Flipkart which is owned by Walmart has announced that it will cover insurance for all its platform sellers in India and waive additional fees. The announcement was made after Amazon’s announcement which said that it would reduce 50 % of the referral fees which the sellers on Amazon’s platform are required to pay this month. Let’s look at the details of the insurance cover provided by Flipkart to its sellers.
Flipkart which is owned by Walmart has announced that it would not charge cancellation and storage fees from its sellers that are listed on their platform. They also announced that they would be providing insurance coverage to its sellers.
The main reason behind this step is to maintain a strong and friendly relationship with its seller base which is more than 3,00,000. Flipkart is the top most e-commerce platform in India and during this unexpected phase due to the global pandemic and increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in India, they are looking to support the sellers who are facing severe disruption.
Details of the Insurance
As several Indian states have imposed a strict restriction on the movement of individuals and cut down the selling of non-essential items on the e-commerce platforms, the Bangalore headquartered company on 7 May 2021 had announced that it would reduce the storage fees of sellers who are using the fulfillment centers of Flipkart and they are also reducing the cancellation fee till the end of this month.
The company had announced that it would bear a 100% premium for Covid insurance to all the sellers that are listed on their digital platform. The company conveyed that they would cover a consultation fees and hospitalization fees in between INR 50,000 and INR 3,00,000.
Flipkart had also announced that the company is making it easier for sellers to access working capital from the firm without any increase or addition on the cost.
The company has also taken a step to increase the period for Seller Protection Fund from 14 days to 30 days in order to make claims on returned products. Flipkart also conveyed that they would make their policies and performance metrics much easier for the sellers so that the state-wise lockdown doesn’t affect them.
Additional Steps taken by Flipkart
The company has announced that it has partnered with Vriddhi, which is a Supplier Development Programme in India by Walmart. The main aim of the programme is to host webinars for the small businesses in order to share the best practices which will help them to stay afloat during the crisis and ensure the safety of their workforce.
Jagjeet Harode who is the senior director and the head of the marketplace at Flipkart had conveyed in the statement that in these testing times, it is the company’s consistent efforts to support the seller partners who are facing a lot of challenges relating to operation in the country due to the pandemic.
He also added that as a democratic marketplace, the company would want to make sure that lakhs of seller partners would be able to continue their operations and keep their economic engines running.
FAQ
Is flipkart delivering non essentials?
Amazon and Flipkart have suspended delivery of non-essential items
Who is the founder of Flipkart?
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are the founders of Flipkart.
What is the revenue of Flipkart in 2020?
346.1 billion Indian rupees
Conclusion
India has been witnessing a huge increase in the infections and has recorded the highest single day spike in the number of cases around the world. The lockdowns implemented in various states and the major metro cities in the country have affected the e-commerce firms and their sellers. This would be a great initiative from the company in order to support their seller base in the country.
TATA Group has been looking to acquire the grocery delivery startup Bigbasket. The company has received approval from The Competition Commission of India (CCI) to acquire the unicorn grocery delivery startup of India. Let’s look at how TATA will soon compete with Jiomart and the further details of the acquisition of Bigbasket.
The latest deal of TATA digital is to acquire a stake in the B2B arm of Bigbasket which is Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd (SGS) which will let TATA digital to indirectly acquire Bigbasket’s Online Retail Business Innovative Retail Concepts (IRC). This will take place through separate transactions.
The deal will let TATA digital to control both Bigbasket’s retail and wholesale business units. The CCI(Competition Commission of India) has said that the proposed deal will not lead to any problems or changes in the competitive landscape in India. CCI has said that irrespective of the manner in which the relevant markets are defined the deal will not cause any effect in the competition in India.
Why Tata is Planning to acquire Bigbasket
TATA Group has got the approval from the Competition Commission of India to acquire the grocery delivery unicorn startup with a stake of 64.3 %. The acquisition is expected to be done through TATA digital which is the digital arm of the TATA group.
TATA digital has plans to launch a super app by this year. The planned super-app is a step towards competing with the digital business conglomerates such as Amazon, Reliance Industries and Flipkart which is owned by Walmart.
The app is expected to help the consumers to get access to services such as ordering food and grocery, fashion and lifestyle, insurance and financial services, consumer electronics and consumer durable products, education, healthcare and bill payments.
The company also has talks to acquire 1mg which will be a part of the strategy to expand its e-pharmacy offerings to its customers.
The exact value of the transaction has not yet been disclosed. The estimation according to the market is around USD 1.8 to USD 2 billion. According to the deal, most of the existing investors of Bigbasket will be exiting the company which includes the Chinese based e-commerce platform Alibaba.
According to the earlier reports, the TATA group is expected to buy the 30 % stake of Alibaba in the online grocery company Bigbasket. The Bigbasket’s top management which includes the co-founder and CEO of the company Hari Menon and others are expected to continue on the board.
BigBasket is a trade name of Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd. The company was founded in the year 2011 and has its headquarters located in Bangalore, India. It is an online grocery delivery service that primarily focuses on delivering grocery foods that are found in convenience stores, home essentials and food supplies to its customers.
The company entered the unicorn club of India in the year 2019 after raising a capital of around USD 150 million in the Series F funding. The funding was raised from the companies such as Alibaba, CDC Group which is backed by the UK Government and Mirae Asset Global Investments of South Korea.
FAQ
Is Walmart investing in Tata?
Walmart is planning to invest upto $25 billion in Tata Group’s super app.
Which Tata company is buying big basket?
Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd has agreed to acquire control of India’s largest online grocer Bigbasket for more than $1billion.
Is Tata digital listed?
Tata Digital Limited is a Public incorporated on 11 March 2019. It is classified as Non-govt company.
Conclusion
The acquisition of Bigbasket is a huge step taken by the TATA group to increase its competency level in the digital retail business in India. The already existing companies which include Jiomart, Amazon and Flipkart are expected to face a huge competition from this acquisition.
Amazon had recently made an announcement of open sourcing one of its device software DeepRacer which means that the software DeepRacer is freely available for anyone to modify or redistribute according to their requirements or plans. The DeepRacer was first developed by AWS. Lets’ look at what exactly is DeepRacer which was announced by Amazon.
Amazon Web Services is a subsidiary company of Amazon Inc., The company comes under the web services and cloud computing industry. The company launched its web services in the year 2002 and cloud computing in the year 2006.
Some of the products and services of the company include computing, networking, storage, analytics, database, deployment, application services, machine learning, management and so on. The most popular is Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).
DeepRacer is known as AWS DeepRacer as it was developed by Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company had introduced DeepRacer in the year 2018. The objective was to help the developers learn Machine Learning in an easier and a fun way.
AWS DeepRacer
AWS DeepRacer is a race car with an autonomous 1/18th scale. The car is designed to test the reinforcement learning models by conducting virtual races or physical races. The virtual races will be conducted in the AWS DeepRacer Console and the physical races will be conducted on a track at Amazon Web Services or customer events.
Objective of DeepRacer
The main objective or idea behind AWS DeepRacer is to teach the developers basics of machine learning. After the introduction of AWS DeepRacer in the year 2018, the company has conducted various physical races with DeepRacer known as AWS DeepRacer leagues and recently they have conducted a wide range of virtual races as well.
