Selecting suitable financial instruments is a must for growing your money. Your choice of financial instruments play a decisive role in achieving your financial goals. However, with a host of options available, it is tough to find the best deal. BankBazaar came into being to solve this very problem. BankBazaar lets you easily compare the various saving and investment options available in the market, so that you can find the best one that suits you.
Headquartered in Chennai, BankBazaar is a dynamic online marketplace with a conscious initiative to inculcate financial awareness among the Indian consumers by giving them instant and customized rates on the wide array of financial instruments present in the Indian Financial market.
Bankbazaar was Founded in 2008 by Adhil Shetty, Arjun Shetty, and Rati Shetty, BankBazaar is an initiative to provide a long-awaited solution to the rigged Indian banking system. In the industry of fintech startups, BankBazaar has set a different stratum for itself over the years.Here we have curated some vital and interesting facts and figures about BankBazaar, that will let you get an insight of this esteemed company.
BankBazaar is all about aiding the consumers with better rates and more awareness as to what goes into the financial markets. BankBazaar.com is the world’s first neutral online marketplace that gives customers instant customized quotes on loans, credit cards, mutual funds & insurance products.
One can instantly search for, compare and apply for loans, credit cards, mutual funds, and insurance products on the site. Having partnered with India’s leading financial institutions & insurance firms, BankBazaar provides great deals aptly.
BankBazaar – Founder
Adhil Shetty, Arjun Shetty, and Rati Shetty are the founders of BankBazaar.
Adhil Shetty is the CEO of BankBazaar. Adhil graduated from the well renowned Columbia University of New York in International finance and Business after taking an engineering degree from College of Engineering, Guindy, this man has had a fair share of versatility required in the field. Before co-founding BankBazaar, he was a senior consultant at Deloitte.
BankBazaar COO Arjun Shetty, has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy and a master’s degree in Operations Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Before co-founding BankBazaar, Arjun was working as a Senior Product Manager at Amazon.
Rati Shetty is the CPO of BankBazaar, Born into a family of entrepreneurs she was always naturally inclined to be an entrepreneur. She backed a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from MOP Vaishnav College in Chennai. After completing her higher education, she spent a couple of years working in Taipei and Miami.
All of this dates back to 2007 when one of the co-founders – Rati Shetty was trying to avail a home loan with her husband Arjun Shetty. And the couple realized that getting a home loan in India was not at all easy. They approached several banks and soon were very frustrated as the whole process was both cumbersome and time-consuming.
As a result, Rati wanted to crack a quick solution to the home loan application process. She did this by turning an entrepreneur who would make the entire process easy. And that’s how the idea of BankBazaar germinated in her mind which she started with Arjun and his brother Adhil Shetty in 2008.
The whole business model of BankBazaar revolves around the fact that they need to manufacture a totally paperless loaning stage and alter the way customer credits are passed out.
BankBazaar offers its clients the choice to apply for all types of loans namely Personal Loans, Car Loans, Home Loans, Credit Cards, Fixed Deposits, Health Insurance, Life Insurance, and Car Insurance. And these are some of the revenue yielding sources for this Fintech platform BankBazaar.
According to a report by Inc 42, in FY16-17, the operational revenue of BankBazaar stood at INR 53.92 Crore, with total revenues of INR 71.16 Crore. And in FY 17-18, BankBazaar closed a revenue of INR 240 Crores. In October the same year, one of the founders, Adhil stated that the BankBazaar platform got close to 23 million visitors, marking a 100% growth from October 2016 which only saw close to 11.5 million visitors.
In 2017, this fintech platform BankBazaar made quite a few headlines for raising a massive $30 Million from the credit reporting agency, Experian. BankBazaar has also raised INR 375 Crore Series C funding.
Further, to put higher stakes on their international aspirations and increase the profit margins, the company had committed to invest close to $3 Million for expansion in countries like Singapore and Malaysia each.
To date, it has raised $110 Million through funding from marquee investors such as Sequoia Capital, Amazon, Fidelity Growth Partners, , Experian among others. Here is a detailed table of the funding raised by BankBazaar till date-
BankBazaar compititors are some companies like Policy Bazaar, Easypolicy, My Insurance Club to name a few. Though BankBazaar is one of the first fintech startups that simplified the complex task of choosing saving and investment tools for the Indian customers, these competitors are growing to acquire a fair share in the market.
With a team strength of over 1000, today BankBazaar is a trusted marketplace for many who are seeking profitable financial instruments for investment. The company claims that in the year 2018, 169 million unique visitors visited BankBazaar’s website to buy financial products.
BankBazaar started with a few products on its website back in 2008, has now grown to offer a versatile range of financial products that include loans, credit cards, insurance and mutual funds from around 85 partners across the website and mobile application.
Moreover, with 85 financial institutions on board, BankBazaar added close to 15 to 20 new financial institutions in 2017. Also, BankBazaar added new products to its portfolio including two-wheeler insurance and free consumer credit score in association with Experian. Bank Bazaar also moved on to add completely paperless mutual funds in its versatile product mix.
According to certain reports, the CEO and co-founder of BankBazaar, Adhil attributes this growth to the company’s significant push towards ‘paperless’ deployment of financial products. At present, close to 60% of their total products on the platform are offered in a paperless digital manner thus not requiring customers to submit any physical documents.
Frequently Asked Questions About BankBazaar
When was BankBazaar founded?
BankBazaar was founded in 2008.
Who are BankBazaar’s competitors?
BankBazaar’s top competitors are Coverfox, Easypolicy, PolicyBazaar.
What is the bankbazaar business model?
BankBazaar’s revenue comes from applications-based commission from banks. There is no commission or charge to customers.
How many employees does BankBazaar have?
BankBazaar has a team of 1050 employees at 5 offices.
Where is BankBazaar’s headquarters?
BankBazaar’s headquarters is in Chennai Tamil Nadu, IN
Who is BankBazaar’s CEO?
BankBazaar’s CEO is Adhil Shetty.
How much revenue does BankBazaar generate?
BankBazaar’s operating revenue grew to INR. 103 Crore.
What is BankBazaar?
BankBazaar.com is the world’s first neutral online marketplace that gives customers instant customized quotes on loans, credit cards, mutual funds & insurance products.
What is BankBazaar credit score?
A credit score is a 3-digit number between 300 and 900 that describes the credit merit of a credit card holder or of an individual who has taken a loan. Same works for Bankbazaar credit score. In order to grant a loan in India, the potential lenders use the credit scores calculated by CIBIL TransUnion, Experian, Equifax or CRIF High Mark.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by TruckSuvidha
Trucks play a very important role in the Indian transportation sector. Studies have shown that over 65% of India’s cargo is being carried on trucks. With exploding domestic consumption rates in the country, improvement and extension of highways and warehousing facilities, truck transportation is gaining more momentum. However, the matter of concern here is that the truck transportation industry is still very unorganized and fragmented, due to which all the players of the industry, i.e the shipper, transporter, broker and fleet owners face problems.
TruckSuvidha, a logistics startupbased in Yamuna Nagar (Haryana) is instilling order to this unorganized sector by bringing together all the players of the truck transportation industry, for the mutual benefit of all.
Read more about TruckSuvidha Success Story, Business Model, Funding, Revenue, Growth, Logo etc.,
TruckSuvidha is ensuring quick transportation of essential commodities during the Global Pandemic. When the entire economy has come to halt during lockdown, one thing that is still moving is the transportation of food and other essential items from one place to another. TruckSuvidha, the first online portal developed for the transportation industry in India, had also shut its business temporarily during the lockdown.
Later, the government listed the start-up on National Agriculture Market (eNAM), an online portal that helps farmers avail the trucks for the transportation of food and related materials across the nation.
“We understand the seriousness of the situation. We have joined the mission of connecting farmers with truck drivers so that the essential commodities can be supplied at the earliest to ward off any shortage in the markets,” said Amit Punaini, Co-founder of TruckSuvidha
TruckSuvidha connects shipper, transporters, truck drivers, fleet owners, customers and all other entities related to truck transportation. Thus it makes transporting goods easy for shippers or transporters and likewise makes it easy for truck drivers or fleet owners to find load.
Founded in 2014, this startup envisions to bring all the players of the road transportation-related industry under one umbrella so that each one of them can provide better service to its customers.
Our long term vision is building a strong platform for them where they can easily search and avail the solution related to problems of transportation industry.
TruckSuvidha is one of the leading players of the transportation sector providing services to truck drivers, brokers, logistics, packers and movers, industries, fleet owners, commission agent, etc. Services offered by TruckSuvidha are –
Online Truck Booking Service
Facility to list your idle vehicles and get a return load
Displaying Real-time information on available loads and trucks.
Online and easy to access transport directory
“The USP of TruckSuvidha would be the concept, ease of use and the information it provides. This is a unique concept combined with a lot of field work and a host of people ready to be a part of it” the founders say.
TruckSuvidha authenticates the information of customers (transporters, packers & movers, individual/industries) who make registration on the site by verifying their mobile number and by taking pan card and service tax no, which makes the platform reliable.
The company has an excellent customer care team that sees to it that the users who are not so much educated and are not comfortable in using the platform get all the assistance required.
TruckSuvidha – Founders and Team
Amit Punaini and Ishu Bansal are the founders of TruckSuvidha.
Amit Punaini and Ishu Bansal – Founders, TruckSuvidha
Amit Puniani is a passionate businessman, who has always wanted to start a venture which could be helpful for society. Thus he along with Ishu Bansal started TruckSuvidha with the aim to organize the unorganized truck transportation sector.
Ishu Bansal, a software engineer by profession also had a dream to have a startup through which he could make a positive difference in society.
As it is said, like minds think alike, Ishu with his technical background, and Amit with his resources are set on a path to make an impact in the lives of the not so educated section of people, who are associated with truck transportation, with the help of technology.
Currently, TruckSuvidha has a team size of about 45-50 members.
Team TruckSuvidha
How Did TruckSuvidha Start?
