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Companies in the B2C sector segment are progressively approaching an age of automated customer service, which is enhancing the brand experience for customers, thanks to technologies like AI-powered customer support bots.
Founded in 2016, Singapore-based startup Active.ai is creating intelligent virtual assistant that is allowing businesses to design automatic and insightful customer support service. Active.ai has developed a successful, patented conversational AI platform for financial firms, insurance firms, and capital markets that can be quickly implemented. Here is more about Active.ai, the startup story, and how this startup is helping businesses take their customer support service to the next level.
In June 2021, Active.ai partnered with Talisma, which is a major customer experience solutions provider. Talisma’s technological products and solutions will be strengthened as a result of the partnership, which will allow it to incorporate a next-generation conversational AI chatbot into its platform and make it available to its BFSI clients.
On their Conversational AI journey, BFSI companies may use Talisma and Active.ai’ s solutions. Active.ai and Talisma collaborated covers a wide range of use cases in Retail and Commercial Banking, Insurance, and Capital Markets, with solutions readily available on platforms like WhatsApp, as well as a full-proof seamless fallback for human assistance if needed.
About Active.ai and How it Works?
Active.ai is a Singapore-based fintech firm focusing on artificial intelligence, with a research and development center in Bengaluru. Active.ai has developed a cutting-edge, proprietary conversational AI platform for financial institutions, insurance firms, and capital markets that can be quickly implemented.
Triniti, their artificial intelligence engine, was created to provide end-users with meaningful, intuitive engagement across many channels such as SMS, phone, and IoT devices. Triniti has been developed to empower businesses to build a deep connection with their customers. This artificial intelligence engine uses Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Natural Language Generation technologies to cater to the specific customer support needs of financial institutions, insurance companies, and capital markets.
Furthermore, this solution is backed by the knowledge and experience of an executive team with over 60 years of senior-level industry experience, as well as a thorough grasp of the strategic and operational issues that their clients are facing. Financial institutions, insurance firms, and capital markets are all moving fast to stay relevant to shifting client expectations, and Active.ai arrives just in time. The team at Active.ai sees an amazing potential whereby businesses can establish a natural dialogue and more meaningful relationships with their customers using sophisticated conversational AI.
The following are some of the major characteristics of Active.ai
For balance queries and fund transfers, pre-built processes, pre-trained datasets, and pre-certified interfaces with Finastra are available.
Business rules, bespoke replies, and branding are all highly configurable features.
APIs are available for expanding functionality.
Supports iOS, Android, Web applications, the Facebook virtual agent, and Alexa and Google Assistant capabilities.
The “ai” in Active.ai stands for Artificial Intelligence as the enterprise is a creator of an artificial intelligence platform for enterprises that aims to provide conversational banking services.
Active.ai Company’s logo
Active.ai’s tagline says, “Conversational AI built for scale”
Active.ai – Founders and History
Ravi Shankar, Shankar Narayanan Srinivasan, and Parikshit Paspulati founded Active.ai in 2016.
Founders of Active.ai
Active.ai CEO Ravi Shankar previously served at a managerial position in HDFC bank. He was the VP & Head of Non-Branch-Delivery Channels at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. From 2004 to 2009, Ravi was Group Executive Vice President at Yes Bank. He co-founded Nevales Networks Pvt Ltd., which is a cloud-based managed security service provider in 2010. In 2016, Ravi co-founded Active.ai
Active.ai COO Shankar Narayanan Srinivasan started his career as a 3D Animator and went to become a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded companies like Cazh Pte Ltd( an online payment company that designed applications that let users make payments without revealing credit card and bank account numbers) and Tagit Pte Ltd ( a digital solutions company). In 2012, Shankar co-founded Fastcash Pte. Ltd, a unique platform that allows users to transfer value in the form of money, airtime, gift card, or any other tokens of value, and also digital content such as photo video, etc. through social networks and messaging platforms in a secure way.
Active.ai CTO Parikshit Paspulati worked with IT companies like CSS Corp. He was the CEO of Singapore-based software company Mobilestruct Pte Ltd from 2005 to 2008. Till 2014, Parikshit worked as the CTO of digital solutions’ company Tagit Pte Ltd. He founded an IT consultancy firm Finoculus Pte. Ltd in 2014. In 2016, he co-founded Active.ai with Shankar Narayanan Srinivasan and Ravi Shankar.
The idea of starting Active.ai first hit Shankar Narayanan, when he lost his wallet during an international trip. He was calling his bank to block his credit and debit cards, but he realised that it was not easy to connect to the customer support due to busy networks, and endless IVR menus. This lead to the idea of using AI to handle customer support for a better user experience. He discussed the idea with his friends Parikshit Paspulati and Ravi Shankar, which led to the formation of Active.ai in 2016.
The initial client of Active.ai was Axis Bank, followed by CIMB Bank, Income, FWD insurance, IndusInd Bank, and Hdfc Securities. Today the startup has many clients across the globe.
Active.ai – Mission and Vision
Active.ai’s vision statement says, “Our vision is to create augmented AI services that is easier to train and evaluate. By integrating powerful data analysis tools, such as Power BI, with AI services and data sets we can easily visualize the accuracy of our models.“
Active.ai – Services and Products
With an AI product platform that can be supplied on the cloud, Active.ai created its own IP. The major goal is to solve complicated problems by connecting to banks via APIs and making information available to clients in a courteous and cost-effective manner.
The multichannel platform enables its use on messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and IoT devices such as Alexa. The startup partnered with IBM, Infosys Finacle, Microsoft, and EdgeVerve Systems to provide financial services with 24-hour support via messaging and voice interfaces.
The two main products offered by Active.ai are –
Triniti – Triniti’s AI engine combines NLP and NLG components to let financial institutions communicate with consumers in a natural way. Its purpose is to automate some tasks between clients and banks, such as transactions and customer care. Triniti-powered chatbots are used to solve inquiries, saving banks’ time, money, and labor. Triniti’s algorithms are developed such that it can interpret customer’s intent, sentiment and emotions and interact with the customers accordingly.
Morfeus – Active.ai’s middleware engine, which was created at the Bangalore Innovation Lab, operates as a Java program for a web server. It uses artificial intelligence to link front-end channels, allowing banks to communicate with their consumers through mobile, chat, or voice.
Active.ai – Business Model
Active.ai has a Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription-based business model. Active.ai’s quick growth and reputation in the banking industry has resulted in a high level of involvement and confidence among clients, ensuring a stable and secure relationship between banks and customers.
Active.ai’s top competitors are Wso2, Apigee, DigitalGenius, Yodlee, MuleSoft, Xignite, Bloomberg, Mashape, Yellow Messenger, snapLogic, Barchart, 3scale, and Thomson Reuters.
Active.ai – Challenges Faced
As more and more enterprises are adopting AI to create better customer interaction services, the industry is slowly becoming more competitive. Although the AI business is not overly saturated, it is highly specialized, making it rather difficult. It’s a multibillion-dollar sector with enormous potential.
“AI has been available for 30 years, but businesses have just lately begun to use it. Today, enterprises world over are moving away from the mobile first vision to AI first with the core focus on customer engagement and new customer experience (CX),” says Ravi Shankar, Co -founder and CEO, Active Intelligence (Active Ai) Pvt Ltd.
Active.ai is a company that has received a lot of positive comments from its customers. With SaaS subscriptions beginning at 1500 users per month, Active.ai has made this platform extremely scalable. The Active.ai team thinks that by utilizing this ground-breaking technology, any financial institution would be able to embrace Conversational AI and provide excellent customer service.
Currently, Active.ai is operating throughout North America, Europe, Japan, and India. Active.ai employs about 40 employees across Singapore, Bangalore, and the United States. In the next few years, the company’s goal is to have 100 million end-users. The company also has plans to open offices in different locations across the globe and hire talent from different locations around the world.
Active.ai – FAQs
What does Active.ai do?
Active.ai develops a successful, patented conversational AI platform for financial firms, insurance firms, and capital markets that can be quickly implemented.
Who founded Active.ai?
Ravi Shankar, a former Group Executive Vice President of Yes Bank, Shankar Narayanan, and Parikshit Paspulati founded Active.ai in 2016.
Which country is Active.ai based in?
Active Intelligence is a Singapore-based fintech firm focusing on artificial intelligence, with a research and development center in Bengaluru.
Which companies do Active.ai compete with?
Active.ai’s top competitors are Wso2, Apigee, DigitalGenius, Yodlee, MuleSoft, Xignite, Bloomberg, Mashape, Yellow Messenger, snapLogic, Barchart, 3scale, and Thomson Reuters.
How does Active.ai make money?
To generate money, Active.ai uses a Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription-based business model.
Even during the pandemic, the net worth of many billionaires have been growing consistently. According to Forbes, the number of billionaires in the Forbes 35th list of the world wealthiest people, the number of billionaires have increased to 2,755, which was 660 more than a year ago.
Everyone knows that the richest person on the planet is Elon Musk with a net worth of $203.4 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos with $192.2 billion and Bernard Arnault & family with $185.8 billion, as of October 16, 2021. But do you know the top twenty richest people in Asia? According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index and the Forbes Billionaires List, the top 15 richest people in Asia, collectively account to over $500 billion.
The people in this list are self-made, big tech tycoons and real estate giants. The person who takes the top spot in the list of Asia is none other than India’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani who is the Chairman of the conglomerate, Reliance Industries Ltd. The other high profile billionaires from the continent are Jack Ma, Gautam Adani, Zhong Shanshan, Ma Huateng, Li Ka-Shing, etc. To find out who else made the top 20 according to Forbes.
Here is the list of the Top 20 Richest People in Asia.
1. Mukesh Ambani
Chairman/MD
Reliance Industries Ltd
Net Worth
US$100.6 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Energy, Telecom, Retail, Petrochemicals, Textiles and Natural Resources
Country
India
Age
64 (2021)
Mukesh Ambani
Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is an Indian Billionaire Businessman, the Chairman, Managing Director and the largest shareholder of the Reliance Industries Ltd., which is an energy and telecom multinational conglomerate.
Reliance Industries owns business across India and has its foothold in the industries such as energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail and even telecommunications. The company is also in the list of the Fortune Global 500 Company and is the country most valuable company as per its market value.
