The intrinsic need of every human is to live a comfortable life. Leading a comfortable life is not easy if you don’t have some resources. It is important to note here that peace and comfort are not googleable. You need to do something to make your life a smooth sail. So that you have enough resources.
Speaking of resources, one of the most important resources is money. It is a battery for storing value. The more you have it, the more free you will(feel) be. And mark my words, “freedom” is the ultimate flex.
So to amass more of it, we people do many sorts of things. Some do business and others work for other businesses. If you look into the recent past you will notice how ‘investing’ as a domain has risen many folds. How people all over the internet are making portfolios. How stock market participants are rising. How everyone is hoping to get that IPO allotment. All these are examples of people trying to create some more income. Income leads to freedom. Not to mention how the “financial freedom” phrase gained momentum recently.
Getting into stock markets has been a fad for more than a year now. Chasing IPOs is another fad for some young investors. There is an intrinsic trait of IPOs that interests everyone. The hype of listing gains. Quick profits and the first come badge. A recent hot chase was the huge Paytm IPO. Which didn’t go well. This is the article about that failure and the behemoth PayTM. Read on to see through.
Have you heard this term before? Fin-tech is a word derived from amalgamation of finance and technology. This could be named as the word of the decade. You won’t ask the reason for this, because you probably know it already.
As the technology sector is rising, lines between companies are blurring. So much so that I would say that every company is a technological company now. With gaps blurring between sectors, the financial sector is the next most diffusing sector. It is hugely automated and also supported by countries’ governments. For example, in India the government is promoting digital payments after the demonetisation. This is a good boost for online digital payments companies, UPI (unified payments methods) and the like.
A Brief about Paytm
Paytm is a name that needs no introduction. The name is just enough. It is a leading digital payments company that is digitalizing India. Not to mention the immense support that the company is being provided by the government. Not only this, Paytm started the digital revolution in India.
From that, they became the leading payments app in the second most populous country in the world. Today, to the north of the 20 Million mark, merchants & businesses are powered by Paytm to Accept Payments digitally. This is because more than 300 million Indians use Paytm to pay at daily stores. That’s not all, the Paytm app is used to pay bills, Send money, do Recharges to friends & family, Travel tickets & Book movies.
The goal as the company mentions is to get unregulated businesses in the economy to the mainstream economy. Taking most of all the transactions happening in the country and enabling them digitally is an almost impossible thought. This is such a behemoth task but the digital payments provider is not looking backwards.
It recently was listed in the stock market. It was a huge IPO. Investors all around the world were excited. It is now the biggest IPO ever in the history of the stock market in India. Previously it was Coal India which raised about 15,000 crores. Paytm is now listing to raise 18,000 crores rupees.
Paytm has been a loss making startup for a long time now. It is not earning at all. The startup has losses of about 4000 crore in FY 2019. That went to 3000 in FY 2020 and then to 7000 crore.
Even though the losses are declining, this doesn’t hide the fact that the company is not earning at all. So why is that? Why a loss making company is valued so much. It is valued at over 16 billion dollars. Moreover it is able to raise money from big VCs. Asset management companies are pumping money into this loss making startup.
The reason why the company is left with such abundance of money is that it is a startup. An immensely successful startup. Which tries to get customers first, that is to capture a large market share.
After getting a good chunk of the market, they will monetise themselves and earn ridiculous amounts of real cash. This is how most startups model work. They hack growth and become big organisations. They try to establish a strong company and reduce the time that is required to build a strong company.
The startup has also already raised 8000 crores in its anchor round. Its initial public offering of Rs 18,300 crore. Top sovereign wealth funds around the world, financial investors such as Canada’s CPPIB, Singapore’s GIC, Alkeon Capital, BlackRock, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are among those to have picked up stakes in this fintech.
The parent organisation of Paytm is One97 communications. Other than recent fundraising rounds, One97 communications has shareholdings by top capitalists and Asset management companies. It has a 2.8 percent stake by Berkshire Hathaway, the company of world’s best known investor Warren Buffet. It has Ant group as a shareholder, that is as a subsidiary of Alibaba, founded by China’s richest man, Jack Ma.
The promoter or the Chief executive officer of the company Vijay Shekhar Sharma has a stake of around 14 percent of the whole mammoth organisation. Other notable shareholders include Alibaba itself, Softbank, Elevation Capital. With all these big supporters this company recently filed for an IPO.
The IPO was huge and reportedly the biggest that Indian markets have ever seen. Unfortunately, The public offering of Paytm fell down immediately after the listing. In fact today is the second day of the shares trading in the market. They went as low as 37% since the IPO.
Let us discuss the whole public offering scenario in minute detail.
Paytm Initial Public Offering (IPO)
Initial public offering is the offering of shares to the general public. General public here means retail investors and big investors as well. When it happens for the first time, we call it the initial public offering. Accordingly it can happen second or third time also, in that case we will call it FPO or further public offering.
IPO or any public offering happens when a company decides to take money from general people and not raise more rounds of funding. The money is needed to fuel growth. It is needed to scale the enterprise and thus the money becomes the new capital.
In Paytm’s case, the company wanted to raise a little over 18,000 crores. This is the biggest amount ever raised in India. So the Paytm IPO is expected to be the biggest offering in Indian markets yet. The breakdown of the total money is that, 8000 something crores were new offering of shares. So, they were a fresh issue. And the remaining 10,000 crores were offered for sale, that is existing shareholders selling their share of stake. The price band of the shares ranged from 2080 to 2150 rupees per share. The valuation of the company at the time was about 1.5 lakh crores.
The RHP is a legal prospectus for every new listing company. The red herring prospectus (RHP) of this company said that it expects to incur losses for more years before it starts making profits. The opening IPO date was 8th of November and the last date to apply was 10th of November. Face value of the share was One rupee. So it was going to be listed at a premium.
Paytm Share Price
Paytm Listing Losses
The Paytm IPO was subscribed only 1.89 times on Nov 10, 2021 17:00. The public issue subscribed 1.66 in the retail category, 2.79 in the QIB category, and 0.24 in the NII category. It shows that investors weren’t much interested in it or the IPO was so big that it just covers up all the demand.
Paytm shares fell down by about 10.35% to Rs 1,402 against previous close of Rs 1,564.15 on BSE. Market cap of the company, which remained above the Rs 1 lakh crore mark on the listing day, faced down to about Rs 93,490 crore on the first listed day. This loss making startup is acting like a money guzzler.
Paytm IPO Reviews
Here are some reviews of the IPO from major and big fund coordinators and Asset management companies.
International Brokerage firm Macquarie published a report on Monday. A second report on Paytm, maintaining its earlier target price of Rs 1,200 and an ‘underperform’ rating after its first one on listing day, ruffled the feathers of investors. This means that they concluded that the price of the share should be Rs1200 and the listed price is well overvalued.
On the second day it went down to 40 percent. Exactly to the price what Macquarie anticipated but they released it after Paytm was listed on the stock market.
After the first day listing loss, investors panicked and tried selling this. This is a huge reminder that if you pick up a stock or an IPO to invest, do your own research. After an honest report only should you consider investing.
Mobikwik whose IPO was in the turn later in time also postponed their listing. Witnessing huge losses that investors incurred in Paytm’s IPO. Let us see some of the anticipated reasons that we all can see which led to the downfall of Paytm on the very first day of being listed.
Anticipated Reasons for the Downfall of Paytm IPO
Some of the most common seen and anticipated reasons for Paytm losing value are listed here. Let us figure out why this mega IPO is seen as a loser in the race for listing gains.
Overall Market Conditions
The current market conditions are also somewhat affecting the IPO listing. The current market trends show a downward trend. Today, you can see news of the market falling down 1170 marks. The day’s loss was the biggest for the index in over six months.
This downward trend of Sensex is mainly due to Reliance sliding down 4.4% after it announced reviewing of a recent deal. Outside India and around the globe, inflation tension is rising and so are the Covid cases in Europe. All these activities have also in some sense affected Paytm’s downward trend. It is at about 37% down now from the listing day.
Paytm’s Financial Situation
If you have invested in Paytm looking at the fundamentals then you know for a fact that Paytm is not going to make profit anytime soon the profitability game is slightly a long way ahead. We still don’t know when Paytm will become profitable.
Another fact is that the newly listed companies right now are also trying to be very smart because they know that there’s heavy retail participation in the market. A lot of people like me and you will go for listing gains so Paytm came out and did a mega IPO which was 18,000 crores.
Size of the IPO
Listing gains comes when supply is short and the demand is quite big. In layman language, when the offering is small, listing gains are expected. In Paytm’s case, the IPO is so big that it covers the overall demand and it leaves no space left for a force to push the price up.
The Paytm IPO was subscribed 1.89 times on Nov 10, 2021, 17:00. The public issue subscribed 1.66 in the retail category, 2.79 in the QIB category, and 0.24 in the NII category. So you see all the demand was covered with the hugeness of the IPO and less space was left to pump the price up.
What should you do if you have bought Paytm’s Share?
If you are someone or you know someone who is stuck with this stock. I would suggest two options. First is to just get rid of this stock as quickly as possible. Second, if you are an investor with a long term horizon then you can consider holding this stock. But keep this in mind that this stock will take a good amount of time to go profitable.
The reason is as we discussed earlier is that the company is making consistent losses for now. It also is forecasted that the company will only scale for now and it has no immediate plans to bring the profit perspective to the table.
As of now, the company is down to 30-40% and it is going to take time to take back these percentages of losses, only then one can expect some profits. Again if you are looking for quick listing gains, then maybe this might not be the probable right stock and time to stay invested in this stock.
For all the inventors who didn’t apply for this IPO this is the right moment to be aware of such scary situations. It is always best to research before you invest your money. It is really a scary situation when you invest in a big loss making startup, and you are stuck in it. Startups can be a blackhole for money for a very long time.
Conclusion
The reason for such a hype of this fintech company being listed is that, India is the second most populous country in the world. China, the top populous has already had their share of the fintech revolution. They are also harsh on regulations. Now it is India’s turn. India is the next hub for investors that may be domestic or foreign.
Digital payments are expected to grow up to 5% in the next five years. Digital commerce will likely move up to 3.3%. With these things in store, India becomes the next hot spot for investments.
Jio and digital revolution boosted the Paytm business. Demonetisation skyrocketed it. Their tagline “Paytm karo” became a household thing during these times. With the government promoting digital economy and cashless transactions, hope is high for fintech revolutionaries like Paytm.
The listing losses taught many people to do their own research before investing anywhere. The company is expected to take a long time to jump to profits.
Whether Paytm will change Indian payments face or it will dissolve, this is to be seen and only time will tell. One thing is for sure, it has massively added to the cashless economy that the world is striving towards.
FAQ
What is Paytm IPO?
Paytm is a digital payment system, the company lunched its IPO in Bombay Stock Exchange with largest initial public offering (IPO) with the value of Rs 18,300 crores.
Why did Paytm IPO flopped?
Some of the common reasons why Paytm IPO flopped was Overall Market Conditions, Size of the IPO, and Paytm’s Financial Situation.
Bharatpe was launched back in March 2018 and since then it has created a buzz all over the country. The company caters to small store owners like the Kirana store owners and other small merchants. Its primary products and services are all finance-related because it offers QR codes for making UPI payments, Bharat Swipe for card acceptance, and other small business finances.
Bharatpe came out when there was tight competition among those who were already doing well in the market like Paytm, Phonepe, and other such companies. It was quite surprising that within two years, Bharatpe grew so much and is now looking forward to getting its banking license in India.
This is quite unusual because it is not something that happens with every business which has just started in the financial market. For a company like Bharatpe, this is a great achievement.
