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  • Types of CRM

    What is a Customer Relationship Management System?
    What does a CRM System do?
    Why have a CRM System?
    Do I need a CRM System?
    Types of CRM:
    Operational CRM
    Analytical CRM
    Collaborative CRM

    What is a Customer Relationship Management System?

    A customer relationship management (CRM) system is an IT technology that allows you to manage the business relationships you have with your customers, service users and suppliers. Customer relationship management (CRM) is important in running a successful business. The better the relationship with your customers and suppliers, the easier it is to conduct business and generate revenue.

    In continuously growing competitive market, it is very much important for a business to share right information to the right person at the right time, otherwise business will lose its opportunities to sale products or services. Customer Relationship Management software is the only solution that can help business to communicate with prospects or customers properly. For any CRM application, primary goal is to enable an organization to understand customers’ need and behavior and provide better quality of service. It helps to retain existing customers and capture new opportunities by building a strong relationship between an organization and customers. CRM can analyze data and generate reports whenever required.

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    What does a CRM System do?

    CRM is a software or a tool that provides a central place for storing all your customer data and sharing it with other teams within your business. There, you can create records and track the history of all your interactions with the customers, including: phone calls, emails, meetings, presentations, service inquiries, leads, purchasing habits and preferences. As well as tracking contact history, in most CRM systems you can also:

    • add notes
    • schedule follow-ups
    • assign tasks to staff
    • generate reports and sales forecasting

    Why have a CRM System?

    Customer Relationship Management
    Customer Relationship Management

    With all your information collated in one place, it becomes easier to understand and anticipate the needs and behaviors of your customers. This, in turns, allows you to:

    1. Keep customer contact relevant, personal and up-to-date
    2. Modify your business to better serve your customers
    3. Identify new leads and sales opportunities
    4. Win new business

    In essence, CRM can help you to recognize the value of its customers and to capitalize on improved customer relations. The better you understand your customers, the more responsive you can be to their needs.

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    Do I need a CRM System?

    Not all businesses need a full CRM system. If you typically have very few leads and no repeat business, the costs of an enterprise level CRM software may outweigh the benefits. Find tips to help you decide if your business needs a CRM system.

    Even the best CRM system will need to be properly managed, if you are to make the most of its features. Without good management, significant challenges can arise – such as creating duplicate records and accumulating vast amounts of incomplete, unnecessary or out-of-date data. It’s important to consider the potential drawbacks of CRM systems. Technology can greatly help you to optimize your CRM and make your service more efficient, cost-effective and reliable.

    Types of CRM:

    There are mainly three types of CRM applications – Operational, Analytical and Collaborative to perform all these activities.

    3 main types of CRM
    3 main types of CRM

    Operational CRM

    Operational CRM streamlines the business process that includes Sales Force automation, Marketing automation and Service automation. Main purpose of this type of CRM is to generate leads, convert them into contacts, capture all required details and provide service throughout customer life cycle.

    Operational CRM
    Operational CRM

    Sales Force Automation

    Sales automation helps an organization to automate sales process. Main purpose of sales automation is to set standard within organization to acquire new customers and deal with existing customers. It organizes information in such a way that the business can meet customers’ needs and increase sales more efficiently and effectively. It includes various CRM sales modules like lead management, contact management, Quote-to-Order management, sales forecasting.

    SFA is the application of technology to manage selling activities. It standardizes a sales cycle and common terminology for sales issues among all the sales employees of a business. It includes the following modules −

    Product Configuration − It enables salespersons or customers themselves to automatically design the product and decide the price for a customized product. It is based on if-then-else structure.
    Quotation and Proposal Management − The salesperson can generate a quotation of the product prices and proposal for the customer by entering details such as customer name, delivery requirements, product code, number of pieces, etc.
    Accounts Management − It manages inward entries, credit and debit amounts for various transactions, and stores transaction details as records.
    Sales team automation – An operational CRM can stop sales tasks from piling up or getting forgotten. Automatically assign tasks to your sales team based on customer actions or deal value.

    In this sales automation, an ActiveCampaign user chooses to assign a task based on the deal value.
    In this sales automation, an ActiveCampaign user chooses to assign a task based on the deal value.

    Lead Management − It lets the users qualify leads and assigns them to appropriate salespersons. Lead scoring helps you figure out: Which leads are the highest priority?, Who is most likely to become a customer? and Which leads will spend the most over time?
    Contact Management − It is enabled with the features such as customers’ contact details, salespersons’ calendar, and automatic dealing numbers. These all are stored in the form of computerized records. Using this application, a user can communicate effectively with the customers.
    Opportunity Management − It lets the users identify and follow leads from lead status to closure and beyond closure.

    Marketing Automation

    Main purpose of marketing automation is to find out the best way to offer products and approach potential customers. Major module in marketing automation is campaign management. It enables business to decide effective channel(s) (like emails, phone calls, face to face meeting, ads on social media) to reach up to potential customers.

    Marketing automation involves market segmentation, campaigns management, event-based marketing, and promotions. The campaign modules of Marketing Automation enable the marketing force to access customer-related data for designing, executing and evaluating targeted offers, and communications.

    What information can you use to automate?

    Information you can use to automate things
    Information you can use to automate things

    Event-based (trigger) marketing is all about messaging and presenting offers at a particular time. For example, a customer calls the customer care number and asks about the rate of interest for credit card payment. This event is read by CRM as the customer is comparing interest rates and can be diverted to another business for a better deal. In such cases, a customized offer is triggered to retain the customer.

    Service Automation

    Service automation enables business to retain customers by providing best quality of service and building strong relationship. It includes issue management to fix customers’ problems, customer call management to handle incoming/outgoing calls, service label management to monitor quality of service based on key performance indicators. Service automation involves service level management, resolving issues or cases, and addressing inbound communication. It involves diagnosing and solving the issues about product.

    Service automation
    Service Automation

    With the help of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system, a customer can interact with business computers by entering appropriate menu options. Automatic call routing to the most capable employee can be done. Consumer products are serviced at retail outlets at the first contact. In case of equipment placed on field, the service expert may require product servicing manual, spare parts manual, or any other related support on laptop. That can be availed in service automation.

    Who should use an Operational CRM?

    You should choose an operational CRM if –

    1. You spend too much time trying to keep contact information organized
    2. You need a clear view of each customer’s activity and profile
    3. You manually assign each task and lead to your sales team
    4. You want to scale your email marketing efforts and grow your database
    5. If you want to save time on sales and marketing and keep everything in one place, consider an operational CRM.

    Analytical CRM

    Analytical CRM helps top management, marketing, sales and support personnel to determine the better way to serve customers. Data analysis is the main function of this type of CRM application. It analyzes customer data, coming from various touch points, to get better insights about current status of an organization. It helps top management to take better decision, marketing executives to understand the campaign effectiveness, sales executives to increase sales and support personnel to improve quality of support and build strong customer relationship.

    Operational CRM and Analytical CRM
    Operational CRM and Analytical CRM

    Features of Analytical CRM:

    • Gather customer’s information, coming from different channels and analyze data in a structured way
    • Help organization to set business methodology in Sales, Marketing and Support to improve customer relationship and loyalty
    • Improve the CRM system effectiveness and analyze key performance indicators, set by business

    The biggest benefit of an analytical CRM? It does the data gathering and analysis for you. Here’s how.

    1. Data mining. An analytical CRM serves as a data warehouse: it stores your data in one central, organized, easy-to-analyze database. Data mining uses statistical analysis to find patterns and relationships in your data. One common use of an analytical CRM is cluster analysis. With cluster analysis, you can segment your customer list based on: Age, State, Education level, Gender, Marital status, Past purchases and a whole lot more! This lets you target the right people with the right messages. Other common analyses include linear, logistic, and multiple regression. Analytical CRMs do the math for you, so you don’t have to create the world’s most complicated spreadsheet to identify sales trends.
    2. Cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Analytical CRMs gives you insight into your customers’ behaviour and past purchases. This gives you the perfect setup for cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Which customers want to buy which products? An analytical CRM can help you find patterns in purchase history – so you know exactly which people to target with upsells and cross-sells.
    3. Buyer persona building. When your CRM gathers and analyzes a new piece of customer data, you can build a more complete view of your customers. Understanding your customers’ wants, needs, and personalities can help you improve your marketing. When you personalize the customer experience with personas, your customers know you understand them. This can make a big difference in your bottom line.
    4. Sales forecasting. Analyzing data on your company’s past sales trends can help you predict future demand. Sales forecasting makes sure that you aren’t surprised by predictable long term trends.
    5. Attribution. Analytical CRMs help you figure out which touch points led someone to become a customer. This helps you figure out where your best customers come from – and how to sell to them better. Touch points include viewing or clicking on an ad, visiting your website, and any other interactions a potential customer has with your business.

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    Who should use an Analytical CRM?

    You should consider an analytical CRM if –

    1. You want to better understand why customers are (or aren’t) buying your products
    2. You want to gather more data about your target customer
    3. You want to build customer personas based on data
    4. You want to figure out which touchpoints drive the most revenue
    5. You spend too much time poring over spreadsheets — and not enough time selling
    6. You want to track your sales KPIs
    7. You want to improve your sales process or strategy based on business intelligence data

    Collaborative CRM

    Collaborative CRM, sometimes called as Strategic CRM, enables an organization to share customers’ information among various business units like sales team, marketing team, technical and support team. For example, feedback from a support team could be useful for marketing team to approach targeted customers with specific products or services. In real world, each business unit works as an independent group and rarely shares customers’ data with other teams that often causes business losses.

    Customer interaction - Collaborative CRM
    Customer interaction – Collaborative CRM

    Collaborative CRM helps to unite all groups to aim only one goal – use all information to improve the quality of customer service to gain loyalty and acquire new customers to increase sales.

    What are the features and benefits of a collaborative CRM?

    • Interaction management. Like an operational CRM, a collaborative CRM helps keep track of each interaction a customer has with your business. Every customer-facing team — sales, support, community management, vendors, and anyone else who so much as sends an email — has access to a log of customer interactions and team notes. Each team has information about your customers. A collaborative CRM helps break down silos and share that information across teams.
    • Relationship management. A collaborative CRM helps you manage relationships with your customers. When a new customer comes on board, your sales team shares that customer’s preferences, goals, and any other information on their contact profile. Keep all teams aligned and up to date before they interact with each customer. This gives people a better, more personalized experience across the board.
    • Document management. If your team needs access to a contract, technical documentation, or proposal, a collaborative CRM can help. CRMs with document management systems help keep every document from every team organized. You don’t have to search through your desk or pester your finance team to hunt down a pricing agreement — it’s all in one easy-to-navigate place.

    Who should use a Collaborative CRM?