Ambani is credited for creating Jio, an affordable 4G phone service in India. The billionaire also owns an Indian Premier League team known as the Mumbai Indians and also has a property worth more than $400 million. As of 16th October 2021, Mukesh Ambani is the richest person not only in India but also Asia with a net worth of US $100.6 billion and is also the 11th richest person in the world. The head honcho of Reliance India Limited has joined the coveted club of billionaires with a fortune of at least $100 billion on 8th October 2021, Friday, following the rapid rise of the stocks of the conglomerate.
2. Zhong Shanchan
Founder/ CEO
Nongfu Spring
Majority stake holder
Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise
Net Worth
US$71.6 billion (as of 28th May 2021)
Industry
Beverage and Pharmacy
Country
China
Age
67
Zhong Shanshan
Zhong Shanshan is a Chinese billionaire businessman, the founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring which is a popular beverage company in China and a majority stake holder of Beijing Wantai Biological Pharmacy Enterprise.
Nongfu Spring is a bottled water and beverage company that went public in September 2020, the company recently tripled its value to $85 billion. As of 16th October 2021, the net worth of Shangshan is $71.6 billion, making him the richest person in China, the 2nd richest person in Asia after Gautam Adani.
He became the second richest person in Asia due to the recent stock listing of Nongfu and also because Wantai Biological managed to tap into the high demand of Covid 19 kits. Zhong Shanshan is also known to have accumulated his wealth the fastest in history, according to Bloomberg.
Resources, Logistics, Energy, Energy, Defence, Aerospace, Real Estate, Financial, etc.
Country
India
Age
59 (2021)
Gautam Adani
Gautam Shantilal Adani is an Indian Billionaire Industrialist, the Founder and Chairman of the Adani Group. Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate that has diverse businesses across the industries of resources, logistics, energy, energy, defense, aerospace, real estate, financial, etc.
Adani Group has an annual revenue of more than US $13 billion with operations in more than 50 countries. Adani is especially known for being a port developer and operator and is known for having the largest port in the country known as the Mundra port.
As of 2018, Gautam Adani has over 66% stake in Adani Ports & SEZ, 75% stake in Adani Enterprises, 73% stake in Adani Power, and a 75% stake in Adani Transmission. As of 16th October 2021, Gautam Adani has a net worth of US $75.20 Billion, making him the second richest person in Asia. He had recently overtaken Chinese bottled water producer, Zhong Shanshan in September 2021.
4. Robin Zeng
Founder/ Chairman
Contemporary Amperex Technology
Net Worth
US $50.70 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Automotive Li-ion Batteries, Energy Storage Systems, Battery Recycling
Country
China
Age
53 (2021)
Robin Zeng
Robin Zeng also known as Zeng Yuqun is a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur, the Founder and Chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).
The CATL is well known Chinese’s battery manufacturer and Technology Company that specializes in making lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles, battery management systems. Zeng is among the richest people in China and in Asia. With a net worth of $50.70 billion, he recently overtook Jack Ma, as per the reports dated October 16, 2021.
5. Ma Huateng
Chairman/MD
Tencent Holdings
Net Worth
US$49.10 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Technology
Country
China
Age
49 (2021)
Ma Huateng
Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma is a Chinese Billionaire Businessman, the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tencent. Tencent is the continent’s most valuable company and one of the largest internet and Technology Company.
Besides , Tencent is also one of the biggest investment, gaming and entertainment conglomerate in the world known for developing China’s instant messaging app called WeChat. According to Time magazine Ma Huateng is one of the most influencial people in 2018, while Fortune also ranked him as among the top businessmen of the year in 2017.
The businessman wealth comes from the 9.7% stake in Tencent holdings. He is known to own properties in Hong Kong and art pieces that are worth over US $150 million. As of 16th October 2021, the net worth of Ma Huateng is US $49.10 billion, making him one of the richest people in China and the 5th richest person in Asia.
Zhang Yiming is a Chinese Billionaire Businessman and the Founder of ByteDance and developer for the news aggregator Toutiao and the world renowned video sharing platform TikTok. ByteDance is a Chinese multinational internet tech company known for developing video sharing and social networking sites like TikTok and Douyin.
ByteDance also developed an app known as Toutiao, which is a platform that delivers news content in various forms. As of 2018, ByteDance has over 800 million daily users across all its content platforms and has been valued at $250 billion as of 2021. According to Bloomberg billionaires index Zhang’s personal wealth is estimated to be around $44 billion.
Zhang Yiming stepped down from the position of CEO of Bytedance to embrace a new role within the company on 20th May 2021.
7. Jack Ma
Founder/ CEO
Alibaba Group
Net Worth
US$42.30 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Technology, E-commerce, Retail
Country
China
Age
56 (2021)
Jack Ma
Jack Ma is a Chinese billionaire businessman, the Founder and former Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group. Alibaba is a Multinational Technology Conglomerate that specializes in E-commerce, retail, technology and offers C2C, B2C and B2B sales, electronic payments, shopping search engines and cloud computing services.
Alibaba is the world largest retailers and e-commerce companies and has the 6th highest global brand valuation in 2018.Jack Ma was ranked 2nd in the Forbes list of the World 50 greatest leaders and is also a popular philanthropist as he has supported many underprivileged communities in China, Africa, Australia, and the Middle East.
As of 16th October 2021, the net worth of Jack Ma is US$42.3 billion making him a distinguished billionaire in China and the 7th richest person in Asia.
8. Li Ka Shing
Chairman
Li Ka Shing Foundation
Net Worth
US $31.80 Billion (As of October 2021)
Industry
Real Estate
Country
Hong Kong
Age
92 (2021)
Li Ka Shing is a Hong Kong businessman, an investor and well known philanthropist. He is the senior advisor and former chairman of the board for CK Hutchison Holdings and CK Asset Holdings. Li Ka Shing is 92 years old and is known to be the world leading port investor, developer and operator of the largest health and beauty and retailer in Asia and Europe.
According to Forbes Hong Kong Fortune league chart, Li Ka Shing became the richest person in Hong Kong in February 2021. Li is often regarded as “Superman li” by the Hong Kong media because of his business prowess, he also is the most influential entrepreneurs in the continent.
Li presides over a huge business empire that has its foothold in the industries such as transportation, real estate, financial services, retail, and energy and utilities. The billionaire is also a philanthropist that leads a simple life and has donated billions of dollars to charity and causes making him Asia most generous philanthropists.
As of 16th October 2021, Li Ka Shing net worth is over US $31.80 Billion making him one of the richest person in Hong Kong and among the richest in Asia.
9. He Xiangjian
Founder
Midea Group
Net Worth
US$31.70 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Consumer appliances
Country
China
Age
79 (2021)
He Xiangjian
He Xiangjian is the Co-founder of Midea Group, which is known to be one of the world’s largest appliance makers. Midea Group is electrical appliances manufacturer that has more than 200 subsidiaries.
The company is known for its products like lighting, water appliance, floor care, small kitchen appliance, laundry, cooking appliance and refrigeration appliances. According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Xiangjian was ranked the 44th place as his net worth was $32.7 billion in April 2021.
Media is also the world largest producers of robots and appliances which is why the company was also listed in the Fortune Global 500 since 2016. He Xiangjian stepped down from the company operation in 2012, but is still one among the richest in China and Asia with a wealth of $32.70 billion.
10. Lee Shau Kee
Founder/Chairman
Henderson Land Development
Net Worth
US $31.10 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Real Estate
Country
Hong Kong
Age
93 (2021)
Le Shau Kee
Le Shau Kee is a billionaire businessman from Hong Kong, real estate tycoon, founder and former chairman of Henderson Land Development. Henderson Land Development is a well known property conglomerate with stakes in property, hotels, restaurants and internet services.
The company’s main activities are property development, investment, project management, construction, hotel operation, finance, investment holding and infrastructure. The billionaire controlled over 70.17% of the share capital of the company as of 2015.
Kee stepped down from the position of chairman in 2019 at the age of 91 and passed the mantel to his sons. Le Shau Kee is one of the richest people in Hong Kong and in Asia. His net worth is estimated to be $31.10 billion, as of 16th October 2021.
11. Colin Huang
Founder/ CEO
Pinduoduo
Net Worth
US$31.10 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
E-commerce, Agriculture
Country
China
Age
41 (2021)
Colin Huang
Colin Huang also known as Huang Zheng is a Chinese billionaire businessman, the Founder and CEO of Pinduoduo. Pinduoduo is a leading E-commerce and the largest agriculture-focused technology platform in China. Pinduoduo’s main objective is to connect farmers and distributors directly with the consumers and provide an interactive shopping experience.
Over 600,000 merchants have sold their produce through the platform with more than 12 million farmers supplying their fruits and vegetable to the merchants. According to Bloomberg, the platform has over 628 million customers and made $4.2 billion in 2019. Huang has also founded two other popular internet based companies known as Xinyoudi (a gaming business) and Ouku.com (an e-commerce platform).
The businessman has grown his wealth steadily in the recent years, climbing the global ranks from number 94 in 2019, to number 57 in 2020, and then 21. As of 16th October 2021, Colin Huang net worth is US$31.10 billion, which makes him the one of the richest people in China and the 11st richest person in Asia.
Tadashi Yanai is a Japanese Billionaire businessman, the Founder and President of Fast Retailing. Fast Retailing is public Japanese retail holding company that owns more than a 1000 stores. The company owns popular Japanese subsidiaries like Uniqlo, J brand, Comptoir des Cotonniers, GU, Princesse Tam Tam and Theory.
He is also the biggest shareholder of Asia’s largest clothing retailer known as Uniqlo. According to Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Tadashi Yanai became the richest person in Japan and the 34th richest person in the world, as his net worth was estimated to be $42.billion as of April 2021.
However, as of 16th October 2021, the billionaire’s net worth is US $32.5 billion, making him the richest person in Japan and among the richest in Asia.
13. Ding Lei
Founder/CEO
NetEase
Net Worth
US $29.8 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Technology
Country
China
Age
49 (2021)
Ding Lei is also known as William ding is a Chinese Billionaire businessman, the Founder and CEO of NetEase. NetEase is Internet Tech Company known for its services like content, community, communications and commerce. The company also develops online PC and mobile games, advertising services and e-commerce platforms in China.
