StartupTalky

Tag: hyderabad startup

  • How is Figg helping people make better Financial Decisions

    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 Figg.

    There are multiple financial decisions that one makes in a day, be it a minor or major transaction. But, in order to make an optimal decision, it is important to consider all the factors regarding it like future prospects, current budget, income, expenses etc. Here, comes the role of FIGG!

    Figg brings all the material data to one place automatically and helps users understand the impact of their financial decisions. In simple words, FIGG analyses the finances and expenses of users and then makes suggestions on how to go about it. Is attempts to answer questions like – Whether to buy a certain product, say, TV? or How optimal is this investment based on future plans?

    StartupTalky interviewed Sachin Gupta, the founder of Figg, to know the Journey of Figg and how it is going help people make better financial decisions. Also get a glance on Figg Business model, startup idea, Figg App features, founder and more…

    Figg – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Figg
    Founders Sachin Gupta
    Founding Year 2017
    Headquarter Hyderabad
    Sector Fintech
    Parent Organization Finoramic Inc

    About Figg and How it Works
    Figg App – Major Features
    Figg – Founder and Team
    Figg – Ideation and Startup Journey
    Figg- Target Market
    Figg – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Figg – Funding
    Figg – Competitors
    Figg – Future Plans
    Figg – FAQS

    About Figg and How it Works

    Figg helps users make better financial decisions. The Figg App is available on android only. However, the team is planning to launch the iOS version soon and later a web application.

    If you think about it, most of the financial advice available on the internet is quite generic in nature. FIGG also helps users by providing personalized advice based on their financial situation without much effort from users – Says Sachin Gupta, Founder, Figg

    Figg Fintech
    Figg Logo

    Figg team has built its own in-house Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)/ ML engine to process financial transactions and statements. The NLP engine extracts useful financial information from text without explicitly being aware of the source. Figg collects financial information by analyzing the transaction statements received by the user via SMS or emails. It uses machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze the data and makes suggestions to the user for better financial decisions.

    Figg is monitored by Google for security and data leak concerns. The Figg app has also undertaken a security review with Bishop Fox, a US-based security firm.

    “We follow all best practices – from strong passwords for the system to encryption of the sensitive data. All the data is kept encrypted at rest” Sachin says

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    Figg App – Major Features

    Impact Calculator and Affordability Calculator are the main features offered by Figg.

    Impact Calculator & Affordability Calculator: Using this feature any user can check how making certain financial decisions will impact their financial well-being. For example, if a youngster with limited financial resources buys an iPhone, this might impact their monthly commitments as well. However, for a person with a high salary, buying an iPhone won’t even make any difference other than fewer investments during the period. These features help people make informed decisions.

    Another important feature of Figg is the simplified score to represent users’ financial health. Finance is complex and has different aspects (savings, investments, loans, credits, expenses, etc.). It is quite difficult to track and understand the impact of different aspects for a user. Figg has built a proprietary score to represent user financial health.

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    Figg – Founder and Team

    Sachin Gupta is the CEO and Founder of Figg.

    Sachin is an engineer by profession and holds MS in AI/ML from IIIT Hyderabad. He has experience in building large scale systems in AI and ML. Before starting FIGG, he worked at Google in the Fintech domain, catching fraud financial transactions. Sachin began his career with Rediff.com working directly with Ajit Balakrishnan.

    FIGG Founders and Team

    Currently, Figg has a team of 9 and headquartered in Hyderabad. The team is a mix of people from technical and non-technical background. Sachin Gupta (Founder of FIGG) works from California, while his team from Hyderabad.

    Figg – Ideation and Startup Journey

    Finoramic initially was a B2B player and was associated with other fintech companies. However, the company realized that the platform’s capabilities were not utilized at best & all noticed that slow adoption. Therefore, Finoramic pulled out B2B and introduced B2C as Figg App.

    From Sachin’s personal experience, he noted that making financial decisions is quite difficult given the complex financial landscape. Most of the time, users keep delaying financial decisions or keep money at the wrong places or take advice from the wrong people.

    Sachin realized that there were many apps that made it very easy to invest in shares or mutual funds, but there wasn’t any player in the market, who could give the user a comprehensive financial view and help in everyday financial decisions.

    Questions like – Should I buy an iPhone or an Android? Will going on a Europe trip right now affect my future finances? These are simple questions but important to one’s financial well being or health

    “However, the major eureka moment happened when a bank agent sold my 60-year-old mother a ULIP policy. My mother didn’t need an insurance policy at this age, as she is financially sound and there weren’t any liabilities” recalls Sachin (Founder & CEO, Figg)

    Figg was launched recently in September 2020. It currently has a user base of over 20,000. The Figg team started working on the platform in 2017. Their initial focus was to build the backbone of the platform. At the end of 2019, the team started to build a consumer app, Figg.

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    Figg- Target Market

    Figg is mainly targeting Millennials and Gen Z.

    Sachin (The founder & CEO of Figg) believes that although millennials and Gen Z people are digitally savvy, they’ve got limited financial understanding. Moreover, There is no personal connections for financial advice in the city lived by most of them. Keeping all things aside, Digital Savvy group is a good user base for Figg Application.

    Figg – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Figg app was launched in September 2020 and is currently not generating revenue. As the app would gain momentum and records more users, the company will go for a freemium model. That is, users will be charged between Rs 30 to 50 for value-added services.

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    Figg – Funding

    Finoramic (Figg’s parent company) has raised two rounds of seed funding from angel investors. (The startup didn’t reveal financial and investor details)

    Figg – Competitors

    Figg’s top competitors are Mint, Spendee, Expensify, and Pocket Expense, among others. Though the competitors’ apps are similar, there exists a minute difference. While other apps focus on better money management, Figg also analyzes and helps users understand the future impact of their decisions.

    ClearTax Company Profile – Owner | Funding | Competitors | Revenue | Acquisitions
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    Figg – Future Plans

    Figg’s goal is to have 100,000 users by year end 2021. In the long term, it wants to become the default financial advisor for anyone seeking financial advice.

    Figg – FAQS

    What is Figg?

    Figg helps users make better financial decisions. The Figg App is available on android only. Figg analyses the finances and expenses of users and then makes suggestions on how to go about it.

    Who is the founder of Figg?

    Sachin Gupta is the CEO and Founder of Figg

    Is Figg Free?

    The company will go for a freemium model. That is, users will be charged between Rs 30 to 50 for value-added services. But the basic features, will be for free.

    When was Figg founded?

    Figg was founded in 2017 and launched in September 2020.

  • Anvayaa – Elder Care Services Like No Other

    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 Anvayaa.

    While the whole world is rushing to make products and cater services to the Millenials, some startups are catering to elder care in India. Among the various Elder Care Startups in India, Anvayaa Kin Care is one among them. Anvayaa is founded by Mr. Prashanth Reddy and Mrs. Deepika Reddy in 2016.

    Anvayaa aims at the empowerment of the elderly as envisaged by their loved ones, who, due to unavoidable circumstances, cannot be physically present with them over a while. The Organization aims to provide a reliable and trustworthy support system that is a 360-degree Technology Enabled Service which not only provides Medical Support but also acts as a Social and Emotional buttress that synergizes the Overall well-being of the senior and brings about a paradigm shift in their happiness quotient & zest for life.

    Anvayaa Elder care also empowers its users with greater control over the nature, methodology, quality, and type of service provided to their loved ones. These include Emergency Care, Daily necessities, Health Improvement, Social engagements, Emotional bonding, and overall support.

    Read this article to know more about Anvayaa Elder Care success story, Anvayaa Founder, Business Model, Funding, History etc.,

    Anvayaa – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Anvayaa
    Headquarter Hyderabad, India
    Sector Healthcare/Elder Care
    Founders Prashanth Reddy
    Founded 2016
    Revenue INR 2.5 Crores (FY19)
    Parent Organization Anvayaa Kin Care Pvt ltd
    Website anvayaa.com

    Anvayaa – About and how it works
    Anvayaa – USP, and Innovation
    Anvayaa – Target Market Size
    Anvayaa – Founders and Team
    Anvayaa – How did it start?
    Anvayaa – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    Anvayaa – Startup Launch
    Anvayaa – User Acquisition
    Anvayaa – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Anvayaa – Startup Challenges
    Anvayaa – Funding and Investors
    Anvayaa – Competitors
    Anvayaa – Advisors and Mentors
    Anvayaa – Growth
    Anvayaa – Awards and Recognition
    Anvayaa – Future Plans

    Anvayaa – About and how it works

    Anvayaa is India’s only 360-degree, technology-enabled personalized senior care platform that offers a one-stop solution for all elder care needs be it assisting with healthcare, medical emergencies, socialization requirements, daily-needs, and payment management in addition to any other services that the elderly might require at their homes. To achieve these objectives, the company has tied-up with over 150 partners covering a range of services that include Home healthcare, hospitality, pharmacy, diagnostics, home maintenance providers, libraries, grocery, surveillance and security, lawyers and more.