Ishu was a software engineer by profession, and was doing well in his career but somehow felt that it was not his calling to be just another software engineer. He wanted to do something more worthwhile. Ishu’s family owned a plywood manufacturing unit. He observed how problematic it was to transport manufactured goods. He saw that there were always some or the other issue that businesses have to face in transporting their goods. This instigated Ishu to do something to solve this problem. As he usually does, he discussed this idea with Amit. Being from a business background, Amit too found the idea interesting and decided to be a part of it, ultimately leading to the inception of TruckSuvidha.
The duo started their journey from a visit to the Azadpur Mandi and interacting with the people who actually are in this industry. This made them believe that they are on the right path and could do something to bring about a change to the lives of these people associated with the transportation of goods. TruckSuvidha was launched in September 2014 in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana.
We realized how unorganized this sector was, which required a bit of technology & innovation to turn things around. Some common problems were the hassle a customer has to face while booking a truck, difficult life of a truck driver and potential business losses faced by transporters all of which had a solution. We are here to provide that solution.
The name TruckSuvidha depicts the core services provided by the company.
The brand name “TruckSuvidha” is short, easy to pronounce, and users easily understand that what we are offerings.
TruckSuvidha Logo
TruckSuvidha’s tagline is “Think Ahead”, which reflects the aim and vision of the company. The company’s logo is simple and easily identifiable.
TruckSuvidha – Business Model and How it works
With TruckSuvidha, the user gets all freight transport solutions under one roof. With a few clicks, user can register as a customer, transporter or packer or mover. Trucksuvidha.com is offering free load posting to all the big and small transport players as well as to other sectors that are directly or indirectly linked with the transport sector and free listing their firm on the website.
The customer can choose the city, date, material, weight and truck type as per their choice and book a vehicle for transportation without having to talk to transporters directly.
The transporters can list their entire catalog of vehicles available. Customer’s requests will directly reach the transporter. TruckSuvidha will get requests directly from the customer as well as the transporter.
TruckSuvidha works on a subscription based revenue model. It provides a range of subscriptions from half yearly to yearly depending upon one’s requirement. As it targets truckers, transporters and service providers alike the subscription packages are specific to their needs. Apart from the core vendor details, everything is free on the website.
TruckSuvidha – Funding and Investors
TruckSuvidha raised an undisclosed amount led by Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) as Seed Round in November 2019. GAIL is the Government of India owned natural gas processing company that received the Maharatna status in 2013. With its presence in 32 Indian cities, 34000 registered transporters and 332000 trucks with an average of 1550 bookings each day, TruckSuvidha aims to expand its territory to more Indian cities and reinforce the backend technology.
TruckSuvidha – User Acquisition
TruckSuvidha uses digital platforms to reach out to its targeted customers. Creating brand awareness helped TruckSuvidha to acquire its first set of customers within a short span of time. The company strives to provide excellent services to its users to retain the customer base.
Running any business without cash flow is the most difficult phase for any business as rightly said by Ishu and Amit. The TruckSuvidha team manages the cash flow constraints by making the right strategies, identifying important expenses and through optimization of resources.
Some other challenges that the team is facing are-
Winning the trust of people, as people think that digital platforms are not safe and secure.
Providing knowledge of the internet to the users.
Changing the mindset of the people who are habituated to work in the traditional way.
TruckSuvidha – Competitors
Rivigo and Blackbuck are some competitors of TruckSuvidha. However, TruckSuvidha’s market existence is more than that of its competitors as claimed by the founders. Besides, it also promises to offer its users easy and affordable subscription plans in comparison to the competitors.
Most of our competitors have a sizeable cut in eat and every deal, on the other hand, we offer our services at easily affordable prices. Our services and subscriptions are unique and we plan to introduce more such facilities over a period of time which nor only proves helpful for the customers but the entire industry as a whole.
As said by the founders, earlier the transporters were not even ready to get registered but now they are doing self-registration and calling TruckSuvidha for the services, which is a great achievement.
TruckSuvidha currently has over 33933 transporters in its network. Besides, around 16898 customers and 1968 packers and movers are associated with TruckSuvidha. The revenue earned annually by the company is approximately $4 Million.
For us, every single customer is valuable. For inviting customer, it is most important that you must have something that is satisfying the need of the society. We are happy that we had built something that is actually what they required.
Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs
Who is the founder of TruckSuvidha?
Amit Punaini and Ishu Bansal are the founders of TruckSuvidha.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.
‘Education is freedom’ said famous Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Education is meant to liberate us from ignorance. Education in its real sense should allow us to experience the joy of knowing the unknown. However, when we look around we see that in our country education has become a matter of fear rather than freedom. Today’s education system merely seems to be a tool to make children job-ready rather than life ready.
The education system in India is simply letting the children absorb information and data rather than developing the thinking capabilities of the child. Chitra Ravi, a parent concerned over the damage that the present education system could do to her child, came up with certain solutions. Chitra started EZ Vidya, currently known as Chrysalis, that has come up with products that help in developing the thinking capabilities of the child, and makes education joyful, not fearful for the child. They also have a Chrysalis Home Learning program.
Recently, Chitra Ravi, founder of Chrysalis conducted Home Parent Webinar on 13th June 2020. The recording of the webinar gained 40K+ views on YouTube in just 2 days. You can watch the recording of the webinar at live.chrysalis.world.
StartupTalky interviewed Chrysalis’ Director Ganesh Subramanian.
Chrysalis has innovated an academic program for the formative years (2-12) years of a child’s education – “ThinkRoom”. Through the name itself, schools can easily understand the function of this program, which is to awaken thinking, and where it is applied – in Classrooms. ThinkRoom is designed with a vision of awakening human potential in every child. The Curriculum (pedagogy) is created with a child-centric philosophy.
Framework for Human Potential
Our school system produces children who are tested for memory in exams and not conceptual or thinking skills. In the past children were handed down information, without considering the development of their social thinking, emotional thinking, academic thinking, or meta-cognitive thinking.
Chrysalis does not wish to hand down information. They ensure that the children develop and practice the vital skill of thinking in relation to the subjects being taught, they form habits of collaboration and self-management very early on when their personalities are forming very deep notions about life and how to live in this world.
Chrysalis’ learning solutions can be adopted by any board or any school, as the solutions are designed under the guidance of NCF (National curriculum framework) 2005 in terms of the design of the pedagogy. ThinkRoom is an integrated academic program for maths, English, science, and social studies in school. Chrysalis ThinkRoom is a synthesis of Product (Subject Books called Studios), Service Design (Continuous Professional Development training for teachers), and (Mitra Tab) Technology for Authentic Assessment. You can login to the ThinkRoom platform at mitra.chrysalis.world.
Chrysalis ThinkRoom though works within the constraints of the school syllabus, but completely transforming the way education is delivered. ThinkRoom awakens “thinking” in a child’s brain, and takes into account the whole brain, not just thinking that is academically brilliant, but while doing academics, they learn social and emotional and metacognitive skills, as the curriculum integrates learning in all dimensions within the context of the chapter being taught.
A management graduate, Chitra has a great passion for education. Chitra deftly combines her skills in conceptualization, story-boarding, and instructional design to deliver products and services which are dynamic and on par with any international curriculum standards.
Chitra has widely traveled to the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and South East Asia and has participated in many international training programs and conventions including the Project Zero conducted by the Harvard University exclusively for educators. She has also presented a program on the effective use of technology in the K-12 curriculum for one of the biggest satellite channels in India.
An English graduate and MBA degree holder, Chitra worked with Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank after graduation and later joined her family real estate business. She had no plans to venture into the education sector until she realized that what her daughter was being taught at school was contributing nothing to bring out her innate potential.
Being a parent she was genuinely concerned to see that most of the energy of the children at school was spent in rote learning rather than gaining practical experience. She noticed that even computer science which should be taught practically was being taught through textbooks rather than through practical training.
Children were wilting away due to the pressures of the system instead of blossoming into beautiful human beings – Ganesh says.
Chitra wanted to make a difference to a way computer science is being taught at schools, and she started Chrysalis. Chrysalis initially was into the development of a teacher training module (focused on both skills and dispositions) and ICT curriculum, which was designed to deliver computer literacy.
The ICT curriculum was designed based on Chrysalis’ philosophy of making the children learn better through thinking. This later paved way for Chrysalis ThinkRoom, where Chrysalis developed a curriculum based on its framework which is a combination of practices adopted by every progressive country in the area of education. You can check out ThinkRoom at mitra.chrysalis.world. The company was initially known as EZ Vidya and in 2016, it was named Chrysalis.
Chrysalis – Name, Tagline and Logo
Chrysalis’ logo is a butterfly. Chrysalis is the state of transformation from a pupa to a butterfly, and butterflies are as colorful as the different kids who Chrysalis reaches out to. Nothing better communicates what they intend to do and with whom, they intend to bring a transformation in the education system and love to make products that benefit the children.
Chrysalis’ team members were in communication with some schools through ICT program and when they came up with ThinkRoom, they promoted it organically, presented it in a lot of Principal forums, like sahodaya and more. They conducted Principal connect events across their reachable geography according to their capacity at the time.
The startup focused on consistent great product design, direct sales, and events that connected them to the stakeholders. Chrysalis is very organic in the way they proceed.
Chrysalis – User Acquisition
Schools are a complex ecosystem and the teachers, principals, school owners, parents; all of them are crucial, and it is important for Chrysalis that its curriculum is trusted by all these stakeholders. Therefore, it is different from SaaS products or other services offered in the market.
“School partnerships are an emotional bond”, says Ganesh.
Chrysalis team strives to maintain and nurture these valued bonds with its partner schools through continuous communication. Their campaigns are built to inspire transformation in the mind-sets of the stakeholders and, mostly BTL (Below the Line) in nature.
There is one campaign that brought Chrysalis a lot of traction – “Dream for the Child”, written by Chrysalis’ marketing head and recorded in Chrysalis CEO – Mrs. Chitra Ravi’s voice, it had a huge impact, and attracted 2000 members from different walks of life to join Chrysalis.
