The “God’s own country”, Kerala is also a very vulnerable place to natural disasters. However, the people there are “warriors of God” too. They face each and every problem and fight through it. Does it sound familiar? Yes, Entrepreneurs! They also face and fight each and every problem. Not everyone in Kerala is an entrepreneur, but the state has given amazing startups to the country. Here, we have a list of the best startups in Kerala.
800+ stories, thousands of founders, and millions of visitors. Want to be the next?
StartupTalky is where founders, entrepreneurs, startups and businesses hang out and look up to for inspiration. If you have the means, we have the medium! Inviting founders and startups who are building sustainable solutions from ground zero! Startups who run the show, StartupTalky will let the world know!
Founder: Anoop Balakrishnan, Arun Ravi and Nikhil Dharman Founded Year: 2015
RecipeBook Logo
An app for the tyro chefs out there; an app that can list out possible recipes that can be prepared from whatever ingredients you have in hand. Using machine learning and image processing, RecipeBook provides a helping hand for anyone interested in cooking.
RecipeBook was founded in December 2015, by Anoop Balakrishnan, Arun Ravi and Nikhil Dharman. Stimulated by their own experience of cooking meals using whatever condiments and items they had at hand, they decided to solve this problem faced by bachelors in PGs, students in hostels and nearly everyone who has to make meals.
With more than a million installs, it has been recognized under Googleâs âEditorâs Choiceâ in the play store. Thereâs even an offline shopping list which enables you to add ingredients to a list for the purpose of referencing.
2. SurveySparrow
Founder: Shihab Muhammed Founded Year: 2017
SurveySparrow Logo
As the name suggests, SurveySparrow is a tool which lets you create surveys and study them. SurveySparrow has the tagline âTurn surveys into conversationsâ. It simply depicts that they create surveys which are conversational and hence interesting for the people to fill. The idea came into the mind of Shihab Muhammed when his HR called him for the third time to fill out the âboringâ employee survey form. Now SurveySparrow has become one of the leading startups in Kochi.
3. Innot Technologies
Founder: Rajith Nair and Prasanth Thankappan Founded Year: 2014
Inntot Logo
Streaming music, videos and images through the home networks is common today. There are various companies in this market at present, catering to millions of users across the globe. However, digital media receivers arenât dirt cheap; they are expensive with the retail price growing exponentially as new features are being developed.
To counter this expensive problem Inntot has created the breakthrough Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) receiver solution. The startup also offers services pertaining to consumer electronics and IoT.
Currently based at InfoPark, Kochi, the endeavour launched in 2014, was the product of the combined efforts of Rajith Nair and Prasanth Thankappan. It was among the ten startups chosen for the Industrial Innovation Awards held in 2017.
4. Techmago
Founder: Rahul Krishna Founded Year: 2017
Techmago Logo
Offering the gadget repair service from the comfort of sitting at home, Techmago has received accolades at events such as Startup Saturday Kochi, Techsparks 2016, Nasscom Product Conclave, and the World Startup Expo.
To schedule the service, customers need to visit the Techmago website, raise their complaints, schedule a free pickup as per their convenience, and once the repairs are done, a free drop service ensures that the repaired product reaches back safely to the right hands.
With benefits such as free diagnosis and cost estimation to avail, anyone in possession of a mobile, tablet, computer or laptop should take advantage of this venture.
5. Profoundis
Founder: Anoop Thomas Mathew, Arjun Pillai, Nithin Sam Oommen, and Jofin Joseph Founded Year: 2012
Profoundis Logo
A never back down spirit that lead to unprecedented achievement in spite of three failed attempts is the reason why Profoundis has been featured on this list. Launched in 2012, the key product of this startup, âVibeâ, provides verified data through APIs and SaaS.
Vibe was launched in 2014, Which means two years of futile efforts, the startup was acquired by US-based FullContact with the announcement of the same being made on 23rd August 2016. After the acquisition, the entire Profoundis team joined FullContact and scaled.
Entri is an online learning startup based in Kochi that is âadaptiveâ. It offers a variety of features such as dashboards that institutes can access to see student reports, a course structure that allows students to transition from being a novice to an expert in any topic of their choice, and a test preparation platform for exams such as IIT JEE, PSC, SSC and others.
Entri can be used either as a web app or a mobile app, thus providing greater flexibility. This initiative of Mohammed Hisamuddin and Rahul Ramesh has been rewarded by Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. Moreover, it is being supported by âLearnLaunchâ and is a member of Facebookâs program for the most promising mobile apps.
7. Paysack
Founder: Nicky Jacob, Ricky Jacob, and Vivek Vinod Founded Year: 2015
Paysack Logo
This fintech startup from Kochi is helping the business to take better care of their employees by reimbursing the expenses hassle-free online. It provides a mobile wallet and a card using which employees can make payments. All expenses and tracked and the employees of the company save a lot on taxes.
8. Sastra Robotics
Founder: Akhil Asokan, Aronin Ponnappan, and Achu Wilson Founded Year: 2013
Sastra Robotics Logo
This Ernakulum-based robotics startup is working hard to create new robotic solutions and technologies. The company supports the idea of humans and the robotâs coexistence. Also, they help and take help from different research institutions for their development. The company was started in 2012 and was selected as the top 5 startups of 2012 in the StartupVillage, incubation center.
9. Mashinga
Founder: Nidal Rashid, Nijil Yesudas, and Sreekumar Kr Founded Year: 2013
Mashinga is a computer software company. It was also incubated at the StartupVillage. Mashinga provides a suite of tools to manage your meetings and make them interactive. Their tools help you to manage and schedule everything prior to the meeting and also help you during the meeting to present everything perfectly.
10. Vyus Case Stringer
Founder: Sajulal GL Founded Year: 2015
Vyus Case Stringer is software developed by Vyus Technologia. Vyus Case Stringer enables legal professionals to go paperless and enhances their efficiency at the same time.
Since lawyers and legal professionals create lots of documents that need to be managed in a systematic manner, Vyus Technologia has created a modern, cloud-based web application that innovatively helps legal professionals go paperless. The key advantage of this web application is that it can be accessed from anywhere.
11. Baabtra
Founder: Muhammad Haris NP and Anoop KC Founded Year: 2010
baabtra.com Logo
baabtra.com is the software development training division of an IT Company baabte System Technologies, a member of NASSCOM, CAFIT and GTECH, established on 31st March 2010. baabtra.com helps freshers to start their professional careers by making them skilled programmers through internship programs in the most popular technologies like Python, Java, PHP and the latest technologies like Angular & Node.js. The platform is connected with over 70 IT companies, 282 training institutes, and 80 colleges.
So, this was our list of successful startups in Kerala. Hope you enjoyed reading it. If you know about any other Startups in Kerala that aren’t a part of this list, do contact us and we would love to feature them in this post!
FAQs
Is Kerala good for startups?
Yes, Kerala is a great place for budding startups. The country ranks alongside the top cities for growing startup ecosystems in India.
Which are the best startups in Kerala?
Recipebook, SurveySparrow, Innot Technologies, Techmago, Profoundis, Entri, Paysack, Sastra Robotics, Mashinga, and Baabtra are some of the successful startups in Kerala.
How many startups are there in Kerala?
Kerala has around 3000 startups which are contributing to the startup ecosystem of India.
What is Kerala Startup Mission?
Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) is the central agency of the Government of Kerala for the development of entrepreneurship and startups in Kerala, India.
What is the best business to start in Kerala?
Designer Fashion Boutique, Online Home Decor Services, Accounting Services, App-Based Home-made Food Delivery, and Property Management Services are some of the best businesses to start in Kerala.
Rajan Anandan is an Angel Investor and businessman who currently serves as the Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India. He was born in 1966 in Sri Lanka. After schooling, Anandan went abroad for his bachelorâs and masterâs degrees in engineering and completed them at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University.
Rajan Anandan served as the top executive in big tech companies. Before Sequoia Capital Anandan was the Vice President at Google India and the SEA region, Managing Director at Microsoft India and Vice President at Dell India. He was also a partner at McKinsey for 11 years from 1992. His passion for technology and hard work have taken him to a higher position in globally acclaimed companies.
Besides being an executive and a businessman, Rajan Anandan is an active Angel Investor. In the last 13 years, he has made around 80 personal investments in multiple startups. This article covers the entire investment portfolio of Rajan Anandan over the years.
The following are the companies that have received funds from Rajan Anandan as an Angel Investor:
Smytten
Industry: Wellness and Beauty Care Investment Amount: $1.3 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
Smytten – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Smytten is an online wellness and beauty care startup that offers some new and exhilarating shopping experiences for its customers. The company also offers a free trial of over 500 Indian and International brands along with some exciting benefits and discounts.
Smytten raised a funding of $15 million through a Series A round in May 2022. Earlier, Smytten received a Seed Fund of $1.3 million on April 11, 2016. Rajan Anandan along with a few other investors was a part of it.
InnovAccer
Industry: Healthcare Investment Amount: $2.5 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
InnoAccer – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
InnoAccer is a healthcare enterprise software company based in San Francisco. This platform curates and brings in all the information on healthcare and innovations in the industry and makes it accessible to everyone in need.
Through a Series E round held in December 2021, InnovAccer raised funding of $150 million from various investors. Rajan Anandan has also been one of the investors in InnovAccer during its Seed Round where it raised $2.5 million.
Indifi Technologies
Industry: Finance Lending Investment Amount: $18.8 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Venture Capital
Indifi Technologies – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
A sum of $18.8 million was invested by the investors, including Rajan Anandan, in November 2021 through the Venture Capital round. Also, an undisclosed sum was invested by him in Indifi Technologies during the Seed Round.
WebEngage
Industry: Customer data and marketing automation Investment Amount: $100K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Angel
WebEngage – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
WebEngage is a B2C customer data and marketing automation platform that helps companies to boost their revenues. WebEngage assists companies to personalize their website & application and launching targeted campaigns.
This startup received debt funding of $930k from investors in October 2021. WebEngage also received an Angel Investmentof $100k from Rajan Anandan in October 2011
It is an online platform that offers store space for sellers to sell their products online. Instamojo integrates all the services like payments, marketing and shipping into its platform and offers simplified solutions. This company also offers online payment services for businesses.
Instamojo received an undisclosed amount through the Venture Capital round of funding held in June 2021. In May 2013 Instamojo managed to procure $500K as a Seed fund and an undisclosed amount during the Angel Round in July 2012. Anandan was a part of all the above investments.
Dunzo
Industry: E-Commerce Investment Amount: $3.7 million in 2020 and $650K in 2016 (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Series E and Seed
Dunzo – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Dunzo is an e-commerce platform that delivers groceries, food, meat, medicines, fruits and vegetables in big cities. It also offers pick-up and delivery services within cities.
