Swiggy has been making the lives of urban customers more convenient for customers since 2014. Since Swiggy was founded, it has acquired five companies and subsidiaries as it has expanded its empire and diversified its business. The leading on-demand food delivery platform is now a logistics hub of excellence.
Swiggy is a food tech company with its headquarters placed at Bangalore, India. The company was founded back in 2014 by the efforts of Nandan Reddy, Phanu Kishan Addepalli, Rahul Jaimini, and Sriharsha Majety.
The current CEO of the firm is Sriharsha Majety. Some of the most popular competitors of Swiggy are Fresh Menu, Zomato, Uber Eats, Grofers, etc. The six acquisitions made by Swiggy are:
LYNK Logistics is a company that distributes fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) to retail stores. LYNK, founded in 2015 and based in Chennai, works with FMCG brands to supply products to stores. It has a network of over 100,000 retail stores in eight cities.
Lynk is creating a complete platform to help consumer brands reach 80% of India’s buyers, who shop mainly at small Kirana stores. Using strong technology, they are improving how brands reach the market, building a modern supply chain for local trade, and making it easier for Kirana stores to get credit on a large scale.
They have partnered with many well-known consumer brands across India’s major cities and have a fast-growing network of Kirana stores.
Swiggy acquired Link Logistics in July 2023 for $23 million. This move marks Swiggy’s first step into the retail business-to-business (B2B) sector.
Dineout
Founded
2012
Founders
Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Nikhil Bakshi, and Sahil Jain
Industry
Food and Technology
Acquired In
2021
Status
Active
Website
www.dineout.co.in
Swiggy Acquisitions – Dineout Website
Dineout was born when its founders landed their first investment from Travel Boutique Online. They finally made their breakthrough when it was acquired by Times Internet. The startup has also expanded its empire over the years by acquiring inResto, Gourmet Passport, and Torqus.
Eventually, around 2016, they launched Dineout Plus coming up with brand-new offerings for their audiences like a corporate dining rewards program that gave a flat 25% discount at 5-star restaurants, and an exclusive bill payment wallet for diners: Dine Out Pay.
The startup has also come up with a month-long campaign GIRF (The Great Indian Restaurant Festival) to create amazing experiences and offer bigger deals for their customers. With their B2B and B2C services, they have partnered with many restaurants across their network of around 20 cities.
India’s largest dining out and restaurant tech solutions platform helps diners discover restaurants and offers, enabling hassle-free reservations.
Swiggy saw the opportunity to expand its offerings in dining out table reservations and events with a leading dining out and restaurant tech platform on July 22, 2021. This will enable Swiggy to cater to every food occasion. Reach more customers and expand growth opportunities. Revolutionizing the restaurant industry. Improving the customer experience at the restaurant and delighting customers. Dineout was acquired by Swiggy in May 2022.
Supr Daily allows you to buy groceries through an online platform with a wide selection of organic and healthy foods.
Additionally, it also provides options from other categories such as baby care, pet needs, and more to your doorstep. Pioneering the grocery revolution in India, it is currently operating in more than eight cities.
The startup operates with the motto “Do more, with less” aiming to make their customers happy, and give them a stress-free start to the day and a superior consumer experience.
Swiggy acquired Supr Daily in 2018 to create a niche in solving critical consumer needs and fulfilling their daily orders, expanding its channels for revenue. Since then, the startup has been revamped to unlock its potential and share its mission with Swiggy.
Forty-Eight East is a food tech startup that brings you the cuisines of different nations: South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and the Middle East.
Providing international taste to its customers with a weekly changing menu in a quick-service restaurant setting. Starting with the idea of bringing different Asian delicacies beyond noodles and Thai food to the Indian people, Joseph Cherian started setting up a kitchen in Bengaluru Karnataka. He was joined by friend and chef Nabhojit Ghosh. Which later expanded from one kitchen to eight.
Things took a turn when Joseph Cherian joined Swiggy as COO after the startup was acquired by it in 2017. Swiggy acquired 48 East with the purpose of solving gaps in its consumer supply through various strategies. Equipping Swiggy with additional capabilities, broadening its senior leadership, and serving a more satisfying consumer experience.
Kint.io
Founded
2014
Founders
Jagannathan Veeraraghavan, Pavithra Solai Jawahar
Industry
Artificial intelligence, Computer
Acquired In
2019
Status
In-Active
Website
www.kint.io
Swiggy Acquisitions – Kint.io Logo
The local Bengaluru-based AI platform known for designing and developing software was the first technology-led acquisition for Swiggy. Kint.io, which is led by Jagannathan Veeraraghavan and Pavithra Solai Jawahar, applies deep learning and computer vision to object recognition in videos.
Several founding members joined Swiggy’s team to boost computer vision technology, consumer experience, and scale tech capabilities by bringing in entrepreneurial teams that solve unique customer problems. All the while leveraging the network and resources of Swiggy.
Swiggy made a smart move as consumer intent companies are rapidly growing to stay ahead of the game and make a profit in the long term. The aim is to use the platform to help people apply and discover restaurants using images and recommendations based on them. Enhancing the company’s computer vision technology and improving the overall consumer experience.
Scootsy Logistics Private Limited
Founded
2015
Founders
Rishi Khiani, Sandeep Das, Yash Sippy
Industry
Transportation, Logistics, and Storage
Acquired In
2018
Status
Active
Website
www.scootsy.com
Swiggy Acquisitions – Scootsy
Starting with Ant Farm one can turn to Scootsy for quick, curated delivery across the city. The Mumbai-based startup was founded by former Times Internet chief executive Rishi Khiani, Sandeep Das, and Khiani the co-founders of Scootsy. The platform offers quality experiences to its discerning consumers.
Following an acquisition, the company further partnered up with Burger King. The experience of ordering from the platform itself is described as the closest one can get to eating at a fine dining establishment. They have a curated list of restaurants, food stores, boutiques, and gift shops to make your life easier and better.
Swiggy acquired Scootsy for approximately ₹ 50 crores according to sources in 2018. Swiggy plans to expand into new cities, tap into orders from high-end restaurants, and strengthen its restaurant network. Over time, Swiggy has transitioned Scootsy’s operations to its platform and integrated Scootsy to deliver premium culinary offerings in Mumbai.
Conclusion
Swiggy has been in the market for almost 8 years. Swiggy was started as an online food delivery platform that is now operating in more than 500 Indian cities. Swiggy has a constant focus on implementing new technologies and creating data-driven marketing approaches.
In order to improve its services, Swiggy has acquired multiple startups along the path. The startups acquired by Swiggy are Dineout, Kint.io, Scootsy Logistics Private Limited, 48East, and Supr Daily.
FAQs
How much does Swiggy Acquire Dineout for?
Swiggy acquired Dineout for almost $200 million on 14th Feb 2022.
Did Swiggy Acquire Instamart?
Swiggy launched Instamart on 10 August 2020.
Has Zomato acquired Swiggy?
Swiggy is the biggest competitor of Zomato. However, there were reports of a stock-based merger proposed by Swiggy which eventually came to a dead end because of the difference in both companies’ valuations and business ailments.
Swiggy acquired which company?
Swiggy has acquired 6 companies to date, which are LYNK Logistics, Dineout, Kint, Scootsy, Supr Daily, and 48East.
Swiggy is owned by which company?
Swiggy is owned by Prosus, SoftBank Group, and Accel and it was founded by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini.
The COVID-19 pandemic has effectively brought normal life to a halt in the whole world. So, Indian government has used the formula “break the chain” to stop the spread of this disease. Indian government has ordered for lockdown and 1.3 billion residents of country to stay home. As a result, employees of many companies are working from home. But they need to follow best practices for working from home to be productive.
But, it’s not easy for the company to let all employees to work from home. Company has to take permission from its client if employee can work on client’s information at home. Employees need laptop, a good internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware & software. Of course, technology has made it easy as you can do everything online like meetings, attendance, etc. But, all companies have to make plans how they can make it efficient.
We talked to few companies about their planning to have “Work from Home” and effective best practices for working from home which they have applied for maximum output in the time.
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. We talked to Mr. Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD of upGrad, about their planning to make work from home effective.
At upGrad ever since we have switched to the Work-From-Home model, the leadership team has been on their toes to make sure that their respective teams are communicating enough amongst their colleagues, maintaining the team bonding and synchronization. We have active video/audio calls and group conferencing to make sure that everybody stays updated.
We’ve ensured that remote IT infrastructure (hardware and software) are made available as much as possible. To ensure that the work stays uninterrupted, employees can discuss with their manager and mail to IT help for support anytime.