    You should consider a collaborative CRM if –

    1. You need to improve communication between departments
    2. You want to focus on customer retention and loyalty
    3. Your customers often have specific preferences and needs
    4. You need to share customer information with vendors
    5. You want to organize and align customer-focused efforts across your business

    Conclusion

    Different types of CRM systems have different features and advantages. So before implementing CRM system, it is very much important for a business to decide future goal and strategy. Make sure that your new CRM checks these boxes:

    • Integrates with your existing technology
    • Gives you live, talk-to-actual-humans support
    • Makes it easy to migrate contacts and automations from a previous CRM (if you have one)
    • Creates less day-to-day work for your team — not more

    With all of the above met — no matter which type you choose — you’ll be well on your way to CRM bliss. Let us know about the CRM you use in the comments section below.

    FAQs

    What is CRM?

    A customer relationship management (CRM) system is an IT technology that allows you to manage the business relationships you have with your customers, service users and suppliers.

    What are some examples of CRM software?

    Top Rated CRM Products

    • Pipedrive. 8.5.
    • Salesforce.com. 8.3.
    • HubSpot CRM. 8.3.
    • Freshworks CRM (formerly Freshsales) 8.3.
    • Insightly. 8.2.

    How does CRM work?

    CRM solutions include functionalities that allow users to track customer and company interactions through various available channels. These channels include contact forms, emails, phone calls, and more. CRM software provides sales and marketing teams with a set of tools to manage the entire sales and marketing funnel, from lead qualification to opportunity management, forecasting, and deal closure. It enables customer service teams to manage customer requests and automate service operations by following pre-defined processes for customer care excellence.

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  • How Tata will soon compete Jiomart

    TATA Group has been looking to acquire the grocery delivery startup Bigbasket. The company has received approval from The Competition Commission of India (CCI) to acquire the unicorn grocery delivery startup of India. Let’s look at how TATA will soon compete with Jiomart and the further details of the acquisition of Bigbasket.

    Tata to Acquire Bigbasket
    Why Tata is Planning to acquire Bigbasket
    Value and details of the Deal
    About BigBasket
    FAQ

    Tata to Acquire Bigbasket

    The latest deal of TATA digital is to acquire a stake in the B2B arm of Bigbasket which is Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd (SGS) which will let TATA digital to indirectly acquire Bigbasket’s Online Retail Business Innovative Retail Concepts (IRC). This will take place through separate transactions.

    The deal will let TATA digital to control both Bigbasket’s retail and wholesale business units. The CCI(Competition Commission of India) has said that the proposed deal will not lead to any problems or changes in the competitive landscape in India. CCI has said that irrespective of the manner in which the relevant markets are defined the deal will not cause any effect in the competition in India.

    Why Tata is Planning to acquire Bigbasket

    TATA Group has got the approval from the Competition Commission of India to acquire the grocery delivery unicorn startup with a stake of 64.3 %. The acquisition is expected to be done through TATA digital which is the digital arm of the TATA group.

    TATA digital has plans to launch a super app by this year. The planned super-app is a step towards competing with the digital business conglomerates such as Amazon, Reliance Industries and Flipkart which is owned by Walmart.

    The app is expected to help the consumers to get access to services such as ordering food and grocery, fashion and lifestyle, insurance and financial services, consumer electronics and consumer durable products, education, healthcare and bill payments.

    The company also has talks to acquire 1mg which will be a part of the strategy to expand its e-pharmacy offerings to its customers.

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    Value and details of the Deal

    The exact value of the transaction has not yet been disclosed. The estimation according to the market is around USD 1.8 to USD 2 billion. According to the deal, most of the existing investors of Bigbasket will be exiting the company which includes the Chinese based e-commerce platform Alibaba.

    According to the earlier reports, the TATA group is expected to buy the 30 % stake of Alibaba in the online grocery company Bigbasket. The Bigbasket’s top management which includes the co-founder and CEO of the company Hari Menon and others are expected to continue on the board.

    According to the terms of the deal, TATA group has said that it will allow the company to list on the public markets as early as 2022.

    Tata Bigbasket Acquisition
    Tata Bigbasket Acquisition

    About BigBasket

    BigBasket is a trade name of Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd. The company was founded in the year 2011 and has its headquarters located in Bangalore, India. It is an online grocery delivery service that primarily focuses on delivering grocery foods that are found in convenience stores, home essentials and food supplies to its customers.

    The company entered the unicorn club of India in the year 2019 after raising a capital of around USD 150 million in the Series F funding. The funding was raised from the companies such as Alibaba, CDC Group which is backed by the UK Government and Mirae Asset Global Investments of South Korea.

    FAQ

    Is Walmart investing in Tata?

    Walmart is planning to invest upto $25 billion in Tata Group’s super app.

    Which Tata company is buying big basket?

    Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd has agreed to acquire control of India’s largest online grocer Bigbasket for more than $1billion.

    Is Tata digital listed?

    Tata Digital Limited is a Public incorporated on 11 March 2019. It is classified as Non-govt company.

    Conclusion

    The acquisition of Bigbasket is a huge step taken by the TATA group to increase its competency level in the digital retail business in India. The already existing companies which include Jiomart, Amazon and Flipkart are expected to face a huge competition from this acquisition.

  • Startup Ideas for Medical Practitioners During Pandemic

    Every domain has certain gaps that can be filled only through out-of-the-box solutions. The field of medicine is no exception. Doctors and other practitioners in every capacity and designation can also come up with innovative ways of earning cash through secondary sources. These alternate methods if given the time and dedication, can eventually become a primary income source.

    “The concept of entrepreneurship and startups is only for those dealing with technology.”

    This is not true anymore. The above statement was good to be true if these were earlier times when startups just getting into the market. Now it all depends on how creative and ingenious an individual is.

    Startup Ideas for Medical Practitioners
    FAQ’s
    Conclusion

    Startup Ideas for Medical Practitioners

    Here are some startup ideas for medical practitioners to introspect on and realize their dream of starting their own venture.

    1. Online Consultancy

    People are actually busy these days, they are so busy that they tend to not go to the doctor, till it’s necessary.  It’s common for people to look up their symptoms and identify probable diagnoses using the power of the internet and the countless health-related websites it has to offer. A doctor specializing in a domain of medicine such as cardiology can leverage this trend in today’s generation. By starting a website, he or she can provide online consultation services at a lower cost than what it’d take to visit a practitioner in real.

    2. Medical Prescription Query Services

    A lot of patients end up not being able to purchase medicines due to an incomprehensible doctor’s prescription. While pharmacists are there to help you out, won’t it be a plus if someone could suggest you generic medicines instead of the expensive ones that health specialists usually recommend? Mind you, in order to be able to cater to a variety of prescriptions, it is suggested a group of medical specialists start such an initiative as a team in order to cover as many health domains as possible (cardiology, dentistry, orthopedic, etc.)

    3. Online Medicines Store

    The following is the lifeline of many people in urban areas. Especially, for elderly people, as they are not able to go to medical stores often. For this purpose, this online medical store is getting on-trend. You will be able to get all kinds of medicine, at a cheaper cost and at your doorstep. Easy-peasy right? Hence, these online medicines store a good form of a startup in the medical field.

    4. Consultant to Big Pharmaceuticals

    Companies such as Pfizer, Sun Pharma, Ranbaxy, and many others need expert advice from medical practitioners when it comes to drug trials. As a strategist to these big-shots, doctors can earn good money without working for long hours. Moreover, getting to be a part of something that’s likely to affect the lives of many in the form of medicines is worth the effort!

    5. Reviewing Health Insurance Claims

    Insurance companies don’t want to spend a lot but still protect people. The job requires time and a laptop to review the insurance claims. Medical specialists can take advantage of this kind of outsourcing that big insurance companies usually indulge in. While the idea is great for a startup venture but is a great way to earn some extra income in addition to the primary job for any doctor.

    6. Opening a Fitness Center/Spa

    Ordinary spas are in abundance. But if you’re a GYN/OB, then you can utilize the knowledge of yours to provide special treatment. Physiotherapists and orthopedic specialists have a large consumer base to tap into if they decide to open such kind of startup—fitness enthusiasts are willing to splurge cash to get into shape. This kind of setting is a glimpse of the future; fitness trainers will soon be accompanied by medical experts!

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    7. Becoming a Tutor

    The number of aspirants aiming to get into medical universities for education is staggering. The blossoming of coaching institutes means that the demand & supply is not entirely balanced. Moreover, the quality of educators is not of the standard at all institutes. If you had an exceptional preparation phase while attempting the medical competitive examinations and finally end up studying at a prominent institute solely on merit, then helping students in the same by teaching them is a proven way of making a good income.

    8. Facilitating Sale of Medical Equipment

    A doctor makes innumerable contacts, be it during practice hours or after that. These include pharmacists and medical items, vendors. Patients often lookout for medical equipment at cheap rates—oxygen cylinders, wheelchairs, etc. By leveraging their connections, practitioners can open online platforms dealing in the buying and selling of such items.

    9. Opening a Private Clinic

    This is by far the most common one and a sure-shot case of success. There will be maintenance costs, staff salaries, and other kinds of initial investment expenditures but once the clinic takes off, there’s no looking back. The point to consider is that opening a private practice is possible only after gaining significant experience either in public or private hospitals/institutions. Moreover, the location where the clinic would be set up is also decisive; if the locality is one where medical assistance is rare and not accessible to everyone for whatever reason, then even a small practice can generate significant revenue. But then if the same is to be established in a place already teeming with hospitals and clinics, then experience and popularity as a practitioner decide the level of success that is achievable.

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    10. Healthcare Apps

    We love different apps for different services. Also, people are actually concerned about their health but lack of time, concentration makes it difficult for them to keep track of their health. Hence, a good healthcare app is the need of the time. A complete app that provides all health care benefits like a nutritionist calorie counter, footsteps counter, etc. If the features include, a consultancy with a certified nutritionist, dietician, trainers then it is the perfect icing on the cake.

    11. Rehabilitation Center

    Substance abuse or commonly known as drug abuse is a common problem in today’s generation. To get away from such habits, parents, guardians, NGOs are constantly looking for a rehabilitation center. Hence, this area is also an area to have a startup. It’s not a niche area to work but it serves both public service and private profit. Make sure the center has good doctors, good medical staff, and moral support to the addicts, for their good recovery.

    12. Skincare Line

    This is not a very familiar startup in the medical field but trust me it is a very effective startup. You are not believing me, check Dr. Barbara Streum. She is a trained dermatologist who crafted plenty of skincare products used by celebrities, common people across the globe. Hence, if you tried a dermatologist who has come up with a new formula, different textures treating people’s issues then you should start your own skincare line Of products. It sounds like a new concept but it is an extremely profitable startup idea if been created with innovation.

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    FAQ’s

    How do I start a healthcare startup?

    To start a healthcare startup follow these steps:

    • Create a business plan.
    • Register with the state.
    • Obtain Medicare and Medicaid certifications.
    • Hire a great staff.
    • Get your clients.

    How many healthcare startups are there?

    There are approximately 2,500 startups in the healthcare sector right now, split into 34 categories. If you can successfully navigate the healthcare landscape, your startup will reign supreme.

    How can I start a healthcare company in India?

