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Didn’t find a job yet? Want to start the journey from a startup company? Wasting money right now and don’t know where to utilise it? The world is filled with talented people. But these people don’t get the opportunity to fulfil their ambitions or dreams. No worries! Here is a great way to kick start your future and accomplish your goals
AngelList is a website which helps the people to find out many startup jobs near them. Investments in the latest startups can be made as well. Read the Angellist success story below! Know and explore more!
AngelList is a US company for startups. For angel investors and job seekers looking to work at startups as well. The company was founded in the year 2010. The mission of the company is to democratize the investment process. It helps the startup companies, especially in fundraising. They began as an online introduction board for tech startups that needed funding. Since 2015, the company allows startups to raise capital from angel investors free of charge.
The company was founded in the year 2010 April, 22nd in San Francisco by entrepreneurs Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi. Naval Ravikant thought that remote work’s time would be coming. And in the future, it will turn out to be the most important category in hiring. They had an idea of investing in companies. Which is why both shared a list of 25 investors. With whom they could share interesting companies to invest in. The company declared a list as ‘AngelList’ in 2010 along with the subscription of 50 angel investors whose intention was to invest USD $80 million in that particular year 2010.
Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi are the founders of the company AngelList.
Naval Ravikant is the CEO and the founder of the company. He is a brilliant entrepreneur and investor. He is having one of the most innovative minds in venture capital. AngelList is his biggest startup success.
Babak Nivi is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of the company. He started his career as an Associate at Seed Capital Partners. Then he joined Atlas Venture as a Consultant. In the year 2005, he joined Bessemer as an Entrepreneur in Residence. He was also the Vice President at Songbird for 1 year and 2 months.
AngelList – Business Model
The business model of the company is to connect investors with startup companies mainly. Their job is to attract more investors to fill up the funding rounds. Whenever an investor swipes right in the website. He/she receives all the information about the startup company. AngelList also provides it’s investors a recommendation along with the information. Angel investors are wealthy individuals. They provide capital for startup companies. All are accredited individuals with a net worth of at least $1 million or an annual income of more than $200,000. Private applications are submitted to get hooked up with the investors.
AngelList is a place, especially for entrepreneurs. The core business model focuses on the revenue model. The investors here invest in each other’s deals. They also invest in similar kinds of deals. And mainly they invest in the places whom they know. This is done because in this case, the investors find themselves safe. Whenever somebody signs in to angel.co. All the “angels” get access to the IP automatically. The company receives a 5% interest whenever a deal is made through the help of the platform.
AngelList – Funding And Investors
AngelList has raised a total amount of $26.2 million in funding over the 6 funding rounds.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investors
March 9, 2015
Series B
$2.1 million
–
September 22, 2013
Series A
$42 million
GV, Atlas Venture
August 1, 2013
Series B
–
–
June 22, 2013
Seed Round
$100,000
SOSV
January 1, 2013
Seed Round
–
–
June 1, 2012
Seed Round
–
–
AngelList has got 45 investors.
AngelList – Growth
Success stories are growing in every corner of the world. One such story is AngelList’s story. In the year 2012, the company accepted applications for more than 500 startup companies. In the year 2013, AngelList Syndicates was noted as one of the most important innovations in the venture capital and angel investment industries. Like this, the company is growing. Today, they have 44 investors and have made 75 investments.
AngelList – Competitors
The top competitors of the company are Crowdfunder, SeedInvest, FundersClub, Crowdlords and Crowdzu.
Crowdfunder is crowdfunding the future. It connects projects with communities. In order to create great ideas all over the UK the company was founded in the year 2010.
SeedInvest is an online equity crowdfunding platform for venture capital and angel investing. The company was founded in the year 2011.
FundersClub is a company. It offers a venture capital platform to its consumers. The company was founded in the year 2012.
Crowdlords is a two-sided residential buy to let crowdfunding platform. It aims to bring the investors and landlords together. The company was founded in the year 2014.
Crowdzu is a crowd-based marketplace. Especially for entrepreneurs. The company was founded in the year 2014.
AngelList – Future Plans
The company is aiming towards innovating the infrastructure. They want to democratize the investment process more. These things will help the startup with money, talent and customers. AngelList has got over 35,000 recruiting companies. And has 5 million registered users. More acquisitions will support startup companies with customer generation and product launch. It is the current and main target of the company right now.
AngelList – FAQ’s
How much is AngelList worth?
We eliminate the hassles of investing so they can focus on helping founders. AngelList Venture has over $1 billion in assets under management and 23 unicorns in the portfolio, including Lime and Robinhood.
How does AngelList make money?
AngelList’s core business model is focused on revenues from matching startups with talent. The syndicate’s platform has high upfront costs to AngelList, which AngelList hopes to cover through the 5 percent carried interest.
How to Land a Job through AngelList?
Know your audience.
Understand how AngelList works.
Be the perfect candidate.
Follow up.
Follow directions.
First impressions go a long way.
Check your content.
Who started AngelList?
AngelList was founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Naval Ravikant and Babak Nivi. Using the traction from the Venture Hack blog on entrepreneur financing, Naval and Babak started a list of 25 investors with whom they would share interesting companies to invest.
How do you use AngelList?
AngelList is also a useful platform for anyone looking to get a job at a startup. It is just a three-step process: create a free profile showcasing your experience and skills, browse jobs and select the companies you are interested in, and wait for an email saying that that company has also said yes to you.
How much does it cost to post a job on AngelList?
There are over 2,000,000 active candidates looking for jobs on AngelList Talent, and connecting with them by posting a job is completely free.
Is AngelList free?
Employers can post-startup tech jobs on AngelList for free. You’ll first need to sign up with AngelList to create profiles for you and for your startup, all of which are also free of charge.
AngelList – Conclusion
AngelList was started as a platform to connect founders and investors in Jan 2010 by Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant. Since then, it has evolved into 2 companies– AngelList and AngelList Venture. AngelList is a platform to help startups recruit employees, while AngelList Venture facilitates investments into startups via funds and syndicates. The help center you’re currently in contains information about AngelList, the recruiting platform. The AngelList Venture Help Center can be accessed at help.venture.angel.co.
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have gained a lot of popularity in recent years. You would have already been through certain social media posts or gone through some news about NFT’s of certain arts being sold for billions of dollars.
Let’s understand what exactly NFT auction Marketplace are.
NFT (non-fungible token) this term revolves around the word fungibility. Fungibility means any product which cannot be replaced with another identical item.
For example, the chair you use, your mobile phone, your laptop all these items cannot be replaced with other identical items. You may get the same model of your mobile phone, but you wouldn’t be able to buy the same model of your mobile phone which you have used for so many months or years. Other examples would be certain artworks such as the art of Mona Lisa and many other such items.
For getting a clear understanding, let’s look at an example of fungible items. A fungible item can be money. A note of INR 10 can be replaced with any note of INR 10. Even if the serial numbers on the note change with INR 10 we can buy the same number of items. This concludes, Money can be an example of fungible items.
But again, a fungible and non-fungible item changes from person to person according to his perspective. As explained in above example, a chair can be fungible as well as non-fungible.
You can buy the same model of your chair from the store. But your chair can be a non-fungible item only when you have developed an attachment to it, and you feel that there is something special about it.
A coin would just be a coin for you, but it would mean much more for a coin collector. This makes the item fungible for you and non-fungible for the coin collector.
Non-fungible tokens are unique digital items with their ownership managed through blockchain technology. Some of the examples of Non-fungible items would include collectibles, game items, digital art, event tickets, domain names, and even records for the ownership of physical assets.
OpenSea is the largest marketplace for digital goods that are user-owned. It has a broad set of categories of around 200 and more. OpenSea has the most items in the digital goods which is more than 4 million and the has the best prices for new items. It includes collectibles, gaming items, digital assets, and digital arts. You can buy, sell, or trade digital goods with anyone around the world using OpenSea.
OpenSea Website
OpenSea is also a decentralized marketplace which means there is no central authority guiding this platform. Instead, you will be able to store your items in your own wallet of your choice.
KnownOrigin
KnownOrigin was founded by David Moore, Andy Gaye, and James Morgan. This is one of the fastest-growing digital art platforms. KnownOrigin is also a decentralized platform that uses blockchains for recording the transactions.
KnownOrigin has more than 330 artists and more than 12,000 digital artworks have been sold on the platform. It is an artist-driven platform that makes it easier for digital artists to create and sell their arts.