We will be using hangouts, zoom or other software for official meetings or calls.
Employees are encouraged not to step out of home for a meeting, event, public gathering etc. unless absolutely necessary.
We suggest them to exercise caution while using public transport for travelling inside the city and minimize your inter-city and intra city travels.
At upGrad, we will be monitoring the spread, taking inputs from industry and govt. bodies and take appropriate decisions keeping your safety and business continuity in mind. We will keep employees posted from time to time about relevant updates.
Casa Exotique
Casa Exotique has been exploring the depth of Interior Designing and Styling with the help of a remarkable team of professionals who takes each and every turn to make your vision come to life. We talked to Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist and Founder, about the plans to make work from home effective.
Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar- Founder, Casa Exotique:
Given that we’re currently at stage two of the infection, we are actively separating sick employees and contractors from the healthy ones to prevent the infection from spreading any further. Also, sick employees have been given the Flexi leave benefits as well. As of now, we are waiting for the government directives and updates on the situation. If there is any indication that we are moving towards stage 3, then work from home will definitely be implemented.
121 Experiences
121 Experiences specializes in experiential brand communicating solutions to drive behaviour changing consumer habits. We talked to Aniket Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Aniket Sharma- Co-Founder, 121 Experiences :
We have urged all our employees to work from home during the current crisis unless absolutely necessary to work from office.
We also understand not all employees can work from home due to their respective reasons, for them we are following a rotational policy. If there is a team of 4 then only 2 people have been asked to come on a single day.
Further we have encouraged car pooling amongst our employees instead of taking the local transport to and fro to work.
We have also relaxed office hours from 11-4 to ensure those who have to take public transport can avoid peak hours both ways.
My Star Hub
To create the most authentic and memorable fan experiences across the world, My Star Hub came up with the platform where fans can book personalized video shootouts from their favorite celebrities. We talked to Swapnil Mahajan, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Swapnil Mahajan- Founder, My Star Hub :
We have chalked out a comprehensive guideline to keep remote working effective.
Besides maintaining a focus on clear communication, we have kept things flexible as we know that the one-size-fits-all formula doesn’t work when people are working in different settings.
We are relying on online tools and digital meeting platforms for discussions, clarifications, and progress tracking.
We have full trust in our people and are working on creating a support structure for effective remote working.
Co-founded by Swati Nathani and Ranjeet Kumar, Team Pumpkin, a 360 Degrees Marketing & PR agency commenced its operations in 2012 with a clear mission to help brands win in the Marketing and PR space. We talked to Ranjeet Kumar, Co-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Ranjeet Kumar- Co-Founder, Team Pumpkin :
As a precautionary measure, we have rolled out remote working directives for all our employees across regions until the situation settles down.
Team Pumpkin has always been a flexible organization, even before Coronavirus forced people to work-from-home, we had implemented the policy in our company. With our long-tested policy and a supportive environment for remote working, we are effectively maintaining our productivity levels.
With daily work reports and progress updates, we are making sure that the deliverables are not affected and business continuity is maintained as normal.
We are connecting with the teams and clients through teleconferencing and video conferencing on a need basis.
To manage daily attendance, employees have been advised to download the app and do remote clock-in and clock-out throughout the remote working period.
For those who need to visit the office for any urgent requirement, we are ensuring complete hygiene within the premises.
Headquartered in Hyderabad and Singapore, Ozonetel has several industry firsts to its credit in the area of Cloud Communication. We talked to Chaitanya Chokkareddy, Co-founder & Chief Innovative Officer, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Chaitanya Chokkareddy-Co-Founder, Ozonetel
Ozonetel Communications is a pioneer of cloud communication solutions and as per Dept. of Telecom (DoT) regulations, calls can be converted to VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and connected to agents’ phones within the OSP sites’ local network. This will allow organizations with OSP license to extend the call from OSP site to be connected to agents’ phones at their home over VPN.
VPN will allow access of all applications that are accessible to an agent at OSP site. Since Cloud Agent delivers all agent tools including a phone call in browser, it’s a seamless transition.
We are helping all our clients/customers to set up this model of WFH. All those running IP based contact center like Cloud Agent can implement this, but for now it is limited by DoT for only who has the OSP license.
Dineout is India’s largest Dining out and Restaurant tech platform, helping more than 17 million diners monthly discover new restaurants, reserve a table, pay for their bills and get offers and discounts combined with a SaaS product offering to its restaurant partners manage their operations. We talked to Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Ankit Mehrotra-Co-Founder, Dineout :
Work from home as a policy is commonly followed by our teams in times of personal need but when we implemented self quarantine policy for the necessary folks, it seemed almost difficult to function. And a time like this where the entire office across all cities, including our Sales team who are majorly on field, to work from home is something we never imagined!
We are leveraging on technologies like Google Hangouts, Slack and Zoomfor work from home arrangements and ensuring continuity of the work.
The start and end to our day is just like before with regular communication and synergy within teams and with clients via video conferencing.
It continues to be challenging and we’re learning on the go, one day at a time with effective and ethical work practices virtually.
Bridged
Bridged uses a combination of AI and 13,000 strong highly skilled workforce to develop unique and vast data at scale significantly improving the quality of data models. We talked to Ashwin Chalam, Founder and CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Ashwin Chalam-Founder, Bridged :
Employees at Bridged have recently started working from home, and we’ve put measures in place to ensure productivity does not decrease. We made sure that all employees have access to requirements such as a laptop, an internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware & software, etc.
Concerning best practices, employees need to prioritize communication. This involves multiple video chats and protocols for communication and escalation.
Employees should update their teammates on the status of tasks at hand and inform them when they won’t be available during lunch breaks, casual rests, etc.
CarveNiche
CarveNiche is an innovative edtech startup, which is using latest technologies such as machine learning and advanced data analytics to personalise learning for K-12 education. We talked to Avneet Makkar, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Avneet Makkar-Founder, CarveNiche :
Have dedicated Work Space while working from home and setting a work schedule and sticking to it.
It is very important to not get distracted and be disciplined about your work as this way, one would be able to finish tasks at hand effectively and efficiently.
Docttocare allows the users to schedule their surgery appointment with the right doctor or hospital, which is best for their health and which is cost-effective. We talked to Sugandha, Founder of Docttocare, about what advice/suggestions she has for effective work from home.
Sugandha-Founder, Docttocare :
Hit the shower- To set the tempo, prepare as if it’s a normal day at work. Take a bath and get dressed.
Communication: Video call is must.
Never work where you sleep.
Set up a workplace at home.
Don’t forget to log off- When the day ends, log off completely and take rest.
Work for 6 hours, that are more productive when WFH.
NowPurchase
NowPurchase offers a curated B2B e-commerce platform with over 50,000 industrial goods. The company has also developed a unique NowPaaS (Purchasing as a Service) for regular buyers where it combines its e-Commerce offering with a purchase management SaaS platform. We talked to Naman Shah, Co-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Naman Shah-Co-founder, NowPurchase :
Understanding this and also the fact that with Work From Home employees can only spare 3-4 hours/day, we decided to start an initiative to complete the ignored but important work- CRM and Management Software implementation.
AppViewX
AppViewX is a modular, low-code software application that enables Certificate Management as well as Network Infrastructure Automation and Orchestration using an intuitive, context-aware, visual workflow. We asked Anand Purusothaman, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Anand Purusothaman- Founder, AppViewX :
Giving our team the flexibility to define work hours based on their family priorities, especially in this situation, has helped immensely. With kids off from schools and the mounting household chores, we made it clear that we understood this unique situation and supported it. This has gone a long way. We also conduct frequent virtual connects with leaders, informal coffee chats with the team, wellness initiatives and business updates to keep the team reassured that the business is on track, to ensure that they stay connected.
LegalWiz
LegalWiz is focussed on helping early-stage startups and small businesses stay compliant and maintain legal hygiene while maintaining the highest transparency on deliverables. We asked Shrijay Sheth, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
We had planned well and hence were prepared. Team leads were giving full responsibility to ensure that operations and work protocols are maintained. That said, a team of 3 has been deployed to assist any team-member with any problems they may face. I am personally available to any team member who wants to connect and we have frequent discussions on coping with confinement and making work easier.
Tips for Managing Remote Teams effectively
Excess2sell
Excess2sell is India’s Premier and leading b2b excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We talked with Mr Rajan Sharma, Founder & CEO, on about their planning to make work from home effective.
Fortunately, we are a tech based start-up and are fully geared to take our work home. So in terms of technology WFH is not much of a problem area for us. However, the complete lockdown has ensured that there is no movement of goods and hence not many fresh deals will happen during this period. We will definitely see the effect on our bottom line this quarter and probably in the next quarter too.