    If you are planning on starting a healthcare business in India that will have Application based Services which includes telemedicine services, you will be required to be registered as an ‘Other Service Provider’ (OSP) with the Department of Telecommunications. All drugs must be sold under a license.

    Why do digital health startups keep failing?

    A miscalculated profit margin, a too high or too low price tag, and a generally misplaced pricing strategy could mean the end of a promising digital health start-up.

    Is healthcare a profitable business?

    According to a 2015 Forbes report, healthcare was projected to be one of the most profitable industries of 2016. Perhaps not surprising, though, since the healthcare market is such a large part of the national GDP.

    Conclusion

    Doctors are uniquely qualified to be excellent healthcare tech founders and even operators as they are more familiar with the domain. They are famously termed as entrepreneurs with medical degrees who will drive much of the healthcare innovation to come in the next few years. These medical practitioners might not be immediately familiar with the startup world but they bring invaluable knowledge of the complex healthcare system to the table. They are familiar with how money moves internally, how incentives work inside the organization, and which regulations apply in which circumstances under the healthcare domain.

  • Top Sequoia Capital Investments

    Sequoia Capital has invested in some of the greatest ideas that this planet has ever seen. Don Valentine founded Sequoia Capital in 1972 and it has been creating history since then. It seems they have some ‘magic formula’ to predict the immense success of start-ups that get pitched to them. Of course, they don’t pick all of them but they sure do have a good hand.

    Sequoia Capital Portfolio is bejewelled with many start-ups that changed the face of the world. Sequoia Capital investments are not necessarily done in fancy places. They are willing to meet start-up owners anywhere they want. They understand that young start-ups need to save money.

    But just like everything in this world, Sequoia Capital investments are not perfect. It let go of some great opportunities like:

    • Investing in Apple, which it dropped out of after a short period
    • letting go of twitter because they wanted 20-30% share and the company offered 10%
    • Investing in Facebook

    All in all, this hasn’t stopped the venture capital from making some great investment deals.

    Paypal
    Reddit
    Tumblr
    Zoom
    Whatsapp
    Yahoo
    Google
    Glossier
    Youtube
    Instagram
    Linkedin
    Zomato
    Picsart
    FAQ

    Here’s a list of the top 13 Sequoia Capital Investments ventures that got big

    Paypal

    PayPal revolutionized the way we pay for things. It made cashless transactions easy and Hassel-free. Sequoia Capital investments are majorly made in companies that provide solutions to a problem.

    Companies like PayPal simplify peoples’ lives therefore they are bound to make profit.

    Founder: Elon Musk, Max Levchin, Peter Theil

    Founded in: 1999

    Partner: Michael Moritz

    Partnered in: 1999

    Reddit

    Reddit has become the core of funny online content. Although it’s a site where people discuss and comment on all kinds of topics, its GIFs are the most popular. Recently, Reddit users shook up the stock market which made clear the power that it possesses.

    Founder: Steve Huffman

    Founded in: 2005

    Partner: Alfred Lin

    Partnered in: 2014

    Tumblr

    Tumblr provides creative people all around the world to create, share and follow the content of their choice. The venture capital calls this idea authentic and said that when the idea was pitched in, it was, “equivalent of love at first sight”.

    It’s beautiful to see when an investor shares the vision of the founder. It’s bound to be a success.

    Founder: David Karp

    Founded in: 2007

    Partner: Roelof Botha

    Partnered in: 2010

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    Zoom

    Zoom is a video conferencing app. It provides group messaging and online meeting services that became our survivor in the Covid situation. Its top-of-the-class video and audio qualities make meetings effortless.

    Founder: Eric Yuan

    Founded in: 2011

    Partner: Carl Eschenbach, Pat Grady

    Partnered in: 2016

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    Whatsapp

    Who doesn’t know what WhatsApp is? If you don’t, you might be living under a rock. It an online messaging, calling, and video calling app. Recently, WhatsApp has launched its new payment feature.

    It has more than 100 million active users. It’s the most used messaging app in India. Sequoia Capital funded WhatsApp and helped it reach phenomenal heights.

    In 2014, WhatsApp was bought by Facebook.

    Founder: Brian Acton, Jan Koum

    Founded in: 2009

    Partner: Jim Goetz

    Partnered in: 2011

    Yahoo

    Yahoo is an information site that brings together all the information on one platform for users to benefit from. Yahoo is creating personalized user experiences to make the task easier.

    Founder: David Fello, Jerry Yang

    Founded in: 1994

    Partner: Michael Moritz

    Partnered in: 1995

    Google

    Google, the world’s biggest search engine is also among Sequoia Capital Investments. You can find out information about everything on Google. By organizing different websites and indexing their content, Google provides the best possible results for user search. It is dedicated to improving the overall user experience and caters to all their needs.

    Founder: Sergey Brin, Larry Page

    Founded in: 1998

    Partner: Michael Moritz

    Partnered in: 1999

    Glossier

    Glossier is another company under Sequoia Capital Investments. It is a beauty brand that customizes beauty according to the person. It focuses on individual needs rather than providing one product that is to be used by everyone.

    Founder: Emily Weiss

    Founded in: 2014

    Partner: Sonya Huang

    Partnered in: 2019

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    Ideas, creativity, and execution are essential for a startup to flourish. Butare they enough? A startup succeeds in the long run only if it can scale as andwhen required. Investors provide startups and other entrepreneurial ventureswith the capital—popularly known as “funding”—to think big, grow …
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    Youtube

    YouTube is the world’s greatest video-sharing site. It allows users to effortlessly upload videos for users to see. Sequoia Capital Investments helped the site become a platform for learning, entertainment and message spreading that also created tons of jobs.

    Founder: Chad Hurley, Javed Karim, Steve Chen

    Founded in: 2005

    Partner: Roelof Botha

    Partnered in: 2005

    Instagram

    Instagram has become extremely popular in very little time. It is the go-to app to upload art and photos for the huge audience that is at your disposal. Brands and small businesses can also promote their products through influencers.

    Founder: Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger

    Founded in: 2010

    Partner: Roelof Botha

    Partnered in: 2012

    Linkedin

    Sequoia Capitals investments are about bringing unique ideas to life. It’s something that we all need but just cannot put a finger on. An online platform for businesses and employees that promotes jobs and servicepersons was much needed.

    LinkedIn made it possible to link talented individuals to the employers that need them.

    Founder: Reid Hoffman, Jeff Weiner

    Founded in: 2002

    Partner: Michael Moritz

    Partnered in: 2003

    Zomato

    Zomato made the option of food delivery, wide open in India. It was present before but wasn’t used much. The brilliant idea of linking the restaurant to a hungry person worked wonders. What’s the use of good food without a foodie, right?

    Zomato is a unicorn company now.

    Founder: Deepinder Goyal, Pankaj Chaddha

    Founded in: 2010

    Partner: Mohit Bhatnagar, Abheek Anand, Ashish Agarwal

    Partnered in: 2013

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    Picsart

    PicsArt Website
    PicsArt Website

    PicsArt is a popular online image editing app. It provides a wide range of features to present a simple photograph in the most creative way possible.

    Founder: Hovhannes Avoyan, Artavazd Mehrabyan

    Founded in: 2011

    Partner: Mike Vernal, Stephanie Zhan

    Partnered in: 2014

    FAQ

    How many employees does Sequoia have?

    Sequoia Capital has around 760 employees.

    What is sequoia capital

    Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm.

    Who founded Sequoia?

    Sequoia was founded by Don Valentine in 1972. In the mid-1990s, Valentine gave control of the company to Doug Leone and Michael Moritz.

    Conclusion

    These were some amazing companies that made a mark in the world. Sequoia Capital Investments ventures have shaped these companies’ future for the better. It takes a great ‘eye’ to identify the true potential behind an idea. This venture capital continues to support bright minds with their finances.

    Some recent sequoia capital investments include CoinSwitch Cuber, Pristyn Care, Druva, and Razor pay.

  • Why CFO is Essential For Startups?

    Startup entrepreneurship is not a business for the faint-hearted. It is a roller-coaster ride of triumphs and disappointments. All this is navigated in an atmosphere of being absolutely boot strapped to being flushed with funds to managing cash flow till the next infusion.

    The founders are dependent on attracting sizeable funding for the success and realisation of their dream. Even the bootstrapped entrepreneurs look for funding within the first 3 years of operations to really create market leadership that can be protected.

    No wonder 90% of startup fail within the first four years of establishment. Founders need to be on their best to navigate this scenario which is further complicated by dynamic taxation, legal and regulatory environment.

    Only about one in 100 start-ups are invited to a conversation with a meaningful VC. This is dependent on a product offering that is on an ascendency, the marketing and public relations being visible and the market opportunity being large enough. A study of 885 institutional VCs at 681 firms by the National Bureau of Economic Research found VCs start with a pipeline of hundreds of potential opportunities and narrow those down to make a very small number of investments.

    Eventual funding with good valuation from these conversations is based on past performance, future projections, VC’s impression of founders’ capability to meet the management challenges in a scaled business, and the VC ability to guide and open doors. VC also have a keen eye for the other senior members of management team and specially on the person managing the financial affairs.

    An experienced finance professional who has been part of the core team for a longer tenure gives more confidence to investors – which is important for valuation. It is here that a talented CFO (chief financial officer) with multi-disciplinary experience becomes critical for the start-up.

    Siba Panda (Founder & CEO), Faustus Advisory

    When not guided by a good CFO the past performance numbers can suffer the weight of oversights and short-sighted decisions. A talented CFO will ensure that the founders run a well-oiled set-up with absolute control. Some of the issues that require the guidance of as CFO (and the CA is not enough) are:

    • Controlling of bad debts and outstanding debts
    • Contracts that are litigation free
    • Unit margins that are VC attractive
    • Management of suppliers and vendors
    • Buy vs lease decisions
    • Compliance with taxation rules
    • Director compensation and reporting
    • Well-structured employee and labour agreements for win-win
    • Ensuring employee stock-options that attract best talent at low equity cost

    Future projections need an understanding of core business on par with the founders and expert ability of leveraging financial planning tools which a good CFO will have. Future projections are critical in deciding the final valuation as they directly determine the money infused in this round and even future rounds of VC funding.

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    The Founders management ability in the face of scaled up business after funding is also reflected in how the cash flows has been managed in the past and projected for the future. How the past agreements have been structured, the tax compliance the litigations that could have been avoided, the decision-making process for taking business calls all feed into this evaluation. This is essential for determining that the founders will remain in the driving seat even after funding and a competent CFO is essential for this.

    Post funding the role of CFO in startup is further expanded as the VC expects financial reporting to be in line with their best practices. If the startup is not able to quickly adopt, due to not having a trusted CFO, then the VC suggests their recommended CFO. Such a CFO is likely to be more committed to the VC than the founders. Also, the CFOs remuneration may be very hand will become difficult to manage when stretching the funding before the nest infusion.

    Post funding period also requires careful monitoring of costs and ROI to keep them in line with the board’s expectation. The startup will have a serious commitment to the board for the first time as the VC is on it. They will require all statements to be backed with complete data and will also expect projections and explanations on any deviation. A good CFO ensures that the founders make reasonable commitments and are able to meet all commitments without having to take the eyes of the growth objectives.

