Blog

  • Why is Citibank leaving Indian Consumer Banking market

    Citi Bank had recently announced that it will exit retail banking operations in India and 12 other countries. The other countries include Australia, Indonesia, Korea, Bahrain, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Taiwan, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. Citi bank is one of the largest foreign banks in India. Let’s look at the below article to understand why Citi bank is leaving the Indian Consumer banking market.

    About Citibank
    Reasons Why Citibank is leaving Indian consumer banking market
    Other Reasons for the exit from Indian banking market
    Future Plans of Citibank
    FAQ

    About Citibank

    Citibank had entered Indian retail banking in the year 1902. The business of Citi Bank in India consists of Credit Card business, retail banking, wealth management and home loans. The company has around 35 branches across India and around 29 lakh retail customers.

    As of March 2020, Citi bank has around 12 lakh bank accounts and about 22 lakh credit card accounts. The bank has around 5.9% market share in the digital payments and around 6 % market share in credit card spends.

    According to FY2020 Citi bank has a 15.4 % share in the market share of loans among the foreign banks in India. As of 31 March 2020, the total deposits in the bank were around INR 1.57 trillion which includes the deposits from other banks as well as customers.

    It is estimated that around 26% of the foreign portfolio investments are through Citi bank India.


    Top 10 Mobile Wallets in India | Online Payment Made Easy
    The globe is seen slowly paving its way towards a cashless society. Frominvoices to cards and now to mobile wallets, this significant transformation hasreduced the weights of bulky wallets. We can pay for any product, transfermoney, make bill payments, and almost everything to do with money from …


    Reasons Why Citibank is leaving Indian consumer banking market

    American based banking major Citi bank is reducing its consumer operations as part of a broader strategic review. The new Chief Executive Officer, Jane Fraser is slimming down the operations in order to focus on the wealth management business since Citibank lacks the scale to compete in the retail banking operations.

    Jane Fraser while announcing Citi bank’s quarterly results said that they have decided that they are going to double down on wealth as a result of the ongoing refresh of their strategy. He said that, while all the 13 markets including India have excellent business, Citi Bank doesn’t have the scale they require to compete.

    Jane Fraser added on saying they believe that their capital, investment dollars and other resources are deployed better against the higher returning opportunities which include the wealth management and the institutional businesses in India.


    4 Biggest Banking Blunders of All Time Which Will Surprise You
    Banks are the place where individuals park their money. Bank’s indicate thatyour life’s savings are secure in their lockers or vaults. But as everything isgetting digital, today banks deal with data and most of the transactions areonline with just a click of few buttons and these automations and …


    Other Reasons for the exit from Indian banking market

    One of the other reasons for the exit from the retail market in India syncs with the trend of full or part exit of foreign banks in India from the year 2009. This is mainly because of the high capital and various other regulatory requirements in India.

    These factors have pushed various foreign banks to retreat into their domestic markets in order to protect their profitability. Certain foreign banks such as Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered bank, etc. have curbed their operations in India and other banks such as J.P Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc. have surrendered their banking licenses.

    In addition to it, foreign banks do not find the small number of profits received from retail banks in India commercially attractive. This is one of the major reasons to exit the retail market when the domestic banks are in the process of finding more retail customers.


    Things You Should Know About Top 10 Banks In India
    The banking sector is the most leading industry in the Indian economy. India’sbanking sector is sufficiently capitalized and well regulated as per the ReserveBank of India. Over the centuries, banks evolved to become a financialinstitution where one could deposit and withdraw money from. A bank’s…


    Future Plans of Citibank

    Citigroup has said that it will now focus on operating its global consumer banking business solely from four markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong, London and the UAE. The company said that it would continue its corporate and institutional banking business in the markets where it is ending planning to end the consumer operations.

    In India, Citigroup will focus on offshoring or global business support rendering its services from major centers in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Gurugram.

    Ashu Khullar who is the CEO of Citi India said that India is a strategic talent hub for Citi and he added on saying that they will continue to tap into the rich talent pool which is available in the country to grow Citi’s five solution centers which are a support for their global footprint.

    He also added that, there was no immediate change to their operations and there wouldn’t be any immediate impact to the colleagues as a result of this announcement.

    Citi is not closing down its business in India but it is changing hands after it gets a requisite regulatory approval and a proper buyer. The bank said that till the time of the sale there will be no impact for their customer as well as their 21,000 employees.

    FAQ

    Does Citibank have branches in India?

    Citibank currently has 35 branches in India with 19,235 employees.

    Is Citi and Citigroup the same?

    Citigroup Inc. or Citi (stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. Citigroup owns Citicorp, the holding company for Citibank, as well as several international subsidiaries.

    Who is the CEO of Citibank India?

    Ashu Khullar is the current CEO of Citibank India.

    Conclusion

    Citi had become one of the largest foreign banks in India over the years and its decision to close down the consumer business in the country marks the end of an era.

  • Dropbox – Designing a More Enlightened Way of Working

    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.

    A file hosting service, or a cloud storage service, or an online file storage provider, or a cyber-locker is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. It allows users to upload files that could be accessed over the internet after a user name and password or other authentication is provided.

    Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software.

    Dropbox – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Dropbox, Inc.
    Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
    Industry Cloud Storage, File Handling, Software
    Founded June 2007
    Founder & CEO Drew Houston
    Area Served Worldwide
    Website www.dropbox.com

    Dropbox – About and How it Works?
    Dropbox – Recent News
    Dropbox – Logo and its Meaning
    Dropbox – Founder and History
    Dropbox – Mission
    Dropbox – Business Model
    Dropbox – Revenue and Growth
    Dropbox – Funding and Investors
    Dropbox – Investments
    Dropbox – Acquisitions
    Dropbox – Competitors
    Dropbox – Challenges Faced
    Dropbox – Future Plans
    Dropbox – FAQs
    Dropbox – Conclusion

    Dropbox – About and How it Works?

    Dropbox (formerly known as Evenflow) is a company that provides a cloud storage and collaboration platform. It offers a range of collaboration, editing, document management, and synchronization tools for individuals and business teams.

    Its solution enables users to keep files organized and synced across devices, share presentations, designs, and different files. The Company offers a platform that enables users to store and share files, photos, videos, songs, and spreadsheets. Dropbox serves customers worldwide.

    Dropbox has been ranked as one of the most valuable startups in the US and the world, with a valuation of over US$10 billion, and it has been described as one of Y Combinator’s most successful investments to date. However, Dropbox has also experienced criticism and generated controversy for issues including security breaches and privacy concerns.

    Dropbox – Recent News

    As of November 2020, Dropbox introduced the new Dropbox spaces. Dropbox Spaces was designed to solve some problems. The customers have always counted on Dropbox to make file sharing and organization easy. Now, with Spaces, the team is extending that core capability to make project collaboration easier for teams.

    Since its introduction last year, Spaces has evolved to become a standalone, virtual workspace. The new Spaces brings projects and teams together so you can collaborate efficiently from kickoff to delivery.

    Dropbox – Logo and its Meaning

    The Dropbox logo, which has become iconic by today, was first introduced in 2008. As its name suggests, the logo consists of an open box that provides a cloud storage and collaboration platform.

    Dropbox Logo

    10 Best Cloud Storage Services and Apps for your Business
    Cloud storage has become an important part of our lives. No matter what businessyou are into, you have to store your daily business[https://startuptalky.com/tag/business-2/] related data somewhere. Nobody likesto carry hard-disk or any other devices for data storage nowadays. That is wherecloud …


    Dropbox – Founder and History

    Dropbox founder Drew Houston conceived the Dropbox concept after repeatedly forgetting his USB flash drive while he was a student at MIT.

    Drew Houston | Founder, Dropbox 

    In a 2009 “Meet the Team” post on the Dropbox blog, he wrote that existing services at the time “suffered problems with Internet latency, large files, bugs, or just made me think too much”. He began making something for his personal use, but then realized that it could benefit others with the same problems.

    Houston founded Evenflow, Inc. in May 2007 as the company behind Dropbox, and shortly thereafter secured seed funding from Y Combinator. Dropbox was officially launched at 2008’s TechCrunch Disrupt, an annual technology conference. Owing to trademark disputes between Proxy, Inc. and Evenflow, Dropbox’s official domain name was “getdropbox.com” until October 2009, when it acquired its current domain, “dropbox.com”. In October 2009, Evenflow, Inc. was renamed to Dropbox, Inc.

    Dropbox – Mission

    Dropbox’s mission statement says

    “Our mission is to design a more enlightened way of working.”

    Dropbox – Business Model

    Dropbox uses a freemium business model, where users are offered a free account with a set storage size, with paid subscriptions available that offer more capacity and additional features. Accordingly, Dropbox’s revenue is a product of how many users they can convert to their paid services.

    Dropbox Basic users are given two gigabytes of free storage space. This can be expanded through referrals; users recommend the service to other people, and if those people start using the service, the user is awarded with additional 500 megabytes of storage space. Dropbox Basic users can earn up to 16 gigabytes through the referral program.

