Tag: flipkart

  • Udaan: Business & Revenue Model

    Udaan is a Bangalore based B2C marketplace and is owned and operated by Hiveloop. Its is founded by Amod Malviya, Sujeet Kumar, and Vaibhav Gupta and currently, Vaibhav Gupta has been appointed as the CEO of Udaan. All three were working together at Flipkart when they all decided to work together on this idea. Udaan is a B2B trade platform that brings manufacturers, traders, retailers, and wholesalers onto a single platform. According to the reports, the startup has attained soaring heights with a valuation of $7.5 Billion.

    Udaan aims to reduce the middlemen among the clients and the manufacturing units so that the client receives the products at exceptional prices. Udaan desires to resolve credit score problems, B2B logistics, income and marketing. Their end goal is to cover all the clients and the retailer. Udaan confirmed its individuality through the capital infusion of around $225 million from its present investors — DST Global and Light speed Venture Partners.

    The Begining Of Udaan
    Udaan’s Business Model
    Udaan’s Competitors
    Zoom Tail
    Big Trade
    Trade Kosh
    Udaan Revenue Model

    The Begining Of Udaan

    Initially, Udaan was started as a logistic platform for small customers and dealers in the electronics and apparel segment. In the beginning, they simply targeted logistics for approximately 8-10 months. They gained popularity very quickly in India and constructed a large database of customers and dealers in advance and they ventured into the delivery enterprise. Very soon, Udaan is eyeing to develop itself into a lending platform for merchants.

    Udaan Success Story | B2B Platform | Business Model | Revenue Model | Funding
    The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on. Traders, retailers and wholesalers are found everywhere. The word marketplace isalso very common. These are the few important words with which Udaan isspecially built. Traders, retailers and wholesalers all are having …

    Udaan is attempting to construct a full-stack platform for small and mid-sized firms in an attempt to create a mixture of the market, logistic services, and lending. Udaan is an enterprise in which producers and wholesalers can promote their merchandise to outlets through an internet platform or cellular app.

    Udaan Business Model Breakdown
    Udaan Business Model Breakdown

    Udaan’s Business Model

    Trade Kosh, Big Trade, Uni commerce, Tiny Deal are some of Udaan’s competitors. The enterprise gained popularity with grit and hard work. Despite inefficiencies in logistics, sales, and different phases, Udaan believed that those kinds of stressful situations are now no longer unusual. However, following the proper method and tech-enabled strategies assist to supply an appropriate output thus fixing the inefficiencies.

    Today, the enterprise has its business spread over 500 towns and alternatives up from dealers in over 80 towns. It is an excellent platform to develop corporations both small or medium on the equal time as you purchase or promote your product. Udaan’s cell app connects almost 150,000 traders, retailers, wholesalers in India.

    Udaan determined that financing operating capital has been a prime supply up stores and they intend to offer operating capital at an inexpensive rate. Being a platform for stores and wholesalers, it has additionally started lending loans to small agencies. It has also obtained a non-banking monetary agency (NBFC) license to offer a charge range to SMEs. The B2B E-trade agency has been constantly growing daily. So far, Udaan has raised capital of $1.15 Billion in total.

    Big Billion Flipkart| The analysis of online platform Flipkart’s Business Model
    Every Indian citizen is aware of the e-commerce site called Flipkart. It’s acompany that grew tremendously over time, worked its way to the top, and gotattention from big names like Walmart. Furthermore, It was a bid of the giantWalmart for 16 billion dollars. In India, the second-largest e-comme…

    Udaan’s Competitors

    Udaan attempts to bring wholesalers, buyers, distributors and producers all under a single umbrella thus bridging the gaps with its B2B market system. Even though there are many more organizations who are also in the same game Udaan still soars above them in terms of its Business and Revenue. Some of Udaan’s competitors are Zoom Tail, Big Trade and Trade Kosh.

    Zoom Tail

    Zoom Tail is one of the biggest competitors of Udaan. Zoom tail started in 2018 and it is also a Bangalore-based enterprise. It became fashioned to offer e-commerce answers to small and medium-sized companies. Its primary purpose is to assist the small stores to discover their market industry, buy inventory, and use diverse different gear to make their businesses bigger. It has continuously been elevating finance for the closing years to expand and enhance its generation and to be one of all the biggest B2B e-trade systems.

    Big Trade

    Big Trade, which started in 2017, has grown out to be India’s pinnacle B2B wholesale shopping and selling systems. It attached the small stores with the wholesalers, thereby growing their operational performance and decreasing their costs. It enables producers and vendors to set up a logo for themselves and get a sturdy foothold throughout India. In 2019, the generation department of Walmart, Walmart Labs, obtained Big Trade. The Big Trade tells us that it’s going to be a fierce competitor for the rising Indian startup, Udaan.

    Trade Kosh

    Like Udaan, Trade Kosh too is an e-trade B2B platform that connects the stores with the producers. It targets to offer stores with merchandise on the wholesale stage and goals to expand its inventory control and dealer control with the help of analytics and records science. However, even after going through such excessive competition, the corporation has been a hit in its success rate. This is because it has an aggressive gain which units it apart from its competition.

    Udaan Revenue Model

    Udaan’s wide variety of sales assets consist of revenue from Logistics offerings. A crucial asset of sales for Udaan is the shipping expenses it collects from the individuals for picking up items from the premises of the vendor and turning in the same to the buyer. There additionally are prices for amassing any cross back of income from the customers.

    Udaan Revenue Model Breakdown
    Udaan Revenue Model Breakdown

    Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta and Sujeet Kumar are the trios who founded Udaan and recently Udaan has joined the Unicorn club of startups which ultimately means that the privately held startup is valued at over $1 Billion, the term consists of a mythical character to indicate the statistical rarity of such ventures.

    Udaan provides dealers registered at the platform, garage and warehousing offerings to allow them to ship items quicker to the customers. Sellers are charged a fee for such warehousing offerings. Fees from receivable control offerings consist of prices for amassing bills from customers in coins on behalf of the dealers or prices for accepting bills online on behalf of the vendor.

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    The lockdown due to COVID-19 has created a big problem for all the start-ups andcompanies. This has led to a situation where companies are now fighting with abig cash crunches and one of the way to survive in this situation is eitherlayoffs or cut down in the salaries of the employees. Udaan is o…

    Commercial prices from promoting their product listings at the platform to make sure higher visibility among customers within the platform are also one of Udaan’s techniques. Udaan, through its NBFC arm, extends credit scores to traders and investors to assist them in meeting their operating capital requirements. Interest profits from such loans is a crucial supply of sales for the platform.

    Udaan gives numerous different charge-based offerings to agencies registered on their platform. These consist of offerings like packaging and printing of labels on merchandise, the printing of invoices and returns control offerings. It offers electronics and client items at the market for commercial items, sparkling cease result and vegetables, workplace supply, style accessories, girls and men wear, Food and FMCG. No wonder ‘Udaan’ gained the race towards many startups.

    Udaan allows agencies to locate customers, suppliers, and merchandise thus joins them to get a pleasant deal. The platform additionally allows steady bills and offers logistics support. The agency additionally gives accounting, order control and fee control answers to traders on their platform.

  • How Flipkart Wholesale is supporting Kiranas with its Credit Program?

    On 24th August 2021, Flipkart Wholesale which is the digital B2B marketplace of the E-commerce giant Flipkart Group announced their upcoming credit programs that will help kiranas manage their working capital requirements and grow their business.

    These credit programs are said to include Easy credit in partnership with IDFC FIRST Bank along with other well-known Fintech institutions. These credit offerings aim in solving the problems of the kiranas in India and boost businesses with the help of advanced technology.

    Another advantage of these initiatives is that kiranas can avail credit just within two minutes and at zero cost, via end to end digital onboarding. These industry-first credit programs are designed especially for over 1.5 million people which include kiranas, retailers, hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, offices and institutes, among others.

    What is Flipkart Wholesale?
    The aim of Flipkart Wholesale Credit Programs
    Benefits of the Flipkart Wholesale Credit Program
    Competitors of Flipkart Wholesale
    Frequently Asked Questions


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    What is Flipkart Wholesale?