In order to encourage new people to get involved with the technology and to encourage the machine learning process, the company had reorganized the leagues last month. The announcement of open sourcing is also another step taken by the company to increase the number of participants.
It is a step to increase the interest of developers as it is a chance to make it their own and they will be able to customize it and add new layers to the cars which were not possible until now. This is a significant step taken towards encouraging the machine learning process.
After the launch of AWS DeepRacer in the year 2018, it has evolved significantly which has led the company to announce a new step which is open sourcing the software of these cars. The DeepRacer car is a mini computer that is running using an Ubuntu Linux and a Robot Operating System (ROS).
Both the software is open source elements. The open sourcing will enable the users to change the car’s default behaviour and the company believes that by open sourcing the device, there will be a lot of creative uses of DeepRacer coming forward by the software developers.
The open source for the AWS DeepRacer will enable the software developers to easily change the device code of the race car which is programmed only for the track into anything useful and creative.
Some of the changes you can make are you can deploy countermeasures into the car so that it won’t let other cars to overtake it or you can deploy your own counter algorithm which will make it run faster from a specific point to another.
The company wrote in its blog post about these examples and added saying that you just need to dream it and code it.
AWS DeepRacer is an autonomous 1/18th scale race car designed to test RL models by racing on a physical track.
What is AWS DeepRacer league?
The AWS DeepRacer League is the world’s first global autonomous racing league for developers.
Which geographic regions is AWS DeepRacer available in?
AWS DeepRacer simulator is available in the US East (N. Virginia) Region.
Conclusion
AWS DeepRacer is one of the most efficient ways to learn machine learning for developers. It is designed for developers of all skill levels and even the ones who have no experience in Machine Learning.
There are a lot of billionaires in the world. Billionaires play a major role in contributing to the growth of a country and its economy by indirectly reducing unemployment and poverty.
Here is the list of the top countries with most number of billionaires and the top billionaires of that country.
The United States of America is a country which is located in the Northern America. The country is commonly as the United States or the U.S. The country has a population of around 331 million and ranks third in the most populated countries around the world.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S GDP is around USD 16.8 trillion. For GDP per capita at PPP, the country is ranked sixth in the world and the ninth in the world for nominal GDP per capita.
United States have around 724 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires of the country are,
Jeff Bezos with a net worth of USD 177 billion. His main source of wealth is through Amazon.
Elon Musk with a net worth of USD 151 billion. The main source of wealth is through Tesla and SPACEX.
Bill Gates with a net worth of USD 124 billion. His main source of wealth is through Microsoft.
China
China is a country which is located in the Asian continent. The official name of China is People’s Republic of China. China has a population of around 1.4 billion and it ranks 1st in the world for the most populated country. China is also world’s 3rd or 4th largest country by area.
In terms of nominal GDP since 2010 China has the world’s second largest economy. According to World Bank in terms of Purchasing Power Parity GDP China’s economy has been the world’s largest since 2014. The nominal GDP of the country is around USD 13.5 trillion.
China has around 626 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires of China are,
Zhong Shanshan with a net worth of USD 68.9 billion. His main source of wealth is through Nongfu Spring. Nongfu Spring is a Chinese bottled water and beverage company.
Nongfu Spring Products
Ma Huateng with a net worth of USD 65.8 billion. His main source of wealth is through Tencent.
Colin Zheng Huang with a net worth of USD 55.3 billion. His main source of wealth is through Pinduoduo. Pinduoduo Inc. is an agriculture-focused technology platform in China.
India
India is also a country which is located in the Asian continent. India is officially known as Republic of India. India ranks second in the most populated country around the world and India is considered to be the most populated democratic country in the world. In terms of land area, India is the seventh largest country in the world.
The Indian economy in 2019 was worth USD 2.9 trillion nominally according to International Monetary Fund. India is the fifth largest economy by market exchange rates with around USD 11 trillion. India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies.
Shiv Nadar with a net worth of USD 20.4 billion. His main source of wealth if through HCL technologies.
Germany
Germany is a country which is located in the European Continent. It is officially known as Federal Republic of Germany. The population of the country is around 83 million and 357,022 square kilometers, it is the area which is covered by the country. Germany ranks second in the most populated country in the European continent.
Germany’s economy is a social market economy. Germany is considered to have a very low level corruption, high level of innovation and high skilled labourers. Germany ranks third in the world for exporting of goods. The country ranks 1st European continent for the largest economies and ranks fourth across the globe for the largest economies.
Germany has around 136 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires of Germany are,
Beate Heister & Karl Albrecht Jr with a net worth of USD 36.1 billion. Their source of wealth is through their family operated discount supermarket chain Aldi Sud.
The largest Aldi sud supermarket located in the world opens in the German Ruhr area
Dieter Schwarz with a net worth of USD 22.6 billion. The main source of wealth is through multinational retail grocery shops Schwarz Gruppe.
Susanne Klatten is the BMW heiress with a net worth of USD 21 billion. The main source of wealth is through BMW, Atlanta Nordex and SGL Carbon.
Russia
Russia is a country which is located in the European continent and is also known as Russian Federation. In terms of land area, Russia ranks 1 among the world’s largest countries. The land area Russia covers is around 17, 125, 191 square kilometers. The population of Russia is around 146.2 million which makes it the most populated country in Europe and the country ranks 9th in the most populated countries around the world.
Russia has an economy which is a transition of upper-middle income. The country is considered to have enormous amount natural resources. Their natural resources include oil and gas. Russia ranks 6th in the world in terms of largest economies by PPP GDP and ranks 7th in the world in terms of largest economy by nominal GDP. Russia’s GDP per capita by PPP is around USD 29, 485 as of 2021, according to International Monetary Fund.
Russia has around 117 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires of Russia are,
Alexey Mordashov and family have a net worth of USD 29.1 billion. Mordashov has the majority shareholding in the steel company Severstal.
Vladimir Potanin with a net worth of USD 27 billion. His main source of wealth is through metals.
Vladimir Lisin with a net worth of USD 26.2 billion. The main source of wealth is through steel and transport.
Hong Kong is a country that is situated in the Asian Continent. It is one of the countries which has a very high population around the world and a economy that is capitalist mixed service. The country has a very minimal intervention in the market by the government, low taxation and an international financial market that is well established.
Hong Kong has a nominal GDP of USD 373 billion which makes its economy 35th largest in the world. Hong Kong has around 71 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires of Hong Kong are,
Li Ka-shing with a net worth of USD 35.4 billion.
Lee Shau Kee has a net worth of USD 30.5 billion.
Henry Cheng and family with a net worth of USD 22.1 billion.
Brazil
Brazil is known as the Federative Republic of Brazil. In both Latin America and South America, Brazil is the largest country. The country also has the largest economy in Latin America and has the 7thlargest economy in the world.
Brazil has around 65 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Jorge Paulo Lemann with a net worth of USD 16.9 billion.
Eduardo Saverin with a net worth of USD 14.6 billion.
Marcel Herrmann with a net worth of USD 11.5 billion.
Canada
Canada is a country which is located in North America. It is the second largest country in the world. Canada has the 10th largest economy in the world. USD 1.73 trillion is the approximate value of the nominal GDP of Canada.
Canada has around 64 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
David Thomson and family with a net worth of USD 41.8 billion.
