. MongoDB technology allows them to organize huge data streams. Last year, MongoDB raised $150 million in funding, after which it was valued at $1.2 billion. In total, the startup received $231 million from investors and, quite possibly, will soon conduct an IPO.

25. Sogou, $1.2 billion

Sogou is a search engine about which almost nothing is known outside of China, but which is extremely popular in China. The site helps to find information of any type, and most importantly, it is able to identify pages that contain a potential threat and will not display them. Such "clean" results are so popular with Chinese users that they have already found 10 billion pages using Sogou. As a result, Sogou is now valued at $1.2 billion.

24. Deem, $1.4 billion

The software developed by Deem allows companies to estimate travel costs and other additional costs. Deem services are used, in particular, by Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs and Siemens. The startup is valued at $1.4 billion and has raised an impressive $424 million in funding. Investors include American Express, Charter Venture Capital, Citigroup, Empire Capital Partners, Foundation Capital, Jafco America Ventures, JPMorgan & Chase, Micro Cap Partners and Oak Investment Partners.

23. Mobileye, $1.5 billion

Mobileye cooperates with the world's leading automakers. The technology developed by the startup is helping BMW, General Motors and other major players in the sector create safety systems that monitor and prevent accidents. The company was founded in 1998 and today is valued at $1.5 billion. The amount of funding for Mobileye's activities is $487 million. Investors include such financial market sharks as BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.

22. Fanatics, $1.5 billion

The startup, which received the peculiar name Fanatics, was founded back in 1995. According to various estimates, it costs from $1.5 billion to $3 billion, but there is no information confirmed by authoritative sources about the second figure. Fanatics supplies licensed sports equipment and other items for fans. Analysts are positive about the prospects in this niche, so we should expect Fanatics business to grow this year. Interestingly, among the investors who invested in the company, there is also the Chinese Alibaba Group.

21. Stripe, $1.8 billion

Stripe is a payment system that challenged the famous PayPal. The ease of use of virtual terminals developed by Stripe, according to many experts, puts PayPal's dominant position in the market at risk. Last month, the startup raised $80 million, and the total funding for four years is $120 million. Against this backdrop, analysts estimated the value of the business at $1.8, which allowed it to become one of the youngest participants on our list.

19. Trendy Group, $2 billion

French clothing manufacturers are conquering China. Giant LVMH has injected $200 million into Trendy Group, a start-up that produces inexpensive items for the people of the Middle Kingdom. Upon learning of this investment, experts valued Trendy Group's business at $2 billion. It should be noted that Trendy Group itself was founded by a Chinese, but a large proportion of the French makes one believe that they can influence the company's strategy. The startup was founded in 1999. The Chinese clothing market is constantly evolving, so Trendy Group and LVMH were in the right place at the right time.

18. Box, $2 billion

Box is another cloud service provider primarily for enterprise customers. The system allows you to store data in the cloud and quickly share it. The business model of Box is interesting. Free 50GB storage is available for personal accounts, but the startup is pushing customers to buy more storage space. Moreover, even to get 50 gigabytes you have to download a special application designed for iOS. In December, Box raised $100 million in funding before being valued at $2 billion. Insiders report that the startup filed for an IPO, but does not want to advertise it.

17. Wayfair, over $2 billion

An online home improvement store that specializes in furniture and decor items recently received $157 million in funding, after which the startup was valued at $2 billion. Founded in 2002, the Boston-based company has a total funding of $358. million Investors include Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners and Spark Capital.

16. Woodman Labs, developer of GoPro cameras, $2.3 billion

One of the most famous startups on our list. Not everyone knows that the company was founded back in 2002. At first, the business grew slowly, but in recent years the market has appreciated the devices developed by the Californian company, which are great for shooting high-quality video in extreme conditions. GoPro reached $1 billion in revenue last year, and the startup is now planning an IPO in June or May. Investors include Foxconn, Riverwood Capital, Sageview Capital, Steamboat Ventures, USVP Management and Walden International.

15. Airbnb, $2.5 billion

Airbnb is a service that helps travelers and homeowners looking to rent out their homes find each other. In 2012, the company received funding of $200 million and brought its total investment in its business to $526 million. Airbnb hit the top 40 in 2011, when it managed to raise $112 million. Since then, its position has only strengthened. Insiders claim that after a new round of funding, the estimated value of the startup will rise to $10 billion.

14. Bloom Energy, $2.9 billion

Startup Bloom Energy produces solid oxide fuel cells, the sets of which are called Bloom Box. Giants such as Wal-Mart, Federal Express and Coca-Cola use these solutions in their energy systems. Each Bloom Box costs $750,000, and even at that price, customers are willing to buy Bloom Energy's innovative products. But in just 10 years, the developers promise to reduce the cost of "Flowering Boxes" to $3,000.