    Flipkart Wholesale is the brainchild of Flipkart which is an E-commerce Giant. Flipkart Wholesale is an upcoming online B2B marketplace that was launched in September 2020. The platform has been designed especially for making business easier for the kiranas, retailers and small business owners. The company aims at helping people with their everyday business by using innovation and advanced technology.

    It also wants to simplify B2B e-commerce in the country so that it becomes more convenient for the customers of kiranas and small businesses. With Flipkart Wholesale, customers will be allowed to buy a huge variety of quality products at good margins. With this platform the customers can also get speedy product delivery, convenient order returns directly from the shops.

    Flipkart Wholesale will also allow its customers speedy delivery options and an easy order tracking facility to keep it transparent. Besides Theses facilities it also offers paperless credit facilities so the kiranas and retailers can fulfil their business needs when they are low on finances, which is extremely helpful during the difficult times of the Covid 19 Pandemic.

    Flipkart Wholesale is currently aiming to help kirana stores in more than 2,700 cities across India. So far, the platform has seen a steady growth of 17% especially from January to June 2021 as many kiranas have started using the platform.

    The aim of Flipkart Wholesale Credit Programs

    According to Adarsh Menon, Senior Vice President and Head, Flipkart Wholesale,

    “Our key goal at Flipkart Wholesale is to make business easier for kiranas and retailers and boost their growth journey. We believe our new credit plan is tailored to solve local challenges that kiranas in India face and will help them manage their cash flow and improve their purchase experience on our platform, thereby ensuring that the benefits of digitisation trickle to the entire B2B retail ecosystem,” Adarsh Menon.

    Commenting on the association, Amit Kumar, the Head-Retail Liabilities and Branch Banking of IDFC FIRST Bank said that, the country’s kirana stores account for more than two-thirds of India retail market space. He also added that the traditional trade is now evolving in terms of retail formats and business models. This is why the bank wanted to contribute to the growth of this segment and help kiranas scale up its business.


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    Benefits of the Flipkart Wholesale Credit Program

    The main benefits of Flipkart Wholesale are that their clients have an access to a wide range of value propositions which include quality products, easy ways to order & return, fast delivery, order tracking, and the best margins on all products. The credit programs are allowing credit lines from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2 lakh including an interest-free period of up to two weeks.

    Besides that, the initiative will also help kiranas get an advantage of flexible repayment options via cash, online transfers and even instant refunds if the order is cancelled. The platform will also keep an account of the credit balance and bills of the kiranas.

    Flipkart Wholesale logo
    Flipkart Wholesale logo

    Competitors of Flipkart Wholesale

    Flipkart Wholesale was launched in 2020 but already has competitors such as Amazon Pay and Udaan. Amazon Pay is also providing kiranas and retailers with small loans and is said to have already empowered more than five million stores and small businesses with its digital payment features.

    Features such as Amazon Pay’s QR (quick response) code have become popular because many small and medium businesses are using it. Udaan is a Bengaluru based E-commerce startup that has also come up with features such as UdaanExpress and UdaanCapital which are designed for kiranas. These options help kiranas with logistics and lending capabilities and have already grown 30 times in AUM over the last two years.


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    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is Flipkart Wholesale?

    Flipkart Wholesale is the brainchild of Flipkart which is an Ecommerce Giant. The platform is an online B2B marketplace that was launched in September 2020.

    What is the Flipkart Wholesale Credit Program?

    Flipkart Wholesale credit programs will help kiranas manage their working capital requirements and grow their business.

    What are the benefits of the Flipkart Wholesale Credit Program?

    The main benefit of Flipkart Wholesale credit programs is that it is allowing credit lines from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2 lakh including an interest-free period of up to two weeks.

    When was Flipkart Wholesale founded?

    Flipkart Wholesale was launched in September 2020.

  • Top 5 Startups Funded by Tiger Global Management

    Tiger Global Management is known to be the most statistical and voracious startup investors among all. It has developed with a great prospect and is proceeding towards investing in more prominent startups, especially those who hold the potential to earn unicorn status someday. And in recent years, Tiger Global Management has made hostile growth.

    Tiger Global Management is a New York-based investing firm, built in the early 2000s. The firm not only made remarkable progress but also became one of the most prolific investment firms among the billion-dollar startups. The estimated value of the total assets of Tiger Global Management is around $65 billion.

    In the initial days, Tiger Global Management invested in private companies in India and China but now, the firm invests in some of the biggest startups companies. But, how does the firm gain such progress? Well, to understand it better we need to know the strategies and portfolio for Tiger Global Management.

    According to the Crunchbase data, Tiger Global Management has invested in 118 companies in 2021. The firm has made ten times more growth in the initial months of 2020. In this article, we have presented some of the biggest investments made by Tiger Global Management. Let’s get started!

    Infra.Market
    Innovaccer
    Ola
    Brex
    Flipkart
    FAQ

    Infra.Market

    Infra.Market Website
    Infra.Market Website

    Infra.Market is a well-established technology firm that offers a one-stop marketplace for manufacturing materials and goods. Recently the firm has raised its Series C funding to $100 million led by Tiger Global Management along with some other potential investors like Nexus Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Sistema Asia Fund and Fundamental and Evolvence India Fund.

    The largest funding amount received by Infra.Market is $1 billion making its absolute way to the unicorn list. This funding is intended for the advancement of the seed market and their private label brands enhancements, technological offerings and direct-to-direct channels and exports. The company founded by Aaditya Sharda and Souvik Sengupta in 2016 has made quite an impactful position in the market.

    Innovaccer

    innovacer Website
    Innovaccer Website

    The very prominent Innovaccer is a healthcare software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup. The company has recently gained unicorn status after the tremendous fund-raising session by Tiger Global Management, which helped it reach a valuation of $1.3 billion.

    The last year estimated valuation of Innovaccer was $350 million after the Series C funding round but when the SaaS startups were globally increasing their capital and catching investors attention, Innovaccer raised the valuation to $105 million in the new round.

    Innovaccer has many potential investors such as Dragoneer, Steadview Capital, M12, B Capital Group and Mubadala Capital. These investors participated in the new round of funding along with the OMERS Growth Equity. And so far, Innovaccer raised $225 million.


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    Ola Electric Mobility

    The widely famous Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd is a well-established private company in India for its cab services. Recently, Ola received a great investment from the ride-hailing unicorn’s investor, Tiger Global Management.

    Ola is aimed to enhance its Mission Electric programme which was announced last april. In this programme, Ola will launch 10,000 electric vehicles, mainly three-wheelers and intended for promoting one million electric vehicles by 2022.

    Ola is currently testing several commanders to deploy electric vehicles and their charging solutions. Moreover, it is working on the advancement of battery swapping stations and two or three-wheeler electric services.

    Ola is making its strong uphold position among the industries and currently working with many prominent automobile industries in order to enhance the functioning of electric vehicles.

    Brex

    Brex Website
    Brex Website

    The prominent San Francisco based startup, Brex Inc., offers corporate cards to several companies as well as venture capital-backed companies. It received a major uplift of $425 million through a funding round investment by Tiger Global Management.

    Previously, Brex valuation was estimated as $7.4 billion from the investment from TCV, Ribbit Capital and many other firms.

    Brex entered the sector which was majorly dominated by the likes of either American Express Co. or JPMorgan Chase & Co. The company experienced progressive growth together with manufacturing other products such as business cash accounts and bill pay software. This brought a clear targeting measure for traditional established small to the big businesses.

    Brex received incredible support from the customers and in fact, within three months its customer count climbed by 80%.


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    Flipkart

    Flipkart is a well-known E-commerce company, whose $14 million worth of shares has been sold to the Tiger Global Management firm by its co-founder Binny Bansal. Ever since Walmart grasped its hands around the E-Commerce firm, this would be the third time when Binny Bansal sold a tranche of his share.