KnownOrigin Website
An artist can create their digital art and upload the file and documentation through KnownOrigin. Later the art will be tokenized by the platform and it will be live on the KnownOrigin’s gallery.
If you are a customer or a collector you can browse through the gallery, find the artwork of your choice, finish the payment, and make the purchase. The Ethereum address will be captured during the purchase.
OpenSea is an NFT Auction Marketplace, which is more like an eBay for digital products. You can find anything related to digital products on OpenSea. It is the largest and the first peer-to-peer NFT platform for crypto goods.
Whereas KnownOrigin is mainly concentrated on the digital artists. Since it is concentrated on artworks. You wouldn’t find anything other than art in KnownOrigin. The items on KnownOrigin would look more like items on sale in an Art Gallery.
If you are an artist or a collector of artworks you should prefer KnownOrigin as you would find a wide range of options and if you want some other crypto goods you can prefer OpenSea as it is the largest NFT marketplace.
FAQ
What is a NFT auction?
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are essentially blockchain-based certificates validating that someone owns a piece of digital art.
How can I buy NFT?
Most NFTs are Ethereum-based tokens, many marketplaces for these collectibles accept Eth tokens as payment.
What are DeFi products?
DeFi is short for decentralized finance, an umbrella term for a variety of financial applications in cryptocurrency or blockchain.
Conclusion
There are a lot of NFT platforms other than KnownOrigin and OpenSea. Some of them include Rarible a platform to create NFT, SuperRare, Atomic Assets, Axie Marketplace, Decentralized marketplace, Viv3, TreasureLand, NFT Showroom, and many more.
NFTs will gain a lot more popularity in the coming years. Some big players such as Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, and many others have also expressed their interest in NFTs.
Google has been promoting website owners and Search Engine Optimizations to adapt to mobile-first indexing for the past decade. Back in 2015, Google was promoting a mobile-friendly tag and Mobilegeddon. Recently they have come up with a new move mobile-first indexing.
They have been experimenting their mobile-first indexing for the past few weeks. From March 2021, Google has told that they would use Mobile-first indexing for all your websites. This was originally supposed to be in September 2020, but they pushed it later on.
Mobile-first indexing means mobile only. It means that Google will use its bots that are mobile-friendly to index and crawl through your website. Google’s current guidelines suggest that they do a content-parity test in the beginning and only then they would move the websites to mobile-first. This happens only when they recognize that the websites are ready.
How does Mobile-First Indexing Work?
Google has plans to implement Mobile-First Indexing from March 2021, even though your website is not ready for it. If you are posting something on your website that is visible only for desktop users and not visible for mobile users, then it will be invisible for Google’s Mobile-First indexing purposes as well.
For example, if your website posts contents about Nutrition. let’s say fitness and the post is visible only for a desktop user, and for some reason it is not visible to mobile users. Then, From March 2021 all your fitness-related content will not be indexed by Google.
Which means that you will lose your ranking for fitness related keywords. This will lead to the diminishing of the Google’s understanding of the whole page, which in turn leads to knock-on effects on your other keywords as well.
Mobile-only makes it much clear that your content will be indexed and ranked by Google only and only if it is visible through your mobile device.
There are essentially 3 different ways to have a mobile site.
Responsive Design –
This is the most common way through which a mobile site is developed. Here you will serve a single page that will automatically respond to the design to fit the device of the user. In this design, the code used is the same irrespective of the device whether it is a mobile or desktop.
Dynamic Serving –
In this method, the server checks the device used by the user who has logged in to your website whether the person is using a mobile, tablet, or a desktop. Later it would send out different HTML, Java, and JS code on the same URL according to the user’s device.
Separate Mobile Site –
This is an older way to do it. Here you will have to maintain a separate website only for mobile users. It is often maintained on an m-dot subdomain.
What will be Impacted by Mobile-First Indexing?
The main consideration that google looks for is, whether the mobile and desktop contents are the same. To be specific it considers the contents which would have an impact upon indexing, ranking, and crawling.
It includes internal links, On page contents, Titles, and descriptions, Robots.txt, Page resources, Meta robots, Canonicals, Hreflang, and structured data. In short, it would look at the contents for the users as well as contents that will act as signals for the search engines.
You can also check if your website is mobile friendly or not. As Google offers a website where you can test your website to see if it is mobile friendly or not.
When you look at the term mobile-first, the reference content parity does not necessarily mean, all the content must be exactly the same in both mobile as well as desktop. You just have to ensure that the bits that are important for your website visitors and the search engines should be visible.
It can be differentiated into Two different categories.
Content
If you have content on your website which you want your users to see, then you will have to make sure that it is also visible on the mobile website page.
HTML
If you have HTML tags that you want the search engines to see then ensure that the tags are present in the mobile rendered HTML.
These are the two broad categories that you should ensure for content parity between mobile and desktop.
FAQ
What happens during Google indexing process?
Google analyzes the content of the page, catalogs images and video files embedded on the page, and tries to understand the page.
What are the tools of SEO?
Ahrefs, Google Search Console, SEMRush, Moz Pro, Ubersuggest are the some of the best tools of SEO.
How long does it take for Google to index a site?
It seems to take as little as 4 days and up to 6 months for a site to be crawled by Google.
Conclusion
Some of you would have received a notification in Google Search Console long back about the shift to mobile-first indexing of your website. John Mueller has said that we essentially need to be sure that the mobile version when indexed with mobile should be similar to the desktop version. So that we will be able to shift it without any problems.
Google is planning to implement this mobile-First indexing to every single website in the world.
For small businesses that are struggling to survive in the economic fallout brought by the global pandemic, keeping costs at bay and increasing savings is key. There’s also been a huge uptick in credit card transactions as people are avoiding using cash since it’s one of the possible ways for the virus to spread. Also, the credit card interchange fees charged for every transaction can have a significant effect on their bottom line.
One of these fees is credit surcharge fees. But having programs tailored specifically for small businesses could be quite complicated. This guide will shed light on the card association rules and state laws for surcharging, how much you can charge, and other things you need to know before deciding to join credit surcharge programs. However, if you want to know more about credit surcharging, you should click to find out more or consult experts if you want to be more thorough.
What Are Credit Card Surcharge Fees?
You can collect a surcharge fee on the credit card transactions of your customers by adding a small amount to cover your expenses for processing their payment. Instead of shouldering this cost, it’s the customer paying via credit card to absorb the costs that don’t apply to other payment methods. This process is also commonly known as ‘zero-fee’ or ‘free’ credit card transaction processing fee.
Another common practice is cash discounting. This is where a customer would receive discounts that would amount to the cost of processing a credit card transaction if they pay in cash, debit card, or check.
Although both of these methods aim to pass on the fees for processing credit card transactions onto the customer, there are only two significant differences between them. The former is designed to add a small fee to the price of the product or service when they use a credit card, while the latter deducts the cost from the bill if they use other payment methods. Also, cash discounting is legal in almost every state in the US, while credit card surcharging is still not allowed in some areas.
Credit Card Surcharging Laws That You Need To Know
Before knowing about the basic guidelines set by card associations for surcharging, you need to know if it’s legal in your area. So, you need to read about the state laws where you’re operating your business.
These are some of the states with laws that ban credit card surcharging:
Florida
Maine
Oklahoma
California
Utah
Texas
Meanwhile, these are some of the states and territories where surcharging isn’t allowed:
Colorado
Kansa
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Puerto Rico
If you own a business that’s operating in the areas listed above, charging your customers for credit card transactions is illegal. But you can still give a discount to customers who are willing to pay through cash or check. So, you could encourage your customers to pay in cash by offering a discount, which would make them more willing to forego paying through credit card—a win-win situation.
Also, two states require businesses to provide disclosures to the surcharging fees–New York and Maine. In both jurisdictions, you need to let the customer know how much they’ll be charged when paying in cash as well as through card by using monetary denominations, like dollars and cents instead of a percentage. Still, you’re required to notify customers at the point of sale machine about how much the surcharge fees are based on the rules set by Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express.
Basic Rules On Credit Card Surcharging
Once you’ve determined if it’s legal to require a surcharge fee in the state where your business is located, there’s still much that needs to be done before starting. You need to know which cards your establishment accepts since this will play a crucial role in your policies. If you accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, or any other cards, you need to follow the guidelines concerning surcharging set by these companies. So, you should meet all of the requirements they’ve set before charging your customers.
