Scratch the dust and grime off India’s air pollution issue, and you’ll see the stark reality of challenging ingrained behavioral patterns, be it stubble burning or urban pollution.
Over the past few days, India has experienced previously unheard-of levels of air pollution. The air quality index, which measures particulate matter and gases, hit over 500 on November 7 in New Delhi. In response, the Delhi government activated the Graded Action Response Plan’s “severe plus” stage to combat air pollution.
The citizens, the media, and government officials have been crying hoarse about air pollution but are unsure about whom to pin the blame on. Fingers are mostly being pointed to stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana in addition to urban pollution. Adding to the problems has been the steady drop in temperatures with the approaching winter.
However, the issue runs deeper than just stemming stubble burning or curbing vehicular traffic and needs an overhaul in age-old habits, StartupTalky found after speaking with educationists, researchers, government officials, and agri-tech companies.
Despite having various alternatives at their disposal, burning residual harvested crops or stubble may just be a lazy out for farmers. Stubble is the cut stalks of the harvested paddy crop that are left sticking out of the ground.
“There is only a window of 20–25 days. The farmer has to sow wheat immediately after harvesting rice. So, to save time, the farmer lights a fire on his farm, and within a week, he sows wheat. Earlier animals would be fed the stubble; now there are no animals left,” said Manoj Tripathi, principal scientist, plans implementation and monitoring from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
ICAR, the autonomous research body of the agriculture ministry, has developed a bio-decomposer that, when sprayed on, decomposes stubble, turning it into natural fodder for crops. Unfortunately, despite widespread awareness and implementation, this project hasn’t taken off.
“It’s a microbial process, and it takes time. It takes about 10–20 days. The farmer cannot give much time. Burning is an easy way out,” said ICAR Principal Scientist from the Agricultural Engineering Division, Devendra Dhingra.
Some farmers have also expressed dissatisfaction about the effectiveness of the decomposers.
Apart from this, the government also gives subsidies to certain machinery, considered to be an eco-friendly, effective way of dealing with stubble, such as the Super Seeder. This machine converts existing residue crops into mulch while seeding the new crop at the same time.
Despite these incentives, farmers continue to burn residual crops. Field King, one of the manufacturers of the Super Seeder, explains why burning stubble continues to dispute the availability of these machines.
“One reason burning continues is because there is a lack of awareness, plus some of these products are slightly costlier. On average, they cost around 2.5 lakh INR, out of which the government subsidizes 1.0–1.5 lakh INR. Yet, people don’t avail of the subsidies. But I don’t think the challenge is money. The real challenge is the willingness of the farmer to switch to greener alternatives,” said Nitin Sharma, brand and marketing manager at Field King.
Not just farmers; tackling pollution requires a massive systemic effort in the long run from all stakeholders.
“Collectively, everybody has to do something that will drive change. A systematic change is required over a period of time across various things that might improve air quality. A gradual change is needed right from how houses are constructed to the kind of vehicle we drive; everything has to change, including the source of how we generate power,” said Anirudh Sidharth, senior manager from angel investing platform Inflection Point Ventures.
For now, ICAR’s Dhingra suggested a few options to tackle the situation in the near term: running smaller buses, avoiding large-scale events and conferences during the winters, large vehicles switching over to electric fleets, and having scattered office timings during the day to avoid traffic.
Earlier this week, Mahindra and Mahindra Chairperson Anand Mahindra on social media favored the use of regenerative farming as an alternative to stubble burning. Regenerative farming fosters the health of the soil and safeguards water resources and the climate.
More sops can also be given to farmers who opt to send their stubble to balers instead of burning it down. These huge baling machines help create bales from the stubble, which are used as fuel in industries.
“Balers are not very cost-effective. If this can be subsidized, then it can be used for boilers. Scientific technologies are available, but they need to be used properly,” said Tripathi of ICAR.
According to media reports, the Punjab government in September said it would provide 30 balers to farmers at a 65% subsidy. At present, these balers cost around one crore INR.
According to another news report, Punjab revised its plan this year to distribute 1,850 baler machines down to 1,300 balers. In the end, they managed to give merely 500 balers so far and 768 balers in the last five years.
Most Polluted Indian States – 2023
The graph shows the most polluted states in India in 2023, based on the Air Quality Index (AQI). The AQI measures the concentration of particulate matter in the air, a major pollutant that can harm human health.
For some companies, the health hazard has meant a surge in demand for their products, such as air purifiers and masks.
Nirvana Being, a supplier of masks and air purifiers, saw a 200% rise in corporate sales in October and November and a whopping 3000% rise in customer sales during the same period.
“Unfortunately, people only dial into prevention or cure once they are either fearful or sick,” said Jai Dhar Gupta, founder of Nirvana Being.
A newspaper report quoted electronic retailers reporting a 70% rise in air purifiers since the drop in air quality.
While the pay-to-breathe industry may be reaping dividends, the overall economy ends up taking a hit.
In a comprehensive study carried out in 550 districts in India, the World Bank found that.
What’s Behind Extreme Air Pollution in India
Conclusion
Pollution kills. Not just humans but the economy as well. The first step to effective pollution management starts with stringent monitoring. A number of institutes, such as the Indian Institute of Kanpur, are employing artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor the quality of the air. This mechanism needs to be scaled up urgently across the country.
Finding new and cheaper alternatives to tackle air pollution is also the need of the hour, as this would entail a huge thrust from stakeholders in research and development.
“The basic infrastructure in terms of creating awareness, pulling in early-stage founders, R&D, and use of resources has increased. However, to practically pilot run and execute it, we need the support of even the larger companies,” said Sidharth of Inflection Point Ventures.
Yes, baby steps have already been initiated to curb pollution. But, the road towards cleaning the air in India would mean breaking traditional habits by turning sustainability into a way of life.
New Delhi, November 13, 2023: There has been growing anticipation surrounding Trescon’s Digital Acceleration & Transformation Expo (DATE) as Shri Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Hon’ble Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, has confirmed his participation at the event. Set against the backdrop of India’s thriving tech revolution, the event will take place on November 23–24, 2023, at the newly inaugurated Yashobhoomi (IICC Dwarka). It is gearing up to become a groundbreaking moment in India’s technological evolution, inspired by our Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
DATE is not just another tech event; it’s a visionary platform aimed at shaping the future. It converges government bodies, enterprises, tech corporations, startups, and global investors. Featuring a unique framework with ten power-packed streams spread across three dedicated conference stages for insightful discussions, and multiple exhibition zones dedicated to technological innovations, DATE provides an actionable perspective into both contemporary and forthcoming tech trends.
“At DATE, we’re not just organizing an event; we’re nurturing India’s tech aspirations,” said Mohammed Saleem, Founder and Chairperson of Trescon. “It forges a space where expertise, innovation, and endless potential converge to script a new chapter in our technological narrative.”
As India’s digital economy is slated to reach US$1 trillion, emerging technology is becoming the bedrock for India’s economic vision. This transformation is not just about economic growth; it’s a pivotal enabler of improved governance across the nation. These transformative technologies are redefining how industries operate by optimizing operations, enhancing efficiencies, and unlocking a world of new possibilities for the country. In this digital age, India’s forward-looking approach is propelling it to shape a connected and prosperous society.
Naveen Bharadwaj, Group CEO of Trescon, expressed, “We are elated to welcome Hon’ble Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, at DATE India 2023. We look forward to gaining insights about his vision and initiatives that are driving the next era of innovation and transformation.”
With the event rapidly approaching, boasting an impressive line-up of over 100+ global speakers, 3,000+ attendees, and the participation of over 500+ discerning investors, DATE is positioned to become a key driver in India’s digital transformation journey. The event will also be graced by the presence of Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, further underscoring its role as a catalyst for shaping India’s technological destiny.
About Trescon
Trescon is a pioneering force in the global business events and services sector, driving the adoption of emerging technologies while promoting sustainability and inclusive leadership.
Their summits, expos, and conferences create real economic impact by connecting and empowering the key ecosystem of government organizations, regulators, enterprises, corporations, and more. With the help of their 250+ employees across offices in 6 countries, several of their clients have quadrupled their leads, shortened sales cycles by half or less, entered markets three times faster, closed deals within unimaginable timelines, and ultimately grown their businesses.
Zoho mafia refers to the group of companies that were founded by former Zoho employees. Zoho was founded in the year 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in Pleasanton, California; it was initially known as Advent Inc. and later renamed Zoho Corporation in the year 2009.
Vembu began his entrepreneurial venture from a small apartment room in Chennai, partnering with Tony Thomas, who specialized in Network Management. Zoho’s headquarters in Perungudi, Chennai, began its journey by building software products in the 1990s. The company focuses on building web-based applications and software products.
Here are some of the companies founded by Ex-Zoho employees or Zoho Mafia:
Company Name
Founder
Freshworks
Girish Mathrubootham
Chargebee
Krish Subramanian
Hippo Video
Karthi Mariappan S
Facilio
Prabhu Ramachandran, Rajavel Subramanian, Krishnamoorthi Rangasamy, and Yogendra Babu
Zoho is an Indian multinational company that specializes in software development, cloud computing, and web-based business tools. Their first and most successful product is Zoho CRM, launched in 2005. Since then, Zoho CRM has reached its 1 million user milestone in the year 2008. The company has grown to become a leader in the SaaS industry and has over 100 million users globally. On Republic Day, celebrated on January 26th,2021, Sridhar Venmbhu was granted the Padma Shri Award for his contributions to Zoho and Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign. According to Forbes, Sridhar Vembu’s net worth of $3.75 billion makes him the 55th richest person in India.
The term ‘Zoho mafia’ has to do with the former employees of Zoho who began their entrepreneurial journey after working at Zoho. Zoho mafia is an outfit that creates jobs directly and indirectly in Chennai. It is a vital part of the Indian software industry as it not only creates jobs but also inspires future entrepreneurs.