Ranjan Anandan invested in Dunzo during its Series E funding in December 2020 and Seed funding in March 2016. The company received funding of $3.7 million and $650K in the respective rounds.
Omnify is an online platform that helps businesses with booking and scheduling solutions in their day-to-day operation. This cloud-based platform also supports businesses with CRM, billing, staff and payment management.
Omnify went through two rounds of Seed Funding in which Anandan has invested. The first round of funding took place in April 2017 and the amount secured was $150K. In October 2020 Omnify went through the second round of funding and the amount remains undisclosed.
Industry: Software Development and AI Investment Amount: $2 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
NAYAN – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
NAYAN is a visual search engine that uses AI-powered software to find details on visuals and images. This platform offers a real-time search facility that can be used to find anything in the public domain. This company received a Seed Fundingof $2 million in January 2020.
AskSid is an e-commerce site that uses AI to offer conversational solutions to customers and deliver a seamless shopping experience for them. This company was acquired by GupShup in April 2022. Rajan Anandan along with Krishnakumar Natarajan invested an undisclosed amount in AskSid during its Angel Round in October 2020.
PlusPin Healthcare partners with pharmacists, clinics, diagnostic centres and doctors to provide affordable healthcare services to people. It guides people with authentic and appropriate medical support in times of need.
Rajan Anandan invested $675K in PlusPin Healthcare along with a few other investors. The company raised this fund through Seed Round.
Freshtohome
Industry: E-Commerce Investment Amount: $11 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Series A
Freshtohome – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Freshtohome is an online platform that sells fresh fish, meat and chicken online and delivers it to customersâ doorstep at their convenient time. Freshtohome services are available in major cities. The company claims to sell only chemical-free and antibiotic-free fish and meat through its online store.
Freshtohome managed to procure $11 million in its Series A round of funding. Rajan Anandan has participated in Freshtohomeâs Venture and Series A funding rounds.
StyleDotMe is an Augmented Reality fashion platform that enhances the jewellery shopping experience of users. This SaaS platform uses MirrAR software that helps users to view themselves in different jewellery and share them on social media.
On May 5, 2019, StyleDotMe received an undisclosed amount as Seed Fund from Rajan Anandan and other investors.
simsim
Industry: E-Commerce Investment Amount: $1.3 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
simsim – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
It is a platform that connects customers with local suppliers and sellers. simsim posts expert review videos on products and sellers. This helps the customers to know their quality. This startup also offers product recommendations in fashion, beauty, kitchen appliances and many more areas.
Rajan Anandan participated in the Seed Funding round of simsim where the startup raised $1.3 million. He later made an exit from the company.
Codejudge
Industry: Software Development Investment Amount: Undisclosed Funding Round: Pre-Seed
Codejudge – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Codejudge makes the process of hiring easy and valuable in the tech industry. It uses real-world projects to determine the skills of the developer. This platform simulates and automates the hiring process and helps identify the right person for the team.
Codejudge received an undisclosed amount from the Pre-Seed round of funding in January 2019.
Signzy
Industry: Software Investment Amount: $3.6 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Series A
Signzy – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Signzy is a software platform that provides AI-powered solutions to banks and other financial institutions. It helps the banks improve their speed and accuracy in dealing with customers and day-to-day operations.
Signzy obtained a $3.6 million fund on November 20, 2018, through a Series A funding round.
Trell
Industry: E-commerce Investment Amount: $1.3 Million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Pre-Seed
Trell – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Trell is a social platform where users can create video reviews on various products and services in categories like fashion, technology, gadgets, movies, etc., This startup allows users to create reviews in 10 Indian languages.
GamingMonk is an eSports gaming platform that conducts online competitive games and events among the gaming community. The company offers its games both online and offline and they can be played either on mobile phones, PC or consoles.
GamingMonk collected $514K through Seed Round. After investing in a seed round, Rajan Anandan exited the company.
PregBuddy is a SaaS platform that serves as a connecting element between hospitals or doctors and expecting mothers. This AI-based software keeps track of mothers’ medical needs and assists them with required healthcare tips.
PregBuddy has been recognized by companies like Google and Apple. Anandan invested an undisclosed amount in the Seed Funding of PregBuddy in April 2018.
Buttercups was an online lingerie platform that used to sell its products exclusively on its online platforms. Unfortunately in 2019, its founder announced that she is closing her company for unsaid reasons.
Rajan Anandan funded Buttercups early in 2018 during its Venture Round. The amount of the investment remains undisclosed.
Industry: Cyber Security Investment Amount: $2.2 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
Safe Security – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Safe Security is a cyber risk management company that offers assistance and evaluation on cybersecurity and digital business risks. The company claims it as the global leader in its field of operation and a pioneer in cyber risk quantification.
Rajan Anandan along with a  few other investors offered $2.2 million to Safe Security during its Seed Round.
myUpchar is a wellness and healthcare platform that offers online medical support from experienced healthcare experts for a small fee. It offers expert solutions for all problems and doubts related to health.
myUpchar received $257K as a Seed Fund from various investors in September 2017.
Inclov is a SaaS platform that is involved in the business of match-making for differently-abled people. It is the worldâs first online platform to offer such a service. The company was established in January 2016 in Mumbai.
Funding for the Seed Round took place in September 2017 when Inclov managed to secure $257K from investors.
EasyGov
Industry: Government Investment Amount: Undisclosed Funding Round: Angel
EasyGov – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
EasyGov is an AI-powered startup that was established to develop an interface between the government and the citizens. The main goal of EasyGov is to take government plans and schemes more accessible and understandable to the people of our country.
The company received an undisclosed amount as an Angel Investment from various investors including Rajan Anandan. He later revoked his investment and exited from EasyGov.
With an aim of supporting farmers, Crofarm functions as a supply chain platform that procures fresh farm products at the right price from producers. These products are then sold to both online and offline retailers. Crofarm received $748K as Seed Fund on August 15, 2017, from various investors.
Monsoon Credit Tech – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Monsoon Credit Tech is a fintech startup that works with various banks and financial institutions to help them with money lending. This SaaS platform uses AI-powered software to analyze client data and approve lending options. This company through its Angel Investment round received an undisclosed amount in July 2017.
Karza Technologies – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Karza Technologies is another SaaS platform that works with banks to secure loans for its customers. It also helps to avoid loan fraud and data theft from such financial institutions.
Karza Technologies received a Seed Funding of $388K from investors. Later, Rajan Anadanan exited the company for some reasons.
Innov8 Coworking
Industry: Co-working Space Investment Amount: Undisclosed Funding Round: Pre-Seed
Innov8 – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Innov8 provides workspaces for business and professional people that enable them to work together with their community. The company’s beautiful workspaces are now available in around five cities.
Innov8 went through a Pre-Seed round of funding where it received an undisclosed amount from investors. Rajan Anandan exited the company after a few years.
Wishberry is a crowdfunding platform that was designed to help creators and artists in securing funds to empower their work. Its main aim is to inspire and encourage creative ideas and activities.
Rajan Anandan invested in Wishberry during its Seed Round in January 2017. The amount of this investment remains undisclosed. Whereas, the amount received through another Seed Round in October 2014 was $652.7K.
Tinychef
Industry: AI and Cooking Investment Amount: $352.6K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Angel
Tinychef – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Tinychef is a culinary platform that offers curated recipes and content based on one’s taste and preference. It is an AI-powered voice recognition software that helps its users turn a home cook with some amazing and delicious food recipes.
Rajan Anandan made both personal and partnered investments in Tinychef. The personal investment was during its Angel Round when the company raised $352.6K. later in 2018, Anandan partnered with Swamy Kotagiri to invest $540.8K in the company.
Rapido started with an innovative idea of bike taxis in India. With their unique concept and adverse marketing strategy, Rapido became quite popular among people. Rapido operates in over 100 cities in the country.
Rapido on October 19, 2016, received an undisclosed amount as a fund from investors through a Seed Round.
Maya
Industry: Women Healthcare Investment Amount: Undisclosed Funding Round: Angel
Maya – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Maya is a health tracker app that keeps track of women’s menstrual cycles through a mobile app. This company was earlier known as Plackal Love Cycles.
Maya went through the Angel Round of funding and procured an undisclosed amount from Rajan Anandan and other investors. He later made an exit from the company.
Fulfil.IO helps online retailers with managing and automating their operations and focusing on customer experience and marketing. It helps the businesses in managing orders, finance, inventory, warehouse and many more
Fulfil.IO is another startup that has kept information on its Seed Round undisclosed hence, the amount of investment remains unknown. Anandan was a part of that particular round.
Leflair is an e-commerce platform that sells products on fashion, beauty and furnishings. This Vietnam-based company also sells products from over 2300 luxury brands. Leflair made $750K in its Seed Round held on May 31, 2016. Anandan later revoked his investment and left the company.
Unacademy has become a household name in India. It is an e-learning platform that offers numerous learning aids and lectures on diverse areas of education. It was started with the motto of giving a better learning experience for the students in the country.
HashLearn is another e-learning app that tutors students with content based on actions. It makes learning fun and interesting. This company was acquired by Byju’s in 2021.
HashLearn went through a Venture Round of funding and secured an undisclosed amount in March 2016. Anandan exited the company in its later stage.
Smartcooky
Industry: Media & Entertainment Investment Amount: Undisclosed Funding Round: Angel
Smartcooky – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Smartcooky is a venture of NDTV that was established to sell healthy foods and personal care products. It also publishes articles and information on food and health regularly. But NDTV shut the company in 2017 without giving any formal reasons for its closure.
During its Angel Round, Rajan Anandan invested an undisclosed amount in Smartcooky.
AppVirality is a referral marketing SaaS company that customizes, analyzes and automates customer referral activities. This helps the businesses to pitch their growth plan on the right path.
AppVirality received $500K as a Seed Fund from investors. This funding happened during the third quarter of 2015. This startup went through another round of Seed Funding in early 2015 when it collected $465K from Anandan and a few others.
Zenatix is a venture of Hero Electronix that was established in 2013. It is an asset management company based on IoT. Zenatix provides infrastructural solutions for construction that helps to minimize energy consumption and increase and maintain the structureâs life.
A Seed Fund of $200K was received by Zenatix from investors in 2015. However, Rajan Anandan exited the startup later.
Little Black Book
Industry: Events and Lifestyle Investment Amount: $150K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
Little Black Book – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Little Black Book is a site that helps to identify the best and most recommended products, places, local experiences, destinations and many more.