13. Legendary Entertainment, $3 billion

Legendary Entertainment is a production company that worked with Warner Brothers on a new series of Batman films. The startup was one of the first to take the risk of joining forces with hedge funds to co-finance film production. Legendary Entertainment's contract with Warner Brothers has been completed and the company is now set to work with Universal Studios. The startup was founded in 2005.

12. VANCL, $3 billion

Another player in the Chinese clothing market: the VANCL online store was created in 2005, and already in 2011 it was valued at $3 billion. Initially, the site specialized in selling inexpensive clothes, but recently it has partnered with luxury brands. The total amount of funding for its activities reached $472 million. Investors include Ceyuan Ventures, CITIC Private Equity Funds Management, F&H Fund Management, IDG Capital Partners, Kerry Group, Qiming Venture Partners, SAIF Partners, Temasek Holdings and Tiger Management.

11. Square, $3.3 billion

The unusual startup Square produces both software and payment terminals for corporate clients. One of the company's most famous partners is the Starbucks coffee chain, which, according to experts, can overtake McDonald's on the stock exchange. In 2012, Square received $ 200 million from investors. The total amount of funds raised is $ 345 million. Investors: Citi Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Rizvi Traverse Management, Sequoia Capital, Starbucks, and Tiger Global Management.

10. Jawbone, $3.3 billion

Jawbone makes headphones and wireless speakers that can be connected to mobile devices. They are popular with both music lovers (because of the good sound quality) and people involved in sports (because they are easy to use and do not interfere). Interestingly, Jawbone initially worked with the military to create noise-canceling technologies. But the start-up's achievements were also useful in the broad consumer electronics market. As a result, the value of the business is estimated at $3.3 billion.

9. Uber, $3.8 billion

The Uber taxi search system operates in several dozen US cities. It is able to set prices in the market based on supply and demand. In August, the startup received funding in the amount of $258 million, which brought the total amount of attracted investments to $405 million. Experts estimate the value of Uber at $3.8 billion. And this is not surprising, given that the company is able to generate revenue of $20 million in good weeks. Investors include Benchmark Capital, Bezos Expeditions, First Round Capital, Founder Collective, Goldman Sachs, Google Ventures, Jumpstart Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures and TPG Growth.

8. Pinterest, $3.8 billion

Pinterest is a portal that allows users to communicate by posting images in various thematic collections and "pinning" them to "boards" for discussion. The company entered the list of billionaire startups in May 2012 when it raised $100 million from a consortium of investors led by Rakuten. $1.5 billion to $3.8 billion

7. Spotify, $4 billion

European member of our elite club. Swedish music streaming service Spotify has attracted 24 million "thank you" users and another 6 million for $10 a month. Not surprisingly, a company with such impressive numbers has already raised a total of $521 million from investors, including Coca-Cola and the well-known Digital Sky Technologies. The company was valued at $4 billion in its most recent $250 million round of financing, which ended last November.

6. SpaceX, $4.8 billion

Well, where are we without Elon Musk - one of the most famous and most controversial "startups". SpaceX, whose goal is to conquer space no longer at the expense of the state, but for purely commercial purposes, today costs about $ 4.8 billion. At the same time, investors poured only $ 115 million into Elon Musk's business. But he still promises to save America from the need to use Russian missiles and rocket engines. Moreover, this is one of the most modest promises. Many believe that another Musk project, Tesla, is already making real profits.

5. Zalando, $4.9 billion

Another European player, this time from Germany. Online retailer Zalando sells clothing and other "stylish" products in 14 European countries. Initially, the company only sold shoes, but now it even distributes branded magazines where customers can find information about new products and discounts. The total investment in Zalando is only $49 million, but its estimated value is 100 times more!

4. Jingdong, $7.3 billion

Back to China: Jingdong, formerly branded as 360Buy, is one of the largest online retailers in the Middle Kingdom in terms of turnover value. Jingdong is called "Chinese Amazon", and it is popular not only with buyers, but also with investors. The total amount of financing reached $2.2 billion, which made it possible to value the company at $7.3 billion. Jingdong was founded in Beijing in 2004.

3. Palantir, $9 billion

"Palantir" - a device with which in the book "The Lord of the Rings" by Tolkien, the main villain Sauron watched his henchmen and gave out orders. It's also a great name for a startup that allows US intelligence agencies to spy on the population. With the help of Palantir technologies, the FBI and the CIA filter the flow of information. The business is developing successfully: the startup has already raised $594 million, and its estimated value reached $9 billion back in September 2013.

The super-popular cloud storage service Dropbox has already attracted more than 200 million active users. The next target is corporate clients. The founders of the startup once decided to challenge traditional email, which did not allow sending large files. They created a service that allows you to store content and instantly send it to anyone, regardless of the restrictions imposed by the mail client. One of Dropbox's innovations is that the user can create a special folder right on the desktop and throw files there that he wants to send to the Internet. Dropbox has been followed by many cloud services, but it remains the most popular. 200 million people actively use this system. The total amount of investments attracted by Dropbox is $507 million.