    The shares holding of Binny Bansal has been transferred to two types of Tiger Global Management funds. The first part of the share i.e., 47,756 equity is transferred to the existing Internet Fund III Pte Ltd. and the other 54,596 is to incoming Tiger Global Eight Holdings.

    Conclusion

    Tiger Global Management has made great progress in recent years and the firm has gained many portfolios as well. The firm is going for every potential startup doesn’t matter how established they are in the market. It is investing in many new potential startup companies through millions of shares.

    In other words, Tiger Global Management is acquiring every opportunity of investing in independent potential startup companies. And with this exponential graph flow, Tiger Global Management is estimated to grow even more aggressively.

    Today, almost every startup aspires to secure investment from Tiger Global Management. However, there are still many heights that Tiger Global Management has to reach.

    FAQ

    What is Tiger Global Management?

    Tiger Global Management is an American investment firm that focuses on internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries.

    What are the top startups funded by Tiger Global Management?

    Flipkart, Brex, Infra.Market, Innovaccer and Ola Electric Mobility are top startups funded by Tiger Global Management

    Who is the founder of Tiger Global Management?

    Chase Coleman is the Founder of Tiger Global Management.

  • Myntra: Subsidiaries And Acquisitions

    Myntra is India’s favorite shopping platform for customers who believe in quality over perfection. When we talk about fashion and online shopping, the first thing that comes to our mind is Myntra. Myntra in its initial days started selling personalized gift products to the largest fashion site in India. Along the journey Myntra acquired a lot of subsidiaries that helped in growing its business.

    Myntra – An Overview
    Myntra – Business Plan
    Myntra – Facts & Figures
    Myntra – Subsidiaries and Acquisitions
    Myntra – Other Acquisitions
    Myntra – Major Investors
    Conclusions
    FAQs


    Myntra – Bringing top-notch fashion with every click
    Myntra today is the most popular online shopping portals in India. Read about Myntra’s founders, funding and business model.


    Myntra – An Overview

    • Myntra, an Indian e-commerce fashion company is located in Bengaluru, India. The company was launched in 2007 to sell personalized gift items.
    • Founded by Mukesh Bansal along with co-founders Vineet Saxena, and Ashutosh Lawania. In its initial days, Myntra sold on-demand personalized gift items.
    • From 2007 and 2010, it mainly operated on the business-to-business model.
    • Myntra began selling fashion and lifestyle products and moved away from personalization in the year 2011.
    • By the year 2012, Myntra started offering products from 350 Indian and International brands that are more in demand in the clothing market.

    Myntra – Bringing top-notch fashion with every click
    Today, we can sit in one space and browse through the top and internationalbrands and also get it delivered right to our doorstep. Thanks to onlineshopping. One of the most prominent names in this industry, as we all know isMyntra. Myntra was established by Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania and Vin…

    Myntra – Business Plan

    Myntra earns by following an aggregator model. The main business plan of Myntra is to buy the latest merchandise and selling it to the customers. Buying current season merchandise from several popular and quality brands, and making the product/item available on its website. The main earning of Myntra comes from the commission. Myntra follows the B2C (Business to customer) revenue model to generate revenue and increase its sales.

    Before discussing its subsidiaries and acquisitions, let us understand what is meant by Subsidiary.

    What is a Subsidiary?

    A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company that is owned or controlled by another company, which is called the Parent company, Parent, or Holding company.

    The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company.

    When company A owns/acquires more than 50% of the voting stock of another company B, then in such circumstances company B becomes the subsidiary of Company A and obtaining control of its operations.


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    Myntra – Facts & Figures

    The Co-Founder of Myntra- Mukesh Bansal
    • Flipkart acquired Myntra in 2014 for a record-breaking deal valued at ₹2,000 Cr ($280 million).
    • At the time of acquisition by Flipkart, Myntra had a total of 1,50,000 products of over 1000 brands, catering to over more than 9000 pin codes in India.
    • Ananth Narayanan became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Myntra replacing co-founder Mukesh Bansal in 2015.
    • On 10th May 2015, Myntra announced to shut down its website to solely focus on serving its customers through mobile applications starting from 15th May 2015. This decision resulted in failure.
    • Acknowledging the failure of the application-only model, Myntra announced to revive its website in Feb 2016.
    • Myntra functions and operates independently after the acquisition by Flipkart. Myntra still continues to operate as a standalone brand under Flipkart by solely focusing on fashion-conscious customers.
    Flipkart acquired Myntra in 2014

    Myntra – Subsidiaries and Acquisitions

    Below are the details of the acquisition and deal dates when the deal got finalized.

    Company Name Deal Date
    Online Services Pvt. Ltd. August 01, 2018
    Withdraw April 16, 2018
    20Dresses November 29, 2017
    InLogg April 19, 2017
    Jabong July 26, 2016
    HRX July 20, 2016
    Cubeit July 12, 2016
    Fitiquette April 04, 2013
    Exclusively November 09, 2012

    Myntra Acquisitions

    The Important and Deal breaking Acquisition under Myntra are:

    • HRX
    • Jabong
    • Fitiquette
    • Roadster

    Here, we’ve tried to mention some of the companies acquired by Myntra, their functioning, and operation under Myntra.

    Fitiquette

    The company is located in Sans Francisco. Fitiquette is the world’s first virtual dressing room platform that enables online shoppers to virtually try before they buy option. It provides an online shopping experience that is very similar to the offline model like buying from the stores.

    The technology used in Fitiquette shows virtual mannequins based on the body types of the users. This can further adjust the specific measurements of the users based on their body until it closely mirrors their own. The unique thing about this technology is that the clothing chosen is represented as the best fit based on a series of measurements. (Example. S, M, L, XL).

    Thus, the technology uses machine intelligence enabling it to offer a true-to-size, visual fitting experience. Fitiquette uses a patented technology that gives users a 360-degree view of the fit and drape of a garment based on their own customized selected merchandise.

    Roadster

    Myntra owns the fashion brand Roadster, Myntra’s outdoor lifestyle brand which was launched in December 2012. It generates close to 7% of the total sales.

    Myntra’s lead designer for the Roadster brand is the famous Vanni Lenci. Roadster has launched an all-new licensed Roadster MotoGP collection. It is the first Indian brand to enter into an exclusive collaboration with the world’s premier motorcycling championship, MotoGP on Aug 18, 2016.

    It is quite surprising that, despite having Deepika Padukone’s “All About you” and Hrithik Roshan’s “HRX” brands in its pocket, Roadster is the biggest moneymaker for Myntra.

    Pretr Online Services Pvt. Ltd.

    Pretr Online Services Pvt. Ltd. is India’s first-ever end-to-end omnichannel platform for retail. Pretr (prettier) was launched in 2016 by two technology executives Bhavik Jhaveri and Ankur Joshi. Pretr is currently operating from Mumbai, India.

    Pretr is a marketplace that provides a seamless shopping experience to customers. It is an efficient selling platform to Fashion & Lifestyle Retailers which include Esprit and Mango. Myntra’s own private labels such as HRX and Moda Rapido uses Pretr’s technology platform. This technology platform helps retailers with a bunch of services, including order management and store analytics.

    Jabong

    Myntra Subsidiaries Jabong
    Myntra Subsidiaries Jabong

    Xerion Retail Private Limited, also popularly known as Jabong, was a private company that was located in Gurgaon, Haryana. It was launched on 23 September 2011. It was classified as a private limited company. Jabong operated only on online fashion and lifestyle stores. It sold numerous products ranging from clothing, bags, shoes, sunglasses, jewellery, watches, and many more.


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    Jabong was acquired by Flipkart in July 2016 through its eCommerce unit Myntra for $70 million. Flipkart formally shut down Jabong in February 2020 to shift focus completely on its premium clothing platform Myntra.

    Myntra’s Parent company Flipkart Acquires Jabong

    Witworks Consumer Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

    Witworks Consumer Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a consumer technology company operating and serving customers across India. Witworks is a maker of wearable devices to strengthen its technology team. The company manufactures wearable products like connected smartwatches, smart shoes, and intelligent clothing with biosensors.

