Flipkart which is owned by Walmart has announced that it will cover insurance for all its platform sellers in India and waive additional fees. The announcement was made after Amazon’s announcement which said that it would reduce 50 % of the referral fees which the sellers on Amazon’s platform are required to pay this month. Let’s look at the details of the insurance cover provided by Flipkart to its sellers.
Flipkart which is owned by Walmart has announced that it would not charge cancellation and storage fees from its sellers that are listed on their platform. They also announced that they would be providing insurance coverage to its sellers.
The main reason behind this step is to maintain a strong and friendly relationship with its seller base which is more than 3,00,000. Flipkart is the top most e-commerce platform in India and during this unexpected phase due to the global pandemic and increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in India, they are looking to support the sellers who are facing severe disruption.
Details of the Insurance
As several Indian states have imposed a strict restriction on the movement of individuals and cut down the selling of non-essential items on the e-commerce platforms, the Bangalore headquartered company on 7 May 2021 had announced that it would reduce the storage fees of sellers who are using the fulfillment centers of Flipkart and they are also reducing the cancellation fee till the end of this month.
The company had announced that it would bear a 100% premium for Covid insurance to all the sellers that are listed on their digital platform. The company conveyed that they would cover a consultation fees and hospitalization fees in between INR 50,000 and INR 3,00,000.
Flipkart had also announced that the company is making it easier for sellers to access working capital from the firm without any increase or addition on the cost.
The company has also taken a step to increase the period for Seller Protection Fund from 14 days to 30 days in order to make claims on returned products. Flipkart also conveyed that they would make their policies and performance metrics much easier for the sellers so that the state-wise lockdown doesn’t affect them.
Additional Steps taken by Flipkart
The company has announced that it has partnered with Vriddhi, which is a Supplier Development Programme in India by Walmart. The main aim of the programme is to host webinars for the small businesses in order to share the best practices which will help them to stay afloat during the crisis and ensure the safety of their workforce.
Jagjeet Harode who is the senior director and the head of the marketplace at Flipkart had conveyed in the statement that in these testing times, it is the company’s consistent efforts to support the seller partners who are facing a lot of challenges relating to operation in the country due to the pandemic.
He also added that as a democratic marketplace, the company would want to make sure that lakhs of seller partners would be able to continue their operations and keep their economic engines running.
FAQ
Is flipkart delivering non essentials?
Amazon and Flipkart have suspended delivery of non-essential items
Who is the founder of Flipkart?
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are the founders of Flipkart.
What is the revenue of Flipkart in 2020?
346.1 billion Indian rupees
Conclusion
India has been witnessing a huge increase in the infections and has recorded the highest single day spike in the number of cases around the world. The lockdowns implemented in various states and the major metro cities in the country have affected the e-commerce firms and their sellers. This would be a great initiative from the company in order to support their seller base in the country.
TATA Group has been looking to acquire the grocery delivery startup Bigbasket. The company has received approval from The Competition Commission of India (CCI) to acquire the unicorn grocery delivery startup of India. Let’s look at how TATA will soon compete with Jiomart and the further details of the acquisition of Bigbasket.
The latest deal of TATA digital is to acquire a stake in the B2B arm of Bigbasket which is Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd (SGS) which will let TATA digital to indirectly acquire Bigbasket’s Online Retail Business Innovative Retail Concepts (IRC). This will take place through separate transactions.
The deal will let TATA digital to control both Bigbasket’s retail and wholesale business units. The CCI(Competition Commission of India) has said that the proposed deal will not lead to any problems or changes in the competitive landscape in India. CCI has said that irrespective of the manner in which the relevant markets are defined the deal will not cause any effect in the competition in India.
Why Tata is Planning to acquire Bigbasket
TATA Group has got the approval from the Competition Commission of India to acquire the grocery delivery unicorn startup with a stake of 64.3 %. The acquisition is expected to be done through TATA digital which is the digital arm of the TATA group.
TATA digital has plans to launch a super app by this year. The planned super-app is a step towards competing with the digital business conglomerates such as Amazon, Reliance Industries and Flipkart which is owned by Walmart.
The app is expected to help the consumers to get access to services such as ordering food and grocery, fashion and lifestyle, insurance and financial services, consumer electronics and consumer durable products, education, healthcare and bill payments.
The company also has talks to acquire 1mg which will be a part of the strategy to expand its e-pharmacy offerings to its customers.
The exact value of the transaction has not yet been disclosed. The estimation according to the market is around USD 1.8 to USD 2 billion. According to the deal, most of the existing investors of Bigbasket will be exiting the company which includes the Chinese based e-commerce platform Alibaba.
According to the earlier reports, the TATA group is expected to buy the 30 % stake of Alibaba in the online grocery company Bigbasket. The Bigbasket’s top management which includes the co-founder and CEO of the company Hari Menon and others are expected to continue on the board.
BigBasket is a trade name of Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd. The company was founded in the year 2011 and has its headquarters located in Bangalore, India. It is an online grocery delivery service that primarily focuses on delivering grocery foods that are found in convenience stores, home essentials and food supplies to its customers.
The company entered the unicorn club of India in the year 2019 after raising a capital of around USD 150 million in the Series F funding. The funding was raised from the companies such as Alibaba, CDC Group which is backed by the UK Government and Mirae Asset Global Investments of South Korea.
FAQ
Is Walmart investing in Tata?
Walmart is planning to invest upto $25 billion in Tata Group’s super app.
Which Tata company is buying big basket?
Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd has agreed to acquire control of India’s largest online grocer Bigbasket for more than $1billion.
Is Tata digital listed?
Tata Digital Limited is a Public incorporated on 11 March 2019. It is classified as Non-govt company.
Conclusion
The acquisition of Bigbasket is a huge step taken by the TATA group to increase its competency level in the digital retail business in India. The already existing companies which include Jiomart, Amazon and Flipkart are expected to face a huge competition from this acquisition.
Esports is a form of sport competition using video games which is often organized into multiplayer video games, particularly between professional players, individually or as team. Esports has managed to take over the market in India mainly because of the growth and promotion done on online streaming platform such as Youtube and Twitch. The word “esports” is getting increasingly popular by the day thanks to the multiplayer online games like PUBG and Fortnite.
The masses still don’t know that the esports industry is more than a decade old and has just shot up in India in the past few years with more developers and investors jumping into the sector. The most common video game genre of esports are multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first person shooter (FPS), fighting, card games, battle royale and real time strategy (RTS). The popular franchises include League of Legends, Dota and Counter strike.
Although the legitimacy of esports as a true sporting competition remains in question, they have been features alongside traditional sports in events such as Asian games, while even the International Olympic Committee are also discussing their inclusion into the future of Olympic events. In India esports accounted for around 4% of all online gaming users and 9.13% of aggregate revenue out of the overall online gaming market in FY20. The growth in esports prize money pool by 123.3% during 2016-2018 has attracted gaming enthusiasts to become professionals
According to Forbes, India ranks 16th, with a total revenue of $1.17 billion (8,000 crore approx.). Comparatively to, North America is estimated to generate revenues of almost $409 million in the next four years while China known to have largest gaming market in the world, with a total revenue of $37.9 billion (Rs 26.11 lakh crore approx.) in 2018, followed by US, Japan and Korea. This shows there is huge potential in the esports market and India needs to tap into that space.
In 2010, India only had 25 game developers whereas now we have 250 more joining the list every year. Corporate giants like Paytm, Alibaba, Tencent and even Nazara have been investing heavily in the Indian gaming market, which is currently one of the top 5 countries in terms of mobile gaming. Most of the revenue generated in esports is sponsored by companies like Asus, Oppo which have been funding to organize and promote esports competitions in India.
Popular esport events in India
Apart from the local tournaments like PUBG Mobile India Series 2019, for the first time, Mumbai is set to play host to one of the biggest esports gaming event, ESL (Electronic Sports League) which will see Dota 2 players from across the globe compete in the two-day tournament. According to a Forbes report, as of October 31st 2019, 285 players from India had earned $216,761.38 (Rs 1.49 crore) in various esports tournaments and games, ranking India at number 64.