You’ll discover that these card companies are very strict in imposing their rules to make sure customers aren’t discouraged to use their cards for payments and switch to another brand. But, fortunately, most of them have roughly the same guidelines concerning surcharging:
You must send a letter to inform the card company and the merchant services provider that you want to use at least a month in advance.
The surcharge fee should be limited to your actual credit card transactions, which are usually set at a maximum of 4%.
You must inform your customers about this policy by posting a notice at your business’ entrance or the point of sale. The same rules also apply for e-commerce companies, but they’re only required to place these notices at the checkout page of their site.
You need to include the surcharge fee as a line item on receipts. It also needs to be incorporated in the network authorization settlement and request.
For Visa and Mastercard cards, you can pick and apply brand-level or product-level surcharges. This way, you could either charge all credit cards from a certain brand or only certain ranges of cards. But you can’t cover both.
Conclusion: Should You Add A Credit Card Surcharge Program For Your Small Business?
Imposing credit card surcharge fees have been gaining more popularity in the past few years as legislative changes and court decisions have made it easier to put them into practice. The economic uncertainty brought by the global pandemic has also been the main driver for many small businesses to adopt them. But there are still some states and territories that prohibit businesses in their jurisdiction to charge customers with this fee.
Still, the question remains whether you should impose a surcharge or not. There are some guidelines that you should follow before starting this practice in your business. Also, you need to meet the strict requirement imposed by credit card associations. But these requirements and rules are relatively easy to follow and are quite similar across the board, although the process can take some time.
There’s no doubt that cryptocurrencies represent a growth market in 2021, with the total crypto market cap value currently estimated at around $1.75 trillion.
Although this continues to fluctuate wildly on a daily basis, it’s Bitcoin (BTC) that continues to underpin wider growth in the crypto market, with the market capitalisation for this asset alone currently in excess of $1 trillion.
The irrepressible rise and exchange of crypto assets have caused some to predict that assets such as BTC will eventually supersede fiat currencies. But how likely is this, and how are digital assets likely to impact on the global financial sector as a whole?
The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin
In 2018, a famous futurologist made the bold prediction that cryptocurrencies would replace up to 25% of fiat currencies by 2030, while Morgan Creek Capital Management suggested that fiat currency would ultimately be superseded by digital currencies entirely in the future.
While these predictions have largely fallen on deaf ears, the relentless rise of BTC through 2020 has encouraged some to change their tune. More specifically, BTC’s latest bull run has been sustained over the course of the last 12 months overall, rising from $6,198.78 to a staggering $58,126.10 in the year ending March 21st, 2021.
Bitcoin even broke through the $60,000 barrier briefly earlier this month, while further exponential growth is forecast for the near and medium-term.
In fact, Morehead reported that BTC will remain firmly ahead of its own forecast through 2021, potentially reaching $115,000 before the summer draws to a close.
This is particularly interesting given BTC’s previous bull runs, which have typically petered out and precipitated a significant crash. For example, Bitcoin rose from $900 to $20,000 throughout 2017, before plunging back below the $8,000 mark by June 2018.
This reflects the more mature and stable nature of BTC, which has become increasingly secure and trusted over time. Also, it emerged as a relevant safe haven in 2020 against the backdrop of the coronavirus, as investors sought out assets that were relatively immune to socio and macroeconomic factors.
Could BTC Ever Replace Fiat Currencies?
But could BTC ever fully replace fiat alternatives? This seems relatively unlikely at present, particularly given the strong link that still exists between assets such as Bitcoin and fiat currencies.
For example, the value and market cap of crypto assets is taken in terms of fiat currencies, while it’s also fair to say that the latter (and the centralised structures that underpin them) are continuing to embrace digitisation.
Investors are also continuing to integrate crypto currencies into their CFDs and investment portfolios in the modern age, further blurring the lines between digital and fiat assets.
Given these points, it appears as though the extent to which assets such BTC become dominant will depend on fiat currencies themselves.
For example, if these entities continue to embrace digitisation and central banks also focus on leveraging the best of blockchain technology for the benefit of fiat currencies, it’s hard to imagine Bitcoin becoming the dominant currency any time soon.
However, the emergence of third-generation blockchains such as Cardano could alter the landscape considerably, as these entities are being designed to tackle the underlying issues with crypto assets (such as rising transaction fees and scalability).
Cardano has recently unveiled a protocol that could ultimately scale to process one million transactions per second, for example, which would supersede the capacity of Visa without introducing transaction fee hikes.
If this type of blockchain and crypto asset gains traction and benefits from increased adoption rates across a wide range of industries, the chances of fiat currencies eventually being superseded will increase markedly.
In today’s world, almost all educators, majorly in developing nations, work on improving the quality of education via various means like infrastructure expansion, digital & innovative Edtech developments & partnerships, different facilities & faculties, etc. But with quality, the price point of education also increases. Due to this price point, only children from wealthy families can access this education. These wealth backed children would anyway get exposure and access to quality education facilities, even outside local schooling. But what about the children at the bottom of the pyramid? They constitute the mass of the population in a developing nation! Due to the price point, this mass does not get access to quality education. To cater to this audience, Rohit Gajbhiye, Naveesh Reddy, Sunit Gajbhiye and Debi Prasad Baral launched Financepeer in 2017.
It is only when this mass has access to Quality Education, will there be a real impact of education on society! This is Financepeer’s firm belief and area of operation.
Financepeer is a Google incubated School (K-12) Fee Financing Company that helps to pay the entire year fees upfront to the School in one installment and collects fees in 3 to 12 monthly installments from parents that too at Zero Interest & Zero Cost.
Financepeer – Founders and Team
The Co-founders of Financepeer are Rohit Gajbhiye, Naveesh Reddy, Sunit Gajbhiye and Debi Prasad Baral.
Rohit Gajbhiye, CEO of Financepeer has a BTech-MTech from IIT Bombay. He worked at DBS Bank, Singapore for 4 years in the Consumer Credit Space. Post entrepreneurship studies from Stanford University, he started & failed in his 1st startup, left work & built Financepeer via his domain expertise.
Naveesh Reddy, COO of Financepeer also has a BTech -MTech from IITB, Naveesh was a Data Scientist in Cognizant India and Japan for more than 4 years. His expertise was in developing machine learning algorithms for Sentiment Analysis and Fraud detection.
Debiprasad Baral, CTO of Financepeer is BIT’s, IIMA Vs Stanford alumnus (Rohit’s class), Debi has 15yrs of experience in software product development, via Salesforce & Microsoft. He was Lead architect for developing multiple Schooling Softwares Lending Systems in multiple NBFCs.
Sunit Gajbhiye, CPO of Financepeer is an IIM and VJTI alumnus, he has 10 years of experience in Business Operations and Product Management via Samsung and Edgeverve. He has expertise in product development in School Eco- System & Finacle core banking system in India.
Currently, Financepeer is having a strength of odd 90 employees across India with 7 offices. Financepeer has a bunch of young minds full of ambition, dedication, and innovative minds. Work flexibility and encouragement by mentors at Financepeer allows the employees to give 110%.
All of this started with a survey, that was created in the early days to understand the pain point of parents who were not able to pay the entire fees upfront. When asked for an opinion, the majority of parents wanted to have the EMI option for school fees or any other curricular activity. Education for children, being the priority for all parents, it is necessary to have timely payments. Since the category of the mass are people who do not have enough savings to pay School Fees upfront in 1 or 2 installments, but they can afford to pay fees from their monthly income in EMI’s.
Financepeer – Startup Launch
Financepeer started with Mussoorie International School in Dehradun. Zero Interest on fee had already convinced the parents at an early stage during the promotional activities. A lot many people had already reached out to us before the admissions itself. Constant interactions with parents was important to gain trust.
Financepeer acquired its first 100 customers in a time span of not more than 3 months. Financepeer team had boarded a few schools and were trying their best for the response. Fortunately, the team met people who were always welcoming. Might be from school or any other partnerships. This allowed them to function in the best way. The maintained relationships with the school and the parents have helped them to retain the customers over this period.
Financepeer – Business Model and Revenue Model
The Financepeer business model is simple – it provides Zero Cost, Zero Interest monthly installments to parents to pay their school fees. At the same time, on behalf of the parent, Financepeer pays the entire year fees to the School on Day 1. This way, the School does not face any collection issue and continues improving the quality of education. At the same time, the masses are also able to avail of such quality education.