    Dropbox Business is Dropbox’s application for corporations, adding more business-centered functionality for teams, including collaboration tools, advanced security and control, unlimited file recovery, user management and granular permissions, and options for unlimited storage. For large organizations, Dropbox offers Dropbox Enterprise, the “highest tier” of its product offerings, adding domain management tools, an assigned Dropbox customer support member, and help from “expert advisors” on deployment and user training.


    MediaFire Success Story | Upload Files | Business Model | Revenue Model
    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. The content in this post has beenapproved by the organization it is based on. Your phone’s storage is turning full? Don’t know where to keep your files?Running out of space? N…


    Dropbox – Revenue and Growth

    Dropbox revenue for the twelve months ending September 30, 2020 was $1.856B, a 16.63% increase year-over-year.

    | Year | Amount | Percentage Change from Last Year |
    | — | — | — | — |
    | 2019 | $1.661B | +19.37% |
    | 2018 | $1.392B | +25.78% |
    | 2017 | $1.107B | + 31.01% |

    Dropbox – Funding and Investors

    Dropbox has raised a total of $1.7B in funding over 10 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Mar 30, 2017 from a Debt Financing round. Dropbox is funded by 38 investors. JP Morgan Chase and RBC Capital are the most recent investors.

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Mar 30, 2017 Debt Financing $600M JP Morgan Chase
    May 1, 2015 Secondary Market
    May 23, 2014 Secondary Market
    Apr 6, 2014 Debt Financing $500M JPMorgan Partners
    Jan 24, 2014 Series C $350M BlackRock
    Oct 18, 2011 Series B $250M Index Ventures
    Jan 1, 2011 Funding Round
    Nov 24, 2008 Series A $6M Sequoia Capital
    Sep 4, 2007 Seed Round $1.2M
    Jun 1, 2007 Seed Round $15K Y Combinator

    Dropbox – Investments

    Dropbox has made 3 investments. Their most recent investment was on Sep 25, 2019, when BetterCloud raised $5M.

    Date Organization Name Round Amount
    Sep 25, 2019 BetterCloud Corporate Round $5M
    Jun 3, 2019 Onna Series A $11M
    Mar 10, 2016 Volley Labs Seed Round $2.3M

    Dropbox – Acquisitions

    Dropbox has acquired 26 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was HelloSign on Jan 28, 2019. They acquired HelloSign for $230M.

    Acquiree Name Date Amount About Acquiree
    HelloSign Jan 28, 2019 $230M HelloSign offers fast, secure, and legally binding eSignatures for businesses.
    Verst Nov 30, 2017 Verst is an all-in-one website and online publishing platform.
    Sparks May 1, 2016 Sparks develops a platform that enables users to create memes on mobile.
    Clementine Jul 22, 2015 Clementine is built by a passionate team of enterprise, mobile, and telephony technologists.
    Umano May 13, 2015 Umano is an audio streaming service
    Pixelapse Jan 26, 2015 Pixelapse is the best place to share designs and work together. We build tools to improve the design process and make collaboration easier.
    CloudOn Jan 21, 2015 $100M CloudOn provides cloud-based storage solutions for users to create, review, and share files from any device.
    Predictive Edge Jul 1, 2014 Predictive Edge is a web platform that empowers marketers for e-commerce personalization, testing and targeting.
    Parastructure Jun 16, 2014 Parastructure builds beautiful data analysis software powered by cutting-edge open source infrastructure.
    MobileSpan Jun 10, 2014 MobileSpan helps enterprises transition from a desktop-centric system to a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) world.

    Dropbox – Competitors

    Top competitors of Dropbox are Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, ShareFile, Hightail, Egnyte, Apple iCloud and Zoho Docs.


    Free Cloud Storage Services to Store Data Online and Access Remotely
    Everyone who uses internet is aware of Cloud Storage and Computing today, andits benefits. It is nothing more than a cloud computing model that allows usersto store data over the internet, through a cloud service provider. Cloud storagehas drastically altered the traditional ’data storage on loca…


    Dropbox – Challenges Faced

    According to the founder, the challenge was that it was impossible to demonstrate the working software in a prototype form. The product required that they overcome significant technical hurdles; it also had an online service component that required high reliability and availability. To avoid the risk of waking up after years of development with a product nobody wanted, Drew did something  unexpectedly easy: he made a demo video of Dropbox.

    Drew recounted, “It drove hundreds of thousands of people to the website. Our beta waiting list went from 5,000 people to 75,000 people literally overnight. It totally blew us away.”

    Dropbox – Future Plans

    Houston and his team started to realize that 2020 was going to bring lasting change to the way people work. Change that would stick around, in some form, long after the pandemic ended. And they felt like Dropbox needed to lead the charge in figuring that out.

    In October, Dropbox announced it was rethinking its whole workplace structure. Instead of requiring everyone to go to the office, it was becoming a “Virtual First” company. That comes with three big changes.

    First: Dropbox’s offices are turning into “Dropbox Studios,” places people can go to meet or collaborate or just hang out with their colleagues (but most work will get done at home).

    Second: The 9-5 workday is going away. Instead, Dropbox employees will be able to work flexible hours, with a window of time in the middle of the day when everyone is expected to be available.

    Third: Dropbox, like practically every other company on the planet, is rethinking the tools it uses for most parts of the business, from communications to HR to productivity. It’s trying to do it in an open way, too, building a Virtual First Toolkit for everyone to see and adapt.

    Dropbox – FAQs

    Who founded Dropbox?

    Drew Houston founded Dropbox.

    What does Dropbox do?

    Dropbox is a company that provides a cloud storage and collaboration platform. It offers a range of collaboration, editing, document management, and synchronization tools for individuals and business teams.

    How does Dropbox make money?

    Dropbox uses a freemium business model, where users are offered a free account with a set storage size, with paid subscriptions available that offer more capacity and additional features. Accordingly, Dropbox’s revenue is a product of how many users they can convert to their paid services.

    What are the alternatives to Dropbox?

    Top competitors of Dropbox are Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, ShareFile, Hightail, Egnyte, Apple iCloud and Zoho Docs.

    Dropbox – Conclusion

    Dropbox, a cloud storage tech company is building the world’s first smart workspace. Today making work better for people means designing products that reduce human effort and reduces busywork so that we can focus on the work that really matters.

    The so-called “productivity tools” are not so productive. They get in our way, keeps us distracted and disturbed, constantly notify us which disrupts the team’s workflow, and keeps us busy with things that don’t matter. To resolve this Dropbox has been introduced to our work so that we can focus on work that really matters.

    Dropbox believes that there’s a more enlightened and productive way to work. Dropbox helps people to be organized, stay focused, be productive and get in sync with their teams.

  • What is Stablecoin and How is it better than Bitcoin

    Stablecoins are gaining popularity in the recent years. As of May 2020 Stablecoins, were worth USD 10 billion. In certain countries like Brazil, people are preferring stable coins to their national currencies. That is during uncertain economic conditions. Let’s look at the below article for the meaning of stable coins and is stable coins better than bitcoins.

    What are Stablecoins?
    List of Stablecoins
    Real-world Applications of Stablecoins
    Why is it better than bitcoin?
    FAQ

    What are Stablecoins?

    Stablecoins are a new group of cryptocurrencies. The name itself gives the meaning which says stable. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that attempt to offer stability in the price movement. They are backed by a reserve asset.

    It is a cryptocurrency that is tied to an outside asset such as U.S Dollar, Gold, or any other asset to stabilize the price. Stablecoins have gained fiction as they attempt to offer the best of both the worlds such as the privacy of payments of cryptocurrencies and the instant processing plus the volatility-free stable valuations of fiat currencies.

    The popularity of stable coins has risen so far that the headlines of the crypto market in recent months have Stablecoins in it. They are primarily developed to minimize the volatility of the price.

    List of Stablecoins

    Fiat-collateralized Stablecoins

    This type of Stablecoins is the ones which have its underlying value derived from a fiat currency or in simple words the Stablecoins are pegged towards certain country’s currency such as U.S Dollar, Euro, Yen, etc.

    One of the well-known fiat collateralized stable currency is Tether which is shortly known as USDT. This Stablecoin is pegged to the value of the U.S dollar in the ratio 1:1. This means that 1 Tether is equal to the value of 1 U.S Dollar.

    Another example of a well-known Stablecoin is Gemini which is shortly known as GUSD. This Stablecoin is pegged to the value of the U.S dollar in the ratio 1:1. This means that 1 Gemini is equal to the value of 1 U.S Dollar.


    Reasons Why Indian government wants to ban Cryptocurrency
    Indian Government is planning to introduce a new bill that will ban all theprivate cryptocurrencies in the country. The government has plans to bancryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum and to introduce a nationalcryptocurrency. The new bill is planned to be introduced in the lower house o…


    Non-Collateralized stablecoins

    Non-collateralized Stablecoins are not backed by any asset classes. These Stablecoins run on certain algorithms which will manage the supply and demand of these coins and keeps the prices stable. Some examples for Non-Collateralized Stablecoins are CarbonUSD which is also known as Carbon and kUSD which is also known as Kowala.

