Tag: indian startups

Colangels – Connecting you with right people
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.

Note: This Startup has been shut.

We hardly know any startup who has aggregated the needs of the startup community & tried to solve the problem through technology. Most of them have been doing individually or a very small part of it; some with tech & some without tech. Colangels is a tech platform to simplify and bolster the footings across all verticals for startups to synergise with mentors, budding talent, aggregating co-working spaces and investors for angel and crowdfunding investments.

Know more about Colangels Company Profile, Founders, Revenue Model, Growth, Competitors etc.,

Colangels – Company Highlights

Startup Name Colangels

Founders Simran Chhabra, Shruti Kaur

Founding Year June 2018

Sector Recruitment/HR

Headquarter Bangalore

Colangels – About
Colangels – Vision and Mission
Colangels – Founders and Team
Colangels – Idea
Colangels – Name and Logo
Colangels – Product/Service
Colangels – Revenue Model
Colangels – Customer Acquisition
Colangels – Startup Challenges
Colangels – Growth
Colangels – Building Work Culture
Colangels – Funding
Colangels – Advisors and Mentors
Colangels – Competitors
Colangels – Recognition
Colangels – Mentors/Investors
Colangels – Partners
Colangels – Technology Stack /Tools / Softwares
Advice for candidates who aspires to join Colangels
Colangels – Future Plans

Colangels – About

Colangels is a tech platform to simplify and bolster the footings across all verticals for startups to synergise with mentors, budding talent, aggregating co-working spaces and investors for angel and crowdfunding investments.

It provides a network where startups and entrepreneurs can meet mentors/investors and raise funds. The platform also helps in raising funds through crowdfunding and helps startups to find and hire people for their companies

Colangels – Vision and Mission

Colangels wants to become an epitome of the startup industry by helping startups scale up exponentially by connecting them with Mentors, hiring talent, doing alliances, etc.

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Colangels – Founders and Team

Co-Founders of Colangels are Simran Chhabra and Shruti Kaur. Later, they roped in family and friends, Shruti’s husband Aman Singh, and Aman’s friend Prateek Lamechwal in the team.

Colangels Team

Shruti Kaur

Shruti hails from Ranchi and has been predominantly into teaching. It is rightly said “A teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others”; and that’s what the Shruti believes in and thus came up with the idea of Colangels. Shruti has done her MBA & B.ed. from Ranchi University. She leads growth at Colangels.

Simran Chhabra

Simran has done her MBA from Amity University & was into recruitments before starting Colangels. She leads recruitment at Colangels. She believes in starting small but doing something which is scalable & provides an extraordinary experience to the users.

Aman Singh

Aman did his grads from BIT, Mesra & a post-graduate diploma from Stanford University, United States. He has been working in the e-commerce, retail, recruitment industry since last 7+ years.

Prateek Lamechwal

Prateek did his graduation from Jain College, Bangalore & has been handling family business since then. He is a fitness enthusiast and is a certified sports nutritionist apart from being a part of Colangels.

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Colangels – Idea

The idea struck Simran during her stint with her first job at Beam Commerce wherein she was looking to do an alliance with Flipkart but did not know whom to reach out to. She connected with a couple of category managers but that did not help. Reaching out to the right person became a big problem. So, she thought of a platform where anyone can reach out directly to the Alliances head/Co-founder of the company easily.

Colangels – Name and Logo

Colangels, if broken into words, defines the objective, the target audience & the vision behind it. (the characters below in the words in uppercase are from the name of the startup)

Colangels Logo

COLlaborate with COmpanies & COLleges in a way so that they GEL with each other for mutual growth & end up becoming an ANGEL for the start-up community. The logo shows a hand in hand, showing collaborations or working together and helping each other grow.

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Colangels – Product/Service

Colangels provides an ease to reach out to the investors globally across Industries to help entrepreneurs validate/scale up their idea. This can be done just by sending them the elevator pitch at the press of a button.

Colangels Product

Along with this, Colangels also tries to connect founders with the right mentors. We always came across multiple websites which showcase the name of mentors but it has always been at the jurisdiction of that website if they would be connecting us to a mentor which ideally flushes out some of the great ideas which startup founders have. The platform doesn’t charge anything for connecting entrepreneurs with mentors or investors.

Colanagels can help your startup grow fast by connecting you with the right person or co-founder for alliances and partnership with a top organisation. It does a 5-step verification at the background to make sure the message reaches out to the right person.

Changes are bound to happen in any product or service that is how the best products are made. So, Colangels keeps on implying changes to give the best product to our consumers. (They are currently at an early growth stage where the beta version of the platform is already live.)

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Colangels – Revenue Model

A major source of revenue for Colangels is hiring done through the platform for Internships & Jobs. The company counts Alibaba, Amazon, Chaayos, Flipkart, ShopX, Unicommerce, Roposo, Urban Ladder, Instamojo, Milkbasket, etc. as their clients.

Colangels – Customer Acquisition

Colangels mainly helps startups connect with mentors, potential talent, aggregating co-working spaces, investors for angel & crowdfunding investments. So the main target audience is:
- Working Professionals looking for Jobs & Networking
- Mentors
- College students looking for Jobs, Internships & to connect with Mentors
- Startups looking to hire professionals for Job & internship
Initial customer acquisition was through references & prior work experience.

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Colangels – Startup Challenges

It was difficult to ask for time from Industry specialists (CEO’s/CXO’s, etc.) who can be potential mentors on the platform, but once they helped them understand the model & the difference the platform can bring in the startup ecosystem; most of them agreed to be a part of it.

Colangels – Growth

Until December’18 the platform had 10,000+ users in less than 6 months. The company is looking to gain traction of 100,000 users in next 6 months & 1 Million+ users by end of 2020. Colangels is currently operational in Bangalore & Gurgaon. However, they have plans to entering Mumbai as a location in the next couple of months.

Colangels – Building Work Culture

In the interview with StartupTalky, Simran said that they believe in flat hierarchies and everyone in the organization is very much approachable at any given point in time.

It is important to have fun at work without compromising on the organizational goals. We also have an offshore every year to a location where the entire team works for a week & parties together.

Colangels – Funding

As of October 2020, the company is bootstrapped.

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Colangels – Advisors and Mentors

A lot of people from the hiring and e-commerce space have advised Colangels. Most of them were friends and were connected beforehand with the founders. In a way, all the advice taken was unofficial. No official mentor was reached out especially for advice or mentoring purposes.

Colangels – Competitors

Colangels doesn’t directly compete with any single organisation. There are multiple platforms for hiring like Linkedin, iimjobs, Naukri, etc. but the closest would be AngelList. However, Colangels differentiates itself from Angellist as Angellist doesn’t connect you with mentors.

Colangels – Future Plans

The company is expecting to reach to 1 Lakh users in the coming months. By the end of 2020 it is looking at a user base of a million users.

Colangels plans to go global in mid-2019 when they enter SEA & that’s when they will take Indian talent from tier-1 colleges to SEA for internships & full-time placements as there is a massive increase in demand for Indian talent.

Colangels – Recognition

Colangels has officially been affiliated to the Jharkhand government and would be helping startups in the state grow exponentially. In fact, IAS Sunil Burnwal (Industries Secretary, Jharkhand Govt.) quoted, “This is one of the finest & promising tech platforms I have come across in the country”.

Colangels – Mentors/Investors

Colangels counts following as their mentors:
- Ankit Khandelwal (COO, Unicommerce)
- Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder, PayTM)
- Nitin Jain (Co-founder, OfBusiness)
- Bhavna Agarwal (CEO, NDTV Gadgets360)
- Sahil Barua (CEO, Delhivery)
- Narinder Singh (MD, Numero Uno)
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Colangels – Partners

Colangels has an official partnership with Internshala which enables them to inculcate growing startups hire the best of interns across different verticals.

Colangels – Technology Stack /Tools / Softwares

The company uses a variety of services, tools and programming languages to make up its core infrastructure. At the front end, their servers run a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack with Memcache.

Advice for candidates who aspires to join Colangels

In an interview with StartupTalky, Colangels founder Shruti kaur said that

We hire both interns and full-time employees across verticals. We look for a candidate who is full of confidence, energy, has knowledge about their field, has great communication and entrepreneurial skills, is high on enthusiasm and is always open to learning.
October 26, 2020

Startup Name	Colangels
Founders	Simran Chhabra, Shruti Kaur
Founding Year	June 2018
Sector	Recruitment/HR
Headquarter	Bangalore

ekincare Success Story: AI-Based Integrated Health Benefits 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 ekincare.

Lives have become easier, safer and better with technology. Today every aspect of our lives is touched by technology and one of the most important sector which is affected by technology is the Healthcare sector. Health-tech companies are coming up with innovative concepts to improve healthcare services. ekincare, a health-tech startup, is helping corporates take better care of their employee’s health.

As of May 2020, ekincare claims to have seen a 221% increase in online doctor consultations, and that 76% of doctor consults were non-COVID related.