ZingHR
ZingHR is one of the oldest HRM providers. ZingHR is one of the few global ventures which offers almost all web/mobile-based modules from Hire to Retire Solutions with state of the art tech supporting those applications. We talked with Prasad Rajappan, Founder and CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Prasad Rajappan-Founder, ZingHR :
Work from home is an unavoidable situation which we think can be utilised to focus on performance and achieve outcome-oriented results. “Results are the only true sign of excellence.” We think the best part right now that everyone can do irrespective who they are as follows:
Inspire people
Ask them to stay indoors
Practice hygiene
Unlearn and Relearn
Support peers and family
Not to spread Fake News
Pray
Primus Co-Work
We are a hyperlocal, proptech, consumer business which partners with restaurants, that open only during the night, to convert them into co-working places from Mon-Fri/10am-6pm, and have an mobile app using which the customers can look up a co-working place across multiple pincodes, make payment online and book a seat. We talked with Shardul Bayas, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Shardul Bayas-Founder, Primus Co-Work :
Talk to the team members over a call 2-3 times a day, do a zoom call every alternate day, checking with the team to ensure things are normal, doing followups on the work and preparedness.
Mamaearth
Mamaearth is Asia’s first Madesafe certified brand that offers 100% toxin free & natural baby and mama care products. We talked with Ghazal Alagh, C0-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
The first thing we did was to define a tiered policy. We figured out how much of each job role could be done from home (if at all). We then defined goals and deliverables— first as an organization, then on a team level, and finally at the individual level. We continue to do break this down on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis. This helps everyone at the organization become much more aligned with their goals as we work from home.
Other than that, we realize this is a time of a lot of panic and fear. As a parent myself, I know that having children at home constantly, and not having access to domestic help, can also interfere with productivity at work. So we’re enabling more flexibility within the organization.
We’ve also allowing space for people to articulate their issues – we’ve defined a specific time when people can just talk about what they’re going through. At the same time, we’ve also made space for coming together as a community and sharing positivity — whether it’s through online games, contests, or just sharing photos and videos of our home office, and the small joys of coming together in this challenging time.
Metro and Metro
Metro & Metro is one of the leading manufactures of shoes and allied product in india. We talked with Meenakshi Kalsi, Business Partner, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Meenakshi Kalsi- Business Partner, Metro & Metro :
We can only handle the communication with the customers and the suppliers. But the manufacturing part is totally at the standstill as that requires labour to be present. To assist my team we are supporting them financially and taking care of their needs. There’s a regular meeting done through zoom video calls to check up on them.
Simply Fresh India
Simply fresh AI technology in farming for growing, nourishing, picking and processing. We talked with Sachin Darbarwar, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Sachin Darbarwar- Founder, Simply Fresh :
Almost all our corporate employees are working from home which includes teams like – HR, finance, IT, marketing, sales and legal. All our department heads are doing a wonderful job of connecting with their teams virtually and making sure the workflow is smooth as much as possible. We are making use of technology to stay connected and have video calls and group conference calls to maintain the business continuity. It is important during these time that we stay connected virtually and make sure we adhere to needs of our team as required.
Cosmo Films
Cosmo Films is a global leader in specialty films for packaging, lamination and labeling applications. We talked with Mr. Pankaj Poddar, CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Pankaj Poddar-CEO, Cosmo Films :
We being a continuous process plant and also film suppliers to the food packaging industry; come under essential services and hence we have obtained permission to run operations with minimal manpower. Our remaining functions like Sales, Marketing, IT, Finance, Purchase, and HR are working from home to provide backend support to the plant for smooth operations.
As employees are working from home due to COVID 19, we have made necessary arrangements for our employees like the availability of laptops and systems, printers, required stationary and internet connectivity.
Ecolab Digital Centre
Ecolab Digital Centre focuses on finding solutions to real-world problems around water safety, energy conservation, food security, and healthy environments. We talked with Malahar Pinnelli, MD, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Malahar Pinnelli- MD, Ecolab Digital Centre :
We have always been using Video Conferencing to work with the US team, now we have started using those with the team here. Each manager connects with their team every day and that rolls up to the Managing Director. We have every 2 days a week, a mandatory video call to make sure people are still visually connected.
Surmount Business
Surmount Business practices targets to become a strategic partner to entrepreneurs and enterprises to help expand businesses beyond their existing roots, professionalize their operations and enhance their Capital Efficiency. We talked with Niraj Bora, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.
Niraj Bora-Founder, Surmount Business :
We organize long video calls instead of just audios, play some games online weekly with the team, and keep in touch more often in order to keep the enthusiasm alive. We have also increased training sessions online in order to keep learning ongoing. People also get more negative be reading and hearing daily cases and hardships on media, so I have tried sharing cover-19 recovery stories discussion with teams as well. A piece in last Sunday’s ET covered that very well and sharing with everyone gave positivity to the team mindset.
For some out of office chats, we have WhatsApp group where team posts any new thing they do like cooking, new indoor game, etc.
FAQs
What is a work from home model?
The Work From Home model allows employees to work remotely. Employees get the flexibility to work from anywhere. It is location-independent.
What essentials do you need to work from home?
Computer/Laptop with webcam and mic
Proper Internet Connection
Essential Software/Tools as per the work/business requirement
How do you connect with employees working from home?
In the WFH model, a virtual office for employees is set up. Offices use the best video conferencing and team collaboration tools to connect with employees. A shared portal for employees is created to share personal as well as professional updates.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization, Dineout.
We all love good food and not only to survive! It doesn’t matter whether it is traditional or international. But due to the hustle and bustle all around, people aren’t able to go to the spot and book their seats. Or the tables were already booked when you get the restaurant and you don’t get a fair chance to sit and eat. These leaves most of us to settle for else and just get the same old takeout you always opt for. But not anymore.
Because, Dineout is here – your new go-to restaurant table reservation service company. It helps its customers find tables in their favourite restaurants and enables users to get exciting offers along with it. Read the Dineout success story below and find out the unknown details such as the story of the founders of Dineout’s, Dineout’s business model, revenue, competitors and much more.
Dineout enables its customers to book tables onlinewithout having to physically go to the spot. It is a restaurant technology company based in India. The service is available in more than 20 cities in India and is looking to expand.
In the year 2010, Ankit Mehrotra was in London and his school friend Sahil Jain was in the US. They often came together to India. Every time they visited they had the same question.
“Where do we go out tonight?”
Asking their family members or friends never turned out to be fruitful. Because they always suggested the same places. After going back to London and the U.S. they found their regular jobs to be boring. They thought of solving the restaurant discovery problem. In February 2011 Sahil left his job and came back to Delhi. Ankit followed a few months later. They convinced two of their other school friends – Vivek Kapoor and Nikhil Bakshi to join the startup later. InSeptemberDineoutgotregisteredasanonlinetable reservation platform. Things weren’t easy for the four school friends. In its early days, they faced 20 rejections. The first restaurant partner of the company was Ruby Tuesday. Google Ads helped the company get a lot for recognition in the initial days. On February 29th 2012, the company went live with 75 restaurants in Delhi.
Dineout – Founders And Team
AnkitMehrotra, VivekKapoor, NikhilBakshi and SahilJain are the founders of the company Dineout.
Ankit Mehrotra is the founder and the CEO of Dineout. He started here in early 2012. He started his career as an analyst at BNP Paribas. He pursued his bachelor’s degree in Computers and Telecommunications Engineering in the year 2011. After that, he completed his education from the CFA Institute.
Vivek Kapoor is the co-founder of Dineout. Before, he was the chief officer at British Petroleum. He completed his schooling from Modern School in the year 2002.
Nikhil Bakshi is also the co-founder of Dineout. Before, he was the manager of DSP BlackRock Mutual Fund. He pursued his B.Com degree from Delhi University.
Sahil Jain is one of the founders of Dineout. He started his career as a Software Engineer in Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd. Also, he was the Senior Business Analyst and Associate Manager at Mu Sigma. For 9 months, he was the Senior Market Analyst at Nextag.
Nikhil Bakshi, Ankit Mehrotra, Sahil Jain and Vivek Kapoor (left to right) Founders, Dineout
Dineout – Logo
Dineout Logo
Dineout – Business Model
The Dineout business model is rather simple. The company offers its customers many B2B and B2C services. The aim of the company is to serve its consumers by helping them book tables in hotels and restaurants. It has made deals with pubs and restaurants to help customers find the best offers. They give discounts for their promotion and also whenever there is an increase in downloads.