    Types of Stablecoins
    Types of Stablecoins

    Commodity-Collateralized Stablecoins

    Some Stablecoins are backed to certain precious metals such as gold, metals, or commodities such as oil. These Stablecoins are known as commodity-collateralized Stablecoins.

    One of the well-known commodity-collateralized Stablecoin is Digix that has its short form as DGX which is backed by the commodity Gold. This means that 1 DGX is equal to 1 gram of Gold on the ETH network.

    One of the other examples of commodity-collateralized Stablecoins is Tiberius Coin which has its short form as TCX. The Stablecoins are backed by the combination of 7 different metals which is commonly used in the development of hardware technologies. The idea behind pegging it towards the 7 metals is as these metals are extensively used to make technology will indirectly increase the value of TCX.

    Crypto-Collateralized Stablecoins

    These are stable coins which are pegged against different cryptocurrencies. Crypto-collateralized Stablecoins will always be in the 1:1 ratio through over-collateralization.

    BitUSD is a well-known Stablecoin which is crypto-collateralized token, that is collateralized towards a cryptocurrency named Bitshares.


    Why Most of the Wealthy Investors avoid Investing in Bitcoin
    Most of us would have heard about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. It is all overthe news and everyone speaks about the fancy returns provided by this digitalcoin. It has created its mark in the market. It was not so famous some yearsback and the value of the coin was not so high. The popularity h…


    Real-world Applications of Stablecoins

    Day-to-day currency

    Stablecoins can be used as fiat currency that can be used as a mainstream payment. It has an additional benefit of being a virtual coin. It is legally backed and secured as well. These are also very useful for overseas payment as no conversions of fiat currencies and can be used irrespective of the country or place.

    In streamlining P2P payments

    You can use Stablecoins as an ideal payment option for loan payments, rent payments, subscriptions and more as it is irreversible, traceable and transparent.

    Protection from local currency crashes

    On an average the prices of goods keep doubling every few weeks. Stablecoins are used as a replacement to maintain fiat currencies from crashing in value.

    Stablecoins will offer notable solution to all these problems by allowing them to quickly exchange their fiat currency into a stable currency. Thus, it prevents them from further price drops.

    Why is it better than bitcoin?

    Stablecoins provide stability and it is one of the major reasons why it is better than bitcoins as the world looks at stability. Stablecoins also ensure faster transfer of money across different locations. Stablecoins can also replace fiat currencies in certain countries where their currencies are unstable.


    The Story of Dogecoin | Everything You Need to Know about Dogecoins
    Invented by software engineers Billy Markus & Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin is acryptocurrency. It features the face of Shiba Innu dog from the “Doge” meme asits logo & name. Discover all about the Story of Dogecoin in the article ahead… What are Dogecoins?Formation and History of DogecoinDogecoi…


    FAQ

    What is an example of a Stablecoin?

    Tether (USDT) is a Stablecoin, So named because it “tethers” itself to the value of the USD, Tether is the most well-known Stablecoin in the crypto world. It’s backed by gold, traditional currency and cash equivalents.

    What is Stablecoin used for?

    Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that attempt to peg their market value to some external reference. Stablecoins may be pegged to a currency like the U.S. dollar or to a commodity’s price such as gold.

    Can Stablecoins increase in value?

    Fiat-backed stablecoins are considered to be the most stable of stablecoins, but this stability doesn’t make them a very profitable long-term investment and their value is unlikely to increase significantly over time.

    Conclusion

    We may see stablecoins demand increasing in the future and will even be able to see much more stablecoins coming up in the future.

  • How Indian Startups are Backing IPL this Season

    Cricket is like a Religion in India and is worshiped here. IPL is one of the most most successful franchise cricket league in the world, for which every cricket fan awaits. Even the people who are not a fan of this sport watch IPL because of the entertainment it provides. IPL is enjoyed by many Indians, where the whole family gathers together and relishes it. In 2019 a whopping 462 million viewers watched the 12th edition of the league on Star network channel between March 23 and May 12th.

    Many big corporations have been sponsoring IPL for quite some time. After being on the driver seat of cricket sponsorship’s for nearly 2 decades the big corporates have now stepped aside and Indian startups have taken over the sponsor tags. This season of the IPL is sponsored by Indian Startups, Dream 11 and Cred.

    Timeline of Title Sponsors in IPL

    IPL title sponsors
    Title Sponsors in IPL

    DLF

    Real estate developer DLF won the deal with a bid of $50.3 million in 2008. DLF Ltd ended its five-year long association as the title sponsor with cricket tournament Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2012.

    Pepsi

    After DLF’s term expired in 2012, Pepsi Co got the title rights from 2013-2015 for Rs 79.2 crore per year. Pepsi Co had a five-year deal that was to end in 2017 but was ended in 2015 due to the 2013 spot-fixing scandal.

    Vivo

    In 2016, mobile company Vivo replaced Pepsi Co as the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL). Again In 2018 Vivo raised the title sponsorship revenue of the IPL by 454%. Vivo has pulled out as the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for this year’s edition, following backlash on social media. Vivo had paid Rs 2,199 crore for a five-year contract in 2018.

    Dream11

    After the recent clashes between India and China alongside the Line of Actual Control (LAC), ‘boycott Chinese products’ slogan became stronger all across the Indian markets. Amid the rising tensions between the two nations, Chinese smartphone maker, Vivo, decided to exit IPL for a year as of now.

    BCCI held a bidding process with an expectation of lower bids because of the COVID-19 effect on the markets. Dream11 managed to grab the title sponsorship rights for Rs 222 crore, leaving Byju’s and Unacademy behind.


    Untold Truth about Chinese Investments in IPL you must know
    IPL is the most loved cricket league in India. Brands pay a hefty amount to getthat title sponsor. Vivo was the title sponsor of IPL from 2016 to 2019 but dueto rising tension in the galwan valley Indian government banned 59 apps. Thisled to a huge uproar against BCCI for having Chinese smartphon…


    Indian Startups Sponsoring IPL this Season

    After being on the driver seat of cricket sponsorship‘s for nearly 2 decades the big corporates have now stepped aside and Indian startups have taken over the sponsor tags. Indian startups are sponsoring IPL to improve their brand popularity and market share in the country. IPL title sponsorship is the perfect opportunity to expand global presence of your brand.

    Many Indian startups involved in the race to bag the title sponsorship of the Indian Premier League (IPL) but Mumbai based fantasy gaming startup Dream 11 bagged the deal leaving Byjus and unacademy behind.

    Dream11

    Dream11 is the title sponsor of the 2020 IPL and the sponsorship amount is Rs 222 crore. Dream11 managed to grab the title sponsorship rights for Rs 222 crore, leaving Byju’s and Unacademy behind. The duration of the sponsorship is until December 31.

    Mr Harsh Jain, CEO & Co-Founder, Dream Sports (Dream11) said:

    “ The launch of IPL in 2008 gave birth to the idea of Dream11. As avid sports fans, we wanted to offer fantasy cricket to IPL fans to help them further engage with the sport they love and showcase their sports knowledge & skill. Being a proud homegrown Indian brand that is made in India, by Indians and exclusively for Indian sports fans, we would like to thank the BCCI for giving us an opportunity to become the Title Sponsor of IPL.”


    Success Story of SportsApp – An all in one app for sports!
    Are you a sports lover? If you are, at least once you might have felt the needto have one platform that could do it all for the player inside of you. Tobridge this gap in the Indian Sports sector, Shashank Mishra founded SportsAppin the year 2018. SportsApp is an aggregated platform built with t…


    Cred

    Fintech startup CRED bagged the deal to be the official partner of IPL 2020. It has a three-season partnership which will see the association run through till the 2022 season. At the end of every game, Cred will reward the Payer of the Match where the 100th or the highest bill-payer during each match will win ₹100,000 in prize money, awarded in a special video conference ceremony and showcased on a ‘virtual fan box’ at the stadium.

    Kunal Shah, Founder and CEO, CRED, said:

    “We are extremely pleased to be associated with IPL, without a question among the most high-profile events on the world’s sporting calendar. CRED is aimed at giving millions of people access to the good life through improved credit standing, trusted community, and special experiences.”

    Unacademy

    Unacademy is a Bengaluru-based ed tech firm that has roped in as the official partner for the Indian Premier League (IPL) for three seasons. The sponsorship for three years will cost Unacademy INR 120-130 crore, reports suggest.

    “We are delighted to become the Official Partner of IPL. Unacademy is a high-intensity brand that has disrupted the education and learning market with innovations and broken geographical barriers for Learners and Educators.


    Unacademy – EdTech Platform that Reshapes Education | Business Model
    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. The content in this post has beenapproved by the organization it is based on. Classroom learning is seen as a hindrance by many to discover new things, and alot of students ar…


    Marketing is not just about making money, it’s also about making your presence felt in the market and IPL title sponsorship is the perfect opportunity to expand global presence of the brand. It is is one of the most successful franchises cricket league in the world. More than 70 matches over a period of 50 days are played. International and Indian cricketers turn out to play every day thus producing content that keeps the viewers tuning in the day in and day out is just what brands need. IPL has a sheer range of investment opportunities that makes it relevant to brands across various categories.

