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 Trainman.
Don’t know your train number (PNR status)? Worried when the train is arriving? Want to know the live running status but unable to follow? Want to know whether the seats are available or not in the train? Want to know how much it will cost you to go?
No more worries, please! You don’t need to run to those brokers anymore! Become tension-free because Trainman is here to solve all of your existing problems related to the railways and offer you relief. It is a site where PNR status, seat availability, fare enquiry is possible by sitting at the comfort of your homes. Read the Trainman success story below to know more!
Trainman is a one-stop-shop for checking PNR statuses of various required trains. It’s used to check the predictions after the train tickets are booked on IRCTC. Searching for various stations in one train’s route is also done here. The time the concerned trains stop at each station is mentioned within the app properly. It’s the most preferable railway site for train’s information.
Trainman – Founders And Team
Mohammad Amir and Vineet Chirania are the founders of Trainman.
Mohammad Amir is a graduate from IIT Roorkee who graduated in the year 2010. From class 6 he has been staying away from his home so he used to travel a lot by trains.
Vineet Chirania is also graduated from IIT Roorkee. He is from Gurgaon, Haryana, India. He is a techie-turned-entrepreneur and has got 9 years of experience in this technology and internet industry field. He has got deep knowledge and a special interest in the Indian Railways.
Vineet Chirania, CEO, Trainman
Trainman – Startup Story
All have heard the name of IRCTC very well. Here online booking for the railways is done but they don’t provide you with all the information required for every passenger to know. Trainman helps you out here. Now it’s a compulsory app on every individuals mobile phone – the ones who travel by train a lot.
The company is very alert of itself and concerned with what it’s doing. It provides data to its users for the prediction that is taking place every day, so that it’s users can stay updated with the correct information and follow the changes happening. It provides trendy evidence to its users which is updated on a regular basis so that the users always remain updated rather than lagging behind with months-old information. It’s done so that nobody misses anything and can take proper decisions.
Trainman – Revenue Model
The Trainman Revenue is derived from advertisements. It also has tied up with various relevant businesses like Cleartrip which is used for flight and hotel bookings. They also tied with Jugnoo which is used for auto booking. All these help the company to generate more and share more revenues. This way they can stay bootstrapped and run profitably. The app is available in 7 Indian languages so that everyone can have proper access to it. The annual revenue of Trainman $3 million.
Trainman is bootstrapped and plans to stay so for as long as possible so tthey have raised $0 in the field of funding.
Trainman – Logo
Trainman Logo
Trainman – Competitors
The top competitors of Trainman include WAmazing, PKFARE, GrupoCDV and AirTickets.
Here all the companies mentioned above are private except one.
Air Tickets is a Subsidiary. They are the oldest ones among all competitors who came in 1949.
WAmazing is a technical travel and leisure platform. It came into existence in the year 2016.
PKFARE deals with travel and leisure. Its founding date is 2014.
Grupo CDV also deals with travel and leisure. We know them since 2015. The subsidiary ones also work for the same.
All have got various locations with a very small number of employees. PKFARE has got the highest among all competitors. The second highest is Grupo CDV.
The Trainman company is acquiring growth. It has tied up with Jugnoo – an auto-rickshaw aggregator. It will enable travellers to book three-wheelers from their respective railway stations. It will be operational in only a few cities. Recently, now it’s available in 35 cities of India. They are a Chandigarh based company. Trainman wants to expand its business this way by associating itself with various companies to acquire more growth.
Trainman – Future Goals
Currently, the company is having 5 lakh daily active users. It aims to have more and is also heading towards something technical that would bring prosperity to them and its users would enjoy as well.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is Trainman?
Trainman is a one-stop-shop for checking PNR statuses of various required trains and isused to check the predictions after the train tickets are booked on IRCTC. Searching for various stations in one train’s route is done here. The time the concerned trains stop at each station is mentioned within the app properly too.
What is the Trainman funding till date?
Trainman is a bootstrapped company.
Can you check the seat availability Trainman app?
Yes, you can check the seat availabilty on the Trainman app.
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.
Angel Broking is a company that shares the concept of demand and supply. The prices always suffer from a rise and fall. It’s the law of nature that if a company is expected to post good results, it will be reflected in a corresponding rise in it’s share price, owing to buying by the investors informed.
Technically, all the companies have got it’s own psychology to work. There are theories, there are circumstances but these all help in predicting better share price movements. Read the Angel Broking success story below.
Angel Broking is an Indian stock brokerage firm which was established in 1987 by Dinesh Thakkar. The company has got 8000+ sub – brokers and franchisee outlets in more than 850+ cities of India. Their services include stock – broking, commodity trading, advisory service, IPO, portfolio management services, mutual funds, health insurance, and life insurance.
The tagline of the company is “SERVICE TRULY PERSONALIZED.”
Portfolio management is a different aspect here so let me tell you it started in the year 2006 as another arm of the company. Areas related to investment broking publishes research reports which is the central aspect of the company.
Angel Broking – History
The company was established in the year 1987 as an Indian Stock Broking firm. It’s a member of the Bombay Stock Exchange, National Stock Exchange, National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange of India Limited. It’s a depository participant with Central Depository Services Limited. Once again, let me tell you the company holds services like commodity trading, online stock broking, loans and health insurances.
Dinesh Thakkar, is the founder of Angel Broking. He is the chairman and managing director of the company. The CEO of the company is Vinay Agarwal. The company got the CEO Award for the Best Trading Platform of the year 2018 in India.
Dinesh Thakkar, Founder, Angel Broking
Angel Broking – Business Model
The company gives you a number of enjoyable benefits if you appear to be a sub-broker. It’s a complete process. The business model of the company shares the topics-currency trading, derivatives, equity, life insurance and mutual funds as mentioned above. ‘Investment’ the word has got trust issues in today’s world. In this company, in order to invest one needs to go through sub-brokers authorized by the stock exchanges. The company provides it’s investors a support in exchange for brokerage so that both of them doesn’t suffers from any of the trust issues appearing worldwide. Here, higher brokerage is equal to higher commissions.
Angel Broking – Revenue Model
80% of the company’s revenue has been clocking from the digitized platform. From which 55% is added to mobile alone and the rest 25% is from the web. The company has made the transformation digitized so it’s a major surge by now because before the revenue used to be meager than now.
It’s a digital based broker service which consists of a network of more than 10,000+ sub – brokers which was recorded on June 30 , 2018. Mobile app was also established and it has got 850,000 downloads. There are 110 branches in India and in the year 2018 it managed to earn a profit of INR 113.02 billion in client assets an 1.11+ million active broking accounts.
Customer pays brokerage when buying or selling stocks through the company. The brokerage charges for equity, commodities and currency are all almost equal. It’s flat INR 20 per executed order and for the equity delivery it’s absolutely free. Annual maintenance charges is 300 per person for any scheme investor. The transaction fee is changed this year.
Here, in this company, customer acquisition has been made more and more accessible with various sorts of excellent facilities. Especially it’s a sub – broker platform. It helps the customers with significant leverage and advanced technologies. REMINDER – There’s no limit to growth. With holding the hands of this company you can speed your own path of achieving your career as a sub – broker. Social media helps a lot nowadays for customer acquisition. The internet has transformed the way for the sub – brokers doing their business here.