The company charges an annual subscription price from the restaurant partners. As well as from the consumers. It also makes money on every transaction done through the platform. But it varies as per restaurants and cities.
Dineout – Funding, Investors And Acquisitions
Funding rounds
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investor
January 24, 2014
Series A
–
–
Investments
The company has made only one investment. Dineout has invested money on Adurcup on September 14, 2015. The money raised is an undisclosed amount. Money was raised from the Angel Round.
Acquisitions
Dineout has acquired 2 organisations. The most recent acquisition was Binge Digital. The announced date was on August 9th 2019. The price is an undisclosed amount. The company also acquired Torqus Systems on November 28, 2018.
Dineout – Growth
The company showed a sustainable growth of 154% in the year 2019. The average number of diners before 2019 it was 8 lakhs per month. But in the year 2019, after the GIRF, the number of diners jumped to over 16 lakhs per month.
Dineout – Competitors
The top Dineout competitors are EazyDiner, Zomato, HungryNaki to name a few.
EazyDiner is the topmost rival of Dineout. It was founded in the year 2014. It is headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana. The company also operates in the Application Software space.
Zomato is an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery startup. It was founded by Pankaj Chaddah and Deepinder Goyal in the year 2008.
HungryNaki is an online food delivery service in Bangladesh. It is the first and premium one among all the others.
The company started expanding into international markets. Across Asia, Africa, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and East Africa. Dineout is also spreading its wings towards Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India. This change will be taking place because the brands will soon open up outlets in the Tier 2 cities.`
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
What is Dineout app?
Dineout is a restaurant table reservation service company founded in 2012 based in New Delhi, India.
Who is the owner of Dineout?
Dineout was founded by Ankit Mehrotra, Nikhil Bakshi, Sahil Jain and Vivek Kapoor in 2012.
What is Dineout net worth?
Dineout is processes more than 100 Million diners and $800 Million worth of transactions across its network of 50,000 partner restaurants in 20 cities. The exact networth of Dineout is unknown.
When was Dineout founded?
Dineout was founded in 2011 and the site went live in 2012.
The COVID-19 pandemic has effectively brought normal life to a halt in whole world. Social distancing, work from home and a lockdown are the only ways to stop the spread of this virus. Situation is not different in India too. The Indian government has done the smart thing by implementing a 21-days lockdown along with an international and domestic flight ban, and a stoppage of the railway service. But, this lockdown, work from home will impact Indian economy.
Transportation has stopped, manufacturing units are closed, shops which sell non essentials are closed, so this will affect economy for sure. One of the biggest potential impacts to India’s employment and economy could be the shuttering of manufacturing plants and assembly lines in the tech sector. So, this will affect startups too.
MyGate is India’s leading security and community management solution for gated premises. MyGate helps residents to manage guest entries and delivery executives. We talked to Vijay Arisetty, Co-founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Quick access to medical expertise and credible information, particularly in the era of social media, is extremely important in the fight against coronavirus. We are very keen on raising awareness on the matter and ensuring the availability of qualified medical advice for our 1.5 million+ users, and found strong partners in digital healthcare platforms DocsApp and mfine who promptly agreed to offer online consultation via their nationwide doctor network. Their doctors were kept busy over the weekend, with 2800 consultations completed over the last weekend alone, at no cost to our users.
Rising Sun
Inatur Ayurveda & Aromatherapy manufactures Organic and Natural skin, hair care and wellness products. These are safer, eco-friendly, and more effective skin care products. We talked to Pooja Nagdev, Founder and CEO,on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We have taken the following steps to ensure the safety of all our customers, our partners & most importantly our employees.
Our manufacturing facility, office and retail stores are being disinfected regularly.
All employees have been given complimentary gloves, sanitisers & masks which are to be used at all times, without fail.
Strict measures are taken against anyone working in an unhygienic way.
Zamit
Zamit- a one-stop platform that networks & supports school ecosystems to be future-ready. It is an information, engagement and interaction platform that networks schools, students, teachers, parents, and school service providers. We talked to Aarul Malaviya, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The various steps taken by the company are as follows-
Our HR has created a ready-to-refer document and shared it with every employee of the company which contains all the information related to the virus and preventive measures to be taken. (The information is taken from verified sources)
Hand sanitizers are being placed at every entrance of the office and in all cabins/rooms of the office. The employees are asked to wash their hands at regular intervals and only enter the office premises on washing your hands using waster or Hand sanitizers.
The employees have been asked to communicate using various communication platforms like slack, hangouts etc. as much as they can to maintain social distance.
All the employees are being given strict instructions to clean and sanitize their stuffs like laptop, bags, mouse & mouse pads, phones etc. using Antiseptic Wipes which are placed in every room/cabin of the office.
The cleaners are instructed to clean the office using an antiseptic liquid throughout the day in equal intervals of time.
Disposable gloves are being provided to the cleaners and the people managing the pantry. The gloves will be worn every time they are serving any food item to anybody in the office.
Time slots have been given to each department of the office for lunch in the pantry to avoid employee’s exposure to crowded areas.
Face masks are made available in the office for every employee. Whoever feels the need, someone who is coughing, sneezing, running nose or symptoms of COVID-19 will have access to the mask.
Lastly, info graphics, posters are set up across the office as a way of encouraging the employees to eat food & adopt practices which will help in immunity building of the human system.
CASA EXOTIQUE
The company has been exploring the depth of Interior Designing and Styling with the help of a remarkable team of professionals who takes each and every turn to make your vision come to life. We talked to Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
After consulting with experts in the field, we have adopted a number of routines to ensure that the risk of any possible outbreak is minimized.
The workplace is routinely cleaned and sanitized to provide a safe working environment for our employees.
Travelling, especially overseas, has been restricted and is permitted only in urgent or exceptional cases.
We have also employed a temperature gun at the office so that in case anyone contracts the sickness, it could be detected at the earliest. This would help prevent the disease from worsening and would also prevent the infection from spreading.
We have also asked sick employees to stay at home and we’re providing flexible leave policies as well. The alcohol-based sanitizer has also been made mandatory at the workplace.
121 Experiences
121 Experiences specializes in experiential brand communicating solutions to drive behaviour changing consumer habits. We talked to Aniket Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Following policies have been implemented starting this week –
Office will be open from 11am to 4pm Monday to Saturday.
No visitors will be allowed within the office premise.
All employees who have laptops need to work from home; also they need to be available on phone calls and emails during office hours.
For those who cannot work from home, a rotational cycle for attendance will be applied.
Avoiding non-essential local travel.
Domestic and international travel must be prohibited.
In their endeavor to create the most authentic and memorable fan experiences across the world, MyStarHub provides a platform where fans can book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite celebrities. We talked to Swapnil Mahajan, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The safety of our employees is of utmost importance for us, and understanding the seriousness of the situation, we have been constantly tracking the turn of events.
We have been maintaining the highest hygiene standards within the office premises and communicating detailed guidelines for personal safety and hygiene.
Initially, we started by restricting travel and face-to-face meetings to only urgent ones. But as the coming few days are crucial for India to control the spread of Coronavirus, we have declared work-from-home for all our employees since March 18.
Sify Technologies
Sify is the largest ICT service provider, systems integrator, and all-in-one network solutions company on the Indian subcontinent. We talked to Praveen Krishna, Investor Relations, Public Relations & Corporate Communications, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Sify we have taken certain precautionary measures to safeguard the employees like daily mailers on hygiene, use of santizers, awareness through WHO videos, reporting colleagues who might be coughing or sneezing inordinately, no physical contact with each other, etc – Specifically, these are the is what is being implemented.
People
Stipulation that everybody should sanitise their hands a minimum of 4 times in the day.
Report anybody who is coughing or sneezing inordinately.
No shaking hands
Hydrate with warm water regularly.
Precautions
Daily mailers on maintaining hygiene.
If in doubt, get it checked at the nearest designated hospital.
Recommended home quarantine for 14 days on the advise of a medical practitioner.
In the event of co-habited work space, they have to have sanitisers on the desk.
WHO videos on best way to avoid and if contracted what to do.
Videos on fundamentals, for e.g. how to wash hands, how to wear a mask when out in public, what to avoid etc
All events, offsites etc have been cancelled.
Travel
If carpooling, recommended to exercise caution and not drive other’s vehicles.
International travel has been completely barred.
Domestic travel is also being monitored with hot spots like Delhi, Hyderabad and now Bangalore not recommended.
Quarantine
Anybody who has internationally travelled in the last 30 days is quarantined for 14 days as a precaution and a report is shared with the travel and health authorities.