    Anvayaa allocates dedicated Care Managers to every elderly family who personally monitors the fulfillment of their needs. These Care Managers not only schedule doctor appointments & accompany the elders on their visits but also attend to medical emergencies. Also, they accompany the elderly while shopping, dinner, movies, entertainment, helping them shifting, finding a handyman to cater to mundane repairs, help with property & financial management including bill payments, medical claim reimbursements, online banking and more.

    As an organization, Anvayaa strives towards creating trust and offering care to the elderly by being “a part” of their families while the kids live “apart” from elders. The salient aspect of the Anvayaa Care Managers and Service Providers is that they have Verified Backgrounds and are registered with the Police ’Hawk-eye’ (In Telangana).

    The idea is to create awareness regarding the firm’s existence and excel in the services provided to seniors for being able to generate continuous referrals, while the ultimate vision is to be known as the best company for Senior Care Services in India. The ultimate mission of the Company is to make India a Senior Friendly Nation in consonance with our Ancient Traditional values and as desired by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India.

    Anvayaa – USP and Innovation

    • Anvayaa Elder care is a first in India to be the 360-degree senior care platform.
    • The Business model is unique & Innovative. Anvayaa follows the People-Partners-Technology process. Through the platform, it delivers high touch personalized services to elders that can provide a sense of empowerment & dignity.
    • The technology platform ensures the optimal use of technology.
    • Transparency of service delivery.
    • IoT and AI integration towards transitioning from being a reactive care provider to a proactive care provider.

    “We believe that we, by far, have the most innovative technology platform in the entire country in the eldercare space for efficient care and predictable service for senior citizens. Unique features such as the medical record management, Medical Emergency tracking system, auto reminders, E-wallet for managing bills/payments for parents are all currently available under our tech platform,” said Mr. Prashanth Reddy, Founder of Anvayaa.

    The unique Anvayaa mobile app also empowers members to scan a QR code and verify the details of care managers for improved security. Cutting-edge Technology powers their day-to-day operations and provides the users with web and mobile interfaces to get real-time alerts on every service delivered. Care Managers also have dedicated mobile applications to manage tasks, handle medical emergencies and provide individual-specific care.

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    Anvayaa – Target Market Size

    India is projected to have 350+ Million Estimated Senior citizens by 2050. Out of which 0.9 Million will be this venture’s target senior Families. The number of families living in metros is estimated to grow to 2.5 Million by 2050.

    The market for products and services for seniors is expected to increase from almost $320 billion in 2013 to $436.6 billion by 2018 globally, representing a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4 percent.

    According to a market research report by BCC Research. The global research agency Persistence estimates that the global elder care services market will reach a market valuation of USD 1767 billion by the end of 2025 reflecting an 8.4% CAGR over this period. For Anvayaa, the team envisions expanding its services across all Metros PAN India and also bringing in IoT and AI-based solutions for proactive care. They are anticipating to grow by 200% YoY in the next 5 years.

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    Anvayaa – Founders and Team

    Prashanth Reddy is the Founder and Managing Director of Anvayaa.

    Anvayaa Elder Care Founder
    Prashanth Reddy, Anvayaa Founder

    Prashanth met another co-founder apart from his wife, through a common friend. He had returned from Australia after his MBA and had earlier worked with Deloitte. Prashant spent a few hours with him and explained the overall concept and what he was trying to achieve. Then they met again after a couple of days and Prashant did give up another employment opportunity to join Anvayaa as it was emotionally connecting to him.

    Prashanth Reddy has worked with Tata Consultancy Services in multiple leadership roles across the USA, Europe, Africa, and India in his 26 years of experience. He was the CEO of APOnline, a JV between Govt. of AP and TCS. He has been an entrepreneur for 12 years. He is a Computer Science Engineer and Alumni of UCLA – Anderson School of Management.

    Deepika Reddy is the Director, manages the Financial Aspects and is involved in Strategy of Anvayaa. She has worked in the Financial and Insurance Industry for more than 15 years and was heading health and general insurance underwriting roles for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

    Prashanth Patkar is the Head of Operations. He has a dazzling MBA from Australia and has worked as a Team Lead at Deloitte before joining Anvayaa for over 5 years. He heads the Operations of Anvayaa and plays a key role in New customer acquisition and managing day to day operations

    The current company size at Anvayaa is 48 Employees and the company has a very open work culture with less hierarchy. They normally hire from Social work colleges and most of the hiring happens through internal references or references from friends and other professional colleagues.

    Anvayaa – How did it start?

    Having moved back to Hyderabad, India from the United States to take care of his elderly parents, Prashanth Reddy realized that a lot of his friends and cousins from the US reached out to him to help their parents. Though he politely obliged, later he realized that there has to be a better way to look into such needs of parents those who live independently.

    One can fall back on friends and relatives in times of emergencies but will soon realize it is not always possible to seek their help for different reasons. One can’t expect them to attend to every small need. One must not forget their very purpose of existence, which is their parents who sacrificed and at the majority of times went beyond their abilities to ensure you are where you are today. It is time to take this opportunity that did not exist earlier and provide parents with care, comfort, and convenience.

    “Not Providing Care to Our elderly is Abuse”, quoted Prashanth Reddy.

    With this very belief the team chooses to make the life of an elderly peaceful and make them live with dignity in the society. Another quote the company uses more frequently is “Don’t wait until you see an empty Chair”. The Call to action is “act now”. This is to give the right message for the kids who want to provide the care for their elders and they did not have such an option earlier.

    Thus, Anvayaa – which is a Sanskrit word that translates into “Family”, came to existence in early 2016. Anvayaa is India’s only 360 degree technology-enabled personalized senior care platform that offers one-stop- solutions for all elderly needs.

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    Once the team decided to start this company, the task was to find a suitable name. The core team initially started calling it Hap50 like happy after 50 years. Prashanth Reddy was however very particular in having a Sanskrit name for the company as they are Indians.

    “My family was sitting in our living room and my wife, mom, and my daughter started to look for Sanskrit names with a meaning of old age, services, etc. But none were very impressive for us,” said Mr.Prashanth Reddy.

    Finally, it was his daughter who started to search alternatives from Family in Sanskrit as we are serving a family and not just senior citizens. She found this name ‘ANVAYA’ and it felt good for all of them.

    Anvayaa Elder care
    anvayaa Logo, tagline

    “We then started to look for domains and we could find Anvayaa.com and there we go. We had the final Name ‘ANVAYAA KIN CARE’.” Added Mr. Prashanth Reddy.

    The logo was another challenge. The team wanted to use the colors suitable for soothing, elders and caring with compassion. So the logo stands for all that and they were able to finalize after a few iterations.

    The tagline of Anvayaa is another important story. This came up for discussions when one of their friends came from Australia and said you don’t have a tagline for people to understand. So the team started discussing and in that discussion they came up with “Care. Comfort. Convenience” as they were the most important things they were delivering to the customers and families.

    Anvayaa – Startup Launch

    Prashanth Reddy started with Secondary research with the available information on the public domain and it was all flooded with health care needs the seniors requires as no one is around to take care of them and the relevant numbers etc. He wanted to do Primary research and find out what was needed. So he decided to hire a few MBA Interns and prepared a survey.

    Together with the interns, they obtained survey from about 400 people across Hyderabad who are all senior citizens and to their surprise, the need was to have a comprehensive service provider rather than just health and medical care.

    Further to validate, they launched another survey targeting NRIs who lived away from parents and there the team got a positive response that was needed for them. Hence Prashanth Reddy and the core team officially launched Anvayaa.