    Myntra has kept its image in providing quality products and merchandise. Myntra has always focused on quality with perfection and has kept a steady customer service. Its business is well-maintained which has to lead to the first click to an online fashion destination. Myntra bought Bengaluru-based startup Witworks in April 2018.

    HRX

    Myntra Subsidiaries HRX
    Myntra Subsidiaries HRX

    HRX is a 5-year-old brand and platform based on a life philosophy to keep pushing. HRX is India’s first celebrity brand that was founded by Hrithik Roshan who is also the brand ambassador for HRX. It is also India’s first homegrown brand that solely focuses on the sports and active lifestyle space. The brand was founded by Hrithik Roshan and co-founders Afsar Zaidi, Kamal Punwani, and Sid Shah. HRX was acquired by Myntra, the online fashion store owned by Flipkart on Jul 20, 2016. It acquired a 51% stake in HRX.

    The company was formed by taking inspiration from Hrithik Roshan’s life. No matter how big adversity, it can be overcome with perseverance. It was created to inspire and guide billions of people. HRX main aim is to help people achieve their fitness goals. HRX is a mission that helps us enable and support people to be the fittest, happiest, and most confident version of themselves.


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    Myntra – Other Acquisitions

    • Myntra acquired Mobile app development company Native5 in April 2015 in order to strengthen and expand Myntra’s mobile technology team.
    • Acquired mobile-based content aggregation platform Cubeit, for strengthening its technology team in July 2016.
    • Myntra partnered with the Ministry of Textiles to promote the handloom industry in October 2017.
    • Acquisition of InLogg, a city-based technology platform that provides end-to-end logistics solutions for the e-commerce sector in October 2017.

    Myntra – Major Investors

    Some of the Major investors and Venture capital firms investing in Myntra are:

    • Accel Partners
    • New Enterprise Associates
    • Tiger Global Management
    • Sofina
    • Kalaari Capital
    • IDG Ventures India
    • PremjiInvest

    Conclusions

    Myntra is India’s favorite shopping destination where quality meets perfection. If you are the one who wants to explore more before buying, want quality products over price, and looking for well-designed products, then Myntra is the best option for you. Myntra has a huge variety of brands. You don’t need to worry about the quality of the products. As Myntra only focuses on quality and authentic products. The products go through a quality check where the products are thoroughly checked. Myntra’s revenue model is B2C (Business to customer). All the products are only available on Myntra’s platform. The products are genuine and are directly collected from the merchandise stores. Enjoy shopping from Myntra.

    FAQs

    Myntra is owned by which company?

    Myntra is owned by Flipkart. Flipkart is Myntra’s Parent Company.

    Does Myntra sell fake products?

    No, Myntra does not sell counterfeit products at all. Myntra is an aggregator and seller of products. If someone gets a bit downgraded product from any of the leading brands, consider it as the brand’s product only.

    Is Myntra good for clothes?

    If you are the one who wants to explore more before buying then Myntra is the best option for you. Myntra has a huge variety of brands.

    Why Myntra is expensive?

    The one things great about Myntra is – the variety and size availability. They are also the market leaders and that’s perhaps the only reason for the pricing. People do buy at Myntra without even looking at other Portals.

    Is Myntra profitable?

    Myntra Designs revenue up 58% to Rs 1,719 crore, losses increase by 38% Walmart-owned online fashion retailer Myntra Designs Private Limited reported its revenues for the financial year 2019-20 as Rs 1,719 crore, a 58% jump since the last financial year.

  • The Lesser-known Facts about Flipkart you might not know about

    Ever since the collaboration between Walmart and Flipkart, many debates and queries have been woken. Walmart has spent around $16 billion in order to acquire an Indian E-commerce company- Flipkart. However, many Indians have been saying Flipkart shouldn’t have sold to an American company.

    Flipkart holds the position of a very strong E-commerce company that has grown massively in the past 12 years. It acquires almost 31% of market shares being the most preferred E-commerce company in India.

    The co-founder of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal is off to a subtle exit with 5.5% shares worth $1 billion. On the other hand, Google has been planning to sway its 7% stake in the advanced commodity.

    With these vast hearings about the most preferred e-commerce platform- Flipkart, we have brought some very rare facts about the company as well as its founders that are quite interesting. Let’s get started!

    The well-planned beginning of Flipkart
    Flipkart’s Logo logic
    The un-familiar bond of Bansals
    The First Order on Flipkart
    Denial didn’t break the founders of Flipkart
    Distinctive Views of Co-founder
    Divastri
    FAQ

    The well-planned beginning of Flipkart

    When people say that Flipkart came out as a surprise, this is absolutely untrue. The beginning of an online bookstore later known as Flipkart was well-planned with all the business strategies in mind.

    The two alumni of IIT Delhi, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal planned this company thoroughly. The co-founder of Flipkart has also worked together at Amazon which turned out to be the biggest competitor of Flipkart in the market. They then left Amazon and fabricated their own E-commerce bookstore company– Flipkart.

    Flipkart’s Logo logic

    Flipkart Logo
    Flipkart Logo

    The name Flipkart was chosen very strategically as it means, ‘Flipping items into cart’. Flipkart brandishes a distant ‘f’ letter in blue shading drawn on a yellow-hued shopping bag. Behind the letter ‘f’, speed lines are drawn. The logo resembles a positive as well as speedy assistance. While the yellow hues resemble vitality, creativeness and inclusivity.

    The un-familiar bond of Bansals

    Most people get tricked by the surnames of the co-founders of Flipkart; both being Bansal. They often connect the co-founders as blood relatives. But, to the best of my knowledge, this is entirely untrue! Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal do belong to the same city- Chandigarh but, Bansals are not related anyhow.

    They went to the same schools but were not very good friends. Later they went together to IIT-Delhi and worked at Amazon together. Well, they were pretty amazing at IIT and Amazon both and counted among the best performers.

    They both left Amazon and started their own India’ online bookstore website and founded Flipkart.

    The First Order on Flipkart

    Leaving Microsoft to change the world Book
    Leaving Microsoft to change the world Book

    When Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal successfully launched their online bookstore website- Flipkart.com. The first-ever order was of a book ‘Leaving Microsoft to Change the World‘ by John Wood.

    Very few know that the packaging of that very first order was done by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal acted out as the delivery boy. In fact, in an interview they told, they used to write fake reviews of the books on their website to gather the interest of new eyes. Interestingly, this worked for them pretty well!

    Denial didn’t break the founders of Flipkart

    When Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal worked over the idea of Flipkart, many investors rejected their business model. Many resources said Binny Bansal, went with the idea of Flipkart twice to Google but unfortunately, he was rejected both times.

    Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal completed their education together, but the idea of Flipkart never crossed their minds. It was when they joined Amazon with a year of difference that Sachin joined in 2006 while Binny in 2007. They worked on their business model and faced many rejections. But they stood by their idea and made Flipkart one of the biggest E-Commerce platforms in India.

    One in a Million

    Flipkart encountered enormous success. It became the first-ever Indian digital app to reach more than 50 million users in 2016. It is one of the most preferred and visited websites in India. It is quite remarkable that Flipkart receives over 13 million visitors per day.

    Regularly, Flipkart sells over 80 million products. Flipkart is termed as India’s Alibaba with an annual turnover of $1.5 billion.

    Distinctive Views of Co-founder

    As Sachin and Binny Bansal developed this massive company all by themselves, many consider them as one mind. But to great knowledge, the co-founders of Flipkart are everything but alike.

    Sachin Bansal is known to be a brilliant as well as a very passionate game player. If one can ever beat Sachin in his game, he/she is treated to a lavish dinner. However, it’s nearly impossible to beat Sachin, especially the one he is best at.

    However, Binny Bansal carries an entirely different personality. He is fond of nature and loves to travel. Most of all, his adventurous ride in the water-rafting is quite fascinating.

    Divastri

    Divastri
    Divastri 

    Flipkart has grown enormously and with this development, it has launched its brands. Well, this is true! The co-founder of Flipkart has recently made its decision and launched its first-ever private label fashion brand called- Divastri, which is a women’s fashion brand.