  • Dream 11: Binding Indians Together

    Dream 11, India’s magnificently famous Fantasy game was started in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavith Seth. Both being football enthusiasts themselves wanted to increase the involvement of sports lovers in their favorite sport. Dream 11 has crossed 60 million users in 2019 and is expecting to reach 100 million users by next year. Adding onto Dream 11’s business and revenue investors like Tencent and Stead view Capital, Think Investments, Multiples Equity, and Kalaari Capital have invested largely to the Dream 11 fantasy game. Being the first Indian company to make it to Unicorn club, Dream 11 now values over $ 1 Billion.

    The application Dream 11 is a major hit among Indians since it binds the country together for their love for Cricket. India’s love for cricket is uncanny and unstoppable. When countless things tear the country apart, cricket will always make us stick together and Dream 11 currently, has a major role in doing so.

    The Dream Behind Dream11
    Dream11 – Business Model
    Dream11 – Revenue Model
    Conclusion
    Frequently Asked Questions

    The Dream Behind Dream11

    Harsh Jain and Bhavith Sheth, the founders of Dream 11 were just 22-year-olds when the journey of Dream 11 in India began. Both being huge fans of the fantasy leagues of English football wanted to do something similar for IPL (Indian Premier League) Dream11 started off as a personal project for the duo with the plan to help Indians be move involved in their beloved sport more than ever.

    Harsh was an engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania and he was also working as a marketing manager at Jai Crop, an infrastructure and real estate company promoted by his father Anand Jain. Red Digital, a digital and social media agency was also dabbled by the duo in 2010.

    The company sold Gozoop for roughly Rs7 crore in 2013. Dream 11 was initially an ad-based model which had a long season format. sadly, it didn’t find many takers. The company eventually decided to stop this model in 2012 and shifted its focus to allow users to invest money in their favorite teams. Allowing users to pick a team before the match begins and also allows the users to choose which players will perform the best. Earning a rank at the end of the game depends upon how the user performs throughout the actual math and how many points has the user accumulated.

    The users are charged with a service fee if they choose to play a money game wherein the money is pooled and the user earns ranks. having just 300,000 users in January 2015, the company has now reached 1.3 million users by the end of the year. Witnessing Dream 11’s trajectory, its user count took a leap from 5.7 million users at the end of 2016, then to 17 million users in 2017, and more than 8 crore + users currently.


    Dream11 raises funds from Tencent Holdings
    Dream11, Mumbai based fantasy sports platform have closed a $100 million SeriesD funding led by Tencent, a Chinese multinational investment company. Existinginvestors Kalaari Capital and private equity firm Multiples Alternate AssetManagement also participated in the funding round. Tencent has e…


    Dream11 – Business Model

    Dream 11 is a sports startup for sports buffs to showcase their love, passion and especially their knowledge regarding the sport. Enabling the users to create their own team using the available players in a certain match, the users create the best possible team according to their wish.

    Dream 11 Investors Valuation (In $ Million)
    Dream 11 Investors Valuation (In $ Million)

    Once the teams are created, the users can compete with other users online through the Dream 11 app. Points are awarded to each player during the ongoing match depending upon their performance in the real match. In the end, the user with the maximum points wins the biggest chunk of the designated prize money. One has to pay a fixed amount of money to compete with other users on the app. Only a definite number of players are allowed to participate. The entry fee for a certain league is the same for all the users.


    Success Story of SportsApp – An all in one app for sports!
    Are you a sports lover? If you are, at least once you might have felt the needto have one platform that could do it all for the player inside of you. Tobridge this gap in the Indian Sports sector, Shashank Mishra founded SportsAppin the year 2018. SportsApp is an aggregated platform built with t…


    The users don’t always win the prize money, however, the person with the highest points is awarded the prize money and the prize money is also decreased depending upon the rank. The total amount put in by all the users is usually higher than than the total prize money which is distributed among the winners, the remaining amount is collected by Dream 11. The entry fees are usually around Rs75 with the total prize pool of Rs3 Lakh with respect to 5333 entries. The number of winners ranges to 2600. The prize money is then distributed among 2400 users from the 5333 entries.

    Dream11 – Revenue Model

    Dream 11 spends a lot of money on technology up-gradation,  platform maintenance, human capital and of course advertising. With this, they also offer cash prizes and rewards to the top scorers. Diving deeper into the app one can opt for free as well as cash contests. The free contests consist of users to just enter and play. The top scorers in free contests do not any cash rewards. The cash contests aren’t free to enter.


    Untold Truth about Chinese Investments in IPL you must know
    IPL is the most loved cricket league in India. Brands pay a hefty amount to getthat title sponsor. Vivo was the title sponsor of IPL from 2016 to 2019 but dueto rising tension in the galwan valley Indian government banned 59 apps. Thisled to a huge uproar against BCCI for having Chinese smartphon…


    The users are supposed to pay an entry fee to create their desired fantasy game team thus entering the contest. The winners of the cash contests are eligible to claim the cash rewards. The money is usually transferred into the winner’s bank account. In order to make money, Dream 11 makes sure the sum total collected before the game as ‘entry fees’ is greater than the sum of all the cash rewards paid by them to the top-scoring participants during the match.

    Dream 11 Total Expenses
    Dream 11 Total Expenses

    When a user selects his/her team they are supposed to pay Rs.73 to enter the Dream11 cash contest. The total prize money amounts to Rs.3 lakhs and this price amount will be distributed to the winners. the total slots available for a match are 5,333.The total revenue to be collected by Dream11 will be the amount that calculates when you multiply the total slots by the entry fee which is Rs.5333 x 73 = Rs.3,89,309.

    Conclusion

    Thus Rs.3,00,000 being the total price money payable under the contest the remaining, Rs.89,309 represents Dream11’s revenue. Dream 11 the fantasy cricket app collects its revenue by charging the users an entry fee when they join a contest, Ultimately, its a 20-80% game wherein 20% is deducted as commission and the remaining 80% is distributed among the winners of the contest.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Yes, millions of people are playing paid leagues on dream11. It is absolutely safe and legal way to earn money. Dream11 is largest fantasy website in India having more that 1.1 crore players. It is not like bidding.

    Is Dream11 a Chinese app?

    No, Dream11 is a an Indian startup, founded by Harsh Jain. It is an Indian fantasy sports app. Tencent, a Chinese conglomerate has 10% stake in Dream11.

    How Much Money Dream 11 Makes?

    Dream11 has userbase of 800 million in 2020. In 2019, Dream11 generated a revenue of around ₹775cr ($103M), a 250% growth over 2018 revenue of ₹224cr ($30M).

  • The Catalyst Group – Empowering Students with the Education they Deserve

    In this competitive world, education is the one thing that empowers people. But sadly, a large part of our country is still deprived of this education. Though digitization is the ray of sunshine which can enlighten our country with knowledge and literacy. An IES officer turned entrepreneur, Akhand Swaroop Pandit, Founder of The Catalyst Group is using the power of digitization to empower thousands of youth from every nook and corner of the country to prepare for various Government exams.

    Akhand, who himself cleared all government exams envisioned the ‘Catalyst Education Group’ to help many more clear government exams. His purpose through his startup is to make high-quality education reach every part of the country at an affordable cost so that everybody can compete for irrespective of the difficult monetary or geographical circumstances.

    The Catalyst Group – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Catalyst Group
    Headquarter Jaipur
    Founder Akhand Swaroop Pandit
    Sector Education
    Founded 2017
    Parent Organization The Catalyst Group
    Website www.thecatalystgroup.info

    About Catalyst Group and How it Works
    Catalyst Group – Target Market
    Catalyst Group – Founders and Team
    How was Catalyst Group Started
    Catalyst Group – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Catalyst Group – Startup Launch
    Catalyst Group – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Catalyst Group – Startup Challenges
    Catalyst Group – Growth
    FAQs


    List of Top Edtech Startups in India | Education Startups in India
    Although people are underestimating the value of education [/tag/education/],these days because of the “drop out” tag, we all know how important educationis. People need to upgrade their skills instead of just getting a degree.Schools and colleges are important but equally important are the skill…


    About Catalyst Group and How it Works

    The Catalyst Group provides online courses for different competitive exams like UPSC, SSC, GATE, IES, RRB, State PSC, etc.

    Founded in the year 2017, Catalyst Group is an education portal where students have to create their profile by signing up. Then they can enroll in any program by any trainer from the profile.

    This platform has a payment gateway enabled on its website so anybody can easily take admission. EMI and other payment options are also available. After taking admission students can attend the classes multiple times on the portal till the expiry date of course. They can download notes, study material, provided by the Catalyst Group and can give online tests on the portal.

    Catalyst Group – Target Market

    The education sector is currently one of the biggest sectors comprising of around 60-70 lakhs students every year preparing for the competitive exams. Data calculated considering the students filling up forms for different competitions. Currently, Catalyst Group has an intake of 2 lakh students every year and in the coming 5 years, they are expecting it to reach 30-35 lakhs.