Joseph Tsai with a net worth of USD 11.6 billion.
Tobi Lutke with a net worth of USD 9.8 billion.
United Kingdom
United Kingdom is a country that is located in the European continent. The country’s economy is a partially regulated market. In Europe, UK is the second largest economy after Germany and around the world UK has the 5thlargest economy.
UK has around 56 billionaires. The top billionaires are,
James Ratcliffe with a net worth of USD 17 billion.
Hinduja Brother with a net worth of USD 14.9 billion.
Michael Platt with a net worth of USD 13 billion.
Italy
Italy is a country which is located in the European continent. The economy of Italy is an advanced capitalist mixed economy. In the Eurozone, Italy has the third largest economy and worldwide it has the 8thlargest economy. The country is considered as the most industrialized nation.
Italy has around 51 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Giovanni Ferrero and family with a net worth of USD 25.2 billion.
Leonardo Del Vecchio and family with a net worth of USD 17.9 billion.
Stefano Pessina with a net worth of USD 13.4 billion.
Japan
Japan is an Island country which is located in the Asian continent. Japan is the 11th most populated country in the world. In terms of nominal GDP after United States and China, Japan has the 3rdlargest national economy.
Japan has around 49 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Tadashi Yanai with a net worth of USD 48.7 billion.
Masayoshi Son with a net worth of USD 34.9 billion.
Takemitsu Takizaki with a net worth of USD 32 billion.
Taiwan
Taiwan that is officially known as Republic of China is a country in the Asian continent. The country has been called Taiwan Miracle because of its quick industrialization and rapid growth. This was mainly during the latter half of the 20th century.
Taiwan has 47 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Wei Ing-chou who has a net worth of USD 7.2 billion.
Ying-Chiao who has a net worth of USD 7.2 billion.
Australia is officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia. It is a sovereign country located in the Australian continent. The 6thlargest country around the world is Australia. It is considered to be a wealthy country with a very low rate of poverty and high GDP per capita.
Australia has 44 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Gina Rinehart with a net worth of USD 14.8 billion.
Harry Triguboff with a net worth of USD 9 billion.
Anthony Pratt with a net worth of USD 6.8 billion.
South Korea
South Korea is officially known as the Republic of Korea. It is a country which is located in the east of the Asian continent. South Korea’s economy is a mixed economy and in terms of the nominal GDP South Korea ranks 10th around the world. It has a high-income economy which makes it a developed country.
South Korea has 43 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Jay Y Lee who has a net worth of USD 11.2 billion.
Kim Beom-SU who has a net worth of USD 7.6 billion.
Seo Jung-Jin who has a net worth of USD 7.4 billion.
France
France is known as French Republic. It is a country which is located in the European continent. In terms of PPP GDP France is ranked as the 10th largest in the world and is ranked 2ndlargest in the European Union in terms of PPP GDP. France’s economy is a diverse economy with a domination towards the service sector.
France has around 42 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Bernard Arnault with a net worth of USD 76 billion.
Francoise Betterncourt with a net worth of USD 49.3 billion.
Francois Pinault with a net worth of USD 29.7 billion.
Sweden
Sweden is officially known as the kingdom of Sweden. It is a country which is located in the European Continent. In terms of GDP, It is the 16th richest country in the world. A high standard of living is experienced by the citizens of Sweden.
Sweden has around 41 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are
Stefan Persson with a net worth of USD 15.6 billion.
Hans Rausing and family with a net worth of USD 12 billion.
Jorn Rausing has a net worth of USD 8.7 billion.
Switzerland
Switzerland is officially known as Swiss Confederation. It is a country that is located in the European continent. Switzerland has lands in all the four sides of their border and hence called as landlocked country. Switzerland has a high-tech economy which is stable and prosperous. It has been ranked as one of the least corrupted countries around the world.
Switzerland has around 40 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Gianluigi and Rafaela Aponte with a net worth of USD 10.7 billion.
Guillaume Pousaz with a net worth of USD 9 billion.
Ernesto Bertarelli with a net worth of USD 8.6 billion.
Thailand
Thailand is officially known as the Kingdom of Thailand and was formerly known as Siam. The country is located in the Asian continent. Thailand is considered to be a newly industrialized country and is an emerging economy.
Thailand has 31 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Dhanin Chearavanont with a net worth of USD 18.1 billion.
Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi with a net worth of USD 13.5 billion.
Sarath Ratanavadi with a net worth of USD 8.9 billion.
Spain
Spain is known as the Kingdom of Spain. The country is located in Europe. Spain has a capitalist mixed economy. They have the 14th largest economy around the world and 4th largest in the European Union.
Spain has 30 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are
Amancio Ortega with a net worth of USD 81 billion.
Sandra Ortega Mera has a net worth of USD 6.7 billion.
Singapore is known as the Republic of Singapore. The country is located in the Asian continent. Singapore has a highly developed economy. The Singaporean economy is considered to be business friendly, innovative, dynamic and a free economy.
Singapore has around 27 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are
Zhang Yongwith a net worth of USD 23 billion.
Goh Cheng Liang with a net worth of USD 21.7 billion.
Li Xiting has a net worth of USD 21.5 billion.
Turkey
Turkey is known as the republic of Turkey. The country is located in the European continent. Turkey is considered to have an economy that is upper middle-income. The country is considered as a newly industrialized country. Turkey is 20th largest around the globe in terms of nominal GDP.
Turkey also has around 27 billionaires in the country. The top billionaires are,
Erman ılıcak with a net worth of USD 3.8 billion.
Murat Ülker with a net worth of USD 3.7 billion.
Hüsnü özyeğin with a net worth of USD 2.1 billion.
FAQ
How many Trillionaires are there?
As of today, there are no trillionaires who live on earth.
Who is the wealthiest family in the world?
Walton Family – Walmart is the wealthiest family in the world with a Estimated net worth of $215 billion.
Is Kylie Jenner a billionaire?
Kylie Jenner, 23, was the youngest billionaire, but did not make the cut this year. In 2019, she was controversially named the youngest self-made billionaire in 2019.
Conclusion
These are the list of the top Countries with the most number of billionaires. Some of the other countries with the most number of billionaires are Israel with 17, Indonesia and Philippines with 15, Mexico, Norway and Malaysia with 12, Netherlands with 11, Austria and Ireland with 9, Czech Republic and Denmark with 8 and so on.
Jeff Bezos is currently the World’s Richest Man with a Net-worth of $193.2 billion as of April 2021. He is the founder & CEO of Amazon and the owner of ‘The Washington Post’. The e-commerce industry has been at the center of most entrepreneurial attempts and ventures. Significant developments have happened in this segment over the last couple of decades. The e-commerce division has become an indispensable part of our lives today. Physical obstacles related to brick-and-mortar stores have essentially been eliminated. Without any doubt, Amazon is at the pinnacle of e-retail. And the credit goes to Jeff Bezos.
Jeff Bezos Biography
Name
Jeff Bezos
Born
12 January 1964 (age 57 years)
Place
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Net Worth
$193.2 Billion (April 21, 2021)
Known for
World’s Richest Man (Forbes), Founder & CEO of Amazon
Education
Princeton University (1982–1986), Miami Palmetto Senior High School, River Oaks Elementary School
Bezos graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. His early interest in gadgets and the functioning of machines made him turn his parent’s garage into a laboratory. He had business instincts right from the start as during high school, he began the Dream Institute—an educational summer camp for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders.