Angel Broking – Challenges Faced
Success never comes in a straight leading path. You always face hurdles, challenges in order to acquire your goal. From the last few years the company has witnessed an euphoric growth rate in the startup industry. Despite adequate funding and an unprecedented growth of 135% in just 2 years, the startup industry is grappling with inefficiencies in multiple fields. However, in India the transformation process is going on slowly towards cashless economies. The outlook for the future is most probably robust. Presently, PayTM, FreeCharge are helping a lot. Regular sandboxes has been established. Research about a product is always very compulsory before bringing it to the market. There are various rules and regulations to overcome the challenges on board. The best solution is always a promising mentorship. In the future, technology is expected to intensify further to overcome the challenging issues appearing.
Angel Broking – Growth Calculator
Whenever you are investing, it’s a natural urge that occurs to everyone’s mind that what are the returns and how am I going to get benefited by ? It’s like a tradition which is being followed over the years. Henceforth, the company uses CAGR to calculate the rate of growth annually in order to know how much beneficial it’s becoming day by day to the investors. So, it’s always wise to use an online CAGR calculator. The investor should know how compounding works. Although the CAGR calculator always helps you to find things out but it’s a 2 – way process.
The top 3 competitors of the company are Sharekhan, Motilal Oswal and Karvy.
Sharekhan is one of the top competitors of Angel Broking. It is a private company which was founded in the year 2000 in Mumbai. It has got more number of employees than Angel Broking.
Motilal Oswal is also one of the biggest rival of the company Angel Broking. It was found in the year 1987 in Mumbai. This company raises more revenue than Angel Broking.
Karvy is one among the top competitors. It was founded in the year 1979 in Hyderabad. Karvy has got more 15,000 employees than Angel Broking.
Angel Broking – Future Goals
The company has released a new brokerage plan for the sub – brokers. Angel iTrade Prime plan, where 0 brokerage is availed on delivery trades along with a flat rate of INR 20 per order for intraday, F&O, currency and commodity trading. Market research is very important for such sorts of brokerage companies. Before selecting a digitized platform research is necessary where you can compare between various brokerage plans. It’s done for a worry – free future. Currently, Angel Broking is the largest company in India in this aspect and it aspires to hold it’s first position forever. The company also launched a campaign, ‘AAGE BADHNE KA SMART SAUDA’ which showcases a smart plan for their future in India.
Angel Broking – FAQ’s
Is Angel Broking is safe?
Yes, Angel Broking is a safe stock broker for trading and investment. Angel Broking is one of the largest stock brokers. They are in the business since 1987.
Is Angel Broking good for beginners?
Unfettered access to extensive and detailed fundamental and technical research reports is one of the reasons why Angel Broking is the best stock broker for beginners in India.
Is Angel Broking good for trading?
Yes, Angel Broking is a safe stock broker for trading and investment. Angel Broking is one of the largest stock brokers. They are in the business since 1987. They are a member of BSE, NSE and MCX.
Which is Better Angel Broking vs Zerodha?
Angel Broking’s trading account opening fees (INR 600) and Demat AMC (INR 450) are higher than Zerodha that charges INR 200 for account opening and INR 300 for Demat AMC. Zerodha offers automated trading whereas Angel Broking doesn’t. Zerodha has much better self-serving and education awareness platforms than Angel Broking.
How does Angel Broking make money?
If you want to make money every day, you should indulge in intraday trading. In intraday trading, you buy and sell stocks within a day. Stocks are purchased not as a form of investment, but as a way of making a profit by harnessing the fluctuations of the stock prices.
Is there any withdrawal charges in Angel Broking?
No, there is no charge on withdrawing money from your trading account by Angel Broking. You can withdraw the balance amount in your account partially or fully at any time without any cost.
Is Angel Broking legal in India?
Yes, Angel Broking is a SEBI registered stock broker. The company’s SEBI Regn. No. is INZ000161534. In addition to SEBI, Angel Broking is also registered with CDSL, NSE, BSE, MCX, and NCDEX.
Angel Broking – Conclusion
Angel Broking Limited is one of the largest independent full-service retail broking houses in India committed in providing accurate and widespread data for every online share trader. Angel Broking is considered as a home to the independent database on the web covering the Indian online brokerage industry. Our experience of over two decades has helped us to integrate our knowledge and expertise in the broking industry with the technology we provide to our retail clients through various platforms.
There are a lot of generic expectations from a job you would look for. It can be a good salary, work timings, the manager you are going to work with and many others. But more than all these the company’s culture plays an important role in you getting satisfied with the Job.
Analyzing the Company’s culture especially through remote hiring or for a remote job is considered to be a tough process. Here are certain steps you can follow to understand and analyze the company’s work culture during the remote hiring process.
You would obviously have certain expectations regarding your job. Even if it is a remote job or a normal office going job, you will have certain must-haves in your mind. The first step is to get a clarification on it.
You should try to analyze what you are expecting from the company other than the remuneration and the benefits. You should be sure about the work-life balance you require and especially if you are working from home you will have to maintain certain boundaries.
Maybe you would be looking for a highly collaborative work environment. It can be anything but you should first realize and understand what you are expecting from the company.
After setting your expectations you should start researching about the company to understand whether this is the best company according to your expectations. You may feel that remote hiring is a disadvantage to understand all these.
But that’s not the case you have all the information you require at your fingertips. You can always try to dig into the online resources to understand more about the company such as
Website:
You can invest some time to go through the company’s website. This will give you a brief idea about how the company shows its work culture to the outside world. This can be considered as a starting point of your research activity.
You can invest more time in the company’s about and career page. This will provide you with more information about how the company’s culture would be.
Social Media:
You can always check the social media profiles or pages of the company. You can check the company’s activities, their social media posts, the content they interact with, etc. This can provide you with some insights into the culture of the company.
Blogs:
Blogs can be a valuable source of information. You can look into the company’s blogs if the company has one. They may list all the activities happening in the company. You may also find some information about the remote working culture of the company.
Employee Reviews:
You can check certain platforms where the employees leave a review about the company. While going through it you can get an understanding of the company’s culture and information regarding the company which you wouldn’t have known.
But never judge the company with just a single review always go through multiple reviews and then come to a conclusion.
Learning opportunities
Get in touch with Employees of the company
You can try getting into contact with current or former employees of the company. Nowadays you have various sources through which you can easily connect with them. LinkedIn is one of the sources which lets you connect easily with professional people.
You can get in contact with the employees and ask them various doubts you have in your mind. You can have a conversation with them and understand whether this company matches your expectations. This will give you a proper idea about the work culture of the company.
At the end of the interview, you will always get a chance to ask questions to the hiring managers. This is a chance provided by the company to answer your queries regarding the company.
You should always take this opportunity and ask the hiring managers politely. Try not to ask them in a generic way such as Tell me about your company’s culture. Instead, try making it as a conversation and putting things in a nice way.
It should look like you’re having a conversation and not shooting questions at the manager. You should use this opportunity to get all the information regarding the company.