Quite a few competitors are out there trying to provide quality education to all the kids in the country. Some of them include GrayQuest, Bajaj Finance to only name a few.
Financepeer – Advisors and Mentors
The advisors and mentors of Financepeer are:
Ashish Mittal – 30+ years experience in Finance Industry, Lotus Eduservices Private Limited
Balajee Shrikant – Executive Director, DBS Singapore; 25+ years experience in Fintech Industries
Financepeer – Growth
Financepeer is working with 601+ schools and impacting the lives of 3,50,000+ kids across 37+ cities in India. It is planning to work with 2600+ schools in the year 2020-2021. Financepeer is exploring synergies with education institutes outside India.
Financepeer – Awards and Recognition
Over the years, Financepeer gained the following recognitions:
Google Incubated
Startup Award
Associated with the T-Hub
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is Financepeer?
Financepeer is a Google incubated School (K-12) Fee Financing Company that helps to pay the entire year fees upfront to the School in one installment and collects fees in 3 to 12 monthly installments from parents that too at Zero Interest & Zero Cost.
Who are the Founders of Financepeer?
The Financepeer Founders are Rohit Gajbhiye, Naveesh Reddy, Sunit Gajbhiye and Debi Prasad Baral.
ShiftKarado is one of the leading technology-driven packing and moving services providers in India. It operates in the competitive and unorganized relocation market to simplify the relocation process for the customers.
Even though it was random, the name ShiftKarado easily connects with the Indian customers and it’s quite easy to remember and recall, which also helps in creating brand salience. Accordingly, the logo of ShiftKarado is designed which symbolizes the smooth and time efficient relocation from one place to another. In this article, we have discussed the business model and services provided by ShiftKarado the Leading Packing & Moving Services Providers which is headquartered at Gurgaon, India. Read the full article top know more about ShiftKarado.
Started with a very focused aim to resolve the then-prevailing issues in the relocation industry, ShiftKarado is one of the leading technology-driven packing and moving services providers in India. It operates in the competitive and unorganized relocation market to simplify the relocation process for the customers.
Amidst the chaotic landscape of Indian relocation industry where the customers used to suffer the detrimental consequences of obscure services provided by many unorganized players, the co-founders realized that digital technology could streamline a majority of the aspects of the industry. Here, we are interviewing the founder Mr. Atul Mithal to learn about his journey of ShiftKarado.
Name & Logo
ShiftKarado Logo
ShiftKarado is focused on the domestic market and the Indians are the main target audience. As the purpose of ShiftKarado is to give instant relocation solutions to the customers, the co-founders considered it very important to think of a brand name that reflects this purpose as well as a sense of Indianness at prima facie. Assuming the role of customers asking for packing and moving services, there came only one thing in mind—ShiftKarado. The questions such as “Hume apna ghar shift karanahai, karado!” helped them coming up to a conclusion that ShiftKarado would be a right choice to name the brand because “Hum Shift karate hai.”
How It All Started?
It was in the year 2015 when this big idea of starting a tech-oriented relocation company struck Mr. Atul Mithal, the Founder of ShiftKarado. After the idea stuck, Atul was joined by other co-founders, Sahil Mithal, Aulina Mithal Sood and Ashish Mullick who imparted their knowledge onto him and diligently collaborated to lead the formation of what ShiftKarado is today.
The mission that ShiftKarado began with is to hand over easy access and complete control of relocation projects to the customers using efficient technologies. It wants to become all-time relocation partner which focuses on creating additional value for customers. It is destined to plug the gaps in the fragmented relocation segment in India and provide relief to the stressed and perplexed customers through reliable and affordable relocation services.
Shiftkarado—Founders
Atul Mithal
Atul is the first ever Indian President of FIDI (International Federation of International Movers), which is the umbrella organisation of international removals and relocation companies. He is also the founder and chairman of Star Worldwide Group, an internationally acclaimed company that provides fine art handling, relocation services, event & exhibition logistics and information management services.
Sahil Mithal
Sahil shoulders the responsibilities of being architect and technical Lead. He is a Computer Science graduate from College of William & Mary, Virginia, USA. He pursued FIDI EiM (Essentials in Moving) course in Brussels and became versed with the intensive knowledge of moving processes. Before ShiftKarado, he gained vital experience in the international industry of relocation and transportation by working with Star Worldwide Group, the parent company of ShiftKarado.
Aulina Mithal Sood
After doing her schooling in Delhi, she moved to the USA for pursuing a double major in Economics and Business Administration at Clark University. Later on, she completed the programmes such as Essentials in Moving, Masters in Moving, and Leaders in Moving offered by the FIDI (International Federation of International Movers) Institute for training the aspirants in moving and relocation management.
The spectrum of ShiftKarado’s services comprises of packing and moving services for household, office relocation and vehicle transportation. As far as household goods are concerned, the company takes care of everything from fragile crockery, books to valuable appliances while providing transit insurance. For office relocation, from shifting servers, moving and storing office documents to relocating desks and chairs, ShiftKarado helps to plan the entire office move to make it as seamless as possible. Additionally, as home relocation is complete only when the family vehicle moves along, ShiftKarado provides secure transport for a customer’s vehicle, from bike transport to car shifting.
Shiftkarado—Business & Revenue Model
Business Model
ShiftKarado operates through its website and mobile app having a simple user interface to serve the clients across the nation. The customers can fill an online form on the website shiftkarado.com or mobile app planning their relocation move all by themselves and get a customized instant quote in less than ten minutes.
The ShiftKarado mobile app works exactly like any other food ordering app—one needs to plan their move and pay for it and the team ShiftKarado will arrive on the day of moving bringing with them all the essentials required to shifting the house or office. What’s more interesting that the customers can track the status of their planned move in real-time.
Revenue Model
Though ShiftKarado mainly deals directly with the customers offering one-to-one relocation services, it is also engaged in taking third-party consignments and services on a frequent basis.
Initially, it was a challenge for ShiftKarado to encourage the customers to put the information for planning the move. To overcome this, ShiftKarado upgraded the website and app with intelligent templates that auto-populates the information and details so that the user only has to select what applies to his/her move. This template model resolved most of the issues as the items in the predefined list are configured in segregation of 1bhk, 2 bhk or 3 bhk.
Shiftkarado—Competitors & Work Culture
Competitors
ShiftKarado gives a tough competition to other players in the relocation market, including Agarwal, EzMove and Pikkol.
Work Culture
The success of startups hails the commitment, dedication and the strengths of the employees. And, we strive to encourage all these qualities in our employees so that they not only perform best at work but also learn the rules and power of self-governance and self-motivation. We create a positive, healthy, and productive work environment where each employee is given opportunities to identify and polish their forte allowing them for both personal and professional growth. And, this is the key to achieve employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, in turn.
ShiftKarado leverages the technology to substantially increase the customer base assorted from the various cities of India. It has established a strong foothold in Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Mohali, Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Ghaziabad, and Navi Mumbai. It is registering the growth of 20% on MoM basis, which marks its increasing popularity among the masses. Available on Play store, ShiftKarado has hit over a 10,000 downloads adding to its massive user base.
Funding
Though it was entirely bootstrapped ever since it was founded in 2015, ShiftKarado recently raised funding of Rs 5 Crore from Star Worldwide Group in various rounds. The funds are being used to enhance the services and deploy more resources for expanding the business reach and improving customer satisfaction.
Shiftkarado—Future Plans
After strengthening its presence in some of the largest metro cities in India, ShiftKarado is eyeing to gain PAN-India presence, tapping on every city and town. The goal is to achieve the turnover of Rs. 50 crore by 2021 and for this, the team ShiftKarado is all buckled up.
ShiftKarado Packers and Movers is backed by a team consisting of experts in technology and operations. The management team had earlier founded and continues to successfully run the Star Worldwide Group.
I am shifting to a new place, what do I do?
Shifting can be a daunting and tension-filled activity for most. We at ShiftKarado would love to help and reduce any stress when it comes to moving your household goods. Simply visit our site or download our App, where you can share the details of your move at your convenience, get instant pricing and pay the booking amount. We will manage everything from there on.
Does ShiftKarado manage local shifting or Inter-City moves?
ShiftKarado’s experienced team manages both local shifting and Inter-City moves.
Will I need to pack?
We feel that as the customer you have the right to choose whether to pack or not. If you would like to pack yourself – please go ahead. We will do the needful post that. Alternatively, you can also avail of the services of our experienced packers, who will pack each item with due care.