Jeff Bezos – Key Investments
Jeff Bezos invested in various businesses to date. A look at the World’s Richest Man’s investments shows a diversified portfolio spanning across sectors including media, software technology, healthcare, financial services, logistics & more.
Take a look at the Key Investments of Jeff Bezos.
Jeff Bezos Key Investments
Jeff Bezos – Jobs Before Amazon
After graduation, Bezos worked for several firms on Wall Street. He worked for Bankers Trust and then D.E. Shaw. He was elected as the youngest vice president at D.E. Shaw in 1990. A smooth life wasn’t everything for him and he decided to try his hands on something different. In 1994, he resigned from D.E. Shaw and moved on to the e-commerce industry. He launched an online website that sold books. This marked the beginning of his entrepreneurial path.
Inspired by the great South American River Amazon, he named his online bookstore Amazon.com. The website went live after nearly 300 friends tested the beta site. Amazon.com became popular all over the world. With no promotion, Amazon.com sold books all over the country and within 30 days, the company was operating in 30 countries. Within two months, sales reached around 20,000 USD per week. This was much larger than anticipated.
Amazon Logo
The company went public in 1997. After two years, the company became the face of the e-commerce industry. The growth of Amazon.com lead to diversification in its offerings. The company began to sell CDs and videos in 1998. Later, toys, clothes, and video games were brought onto the Amazon platform. The move was done to cover every age group. While many e-commerce websites were struggling to survive, Amazon.com flourished. The yearly sales took a giant leap from 510,000 USD in 1995 to 17 billion USD in 2011.
The introduction of Amazon Prime was significant in revenue boost. The media tycoon declared that Amazon Prime had surpassed 100 million paid subscribers. The company’s value reached 1 trillion USD in the year 2018, making it the second company to break the 1 trillion mark.
Amazon.com launched its video-on-demand service in the year 2006. The extension was initially named as Amazon Unbox on TiVo. Bezos introduced Amazon Studios in 2013. The studio became popular due to its association with the critically acclaimed Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle. Bezos has also made a cameo appearance in the movie Star Trek Beyond as an alien. Under his leadership, Amazon introduced Alexa, the virtual assistant. The arrival of Kindle changed the way people read books after 2007. Bezos gave Apple’s iPad a run for its money by introducing launching Kindle Fire HD. The tablet was affordable and was well received.
Bezos made headlines after purchasing The Washington Post for 250 million USD. After taking over the company, Bezos hired hundreds of reporters and editors. Later, the association of Michael Flynn (the former national security advisor) with Russians was revealed by Washington Post. This forced Flynn to resign. At the end of 2016, the new publisher generated revenues of 100 million USD.
In 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin. Blue Origin is an aerospace company that makes space travel affordable through cutting-edge tech. For the most part of the decade, the company wasn’t in the news, siloing itself in its research. Bezos invited many reporters to visit the company’s headquarters in Kent in 2016. He proposed a vision of humans colonizing the space. Bezos sold 1 billion USD of Amazon stock to fund Blue Origin. NASA announced that Blue Origin was amongst the 13 companies selected to collaborate on nineteen technology projects to reach the Moon and planet Mars. Blue Origin is also working with NASA on reusable rockets.
In the year 2018, Bezos launched the Bezos Day One Fund. This organization helps homeless families. It also aims at creating a network of new, non-profit tier-one preschools for low-income communities. Jeff gave away 2 billion USD of his personal fortune to fund the nonprofit organization.
For many years, Bill Gates was at the tip of our tongues when speaking of the world’s richest person. Jeff Bezos changed that. The staggering increase in his wealth shows what behemoth of a company Amazon has become. What began as an online bookstore now deals with cloud services, e-retail, electronics, high tech offerings, and what not. Jeff Bezos is an example of how consistent efforts and innovation can take an individual to unimaginable success!
Jeff Bezos – FAQs
How much does Jeff Bezos make in a day?
Jeff Bezos’s net worth increased by $67.4 billion on August 12, 2020. Based on these figures, Jeff Bezos made around $321 million per day or $3,715 per second. According to Observer, Jeff Bezos earns approximately $149,353 a minute.
What does Jeff Bezos do with his money?
Bezos’ net worth is an estimated $193.2 billion, according to Forbes. He spends his fortune on real estate, a Gulfstream Jet, and his space exploration company.
What did Jeff Bezos study in university?
Bezos had an early love of computers and studied computer science and electrical engineering at Princeton University.
Who Founded Blue Origin?
In 2000, Bezos founded Blue Origin. Blue Origin is an aerospace company that makes space travel affordable through cutting-edge tech.
Why Jeff Bezos named Amazon?
Inspired by the great South American River Amazon, Jeff Bezos named his online bookstore Amazon.com.
How was life for Jeff Bezos before Amazon?
After graduation, Bezos worked for several firms on Wall Street. He worked for Bankers Trust and then D.E. Shaw. He was elected as the youngest vice president at D.E. Shaw in 1990.
Jeff Bezos – Conclusion
Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle. Before starting Amazon, Bezos worked for several firms on Wall Street. He worked for Bankers Trust and then vice president at D.E. Shaw. Bezos was doing well with his life at that point of time. But he wanted to try something new with his life and started working on Amazon from his garage. The life story of Jeff Bezos has admired a lot of people all over the world. “Never Settle. Keep Hustling”.
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” — Steve Jobs
Amazon.com Inc is an American based multinational technology company. It was founded in the year 1994. The company is located in Washington. It focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital streaming. It is one of the big five companies in the U.S IT industry.
Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce companies in India. Let’s look at the below article to understand the new Amazon’s Mentor Programme and the benefit from it.
On 11 April 2021, Amazon India had announced the launch of its Mentor Connect programme. The aim of the Mentor connect programme is to accelerate the growth of startups in the country. It also focuses on accelerating the growth of the emerging brand owners as well.
The brand owners and the emerging startups will have to enroll under the Amazon Launchpad initiative. The Amazon Mentor Connect programme will not just be limited to the startups and the emerging brands. It will also be extended to the winners of the entrepreneurship challenge which is hosted by Amazon called as Amazon Sambhav Summit.
The second edition of the entrepreneurship challenge Amazon Sambhav is said to be hosted from 15 April 2021 to 18 April 2021.
The aim of the Amazon Mentor Connect programme is to create a system to support and help the startups. It aims at helping startups in unlocking their potential by providing them with proper guidance and mentorship. This will help them in scaling their business, avoiding blind spots, to learn from the experienced industry leaders, etc.
The programme will focus on opening new doors and will help the startups in identifying and unlocking infinite possibilities which will increase the possibilities for a Digital India said Amazon India director Pranav Bhasin who has experience in the MSME sector and Selling Partner Experience.
He also added on saying that India has a large Startup ecosystem which is the key to disruptive innovation. This ecosystem is expected to accelerate India’s progress towards an Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Pranav Bhasin has said that most of the startups are led by first time entrepreneurs who are driven by the passion to drive a change in the market. But most of them have no much experience to deal with the challenges and hardships they have to face along the way.