Little Black Book procured $150K from investors during its Seed Round of funding.
Mypoolin is an online payment application that helps users to send and receive money using UPI. The company was started with the main goal to provide simple and convenient solutions for payment-related activities.
Anandan left the company and took back his support for unsaid reasons. Before exiting Mypoolin he invested in the companyâs Seed Round.
Dazo is a food startup that enables its customers to look for and order their food from the restaurants of their interest within seconds of opening its app. The company partnered with a few hotels to provide this service. But within a year of its inception, Dazo was forced to shut down due to a lack of funds.
Rajan Anandan invested in this startup during its Seed Round. Dazo managed to procure $236.6K from investors during its initial days.
Mapmygenome
Industry: Healthcare Investment Amount: $1.5 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Angel
Mapmygenome – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Mapmygenome is a diagnostic company that offers solutions to health issues based on genetic tests. It combines the genetic test results with the health history of the patient to arrive at a better solution for the problem.
Mapmygenome collected $1.5 million from our Angel Investor and others during its Seed Round.
InstaLively
Industry: Video Streaming Investment Amount: $120K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
InstaLively – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
InstaLively is a platform to broadcast LIVE events with easy and simple procedures. This software also links the live stream to your Youtube channel directly. InstaLively was later acquired by Hike Messenger in 2017.
InstaLively made an amount of $120K in its Seed Round which was held on March 2, 2015.
ZipGo
Industry: Transportation Investment Amount: $3 Million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
ZipGo – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
ZipGo is a commute service that is available only for members and reservors. Regular commuters can book a seat in this on-demand AC bus service using the ZipGo app. It offers its services between many cities and states.
The company attracted investors with its innovative ideas and received a sum of $3 million in the Seed Round itself.
GiftCardsIndia carries numerous ideas for gifts for all the occasions. It also offers gift cards and gift vouchers with fantastic designs and exciting prices. This startup is a one-stop shop for our gifting needs.
In the Venture Round of funding that was held on November 11, 2014, this startup received an undisclosed amount as an investment.
POPxo
Industry: Health & Lifestyle Investment Amount: $500K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Angel
POPxo – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
POPxo is a hangout space exclusively for women where they talk and share anything of their choice. It operates in a wide variety of categories like fashion, food, travel, lifestyle, fitness, etc., POPxo is now available in 6 languages. POPxo procured $500K from investors during the Angel Round.
Socialblood Inc
Industry: Healthcare, Social Media Investment Amount: $96.5K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
Socialblood – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Socialblood is an online platform that was designed to bring together blood donors and the people in need of blood. Facebook serves as its major operation base which makes it easier for the startup to bring in more donors.
Sociablood went through two rounds of Seed Funding and received $36.5K and $60K in them. Rajan Anandan invested in both rounds.
SocialCops
Industry: Information Technology Investment Amount: $320K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
SocialCops – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
SocialCops is a data intelligence company that has partnered with various organizations and governments to collect and publish data. These data, in turn, are used to make crucial decisions and future assessments.
In the Seed Round held in July 2014, SocialCops managed to receive a fund of $320K from investors.
LetsVenture is a company that acts as a support system for startups. It helps the new ventures raise investors’ money by finding the right source with possible means. LetsVenture has grown to become a trusted source among investors.
Rajan Anandan participated in the Seed Round of LetsVenture and became a part of the total investment of $650K.
Ciafo is a software company that is involved in the creation of software based on customer needs. In simple terms, this startup is involved in the business of web-based consumer products. Ciafo was funded with $245K during its Angel Round.
Avaz
Industry: Software, Language Learning Investment Amount: $550K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
Avaz – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Avaz is a company that develops software named ‘Awaz’ to help people with speech disabilities. This tool gives voice to people with autism and helps them communicate their thoughts. A sum of $550K was invested in Avaz as a part of its Seed Round held in April 2014.
Frrole is a consumer intelligence platform that gathers and analyzes customer data to give business owners, sales persons, or hirers market insights. Similar to Ciafo, Frrole was given $245K from Anandan and other investors during the Angel Round.
Threadsol
Industry: Business Intelligence, Fashion Investment Amount: $200K (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
Threadsol – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Threadsol is software that helps manufacturers in planning and buying fabrics for their production. It reduces time and makes the process seamless using its innovative technology. The company Coats acquired Threadsol in December 2018.
In the Seed Round that happened in 2014, Threadsol received an investment of $200K from investors. Rajan Anandan made no further investment in the company and also revoked his initial investment made during the Seed Round.
TravelKhana
Industry: Food Delivery Investment Amount: $2 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Seed
TravelKhana – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
TravelKhana is a food delivery app but on a train. The food gets delivered to your seat on time when ordered. This app can track trains in real-time to make on-time food deliveries. A whopping sum of $2 million was pumped into TravelKhana by Rajana Anandan and other investors as a part of its Seed Round.
Airwoot is a customer support platform that offers real-time support to customers in need of assistance. Its intelligent customer experience software automatically identifies the customers in need and helps businesses conserve time. Airwoot received an undisclosed amount from investors during its Angel Round in August 2013. Anandan later left the company and took back his investment. The reason for his exit remains unknown.
Designed as the functional programming language, transforming data is the major purpose of Dataweave. It also helps to analyze public data in a uniform format on the web. On April 25, 2013, Dataweave received a Seed Fund of $270K from multiple investors for developing its business.
Lumos Design Technology – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Lumos Design Technology was established with a motto to make cycling and cyclists safer with the use of modern technologies. It manufactures backpacks, solar chargers and other consumer electronics that are used for traveling. A sum of $32K was offered to Lumos Design Technology by Anandan and others during the Angel Round.
Industry: Digital Marketing Investment Amount: $4 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Series A
Mobilewalla – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Mobilewalla is a consumer intelligence platform that provides solutions for companies, brands and agencies. It is a Singapore-based company founded in March 2011. It analyzes consumer data with AI to arrive at a perfect result.
Mobilewalla received a huge sum of $4 million from a Series A funding round that was held in February 2013.
Myshaadi.in is an online startup that offers wedding-related services. It helps people with profile personalization and finds the best wedding partner for their life. Myshaadi.in received an undisclosed amount from angel investors like Rajan Anandan and others during the Angel Round held in April 2012.
Aurality is a software developed by Aurality Technologies Pvt Ltd. This platform helps people convert texts from blogs, articles, and news sites into audio format quickly and easily. Aurality received $300K from investors as a Seed Fund.
Reach Accountant offers the best service that can replace the accountant in one’s office. It performs the daily and monthly accounting services that an office requires. The data are stored online, hence it becomes accessible anywhere anytime. The fund received by Reach Accountant from investors during its Angel Round was not revealed by the company.
MissMalini Entertainment
Industry: Media and Entertainment Investment Amount: Undisclosed Funding Round: Angel
MissMalini Entertainment – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
Rajan Anandan exited the company after investing an undisclosed amount during its Angel Round of funding.
authorSTREAM.com
Industry: Software Investment Amount: $5 million (With Other Investors) Funding Round: Series A
authorSTREAM – Rajan Anandan Funded Startups
authorSTREAM is a web platform that allows users to upload and share PowerPoint presentations. The presentations can be shared through Youtube, blogs websites, etc., authorSTREAM received a whopping sum of $5 million from its Series A round held in December 2010.
Conclusion
The above are the startups that received funds from Rajan Anandan. Instead of focusing on the startupâs sector, Anandan gave importance to the founderâs vision, passion and clarity towards their business. He never failed to support a team with the said qualities. The number of investments he made shows his passion and love for startups and budding entrepreneurs.
FAQs
Who is Rajan Anandan?
Rajan Anandan is an Angel Investor and businessman who is the MD of Sequoia Capital India.
Which are the top startups funded by Rajan Anandan?
Some successful startups funded by Rajan Anandan are:
POPxo
Dunzo
Unacademy
GamingMonk
Trell
Rapido
Appknox
MissMalini Entertainment
LetsVenture
Smytten
InnovAccer
Indifi Technologies
What is the net worth of Rajan Anandan?
Rajan Anandan’s net worth is expected to be over $1 million.
There are plenty of business model options available for startups. They choose according to their business field, work, and customers they want to engage with. Among such, the Customer to Customer (C2C) business model is quite prominent. In this business model, customers trade products with each other. This is majorly done through auctions and assessed advertisements.
With the growing marketplace in India, many startups are pursuing a C2C business model. The C2C businesses combine with eCommerce technology and gather their potential audiences.
C2C companies like eBay, and Amazon sell their products and services through a well classified or through an auction system. The customers generally purchase goods from another customer through a third party, where the transaction occurs.
When it comes to India, there are dozens of companies that follow the C2C business model and many have adopted it lately. The eCommerce and online auction platforms specialized in the technology of the third party which stimulates the buying procedure. In this article, we will be talking about the top C2C eCommerce companies in India. Let’s get started!
India’s leading online platform, eBay provides auctions, timely purchasing, and assessed models of trading from person to person. The company was established in 2006, headquartered in Goregaon (East).
eBay offers a broad range of product marketing, categorized into dozens of lists including Apparel, Cars and bikes, computers, personal loans, health & beauty, antiques, jewellery, real estate, mobile phones, travel, and many others. eBay is listed out in ‘Top Websites in India’ with the ranking of 25th.
2. Coutloot
Coutloot Website
Coutloot is a social commerce platform founded in 2015. It is widely known as India’s biggest offline and online social marketing platform that offers its customers the service of selling anything online to buyers with reasonable bargaining, across the country.
Quikr is a very prominent online C2C eCommerce marketplace, launched in 2008 that offers a series of posting and reacting to free local confidential ads of various kinds including Apartments, Pets, furniture, jobs, events, cars, housing, and others.
Today, Quikr has expanded its services to more than 940 cities across India. The company is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. According to Alexa, Quikr is listed in the ‘Top Website in India’ at the 16th position.
Well, Olx has made quite a strong presence in the digital market in today’s era. The company was established in 2006. Olx is known as the strongest and most popular consumer to consumers (C2C) based digital platform in India.
Olx offers the service of selling, buying, and renting goods through free assessed advertisements from customers’ locales. You can buy anything including cars, bikes, furniture, mobiles, computers, apartments, electronics, and properties, digitally. Olx is ranked 32nd by Alexa.
5. Amazon
Amazon is an extremely popular and largest online retailer across the world. The most interesting thing about Amazon’s marketing is it operates both business consumers (B2C) as well as consumer to consumers (C2C) business model. Although the company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States, in India, the company is known to be the biggest E-commerce company.
Amazon has over 334555 employees with annual revenue of $221.60 billion. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos who has stepped down from the position of CEO of Amazon. It acquired around 83 companies such as Canvas technology, Blink, Pillpack, and Ring.