NetEase is one of the largest internet and video game companies in the world. Besides gaming, NetEase works with other online media entertainment like movies and music. Ding Lei is known to have made many contributions to the development of computer networks in China, while his company work with Blizzard Entertainment and Microsoft subsidiary Mojang.
According to Bloomberg, the net worth of Ding Lei as of 16th October 2021 is $29.8 billion, making him one of the richest people in China and in Asia.
14. Wang Wei
Founder/Chairman
SF Express
Net Worth
US $28.8 billion (16th October 2021)
Industry
International express delivery and logistics services
Country
China
Age
50 (2021)
Wang Wei is a Chinese billionaire businessman, the Founder and Chairman of SF Express. SF Express is a multinational express delivery services and logistics company. The company is the 2nd largest courier in China as it provides domestic and international express delivery.
It is also known for the SF Airlines which has a fleet of 50 cargo aircrafts. SF Express began in 2009 and has transported more than two million tonnes of cargo till 2018. This is why the SF Express is known as the “Fedex of China.”
As of 16th October 2021, the net worth of Wang Wei is US $28.8 billion, making him one among the richest people in China as well as in Asia.
15. Takemitsu Takizaki
Founder/Chairman
Keyence
Net Worth
$28.5 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Technology
Country
Japan
Age
75 (2021)
Takemitsu Takizaki is a Japanese bilionaire businessman, founder and chairman of Keyence. Keyence is a well-known manufacturer of automation sensors, vision systems, barcode readers, laser markers, measuring instruments, and digital microscopes.
The company has many big brands as its clients Toyota, Toshiba, and Volkswagen. Takizaki stepped down as the company chairman but still has a net worth of $28.5 billion, as of 16th October 2021, making him one of the richest people in Japan and Asia.
16. Masayoshi Son
Founder/ CEO
Softbank
Net Worth
US$28.20 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Investment
Country
Japan
Age
63 (2021)
Masayoshi Son
Masayoshi Son is a Japanese billionaire entrepreneur, the Founder and CEO of SoftBank and also the chairman of the UK based Arm Holdings. Softbank is a well-known Japanese multinational holding company that operates in the areas of broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, internet, technology services, finance, media and marketing, semiconductor design, etc.
The company was also ranked 36th in the list of Forbes Global 2000. Masayoshi Son’s net worth is estimated to be $28.2 billion as of 16th October 2021, making him the one of the richest people in Japan and the 16th richest person in Asia. Masayoshi was also ranked as the 45th in the list of Most Powerful People, according to Forbes.
Country Garden Holdings and Bright Scholar Education Holdings
Net Worth
US $27.3 billion (as of August 2021)
Industry
Real Estate
Country
China
Age
40 (2021)
Yang Huiyan
Yang Huiyan is a Chinese billionaire businesswoman, Property developer and a majority stakeholder of Country Garden Holdings, 70% of shares of the company were transferred to her by her father Yang Guoqiang in 2007.
The Country Garden is a property development company that constructs buildings and manages hotels in China, owned by Yang’s family. The company was ranked 147thin the Fortunes Global 500 list. Country Garden has more than 200 high-end township developments in countries like China, Malaysia, and Australia.
As of August 2021, Yang Huiyan’s net worth is estimated to be $27.3 billion, making her not only the richest woman in China but also the richest woman in Asia.
Qin Yinglin is a Chinese billionaire, founder and chairman of Muyuan Foodstuff. Muyuan is a popular pig breeding and distribution company that breeds and sells pigs and pork products. Qin is known to have started the company with his wife in 1992, and by 2019 the company made $3 billion.
The agriculture billionaire is known to be the “the country’s largest pig breeder in the world’s biggest pork market”, according to Forbes. Qin is famous as the world’s richest farmer. His net worth is estimated to be $25 billion, as of 16th October 2021. This makes him one of the richest people in China and in Asia.
Pang Kang is a Chinese billionaire businessman and the chairman of a popular food and beverage company known as Foshan Haitian Flavoring and Food Co. The company manufactures a wide variety of sauces and flavoring, it is also the largest manufacturer of Soy Sauce in the world.
Based in China’s Guangdong providence, the food company made $2.9 billion in 2019, within five years of its launch. Foshan also makes over 200 different condiments such as oyster sauce, hoisin, shrimp, vinegar, and chicken stock.
As of 16th October 2021, the net worth of Pang Kang is over $23.80 billion, making him one of the richest people in China and in Asia as well.
20. Li Xiting
Founder/Chairman
Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics
Net Worth
US $21.30 billion (as of October 2021)
Industry
Medical Electronics
Country
Singapore
Age
70 (2021)
Li Xiting is a Singaporean billionaire, Founder and former Chairman of Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics. Over the year the billionaire has been one of the pioneers in the world of healthcare. While his company is known to operate in 30 countries and have over 17 subsidiaries.
Mindray is known for its healthcare devices such as health monitoring systems, ventilators, defibrillators, anesthesia machines and infusion systems. According to Forbes, Li Xiting is the richest person in Singapore in 2020. As of 16th October 2021, the net worth of Li Xiting is $21.30 billion, making him the richest Singaporean and among the richest people in Asia.
Who are the top three richest people of the world?
The top three billionaires of the world are Elon Musk, with a net worth of $203.4 billion, followed by Jeff Bezos with $197.7 billion and Bernard Arnault with $193.2 billion, as of 16th October 2021.
Who are the top ten richest people of Asia?
The top ten richest billionaires of Asia are Mukesh Ambani, Zhong Shanchan, Gautam Adani, Robin Zeng, Ma Huateng, Zhang Yiming, Jack Ma, Li Ka Shing, He Xiangjian, Le Shau Kee.
Who are the other top people of Asia?
The other top billionaires of Asia are He Xiangjian, Ding Lei, Li Ka Shing, Yang Huiyan, Wang Wei, Pang Kang, Li Xiting, Qin Yinglin and Takemitsu Takizaki.
About 15 million freelancers live in India, and they have aided the expansion of startups tremendously. Indian freelancers are increasingly contributing expertise to top-tier organisations as business environments and demands alter, while simultaneously promoting the country’s start-up sector. Nevertheless, freelancing in India is quite a private haven that not only breaks monotony but also provides room for one’s personal development. Sounds great? We can bet!
Do you feel that your day job is a rather monotonous drudgery with no scope to learn, explore, improve your skills or open doors to new ideas?Well, there you go! The growing freelance culture in India, as well as the stats, both tell the same story. If you have a skill, chances are, you are more likely to survive and thrive better on your own in freelancer service in India than working under someone.
So, here is acomplete guide on how to become a freelancer in India. Let’s take a look,
Going by the popular definition, freelancing is a form of self-employment, wherein an individual works at his or her own accord, independent of any superior authority or organization. A freelancer gets to decide his work’s worth and is paid accordingly, on a per hour, per day or per-project basis. As a freelancer, you seek clients through online sites or networking, get to work from the comfort of your own office or home and have flexible work hours.
As you shift from one project to another, you can pretty much sum up, freelancing brings versatility to your work, introduces you to a variety of genres and experiences, while giving you a chance to lead a wholesome lifestyle, with flexible work schedules and a comfortable work environment.
What are some sought after freelancer jobs in India you ask? Well,b today, Freelancers have specialised skills in Social Media Marketing, Copywriting and Publicity. Some Freelancers are experts in writing content and blog posts while serving the web programming and graphic design needs of a business. Freelancers also deal with Bookkeeping services.
That being said, freelancing requires dedication and putting in the enormous effort since one has to find work on their own, and sometimes might be dealing with multiple clients at the same time.The rising number of freelancers in India shows how fast this is gaining popularity.
Freelancing, on the other hand, allows one to choose their own clients, create and develop their own working style, opt to undertake projects one wishes to work on and conclusively, leads to personal growth and development.
Apart from skill development, freelancing also allows one to have diverse working experiences (since the work is undertaken on a per-project basis), get paid for what they are worth, and have a flexible work schedule, thus proving to be a wondrous opportunity for the Indian youth. Besides, freelancing is a great way of employment for young parents, specially-abled people as well as people who cannot leave their home for any personal reason.
The Indian market today, is ripe for freelancers, with no shortage of either recruiters or workers. As more and more people turn to the freelancing business, it should come as no surprise that today’s freelancing landscape is a diverse haven accommodating a variety of genres including marketing, publicity, content writing, advertising, technological support (such as web programming), designing, and even bookkeeping.
How To Get In The Freelancing Game
Build A Good Network
So you’re a beginner actively looking for an opportunity to find work. Our first tip would be to commence with building a good network. Start by reaching out to the people in your circle. Tell them what you intend to do and what is your area of expertise.
“It’s the equivalent of doing informational interviews. You’re just making clear the kind of work you’re doing now and that you’re available to help anyone who might need it”, says Sara Horowitz, head of the Freelancers Union.
Once you are familiar with the landscape, try expanding your network and making new connections out of your contact list. You can also use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to build your network.
Set Strategic Prices
You want to attract clients and not drive them away. Consequently, you might want to earn the amount that is your job’s worth. The key is to strike the right balance, and evaluating your work’s worth would be step one on the beginner ladder. Start with relatively lower rates when you are still trying to establish yourself. Gradually increase your rates as you gain more and more experienced and recommendations.
One more tip, remember to ask your clients to drop feedback. Your clients’ feedback helps you to rise higher in performance ratings, on freelancing websites, and land more assignments.
Work Smart Not Hard
That’s the key! You might get a thousand pieces of advice on how to land many gigs, but not one on how to ‘manage’ too many. As a freelancer, you get to choose which jobs to undertake and which do not. As a beginner, when opportunities finally start knocking on your door, you should keep in mind what projects are worth working for, which are the ones that add to your personal growth and which ones you intend to do just out of the good money offered.
Anyone with right set of skills can become a freelancer.
Sure, you can. You may be an independent worker, looking for a new experience; a homemaker wanting to restart your career; a full-time employee seeking some part-time work to unleash his passion; a job aspirant trying to find work online; a fresh college graduate trying to make some money; an experienced corporate job holder, wanting to explore something new or just someone looking for a home-based job. The list is endless.
As a freelancer one is at liberty to choose the work of his or her calling, working either part-time or full time. It is not a necessity to quit your job either. If you are looking to pursue some fresh opportunities and make some extra cash, freelancing serves as a rather comfortable option. Freelancing in India is growing fast and becoming a new job prospect for people.
