Over the last four years, the Indian entrepreneurship ecosystem has risen from 35K startups in 2016 to more than 55K startups in 2020 with more than $48.7 billion being raised during the revealed rounds of investment. As a result of the exponential growth in consumer demand and the increased use of digital goods and services by individuals and firms, more than 15+ unicorns have arisen in India since 2018. The word Soonicorn applies to start-ups that could become Unicorns whereas a unicorn is a startup carrying a value of up to $ 1 billion.
Now let’s take a look at a list of the Soonicorns of India:
MobiKwik is an Indian organization founded in 2009 offering a digital wallet and a mobile payment system. Online wallets may be used for purchases to add money to their clients. The Bank of India reserve approved MobiKwik’s e-wallet to be used by the company in 2013 and began providing customers with small loans for its service in May 2016.
CRED was founded by Kunal Shah in November 2018, after an investment of $1 M in Bangalore, India. CRED is an Indian credit card bill transferring app. CRED has been mentioned among the future unicorns by CB Insights in June 2020.
PayMate provides a cloud-based network for big businesses and SMBs to move from slow, expensive forms, such as cash and checks, to digital payments in real-time. It digitizes the entire payment period to boost overall performance and minimize time, commitment, energy, and costs by more than 50 percent.
BharatPe plans to make the deal via (15-day) deposits due to the dealer commercializing interest. In case of an emergency, dealer partners can, in 15 days from the deal, cancel the settlement by paying a withdrawal charge of 1 percent.
5. Capital Float
Capital Float Logo
Capital Float was formed in 2013 and became the country’s largest digital lender. SMEs working in sales, trade, and logistics are given working capital loans. They also fund online and offline customer transactions by way of various A-list alliances.
6. Acko
Acko Logo
Acko is an Indian general insurance company that is in the private sector. In line with a digital model, Acko offers a digital forum for all market activities for the company. The business seeks to promote startups as well. Acko expanded the financing of Amazon, Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, and Catamaran Ventures by 274 crores in 2018.
7. Lendingkart
Lendingkart Logo
Lendingkart Finance aims to ensure credit availability for SMEs who either have no or currently lack capital access to credit. The organization plans to pay out loans within 72 hours with limited paperwork. It seeks to transform small business loans by making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to access lending. Data security is very important for Lendingkart Community. All the details are kept private.
KhataBook is a smartphone application that helps small business owners and Kirana stores handle their books in India by helping them track the money owing by means of a digital directory. Both data collected on the Khata Book App are kept safely in the maintained database. Password-protected access to the database is tightly restricted. In accordance with technical advances, the security procedures are checked and revised periodically.
9. Fino Paytech
Fino Paytech Logo
Fino Paytech is an innovator, industry pioneer, and entrepreneur for organizations such as banks, government, and insurance companies.
They are a corporate and technical banking network in combination with a wide variety of services. They even facilitate end-to-end consumer procurement and maintenance as an alternative banking platform. Innovation has tackled the problems of the serviceability and scalability of existing banking networks.
The goal of Vivriti Capital is to build the largest and most significant financial network service that serves a customer base for institutions, corporations, small businesses, and people lacking efficient access to financial services. Their site CredAvenue is a one-stop solution to prospect, assess, conduct, and track debt. It’s an interactive business debt network.
Soonicorns are tech companies, fintech, or businesses with the potential to become Unicorns in the future.
What is a startup unicorn?
In the venture capital industry, the term unicorn refers to any startup that reaches the valuation of $1 billion. The term was first coined by Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy ventures when she referred to the 39 startups that had a valuation of over $1 billion as unicorns.
Is there any Unicorn in India?
India now has 37 unicorns, having added 16 to the list in 2020. It stands third in global country rankings, well behind the US and China, but ahead of the UK and Germany.
What is a tech unicorn?
Unicorn is the term used in the venture capital industry to describe a startup company with a value of over $1 billion. Some popular unicorns include Airbnb, Uber, SpaceX, Robinhood, and SoFi.
Conclusion
In 2021 the startups that are performing well and are the most profitable will turn soonicorns. By the market size of these startups, we can expect new startups emerging as unicorns this year. Startups into Fintech, EdTech, and MedTech domains are in much demand due to the Covid-19. There is high demand for these startups and have the potential to grow in the coming days. We are seeing more startups in the field of FinTech. Fintech is the lead because digital payments have profoundly infiltrated metro and Tier 1 cities and now, other financial digital assets, such as finance, insurance, and neobanking, are more likely to become the addressable basis. In particular, lending firms and payments have been the main contributors to our soon-to-be-finished list.
Google is a part of our daily lives. Every child in today’s generation knows the phrase “Ask Google”. Google is a multidimensional diverse company. Google is widely popular and admired as one of the best employers. It is Google’s mission to “arrange all available information and make it universally available and beneficial.”
Every professional’s dream is to work for Google once in a lifetime. But the question is.
How? How to achieve that feat? How to get a job at Google?
In this article, you will find everything you need to know to get a job at Google. We look at self-reflection to salary negotiation. So, read on and implement!
Google has won Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work Award for 12 years
Self-Reflection: Know Yourself First Before Starting Out
Before you delve into the depths of your hunt, focus on yourself. Learn about your strengths and weaknesses, your passions. Think about the best, most successful instances of your experience, and paint a picture of your career to date and how do you want to further shape it. But remember, It is always difficult to build a career on something you are not passionate about.
Ask yourself:
Which skill once mastered made everything easy after it
Which of your job roles to date you consider most rewarding and why?
What was your best teamwork and why was it remarkable?
Why do you want to get a job at Google?
This exercise will allow you to focus on yourself, understand your skills, interests, your goals. And how does this align with Google’s mission and vision?
The first step is to learn about Google, so you have enough information to choose the right jobs. There is a lot of information available especially on the company pages, employee opinions, team sites, blogs, YouTube channels. Research and understand the company, the aim here is for your ambition or wish for a certain type of job/work environment should mold with the company.
You will get some answers to your initial question “how do you get hired in Google”? You should now be able to fathom the company culture and pinpoint the part of the company and role that feels like the best match for your goals and future.
You will find open jobs in the career section of the company website or other websites dedicated to prospective employees. Following its time-honored tradition, Google encourages applicants to “match your skills and interests to jobs you’re excited about and the problems you want to solve,” according to its website.
Though it is recommended to apply only for the best-suited role, if you feel other jobs match your skill sets, then apply for those. But be careful not to apply too many as this may have a detrimental effect on your applications(s).
Sending Google Resume and Cover Letter: Tailored to Fit
The advice given on Google’s website is to start from scratch, if you apply for more than one role, then design a resume separately for each. Google has an inclination for energetic, inventive, modes, and eager to learn candidates. Does your resume highlight these qualities?
So in your quest of “how to get a job in Google”, keep mind while building a resume:
Match your skills and experience with the job role details. Include examples and data of work done.
Talk about projects you have been part of, successes and lessons learned, how achievement was measured, etc.
Highlight your leadership style, the team you managed, challenges, and scope of work.
But also, be precise and concise. An ideal resume generally does not exceed 2 pages, make each word count. Keep it short.
You may or may not include a cover letter, if you have submitted s strong resume then a cover letter can be missed. If you want to include one, keep the same points as resume building in mind. For example, tailor it to the job you’re applying for, talk about what will you bring to the table, and provide practical instances. You may express your personality more through the letter. Quality, not quantity, is the focus.
The recruitment team will get your application at this stage and deem if you might be a good match for the role. Then the hiring process begins
This may vary depending on roles, location, teams but the basic lines remain similar. Let us look at some of the ways you may be assessed for an interview:
Online assessments: A common starting process for many organizations, a brief online assessment like writing a code or reasoning or quiz, etc. may start the process.
Short informal chats: Before the more formal interview, an informal chat over the telephone or video may be scheduled. These usually take place with the staffing team before your conversation with the hiring manager.
Project work: Sometimes, instead of an online assessment or along with it, a small project is assigned to you. These test your technical ability you shouldn’t be scared of them. These are designed to understand your thought process and problem-solving skills.
Formal interviews: the next stage will be formal interviews to assess your fit with the company and profile you have applied for. Google wants the best as the company is only as good as the people working in it. It is designed to be friendly, warm but rigorous, and through, up to 3-4 interviews in a day.
Above all, it is you’re your demonstrable skill that is assessed, and how you fit the vacancy is discussed. So, you will be appraised under the following guiding lights:
Structured interview: The same explicit set of criteria is used to adjudge every candidate. The perspective for everyone remains even, so your uniqueness can emerge.
Open-ended questions: Open-ended questions allow you the room to have your say, express yourself, and provide solutions or examples of your work. to learn how you solve problems. Your hiring manager needs to know how your mind works, how you fit in the team, and what your strengths are.
You also get a chance to ask questions to learn about your work environment. Keep in mind to ask relevant things. A few are like these:
Day-day responsibilities
Company values and characteristics the ideal candidate
Experience of the interviewer with google
Opportunities for professional development
Challenging aspect of this job
Decision and Offer: Let’s Negotiate with Google
The process comes full circle with the hiring team reviewing everything from application to interview. All the perspectives play an important role, if you meet all the criteria, the recruiter will reach out to you. And then you get that most awaited offer to join the team.
You will be informed about the terms and conditions of the offer. You may want to go through these in detail and negotiate if you feel there is room for that. Once both parties agree, you have landed your dream job with Google.
It is important to be yourself during the entire process because Google will look not only at your skills but you as a person and how you fit in the team. There are a lot of brilliant minds working to make Google but there is always room for average, hard, and diligent workers as well. You have to have the skill to perform the job.
Google though a huge ensemble, still retains the feel of a small company. There is always an opportunity around the corner especially in technical fields with advances every day. The environment is conducive for personal and professional and development. Even if you don’t make it on the first attempt, learn from it and try again when the time is right.
Build up your coding skills (if you’re applying for an engineering job).
It’s better not to apply externally through the company website (instead focus on internships, campus recruiting, and referrals).
Directly reach out to a Google recruiter.
What jobs can you do at Google?
Find your role.
Engineering & Technology. Develop the products and tools of the future for billions of users.
Sales, Service & Support. Equip businesses with the right tools to help them grow.
Marketing & Communications. Connect users to the product magic.
Design.
Business Strategy.
Finance.
Legal.
People.
Can I do a job in Google?
One can apply for jobs at Google directly through the Google website. It’s simple—enter the field of your preference, add your location, and finally add the skills and experience relevant to the job you’re looking for. Google will filter jobs according to your set preferences; all you have to do is apply.
Are Google employees happy?
Google Ranks #1 out of the CareerBliss 50 Happiest Companies for 2020. Unlike any other award, CareerBliss honors the top companies that are succeeding in building a happy culture and positive workplace for employees. This year moving up from its position at No. 4 is Google ranking No. 1.
Is it hard to get a job at Google?
People have reported that the interview at Google is difficult. The interview process takes about a week. People have rated the overall interview experience as favorable.