There are tons of companies in the market that are shifting towards the consumer to consumers (C2C) model and getting great outcomes. Through this, the companies are improving their customer relations and developing more potential audiences. Especially the eCommerce companies opt for the C2C business model. And with such growing technology and marketing, C2C based companies are making enormous outcomes.
FAQs
What is an example of C2C in India?
Some examples of C2C eCommerce startups in India are eBay, Amazon, and Quikr.
What is C2C?
C2C is a business model in which the customers trade with one another in an online environment.
What is the difference between C2C and B2B?
In a C2C model, the customers trade with one other while in a B2B business model the company concentrates on providing the raw data for another company.
Graphic designing is an art that has added a new and bright life to the world of digital marketing. It is a field in which experts create appealing visual content to transmit various messages.
Nowadays, visual content is like the backbone of every company that helps them in reaching their target audiences effectively. As per IBISWorld, the graphic design industry was worth $45.8 billion globally as of 2021.
With the great advancements in the graphics industry, the opportunities to secure stable earnings are increasing day by day. Due to this reason, people are now getting more and more interested in learning and mastering their graphic designing skills.
Now, it has become pretty easy for people to learn skills online without any limitations of time or age. This article will discuss some of the popular graphic design courses that you can pursue online.
Global Graphic Designers Market Size from 2017 to 2022
Graphic design is a popular field that is flourishing with amazing opportunities in today’s time. To learn and master the skill, one can simply opt for an online course and keep on practicing to achieve great results.
The following are the best five graphic design courses that will help you in entering and creating a mark in this thriving field:
Graphic Design Masterclass – Learn Great Design By Udemy
Graphic Design Masterclass by Udemy – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
Rs. 3,499
28.5 hrs
Beginner or Intermediate
4.7
The Graphic Design Masterclass (Udemy) by Lindsay Marsh, is one of the best courses to develop skills in graphic designing for beginners and intermediates.
After enrolling in this course, you will be able to become skillful in creating branding packages and logos. You will also be introduced to the concepts like color theory, color blocking, typography, photo layout, and other designing-related skills. Along with all this, there is, even more, to explore in this course.
Udemy offers around 33 subsections of graphic designing skills for all of its students. All the skills are explained practically by the industry experts. The best thing is that you will get lifetime access to all the resources and videos provided by Udemy.
What You Will Learn From the Course?
Master the Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Indesign tools.
Learn manipulation and photo editing in adobe photoshop, and create magazine layouts, and editorial spreads by using Adobe InDesign.
Introduction to Affinity Designer and its comparison with adobe photoshop.
A mini-guide to becoming a successful graphic designer.
Creating amazing presentations using photoshop mockups.
Creating social media graphics and YouTube thumbnails.
Graphic Design Fundamentals – Getting Started By CreativeLive
Graphic Design Fundamentals by CreativeLive – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
$49
5.30 hrs
Beginner to Intermediate
4
Graphic design fundamentals by the instructor Timothy Samara is another worthy course to enroll in to understand the basic concepts of graphic design. The course contains a total of 18 chapters starting with an introduction to graphic design and ending with fundamentals are forever.
The industry expert, Timothy, with over 25 years of experience also shares his experiences and behind-scene videos implanted in the practical field. Around 32,000 students have already enrolled and benefited from this popular graphic design course.
What You Will Learn From the course?
Learn to prepare a graphic designer toolkit.
Recognizing and practically applying all the fundamentals of graphic designing.
Designing a website, advertisement, layouts, touchpoints, etc.
History of graphic designing and specialized areas to choose from.
Designing and presenting brand identity to the clients.
Fundamentals of Graphic Design by Coursera – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
$49
15 hrs
Beginner
4.8
This is another popular and one of the best graphic design courses available online specifically for beginners. You will not only get access to the online classes but also lifetime access to the course’s readings, videos, practice quizzes, and assignments for practical learning. More than 5 lakhs students have already benefited from the course.
In the very first week, you will be introduced to a brief overview of the course and the fundamentals of image-making. In the second week, you will learn about the fundamentals of typography in detailed lectures. The third week will bring up to you the fundamentals of shape and color. The fourth week will enable you to learn the fundamentals of composition. You will also be provided with some additional resources for further learning. It will take you around 15 hours to complete this course from Coursera.
What You Will Learn From the Course?
Get skilled in using direction, weight, scale, space, and texture in composition.
Learn to execute the fundamentals of color including pattern, rhythm, and visuals in your designs.
Learn about design theory, graphics creativity, and color theory.
Discover various image-making tips and tricks to create a series on your own.
The lectures offered have subtitles available in 9 different languages, which makes the learning easy and understandable for more people.
Adobe Photoshop Mastery By Fiverr
Adobe Photoshop Mastery by Fiverr – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
$24
13.2 hrs
Intermediate to Advanced
5
Another great course for graphic design is the Adobe Photoshop Mastery course by Fiverr Learn. It is designed for skilled individuals in graphic design for their upskilling. The course contains 107 videos by Daniel Walter Scott and the individual must possess adobe photoshop CC while learning from this course. You will get lifetime access to the resources of the course.
This course contains advanced tips and tricks to stimulate the designing process for individuals who have mastered the fundamentals of photoshop. You will also learn to reshape, bend, and distort images. You will also be able to get skilled in using curves and levels for tone corrections.
This course’s emphasis is on increasing the speed and efficiency of operating design-related tasks and is sure to help you make your mark in the field of graphic designing.
What You Will Learn From the Course?
Master the art of using colors with professional enhancements, corrections, and adjustments.
Advanced touching, healing, patching, and cloning.
Knowledge of many different design tools.
Learn to develop modern visual styles such as double exposures, glitches, and two-tones.
Learn the creation of cinema graphs and parallax images.
Master 3D designs and formulate recyclable mockups.
Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop: The Essentials By Skillshare
Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop by Skillshare – Graphic Design Courses
Price
Course Duration
Level
Course Rating
$14
3.4 hrs
Beginner
4
Skillshare’s Beginners Guide to Adobe Photoshop: The Essentials is also one of the best courses offering graphic design skills to beginners. In this course, you will be introduced to a total of 17 projects for practical learning. You will get lifetime access to all of the video lectures present in the course More than 3500 students have already benefited from this skillshare course.
The course consists of 34 video lectures not exceeding 12 minutes each. This makes learning quick and more interesting. After completing this course, you will be able to get skilled in all of the basic designing skills including clone stamp, spot healing, changing backgrounds, layer-masks, summer sale ads, filters, shadow effects, creating graphics, and more.
What You Will Learn From the Course?
Learn about developing sales ads, web banners, posters, and flyers.
Learn to add shortcuts, layer masks, and various other effects.
Get through various resourceful tools including selection tools, healing tools, clone stamp tools, and retouching tools.
Learn to change the background and other parts of images, clean up images, manipulate the colors of images, and more.
Conclusion
The above-mentioned are some of the best and most useful graphic design courses that will help you learn and master the skill to make your mark in the industry. Apart from these, there are certain free graphic design courses available online like Canva’s graphic design basics or Alison’s Visual and Graphic design course. However, such courses are usually short and not as resourceful as the paid ones.
So, if you want to upskill your graphic design skills, you can opt for any of the courses mentioned above as per your level and requirements. All you have to do is go to their official website and enroll in the course of your choice.
FAQs
Can I learn graphic design by myself?
Yes, you can learn graphic design by yourself from online courses. You do not need to have a formal education but you need to have an in-depth knowledge of the fundamentals of design and tools like photoshop to get equipped with graphic design skills.
Does the graphic design require coding?
Most graphic design projects do not require coding. However, you do need some basic knowledge of coding while creating and designing websites or apps.
B2B stands for Business to Business and when there is a transaction of any product or service between two business firms it is said to be a B2B transaction. Payment in such a transaction might be in the form of money or any other kind. This means that it can be a transaction that is quite regular like buying a product or service using money as a means of payment or it can be in the form of barter exchange as well. In barter exchange, two firms can render their services or products to each other instead of paying money.
In the case of monetary transactions, the payment method is quite different from how consumers pay the firms. There is a good deal of difference between the payment method of B2C and B2B transactions. Generally, when there is a B2B transaction, orders are placed in bulk whereas, B2C transactions are rather made in smaller batches since they are for direct consumption. In B2C transactions, there is also the provision of discounts and offers which is usually not present in B2B transactions. Hence, the mode of payment also requires some special alterations when a business is paying a business.
Such transactions required a lot of effort in the earlier times but with the advent of payment startups, the entire process of transactions has become extremely convenient for businesses. These startups are designed to provide technological solutions for a secure and seamless payment experience for businesses. They make use of several apps and widgets that make financial transactions hassle-free at people’s fingertips. Some of the popular startups that support B2B payments in India include BharatPe, EnKash, Airpay, Udaan, etc.
In today’s time, B2B transactions have become more convenient and secure due to the presence of many payment startups. The following are some of the most popular B2B payment startups in India:
BharatPe
BharatPe – B2B Payments Startup in India
BharatPe is a B2B fintech company that focuses on helping small to mid-scale business owners accept payments through all the UPI applications using a single BharatPe QR code. The startup also offers loans to merchants. It was founded by Bhavik Koladiya, Ashneer Grover, and Shashvat Nakrani, in the year 2018 and is headquartered in New Delhi. BharatPe has recently partnered with NBFCs for a program called the â12% Clubâ. This program shall provide a chance to consumers to invest in BharatPe and earn interest up to 12% without the presence of any lock-in period. Also, consumers can borrow money at the interest rate of 12%.
EnKash
EnKash – B2B Payments Startup in India
It is a B2B payment management and financial assistance platform. This application enables a company to check their cash flow management, and invoices, and most importantly track payments to suppliers or from consumers. It also helps to connect vendors, corporates, and credit givers easily. The company was founded in the year 2016 by Hemant Vishnoi. In, 2020, SBM Bank, YAP, RuPay, and EnKash joined hands to launch the most full-scale business credit card ever, the SBM EnKash RuPay business card.
Airpay
Airpay – B2B Payments Startup in India
This is another popular B2B payment startup in India that helps retail and eCommerce companies to collect contact-less payments easily. Airpay was founded by Amit Kapoor, Kunal Jhunjhunwala, and Rohan Deshpande in the year 2012. The company has its headquarters in Mumbai. The payment platform renders services like net banking, digital payments, mobile POS, payment gateway, contactless payments, financial inclusion, open banking, and financial services.
