Remember back in the days of the year 2017. When fidget spinners were new in the market, they took it by storm. Starting right from the kids to the adults’ everyone bought them, spinning and playing with them for hours.
It does not matter if our parents or the gen Z would not approve, but the craze among the people was such that we did introduce them to those who did not approve. Nevertheless, and said to them, “Here, you should try this”
Fidget Spinners were available everywhere right from the top websites to be locally available at cheaper rates in the market. Manufacturers made them in bundles, be it original or its copy in all sizes and customized. The focus here is that they were sold and people bought them; the buzz was to an extent that brothers refused to tie the Rakhi’s that their sisters got for them and insisted that they tie what was called back then fidget spinner Rakhi. So, Lets look 7 ways to create a buzz around your startup.
Why Creating Buzz around your Startups is Important?
Launching anything in today’s world is tough with technology and so many marketing strategies. Right from e-mail marketing to affiliate marketing, it is difficult to hold people’s attention as the new researchers give insight that the maximum attention span of people has been reduced to five seconds.
So, is it enough to when you start a startup or business, be it selling a service or a product to be only launched, letting people know and then forget about it?
In today’s world, it is equally important to create a buzz around it! Because it not only gets people talking about it, but in the infinite numbers of brands already established out there, it makes the consumers recognize and distinguish your product or service as well as retains your customers, not allowing them to go to your competitors and establishing loyalist consumers.
What makes you distinguish a Mercedes from a Jaguar?
As you come to think of it, both the brands sell cars and belong to the same industry. Before aiming to create a buzz around your newly launched startup, your consumers should be able to recognize your brand and distinguish it from the other available competitors in the market.
What can you do?
Create your brands’ name
Categorize it, what will it sell? Where? How? To which category does your startup belong? Is your startup going to sell premium goods or services?
A good brand color scheme based on the persona of your brand
A catchy tagline that your audience will remember
Take risks, get back up, and have a backup plan
Being an entrepreneur is showing up every day, being mentally strong, and being able to look for opportunities and solutions to problems. An entrepreneur thinks out of the box, but it also involves risk. A new idea about a product or a service can be brilliant and work wonders or might just bring your startup crumbling down.
A situation like this will feel challenging, but that does not mean you run away from it. You can take your time off to think over how to tackle the problem in the best way possible, a plan B.
While launching something new you will face such challenges, but if you already devise a backup plan it will save you time, hassle and make you understand how to do everything better the next time.
Did you ever end up going to a restaurant? Because this restaurant was suggested to you by a friend, and they tell you how good the cuisine and ambiance was. The same is the way influencer marketing works.
Celebrity endorses, influencers on social media make it easy for the consumers to trust your brand because a person who recommends it to you and gives the reviews is someone who already the consumers know and trust.
Tailor your Brand strategy
Deciding on the brand strategy that goes together with your target audience is synonyms with Sherlocking.
But the dynamics of your audience keep changing; a strategy will work for a certain platform but won’t work for another one. Mix and match.
Tailor a strategy according to your brand’s needs.
Find where your consumers are?
And where are you comfortable as a brand to have a presence?
Be it multi-branding, co-branding, or any other brand strategy that you use. Try till you get the best results most efficiently.
Know your Target Audience. Focus on the problems
People are looking for solutions and mind you, they are looking for the best for themselves. Most of the adverts use this appeal in their ad campaigns and it works. Research and collect data about your target audience and their psychographics.
Who are they?
Why do they use your product?
What are their demographics, psychographics?
What do they expect from you?
How can you solve their problems in the best possible ways?
Eventually, your consumers are the kings, serve them right, serve them best. They are the key to solving your puzzle.
Innovate your Product
What if your startup sells just what everyone else in the market is? You will then end up allowing your consumers to go and buy from the competitor’s brand.
Take you are selling a packet of chips. Will that be sufficient for all consumer segments that exist in your market? Every consumer is different, and their wants, needs will be different.
A variety in the flavor, size, shape of the chips or the packaging can make a difference. New things appeal to people and if it sounds convincing enough, they do try it.
A normal rubber band is okay. But a flexible, sustainable product made from eco-friendly raw material that can be used for various purposes, along with adjustable buckles made from recycled plastic.
Well, that sounds like a plan! Do not stick to one thing; try different ideas, work on what suits your consumers best, and be innovative, people like different things.
Ad campaigns
A good ad campaign can work wonders. Be the campaign giving a social message or making the world a better place. Acting towards a good cause, giving back to society also helps to steer your startup.
Tailor you brand strategy, Use influencer marketing, and Understand you target audience. These are some of the ways to create a buzz around your startup.
Why creating a buzz around your startup is important?
Creating a buzz around your startup is important because its differentiates you from your competitors.
What is the best day to launch a business?
Tuesday is considered as the best day to launch a startup or business, as consumers are too focused on Mondays.
What do you think of a Zero Waste business? Sounds interesting, right? Well, yes! Zero Waste business is becoming quite popular among the business people and they are opting for various strategies to strengthen their business and propositions.
The major cause of the turning towards the Zero Waste business is the huge impact of waste management on business operations and environments. And that’s one of the biggest reasons why Walmart and GE are taking a wide approach towards the Zero Waste business.
In this article, we will be discussing the influential and enormous strategies that must be taken into consideration before getting started with the Zero Waste business. Let’s get started!
Before getting on with the strategies, let’s discuss the literal meaning of a Zero Waste business. In most simple words, Zero Waste means producing less waste through various waste reduction steps along with reusing, recycling, and efficient resources with a supreme goal of eliminating the waste produced from businesses.
Zero Waste business is basically an effective waste management program. According to the TRUE Zero Waste program, it is known for diverting 90% from the landfill and other techniques.
For any new rules or adaptation of technology, you need to align your pre-existing ones. In the case of zero waste, analyze all the aspects of the current waste stream like where it is producing and how it can be eliminated. Try to manage ways where you can stop the extensive production of such wastes.
This can be obtained in a great way by covering the area of your resources. Like instead of sending corporate reports and documents on paper, cover them through digital measures.
Assign a Role to Zero Waste
Zero waste management can not be managed by someone with no idea and interest in it. That’s why it’s essential to have someone who has the knowledge and skills of zero waste and could cover all aspects of it.
Assign a role to someone who makes sure that the staff members welcome and adopt the new system properly. The ultimate goal of zero waste is to save money on a long-term basis and portray a strong and rising image of your company.
When you are implementing zero waste in your business, you need to determine a specific goal that you are willing to achieve. It’s essential to specify for what purpose and in which direction your company is moving for adapting zero waste.
Also, assign your team members for the attainment of your goal. Engaging employees in zero waste is one of the strongest ways of implementing policies.
Create Waste Prevention and Reduction plan
As you establish the waste reduction goals, implement favorable plans and actions in order to achieve them. There are tons of strategies that you can go for like waste reduction, waste diversion, and waste prevention.
You would require proper teamwork and collaboration with the suppliers and other feasible supply chain stakeholders. We have mentioned some of such waste reduction strategies right below:
Improvise energy efficiency and reduction in carbon footprint
When it comes to the reduction of energy consumption, installing green energy providers, residence sensors, and microgeneration capacity work the best. The energy efficiency approach can broaden to the greening of supply chain practices and carpooling initiatives.
Using reusable packaging
Packaging materials are accountable for a large portion of the wastes. That’s why it’s quite necessary to make sure you utilize the old packaging materials, ensuring various means.
Composting and Anaerobic Digestion
This brings a great advantage to any business that is looking for ways to divert the hard lunchroom waste of dusty paper towels from the trash bin. These work extremely well for businesses in producing organic waste like retailers or processors. Through an anaerobic digestive system, grocery retailers would generate methane that works as an alternative for the fuels of vehicles.