Chrysalis has a B2B businessmodel and their financial transactions are with the school authorities, specifically, the school owners. Chrysalis ThinkRoom is Chrysalis’ flagship product. A good part of their revenue is from this product.
Chrysalis – Funding and Investors
In 2018, Chrysalis raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors like Artha India Ventures, Menterra Venture Advisors, and Gray Matters Capital (GMC).
Actually, it is the children who motivate us to do our best – Ganesh says.
As competition is concerned, the Chrysalis team does not see the school ecosystem as a marketplace. Neither, they try to size up the competition to remain ahead of them.
Our product is designed to fundamentally change the nature of education while our competitors, to say it simply, are focused on making the delivery of the current education in its old state itself, faster, easier, better, etc. Yes, the market does perceive Chrysalis in the same category, so we don’t try to stay ahead, but simply communicate the divergent benefit that we are offering, and it requires an empowered school leader who is looking for such curriculum to associate with us – Ganesh says explaining Chrysalis’ view on competition.
In 2002, Chrysalis (EZ Vidya) entered into Wipro’s ‘Quality Education Forum‘. EZ Vidya within just 6 months from its inception became partners with Wipro for research in education.
In 2011, EZ Vidya received mBillionth Award for innovation in education for ‘Bridge IT‘, an initiative to use standard mobile phones for improving quality for teaching.
In 2013, Buzzle App was introduced by Chrysalis ( EZ Vidya). Buzzle was India’s first personalized learning and assessment app which is integrated with ‘Studio‘ ( Studio is a component of Chrysalis’ product – ‘ThinkRoom’)
In 2013, E Z Vidya Pvt. Ltd. was chosen as the Game Changer of the year from a pool of 63000 companies, by ET NOW Leaders of Tomorrow.
In 2017, Best Academic Innovative Curriculum, by Indian Education Awards.
In 2018, Chrysalis was featured among the top 7 companies in KIES EduAwards.
Chrysalis Founder, Chitra Ravi at The ET Now ‘Game Changer of the Year Award’, 2013
Chrysalis has partnered with 700 schools till now and has reached over 4,00,000 students. Chrysalis enjoys the highest retention rates in the industry with over 80%.
Besides, Chrysalis is now operating in 10 Indian states including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, and also Nepal and Africa. The company is also slowly reaching Maharashtra, Delhi, northern states of the country.
The company is aiming to scale up and reach as many schools they can, with a growth rate of 40%+.
We are organic in our leadership as well, so we have to see how this shapes up. Education is going through a transformation now, and we are rightly positioned to take a lead, because we already have a well developed curriculum framework, and as a proof of concept, we have 700 schools operational in the existing design.
Chrysalis envisions to awaken Human Potential in every child, and is aiming to scale from its current 700 partner schools to 1500 schools in 2020-21.
Chrysalis – FAQs
What is Chrysalis ThinkRoom?
Chrysalis has innovated an academic program for the formative years (2-12) years of a child’s education – “ThinkRoom”. The learning solutions can be adopted by any board or any school, as the solutions are designed under the guidance of NCF (National curriculum framework) 2005 in terms of the design of the pedagogy
Who founded Chrysalis?
Chitra Ravi is the founder and CEO at Chrysalis.
How much Funding did Chrysalis raise?
In 2018, Chrysalis raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors like Artha India Ventures, Menterra Venture Advisors, and Gray Matters Capital (GMC)
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Repos Energy
Founders of Repos Energy, Chetan Walunj and Aditi Bhosale Walunj, being petrol pump owners themselves were quite aware of the inefficiencies that plague the logistics model of the industry. They wanted to eliminate these efficiencies and consequently pass on the value that is generated to the end consumer. Thus, was the born of Repos Energy. They noticed that the traditional way of procuring diesel was not only making hassles for the businesses but also created a big menace for the environment.
Ratan Tata backedRepos energy is creating a sustainable ecosystem for the fuel distribution of India. Repos Energy have a vehicle as a product – the Repos Mobile Petrol Pump (RMPP) which helps the secure and smart delivery of diesel.
StartupTalky interviewed Aditi Bhosle Walunj (Founder of Repos Energy) to know the Success Story of Repos Energy along with getting a glance on Repos Energy Business Model, Founders, Funding, How it Started, Revenue Model, Growth & more..
January 2021 – Tata Motors and Repos Energy holds Energy Startup Summit 2021 to bring a “revolution” in India’s energy distribution system.
Repos Energy – About and Vision
Repos energy is creating a sustainable ecosystem for the fuel distribution of India. It has created an e-commerce platform where diesel consumers and delivery partners can get connected easily and be a part of a secure and transparent transaction.
Repos Energy also have a vehicle as a product – the Repos Mobile Petrol Pump which helps the secure and smart delivery of diesel.
Repos Energy
Repos Energy believes in more than just delivering diesel on the doorstep. It tends to create a healthy environment to live in and making one realize that they have infinite possibilities of being. Everyone in Repos wants to change the world for the better and make this nation a happier and prouder place to be.
Long term vision – Redefine Energy distribution around the globe and Explore new avenues: LPG, CNG, Hydrogen fuel cell, Electric etc
Short term vision – Ensure energy security for each and every individual in India; Farmers, Industries, Healthcare etc
Repos Energy is driving its force in the energy sector. The tables below indicate the market size and market share of Repos Energy. It believes that in next 5 years, Energy distribution models are going to change and consumers will get energy at the doorstep.
Market Size (India)
HSD Consumption
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
Annual (MMT)
84
88
93
98
103
109
Daily (litres)
258,506,849
272,724,726
287,724,586
303,549,438
320,244,657
337,858,113
Daily (Crore litres)
26
27
29
30
32
34
AMOUNT
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
INR
₹6,604,850,000,000
₹6,968,116,750,000
₹7,351,363,171,250
₹7,755,688,145,669
₹8,182,250,993,681
₹8,632,274,798,333
INR (Crores)
₹660,485
₹696,812
₹735,136
₹775,569
₹818,225
₹863,227
USD
$88,064,666,667
$92,908,223,333
$98,018,175,617
$103,409,175,276
$109,096,679,916
$115,096,997,311
USD (Billion)
$88
$93
$98
$103
$109
$115
Repos planned market share
Year
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
RPP
32
320
3,200
9,600
19,200
32,000
Daily HSD Volume (Litres)
160,000
1,600,000
16,000,000
48,000,000
96,000,000
160,000,000
Volume % (National consumption)
0.06%
0.59%
5.56%
15.81%
29.98%
47.36%
INR (Crores)
₹409
₹4,088
₹40,880
₹122,640
₹245,280
₹408,800
USD (Billion)
$0
$1
$5
$16
$33
$55
SOURCE: PPAC (Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell)
Repos Energy – Founders and Team
Chetan Walunj (Engineer) and Aditi Bhosale Walunj (Forensics) are the founders of Repos Energy.
Chetan Walunj, Aditi Bhosale Walunj – Founders Repos Energy
“It didn’t take much time to onboard Aditi. Ever since we got married, we have been dabbling in between our restaurant and the retail petroleum outlet. Although there was always one consistent goal which was to make a difference! – Says Chetan Walunj (Founder of Repos Energy)
Chetan Walunj majorly looks after sales & Aditi Bhosale Walunj handles the marketing side of the business
Repos Energy Team
Repos Energy – Product/Services and USP
The Repos Mobile Petrol Pump (RMPP) is Equipped with best-in-class technology like the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence, Repos Mobile Petrol Pump is a futuristic vehicle, all set to support Businesses.
The RMPP is a wondrous innovation of the IoT (Internet of things) technology and uses an in-house built IoT controller to make sure that it delivers diesel in the most efficient, safe and secure way. The features like Brake Interlock, Double Dispensing Unit, Geo Fencing, etc.,
The RMPP is the most efficient, secure and reliable way of procuring diesel. It solves all the problems of the traditional way of diesel procurement like dead mileage, spillage and pilferage.
There was always a fire in Chetan & Aditi. A fire to aid people and change the world for the better. They always wanted to do something big which would bring some perspective to this world.
One day, they saw this persisting and traditional problem of fuel procurement, well, they took it up and decided to change it for the better. Chetan and Aditi noticed that the traditional way of procuring diesel was not only making hassles for the businesses but also created a big menace for the environment.
“Just when one such day we were dealing with continuous calls for diesel requirements from our retail outlet, a notification popped on my screen reading ,”Your order has been delivered” and that was our eureka moment!” – recalls Aditi
Initially, when Chetan and Aditi approached their friends and family, they were claimed to be not thinking straight! Founders being petrol pump owners themselves were quite aware of the inefficiencies that plague the logistics model of the industry. They wanted to eliminate these efficiencies and consequently pass on the value that is generated to the end consumer. Thus, was the born of Repos Energy
Ideation, Designing, Prototyping: RPP
CurrentRMPPwent through multiple iterations to make it safe, efficient, and user friendly which would enable transparent transactions thereby eliminating inefficiencies (dead mileage, spillage, pilferage, leakage, etc.)
Repos Mobile Petrol Pump
Repos Energy – Startup Launch
Initially, nobody knew about a Mobile Petrol Pump. People used to call them Bowsers. So Chetan and Aditi (Founders of Repos Energy) started out by researching their target audience. As the business is based on B2B model, they could research better in a concise format.
For the sales of the Repos Mobile Petrol Pump (RMPP), they studied the geography of the target group i.e., The Retail Petrol Pump Outlet owners. Chetan and Aditi pitched them the new technology, legality and the superior quality of of the product, thereby gaining the trust of the dealers.
For the consumers i.e., who brought diesel from Repos’ application, founders pitched them the experience. With the easy, efficient and transparent delivery of the diesel at their doorstep, Repos Energy got some traction quickly.
One of the major challenge faced by the startup was the Government regulations. But after a point of time, things sorted as they were able to convince the government that this business model was sustainable and had a power to generate employment, leading to the contribution of the nation’s growth.
