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Tag: BorderPlus

  • Amod Malviya, Cofounder of Udaan, Launches New Business “Pre6”

    Amod Malviya, a co-founder of the B2B marketplace Udaan, has launched a new business called Pre6 two months after leaving Udaan’s board. Malviya shared an announcement on LinkedIn that reads, “New beginnings!” and included a photo of the founding team.

    To incorporate the new Bengaluru-based firm, he has partnered with Rishi Kedia, the former chief financial officer (CFO) of Udaan. Malviya has been working on the new platform since November 2024, according to his LinkedIn post. With the exception of the fact that it would be a “technology, information, and internet” corporation, nothing much is known about the new platform’s features. The startup’s website simply says “coming soon” and is not yet operating. 

    Malviya’s Journey in the Startup Sector Till Now

    Malviya, a former member of Flipkart’s core team, is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus.  In 2015, he left his position as the e-commerce giant’s chief technology officer (CTO) to launch the B2B e-commerce platform Udaan the following year, in 2016. 

    Malviya resigned from the startup’s board late last year after leaving an operational position at Udaan in 2022. While the B2B e-commerce platform Udaan has been experiencing turbulent waters, Malviya has floated its new venture with a hope of striking a positive chord. 

    Current Financial Outlook of Udaan

    During the fierce funding winter of 2023, Udaan’s valuation dropped to $1.8 billion, a significant decrease from its previous valuation of $3.2 billion in 2020. In October of last year, the business also announced the completion of its INR 300 Cr debt fundraising round, which was provided by Lighthouse Canton, Stride Ventures, InnoVen Capital, and Trifecta Capital.

    The B2B e-commerce company has been having financial difficulties growing. According to reports, it was able to raise its gross income from INR 5,609.3 Cr in FY23 to INR 5,706.6 Cr in FY24, a slight rise of 1.72%. At INR 1,674.1 Cr, its loss decreased 19% year over year (YoY).

    Launching Their Own Startups Became a New Norm for Co-Founders

    There has been an uptick in the number of new businesses launched by startup cofounders, and Malviya is the latest to sail Pre6. It was announced earlier this week that Mayank Kumar, a cofounder of upGrad, has founded a new company named “BorderPlus.”

    With the establishment of his new company, Sports For Life, in 2024, DealShare cofounder Sourjyendu Medda made his foray into the sportstech space. In September 2024, Koo cofounder Mayank Bidawatka also founded Billion Hearts Software Technologies to develop consumer goods for customers throughout the world.

    Prashanth Ranganathan, a cofounder of the fintech startup PaySense, also founded Zinc, a fintech company focused on international education, last year. Nexus Venture Partners led the $25.5 million seed fundraising round for Zinc.

    upGrad’s Mayank Kumar and OYO’s Ayush Mathur Launch BorderPlus
    Mayank Kumar of upGrad and Ayush Mathur of OYO launch BorderPlus, a cutting-edge talent mobility platform to streamline global workforce solutions.
    StartupTalkyNitin Konde

  • Mayank Kumar of upGrad and Ayush Mathur of OYO Introduce BorderPlus, a Talent Mobility Platform

    Ayush Mathur, an early team member of the hotel and travel-tech company OYO, and Mayank Kumar, an education leader and co-founder of upGrad, have joined forces as co-founders to develop BorderPlus, a talent mobility platform that links blue-collar workers to opportunities throughout the world.

    After working at the Parthenon Group for almost ten years, the pair is getting back together with the goal of closing the labour gap and emphasising fair access for workers from developing nations like India.

    Natural resources are hardly abundant in India. The greatest resource of the nation is its people. India needs to leverage its demographic dividend in order to create something significant and expansive. One of the best examples of how India has created a remarkable service line to meet global demands is in IT services. “I think India is positioned to become the world’s largest supplier of talent to the global economy, given the country’s demographic dynamics,” Kumar said.

    With aspirations to grow into other industries like hotel, retail, teaching, construction/logistics, and trucking, in addition to exploring other regions in the future, BorderPlus will initially concentrate on the German healthcare market.

    Mathur, who has worked for OYO for more than ten years and was most recently the President of OYO Europe, explains that a large amount of OYO’s European business is in Denmark and Germany, where he has observed a lack of housekeeping workers.

    How BorderPlus will work?

    With a target of 20–30 applicants every batch, the business intends to deploy many batches each month across different areas. It plans to ramp up to weekly batches after first running batches once a month.

    For efficient language learning, the last month or two of the six- to nine-month programs are conducted offline. The remaining months can be completed online, in a hybrid learning environment, or offline. According to Kumar, the first training site is in Pune, followed by Mumbai, and other last-mile training sites will be established around the nation.

    For language practice through back-and-forth spoken exchanges, the startup is creating an AI-led conversational bot based on OpenAI architecture. Kumar emphasises that although the programs would cost INR 2 lakh, participants will receive complete reimbursement as a scholarship or relocation aid after they arrive in Germany.

    “Once a recruiter recruits them, we might get paid.” It’s a revenue stream that is more driven by enterprises than by consumers,” he continues. The organisation focuses on a finishing school that offers a curriculum that includes 10% skills development, 20% cultural preparation, and 70% language training to prepare students. Kumar notes that India’s educational system already offers robust skill training, particularly in fields like nursing and healthcare, as seen by the BSc Nursing program.

    Major Challenges

    Teaching 20–23-year-olds a foreign language, especially German, at a time when language acquisition is challenging is one of the biggest obstacles, according to Kumar. Maintaining industry standards is made more difficult by competing with unorganised players who don’t follow the regulations. Building trust for a strong Indian brand abroad is another challenge, especially in the German and European markets where corporates and recruiters might not be familiar with the brand.

    Since hospitals are looking for clear and reliable hiring procedures, Mathur thinks that trust is a big issue because of the reputation of unregulated methods. This trust gap can be closed by providing a transparent, technology-driven solution, which is essential for industry growth and cooperation with European and UK organisations.

    BharatPe Parent Resilient Innovations to Sell Unity SFB Stake
    Resilient Innovations, the parent company of BharatPe, is reportedly looking to sell its stake in Unity Small Finance Bank to optimize its business strategy.
    StartupTalkyNitin Konde