    TAD Courses Success Story- Online Education for Technical Courses
    Technical education is of utmost importance for developing the human resource ofa country. Technical education produces manpower that has practical knowledge ofmodern and advanced technology which is much required for the development of anycountry. In modern times, the demand for technical educat…


    Catalyst Group – Founders and Team

    The Catalyst Group was founded by Akhand Swaroop Pandit.

    The Catalyst Group’s founder is Akhand Swaroop Pandit. He belongs to Bareilly, a city in the northern state of India, Uttar Pradesh. Being an average student, Akhand gave all his time and full dedication to his studies and career. Clearly, this makes him the man that he is today. Truly, his success is an inspiration for a lot of young minds who put themselves through these competitive exams.

    Akhand started working as an IES officer and later went on to start Catalyst Group. Here, he mentors aspiring candidates of Civil Engineering, IES, GATE, and many more such kinds of government examinations. As an average student, Akhand understands the clear difference between the rules of smart work and hard work.

    The Catalyst Group Founder - Akhand Swaroop Pandit
    The Catalyst Group Founder – Akhand Swaroop Pandit

    Top Education Franchise In India Enlisted
    Education franchise is one of the important parts of the franchise business. Italso serves as a great opportunity to kick-start your own business. You canchoose from the long list of education franchise available in India. The areasincluding pre-school franchise, playschool, day-care franchise, c…


    How was Catalyst Group Started

    All of it started when Akhand was in his college days and started his preparation for the UPSC examinations. But he didn’t have good study material and he couldn’t afford to go to other metro cities due to the hefty fee amount the coaching institutes charged. So he had to study on his own which was quite time-consuming.

    After that, when Akhand started teaching, he had to travel to different faraway cities for institutes to deliver the lectures. And that time he felt the need to have a mechanism through which he could teach lakhs of students at a given time. All these experiences led him to the idea of having a Catalyst Platform that connects teachers with students directly.

    Students, irrespective of where they are, can take lectures from teachers who are teaching in a different part of the country. Akhand’s idea was to bridge this geographical and monetary gap between the students and the teachers.

    And that’s how he launched The Catalyst Group where the idea was to be able to provide high-quality education at an affordable cost to many. Initially, when they launched through YouTube (catalyst group YouTube), they had roughly 100 students and in the short span of only two and a half years, they are having around 2 lakh students learning on the platform.

    “Catalyst means something that accelerates the process and here we are doing the same thing by connecting teachers with students,” says this genius entrepreneur.

    The Catalyst Group is accelerating the careers and process of learning for students. And so the logo is rocket-shaped that is about to launch!

    The Catalyst Group Logo
    The Catalyst Group Logo

    Catalyst Group – Startup Launch

    The Catalyst Group launched through YouTube channel from where they got the first 100 customers. The YouTube video lectures were appreciated by everybody which helped them in getting the base right.

    The Catalyst team believes that the primary quality is very important for any product. And secondly, people should know that you have a quality product. That’s where marketing comes into the picture. The team’s continuous point of focus is improving the quality of the lectures and hiring the best faculties to deliver the lectures.


    List of Free Online Courses for Entrepreneurs in Lockdown
    These are crazy times wherein the COVID-19 pandemic has confined the whole worldto their homes. It’s as if socializing has come to a standstill. Venturingoutside one’s home without any reason attracts penalties and punishments! Whilethe economy and work have taken a deep hit, many companies have …


    Catalyst Group – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The Catalyst Group’s revenue model works both ways B2C and B2B. They offer online courses that students can directly purchase from the website for Fees ranging from ₹2,000 to ₹38,000. The Catalyst Group also offers business to universities where they can sell the courses to students pan India.

    Catalyst Group – Startup Challenges

    One of the major challenges for The Catalyst Group was to gain the confidence of the students in their online classes as in India students feel more comfortable in the conventional system of learning where they regularly have to go for classes and can see the teacher standing in front of them.

    To gain their trust they had to first give them free online lectures to make them aware and comfortable with online classes. Because the courses this platform is providing has great quality, the Catalyst team could dodge this challenge successfully.


    Everything you Need to know about Hybrid learning Model
    In Today’s generation, tech-based learning is off the hook. Whereas on thetraditional level of learning, the face-to-face interaction of a teacher andstudent is the prime learning procedure which may not be useful for a student atall times. Hybrid learning model is a model that combines tradition…


    Catalyst Group – Growth

    According to the current stats, they are operating in  Jaipur, Patna, Lucknow, and Pune. They also have partnered with institutions like NIT Srinagar, NIT Jamshedpur, BITS Pilani, LPU, Thapar university. The idea of empowering thousands of students with quality education at the mere thought of it sounds so noble. And that’s exactly what we need to build a bright future for our nation.

    FAQs

    Who is Akhand Swaroop Pandit?

    Akhand started working as an IES officer and later went on to start Catalyst Group.

    What is education empowerment?

    Empowerment is the “process by which individuals and groups gain power, access to resources, and control over their own lives. In the field of education, empowerment theory is often associated with the classic work by Paulo Freire (1972/1986), in Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

    How does education empower people in general?

    Education empowers people with the knowledge, skills, and values they need to build a better world. The belief that quality education can help reduce poverty and inequality comes from a recognition that education is a basic human right—similar to food and shelter—and that it is vital to protecting human dignity.

    How do you empower students to design their future?

    5 Ways to Empower Students:

    • Give Students Decision-Making Power in an Area of Curriculum.
    • Give Your Students a Voice Through Forums for Student Feedback.
    • Encourage Meaningful Technology Use in the Classroom.
    • Involve Students in “Real” Issues.
    • Put Yourself in the Sandbox.
  • Is Coding an Essential and Must-have Skill of the Future?

    Programming or Code is the language of the current world. Whether it is an app that carries messages or emails to a mobile or the car that knows how many miles to go until refuelling. Any smart device needs specific instructions or lines of code to tell the machine how to operate and communicate with the real world.

    Coding has become so central to the business that the common mantra around technology experts is that today’s youth will have to learn how to code. AI-powered robots and programs are on course to be so sophisticated that as many as 400 million-800 million jobs are predicted to be lost due to the technology by the end of 2030.

    With such a rapid growth of AI and hampering of future human jobs, it is not a surprise to know that more workers have decided to learn the coding languages. There are currently 23 million programmers in the world and the number will specifically reach to around 28 million within 5 years.

    What is Coding?

    Coding is the process of using a programming language to get a computer to behave how you want it to. It is a skill where you take instructions and translate it into a language the computer understands since computers do not talk like humans.

    Why is Coding so important?

    Today’s world believes coding is an essential skill and have put together a list of just a few things that coding can help a child with. It’s not necessarily because they want to have a career in computing either, it is simply important to make the child understand what is going around him.

    Coding Languages to learn in the beginning
    Coding Languages to learn in the beginning 

    Enhances Logical thinking

    Most of the young generation, when well-equipped with the knowledge and know-how of the tech world, have the abilities to master computer coding.

    Computer coding involves using the more rational side of the brain, which is used for linear thinking, sequencing and applying logic to most situations. Children in their young age use their right (logical) side of the brain in order to solve problems through visualisation and intuition.

    To programme a machine, one needs to be able to relay a structured set of instructions and break down problems in a methodical way. Therefore, coding is an important skill as it teaches and inspires children to view the world differently.

    Improves Creativity and Writing skills

    Though the process of coding sounds a lot more technical, it does require some creativity in the path. If kids in a very young age know how to code, then they can develop any type and number of the machine in the world. The machines can be apps, video games, websites and more.

    When it comes to writing, computer programming lets the beginner improve the written skills, developing a more concise and structured approach to storytelling and the English language.

    When coding, a keen learner will often realise that there will be more than one way to resolve a problem. The more simple and efficient solution, the better the solution is. By analysing the critical thinking and the solving of problems, it can lead to more meaningful application of written and spoken language.

    Top in-demand coding languages to learn
    Top in-demand coding languages to learn

    Greater Career Opportunities

    Most jobs require employees to be more computer literate, whether it is for using a sale’s till or creating a corporate presentation. But competition in acquiring jobs is high and in order to stand out from the crowd, one needs to possess skills over and above those of other fellow peers.

    Computer jobs are growing at over twice the national average, and rather than just being cool, coding is now becoming a vital skill set. Coding is an important skill as specialists are becoming increasingly sought after as the world continues to evolve based on a digital future.

    Growth of Cyber Security

    Private and business data is a valuable commodity considering its privacy and securing the data. Businesses can rise and fall on their data collection and manipulation. The number of cybersecurity jobs has increased by 16.9%. So, for people who are with a flair for programming and experience in coding, cybersecurity represents a very positive career option for them.

    Programming Courses available at all levels

    The majority of people currently working in coding jobs are educated till Bachelor’s Degree or higher. For instance, 55.9% of Software and Applications Programmers hold a Bachelor Degree.