Is working at Google stressful?
The work is tough, projects can change drastically and a pivot can hide behind every corner. It’s stressful to work at companies like Apple, Google and Amazon. One area the report analyzes is stress levels—which companies are making their employees feel the most stress.
Conclusion
The hiring process at Google is a very crucial and important part of the company’s culture. People working at Google care deeply about their teams and the people who make them up. The company also care about building a more representative and inclusive workplace, and that starts with hiring the suitable and deserving candidate. In order to truly build for everyone, the company is looking for candidates that have a wide diversity of perspectives and experiences, and a fair hiring process is the first step in getting there. Keep trying and keep applying for jobs at Google. There is a lot of competition in this process as a lot of candidates apply at Google. But in the end, it will be worth it and all effort put into the process will be fruitful.
The content in this post has been approved by the organization SugarBox.
While the data revolution has catalysed the emergence of Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms and e-commerce services in the last two-three years, there are still challenges existing in the ecosystem regarding data speed and patchy internet connectivity. SugarBox Networks is a platform that enables a user to use mobile apps and digital services seamlessly without requiring internet connectivity.
Started in August 2016, the company was very similar to what offline content distribution companies do but it is slightly different. SugarBox is a homegrown, first of its kind hyperlocal CDN, which enables Digital access for the next coming billion users, something even Big Tech has struggled with. SugarBox helps businesses grow by setting up data-delivery infrastructures at various places, allowing their users to access mobile apps without the Internet!
SugarBox is a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependency on mobile data. SugarBox is a homegrown, first of its kind hyperlocal CDN, which enables Digital access for the next coming billion users, something even Big Tech has struggled with. The value proposition at SugarBox is to solve one of the most important problems. A technology that is re-imagining the way data delivery on the internet works making internet services more available, dependable, and contextual.
SugarBox is basically a hyperlocal CDN exposed over a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependence on mobile data and provides them seamless access to Apps, without any usage limits or soaring high mobile data charges. Simply put, if Netflix existed 3 decades back and users were streaming a movie at their office in Bombay, the file would be streamed to them from a server in the US.
Then a CDN was invented in the late 90s and today, that file magically gets stored (or cached) and streamed from a server in Bombay (and most often in a server located in the area where viewers are within Bombay). SugarBox makes the file available on a server (AKA SugarBox) installed in their office building so that it can be streamed using the Local Area Network in their own office! And the same can be applied to any user context – Residential building, Hotel, Mall, Aircraft, Train, Bus, etc. complexes, corporate parks, rural areas, educational institutes, retail shops, hotels, food & beverage outlets, and then, of course, expanding internationally, etc.
SugarBox- Founder
SugarBox Networks is founded by Rohit Paranjpe and Ripunjay Bararia.
Sugarbox Founder | Rohit Pranajpe
Rohit Paranjpe, First-generation serial entrepreneur, co-founder, and CEO of SugarBox. With first-of-its-kind ventures across the digital content and media ecosystem in India. 34-year old Rohit is now focused on disrupting the internet services space, making them available, affordable, reliable, and contextual for everyone. The leadership team at SugarBox comprises Ripunjay Bararia, Co-founder and CTO of SugarBox. A Tech evangelist with over two decades of experience and part many tech ‘firsts’ in India.
Ripunjay Bararia, CTO and Co-founder of SugarBox Networks
Other Member in the Leadership Team:
Ashish Kulshresth, Business Head – brings with him over 20 years of strategic experience in Strategic Alliances, Sales & Marketing across EdTech, E-commerce, Telecom & Media. Ashish is responsible for the P&L and oversee the Network expansion, as well as the Revenue functions.
Pritesh Malde, Product Head – He has a proven track record of Ideating, conceptualizing and scaling products from scratch in B2B and B2C domains
Ishan Choudhury, Heads Strategy & Growth – With 14 years of experience across diverse strategy roles, including co-founding a hyperlocal services venture, he brings a balance of start-up exposure and key insights from running micro-ventures in large enterprises.
Rupsa Sinha, Brand Head – With 12 years of experience across consumer brands and undertook the unique challenge of creating a category defining brand – all from scratch, prior to SugarBox. She is primarily responsible for building the SugarBox brand and creating awareness for the unique value proposition & disruption that the company creates.
Vishwanath Kulkarni, Head of Network Rollout – brings with him over 15 years of experience in the IT & Telecom domain, having been instrumental in the rollout of 2G, 3G and 4G networks for telcos. At SugarBox, he looks at the network rollout and network maintenance function enabling the company to scale operations rapidly.
Ayush Sinha SugarBox Head HR – HR leader with extensive experience in setting up start-ups and GICs, rapid scaling & de-scaling and building high growth teams.
Rohit is grateful for the rich & diverse experience they all bring to the company. They are at a very interesting juncture in SugarBox’s journey, and their arrival brings fresh energy, expertise and perspective that will be pivotal in their rapid scale-up aspirations. The current team size is 115 and they are growing rapidly.
SugarBox started at the back of Rohit Paranjpe’s experience running an OTT service and the problems that people faced with respect to data connectivity and affordability. They built a prototype very similar to what has used on-board a Jet Airways aircraft in 2016 and carried out a pilot project at Mumbai’s Goregaon railway station. The statistics were beyond imagination with people consuming 21 GB of data per week, and some users ran through all 200 movies on the platform within 15 days! This is when they knew that they were onto something exciting.
The team tried to identify & network with people in the industry who understood technology enough to understand the concept that Rohit was trying to propose. He spoke to a friend, who was well versed with technology and he helped him understand the core components required, and the kind of expertise required to set-up the complete model and bridge the gap. He further introduced Rohit to Ripunjay, who went on to become the Co-founder and is the CTO at SugarBox.
In the beginning, for the initial years, most of the members of the core team were focusing on technology & network partnerships. The founders were brought in-depth experience in both these domains that helped set the stage for many early successes for the company. They also got some talented associates to join the company early on.
SugarBox’s showcases the Wi-Fi bars in an unbreakable curve, and the CDN structure comes in a box. The box comes with something good and happy for everyone. The good news of reliable and affordable internet, adding sweetness to life. Hence, SugarBox!
SugarBox | Logo
SugarBox- Vision and Mission
In the start-up world, it’s said – “find a large enough, grave enough problem to solve and you’ve hit the spot.” But here’s the interesting part. Ask people if they’re happy with their internet connection and 99 / 100 times, the answer is a No! Everyone has been at this for the last 3 years.
And Rohit would have asked this question too well over 1,000 people, across demographics and geographies. And the answer is the same! And yet, somehow, all of us seem to have given up on it – Everyone, somehow, has made their peace with the state of affairs; less privileged audiences have made peace with the system and people in lesser geographies/countries have made their peace with fate!
The core aim is to decrease the data accessed over the internet, thereby freeing up bandwidth on the existing last-mile networks (Telecom and ISP) so that the internet starts working more reliably and efficiently for all. The key business focus is to partner with apps that consume the most amount of data/internet bandwidth.
In the medium term, SugarBox will empower the Next Billion users worldwide to start using digital services without having to purchase a data pack or an internet connection. The long-term goal is to optimize the way data is transacted on the internet globally, making the internet over 30 times cheaper and 200 times faster.
In the Long term, SugarBox will make internet access 200% faster and 50% cheaper!
SugarBox- Target Market Size
Being a first-of-its-kind platform, there was no precedence for what SugarBox was doing, which obviously led to a plethora of challenges. First, a chunk of use cases for which they were building their CDN had never been addressed before. Then, they struggled with ecosystem-level challenges including Android fragmentation and OS limitations. After that, they ran into hardware failures and peripheral hardware issues in production environments, and many more. It will sound like a cliché, but they overcame them by thinking out of the box, collaborating, and finally, just grit and determination. It also took a special group of individuals coming together to solve these complex problems.
In the next 2 to 3 years, their Network partnerships would enable them to service over 400 million users spending over a staggering 2 billion hours every month streaming content on the go, and another 1 billion hours playing games!
Plus, there’ll be over 6 billion monetizable ad slots for this unlocked consumption. Also, SugarBox will be able to service over 25 million unique shoppers every month, driving over 32 million E-commerce transactions, 10 million rides for Cabs & Bike taxis, and 10 million food orders.
SugarBox- Products/ Services
SugarBox is a one-of-a-kind hyperlocal CDN that can be integrated with an existing Local Area Network or exposed to a user over a local Wi-Fi network. By the virtue of being hyperlocal there are certain things that it does more than what the traditional CDN does, and because of the technology there more cases that can be served. This hyperlocal CDN is disrupting the economics of the internet infrastructure challenges by shifting a chunk of data consumption from expensive internet bandwidth to free local bandwidth.
SugarBox is the only network in the world that lets its users access their favorite Apps seamlessly without them having to depend on their mobile data or ISP. It sets up a better data delivery & discovery network at key places of interest (POIs) that are frequented by consumers.
CDN is a network of servers linked together with the goal of delivering content as quickly, cheaply, reliably, and securely as possible, allowing everyone to take the internet more scalable in addition to which it is known as the internet enabler.
SugarBox offers various benefits to its stakeholders:
For consumers – Reliable access to apps without requiring internet connectivity or incurring data cost
For the POI – Enhanced in-premise experience and a better understanding of their consumers
For the App partner – Increase total available market, better user-adoption, consumption, stickiness, and monetization for the app
In essence, SugarBox is truly unique in the ecosystem and are complementary, rather than competing to other stakeholders.
The SugarBox revenue model aims to change the way that enables internet infrastructure providers to start earning via user consumption without the user having to pay for it. The model that SugarBox operates in is very similar to that of any CDN. They invest in the Cloud and Edge infrastructure that SugarBox installs. In addition to this, they bear the operating expenses of this infrastructure, along with other associated charges like lease, utility, etc. at certain POIs.
Once installed and live, SugarBox monetizes via the user consumption of all apps supported by the SugarBox CDN. Each SugarBox installation is modeled to be Unit Ex positive, not just for them as a company, but the entire ecosystem. The margins are substantially higher than the traditional CDN business.
SugarBox is in the phase of partnering with various OTT, Gaming, E-commerce, FinTech, and EdTech platforms. This forms the bedrock of a win-win relationship between the user, app partners, and SugarBox. Their efficient infrastructure planning & patented technology that has enabled a hyperlocal data delivery ensures that we work on a positive unit economics model at every installation point.
SugarBox- Investments
With the current investment, SugarBox will commence commercial services and scale up the network across public transport, revolutionizing the digital experience for over 300 million monthly unique users over the next 2 to 3 years. The short-term objective is to unlock over 2.5 billion hours of digital consumption monthly for consumers in a near captive environment, where access is otherwise limited due to patchy connectivity.
SugarBox- Startup Launch
Across all their pilot projects to date, have catered to over 1 million users. In Feb 2020, the month prior to lockdown, SugarBox had 120,000 unique users accessing Zee5 content with an average of over 27,000 users consuming content daily. The initial feedback has been very encouraging with an average engagement of 14 out of 30 minutes in the case of Hyderabad Metro. Of course, there is a lot of work to be done and the key focus at the moment is to partner with Digital services across industries, which incrementally adds to the consumer value proposition.
