Tag: Ecommerce Startup

The Ecommerce Visionary: Binny Bansal

Binny Bansal’s career from college graduate to co-founder of Flipkart demonstrates his business acumen. Binny Bansal co-founded Flipkart, one of India’s most successful eCommerce platforms, in 2007 with Sachin Bansal. The Flipkart Group held a 48% market share in the whole online retail industry during the 2023 fiscal year. Despite hurdles, his effect on the Indian eCommerce sector is evident. Binny Bansal continues to be an important player in the development of India’s digital economy as he looks for new possibilities and contributes to the startup ecosystem.

In this StartupTalky story, we’ll explore Binny Bansal’s success story, including his early life, net worth, childhood, personal life, education, and path to success, along with any controversies and more.

Binny Bansal Biography

Name	Binny Bansal
Birthplace	Chandigarh, India
Born	1982/1983
Nationality	Indian
Education	IIT Delhi
Position	Co-founder, Flipkart
Net Worth	$1.4 billion (March 2025)

Binny Bansal – Early Life and Education
Binny Bansal – Career
Binny Bansal – Personal Life
Binny Bansal – Flipkart
Binny Bansal – Journey So Far
Binny Bansal – Investments
Binny Bansal – Controversies
Binny Bansal – Awards and Recognitions
Binny Bansal – Future Plans

Binny Bansal – Early Life and Education

Best known as the co-founder of Flipkart, Binny Bansal is a well-known eCommerce personality. Bansal, who was born in 1983 in Chandigarh, India, has gone from a computer science degree to a successful entrepreneur.

Binny Bansal’s early career pattern is indicative of a calculated and deliberate approach to his work. Binny’s path from working for well-known organizations to starting one of the most prosperous eCommerce platforms in India demonstrates his forward-thinking perspective on the rapidly changing landscape of online retail and technology.

Bansal earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in 2005. His academic achievements lay the groundwork for his future endeavors in the tech-driven world of eCommerce.

His professional career started in 2005 when he joined Sarnoff Corporation, a technology consulting business headquartered in the United States. Bansal engaged himself in the realm of technology during his term of 1 year 7 months, gaining extensive knowledge in the process.

He made a key professional move in 2007 when he joined Amazon, one of the world’s largest and most prominent eCommerce enterprises. This step was significant because it provided the groundwork for his deep dive into the eCommerce market. Working in several jobs at Amazon, for 9 months, Bansal refined his talents and obtained a thorough insight into the inner workings of a global eCommerce giant.

Binny Bansal – Career

Binny Bansal along with Sachin Bansal established Flipkart in 2007, originally focused on online book sales. The company immediately extended its product line and established itself as a pioneer in the Indian eCommerce business. Binny’s technological expertise and knowledge of the eCommerce environment, obtained from his time at Sarnoff Corporation and Amazon, were vital in establishing Flipkart’s direction.

2018 saw a dramatic turn of events as Binny Bansal resigned from his position as CEO of Flipkart after accusations of personal misbehavior, the subject of an internal inquiry. But he stayed on as Flipkart’s Group CEO until November 2018, when Walmart bought the majority of the company’s shares.

After exiting from Flipkart, Bansal has been involved in a variety of enterprises and investments, demonstrating his ongoing dedication to the start-up environment. His involvements include investments in technology firms and mentorship positions, both of which contribute to the expansion of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Binny Bansal has also stepped down from PhonePe‘s Board of Directors in November 2024. He joined the board in 2016 when Flipkart bought PhonePe. In December 2022, PhonePe became a separate company from Flipkart.

Binny still owns shares in PhonePe and is its biggest individual minority shareholder. Earlier in January, he fully exited Flipkart, the company he started with Sachin Bansal whose net worth is $1.2 billion as of 2024.

He became the board advisor to companies GreyOrange, and Acko in 2017 and Udhyam Learning Foundation, N/Core in 2018.

Binny Bansal has announced the launch of his new startup, Opptra on March 13, 2025. The tech-driven company focuses on franchising businesses to help brands expand in the Asian markets, spanning categories like fashion and lifestyle, home and kitchen products, and electronics.

Binny Bansal – Personal Life

Binny’s hometown is Chandigarh. He received his education at Chandigarh’s St. Anne’s Convent School. His mother works in the government sector while his father is a bank chief manager. Bansal lives with his wife Trisha Bansal a homemaker. He is the father of twin sons.

Binny Bansal – Flipkart

Binny Bansal was crucial in developing the company’s strategies and assuring its success. His emphasis on customer satisfaction, along with technology breakthroughs, aided Flipkart’s climb to market leadership. Under his leadership, the firm pioneered several innovations, including Cash on Delivery, a 30-day replacement policy, and Flipkart First, a subscription-based program that provides users with unique perks. Flipkart brought back Big Billion Days in October 2014 as a multi-day event that was only available on the Flipkart app.

Before his promotion to chief executive officer (CEO) on January 11, 2016, he was the chief operational officer. After becoming Flipkart’s CEO in 2016, Binny Bansal focused on business management, strategic development, and direction. He became the CEO of the Flipkart Group in 2017.

In May 2014, Flipkart paid US$280 million to acquire Myntra, an online apparel store. Myntra is still a stand-alone entity with its target market segments, operating alongside Flipkart. For US$70 million, Flipkart purchased the online clothing store Jabong.com in 2016.

Walmart purchased a 77% share in the Flipkart group in 2018. Following the acquisition, Binny Bansal remained the Group CEO in addition to taking on the position of chairman. Following the business deal, his 5.5% share in Flipkart was valued at $1 billion.

Binny Bansal – Journey So Far

In November 2018, he announced his resignation from Flipkart. Currently, he is an anchor investor in the venture capital firm 021 Capital, which concentrates on making investments in the internet, agrotech, and biotechnology sectors. In addition, he invests angel funds in several firms, like Hire Quotient, Glints, Virgio, Flash, and BrightCHAMPS, among others.

Binny Bansal – Investments

He contributed 125 cores to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi endowment fund in 2019.

He contributed $12.5 million to the software firm Mobikon, which focuses on the food and beverage sector, in October 2019.

Here are the prominent investments made by Binny:

Announced Date	Organization Name	Funding Round
May 30, 2023	Alltius Inc.	Pre Seed Round
December 21, 2022	Leela Life	Pre Seed Round
December 6, 2022	Virgio	Series A
November 30, 2022	Flash.co	Seed Round
November 24, 2022	HireQuotient	Pre Seed Round
November 16, 2022	Goodera	Series A
August 20, 2022	Glints	Series D

Additionally, he has supported around 47 businesses thus far throughout 64 investment rounds, including 28 transactions in the seed, 14 in the early, and 4 in the late stages.

Binny Bansal – Controversies

In November 2018, he resigned from Flipkart due to charges of personal misconduct. A Walmart investigation found no evidence to support sexual assault charges against him. Still, it did uncover “other poor judgment calls” in how he handled what he said was a consensual romance with a former Flipkart employee in 2016.

The Enforcement Directorate said in August 2014 that it had discovered Flipkart to be in breach of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. Health Minister J P Nadda declared in February 2016 that Flipkart was one among the companies against which action was taken by the Maharashtra FDA for selling medicines without a permit.

Binny Bansal – Awards and Recognitions

His leadership abilities and entrepreneurial successes gained him recognition from a variety of sources.

Binny Bansal, together with Sachin Bansal, was rated the 86th richest person in India by the Forbes India Rich List in September 2015, with a net worth of $1.3 billion.
India Today named him 26th position, with Sachin Bansal, in India’s 50 Most Powerful People of 2017.
Both Flipkart co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal were selected to Time magazine’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in April 2016.
Flipkart was ranked first in the annual Fair Work India Ratings 2021, a 10-point methodology that generates a score based on fair pay, conditions, contracts, management, and representation.

Binny Bansal – Future Plans

Binny Bansal is actively investing in startups across India and Southeast Asia through his venture capital firm, 3STATE Ventures. He also co-founded xto10x Technologies, a company dedicated to helping startups scale.

Binny Bansal is establishing an AI-as-a-service firm aimed at worldwide clients, after making a fortune in Indian eCommerce.

He has engaged 15 professionals for the endeavor, largely artificial intelligence scientists, and wants to soon add more. He intends to supply AI talent, products, and services to corporate clients, following in the footsteps of outsourcing companies such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Infosys Ltd. The emphasis would be on “training talent and offering services” from smaller Indian cities. He intends to start with the eCommerce and legal areas. The subsequent steps will most likely be in analytics, data science, and financial services. It intends to launch products and services, as well as commence marketing, in the second half of 2024.

Expansion goals include entering the US market as technologies like Microsoft’s ChatGPT and OpenAI offer new opportunities for corporations to leverage AI technology.

FAQs

Who is Binny Bansal?

Binny Bansal is the co-founder of Flipkart along with Sachin Bansal.

Why did Binny Bansal resign from Flipkart?

In November 2018, he resigned from Flipkart due to charges of personal misconduct.

What is Binny Bansal education?

Bansal earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in 2005.

What is Binny Bansal net worth?

Binny Bansal’s net worth is $1.4 billion as of March 2025.

Who is Binny Bansal wife?

Trisha Bansal is the wife of Binny Bansal.

What are the future plans of Binny Bansal?

Binny Bansal is establishing an AI-as-a-service firm aimed at worldwide clients. He intends to supply AI talent, products, and services to corporate clients. The subsequent steps will most likely be in analytics, data science, and financial services.

What is Binny Bansal date of birth?

Binny Bansal was born in 1982/83.

Who is Binny Bansal father?

Binny Bansal father is a bank chief manager.

What is Sachin Bansal net worth?

Sachin Bansal net worth is $1.3 billion as of March 2025.

