This article has been contributed by Sourabh Yadav, Founder, Qoulomb.
“LinkedIn is a Goldmine for businesses” is the most overheard statement about LinkedIn.
Come on!!! Today, everyone knows LinkedIn is a crucial channel for marketers, founders, and freelancers. But what most people miss out on is “How to rush this goldmine?”
The answer is obvious: by getting in front of the people and opportunities sprinkled across the corners of LinkedIn.
Whether you are a founder building your personal brand on LinkedIn or a marketer turning LinkedIn into your most effective marketing channel, you want one thing (other than some mental peace).
To get in front of the people and get the eyeballs. Isn’t it?
The Power of LinkedIn
On the one hand, people are building million-dollar brands, building communities, and leveraging LinkedIn, while you are just crying in a corner because you don’t know how to get in front of your target audience.
Believe me, LinkedIn works like magic. I have seen it hundreds of times while working for my clients in the SaaS, B2B, and B2C industries and turning their LinkedIn into a sales machine by just getting in front of their target audience.
But how will it happen? Is it rubbing the magical lamp? No, it won’t work!
Key to LinkedIn Success: The C.E.O. Formula
I know you hate formulas, thanks to your boring Mathematics professor, but I have a formula that can help you get in front of your target audience on LinkedIn.
I call it the “C.E.O.” formula.
Yes, that’s your success formula for LinkedIn! But what does it stand for, how does it work, and how can you use it?
Don’t worry; I am your Lord Buddha on this enlightening journey. I will answer all the questions ruining your peace of mind.
The C.E.O. formula stands for:
C: Content E: Engagement O: Optimization
The C.E.O. Formula for LinkedIn Success
These are the only three ways to get in front of your target audience on LinkedIn. So let’s dive in to understand each one of them:
1. Your Content
The “C” in the C.E.O. formula stands for “Content” that you create on LinkedIn!
Go back in your memory and think about the last week, when you came across an incredible thought leader you followed on LinkedIn.
How did you discover and follow them?
While you were mindlessly scrolling through your feed, someone’s post (connection out of your network) slammed on your face, and it resonated so well with you that you ended up following them or DMing them for the same.
Feeling the nostalgia?
That’s how we mainly discover good people on LinkedIn, i.e., through their thought-provoking content.
See, LinkedIn is a social media platform, so ultimately, content is and will always be the best way to get in front of people.
So, to get in front of your target audience, you must create content that resonates with them!
Create a proper content strategy, and a content calendar, and start creating content; believe me, it will be the best decision of your life.
Start sharing your experiences, life lessons, new things you learned, and your awesome work. People will connect, engage, and resonate with you, eventually sparking conversations that convert to business.
So start building your tribe!
It’s free, and as LinkedIn is a comparatively new platform, it has immense organic reach.
You can easily reach more than a million people in your target audience every month for free, who will eventually become fans of your work. So it will be easier to convince them to do business.
I am sure you are going to work on it, so let me introduce you to the second way to get in front of people on LinkedIn:
2. Your Engagement
The “E” in C.E.O. stands for “Engagement.” It’s another way to get in front of people, but how?
Let’s take an example:
You are a B2B marketer, and your target audiences are usually the founders, Head of Marketing, and Marketing Heads of B2B organizations.
You want to get in front of these people.
Top Job Titles of Your Searchers on LinkedIn
Now, what do you need to do? Shortlist a few thought leaders in marketing, B2B marketing, and industries you work in.
They are thought leaders because they share their valuable thoughts, recent works, and unique insights related to their industry on LinkedIn. They have built an engaged community on LinkedIn.
You just have to go to the posts of thought leaders in your industry and start sharing your 2 cents regularly.
As they are thought leaders, your target audiences, like founders and marketing heads, already follow them; they have the eyeballs you need.
Now, if you keep sharing your valuable insights on their posts, you can use the attention they built to get in front of people.
Now let’s do some math.
If an average influencer’s post gets 100K views, assume 1% will see your comment, i.e., 1K people, and let’s say even only 10% of them chose to visit your profile, i.e., 100 people. That’s just 100 people, but those are your qualified target audience visiting your profile.
Though these numbers are just assumptions, still think about it. Imagine what 10–15 comments a day can do if just one comment can do this.
And that’s an efficient approach, as it will only take 20 minutes of your day.
Now, imagine how many unique people from your target audience are going to visit your profile.
The “O” in the C.E.O. formula stands for “Optimizing.” It means optimizing your LinkedIn profile to rank higher in your target audience’s LinkedIn searches.
To take up an example, let’s continue the previous one:
You are a B2B Marketer, and someone at a big B2B startup is searching for someone like you to help them craft their strategies to build their sales pipeline.
Then what’s the first thing they will do?
They will search for a B2B Marketer on LinkedIn; that’s what everyone does, right?
So they will search for keywords like “B2B marketing expert,” “B2B expert,” “strategist,” or something similar.
You can list down a few more keywords with which your target audience will search.
Now, when they do the search with keywords, a few profiles will appear on the first page as a result, and almost similar behavior that we see on the Google searches is observed here, i.e.,
If you are on the second page of this search list, no one can find you, not even the F.B.I.
So what to do? Obviously, you have to be on the first page of the search list.
And how do you do that?
By optimizing your LinkedIn profile.
That’s what the “O” in the C.E.O. formula stands for.
But how do you optimize your LinkedIn profile?
Understand this; there is SEO for LinkedIn profiles as well.
You have to optimize the keywords in your LinkedIn profile if you want to rank higher and appear when someone searches for your relevant keywords.
LinkedIn places the highest weightage in search SEO on three key sections:
Your Header/Bio section
Your About section
Your Work Experience section
These sections play the most impactful role in LinkedIn SEO. Here’s how to optimize them:
List down the keywords you want to be ranked for.
Bio: While writing your bio, try to write the first word as the keyword that defines you and what you want to rank for, then write what exactly you can help your visitors with.
Optimize LinkedIn Bio
About: Your “About” section should have some results, your journey, and the work you have done in a crisp way. Do use a few keywords while writing this, but don’t overdo it. Just sprinkle a few.
Optimize LinkedIn About Section
Work Experience: Most of the work experience you have added should be similar to the keyword, and you can also use those keywords to rank higher in the description.
Optimize LinkedIn Work Experience Section
Use any LinkedIn Profile audit tool to get a free audit review of your profile and things you can improve.
Well, there are tons of details involved in optimizing the profile, but that’s for another day.
If you have an optimized profile, your profile is highly likely to get in front of your target audience when they are searching.
And it’s a very intent-based search, so your chances of conversions are high. LinkedIn has a few more factors to list you first, like the number of mutual connections, location, and a lot more, but those are out of your control, so we can hardly do anything about them.
And that’s a wrap!
In conclusion, I would say that if you can just remember this “C.E.O.” formula and implement it with your LinkedIn profile, you are all set to get in front of your target audience and hit all your goals.
It’s time to turn LinkedIn into your best marketing channel, so what are you waiting for? Just go out and implement it!
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With exponential growth in the number of internet and smartphone users in India, turning online to get one’s tasks done is now mainstream. Education too falls under this umbrella. Online tutoring has many benefits such as economical courses, flexible schedules, and 24/7 access to get doubts and queries cleared. This has made online learning popular among all age groups. upGrad, a Mumbai-based startup, is bringing the best out of the online education segment.
upGrad has tied up with world-class institutes to facilitate access to career-oriented courses and assist Indian students and working professionals who want to upgrade their careers.
StartupTalky interviewedupGrad founder Mayank Kumar to know how the startup was founded, and how it is helping students and professionals to pursue higher education online. Read on to know about upGrad’s business model, revenue model, founders, challenges, funding, growth, and the story of its success.
upGrad – Company Highlights
Startup Name
upGrad
Headquarters
Mumbai
Founders
Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and Ravijot Chugh
upGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. is an online higher education company that provides programs in the areas of data, technology, and management to college students, first-time job seekers, and working professionals and empowers them to reach their peak potential. These programs are designed in collaboration with top-notch universities like IIIT-B, BITS Pilani, MICA, Cambridge Judge Business School, and many others.
To enhance the learning experience further, a comprehensive ecosystem has been built which includes, but is not restricted to, one-on-one mentoring, peer-to-peer learning, industry networking, and expert career guidance. This ensures a holistic approach to gaining the maximum out of the programs offered.
“We, at upGrad, had always believed in the potential of online education being able to transform careers. Hence, the development and adherence to the company’s vision statement since its inception in 2015 – ‘Building careers of tomorrow’,” said Ronnie Screwvala, upGrad founder.
As per an IBEF report, the higher education market in India stands at $102 billion. If we consider the online higher education market, it stands at $247 million and is expected to grow by 8X to reach $1.96 billion in 2021. Techavio’s industry research report pegs the online education market in India to be worth about $18 billion by 2022, growing at a CAGR of around 20% over five years.
The total enrollment in higher education in India has been estimated to be 34.6 million, the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education is 24.5% for the age group of 18-23 years, and distance enrollment constitutes about 11.05% of the total enrollment in higher education programs. The perception of recruiters towards online degrees in India has also changed since UGC permitted eligible universities to offer degree courses online. This decision is a revolutionary step toward propelling the online education sector in India.
upGrad learning platform was founded in 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and Ravijot Chugh.
upGrad Founders
Ronnie Screwvala | Co-founder & Chairman, upGrad
Ronnie Screwvala is the chairman of upGrad. Ronnie is a well-known personality in the Indian television industry and the founder of UTV Group (now known as Walt Disney India), founder trustee of Swades Foundation, founder of Unilazer Ventures, Board of Advisor AIESEC India, and the founder of RSVP Movies. He has been featured on Esquire’s List of the 75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century and ranked 78 among the 100 most influential people in the world on the Time 100 (compiled by Time Magazine, 2009). He was also listed among 25 Asia’s Most Powerful People by Fortune Magazine and titled the Jack Warner of India by Newsweek.
Mayank Kumar | Co-founder & MD, upGrad
Mayank Kumar is the Managing Director and leads the overall operations at upGrad. Before his upGrad stint, Mayank was the VP of Education at Bertelsmann- Europe’s largest media and education conglomerate—where he oversaw the education strategy and its multi-million dollar investments in India. He also served as a Board Member of iNurture—India’s number-one provider of industry-specific academic programs.
Mayank holds a Bachelor’s degree from IIT Delhi and an MBA from the Indian School of Business. He received the coveted BWDISRUPT 40-under-40 Achiever of the Year Award’17 by BW Businessworld. Before joining Bertelsmann, Mayank was a Senior Principal at The Parthenon Group where he advised clients in the education sector on market potential, growth and market entry strategies, investment decisions, revenue & profit uplift strategies. He participated in deals worth USD 1 billion flowing into the education sector and worked with clients from China, South-East Asia, Middle East India, and South America. He also worked at the Tata Strategic Group, advising Tata’s strategic direction.
Ravijot Chugh | Co-founder, upGrad
Ravijot Chugh heads career services, product, design, content, delivery, and student success divisions at upGrad. Ravijot was at Housing.com as a product lead and then at the Parthenon Group where he advised multiple companies and private equity investors on due diligence, market-entry, and growth strategy in the education sector of emerging markets across Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. He also co-founded a social travel startup called 36hrs. is headquartered in San Francisco. Ravijot Chugh holds a Bachelors’s degree in Computer Science from IIT-Delhi and was part of the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 cohort of 2018.
Phalgun Kompalli | Co-founder, upGrad
Phalgun Kompalli is the head of sales and marketing at upGrad. He heads university partnerships and customer acquisition in addition to sales and marketing. Before UpGrad, Phalgun was a Principal at The Parthenon Group—an education strategy-consulting firm—where he was involved in advising large education conglomerates and investment funds on their growth and investment strategies in the education sector. Phalgun has done significant work in the field of higher education and technology-enabled learning across India, the US, Brazil, Africa, and Southeast Asia. He worked at Opera Solutions before his Parthenon stint. Opera Solutions is an analytics firm providing consultation to Fortune 500 companies on their revenue and cost optimization initiatives through data analytics. He completed his Bachelors in Technology from IIT Delhi.
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upGrad has a workforce of 3800+ employees. The company has strengthened its senior leadership team to capitalize on potential opportunities in the online education sector.
Over the last two years, the startup has developed a holistic digital education experience for working professionals and college students for upskilling and reskilling. We are happy that the new senior leadership brings diverse and rich learnings for upGrad to unlock the immense potential in the online education space and understand the Indian learners. We will continue this growth momentum, offering innovative opportunities for the working professionals and students to equip themselves with the new-age skills for the workforce of the future – Ronnie Screwvala & Mayank Kumar, Co-founders of upGrad.
upGrad’s vision revolves around ‘building careers of tomorrow’. The learning experience it delivers is at the core of its business. The upGrad team constantly strives for excellence and has a high degree of passion and pride in whatever it does. Some of the main highlights of upGrad’s work culture are:
It is committed to building the careers of tomorrow: People working with the company have a sense of job satisfaction and a feeling of doing something special since their contribution has the power to improve the customer/learner’s life and career.
It supports innovation: As an ed-tech company, upGrad believes that technology is the future. That’s why the employees are constantly motivated to take up innovative initiatives across various functions.
Open culture: The leadership team is highly approachable, the structure is flat, and employees are encouraged to take up initiatives.
Promote upskilling: Being a company that endorses upskilling, upGrad spurs its employees to take up its courses at discounted rates for staying relevant with changing times.
The key traits of upGrad’s work culture are centered on:
Long-term thinking with clinical execution.
Empathy and impact.
Accountability and ownership.
Delivering excellence.
“We at upGrad always look for passion in an individual, be it for work or outside work. The individual may be passionate about running, social work, movies, music, traveling, etc. For us, passion demonstrates how driven an individual is & how diligently they follow their passion,” said Mayank Kumar, co-founder of upGrad.