Read ahead to know more about ekincare Company Profile, Funding, Growth, History, Success Story, Founders, competitors etc.,

ekincare – Company Highlights

Startup Name	ekincare
HeadQuarters	Hyderabad
Founder	Kiran Kalakuntla, Srikanth Samudrala
Industry	Healthcare
Founded	2014
Website	ekincare.com
Parent Organisation	Aayuv Technologies Pvt Ltd

ekincare – Covid19 Measures
ekincare – About and How it Works
ekincare – Vision and Mission
ekincare – Market and Industry Details
ekincare – Founders and Team
How was ekincare Started
ekincare – Startup Launch
ekincare – Name and Logo
ekincare – Funding and Investors
ekincare – Acquisitions & Mergers
ekincare – Growth
ekincare – Startup Challenges
ekincare – Competitors
ekincare – Advisors and Mentors
ekincare – Recognition and Achievements
ekincare – Future Plans
ekincare – FAQs

ekincare – Covid19 Measures

To fight COVID-19, ekincare is helping India Inc by offering free telemedicine services to employees of more than 600 companies and their dependents.

It has also built a symptom checker for self-assessment, temperature tracking into the platform which enables employees and their dependents to check themselves for the coronavirus symptoms, seek doctor consults if at risk, followed by COVID-19 RT-PCR testing if required by ICMR approved network partners pan India.

“We have added more than 50 corporates in just the last four months, with most of them opting for health benefits for the first time. From the client acquisition point of view, we had the best four months in the history of eKincare. We today are in 100 cities pan-India catering to over 200 companies serving 3.5 lakh lives.” Says Kiran Kalakuntla, Foudner ekincare

ekincare – About and How it Works

ekincare is a patent-pending AI powered integrated health benefits platform helping organizations monitor the health and well-being of the employees. The integrated platform provides access to multitude of healthcare services such as 24*7 chat with doctors, health check-ups, medicines purchase and delivery, Gyms etc. ekincare provides health check services across 50+ cities all across India through 500+ NABL / NABH / CAP / ISO certified diagnostic centers. The company claims to have strategic partners across more than 2000 locations in India.

ekincare offers solutions for employees, organizations and also for insurance companies.

ekincare Solutions for Employees

ekincare acts as a one stop platform where a user can maintain all health related records and get tips, guidance and solutions to stay healthy.

The solutions that ekincare app provides to the employees are-

Employees can personalize the ekincare app by completing the ‘ Health Risk Assessment’, that the app prompts the users to do. After personalization, ekincare offers the users recommendations to stay fit based on the users lifestyle, family history etc
Using the ekincare app users can chat with general physicians 24/7 and can also talk to specialists.
ekincare lets the users digitize all his medical records and reposit them with ekincare so that these can be shared with doctors when required.
Employees can also order medicines through the ekincare app at discounted rates.
Users can sync their wearables like Google Fit, Apple Health, Strava, Gramin or Fitbit with the ekincare app
Employees can also take various challenges, earn points and redeem the same for availing healthcare services.

ekincare Solutions for Organizations

With the help ekincare, organizations can organize well-being programs like health check up camps etc in the office premise or any nearby partner diagnostic centers of ekincare. Organizations can also organize employee specific activities and challenges. These activities and events helps organizations engage better with the employees
By using the detailed and analyzed health related data of the employees that ekincare provides, organizations can negotiate with the insurance providers for reduced premiums for their employee insurance plans.
Real-time analytics regarding employees health helps organizations take various predictive health initiative for the employees.

ekincare Solutions for Insurance Companies

Using ekincare data insurance companies can divide the population in terms of high, medium and low risk segments.
Insurance companies get information regarding accurate health related data of the insured individuals. Using ekincare eliminates the scope of manipulation of the data by intermediary.
By gaining insights from the ekincare data, insurance companies can develop new products, better suited to customer needs.

ekincare – Vision and Mission

ekincare aims to create a preventive, predictive and highly personalized healthcare journey for individuals to help them adopt a healthier lifestyle. Furthermore, the company wants to empower the corporates with data and technology to reduce the overall health risks.

Market and Industry Details

The global corporate well-being market was valued at US$ 29,266.9 million in 2017. It is projected to reach the valuation of US$ 61,690.9 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 9% from 2018 to 2026.

The well-being industry in India is estimated to rise and touch INR 500 billion. The well-being program alone is going to claim almost 25% of the market and it is expected that the growth of the particular segment will be almost 30% every year. The demand and supply gap in the corporate sector regarding the well-being service can be a huge opportunity for the entrepreneurs.

Adoption of Corporate well-being program can save India Inc. income up to US$ 20 billion by 2018 through a reduction in absenteeism rate by 1.00 percent and at the same time improve chronic and lifestyle diseases of corporate and employees, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) latest paper.

ekincare – Founders and Team

Kiran Kalakuntla and Srikanth Samudrala are the Founders of ekincare.

Kiran is a graduate from Duke University. He has a 10+ yrs of experience in building and marketing 30+ technology products like Moto X, world’s 1^st3D smartphone and RFID. Kiran has managed $100 million in product sales for AT&T.

Srikanth Samudrala is the Chief Technology Officer & Co-founder of ekincare. Srikanth is a graduate from IIT Madras. He has 11+ yrs of experience in building large scale web and mobile applications for Barclays and HSBC. He founded Teamroq, an open source enterprise collaboration platform. Srikanth is responsible for the overall product roadmap and technology in eKincare.

Dr. Noel Coutinho, Sr. Vice President of ekincare

Dr. Noel Coutinho is the SVP BD & Sales at ekincare. Noel graduated in BHMS, MHA (TISS), AIII. He has 15+ yrs of experience in the health and life insurance space. He served at RGA, Metis and United Health care leading various functions including sales, customer service, medical management and provider networks.

How was ekincare Started

ekincare was built out of a personal problem, where NRIs (Non Resident Indians) weren’t able to contribute towards the health of their parents who are remotely located. Kiran was in Seattle, USA while his parents were in Hyderabad, India. Kiran found it very frustrating that even in the current internet age, people are still relying on a phone call home to keep a tab on their health. Merely asking parents daily about how they were doing over the phone didn’t cut it. This frustration further aggravated when his father went through a surgery and none of the family members located in Hyderabad could explain the root cause and why a surgery was recommended. This made Kiran think of a way to take care of ones dear ones even while staying away and thus ekincare was started.

In 2014, ekincare started out as a B2C platform that allowed users to keep one’s medical records in a digitized form and the platform helped one track the health of their close ones even while staying away. When he started up Kiran’s idea was to use existing technology and focus on just services. However, when Kiran entered the industry he realized that though there were platform where users can store their health records in digital form, there were no platforms that analyzed the health data to provide personalized recommendations. This led Kiran to build ekincare as an analytics driven platform.

Besides, Kiran also realized that India is a country where Health becomes a priority only when there is a pressing discomfort. Preventive healthcare is not still popular in India. As such, a user-specific health-tech platform was not suited for the current Indian scenario. This made the ekincare team to pivot the company and adopt and enterprise model.

India has a steep way to go before preventive healthcare takes the first foot. The decision of the team to try entering into the enterprise model and figure out solutions of Health benefits for Health enthusiastic organizations is paying off and actually creating an impact – Kiran says explaining the company’s decision to enter the enterprise model

ekincare – Startup Launch

At ekincare, Kiran’s method has been lean. The company has always tested its products with a sample group and taken their feedback. This is the foremost thing that has helped them make a product that is solving a defined problem statement in the real world right now.

In this 4 year on-going journey of mine since ekincare inception, the major challenge has been to to make sure the product resonates the best with the beat of the problem statement – Kiran says

ekincare – Name and Logo

The name ekincare is a thoughtful derivation from three words :- e – electronic, kin- one’s family and care

ekincare – Funding and Investors

The latest round in 2019 takes the total funding raised by ekincare to $5.6 million.

Funding Details are divulged below:

Date	Ampunt	Series	Investors
Janary 2015	$161k	Seed Round	BitKemy Ventures, Adroitent Pvt Ltd
March 2016	$330k	Pre Series A	BitKemy Ventures, Maheshwari Investments Pvt Ltd, Anshoo Gaur, Rama Krishna Reddy, Sandeep Seerapu
January 2018	$1.5 Million	Series A	Ventureast, Endiya Partners, Eight Roads,Touchstone equities, BVR Mohan Reddy
November 2019	$3.6 Million	Series A	Undisclosed

“We have seen tremendous growth from our initial investment in ekincare, both in terms of patient-engagement, employers adoption as well as revenue growth. Hence through this round of investment, we reinforce our commitment to support ekincare management team in their vision to build a world class healthcare platform.” Srikanth Sundarajan, Partner at Ventureast, said.

ekincare – Acquisitions and Mergers

In a strategic move, ekincare acquired Celes care, an online healthcare provider with a strong focus on affordability.

ekincare – Growth

Today, ekincare is known for being the fastest growing health benefits platform in India. Especially, the company has been able to achieve a lot in the last 2 years and proof of the pudding is the kind of fortune 500 companies that have trusted in them for their employee health. ekincare is the Health Benefits partner for global giants like Unilever, Barclays, BNY Mellon, Ebay, Fedex, Disney and more than 130 other companies.

ekincare caters to more than 200 companies including multiple Fortune 500 clients and managing 300,000+ employees health on their patent-pending platform.

ekincare has been growing 50% quarter on quarter in terms of revenues, they have a really strong set of industry backers who are invested in life sciences, paired with a strong advisory team vested across technology, data and insurance. Within 2 years, ekincare has been able to achieve what other larger companies are elsewhere couldn’t in terms of number of clients and the number of employees.

ekincare – Startup Challenges

Kiran’s biggest challenge was his family to be convinced to move back with him and for them to sacrifice. The pressure was tremendous initially, as Kiran had to make sure none of them should regret the move in the future.