1. Xiaomi $10 billion

Chinese gadget manufacturer Xiaomi has conquered the home market by setting record low prices for its devices without sacrificing quality. Last year, the company sold 18.7 million smartphones alone, and in fact it has a wide range of consumer electronics and even brand-name applications in its cage. In the past, one of the top managers who led the development of Android, Hugo Barra, moved to Xiaomi and is now helping the Chinese player win back the global gadget market from competitors. The volume of investments attracted by Xiaomi is $507 million against the backdrop of an estimated value of the company at $10 billion.

One of the world's most authoritative magazines on technology and its impact on everyday life, the British Wired, has published another TOP-100 of the most fashionable and promising startups in Europe. What Russian projects did the experts pay attention to?

The list consists of ten European cities, in each of which the authors of Wired found the top 10 startups. Last year, the compilers of the Russian version of the rating caused a lot of ridicule in the Russian business environment: for some reason, the Russian innovation city Skolkovo was on the list, and even in fifth place. This year it is not, and the rating itself, in general, seems to be much more adequate. Therefore, it makes no sense to bypass it. Better analyze.

But first, it is worth quoting facts about the Russian Internet technology market. According to experts, 62 million Internet users live in Russia, which automatically makes our Motherland one of the key markets of the continent: even in Europe there are fewer Internet users. Plus, the demand for Internet services in Russia is growing much faster than in Europe. Last June, the British investment bank GP Bullhound valued the Russian online advertising market at $1.4 billion. It was a year ago that he became more of the print media advertising market.

Mikhail Lyalin, CEO of electronic game developer ZeptoLab (No. 1 in the ranking), says that Russia's e-commerce sector is rapidly growing, and more and more people spend thousands of dollars on Christmas eve to buy goods on the Internet.

Another important Russian trend is the growing popularity of credit cards. “Russia is slowly adapting to credit cards, their number has grown 2.5 times over the year,” says Lyalin.

And here's what the list looks like.

1. Zeptolab is one of the largest companies in Russia engaged in the production of well-known games for mobile devices on the world market. So, their hit Cut the Rope really became a global phenomenon. Perhaps the second after the hegemony of Angry Birds, created by Finnish developers from Rovio.

Cut the Rope has a total of 300 million downloads and at least 60 million players every month. The Russian company makes money not so much by distributing the game, but by selling related accessories to puzzle fans.

Also, the company does not hesitate to use all new communication channels to spread its ideas. Recently, Zeptolab released a series of cartoons called Om Nom, which has a total of 100 million viewers. Now the company is actively developing new mobile games and is not at all going to "rest on its laurels" of previous success.

2. Zingaya is a B2B Internet calling service company that launched its service in 2010. The Russian platform differs from other IP-telephony services (the same Skype) in that it is focused on the corporate sector: customers of companies operating Zingaya have access to their own support service and can count on the fact that they will always be connected through this tool. Now the company has more than six hundred corporate clients. Among them are TriNet, Swimoutlet and BlogTalkRadio, as well as such corporate monsters of the Russian Federation as the Russian division of Volkswagen, MTS-Bank and Promsvyazbank.

Zingaya was already on the Wired list last year, so it's hard to call the company a newcomer to the Internet services market.

Users made 1.4 million calls using Zingaya last year. In 2012, the company's revenue tripled and amounted to $500,000. Alexei Aylarov, 27, founder of the startup, says the company is close to breaking even. In 2011, the company received funding from US investor Esther Dyson in the amount of $1.15 million.

There is also a development strategy: Zingaya is working with the global company Salesforce, the developer of one of the most popular CRM systems in the world. Most likely, in the new versions of this product there will be a module for instant VoIP communication with colleagues.

3. Narr8 is a truly innovative publisher and online distributor of books, comics and interactive digital stories. The company has developed a free app for iOS and Android that delivers interactive content created by Narr8 itself to users. From here - one step to the real publishing work. If there ever comes a new digital era where there is no place for traditional print publications, Narr8 may become one of the new market leaders, a kind of new Russian Amazon. Since the launch of the service in November last year, it has already gained 700,000 users.

4. Ostrovok.ru is a service for online hotel reservations around the world. It's like Booking.com, only with a no less decent base of hostels and in Russian. Mass tourism is a relatively young phenomenon, but every year there are more and more Russians who regularly travel abroad, and therefore the sustainability of the business model of this startup seems to be an indisputable fact.

The company, founded by Kirill Makharinsky and Sergey Faget, already has eminent investors (Yuri Milner, for example) and a database that includes 135,000 hotels in 200 countries.

5. Avito is the Russian version of the ad site, which has absorbed all the best from Slando, Craiglist and other Western services. Today it is the largest and most popular private classifieds site in Russia.

Avito brings together 40 million users per month, who add 450 thousand new ads every day. The total cost of all goods placed on the service is 2% of Russia's GDP.