The bottom line is if you are prepared to handle the erratic workflow, expertly manage the blurred lines between your work and personal life, and an irregular paycheck sans employer benefits, you are good to go. Ask yourself, is this what you wish to do? Is it worth giving up your job? Are you just doing it for the money? You will know on your own when you would want to quit your job and embark on this journey. And if you are determined enough, you won’t have much problem sailing through.
A client will run off without paying. This happens with most freelancers. Make sure that the chances of this happening are as less as possible. Make it a habit to use contracts.
There will be people in your field who will be willing to work for next to nothing. Don’t follow in their footsteps. There are clients out there who prefer quality and are willing to pay for it. The fact that you value your work will also work in your favour as clients will trust you more.
Freelancers also have to face scams of all kinds. There are some projects out there that are just too good to be true and can turn out to be identity thieves. If someone is asking for your documents, make sure that they are authentic and there’s a good reason behind asking for them.
Try to plan and be willing to work during a scheduled time. Don’t promise to deliver your work in a limited amount of time.
If you’re a busy freelancer then keeping a track of who’s paid and who’s payment is due is a must. Make sure that you keep a good track of your payments. It’s really important. There are a bunch of applications available on the Internet that helps you in this respect.
Some clients have a habit of asking for more than what you are supposed to do. Keep a track of your rate and make them pay for the extra hours that you put in.
I know missing deadlines seem like a bad thing to do but it’s inevitable at some point so try not to stress too much about it. But yes, try not to make a habit of it. Nobody likes a slacker.
Creating a proper work-life balance is the key to success. Freelancing allows you to have more time for your personal life yet there are many freelancers out there who struggle to keep the two separate. Make it a habit early on in your career to keep the two apart. Otherwise, the problem will only become bigger with time.
If your freelancing career is related to designing or programming then you might want to keep yourself updated with the latest technologies in the market. In this respect, your life will be like that of a doctor’s life. Studying never stops.
Freelancers also have to face clients who have a habit of calling you whenever they wish to demand updates or make corrections. Make sure that you make boundaries early on. Set up parameters of communications. If they call at inappropriate hours then don’t pick up then instead send them a courteous email later on.
Getting bad reviews is normal. You cannot expect everyone to love your work. They may give you a not-so-good rating on the online platform. Try and ask for feedback and how you can make yourself better. Learn from every client.
Benefits Of Freelancing In India
Freelancing in India
Benefits of working as a freelancer.
There was a time when freelance work in India was rather frowned upon. The mindset that dominated the Indian society was that freelancing in India is no better than unemployment and that is it not a ‘ real job’ but a consolation service that lacks ‘stability’.
The changing landscape, though, has added a whole other dimension to this mentality. Today, as the stats go, India is only second to the US when it comes to the number of people working as freelancers in the country; a number that reaches up to a staggering 15 million.
Indian freelancers get to work in a variety of sectors, from IT and programming to writing, marketing and designing. Companies, right from startups to well-established corporations, are now reaching out to freelancers to seek their services on various projects. While currently, no government scheme exists to promote this work culture, many online platforms, not only encourage this change but also support and educate the existing freelancer community.
The big advantage of freelancing is that you can set your work hours. No one is there to decide how much you have to work. You can enjoy freedom while working as a freelancer.
Set Your Working Hours
As a freelancer, you get the opportunity to work whenever you want because it’s up to you how much or how little you want to work. In a full-time job, there is always someone to tell you or decide your working hours for you. No matter how much or little you work if you can give the best quality service you will become a successful freelancer. While working as a freelancer you can enjoy your day if you are a night person or you like to work at night. Freedom is priceless.
Choose Your Clients
You can choose the person with and for whom you want to work. While working as a freelancer you get the benefit of working with like-minded people and also you can choose the projects on which you want to work or you are passionate about. In a full-time job, it is next to impossible if you want to change your role. But in freelancing, you have the freedom to do what you love to do.
Travel While Working
As a freelancer, you get the opportunity to travel the world while working. Many people are becoming a freelancer to enjoy their life and travel to different countries. The term people use is “Digital Nomad”, that is someone who travels to various countries and along with that also earns decent money for their living. Being a freelancer means that you can decide the place when and where you want to work.
No Long Commute
This is also a big advantage of freelancing that you can avoid the long commute. This is essential for time management, you can save a lot of time while working as a freelancer. Freelancers work remotely and there is no requirement to commute because your clients may be staying in other countries. If you want to work from home and save your time then freelancing is the best option for you.
Control Your Work Load
We all are human beings and we all have a personal life too. Many times it happens that we get demotivated and procrastinate our work. So as a freelancer you can decide how much workload you want. You can also decide your off-days while working as a freelancer. In a full-time job, you can’t get off days too often because there you are working for someone else. But as a freelancer, you are your boss and you have the authority to decide the quantity of your work. But to earn money you have to work hard in both full-time and freelancing fields.
Conclusion
One thing to keep in mind is that freelancing does not imply independence from your job. Clients are the bosses in the world of freelancing. As a result, you must select your clients carefully. Nonetheless, freelancing will appear to be the finest employment option once you have earned trust and respect for your work.
So, if you want to work as a freelancer in India, now is the time to get started.
As per the Municipal Corporations, every person or business engaged in any kind of trade, business or profession is required to obtain a trade license. So yes it is mandatory for freelancers and bloggers to have one.
How to start a freelance business in India or How can I start freelancing in India?
Steps to how to be a freelancer in India:
Define Your Goals.
Find a Profitable Niche.
Identify Your Target Clients.
Set Strategic Prices for Your Services.
Build a High-Quality Portfolio Website.
Create Examples of What You Can Deliver (on Your Portfolio Site).
We all know Marvel. The world’s biggest and most celebrated Superheroes Fiction producer, but it is more than just that. If we peek into its history, it is as big as it gets. Starting from a pulp fiction comic producing name, it has travelled a journey that is not spoken much. This is an article covering that journey. From almost bankruptcy to producing an enormous Cinematic Universe and huge fandom. The journey, that is heroic in every sense.
Marvel came into existence in 1939. When a comic book publisher named Martin Goodman thought to make some cash from the growing market of comic books. The title was “Timely comics” under which the first comic was published as Marvel One. Comics were short books with an average of 32 pages and at that time were just starting out. They showcased some superheroes, with their usual work of fighting the bad and re-establishing peace in the world. Superheroes like the Human torch and submariner turned the air in the town. As the comics were making their cult, More superheroes came to uplift the ground for marvel. The most important was Captain America who made a debut in 1941 as a fighting soldier. That was an outbreak almost instantly.
Timely Comics logo
That era, now called the “Golden Era” of comics, was the beginning of Comics celebration and Marvel. If we look back to the history of ‘how comics have travelled through time’, we can map several ages depending upon their types and traits.
The Era of World War Two. The era in time when heroes like Superman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, and Batman came in their debut. These were patriotic heroes, fighting the evil and inaugurating peace. Many times Heroes could be seen fighting real world bad guys like Hitler in the comics. The time couldn’t be perfect, the heroes struck a chord and people loved them. It laid a strong base of love for Comics as well as Super Heroes. Even in the aftermath of the traumatic times, comics were seen as a way for children to ease up their fear of war, and to neutralise their anxiety.
The Comic Age
Marvel – Silver Age (1956-70)
Then came the silver age when comics with a strong base became the mainstream source of entertainment among Americans. This was the time when the golden age heroes lost a little of their shine. Heroes were tailored with time, and then we had Spiderman and The Fantastic Four. These were more into the area of mystery and horror genres.
Silver Age Representation
Marvel – Bronze Age (1970-85)
This was more commonly known as the continuing age, when the heroes from the past (Most famous), that is from the golden era continued to showcase some past issues like poverty and drug abuse.
Marvel – Modern Age (1985-present)
The time after 1985 is the modern age of comics that is still continuing, when superheroes from comics are taken from the books, to a new genre of Movies and Series and Spin Offs. The deep dive into the world of Science Fiction.
Later on, after the inception, Martin saw a surge in readers as commissioned writers like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby started to write for the comics. They made the heroes more personal and neighbourhood friendly than ever. Heroes like Spiderman and Fantastic Four were a hit with this hack. With these characterisations and stories connected and rooted to normal life, These writers were a hit and they pioneered the time of young new talent of writers. Writers like Jim Steranko, who introduces Nick Fury (A Fictional Secret Agent) added in the wind’s direction. Revitalising of X-Men based on comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and recurrence of Captain America as a patriotic soldier was a fad.
The Marvellous Story
Marvel Comics and superheroes
After the golden age of comics and the success of heroes like Captain America, Martin changed the title to Atlas Comics. That experimented with new genres. Again in the 1960s, the comic producer changed its name to Marvel Comics after DC (Another Comic producer and their largest competitor) entered the market in the silver age. They both were the top players at that time. Soon Marvel got bigger and bigger and went public in 1991. As it got huge, management issues crept in and the company went almost bankrupt in 1996 and surprisingly sailed through the bankruptcy and got up again in 1998. Soon out of the pit, they started diversifying into digital comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe under the name of Marvel Studios. Which eventually was bought by Walt Disney in 2009.
As Marvel diversified, They started to work on movies. In 2012 they dropped The Avengers, A film starring Iron Man, Captain America and Thor. All these characters were already hit and now a film starring all these was a recipe for success. In the 21st Century, Marvel saw that the most profits are from Toys and Video games of famous Heroes and merchandise of blockbuster releases.
Dissecting the growth of Marvel
(and How it managed to scale heights)
I Hate Sequels. They are never as good as the first book – Connie Wills (American Writer)
Ed Catmull, Pixar’s CEO, describes movie sequels as a form of “creative bankruptcy”
It is evident with our personal experience too that, there is very little chance of a sequel doing better among fans than the original movie. But Marvel has kept redefining it again and again for over a decade now. If it happens once or twice, it’s luck but Marvel seems to have somehow found a formula for back to back blockbuster releases. Some of the key aspects that we can notice are –
Equality to Flow and Renewal
Marvel is trying (and succeeding) to follow initials and future growth. That means the comic giant is good in the continuity of its characters and the customer retention that comes with it. They are good at managing the past flow. Another thing is that Marvel is also in parallel renewing its ideas around superheroes to experiment.