Counter Strike remains the most popular and most played esports in India. Counter Strike was released in 2012. Since 2012 Counter Strike has been India’s most popular esports game. India was not a hub for esports back then. But now Indian esports are being recognized at an international level and getting international investments too. Counter Strike is a multiplayer first-person shooter which pits two teams against each other. Competitors are given the task of eliminating the other while completing separate objectives.
Dota 2
Dota 2 is one of the first esport that comes to mind while talking about India’s most popular esports games. Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena. The two featured teams can have 5 players each. To win Dota 2, each team has to destroy the opposing structure while defending theirs. Players have more than 100 characters to choose from. Each character has unique abilities, playing styles, and attributes.
Esports Market During Covid-19
The paradigm shift in the way Indians consume content and the way people socialize online has acted as a catalyst for man attention economy sectors including online gaming. According to a report by Barc and Nielson the number of smartphone game users per week grew from 60% in pre Covid times to 68% during the lockdown. Similarly the mobile games per user spent went from 151 minutes before covid 19 to 218 minutes after the lockdown.
Esports has a huge potential in the Indian market because of the high youth population. The esport segment has online gaming has witnessed significant growth in India in the past few thanks to proliferation of high end smartphone at affordable prices, as well as the rise of mobile games such as PUBG mobile, Free Fire, Clash of Legends, call of duty Mobile among PC and Console games.
Along with deeper penetration for high speed 4G internet and a rise in the number of online gamers the esports market has all the ingredients for growth. The aggregate revenue of esports startups and companies in India reached $68 Million in FY2020 and is projected to grow by CAGR 36% in the next 3 years, as per Inc42 Plus analysis of 36 companies including Jetsynthesys, Nazara technologies, Usports, Gamerji among others.
India’s online gaming revenue growth to hit inflation point
Role of The Stakeholders
From e-commerce platforms like Flipkart to Asus, high end gaming hardware manufacture s like Asus as each platform play a major role in making sure that budding gamers and professional get the required accessory or hardware. According to Leon Yu, Regional Head for India and South Asia, ASUS, “most gamers these days demand LCDs, mobility of hardware and mostly importantly performance. We have also ensured that affordability and performance is catered to with our new series of ROG gaming laptops, which start at Rs 50,000.”
In terms of affordability and availability, ecommerce platform like flipkart and amazon make sure that customers get the products at a cheaper price. Looking at the market opportunity, even unicorns such as Paytm and Hike have doubled down on games. While Paytm launched Paytm First Games as a multi-game platform, Hike-backed WinZO has also been growing rapidly and has raised plenty of funding in the recent months.
Connectivity is quintessential for the growth of the gaming industry and telecom providers too have been working around the clock to not only provide users with affordable data plans, but also work towards make high-speed data accessible across India. According to Anurag Khurana, Head of Esports, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, “In terms of data availability, Reliance Jio has setup 3,00,000 mobile towers and spread around 3.5 million km of high-speed broadband cables across India in order to improve the connectivity because I feel low latency is key for online gaming.”
Currently there is not much scope for professional gamers in India as the infrastructure and the ecosystem is not ready to support a lucrative livelihood for many. According to Akshat Rathee, “choosing to be a gamer is a risky proposition in India as there is not much scope. However, there are other avenues one can explore in the gaming industry. People can choose a career in game commentary, choose to be an influencer where they can play games and talk about it, or a coder who can write code to build AI for games.”
Data handlers are also a good option where they can track data issues and then the biggest avenue is voice-over artistes as many developers will look to localize game content for Indian gamers. A career in esports or gaming in India can easily earn you anywhere from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh in a month. Since esports doesn’t require any extreme physical strength, it is a gender neutral space. Sasha Hostyn is one of the most successful women in professional esports and recently won the Intel Extreme Masters 2018 tournament, taking home $50,000 (Rs 34.45 lakh).
Rise in Esport Prize Money Pool
As indicated earlier, esports has seen rising participation from Indian players as the prize money across esports tournaments has been on an upward trajectory since 2016. The entry of PUBG Mobile in India was game changing moment as it provided gamers a career option. As per sensor tower data for July 2020, out of PUBG Mobile 734 Mn downloads globally, India was the ranked top in terms of downloads, with 175 Mn installs or 24% market share.
The growth rate of Esports prize money in India
Of course, much of this growth has been in recent years, whereas esports is already a multi-billion dollar business in the US and China. So relatively speaking, India has a long way to go in terms of revenue and income for players, despite outpacing China and the US in terms of downloads. To put in perspective, in 2019, esports tournaments in the US offered over $40 Mn in prize money, while India’s largest tournaments the PUBG Mobile India Series 2020 offered Rs 50 Lakh as total prize money.
Smartphone Penetration
Aside from the internet penetration and demographic fit, esports market in India has been driven by the proliferation of high performance smartphones and increasing presence of gaming related. The number of smartphone users in India grew at a CAGR of 15% during 2015 to 2020. The growing demand for digital services for information, entertainment and communication through apps such as Facebook, Whatsapp and YouTube have led to matured segment like esports.
Esport cafes are not only a way for people to play games without owning the requisite hardware, but this is where the competitive mentality is built through amateur tournaments. India is home to an estimated 350-plus such esports cafes with PC hardware giant NVIDIA announcing plans to expand its gaming footprint in India by adding 100 more cafes. Nemesis Gaming, League of Extraordinary Gamers (LXG) and Circle Gaming are few major esports cafe startups in India.
Rise in Startup Investments
The demand for competitive gaming rises in India, the esports and gaming segment is attracting adequate investor interests. Between 2014 and H1 2020, the total venture capital funding in Indian gaming startups was $448 Mn, according to Inc42 Plus. Among the gaming startups, the top-funded startups are Dream11 with $100 Mn in total funding, followed by Smaaash Entertainment with $82.6 Mn in funding and Nazara Technologies with $79 Mn.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to get into esports in India?
You need to pick one famous game and practice it well. Get as many wins as possible. The best thing to join esport is to join a league or play in an online tournament. The entry fees are very less. It gives you chance to play against high-level players.
Which are the best esports games in India?
Counter Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, Overwatch are some of the best esports in India.
How esports organizations make money?
Esport organizations make money through content and tournament performance.
Does esports have a future in India?
Esports as an industry has unlimited scope in India. According to the Indian Federation of Sports Gaming, Esports will see rapid growth in the country and reach a cumulative revenue of up to ₹11,900 Crore.
On April 12 2021, Flipkart which is India’s one of the leading e-commerce firm announced a partnership with the Adani group, which is a strategic and commercial partnership. Adani Group is one of the largest multinational infrastructure companies in India. Let’s look at the below article to get an understanding of how the Adani Group and Flipkart partnership will benefit between Flipkart in scaling its operation.
In this partnership on a strategic and commercial basis, Flipkart is planning to work with Adani Logistics Limited. Adani Logistic Limited is India’s largest diversified end-to-end logistic service provider in the country. It is a subsidiary which is fully owned by Special Economic Zone limited and Adani Ports.
The main focus of this partnership is to strengthen the supply chain infrastructure of Flipkart and to further concentrate on enhancing the ability of the company to provide the services to its rapidly growing customer base in India.
As a part of the partnership, Adani Logistics will be constructing a 534,00 sq ft fulfillment center inMumbai which is their upcoming logistics hub. This will be leased to Flipkart to solve the growing demand for e-commerce in the Western India. This will help in supporting the access for the market of thousand of various sellers and MSMEs in the particular region.
Leveraging the state-of-the-art technologies, the center is expected to be functional in the Q3 of the financial year 2022. The center is expected to have the capacity to house the inventories of 10 million units of sellers at any point in time. The facility is also expected to enhance the employment opportunities by providing 2,500 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs.
Revenue growth of Flipkart from 2014 to 2020
Flipkart’s New Data Center
With the partnership with Adani Group, Flipkart will be setting up their third data center at AdaniConneX Private Limited which is a Chennai-based facility. Flipkart will get a chance to leverage AdaniConneX’s world-class expertise and industry-leading data center solutions regarding to technology.