Udaan
Udaan – B2B Payments Startup in India
Udaan is one of the largest B2B platforms for businesses in India. It was founded in the year 2016 by Vaibhav Gupta, Sujeet Kumar, and Amod Malviya. The startup has its headquarters in Bangalore. It operates in fields like staples, electronics, FMGC, lifestyle, home and kitchen, fruits and vegetables, pharma, and more. The platform helps farmers, small brands, and manufacturers to sell their products to retailers and customers with guaranteed safety and transparency. It helps make the buying and selling process easy with secure payments and smooth logistics.
The name of the startup is pretty evidently derived from the accounting term G-Invoicing. Ginvoicing is a company based in Ludhiana and was founded in the year 2017 by Tarun Jangra. It is a platform that allows you to manage your business easily and more effectively. The platform is meant to solve all your GST-related hassles. It helps collect online payments, accounting, inventory management, collating sales, marketing, purchase data, and more.
Benow
Benow – B2B Payments Startup in India
Another popular B2B payment startup in India is Benow. It was founded by Sudhakar Ram and Soorraj VS in the year 2016. Benow is a platform that specializes in payments and retail space. The startup was formed to promote digital payments and to empower small and medium-scale businesses, brands, and NGOs. It also enables users to get bundle products, EMI, credit points, and much more. The platform is highly focused on Buy Now Pay Later model.
Bulk MRO
Bulk MRO – B2B Payments Startup in India
Another popular name on the list of B2B payment startups in India is Bulk MRO. It is a global supply chain finance platform incorporated in the year 2015, in Mumbai by Gaurang Shah and Devang Shah. Bulk MRO is a trustworthy name in supplying industrial products and emergency goods. It is a B2B platform that helps government healthcare networks and corporations in their operations not only in India but around the globe.
It is a gaming platform founded in the year 2016 in Gurgaon by Akshat Rathee. Initially, NovaPlay was used to pay money for buying games. However, now it has also introduced B2B payment processing services.
Conclusion
Business to Business payments used to be a complex process but with the advancement of technology, many startups have emerged that have made it more convenient and secure. The above-mentioned are some of the most known B2B payment startups in India that are revolutionizing the way transactions used to be made earlier.
FAQs
What is a B2B startup?
B2B startups are also known as enterprise startups. Such startups sell products or services to other businesses rather than or in addition to the individual consumers.
How do I receive a B2B payment?
The following are the ways to make and receive B2B payments:
Checks
Credit cards
ACH transfers
Electronic fund transfers
Online payment platforms
Which are some popular B2B payment startups in India?
Some of the most popular B2B payment startups in India are:
Want to build your own website to publish relevant content, but don’t have the necessary skills? Well, you’re not the only one facing this dilemma. A lot of content creators are equipped with the best content, yet without the required technical knowledge, they fail to build a website.
A CMS (Content Management System) is a tool or SaaS, that helps you upload and publish content on a regular basis, without the need for any technical skills. All you need is to have fresh and original content.
Content Management Systems, abbreviated as CMS, help users curate, manage, edit, and publish content on a website without needing any technical knowledge. It handles and also lets you choose from a collection of templates to create the basic infrastructure of web pages and other functions, and allows you to focus on the content that you publish.
Here is a brief run-through I’ll come up with within this article. But before that let me tell you how these CMS work.
To better understand how a CMS works, let’s compare curating a web page with and without a CMS. Without a CMS, you’ll need to write code for the front end using HTML, CSS, and other scripts; and that isn’t just about it. You will also need to include every media file, and link all databases with your code.
However, with a CMS (Content Management System), all you need is to write down your content in an interface as simple as MS Word itself. You can also link all media files including images, videos from the media library without having to interact with the server.
There are various reasons, you would rather have a Content Management System, instead of acquiring the technical skills and then building your website. However, when it comes to choosing a CMS, it can be a bit tricky.
There are systems such as Magento, that are more popular for creating e-commerce stores while others like WordPress help you publish your blogs. Hence, while choosing a CMS, you need to be sure to make the right choice.
10 Best CMS Options You Should Check Out Today
So here we discuss the 10 best Content Management Systems that you can decide on.
WordPress
Rating
4.6/5
WordPress Website
WordPress is simply one of the best and most popular Content Management Systems. From hosting to a custom domain, WordPress offers you to choose from a number of different themes and plugins, and create your website in a matter of minutes.
WordPress offers users a suite of products including blogs, websites, e-commerce, and domains, along with self-hosted solutions. Also, there are a plethora of templates to choose from with themes meant for portfolios, food or travel blogs, and even e-commerce.
Pros
WordPress CMS is user-friendly, as its origin is from blogging only, it gives you a headstart in this matter.
It has over 54000 plugins, most of which are free to use by WordPress users.
Cons
Sometimes updates in the system can lead to some small problems on the website and to solve them, you may have to go back to the older version.
WordPress has thousands of themes available but some of them contain generic codes that are not needed, which in turn slow down the site.
Pricing
Plans
Price
E-commerce Plan
âš 1152/month
Business Plan
âš 640/month
Personal Plan
âš 160/month
Premium Plan
âš 280/month
Drupal
Rating
4.4/5
Drupal Website
Drupal is a popular Content Management System, with separate suites for Developers, Marketers, and Agencies. From retail to fintech to e-commerce, Drupal offers solutions for all major industries, and users can efficiently and seamlessly build a custom website using its intuitive interface. Moreover, be it security or scaling, Drupal covers all of it with multilingual support and personalization.
The services that Drupal offers include marketplace, hosting, and training, and makes it simple for users with newsletters, user guides, documentation, and support. You can also choose from a number of themes based on the website or page that you want to build, with the best-in-class tools and services.
Pros
One of the bigges advantages of Drupal is that it is free to use. Anyone can download and use the CMS service according to their project need.
Regular software updates is available, fix bugs that can hinder teh experience of the users.
Cons
The interface of Drupak is not a friendly one and without a developers assistance, it us quite a challenge to manage.
Modules are limited and third-party modelscan create problem inyour website, if they are not optimised at a proper time.
Pricing
Free
Joomla
Rating
4.1/5
Joomla Website
Joomla Content Management System is an extremely flexible platform for content creators across different niches. Joomla offers users thousands of free extensions and templates to choose from, with a multilingual approach.
The websites you create with Joomla are also mobile-friendly, flexible, and extensible, while also granting you multi-user permission levels. Moreover, with resources such as Developer Network and Security Center, Joomla supports its users with Documentation, Framework, and Joomla code.
Pros
The edit of your content in the website is very easy to do.
It is easy to use as the interface is designed in a way that it is user-friendly.
Cons
The number of modules available here are limited.
The complexity of Joomla is evident.
Pricing
Free
Wix
Rating
4.5/5
Wix Website
Wix is a more popular website builder and offers you a collection of more than 500 ready-to-use templates for different niches. Wix furnishes its users with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, where most of the website can be built just by dragging and dropping elements, be it media files, buttons, or other website elements.
Moreover, the websites that you build using Wix are mobile-friendly, and can easily be viewed on your smartphone’s browser. Also, Wix offers you a custom domain that you can use to match the branding of your business for a more professional approach.
Pros
Wix has one of the biggest template collection to choose from. It provides over 500 templates that you can use.
The interface of the site is extremely user-friendly, it has got a mobile editor through which you can see how the site would look like in through a mobile and edit according to it.
Cons
Once picked, your content cannot be transferred to another template. It is not changeable.
Squarespace is one of the best website designers out there, if not the best; and even that would be an understatement. Be it a professional website to drive traffic, your own portfolio, or even e-commerce, with award-winning Squarespace designs, you can turn your ideas into reality.
Squarespace allows you to hire an expert while also offering connected services and enterprise solutions. Moreover, with resources such as blogs, help guides, webinars, and forums, Squarespace supports you to make the best use of its services in an affordable price range.
Pros
Squarespace offers good number of templates to choose from.
Squarespace provides everything in a single platform, that is widgets, plugins and apps all are built in here.
Cons
Sqarespace is quite expensive and their plans include single websites.
Third-party app, plugins and extensionsre not supported in Squarespace.
Weebly allows you to build a professional and scalable website with customizable web page designs and other powerful tools. Have the liberty to use a drag and drop interface, custom fonts, in-built image editor, video backgrounds, and embed audio and videos with stunning quality with Weebly.
You can build online stores with professionalism along with growing your business with SEO and marketing tools. Maintain your store, manage shipping and track your inventory, all from one place.
Pros
Themes can be changed without any problem.
Interface is extremely user-frienly.
Cons
Customer support is not that great and is quite expensive.
Image editing in Weebly havesome issues and it doesn’t offer anything good.
Pricing
Pricing for Weebly comes in 2 different plans, for the websites and the online stores.
Website Plans
Price
Free Plan
–
Connect Plan
$5/month
Pro Plan
$12/month
Business Plan
$25/month
Online Stores Plans
Price
Pro Plan
$12/month
Business Plan
$25/month
Business Plus Plan
$38/month
Magento
Rating
4/5
Magento Website
Magento Commerce is another more popular choice for users who want to create an online e-commerce website. Magento offers users an easy and intuitive interface with a simple drag and drops feature to build a website.
Magento helps users to create an e-commerce website ranging from SMEs to bigger enterprises with excellent scalability. Moreover, you can build your website in accordance with the niche that your website is based on including digital transformation, mobile commerce, or even looking for global expansion.
Pros
Magento has a mobile-friendly configuration and provides customers with great experience through mobile viewing.
Customization of templates is possible in Magento.
Cons
Magento is quite expensive.
Customization takes time as it is time consuming.
Pricing
Pricing based on annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and Average Order Value (AOV)
Blogger
Rating
4/5
Blogger Website
Blogger CMS, as the name suggests is more inclined towards building blogs, and thus attracts more users who wish to create their own blogs and publish content. From a collection of templates, easy-to-use designs, and page layouts, choose the one that suits your content, and also get a free domain to seamlessly publish content. You can also get a custom domain with a paid plan.
Moreover, you can also get paid with Google AdSense, and point out the content that sells more with the built-in analytics tool that Blogger offers.
Pros
It has got an user-friendly interface, one can use it without any problem.
The speed and security of Blogger is saidto be quite good. One just has to focus on creating content, Blogger deals with the speed and security effeciently. Â
OpenCart is quite a sought-after Content Management System, for its effective and customizable e-commerce stores. OpenCart offers users an interactive Admin Dashboard, along with User Management features with different roles. It also offers you an in-built affiliate system, discounts, coupons, and special offers for retailers, backup, and restorations.
All these features make OpenCart one of the go-to CMS platforms for e-commerce stores. Also, with all the resources including community forums, documentation, and books, OpenCart offers excellent customer service and support.