What will be the cost?
ShiftKarado has created a proprietary algorithm and calculation engine to provide you with instant pricing. Once you enter the move details and item list, our Insta-Price calculator will provide you with the charges. The days of waiting for someone to organize a survey and get you a quote are now a thing of the past!.
Does ShiftKarado provide storage services?
Yes, ShiftKarado Packers and Movers offers storage services. We have professionally managed warehouses located at Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai. Please contact us for further details.
Shift Karado Packers and Movers is backed by a team consisting of experts in technology and operations. The management team had earlier founded and continues to successfully run the Star Worldwide Group. Star Worldwide Group, founded in January 1996, headquartered in New Delhi, India, is one of the leading companies in international relocation services, fine art handling, event & exhibition logistics and information management services. The Group operates through 6 offices in major cities of India. These include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Guragon and Faridabad and serves more than 100 countries through a network of 500 Global Alliance Partners across the world. Our growing team consists of over 200 committed and highly trained professionals. We have used state of the art technology and sophisticated algorithms to bring you our easy-to-use App. Just download it or visit our website and leave the rest to us.
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 Goalwise.
Every investment is made with a goal in mind. Be it for buying a house, for children’s education or for going on the world tour that you always wanted. Though we all save money to achieve our goals, due to lack of time or investment related expertise we fail to make the most out of our savings. This is where Goalwise comes into play. Read about Goalwise, founders, business model, funding, challenges and future plans.
Goalwise is a Fintech startup based out of Bangalore, that ensures hassle-free, goal based mutual funds investing. It helps people invest for their financial goals according to their risk profile without them having to worry about asset allocation, mutual fund selection, etc. If you are looking for a good goal based investing website, you can simply visit their website or download the Goalwise app from Google Play Store or App Store to get the best investment options.
Goalwise – Parent Company | Niyo Solutions
On July 28, 2020, The Digital Banking platform Niyo Solutions acquired Goalwise for an undisclosed value. As part of the deal, the founding members of Goalwise will be joining Niyo’s leadership team and operate Niyo Wealth as an independent vertical.
The majority of stakes were picked up by Vinay Bagri (CEO, Co-founder) and Virender Bisht (CTO, Co-founder). This acquisition was intended to align with Niyo’s goal of Building a comprehensive products suite.
“With our combined resources, we will now be able to accelerate our road map for advanced features and inclusion of many more financial products,” said Swapnil Bhaskar, CEO and co-founder of Goalwise.
Mutual Fund Industry Details
According to AMFI data, assets managed by the Indian mutual fund industry have grown from INR 22.71 trillion in March 2018 to INR 24.58 trillion in March 2019. That represents an 8.25% growth.
Again, the Mutual Fund industry had added about 9.13 lacs SIP accounts each month on an average during the FY 2018-19, with an average SIP size of about Rs 3,070 per SIP account.
Goalwise – Founders and Team
Goalwise was founded by Swapnil Bhaskar, Ankur Choudhary and Savitri Bobde in 2016.
Swapnil Bhaskar, Ankur Choudhary and Savitri Bobde
Swapnil Bhaskar is the CEO of Goalwise. He is responsible for spearheading the company’s overall vision and growth and he also heads its Financial Advisory department. Swapnil graduated in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2007. He is also a SEBI RIA (Registered Investment Advisor) and a NISM certified Retirement Advisor. Prior to establishing Goalwise, he worked as a field engineer at Schlumberger where he worked for 4 years abroad and then as a Manager at the State Bank of India where he worked for 3 years across multiple verticals of retail banking. Additionally, he is also a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB).
Ankur Choudhary is the CIO of Goalwise. He is responsible for creating investment strategies including Mutual Fund selection and asset allocation strategies, while also overseeing the product and content functions. Having graduated from IIT Kanpur with a B. Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering, Ankur went on to work as an investment strategist at Oxus Investments, New Delhi and then as a Quantitative Researcher (Algo trading) at WorldQuant, Mumbai. Along with possessing outstanding academic credentials, Ankur also holds the distinction of co-authoring a book on a statistical analysis of cricket titled Criconomics.
Savitri Bobdeis the COO and Product lead at Goalwise. She is responsible for overseeing the execution of all initiatives undertaken by the company and guiding the operational processes of all departments. Savitri holds a Masters degree in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in English literature from the esteemed St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. After completing her education, she spearheaded the assessment unit at ASER Center, Pratham where she was involved in designing and implementing large scale assessments across India, including the flagship ASER survey that reaches approximately 600,000 children each year in almost all districts in the country.
The company currently has a team of 20 employees. Every employee is offered ESOPs to make them feel inclusive in the company’s growth.
It was in 2015, Ankur was looking for some good and hassle-free options to invest his money. However, to his disappointment, he did not find any investor friendly platform in India. Though, he noticed that there were some online platforms in the US who were using cutting-edge technology to deliver a fully managed solution to US investors.
Meanwhile, Swapnil was working in the banking sector, where he witnessed rampant mis-selling. The scenario struck the mind of the two youth, and they wanted to do something to make a difference. And finally, one day over a call Ankur and Swapnil decided to start Goalwise with the dream of making hassle-free, transparent, world-class goal-based investing and financial planning accessible to all Indians.
“We did a lot of market research before we started up and found that people connected better with their goals than with just Mutual Funds. Hence we launched Goalwise as a goal-based investing platform. In the market research days, we even promoted our competitor’s platforms within our target audience in order to uncover the objections people had with them. Even today we have a lot of conversations with our customers on a daily basis so that we never operate in a vacuum. We initially started operations from Delhi but then moved to Bangalore because of the tech talent availability (and better weather!).”, said Ankur and Swapnil.
The company had a soft-launch phase from February 2016 to April 2016 to test its product.
Goalwise – Name, Tagline and Logo
Previously, alpahfront.com was the name the company during Market reserach phase as it aligned with its former parent company Alphafront Finserv Pvt Ltd The name was later changed to Goalwise keeping in mind the goal-based approach the company follows.
“As we zeroed in on the concept of goals and financial planning, we came up with a shortlist of a few names like Goalwise, Finmiles for whom the .com domain names were available. We did a quick poll amongst our friends and although Goalwise was not the top choice because it did not sound not money related, we decided to go with it based on our gut feeling. And it seems to have turned out well for us.”, said Ankur Choudhary.
Goalwise Logo
Goalwise – Business Model and Revenue Model
The startup offers its customers a ‘set and forget’ goal-based investing platform that manages all aspects of investing including fund selection, glide path, portfolio re-balancing, target tracking for goals and more.
It is a zero-research-required platform as investors don’t need to bother about selecting or changing funds. All of that is taken care of by the in-built digital advisory. Apart from seamless investment solutions through website and app, Goalwise also facilitates one-on-one personal finance planning led by its team of in-house financial experts.
A personalized investment plan is generated after considering the customer’s age, savings, suitable risk profile, target amount and the time horizon. The plan consists of the amount one would need to invest every month, the Mutual Funds the person should invest in and what the asset allocation (debt and equity) should be.
Goalwise’s advisory engine (GoalSense) continuously monitors the investments to ensure that the investor is on track to achieve the set goal.
“Unlike our competitors that are mostly DIY platforms urging investors to do their own research after bombarding them with conflicting options, Goalwise comes as a respite where zero research is required by the investors.”, said Swapnil Bhaskar.
The startup’s revenue model is straightforward. The company operates as distributors and financial advisors and get a small % fee (known as trail commission) from the Mutual Fund companies where investments are made.
It is a zero commission platform. It does not take any charges from the investors. They also don’t have any transaction charges, account opening or maintenance charges.
One click Portfolio Rebalancing– It helps investors maintain the original desired level of asset allocation, and all the required re-balancing transactions for meeting the customer’s investment goal is done with just a click.
Tax Gain Harvesting– It helps the investors in systematically utilizing the 1 lakh equity LTCG ( Long Term Capital Gain) exemption available every financial year to lower the overall tax liability.
On-track/Off-track goal tracking– It helps the investor keep a track of his goals.
One-on-one financial planning by in-house financial planners- The startup focuses on providing the best investment experience be it via their beautifully designed product or their prompt and knowledgeable customer service.
The mutual fund investments are held directly under the name of the user, and these can be redeemed anytime.