Determine Recycled and Natural Content
In order to promote waste reduction, companies often use recycled or natural materials to improve the entire demand for the recycled materials. Thus, helps them to construct financial viability by recycling. Alongside, reducing the requirement of virgin material.
When it comes to a zero-waste business, there are some very strong strategies that would help you attain a definite goal. These strategies include identifying waste types, analyzing methods to eliminate waste without any damage to the environment, waste streams, and reduction of wastes.
For any business in order to adopt the zero waste plan, these strategies and steps must be followed. Besides, this uplifts the image of the company among its audience and in the market which always brings profitable deals. These are considered essential in any corporate social obligation.
FAQ
What is a Zero waste business strategy?
Zero Waste means producing less waste through various waste reduction steps along with reusing, recycling, and efficient resources with a supreme goal of eliminating the waste produced from businesses.
Which companies are working towards reducing waste?
Aramark, The Coca-Cola Company, and McDonald’s are some of the companies that are working towards reducing waste.
What are the benefits of reducing waste?
Reducing waste Prevents pollution caused by reducing the need to harvest new raw materials, Saves energy and Reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change.
On 24th August 2021, Flipkart Wholesale which is the digital B2B marketplace of the E-commerce giant Flipkart Group announced their upcoming credit programs that will help kiranas manage their working capital requirements and grow their business.
These credit programs are said to include Easy credit in partnership with IDFC FIRST Bank along with other well-known Fintech institutions. These credit offerings aim in solving the problems of the kiranas in India and boost businesses with the help of advanced technology.
Another advantage of these initiatives is that kiranas can avail credit just within two minutes and at zero cost, via end to end digital onboarding. These industry-first credit programs are designed especially for over 1.5 million people which include kiranas, retailers, hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, offices and institutes, among others.
Flipkart Wholesale is the brainchild of Flipkart which is an E-commerce Giant. Flipkart Wholesale is an upcoming online B2B marketplace that was launched in September 2020. The platform has been designed especially for making business easier for the kiranas, retailers and small business owners. The company aims at helping people with their everyday business by using innovation and advanced technology.
It also wants to simplify B2B e-commerce in the country so that it becomes more convenient for the customers of kiranas and small businesses. With Flipkart Wholesale, customers will be allowed to buy a huge variety of quality products at good margins. With this platform the customers can also get speedy product delivery, convenient order returns directly from the shops.
Flipkart Wholesale will also allow its customers speedy delivery options and an easy order tracking facility to keep it transparent. Besides Theses facilities it also offers paperless credit facilities so the kiranas and retailers can fulfil their business needs when they are low on finances, which is extremely helpful during the difficult times of the Covid 19 Pandemic.
Flipkart Wholesale is currently aiming to help kirana stores in more than 2,700 cities across India. So far, the platform has seen a steady growth of 17% especially from January to June 2021 as many kiranas have started using the platform.
The aim of Flipkart Wholesale Credit Programs
According to Adarsh Menon, Senior Vice President and Head, Flipkart Wholesale,
“Our key goal at Flipkart Wholesale is to make business easier for kiranas and retailers and boost their growth journey. We believe our new credit plan is tailored to solve local challenges that kiranas in India face and will help them manage their cash flow and improve their purchase experience on our platform, thereby ensuring that the benefits of digitisation trickle to the entire B2B retail ecosystem,” Adarsh Menon.
Commenting on the association, Amit Kumar, the Head-Retail Liabilities and Branch Banking of IDFC FIRST Bank said that, the country’s kirana stores account for more than two-thirds of India retail market space. He also added that the traditional trade is now evolving in terms of retail formats and business models. This is why the bank wanted to contribute to the growth of this segment and help kiranas scale up its business.
The main benefits of Flipkart Wholesale are that their clients have an access to a wide range of value propositions which include quality products, easy ways to order & return, fast delivery, order tracking, and the best margins on all products. The credit programs are allowing credit lines from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2 lakh including an interest-free period of up to two weeks.
Besides that, the initiative will also help kiranas get an advantage of flexible repayment options via cash, online transfers and even instant refunds if the order is cancelled. The platform will also keep an account of the credit balance and bills of the kiranas.
Flipkart Wholesale logo
Competitors of Flipkart Wholesale
Flipkart Wholesale was launched in 2020 but already has competitors such as Amazon Pay and Udaan. Amazon Pay is also providing kiranas and retailers with small loans and is said to have already empowered more than five million stores and small businesses with its digital payment features.
Features such as Amazon Pay’s QR (quick response) code have become popular because many small and medium businesses are using it. Udaan is a Bengaluru based E-commerce startup that has also come up with features such as UdaanExpress and UdaanCapital which are designed for kiranas. These options help kiranas with logistics and lending capabilities and have already grown 30 times in AUM over the last two years.
Flipkart Wholesale is the brainchild of Flipkart which is an Ecommerce Giant. The platform is an online B2B marketplace that was launched in September 2020.
What is the Flipkart Wholesale Credit Program?
Flipkart Wholesale credit programs will help kiranas manage their working capital requirements and grow their business.
What are the benefits of the Flipkart Wholesale Credit Program?
The main benefit of Flipkart Wholesale credit programs is that it is allowing credit lines from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2 lakh including an interest-free period of up to two weeks.
When was Flipkart Wholesale founded?
Flipkart Wholesale was launched in September 2020.
With sales being announced every now and then, Puma has been growing in popularity as well as reliability. Not just the quality quotient, but also the brand value has made Puma one of the most renowned sports athleisure brands in the world.
The online, as well as the offline market, has been flourishing for more than seven decades now. Originally, the license was obtained for producing textiles and footwear only. The brand grew through leaps and bounds to include apparel, accessories, and sports equipment in the catalog.
The incorporation of Puma was heavily disputed. The actual company, that is, Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory split in 1948 into Puma and Adidas. Both the brothers took hold of one brand each.
As a listed company, Puma came to be known in the year 1986 under Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In 2017, the employment count exceeded 13,000 (spread across 120 countries).
In 2019, Puma’s revenue touched the milestone of 5.5 billion Euros. It is shared between Artemis and Kering for 29 and 16 percent respectively. The current CEO of Puma is Bjorn Gulden. He is a Norwegian experiences man, who was appointed eight years ago, in 2013. There is a well-knit advisory board as well, to ensure the best performance.
It came into existence way back in 1967. Though a lot of brands believe in using updated logos, Puma has stuck to the same for decades at a stretch.
The name designated for the same is “Jumping Puma Cat” (implies agility, strength, endurance, and peace). It might be surprising that to know that there is a 20-year gap between the company’s birth and the logo’s incorporation.
The Puma Yacht
Puma Yacht in Ocean Race
Yes, you heard it right. Puma is known for indulging in unique activities. In order to maintain the legacy, the brand came up with a sailing yacht for itself. It is not just for endorsements, neither is it a marketing gimmick. The yacht represents Puma in yacht races around the globe, furthering the competitive spirit in every possible way.
The association of Puma with sports stars has also been incredible. Did you know that the legendary soccer player Pele wore Puma while participating in most of the victorious world cups? This lesser-known fact about this extraordinary brand is true to its core. The tally of world cups won by the tournament’s (second one) best player is capped at a whopping three World Cup championships.
Firsts: Technology Used by Puma
Puma Vulcanization Technique
The advanced vulcanization production technique is considered to be the brainchild of Puma as this brand was the first in the world to apply the same to the shoe-making industry. The process is simple – the shoe sole is bonded with the shoe shaft for better grip. It is also worth mentioning that Puma sponsored 1 FC Herzogenaurach football team as its sponsoring debut in 1948 itself.
