Myntra, an online clothes retailer, has launched Myntra Global, its first direct-to-consumer venture outside of India, to enter the global market. In an attempt to reach the 650,000-person Indian diaspora abroad, the Walmart-owned company is expanding into Singapore.
It would provide its clients across the nation with a smooth and hassle-free purchasing experience in addition to hand-picked, trendy Indian fashion styles. Over the next few years, Myntra Global, which is part of the company’s larger expansion strategy, will allow it to reach new client segments and strengthen its global brand affinity.
With a solid 18-year history of serving fashion-forward consumers, Myntra has already seen a significant increase in organic traffic, with 30,000 users from Singapore using its current platform.
Myntra Trying Mimic its India’s Success Story in Singapore
Prior to contemplating wider expansion, the corporation seeks to comprehend consumer preferences, selection dynamics, and brand traction. Reaching 12–15% of Singapore’s Indian customer base is one of the initial objectives.
Myntra’s chief executive officer, Nandita Sinha, stated that the company is utilising its portfolio of Indian fashion and home décor brands to capitalise on opportunities related to festivals, weddings, and other events.
The company’s current priorities include learning, achieving the ideal product-market fit, and then growing. According to Myntra, the foundation for offering a flawless online shopping experience on Myntra Global would be its robust technological capabilities in creating a platform of scale.
Myntra Global will use third-party cross-border logistics services to deliver orders in four to seven days on average, and it will be accessible on desktops and mobile web.
Myntra’s Business Strategies for Singapore Market
About 35,000 pieces from 100 companies in a variety of categories, including clothing, accessories, footwear, and home goods, are being brought to Singapore by Myntra.
To start, a variety of labels have been made available, including Aurelia, Global Desi, AND, Libas, Rustorange, Mochi, W, The Label Life, Chumbak, Anouk, Bombay Dyeing, Rare Rabbit, and Nasher Miles. According to Myntra, this action will support the expansion of Indian fashion businesses and enable them to expand outside of India, in keeping with the government’s goal of introducing made-in-India goods to the world market.
With Myntra’s proficiency in providing large-scale customer service and the outstanding products from some of the most cherished brands, Sinha added, it is certain that Myntra Global would satisfy Indians residing overseas and maintain their ties to their heritage in a fashionable manner.
In order to smoothly serve Singapore, the company will also keep developing and expanding the platform, she added, which will help our brand partners grow.
In order to reach the Middle Eastern market, Myntra teamed up with the e-commerce sites Noon and Namshi of the UAE-based conglomerate Emaar Group in 2020. With an emphasis on leisure and casual clothing, it introduced Myntra Fashion Brands, which offers carefully chosen collections of its private brands on both platforms.
Owned by One97 Communications Limited (OCL), Paytm, the leader in digital payments in India, has extended its offerings to include international Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions.
Paytm users may now use the UPI system to make easy cashless payments in the UAE, Singapore, France, Mauritius, Bhutan, and Nepal, facilitating safe and transparent transactions with foreign retailers who use UPI.
How it Operates Internationally?
Travellers can use the Paytm app to instantly activate the international UPI service. A one-time activation connected to the user’s bank account is necessary for the setup. The app will immediately direct users to enable the service when they scan a UPI-enabled QR code overseas.
Depending on the length of their travel, customers can designate a usage term, from one day to ninety days, to maintain control and security. In order to prevent unintentional payments to overseas merchants, the feature also permits deactivation upon return to India. Before completing transactions, users are also fully informed about bank conversion costs and exchange rates.
How it can Benefit the Travellers?
By enabling cashless payments for dining or shopping, the international UPI service streamlines spending at well-known locations across the globe. As leaders in mobile payments, Paytm is excited to provide its services to Indian tourists, particularly as the holiday season draws near, a Paytm representative stated. The company’s dedication to empowering users anywhere in the world is demonstrated by this invention.
Paytm’s this Year’s Performance
After the decline brought on by the Reserve Bank of India‘s (RBI) action against Paytm Payments Bank, Paytm is confident that it is back on track. As income increased sequentially, the corporation is credited with reviving the revenue trend. Due to tax ramifications associated with the one-time gain that won’t be evident for several months, it is now unclear whether Paytm’s performance in Q2 has improved over Q1. During the Q2 FY25 earnings call, however, CFO Madhur Deora and founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma were eager to discuss how Paytm can return to actual profitability.