Pros
It has various modules and themes from which you can choose from.
It is user-friendly and the setup is easier for new users.
Cons
Customization is difficult and it is not suitable for large businesess.
It doesn’t have good features like other CMS.
Pricing
Free
Rating
4/5
Shopify
Rating
4.5/5
Shopify Website
Shopify is another Content Management System built especially for creating e-commerce websites. It offers you some powerful tools to run your business online and drive sales. Depending on what stage of your business you are in, with Shopify, you can start an online business, move your business online, and even migrate your online business to Shopify. Shopify helps you sell anywhere from online websites to social media, and also advertise and market your business.
Pros
Shopify is really easy to use and the interface is quite simple and people who are not that tech-savvy can also use it.
Various themes are available in Shopify to use.
Cons
The customization of the platform is quite limited.
Choosing the right CMS platform for your startup or business might be difficult but will only help you in the long run. If you are looking for the best CMS platform and website builder for your e-commerce store or blogging then WordPress is the best way to go.
FAQs
Which CMS website is best?
The best CMS website is:
WordPress
Drupal
Joomla
Wix
Squarespace
Weebly
Magneto
Blogger
OpenCart
Shopify
Do you need a CMS for a website?
If it’s a web application, then you don’t have to start with a CMSâyou could, but it might be too much overhead and probably not the smartest idea. Basically, any marketing site should have a CMS.
How many types of CMS are there?
There are three broad types of CMS software: open source, proprietary, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) CMS, including cloud-based solutions.
What is the best free CMS?
The best free CMS for your business is:
WordPress
Joomla
Blogger
OpenCart
Drupal
Is WordPress free or paid?
The core software service in WordPress is free to download and use. However, for WordPress hosting, one has to pay.
The world has to come to a point where we can do anything with just a touch or a click. From shopping to dating, everything can be done online. There is hardly anyone who is not taking the benefits of the digital world. It is making our life easier and more convenient. Thanks to this, our money transactions can also be done online.
Digital transactions have taken the world by storm and almost everyone with a smartphone or a computer wishes to switch to digital payments. Not only digital payments are quick, seamless and efficient, but they have also become the need of the hour owing to the pandemic. In this article, we will talk about Stripe, which is a payment processing platform and the best alternatives it has. So. let’s get started.
Stripe is an integrated suite of payment productsfor e-commerce, applications and online marketplaces for accepting and sending out payments, from and to users. Stripe offers payments through the majority of financial technologies encompassing cards, checkout flows, and other digital transaction services that are constantly updated. Moreover, with over 99% uptime interface, scalability and best-in-class ML models, Stripe helps you avoid frauds and scammers and enhance revenue.
Although Stripe is one of the best payment processors, there are other applications which offer similar functionalities with different plans and pricing. Since different websites and applications have different requirements, a single plan might not necessarily cater to the needs of all such applications. Moreover, Stripe still isn’t available to use in some countries and costs more than many other payment processors. Hence, here we compare different payment processors, to help you decide which suits you best.
Alternatives to Stripe Payments Processor:
PayPal
PayPal Website
Paypal is a payments processor, and an excellent alternative to Stripe, owing to its fast working and seamless transactions. It offers payments for both individual retailers and businessmen, and larger businesses and enterprises, which include shopping on eCommerce websites, payment returns, B2B payments, and freelancer fees. PayPal offers all such amenities with buyer protection, for safekeeping of your finances, with an easy-to-set up PayPal account and login.
About 54% of the customers tend to buy a product when PayPal is available at the checkout, which sure doesn’t seem much, but makes a difference nevertheless. For business needs, PayPal allows you to both receive payments from customers all over the world and make payments in over 100 different currencies and 200 marketplaces. It also furnishes 24/7 fraud protection along with seamless integrations through APIs and SDKs. Moreover, Paypal lets you get paid even if you do not have a professional website or an application with email payment requests, invoices, and personalized payment links.
Square payments gateway is all about accepting payments, irrespective of the online or offline market. It helps you accept payments, fast and secure with amenities such as card swipe through Square Reader, ApplePay or Google pay with NFC technology, online payouts, invoices and other digital means. Without any extra costs or long-term contracts, Square makes payouts as fast and seamless as possible, with affordable pricing. It furnishes you with the same costs for every card, with consistent and clear bills to pay monthly.
Amenities for E-commerce
Square offers solutions for selling online as an E-commerce website, as well as on social media such as Instagram. The solutions offered by Square are quite affordable and cost you only after you have actually started selling. Moreover, it offers more than just payment services, for running your established or thriving business, such as SEO to increase your search engine rankings and reach more customers. Square provides flexible tools, tailored to your specific business needs and scalability, and hence, can be suited to any number of enterprises or e-commerce sites.
Features Offered by Square
Square is one of the quickest payment processors which offers to complete transactions within a business day.
Square Point of Sale has an easy-to-set-up interface, offering real-time analytics and an intuitive inventory.
It furnishes the users with a free Square Business Debit Card, to store and spend funds, while also keeping an eye on their cash flow.
Square doesn’t require you to create a merchant account, pay a statement fee, charge-back fee or deal with payment disputes, with the bank.
Be it the security of your data, or suspicious activity around your account, Square offers all-around protection and shields you against monetary fraud.
Adyen
Adyen Website
Adyen is a payments processor which helps you accept payments, expand your domain, enhance conversions and hence revenue, and also offers expert suggestions from experienced professionals. Adyen allows payment through in-app purchases, through websites, and in-store purchases without any location barriers.
Products offered by Adyen
Adyen offers products such as Online Payments, Point of Sale, Platforms, and Unified Commerce with global coverage and an effort to increase authorization rates. Embedded dashboards with organized statistics can be quite helpful when analyzing customer data to get insights on performance and reporting. Adyen’s Point of Sale offers a certified PCI-compliant terminal with simple API integrations and robust platform stability. Platforms allow you to accept payments with your preferred interface on a website, mobile application or through the point of sale along with faster checkouts and any preferred currency.
Features Offered by Adyen
The most wholesome feature of Adyen is that it offers global acquiring through a single platform without any integrations, saving you the trouble of managing different payment methods.
With cards ranging from Credit cards to Master cards to Alipay wallets, Adyen offers users a plethora of payment methods, to add to their checkout.
Adyen uses a data-driven risk management approach, and with the help of a cross-country data network, identifies frauds behind false declines and monetary cheats.
With the help of ML-driven models, Adyen helps you increase revenue with better authorization rates, customer experience, and low payment costs.
Adyen also allows users to understand customer behaviour, geography, payment flow, approvals and declines through insights into customer data.
Venmo
Venmo Website
With over 60 million users, Venmo helps clients pay and accept payments fast and safely. With Venmo, you don’t just pay; you get to connect with friends and interact with emojis and stickers. You also get to manage your privacy settings, with no account set-up or money transfer costs. Venmo also allows you to seamlessly transfer money between your Venmo and bank accounts respectively.
Venmo for Business
Venmo allows you to accept payments with in-app purchases, online purchases, or in person, in a way very similar to the transactions between your friends, giving you, and your customer, a personalized experience. The checkout is seamless and familiar. Moreover, using Venmo Business allows you to get noticed by the 60 million other Venmo users, where your friends and customers can share their personalized experiences on their feed, in turn, boosting your reach. With just a single login credential, you can switch between business and personal profiles, and manage the business profile efficiently. Venmo also offers touch-free checkout with the use of unique QR codes for your business.
Features Offered by Venmo
Venmo offers a business suite, in-app and online payments as well as Venmo debit cards.
You get to discover places your contacts visit more often, and what they buy; while also being discovered for your side hustles, to grow your own business.
Venmo Debit card is another such utility it offers, that helps you pay your favourite stores and also get cashback, while all the activities involving the card can be monitored through the Venmo application.
Authorize.net
Authorize.net Website
Authorize helps you make and accept payments with a variety of different options such as debit/credit, card e-checks to digital payments, among others. With a developer centre equipped with APIs, SDKs, and the best integration solutions such as a simple integrated ‘Buy Now’ button, Authorize offers solutions for eCommerce, Point of Sale, and card payments, all under one suite.
E-commerce Solutions Offered by Authorize
It can often be tricky to find the payment processing solution that fits all your business needs; lucky for you, Authorize helps you with all of that and more. Payment gateways authorize and process customer transactions until the purchase is made and the money transferred. This involves the authorization of the funds, then initializing payment and finally transfer of money from the customer’s card to your merchant account. Authorize helps you with not only the above but also comes with PCI-DSS compliance, fraud protection and prevention, solutions for multiple payment types and automated payments.
Features Offered by Authorize
Authorize offers 13 fraud filters, which help identify and prevent you from being duped of your money. These filters include Velocity filter, IP filter, and transaction filter among several others.
Authorize furnishes you with a Customer Information Manager with information such as billing, shipping, and payment, in compliance with PCI DSS standards.
Automated Recurring Bills is another feature offered by Authorize which assists users with recurring, monthly instalments, or subscription-based plans.
For avoiding lost sales and payment interruptions, Authorize constantly keeps your card information updated. This also helps deliver customers, an amazing experience.
Get paid faster with Invoices. Invoices can be sent via customized email with your logo, and get paid from any mobile device.
The above-mentioned are some of the best alternatives to Stripe, which offers equally proficient functionality and features. The cost per transaction for most payment processors differs by less than 1-2%, and most of them have similar transaction charges. All in all, the e-commerce industry is on the rise, and you might need an online payment processor to keep up with industry standards.
FAQs
What is Stripe?
Stripe is an integrated suite of payment products for e-commerce, applications and online marketplaces for accepting and sending out payments, from and to users.
What are some best alternatives of Stripe?
Some of the best alternatives of Stripe are:
PayPal
Square
Adyen
Venmo
Authorize.net
Why Stripe is popular?
Stripe is popular because of its fast and secure payment processing.
Successful businessmen throughout history have one common trend- to search out new, ingenious innovations that are on the cusp of creating a global revolution. These innovations can be found anywhere, be it aeronautics, automobiles, education, retail, or any field you can think of.
We can observe this in Mr Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group. While everyone recognizes his contributions to establishing the Mahindra Group as one of the largest Indian business conglomerates, what is less-spoken is, how he has invested in startups across various industries as part of his personal contribution to fulfilling his own quest of finding the next-biggest innovation which has the potential to improve the conditions of the Indian populace and thus, to make India a better country to live for the upcoming generations.
Here in this article, we would discuss the 8 startups in which Mr Anand Mahindra has invested, in what industries they mainly specialise, what are their flagship products and so on.
