Mukesh Wadhumal“Micky”Jagtiani, popularly known as Micky Jagtiani is an Indian businessman, who is the Owner and Chairman of the UAE-based venture, Landmark Group. The company has a global presence and is classified into retail, hospitality and healthcare sectors. He lead the company with more than 27 diverse brands concepts. Forbes ranked him #52 in the India’s richest man 2020 list and #945 in the Billionaires 2020 list with a net worth of $2.8 billion, as of April 2021. As a philanthropist, he established a philanthropic firm named LIFE Foundation.
Mukesh Jagtiani was born in Kuwait and he comes from a Sindhi heritage. He is married to Renuka Jagtiani , who also assists him in coping up with professional responsibilities of his company. The couple has three children and the family currently lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Micky Jagtiani – Education
Micky completed his elementary education by studying in different cities of India including, Chennai, Mumbai, and Beirut. He studied from Brummana High School in Lebanon.
He completed his bachelor’s degree in accounting and business management from the University of Mumbai. He was further admitted in an accounting school in London, from where he dropped out.
Micky Jagtiani – Professional Life
Micky started his career as a taxi-driver and hotel cleaner in London. He then returned to Gulf and found that he lost his family within a year, due to an illness.
After dropping out of the college, Micky returned to Bahrain and took his deceased brother’s shop and the $6000 left by his family for him, and turned it into a baby products shop and named it Babyshop. He worked for 10 years in the shop and expanded the business by opening 6 new shops.
Micky Jagtiani – startup
With the significance of the Gulf War struck, he migrated to Dubai and founded the Landmark Group. The company gradually expanded into fashion, furniture, and budget hotels in Middle East and Southeast Asia. It variably employs about 50000+ people and has more than 2,300 stores across 22 countries including, the Persian Gulf region, Middle East and India.
Micky Jagtiani – Founder of Landmark Group
Landmark Group Logo
In July 1973, Micky founded Landmark Group based in Dubai, UAE. It is a privately-held firm and comes under the category of retail, hospitality and healthcare. As of 2016, the company raised a revenue of $7 billion.
Under the leadership of Micky, the company has established its services across diverse sectors like, apparel, footwear, consumer electronics, cosmetics & beauty products, baby products, and home improvement. In addition to hospitality & leisure, healthcare and mall management.
Micky Jagtiani – Success story
He became a billionaire businessman, mall developer and the Chairman of the Dubai-based retail group, Landmark International in 2008. He acquired a 6% stake in the UK high-street retailer Debenhams and Forbes named the 16th richest Indian with a net worth of $2 billion. He launched his family office with assets of worth $5 billion. He further wants to expand his business from Gulf to China.
Micky established LIFE(Landmark International Foundation of Empowerment) to help underprivileged children in India. He worked to built schools, healthcare development programs, shelter for impoverished children, vocational and non-formal schools, community clinics and medical camps for slum-dwellers and an old age home as well.
He also started a Beat Diabetes Initiative, which is an awareness campaign with 60,000 participants across 7 countries including, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, KSA and India.
Micky Jagtiani – Controversies
A controversy was raised against Landmark, when Micky suspended the sales of all Trump-branded products in its stores owing to the anti-muslim remarks by the U.S president during the election campaigns.
The development and introduction of new methods for keeping the wheels turned became the natural outcome of a global pandemic. Many businesses have introduced and will retain the remote job model full time, while others expect to get back to work onsite in 2021.
If you want to differentiate yourself from the other applicants in the next employment hunt, you need to consider beyond your degree and qualifications and the best employees’ skills in 2021. As you prepare to examine your job market in the coming year, in 2021, you will brush up on the top 10 qualifications that recruiting managers will find in top applicants.
Most recruitment managers agree that you should be positioned in the top of the list in your soft skills. That said, there are some challenging skills, high paying skills, especially in the next few years, that can increase your career performance.
1. Artificial Intelligence Or AI
Artificial Intelligence Importance Today
We don’t only want technology to work for us, we always want computers to work smarter. Like cloud computing, you may not need to be a top professional, but you will gain a solid understanding of AI in a challenging job market. But note, you don’t just have to increase your skills but even improve and enhance them.
2. Leadership Skills
Recruiters Look For This Skill
As a leader, you would not be an executive manager automatically, but graduates must be willing to inspire teams and other co-workers to collaborate for them. This is a good task, a perfect example, to assign and assign tasks, develop time limits and lead.
3. Teamwork
Working as a Team Solves Problem Faster
You will have to prove that you are a team member but are still capable of handling, delegate and bear responsibility for others. It’ll help everyone meet priorities and expectations by creating good working relationships.
4. Coaching Mindset
Coaching Mindset
More and more success is not really about how actively you try to develop your career and more about supporting people around you. In a coaching mindset you aim to get those around you from your superiors to your direct reports. Imagine, who wouldn’t want an individual like this to work with.
Organization proves you can make priority, work quickly, handle your time easily and successfully. It is also good to demonstrate to employers how you determine what is necessary and how you meet deadlines.
6. Negotiation
With robots that infiltrate workers and task optimization being much more popular, in the future social skills would be essential. This is to illustrate what you want to achieve and how, but also to consider where you are from so that you can get what you want or need and feel confident.
7. Communication Skills
This involves verbal, writing and listening interaction. The aim is to be straightforward, descriptive and oriented; to be able to adapt your message to the public and to listen to other people’s opinions. Even though technology is proficient in modern technology, technology can not be seen as the main communication method for many professions. This reduces the value of face-to-face employee interaction.
8. Knowledge of social and digital media
Most Important Part Of Any Organization
Digital media is ruling these days, whether you like it or not. You need minimum understanding about what is out there, what it offers and what kind of audience enjoys it if you wish to bid for the workplace. Nowadays we are above Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. While it can be possible to stick to the information and ignorance of beginners, your thinking and your career will leave you in the dust — particularly while we are in the new decade.
9. Project Management
When remote work develops, management finds it difficult to keep track of each project, and it makes your job simpler for employees who have experience in project management. It also benefits others and can step into your own management role.
10. Creativity
Be More Creative
2021 will be a time of development and progress, and with the aid of imagination you will discover solutions and innovative strategies that move the business needle into the driver’s seat. The persistence of imagination goes hand in hand. Many new concepts don’t succeed right away or at all because it tells employers that they can keep their business going. They will restore a loss with changes and new ideas.
11. IT skills
The easiest way to show your IT skills to clients is to show that you have done something for them, and should show this with examples from your research, extracurricular experiences and job experience.
An individual’s professional skills are extremely important in the business world. This professional skill refers to how enthusiastic the employee is about the occupation and how much pride they take in completing their work.
What are unique skills?
Unique Ability, by definition, is the essence of what you love to do and do best. It’s your own set of natural talents and the passion that fuels you to contribute in the ways that most motivate you. When articulated, it describes the “you” that makes you who you are.
What are professional strengths and skills?
Strengths are tasks or actions you can do well. These include knowledge, proficiencies, skills, and talents. People use their traits and abilities to complete work, relate with others, and achieve goals.
What are the top 5 professional skills recruiters look for?
These top 5 skills recruiters look for in a candidate.
Critical thinking and problem-solving.
Teamwork and collaboration.
Professionalism and strong work ethic.
Oral and written communications skills.
Leadership.
Conclusion
In the interview, you want to reflect your integrity, as you wear, sing, and behave, along with some of the technical terms. For example, in addition to showing a willingness to get along with others, you can talk clearly and dress appropriately for all of your interviews.
Social Media is amongst most the powerful platforms available across the globe today. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are capable of influencing presidential elections. Moreover, such platforms are now providing employment opportunities to hundreds of thousands of people in different countries. You have positions like social media specialist, social media marketer, and what not. One such popular and desirable job responsibility is that of a social media manager. So what exactly is a social media manager? This guy is responsible for planning, implementing, managing and monitoring company’s Social Media strategy to increase brand awareness, improve Marketing efforts and increase sales.
Interested in knowing how to become a social media manager? Then this post is for you. The steps described below will give you a direction on how to become a social media manager.
You can’t become proficient in English if you don’t know the alphabets. A similar analogy applies to become a social media manager. The first step is to know what social media is and how it works. This involves making a list of different platforms and exploring them one by one. Consider LinkedIn. You are aware it’s a social media platform meant for professionals. But what next? You have to go beyond making connections, writing posts, and following people. Do you know about LinkedIn advertising? Do you know about building your business profile on LinkedIn? This is just a preview of the several features you were clueless about.