Team Pumpkin
Team Pumpkin is a 360 Degrees Marketing & PR agency commenced its operations in 2012 with a clear mission to help brands win in the Marketing and PR space. We talked to Ranjeet Kumar, Co-founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We were one of the first few offices to declare WFH for all our teams.
We had taken a note right from the beginning and have been preparing to tackle the situation.Initially, we created a COVID-19 response plan and shared it across teams to keep them aware of the probable actions according to the corresponding situations. This was shared along with detailed information about the transmission of the virus and guidelines to ensure safety.
Sensing the seriousness of the situation we had limited travel only to the critical ones and restricted in-person interviews and meetings at all our offices.
The use of the biometric machine has been completely stopped and attendance management is being done through the partner app.
75F provides Internet of Things (IoT) hardware & software building products that makes office building more energy efficient, controlled and comfortable. We talked with Mr. Deepinder Singh, CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
75F Technologists and Sales Teams is working remotely to provide troubleshooting, ongoing training, best practices, and guidance to its customers.
Their Facilisight are fully operational through which customers can monitor, manage, and control buildings remotely through their desktop, tablet or 75F apps to lower set points, power down building lighting, or bring down unused zones or floors selectively to conserve costs and equipment.
75F warehouse are fully staffed, and their flexible cloud-based infrastructure will ensure minimal disruption to the business.
Dineout
Dineout is India’s largest Dining out and Restaurant tech platform, helping more than 17 million diners monthly discover new restaurants, reserve a table, pay for their bills and get offers and discounts combined with a SaaS product offering to its restaurant partners manage their operations. We talked to Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Dineout, our team is our extended family, and their health and safety always comes first! When the coronavirus outbreak first hit globally, we were as surprised as everyone else however we did start taking preventive measures right from the beginning.
Rigorous office sanitisation, availability of masks and sanitisers, as well as a Self-quarantine policy was implemented under which all employees (or family) with a travel history outside India, or those who have been in contact with affected persons or even flu like symptoms were asked to self-quarantine themselves for 14 days.
We also urged our teams to cancel any work related travel, reduce visitors and fever screening through IR thermometers at the entrance for the last 2 weeks.
We also practiced social distancing at all our offices by sitting at alternate work stations and maintaining 6 feet distance at all times.
From Monday, 16th March, we implemented work-from-home policy for our teams across all cities until March 31st 2020.
Our sales teams have also been advised to focus on virtual training and virtual client support for the next two weeks. In fact our teams are also having lunch together digitally!
In such challenging times, we continue to work together to overcome operational hurdles by leveraging technologies like Google Hangouts, Slack and Google Meets to stay connected virtually and ensure continuity of work.
Huddle
With a rich pool of dedicated experts and mentors to support the growth of early-stage ventures, Huddle enables the ventures to take their business to the next stage. We talked to Sanil Sachar & Ishaan Khosla, Co-founders & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The current challenges due to Covid-19, act as a reality check for a lot of startups and large ventures to realize who their real customers are and how valuable their product/service is. In an environment where doing less is helpful, there is a lot of reduction in spends which is funneling out and reducing customer base, which indeed has a detrimental impact on the cash flows of a venture. For us, we have taken measures to help our ventures from day one to create businesses that have a strong back end and therefore, not only those that can sustain during such unfortunate and unexpected times.
This period of isolation and in the day and age where social distancing is important, companies will see a reduction in funding, financing of their working capital due to reduced sales or utilization of their service and product, but the gain from this ‘downtime’ is to create sustainability within ventures through offerings that can add value despite the environment. We are prepared to support our startups through infrastructure and our team, with the resources we have to help them sustain and not succumb to any of these losses. At a time like this, is when our Huddle of portfolios are standing strong together to support one another. For us, we are preparing all the measures to support our ventures. Luckily we have not seen any decline in the speed at which our companies are working, and our onboarding of newer companies, because innovation is needed now more than ever.
Zolo provides fully managed, long-term affordable stay options with a warm and homely environment. We talked to Dr. Nikhil Sikri, CEO & Co-Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Zolostays, the safety and health of our residents and our employees is of out utmost priority. Since we operate a co-living model, we have come up with specific policies to tackle the spread of COVID-19 for both our employees and our residents.
For Employees
We have advised employees to ‘Work from Home’, if they are experiencing any kind of flu, cold, cough and breathlessness and have been asked to self-quarantine and get in touch with a doctor.
We have also encouraged hand hygiene by placing hand sanitizers around the offices and the commonly touched surfaces and objects are being wiped with disinfectants regularly.
We have also cancelled non-essential business trips and our efficient HR team regularly shares all the advisories released by the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs.
For Residents and HouseKeepers
We have initiated special training of the housekeeping staffs for the best practices of personal hygiene and sanitizing for COVID-19 prevention.
Personal Protective Equipment have also been provided to all our housekeeping and kitchen staffs including gloves and masks which are disposed off at regular intervals.
We have also provided hospital-grade disinfectants and cleaning agents approved by WHO for cleaning purposes.
All community activities have been suspended and a special trained support team is kept on standby to help the residents of any related COVID-19 instances.
Headquartered in Hyderabad and Singapore, Ozonetel has several industry firsts to its credit in the area of Cloud Communication. We talked to Chaitanya Chokkareddy, Co-founder & Chief Innovative Officer, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Ozonetel has adopted Work From Home (WFH) as one of their policies with respect to the recent COVID -19 outbreak. We believe that remote working model can be as efficient as working from office if we use the right tools. And since we can offer this option for our employees, we did.
Tjori
Imbibing cultural and traditional crafts from around the globe, Tjori is a platform for treasured designs across apparel, footwear, bags, decor, and jewellery. In keeping with the essence of our brand, it also offers a range of organic and ayurvedic skin care products, using secrets whispered through generations. We talked to Mansi Gupta, Founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We at Tjori are trying our best to create awareness and precautionary measures for our Tjori family, our employees, our vendors and our customers.
The measures taken under the office premises are that of compulsory mask on everyone who enters the office, a sanitization process for our vendors and customers who walk-in for their respective needs. The sanitization process contains the simple steps of handing a surgical mask and using an alcohol derived sanitizer has that helps killing the viability of the office.
The everyday cleaning processes has amplified and now every two hours a thorough cleaning is done.
The people who are ill have been given grace leave in-order to help them recover without any stress.
Packman Packaging
Packman Packaging is one of India’s largest manufacturers of corrugated boxes, corrugated rolls, bubble rolls, bubble pouches, courier bags, POD jackets, duct tapes, e-commerce shipping bags and more. We talked to Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Packman Packaging is trying what it can by implementing some of the things not just for the betterment of its employees but in a broader aspect its customers as well. Packman Packaging has already implemented certain work policies that include everyone from the workers and the management.
Packman Packaging is primarily working as a manufacturer so in the manufacturing unit, Packman Packaging has adopted a policy where the workers are being asked to work in shifts so that there will be a lesser number of attendances at a given time.
It will also ensure that every worker has a proper space to work because it is not crowded as it used to be before the pandemic days. As of now, this seems to work well.
Packman has a huge advantage because of its online store. And because of that the majority of the staff related to IT and customer service the marketing and sales teams are working remotely from their homes most of the time.
As for the senior management teams are concerned, the employees are working on a rotational basis. The management team members are working on alternate days. This way it not only helps the normal flow of work but also, ensures everyone remains safe.
The most important thing Packman Packaging has assigned its guards an added responsibility that whoever is entering the premises of the office and manufacturing unit he is making sure that everyone is getting their hands sanitized and wearing masks.
Also, there has been a floor manager assigned who is monitoring that everyone is washing their hands with sanitizer and wearing masks for every exit and entry in the respective floors.
Sick employees are advised to stay at home as much as possible.
Bridged.co
Bridged uses a combination of AI and a 13,000 strong highly skilled workforce to develop unique and vast data at scale significantly improving the quality of data models. We talked to Ashwin Chalam, CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We’ve educated our employees on best practices (such as washing hands often and limiting physical contact) to implement during this health crisis.
We’ve placed hand sanitizers across spaces in the office, and even requested employees to practice social distancing and avoid unnecessary travel.
We’ve implemented a work from home policy.
With these efforts, we hope to flatten the curve by reducing the probability of our employees catching the virus, which is essential to mitigating this pandemic.
Covid-19, which has shaken the whole world has brought everyone’s life at halt. This highly contagious disease is spreading so fast that Indian Government has ordered 1.3 billion residents to stay home. In this lockdown period, all malls, theaters, companies, shops, restaurants, manufacturing units are shut. This will affect businesses and economy badly. Many companies have told their employees to work from home. But, its not possible for all companies like manufacturing units, theaters, malls to let their employees work from home.