With revenue of more than $153.55 Mn in Q3-2023, this outfit is quickly turning Chennai into a breeding ground for deep-tech startups, said Girish Mathrubootham, a former Zoho employee who quit Zoho to start his venture called Freshworksin 2010. Since its inception, Freshworks has grown to become a global leader in software products built for small and medium-scale businesses for cloud-based business software, earning a majority of the revenue in North American and European markets. It generated $545 million in revenue in 2023.
Freshworks Annual Revenue
Freshworks is the first Indian SaaS company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The growth of Freshworks has been exponential. The market capitalization of the company in 2023 is $5.38 Billion. The company launched Freshdesk in 2010 to engage customers with customer support and sales. It then rebranded to Freshdesk to launch other SaaS tools like Freshmarketer, Freshsales, etc., which help entrepreneurs in Customer Relationship Management.
Chargebee is a SaaS subscription billing and revenue management software that powers end-to-end recurring billing services for subscription businesses. It helps in automating subscriptions, billing, invoicing, and payments, as well as provides other key metrics and insights into the subscription business.
Hippo Video – Easy-To-Use Video Solution for All Your Business Needs
Co-Founder & CEO
Karthi Mariappan S, Nilamchand Jain
Founded in
2017
Headquarters
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Karthi Mariappan S | Hippo Video Co-Founder & CEO
Hippo Video is an online video recording tool that provides an easy-to-use video solution for all your business needs. With Hippo Video, you can capture, record, edit, share, and store screen captures. It lets us record video from the desktop screen or the webcam with a click of a button.
Hippo Video lets you automate your entire sales process to send personalized videos at scale. It delivers customized email campaigns to help you get more leads, drive sales, improve customer retention, and expand your brand reach.
Facilio – Changing the Way Buildings Are Managed
Founders
Prabhu Ramachandran, Rajavel Subramanian, Krishnamoorthi Rangasamy, and Yogendra Babu
Founded in
2017
Headquarters
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Facilio Founders
Facilio is an AI and ML-powered data-driven property operations software that helps real estate owners and operators get hard-to-access building data, optimize building performance, and build operations across real estate portfolios towards a data-centric and driven model of operation.
Survey Sparrow – Turn Surveys Into Conversations
Founder & CEO
Shihab Muhammed
Founded in
2017
Headquarters
Palo Alto, CA 94306, United States
Shihab Muhammed | Survey Sparrow Founder & CEO
Survey Sparrow is an omnichannel experience management platform that helps drive employee engagement and customer experience through the use of surveys. A conversational interface helps you deliver surveys in a chat-like experience and increase completion rates by up to 40% with the use of a mobile-friendly and highly engaging experience.
This omnidirectional approach helps you reach your audience faster. This platform delivers many solutions to measure the loyalty of your customers and employees alike through NPS surveys, 360 surveys, chat-like surveys, and classic surveys.
Ulektz – Delivering a Digital Learning Experience
Founder & CEO
Dr. Sadiq Sait M.S
Founded in
2016
Headquarters
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Dr. Sadiq Sait M.S | ULektz Founder & CEO
ULektz is an EdTech SaaS Startup founded in the year 2016; it provides a wide range of resources for education, employability, and employment opportunities to higher education students. ULektz offers an ecosystem to connect students, educators, and all other stakeholders of higher education and provide them with curated quality resources and services for enhancing education, skills, and careers.
They also help drive a digital learning experience by providing mobile apps (Cloud-based educational ERP software) to help colleges and universities leverage innovative technologies.
B2Brain – Offers Lead Intelligence Software
Co-founders
Sridhar Ranganathan and Karthik Mahadevan
Founded in
2020
Headquarters
Wilmington, United States
B2Brain Co-founder and CEO | Sridhar Ranganathan
Founded in 2020, B2Brain is the sales team’s companion for automated account intelligence. You can automate account research to focus on opening accounts, building pipelines, and creating opportunities. You can get Intel, Talking Points, and Leads directly in your CRM/SEP. Using B2Brain, you can accelerate outbound sales with contextual information on your leads and accounts.
It is trusted by enterprises such as Auditoria, Capillary, Evolv, Salesloft, Flutura, and others globally. It integrates with leading CRMs, SEPs, and Collaboration tools such as Salesforce, Salesloft, Slack, MS Teams, Freshworks, Zoho, and more.
Edmingle – Build Your Online Teaching Empire
Founders
Gaurav Doshi, Harshit Sharaff
Founded in
2016
Headquarters
Bengaluru, Karnataka
Gaurav Doshi | Edmingle Founder & CEO
Edmingle is a SaaS-based LMS platform for educators, colleges, and coaching institutes. It allows educators to design personalized courses, create exams, quizzes, exercises, and assignments, have conversations, and track student performance across subjects and courses. Teachers and administrators can send real-time notifications to students and parents for real-time monitoring and feedback. It also has marketing capabilities built in to boost student registrations and marketing for coaching institutes. It has an app for both Android and iOS devices.
Tart Labs – Crafting Innovative Software Solutions
Founder
Gowtham Raj
Founded in
2014
Headquarters
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
Gowtham Raj | Tart Labs Founder
Tart Labs is a leading software development company headquartered in Coimbatore, India. The company was founded in 2014 with a vision to revolutionize the software industry. Since then, Tart Labs has grown exponentially and has become a trusted partner for businesses of all sizes across the globe.
Tart Labs offers various services, including mobile and web application design and development, enterprise applications, cloud consulting, and cybersecurity solutions. The company’s team of experienced and skilled professionals is passionate about creating innovative and user-friendly software solutions that meet the specific needs of their clients.
Voonik – Fashion for Every Woman
Founder
Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan
Founded in
2013
Headquarters
Bengaluru, Karnataka
Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan | Voonik Founders
Voonik is an online marketplace for women’s fashion. It offers a wide range of products from over 10,000 brands, including apparel, footwear, accessories, and beauty products.
Voonik’s mission is to make fashion accessible and affordable for every woman. The company uses technology to provide its customers with a personalized shopping experience. Customers can create profiles and specify their style, size, budget, and preferences. Voonik then uses this information to recommend products that are likely to interest the customer. The company has been growing rapidly in recent years. 2017, the company raised $20 million in funding from RB Investments. Voonik is now one of India’s leading online marketplaces for women’s fashion.
Securden – Secure Your Privileged Access, Protect Your Most Critical Assets
Securden is a leading provider of privileged access management (PAM) solutions. PAM is a critical security discipline that helps organizations protect their most sensitive data and systems from unauthorized access. Securden’s solutions provide comprehensive features to help organizations manage and control their privileged accounts and passwords, monitor and control privileged access to systems and applications, and assess and mitigate the risks associated with privileged accounts.
Startpix – Fueling Digital Transformation With Content and Personalized Commerce
Founders
Mohammed Yasar Ibrahim
Founded in
2018
Headquarters
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Mohammed Yasar Ibrahim | StartPix Technologies Founder
StartPix Technologies is a Chennai-based digital transformation company that delivers content and personalized commerce solutions, fueling the transformation in digital experiences.
StartPix Technologies offers a wide range of services, including digital commerce, content management, customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP). The company helps businesses to build and manage their online stores, create and manage their content across all digital channels, implement and manage CRM systems to improve customer engagement and loyalty and implement and manage ERP systems to streamline their operations and improve efficiency.
Docupilot – Automate Your Documents to Grow Your Business
DocuPilot is a document automation and generation software that helps businesses create and manage documents more efficiently. It allows users to create dynamic documents from intelligent templates and data and send the created documents as email or to their favorite apps like DocuSign, Dropbox, Zapier, etc. DocuPilot can generate PDF or Word documents from Google Forms response, Google Sheets, Jotform, NinjaForms, Salesforce Leads, and other sources.
DocuPilot is a cloud-based solution, so it is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. It is also easy to use, with a drag-and-drop interface and pre-built templates for common documents. DocuPilot is affordable and offers a free trial, so businesses of all sizes can try it before they buy it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are various companies founded by former Zoho employees. With experience working in Zoho combined with their engineering knowledge, they have developed many successful products hailing both Indian and Overseas markets in the niche technology segment of cloud-based applications across various industry verticals. They also help each other to thrive in the SaaS marketplace by providing their services to one another.
FAQs
What does Zoho do?
Zoho is a web-based online office suite containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, web conferencing, customer relationship management (CRM), project management, invoicing, and other applications. Specific needs of the businesses can be met through Zoho.
Who is the founder of Zoho?
Sridhar Vembu is the founder and CEO of Zoho.
When was Zoho founded?
Zoho was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas.
Mamaearth is a company known for delivering absolutely non-toxic products in the competitive global market of FMCG companies. It was started by a husband-wife duo- Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh, in late 2016. Nowadays, India is thriving with startups, among which several are gaining status in the Unicorns list as well.
Mamaearth has gained quite a prominent status as it has over 5 million Indian consumers across more than 500 cities. The company started with just six products in its catalog and has grown into extreme success with more than 225 natural and toxic-free products.
Behind such success, there is a brief story starting from when the couple realized that the situation of baby products in the market is pretty rough and almost every product consists of toxic chemicals, which becomes quite dangerous for the babies. Just like this story, there are several interesting stories and facts about Mamaearth. So, let’s get started!
Mamaearth Origin Story – From Parents to Entrepreneurs
Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh never thought of becoming millionaires or entrepreneurs. They were just a happy couple who just had a baby and struggled to raise their baby with the proper nutrition and products, keeping safety in mind.
Their encounter with baby products was extremely tough as when they researched the composition of the product, they realized there wasn’t a single product that did not have toxic chemicals in it.
About Mamaearth – Varun Alagh, Shilpa Shetty, Ghazal Alagh
This compelled them to launch a company that offers natural and toxin-free baby products, which later on came under the parent company Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd, in Gurugram.
Initially, Mamaearth started the company with just six products developed with the best natural and toxic-free ingredients. But soon, they gained massive success and expanded their products into multiple categories like skincare, haircare, and others for men and women across 80 SKUs (stock keeping unit). They grew into more than 80 products and nearly 12 new products in the lockdown period.