    However, the great thing about coding jobs is that one can work their way up. Learning how to code can start at an early age both at home and at school. Studying from an online course can take any learning further towards industry standard and development.

    Growth in Demand for Coding jobs

    Programming is a growing occupation across the globe. For example, the job role of Software and Applications Programmers grew exponentially over the last five years and is expected to continue with the same upward trend. An impressive number of 16,000 new jobs a year are expected to open up in this job role alone, making coding a sought-after skill that is worth learning.

    Increased Spendings on IT

    Businesses are showing a desire to keep up with the latest developments in IT and hence want to invest more in the sector. By the end of the year 2019, spending on code-driven products reached an estimate of $93 billion.

    One significant spending trend is the move towards cloud-based services for both business and home. This has taken over from spending on IT devices and it needs coding as a basic need.

    Job Roles require coding skills

    The number of jobs that don’t include coding skills are shrinking.

    • Graphic artists who create design elements of a website is no longer enough. Now graphic artists need a few web development skills to put their art into practical application.
    • Environmental scientist’s knowledge is really important for environmental research but analysis of this research often relies on the development of appropriate computer models.
    • Business analysts can manipulate and understand big data is now key to business success.

    Best Github Alternatives to host Open Source Projects for the Programmers
    GitHub is a closed platform that hosts open source projects. It’s also perhapsthe most popular tool for developers today. It maintains one of the best freeversion control software today. Programmers can find some of the best opensource projects in GitHub. Even if you are a beginner, you can find …


    Conclusion

    Coding is not only a skill that can give one access to an exciting and rewarding career and life, but it also opens up job opportunities in one of the fastest developing industry sectors.

    Currently, programmers work across a wide range of industries and contribute to most aspects of our lives.

    FAQs

    What is coding?

    Coding is the process of using a programming language to get a computer to behave how you want it to.

    Is coding an essential skill?

    Yes

    What is coding used for?

    Coding is used for communicating with computers. People use coding to give computers and other machines instructions on what actions to perform. Further, we use it to program the websites, apps, and other technologies we interact with every day.

    How difficult is coding?

    Coding isn’t hard, it just requires more time and practice than you might expect. To be a competent coder, you need to learn how to produce products, not just write code.


    Best Coding Sites To Learn Coding From
    Coding used to be the options only for the geeks and computer nerds. But today’stechnology has brought us in a very different world. Now coding is being taughtto the elementary and middle-school goers as well. Who knows in the comingfuture, maybe the toddlers would also learn coding too. If you a…


  • Untold Truth about Chinese Investments in IPL you must know

    IPL is the most loved cricket league in India. Brands pay a hefty amount to get that title sponsor. Vivo was the title sponsor of IPL from 2016 to 2019 but due to rising tension in the galwan valley Indian government banned 59 apps. This led to a huge uproar against BCCI for having Chinese smartphone maker Vivo as an IPL title sponsor.

    In 2016 Vivo replaced Pepsi as the title sponsor in 2016, had signed a five-season deal from 2018 to 2022 worth a whopping ₹440 crore per edition. Which has been now replaced by Dream 11, but The question is  Are there still any Chinese Investments in IPL?


    List of All the Brands that are sponsoring IPL 2021
    Indian Premier League is considered and seen more like a festival in India thanjust a cricket tournament. This sporting event creates a lot of joy andenthusiasm in the country. It is a cricket tournament which is conducted everyyear in the country between certain cricket clubs. With the 14Th edi…


    Are there still any Chinese Investments in IPL?

    For IPL 2020 Dream11 has been replaced as the title sponsor Vivo over the dispute with Chinese, the fantasy gaming start-up has bagged the title sponsorship rights for the Indian Premier League 2020 for Rs 222 crore.

    Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders on 19th August wrote to BCCI objecting Dream 11 winning the title sponsor, as a Chinese company has invested heavily in Indian company Dream11. The value is as high as $100million.

    The company which has invested in many popular Indian companies and Dream11 is none other than ‘Tencent‘. Tencent is one of the Top Chinese Investors Of The Startup Ecosystem In India .It has invested in Dream11 in Series D funding in 2018.


    Dream11 raises funds from Tencent Holdings
    Dream11, Mumbai based fantasy sports platform have closed a $100 million SeriesD funding led by Tencent, a Chinese multinational investment company. Existinginvestors Kalaari Capital and private equity firm Multiples Alternate AssetManagement also participated in the funding round. Tencent has e…


    What did CAIT have to say about it?

    dream11 chinese investmnet
    CAIT

    CAIT (Confederation of All India Traders) is leading a campaign for the boycott of Chinese goods and they have expressed,

    “We are deeply pained to note that now Dream 11 has been chosen as sponsor of IPL 2020 which has Chinese company Tencent Global as one of the major stakeholders. We are of the considered opinion that awarding sponsorship to Dream 11 is nothing but a bye pass route to neglect the sentiments and feelings prevailing among the people of India against China for its regular attempts to invade the interests of India,” the CAIT letter said.

    Is it possible to Remove all of the Chinese Investments From Indian Sports?

    The real question is Is it possible to remove all of the Chinese Investments from Indian sports, it is possible but its not practical.

    Almost every company that is linked with is lPL or any other Indian sports or team for that matter is Chinese or at least have a considerable investment from them. OPPO which is a chinese company had a 5 year partnership with BCCI to be the official sports sponsor of  under-19 cricket team, Men’s A team and woman’s team.

    OPPO transferred the official team sponsorship to Byjus, which has a huge investment from Tencent, which is a Chinese company that has invested in many popular Indian companies.


    List Of Chinese Funded Companies In India | Chinese Investment In Indian Companies
    Due to the tensions escalating at the border between two countries India andChina, the Chinese funded companies in India are currently at risk. The peopleof India took a stand and started boycotting every Chinese company and theirproducts, this created difficulty for the Chinese funded Indian sta…


    The thing is that almost all startups in India have some Chinese investment or are backed by Chinese investors. Chinese investors have found Indian startups valuable and invested in the top startups, the investors have funded over 18 out of 30 unicorns in India which is roughly around $3.9 billion of investments in 2019. It is not practically possible to remove every Chinese investment from all Indian Sports.

  • Sergey Brin: Co-founder of Google

    Sergey Brin is an American Entrepreneur and Computer Scientist. He co-founded Google along with Larry Page. He served as the President of the parent company of Google, Alphabet Inc until the year 2019. Sergey and Larry continued with their services at Alphabet as co-founders, controlling shareholders, board members, and employees. He is the 9th-richest person in the world with a net worth of $ 94 billion, as of April 2021. He has received various awards for offering the convenient internet services through Google.

    Sergey Brin- Biography

    Name Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin
    Born 21 August, 1973
    Birthplace Moscow, Russian, SFSR, Soviet Union ( now, Russia
    Nationality American
    Citizenship Soviet Union (1973- 1979); United States (since 1979)
    Education University of Maryland, College Park; Stanford University
    Profession Computer Scientist; Internet Entrepreneur
    Position Co-founder, Google; Co-founder, Alphabet Inc.; Co-creator, PageRank
    Net worth $75.9 billion (November 2020)
    Father Mikhail Brin
    Mother Eugenia Brin
    Spouse Anne Wojcicki (2007-2015); Nicole Shnahan (since 2018)
    Children 3

    Sergey Brin – Personal Life
    Sergey Brin – Education
    Sergey Brin – Professional Life
    Sergey Brin – Journey to Search Engine Development
    Sergey Brin – Google
    Sergey Brin – PageRank
    Sergey Brin – Alphabet Inc.
    Sergey Brin – Honors & Awards
    Sergey Brin – FAQs


    How Google Became A Globally Well-Known Brand
    Google began as an online search firm, but it now offers more than 50 internetservices and products from e-mail and online documentation for mobile phones andtablets computers. In addition, 2012 acquisition of Motorola Dynamics has put itin a position to sell hardware as a mobile phone. Google’s …


    Sergey Brin – Personal Life

    Sergey was born in Moscow, Russia. At age six, he and his family immigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union. His father, Mikhail is a retired mathematics professor at the University of Maryland. His mother, Eugenia is a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. His parents are graduates of Moscow State University (MSU).

    In 2007, he was married to Anne Wojcicki, a biotech analyst and entrepreneur. The couple had a son and a daughter. However, they eventually finalized their divorce in 2011. He re-married in 2018 with Nicole Shanahan, a legal tech founder and the couple have a daughter.


    Sergey Brin – Education

    Sergey attended Paint Branch Montessori School in Adelphi, Maryland. He received further education from his father, who was a professor. He later joined Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt, Maryland.

    He completed his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1993. He studied mathematics and computer science. Post that, he went for a PhD in computer science from Stanford University.

    Sergey Brin – Professional Life

    In 1993, Sergey stepped his first foot in his career while interning at Wolfram Research, the developers of Mathematica. While pursuing PhD, he met Larry Page and they both discovered a web search engine. They both suspended their PhD studies to start their search engine program that became widely popular at Stanford.