March 28, 2025

The Successful Journey of Suchi Mukherjee: Founder & CEO of LimeRoad

Growing at a 30% compound annual growth rate, the ecommerce industry is certainly emerging as one of the most popular industries in India. Online marketplaces of varying niches, are rising and dominating the Indian market that was once known for its mom and pop stores. LimeRoad, one of the first women’s social shopping sites, is currently among the most well-known shopping destinations of the Indians.

Dealing primarily in clothing and accessories for men, women, and children, at the end of 2017, LimeRoad claimed to have scaled 150% in terms of revenue, traffic, and more and had also successfully secured the 2nd spot in the online fashion vertical, as mentioned by Suchi Mukherjee.

Suchi Mukherjee is an Indian Entrepreneur, and the face behind the successful online shopping site, LimeRoad. Founded in 2012, Suchi Mukherjee is the Founder and CEO of LimeRoad, who founded the company with Ankush Mehra and Prashant Malik. While Malik has parted with the organisation, Mehra is still serving as the Co-founder and Director of A.M Marketplaces Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of LimeRoad, and Mukherjee is helming LimeRoad.

She aimed at creating the largest women’s-only marketplace in South East Asia. She has been conferred with various awards owing to her contributions in ascending business and comprehending consumer technology. In 2011, Global Women’s Forum voted her No. 1 among 15 “Rising Talent- global leaders under 40” via World Women’s Forum.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into the Life and Career of Suchi Mukherjee and the successful journey that Suchi experienced to date, which starts from her Early Life, and includes Suchi’s Education, Career at LimeRoad, Awards won by Suchi Mukherjee & more.

Suchi Mukherjee – Biography

Name	Suchi Mukherjee
Born	6 July 1973
Birthplace	Haryana, India
Position	Founder & CEO, LimeRoad
Nationality	Indian
Education	University of Cambridge
Profession	Entrepreneur
Awards	INFOCOM Women of the Year (2015), Unicorn Startup Award (2016) & more
Marital Status	Married
Children	2

Suchi Mukherjee – Early Life and Education
Suchi Mukherjee – Career and Joblife
Suchi Mukherjee – The Birth of an Entrepreneur
Suchi Mukherjee – Personal Life
Suchi Mukherjee – Honors & Awards

Suchi Mukherjee – Early Life and Education

Suchi Mukherjee hailed from a middle-class family in Haryana, India. She was a bright student in her school and college. Suchi studied at St Stephen’s College in Delhi, and was then enrolled in the University of Cambridge from where she received a Bachelor’s degree in Economics with Maths. She is a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar & Fellow and a Chadburn Scholar. She holds a University record in Development Economics. Suchi is the Elected Member of Newnham Associates from the University of Cambridge in 2008.

Soon after she got admitted to The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), from where she obtained an MSc degree in Finance and Economics. She is also a British Chevening Scholar at LSE.

Suchi Mukherjee – Career and Joblife

Suchi started working in a sector that was focused on Telecoms Media Technology (previously financial institutions) at Lehman Brothers Incorporation. She was a Senior Associate, Corporate Finance at the company and worked there for five years (July 1998 to June 2003).

Post that, she joined Virgin Media, where Suchi became the Director of Change & Business Development and worked for 2 years. She was a member of the Consumer Division Management Team of the firm. The company grossed a revenue of $2.5 billion under her leadership. She worked there from June 2003 to May 2005.

eBay Inc was the next company that she joined. Though eBay seems to have already lost the ecommerce war in India, as it looks like at least, it was previously among the ecommerce biggies. There she headed the Business Seller Programs and CS. She was a member of the UK Operating Management Team of the e-commerce portal and was prominently promoted in eBay, owing to her managerial and business skills. After 1 year, Suchi eventually emerged as the Director & Member of Executive Management Team at Skype, which was then a subsidiary of the Pierre Omidyar-founded eBay Inc company. She examined product and marketing, which included planning, product/UI design, payments, brand management, advertising channels, and more. She performed in the same job role from July 2007 to December 2008, before she was promoted again. Now, this time, it was GumTree, in which Suchi Mukherjee became the Managing Director & GM in January 2009. It was an eBay Inc company. She served at the company for over two years and left the job in August 2011. Under her leadership, the company escalated from No. 3 to No. 1 within a few years.

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Suchi Mukherjee – The Birth of an Entrepreneur

After performing extremely well in her career, and serving at numerous companies in over 5+ job roles, Suchi Mukherjee eventually thought of establishing her own startup that is focused on fashion and apparel for women. Suchi is currently serving as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the e-commerce site, LimeRoad, which was established in 2012. However, what drove her to pursue the life of an entrepreneur is something really interesting.

The Idea Behind the Startup, LimeRoad

The startup story of LimeRoad was kickstarted out of a moment of utter frustration that Suchi Mukherjee experienced. This was just after her second child was born. Suchi was 39 then and on maternity leave. One day Suchi was flipping through a magazine when she suddenly glanced at a very attractive piece of jewellery. However, the jewellery was there in a very small store in Mumbai and it couldn’t have reached her anytime soon. This made her realise 2 very important things that were central to the launch of LimeRoad:

There wasn’t any app/website/portal that helped pretty and interesting accessories to be discovered easily
There wasn’t any platform that allowed people to go through the lists of accessories that were manufactured to be sold outside India

Thus, the aim to create a unique platform where one can find beautiful and affordable accessories and lifestyle products in an easy-to-use interface, was the main idea that drove Suchi Mukherjee to launch LimeRoad, which is now counted among the best female-founded fashion brands in India. The idea was foolproof to the very brim because she was aware of the fact that India was the manufacturing hub for over 21% of the lifestyle products that are sold across the world. This made her realize that it would then be certainly delightful and profitable too to bring all the vendors in the lifestyle product category under a single roof.

“Here is an industry which is our strength. All I wanted to do was to use technology so that manufacturers, designers and sellers could flourish and users could source beautiful products, which currently they were not able to,” said Suchi.

Starting up of LimeRoad

LimeRoad Logo

Suchi found a serious need for a devoted females’ portal where they can find inexpensive accessories and products without any hassles. This is where she found an opportunity to grow rapidly in the market. She kept in mind the needs of the females and knew that the women like to examine other options before being a product. Her masterful understanding of the business led her to get to the root of the real issue of service and product.

Besides, there were plenty of nonidentified vendors who were not allowed to add their products to keep up with the quality. She worked on identifying the right balance between the demands and the supplies. Suchi flew back to India in 2011 with a vision of founding a global brand in the country, after she made all the arrangements, to work on this new startup.

Suchi recalled, “with a passion for driving change and innovation, which is also the core element of Limeroad’s culture, I got together with my co-founders to build something transformational.” Prashant Malik, who worked at Facebook and returned to India to start with something new, and Ankush Mehra, who headed the supply chain of Reliance Hypermarkets, were introduced to Suchi Mukherjee by her common friends when she was evaluating the market opportunity a year before setting up LimeRoad.

LimeRoad was visualised by Suchi Mukherjee and the other founders as the digital equivalent of the 16th century Grand Trunk Road that changed the face of trade in the Indian subcontinent.

Suchi Mukherjee as the Co-founder and CEO of LimeRoad

LimeRoad is hailed as one of the fastest-growing digital shopping platforms in India. It is currently a 50,000+ strong women’s community. From being a startup to the LimeRoad we see today that competes with companies like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Snapdeal, and more, Suchi Mukherjee’s contributions are undoubtedly huge. It was also under the leadership of Suchi Mukherjee that LimeRoad, today, boasts of having over 50 million visitors.

LimeRoad Challenges

Limeroad, just like any other startup, too had to face a whole lot of challenges when it started up. One of the major problems that the startup faced was the difficulty in finding the right people to build a solid team that could help the company get a blend of skill and a can-do attitude. Although LimeRoad could get over this challenge that was imposed, it tends to pop and test the company every now and then.

Getting the right infrastructure with a high-speed and reliable internet connection was also difficult. Suchi Mukherjee also had to confront numerous legal processes to register a company, which she had no previous experience in dealing with, especially in India.

One other challenge was to find the perfect work-life balance. Suchi felt that being a woman it was tough to be an entrepreneur because back then she also had huge familial commitments. However, one thing is certain Suchi was really supported by her family, which included her husband.

LimeRoad and its Team at Present

LimeRoad was founded as an online shopping platform in 2012 by Suchi Mukherjee, Ankush Mehra, and Prashant Malik. The company is currently headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana, India, where Suchi serves as the Co-Founder and CEO of the company.

Ankush Mehra, Suchi Mukherjee and Prashant Malik from Left to Right – Founders of LimeRoad

It is a social-commerce platform primarily made for women with an improbable diameter of carefully selected retailers. It enables customers to discover the best lifestyle products across categories like apparel, accessories, home, and non-perishable food.

Bollywood Actor Neha Dhupia serves as the Art Director of LimeRoad. Dhupia was roped in by LimeRoad back in May 2014, who eventually picked up stakes in the company and is a regular employee of LimeRoad who draws a salary each month. Neha was originally the choice of LimeRoad because of her glam quotient that everyone is familiar with. Ahti Heinla, Founding Architect of Skype and Michel V Swaaji, Ex-Chairman of Skype, serves as the Advisors of LimeRoad and are among the Board of Advisors of the company. The investors of LimeRoad include Matrix Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Tiger Global. LimeRoad was last valued at $108.18 mn (around Rs 838.5 crore) after a funding round in October 2019.

Suchi Mukherjee- Personal Life

She got married to her long-time boyfriend, Sandeep Kunte, Director Treasury at Barclays Bank. Sandeep and Suchi tied the knot in 2006 and the couple now bears two children, daughter Myra and son Aadit. Suchi first met Sandeep, her future husband, at St Stephen’s College. Until now, no controversies arose against her. Her husband and family are known for being supportive throughout her life to date.