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    Anvayaa – User Acquisition

    The team used the following methods to target and attain potential customers:

    • Digital Marketing entirely – SEO’s, Google PPC’s and social media platforms.
    • Being transparent has always been the strategy. One Number for all the needs of the elderly is working very well for them.
    • Preferred pricing from all our vendors for Anvayaa Members. The partnerships includes the likes of Apollo’s, Portea’s Nightingales, 1MG, HouseJoy, Stanplus and more such reputed partners that help Anvayaa deliver quality care.
    • Predictability of Services and Compassion of the Care Managers.
    • Digital Marketing on real-life events and testimonials has worked as the best growth hack.
    • Regular feedback and actions.

    Anvayaa – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The Anvayaa revenue comes essentially from Anvayaa subscriptions revenue through Anvayaa members. The annual membership pricing starts from INR 50K- to INR 200K- per year per family depending on the type of services needed by them.

    Anvayaa – Startup Challenges

    Anvayaa, even though being a social startup, still faces a fair share of challenges. Some of them being direct competition, continuous focus on innovation & new market strategies and customizing subscription models based on customer needs for increased customer acceptance. Also, not meeting planned customer acquisitions, devise customer referral programs, increasing scope by rapid expansion to other cities are some other challenges faced by Anvayaa.

    Anvayaa – Funding and Investors

    The Anvayaa funding is essentially bootstrapped. In March 2019, Anvayaa raised INR 1.5 Crores from the team’s friends and family.

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    Anvayaa – Competitors

    There are various Eldercare startups in India, such as Life Circle Senior Services, Healers at Home, Nightingales, Care 24, Seniority, Athulya Assisted Living, SeniorShelf and Elder Ease.

    Anvayaa – Advisors and Mentors

    Mr. Shakti Sagar – Founding leaders of Hyderabad’s IT industry. He has been part of many start-ups since the 1970s. Also, he has been an ADP India Managing Director.

    Anvayaa – Growth

    Anvayaa is operational in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, and Mumbai (from April-1st, 2020) and planning to start operations in Mumbai and Vizag from July 1st -2020. It has revenue of INR 2.5 Crores in FY19.

    Anvayaa has a userbase of over 800 subscribed members. Majority of clients of Anvayaa are IT professionals.

    Anvayaa – Awards and Recognition

    The following awards are backed by Anvayaa:

    • Awarded HYSEA best software product under the social impact category
    • Recognized as the Hy 10 most to be watched startup by HYSEA for the year 2019
    • Global Top 10 social impact sector at the City Preneurs-2019 Award Seoul, South Korea-the only international start-up platform in the world that focuses on building the capacity of young entrepreneurs to offer revenue-generating solutions that help solve urban challenges within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
    • Awarded Social Enterprise award by Action for India 2019
    • Awarded Best Start-up’s Pitch among 250+ start-ups across India, at E-Summit 2020 @IIT Madras
    Anvayaa Kin Care bags the prestigious HYSEA Award 2019
    Anvayaa Kin Care bags the prestigious HYSEA Award 2019

    Anvayaa – Future Plans

    Anvayaa’s future plans consists of:

    • Expansion to new Metro cities and aggressive customer acquisition
    • Transitioning from being a reactive care provider to proactive care provider with the help of (New wearable technology for seniors)
    • Investing in wearable technology and moving to tier 2 and tier 3 cities enabling revenue generation.
    • Technology platform stability
    • Stronger partner ecosystem

    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    What is Anvayaa?

    Anvayaa is India’s only 360-degree, technology-enabled personalized senior care platform that offers a one-stop solution for all elder care needs. It is useful for NRIs living abroad to take care of elders.

    How much does Anvayaa charge?

    The annual membership pricing starts from INR 50K- to INR 200K- per year per family depending on the type of services needed by them.

    Where is Anvayaa services available?

    Anvayaa is operational in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and plans to expand further.

  • Blockonomics – Simplifying Bitcoin Transactions

    The way people do transactions has evolved dramatically over centuries, from a barter system to a monetary system; from plastic money to now bitcoins. Since its creation in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, an increasing number of people now see Bitcoins as a trusted way of transaction, as now major companies like Microsoft, BMW, and Etsy are also accepting Bitcoin payments. Going by numbers, the cryptocurrency market was valued at USD 1.03 billion by 2019 and is projected to reach USD 1.40 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 6.18% during the forecast period. This growing popularity of bitcoins inspired Shiva Sitamraju to start Blockonomics, a startup that unlocks the power of Bitcoin by allowing entrepreneurs and enthusiasts to manage their bitcoin payments with ease. Here is a peek into the journey and operations of this Hyderabad-based startup.

    Company Highlights

    Startup Name Blockonomics
    Headquarter Hyderabad
    Founder Shiva Sitamraju
    Sector Ecommerce
    Founded 2015
    Website blockonomics.co

    Blockonomics—About
    Blockonomics—Founder
    Blockonomics—How It All Started?
    Blockonomics—Work Culture
    Blockonomics—Revenue Model
    Blockonomics—Challenges
    Blockonomics—Growth
    Blockonomics—FAQ’s
    Blockonomics—Conclusion

    Blockonomics—About

    Blockonomics simplifies the process of receiving /making payments through Bitcoins and tracking Bitcoin transactions. The company has introduced a number of features for this, which includes –

    • Bitcoin Payment Plugins for e-commerce merchants, supporting sites like WordPress, Wix, WHMCS, and many more
    • Bitcoin Payment Button/URL, which allows people to set up quick and simple payment options and donations
    • Bitcoin Invoice, so you can pay your employees easily in Bitcoin, or charge customers if you’re a freelancer.
    • Wallet Watcher, so you can easily keep track of all your wallets, with many sub-features such as the Export Feature allowing you to see all your transactions in a simple place.
    • Bitcoin Tracker, a quick way to see any transactions and wallets on the Blockchain.

    “Allowing people to control their own sales and payments is an important part of Blockonomics, and is a driving force in what we do. Many e-commerce merchants have to use expensive payment solutions that go through middlemen, so it limits the control of their sales. Our products seek to ensure entrepreneurs can more directly control their cash inflow and to cut down on fees they experience. We also make the easiest to use Bitcoin payment plugin, the other options are often more complicated” says Blockonomics Shiva Sitamraju emphasizing the USPs of Blockonomics.

    Blockonomic’s products facilitate ease and direct control. The company’s e-commerce plugins tie directly into e-commerce platforms, for easy installation and tracking. For scenarios where a plugin can’t be used, Blockonomics’ in-house solutions, such as the payment button/URL and invoice function are made to be easily implemented into whatever website, email, etc might be used.

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    Blockonomics—Founder

    Shiv Sitamraju | CEO, Blockonomics (Extreme Right)

    Shiva Sitamraju is the CEO of Blockonomics. Shiva is an MTech from IIT Delhi. He has experience in scalable backend engineering and has held lead engineering roles in a number of startups before. Blockonomics currently has a team of 7 people spread throughout 4 continents. There are 3 members of the marketing team, and 3 on the software development and design.

    Blockonomics—How It All Started?

    Blockonomics started as a Wallet Watcher to track a large number of bitcoin addresses. Sitamraju himself is a bitcoin enthusiast, and was facing problems with monitoring and tracking multiple bitcoin addresses, which made him create ‘Wallet Watcher’ as a tool to help himself out. In December 2014, Sitamaraju launched Blockonomics Wallet Watcher on the bitcointalk forum. The initial response of the bitcoin community on Blockonomics’ Wallet Watcher was very good and it was very heartening for the Blockonomics team to constantly receive feedback on features to add to the product.

    “We used community forums like bitcoin talk, StackExchange, and Reddit. These channels are most important to build your MVP into an actual startup. Even though the growth of user metrics may be slow using these channels, they are valuable to build user trust and help to steer you in the correct direction. In 2015, Blockonomics’ thread became hugely popular on Reddit bitcoin.  Even though we had very few users and zero revenue, constant feedback from customers and a sense that this product is getting used kept us going” says Shiva Sitamraju.

    Blockonomics Founder & Team Members

    However, after 2 years, when Blockonomics monetized its Wallet Watcher, the team soon realized that the revenue stream for the product was very less. So the company started diversifying its offerings.

    “Though some people were willing to pay for the Wallet Watcher, the amount was very less and creating pressure on our margins. After looking at some other services that were selling e-commerce payment plugins, we realized that this market was a good fit for our product which already had backend ability to serve blockchain queries” says Shiva about the initial challenges of the startup.