Goalwise – User Acquisition
According to Ankur, marketing was never a priority for the company. The company focused on doing the right thing for its customers. The company acquired its first 100 customers from within friends and family. Soon, Goalwise was able to attract many customers through word of mouth publicity.
The startup was covered in some online publications when they announced their seed funding which gave them more visibility.
Another channel was content – Goalwise publishes content related to personal finance and investments on their blog as well as on other websites, which helped them get in front of more customers.
“If I had to pick one thing that really worked well for us, it has been word of mouth and referrals. Because of the focus on product and service, we are today the best rated Mutual Fund app and we have grown to more than 25,000 sign-ups just by word of mouth.”, said Ankur.
Goalwise has raised seed funding worth $1 Million (around INR 6.8 Crore) in 2016 from HNI. As per the company filings, Mr. Akhilesh Chaudhary was nominated to be the 4th director of the company. Akhilesh is also the founder of quadeye Securities.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
May 2016
Seed
$1 million
Mr. Akhilesh Chaudhary and others
We were quite fortunate with the kind of investors we got on board as they have been extremely helpful and supportive throughout the whole journey – Ankur.
Goalwise – Startup Challenges
According to Ankur, one major challenge that Goalwise faced was of bringing the entire KYC process online. KYC for Mutual Funds requires an almost 20-field form, 2-2 documents and in-person verification. This was in 2016 so there was no Aadhaar-based KYC. The team spent a considerable amount of effort in building out the entire KYC process online which included online video recording and were one of the first platforms to provide that.
Besides, some other challenges are the lack of financial awareness and education in Indian society. Overall, Mutual funds are still at a nascent stage in India with only 2% of the population investing in it.
According to Ankur, a lot of efforts are needed by everyone in the industry to make the Indian population more financially educated so that everyone can make better decisions with their money as there are many Indians who still are only limited to investing in gold, real estate, etc.
Some of the competitors of Goalwise in the Indian Industry are, Fundsindia, Scripbox and Zerodha Coin. However, apart from Scripbox, all the others tend to be DIY platforms where the investors are supposed to do their own research.
None of our competitors including Scripbox, provide true end to end goal based investing which includes features like glide path, portfolio rebalancing and goal-tracking.
Apart from that, the company also recently released a Tax Gain Harvesting feature which is the first of its kind in the industry. It takes inspiration from similar platforms outside India like Betterment and Wealthfront as they keep raising the bar in terms of user experience.
Comparison : Goalwise Vs Scripbox Vs Kuvera
Goalwise provides zero-commission Direct Mutual Funds which makes investing with Goalwise completely FREE, Whereas Scripbox provides commission-laden Regular Mutual Funds. Scripbox is one such popular portal which allows users to invest in a pre-selected list of Mutual Funds.
Recognized by LiveMint as one of the top 10 promising brands to watch out for in 2018.
Awarded by prestigious Mutual Fund companies like ICICI Prudential and Reliance as one of their fastest growing online partners for 2017 and 2018.
Goalwise – Growth
Currently, Goalwise has customers across India, and also have NRI investors from Middle East, Singapore and Europe.
Some of the major achievements of are:
40,000 registered users across 450+ cities
over 20,000 app downloads
Highest rated Mutual Fund app on the play store and our combined rating across platforms is about 4.7
Added term insurance to its product portfolio, and is also planning to add health insurance and accident insurance soon.
Goalwise is looking forward to doubling its tech team and tripling its advisory team to efficiently meet the growing demands. The company is expecting to reach a mutual fund AUM of 1000 crores towards the end of 2020.
Goalwise – Partners
It has tied up with several Mutual funds.The mutual funds it has tied up with include Franklin Templeton, ICICI Prudential, Birla Sun Life and Axis Mutual Fund.
Goalwise – Advisor and Mentors
The company was advised by Dexter Capital, which offers services to growth stage companies as well as new-age entrepreneurs in the early stage funding process.
Goalwise – FAQs
Who is Savitri Bobde?
Savitri Bobde is the Co-founder, COO and Product lead at Goalwise.
What is Goalwise Funding till date?
Goalwise has raised seed funding worth $1 Million (around INR 6.8 crore) in 2016 from Mr. Akhilesh Chaudhary and other.
Who is the Parent Organisation of Goalwise?
Niyo Solutions, The Digital Banking Platform.
How is Niyo Solutions connected to Goalwise?
The Digital Banking platform Niyo Solutions acquired Goalwise for an undisclosed valueon July 28, 2020,
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.
There’s no shortage of mundane and repetitive tasks, no matter how big an organization might be. These activities eat up valuable time which could have used for increasing a company’s revenue or for value creation, in general. Thankfully, automation technology now permits businesses to get rid of such tasks and save on time and money. Using rule based automation, businesses can complete crucial action items like maintaining communication with its customers and potential leads, thereby leading to higher customer satisfaction, lead generation, and conversions.
Verloop, a Bengaluru based startup, has come up with a platform for automating actions such as customer support, lead generation, and lead qualification. Verloop’s product is the world’s smartest conversational automation platform on a mission to make business related conversions more personal and effective—that too without the need of physical workforce.
StartupTalky interviewed Gaurav Singh, Verloop founder and CEO, to know more about the company.
Verloop is a B2B company that provides a conversational automation platform for businesses to remain in touch with their customers 24/7. This is possible through chatbots that are implemented on a company’s website/application or through Verloop’s recently launched WhatsApp chatbots. Verloop fuels businesses’ customer support, marketing and sales department 24/7 non-stop using its AI powered bots.
Verloop’s USP is the essence of automation integrated in its chatbots. This allows one to automate a conversational chatbot by pre-feeding messages in its workflow. This is done by understanding the set of questions that customers frequently ask and possible variations of these questions.
Verloop Model
Some features that make Verloop a must for any B2C company are:
Businesses can respond to customer queries 24/7 in a personalized manner using Verloop’s always-on-bot.
Visitors are answered in their preferred language.
Real-time sentiment analysis helps businesses to deal with queries better.
Bots help in lead generation by connecting with the website visitors. They are can be used for lead qualification as well.
Bots can book meetings with web visitors.
Using Verloop’s 1000+ available app integrations, data can be pushed into any CRM.
One can use tools such as FAQ navigator, sliders, etc. to enhance customers’ chat experience. Users can create ideal chat flows as needed, edit it whenever required, and go live instantly.
Verloop allows seamless hand-off from the chatbot to human representatives for sales closure or if the question is out of bounds for the bot to answer.
Our vision is to reach out to various countries and spread the word of our emerging product successfully. Our mission is to ensure that through automation we can reduce the burden off of the employees and enable them to work on vital tasks rather than monotonous and repetitive tasks.
Verloop’s Language Understanding modules are built equally on classical machine learning as well as modern deep learning ideas. In terms of specific tooling, spaCy, MITIE, and Duckling are the main classical NLP focused toolkits that Verloop uses. Verloop uses PyTorch and Tensorflow from Deep Learning perspective. It enables businesses to understand users’ intent and respond in a personalized manner. Verloop’s NLU powered modules are used for responding customer FAQs, figure out user target, and personalize conversations—these are done in multiple languages.
Gaurav Singh is the founder and CEO of Verloop. An engineering graduate, Gaurav Singh began his entrepreneurial journey in college. He has been on the founding team of ventures like ‘Stalk Ninja’ and ‘GoDeliver’. Gaurav worked with TCS, LT Research, and Vizury before starting Verloop.
Piyush Mishra is the ex-CTO of Verloop. Piyush was always interested in freelancing and has worked as a freelance developer with various companies. He was on the founding team of ‘GoDeliver’ alongside Gaurav.
Gaurav reached out to Piyush about the initial B2B idea. At that point, Piyush was working several freelance engagements and was quickly convinced to begin work on a conversational automation. To Piyush, this was a profound idea which piqued him.
Gaurav overlooks the operational activities at Verloop such as marketing, sales (pre-sales and post-sales), and lead-generation. He also attends regular meetings with top-prospects. Piyush, on the other hand, is the tech expert overseeing issues related to coding, development, processing of chatbots, etc. Both of them are masters in their respective fields and ensure systematic functioning of the processes under them while ensuring that employees are on the right track.
Verloop has a team size of 30 at present which includes full-time employees as well as interns. The team comprises marketing and content strategists, technical team, human resource representatives, financial executives, forward deployment teams, business development teams, pre-sales, and post-sales teams.