    It is thus cost practical for startups to onboard a CFO right from inception even though the cost to company seems high in the early stage. The CFO also frees the founder to focus on business growth rather than managing financial and contractual headaches. One way to keep the CFO cost low is to outsource the CFO thus getting the best of both worlds.

    This article is authored by Siba Panda (Founder & CEO), Faustus Advisory.

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    FAQs

    What is CFO?

    A chief financial officer (CFO) is the senior executive responsible for managing the financial actions of a company.

    What is most important to a CFO?

    A CFO looks to contribute outside of the confines of the traditional CFO role, using financial analysis to support and challenge decision-making as well as involvement in the strategy. A business environment that enables this is important as well as one that offers the opportunity to undertake different challenges.

    What does the CFO do?

    The CFO’s duties include tracking cash flow and financial planning as well as analyzing the company’s financial strengths and weaknesses and proposing corrective actions.

    How to become CFO?

    The majority of CFOs will understandably have an educational background in finance, business, economics or management. A typical path would be a bachelors and masters degree in accounting or other finance-related studies, alongside the ACCA Qualification.

    What are the benefits of CFO?

    Benefits of having a CFO:-

    • Financial Reporting and Risk Management
    • Operational Efficiency
    • Strategy Development
    • Increased Profitability
    • Reduced Costs

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  • Factoreal : Marketing Automation Platform To Boost Revenue

    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 Factoreal.

    No matter how big an organization is, when it comes to marketing, there’s no dearth of mundane and repetitive tasks, such as email marketing, social media posting and even campaigns. Marketing automation platforms remove the hassle from marketing execution and allows businesses to streamline, automate, evaluate tasks and workflows – not just for the sake of efficiency, but to provide a more personalized experience to the consumers, eventually leading to higher conversions and business growth.  However, these tools have become complex over time, difficult to operate and messy to integrate and customize.

    Factoreal is a Bengaluru based startup offering an omni-channel customer engagement and marketing automation platform designed from the ground up to help marketers execute their job effortlessly and boost revenue. Taking a clean slate approach powered by the fuel of simplicity, it enables businesses to define end to end customer journeys in minutes, delivering hyper-personalized campaigns and capturing those micro-moments of engagement effectively.

    Factoreal – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Factoreal
    Headquarter Bengaluru, India
    Sector Software as a Service (SaaS)
    Founder Aditya Dhruva
    Founded 2019
    Parent Organization Comviva Technologies USA Inc.
    Website factoreal.com
    Contact letschat@factoreal.com, marketing@factoreal.com

    Factoreal – About and How it Works
    Factoreal – Target Market Size
    Factoreal – Founders and Team
    Factoreal – Parent Company (Comviva Technologies USA Inc.)
    Factoreal – How it Started?
    Factoreal – Products/Services
    Factoreal – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Factoreal – Revenue Model and Business Model
    Factoreal – Funding and Investors
    Factoreal – User Acquisition and Growth
    Factoreal – Competitors
    Factoreal – Advisors and Mentors
    Factoreal – Future Plans
    Factoreal – Founder’s Advice
    Factoreal – FAQs

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    Factoreal – About and How it Works

    Factoreal is a startup funded by Comviva Technologies (part of the Mahindra group), looking to disrupt the Omni-Channel Customer Engagement industry. It is a tool designed for marketers. The tool is Simple, Intelligent, and Effective.

    The startup aims to make customer journey automation SIMPLE and AFFORDABLE for all businesses. They strongly believe that simplicity is the essence of universality.

    The team started with only one guiding light, “To build the most trusted simplest platform”. Simplicity still remains the most important guiding principle for every decision they make. Whether it’s deciding the product roadmap or hiring – simplicity is always at the heart of everything they do.

    Here are the top 5 challenges that customer engagement automation can help a business overcome:

    • Unengaged customer
    • Low lead conversion
    • Marketing inefficiencies
    • Lower than expected Revenue growth
    • High TCO
    Factoreal – Customer Engagement Platform

    Factoreal – Target Market Size

    The marketing automation market size is growing at double digit CAGR and expected to be a USD 25 billion industry by 2024. The increasing need for automating repetitive marketing processes, retention of users for business growth, increasing demand for personalized marketing, and better predictive lead scoring are some of the major factors expected to drive the growth of this market.

    Marketing automation software solutions help enterprises to manage the entire lifecycle of marketing channels effectively across various digital medium which is one of the major factor for adoption of these software by enterprise globally.

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    Factoreal – Founders and Team

    Aditya Dhruva is the Founder & CEO of marketing automation platform-Factoreal.

    Aditya Dhruva - Founder, Factoreal
    CEO of Factoreal, Aditya Dhruva

    Aditya Dhruva, the CEO of Factoreal is a thought leader with a stellar track record of business innovation, strategy, and running profitable businesses. He has done his entrepreneurship education from MIT and is a graduate in Electronics and Communications. He has authored 5 patents and in his past, he has held various leadership positions at Comviva, Cisco and Nokia.

    “There are two schools of thought in the startup world – One prioritizes time-to-market. Get in there as early as you can, get the bean counter flowing early, pivot and iterate to find a reasonably strong play.

    The other evangelises getting the right product-market fit. In highly innovative markets with strong competition, getting the right differentiation and core value proposition is extremely important. In Factoreal we are favouring the second approach” – Aditya Dhruva, founder and CEO of Factoreal.

    Factoreal Team
    Factoreal Team

    Factoreal – Parent Company (Comviva Technologies USA Inc.)

    Comviva is one of the leaders of mobility solutions providers and cater to over two billion platform users globally. The technology products offered enables customers to increase revenue, operate profitably and make a drastic impact. It is a value-added services provider for mobile telephone operators. Comviva has customers in over 90 countries, In 2012, Tech Mahindra bought a 51% stake in Comviva.

    Factoreal – How it Started?

    Comviva Technologies has been a leader in Mobility Solutions for nearly 2 decades. Predominantly working with Telecom customers, the portfolio spans across Mobile Financial products, Messaging and infrastructure, customer value management and lifestyle solutions.

    As part of the growth strategy for the group, they wanted to leverage their expertise in building highly scalable carrier grade solutions and bring it to an internet scale offering directly to the enterprises in a SaaS model. That was when marketing automation platform, Factoreal was born.

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    Factoreal – Products/Services

    Factoreal is an omnichannel customer engagement and marketing automation platform, delivering best-in-class journey automation, channel coverage, and budget control. The product capabilities include:

    Engagement automation

    Let’s you automate the customer engagement lifecycle, you can ensure seamless, engaging, customer conversations everytime.

    • Simplest Workflow modeling and ready-to-use journey templates
    • Social ads & shares
    • E-mail automation
    • Real-time triggers

    Omni Channel

    Let’s you orchestrate and automate customer experiences across multiple touchpoints.

    • Traditional – SMS and Email
    • Social – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat
    • Mobile / OTT – Mobile App, Chatbots and RCS

    Planning & Budgeting

    Let’s you use a credit store (FactCoins) to control all your marketing spends based on real-time needs.

    • ROI Analysis
    • Budget management

    Ecommerce Integrations

    With their pre-integration with ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, you have the ability to run all your conversion and acquisition campaigns right out of Factoreal – down to each product and customer.

    • Real-time actionable insights into the ecommerce journeys
    • Predictive analytics
    • Recommendations

    Factorial (!) is the mathematical symbol for a multiplicative expression. The core value of the Factoreal Brand is to provide a multiplying benefit in every aspect to the user : experience, value and simplicity

    The placement of the logo in the wordmark has been kept in the exact centre. This adds a dimension to the narrative of the brand story, implying that the user is receiving relevant data and facts in real time. The company’s product acts as a catalyst by highlighting the vantage points of data. The placement of the monogram also enhances the visual recall of the brand.

    Factoreal
    Factoreal logo

    Bringing together every aspect, the monogram is a representation of marketing automation. The beauty of the monogram lies in the fact that it is also the mathematical representation of factorial itself.

    It represents churning of a large amount of consumer data on an omnichannel platform to generate segmented, meaningful pieces of information, which helps you derive accurate marketing insights – all through a simple automated tool.

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    Factoreal – Revenue Model and Business Model

    Factoreal’s revenue is subscription based and they have a Pay-As-You-Grow model allowing customers to increase their spend based on their business growth. The startup’s unique credit store concept (called FactCoins) enables customers to purchase pre-paid credits which can be used flexibly across campaigns, channels and ads.

    The company care for their customers and given the current situation, they are going the extra mile in helping the small and medium businesses tide over the crisis with flexible plans.

    Software as a Service (SaaS) Revenue Model
    For customers, the benefits of the SaaS model are clear. It brought lowercosts, lower commitment risk, and a try-before-you-buy model, which gavecustomers a remarkable opportunity to assess a product before making a purchase.Indeed, the benefit is so clear that a 2017 study conducted by BetterCl…
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    Factoreal – Funding and Investors

    Factoreal is funded by Comviva Technologies (part of the Mahindra group)

    Factoreal – User Acquisition and Growth

    While the team don’t disclose their customer base, they have been lucky enough to on-board a handful of paying customers within a couple of months of bringing their MVP to the market. But the journey is long and it has just begun.

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    Factoreal – Competitors

    Competitors of Factoreal are Klaviyo, Adobe, Hubspot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Autopilot hq to name the few.

    Factoreal – Advisors and Mentors

    Manoranjan Mohapatra (CEO of Comviva technologies), and Dan Knowlton (Ranked among the top 100 digital marketing influencers) are advising the team of Factoreal.

    Factoreal – Future Plans

    It has future plans of scaling the business, growing the team, and launching new capabilities that help their customers achieve their goals faster. They are focused on delivering high customer satisfaction.

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    Factoreal – Founder’s Advice

    “Find a real customer problem to solve. You can definitely build a good business provided you’re constantly innovating on product, value and GTM. Any startup will go through it’s ups and downs – it’s important to try for the best but prepare for the worst. Be prudent in spends, save for a rainy day. Take care of your employees. And more importantly, hustle, hustle, hustle. There are no guarantees in life, but these will give you your best chance at success.” – Aditya Dhruva, founder and CEO of Factoreal.

    Factoreal – FAQs

    What is Factoreal?

    Factoreal is a Bengaluru based startup offering an omni-channel engagement automation platform to help marketers execute their job effortlessly.

    Who is the Founder of Factoreal?

    Aditya Dhruva is the Founder & CEO of Factoreal.

    Who are the Top Competitors of Factoreal?

    Competitors of Factoreal are Klaviyo, Adobe, Hubspot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Autopilot hq.

    What is the Factoreal Revenue Model?

    Factoreal’s revenue is subscription based and they have a Pay-As-You-Grow model allowing customers to increase their spend based on their business growth. The startup’s unique credit store concept (called FactCoins) enables customers to purchase pre-paid credits which can be used flexibly across campaigns, channels and ads.