Questions during Interview
Try to Observe Everything
You should always try to observe everything you can during the interview. Pay attention to even the minute detail. You should know the importance of attention to detail.
Particularly when you are having a remote interview you should try to grab all the information you can possibly find and take in all the clues. When you are being interviewed by the hiring managers always observe how happy they are with the job.
You can always observe keeping these questions in your mind, Are they excited about bringing someone new to the team? Or are they exhausted at the need to onboard people and train them?. You can also observe whether they are providing relevant answers and trying to solve your doubts or just rushing through them.
FAQ
What are the best jobs to work remotely?
The best jobs to work remotely are Graphic designer, Travel agent, Tutor, Freelance writer, Accountant, Freelance translator, Digital marketer, and Operations manager.
How do I hire someone remotely?
The three main steps to look when hiring someone remotely is Use hiring tools to help create a cohesive recruiting experience, Invite top candidates to a video call interview, and Put top candidates to the test with a project.
Why do companies hire remote workers?
Hiring remote workers can result in huge business savings It also reduces office costs.
Conclusion
All these would give you a basic understanding of the happiness of the employees in the company. The above points should be kept in mind before you accept a job offer through remote hiring or for a remote job.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verifiedinformation ondifferent startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
AirOk is an IIT Madras incubated startup incorporated on April 23, 2015. AirOk was launched with a vision to provide a one-stop solution for any air quality related problems. The company designs and develops cost-effective and efficient green technologies for ambient and indoor air quality management in small/medium scale industrial environment, urban built environment and waste management facilities.
Read this article to know more about AirOk Company Profile, its founder, revenue, funding, wiki, competitors, business model, products, and startup challenges.
AirOk Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is focused on addressing the issue of rising levels of air pollution with innovative solutions in air purifiers, filters, face masks, purifying bags etc. The company specializes in providing customized solutions for both residential as well as commercial set ups, including data centers. AirOk is Headquartered in Delhi, India.
Their flagship solution is EGAPA, a patented filter technology that efficiently reduces high levels of CO2, VOCs and other toxic chemicals, thereby providing a comprehensive indoor air quality solution. Besides providing innovative solutions, the company is also focused on unique designs of the products to enhance user experience and align with today’s design sense of homes and offices.
AirOk – Founders & Team
AirOk Founders & Team
V Deekshith Vara Prasad, Yasa Pavan Reddy and V S Krishna are the co-founders of AirOk Tech. Pvt. Ltd. that manufactures smart air purifier and the company is focused on addressing the issue of rising levels of air pollution.
V Deekshith Vara Prasad, Director & CEO
Deekshith is a BTech graduate in Civil Engineering at IIT Madras. Deekshith Vara Prasad has worked on air pollution since he undertook the project at his college. Deekshith worked as a project associate at IIT Madras for about a year after his graduation, during which he worked with different companies like Hyundai to assess indoor air quality. He also worked in various Indo-German projects at IIT Madras.
Yasa Pavan Reddy, Director & CTO
Pavan is a MS graduate of IIT Madras who has done his M.S by research in environmental engineering with his thesis on the application of low-cost sensors for air quality monitoring. He also has experience in various air quality, water quality and waste management projects. Yasa Pavan Reddy has 4 research publications in different international conferences.
V S Krishna, Director & COO
Krishna is a MTech graduate from the Civil Engineering at IIT Madras, V S Krishna has worked on the design of Control technologies for Industrial emissions. He has experience in Product Designing and fluid Modelling with Computational Fluid Dynamics. He has done various projects on Indoor and Ambient Air Quality testing.
AirOk has designed and developed a revolutionary combination of Air purifiers with high efficiency and performance, equipped with unique design and patented filter technology.
EGAPA Microbes Suitable for hospitals and other healthcare units, this does not just trap harmful bacteria, but kills them. Available in an affordable range, it is a good alternative for tier 2 hospitals.
EGAPA Fumes The filter is designed to remove contaminants and other sources of air pollution. It further eliminates the downtime by removing corrosive gases through the process of adsorption and chemisorption.
AirOk Breathe Safe Face mask N 99 + ANBC (Anti Nicotine Bacterial Control) AirOk Breathe safe face masks come with 5-layered fabric, which includes a charcoal layer, protecting from gaseous and other toxic pollutants. This mask not only captures the particulate matter but can also protect from pollutants, including PM 2.5, automobile gases and dust. The fabric of the mask comprises two components – spun bond polypropylene and melt blown polypropylene, thereby providing a non-woven web. Due to smaller fibers and larger surface area taken up by them, it has excellent wicking and barrier properties. So together, they can create a strong product that can also offer a barrier to fluids and particles.
AirOk Natural These are 0dour removal bags for your small indoor spaces, helping you maintain a fresh environment. AirOk Natural odour removal bags go well with your washrooms, car cabins, shoe racks and closets, maintaining an odour-free environment. They are fragrance free, non-toxic and can be used for up to three years.
While undertaking a project at IIT Madras, AirOk founder Deekshith Vara Prasad did a survey on different Indoor air quality solutions. He identified gaps in terms of existing filter technologies (HEPA) and solutions it could not provide in terms of air purification.
When he pursued his tryst for further developing the technology for a comprehensive Indoor air quality solution, he came up with EGAPA (trademark registered to AirOk) filter technology. After seeing the results of the first prototype, he was confident that he had developed something unique, which the market actually requires.
AirOk – Business Model & Revenue Model
The company does direct sales as well as sales through partners and distributors. Ensuring clean air is a service for them. It collaborates with corporate clients as clean air partner for a period of 5 years and provide solution in the form of service. AirOk has done this already with several Fortune500 companies.
One thing that clearly sets them apart from competition is their technical background. Their strength has been technology since inception and they have partnered with their customers more as a clean air consultant rather than sales company.
AirOk – Startup Challenges
AirOk was started with the vision to become a one-stop solution for any air quality related problems. The issue that they have identified is that the incumbent indoor air quality solutions are able to solve the problems just partially, by eliminating few parameters in the indoor air.
The target was to develop a comprehensive indoor air quality solution and they went on to develop unique patented filter technology for the same. During this process, they have faced challenges such as validating the technology by a third-party organization, considering that it is a first of its kind in the league. Finally, they have identified a standard test protocol to validate to the technology that has helped them get into the market.
The company raised 2 million USD from SAR group in 2017 and used the funds in product manufacturing, launching the same in various markets and future product development. Within two years after their first round of investment, they have grown multi-fold and become profitable. They are now planning to go for second round of funding in next 12 months.
AirOk – Competitors
The USP of the company is its patented filter technology EGAPA – Efficient Granular Adsorbent Particulate Arrestor. Indoor Air quality problem can’t be generalized always to PM2.5. EGAPA was developed to solve the specific problems in various indoor spaces. Each Indoor environment requires its own solution after scientifically assessing the air quality and analyzing the data.
Indoor air quality problem can’t be generalized as it’s not uniform at all places. What differentiates AirOk from competition is that they work closely with their clients as clean air consultants, by addressing their specific air quality needs rather than being a knocking salesman.