Suchi Mukherjee – Honors & Awards

Both Suchi Mukherjee and the company, LimeRoad have been felicitated with numerous awards and accolades. Here’s presenting a list of some of the most prominent ones:

LimeRoad received the Coolest startup of the year award from Business Today in 2015
Suchi won INFOCOM Women of the Year in 2015
NDTV conferred her with the Unicorn Startup Award in 2016
The Economic Times nominated her for the ET Startup Award in 2017

FAQs

Who is Suchi Mukherjee?

Suchi Mukherjee hails from Haryana, India, and is known as the Co-founder and CEO of LimeRoad, an Indian online marketplace owned by A.M Marketplaces Pvt. Ltd.

Where was Suchi Mukherjee born?

Suchi Mukherjee was born in Haryana, India.

Is Suchi Mukherjee married?

Yes, Suchi Mukherjee is married to Sandeep Kunte and has a son and a daughter.

What is LimeRoad?

LimeRoad is primarily known as a fashion ecommerce marketplace founded by Suchi Mukherjee, Prashant Malik, and Ankush Mehra, which was founded in 2012, and helps the users discover, shop, and share a wide array of fashion products and accessories that are above the mundane.

What is the valuation of LimeRoad?

LimeRoad was last valued at Rs 838.5 crore ($108.18 mn) in October 2019.

June 1, 2022

Expert’s View on the Best Way to Market an eCommerce brand during Festive Season

The views & opinions in this article is contributed by various industry professionals and entrepreneurs.

In the age of digitalization, eCommerce is really real and pulsating today. Most of us love to order our products online via the trusted eCommerce platforms that surround us. Ecommerce giants like Flipkart, Amazon, eBay, Snapdeal, Alibaba, etc., have made our life easier with their range of quality products and amazing discounts that they come with. These discounts are irresistible all the more during the festive season!

No matter how little time we have at the end of the day, we never forget to check the discounts on our favorite eCommerce websites during the festive season. The E-commerce companies, Flipkart and Amazon managed to bring in around $2.7 billion just in the first four days of festive sales that started from 2nd October onwards this year! Starting with The Big Billion Days and the Great Indian Festival sale, we see countless sales that continue to offer amazing discounts to the users along with being quite profitable for the businesses, which make up for a huge part of their income at the end of each year. These online sales are surely something that is looked up to by the entire nation and beyond. Therefore, no doubt, setting up one such sale so that it remains properly organized and runs smoothly till the end, is a mammoth task. Such a task needs early preparation in all aspects along with a special focus on marketing that needs to be throughout the sale, which is why we are here.

If you are curious to learn about the best ways to market an eCommerce brand/website during a festive sale, then StartupTalky brings you all that you can ask straight from the experts of the domain!

Nehaa Juneja | Founder, SkinWorks

Nehaa Juneja – Founder, SkinWorks

Festivals, family get-togethers, and a lot of joy are all part of the festival season. People are in such a festive spirit that they are more than willing to indulge in delicacies and exciting shopping sprees. It is true that during celebrations, people are willing to spend significantly more than they would on normal days. eCommerce companies see a substantial portion of their business come in during the Festival sales, so they invest heavily ahead of time to increase capacity and add features in order to handle the surge in orders while ensuring a smooth experience for both customers and sellers.

Use the time leading up to the Festival season to segment your existing client base based on personas and purchasing habits, and provide product or bundle suggestions that are suited to their interests. The single most important component in attracting potential clients is personalization. This Festival season, create interesting and eye-catching landing pages and fill them with incentives that your visitors won’t be able to refuse.

When you assist your clients in finding the things they want, especially during the Festival season, you enhance their chances of converting. You might want to add a new Festival category tab to make things easier. People are always looking for methods to get the most bang for their buck. As a result, packaged offers perform admirably over the Festival season. You can even seek ways to give freebies with the combos while still making a profit. Promote your Festival deals on other websites or form a collaboration with bloggers, Instagrammers, or YouTubers in exchange for external mentions. If you can locate and partner with the proper influencer, influencer marketing can be a helpful tactic. Use hashtags on social media sites like Instagram and Twitter. While hashtags are available on Facebook, they aren’t nearly as popular or valuable. As a result, it’s a good idea to limit your hashtag usage to platforms that support them. The way items are presented matters a lot to today’s consumers. Companies might change up their packaging depending on the occasion.

Gaurav Jalan | Founder, Packman

Gaurav Jalan – Founder, Packman

It’s that time of the year again when several e-commerce brands launch big sales programs during the festive seasons.

When it is done right, a good marketing plan could be a quite rewarding experience for you and your customers. The customer enjoys great products at the best price, and the e-commerce businesses get to clear the plenty of inventory and bolster their capital. Also, the pandemic has forced the focus to online shopping, and eCommerce businesses this year too must have a solid festive marketing plan in place to make the most of it.

Though several look forward to the festive season having the anticipation of happy shopping and awesome deals, it could be a very stressful period for those at the selling end. There are several decisions to be taken ahead of time that can guarantee successful selling. It is critically essential to have your festive season marketing strategies ready and in place, and implement them as the season commences.

However, there are a few ways that could help your e-commerce businesses to market the brand during the festive seasons. Here are some:

Create Buzz

Try to capitalize on the anticipation of the festive season by giving information to your audience for what’s ahead: amazing products, great discounts and offers prior to they go live. In a rather similar manner to the setup e-commerce offers to its Premium customers, (e.g., Amazon Prime) provides them a special sneak peek or special discounts link where they can see everything that is up for grabs.

In return, request them for information such as their email address or other details you can then use to customize their offers for them. Give special deals, coupons, and other add-ons such as free shipping for registered users. These will prop your customers to make the purchase and complete the deal. If you are a small business having an existing clientele, these are great e-commerce marketing strategies to engage your customers and provide them great rewards and prove how grateful you are to have them.

Here are Top 7 Ways to Create a Buzz around your Startup.

Promotional Teasers

You can also plan about floating a series of promotional videos on social media, TV showcasing behind-the-scenes, interesting facts about products, or the individuals behind them, to name a certain building up to the festive season. Go for a few things and check which ones strike the chord with your audience. This will assist you to understand your brand loyalists better.

Get Prepared

Utilize the time prior to the festive season to segment your existing customer base as per their personas and buying patterns, and come up with suggestions for products, brands, or bundles tailored to their preferences. You could even float some early-bird specials for those who like to get their shopping done well ahead of time. Today, many customers align with brands that uphold and share their values related to the environment, or other concerns. Send them updates about your achievements in like the sectors, tied in with product info.

Promote on other Platforms

Promote the festive offers on third-party sites or enter into an alliance with bloggers, vloggers, or YouTubers for external mentions. Influencer marketing could be a useful strategy if you can find a good partner in the right influencer. That can go a long way in enhancing your brand value.

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Pooja Nagdev | Aromatherapist, Cosmetologist & Founder of INATUR

Pooja Nagdev – Founder of INATUR

Marketers in India, which is a land of diverse cultures, have a lot of scope in playing with various themes and colors in each festival. While the celebratory mood here never goes out of season, it is this time of the year that people wait for the most. While consumers witness the discounts during the festive season, marketers have to work hard to attract consumers’ attention, much before the season commences. Brands can increase their visibility on social media websites by posting engaging messages/visuals on their pages.

Stand apart by using innovative methods with new players entering the market, the competition for brands is rising exponentially. While the customers are riding high on the online shopping trends, brick-and-mortar stores have maintained their charm. Even though online retailers deliver a convenient shopping experience to the consumers, the offline approach can allow them to experience the brand’s offerings.

Using its website, social media handle, and offline store, the company should create a seamless omnichannel experience to increase customer engagement. Many companies, despite having a good online presence, like online furniture brands, are setting up stores or even concept studios in different cities to make their customers’ experience a differentiating factor.

Customization and Packaging –

The presentation of products matters a great deal to the new-age consumer. Companies can give their packaging a new twist as per the occasion. Indian festive season is one of the best times to make investments backed by the emotional bond brands share with their target audience. That said, they can curate marketing campaigns centering around emotions, which are on top of the mind of their target audience. By segmenting the customers for a personalized experience, making the campaigns easy shareable and relatable, and delivering irresistible deals across all the channels, brand marketers can unlock enormous sale opportunities and even positioning themselves with maximum success spell during the auspicious festive period.

Also read: 7 Reasons Brands Should Change Product Packaging

Goldy Nagdev | Managing Director, Hari Darshan Sevashram Pvt. Ltd.

Goldy Nagdev – MD, Hari Darshan Sevashram Pvt. Ltd.

If we consider the past few years, it is noticed that everyone is planning their strategies for the festival season sales. To prepare you in advance, we have brought down a list of marketing campaigns, digital platforms & promotional strategies. Explore further to know what marketing strategies you should follow, the major digital platforms you can promote your business on, and drive more sales.

Here are a few marketing strategies you can follow to gain exposure for your brand and businesses to have a successful festival sales season –

Launch video marketing campaigns, it is said that a minute of video is equivalent to eight million words. So, we have bought a list of digital marketing strategies you can adapt to uplift your business this festive season. Different tools are available to enhance your email marketing campaign this festival season.

Social media marketing strategy, in case you are a seller having a B2C business, promoting your products on social media could be your ultimate strategy this festival season. There are several social media platforms you can choose from, such as Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp business, and many more, to uplift your business.

The festive season holds the utmost importance for the sellers and the customers. Thus, it won’t be wrong to say that the festival season has the potential to make or break the revenue goals for the merchants both in online and offline stores.

To help you boost your sales during the time of the festive season, we have listed some of the digital marketing services, marketing hacks, and tactics you can follow this festive season and win potential customers. So, start planning your strategies by keeping your customers in mind.

Marketing Ideas To Boost Sales During Diwali/ Tips To Boost Sales

In order to make the most appropriate strategies for increasing sales during the festive season, we interacted with top executives from different companies across the country.