People are also scared of going out. This coronavirus has made people’s lifestyle slow and it will take time for everyone including companies to come back on track after this long period of lock down. COVID-19 has put slowdown to a business everywhere. Travel, Hotel, Events, and Entertainment are the sectors that are suffering. But on the other hand, other sectors such as eCommerce, EduTech have benefited immensely.
How Industry and Customer Behavior will Change after Coronavirus Fight?
We have asked few companies about changes in industry and customer behavior with respect to their company after this coronavirus outbreak.
At this time people have become more aware and going back to the basics. I see that with respect to FMCG ethical labelling will be enforced and people will more watchful of the ingredients they are consuming. The trend for natural and organic care will be the rise.
Indi Collage
Anuradha Singh
At the moment people are more inclined towards online shopping but once the epidemic comes under control we expect to see more of experience based buying & shopping as a social interaction
Tres’Chic Academe
Chitra Balasubramaniam, CEO
Since we operate online most of the time doing business the customer satisfaction is high & this corona virus situation has made us realise our step taking our business online earlier & given us good dividends by doing so.
CASA EXOTIQUE
Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist, Founder
There is no denying that business has taken a real hit because of the spread of this menacing disease. Many business firms are closing their stores, and numerous art and design fairs have been either canceled, postponed, or their upcoming plans have been modified. Moreover, due to the hindrance brought about in the global business, overseas procurement has become impossible. Due to this, the supply chain is going to be affected and this will change the dynamics of business. Customers are looking at products customized for them, made locally by us.
MyStarHub
Swapnil Mahajan, Founder & CEO
Well, we are already experiencing a shift from traditional gifts to personalized online gifting due to the digital revolution. With isolation being the key preventive measure in checking the spread of Coronavirus, digital gifting solutions will certainly get a boost.
While celebrations have been put on hold and people are staying indoors, getting a personalized video message from one’s favorite star on a special occasion will be a unique gift to cast off gloom in the environment and bring some cheerful moments to make the day memorable. Especially in the current scenario, being able to send and receive these celebrity video shoutouts that too without any fear of being exposed to the virus will gain popularity to keep the celebratory spirit on.
Just like every other industry, the digital media and advertising sector is also strongly impacted by the virus outbreak. Since consumers are locking themselves indoors to stay safe and social distancing has become the norm of the day, there is a likely boost expected in the consumption of content online. Internet penetration has already taken B2C marketing online, the isolation mandate due to COVID-19 will now de-popularize out-of-home advertisement and also lead B2B ad turn towards digital.
As people keep avoiding social gatherings and public places, they eventually would rely more on social media and therefore, the digital media consumption will increase significantly. Social networking platforms will shine even brighter during the need to stay connected and access content. And above all, digital marketing will provide immense opportunities for businesses to create leads without traveling and having any face-to-face interactions.
We are already seeing many companies curious to understand how the work from home model can work for their industry. We have executed Work From Home facility for Acko General within a quick time span. We do think this might act as a point where companies start thinking about their backup for remote functioning.
Dineout
Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO
The pandemic has severely affected our operations and we’re seeing a heavy downfall in demand of our services at the moment. Social gathering is the key to our industry, while social distancing is the key to fighting this virus today and we’re strongly promoting it on all our platforms.
While we are not sure of the full consequences of the ongoing crises, this is certainly going to affect consumer behaviour as far as the F&B industry is concerned. Consumers will take some time to gain the confidence to go out again. The key is to provide for the safety and confidence for our diners once the pandemic subsides. We need to go above and beyond to make customers feel safe and engaging with them over the topic. A slew of measures can be taken as per the protocol prescribed by the Health Ministry, including increased access to hand sanitizers and hygiene procedures, body temperature checks for everyone at the premises, etc.
Meanwhile, we stand strong with our partners and are hopeful and positive for the betterment of the situation. We shall be ready with the help of technology to help serve both our diners and restaurants stronger and better than ever.
Packman Packaging
Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder
It is too early to say currently, the industry is still operating as much as it can. But if it becomes a prolonged situation then there might be some issues but they will be temporary not permanent.
There might be a possibilities that sales of packaging materials may dip a bit because of several advisory such as not going outside a designated territory in that case several businesses that uses packaging materials will be affected.
One may also see rise in online sales that may still boost the packaging industry as it will open an avenue for supplying their products to several e-business platforms.
For Packman, their customers are the assets so it will ensure that it can continue its services to its clients and customers. In general one should be prepared and monitor where the company and industry will go in these tumultous times. Customers also understand what is going on so we are sure that our customer will still view us in the same light as they do.
We expect potential and present clients to become conservative with their expenses. Businesses will not be looking to experiment much (with good reason) and will only want to work with teams that have a proven track record and can satisfy critical requirements.
The coronavirus outbreak doesn’t change the fact that businesses are in the information age, and they will need access to high-quality data. Bridged’s USP is that we provide businesses across industries (primarily AI/ML and financial services) with a cost-effective and scalable data solution. During these trying times, we will leverage that.
With respect to the co-living space that we operate in, we will most likely see a decline in the number of bookings as this is a pandemic situation which has been declared by the World Health Organization and social distancing is the need of the hour. However, we do have single room occupancy which could also have higher response rate for our prospective customers and existing residents to shift into.
The online education market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 44% between financial years 2019 and 2024, these trends are expected to disrupt the industry going forward. Keeping current trends in mind, ed-tech services will offer immersive and industry-specific learning across larger groups. Online learning and personalization of education will garner prime importance.
ZEUX Innovation
Hemal Gathani, Co-founder
Post the COVID pandemic, we will see the world becoming even flatter. COVID will teach people how to work remotely. And companies would want to take advantage of the best available talent from across the globe at the right price with the location not being a factor.
We will also see a surge in spending on digital initiatives. Industries would want to digitize everything possible. But going digital won’t be a differentiating factor and won’t necessarily lead them to success. Companies that provide the best user experience on digital channels will take a lead.
This is the time to invest in enabling best in class user experience as not only businesses will be compelled to go digital but there will be a massive shift in user behavior to do more things online.
Tjori
Mansi Gupta, Founder & CEO
The most important thing is to inform the customers about the exact reality of the scenario and give guarantees and assurances about the safe guarding of their money and products. Nobody loses anything because of this and all people need to realise that we are just at a halt for the next 21 days’ post which all activities would resume better than normal.
The pre planning done at any situation always help the company and we are also banking on ours, but at this unforeseen times we solve every problem as it comes. Through this platform I wish to advice people to stay indoors and safe.
Apart from being a threat to public health, COVID-19 has also emerged as a threat to the global economy. Indian Government has put restrictions on regular movement, malls, public spaces, offices. Everything except essential things has been locked down. During this time of uncertainty and unrest, small businesses have been hit the hardest.
Flight, hotel booking firms are the worst hit. Whereas, at the same time, video conferencing providers and online education companies, messaging platforms and of course healthcare & pharmaceutical companies are witnessing a boom in demand but the situation has become for worse for the startups & small scale businesses as they have limited sources and capital.
Indian benchmark indices (BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty) have fallen over 20% this month with foreign investors pulling out around Rs. 38,000 crores fearing recession Analysts predict that the impact of coronavirus in India will shave off 0.5% of India’s GDP growth in FY21. The impact on Indian trade alone is estimated to be more than Rs 34.8 crores.
These macroeconomic headwinds have already affected sale of white labelled goods which contribute half of the GMV of ecommerce companies. Retrenchments and downsizing in the startup ecosystem have started to accelerate as businesses take a hard look at steep operational costs and dipping demand in an uncertain environment made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. Oyo, Bounce, Udaan and Drivezy have begun laying off staff.
While India has taken early measures to contain the virus, there is still uncertainty around how long this pandemic might last. Governments in Europe and USA have already announced aid packages for small businesses and India might have to go down the same route to revive the economy.
How will small businesses survive during Corona Virus outbreak
We have asked few companies how small companies can survive when Corona Virus has affected the economy and so many businesses around the globe.
Rising Sun
Inatur Ayurveda & Aromatherapy manufactures Organic and Natural skin, hair care and wellness products. These are safer, eco-friendly, and more effective skin care products. Lets get views of Ms Pooja Nagdev, Founder and CEO, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak. The Coronavirus crisis presents the economy and businesses with challenges but also with some opportunities. All of us have got time now to review and reflect. This is the time to plan new strategies, check all costs and overheads. Small businesses will have to cut down unnecessary costs and expenditures in order to be profitable.