  • Haptik – India’s Biggest AI-based Personal Assistance Platform

    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 Haptik.

    There are more than 3 billion people in the world who use messaging or digital voice interfaces on a daily basis. However, less than 1% use these mediums to communicate with businesses and brands. It is only a matter of time for this to change – enterprises will implement the infrastructure to enable these channels.

    Haptik is born out of the belief that conversational AI will have the same paradigm shift, and the company is a global team of 200+ believers waiting to make it happen.

    Haptik – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Haptik
    Parent Company Reliance Industries
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Industry Software, AI-company
    Founded August 2013
    Founders Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev
    Area Served Worldwide
    Website www.haptik.ai

    Haptik – About and How it Works?
    Haptik – Logo and its Meaning
    Haptik – Founder and History
    Haptik – Mission
    Haptik – Recent News
    Haptik – Team
    Haptik – Partnerships
    Haptik – Business Model
    Haptik – Revenue and Growth
    Haptik – Funding and Investors
    Haptik – Acquisitions
    Haptik – Awards and Recognitions
    Haptik – Competitors
    Haptik – Challenges Faced
    Haptik – Future Plans
    Haptik – FAQs

    Haptik – About and How it Works?

    Haptik is an artificial intelligence company powering conversational assistants for brands to transform customer experiences. The company develops technology to enable enterprises to build conversational AI systems that allow users to converse with applications and electronic devices in free-format, natural language, using speech or text.

    Haptik also has an automated conversational testing platform that enables real-time improvements to the AI. Haptik AI is a developer of conversational AI platforms intended to automate critical business processes.

    The company’s platform has a live agent tool for a bot to human handover and analytics dashboard to check chat level metrics and insights into what a customer really needs from business, enabling users to chat with experts for any query related to any company, product or service via text messages.

    Haptik – Logo and its Meaning

    The Haptik logo has hand that is very colorful, and the multiple colors serve a purpose – to symbolize how the app could help users with a wide range of tasks. Taken together, the hand and the colors were meant to say “I’m here to help, and I can help with a lot of things”.

    Haptik's company logo
    Haptik’s company logo

    The bright colors, in addition to being pleasing to the eye, were also meant to symbolize positivity and optimism – reflecting our confidence in the ability of the Haptik app to accomplish the many tasks that it would be asked to perform.

    Haptik – Founder and History

    Haptik was founded by Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev, both University of Illinois engineering alumni in August 2013.

    Founders of Haptik
    Founders of Haptik

    Vaish recalls, “Swapan and I were working in San Francisco when the mobile app industry was taking off. One of the categories of apps that we saw take off significantly was messaging. We noticed people using messaging apps more than any other type of app, and the addiction to the interface was crazy. We figured there is something here to build on, and potentially a platform to support conversations everywhere beyond simply peer to peer chat. That’s when Haptik was born”.

    In March 2014, the company launched its first product, the Haptik app which is a chat-based personal assistant for Android and iOS platforms in India.

    Over time this evolved into full-blown conversational commerce app with over 2 million downloads with 15 million app installs. The company launched Life Insurance chat-bot for HDFC Life and a Baap Bot for Father’s Day.

    Haptik – Mission

    Haptik’s mission statement says, “To build artificial intelligence products that enable the paradigm shift of interaction from clicks to conversations.“

    Haptik – Recent News

    Reliance Jio said that it has bought a majority stake in Haptik,  a startup that develops ‘conversational’ platforms and virtual assistants, in a deal worth $100 million overall. The transaction will see Jio will take an 87 percent stake in the company, with the remaining shares left for Haptik’s  founding team and staff. The deal includes 230 crore ($33 million) to buy out existing backers and an investment of 470 crore ($67 million).

    Haptik announced that it has acqui-hired Convrg, a Los Angeles-based startup that develops chatbots, to serve customers in North America. According to Aakrit Vaish this move is part of Haptik’s broader strategy to both expand its technology expertise and team and business overseas.

    Haptik – Team

    • Aakrit Vaish – Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
    • Swapan Rajdev – Co-Founder & CTO
    • Kartik Poddar – Chief Business Officer
    • Prateek Gupte – Director, Product & Engineering
    • Krupal Modi – Head, Machine Learning
    • Aman Srivastava – Machine Learning Scientist
    • Audrey Wu – VP Strategic Partnerships

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    Haptik – Partnerships

    Haptik built the world’s largest WhatsApp chatbot for COVID-19. This was the official helpline for the Government of India which was utilized by over 21 million users across the country. The MyGov Corona Helpdesk was engineered to fight rumors, educate the masses and bring a sense of calm to the pandemic situation. Haptik built the Helpdesk ground-up using official data shared by the Government.

    Kotak Life partnered with Haptik to develop an AI-driven conversational assistant called KAYA which provides 24X7 assistance to consumers.

    The company partnered with Amazon Pay, HDFC Life, Ola Cabs, Uber, Times Internet, Mumbai City FC, Coca-Cola, Ziman, Zomato, BookMyShow, ClearTrip, Goibibo, UrbanClap, Via.com, Dineout, Flipkart, and Kotak Life to run campaigns on Haptik app.

    In March 2018, the company partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide Al-enabled conversational solutions to customers in India.

    Haptik has entered into a strategic partnership with Y Combinator-backed Leena AI to provide enterprises for all types of bot solutions.

    Haptik’s repertoire of chatbot customers in India includes Samsung, Future Group, KFC, Dream11, Sharekhan, Edelweiss, Tokio, Club Mahindra and IIFL among others. Haptik has also built assistants for TOI, Samsung, Ziman and Akancha Against Harassment, an online Cyber Safety Initiative.

    Haptik is one of the world’s largest conversational AI platforms. In October 2017, The Times of India app incorporated Haptik’s virtual personal assistant service with Sprite as the exclusive brand partner. Samsung was the second partner who uses Haptik to power its ‘My Assistant’ service that is pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge in India.

    Haptik built a scalable Support Bot for Dream11 which helped the online handle 8x their volume without a large support staff during IPL 2018.

    Haptik – Business Model

    Haptik has always been in the leading position when it came to the chatbot business. They were one of the very first enterprises to come up with the idea and have a huge advantage of the experience factor when compared to its competitors. They have had lots and lots of experimentations done on the concept and have almost perfected the art.

    One of their biggest strong points is indeed the upper hand in technology. The in-depth knowledge in Machine Learning and NLP has also aided the company to be one step ahead of the competitors. They were one of the very first firms to reap the benefits of the chatbot industry by foreseeing the growing liking of the people to interface and personal assistance.

    They also concentrated on being a B2B(business-to-business) model, which proved more effective for the team. The biggest advantage of Haptik is that they provide customized services to the customers. There is no one model for all kind of a concept that works there. This has also led to the team to stand out from the rest.

    Haptik – Revenue and Growth

    From a rather unsuccessful launch of its beta phase called Batman to becoming the nation’s biggest AI-based personal assistance platform, Haptik has indeed come a very long way. They have over one million downloads in Play Store and are the highest-rated mobile application in India.

    The organization handles over 50 million conversation yearly and has a clean history when it comes to customer churns. This is no ordinary feat and the team has indeed worked very hard to reach where they are today.

    More and more people seek the assistance of chatbots to solve their daily problems and help in easier decision making. The company is now looking forward to expanding there scope across the globe and are absolutely confident that they will be able to see the same magnitude of results they could see in India.

    Mumbai-based conversational AI assistant Haptik has attained 105% of its revenue target in the first quarter of financial year 2020 despite the pandemic and the reduced cash flow from the travel tech sector which suffered huge losses due to the travel restrictions.

    Haptik – Funding and Investors

    Haptik has raised a total of $12.2M in funding over 2 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Apr 5, 2016 from a Series B round. Haptik is funded by 3 investors. Times Internet and Vivek Kumar are the most recent investors.

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Apr 5, 2016 Series B $11.2M Times Internet
    Sep 16, 2014 Series A $1M Kalaari Capital

    Haptik – Acquisitions

    Haptik has acquired 2 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Buzzo.ai on Sep 24, 2019.

    Acquiree Name Date Amount About Acquiree
    Buzzo.ai Sep 24, 2019 – Buzzo.ai is a customizable Artificial Intelligence software for retail, e-commerce, travel.
    CONVRG Jul 23, 2019 – Speakeasy™ by Convrg is AI-powered software that voice-enables your ecommerce website or mobile app, allowing consumers to shop by voice.

    Haptik – Awards and Recognitions

    Haptik won ‘AI for Good Award’ for the year 2018 at the 4th Annual Canadian Fintech and  AI awards. Haptik’s client list includes Fortune 500 names such as Coca-Cola, Samsung, KFC, Tata Group and Mahindra Group, among others.

    The company launched in the year 2013 was awarded for its 24×7 bot which benefits its users in fields of cyber safety and harassment. Haptik developed a bot named Akancha Against Harassment or AHH bot, authorized by Akancha Srivastava, a prominent cyber safety pundit and founder of the Akancha Against Harassment (AAH) vision. The bot enhances and educates people about cyber safety in a captivating and conversational procedure. The technology gives a comprehensive information on the absolute process and more users pursuing help and safety against cyber harassment.

    Haptik – Competitors

    The top  competitors in Haptik’s competitive set are Floatbot, Vernacular, Yellow Messenger, SendBird, Niki, and Askarvi.

    Haptik – Challenges Faced

    Vaish says “Being at the forefront of an industry which is still evolving means that there is no predefined playbook which can be followed to assure results. At Haptik, on an everyday basis, we try out various different experiments some of which succeed while some of them don’t”.

    The company faces challenges on all aspects of engineering starting from scaling, research in machine learning, product and design. They perform research in-house and work closely with academia and other institutes to be able to find the best solutions to advance the chatbot and machine learning space.

    Having said that, it cannot be denied that chatbot space is growing by leaps and bounds, with traditional slow moving businesses automating their procedures and using chatbot to become more efficient. The founders of Haptik believe that with the growth of AI technology, bots will be able to understand regular human speech in both text and voice.

    “Vernacular language support is another interesting field that is currently open to innovation. We can also expect to see chatbots on various other platforms apart from websites and messengers. Chatbots will become more prevalent and be a part of everyday life for everyone who owns a smartphone!”, Vaish added.

    How AI Chatbot Increases Sales/ Sales Boost by AI Chatbot
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    Haptik – Future Plans

    Haptik’s team is looking forward to expand further into newer and bigger markets. Haptik has a few clients in the US with IoT, chatbot, and voice assistance market growing extensively in India. A Hansa Cequity Customer Experience Trends Report suggests that the chatbot market will touch $2.3 billion by the end of 2020 from its current $700 million.

    “We invested in Haptik back in 2016 based on the early signs of messaging as a paradigm for user interactions. Over the last year, we have seen tremendous adoption in enterprises adopting it as a platform to communicate with their users, with successful results. We are really bullish on what’s to come from team Haptik in the next few months, and are prepared to back them all the way to making this a large global technology company from India.” said Aakrit, founder of Haptik.