The default loan guarantee mechanism in the merchant lending industry took up a large portion of the call. In addition, Sharma asserted that the AI-led efficiency and productivity push and the cross-selling approach received some attention and should lessen Paytm’s need for hiring. As reported by media agencies, Paytm would reimburse its bank or NBFC lending partners for any losses resulting from defaults in its loan portfolio up to a predetermined proportion of the total amount disbursed under a default loan guarantee (DLG), also known as a first loss default guarantee (FLDG).
A recent study revealed that between 2000 and 2012, 4000 Indian startups have registered in Singapore. As of 2020, this number has grown to nearly 8,000. This is despite the fact that the Indian ecosystem is the third largest in the world after the United States of America and China.
Registering a Business in Singapore – All You Need to Know
A Brief History
India and Singapore share a common culture, history and ethnography. The countries’ values and social norms can be traced to South Asian Indo-Chinese cultural patrimony. Both countries are a part of the commonwealth of nations and were under British rule for a long time. India and Singapore received their Independence around the same time. After independence, both countries were severely underdeveloped. India and Singapore have strong trade ties.
However, this is where the similarities ended. While Singapore has grown to become a showcase of economic progress, India’s economy has progressed unsteadily and haltingly. India has followed a meandering but democratic path from a closed socialist economy to a market-based economy. Singapore’s market approach has been resolute, steadfast and undergirded by a tinge of authoritarianism.
Even when it comes to topics like law and order, Singapore ranks higher than India having been successful in running a rule-following, corruption-free, market-based economy. The wide gap between the two countries is visible in their approaches towards the regulation of their economies. Singapore promotes a light-touch compliance-based regulatory framework, while India operates a complex, heavy-touch system that is mired in corruption.
Singapore also ranks higher than India in other factors like political stability, crime levels, rule of law, multicultural harmony, economic stability, foreign reserves, currency stability and global integration.
Reasons for Startups’ Registration in Singapore
There are some generic and specific reasons which are prompting Indian startups to register their companies in Singapore. India is one the toughest countries to conduct business. In the World Bank Ease of Doing Business report of 2020, India at no. 63 as opposed to Singapore’s rank of No. 2.
Ease of Doing Business in Singapore Score from 2014 to 2020
Corporate Taxation Structure
There is a marked difference in the Corporate Tax rate between the two countries. Indian Corporate tax rate for domestic companies is at a whopping 30%, whereas Singapore’s corporate tax is more attractive at 17%.
Dividend Distribution Tax
In India, the dividend is paid from the company’s post-tax profits. However, the dividend amount that is paid is also taxed. Singapore avoids this double taxation and the company is not taxed on the dividends that are paid to the shareholders.
Capital Gains Tax
India’s Capital Gains Tax structure is high. It is anywhere between 15% and 20%. Such a high tax structure works almost like a penalty for entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Singapore does not have Capital Gains Tax within its Taxation framework.
GST Structure (Value Added Tax)
India’s GST structure ranges from 5% to 28%, depending on the products or services sold by the company. In Singapore, however, the value-added tax is fixed at 7% with many goods and services exempt from it as well.
The Indian government does not give any significant benefits to startups – either in Taxation or any other advantages. To put it bluntly, Singapore rolls out the red carpet for new entrepreneurs.
Infrastructure and Quality of Life
Singapore offers world-class infrastructure for burgeoning businesses and also a better quality of life. Indian Infrastructure is yet to reach that level and amenities of life can be challenging even for the rich elite within the country.
Global Advantage for Business Expansion
Singapore’s extensive network of tax treaties with other countries, including India, makes it easy for Indian companies to conduct international business. Of course, the bigger attraction is that businesses avoid double taxation on their income.
Number of Investment Deals Made in Tech Startups Based in Singapore from 2018 to the first half of 2020
Ease of Foreign Investment
India’s laws on foreign investment are complex with a lot of red tape. Singapore, however, makes it easy to do foreign investments which is quick, secure and confidential.
Singapore’s robust infrastructure for Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) is ideal for an Indian startup to operate the Singapore business as an M&A arm. Nearly all of the world’s investment banks, consulting firms and accounting firms have a strong presence in Singapore.
Efficient Legal System
Singapore has a clean, efficient and well-functioning legal system which is very attractive to international deal-makers. Any disputes can be settled either through Singapore’s court system or its extremely effective Alternative Dispute Resolution System.