Mayank has vast experience in the education industry, both as an advisor and an investor. He observed the benefits of low infrastructure costs and a large student base in reducing the price of procuring education via the online channel. These factors led to online courses being 53% cheaper than the offline alternatives. Owing to the flexibility of time, schedule, etc., online education is a convenient mode of learning. As a result, many online education companies have sprung up to cater to the huge scope of online courses.
Although there were companies in the K-12 segment and platforms providing MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses), none of them provided formal education coupled with a comprehensive learning experience. Mayank foresaw that the requirement for online learning would be much higher for technical certifications given the increase in the working population at that time. Again, none of the existing companies completely tapped into the online higher education space. This led to the idea behind upGrad which was subsequently launched in 2015.
“We first built a content team which has now grown by 5 folds. They created subject matter from scratch, collecting and collating industry trends and university curriculum. We quickly developed a tech team that focuses purely on the smooth functioning of our online platform. Since then we have always focused on building a great online learning experience by collaborating with the right universities like BITS Pilani, IIIT-Bangalore, Cambridge Judge Business School of Executive Education, etc. We also have collaborations with some of the industry’s best such as Google, Flipkart, Gramener to name a few in order to create a cohesive and practical learning experience,” says upGrad owner Mayank Kumar, explaining the inception phase of the company.
Starting with its first program in entrepreneurship, upGrad has created some of India’s largest online programs to help thousands of professionals and college students achieve their career goals in the areas of data, technology, and management.
upGrad – Mission and Vision
“Making our learners achieve their desired outcomes,” says upGrad mission.
upGrad vision – “Powering career success for every member of the global workforce as their trusted lifelong learning partner.”
“Interestingly, we had registered the company under the name of UEducation when we started. Very soon we conducted an exercise with an external agency to determine our brand name and logo. Through that exercise, we came upon the name – upGrad,” adds Mayank.
According to Mayank, two key reasons behind choosing the name ‘upGrad’ were:
It had a smart twist.
It had a nice connotation to the word “graduation”.
upGrad is all about upgrading lives and careers by offering graduation and post-graduation programs.
upGrad logo
Narrating the concept of the company’s logo, Mayank says “Development of the brand logo was an interesting exercise too. While we looked at multiple options – we liked the existing one where G was in upper-case and highlighted. The shape of the ‘G’ resembles the refresh icon. Hence the logo represents that upGrad is about enabling a refresh for your life and career.”
upGrad – Courses
The online courses offered by the upGrad learning platform include MBA, IT Courses, Data Science, Machine Learning, Digital Marketing, Software, Blockchain, Insurance-related courses, and more. upGrad has a structured educational program for every phase of a person’s career right from college to professional employment.
In line with its vision of ‘building careers of tomorrow’, this Mumbai-based startup inspires college students to take the initial steps towards their professional journey. It focuses on getting them job-ready. The courses prepare students to crack the recruitment processes for different roles through aptitude training, resume building, and mock interview prep sessions. Along with the paid/premium courses that upGrad offers, where the company extends numerous degrees and certifications from a wide variety of courses across the country and abroad, it also offers numerous upGrad free courses ranging from Data Science, Technology to Management.
upGrad has also launched programs with a guaranteed job for those who are seeking their first employment stint. The program offers a guaranteed job upon successful completion of the program. On the other hand, working professionals have the advantage of going back to the university through upGrad’s immersive learning platform without the need to quit their jobs. On course completion, the learners become alumni of the partner university. They also get to attend on-campus hackathons and graduation ceremonies.
upGrad also provides solutions to enterprises seeking the upskilling of their employees. In FY 19-20, upGrad entered into a partnership with 2 of India’s leading IT services companies—Infosysand Wipro. These are multi-year deals and have a strong repeat element. With this, the company has established a strong position in the enterprise ecosystem.
The upGrad team has also introduced a concept called ‘upGrad basecamp’. This is a unique concept wherein the learners get a chance to network and engage in peer-to-peer learning through offline meetups. They also receive career support which involves resume building, career landscaping, mock interviews, interview guarantees, and more. The ‘Just in Time’ Interview Prep by upGrad helps learners with last-minute interview preparation, guiding them through key concepts before interviews, and mentoring them through the joining process.
A key USP for upGrad is its mentorship; the very fact that the startup spends money on mentoring while others find a course and put it online. Some other differentiators are its tech platform, interactive interface, and content—all of which have been created from scratch by its team.
The company has also teamed up with Agora.io, the leading voice, video, and live streaming platform, to launch upGrad Live platform. It is built to replicate a real-time classroom learning experience for enrolled students by providing greater interactivity, real-time doubt resolution, in-class concept checks, and session analytics to gauge live session performances.
upGrad is largely built on a direct B2C model of business wherein the consumer enrolls in the program (post receiving an admit) and pays upfront for the enrollment. For its enterprise business, the company receives payment from companies for training its employees.
upGrad’s program pricing reflects its commitment towards getting students placed. 50% of the program fees are collected from the learner only if they get placed after the program’s completion. This pricing strategy is the first of its kind in India.
upGrad – Funding And Investors
The company has raised $668.2 million till now in 7 funding rounds, with the most recent round on March 29, 2023, totaling $30 million from investor Ronnie Screwvala.
Here are all the details of the 7 funding rounds that UpGrad has seen so far:
Date
Series
Amount
Investors
March 29, 2023
Venture Round
$30 million
Ronnie Screwvala
August 8, 2022
Venture Round
$210 million
ETS Global, Bodhi Tree and Kaizen Management Advisors
June 16, 2022
Venture Round
$225 million
Lupa Systems, Educational Testing Service.
August 9, 2021
Venture Round
$65 million
IFC, IIFL and Temasek
April 26, 2021
Venture Round
$120 million
Temasek Holdings
April 14, 2021
Venture Round
$9.3 million
Unilazer Ventures
August 12, 2020
Debt Financing
$6.69 million
IIFL Asset Management
upGrad – User Acquisition
For the first 100 customers, upGrad used several offline events to promote its initiative. The founders personally spoke to the learners. Prospective learners had to share their video profiles and SOPs (Statement of Purpose) before enrolling. They were then given 2 weeks of learning content for free. Only after experiencing the free content was the payment option made available to them.
“We had expected that initially, 50-60 learners would enroll, but 100 ended up enrolling in the program. It was one of the most exhilarating and humbling experiences for us,” recalls Mayank.
Like all businesses, upGrad encountered multiple challenges. The most significant one was the stigma surrounding the credibility of online education. There is a general perception that online education is frivolous. upGrad had to prove otherwise through its product, customer experience, and success stories; and this was a tough job.
Getting recruiters to accept that online education could be as rigorous as offline education was the next hurdle. Finally, when it came to product pricing, upGrad priced itself at a discount to offline competitors, but at a premium to other online competitors. It was an uphill task to explain the value proposition of the programs to the learners.
“The entire task of building a higher education brand is made more arduous by the prevailing consumer mindset around education. Education in India is considered by many as a time-bound, one-time activity, post completion of which one starts working and does not go back to studying again. It is a mammoth task to change the mindset of the people by convincing them that education has no age limit, lifelong learning is the new mantra and need of the hour for all” – Mayank.
However, there are certain features that set upGrad apart from its competitors. One of the main USPs is the hand-holding provided to each learner. This practice is called ‘student mentorship’ and the team behind it is known as ‘Student Success’ at upGrad.
upGrad’s total acquisition count is 16 companies to date. upGrad acquired Centum Learning in an undisclosed deal, which is the latest acquisition on September 15, 2022.
Here’s the table mentioning all the acquisitions that upGrad has seen so far.
Acquired
Date
Price
Centum Learning
September 15, 2022
–
Exampur
August 1, 2022
–
Harappa Education
July 22, 2022
$37.54 million
WOLVES India
July 14, 2022
–
INSOFE
May 2, 2022
$33 million
Work Better
January 10, 2022
Undisclosed
Talentedge
December 6, 2021
Undisclosed
Global Study Partners
November 29, 2021
Undisclosed
KnowledgeHut
August 3, 2021
Undisclosed
Impartus Innovations
May 24, 2021
$20.22 million
Rekrut India
December 15, 2020
Undisclosed
The Gate Academy
November 24, 2020
Undisclosed
CohortPlus
July 4, 2019
Undisclosed
AcadView
October 29, 2018
Undisclosed
Pyoopil Education Technologies Pvt Ltd
October 17, 2016
Undisclosed
upGrad – ESOPs
upGrad conducted its maiden ESOP on July 13, 2021, and in it, the company promised the liquidity of an amount close to $29.5 Mn (Rs 220 crores). The maiden ESOP of upGrad has formed a large ESOP pool of around 13% of the enlarged equity base and is planned to benefit both the early and promising team members of the company. The inclusive ESOP scheme boasts of having over 600 team members, who share the growth story of the company, consisting of 37 early team members.
The company further increased its employee stock option program (ESOPs) pool by 28% in the middle of November. upGrad, which has earlier spoken of 17,25,810 options (UPGRAD Education-Employee Stock Option (New) Scheme, 2015) has now made it 22,25,810. This also resulted in lifting the pool’s value by 29%, to Rs 427 crore, which was last reported at Rs 331 crore.
UpGrad’s new ESOP options are estimated to be valued at Rs 244 crore ($30 million) according to Fintrackr, while the overall value of the company’s employee shares is roughly Rs 2,058 crore ($260 million) as of reported news in March 2023.
upGrad – Advisors And Mentors
Emphasizing the importance of knowledgeable advisors for an entrepreneur, Mayank says, “There are many acquaintances who have been helping me, guiding me as I go along the journey. As an entrepreneur, you tend to dive deep into execution and thoughts, thereby sometimes failing to look at the bigger picture. It is always good to meet with well-wishers, bounce off ideas and get an outside-in perspective.”
In a short span of around 5 years, the startup claimed to have onboarded over 21,500 paid learners and has impacted more than 370K individuals globally, making it India’s largest online higher-education company based on gross revenue generated from the Indian market in FY18-19.
In the period when the impact of COVID-19 was at its peak, upGrad onboarded over 100 colleges and universities onto its platform to pave the way for blended online learning as the future of education.
upGrad has been successful in achieving its target unicorn status on August 9, 2021, by raising around $185 million in a round led by Temasek, IIFL, and IFC at a valuation of $1.2 billion.
Here are some of the prominent growth highlights of upGrad:
The company is an ed-tech unicorn and stands as a competitor of the highest-valued Edtech company in India, Byju’s
upGrad has witnessed a 100% growth at the beginning of FY21
The company also has over 45,000 paid students
It has crossed a milestone of acquiring 1 million learners in just 5 years of its operations
upGrad claims to have 10,000 graduates in 2022.
upGrad has 300 direct global university partners as of FY23.
It has 20,000 recruitment partners and 30,000 corporate partners.
The company claims to have provided learning to 7 million students in more than 100 countries.
The company’s valuation is $2.25 billion.
As per upGrad website, it has provided jobs in 10,000+ companies.
UpGrad launched UpGrad Foundation
UpGrad has announced the launch of UpGrad Foundation on April 4, 2022, which is a philanthropic initiative of the company and will serve as a non-profit arm of the edtech company. As per the recent reports, the company has already devoted Rs 50 crore to train the teachers, support decent mentorship and coaching, and conduct career counselling sessions, scholarships, internships, and online student exchange programs.
Financials
upGrad operating revenue has increased from Rs 679 crore in FY21 to Rs 679 crore in FY22, while company losses have increased from Rs 211 crore in FY21 to Rs 627 crore in FY22.
upGrad Finanacials
upGrad Expenses
upGrad total expenses increased from Rs 514 crore in FY21 to Rs 1,300 crore in FY22.
Expenses FY21-FY22
FY21
FY22
Advertisement promotion
Rs 205 crore
Rs 424 crore
Employee benefit expenses
Rs 161 crore
Rs 383 crore
University fees
Rs 47 crore
Rs 126 crore
Information technology expenses
Rs 13 crore
Rs 49 crore
Legal and professional fees
Rs 12 crore
Rs 43 crore
Content delivery cost
Rs 37 crore
Rs 124 crore
Others
Rs 39 crore
Rs 151 crore
EBITDA
The company’s financial performance in FY21 and FY22 is worrying. It had a poor EBITDA margin of -58.72% in FY21, which deteriorated to -85.12% in FY22. Per rupee of revenue throughout the two years, operating expenses grew from Rs 1.57 in FY21 to Rs 1.91 in FY22.
upGrad has signed Amitabh Bachchan as its brand ambassador
upGrad has announced that its brand ambassador would be none other than the Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan. The veteran actor will help lift the brand value of upGrad with the help of exclusive endorsements and advertising of the services of the platform and will emphasize the necessity of ‘lifelong learning’ for everyone.
Startup India Learning Program
In 2017, upGrad in collaboration with ‘Invest India’ developed the ‘Startup India Learning Program’. ‘Startup India Learning Program’ is a free online entrepreneurship course by Startup India.
The approach of attracting consumers also included partnerships with entrepreneurship-focused publications to spread the word around. For increasing the customer base, they focused on some subject-specific channels to attract learners. It partnered with universities to launch the next set of programs. Those partnerships also helped scale the existing programs.
upGrad has tie-ups with the following educational institutes:
International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-B).
Birla Institute of Technology and Science.
Pilani (BITS Pilani).
MICA.
Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE).
Cambridge Judge Business School.
Institute of Management Technology (IMT Ghaziabad).
HDFC Life for insurance-related courses.
IIT Madras, for certification course on Machine Learning and Cloud.
NITTE (Deemed to be University)
In order to help B.Tech students with the additional Full Stack Development (FSD) Specialization to power their skill competencies, upGrad and NITTE (Deemed to be University), Mangalore have launched a partnershiped in May, 2023.