Puma’s Ferrari Contract
Puma F1 Ferrari Contract
Now, what association does Puma have with Ferrari? It has something to do with sponsorship, like other leads controlled by Puma. The renowned Formula One team Scuderia Ferrari has Puma as its official supplier. Not only this, the contract signed between them will last for years, leading to a deeper friendship. The related endorsements are countless.
Which companies are the strong competitors of Puma?
Adidas is known to be one of the strongest rivals. Other sports athleisure brands like Nike also provide tough competition. Though the brands have their own unique consumer family, numerous comparisons are published from time to time. Puma is best known for its sports products and branded accessories, including clothes and sports gear.
What is the etymology of the Puma brand?
Puma was initially known as Ruda since the owner was Rudolf Dassler. This was the case when Adidas was not known as a separate entity. It is interesting to know that Adidas has also been derived from the owner’s (brother) name Adolf Dassler.
Is Puma’s customer care support reliable?
Yes. Puma has stood by its consumers during the pandemic as well. The supply chain was also modified to help out all the new and old customers. The online market, as well as multi-level marketing supply chains, served the purpose well.
Where are Puma headquarters situated?
The headquarters of Puma is situated in Southern Germany. Since the incorporation took place there, Puma has had deep associations with the German city and it is also considered the “home town”.
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 JumboTiger.
Founded by Mayank Pokharna and Subbu Athikunte, JumboTiger is a real-time, collaborative, configurable, new-age property management software that brings multiple features from different apps and software into one platform and contextualizes it for property management of the future. The product developed by JumboTiger is set to go live on1st Sept 2021 for public use, hurry up to its website & sign up for early access!
Meanwhile, tag along and read the story behind the ideation of JumboTiger, it is something you can’t miss! Know How JumboTiger came into being, its features, business model, future plans & more. StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Mayank Pokharna to get insights on the journey & growth plans of JumboTiger.
JumboTiger is built on real-time technology (Elixir and Erlang), which opens a lot of different possibilities for the field of property management like easy IoT integrations, better collaborations, live staff management, etc. thus, bringing the physical world operations closer to the digital software world, which is the need of the hour.
JumboTiger also brings in many features from different apps and puts it right at the core of property management software like inspections, communication, community apps, etc. This expands the whole property management system horizon and enables deeper insights and better control for any operator and property manager.
Founders Shift from SimplyGuest to JumboTiger
Mayank & team started SimplyGuest as a shared living business in 2015 with a wide variety of portfolio properties: student housing, housing societies, condos, coliving, hostels, single-family, multi-family, and purpose-built accommodation. SimplyGuest started with the idea of aggregating shared living spaces. They realized huge gaps and created a service solution with the intersection of apartment rentals and paying guest facilities, which later became coliving. They were doing close to $1mn in yearly gross revenue and were bootstrapped. But with the pandemic, a different set of challenges came for an operationally heavy business like SimplyGuest.
The occupancy started falling as people were moving to their hometowns. The homeowners were not ready to part with any revenues; they were on a master lease model and had to slowly give away possession of the properties to keep SimplyGuest alive. They still kept it running throughout 2020 in the hope that the pandemic will be over soon, that didn’t! While this was happening, Subbu and Mayank started toying with different ideas on making this business work.
During the same time, a building owner reached out to them after reading blog.simplyguest.com, where Subbu used to write about the technology they had been building for the last 5 years of running SimplyGuest. In addition, he used to write in-depth analyses on how the future of living is service and technology-driven. Finally, the owner asked Mayank & Subbu for the software they had built; this was their eureka moment.
Mayank & Subbu started exploring the gaps in property management and coliving software domain in the mid of 2020 and looked at the USA, Europe, and UK markets. They spoke to about 70 different property management and coliving operators from across the world. All the existing software was built on older tech stacks; the market’s needs had been changing in recent years, and with a lot of newer technologies at disposal, there was a need to overhaul the property management software space, and thus, JumboTiger came into being.
It took them around 6 months to build the MVP, and they did a live launch of the beta product on 16th February, which 220 people from 30 different countries attended. Mayank & Subbu showed everyone what the future of property management software would look like. The initial response to the product has been great, and since then, they are working with 7 different customers in beta and developing the product, which is going live for public use on 1st Sept 2021.
The revenues funded the initial development of JumboTiger they were generating from SimplyGuest; they decided to keep it bootstrapped. However, Mayank & Subbu had a couple of funding opportunities. Property management is one of the oldest professions, and real estate is one of the biggest asset classes with a value of more than 1.4tn dollars, but still, it’s one of the laggards in terms of technology usage. The team believes that it will require patience to get people used to the newer technologies right from the start of their business cycle. Hence, remaining bootstrapped was a conscious choice to keep developing a product with depth.
“Real estate technology is behind the curve when it comes to property management. However, with the new technologies available, we can change and enhance property management; JumboTiger is our take on that. It brings together real-time tech, collaboration, different feature sets, etc., to make property management more efficient” says Mayank
With SimplyGuest, they were a mid-sized property management firm handling shared living, coliving, student housing, and single-family properties. While Mayank & Subbu were doing that, they searched for a software platform that could help them manage these different asset classes under one roof. After researching for more than a year in 2016, they started building something of their own based on-ground experience and business problems.
SimplyGuest provided with all the practical use-case, which started taking the shape of features, ultimately turning into a full-fledged property management software. But till 2020, they were the only user of the tech they had built. It changed everything when a landlord asked if he could use what they have built to manage his space.
This was their eureka moment. This pushed Mayank & Subbu to explore and study the gaps in the property management software domain across different markets. They did 6 months of research and found out that the technology they had been developing solves a much larger use case and can be used by property management companies and coliving operators across different geographies.
They then kept on developing what took the shape of JumboTiger with the 16th Feb 2021 beta launch, where 220 people attended it from 30 different countries. They launched beta with 7 people from different geographies to build a geography agnostic configurable product. JumboTiger has more than 50 people on its early access waitlist waiting to use the product, which is launching for the public on 1st Sept 2021. It’s a real-time, collaborative, configurable, new-age property management software that brings multiple features from different apps and software into one platform and contextualizes it for property management of the future.
Mayank Pokharna and Subbu Athikunte are the founders of JumboTiger.
JumboTiger & SimplyGuest Founders and Team
Mayank was the 5th customer of SimplyGuest in 2015 and started helping out Subbu in sales and marketing. This lasted for about two years till 2017 when Mayank joined SimplyGuest full-time as a co-founder. Both of them scaled SimplyGuest to about 500 tenants and a $1mn in gross revenues. The same team founded JumboTiger. They hired few interns at the start, and one of them is now the full-time employee taking care of all things development with Subbu. The team is building JumboTiger on erlang and Elixir, and hence finding initial resources was a challenge.
Mayank, 31, did his engineering, followed by an MBA from Nirma, Ahmedabad. He worked with high-growth startups such as Practo and Cuemath before joining SimplyGuest full-time. He single-handedly maintained occupancy of 98% at SimplyGuest and take care of sales, marketing, brand, and everything business at JumboTiger
Subbu, 43, is a software engineer. He worked on distributed systems, databases, analytics, and UI at Apigee. He designed some key analytics infrastructure. Google acquired Apigee. He has more than 20 years of experience in tech and takes care of all things product and engineering at JumboTiger.
Ritvik | Software Developer,JumboTiger
Ritvik, 23, started as a JavaScript programmer with JumboTiger as an intern while still in college. Now his hands run deep across the product stack and take care of all the developmental work.