    Haptik – FAQs

    What does Haptik do?

    Haptik is an artificial intelligence company powering conversational assistants for brands to transform customer experiences. Haptik develops technology to enable enterprises to build conversational AI systems that allow users to converse with applications and electronic devices in free-format, natural language, using speech or text.

    Which company owns Haptik?

    The Reliance Industries owns Haptik.

    Who founded Haptik?

    Haptik was founded by Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev, in August 2013.

    When was Haptik founded?

    Haptik was founded in August 2013.

    Who is the current CEO of Haptik?

    Aakrit Vaish is the current CEO of Haptik.

  • EasyPoker – Host Poker Nights Without Chips or Playing Cards!

    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 the organization it is based on.

    Are you stuck in situations when you want to play poker but don’t have cards and chips with you? EasyPoker is designed to solve this problem. It is the digital substitute for the traditional silver case poker set. This means you can use the EasyPoker app to host poker nights with friends – no physical poker chips or playing cards needed. Now, you can play Poker at the bar, around the campfire – anytime, anywhere.

    Read this article to know more about the EasyPoker app, product, founders, logo, business model, revenue, growth, challenges, funding, and achievements.

    Company Highlights

    Startup Name EasyPoker
    Headquarter Aarhus, Denmark
    Sector App, Online Gaming
    Founders Tobias Oliver Eberhard, Ulrik Hunskjær, Martin Jensen, Anders Eggert
    Founded 2019
    Funding Bootstrapped
    Legal Name EasyPoker ApS
    Website easy.poker
    Contact allin@easy.poker

    EasyPoker – About and How it Works
    EasyPoker – Target Market Size
    How was EasyPoker Started?
    EasyPoker – Products/Services
    EasyPoker – Founders and Team
    EasyPoker – Name, Tagline and Logo
    EasyPoker – Business Model and Revenue Model
    EasyPoker – Startup Launch
    EasyPoker – User Acquisition and Growth
    EasyPoker – Startup Challenges
    EasyPoker – Funding and Investors
    EasyPoker – Recognition and Achievements
    EasyPoker – FAQs
    EasyPoker – Conclusion

    EasyPoker – About and How it Works

    EasyPoker is the digital substitute for the traditional silver case poker set. This means you can use the EasyPoker app to host poker nights with friends – no physical poker chips or playing cards needed.

    The app’s core mission is to bring back live poker with friends by making it as easy and convenient as online poker – all while still maintaining the feel of classic face-to-face poker.

    At the moment the team is focusing on delivering COVID-19 friendly poker nights, making sure casual players don’t have to cancel their weekly games during the pandemic.

    EasyPoker – Target Market Size

    EasyPoker is operating in the market of both online poker and classic “offline” poker. Worldwide approximately 400,000,000 people consider themselves casual or experienced poker players. The market has a 12% CAGR (source: Adroit Market Research).

    The market will become more digitized and using virtual playing cards and chips will become the new normal. This will both have something to do with convenience, connecting friends across borders, and the international COVID-19 pandemic that has put extra focus on the spread of bacteria by human interaction.

    And on top of this, the company, of course, operate in the market of ‘casual gaming’, since the app is removing the usual struggles of facilitating face-to-face poker, meaning a game of poker with your friends will be just a tap away – probably leading to more frequent, casual games.

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    How was EasyPoker Started?

    Tobias Oliver Eberhard, a co-founder of EasyPoker, had the idea for EasyPoker years back on a trip with his friends. They wanted to play poker but did not have a poker set. They ended up ripping small pieces of paper and cracking matches to use as “poker chips”.

    Back then he was working on another startup so did not have the time to pursue this obvious gap in the market. Two years later Tobias ended up selling his first startup and then went to pursue the idea of making social poker digital. Tobias met his co-founders in college.

    “We hit it off right away, as we all had an interest in digital entrepreneurship and apps. Before starting any development we created an interactive (non-functional) prototype using the Marvel App. We gave it to our friends in the poker community and asked for feedback on the concept”, recalls Tobias Oliver Eberhard, founder of EasyPoker.

    After that, they started posting pictures and videos of the prototype on social media to see the reactions of potential users. Overall, people liked what the team was working on, as most of them had been in a situation missing a poker set themselves. They collected and analyzed all the feedback they had gotten and then started the official development.

    EasyPoker – Products/Services

    The app works kind of like “Kahoot” for poker. A user creates a table and gets a 4 digits game code that he/she shares with his friends.

    EasyPoker - Features
    EasyPoker – Features

    The app is designed to feel as close to using playing cards and poker chips in real life as possible. This means a completely new design compared to traditional poker apps. The app also does not offer players to buy chips to use in the game – It’s all included, which means no gambling of your real-life money (even simulated).

    EasyPoker – Founders and Team

    Tobias Oliver Eberhard, Ulrik Hunskjær, Martin Jensen, and Anders Eggert are the founders of EasyPoker.

    EasyPoker Founders
    EasyPoker Founders

    One of the co-founders (Ulrik Hunskjaer) is Tobias’s cousin and the other two they met in college. They all have a BA in Multiplatform Storytelling & Production. Tobias (CEO of EasyPoker) and Anders Eggert (CFO) have a technical background from college while Ulrik (COO) and Martin Jensen (CGO) specialized in product development, marketing, and storytelling.

    “It was actually pretty easy to convince the guys to start the app business as we have all just finished college and were looking to be a part of a startup or similar. I had recently just exited my old company and Ulrik Hunskjaer had just left a job at Niantic Labs (Pokemon GO, Ingress) as he wanted to pursue his own app ideas. It pretty much lined up perfectly”, says Tobias Eberhard, CEO of EasyPoker.

    Today the company has 5 employees – the 4 founders and a backend developer. They have a small office in Aarhus, but since the COVID-19 outbreak been working mostly remotely.

    EasyPoker was the first “working title” the company had when the team first started development. The name is very generic and it’s not how Tobias would normally name a startup. But other poker apps (which they needed to stand out from) all had “creative” non-generic names. This meant they had to be thinking simple to stand out from the crowd.

    EasyPoker Logo

    The app’s entire design is aimed to be as clean and effective as possible. According to Tobias, the team aims to design the app, logo, and marketing material as if Apple had to make a poker app. This means a clean, no-nonsense design and communication. Normally this would not make you stand out, but general poker marketing is very cluttered and sketchy, so it works well for EasyPoker.

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    EasyPoker – Business Model and Revenue Model

    EasyPoker is also the first poker app to base its whole app on a subscription business model. The subscription gives access to extra features and bigger tables.

    EasyPoker works on a subscription based business model. The pricing is $5.99 monthly, $29.99 every 6 months or $39.99 annual.

    EasyPoker – Startup Launch

    As the team started posting images and videos of their prototype on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, they already had 1000+ email subscribers when launching (using a landing page created in WordPress + MailChimp). The founders managed to get most of them to sign up to become early users after the soft launch.

    Fun fact: The app did not officially launch until it had 150k users.

    EasyPoker – User Acquisition and Growth

    The startup has been looking into growth hacking, making it easy for users to invite more players right from within the app. Other than that they have created web content and done a lot of SEO/ASO. Recently the product launched on Product Hunt where it became the #1 Product of the day.

    Today, EasyPoker has about 7,000 paying subscriptions on its platform. The platform has seen significant growth in the last 4 months and expects it to continue. The founders are looking for an investment that can help scale the product even more.

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    EasyPoker – Startup Challenges

    “We had a lot of challenges along the way. One major challenge was with a former team member that left the company. He wanted out and we had to keep going without him. We ended up hiring a replacement that we paid out of our own pocket.

    After some months the former member wanted to re-join the company, making it a difficult situation for the team as we did not have a clear legal standpoint of what to do. Everything worked out in the end, but this has taught us to have professional contracts designed by lawyers. It’s expensive but worth it”, recalls Tobias about the challenges faced by the startup.

    EasyPoker – Funding and Investors

    EasyPoker is currently bootstrapped and is looking for an investment that can help scale the product even more.

    EasyPoker – Recognition and Achievements

    According to the founder, launching the app is itself a big achievement. Most people don’t get this far. Second is successfully monetizing the users. The third is being able to make a living off an app you build yourself. And then of course being voted ‘#1 Product of the day’ on Product Hunt was a huge win, since the members there are often people from the tech industry.

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    EasyPoker – FAQs

    What is EasyPoker?

    EasyPoker is the digital substitute for the traditional silver case poker set. This means you can use the EasyPoker app to host poker nights with friends – no physical poker chips or playing cards needed.

    Who are the Founders of EasyPoker?

    Tobias Oliver Eberhard, Ulrik Hunskjær, Martin Jensen, and Anders Eggert are founders of EasyPoker.

    How does EasyPoker make money?

    EasyPoker works on a subscription based business model. The pricing is $5.99 monthly, $29.99 every 6 months or $39.99 annual

    EasyPoker – Conclusion

    EasyPoker is a free poker app that lets you and your friends play a private game of social poker whether live or online. You don’t need any chips or playing cards for that. The EasyPoker Team is crazy about poker with friends, and you can find them on their YouTube channel where they upload videos related to Poker Tutorials, Poker Player Stories, Behind the App Videos and much more. Whether you’re just getting started with poker, or looking to go from good to great this is the best platform for getting started.

  • Smartworks – Creating Stylish Co-Working Spaces for Enterprises

    The office space format has come a long way since it was regarded solely as a place of work at a convenient location, with plain desks, chairs, and cabins comprising the overall set up. Over the past few years, we have seen the workplace evolve significantly in terms of space utilization, design, architecture, and tech innovation.

    Co-working spaces are no longer limited to only budget tight startups and freelancers. In the present time, it has become an attractive choice for many mid to large-sized enterprises. Prominent MNCs are now working out of co-working spaces and opting for co-working spaces for their expansion in different cities. Taking this concept to a new level, Neetish Sarda & Harsh Binani launched Smartworks in 2016.

    In this article, we have discussed Noida’s co-working space company, Smartworks, its business, and investors. Read the full article to know more about Smartworks and its services.

    Smartworks Highlights

    Startup Name Smartworks
    Headquarter Noida
    Sector Coworking Spaces
    Founders Neetish Sarda
    Founded 2016
    Website smartworksoffice.com

    Smartworks – About
    Smartworks – How It Works
    Smartworks – Target Market Size
    Smartworks – Founders & Team
    Smartworks – How It All Started?
    Smartworks – Name, Tagline, & Logo
    Smartworks – Startup Launch
    Smartworks – Business & Revenue Model
    Smartworks – Startup Challenges
    Smartworks – Funding & Investors
    Smartworks – Growth
    Smartworks – Awards & Recognition
    Smartworks – Future Plans
    Smartworks – FAQ’s
    Smartworks – Conclusion

    Smartworks – About

    SmartWorks offers state-of-the-art serviced workspace solutions for individuals and businesses that want the best of work environments without committing themselves to long-term leases or contracts. It offers tailor-made offices and combines top-notch real-estate design, technology, and hospitality to create vibrant communities in the workplace.