JIS University
To offer a Master of Business Administration in Digital Marketing, JIS University and upGrad Campus have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in August, 2023.
Mumba Masters
upGrad partnership with Mumba partners in June, 2023 and with this partnership they will entry into the sports market is an effort to further develop and increase the brand’s presence on a worldwide basis.
upGrad – Campaign
upGrad Ad-Campaign
upGrad – Star India Deal
upGrad has signed up for a high-value deal with Star India. This enabled upGrad to run its ad-campaign “Sirf Naam ki Nahin, Kaam ki Degree” across television and Hotstar (OTT platform) throughout the IPL 2020 (Indian Premiere League). The move was initiated to expedite the adoption of technology and online education.
This is upGrad’s first major sports association and the first onboarding of an ed-tech player on Dream IPL 2020.
“IPL is the most opportune occasion to reach out to individuals reminding them about the urgency to upskill and prepare themselves for the forthcoming competitive world. Our strategic partnership with Star will enable us with the right platform, thereby helping us reach out to a larger set of audience residing in the remotest corners of Bharat,” said Arjun Mohan, CEO, upGrad.
In 2019, upGrad unveiled its first ad campaign featuring actor Vicky Kaushal. The film breaks the myth of online education being ineffective by showcasing how impactful the online education space is and that it is as good as traditional offline education.
upGrad Campaign
The second campaign was based on the insight that Indian working professionals are in a state of inertia where they feel that they do not need to go back to learning once they have a job. These films ought to make customers realize that they have no choice but to learn and upskill themselves to remain relevant in today’s day and time. The campaigns shed light upon upGrad’s unique online power learning approach and demonstrated its influence along with the role it can play in the positive transformation of an individual’s career. It further intends to establish the fact that in this fast-changing world of technology, new-age skills at the workplace are coveted and that upskilling is a necessity.
upGrad – Layoff
Harappa Education, which upGrad acquired, laid off 30% of its staff in the first round of layoffs that took place in July 2022.
According to several press sources, UpGrad has let go of 60 employees about 30% of its workforce. In March 2023, the startup ecosystem experienced layoffs due to a lack of venture financing.
upGrad – Awards
Being a reputed name in the space of online education, upGrad has been recognized and awarded by many prestigious bodies.
In 2016, it was selected as the official education partner for the Government of India’s ‘Start-up India’ learning program. Through the program, upGrad offers entrepreneurship-based courses in 2 languages—Hindi and English—to the budding entrepreneurs of India.
In 2017, Mayank Kumar, the co-founder and CEO of upGrad, was recognized as the Achiever of the Year by BW Disrupt (Business World) at its 40 under 40 events.
In 2017, the startup was featured in the list of ‘Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in India’ by Fast Company.
The company received the ‘Best Education Brands’ award by the Economic Times and made it to LinkedIn’s ‘Top 25 Startups’ in 2018.
Two of the co-founders, Ravijot Chugh and Phalgun Kompalli, are listed in the Forbes 30 Under 30 class of 2018.
In 2018, upGrad’s Machine Learning Program – PG Diploma in Machine Learning and AI in association with IIIT Bangalore, was ranked as the #1 Course on Artificial Intelligence in India by Analytics India Magazine.
The company has also been awarded the ‘Best Tech for Education’ by IAMAI in 2019.
The company won the Best Excellence in Learning Award from Brandon Hall Group in 2021.
upGrad won Best Advanced in Creating a Learning Strategy in 2022 by Brandon Hall Group.
Company won Learning Provider of the Year Siver winer in 2022.
As part of upGrad’s strategic initiative, the company has declared in April 2020, with an aim to increase the learners’ headcount and revenue, that it will focus on 4 major strategic initiatives:
To launch 35 new diverse online programs in the coming years.
All the 90 online programs upGrad offers would have a start date of every month rather than every quarter as done previously, to cope with the growing demand.
To become the first in India to disburse university-approved degrees through blended, online degree programs.
Strengthen its global footprint by targeting the 40-million-strong South Asian migrant population worldwide.
To add another 26 offline experience centres on top of the 26 centres that are already launched
In the next 5 years, upGrad aims to train and build the careers of over 1 million learners and expects its impact to reach at least 5 million working professionals associated with it in a cascading effect. This growing ecosystem, in the long run, will serve as the momentum for establishing it as India’s largest online higher education company with a strong focus on employability.
The company is all set to revolutionize the online learning experience and enhance the employability quotient of its learners.
“Distance learning has been the precursor to upGrad, while augmented learning will be the successor. As a virtual university, we want both students and educators to benefit from embracing new technologies for higher education. Universities on the other side of the globe have been quick to adopt new-age technologies. It’s time our country picked up the pace, as upGrad’s online power learning experience is as good as offline, if not better.” – Mayank Kumar.
Ronnie Screwvala stated that the number of students aligned to the platform will rise to 3 million by the end of FY23. Besides, he also indicated that the edtech platform is targeting $500 million in gross revenue for FY23. An IPO seemed ahead for the unicorn edtech company in the next 2 years, going by its statements of Ronnie.
“We are in active discussions. There are some interesting opportunities in these times and some great entrepreneurs too, and we are excited to bring those companies into upGrad as we look at growth this year,” said Upgrad
UpGrad is planning to acquire US-based edtech Udacity as per various reports from June 2023.
FAQs
Who are the founders of the upGrad learning platform?
upGrad was founded in 2015 byRonnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and Ravijot Chugh.
Who is Upgrad’s CEO?
Arjun Mohan is the CEO of upGrad.
When was upGrad started?
upGrad was founded in 2015.
Who are the top Competitors of upGrad?
The top competitors of upGrad are Coursera, Edureka, Simplilearn, and Unacademy.
How much is upGrad’s operating revenue?
upGrad’s operating revenue was recorded at Rs 679 crore in FY22..
Is upGrad free?
Some of the courses offered by upGrad are free. To make the most out of upGrad’s features, you should register for upGrad’s paid programs.
How is upGrad login done?
You can conveniently login to the upGrad learning platform simply by signing up at the upGrad website/app, and then proceeding to Log in to the same.
What are upGrad free courses?
Along with the paid/premium courses, upGrad also has a collection of upGrad free courses, where the students and professionals can learn almost everything from Data Science to Technology and Management without spending anything.
What is the upgrad mission and vision?
The upGrad mission and vision are:
“Making our learners achieve their desired outcomes.” – UpGrad mission.
“Powering career success for every member of the global workforce as their trusted lifelong learning partner.” – UpGrad vision.
India ranks 71 out of 154 countries in terms of female entrepreneurial activity. IMF suggests a 5% boost in global GDP with increasing women’s participation in entrepreneurship.
India, the land where Goddesses are regarded as mothers, where women are regarded as sisters, where traditions and diversity weave a rich tapestry of culture and respect, where ancient wisdom and modern aspirations converge to shape a vibrant and ever-evolving nation, also where women are faced with traditional and contemporary challenges yet working together to rewrite the narrative of their empowerment and equality.
Mostly, across India, women are ridiculed as the ‘home minister’, a term which men have curated to glorify the efforts of their female counterparts at home but might have forgotten to dignify their roles and contributions in the broader society, in the workplace.
Gender Disparities in Entrepreneurship: A Stark Reality
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2022/2023 report, India ranks 71 out of 154 countries in terms of female entrepreneurial activity. This means that only 16.1% of women in India are engaged in entrepreneurial activity, compared to 24.6% of men. Also, the Sixth Economic Census of India, conducted in 2014, found that just 13.76% of businesses in India were owned by women.
Dr. Rabiaah Bhatia, Founder, eD WebStudio Channel, admitted that India’s growth story is an incredible one, “but the unfortunate truth is that it has left behind a key demographic component: women”. She shared that societal beliefs and cultural norms are major stumbling blocks for women.
“Women are assumed to be primary caregivers, making professional work, especially outside the home, secondary. It is far from easy to juggle running a household and a business at the same time, even if domestic workers are brought into the picture. Moreover, social permission to work is often tough to obtain due to cultural practices and safety considerations. Together, this leads to reduced mobility, and in turn, reduced likelihood of becoming successful startup founders,” Dr. Bhatia added.
She also stated that, although there is a wind of change blowing today with women-led unicorns, still there is a lack of inspirational role models in terms of successful women-led businesses, making it difficult for them to visualize what success looks like.
The Funding Challenge
A 2022 study by the World Bank found that women entrepreneurs in India are more likely to be denied access to loans than male entrepreneurs. The study also found that women entrepreneurs who are able to secure loans tend to pay higher interest rates than male entrepreneurs.
Nirupama VG, Founder, AdAstra Consultants, said, “Fundraising, inherently a daunting endeavor, often presents challenges for female entrepreneurs in India. The World Economic Forum study tells some numbers: Female entrepreneurs secured 5.2% of the outstanding credit offered by Indian public sector banks. Even more, only 0.3% of India’s venture capital funding was allocated to women-led startups in 2021, leading to an unmet credit gap exceeding $11.4 billion for women-led businesses.”
Another study by the International Labour Organization in 2021 found that women entrepreneurs in India are more likely to face gender stereotypes and discrimination than male entrepreneurs. The study reflected that women entrepreneurs are often stereotyped as being less capable than men entrepreneurs and are less likely to be taken seriously by investors and customers.
Nirupama expressed that being a woman entrepreneur is a journey of confronting multifaceted challenges. “While it’s tough to pin down the ‘biggest’ challenge, what stands out is the pressure to reconcile traditional gender roles with the demands of a growing business,” she added.
The Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem, although rapidly evolving, still retains remnants of a mindset that is less welcoming to women. Sectors that are perceived as ‘women-friendly’ are limited, and the lack of institutional and societal support intensifies the challenge.
Also, in 2020, a report from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor underscored the significant disparity in access to support networks and mentorship between female and male entrepreneurs in India. Female entrepreneurs, it revealed, frequently experience isolation and a lack of the vital support systems that are crucial for success.
Dr. Malini Saba, a multifaceted entrepreneur and philanthropist, and Founder and Chairman of Anannke Foundation mentioned that a multi-pronged strategy is required to address this issue, including cultural attitude changes, laws supporting gender equality, and programmes that give women access to education, mentorship, and financial support.
Based on her experience as a businesswoman, psychologist, and advocate for women and girls, Dr. Saba recommended aspiring women entrepreneurs to:
Have Self-assurance: Have confidence in your abilities and objectives. Self-assurance is crucial for overcoming obstacles and persevering in the face of difficulties.
Keep Upgrading: Invest in obtaining the education and training you need to become an expert in your chosen area. Success is attainable through ongoing learning.
Establish a Support System: Surround yourself with mentors and advisors who can guide you toward success. Find other female business owners who can inspire you and provide advice.
Develop Resilience: Failures and setbacks are common when starting a business. Develop resiliency and the ability to learn from these experiences.
Gender Stereotypes: Challenge gender stereotypes and resist letting society’s expectations dictate your career. Push boundaries and challenge gender preconceptions in your chosen field.
Financial Literacy: Have a good understanding of your company’s finances. This includes creating a budget, making financial plans, and, if required, obtaining funds.
Well-being: Strive for a healthy work-life balance and practice self-care. Maintaining one’s physical and emotional well-being requires practicing self-care.
Promote Gender Equality: Promote gender equality in your field and neighborhood. Make use of your platform to uplift and encourage other women.
Adapt and Innovate: In the fast-paced corporate environment, innovation, and the capacity to adapt are essential. Observe industry trends and remain receptive to fresh concepts.
Give Back: As you achieve success, think about supporting efforts that empower other women and girls or giving back to your community.
Nonetheless, as Nirupama stated, it is not just about securing a seat at the table; it is often about advocating for one’s worth in an ecosystem that often undervalues the perspectives and potential of women entrepreneurs. Such disparities are not just statistics; they narrate stories of perseverance, adaptability, and determination of women who’ve succeeded against the odds. We must champion a shift that goes beyond acknowledging these disparities, prioritizing inclusion, and equitable support for such leaders.
Jaya Mehrotra, Founder of Women Leadership Circle, stated that as we witness a shift towards greater diversity and inclusion, women need to actively seize these opportunities. She also mentioned that networking plays a pivotal role in this journey. Building connections with successful entrepreneurs, both men and women, can provide invaluable guidance, open doors to partnerships, and foster collaborations.
Furthermore, a study by the International Monetary Fund suggests that there can be a 5% boost in the global GDP with the increasing participation of women in entrepreneurship. However, the road to achieving gender equality in entrepreneurship in India is undoubtedly a challenging one. Despite the rich cultural heritage and the strength of Indian women, there are systemic and societal barriers that continue to impede their progress in the entrepreneurial space.
As the digital lending sector continues to witness remarkable growth and transformation, StartupTalky interacted with Mr. Ankur Handa, Co-Founder and President of Lentra, to discuss the challenges that the digital lending industry currently faces and how Lentra is actively addressing them. Mr. Handa also shed light on the key trends that are shaping the industry.
Lentra, a prominent player in the digital lending arena, has been at the forefront of innovation, pioneering new strategies to maintain a competitive edge. From enhancing accessibility to ensuring data protection compliance, the interaction explored critical aspects of the industry’s growth and development.
StartupTalky: Hello, I am Sayantan, and we are joined by Mr. Ankur Handa, Co-Founder and President of Lentra. Welcome to StartupTalky, Mr. Handa. How are you today?
Mr. Handa: Very well, thank you so much for having me here.
StartupTalky: It is a pleasure to have you here today. I am sure our audience is eager to learn more about Lentra and the digital lending market. Let us dive right in. What key trends do you see in the digital lending industry, and how is Lentra innovating to stay ahead?
Mr. Handa: The lending technology landscape in India is undergoing significant transformation, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. One notable shift is the substantial growth in retail credit consumption, now surpassing commercial lending for the first time in history.