Mamaeath came with an initiative to make the world a better place for us and our children. It has organized several campaigns as well, such as ‘Let’s Recycle’ and #MyFirstGoodDeedOf2021, which gained massive success as they showed how they are working to conserve Mother Earth for the upcoming generation, and this majorly attracted the parents to the brand.
Majorly Targets Mothers
The fun yet strong fact about Mamaeath is its target audience is mothers. They believe that a mother knows the best, and once they are familiar with the quality of its products, they’d know how effective and honest this brand is.
In fact, they launched a special campaign as well on the occasion of Mother’s Day – #MamaeathMummySong on their social media platform. This showed how important a place our mothers hold in our lives with an all-new peppy song about mothers.
Mamaearth Promotional Campaign – Mummy Song
Lean Innovation Cycle
Mamaearth company is an FMCG company that works on the lean innovation cycle to achieve its current growth rate. This cycle basically launches, learns, and scales instantly, which helps them focus on consumer-specific needs identifications. With this approach, Mamaearth has gathered investments from Sequoia Capital India, Fireside Ventures, and Stellaris USD 23.3 million.
The revenue model of Mamaearth company is entirely based on the sale of its products to consumers through its direct-to-consumer and e-commerce platforms. Moreover, Mamaearth has gained huge success in the past few years and is thriving in segmenting, targeting, and positioning.
In such stiff competition in the market, with popular brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Headspot, Ulta Beauty, Sehatand, and others, Mamaearth stands in a steady position. In an interview, when asked about the fight against such brands, Varun Alagh – CEO and founder of Mamaearth, replied, “Mamaearth provides superior and safer products as compared to any other brand in the market.”
It works on educating the consumer about the chemicals involved in the composition of other products in the market and elaborates on the benefits of using their products.
The customer acquisition strategy is entirely based on digital content. Therefore, it enlightens the consumer on the issues their products tackle and how their products are best in the market.
Mamaearth is committed to transparency and provides detailed ingredient lists, product information, and testimonials from satisfied customers on its website. This commitment to openness helps customers feel confident that they are making informed decisions about their purchases.
Mamaearth has obtained various certifications and affiliations, such as MadeSafe, Allergy UK, PETA, and ECOCERT, to validate its claims of product safety and quality. These certifications provide third-party validation of the brand’s commitment to natural ingredients and safe manufacturing practices.
Mamaearth is committed to social responsibility and supports various environmental and social causes. This commitment to giving back helps the brand connect with its customers on a deeper level.
Growth and Distribution Strategy
Mamaearth began as an online brand, utilizing e-commerce platforms to attract a larger audience. However, they gradually increased their distribution methods by entering offline retail and partnering with physical businesses. Mamaearth was able to cater to varied consumer tastes and increase its reach across India and globally because of its omnichannel approach.
Mamaearth’s growth has not been limited to India. They have strategically expanded their presence beyond borders, entering markets like the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Middle East. This internationalization has further fueled their growth, allowing them to cater to a global audience seeking natural and toxin-free personal care products.
Mamaearth’s IPO
Information About Mamaearth’s IPO
The one thing to know about Mamaearth company is that Honasa Consumer Limited, the parent company, had an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in October 2023. The IPO was oversubscribed by 7.6 times, raising ₹1,701.44 crores (US$209.7 million). The shares were listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) on November 7, 2023.
The IPO was priced at ₹308 to ₹324 per share. The minimum order quantity was 46 shares. The IPO was open for subscription from October 31 to November 2, 2023.
The IPO was led by Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs), who subscribed 11.5 times their allotted quota. Retail investors subscribed 1.4 times their allotted quota, and non-institutional investors subscribed 4.02 times their allotted quota.
Mamaearth is a brand that comes in the need of every parent, and over the years, it has grown into a massive 100-crore company. It is certified by Made Safe, a US-based non-profit organization that majorly focuses on human health and develops products that are absolutely free of any toxic chemical composition and entirely natural.
Their products are clinically tested for hypoallergenic toxins, dyes, artificial fragrances, or anything that can harm the consumer. Last December, the company gained the status of a unicorn, with the fund gathered of $37.5 million. Stay tuned for more content!
FAQs
What is special about Mamaearth?
Mamearth is one of the few D2C skincare brands in India that provides toxin-free products for babies. It is also one of the 1st Asian brands with a “MADE SAFE” certification.
When was Mamaearth launched?
Mamaearth was launched in 2016 by Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh when they couldn’t find any toxin-free products for their baby.
Mamaearth is from which country?
Mamaearth is an Indian unicorn brand headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana. The parent company of Mamaearth is Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd.
Mamaearth has how many product SKUs?
Mamaearth had 225 SKUs at the end of the six-month period ending September 2022.
“Educational games represent an effective means for gaining knowledge and are set to shape the future” Santanu Basu, Founder, Let’s Game Now.
Let’s Game Now is an online gaming portal started by a group of regular gamers who decided to conduct online tournaments for other gamers like them. The portal hosts free and paid regular online tournaments for Valorant (solo and squad), Call of Duty Mobile (Squad), Dota 2 (solo mid and team), and many other games. Let’s Game Now is one of the fastest-growing gaming portals in India. The online gaming industry in India is growing at a breakneck speed, expecting to generate revenue of ₹11,900 crore by the financial year 2023, growing at a CAGR of 22%. Gaming has lately come of age in India, becoming a mainstream sporting event, especially for the young. Once dismissed as unproductive by many, gaming is now slowly being perceived as a full-blown career option. Once you play innovative games, you will crave a better experience with more thrill and fun.
Let’s Game Now embarked on its venture in 2013 alongside Asia’s longest-running E-sports football tournament, AFGC, which spans across 18 countries. In 2019, they proudly hosted the Virtual Bundesliga Indian Edition and Roland Garros. It was in the same year, 2019, that Let’s Game Now came into existence, driven by the desire to expand their gaming offerings and welcome more passionate gamers to join in their journey. They introduced India’s first AI software integrated with the platform that enables the users to review their own gameplay. The platform enabled the creation of highlight reels to share the best moments with friends and followers and share their match analysis with friends, coaches, or anyone in the world. A player can now review their performance by going through the recording or watching the highlights. Artificial intelligence-based recommendations further improved this offering.
Right now, the Indian gaming ecosystem is not as developed as it should have been. But it’s growing very fast because India has a lot of its own unique set of variables that impact the gaming industry. Virtual reality and AI are making strides today giving new sets of experiences. The whole gaming ecosystem is now being developed and it will soon explode. The gaming industry in India has benefited a lot from growing smartphone penetration and the availability of 4G speeds. But this is only the first step for serious gamers.
After being established in Industry, Let’s Game Now has forayed into Game-based learning. Game-based learning represents a pioneering and innovative approach that leverages computer games to provide educational benefits through various software applications.
Santanu Basu, Founder and CEO, Let’s Game Now
“We were already providing game recording and highlights, a novel addition to the industry. We successfully integrated this feature into our educational games. Educational games are an effective means of acquiring new and intricate concepts. With the rise of online learning and smart schools, this facet of online gaming is poised for substantial growth” says Santanu Basu, Founder and CEO of Let’s Game Now.
Santanu, himself an avid gamer, through his business acumen, is driving innovation in the company. Considering the aspirations of the Company there was a need to have good management oversight and strategic guidance. To fulfil this need, Santanu has built a good team of Industry and Technology experts.
Learning through games leads to a deeper understanding of the subject matter. It helps learners to process information more effectively and retain it for a longer period. Educational games that encourage collaboration allow students and teams to work together, making them appreciate the values of teamwork and cooperation. Let’s Game Now is on the cusp of expansion, driven by the promising future of educational games.
While Let’s Game Now spearheads the educational gaming revolution, their journey is enriched by Shuru-Up’s strategic support. Shuru-Up’s digital platform has been instrumental in raising vital funds, fueling the promise of growth within the gaming industry. The company recently secured an investment of approximately INR 1.4 crore (USD 190,000) via Shuru-Up’s digital platform, underlining their confidence in Let’s Game Now’s potential.
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In our haphazard daily life, we tend to get busy with several things and forget about payments and maintaining a log of all the financial transactions. This, sometimes, becomes extremely hectic and might even affect businesses adversely in a whole host of ways. However, with the emergence of numerous business management software, businesses and individuals can manage their businesses effortlessly. Khatabook is one of such reliable software solutions that makes managing business and personal ledgers a breeze!
Founded in 2018 in Bangalore, Khatabook is hailed as India’s fastest-growing SaaS company. Khatabook reminds you through WhatsApp or SMS when the money is due to be paid or collected. forgetting the due dates of payments to be made. Besides, handling multiple businesses will no more be a deal with Khatabook!
The micro, small and medium businesses of the country simply has a new name, Khatabook, which brings safe and secure business and financial solutions to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
Here’s diving into Khatabook’s journey in this StartupTalky article, where we will find out more about Khatabook Founders and Team, Funding and Investors, Startup Story, Tagline and Logo, Growth, Business and Revenue Model, Challenges, Competitors, Future Plans and more.
The latest campaign of Khatabook #DhandeKaDoctor featuring MS Dhoni, urging small businesses to use Khatabook to maintain their account.
Khatabook – Latest News
9th November 2021 – Khatabook has decided to shut down MyStore, the eCommerce enablement of the company, which has been a core product of the company, effective from 15th November onwards.
24th August 2021 – Khatabook concluded its Series C round of funding with a fundraise of $100 million led by Tribe Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Alkeon Capital, B Capital Group, Sequoia Capital, and more.
3rd February 2021 – Khatabook released its 2020 statistics. In 2020, Khatabook activated merchants in >95% Indian districts, recording over $100Bn+ in transactions with over 150Mn+ customers.
13th January 2021 – Out of the 7 Indian startups in Y Combinator‘s latest top companies’ list, Khatabook is one among them. India has emerged as an important market for Y Combinator.
Khatabook – About and How it Works?