    He runs The Brin Wojcicki Foundation with his former wife, Anne Wojcicki. They keep donating to The Michael J. Fox Foundation and gave $1 million to support the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

    He is a donor to US Democratic Party candidates and organizations. He has donated $5,000 to Barack Obama’s reelection campaign and $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee.

    He recently got attracted towards the blockchain technology after building a gaming computer with his son to mine ethereum. Moreover, he has played a cameo in the 2013 film The Internship.

    Sergey Brin – Journey to Search Engine Development

    Sergey was focused on developing data mining systems. His startup partner, Larry Page worked on the concept of inferring the importance of a research paper. They both authored a paper titled “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine.”

    The both developed PageRank algorithm and realized how it can become an effective search engine superior than others at that time. They introduced the backlinks that connected one web page to another.

    Their great minds started experimenting and collating ideas, like testing their new search engine designs on the web. They used basic HTML programming skills to set up a simple search page for users. In August 1996, the initial version of Google was made accessible on the Stanford Website owing to the high popularity base of search engine in the University.


    Larry Page: Google Co-Founder And Former CEO Of Alphabet
    There are some companies that are synonymous with the niche they work in. Forexample, when it comes to sports wear, you have Nike; DIY furniture? There’sIKEA. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a big dog in every field ordomain one can think of, one who controls the monopoly. When it …


    Sergey Brin – Google

    Google Logo

    Segey and Larry are the key people who founded Google on 4 September, 1998. It is headquartered in California, U. S. It is regarded one of the big five technology companies in the U. S. information technology industry. It is specialized in internet-related services like, online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.

    Sergey Brin – PageRank

    Sergey was a co-creator in discovering PageRank along with Larry Page, who named it so. It is basically an algorithm that is used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results. The name PageRank was variably derived from the name of the founder, Larry Page.

    PageRank determines the way of measuring the importance of website pages. Currently, it is the first algorithm that was used by Google and is best known. As of 24 September 2019, PageRank and all such associated algorithms patents are expired.

    Sergey Brin – Alphabet Inc.

    Alphabet Logo

    Sergey co-founded the company, Alphabet Incorporation along with Larry Page. The company was founded on 2 October, 2015. It is headquartered in the U. S.  Alphabet Inc. is the parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries. It is the fourth-largest technology company by revenue and one of the world’s most valuable  companies.

    The aim of the company was to restructure Google business and make it more cleaner and accountable, which basically allows greater freedom to group companies that operate in businesses other than internet services.


    Alphabet Inc | American Multinational Conglomerate | Company Profile |
    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. The content in this post has beenapproved by the organization it is based on. Alphabet, Inc. is a holding company, which engages in the business ofacquisition and operation of…


    Sergey Brin – Honors & Awards

    • The National Science Foundation bestowed him with a number of earlier awards including Webby Award, Best Image Search Engine, Most Webmaster Friendly Search Engine and many more.
    • He was introduced among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer and honors from the National Academy of Engineering
    • In 2009, Forbes declared Sergey and Larry on the fifth most powerful people in the world
    • He received the American Academy of Achievement’s golden Plate Award with Larry Page in 2004
    • They both received the Marconi Foundation Prize in 2004
    • They both received an honorary MBA from IE Business School in 2003

    Sergey Brin – FAQs

    What is Sergey Brin Net worth?

    As of April 2021, the net worth of Sergey Brin is $94 Billion.

    Is Sergey Brin American?

    Sergey Brin has American nationality but he was born in Moscow, Russia.

    What is Sergey Brin age?

    As of 2021, Sergey Brin is 47 yrs old.

  • CrewScale—Community Connecting Dots Between Businesses & Corporates

    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.

    Remote Means Freedom. Being struck by a world-class pandemic, businesses are trying to adapt themselves to help companies solve business problems by building digital products that their customers love in delta less time than anyone else in the world. The spread of the illness has helped draw attention to systems and processes that help remote workers, which so far have worked on the fringes of the global tech industry.

    CrewScale is one such community, connecting dots between businesses and corporates. CrewScale is a community of the best for the best. They connect top companies with the best of global talent to help them accelerate product engineering.

    CrewScale- Company Highlights

    Company Name Crewscale
    Headquarter San Francisco Bay Area
    Founders Raghu Bharat, Dheeraj Lalchandani, Shubhanshu Srivastava, Nirmaan Agarwal
    CEO Raghu Bharat
    Sector Talent Acquisition
    Founded 2017
    Website crewscale.com

    CrewScale- About & How It Works
    CrewScale- Founders
    CrewScale- How It All Started?
    CrewScale- Name, Tagline & Logo
    CrewScale- Vision & Mission
    CrewScale- Core Belief
    CrewScale- Products/Services
    CrewScale- Target Market Size
    CrewScale- Business & Revenue Model
    CrewScale- Startup Launch
    CrewScale- Challenges
    CrewScale- Competitors
    CrewScale- Acquisitions & Mergers
    CrewScale- Future Plans
    CrewScale- FAQ’s
    CrewScale- Conclusion

    CrewScale- About & How It Works

    CrewScale connects startups, unicorns, and global companies to a large network of pre-assessed and domain-relevant tech talent around the world. They are problem solvers, team builders, high achievers who have come together with a common philosophy and their single focus. To scale! their work together to power today’s engineering teams and invest in tomorrow’s leaders.

    Crewscale is very helpful if you are looking for top 1% remote talent starting at an hourly rate of $30.

    At CrewScale, the screening process (enabled by the proprietary assessment engine called Talscale) ensures that only top-tier engineers are able to access their platform. This means that these pre-vetted engineers get to work on some of the most niche projects with the best tech companies across the world.

    How to Manage Remote Teams?
    Virtual teams [https://startuptalky.com/tag/virtual-teams/]are becoming more andmore common across the globe — from virtual assistants at small businesses toteams within big companies such as IBM to digital start-ups with fully remoteteams. The benefits are clear. According to Global Workplace An…

    CrewScale- Founders

    CrewScale is founded by Raghu Bharat, Shubhanshu Srivastava, Nirmaan Agarwal and Dheeraj Lalchandaani.

    CrewScale Founders & Team

    Raghu Bharat is the CEO while Dheeraj Lalchandaani is the COO and Shubhanshu Srivastava is the CTO. They have a team of over 180 people, not including the thousands of top-tier talents they represent. Their hiring strategy is simple and two-fold, centered around their mission to connect the right talent with the right opportunities.

    Two of the founders Raghu Bharat and Shubhanshu Srivastava met each other when they were working together to scale Housejoy. They’d both run their own startups before which were then acquired by Housejoy. The third founder Dheeraj was batchmates with Shubhanshu in IIT Roorkee. Nirmaan and Raghu are both BITS Pilani Alumni.

    Raghu Bharat (CEO), a BITS Pilani alumnus worked at key engineering roles at MyParichay and Avaya before turning entrepreneur with MyWash. The startup was eventually acquired by Housejoy, where Bharat worked as Product Manager for a while — navigating the company through a phase of rapid scaling up.

    Dheeraj Lalchandaani (COO), has worked in consulting and program management roles across companies like Vyomo, Encrest, and Greentech Knowledge Solutions. He has also founded Polishlane, an at-home-salon startup, which was eventually acquired by Housejoy.

    Shubhanshu Srivastava (CTO), has been a senior software engineer at Newgen Software, followed by Senior Innovation Engineer at Snapdeal. He also founded (and was the CTO for) a fitness-tech startup Orobind Fitness which was acquired by Housejoy.

    Nirmaan Agarwal (CMO & Head of Sales), an engineer from BITS Pilani with an MBA in Marketing from HEC Paris, before taking over as CMO of GoScale Group. Like the other founders, this is his second foray into entrepreneurship as well. He founded EdTech startup Unbound Learning before this.

    Payroll Tools for Remote Team – How to Pay Remote Employees
    As a company begins to build a remote work [/tag/remote-working/] team acrossmultiple geographic regions, one central issue is how to pay remote workers. Aremote work team might have members that are all in several different countries,which presents a challenge in running payroll. Various alterna…

    CrewScale- How It All Started?

    The sad truth is that most startups fail, either they fail to take off, or they fail to sustain.

    Only 56% of the startups made it to their fifth year in 2018 due to issues such as: “No market need” (42%), “Ran out of cash” (29%) or “Not the right team” (23%).

    Founder, Raghu Bharat, worked as a freelancer himself while travelling across the world. He experienced first-hand that finding quality talent was the bottleneck to innovation. So, like most startups, their idea also emerged from a personal pain point faced by the founders. On the one hand, this gave him access to some incredible global opportunities and the freedom to work remotely. On the other hand, the process was fraught with friction — whether it was finding new projects, convincing prospective employers about his skills, or managing the engagement. That’s how the idea of having a more seamless platform for tech talent to work remotely emerged.

    They realized that they could help with the last two as affordable product-build by the right talent greatly increased the chances of success. Additionally, they developed their own proprietary talent assessment engine, Talscale, perfected by testing over 10000 engineers in the last 2 years to filter the top 1% of applicants to build an extremely elite talent pool.