When Kiran first had the idea, he did not have any network in India. All his friends were in the US and some of the friends who were here in India, he had not been in touch with them in 10 years. Moving to India, starting from the cold start and building the business, building the team, everything was from ground zero. That has been the biggest challenge and along the way.

I have been lucky in finding the right partners and common connects like Srikanth, Noel and the rest of the team. Today, we boast of some very good advisors like BVR Mohan Reddy, Dr.Vara Prasad and Nimish Parekh. There was a huge dilemma whether to start with healthcare or not because I am not from Healthcare background. How do I ensure that I will be doing justice to the idea that I had in healthcare? This is when I was told that an industry outsider will have a new perspective towards the industry which results in better innovation. Different thinking would result in a revolution, as compared to an evolution from the traditional jaded mind-set

ekincare – Competitors

Companies like Practo, Call Health, Healthifyme, Healthi are some of ekincare’s competitors.

Kiran’s philosophy when it comes to competition is that you keep an eye on competition like a rear view mirror. Time to time glances on the competitor’s performance helps Kiran plan his strategies better.

When a competitor is doing well, I personally wish them well and I try to learn in terms of what areas they are right. Talent acquisition, what kinds of combinations of talents they are looking at, what kind of operational structure have they built, what kind of positions are they hiring for etc. What not to do is something I have always made a note of from the competition. If something is not clicking, it is just one of the 999 ways in which the puzzle is not to be solved – Kiran says explaining his take on competitors

ekincare – Advisors and Mentors

ekincare has people like BVR Mohan Reddy, Dr.Vara Prasad and Nimish Parekh mentoring them in every step of their journey.

ekincare – Recognition and Achievements

ekincare has received following Awards and recognition till date-

Superstartups Asia awards – 2019
Top 10 most innovative startups by Nasscom
Aegis Graham bell award – By Aegis School of Business at India Mobile Congress 2018
Journal of mHealth – Top 100 most innovative digital healthcare companies, 2016”

ekincare – Future Plans

ekincare has grown from a 23 member team to a 120 member one in the last one year. With the right partners backing up the wheels of the wagon, Kiran is confident the company can grow to a 250 member team very soon.

In terms of clients, ekincare is looking forward to on-board 500 companies during this year.

ekincare – FAQs

What is ekincare?

ekincare is a patent-pending AI powered integrated health benefits platform helping organizations monitor the health and well-being of the employees. The integrated platform provides access to multitude of healthcare services such as 24*7 chat with doctors, health check-ups, medicines purchase and delivery, Gyms etc.

Who are the Founders of ekincare?

Kiran Kalakuntla and Srikanth Samudrala are the Founders of ekincare.

Who are the Top Competitors of ekincare?

Top Competitors of ekincare are Practo, Call Health, Healthifyme, Healthi

How much funding has ekincare raised?

The latest round in 2019 takes the total funding raised by ekincare to $5.6 million.

October 8, 2020

Ratan Tata: The Accidental Startup Investor

Today, Ratan Tata needs no introduction as he is the most respected business tycoon in India. He is an Indian industrialist, philanthropist, former chairman of Tata Group and Tata Sons. Post his retirement in 2012 he has turned into an avid angel investor who has left an everlasting impact. He is well-known for investing in some of the most successful startups today.

So far, Ratan Tata has invested in over two dozen startups, including top unicorns of India, like furniture e-tailer Urban Ladder, digital payments app Paytm, ride-hailing company Ola and its electric vehicle arm Ola Electric Mobility, Cure.fit, Urban Ladder, etc. His investment may only be a few million dollars, according to industry sources, but what’s invaluable is having the 81-year-old tycoon’s name attached to a young startup.

So, how Ratan Tata: the accidental startup investor turned into an avid angel investor? Let’s take a look.

Name	Ratan Tata
Born	Surat, India
Age	82
Citizenship	Indian
Education	Cornell University College of Architecture, Harvard Business School
Title	Indian Industrialist, Philanthropist, and a Former chairman of Tata Sons
Occupation	Businessman
Net Worth	Rs. 6396 Crore
Awards	CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in Business, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan

First Investment made by Ratan Tata

The 81-year-old also said that he became a startup investor by accident. He added that he used to look at the sector as exciting always but somewhat untouchable. Tata further mentioned that with two-three years into the sector, it has become a learning experience for him as he got to learn many aspects regarding investment in startups.

The business magnate, better known as the ”Accidental Startup Investor”, was always interested in the startup ecosystem. He mentioned that his tenure as the chairman of Tata Group as this sector meant conflicts if he would take up any entrepreneurial assignment. But once Mr. Tata retired, he wasted no time in becoming a full-time investor through his private investment vehicle—RNT Associates.

Ratan Tata said that when he retired, at first he started making small token investments in what he considered exciting companies. He admitted that in the beginning, he intended to take some more risks than he might have taken under different circumstances. With two-three years into this, it became a learning experience, as this sector is very active and has the best minds.

The first investment he made was in Snapdeal in 2014 which yielded great results. The CEO of Snapdeal, Kunal Bahl, has high regards for Ratan Tata and considers him to be a lucky charm for Snapdeal. He is believed to have bought a 0.17% stake in Snapdeal in August 2014, when he invested less than Rs 5 crore. Tata bought 256 shares from the e-commerce company’s angel investors, including Kenneth Glass.

Other Investments made by Ratan Tata

Following this, he has invested in 31 startups. After Snapdeal, the online furniture retailer Urban Ladder secured funding from Ratan Tata in November 2015. It was Tata’s second personal investment in an e-commerce firm. It is a popular furniture selling platform based in Bengaluru. It is currently present in 12 cities around India.

Paytm, a Noida-based digital-payments company saw an overnight jump in subscribers by millions, after Demonetization of announced by the government on November 8, 2018. The company had secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata in March 2015. Tata bought a stake in One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm.

Ola Cabs is India’s answer to Uber. Much like Uber, Ola provides cab services across all price segments, ranging from economic to luxury. Beginning its operations in 2010, Ola secured funding from Ratan Tata in July 2015.

Ratan Tata is the first Indian to buy a stake in Chinese tech giant Xiaomi best known for its affordable smartphones. It’s true, the amount Tata invested in Xiaomi was not disclosed. Similarly, services marketplace UrbanClap raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata in December 2015. In April 2016, Lenskart, the popular online retailer that sells eyewear secured funding from Tata.

Ratan Tata has invested in More than 30 Start-ups

Tata, while referring to the growth of budding startups said, “We are looking at the India of tomorrow and the day after, and the start-up industry is entering the global field in a manner where competition is open. The fact is we (Indians) are entrepreneurs at heart. Maybe what we need is the opportunity to flourish and I think the startup industry is doing just that.”

Ratan Tata’s Sectors of Interest

Ratan N. Tata has invested in over 30 startups. Among these, there are several technology-based startups too. Tata has made all these investments in his personal capacity. Ratan Tata has not restricted himself to a sector and stepped into a variety of diverse strata, be it clothing, weather, pet care services, etc., but technology catches his attention.

He holds the view that technology can be applied and used in any sector and the future is all about technology. He has recently invested in Tork Motors and Ola Electric. Ratan Tata has been supporting Ola since 2015. He openly expresses his excitement of participating in new areas and encourages young minds to search for domains yet to be explored.

Ratan Tata believes startups should get funded by Indian investors. According to him, the startup sector is growing rapidly with the best of minds involved in it. He regrets seeing such companies having great potential that could add value to the Indian economy but being bound to foreign authorities. Thus, Tata finds it unfortunate that founders get driven by foreign investments in the hope of an eventual acquisition by a larger entity.

He tells his decisions are intuition-driven, but the steps he has taken by now proves his intuitions are calculated risk oriented. He prefers getting into conversation with founders, analyze their personality, skills, their maturity, and the seriousness and most importantly, their zeal and dedication.

And like any other investor, he judges the future scope of pitched ideas. Tata has told in his case selection is more by intuition than by numbers. He further revealed that judging the intent of the founders and their seriousness influenced him more than any other factor.

How to Approach Ratan Tata for Investment?

Is Approaching Ratan Tata Difficult? As a matter of fact, its not. He is as approachable as any other investor. A few things to keep in mind if you plan to seek investment from the business tycoon:

Your idea should be unique and hold great potential.
The startup should have begun its operations, at least on a small-scale.
Tangible feedback on the startup and its product or service is a must. Remember, Ola got funding from RNT Associates 5 years after it began.
He is a man of experience, so it is advisable to be realistic and honest. Sniffing out non-sense is easy for him.

Being a personal investor, he prefers keeping the details of his investment private. He hates it when the media makes such information public. You will find it difficult to find the exact amount of his investments online, even when it comes to the biggest players he’s backing.