6. Digital October is the main Moscow platform for representatives of the fashionable and "advanced" part of the youth who are engaged in IT entrepreneurship. The organization conducts its own content for startups, organizes the TechCrunch Moscow and Demo Europe conferences, and it also has a fairly powerful business incubator. DO's partners include one of the largest online education services in the world, Coursera.

7. Onetwotrip is one of the most important and probably the most “fashionable” flight booking service in Russia. Founded in 2011, the company already has 600,000 regular users and sells 5,000 tickets every day. The company's CEO, Max Karausz, says the company generates $50 million in revenue per month. The only significant competitor of Onetwotrip in the Russian Federation is the Aeroflot website.

8. Game Insight is a developer and publisher of mobile games. The company is only three years old, but it already has 150 million users of its products worldwide. CEO Alisa Chumachenko started the business without outside investment, but recently raised $25 million in growth funding from Russian investment firm imi.vc.

9. LinguaLeo is the most popular platform in Russia for learning foreign languages ​​online. The service works as a game application that offers to learn a language along with a virtual lion - this, of course, is not the user's alter ego, but something akin to a pet that requires regular care. As soon as the user forgets about the regularity of classes, his digital "animal" becomes discouraged. It is believed that such “gamification” of the process seriously raises the level of motivation.

The approach was well received by many. Every day, 10 thousand new users register on LinguaLeo.

10. Eruditor Group is a platform that brings together teachers, doctors and other professionals who offer their services and find new clients here. Now the company, founded in 2010, has 100 thousand registered tutors and about 400 thousand buyers of their services. Customers of the service earn a total of up to $200 million a year, says Egor Rudi, founder of the company.

Over the years, the popularity of professional freelancers will only grow, and therefore Eruditor, no doubt, will be a great commercial success.

The list itself, of course, will be disputed by many, but it clearly demonstrates that the most proven and reliable way to succeed in Runet is to take the idea of ​​a global or American project and localize it on the domestic market, taking into account local characteristics. As a matter of fact, all the largest Russian Internet companies did so at the time. And in the same way, domestic Internet entrepreneurs continue to move for the most part to this day. Coming up with something truly new, which has no analogues in the world, is far from the best way to make money and build a really useful service. In the end, the main thing is not the idea, but its implementation.

Interesting startups from global and Russian practice: 4 differences between a startup and an ordinary business idea + 16 examples of successful ideas for inspiration.

Before presenting interesting startups, let's find out what it is all about.

Why are the concepts of "startup" and "new business" differentiated?

And are there really differences between them, or is it just a matter of popularizing the use of borrowed words in modern speech?

For the first time this interesting term "" appeared in 1939.

It was used by two students at Stanford University.

So they designated their project, which later grew into a company known worldwide as "Hewlett-Packard".

Startups can exist in any industry, not just IT.

Startups are characterized by:

• based on the use of innovations, interesting ideas that have not been implemented before;
• usually have a small start-up capital, because startups are often closely associated with the search for investors or crowdfunding platforms to raise funds;
• occupy an empty niche in the market, but at the start they have a “shaky” position;
• As a rule, startups are the prerogative of students.

As you now understand, not every business idea can be called a startup, even if it is implemented by a novice entrepreneur.

Theory is theory, but it's time to move on to an overview of the most interesting startup ideas from all over the world.

Interesting startups from around the world

The selection is opened, of course, by American startups. It is this country that is the world leader in the regeneration of new interesting ideas for business.

A huge number of people want to study, live and work in the USA, which is why this power has a huge number of experts in various industries and services.

In addition, the state strongly supports representatives of small and medium-sized businesses.

Fertile ground for the development of startups!

Let's consider the most interesting of them.

— Pocket Anatomy

This startup took the main prize at the international conference of technological innovations in 2014 (TNW Europe 2014).

According to the creators themselves, the company has developed "Google Earth" of human entrails.

This interesting program is a visual aid to human anatomy.

The interactive map is presented as an application for smartphones.

It is designed to help humanity visually know their own body.

A startup, of course, is not only entertaining, but also educational!

Another participant of the mentioned conference is the Iwaku smart lamp.

Appliances in a stylish case will become the best friend of people who love interesting things.

In its modest shell size, a whole set of functions is hidden:

• knows how to arrange light therapy;
• wakes up the owner with the help of a glow, taking into account the biorhythms;
• able to "find a common language" with your iPhone.

This interesting lamp is quite expensive - about 10,000 rubles.

But the creators of the startup promised to release a more accessible product in the future.

Startups from Estonia

Are you not familiar with examples of thriving businesses that have emerged in Estonia? Wrong!

It was here that the world-famous startup appeared - the program for video calls "Skype".

Based on the opinions of experts, Estonia is one of the leading countries among creating interesting start-ups.

Someone even calls it a modern analogue of Silicon Valley.

This development received its prize in 2015 as the most interesting startup created thanks to the joint efforts of American and Estonian developers.

For an uninitiated person, the essence of the service may be incomprehensible.