    Conclusion

    Since the cooperation with Walmart, the online shoppers are receiving really some pretty fascinating offerings and deals from Walmart. This is known as its ‘Everyday Sale Business Model’.

    Indian commerce has been depicted pretty amazingly in the eyes of foreign markets. Flipkart’s strong upholding in the Indian market is known and captivated by everyone. And this boldness of Flipkart is what attracted a foreign company, Walmart who spent around $16 billion to gain this prominent E-commerce website.

    And with the lots of news here, in this article, we had discussed some very interesting and lesser-known facts about Flipkart. Stay tuned for more updates.

    FAQ

    When was Flipkart founded?

    Flipkart was founded by Binny bansal and Sachin bansal on October 2007.

    Who is the Flipkart CEO?

    Kalyan Krishnamurthy is the current CEO of Flipkart.

    What is the revenue of Flipkart?

    the revenue of Flipkart is approximately 346 billion Indian rupees.

  • How Flipkart’s New Platform Shopsy will help Small Businesses and Individuals to be Resellers?

    Flipkart is not unknown to Indians. With the birth of Flipkart, eCommerce has been a household term for us.

    The Walmart-owned Indian eCommerce giant has been the trustworthy companion for millions of Indians till date since it was founded 14 years back in 2007. Flipkart has experienced incredible growth over the years.

    Along with keeping up with quality standards of products and services, the Indian startup stood strong against none other than Amazon, which is not an ordinary feat. Furthermore, along the years that Flipkart served the country, it not only increased its business on a large scale but also continued to provide both direct and indirect opportunities of employment for its users.

    On its way to offer employment opportunities for the people of the Indian subcontinent, Flipkart announced its latest app Shopsy.

    What is Shopsy?
    How will it Help Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs, and Individuals?
    Many Users Often Shy Away from Ecommerce Platforms, Why?
    How to use Shopsy?
    FAQ

    What is Shopsy?

    Shopsy, as announced by Flipkart, is launched as an app that will help tens of thousands of native entrepreneurs, businessmen, and other individuals to grow and further their businesses and enterprises.

    According to the Senior Vice President – Growth and Monetization of Flipkart, Prakash Sikaria, the launch of Shopsy as an app will help drive easy employment opportunities for the Indians that will further their “vision and provide additional earning opportunities for millions of enterprising Indians. Now, anyone from anywhere can start their online business with zero investment.”


    Traditional Business Vs Digital Business
    This post discusses traditional business , digital business, and the difference between digital and traditional business models.


    How will Shopsy Help Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs, and Individuals?

    Flipkart offers a wide range of products, equaling almost 15 crore products from varying industries, which the web app displays its users from where they can choose to buy the ones they prefer.

    To date, Flipkart has only offered its users products and opportunities to be sellers but with Shopsy the app also aims to create resellers out of their users. Now, the wide range of products that Flipkart boasts of on its website, spanning across categories like fashion, beauty, electronics, mobiles, home essentials, etc., will also be available for the budding entrepreneurs and other individuals to resell them and add to their income.

    The people who will choose Shopsy would be able to share Flipkart’s catalogs with their prospects via any social media or messaging apps, place orders for their customers, and earn commissions for themselves. The amount or the percentage of commissions received will not be the same and depend on the products and the categories from which they are ordered.

    Shopsy will also be a great help for Flipkart and have unlimited opportunities to widen their user base and boost their business. People who are relatively new to the world of eCommerce or aren’t sure of buying things online will be acquainted with Flipkart. This will further grow their trust in the brand and eCommerce in general because the known thread will be their trusted point of contact, who will be a Flipkart user.

    This new app will not only benefit the people who already exhibit a strong network but will also be an enviable opportunity for those who only aspire to build a decent network. Yes, the latter can also weave their own network successfully with the daily transactions that they will depend upon once they sign in with this Flipkart app.

    Shopsy will be a great boon for all upcoming entrepreneurs and individuals because all of them will have equal access to the wide inventory, effective logistics management, and established delivery networks of the eCommerce giant, which they can use as their ladder to establishing a successful business. Gain credibility and acceleration will not be a problem to them this way and with this app.

    Shopsy Website
    Shopsy Website

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    Many Users Often Shy Away from Ecommerce Platforms, Why?

    Though online transactions have grown by leaps and bounds in the past couple of decades, many users still fail to muster enough courage to transact online on eCommerce websites mainly because of their ignorance and the lack of trust. Distributed commerce, however, has acted as a channel to solve these problems and has witnessed quite a growth in these recent years. Shopsy will further gear up the possibilities for the app and its users to grow.

    How to use Shopsy?

    Flipkart has grown its eCommerce expertise over the years and is now aiming to help legions of budding Indian entrepreneurs to make the best of the app. All the users who want to use Shopsy will have to first register on the app with their phone numbers in order to kickstart their entrepreneurial venture and can continue adding to the income and expanding their business leveraging the key resources of the platform.

    Conclusion

    With this new initiative, Flipkart aims to benefit over 25 million online entrepreneurs by 2023 through digital commerce. Shopsy will be a major boost to the company, its citizens, and the country, and will be a major step forward to eradicate the country’s long-standing problems of unemployment.

    Besides, with the post-pandemic woes that have ousted several and weakened the stable financial grounds of many individuals and businessmen, Shopsy has the potential to glow as a silver lining at the end of the dreadful pandemic.

    FAQ

    What is Shopsy?

    Shopsy is an e-commerce platform launched by Flipkart to help entrepreneurs grow their business through platforms like WhatsApp.

    Is Shopsy Free?

    Yes, Shopsy platform is free for small businesses and individuals but sellers on Shopsy will have to pay the usual marketplace fee.

  • How Flipkart is delivering vaccines in Telangana – Drone delivery of Vaccine by Flipkart

    India had been severely hit by the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and the country saw a shortage in the availability of vaccines. Even though the country is slowly recovering from the second wave the vaccination in the country is still facing certain problems and the one of the most important problems is related to logistics and supply chain management.

    The e-commerce giant, Flipkart has announced that they would deliver the vaccines in Telangana through drones. Let’s look at the further details of the drone delivery by Flipkart.

    Flipkart Drone Delivery – Latest News
    Flipkart to join hands with Medicines from the sky project for Drone delivery of Vaccine
    Flipkart’s plan of Drone delivery of Vaccine
    Flipkart’s statement on Drone delivery of Vaccine
    Government of Telangana on Drone delivery of Vaccine
    FAQ

    Flipkart Drone Delivery – Latest News

    On 11 June 2021, the e-commerce giant of India, Flipkart had announced that it was going to test the drone delivery facility of the company by delivering vaccines in the state of Telangana. The company conveyed that it would use the learnings from its supply chain that is tech enabled in order to use drones for delivering vaccines and medical supplies in the state.

    The company announced that it had partnered with the Government of Telangana to form an association in order to run the task of delivering the medical supplies and vaccines to the remote areas of the state using the drone technology.

    Flipkart to join hands with Medicines from the sky project for Drone delivery of Vaccine

    Flipkart has conveyed that they will conduct the pilot drone delivery of medical supplies under the Medicines from the sky project. It is a project which outlines the requirement for drone delivery and to assess the proposals which are created under the Healthnet Global Limited and the World Economic Forum.

    The Government of Telangana has decided to work on this project and to implement it into the healthcare supply chain of the state in order to implement drones for reaching the most remote areas in Telangana.

    Flipkart’s plan of Drone delivery of Vaccine

    Flipkart had conveyed that it would use the knowledge that the company has gained from their tech enabled supply chain in order to deploy the drones and to provide health care supply chain support by delivering the medical supplies.

    These are going to be supported by the technologies which the company has developed over the years such as geo-mapping, track and trace of location and routing of shipments.

    Some of these technologies will also be used to deliver the vaccines and medical supplies to the most remote areas where the infrastructure of the road makes it impossible to deliver them. The company will use the technology to conduct Beyond Visual Line of Sight deliveries using the drone. It will make the deliveries really faster and will play a major role in vaccinating the remote areas.