Founded in January 2019, Khatabook is the fastest growing Saas company in India and one of the fastest-growing SaaS company in the world. It has become India’s leading business management app for MSMEs with 20M+ downloads in a remarkably short period of time. It operates the Android-based Khatabook app that enables companies to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and accept payments online.
Khatabook enables micro, small and medium merchants to track business transactions safely and securely. The app is available in over 12 vernacular languages, catering to a diverse audience in the country.
It helps businesses and individuals manage the business and personal ledgers on their phones and computer devices along with helping them recall the due dates with the help of effective SMS and WhatsApp reminders about the same. This Bangalore-based mobile app service shares WhatsApp and SMS reminders to users when the money is due to be paid or collected.
The Khatabook app has a free ‘Payment Reminders’ feature. With this feature, an automatic SMS is sent to your customers every time a transaction is recorded. Khatabook lets its users keep all details of credits and debits for any number of customers across multiple businesses ready and handy on their phones. Furthermore, Khatabook also helps its customers sync their transactions automatically, download, share and maintain reports of all the transactions, reap all the benefits of the effective QR code-based payments with 0% fees on transactions and more. In short, this app lets merchants do stress-free business.
Khatabook – Industry Details
Khatabook’s founder Ravish Naresh revealed on Twitter that Khatabook activated merchants in >95% Indian districts with 150Mn+ Customers. Based on the Indian MSME Data, Khatabook conducted research and analysis on the credit behavior of people across the country and also the impact of Covid-19 on small businesses.
Over 2020 @Khatabook activated merchants in >95% Indian districts, recording over $100Bn+ in transactions with over 150Mn+ customers. A good chunk of India's retail GDP is already being recorded on the platform and trade flows from across the country are getting digitized. pic.twitter.com/aVcZTlVBGM
Business volumes on credit are 45% higher for South Indian states vs the national average.
Credit given out by Khatabook merchants dropped by 40% in the initial Covid months. It has continued to recover to 80% of pre-pandemic levels by December.
Average days to recover debts increased by 25% during COVID for Khatabook Merchants.
Sectors like travel, construction, apparel were more impacted during 2020.
Khatabook – Founders and Team
Vaibhav Kalpe originally built Khatabook, which was later acquired by Kyte Technologies in 2018. Kalpe later joined the owning team of Kyte before he left the organization. The founding team of Khatabook currently has Ravish Naresh leading the company as the Co-founder and CEO along with other co-founders – Ashish Sonone, Dhanesh Kumar, and Jaideep Poonia.
Khatabook – Founders & Team
Ashish Sonone
The Co-founder of Khatabook, Ashish Sonone is a IIT Bombay Btech graduate in Computer Science. JetSynthesys Pvt. Ltd and Qiosk – News for Professionals were the companies where Sonone worked as a Software Engineer and Consultant respectively before co-founding Frodo and Kyte, in both of which he also served as a Backend Engineer. Khatabook is the third company that Sonone has co-founded.
Dhanesh Kumar
Another Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay, Dhanesh Kumar started with Amazon as a Software Developer, who then realized his entrepreneurial and decided to co-found Knit Messaging, Kyte and now Khatabook, where he is still serving as a Co-founder.
Jaideep Poonia
Jaideep is an IIT Bombay alumnus from where he completed his Btech in Civil Engineering before completing S18 from Y-Combinator. Poonia has also been the co-founder of Knit Messaging, Kyte, and Khatabook as Dhanesh Kumar.
Ravish Naresh
Co-founder and CEO of Khatabook, Ravish Naresh completed his Btech from IIT Bombay, much like the other co-founders of the company, after which he co-founded Housing.com, where he also served as a COO. It was after leaving Housing.com, Ravish co-founded Khatabook, where he is still working as a CEO.
Khatabook currently works with around 300 employees.
Khatabook – Startup Story
The story goes back to 2016, when Ravish Naresh along with his team of college friends, started a digital spend manager app, Kyte.ai. The app helped users understand their expense patterns using their SMS alerts. Kyte initially had good traction but did not reach the expected growth scale. Also, the team realized all their users were based out of metropolitan cities.
On researching, they found that first-time online users did not deal with digital transactions, and they still rely on traditional khata or ledger books. As per Ravish, they wanted to build something that people want and then try to build a business around it.
That is when the idea for Khatabook developed, and they started to work on a simple cash management app, which they named Khatabook. The parent company of Khatabook is Kyte Technologies.
Khatabook – Mission and Vision
The mission statement of Khatabook says, “Empowering Udhari Khata (Book-Keeping)”.
“Started with a vision of transforming India’s small shops, today we are the biggest player in the small business segment digitizing a sector that forms the backbone of our economy. We are looking to work closely with the government and financial institutions to strengthen our market leadership and help MSMEs increase their income while making them more efficient and competitive,” said Ravish Naresh, CEO of Khatabook.
Khatabook – Tagline and Logo
The tagline of Khatabook is Business Hua Easy! The app lets every business go digital instead of following the same traditional method of book-keeping and making it easy to grow their business.
Khatabook’s logo itself signifies what the company is all about. It maintains a digital record of all the transactions we make, something which our actual ‘Khatabook’ (the diary in which we maintain our financial record) does.
Khatabook Logo
Khatabook – Business Model
Khatabook is a mobile app that helps small merchants to digitize their accounting and credit balance recording. It helps to reduce the burden of bookkeeping and accounting. It is just like having a khata in your pocket. The business model of Khatabook is making “Bharat” / India come online.
It is 100% free to use and secure for all types of businesses with which shop owners can record credit (Jama) and debit (Udhaar) of customers. But Khatabook has no revenue source at present.
Ravish Naresh, CEO of Khatabook, said they’re now developing the app to provide a complete financial solution for small businesses. The startup has plans to bring a host of new features onto the platform and UPI payment is next on the line.
Khatabook has seen some growth in the past two and a half years, where it has emerged as an integral part of the MSME community in almost every district in India. A majority of the merchant users on the Khatabook platform have embraced the digital practices dumping their offline business practices.
Furthermore, Khatabook has also introduced 3 other solutions apart from the Flagship Khatabook for the benefit of the MSMEs:
Biz Analyst – This is a leading SaaS business management solution from Khatabook designed to offer premium value-added on-demand services like sales and purchase reports, livestock updates, and other MIS reports. Biz Analyst can be integrated with Tally ERP9 and allows an overall view of the business operations.
Pagarkhata – This is a staff management platform for businesses by Khatabook which aims to help merchants to turn the staff attendance, payroll/wages, attendance updates, leaves, payments, and other processes digital.
Cashbook – Cashbook is another platform by Khatabook built as a cash handling and tracking solution. Furthermore, it also helps with cash sales and expense management.
In 2020, Khatabook has active merchants in 95% of Indian districts, recording over $100 Billion in transactions with over 150 million customers.
Khatabook has recorded total revenue of Rs 17 crore during FY21, thereby registering a 25.3% decline from Rs 24.4 crore. The startup’s revenue from operations, currently recorded at Rs 16.9 crore, witnessed a dip of around 30.7% from Rs 24.4 crore that it posted in FY20. On the other hand, the other income of the startup rose from Rs 12.7 crore in FY20 to Rs 21 crore in FY21.
Diving into the profit-loss segment, it has been discovered that Khatabook has managed to reduce its loss by 63%, which has been brought down from Rs 89.5 crore to Rs 33 crore. This is primarily due to the selling of its intellectual property, some of which it sold to its holding company, Kyte Technologies Inc. for around Rs 57 crore.
In FY22, the company experienced significant growth in its operating revenue, surging from Rs 17 crore in 2021 to an impressive Rs 71 crore. However, this growth was accompanied by a corresponding increase in total expenses, which escalated from Rs 109 crore in FY21 to Rs 189 crore in FY22. Consequently, the company’s losses also saw a substantial rise, soaring from Rs 33 crore in FY21 to Rs 111 crore in FY22 during this period.
Here’s a look at the financials of Khatabook:
Khatabook Financials
Operating revenue for the Khatabook increased by 14% in FY23 to Rs 81 crore. Conversely, there was a marginal rise in losses of 4% to Rs 125 crore. Due to increased employee benefit costs (wages, salaries, PPF, etc.), which amounted to over Rs 142 crore, the company’s total expenses stayed steady at Rs 223 crore, a slight increase from Rs 189 crore in the year FY22.
Khatabook – Growth
Khatabook has registered around 10 Million monthly active users and the numbers are growing.
Growth had an excellent trajectory, which did take a hit during the lockdown in line with other external factors. With the relaxation of the lockdown, the company started reviving the business at a steady pace. The revival has been faster with users in tier-2 and tier-3 cities of India.
As a very relevant offering for merchants in the pandemic, the company also launched the MyStore app to enable them to take their stores online in 15 seconds and continue doing business through their preferred communication channels.
Within a month after the launch, more than 2.5 million merchants across India have installed MyStore. Khatabook also initiated work from home active, 24/7 call center support for merchants. Currently, the revenue model of Khatabook depends on its funding.
Some key growth highlights would include:
5 crore+ registered businesses
A spread over 4000+ cities of India
Powered by popular investors like Sequoia Capital, DST Global Partners, Y Combinator, Tencent, B Capital Group and more
Khatabook – Acquisitions
Khatabook has acquired Biz Analyst on March 25, 2021, which remains the company’s maiden acquisition.
Khatabook – Awards and Achievements
Some of the popular awards and achievements that Khatabook has seen so far are:
It was declared as the Winner of Nasscom League of 10 in the Emerge50 Awards 2020
The company’s app won the Best Innovative Mobile App award at IAMAI 2020
mCube announced Khatabook the winner of the Best Content in a Mobile Marketing Campaign in its awards ceremony in 2020
Khatabook – Partnerships
Khatabook currently partners with the former skipper of the India cricket team, M.S. Dhoni, who is an investor as well as the brand ambassador of the company. The strategic partnership was announced on March 17, 2020.
Khatabook – Challenges Faced
Khatabook also faced a shortage of money during its initial days just like other new startups. Ravish, the CEO of Khatabook realized that they need to look into serious funding options.