The same applies to platforms like Facebook and Twitter as well. Most of us don’t take the efforts to explore beyond the basic features of social media websites. Ignorance is bliss but not if you want to become a social media manager!
You have to practice. Theory without practical is incomplete learning. This also applies to social media management. You may know all of the platforms inside-out but it’s waste if you don’t implement your learning. You can practice with your private social media accounts if opening an experimental business account isn’t possible. Build your followers, engage with them through interesting content, and curate a brand.
Once you are confident enough, experiment with a business account on the platforms. The rules of the game may change slightly but the fundamentals remain the same.
Set Prices For Your Services
When it comes to pricing it’s a personal decision. It’s your call. How much your time is worth and what budget your potential client has are some parameters to base your decision. If your clients are a multi-million dollar business they can afford to pay you thousands of dollars per month, but if they are a small business, they may only pay a few hundred dollars.
The quality and quantity of your content matter above everything else. How much content are you going to be putting out every month and the kind of engagement you bring in determines your rates. At the same time, services don’t encompass only posting content. Growing followers, advertising, etc. also need to fall under your offerings.
This is the reason why businesses pay insane amount to social media managers. Having a strong and dominating virtual presence is essential for every organization to stay relevant today.
Okay, so you have come up with a pricing strategy. What next? Start selling your services, of course. You may not convert every lead, you may be subjected to constructive criticism, or face rejection in some other sense. That’s inevitable. Every journey has crests and troughs and selling your services is no different. Once you have built your reputation, clients will automatically come to you.
More About Services
Here’s some more information to gain clarity on the services a social media manager offers:
Posting Content
Content delivery involves scheduling posts, creating images, blog posts, audio, and video. You can also share others’ posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Content is king so posting is imperative. It’s necessary to educate your audience and uploading content achieves exactly this aim. Just make sure you give due credits when dealing with someone else’s content.
Community management
You have to manage your followers. Simply having thousands of people like your page or as part of your Facebook group isn’t enough. This is a community that you are talking about. And a community stays only when it’s well-knit. Hence, the need for community management.
Businesses need help with regular posting on social media platforms. They also need to retain digital customers Pinterest management is a great opportunity for you to help businesses who have a blog. There are several other opportunities to develop your community management skills.
Conducting polls, organizing giveaways, and posting questionnaires are a few methods to implement community management.
Advertising
Gone are the days when social media was only about making virtual friends. Advertising is one of the most powerful features of social platforms. This is a more advanced skill set. And it’s risky as well since it involves monetary investment. However, to become a successful social media manager, you need to learn the art of digital advertising. There’s enormous potential in advertising, both monetarily and credibility.
Copywriting
Copywriting is about knowing how to write persuasive content that involves selling. You can write copy for websites, sales pages, landing pages, product descriptions, and email sales funnels. This service is a good-to-have for social media managers.
Grow followers
If you want clients to stay with you month after month, you need to master the art of growing followers in addition to retaining them. If you aren’t helping your clients grow their followers, your work won’t be appreciated and you’ll soon be out of business. Posting content is valuable only if it can bring new people.
Moreover, you can grow followers for free on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. With Facebook, it’s a bit tricky because you need to spend money on ads and boosted posts.
No one is interested in stale news. Content is generally of two types: Evergreen content and trending content. The former refers to stuff that’s going to say constant throughout. Whereas the latter depends on the current affairs and trends. And on social media, people are more interested in trending content.
Therefore, you need to stay updated as a social media manager. This ensures the services you offer are relevant to the time. For example, content around coronavirus is being followed by almost everyone on Facebook, etc. Thus, your post or polls on coronavirus will bring in engagement for sure at this moment.
Bringing Engagement On Posts
Instagram algorithm favors posts with significant engagements. What does engagement mean? Social media engagement includes likes, comments, shares, saves, and clicks.
Another service you can offer as a social media manager is to bring engagement on someone else’s post. You can render services to people who want to improve their existing social media content.
Areas Of Specialization
You can specialize in Instagram management. You can be someone who specializes in Instagram but you also offer other ancillary services. You can also do Pinterest management. It’s a niche because Pinterest is really good for bloggers. On Pinterest, you can help your clients promote their blogs and websites traffic and pin every single day.
Though it involves some research, you can identify niches to specialize in as a social media manager. With the emergence of new features across different platforms, now is the right time to pick one and build in-depth knowledge around it!
Higher Paying Services
Blog writing and email marketing are some services for which you can charge serious money. These are the offerings that deserve high premium prices.
These are some ways to become a social media manager
Enroll in a degree in communications or marketing. (Optional)
Learn from online courses and YouTube platforms.
Stay updated with the industry tools and tech.
Look for social media opportunities and do internships.
Keep learning and adapting.
Be comfortable working and learning on your own.
Is social media manager a good job?
If you get a job to work on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Pinterest, and other popular social media channels, then it may sound like a dream come true. And for many people, it is as its the most satisfying job role according to PayScale. PayScale indicates that the job satisfaction of social media managers comes in at a 3.8 out of 5, or “highly satisfied” rating.
What does a social media manager do all day?
The work of a Social Media Manager is to manage, create and schedule social posts. Also, the work includes monitoring analytics and react quickly to trends.
Is being a social media manager hard?
Even though there are some unexpected tasks required, being a social media manager is a fun, rewarding job. You instantly see the results from hard work and it’s interesting to be part of an industry that is so fast-paced, ever-changing, and new in every aspect.
What exactly does a social media manager do?
Social media managers create and maintain brand promotions, company information and marketing campaigns for their company across several different social media networks. A social media manager is expected to keep up with new trends and company and industry news.
Can I be a manager without a degree?
Managers manage people and projects within an organization to achieve the goals of the company. Having some kind of a college or university degree definitely helps when you want to become a manager, but it is not always necessary. With patience, time, and commitment, you can certainly become a manager without a degree.
Conclusion
Making content go viral on social media is an art and a social media manager is the artist behind it. There is no right way to do it. It all comes down to what works for you. Some only share content on social media. While other managers rely heavily on advertising and creating unique posts, etc.
As is with most things in life, the best approach is somewhere in the middle. This post should give you a head start on social media management. To achieve mastery of a skill, one needs to persevere and gradually build expertise. The same applies to becoming a successful social media manager. There’s no concept of overnight success.
This article is part of Behind the Scene series by StartupTalky where we bring you the insights on how a company operates at ground level. Source ~ from the horse’s mouth that is as told by the founders, core management.
Ninjacart is Bengaluru based India’s largest B2B fresh produce supply chain company. It is a pioneer in solving one of the toughest supply chain problems of the world by leveraging innovative technology. Their high-quality and hygienically handled fresh produce ensures healthy food to consumers, with a promise of delivery within 12 hours!
Founded by Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran KK, Sharath Loaganathan, Sachin Jose, Thirukumaran Nagarajan and Vasudevan Chinnathambi in 2015, Ninjacart has successfully built a tech-enabled supply chain for fresh farm produce, delivering over 1,400 tons of fruits and vegetables daily.Ninjacart has become India’s one of the largest Fresh Produce Supply Chain platform.
StartupTalky interviewed Thirukumaran Nagarajan (Co-founder & CEO of Ninjacart) to get insights on how he is Operating India’s One of the Top Supply Chain Startups Ninjacart. In this post, you’ll get a complete insight on Ninjacart’s Supply chain model, how it functions, Ninjacart’s business model, growth hacks & more.
And here’s what Mr. Thirukumaran Nagarajan has got to say –
How did Ninjacart’s business model and revenue model look like in its very initial days and how it changed gradually?
Ninjacart commenced business in 2015 as a B2C model. Our main aim was to deliver fresh produce to the end consumer within 60 minutes while providing online inventory to retail outlets. We launched our operations in Bengaluru. During those initial 6 months of operations, we realized that the production side of the supply chain is fragmented and retail outlets struggle to source fresh produce on time. It helped us to understand the inefficiencies in the supply chain. These systems relied heavily on expensive and erratic last-mile delivery fulfillment, increasing pressure on the retailers and us as a delivery provider.