What is most striking is the pluralism we see in our credit markets today. Credit is no longer limited to the salaried class or industrialists. It is now accessible to a diverse range of individuals, including street vendors, entrepreneurs, farmers, students, and homemakers. This expanded accessibility is largely attributed to initiatives like Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar, and the widespread penetration of mobile internet. As we move towards a digitally connected world, this inclusivity becomes a significant equalizer for our diverse society.
Another notable trend is the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is not only revolutionizing the way we assess creditworthiness but also changing the speed and scope of these assessments. It is enabling us to reach a broader customer base and customize services. One impactful application is leveraging business intelligence to address challenges related to accurately targeting potential customers. We are witnessing a shift towards a greater focus on “Government-to-Customer” (G2C) interactions, with initiatives like India Stack playing a pivotal role, particularly in sectors like agriculture and rural development.
The decentralization of credit is another compelling trend. Initiatives like the Open Credit Enablement Network are standardizing the flow of credit among borrowers, lenders, and credit distributors. This move represents a democratization of financial services. As a certified TSP with Samadhi and Credit AI, Lentra leverages extensive cash flow data and a vast network of retailers to facilitate rapid underwriting.
Additionally, co-lending is gaining traction, emphasizing customer-centricity and relationship management. There’s potential for non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to collaborate with public sector banks, capitalizing on lower costs of funds to develop innovative business models.
Lastly, the growing trend of “APIfication” is reshaping our industry. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are being integrated into various aspects of our operations. At Lentra, we have integrated our Lending APIs and Origination journeys with brands, OEMs, dealership chains, and merchant networks.
StartupTalky: Thank you for sharing those trends, Mr. Handa. Now, moving on to challenges in the industry, what are the major challenges that the digital lending industry is currently grappling with, and how is Lentra tackling them?
Mr Handa: One of the key challenges we face is accelerating our reach in a fast-growing market like India. We are not satisfied with a 7% growth rate; we aim for more. To achieve this, we need to revolutionize our digital distribution channels. Unlike in the past when we relied on physical branches, today, customers have numerous digital channels to access loan products.
However, the challenge is tailoring these digital options to diverse customer segments. In rural areas, where a fancy website may not be practical, we need to use voice and other native digitization methods. For millennials and college students, a simple message or WhatsApp can complete the loan journey. Meanwhile, commercial lending to enterprises requires a different approach.
The main challenge and opportunity lie in building robust digital distribution networks. Outside of that, as technology advances, security becomes a growing concern. With India’s growing economy, we anticipate a significant increase in security and fraud attacks by 2030. We must establish the right safeguards to protect our economy.
In contrast, India excels in automation, insights, AI, collaboration with the ecosystem, and product innovation. These areas are not challenges but strengths for us, thanks to initiatives like India Stack. My focus is on addressing security and reimagining digital distribution as the top two long-term challenges.
StartupTalky: All right. Since we have touched on distribution and security, so, my next questions revolve around these aspects. How is Lentra striving to enhance accessibility and inclusivity in digital lending, considering the diverse demographics? What strategies is Lentra employing in this regard?
Mr. Handa: Our primary focus has been close collaboration with government initiatives. While terms like B2B and B2C are well-known, we have been forward-looking with a focus on G2C (Government-to-Customer). We have been early adopters of initiatives like Aadhaar, the Greater India Stack, eSign, and eKYC on our lending platform.
We have also played a role in creating unique products. For example, we worked with a large bank to enable agricultural products like cattle finance loans and Kisan credit cards in just 90 days, benefiting rural farmers in Gujarat.
There is a lot of innovation happening in response to government initiatives. The Account Aggregator, ONDC, OCEN, GeM Sahay, and related products are contributing to financial inclusion.
Financial inclusion has come a long way. Credit card spending and personal loans are at all-time highs. However, we must ensure the sustainability of this credit growth and responsible lending practices. As a technology provider, we aim to support banks in lending responsibly to avoid repeating past mistakes, such as the 2007 crisis. The current NPA levels are at an all-time low of 3.9%, reflecting cleaner books.
Financial inclusion is already happening, with a focus on retail products in both public and private sector banks. As a digital lending enabler, we are committed to creating new product offerings while maintaining sustainable models and robust underwriting, even when using alternate data and algorithms. Our goal is to avoid artificial growth bubbles.
StartupTalky: Thank you for your insights, Mr. Handa. Now, moving on to data protection and security, considering the recent Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, are there additional steps that Lentra needs to take to ensure compliance with the regulation once it is implemented?
Mr. Handa: The key highlights from the Personal Data Protection Act are significant. The most notable aspect is the potential financial penalties, which can go up to 250 crore rupees for each instance of non-compliance. Data processing agreements are mandatory before outsourcing activities to third parties, even for Lentra, requiring scrutiny before using a solution.
The Act also emphasizes periodic data protection impact assessments, mandatory for significant data fiduciaries. The impact assessment focuses on data, application, and infrastructure security, which must be designed for future challenges, not just current ones. India’s growing ecosystem means security threats will also increase.
Details regarding the Act’s implementation may need clarification, likely after the establishment of the Data Protection Board of India, as outlined in the law. Lentra is actively discussing interpretations with banks and their risk teams.
We have taken proactive steps to structure and process consent-based personal data sets for future adaptability. Data storage, encryption, and retention strategies will need reassessment and reimagination. This is an iterative but mandatory process to ensure data security for all Indians.
Security is fundamental for Lentra, with compliance to ISO 27001, ISO 27018, ISO 22301, SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, and AES 256-bit encryption already in place. As we gain more clarity, we will further reinforce and adapt these processes to the evolving ecosystem.
StartupTalky: Since you mentioned the need for further clarification on government policies, especially regarding the Data Protection Act, do you have any specific recommendations for government policies that could better support the growth of Indian startups in general?
Mr. Handa: Absolutely, there is more to be done. India has made significant strides in digital finance and payments, with UPI being a headline story. The scale, speed, and unit economics have amazed the world, and India is at the forefront of the fourth industrial revolution.
The government can play a crucial role in two ways. Firstly, it can further accelerate the positive momentum within India. Secondly, it can help Indian companies, like ours, take their products to the global stage. Initiatives like expanding UPI to other countries are promising.
As a private player, we are eager to take the Indian success story worldwide, but we need a conducive environment. Events like the G20 have been instrumental in promoting the Indian narrative on a global scale.
On the home front, credit needs to be integrated into daily life. The government can encourage this by creating frameworks that enable affordability aspects of lending in various sectors like tourism, health, and education. We have the technology stack ready; now we need the right policy framework.
We envision providing credit throughout a person’s life, from college to retirement, with various credit products offered by banks and other industries. This holistic approach can benefit individuals in rural areas and tier four and five cities. It is time to explore how we can make this a reality in India.
StartupTalky: Mr. Handa, I have one more question, a bit hypothetical. Currently, commodity-based businesses use their commodities as collateral for loans. So, in this digital age, is it conceivable that companies might use data as collateral for securing credit in the near or distant future? What are your thoughts on this possibility?
Mr. Handa: Today, I am in Delhi, where we hosted an event with friends from the banking fraternity. One interesting discussion point was a banker’s dream of creating an all-digital loan against property journeys with no paper involved. I believe this aspiration can become a reality.
I see hope in the increasing digitization of daily life. From making payments through Google Pay to accessing documents in DigiLocker, these building blocks are aligning. It is conceivable that property purchases and land records could end up in a DigiLocker in the future, although this will involve complex security measures.
India Stack has played a crucial role in this journey, starting with Aadhaar’s identity layer, and now expanding to consent and data layers, including account aggregators. As these layers evolve, they will trigger a chain reaction, although predicting the exact outcome is challenging.
One thing is certain: there’s hope, belief, and the right tools, capabilities, and environment to make it happen. If this transformation occurs anywhere in the world, it will be in India. The next step is to create an environment for India’s success story to benefit other communities and countries, promoting inclusive growth and economic development.
While we aim for growth and revenue with ethical practices at Lentra, the ultimate goal is to see both Lentra and India thrive economically.
StartupTalky: As you rightly said, India has definitely made significant strides in digital payments and fintech, surpassing the West in many aspects. So, moving on to my final question, what is your outlook for the industry, and what advice do you have for budding entrepreneurs?
Mr. Handa: I would say take a fearless leap. When I started Lentra with my partner, DV, we were in our fourth year, incubating this idea. I came from a corporate background, having worked at Capgemini and Barclays. It was a pivotal moment, and I am glad I took the chance. Some things cannot be meticulously planned; they unfold in unexpected ways.
Facing challenges, patience, and persistence are crucial. We have adopted an iterative approach, not starting with a grand plan but having a vision and adapting along the way. We have made mistakes but also made more right decisions, which got us this far. We cannot become complacent; curiosity and a hunger for growth are essential.
We are fortunate to thrive in India, where the ecosystem is expanding, attracting global giants like Apple and Google. Indian entrepreneurs have the opportunity to create localized solutions that cater to India’s unique needs. Opportunities surround us, and we should take the risk, have courage, and improvise. It is a conducive environment with ample support and resources available. So, my advice is to go for it.
StartupTalky: Thank you, Mr. Handa, for sharing your valuable insights. I have learned a lot, and I am sure our audience has too. We appreciate your time, and we look forward to future interactions whenever the opportunity arises.
Mr. Handa: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. It has been a pleasure interacting with you.
Selected startups to receive INR 80 lakhs with a follow-on provisioning of INR 8 crore, along with mentorship by Israel’s climate tech leaders.
New Delhi, 27th September 2023 – Building on the success of its inaugural Green Mobility cohort, SanchiConnect, a community focused on deep-tech startups, investors, and corporations, announced the second iteration of its PreSeed Accelerator program, named “Ecosphere”. The initiative is tailored for startups at the forefront of Climate Tech and Sustainability. In its first cohort, SanchiConnect focused on Green Mobility, where six PoC-stage startups were each infused with INR 75 lakhs. These startups are undergoing a 100-day mentorship program, complemented by market access initiatives. With Ecosphere, SanchiConnect is elevating its commitment by earmarking funds ranging from INR 80 lakhs to INR 1.2 crore each for the 6–8 startups that will be handpicked for this cohort.
The application process for Ecosphere is open to entrepreneurs aiming to tackle climate and sustainability challenges. The application deadline is October 8, 2023, and all applicants will receive a response by October 21, 2023, regardless of their selection status. The selection process involves multiple rounds of evaluation for screened applicants, ultimately leading to an in-person interview and thorough due diligence. During the acceleration phase, the chosen eight companies will receive funding right from Day 0. They will embark on a transformative 100-day journey that includes a blend of mentorship sessions, both in-person and virtual, along with invaluable Go-To-Market support.
India has rapidly risen to prominence in the Climate Tech arena, ranking 9th globally in Climate Tech Investments. The sector has witnessed a meteoric rise, with investments surging from $7 billion in 2021 to a staggering $22.5 billion in 2022. The leading sectors in this remarkable journey include Energy (40%), Electric Vehicles (30%), Hydrogen and Biofuels (20%), all aligning with the COP26 pledge of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070. As India gears up for double-digit growth and a 25% rise in consumer adoption, it is clearly steering the nation towards a greener and more sustainable future.
Ecosphere’s focus is expansive, encompassing a wide array of sectors within Climate Tech and Sustainability. This includes, but is not limited to, Energy and Electrification, Carbon Capture and Storage, Supply Chain Traceability, Water Conservation, Waste Management, Circular Economy, Alternate Fuels, and Climate Finance.
Addison Appu, VP of Investments, ThinKuvate, believes “Climate and sustainability goals are no longer a mere target but a “necessity” for long term survival”. Climate-tech will require funding across various segments. Partnering with SanchiConnect, via the Ecosphere program will play a pivotal role to identify, accelerate the development and adoption of solutions that can make a real impact ”
Rajnish Kapur, Managing Partner, Indian Angels Network “In today’s rapidly evolving climate tech landscape, it’s crucial to invest in solutions that have a lasting impact. Our involvement with SanchiConnect in this Ecosphere accelerator is more than financial; it’s a commitment to nurturing an ecosystem that prioritises sustainability. We’re not just backing startups; we’re investing in the future of our planet.”
Shoeb Ali, Managing Partner, Transition VC, “We believe that fundamental changes in technology are happening as we speak—energy, mobility, semiconductors, etc.—which will give rise to opportunities for startups to innovate in the domain. Being India’s 1st New Energy focused fund, we are excited to partner with SanchiConnect for this accelerator, together, as a decarbonization-focused fund and a climate-focused accelerator, we’re not just investing in innovation; we’re investing in the transformation of our planet for generations to come.”
However, Ecosphere is more than just a funding initiative. It’s a comprehensive ecosystem that promises startups unparalleled market access, mentorship from luminaries in the Israel climate tech sphere, and significant industry visibility. Esteemed institutional investors associated with Ecosphere include Thinkuvate, Transition Venture Fund, Indian Angels Network, and Climate9ers. In addition, the current cohort is also planning to bring in super angels who will have access to invest alongside the program.
Commenting on the launch of their new accelerator program, Dr.Sunil Shekhawat, CEO of SanchiConnect, said, “We are fervent believers in the transformative potential of innovation within India’s burgeoning Climate Tech ecosystem. Our mission is to cultivate and empower visionary entrepreneurs dedicated to advancing climate solutions and working towards a more sustainable future.”
For startups poised to make a difference in the climate tech arena, Ecosphere presents a golden opportunity. Applications are now open on the SanchiConnect website as well as the GOI’s Manthan platform. The last date for startup applications is October 8, 2023.
Businesses are excited to meet surging consumer demand and capitalize on increased spending. They are implementing efficient supply chain strategies to meet the extra demand.