Founder of BhataPe-Ashneer Grover on license for India’s 1st digital small finance bank
About Bharatpe
Bharatpe Logo
Bharatpe is not a government-owned company but is a private one. The owner of Bharatpe is Ashneer Grover and has its head office based in Delhi. This free application can be used by anyone to make payments by scanning QR codes or people can even make card payments through ‘Swipe’.
Merchants can sign up for the application free of cost and can start accepting payments from their customers instantly. The transactions that are made between the merchants/shop owners/ Kirana store owners/ shopkeepers are done directly through the bank accounts of both parties.
Bharatpe application can be used to scan all types of QR codes whether it is a Paytm code, Phonepe or Gpay, or any other UPI app. Additionally, for every transaction you make using Bharatpe, there will be no amount deducted as ‘transaction charges’ which is so much of a standout feature of the app.
Bhavik Koladia (Group Head – Product & Technology)
Suhail Sameer (Group President)
Bharatpe’s Bold Move for getting Banking License
Bharatpe will be joining the $1 billion unicorn club valuation within the next few months or a year and along with it, they are going to be the half-owner of a bank in India. Jaspal Bindra, who was a former Standard Chartered Bank Asia Pacific CEO will be the owner of the other half of the bank.
Now, coming to the bold move that Bharatpe has made is that they will be setting up a small finance bank in approval with the Reserve Bank of India. However, Bharatpe will not be the only one to do so because Centrum Financial Services will also be a part of the new ‘small finance bank’.
Bharatpe is about to take over the crisis-ridden banks Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank and soon after that, they will be setting up its small finance bank. Also, thanks to RBI for granting a license to Bharatpe for taking such an initiative to keep the services of these banks running.
RBI has granted the banking license to Bharatpe for the first time after six years. Bharatpe had announced that a former head of SBI, Rajnish Kumar will be joining as a chairman of the board and will be acting as a mentor as well for setting up SFB.
Bharatpe is now India’s leading fintech company which is dealing with UPI payments primarily. But, that is now how the company generates its income. In an interview with India TV, the CEO and the co-founder of the company, Ashneer Grover said that the company is into lending businesses as well.
The company offers a payment system to the merchants for free so that they can become an integral part of their business. But, the company earns its revenues by conducting lending business. Bharatpe also offers loans to the merchants within 5 minutes as said by the CEO & Co-founder, Ashneer Grover.
Bharatpe offering loans is also one of the features that are new to the market along with merchant-to-merchant lending. Ashneer Grover, in an interview with India TV, said that all documentation of taking a loan can be done in the smartphone itself and within five minutes the money would be transferred to the merchant’s bank account.
Conclusion
Bharatpe’s business has been expanding over the last 3-4 months growing from 65 cities to 100 cities during the time. Suhail Sameer, Group President of Bharatpe said in an interaction with the Economic Times said that the company grew significantly within two years.
With the growing usage of digital payments, Bharatpe might become the leader of e-payment in India. The company is planning to expand its business further to 300 more cities by March 2023.
FAQs
Is Bharatpe approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)?
Yes, Bharatpe has been approved by the RBI and has been granted a license to set up a small finance bank in India.
Is Bharatpe free?
Bharatpe is completely free of cost. The company does not charge any transaction fee.
Who is the founder of Bharatpe?
Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani has founded Bharatpe on March 20, 2018.
Indians are fixated on the startup culture. People are choosing entrepreneurship over mundane, 9-to-5 jobs. However, not everyone succeeds as an entrepreneur. A survey revealed that approximately 11% of the Indians are engaged in ‘early-stage entrepreneurial activities’. And only 5% of these early-stage entrepreneurs actually went on to establish their startup.
But keeping these statistics aside, some Indian startups have gone on to dominate their target segments. This post is dedicated to some of the most successful entrepreneurs from India whose ventures have revolutionized the daily life of millions, if not billions, across the globe. The path to name and fame wasn’t easy for them; it involved several trials and tribulations.
Ritesh Agarwal founded OYO rooms in 2015. He was the recipient of the TiE – Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award (2014), became the first Asian to win ’20 under 20’ Thiel Fellowship (2013), was named one of the top 50 entrepreneurs by TATA First Dot Awards (2013) and became the world’s youngest CEO at the age of 17. Ritesh Agarwal, an Orissa boy coming from a business-oriented family, went to Kota to become an engineer.
But unlike other JEE aspirants, his passion caught hold of him and he did not take JEE preparation seriously. Instead, he wrote a book called ‘Indian Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopedia of Top 100 Colleges’; the book became immensely popular on Flipkart.
He was just 16 when he was selected for the Asian Science Camp held at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). With a penchant for traveling and having lived in tons of hotels, Ritesh observed a common problem at the places he stayed – the exorbitant price of the hotel room was not proportional to the facilities provided. He felt that majority of the hotels in India couldn’t satisfy the basic needs of a traveler on a budget.
Thus, he started Oravel Stays,his first venture in 2012. He improvised his business model and re-launched Oravel as ‘OYO’ which is short for ‘ON YOUR OWN’. Ritesh Agarwal became one of the most revered Indian entrepreneurs through OYO. At the age of 26 he became a billionaire.
Net worth of Ritesh Agarwal as of now is $2 billion. He became the second youngest billionaire after Kylie Jenner in the world.
An epitome of courage and wisdom, Shradha Sharma was at the top of her career while working with famous news media houses such as Times of India and CNBC (Mumbai). During her stint with these organizations, she noticed that no one was willing to promote and air the stories of entrepreneurs—both successful and not-so-successful. She figured out that there are millions of stories storming around but no medium to share them with the masses. Shradha decided to create YourStory, an online portal that hosts entrepreneurial stories and other share-worthy content.
YourStory was started in 2008 and has allowed over 70,000 stories to come to the fore. Shradha Sharma leads a team of 100+ people who work together to offer content in 11 Indian languages. YourStory’s aim is to provide a voice to the roller coaster of emotions that an entrepreneur goes through. Shradha Sharma is the recipient of the L’Oreal Paris Femina Award and has been included in the list of Worlds’ Top 500 LinkedIn Influencers. She is one of the most followed female entrepreneurs in India. Her channel has earned more than 26 million individual views.She is one of the most followed female entrepreneurs in India.Her net worth is of $1.3 billion.
Bhavish Aggarwal, an IIT Bombay alumnus, co-founded the most popular cab aggregator in India – Ola Cabs – with Ankit Bhati. He is the recipient of the Billionth award in 2013, Best startup of the year by IAMAL, and was listed in Forbes30 under 30 list. Bhavish revolutionized the idea of cab-hailing in India by making use of smartphones. Ola Cabs was different from the other cab services at that time in the sense that it leveraged smartphones and GPS technology; thus, it became easy for people to book cabs from anywhere, at any time. Bhavish Aggarwal left a well-paying job at Microsoft to work on Ola Cabs. No one supported his idea but it was his strong will, determination, and eagerness to take risks in life that led him to the pinnacle of success. Bhavish Aggarwal is counted amongst the most successful Indian entrepreneurs. According to Time magazine Bhavish Aggarwal is one of the 100 Most Influential People this year. His Net worth is $ 500 million.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder of Paytm, the cornerstone of digitized payments in India. Vijay is from Aligarh, India. A graduate of the Delhi College of Engineering, Vijay worked on several projects and at a small startup before taking the entrepreneurial plunge. He put in USD 2 million to get One97 up and running. One97 is the parent company of Paytm. The payments platform gave Indians access to a mobile wallet, the facility of making payments using QR codes, simplified bill payments, and a lot more. These features made Paytm wildly popular. In this manner, Vijay Shekhar Sharma became an inspiration to budding entrepreneurs all over the globe. He Won the Best Serial Entrepreneur Award at the Rural and Urban Development Summit and Awards 2022 presented by the Minister of State for Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India.
Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, founders of Zomato
Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah revolutionized the food delivery segment in India through its first foodtech unicorn Zomato. The duo are IIT Delhi graduates. Zomato started out as ‘Foodiebay’ and was first launched in Delhi. It was later extended to Mumbai and Kolkata. Now, there is not a single place in India where Zomato doesn’t render its services. Zomato’s mobile app is its USP; the app has an excellent user interface that lets you order food from the restaurant/eatery of your choice and make hassle-free payments. In Jan 2020, Zomato acquired one of its competitors- Uber Eats in India for a valuation of $300 million. In July 2022, Zomato went public with its stock listing at a premium of 53% over its issue price and it commanded a market cap of Rs 43,000 cr as of Mar 2023. In 2018, Prakash Chaddah left Zomato to venture into different fields. Net worth of Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal is estimated to be Rs 2,000 cr as of Mar 2023.
Kunal Shah graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Wilson College, Mumbai, and briefly pursued an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies before dropping out. Shah’s first startup was a company named Paisaback, which provided cash-back promotions for organized retailers. Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon are the founders of one of India’s most innovative business models – Freecharge. CRED is Shah’s second venture after he sold Freecharge to Snapdeal in 2015 for $400 million. He is definitely one of the most famous entrepreneurs in India.
Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal, founders of Flipkart
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are the founders of Flipkart. The e-commerce segment in India underwent a drastic change courtesy of Flipkart. Sachin and Binny found discrepancies while searching for products on Amazon’s online store. The duo realized that the USP of their e-commerce initiative would be the timely delivery of products complemented by a simplistic user interface that leveraged the latest technology. Both the founders have now stepped down from their positions in Flipkart after it was acquired by Walmart in 2018. Flipkart is still giving a tough fight to all the e-commerce platforms out there and continues to win the hearts of Indians. India Today ranked them 50 Most powerful people of 2017 list.
Deep Kalra is the founder of MakeMyTrip. The credit for the introduction of online train bookings in India goes to Deep Kalra. A graduate of St. Stephen’s College with an MBA degree from IIM Ahmedabad, Deep worked for GE Capital and ABN AMRO bank. But the office culture and 9-5 job couldn’t captivate him enough. With a $2 million investment from eVentures and his co-founders, Deep Kalra founded MakeMyTrip, (earlier known as ‘India Ahoy’) in the year 2000. The company was listed on NASDAQ in August 2010. After IRCTC joined the race, Deep diversified MakeMyTrip by introducing hotel bookings. MakeMyTrip has mergers with MyGola, TrulyMadly, and the ITC group, to name a few. Deep Kalra is the chairperson of the NASSCOM Internet Working Group, a member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM, and is part of CII’s tourism sub-committee. He was ranked no 1 in a list of most powerful digital influencers in India by KPMG in 2011. His net worth is $ 136 million.
BYJU’S has helped thousands of students who struggle with subjects such as mathematics and science crack some of the hardest entrance exams like the JEE, NEET, and UPSC, CAT, IAS, and international examinations such as GRE and GMAT. BYJU’S has dominated the online education vertical for quite some time now. Byju Raveendran is the founder of BYJU’S. He is an engineer who worked in a shipping firm and accidentally stepped into the field of teaching when he assisted his friends with their CAT exam. Raveendran’s friends cleared the exam with flying colors and this motivated him to take up teaching on a full-time basis. Byju Raveendran started BYJU’s with an initial investment of just INR 2 lakhs. The startup’s valuation has recently crossed $22 billion as of March 2022, and the company have over 115 million registered students.In January 2022, the company joined Simplilearn, Unacademy, upGrad, PrepInsta Prime and Vedantu to become one of the founding members of IAMAI’s India EdTech Consortium.
In March 2022, the company signed a contract with Qatar Investment Authority to establish a new edtech company and a R&D center in Doha.
The concept of bringing the grocery store to one’s doorstep has done wonders across the globe. With it, the problem of waiting in long queues at groceries has now gone for a toss. Indians too now prefer the online route for grocery shopping. And who has dominated this segment? BigBasket. Hari Menon is the founder of BigBasket. With sales of over INR 150 crores per month, BigBasket has cemented its place as one of the big shots in the Indian e-commerce domain. It is operational in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata at present. In 2021 Tata Digital buys 64% stake in BigBasket His company received a lot of awards such as Consumer Internet Company of the Year by VC Circle Awards 2016, Best Online Grocer at Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2016, Best retail and e-commerce app of the year at AWS Mobility Awards 2017, etc.