StartupTalkyTanusha Verma

Bhavesh Navlakha | Founder, Sukkhi

As the festive season is approaching, e-commerce sites begin promoting brands listed on their platforms by offering various deals across different product categories. The demand for Fashion also takes top priority in the festive season. As e-commerce acts as a strong discovery platform, customers use specific keywords to search for products they like to purchase. Top brands on these platforms have access to the analytics like for example the most searched keywords and the items that are in demand on these sites. Brands can use these analytics to market their products, reach the right target customers and increase sales. As we are a new-age fashion jewelry brand partnering with these marketplaces from their early days, the products get better organic priority than the others listed in the same category due to the high consumer impressions. This ensures visibility for our products and the brand is able to maintain its position in the top searched items. Sukkhi’s overall sales are driven by a healthy mix of organic traffic through these deals/offers and paid traffic to maintain its visibility across platforms.

Sukkhi is a leading new age online- first fashion jewelry brand. Founded in 2012, Sukhhi began with a vision to provide quality and trendy fashion jewelry products. The company makes high-quality products from allergic-free material that is beautifully crafted and designed using the latest technology.

Rajiv Kumar | Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

Rajiv Kumar – Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

Modern e-commerce is all about customer experience and personalization along with ease of shopping. Brands should go for personalized product suggestions and deals to keep their customers engaged and nudge them to checkout. Along with this, to get the best out of the current festive season e-commerce brands should have a well-designed omnichannel strategy where they can connect with their customers on multiple touchpoints like their e-commerce website, mobile apps, mobile website, social platforms, and any other modern IoT devices. Also, brands should leverage PWA stores to reach the hinterland (tier 4 and beyond cities) which has seen the biggest rise in online orders during the last festive season. To facilitate more regional orders brands should transition into multilingual stores that facilitate the buyers in ordering in their native language. Along with these multiple payment options should be offered to the buyers to make the checkout quick and frictionless. Finally, the success of an e-commerce business will be dependent on fast and error-free deliveries. Brands should go for automated shipping options with multiple logistics partners to streamline and optimize their fulfillment and keep their customers happy and buying more and more.

Mr. Rajiv Kumar Aggarwal is an Indian Internet Entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of the SaaS Ecommerce Platform StoreHippo. Kumar is an industry veteran and highly skilled technologist with 20+ years of strong experience in Internet Technologies and E-Commerce.

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Shriyans Bhandari | Co-Founder & CEO, Greensole

Shriyans Bhandari – Co-Founder & CEO, Greensole

The festive season always means higher sales than the rest of the year. We as a brand aim to give something new and niche to our renowned clients. Every buyer has a different budget and a sense of style and as a brand, we aim to cater to one and all. We plan to market the upcoming festive clearance sale a month before the new collection launch to keep the buyers hooked on our products. Another idea is to keep the clearance sale and the new collection launch together with an offer that will generate sales for both lines. It can be along the lines of buying the newly launched product at full price and get a certain discount on the old products. Buyers always love the idea of getting more than one thing at the price of two or three and the festive season is the perfect time to execute this idea. The promotion for all the discounted products will be hyped with the marketing plans focused on the same. We would start marketing the date and time on which the products will go on sale and shall keep it for a limited period of time in order to have quicker checkouts than the rest of the year.

October 18, 2021
How To Sell on Amazon: The Ultimate Guide
Indians prefer ordering from amazon compared to other marketplaces, Amazon has been dominating the Indian market since its entry in India, and it’s the most profitable website to market your products. Most businessmen prefer selling their products on amazon. Amazon has seen massive growth since its entry into the Indian market many competitors have to try to come as close as the figures of amazon but in vain. If you want to start selling on amazon we will guide you right away. Are you ready to grow your business on Amazon, let’s get started:

Here are some documents you’ll require for registering an amazon seller account:
1. PAN Card – PAN card can be individual if you hold the proprietorship or if you own a Pvt limited company, so the PAN card should be in the name of your company.
2. GST Number – You need a GST number to fulfill the registration process.
3. Bank Account – You require a bank account that can be current or a savings account.
4. Email Id – Email id is also required to fill the registration form which can be your email id or your business email id.
5. Mobile No.- Last but not least you need a mobile no. for registering your account.
How to sell on Amazon (10 Easy steps)
How can you get your first order on Amazon?
How to Advertise a Product on Amazon?
How does Amazon pay the seller?
Refund Related to Customers

How To Sell on Amazon (10 Easy steps)

1. Get Started

First, you need to visit Amazon.in then scroll down there you’ll find an option sell on amazon, click on that option and a new tab will be open after that Amazon will offer you 2 business plan Professional and Individual.

How to Sell Through Amazon India?

Amazon Product Tax Code

2. Create an Account

Enter your personal details and create your amazon seller account.

Create an Account

3. Register your Store

Fill in your details and create your amazon seller account then you will be asked to add your Registered Business name or the legally registered store name.

Register your Store

4. Verify your Mobile Number

Verify your mobile number for further.

Verify your Mobile Number

5. Seller Information

After that, you have to add your store name and the address of your store which it is located in after you add the address of your store, Amazon will display a message of amazon Easy ship service in this service amazon will pick orders from your store and directly ship them to the customers. If you don’t want to employ amazon Easy ship you can provide the contract to any third-party shipping services which will ship the package for you.

Easy Ship Fee in Amazon

Easy Ship Fee Amazon

6. Tax Details

Fill in your GST details and if you don’t have one register your GST at how to register GST at amazon services and proceed further.

Tax Details

7. Choose the Category of Products

Now you have to choose the categories you want to sell in your store. (Choose the products which are high in demand to get maximum sales), after selecting the categories Amazon will ask you to fill some questions such as where do you get your products from and what is your annual turnover answer these questions and proceed to the dashboard.

7. Amazon Listings and Shipping Rates

Click on start listing and list down all the products you’re going to sell in your store.

Now you have to set the shipping region your going to ship such as rural or urban and set the shipping rates and days for that area, if you don’t want the hassle of shipping choose amazon easy ship, and Amazon will ship it for you.

After selecting the shipping rates confirm the shipping rates and move ahead to enter the bank details.

Shipping Rates

8. Bank Details and Tax Details

Enter your bank details properly because you will receive payments in this bank account.

Enter the tax details such as your PAN and GST number and click save.

Bank Details

9. Tax Code and Digital Signature

The government has imposed a different taxon different for some it’s 8% or 12% search the tax code of your product and which category it falls in and add the tax codes to the product.

Upload a scanned copy of your signature and proceed further.

Tax Code and Digital Signature

10. Dashboard

After completing the entire process of registering your business a dashboard will appear, from the dashboard you can manage all the functions of the amazon seller central dashboard you can monitor the orders which are shipped or not inventory prices, and everything.

Dashboard

So, This was the complete process of registering as a seller on amazon and inaugurating your own business.

Amazon Fees

While selling on Amazon, Amazon charges a small fee for every product you sell. Amazon charges three types of fee on your product:

Amazon Referral Fee

Based on the category of product you choose a small percentage of your selling price is charged by Amazon, you can check the referral fee on different categories of products at selling on the Amazon fee schedule.

Amazon Fixed Closing Fees

Amazon closing fees is the fee charged by amazon based on your selling product and the shipping services you choose. you can check the fee charged by amazon by visiting the amazon calculator.

Amazon Easy Ship

Amazon easy ship is a service offered by Amazon in which Amazon will pick the product from your store and directly ship it to the customer if you want to ship manually, there also an option to ship manually but if you prefer amazon easy ship, Amazon will charge you a fee based on your product.

Amazon Easy Ship

Now you’re all set to sell your product on amazon lets learn how to get your first order when you don’t have any seller ratings

How can you get your first order on Amazon?

Product display is the most important aspect of any shopping site when a consumer is scrolling through amazon your product display should be such that he/she clicks on it immediately
- While displaying your product on amazon use Hd images to showcase your product
- Add bullet-points that highlight feature of your products
- The description of your product should be informative so that the customer gets a complete idea about your product
- Highlight the benefits of your product
- A low pricing strategy never fails to attract customers
- Promote your products on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
How to Advertise a Product on Amazon?

If you are confused about how to promote your product let amazon do it for you

There is an advertising program by amazon in which amazon promotes your product for you. The sponsored products by amazon appear on top and bottom of the page, amazon sponsored products are displayed with a badge called sponsored.

This can help you to advertise your product and increase your seller ratings if you’re a new amazon seller.

Amazon FBA

FBA (fulfillment by amazon) is a service provided by Amazon in which if a seller selects FBA the seller does not have to consider the hassle of storing the product in his store or warehouses, amazon store the product in their warehouses until it is delivered to the customer.

Benefits
- Less shipping fee as compared to third party shipments
- No burden of maintaining a warehouse full of products
- All FBA orders are processed and handled the same way as amazon handles its merchandise
Drawbacks
- There can be some handling issues by the amazon where a product can be lost or damaged
- There are really precise product guidelines which every FBA compliant must follow
- Given that Amazon handles returns with FBA, sellers may experience higher return rates once customers understand how easy it is to return a product on Amazon.
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How does Amazon pay the seller?

When you provide valid information about your bank account, Amazon will directly transfer your money obtained from the sales into your bank account every 7 days. To initiate a payment from amazon you must have a positive seller account, positive seller account is when the number of sales is greater than the amount of fees incurred by the amazon.

How to manage returns on Amazon?

Every amazon seller has this concern of returning products from the customers, you can’t get zero returns from the customers but you can add in extra effort to reduce the return rate such as pay special attention to defective products, great packaging, and delivery on time.

there are three types of return on amazon
- Customer Returns
- Undelivered Order Returns
- Rejected orders Returns
Customer returns are the products that are returned by the customers.