In the series A phase, they were struggling a bit with the funding. The growth hit them fast, so the seed round took place in 5 bridges. It was the highest in the history of funding for Sequoia.
“Well, the struggles were mainly money-related. We knew we were working on something important and kept going with it. Often it was difficult to imagine the future of our initiatives with no funding, but perseverance is what got us where we are today,” said Ravish Naresh.
He also said that the adoption of their product was not only dependent on the app’s visibility and convenience but also on educating users, not just for the app but also for using digital technology in general. The biggest hurdle was to persuade offline shopkeepers to come online and train them for digital transactions.
Switching away from the convention is understandably tricky and daunting for merchants who mainly have offline workflows. Persuading traditional enterprises to embrace the digital still remains a crucial challenge for them.
“It is important to build something that people want and then try to build a business around it, and that is exactly what the team did.” said Ravish.
Khatabook announced the shutdown of MyStore on November 10, 2021. The eCommerce enablement product was one of the core products of the company, which also contributed to the expansion of the company by raising funds along with helping the company with its bookkeeping requirements.
“Thank you for being a part of the MyStore journey. We are planning on discontinuing the MyStore App. Your MyStore App won’t work from 15 November 2021,” goes a blog post from the company.
The company has further asked its users to download their invoices by sharing order invoices before doing away with the app.
Khatabook had previously been dragged into a legal fight with its rival, Dukaan over the plagiarism of the name when MyStore was named ‘Dukaan by Khatabook’, in August 2020. Khatabook later decided to change it to ‘MyStore by Khatabook after a legal battle of around four months. The tagline of the app, however, remains the same, ”Create Your Online Dukaan in 15 Seconds” to date on Play Store.
Khatabook – Funding and Investors
Khatabook has raised a total of $186.5M in funding over 4 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on 24th August 2021, from a Series C round. Khatabook is funded by 34 investors in total. Tribe Capital and Moore Strategic Ventures are the most recent investors. The valuation of Khatabook was estimated to be around $600 Million in August 2021.
In a strategic move aimed at optimizing costs and prolonging the company’s financial runway, the organization recently made the difficult decision to implement workforce reductions, resulting in the departure of over 40 employees from various departments. These actions were undertaken as part of a broader effort to navigate the challenges faced by growth-stage companies.
While undoubtedly a tough choice, the company’s leadership recognized the importance of preserving its financial stability and ensuring a sustainable future. This move reflects a commitment to adaptability and resilience in an ever-evolving business landscape, with the hope that these measures will ultimately position the company for long-term success.
“Khatabook has laid off 42 employees across sales, marketing and analytics, and technology verticals,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. “People who lost their jobs in the exercise have been given standard severance packages including 3 months salary among others.”
Khatabook – Future Plans
Khatabook plans to expand and achieve two to three times business growth by simplifying the traditional way of doing business. Remaining committed to India’s MSME segment, Khatabook will be adding services to streamline and simplify business processes for the merchants.
“Committing to a goal is essential for business directions and decisions. One thing that pandemic has taught us is that we need to think through the most unlikely scenario and make sure we are relevant in all possible scenarios or are agile enough to change our direction as per the need of the hour,” says Ravish.
Khatabook has already managed to build a widely accepted tech ecosystem for the MSMEs across the country and will now concentrate on the disbursement of financial services through its tech platforms. These financial services will further enable smooth lending, payment, and deposits in the MSME space.
Khatabook is eyeing the right partnership opportunities to seamlessly roll out the solutions that would benefit the economic aspirations of countless small businesses.
Khatabook has announced a buyback scheme of ESOPs worth USD 10 Million in order to acknowledge the contributions of its employees, the ex-employees and the early investors who stayed by the company and helped it grow. The employees who are eligible for the ESOP scheme would be able to sell up to 30% of their vested options. Meanwhile, Khatabook has also expanded its ESOP pool to $50 Mn.
Furthermore, Khatabook is also looking to strengthen its talent base by hiring employees for the engineering, product, design, analytics, and data science departments.
Khatabook – FAQs
What is Khatabook?
Khatabook is the world’s fastest-growing SaaS company. It is India’s leading business management app for MSMEs that enables companies to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and accept payments online. It’s like having a khata in your pocket.
Is Khatabook an Indian app?
Yes, Khatabook is an Indian app founded in 2019 with an aim to reduce the burden of bookkeeping and accounting.
Which company owns Khatabook?
Kyte Technologies is the Parent Company of Khatabook.
Who is the CEO of Khatabook?
Ravish Naresh is the CEO and Co-founder of Khatabook.
Who are the founders of Khatabook?
Khatabook was founded by Ashish Sonone, Dhanesh Kumar, Vaibhav Kalpe (Ex-Khatabook), Jaideep Poonia and Ravish Naresh in 2019.
How does Khatabook make money?
The Khatabook revenue model is non-existent at the moment. Naresh says their focus is now on developing the app to provide a complete financial solution to small businesses.
What is the use of Khatabook?
Khatabook app enables MSMEs to keep a digital log of their financial transactions and accept payments online.
What is the valuation of Khatabook?
The valuation of Khatabook was estimated to be around $600 Million.
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We all love using credit and debit cards to pay both online and offline. Life is easier now because we don’t need to carry cash anymore. It was quite difficult earlier to pay through websites as it involved a few expenses. However, nowadays we find that everything has changed!
Stripe is a leading processor in online payments. It is an American software as a service and financial services company. The company offers application programming interfaces for e-commerce websites and mobile applications and it is a payment processing software. Read the Stripe success story below.
Stripe is a company that builds economic infrastructure for the Internet. Companies like Facebook use the company’s software to approve online fees and operate complex global strategies. It is very useful for small businesses and new startups. The company aims to help more companies to get started and grow the GDP of the internet.
Stripe – Startup Story
Stripe Story
The two Collison brothers started working on Stripe together in 2010. During that period, Patrick was working on various side projects and they argued that why was it so difficult to accept fees on the web. The brothers thought of solving the problem and finding a solution to make it simple. The next six months Collison brothers dealt with it, showed it to the friends and noticed how people were interacting with it all along. Within two weeks of building the application, the brothers had their first transaction with a company named as 280 North. The founder of the company was the first customer and he joined Stripe. He was the first employee of Stripe.
Stripe – Founders and Team
The founders of Stripe are the two brothers – Patrick Collison and John Collison.
Patrick Collison is an Irish entrepreneur and billionaire. He is the co-founder and the CEO of Stripe. Patrick is the elder brother and at the age of sixteen, he won the 41st Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2005.
John Collison is also an Irish entrepreneur and billionaire. He is the co-founder of Stripe. John is the younger brother and Cofounder of Stripe.
Patrick Collison and John Collison (left to right), Founders, Stripe
Stripe – Business Model
The company boasts of the product business model it has. It offers secure, fast and simple online transactions for businesses. Stripe is a payment processor that can be incorporated into mobile applications and websites. Furthermore, it does not charge a monthly fee and it is only available for the businesses. Stripe provides fraud prevention and banking infrastructure to facilitate payments over the web. It does not allow consumers’ payment information to pass through the merchant’s server. The information is only accessible to Stripe. This proves that the application is safe and it reduces the amount of risk.
Stripe has some other products through which it makes money. Some of them are listed below:
Billing
It helps customers to invoice their clients, analyze subscription revenues, and curate schedules on when to charge the customer.
Radar
It is an application based on machine learning that helps customers to fish out fraudulent transactions. They flag any suspicious transactions from further making the payment. Since the app is integrated with Stripe, Radar has a vast repository of data from which it can make a decision.
Sigma
By paying a nominal infrastructure fee, customers can use Sigma to access transaction data through SQL queries. Sigma is the data warehousing tool of Stripe.
Terminal
It is a card reader that allows card payment across the globe. Since the terminal is also directly integrated with Stripe, it can compare payments.
Premium Support
It is an initiative by Stripe to provide 24*7 technical and operational support to its customers from all ranges. Depending on the company’s size, the cost of the service varies. Their services are accessible via phone, mail, and chat.
Stripe Capital
Through Stripe Capital, customers can borrow money directly from Stripe. Stripe generates revenue through the interest that they derive from these loans.
Strategic Disinvestment
With a large amount of data to analyze and infer various investments, Stripe can easily understand the future of any kind of investment that they have made. Stripe sells the shares that it bought from other startups for more money than what it had invested in it.
Stripe – Revenue Model
The revenue model is very simple here. It earns from the fees it charges to its customers. The fees always vary based on the value of the payments. The revenue model has been constant since day one. The company has got different packages on the selected products and for every transaction, the company charges a 2.9 or a 0.30% fee. This is a fixed fee which is applied to every successful transaction done through their site. For international transactions, the company charges 1% more, which becomes 3.9%.
Stripe has raised around $8.7 billion over the 20 rounds of funding that it received till date. The last funding round that the company saw came on 25th April 2023. Here’s a look at the major rounds of funding that Stripe witnessed throughout the years –
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investors
April 25, 2023
Grant
€10.1M
March 15, 2023
Series I
$6.5B
Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners, Thrive Capital
July 14, 2021
Secondary Market
–
–
March 14, 2021
Series H
$600 million
Allianz X, AXA Group Fidelity Management
May 28, 2020
Secondary Market
–
–
April 16, 2020
Series G
$600 million
–
September 19, 2019
Series G
$250 million
General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz
January 29, 2019
Series E
$100 million
Tiger Global Management
September 27, 2018
Series E
$245 million
Tiger Global Management
November 25, 2016
Series D
$150 million
General Catalyst and CapitalG
July 31, 2015
Series C
$100 million
–
December 2, 2014
Series C
$70 million
Thrive Capital
May 15, 2014
Series B
$3.2 million
–
January 22, 2014
Series C
$80 million
Founders Fund
July 9, 2012
Series B
$20 million
General Catalyst
February 9, 2012
Series A
$18 million
Sequoia Capital
March 28, 2011
Seed Round
$2 million
–
August 2, 2010
Seed Round
–
Y Combinator
The company is funded by 57 investors, where there are 15 lead investors.