Rainer Sternfeld and his team have created a service that brings climate data together.

It should be understood that the background of "Planet.OS" is not entertaining. Rather, the resource is aimed at those whose activities are related to meteorology, transport communications (including water), the creation of various databases.

An example of the work of "Planet OS" on the analysis of the position of the ship:

Startups from Italy

Italy is also developing interesting start-ups in various fields.

Moreover, in this country, which does not rank first in the rankings of technological and economic development, an interesting law has been adopted since 2012. It says that anyone who wants to develop their startup for the benefit of Italy will receive a visa under a simplified procedure and especially favorable conditions for doing business.

As you understand, there were a lot of applicants (if you are also interested, look for information about a startup visa on the official website http://italiastartupvisa.mise.gov.it/).

What interesting start-ups can the country "boast" of?

This app is designed by Max Ciocciola. His job is to translate the text to the phone screen while the song is playing.

Simple and tasteful!

More than 31 million people already use this unique program.

The database contains 8 million texts with support for 40 different languages. Thanks to this project, the founder received a proposal for cooperation from various venture funds.

For detailed information, you can follow the link https://www.musixmatch.com/.

If you like to travel, you are definitely familiar with a service like Tripadvisor.

It contains information about all the main attractions of the world with detailed comments and user reviews.

In 2015, the developers of the resource introduced the startup "Thefork" to the world.

This development contains data on all restaurants in Italy.

If there is a question about choosing a place for an evening dinner, use the site https://www.thefork.com/.

It is enough to indicate the city, the number of people, preferences in cuisine, and you will open all the establishments where you will definitely like it!

The purpose of this project is to coordinate and optimize the company's workflow.

This interesting start-up received exorbitant investments from American investors (22 million dollars - a record for the last 15 years).

To learn more about this development, please visit http://www.decisyon.com/

Startups from France

The French government decided to follow the same path as in Italy. This power plans to get interesting startups thanks to competitions for, in the arsenal of which there are brilliant ideas.

The French Tech Ticket program is aimed not only at "locals", but also residents of other countries (including Russia).

Anyone who has an idea for an interesting startup can apply to participate in the competition.

You can learn more about this on the official website by clicking on the link http://www.frenchtechticket.com/.

If selected, a person receives the following privileges:

• invitation to the country;
• participation in specialized master classes;
• assistance in solving “urgent” issues (obtaining a residence permit, obtaining insurance, finding housing);
• a place in an incubator (organizations that support young entrepreneurs);
• financial assistance - 45,000 euros for the development of a startup.

These actions of the power confirm the interest of France in development and the desire to attract highly qualified workers to its territory in order to continue creating interesting start-ups.

A well-known Italian company, in partnership with Uber, developed this startup to find satellites for the duration of the trip (more precisely, to “bring together” car owners and potential passengers).

Using the service is a convenient and profitable alternative to traveling by taxi, bus, or train.

In 2014, this idea has already received 100 million dollars of investment for development.

The project is presented in a number of countries and is developing rapidly.

You can also evaluate the work of BlaBlaCar in Russia at this link: https://www.blablacar.ru/.

This startup helped to solve not the most serious, nevertheless, urgent problem.

It enables a circle of users to form a common cash register. Everyone contributes using this interesting application.

What is it for?

To purchase a gift "from the whole team"!

Everyone who has ever collected money with colleagues for a present to the boss, or “thrown off” the whole family for a purchase for the hero of the day, knows that organizing such a process is quite difficult.

Probably, such a problem really found a great response in the hearts of investors. After all, the startup received almost 8 million dollars for development.

Startups come from Germany

Berlin is one of the emerging capitals that generates interesting start-ups for the whole world.

Thanks to this, according to experts, by 2020 more than 110 thousand new jobs and several dozen more incubators will open in the capital.

Among the many projects, we will highlight the most interesting startups.

— dreamcheaper

This project has become a "new breath" in the field of hotel reservations while traveling.

Thanks to the service, it became possible to buy tickets at a budget price and find a hotel in a convenient place.

Here, experienced travelers may have a question: why is this service better than a dozen similar ones? What is startup innovation?

The fact is that after you book a room, the process does not end.

Using internal algorithms, the service calculates the most profitable options for you up to the day of arrival at the hotel.

The program cancels the reservation on your behalf and changes it to a more optimal one automatically!

The creators suggest that their interesting startup will soon become the most hated resource for hotel owners.

This interesting startup has long been noticed by interior designers who actively use the service in their work.

This project allows you to purchase furniture or various decorative elements from all over the world.

If you think there is nothing innovative or interesting about this idea, then you have never created a room design on your own.

Among the places where the most interesting startups have been presented in recent years, London “owns the bronze”.

There are several reasons for this: the simplest system for registering entrepreneurs, an abundance of incubators and co-working spaces, many talented employees, and affordable taxation.

Consider the most interesting ideas that were "born" in such conditions.

This interesting start-up aims to identify a song just by its small excerpt.