Albinder Dhindsa wanted to provide the services of a grocery, bakery, and general store through a consolidated platform. His dream took the form of Grofers, an Indian online grocery service. Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar founded Grofers. The duo worked hard to infuse new ideas into the online delivery system in India. Grofers is worth around $650 million today. The company has shifted from a B2B to a B2C business model. Grofers was named one of the Top 10 startups in Delhi and Gurgaon in 2014. Grofers had attained unicorn status or $1 billion in valuation, after raising over $120 million from food aggregator Zomato Ltd. On December 13, 2021, Grofers changed its brand name to Blinkit. As of 2021 Albinder holds 5-10% stake in the company.
Sanjiv Bajaj is known as the Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv. Born into a family of the Bajajs, a business house started by Jamnalal Bajaj, who led the Bajaj Group to glory, Sanjiv had the zeal to raise their family business to amazing highs. Sanjiv is the son of Rahul Bajaj and great-grandson of Jamnalal Bajaj. After completing his Btech. in Mechanical engineering, followed by a Masters in manufacturing systems from the University of Warwick and an MBA from Harvard Business school, Sanjiv started his career with Bajaj Auto in 1994.
He had been a promising businessman from the very first, which helped him scale numerous prestigious designations within the organization. He had brought the American-style supply chain management to Bajaj Auto. Bajaj is currently serving as a non-executive director of Bajaj Auto.
Along with Bajaj Auto, Sanjiv also contributed to Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Bajaj Finance for which he was appointed as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman. Sanjiv even led Bajaj Allianz General Insurance to emerge as the 2nd most profitable insurance company in India. Being an accomplished entrepreneur, Bajaj won a range of awards for the same, like the Entrepreneur of the Year” Award 2015-16 from Bombay Management Association, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2017, Economic Times Awards for Business Leader of the Year 2018. Therefore, Sanjiv Bajaj can be regarded as one of the greatest entrepreneurs and business leaders that India has seen to date. Sanjiv Bajaj has a revenue of over ₹ 36,692 crore ($ 4.4 billion) and profit of over ₹ 2,866 crore ($ 348 million) for H1 FY2022-23.
PolicyBazaar has certainly grown to become one of the best insurance aggregators and a global technology company but it might not have secured the illustrious position that it now stands on if it was not for the Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder of the company, Yashish Dahiya. Dahiya was a student of IIT Delhi, from where he did his Bachelors in Engineering. He then went on to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad, which was followed by an MBA from INSEAD in 2001.
Yashish was the MD of the pan-European travel distributor, ebookers.com, and had previous experience of working as a strategy consultant of Bain & Co. in their London office before he founded PolicyBazaar in 2008. Yashish Dahiya had a major contribution to PolicyBazaar since he founded the company along with Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar in 2008, which has successfully become a key influencer in consumer decisions around insurance now. Furthermore, the platform hosts over 100 million visitors a year on average on its platform.
Dahiya was honored with the EY Entrepreneur of The Year (EOY) 2019 award in the Financial Services category and more for all that he had done for PolicyBazaar. Yashish Dahiya is also an extraordinary sportsperson along with a celebrated entrepreneur. He is the Indian masters swimming champion and has taken part in several world masters swimming championships representing India. Furthermore, Dahiya also boasts of having the 3rd fastest half ironman timing and the 5th fastest Ironman timings amongst Indians across all age groups along with having the fastest timings in his age group. In June 2021, Policybazaar obtained the insurance broking license from IRADA and announced that it would set up 100 offline outlets across India. The company also surrendered its web aggregator license. PB Fintech Ltd, the parent company of Policybazaar, opened its initial public offering (IPO) and raised ₹5,625 crore(US$700 million).Shares of PB Fintech Ltd began trading on National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in November 2021.
It seems nothing less than a dream when we talk about a fan of Manchester United, Mumbai Indians, and the Indian cricket team, who founded a company named Dream11 for the love of sports that he nurtures. Yes, it happened with Harsh Jain, who with his founding partner, Bhavit Sheth, founded Dream11 and Dream Sports, India’s no. 1 sports fantasy platform for sporting enthusiasts. That allows users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, handball, basketball, volleyball, rugby,futsal, American football,and baseball.
Harsh was the son of Anand Jain, an Indian business magnate previously associated with Mukesh Ambani. He was born in Mumbai, India, and was an engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania, after which he went for an MBA from Columbia Business School. Harsh began his career with Microsoft from where he completed a 2 months Summer Internship from June 2006 to August of the same year after which he went to work in Jai Corp Limited as a Marketing Manager. His father, Anand Jain was then the Chairman of the company. Jain worked at Jai for 13 months, when in 2008 he decided to establish Dream11.
Harsh is currently serving as a Culture Enforcement Officer (CEO) & Co-Founder of Dream Sports (Dream11, FanCode, DreamX, and more) and one of the leading entrepreneurs of India. Harsh is a major inspiration for the budding entrepreneurs of the country for sure. In April 2019, Dream11 became the first Indian Fantasy sportcompany to become a unicorn.In November 2021 Dream11 was valued at $8 billion.In December 2022, Dream11 had 160 million active users in India.
Supam Maheshwari is better known as the CEO and Co-Founder of Firstcry, India’s online marketplace for baby products. Supam was a postgraduate student from IIM Ahmedabad and started Brainvisa, as his first company with Amitava Saha, back in March 2000. The Pune-based company witnessed a steady growth before it was acquired by the US-based group, Indecomm Global in 2007.
Supam served as the Co-founder and the CEO of Brainvisa till December 2009 in order to found another company. He founded FirstCry.com in August 2010 along with Amitava Saha, Prashant Jadhav, and Sanket Hattimattur.
The idea of establishing an eCommerce company focused on baby care products was rooted deep in his personal experience as a first-time parent, who faced numerous challenges in sourcing the best product for his baby. Firstcry has grown to be a market leader when it comes to baby products online. The company currently boasts of over 380 stores across India.
His net worth could be estimated at 190 million USD.The baby products marketplace’s valuation stands at 1.9 billion USD after an equity funding round of 13 million USD with pi Ventures As of 2021.
FirstCry had increased its IPO size from around $700 Mn to $1 Bn, aiming at a valuation of around $6-7 BnIN Aug 2022
Richa Kar is the face of one of India’s largest online lingerie stores, Zivame. Richa was born in a conventional family in Jamshedpur. Kar was an engineering student, who completed her graduation from BITS Pilani and eventually went for a corporate job in Bangalore. Richa eventually left her job in order to pursue an MBA, after which she joined Spencers Retail and then SAP Retail.
Her exposure in the retail industry helped her develop knowledge and practical skills beneficial for the retail industry. While working with SAP, Richa was intrigued about Victoria’s Secret, America’s largest retail company for women’s lingerie, and the success it enjoys. Soon after, she realized that India hasn’t got any such websites empowering women to shop for their own lingerie online smoothly and fearlessly.
Though Richa had a considerable experience of around 8 years by then in the retail industry, her parents didn’t get the concept of selling lingerie and weren’t sure how they would speak of her daughter, who is involved in such a profession to others. Therefore, she gravely lacked any support from her family but with her strong will and zeal to found a startup, she ultimately managed to establish Zivame with Kapil Karekar in 2011. Zivame has now become an online leader in its segment, offering more than 5,000 styles, 50 brands, and 100 sizes. Zivame products come at affordable prices with high quality.
The company that initially started with Rs 35 lakhs, which Richa borrowed from her friends, is currently one of the best women’s lingerie marketplace in India. Zivame has received $69 million in funding at a valuation of $98.6M and her net worth is Rs 749 crores, according to reports. The company currently holds about 26% of the market share of the women’s online lingerie market in India, which stood at Rs 430 crore in FY19.
Ashish Hemrajani is an Indian entrepreneur, popularly identified as the Co-founder and CEO of Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of India’s biggest online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow. Ashish Hemrajani completed his MBA with Marketing as his specialization from Sydenham University in 1997.
As soon as he completed his MBA, he went to work with J. Water Thompson. However, after working in the client management segment of the firm for 2 years, Ashish left the company in order to start his new venture with Bigtree Entertainment and BookMyShow in 1999.
BookMyShow still stands as a leading online ticketing solution for Indians. Under the leadership of Ashish, the company further expanded to New Zealand, UAE, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. BookMyShow also had a feature to buy tickets of sports matches like IPL, ISL, etc. They now have employ over 400 people across offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore. Ashish Hemrajani Net worth is estimated at Rs.3000 Crore as of 2021.
Shiv Nadar is a founding member of HCL Technologies and a prominent Indian entrepreneur, billionaire industrialist, and the recipient of India’s 3rd highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan. Shiv Nadar is the 3rd richest person of India, as of September 2021 with a net worth of around US$29.3 billion. Nadar goes by the nickname “Magus” (meaning: wizard in Old Persian), which he received from his friends.
Nadar was educated in the St. Joseph Boys Higher Secondary School, Trichy, and received his pre-university degree from the American College, Madurai. He again pursued Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, and received his Bachelor’s in engineering.
Walchand Group’s Cooper Engineering Ltd., Pune, which he joined in 1967, marked the start of Nadar’s career. However, he soon left his job role and founded Microcomp, a company that focused on selling teledigital calculators in the Indian market. Soon after that, he founded HCL in 1976 in collaboration with several friends and colleagues and with an investment of Rs 187,000.
The company made revolutionary advancements in the Indian IT landscape and is still regarded as one of the best among the homegrown IT companies whereas Shiv Nadar stands tall and towering as one of the top entrepreneurs of India.
The founder and CEO of the cyber security company, TAC Security, Trishneet Arora, was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 2018 Asia list and also in Under 40 List of India’s Brightest Business Minds 2019 by Fortune magazine, in 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year in Service Business-Security, 2021 Fortune India 40 Under 40 and 2022 he was Awarded as global leader of tomorrow.
Arora failed in the 8th standard but his relentless love for computers and coding drove him through the path of glory to become a professional ethical hacker and a renowned cybersecurity expert. Arora dropped out of school but continued with his studies along with fixing computers and cleaning up software.
Trishneet was only 19 when he founded his own company, TAC Security Solutions in 2013 and he has never looked back since then. The cybersecurity company, TAC Security offers protection to numerous corporations like Reliance Industries, CBI, Gujarat Police, and Punjab Police and others, against network vulnerabilities and data theft. Trishneet Arora’s net worth is $5 million as of now.
The founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, or Dhirubhai Ambani, as he is popularly known, was a successful entrepreneur and business tycoon, who took Reliance public in 1977. Dhirubhai has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades heaped on during his lifetime and was also awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor after he died in the year 2002.
Dhirubhai was a student of the Bahadur Khanji school. After the completion of his studies, he left for the Port of Aden, Yemen, to work for A. Besse and Co., for which he was later involved in selling shell and Burmah oil products. However, he left Aden and came back to his motherland to start his own company. Initially starting with “Majin” in partnership with Champaklal Damani, Dhirubhai eventually set up Reliance Commercial Corporation in 1966, which was later rechristened as Reliance Industries in May 1973.
Also, it was Dhirubhai who launched the popular textile brand ‘Vimal’. Dhirubhai died when he was 69 and was worth around $2.9 bn upon his death.
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is the Executive Chairman and CEO of the largest steel-making company in the world, ArcelorMittal, and an Indian steel magnate based in the United Kingdom. Besides, Mittal also serves as the Chairman of Aperam, a stainless steel manufacturer, which spun out of ArcelorMittal. Mittal owns around 38% stakes in his company along with another 20% stakes in the EFL Championship football club, Queens Park Rangers.