However, with the country in lockdown and public transport being shut to the general public and everyday use, SugarBox is working with partners across industries to help them through the current disruption and to make them ready for the post-COVID era.
SugarBox is working with public transport corporations for infrastructure upgrades that will enable them to automate and streamline operations, optimize expenses and potentially create new sources of revenue – all of which will be critical in a post-COVID world. The solutions encompass Digital access, Smart mobility, IoT, Security and Digital Out of Home, amongst others.
SugarBox is in the process of helping temporary and permanent COVID facilities with seamless digital access to enable patients in quarantine to stay connected and to bring a smile on their faces via delivering OTT services while they’re at the facility.
Over the next 2 quarters, SugarBox will be looking at expanding our outreach to other sectors including hospitality, education & retail – all of which are severely disrupted because of COVID and will have to reimagine their operating models in the year/s to come
SugarBox- Customers/ Clients
SugarBox got an internal customer Zee5 to set up POC and attract more customers. They used that user-traction to sign large networks including Indian railways and other deployment partners. The two main associations they focus on are getting more customers to use SugarBox and app partnership. Both the segments go hand in hand as the more customers will get to use SugarBox, the more partners seeing the benefits will collaborate with SugarBox, and vice versa – the more apps they provide to the customers more the interest.
SugarBox- Challenges
Delivering content using a hyperlocal CDN server is simple. Making a Digital service work without internet connectivity is a whole other topic altogether. This meant addressing user registration, personalization, security, payments, and ads – all of which require sustained internet connectivity to function. It is going to sound like a cliché, but the only way SugarBox got past these hurdles was owing to perseverance, hard work, a lot of creativity & innovation, the technical prowess of the team, and patient support from both the Zee leadership and the Zee5 team.
Well, for starters – It is a complex problem, not just from a tech point of view, but also from understanding the economics of all the stakeholders that need to work in conjunction to provide us the monster called the Internet. But it’s also probably one of the most important problems to solve in this century. This is why every Big Tech company including Google, FB, Amazon, SpaceX, etc. has been looking at finding faster, cheaper, and alternative ways to deliver internet bandwidth.
SugarBox is a subsidiary of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL), in which it acquired an 80% equity stake for INR 75 crores in April 2017. In April 2020, ZEE committed to investing an additional INR 522crores in SugarBox over the next 2 to 3 years. After the acquisition, their focus was to make Zee5 work using the platform, rather than creating a separate platform with a limited use case (Our network is limited only to certain places). So the SugarBox funding gets a boost from Zee Entertainment whenever necessary.
SugarBox is fortunate that the senior management here recognized the potential of this opportunity early on.
ZEE5 acquired equity stakes in Sugarbox
SugarBox- Competitors
SugarBox is unique in the ecosystem and is complementary, rather than competing to other stakeholders. Nobody does what they do. In comparison to traditional CDNs, SugarBox is able to drive faster data delivery as their infrastructure is closer to the user. The Company is also able to provide an experience guarantee on the data delivery, which a traditional CDN can’t.
Finally, SugarBox boasts of seamless access to Apps even in areas with no network or even for users without an active internet connection, both of which are outside the purview of a traditional CDN.
SugarBox- Recognitions and Achievements
Rohit Paranjpe successfully handled wide-ranging responsibilities in an illustrious career spanning over a decade. An innovator at heart, with a passion for building ecosystems that can potentially impact billions of users, also co-founded:
Digitainment (a company that revolutionized the retail distribution of content and ran the first B2B2C OTT service in India) and,
Mobile Infotainment (an interactive, connected in-transport infotainment and media platform, which was years ahead of its time).
SugarBox has been awarded as one of the Top 50 Tech Innovators by Intercon Dubai and was featured in the TechTors to watch out for in 2020 by BW Disrupt.
SugarBox- Future Plans
Today, SugarBox is present across pilot deployments in 9 cities and 250 Places of Interest (POIs). They are offering services to various POIs in cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai. The company is looking to spanning its network to Delhi, Kolkata, and other cities in the next 2 years. SugarBox aims to cover PAN India Urban & Rural by the end of 2025.
There are 4 key growth pillars for SugarBox in the next 2 to 3 years:
1. Scale up the Public transport outreach in India – This includes full-scale implementation in Indian Railways, along with deployment across other key Metro networks and bus networks in the country. This growth bucket also includes a foray into Avionics to disrupt the In-flight connectivity industry as a whole. The plan is to reach 30 mn users daily and 300 mn monthly unique users through this network segment.
2. Scale up the Rural & Urban Public Wi-Fi outreach in India – This includes exponentially scaling up their rural and village level pilots in partnership with other Internet infrastructure and Internet service providers, along with paving the way for sustainable Public Wi-Fi deployments in Urban and semi-Urban. The plan is to deploy 100,000 POIs over the next 3 years and provide digital access to 100 mn Indians through this segment.
3. SugarBox at Home, Office & other B2B POIs – This includes a B2B and a B2C foray to improve the state of the internet in India, making home and enterprise networks twice as fast and significantly improve the affordability and reliability of internet connections in the country. The plan is to power 20 mn households and enterprises through this segment over the next 3 to 4 years.
4. International expansion – SugarBox is actively working on replicating the model globally, with a two-prong strategy. The company will be looking at entering a few critical markets directly by setting up international operations and forging partnerships with local players for faster penetration across other international geographies.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is SugarBox Networks?
SugarBox Networks is a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependency on mobile data. SugarBox is basically a hyperlocal CDN exposed over a local Wi-Fi network that eliminates the users’ dependence on mobile data and provides them seamless access to Apps, without any usage limits or soaring high mobile data charges.
Who is the Founder of SugarBox Networks?
Rohit Paranjpe and Ripunjay Bararia are the Co-Founders of SugarBox Networks.
Footwear has always been considered an object of fashion. But people do not realize that feet form the foundation of your body. The foot is the 2nd most complex organ of the body after the brain and shoe is the most important piece of clothing. It is believed that Healthy Footwear is one of the most important parts of your Healthy Lifestyle apart from exercise, healthy food, sleep, and stress management.
Von Wellx Germany has been designed with the idea to create a footwear brand that focuses on fulfilling all the functions of the feet and footwear and still looked good.
Ashish Jain, the Founder of Von Wellx Germany, brought German technology to India and founded Iatric Industries in 2016 to deliver comfortable and medically-fit footwear. In around 4 years, the company has spread its wings to Sri Lanka, Dubai, and Qatar markets and is growing at 50 percent year-on-year.
Read this article to know about Von Wellx Germany, it’s products, how it was started, growth, startup challenges, Founder and future plans.
Von Wellx Germany is a footwear brand based on Internationally Patented German Technology – 5 Zones By Dr.Mauch across Men’s and Women’s Category. The company works with the vision to make people aware of the importance/functions of feet and healthy footwear and provide them the healthiest footwear without compromising on fashion.
It helps to provide the people relief from heel, feet, knee, back, and posture issues. Healthy Shoes helps avoid future foot, knee, back, and posture problems for you and energizes your feet for all-day activity without any tiredness, relieving your current issues.
“We have been seeing a very high number of people troubled with above problems since the early ’30s in their life. Technically bad footwear and not being able to stimulate your feet properly which earlier used to happen due to barefoot walking are major reasons for the same. It is extremely important to use footwear which helps your feet perform the original static, dynamic, and reflex functions of your feet so that you live a healthy life for a longer time. If you do not wake up now, you will suffer later.”, says Ashish Jain, CEO and Director of Von Wellx Germany – India.
Von Wellx Germany has been designed so that you can fulfill your foot functions as part of your normal lifestyle only. Dr.Mauch aptly calls it “The Gym in your Shoe.”
It shifting its entire shoe production of around 3 million pairs annually from China to India, with an initial investment of Rs. 110 crores. Thus, a new manufacturing unit will be set up in UP through a collaboration with Latric Industries Pvt Ltd.
India is the second-largest footwear producer in the world, with footwear production accounting for approximately 9 per cent of the global annual production – 22 billion pairs as compared to China, which produces over 60 per cent of the global production.
Footwear exports from India have grown at a CAGR of 20 per cent in Indian Rupee terms during the last five years. In absolute terms, footwear exports from India have risen from Rs. 71.5 billion in FY10 to Rs. 180.0 billion in FY15.
Industry – Premium Footwear (Leather and Non-Leather)
Target market size – Rs. 4,000 Crores
Target market share – 12%
Footwear Market Size – Rs. 40,000 crores
Next Five Years – CAGR of 11 %
Also ,we need to understand that the Healthy Footwear Category (Closest to Comfort Category) is a novel category that is in a blue field stage right now.
It is true that, the choice of footwear, both for men and women in India is always dominated by the fashion of the season. However recently, comfort has been the determining factor for the consumers in buying footwear. Going forward, comfort and health are going to be the first and most important criteria for consumer decision, especially beyond the age of 30 years.
It has been noted that the consumers especially after the 1st pregnancy of women and after crossing 30 years in men encounter more foot and body related problems and look for comfort and health as the topmost criteria.
The demography and changing buying behavior are triggering enhanced demand from the existing pie. Rising disposable incomes and new entrants into the workforce, especially women are pushing the domestic demand on the upside.
Women’s footwear constitutes only a 30 per cent market share currently. But the growth rate of this segment is double than of the men’s segment. Where the men’s footwear market has registered a 10 per cent CAGR growth rate in the last fiscal, it is 20 percent for the women’s segment. Also, it has increased the per capita consumption from 1.6 to 2.4 in the last 5 years.
So overall, there is a major transition to healthy and comfort category footwear in the coming years.
He is an IIM Alum. Post his studies, Ashish joined his 4 decade old family business of footwear that exports products to around 48 countries. After entering the business, Ashish researched the footwear market in India and was intrigued to find out why people were reluctant to understand why they needed good footwear.
“Healthy footwear adds to a healthy body” he says.
“We started by manufacturing in China to meet the supply chain of the Asian and Middle East countries. However, to further leverage the supply chain and boost the manufacturing set up we made a way to India further corroborating the Prime Minister’s speech for Atmanirbhar Bharat,” Ashish tells
Von Wellx – How was it started
The team made the following observations after their research into the area of footwear-
Footwear has always been considered an object of Fashion. But people do not realize that feet form the foundation of your body. Thus care is not taken for your feet and in choosing your footwear. APMA study found that 77% of Americans say they have experienced foot pain. Women are more vulnerable to foot problems and typically experience four times as many problems as men.
Secondly, people did not understand that the type of problems like heel, pain, knee, back and posture problems that they have today is dependent on your feet and footwear as the structure of the building is on the foundation.
Thirdly, most of the footwear designed today do not take care of the natural functions (static, dynamic, and reflex) of the feet, shock absorption function (Like Shock Absorbers of Cars, etc), and technical specs required but only focus on looks and fashion.