Founders of Repos Energy have always believed in the power of YES and positivity. Everythingis possible if one has the positive will to fulfill dreams.
Thus, it had to be RElentless POSitive – REPOS. Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. It only keeps flowing. Thus they symbolized the same in the Repos’ infinite loop
Repos Energy’s Tagline is ‘Fuelled by Yes”
Repos Energy Logo
Repos Energy – Business Model
Repos Energy works on B2B & B2C business model. It Bridges the gap between supply and demand.
Repos Energy’s revenue model is simple. It charges commission from the end consumers on the basis of distance, time and quantity of diesel required. The Pricing will be calculated by an algorithm developed by Repos Energy (Platform)
Repos Energy – Funding and Investors
Repos Energy has been funded by Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata.
Repos Energy is much more than just being about the sales and the numbers. When COVID-19 hit and the team realized about the situation of migrant laborers, everyone in the organization jumped in and decided to raise funds, make ration kits and go deliver them personally.
We called that campaign ‘Lend A Hand’ and that was by far the most successful campaign we ever conducted.
Repos Energy – Growth
Repos Energy is spread across India – more than 130 cities, more than 500 partners, more than 5000 consumers.
Repos Energy has a market share of more than 50%
Its plan for next 1-2 years is to develop a network of more than 19000 partners across India
Repos Energy is growing at a pace of 10X every year: 32-320-3200 and so on
Fuel buddy, My petrol pump, Humsafarare the Top Competitors of Repos Energy.
Tools used by Repos Energy to run the Company
CRM (ZOHO)
ATS (Applicant tracking system)
G-Suit
Knowlarity
WinSMS
Zoom
SendinBlue
WordPress
Unbounce
Repos Energy – Recognition and Achievements
Mrs. Aditi Walunj (Founder of Repos Energy) has delivered a TED talk.
Repos Energy – Future Plans
Repos Energy recently launched a new campaign called the VOICE OF INNOVATION and in which they launched a new model of the Repos Mobile Petrol Pump – VO ALPHA. There are new features like Double Dispensing Unit. Repos Energy plans to grow PAN India and go global too.
Repos Energy – FAQs
Who are the founders of Repos Energy?
Chetan Walunj and Aditi Bhosale Walunj are the founders of Repos Energy.
What is mobile petrol pump?
These mobile Repose Energy petrol pumps can deliver fuel to the customers through a mobile application
What is Repos Energy?
Ratan Tata backedRepos energy is creating a sustainable ecosystem for the fuel distribution of India. Repos Energy have a vehicle as a product – the Repos Mobile Petrol Pump (RMPP) which helps the secure and smart delivery of diesel.
Who are the competitors of Repos Energy?
Fuel buddy, My petrol pump, Humsafarare the Top Competitors of Repos Energy.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Sqrrl.
Today, in contrast to savings, the internet offers various unprecedented methods to spend money. One can easily see that spending have become increasingly easier and savings has become gradually difficult. To bridge this huge chasm between saving and spending patterns, Sanjeev and Samant decided to tap a new market – the millennials & GenZs , by launching Sqrrl.
Sqrrl is a wealth management platform founded by Samant Sikka (Chief Dreamer), Sanjeev Sharma and Dhananjay Singh. The Sqrrl team works to simplify personal finance for millions of young Indians. Sqrrl’s mission is to impact the lives of 3 million young Indians by helping them save, invest and prosper by 2021!
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Samant Sikka (Founder & Chief Dreamer, Sqrrl) to know about the Sqrrl Success Story along with getting a glance on How Sqrrl started, Sqrrl Funding, Business model, growth, founders, products, future plans & more…
Sqrrl is a platform aimed at helping young Indians save their earnings while keeping things simple. With Sqrrl, it’s not about putting away large chunks of salary, but rather small sums with just a couple of clicks. Sqrrl is a wealth management platform. Sqrrl is an app-only platform with the MVP around savings and investment products powered by Mutual Funds.
Technology is being used for the greater good today, even in personal lives. It is an attempt to stay at the forefront of this new wave of technology by combining a great user experience with something substantial. The Sqrrl team works to simplify personal finance for millions of young Indians.
As of today (Feb 2021), Sqrrl provides 7 different products under their app —
Sqrrl operates in the personal finance space. The main target users are young Indians – both millennials and GenZs.
With an acute focus on the financial aspirations of the new age generation, Sqrrl is geared to capitalize on India’s 440 Mn millennials (390 Mn GenZ). The challenge here is that the younger generation finds financial products, boring, jargonized and not adding any value to their lives. The company wishes to change that by offering simple financial solutions that will bring a huge change in the financial wellness of its customers.
Sqrrl – Product/Service offered
The Sqrrl platform gauges the personalized investment needs of individuals and matches them with funds available in the industry. It is like a personal finance buddy that one can rely on to save and grow money. Sqrrl is an app-only platform with the MVP around savings and investment products powered by Mutual Funds.
As of today (Feb 2021), Sqrrl provides 7 different products — Systematic Investment Plan (SIP), Goal-based investment, Axe Tax, Sqrrl Away, Lump sum investment, Fixed Deposit and Personal Loans — under the app.
Samant Sikka (Chief Dreamer), Sanjeev Sharma and Dhananjay Singh are the co-founders of Sqrrl.
Samant Sikka (Founder & Chief Dreamer, Sqrrl)
Samant Sikka, the founder of the fintech has over 20 years of experience in financial services. He has major stints in Sales, Business Development, Strategy and Marketing with firms like Franklin Templeton, AIG Investments, Goldman Sachs & Axis Asset Management.
Samant Sikka, Chief Dreamer & Founder, Sqrrl
Sanjeev Sharma (Co-founder, Sqrrl)
Co-founder, Sanjeev Sharma, has over 16 years experience in financial services with background in business setup and expansion, financing and operational excellence with firms like Franklin Templeton Investments, AIG Investment & Pine Bridge Investments. Sanjeev and Samant have worked together in the past in Franklin Templeton and AIG and continued to be in touch.
Dhananjay Singh (Co-founder, Sqrrl)
The founders were very clear about the role of technology in solving the challenges for the customers and therefore, decided to bring in Dhananjay, who brought the Tech domain to the team which plays a critical role in our business. Co-founder, Dhananjay Singh is an IIT-Kharagpur graduate with an experience of over 20 years in data science and analytics, a professional with products and canned solutions background with firms like PWC, Tech Mahindra, United Healthcare and Axtria.
Sqrrl came into existence in early 2017 with the sole aim of simplifying personal finance for young Indians. The journey behind establishing Sqrrl is best described by Mr. Samant Sikka and Mr. Sanjeev Sharma who collectively have over 37 years of experience in the financial services.
Between 2006 to 2016, both Samant and Sanjeev observed an alarming trend with regards to savings in Indian households. India, which is generally described as a saving-oriented country, saw a huge dip in household savings in the last decade wrapping up in March 2016. Statistics show that household savings fell from 22% to 19% as compared to GDP’s ratio, which increased from Rs 0.23 lakh crore to Rs 1.36 lakh crore during the same 10 year period.
Today, in contrast to savings the internet offers various unprecedented methods to spend money. One can easily see that spending is becoming increasingly easier and savings is becoming gradually difficult. To bridge this huge chasm between saving and spending patterns, Sanjeev and Samant decided to tap a new market – the millennials & GenZs.
Before launching Sqrrl, they did a hands-on primary research by meeting with salaried millennials at coffee shops, eateries and even hosted ‘Pizza & Beer on us’ sessions. Sanjeev and Samant ended up meeting approximately 400 young Indians in the age group of 25-35. The intent was to understand their relationship with money and challenges, whatever they were. Through these sessions, they collected some very powerful feedback.
Sanjeev and Samant says – The biggest lesson that we learnt is that for millennials the value of money as a concept has completely morphed into money-as-a currency, a mere tool to spend on stuff that they like.
Along with that, the biggest revelation faced by the founders of Sqrrl was – that a significant portion of this generation is living from salary to salary with barely any savings. Even though they are starting to work earlier than the older generations and getting higher salary packages, they are still struggling to save for anything. Using this feedback, they built multiple financial products to promote both savings and investing.
The founders were very clear about the role of technology in solving the challenges for the customers and therefore, decided to bring in Dhananjay, who brought the Tech domain to the team .
As one would think, the name Sqrrl was inspired by the tiniest of animals, Squirrel.
Sqrrl Logo
The main reason behind it is that a squirrel, despite its small size, plans for the future carefully. It saves a small amount of nuts gradually to build a full stock for the winters. And it does so, by being prepared for even the most desperate times in advance. The sheer size of the whole affair – a small squirrel working hard to save small everyday to make a full pile for the winters is very motivating. The main idea to imbibe financial discipline into young minds through a new financial product – to promote both savings and investing which fortunately, was achieved very well by this.
That’s what the founders of Sqqrl wanted people to think of when they looked at the brand. They wanted to use a young, fresh and vibrant brand name which millennials will associate with. Saving a small amount of money over a long period of time can do wonders.
Sqrrl’s business model is a combination of B2B and B2C.
Sqrrl has an app that helps the customers directly in saving and investing in mutual funds and taking personal loans
Sqrrl also has multiple integrations with banks and NBFCs that helps in bringing a substantial amount of revenue.
The platform’s subscription called Sqrrl Prime is another source of monetization for the business.
Sqrrl – Startup Launch
For the first 100 users of Sqrrl , it was a soft launch. The initial users were mainly people from the founders’ network. Slowly, the team started communicating with its target users through educating them about the need for financial planning in today’s world.
With education comes awareness and we were banking on that awareness to drive our product further into the hearts and mind of people. Facebook and Google definitely helped us in increasing the traction during initial days and even now – Says Samant Sikka (Founder, Sqrrl)
The initial challenge faced by the Sqrrl team was to build a Minimum Viable Product(MVP). There is no debate that one will always have aspirations to build a fully loaded offering with scarce resources. Humans are very optimistic like but it was important to draw a line. Therefore, few of the important decisions that the team had to make were about saying NO. Say NO to many features that the various customers will need. Instead of that they focused on building a sharp cut around a user persona with a particular use case.