Stripe – Growth
The mission of the company is to increase the GDP of the internet. The company is growing through the relationships it has made with its customers. During the pandemic, the company generated $1 billion in revenue. Three months later the revenue was $9 billion.
Stripe – Product And Service
Checkout Suite
The US-based payments processor Stripe has improved its checkout suite with new capabilities to boost users’ income through more efficient payment procedures on September 19, 2023.
Charge Card
According to TechCrunch, the Fintech behemoth Stripe has revealed intentions to launch a new charge card for its business card issuance service as per news report of June, 2, 2023. Prior to this, only pre-funded accounts could be used to make purchases with cards that Stripe supplied. With the recent expansion of debit cards, businesses will be able to provide their clients with virtual or real debit cards, allowing them to use credit cards for purchases instead of simply their account cash.
Stripe fiat on-ramp services: Link
Stripe announced the Stripe US Fiat On-Ramps called Link in conjunction with MetaMask: a partnership. With just one click, Stripe’s fiat on-ramp tool Link transforms fiat dollars into cryptocurrency, streamlining the purchasing process. Integrating Stripe’s Link into decentralized apps and platforms takes care of compliance requirements, including fraud, KYC, and verification
Stripe – Partnership
MatchMove
In order to give retailers the resources they need to thrive in the modern digital economy, MatchMove, a provider of embedded finance solutions, announced a partnership with Stripe on July 18, 2023, a global financial infrastructure platform for businesses.
LG Electronics
In an effort to enhance the overall checkout process and payment options for Singaporean consumers, LG Electronics has established a partnership with Stripe on November 3, 2023.
ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness and Stripe, a payment processor, have combined to improve the way SMEs handle their finances on November 9, 2023. With this recently announced integration, Stripe’s safe and intuitive payment processing will be integrated with ZenBusiness Money Pro, a small business owner tool that tracks all spending, income streams, mileage, and tax deductions in real time.
Stripe – Acquistion
Stripe has acquired 14 companies and has exited from one:
Company Name
Date
Price
Okay
May 31, 2023
–
OpenChannel
Dec 6, 2021
–
Recko
Oct 20, 2021
–
Bouncer
May 14, 2021
–
TaxJar
Apr 27, 2021
–
Paystack
Oct 15, 2020
$200M
Touchtech Payments
Apr 17, 2019
–
Index
Mar 8, 2018
–
Payable
Jul 26, 2017
–
Indie Hackers
Apr 11, 2017
–
Exited
Company Name
Date
Price
Paystack
–
–
Stripe – Investment
Stripe has invested in 64 companies to date, some of the companies are listed below:
Company Name
Date
Funding Round
Price
Ramp
Aug 23, 2023
Series D
$300M
Archive
Jun 12, 2023
Seed Round
$4M
Upollo
Nov 30, 2022
Seed Round
A$4.2M
Complete
Aug 22, 2022
Seed Round
$4M
WorqHat
Aug 11, 2022
Seed Round
$500K
Pulley
Jul 13, 2022
Series B
$40M
Stripe – Competitors
The top competitors of Stripe are PayPal, Square and Adyen.
PayPal is the top competitor of Stripe. It is headquartered at San Jose, California and was founded in 1998. It is a Public company, which operates in the Fintech field.
Square is also one of the competitors of Stripe. It is headquartered at San Francisco, California, USA. Founded in 2009, Square also works in the Fintech space.
Adyen is one among the top rivals of Stripe. It is headquartered at Amsterdam, Noord-Holland. The company operates in the Fintech sector and was founded in 2006.
Stripe – Future Plans
Stripe slowly plans to extend its business to involve cryptocurrency services. They recently announced that a special team for crypto has been set up. Stripe is also working towards web3 – which refers to a new, decentralized version of the internet. They also plan on expanding their reach to the gulf region.
Stripe Payments is a payment processing platform. It allows you to transfer money from a customer’s bank account into your business’s account by way of a credit or debit card transaction.
Is stripe safe for payment?
Yes
How does Stripe work technically?
Stripe is a PSP (Payment Service Provider) that lets business owners collect payments, including recurring payments, and transfer them directly to their own account instantly. It processes the payment, checks for fraud, and takes a fee of 2.9% plus 30 cents.
What Is the Biggest Difference Between Stripe vs PayPal?
One of the biggest differences is the type of user they’re designed for. For example, Stripe was built with developers in mind and is ideal if you want a payment processor that offers a lot of customization and developer tools. PayPal is a better option if you’re looking for a simple, straightforward solution for accepting payments through your website.
Can You Use Both Stripe and PayPal for Your Website?
If you don’t want to choose between which payment processor you use, using both to accept payments is an option. The benefit of this is that you’re able to let your customers select their preferred method of payment at checkout. On the other hand, managing your business finances on multiple platforms can be challenging and may lead to unnecessary costs.
India needs a better mechanism to monitor air quality to battle the current air pollution situation, said the Indian Institute of Kanpur’s Professor Sachchida Nand Tripathi from the Department of Sustainable Engineering.
Prof. Tripathi–who also heads a special cell within the institute, the Center for Advanced Air Pollution Monitoring Technology said, “The center has developed a cost-effective mechanism for capturing real-time air quality. This mechanism is already in operation in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.”
At a time when the country has been suffering from the deterioration of air quality, Tripathi and his colleagues from the institute have also been offering innovative solutions to the government, such as cloud seeding.
In an interview with StartupTalky, Tripathi tells us about the causes of air pollution, ways to tackle it, and probable solutions that can improve the quality of air in the country.
Are you satisfied with the air quality monitoring happening right now?
Prof. Tripathi: We need to have better monitoring of the ambient air quality. We have a diverse social and economic populace. Therefore, only having a certain number of government monitors would not help in effective air quality monitoring. Instead, we need more hyper-local air quality monitoring, which means that we augment the government-led monitoring with a sensor kind of technology that provides a lot more data at the hyper-local level. We also need to monitor sources in a better way, which will help in monitoring our interventions.
How can the problem of stubble burning be addressed?
Prof. Tripathi: Stubble-related burning fire counts have come down this year. This year, there is a 50% or more reduction in the number of fire counts compared with 2022, as per NASA data. For October, the reduction in fire counts in Punjab and Haryana was about 60%. For November 1–6, there was a reduction of 30–50%. It’s not that it’s totally stopped, but there is definitely a reduction. To some extent, fire-related emissions coming from Punjab and Haryana are aggravating the problem, but local emissions also cannot be totally excluded when you think about sources that are contributing to this extreme air pollution situation.
What would you attribute the deterioration in air quality to?
Prof. Tripathi: Haze is composed of particles, which are also called aerosols, of varying sizes and chemical compositions. Now, how these particles are emitted, what is their growth, the magnitude, and the physics and chemistry of their growth are also very critical to understanding the haze formation. So, there are three things contributing to pollution right now: You have local emissions; to a certain extent, of course, the regional emissions (from Punjab and Haryana) also contribute; there is meteorology, and then there is chemistry (of pollutants and gases in the air). Chemistry plays a very major role because, even if you observe post-November, many of these emissions still remain.
What are the interventions at our disposal right now when we are facing this situation?
Prof. Tripathi: We need to carry out the larger-level policy-led reforms that are basically transitioning to clean energy sources—clean transport, clean electricity, from biomass—to maybe something that does not generate greenhouse gases and pollution. We need to employ more clean energy resources in every sector where energy, transport, or mobility are involved.
Has IIT Kanpur conducted trials of the artificial cloud seeding project? What are your conclusions?
Prof. Tripathi: There were trials in Kanpur that were quite successful. We also tried to conduct trials over Delhi NCR, but because of certain clearances that could not be obtained in time, we didn’t do it. But now IIT Kanpur has an instrumented aircraft equipped with cloud seeding equipment, so it’s worth trying because, on a very large scale, sometimes this haze persists. There are very few solutions that will work at scale. Cloud seeding can only be done in the presence of cloud cover; cloud cover is now a prerequisite that accelerates the process of rain. This is worth trying, and it doesn’t hurt. At best, it can remove the smog.
When will the Delhi government undertake cloud seeding?
Prof. Tripathi: I think that would depend on the clouds. But first, the clouds need to form.
What kind of R&D is taking place in aerosol engineering to improve poor air quality?
Prof. Tripathi: We have developed more affordable, scalable technologies to sense aerosols and gases. Currently, we are working on developing sensors that are 50 times cheaper than the current government monitors. These sensors are indigenous. For the cost of one monitor, we can deploy 50 such sensors. As I speak, we are deploying 1,400 sensors in UP and Bihar that will have one sensor in every block of these two states. Data is coming in every five minutes. We are also working on quantifying sources of pollution. Once you get an idea of the sources, you can mitigate them, which helps in evaluating your interventions. Now, the conventional method of source contribution is very time-consuming and expensive. So we have developed a new technology called Real-Time Source Apportionment and we have a monitoring vehicle on the go, which gives us real-time, reasonably precise source contribution. We are currently doing that in Lucknow. We have just reached 700 days of data. So using sensor data, machine learning, and AI, we can provide source information in a cost-effective manner and in a very short time.
Have you talked to any other governments about using these sensors for monitoring?
Prof. Tripathi: We are working with both the UP and Bihar governments. The Delhi government has not reached out to us. They know what we are doing, but this hasn’t gone beyond that.
How do you plan to take this technology forward?
Prof. Tripathi: There’s already good interest shown by different private entities and philanthropic entities, which is why we were able to scale up to 1400 locations in UP and Bihar. But more participation from private entities will definitely help.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.
Fashion is something that we simply cannot unlove. With the growing age of digital, fashion has come down to our mobile phones, computers, and tablets, which earlier were only available at retail shops and shopping malls.