Fourthly, that people do not have the expertise to understand the technical correctness of the shoe.
Lastly, people nowadays are paying great attention to maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but do not understand that a healthy shoe is one of the most important cogs in the wheel of a healthy lifestyle.
This led to the birth of the idea to create a footwear brand that focused on fulfilling all the functions of the feet and footwear and still looked good. They researched the best technologies available in this field and zeroed in on Dr. Walter Mauch’s 5 Zones based on the science of reflexology which took care of all the problems.
5 Zones Technology is patented and sold in over 80 countries across the globe and has over 100 million happy customers. They tested these shoes on a study group of 1,000 people across various states of India and noticed their results over 3 months. The results of the study were phenomenal and corroborated with the international results of this brand over the last 30 years.
The people who were under this study kept on coming back to ask for more 5 Zones shoes. From there on, it was a straight call to collaborate with this Brand and they decided to collaborate for India, Middle East, and some other Asian Countries. After rigorous multiple meetings with the German Company in Germany and Italy, Iatric Industries Pvt. Ltd. signed the exclusive contract for 20 years.
In earlier times, we used to walk barefoot a lot (8000 steps or more) daily on soft surfaces like grass, etc. which naturally stimulated nerve endings in feet and kept feet, knees, and back healthy by performing the static, dynamic and reflex functions of the feet. But now in reality, we walk less than 3000 steps daily on hard surfaces with wrong footwear that provide no stimulation, have hard soles & do not support the feet well. This destroys the natural connection of the feet with the body.
Dr. Med Walter Mauch, a very renowned German doctor for orthopedics, chirotherapy, sports medicine, and naturopathy developed this internationally patented 5 Zones based on the science of reflexology to solve these problems. The feet have nerve endings of all the organs of the body.
The footwear provides health benefits to the body like-
Energizes feet for 12+ hours standing (No tiredness) by Soft Massage, Muscle Relaxation
Exercises foot (Like Barefoot walking on Grass) by Increasing blood circulation
Relieves heel, knee and back pain, flat foot by providing correct support
Protects joints and muscles by absorbing the pressure coming on them
Corrects foot position and body posture by balancing muscles tension
Von Wellx – Products/Service
The company has both men’s and women’s shoes for the office, casual, party, ethnic, and wedding purposes for all age groups. They have all your needs covered. Footwear starts at Rs. 1,999 and goes up to Rs. 5,999 but most of the sandals are under Rs. 3,000.
Von Wellx footwear solve problems like-
Avoids Tired Feet after walking & standing,
Heel, Knee, and Back Pain.
Arthritis Feet pain, Diabetic Foot
Wear and tear of Knee and other joints due to shock/pressure
Von Wellx Germany footwear
Also, the shoes are technically correct due to special features like,
Special German lasts for correct foot position,
Long counters to keep the heel bone in place,
Double density shock absorb outsole,
Positive heel height/balanced soles,
Air pump system,
Anti-microbial/Anti-fungal layer,
Imported Stretch Materials for Swollen Feet,
Full-grain leather upper, lining and socks
Features of Von Wellx’s Shoes
Also they have a special Diabetic Range for preventing people from developing diabetic foot. Over 65% of Diabetic people in the US develop problems in their feet. Every 20 seconds, foot amputation occurs in the world. To avoid the same, we need to take the utmost care of our feet and footwear. Von Wellx’s Diabetes Series increases blood circulation to 5 most critical diabetes organs such as the pancreas, spleen, liver, kidneys, intestine, and improves their functioning. It also has additional features like a wide toe box, minimal stitches to avoid wounds, anti-fungal/bacterial lining, and stretch materials.
Dr. Umashankar Mohanty, President – Indian Association of Physiotherapists also said that gait and foot position is very important. If it is altered due to wrong shoe feet, knee, back pain, etc. will occur. Dr. Mohanty was very impressed with Von Wellx’s footwear and acknowledged that these shoes are scientifically developed and provide the necessary support and stimulation to avoid all these problems.
5 Zones Technology based on the science of Reflexology is internationally patented in over 80 countries. No copies can be made of the technology.
Invented by famous Dr. Walter Mauch after years of research.
More than 100 million happy customers are benefited by the same.
Uses Patented Material made in only 1 factory in Italy.
Research and Development for the product done in Germany to correct all technical problems in shoes but with special attention to Indian Fashion needs.
The first brand in India to make Healthy Shoes for a healthy lifestyle.
Von Wellx – Name, Tagline, Logo
The rationale behind the tagline was to make people realize that Healthy Shoes is one of the most important parts of your Healthy Lifestyle.
Von Wellx – Logo
The logo of the company is based on the inventor of 5 Zones – Dr.Mauch.
Von Wellx – Startup Launch
Von Wellx approached the biggest and most respected footwear retailer in the country Metro Shoes which has the best premium shoe retail network in the country. After seeing the revolutionary efficacy and effectiveness of the product, they straightforwardly decided to launch the product in their selected top stores. After seeing the results in 6 months, they decided to go ahead with a nationwide rollout in all their stores. The Year-of-Year(YoY) growth of the company is over 175%.
Internationally, they launched in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka through the country’s top chains like Lulu Retail, DSI Samson, etc. and the brand is performing phenomenally with over 120% YoY growth. They also export the brand from their company to parent company in Germany for their other markets in Europe, the US, etc.
The company’s top focus has been to make the first million customers try their shoes since their repeat buying customer ratio is extremely high. Once a customer wears it, it is very difficult for him/her to use another brand. The team has been employing innovative in-store branding to attract the customers along with digital marketing, traditional marketing channels, doctors conferences, exhibitions, and fitness expos.
The company has one of the highest customer retention ratios in the market and the lowest complaints ratio. The benefits that the customers feel after wearing their shoes and the quality and life of the shoe makes them want to come back to the brand automatically.
Von Wellx – Startup Challenges
The major challenge for the team is to make the customer buy the shoe for the first time. Also, some people think that it is a medical shoe and they do not need it since they do not have any problem.
These shoes are not medical shoes or just targeted at people with problems. These shoes promote good health of your feet, knees, and back so that you do not encounter the problems associated with them.
The company has tried to drive home this message by concentrating on the major customer touch-points like special in-store branding to explain it, training the salesmen with the knowledge so that they can pass it on to the consumer. They have got good results with the same. The team also ran digital campaigns and traditional marketing campaigns to drive home the message.
After a successful launch, Von Wellx is been looking to increase more awareness in the customers with opening exclusive brand outlets. Also they are increasing their distribution by adding Central stores, traditional distributors, and retailers.
The company is also bringing a special foot solution for kids in the next 6 months. They have a huge opportunity and responsibility ahead of them to create a new category of Healthy Footwear in the Indian Market. They are confident of achieving the same in the next 3 years and want all the people to lead an active and pain-free life without worrying about their feet.
It also aims to strengthen online presence through key partnerships. It is soon to launch a new range of washable footwear for the Indian market to counter the effects of COVID-19.
Von Wellx – Recognition and Achievements
The company’s biggest achievement has been the availability of the product across all prime locations at the top 100 Indian cities within a year of the launch.
They have a very high repeat customer rate and less than 0.1 % of returns/complaints which goes on to show that their customers are extremely satisfied and benefited by the product across ages, regions, etc.
Von Wellx has successfully introduced the concept of healthy footwear as a critical part of a healthy lifestyle. Additionally, they are happy to know that youngsters are loving the product as much as elders.
One of the interesting stories was when one of their customers went to her doctor, Dr. Nikhil Latey for a routine checkup. Dr. Latey, who is an Olympic doctor for the Indian team and has worked with famous stars like Mary Kom etc. noticed Von Wellx’s product and was extremely impressed with it. He got in touch with the company and advised the footwear to his patients.
Von Wellx – FAQs
Who is the owner of Von Wellx?
Casa Everz Gmbh is the owner/parent organisation of Germany-based footwear company, Von Wellx.
Who is Ashish Jain?
Ashish Jain is the Founder of Von Wellx Germany, a footwear brand based on Internationally Patented German Technology – 5 Zones By Dr.Mauch across Men’s and Women’s Category.
What is Von Wellx?
Von Wellx Germany is a footwear brand based on Internationally Patented German Technology – 5 Zones By Dr.Mauch across Men’s and Women’s Category. The company works with the vision to make people aware of the importance/functions of feet and healthy footwear and provide them the healthiest footwear without compromising on fashion.
Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation (ADIF) is a body formed by a group of Indian investors and startup founders. They have joined hands together to set up a new alliance.
This body is also expected to in the creation of sustainable development and growth in the digital economy in the country by interacting with the government and regulators on the policy framework that is required.
The main objective of the Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation is to join together and break the dominance of foreign internet giants like Google.
The body was set up when the Indian startups were dissatisfied and were against the new billing policy of Google. According to the new policy, Google has made it mandatory for Indian developers who use Google Play to pay 30% commission for every in-app purchase.
This had led to a debate in the Indian Technology ecosystem. Several Indian founders have accused Google saying that it was abusing its dominance in the market.
Focus of Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation
In a statement from the committee of Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation (ADIF), it has said that the association will concentrate and will be committed towards building a technology ecosystem that will be open, fair, neutral, and self-reliant.
Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation (ADIF) as a representative body for the Indian technological startups will also ensure the growth and development of the digital economy of the country.
The body will focus on including all the technology companies and building a sustainable economy for providing solutions in the country that can also be used globally.
Members of Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation
The body mainly has individuals who are Indian startup owners or investors. The members of the association include Ajay Data who is the Managing Director of Data Group of Industries, Ritesh Mallik who is the Founder at Innov8 Coworking, Sairee Chahal who is the Founder & CEO of SHEROES, Snehil Khanor who is the Co-founder and CEO of TrulyMadly.
Ajay Data
The body also includes Anand Lunia who is the Founding Partner of India Quotient, Amit Sinha who is the Co-Founder – Unnati. Shailesh Vikram Singh who is the Managing Partner of Massive Fund, Murugavel Janakiraman who is the Founder and CEO of Matrimony.com.
Ajay Data, the Secretary-General of ADIF has said that, ADIF’s main aim is to help the Indian Technological companies in building a sustainable and favorable business environment.
Plans of Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation
ADIF has plans to work together with Indian and Global research experts. Their focus is to understand the possibility for the growth of Indian technological startups.
Barriers
They are also focusing on empowering the ecosystem by trying to remove the barriers and difficulties faced by the Indian technological startups at the entry-level. This will help the Indian companies to grow, expand, develop and become self-sustainable.
Membership
ADIF is also planning to open in the top 25 cities in the coming months. They are also focusing on increasing their membership in Tier-I and Tier-II cities. They also plan to cover the rest of the Indian towns.
Policies
The organization is working towards assisting in the creation of policies with the regulators thinking about the future and being able to do business in an easier way. They aim to make India as the top destination for capital and innovation. Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation has said that they would want to become the voice of entrepreneurs in respect to the policymakers and regulators.