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    Blockonomics—Work Culture

    Blockonomics’ work culture has always been completely remote (even before covid).

    When Shiva started to recruit remote work, he had two simple rules:

    • Hire from anywhere in the world
    • Don’t look at resumes

    The company never had an office and the team has never been restricted to geographical boundaries. Also, the team avoids holding unnecessary meetings and has only one meeting per week. All work is done asynchronously using tools like Slack, Trello, Github. This gives employees more flexibility and there is no assigned office time (you don’t need to be online 9-5).  This also means all team members are independent / self-driven and there is a trust that no one needs monitoring/ management.

    Blockonomics Team at Prague WordPress Conference 2018

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    Blockonomics—Revenue Model

    For the Address Watcher Users, Blockonomics charges a flat subscription fee. The subscription fee ranges from 0- 20 USD per month based on address limits and API features. While, for merchants, the company offers the first 10 payments free and thereafter charges a 1% fee on payments.

    Blockonomics—Challenges

    Building a viable business has been the major challenge for the Blockonomics team. Shiva was from a tech background and he did not have any entrepreneurial experience. It took him quite some time to become able to handle a business. Initially, Blockonomics had very few users and earned almost zero revenue. The team had to dig through business knowledge from podcasts/books and learn on the road.

    Blockonomics—Growth

    Despite all the struggle, Blockonomics has today established itself as a sustainable and profitable company that is making a difference. Some major growth parameter achieved by Blockonomics are-

    • Active WordPress installs – 3000+
    • Total merchant store installs – 10,000+
    • Blockonomics is monitoring 300,000+ addresses
    • 140,000 payments have been processed through Blockonomics payment plugin/payment button/URL
    • 6,500 P2P invoices have been created through the platform.

    While there are many who are still confused and unsure about Bitcoins, startups like Blockonomics are doing a good job in making more and more people confident about using Bitcoins by making Bitcoin transactions easy.

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    Blockonomics—FAQ’s

    What is Blockonomics?

    Blockonomics is a decentralized Bitcoin payment solution that provides you with specialized transactional tools to enhance your BTC use. A bitcoin payment gateway that is decentralized and permission-less.

    Is Blockonomics safe?

    Blockonomics is built on a P2P connection, making it safe and secure as it does not save your private keys. Users also prefer Blockonomics to other payment processing platforms due to its permission-less, peer-to-peer structure.

    How do I pay my bitcoin wallet?

    If an online merchant has the option of Bitcoin payments, you just need to copy their Bitcoin address and paste it into a designated field on your wallet. Type in the right amount of bitcoins into the payment box and click ‘send’.

    How can I check my Bitcoin balance?

    You can use Blockchain.info. Just paste the address you want to check into the Search input box and the website will show you all the transactions where that address was involved, as well as the balance.

    Who gets the money when you buy Bitcoin?

    A buyer and seller agree on a price and a trade is executed over an exchange. So our $50k investor buys that amount of bitcoins and the seller receives the $50k in the form of a cash deposit. That seller may now keep it in the bank, buy other cryptos or withdraw it and spend it in any way they choose.

    Can Bitcoin be converted to cash?

    There are several ways to convert bitcoin to cash and ultimately move it to a bank account: Sell bitcoin on a cryptocurrency exchange, such as Coinbase or Kraken. This is the easiest method if you want to sell bitcoin and withdraw the resulting cash directly to a bank account.

    Blockonomics—Conclusion

    Blockonomics is a platform that is a decentralized Bitcoin payment solution. Blockonomics provides you with specialized transactional tools to enhance your BTC use. It is a decentralized and permission-less bitcoin payment solution. Its services enhance the wallets you already own. Their aim is to accept bitcoin directly without any mediator and present an invoice anonymously. They are huge fans of decentralization and cryptography.

  • WhistleDrive – Making Employees’ Daily Office Commute a Breeze

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

    Unfortunately, the public transport system has never been up to the mark in India. In most cases, the buses, suburban trains and metro trains are all overcrowded. The number of passengers traveling in Mumbai suburban rails during peak hours is almost twice the maximum capacity of the trains. Besides, the means of public transport lacks maintenance and also safety. Thankfully, employers are considering the many inconveniences the employees are facing while commuting through public transport, and have introduced employee transport services in Hyderabad.

    While many service providers are coming up to meet this increasing demand for employee transportation, WhistleDrive, a Hyderabad based startup founded by Rakesh Munnanooru, is taking employee transportation services to the next level by introducing many hi-tech features that ensure fast and hassle-free transportation along with passengers’ safety.

    WhistleDrive – Company Highlights

    Startup Name WhistleDrive
    Headquarter Hyderabad
    Founder Rakesh Munnanooru
    Sector Technology & Transportation
    Founded 2016
    Parent Organization WhistleDrive Private Limited
    Website [WhistleDrive]

    About WhistleDrive and How it Works
    Founders of WhistleDrive and team
    WhistleDrive – USP and Innovation
    How was WhistleDrive Started
    WhistleDrive – Name, Tagline and Logo
    WhistleDrive – Startup Launch
    WhistleDrive – Business Model and Revenue Model
    WhistleDrive – Funding and Investors
    WhistleDrive – User Acquisition
    WhistleDrive – Startup Challenges
    WhistleDrive – Competitors
    WhistleDrive – Advisors and Mentors
    WhistleDrive – Awards
    WhistleDrive – Growth
    WhistleDrive – Future Plans

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    About WhistleDrive and How it Works

    WhistleDrive is a transportation technology company that offers an End to End AI-powered Employee Transportation Solution for corporates and On-Demand Drivers for car owners. The company started as a ‘driver On-demand’ service provider and later expanded to employee transportation as well.

    After operating for some time in providing ‘driver on-demand’, WhistleDrive’s team understood that their software can also solve the inefficiencies in Employee Transportation. Since the DNA of Driver On Demand and Employee Transportation is just the same but the scale of operating is different, they quickly onboarded a client and did a pilot with them. That was a huge hit and they then onboarded big-time clients like ADP, Invesco and a lot of others.

    The services currently being provided by WhistleDrive are–

    • WhistleFleet (4 and 7 Seaters)
    • WhistleShuttle (Wingers and mini-buses)
    • Whistle360° (And End to End solution from Fleet to software to On-ground logistic support)
    • It provides consultation for corporates who need expert suggestions in employee transportation, both for tech, fleet and more. All this is powered by WhistleTech, the technology which is enabling and channelizing the entire transportation process with ease in such a huge scale.
    • WhistleDrive also provides individual and corporate valet parking services.

    WhistleDrive – USP and Innovation

    Major USPs of WhistleDrive are–

    1. It provides Fleet+software+on-ground logistics support as an end to end solution. Thus, WhistleDrive is addressing the whole transportation on both ends.
    2. WhistleDrive’s software has been powered by AI and blockchain. Currently, all the reports in the company’s dashboard are deep, insightful, descriptive analytics. The company is also working on predictive analytics which can predict weather forecast, traffic forecast and more. And with the help of Blockchain, all the data will remain highly encrypted and manipulation of data is almost nullified.
    3. The company has an end-to-end automation system which ensures full-scale optimization of routes and cabs occupancy, as soon as the employee location data and schedule is fed into the system.
    4. Location tracking is enabled for all the cabs which ensure that which makes it possible to monitor the fleet across clients.
    5. All cabs included with the company are background verified and has GPS enabled mobile devices to take care of passenger safety.
    6. WhistleDrive’s AI-driven analytics enables it to predict future delays, cab volume and on-demand requests, which helps it to serve customers better.
    7. It has 24*7 customer support on the phone, e-mail and chats to resolve customer queries and grievances.
    8. It allows its clients to access its metrics dashboard so that the clients can view the operational and financial metrics which ensures transparency in terms of data and paperless billing.

    “Our advantage is that we are on both ends. Since we have the fleet and expert team managing the overall flow of fleet, we are also well equipped with the technology and we understand the challenges from the client-side as well since we handle the whole transportation for clients, that became easy for our team to connect the dots.”, said Rakesh Munnanooru, WhistleDrive founder and CEO.

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    Founders of WhistleDrive and team

    Rakesh Munnanooru is the founder and CEO of WhistleDrive.