Lakshmi Mittal has also been appointed as a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since 2008. Mittal was recognized with titles, honors, and awards of various kinds from time to time including “the third-richest person in the world” as announced by Forbes in 2005. He was also announced as the “Business Person of 2006” by Sunday Times, “Person of the Year” by Financial Times, In 2008 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, and more.
Born in a Marwadi family, Lakshmi studied at Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya in Calcutta and graduated from the University of Calcutta affiliated St Xavier’s College with a B.Com degree in the first class. Mittal first chose the business way by founding the steel factory PT Ispat Indo. He went to purchase numerous companies from abroad, like the Irish Steel plant, starting from the state-owned steelworks in Trinidad and Tobago, all of which were successful initiatives.
Mittal ultimately succeeded to come out triumphant in a hostile takeover bid of Arcelor and later renamed it to ArcelorMittal, which is currently responsible for bringing a lion’s share of revenues for Mittal. As of 2022, he was ranked as the 15th richest man in India by Forbes with a net-worth of US$17.8 billion.
Informally known as the Czar of the IT industry of India, Azim Premji is the face of Wipro. Premji is known as an entrepreneur, investor, engineer, business tycoon, and philanthropist who was responsible for cementing the position of Wipro as one of the most prestigious of the Indian multinational corporations through more than four decades of growth and diversification.
Azim Premji is the founding Chairman and a non-executive member of the board of the company and has been twice listed by Time Magazine among the 100 Most Influential people.
Premji went for a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University but he had to come back to take charge of Wipro, which was then termed as Western Indian Vegetable Products. He expanded the business to a large scale and later on discovered the vacuum that IBM left on its expulsion from India. He filled the gap by developing the IT wing of Wipro.
Premji is one of the most successful Indian entrepreneurs whose total wealth was estimated $9.3billion and $25 billion respectively as of feb 2023. Moreover, he is also recognized for his philanthropic nature. He makes most of his donations to the Azim Premji Foundation and had agreed to give away half his wealth by signing the Giving Pledge in 2013. In 2019, he dropped from the 2nd position in the Forbes India Rich list to 17th position after giving away a huge amount to charity.
He topped the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List for 2020
We all have heard about Dunzo but do you know who founded it? The 24/7 delivery app was founded in July 2014 by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Agarwal, Dalvir Suri, and Mukund Jha. Kabeer Biswas is the CEO and Co-founder of Dunzo, who completed his B.E from the University of Mumbai and followed it with an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS).
He started his career with Bharti Airtel, Videocon Telecommunications, and then went on to found Dunzo. Dunzo currently provides its delivery services in eight Indian cities including Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
In August 2021, Dunzo launched a new service, Dunzo Daily, to deliver essentials and household items in 19 minutes. January 2022, Reliance Retail led a US$240 million funding round along with Dunzo’s existing investors Lightbox, Lightrock, 3L Capital and Alteria Capital. Reliance Retail invested US$200 million for a 25.8% stake in Dunzo.
Ratan Tata is the former Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group and is still the head of the charitable trusts of the company. A scion of the Tata family, Ratan Tata was the son of Naval Tata and later adopted by Jamsetji Tata.
He is well-known as an Indian industrialist, philanthropist, and one of the few business tycoons who are synonymous with success. Tata was the recipient of two of the highest Indian civilian awards – Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan.
Ratan Tata was a student of the Cornell University of Architecture and completed his Advanced Management Program from the Harvard Business school in 1975. Tata was the apparent successor of J.R.D Tata, who started with the shop floor of Tata Steel and was responsible for expanding the company on a massive scale.
Largely credited with the diversification and growth of Tata, Ratan Tata helped the company acquire numerous businesses and companies including Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover, and more, and scaled the company to unimaginable heights. Ratan Tata is currently featured among the top entrepreneurs of India and an inspirational figure for all the budding entrepreneurs and other individuals.
Nithin Kamath is the Co-founder of the biggest stock-broking company in India, Zerodha, an inspirational entrepreneur, and is famous as one of the self-made billionaires of India. Nithin along with his brother, Nikhil Kamat has also been declared as the richest self-made billionaire in India under 40, according to IIFL Wealth and Hurun India’s 40 & Under Self-Made Rich List 2020 with a combined wealth of Rs 24,000 crores, as assessed in 2020. In year end march 2022 zerodha net profit was 2094.3 crore.
The company has valued itself at $3billion, based on the valuations of employee stock option. Nithin Kamath was a student of Bangalore Institute of Technology but he was never quite inclined to academics. Kamath got into the world of trading at the early age of 17 and eventually, his love for trading grew.
Nithin was successful in trading but also lost quite a lot of his money in the early 2000s. Kamath then returned to a fixed job at a call center, where he worked for 4 years before joining Reliance Money as a franchisee in proprietary trading and advisory services. He worked hard and saved his capital to establish his own company Zerodha in 2010 and emerge at the top of his game with Nikhil.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur distinguished for being the executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited. Furthermore, she was also recognized as the former chairperson of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Kiran was the recipient of the Othmer Gold Medal for her contributions to the fields of science and chemistry.
Financial Times listed her among the Top 50 women in the business list while Forbes listed her as the 68th most powerful woman in the world. Furthermore, Kiran was also named the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020.
After completing her graduation from Bangalore University with a bachelor’s degree in Zoology, Kiran went to the fermentation science and brewing at Melbourne University and topped her class emerging as a master brewer in 1975. She struggled to join as a master brewer in India after serving Carlton and United Breweries because the breweries here believed that the job of a master brewer is a “man’s work.”
However, Kiran discovered huge opportunities abroad and joined Biocon Biochemicals Limited, and eventually started Biocon India. In 2015, she joined The Giving Pledge, promising that at least half of her wealth will be dedicated to philanthrop. In 2019, she was listed as the 68th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She received Firodia Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 for her contributions to science and technology.
In January 2020 Kiran received the international award and became the fourth Indian citizen to be honored with Australia’s highest civilian award. In year 2023 they start
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw scholarship for the students who study in the fields of science, technology or mathematics at the Mount Helen Campus. By 2022 she has a net worth of $3.1 billion.
Back in 2010, paying gas, electricity, telephone bills, and recharging our mobiles, DTH, and more wasn’t as easy as it is now. Then, Freecharge was one of the companies that came into being, which greatly helped the Indian masses to empower their digital ways. Sandeep Tandon was one of the founders of this precursor of today’s digital payments app, Freecharge, which he founded in 2010 with Kunal Shah.
A technology investor and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of India, Sandeep Tandon was a student of Bombay Scottish, after which he pursued a Bachelor’s and then Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. Sandeep started his career with a Los Angeles startup where he worked as an application manager.
However, it wasn’t long before he left the company and initiated his own venture, Celetronix but that was again sold to Jabil Circuits.
Freecharge was the next company that he founded, which emerged as the fastest-growing mobile payments app in India. After a short but successful period, Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal and then eventually acquired by Axis bank, which currently owns the company.
Being a successful entrepreneur with years of experience, Sandeep Tandon is currently serving as the Managing Director of Tandon Group, as an Angel investor, and a mentor to the young entrepreneurs.
As eccentric as its name, Bewakoof boasts of an incredibly successful run as a casual wear and accessories hotspot for the current generation and undoubtedly a major part of its success goes to its Founder Director, Prabhkiran Singh. He along with Siddharth Munot founded Bewakoof.com back in 2010, which has since been a raging success for its unique printed t-shirts, joggers, funky mobile covers, and other accessories.
Both being civil engineering graduates from IIT Bombay, Prabhkiran and Siddharth were well-known to each other. In fact, both of them started with their independent startups right after they completed studies but none of them truly worked before Bewakoof was launched, which disrupted the Indian markets, promoting the “silliness” when it comes to fashion.
The estimated annual revenue of Bewakoof in 2020 was INR 200 Crores. The net worth of Bewakoof is estimated at INR 100 Crores.
The Indian traditional consumer products market was all saturated and boring, hoping for an upcoming disruption, which Mamaearth brought with its honest, organic, and safe products. The initial idea emerged out of a real-life problem that Varun and Ghazal Alagh faced while raising their own baby.
All of us want to extend our utmost care and best quality products to a newborn and Varun and Ghazal Algh wanted the same for their baby. However, it was when they were expecting their baby that they found the reality about the Indian baby products, none of which met the safety standards required to be applied on a baby. They first started to import baby products from the US but that was neither feasible nor less of a burden to their finances.
This made the research, apply for proper certifications and resulted in the launch of Mamaearth after 4 years of hard work and R&D. Mamaearth is currently hailed as the first Asian brand with the MadeSafe certification for its toxin-free and entirely herbal products. Furthermore, it boasts of having served over 1.5 million customers across 500+ cities of India. The parents turned entrepreneurs, Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh have achieved an envious success and are looking forward to a brighter way ahead as one of the most successful Indian entrepreneurs.
The company has expanded into offline distribution through multi-brand retail outlets and exclusive stores, to both online and offline markets. Their next step is to expand the offline business to 100,000 outlets and 100 Indian cities. The company has estimated revenue of INR964 crore in FY22, a growth of 109% over the past year.
PhonePe is akin to digital payments in today’s India. This market leader of a UPI-based digital payments platform was founded by Sameer Nigam, along with his co-founders, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer in December 2015.
Sameer Nigam has an MBA in Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School. After completing his schooling at DPS Noida, Sameer went to study Computer Engineering at the University of Mumbai and then completed a Masters of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona, finally finishing his MBA in 2009.
Sameer served as the Director of Search Product Development at Shopzilla for a little over 6 years, after which he launched Mime360, an online social media distribution channel. Mime360 was eventually acquired by Flipkart, where he again served as a Senior Vice President, Engineering but he left the company after one and half years to start his own company, PhonePe.
PhonePe has since been a roaring success! PhonePe continues to be the top player in the Indian payments ecosystem and accounted for nearly 50 percent of all UPI transactions processed in December 2022, According to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Conclusion
We hope this list of famous Indian entrepreneurs motivates you to act on that startup idea you have in your head. Who else do you think should be featured in this list? And what makes you go gaga over him or her?
Contact: shubham@startuptalky.com
FAQs
Who is the youngest entrepreneur in India?
Shravan Kumaran and Sanjay Kumaran are the youngest entrepreneurs in India. They co-founded the company called ‘GoDimensions’ a development unit, in 2011 at their home at the age of 10.
Who is the world’s richest person?
The world’s richest person is none other than the founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, who boasts of a net worth of $223 billion, as of February 28, 2022.
Who is the richest Indian?
Mukesh Ambani is the richest Indian with a wealth of $103 Billion, as of March 2022.
Is a CEO an owner?
The title of CEO is typically given to someone by the board of directors. Owner is a job title that is earned by sole proprietors and entrepreneurs, who have total ownership of the business. However, these job titles are not mutually exclusive — CEOs can be owners and owners can be CEOs.
Who are the leading Indian entrepreneurs now?
To name some of the most prominent Indian entrepreneurs, we must list:
Paytm is the biggest E-commerce company in India which specializes in the digital transactions system. Paytm is trusted and used by millions of Indians for shopping, transferring cash, booking tickets, and paying day-to-day bills. How did Paytm get here? The journey was not an easy one!
Here are the top 10 interesting facts about Paytm.
Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma with an initial investment of $2 million in 2010. It has its headquarters at Noida.
The idea of Paytm
Vijay Shekhar got the idea to build Paytm during his visit to China when he saw vegetable vendors using their cell phones to accept payments from some buyers. This prompted him to set up a Paytm wallet in 2013. Paytm is the most secure application. Paytm gives App secret word to your Paytm wallet and uses QR codes to complete transactions.