Shopping for our favourite shirts, t-shirts, jeans, trousers, shoes, and more is now possible online via easy-to-use eCommerce websites and applications, which bring in a host of products across diverse categories and guarantee delivery at our doorstep with minimum charges. Shein is one such international B2C fast fashion brand that extends the best fashion wear including women’s wear, men’s wear, children’s clothes and apparel, trendy accessories, and other fashionable products and accessories.
Slowly rising Chinese fast fashion brand, Shein has ultimately risen to a crescendo when the company emerged as the most popular shopping app in the USA for iOS and Android users, as per the reports of May 18, 2021.
Know about Shein Success Story, its founders, business model, revenue model, growth, competitors, Funding and more.
Shein is a B2C fast fashion company owned by Nanjing Lingtian Information Technology Co. founded in 2008. The company was created by Chris Xu and is headquartered in China. It focuses on both men’s and women’s wear. Clothes for children, accessories, bags, and shoes are some other categories of apparel that Shein houses.
The company primarily targets the shoppers in America, Europe, and Middle Eastern countries along with the consumer markets in other nations. Be it boho dresses, graphic tees, chic swimwear, or patterned blouses, Shein has something for everyone.
Shein is widely popular with people of all ages, especially with Gen Z who likes everything trendy. Almost every fashion vlogger/blogger has made a post or video on Shein at some point in time. Why? It is simply because of the trendy and affordable clothing that Shein offers its global users without letting them compromise in terms of quality.
Shein – Industry
This is the age of fast fashion, where people prefer to go for affordable ranges of clothing and accessories instead of hunting for expensive brands. Thus, the industry of Fast Fashion is growing without bounds.
The market for fast fashion was earlier valued at $1000.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.4% between 2021-2028, thereby reaching $1,412.5 billion by 2028. All of these are reasons enough for the startups and other big names in eCommerce to tap into the fast fashion industry.
Shein – Founder And Team
Chris Xu is the founder and CEO of Shein company.
Chris Xu, Founder and CEO of Shein
Chris Xu
Chris Xu was born in Shandong, China in 1984. Xu is currently known as the founder and the CEO of Shein. He completed his graduation from the Qingdao University of Science and Technology in 2007 and then started working with Nanjing Aodao Information Technology Co, where he worked as an SEO specialist. However, on learning the value of Chinese products on the international markets, he devoted his time and efforts and found a new company called SheInside (Shein).
Quist Huang
Quist Huang is the present ‘Director of Employee Experience Platform’ at Shein. Before joining Shein, Quist Huang was the senior HR manager of Baoneng Motor R&D, GZ China. She also had a stint with Zung Fu, China as an HR manager. It doesn’t end here because Huang also worked at Kelly Services as an outsourcing account manager and was an assistant manager for the TWO Group (RIB AG).
Quist Huang began her career as a Recruiting Specialist. With a profound experience in her bag, which she garnered from a bunch of companies that she served, Quist brings significant expertise to the table.
The Shein team is currently more than 10,000 members strong.
Shein – Startup Story And History
The background of Shein is quite interesting, the idea of the company first popped into the mind of Chris Xu when he learned of the commercial value of Chinese products on the international markets. Xu was then working with Nanjing Aodao Information Technology Co., but he soon left the company with the aim to establish an online retail store for cheap fashion wear.
On exploring further he found out that the wedding dresses of women are some of the most sought-after clothes in the whole world. Besides, he also discovered that the only thing that came in between the international consumers and Chinese products was the difference in their currencies and all the hassles associated with it. He then started selling wedding dresses after founding ZZKKO.
The company eventually forayed into the women’s section of garments and changed its name to “SheInside”. The company further started selling cosmetics, jewellery, shoes, purses, and other accessories in the early 2010s.
Sheinside had around 100 employees by 2013. It further revamped its marketing strategies and soon it became a fully integrated retailer. The company again changed its name to “Shein” in 2015 to make the name easier to remember for everyone. The Shein team became 800 strong in 2016.
Shein’s tagline is “Shine In, Shine Out”. The company held a worldwide slogan competition. After half a month of voting and selecting, the winning slogan emerged. “Shine In, Shine Out” is in tandem with Shein’s goal to be the best shopping platform for all clothing-related needs.
“SheIn” is a portmanteau word containing “She Inside”. There is also lettering in “SheIn”.
Shein – Mission and Vision
SHEIN focuses on providing the customers with value. This is why the company brings quality products at affordable, which don’t break their banks.
“SHEIN aims to provide the highest value trendy pieces while also being dedicated to quality, value, and service”, as per the vision statement of the company.
Shein – Business Model
Shein’s business is modelled on internet-based sales for desktop and mobile users. The company has been proactive in developing a vibrant community. It has a community of like-minded shoppers across various channels. Shein’s desktop and mobile shops include reviews to help customers decide on the quality of the outfits. The shops also come with a style gallery through which shoppers can share their outfits and tagged products.
Shein – Revenue Model
ZoeTop Business Co. Ltd. operates Shein.com. It is an internationally-focused online store. It generates e-commerce sales from a range of countries including France, Russia, Germany, the United States, Italy, Australia, the Middle East, and more. When it comes to the product range, shein.com receives a major chunk of its e-commerce net sales from the “Fashion” category. Next comes the “Furniture & Appliances” category, which helps Shein gain the most.
Shein boasts of its largest market in the United States. The company gains a profit margin from each sale that it drives. Delivery fees also comprise its revenues. Furthermore, Shein also earns some of its revenues by partnering with brands and featuring them on its app. In-app advertisements also help Shein gain some revenue.
The Global net sales for the year 2020 were reported at US$2,764.8 million. Though the revenues of Shein are not publicly disclosed, it has been privately estimated to be $8 billion annually. It did suffer a loss in revenue due to the pandemic in 2020 and when the app was banned in countries like India.
4 investors have funded and invested in Shein so far. JAFCO Asia funded Shein in the Series A round. In the Series B funding round, IDG Capital invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Greenwood’s Asset Management also invested an undisclosed amount in Shein during the Series B round. . The total funding raised by Shein is $4.1 billion.
Date
Round
Money Raised
Lead Investor
May 17, 2023
Private Equity Round
$2 billion
General Atlantic, Mubadala, Sequoia Capital China
Apr 4, 2022
Series F
$1.5 billion
–
Aug 1, 2020
Series E
–
–
Jan 1, 2019
Series D
$500 million
Sequoia Capital China, Tiger Global Management
Jan 1, 2018
Series C
–
Sequoia Capital China
Jan 1, 2015
Series B
CN¥300 million
IDG Capital
Jan 1, 2013
Series A
$5 million
JAFCO Asia
Shein – Growth
Shein’s portal has got from 500,000 to 4 million monthly visitors in 6 months. The company’s traction with Generation Z has been particularly pronounced. The company is tripling its business day by day. It now caters to over 1 million daily active users and handles over 10,000 orders every day.
The platform initially sold wedding dresses, then expanded to womenswear, and has eventually branched into several other categories involving menswear, childrenswear, and other fashion accessories. Today it clocks an average order value of INR 1000 to INR 1500.
Shein grew from a company that was valued at $15 billion to one that is valued at $30 billion, as per the reports in November 2021. The company made a whopping $10 billion during the coronavirus pandemic onslaught that nearly drowned a majority of the businesses. Shein has recorded 100% growth in its sales for 7 successive years in 2020. Shein was hailed as the largest online-only fashion firm in the world in 2020.
Shein – Product And Service
EvoluShein
Global e-retailer SHEIN, which specializes in fashion, beauty, and lifestyle products, has announced that it will collaborate with pop sensation Anitta to launch evoluSHEIN x Anitta on June 17, 2023. This will be the first product collaboration under SHEIN’s evoluSHEIN by Design initiative, which has accelerated the use of more sustainable materials.
Accelera Shein
AcceleraSHEIN, a brand-new worldwide seller empowerment initiative, has been unveiled by the company on June, 22, 2023. Accelera SHEIN offers a holistic system of assistance to all marketplace sellers throughout their journey on SHEIN Marketplace, including training and upskilling, seller benefits and incentives to help them accomplish their business goals.
Shein – IPO
Despite the China-founded company’s recent valuation falling to $50 billion in secondary market trading due to market fears, Shein is aiming for up to $90 billion in its impending US IPO as per news report of November, 8, 2023. Shein’s eagerly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) is still a ways off because of the company’s copyright issues and forced labor difficulties.
Shein – Acquisitions
Shein has acquired two companies to date.
Below are the details:
Company Name
Date
Price
Missguided
Oct 30, 2023
$24M
Make Me Chic
Jan 1, 2015
–
Shein – Investment
Company Name
Date
Funding Round
Price
SPARC Group
Aug 24, 2023
Corporate Round
$24M
Shein – Partnership
Reliance Retail
Industry insiders stated that Shein, a Chinese online fast fashion brand, is making a comeback into India in collaboration with Reliance Retail as per news report of May, 20, 2023, the top retailer in the nation. In June 2020, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology banned Shein, one of the apps, following an increase in tension with China along the Himalayan borders.
Forever 21
Online fashion and lifestyle retailer has created a co-branded Forever 21 brand collectionon October 30, 2023 in partnership with shein and global brand development and marketing platform Authentic Brands Group.
Shein – Competitors
Shein’s prominent competitors are Amazon, Romwe, Zaful, Zalando, and Namshi.
Romwe is a shopping platform that caters to both men and women. Tops, bottoms, swimwear, denim, shoes, etc. are available on Romwe at affordable prices.
Zaful is a clothing store for both men and women. New-season styles, and hot sale collections are Zaful’s USP. Students can avail special offers from Zaful.
Zalando is a European e-commerce company headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It offers fashion and lifestyle products.
Namshi is an online shopping store for kids, men, and women. Free shipping, 14-day exchange, and cash-on-delivery are some sought-after features offered by Namshi.
Shein – Future Goals
Shein is upgrading its systems for better consumer experiences. It is in the process of introducing new trends and exciting offers. Shein also plans to expand its business. The company has already started collaborating with Indian designers to create fusion and Indo-western outfits for the Indian audience.