As India’s festive season approaches, businesses are gearing up to meet the surging consumer demand. From the illuminating Diwali lights to the joyous Eid celebrations, this period is not only culturally significant but also a pivotal time for businesses to capitalize on increased consumer spending. The season comes with its own unique set of challenges and opportunities, making it an exciting time for retailers and marketers alike.
Mr. Sumit Garg, Co-Founder and Managing Director, of Luxury Ride, expressed the excitement among buyers and their willingness to increase spending during the festive period. He said that the festive season is set to arrive in full swing, and it is stirring a lot of excitement among the buyers. They have been awaiting the festive period for a very long time, and they are willing to raise their spending to purchase the product they have been eyeing for a very long time.
He also mentioned that similar sentiments have been witnessed even in the pre-owned luxury car segment, and Luxury Ride is curating a comprehensive collection of cars that offer the best value for money, based on an understanding of consumer behavior and demands.
“Preparing for the festive season, we are already in the process of organizing an inventory that flaunts a wide range of options in terms of diversity in car models, price range, or showcasing vehicles from different segments under a single roof. By maintaining more than 75+ cars in the inventory at a given point in time, we aspire to make shopping a hassle-free experience for customers by allowing them to choose from a wide range of options in terms of price and variety that are available at the same place. The extensive collection will enable them to select from a variety of cars in the segments of sedans and SUVs ranging from Rs 20 Lakhs to Rs 1.25 Crore,” Mr Garg added.
The festive season is when most Indians spend money on gifts. While speaking with Abhishek Vyas, Founder of SBMV Gift Shop, he highlighted regional and demographic variations in spending patterns during the festive season. He said, “At SBMV, we are offering a wide range of high-quality gifts at competitive prices, plus promotions and discounts throughout the season. We are well-positioned to capitalize on the growth of the Indian gift shop industry.”
He also shared that the spending pattern varies across different regions of India and among different demographic groups depending on the festival. While people in northern India tend to spend more on Diwali, people in the southern part, especially in Kerala, tend to spend more on Onam. Similarly, younger people are more likely to spend money on experiences and gifts that give back, while older people are more likely to spend money on traditional gifts.
To capitalize on the increased consumer spending during the festive season, Mr. Gurpreet Singh, Director of River of Design (ROD) said that they have a multifaceted strategy in place. “We recognize the importance of offering exclusive and innovative designs that resonate with Gen Z, our primary target audience. Our commitment to delivering cutting-edge style and design ensures that we remain at the forefront of fashion during this crucial period. We will introduce special festive collections that cater specifically to the tastes and preferences of our Gen Z customers, ensuring that our products are not just fashionable but also affordable.”
Additionally, he mentioned that ROD would collaborate with leading brands to create exclusive lines available only on platforms like Myntra and Flipkart. These collaborations not only would boost their visibility but also would align them with established names in the fashion industry, attracting a wider customer base. He also shared that the latest trend in this festive season spending reflects a growing emphasis on sustainability and innovation in fashion for which they have developed unique blends of yarn with eco-friendly indigo dyes.
How Festive Season Spending Differs in India by Region and Demographics
Mr. Nitish Rai, Co-founder and CEO of Freightfox, said, “The country saw over 19% increase in GST collections in August 2023 over August 2022. The highest contributions came in from Bihar (27.25%) followed by West Bengal (24.5%) and UP (18.52%). Most of our customers saw a 10-12% increase in demand at the onset of the festive season in August, which is expected to further rise in September and October before we start seeing a decline.”
The difference in average transaction value or basket size between the festive season and non-festive season in the gifting industry can vary depending on several factors, including the specific type of gifts, consumer behavior, and the strategies employed by retailers. Mr Vyas of SBMV Gift Shop said that during the festive season, especially leading up to major holidays such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Eid, and others, the average transaction value or basket size tends to be higher compared to the non-festive season.
Transaction Size Variations During Festive Season
Businesses are implementing efficient supply chain strategies to meet the increased demand, ensuring that their products are readily available to their customers. Mr. Singh of ROD said, “As part of our expansion plans, we are targeting Tier II and Tier III cities where 70-75% of our orders originate. This expansion will further strengthen our presence in these regions and enhance our ability to meet the diverse market demands during the festive season.”
Mr. Rai, of Freightfox, emphasized their commitment to empowering manufacturing enterprises with actionable insights on Scope3 emissions from the transportation and distribution value chains. Their Logistics Emissions Abatement Platform (LEAP) aims to help customers account for their logistics emissions and encourage the use of greener fleets in transportation networks. For Freightfox, it’s not just about making profits during the festive season; it’s also about making a tangible difference in minimizing their environmental footprint and contributing positively to the community and the environment as a whole.
Fostering Connections Beyond Sales
Ms. Akanksha Sharma, Co-founder and CEO of CITTA, emphasized the importance of fostering connections and respecting customers’ faith and traditions. She believes that the moments of cultural significance are not merely occasions to exchange gifts and pleasantries; they are an opportunity for brands to embrace the spirit of togetherness and innovation.
She said, “The festive season is not just an opportunity to boost sales; it’s a chance to foster connections. We understand that festivals are deeply rooted in people’s lives, and we approach this season with the utmost respect for our customers’ faith, beliefs, and traditions. As a brand rooted in Indian traditions and backed by modern science, we take pride in being part of this tapestry. Our commitment is not only to pamper the delicate skin of babies and provide convenience to modern parents but also to celebrate the cultural richness of India, where ancient traditions harmoniously meet modern science.”
Ms. Neha Mohanty, Founder of StarFishGlobal Communications LLP, said, “Giving gifts to those in need is how I give back to the community. Instead of exchanging gifts among ourselves, if we can simply give a portion of it to people in need, it will make a significant difference in their lives.”
She emphasized the importance of coming together during the holiday season to purchase necessities like warm clothing, blankets, and toiletries, which can then be distributed to those in need within the community. She shared that this is a tradition she personally follows every year and encouraged everyone to consider it as it adds depth and meaning to the festive season and enables individuals to contribute meaningfully to their community. Neha suggested that giving back during the holidays provides a genuine experience of the holiday spirit.
With a growing emphasis on sustainability and innovation, businesses are not only preparing for increased consumer spending but are also actively engaging in eco-friendly initiatives. Collaborations with leading brands and a focus on sustainability are poised to shape this year’s festive season.
Moreover, logistics and supply chain expansion into Tier II and Tier III cities is pivotal in meeting diverse market demands during this festive period. It is clear that businesses are not only preparing for sales but also actively engaging with their customers to make this festive season truly special.
As the e-commerce market in India continues to grow, more and more entrepreneurs are looking for ways to establish an online presence for their businesses. One popular platform for creating an online store is Shopify. Shopify is a well-known and widely used platform, but it may not be the best fit for every business. Factors such as pricing, customization options, and local payment methods can play a crucial role in choosing the right platform for an Indian business. In this blog, we’ll discuss the best Shopify alternatives in India.
Many businesses are looking to go online in India at present, and due to a lack of knowledge about options, they choose Shopify. Although the catch is that Shopify has not been created to suit the Indian market or Indian sellers for that matter- everything from pricing to plans, seller support, and even the underlying tech is more suitable for US-based businesses.
This obviously proves to be a problem for Indian sellers. But, now there are several eCommerce platforms available that have been developed keeping in mind Indian entrepreneurs. These alternatives offer a range of features and pricing options, making it possible for businesses of all sizes to find a solution that fits their needs. In this article, we will explore some of the top Shopify alternatives in India and compare their features and pricing over the Shopify platform.
Even though it is a legacy platform, and immensely popular, Shopify still cannot be the perfect eCommerce platform for all businesses. In fact, Shopify falls short of many basic needs when it comes to Indian entrepreneurs. There are several reasons why a business in India may want to consider trying a Shopify alternative:
Cost: Shopify’s pricing plans may not be suitable for businesses on a tight budget. Alternatives like WooCommerce and BigCommerce offer lower monthly fees and the ability to use your own hosting, which can save a significant amount of money in the long run.
Customization: Some alternatives offer more advanced customization options and the ability to add custom functionality through plugins and extensions. This gives businesses more control over the design and functionality of their online store.
Local Payment Options: Shopify does not offer all Indian payment gateways like UPI and net banking. Alternatives like Instamojo offer Indian payment gateways, which can be a crucial factor for businesses looking to sell products to a local market.
Scalability: Some alternatives are more scalable and can better handle a large number of products and high traffic volume. This makes them a better option for businesses that anticipate significant growth in the future.
Control: Some alternatives are open-source, which means they can be customized according to the business’s specific needs and you have full control of the platform.
How to Choose the Best Shopify Alternative
Choosing the best Shopify alternative for your business can be a complex process, but there are several key factors to consider when making your decision:
Ease of Use.
Value for Money.
Seller Support.
Features and Benefits.
User reviews.
Local Payment Options
Third-Party Integration.
Ultimately, the best Shopify alternative for your business will depend on your unique needs, budget, and goals. By carefully considering each of these factors, you’ll be able to make an informed decision and choose the platform that best suits your business.
Tip: Try out a few options yourself before choosing one alternative.
Best Shopify Alternatives in India
Here are the best Shopify alternatives in India that you should consider:
Dukaan
Website
Mydukaan.io
Rating
4.4/5
Free Trial
7 Days
Best suited for
Small business owners in India
Customer Support
Available in chat, email, and phone
Dukaan – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
Dukaan is an easy-to-use & convenient eCommerce platform, built keeping in mind the needs of small business owners in India. It enables sellers to create an online storefront in less than 1 minute!
Dukaan is the best Shopify alternative in India, with powerful eCommerce capabilities, easy to use, and scalable. Selling online with Dukaan is as easy as creating a WhatsApp group. Sellers can simply download the app on their phones and manage their stores on the go!
It offers sellers a wide range of marketing features and tools to manage their online stores, and with the benefits of zero commissions on sales and complete control over their stores, sellers can start and manage their online business in the easiest way possible.
How to Start an Online Store in Under 5 Minutes | Dukaan
Features of Dukaan
Stores are optimized for mobile devices, ensuring that they look and function great on smartphones and tablets.
Integration with a range of other apps and tools, including payment gateways, shipping providers, and accounting software.
Provides real-time analytics and reporting on store performance, including sales, traffic, and customer engagement.
Offers a range of tools for promoting and marketing the store, including social media integration, email marketing, and SEO optimization.
You can customize the look and feel of your store, including the layout, colors, and branding elements.
Provides robust mobile app for managing products, including adding new items, editing existing ones, and setting prices.
Why Choose Dukaan Over Shopify?
Dukaan has its own delivery network known as “Dukaan delivery”, this provides affordable rates and helps sellers not to rely on other third-party delivery services. While with Shopify, you need to integrate with other third-party delivery services.
The mobile app of Dukaan is more robust compared to Shopify. Using the app you can manage almost everything from customizing your store to third-party integration. It has a simple and user-friendly interface for creating and managing an online store, whereas Shopify can be more complex and require more technical knowledge.
Dukaan offers built-in social media integrations that make it easy for small businesses to sell on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. Shopify also offers social media integration but the process is complicated compared to Dukaan.
Dukaan is specifically designed for small businesses and independent sellers, whereas Shopify caters to a wider range of businesses and industries. So if you are a small business then Dukaan is the best choice for you.
Pricing Plan
Plans
Quarterly Price
Yearly Price
Silver
₹533/month, billed quarterly ₹1,599
₹375/month, billed yearly ₹4,499
Gold
₹1,066/month, billed quarterly ₹3,199
₹750/month, billed yearly ₹8,999
Platinum
₹3,333/month, billed quarterly ₹9,999
₹2,500/month, billed yearly ₹29,999
BigCommerce
Website
www.bigcommerce.com
Rating
4.4/5
Free Trial
15 Days
Best suited for
Retail businesses of all sizes
Customer Support
Available in chat, email, and phone
BigCommerce – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
BigCommerce is a powerful and versatile e-commerce platform that offers a wide range of features and tools to help businesses create and manage online stores with ease. It is a solid Shopify alternative for businesses in India that need more advanced features and more control over their online store.
This provides a range of third-party apps and integrations to help businesses expand their capabilities and reach. This includes popular apps such as Google Analytics, Salesforce, and MailChimp, as well as integrations with popular shipping and logistics providers. Whether you’re a small business just starting out or a large enterprise looking to expand your online presence, BigCommerce has the tools and capabilities to help you succeed.
Features of BigCommerce
It helps to easily create a professional-looking website without any coding or design experience.
Provides tools for managing products, inventory, shipping, payments, and integration with popular payment gateways.
Stencil CLI tool that helps to test the tool before publishing on the website.
In-built global CDN that helps to load your site quickly anywhere in the world.
Built-in SEO optimization, email marketing, and social media integration to help businesses increase visibility and drive traffic to their online stores.
Detailed reports and analytics on sales, traffic, and customer behavior, helping store owners make data-driven decisions.
Why Choose BigCommerce Over Shopify?
There are multiple reasons to choose BigCommerce over Shopify and the most prominent reason is the saving on each transaction. BigCommerce charges a 0% transaction charge on every online transaction that happens. This will increase your revenue by not sharing any fees on the transaction. While on the other hand, Shopify charges transaction fees on every transaction based on the plan.
Another reason is the WordPress integration. BigCommerce for WordPress is a plugin that you can use to power your e-commerce site built on WordPress. Everything that happens on the backend is handled by Bigcommerce. It also doesn’t put any cap on the number of staff that can access the site, while Shopify applies a cap on the number of Staff that can access the site.
Available in chat, email, phone, and knowledge base
WooCommerce – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
WooCommerce is an open-source eCommerce plugin for WordPress that allows you to easily create and manage an online store on your WordPress website. It is a widely used plugin and emerged as the best and cheapest alternative of Shopify. Since it is built on WordPress you’ll get more customization options compared to Shopify.