Undelivered returns are when the amazon cannot find the address of the seller or if the package is rejected by the customer then it is returned to the seller as it is.

Refund Related to Customers

To access the return setting in amazon seller central:
- Login to your amazon seller central account.
- In the top navigation bar, you’ll find orders and under that, you can click on manage returns.
- Click on manage returns there you’ll find an option “edit return settings”. Click on it and you can manage the return settings.
If you wish amazon to authorize your refund request then, In case of amazon will authorize the return request. Once the parcel is picked from the customer end the money will be auto refunded to your bank account.

If you want to authorize each request you can authorize the return request, the parcel will be returned to you, and based on the return item condition you can generate a refund to the buyer.

So, this was your ultimate guide to owning your own store and starting your own e-commerce business using amazon. We wish you luck for your first e-commerce store now go out there and reach out to lakhs of customers.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell on Amazon without GST number?

Yes. If you are listing taxable goods, GST details are required to sell online. You need to provide a GST number to Amazon at the time of registration. However, if you are selling only GST exempted categories, then this may not be required.

How long does Amazon take to pay the seller?

The first payment will take 14 days after which sellers will be paid every 7 days.

What if my product gets damaged or lost?

Amazon has a reimbursement policy (Amazon Safe T Claim) to reimburse the seller from the losses incurred due to the buyer. Easy Ship sellers can file a claim against the order for which the shipments get lost, damaged, original item not returned to claim reimbursement from Amazon.

What is the product tax code?

Product tax codes are the codes of the tax which is levied by the government on a different category of products.

I don’t have a current bank account can I sell on amazon?

You can sell on Amazon if you don’t have a current bank account but experts recommend having a current bank account.

How does easy shipping on Amazon work?

Amazon Easy Ship is a delivery service for Amazon.in sellers. Amazon.in orders are picked up from the seller’s location by an Amazon Logistics delivery associate and delivered to the buyers’ location with minimal effort from sellers. With Easy Ship, customers can track their orders and delivery date.

What is product tax code in Amazon?

Product Tax Code Amazon: Product tax codes direct Amazon how to charge sales tax to your customers in the states where you tell them to charge sales tax. Product tax codes don’t cover every item, but they do cover items that are sometimes taxed differently across different states or jurisdictions.

How to sell on amazon without GST?

You can sell online without GST only if you sell goods which are exempted. If you sell goods on which GST is applicable, then you have to get a GST number to be able to sell online. You have to take GSTIN even if turnover is less than Rs. 20 lakh.

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June 28, 2021
Jack Ma: The Success Story of China’s Richest Man and the Co-Founder of Alibaba
Quite often you would come across motivational and awe-inspiring posts about how Jack Ma dealt with his struggles. Jack Ma Yun, the well-known Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, is popular not only with entrepreneurs, industrialists, billionaires, and business professionals but with many other individuals as well, students or otherwise.

Jack Ma’s net worth is $26 billion. Ma was once hailed as the richest man in China and currently features in the top 10 list of China’s richest men, with the richest man currently in China being Zhong Shanshan. Besides, Jack Ma was also listed second in the “Word’s 50 Greatest Leaders” by Fortune in 2017.

Starting his career as an English teacher, he co-founded one of the largest e-commerce websites that are in existence today, Alibaba, and is also counted amongst entrepreneurs with mind-boggling rags-to-riches backstories.

Did you know that Jack Ma, the owner of this multi-billion dollar online retail portal was rejected by Harvard university 10 times?

“I applied for Harvard, for 10 times, rejected,” Jack said. Therefore, he was not unknown to rejections and disappointments that plagued his journey to stardom. Nevertheless, the man wasn’t one to cave in so easily. While Jack wasn’t a hardcore techie himself, he did an amazing job in taking Alibaba to where it stands today.

Here’s the Jack Ma success story for you, if you are curious to learn about Jack Ma, how he founded Alibaba, and his journey!

Jack Ma – Early Life and Education
Jack Ma Story
Startup Ideation
Jack Ma’s Alibaba Conceived
Stepping Down
A Lesson to Learn from Jack Ma
Rankings In Various Lists

Jack Ma – Early Life and Education

Jack Ma wasn’t born into old money, he is a self-made billionaire. He had a modest childhood and grew up while communist China was transitioning into a superpower. Jack’s parents weren’t earning enough to consider themselves middle-class. It was Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 that changed Jack’s childhood. President Richard Milhous Nixon’s trip to Jack’s hometown saw tremendous growth in tourism, converting Hangzhou into a tourist mecca. As a kid, Jack wanted to learn English and he used to provide tour guide services to foreigners for free. He used this as a medium to improve his English. Subsequently, Jack became an English teacher.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English, he worked as a teacher at Hangzhou Dianzi University on a salary of 12 USD per month.

Jack Ma Story

Rejections and Jack Ma went hand in hand. After failing in his primary school exams multiple times, and failing his middle school exams thrice, those around him labelled him a failure. He was rejected every time he applied to Harvard University. He had ten rejections by Harvard University!

Disastrous results continued even after graduation. Multiple job rejections graced his journey; during the recruitment by KFC, he was the only one among 24 applicants not to be selected.

His initial ventures saw similar results, they plummeted. But, the stumbling didn’t deter him; he was adman to make a mark in the e-commerce segment.

Startup Ideation

Jack Ma visited the United States for a project on building of highways. His stay in the United States was an exposure to the world of computers. The people in China weren’t that exposed to the technology sector and hence, the usage of computers amongst Chinese was almost negligible. Services like e-mail and the internet weren’t a common occurrence.

When Jack used the search engine Mosaic, the first word he searched was beer. The search results quickly flashed on the screen. But when he searched for China, there were no search results. This infuriated Jack Ma, and he took the onus of bringing China on the internet radar.

Jack Ma’s Alibaba Conceived

Jack Ma’s Alibaba

After approaching his friends, seventeen agreed to join him for an e-commerce startup, and named it “Alibaba”. The company was created in his apartment. Alibaba was struggling to survive initially as it did not receive a single penny in investment. The investments of 20 Million USD form SoftBank and 5 million USD from Goldman Sachs in 1999 saved Alibaba from falling apart.

The biggest challenge for Alibaba was to gain the trust of the Chinese which it succeeded at in the end. Jack Ma motivated his team In times of difficulty by telling them they were a young team still learning. A leader was about to change the face of e-commerce.

Once Alibaba was in the picture, it faced stiff competition from eBay in China. To defeat eBay, Yahoo came to assistance. The company invested 1 billion USD in Alibaba. In exchange for the investment, Yahoo gained a 40% stake in the company. This was fruitful for both the companies as Alibaba became a household name in China and Yahoo gained 10 billion USD through Alibaba’s IPO.

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Stepping Down

Jack Ma stepped down as the CEO of Alibaba in 2013. However, he continued as the executive chairman. The company created history as its 150 billion IPO was the largest offering of a US-listed company in the New York stock exchange’s history. By virtue of this IPO, Jack became the richest man in China.

Apart from serving people and bringing revolution through Alibaba, Jack supports environmentalism. He is a member of the global board of The Nature Conservancy. Jack has also funded a 27,000-acre nature reserve in China.

The Alibaba group conducts various annual talent shows in order to engage with their customers. Jack is known to be a natural entertainer. During one such event, he performed wearing a punk costume in front the audience.

A Lesson to Learn from Jack Ma

Coming across challenges, stumbling forward and then rising up sums up Jack Ma’s journey. To many, he is the ideal entrepreneur. Alibaba has given a face to many small and medium sized businesses across the globe. The world shall remember Jack Ma as a visionary who gave it the behemoth, Alibaba.

Rankings In Various Lists
- Jack Ma is ranked 1 in the China Rich List, 2019.
- He is ranked 21 in the Billionaires List, 2019.
- He is ranked 7 in the Richest In Tech, 2017.
- He stands in the 21st position in the Most Powerful People List, 2018.
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FAQs

Who is Jack Ma?

Jack Ma Yun is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the founder of the E-commerce giant Alibaba and is a stakeholder at Alipay, its sister company, which is an e-payment portal.

What companies does Jack Ma own?

Jack Ma is the founder of Alibaba.

Where is from Jack Ma?

Jack Ma is from Hangzhou, China.

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May 26, 2021

RailRestro – Fresh And Delicious Food Delivery In Train

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 RailRestro.

Today, nearly 6 billion people travel in Indian Railway and we Indians love this journey more than any other mode of transport. Train journeys, especially lengthy ones can get you hungry while you resist the desire to eat from the in-train caterer. The media has uncovered the pathetic side of train meals. This has made commuters apprehensive about consuming these meals.

To counter this issue, Manish Chandra came up with the concept of RailRestro. The objective of RailRestro is to ensure the easy and convenient availability of great food choices with variety & assortment and prepared in hygienic kitchen conditions for all consumer goods.

RailRestro – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Railrestro.com
Headquarter	Patna, India
Sector	E-catering, E-commerce
Founders	Mr Manish Chandra, Ms Suman Priya (Co-founder)
Founded	2015
Parent Organization	Yescom India Softech Pvt Ltd
Website	railrestro.com

RailRestro – About and How it Works
RailRestro – Founders and Team
RailRestro – Target Market Size
How was RailRestro Started?
RailRestro – Business Model and Revenue Model
RailRestro – Growth and Revenue
RailRestro – User Acquisition
RailRestro – Logo and Meaning
RailRestro – Funding
RailRestro – Startup Challenges
RailRestro – FAQs

RailRestro – About and How it Works

Railrestro was founded in the year 2015 to provide healthy & hygienic food in the Indian railways operated trains. Passengers can easily order food in train. It partnered with almost 8000 premium restaurants around the country. The company’s vision is to make healthy and hygienic food available in the train.