When asked what makes a good entrepreneur, he told what probably drives an entrepreneur to start a business is the fire in his belly that there is a better way to do something that has been done or a good opportunity to make a difference because something has not been explored well enough. And the confidence of staying with it is deciding factor of a good entrepreneurs. This is one thing to keep in mind while approaching Ratan Tata for investment.

September 23, 2020

Secrets To Chinese Investment in Indian Startups – Even In This Down Economy

Over the years, it is clearly seen that China is very interested in India. This can be easily seen with the help of the large investment made by the Chinese companies in the Indian Start-up ecosystem. In India, China’s tech giant companies and venture capital funds have made a big Chinese investments in India – largely in tech start-ups. These investment are made on evaluating some of the parameters which are acting as the ultimate success for the Chinese investing forums. They are:-

Value of Equity Invested- according to the business model.
Target Companies- according to the USP and the Similarity with other start-ups.
Location of investment for better acquiring the customers.
Nature of business- depending upon the people interest and other direct and indirect investment techniques.

Present Scenario of Chinese Investment in Indian Startups

Present scenario of Chinese Investment in India: Over the years, it has been seen that the Chinese start-up companies are getting a great success in the Indian market. TikTok, owned by ByteDance, is already one of the most popular and most downloaded app in India and the world, overtaking YouTube.

Xiaomi handsets are bigger than Samsung and Apple smartphones. The companies are having a large customer base making themselves the market leaders in their sectors respectively. All these Chinese start-ups are working behind the Indian start-up by providing the investment to these Indian start-up companies in the Indian start-up ecosystem. Chinese investment in Indian tech start-ups is making an impact disproportionate to its valuation, by deeply penetration of technology across sectors in India.

The statistics of the past years says, Oyo and Ola and many more. Indian Unicorns with Chinese investors are counted as 18 out of the 30 . This means that China has embedded itself deeply in the Indian ecosystem which is helping them in getting the large profits.

The Chinese companies and venture firms made the investment in about two dozen Chinese tech companies and firms which are having more scope of success according to them. These investing giants consist of the companies and firms like Alibaba, ByteDance and Tencent, which are completely established in the market and earning the great profits. These Chinese Companies have invested their money in about 92 Indian start-ups, including some of the unicorns such as Paytm, Ola, Dream 11, Byju’s and many more.

Division of the Chinese Investors

Chinese investment in Indian Startups are categorized in two groups. These Chinese investment in Indian Startups have made these companies a giant in the Indian startup ecosystem. They are:-

1) Chinese VC funds, such as CDH Investments, Ward Ferry, SAIF Partners and Hillhouse Capital, mostly based in Hong Kong. They are akin to professional global investors, such as Sequoia or Softbank, and look for a bigger financial returns according to the investment.

2) Tech giant companies, like Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi, which want a serious presence in the Indian market, just as Walmart (via Flipkart) and Amazon do but in a virtual manner without any burden.

Biggest Chinese Investments in Indian Startups

ALIBABA GROUP	SECTORS
Dailyhunt, Healofy, Paytm Mall, Paytm.com, TicketNew, Vidooly, Xpressbees, Snapdeal, Zomato	E-commerce, Search Engine, Media, Social Media & Entertainment, Logistics, Fintech, Aggregator, Others
TENCENT	SECTORS
Byju’s, Ola, Doubtnut, Dream 11, Flipkart, Niyo,Ganna, Mike, Khatabook, MXplayer, Mygate, Pine labs. Pocket FM, Practo, Swiggy, Udaan	Education, Logistics, Gaming, E-commerce, Media, Social Media & Fintech, Aggregator, Others
XIAOMI	SECTORS
City Mall, Hungarna Digital Media Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, Marsplay Internet, Oye!, Rickshaw, Rapido, Sharechat ,Zesty Money	E-commerce, Fintech. Aggregator, Media, Social Media & Entertainment

Some of the big Chinese firms investment in the Indian startups ecosystem are:-

Funding by Chinese VCs

Shunwei Capital	Hillhouse capital	Fosun Rz Capital	GGV Capital
$ 9.4 Million Pratilipi	$ 13.2 Million epiFi	$8 Million DotPe	$24 Million Vedantu
$ 7.9 Million Sim Sim	$70 Million Car Dekho	$1.2 Million Loca	$36 Million Rupeek
$ 5.9 Million Kuku FM	$585 Million Udaan	$11.2 Million Delhivery	$25 Million Khata Book

This shows that the Chinese investors and VC firms are keenly observing the the Indian startup ecosystem and this can be easily proved by the above statistics which tells that these Chinese VCs are investing almost in all the Indian startups during their initial period of their startup. This Small-Small investment in almost all the startups has now become big amount in total.

Reasons behind the Chinese Investments in Indian start-ups

These Chinese companies are investing in such companies mainly due to 3 reasons. They are:-

Difference in the Currency Value

It is clearly seen that the Chinese currency is having the higher value than the Indian currency. The Chinese currency is almost 10 times larger than the Indian currency. This is the main point behind the Chinese investment in Indian start-ups.

This creates a plus point for the Chinese investors as, they have to invest less while investing in the Indian start-ups as compared to any Chinese investment.

Secondly, these Chinese companies investment in Indian start-ups having a similar concept eg: Alibaba invested in Paytm. This helps the Chinese investors to make a trade of technologies with the invested start-up. So, the Chinese investors are able to get their invested in one or the other form plus also gets the partnership in the start-up with the help of the shares they purchased, which ultimately acts ROI for these investors.

Data of the Indian Users

It is the well-known fact that data is the new oil. Chinese companies such as Alibaba and Tencent have their own ecosystems which are ready for use. This includes the online stores, payment gateways, messaging services, and many others.

These Chinese investors can pull the data of the Indian users. This can be done with the help of the position in the company (due to the investment) which can ultimately leads us to the loss of control over data. This data can be used in many ways and in different situations depending on the need of attraction of the customers having similar taste. This data has its own value in the market and after the loss over the data, there will be no privacy left for the existing customers of the service.

Restriction over the Platform Control

China is having a very large amount of restrictions over the companies which do not belongs to the Chinese state. China is having a closed internet service or the Chinese internet service which almost act as an intranet. This restricts outsiders and is closely monitored and controlled by the state. Many companies like Facebook, are banned in China and other companies working in China like Apple, have to undergo many restrictions.

Due to this many Chinese companies like Alibaba and Tencent are able to get all the benefits of this system. By restricting access to foreign players, China is able to create its own working surfaces. So, these Chinese investing companies and firms are trying to replicate their internet ecosystems in India. Once, they are able to get success in this task then they will be able to dominate over the Indian market which will directly affect the world’s market.

Chinese Investment in Indian Startups – FAQs

How many Indian startups are funded by China?

As per conducted surveys, it has been founded that 18 out of 30 Indian startups are funded by Chinese Investors. This means that China has embedded itself deeply in the Indian ecosystem which is helping them in getting large profits.

Is BigBasket funded by China?

Yes, BigBasket is funded by Chinese Investors – Alibaba. Recently, BigBasket has received funding of $50 million from Alibaba.

Is Flipkart funded by China?

Flipkart till now has received $7.7 billion from multiple investors and talking about Chinese Investors, Flipkart has received around $300 million from investors like Tecent and Steadview capital.

September 22, 2020

Why Freelancers Should Leave Their Rooms and Join A Startup
Most of the very big companies that rule over the market today started from small startups. Some of them started in a room, some in small garages. With the increasing craze and growth of freelancing in the previous years, people have developed the tendency to adopt freelancing as their full-time careers. Sure, it sounds very good to be a freelancer. You can wake up whenever you want, you can work according to your schedule, work from your own home in perfect isolation. They do not consider the possibility that they can work in startups too which is a much greater career path for their future.

Working in startups provides you first-hand industry experience that is valuable for your career. While freelancing may seem the best option for some people, it has many disadvantages that are discussed later in this article. The startup industry has also been gaining higher altitudes in the past decades. Many startups are being started with many unique ideas that bring out the best in people. More and more people are joining startups today. Before mentioning the advantages of working at startups, we should first take a look at the disadvantages of working as freelancers.

Also Read: The Pros and Cons Of Becoming a Freelancer

Disadvantages of Freelancing
- Your work is not stable and your job is not secure. You may or may not get work all the time. This is a great disadvantage because if you do not get constant work, you do not get a constant salary, which means that you’ll be in great trouble when you have to pay your bills.
- If you are freelancing, there is no schedule for your work. You tend to work when you please. This also means that there is a possibility that you sit for hours at a time trying to finish your work resulting in overwork. This can affect your lifestyle and your health in a bad way.
- Although it may seem to be a very good thing to some people that you work alone and isolated and at your own leisure if you are freelancing, but not being able to communicate with someone about your work or share your workload with someone can be frustrating.
- When you start with freelancing, there is no guarantee of the fact that you will get a job as soon as you apply for it. You will face huge and large competition from people who have already established themselves as huge freelancers. Maybe you are not able to get a job or if you are, its paycheck does not meet your expectations. This can be frustrating and can severely affect your work.
- Also, there are many jobs on freelancing platforms that turn out to be a scam once you have handed them your work. This wastes your time and efforts.
Now that we have discussed about the disadvantages of working as freelancers are, we should also discuss how these disadvantages are overcome when you work in startups.