    Number of Daily Vaccine doses in India
    Number of Daily Vaccine doses in India

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    Flipkart’s statement on Drone delivery of Vaccine

    Pranav Saxena who is the distinguished product manager of Flipkart conveyed that the Coronavirus pandemic and the situation has pushed the countries worldwide to adapt to rapid technologies and shift towards robust technologies by developing scalable products. The medicine of the sky project is considered to be a sign towards it.

    He added that the step taken by Flipkart is a quick decision in order to make use of the cutting edge technology for the safety and the wellbeing of the people.

    He also conveyed that the company was proud to partner with the Government of Telangana in leading the association by utilizing the companies subtle understanding of the supply chain and the technologies that are helping and supporting in the automated movement of the medical supplies in completing the emergency requirements of the citizens across the state.

    The company conveyed that even during the disasters or any natural calamities they would deliver the medical supplies and the required products using the drone technology and this will set a place in the industry for providing the necessary products in the time of need.


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    Government of Telangana on Drone delivery of Vaccine

    The Government of Telangana has always been a step ahead in utilizing the technology for improving the lives of citizens. The Telangana Government stated that introducing the drone technology for delivery of vaccines and medical supplies for the citizens in the remote areas is going to be the first ever introduction in the entire country and added that the Government is happy to have partnered with Flipkart towards this initiative.

    Jayesh Ranjan who is the Principal Secretary from the Government of Telangana has conveyed that this initiative will go a long way in testing the best in class technologies and solutions in order to solve the future crisis that will be faced by the society.

    Conclusion

    The drone delivery is considered to be the most effective way to deliver vaccines and to solve the supply chain related problems faced by the country. India is one of the most populated country having a lot of population concentrated in the remote areas, this technology can be a solution for the major crisis faced by the country regarding vaccines if worked effectively.

    FAQ

    Yes, Drone delivery is legal in India but the operations must be limited to visual line of sight and the drone must not carry any dangerous goods.

    Where is Flipkart planning to deliver vaccines?

    Flipkart is planning to conduct drone delivery of vaccines in Telangana and deliver medical supplies under the Medicines from the sky project.

    How many vaccines are there for Covid-19 in India?

    India has authorized three COVID-19 vaccines: Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech, Covishield developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sputnik V developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Russia.

  • Startups Funded Through SoftBank’s Vision Fund

    The world we live in is always in need of innovation. Be it from domestic help to data analysis. For all of this one thing is unavoidable – investment. With an aim of investing in transformative technologies, The Japanese company SoftBank has initiated a $100 venture capital fund called the visions fund.

    The Vision Fund was a materialisation of a talk between Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammed Bin Salman. As the name suggests, the Vision Fund envisions a long-term growth of companies for the benefit of humanity.

    Being the biggest venture capital fund in the world, their plans for investment are almost equal to the global venture capital investment of the world. Most of their companies are in the transportation and logistics sector followed by consumer services and frontier technologies. Here is a glimpse of a few startups that are funded by SoftBank’s Vision Fund

    Zeta
    ByteDance
    Trax
    Firstcry
    Lenskart
    Meesho
    Oyo Rooms
    Flipkart
    Unacademy
    OakNorth
    Grofers
    Paytm
    Biofourmis
    Klarna
    Eightfold AI
    Whatfix
    FAQ

    Zeta

    The banking startup is the latest unicorn now. In May 2021, it raised $250 million in a series C funding of Vision Fund. This has raised the value of the firm to $1.45 billion. It was founded by Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015. Zeta provides a modern and cloud native platform to improve the cost to income ratio and consumer experience.

    ByteDance

    With a mission to “Inspire creativity and enrich life”, ByteDance is a startup that is spread over 150 markets with offices in 126 cities. They offer high quality Global Creation and Interaction Platforms as and while ensuring that the digital life of billions of its users are made beautiful. It was found in 2012 in a four bedroom apartment. In 2019, SoftBank’s Vision Fund invested in ByteDance and its corporate value quadrupled soon after.

    Trax

    Making in-store execution easier, Trax has been very useful to both retailers and customers. They say that through them the best of digital technologies comes together in the physical reality for the best experience of the users. In 2021, it secured $640 million funding lead by SoftBank Vision Fund. Trax will continue to optimise its retail stores through creating awareness about changing store condition and improving purchasing intent.

    Firstcry

    Founded in 2010, It aims to be the largest retailer in child and mother care products in the world. In 2018, SoftBank Vision Fund bought a 40% stake at a rate of $400 million which makes them the biggest investor in the company. It also valued Firstcry at $1.1 billion at that time. Today, they have a customer base of over 20 million families. Under the leadership of Supam Maheshwari, they continue to conquer greater heights in the business realm.


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    Lenskart

    It is a startup that revolutionised the untapped market of opticals. It is indeed a magical unicorn of India and there is no surprise in Vision Fund investing in Lenskart. Beginning from contact lenses, today it has a range of prescription glasses and sunglasses as well. It was launched in 2010. It fared really well in business and was aided by SoftBank Vision Fund in the year 2019. They invested a total of $275 million after which it was valued at $1.5 billion. In 2020, Lenskart generated a revenue of 1000 crore.

    Meesho

    The top rated reselling app of India was found by two IIT Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. They have transcended beyond earning profits for themselves alone by helping small businesses and individuals to set up their own online stores.

    In the latest funding round of Vision Fund (2021), it invested $300 million which raised its value to an enviable $2.1 billion. Earlier, when it was valued at $700 million, they had received a funding of $125 million in 2019. The latest funding is three times greater than last time. It was the fourth deal in the second Vision Fund in India.

    Oyo Rooms

    The most popular hospitality firm that upturned the ways of hotel booking raised $807 million along with RA Holdings. In this SVF has picked up 9626 holdings of Series F CCPS for $506 million. This will make SVF entitled to 50.5% stake in the firm. Oyo has always surprised us by expanding to countries like wildfire. It is expected that this fund will be used to increase the efficiency of the company by delivering the best services.  

    Flipkart

    Flipkart is a very familiar name in the e-commerce industry for the past few years. Its growth has been tremendous and inspiring. Softbank Vision Fund had invested a sum of $2.5 billion in 2017. Now, Flipkart is completing its merger with Walmart and SoftBank has only sold 20% of its stake during the process and thereby continues to stay invested. Softbank is now again trying to invest in Flipkart.

    Unacademy

    It is a Bangalore based Education technology firm which was founded in 2015. It began its journey as a YouTube channel in 2010 and its growth over the decade is commendable. Unacademy received a sum of $150 million from SoftBank’s Vision Fund in 2020. This will take the committed firm’s overall value to $1.4 billion. This is a triple gain as far as the firm is concerned in a span of 6 months. They will be using the fund to launch new products and expand the organisation.  


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    OakNorth

    The UK based bank for small and medium sized companies was founded in 2013. It gained regulatory approval in 2015. The firm was founded by Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman. In February 2019, SoftBank invested $440 million in OakNorth and its value skyrocketed to $2.8 billion. Many times, it lends more than $5 billion which is higher than its counterparts. However, they recover more than 90% of that money. Today, it is one of the highly valued startups in Europe.

    Softbank's Biggest Investments
    Softbank’s Biggest Investments

    Grofers

    Founded in 2013, Grofers is a grocery delivery service in India. It allows you to order a large variety of products through their online supermarket. Their potential did not skip the eyes of SoftBank either. In 2020, they invested $55 million in this firm to help them further improve their efficiency and services. The bank’s trust in the business can be further reiterated by the fact that they hold 46% of the total holdings.

    Paytm

    Since its launch in 2009, Paytm has transformed the money paying etiquette of people in India and many other e-commerce payment platforms followed suit. In 2019, it was founded by Vijay Shekhar Varma. Paytm raised $1 billion from Vision Fund along with Ant Financial Services. The new fund will be used to ramp up the expansion of the firm into rural India. They aim to popularise payments in rural India online.