Knowledge hub
Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation is expected to create a knowledge hub and a central location in which the resources for building digital products and services will be stored. They expect more than 1,000 members to join their trust.
FAQ
Who are the members of Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation?
The members include Murugavel Janakiraman of Bharat Matrimony, Snehil Khanor of TrulyMadly, Dr Ritesh Mallik of Innov8 Coworking and Sairee Chahal of SHEROES, among others.
What is the focus of Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation?
The focus of Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation is to build an association that will concentrate and will be committed towards building a technology ecosystem that will be open, fair, neutral, and self-reliant.
Why was Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation founded?
Indian startups were against the new billing policy of Google. According to policy Indian developers who use Google Play to pay 30% commission for every in-app purchase.
Conclusion
A fully foreign-dominated organization that does not have an Indian in their decision-making process will not be part of Atmanirbhar Digital India Foundation. The organization has been set up as a trust and will concentrate on entry-level Indian Technology companies.
However, they are yet to be finalized with certain definitions. They are planning to start the onboarding soon. ADIF has said that there will be elections soon in order to appoint formal positions in the Trust.
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 Venture Catalysts.
Startups are built by dreams and hard work. However, they also need mentorships and capital to rise to the sky. Most of the early stage startups in India do not have access to knowledge and advice from experts. That is why many Indian startups fail. Venture Catalysts is a venture capital firm. They provide all the support that an entrepreneur needs to get his/her startup to where they wanted.
We interviewed the Co- Founder of Venture Catalysts, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma to get all the information about their company. We covered everything about Venture Catalysts in this article. Read about their their vision and mission to their future plans and hiring strategy and much more:
Venture Catalyst is India’s first and largest integrated incubator. The core idea behind Venture Catalysts is to invest – whether capital, effort or time – in people and their ideas. The company focuses on developing and mentoring promising early stage startup ideas into viable business propositions that create an impact on local, national, and global levels. Venture Catalysts provides capital investment, mentorship and business networking, exposure, corporate partnerships, etc. They do it by implementing an integrated approach to incubation, mentorship, and investment. For all these goals, they have three key initiatives: 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, and 9Syndicate.
Their mission is to become the largest and most impactful startup incubator in the Asian market. In the US, the top-10 stocks listed on exchanges such as NASDAQ are heavily dominated by tech companies. They aim to replicate this in India and Asia at large.
On the other hand, their vision is to implement their formula of success on a global level. They want to emerge as the world’s largest and most active early-stage integrated incubator.
Venture Catalysts’ second target audience after startups, is investors. They keep networking with both existing angels and HNIs looking to support ventures with their capital and networks. They provide them with access to curated early-stage startups from multiple sectors to invest in, along with portfolio management services. After the investment, the team manages their portfolio and secures high-value exit opportunities delivering multifold returns for the investors.
For the last 4 years, Venture Catalysts has been the largest and most active early-stage player in India. With their growing global footprint, they are also present in high-growth markets such as the UK, Singapore, the Middle-East, etc.
Venture Catalysts – Industry details
In 2019, the Indian startup sector raised funds worth $14.5 billion across 1,185 financing rounds. And $6.9 billion of it were secured by early stage startups only. Depending on the scenario, these investments are typically spread out over 350-500 deals worth $500,000 – $2 million each. As Venture Catalysts makes 55-70 investments annually, they capture 11% to 20% of those early stage startups.
Venture Catalysts – Starting Up
The founder, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, noticed a major gap in the startup industry. He saw that there is a lack of an integrated, growth-oriented approach to startup incubation. Early-stage ventures did not have any visibility over capital networks. They did not know how venture capital moves, which investors to pitch to, or how to pitch to them. There was also limited or no access to the right set of mentors. Mentors are important to help startups identify existing and emerging gaps, address business challenges, and plan growth trajectory.
These were major challenges. Most of the entrepreneurs ended up diluting their startups’ equity by the time they reached the second or third round of funding. The reason was their lack of visibility over capital flows. It hurt their long-term valuation and growth prospects. In the absence of the relevant guidance, many startups also couldn’t strike the much-needed balance between the speed and sustainability; they either scaled too quickly by burning cash or failed to grow fast enough to stay ahead of their competitors.
To address these challenges, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan came up with an approach that combined angel investments with gap-based mentorship and networking at the seed stage. His goal was to build an integrated incubator that not only provides investment and capital visibility to promising early-stage startups but also connecting them with founders of Unicorn/Soonicorn companies, top industry leaders, and corporate CXOs for key learning and growth opportunities.
Dr. Apoorva doesn’t believe that geography limits the ideas. For him, it is just as likely that a valuable startup such as Beardo emerges from the city of Ahmedabad as it is that something like ConfirmTKT emerges from Bengaluru. So, he wanted to move beyond the conventional startup hubs of Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, and Hyderabad. He wanted to identify and nurture high-potential startup ideas in tier-2 and tier-3 markets.
Further, his ideas was to capitalize on the growing interest in the startup landscape. He networked with HNIs and business class in these regions by bringing them on board as investors, advisors, and mentors.
Venture Catalysts – The Service
Venture Catalysts, also known as VCats, has three initiatives – 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, and 9Syndicate. These initiatives are reinventing the early-stage startup investment landscape in India. By incubating the startups, they fill up two main gaps for them: financing and mentorship. Both of them lead any startup to a great success.
The USP of Venture Catalysts is their commitment to creating incremental entrepreneurial value through a high-impact combination of capital, mentoring, business networking, and corporate partnerships.
9Unicorns nurtures innovative startups at extremely nascent stages by investing INR 75 lakh to INR 1 crore per company. This investment is made when most of these startups are little more than high-potential ideas on a drawing board, driven by a passionate team. Through Venture Catalysts, they facilitate investments of INR 3-15 crore for its incubates, while 9Syndicate provides growth capital to the tune of INR 15-50 crore to startups.
Apart from investment, VCats provide invaluable learning, networking, and growth opportunities to the startups in their portfolio. To this end, they have brought on board veteran Unicorn and Soonicorn founders as mentors. They also provide entrepreneurs with access to senior business leaders and CXOs at top corporate organisations.
Venture Catalysts – Founders & Team
Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma – Cofounder & President of Venture Catalysts
Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Cofounder of Venture Catalysts
Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma graduated as an engineer from HBTI, Kanpur, and completed his MBA in marketing and finance from Asia Pacific Institute of Management. He also pursued his doctorate in management and role of business incubators in the economic growth of India from Amity Business School in Noida. Dr. Apoorva also holds a diploma in mentoring startups from Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley.
He started his professional journey as a Project Manager at JSS Technology Incubator before joining as the General Manager of Amity Innovation Incubator, a position he held for 5 years. In May 2010, Dr. Apoorva joined as the Vice President of Indian Angel Network (IAN). Before launching Venture Catalysts, he was the Executive Vice President and Partner at VentureNursery for three and a half years between February 2012 and October 2015. He also became a charter member of TiE Global in November 2016 and have been serving as a member of its board since July 2018. At VCats, Dr. Apoorva is responsible for identifying valuable startups and managing the company’s investment strategies.
Anuj Golecha – Cofounder of Venture Catalysts Anuj Golecha is a veteran Chartered Accountant certified by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, as well as a serial entrepreneur and angel investor. Anuj is the owner of Chanvim Plastics and Dezire Jewels. He is a current Partner at Banshi Jain and Associates (BJAA) – a position he’s served with distinction since 2004. He is also the owner of Samyakth Group and has invested in startups such as CoutLoot, Siftr, Beardo, Fynd, Innov8, PeeSafe, Rapid Retail, BharatPe, and Koinex.
Apart from being a part of the founding team at Venture Catalysts, Anuj has co-founded Samyakth Capital. It is India’s first hybrid growth fund that invests in and partners with companies that create lasting value for customers. At VCats, he spearheads the value addition to their network and also manages the pan-India expansion.
Anil Jain – Cofounder of Venture Catalysts & 9Unicorns A seasoned businessperson and a finance industry veteran, Anil Jain is the co-founder of Wallfort Properties and has, since 2019, served as an advisor to PropCatalyst. He is also the co-founder of 9Unicorns, a unique idea-stage fund that is redefining early-stage investments and mentoring in India. In his role, Anil leverages his extensive industry experience and business contacts to add more credible people – investors, partners, and entrepreneurs – to the Venture Catalysts network.
Gaurav Jain – Cofounder of Venture Catalysts Gaurav Jain is the think-tank of the company. He’s a technology expert who holds a Bachelor’s degree from IIT Roorkee. He also has a certification as a Chartered Financial Analyst from CFA Institute in the US. Gaurav also holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Over the course of his career, he has worked as an Investment Banking Analyst with Credit Suisse, as an Associate with GenNext Ventures (the venture capital arm of Reliance Industries Ltd.), as a Product Manager (Chief Technology & Architecture Office) at Cisco, and as a Director of Product at AirDev. At Venture Catalysts, he is responsible for managing the end-to-end technological framework, deploying tech-led interventions to optimise existing workflows, and identifying how technology can make the processes more efficient.
The VCats Team Venture Catalysts has a team of more than 45 professionals working full-time across different functions at Venture Catalysts. They also have a strong pan-India presence through 80+ regional and venture partners.
The structure at VCats, like most startups, is a horizontal hierarchy which promotes individual ownership and accountability. They are always open to new ideas from their team that can help them to do something new or bring efficiency to the existing process. Every year, the company provides a 15-day holiday around the Christmas-New Year period. This is in addition to the annual leave balance that all employees get.
This is why, when hiring new people, they ensure that the candidates are a good fit for the culture. They prefer recruiting people who are passionate and unstoppable and have high integrity and a team-first attitude. These traits are essential for building trust, whether with in-house team members or external stakeholders, which is a non-negotiable requirement in the field of investment.
Venture Catalysts – Name, Tagline, & Logo
Venture Catalysts Logo
The name, Venture Catalysts, reflects the vision behind the company, as does the tagline ‘India’s 1st Integrated Incubator’. A catalyst is something that accelerates the process and creates a new by-product without essentially changing itself. This is what the founders want to do for new-age ventures across India as an integrated incubator. They want to accelerate their growth and help them achieve scale and success at a much faster pace.
The logo and the colour scheme are derived from a mix of diverse value systems. The succulent plant is a symbol of wealth and prosperity across multiple cultures, while the triangle represents growth. The logo encapsulates both these aspects to highlight how they constantly strive to create greater value and growth. The pink visual scheme symbolises kumkum, a symbol of prosperity and harmony, which strengthens these subliminal messages.
Venture Catalysts – Launch
When asked about the launch and the initial days of Venture Catalysts, Dr. Apoorva said:
When launching Venture Catalysts, I knew that we could find several promising business ventures. The main bottleneck was to gain enough investors to invest a good amount of money in each startup. I relied on my social circles, including friends and family, to find the first 50 investors. As we went about strengthening the angel ecosystem, the market credibility of our founding team – including me and my co-founders – helped us attract the right investors during the early stage of our growth.