AdaniConneX is a new joint venture that is formed between EdgeConneX and Adani Enterprisers Limited.
The chairman of Adani Group, Gautam Adani had posted a tweet which said that Flipkart which is a homegrown e-commerce giant will be their new strategic and commercial partner. He also added that in the partnership between both the companies, AdaniConneX will focus on building their new Tier 4 data center.
Homegrown e-commerce giant Flipkart is our new strategic partner. In the two-prong partnership, AdaniConneX will build their new Tier 4 data centre and Adani Logistics, India's leader in logistics, will build their 534,000 sqft fulfilment centre. Thousands of new jobs in Mumbai.
He also said that Adani Logistics which is India’s leader in the logistic industry will build a 534,00 sq ft fulfillment center and this new partnership will provide thousands of new jobs in Mumbai.
Karan Adani who is the Chief Executive Officer of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, speaking about the strategic partnership and commercial partnership between both the companies said that, He was delighted to see two of India’s fastest-growing businesses coming together.
He said this partnership will contribute towards building some of the most critical as well as state-of-the-art infrastructure that is required by the nation. He also added on saying that this is what Atmanirbharbharat should be all about.
Karan Adani added on saying that, the broad range of partnership across their logistics and data center business is considered to be a unique business model and that he looks at this as one of the great opportunities to service the digital infrastructure requirements as well as the physical infrastructure requirements of Flipkart.
He said that, Flipkart has been instrumental in defining the adoption of e-commerce in India. The definition is both through the value Flipkart creates and the innovation of technology to serve its customer base.
Karan Adani also added on saying that he is looking forward to a fruitful and longer partnership with the company as they are focusing on learning from each other as well as leveraging their mutual strengths to prioritize the customers and to focus on developing the MSME sector of India.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy who is the Chief Executive Officer of Flipkart Group said that, The Adani group is unmatched in the way they have gone towards building various infrastructure across India. He said that what Adani group had bought to them was a unique combination of logistics, green energy, data centers and real estate infrastructure capabilities.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy added on saying that, he is delighted to initiate their association with Adani Group which will strengthen their technological infrastructure and Supply Chain management.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy said that, At Flipkart Group they are focused on ensuring that their customers get access to a wide range of products which will be made available by sellers across the country as they will be concentrating on continuous innovation to increase the affordability.
He said that their logistics network and technological stack are instrumental in making it a reality and these investments would help them strengthen their presence to support the MSME sectors in India for the sellers while also creating jobs and improving the growth.
FAQ
Is Flipkart Indian company?
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company headquartered in Bengaluru, which was acquired by Walmart.
How much is Binny Bansal worth?
The net worth of Binny Bansal is 120 crores USD as of 2021.
Who is the CEO of Flipkart in 2020?
Kalyan Krishnamurthy is going to be appointed as the new CEO of Flipkart.
How rich is Adani?
The net worth of Gautam Adani is US$ 57.1 Billion as of 9 April 2021.
Conclusion
We will have to sit back and observe the benefits of the strategic and commercial partnership of both the companies.
With the tension escalating at the Indo-China border, the Chinese-funded companies in India are currently at risk. The people of India are now boycotting Chinese manufacturers and organizations that sell their products in India. As a result, Indian startups funded by Chinese investors are also facing severe backlash.
Among India’s top 30 companies and startups (entrepreneurial ventures worth over $1 billion), 18 have received funding from the Chinese.
Chinese investors are quick in identifying the potential in Indian startups. They find investing in India enticing because India has an attractive risk-return trade-off and remains the second-fastest growing economy in the world. Chinese investors have funded over 18 Indian unicorns; it amounts to around $3.9 billion in investment in 2019. But the growing conflict between the two countries is making it challenging for these unicorns to receive further investment capital from China.
BigBasket is an Indian online grocery delivery service. Alibaba invested in BigBasket in 2018. The investment assists BigBasket in competing with the US-based Amazon and India’s Flipkart. The company’s valuation exceeded $1 billion with the help of Chinese investment. The decision to boycott Chinese products affected BigBasket in several ways.
Dailyhunt
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Dailyhunt – Chinese Investment In India
Dailyhunt is one of the fastest-growing startups in this list. Dailyhunt is an Indian news content aggregator. It is considered as one of the world’s top mobile applications for staying abreast of the latest happenings across the globe. With 22 million users and 30 billion page views per month, Dailyhunt has indeed cemented its status in the Indian startup ecosystem. Alibaba holds an investment in Dailyhunt.
Healofy
Chinese Investor: Ant Financial
Healofy – Chinese Investment In India
Healofy is India’s largest women-oriented social network; it helps women connect with other women. Healofy raised $1 million in seed fund from Omidyar Network in 2018. Healofy then received $8 million in fresh funding from Alibaba-backed parenting platform BabyTree Group and BAce Capital, a fund anchored by Alibaba’s Ant Financial.
Paytm Mall
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Paytm Mall – Chinese Investment In India
Paytm launched the Paytm Mall app in Feb 2017. Paytm Mall follows a business to consumer model. It is an e-commerce platform that allows consumers to shop from 1.4 lakh registered sellers. Alibaba invested in Paytm Mall for a 40% stake but refused to fund Paytm Mall further. Paytm is one of the biggest e-commerce organizations to be featured in this list of Chinese-funded companies in India.
Paytm
Chinese Investor: Ant Financial
Paytm – Chinese Investment In India
Paytm is an Indian e-commerce payment system and financial technology organization. Paytm was valued at $10 billion in January 2018. Paytmvaluation was $16 billion in 2021. Ant Financial has become the largest shareholder in One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, by investing $680 million.
TicketNew
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
TicketNew – Chinese Investment In India
TicketNew is a privately owned company that provides online ticket booking services for movies, theatre plays and sports. Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba has reportedly provided over $30 million in funding to TicketNew and has acquired the ticket booking platform..
Vidooly
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Vidooly – Chinese Investment In India
Vidooly is an online video analytics and marketing company. It provides video analytics tools and video marketing services. Vidooly raised over INR 15 crores from the Alibaba group.
XpressBees
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
XpressBees – Chinese Investment In India
XpressBees is an e-commerce logistics firm that offers delivery, order management, shipping, and tracking services. Founded in 2015, XpressBees secured over $35 million in funding from Alibaba in 2017. Again in 2019, the e-commerce giant invested $10 million in the logistics starteup.
Snapdeal
Chinese Investor: Alibaba
Snapdeal – Chinese Investment In India
Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce behemoth. Snapdeal received over $500 million in funding from three of Asia’s largest tech companies: Alibaba, Foxconn, and SoftBank. Snapdeal is another e-commerce giant that made it to this list of Chinese-backed companies in India.
It is an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery start-up that provides information, menus, and user-reviews of restaurants. Zomato also offers food delivery options from partner restaurants. Zomato has raised over $150 million from Alibaba.
BYJU’s
Chinese Investor: Tencent
BYJU’S – Chinese Investment In India
BYJU’S is an Indian educational technology (edtech) and online tutoring firm. It is considered as the largest ed-tech company in the country as well. Tencent, one of Asia’s largest valued Chinese tech company investor, has invested in Byju. The amount invested on the ed-tech was undisclosed.
Ola
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Ola – Chinese Investment In India
Ola Cabs is an Indian ride-sharing company offering services that include peer-to-peer ridesharing, ride service hailing, taxi, and food delivery. Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Akit Bhati. Ola raised over $1.1 billion in funding from Tencent.
Doubtnut
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Doubtnut – Chinese Investment In India
Another ed-tech company, Doubtnut is an Indian online tutoring platform. Doubtnut operates as an e-learning platform that enables users to ask questions related to Physics, Chemistry, and Math. Tencent provided over $15 million funding to Doubtnut in the year 2020..
Dream11
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Dream11 – Chinese Investment In India
Dream11 is a fantasy sports platform that allows users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, and basketball. Tencent has a $100 million investment in Dream11 in the year 2018. Dream11 has become the first Indian gaming company to enter the unicorn club.
Flipkart
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Flipkart – Chinese Investment In India
It is an Indian e-commerce company based out of Bangalore, India. Flipkart was founded in 2007 and has been one of the e-commerce giant in India by serving . Chinese investor Tencent Holdings have invested more than $300 million in Flipkart.