Also Read: Future of Freelancing in India – Things You must Know about Indian Freelancing Sector

Advantages of working at startups
- If you are working at a startup, you have stable work and high job security. You constantly have work to do, and a constant salary. Initially, your paycheck will probably be low, but as the startup grows, the amount on the paycheck increases. This amount will be much more than what you would have been able to get as a freelancer. Although, some startups may pay you less, but they offer much more than salaries to their employees. Some of them may provide you with a small portion of their shares, which, when the startup becomes a multi-million one, will be greatly beneficial to you.
- You have to work as per the schedule of the startup. This ensures that you do not have to overwork and that you follow a healthy lifestyle. Even if in some case, you have to do overwork, you will get paid for that, unlike in freelancing.
- If you work in startups, you are surrounded by people who are talented and enthusiastic about their work. You get to learn a lot from all of these people. This also provides a good environment to work in. There are people working with you that are sharing your workload which had to be done by you alone if you were working on it as a freelancer which turns out be a very good advantage in favour of you.
Working Alone (Freelancing) vs. Working in Groups By Sharing your Workload (Working At Startups)
- You learn a lot about the industry and gain experience in your work. This will be useful if you are planning to join a big company or establishing your own startup in the future. You will not be able to gain all of this knowledge and experience if you are working as a freelancer.
- You can still work as a freelancer along with your job. This way you can earn some extra bucks!
Also Read: Smart Strategies To Get Job In a Startup Company

Conclusion

While working as freelancers may seem fancy, it has its own disadvantages that are already discussed earlier. When you work in startups, it will definitely give you a chance to grow, both at the professional and personal levels. If you are new to the industry or are just about to start your career, freelancing may prove useful to you, but only part-time. When you’ve had some experience, you should join startups so as to master the skills that you have learned and to get familiar with the industry. While freelancing may provide you with a good base to start something new, you should not consider freelancing as your permanent or full-time job. Just gain some experience, gather some skills, and apply to work at some established company or a new startup.
June 28, 2020
Facebook’s New Venture: To Invest in Indian Startups

Facebook, the social media giant, and one of the top companies in the field of Technology has been financially helping many startups across the world in the past few years by investing in them. Facebook has invested in Indian startups as well. Some of the Indian startups in which Facebook has previously invested have now become very big names such as the online teaching platform ‘Unacademy’ and Reliance Jio in which Facebook has invested huge amounts of money. Facebook recently has come up with a new venture for investing in startups and financially help them. Facebook recently posted a job opening for the role of ‘Head of Investments’. According to them, they were looking for someone who had at least 10 years of experience in the Technology field.

Facebook invests in Jio

According to the job opening posted by Facebook, they were looking for someone who can lead and manage the multi-million dollar project that invests in leading private companies and will also propose and lead the execution of many new investments in other companies and startups. The job opening floated on the internet recently but was soon taken down. Facebook has given a statement in response to this that the job vacancy has been filled without giving out the name of the person who has been selected for the job.

Also Read: Facebook Invests $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms for 9.99% Stake

Why has Facebook decided to take this step?

It is believed that this has been done to ensure that Facebook stays in close touch with the startup industry all over the world and to ensure that new startups and applications that they think will do big in the future can easily be acquired by them. The general idea of Facebook remains to try and acquire companies, generally social media platforms or tech-related companies, which are already large or have the potential to grow to great heights. For example, Facebook has acquired both Instagram and WhatsApp and tried to acquire Snapchat too, but they turned down the offer. Earlier this year, Facebook acquired GIPHY – The GIF Maker.

Two of the Biggest Social Media Platforms have been acquired by Facebook

Facebook has been investing in many startups. Some have received huge financial help, while others have received a relatively small amount of financial help. Facebook remains interested in startups with ideas that can generate huge revenues. Facebook has invested billions of dollars in Reliance Jio. This venture, however, is intended upon many of the small startups in the ‘Tech’ industry which will receive comparatively small financial aids. Facebook is reportedly looking for the best startups in different categories and will include these into this venture. Facebook offers it ‘Accelerator’ service to those startups who have managed to get their services or products out on the market already and are trying to grow. Facebook also offers its services to small startups who have just been launched and are currently working on their products or services. Facebook also has the option for full training under mentors for such startups.

Also Read: Easy Ways To Find An Investor For Your Company

This decision by Facebook will help boost the startup culture and ecosystem in India. More and more startups will come up with many new ideas every day. Therefore, this situation is a triple win situation. Firstly, the startups will benefit as they will receive financial aids. Secondly, Facebook will benefit by receiving huge amounts of returns when these startups, which are already acquired by them, turn into multi-million companies. Thirdly, the many new ideas that the startups will come up with will prove to be greatly beneficial for the general public.

However, Facebook is competing with many big companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and Google which are already investing in many startups around the country. All these companies try to become the leaders of this field, and these types of ventures help them succeed at this mission.

June 13, 2020
These Companies are Laying Off due to COVID-19 Crisis

Needless to mention, Coronavirus has affected every aspect of human life. To contain the spread of the virus, many precautions are being taken at different levels. Many countries like India have declared lockdown to cope with the situation. While the delivery of essential services has been allowed, the supply chain is still struggling to cope with the security measures. India’s 21-day lockdown may have thrown up an opportunity for online grocers to shine, but the rest of the industry sectors is drowning in the Covid-19 tsunami.

But beyond this, the real economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic will come in the weeks and months to come. Many large companies are also helpless in this time, yet they are trying to manage things. But this pandemic has left small businesses & startups with no more option but to downsize & layoff.

Layoffs and downsizing in the startup ecosystem are set to accelerate as businesses take a hard look at high operational costs and dipping demand in an uncertain environment made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, India has banned entry of all foreign nationals till May 17 with exceptions, such as diplomatic visa. This means that international firms have to put their business plans on hold.

Coronavirus have some far-reaching consequences – besides killing human beings, this deadly virus can result into unprecedented economic recession. However this will have more impact on startups than on bigger firms. Last couple of quarters has seen startups laying off thousands of employees.

Indian startups and SMEs(small and medium-sized enterprises) have begun evaluating their options to cut spending as demand for their products and services has taken a massive hit due to the Covid-19 outbreak as startups are finding it difficult to raise funds.

Nearly, 71% of businesses have seen reduced demand. The firms are also looking to cut spending on marketing and advertising, tech infrastructure, commercial rentals and employee costs to survive during this tough time.

Lay-offs in Travel Startups
Lay-offs in Travel & Hospitality service Startups
Lay-offs in Online Food Delivery startups
Lay-offs in Cab Services Startups
Lay-offs in Scooter Rental Startups

Also Read: Effect of Coronavirus Crisis on Employment

Layoffs increased in Startups since COVID-19 Outbreak

Many sectors are greatly affected due to COVID-19. The sector, especially startups, is likely to see more layoffs if the virus outbreak continues to cause havoc. In this, travel industry, startups, IT firms seem to be the first casualty. For India’s venture capital industry, 2019 was a milestone year with $10 billion deployed into overall startups, that saw a 55% jump from 2018, according to Bain & Company, highlighting how the industry grew amid global economic uncertainty.

But now this situation is taking another turn; layoffs have already started happening. Rituparna Charkraborty, co-founder, Teamlease Services, a staffing firm, told that as demand slows down, it will impact startups and might result in layoff. She explained that unlike bigger firms, they don’t have deep pockets and have to be frugal.

Travel Startups

India’s biggest travel portal: MakeMyTrip has decided to lay off 350 employees as its business has been affected severely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. MakeMyTrip has told employees that MMT has analysed impact closely and has spent considerable time figuring out the path to business recovery. Founder Deep Kalra and CEO Rajesh Magow sent out a letter to all employees informing them about the layoff.

Kalra and Magow have writtten in their letter,
“What’s evident is that the impact of COVID-19 crisis is going to be long drawn for us. It’s unclear when traveling will become a way of life, as it was pre-COVID-19. We are living through extraordinary times that have impacted individuals, communities, businesses, countries and our world at a magnitude unknown before and there is no let-up in sight.”

MakeMyTrip promised to offer support to laid-off employees compensation including Mediclaim coverage for individuals and their families till the end of the year, leave encashment, gratuity, retaining the right to exercise part of RSUs as applicable. Employees can keep the company laptops and will be provided outplacement support apart from salary payments as per their notice periods.

At the same time, MakeMyTrip’s associated companies like GoIbibo and Redbus can fire 60% of their contractual employees due to decreasing demand. There are 650 such contractual employees in these three companies. Majority of them are working in customer service and backend support.

Travel & Hospitality service Startups

Airbnb also plans to lay off nearly one-fourth of its employees. The 25% of the company includes nearly 1,900 employees who will be laid off. According sources, the news would be broken to employees by CEO Brian Chesky.

CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky stated in his memo,
“Airbnb’s business has been hit hard due to COVID-19, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019. We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, and as it began to unfold, global travel came to a standstill.”