Research shows statics of food poisoning in the train and people are helpless to eat non-healthy food while traveling. The company’s motive is to provide all kinds of food to the Indian Railway travelers so that they can have healthy and well-cooked food in the train. Railretsro.com provides all kinds of meals on the wheel for travelers starting from baby food to the heavy Thalis of specific regions in the country.

RailResto provides Online food in train

Through its PAN-India based business, it has also helped numerous restaurants to increase their revenue by allowing them to deliver food in the train with the partnership of Railrestro.

The team believes in making the Indian Travelers railway journey a healthy, hygienic, and tasty one. The business slogan of the startup Ralrestro.com is “spice up your train journey”.

You have numerous cuisines to pick from like North Indian, South Indian, Chinese, Mughlai, Hyderabad, Continental, Italian, Non-vegetarian, Vegetarian, and, of course, soft drinks. Besides all this, they ensure you that the local food suppliers, they have partnered with, cook hygienic food so that you do not have to rely on unhealthy snacks.

The railway food delivery company tracks the train in real time and makes sure that fresh food is made available to the passengers travelling in the train through its network restaurants across India. It provides online food in train at around 300 railway stations in India direct from the restaurant at the seat. Payments can be made directly online while placing the order or you can pay on delivery of the food too.

RailRestro – Founders and Team

Husband and Wife duo, Manish Chandra and Suman Priya are the Founders of Railrestro.

Manish Chandra is the CEO & Director at Railrestro. He is a serial entrepreneur who has keen interest into e-commerce marketing buildups and startup Ideas

Suman Priya is Director and Co-founder at Railrestro. She is an inspiration who showed her faith in Manish’s idea and helped him with full zeal to actualize the business idea into a business operation.

Currently there are more than 100 people working in-office and more than 300 work as delivery chain, freelancer and Marketing professionals.

“We hire only those motivated youths who believe in startup concept and ready to work for it. Our team enjoy a lot while working in the office. The environment is friendly and lively. Clubbed birthday celebration, anniversary celebration, lunch parties and festivals are organized frequently”, says RailRestro owner Manish Chandra about the office culture.

RailRestro – Target Market Size

The company is into the e-catering services and having the authorization of IRCTC e-catering, it is operating in PAN India. It has served around 50 lakh meals on the train. The target audience is all the Indian railways’ travelers. RailRestro is into e-commerce so all the measurement is done digitally with its AI-enabled website.

How was RailRestro Started?

Frequent railway journeys during Manish Chandra’s ( Railrestro owner) college times made him realize the need for good food in the train. It was somewhere put in his mind to ring about some resolution to the food problems in the train. With the IRCTC portal and its partnership programs, the company came up in the market.

Initially, Railrestro owner, Manish discussed the idea with his family members and they were also the first investor of this company. His parents helped him to channelize and operate the business in the initial days. Later, Manish connected to different people in the same sector and fortunately, Railrestro received very good responses from the customers.

RailRestro – Business Model and Revenue Model

RailRestro has marketplace kind of business model, with wide network of vendor tie-ups with restaurants across India. It also has railrestro app for online food order in train. Passengers travelling via train can order food from the Railrestro Website, railrestro app or via call. It offers food as per the traveler preferences across multiple locations in India. It is an ISO certified company. Travellers need to provide their PNR details or train number information on the website to enable smooth delivery on time.

RailRestro – Growth and Revenue

During the first 3 months of Inception, RailRestro ran on a no-profit and no-loss model. It gained traction when it partnered with IRCTC, and started processing 600 orders/day nine months after starting out. The company’s revenue is estimated to be around $17M per year.

RailRestro – User Acquisition

The startup believes in providing a quality service to the passengers and that’s the single factor that attracts the customers to the brand. However, they are also onto the digital sphere so Google ads, Facebook campaigns, influencers programs also helped them to make Railretsro.com known amongst the general public at large.

RailRestro – Logo and Meaning

RailRestro embarked on this journey to be the most preferred brand for ordering meals during train journeys in India. Its logo has rail restro written between a symbol of train and a set of spoon, knife and fork. Rail Restro represents a restaurant in rail. It symbolizes that we can get our food in train from trusted restaurants. Its Logo rightly signifies the activities of the startup.

RailRestro – Funding

RailRestro is currently Bootstrapped (Nov 2020). It has no outside funding or other support launches.

RailRestro – Startup Challenges

“When we started our business the biggest challenge was to connect with the Restaurants and making them agree for the food deliveries in the train”, recalls Manish Chandra, founder and CEO of Railrestro.

Initially the restaurant tie-ups were very difficult due to the trust issues and digital-unawareness. Slowly, their marketing team turned this hurdle into its strength by tie-up with more than 8,000 restaurants in each corner of the country.

RailRestro – FAQs

What is RailRestro?

RailRestro is an e-catering and e-commerce company in the food industry for Railway food delivery. It serves online food order in train.

Who is RailRestro owner?

Manish Chandra is the owner of RailRestro.

When was RailRestro founded?

RailRestro was founded in 2015.

How is the RailRestro’s review?

It has been rated around 4 by the customers who ordered food in train from RailRestro.

April 27, 2021

Startups That Are Funded By Katrina Kaif

From the past few years, Bollywood stars have been trying to do different things to give their career a whole new direction. According to Nasscom report, India is now the third largest startup ecosystem in the world with more than 50 unicorns by 2021. Which is why in the recent years the number startups or ventures funded by well-known Bollywood celebrities have increased.

Bollywood celebs like Alia Bhatt, Suniel Shetty, Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Anushka Sharma, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sonu Sood have become investors or angel investors, while some have also started their own venture by becoming entrepreneurs.

This includes Katrina Kaif who is a British actress that predominantly works in Hindi Cinema. She is one of the highest paid actress in India and is known for her Box office hits like Namastey London, Zindegi Na Milegi Dobara, Bang Bang, Tiger Zinda Hai, Raajneti, etc.

Besides acting Katrina is also involved with her mother’s charity and participates in many stage shows. The actress has recently funded in the e-commerce startup Nykaa and has also started her own makeup brand known as Kay beauty.

Nykaa
Kay Beauty
Frequently Asked Questions

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Nykaa

Nykaa is an Indian Online shopping site that sells cosmetics and skincare/beauty products. The company was founded by Falguni Nayar and is the number 1 online marketplace for beauty and wellness products in India. Nykaa has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra and was established in 2012.

The company also received an investment of Rs 100 crore from Steadview Capital in May, 2020 and has grown into a unicorn company with the help of many such investments.

Nykaa is currently present in over 70 stores in India including products from from luxury brands like Tom Ford, Jo Malone London, Dior and Givenchy among others.

The main competitors of Nykaa in India are companies like Amazon Fashion, Flipkart Fashion and Myntra. The website currently has over 5 million monthly active users and handles more than 1.5 million order per month. Nykaa is known to have huge portfolio of more than 1,500 brands with a range of 1.3 lakh products available on all its platforms like website, app and stores.

Katrina Kaif with Falguni Nayar, the founder of Nykaa

Nykaa also offers a wide variety of beauty and grooming products for men, the website also includes Nykaa Pro which caters to their customers with beauty needs and special offers. They also have their own in-house beauty products known as Nykaa beauty which makes cosmetics for lips, eyes, face and nails among other skin body care range. The company also raised Rs 100 Crore from TPG Growth which is an American private equity firm in April 2019.

Katrina Kaif launched her make up brand Kay Beauty in 2019 and went on to invest an undisclosed amount in Nykaa through a secondary transaction. When asked about why she choose to invest in Nykaa, the actress replied by saying that she was familiar with growth of the company’s equity and market leadership and so becoming an investor was a logical step to do.

She also added that Nykaa has opened new avenues for women to explore and celebrate their own unique idea of beauty. Falguni Nayar the CEO of Nykaa, also commented that she admires Katrina’s work ethic and understanding of beauty products.

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The Venture started by Katrina Kaif

Kay Beauty

Kay Beauty is an Indian Cosmetic Brand that was founded by Katrina Kaif, this beauty line is available on the Nykaa’s website and its retail stores. Nykaa currently has two types of store which are Nykaa On trend and Nykaa Luxe.

Kay beauty is divided three sections which are Kolor, Kover, Kare. The Kolor represents the color cosmetics with eyes, Lips and Nails, while Kover and Kare includes face products with nourishing ingredients. The brand has 48 different pieces of makeup products for eyes and lips just from Kolor Category.

#ItsKayToBeYou Campaign

These products are affordable and are priced at Rs. 249 to Rs. 799. Kay Beauty is India’s first celebrity brand. According to Katrina it has been a long journey and a lot of work for creating the brand the way she wanted it to be. The actress is involved in making decisions from the quality of the products to the textures of the company’s first campaign and photo shoot for the brand.

The Kay Beauty brand was created by Katrina because she is passionate about makeup, understood the art of makeup and gained knowledge about it through her experience of being a model and actor. Which is why the actress know exactly what to convey to consumers when it comes to Kay Beauty.

The company manufactures products that are said to be high-performance and long lasting while caring for ones skin at the same time. Commenting on her vision for the brand Katrina added that Kay beauty is not just another brand endorsement, but her own brand that truly represents who she is.

The Kay Beauty is good at marketing its products and has come up with many interesting hashtags such as the #MakeupThatKares and #ItsKayToBeYou, through which the brand talks about the gap that the brand fulfils by providing a makeup collection that has care ingredients to nourish the skin.

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Nykaa’s partnership with Kay Beauty

Kay beauty has also recently made a partnership with Nykaa, after which the company gave the Kay beauty team full freedom to create and market the brand.

Katrina partners with nykaa because Nykaa’s team has knowledge on creating unique formulations, educating the consumer and bringing the best beauty trends in the market. What Nykaa also has is a strong network of online distribution and stores all across India which will help the brand reach to top tier cities.