Amazon India Director, Pranav Bhasin
Prayag Mohanty who is the Senior Vice President at Fireside Ventures said that the company has been looking to understand the grassroots level challenges, identifying trends and trying different ways to solve the problems that are faced by the emerging brands and startups.
He also added on saying that other than that Venture Capital’s like them are always looking for opportunities in order to meet the new and upcoming brands.
The programme will offer startups and emerging brands to gain access to the guidance from Venture Capitalists, industry experts and Amazon leaders. The startups and emerging brands will get a chance to know the expert knowledge by sharing sessions, networking events and 1:1 mentorship sessions.
Amazon has already confirmed that mentors from educational institutions and VC firms like Fireside Ventures, Elevation Capital, Tomorrow Capital and DSG Consumer Partners for contributing to the Indian startup ecosystem.
The startups and emerging brands can get a chance to access guidance from all these mentors through various other ways. This would include one-to-one mentorship with chosen mentors for over a period of three months.
The members of the programme will also get networking opportunities with a wider range of industry experts and can even have knowledge sharing sessions between these experts and other Launchpad brands.
The platform also offers the startup operators to showcase their startups, engage and learn with the Industry’s leading expert in their respective subject matters and also helps them in tackling strategic and functional challenges.
The Amazon launchpad has currently showcased over 2 lakh products which are offered by more than 800 brands that are emerging from across 30 different product categories. The popular sectors that are showcased by these brands include health and personal care, grocery and home products, beauty and grooming, etc.
Successful mentoring go through four phases, preparation, negotiating, enabling growth, and closure.
How long should a mentorship program last?
The minimum amount of time a mentoring relationship or program must last is 6 months but there is no maximum.
What are some examples of mentoring goals?
Leadership skills, Confidence skills, Public speaking/presentation skills, and Life/work balance are some examples of mentoring goals.
Conclusion
Amazon’s mentor programme will be a great initiative for the company to grow and develop the startup ecosystem in the country. It will be one of the best platforms for the startups and emerging brands to get the exposure they require to develop their startup.
The revenue earned by a company is the major source through which the worth of the company is decided. You would be surprised to know some of the top companies’ revenue earned per minute. Here are the list of the top companies and the revenue they earn every minute.
Amazon.com Inc is an American based multinational technology company. It was founded in the year 1994. The company is located in Washington. It focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital streaming. It is one of the big five companies in the U.S IT industry.
The company earned a revenue of USD 386.064 billion in the year 2020 and a revenue of USD 955,917 per minute.
Apple
Apple Inc is an American based Multinational technology company. It was founded in the year 1976. The company is located in California. The company focuses on designing, developing and selling consumer electronics, online services and computer software. It is also one of the big five companies in the U.S IT industry.
The company earned a revenue of USD 274.515 billion in the year 2020 and a revenue of USD 848,090 per minute.
Alphabet Inc is an American multinational conglomerate. It was founded in the year 2015. Alphabet is the parent company of Google. The company has its headquarters in California. Alphabet is considered to be one of the world’s most valuable companies and the fourth largest technology company in the world. Alphabet’s Google is one of the big five companies in the U.S IT industry.
The company earned a revenue of USD 182.53 billion in the year 2020 and a revenue of USD 433,014 per minute.
Microsoft
Microsoft is an American multinational technology company. It was founded in the year 1975. The company is located in Washington. The company focuses on developing, providing licenses, support, manufacturing and selling of computer software, personal computers, consumer electronics and related services. The company is also one of the big five companies in the U.S IT industry.
The company earned a revenue of USD 143 billion in the year 2020 and a revenue of USD 327,823 per minute.
Facebook is an American based multinational company. It is social media and social networking service. The company was launched in the year 2004. It is located in California. Facebook was the most downloaded app during the 2010s.
The company earns a revenue of USD 85,965 million and a revenue of USD 213,628 per minute.
Tesla
Tesla Inc. is an American based Electric Vehicle and Clean energy company. It was founded in the year 2003. The company is located in California. The company has a wide range of products which include electric cars, solar panels, solar roof tiles, battery energy storage from home to grid scale and various other products and services.
The company earned a revenue of USD 31.536 billion in the year 2020 and a revenue of USD 81,766 per minute.
Netflix is an American based company. It is an over-the-top platform and a production company. Netflix was founded in the year 1997. The company has its headquarters in California. Netflix is a member of the Motion picture Association (MPA). It is involved in producing and distributing contents across the globe.
The company earned a revenue of USD 25 billion in the year 2020 and a revenue USD 50,566 per minute.
Walmart
Walmart is an American based multination retail corporation. The company was founded in the year 1962. It has its headquarters in Arkansas, U.S. The company operates a chain of discount department stores, hypermarkets, grocery stores, etc. Walmart is the world’s largest company by revenue.
The company earns a revenue of USD 559.2 billion in the year 2021 and a revenue of USD 1,063,546 per minute.
Sony
Sony group is a Japanese based multinational conglomerate corporation. It was founded in the year 1946. The company has its headquarters in Tokyo. Sony is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of professional and consumer electronic products, the largest company for video game console, the second largest record company, the second largest video game publishing company, as well as one of the most comprehensive media companies.
Sony earned a revenue of USD 80 billion in the year 2020 and earns a revenue of USD 152,207 per minute.
Toyota Motor Corp is a Japanese based multination automotive company. It was founded in the year 1937. The company has its headquarters in Aichi, Japan. Toyota is considered to be the tenth largest company in the world in terms of Revenue generated.
It is also the largest automotive manufacturer in the world. Toyota was the world’s first automotive company to manufacture more than 10 million vehicles in a year.
Toyota Motor Corp earned a revenue of USD 275.4 billion in the year 2020 and earns a revenue of USD 489,726 per minute.
FAQ
What company makes the most money per minute?
Amazon is an American conglomerate which makes USD 955,917 per minute.
What the most profitable companies make per second?
Big pharma companies like Johnson & Johnson and Gilead Sciences make more than $400 per second.
How much does Jeff Bezos make a minute 2020?
Jeff Bezos makes about $321 million a day, $13.4 million an hour, $222,884 a minute, and $3,715 a second in 2020.
Conclusion
The above are some of the top companies in the world and the revenue they generate every minute.
The Indian handicrafts sector provides livelihoods to millions of people around the country, especially women. However, linking small-scale rural producers to urban and global markets has been a challenge. Efficiently connecting buyers and sellers in the handicrafts and handmade clothing market could have an exponential impact by improving the incomes of the poor and help preserve crafts that are rapidly disappearing. CraftsVilla.com is aiming to do exactly that, using the power of the Internet.
In a world full of trends, being a classic is what Craftsvilla is all about.Selling ethnic apparel and accessories on its online portal since 2011, Craftsvilla was launched by Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta.
Craftsvilla is essentially an e-commerce portal based out of India that mainly sells ethnic items for women like ethnic apparel, ethnic footwear, ethnic fashion accessories, ethnic handcrafted home accessories, and ethnic fashion and lifestyle products along with other parallel industry products like beauty products.
Founded in 2011 by Monica & Manoj Gupta, Craftsvilla is an online marketplace for unique handmade, handcrafted, organic, and gift items. The startup claims to have over 25,000 sellers on its platform, selling close to 3.5 Million products.