Chesky told that prior to the layoffs, Airbnb had 7,500 employees. Airbnb will halt projects related to hotels, a transportation division and luxury stays for some time. But Chesky has assured that laid off employees would get some facilities from company’s side.

Chesky said that U.S. employees laid off will receive 14 weeks of base pay plus an additional week for every year they worked at Airbnb. The company will also provide 12 months of healthcare for laid off U.S. employees. He also mentioned that May 11 will be the last work day for impacted Airbnb employees in the U.S. and Canada.

Similarly, around 5000 Oyo employees will be laid off across the world due to coronavirus outbreak. Oyo Hotels is laying off staff in the U.S., China and India as the company tries to find its way to profitability in turbulent times.

Oyo expanded rapidly after its founding in 2013 and reached a valuation of $10 billion but investors have soured on money-losing businesses after WeWork’s meltdown and SoftBank has pushed portfolio companies to prioritise profitability.

The travel and hospitality service company TravelTriangle has laid off about 50% of its workforce in the past 10 days. “TravelTriangle has fired about 250-300 people since March 20,” said one of the sources. Impacted employees are from operations, marketing, customer support and business development functions.

In addition to this list, corporate travel planning company TripActions, that was valued at $4 billion last year, laid off 350 employees via Zoom. The reports state the layoffs consist of about one-quarter to one-fifth of the total company. The company said in a statement, “We’ve cut back on all non-essential spend and made the very difficult decision to reduce our global workforce due to pandemic.”

Online Food Delivery startups

On May 18, Bengaluru-based food delivery startup Swiggy announced that it will lay off 1,100 employees and shut down some of its businesses as the coronavirus continues to take its toll. The core food delivery business has been severely impacted and will stay impacted over the short term.

Co-founder & CEO of Swiggy, Sriharsha Majety stated,
“While we are very fortunate to have raised capital just before Covid-19 hit and have sufficient runway today, it is incredibly important to prepare for worse scenarios in the macro environment and make sure we are protected.”

Swiggy will give at least three months of salary to all impacted employees. For every year spent by the employee, they will be paid an additional month’s salary. Along with this, Swiggy plans to provide medical insurance for impacted employees until 31 December, 2020, as well as career transition and access to free learning on Linkedin for upskilling. Moreover, it has allowed the staff to retain office laptops and communication allowance for the next three months.

Similarly, Gurugram based Food delivery platform Zomato decided to layoff 520 employees which is 13% of its workforce. Also it will temporarily cut salaries of the rest as the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant nationwide lockdown has hit its businesses, Zomato’s Founder & CEO Deepinder Goyal said in the email on May 15.

Deepinder Goyal said in his mail,
“Our business has been severely affected by the COVID lockdowns. A large number of restaurants have already shut down permanently, and we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I expect the number of restaurants to shrink by 25-40% over the next 6-12 months.”

As compensation, the laid-off employees will receive half of their salaries along with health insurance for the next six months or till they find another job. Goyal also said that the company will provide impacted employees outplacement support to find jobs.

Cab Services Startups

Uber, American ride-hailing Mnc, announced on May 6, that it will lay off 3,700 employees which is about 14% of its total workforce. Also CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will forgo his base salary for the rest of the year as COVID-19 has crushed the travel industry because of lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus.

Uber has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Uber’s global gross bookings are down by 80%, according to reports. The company is set to lay off up to 700 people that is about 25-30% of its overall workforce in India as per sources. Uber has over 2,000 employees in India. The decision has been almost final and likely to be announced when lockdown will get lifted.

On May 18, Uber’s CEO, Khosrowshahi told employees Uber will lay off an additional 3,000 employees and close 45 offices globally. As part of the layoffs, Uber is expected to pay up to $145 million to employees via severance and other benefits, and up to $80 million in order to shut down offices, according to a filing with the SEC.

CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi said,
“We are looking at many scenarios and at each and every cost, both variable and fixed, across the company. We want to be smart, to move fast, to retain as many of our great people as we can, and treat everyone with dignity, support and respect.”

On May 20, Indian ride hailing unicorn Ola said that it will lay off 1,400 staff which makes about 35 % of its workforce due to the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Ola’s CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said in a note to employees that COVID-19 has led to a drop of 95 per cent in Ola’s revenues in two months. The impact of the crisis will be long-drawn for Ola. Every affected employee will receive a minimum financial pay of 3 months of their fixed salary.

Similarly, other Cab service companies are also facing the heat as more people avoid taking public transport and cabs and have started working from home. Pravin Agarwala, co-founder of The Better Place, a blue-collar management firm, said cab aggregators are already witnessing drop in demand and this drop would go up to 30-40 % if the same situation continues.

Drivezy, a self-drive car rentals platform, has also cut part of its workforce to stay afloat, according ET’s report. Moreover, B2B platform Udaan has cut back on ground staff over the last few months at its pharmaceuticals and fresh division, according to four employees at the firm.

Scooter Rental Startups

Electric-scooter startup Bird said it is laying off nearly a third of its workforce to survive damage done to its service by the coronavirus pandemic. Bird has already paused shared scooter operations in many markets around the world and drastically cut spending and is now “laying off” 30 % of its workforce, founder and chief executive Travis VanderZanden said in a memo to employees.

In the same way, scooter sharing app Bounce has begun laying off hundreds of employees across functions and levels. At Bounce, the job cuts are across verticals and levels, operations staff, call centre, and technology and product according to reports.

Number of Layoffs is likely to Increase more due to Covid-19

Startups are Terminating the Hiring plans

Apart of layoffs, some of India’s top companies have also stopped hiring plans and are moving talent internally. Meanwhile recruitment firms have announced that processes of hiring have dropped by 50%, as interviews are being cancelled. Meanwhile recruitment agencies are informing that Indian startups also have cancelled upto 50% of all hiring and interviews with layoffs going on parallel.

Bengaluru-based firm Rupeek, which operates an online marketplace for gold loans, has terminated a human resource contract with Aasaanjobs, a recruitment marketplace for blue and grey-collar jobs. This will allegedly indirectly impact 600 jobs. Rupeek told it won’t renew the contract with the human resource contractors and reduce the number of outsourced staff in the current economic environment.

Rupeek said in a statement.
“Considering current business and economic environment, we had to take the unfortunate decision of not renewing our contract with our human resource contractors & the consequent reduction in the number of outsourced staff. We regret the unfortunate timing of this event. To protect their interests, we are offering a generous severance package over and above contractual dues.”

Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, a staffing agency said, “Almost 50% of ongoing interviews, new requirements, on-boardings have stopped for the last two weeks now, particularly in the IT sector.” He also added that close to 25 captives opened in India last year and hired close to 5,000 people. However, this number is likely to come down as the coronavirus has made the execution a challenge.

According to experts, most firms have delayed the hiring process by 4-6 weeks. Appraisal hikes may also see a 2-3 % drop as well this year. In addition, with sectors across under stress, performance pressure will also be high, leading to more layoffs, said the experts.

Also Read: 8 Tips to Stay Productive while Working Remotely

Final Words

Due to this laying off process going on all over the world, the United States, Europe, China and India are experiencing slowing economic activity that analysts predict will likely last through at least two quarters. India’s stock market has already taken a beating over the last week, and the pressure has now trickled down to private markets as well. India’s GDP growth slowed from 2.5% to 5.3% since the crisis began.

To add to that, the coronavirus outbreak has emerged as a new threat to the global economy and Indian manufacturing. India is currently in its fourth week since the first batch of Covid-19 positive cases were identified. The startup ecosystem in India has taken a major hit and entrepreneurs are trying to figure out how to run their operations by cutting costs in trying to stay afloat.

May 31, 2020
Tisharth: High-End Fashion Is Now Affordable!

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.

Whoever quoted first impression is often the last impression couldn’t have stated the truth better; people tend to generalize one’s personality and upkeep from appearances. Therefore, having a good wardrobe is more than a necessity these days. But when one looks for quality clothing from big brands, shelling out money becomes an obstacle. And if you consider international trends, the price blows through the roof! To make fashion that’s popular across the globe affordable and accessible, a venture based in India is working relentlessly and that’s Tisharth.

Startup Name Tisharth

Headquarter Gurugram

Founder Shivani Jain

Sector Fashion

Founded 2015

Tisharth – Introduction
Tisharth – Industry Details
Tisharth – Founder
Tisharth – How It Started
Tisharth – Name And Logo
Tisharth – Product
Tisharth – Business and Revenue Model
Tisharth – Customer Acquisition
Tisharth – Funding
Tisharth – Challenges
Tisharth – Competitors
Tisharth – Achievements
Tisharth – Technology Used
Tisharth – Future Plans
Tisharth – Founder’s Advice

Tisharth – Introduction

“Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well”, said Vivienne Westwood. And it makes sense. Fashion makes one look appealing from the outside and confident in his/her skin. Fashion designers are constantly coming up with different designs and innovations to meet the needs of different occasions, seasons, locations, tastes, body types, etc. The creative minds are always on the prowl for inspirational patterns and designs. Shivani Jain of India is one such passionate designer who conceived her prêt clothing label, Tisharth, to meet international cuts and fits.

Tisharth deals with women clothing that is classy and trendy. Tisharth exists to provide high-end fashion which is comfortable and high on style at affordable prices. The venture caters to the apparel needs of women of all ages and build.