It is designed to seamlessly integrate with a WordPress website, making it easy to set up and manage an online store. It also offers a wide range of customization options, including themes and templates, to help users create a unique and professional-looking online store.
Features of WooCommerce
Using WooCommerce product management features you can easily create and manage products, including setting prices, adding images, and creating product categories.
Inventory management features to help users track stock levels and set up automatic notifications when products are low.
It can easily integrate with Google Analytics to provide detailed reports and analytics to help users track sales, customer behavior, and other key metrics.
You can manage customer information, including order history and contact details.
Built-in support for taxes and shipping rates that help you to calculate tax and shipping rates automatically.
Why Choose WooCommerce Over Shopify?
Since WooCommerce is a free open-source plugin you can start selling your products online without investing hefty money in a Shopify subscription. It includes all the basic features that an e-commerce website needs. On top of that features you can extend the functionality of your website using a variety of WooCommerce extensions available.
Because the site is built on WordPress, you can also configure other WordPress plugins Such as Yoast SEO, and OptinMonster to increase your organic reach. There are varieties of paid and free templates available that are easy to customize. Overall, WooCommerce is an affordable alternative to Shopify for new and small-size businesses.
Pricing Plan
WooCommerce offers custom plans, you can contact the vendor to get a quote.
Wix eCommerce
Website
www.wix.com
Rating
4.4/5
Free Trial
Unlimited
Best suited for
Anyone searching for a simple platform to run their online store
Customer Support
Available in chat, email, forums, and phone
Wix – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
Wix eCommerce is another great alternative to Shopify that allows users to create an online store using the Wix website builder. It helps businesses to sell products and services online, manage inventory, process payments, and track orders. Using Wix you can fully customize the design of your online store, including the layout, colors, fonts, and more.
The e-commerce feature is integrated with the Wix platform which allows you to easily add an online store to your existing website. It also offers various integrations with popular payment gateways and shipping providers. Some users find that Wix’s website builder is more intuitive and easier to use than Shopify’s, making it a better option for those who are new to e-commerce.
Businesses can set up shipping options, such as the flat rate or weight-based shipping, and configure tax settings for their store.
It helps you to manage the inventory, including tracking stock levels, setting up product variations, and creating discounts and promotions.
Provide tools for optimizing an online store for search engines and for running marketing campaigns.
It has an app market where one can find apps to add functionality to the store.
You can customize the checkout process, including fields and design, to match your branding and enhance the customer experience.
Why Choose Wix eCommerce Over Shopify?
Wix eCommerce is the most affordable option available in the market. Its plan starts from as low as Rupees 225 per month which is almost six times cheaper than what Shopify charges on its basic plan. It provides 500+ pre-built templates to choose from. You can customize these templates according to your need and give them a unique look and feel.
It is an affordable and fully featured alternative to Shopify. Additionally, it also offers a 14-day money-back guarantee with no questions asked. This means you can try this platform for 14 days and if you’re not satisfied, then you can easily cancel it, and you’ll get a full refund. It is a better deal compared to Shopify which just gives a 3-day free trial.
Available in chat, email, phone, and knowledge base
Typof – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
Typof is an innovative e-commerce solution provider committed to enabling businesses, notably D2C brands. Its AI-powered platform simplifies the establishment and operation of online businesses, making it accessible to anybody, regardless of technical ability. The platform provides a full spectrum of services, including AI-driven website development, seamless connections with key marketplaces, and performance optimization. The no-code methodology of Typof offers cost-effectiveness and ease for small business owners.
With an emphasis on innovation, usability, and personalized assistance, Typof helps companies realize the full potential of the digital marketplace by providing them with the tools they need to thrive and develop.
Features of Typof
Typof’s easy-to-use layout editor helps you create a beautiful and user-friendly website.
Its SEO optimization features help you get your website found by potential customers.
Its fast loading speeds help keep your customers happy and engaged.
Typof’s logic-based coupons help you sell more products by targeting specific customers.
Its one-click checkout makes it easy for customers to purchase from your website.
Typof’s advanced reports provide insights into your sales, traffic, and product information, so you can make informed decisions about your business.
Why Choose Typof Over Shopify?
Typof prioritizes website performance and SEO for successful ads, potentially leading to more sales.
It comes equipped with essential tools that e-commerce brands need, such as review collection, rewards, advanced coupons, and more, reducing the dependency on external apps. Unlike Shopify, where depending on multiple third-party apps can slow down your store and increase expenses.
Typof offers a faster and more efficient checkout process, which can boost your online store’s conversion rate.
Pricing Plans
Plans
Monthly Price
Yearly Price
Build
₹599/month
₹499/month
Grow
₹1,699/month
₹1,499/month
Scale
₹2,199/month
₹1,799/month
Typof X
Starting from ₹4,999/month
Starting from ₹4,999/month
Typof also offers a free-forever plan where you only pay when you make a sale—just 10% per transaction.
SquareSpace
Website
www.squarespace.com
Rating
4.6/5
Free Trial
14 Days
Best suited for
Businesses with an emphasis on creativity and visual appeal
Customer Support
Available in chat, email, forums, and phone
SquareSpace – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
SquareSpace is a great option and alternative to Shopify for building an eCommerce site. It offers a wide range of features and tools to help users create a professional and functional online store. It is considered to be more user-friendly and easy to navigate for those who are not familiar with coding, as it is intuitive and easy to use. Shopify can be a little more complex to navigate, especially for beginners.
It provides a variety of templates, design tools, and features to help users create professional-looking websites. E-commerce functionality, analytics, and other tools to help users manage and grow their online presence are also available. Squarespace also offers hosting and domain name registration services.
Squarespace Tutorial – 2023 (for Beginners) – Create A Professional Website
Features of SquareSpace
Built-in SEO tools and analytics are available to help users track their website’s performance and improve its visibility on search engines.
It automatically optimizes websites for viewing on mobile devices and ensures that they look great and are easy to navigate on smartphones.
It offers Email layouts to create professional email campaigns.
Real-time analytics on the performance of marketing campaigns.
Social media integration is available so that your audience can purchase your product directly from social media sites.
Why Choose SquareSpace Over Shopify?
The pricing of both SquareSpace and Shopify is pretty much similar, so it is not the differentiating factor. But when it comes to customization, Squarespace beats Shopify. It offers varieties of pre-built customizable templates that it further customizable using custom CSS and JavaScript.
It means if you have some knowledge of CSS you can enhance the look of your website according to your need. With Shopify, you are required to pay transaction fees, no matter which plans you choose, but in the case of SquareSpace, you’ll charge a 0% transaction fee in a higher plan.
So high customization options and no transaction charge makes Squarespace stands out from Shopify.
Instamojo provides an easy way to get your eCommerce business off the ground and run an online store. You can have access to an eCommerce website with payment, shipping, marketing functionalities and more for free.
It is better suited for Indian independent businesses, MSMEs, startups,andD2C (Direct to customer) brands, Instamojo is an easy-to-use Shopify alternative in India that provides sellers with integrated easy payments, shipping, etc. A 14-day money-back guarantee is also available.
Instamojo enables sellers to create powerful stores with eCommerce features like marketing tools to grow their businesses.
Features of Instamojo
It has a built-in payment gateway that allows businesses to accept payments from customers through various methods such as credit/debit cards, net banking, UPI, and more.
You can connect your store to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to increase visibility and reach.
Instamojo’s online store is optimized for mobile devices which makes it easy for customers to access and purchase products on their smartphones.
Provides businesses with detailed analytics and reports on their sales, traffic, and customer behavior to help them make informed decisions.
Helps to optimize your store for search engines by providing features such as meta tags, keywords, and descriptions for products.
It allows businesses to create their own unique store by customizing the layout, colors, fonts, and images.
Why Choose InstaMojo Over Shopify?
InstaMojo provides a free plan, which is great for new businesses who have just started online selling, whereas Shopify doesn’t offer any free plan, it offers a 3-day free trial.
Instamojo offers an e-commerce CRM feature that helps to build a healthy relationship with customers, while for Shopify you need to integrate with other CRM.
Instamojo is itself a payment gateway provider, it has a built-in payment gateway that can be used for online transactions. This eliminates the need for a separate payment gateway integration like in Shopify.
Instamojo allows you to automate the shipping process when you sign up with its shipping partners like Shiprocket and Shipyaari. When any order is placed on your online store, it automatically shows on your delivery dashboard.
Small Business, Startups, Medium Business, SMBs, SMEs
Customer Support
Available by Phone and Email
Shoopy – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
Shoopy is an online store provider that provides sellers with a free customized app. Shoopy is designed with advanced technology to meet the needs of both small and large businesses. Whether you need an online store for Groceries, Restaurants, beauty items, or hardware items, you can create a fully tailored solution for your business. One unique feature of Shoopy is that with it, sellers can send invoices directly to their customers through SMS or WhatsApp. It also provides invoicing, barcode inventory management, accounting, and many more capabilities.
All of the features necessary for running an online business are available. It also provides delivery and pickup services.
Features of Shoopy
Shoopy has a clean, easy-to-navigate layout that makes it simple for customers to find the products they’re looking for.
It provides their mobile app to manage the orders and look into the analytics anywhere, anytime.
It provides a point of sale that can easily be accessed through their mobile app.
Allows you to establish contact with various mediums like WhatsApp, Messenger, and call.
Customization option to customize the available theme and give a unique look and feel to your brand.
Why Choose Shoopy over Shopify?
Shoopy offers a free plan in which you’ll get all the basic features to start an online store. This is great for new businesses that are exploring the potential of online selling. While on the other hand, Shopify doesn’t provide any free plan to get started.
Management of Shoopy is much easier compared to Shopify because it provides only the features that a new business owner needs. So without any technical knowledge, you can start your online store and manage it efficiently.
Since everything in Shoopy is mobile-based, you can start your online store using your smartphone and manage orders, customize themes, and deliver orders. While for Shopify you can’t start your online store just by using the mobile app. Hence for the convenience of starting an online store without any complications, Shoopy is the best choice to consider.
Pricing Plan
Plans
Yearly Price
Free Plan
₹0
Basic Plan
₹1,799 per year
Professional Plan
₹3,999 per year
Business Plan
₹13,999 per year
Shoppiko
Website
Shoppiko.com
Rating
4.5/5
Free Trial
14 Days
Best Suited for
Small businesses & startups in India
Customer Support
Available in chat, email, and phone
Shoppiko – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
Shoppiko is one of the top Shopify alternatives in India. Utilizing Shoppiko, you can quickly and easily build an impressive eCommerce platform with a few simple clicks. This online store builder has custom designs, responsive pages, an integrated blogging platform, and many other features to create an online store. With this service, you have complete control over the appearance and user experience.
It enables sellers to grow their business internationally. Sellers have full control over their business and also get marketing and conversion tools to drive traffic and convert more visitors to their stores.
Features of Shoppiko
Provides advanced SEO optimization features that help to increase the reach of products to customers, organically.
In-built blogging to write and spread awareness about your product and services through the blog. You don’t need to rely on other blogging platforms.
Easy to create and update different pages based on the requirement such as landing pages, promo pages, and customer engagement forms.
Drag-and-drop homepage builder to customize the appearance of your online store and give it a unique look.
Device-based themes provide a different look to store on different devices.
Customer segmentation separates the customer into different lists for better targeting the marketing campaigns.
Why Choose Shoppiko Over Shopify?
Just like Shopify, Shoppiko doesn’t offer any free plan, but there is something where Shoppiko is a better choice over Shopify. The first advantage of choosing Shoppiko is its free transaction. Whenever any online transaction happens on your online store, payment providers used to charge some transaction fee over it. This transaction fee is 2%, 1%, and 0.5% on Shopify, based on which plan you choose, but when you choose Shoppiko it will cost no transaction fees.
Shoppiko offers unlimited staff accounts but Shopify limits the number of staff who can access the store. On top of that, premium themes and the premium module come free in Shoppiko whereas you need to pay extra to get the premium themes on Shopify.
Both platforms offer a free trial for their products, but Shoppiko provides a 14-day free trial whereas Shopify only provides a 3-day free trial to test its product. 3 days is not a sufficient time to test a product. Hence, you should go for Shoppiko over Shopify if you want no transaction fees and unlimited staff to get access.
Pricing Plan
Plans
Monthly Price
Yearly Price
Premium eCommerce Solution
Rs 2,499/month
Rs 1,999/ Month
Premium With Mobile Apps
Rs 5,999/ Month
Rs 4,999/ Month
BuilderFly
Website
www.builderfly.com
Rating
4.6/5
Free Trial
7 Days
Best Suited for
Small and medium-sized businesses
Customer Support
Available in chat and email
Builderfly – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
BuilderFly is a comprehensive e-commerce system that enables users to build, manage, and publish their business through its online store builder and mobile app builder features. BuilderFly is one of the top Shopify alternatives that allows entrepreneurs to sell their products under their own brand name.
Sellers can also manage all store operations through a central dashboard and use features like WhatsApp sharing, SMS marketing and live selling to improve their sales.
Features of BuilderFly
Live selling feature to sell a product to your audience in real-time while demonstrating the product.
Built-in marketing tools such as email marketing, SMS marketing, and abandoned cart recovery.
You can add functionalities to your website by installing apps from the app marketplace.
It enables you to connect your website to your social media accounts and share products on social media platforms.
A built-in analytics tool that allows users to track website traffic, sales, and other metrics.
It includes e-commerce functionality such as product management, inventory management, and shopping cart integration.
Drag-and-drop website builder to easily create and customize the website without the need to code.
Why Choose BuilderFly Over Shopify?
Today more than 50% of orders are placed using mobile devices, hence your own mobile app is also as necessary as your e-commerce site. Builderfly offers an AI-assisted mobile app builder at no additional cost. This will help you build a full-fledged robust mobile application that helps your customers place orders on your e-commerce site.