Niyo
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Niyo – Chinese Investment In India
Niyo is one of India’s largest and fastest-growing fintech ventures with the vision of making banking simple, smart, and transparent for everyone. Niyo got its funding from Tencent, although the amount raised were not disclosed to the public.
Gaana
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Gaana.com – Chinese Investment In India
It is the largest Indian commercial music streaming service. Gaana.com was founded in 2012. Gaana raised over $115 million from the Chinese internet giant Tencent. Again in 2020, Tencent invested $50 million and in 2021 another $40 million on the music streaming app.
Khatabook
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Khatabook – Chinese Investment In India
Khatabook is a mobile app targeted towards small shopkeepers and kirana store owners in India. Khatabook app helps them manage their books by tracking the money owed to them through the means of a digital ledger. Tencent has invested over $75 million in Khatabook app.
MX Player
Chinese Investor: Tencent
MX Player – Chinese Investment In India
MX Player is an entertainment app that offers its viewers quality, digital-first content, it is a very popular OTT service in India for giving access to many exclusive content to it audinence. MX Player gained popularity as an Indian OTT platform. Tencent has invested over $11q million in MX Player in the year 2019.
MyGate
Chinese Investor: Tencent
MyGate – Chinese Investment In India
MyGate is an India-based security and community management app for gated premises. The security management startup raised an undisclosed amount from Chinese tech company Tencent in the year 2019.
Pine Labs
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Pine Labs – Chinese Investment In India
Pine Labs is an fintech startup and an Indian merchant platform company. Pine Labs provides financing and last-mile retail transaction technology through its help your business can accept different modes of payment. Tencent has invested and undisclosed amount in Pine Labs.
Pocket FM
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Pine Labs – Chinese Investment In India
Pocket FM is a social audio platform for Indian languages where users can find great quality audio content comprising audiobooks, stories, and podcasts. Tencent invested in this entertainment app, although the amount invested was not disclosed to the public.
Practo
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Practo – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
It develops and distributes medical information systems. Practo Technologies Private Limited offers an online software platform that provides automated appointment scheduling, billing solutions, and storage of medical records. Practo raised over $55 million from Tencent.
Swiggy
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Swiggy – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Swiggy is one of the most popular a food delivery company in India. Swiggy is one of the unicorn in India and in fact, it is also India’s fastest unicorn. In 2018, Tencent invested on Swiggy again in 2020, Swiggy got a good amount funding from Tenvcent. Both the times, the amount is not diclosed.
Udaan
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Udaan – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Udaan is a network-centric B2B trade platform designed specifically for small and medium-scale businesses in India. Udaan brings traders, wholesalers, and retailers into one place. Udaan raised funds from Tencent,the amount invested was not diclosed.
Hungama Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Hungama Digital Media – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Hungama Digital Media Entertainment serves as an aggregator, developer, publisher, and distributor of Bollywood and Asian entertainment. Xiaomi made its first investment in an Indian company by pouring $25-million in Hungama Digital Media Entertainment.
Marsplay
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Marsplay – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Marsplay is an online platform that allows users to discover and share fashion and beauty tips. Marsplay Internet Private Limited, the parent company of Marsplay, raised funding from Xiaomi in 2018, although the exact amount was not disclosed.
Oye! Rickshaw
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
Oye! Rickshaw – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Oye! Rickshaw is an electric rickshaw mobility platform that connects driver-partners and users. The best part is it is environment-friendly and is on a mission to make people commute without any problem. Oye Rickshaw raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Xiami in 2020.
ShareChat
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi and ShunWei Capital
ShareChat – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
ShareChat is an Indian Social networking service, and it was incorporated on January 8, 2015. The main attraction of this app is that it support over 15 languages. ShareChat raised funds from Xiaomi and ShunWei Capital, a Chinese venture capital firm. Both the investment amount was not disclosed
ZestMoney
Chinese Investor: Xiaomi
ZestMoney – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
ZestMoney is the largest and fastest-growing consumer lending fintech company in India. ZestMoney’s platform enables instant approval and disbursal of small-ticket loans. Xiaomi invested an undisclosed amount in ZestMoney in 2018.
OYO
Chinese Investor: Didi Chuxing
OYO – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
OYO, the multinational hospitality chain is famous for its budget rooms and it is considered the biggest network of hotels in India. It is also spread in more than 199 cities and serves its people. In the year 2019. Didi Chuxing a transport company invested $100 million in OYO.
PolicyBazaar
Chinese Investor: Tencent
Policy Bazaar – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
Policy Bazaar is a company that provides online life insurance and general insurance. The Indian multinational fintech company has been here for 14 years and has been serving people. Tencent invested $150 million in PolicyBazaar in the year 2019.
Delhivery
Chinese Investor: Fosun
Delhivery – Indian Companies with Chinese Investment
This Indian logistics and supply chain company’s main service is to transport parcels and provide third-party logistics for e-commerce companies. In the year, 2017 Fosun, a Cho9nese conglomerate company invested $3o million in Delhivery.
FAQs
How many Chinese companies are there in India?
There are 105 Chinese companies in India.
Is BigBasket funded by China?
BigBasket is an Indian online grocery delivery service. Alibaba invested in BigBasket in 2018. The investment assists BigBasket in competing with the US-based Amazon and India’s Flipkart. The company’s valuation exceeded $1 billion with the help of Chinese investment.
Is flipkart funded by China?
Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company based out Bangalore, India. Chinese investors like Tencent Holdings and Steadview Capital have invested more than $300 million in Flipkart.
Is Paytm owned by China?
Paytm launched the Paytm Mall app in Feb 2017; Paytm Mall follows a business to consumer model. It is an e-commerce platform that allows consumers to shop from 1.4 lakh registered sellers. Alibaba invested in Paytm Mall for a 40% stake but refused to fund Paytm Mall further.
What are the Chinese Investment Companies in India?
Top Chinese Investment Companies in India are:
Tencent
Alibaba
Xiaomi
How many Chinese companies are listed in Indian stock market?
There are a total of 16 Chinese FPIs registered in India.
What are the top companies that received funding from Chinese company in India?
Top companies that received funding from Chinese company in India are:
Do you also get goosebumps when you hear the word “IIT”? Do you also see IITians getting special treatment in social circles (among your family, relatives, friends, neighbours, etc)?
Here, I’ll provide additional reasons to back the statement above. IIT is among the most respected educational institutions in India ever. It has had students who have made an immense impression on students all over the world. It is, without doubt, eminent and highly productive.
IIT is the ideal choice for students who want to study engineering. It is famous for producing the top engineers in the world and there are plenty of IIT graduates who chose another path than they had planned to take. They became entrepreneurs and set up their own startups in the marketplace. Although they’re not experts in their sector, they’re making waves. Let’s take a look at 10 successful startups led by IIT-Grads.
OLA is an Indian multinational ride-sharing company offering services that include a vehicle for hire and food delivery. Founded by Bhavish Aggarwal, a Computer Science and Engineering graduate of IIT Bombay in 2008. He began his career with Microsoft, where he worked for two years, filed two patents, and published three papers in international journals. In January 2011, he co-founded Ola Cabs with Ankit Bhati in Bengaluru.
OLA – Successful Startups
Now, OLA has a turnover of $320 million and is valued at $6.2 billion in worth. It has over 6000 employees working and is currently available in 169 cities in India. It has expanded in countries like Australia and New Zealand in 2018 and the UK, it started its Auto Rickshaw service in 2019.
Founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007, it is one of the most popular e-commerce in India. Both Sachin and Binny are alumni of IIT Delhi. The two wished to offer Indians an online store that was created in India which led to the making of what we all now know as Flipkart.
Flipkart Online Shopping Platform
Flipkart, which initially started as book sales, expanding into other product categories such as electronics, fashion, and lifestyle products. In August 2018, US-based retail chain Walmart acquired a 77% controlling stake in Flipkart for $16 billion, valuing Flipkart at around $20 billion.