AirOk – Growth
First 1.5 years of their journey was dedicated to product development and validation, till early 2017. Once the product got third-party validation from NABL accredited lab, they started raising funds for manufacturing and initial market entry. By the end of 2017, they successfully raised 2-million-dollars funding, enabling the company launch its product in July 2018.
During the initial three months after launch, the co-founders personally conducted product demos at various office spaces in Chennai, in a bid to understand the customer needs. Based on the valuable inputs, they entered the Delhi market and there was no looking back after that.
They are near to touching one-million dollar in revenue this financial year (2020) with a 10x growth rate. The best part of their growth is that they have established themselves as a profitable entity despite launching product in a segment that already comprises almost 300 brands in India.
AirOk Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is focused on addressing the issue of rising levels of air pollution with innovative solutions in air purifiers, filters, face masks, purifying bags etc. The company specializes in providing customized solutions for both residential as well as commercial set ups, including data centers.
Who is the Founder of AirOk?
V Deekshith Vara Prasad, Yasa Pavan Reddy and V S Krishna are the co-founders of AirOk Tech. Pvt. Ltd. that manufactures smart air purifier and the company is focused on addressing the issue of rising levels of air pollution.
How does AirOk make money?
The company does direct sales as well as sales through partners and distributors. Ensuring clean air is a service for them. They collaborate with corporate clients as clean air partner for a period of 5 years and provide solution in the form of service.
How much funding has AirOk raised?
The company raised 2 million USD from SAR group in 2017and used the funds in product manufacturing, launching the same in various markets and future product development.
AirOk – Conclusion
AirOk has developed the country’s first novel, indigenous air purifier – Vistar. Powered by an EGAPA (Efficient Granular Adsorbent Particulate Arrester), Vistar can filter a variety of pollutants such as particulate matter, microbes, fungus and gaseous substances. The product’s superior technology has been validated by lab and field tests. The positive results of the lab tests done by Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, Bengaluru and field trials conducted by Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Child Trust Hospital, Chennai are a testimony to the team’s ability to develop first-in-class solutions. AirOk launched Vistar air-purifier which will have a coverage area of 550 square feet.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified and updated information ondifferent organization. The content in this article has been approved by the organization itself.
It will not be wrong to say that technology is ruling our lives. From homes to offices, to factories, we are gradually shifting dependence to various AI based products. Many new AI based products are being developed to take care of different tasks. Silversparro, a startup based in Bangalore is using AI to help you supervise your production units, shop floors and offices to ensure better productivity and less chances of mishap.
Silversparro Technologies has come out with SparroSense, an AI-powered Supervisor for Manufacturing, Heavy Industry, and large facilities. SparroSense is a video analytics platform that analyzes feed from the existing CCTV cameras through real-time analysis. It is useful to detect inefficiencies, raise alerts, monitor productivity to increase capacity utilization directly from increasing revenues. The SparroSense suite is used and recommended by leading Steel, Metal, Auto industries across India and US.
Sparrosense Video Analytics Platform can help clients analyze their CCTV footage for monitoring people. The platform can be integrated with existing CCTV infrastructure. The processing of the videos usually takes place on the edge or the cloud. The business results are delivered on a dashboard through alerts to make sure each solution delivers an impact on the business.
Sparrosense AI Apps are ready to use models for frequently used cases like Face Recognition based attendance, Alerts for missing helmets, Productivity monitoring etc. It also provides a customized solution for monitoring end to end production pipelines.
Silversparro -Technologies Offered
To detail further, Silversparro’s services include –
Sparrosense Logo
Sparrosense Video Analytics Suite:
Sparrosense suite enables quick, easy & comprehensive -AI powered CCTV video analytics for manufacturing, heavy industries and large facilities – powering fully automated ‘people’ and ‘process’ monitoring – unleashing capacity utilization leading to large revenue gains and cost optimizations.
Sparrosense leverages best of cloud & edge technology – powering Apps for SMEs as well as Custom Use Cases for Enterprise. The same suite is also powers video analytics based – sorting, quality check and conveyor belt automation for large manufacturing.
Sparrosense Plug & Play Video Analytics Apps:
Face recognition application
Work productivity measurement
Customer demography assessment
Intrusion detection
Helmet detection
Sparrosense Video Analytics for Enterprise – sample case studies:
Process monitoring at large steel manufacturing and casting plant
Video Analytics market is estimated to be about 14B USD. However, as currently surveillance use cases of Video analytics are considered by most researchers, according to the Silversparro founders, the actual market size is bigger than estimated and has huge scope for further expansion.
We see Video Analytics based solutions as a major tool for driving Industry 4.0. which is poised to reach USD 155.30 Billion By 2024 – quotes Silversparro CEO Abhinav Kumar Gupta
Silversparro aims to be at the forefront of technological transformation. They believe AI-powered vision analytics is going to fundamentally change the world of business. The technology is evolving at such a fast pace that any and every task that involves humans visually monitoring or supervising people or processes will be fully automated or at least enabled by AI.
Silversparro – USP
The nightmare for many manufacturing firms is the fact that they need to depend on floor supervisors to manage their production lines. This sometimes may lead to a delay in further processes.
SparroSense suite takes care of this problem and enables top management team with the direct view of the status of their production lines via Video Analytics. It not only can predict delays but can also recommend steps to prevent such delays. This eventually leads to increased capacity utilization that can speed up higher production along with revenue without making major capital investments.
The unique USP of Sparrosense lies on the fact that it can ensure different solutions to run seamlessly on cloud, edge, and combination of both. The platform can serve clients across different locations with a wide variety of constraints of network bandwidth. The second aspect of unique innovation lies within the inbuilt mechanism to train continuously and deploy models iteratively. The models are extremely efficient and require low processing powers that save businesses from GPU processing cost.
The company started with providing Deep Learning APIs and have become an application provider by providing handholding and long term support to clients for leveraging advantages of AI solutions.
Ravikant Bhargav, Abhinav Kumar Gupta and Ankit Agarwal are the founders of Silversparro.
Most of the fascinating ideas brew during the college years. We all will agree to that. The team of Silversparro is no different. Ravikant Bhargav, Abhinav Kumar Gupta, Ankit Gupta were all hostel mates at IIT Delhi when the idea of a startup hits their mind.
Silversparro Co-founder, Ravikant Bhargav
Ravikant Bhargav was in 5-year integrated B. Tech and M. Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi. He joined Make My Trip and worked there for 2 years working on developing and scaling their Hotel’s product. Then he joined Bharti Airtel as part of the Wynk team making it robust to handle the scale of songs as well as the users. Currently, Ravikant is R&D head and leads the core AI development ensuring every client with cutting edge research work and coming out with the best possible ideas. He is also responsible for hiring AI researchers and engineers.
Silversparro Co-founder & CTO, Ankit Agarwal
Ankit Agarwal did BTech. in Electrical from IIT Delhi – joined Skiva technologies working on embedded systems – building smart routers. He was then part of Infollion developing their core product post which he founded Silversparro along with Abhinav. He leads development of products and client solutions at Silversparro. Ankit Agarwal is currently CTO at Silversparro, who works closely with the clients to ensure smooth delivery of business values. He builds on products and ensures their scalability across cloud and edge. Passionate about technology, Ankit is also interestingly seen repairing various Laptops, computers, servers and other hardware in the office.