Tisharth – Industry Details

The fashion industry in India is growing rapidly. The segment is expected to grow at 15% CAGR till 2022. A recent report forecasts the apparel market in India to be valued at $102 billion by 2022.

Reports by Facebook, KPMG, and Nielsen narrow down to the same finding—with internet availability no longer being a hindrance, consumers in tier two and three cities are becoming familiar with brands and products through e-commerce and social media.

Mobile platforms are expected to influence nearly two-thirds of the purchase on apparel and fashion accessories by 2022.

Fashion industry is growing rapidly in the modern generation. People are now more careful for what they are wearing. So, Tisharth team see themselves making a fashionable future for others.

Relevant Read: FOReT – Offering Beautiful Fashion Accessories Made of Genuine Cork

Tisharth – Founder

Shivani Jain, Founder, Tisharth

Shivani Jain is the founder of Tisharth. An alumna of NIFT, Shivani started working from the early age of 19. She ran her own label in the beginning, then worked for 10 years as a designer and a fashion merchandiser before taking a sabbatical to be with her growing children. Her love and passion for fashion designing could not keep her away from work for much long, and she launched her own prêt label, Tisharth by Shivani, in 2015.

Tisharth currently has a skeleton crew of 15 people comprising designers, tailors, embroiders, and assistants.

Shivani Showcasing Her Creations at a Fashion Show

Tisharth – How It Started

There was an instance when Shivani needed a stylish dress reflecting international cut and fit but could not find it locally or online. The failure compelled her to take the mantle on herself and make such apparels available to all. She decided to launch a label that would cater to global trends, aesthetics, and quality.

Tisharth – Name And Logo

The word Tisharth has been derived from Shivani’s kids’ names.

I took the first 4 letters of my son’s and daughter’s first names. It was always my dream to start my very own label but I took a sabbatical to raise my children. So I named my label after them.

The logo is a cloth hanger with the word Tisharth hanging from it. It aptly captures the essence of fashion!

Tisharth logo

Tisharth – Product

Tisharth brings you fluid feminine drapes in flattering international silhouettes.

We are a prêt fashion label for women. We specialize in western and fusion wear. Each garment is created with a story and a different silhouette.

The Tisharth team experiments with embroideries and fabrics to deliver high-quality apparels exuding quality and class. Moreover, Tisharth’s embroidery techniques are unique to the brand and can only be matched by haute couture labels.

Relevant Read: Escaro Royale – A Trusted Brand for Premium Men’s Accessories and Shoes

Tisharth Apparels Showcased at Paris Fashion Week

Tisharth – Business and Revenue Model

TISHARTH is based on a simple retail model. It launches two well planned collections every year. Each collection is inspired by a unique story. The collections often grace ramps and popular fashion events.

The company sells its products through various sales channels such as fashion exhibitions, collaborative stores, online platforms, social media handles, or from its flagship store in Gurgaon.

Tisharth – Customer Acquisition

A Model Wearing Tisharth Creations

Tisharth markets itself by participating in events, exhibitions, and fashion shows. It’s highly active on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

Tisharth – Funding

TISHARTH is a 100% sole proprietorship company. Currently, Tisharth has not resorted to any sort of funding and has sufficient capital to take care of its operational expenses.

Tisharth – Challenges

The early days of the startup were arduous since creating quality apparels at affordable prices was no easy feat. To break even, let alone creating profits, in such business models requires serious ingenuity. With solid determination and resolve, Tisharth started in-house production in order to achieve the standards it was looking for. When Shivani began her venture, there were only two markets for western wear in India—the retail stores of renowned designers, and the flea markets. Her challenge was to establish a brand that was high on fashion yet affordable and easily available, in the midst of intensive competition.

Relevant Read: Neeman’s – India’s First Brand to Make Merino Wool Shoes

Tisharth – Competitors

There is no direct competition for the label. However, Shivani tells Tisharth is on par with Michael Kors, Armani, and Calvin Klein in terms of the price bracket. She draws inspiration from established brands to create new designs.

Tisharth – Achievements

Tisharth has presence in both India and abroad. The label is sold across various stores in Delhi, Mumbai, and Jaipur. The company has been able to allure customers from different countries courtesy of its rich catalog.

Tisharth’s creations have been showcased at various Fashion Weeks. The company’s kitty consists of the India Runway Week 2017, the India Fashion Week London 2017, the New York Fashion Week 2018, the Times Fashion Week 2018, and the Paris Fashion Week 2019. Its collections have been appreciated by all and publicized by the industry big shots as; there has been press coverage from domestic and international media as well. The venture aims to have international celebrities endorse it in the coming time.

Nushrat Bharucha promoting Tisharth’s collections

Tisharth – Technology Used

Tisharth makes use of excellent craftsmanship. It has state of the art imported sewing machinery for achieving flawless stitching and detailing. The in-house craftsmen create and execute impeccable apparels through deft handwork.

Relevant Read: Fizzy Fern – The Best of Nature and Ayurveda for Your Skin

Tisharth – Future Plans

Shivani with her team is ready to disrupt the fashion industry.

I and want my label to be available at the stores all over the world. I want to be known as a designer with a global recognition

Tisharth – Founder’s Advice

Shivani believes it’s never too late to start living your dream.

You have to believe in yourself and work really hard to achieve your goals. Always be truthful and keep your eyes open at all times, as you never know when the inspiration strikes.

March 22, 2020
10 Points to Evaluate before Raising Funds for Startup

Most of the time it becomes challenging for startups to define a starting point due to the financial constraints involved. The business always reaches a point where you need a venture capital. Sometimes, people indulge in the wrong avenue which to some extent is a waste of time and have a negative impact on their ideas. The following are some of the key highlights to bear in mind while raising funds for startup.

10 Keynote to take before raising funds for startup

1. Type of business

Some business ideas can form a sort of investment but these are not worth venture investment. Business potentials do vary and capital that leads to investing also varies. Some business might require bank loans when compared to the business returns. Understand the market size before raising funds for startup.

“I have learned to respect ideas, wherever they come from. Often they come from clients. Account executives often have big creative ideas, regardless of what some writers think” – Leo Burnett, founder of Leo Burnett Company

Also Read: 4 Practical Tips to Attract Investors- How to get Investors

2. Know the parties involved

Nobody would want to lose money. Before committing funds for investment, progress must be tangible. Venture investors will have several meetings so as to reduce the risks in the transaction. The risks are always minimal if you have ever worked with them before as they would know you. Of course, not all people you partner with are equal, but they assess mutual benefits in the deal before investing funds for startup.

Also Read: How to Do Market Research For Your Startup

3. Process of funding

Understand the dynamics involved in each funding aspect. Different venture firms have different processes and procedures for releasing funds. Approval of funds varies but mostly through meetings with partners. Cash requested will determine the number of meetings a venture will hold. Your presence sometimes is needed before funds get approved for your startup.

Read Also: List of 11 Best Crowdfunding Platforms for Startups

4. Self-start up funding

Venturing into a business with self-funding is very common. This gives a positive impression to the investors of your capability and seriousness to manage the business. People trust your ideas and are also willing to take risks. With self-funding, you get to take full control of the business unlike when you get venture capital where they are the ones who have managed it. This always develops a negative effect on your business which decreases potential sometimes.

“You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some places to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case” – Ken Kessy, American novelist

Also Read: How to Raise Fund for Startup in India

5. Family and friends

Family and friends are people who know you and your strengths better. They chip-in to support your startup, although, with pros and cons attached. They might believe in your abilities but lack experience to bring on board. They might not be willing to lose money and relationships with them might become haphazard. Choose wisely who to go for support especially those who have knowledge about business as they understand the risks.

Also Read: Top Funded Startups India 2019

6. Execute right decision

Be clear about your business aspirations otherwise you can fail terribly. Understand what you really want (are you a small or big business entrepreneur) or become a boss on your own.

“Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make the decision right” – Phil McGraw, American television personality

Top Startup Funding of this Year

7. Investor’s terms

When investors are interested and convinced, they offer the startup with the term sheet. This outlines the terms and conditions of the investment. This defines the company’s valuation and rights of the investor. All the terms accompanying the business are highlighted. This process will help them understand who you are. Startups should understand well what they are getting into.

Also read: List of Startups funded by Ratan Tata

8. Failure is part of learning

If you want to succeed you must work hard. Doing business should be fun. Challenges are there but how you handle them is what matters. Sometimes we fail and learn from our mistakes.

“Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” – Denis Waitley, American motivational speaker

Read Also: How to Make Money Online?

9. Engage with other entrepreneurs

Develop a relationship with other entrepreneurs. Be part of their discussions even if you don’t contribute anything. Even if you lack experience don’t develop any fear. You will get something positive to help your startup. Expose yourself, attend their conferences and practice what you learn.

Also read: Top Entrepreneurs of India

10. Organize your team

For your startup to function effectively, you must bring a lot of focus to your team. Most startups fail because of lack of reliable and up to the mark people. An organized and well-planned team functions efficiently.

Conclusion

In any startup, a key player is a mentor. They have enough experience to share, train and give relevant advise beneficial to the business.