Venture Catalysts – Growth
The initial success of the company drew a lot of angel investors. They saw a significant interest amongst regional investor networks that wanted to collaborate with them to gain access to startups across India. This, in turn, has helped them to grow at an accelerated pace.
I’ve always believed that delivering results and value is the best way of attracting meaningful relationships – and the only growth strategy that matters is collaboration. – Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma – Cofounder & President of Venture Catalysts
The biggest challenge for the founder team was lack of knowledge about Angel investing. It is a vital factor whenever anything involves money, especially such huge sums. Angel investment, traditionally, has not been an easy game. When they started Venture Catalysts, the angel community in India was very small and extremely tightly-knit. There were also many HNIs and business people with surplus capital looking to make long-term investments in more sustainable asset classes, following the collapse of the sub-prime housing bubble and its impact on the global real estate market. Before they could get them on board as investors in startups, the team had to win their trust.
We did this by teaching the science of angel investing to regional investors. We helped them understand the process of startup valuation, investment, and exits. Additionally, we empowered them with the knowledge needed to identify which ventures and founding teams had growth potential, and which didn’t. We gave them knowledge & practical insights to better manage their startup portfolio and how they, as angels, could help guide their investees onto an accelerated growth trajectory. So far, we have conducted over 150 such investor masterclasses around the world – and it’s worked wonders when it comes to building trust. – Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma
Venture Catalysts – Marketing
Venture Catalysts don’t invest in big marketing campaigns. A relationship-building approach delivers much better dividends for them. Especially in tier-2 and tier-3 markets where they have been strengthening their footprint and foresee the maximum growth potential. More and more HNIs and businesspeople in smaller towns and cities are now interested in startups as an asset class, potential growth drivers, and future business partners. They want to be angel investors for these upcoming ventures and are looking for avenues to do so.
These prospective angels trust the opinion of their peers. They value word-of-mouth recommendations. That is the reason, they saw exponential growth in tier-2 and tier-3 markets during the pandemic and brought on board more than 50 venture partners. Most of these new associations were driven by their relationship-building efforts in these regions. They came through references from their existing investors.
Venture Catalysts is headquartered in Mumbai and present in more than 36 cities across India through dedicated offices as well as regional and venture partners. They also have cutting-edge incubation centres in over 10 cities. Moreover, they are currently planning a capacity expansion to build more incubation centres across the country.
In addition to that, they are also present in London and are in the process of establishing offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and the US.
User base and notable partners
At present, VCats have more than 4,500 investors associated with the VCats community and have invested in over 100 startups. They also have 80+ regional and venture partners on a pan-India level to provide them with deeper market penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. They have also partnered with JPIA, one of the most reputed investment firms in London.
Growth metrics
VCats completed 16 deals in the first year of their operations, 33 in the second, 59 in the third, and 63 in the fourth. In 2020, despite the market being in upheaval following the COVID-19 outbreak, they remain on track to close 70 deals. Their incubates have secured around $150 million in syndication value so far.
Even though the first and the second year were their investment phase, they still secured a lucrative exit opportunity in the second year. The third year of operations saw this number jump to seven. Last year, they secured around 25 exits. All of these exit opportunities delivered multifold returns on the original investments.
Venture Catalysts – Funding
The Venture Catalyst funding is not disclosed. The company raised an undisclosed amount of funding to expand its geographical reach throughout India and other countries. They are still using those funds to acquire better people and make a network of investors and startups.
Venture Catalysts – Advisors and Mentors
Ritesh Agarwal (Founder & CEO – OYO Rooms) has recently joined their board of advisors and will be investing in and mentoring emerging startups in the VCats’ portfolio. Some other prominent mentor names are Vishal Maheshwari (Country Head – Vuclip India Pvt. Ltd.), Ankush Tiwari (CTO – Mobilia), Daud Ali (Managing Partner – Peacock Industries), Samir Shah (Managing Principal – Sattva Investment), Anand Ladsariya, and Abhishek Bhagat (Managing Partner – Chryseum Advisors) on their advisory board.
Venture Catalysts – Acquisitions and Mergers
VCats acquired Incubate Hub, a corporate venturing platform, earlier in 2020. Aimed at plugging the white space between the corporate innovation market and startups, IncubateHub provides corporate players with access to curated solutions and services by new-age ventures.
On the one hand, this helps corporate entities bolster their innovation trajectory while, on the other, it allows the incubates to develop, pilot, and validate their ideas. Doing so significantly shortens the process of generating proof of concepts as well as the time to market while accelerating product development and capacity building.
Venture Catalysts – Competitors
I feel that, for a player as differentiated as Venture Catalysts, there are no competitors – only future collaborators. – Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma
VCats avoid competing with other funds, accelerators, or incubators. Instead, they choose to focus on identifying and building on mutual synergies towards a common end-goal – driving entrepreneurial growth and realising the untapped startup potential in both emerging and developed economies.
Venture Catalysts – Recognition and Achievements
VCats was recently named as the world’s seventh-largest integrated incubator, as well as one of the most active early-stage investors and incubators globally, by Crunchbase. Moreover, The Economic Times has named Venture Catalysts as the No.1 early-stage investor and incubator in India.
For its contribution to the startup ecosystem, Venture Catalysts was recently felicitated as the most active early-stage player by distinguished industry doyens such as Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Narayan Murthy.
Venture Catalysts – Future plans
In terms of business expansion, the company is looking at increasing its global footprint. They will continue to penetrate deeper into emerging tier-2/tier-3 markets across India. Internationally, VCats is targeting three key geographies: Southeast Asia, Europe (through London), and the Middle-East (through Dubai and Saudi Arabia). The startup ecosystem in these areas is growing at a rapid pace. By 2023, VCats want to complete 500 early-stage deals every year. Going by their current growth rate, they will reach their target.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is Venture Catalyst?
Venture Catalyst is India’s first and largest integrated incubator. The core idea behind Venture Catalysts is to invest – whether capital, effort or time – in people and their ideas. The company focuses on developing and mentoring promising early stage startup ideas into viable business propositions.
What does venture capitalist mean?
A venture capitalist (VC) is a private equity investor that provides capital to companies exhibiting high growth potential in exchange for an equity stake. This could be funding startup ventures or supporting small companies that wish to expand but do not have access to equities markets.
What are the three initiatives from Venture Catalysts?
Venture Catalysts has three initiatives – 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, and 9Syndicate.
Who is the owner of Venture Catalysts?
The Venture Catalysts founders are Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain.
Media as we know it has become an indispensable part of our lives. Without it, I think we’d barely sustain the economic and demographic environment lest having a path carved to move forward. The enormous sea of information that we have access to, is to the grace of this media.
We have come decades ahead from telegrams and fax messages which were the primary mediums of passing sensitive information to the world of the internet and smartphones where nothing really is ever sensitive.
The 24*7 media has taken us into the whirlpool of its headlines and breaking news and keeps us on our toes with the latest updates. Print media, Cinema, broadcasts, radio, and now the Gen Z favorite digital media are now the new improved, tech-savvy, and info-rich tools used to pass on information to the masses.
Indian media is the largest and the oldest media that has seen itself unfold during the 18th century. The footfalls of pre-independence saw the birth of print media in 1780. Hicky’s Bengal Gazette was the first newspaper introduced under the British Raj.
As the fate of India unfolded in the hands of the colonizers there were several other newspapers that steadily made their presence established. This print media later proved to become a powerful weapon at the hands of freedom fighters who spread the message of independence to the masses. The Madras Courier (1785) and the Bombay Herald (1789) were the ones that followed in the early 18th century.
Pre-Independence
Pre-Independence saw a multitude of print media founders support and aggregate the freedom struggle. Mirat-ul-Akbar ( a Persian Journal) by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Rast Goftar by Dadabhai Naoroji, Kesari by Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The Indian Opinion by Mahatma Gandhi were some of the prominent newspapers that took responsibility to encourage masses to come forward for the freedom movement.
After Independence
Even after Independence, the print media was dominated by English newspapers. Firstly, because of the exalted position of the language and secondly because of the Morse code on typewriters which were difficult for vernacular languages. Steadily, Indian languages rose to the occasion and started printing their own press.
Indian press witnessed its first-ever revolt when the (then) Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced a nationwide emergency during 1975-1977. This has set a precedent for how nations should not be treating their press. This suspended basic civil liberties-press being among several others.
The Draconian law
The Draconian law under the government threatened and arrested anyone who reported against the tyranny. The 21 month period of emergency had the Indian media on its leash and the publications had to run their content through a Chief Press Advisor before publishing.
Radio broadcasting was first initiated in 1927 but became a state-owned department in 1930. The ministry of broadcasting and information then held the apparatus including Doordarshan, the first Indian Television channel. It is one of two statutory bodies of the Indian Public Broadcaster Prasar Bharati.
Doordarshan
Indian Cinema
The Indian Cinema dates back to 1913 when Dadasaheb Phalke, a scholar on Indian languages and culture, pioneered the motion picture industry by producing the first full-length motion picture “Raja Harishchandra”. Indian cinema has been tested in many waters to become Bollywood today. Today, India is the second-largest producer of movies in the world.
Indian cinema with respect to its viewers has been very protective of the content and subject matter that is shown to the masses. India holds very dearly to its religious and social-political views. Indian audiences are still not very accepting of mature and sensitive topics such as same-sex relationships, casteism, and politics.
There have been excellent filmmakers who have tried to carve out these subjects keeping in mind the sensitivity of the Indian audience. We are yet to reach the maturity mark as a collective audience when it comes to raw and unfiltered content.
Indian media
The Present of the Indian Media
The media and entertainment industry has grown exponentially over the past few decades. Today, with more than 118000 registered publications for newspapers and periodicals and makes India the second-largest country in newspaper consumption.
Television Media
India has 850 TV channels across all spoken languages with 197 million households having television sets in use. Every language in the Indian subcontinent has its own set of channels of entertainment. Colors, Zee, Star are some of the leading networks spread pan India covering news and entertainment in all the main languages.
India is currently witnessing the exit of single-screen theatres as major multiplex players like Cinepolis, INOX, PVR, and Carnival Cinemas have taken over the screenings. India has lost about 12% of single-screen theatres due to the novel corona Virus outbreak. These theatres are unlikely to return to business and may be taken over by multiplex chains.
OTT Platforms in India
The Over-the-top (OTT) platforms have been around since 2008. But their viewership rose significantly when we were forced into our homes for almost a year thanks to the pandemic. OTT platforms were devoid of censorship and operated pan India since the internet has no geographical barriers.
Today OTT platforms in India have valued at a revenue of Rs 40,000 crore with 40 mainstream OTT platforms running under the Indian umbrella. Amazon Prime, Disney+ Hotstar, Netflix India, SonyLiv, Alt Balaji, Voot are some of the established OTT platforms which are giving the DTH industry a run for its money.