In Sqrrl case, the team decided to start with saving and investment products, powered by mutual funds, specifically converting the challenges that they had heard from the target audience into Sqrrl’s offerings. However, all the challenges get magnified in case of financial services as there are multiple regulations to adhere to in letter and spirit. The list of things that one cannot do is longer than the things that you one do.
Since the founders of Sqrrl came from the industry some of the industry partners were very encouraging and offered support in making the journey of Sqrrl less complex. The other important challenge was around theproduct, execution and team. The enough time was spent on studying the ecosystem to build a product that spoke to people in everyday life.
An important decision that the Sqrrl team took was not outsourcing the technology, which meant that they had to slowly but surely start to put together a handpicked team of competent and domain experts who had been able to deliver a great product in a short time frame. There are other challenges that need attention in early days which are Product, Team, Execution, Infra and Funding. Some of these factors can be a big drag on the founder’s bandwidth, the ROTI (Return on Time Invested) is not very high, especially in early days.
“We made some decisions that helped us keep ourselves away from distractions. For example, one of the most important agendas was to keep fixed costs low and flexible, therefore we decided to work out of a co-working space Sproutbox” Says Samant
Fundraise is another time sapping activity and a big distraction from the core of the business.
“We, in the founding team were coming with approx. 2 decades corporate experience. Each decided not to raise any monies till we have demonstrated our ability to execute and therefore bootstrapped the venture initially. These were the easier parts which meant that we kept ourselves away from distractions” Samant added.
During 2020, Sqrrl expanded its wings beyond the sphere of savings and investment. It launched many new products and features to solve various financial problems of the customers. These include income tax return e-filing, starting a Fixed Deposit (FD), offering loans, a subscription plan called ‘Sqrrl Prime’ and protection products like accidental insurance.
Sqrrl’s partnership for offering Goal based investments with ICICI bank’s MINE, a millennial banking platform has also gone live in October, 2020.
Sqrrl – Funding and Investors
After almost a year being bootstrapped, Sqrrl raised the the first round of funding from Equanimity Ventures in June 2018 for 1 Million USD.
Sqrrl is fortunate to be led by a team of fantastic mentors including Carl Richards, Advait Dikshit and Shripad Nadkarni.
Carl Richards
Richards is a certified financial planner and has been the creator of the Sketch Guy column, appearing weekly in The New York Times since 2010. He is also the author of the book called The Behavior Gap which has been a huge hit.
Advait Dikshit
Dixit has been a management consultant for the past 19 years and is an avid speaker.
Shripad Nadkarni
Shripad Nadkarni is a brand and marketing Guru and presently also the co-founder of Maverix, which is a Mumbai based startup in the food space.
Sqrrl – Competitors
Some of the Top Competitors of Sqrrl in the market are Groww, ET Money, Fisdom and Scripbox.
Sqrrl got selected at the Reliance GenNext Hub, a scalerator program run by Reliance Industries and Microsoft ventures amongst 23 startups picked from approx. 1200 applications.
Sqrrl also have been featured in #Hot100 Startups in India.
The Sqrrl app has been featured on multiple occasions by both the Google Playstore and Apple App Store for its design and features
Sqrrl – Future Plans
In the future, the Sqrrl app plans on offering international investing, and stocks to its customers. Currently, the company is focusing extensively on partnering with banks, NBFCs and other platforms to enhance its distribution and reach.
In addition to that, Sqrrl have tie-ups with banking correspondent platforms and many more of these interesting partnerships are already under integration and closure. With the fast and fantastic evolution of the company, it is constantly finding channels to raise resources by speaking actively with financial and strategic investors.
Sqrrl – FAQs
What is Sqrrl?
Sqrrl is a wealth management platform founded by Samant Sikka (Chief Dreamer),Sanjeev Sharma and Dhananjay Singh. The Sqrrl team works to simplify personal finance for millions of young Indians.
Who are Sqrrl Founders?
Samant Sikka (Chief Dreamer),Sanjeev Sharma, Dhananjay Singh are the founders of Sqrrl.
How much funding has Sqrrl raised?
The first round of funding for Sqrrl came from Equanimity Ventures in June, 2018 for 1 Million USD.
Who are the Top competitors of Sqrrl?
Some of the competitors of Sqrrl in the market are Groww, ET Money, Fisdom and Scripbox.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Finin.
Suman Gandham was fascinated by the Neobanking wave in Europe. A neobank is a type of digital bank without any branches. Neobanking is completely online, rather than having physical presence at a location.
Founded in February 2019, Finin is India’s first, full-fledged consumer neobank to go live in the country. Since the launch in December 2020, Finin has seen about 4000 account opens and is looking forward to many in the coming days. One can open Finin Savings account in under 2 minutes with minimum KYC. Finin is a hyper-personalized neobanking platform, made with the purpose to bridge gaps using technology and help people develop a better relationship with money by simplifying antiquated banking services.
StartupTalky interviewed Suman Gandham (Founder of Finin) to get an idea on the Startup Story of Finin and to have a closer look on Finin Success Story, Funding, Business Model, Startup Idea, Founders, Growth & more…
Founded in 2019, Bengaluru based startup Finin is India’s first, full-fledged consumer neobank to go live in the country.
Finin provides users with a savings account powered by SBM and issues a VISA debit card. Finin helps empower users with Goal driven solutions via converting them into highly savings-driven financial disciplinarians through smart & relevant notifications, hyper-personalized solutions and nudge theorem to guide them into the 50-30-20 rule seamlessly.
Finin – Industry and Target Market
Finin is relevant across industries and market sizes and essentially a relevant product for anybody who has a smartphone and uses PFM (Personal Financial Management) or banking apps.
There is market size of 0.76 Billion, Finin can tap into. Finin started by targeting Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. Its main focus is white collar job holders with a salary range of 30k to 90k per month, freelancers, students and millennials.
Finin breaks its user base into 3 broad umbrellas – Spenders, Savers and Borrowers. The aim here is to convert Spenders and Borrowers into Savers and funnel them into the Invest category.
Suman Gandham and Sudheer Maram are the Co-founders of Finin
Suman Gandham and Sudheer Maram
When Suman Gandham, Founder of Finin, came back from Europe with the idea to start a neobank in India, he was already bouncing ideas off of Sudheer Maram, co-founder of Finin who is also from a Financial background.
They both share an entrepreneurial mindset and are childhood friends. They soon joined hands to start working on Finin in February 2019. Sudheer did a BE in Computer Science from Madras University. He has been heavily involved in the Financial space and worked as a senior analyst with Infosys. He heads Marketing & Operations in Finin while Suman handles the tech, product and business side of the company.
Finin founders and team
The company has 15 employees currently. The work culture is highly motivated, driven and at most times fun.
“We work and eat together like a family. We celebrate small victories and help each other across departments” – Says Suman Gandham (Founder, Finin)
The early core team was a well picked list of recommendations from friends and family and the singular motive was to identify those candidates who had a passion for the idea and the appetite to work in a competitive environment.
Luckily for Finin, the core team is aligned to the vision and mission of the company and are keen followers of the Fintech and product innovation space. Its core team members are from Fintech backgrounds. Most of them have worked in startups where they have helped products go from 0-1 and everybody has a shared affinity for the problem Finin is determined to solve.
Suman was a Fintech VC in Barcelona and was fascinated by the neobanking wave that gripped the continent. Having observed some of the most successful neobanks and their inner workings, Suman was clear that a concept like this in india was absolutely essential.
He was already in conversation with Sudheer Maram, his childhood friend, a fintech space enthusiast and a finance industry person to brainstorm and lay the foundation of the idea. Sudheer, jumped the bandwagon and soon in Feb 2019, the company was founded.
“A lot of people claim that India is underbanked, however the reality is that it is indeed overbanked. The only loose end is that the solutions offered by most banks are strikingly similar in a manner to say that they lack personalization, apt utilization of data or technological inclusions to make the customer journey seamless and intuitive. The banking infrastructure is indeed a cumbersome and tedious journey.A hyper-personalized neobanking platform like ours is made with the purpose to bridge gaps using technology and help people develop a better relationship with money by simplifying antiquated banking services” Says Suman Gandham, Founder of Finin
Finin is based out of Bangalore, India and was founded in February 2019. It went live on 2nd December 2019 as the first consumer neobank in India. Finin is an online-only consumer neobanking solution partnered with SBM Bank India. By creating an account, one essentially creates a Finin Savings account and is issued a Visa Signature powered debit card.
Finin – Product, Features and How it Works
Finin has created an easy-to-do onboarding sequence that lets a person create a Finin Savings account in under 2 minutes with minimum KYC. Once the SBM powered bank account is created, a VISA Finin debit card is automatically issued and delivered to the user. While the card arrives, the virtual card has a lot of functions which allows for online payments and transactions.
Further to this, a user has the opportunity to link their other bank accounts to the app to get a rounded view of all transactions and balance in one-app view. This in fact is a very sought after feature as per Finin users.
The Finin app also gives one the functionality to create monthly budgets, basis which nudge theorem, AI powered analytics and insights are used to send users the save-spend data, recommendations on the best practices, reminders on trial subscription cancellations, bill payments, tracking refunds and even highly personalized notifications such as whether a user must opt in for merchant embedded features like Zomato Gold or Swiggy Super.
The nudge theorem employs the 50-30-20 rule to guide users effortlessly towards smart financial choices. One can create Goals on the app to practice discipline and allocate a weekly or monthly amount towards this goal. This goal comes with an added feature called Round off transactions feature which when opted for, an extra amount of the users preference is deducted and saved aside for the Goal. This is akin to finding money in your old jeans pocket.
The main idea of Finin is to convert spenders and borrowers into savers and eventually investors so that they move down the road to financial discipline and further still financial independence.