    Rakesh Munnanooru, WhistleDriver founder and CEO
    Rakesh Munnanooru, WhistleDriver founder and CEO

    He is from Karimnagar, Telangana and is a CSE graduate from Shiv Nadar University Noida, class of 2015. While he was in college he founded BrandDunia which does the branding works for corporate companies and production houses. It was a massive success. They also worked for movie promotions. ‘Sahasam’ was one to name.

    After a while, he had to leave BrandDunia and later he started InstaBuy which is a tier-2, tier-3 city online shopping site. That was also a huge hit and since Amazon or any other big players doesn’t have strong footprints in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, it was a very happening business. Rakesh made huge business margins there but had to leave it to continue his graduation.

    After his college, he returned back to Karimnagar and did web-development freelancing for several businesses and online tutoring for a few months while he was simultaneously preparing for his GRE for Masters. He scored 112 in TOEFL just to prove to everybody that he can get admission anywhere but he was eagerly waiting to startup and his Entrepreneurship pursuit. Then WhistleDrive ideation happened in 2015.

    WhistleDrive Team
    WhistleDrive Team

    How was WhistleDrive Started

    It was 2015, and location-based services were taking over the market. Rakesh was quite fascinated by the technology. He wanted to be part of the wave and solve a critical problem with real-time location sharing technology. From personal experience and a bit of on-field research, he quickly realized that there is a considerable market for ‘driver on demand’ service for car owners. So, WhistleDrive was formed in 2016 as a driver on-demand service.

    The company did a dry run for about 8 months, and it took a while for the team to understand the market expectations and communicate with its partner drivers efficiently. The company soon adopted a process-driven approach which helped it grow by 5 times in 3 months. The team discovered that the technology it is using will hold good for employee transportation as well, which led to the expansion to employee transportation.

    “We piloted our employee transportation model with a B2B client and It was a massive success. We understood that the DNA of B2C and B2B business is the same but it’s just the scale that’s different and started approaching new clients. We scaled significantly and landed 4 huge volume clients by February.” Rakesh, WhistleDrive CEO, added.

    Currently, WhistleDrive is operating successfully providing both ‘driver on-demand’ and employee transportation services.

    “The market size that we are tapping is very huge. Any corporate company or a medium scale company that is looking for employee transportation, shuttle services or transportation technology or all of them, it’s our target market to reach. And the scope of it is not only in our country but also in several other countries since employee transportation remains the same and technology is easy and quick to adopt which is irrespective of the geographical reach. In fact, we’ve been hearing a lot of interest from transportation companies from the Middle East for our software solution.”, says Rakesh Munnanooru, WhistleDrive founder.

    Once Rakesh was watching a TV series called ‘Suits’, where the actor Harvey Specter calls out a cab with a whistle. He liked the act which made Rakesh add the word ‘Whistle’ to the company name. Since the company started as a driver on-demand and valet parking service, they added the word ‘Drive’ to ‘Whistle’.

    Logo – WhistleDrive

    The initial tagline was ‘Hire a driver, Anywhere’ but after evolving as an Employee Transportation, WhistleDrive’s tagline was changed to ‘Think. Whistle. Move.’

    As for the logo, Rakesh being very fascinated by location tracking, the company’s logo shows the location icon with steering in it as the logo.

    WhistleDrive – Startup Launch

    WhistleDrive began operating from a little space in an IT company in Hyderabad. Initially, as the company provided just the driver on-demand service, there were just 3 people handling everything from driver hiring to booking and marketing. The company was well received by the customers and soon it moved to a 6*6 office space.

    WhistleDrive gradually started increasing its customer reach by building its own website, booking portal & app. Alongside, the company also started social media chat and Messenger/Whatsapp bookings.

    WhistleDrive – Business Model and Revenue Model

    WhistleDrive provides an end to end service for employee transportation to corporates. The company provides software, fleet and also manpower for meeting the employee transportation needs of enterprises. These services are provided as a whole package or individually like only fleet or only software to the required prospects.

    WhistleDrive makes money by providing these services. It ensures better margins by excluding third-party vendors for vehicle needs. The company sources vehicles directly from the owners which give them more control and margin for all the stakeholders involved in the business.

    WhistleDrive has a Hybrid fleet model, where it owns 125+fleet and the rest of the fleet are partnered. Their software clubs partnered cabs and own cabs while routing the cabs and ensure cost cuttings for clients and improve efficiency by backing up the existing fleet.

    WhistleDrive – Funding and Investors

    WhistleDrive has raised a total of $10.8M in funding over 3 rounds. Their latest funding was raised in Sep 2019 from a Series B round.

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    April 2016 Seed Round – –
    April 2018 Series A ₹5 Crore Colosseum Group (Chicago)
    September 2019 Series B ₹72 Crore Colosseum Group (Chicago)

    “It was the time when we signed up with a few clients in Employee Transportation and serving 5,000+ customers in B2C. We got the funding at the right time when we started working on the technology and operations to scale up.”, recalled Rakesh, WhistleDrive founder.

    WhistleDrive – User Acquisition

    WhistleDrive’s quality service has been instrumental in getting a lot of word of mouth publicity. The company is guided by the values to put customers first, to empathize with partners, to listen to understand, to speak with intent and deliver 10 times.

    Digital platforms have also helped a lot to tap a huge number of audiences in one go. The company put equal stress on offline modes of promotion too, as it used  to reach people through campaigns in communities, pubs and malls.

    Meanwhile, WhistleDrive  also found B2B2C clients like Zoom and Revv.

    “The true hack we believe in is Customer Obsession. We stand on it right from our values. We understood that there is a pain point either in Employee Transportation or Driver on Demand. We address them with our services with the help of technology.”, said Rakesh, WhistleDrive CEO.

    WhistleDrive – Startup Challenges

    Corporations are increasingly looking for automated data-driven solutions to ease the process of transportation and also bring a significant improvement in operational efficiency and overall cost minimization. The major challenge for WhistleDrive is to address inefficiencies in the current traditional model and help transition the industry to adopt a data-driven process.

    With the aid of its integrated cabs+software model, WhistleDrive helps clients adopt the transition with much ease. Cab partners love the ease of accessing all their past trip and payment data right on their mobile application. This also helps in building loyalty owing to transparency.

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    WhistleDrive – Competitors

    In terms of technology, some of the competitors of WhistleDrive are MoveInSync, Safetrax and Routematic.

    In terms of fleet, WhistleDrive’s competitors are SelectCabs, Mahindra Logistics and several other local vendors.

    WhistleDrive – Advisors and Mentors

    Shailu Tipparaju is the WhistleDrive team’s advisor and mentor.
    Shailu Tipparaju is an Investor and a Forbes Technology Council Member. He is also the founder of Colosseum Group and he heads several companies that are into AI, technology, health, business, transportation and other domains. He lives in Chicago.

    WhistleDrive – Awards

    WhistleDrive has received the following awards and recognition-

    1. Awarded among the ‘50 Emerging Startups to Watch in 2019’ by Business Connect Magazine.
    2. Awarded among the ‘10 best startups in Hyderabad’ in 2018 by Silicon India Magazine.
    3. Finalists in the HYSEA 2018 Annual awards & 2019 Annual Awards.
    4. First company to get selected into the first cohort of T- Hub’s Lab32 program (T- Hub: Asia’s biggest Startup Incubation Hub).

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    WhistleDrive – Growth

    WhistleDrive presently is operating in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai. In the B2C segment, the company is serving more than 15,000 active customers in Hyderabad with 150+ rides every day. As of today, WhistleDrive has a fleet size of 700+ vehicles across 3 cities and transport 12,000+ employees every day through its cabs and bus shuttles.

    In November 2020, it announced its entry into the Urban Mobility Market backed by a 5,000+ strong truck fleet, with a portfolio of 20+ medium and large clients.

    In the B2B segment, WhsitleDrive is currently serving 28 clients from multiple domains like IT, Health, Infrastructure, Finance, Support, Hospitality and more. ADP, Invesco, ITC Hotels, Accenture, L&T, Rainbow Hospitals, Model N, Anza Medicode, M Modal and Strateology are a few clients of WhistleDrive.

    WhistleDrive – Future Plans

    In the long run, WhistleDrive is focused on building an ecosystem of transportation solutions. Having achieved a significant scale in fleet and shuttle services, the company is looking at using its experience in solving inefficiencies in intra-city logistics particularly in e-commerce & FMCG channels.