January 27, 2020
List of Top Co-living Startups in India

Moving away from the hometowns to settle in big cities can be difficult. On top of that finding a good place to stay can be quite a daunting task. With limited facilities in college and university hostels, there is a need for budget accommodation within the vicinity. Also, the nightmare of dealing with a landlord after shelling out a fortune for an apartment can be intimidating.

But quality accommodation and housing segment for students as well as professionals is being explored widely in the metro cities. The trend that is catching on the millennials is – Co-living spaces. It allows youngsters not only to share residences with like-minded tenants but also offers amenities like Wi-Fi, furniture, furnishings and appliances without burning a hole in the pocket.

We have also covered list of successful startups in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and other cities too.

List of Top Co-living Startups in India

NestAway

Founded in January 2015, NestAway was the first to tap in the then unstructured and fragmented space of shared housing rentals. It offers shared rooms, private rooms as well as full houses both non-furnished/furnished for affordable prices and zero brokerage. The startup has a huge team—500 members in all, catering to customers who are primarily in the 22-30 age category. NestAway received funds from total 13 investors including Ratan Tata, Flipkart, IDG Ventures.

Also Read :
NestAway: Home Rental Has Now Become Easier
List of 23 Startups Funded by Ratan Tata

Stanza Living

Stanza Living

The Delhi-based housing platform aims to provide a professionally managed accommodation and co-living residences to both boys and girls. 24/7 open kitchen to common lounges with TV to football to fun-filled weekend activities, stanza living has definitely made living away from home easier. Also, they provide discounts and offers at various restaurants through Stanza Social. Its monthly rentals range from Rs 7,000 to Rs 20,000. Stanza Living has 15,000 beds at present. The startup aims to have 100,000 beds registered under its domain by 2021. Stanza Living received funds from Sequoia Capital, Accel and Matrix Partners.

Also Read : List of Real-Estate Start-ups in India

CoHo

CoHo

CoHo is one of the country’s first co-living spaces was founded in late 2015. It offers fully furnished accommodation on a sharing and individual basis with amenities such as hot food, wifi, laundry services, 24/7 security, along with access to common spaces such as lounges, games and reading rooms and special events such as poker nights. All this without any security deposit, brokerage or furnishing costs.

CoHo raised funds from veterans like Sachin Bhatia (Co-founder, MakeMyTrip and TrulyMadly), Rajesh Sawhney (Co-Founder, GSF and InnerChef), Mahesh Parasuraman (Ex-MD, Carlyle PE), Dheeraj Jain (Partner, UK based Hedge fund), amongst others.

Also Read : CoHo: Best Co-living Space for Millenials

Your Space

Your Space

Your Space is founded in 2016 by Karan and Shubha discussed the idea with Nidhi Kumra. YourSpace offers 1,200 beds in 11 hostels across India and charges between Rs 12,000 and Rs 25,000 per bed on a monthly basis, depending on the city and location.

It currently operates in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Pune, Noida and Greater Noida. YourSpace provides safety, security, air conditioning, WiFi, furniture and bedding, medical aid, gym facilities, walk-in closets, and personal washroom. Your-Space has so far raised $1 million fund from angel investor and HNIs.

Also read: List of mutual fund startups in India

Zolo Stays

Zolo Stays

Bengaluru-based Zolo promises a hassle free co-living. Zolo is founded by Nikhil Sikri, Akhil Sikri and Sneha Choudhry. Their facilities include fully furnished rooms, hygienic and healthy food, daily housekeeping, internet facilities, security etc.

The cost of the bed comes to an average of Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 per month for twin-sharing rooms. The company has 600 employees spread across five cities and 18,000 beds.

StayAbode

StayAbode

StayAbode is founded in 2016 by Viral Chhajer, Varun Bhalla and Devashish Dalmiya. Bengaluru-based StayAdobe claims to have over 300 beds across five properties in South Bangalore with monthly rents ranging from Rs 12,500 to 35,000, depending on the type of property. A three-month deposit is payable by the tenant which is significantly lower than the usual norm in the city of 10- month deposit.

Also Read : StayAbode – Professionally Managed Co-living Spaces

SimplyGuest

SimplyGuest

SimplyGuest is founded by Subbu and Ambareesha Athikunte and Mayank Pokharna. SimplyGuest is a platform accommodation catering to working professionals which offers fully furnished 1 bhk, 2 bhk, 3 bhk flat on an individual or sharing basis, without brokerage and only two months deposit.

It has close to 120 beds in private flats and another 27 in its hostel. The facilities provided by this platform include- a rent that comprises of electricity, water, 30-100 mbps WiFi, DTH, domestic help, repairs and maintenance, and unlimited LPG.

Placio

Placio

Placio is founded by Rohit Pateria, Ankush Arora and Atul Kumar Singh in March 2016. Noida-based housing platform offers fully furnished private and shared accommodation for students with comfortable and affordable living solutions ranging from basic budget to high-end luxury accommodation with pool/table tennis, playstation, book exchange counters and other facilities. Currently present in six cities, Placio has over 3,000 beds. Placio charges tariff ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 24,000 per bed, per person, per month.

Also Read: Startup Hubs In India | Indian Cities Promoting Entrepreneurship

Oyo Life

Oyo Life

Oyo Life is launched in October 2018 offering fully managed independent residential units, inclusive of contracting, furnishing, cleaning, maintenance, and in-stay services. Oyo Life has more than 10,000 beds signed and over 6,000 live beds and is adding over 1000 new beds every month.

Oyo Life provides essential amenities such as Wi-Fi connectivity, television, regular housekeeping, power backup, CCTV surveillance, and 24/7 caretaking. It charges rents starting from Rs 5999.

Oxfordcaps

Oxfordcaps

Founded by Annu Talreja, Priyanka Gera in 2017, Oxfordcaps provides technology-driven living experience to students in India and Singapore. Oxfordcaps provides a custom designed and standardized student housing product with a full-stack model of services and amenities.

It offers room on twin and triple sharing basis ranging between Rs 12,500 and Rs 19,000 per month. Currently, around 3,500 beds are operational by Oxfordcaps. It received funds from 500 STARTUPS (SE ASIA), Ready Ventures. It has estimated annual revenue of $3M.

CoLive

CoLive

Founded by Suresh Rangarajan in 2016, CoLive is an online platform that allows users to find shared workspaces and accommodations, flats and homes for rent. CoLive offers basic facilities such as housekeeping, laundry services, security and meals, gaming consoles, libraries, gyms, pools and high-speed Wi-Fi. CoLive charges Rs 6,500-9,500 for double sharing and Rs 13,000-18,000 for single-sharing depending on the area. It has received fund from SAR Group Family Office, Salarpuria Sattva.

Also Read : Colive – Latest Startup News and Updates

RentMyStay

RentMyStay

RentMyStay is a Bangalore-based company which was started in 2015 by Kiran Nagarajappa and Rakesh Kamble. It is an online platform that makes renting as simple as checking into a hotel and provides a wide range of options from fully furnished apartments, villas, rooms to independent homes, for both short term and long term rentals.

RentMyStay follows the flexi rental model, RentMyStay allows one to rent a house for a few days to a few months. RentMyStay presently manages over 300 properties in Bangalore but planning to be starting its operations in Delhi/NCR, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Roomee

Roomee

Founded in 2017 by Ravichandran Annadurai, Roomee is a curated Marketplace for PGs ,Longstays & Co-living spaces. As a technology platform, Roomee is fully App enabled and it makes it easy to find and book Co-living spaces. Properties are thoroughly reviewed and curated and hence dependable. With the Roomee mobile app, you can virtually explore your future home from our wide assortment of thoroughly reviewed and handpicked PGs, longstays & co-living spaces.

Also Read : Best Coworking Spaces in India

Renaissance Living Spaces

Renaissance Living Spaces

Founded in 2014 by Dalmia Abhishek, Deepali Dalmia and Neeraj Mittal, Renaissance Living Spaces (RLS) which is a part of Renaissance Group has been in the student, executive and care giver housing (Hostel) business. Each accommodation has an experienced manager supported by full time wardens. This team is responsible to make sure that guests’ needs are addressed promptly, to their satisfaction.

Hello World

Hello World

Home rental network Nestaway is diversifying its offerings. The Hello World is independent subsidiary of NestAway. The Hello World co-living product is aimed at building communities for students and urban migrants.

A Hello World membership will also allow them access to engaging community activities, weekly gatherings, and an online community to exchange conversations, common interests and meet like-minded people. Hello World is currently present in 15 cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune.

Grexter Living

Grexter Living

Grexter Living is co-living space founded by Pratul Gupta, Nikhil Dosi. Grexter Living offers functional and built-to-suit urban studio rooms that provide all the necessary amenities and, at the same time, are aesthetically appealing. Catering primarily to salaried employees, fresh graduates, and techies in the age group of 18-30 years, the spaces they provide consist of a large common kitchen with another huge designated area that has lounges, gaming consoles, and home theaters.

Also Read : Grexter Living – Changing the way Youngsters Live

A peaceful and friendly living space is what we all want and look for. This was our list of co-living spcaes startups. Hope this list is useful to find a perfect place for you to live. If you know more co-living startups, write in comment box below.

January 19, 2020