Abhinav Kumar Gupta passed out of IIT Delhi (Engineering Physics) in 2010. Abhinav entered world of consulting and worked with KPMG for a year helping implementation of various government digital projects. He then spent two years working with BCG consulting for large banks and financial institutions leading transformation of branch banking and digital channels. He also led diagnostic business for Moolchand healthcare before taking the plunge and starting Silversparro. Abhinav Kumar Gupta is the CEO and leads Sales, Marketing and other business aspects at Silversparro. He monitors the clients closely and ensures their businesses hit maximum success.
Silversparro – Name, Tagline & Logo
Sometimes there are interesting stories around coming up with names and we can’t afford to miss it. Silversparro founders have their version of the story to tell.
Silversparro Logo
When we started – we were fascinated by the potential of drones and registered our company. Silversparro made sense as the name of drone company as drones appear like ‘sparrows’ shining like ‘silver’ in the sky”. But we realized that drones are by themselves not sufficient to provide the business advantage. Unless the images and videos which are generated by these drones are analyzed. So, we started learning about computer vision and video analytics and soon pivoted entirely. But all of us liked the name ‘Silversparro’ and we are still continuing with the name – Abhinav quotes.
For every company to get its initial set of customers is a challenging task. Silversparro was no different. Their first client was a company which Abhinav once approached for an interview.
I had an interview with one of the companies sometime back – and during the interview, it came up that they needed an AI computer vision solution to extract information from receipt images. Though I did not join the company, later when we started up – we reached out to the company and offered to build the required computer vision solution from them. This was how we got our first user and how our startup was born – Abhinav quotes
Silversparro acquires most of its users through word of mouth and via a network of investors, colleagues and customers.
Silversparro – Startup Challenges
The AI models that Silversparro creates heavily depend on client’s data for their accuracy – but clients were initially very reluctant to share their data with them. The team worked patiently over the past several years to build close relationships with clients and develop trust. Once, the clients see the value they become comfortable in the partnership.
Another consistent challenge is hiring. AI talent is extremely scarce and extremely expensive – so the company have developed a path to nurture and grow AI talent within the company. They hire really smart engineers and train them through online courses as well as real client problems to develop them as AI engineers and researchers. This approach has really worked for them for their success.
Initially, Silversparro offered its solutions as APIs, which was not much effective in terms of revenue. This lead the company to evolve the model from API to fully formed product which offered full value to the clients. The company also added a services component where it works extremely closely with the clients to help them integrate the solutions and ensure the complete realization of business value.
Silversparro – Business Model & Revenue Model
Sparrosense AI apps are based on the monthly subscription model. The price may vary from 50 USD to 300 USD per camera per month depending upon the use case. The commercial model of the company is a combination of development charges and quarterly subscription to the Sparrosense Edge and Cloud Platform. The overall commercial solutions range from 5000 USD to 25000 USD per month.
Silversparro – Funding & Investors
Silversparro has raised funding worth $365K in two rounds till date.
The team is deeply thankful for the entire startup ecosystem along with special gratitude to Rajesh Sawhney, Anand Chandrasekaran, and Sri Peddu from Power House Ventures. Their combined efforts and suggestions have helped the startup to grow progressively until today.
Rajesh has helped us navigate fund raising and connected us with various investors and customers. Anand has helped us with shaping our product vision. Sri Peddu has always been encouraging especially during low points in our journey.
Silversparro was mentioned amongst top AI startups by Head of Niti Aayog.
Silversparro has been mentioned as the top video analytics companies.
Abhinav represented Silversparro on NDTV panel for ‘The New face of Artificial Intelligence’
Silversparro – Future Plans
For the past 6 months, the company has operationally break even. It has also worked with reputed companies like Viacom18, Aditya Birla Finance Limited, Nephroplus, CrownIt and Policy Bazaar. Silversparro has also recently added clients in core manufacturing – Merino Laminates Industries and PTC Industries Limited and are in pilots with large manufacturing clients in India and the US.
In the long term the company wants to build a comprehensive suite of Video Analytics Products & Services to enable productivity enhancement for every Industry.
Silversparro – FAQ’s
Who are the Founders of Silversparro?
Ravikant Bhargav, Abhinav Kumar Gupta, and Ankit Gupta are the founders of Silversparro.
Who is the CEO of Silversparro?
Abhinav Kumar Gupta is the CEO and leads Sales, Marketing, and other business aspects at Silversparro. He monitors the clients closely and ensures their businesses hit maximum success.
What is Sparrosense AI Supervisor?
Sparrosense AI Supervisor is a new tool for manufacturing facilities to monitor people and processes on their shop floors using the power of video analytics. Sparrosense provides new data & insights to solve delays, drive productivity and optimize various processes.
At what locations is the Sparrosense AI Supervisor available?
Sparrosense AI Supervisor is currently available only in India and the USA.
Will Sparrosense team also provide on-premise server?
Sparrosense does not provide on-premise servers but we would be happy to connect you to third-party hardware providers.
Would I be able to integrate data generated by Sparrosense AI Supervisors back to my Automation or BI systems?
Sparrosense comes with built-in APIs using which you may directly pull data from Sparrosense databases to your existing BI and automation systems.
Silversparro – Conclusion
Sparrosense AI Supervisor monitors people and process using the power of video analytics. Sparrosense AI Supervisor is a new tool for manufacturing facilities to monitor people and processes on their shop floors using the power of video analytics. Sparrosense provides new data & insights to solve delays, drive productivity and optimize various processes.
Provides data for processes which previously went unmonitored and unrecorded in real-time, works 24*7 and fully automatically.
Predicts delays by comparing the process timings against SOPs and prevents them by sending alerts and reminders via WhatsApp to workers & supervisors in real-time.
Enables diagnosis and optimizations of manual processes by easy data analytic tools.
In the recent years, Podcasts have been one of the most flourishing content. It is considered to be the next big thing in the content industry. Every time someone talks about a podcast the first mobile application that comes to everyone’s mind is Spotify. In this article, we will discuss about the best alternative mobile applications you can use instead of Spotify. You can use these to listen to your favourite podcasts.
Pocket Casts is one of the best alternative apps which you can use instead of Spotify. It is an app that you can use to listen to a wide range of podcasts. It has a lot of features an easy user interface, light and dark themes, etc.
Their search and filtering options are really useful. Some of their useful features include trim silence, increasing the variable speed between 5x and 3x, volume boost, chapter navigation, etc. The platform even provides apple watch controls.
Pocket casts
Another useful feature of the platform is that they have a sync option. This will let you pick the podcast from where you left in another device.
The platform works on the basis of a freemium model which means it is free to use but it also has a paid subscription model. The mobile app is available for both Android and IOS users.
Downloads (Android) – 1m+
Playstore Rating – 4.3
Size (Android) – 9.9mb
Google Podcasts
Google had released its own podcast app in June 2018. Google uses AI for transforming the podcasts for better. They provide smarter recommendations through their podcast platform. They use AI for suggesting the podcasts according to your likes and interests.