    Biofourmis

    It is a health tech company that makes use of machine learning and AI to improve services in the health sector. It was founded by Kuldeep Singh Rajput with a team of committed members backing him. Together they have been successful in improving outcomes of major healthcare providers. In 2020, they raised $100 million through the Series C of Vision Fund. This was indeed a booster shot for them. They are now on their path to develop better portfolios which are inclusive of digital therapeutics for pain and cancer.

    Klarna

    Klarna Bank AB or Klarna, as it is commonly termed, is a Swedish fintech company that is mainly associated with online financial services to support payments for online storefronts, direct payments, and post-purchase payments. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and boasts of more than 3,000 employees, most of whom work from the headquarters.

    With the latest investment round, Klarna announces an equity funding of $638 million. This equity funding has been led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, which was then followed by additional participation primarily from Adit Ventures, Honeycomb Asset Management, and WestCap Group. The latest round of funding raised the valuation of Klarna to $45.6 billion. This recent funding round is aimed to support the international expansion of the company and further capture global retail growth.

    Eightfold AI

    Eightfold AI, as the name indicates, is a Talent Intelligence platform powered by Artificial Intelligence. Eightfold AI announced on Thursday, June 10, 2021, that the company has been successful in raising a fund close to $220 million in the Series E funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.

    The company has been successful in raising more than $410 million to date, with around $350 million coming in the past six months. According to Eightfold AI’s Founder and CEO, Ashutosh Garg, the company will continue to use the funds to widen its operations in India, with investments focused on the most talented data scientists and engineers across the country. This way Eightfold AI would ensure that its funds are used for fast and effective growth and development of its talent intelligence platform and further expanding its growing partner ecosystem.

    Whatfix

    Whatfix is a SaaS-based company, which primarily focuses on providing in-app guidance and support for software products and web applications. In the Series D funding round of the company, Whatfix announced that it has raised $90 million. This recent round of funding was led by Softbank’s Vision Fund 2, followed by other participations including that of Eight Roads Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Dragoneer Investment Group, F-Prime Capital, and Cisco Investments.

    Whatfix claims to have tripled its investments after the completion of this recent round of funding, according to TOI. The firm has reportedly raised around $139.8 million in the last segment alone and with that in, the company is presently valued at $600 million.

    With the latest round of funding, Whatfix aims to strengthen its position in the US and look for further expansion in Europe and the Asia Pacific. It also strives to focus more on product innovation to provide personalized user experiences with effective use of Artificial Intelligence.

    Here are a few other startups in which SoftBank’s Vision Fund have invested in

    Name of the company

    Year of Investment by SBVF

    Amount of investment 

    Ola 

    2014

    $210 million

    Delhivery 

    2019

    $350 million

    Policy Bazaar 

    $200 million 

    OpenDoor Labs

    2019

    $300 million

    Cameo 

    2021

    $100 million

    Banco Inter 

    2021

    $471 million

    Exeger 

    2019

    $10 million 

    Zume Pizza 

    2018

    $375 million 

    One Tap Buy 

    2018

    $17.32 million 

    Compass

    2018

    $400 million 

    Conclusion

    There was a lot of criticism with regard to the functionalities of Vision Fund. Many opinionated that the mode of its functioning was hitherto unseen. The loss it faced in the last year further sharpened the criticisms against it. However, it was able to come back with a bang and give a sharper reply to the critics through its economic performance.

    The performance of the companies in which it invested is a testimony to the win of SoftBank as well. The Japanese multinational company has significantly helped a plethora of startups to ace in their business through the Vision Fund.

    By extending help to startups, it also didn’t fall back in emerging as the biggest profit earning company in the history of Japanese companies. After a year of unprecedented loss it has emerged as one of the world’s biggest earning firms in the world. SoftBank and its Vision Fund will always remain as a ray of hope for all startups.

    FAQ

    Who owns SoftBank?

    SoftBank’s founder and CEO is Masayoshi Son who is the third-richest person in Japan, with a $20.6 billion personal fortune. He owns $45 million worth of real estate in Tokyo as well as a $117.5 million estate in Silicon Valley.

    What is SoftBank Vision Fund?

    Softbank Vision Fund is the world’s biggest innovation-centered investment finance, with over $100 billion in the capital.

    How does SoftBank earns?

    SoftBank owns stakes in many technology, energy, and financial companies. It also runs Vision Fund, the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund.

  • Top 16 Tools that every Amazon FBA Seller Needs in 2021

    E-commerce platforms have altered ways of doing business in a tremendous manner. They have rendered the impossible possible by making the market place accessible for all. Not just for customers but also for sellers.

    This also means an increase in competition. Gone are the days where you can go on with your business without any change. Today, you have to plan and bring in innovation in every step that you take or else you see your sales plummeting down. To ensure better sales, here are a few tools that every Amazon seller must have:

    Amazon Seller App
    AMZ Finder
    Facebook Advertising
    PPC Entourage
    Sellics
    Amazon FBA Calculator
    FBA Fox
    Kabbage
    Source Mogul
    Shipworks
    Refunds Manager
    Camelcamelcamel
    Amazon Sellers Lawyer
    Currencies Direct
    Profit Whales
    Helium 10
    FAQ

    Amazon Seller App

    Pricing – Free
    Review – 4.2

    Amazon Seller App
    Amazon Seller App

    This is a very basic app whose functions are way more than basic. They help you fix a retail price for your product. All you have to do is just scan and upload the picture of the product. The app suggests an apt selling price using various parameters. It is completely free and thus makes the process completely investment free. If you are planning to sell on Amazon here’s a complete guide to help you out.

    AMZ Finder

    Pricing – Prices vary from $49/month to $799/month
    Review – 4.3

    AMZ Finder Tool Website
    AMZ Finder Tool Website

    One cannot emphasise enough on the importance of reviews as far as firms like Amazon are concerned. A negative review can turn down many prospective customers apart from lowering product rank.

    This tool helps you improve your customer relations and product reviews in a variety of ways. Automatic emailing, requesting positive reviews, alerting at the sight of negative reviews are a few of them. The last one mentioned is all the more important since it helps you act faster and address the issue immediately.

    Facebook Advertising

    Pricing – Price depends on CPC
    Review – 4.3

    Long gone are the days when Facebook was just a social media platform. It has expanded to be a market place as well. Realising this potential, Facebook now allows sellers to advertise their products after choosing certain variables like location, target audience, budget etc.

    PPC Entourage

    Pricing – Price vary from $o / month per region to $200 / month per region
    Review – 4.3

    PPC Entourage Website
    PPC Entourage Website

    PPC Entourage is yet another advertising tool for Amazon sellers. It claims to kill competition by putting your Sponsored Amazon ads on auto-pilot. They significantly help in improving profit margins. They completely take care of the advertising part while you take care of the business.

    Sellics

    Pricing – Prices vary from $198/month to $599/month
    Review – 4.4

    Sellics Website
    Sellics Website

    It is yet another tool that you may want to use as a seller on Amazon. This tool tailor made for Amazon monitors many key areas of business like SEO, research, reviews, Pay-per-click, competitor management etc. It is a must add on if you aim at improving your business at an exponential rate. The app is suitable, not only for pros but also for newbies.

    Amazon FBA Calculator

    Pricing – Free
    Review – 4.4

    As the name suggests, this tool lets you view, calculate and realise sales and price ranks of the competitors. This is an added information which helps you assess where you stand amongst others. The different facilities available here can also be used to determine revenue, RoI, and Profit.

    FBA Fox

    Pricing – Prices vary from $30/month to $45/month
    Review – 4.5

    It is an amazing destination for those Amazon sellers looking for a wholesale distribution platform. They catalogue almost 5 lakh items and extends services upto delivering your product directly to the buyer.

    Kabbage

    Pricing – NA
    Review – 4.2

    Lack of operational capital is a big problem that most of the beginners face. Kabbage provides loans for such small and medium enterprises. They use data on merchant activity to understand details about business performances.

    Source Mogul

    Pricing – $67/month
    Review – 4.5

    Source Mogul Website
    Source Mogul Website

    This tool helps you to find the right product to sell. This being an important aspect of any seller it helps you in automating the process of searching. It gives you an option to customise your wholesale lists as well.