How JumboTiger Works?
Anyone with a residential rental portfolio can come to the jumbotiger.com website, sign up and create an account. You will be redirected to set up your account and configure it to suit your business operations. The software comes with sensible defaults, and you can select the country to load all defaults and then change it as per your requirements.
Jumbo PMS financial
Some of the functionalities in the JumboTiger property management system are –
Marketing/ Sales
Generate SEO friendly marketing websites based on the PMS (property management software) data
A powerful self-scheduling tool that syncs your leasing agent’s calendar with incoming requests for showing/viewings.
The completely white-labeled solution to enhance your end-user experience.
Tenant/ Community Management
Take tenant applications, onboard tenants, and manage documentation and agreements.
Tenant portal for payments, expense tracking (tenants) issue management, remote move-ins & move-outs, profile, and documents management.
Host and manage community events using the tenant portal. Book facilities, talk to other residents, download invoices, and raise issues.
Operations (Inventory, Maintenance, Inspections, Work Order, & Control Centre, Communications)
Onboard large properties within minutes with an onboarding wizard.
Manage all your operations, communications, and issue/ ticket management from a slack like-interface called the control room. This is a single screen that lets you manage your complete business once the PMS is set up.
Set a standard for performance using SLAs, escalation policies
A rule engine to automate your incoming maintenance/resident requests. (JumboTiger Property Management: SLA management)
Schedule preventive maintenance tasks and JumboTiger will track these for you. Automate the property management workflows according to your business needs.
Real-time staff management and move-ins, move-outs, periodic inspections via a staff app. You can also push tasks to on-field staff in real-time using this app.
Contact the center to manage the PO’s and vendor services
Ready to go IOT integrations
Rent Payments/ Reports/ Analytics
Flexible invoicing, expense management, and payments system customized for each country and to your needs.
Revenue recovery/ dunning to make sure you don’t lose on any invoice and take appropriate actions
Detailed reports/ Analytics on what’s happening in your organization.
Very detailed audit logs to make sure you have visibility of what’s going on in your organization.
These are some things that JumboTiger property management software does. When you start using it, you will explore many more use cases. This can help you run a property management business on a single platform without the need for any other software.
JumboTiger is a SaaS business that works on a subscription model. The use of software starts at $99 to manage up to 20 units and then is charged on a per-unit basis managed on the platform. There is no feature gating, and all features are available to everyone. The rationale behind it is to enable small and medium businesses and set them up for sustainable scale.
JumboTiger is ideal for all-size property management companies, coliving operators, HMOs, letting agents, and anyone managing a rental portfolio and wants to build, manage and grow their rental business.
The SaaS model is pretty standard and has existed for a couple of decades but has been popularized and adopted in the last few years with the availability of better infrastructure and cloud capabilities.
The gross margin for a SaaS business is generally more than 70%-80%, and the customers are charged subscriptions on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
JumboTiger – Funding
JumboTiger is a bootstrapped startup, and the only source of funds for it is its customers.
JumboTiger is in this for the long term. It will replace all the traditional property management software and help property management companies and coliving operators build a sustainable and scalable business. The team plans to keep expanding the horizon and scope of property management software with JumboTiger. The next few interesting features that will get added to JumboTiger after its public launch are seamless IoT integrations, Self Serving billing for tenants, and a lot more. So stay tuned to keep getting surprised.
Lastly, JumboTiger wants to remain close to its customers and solve actual problems rather than building features that no one uses. So the team plans to keep listening to its customers and solve their problems via JumboTiger.
JumboTiger – FAQs
What is JumboTiger?
It’s a real-time, collaborative, configurable, new-age property management software that brings multiple features from different apps and software into one platform and contextualizes it for property management of the future.
Who founded JumboTiger?
Mayank Pokharna and Subbu Athikunte are the founders of JumboTiger.
When will JumboTiger go live for public use?
JumboTiger will go live for public use on 1st Sept 2021.
Do visit https://jumbotiger.com/ to know more about the company and sign up for early access!
Is JumboTiger Bootstrapped startup?
Yes, JumboTiger is a bootstrapped startup.
How does JumboTiger make money?
JumboTiger is a SaaS business that works on a subscription model. The use of software starts at $99 to manage up to 20 units and then is charged on a per-unit basis managed on the platform. There is no feature gating, and all features are available to everyone. The rationale behind it is to enable small and medium businesses and set them up for sustainable scale.
What is SimplyGuest?
Mayank & Subbu started SimplyGuest as a shared living business in 2015 with a wide variety of portfolio properties: student housing, housing societies & more. SimplyGuest started with the idea of aggregating shared living spaces. The same team co-founded JumboTiger.
LinkedIn is a great platform for lead generation and hiring. Several platforms allow you to further enhance and automate the process, helping businesses reach out to more people faster. Cleverly is a LinkedIn lead generation platform that works to automate your outreach. Cleverly uses data from thousands of outbound B2B campaigns to send personalized messages to clients. That’s what they say at least, but is the platform actually worth your time and money?
Initiated in 2016, Cleverly was made to simplify LinkedIn lead generation, doing all the work for you. The only intervention needed is when your clients respond and you can take it further, hopefully getting a deal.
Getting a response on LinkedIn takes skill. As several platforms such as Cleverly are constantly messaging clients trying desperately to get those responses. People are more likely to ignore messages that seem artificial and have no connection with the client.
Cleverly’s data-driven messages are supposed to be personal and more likely to get a response on your campaigns. The platform, known for its messages, has a few other features that it advertises.
Cleverly is kept updated with user data, meaning it improves itself based on responses acquired in the past and successful lead generations. The service is meant to be used by growing businesses, startups, and freelancers.
Although the platform is simple enough with a clean UI, it doesn’t seem to have any exceptional features that make it stand apart from other B2B campaign tools. Here’s what we know about the platform:
Prospect Builder
Cleverly has a built-in prospect builder based on LinkedIn data that you can use to build your client lists. Based on actual data that’s collected from LinkedIn, Cleverly makes a list of potential clients who may be interested in your product.
This data is acquired through group participants, post comments, and profiles. It lets you add custom entries as well as importing your own lists for your campaigns.
Once you have built a list of clients you want to connect to Cleverly moves ahead with your campaign and onto the next stage of lead generation that is messaging the clients on your list.
Personalized Messages
Data-driven personalized messages for your campaign sounds great on paper. Sending those eye-catching messages that get people interested all without any effort on your part is unfortunately too good to be true.
Based on Cleverly customer reviews on several platforms, the messages sent aren’t really personal. Although data-driven, the messages fail to generate leads as promised. According to users of the platform, the messages appeared to be way too direct, spam-like and inconsistent with the campaign theme.
For a lead generation tool that relies on its messaging feature, this is something that Cleverly needs to improve. The company offers to guarantee that the service will generate any leads at all. The service isn’t liable to get you leads even though that’s what it’s supposed to do.
Automation of your workflow is a standard feature when it comes to any lead generation tool. The whole idea of paying for a service like this is to simplify your efforts and get more work done.
Cleverly does indeed automate messages to clients and lets users set a time interval based on your campaign for sending those messages. Automatic follow-up messages and quick reply functionality is provided as well.
When required, the Cleverly account manager is present to make better decisions on message and campaign timings. However, the reasoning and reliability of this feature are questionable.
Customers have complained previously about unplanned actions taken by the platform because they had been provided with campaign data. Taking unauthorized business decisions is certainly bad for both the platform and the client using the service.