Right from a high utility neobanking app offering improved features such as easy transactions, easy card management which includes blocking or unblocking a card at the click of a button or enabling/ disabling contactless payments, international payments, ATM withdrawals and online transaction through the app easily and limitlessly, Finin also offers a suite of wealth management features such as budgeting and goal management. These features come gratis with nudge theorem powered insights and analytics that will not only give one a fullscape view of finances but also guide one into financial planning, discipline and independence.
Every new concept comes with its fair share of hurdles but nothing that has been difficult to overcome. We have fostered some very meaningful partnerships to align with our vision and offer the best version of the product we intended to create – Says Suman (Founder, Finin)
Finin is an acronym for Financial independence and that is how the team arrived at the name. The tagline, a new approach to banking was in fact exactly what the founders were sure to create. The logo is a tiered arrow pointing upwards indicating monetary stability, growth and independence.
Finin Logo
Finin – Business Model and Revenue Model
Finin is an app-based platform available in iOS and android devices. The founders intently looking at the user behavior and based on the findings, they we will be hashing out a revenue model at a later stage.
Finin – Startup Launch and Customer Retention
Finin team have been running a waitlist for a less than a year and nearly 10,000 people were already on the waitlist. So Finin’s beta and first set of customers came from here.
Finin noticed the largest influx from word of mouth marketing. The Finin team did things right by talking about Finin way before launch and onboarding a waitlist of exclusive early users. This also created noise among Fintech buffs and others in general. Customer retention is purely based on the features already implemented and the future roadmaps.
“We strive to offer impeccable and quick customer service which also aids with Customer retention” Says Finin Founder
The adoption of a new concept within the Indian population which is so hardwired to use tried and tested banking names, is probably the only challenge in paper. However, the Finin team have been able to navigate through this seamlessly by creating awareness, addressing the problem and solution together and even propagating financial literacy.
There is a general unawareness of finances and money management across India. Growing up, everybody is told to save but not quite told how. FDs and RDs ruled the roost but the general populace is unaware of smart financial decisions, the right financial terms and jargons and cannot, due to lack of awareness, pick the right options for themselves when it comes to selecting the best financial manager suite.
Banking institutions lack personalization due to their one-size-fits-all approach. It is also cumbersome to gain a 360 degree view of financial management and investments through such institutions. Having identified this problem, Finin aims to work as a go-to app for everyone’s money management.
Finin – Marketing Campaign
sincThe team at Finin noticed that quirky and relevant campaigns do extremely well. It ran a series called #NoWayHosay on its social media platforms. It also ran a #CashAgainstHumanity contest which really boosted Finin’s traction.
Since Finin’s launch in December 2019, it has seen about 4000 account opens and many more are coming on a day on day basis. The product adoption has been excellent as per customer feedback.
Finin raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A from Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital and Astir Ventures and are in the process of going for Series A round.
Finin’s funding details are as follows-
Date
Amount
Series
Investors
July 2020
Undisclosed
Pre Series A
Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital, Astir Ventures
Finin – Advisors and Mentors
Finin’s Investors are its mentors – Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital and Astir Ventures
Finin – Recognition and Achievements
Finin has been featured across podcasts, media houses, publications and much more through the course of 2020. Some notable ones are Yourstory, Mint, Business Today, CNBC TV18, ET, etc
Finin – Future Plans
Finin has a lot of feature roll outs planned in the near future. Mutual funds, investments, lending and credit cards are a few of them.
Finin – FAQs
What is Finin?
Finin is India’s first, full-fledged consumer neobank to go live in the country. Finin provides users with a savings account powered by SBM and issues a VISA debit card.
Who are Finin Founders?
Suman Gandham and Sudheer Maram are the Co-founders of Finin
What is Neobanking?
A neobank is a type of digital bank without any branches. Neobanking is completely online, rather than having physical presence at a location.
How much is Finin Funding?
In July 2020, Finin raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A from Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital and Astir Ventures
Who are Finin investors?
Unicorn India Ventures, Point one capital and Astir Ventures
What is the USP of Finin?
Finin provides a high utility neobanking app offering improved and personalized features such as easy transactions, card management, wealth management features, budgeting and goal management and more.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by OkCupid.
Dating has totally changed in the past years and has become a rising trend in today’s world. Nowadays individuals choose to get mingled with the help of the internet rather than finding or meeting someone offline.
OkCupid is a dating app which would help you to find your desired partner online. It allows the users to create a meaningful and a real connection. This application includes multiple-choice questions to match users. Registration is free of cost. You don’t need to register yourself in order to become a member. Read the OkCupid success story below.
OkCupid is an online dating site. It asks the users the correct questions which helps the company to find the matched users. It enables the users to find someone of their kind with matched thoughts and this happens with the help of multiple-choice questions.
Logo, OkCupid
OkCupid – Startup Story
The four founders were the students of Harvard University and the team gained recognition after their creation of TheSpark. Later it was known as SparkNotes. It included various humorous personality tests, match tests, etc. SparkMatch debuted with their registered users and match tests. This SparkMatch became OkCupid. In 2001, SparkNotes got sold and the team began concentrating more on OkCupid. In 2007, the company launched Crazy Blind Date. Many tests on the way of its journey got removed as well. In 2012, the company launched the social discovery service Tallygram but it too got removed in the next year.
The founders of the company are Chris Coyne, Christian Rudder, Sam Yagan and Max Krohn.
Chris Coyne is the founder of three popular websites. He was the co-founder and the creative director of TheSpark. He is a BA graduate in Mathematics from Harvard University.
Christian Rudder is an entrepreneur, musician and writer. He is the co-founder of OkCupid. He was also the founder and the creative director of SparkNotes. He is also a BA graduate in Mathematics from Harvard University. He completed his schooling from Little Rock Central High School.
Sam Yagan is the co-founder and the CEO of OkCupid. He also held the same position at SparkNotes. He was the co-founder of Techstars Chicago and MetaMachine. He was the vice president of Barnes and Noble.com and iTurf. He pursued his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and completed his MBA from Stanford University.
Max Krohn is the co-founder of OkCupid. He was also the founder at TheSpark and SparkNotes. He is a graduate in Computer Science and Mathematics from Harvard University and also has a PhD in Computer Science.
Founders, OkCupid
OkCupid – Business Model
Data is the word which has differentiated OkCupid from the other online dating companies in the crowded world. Registration is free here. Whenever a user signs in, he/she is asked a few questions. Questions are related to hobbies, lifestyle choices and interests. The users answer around 250 questions giving data to the online dating site to find matched people.
Registration is free but the entire process can’t be free of cost. It is based on an advertisement model. The company sends email to the users that, ‘somebody just sent you a message. Eg – Pay 20 bucks to instantly view the message.’ This way the company advertises by selling and tracking given data by the users. Almost every online site makes money in this procedure.
OkCupid has raised a total amount of $6 million in funding from 1 funding round.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investor
January 17, 2017
Series A
$6 million
Great Oaks Venture Capital
OkCupid has got only 1 invester recently. Great Oaks Venture Capital is the most recent investor.
OkCupid – Competitors
The top competitors of the company are Zoosk, Taimi and Rendeevoo.
Zoosk is the top competitor of OkCupid. The company is headquartered at Lehi, Utah and was founded in 2007. Zoosk operates in the Application Software field.
Taimi is the #2 competitor of OkCupid. It is headquartered at Las Vegas, NV and was founded in 2017. It works in the Application Software industry.
Rendeevoo is also one of the top competitors of OkCupid. It is headquartered at London, England and was founded in 2012. The company competes in the Personal Services industry.
OkCupid – FAQs
For how long does the green dot (online) stay on OkCupid after closing?
60 minutes.
Is OkCupid filled with fake profiles?
Not all are fake, but in an online dating site, it is quite natural to find few fake profiles among the real ones.
Which is better? OkCupid or Tinder?
OkCupid is especially for the younger ones and Tinder is for all.
Is OkCupid expensive?
The registration is only free and the rest like viewing messages, who liked you, etc costs.
Does OkCupid allow the users to see when someone was last time online?
Almost everyone loves biryani. When you are eating biryani, it is not difficult to lose count of how many plates you are having. Whenever we smell this delectable dish, our mouth literally starts watering. Do you want to taste authentic biryani? Try out ‘Biryani By Kilo’.
Biryani By Kilo is a home delivery-based food service chain. The company strives to offer delicious meals at one’s doorstep. Biryani By Kilo serves popular dishes such as biryani, kebabs, phirni, and various other Mughal delicacies.
Read on to know more about Biryani By Kilo’s success story, founders, business model, revenue, growth, competitors, and future plans.
Biryani By Kilo falls in the ‘food service and delivery’ category. It prepares and delivers authentic biryani to the masses. The company was founded in 2015 and has come a long way since then. It has received overwhelming response from customers for its mouth-watering menu.
KaushikRoy, VishalJindal, and RiteshSinha are the founders of Biryani By Kilo.
Kaushik Roy is the founder and CEO of Sky Gate Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. Sky Gate Hospitality owns Biryani By Kilo. Kaushik has 22 years of experience in the food service industry and this made it easy for him to launch Biryani By Kilo. Kaushik is passionate about music, photography, cooking, and texting. His CB Rank as an individual is 56,176.
Vishal Jindal is the co-founder and director at Sky Gate Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. Sources say he is a big foodie. Vishal is also a Board Advisor at the Singapore- based Ecosystem Advisory. He studied finance at the London School of Economics.
Ritesh Sinha is the COO of the Sky Gate Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. He is also one of the founding members.
Vishal Jindal (left) and Kaushik Roy (right)
Biryani By Kilo – Startup Story
Kaushik Roy and his friend Vishal Jindal thought a lot and finally zeroed in on biryani as their favorite pick. The duo took the entrepreneurial plunge in May 2015 as a challenge with the idea of starting afresh. They thought of conserving the Khansama type of cooking through their initiative. Biryani By Kilo, the duo’s initiative, was a hit amongst the admirers of biryani. The company has outlets in Delhi NCR and Mumbai. Biryani By Kilo processes close to 1000 orders a day with an average order size of INR 900.