Exceeding Predictions
Ask any Marvel fan, every movie is prediction proof. Marvel knows how to violate expectations in a fun way. Let us take an example of a famous franchise, Thor. The first part is super classic and establishes a good overview of the character, The second part is totally different in tone and the third is a comedy mixed with Hulk. This adds some suspense feel to Marvel releases.
Rollercoaster tone
This observation is more of an addition to the last mentioned step. If we pinpoint tones used in movies in the original order then we will find a graph that is a nice ZIGZAG figure. Showing the roller coaster of emotions or tones used in creating these movie masterpieces.
Marvel knows how to retain its fans and that is how it has managed to create a Universe of Fandom out of comics.
Lesser Known Facts about Marvel
During the early 90s, Michael Jackson tried to buy Marvel Comics. The reason behind it was that he wanted to star as Spider-Man in his version of the movie.
During Marvel’s boom in 1984, the head of Warner Communications’ publishing approached former Marvel editor Jim Shooter for licensing the publishing rights to the entire DC Comics universe.
DC refused the offer and continued to publish comics. Later on, DC became a hit with readers as Marvel hit bankruptcy in 1996.
Venom was created by a fan in 1982 in a contest held by Marvel Comics. Randy Schueller submitted a concept art for a storyline that involved Spider-Man upgrading his suit to all black for stealth purposes.
A character named Jihad was introduced eleven days before the 9-11 attack. Jihad was introduced as a character bent on world destruction and conquest. However, due to the sensitivity after the historical event of 9/11, the character was written off.
The King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley’s trademark haircut was based on the Marvel superhero, Captain Marvel Jr.
The Men in Black is owned by Marvel. Originally owned by Malibu Comics, Marvel bought the rights for The Men in Black in 1994. This would mean that all films, shows, and video games have been produced by Marvel.
FAQs
When was Marvel comics founded?
Marvel Comics was founded on 1939 in New York.
Who was first Marvel superhero?
Sub-Mariner was the first Marvel Superhero.
Who is the most popular Marvel superhero?
Some of the most popular Marvel superheros are:
Spider-Man
Iron Man
Captain America
The Hulk
Thor
Wolverine
Ant-Man
The Wasp
Black Widow
Captain Marvel
Who is owner of Marvel Studios?
The Walt Disney Company is the owner of Marvel Studios.
Today the demographic characteristics of businesses have changed because of the increasing presence of women entrepreneurship and their leadership skills. In today’s world, women-led businesses are playing a very prominent role in the economic growth of the society, generating more employment and the upliftment of the society as well.
According to an analysis made by Boston Consulting Group, women-driven startups which get funded are way more successful in terms of generating higher revenue. It is said that women have strong business plans and have high resilience and adaptability skills.
In today’s highly competitive market, there is one woman that has not only emerged to be a great entrepreneur but also has proved to compete and survive with tech giants like Microsoft and Adobe. The Australian entrepreneur has built a design platform that is a big rival to the tech giants. So, Let’s look at the success story of Australian billionaire Melanie Perkins.
Born to an Australian mother and a Malaysian father, Melanie has had a multi-cultural family. Her parents belong to engineering and teaching backgrounds. Melanie had an entrepreneurial spirit since her childhood. She started her first business around the markets of Perth, where she sold handmade scarves at the age of 14.
Melanie Perkins – Education
For most of Melanie’s childhood, she attended Sacred Heart College. Melanie pursued her career in communications, psychology, and commerce from the University of Western Australia. As part of her major studies, she also taught basic computer design. This was when she realized that students struggle to work in technical and complex platforms like photoshop and illustrator.
It was with Cliff Obrecht her husband when Perkins co-founded her first startup named Fusion Books. It is a platform that allowed students to design their yearbooks of school by using simple tools like drag and drop, illustrations, fonts, etc.
She started working on this platform at her mother’s place where her parents helped Perkins to print these yearbooks. She started connecting with people in colleges and universities to get new clients for her business. Very soon, it started to grow and become the largest yearbook company in entire Australia.
It was the time when Fusion Books was performing very well but Cliff and Melanie were running out of funds for growth and expansion. They wanted to take assistance and help from venture capitalists but no one agreed and believed in the idea.
During this period, Fusion Books became Canva Inc. In the beginning, it was very challenging for Perkins and Obrecht to get funding from investors. They had an opportunity to visit a prominent investor Bill Tai in the year 2011 in Perth.
They didn’t receive any funding from Tai but were regularly invited to kite-surfing gatherings where many other tech investors joined too. A few of these gatherings were held at Silicon Valley, where Perkins and Obrecht touched every single opportunity they could, but still couldn’t get any help.
The Launch of Canva
Melanie Perkins with Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams
One fine day they met with a former Google executive who after years of struggle came as a blessing. Cameron Adams joined the team and also supported Canva to get funding for the brand to grow.
In 2013 the company was officially launched after two rounds of seed funding where Melanie Perkins was announced the CEO of the Canva, Obrecht as the COO, and Cameron Adams as the CPO of the company.
Canva started to grow and diversify its business operations at a rapid speed. In the initial year, they had more than 600,000 users. The company also expanded its reach to places like Beijing and Manila. As the years passed, the company kept adding more distinguishing features to its platform.
Even with just a little diversification outside Australia, Melanie got popular in Silicon Valley and among the tech businesses of the United States. In 2016, she was named the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Asia List.
In 2020, Canva raised $60 million and the company’s valuation went up to $6 billion making Perkins the third richest woman in Australia with a net worth of $1.3 billion.
Melanie Perkins – Growth of Canva
Perkins’s dream of building a graphic design platform that was easy to use with limited design skills came to be true with Canva. The platform has been an amazing alternative for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator where the users have endless options of designing unique graphics.
One of the rare stories in the startup industries is when Canva in 2017, posted a profit of $1.86 million on $25.1 million revenue in just the first half of the year. Melanie and her team have made it possible to give access to more than 40,000 templates for its premium users. The platform works on a freemium business model.
Melanie Perkins – Personal Life
Melanie Perkins with her husband, Cliff Obrecht
Cliff Obrecht was the long-time boyfriend of Melanie Perkins. They together found their first startup Fusion Books and then Canva too. During the trip to Cappadocia, Turkey in 2019, Obrecht proposed to Melanie.
Both of them are known for their philanthropic work and most of their earnings go to charity. Soon after they started traveling for kite-flying events invited by Tai, Melanie started developing an interest in traveling.
Perkins is very proud of her work and she wants to continue growing herself as well as her designing platform Canva. More than 85% of the Fortune 500 companies are using Melanie’s platform.
Being in the early ’30s of her life, Melanie Perkins has struggled and achieved a lot at a very young age. While she got happily married to Cliff Obrecht in January 2021, both of them plan to have a happy and successful future in building and growing Canva Inc and helping people with all the possible resources that they have.
Melanie believes that her community and connections are really important for her business to reach new heights and she trusts that together with her team they will soon become a global leader in the tech design industry.
FAQ
What is the net worth of Melanie Perkins?
The net worth of Melanie Perkins is approximately $5.89 billion.
What is the age of Melanie Perkins?
Melanie Perkins was born on 1987 and is 34 years old.
A Startup is the result of an innovative idea getting sculpted, that have the capacity to transform the world. The term Startup has been in limelight over the past decade due to their rapid growth recorded around the world. The global Startup Ecosystem has surpassed $3 trillion which is larger than the GDP of UK. In India, 41,061 Startups have been recognized by government as of December 2020. Such an enormous growth has pushed India to top 3 in the Startup Ecosystem table lead by US and China.
For a Startup to sprout, mere ideas and business knowledge won’t do good. They need funding. This is where the Venture capitalist, Private equity investors and others pop-up. Facebook is one such investor, who selects innovative Startups through their Facebook Accelerator Programme, and offer financial support and guidance to them. They have so far made 38 Investments and 90 acquisitions in diverse Startups and businesses.
In this article, we’ll see 10 of such Startups, that received funding from Facebook out of which, some are showing great potential towards reaching the Unicorn Club.
Factory_OS, a housing development and modular home company, has raised $77.7 million from 6 investors including Facebook and Google. Factory_OS deploys viable and pioneering tech with optimized manufacturing systems to construct multistorey buildings at efficient costs and effort. Keeping up with the growing demand of housing, Factory_OS is focusing on building more affordable homes, and simultaneously developing technology for utmost optimized solutions. Besides off-site construction, Factory_OS has also partnered with Autodesk for ‘Digitizing Volumetric Design’ for efficient delivery, manufacturing, and construction.
Gojek
Facebook startup funding in Gojek
Gojek is an online multi-service provider who deals in digital payments, food delivery, commuting, shopping and many more. They offer almost two dozen services and serves more than 170 million customers around Southeast Asia. Gojek provides all their services from one application and hence it became a Super App. They showed great potential in their growth in Indonesia, where it was originally established in 2010. As a result, Gojek succeeded in procuring a huge sum of $5.3B from big investors like Facebook, PayPal, Visa and 31 others in 12 funding rounds. They have made 13 acquisitions and investments so far in their line of business.
Tech Matters, an innovative and non-profit IT and Services company, has raised $1.7 million in its seed round, and is funded by 4 investors including Working Capital and Facebook. Tech Matters aims to develop AI and data driven cloud-based products for startups and innovative organizations, as well as Machine Learning models to predict outcomes with internal and external datasets. It also designs interactive custom bots to keep their customers and stakeholders engaged, while also answering FAQs. Tech Matters deploys data to create immersive experience and experimental designs, hence solving some complex business problems.
Nilus
Facebook startup funding in Nilus
Nilus, a social enterprise that employs crowdsourcing and AI for creating affordable food markets, has raised $1.5 million from 9 investors including the like of Facebook, Google, and Angel Ventures. Nilus aims to fight the dearth of food to low income people through technology and efficiency, and become the first private firm to come up with a viable solution. Nilus focuses on helping the vulnerable communities with food shortage with professionalism, while also keeping in mind the nutritional quality of the food and an optimized way to prepare and deliver it. The services carried out by Nilus are with utmost transparency and efficiency to conserve resources as well.