Facts about Paytm Owners and shares of Paytm
Paytm is an acronym for “Payment Through Mobile”
Paytm attracted a large crowd for the ease of online recharges, wallets, and shopping experiences. It also offered cashback and free movie tickets to its users.
One97 Communications is the parent company of Paytm
In 2005, Vijay Shekhar Sharma began One97 Communications that offered portable content like news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes, and test results. One97 is the parent organization of Paytm, which was launched in 2010.
PayPal filed a case against Paytm in 2016
PayPal filed a case against Paytm in 2016 on the grounds of using similar blends of colors in its logo. Paypal claimed Paytm had stolen from its logo and created a logo that was “blatantly and strikingly similar” to its own logo. The two-toned blue color scheme was a resemblance to the Paypal logo. Paypal objected that Paytm wanted to gain an advantage over its opponent and ruin its reputation!
The default language selected for Paytm is english. However, Paytm is avaliable in 10 different Indian languages. Some of these include Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, and Punjabi. Paytm has reached almost 88% of Indian villages and most of the users are based in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Paytm says that many Indians have still no access no internet even today and hence, they are taking a step towards “Digital India”
Paytm wallet application counts to 100 Million downloads
Paytm wallets applications has 100 Million downloads on Google play store. There are over 350 million Paytm users.
Jack Ma Purchased Stakes in Paytm
In 2015, Chinese money manager Jack Ma, proprietor of Alibaba Group, purchased a $500 million stake in Paytm. Jack Ma is assessed to hold 30 to 40 percent of Paytm. Alibaba holds a share of 25% of Paytm. Alibaba presently gives help to Paytm to further develop extortion detection and satisfaction systems also.
Paytm contributed to PM cares fund during COVID-19 pandemic
Paytm has great contribution during Covid 19 pandemic. It has contributed to PM CARES relief fund. Each Rs 10 received via a single user was donated to the PM cares fund via the Paytm app. In 10 days, Paytm had collected Rs 100 crore Via Paytm, 21000 oxygen cans were shipped to patients in need, and oxygen plants were donated to 13 of the worst-hit cities in India.
Paytm launched Paytm Mall in 2017 which permits customers to shop from 1.4 lakh enlisted sellers. It is a BTC model inspired by China’s TMall. Paytm Mall has set up 17 content communities across India and collaborated with in excess of 40 messengers. Paytm Mall raised $200 million from Alibaba Group and SAIF Partners in March 2018. Paytm Mall suffered a loss of around ₹1,800 crores and its market share dropped from 5.6% to 3%.
FAQs
When was Paytm founded?
Paytm was founded by Vijay Shekar Sharma in 2009.
Who is the owner of Paytm?
Paytm parent organisation One97 Communications owns the company.
Is Paytm owned by Tata?
No. Ratan Tata has invested in Paytm in March 2015. He picked up a stake in Paytm parent company, One97 Communications. He also plays a role of an advisor for the company.
It might be surprising to know that India is the world’s largest growing industry of fintech companies. Fintech the short form for financial technologies and FinTech companies are those companies that sell technologies and services related to financial transactions.
With the world shrinking to one’s fingertips and everything from education to business shifting to the online mode, there is absolutely no limit to the extent to which fintech companies are growing across the world and especially in India.
Most of the firms today are investing in or are planning to invest in financial technologies heavily. It is expected that by 2023 the global fintech market will be valued at over $305 billion.
The growth of fintech industries in India has been really humble. It started to gain momentum in the country only after the government initiated liberalisation of the banking industry and the incorporation of technology.
Slowly more funds were received by the banking sector for Financial innovation. The sector started to experience the ripple effects of the financial technology revolution in the US and UK in the 2000s.
This enabled the Indian banking industry to slowly begin by offering services that are consumer-centric. In the early 21st century FinoPay Tech and EKO India were two startups that were curated in the Banking Correspondent Model (BCM). And that was just the beginning only to witness the emergence of revolutionary fintech startups like Paytm, FreeCharge, Mobikwik et cetera from 2005 onwards.
Since then there have been no turning back for the industry with a plethora of companies mushrooming across different segments like lending, investments, personal finance management et cetera.
According to the reports by Boston consulting group (BCG) and FCCI India’s fintech companies are going to be valued thrice than what they are valued today within the next five years.
It is estimated that Indian fintech companies will reach a valuation of more than $160 billion by 2025.
The establishment of fintech companies and their growth have been phenomenal in the last five years than ever before. This dynamic industry has more than 2100 companies among which 67% of them were launched in the last five years alone. The biggest achievements of the industry do not stop there.
In the first seven months of 2020, fintech companies in India received total investments worth $1.47 billion which was 60% more than what it had been in 2019. Among the trends and new answers of the industry, online brokerage was gaining more popularity and thereby encouraged investors to buy more equities, mutual funds, ETFs et cetera.
All these lead to increased activity in the industry as a whole which resulted in huge investments in the industry like never before. It saw the emergence of three new unicorns companies and five new soonicons (Companies that have a valuation of $500 million or more) just from the beginning of January 2020.
There is a total of 21 unicorns in India and out of which one-third of the companies are fintech companies, which is not a surprise anymore. Among the unicorns Paytm is the highest valued one at $16 billion.
Multifaceted Support From the Government
Among the activities of the Indian finch industries, online payments have always been at the forefront. In 2018 digital payment crossed over 24 .13 billion in 2018. These transactions are valued at over $3.5 trillion.
One of the major reason for the tremendous growth of Fintech companies in India is because of various government policies that allow and facilitate people to get on to the digital platform for storing and transacting money.
The extensive use of Aadhaar has made verification easier and policies like PMJDY (Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana) has pulled more people onto the digital platform than ever. The introduction of the Unified Payment Interface or UPI has also introduced a large amount of unbanked population in India into the digital financial services which have further boosted the growth of fintech companies.
Apart from that demonetisation has opened vast opportunities for fintech companies for better service provisions and thereby making customers comfortable within the technologies like AI, blockchain, IOT et cetera.
Reports say that the introduction of such industry 4.0 technologies into the industry gave a jump of nearly a hundred per cent from an earlier $1.8 billion valuation in 2018.
The Future of Fintech Industry in India
The fintech industry in India will continue to conquer greater heights as it has already started to partner with various banks. Using these collaborations and the nuances of consumer behaviour, Fintech companies are all set to further use technology to capitalise on better levels of trust among people.
In 2021 and from then on it is expected that hybrid banking will become more mainstream. The performance of fintech industries in India in the first seven months itself has proved this to be true. In an environment of hybrid banking, more financial institutions that operate offline will take on to virtual banking as well.
There are also various government initiatives that aim at establishing fintech hubs along with an allocation of Rs.15 billion to boost digital payments alone. All these will further strengthen and immunise the industry in the years to come. With the incorporation of newer technologies into the industry, it is expected that by 2025 there will be more than 30 billion connected devices ranging from thermostats to refrigerators to lightbulbs.
The breakthrough advent of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is also expected to be a game-changer in the industry, especially regarding money transactions, consumer payments et cetera. However, it will be completely dependent on the stand of the Indian government.
FAQ
How many Fintech companies are there in India?
At present there are more than 2,000 fintech companies in India.
When did the FinTech sector rise in India?
In 2015, the Indian fintech sector saw the emergence of numerous fintech startups, incubators, and investments from public and private investors.
How big is the fintech market in India?
The Indian Fintech market is currently valued at $31 billion and is expected to grow to $84 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 22%.
The world we live in is always in need of innovation. Be it from domestic help to data analysis. For all of this one thing is unavoidable – investment. With an aim of investing in transformative technologies, The Japanese company SoftBank has initiated a $100 venture capital fund called the visions fund.
The Vision Fund was a materialisation of a talk between Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammed Bin Salman. As the name suggests, the Vision Fund envisions a long-term growth of companies for the benefit of humanity.
Being the biggest venture capital fund in the world, their plans for investment are almost equal to the global venture capital investment of the world. Most of their companies are in the transportation and logistics sector followed by consumer services and frontier technologies. Here is a glimpse of a few startups that are funded by SoftBank’s Vision Fund
The banking startup is the latest unicorn now. In May 2021, it raised $250 million in a series C funding of Vision Fund. This has raised the value of the firm to $1.45 billion. It was founded by Bhavin Turakhia and Ramki Gaddipati in 2015. Zeta provides a modern and cloud native platform to improve the cost to income ratio and consumer experience.
ByteDance
With a mission to “Inspire creativity and enrich life”, ByteDance is a startup that is spread over 150 markets with offices in 126 cities. They offer high quality Global Creation and Interaction Platforms as and while ensuring that the digital life of billions of its users are made beautiful. It was found in 2012 in a four bedroom apartment. In 2019, SoftBank’s Vision Fund invested in ByteDance and its corporate value quadrupled soon after.
Trax
Making in-store execution easier, Trax has been very useful to both retailers and customers. They say that through them the best of digital technologies comes together in the physical reality for the best experience of the users. In 2021, it secured $640 million funding lead by SoftBank Vision Fund. Trax will continue to optimise its retail stores through creating awareness about changing store condition and improving purchasing intent.
Firstcry
Founded in 2010, It aims to be the largest retailer in child and mother care products in the world. In 2018, SoftBank Vision Fund bought a 40% stake at a rate of $400 million which makes them the biggest investor in the company. It also valued Firstcry at $1.1 billion at that time. Today, they have a customer base of over 20 million families. Under the leadership of Supam Maheshwari, they continue to conquer greater heights in the business realm.
It is a startup that revolutionised the untapped market of opticals. It is indeed a magical unicorn of India and there is no surprise in Vision Fund investing in Lenskart. Beginning from contact lenses, today it has a range of prescription glasses and sunglasses as well. It was launched in 2010. It fared really well in business and was aided by SoftBank Vision Fund in the year 2019. They invested a total of $275 million after which it was valued at $1.5 billion. In 2020, Lenskart generated a revenue of 1000 crore.
Meesho
The top rated reselling app of India was found by two IIT Delhi graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal. They have transcended beyond earning profits for themselves alone by helping small businesses and individuals to set up their own online stores.
In the latest funding round of Vision Fund (2021), it invested $300 million which raised its value to an enviable $2.1 billion. Earlier, when it was valued at $700 million, they had received a funding of $125 million in 2019. The latest funding is three times greater than last time. It was the fourth deal in the second Vision Fund in India.
Oyo Rooms
The most popular hospitality firm that upturned the ways of hotel booking raised $807 million along with RA Holdings. In this SVF has picked up 9626 holdings of Series F CCPS for $506 million. This will make SVF entitled to 50.5% stake in the firm. Oyo has always surprised us by expanding to countries like wildfire. It is expected that this fund will be used to increase the efficiency of the company by delivering the best services.
Flipkart
Flipkart is a very familiar name in the e-commerce industry for the past few years. Its growth has been tremendous and inspiring. Softbank Vision Fund had invested a sum of $2.5 billion in 2017. Now, Flipkart is completing its merger with Walmart and SoftBank has only sold 20% of its stake during the process and thereby continues to stay invested. Softbank is now again trying to invest in Flipkart.
Unacademy
It is a Bangalore based Education technology firm which was founded in 2015. It began its journey as a YouTube channel in 2010 and its growth over the decade is commendable. Unacademy received a sum of $150 million from SoftBank’s Vision Fund in 2020. This will take the committed firm’s overall value to $1.4 billion. This is a triple gain as far as the firm is concerned in a span of 6 months. They will be using the fund to launch new products and expand the organisation.
The UK based bank for small and medium sized companies was founded in 2013. It gained regulatory approval in 2015. The firm was founded by Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman. In February 2019, SoftBank invested $440 million in OakNorth and its value skyrocketed to $2.8 billion. Many times, it lends more than $5 billion which is higher than its counterparts. However, they recover more than 90% of that money. Today, it is one of the highly valued startups in Europe.