Founders: Sachin Taparia, K Yatish Rajawat, Abhishek Gupta, Mukesh Gupta
Founded: 2012
LocalCircles Logo
Founded in the year 2012 by Sachin Taparia, K Yatish Rajawat, Abhishek Gupta, and Mukesh Gupta, LocalCircles is a Delhi-based startup that specializes in the âsocial entrepreneurshipâ sector. It is an online space where citizens can voice their respective concerns, be it on the local level or the national level, share a multitude of ideas and thus, help people.
LocalCircles also enable elected representatives to connect with their constituencies, which makes for better governance at the grassroots level. LocalCircles have taken up 50+ key issues in the last decade and driven policy interventions or amendments which have improved the quality of people living in India. They have been widely featured in noted publications like The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg for example.
In December 2015, Mr Anand Mahindra invested an undisclosed amount in LocalCircles and his appointed on the advisory board of the startup. He became the second corporate heavyweight to invest in the startup after Nadir Godrej.
DishCo
Founders: Jamshed Pesi Shaw, Fida Jamshed Shaw
Founded: 2014
DishCo Logo
Founded in 2014 by Jamshed Pesi Shaw and Fida Jamshed Shaw under the aegis of Food Marshal Tech Services Pvt Ltd, this Mumbai-based food-tech startup helps restaurants connect with their customers. In this mobile-only platform, customers can rank their food preferences, make table bookings and chat with restaurants regarding feedback issues.
Unlike other food-tech startups that charge a commission from the restaurants or from the orders that come through their platform, DishCo offers listing and ranking for free of cost and instead has a fixed subscription fee for restaurants who opt for booking tables, coupons, and other services.
In September 2015, DishCo raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Mr Anand Mahindra. He was joined by other noted businessmen like BookMyShow’s Ashish Hemrajani and Punj Lloydâs Uday Punj.
SheThePeople.TV
Founder: Shaili Chopra
Founded: 2015
SheThePeople.TV Logo
Launched in 2015 by journalist Shaili Chopra, SheThePeople.TV is a digital media initiative dedicated to showing the success stories of women achievers. They have profiled stories of 10,000 women who have excelled in their respective fields so they can be a role model to all women and show their indomitable spirit. These stories are written in English and Hindi.
In 2016, SheThePeople.TV received an undisclosed investment from Mr Anand Mahindra. The firm said they would use the capital to launch their initiatives in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada so they can further expand their market.
Thinkerbell Labs
Founders: Dilip Ramesh, Sanskriti Dawle, Aman Srivastava, Saif Shaikh
Founded: 2016
Thinkerbell Labs Logo
The journey of Thinkerbell Labs began in 2016 when four undergraduate students of BITS Pilani Goa campus in Dilip Ramesh, Sanskriti Dawle, Aman Srivastava, and Saif Shaikh were part of an Arduino-based project by the name of Project Mudra.
As part of their project, they had to build a Braille-based alphabet song box. When they saw the praise they got from their respective professors and visually impaired students, they decided to take one step further and created a startup by the name of Thinkerbell Labs.
The motto of Thinkerball Labs is to eliminate the problem of illiteracy faced by visually impaired persons across the world. Their flagship product is âAnnieâ, a device in the form of a pad with multiple buttons on it, with the objective to self-teach visually impaired students Braille using audio-guided lessons, quizzes, and so on. It provides these lessons in multiple Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, etc also.
In July 2017, Tinkerbell Labs managed to get a total investment worth 1.3 crore Indian rupees from Mr Anand Mahindra and Indian Angel Network, headed by Rajesh Navaneethan and Manjunath Nayak. Mr Anand Mahindra also invested an undisclosed amount in Thinkerball Labâs seed round in November 2019.
NEST Education
Founders: Rahul Ranjan
Founded: 2017
Naandi Education Support and Training Pvt. Ltd (also known as NEST education) is an organization that builds technology platforms to cater to the knowledge demand of low and middle-class income sections of urban India.
For this purpose, they have two learning centers under the name Alphabyte-The Learning Terminal, with a unique Tech-N-Brick Education model where technology is seamlessly integrated to help students with their own customized learning modules.
In August 2017, Mr Anand Mahindra along with the Dell Foundation invested around 4 crore Indian rupees in NEST Education. Mr Anand Mahindra said he was really impressed by their endeavours.
Founded in 2018 by Indian Institute of Information Technology – Vadodara students Ankit Kumar, Mofid Ansari, Pratyush Singh, Rajat Dangi and Shubhendra Vikram, this Gurugram-based startup aim is to build a social network based on Web 3.0.
Their flagship platform is the social networking solution GoSocial, which allows users to take creative challenges by professional artists, photographers, and designers and get rewarded for how well they performed.
Hapramp Studio also has other tools like Flips which help writers and poets make their work more aesthetic and 1Ramp.Io where any social media creators earn a respective amount of cryptocurrency on one as they get for their work on any social media platform.
In June 2020, Mr Anand Mahindra announced via his Twitter account that he found an opportunity worth funding in Hapramp Studio with the help of an ex-Mahindra executive Jaspreet Bindra to find an âindigenousâ Indian startup on the rise. As per various reports, he invested around 7.5 crore Indian rupees in the startup.
GenRobotic
Founders: Nikhil NP, Vimal Govind MK
Founded: 2015
Founded in 2015 by Nikhil NP and Vimal Govind MK, this Thiruvananthapuram-based startup specialises in the design and development of robotic-powered exoskeletons and robotic systems that can be controlled by humans.
In 2018, they released their flagship product named âBandicootsâ. These are fully automated robots for cleaning manholes across the country. This would eliminate the need for human intervention and would be a huge step forward in ending the social issue that still affects Indian society by the name of manual scavenging. They soon launched an updated version in Bandicoot 2.0 which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India, Shree Narendra Modi.
In October 2020, Mr Anand Mahindra, along with existing investor Unicorn India Ventures and SEA fund, managed to raise 2.5 crore Indian rupees in its Pre-series A round of funding.
Founded in 2017, this Chennai-based space-tech startup designs, manufactures, tests and launches orbital-class rockets for micro and nano satellites. Their flagship product is the rocket named Agniban which is capable of carrying up to 100 kg load across various orbits.
They currently work out of the National Center for Combustion R&D at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and they became the first startup to sign a pact with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to take help of the space agencyâs expertise as well as facilities to build rockets.
In May 2021, AgniKul Cosmos raised around 80 crore Indian rupees from Mr Anand Mahindra, along with various other Silicon Valley investors, like Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan. It is one of the largest funding rounds for a private Indian space technology company.
Conclusion
As it can be seen, Mr Anand Mahindra has invested in startups in varying industries, be it space-tech like AgniKul cosmos, blockchain technology-based startups like Hapramp Studio, and so on.
One observation to be made is most of these startups actually want to change the world socially and to make the world, a better place. They want to go beyond pleasing their shareholders, or the venture capitalists and do something socially, such as wanting to end manual scavenging, showcasing the various achievements of women, and helping underprivileged children get better access to education.
While billionaires investing in social causes isn’t something new(the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation comes to mind), the fact that Mr Anand Mahindra has invested a lot of money in these startups is not a fact that most of us know and we should take cognizance of it.
FAQs
Does Mahindra invest in startups?
Yes, Anand Mahindra is an active investor and has invested in startups like LocalCircles, DishCo, and Thinkerbell Labs.
Is Anand Mahindra a billionaire?
Yes, Anand Mahindra is a billionaire and has a net worth of $2 Billion.
FedEx Corporation previously called Federal Express Corporation or FDX corporation is an America-based multinational company mainly focusing on transportation and e-commerce services. It was founded in the year 1971 by Frederick W. Smith.
FedEx Express provides transcontinental and international express services to hundreds of locations and markets across Europe, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, and Africa (EMEA). FedEx Express EMEA is headquartered in Paris-Charles de Gaulle and is gradually expanding its network across the region through smart, strategic investments.
FedEx has the service you require, whether it’s express or less urgent, little shipments or heavyweight, import or export. FedEx Express created express delivery and continues to be the industry leader, providing fast, dependable, and time-definite delivery to more than 220 countries and territories.
The Memphis-based firm was supposed to announce its fourth-quarter earnings on June 23. However, due to âshelter in placeâ rules for the coronavirus pandemic, the corporation postponed the publication until after the market closure on June 30. Â Due to the pandemic, FedEx has implemented many measures, including a cost for large shippers and a daily limit on how much specific shops can deliver. FedEx similarly lowered its economic outlook in March due to the coronavirus pandemic’s uncertainty.
FedEx is a well-known courier company having its roots fixed to more than one service. There are many interesting facts revolving around FedEx all belonging to a different origin. Some of them have been shared below.
1. FedEx Was Not Started as a Specified Courier Service
FedEx did not start out as a courier service as it does now. FedEx was founded on the idea of picking up cheques from the 12 Federal Reserve banks in the United States, flying them to a central hub, and then delivering the cheques to the federal reserve member banks the next day, according to creator Fred Smith’s business plan from 1971.
He pitched the proposal to the Federal Reserve, which was enthusiastically received. Smith used his personal resources and a loan from his family trust fund to purchase two Dassault Falcon jets from Pan-Am. The federal reserve board later reversed its decision, leaving the company with no clients, two Falcons, and $3.6 million in debt.
2. FedEx Earned Its Investment by Gambling
FedEx was on the edge of bankruptcy in 1974, just three years after it was founded. Fred Smith was unable to raise funds, obtain loans, or attract investors because the company was losing $1 million each month. Only $5,000 remained in the company accounts at the conclusion of the working week, on Friday, which was insufficient for the company to continue operating.
Smith made the decision to take severe measures. He travelled to Las Vegas from the business’s headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas, and spent the weekend gambling with company monies.
On Monday, Smith went to the company’s Little Rock headquarters and informed surprised bosses that he had turned the $5,000 into $27,000. FedEx received $11 million in the capital soon after, and two years later, in 1976, it made its first-ever profit of $3.6 million.
3. The Secretive Logo Design
The black arrow in the image stands for the indication of deliveries made by FedEx from point A to point B
Examine the letters E and X closely. In the white space between the two characters, there should be an arrow. The arrow is meant to send a concealed message about FedEx. The arrow defines the work of FedEx, which is to deliver from point A to Point B.
Another shocking fact is that the arrow was not designed purposely. Instead, it was found accidentally in the year 1994, while designing 400 different logos for the corporation.
Tracking numbers now forms the basic part of each courier company. However, FedEx is debatingly acknowledged as the inventor of tracking numbers. It is estimated that FedEx invented the tracking number in the late 1970s. Tracking numbers were invented as the set of numbers that represent a package’s trip and were meant for FedEx’s internal quality control system.