During the launch of Kay Beauty, Falguni Nayar, founder and CEO Nykaa added,

“The launch of Kay Beauty is a proud moment for Nykaa too because it is the country’s first celebrity beauty brand. I have always admired Katrina’s independent spirit and was also inspired by her vision to create this unique collection. Over the past two years, Katrina and the team have worked relentlessly with passion and dedication to bring this vision to life.”

Katrina also mentioned that this partnership has all the ingredients she is looking for, as Nykaa has all information in business, distribution and technical side of things which is very necessary while starting a brand.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Katrina Kaif?

Katrina Kaif is a British actress that predominantly works in Hindi Cinema and is one of the highest paid actress in India.

Which startup did Katrina Kaif fund?

Katrina Kaif has invested an undisclosed amount in omnichannel lifestyle retailer Nykaa in October 2020.

What is Nykaa?

Nykaa is an Indian online shopping site that sells cosmetics and skincare/beauty products.

What is the makeup brand of Katrina Kaif?

Katrina Kaif has launched her own cosmetic brand Kay beauty in partnership with Nykaa.

What is the net worth of Katrina Kaif?

The net worth of Katrina Kaif is estimated to be around $6 million.

April 4, 2021

Flintobox – Colouring Childhood with Creativity and Curiosity!

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.

These days, when women too fetch their passion aggressively, they often seem to be in a fix upon raising their kids right while not giving up their interests. To make it a little convenient and easy on these women, Flintobox was founded by Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam in the year 2013.

Flintobox essentially produces educational activity boxes for children. These boxes are particularly based on a theme. So ideally, Flintobox makes resources for Early Child Development monthly.

Flintobox Activity Boxes

Flintobox – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Flintobox
Headquarter	Chennai
Sector	Edtech
Founders	Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijay Gandhi, Shreenidhi Srirangam
Founded	2013
Parent Organization	Flinto Learning Solutions Pvt Ltd
Website	flintobox.com

Flintobox – About and How it Works
Flintobox – USP and Innovation
Flintobox – Founders and Team
Flintobox – How did it Start?
Flintobox – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Flintobox – Business Model and Revenue Model
Flintobox – Funding and Investors
Flintobox – Growth and Revenue
Flintobox – Awards and Recognition
Flintobox – FAQs

Flintobox – About and How it Works

Flintobox provides theme-based educational activity boxes for children. It has 3–4 activities a month with a book in one theme. These activity boxes can be reused and sometimes they also tend to engage more than one child.

All activities from Flintobox come with an instruction chart. Still, if you’ve got any queries, the activities can be viewed on their website. Each of these activities is described with the help of a video and they are based on one particular theme like transport, plants, animals, mathematics, rainbow colors, a game, a crafting/ coloring activity with good items. This is complemented with one storybook with superior characters like Bobo, Mia, Benji, and Flinto.

Get Monthly Subscription! And get Flintobox every month on an Educational theme
Themes are focused on developing key skills by inculcating age appropriate activities
Watch & observe your child learning new things and concepts by having fun simultaneously!

Flintobox in Nutshell

Presenting a new theme every month, It is research-based and caters to the development of 12 areas in the child’s overall growth. These boxes are curated by Montessori experts and child psychologists.

There are two different product modules at Flinto Learning:

Flintobox – This product is mainly a subscription program that is designed to deliver engaging learning activities to children right at their doorstep.
FlintoClass – This one is a comprehensive preschool system for independent/unbranded preschools. It provides children with a top-notch learning experience in their early growth years.

Flintobox – USP and Innovation

The main USPs of Flintobox are:

Driving the kids away from ipads and Mobiles – With activities designed so well and keeping the key result areas on top, the children are ought to spend more time doing these rather than playing games on the mobile and watching cartoons on television.
Bonding time with the Parents – In the tight schedules and being disturbed by so much technology all around, parents hardly can spend any quality time with their kids. With Flintobox activities, they are ought to spend some good time doing these activities with their kids thus resulting in good bonding time.
Increasing the Creativity Quotient in the kids – With reduced time spent on Televisions and computers, the children get to creatively explore the arenas of thinking while doing the Flintobox activities. In the competitive world today where kids are not only judged at I.Q., this makes them ready for tomorrow.

Flintobox – Founders and Team

Flintobox was founded by Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam.

Flintobox owners Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam — Flintobox Founders

Arunprasad Durairaj, Co-Founder & CEO – He is an entrepreneur and an Ivy League graduate. He has worked in a wide array of industries like consumer goods, food services, biotech, healthcare, infrastructure development, mining, transportation in strategic and has also had financial advisory roles to play. He is currently an advisor to Startup Community in Chennai and Bangalore.
Vijay Babu Gandhi, Co-Founder & COO – With a B.Tech from Anna University, he was a co-founder at Zinghopper before co-founding Flintobox.
Shreenidhi Srirangam, Co-Founder & CTO – He has over 15 years of experience in larger organizations and startups. His expertise lies in designing and implementing mobile and web experience. He has successfully led teams and is also an individual contributor.

Flintobox – How did it Start?

All of this started with the current problem of the present generation. The problem is that they are busy with their daily and hectic schedules and at the same time they want their children to excel in their studies. In this generation, parents are truly trying their best to nurture their kid’s creativity and curiosity to an optimum level. So the basic idea for Flintobox was germinated when Vijaybabu Gandhi faced this with his 5-year-old kid who was more unconsciously deep in movies and mobiles.

This stressed out Gandhi and he began thinking of ways as to how can this situation be avoided. Therefore he wanted to create a product that can be used to increase the kids’ creativity through meaningful activities. To do so, he thought about a venture like this to protect the kids from the curse of technology. And that’s how the idea for Flintobox was germinated.

This was followed by him sharing the idea with two of his friends who are now the co-founders. Together they came up with an idea of starting a product called Flintobox.

Flintobox – Name, Tagline, and Logo

The name Flintobox is ideally originating from flint, which is defined to be a sedimentary rock that generates sparks when struck against steel.

Flintobox – Business Model and Revenue Model

This business model of Flintobox is subscription-based. It offers three subscription plans:

3-month subscription
6-month subscription
12-month subscription

The customers are entitled to upgrade or cancel at any point in time. The company puts up efforts at teaching the children several realistic concepts throughout the subscription. Also, one of the most interesting parts is that the subscribers of Flintobox receive a digital feed on parenting tips along with weekly activity ideas to do with children through the App.

Flintobox – Funding and Investors

Flintobox has raised a total of $15.3 Million in funding over 5 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on July 2020 for $7.2 million led by Lightbox ventures

Here is a list of all the funding rounds of Flintobox:

Date	Stage	Amount	Investors
August 2013	Seed Round	$35K	–
October 2014	Seed Round	$300K	–
August 2015	Angel Round	–	Globevestor
December 2017	Series A	$7 million	Lightbox
August 2018	Debt Financing	$800K	InnoVen Capital
July 2020	Pre Series B	$7.2 million	Lightbox Ventures

“We don’t want COVID-19 to come in the way of a child’s learning. For children below 6 years of age, monotonous online classes can’t be a substitute for the multi-sensory experiences that they deserve. We wanted to ensure that children continue receiving structured hands-on learning without compromising on their safety. We will be using the funds to create, expand and distribute this product across the world so that no child’s learning stops due to Coivd-19″ says Arunprasad Durairaj, CEO & Co-founder, Flintobox

Flintobox – Growth and Revenue

In FY 2017, Flintobox had a revenue of around $2.05 million, which raised to around $3.65 million in 2018.

Over 5 lakh customers across India
Catering to 45 million children in the age group of 2-12 years
40% sales in metros, 60% in tier-II cities
Present in more than 30 cities in India
Reached a 1,000 preschools
Gone Global with establishing a presence in South and Middle-East Asia

Flintobox – Awards and Recognition

It was awarded the “Coolest Startup of 2014” by Business Today
Also, the “Best Education Startup of 2014” by the Confederation of Indian Industries
Won the Wharton India Startup Competition in 2015
And was also recognized as the best subscription boxes of 2014 by kidsstoppress

Flintobox – FAQs

What is Flintobox?

Flintobox is an India-based company that produces educational activity boxes for children. Based on a theme, the company makes resources for Early Child Development on a monthly basis.

Who are the Founders of Flintobox?

Flintobox was founded by Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam.

How much is the revenue of Flintobox?

In FY 2017, Flintobox had a revenue of around $2.05 million, which raised to around $3.65 million in 2018.

How much Funding is raised by Flintobox?

Flintobox has raised a total of $15.3 Million in funding over 5 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on July 2020 for $7.2 million led by Lightbox ventures

What is the Business Model of Flintobox?

This business model of Flintobox is subscription-based. It offers three subscription plans:

3-month subscription
6-month subscription
12-month subscription

October 16, 2020

What is E-Commerce Fraud and how to spot them?
E-Commerce is one of the largest sectors in online business. This is a sector that is continuously growing in size, volume and influencing the market, it would be a surprise if fraud wouldn’t take place in the system.

Fraud or deceiving criminally intend to gain immoral financial wealth. A person who intends to deceive others, typically by claiming accomplishments or wealth is called a fraudster.

Fraud in e-commerce has been increasing globally over the last years due to the immense rise in online marketplaces. With more technology available to fraudsters or unethical hackers, it has become more difficult for e-commerce businesses to keep a track of the tactics used to defraud online businesses.

Whether the user is simply making a purchase online, it’s essential to stay alert of the types of frauds that exist in the e-commerce industry. There are multiple ways of how frauds are performed and how to formulate a solution for the same.

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What is E-commerce Fraud?

E-commerce fraud is a type of fraud that occurs on an online platform. E-commerce fraud is evolving day-by-day, as fraudsters use more advanced tactics and methods.

The e-commerce fraud occurs when a malicious actor approaches a merchant and proposes a business transaction using fraudulent means such as a stolen or fake credit card to pay for it. This leaves the organization without payment for the sale.