Pricing of Cleverly
For a lead generation tool that’s supposed to be versatile to conglomerates and small businesses alike, the pricing certainly isn’t appropriate. Starting at $297/month for the Silver plan that offers just 250 prospects, there are certainly better alternatives to the platform.
Spending almost $397/month gives you almost all the functionality of the platform along with its integrations, customer support, and account manager with the only limit being the number of prospects. There is no free trial which means you have to make a purchase even if you wish to try the platform.
Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that the only difference between all 3 plans is the number of prospects available.
Priced much lower than Cleverly, CASTANET is another tool for LinkedIn lead generation. It offers similar features, except that it doesn’t create messages for you. Instead, it offers a dedicated message sequence builder that allows you to craft your own messages and replies with ease. This makes sure that the messages you send are personal, relevant, and natural. Besides messaging sequences, the platform also has:
A Dedicated IP Address per profile
Randomized Delays between actions
Cloud-based
Intelligent Limits
Deep Segmentation
Starting at $199/month for the solo plan, you get one LinkedIn profile and access to all the platform’s features including unlimited campaigns and sequences. CASTANET is surely a better alternative for those who wish to automate their B2B lead generation.
It also offers a free 14-day trial for all the plans so you only pay if you like the service. Considering the price and features you get, it’s clear that CASTANET is much more versatile and a better alternative to Cleverly.
Conclusion
Having the best tools doesn’t necessarily mean you will get more leads. It’s about your product and the type of messages you send. That being said it’s always better to use a service with more value and good reviews.
Cleverly was a great platform back in 2016 but with the progression of time, there are better alternatives out there. Making the right choice can mean more leads for your business and that’s all that really matters.
FAQ
What is the pricing of Cleverly?
Cleverly has three plans, the silver plan which is priced at $297/month, Gold plan which is priced at $300 and platinum priced at $597/month.
What is Cleverly?
Cleverly is a LinkedIn lead generation platform that works to automate your outreach.
The Electrical Industry is rapidly growing with modern technologies. More new user-friendly appliances and the wiring in a building or the miniature circuit breakers (MCB’s) are far better and safer than the earlier ones. In today’s world, the rapid growth of industries has increased the demand for electrical goods and services. These are getting fulfilled by mega private and public sector companies.
Havells India has emerged as the leading electrical goods manufacturer and supplier in India amid all this competition among different electrical giants to become the leader. It also provides high-quality products in its category.
Havells India Limited is a Noida-based electronic goods manufacturing company also called FMEG or Fast moving Electrical goods company. It came into existence in 1958. The founder of Havells was Qimat Rai Gupta. The name Havells comes from its first-ever owner Haveli Ram. At that time, Havells was restricted to the walls of Delhi as most manufacturing of the products took place in Delhi that time. Havells is also among one of the leading companies in India to manufacture and produce quality electrical goods, circuits, devices, and appliances, etc. Havells owns popular brands such as Lloyd, Standard, Crabtree, and REO.
Areas of Operation
Havells is a global brand with its footprints in nearly 50 countries on different continents. A few of the names include Dubai, UK, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Kenya, Myanmar, Iraq, Bangladesh, Nepal, etc. In India, it has 13 state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and supplies electrical goods to all parts of the country.
Key Products and Services
Havells manufactures a wide variety of electrical goods and equipment. From wires to large size motors, everything is available in Havells Electric empire.
Wires and circuits: Fireproof copper wires, different types of industrial cables, miniature circuit breakers, Industrial circuit protection equipment, Switchboards are some of the electrical goods under this category.
Appliances: Ceiling fans, exhaust fans, table fans, pedestal fans, and other electronics, such as air purifiers, motors, juicers, mixer grinders, and other small domestic electronics.
Lighting: Havells manufacture LED bulbs, professional lights, and bulbs, night lamps, etc.
Solar equipment: Havells India also manufactures solar inverters and solar power optimizers for sustainable energy solutions.
The Target Audience of Havells India
The key customers of Havells India are owners of small-scale industries, large-scale industries, and medium-scale industries. They require electricity for running their assembly lines or machinery. The people are willing to purchase electrical appliances for household purposes or as gifts during festivals and those builders or contractors. They are associated with mega construction projects and need bulk quantities of electrical cables and appliances. Also, the solar division of Havells deals with customers willing to install solar electronics and go green.
The Business Model of Havells India
Havells Logo
Havells always tries to integrate and bring its customers together by giving them a wide variety of choices according to their interests. Havells opened nearly 500 Havells Galaxy brand showrooms across India where customers can get a wide variety of equipment and electrical goods at justified prices. Also, Havells had created different sets or groups of electrical goods according to the sections of the society and their financial sections. The middle-class range focuses more on attracting more Customers to this financial group. It provides the customers with a wide variety of options and choices. That’s what a customer wants, ‘options’.
What’s unique about Havells India Business Model
The strategic approach of Havells towards its customers was the key to their success in the Indian market, where they expanded their company globally. Also, they acquired some brands that gave them extra support in building a customer base. It even assisted them in expanding even more such as acquiring ‘Crabtree,’ a UK-based switchgear brand.
Havells started trading for its stocks to go public as a shortage of funds was a problem for them at that time. Later on, they acquired the famous lighting brand Sylvania. But, it created some troubles for the company as they suddenly became global from local in terms of marketplace and management.
By providing more and more options to customers in recent years after studying the needs of the middle-class section of India, Havells sales have boosted to the next level. It’s still going on.
The brand’s advertisement and branding also proved fruitful in increasing customer interest. Commercial ads of the company have pushed it to some extent in terms of digital marketing.
Its slogans were eye-catching, attractive, and customer-friendly approaches such as ‘Bijli bachaye, Roshni failure, ‘ better light, better life, ‘ Wires that don’t catch fire’ etc.
Currently, Havells is a leading brand in Electrical goods and services in the country. It’s also running its business globally. The population of India is the second-largest in the world. That’s a huge profit point for Havells. Havells Managed to win the hearts of Indians as an electric goods company. Many Indians trust the brand for its quality.
The key sources of income for Havells come from sales of household appliances and industrial electrical goods. The Havells galaxy provides a wide variety of products for commercial businesses as well as for home requirements. From here, it generates a lot of profiles.
In 2021, Havells reported high profits in its quarterly reports of companies performance. Due to the growing demands in the electrical consumer industry, the brand is witnessing a surge in profits under the ‘Make in India‘ program. In this, people are selecting more Indian goods over the Chinese ones.
Conclusion
From its starting till today, Havells always grew stronger despite all challenges. Today it produces a high percentage of electrical goods for the country’s development and for fulfilling household needs. In upcoming times, if the company introduces more renewable sources of electricity such as more solar solutions, it might see a huge surge in profits as the era of sustainable development is at its peak.
From small factories in and around Delhi, manufacturing in giant factories and that too with high precision modern technology shows the emergence of Havells India in the Asian region. The company’s business in Africa and other continents is also going great. It hopes to continue so that this Indian brand makes marvels overseas in the field of the electrical goods industry.
FAQs
Is Havells an Indian brand?
Havells India Limited is an Indian Consumer Electronic Products & Electrical Appliances company based in Noida.
Who is the CEO of Havells?
Anil Rai Gupta is the CEO of Havells.
Who started Havells company?
Qimat Rai Gupta was the Indian entrepreneur who founded Havells in 1958.
Is Lloyd Havells a brand?
Yes Lloyd is owned by Havells. Havells owns some of the most prestigious brands like:
Havells
Lloyd
Crabtree
Standard
Promptec
What is the number of employees in Havells India?
There are around 5,781 employees in Havells India.
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 HSBC-backed Serai.