This prompted us to pivot our business model from B2C to B2B and we started sourcing fresh produce from farmers directly, simultaneously supplying to retail outlets and small businesses. Addressing challenges like persuading retailers and grocery store owners to take their business online and introducing technology to farmers as a more trustworthy alternative to harvest and sell their produce, Ninjacart’s B2B model began to thrive and we knew we had created something impactful.
ninjacart Logo
There were plenty of hurdles we had to overcome. Evaluating the entire network and identifying the gaps is one matter, but actually being able to implement our solution is quite another.
At the offset, the two major obstacles we set out to tackle were – convincing retailers and grocery store owners to take their business online and persuading farmers to trust us, a tech startup, over the traditional middleman they had known for years.
Then it was devising a mechanism to standardize the pricing of fresh produce. More often than not, farmers would sell their produce for a loss, given the perishable nature of their goods. Therefore, we needed a solution to provide high value for farmers while ensuring the best possible output for the end party.
Limited connectivity, inadequate storage infrastructure, and mismatched supply-demand led to post harvest losses which needed to be controlled with the provision of proper tools and equipment for harvesting. Simultaneously, we also had to train/educate the farmers.
Easing the challenges faced by retailers, from exhausting procurement processes to poor quality management and competitive pricing.
Introducing more sophisticated management and new technologies to improve efficiency in the supply chain, making it low cost, effective, and super fast.
What have been major growth hacks in the early days of Ninjacart?
At Ninjacart, technology has played a major role in making the food supply chain more efficient and independent to handle advanced logistics. Since we started functioning as a B2B model, there is plenty of learning and transformation involved.
As an agritech startup, it was difficult to gain trust in the farmers’ community as they prefer to work with a familiar face rather than a tech company. To understand the framework at the grassroots level, the core team of Ninjacart made overnight trips in mandis. It took us almost three months to determine the price of tomatoes at which farmers sell to the middleman. The timespan of fresh produce being sold in the market is very limited. Within a few hours, the fresh produce is segregated, sorted, and sold. The farmer has to harvest and bring the item to mandi and then figure the price and demand, leading to huge losses as they are unaware of the market conditions.
Ninjacart has solved this issue with the innovation of the Farmer Harvest Calendar, which gives farmers a week’s notice on what is expected of them.
In the traditional supply chain wastage goes up to 25% which Ninjacart succeeds in shrinking up to 4% by leveraging deep machine learning. Furthermore, with the adoption of traceability infrastructure, we ensure food safety until last-mile delivery.
Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Co-founder and CEO of Ninjacart
The access of farmers to warehouse facilities in India is limited. In the absence of adequate cold storage and efficient warehousing facilities, fresh produce gets wasted even before it arrives in the market or to the end consumer. Therefore, the implementation of tech-incentive processes helped Ninjacart to develop more controlled distribution chains. Over the years Ninjacart has expanded its operations, we are currently operating in 11 major cities across India and promise a delivery within 12 hours. The positive response and overall impact has strengthened our vision to change the way India consumes food.
How do you manage such a large supply chain model?
At Ninjacart, we strive to tackle some of the most difficult structural issues while keeping pace and performance at the forefront of everything we do. Being a supply chain company we have a large workforce at the ground level, making labor a significant business cost.
It starts with farmers bringing fresh produce to the Collection Centre, where it is weighed, batched, and dispatched to our Fulfilment Centers (FC) and Distribution Centers (DC) located throughout the city. Our algorithms then establish an optimal route plan for drivers to reach their destinations with clearly defined points, set a dispatch schedule, and fix arrival slots.
To plan each route with full capacity at minimal cost, we also consider the distance between the Collection Centers (CC) as well as the distance between the Fulfilment Centers (FC) and Distribution Centers (DC). With sophisticated software to understand the geography of the city, the maximum capacity of the vehicles used, cost required. All of this adds up to enough information to run and build a distribution route for the day.
It can be summarized as follows:
The first step is to acquire and understand the ‘Farmer Harvest Calendar’, which would give the team an overview of fruits and vegetables available in each season. This makes Ninjacart aware of the demand and supply, and gives farmers a week’s notice.
The notice period allows farmers to understand the market expectations. Our technology helps us to gain a complete understanding of past buying data, such as – order history and its frequency to figure out a pattern. It helps us to know which items to procure.
Once the produce is procured as per the demand analysis, it is then put into crates at the collection centers
After the produce is weighed and tagged, a message goes out to the farmer through an app which details the supplied quantity and the price so that the amount is credited to the farmers’ bank account the subsequent day
Ninjacart then moves the crates to the fulfilment centers. With the use of special trolleys these crates are loaded and unloaded, ensuring a quicker turnaround time as compared to the traditional lift-and-place logistic systems. The entire process is monitored through an app that the company has built with a sophisticated algorithm
As next steps, these crates are loaded onto vehicles at the distribution centers for delivery, which starts at 2.00 am daily. There are no names on the crates as everything is enabled through the app. Every crate has a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag so that the company knows exactly which vegetables and fruits have been delivered
More importantly, the empty crates don’t necessarily return to the same collection center and Ninjacart’s technology ensures that the chain remains efficient. This has enabled tighter control so that operations are profitable
Ninjacart also maps the simplest routes for drivers to reach their destinations with clearly identified points
How implementing AI and machines has helped the company to grow?
Technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics drive decision-making at Ninjacart, and help perform complex human tasks accurately.
The use of generative models and programming helps Ninjacart to accomplish a recommendation engine. The prediction model is used to analyze hundreds and thousands of market factors.
For instance, we analyze past buying data of consumers and the frequency of orders to determine the kind of produce that needs to be procured. It enables us to track produce and thus, provide complete transparency within the food value chain. This way, we inform farmers about what is expected of them for that particular month by issuing a ‘Harvest the farm’ calendar offering weather forecast.
Diagnostic analytics techniques combine growth plans with historic demand data and market conditions to organize the weekly sales and procurement forecast at SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) level. Another analytics tool is predictive analytics, which tells us what is likely to happen. It identifies potential threats in the supply chain spotting optimal patterns while neutralizing errors.
The Ninjacart Supply Chain relies on vehicle route planning to transport tons of fresh produce from farms to retailers in less than 12 hours. The algorithm saves the details of retail customer orders made the day before. It determines the best delivery route based on factors such as customer position, tonnage, crate count, delivery time window, and so on. Similarly, the algorithm uses vehicle information such as vehicle type, start place, maximum crate size, maximum number of points, available time window, and average vehicle speed to allocate the delivery route for the next day’s door-to-door deliveries to stores. After considering both the factors, the algorithm perfectly optimizes the vehicle route towards the customer locations. The route is decided to use the vehicles more efficiently in terms of vehicle usage, occupancy, and positioning the orders to be delivered.
Our algorithms automate the planning and optimization of logistics by mapping 1000+ routes for vehicles crisscrossing 15 states for delivering to customers daily across 7 cities.
We have adopted special trolleys to load and unload the crates, ensuring a quick turnaround compared to the normal lift-and-place logistic systems. The entire process is monitored through an app that helps us place crates in a particular order so that the team can deliver faster. At Ninjacart, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) plays a crucial role in every step of our supply chain, including internal control. Future-ready ERP increases efficiency, lowers operational costs, and acts as one source for information that permits agility and rapid decision transformation.
What major initiatives were taken during Corona to keep the whole operation running and support farmers?
The operations at Ninjacart were at a standstill during the initial days of the lockdown as the government regulations were unclear on which part of the supply chain could keep running. Despite that, we worked around-the-clock to fill the gap between supply and demand by deploying several initiatives. Our problem-solving approach helped the entire supply chain network one way or the other. These initiatives helped farmers to sell their produce directly to the end consumers. At the same time, it benefited consumers as they were able to buy fresh produce at subsidized rates.
There was uncertainty and fear amongst the consumers as supermarkets were closed at the time. After analyzing the situation, we concluded that we have the infrastructure to serve society by bringing food to their doorstep. The execution part was difficult as we had to expand our operations to directly reach the apartments and societies across cities. We created and disseminated a Google Form on social media for people in residential complexes to order fresh produce in bulk. It was a huge success, and we helped thousands of people in 7 cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, and Pune during the lockdown.
Additionally, to ensure that essential commodities reached everyone in need, we started a special program to sell at subsidized rates to old age homes, orphanages, community kitchens and slums. Many NGOs worked with us to feed numerous people, creating a huge impact during a period of crisis.
At Ninjacart, we were flooded with calls from farmers seeking our help in finding end consumers as they were left stranded with their harvested produce. It was time to step up and help our farmers as a way of showing gratitude and support.