Using a stolen or fake credit card, using a false identity, and affiliate fraud advertising are all forms of e-commerce fraud. When a customer engages in fraud on the online store, the retailer has to bear this cost, negatively affecting the revenue.

Fraud has always been around in one form or another, so the concept isn’t new. Initially, it used to be limited to physical stealing, now it has extended to online fraud too. The new technologies behind payment methods, and data processing systems, online store owners are unknowingly vulnerable to new forms of fraud every day.

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Talking about the fraud online, it commonly takes place when the credit card is lost, or its information is not stored securely. The fraud called card, not present fraud continues to grow over the years.

Online fraud can also be conducted with personal and credit card information, the card doesn’t need to be present for the transactions. Unethical hackers steal financial information and sell it on the black market. This type of fraud leaves the operators more vulnerable, but there is also a fraud called friendly fraud, where the customer intentionally files a chargeback to gain a free product and avoid payment.

Frauds via Email

Types of E-Commerce fraud

E-Commerce fraud is still alive today because prosecutions are rare, due to time constraint and the constraint of gathering pieces of evidence. It is important to integrate a perfect fraud detection and prevention management system to eliminate fraud on the platform and reduce its impact on the revenue. Here are some types of E-Commerce Fraud.

Phishing

Phishing is a meant to collect the piece of personal information like a user ID, password, and credit card information via an email or SMS. In this fraud, the fraudsters send emails or SMS to the user by pretending as the actual online trader.

Credit Card Fraud Reports in US

Clean Fraud

Fraudsters use stolen payment card information to make an online purchase and use technology to prevent any chances of fraud detection in clean fraud.

Identity Theft

Fraudster obtains the identification information of the real user and makes the online purchase on the e-commerce platform. This theft affects both the customer and the seller as the customer places a refund when he detects the fraud.

Merchant Fraud

In this fraud, fraudsters create a fake merchant account under the pretence of owning and running a legal business. They use various stolen credit and debit cards to withdraw the amount received before being detected or reported, and the transaction moving to the point of being reversed.

Chargeback Fraud

In chargeback fraud, a customer keeps the product purchased from the online store via credit card and claims a refund falsely stating the reason for payment is made twice or purchase never made.

Return Fraud

The fraudsters can ask for a refund claiming that the product was never received or requests a refund for a fake product already purchased and swap with the actual product received. In refund fraud, the seller suffers the loss due to the refund of the payment made as well as a loss of inventory when the fraudster returns a fake item.

How to spot E-Commerce Fraud?

Fraudsters are great actors and they make themselves go unnoticed. To be safer, here are few things organizations and customers can spot or detect fraud online:
- Pay close attention to First-time customers who make bigger than average orders
- Detect unusual or false location
- A large quantity of the same product
- Multiple shipping addresses
- Check if Shipping and billing address are not the same
- Payment information typed with capital letters
- Huge number transactions in a short time
How to prevent E-Commerce Fraud?

No system can surely detect the fraud but there are several things you can do to make personal and financial information on your website more secure.

Outsiders’ Assistance

Hire a professional that can evaluate the security of the website and help in what else can be done to detect and prevent fraudulent activities.

Timely Update of the Software

Keep updating the platform or software you’re using to keep the site running, make sure you’re using the latest version. Compromised software is a gateway to the fraudulent activities, providers are hard at work improving the security aspects of their products.

Check if all the checkout pages are in HTTPS

The encryption within HTTPS allows the information to remain confidential from fraudsters’ eyes because only the website’s owner and the server can decrypt the traffic.

Use AVS and CVV

Address Verification Service ensures the billing address of the purchase matches the billing address credit card company has on file. Credit Code Verification is a code printed on the credit cards, which means that the customer needs to have a physical credit card to make a purchase.

Fraud protection software

These type of software detect high-risk transactions and analyze other risk factors to prevent fraudulent activities. To find the right tools that automatically detect suspicious transactions is crucial to protect the business from loss.

Wrap Up

E-commerce frauds have grown rapidly over the years. The online market has to make sure they are using fraud protection filters that will alert about anything out of ordinary. Online businesses must know how to recognize a fraudulent order and what tools to use to prevent it from happening.
September 18, 2020
Freecharge – The best deals and cashbacks are right here
Back in 2010, nobody even had the slightest of thought that like you can share videos over the internet, one would also be able to carry monetary transactions over the phone, at just one click. Amongst the early ones to exploit this idea and pioneer the evolution of digital payments were Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon by launching Freecharge in 2010.

Company Name Freecharge

Headquarter Mumbai

Sector Ecommerce

Founders Kunal Shah, Sandeep Tandon

Founded 2010

Website freecharge.in

Freecharge – About and how it works
Freecharge – Founders and Team
Freecharge – How did it start?
Freecharge – Startup Launch
Freecharge – Competitors
Freecharge – Funding and Investors
Freecharge – Growth
Freecharge – Mergers and Acquisitions

Freecharge – About and how it works

Freecharge Logo

Freecharge is a digital payment portal that enables users to do activities as mobile recharges, pay bills, etc. The interesting part starts here- Freecharge is backed by solid Cashback offers from various Indian Retailers both Online and Offline. Freecharge is one of the most promising startups in Indian history.

At the application, payments are done under 10 seconds which drives the vision of the company successfully of enabling customers with world-class and less time-consuming services, that too coupled with cashback and offers which leads to amazing customer experience.

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Freecharge – Founders and Team
- Kunal Shah, Co-founder- Kunal is an entrepreneur in the truest form. He is an MBA dropout by choice from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy from the Wilson College and got into the buying selling dynamic way early. He decided not to join his family business and joined as a Programmer in a BPO firm. There on, he funded himself for 14 years selling Pirated CDs, Cards, etc. Kunal is also an investor. He has invested in 40-50 startups like TableHero, Razorpay, LifCare, and Zilingo.
- Sandeep Tandon, Co-founder- Sandeep Tandon is a technology entrepreneur and also an angel investor. He has done his bachelors and masters from the University of South California. To this day, he is amongst the board of members of CRED, a partner at Whiteboard Capital to only name a few of his ventures.
Freecharge – How did it start?

All of this happened around 2009 when Kunal decided to sign the papers and start his own venture called Paisaback. Paisaback was created by him on the grounds of Cash Back in those days. The idea was to tie up with localized centers of companies like McDonald’s, Barista Coffee, Dominos, Croma to offer great cashback deals to the customers which were referred by his venture, Paisaback.

Though the idea was brilliant, it didn’t last long. It primarily got defeated by online players like Mysmartprice, CouponDunia, and others. And eventually, he realized that for this idea to work, the conventional business models have to come to an end and he will have to come up with something new to disrupt the system. This fueled his entrepreneurial spirit and he went on to design a profitable model for Freecharge leaving Paisaback behind.

Freecharge – Startup Launch

After Paisaback, Kunal drew an insight that recharges were the new black. He researched a bit and found that 95% of invoices of a mobile store belonged to recharges. Both the co-founders then got into the development of the product.

Sandeep being an engineer, both of them had a great experience while developing the product. And finally, Freecharge was launched on Aug 15, 2011. One of their initial partners were McDonald’s and which helped them grow rapidly.

Freecharge – Competitors

Right after they launched, in 2012, the competition sky-rocketed through other applications such as Rechargeitnow and PayTM. And then in 2015, the competition ramped up as mobile phones took over as the preferred medium. And that time, 80% of the Freecharge transactions were taking place on mobiles. They had to find a new way forward to prevent the company from fizzling out.

Freecharge – Funding and Investors

The startup economy knew that Freecharge will hit it high when Sequoia Capital, India’s one of the biggest investors, decided to invest in the company for its seed funding round in 2010. The amount still remains undisclosed.

Between 2011 to 2017, Freecharge took up 6 additional rounds of funding, roping in $177.6 million in total, which clearly marked them as the startup darling. Over this course, Freecharge had six prominent investors namely Sequoia Capital India, RTP global, Snapdeal, Valiant Capital Partners, and Sofina.

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Freecharge – Growth
- Started with recharges and paying utility bills. Expanded and made couponing a possibility in 2012.
- From having McDonald’s, Dominoes, and CCD on board for redeeming coupons to e-commerce platforms such as BookMyShow, Jabong, and Myntra, Freecharge grew with the trends
- Average daily transactions- More than 40,000
- Average daily transaction value- More than 60,000,00
- Total wallet holders on Freecharge- 52 million
Freecharge – Mergers and Acquisitions
- In 2015, Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal for $400 Million which comes to ₹2600 Crore. This was the second-largest acquisition after Goibibo’s acquisition of MakeMyTrip.
- In early 2019, Axis Bank acquired Freecharge. This acquisition got Freecharge out of the shackles of a struggling owner like Snapdeal. And Axis bank got access to the vast wallet holders of Freecharge.
March 30, 2020

Company Name	Freecharge
Headquarter	Mumbai
Sector	Ecommerce
Founders	Kunal Shah, Sandeep Tandon
Founded	2010
Website	freecharge.in

Tag: Ecommerce Startup

Binny Bansal Biography

Binny Bansal – Early Life and Education

Binny Bansal – Career

Binny Bansal – Personal Life

Binny Bansal – Flipkart

Binny Bansal – Journey So Far

Binny Bansal – Investments

Binny Bansal – Controversies

Binny Bansal – Awards and Recognitions

Binny Bansal – Future Plans

FAQs

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Suchi Mukherjee – Early Life and Education

Suchi Mukherjee – Career and Joblife

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4. Verify your Mobile Number

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6. Tax Details

7. Choose the Category of Products

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8. Bank Details and Tax Details

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How long does Amazon take to pay the seller?

What if my product gets damaged or lost?

What is the product tax code?

I don’t have a current bank account can I sell on amazon?