Indi Collage
Indi Collage is a Fractional Retail platform. It helps brands expand into new markets without the overheads of expensive retail spaces. We talked to Anuradha Singh, on how will small business can survive during Coronavirus outbreak. We are focusing on building a base & giving flexible options to our customers to take later tentative dates for booking their popups at our spaces.
Zamit
Zamit is an information, engagement and interaction platform that networks schools, students, teachers, parents, and school service providers. We talked to Aarul Malaviya, Founder, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak. Coronavirus has created a deep global recession across the world. In case of the Indian market, all the small businesses will suffer a short, serious but not catastrophic recession. Consumers should help these small businesses in any possible way they can since they’re the driving force for these businesses.
Tax relief is something which will help in relieving a major amount of pressure from these small business owners.
All the business owners need to opt for extra cost cutting in their businesses which includes- minimized travel, cancelling any non-essential subscriptions, reduce online sponsored posts, reduce or eliminate meetings to reduce expenses, pause any large costs that could be undertaken at a later stage.
They also need to set clear and realistic business plan and at the same time, motivating the employees to pull this off together as a team and irrespective of mode of working, every employee should be there to help each other as in when it is needed to keep the boat floating peacefully.
CASA EXOTIQUE
Established with an urge to deliver incredible experiences, Casa Exotique has redefined a new benchmark for remarkable interiors and exquisite finishes. We talked to Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist, Founder, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak. Needless to say, this outbreak is detrimental to the economy – especially the small business firms that do not have very deep pockets to support their staff without doing business in the time of this crisis.
To survive this pandemic, there is a need to have open communication with the staff. Everyone can pitch in their ideas on how to keep the business running in such a tough time. By starting the chain of dialogue, more innovative ideas would come to light and effective plans can subsequently be put into place.
Obviously, if the situation gets worse, work from home will probably be the only option. Businesses that are based on IT infrastructure would find it easier to manage work than the ones that require fieldwork. Alternate working hours can be one option for such firms.
The time is beckoning to the employers to put contingencies and crisis management plans in action. Those who have worked out such plans would be at an advantage in the coming months in terms of managing their business.
121 Experiences
121 Experiences is India’s first ever out of the Line agency. 121 Experiences specializes in experiential brand communicating solutions to drive behaviour changing consumer habits. We talked to Aniket Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak.
All small businesses will need to learn to optimise their resources.
Maintaining transparency with the internal employees and customers can help with innovate solutions.
The spirit of survival is going to be the key, staying positive will help think straight in these times of difficulty.
Collaborating with competition instead of cutting costs will be pivotal to sail through together instead of trying to on up the other.
MyStarHub
In their endeavor to create the most authentic and memorable fan experiences across the world, MyStarHub provides a platform where fans can book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite celebrities. We talked to Swapnil Mahajan, Founder, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak.
Even though the Coronavirus has a negative influence on the market worldwide, it has also opened up doors of opportunities for smaller and unconventional businesses in the longer run.
In situations like this, the reliance of overseas suppliers will decrease and demand for local products will increase. Also with limited resources in hand, these small scale businesses, in particular, will innovate ways to survive the uncertainties and bounce back.
Besides this, the government aid and relaxations will help a lot of small businesses manage funds to keep the business going.
Dineout is India’s largest Dining out and Restaurant tech platform, helping more than 17 million diners monthly discover new restaurants, reserve a table, pay for their bills and get offers and discounts combined with a SaaS product offering to its restaurant partners manage their operations. We talked to Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak. We work with more than 40,000 restaurants in India, and the common concern right now is that since no one knows when this will end, there is no way to evaluate the potential business impact. However, it is also severely impacting the bottom line of small businesses like restaurants since their dining operations are temporarily closed.
We are advising our partners to look for ways to stay connected with their customers by means of adding flexibility in their operations. By offering a discount on take-home orders, free delivery, using popular delivery services and special discounts for its existing members opting for home deliveries.
While, no one knows how much longer this situation is going to persist, the one thing that has emerged from this crisis is the absolute need of technology! We’re working closely with our restaurant partners to support them with our B2B technology products in effectively managing deliveries.
We are also preparing for when this pandemic subsides and it’s business as usual to help our restaurant partners get back up and running powered stronger by technology.
Packman Packaging
Packman Packaging is one of India’s largest manufacturers of corrugated boxes, corrugated rolls, bubble rolls, bubble pouches, courier bags, POD jackets, duct tapes, e-commerce shipping bags and more. We talked to Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak.
No doubt coronavirus has impacted several businesses. But one needs to think about the bigger picture. Yes these are hard times particularly for small businesses. But with proper information and following certain guidelines they can survive it too.
If you take an example some markets in Mumbai have decided to work on alternate days just like an odd even program. One day markets on right and on other day the shops on left will remain open. This is a good concept and also ensures time to time income is generated. But yes cannot rule out certain degree of financial losses.
Bridged.co
Bridged uses a combination of AI and a 13,000 strong highly skilled workforce to develop unique and vast data at scale significantly improving the quality of data models. We talked to Ashwin Chalam, CEO, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak.
Here’s an opportunity for businesses to reassess their spending and identify areas of unproductivity. After that, businesses should direct all their efforts into ensuring that their money-making product/service keeps them afloat. Or, they might need to pivot and update their gameplan with new offerings, offerings that a coronavirus-affected market will accept.
Businesses will also have to make difficult decisions such as laying off loyal employees and scaling down on certain perks. But, until the coronavirus phase passes, they will have no other choice but to exercise monetary caution.
St. Angelo’s VNCT Ventures
With a unique approach to real estate development, SAVV Global offers value deliveries, superior design, world class amenities and infrastructure, coupled with timely deliveries and after-sales service. We talked to Mr. Agnelorajesh Athaide, Co-founder, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak. The pandemic is supposedly estimated to hit the economic growth by up to 50bps in FY 21, with the first two quarters slowing down at 4.4.5%, as per government sources. Although these are tough times, entrepreneurs can actually use this to effectively reflect and strategize the way forward, with a resilient attitude and a winning mindset.
Instead of spending the time counting the losses or panicking over the situation, the slowdown could actually be a boon. It is an opportunity allowing start-up founders to take stock of the situation, envision the market needs and demands after the pandemic is over, and gear up for a fresh start.
From learning new skills, conducting employee reviews, collaborating with new vendors/ chalking out an innovative product, to diversifying the business, the current lockdown can be effectively used as an opportunity by visionary and resilient entrepreneurs.
Skilfinity
Skilfinity is full service Digital Marketing & Analytics Company, with operations in Singapore & India. We talked to Ujjal De, Co-founder, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak. Now is the time for longevity and surviving the crisis and not trying to use the situation and health scare as an opportunity.
Build community and trust for your brand by giving back in any way possible, to ensure, when this all is over, people invest in your brand.
Evaluate the offline marketing strategy and switch to bring as many online eyeballs as possible for all business, across industries.
Keep calm, be tenacious, support other businesses in any way possible and take the necessary steps so that you come out of this disruption stronger than ever.
Grooming Naturals
Groominh Naturals owns the brand RAWNATURE which is a line of conscious beauty products that is natural, vegan and designed to work within Indian weather conditions and suited to our people. It cover products across skin care, hair care and bath and shower and cater to both men and women. We talked to Mohit Saxena, on how will small business survive during Coronavirus outbreak.
The key to survival will lie in managing what we can control. We will hopefully soon emerge from this crisis but even if we do, it will be far from over as the aftereffects of the COVID syndrome will stay for a while even after it is gone. Some of the areas we as a company need to be focussed on:
PRODUCT LEVEL
Look at our product portfolio and focus on what sells the most (say top 3 products). FOCUS ON OUR HERO PRODUCTS. This will help us reduce slow moving inventory risk and increase sales cycle. Also, the manufacturing will be easier as we will have only 20% of the SKUs that we will largely focus on.
Relook at what people need in this time and if we can offer that as a solution. We make grooming essentials that are natural and clean. For us introducing a line of hygiene products that are plant based and effective will be more important and a natural extension than say a line of skin care. CREATE A MUST HAVE PRODUCT LINE from our portfolio.
The consumers will be a bit wary for a while till the time the influence of COVID goes in the backburner. It will be prudent to GET MORE AFFORDABLE either by changing pack size or by offering more of the product at old price.
ORGANISATIONAL LEVEL
We will need to stay lean – Morally the last option is a lay off in these times. As entrepreneurs, we are responsible to our people and their families. Having said that, even the employees will agree that in these tough times, all hands need to be on the deck. Looking at salaries and minimising it basis seniority will be the need of the hour. Reducing manpower cost v/s the manpower itself should be the 1st priority
A complete freeze on hiring for a substantial period going ahead will also be needed. Multi-tasking, multi skilling and figuring more efficient ways of managing day to day operations using technology or even outsourcing of certain operations will become key.