This project was launched back in 1999.

The amount of investment attracted by the resource is simply amazing - 125 million dollars. And the value at which Shazam was estimated in 2015 is completely staggering - $ 1 billion!

To date, the service base is more than 12 million songs, and you can check the work at the link: https://www.shazam.com/en.

— Judo Payments

An interesting startup that resembles a mini-bank.

He is able to resolve payment issues and make transfers from card to card.

Such ideas help to simplify the life of mankind, which is why they develop and are popular. The amount of attracted investments is 14.3 million dollars.

More details can be found at https://www.judopay.com/

Interesting startups involving several countries

The Belgian-Dutch cooperation has borne fruit in the development of an application that can recognize the signature on the phone screen.

Such an interesting idea allows you to authorize payments without any problems.

It is believed that such a startup and others like it are capable of replacing the already existing security system using a pin code in the near future.

— Winner Takes All

This is the only crowd lottery on the planet.

The principle of operation is very simple: each participant buys a ticket, forming a common "bank". The program itself determines the winner weekly using random algorithms. The entire amount from the “general cash desk” is sent to him.

This idea attracted not only investors, but also users: with its transparency, simplicity and unpretentiousness.

You can try your luck here: http://www.crowdlottery.com/.

Having studied what interesting startups there are in the world, let's move on to considering projects in Russia.

In Russia, too, there are a lot of interesting ideas that are already serving the benefit of society.

The implementation of startups in the current realities of the Russian Federation is not an easy task. However, some interesting designs managed to stand out.

— Dr. Tariff

This interesting development for smartphones can calculate the available tariff plans for the phone with a single click.

A clear analysis of available tariffs is the main pride of startup developers. But this is not the limit of the application.

It is able to give detailed information about calls, sms and the remaining traffic for using the Internet.

And for users who are not particularly versed in mathematical calculations, the program displays a color chart that shows the same indicators.

The application was created by Alexander Voloshchuk, faced with a problem known to everyone: the account is zero, and it is not clear where the funds went.

Relevance made the idea, which appeared in 2012, in demand and profitable.

Investors have invested several million rubles in it. At the end of 2014, the service paid off.

Now the average revenue per month can reach up to 1 million rubles.

You can find out more on the official website: http://drtariff.com/.

— Elpas

The creator (Maxim Serebrov) has developed a system of electronic passports, with the help of which all employees of the housing and communal services can report to the state and clarify controversial issues from the workflow.

Prior to this project, at the end of the month, housing and communal services simply “drowned” in the mountains of paper reporting.

It took a lot of time to consider. And where there is a need, business is born there!

Elpas has greatly facilitated the work of municipalities.

The work of this project can be viewed at http://elpass.ru/

The video contains the top 10 startups that were invented and implemented by students:

Interesting startups, of course, do not end there.

But it is simply impossible to list all noteworthy ideas within one review!

Remember, everyone is capable of making money from their ideas.

The main thing is to analyze the market and determine the current problems of the audience, and then follow your dream.

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The best startups in Russia include:

A popular online learning service that helps anyone who wants to learn English or improve their existing level. Now more than 14 million people around the world use it. Each new "student" can be tested and choose the level they need, get a set of exercises and training materials for its development. The application allows you to train understanding of not only written speech, but also its listening comprehension. Educational materials are provided in both audio and video formats.

This is an educational platform with game elements that gives you the opportunity to learn linguistic skills from native speakers.

The animated lion mascot gave the service its name - Leo. The idea to use this particular character, lost in the jungle of knowledge, came to the developers on the exotic island of Koh Chang, where the founder and a team of programmers worked on creating a new service for about six months. Five years later, the founder, Ainur Abdulnasyrov, entered the first hundred Russian millionaires.

Google listed LinguaLeo as one of the best Android apps in 2015.

LinguaLeo - learning English can be fun

doctor at work

The virtual community of professional doctors is a startup by Andrey Perfiliev and Stanislav Sazhin, which appeared in 2009. They created a space that most of all resembles a closed club, inside which people of the same specialty can exchange experiences, get the necessary information, ask colleagues questions, and find work.

Gradually, with the growth of popularity, the network expanded significantly. Now both medical students and pharmacists can use it. They, like doctors, got the opportunity not only to communicate, but also to improve their skills free of charge.

Half of all medical workers in Russia, with higher education, are its registered users. In terms of participants' activity, "Doctor at Work" ranks first in the world. For several years in a row, the project has taken more and more honorable places in the rating of the best startups in Russia - Russian Startup Rating.

Most doctors in Russia use their own social network "Doctor at Work"
MoneyMan comes to the rescue very quickly when it comes to micro loans

Who hasn't dreamed of a flash drive with unlimited storage? Alexey Churkin, the founder of the Flashsafe startup, was able to solve this problem. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​a "dimensionless" drive - a flash card connected to a cloud file storage system. Through special electronic devices, information is placed in storage and is there absolutely anonymously, without being tied to a specific user. This makes it possible to obtain the necessary files without the mandatory use of passwords or keys. Such a device cannot be hacked, it guarantees complete security and confidentiality of information.