Quikr is an Indian online marketplace and classified advertising company, based in Bangalore, India with listings in over 1000 cities in categories such as mobile phones, household goods, cars, real estate, jobs, services, and education. It provides a platform for users to buy or sell goods and services from each other. Other services offered include a missed call service and instant messaging. Quikr was founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas in 2008. The CEO of the company Pranay Chulet grew up in Rajasthan and completed his Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi.
Quikr | Co-Founder | Pranay Chulet
4. Acadboost
Acadboost is started by Kalpit Veerwal, an IIT Bombay student. He has completed his 3rd year of Computer Science Engineering from IIT Bombay and founded AcadBoost Technologies Pvt Ltd in his second year. It is an EdTech startup that aims to provide the correct mentorship to students from experts in various fields of education – ranging from competitive exams like JEE, NEET, CAT, GATE to college.
AcadBoost Online Learning Platform
5. Zomato
After graduating from IIT Delhi, Deepinder Goyal took up work at a company Bain & Co, where he met Pankaj Chaddah, and the duo then started a delivery service Zomato in 2008. Zomato is an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company that provides information, menus, and user reviews of restaurants as well as food delivery options from partner restaurants in select cities. As of 2019, the service is available in 24 countries and in more than 10,000 cities.
Zomato – Online Food Delivery App
Zomato shares made a strong stock market debut on 23rd July 2021, listing at ₹116 apiece on the NSE. Zomato shares surged 53% over the IPO price of ₹76. With the listing, Zomato entered the club of India’s top 100 listed companies with a market capitalization of over ₹90,000 crores. The company’s shares got listed at ₹115 apiece on the BSE.
Khetify is an urban farming venture in New Delhi, India founded by IIT Kharagpur graduates Kaustubh Khare and Saahil Parekh that build farms in urban spaces and enable people to grow chemical-free, fresh food. The aim of the startup is to promote food sustainability to city dwellers.
Khetify Logo
Claiming that 16,000 sq km of rooftop space is being wasted in urban cities, Khetify aims to promote the use of this unutilized space to develop small rooftop farms.
7. InMobi
Founded by Naveen Tewari, an IIT Kanpur graduate. InMobi is an Indian multinational mobile advertising technology company, based in Bangalore. Its mobile-first platform allows brands, developers, and publishers to engage consumers through contextual mobile advertising. In 2008, it was enhanced from SMS-based services to mobile advertising and rebranded as InMobi. It is now competing with giants like Google and Facebook for data-driven mobile advertising. InMobi is one of the top 5 players in the US, China, Southeast Asia, and India. Also, Softbank has invested $200 million in it.
InMobi Logo
8. Housing.com
Housing.com is founded by Rahul Yadav, an IIT Mumbai alumnus. Housing.com is a Mumbai-based real estate search portal that allows customers to search for housing based on geography, number of rooms, and various other filters. Rahul Yadav was featured in the list of Forbes 30 under 30 young Entrepreneurs. He is known as the bad boy of an Indian startup, gaining comparisons from Steve Jobs. And fun fact, he was once fired from a company.
Founded by Sanjay Sethi, an alumnus of IIT Delhi who previously worked in the US in the field of e-commerce marketplace, online payments, and operations. After serving as a key to establishing eBay in India, he started his own company Shopclues, along with Sandeep and Radhika Aggarwal. ShopClues provides unstructured categories of home and kitchen, fashion, electronics, and daily utility items at wholesale rates. In 2019, the company was acquired by Singapore-based Qoo10 in an all-stock deal valued at approximately US$70 million, representing one of the largest valuation meltdowns for an Indian-based startup.
Inspiring words of ShopClues Co-Founder- Radhika Aggarwal
10. Snapdeal
FYI Snapdeal wasn’t an e-commerce company till 2008, but then it was founded by Rohil Bahl and Kunal Bahl, the former has a Wharton degree while the latter has an IIT Delhi, graduation degree under their belt.
Snapdeal Logo
It is now one of the most popular e-commerce websites in India, with over 3,00,000 sellers, over 3 Crore products across 800+ diverse categories from more than 1,25,000 regional, national and international brands and retailers and a reach of 6,000 towns and cities among the country.
What do you mean by the term Acquisitions? On what metrics the company acquires other companies? Is acquiring other competitor companies legal? Which are some of the latest acquired companies? Interesting isn’t it?
According to Investopedia, the definition of Acquisitions is as follows-
An acquisition is when one company purchases most or all of another company’s shares to gain control of that company.
Acquisitions, which are very common in business, may occur with the target company’s approval, or in spite of its disapproval. Some of the parameters needed to be checked before acquiring a company. These metrics should be followed before evaluating an acquisition- Financial value of the company, Asset value of the company, Possible resale value of the company, and its assets.
Read this article to know more about the common questions related to startup acquisitions. We have listed down some of the latest and deal-breaking acquisitions in the Indian Startup Ecosystem.
India, the 3rd largest startup hub in the world is home to many new startups. Every other day we hear about new startups coming up in India. With all these new startups coming up every other day, the competition increases. This leads to acquisitions. The strong prey on the weak or the potential competitor. Recently, the Walmart-Flipkart merger in mid-2018 is the first breakthrough in the minds of many. From a country’s M&As (mergers & acquisitions) viewpoint, this acquisition has been a milestone and still has an ecosystem impact. If the sale was the horse rider or the fact that the ecosystem was more M&A safeguarded, the overall fusions and acquisitions this year have decreased.
As we approach the mid of 2021, there are sudden reports of potential acquisitions and exits in the Indian startup ecosystem. Some of India’s largest startups have made many acquisitions to grow their footprint, grab a larger market share or endure growing competition from competitors, including Tata Motors, Zomato, Snapdeal, Flipkart, and others.
1. Walmart acquires Flipkart
Flipkart and Walmart Logo
With the American retail giant investing 16 billion worth, Walmart‘s takeover of Flipkart is the first-ever in India. But this acquisition was not the country’s first major takeover we saw. Here is a list of some of India’s major fusions and acquisitions. In 2018, Walmart purchased Flipkart 77 percent for $16 billion. This makes it India’s largest acquisition.
In April 2015, Snapdeal acquired the Freecharge smartphone recharge service. It was valued at $400 million for the cash plus equity deal and the largest takeover in Indian internet business history. The partnership brought in about approx. $1.1 billion in financing from Snapdeal, and $120 million from Freecharge in particular. Freecharge remained a separate company after the takeover, allowing Snapdeal to grow its digital trading ecosystem. Snapdeal has had several major acquisitions last year: In the center of this move, China’s giant Alibaba took an interest in Indian eCommerce in Snapdeal.
As announced on March 26th, Tata Motors purchased the Ford Motor Company’s Jaguar Land Rover companies from the company for a net amount of $2.3 billion. In the Jaguar Land Rover pension plans, Ford contributed around US$600 million. Mr. Ratan N. Tata, Chief Operating Officer of the Tata Sons and the Chief Financial Officer of the Ford Motor Group, Don Leclair and Mr. Lewis Booth, Executive Vice-Chairman of the Ford of Europe Motor Company and Mr. La Jaguar La Tata Motors attended this ceremony at the Gaydon headquarters at the Jaguar Land Rover.
In May 2014, after months of rumors, India’s leading e-commerce company Flipkart acquired a trendy rival Myntra, a development that had to do with the increasing presence of Amazon in India. None of the parties verified the acquisition’s exact valuation, but sources placed the cash and equity transaction between 300 and 330 million dollars.
Flipkart launched as a supermarket in 2007, offering apparel and electronics in all categories. It also offers furnishings and white products. The change is anticipated to help Flipkart reinforce its clothes collection and contend with Amazon and Snapdeal more vigorously. With his co-founder and CEO Mukesh Bansal joining Flipkart and running the apparel company, Myntra will continue to run as an autonomous entity.