Softbank’s Biggest Investments
Grofers
Founded in 2013, Grofers is a grocery delivery service in India. It allows you to order a large variety of products through their online supermarket. Their potential did not skip the eyes of SoftBank either. In 2020, they invested $55 million in this firm to help them further improve their efficiency and services. The bank’s trust in the business can be further reiterated by the fact that they hold 46% of the total holdings.
Paytm
Since its launch in 2009, Paytm has transformed the money paying etiquette of people in India and many other e-commerce payment platforms followed suit. In 2019, it was founded by Vijay Shekhar Varma. Paytm raised $1 billion from Vision Fund along with Ant Financial Services. The new fund will be used to ramp up the expansion of the firm into rural India. They aim to popularise payments in rural India online.
Biofourmis
It is a health tech company that makes use of machine learning and AI to improve services in the health sector. It was founded by Kuldeep Singh Rajput with a team of committed members backing him. Together they have been successful in improving outcomes of major healthcare providers. In 2020, they raised $100 million through the Series C of Vision Fund. This was indeed a booster shot for them. They are now on their path to develop better portfolios which are inclusive of digital therapeutics for pain and cancer.
Klarna
Klarna Bank AB or Klarna, as it is commonly termed, is a Swedish fintech company that is mainly associated with online financial services to support payments for online storefronts, direct payments, and post-purchase payments. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and boasts of more than 3,000 employees, most of whom work from the headquarters.
With the latest investment round, Klarna announces an equity funding of $638 million. This equity funding has been led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, which was then followed by additional participation primarily from Adit Ventures, Honeycomb Asset Management, and WestCap Group. The latest round of funding raised the valuation of Klarna to $45.6 billion. This recent funding round is aimed to support the international expansion of the company and further capture global retail growth.
Eightfold AI
Eightfold AI, as the name indicates, is a Talent Intelligence platform powered by Artificial Intelligence. Eightfold AI announced on Thursday, June 10, 2021, that the company has been successful in raising a fund close to $220 million in the Series E funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.
The company has been successful in raising more than $410 million to date, with around $350 million coming in the past six months. According to Eightfold AI’s Founder and CEO, Ashutosh Garg, the company will continue to use the funds to widen its operations in India, with investments focused on the most talented data scientists and engineers across the country. This way Eightfold AI would ensure that its funds are used for fast and effective growth and development of its talent intelligence platform and further expanding its growing partner ecosystem.
Whatfix
Whatfix is a SaaS-based company, which primarily focuses on providing in-app guidance and support for software products and web applications. In the Series D funding round of the company, Whatfix announced that it has raised $90 million. This recent round of funding was led by Softbank’s Vision Fund 2, followed by other participations including that of Eight Roads Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Dragoneer Investment Group, F-Prime Capital, and Cisco Investments.
Whatfix claims to have tripled its investments after the completion of this recent round of funding, according to TOI. The firm has reportedly raised around $139.8 million in the last segment alone and with that in, the company is presently valued at $600 million.
With the latest round of funding, Whatfix aims to strengthen its position in the US and look for further expansion in Europe and the Asia Pacific. It also strives to focus more on product innovation to provide personalized user experiences with effective use of Artificial Intelligence.
Here are a few other startups in which SoftBank’s Vision Fund have invested in
Name of the company
Year of Investment by SBVF
Amount of investment
Ola
2014
$210 million
Delhivery
2019
$350 million
Policy Bazaar
$200 million
OpenDoor Labs
2019
$300 million
Cameo
2021
$100 million
Banco Inter
2021
$471 million
Exeger
2019
$10 million
Zume Pizza
2018
$375 million
One Tap Buy
2018
$17.32 million
Compass
2018
$400 million
Conclusion
There was a lot of criticism with regard to the functionalities of Vision Fund. Many opinionated that the mode of its functioning was hitherto unseen. The loss it faced in the last year further sharpened the criticisms against it. However, it was able to come back with a bang and give a sharper reply to the critics through its economic performance.
The performance of the companies in which it invested is a testimony to the win of SoftBank as well. The Japanese multinational company has significantly helped a plethora of startups to ace in their business through the Vision Fund.
By extending help to startups, it also didn’t fall back in emerging as the biggest profit earning company in the history of Japanese companies. After a year of unprecedented loss it has emerged as one of the world’s biggest earning firms in the world. SoftBank and its Vision Fund will always remain as a ray of hope for all startups.
FAQ
Who owns SoftBank?
SoftBank’s founder and CEO is Masayoshi Son who is the third-richest person in Japan, with a $20.6 billion personal fortune. He owns $45 million worth of real estate in Tokyo as well as a $117.5 million estate in Silicon Valley.
What is SoftBank Vision Fund?
Softbank Vision Fund is the world’s biggest innovation-centered investment finance, with over $100 billion in the capital.
How does SoftBank earns?
SoftBank owns stakes in many technology, energy, and financial companies. It also runs Vision Fund, the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund.
Paytm Payments Bank after successfully providing their VISA virtual Debit cards to more than 4.5 million customers have now launched their physical VISA Debit cards which enables the users to upgrade to a contactless payment. Let’s look at the newly launched VISA Debit card, how to order and use it.
The new physical VISA Debit card that is launched by Paytm is a contactless globally accepted card. The card can be used to pay for shopping, gadgets or any other items as well as it can be used in the ATMs to withdraw cash in India as well as abroad.
The VISA Debit cards come with an NFC chip which will allow the users to pay the money with just a tap on the POS machine available at the store. The contactless debit card is common and have been widely accepted across the globe. They have been reported to be safer and highly secure.
The card also provides various rewards, offers and also provides an option for the user to enable or disable the card on the Paytm Payments Bank app according to their convenience.
In order to apply for the VISA Debit card, you should have a savings account with Paytm Payments Bank. You will have to download the app or visit their website in order to open account. Once you have opened the account and filled the KYC, the card will be delivered to your doorstep.
Even the users who already have a Paytm savings account and a virtual VISA or RuPay Debit card will have to visit the website and order the card. The users who have a RuPay Debit card will have to upgrade to a VISA debit card and order the physical card on the website.
If you already have a physical RuPay Debit card, you will have to block the physical card and apply for a digital VISA Debit card and later follow the above step of ordering the physical card from the website or the mobile application.
Paytm Website
How to activate the Paytm Physical Debit Card
In order to activate your Physical debit card, you will have to scan the QR code through the Paytm Payments Bank app which will ask for your bank passcode. Once the passcode is entered, you will be asked to verify your debit card details and will be prompted to set your ATM pin. Once you confirm your ATM pin, your physical card will get activated.
The Paytm Payments Bank’s VISA Debit and ATM card would cost an amount of INR 250. Paytm Payments Banks claims to have simplifying the banking process of the millennials since their establishment.
FAQ
What is Paytm Visa debit card?
The new physical VISA Debit card launched by Paytm is a contactless globally accepted card, which can be used for shopping or can be used in the ATMs to withdraw cash in India as well.
What are the benefits of Paytm debit card?
You can Withdraw cash from any ATM in India, you can also Swipe your card at any store or website across India and Paytm offers Cashback at 200+ stores across India.
Can we withdraw cash from Paytm debit card?
Yes, you can withdraw cash from Paytm physical debit card from any ATM in India.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byNearbuy.
Owing to a lack of time and fair prices, everybody nowadays prefers online shopping. The eCommerce industry was last valued at $22 billion in 2018 and is estimated to be worth around $200 billion by 2027. Thus, the growth that the eCommerce industry is seeing is beyond comparison. This outstanding growth that the industry has seen and the exponential growth that is predicted for the industry could only be possible with the range of successful players and the pioneers of the idea. Moreover, the e-commerce players have rapidly grown over the past couple of years to become hyper-local entities to serve their customers better.
Gurgaon-based Nearbuy is one of the firsts of Indian hyperlocal eCommerce companies. The Indian hyper-local eCommerce company, founded in 2010, has been built to extend an array of products across diverse categories for the customers to buy almost anything when it comes to services. So, whether the users want to dine online, relax at the best spas, or discover their city most intimately, it is Nearbuy that they looked up to.
Nearbuy.com, which was formerly known as SoSasta, Crazeal, and Groupon, was formed in 2015 and now stands acquired by Paytm since December 7, 2017, when the digital payments giant acquired Nearbuy and its parent organization, Little, signed a merger deal of the two well-funded companies. The company still stands as a hyper-local, deals-based, e-commerce services company owned by Paytm.
Here’s a look at Nearbuy.com and its Founders and Team, Mission and Vision, Startup Story, Business Model, Revenue Model, Growth, Funding and Investors, Competitors, Challenges Faced, Future Plans, and more.
As of September 2019, Ankur Warikoo, the co-founder and ex-CEO resigned from Nearbuy. Warikoo announced that he would step down as CEO of Nearbuy in November, handing over the reins to co-founders Ravi Shankar and Snehesh Mitra. Shankar, who was previously the COO of Nearbuy, will take over as CEO, with Mitra taking over as COO of the Paytm-owned firm. Warikoo will remain a shareholder and member of the company’s board of directors.
About Nearbuy and How it Works?
Nearbuy.com (Nearbuy India Private Limited) is India’s first hyper-local online services platform, built to let consumers and local merchants connect and interact along with helping them get the best deals possible. The company was first founded as SoSasta and was eventually acquired by Nasdaq-listed Groupon Inc in 2011. The company then changed its name to Groupon India in 2013. Finally, the company was named Nearbuy in 2015 when Sequoia Capital India and Ankur Warikoo bought majority stakes in the firm. Ankur Warikoo has no longer been the CEO since November 2019 when Ravi Shankar was appointed for the position.
Nearbuy.com was built with the aim to make things easily available for users. Whatever the needs of the customers may be, whether it is to enjoy fine dining, unwind at the world-class spas, or simply get their city known a little better, Nearbuy.com aimed to make all of them possible for the users.
Nearbuy provides its merchants with a clear branding and visibility-driven network that makes it easy for consumers to find their businesses in and around their locations. Nearbuy is available in 35+ markets, 18+ categories, and 100,000+ unique places, with over 50,000 merchants.
You can download the Nearbuy app from the Google Play Store or the iTunes Store to discover, purchase, and share exciting experiences around you.
Nearbuy – Mission and Vision
The mission statement of Nearbuy says, “We at nearbuy.com are taking hyperlocal ecommerce where it’s never gone before. So, if you thrive on the thrill of operating in a world of firsts,you belong at nearbuy.com.“
Nearbuy – Founders and Team
Ankur Warikoo, Ankur Sarawagi, Sumeet Kapur, Sachin Kapur, Ravi Shankar,and Snehesh Mitra are the founders of Nearbuy, which was founded in 2010.
Ravi Shankar, current CEO and Co-Founder of Nearbuy
Ravi Shankar L
Ravi Shankar did his Bachelors of Engineering before pursuing an MBA Marketing from Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development. Ravi Shankar started with Wipro as a Presales Technical Consultant and went on to become the National Sales Manager there. Shankar was then the Business Director at Groupon. After leaving Groupon, Ravi Shankar joined Little Internet, where he was appointed as the CEO and Board Member. Nearbuy was the next company where he went on to become the COO, who was later appointed as the CEO for a brief period of more than a year. Shankar is currently serving as a Co-founder and Board Member of Nearbuy along with being the SVP at Paytm.
Ankur Warikoo
Mentor, angel investor, and public speaker, Ankur Warikoo is a Hindu College and Michigan State University from where he graduated with a BSc in Physics and an MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics, eventually pursuing an MBA in Finance from the Indian School of Business. Warikoo started as the Head of APAC market at Groupon Inc and was then appointed as the CEO. He was also a co-founder and CEO of Nearbuy and is currently serving as a Board member. Along with this, Warikoo is an Educator and Content Creator at Brand Warikoo and a Board member of the Indian School of Business.