We launched ‘Harvest The Farm’ initiative asking consumers to buy fresh produce from Ninjacart at cheaper prices through Swiggy, Zomato, and Dunzo. With the existing supply chain in place, we identified the farmer with a ready harvest, purchased their produce, and helped them recover their cost.
The lockdown gave us an opportunity to work towards our vision of establishing a traceability infrastructure that will help trace fresh produce to its origin from any given stage of the supply chain.
On the occasion of World Food Safety Day on 7th June, we launched FoodPrint. FoodPrint allows us to know everything about the food we eat. Starting from – identifying the farmer, the date and time of harvest, the truck that carried the produce, the warehouse that processed it, the helper who handled the product at the warehouse, the retailer who bought the product, and finally how it was delivered to your doorstep, this endeavor focuses on driving home transparency.
What are different tools the company uses for smooth flow of the work and the organisation?
We have removed intermediaries and replaced them with Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. We have taken a constraint-oriented modeling approach. Constraints are based on distance, vehicle, cost, capacity and time. After defining these constraints, we use a metaheuristic optimization technique (Guided Local Search), to maximize objective function and reduce supply cost. Every process and action is governed by technology at Ninjacart.
The tools developed and implemented by the core of Ninjacart can be concluded as follows:
Facial Recognition: The software quickly captures the entire face, which is then fragmented into small pieces and converted into data streams. To mark attendance, 90% accuracy is required each time. This data can then be used to track worker productivity of employees from start to finish and at various points in the supply chain, as well as to solve many of the common problems that arise to ensure an order is delivered on time and without hiccups.
Futureready ERP: Mobile-ready ERP ensures removes all paper use of in the supply chain
Demand Forecasting: Leveraged deep machine learning to perfect forecasting to 97% and reduce the overall wastage to 4% [Traditional supply chains have wastage up to 25%].
Farmer apps: Ninjacart also have specific apps for the farmers wherein they help them not only in demand forecasting but also with harvest planning and determining the price indent
Connected Logistics: Speed and price can make or break any supply chain. Ninjacart’s indigenous route optimization and utilization keeps the load factor at 92% and puts fresher vegetables on the plate (they move the produce from farm to store within 12 hours) at a cost almost 1/3rd of the traditional supply chain
Vehicle Route Planning is vital in driving the Ninjacart Supply Chain
Being the top player in the niche, do you plan to acquire small startups to expand?
We aim to learn and grow together as everyone is trying to solve the fragmented food supply chain in India. In recent years, we have witnessed new players entering the market only to help the farmers in their pre- and post-harvesting journey. At Ninjacart, we hope to bring as much innovation and solution as we can so that the end consumers and farmers have a seamless and safe supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. The launch of FoodPrint has enabled us to expand our vision of making farmers aware of residue-free farming methods.
We have partnered with Kilofarms, an agritech startup company. Together we have produced the first batch of residue free tomatoes and we intend to add 18 more residue-free fruits and vegetables by the end of this year. Leveraging each other’s tech capabilities, we have developed tech-enabled methods such as drip irrigation to assist farmers in achieving the finest grade of fresh produce through residue-free methods. It not only enables the production of food through optimal farm inputs and low Maximum Residue Limit (MRL), it is also scalable, practical and more affordable than pure organic food.
The vaccination drive for Covid 19 has been started across the globe. Vaccines have been developed and manufactured by a lot of companies around the world. Below are the top companies which are involved in the development and manufacturing of Covid vaccines.
Pfizer is an American based pharmaceutical company. It was founded in the year 1984 and has its headquarters in New York. Pfizer is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. The company develops and manufactures vaccines and medicines for a wide range of medical disciplines.
Pfizer is in the process of development and manufacturing of mRNA vaccine for Covid 19.
Astra Zeneca
Astra Zeneca is a British-Swedish multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical company. The company has its headquarters in Cambridge, England and was founded in the year 1999. Astra Zeneca has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas such as oncology, cardiovascular, infection, respiratory, etc.
Astra Zeneca is well known for its involvement in developing the Oxford-Astra Zeneca Covid 19 vaccines.
Serum Institute of India
Serum Institute of India is an Indian Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology company. It is the largest manufacturer of Vaccines around the globe. The company was founded in 1966 by Cyrus Poonawalla and is based in Pune, India. Adar Poonawalla is the Chairman, President, and CEO of the company.
Serum Institute of India has tied up with Astra Zeneca which is a pharmaceutical company. The company has released a vaccine called Covishield.
Bharath Biotech
Bharath Biotech International Limited is an Indian company which deals with biotechnology. The company has its headquarters in Hyderabad, India. The company is involved in drug development, manufacture of vaccines, drug discovery, bio-therapeutics, healthcare products, and pharmaceuticals.
It has partnered with the state-run Indian Council of Medical research in developing a vaccine against Covid-19 called as COVAXIN.
Moderna is a an American-based biotechnology and pharmaceutical company. The company has its headquarters in Cambridge. The company focuses on discovery of drugs, development of drugs and vaccine technologies.
Moderna is in the process of developing mRNA vaccine for Covid 19.
BioNTech
BioNTech is the short form for Biopharmaceutical New Technologies. It is a German based biotechnology company which has its headquarters in Mainz Germany. The company was founded in the year 2008.
BioNTech is also in the process of developing mRNA vaccine for Covid 19.
Novavax
Novavax is an American based Pharmaceutical company which is involved in the manufacturing of vaccines. The company was founded in the year 1987 and is located in Gaithersburg United States.
Novavax is in the process of development and manufacturing NVX-CoV2373 which is a vaccine for Covid 19.
Sinovac
Sinovac Biotech Ltd is a Chinese based biotechnology company. The company was founded in the year 1999 which is located in Beijing, China. The company focuses in the research and development, commercialization and manufacturing of vaccines which will protect against human infectious diseases.
Sinovac Biotech Ltd is in the process of development and manufacturing of CoronaVac which is a vaccine for Covid 19.
CanSino Biologics
CanSino Biologics is a Chinese vaccine company. The company was founded in the year 2009 and is headquartered in Tianjin, China. The company is in the process of development and manufacturing of Ad5-nCOV which is a vaccine for Covid 19.
Rate of COVID-19 vaccination worldwide as of April 10, 2021
Johnson & Johnson is an American multinational corporation. The company was founded in the year 1886 and has its headquarters in New Jersey, New York. It focuses on developing medical devices, consumer packaged goods and pharmaceuticals.
Johnson & Johnson is in the process of developing Ad26.COV2.S which is a type of vaccine for Covid 19.
Inovio
Inovio Pharmaceuticals is an American based biotechnology company. It was found in the year 1983 and has its headquarters in Pennsylvania. It focuses on the development, discovery and commercialization of synthetic DNA products. The products are used for treating Cancer and infectious diseases.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals is in the process of developing INO-4800 which is a DNA based plasmid Covid 19 vaccine.
R-Pharm
R-Pharm is an international pharmaceutical company. It has its headquarters in Russia. The company was founded in the year 2001 by Alexey Repik. The company concentrates on areas which include research, development, production and marketing of drugs which is primarily on inpatient and medical care.
Their main focus is on activities such as production of finished dosage forms, research and development of drugs and technologies, introduction to Russian market of pharmaceuticals, etc.
In December 2020, the company had got into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Astra Zeneca in the manufacturing of Oxford Astra Zeneca Covid-19 Vaccine.
BIOCAD is a Russian based pharmaceutical company. The company has its headquarters in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The company has offices in Belarus, India, China, Brazil and even United States. It is said that 40% of the company’s employees are scientists.
The company focuses on discovering, developing and manufacturing vertically integrated drugs. The company has around 50 products in its portfolio. BIOCAD is currently developing a mRNA vaccine for Covid-19.
Pharmasyntez
Pharmasyntez is a Russian based Pharmaceutical company. The company was founded in the year 1997 in Irkutsk. The first factory of the company was opened in the year 1999.
The company has more than 50 products in its portfolio. The company also supplies medicines to the largest pharmaceutical distributors in Russia. It is one of the top 3 fastest growing pharmaceutical companies in Russia.
Pharmasyntez is expected to start the production of Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V.
FAQ
Is India exporting Covid vaccine?
Indian government has decided not to ban the commercial export of Covid-19 vaccines by the two manufacturers based in India, for now.
Who issued the official name of COVID-19?
The official names COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 were issued by the WHO on 11 February 2020.