The platform aggregates artisans, designers, and retailers from all around the country on a single platform and directly connects local artisans and designers to global customers over the world. Also, this startup over all these years has launched several in-house brands namely Anuswara, Avanya, and Jharokha, all in the affordable and classy ethnic and handloom segment.
Craftsvilla – Products and Services
Craftsvilla ship globally and it’s free for goods worth more than $250. The startup claims to have over 25,000 artisans and designers selling over 4 million products. The products are categorized into different segments like Jewellery, Handbags, Home Décor, Clothing, Food & Health, and Footwear etc., each further divided into sub segments.
About 80% of the buyers are women. The push has been to revive handicrafts and make it conveniently accessible. They try to keep things colorful and lively and that attracts the 18-35 age group buyers. More than 50% of the orders come from Tier 2 cities. And as it is with e-commerce portals in India, 50% of sales are Cash On Delivery (COD).
Here are some examples of what you can expect on Craftsvilla:
The collection of Gowns is an ode to fusion friendly fashion and perfect for all sorts of occasions.
Their drape collection is quite enviable as it includes a plethora of styles including, Printed, Traditional, Designer Sarees and fabrics like Cotton, Satin, Art Silk and Georgette Saree.
They have new and novel collection of Kurtis full of embellished styles, embroidered kinds and hues of every kind.
There are times when you need an ethnic ensemble that is not only trendy but also timeless in terms of style, splendour and a perfect fit for that special occasion. That’s where their latest range of Lehengas comes in! From Net Lehenga Cholis to hip and happening co-ordinate Designer Lehenga Sets, Craftsvilla have it all!
Complete with traditional kinds like Silver, Golden Plated and Oxidised, their collections of Earrings and neckpieces have something for everyone, right from statement making to subtlety sensational ones.
Craftsvilla – Founders and Team
The founders of Craftsvilla are Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta.
Monica Gupta and Manoj Gupta
Manoj Gupta, Founder and CEO – He is an IIM graduate and a venture capitalist, founded Dreams Early Stage Fund and was Board Observer at Snapdeal before launching Craftsvilla. Prior to Craftsvilla.com, Manoj was Principal at Nexus Venture Partners where he invested in ecommerce companies in India. Manoj has also started a Tech company in San Diego, US from 2001-2006.
Monica Gupta, Founder and COO – She is graduated from San Diego State University.
How was Craftsvilla Started?
The idea for Craftsvilla struck the couple during their visit to Kutch, the hub of ethnic apparel and accessories. They saw supply in abundance with no channelized demand segregation and a portal that could connect the suppliers and the buyers not just in India, but globally. This is exactly how Craftsvilla was born.
Following this, the company was launched by Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta in 2011 with funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Initially, this ethnic-focused startup was incepted with 80 employees and 5 offices across the country.
But it so happened that by 2012, this venture completely exhausted the entire amount of INR 10 crore series-A funding. And due to this, the company had to downsize to an only 10-member team and carried their business operations in a small one-room office.
With the downsizing coming too early for Craftsvilla, if it was anybody other than Manoj Gupta, they’d have easily given up. But not the Craftsvilla founder. He kept faith in himself, in his idea, and his passionate team of 8. And in just a short span of 5 years, this ethnic fashion portal, Craftsvilla went from an allegedly failed startup to a big-named company with a huge valuation of $250 million with more than 4 million products in its inventory.
Craftsvilla – Business Model and Reveue Model
The business model of Craftsvilla majorly focuses on removing middlemen from the supply chain mechanism and increasing the livelihood of local artisans and cultured designers to help them create/promote their brand, with preserving the Indian culture, traditions, and values in a broader picture. In current times, the company charges a 20% commission on every transaction which excludes service tax.
Craftsvilla – Funding and Investors
Their latest funding was raised on Mar 20, 2020 from a Venture – Series Unknown round.
Here is a list of all the funding rounds of Craftsvilla:
Normally, entrepreneurs face challenges after the inceptions of their startups. This was not the case with Manoj Gupta. He faced the most crucial challenges right before launching Craftsvilla. It so happened that when Manoj presented his idea of launching an online portal that would sell ethnic stuff to his friends and family, he, unfortunately, received a lot of unenthusiastic feedback relating to it.
Most of his acquaintances pointed out that there is no real market for ethnic fashion wear and there clearly hasn’t been a successful replica of it in the industry across the globe. But Manoj was firm on his idea and despite negative response, Manoj believed in his entrepreneurial idea and the potential that he saw in the untapped market filled with opportunities. Later in the same year, he went ahead and launched Craftsvilla with his wife.
Craftsvilla – Name, Tagline and Logo
Craftsvilla has a tagline. “The Marketplace to discover India”. This tagline goes perfectly with the site, because it has huge range of Indian products & almost all the products are made keeping in mind the Indian craft & culture.
Craftsvilla Logo
Craftsvilla – Competitors
There are a lot of e-commerce portals in the country that deal with ethnic fashion and lifestyle products combined with other western and beauty products. Hence Craftsvilla competes with big and small online marketplaces like Myntra, LimeRoad, Voonik, Amazon, Flipkart, and Fabindia among many others.
Craftsvilla has more than 62 outlets in total across India in cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Kolhapur, Coimbatore, Delhi, Chandigarh, and Varanasi.
This ethnic fashion and lifestyle online marketplace is pegged at around $300–500 million in size.
It claims to have over 25,000 artisans and designers on board.
Craftsvilla currently is selling over 4 million products.
Craftsvilla – Revenue
In FY18, Craftsvilla’s revenues spiked by 3.6% from Rs 30.35 crore in FY17 to Rs 31.45 crore. The expenses from Rs 116.33 crore to Rs 59.13 crore. Losses followed the pattern and decreased from Rs 85.98 crore to Rs 27.68 crore.
Craftsvilla – Acquisitions
Craftsvilla acquired 3 organisations – F2SO4, Place Of Origin and Sendd.
Acquired
Date
Amount
Sendd
January 2016
$4.5 Million
Place of Origin
February 2016
–
F2SO4
April 2016
–
Place of Origin is an online retailer of ethnic food curated from sellers around the country. The online platform currently offers a range of products, from sweets and confectionary to local snacks and health food sourced directly from sellers across several cities.
Chandigarh-based F2SO4 was founded in 2015 by Delhi-based IIT alumni, Amrit Singh and Sachin Goel along with Partik Bhuchar. The startup was an app-based venture that offered branded and high-end designer clothes on rent. The startup was earlier bootstrapped and was founded as an apparel-as-a-service platform.
For the future goals, Craftsvilla is aiming straight on pushing its offline foray. For the same, the venture is also planning to invest INR 100 crore to open more than 1,000 outlets in the coming years.
Craftsvilla – Partners
Craftsvilla has tied up with the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, for e-marketing of handloom products from small weavers. As per this agreement, Craftsvilla has tied up with Weavesmart, an online marketplace that offers handloom weaves from across India.
Craftsvilla – FAQs
Who is Monica Gupta?
The founders of Craftsvilla are Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta.
What is Craftsvilla?