    Shipworks

    Pricing – Prices vary from $49/month to $799/month
    Review – 4.3

    Shipworks website
    Shipworks website

    As the names says it helps in optimising shipping of your orders. The orders will be directly downloaded from the website of the store. Apart from that, it also helps in procuring monthly reports, customer invoices etc.

    Refunds Manager

    Pricing – Prices vary from $690/Year to $1190/Year
    Review – 4.5

    Refunds Manager Website
    Refunds Manager Website

    It is a tool that helps you to get your money back from Amazon. This includes the refunds for damaged products, excessive commission fees and so on. By keeping track of the refunds initiated, this tool will help you monitor the over cash flow of the business with much less friction.

    Camelcamelcamel

    Pricing – Free
    Review – 4.3

    Camelcamelcamel Website
    Camelcamelcamel Website

    This tool is very popular among the Amazon sellers due to the service that it provides to them by monitoring the prices available on Amazon. It also sends you alerts if you feed in your requirements like a range of prices based on their availability. Camelizer is a browser add-on of the same tool which makes the job easier for the sellers. They let you see the price history with ease.

    Amazon Sellers Lawyer

    Pricing – You have to Contact the supplier for a quote
    Review – 4.4

    Business is never a cake walk. And doing business through Amazon is no different. Things like suspension can happen. The tool Amazon Sellers Lawyers deals with the legal side of doing business and helps you revert back the suspension or any other kind of legal punishments imposed by the app. It also helps you to go on to the listings back. This is a go to place in case of any legal hurdles.

    Currencies Direct

    Pricing – NA
    Review – 4.5

    If you are a seller who undertake transactions internationally, then this is a tool that you must use. It takes care of all money that comes through international marketplaces. And there is no need to worry about local bank accounts. Their clients can save 3% of the overall sales value when compared with other firms.

    Profit Whales

    Pricing – Prices vary from $69/month to $500/month (They also charge 2% to 3% monthly ad spend on some plans)
    Review – 5

    Profit Whales Website
    Profit Whales Website

    By using the potential of data science, Profit Whales automates pay-per-click nuances of Amazon for other brands and even third party sellers on Amazon. They do this through their completely automated custom-built algorithms. Hence it is safe to consider this tool as Amazon’s pay-per-click automation software

    Helium 10

    Pricing – Prices vary from $37 /month to $198/month
    Review – 4.5

    Helium10 Website
    Helium10 Website

    This website is extremely beneficial for sellers who are launching a new product. SEO is an unavoidable aspect as far as online businesses are concerned. This tool aids in boosting your sales by optimising keywords. It tracks and finds out the best keywords that can be used so that your products come in all related searches the customers do. These high volume keywords will help you outrun your competitors.

    Other tools that Amazon sellers can use

    • Salsify
    • Seller Repay
    • Codisto
    • Channergy
    • Billbee
    • AmazeOwl
    • Entriwise
    • SellerMobile
    • eComEngine
    • taxomate

    Conclusion

    There are a plethora of tools that you can use to improve your sales on Amazon. One thing that you need to keep in mind is that no tool can be used in all situations in the same manner.

    You need to constantly adapt and improvise on tools. It depends on how your business fares on the platform. In a way, it is a cycle which determines each other. The right use of tools will benefit your business, and the changes in business will demand a change in the usage of tools. So watch your business very closely and use the tools in the best way possible.

    FAQ

    Which is the best Amazon seller tool?

    Junglescout, Camelcamelcamel and AMZ finder are some of the top amazon seller tools you should consider.

    Is being an Amazon seller worth it?

    If you are serious about selling and growing your business on Amazon then selling on Amazon is quite profitable as it is one of the top ecommerce site.

    What tools do I need for Amazon FBA?

    Amazon Seller Central App, Amazon FBA calculator and Camelcamelcamel are some of the top tools you need for Amazon FBA.

  • Why Softbank is Investing 700 million in Flipkart after exiting the firm in 2018?

    SoftBank Vision Fund is a Japanese based company that had exited from its investments in Flipkart after selling them off to Walmart Inc during the year 2018. But the company has now held discussions in order to invest into the e-commerce giant, Flipkart. Let’s look at why SoftBank is trying to buy Flipkart again.

    Softbank Funding – Latest News
    Flipkart Plans for IPO in US
    Reason for SoftBank’s Investment in Flipkart
    Flipkart’s Investment
    FAQ

    Softbank Funding – Latest News

    SoftBank has held discussions with the e-commerce giant, Flipkart to invest an amount of around USD 600 – USD 700 million during the funding round. Certain sources have claimed that the funding which is being raised by Flipkart is much more larger which is expected to be around USD 2 billion.

    The funding rounds estimated to see the participation of a group of investors or wealth funds which include Canada’s CPPIB, Abu Dhabi’s ADQ as well as the existing investors of the company which includes GIC and Qatar Investment Authority.

    The sources have conveyed that the funding rounds would value the e-commerce giant to closely around USD 25 – USD 30 billion.

    Flipkart Plans for IPO in US

    Flipkart had plans to go for an Initial Public Offering in the United States and the investment from Soft Bank would lead the company to push aside its plans to go public. This would mean that the e-commerce giant would stay as a private company for longer than it was intended to.

    A person close to the developments has conveyed that the deal between SoftBank and Flipkart would be finalized up in the next few weeks of June 2021. As per earlier reports, the e-commerce giant had plans to go public during the year 2022.


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    Reason for SoftBank’s Investment in Flipkart

    If the deal to invest in Flipkart is finalized then it would be another big move from the Japanese based group, SoftBank in entering into the Indian e-commerce market. The company has already been part of the e-commerce market with huge cash investments.

    After the exit from the e-commerce firm Flipkart during the year 2018, the re-entry into the firm is at the right time when the large Indian groups such as TATA and Reliance have been entering into the market sector and is trying to catch the market share.

    Even the rival firm of Flipkart which is Amazon has increased its investment in the Indian market by more than USD 7 billion in diversified sectors which include retailing, online payments, food delivery, grocery delivery, etc.

    The investment from SoftBank will help the e-commerce giant to build an ecosystem in order to compete with the rivals such as Reliance, TATA and Amazon.

    Revenue growth of Flipkart
    Revenue growth of Flipkart

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    Softbank has invested in many companies in India and helped them reachmilestones. It has already spent $10 billion as investments on Indian start-upsout of which $8 billion were from its vision fund. Masayoshi Son’s interest inIndia has proved to be profitable for him. Below is the List of top S…


    Flipkart’s Investment

    Flipkart under the leadership of Kalyan Krishnamurthy has grown significantly over the years. They have increased their investments and the acquisitions in order to bulk up their logistics and supply chain in order to increase the its brand and fashion portfolio.

    In the month of April 2021, the company had acquired Cleartrip in order to strengthen its presence in the hospitality sector. Flipkart had also acquired an 8% stake in the Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd and also a 27 % stake in the Arvind Fashions.

    Other recent investments of the company include a logistics startup and a supply chain startup. The company is also focusing to invest heavily into the online grocery platform as it has seen an increased demand due to the pandemic and the lockdown in the major cities.

    The company has announced that it has plans to build warehouses for scaling up its grocery business and hired employees for it. The Indian business of Flipkart is operated through multiple entities. The online business is run by Flipkart internet and Flipkart India.

    Conclusion

    The e-commerce giant has expected to raise funds from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and also from the existing investors. 76.9 % of the stake is owned by the Parent company Walmart INC. The other investors include UBS, GIC, Accel, Microsoft, Qatar Investment Authority, Tiger Global Management, Tencent, ESOP pool and the founder Binny Bansal.

    FAQ

    When did SoftBank Invest in Flipkart?

    SoftBank’s Vision Fund invested $2.5 billion in Flipkart in August 2017.

    When did Walmart invest in Flipkart?

    In 2018 Walmart bought a roughly 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 billion.

    Is Softbank investing in Flipkart again?

    Yes, Softbank is in talks with Flipkart to invest approximately $700 million in it.