    The company is guided by the mission to transport a million people a day to work and places through technology-driven, efficient and safe transportation. It envisions to be India’s leader in the transportation industry and enable hassle-free private car ownership and employee transportation using technology.

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    FAQs

    When was WhistleDrive founded?

    2016

    How much funding does WhistleDrive have?

    $10.8M

    How many employees does WhistleDrive have?

    56

  • Chezuba – Global Online volunteering platform

    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 Chezuba.

    While most of us utilize our time, money and skills for our personal benefit, it gives us immense satisfaction when we spare some of our day to do a little for our society and for those in need. Yes, we are talking about volunteering.

    Though we naturally assume that only the receiving party is benefited from volunteering, the giver (read as volunteer) also gets back something in the form of advantages to his or her physical and mental well-being. Carnegie Mellon University undertook a study which showed that regular volunteering can lead to lower chances of developing hypertension and promotes psychological well being.

    Has reading this awakened the volunteer in you? If it’s a yes, than Chezuba is the perfect platform for you to explore. Chezuba NGO lets you offer voluntary services to NGOs from around the world so that you can make a positive difference in the lives of people across the world, all from the comfort of your home.
    StartupTalky interviewed Chezuba Co-founder Sukhendra Reddy Rompally to learn more about this unique startup.

    Chezuba – Company Highlights

    StartupName Chezuba
    Headquarter Hyderabad
    Founders Sukhendra Reddy Rompally, Jagan Kothacharla and Adela Strakova
    Sector Social Impact/Volunteering/Non-Profit Organization Management
    Founded 2017
    Parent Organization Chezuba Private Limited

    About Chezuba
    The Volunteering Segment
    Chezuba – Founders and Team
    How was Chezuba Started?
    Chezuba – Name and Logo
    Chezuba – What is Chezuba
    Chezuba – Startup Launch
    Chezuba – Revenue Model
    Chezuba – Funding and Investors
    Chezuba – User Acquisition and Retention
    Chezuba – Startup Challenges
    Chezuba – Competitors
    Chezuba – Growth
    Chezuba – Awards & Recognitions
    Chezuba – FAQs

    About Chezuba

    Based in Hyderabad, Chezuba is a global online volunteering platform bridging professionals worldwide with assisting Non-Profits through skill-based online volunteering. It makes volunteering incredibly easy, accessible, and fun. Chezuba envisions a world in which anyone and everyone can make an everlasting impact without the need to relocate or travel.

    The Volunteering Segment

    Volunteering and philanthropy as a whole is an unorganized market. More than one-fourth of the world’s population volunteers every year and hundreds of billions of dollars are given as largesse. A recent Forbes report suggests that 72% of skilled professionals seek positive impact in their work and more than two-thirds aren’t able to do this.

    “We aim to organize this market by channelizing the 10 million registered NGOs and bringing them together with corporates, skilled professionals and the governments. As the newer generations march towards reaching higher in the Maslow’s pyramid, we foresee the whole world engaging in community development activities”, Sukhendra explained.

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    Chezuba – Founders and Team

    Sukhendra Reddy Rompally, Jagan Kothacharla and Adela Strakova are the Founders of Chezuba.

    Founders/Owners Chezuba
    Sukhendra Reddy Rompally, Jagan Kothacharla and Adela Strakova

    Sukhendra Reddy Rompally is the CEO of Chezuba. He is an IIT Dhanbad graduate. He founded AIESEC IIT Dhanbad and led a team of 50+ individuals. Sukhendra worked as Product Manager, an international BD and HR in Russia, Taiwan, and India. He also volunteered in 4 countries.

    Jagan is the COO (Chief Operations Officer) of Chezuba. He too is a graduate from IIT Dhanbad and co-founded AIESEC IIT Dhanbad. Jagan worked as pan-India BD manager and established the sales and operations processes for a startup. He is also an active volunteer with activities in 3 countries.

    Adela is the CXO (Chief Experience Officer) of Chezuba. She worked with multinational teams in China, Taiwan, and Slovakia. Adela has master’s degrees in Sinology and Arts Management and 6+ years of public service experience in foreign missions. Adela has volunteered in Taiwan and India.

    Jagan and Sukhendra represented Jharkhand in the National Squash Championships while they were studying together. They had been friends for close to 9 years and Jagan was the first person Sukhendra approached when he wanted to start Chezuba. Adela and Sukhendra were flatmates during their work stints in Taiwan.

    At the time when Sukhendra was contemplating about a volunteering based startup, Adela was actively looking for volunteering opportunities abroad. The idea was a perfect match and instead of working for a non-profit, Adela joined the founding team to aim for a bigger impact. The three have attracted great talents from various backgrounds and over a year and a half has grown into an 18-member dedicated and passionate team.

    Chezuba NGO
    Team Chezuba 

    How was Chezuba Started?

    After Sukhendra’s first volunteering experience in Malaysia, he cofounded AIESEC ( Nonprofit Organization Management Company) at his alma mater IIT Dhanbad with Jagan. Those 3 years at AIESEC opened up opportunities for him to volunteer in India, Malaysia, Russia and Taiwan. However, once he entered the corporate world, he realized that time, location and opportunity constraints were hindering interested individuals from contributing as volunteers.

    Sukhendra’s idea was bolstered further during a backpacking trip in Myanmar where he met several other young professionals from different countries, facing similar hindrances. That was the Eureka moment. After he came back to India, he discussed the idea with a few friends who loved it and joined hands either as co-founders or as investors, and the venture came into existence!

    The business plan of Chezuba was laid out at the end of Sukhendra’s backpacking trip in Myanmar. The first word he heard after landing in Myanmar was “Chezuba”, which means “Thank You” in Burmese. He found it relevant to his idea and it was quite catchy too; without wasting any time, he checked for the domain availability and voila! That’s how the startup got its unique name Chezuba meaning Thank you!

    Chezuba Logo

    The logo was designed by Adela. It represents a hot-air balloon in front of a blue globe. Hot air balloons over Bagan make up the most famous landmark of Myanmar; they are laid out in the shape of a heart—a symbol of love or doing good.

    “We hope that our minds, skills and hearts can travel to the other part of the world via “air” (online) as the balloon”, Sukhendra narrates the deep philosophy behind the logo.

    Chezuba – What is Chezuba

    Chezuba connects NGOs and volunteers from around the world. Non-Profits who need skilled volunteers sign up on this platform and complete their profile. Chezuba conducts a first level screening of such Non-Profits. The Chezuba team then understands the Non-Profit’s case and recommends what volunteers they might need; assisting them in creating online volunteering projects on Chezuba. The company uses digital marketing and partnerships to find them the right volunteer.

    A volunteer signs up, creates a profile, and explores the existing projects. Once he or she finds a project of interest, they go through an application process which tests their intent, skills, and understanding of the project. These data points are shared with the NGO responsible for the project so that it assesses the candidate for determining whether he/she is the right fit. And voila, the chezuba volunteer can then help out the NGO in their effort to take a better society!

    In the process of providing truly impactful experiences, Chezuba has also partnered with several organizations that let the volunteers contribute through other means— raising money for the partner NGOs through crowdfunding, marathons, corporate volunteering, etc.

    Chezuba – Launching Startup

    Once the initial team was in place, the members raised a small fund from colleagues, employers and friends, launching the first product in March, 2018.

    “We received a lot of support from millennials worldwide as we had users from 50+ countries in the first 10 days of our launch. A friend got us featured in the French press and a user who came across us offered to engage with us and wrote articles and blogs about us in Nicaragua. By the end of the first quarter, we had users from 100+ countries, most of who came to us organically”, Sukhendra recounts.

    Chezuba – Revenue Model

    Chezuba earns revenue from three sources –

    • The NGOs which pass the initial screening of Chezuba become eligible to list their needs on the platform. Such NGOs pay an annual subscription fee of USD 100 which lets them post any number of projects online, related to any skill.
    • The company has a crowdfunding partner which lets volunteers raise money for the partner NGOs through social media and affiliate channels. Chezuba charges a commission of 2% on the money raised.
    • Chezuba also engages corporate clients and finds customized, online volunteering opportunities for the senior management in those companies. The company charges 50$ per employee in such cases.

    Chezuba – Funding and Investors

    Chezuba has raised a total of $203.7K in funding over 6 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on July 31, 2020 from an Angel round.