Craftsvilla is essentially an e-commerce portal based out of India that mainly sells ethnic items for women like ethnic apparel, ethnic footwear, ethnic fashion accessories, ethnic handcrafted home accessories, and ethnic fashion and lifestyle products along with other parallel industry products like beauty products.
What is the Tagline of Craftsvilla?
“MarketPlace to Discover India”
What is the Business Model of Craftsvilla?
The business model of Craftsvilla majorly focuses on removing middlemen from the supply chain mechanism and increasing the livelihood of local artisans and cultured designers to help them create/promote their brand, with preserving the Indian culture, traditions, and values in a broader picture.
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 Boonbox.
The advent of e-commerce in India in the past decade has been unprecedented. While a huge chunk of the population in Indian cities are reaping the benefits of e-commerce, the rural areas still remain untouched by the effects of digitization.
With the masterly vision of taking e-commerce to rural India, the co-founders-Ramachandran Ramanathan, Karthik Natarajan, Narayanan launched Boonbox in 2013.
Given the great idea and insight on which this startup is based, this is how the business functions. Boonbox has a local affiliate in each of the towns/villages that they are located in. These local affiliates assist the consumers with the products available in the application. These affiliates place the orders on the consumer’s behalf and collect the money. These products are delivered by Boonbox through their hub & spoke fulfillment model.
In rural areas, there can’t be a platform to start a business as the ecosystem does not exist. Boonbox is an integrated player in this ecosystem. It owns the ecosystem and this is difficult to replicate. Creating connectivity takes time and requires a deep understanding of rural purchase patterns and consumer behavior. And Boonbox team has decades of experience in building rural networks.
The rural ecosystem has a lot of human elements associated with it. There is touch and feel of human connectivity. To be a successful startup in rural India, the required building blocks are human touch, credibility & trust, accompanied by an integrated ecosystem. As Boonbox has been able to selectively identify the relevant trust elements within rural communities and has built them over the years, this platform is viewed as a trusted element in the rural ecosystems. Boonbox pivoted from being a single product seller to a multi-category catalog that empowers the rural customers with choice and convenience. The venture was pivoted in the year 2015.
Boonbox is a technology platform for providing products and services to consumers who live in tier-4 towns and villages and are deprived of access to these products. Through the company’s “Rural Last Mile” logistics network, products are delivered at the doorstep of the consumers in remote villages. Boonbox also ensures that regular follow-up takes place with the customers, and promises them after-sale service to provide a top-class purchase experience.
Boonbox – USP
Boonbox chennai based startup, is an unique venture that aggregates the demand of rural customers and fulfills them by placing an order with the merchant. In simple words, it’s a vehicle to enter the rural markets. The main idea of the startup is to be a desired brand for every rural household and be a part of their everyday lives. Also, Boonbox is of the ideology that every rural customer craves and deserves a top-class customer experience. With Boonbox online shopping has never been easier for the rural population!
Boonbox was selling solar lamps in Rural Tamil Nadu and Karnataka during the peak power crisis in 2012-13. While seeking customer feedback, the Boonbox team received responses that indicated demand for Mobile Phones, White Goods (TV, Fridge, Washing Machine) and also Induction Stoves and Mixer Grinders. All these products were wanted by rural consumers during the peak power crisis. Thus, throughout the entrepreneurial journey, seeking customer feedback helped them deduce that Rural Customers are ASPIRATIONAL and CONSUMPTION is driving the Rural Economy.
70 % of India which is close to a billion people live in Rural India. Rural India contributes to 47% of the country’s GDP. And these statistics were sufficient enough to indicate a massive market in a less than 30,000 population towns. These people in those towns were the target market of Boonbox.
” We foresee a consumption explosion in Rural India and expect Rural India to lead India’s economy in the next 5 years.” said the Co-founders of Boonbox positively.
Boonbox – Founders and team
Ramachandran Ramanthan, Karthik Natarajan and Narayanan are the Co-founders of Boonbox.
Ramachandran Ramanthan, Karthik Natarajan and Narayanan
The trio has an exciting story about how all of it began! While Ramachandran Ramanathan and Karthik Natarajan were colleagues, they met Narayanan through a common friend. Narayanan had created the rural network in Tamil Nadu for Tata Teleservices and immediately caught on to the potential of the idea. The co-founders then went on to build the team by selling a dream, which made many people leave their lucrative jobs in the corporate world to join in the Boonbox adventure. The fact that they were working in an exotic area, a white space, building for Bharat and also generating cash in the business, attracted many people to the Boonbox team.
Ramachandran Ramanathan is a Chartered Accountant by qualification. He has also held senior management positions in the RPG, ICICI and TVS groups. Boonbox adventure is a great opportunity for him to follow his passion i.e., to create business strategies in uncharted markets and build a great team for scaling the business.
Boonbox co-founder Ramachandran Ramanthan
Karthik Natarajan is a management graduate from a financial services background with stints at Citigroup and Fullerton. Karthik is the ‘Zero to One’ man in the co-founder circle and his strength is his excellent ability to smell business opportunities and develop concepts into businesses.
Narayanan is also a management graduate who worked extensively in the telecom world straddling all the major brands including Airtel and Tata Teleservices. A meticulous planner, he works on business excellence and takes the Boonbox businesses to scale.
How was Boonbox Started
The idea to take on the rural markets with a technology platform struck to the co-founders Ramachandran Ramanathan and Karthik Natarajan when they were working on the TVS group. TVS’s consumer strategy was architected by the late Dr.C.K.Prahalad and focused entirely on capturing the rural markets. These two co-founders were working on creating alternate networks in rural markets and while doing that, the massive potential of this white space dawned upon them.
Boonbox was built based on these two co-founder’s experiences in the rural market. In fact, they did not do any formal market research. Instead, they focused on using customer feedback as a mechanism to drive Boonbox to success.
Boonbox – Name, Tagline and Logo
Specialists were consulted to come up with the name Boonbox. The co-founders finally zoomed in on Inthree which is a Coined Name – coined from the ethos of the business which is the Inner India Initiative. Inthree is the registered name and BoonBox is its customer-facing platform. So Ideally the Boonbox company is a sister concern of Inthree and is launched in select districts of TamilNadu and Karnataka. Which is why the Boonbox website can be accessed from inthreeaccess.com.
Boonbox Logo
Boonbox – Business Model and Revenue Model
The Boonbox business model is simple, it takes orders from rural customers and delivers products to their households. Considering that the rural market has a broken ecosystem and a virtually non-existent distribution network, this venture gets both the distributor and retailer’s margins which makes Boonbox’s Unit Economics very strong.
Rural India is characterized by a huge trust deficit. Boonbox has sold products to 2.5 million customers to date. Their focus is mainly on customer experience and to ensure that every single customer complaint is addressed on time and they now have 2.5 million happy customers. The rural market works on word of mouth marketing and Boonbox is a formidable brand now. Hence the key strategy for Boonbox has been to focus on customer experience since the initial days.
Boonbox – Startup Challenges
Rural is a white space, the founders had no benchmarks to follow. The company’s business model was formulated after multiple iterations and is not more than three years old. The model is based on continuous learning and building on the co-founder’s experiences. Also, It is not something that others can replicate over a short period. Boonbox is consistently working towards solving two major challenges :
Gaining the trust of consumers living in towns and villages with a population of 30,000 and below
Catering to customers who live in locations without a proper address or pin code. In such areas, it’s important to ensure that products reach customers on time.