Com Olho builds scalable AI solutions for enterprises, and has recently secured a strategic investment by Facebook and Lloyd Mathias in the grant and angel rounds respectively. It is also India’s first company to win the patent for fraud detection advertisement, and works for both, fraud as well as identity theft detection. Com Olho is also working towards helping making high dimensional data more viable among enterprises using machine learning models and uses programmatic attribution manipulation for fraud detection. It also offers various resources including informative blogs for general awareness against frauds and identity thefts.
ArtyOwl
facebook startup funding in ArtyOwl
ArtyOwl is a unique marketplace and an E-commerce store for handmade products, and has raised $100K in the grant round from Facebook in December of 2020. Be it personal care, home decor, food, or even fashion, ArtyOwl offers many different niche of home made products for users and customers to try something more custom and sometimes traditional. ArtyOwl endeavors to revolutionize handcrafted products and trade, so artisans and craftsmen can share their works with the world, and showcase their dexterity. With ArtyOwl, customers also enjoy a simple, convenient and secure shopping experience with an exceptional bouquet of handcrafted items.
Meesho
facebook startup funding in Meesho
Meesho is an e-commerce company rooted in Bengaluru and is growing its branches across India rapidly. Meesho is an online re-selling company has created more entrepreneurs in recent years, out of which 80% turn out to be women homemakers. This was the reason for their success and popularity in our country. In 2016, Meesho was selected for Y Combinator, and it was one among the three Indian companies to achieve this feet. Facebook’s first investment in India was made in Meesho. They raised $1.1B through 10 rounds of funding from 32 investors. In September 2021, Meesho raised a whopping $517M through Series F funding where Facebook and Good Capital were the recent ones to invest.
Unacademy is the second EdTech company in India to enter the Unicorn Club next to BYJU’S. They secured $838 million investment from 42 investors of which Facebook was also a part of, and have made 10 acquisitions in the past 2 years. Unacademy is an online educational platform that deals in diverse areas of learning. They offer online courses, live classes, practice session, tests, etc., for all the competitive and professional exams in India. They have grown to be the most popular online learning platform among Indian learners.
facebook startup funding in FEMCA Financial Services
FEMCA Financial Services was created with a unique objective of helping the investors and traders with investment research reports, containing the ranks of investment advisors based on their win-to-loss ratio. They also provide their expired reports to students and investors for auditing, in order to gain their authenticity. Facebook and Tanmaya Sharma are the two lead investors of FEMCA who had invested $15K in the company for its further development.
Hello Heart
facebook startup funding in Hello Heart
Hello Heart is a cutting-edge clinical-based smartphone solution and healthcare company that fixates on improving hearth health of the masses. It is part of the diversity investment of Facebook, and has raised a total of $23.2 million in funding from 22 investors Arba Ventures and Franklin Trust. Hello heart offers clinically approved smartphone based solutions that help manage hypertension, and fight heart diseases. It can also be integrated with your existing health plan and work with your PCPs and cardiologists while also offering a peer reviewed assistance and unmatched effectiveness for employers, individuals, and health plans.
HelpMum is a social enterprise that works to prevent infant and maternal mortality rate in Nigeria. It was created by Dr Adereni Abiodun, a social entrepreneur and innovator, in 2017. They create awareness among pregnant women on safe and hygienic delivery by issuing affordable birth kits and educate birth attendants through their e-learning platform.
They participated in the race for Facebook’s accelerator programme in 2020, along with 77 participants and got selected as one among the four Startups for an additional funding of $25,000. They’ve so far acquired $410K of funding from seven investors out of which, Google made $270,000 investment in them.
EchoAR
facebook startup funding in EchoAR
EchoAR, also known as Echo3D is a cloud platform, that offers tools and infrastructure facilities to developers and companies to create games, apps and contents in 3D, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). Their main objective is to provide a readymade platform for creators to develop and publish their own content (3D/AR/VR) without the need for technical knowledge or a developing team. With Facebook’s recent investment on Oct 5, 2021, EchoAR managed to procure $5 million seed capital from 12 investors including Remagine Ventures and Space Capital.
Obviously AI
facebook startup funding in Obviously AI
Obviously AI is a tool that helps its clients to build their own business learning models. Users don’t require any coding knowledge to create their model and the output can be easily integrated to their database. A new technology called “Edge Sharp AutoML” was developed by Obviously AI, which helps the users to build new models within a minute. Using this technology, they claim to have saved 13.8 million hours for their customers. They bagged $3.6M as seed capital from Facebook and other investors and further added $1.1M to their capital recently to expand their operations in eastern countries like Japan.
Utiva
facebook startup funding in Utiva
Utiva is another Nigerian company that became one of the four Startups to win Facebook Community Accelerator Program’s fund of $25K. It is an EdTech company that involves educating technology for people across Africa. They provide online virtual classes on Data analysis, tech skill development, digital marketing and many more with expert trainers.
JobSenz
facebook startup funding in Jobsenz
JobSenz is an online job searching platform which is based in Singapore. They also sell learning materials to students on their platform that are provided by experienced educators and institutes. JobSenz received $40K from FbStart programme to expand its business in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Also, they would receive guidance and mentoring from Facebook’s technical and engineering team as a part of this programme.
Facebook has been in the funding and venture investment niche for about a decade now, and continually seems to invest in innovative startups through its accelerator program. While it has already made 35 venture investments, the most recent being in January of 2021, also acquiring 89 organizations along the way, it has been hiring tech investors to lead an investment fund, suggesting there are yet more startups that Facebook is eyeing to invest in. Hence, it is safe to assume that in the near future, the startup ecosystem is bound to evolve, and be nurtured by tech giants and venture investment firms.
FAQs
Does Facebook invest in startups?
Facebook always looks towards investment opportunities in early-stage startups. They focus on backing potential startups with innovative models for growth not only in India, but globally.
What is the Facebook Accelerator program?
The Facebook accelerator program provides mentorship from Facebook employees, training on Facebook’s approach to products and businesses, and access to a global network of startup peers, successful founders, and industry experts.
What are the startups funded by Facebook accelerator programs?
Some of the top startups that are funded by facebook are:
Today many people are getting popular with the help of social media. Be it children or the elderly, people are flourishing their careers with the help of platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and many more.
A lot of small businesses are running today solely with the help of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Whether it is about building your own brand identity or reaching out to people you target, these networking sites are a blessing in today’s time.
There is one such gem, who had no intention of getting fame, but today is one of the most promising brands in the online cooking community of India. From being a simple housewife to becoming a star of the cooking world her journey has transformed because of her blogging and YouTube. Her name is Nisha Madhulika.
Nisha Madhulika is one of the most renowned chefs of India. She is known for her exceptional cooking skills and recipes. She started her career with just simple recipe blogs but today is also a renowned restaurant consultant. Her recipes and cooking tips are added to the publications like Indian Express, Amar Ujala, Dainik Bhaskar, and Times of India.
She was born in Noida on August 25, 1959, and completed her schooling and education there itself. Later on, she got married to M.S. Gupta. Nisha along with her husband and her two children live in Delhi. After getting married she started supporting her husband in his business.
Rise of the YouTube Star
Nisha Madhulika happily helped her husband for many years but wasn’t satisfied with her work. She was suffering from empty nest disorder as her kids moved out as they grew up.
That was the turning point in her life when she created her first YouTube video in May 2011. Her channel’s name was Food and Recipe. Every month Nisha started getting more than 1 million views on her videos and in a few years she crossed 3 million subscribers. In 2018, her videos had around 769, 636, 028 views. She has more than a hundred recipe videos on her YouTube channel.
In 2013, Nisha starred on YouTube for participating in a drive known as “Helping Women Get Online”. Nisha started getting popular in 2014. She starred at Vodafone’s “Women of Pure Wonder” coffee table in the year 2016. In the following year, Nisha earned an award for Top YouTube Culinary Content Creator on Social Media Summit & Awards 2017.
Also, she was seen in an interview that was aired on Lok Sabha TV for the initiative carried out by YouTube – #seesomethingnew. Nisha was also listed as India’s Top 10 YouTube celebrities by the ET. Later that year, she also received an award for Top YouTube Cooking Stuff Creator. Today she gets featured at various magazines like India Today, Bloomberg, Economist, and many more.
Nisha starts her day healthy, with her tea and morning routine exercise. She cooks meals in the morning like breakfast and lunch and like every other household woman takes care of her home. After this Nisha enjoys capturing images of the food that she made. In her free time in the afternoon, Nisha writes blogs and publishes them.
Nisha loves to write blogs, recipes and make YouTube videos. During the day she also attends online events, appears on various cookery platforms, and also attends various functions.
Accepting challenges throughout the journey
In her initial days, Nisha didn’t get a good response to her blogs, but she continued her hard work with consistency, and with time, her blogs and videos started gaining popularity. Nisha initially posted all her content (blogs and articles) on a WordPress platform named Khana Banana. She felt difficulty in managing that platform since it already had more than 100 blogs and was growing further, hence asked for help from her son.
Nisha’s son created a website for her with the name nishamadhulika.com. Here on this website, it was easy for her to interact with the audience and reach out to her recipe readers.
Also, when she wanted to create the YouTube videos, she didn’t have enough resources. Neither she had proper studio nor the equipment. Nisha tried to shoot videos at various locations like the kitchen, dining table, small set-ups in the hall, but the major problem with these video shoots was the unbearable heat, background noise, and un-comfort. But hustlers don’t give up and neither did Nisha Madhulika.
She then did a small setup by joining tables in a room upstairs and today she has a whole team who helps Nisha shoot videos, edit them, publish them and manage her YouTube channel.
Nisha Madhulika’s Roaring Success
Consistency, sheer hard work, and dedication helped Nisha become a YouTube star today. Nisha has more than 12 million subscribers on YouTube, 5.2 million followers on Facebook, and more than 1700 videos published on various platforms. She has also consistently published thousands of blogs and articles. She tapped the opportunity at the right time to start a YouTube channel and work on social media, showcasing her talent to the world.
Nisha has always been an honest food blogger. She always displays her food as is, without any false presentations. Her recipes are liked by the audience because she uses readily available ingredients in her recipes and can be easily cooked.
She keeps the audience as her priority, hence publishes and makes the recipes that her audience wants her to make through the comments section. Nisha says that her objective was not to earn money or monetize her channels, but when a person does good work with sincerity and honesty, money flows automatically.
