Northeast India is home to some pretty incredible startups and so in this video we take a look at the top 10 startups in Northeast India.

0:00 Intro
0:36 Sikkim - NE Origins
1:44 Mizoram - Mizrun
3:39 Tripura - Fueler
5:07 Manipur - Hill Wild
6:32 Nagaland - NagaEd
7:45 Arunachal Pradesh - Naara Aaba
8:57 Assam - Zerund
10:32 Assam - Vantage Circle
12:20 Meghalaya - COLKS
14:20 Meghalaya - Chillibreeze

NE Origins: It was founded in Gangtok, Sikkim by Rewaj Chettri, a serial entrepreneur who got his start in 2012 with NE Taxi, a tourist taxi aggregator that’s still in business to this day. In May of 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rewaj decided to build a platform to support local micro entrepreneurs in Sikkim who were struggling to keep their businesses afloat amidst crumbling supply chains and pan-Indian lockdowns. This was the beginning of NE Origins, a Sikkim startup that is today valued at 2 million dollars

Mizrun: This Mizo startup that was founded in 2017 by co-founders Laldinliana and Lalhmingliana. Initially MizRun wanted to be the Zomato or Swiggy of Mizoram, offering food delivery in the capital of Mizoram, Aizawl. Later MizRun expanded the scope of their offerings to become a 360 degree business solution for local Mizo MSMEs in Aizawl. Today, MizRun has upwards of 500 clients in Mizoram, and has recently started taking the profits that they’re generating from MizRun and using them to expand into other domains like for example poultry and eggs, which is an industry Mizoram has struggled to profit from.

Fueler: Fueler was founded in 2021 and is based in Tripura’s capital city Agartala. They are a proof of work portfolio platform. While Fueler’s team works remotely across India, the startup’s founder Riten Debnath is based in Agartala, Tripura, as is the startup.

Hill Wild: Hill Wild is a D2C F&B startup based in the town of Ukhrul in Manipur. Their products, which now include chocolate, honey, hot sauce, tea, spices, and dried fruits, are made using the wild flora that grow in the hills of Ukhrul, Manipur. The startup works with 200 farmers in Manipur to procure these ingredients, and in doing so have had a positive impact on the local Ukhrul economy.

NagaEd: This Nagaland startup raised a pre-seed round in March of 2022 from companies based in Australia and Singapore, as well as some local investors, and they’re using this capital to expand the scope of their B2B edtech platform. NagaEd enables schools to affordably go digital, and is shaking up Nagaland’s education industry.

Naara Aaba: This startup makes pure, organic kiwi wine. Back in 2016 many of the kiwis that farmers were growing in the Ziro Valley of Arunachal Pradesh were actually going to waste. Market demand in India for Arunachal Pradesh kiwis was less than market supply, and that’s where the company’s founder Tage Rita spotted an opportunity. She founded Naara Aaba in Arunachal Pradesh and it quickly became one of India’s most popular exotic wine brands.

Zerund: Zerund, which is based in Guwahati, Assam, makes bricks that are earthquake resistant, lightweight, and far more eco-friendly than normal red clay bricks. They’ve raised ₹7.8 crore in seed capital to aggressively aggregate existing brick factories and outfit them with their patent pending technology, and are aiming to produce 50,000 bricks per day by the end of 2022. While Zerund did start in Guwahati, Assam, they are rapidly expanding pan India.

Vantage Circle: This Guwahati, Assam SaaS startup keeps employees happy. Today their platform is used by more than 1.8 million employees around the world, they have 6 offices across 5 countries, but in spite of this, a large majority of the employees at Vantage Circle are based in Guwahati. They are doing roughly $30 million in annual revenue.

COLKS: Founded in 2015 in Shillong, Meghalaya, COLKS is the parent company of a number of brands: BEENatural, MADessentials, which is a brand focused on producing eco-friendly, toxin-free skincare products, IN A BOX, which is a spice brand, and meat brand BARE N BONES, all of which are based in Shillong, Meghalaya under COLKS.

ChilliBreeze: Their idea was to provide international clients with overnight, personalised, beautiful powerpoint presentations at an affordable price from their office in Shillong, Meghalaya - this saves the client time, and it also impresses the people the client is presenting to, and this might seem like a simple problem to be solving, but it’s a problem that a lot of people around the world face, which is why Chillibreeze has decided to become the go-to solution.

Follow Backstage with Millionaires to remain updated with our latest developments.

Twitter:   / bwmillionaires  
LinkedIn:   / backstagewithmillionaires  
Instagram:   / backstagewithmillionaires  
Discord:   / discord  

#startup #northeast #business