Verloop Founders & Team
Verloop – How It Began
The idea of Verloop emerged when founders Gaurav Singh, and Piyush Mishra were running a B2C Personal Concierge Startup called Magictiger. While managing a chat ops team of 100+ members, the team slowly started automating mundane and repetitive tasks. In the process, Gaurav and Piyush realized that automation of conversations with customers could help many other businesses like Magictiger. This pivoted them to become a B2B company: Verloop.
The idea was to use machine learning, AI, and NLP (Natural Language Processing) and help companies connect with customers on a large scale while maintaining the level of personalization people expect from super agents. The idea was to use the 80-20 rule in the practical world; 80% of customers’ questions come from 20% of the company’s query database. By automating that 20%, one can free upto 80% of the teams’ time, allowing the workforce to focus on the vital components of the sales process rather than spending time on those parts which are monotonous and menial.
We understood how monotonous tasks are very time-consuming for the employees and how through automation we will be able to reduce the burden and make the work for the employees highly productive. Automation is present around us everywhere, but to use it is most productively, is a challenge. In a way, that it is beneficial to the employees and they don’t consider it a bane. Keeping all of this in mind, we used automation in a way to help the employees and allow our bots to take over repetitive tasks.
Verloop – Product Validation Stage
Verloop Automation
Considering the constant growth in the automation segment, Gaurav and Piyush decided to embark on their venture. They figured out a bunch of tasks not strongly dependent on human intervention and that could be easily performed using a digital workforce (bots). They started by automating tasks within Magictiger and then decided to provide the same services to other organizations as well.
We sat in a shared office space initially, we talked to other startups on our floor. Our investors also came through with some connects. I also did a LOT of traveling and talking to potential customers, gathered loads of feedback on where exactly we’d fit well and what path to take from there” says Gaurav explaining Verloop’s product validation stage.
Verloop – Business Model And Revenue Model
Verloop has a B2B business model. Users can take a 14 day free trial.
For revenue generation, Verloop is currently offering 3 packages:
A free forever starter package that allows 500 monthly conversations.
Business package that starts at $49/ month, and where prices vary according to the number of monthly conversations.
Enterprise package with a price of $699/month.
There is a drastic change in our previous business model( for Magictiger) , which was previously Business to Consumers. Due to this change, our ideologies, campaigns, promotional methods, etc. had to be changed to a certain extent. Since our target market changed, we had to adopt a different pitch to cater to the needs of the new market. Different schemes were adopted to satiate the needs of the market. As our focus shifted to businesses, we gathered that every business will have a different use-case towards chatbots. Hence, the pitch needs to be changed accordingly by understanding each business and its priorities
Verloop – Revenue
Verloop reported a revenue of around $960k in 2018.
For revenue generation, Verloop is currently offering 3 packages:
A free forever starter package that allows 500 monthly conversations.
Business package that starts at $49/ month, and where prices vary according to the number of monthly conversations.
Enterprise package with a price of $699/month.
Verloop – Funding And Investors
Verloop raised funding worth $3 Million from IDFC Parampara Fund and others in November 2018. The amount is intended to be used for technology enhancement and team expansion.
The Verloop team has worked on various channels to spread the word about the venture and secure multiple sign-ups.
We have noticed that people love videos and that they are very engaging. The most engaging channels are LinkedIn and Twitter for spreading awareness about your product and the outreach is also very high since everyone has a different network and a different set of followers. That’s exactly why these two work the best.
For customer retention, Verloop follows the same funda that most companies usually do: “customer is king”. The company puts high intensity efforts into its post-sales procedure as the team ensures that customers are satisfied. The team also makes sure that the chatbot is updated as and when users want a change within the bot’s flow. The Verloop team also sees that the use-case is pitched to each business based on their need and requirement.
Interested candidates usually reach out to Verloop through LinkedIn and other hiring portals. Once the candidate’s resume has been verified and they are seen as a potential fit, the candidate is called down for a set of tests/interviews for evaluation. Interviews at Verloop are designed to not only understand the candidate’s technical capabilities, but also to identify any scope for improvement and openness towards learning.
Verloop’s work culture is very positive and encouraging. The team indulges in various activities such as gaming, team outings, and various other motivation based activities.
We believe that automation at this day and age is highly important. We make sure each one of us are aware of each of our roles and run a smooth and fair collaboration in whatever work is to be completed by us. We believe in teamwork and constantly updating new features and satisfying the customers.
Verloop – Startup Challenges
Speaking of the challenges, Gaurav tells, On a meta-level, initially the challenge was about knowing what was necessary for customers. Once we had a brief idea of that, we kept digging deeper. Initially, it was about survival. First through the next few weeks, then months. Right now we’re talking years, so now the focus is more on growth
Verloop – Advisors And Mentors
Although Verloop is not being mentored by any organization or individual at the moment, it is consulting Smooch and Kaleyra to get an idea of what templates to run and how to approve WhatsApp templates for its recently launched WhatsApp chatbots, . Kaleyra and Smooch are directly accelerated by WhatsApp and are in constant contact with Verloop.
Verloop falls under Y Combinator’s Track’17 company, a hub for emerging startups with different agendas and plans of action.
Verloop – Awards
Verloop received the “most-agnostic award” from MIT.
Verloop – Growth
Verloop has a customer base consisting of leading organizations like Aadhar Bridge, Apollo Munich Health Insurance, Livpure, Portea, LockTheDeal, and Nykaa.
Verloop’s recently introduced WhatsApp chatbots have brought a significant increment in its clientele list. The company is also receiving recognition from various magazines and websites.
The team focuses on improving its services for maintaining customer satisfaction and provides its users with the most advanced technology. The Verloop team is hoping to gain more recognition overseas in coming time. The company has clients in the UK, UAE, Australia, and is planning to expand its presence to cover several other markets.
Since automation is slowly catching up with people, they are starting to realize how essential automation is for businesses to run smoothly and to reduce the employee turnover rate. Through automation, we only wish it will make the lives of the employees more productive and reduce the unnecessary workload. Automation will be considered a boon and not a bane, where people will understand the requisite need to implement it within their company – Gaurav Singh
Verloop – FAQs
Who is the Founder of Verloop?
Gaurav Singh is the founder and CEO of Verloop
What is Verloop?
Verloop is a B2B company that provides a conversational automation platform for businesses to remain in touch with their customers 24/7
How much is Verloop Funding till date?
Verloop raised funding worth $3 Million from IDFC Parampara Fund and others in November 2018.
What is Verloop’s Revenue?
Verloop reported a revenue of around $960k in 2018.
Verloop – Conclusion
At Verloop.io, we believe that the internet was the single largest revolution for global communication. It’s how you can talk to your friends and family across the globe in seconds, and how we’re talking to you right now. But even as technology was built to make it quicker and easier for people to talk to each other, businesses didn’t buy in – using old tools and older ideas. Verloop.io aims to achieve a single mission – to help enterprise businesses help their customers better. From creating easier outreach to building more meaningful relationships, our technology-first focus empowers businesses to get the most out of every interaction.
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 21CC Education
The World Economic Forum states that half of India’s 350 million workforce requires to be reskilled! Here comes the role of 21CC Education, founded by industry veterans Sanjay Tiwari, Marloeke Werst, Ludo Tieman and Sumer Shankardass in 2019.
21CC Education offers industry-relevant skills in the logistics and transportation space to enhance the employability of India’s workforce as well as the productivity of India’s booming logistics sector. The 21CC app allows individuals to skill, upskill and re-skill. 21CC Education has already worked with market leaders in the logistics space like DB Schenker, DHL Global Forwarding, DP World, Sarjak Container Lines and the Port of Amsterdam to serve their training and recruitment needs.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Sanjay Tiwari, co-founder of 21CC Education to know the Success Story of 21CC Education. Along with it know about 21CC Education Business model, funding, founders, how it started & more.
21CC Education aims to offer industry-relevant skills in the logistics and transportation space to enhance the employability of India’s workforce as well as the productivity of India’s booming logistics sector.
21CC Education, well-researched and intelligently designed app based skilling platform that delivers complex content in consumable, efficient modules with high retention outcomes. The app allows individuals to skill, upskill and re-skill. It is a powerful ally of the L&D and recruitment teams by bringing pre-skilled workforce in contact with hiring companies through its unique skills-match feature.
In short, our vision and mission would be to ‘skill the world’ says Sanjay, co-founder, 21CC Education
The smartphone disseminated technology is a scalable solution helping organizations with on-boarding , training and mass hiring to efficiently bridge the skill gaps.