Alexey raised it with his own funds and grants, successfully presented his project in Skolkovo, after which pre-orders were collected for 1.5 million rubles. Gradually, investors were found, the project repeatedly appeared on crowdfunding platforms. On August 30, 2016, sales of the "infinite" drive started.

Flashsafe combined flash drive and infinity

The fastest startup, which became the best startup project in just a few days, is one of the best startups of 2016 in Russia. The creators were forced to artificially restrain the powerful growth of the project's popularity. - a mobile application that appeared quite recently, in the summer of 2016, and allows the user to turn any photo into an image made in the style of famous artists. From an ordinary frame, it became possible to make a work of art in just a couple of seconds and clicks. Its success was simply dizzying. In 10 days, the new photo editor has become the most downloaded product.

Investors valued the entire project at over $10 million. The founder of the service, Aleksey Moiseenkov, has become no less popular than his offspring and tries "not to give more than one interview a day." In them, he says that it took about two months to work on a mega-popular application and investments were made “within the framework of salaries”. Mail.ru has already become an investor in Prisma, which makes it possible to evaluate the success and prospects of the project.

With Prisma everyone can become an outstanding artist

MULTICUBIK

A Russian project that won the Startup Village competition in the summer of 2016. The startup ran a successful crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo and presented itself successfully at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York in 2016. Mikhail Bukhovtsev is the founder and CEO of Multikubik.

The project is an interesting technical novelty for the smallest users. We are talking about mini-projectors in the form of a cube, with cartoons and filmstrips inside. You can project an image onto any flat surface. The creators claim that this is a “healthier” alternative to watching entertainment content on a tablet for a child, the best option for quality family leisure.

Member of the Skolkovo and API Moscow sites. More than $105,000 was raised to launch the sale. Currently, the company's management is planning to develop a premium version of the projector, a more budget version will be put into production very soon.

Multicube - a classic in a new package

This is a list. Some of them are already known abroad, they have found investors there and are planning to enter the international market. What can be said about the current situation in this area on a global scale? What are the best startups in the world?

Top 10 Startups in the World

The best startup projects around the world include:

Slack

A popular corporate messenger that appeared in 2013. Provides very great opportunities for online teamwork, it is especially suitable for small and medium-sized companies. Slack makes formal email correspondence between employees and complex internal workflow unnecessary. This service was ideal for communication between employees at work, but it also allowed the creation of communities of interest, business or leisure. That is why another opportunity to use Slack is to find the right specialists, this is actively used by personnel workers.

The fastest business application in history, now valued at nearly $3 billion.

The application was created by a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of Cambridge Stuart Butterfield. Over seven rounds of investments, his startup was able to raise about $350 million and become one of the best such projects in the world. It is especially popular in the USA and European countries. On the very first day of testing, more than 8 thousand organizations registered in the Slack system.

Over a million users have already taken advantage of Slack

Uber

One of the most famous and scandalous startups in the world, which outraged competitors regularly try to catch up with and desperately try to somehow cope with its expansion. At the same time, the project is very successful, it is estimated by investors at $64 billion.

The idea of ​​linking a taxi order to a mobile application turned out to be just golden. It belongs to Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp. The idea came from one of the founders in Paris, when he could not get himself a taxi.

Launched in 2009, Uber brought huge profits to its creators. Leading venture financiers of the world fought for the right to invest in the service. This is understandable, because the company's daily revenue is now several million.

Now mobile taxis under this brand operate in more than 80 cities around the world, the number of trips using Uber in America has grown by 250%. The company continues to actively explore the global market and expand.

Uber is one of the best startups in the world in recent years

Zenefits was founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Parker Conrad, who until recently served as its CEO. In a year, the project has gone from an unknown startup to a dynamically developing business. It took him less than two years to become a company with a capitalization of more than $1 billion. Zenefits boasts some of Silicon Valley's biggest investors (like Andreessen Horowitz) and is valued at $4.5 billion.

The project offers innovative software for personnel departments of enterprises, which greatly facilitates personnel management and document management in companies. The service allows you to automatically calculate salaries for employees, calculate benefits, bonuses, labor productivity ratios, and determine vacation dates.

In February 2016, Zenefits changed its director to David Sacks, who took emergency measures to maintain the high appreciation of the project by investors. Despite the fact that now the company is experiencing some difficulties, the number of its customers still totals 20,000 people.

Zenefits - a fundamentally new approach to work in the field of personnel management

Porch

One of the best startups in the world, which appeared in Seattle in 2013. The project was created to connect professionals who can do home or appliance repair work and people who need their services. A user-friendly interface and ordering system allows you to find the right specialist very quickly, which was immediately appreciated by numerous Porch users. During its existence, the company managed to raise $99 million in 3 funding rounds.