Shein discovered the importance of cementing its position in India. The people living in tier 3 and tier 4 Indian towns want to get their hands on affordable fashion and here’s Shein comes to play. However, due to India’s rising tensions with China, Shein had to shut down operations in India in 2020. The decision affected millions of Indian shoppers who enjoyed purchasing from Shein.
Three years after its prohibition in India, Shein is returning to the nation in collaboration with Reliance Retail. The Indian government granted the business permission to collaborate with Reliance Industries as per news report of June, 22, 2023.
FAQs
When was Shein founded?
Shein company was founded in 2008 by Chris Xu.
Who is the owner of Shein?
Nanjing Lingtian Information Technology Co. Ltd. is the parent company and the owner of Shein.
Who is the founder of Shein?
Chris Xu is the founder of the popular fast-fashion Chinese brand.
Where was Shein founded?
Shein is a fast-fashion company based in China.
What makes Shein so successful?
The success behind Shein is its cheap prices trendy clothes, and fast delivery.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations.
Indian hotel landscape was dominated by luxury five-star hotels for a very long time. There was a large vacuum in terms of quality accommodation between large five-star hotels and the way-side guest houses. The last one decade saw the rise of many budget and economy hotels in the country. More than 80 per cent of the growth in new hotels were in the budget segment.
Staying at low-priced hotels has always meant making compromises on quality. One could book online but could hardly avoid the unwelcoming rooms and the indifferent service. Well, at Treebo, dignity is being put back into budget travel with their unmatched 100% quality guarantee.
Treebo Hotels is an Indian budget hotel chain that operates on franchising. As of January 2020, Treebo Hotel has over 600 hotels in 113 cities in India.
Founded in 2015, Treebo is a new age hotel brand offering comfortable stays at budget prices.
Treebo derives its name from “Bo Tree”, the fig tree under which Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment. The fig tree family – Banyan, Peepul among others – has inspired not just the company’s name but also what they do. They aspire to emulate the vast reach of the fig trees.
Starting with Bangalore, they make sure that they are available to serve guests wherever their travels take them, with the same obsession for quality, with the same penchant for conversations.
Treebo Hygiene Shield
Treebo – Logo and its Meaning
Treebo’s new logo represents a pinwheel. It represents the colorful and childlike spirit of wonder that accompanies travel. Through its movement, it creates a sense of joy that puts a smile on everyone’s face irrespective of age, occupation, and income.
Treebo Hotels Logo
Treebo – Founder and History
Treebo Hotels was founded in June 2015 as Zipotel by the IIT Roorkee graduates Sidharth Gupta, Rahul Chaudhary and Kadam Jeet Jain.
It’s been just over two years since the company’s founding, and Treebo is already India’s highest rated and third largest hotel brand in India (behind only Taj and ITC). While it’s still early days and there is a long way to go, the company is well on it’s path to create India’s largest and most loved hotel brand, leveraged by technology.
In July 2016, Treebo raised a $17 million round of investment. In August 2017, Treebo raised an additional investment round of $34 million. As of now, Treebo has raised $57 million and is backed by SAIF Partners and Matrix India Partners as investors. In May 2018, Treebo made its first acquisition of the online events discovery platform Events High.
In November 2018, Treebo launched three sub-brands (Trip, Trend, Tryst) as part of its new branding strategy. Treebo Trip Hotels offer basic comforts. Treebo Trend Hotels are the major chunk of properties. Treebo Tryst Hotels are the premium Treebo properties.
Treebo started with a simple question — how do you put dignity back into budget travel?The company’s mission is to answer this question – so every idea, every property they on-board, every hire, every strategic decision, every trade-off they make is put through this lens to see if it helps them answer this question a little better each day.
OYO Accused Of Listing Treebo Hotels Without Clearances
Treebo – Business Model
Treebo operates a full franchise model which means it takes on hotels exclusively, working with hotel owners to provide its branding, customer acquisition channels, management software and more. In exchange, it takes a revenue cut that can be as high as 40 percent.
While coming up with a sustainable solution, the founders were very clear that they were here to build a brand and not an aggregator or a marketplace or an OTA. And, this will take time.
“Our value proposition and business models didn’t shift even with hyper competition and the so-called lull that everyone was focused on. The number of properties working with us has increased by 100 percent. We have gone from 413 to 820 properties in a year,” said Sidharth Gupta, co-founder of Treebo.
Treebo – Shareholding
Treebo Shareholding
BCCL 5.58%
Others 7.5%
Sid Gupta 3.35%
Bertelsman BV 12.64%
Kadam Jeet Jain 3.65%
Rahul Chaudhary 13.25%
Matrix 19%
SAIF Partners 19%
WF Asian Recon 5.9%
Treebo – Revenue and Growth
Treebo reported revenue of INR 77 crore for financial year 2018-19, a 63% jump from the previous year, from INR 41.35 crore in 2018. It also generated INR 9.5 crore from the gain on sale of current investments, lease rental income, among others.
On January 19, 2023, Treebo Hotels announced that it had reached EBITDA break-even in December of the previous year 2022. According to the company, its adjusted EBITDA (adjusted for ESOP expenses) for the month was Rs 1.65 crore. In the same month, the company reported achieving an annualized revenue runrate (ARR) of $82 million.
Some of the growth highlights of Treebo are:
The average room rent of Treebo Hotels is 2100+ as of 2023.
In January 2018, Treebo Hotels announced the introduction of “InstaConnectWiFi,” a technological innovation that enables visitors to over 50 Treebo locations to immediately connect to the hotel’s Wi-Fi network.
Hero
On September 11, 2018, Treebo announced the debut of Hero, an offline-to-online software aimed toward intermediates such as cab and auto-rickshaw drivers, individual agents, small shops, and others who usually work at airports, train stations, and bus stands.
Treebo – Funding and Investors
Treebo Hotels has raised a total of $85M in funding over 10 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on June 30, 2021 from a Series D Round. Treebo Hotels is funded by 18 investors.
Date
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
Jun 30, 2021
Series D
$16M
AccorHotels
Oct 27, 2020
Venture Round
Rs 10 crore
Deepak Parayanken
Oct 8, 2020
Venture Round
$6M
–
Jul 31, 2020
Series D
Rs 10.26 crore
–
Jul 11, 2020
Series D
$16M
–
Jan 2, 2020
Corporate Round
$458K
Bennett Coleman and Co Ltd
May 14, 2019
Venture Round
–
InnoVen Capital
Aug 30, 2017
Series C
$34M
Karst Peak Capital, Ward Ferry Management
Jul 22, 2016
Series B
$17M
Bertelsmann India Investments
Jun 23, 2015
Series A
$6M
Matrix Partners India, SAIF Partners
Treebo – Partnership
Radisson Hotel Group
Through the partnership with the parent business of Treebo Hotels, Ruptub Solutions Private Limited and the American global hospitality company Radisson Hotel Group in November, 2022 has introduced its new midscale brand, Park Inn & Suites by Radisson, specifically for India.
ixigo
One of the top travel marketplaces in India, ixigo, announced on September 14, 2018, a partnership with Treebo Hotels for the sale and distribution of Treebo’s hotel inventory on ixigo’s applications and website.
Dettol
Dettol declared its partnership with Treebo Hotels on January, 8, 2021 in order to promote safety and cleanliness when traveling throughout the country and raise awareness of the importance of out-of-home disinfection and safety . In addition to promoting frequent training for hotel workers, the partnership will guarantee the usage of Dettol products to improve the hotel’s level of hygiene and disinfection.
Treebo – Acquisitions
Treebo Hotels has acquired Events High on May 31, 2018.
“We are building the Mc Donald’s of the hospitality industry, where until now the budget segment was only dominated by the standalone very similar to the F&B market back in the 90s,” said Sidharth Gupta, Co-Founder, Treebo Hotels.
According to Siddharth, only three things can have competitive advantage i.e., if one is in a network business if one is having proprietary assets and the execution DNA of the organization. “At Treebo we believe in ‘six months head start’ which means in a competitive market as such, we stay six months ahead,” he said.
In a traditional setup, where failure is always looked down upon, Treebo rewards the failure because “unless you don’t fail, you don’t learn,” believes Sidharth. “At Treebo we have two values, ‘obligation to invent’ and ‘display urgency’. Combining the both, we encourage our colleagues to try out an idea even if it gives 70 percent of surety,” he stated.
Today, Treebo has 7000+ keys, in 300+ properties across 50+ cities. Their benchmark Hotel and Guest NPS is consistently >60%. And the founders have done this while being capital efficient with a focus on profitable-growth with take rates between 20–25%.
That’s not to say, that they haven’t had their share of problems, with near death experiences on more than one occasion. But this has only strengthened the founders’ resolve.
Sidharth says, “There’s a lot to be done and several things yet to be improved. But it gives me great satisfaction that the entire Treebo team works relentlessly every day to answer one simple question – how do you put dignity back into budget travel?”
Treebo plans to double the number of hotels registered on its platform.
“The segment (homestay) has the potential to become large and exciting over the next two to three years. It’s very big in the markets outside India,” said Gupta, pointing out with India’s travel and accommodation market getting more professionalized with the technology, homestays are a natural progression in line with the global trend. The trend in India, however, may not be as linear as other markets and it may “leapfrog” a few stages.
Gupta said hotels would continue to be Treebo’s core focus area and homestays would become large over a period of time. “We will launch some pilots by year-end. Like our hotels, the homestays, too, would be based on the premise of quality,” he said.
Treebo – FAQs
Who founded Treebo?
Treebo Hotels was founded in June 2015 as Zipotel by the IIT Roorkee graduates Sidharth Gupta, Rahul Chaudhary and Kadam Jeet Jain.
When was Treebo founded?
Treebo Hotels was founded in June 2015.
How does Treebo make money?
Treebo operates a full franchise model which means it takes on hotels exclusively, working with hotel owners to provide its branding, customer acquisition channels, management software and more. In exchange, it takes a revenue cut that can be as high as 40 percent.
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