Google Podcast
You can listen to any of your favourite podcasts which include popular shows like The Daily, Modern Love, The Bill Simmons Podcast, and many more. Google Podcast mobile application is available for both android and IOS users.
Downloads (Android) – 50m+
Playstore Rating – 4.7
Size (Android) – 1.9mb
Player FM
Player FM is a platform that lets you play and manage podcasts across different platforms and hence it is a multiplatform mobile application. You can use Player FM and play podcasts on your web, mobile, and even smart watches. They provide access to over 20 million podcast episodes and recently they had partnered with Podcast hosts Libsyn and Buzzsprout.
PlayerFm
Their content library will be updated multiple times during the day which lets you access the trending shows and the most recent releases. They have around 20 million podcast episodes with more than 500 sub categories concentrating on different niches.
The platform is consistently ranked in the top 10 podcast player apps worldwide. The mobile application is available for both android and IOS users.
Downloads (Android) – 5m+
Playstore Rating – 4.6
Size (Android) – 28mb
Castbox
Castbox is another app that can be a replacement for Spotify. This platform was launched in the year 2018 but has gained a lot of popularity and great reviews in such a short span of time. They have some impressive features which make them quite different.
Castbox Podcast
The platform has won many awards from Google and Apple in the last couple of years. The platform is available for both android and IOS users. It is also available on Amazon Echo Skill, Apple Watch, and CarPlay support.
Downloads (Android) – 10m+
Playstore Rating – 4.7
Size (Android) – 37mb
Laughable
Laughable is a podcast app that focuses more on comedy. The application even provides various other options for podcast listeners.
Through laughable you can subscribe to podcasts of all genres and also directly to thousands of Comedians, actors, athletes, journalists, musicians, politicians, and authors. They let you subscribe and listen to people who are worth listening to.
It is very easy to find your favourite podcast and to listen to their newly released podcasts. The application has been featured on the apple store a couple of times.
Laughable has unique features and data. For example, the Laughable artist graph. This is a feature that shows how the audience overlaps the top podcasters and comedians. The mobile application is available for both android and IOS users.
Downloads (Android) – 10k+
Playstore Rating – 4.0
Size (Android) – 10mb
Stitcher
It is one of the most famous apps for listening to podcasts. The application has won many awards. One of the best features of the platform is that you can search on the basis of episodes not just the entire podcast.
Stitcher
Stitcher also works on the basis of a freemium model and has a paid subscription model as well where you can remove ads and listen to original shows. Stitcher lets you create playlists, find new podcasts, listen to the news, and so on.
The mobile application is available for both android and IOS users.
Downloads (Android) – 5m+
Playstore Rating – 2.6
Size (Android) – 25mb
FAQ
What is a podcast and how do they work?
A podcast is a series of episodes. These episodes are audio files that are likely stored with a podcast hosting company.
Are podcasts for free?
Yes, there are many podcast available for free.
What are the best podcasts 2020?
The top 5 podcast of 2020 are Nice White Parents, Code Switch, Staying In With Emily and Kumail, You Must Remember This, and Outsiders.
Conclusion
These are some of the best alternative apps you can use to listen to podcasts instead of Spotify.
Jon Oringer is an American Entrepreneur, who is well known for establishing a stock media and editing tools provider, Shutterstock. He is a programmer, photographer and a billionaire businessman. He discovered “one of the Web’s first pop-up blockers” while studying in college during 1990s. He assiduously found ten more startups that were used to sell his own software products through subscription method. He has received a number of business awards. In 2012, he received Ernst & YoungNew York’s Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award. He is serving as the Board Member at Partnership for New York City since December 2013. He holds an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, as of 1st December 2020.
Jon was born and brought up in Scarsdale, New York. At age 5, he started learning computer programming and started coding. He used to code “simple games and plug-ins for bulletin board systems” through his Apple IIe. He developed a hobby of clicking pictures in his early teens.
He resides in West Village, in Manhattan. He became a certified commercial helicopter pilot in the year 2012. He pays around $42 million for his Miami Beach mansion, that itself marks a record.
Jon Oringer- Education
Jon completed his formal education from Scarsdale High School (1988-1992). In 1993, he was enrolled in Stony Brook University with a Bachelor of Science specialized in Computer Science and Mathematics. He received his graduation degree in 1996. He then pursued Master of Science focused in Computer Science from Columbia University (1996-1998).
Jon Oringer- Professional Life
He started making money from an early age by taking guitar lessons. He eventually went on to fix computers outside his parents house and found it more remunerative. He started selling his own software products on the internet while studying in college. He discovered and sold thousands of copies of what Forbes describes as “one of the Web’s first pop-up blockers.”
While pursuing his post graduation at Columbia University, he continued to develop products to adjunct the pop-up blocker through a subscription model. The subscription-based method initiated the growth of sales in “personal firewalls, trademark managers, accounting software, cookie blockers” and other small programs.
He asserts that he was the sole employee at those ten startups that he founded initially. He released new online tools and projects like Spectrum, a new image discovery tools in March 2013. In June 2013, he launched a subscription-based online marketplace for instructional videos named Skillfeed.
Shutterstock also launched Offset, a marketplace emphasizing high end curated photos and few months later, the company formerly launched its first Android app. He also founded SurfSecret Software, a privacy and security software company, where he served as Founder and CEO for 5 years (January 1998- January 2003).
Jon Oringer- Founder Of Shutterstock
Shutterstock Logo
Jon serves as the Founder & Executive Chairman of Shutterstock, headquartered in New York. He served as a CEO at Shutterstock. However, he announced in February 2020 that he would renounce his CEO position and serve as the Executive chairman from April 2020. Now Jon Oringer is Executive Chairman at Shutterstock. Stan Pavlovsky is the new CEO since April2020.
The company operates in more than 150 countries and 20 languages.
He founded Shutterstock in 2003 with an aim to provide microstock photography, which has been traded publicly on theNew York Stock Exchange since 2012. Thereafter, he became New York’s first tech billionaire in 2013. As of March 2016, Shutterstock had over 100,000 contributors with 1.9 million active customer base in 150 countries.
As of 2006, the company became the largest subscription-based stock photo agency in the world with 570,000 images in its collection, headed by Jon. Shutterstock acquired its rival credit based microsoft photography agency, Bigstock in 2009. In 2011, the company debuted with Shutterstock for iPad, which can be accessed for free.
Jon made Shutterstock public by issuing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange on 17 October, 2012. Post that, he owned 55 % of Shutterstock, largely through the personal investments that he made for the company.
Jon Oringer- Business idea
Jon thought of establishing Shutterstock when he realized that emails with photos were received better than without. The idea emerged while he was going through a mailing list to market his software. It was getting difficult for him to find affordable generic stock photos online.
He then thought the idea of microstock photography with an aim to sell images over the internet at a lower range of prices. He funded his startup entirely with his own savings and handled all roles solely, including customer service. He advertised Shutterstock on major platforms like, Google AdWords.
He was a passionate photographer as well. Thus, he purchased a Canon Rebel camera to take pictures for a new stock-photo marketplace that offered its services to advertisers and microstock photography.