This venture is the pioneer in this field and the co-founders are continuously trying their experiments and learning from them. There have been as many failed experiments as successful ones, as the business itself is one huge hack!
Though Boonbox does not have any direct competition in the market. But unicorns like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon have been trying to get inroads in rural markets, some e-commerce startups like iPay and StoreKing solely focus on rural markets.
Boonbox – Funding and Investors
Boonbox has raised a total funding worth INR 34 Crores in two rounds till date.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
August, 2014
Angel
9 Crores
IAN, Keiretsu Forum Chennai
August, 2018
Series A
25 crores
Ventureast, Orios & IAN Fund
Boonbox – Advisors and Mentors
Boonbox does have mentors who have contributed their ideas in Business Strategy, Customer Experience and HR throughout the entrepreneurial journey.
Boonbox operates in 16 States. This includes acquiring customers and delivering products to 3,00,000 villages which accounts for 47% of India’s universe of villages. Since inception and till date, Boonbox has sold products in rural markets totaling to INR 450 Crores.
Boonbox is the largest rural partner for Samsung mobiles and has been the largest partner for them for the last three consecutive years. Some of the other products and brands include:
The Co-founders are expecting to close 2019 with a turnover of INR 300 Crores, and with a Gross Profit of INR 75 Crores. They are expecting to reach a turnover of INR 1,000 Crores by 2022.
The long-term plan of the venture is to be a pan India player, providing products at customer’s doorstep in remote villages and that too backed by top-notch customer experience. Given that the following are the goals for the coming decade:
Become a multi-service offering for the rural consumer
Building a robust direct channel for selling to the consumer with a fintech offering
Adding categories like FMCG, fashion, apparel to the product mix in addition to mobile phones, consumer durables, kitchen appliances, and cookware
Designing subscription models that can be relevant for the rural consumer
Creating loyalty and membership programs to build long term value for customers
There’s ideally nothing better than growing together. Boonbox’s initiative of empowering rural India with the services that they deserve is a marvelous concept. After all, great businesses are always built out of satisfying needs rather than creating wants.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
Who are the Founders of Boonbox?
The Co-founders of Boonbox are Ramachandran Ramanthan, Karthik Natarajan and Narayanan.
What is Boonbox?
Boonbox is an unique venture that aggregates the demand of rural customers and fulfills them by placing an order with the merchant on their behalf and delivers it to the individuals.
Is Boonbox only available in Chennai?
No, Boonbox operates in 16 States including Chennai and are planning on expanding further.
Rapid FDI stride is something India is boasting of since economic liberation in 1991, And indeed it brought in huge investments and millions of jobs alongside. No doubt market reforms placed the economy on the fast track of development. But on the flip side, soon after FDI in multi-brand retail got introduced in 2012 local businesses and trades took a hit quite as expected. Especially since gigantic foreign players like Amazon entered the market, Plenty of jobs were lost while micro & small retailers suffered significant losses.
First Significant Change in FDI Policy That Hit Amazon/Flipkart
The ease & comfort of e-shopping has been intelligently multiplied in value by these global giants by offering heavy discounts. Therefore, to level out the playing field, Govt of India brought in a major policy shift Via FDI into e-commerce in Dec 2018. This change was persuaded by Indian brick-and-mortar retailers who were long unhappy with the supposed unfair trade practices of these multinational corporations.
They contested that e-commerce retailers like Amazon & Walmart controlled Flipkart were creating complex business structures to smartly bypass foreign investment rules. They do it by finding a way around FDI rules to avoid complying with orders that are detrimental to these corporation’s interests & profits.
US companies deny these charges, But govt of India had to look over the interests of Indian businesses first & so it did. Now, these giants were disallowed to sell products from sellers in whom they had an equity stake.
However, this didn’t seem to deter these foreign participants from working around policies to keep competition from Indian retailers at bay. So the Govt of India again is revisiting the FDI rules off late to tweak it further and Prohibit even those sellers from selling on these platforms, in whom these e-commerce companies have indirect stake through their parent company.
Prohibit sellers who purchase from the e-retailer or its group firm & intern sell on the e-commerce site (presently the seller is allowed to transact 25% of its inventory under this arrangement)
Govt had earlier in 2020 tightened the noose on FDI from neighboring countries as well, who share land borders with us like China, who now will have to seek govt approval before investing. The objective behind was to protect opportunistic take-overs & acquisitions of Indian companies in distress by foreign giants, due to COVID-19 induced global recession.
Henceforth, any new investments in any sector from these (restricted) countries namely China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan and Afghanistan will have to take the govt route, and not the automatic route which was open to it earlier.
E-commerce/E-retail Growth in India
Let us look at some fascinating facts & figures before we discuss this subject further:
Why E-commerce Regulation is Vital for Indian Economy
According to an American market research firm, Amazon & Flipkart together occupy about 63% of the total e-commerce space in India. Now, if domestic retailers, online & offline i.e. physical brick-and-mortar stores have to have a fair share of the market or a fair competition at least govt has to devise a strategy to promote Indian e-commerce & Industry without discouraging FDI. It’s a tough proposition.
FDI is looked over by Indian departments of commerce & industry. They formulate laws and regulate FDI inflow by framing new policies and/or modifying scrapping old policies & rules. While this is done to further the economy on a macro level, its ripple effect on the micro economy can’t be overlooked either.
So it has to strike a fine balance between retail reforms, an open market which on one hand benefits end consumers and provides millions of jobs. On the other hand predatory pricing, deep discounting by online retailers makes small retailers(mainly owner-managed & run stores) fight for survival tougher.
A large growing economy like India, where low production costs and high-quality labor service lures investors from the world over, developed nations like the US, European and China, is also most prone to manipulations by foreign players if given a free run. As feared in this tweet by CAIT, Amazon India has been disrespecting laws reveals a recent Reuters investigation.
— Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) (@CAITIndia) February 17, 2021
In January 2020, India’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission of India, announced it was investigating Amazon and Walmart Inc’s Flipkart following a complaint by an Indian trader group. The commission cited four alleged anti-competitive practices: exclusive launch of mobile phones by the e-commerce firms, promoting preferred sellers on their websites, deep discounting, and prioritizing some seller listings over others.
What lies Ahead for Amazon & Flipkart
While the colossal change in consumer behavior is unlikely to fade in near future, Amazon & Flipkart also maintain that they have been complying with Indian laws duly & are denying all charges. Govt is in talks with stakeholders for over a month. Therefore, for now, it is difficult to say what impact the policy changes, if any, will bring in, though e-retail unquestionably seems to have a bright future in the Indian market of a billion-plus.
FAQ
How much FDI is allowed in retail?
51% FDI in multi-brand retail through automatic route i.e. without having to seek govt approval.
Do online marketplaces like Amazon have their own products?
Amazon and other multi-brand retail marketplaces are only allowed to connect sellers & buyers on their website in India. They are not allowed to purchase, hold, market and sell stocks as their own.
Who started e-commerce in India?
K Vaitheeswaran was the first person who opened the first online marketplace for Indian consumers called Fabmart.com in India in 1999, now rebranded as ‘More’.