Is the US using AstraZeneca vaccine?
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has not yet been rolled out in the U.S. as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only authorized the use of vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
Conclusion
These are the top companies in the world that is involved in the manufacturing and development of Covid 19 vaccines.
Are you looking to create videos for your next project but don’t have a clue about using video editing software? Then look no further, Invideo is the answer to all your video-related problems.
It is a proven fact that videos are the new mode of marketing and sharing content on the web, so having basic skills in video-making is a must to improve your presence online. So even if you are marketing yourself or a brand, video-editing is a necessary skill set to have in your digital marketing arsenal.
But as most video editing software are not beginner friendly, Invideo is a saviour for most in this field. It has a simple user-friendly interface that anyone can navigate easily and will be able to make a video in the shortest time possible.
Invideo is a simple video editing software for beginners. It’s simple drag-and-drop interface ensures that every individual can make videos on the platform without prior editing skills. You can use Invideo to make videos for Youtube, Instagram Reels, Twitter videos and everything in between as they offer 3 video dimensions. So, let’s hop onto the features of this quick and easy video-editing software!
Features of Invideo
To help beginners make videos, Invideo provides a vast library of pre-built templates that can be used as either inspiration or as the base for your video.
It allows teamwork as multiple people can work on the same video as the content is stored in a cloud-based platform.
As of now, the video limited to 15 minutes.
There is not language barrier as you can upload your own audio and text files. What’s more? They even provide automated voice overs for your text!
Also, say goodbye to watermarks. No matter what plan you are on, Invideo does not include any watermark in their videos unless you use their premium range of iStock images and videos. Everything else is watermark free!
How to Use Invideo to make Videos from scratch?
Here is a step-by-step guide to use Invideo:
Go to the Invideo homepage and and then select “Blank Canvas”.
Select between three video template dimensions – 16:9, 1:1 and 9:16 (recommended for making videos for Instagram reels). For YouTube 16:9 is the recommended dimension.
Invideo homepage
If you have uploaded brand pre-sets beforehand then the template will automatically show your logo on the top right-hand corner.
Now all you need to do is upload your own videos/images or select from their provided videos or images and start setting up your scenes. Once you are satisfied with the background, you can add additional layers or elements on top of it be it text or images or more videos.
You can choose to animate the image/text/textbox in the right-hand panel and control every aspect of the element starting from the size to colour to filter to placement. Simply click on the element and the advanced video editing setting will become available to you on the right-hand panel and you’ll be able to change up everything you want there.
Invideo Controls
You also have the option to duplicate the scene so that you can keep the background as well as the elements the same in the next scene and don’t have to redo the process all over again. This feature saves a lot of time and patience!
After you are done with your video, you can go add the required effects/overlays and such from the left-hand panel to give your video a professional look!
Finally, you can either add your own audio file for voice over or select their text-to-speech feature or record your own voice-over on the spot. You can select the volume for this as well from the advanced setting feature.
If you simply want music in the background – Invideo has your back! Choose from their intensive copyright-free audio library at your disposal. You can choose music for every mood you can think of and even if that is not enough, upload your own music file and play it in the background. You can play both background music and audio file at the same time – just adjust the volume for each.
And for the final step you have to export the file which will take a couple of minutes depending on the features used in the video. You get the option to choose between 720p or 1080p for your download. Now you can download the watermark-free video and upload it on any platform you want!
And tadaaa! You’ve just completed your first video on Invideo. The next videos will only get simpler to create.
Pros and Cons of Invideo
Pros
It works on a Freemium business model, so you get to use the website for free. Only certain features are restricted. And basic plan starts from Only $8/month if bought on a yearly basis (with coupon code APPSUMO20 – you’re welcome!). Without the coupon the price starts from just $10/month. So it is a very cheap video-editing software for graphic designers and alike!
Their chat support is brilliant. They provide extremely prompt service and are super friendly!
Work as a team – as more than one person can work on the same video.
Pre-made templates are a life-saver for most beginners – Invideo has a template for almost every topic you can think of. Even if you don’t end up using their templates, you’ll surely get inspiration from them.
You can access all of your previous work in the projects tab in Invideo and if required, you can duplicate it for future work as well!
Invideo Pricing
Cons
You can only make videos upto 15 minutes long (but realistically that is all you need).
It works best with Chrome Browser and is difficult to use with an unstable network.
It does not have an app yet so it only works on laptops for now.
Conclusion
Hopefully with this simple tutorial on the basics of using Invideo you’ll finally be able to make that YouTube video you’ve been thinking about! Or take your digital marketing to the next level. As you know, no one can promote your brand better than you so try out Invideo for yourself and see how simple the interface is. Remember their support team is available and is prompt with their replies should you encounter any issues in your Invideo journey. So no more excuses and Best of Luck!
Invideo can be used by beginners and professionals alike! It’s simple interface makes it possible for people without prior video-editing skills create professional videos in minutes.
What is the Invideo pricing plan? or Is Invideo free?
Invideo works on a freemium model so you can make videos for free but certain features will be restricted. Their plan starts from just $10/month. But it’ll be only $8/month of you use the invideo coupon code : APPSUMO20 !
Is Invideo Indian Video-editing software?
Yes, Invideo is an Indian video-editing software headquartered in Mumbai.
Is Invideo multilingual?
Yup, you can create videos in any language you want on Invideo. You simply have to upload the text and audio files.
The corporate sector is growing fast. An increasing number of employees are entering the corporate sector every year, and training this growing number of people is a major task. However, like everything else, the magic touch of technology has affected the corporate training sector as well. Edtech companies are coming up with innovative ways and combined with technologies like artificial intelligence, AR etc, edtech is changing the face of corporate training.
Today be it school education, higher education or corporate training the learners prefer to learn by doing and experimenting rather than just absorbing information and data. To cater to these changing needs of learners in the corporate sector, iAugmentor, a Gurugram based startup has introduced personalized courses for corporate trainees. This is a one of its kind platform that provides personalized mentor for every individual user. Besides the courses are designed keeping in view the learning curve of individual learners and makes the process of learning seamless, effortless, fun and engaging.
iAugmentor is a revolutionary technology platform, marking a departure from traditional learning methodologies, which aims to augment the skills of an individual through continuously assessing the learners’ progress and suggesting a learning road map accordingly. The company designed a first-of-its-kind learning platform giving access to a personalized mentor to every individual who desires to learn/ to augment (increase/enhance) his/her skill sets to achieve his potential. iAugmentor is currently dealing in the corporate training sector. iAugmentor envisions to revolutionize the teaching and learning system by providing technology-enabled, discovery-based and sector-specific learning experiences.
The Ed-Tech space is booming with more and more Investors and users showing interest. The training industry in India itself is in Billions and most of the companies are opting for technology solutions to cut costs and get efficiency or Return of Investment on their spends.
iAugmentor Founders
iAugmentor was founded by Pratik Marwah, Sameer Sikka and Arindam Sen.
Pratik Marwah is the youngest business face of iAugmentor. He has been into Institutional Sales and started his career from a start-up in 2010 selling subscription to Colleges & Universities across India. He has worked in various roles in companies like CoCubes.com, Monster.com and CommSure Knowledge Solutions.
Pratik is responsible for Business Development, Marketing & Finance for iAugmentor.
iAugmentor Team
Sameer Sikka is a veteran in the corporate training industry. He brings on board an experience of almost 20 years working with the foremost brands in India and abroad. iAugmentor’s learning and content are developed under his supervision. Sameer works with the vision to put all his years of experience in the platform.
Arindam Sen is the technology brain of the company. He has built the product from scratch with a vision to make it scalable and sustainable for the clients. He is a serial entrepreneur and came on board with the idea of iAugmentor after exiting from his previous venture FWT Educational Pvt Ltd. Currently, he is also part of ‘Edusen’ a company providing training & inputs on strategic growth to startups across industries.
How was iAugmentor Started
Pratik, Sameer and Arindam met each other through a common friend. They shared the passion to do something new, and started meeting each other and would discuss new business ideas over drinks. It was February 2016, when over such casual meetings, the founders stumbled upon the idea to start iAugmentor.
iAugmentor was primarily created to address the need of college students who face issues in Communication Skills during an interview and enhance their employability. The idea was to create a virtual mentor through technology for those who are shy and cannot perform in front of a crowd. Though during the start, the company had a great response from the university management but later dipped as the downloads for iAugmentor was very low. However, the founders were determined to make iAugmentor a success and after doing some market research, the company was pivoted to a corporate training edtech company
“We raised more funds through angel investors from Dubai and then pivoted our Business Model to corporate training at the end of 2017 when our 1st client Nokia got on board. We realized the actual strength of the product and spent the whole 2018 only catering and learning from 2-3 flagship clients which helped us build the product” narrates Pratik.