    Project Management Tools for Virtual Teams
    Project management [https://startuptalky.com/tag/project-management/] software assists employees, administrators, and teams with managing team goals andlong-term projects, as well as coordinating individual tasks. Project managementsoftware accomplishes this through a range of tools to manage wor…

    CrewScale Logo

    The name is quite self-explanatory. They realized that the name should represent two central ideas. One was the fact that entrepreneurs would now be able to access easy-to-deploy teams — in other words, an entire crew would now be at their fingertips. The other idea was how the right team at the right time is critical to scaling up quickly. CrewScale perfectly encapsulates both these ideas.


    Tools to Boost Team Collaboration
    Collaboration is an act of co-working to obtain a certain result or outcome. Itcan be anything from baking your favorite pie to a new product launch[https://startuptalky.com/tag/product-launch/]. As easy as it may sound,Collaboration has been not that easy for individuals, teams and businesses an…


    CrewScale- Vision & Mission

    The company solely connect high growth business with top-tech talent. As a company they are at a unique position today. Their product enables businesses to adapt much faster to a post-COVID world, enabling them is their short-term vision. They already have the tools and resources for a remote-first future — and are constantly trying to grow as quickly as they can to help businesses leverage this opportunity.

    CrewScale | Full stack Remote Hiring Solutions

    For a long-term goal, CrewScale works to shape the future of work to build a sustainable workplace. For a team like them, remote work means freedom. And it’s been incredible how they were able to provide that to so many others. Knowledge workers are really looking for a way of working that will help them become their creative and productive best. CrewScale aims to play a role in facilitating that transformation.


    14 Spokespersons Endorsing On How companies Are Keeping Up With Employee-Engagement And Well-Being Remotely
    Remote working and work-from-home is a convenient trend that’s gaining tractionsince the global pandemic has struck all our lives. Many tech companies likeadobe, and Facebook have gone WFH at least till June of 2021. Twitter and Squarehas announce Work From Home Forever Option. It’s high time f…


    CrewScale- Core Belief

    Despite having the right skill set, developers struggle to find the right remote opportunities— especially interesting roles globally. There are a few options — they can sign up on platforms like Upwork and Freelancer — but virtue signaling on these platforms is usually limited, and they usually end up becoming a race to the bottom. Plus, engineers are looking for stability of work as well as complexity of projects, both of which are hard to come by on these platforms.

    CrewScale Core Belief

    Platforms like Crewscale also provide a very high flexibility in terms of the range of projects and the opportunities to work with cutting edge technologies across the world. Engineers who worked for tech titans like Amazon, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft work with Crewscale for the same reason.

    CrewScale- Products/Services

    CrewScale connects both startups and large tech companies with top percentile remote tech talent from across the world to help them accelerate product engineering. They fill the need of matching the best talent with the right projects and bridge the gap between the two – regardless of their respective locations in the world.

    CrewScale | Remote Team solution

    At CrewScale, their focus is on screening and assessing world-class developers, who then become part of the remote community. Employers who decide to work with them are able to view these verified, pre-assessed profiles and onboard the ones that work for them. They are working on to ship digital products in half the time as before by building next-generation software services engine and automating as much of the build cycle as possible.

    There are problem solvers, team builders, high achievers who have come together with a common philosophy and with a single focus at CrewScale. To scale! They work together to power today’s engineering teams and invest in tomorrow’s leaders.


    How Augmented reality is helping in Remote Work
    What does Augmented Reality actually mean and what is it used for?It is awidespread technology, so does a question pop up? “How does it work?” AR is the special technology where it instructs your device to be helpfulthroughout your day by letting you experience digital content in the similar wa…


    Their software also takes care of the engagement, onboarding, and management process. In this way, employers get immediate access to cutting-edge engineers from across the world, saving them thousands of dollars in recruitment and training. Candidates, on the other hand, have continuous access to global, long-term projects that enable them to get steady, handsome compensation while also working on complex, challenging problems.

    CrewScale- Target Market Size

    The IT staffing market in the United States alone is worth $33.64 billion, whereas the global staffing market size is $105 billion. While this includes both remote and non-remote opportunities, the company believes that remote will soon become the go-to in tech hiring across the globe.

    CrewScale- Business & Revenue Model

    CrewScale is a managed marketplace— so they charge an hourly rate from their clients but ensure that it translates into a fixed monthly remuneration for their remote workforce.

    • Their revenue is about $4 Million/annum
    • They want to scale to $100 Million in the next 5 years
    • They’ve been profitable from Day 0.

    CrewScale- Startup Launch

    The company has seen hockey-stick growth from the very beginning. They got their first few clients through their network. With just 3 active clients in 2017-18, the company grew 6X to 17 clients in 2018-10 and then 3X to 50+ active clients in 2019-20.

    Similarly, Revenue has gone up 5.5X from 2017-18 to 2018-19 and then 2X from 2018-19 to 2019-20. Perhaps the biggest scale has been achieved in the growth of their remote tech talent community.

    CrewScale now has a community of over 61000 engineers — across 80+ countries including India, South East Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

    CrewScale- Challenges

    The biggest challenge in the early years was to convince both candidates and employers about the efficacy of remote hiring. Candidates felt like going towards project-based remote-first work might be detrimental to their careers in the long run.

    At the same time, companies were hesitant to choose remote workers over in-house employees. Initially, they needed to work a lot on shifting the mindset of both candidates and employers.


    YesssWorks | Coworking Space & Office space in Mumbai and Pune
    The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on. A coworking space is slightly different from a normal routine office or youcould encapsulate it as a space for “Nomad Works”. A coworking space is like a custom office that offers affordable office workspaces, so it is…


    With the COVID situation, though, remote working has become completely mainstream. Employers and employees both have realized that remote work can be just as productive as in-office work, if not more.

    CrewScale- Competitors

    We’re a premium talent marketplace, Toptal and Turing are some of CrewScale’s direct competitors. We are strong contenders for general marketplaces too, such as Upwork, Freelancer etc.

    CrewScale- Acquisitions & Mergers

    CrewScale has acquired Indiez.io, an AI-powered tech-talent community, in January 2020. The remote marketplace is based in Washington DC. The US-based, VC-funded freelance tech talent platform boasts of a very strong global clientele including Domino’s Pizza, Uber, and Aditya Birla Group. It also comes with an amazing talent community from 50+ countries.


    How to Adjust in Remote Working? Challenges of managing a remote team
    Remote working has pulled up its sock over last years and there’s been a growthin working remotely. And now, Coronavirus has forced untold employees and teamsto work from home arrangement, and is mandated to work from home is disorientingat best, and debilitating at worst. For employees who are f…


    CrewScale- Future Plans

    When CrewScale started out, they were bootstrapped, their focus was entirely on building a sustainable business with strong unit economics. From the very beginning, they grew organically and were profitable from the get-go.

    Having said that, COVID-19 has cut the remote adoption curve by 10 years, perhaps more. They believe that this is the perfect time to scale rapidly, building the biggest remote tech workforce across the world. Which is why they’re now open to raising money and going for hockey-stick growth. They also recently acquired a US-based remote tech hiring startup called Indiez earlier in the year to consolidate their growth and hit the ground running.

    CrewScale- FAQ’s

    What’s Crewscale all about?

    Crewscale connects the top 1% of the tech talent with the tech companies across the globe. They have a community of over 50000 developers and more than 100 companies as their partners from more than 20 countries. They are proud to portray themselves as a one-stop solution for remote talent who facilitate end-to-end talent acquisition.

    How does your hiring process work?

    Once you sign up using your email or LinkedIn, Crewscale will collect your basic details like Name, Experience, Skill Set, Geography, and available working hours. Post that we will send out an assignment according to your tech stack. Once you clear the assignment, Crewscale will onboard you onto their platform and start matching you with relevant opportunities.

    How long does the hiring process take?

    Crewscale typically places a new developer with a client in 0-2 weeks! However, as most of CrewScale’s developers are pre-assessed, they are remote-ready to take up opportunities as soon as they arise.

    How’s Crewscale different from other remote work platforms?

    As a remote worker/freelancer how many times have you been frustrated at the cumbersome process to land a good job?. Crewscale make the process quick and smooth for both clients and candidates. With an end-to-end talent management platform, they assure you are placed at the company in just two weeks!

    Do we have to sign any binding contracts?

    For approving your application, Crewscale doesn’t enforce any contract. However, for you to start working with any client, there might be a few mandatory agreements like NDA and Statement of Work.

    CrewScale- Conclusion

    CrewScale focuses on building high-performing and distributed teams that can help a company thrive. CrewScale follows a comprehensive hiring process keeping in mind to not just find the best talent with the required tech skills, but that with relevant domain expertise too. They believe in finding the right fit for the companies specific requirements so that they start hiring without any hesitation.

    CrewScale has a 4 step hiring process through they make sure they have a pool of the best tech talent in their community from around the globe. The selected candidates are sourced from online tech communities, as well as organic networking. The profiles of those candidates go through automated parsing, for initial vetting.