Ankur Sarawagi
Another co-founder of Nearbuy, Ankur Sarawagi is an IIT Bombay alumnus from where he completed his BTech and MTech in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Integrated Manufacturing along with a Minor in Operations Research. Starting from Bain & Company, Ankur joined Groupon as the Director of Sales. However, it was only a brief stint that Ankur had with Groupon, eventually moving on to co-found Nearbuy. Ankur is currently serving as the Vice President, International Growth & Managing Director of WeddingWire India at The Knot Worldwide, which came into being as a result of the merger of WeddingWire and The Knot. Sarawagi has also served as the VP & Country Manager at WeddingWire.
Snehesh Mitra
Snehesh graduated from IIT Kharagpur in Electric and Electronics Engineering. Mitra was the co-founder Urban Blocks and Nearbuy along with being the CTO of the former and CTO, COO, and CPO of the latter organization. Mitra is currently serving as a Product Manager of Google. Along with these, Snehesh had also previously worked with Algo Works, Mobicules Systems, NDS Limited, Headstrong, HCL Technologies, and more in numerous key designations.
Sumeet Kapur
Sumeet Kapur is also known as the co-founder of Nearbuy. Kapur was a student of Delhi University from where he completed Bcom. (Hons.) before moving on to The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and completing his CA degree. In his career, Sumeet has been the Co-founder and Director of Finance at Edutopper, CFO and Regional Financial Director of Emerging Markets (APAC), Co-founder and CFO at Nearbuy.com, Co-founder at Inflexion Point and is currently serving as a Founder and CEO at Wellcure.com.
Sachin Kapur
Sachin Kapur is also a Delhi University alumnus, who next went to obtain a PGDBM, Management from the Centre for Management Development. Starting with a brief stint at Fever 104 FM, Sachin went to become a Sr. Manager Marketing and Strategy at BigRock. Leaving the company after a year and a half, Sachin Kapur then moved on to become the CMO of Groupon. He eventually became the CO-founder and CMO of Nearbuy. Presently, Sachin is serving as Sr. Director Marketing at Coupang.
Nearbuy, owned by Paytm, is currently around 160+ employees strong.
Nearbuy – Startup Story
Nearbuy was formed or rather named in 2015. The company was founded as SoSasta in 2009, but it was acquired in 2011 by the Chicago-based parent of Nearbuy, Groupon Inc., in 2011 with an aim to begin operations in India. It then changed its name to Groupon India in 2013.
Ankur Warikoo and Ravi Shankar worked for Groupon as executives, with the former leading the company after the founders of SoSasta left. After Sequoia enabled the exit of Groupon Inc in 2015, Groupon India was rebranded as Nearbuy. Nearbuy, along with Little, was purchased by the payments company Paytm in a distress deal two years later. Paytm helped promote a share exchange arrangement between Little and Nearbuy shareholders, which resulted in Nearbuy becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Little Internet.
The purchase price for both companies was set at INR 272.31 crore. Following the acquisition, the company gained access to a large pool of capital along with a large Paytm userbase. It, however, struggled to make an impact because sales were unable to keep up with expenses. The company had total revenue of INR 33.28 crore in FY18, with losses of INR 49.11 crore.
Nearbuy – Name, Logo and Tagline
Nearbuy’s old name is Groupon India. After the rebranding of Nearbuy in August 2015, Groupon became a minority stakeholder in nearbuy.com.
Nearbuy’ s Company Logo
“The Lifestyle App” is the tagline of Nearbuy. Nearbuy comes in and says “Let us give you a discount for visiting the place through us.”
Nearbuy – Business and Revenue Model
Nearbuy is an Online-to-Offline services ecommerce platform, which is currently owned and funded by Paytm, established to connect the consumers with India’s largest network of local businesses. nearbuy.com makes it easy for the consumers to discover their worlds along with helping them avail exclusive deals across categories such as restaurants, spas, salons, movie halls, retail stores, amusement parks and more.
The key highlights of Nearbuy business and revenue model are as follows:
Nearbuy makes a contract with local stores and service-based businesses such as spas and salons.
Retailers promise to lower their rates in exchange for being featured on the website.
Nearbuy makes the majority of its profits by charging a fee of 2% to 25% of the sale price.
Retailers receive a substantial amount of revenue in exchange for providing such steep discounts on the website.
They often accept advertisements on the website, increasing the company’s revenue.
Nearbuy – Revenue and Growth
In terms of sales, FY18 was another low year for the firm. Though the company’s overall revenue rose by just 4.9% from INR 31.73 crore in FY17 to INR 33.28 crore in FY18, its basic turnover decreased by 16.4% from INR 28.22 crore to INR 23.58 crore. This simply suggests that the minuscule rise in sales was not due to the company’s main operations. Instead, it leaned on a 2.76X increase in other revenue, which increased from INR 3.52 crore to INR 9.7 crore.
Nearbuy.com claims to be present in more than 33 cities across 18+ categories. Furthermore, the company has more than 68,000 merchants to deal with across 100,000+ unique locations. Here’s some more growth highlights of the company, as reported on March 2019:
It has a monthly active users count of 3 million
It receives around 7.5 million monthly visits
Nearbuy app has been downloaded by 4.9 million users
The biggest obstacle, according to Ankur, the former CEO of Nearbuy, was to build the group, to which Nearbuy belongs. Users would mistakenly think of the business as a deal and discount platform, which is exactly what Groupon was. The mission of Nearbuy is to put the offline world online in a way that allows users to discover, buy, and save.
Simply informing consumers that they can purchase their favorite restaurants, spas, salons, entertainment zones, hotels, brands, and other services online and then walk in to consume them while saving money is a huge challenge in and of itself. Few people get it, but the majority do not. They don’t consider it a normal part of their lives.
“I often say this internally – our job at Nearbuy is not to grow the company, rather to build a completely new way for Indian consumers to explore the offline world which was a big task,” says Ankur.
Nearbuy expects revenue of INR 255.99 crore and a net profit of INR 17.73 crore by 2022-23. The estimated sales, according to Warikoo, are reasonable and vary from the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV, or total value of merchandise), which is much higher.
“We are capitalized and on a growth expansion mode. As long as we are unit economics positive, we can manage our fixed costs with the investment raised out of this merger. The plan is to grow this number to 250,000 in three years. We have a maximum available universe of roughly around 350,000 merchants” says Warikoo.
Warikoo claims that discretionary spending among Indian consumers has increased by more than doubling to 7% of individual income over the last decade.
Nearbuy – FAQs
What does Nearbuy do?
Nearbuy.com (Nearbuy India Private Limited) is India’s first hyper-local online platform, allowing consumers and local merchants to connect and interact. Nearbuy.com makes it possible for you to enjoy fine dining, unwind at world-class spas, or simply get to know your city better.
Who founded Nearbuy?
Nearbuy was founded by Ankur Warikoo,Ravi Shankar and Snehesh Mitra in 2015.
Which company owns Nearbuy?
Paytm owns Nearbuy.
How does Nearbuy make money?
Nearbuy did not charge its merchant anything for setup. Customers are only charged a fee for each purchase they make. Depending on the popularity and category, the commission ranges between 2% and 25%.
Which companies do Nearbuy compete with?
Top competitors of Nearbuy are Gmarket, Magicpin, Paytm, Grofers India Pvt, Shopee, Blibli, Amazon India, Swiggy, CashKaro, and LivingSocial.
The digital fintech startup Paytm has recently announced that it has launched a platform for its users to learn about investing. It has launched a video-based wealth community platform(Currently in beta stage) for the users to learn investing. Let’s look at the further details of the New Community Platform Launched by Paytm for Learning Investments.
Paytm is an Indian based multinational startup company. They are an e-commerce payment system and a financial technology company that has its headquarters located in Uttar Pradesh, India. The company was founded in the year 2010.
The abbreviation of Paytm stands for “Pay Through Mobile” and it encourages it with its famous tagline ‘Paytm karo’. The company was founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Some of the company’s products are Paytm Mall, Paytm Payments Bank, Paytm Money, Gamepind, Paytm Smart Retail.
The services offered by Paytm are Payment systems, digital wallets, mobile payments banking, online shopping, etc. Some of the key investors of the company are Ant Group, SoftBank Vision Fund, Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, etc.
Paytm Wealth Community
On 26 April 2021, Paytm which is one of the largest fintech companies in India announced that it has launched a platform that is a video-based wealth community to revolutionize the Indians to learn, discuss and trade in the capital markets.
Paytm Wealth Community is considered to be India’s first community which will be based on investing. The platform will be video based and there will be live sessions conducted for the users of the community to ask doubts and discuss on the topics.
The live sessions will be conducted by the industry experts and will cover a wide range of topics for the users such as stocks, futures and options, ETFs, Mutual Funds, IPO, Gold, Fixed Income and Personal Finance.
Paytm Wealth Community
The platform will provide a chance for users to learn from the experts in the industry, discuss their doubts with them and also chat and grow together with their fellow learners. The users on the platform will discuss on various wealth related topics.
In today’s world, the way the youth learn, interact and transact has seen a rapid evolvement. The social interaction between peers has been greatly influenced by the growth of apps and other social media platforms.
It is seen that the social media platform and communities on various other sectors have seen a considerable growth, the digital platforms communities and groups have grown over the years, but there has not been a trustworthy digital platform and a reliable platform for wealth management.
Paytm intends to cover it up and build a trustworthy and reliable wealth management platform for the youth through its new community. It is taking a step to fulfill the requirements of the Indian Investors by launching the platform.
The platform will contain live video content with an interactive chat platform and creators are planning to conduct the sessions for a time period ranging from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. The sessions are expected to be launched in various languages such as Hindi, Gujarati, English and many more.
The platform is under beta testing and Paytm has onboarded a limited set of users. All the creators will have to go through a KYC process which will be a step for ensuring the safety of the retail investors. All the contents will be recorded and checked.
The roadmap of the product and technology is expected to completely transform the user experience. Over the period of time, the users will be able to create a customized discussion room by setting up their creator account and will also be able to chat in a controlled environment.
Paytm expects that the next 100 million capital market investors will be originated through investment communities and social groups and the wealth community of Paytm intends to be a leader and helping the investors to save, trade and invest better.
Beta testing
Paytm has said that users who have received the access to the wealth community launched by Paytm will be able to see a calendar that will have a list of the video sessions available on the platform. The beta testing feature is expected to be for the period of two months and later it will be opened to access to all.
The CEO of Paytm money, Varun Sridhar said that Paytm money was a natural choice by the company for its beta testing platform for the wealth community. Paytm money has direct access to a broad range of investment communities and has a reach across India.
Paytm Wealth Community also offers an opportunity for the experts in the industry to create a personal brand by creating their content and sharing their knowledge with millions of budding investors. This will be a platform to create a personal brand in the capital markets industry.
The company is supporting anyone with the required skills and has a significant social impact to create a personal brand. For starting the registration process, they will have to mail to pwc@paytm.com.
FAQ
Who is the current owner of Paytm?
One97 Communications Ltd is the owner of Paytm.
Who is CEO of Paytm?
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the current CEO of Paytm.
Is Paytm Chinese company?
PayTM is owned by an Indian company by the name of One97 Communications Ltd.
Conclusion
The capital investors in India have seen a significant rise in the last two years because of the pandemic. People are looking forward to growing their wealth through capital markets due to the layoff of jobs. Platforms such as Upstox, Groww, Zerodha and Paytm money has seen a subsequent increase in their user base.
“If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together.” – Ratan Tata, Tata Group
Ratan Tata is a prolific investor and has made numerous investment in many Startups. His style of investment and funding are revered by many across the globe. And his investments are known to emerge as giants in their respective sectors with time. Ola Cabs is an example.