PROFITABILITY and CASH FLOWS
Post COVID, the need to be profitable will be ‘urgent’. This immediately will become the new buzz word. Not growth rate, not GMV sales, not multiple markets but positive cash flows and profitability.
Plugging leaks in marketing and acquisitions drives, strategic alliances to reduce cost of sales, CRM and customer management, new markets and better GM’s on new products will be areas of focus till this financial winter thaws out.
Reduce all additional costs and go back to being a bootstrapped venture. Shut every single cost head that can be closed and rationalise/minimise the others.
FUNDRAISE
While it may sound contrary to the market sentiment, if your product and business model is solid, fundraise will happen. However, 9-12 months from now this sentiment may change in case the after effect of COVID does not subside. So, we need to get what we can and brace for a longer runway. Since our focus now will be on profitability, this runway can will be substantially longer with the same money than we expect and must be the way ahead till we see the summer again.
Emerging from this crisis will be a gradual process. It’s important to plan appropriately and find various alternate ways of sales and financing.
Hipcouch is an end to end interior design + build solutions startup based in Lower Parel, Mumbai. We talked to Pankaj Poddar, Founder, on how will small business survive when Coronavirus has affected the economy and so many businesses around the globe. Small businesses, as a first measure, have to look really hard at their expenses and trim out anything that might constitute as fat. Secondly, and equally importantly, you have to put in place a business continuity plan coupled with scenario analyses. We have never collectively faced so much disruption and uncertainty on a global level and preserving capital should be the topmost priority.
IoTfy
IoTfy is a #MakeinIndia IoT & AI cloud suite that superpowers consumer durable brands to add IoT capabilities to their device categories. We talked to Arpit Chhabra, Founder, on how will small business survive when Coronavirus has affected the economy and so many businesses around the globe.
At IoTfy we are deploying a futuristic approach to mitigate the impact of the 21 days lockdown, on the business. Given we are a products’ company, we have already started focussing on the next set of features/products that are in the pipeline. The idea is to utilise this time well and invest in future product conception and planning during this period, where most businesses are trying to focus on the recovery aspect. To that end, we have already started planning two quarters ahead and are gearing for the spike in demand IoTfy is expected to witness from the brand partners, who have suffered huge losses on account of the global supply chains being disrupted due to Covid19 outbreak.
Today, business has changed its pattern. Technology is must to run any business. Any business can invest in advanced technologies, but creating a workforce that’s ready to use them is much harder. So, Upskilling employees is one of the top most thing companies focus on.
Upskilling is basically the practice of teaching employees to use technology to do their job. Using advanced technologies can save time, increase productivity, minimize human. So, companies are ever ready to add an advanced emerging technology in their portfolio, but if employees don’t know what and how if it, it won’t be useful.
What Indian Startups do to upskill
In recent times, Indian startups have also started to focus a lot on employee upskilling. We got in touch with the heads of a few companies to understand what they are doing for employee upskilling.
upGrad
Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. Owing to its commitment of making a future-proof workforce, upGrad provides its employees with a number of opportunities to help them enhance their employability quotient. It not only educate employees of the products and services but also, help them upskill their existing skill-set and knowledge horizon. You can read more about upgrad here . We talked to Mr. Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD, on how they upskill employees.
As a part of the new joiner induction process, we offer our programs to every new joiner in the company during the first month of their employment. This allows them to experience our learning platform + student mentor support + submissions grading and, of course, learn a skill that will add value to their profile. This program broadly consists of 1 week of ‘HR Bootcamp’ (explaining about corporate structure and an overview of the company) + 3 weeks of any other program as specified below:
HR Bootcamp + Customer Focus, Customer Behaviour, and the Digital Landscape + Branding (Digital Strategies-Digital Marketing Program)
HR Bootcamp + Exploratory Data Analysis (Data Analytics -PG Diploma in Data Science Program)
HR Bootcamp + Divide and Conquer Algorithms (Software Development – PG Diploma in Software Development)
These bootcamps and workshops are conceptualised with an aim to keep our people well-aware of the industry trends both, domestic and global.
Being a company that endorses upskilling, we encourage our employees to take up our courses to upskill themselves by offering them our programs at 100% discount for an employee who has completed 18 months with us and 50% discount for an employee who has completed 6 months with us.
Also, there’s an in-house Learning & Development team that conducts workshops for employees at frequent intervals.”
PolicyX
PolicyX.com is an insurance comparison portal helping consumers compare, choose and buy policies online. PolicyX provides health, motor, life, travel & corporate insurances from a wide range of insurers. We talked to Mahima Pandey, Founder, on how they upskill employees.
We have a dedicated team of qualified and experienced professionals who focuses on upskilling the employees so that they perform as per the expectations set for their role. They are involved in conducting new hire trainings, refresher trainings, bottom quartile trainings and other skill based trainings as and when required as per the training need analysis and requirements.
Rising Sun
Inatur Ayurveda & Aromatherapy manufactures Organic and Natural skin, hair care and wellness products. These are safer, eco-friendly, and more effective skin care products. The company focuses on ethically sourced natural ingredients and drew inspiration from Ayurveda and Aromatherapy and ensured that every single product was crafted with Purity and Passion. We talked to Pooja Nagdev, Founder and CEO, on how they upskill employees.
At RisingSun we provide constant evaluation and training to the employees relating their job skill sets, health, safety, and hygiene. We encourage them to read more books and learn more with regards to their job.
CASA EXOTIQUE
Established with an urge to deliver incredible experiences, Casa Exotique has redefined a new benchmark for remarkable interiors and exquisite finishes. The company has been exploring the depth of Interior Designing and Styling with the help of a remarkable team of professionals who takes each and every turn to make your vision come to life. We talked to Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist, Founder, on how they upskill employees.
Up-skilling is very important for the growth of employees as an individual and the organization as well. We have approached up-skilling on multiple platforms because to foster an all-round skillset development. With our technical skill development training, we equip our employees with the ever-evolving technical skills needed to run the organization. With our soft skills development workshops, we teach communication skills to our employees to make them experts in communicating with clients and stakeholders. Last but not the least, we also arrange product and service training workshops to ensure that we develop good relations with our customers.
Packman Packaging
Packman Packaging is one of India’s largest manufacturers of corrugated boxes, corrugated rolls, bubble rolls, bubble pouches, courier bags, POD jackets, duct tapes, e-commerce shipping bags and more. We talked to Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder, on how they upskill employees.
Regular training programs are conducted at Packman to upskill the employees. also, employees are promoted faster, if they upskill themselves faster, this gives them further motivation. Packman makes sure to give balanced reward system so that other employees get motivated after seeing the growth of employees with better skills.
Policy-wise Packman Packaging makes sure that every employee from the respective department stays updated about the latest technologies and trends. Employees working in the manufacturing unit are always trained whenever a new machine or technology comes in the unit or it is about to be installed. Similarly, from time to time Packman Packaging also conducts upskilling training for its employees from all the departments that include, marketing, customer service, and management teams.
Packman strictly believes it is important to upgrade the existing workforce because only then the employees and company can grow together.
CarveNiche
CarveNiche is an innovative edtech startup, which is using latest technologies such as machine learning and advanced data analytics to personalise learning for K-12 education. We talked to Avneet Makkar, Founder & CEO, on how they upskill employees.
Companies need to formulate a good development strategy to build comprehensive upskilling in the organisation. Having a plan would help you get buy-in from the organization’s leadership and from the workers themselves too. We conduct training for our employees on a regular basis.
Esper
Esper is a cloud platform that automates application deployment and management for Android devices. Using Esper, enterprises can configure and monitor Android devices for various use cases, keep them secure to help their business function seamlessly. We talked to Shiv Sundar, Co-Founder and COO, on how they upskill employees.
Esper encourages employees to continually reskill, upskill, and pursue their passions and interests. Our employee upskilling programs includes peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. Every department gets one hour each week to share the knowledge of a subject matter expert with peers in an informal, open forum discussion.
Hack Day
Every other week, Esper’s entire team gets our hands dirty with a passion-based project. These hack days aren’t usually related to Android DevOps. Sometimes we work together to develop an app or learn new photography skills.
Training and Courses
Esper is continuously investing in new tools to help our employees learn in the flow-of-work. Our goal is to provide employees with tools to build their existing specialties and work more proficiently, like micro-learning and mobile eLearning. We’re also conscious that the future of work could require rapid reskilling, and we’re an agile brand, so our training options are forward-looking in that sense, too.
Vidhi Punamiya