The global textile market size is anticipated to reach USD 1412.5 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2028. Disrupting the supply chain solutions in this domain, HSBC-backed company Serai has built a digital B2B platform that allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other.
Serai is the non-banking extension of HSBC’s global physical network and hence is a fully owned subsidiary of HSBC. While the company is a part of HSBC Group, it is not a financial institution and acts outside the bank. It has over 10,000 companies on its B2B platform from over 100 countries including India, Bangladesh, the US, UK, and Australia. The number of companies on the platform has grown at 98% QOQ. In 2021, Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Vivek Ramachandran (CEO of Serai) to know the growth story and roadmap of Serai. He also shared insights on how Serai started, its business model, expansion plans, marketing strategies adopted & more…
Serai – Company Highlights
Company Name
Serai
Headquarters
Hong Kong
Owner
HSBC
CEO
Vivek Ramachandran
Founding Team
Andrew Dennison (COO), Kar-Lyn Tan (Head of Product Partnerships), Patrick Balling (Partnerships Director), Vivek Ramachandran (CEO)
Founded in 2019, Serai is the digital B2B platform by HSBC that makes global trade easier for apparel businesses. As a member, you can build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Companies can share information about their business, products, and services to create a trusted ecosystem across the supply chain.
Through a single platform, members can access industry business solutions and exchange complex information from multiple data sources to gain visibility into their supply chain.
Serai Platform
Serai’s digital B2B platform allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other. Companies can create a profile to showcase their products, services, facilities, and credentials. Serai helps companies reduce time and money spent on sourcing high-quality suppliers. With Covid making international travel almost impossible, Serai makes it easy for brands and buyers to build relationships with suppliers and manufacturers globally.
This year (2021), Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They can easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners. Having all this information in one place can help them drive operational efficiencies, manage underlying risks and eventually achieve greater transparency and trust in their extended supply chain.
Serai’s vision is to build technology that can help to shape the future of trade.
Its B2B network aims to simplify global trade by enabling apparel businesses to showcase their products and services, connect and build stronger relationships. Its supply chain solutions help consolidate fragmented supply chain data, providing large apparel companies with the right data and insights so that they can make more informed decisions.
“It’s all about taking the complexities out of global trade. Beginning with a focus on the apparel industry, Serai’s goal is for every company, regardless of industry, to have a profile on its platform” says Vivek Ramachandran, CEO @ Serai
Serai – Industry Details
Serai currently focuses on the apparel, textile, and fabrics industries. The global textile market size is anticipated to reach USD 1412.5 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2028. The Asia Pacific is also set to rebound faster from Covid, with China, Japan, and India dominating the top five apparel markets in the world.
The apparel industry has always been quite traditional and opaque. Businesses have always relied on sourcing garments and fabrics in person. However, travel restrictions brought about by Covid-19 have forced businesses to digitize. The team has seen a huge change in mindset where apparel companies are more open to exploring new ways of forming connections and doing business.
On the other hand, there is also rising pressure from regulatory bodies, consumers, and NGOs for the apparel industry to be more transparent about where their products come from. They see large brands and manufacturers exploring technology that helps them track their supply chains from end-to-end, and gain visibility into where their products come from. These have been positive changes and the team sees the industry continuing to head on this trajectory.
“In the next five years, we also imagine that data will play a bigger part in driving more informed decision-making. For example, the insights could help them understand their consumers better and build a more targeted product mix” Vivek added.
Supply chain data on areas such as consumption of water, energy, and greenhouse gas, or man-hours spent throughout the various stages in the supply chain, can help companies increase operational efficiencies or be more sustainable.
Serai’s digital B2B platform allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other. Companies can create a profile to showcase their products, services, facilities, and credentials. Serai helps companies reduce time and money spent on sourcing high-quality suppliers. With Covid making international travel almost impossible, the Serai B2B network makes it easy for brands and buyers to build relationships with suppliers and manufacturers globally.
This year, Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They will be able to easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners. Having all this information in one place can help them drive operational efficiencies, manage underlying risks and eventually achieve greater transparency and trust in their extended supply chain.
Serai Traceability
Pivot from the Initial Offering & Why
While its mission has always been to simplify global trade through technology, Serai’s target audiences have evolved for its B2B digital platform.
While it has apparel businesses of all sizes on the platform, Serai has seen more usage from small and medium-sized companies. They may not have the sourcing network that a larger, more established brand would have, and so, have seen a lot of value from a platform like Serai’s. Hence, many of the features that Serai introduced recently are focused on helping them further. For example, Serai launched a request for quotation (RFQ) feature where brands and buyers can upload specific requests for manufacturers and suppliers to respond directly to.
Serai’s Traceability solution is another example of something it built in response to industry requirements. It was initially developed to help a global manufacturer client to trace their supply chain from material to shelf, but having seen such a positive response from the industry at large, the team @ Serai continue to build on the core offering, adding more modules aimed at helping apparel companies achieve supply chain sustainability.
Serai – Founding Team and How it Started
HSBC was founded in 1865 with one key objective – facilitating international trade. Ever since HSBC has used its global network to connect customers to opportunities around the world. However, despite tech-driven improvements in most areas of business, international trade remains as complex today as it was more than 150 years ago.
To simplify trade, HSBC needed to look beyond banking. Serai was born from this insight and a big idea – a data-powered platform to help businesses grow and connect globally.
The idea for Serai came out of a ‘Dragon’s Den’-style competition organized by HSBC UK. Vivek Ramachandran, current Chief Executive Officer of Serai, led a team of four in pitching the idea of a digital platform aimed at simplifying trade. At that time, he was the Global Head of Growth & Innovation for HSBC Commercial Banking where part of his role was driving the adoption of new technologies.
Serai team
While HSBC’s key objective has always been to facilitate global trade, this would be the first time the bank would invest in a non-financial project. The HSBC executives saw great potential in a platform like Serai to disrupt the otherwise traditional industry of apparel.
The rest of the founding team comprises – Andrew Dennison, Chief Operations Officer; Kar-Lyn Tan, Head of Product Partnerships; and Patrick Balling, Partnerships Director at Serai. They were all working at HSBC UK in various capacities at that time.
In two years, Serai has grown to about 60 people in its headquarters in Hong Kong in various departments such as Growth & Marketing, Product, Technology, and Data Analytics. Serai was founded on the values of Simplicity, Empathy, Transparency, Boldness, Partnership which remain integral in everything Serai does.
Serai Office
Serai – Name, Tagline and Logo
Serai comes from the word Caravanserai, which was inns along the Silk Road. Merchants between East and West would rest, trade goods, exchange knowledge, and build relationships at these inns. The Serai of that time was an entry to international trade. Inspired by these ancient hubs, it aspires to build a digital equivalent for today.
Serai’s logo symbol is inspired by the aerial view of the ancient Serai. The central squared hole resembles that of an ancient Chinese coin, reflecting its Hong Kong origin.
Serai Logo
Its tagline, ‘Your Advantage in Apparel Trade’, clearly represents what Serai wants to deliver to its clients.
Serai – Business Model and Revenue Model
Serai is the digital B2B platform. Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow. Serai’s supply chain solutions, such as Traceability, also come at an added cost.
At Serai, the team has always taken an integrated approach to its marketing strategy. While it is a global company, Serai believes it’s incredibly important to localize its marketing for its target markets. This is especially pertinent for a diverse region like the Asia Pacific, where one has to cater to various languages, cultures, and audience preferences.
When we first started, our primary objective was to build brand awareness so we engaged the main trade and business media globally to get media coverage” says, Vivek Ramachandran, CEO @ Serai.
The company also saw success through digital marketing campaigns via channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google which has helped in customer acquisition.