For women like Nisha Madhulika, age is just a number. She is a lady who found her passion through YouTube. Nisha loves to keep experimenting, reading, and preparing food. An epitome of honesty and decency, Nisha is an inspiration to many household women, who love cooking and want to pursue their love for food as a passion.
FAQ
What is the net worth of Nisha Madhulika?
Nisha Madhulika has net worth of approximately $4.47 million.
Who is Nisha Madhulika?
Nisha Madhulika is a Indian chef, YouTube personality and restaurant consultant.
How much does Nisha Madhulika earn from YouTube?
Nisha Madhulika earns approximately $1.9 million from YouTube.
Being a SaaS business brings you various channels for marketing your product and services digitally. Around the Internet, there are numerous tips or guidance on how to make your business globally popular and for that, everyone has only one answer- Digital Marketing. Now, talking about digital marketing, various channels help you take your SaaS businesses to the next level, like through social media, SEO, Email Marketing and many others.
With global users of over 4.03 million, email marketing helps the SaaS businesses to reach the maximum target. With these statistics, email marketing is known to have the highest number of users of any other digital marketing channel. In this article, we will be discussing why building an email list is so important and effective for SaaS businesses and most of all, how to build it. So, let’s get started!
Why is building an Email List Important for SaaS Businesses?
Being a SaaS marketer, it’s important for you to have an organized special list of names and email addresses of your target audience and existing customers.
We are well familiar with the functionality of email marketing and with that, several reports are made which clearly states that around 43,000 percent return is guaranteed on investment (ROI) for businesses.
With an email list, subscribers can easily join it from the official website of your businesses and verify their identity. With your best of offerings, audiences get attracted to your business and turn into your paying customers. And when it comes to SaaS Businesses, the email list gets around 10 times higher modifications than any other social media campaign.
In SaaS Businesses, an email list helps in sending numerous emails to everyone from the list regarding online store, blog updates and many others. You can also keep them updated about new offers and discounts by making them subscribe to your newsletter.
We have broadly discussed what an email list is and how important it is for SaaS business. Now, it’s time to understand how to build a solid email list.
For this, you need to create a marketing persona that will represent your ideal customers. Marketing persona helps you find your target audience and strike them right where it hits! The best place for this is social media, now as you find your audience, ask them to provide their email addresses. When you charm your audience in the right manner, they automatically give you their email addresses. And that is a win!
Create a Website
As you gathered your audience, you’d need a place where can be assembled, which is a website. Now, creating a website is pretty tough and must be created with great innovative ideas to charm your audience.
But the plus point with the email list for SaaS business is that you don’t need a huge website to get started. You can just create a landing page that carries your email opt-in form. The audience enters their email addresses in the opt-in form, available on your website.
Email Marketing Service
For better communication with your email list, you need to have an email marketing platform. Email Marketing platform helps you to organise your email list and send emails to the target audience.
On a broader note, the email list will also serve the purpose of drip campaigns, sequencing and many more. Your main focus through the email marketing service is to collect all the email addresses in a very safe and valid manner.
Charm the audience through your Offer
Now, the major goal is to charm the audience with your amazing offers that won’t hold anyone from joining your email list.
Think from the perspective of a customer like how you can be so impressed by a website and its offers that you’ll immediately give your email address. The customer won’t provide their email information unless they are offering a generous exchange.
Make sure you provide what your target audience needs and won’t find elsewhere, and also, free!
Maybe you can provide the customer with access to your report, software or any other valuable thing. This way, your audience will automatically get attached to your website.
It often becomes pretty tough to build up a strong and legitimate email list for your SaaS business. But as you get on with it, it becomes very simple and you get more ideas to promote your business among the audience.
The major thing that you need to focus on with the email list is to opt for a single and strong strategy and function it smoothly. If you stick by your marketing strategy, you’ll automatically see the results by the enhanced number of the email address joining your list.
With this article, we attempted to describe to you all the major steps and requirements for a strong email list. If you follow these steps and understand the importance of an email list for your SaaS business, you’ll collect a great number of email addresses for your list.
FAQ
Why building an email list is important?
Building an email list is the best way to build a relationship with your potential customers.
How to build an email list?
Understand you audience, Create a Website, and Automate your emails.
Why should a SaaS company have a mailing list?
In SaaS Businesses, an email list helps in sending numerous emails to everyone from the list regarding online store, blog updates and many others.s
Weblog, popularly known as Blog, was initially used as an online journal in 1994. Later, it got evolved into a space where information related to personal and business grounds started flowing through. Since then, the world of blogging has got enormous reach, popularity and success. There are more than 570 million blogs in the web today. This rapid growth of blogs, then started bringing commercial benefits to them. Businesses were eager on placing their ads on successful blogs to reach a wider customer base, and as a result, the concept of Affiliate Marketing was born.
Affiliate Marketing is a concept where, a company willing to generate more customers, decides to promote their product through affiliates. These affiliates publish the ads on their websites, and, when a customer buys the product through that link (a unique code will be generated for every ad link to identify which affiliate succeeded in acquiring the customer), the company will reward the affiliate with a percentage of commission. The rate of commission varies from markets and industries and the average commission ranges between 5% to 30%.
In this article, we’ll see some of the best affiliate programs, that proves to be beneficial for bloggers.
How Affiliate Marketing Works
An advertiser has a product and the advertiser wants to sell. Advertisers agree to give you a commission from each sale if the buyer is coming from your site.
Advertisers give you a unique link that tracks your affiliate code. That way, the advertiser knows when a buyer used your link to make a purchase.
You include your affiliate link on your site. You can do this directly in the content or through banner ads. If a reader clicks on your unique link and buys the product you have recommended, you earn a percentage of what she purchased.
Some of the best affiliate programs for bloggers are listed below.
Adobe Affiliate Program
Adobe Affiliate Program – affiliate programs for bloggers
Adobe Affiliate Program is one of the attractive ones available in the market. Adobe is an American Software company that is known for its creative software and multimedia tools. They took the lead in revolutionizing the world from paper-to-digital transformation, through their invention of PDF. Their consistent innovations and quality services helped them earn a huge customer base.
Joining their affiliate program, you get to promote Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Document Cloud and Adobe Stock and earn a good commission on them. The best deals offered by them are:
Pros
Commission for Adobe Creative and Document cloud is 85% of first month in Monthly subscription plan and 8.33% of first year’s subscription.
Adobe Stock offers commission of $72 from its monthly subscription.
You’ll receive exclusive promotions and incentives.
Regular updates on new product launches.
The duration of cookies is 30 days.
Cons
Adobe stock and documents are available only in few selected countries.
ShareASale
ShareASale – affiliate programs for bloggers
ShareASale is itself an affiliate network that has over 2500 valuable merchants with their products and services. They allow you to select from available merchants and promote their products on your site. With their large merchant base and products piling up regularly, it is always easier to find a product for you to promote.
Pros
It has the best user interface that is easy and simple to navigate.
They have a quick payout system.
They give a minimum pay of $50. This minimum pay can be further raised up to $1000.
Cons
Their website is quite outdated and their links causes glitches while working with WordPress.
Amazon Associates- affiliate programs for bloggers
Amazon is one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the world with a wide and diverse range of products being sold. Their affiliate program has more or less the same age of Blog. With their widespread branches across globe and huge customer base, they stand to be a popular affiliate partner for bloggers. By choosing the appropriate product to promote, that suits your customers, you can hit a jackpot.
Pros
If a customer purchases a different product, other than that of what you have promoted, through your link, Amazon still pays you a commission.
Cookies stay alive for 90 days, if a customer visits through your link and adds the product to cart.
Cons
If the customer fails to add the product to cart and move on without purchasing, cookies will forget you in 24 hours.
Considering other affiliates of this size, Amazon offers the lowest commission rate which doesn’t go beyond 10%.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy- affiliate programs for bloggers
GoDaddy has grown to be the largest domain registrar worldwide with more than 20 million customers. They manage their affiliate marketing network through their partners Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate). They offer a commission of 10% to 15% and payout $25 per repeat customer and $100 per new customer.
Pros
GoDaddy offers an extended Cookie duration of 45 days.
You have various choices to choose for promotion as they offer multiple services.
ConvertKit is an e-mail marketing tool that helps you simplify your workload by taking care of your customers. Their friendly interface and automation tool makes this simpler. They pay 30% commission to their affiliates for every sale they make and ConvertKit is one of the best of recurring affiliate programs available in market.
Pros
They offer the highest commission rate in this field of business (30%).
They have the best Cookie duration of 60 days.
Cons
They lack pace in both processing applications and in paying affiliates. They take few weeks to roll-out the commission.
Bluehost
Bluehost – affiliate programs for bloggers
Since their formation in 2003, they’ve grown to be the largest web hosting company in the world. Bluehost offers one of the highest payouts for its affiliates and has dispersed more than $5 million in commission the previous year alone. They provide various services for free namely, registering Domain Name and issuing SSL Certificates.
Pros
They are one of the highest paying affiliate programs. They pay $65 and it increases with the increase in signups.
They have an excellent storage and bandwidth that allows you to smoothly handle your traffics.
Cons
They take 45 to 60 days to process the payment.
Entry level package lacks many facilities and services compared to their other plans.
Cloudways
Cloudways- affiliate programs for bloggers
Cloudways has partnered with various reputed service providers like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Linode and Digital Ocean to run the Cloud Hosting Platform. Even without much technical skill, customers can run their sites comfortably. Their affiliate program offers a huge commission for affiliates in two schemes:
Slab Payment – By choosing this, affiliates get paid a fixed slab rate for every customer. This rate increases with the customers.
Hybrid Payment – Offers $30 per sale + 7% life time commission.
Pros
They have the longest Cookie lifetime of 90 days.
They provide a 24/7 customer support and provide dedicated affiliate managers.
Cons
• Payment will be processed only if the commission payable reaches the threshold of $250.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks- affiliate programs for bloggers
QuickBooks is an accounting software company that mainly concentrates on small businesses, accountants and service providers. It has a simple and easy to use software that helps you run your business effectively. QuickBooks is a well reputed company with over 4.4 million customers. Their services can be availed through any medium like PC, Mobile phones, tab, etc. Their commission payout ranges upto 10% which is paid through Cheques and a Cookie duration of 45 days.
Pros
They have an excellent support service for customers.
Commission will be paid for your own purchase as well.
Cons
They are available only in United States.