Porches are:

• 3 million professionals with experience and references
• 140 million deals
• over $100 million in venture capital

The company gives a $1000 guarantee to all clients if the quality of the work performed does not suit the customer.

The founders of Porch say that their business continues to grow and develop, has excellent prospects and big plans for the future.

Porch - repairs are best left to professionals

A new type of social internet service founded by Ben Silberman in 2008. With it, each user can create their own unique virtual "boards" on which he collects and stores images grouped by various topics. Very quickly, Pinterest has grown into a worldwide directory of ideas and inspiration for a very large global audience of creatives and everyday users. The project is especially popular with women. For example, brides looking for wedding style or young mothers organizing photo shoots for their babies. Of course, it was appreciated by all experts in the artistic field.

It took the startup less than a year to reach its first 10,000 users. Zilberman says that he personally compiled and sent letters of invitation to the first 5 thousand. This figure now represents 70 million per month in the US and 150 million worldwide. The project, to date, has overtaken Twitter in terms of audience size. Financially, it is also very prosperous; since its inception, it has attracted $1.3 billion in investments.

Pinterest - you can't have too many beautiful photos

An extremely successful online service offering mattresses and other sleep accessories. A practical and serious approach even to the most ordinary household items, it turns out, is able to bring the creators both money and fame. The manufacturer and seller of unusual sleep accessories was able to attract the attention of buyers and investors, the latter estimate the project at $550 million.

The authors of this startup approached the matter with a scientific approach and organized a real laboratory in which they experimentally established the parameters and characteristics of an ideal mattress. Now they sell one and only kind of it, but in different sizes.

Pleasant bonuses that successfully complement the high quality of Casper:

• fast delivery
• compact packaging
• the possibility of testing and returning goods

At the same time, the cost of a standard-size mattress starts at $ 500, but the company gives a 10-year warranty on it. The project successfully withstands competition, although the price of their goods is about twice as high as the average.

This startup has relied on comfort

It turns out that startups exist in the field of space technology. One of the most successful projects in this area belongs to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who decided to create the first private transport company for space cargo transportation. In particular, the creator saw the immediate goal of delivering cargo to Mars during its colonization. The project was successful and now the company is a real space concern.

The first steps in the implementation of this grandiose plan were made in 2002, and after 8 years SpaceX became the first private company to launch a spacecraft. In 2012, one of his unmanned rockets docked with the International Space Station. After that, management signed a contract with the US Air Force and NASA.

SpaceX is considered the most progressive and promising space carrier, while offering one of the lowest prices in the market for such services.

The path from idea to successful space production

The third most valuable startup in the world is a mobile application that allows you to send messages with attached photos and videos. Created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Frank Brown.

According to statistics, 200 million users of the application send 700 million messages daily. In general, during its existence, the company has raised more than $1 billion and continues to develop rapidly.

The head of the company, Evan Spiegel, is trying to make Snapchat a competitor to Facebook and Twitter. Most likely, he will succeed. An ambitious entrepreneur from the “golden youth” is confidently moving forward. The content of the application continues to be updated and improved, gradually supplemented with new features.

Rapid growth, thoughtful bold marketing and an audience under 30 are the keys to Snapchat's success, which allowed the company to become the third largest startup in the world by capitalization.

Evan Spiegel is the founder of Snapchat

Jibo

The creators of the first family robot, led by MIT professor Cynthia Breazeale, raised money for it using a crowdfunding platform. The project was so successful that in just a few days about 900 thousand dollars were received, although 100 were required.

Now you can buy an electronic friend for all family members and get from him not only practical help in the form of the necessary information, but also a couple of funny stories or anecdotes.

Jibo recognizes people and finds its own approach to everyone. He does not know how to move, but he knows how to speak and show emotions. The first samples are already on sale. The creators of Jibo do not stop there, the design of the robot has already been improved with the investments that the project was able to attract.

Jibo - home robot has become a reality

One of the fastest growing Internet startups of 2015, based in San Francisco.

The project was created as an Internet service for the delivery of food to private customers from nearby stores. The buyer selects all the necessary goods online from the lists of local supermarkets uploaded to the site, and receives his order by courier very quickly, within an hour.

Instacart is already available in several major US cities and continues to take over the market, with revenues up 15x. Startup development is booming, funds and private investors are confident in the success of Instacart, although competition is growing noticeably every year. The project attracts more and more hundreds of millions of dollars of investments with enviable constancy (see Investments in startups: attraction, rules, important points). The total funding for the service over two years is about $150 million. Investors in the successful startup include Sequoia, Khosla Ventures, Canaan Partners, Horowitz and many more.

Even shopping trips can make you rich

A variety of projects are among the best startups in Russia and around the world. Some of them are created by one enthusiast, while several thousand different specialists are working on the development of others. Sometimes it takes a month or two from an idea to a finished product, and sometimes it takes years. Each project has its own secret of popularity and its own fascinating take-off story.