    Envisioned as a reboot of traditional coworking spaces, Smartworks aims to provide entrepreneurs with all the flexibility that they need to succeed in the competitive business environment of today. Moreover, being serviced and completely customizable, these workspaces help businesses minimize their overhead expenses. Whatever you need, there is a smart solution for you here at Smartworks.

    The market for co-working space is on a growth trajectory in India with many players entering the sector as there is immense potential. Smartworks, in this space, differ from other companies as the focus is on flexible, managed and configured workspaces targeting enterprises with longer tenures. Smartworks creates a way of life that goes beyond being ‘just an office space’ with a laser focus on employee happiness and productivity across our facilities in the country.

    Smartworks – How It Works

    With their rich experience and knowledge of real estate, the team can offer a readily configured workspace to clients within four to five weeks as compared to the traditional workspace providers who take nine to ten months to deliver the same.

    Smartworks, as a venture, have a holistic approach to keeping members engaged and productive. Various services and events are ranging from its in-house F&B services, hobby clubs, corporate grooming sessions, yoga classes to live bands.

    As a part of the Smartweekenday campaign focused on member happiness, Smartworks organizes regular events ranging from fitness, ‘shared-knowledge opportunities, food trails, skill-building workshops, leadership series, music, and dance therapy, bringing pets to work, to learning new courses and languages.

    Smartworks’ Co-Working Space in Bangalore

    Tech-Enabled Environment

    • Smartworks App– It has an in-house smartphone application that facilitates collaboration & networking to increase work efficiency across centers. The app also reduces downtime as it offers real-time tech support and ensures issues are resolved as soon as possible.
    • Visitor Management System – Installation of the Visitor Management System ensures effective processing and tracking of your guests. Accuracy and security are well taken care of through digital registration and identification.
    • IOT based Meeting Room Bookings – Smartworks has an indigenously developed a meeting room solution that rides on the new age tech-IOT to efficiently manage meeting room bookings, generate utilization analytics, insights and can be white-labeled as per the customer needs.

    Smartworks – Target Market Size

    The growth of the co-working market is gaining momentum at a rapid pace. The reasons behind this growth are manifold, the foremost being the reduced cost of working out of co-working spaces instead of leasing entire buildings. The market size of co-working spaces across the country is expected to be 13.5 million users by 2020, entailing half of its contribution from enterprises that are expected to take up 10.3 million seats. Most of the industry players entering the picture instill India as a flexible space market across the Asia Pacific region.

    Over the years of Smartwork’s operation, the team has analyzed the demand patterns and identified large enterprise segments to be ripe for the growth of co-working spaces. Smartworks has leveraged this opportunity and worked towards providing an unmatched office experience to large corporations and big MNCs including Fortune 500 companies.

    The market demand is driven by agility, affordability, community collaboration and increased focus of established corporations by varied needs and Smartworks has been a pioneer in delivering these crucial aspects.

    Smartworks have the potential to cater to 97% of the office market demand in the country, and today this customer segment forms more than 90% of its clientele. It has grown threefold since our inception in 2016 –both in numbers and revenue.

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    Smartworks – Founders & Team

    Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani are the founders of Smartworks.

    Neetish Sarda & Harsh Binani | Co-Founders, Smartworks

    In April 2016, Smartworks made its foray into the Indian market with its differentiated offering of ‘managed office spaces.’ To enhance Smartworks leadership further, the team onboard Harsh Binani, it’s Co-founder who comes with a strong background in strategy and operations from McKinsey& Co’s Chicago office.

    At Smartworks, Harsh has envisioned the overall strategic roadmap for the company, driving product development, customer experience, technology, and marketing. He is passionate about building a healthy work culture not only for Smartworks but also for all our member companies. Analytical, straightforward, and focused, he ensures that Smartworks is on a fast growth track and delivers value to all our clients.

    Both Harsh and Neetish, are determined to make “Smartworks” the largest network of new age, managed office spaces in the country indexing on customer experience, design, technology, and community.

    Smartworks – How It All Started?

    “My journey with Smartworks has been full of new experiences and challenges. My exposure to futuristic workspaces of the likes of Google and Microsoft in the US and Singapore as a college student helped me realize the probability of similar workspace disruption in India, which can maximize overall employee engagement and productivity.” Said Neetish.

    At that time, India was undergoing tremendous workspace transformations and moving away from the conventional office format. Upon thorough research, Neetish found out that the pace of transition to smarter workspaces in India was way behind as compared to the West, due to limited workspace design innovations and infrastructural flexibility. This is when he decided to create an unparalleled office experience for Indian office goers, which is both accessible and affordable. He wanted to create a vibrant workspace with employee engagement sessions, corporate grooming workshops and recreational spaces for the aspirational workforce of today.

    Since then, there has been no looking back, Smartworks created a new market altogether by putting together the best elements of conventional office space and a co-working space. The company’s laser-sharp focus on large enterprises has emerged as the preferred choice for enterprises when it comes to managed office spaces. Smartworks is building vibrant workspaces with the vision to make office fun again. The positive work environment translates into a place of productivity, engendering extra energy and better output.

    Currently, the 95% commercial real estate absorption is attributed to enterprises in India. Analyzing the market potential, Smartworks has positioned itself as an enterprise-focused service, and the central idea behind this is to capture the bigger market.

    Smartworks Logo

    The name ‘Smartworks’ has been derived from our firm belief that excellence is a product of working smartly day in and day out. It’s tagline, ‘Workspaces that work for you’, indicates how well its workspaces work for all the clients irrespective of their size, nature of business or demography. The motto was simple “Create office spaces where people ‘want’ to go, not just ‘have’ to go!”. It’s office spaces are a combination of beautifully designed infrastructure, state of the art technology integration and amenities that are available to the members.

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    Smartworks – Startup Launch

    Initially, when Smartworks had just launched, the team’s focus was on startups and freelancers. But after much research, they figured out that enterprises make up for the maximum market, and therefore they changed their strategy. Today, more than 90% of Smartworks revenue comes from enterprise clients.

    Here are the three-pronged strategies that have led to the performance and growth of Smartworks in all these years:

    • Bringing large enterprises in the purview of coworking spaces – The very first decision to shift our focus from startups to large enterprises is what defines the story of Smartworks. It was a difficult decision, though, but turned out to be a wise one when the team looks back now. Smartworks started to completely revolutionize the way offices function in India. And it became imperative to cater to large enterprises that have tremendous potential for this industry and can help Smartworks establish its name in the market. And in just over three years, the team has successfully established Smartworks as a preferred Managed space office provider in India for large enterprises.
    • Investing in large facilities with faster turnaround time – Enterprises typically face significant challenges around new office space acquisition at the right location and its development. Business requirements of enterprises are unique, precise, and they look for long term leases where the location is the key priority. Smartworks invest significant time and research on such profitable buildings and take them on lease for 9 to 10 years. By doing this, Smartworks takes away all such challenges from the enterprises and provides them with completely fitted out/configured space within 4-6 weeks, which compliments their brand ethos and requirement. It matches the preferences of its clients, which has made Smartworkd, the first preference/choice for large enterprises.
    • Focus on design and environment for productivity – Gone are the days when an organization would choose workspaces only because of its cost-effectiveness. The infrastructure and the experiential environment in a workplace plays a crucial role in keeping employees engaged, empowered, and happy. Artistic touches in workplace design like flooring, wall arts, graffiti, comfortable seating options, bio-phallic architecture, gaming zone, vibrant cafes convey the personality of a coworking site than any larger investments made by the companies. Attention to design and architecture in workspaces gives a big boost in employee productivity. In line with that aim, all Smartworks offices today are state-of-art smart buildings, all tech, and services enabled. The vibrant, colorful, and environment-friendly workspace is designed to suit the needs of the workforce of today, with more open spaces and lesser cabins- this ensures more communication and collaboration.

    Smartworks – Business & Revenue Model

    Smartworks primarily functions on the lease model, where it takes large bare-shell spaces on a long-term lease from landlords. These spaces are then configured as per the client requirements the space for enterprises and other companies looking for an agile co-working space. Our minimum lease term is for three years, and on an average, a client takes about 280 seats, which is 10,000 sq. ft. area. So, we are into a large format play, unlike a regular co-working space. The idea is to move beyond providing space as a rigid commodity and offer workspace as a service based on varied requirements.

    Smartworks – Startup Challenges

    Initially, one of the hurdles that Smartworks faced was challenging the preconceived notions of MNCs and Indian enterprise giants, who were reluctant to leave their comfort zones and trust a coworking space with their operations.

    The team then went on to focus on providing not just an office space, but a holistic office experience. Right from the infrastructure, technology, employee engagement activities, configured offices, we catered to every demand of our customers. At Smartworks, they believe in providing cutting-edge innovation and technology. This decision proved to be a game-changer for the venture because it could successfully add value to its client’s work life in terms of lending vibrancy, boosting productivity and ensuring employee happiness.

    “Today, we feel proud of how we have revolutionized the whole office experience for our clients and have become India’s largest provider of agile workspaces with a growing footprint.” Added Neetish.

    Smartworks – Funding & Investors

    Smartworks has raised $25 million in Series-A funding from Singapore-based real estate giant Keppel Land, on a minority stake. With this strategic investment, the venture will be able to scale up even more rapidly across India’s Tier I cities where it has its presence and further invest in building up our next generation product, improving client experiences, as well as boosting our talent and technology.”

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    Smartworks – Growth

    Smartworks, headquartered in Noida, India is the only homegrown agile workspace provider that has become profitable in India. It has a presence across 40 centres in 14 cities with spanning 8 million square feet across India as of September, 2023.

    The team has consistently built high-quality workspaces dovetailed with impeccable hospitality, design, and technology. Moreover, their key focus areas remain designing, productivity and employee engagement programs to elevate member experience.

    Smartworks’ presence and expansion in all these cities is a testament to its lucrative business model and our massive growth journey over the years. It has recently raised $25 Million from Singapore-based real estate giant, Keppel Land in series-A funding. Smartworks now aim to utilize this strategic funding to expand its footprint and to workstation counts across the cities where it already has a presence.

    Financials

    Smartworks Financials
    Smartworks Financials
    Smartwork Financials FY22 FY23
    Operating Revenue Rs 360 crore Rs 711 crore
    Total Expenses Rs 488 crore Rs 880 crore
    Profit/Loss Loss of Rs 70 crore Loss of Rs 101 crore

    Smartworks – Awards & Recognition

    The awards that Smartworks has won over the years are:

    • Coworking Leader of the Year 2020 (South) Award by Realty Plus, an Exchange4media group publication in Realty Plus Coworking Summit and Awards 2020.
    • Coworking Brand of the Year 2020 – Pune by Realty Plus, an Exchange4media group publication.
    • ET Most Promising Entrepreneur of India at The Economic Times Promising Entrepreneurs of India 2019 event held on March 29, 2019.

    The recognitions under its name are:

    • Smartworks made it to Linkedin’s List of Top 25 Startup companies to work for in 2019.