Currently, iAugmentor is a technology-enabled assessment & learning platform which enables personalized, adaptive and experiential learning.
iAugmentor’s tagline is “let’s make learning come alive”
What is iAugmentor
The idea behind iAugmentor is to provide a personalized mentor to individuals to augment their skill sets, through cutting edge technology & a whole gamut of learning articles. iAugmentor is a platform that brings together technology, human intervention and a whole gamut of learning activities under one roof with the intention of making learning more effective, intimate and accountable.
Anyone looking to upgrade his or her skills on communication has an option to do physical training in person by trainers or through an E-learning platform which is readily available in the market. iAugmentor is the next generation technology which acts as a personalized mentor and is very different from any E-learning product. It’s an Artificial intelligence-driven, gamified and assessment-based learning App which directs users to learn content based only on their weak areas in any course structure.
Each learner has an option to avail learning through Videos, reading articles, games, ppts, cartoons, games, quizzes, animations, peer – to – peer learning & simulated role-plays to provides adequate exposure and deep understanding of concepts with implementation details and their applications. iAugmentor’s training content and methodologies have been developed through collaborative research by a globally diverse set of educationists, psychologists, corporate leaders and life skills experts.
ReA-(Response Analyser) which is another technical feature that helps users practice workplace situations by recording there video or audio and get benchmark their performance against an expert response.
Some USPs of iAugmentor are–
AI-backed Personalization, which helps the user get a personalized learning path and asses his own learning graph to ensure that learning is according to his interest, skill and needs.
Lets the users learn by doing.
iAugmentor’s ‘Bite-size chunk microlearning’ feature lets the user learn short bites of content at a time.
It allows for spaced repetition that instills the learning in the user’s mind.
Lets users learn through experiment and game thus making learning engaging and fun
AI is the flavor of the season and more and more companies are looking for automation on the same. New Millennial joining the workforce is more friendly with technology rather than physical intervention. The world is moving with Classroom without walls where the learner will have the option to choose and solve issues using technology. Artificial Intelligence and Augmented reality are moving very fast and in the next few years technology will be the only solution to learning.
iAugmentor is a B2B mobile learning & gamification platform which sells subscription services of its APP in two models-
SaaS Model: The client can use iAugmentor’s Ai Based Learning Model for behavioral training inside the organization like business communication, presentation skills, etc where games are also a part of the program.
PaaS Model: The client has an option to upload or create its own courses on the APP and use for induction training etc.
Each of the above is sold through subscription costs Monthly/Quarterly or yearly depending upon the requirement. The price starts from INR 2000 per user on a quarterly basis which also includes clients using the platform to create their own courses as per requirements in the same price.
iAugmentor – Funding and Investors
iAugmentor has raised two rounds of angel funding worth USD 250,000.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investor
September 2016 & November 2017
Angel Investments
USD 250,000
RAIN(Rajasthan Angel India Network), Mr.Samir Elwani & Me.Ehab from Dubai
Our investors have been our mentors/advisors who have taught us to grow and never doubted our ideas or plans.
iAugmentor – User Acquisition
iAugmentor, being into a B2B business involves a long sales cycle where a lot of stakeholders are involved. The company started its business with clients whom the founders knew through their previous experiences in the industry. All the 3 co-founders chipped in with their connects and expertise in the field and ended up meeting people and closing business. In the first 2 years of business, the Co-Founders were the sellers and creators of iAugmentor. Once it grew in terms of clients and funding, the team was expanded. From the start of 2019, iAugmentor started hiring more salespeople who helped the company reach out to corporate. It has recently started marketing digitally too which has been giving good rewards.
“Since the inception, we have focused on building a really cool product hence only invested in people and the product. As a company we relied more on tie-ups and partnerships in India and abroad” Pratik says
The long sales cycle is a major challenge iAugmentor is facing.
As Pratik says, “One of the major challenge that we have always faced and still trying to improve upon is: reducing the sales cycle to close any client. Long gestation period and payment structures have been an issue to keep the cash flows going.We had to raise investment to survive and push really hard with clients to make up for pending payments. There have been times when founders have not taken salaries and lived on Credit cards for almost 6-8 months because we have invested everything we had in the company to keep it afloat”
iAugmentor – Competitors
Though there are other players operating in the corporate training domain, iAugmentor has no direct competition as it is the only Indian start-up that has designed a learning platform giving access to a personalized mentor to every individual learner. It is a one of its kind brand to offer an assessment-based learning tool that is personalized and adaptive medium that intuitively suggests a roadmap to an individual as per the learning tendencies, learning competencies and learning proclivities, constantly tracking progress as well.
iAugmentor – Awards
iAugmentor has been featured as the top 10 startups in the Ed-tech space in 2017 & 2018 by various magazines like inc42 and CEO magazine etc.
The Founder of iAugmentor Mr.Pratik Marwah was also invited to the world convention of International Telecommunications Union in Kenya after being adjudged as the top 5 startups in ICT across the world.
iAugmentor – Growth
iAugmentor is currently extending its services in Egypt, Kuwait, Kenya, Malaysia & Singapore. The company has been growing at the rate of 100% year on year whereas with new tech features and product lines it is already sitting with purchase orders worth 1 million USD in the current year which should take iAugmentor to 400% growth rate by the end of this financial year.
iAugmentor is working with reputed clients like Ericsson, Nokia, Hanu Software and Tata Power.
The company recently launched its services with a mobile operator ZAIN in the Middle East as sole education providers in VAS model for its 22 million-plus subscribers on April 2019.
iAugmentor plans to move to total gamification backed by artificial intelligence-based learning by the next quarter and also raising funds to venture into AR/VR. The company also aims to introduce a B2C model by FY 2020.
iAugmentor – FAQs
What is Augmentor Labs?
iAugmentor is a revolutionary technology platform which is a first-of-its-kind learning platform giving access to a personalized mentor to every individual who desires to learn his/her skill sets to achieve his potential.
Does iAugmentor use AI?
Yes, it is an Artificial intelligence-driven, gamified and assessment-based learning App which directs users to learn content based only on their weak areas in any course structure.
Is iAugmentor Indian company?
Yes iAugmentor is an Indian company headquartered in Gurugram.
The whole millennial generation today is all about renting rather than owning! Right? Be it shared cabs, carpools, co-working spaces, or renting home accessories, millennials are up for it. And following that premise, IIT-Guwahati graduates – Manish S. Sugandhi, Shubham Jain and Aditya Sharma launched GrabOnRent in the year 2015. Read this article to know more about GrabOnRent founders, competitors, funding, growth, wiki, and future plans.
GrabOnRent attempts to promote optimal utilization of the products by offering flexible rental times. This means that you can rent the item either on an hourly, daily or monthly basis.
GrabOnRent is ideally a product rental marketplace that aggregates various vendors in the market who own brick-and-mortar shops for rentals to the buyers on the platform. The idea of the co-founders behind GrabOnRent is to provide accessibility of the home products like furniture and other categories to everybody irrespective of their capacity to buy it.
GrabOnRent helps its users in renting products online across 8 major categories namely furniture, appliances, eventsupplies which includes lights, sound systems, etc, bicycles, cameras, gaming consoles, party items like hukka, barbeque, etc, and adventure gear. Also, it essentially enables the renting of cool gadgets such as Pebble Smartwatch, Kindle e-book readers, and Hoverboards. GrabOnRent has a provision that allows the buyer to try the product before buying for a minimal amount.
GrabOnRent summer advertisement
GrabOnRent follows a clear methodological bucket system to address the concerns of a wide population like in India. These four buckets are as follows:
Discoverability – This bucket is all about creating awareness in the market and amongst the target market allowing them to browse the possible and available products on rent.
Quality Assurance in refurbished products – This bucket stands in the list to improve the ‘sticky-ness’ towards the service GrabOnRent is providing and also gain the loyalty of the suppliers who have recurring customers due to the consistently improved quality.
Convenience – This bucket includes online payment mechanisms (or COD) and effective logistics service, to and fro so that seamless experience can be provided to the consumers.