Biryani By Kilo’s tagline is “There’s always a reason to celebrate….” The logo is composed of three colors: white, black, and brown.
Biryani By Kilo Logo
Biryani By Kilo – Business Model
Biryani By Kilo serves biryani in earthenpots (Handis). It offers three kinds of biryani: Hyderabadi, Lucknowi, and Kolkata. The company primarily operates under the cloud-kitchen criterion with dine-in options at selected locations based on latent demand. Biryani By Kilo also offers home delivery of the traditionally cooked meals it is famous for.
The company has staff team members of 300 during the delivery time notwithstanding. It draws all of its Biryani lovers towards it because it’s trusted by the consumers of the concerned company. The startup company collected revenue from 2017-18 batch which stands at Rs 12.5 crores and it’s currently clocking Rs.2.4 crores a month. Unbelievable! Right? The idea was actually to challenge popular food such as pizza, burger, sushi, noodles etc. Their idea was to serve something desi to all.
Biryani By Kilo – Funding And Investors
Biryani By Kilo has raised an amount of $8.4 million in funding over 11 rounds.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investor
April 30, 2020
Series B
INR 60 Million
–
June 20, 2019
Series A
INR 300 Million
IvyCap Ventures
November 30, 2018
Seed Round
$286.3,000
–
July 2, 2018
Seed Round
$1 Million
Ajay Relan, Vinay Mittal
April 1, 2018
Seed Round
$691.5,000
–
November 14, 2017
Seed Round
$609.8,000
Startup Equity Partners
October 25, 2017
Seed Round
–
–
February 20, 2017
Angel Round
$380,000
Chandigarh Angels Network
February 17, 2017
Seed Round
$164,000
–
October 10, 2016
Seed Round
$103.5,000
–
Biryani By Kilo is funded by 17 investors. Nitish Mittersain and Rajandeep Singh have recently joined the list of investors.
Biryani By Kilo – Franchise
The company currently has multiple outlets in Delhi NCR. Some of them are in Connaught Place, Shahpurjat, IP Extension, Vasant Kunj, Dwarka, Sector 41 Noida, New Friends Colony, and Rajouri Garden. Biryani By Kilo is also present in Mumbai: Andheri East, Chembur, Malad, Powai, and Khar West.
Biryani By Kilo – Growth
The company claims publicly that it is doing well and is growing its business exponentially at a rate of 70% to 80% per year with a current sales run rate of $3.4million, i.e., INR 24 crores annually. Biryani By Kilo says that it will reach $72 million in revenue by 2022. Now that is ambition! The team at Biryani By Kilo utilized its funds appropriately right from the start and that helped the company achieve stellar growth.
Biryani By Kilo – Competitors
The competitors of Biryani By Kilo are Bright Cellars, Paradise, Charcoal Eats, Biryani Blues, and Behrouz.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Bright Cellars
Biryani By Kilo was founded in the year 2015 while Bright Cellars was launched in 2014. Both companies work on different models. Bright Cellars offers a subscription facility to its customers, whereas Biryani By Kilo functions as any other restaurant. Both are private organizations but have different tags. Biryani By Kilo serves food and liquids within India while Bright Cellars serves manufacturing and industrial items in addition to food and beverages. Moreover, Biryani By Kilo is headquartered in India while Bright Cellars has its head office in Milwaukee, USA.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Biryani Blues
Biryani Blues was founded in the year 2013 in Gurgaon (India), a couple of years before Biryani By Kilo. Its revenue frequently exceeds $3 million which is much more than what Biryani By Kilo generates in revenue.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Paradise
Paradise is considered amongst the strongest rivals of Biryani By Kilo. It is headquartered in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Paradise was founded in the year 1953, decades before Biryani By Kilo’s inception. Sources say Paradise’s revenue is approximately 1724% of Biryani By Kilo’s revenue.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Charcoal Eats
Both the companies were found in 2015. Charcoal Eats is headquartered in Maharashtra, India. It operates in the food processing space. Biryani By Kilo and Charcoal Eats are not direct competitors.
Biryani By Kilo v/s Behrouz
Biryani By Kilo and Behrouz are known to have an expensive menu. Online reviews do not mention a clear winner between the two. Some reviews favor Behrouz over Biryani By Kilo while the others place the latter over the former. However, you should try them out before forming an opinion.
Biryani By Kilo – Future Plans
The company is aiming for a sales run rate of more than $5.8 million (INR 40 crores) in the coming years. The company plans to export its Handi biryani to the UAE and the UK. The team at Biryani By Kilo is also researching healthy dishes such as quinoa biryani and brown rice biryani. There are plans to open 40-50 Biryani By Kilo outlets in North India in the coming year.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Tinder.
In the days when the internet was unavailable, couples used to date traditionally, today which is known as offline dating. Nowadays people find it difficult to search for partners. Almost everyone needs the help of the internet to connect with their dear one or find a dear one online.
Tinder is a platform for online dating. It allows users to anonymously like and dislike profiles by swiping. The app showcases people’s profiles according to their bio, pictures and similar interests. Once the two users get ‘matched’ they can exchange messages. Read the Tinder success story below.
Tinder is an American online dating and geosocial networking application. It is considered to be the world’s most famous dating app enabling people to meet new people. It anonymously finds interested people close by who might like each other and helps both to get connected.
Smartphones gave online dating a new life. The founders thought that in the future mobiles will be used more than that of the computers because computers are just working devices which are going extinct soon. So, the founders created an opportunity and soon made a blueprint of a gamified dating app.
Sean and Justin crossed paths when both were at school in Los Angeles, California, USA. But soon after the story began when both met at the University of South California, 1st semester in 2004. Both were doing different jobs after their college got over. Both the friends wanted to do something of their own, something where two people could become friends with common interests. Jonathan, Dinesh and a few others joined and a complete team was created. Tinder came into existence. It was only for iOS users but after seeing the craze of the people android users were able to use it too.
Sean Rad, Justin Mateen, Jonathan Badeen are the main founders of the company Tinder.
Sean Rad is the founder of Tinder. Till 2016 he was the CEO of the company. In 2017 he was fired from the chairman position of the company. Prior to this, he was the President and the Founder of both Orgoo and Adly. He was born in 1986. Currently, he is a man of 34 years old.
Justin Mateen is an American entrepreneur. He is the Co-founder and CMO at Tinder. He is also a company advisor and an early-stage investor to a few of the innovative tech companies of the globe.
Jonathan Badeen is also a Co-Founder and the Chief Strategy Officer of Tinder. He was born in 1981 and he is currently a man of 39 years old.
Sean Rad, Justin Mateen and Jonathan Badeen (left to right), Founders, Tinder
Tinder – Tagline, Slogan and Logo
The tagline of the company is, ‘It’s like real life, but better‘.
Logo, Tinder
Tinder – Business Model
The business model of Tinder is very simple and effective. The founders have created a platform for the common people to date potential partners in an online mode safely and with affordable charges. All a user needs to do is swipe left and right, get matched, flirt and finally date. Here users need to log in with the help of their Facebook accounts.
The app helps the user to find local people with similar interests and eventually it allows the matched users to chat among themselves. Hence, matching is very important.
Tinder Plus allows users to find unlimited matches.
Users >28 = $19.99 per month
Users <28 = $9.99 per month
Tinder Gold provides users with a ‘Likes You’ feature along with all the Tinder Plus features. Prices here depend on various ages and locations.
Boost is a feature which makes the user’s profile the top profile of the area for around 30 minutes. It increases the chances of getting a swift match.
Tinder – Funding and Investors
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investor
October 10, 2017
Funding Round
–
–
October 28, 2014
Venture Round
–
Benchmark
April 11, 2014
Secondary Market
$50 million
IAC
Tinder is funded by 2 investors. Benchmark is the most recent investor.
Tinder – Growth
In 2019, Tinder ended up with around 6 million subscribers from 5.9 million subscribers. In 2020 Tinder saw 28% growth in subscribers and 31% growth in revenue.
Tinder – Competitors
The top competitors of the company are CMB, Zoosk and Badoo.
CMB is the top competitor of Tinder. It is headquartered at San Francisco, CA, USA and was founded in 2012. This company also works in the Application Software field.
Zoosk is perceived as one of the top competitors of Tinder. It is headquartered at Lehi, Utah and was founded in 2007. This company operates in the Application Software sector.
Badoo is also one of the top competitors of Tinder. It is headquartered at London, England and was founded in 2006. It works in the Application Software industry.
Tinder – Future Plans
The plan is to find more suitable partners for the customers. The company wants to help the users to find a better match. Tinder is willing to create more options in the platform so that the couples can spend more time with each other in a lightweight manner rather than simply texting.
In 2019, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 35% of the total US workforce are gig workers, and the percentage will increase to 43% by 2020. India is also following a similar trend. As per ASSOCHAM reports, gig economy sector in India is projected to grow at a CAGR of 17% and is likely to be valued $455 billion by 2023. With the growing popularity of gig jobs among the youth, the number of gig workers is sure to be on a rise. Besides companies are also interested to hire gig workers owing to many advantages like low cost to the company and easy hiring process.
Bengaluru based startup, Awignis simplifying hiring of gig workers for the companies by taking care of everything from hiring and training the workers to supervising the work and getting the task accomplished.
Startuptalky interviewed Awign founders Annanya Sarthak, Gurpreet Singh and Praveen Sah to get more details about the startup and what it is doing to boost the gig economy sector in India
Awign was started with the mission of organizing & fulfilling enterprise work digitally with human aspirations & humanized efforts. Awign creates a bridge between companies & gig-workers by not only providing manpower to these enterprises but also taking the complete onus of finding the gig-workers, mapping them to the work, training them, managing them and getting quality outcomes for the enterprises. All enterprises have to do is give Awign their requirements, and the entire management is taken care of by the Awign team.
For the gig workers, Awign is not just a platform to find a job, but they also receive the required training and guidance to finish the work seamlessly, thus they not only earn, but get to learn as well.