As a matter of fact, FedEx issues more than a million tracking numbers daily and receives around 125 million tracking inquiries every day.
5. FedEx Stands for More Than Shipping and Courier Service
Undoubtedly, FedEx is highly acknowledged for its courier shipping facility. However, it is not restricted to the shipping service only. It also provides multiple e-commerce services and custom brokerage services under the Logistic brand of FedEx. FedEx is also known to have its role in electronic repairs and 3D printing.
6. The Movie âCast Awayâ Is Inspired by FedEx Principles
FedEx is truly appreciated for its on-time deliveries. The concept of the movie “Cast Away” is highly inspired by FedEx and created a great marketing strategy for FedEx with zero fees.
The main character of the movie Chuck Noland is shown as the system analyst of FedEx who gets stranded on an island after a plane crash due to a storm. He managed to survive four years on the island and successfully makes an exit from the island with one unopened and un-delivered courier in his hand.
FedEx in Chuck Noland
After the exit, Chunk finally delivers the unopened letter successfully to the given address and showcases the late but successful delivery of the firm FedEx.
7. FedEx Owns 697 Aircraft for Smooth Work
FedEx Aircraft
In the year 1973, FedEx first delivered with the help of aircraft. On 17th April, 14 small aircraft flew from Memphis and delivered to 25 different US cities. From there on, FedEx is known to deliver with the help of aircraft whenever required.
As a matter of fact, FedEx serves 220 countries across the globe and has 697 aircraft with more than 650 airports served.
8. FedEx Does Not Ship Everything
Irrespective of the belief that FedEx can transport anything through its courier service. It is not the truth. FedEx also has its own terms and condition which does not allow the shipping service for a few products.
Any kind of animal is not transported by FedEx. Some exceptions can be made to this for specific fishes and reptiles. FedEx also does not support shipping illegal things through its service.
As a matter of fact, FedEx handles over 19 million packages every day but with its restriction still in terms.
Conclusion
FedEx Express is the world’s largest express transportation provider, providing fast and reliable services for more than 3.6 million items each business day, thanks to unmatched air route authorities and transportation infrastructure, and cutting-edge information technologies. Just like other corporations, FedEx corporation also has its share of fun facts. Some of them are shared in the above context.
FAQs
What makes FedEx unique?
FedEx was not the first shipping company to be developed. However, with the time FedEx made its place on the market and created its own name for its timely and reliable services. The service given by FedEx is still up to the mark, and that is what made FedEx unique from others.
What does FedEx mean?
FedEx stands for the term Federal Express. After the introduction of the FedEx logo in 1994, the term Federal Express was then replaced with FedEx after a brief customer observation of its name-calling.
How many planes does FedEx have?
FedEx is claimed to have approximately 697 aircraft with its service extended to 650 airports across the globe.
Social media isnât what it used to be, especially since weâve become more aware of the privacy concerns of utilizing big sites. Whatsapp and Facebook, two of the most popular social networking apps, have regularly been in the news due to privacy concerns.
In the Cambridge Analytica incident, Facebook leaked data of roughly 87,000 users. Another 6.8 million usersâ data was lost in September 2018 when a third-party app acquired access to using images. In response to this, the #DeleteFacebook movement, which had been developing steadily, exploded.
WhatsApp recently notified its users that it would be changing its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Users were given a deadline to either accept or stop using the app. Millions of people were thrown into a frenzy, with many jumping ships in search of an alternate platform. The true impact of WhatsAppâs T&C amendments on individuals has most certainly been exaggerated. Indeed, WhatsApp just requests permission to share data collected by the app with the rest of the Facebook family of apps. More crucially, no messages, groups, or call records include in this data.
However, How can you replace these services and stay in touch with friends and family in a world dominated by social media, particularly Facebook which now owns major social media sites like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram?
There are, thankfully many open-source, privacy-focused solutions available. While exploring them, alternatives were seen that were fit for use, interesting, and easy to assure friends and family to join.
By far, the most difficult social networking application to replace is Facebook. There isnât a great substitute for this social media platform, but there are a few choices.
MeWe is yet another privacy-focused social networking platform. The site takes pride in the fact that it is free of adverts and does not manipulate user feeds. Users, on the other hand, have complete control over what they see. While it functions similarly to Facebook, it is a more secure option. MeWe functions similarly to Facebook, albeit in a more confined community, despite the fact that it is not open source. MeWe is accessible via a mobile application. It has a solid privacy policy, but it isnât very popular.
Mastodon
Mastodon is by far the most popular of the federated social media platforms. Itâs also completely free, simple to use, and concerned about user privacy and security. Mastodon resembles Twittermore than any other social media platform.
But it has a significantly larger word count and excellent control over who may read your postings (public, followers only, or unlisted). If youâre posting about sensitive topics, you can add content warnings to photographs or posts so that only people who choose to click the notice will see what youâre talking about. In addition, they refer to their posts as âtootsâ rather than âtweetsâ or âstatuses.â
You also have a variety of options when it comes to joining Mastodon. Because, unlike Facebook or Twitter, you join an instance rather than a central website. Some are public, while others are private, some cater to specific interests or beliefs, and some people host their own. You can follow users on any instance, regardless of which one you join, so you donât miss posts from your favorite individuals even if you switch instances.
It offers a facility that allows you to seek up your Twitter connections and follow them on Mastodon. It aids in the development of a following when joining a new site. Mastodon has proven to be a fantastic tool for interacting with friends and family, as well as networking and making new acquaintances, similar to Twitter.
Diaspora
Diaspora is founded on three core values: decentralization, freedom, and privacy. Instead of storing everyoneâs data on a single server owned by a large corporation. Diasporaâs founders built a social network that disseminates this information and is owned by no one. Each user has the option of creating and hosting their own server, dubbed a âpod,â or joining one of their friends and communicating within this âdiasporaâ.
Pinterest
Pinterestis particularly popular among consumers who exchange images of their home improvement, homemade objects, cooking recipes, and other interests. And gloating about a new garment isnât exactly a sin, is it? As a result, Pinterest is more focused on âthingsâ than Instagram, which is more focused on users.
Moreover, unlike Instagram, Pinterest allows you to share your material without the need for repeated social engagement. Pinterest, on the other hand, is not influenced by the corporate world. For example, an AR-powered option like âTry onâ benefits both shoppers and e-stores.
PixelFed
PixelFed is another newcomer that is federated and as user-friendly as Instagram. You join through an instance and you can choose how you want to publish your photos and who can follow you, just like Mastodon. You may use Instagram on your PC or through your favorite mobile web browser, unlike Instagram, which is best seen through its own app.
PixelFed has a small user base, owing to the fact that it is still in development. However, inviting friends to join is simple, as it only takes a few clicks and they are in without having to download anything.
Snapchat
Snapchathas a simple user interface and a lot of features. The AI-powered Lenses are probably the appâs most amusing feature. You can alter your appearance to make yourself appear older or younger and do a lot more fun with unlimited filters on this platform.
After all, Facebook replicated several of Snapchat’s features and put them on Instagram to discourage users from leaving. There’s something for everyone, from Stories to disappearing texts, face filters, and more. So, if you want to use the actual Instagram, I strongly suggest using Snapchat. The good news is that Snapchat has lately revamped its efforts and introduced new tools such as Find Instagram Feed alternatives.
To summarise, Snapchat is not simply another social media app; it is one that, in a few years, may foreshadow the future of social media, especially, short video stories. If you want to experiment with new features, Snapchat is your got-to-go place.
Signal
Signal, which was first released in 2014, promises to use cutting-edge security and end-to-end encryption to ensure that your messages are never shared or accessed by anybody other than you and your intended recipients. Message history is likewise maintained on your smartphone, and only on your device. Furthermore, because the encryption software they use is open-source, it is susceptible to increased public scrutiny, forcing those in charge of the app to act quickly to address any security vulnerabilities.
Telegram
Your calls and messages are safeguarded with end-to-end encryption once the âSecretâ chat option is enabled, and Telegramcan no longer access the data. The talks you conduct in âSecretâ chats are only getting safe on the smartphones of the participants, rather than Telegram servers, as they are with Signal. Telegram, on the other hand, takes it a step further. It can only be used on that device. The chats used to be relinquished if a user log in to their account from a different device. If someone tries to capture a screenshot of your messages, you will be notified.
Wire
Wire is a secure messaging app with end-to-end encryption that is shielded by European data retention laws. It provides free personal accounts as well as paid business plans that include additional support and features. Wire boasts clear voice and video communications.
Wire supports both 1:1 and group screen sharing. It also allows you to share multimedia files and filter audio. You can log in to your account from up to eight synced devices, which are available for all major platforms. Within chats, you can format text with bold and italics, as well as create lists. Youâll also be able to optimize file sizes for easy sharing, as well as set timers to delete messages for extra privacy.
Tumblr
Tumblr is one of the oldest social media networks on the Internet, yet it lacks the popularity of Instagram or Facebook. It’s often mistaken for a microblogging site, but it’s much more. Photographs, GIFs, movies, and other sorts of media can now be shared. You may also search Tumblr using hashtags, and you can create a community with support for private chats. Tumblr is a specialized social networking site that, when used properly, may provide many users with a creative outlet.
The quantity of followers is crucial on practically every other social media platform. People like to brag about how many followers they have on social media. Tumblr, once again, is unique. It’s uncommon to come across a Tumblr blog that shows the number of followers it has. Tumblr users are more concerned with their interactions with other users, and the desire to form deeper bonds. As a result, you’ll need to adjust your attitude about participation in this situation.
Social media is a useful tool, no doubt about that. But the one caveat with most social media apps is that they track you, sell your data and make money from the user content. Well, that’s why there are new social media apps coming up each day that offers users a better privacy experience and make use of blockchain technology.
FAQs
What happened in the Cambridge Analytica incident?
In the Cambridge Analytica incident, Facebook leaked data of roughly 87,000 users.
How is Mastodon different from Twitter & Facebook?
Unlike Facebook or Twitter, in Mastodon, you join an instance rather than a central website. Some are public, while others are private.
What can we do using AI-powered Lenses in Snapchat?
The AI-powered Lenses are probably the appâs most amusing feature. You can alter your appearance to make yourself appear older or younger and do a lot more fun with unlimited filters on this platform.
Which are privacy-focused social media platforms?
Some Privacy-focused social media platforms are MeWe, Tumblr, Snapchat, Signal, Telegram, etc.
How do privacy-focused messengers work?
The app has end-to-end encryption which protects your data from outside interference, including from the app developers themselves.
Lakshya Singh