    Smartworks has also participated in the following conclaves as a keynote speaker:

    • ET Global Summit 2019.
    • ET GBS Summit 2020
    • 11th Edition of CII Realty & Infrastructure Conclave- Commercial Real Estate: Building a Sustainable Future.
    • APREA and NAREDCO’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Investors’ Summit- India – The renewed investment frontier
    • 10th Realty Conclave: Excellence Awards – West – Offices Parks Investor Strategy – Flexibility vs location

    Smartworks – Future Plans

    In the series of growth, it has recently leased out India’s largest coworking facility in Koregaon Park, Pune. It is a 5 Lakh sq. ft. facility and will be operational by 2021.

    “As the entire co-working/ agile workspaces segment grows in India, we believe that constant innovation, customization, as well as customer happiness, will help distinguish Smartworks and its service offerings from other coworking firms in the country. Over the next 4-5 years, we aim to expand to 20 million sq. ft. and provide office solutions for over 200,000 working professionals.” Concluded Neetish.

    Smartworks – FAQ’s

    What is Smartworks?

    SmartWorks offers state-of-the-art serviced workspace solutions for individuals and businesses that want the best of work environments without committing themselves to long-term leases or contracts.

    Who is the founder of Smartworks?

    Neetish Sarda and Harsh Binani are the founders of Smartworks.

    What services does Smartworks provide?

    Envisioned as a reboot of traditional coworking spaces, Smartworks aims to provide entrepreneurs with all the flexibility that they need to succeed in the competitive business environment of today.

    Where is Smartworks located?

    Smartworks is headquartered in Noida, India.

    In which cities Smartworks has its presence?

    It has a presence across all the top 9 metros cities in India with 29 centers in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata with a total footprint of 3.8 million sq. ft.

    Smartworks – Conclusion

    Smartworks aim is to provide a completely managed and configured office spaces with world-class facilities and a collaborative community environment. The core of the business strategy is better employee engagement, employee happiness, and wellness in the workplace. Smartworks has worked on driving collaboration while establishing ways to increase productivity and this enthusiasm has been the driving factor that sets it apart. It’s a unique capability that stems from absorbing global best practices, coupled with hands-on real estate experience forms the foundation of its management strategy.

  • Alternatives to Zoom App while Working Remotely

    The COVID-19 pandemic has made governments across the world to take measures to contain the spread of coronavirus. Many governments have implemented lockdown. So almost all the companies are asking their employees to stay home and work remotely as much as possible to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

    The companies are asking employees to keep in touch with one another while working in teams, with the help of phone & video conferencing. To increase the efficiency of work, the right software and tools must be chosen. Many are using video conferencing software like Zoom to get work done and talk to colleagues or family.

    Video Conferencing Software and Apps
    Video Conferencing tools have become the Need of the Hour

    Zoom is one of the fastest-growing video conferencing apps out there. It’s easy to set up and host video calls. But due to recent security and privacy concerns about Zoom, the company has landed itself into trouble. While the company promises it’s working to address those issues, one can switch to other similar apps offering the same services rather than waiting to get issues solved.

    There are plenty of video chat services, each with their advantages and disadvantages making them better suited to different uses. Some of these have free versions, some are paid while some offer temporary access to additional features if you need them. Though some are paid ones, they are worthy of spending money. This article will show you some of the best alternatives to Zoom.

    Cisco Webex Meetings

    The best alternative to Zoom is Cisco Webex Meetings. Webex is a video-conferencing app whose company was originally founded in 1995 and was subsequently acquired by Cisco in 2007. Since then, it is known as one of the best business applications and continues to focus on serving companies. It also offers a trial free version that’s worth checking out. It has expanded the features of the trial free version from 50 to 100 participants, removed of the 40-minute limit on meetings and added call-in abilities.

    Cisco Webex Meetings
    Cisco Webex Meetings

    Webex also offers premium plans starting at $13.50 per month, per host. The premium plans offer additional features like cloud storage, recording transcripts, a downloadable video file of meetings, customizable meeting room links, and more. The company also sells a range of video conferencing products for business users such as the Cisco Webex Room Kit and the Cisco Webex Desk Pro.

    It’s one of the great apps like zoom for small businesses that often hold short meetings, as the service offers a free plan. If that’s too short for you, upgrading to one of the company’s paid plans is the way to go. With Webex, one gets all the standard business-focused features one would expect.

    Key Features

    • Free Trial: Available
    • Free Period: 30 days
    • Premium Price: Starts at $13.5 per month
    • Number of participants: Up to 200

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    Skype Meet Now

    Another alternative to Zoom app is Skype. Skype is one of the few video-conferencing software that was made available to the public in 2003. It is popular for its high-quality audio and video due to its large bandwidth. It’s Meet Now feature offers free video-conferencing. Meet Now in Skype allows you to easily set up a collaboration space and invite both Skype contacts and friends or family who are not on Skype.

    How do I create a meeting in Skype?
    How do I create a meeting in Skype?

    For more professional meetings and conferences, the paid version is also available – Skype for Business that helps you manage your employee accounts with enterprise-grade security. In standard Skype, number of participants is limited to 25 people on a conference call at once but Skype for Business raises this limit to 250, making it much more suitable for large-scale presentations, meetings or live webinars. It just costs $2 per user per month.

    Key Features

    • Keeps a recording of the call for up to 30 days.
    • Can blur the background (if required).
    • Share presentations.
    • Skype for Business Price: $2 per user per month
    • Number of participants: Up to 250

    Google Hangouts & Google Meet

    If you need a google alternative to the Zoom app, we have Google Meet. Google Hangouts is a video-conferencing app by Google, which is free to use. You can use Hangouts to video chat with up to only 10 people. There aren’t a lot of features. You still have access to a text chat and can share your screen, but that’s all about it.

    If you are an existing G Suite (paid) customer, you may want to consider looking at Hangouts Meet. Meet allows a few additional features like real-time captions and support for up to 250 participants and 100,000 live stream viewers. The video conferencing service is part of the company’s G Suite subscription that includes several other features.

    Google Meet
    Google Meet

    G Suite starts at $6 per month per user and includes access to Gmail for Business and also up to unlimited cloud storage space, as well as access to all of Google’s other services such as Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. for your business. Thus, Hangouts Meet gives you all the business-centered tools you need to hold online meetings. You can record and then save them to Drive, easily invite people to join in via a link, and much more.

    Key Features

    • Free plan available: Only Google Hangouts
    • Free trial: 14 days
    • Meet Pricing: Starts at $6 per month
    • Number of participants: Up to 250
    • Gives access to all of Google’s services like Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc

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    Microsoft Teams

    Another Zoom alternative is Microsoft Teams. In 2017, Microsoft replaced its Skype for Business tool with a new service called Microsoft Teams that combines messaging as well as video conferencing into one. It allows you to host online meetings for up to 250 people. You get all the business-focused features expected from a tool like this including screen sharing, instant messaging, and the ability to record meetings.

    Microsoft Teams
    Microsoft Teams

    Microsoft Teams pricing starts at $5.00 per month, per user. Microsoft’s video conferencing tool is just one part of the Google Teams subscription plan. You also get access to all Office apps, 1TB of OneDrive storage, and more. The exact features depend on the plan you go with.

    Key Features

    • Free plan available: No
    • Free trial: No
    • Pricing: Starts at $5 per month
    • Number of participants: Up to 250

    Zoho Meeting

    Zoho Meeting is a nice alternative to Zoom app. It is a great tool for online meetings as well as webinars and comes with lots of features. You can share your screen, mute the mics of the participants, and record your group chats & calls among other things. And you can easily import documents, spreadsheets, and presentations since the service is integrated with Zoho’s Office suite. Zoho Meeting pricing starts at $8 per month.

    Zoho Meeting
    Zoho Meeting

    The open-source video conferencing service allows you to host end-to-end encrypted video meetings and calls for up to 100 people. Participants don’t need to sign up for a login; they can access the meetings through a link or a dial-in via web browsers, desktop clients, or mobile apps. Zoho has even provided a handy chart comparing its product to Zoom.

    Key Features

    • Free plan available: No
    • Free trial: 14 days
    • Pricing: Starts at $8 per month
    • Number of participants: Up to 250

    GoToMeeting

    GoToMeeting is a feature-packed Zoom alternative and one of the first video conferencing services out there. The entry-level plan allows for 150 participants, while the enterprise plan can include up to 3,000. GoToMeeting pricing starts at $12 per month. It also offers a free 30-Day Trial.

    GoToMeeting

    GoToMeeting offers all the standard tools, like the ability to record meetings and share your screen. You can also have multiple meeting facilitators. And the service is accessible on web browsers, Mac, PC, Linux, iOS, and Android. Whether you’re a small business or a large company with thousands of employees, GoToMeeting has you covered.

    Key Features

    • Free Trial: Available
    • Free trial Period: 30 days
    • Pricing: Starts at $12 per month
    • Number of participants: Up to 3,000

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    Crowdcast

    When you want to offer a special member or audience the opportunity to learn from you or share the news with your fans who are excited to attend, you need to host seminar-like event. With your topic and materials on hand, all that’s left is setting up a webinar to broadcast the workshop. For this Crowdcast is a great tool.

    Crowdcast is the most engaging and easy-to-use live streaming experience on the market. It is a browser-based solution for creating interactive webinars, live Q&As, workshops, and online summits that meet your needs. Crowdcast offers a simple platform to engage with attendees via live chat, polls, time-stamped Q&As, and face-to-face calls. Beyond collecting emails, Crowdcast provides advanced data and analytics around your event and audience and much more!

    Crowdcast
    Crowdcast

    Crowdcast tries to simplify that by making webinars a teaching tool to connect with your audience. Teachers, thought leaders, and professionals can use Crowdcast to reach out and share their knowledge with their fans and followers. Whether you’re hosting a workshop or a 3-day digital conference, you can create events where interaction and conversation are necessary.

    Crowdcast costs little more due to its features at $49.00 per month. Managing live events successfully requires careful preparation and hard work. With multistream, built-in engagement tools, and quick payments for paid events, Crowdcast makes sure you only need to focus on bringing high-quality content to your audience.

    Key Features

    • Pricing: Starts at $49.00 per month.
    • Free trial: 14 days
    • Number of real-time viewers:  Up to 3,000
    • Lets you hold digital conference up to 3 days

    FAQs

    What is Zoom app?

    Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars.

    Is Zoom secure?

    Yes, it is secure.

    Who are zoom competitors?

    Competitors and Alternatives to Zoom:-

    • Microsoft
    • Google
    • Cisco
    • 247meeting
    • TeamViewer
    • BlueJeans by Verizon
    • Zoho

    Are there safer alternatives to zoom?

    Yes, there are safer alternatives to zoom.

    What is the safest way to use zoom?

    To maintain the security of your next meeting, our recommendations are below:

    • Password protect your meetings
    • Authenticate users
    • Join before host
    • Lockdown your meeting
    • Turn off participant screen sharing
    • Use a randomly-generated ID
    • Use waiting rooms

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