Growth of Indian channels, and media outlets
Currently, the country consumes media through platforms such as TV, OTT, Print, VFX, Radio broadcasts, Gaming, and digital advertisements. India’s Ad revenue is forecasted to expand at a CAGR of 4.3% between 2021-2024.
Due to the rapid growth in the number of internet users, the digital avenues are looking at a projection to reach a CAGR of 26% by 2024 including print and TV platforms, making India the six-largest demographic with an industry revenue worth $2.9 Billion.
Digital advertising revenue in India from financial year 2010 to 2020
How Indian media has changed the course of country’s politics and dynamics
News Media
With news giants like NDTV, CNBC, Aaj Tak, and ABP networks, India has around 892 news channels. These media houses have gained power over the course and have divided the Indian audiences into two wings.
Some of the media houses are owned by the wings themselves. The politics and propaganda attribute to the success and TRPs of these media houses. A free press is becoming a serious worry in terms of authenticity and is lacking awareness.
In recent times, journalism has cost a few passionate journalists their lives, and freedom of expression which one of the basic human rights in our constitution is ceasing to have much value. The political dominance over the free press is evident and intimidating.
India’s Freedom status
India’s status has been degraded from ‘Free” to “Partially Free” by the NGO Freedom House due to a “crackdown on expressions of dissent by the media, academics, civil society groups, and protesters”.
According to the Freedom in the World report, 2020, India’s score has decked to 67 from 70 out of 100. This is extremely serious and unnerving as we are losing the democratic status that we’ve held on since our independence.
“Under Modi, India appears to have abandoned its potential to serve as a global democratic leader, elevating narrow Hindu nationalist interests at the expense of its founding values of inclusion and equal rights for all,” the report said.
The free reign enjoyed by the digital media became a recent target of the nationalist government when it introduced new Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 (Rules) for the functioning of OTT platforms. The new code of ethics needs to classify the content based on the viewer’s age, theme, tone, and impact.
Future of Indian Media
“With India’s decline to Partly Free,” the report said, “less than 20 percent of the world’s population now lives in a Free country, the smallest proportion since 1995.” The current state of media and entertainment is a little gloomy and seems to be surrounded by the clouds of arbitrary laws and coercion.
The growth in terms of numbers is truly exponential. With OTT and Social Media platforms, media is pushing itself towards its highest potential. Content is King: but what if this content is under constant surveillance and the freedom of expression is compromised.
The future is blurry for Indian Media and entertainment with an arbitrary wave riding its proficiency. Will India go back to being “Free” again? Or will it succumb to the political propaganda and lose its free press. These are the questions that are doing rounds of discussions among the intellectuals of our country.
FAQ
Who owns print media?
ThePrint is an Indian online newspaper. It is supported by Printline Media Pvt Ltd, a company headquartered in New Delhi.
Who owns NDTV in India?
New Delhi Television Ltd. is an Indian news media company that owns and operates the broadcast news channels of NDTV India and NDTV 24×7.
Who is the first woman journalist in India?
Homai Vyarawalla was India’s first woman photojournalist.
Conclusion
Indian media is a mess and we need to learn to distinguish between faux news and genuine journalism. As citizens, it is our responsibility to maintain the status of a democratic nation on the world front.
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.
Algorithmic trading is quite a buzz word among the stock traders community. People are excited about how a computer program can replace a manual trader in a disciplined, scalable, and automated manner to place trades in the stock markets. Being a technology-heavy method of trading, terms like, arbitrage, NSE server racks, etc., often meet the eye of retail traders. SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) allowed algorithmic trading in India in 2009 and since then it has captured over 50% of the trading volumes in India. A major contribution to this is the HNIs and big brokerage and investment management firms who have access to the technology required to perform algorithmic trading.
Retail traders are not able to exploit the advantages of algorithmic trading due to the costs of technology involved, that can amount from anywhere between INR 1 to 5 lacs per year. But thankfully, there are startups, that are allowing retail traders also to reap the benefit of algorithmic trading.
Kuants, a Fintech based in Gurugram, is making algorithmic trading easy for those who cannot code themselves and those who are not comfortable in using the readymade algorithms available in the platform.
StartupTalky interviewed Kuants co-founder Ayush Gangwar to get an insight into the startup.
Kuants is a startup that is enabling retail traders to do algorithmic trading in the Indian stock markets in a cost-effective manner through its AlgoLab. Founded in Dec 2017, by Ayush Gangwar and Mohit Bansal, the vision of the startup is to ensure that technology never acts as a constraint ever to a stock trader in exploring the domain of algorithmic trading.
People can write their own algorithms through the web-based AlgoLab, test it on years of historical data and live trade automatically through a single click from the lab itself. For those who are not tech-savvy, Kuants takes care of the trading on behalf of the users so that the users can gain the most out of their investments.
The product is a web application that people can simply log in via Google at algolab.kuants.in. Just after login, they are presented with their dashboard from which they can navigate to different sections like the Backtest page, the help center, a SMART marketplace and their previous strategies.
Kuants lets users do algorithmic trading in two ways–
Algorithmic lab: Here users can create their own trading algorithms, and Backtest on Equity, Futures, Commodities and Forex without any code. Algorithm lab comes with an In-Built Live Execution system with top brokers across the globe. Besides it also offers the users a chance to earn by sharing the algorithm.
Smart Algorithms lets the users Live trade on verified Algorithms developed by peers. Users are given the flexibility to change the algorithm anytime without any locking period.
Some attractive features offered by Kuants are–
Simple Process of starting Algorithmic trading: Users can backtest anytime and from anywhere simply by logging in to the account
Easy Result Analysis: Thorough Quantitative coverage is done for every algorithm tested
Professional Tools are provided which facilitates optimization, stress testing, paper trading and large scale backtesting within minutes.
Ready to Trade: each time a backtest is complete, the algorithms are automatically converted to trade ready format.
Differing from the conventional backtesting system, Kuants has integrated all the individual components like data feed, backtesting code, result metrics in a prebuilt format.
Kuants – How it works
The Key USP is that people can write trading algorithms without having to learn any programming language like C, Python Java, etc.
Emphasizing on uniqueness of the Platform Ayush says, “We have developed an expression based format that automatically converts simple English language based format into a code. This enables traders and quant researchers don’t need to focus on getting the programming right and they can just focus on the code algorithm development and testing”.
Kuants is co-founded by two IIT Kharagpur graduates Ayush Gangwar and Mohit Bansal.
Ayush Gangwar (CEO) and Mohit Bansal (CTO)
Ayush Gangwar is the CEO of Kuants. He holds a Bachelors and Masters degree from IIT Kharagpur. Prior to founding Kuants, he used to work as a part-time Research Consultant at WorldQuant LLC, successfully developing trading algorithms for the US stock markets for a period of 3 years.
Mohit Bansal is the CTO of Kuants. Prior to joining Kuants, Mohit worked as a data scientist.
Kuants – Name, Tagline and Logo
The name “Kuants” is a derivative of quantitative researches and IIT Kharagpur. Ayush credits a lot of his work to his alma mater and the idea of attaching the initials with what the company software does looked convincing enough and also acted as a small gesture to IIT Kharagpur from the founder.
The tagline, being ‘Where Trading meets Technology’, represents the vision and approach of the company. The logo has been designed with the concept of two different vertices being combined together at the single platform that is Kuants.
How was Kuants Started
Kuants was instituted with a view to solving the hassles that the founders themselves faced while doing algorithmic trading.
“Algorithmic trading needed a lot of programming, and utmost accuracy needed to be maintained in the entire process from start to end and. The maintenance of the code also was a task in itself which took away the focus from trading to developing the technology behind trading. From this experience, it was decided to create a common platform that trades and quantitative researchers can use focusing only on the trading part rather than technology infrastructure” says Ayush.
Kuants launched the first version of Algolab, then simply known as backtesting system through a press release in June 2018.
“Algolab’s launch garnered a lot of attention and was instrumental in getting the awareness of our product to the correct target audience. After months of hard work put in by the tech team of developing the backend architecture, it was good to see the amount of traffic we were able to handle that day” Ayush recounts.
Again, for the first 3 months, the company offered all services on a free-trial basis, which helped it acquire customers and customer feedback.
Kuants – Revenue Model
Kuants has taken a freemium approach to its Algolab, with basic features free and premium features of a monthly charge of INR 1999. In the premium version, people can do extensive backtesting as well as live trading on their algorithms in the stock markets, by opening a DEMAT account.
Kuants has tie-ups with Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd (MOSL) as a sub-broker, so the users need to open the DEMAT account with MOSL for trading through Kuants. Besides earning revenue from the users, Kuants also earns revenue through Brokerage sharing model with MOSL and by trading its own captive money.
Kuants raised two round of seed funding till date.
Funding Date
Funding Stage
Funding Amount
Investor
November 2017
Seed
Undisclosed
India Accelerator
Jaunary 2018
Seed
50 Lacs
Mr. Pankaj Chpra & Mr. Ankush Gupta
Kuants – User Acquisition
For Kuants, organic marketing techniques have worked really wonders to attract customers while interesting email campaigns are created to retain these customers.
As Ayush says – “The money we have spent till date is only for the email campaigns and that’s because our user base grew exponentially that our email services provider refused to handle that many volumes of email ids and content for free. We would say it’s a problem we loved to have”
A major challenge was to keep the pricing of the Algolab well within the reach of a retail trader. Transforming a technology that costs around INR 1,00,000 to something that will cost around INR 16000 per year, that is an 84% drop, needs innovative technology methods and implementations that provide a better experience. After numerous sessions of brainstorming, the Kuants team was able to develop the product which is affordable for retail traders.
Kuants – Competitors
Streak, Quantopian, Quantconnect, Amibroker are a few competitors of Kuants.
Having a competitor is always a blessing as it always enables a startup to do something bigger and better, that repeats as a positive and growth-oriented vicious circle for the industry. – Ayush
Kuants was selected by Morgan Stanley, the global financial technology giant for its CTO Summit, held in Oct 2018. The company was selected from among over 120 startups across Asia working in the fintech domain. The team presented its products and offering to the reveiw committee and was well lauded for its efforts and technological innovation.
Kuants – Growth and Revenue
Kuants launched the first version of the backtesting system in July 2018 and has seen an impressive month on month organic growth of 17% in users. Over 20,000 algorithms have been back tested till date(2019) on over 45000 years of data and have generated a trading turnover of INR 30 crore till date through its platform.
Kuants aims to achieve monthly recurring revenue of Rs 67 lakhs and Rs 3.7 crore in the financial year 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Have you ever been to a new travel destination, and felt clueless about what to do? Even though most of us today do research online before visiting any destination, there is a possibility that we may miss out on things. Booking tickets to your favourite tourist spot, reserving seats for that river cruise or spa massage, or hiring guides to guide you through the historical monuments, lots of planning is required to make the holiday experience perfect and Guiddoo is here to help you.
With features such as an Audio-visual guide, information related to history and trivia and free concierge services, Guiddoo solves all your in-destination travel needs. With its growing popularity among Globetrotters.