Partnerships are also key to Serai’s growth strategy. The company has established good relationships with local trade associations in its focus markets, working with them to run initiatives and marketing programs that support the manufacturers and brands in the apparel industry. Another focus area has been to develop partnerships with other like-minded technology and data providers, and sustainability-focused organizations to collaborate on developing solutions that support its users to learn and understand their potential and existing supply chain partners.
Serai’s marketing mix continues to be a mixture of digital and offline activities aimed at increasing brand awareness and customer acquisition including paid ads on major social media and search platforms, events and media engagement. With all these initiatives, though, it’s important to ensure they are integrated and convey similar messaging. This has helped the company build a strong brand identity.
Events have played a huge part in increasing its brand awareness. The company has taken part in major industry conferences and organized its own webinars. In India, for example – the company ran a webinar on how Indian apparel businesses can grow through digitization earlier this year. Serai is currently looking at participating in upcoming trade conferences in India.
Naturally, the marketing team has grown over the last two years so there are teams dedicated to areas such as content, digital marketing, events, PR, and partnerships. It has ramped up content creation, with topics localized for focus markets. Partnerships with major industry associations such as the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) in India have also helped the company reach a wider audience.
The apparel industry is one that is very traditional and opaque. The team realized at the beginning that a lot of companies rely on traditional methods of sourcing and connecting with companies. There was a low digital quotient across the industry.
“We’ve seen this slowly change, though, with more companies embracing digitization. We had to do a lot of education on the importance of having a strong digital presence” Vivek Ramachandran added.
This included working closely with many of its MSME clients in helping them create strong digital profiles on Serai’s platform and making meaningful connections to help grow their business. There is definitely an appetite for them to improve which is heartening.
Serai – Current State and Expansion Plans
Serai is headquartered in Hong Kong, with a team of about 60 employees – a number that is rapidly growing as Serai continues to build its Technology, Data, and Product teams.
There are over 10,000 companies on Serai from over 100 countries including India, Bangladesh, the US, UK, and Australia. Out of this, Serai has registered over 4600 are Indian companies on its platform. These include leading Indian manufacturers such as Pearl Global, Shivalik Prints, Radnik Exports, and Indian Designs. The number of companies on the platform has grown at 98% QOQ.
Serai’s expansion strategy is aligned with market demand. Most of its business is centered around countries that are major apparel hubs. Being headquartered in Hong Kong, it was a natural focus in the beginning. While it still is, the company has branched out to Bangladesh and India as there are two major manufacturing hubs in Asia. India will continue to remain a huge focus over the next year. Over in the West, it has focused on the US and the UK as many major apparel brands are based there.
“We will continue to monitor trends in trade corridors as we prioritize market expansion” Vivek added.
The team is also continuously building new features for its solutions. For the B2B digital platform, it is adding features that encourage more interaction between its member companies, making it easier for them to network and trade with each other.
Serai would also be launching a supply chain Visibility solution soon which allows apparel businesses to visualize, analyze and verify information on their supply chain in one place. With supply chain sustainability and transparency being huge priorities for the industry, this is an area that would be a key focus in terms of product development.
Serai has built great partnerships with industry associations such as the BGMEA and AEPC, with whom it has collaborated to help apparel companies in Bangladesh and India grow respectively. However, the company’s greatest achievement would be the rapid and tremendous growth it has seen of companies joining and building relationships with each other on the platform. Serai was established to simplify trade and the team is doing that slowly but surely. Serai has seen various success stories over the last few months of apparel MSMEs who have established new business partnerships with companies all over the world.
Serai – FAQs
What is Serai?
Serai is the digital B2B platform by HSBC that makes global trade easier for apparel businesses. As a member, you can build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Companies can share information about their business, products, and services to create a trusted ecosystem across the supply chain.
Who founded Serai?
Vivek Ramachandran, the current CEO of Serai, led a team of four in pitching the idea of a digital platform aimed at simplifying trade. The rest of the founding team comprises – Andrew Dennison, Kar-Lyn Tan, and Patrick Balling.
What is Serai’s business model?
Serai is the digital B2B platform. Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow. Serai’s supply chain solutions, such as Traceability, also come at an added cost.
What is Serai’s tagline?
Serai’s tagline, ‘Your Advantage in Apparel Trade’, clearly represents what Serai wants to deliver to its clients.
Is Serai free?
Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow.
What is Supply Chain Traceability solution?
Serai launched a Traceability solutionthat allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They can easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners.
Having a sportsperson or a cricketer as a brand ambassador is a formula that many companies and organizations use in order to build a strong brand identity and reach out to their target audience. One of the upcoming Indian cricketers in the advertising world is Ajinkya Rahane, who is currently the Vice-captain of the Indian cricket team in test cricket.
Ajinkya Madhukar Rahane is a middle order batsman who has played all forms of cricket and currently represents Mumbai in domestic cricket and Delhi Capitals in Indian Premier League (IPL). The cricketer made his debut in first class cricket in 2007 to 2008 Ranji Trophy and his International debut in 2011 in a Twenty20 International against England. Whereas his test debut was in the 2013 Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Rahane went on to become the country’s most accomplished batsman overseas throughout India’s away season during 2013 to 2014. He also performed well during the 2015 World Cup especially when he helped the team win over South Africa in a World Cup match for the first time. When it comes to IPL, Ajinkya started out in Mumbai Indians but then achieved success for Rajasthan Royals up until 2016. In the 2019, Rahane was brought by the Delhi Capital team and has been performing well for the team.
One of the most notable performance by Ajinkya Rahane was when India defeated Australia in Gabba under his captaincy and won the Border Gavaskar Trophy in 2021. The net worth of Ajinkya Rahane is estimated to be $9 million in 2021. While he is known to charge over Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 lakhs per brand endorsements deals. Some of the brands endorsed by Ajinkya Rahane are Boost, CEAT, NeoGrowth, Games24x7, ELSA Corp, Hudle etc.
Here are the List of brands endorsed by Ajinkya Rahane
Boost is one of India’s leading nutritional beverages brand that is owned by Unilever. Boost was originally launched in 1975 and is clinically proved to increase stamina up to three times more. This malt-based chocolate drink is targeted especially towards people who need a beverage that provides extra nutrition to fill gaps in their meals or for the people who have lost their appetite, growing children etc.
The drink is available Chocolate flavour and ‘Ready to Sip’ pack and continues to be a favourite health food drink in the market. The brand was also promoted by many Indian cricketers such as Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, etc. Boost signed Ajinkya Rahane as its brand ambassador in 2021.
Boost has also had their iconic tagline of “Boost is a secret of my energy” in all its ads with the cricketers. Commenting on the association Rahane said that, he was trilled to be a part of boost as he has grown up with it. He also added every kid needs a little push to deal with challenges, and he is honoured to play that role.
CEAT
CEAT is a leading multinational tyre company that is owned by RPG Group. It is a one of the most well-known tyre manufacturing company, that makes tyres for passenger cars, cycles, SUVs, scooter, bikes, trucks and buses, earth movers, fork lifters, tractors, trailers, and even autorickshaws, etc. Besides that, CEAT has sponsored strategic-timeout for IPL from 2015 till 2018.
The company was initially founded by Virginio Bruni Tedeschi in 1924, collaborated with the Tata group, but was acquired by RPG Group in the 1990s. CEAT has chosen many cricketers like Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer as its brand ambassador during Indian Premier League seasons.
In 2016, the company has signed a 4-year long bat endorsement deal with Ajinkya Rahane. Since Rahane plays various forms of cricket and is well known for playing test series overseas, the company’s logo will prominently donned in the bats used by the cricketer. The company also added that, Rahane’s performance on the field represents the values that CEAT believes in.