Trust – This bucket involves dealing with a much-specialized product rental firm against vendor forms the basic layer of trust apart from the combination of quality assured products and supreme customer service to the users of GrabOnRent.
GrabOnRent Logo
Things work pretty simply on GrabOnRent. All the users need to do is browse through the superiorly extensive array of products, then select the item they want to buy and go on to make the payment online towards the rent and security deposit. The item gets delivered to the user’s doorstep, without any further delay.
Each item at GrabOnRent passes through a very strict and stringent quality check before getting shipped to, therefore, ensure the best of services to the users. Post usage, the item gets picked up from the doorstep and the security deposit is returned online after verification and quality check of the used item.
GrabOnRent has essentially tapped into the market that is being brought by the constantly shifting millennials of the current generation. These millennials do not care that much about putting down roots as the generations before them.
Moreover, this saves them a lot of money as well so obviously, this seems like a better option to them. On GrabOnRent’s website, the users can rent products as per their convenience, be it for an hour or a day or even for months and years. The interesting part is that both refurbished and new products are listed on this website.
GrabOnRent – Founders and Team
The founders of GrabOnRent are Manish S. Sugandhi, Shubham Jain and Aditya Sharma.
GrabOnRent – Founders
Shubham Jain is the Co-founder and CEO at GrabOnRent. An IIT Guwahati graduate, Shubham has earlier co-founded Trip Engineers. Before GrabOnRent, he was working with Perdix Business Solutions as the Head of User Experience.
Aditya Sharma is the Co-founder and CTO at GrabOnRent. Again, graduated from IIT Guwahati, Aditya was a senior R&D Engineer at Hewlett-Packard before launching his current venture.
Manish S. Sugandhi, Co-founder of GrabOnRent – This venture is not Manish’s first. Before this one, he had co-founded Perdix Business Solutions and was a Business Analyst at Flipkart. And Manish is also an IIT- Guwahati graduate.
Everything around GrabOnRent started during one of the founders’ own crises moments. And that’s exactly when the idea for GrabOnRent struck them. So it happened so that they had to organize a barbecue for a party one evening, and they ended up having a tough time just to find out where to rent it from.
And they finally decided to buy a new one because there seemed to be no way they could avail it on rent. This particular experience drew the founders closer to the tremendous amount of hassles people face while renting objects, and this triggered a new idea.
GrabOnRent – Startup Launch
“As the idea for GrabOnRent started taking shape and we were drawing out a plan of action, we had some reservations – what should be our target group, should we launch a fully functional product or a hacky one, which categories to start with, should we introduce an app-only model or an app-website model, etc”, says Shubham Jain, co-founder of GrabOnRent.
The founders then finally decided to keep the ever-increasing questions aside and they moved forward to launching their venture. Hence, GrabOnRent was launched with two preliminary categories in Bangalore. And to reach out to the target audience, the team started distributing pamphlets and as a result of which they also got the first few clients in the first week itself. All of this was followed by the fairly good inflow of orders, positive customer feedback, and guidance from industry leaders, GrabOnRent paved its way forward to the successful journey of building a startup.
Grab On Rent competes with other startups in the space like Rentomojo, Rentwala, Rentongo, Rentmasti, RentSher, etc. However, GrabOnRent is perceived to have only two of these startups as its real competitors. They are Furlenco and Rentomojo. Grab On Rent considers these two as competition for the simple reason that these startups have huge amounts under their kitties. Amongst these, Furlenco is into the opulent furniture segment and Rentomojo is dealing with furniture and appliances and both of these hold inventory whereas GrabOnRent doesn’t.
GrabOnRent – Funding and Investors
The funding amount of GrabOnRent stands at $3 million.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
June 2016
Seed Round
$1 Million
IvyCap Ventures, Unicorn India Ventures
June 2017
Venture Round
–
IvyCap Ventures, Unicorn India Ventures
April 2018
Venture Round
$2 Million
IvyCap Ventures, Unicorn India Ventures
GrabOnRent is funded by 2 investors – Unicorn India Ventures and IvyCap Ventures.
GrabOnRent – Growth
Serves more than 35,000 customers
The average ticket size of INR 1800
The average rental duration is about 12 months
Team size of 103 across four cities
Currently active in four cities- Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Gurugram.
Sells more than 500 unique products across 8 different categories
“Moving ahead, some of our plans are – We are strongly focused on expansion, and have immediate plans to launch our services in Pune, NCR region and Chennai. We wish to increase awareness about our platform and have more and more people use our services for renting purposes. Our target is to have around 2 million customers by the end of 2020″, concluded Shubham Jain, co-founder of GrabOnRent.
However, sadly GrabOnRent Shut down their operations in September of 2020. It might have been due to their inability to raise more funds, being ahead of their time or them losing the trademark infringement case by GrabOn It could be a culmination of all three.
GrabOnRent – FAQs
What is GrabOnRent?
GrabOnRent helps its users in renting products online across 8 major categories namely furniture, appliances, eventsupplies which includes lights, sound systems, etc, bicycles, cameras, gaming consoles, party items like hukka, barbeque, etc, and adventure gear.
Does GrabOnRent own the products?
GrabOnRent doesn’t own any of the items. It is a marketplace, wherein based on the customers’ choice it collects the product from the vendor and delivers it. After the completion of rental tenure it returns the product back.
Who is the founder of GrabOnRent?
The founders of GrabOnRentare Manish S, Sugandhi, Shubham Jain and Aditya Sharma.
What is Rent-to-Own?
Rent-to-Own is a specially designed program. Wherein You can try the products by using them on rent and if you love them so much that you can’t live without them, purchase them from GrabOnRent at special discounted prices that are pre-defined.
Is it better to buy or rent furniture?
Buying your own furniture is an expensive process, requiring a high amount of money that requires to be paid up front. Whereas the key benefit of renting furniture is the fact that only a negligible amount is paid up front, with a reasonable rent to be paid monthly.
Has GrabOnRent Shut down?
Yes, unfortuntely, GrabOnRent has to shutdown operation in September of 2020.
One of the main advantages any company can have is skilled and qualified personnel. This is an internal factor that guarantees success. The experience, knowledge, and professional training of each employee are crucial for assembling a competent team. Companies that are focused on prosperity need to introduce a mentoring system for new hires and it should be mandatory. Usually, mentoring involves a senior position employee to help a junior who is just entering the company. If it is not offered by the company it should at least be provided by a professional mentoring service like MentorcliQ. If you’re wondering how mentoring may be beneficial to your company and how it will bring the best out of your employees then keep reading.
Mentoring Introduces the Company’s Culture
Mentoring is a great way to introduce your company’s culture and values to new hires. When the mentor introduces newcomers, they can begin to learn the organization’s history and its specialities. This can be a first step toward creating a strong sense of identity within the company. Not only that but mentoring can help motivate employees to improve their performance by letting them know that they are part of a family-like group that needs each and every member to succeed.
Mentoring Ensures Employees Understand Their Job Function
When new employees are mentored, this can allow them to fully understand the company’s expectations and their role within the business. They have a direct line to a person who has years of experience in this position and who can share the company’s vision and the vision of senior management. This is not only an advantage for new hires but also for established employees. The mentoring program allows them to keep up-to-date with the latest changes in operations.
Mentoring Gives New Hires Confidence and Makes Them Feel Welcome
A mentoring system at work helps build a strong relationship between the mentor and their protégé. It allows new hires to feel welcomed and valued in the company. This motivation will help employees be more committed to their job. Motivation is a crucial factor for employee retention rates as it increases happiness on-the-job and helps employees create a stronger sense of belonging to the company. Mentoring fosters this behavior by giving an individual access to new information, which they can use to grow professionally and encourage them to keep working at the company.
Mentoring Gives New Hires Free Training
Employees don’t always have time or money to go back to school for additional training. Still, companies tend to spend time and money on employee training to help them develop their skills further, which may take weeks or months. With mentoring, you avoid having new hires quit during this process if they don’t see results fast enough. On top of that, mentors can help employees quickly identify what they need to improve in order to succeed professionally.
Mentoring Helps New Hires Learn From Mistakes Quickly
Having an experienced mentor is an advantage for any employee because he or she can provide advice in order to avoid common mistakes that new hires make when starting a new job. If new employees are not aware of these mistakes, then not only will it be difficult to succeed in their professional lives but they might also damage their career prospects in the long run. For instance, bad habits like sending emails after business hours or overworking themselves might cause negative repercussions in their personal lives like losing sleep, affecting relationships, or damaging their health if they continue making these mistakes.