    Funding Date Funding Stage Funding Amount Investor
    31 July, 2020 Angel Round $50k –
    12 March, 2020 Angel Round $30k –
    15 October, 2019 Angel Round INR2.8 Crore –
    31 January, 2019 Angel Round INR 3.3 Crore –
    27 August, 2018 Angel Round $16.2k –
    24 January, 2018 Pre Seed Round INR 1.4 Crore –

    The investors are a great support to the Chezuba team not only in terms of finance, but also for mentorship and guidance.

    As Sukhendra puts in, “We were very lucky with our investors not being only very supportive, but with some of them also providing extra value in terms of mentorship in their field of expertise. It is our strong thesis to choose investors that can add more value beyond money”

    Chezuba – User Acquisition and Retention

    Chezuba has come up with some excellent strategies for building customer relations.
    The company believes in building an ecosystem where customers play the role of business promoters. Chezuba engages customers in several innovative ways.

    Speaking about the various ways in which Chezuba engages the customers, Sukhendra explains, “Our customers engaged with us as Regional Ambassadors, taking up short term research projects for us and even joining us full-time as employee(s). Listening to the customer is the key and we have made it a point to interact personally with as many customers as possible which eventually made them promoters of our brands. One of the biggest reasons for Chezuba’s exponential growth has been the network effects of our happy customers”

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    Chezuba – Startup Challenges

    Technology has been the biggest challenge for Chezuba since inception.
    Be it choosing a stack or hiring a team with limited budget, Tech has always been a challenge, adding to the fact that none of the founders are technical. However, the company plans to solve this issue by incorporating an in-house tech team soon.

    Explaining the technical challenges Sukhendra says, “The product has been built from scratch by childhood friend Murali, who we got on board as our Chief Technical Advisor. A college junior of mine joined then as a developer and we hired a senior developer later. We heavily rely on our CTA and other mentors/advisors to temporarily solve tech, the permanent solution will be hiring a full-fledged in-house tech team, which is our first plan of action upon closing our Pre-Series A”.

    Chezuba – Competitors

    Catchafire in the US functions similar to Chezuba. They are a 9-year-old organization focusing on US based NGOs and corporates. On the other side, there is Vollie from Australia which is 2 years older than Chezuba and has a similar business model, but the focus being the Australian market.

    However, Chezuba being a global platform has a wider scope than its competitors. By working out of India, Chezuba’s pricing is an advantage for the company. Chezuba caters to the needs of NGOs primarily in Asia and Africa, where volunteering is largely an unorganized sector.

    Chezuba – Growth

    Chezuba is growing every month on user acquisition at 32% and at about 52% on its revenue. Venturing out into corporate sales with bigger ticket sizes, the cash flow for Chezuba seems a lot more stable and the company is eyeing profitability in 3-6 months from now.

    The company is currently in the middle of its first institutional fund-raise, which will enable it to focus on further productization and market expansion in Latin America and Africa. By the end of the year, Chezuba is expecting to cover over 4,000 Non-Profits and close to 50,000 volunteers, engaged with about 1,000 online volunteering projects.

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    Chezuba – Awards & Recognitions

    • Chezuba was recognized among the top 100 startups globally at Startup Istanbul – 2018.
    • It was also selected for the top 5 social impact startups at TiE Global Summit – 2018.
    • It is one of the Top 50 Impact startups in India by Bombay Stock Exchange.

    Chezuba – FAQs

    What is Chezuba?

    Chezuba connects NGOs and volunteers from around the world. It lets you offer voluntary services to NGOs from around the world so that you can make a positive difference in the lives of people across the world, all from the comfort of your home.

    Who is the Founder of Chezuba?

    Sukhendra Reddy Rompally, Jagan Kothacharla and Adela Strakova founded Chezuba in the year 2017.

    Who is the CEO of Chezuba?

    Sukhendra Reddy Rompally is the CEO of Chezuba.

    Top Platforms for Online Volunteering for NGOs

    iVolunteer, Chezuba, CRY, UNV Online Volunteering etc., are some top platforms for volunteering for NGOs.

  • Zilli’s – Zero Preservative Dehydrated Vegetable Powders

    India is the world’s largest producer of fruits and vegetables, with barely 10% penetration into the food processing industry. Thus, resulting in a lot of wastage of the fresh produce every single year. Besides, the farmers also struggle to get reasonable prices for their produce. Many times, due to lack of visibility and access to the right market, they either have to sell their produce at throwaway prices or simply just let it rot in the open. Hence, there is need for more and more startups venturing into the food processing sector.

    Hyderabad based Zilli’s (formerly Kitchen D’lite)  is a startup that has made a move in this direction. The startup is manufacturing dehydrated vegetable powders, thus not only reducing waste of vegetables by increasing its shelf life, but also making cooking easy and dishes interesting.

    Startup Name Zilli’s(formerly Kitchen D’lite)
    Headquarter Hyderabad
    Sector FMCG
    Founders Anubhav Bhatnagar
    Founded May 2018
    Parent Organization M/S BNB Foods

    About Kitchen D’lite and How it Works
    Dehydrated Vegetables Market
    Founders of Kitchen D’lite and team
    How was Kitchen D’lite Started
    Kitchen D’lite – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Kitchen D’lite – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Kitchen D’lite – User Acquisition
    Kitchen D’lite – Startup Challenges
    Kitchen D’lite – Funding and Investors
    Kitchen D’lite – Future Plans

    About Kitchen D’lite and How it Works

    Zilli’s (formerly Kitchen D’lite)  is a Hyderabad based startup that is into the food processing sector. The company deals in dehydrated vegetable powders and blends. Their products are made using fresh vegetables while ensuring that all the goodness of fresh vegetables remains intact. These products can be used in everyday cooking as a direct replacement for fresh vegetables.

    Onion and garlic are staple ingredients in almost every recipe. But, peeling and chopping of onion and garlic could be a tiresome and time-consuming process. Lest, the onion tears, and the smelly hands. Similar is the case for all other vegetables. In addition, with the change in lifestyle and the busy schedules, there is a dire need for solutions that make cooking faster while also taking care of the health requirements. Zilli’s dehydrated powders attempt to make cooking easier and faster for the Indian homes. These products are especially very useful when making curries, gravies, soups, dips, frying batters, in baking, smoothies, and juices.

    Zilli’s has collaborated with manufacturers who get their supply of raw materials directly from the farmers, thus eliminating the middlemen in the supply chain. This in turn empowers the farmers to get access to the end market and demand competitive prices for their produce.

    Zilli’s vegetable powders can be used in varied ways–

    • Bake into loaves of bread and vegetables
    • Blend into sauces, green juices and smoothies
    • Shake them into vegetable juices, and salad dressings
    • Sprinkle onto salads, eggs, roasted vegetables, pasta etc
    • Stir into dips, soups, sauces, curries, gravies, casseroles, and stews

    The products Zilli’s Offers are-

    • Garlic Powder
    • Red onion Powder
    • Tomato Powder
    • Ginger Powder
    • Green Chilly Powder
    • Tamarind Powder

    Zilli’s also has two blends in its product catalog –

    1. Kolkata Jhal Muri (Murmura/Puffed Rice) Masala– Jhal Muri is a staple snack in the eastern part of the country, specifically in West Bengal. It’s murmura/puffed rice with chopped onions, green chilies, coriander leaves, coconut, peanuts mixed in a very small quantity of mustard oil, and blended with the goodness of spices which makes it a very tasty and healthy snack.

    2. Lemon Tea Masala– This Blend was launched with the idea to give that instant energy boost and freshness to ones’ body and mind. All you have to do is add a teaspoon of this masala to your freshly brewed tea (sugar/honey optional), and the tangy, salty lemon tea is ready to give that instant dose of energy.

    The USPs of Zilli’s are:

    • 100% Natural
    • 100% Pure
    • Vegan
    • No Preservatives
    • No added flavors
    • Gluten-Free
    • Shelf life of 12 to 18 months
    • Premium Export Quality
    • Ready-to-use

    We have never compromised on the quality of our products and our packaging, and that showed in the positive feedback that we were receiving from our customers.

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    Dehydrated Vegetables Market

    The global market for dehydrated vegetables registered the revenue worth US$ 54,241.9M in 2017, which is likely to exceed US$ 90,636.0M by the end of 2028.