An investment from Ratan Tata gives a boost to startups in terms of publicity, acquiring finances, and brand-building. Here is a list of the startups that Ratan Tata has funded over the years. Consequently, the behemoth organization of Ratan tata – Tata Group has also infiltrated a number of markets such as telecom, software, groceries, and fashion.
Latest News
22 April, 2021 – Ratan Tata has recently made an undisclosed amount of investment in Mailit which is a Mumbai based logistics startup serving a lot of big corporates including Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, etc.
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The Recent investment by Ratan Tata was in 2021, as he invested in Mailit, a technology-driven mailroom management and logistics company. The terms of the investment are undisclosed but it comes at at a time when Mailit is planning to launch 500 mailrooms across India in addition to establishing fully mechanised warehouses and distribution centres in the next five years.
Tork Motors
Tork motors | Ratan Tata Investment
Tork Motors is a Pune-based electric motorcycle startup. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in Tork Motors in October 2019. He saw potential in the company and found the team to be commendable. Apart from Ratan Tata, Bharat Forge and Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola Cabs’ founder) have also invested in Tork Motors.
Snapdeal
Snapdeal | Ratan Tata Investment
Snapdeal is India’s first online marketplace for multiple categories. It has received funding from Ebay and Alibaba. Snapdeal was launched by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in February 2010. It has over 3 lakh sellers and hosts over 3 crore products across 800+ diverse categories from more than 1,25,000 regional, national, and international brands and retailers.
Ratan Tata made an investment in Snapdeal soon after Flipkart’s acquisition of Myntra. He bought 256 shares from the e-commerce venture’s angel investors. This move not only protected Snapdeal from losing market share but also prevented any potential attempt by Flipkart to monopolize the e-commerce segment.
Cure.fit is a health and fitness startup that has raised $170 million from investors like Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital, Chiratae Ventures, and Ratan Tata to date.
Cure.fit maintains a chain of fitness centers (under the ‘Cult.fit’ brand), a food delivery platform called ‘Eat.fit’, a chain of healthcare clinics called ‘Care.fit’, and the recently launched online mental-wellness platform called ‘Mind.fit’.
Paytm started out as a mobile recharging platform and later became an online marketplace for multiple categories. It became India’s first payment bank after receiving a license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Ratan Tata Made an investment in Paytm by raising a funding of INR 1 crore in March 2015 for One97 Communications – the parent company of Paytm. This funding fetched him the position of a business advisor on One97 Communications’ board.
Paytm is now among the most successful digital payment companies with millions of subscribers. It thrived when the demonetization scheme was implemented in India in November 2018. At present, the company’s gross merchandise value (GMV) is over $1 billion.
Ola is India’s first home-grown cab aggregator service and one of the nine Indian unicorn startups valued at $5 billion. The app allows users to book a taxi on their smartphone at the best fares. Ola provides cab services across price segments that range from economy to luxury.
Ratan Tata funded Ola in July 2015, 5 years after the company began its operations in 2010. He invested INR 95 lakhs in the company in personal capacity. Ratan Tata made also an investment through his investment company – RNT Capital Advisors – of INR 400 crores in Ola.
Repos Energy
Repos Energy | Ratan Tata Investment
Aditi Bhosale Walunj and Chetan Walunj founded Repos Energy. Repos Energy is a Pune-based startup responsible for the doorstep delivery of fuel to industries. It works using cloud-based technology and IoT devices. Customers can order diesel on the Repos app. A Repos petrol pump operator then arrives at the customer’s location and completes the diesel delivery. Ratan Tata made an undisclosed amount of investment in this startup.
ClimaCell
Climacell | Ratan Tata Funded Startup
ClimaCell is an app developed by Rei Goffer, Shimon Elkabetz, and Itai Zlotnik that provides accurate weather forecast to alert people about upcoming floods. It uses day-to-day devices as environmental sensors. ClimaCell focuses on error-free weather predictions and has garnered a lot of attention.
Ratan Tata participated in ClimaCell’s seed round funding in September 2016. ClimaCell has acquired $70 million over three rounds of funding.
Abra
Abra Logo | Ratan Tata Investment
Ratan Tata has also made an investment in a Silicon Valley based bitcoin startup with American Express where he with American Express invested $12 million in Abra. People can store digital cash and send money to any smartphone using Abra’s app. Abra earns money when users buy or sell digital currency through its app.
CarDekho
CarDekho Logo | Ratan tata Funded Startups
CarDekho is India’s leading car search venture that helps users purchase the right cars. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in GirnarSoft – the parent company of CarDekho, BikeDekho, and PriceDekho portals.
The CarDekho app has rich automotive content that includes expert reviews, detailed specs and prices, comparisons, and the visuals of the different car brands and models available in India.
The company deals with many automobile manufacturers, more than 4000 car dealers, and numerous financial institutions to facilitate the purchase of vehicles. The CarDekho portal accounts for about 30% of the automobile manufacturers’ combined annual sales today.
Holachef
Hola Chef | Ratan tata Funded Startups
Holachef was founded by Saxena and Anil Gelra in 2014. Holachef connects expert chefs with consumers via its website and mobile app (available for both Android and iOS platforms). The platform offers a new menu everyday and delivers food in a state-of-the-art packaging. Holachef received an undisclosed amount of investment from Ratan Tata in September 2015.
Ola-owned food delivery firm Foodpanda has acquired Holachef.
FirstCry is a baby care e-commerce platform. FirstCry is owned by BrainBees Solutions. It follows an omni-channel strategy of selling through online and offline stores. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in this startup in January 2016.
Lenskart
Lenskart Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startup
Lenskart is a popular online retailer for eyewear. It was also been added to the list of companies invested by Tata as it secured funding from Ratan Tata in April 2016; the amount is undisclosed.
Lenskart sells sunglasses, eye glasses, contact lenses, and more. The officials from Lenskart said that Ratan Tata’s role was more of a mentor and an advisor than a financial investor. Some of the investors in Lenskart are TPG Group, IDG Ventures India, and Unilazer Ventures founder Ronnie Screwvala.
NestAway
nestaway logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
NestAway allows users to find, book, and move-in to a rental home of their choice across Indian cities. NestAway’s aim is to provide better rental solutions with the help of design and technology. The company presently caters to more than 35,000 tenants and 16,000 owners, providing homes to over 7000 families in cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and others. Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in NestAway Technologies Pvt. Ltd. in December 2017.
Urban Ladder is an online furniture seller. Urban Ladder was founded by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in July 2012. It currently offers over 1,000 products across 25 furniture categories such as wardrobes, beds, sofas, dining tables, and coffee tables. The online retailer secured funding from Ratan Tata in November 2015.
UrbanCompany
Urban Company Logo
UrbanCompany, previously known as UrbanClap, is a local services marketplace that raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata in December 2015. It is also funded by Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.
The UrbanCompany app allows the online booking of services such as plumbing, electric work, beauty treatments, and salon. UrbanCompany has successfully penetrated the services sector and bridged the gap between workers and consumers. People can now easily overcome the challenges of household hurdles, troubles, fixtures, and anything related through UrbanCompany.
GOQii
Goqii Logo | Ratan tata funded Startups
GOQii makes healthcare watches that are similar to smart watches. It also makes GOQii Stride, a device people can attach to their shoes and keep track of the number of steps, etc. GOQii’s platform provides tools for real-time personalized coaching, scheduling health check-ups, and securing information in a health locker. GOQii was founded in 2014 by Vishal Gondal. It joined the list of Ratan Tata-backed startups after he invested an undisclosed amount in October 2016.
This might come across as an interesting trivia—Ratan Tata is the first Indian to buy a stake in Xiaomiandhe has also made an undisclosed amount of investment in the company. Xiaomi is the world’s fourth largest smartphone manufacturer and is based out of China. The brand is very popular in India. It entered the Indian market in 2014. The Chinese tech giant sells smartphones, laptops, air purifiers, tablets, LED TVs, fitness bands and more.
Some senior executives from Xiaomi were quoted saying that they would seek Ratan Tata’s advice on how to expand globally.
Lybrate
Lybrate Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
Lybrate was founded in 2013. It connects patients and doctors. Lybrate launched an online lab testing facility in May 2016. A patient’s sample is collected right from his or her home and the results are then shared online. Lybrate secured about INR 64.8 crores ($10.2 million) funding from Ratan Tata in July 2019.
Infinite Analytics is a U.S. and Mumbai-based startup founded by two MITians – Akash Bhatia and Purushotam Bolta. It became Microsoft Dynamics AX’s first global OEM partner four months after Ratan Tata has also made an investment in this startup in August 2015.
Infinite Analytics is a cloud-based big data startup that predicts consumer behavior based on information shared by users on social networking sites. Infinite Analytics analyses raw data, maps out a person’s social genome, and then gives personalized recommendations to consumer brands with online presence. This information, which is collected without breaking privacy laws, allows a retailer to identify and recommend products that will appeal to customers. Infinite Analytics has expanded its predictive analytics technology to verticals beyond retail and e-commerce.
CashKaro
Cashkaro Logo | Ratan Tata Funded Startups
CashKaro is a cashback and coupons website that provides 30% cashback to customers who shop on its affiliates’ platforms. These platforms include Amazon, Paytm, Jabong, and ShopClues. The Gurgaon-based company was founded by Swati and Rohan Bhargava in 2013 and raised an undisclosed amount in Series A funding from Ratan Tata in January 2016.
Cashkaro generates revenue by taking commission from retailers and sharing a portion of it with customers in the form of cashback. It is the largest cashback website in India with over 10 lakh registered users and has given net cashback of more than INR 30 crores.
DogSpot
Dogspot Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startups
DogSpot is a Gurgaon-based online pet care platform that handles about 60,000 orders on a monthly basis with an average basket size of INR 1,700. DogSpot also promotes pet-centric events, drives, and related content. The startup was founded in 2007 and is run by PetsGlam Services Pvt. Ltd.
Ratan Tata invested an undisclosed amount in his personal capacity in DogSpot in January 2016. Ronnie Screwvala also invested in DogSpot alongside Ratan Tata.
BlueStone
Bluestone Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startups
Bluestone.com is an online platform for purchasing jewelry. BlueStone was founded by Gaurav Singh Kushwaha in 2011. BlueStone is backed by Ratan Tata and has also received a funding from him in 2014. It offers over 5,000 jewelry designs and plans to scale to 30,000 designs in the next three years.
Zivame
Zivame Logo | Ratan Tata funded Startup
Bangalore-based Zivame was founded in 2011 by Richa Kar and Kapil Karekar. Zivame is an online platform for one’s lingerie needs. It has raised $48 million in four years. The startup gained popularity through its quirky campaigns and is a well-known name today. Zivame received funding from Ratan Tata in September 2015.
Generic Aadhaar
Generic Aadhaar | Ratan Tata funded Startup
Ratan Tata has invested undisclosed amount in Generic Aadhaar, a Maharashtra-based pharmaceutical startup. Arjun Deshpande founded Generic Aadhaar in 2018. Generic Aadhaar provides generic medicines from reputed pharmaceutical companies at discounted rates—up to 80% cheaper than the retail price. It offers a catalog comprising branded, generic, homeopathy, and Ayurveda medicines from government-approved manufacturing facilities.
Generic Aadhaar aims to partner with 1000 pharmacies through a franchisee model in the coming months and expand its reach to places like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Goa, Rajasthan, and Gujarat.
What are the names of some Ratan Tata funded startups?
Some startups funded by Ratan Tata are Ola cabs, Zivame, Paytm, Snapdeal, Xiaomi, Urban Ladder, UrbanCompany, Cash Karo, and Abra.
What sector does Ratan Tata like to fund in?
Ratan Tata does not prefer any specific sectors. He has funded startups in sectors ranging from e-commerce and real estate to electric mobility and food delivery.
Arbaz Sayed