Setting up a Holding Company
A Singapore-based holding company is a very common corporate structure for Indian startups. It is very useful when a company is growing and taking unquantified risks. Such a holding company can provide risk management and flexibility in terms of dividing the ownership of the component companies among various parties. Often the holding company may own the assets that are used by its subsidiaries. Investing in an Indian company through a holding company based in Singapore provides substantial tax benefits.
Indian businesses that deal with payments in foreign currencies run a significant currency risk, the target foreign currency moves in an adverse direction to the Indian Rupee. Due to the high volatility of the Indian Rupee, this risk is high and real. An alternate approach is to hold assets in stable currencies like USD, GBP, EURO or SGD. This is easily achieved by creating a Singapore subsidiary which has one of the most well-run foreign currency markets.
Conclusion
As more entrepreneurs join the growing Indian Economy consensus is building regarding providing recommendations to the Indian Government to pave the way for ease of operations for startups.
FAQs
Why do startups prefer Singapore?
Startups prefer Singapore because of its extremely attractive tax rates. Singapore’s corporate tax of 17% is one of the lowest in the world.
Why did Flipkart register in Singapore?
One of the most prominent reasons why Flipkart registered in Singapore is the customs duty. Compared to India, Singapore has no export duty and only a limited import duty on products like petroleum, tobacco, etc.
What are the benefits of having a company in Singapore?
The following are the benefits of having a company in Singapore:
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byActive.ai.
Companies in the B2C sector segment are progressively approaching an age of automated customer service, which is enhancing the brand experience for customers, thanks to technologies like AI-powered customer support bots.
Founded in 2016, Singapore-based startup Active.ai is creating intelligent virtual assistant that is allowing businesses to design automatic and insightful customer support service. Active.ai has developed a successful, patented conversational AI platform for financial firms, insurance firms, and capital markets that can be quickly implemented. Here is more about Active.ai, the startup story, and how this startup is helping businesses take their customer support service to the next level.
In June 2021, Active.ai partnered with Talisma, which is a major customer experience solutions provider. Talisma’s technological products and solutions will be strengthened as a result of the partnership, which will allow it to incorporate a next-generation conversational AI chatbot into its platform and make it available to its BFSI clients.
On their Conversational AI journey, BFSI companies may use Talisma and Active.ai’ s solutions. Active.ai and Talisma collaborated covers a wide range of use cases in Retail and Commercial Banking, Insurance, and Capital Markets, with solutions readily available on platforms like WhatsApp, as well as a full-proof seamless fallback for human assistance if needed.
About Active.ai and How it Works?
Active.ai is a Singapore-based fintech firm focusing on artificial intelligence, with a research and development center in Bengaluru. Active.ai has developed a cutting-edge, proprietary conversational AI platform for financial institutions, insurance firms, and capital markets that can be quickly implemented.
Triniti, their artificial intelligence engine, was created to provide end-users with meaningful, intuitive engagement across many channels such as SMS, phone, and IoT devices. Triniti has been developed to empower businesses to build a deep connection with their customers. This artificial intelligence engine uses Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Natural Language Generation technologies to cater to the specific customer support needs of financial institutions, insurance companies, and capital markets.
Furthermore, this solution is backed by the knowledge and experience of an executive team with over 60 years of senior-level industry experience, as well as a thorough grasp of the strategic and operational issues that their clients are facing. Financial institutions, insurance firms, and capital markets are all moving fast to stay relevant to shifting client expectations, and Active.ai arrives just in time. The team at Active.ai sees an amazing potential whereby businesses can establish a natural dialogue and more meaningful relationships with their customers using sophisticated conversational AI.
The following are some of the major characteristics of Active.ai
For balance queries and fund transfers, pre-built processes, pre-trained datasets, and pre-certified interfaces with Finastra are available.
Business rules, bespoke replies, and branding are all highly configurable features.
APIs are available for expanding functionality.
Supports iOS, Android, Web applications, the Facebook virtual agent, and Alexa and Google Assistant capabilities.
The “ai” in Active.ai stands for Artificial Intelligence as the enterprise is a creator of an artificial intelligence platform for enterprises that aims to provide conversational banking services.
Active.ai Company’s logo
Active.ai’s tagline says, “Conversational AI built for scale”
Active.ai – Founders and History
Ravi Shankar, Shankar Narayanan Srinivasan, and Parikshit Paspulati founded Active.ai in 2016.