He captured about 100,000 images within six months. He then posted a gleaned collection of 30,000 images with a new website named Shutterstock. He made these photographs available through a subscription model, which would enable unlimited downloads and a monthly starting fee of $49.
Initially, he hired his friends to serve as models for the stock photos. Gradually, he hired a photo director to organize shoots for the company. However, with an increase in demand, he exceeded his photo supply. He eventually became an agent and hired additional contributors and reviewers to ensure quality check and editorial consistency.
Jon Oringer- Honors & Awards
Business Insider named him the coolest person in all of New York technology in 2013.
He was recognized as one of Crain’s New York class of 2013 40 under 40.
He received Ernst & Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year of New York in June 2012.
In 2009, he was selected 41st on the Silicon Alley 100, which is an annual list of the 100 most influentialentrepreneurs, executives, investors, and technologists in Manhattan.
Jon Oringer, Founder and Executive Chairman of Shutterstock , was inducted into the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame in a special ceremony at Stony Brook’s annual Engineering Ball on April 25, 2019.
Jon Oringer at Stony Brook University
Jon Oringer – FAQs
Who is the Founder of Shutterstock?
Jon Oringer is the Founder of Shutterstock.
Who is the CEO of Shutterstock?
Jon Oringer served as a CEO of Shutterstock till march 2020. Now, he is an Executive Chairman at Shutterstock. Stan Pavlovsky is the CEO of Shutterstock since April 2020.
What is the net worth of Jon Oringer?
The Net worth of Jon Oringer is $1.5 billion.
How many customers does Shutterstock have?
Shutterstock has 1.9 million active customers in around 150 countries.
Every business owner and entrepreneur understands the importance of customer satisfaction. Happy customers can either make a company or break one if their demands are not met.
This is why much of a company’s resources are dedicated to customer support. Satisfied customers are key to the smooth running of any business. However, in order to satisfy your customers, you first need to communicate with them.
Assuming you have an online presence on multiple platforms, how much time do you think your team has to spend logging in and out of social networks to respond to different customers?
Not only is switching channels a pain for your team, but you might also miss out on important comments and messages that will in turn damage your customer support.
Juphy is a tool that allows companies to manage their customer support and engagement services on social media from one inbox. To put it simply, Juphy enables users and companies to simplify the customer service experience and saves time for support teams.
It also allows users to manage and respond to all social conversations in a unified inbox.
Juphy has a single unified inbox where users can respond to their audience’s queries and comments. If you are an agency you can also create different workspaces for multiple brands and manage all their social channels in one platform.
You will be able to quickly respond to comments, direct messages, reviews, emails, and mentions from one dashboard with a single click.
Having multiple support team members log in and out of platforms makes it a messy task to manage. Juphy makes this process simpler by making teams work together without having to juggle between platforms.
Add team members to Juphy to collaborate on customer tickets and engagements in real-time. Provide faster and better service to your customers without missing a message.
If your company is outsourcing support, you can even gather, call-center, agency, and remote teams in one place.
Juphy’s Team Collaboration Dashboard
Organized Inbox
Organizing messages in a way that you can respond to them as soon as possible is key to good customer support. Use the auto-tagging feature to set rules to automatically classify incoming messages based on keywords and act on specific customer interactions.
You can also search for specific customers or topics to quickly find a message across multiple social platforms.
Easy communication
Good communication is the only way to a customer’s heart and wallet. Juphy makes it easy to communicate with customers by allowing you to respond to ticket requests and social messages directly from the dashboard.
You can also communicate with your team members directly on the platform making it faster and easiest to solve customer inquiries.
Juphy’s detailed reports help users manage their entire customer support workflow. It allows users to view stats like number of tickets, messages sent, resolved and average first response time to get a better idea of how your customer support team functions.
Juphy – Insights dashboard
These reports make it easier to see where there are opportunities to improve things like productivity and response time to achieve ultimate customer satisfaction.
All data is securely stored in the Netherlands. The web-server providers are DigitalOcean Inc. and MongoDB, Inc.
Do you support IMAP / POP3 accounts?
Custom email integrations are number one priority in the public roadmap. A development team is currently working on it and are planning to launch within the next 2 months.
Do you have a Slack integration?
Yes, Slack integration is available for notification purposes. You can be notified of your new messages on Juphy through Slack.
Do you support Instagram DM’s?
Facebook recently released their closed-beta for Instagram Direct messages. Already contacted Facebook and we are going to implement it as soon as they allow to do so.
Do you have a white-label feature for agencies?
It’s one of the top priorities in the product roadmap
How can I change my workspace name?
1) Click on your workspace from the top left
2) Click “Teams”
3) Click on the new workspace name in the middle screen and change it accordingly
With Juphy, you don’t need to fumble between browser tabs, remember passwords or input captchas just to respond to a customer. You can simply consolidate all your support requests and queries in one time-saving, cross platform social inox that takes team collaboration a piece of cake.
Eliminate engaging with customers through multiple platforms. Save yourself and your members time and effort by signing up for Juphy.
Being able to communicate is one of the best qualities an entrepreneur or a business owner could have. Therefore, effective communication becomes key in every aspect of your business.
For instance, if you have a new product or service you want to sell to your customers, you need to be able to convey the message in a proper way through all the right channels. The marketing strategies of all businesses revolve around proper communication between the brand and its customers. This is why it becomes all the more important to get your team in perfect harmony with an all-in-one web platform that effortlessly combines collaboration and messaging.
Rake is a web platform that offers a centralized messaging hub that simplifies workplace and omni-channel messaging with easy-to-use tools.
Rake allows users access to critical team collaboration tools like direct messages and channel conversations. These features will help you and your team to be on the same page.
Not only can you communicate effectively with your team, with Rake you can do more. Rake will help you connect to your social media fans, site visitors, and prospective clients. This will in turn help you boost your conversation rate, improve customer service and most importantly increase your sales.
Rake – Omnichannel feature
Messaging Platform
Rake is one of the best messaging platforms out there. It has features that allow users to share their ideas, messages, announcements, files, links, documents, calendar appointments, images, and more.
It incorporates many features from other popular collaboration and chat tools.
Knowledge Base
With the knowledge base feature, Rake allows you to keep track of key information and FAQs without any hassle. You can even extend this feature to your website, which integrates perfectly into active chat conversations for your customers.
Searchable chats
One of the best features of Rake is that you can search all your chat conversations and find the information you were looking for. You can perform searches across conversations with filters by customer, date, platform, channel, user, and more.
Customizable live chat
You can instantly activate this feature by simply adding a single line of JavaScript. Since all the settings are managed on the server-side, all you have to do is install and forget it. Such low maintenance strategies are easier to carry out and without wasting any time.
Rake has a website visitor monitoring feature, which allows you to get real-time notifications about new site visitors with a history of their location and which site brought them to you.
Rake – website monitoring feature
Task management
Rake’s task management feature has a simple and clean interface where you can use Task types to define, due dates, workflows, assignees, and Webhooks so your team can always be accountable and be on track for success.
A workspace could be any business, organization or group. Rake helps all of the workspace’s stakeholders (internal and external) connect, engage, and manage all forms of messaging in an organized way. A new workspace starts with the workspace owner, this is a role that allows that user to invite other users, create focused channels, build-out task types, knowledge base articles, and workflows.