Mentoring Can Help Lower Turnover Rates
A mentoring system is not only beneficial for new hires but also for existing employees. Regardless of whether you hire the best professionals on the market or if you have already experienced staff members, mentorship programs help bring down the turnover rate of your company. This is because it makes your employees stay longer than they would otherwise have done without a mentor/mentee relationship.
Mentoring Increases Employee Motivation by Improving Job Satisfaction
A mentoring program also helps improve employee motivation because employees feel like they are part of something big. When they are working with an experienced mentor, they are given guidance on how to succeed within the company. This is useful for both new hires and experienced employees who want to grow professionally.
Mentoring Allows Employees to Have a Role Model
If you are looking for a way to improve your employees’ performance, having a mentor can be beneficial for each one. This is because it allows employees to have someone they can look up to, who can share his or her experiences with them and help them grow as professionals.
Mentoring Allows You to Build Strong Relationships with Your New Hires
Mentoring is a great way to build strong relationships with your new hires as you will get to know them better and set goals together. The mentorship relationship is a strong bond, so it will be beneficial for both parties as they move forward in their careers. This will make new hires more loyal to you and increase employee retention rates.
Summary
As you can see from the comprehensive list above having a mentor program in place for new hires in your company comes with many benefits. Not just for new hires, but also people that may have worked for your company for a long time. If you don’t have a mentoring program in place, it’s about time you got one.
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People love visiting places a lot. On the weekends, or in the long-termed holiday’s nobody wants to sit back home and watch television. I assume! A few suffer with the question, with whom to go? So, most of the time plans get cancelled. But, I say, don’t have a partner? Go, explore alone!
TravelTriangle is a travel agency to help people enjoy unforgettable experiences. Yes, with the help of local guides. Adding to the point local activities, offbeat attractions and especially the local cuisines are always standing ready to blow your mind off. Read the TravelTriangle success story below to know more.
TravelTriangle offers various packages. Those are honeymoon and family packages, holiday deals and luxury holidays. Holidays help people to experience serenity, fun and adventure. This is one of the best travel portals to opt for a honeymoon package. The tours consist of snow-capped mountains and the architectural wonders. Almost everything is sure here in the entire journey with a blissful retreat.
TravelTriangle – Startup Story
In the summer of 2010, the three childhood friends Sankalp Agarwal, Prabhat Gupta and Sanchit Garg went on a trip to Leh. It was a very nice experience for them and they were very pleased with the trip. They spoke to various travel agents but in the end, they found themselves cheated. The trip turned out to be a turning point for the three students of computer science. They started TravelTriangle in the year 2011. They helped the travelers to book personalized trips at the best prices possible.
TravelTriangle – Founders And Team
Sankalp Agarwal, Prabhat Gupta and Sanchit Garg are the founders of TravelTriangle.
Prabhat Gupta, Sankalp Agarwal & Sanchit Garg (left to right ) | Founders, TravelTriangle
Sankalp Agarwal is the founder and CEO of TravelTriangle. In the year 2020, he rejoined the company somewhere in late May or early June. Before, when he wasn’t there, Sanjeev Misra took over as an interim CEO.
Prabhat Gupta is the co-founder and COO of the organization. He is an entrepreneur and growth hacker. He completed his education from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati.
Sanchit Garg was the co-founder and advisor of TravelTriangle. He was there for one year and seven months. Starting from December 2018 to June 2020.
The company manages to fulfil the expectations of the customers. It maintains quality. It also checks and ensures that their customer gets the best deal. By choosing this company as their travel agency, TravelTriangle has built a SaaS-based customer relationship management platform. This is done to analyze customer interactions and data. The goal is to create a good business relationship with customers. Problems are always solved through technological innovation. They have built an online marketplace. It offers various quotes from verified travel agents. So, as a result, travelers plan themselves and the company ensures them the best deal.
The revenue model of the company is very simple. 5-8% of the holidays are always booked. At times it also goes up to 10% in some geographies. The company is cash efficient. As it is not a fulfilment company, it doesn’t have fulfilment costs. They are only having marketing costs. Usually, a lot of payments come to the company before getting disbursed to the suppliers. So, a network effect is built. To keep suppliers onto the platform these things help the company to grow at very low burn rates.
TravelTriangle – Funding And Investors
TravelTriangle has raised a total amount of $47.9 million in funding over the 7 funding rounds.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investors
November 18, 2019
Series D
$13 million
Fundamentrum, KB Global Platform Fund
October 17, 2018
Debt Financing
$3 million
InnoVen Capital
April 10, 2018
Series C
$12 million
Fundamentrum
February 7, 2017
Series B
$10 million
RB Investments Pte. Ltd.
April 29, 2015
Series B
$8 million
Bessemer Venture Partners
July 17, 2014
Series A
$1.7 million
Elevation Capital
June 1, 2012
Seed Round
$200, 000
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TravelTriangle is funded by 10 investors. Fundamentrum is the most recent investor.
TravelTriangle – Growth
Starting from the year 2018, the company is growing currently. The market opportunity in the company is huge. Outbound holidays are a big opportunity today which are expected to grow more by 2021 and 2025. The company is investing especially in products, technology and brand building. The company marked its growth by opening a new office in Gurgaon’s Udyog Vihar. This new office adds to the existing office in Noida. Here, it is clear that the empire is growing.
TravelTriangle – Competitors
The top competitors of the company are GoFro, ixigo, yatra and MakeMyTrip.
GoFro is a travel technology startup by the former Snapdeal executive Amitabh Misra.
Ixigo is the biggest rival of TravelTriangle. It is headquartered in Gurgaon, India.
Yatra is one of the topmost competitors of TravelTriangle. It is a public company headquartered in Gurgaon, India. It was founded in the year 2006.
MakeMyTrip is headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, India. It was founded in the year 2000. This is a travel agency industry. The company generates 10,230% of TravelTriangle’s revenue.
The goal of the company is to double the market share in the sector. The aim is to invest in technology especially in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics. It also focuses on consumer technology businesses. Also, they are planning to expand and strengthen overseas operations.
TravelTriangle – FAQ’s
What is TravelTriangle.com?
TravelTriangle is India’s first online Holiday Marketplace launched in 2011 as a platform to help travelers customize, plan and have hassle-free holidays. TravelTriangle connects travelers with verified genuine and reviewed local/expert travel agents who are already trusted by other travelers like them.
How does TravelTriangle function?
Travelers enter a request for the trip basis his/her requirements which are collected through a pre-defined form of questions. The details collected are then shared with the local/expert travel agents, who revert with their best quotes. So a traveler gets multiple quotes from multiple agents to choose from.
How is TravelTriangle different from other online travel portals?
TravelTriangle is a one-stop platform/marketplace for planning and booking a holiday package. TravelTriangle empowers travelers to compare multiple quotes from multiple travel agents, and further customize the trip as per the traveler’s preferences.
How are travel agents chosen on TravelTriangle?
There are over 650 local travel agents serving 65+ destinations and helping travelers in customizing their trips. The travel agents are put through stringent quality checks and only the best ones are taken on board. You can know about the experiences of TravelTriangle past travelers and read more about their reviews here by clicking on this link https://traveltriangle.com/testimonials.
How can I get in touch with TravelTriangle?
You can write to TravelTriangle at customercare@traveltriangle.com or give TravelTriangle a call at 1800 123 5555 between 10 am to 8 pm. TravelTriangle office locations are based out of Gurugram, Mumbai, and the USA.
What are the different modes of payment for booking a trip on Travel Triangle?
TravelTriangle have various payment options to give you a delightful booking experience:
Debit/ Credit Cards
Net Banking
NEFT Transfer
Usually Internet Bank Transfer is the cheapest mode of payment for the traveler, as for all the other modes, banks and payment gateway providers charge an extra fee which has to be borne by the customer.
TravelTriangle – Conclusion
TravelTriangle is India’s leading online holiday marketplace bringing both the travelers, and trusted & expert travel agents on a common platform. With the recent Series C funding of $12 Million from Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal backed Fundamentum in early 2018, it is on its way of encompassing all the components of holiday eco-system through its highly innovative and technology-focused product. Besides, having already raised close to a cumulative funding of $20 Million from SAIF Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and RB Investments put together, the company has already achieved operating profitability, and on track to become EBITDA profitable by next year.
Ashwini