Founders of Active.ai
Active.ai CEO Ravi Shankar previously served at a managerial position in HDFC bank. He was the VP & Head of Non-Branch-Delivery Channels at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. From 2004 to 2009, Ravi was Group Executive Vice President at Yes Bank. He co-founded Nevales Networks Pvt Ltd., which is a cloud-based managed security service provider in 2010. In 2016, Ravi co-founded Active.ai
Active.ai COO Shankar Narayanan Srinivasan started his career as a 3D Animator and went to become a serial entrepreneur. He co-founded companies like Cazh Pte Ltd( an online payment company that designed applications that let users make payments without revealing credit card and bank account numbers) and Tagit Pte Ltd ( a digital solutions company). In 2012, Shankar co-founded Fastcash Pte. Ltd, a unique platform that allows users to transfer value in the form of money, airtime, gift card, or any other tokens of value, and also digital content such as photo video, etc. through social networks and messaging platforms in a secure way.
Active.ai CTO Parikshit Paspulati worked with IT companies like CSS Corp. He was the CEO of Singapore-based software company Mobilestruct Pte Ltd from 2005 to 2008. Till 2014, Parikshit worked as the CTO of digital solutions’ company Tagit Pte Ltd. He founded an IT consultancy firm Finoculus Pte. Ltd in 2014. In 2016, he co-founded Active.ai with Shankar Narayanan Srinivasan and Ravi Shankar.
The idea of starting Active.ai first hit Shankar Narayanan, when he lost his wallet during an international trip. He was calling his bank to block his credit and debit cards, but he realised that it was not easy to connect to the customer support due to busy networks, and endless IVR menus. This lead to the idea of using AI to handle customer support for a better user experience. He discussed the idea with his friends Parikshit Paspulati and Ravi Shankar, which led to the formation of Active.ai in 2016.
The initial client of Active.ai was Axis Bank, followed by CIMB Bank, Income, FWD insurance, IndusInd Bank, and Hdfc Securities. Today the startup has many clients across the globe.
Active.ai – Mission and Vision
Active.ai’s vision statement says, “Our vision is to create augmented AI services that is easier to train and evaluate. By integrating powerful data analysis tools, such as Power BI, with AI services and data sets we can easily visualize the accuracy of our models.“
Active.ai – Services and Products
With an AI product platform that can be supplied on the cloud, Active.ai created its own IP. The major goal is to solve complicated problems by connecting to banks via APIs and making information available to clients in a courteous and cost-effective manner.
The multichannel platform enables its use on messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and IoT devices such as Alexa. The startup partnered with IBM, Infosys Finacle, Microsoft, and EdgeVerve Systems to provide financial services with 24-hour support via messaging and voice interfaces.
The two main products offered by Active.ai are –
Triniti – Triniti’s AI engine combines NLP and NLG components to let financial institutions communicate with consumers in a natural way. Its purpose is to automate some tasks between clients and banks, such as transactions and customer care. Triniti-powered chatbots are used to solve inquiries, saving banks’ time, money, and labor. Triniti’s algorithms are developed such that it can interpret customer’s intent, sentiment and emotions and interact with the customers accordingly.
Morfeus – Active.ai’s middleware engine, which was created at the Bangalore Innovation Lab, operates as a Java program for a web server. It uses artificial intelligence to link front-end channels, allowing banks to communicate with their consumers through mobile, chat, or voice.
Active.ai – Business Model
Active.ai has a Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription-based business model. Active.ai’s quick growth and reputation in the banking industry has resulted in a high level of involvement and confidence among clients, ensuring a stable and secure relationship between banks and customers.
Active.ai’s top competitors are Wso2, Apigee, DigitalGenius, Yodlee, MuleSoft, Xignite, Bloomberg, Mashape, Yellow Messenger, snapLogic, Barchart, 3scale, and Thomson Reuters.
Active.ai – Challenges Faced
As more and more enterprises are adopting AI to create better customer interaction services, the industry is slowly becoming more competitive. Although the AI business is not overly saturated, it is highly specialized, making it rather difficult. It’s a multibillion-dollar sector with enormous potential.
“AI has been available for 30 years, but businesses have just lately begun to use it. Today, enterprises world over are moving away from the mobile first vision to AI first with the core focus on customer engagement and new customer experience (CX),” says Ravi Shankar, Co -founder and CEO, Active Intelligence (Active Ai) Pvt Ltd.