Sanjay as he states enjoys the stress of entrepreneurship, both within and outside of a large organization. There are many learnings as the work progresses and takes a lot of creative effort to get all the noses in the same direction, while trying to figure out the core value proposition. His major interest in logistics and supply chain education led to the setting up of 21CC Education with friends in the U.S., Netherlands and India.
According to a McKinsey report – Because of AI and technology, 375 million globally need to be re-skilled, and this was pre-pandemic!
The World Economic Forum states that half of India’s 350 million workforce requires to be reskilled. India has 21 million employees in logistics and the industry is growing by more than 10% per annum. The Government is spending billions of dollars on new infrastructure, private equity and VC players are investing billions in new companies.
In the warehousing industry alone 48,000 new positions will get added between 2020 and 2022. A new McKinsey Global Survey on future workforce needs, nearly 9 in 10 executives and managers say their organizations either face skill gaps already or expect gaps to develop within the next five years. All of these people need to be skilled remotely, on the fly and preferably before their first day of work.
21CC Education – Founders and Team
21CC Education was founded in 2019 by Sanjay Tiwari, Marloeke Werst, Ludo Tieman and Sumer Shankardass. The company is headquartered in Mumbai and has an office in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Sanjay Tiwari- Co-Founder, 21CC Education
Sanjay Tiwari
Sanjay has close to thirty years’ experience in trading, transportation and logistics having worked for a Dutch steel trading and warehousing company in Singapore and Malaysia, for KLM Cargo in The Netherlands and the U.S. and for Maersk in India.
Marloeke Werst
Marloeke has a product management background at L’Oréal and Air France KLM Cargo, followed by a consulting and training career. Marloeke was hired to work at KLM Cargo by Sanjay when they were building up a new air cargo security product in 2002. Her subsequent background in consulting, training and change management was a great help when they re-connected in 2013. Marloeke has deep connects with the Dutch government and industry bodies.
Sumer Shankardass
Sumer was part of the team that took WNS to the NYSE and has extensive BPO experience, as well as experience as a strategic advisor to startups. Sumer and Sanjay know each other from their days in Chicago in 2007 and coincidentally both moved back to India in 2010 with their families. As the co-promoter of 21CC Education, he helps the company to secure the large corporate contracts, leveraging his network and advising on fund raising.
Ludo Tieman
Ludo comes from a family of entrepreneurs in The Netherlands. He ran his own company in The Netherlands in the DIY space and then worked with two startups in Thailand. He heads technology development for 21CC. Ludo and Sanjay both went to the University of Groningen in The Netherlands many many many years ago and have backpacked through India together in the late 1980s. Ludo leads on the technology development and also helped conceptualize the UI / UX of the 21CC App.
The core team of 16 people is split over India and The Netherlands in addition to contracted writers, programmers, illustrators etc.
The inspiration came from the fact that Sanjay has extensively worked in the transportation and logistics industry across Northern Europe, South East Asia, South America, United States and India for more than 30 years now. Having experience on the front lines coupled with practical understanding of the pitfalls in the sector and a steady willingness to overcome the barriers led to creating 21CC Education
Logistics works with an approximate 15% margin of error that seems to have been become acceptable; but this would not be the norm in any other sector. Therefore, the idea behind 21CC education was a win-win for both business and people- reduce error, and most importantly skilling the workforce.
21CC Education was founded in January 2019 in response to the changing face of logistics and transportation. The accelerated growth track of the sector was facing disruptions owing to lack of skills. Issues like unorganized logistics and packaging operations as well as a lack of administrative capabilities continue to hold the sector back. As logistics gains increasing significance, entering an era of unprecedented change, they recognized the urgent need for scalable and sustainable skill development solutions that could significantly help re-engineer the Indian logistics sector.
21CC Education was founded to respond to this urgent call for individuals and organizations alike by simplifying learning through gamification and reskilling through its unique mobile and web application. This first of its kind application aims to significantly bridge the recruitment-skilling gap by creating enhanced learning and skilling experience for operationally intensive industries.
The company creates a steady and large funnel of aptly skilled resources for organisations and maps opportunities for reskilling and upskilling for individuals and blue-collared job seeker to increasing their earning potential and enable them to build lucrative careers.
21CC Education’s holistic mobile platform is backed by an experienced team across Netherlands and Mumbai. Its library offers industry-relevant, engaging and adaptive learning content with more than 110 e-learning modules, over 50 courses and 8 interactive games, all focused on logistics and transportation sectors.
The 21CC App is built on a technology stack of developed on a technology stack consisting of HTML CSS, Angular, Groovy Grails, JavaScript and jQuery, and supported by a strong LMS.
21CC education makes the complex clear by delivering learning and skill-building modules in both online and mobile formats, based on a vast and continuously growing library of industry-validated content in an accessible and fun manner using illustrations, practical examples, humor and gamification.
21CC Education already works with market leaders such as DBSchenker and DHL to serve their training and recruitment needs and as such is geared to help large enterprises connect with the vast resource requirements while ensuring the talent pool is rightly skilled and aware of the space thereby, eliminating the time required in the training of the employees.
Its training content is also finding favor with organizations wanting to create social impact through their CSR initiatives. Aligning CSR projects with skill building drives, 21CC Education is partnering with several leading organizations to help build capability and employability through the immersive and vernacular content.
Additionally, through a recent partnership with the NSDC’s eskillindia.org portal—which is an online learning hub, with more than 800 courses in over 20 sectors— 21CC Education will be offering its App based content to help bridge India’s skill deficit in the logistics and transport sector. The new association with the NSDC, will help build a skilled talent pool in India, ensuring a robust workforce that has the opportunity to be gainfully employed and be contributively aligned with the nation’s growth agenda.
The name came up many years ago quite charmingly on the streets of Chicago while Sanjay was walking his dog, Rustom. It was then that someone spoke to him about ‘21st Century Cargo’. Since then, ‘21CC’ stuck with Sanjay and he thanks Rustom or the kind stranger for the tag line!
21CC Education Logo
“As for the logo, although it was an evening’s worth of work for Dutch designer,Marlies Bloemendaal based in Mumbai, she did a great job in terms of design, colors and messaging” added Sanjay
21CC Education – Business Model and Revenue Model
21CC Education’s business model is both B2B and B2C. 21CC Education’s library offers industry-relevant, engaging and adaptive learning content with more than 110 e-learning modules, over 50 courses and 8 interactive games, all focused on logistics and transportation sectors.
As stated by Sanjay Tiwari, 21CC Education’s revenue model is –
Employers pay for candidates that have come to them via the 21CC App
Employers pay a fixed monthly amount for ongoing employee training
Employees will pay in future for their ongoing education and job placement
21CC Education has been B2B from day one so getting those large corporate customers on board took its own effort. The first 100 B2C customers have come about via its listing on NSDC’s eskillindia.org platform as well as its partnership with portall.in
“The partnerships with the likes of NSDC and Portall.in in India and Dubai Trade in the UAE are very important from an outreach point of view” says Sanjay
21CC Education – Challenges faced
Creating awareness of its offering was one of the major challenge faced by the team at 21CC Education.
“It’s a challenge to create large-scale awareness of opportunities in logistics and make people aware of it. It feels a bit like promoting the BPO industry or IT industry in the 1980s and 1990s, as people aren’t yet fully aware of logistics. So getting college students to download our content is still a struggle, once they do they apparently love it” expressed Sanjay Tiwari, co-founder, 21CC Education
21CC Education – Funding and Investors
21CC Education has raised 1.1 Million Euros in a seed round led by a Dutch Angel Investor in March 2020.
Aapna is considered to be the top competitor of 21CC Education in this industry.
21CC Education – Future Plans
21CC Education aims to be the world’s premier skilling app for entry level employees in logistics
21CC Education – FAQs
Who are the founders of 21CC Education?
21CC Education was founded in 2019 by Sanjay Tiwari, Marloeke Werst, Ludo Tieman and Sumer Shankardass.
What is 21CC Education?
21CC Education offers industry-relevant skills in the logistics and transportation space to enhance the employability of India’s workforce as well as the productivity of India’s booming logistics sector.
How much funding has 21CC Education raised?
21CC Education has raised 1.1 Million Euros in a seed round led by a Dutch Angel Investor in March 2020.
Rishabh Rathi