Payment is made only after $50 threshold is reached every time.
Shopify is an e-commerce company that provides a platform for users to set an online store to sell their goods and services. Shopify offer an enormous number of tools and facilities for users to set-up and manage their business efficiently. Similarly, their affiliate program offers upto 200% commission to affiliates, who promotes their products, which is huge. Cookies stay alive for 30 days.
Pros
You can earn $58 for every sign-up using your link in paid plan and $2000 for Plus plans.
They give a good support and their good reputation brings high potential sale.
You may not have heard about PicMonkey, but they offer a great deal for affiliates. PicMonkey is a photo editing and designing tool that helps users to create and edit photos for social posts. They have tools that perform basic cropping to high-end photo enhancing. Here are some of their pros and cons:
Pros
If a customer purchases any subscription plan in PicMonkey using your referral, you earn 50% commission on every sale. It doesn’t end there.
You earn a recurring commission of 25% for every purchase made by that same customer in the future.
Cons
• Your referral link will be valid only for 30 days and hence, if your customer didn’t purchase within that stipulated time, you’ll receive no commission.
Conclusion
The online era has only encouraged Blogging. With their add-on financial income through affiliate marketing, it is only going to boost the number of people turning bloggers. By adding fuel to this growing trend, businesses have poured millions of dollars into Affiliate Marketing, thus becoming a motivator to new bloggers.
The above mentioned 10 affiliate programs have proven promising incomes to affiliates. I hope you to give it a try and benefit from them.
FAQs
Do bloggers use affiliate programs?
An affiliate marketing programs is one of the best ways for bloggers to monetize their content and earn a living promoting products they believe in.
Which Affiliate Programs is the best for Bloggers?
Some of the best affiliate programs for bloggers are:
Adobe Affiliate Program
ShareASale
Amazon Associates
GoDaddy
ConvertKit
Bluehost
Cloudways
QuickBooks
Shopify
PicMonkey
What is affiliate marketing used for?
Affiliate marketing is an online sales practice to let a product owner increase sales by allowing others targeting the affiliates to earn a commission by recommending the product to others.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Credit Fair.
Credit Fair is a consumer lending fintech startup that provides 0% or low-cost, short-term, unsecured installment loans at the point of sale. The startup’s unique credit assessment process has helped it achieve a quick turnaround time (TAT) of less than a day and a high approval rate, enabling more Indians to avail credit. Apart from that, Credit Fair helps borrowers build a credit ladder, i.e. a credit score to help them access credit from other lenders and at a fairer rate. In just 3 years, Credit Fair managed to onboard over 1,000 merchants including upGrad, Toppr, Asian Paints among many. It has disbursed about $9 million to date with a loan book of $4 million currently.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Aditya Damani (Founder of Credit Fair) to get insights on the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article you’ll discover how Credit Fair was conceptualized, its business model, growth, funding, future plans, and more.
Credit Fair provides 0% or low-cost, short-term, unsecured installment loans at the point of sale. The short-term vision of the company is to be the preferred lender in sectors of education, healthcare, home décor, and electric vehicles. Its long-term vision is to see every Indian have access to the right amount of credit at the right cost and at the right time.
By 2025, the startup aims to positively impact the financial lives of over 1million Indians. This vision reflects in its efforts to enable low-cost loans for ‘Bharat’ i.e. people who are not served by banks and large NBFCs. Over 70% of Credit Fair’s loans are No Cost EMIs, hence offering better terms than even personal loans from banks.
Credit Fair – Industry Details
According to a report by BCG, the total value of digital lending is expected to be $1 trillion by 2023, driven by increased access to the internet and smartphones and increased digital purchases. As for the number of customers, 550 million people i,e, 46% of the population of India is currently underserved and makes up for the total addressable market.
Credit Fair has estimated the market opportunity in its target sectors – health, education, solar rooftop, and electric vehicles to be over $20 billion of which 25% is funded by EMI taking its immediate addressable market to $5bn. These sectors are fragmented but large and experiencing a high growth rate, making them attractive.
The founder got the inspiration of starting a lending business in India while working at new to credit-focused lender, Oakam, and while advising private equity funds on setting up lending businesses. He saw people face issues rejections or delays in getting credit from financial institutions during critical life moments such as medical emergencies leading to reliance on informal channels that charge usurious interest of 10% per month and getting trapped in a debt cycle. This led to the idea of launching Credit Fair.
Credit Fair – Product/Service and USP
About 550 million Indians are underserved by traditional lenders because they are new to credit (NTC) or do not have a prime credit score
Availability of credit at the point of sale is currently enabled through credit cards, penetration of which is less than 4%
Borrowers in remote areas are also underserved by traditional banks due to the high costs associated with their onboarding, management, and recovery.
Hence, there is a huge demand for formal credit that can be availed through simple processes.
On the other hand, merchants, who are majorly SMEs, struggle with providing a point of sale financing options to their customers resulting in loss of potential sales. Second, their operations are mostly based on cash transactions, leading to process inefficiencies and high transaction costs.
Credit Fair provides 0% or low-cost, short-term, unsecured installment loans at the point of sale. Itsticket size ranges from USD150-25,000 and tenure from 3 months to 3 years.
The startup’s unique credit assessment process has helped it achieve a quick turnaround time (TAT) of less than a day and a high approval rate, enabling more Indians to avail credit. Second, by providing 0% or easy EMI, it is increasing access to low-cost credit hence, securing the financing health of the borrowers. Third, Credit Fair also helps borrowers build a credit ladder, i.e. a credit score to help them access credit from other lenders and at a fairer rate.
Credit Fair – Consumer App
As for merchants, Credit Fair’s products and high TAT and approval rate help improve conversions and ensure stable cash flows for the partners, hence, overcoming the issues of low sales and lack of working capital. Second, digitizing cash flows will help merchants manage their cash flows better leading to efficiencies in operations. Finally, it will further the startup’s mission of financial inclusion as SMEs will be able to access credit and working capital loans, based on cash flows generated as a result of partnering with Credit Fair.
Credit Fair – Founders and Team
The founder, Aditya Damani, has a unique mix of fintech and institutional lending experience, having received a Banking Tech award while at new to credit-focused lender Oakam and TransferWise previously. He has also worked at PIMCO and advised private equity funds on setting up lending businesses.
Credit Fair – Founding Team
The team comprises over 50 members covering technology, credit, collections, sales, finance, and marketing functions. The team is young and shares a passion for the mission of the company as demonstrated through the values of ownership, curiosity, and obsession with customer satisfaction.
Credit Fair – Business Model & Revenue Model
Credit Fair follows a B2B2C business model. It is offering a win-win proposition to both merchants and customers by providing 0% or low-cost, short term, unsecured installment loans at the point of sale. The interest costs of these loans are borne by the merchants to attract new customers while the borrowers seek installment facilities to manage their finances. In addition, the borrowers bear a nominal processing fee and in some cases insurance fee as well.
Credit Fair – Startup Launch
It started with acquiring partners in the home décor sector through forming connections over LinkedIn and through cold calling. Because this sector was not actively served by big players such as Bajaj, the founders recognized an opportunity to develop expertise within the sector and provide products and processes suitable for customers within the home décor segment. That helped Credit Fair become the preferred lending partner in the home décor segment. Soon after they targeted the elective healthcare sector that also was vastly underserved by existing players.
The team focused on serving their partner merchants better than the competitors by providing better approval rates, faster turnaround time, and competitive pricing. That has been a key factor in retaining partners and capturing a bigger share of their wallets as well as getting recommendations from existing partners to form new partnerships.
Credit Fair – Challenges Faced
One major challenge that Aditya faced is – Aligning the different teams within the company to focus on the company goals while managing risk. He often observed that the different teams such as credit, operations, collections, etc. would have their team goals which often wouldn’t add to the company’s growth or would be contradictory to the goals of other departments.
One tool, that has been very effective to achieve team-company alignment is setting OKRs. The founders set company OKRs (Objectives & key Results) and based on it, each team lead has developed team OKRs. This has helped them identify key metrics for individual teams that together contribute to the company’s growth. The OKRs are reviewed quarterly and have been effective to give direction to all team members.
Credit Fair – Funding and Investors
Credit Fair has raised a total funding of $15mn, details are as follows –
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
June 2021
Seed
$15 Mn (Debt + Equity)
Equity – Anand Ladsariya and Alok Agarwal; Debt – Undisclosed
Credit Fair – Advisors/Mentors
Credit Fair’s board of advisors comprises of C-Suite from companies such as HDFC, IFC, PayU, and IBM.
Among large lenders, Bajaj Finance is its primary competitor. Among fintech lenders, Credit Fair’s competitors include companies such as Liquiloans, EarlySalary, ZestMoney, and Eduvanz.
Credit Fair – Tools used to run startup
The startup uses Slack for team communications, OKRs for goal setting and tracking, Jira for sprint planning in addition to using third-party services for managing certain business operations.
Credit Fair – Current Growth & Future Plans
Credit has onboarded over 1,000 merchants including upGrad, Toppr, Indira IVF, Pristyn Care, Toothsi, Asian Paints, and Ampere.
It has disbursed about $9 million to date with a loan book of $4 million currently.
The startup’s month-on-month growth rate is 15%.
Credit Fair was selected to be part of Village Capital’s Finance Forward: India 2020 cohort.
In the next two years, Credit Fair aims to establish partnerships with 5,000 merchants, reaching $15 million monthly disbursements. It is building its products to reach a $15M monthly disbursement rate and $75M Assets under management in 2 years. The funds will be used towards providing loss guarantee, expanding team, and marketing. It also plans to launch a P2P lending platform to further lower its cost of funding, hence keeping costs low for its customers.
Credit Fair – FAQs
What is Credit Fair?
Credit Fair is a fintech startup that provides 0% or low-cost, short-term, unsecured installment loans at the point of sale.
What is Credit Fair’s Business Model?
Credit Fair follows a B2B2C business model. It is offering a win-win proposition to both merchants and customers by providing 0% or low-cost, short-term, unsecured installment loans at the point of sale.
How much funding has Credit Fair raised?
Credit Fair has raised total funding of $15mn (Equity + debt) from Anand Ladsariya and Alok Agarwal.
Is Credit Fair an Indian Company?
Yes. Credit Fair is an Indian company headquartered in Mumbai.
Ashwini