This article will give you an insight into The Company Profile of Guiddoo, Its Business Model, Revenue, Founders, Funding, Story, Growth, Competitors etc.,
Guiddoo aims to be a One-Stop Platform for travelers to discover and book great travel experiences during their international trip.
It provides unique and customized travel packages. The platform uses intelligent data points from over 4000+ travel agents as well as analyses 1Mn+ Trend Points on the Internet and Social media to build smart itineraries.
Guiddoo World – Industry Details
Travel apps rank 7th among the most downloaded category of apps. According to Criteo, currently, more bookings are being made through apps as compared to desktop or mobile web. Also, travelers make 80% of last-minute booking on the app. As such, Guiddoo being an app with many features like a step-by-step tour, key sights, timeline, history & trivia, images gallery, tourist information and booking facilities is fast gaining popularity among travelers.
Again, the Market Size for in-destination tours and activities will reach approximately $200 billion by 2020, as projected by PhocusWright. Guiddoo focuses on Indian and China outbound travelers to 15 destinations, the market value of which is approximately $20 billion annually.
Guiddoo World – Founders
Vineet Budki, Nidhi Varma, Prashant Choudhary and Biswajeet Karmakar are the founders of Guiddoo.
Vineet Budki and Nidhi Varma
Vineet Budki is the CEO & Founder of Guiddoo World, Guiddoo World Travels Pvt Ltd & Guiddoo World FZ LLC. He founded Guiddoo – initially as an audio guide that later pivoted to a Marketplace for Tours and Activities in 2013. Vineet has a rich experience of 15 years in the Technology, Travel and Airline industry and has worked with companies like Rocket Internet, Emirates Airlines, Paytronic Networks and Tata Consultancy Services in the past. He started his first company Butel in the year 2009 – an online comparator for DTH Services, which later became the online arm of Videocon d2h.
Nidhi Varma is a graduate of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. Prior to Guiddoo, she worked with Emirates Airlines.
Prashant Choudhary is a graduate from IIT Kharagpur and worked with Erricson as a software developer and mobile team head prior to joining Guiddoo. Currently, he is the Chief Technical Officer at Guiddoo.
Biswajeet Karmakar is a graduate from Mumbai University, and prior to Guiddoo, he worked with organizations like E-cell, Unitech Marketing Services and Computer Society of India, KJSIEIT. Biswajeet is the director of sales at Guiddoo.
Guiddoo World – The Idea and Starting Up
It was 2013 when Vineet and Nidhi were on a trip to Paris. It was a much-awaited trip and they did not want to miss even a bit of it. But unfortunately, things did not go as per plan.
The idea came to Nidhi and me while on a trip to the Eiffel Tower in Paris where we faced a lot of issues due to the language barrier and outdated information.
While it was Nidhi’s dream to visit the Eiffel Tower with her life partner, when they went to visit, they found that it was closed. They waited for the next day only to find that there was a huge line and they had to wait for hours to take the lift to the top of the tower. As the couple had time constraints, they could not visit the Louvre Museum. It was during this time that the couple felt the need for a mobile app, which could guide the travelers through the monuments and landmarks aided by audio and video.
After coming back from Paris, the couple started doing research around key Indian Tourist places frequented by travelers and started working towards building a smartphone-friendly audio-visual travel guide platform. Finally, the couple launched Guiddoo in 2014. The startup was incubated at the Government of Dubai’s In5 incubator for Hi-Tech Startups.
The name for our startup came from the word “Guide” and the tagline was developed once we shifted to the Tours and Activities Module.
Guiddoo’s tagline is “Your Personal Tour Guide”
Guiddoo World – Services
Guiddoo is a platform to discover and book in-destination experiences. Initially, It was developed just as an audio guide, which later pivoted to tours and activities booking platform.
Currently, Guiddoo is helping its customers discover and book in-destination activities and experiences across 15 countries.
It provides a platform for travel agents working on Indian travelers, traveling internationally to find and book great experiences. The USP of the platform is that it provides concierge services free of cost to the customers. The app evolves over time based on ratings of travelers using the platform to curate meaningful experiences like tours, activities, dining, shopping and entertainment options for other users.
It has made tie-ups with big brands like MakeMyTrip, Amadeus India, Mekong Tourism and World Free Zones Organization.
The app is available both on android and iOS platforms. Besides the company has dedicated B2B and B2C platforms. It is very convenient to use during traveling as it does not require a live internet connection, once downloaded. Guiddoo has a dedicated app for every city it covers.
Guiddoo also has standalone apps for some famous landmarks which include, Taj Mahal, The Statue of Liberty, the Colosseum in Rome, Angkor Wat and also newly developed tourist attraction like Burj Khalifa towers in Dubai.
At present, It offers guides on 21 monuments in the English language.
Guiddoo’s revenue source can be divided into 3 segments – Tour & Activity sales, Audio-Video guide and B2B Subscription Model.
Guiddoo revenue model
Guiddoo World – Customer Acquisition
Almost 1 year of its inception, Guiddoo has been downloaded by over 1,00,000 users. Besides, over 2,00,000 visitors visited the company’s website just within 2 months of the launch of their website. According to Vineet, personal reach out and information exchange via social media platforms were the keys channel used for informing everyone about Guiddoo.
Guiddoo has focused a lot on building the experience part of a customer’s travel while they are on the ground which includes offering superior products with great service levels by developing technology around them. We believe this has contributed a lot to our brand and helped us in garnering more users and their loyalty.
In March 2019, Guiddoo raised an undisclosed amount of funding from SOSV & Artesian. It plans to use the Series B funding to expand its operations in China. The company is also planning to add new destinations of the Middle- East and Africa into its package to attract the Chinese market.
Guiddoo has raised funding worth $1.1 million in 4 rounds.
Guiddoo’s major competitors are – Misement, Viator GetYourGuide, AudioCompass and Thrillophilia. As said by Vineet, most of their competitors are in the west as the segment is still evolving in India
Guiddoo World – Achievements
Some major achievements of Guiddoo are-
1,00,000 users downloaded Guiddoo just within around 1 year of its inception.
It has been able to attract 2.00,000 web visitors just within 2 months of launching its website.
It has been able to attract and secure funding from international investors.
Secured tie-ups with big brands like MakeMyTrip, Amadeus India, Mekong Tourism and World Free Zones Organization.
It has a partnership with over 4500 travel agents.
It has served over 30,000 customers with over 65,000 activities.
Guiddoo World – Awards & Recognitions
Best Outbound Operator for 2018 by Mr. KJ Alphons Tourism Minister of India at SATTE Awards 2018
Travel Innovation Summit, Florida – Runners Up
Red herring 100
Top 100 Startups to Watch 2019 – SutraHR
Guiddoo World – Advisors and Mentors
Pawan Borle – SVP, Fly Dubai
Victor Sunyer – Partner, Delta Partners
Gaurav Chiripal – CEO – Quadlabs
Guiddoo World – Future Plans
The company has great plans for the future. Some of its major future plans include-
Covering 100+ monuments and tourist attractions around the world.
Making the audio guide available in 9 languages including Spanish (Spain & South American), French, Italian, Hindi, Chinese (Cantonese & Mandarin), Korean, Japanese, Arabic and Russian.
Starting Operations in China by 2019.
Building a pan India distribution network for its tours, activities and holiday products.
The Real estate industry is undergoing an innovative transformation. There is a sudden change in the industry from the traditional ways towards a new and innovative way which is through Virtual Reality. VR has also transformed the functioning of the industry.
VR technology has helped the Real estate agents and companies in getting more clients, delivering top-end services, and growing their businesses. Let’s look at some of the ways Virtual Reality is transforming the Real estate industry.
Virtual Reality has made house tours much easier. Everyone would want to take a look at the Real Estate and only then proceeds with the buying of the property. Many a times pictures wouldn’t be satisfactory nor would you get a clear understanding of the structure of the property.
There are a lot of other problems faced as well which includes lack of time to visit the place, unable to travel if the property is far away. All these problems existed in the Real Estate industry and now with the use of Virtual Reality, these are eliminated.
VR helps you visit the property virtually and makes you feel like you are physically taking a tour of the property. All these are possible even without stepping out of your house.
It helps you visit multiple properties within a matter of time and later decide on visiting the place. It helps you save a lot of time and provides you a clear idea.
Virtual Furniture
A real estate place filled with an adequate amount of furniture will always look better than an empty Real estate space. A Real estate space filled with furniture would be easier to sell and would impress you more than an empty one.
According to a report by the National Association of Realtors, 77% of the Real estate agents have claimed that a home filled with furniture has helped the buyers to imagine their future homes.
Filling actual furniture in a newly built house or an empty house is going to be a lot of investment and would cost more for the agents. Virtual Reality helps in showcasing virtual furniture which helps the buyers to imagine their future home and picturize it in an easier way.
Selling an architectural idea has always been hard. Most of the time the design which is sketched by the architecture would be satisfying but sometimes the end model wouldn’t come up to your expectations.
If it is a bigger project you can find architects or developers coming up with a small model of the project with the roads, community, buildings, etc. in a miniature form. For the interiors most of the time the developers would have to invest in setting up a similar design in a showroom.
This again would require a lot of investment from the developers and would consume a lot of time. Virtual Reality helps in solving these problems and would help in visualizing the interiors and exteriors of the properties which are yet to be constructed.
Through Virtual Reality, the client can easily set his expectations and he would know what the end property or the model would look like.
In most cases when you move to a new house, you would find it hard to locate the switches or the settings of the devices in the place. The Real estate agents or the owners of the space will have to keep on communicating with you according to your requirements and most of the time it won’t be possible.
All of your queries and problems being answered would depend on the availability of the owner or the agents. Here, Virtual Reality will help the tenants in effectively communicating with their owners or agents.
A Virtual tour about the settings of the house, the uses of different switches, and other technical settings will provide clarity for the newly moved-in tenants. It will be a little bit time-consuming but will avoid a lot of confusion and help the new tenants to get used to the place much more easily.
During the virtual tour if a client wishes to change the design or add a piece of new furniture in the design, He/she can add it at that moment. This will help the buyer in adding his designs. He/she will be able to edit the interiors or bring small changes to the exteriors according to his/her preferences.
If a person is taking a virtual tour at a house and likes the furniture used in it, they can later go online and shop for similar products.
FAQ
What are the free Virtual Tour Software?
Lapentor, Marzipano, Makevt, Vtility are some top free Virtual Tour Software.
How much does real estate virtual tour cost?
The average cost to receive a Virtual Tour of a property is $350.
Do virtual tours help sell houses?
Virtual tour is a great way to generate interest of the buyers, as it provides buyer a clear idea of the property.
Conclusion
Virtual reality has transformed the real estate industry making the work easier and in a convenient way. It helps both the buyers and agents to save their time. Virtual Reality has already started to change this sector. In the near future, we will be able to see much more inventions and VR becoming more common in many sectors.
PV Vyshnavi