Can I reach out to my site visitors and offer help?
Yes, you can! Rake plans include features like visitor invitations through which you can engage with your visitors
Is the live chat option with customers available on my mobile?
Yes, FREE mobile apps for iOS and Android devices offer full messaging functionality. With Rake, you can keep chatting on the go, anywhere with an internet connection.
Just because you have a large team does not necessarily mean you have to buy a bunch of different software just to get in touch with your team. You can’t afford to waste your time or your team’s trying to get everyone on the same page.
As a business owner or team leader, you must focus on the business and let Rake do the rest for you. It will create a centralized communication hub so that your team has all the information they would need to carry on their work and you don’t even have to break a sweat.
Life, as we know, ended with the advent of 2020. It ushered in a new and scary era by introducing us to COVID-19. This puzzle remains unsolved even after toils by the best minds in the world. We now talk about life before and after the pandemic.
Nothing remains untouched, and one of the most affected is the food business, particularly food delivery. Zomato is the forerunner in this industry in India. And it is only apt that their business performance is seen as an example.
Zomato had reported a revenue of $192 million on a loss of $277 million in the financial year 2018-19. Then, in 2019-20, it doubled its earnings (revenue) reporting levels of $394 million on a loss of $293 million.
Zomato acquired competitor Uber Eats in January 2020 gaining market share to increase GMV by 108%. In figures, the GMV increased from $718 million in financial 2019 to $1.49 billion in the financial year 2020.
But as COVID-19 gained pace in the country, India responded starting a lockdown in March. The food delivery GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) was at an all-time low, reducing by 80% in the last week of Match 2020 (comparing with GMV at its peak in mid-February 2020).
Zomato—During Pandemic
In June 2020 quarter, Zomato had a revenue of $41 million on a loss of $12 million. These figures show the evident effects of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across India. But a positive impact was that the burn rate was reduced. It was expected to stand under $1 million and by July 2020 the monthly revenues started showing a steady rise reaching 60% of pre-COVID levels.
Zomato—Now
Following Goyal’s prediction, the recovery has now been over 80% in August 2020 and finally reached pre-COVID levels by October 2020. He further expects the food delivery business to grow 15-25 percent month on month. He informs that Zomato has done 9.2 crore deliveries since March with no reported transmission through delivery. The road through slow and rocky, persistence has still yielded results.
Zomato—Steps Taken For Continued Business
Precautions Taken By Zomato Delivery Partners During Pandemic
Zomato recognized that they have to take initiatives for survival in the hostile business atmosphere. There were a series of steps taken that lay down an example of a strong spirit and determination. We look at a few of these:
Contactless Dining: Introduced in India and eight other countries, patrons were offered contactless dining when they visited a restaurant. People were able to enjoy the dining experience without any interaction with restaurant staff or touching menu cards.
Contactless Food Delivery: A similar concept to contactless dining, here food was delivered without direct interaction with the delivery person. The food is left at an agreed point and picked up by the customer.
Temperature checks: All delivery partners have their temperatures checked when they reach the restaurant to pick up delivery before the order is handed out. This is then mentioned on the receipt for the benefit and information of the customers.
Aarogya Setu App: Zomato made it mandatory for all delivery partners to download and use the government-backed Aarogya Setu app.
Mask and Sanitizers: Mask and sanitizers have become a must at all times and for everyone. Zomato provided washable and reusable masks as well as sanitizers to all working delivery partners. Where they were unable to do this, they have reimbursed partners upon purchase o masks and sanitizers.
Training: All delivery staff was provided training on contactless delivery to ensure bot the parties remain safe during harsh times. This also included training on safety measures as recommended by WHO for delivery as well as personal fronts.
Restaurant safety: Zomato ensured that all partner restaurants implemented safety measures. They also shared all information with the user so they are assured of the safety measures and hygiene standards. This helps in making an informed decision. Restaurants also had to issue a declaration that they were following measures.
Insurance: Zomato has added OPD coverage of up to INR 5000 to cover potential testing costs for partners. In case of infection, they are also covered by insurance for medical expenses and any loss of earnings.
Disabling Cash on Delivery: Cash on delivery was disabled to avoid any contact and safety reasons.
Precautions Taken By Zomato Restaurant Partners During Pandemic
Zomato—Ventures
Zomato’s primary business model has been the food delivery business. But it also had a small niche segment of delivering groceries, fruits, and vegetables. This venture was called Zomato markets.
During the imposed lockdown in March and further, increasing numbers of COVID-19 swept India, people decided to go out of home less and less. The availability of daily essentials via Zomato was a lucrative option as bigger competitors like Big Basket and Amazon struggles to deliver. Zomato was able to deliver with ties to small and medium local shops.
However, once lockdown became relaxed, it faced stiff competition from new and old competitors alike. Eventually, it did exit this business and decided to focus on the food delivery business model as it started reaching pre-COVID levels.
Another interesting venture is Zomato’s Feed Daily Wager program under the aegis of Feed India campaign. It collected over 30 crores during the pandemic for this cause and was able to provide over 65 million meals to the daily wage earners who lost their means to earn.
Also, under this program, they delivered rations kits which would contain up to 100 meals for the family. More than 100,000 of these kits have already been delivered over the pandemic period.
What precautions did Zomato take while delivering the Food?
Some of the precaution taken while delivering Food Products during this Pandemic were-
Contactless Delivery
Face masks
Disabling COD
What is Contactless Delivery?
Zomato launched a contactless delivery option that allowed the customer to opt option for the delivery partner to leave the package outside their home, ensuring no human-to-human interaction and hence lowering the risk of any transmission.
How Zomato educated its delivery partners?
Zomato was involved in continuously educating its delivery partners on hygiene practices (not to touch face, nose, sneeze in the elbow, etc.) to ensure their own as well as the ecosystem’s safety.
Why did Zomato disabled the COD option?
Zomato temporarily disabled the COD (cash-on-delivery) option on its app for safety reasons and to avoid contact between the customers and delivery partners.
What is Zomato Gold Support Fund?
Zomato launched the Zomato Gold Support Fund with the goal of helping out the restaurants that were finding it difficult to support their workers during the pandemic.
How Zomato helped people who were directly affected by COVID-19?
Zomato provided services to the quarantine facilities that were essential during this pandemic. It was very important for Zomato to find more than just a few ways to help the community fight against this pandemic. Zomato teamed up with Apollo Hospitals to deliver food to those who were in isolation wards, in their quarantine facilities.
Zomato—Conclusion
It was unimaginable to think of the world that we live in today. The most important lesson probably is being human and having humanity in these times. All of us need to rise above individuals and support each other as a community.
Zomato has given us an example to follow. It saw its business decline on a slide, but it kept going and persevered. As a company, it tried to branch into other dimensions, albeit without success. But it remained focused and came back strongly in the end as the numbers and performance suggest.
Another factor was the support to the community, it included customers, restaurants, delivery partners, and even people in general as everyone suffered. Zomato has shown grit, determination, heart, perseverance in adverse conditions to come out a winner.
Rishabh Rathi