Unlike Shopify, you don’t need to rely on third-party payment providers to accept payment because BuilderFly offers an in-built payment gateway. So as soon as you make your online store, you can start accepting payments. This will provide convenience to start an online store.
Pricing Plan
Plans
Yearly Price
Starter
₹15,000 per year
Growth
₹27,500 per year
Enterprise
₹40,000 per year
Lifetime
₹1,25,000 per year
Ohoshop
Website
www.ohoshop.in
Rating
3.0/5
Free Trial
14 Days
Best Suited for
Local Retailers, Wholesalers, B2C and B2B businesses
Customer Support
Available in chat, phone, and email
Ohoshop – Best Shopify Alternatives in India
Ohoshop is an eCommerce website and mobile app builder for online storefronts. Ohoshop is an eCommerce platform that can help your business reach more customers on mobile devices. Ohoshop is created specifically for mobile use and offers users access to Android and iOS applications for their stores. It provides custom app & website development and is one of the top alternatives for Shopify in India.
It enables sellers to integrate catalogue, marketing, and content management in one place, and also SEO, SSL, and Facebook, for seamless management of their online stores.
Features of Ohoshop
The ability to set up programs like refer and earn makes your customer your brand ambassador, who markets your product to other consumers.
It allows you to sell your products on different social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Advanced reports and analytics that give a quick overview of reports like sales reports, customer reports, and product reports.
Oho mobile app is available that helps to manage orders, products, and categories.
Pre-designed templates are available to build app banners and other designs.
It includes built-in SEO optimization features, such as meta tags and sitemaps, to help improve website visibility in search engines.
It allows users to easily create and customize their e-commerce website using a simple drag-and-drop interface.
Why Choose Ohoshop Over Shopify?
Logistic management is the strong point of Ohoshop, it automatically assigns the delivery partner to every order based on the rates and delivery date. It means whenever anyone places an order on your site you don’t need to manually search for the best and most affordable courier partner to assign the orders.
Another reason to choose Ohoshop over Shopify is its robust app builder. You can build a powerful app along with the website to give your customers more options. Also, whenever any users search for your website using a mobile device, it will load the web app in the format of your native mobile app, just like Flipkart and Amazon.
Pricing is more or less the same for both platforms, hence you can choose Ohoshop if you want flexibility in logistics and a powerful mobile app.
Pricing Plan
Plans
Monthly Price
Starter
₹1,990 per month
Professional
₹2,990 per month
Advance
₹5,990 per month
Final Words
Being one of the early players in the market, Shopify garnered a lot of brand recognition and is now a common household name, but it has fallen short of some of the very basic features and benefits needed by Indian entrepreneurs. Some of the top issues that sellers in India face with Shopify are high setup costs, difficult coding & designing requirements, and overall incompatibility for small businesses. Even if you’ve already chosen Shopify, don’t be inflexible with your choice, explore these top alternatives, and choose the one that fits your needs best. Instead of going with a legacy platform just for the brand identity, try out other options for yourself and see which one can help your business grow the most!
Ultimately, the key is to find the right balance between features, cost, and the needs of your business, to establish a successful online store.
FAQs
What are some of the top Shopify alternatives in India?
Some of the top Shopify alternatives in India include Dukaan, Shoopy, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Shoppiko, OpenCart, Builderfly, Ohoshop, and Instamojo.
What are the benefits of using a Shopify alternative?
The benefits of using a Shopify alternative can include lower costs, more advanced customization options, support for Indian payment gateways, scalability, control, and the ability to integrate with other tools and apps.
Will I be able to customize my online store with a Shopify alternative?
The level of customization offered by a Shopify alternative can vary depending on the platform you choose.
Do Shopify alternatives offer Indian payment gateways?
Not all Shopify alternatives offer Indian payment gateways like UPI, net banking, and cash on delivery. Alternatives like Paytm and Instamojo offer Indian payment gateways, which can be a crucial factor for businesses looking to sell products to a local market.
What is the biggest problem with Shopify?
One of the biggest problems with Shopify is its pricing structure.
The government of India’s various initiatives and policies facilitate the growth of startups in India. Experts believe that government policies have made accessing capital easier.
India is now a booming economy for startups to prosper. Much of the credit goes to the Government of India for taking suitable initiatives to make the country a safe home for Indian startups to thrive. The recently concluded G20 summit has promised to facilitate global collaboration and raise a whopping $1 trillion by 2030, hence, Indian startups can see the Sun shining bright for long enough to give them the space and time to “frost themselves”’.
It doesn’t matter which sector your business is catering to, whether it’s fintech, SaaS, or prop-tech; government initiatives serve businesses as a whole. This provides them with the opportunity to grow and meet the needs of not only people in the metros but also those in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities, and smaller towns.
Kanika Bali, Partner, Optimyze Finance LLP, stated that India’s startup ecosystem has been on an unprecedented growth trajectory, establishing itself as the third-largest startup hub globally. With over 99,000 DPIIT-recognized startups spread across 670 districts as of May 2023, India’s prowess in innovation and entrepreneurship is undeniable. This remarkable achievement is not confined to a single sector, with startups emerging in 56 diverse industrial sectors, showcasing the nation’s versatility and dynamism.
Ms. Bali also added that one of the standout achievements of government policies is the exponential growth in funding, reflecting investor confidence in India’s startups. Over the period from 2015 to 2022, there has been a staggering 15-fold increase in total startup funding. This infusion of capital has catalyzed innovation, enabling startups to scale and address critical challenges across various sectors.
Jitender Ahlawat, Founder and Managing Partner, of HJA & Associates, said, “The legal environment for businesses has been greatly simplified thanks in part to the ‘Startup India’ program, which was introduced in 2016. It provides tax breaks for three consecutive financial years out of its first ten years since inception in order to lessen the financial strain on new startups and increase their appeal to investors. The program also makes it simpler for businesses to get cash by facilitating access to funds through programs like the Fund of Funds for Businesses (FoF) and credit guarantee schemes.”
StartupTalky interacted with entrepreneurs and experts from a range of industries and the government has been praised for its various startup-friendly initiatives and policies.
Mr. Saurabh Vohara, Founder and CEO, of ALYF, praised the government initiatives like Startup India and Digital India as these initiatives have given investors the trust and confidence to invest in startups.
He said, “The government’s supportive policies have been instrumental in ALYF’s journey to democratize holiday home ownership in India. Initiatives like Startup India and Digital India have given investors trust and confidence to back startups like us who are trying to solve real estate challenges through technology and AI. We believe that further enhancements to government policies including tax incentives, streamlined approvals for new project launches, and joint research initiatives will definitely continue to foster innovation and drive economic growth in the real estate startup sector.”
Dr. Nikhil Sikri, CEO and Co-founder, Zolostays, said, “The government’s decision to implement 12% GST on PG and student housing for rates less than Rs 1,000 per night and 18% for others is a progressive move that promises to bring greater clarity and efficiency. We strongly believe that this step has enhanced compliance, reduced the prevalence of unscrupulous practices, and ultimately resulted in a more sustainable co-living and student housing ecosystem.”
Moreover, he also mentioned that the government initiatives in research and startup incubation serve as the cornerstone of informed decision-making in the real estate sector. Through rigorous analysis and data-driven insights, the government has steered the course of housing policies, urban planning, and market regulations, ensuring affordability, sustainability, and economic stability. These initiatives have fostered equitable housing solutions.“We are committed to offer our patrons with high-quality, affordable co-living accommodations, and we are positive about the government regulations that will aid to further enhance an organized ecosystem,” Dr. Sikri added.
Hardware-tech
Pramod Kathuria, Founder and CEO, of Easiloan, mentioned that there needs to be a balance between support and oversight. He said, “To boost startup growth in India, government policies should focus on enhancing funding accessibility through grants and tax incentives, simplifying regulations, and promoting education and research. Favorable international trade agreements and entrepreneur-friendly visas should also be prioritized for global expansion. Striking a balance between support and oversight is key.”
Fashion
Ms.Varija Bajaj, Founder of Office & You, Lela, and Varija Design Studios, shares that the support provided by organizations like Startup India and Invest India has been truly remarkable. They have gone above and beyond in their efforts. The incentives for startups, the invaluable mentorship, and guidance on investments have been nothing short of brilliant.
“I believe these initiatives have led to the establishment of numerous incubation centers and have transformed the mindset of individuals who previously might not have considered investing in startups,” she added.
Lending-tech
Mr. Bhavik Vasa, Founder and CEO, of GetVantage, while talking about the credit deficit in the Indian SME sector mentioned that the recent government allocation announced in the Budget 2023 would foster the growth of small businesses.
He said, “In recent budget sessions, the government has allocated substantial capital for priority sector lending and introduced corporate guarantee schemes to fuel the growth of small businesses. There is a strong awareness of the need to support these sectors to achieve the goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy. This involves identifying the importance of these sectors at the government and Finance Ministry levels, along with the active participation of industry players. The government’s efforts are aligning well with the growing importance of small businesses and startups in India, and there is a significant amount of capital earmarked for these sectors.”
Mr. Rajarshi Bhattacharyya, Chairman and Managing Director of ProcessIT Global, said. “If your startup is performing well for three years, you become eligible for tax exemptions. It can hardly get better than this. The ecosystem is designed to support your growth. The government, in collaboration with organizations like NASSCOM, organizes various mentorship programs under the Startup India initiative, providing people with invaluable guidance and support.”
He also mentioned that among the top 15 cities globally for startups, three of them are in India – Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi NCR. This is a testament to the encouragement the government provides for individuals to become entrepreneurs, break free from mundane jobs, and pursue innovative ideas. Access to funding is available, and Indians are known for their brilliant minds. Mr Bhattacharyya also added that the policies have been established to enable startup companies to participate in large government tenders without needing to provide Earnest Money Deposits (EMDs). Membership in the Startup India scheme takes care of your credentials, eliminating the need for Pre-Qualification (PQ) criteria.
Fintech
However, in order to further boost startup growth in India, Ajit Thomas, Co-founder and CMO, of Cavli Wireless, said that the government should streamline regulatory processes, making it easier for startups to register and operate.
“Reducing bureaucratic red tape can expedite business launches. Additionally, tax incentives for early-stage startups can alleviate financial pressures. Enhancing digital infrastructure, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, will democratize entrepreneurial opportunities. Lastly, fostering stronger academia-industry linkages can spur innovation, while dedicated startup hubs can facilitate mentorship and networking. These changes can create a more conducive environment for startups to thrive and innovate,” he added.
Ms. Bali said, “One of the standout achievements is the exponential growth in funding, reflecting investor confidence in India’s startups. Over the period from 2015 to 2022, there has been a staggering 15-fold increase in total startup funding. This infusion of capital has catalyzed innovation, enabling startups to scale and address critical challenges across various sectors.”
“The startup landscape in India has become synonymous with innovation, disruption, and boundless potential. The Indian government has paved the way for startups to thrive. These schemes provide financial support, access to resources, and opportunities for growth,” she added.
Recommendations to the Government
However, Mr. Ahlawat highlighted some specific changes to the government policies to boost the growth of startups. These include simplifying business registration processes, expanding tax incentives, improving access to finance, enhancing intellectual property protection, expanding research and development grants, investing in education and training, expanding startup incubators and accelerators, facilitating government procurement, extending support programs for SMEs, forming international collaboration partnerships, ensuring regulatory clarity, developing comprehensive data privacy regulations, introducing incentives for startups focusing on sustainability and green technologies, facilitating exit strategies, and expanding e-governance initiatives.
Garima Mitra, Co-Founder, of Treelife, also reminded that it is essential that India continues to streamline regulatory processes, improve access to capital, and enhance its education system to fully harness its innovation potential and sustain long-term economic growth.
As we look ahead, it is imperative for the government to continue its proactive approach, streamlining regulations, enhancing infrastructure, and strengthening academia-industry collaborations to ensure that the Indian startup landscape continues to shine brightly on the global stage. The future indeed holds boundless possibilities for innovation, growth, and economic prosperity in India’s startup ecosystem.
EloElo is more than just a platform; it’s a vibrant ecology where live broadcasting flourishes. Based on the idea that “Live nahi, life hai!” — live streaming is more than just a hobby, it’s a way of life — It has been built as a place where artists and producers from all over India can mingle. The company firmly believe in the creator-first approach and their goal is to support and encourage the community of creators at each stage of their development. The company is dedicated to transforming live streaming into a positive and rewarding experience for everyone. EloElo cordially invites you to share in this adventure, where live streaming is more than just a feature—it’s a way of life.
We interviewed eloelo co-founder and CEO Saurabh Pandey to learn more about this startup which is a pioneer in live social entertainment.
Eloelo is a buzzing social entertainment platform that incorporates interactive games, audio and video chat rooms, and even builds custom experiences around these pursuits. Traditional games like tambola, antakshari, and musical chairs are introduced on the site in live formats, hosted by the creators for their fans. It is a thriving hub for entertainment and social interaction.
At eloelo one can enjoy playing games with others and watching live streaming from well-known producers. Users can meet new acquaintances there and connect with people who have similar interests to yours. Additionally, it is accessible in more than six languages, allowing more Indians to join in the fun and interact with others.
It has made a strong case for being a go-to platform, attracting a sizable audience beyond the amazing 10 million threshold. With more than 50 live gaming and entertainment categories offered, EloElo stands out for its extraordinary diversity, which guarantees a wide range of material that caters to different tastes and interests. It facilitates approximately 1,000 live broadcasts every day, a remarkable achievement that highlights its vibrancy and demonstrates its dedication to offering original and interesting content. The company has distinguished itself as a true force in India’s constantly changing live entertainment market by introducing millions of enthusiasts to an exciting world of gaming and entertainment.