Active.ai is a company that has received a lot of positive comments from its customers. With SaaS subscriptions beginning at 1500 users per month, Active.ai has made this platform extremely scalable. The Active.ai team thinks that by utilizing this ground-breaking technology, any financial institution would be able to embrace Conversational AI and provide excellent customer service.
Currently, Active.ai is operating throughout North America, Europe, Japan, and India. Active.ai employs about 40 employees across Singapore, Bangalore, and the United States. In the next few years, the company’s goal is to have 100 million end-users. The company also has plans to open offices in different locations across the globe and hire talent from different locations around the world.
Active.ai – FAQs
What does Active.ai do?
Active.ai develops a successful, patented conversational AI platform for financial firms, insurance firms, and capital markets that can be quickly implemented.
Who founded Active.ai?
Ravi Shankar, a former Group Executive Vice President of Yes Bank, Shankar Narayanan, and Parikshit Paspulati founded Active.ai in 2016.
Which country is Active.ai based in?
Active Intelligence is a Singapore-based fintech firm focusing on artificial intelligence, with a research and development center in Bengaluru.
Which companies do Active.ai compete with?
Active.ai’s top competitors are Wso2, Apigee, DigitalGenius, Yodlee, MuleSoft, Xignite, Bloomberg, Mashape, Yellow Messenger, snapLogic, Barchart, 3scale, and Thomson Reuters.
How does Active.ai make money?
To generate money, Active.ai uses a Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription-based business model.
Google Pay is a digital payments app that is a subsidiary of Google. Google Pay is a digital wallet that was initially released in the year 2015. It is one of the most commonly used digital wallets in India. Recently the company has announced that it would let users to send money through Google Pay from US to India and Singapore. Let’s look at the further details of this new feature offered by Google Pay.
Google Pay has announced that it would let users in the United States to send money to their friends, family and relatives in India and Singapore. This is an official mark of the entry of Google Pay into the remittance service market.
According to World Bank, India is one of the biggest overseas remittance receivers even though in the year 2020 the country had seen a drop in the remittance received of around 9% to INR 5,58,100 crores due to the global economic slowdown and the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been a rapid growth in the foreign remittances with the increase of migrant workers in the developed countries across the globe.
Banks that are eligible to Transfer money through Google Pay
Google has partnered with Western Union and Wise in order to provide the new service through the Google Pay app. Google had conveyed in a blog post that Western Union will offer free transfers while sending money through Google Pay until the 16th of June.
Google has also conveyed that Wise will provide free transfer only for the first time the customer sends money through Wise on transfers up to USD 500 (around INR 36,700). However, Google has not yet officially announced the exact transfer fee that will be charged by the service provider after their series of free transfers.
Limitations of Money Transfer through Google Pay
One of the major limitations of this new foreign transfer feature or service provided by Google Pay is limited only to two countries that is India and Singapore. However, the tech giant has conveyed that by the end of the year they have plans to expand their services to around 280 countries globally.
Another important point to be noted is that the foreign transfers through the Google Pay app are limited to individual users. This means that the new feature doesn’t let the individuals from the United Statestransfer money to any business organizations in India or Singapore.
Another important point to be noted is that users from India will not be able to transfer money to the United States. This feature or service will be available for the US users using Google Pay app.
Steps to Transfer money from US to India through Google Pay
Here are the steps to be followed for the users who would want to send money from the US to India or Singapore.
Step 1 – To send money through Google Pay, firstly you will have to search the user on the Google Pay app.
Step 2 – Tap the pay button and choose either Western Union or Wise.
Step 3 – You will have to ta continue and see the exact amount of money that the recipient will receive.
Step 4 – Again Tap continue and choose how would you want the recipient to receive the money, you will be able to choose between UPI or through cash pickup.
FAQ
Does Google pay require a bank account?
Yes, Google Pay requires a bank account.
Is Google pay available in USA?
Google Pay is available in USA and You can also send money from US to India.
Can I send money from USA to India using Google pay?
Google Pay will now let users in the US to send money to their friends and families in India and Singapore.
Conclusion
The new service would enable the tech giant to mark a spot in the foreign remittance market. The company plans to expand to more than 200 countries and territories to Western Union and around 80 countries through Wise by the end of this year.