Ola, one of India’s largest ride-hailing operation, acquired TaxiForSure for $200 million as a smaller, but value-centric, cash and equity acquisition in March 2015. Ola’s footprint in the country has been extended by adding TaxiForSure’s 15,000+ fleet onto its network across 47 cities. In October 2014, Ola raised SoftBank $210 million in addition to the 41,5 million dollars it raised earlier, adding over a quarter-billion dollars in overall financing in 2014. When TaxiForSure was acquired, it had 15,000 vehicles in 47 cities on our network a few months after the launch of Ola in January 2011. In India, it has recently been an upright battle between Uber and Ola, who have joined Didi Kuaidi, GrabTaxi, and Lyft globally.
In January 2015, Zomato purchased a 50 million dollar US competitor, Urbanspoon, at what was one of the highest offshore transactions for an Indian startup. The purchase marked Zomato‘s visit to the US, Canada which Australia, and took over 22 countries around the world. The takeover signals the entrance of Zomato in the USA. This is the sixth and largest purchase of Zomato in the last six months. The purchase will rise from 300,000 to 1.000,000 restaurants globally more than three times the inventory of Zomato’s Restaurant. In the coming months, Urbanspoon will pass onto Zomato.com, and the Zomato software will be used by all Urbanspoon app users. Zomato increased the overall amount of venture funds raised by the firm to $113 million from Sequoia, Knowledge Edge, and Vy Capital in November.
A leader among India’s travel reservation sides was the Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip, a pioneer in Indian tourism reservation – which was funded by investors such as Helion Venture Partner, 500 Partners, and Blumberg Capital at the last minute. Mygola, founded by IIT Mumbai in 2009, says travelers can create customs journeys in 15 minutes by using Bapna and Prateek Sharma. It has up to 5000 installations in the Google Playstore on Android and is present in 16 cities worldwide. The acquisition happens as Indian travel is heating up, as an investment in 2015, for the most part, early-stage, has crossed 71 million dollars, compared to 55 million dollars in all of 2014 (about 440 crores).
Let’s discuss some of the frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) related to startup ecosystem..
What do you mean by the term Acquisitions?
An acquisition is when one company purchases most or all of another company’s shares to gain control of that company. Acquisitions, which are very common in business, may occur with the target company’s approval, or in spite of its disapproval.
On what metrics the company acquires other companies?
These metrics should be followed before evaluating an acquisition- Financial value of the company, Asset value of the company, Possible resale value of the company, and its assets.
Is acquiring other competitor companies legal?
Acquisitions, which are very common in business, may occur with the target company’s approval, or in spite of its disapproval.
Which are some of the latest acquired companies?
Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T) gained a controlling interest in Mindtree Ltd, raising its stake to 60% in the Bengaluru-based company on 27 June 2019 and successfully concluding India’s first hostile takeover of an IT company.
How do startups get acquired?
The startups that last usually get acquired for their market share before they hit those numbers. Intellectual property is the most common way to build a defensible product. In fact, many startups with a proprietary product get acquired before they even take their solution to the market.
How long does a startup acquisition take?
Corporate mergers and acquisitions can vary considerably in the time they take to be completed. This length of time may span from six months to several years. There are a number of individual steps that need to be completed successfully by two public companies before they are legally combined into a single entity.
Conclusion
Startup acquisitions happened in the past and will keep happening in the future. If there is a slight possibility that the competitor can be a problem in a long run then acquisitions will happen for sure. Investors will keep looking for further IPOs, new firms and acquisitions from publicly traded companies in the subsequent year as the number of acquisitions, and their scale in India is growing. Up until now, they have relied primarily on other startup acquisitions. As the Indian startup ecosystem continues to expand and draw more foreign interest, the value of M&A transactions in the country can only be projected to rise in the coming years accordingly.
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 Boonbox.
The advent of e-commerce in India in the past decade has been unprecedented. While a huge chunk of the population in Indian cities are reaping the benefits of e-commerce, the rural areas still remain untouched by the effects of digitization.
With the masterly vision of taking e-commerce to rural India, the co-founders-Ramachandran Ramanathan, Karthik Natarajan, Narayanan launched Boonbox in 2013.
Given the great idea and insight on which this startup is based, this is how the business functions. Boonbox has a local affiliate in each of the towns/villages that they are located in. These local affiliates assist the consumers with the products available in the application. These affiliates place the orders on the consumer’s behalf and collect the money. These products are delivered by Boonbox through their hub & spoke fulfillment model.
In rural areas, there can’t be a platform to start a business as the ecosystem does not exist. Boonbox is an integrated player in this ecosystem. It owns the ecosystem and this is difficult to replicate. Creating connectivity takes time and requires a deep understanding of rural purchase patterns and consumer behavior. And Boonbox team has decades of experience in building rural networks.
The rural ecosystem has a lot of human elements associated with it. There is touch and feel of human connectivity. To be a successful startup in rural India, the required building blocks are human touch, credibility & trust, accompanied by an integrated ecosystem. As Boonbox has been able to selectively identify the relevant trust elements within rural communities and has built them over the years, this platform is viewed as a trusted element in the rural ecosystems. Boonbox pivoted from being a single product seller to a multi-category catalog that empowers the rural customers with choice and convenience. The venture was pivoted in the year 2015.
Boonbox is a technology platform for providing products and services to consumers who live in tier-4 towns and villages and are deprived of access to these products. Through the company’s “Rural Last Mile” logistics network, products are delivered at the doorstep of the consumers in remote villages. Boonbox also ensures that regular follow-up takes place with the customers, and promises them after-sale service to provide a top-class purchase experience.
Boonbox – USP
Boonbox chennai based startup, is an unique venture that aggregates the demand of rural customers and fulfills them by placing an order with the merchant. In simple words, it’s a vehicle to enter the rural markets. The main idea of the startup is to be a desired brand for every rural household and be a part of their everyday lives. Also, Boonbox is of the ideology that every rural customer craves and deserves a top-class customer experience. With Boonbox online shopping has never been easier for the rural population!
Boonbox was selling solar lamps in Rural Tamil Nadu and Karnataka during the peak power crisis in 2012-13. While seeking customer feedback, the Boonbox team received responses that indicated demand for Mobile Phones, White Goods (TV, Fridge, Washing Machine) and also Induction Stoves and Mixer Grinders. All these products were wanted by rural consumers during the peak power crisis. Thus, throughout the entrepreneurial journey, seeking customer feedback helped them deduce that Rural Customers are ASPIRATIONAL and CONSUMPTION is driving the Rural Economy.
70 % of India which is close to a billion people live in Rural India. Rural India contributes to 47% of the country’s GDP. And these statistics were sufficient enough to indicate a massive market in a less than 30,000 population towns. These people in those towns were the target market of Boonbox.
” We foresee a consumption explosion in Rural India and expect Rural India to lead India’s economy in the next 5 years.” said the Co-founders of Boonbox positively.
Boonbox – Founders and team
Ramachandran Ramanthan, Karthik Natarajan and Narayanan are the Co-founders of Boonbox.
Ramachandran Ramanthan, Karthik Natarajan and Narayanan
The trio has an exciting story about how all of it began! While Ramachandran Ramanathan and Karthik Natarajan were colleagues, they met Narayanan through a common friend. Narayanan had created the rural network in Tamil Nadu for Tata Teleservices and immediately caught on to the potential of the idea. The co-founders then went on to build the team by selling a dream, which made many people leave their lucrative jobs in the corporate world to join in the Boonbox adventure. The fact that they were working in an exotic area, a white space, building for Bharat and also generating cash in the business, attracted many people to the Boonbox team.
Ramachandran Ramanathan is a Chartered Accountant by qualification. He has also held senior management positions in the RPG, ICICI and TVS groups. Boonbox adventure is a great opportunity for him to follow his passion i.e., to create business strategies in uncharted markets and build a great team for scaling the business.
Boonbox co-founder Ramachandran Ramanthan
Karthik Natarajan is a management graduate from a financial services background with stints at Citigroup and Fullerton. Karthik is the ‘Zero to One’ man in the co-founder circle and his strength is his excellent ability to smell business opportunities and develop concepts into businesses.
Narayanan is also a management graduate who worked extensively in the telecom world straddling all the major brands including Airtel and Tata Teleservices. A meticulous planner, he works on business excellence and takes the Boonbox businesses to scale.