    Future Market Insights expects the dehydrated vegetable market to observe stable growth at a promising CAGR of 4.8% over the 10-year assessment period, 2018-2028. While dehydrated vegetables within developed regions such as North America and Europe have been consistently registering significant consumption volumes, those within the emerging economies have moderate growth. However, the forecast period is expected to experience attractive growth rates in the case of developing countries due to growing awareness among consumers and increasing demand for dehydrated vegetables from households.

    There has been a drastic change in lifestyle, and people are becoming busier than ever. They are consistently looking for options that save their time and makes their life easier while not compromising on their health. In a scenario like this, there is immense potential for Zilli’s products. We want to tap on this opportunity and make our brand a household name – says Anubhav

    Founders of Kitchen D’lite and team

    Anubhav Bhatnagar is the Founder of Kitchen D’lite. He is an XLRI alumnus and a first-generation entrepreneur with 6+ years of experience in Business Development. Like every other freshly graduated IT engineer, he started his career as a Software Engineer with Virtusa Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd. But that never gave him any satisfaction; hence, he started selling Lassi part-time. With learnings from his lassi shop, he started his new venture Sweetfrost.in with his friend that dealt in online delivery of cakes and gifts in Hyderabad and in 6 months of time, expanded his venture to cities of Bhopal, Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, and Indore.

    Realizing that scalability and profitability was an issue and both the partners being involved only part-time, he moved out of this to start something full-time. Being the experimental entrepreneur that he was, he ventured into SMSGrid.com that provided Bulk SMS and Digital Marketing services to customers. The start-up was growing aggressively, but the fall-out between the partners caused his exit. With little savings that he was left with, he started Kitchen D’lite in the summer of May 2018, and there has been no looking back ever since.

    How was Kitchen D’lite Started

    The idea for Kitchen D’lite got initiated right from Anubhav’s kitchen. While Anubhav loved cooking,  he found the process of chopping onions and peeling garlic quite boring and time consuming.

    I love cooking and often cook at home. One such day I was making lunch for my wife and me, I was preparing a curry which required a good quantity of onions and garlic. Now while onions and garlic add a lot of flavor to the curries and like a lot of homes, these are the two staple ingredients in my kitchen; but the process of chopping onions and peeling garlic is not a very pleasant experience.

    Anubhav  got curious to understand if such an experience is unique to his own self or if its an everyone’s problem. Initially, Anubhav spoke to people immediately next to him- his wife, mother, mother-in-law, and a couple of his friends to understand their experiences in the kitchen. As he realized that all of them had a similar experience, Anubhav started researching over the internet on possible solutions. One of the alternatives available in the market is garlic and onion paste by numerous brands. However, there is extensive use of preservatives in these products to increase their shelf life. This adulteration makes these products an unsustainable idea in the increasingly health-conscious society.

    Anubhav further delved into the research, and finally, he came across food processing that keeps the natural essence of the products intact with no use of preservatives. With further studies, he acquainted himself with the concept of dehydration of food products and its innumerable benefits.

    Anubhav to better understand the concept of dehydration of food, started experimenting at home using a microwave oven. Though he had multiple failed attempts, finally, he was able to successfully dehydrate garlic and onion and powder them. On trying them on his home cooked curries, Anubhav found that the results were amazing and the curries tasted even better with the powdered garlic and onion.

    The first persons to validate the product were Anubhav’s own family members. Anubhav sent home-made samples to his parents, in-laws, and friends, and the feedback was positive! This made Anubhav to formally initiate the journey of Kitchen D’lite. The initial products offered by Kitchen D’lite were red onion powder and garlic powder.

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    The company has kept the name simple and easy to remember. As Anubhav narrates,

    With our product category of dehydrated vegetable powders being relatively new in the market, we were sure that we did not want any fancy name or tagline for our brand. We wanted a simple name and tagline that would be easy to read and spell would immediately connect with the customers and would talk about the usability of our products.

    Kitchen D'lite Logo
    Kitchen D’lite Logo

    Zilli’s(formerly Kitchen D’lite) tagline is ‘Makes Cooking Easier’

    Having such a simple name and tagline has helped Kitchen D’lite immensely as the customers could immediately connect the brand name with their own lives.

    Kitchen D’lite – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Zilli’s follows a simple B2C model of business. Initially, when Kitchen D’lite launched its products in the month of August 2018 on Amazon India with a minimal investment of Rs. 30,000, they sold barely 20 units in the first month of launch. But they scaled up gradually and steadily to selling 1500 units within six months of launch. Kitchen D’lite’s products have been ranked as Best Sellers in their category ever since. In addition to Amazon India, its products are also sold on Flipkart.com, Qtrove.com, and Kitchendlite.com

    Currently, 70 percent of Kitchen D’lite revenue comes from selling its products on the e-commerce platforms. Twenty-five percent of the revenue comes from export, where they provide services like bulk export and private labeling. The remaining 5 percent comes from bulk purchases in national B2B like food startups, hotels, and restaurants. Moreover, the startup also displays its products in B2C exhibitions across India, which gives them a platform to interact and sell its products directly to the customers.

    Kitchen D’lite – User Acquisition

    As Kitchen D’lite is a startup venturing into a relatively new market of dehydrated vegetable powders, it was essential for the company to educate the customers of the benefits of using such products; besides popularizing its product in the market.

    For intense and influential marketing Kitchen D’lite has used platforms like Facebook and Instagram Ads, Digital Marketing and Google Adwords. Influential marketing worked best for Kitchen D’lite. The company has associated with food bloggers and home chefs who would try various recipes using its products and provide feedback to their followers. This route provided the required credibility to Kitchen D’lite products in the market and increased its reach among the customers.

    Prior to launching the services on Amazon India, Kitchen D’lite started by selling its products on its Facebook page, WhatsApp, and its website. The company has got its first order through their Facebook page. Once the company moved onto e-commerce websites like Amazon India, there has been looking back ever since. Kitchen D’lite acquired its initial customers within two months of launch. The company is operating on a lean model and its focus is to acquire customers organically.

    Since we started our venture on a lean model, we were more focused on growing our customer base organically. We started receiving some 10 percent of our orders organically. We spend around Rs. 10,000 – Rs. 12,000 to acquire the first 100 customers as we were targeting low cost but effective marketing tools. It gives me immense pride to mention that today, almost 30 percent of our orders come from repeat customers. – quoted Anubhav

    Kitchen D’lite – Startup Challenges

    As Kitchen D’lite is venturing into a relatively new concept of dehydrated vegetable powders, the major challenge was to educate the prospective customers about the benefits of its products. Quite often company came across customers queries like, “Why would I go for these powders when I can buy fresh vegetables from the market,” “I prefer using fresh rather than these powders,” “My cook will not be interested in using such products.” Most of them would not understand how to use these products; some would find it difficult to believe that in spite of not having any preservatives, it has a long shelf life of 12 to 18 months.

    However, influencer marketing helped the startup overcome this challenge to a large extent.

    We did not want any paid feedback. We were looking for food bloggers and home chefs who would try our products in their everyday recipes and give us genuine feedback, whether good or bad. We wanted to take that risk, also because we were confident about the quality of our products and we use them in our kitchen. A lot of research went in picking the right influencers. We were not looking for the number of followers they had, rather we were more focused on the quality of their content and that they would be willing to do this without any commercials involved.

    Kitchen D’lite – Funding and Investors

    The company is currently bootstrapped.

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    Kitchen D’lite – Future Plans

    Shortly, Kitchen D’lite aims to introduce an entire range of dehydrated vegetable and fruit powders so that its customers get a more extensive range of catalog to choose from. Moreover, they are also consistently working towards introducing many more exciting blends that will promote a much healthier lifestyle. Over the long term, Kitchen D’lite aims to make a household name not just in India but also globally.

    We are extremely inspired by the success story of the brand ID, that started with the simple idea of selling idli and dosa batter so that they could save the women from the trouble of making the batter at home. This simple idea of theirs brought convenience and change in the life of millions of women. This was their innovation! We believe that it’s not always the big things that count, we can bring innovation in very small and simple things as well. It’s about solving the problems nearer to home and bringing a change. Success will automatically fall in place.

    Zilli’s(formerly Kitchen D’lite) is a step towards making cooking easy and saving your time. We bring to you onion and garlic powder for your daily kitchen recipes. It is 100% natural with no preservatives. We work very closely with our partners and manufacturers to ensure that every product is genuinely natural ans is of highest quality, with no loss of major nutrients.