Neogrowth is a pioneer company in the sector of SME lending in India. The company helps businesses grow by providing them business loans and creating a social impact. Neogrowth provides unsecured business loans up to Rs. 75 lakhs. So far, the company is known to have helped SMEs in 70 different sectors and has a presence in 27 markets.
The company is known to have disbursed more than Rs 6,200 crore in loans to over Rs. 29,500 clients. Neogrowth signed Ajinkya Rahane as its brand ambassadors in 2021, while the deal is said to be for a year. The cricketer has also appeared in their ad campaign with the tagline of “Keeping it simple”.
The ad showcases Rahane explaining the ease at which small companies can access loans through NeoGrowth. The aim of the ad campaign is to bring attention to the problems faced by small business, help them find solutions to their challenges and by providing them loans.
Games24x7
Games24x7 is an online gaming company that is known for their skill games (such as RummyCircle and My11Circle) and other casual games like Ultimate Games. The company was founded by Bhavin Pandya and Trivikraman Thampy in 2006 and currently has its offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kiev, Philadelphia, and even Miami.
Games24x7 specializes in the sectors of behavioral science, latest technology and AI and has come up with unique games for all platforms. RummyCircle is one of the Games24x7 games that is known to the largest online rummy platform in the country. The company signed Ajinkya Rahane as its brand ambassadors in 2021 for My11Circle which is a fantasy sports platform.
Cricketers such as Sourav Ganguly, Shane Watson, Rashid Khan, and VVS Laxman have also endorsed the brand. The new campaign that features Ajinkya Rahane will be a tribute to the cricket lovers in India. Commenting on the association Saroj Panigrahi, the Vice President of My11Circle said that, With Rahane’s help the company will continue to providing awesome game playing experiences to fantasy sports enthusiasts.
ELSA (English Language Speech Assistant) Corp is an upcoming EdTech startup that provides services like A.I. assistant for pronunciation training and accent reduction. The company was founded Vu Van and Xavier Anguera and has its headquarters in San Francisco, California.
The company aims to help everyone speak foreign languages with confidence which can enable people to get better career opportunities. The company is known for their flagship product known as ELSA speak which is personal virtual pronunciation coach. So far, it has over 10 million people from 101 different countries. The EdTech company signed Ajinkya Rahane as its brand ambassador in 2020.
With the help of the cricketer in their advertisements, the company wants to popularize the ELSA Speak among the Indians who might want to better their English Pronunciation. In an interview, Manit Parikh the Country head of India ELSA Corp said that Ajinkya Rahane was chosen as he was the perfect embodiment of the ‘ELSA way of life’ and that why he is the best fit for the company.
Hudle
Hudle is a digital platform made for sports enthusiasts, as it allows people discover and book tickets for more than 300 sports venues, sports events and even tournaments on its app. The company was founded by Suhail Narain in 2015 and has its headquarters based in New Delhi.
This sports startup’s main motive is to bring people closer to the favourite sport by organising customized sports events and workshops for corporates. It also allows its users to connect with other players through games and leagues, or even learn a sport by joining its play session. The company signed Ajinkya Rahane as its brand ambassador and advisor of the brand in 2020.
The company is the face of the brand and also guides the team with his strategic inputs through his experience in professional sport. Commenting on their association, Suhail Narain the Founder and CEO of Hudle said that, with Rahane on board the company will be able to identify and unlock new opportunities as a strategic partner.
Ajinkya Rahane is one of the most valuable cricketers of the Indian cricket team especially for international cricket. Ajinkya Rahane is known for being one of the best fielders, his old-school batting technique and for having the ability to adapt to the pitch and weather conditions overseas.
When it comes to being a brand endorser Rahane has chosen brands that are similar to his ideals and that have social impact. This is why Ajinkya Rahane will be seen endorsing more brands in the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Ajinkya Rahane?
Ajinkya Madhukar Rahane is a middle order batsman who has played all forms of cricket and currently represents Mumbai in domestic cricket and Delhi Capitals in Indian Premier League (IPL).
What is the net worth of Ajinkya Rahane?
The net worth of Ajinkya Rahane is estimated to be $9 million as of 2021.
What are the brands endorsed by Ajinkya Rahane?
Some of the brands endorsed by Ajinkya Rahane are Boost, CEAT, NeoGrowth, Games24x7, ELSA Corp, Hudle etc.
How much does Ajinkya Rahane charge for brand endorsements?
Ajinkya Rahane is known to charge over Rs. 20 to Rs. 30 lakhs per brand endorsements deals.
On 26th August, Apple Inc. the leading American corporation announced that it will allow iPhone or iOS app developers to use alternative payment options to the App store. The new advertising policy will help the developers to promote alternative pricing, excluding the apple cut.
However, the catch to this is that the app makers are not allowed to buy or add subscribe button that will lead to a webpage to complete the transaction. This is why app manufactures can promote alternative pricing plans and share other payment information only on their website or by sending their users an email.
According to Apple’s statement in the press release, the users of the apps must give their consent to the communications and must also have the right to opt-out. The tech giant has also expanded from lesser than 100 price options to over 500 different price options for subscriptions, in-app purchases and paid apps.
For many years, Apple has been surrounded by controversies about its practices and treatment of developers on the App Store. Apple has made this change because many small app developers were filing a lawsuit against the company. This move is said to be the biggest and the most effective change the company has made in response to the accusations made by small app developers saying Apple uses monopolistic tactics on its App Store.
The company has finally decided to include new concessions and a new fund that will help small developers in America instead of settling the lawsuits. Up until now the iOS developers had to pay a share of their total revenue that was generated on the Apple app store, which was called the Apple Tax. Earlier Apple had said that it will try to resolve a class-action suit from the American app developers.
How can iOS users avail other payment options?
Since the App developers are not allowed to advertise payment methods within the apps themselves and can advertise other payment options only through email or their website, the users of the apps can sign up for alternate payment options on the app’s website. Besides payment options, Apple will also allow App developers to make over 500 alternative pricing options for subscriptions, in-app purchases and paid apps, among others.
According to the statement by Phil Schiller who oversees the App Store said that, “From the beginning, the App Store has been an economic miracle; it is the safest and most trusted place for users to get apps, and an incredible business opportunity for developers to innovate, thrive, and grow.” He also added that, “We would like to thank the developers who worked with us to reach these agreements in support of the goals of the App Store and to the benefit of all of our users.”
Other concessions made by Apple
Apple will also continue to take its revenue cut but will allow a reduced commission to app developers that earn lesser than $1 million through the app store between June 2015 and April 2021. This is known to account for over 99% of the Apple app developers. This business can pay a reduced commission for the next three years as a part of Apple’s App Store Small Business Program.
Apple will also be publishing an annual App Store transparency report that will include important information and statistics about the app review process. It will also contain significant data such as the number of apps rejected and the reason behind it, number of customers, data based on search queries and results written in detail.
During the difficult times of the Covid 19 pandemic, the tech giant had pledged its support to small businesses by offering over $100 million to the app developers. Over the years Apple has made many concessions in order to keep boundaries such as not allowing third-party apps. There was also no mention of the third-party app stores or page loading of apps in the press conference.
Apple is allowing its app developers to advertise external payment methods through their website or email.
What is Apple Tax?
Apple tax is the share of the total revenue generated on the app store that is paid by iOS developers to Apple.
What are the other concessions Apple toward the app developers?
During the difficult times of the Covid 19 pandemic, the tech giant had pledged its support to small businesses by offering over $100 million to the app developers.
Alan Joseph