Saurabh Pandey, CEO & Founder, Eloelo in a statement said, “We are pioneering a new category of Live Social Entertainment– almost like a ‘Digital Third Place’ where young Indians are always connected. Our growth of 400% Y-o-Y showcases the love users have given the product.
eloelo – Industry Details
During the COVID-19 pandemic, live streaming became an essential option for many uses. In order to provide high-quality streams, improved marketing, analytics tracking, and real-time client contact, the demand for live streaming technologies has significantly increased.
According to a recent report of September, 2023 India’s live-streaming gaming market is worth between $35 million and $50 million. According to experts, it might reach USD 300 million in the following three years. In reality, the global live streaming market is now worth USD 10 billion, and it is expected to grow to USD 13 billion by the end of this year thanks to nearly 19 million content producers.
Live streaming platforms are establishing new standards in the field of content creation as a result of the rise in live stream viewers in India. Live game streaming is currently gaining enormous traction and is moving into the larger picture, but content development and consumption are no longer restricted to OTT services like Netflix.
eloelo – Founders and Team
Ex-Flipkart employees Saurabh Pandey and Akshay Dubey are the founders of eloelo.
eloelo co-founder and CEO Saurabh Pandey are an MBA from JBIMS (Mumbai) & an MDP from IIM-Indore. Besides working as a category leader in Flipkart, Saurabh worked with brands like P&G (Business Development) and L’oreal, before starting his own venture.
eloelo COO Akshay Dubey is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. Prior to eloelo, Akshay worked with companies like GoZoomo, and at Flipkart as a Senior Manager.
eloelo founders Akshay Dubey (Left) and Saurabh Pandey (Right)
eloelo currently has a team of 163 employees.
eloelo team
The Idea Behind Starting eloelo
Saurabh and Akshay met during their stint at Flipkart. Saurabh headed the Health & Fitness category at Flipkart, while Akshay was into Supply Chain Management.
Having seen what blitz scale is like at Flipkart, both the co-founders were unanimously convinced of the community commerce idea with a vertical niche. It took a few meetings and positive reinforcement from some of their friends & angel investors that helped them take the final leap of faith.
The startup has raised a Seed Round with investors such as Waterbridge Ventures, Ramakant Sharma (LogX Ventures, LivSpace), Raghavendra TS (QikWell), Rishi Vasudev (India CEO- Lifestyle) & others supporting their vision.
eloelo – Name and Logo
The interesting part about the name eloelo is that it is the reverse play of the popular Bollywood song ‘ole-ole’. Here is what eloelo founder Saurabh Pandey has to say about the story behind the startup’s name –
“We always wanted a name that resonates with Bharat. Given that this is a lifestyle platform, we wanted the name to be something that everyone can pronounce from South to North to East to West. eloelo was essentially a reverse-play on the popular ole-ole song. It had a nice ring to it so we went ahead & registered. Soon the name picked up in our community as well and now we are a fairly popular account on Social & the App will hopefully have a great recall too!”
eloelo logo
eloelo – Marketing Strategies
eloelo started off as a humble Social Media page on Facebook & Instagram which has now gone on to have 75,000+ members with a simple philosophy – New Content posted daily! Good quality content has helped the startup reach out to new and more users.
The app was on beta stage for over one week before the launch and already got 50+ users, who have given extraordinarily positive feedback.
eloelo – Funding
eloelo has secured a total funding of $37 million, with the latest funding round bringing in $22 million on September 20, 2023, from investors including Courtside Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
Sep 20, 2023
Series B
$ 22 million
Courtside Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners
Jun 1, 2022
Series A
$ 13 million
Kalaari Capital, KB Investment
Aug 17, 2021
Non Equity Assistance
–
Google for Startups
Jul 27, 2021
Seed Round
$ 2.1 million
Lumikai, WaterBridge Ventures
July 15, 2020
seed
$450k
Waterbridge Ventures, LogX Venture (Ramakant Sharma, Rishi Vasudev (CEO of Lifestyle & Home Centre), TS Raghavendra (Serial Angel & Founder of Qikwell), Others
eloelo – Growth
Eloelo’s growth highlights include:
Eloelo boasts a vibrant community of over 120,000 active creators on its platform.
It has an impressive user base of over 37 million individuals.
Eloelo’s LoveHouse achieved a remarkable feat by setting a record with a continuous 144-hour live stream on a mobile app in India.
It has a total of 163 employees
Over 1,000 live streaming take place daily on Eloelo’s remarkable platform, which has over 10 million users and over 50 different live game and entertainment categories.
eloelo – Partnership
TVF
Eloelo has entered into a partnership with TVF (The Viral Fever), where Eloelo serves as the exclusive promoter for Season 2 of TVF Pitchers.
Radio Mirchi
Eloelo, a creator-led social gaming and live-streaming platform, has announced a new collaboration with Radio Mirchi, a popular radio station in India. Through this partnership, top Radio Jockeys (RJs) will offer special live video shows.
Eloelo Idol
Eloelo, creator-led social gaming and live-streaming platform has announced the launch of Eloelo Idol, a live-interactive event featuring Saregamapa finalist Rupali Jagga.
eloelo – Award
Eloelo wins ‘Best Mobile App in Video Entertainment & Sports’ at MOBEXX Awards 2022.
Eloelo, India’s leading live-streaming app, has been awarded the Digital/Online startup of the year at the Entrepreneur Awards 2022.
It was named India’s Fastest Growing App at the Adjust & Apptweak’s Annual Awards on April 14, 2023, in Bengaluru.
eloelo – Challenges
Eloelo has faced two huge obstacles on its journey. First of all, there was no pre-existing blueprint to adhere to because they were creating something wholly original. eloelo teams were thinking creatively and created their own playbook from scratch as a result. One of the biggest and trickiest interactive entertainment projects was combining live streaming and social gaming, and it took a lot of work to get it right.
Second, the pandemic was still ongoing when the software was released, which made the endeavor more challenging. While the first crew at Eloelo was distributed, they had to get beyond the cold start issue and draw in the first 100,000 customers. It was difficult to manage the entire launch process, launch games, and identify the initial 100 developers. But as a team, they persisted and managed to navigate.
eloelo – Future Plan
Eloelo is broadening its selection by releasing several fresh live game templates that producers may use to host and interact with their audience. In India, Eloelo is setting the bar for a brand-new entertainment genre. They are developing the next generation of social networking that enables actual engagement within their community through a special blend of game participation within live streaming.
The company also wants to draw tech and product expertise and introduce new tools in the fields of artificial intelligence and augmented reality.
eloelo – FAQs
What is eloelo?
eloelo is a platform for live social entertainment that mixes audio and video live chat rooms with interactive games and creates original programming (IP) around these services.
In the world of YouTube, where you can find all kinds of videos, Grandpa Kitchen is a special channel with a big heart. It’s got over 9.4 million subscribers who really like it because it’s unique and does something very thoughtful.
Grandpa Kitchen, started by the late Narayana Reddy, has a heartwarming mission: they prepare delicious meals and share them with orphaned children and those in need, all while entertaining people. It’s not just a YouTube channel, it’s like a big hug of happiness and hope in the online world.
Even though Narayana Reddy is no more, his family is carrying on his good work. They’re making sure that Grandpa Kitchen keeps on making people happy with food.
Recently, we at StartupTalky got to interact with Shrikant Reddy, son of the late Narayana Reddy, where he shared insights about their channel and their ongoing mission to spread happiness.
So, let’s jump into what he had to say and learn from his insights.
StartupTalky: Mr. Shrikant, could you share a bit about your journey as a YouTuber and what your channel is all about?
Shrikant: Our journey at Grandpa’s Kitchen is a heartwarming narrative woven with unity and compassion. A team of Motion Graphics designers, we embarked on a unique path shaped by village potluck gatherings. What made these gatherings extraordinary was the culinary magic of Grandpa. These cherished moments ignited the spark for Grandpa’s Kitchen on YouTube, a platform where we could encapsulate our memories while making a tangible difference.
Our channel, far from just being a recipe repository, encapsulates the essence of love and care poured into every dish. It’s not merely about sharing flavorsome meals; it’s about the commitment to uplifting the lives of needy children through food distribution. This forms the very heart and soul of our channel, infusing each video with the warmth of our mission.
StartupTalky: What equipment and software do you use for filming and editing your videos?
Shrikant: Initially, we relied on Adobe Premiere for video editing and Photoshop for crafting thumbnails. As we progressed, we chose to outsource these tasks, allowing us to focus more on the essence of our content – Grandpa’s culinary creations and the joy they bring. The evolution from self-editing to professional assistance has elevated the overall quality of our videos and streamlined the creative process. The recording equipment used initially was a basic Canon camera, now we are using Camera Sony Alpha a7S III.
StartupTalky: What techniques do you use for optimizing your video titles, descriptions, and tags for search visibility?
Shrikant: Strategically optimizing video elements for search visibility involves a blend of Western and Indian trends. By identifying popular keywords in Western countries and aligning them with trending Indian keywords, our content bridges cultural gaps and reaches a global audience. This approach is reinforced by traditional YouTube search practices and tools like vidIQ, ensuring our videos are discoverable while staying true to our unique style.
StartupTalky: Which YouTube analytics metrics do you focus on, and how do they guide your content strategy?
Shrikant: Our content strategy is meticulously crafted through a keyword-focused approach. We analyze keywords that resonate in Western food spaces and juxtapose them with current Indian trends, combining a broad appeal with local relevance. Traditional YouTube search methods and tools like vidIQ assist in this endeavor. By staying attuned to these metrics, we ensure our content resonates with a diverse audience while maintaining authenticity.
StartupTalky: Mr. Shrikant, how do you approach collaborating with other YouTubers, and how have these collaborations benefited your channel?
Shrikant: We approach collaborations with creators who share our values and purpose. These partnerships infuse fresh perspectives and diverse content styles, enriching our channel. Collaborations expand our reach and foster a sense of community, introducing our content to new audiences. These partnerships breathe life into our videos, invigorating them with unique voices and ideas. They also cultivate authentic connections and cross-promotion opportunities, amplifying our impact. Collaborations exemplify the YouTube spirit of creators uniting for greater creativity. They extend our ethos and joy of cooking to new corners of the digital world, leaving a mark on our channel and the global community.
StartupTalky: Have you attended any YouTube-related events or joined communities to network with other creators?
Shrikant: While invitations to various YouTube events have indeed graced our inbox, we uphold a stringent criterion – alignment with our core mission. Authenticity is our cornerstone, and we value connections that mirror our commitment to positively impacting. Our stance remains open to relevant opportunities that contribute to our YouTube channel’s growth and our overarching goal of spreading love and compassion through our content. We understand the power of genuine interactions in this digital age and are poised to embrace events and communities that truly resonate with our ethos.
StartupTalky: When did you start monetizing your channel, and what monetization methods have you found effective?
Shrikant: Our journey towards monetization was an organic evolution, not the initial focal point. Our channel’s popularity, nurtured by authenticity, set the stage for broader horizons. Beyond YouTube earnings, we ventured into partnerships, merchandise, and collaborations that harmonize seamlessly with our core values. This multi-pronged approach not only sustains our efforts but also magnifies our ability to make a genuine difference. By intertwining monetization with our mission, we ensure that each avenue aligns with the heart and soul of Grandpa’s Kitchen. It’s a delicate equilibrium where financial growth enhances, rather than overshadows, our commitment to spreading love and kindness.
StartupTalky: Apart from YouTube earnings, have you explored other income streams that align with your content?
Shrikant: Beyond the YouTube earnings, we’ve ventured into diverse income streams that harmonize seamlessly with our content’s essence. Engaging partnerships, thoughtfully curated merchandise, and synergistic collaborations have emerged as potent avenues. Notably, these endeavors amplify our capacity to create positive change and fuel our ability to channel resources into the heart of our mission – aiding charitable initiatives. This holistic approach fortifies our commitment to spreading culinary joy and extending the warmth of compassion to those who need it most.
StartupTalky: How do you approach sponsorships and partnerships, ensuring they align with your channel’s ethos? Could you share a significant partnership experience?
Shrikant: When it comes to sponsorships and partnerships, our approach rests on a foundation of shared values. Each collaboration is meticulously vetted to ensure alignment with our channel’s ethos – the very values that fuel Grandpa’s Kitchen. It’s about more than just products; it’s about purpose.
StartupTalky: From your perspective, is becoming a full-time YouTuber a viable career choice? What influenced your decision?
Shrikant: Indeed, stepping into the role of a full-time YouTuber holds viability, but it’s essential to cultivate authenticity and a distinctive proposition. Our journey, rooted in a niche that blossomed our success, is indicative of the dynamic. Yet, the contemporary landscape necessitates a deeper and genuine connection with the audience, coupled with content that stands out. The influx of creators amplifies the need for an unparalleled offering. For us, our unique start catalyzed our decision, and we acknowledge that in today’s realm, standing out through genuine engagement is pivotal for sustainable success.
StartupTalky: Mr. Shrikant, what concise advice would you offer to individuals starting their YouTube journey, including potential pitfalls to avoid?
Shrikant: For those embarking on a YouTube journey, my advice is simple yet pivotal. Focus on delivering genuine value to your audience. Authenticity has an unparalleled resonance that sets you apart in a sea of content. Patience is your trusted companion; don’t be swayed by fleeting trends that don’t align with your voice. Be steadfast in staying true to your unique essence, for therein lies the captivating allure that fosters genuine connections. Avoid the allure of shortcuts that compromise your authenticity; they often lead you astray. Remember, your journey is one-of-a-kind; let it shine brightly, guided by your unwavering authenticity.
StartupTalky: Finally, how do you see your YouTube channel evolving in the next few years? Do you have specific goals or milestones in mind?
Shrikant: We aim to connect more deeply with our community, spotlighting community leaders’ insights through interviews. Collaborating with Animeta for digital presence enhancement is a step toward holistic growth, expanding Grandpa’s legacy of love and positive change.
StartupTalky