How was Boonbox Started
The idea to take on the rural markets with a technology platform struck to the co-founders Ramachandran Ramanathan and Karthik Natarajan when they were working on the TVS group. TVS’s consumer strategy was architected by the late Dr.C.K.Prahalad and focused entirely on capturing the rural markets. These two co-founders were working on creating alternate networks in rural markets and while doing that, the massive potential of this white space dawned upon them.
Boonbox was built based on these two co-founder’s experiences in the rural market. In fact, they did not do any formal market research. Instead, they focused on using customer feedback as a mechanism to drive Boonbox to success.
Boonbox – Name, Tagline and Logo
Specialists were consulted to come up with the name Boonbox. The co-founders finally zoomed in on Inthree which is a Coined Name – coined from the ethos of the business which is the Inner India Initiative. Inthree is the registered name and BoonBox is its customer-facing platform. So Ideally the Boonbox company is a sister concern of Inthree and is launched in select districts of TamilNadu and Karnataka. Which is why the Boonbox website can be accessed from inthreeaccess.com.
Boonbox Logo
Boonbox – Business Model and Revenue Model
The Boonbox business model is simple, it takes orders from rural customers and delivers products to their households. Considering that the rural market has a broken ecosystem and a virtually non-existent distribution network, this venture gets both the distributor and retailer’s margins which makes Boonbox’s Unit Economics very strong.
Rural India is characterized by a huge trust deficit. Boonbox has sold products to 2.5 million customers to date. Their focus is mainly on customer experience and to ensure that every single customer complaint is addressed on time and they now have 2.5 million happy customers. The rural market works on word of mouth marketing and Boonbox is a formidable brand now. Hence the key strategy for Boonbox has been to focus on customer experience since the initial days.
Boonbox – Startup Challenges
Rural is a white space, the founders had no benchmarks to follow. The company’s business model was formulated after multiple iterations and is not more than three years old. The model is based on continuous learning and building on the co-founder’s experiences. Also, It is not something that others can replicate over a short period. Boonbox is consistently working towards solving two major challenges :
Gaining the trust of consumers living in towns and villages with a population of 30,000 and below
Catering to customers who live in locations without a proper address or pin code. In such areas, it’s important to ensure that products reach customers on time.
This venture is the pioneer in this field and the co-founders are continuously trying their experiments and learning from them. There have been as many failed experiments as successful ones, as the business itself is one huge hack!
Though Boonbox does not have any direct competition in the market. But unicorns like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon have been trying to get inroads in rural markets, some e-commerce startups like iPay and StoreKing solely focus on rural markets.
Boonbox – Funding and Investors
Boonbox has raised a total funding worth INR 34 Crores in two rounds till date.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
August, 2014
Angel
9 Crores
IAN, Keiretsu Forum Chennai
August, 2018
Series A
25 crores
Ventureast, Orios & IAN Fund
Boonbox – Advisors and Mentors
Boonbox does have mentors who have contributed their ideas in Business Strategy, Customer Experience and HR throughout the entrepreneurial journey.
Boonbox operates in 16 States. This includes acquiring customers and delivering products to 3,00,000 villages which accounts for 47% of India’s universe of villages. Since inception and till date, Boonbox has sold products in rural markets totaling to INR 450 Crores.
Boonbox is the largest rural partner for Samsung mobiles and has been the largest partner for them for the last three consecutive years. Some of the other products and brands include:
The Co-founders are expecting to close 2019 with a turnover of INR 300 Crores, and with a Gross Profit of INR 75 Crores. They are expecting to reach a turnover of INR 1,000 Crores by 2022.
The long-term plan of the venture is to be a pan India player, providing products at customer’s doorstep in remote villages and that too backed by top-notch customer experience. Given that the following are the goals for the coming decade:
Become a multi-service offering for the rural consumer
Building a robust direct channel for selling to the consumer with a fintech offering
Adding categories like FMCG, fashion, apparel to the product mix in addition to mobile phones, consumer durables, kitchen appliances, and cookware
Designing subscription models that can be relevant for the rural consumer
Creating loyalty and membership programs to build long term value for customers
There’s ideally nothing better than growing together. Boonbox’s initiative of empowering rural India with the services that they deserve is a marvelous concept. After all, great businesses are always built out of satisfying needs rather than creating wants.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
Who are the Founders of Boonbox?
The Co-founders of Boonbox are Ramachandran Ramanthan, Karthik Natarajan and Narayanan.
What is Boonbox?
Boonbox is an unique venture that aggregates the demand of rural customers and fulfills them by placing an order with the merchant on their behalf and delivers it to the individuals.
Is Boonbox only available in Chennai?
No, Boonbox operates in 16 States including Chennai and are planning on expanding further.
Entrepreneurship is one of the growing niche in recent times, and the startup ecosystem is evolving as more individuals are gearing up to work on their own startups with unique and actionable ideas. Startups with a vision and a roadmap to make a fortune out of it are often funded by venture capital and investment firms. Such firms offer private equity finances to startups in need of funds, for a fraction of the company itself. Larger corporations including Google and Jio haven’t held back from this either.
Flipkart has made quite some investments in the recent times, and has invested in startups both in India and abroad. As of now, Flipkart has made 24 investments along with 15 acquisitions including Scapic, Walmart India, eBay and others. Flipkart also has a separate program for Indian startup funding called the Flipkart Leap. Here we discuss and compare the top 10 startups funded by Flipkart, their solutions and funding amounts.
PhonePe is an Indian digital payments service founded in the December of 2015, and has raised since $1.4 billion in 12 rounds of funding. Walmart and Flipkart are the most recent investors of PhonePe, and while its latest funding round closed in the December of 2020, PhonePe acquired Zopper back in 2018. PhonePe allows users to recharge their mobile phones, pay bills, find stores that accept digital payments and make digital transactions, and a lot more. PhonePe has recently rolled out a new solution for business called the PhonePe Switch, that furnishes users with access to over 273 million PhonePe users, while being cost effective.
Mech Mocha
Mech Mocha is India’s first real-time multi-player social gaming platform based in Bengaluru. It was founded in 2014 and has since raised about $9.9 million from 5 funding rounds and 8 investors including Blume Ventures and Flipkart. While their latest funding closed in the November of 2018, Shunwei Capital and Neoplux are its most recent investors. While its lead investors were Shunwei Capital and Accel, Mech Mocha was recently acquired by Flipkart, the E-commerce giant of India in November of 2020 for an undisclosed amount.
Universal Sportsbiz is an Indian youth-centric fashion brand house, and has so far raised over $33 million from 3 investors including Flipkart, Accel, and Alteria Capital over 4 funding rounds. Universal Sportsbiz has catered to the Indian Fashion Industry with trending products and celebrity tie-ups. Based in Bangalore, Universal Sportsbiz was quick to be recognized by the youth and fashion enthusiasts, and became a key player in its category with its portfolio including Wrogn and Imara. Moreover, with amenities such as order tracking, shipping, order cancellation, and return and exchange, it has made a firm grip in the Indian market, and is looking to expand further.
Liv.ai
Liv.ai is an AI based speech recognition startup founded in 2015, and was only funded by Astarc Ventures in the May of 2017 until it was acquired by Flipkart in the August of 2018 for an undisclosed amount. Liv.ai comprises of a team of innovative tech and AI enthusiasts who are committed to deploying and integrating Deep Learning with products that can easily manage routine and repetitive tasks with ease. Flipkart’s acquisition of Liv.ai would mean that it is keen to develop a competitor to one of its key rivals in the Indian markets, Amazon and Amazon Alexa.
Ninjacart is a B2B produce supply chain for farmers and manufacturers to connect to retailers, and has raised over $192 million in 11 funding rounds from 19 investors including 6 lead investors. While the investors of Ninjacart include some big names such as Walmart and Flipkart, its latest funding round was closed in the October of 2020. Through the use of innovation in technology, Ninjacart strives to offer solutions on supply chain problems, and delivers fresh produce from farmers to businesses within 12 hours. It helps farmers with faster payments along with a revenue hike by about 20%, along with doorstep delivery for retailers.
ANS Commerce
ANS Commerce, founded in 2017, is a complete solution for E-commerce business, connecting brands to their customers and allowing business owners to focus on the products. ANS Commerce has so far raised $25K in the Grant round from Flipkart leap, Flipkart’s accelerator for Indian startups, and offers a Brandstore, performance marketing, marketplace management, along with warehousing and fulfillment, as a complete suite of business and E-commerce solutions. Moreover, with its onboarding support, sales focused approach, along with omnichannel strategies help you enhance revenue growth seamlessly.
Found in 2016, Entropik Tech is an AI powered emotional intelligence platform based in Bengaluru, and has so far raised $9.3 million over 4 funding rounds from 9 investors, including the likes of Flipkart Leap and Bharat innovation fund. With a humongous database of 16 million unique user emotion data, 20K testings, along with 100 million testers on panel, Entropik uses human emotions for displaying ads customized to your specific interests and connections, develops custom UI/UX designs, and offers an amazing shopping experience. A leader in EmotionAI, Entropik helps brands measure customers’ cognitive responses to their content and products.
Shadowfax
Shadowfax, founded in 2015 and based in Bangalore, is an on-demand logistics network and a one stop delivery solution, and has raised over $119 million from 13 investors over 6 funding rounds. With some industry giants as their investors including Flipkart and Qualcomm Ventures, Shadowfax exhibits 4 lead investors, with the most recent fund raised in December of 2019 in Series D funding round. The solutions offered by Shadowfax include Now, a hyperlocal service, Connect, the logistics service, along with E2E and Next, an integrated 3PL service with tracking and system monitored pickup and assisted task management.
Scapic is an augmented reality startup founded in 2016 and based in Bangalore, and had initially raised $500K from 3 investors until it was acquired by Flipkart in the November of 2020, for an undisclosed amount. Scapic started out as a simple and intuitive tool to build AR, VR, and 3D experiences without the use of code, and has since endeavored to offer immersive commerce to viewers and E-commerce customers with 3 dimensional view of products. With Scapic, customers will be able to virtually try out wearable products, create and view realistic images, and also view and monitor metrics to see growth and performance.
Fashinza
Fashinza, founded in 2020 is a Gurugram based B2B fashion and apparel manufacturing marketplace, and has since raised $2.6 million over 2 funding rounds and 6 investors including Flipkart Leap and Accel. Fashinza connects you to the best manufacturers in the industry, and takes complete ownership of tasks ranging from design to delivery, with users getting to choose the fabrics and the techstack. Moreover, Fashinza sets you up with with the right manufacturer based on your budget and requirements, and strives to offer solutions for global supply chain challenges with technology and sustainability.
Conclusion
Flipkart, a startup founded in 2007 by Binny and Sachin Bansal, has grown immensely since its conception, and has come a long way from raising funds to investing in other startups. This depicts an exemplary growth of a startup with a vision, and speaks volumes, suggesting the Indian startup ecosystem has evolved under percipient entrepreneurship, and the future of the Indian startup ecosystem, although full of room for improvement, is on the right track.
“Rules of Hiring #1: If there is doubt, there is no doubt. Rules of Hiring #2: Always hire people who are smarter than you.”
-Sachin Bansal, Founder of Flipkart
Shashank ND | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“Never hire someone to do your initial sales. In fact you should acquire your first hundred customers yourself”
Quoted by- Sashank ND, Founder of Practo
Abhishek Goyal | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“Raise money from investors who are more excited about the BUSINESS or MARKET than the TEAM. They can help discover amazing opportunities”
Quoted by- Abhishek Goyal, Founder of Traxcn
Kunal Shah | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“I strongly believe all students should have a startup during college. Doesn’t matter if successful or how big or small. Worst case scenario it will make them 10x better employee than someone with no exposure to how a business works”
“If you fully accept the worst that can ever happen in your journey, fear won’t ever be an obstacle in starting-up”
Quoted by- Kunal Shah, Founder of Freecharge
Kunal Shah is the founder of FreeCharge, which recently got acquired by Axis Bank for $60 million. Before that, Snapdeal had acquired FreeCharge in the year 2015 for about $400 million. He has done his MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and studied at Wilson College, Mumbai.
Girish Mathrubootham | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“Building a company is similar to building a product. Culture is the UX for employees & Support is the UX for customers.”
“Don’t be a jerk! Even if you are brilliant, don’t be a brilliant jerk.”
Quoted by- Girish Mathorrobootha, Founder of Freshworks
Girish Mathrubootham is the founder of Freshworks which is a software-based service company. Prior to this, he was the VP of Product Management at ZOHO Corporation.
Rahul Yadav | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“There is no secret ingredient. To make something special you just have to believe it’s special.”
Quoted by- Rahul Yadav, Founder of Housing
Shradha Sharma | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“It’s a long long road. Sometimes all you need are people who pat your back and say, carry on. Thank you to everyone who encourages.”
Quoted by- Sharaddha Sharma, Founder of Yourstory
Ritesh Agarwal | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“Building predictability on top of market place economy is how new age businesses will get built. Super excited”
“It is extremely important to build something that a 100 people absolutely love using rather than making something that a 1000 people would just, kind of, like.”
Quoted by- Ritesh Agarwal, Founder of OYO
Ritesh Agarwal is founder of OYO which is India’s largest marketplace for branded and budget hotels. OYO Rooms worth over $1 Billion. He began working on the project in 2012. Agarwal started his venture in Gurgoan and it is now spread in 230 cities in India and also in countries like UAE, Nepal, China and many others.
Kunal Bahl | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“Scale is important for a startup. Think big, but take one day at a time.”
Quoted by- Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder of SnapDeal –
Co-founder of Snapdeal, Kunal Bahl, did his schooling from Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram and went to Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. He and his friend Rohit Bansal launched this Indian startup in 2010. He worked with Microsoft at the beginning of his career. Today, his e-commerce platform is a huge success and is competing with Amazon and Flipkart.
Deepinder Goyal | Inspiring Indian Quotes
“The fundamental model of our business is that in mature markets we should make profits and they shouldn’t need any more outside money to grow.”
Quoted by- Deepinder Goyal, Founder Zomato
“If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together.”
“I don’t believe in taking right decisions, I take decisions and make them right.”
Quoted by- Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group
“However big or small, make it a good business, make it a clean business, make it a business you are very proud of.”
“Today I see a billion people as a billion potential consumers, an opportunity to generate value for them and to make a return for myself”
“It is important to achieve our goals, but not at any cost.”
Quoted by- Mukesh Ambani, CEO & Chairman of Reliance
“If people are not laughing at your goals, your goals are too small”
“Leadership is the self-confidence of working with people smarter than you.”
Quoted by- Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro
“Whether ecommerce companies make money or not, these logistics companies make revenue which is guaranteed for them by ecommerce transactions.”
Quoted by- Arvind Singhal, MD of Technopak
Arvind Singhal is graduate from IIT Roorkee and did his MBA from UCLA, USA. It is India’s leading Managing Consulting firm focusing on retail, consumer product, fashion-textiles and apparel and many more.
“The trade market is the place with the least scope for emotions, especially of fear and greed.”
Quoted by- Rachit Chawla, Co-Founder of Finway Capital
Rachit Chawla from Aston Business School has done his Bachelor’s in Commerce. He is the co-founder of Finway Capital. Finway Capital talks about loan funding. It funds people and helps creating wealth and give personal loans and insurance.
“Entrepreneurship is akin to riding a dragon – there are more ups and downs than you can ever imagine. But every challenge on the way only makes you stronger, and every failure only bears new learnings.”
Quoted by- Yatin Hans, Founder of Bigsmall
Yatin Hans, Bigsmall.in which promotes gifting culture in India. It gives unique and fun gifts to the Indian public. He has done his schooling from Heritage School and B.Com Honours from Delhi University. He later went to ESADE Business School to complete his Masters in Marketing.
“Human capital is the most precious of all forms of capital available”
Quoted by- Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Ryerson Futures Inc.
Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director of Zone Startups, is promoting Indian operating system as well as initiatives including corporation innovation programs and thematic accelerators and has raised around Rs. 150 crores. He has done his MBA from Mumbai University in Finance and Marketing.