“We are at a war against unemployment, underemployment and lack of skills.” quotes the Awign founders
Client Requirement: Client is onboarded and their requirements are captured on the platform (volume, quality, commercials, etc.)
Project configuration: Detailed execution workflows, parameters defining quality of work and workforce are fed in. This is captured on three different interfaces: app for the workforce, war room (Awign’s internal team) and client dashboard.
Publish: Listings of jobs, internships & gigs are published on the platform for gig workers to view & apply.
Skill Assessment: Each gig worker is assessed on required skills and trained as appropriate.
Task Allocation: The allocation engine ensures that every micro-task is assigned to an appropriate gig worker based on various parameters (proximity, availability and previous performance of the gig worker)
Fulfilment & Quality Control: Awign’s fulfilment team uses the war-room and ensures on-ground performance in real time.
Client Dashboard: Clients get full visibility of everything happening on the ground across multiple cities, on their screens. The dashboard also lays down all the insights generated from the ground enabling clients in decision making.
Awign – Services
Awign is a industry agnostic platform and provides manpower for almost every sector. However, the focus has been on FMCG, BFSI, ECommerce, Consumer Durable, Mobility, Assessment, Retail, Hospitality, Retail and Construction. Some of the services being provided by Awign are –
Verification Services: Awign helps clients verify their customers, partners, employees, and assets periodically. They by providing background verification, identity verification, geo-tagging and document collection. They work with Instaveritas, Authbridge, IDfy, BetterPlace, TataCapital, IndiaLends, etc in this regard. Awign is clocking a speed of over 1 lac verification a month across 450+ cities.
Audit: Awign does it by providing services such as mystery/non-mystery audits and surveys ranging across quality, revenue leakage, SOPs, customer experience, branding, market execution, etc. A few of the audit engagements include Revenue Leakage Audits for OYO, Stock and Visibility Audits for ITC Ltd., Competitive Benchmarking for Swiggy, etc. Till now Awign has audited 50k+ entities spanning across multiple use cases and industries.
New Business Development: This is an offering driven towards growth and market expansion for the clients. Awign does both demand acquisition as well as supply acquisition through the gigworkforce. They are helping teams at PharmEasy, Medlife, Amazon Pay, Khatabook, etc. to acquire demand and companies like Ultratech, Uber, etc. have partnered with Awign to acquire supply. The Business Development teams have been getting 25k+ new customers every month through Awign’s partnership
High Volume Calling: Awign can set-up a virtual call center to place telephonic calls to the client’s specific target audience to either pass vital information or collect certain data points. They’ve been helping teams to reach their audience at scale at Udaan, ZestMoney, Cred, etc. and have built capacities to place and handle 2 lac+ calls per day with a set-up time of less than 48 hours.
Digital gigs: Awign takes up high volume data/image/voice labelling, transcription and digitization assignments like content creation and executes this through a crowdsourced workforce with human augmented quality checks at scale. A few such engagements include – real time menu digitization for Swiggy and Zomato; training data creation for AI based bot for Policybazaar and Accenture. Capacity to process 10 million+ data points every month.
Last-Mile Delivery: These are the latest addition to Awign’s repertoire of service lines where Awign is leveraging the hyperlocal workforce, in-house tech platform and central team expertise to help clients to fulfill last-mile deliveries to their customers & end users. They are working with BigBasket, Licious, Supr Daily, etc.for these services.
Awign Covid-19 Compliance Platform (ACCP): Innovating amid the COVID-19 crisis when businesses are going operational, this mobile app-based platform helps thousands of people comply with the norms and protocols as per the government of India, to avoid further spread of coronavirus and maintain a safe work environment.
Praveen Sah is the Chief Technology Officer of Awign and leads the product & technology division .
Awign has a team of 150 employees, and it provides its employees a fast-paced challenging work environment where they can learn continuously and solve problem through collaboration. When it comes to hiring, people with an entrepreneurial mindset, and who those are passionate about learning and solving problems are preferred.
“The 150 Awignites are ardent believers of the fact that the next 500 million jobs in the country will rather come from the gig-economy as against the old, usual. However, technology plays a big role in driving this dream, and that precisely is what we are doing at Awign! ” the Awign founders quote.
The Idea Behind Starting Awign
Awign founder and CEO Mr. Annaya Sarthak, ex-IIT & a mechanical engineer by qualification landed a job in a big MNC. Working there, he didn’t find the perfect fit with respect to his dreams or work. He continued appearing for close to 9 interviews only to be rejected. There was something missing – knowledge and learning!
Here started the second round of academic learning – many online courses in operations, finance & HR ensuring that there is a boost in his knowledge. He now moved into a high-paying job as management consultant in a reputed firm. This is where the practical learning began; rigorous work, understanding the clients & market knowledge led to a revelation. This revelation sparked the idea of Awign!
Sarthak understood a common problem statement of most companies – whether to outsource something or not! However, outsourcing didn’t get them the best results. Companies don’t want to make risky upfront investment in permanent workforce! This was a large problem existing in the market.
Second part of the idea came when he was trying to build a Learning Management System for schools & colleges. His interactions with recent graduates and students pursuing college brought in the second revelations that this segment of people is looking out for opportunities to work, learn & earn. Here comes the idea of a bridge between what enterprises want to get done and what people in India can do or want to do. Towards the end of 2015, the concept of Awign was born. In a nutshell, the inspiration was the problem statements – with the enterprises and people.
Come early 2016 and he began ideating on building a team. First step here was to move to Bangalore from Delhi and meet Gurpreet Singh – the co-founder of Awign, ex- IIT and a computer science engineer by qualification. Their association goes back to IIT where they had a couple of not-so-successful stints together along with having a music band!
Gurpreet did land a very good job yet coming from a business background, he wanted to pursue his MBA and build something ground-up on his own, just like his father. Sitting on top of the GMAT score list, he had the opportunity to apply to the top 10 global business schools. Sarthak pitched the idea of starting a company together based on his idea and understanding of the market, client and the student. Gurpreet was convinced by the idea and found a calling in this!
There was a strong uncertainty but that’s where the second founder of Awign joins in – two of them together took a plunge of faith and risked it all.
They started working on the Proof of Concepts (POC), pitched this to a few companies and bagged the initial customers. The pitch was to give Awign a contract and pay only once the outcomes were delivered. Gurpreet and Sarthak together worked on everything right from the sales pitch to the clients, getting requirements, finding gig-workers, training, managing and getting the gig-workers working. This went flawless; the clients were happy, the gig-workers were happy but managing hundreds of gig-workers taught them that they need a technology platform to manage and scale it up!
Then joined the third member on board – Praveen Sah, the Chief Technology Officer of Awign Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., again an ex-IIT, ex-Flipkart, ex-Ola and a computer science engineer by qualification. Praveen held the experience of starting and managing his own startup for a year in Mumbai which unfortunately didn’t go well for too long and he was with Ola in their tech team soon after.
Sarthak and Gurpreet pitched to Praveen using their success so far, the POC, happy clients & gig-workers and the dream! Being the sole earner in the family, it was a difficult step for Praveen yet, he too took the leap of faith and by mid-2016 the big three were already working together to live their dream and make it bigger.
It wasn’t an easy journey. The money was flowing in from the founders’ personal savings which was soon over. The hardship was to an extent that Sarthak had to figure out an accommodation without rent for two months, a PG room became the first office but as they say, the fruit of hard work is always sweet, Awign now has touched 450+ cities, completed more than 5 million tasks and offered livelihood opportunities to 5lakh+ people and this continues to grow!
Locations in which Awign offers services
Awign – Name, Meaning & Logo
Awign is a Sanskrit word, which means “Removal of obstacles” and the logo signifies the same.
Awign Logo
Awign – Business Model
Awign’s business model is based on billing the enterprises, basis the outcomes on the ground, not on the manpower. Again it does not charge anything from the gig-workers on the platform. Thus Awign creates a win-win situation for both the enterprises (employers) and gig workers (Employees).
“We firmly believe that the jobseekers/workers shouldn’t pay for getting a job; instead the company must invest in them, give them the right tools to get trained & work on the ground and they get paid for it. End of the day, it should be about helping them earn a livelihood and learn – their skill upliftment must happen! ” The Awign founders said.
Towards the end of 2016, the founders started working on the angel round and rose close to INR 1cr. The funding led the founders to start building and developing the minimum viable product – the product journey had now begun full-fledged!
Awign was started with the idea of working with a supply pool of college students – primarily a group that has some level of education, studying in colleges in any stream, degree, etc. and are looking for avenues of learning & earning. This group can lead to great networking and virality.
Thus the Awign team figured out a strategy – Campus Ambassadors in colleges. This helped Awign with tremendous organic growth since there wasn’t much money to put in. The team spoke with placement in-charges and got the available tasks broadcasted on bulletin boards; a referral scheme also came into place and this resulted in a spike of students interested to take up tasks which helped them learn & earn that too without paying anything initially! This marketing channel works for Awign till date!
In the demand side, Awign reached out to enterprises to take up any large scale requirement at distributed locations and that required huge people engagement/involvement. With a plethora of use cases the Awign team identified the top focused verticals and industries and followed a very focused approach and reached out to specific titles/people in organizations who would require Awign’s services. Lately, a majority of customers come in through in-bound and referrals due to the high quality work developed by Awign.
Focus was also on hiring the right people for marketing. Nihal Chaudhary – Director of Supply – Brand & Product Strategy brought with him a rich experience of working with the youth, fresh out of college and even students. Due to his Edtech background with Avanti (an Edtech Company that prepares students for competitive exams) he built concrete channels of marketing and retention which changed the game of scaling for Awign.
Awign built a lot of processes in B2b sales with the ‘hunting and farming’ mechanism. With the help of a lot of advisors Gurpreet built a structure of ‘hunting & farming’ and this helped the startup cut-through thousands smoothly.
The initial idea was to select suitable workers for tasks and work fulfillment. But slowly team Awign realized that there was a challenge: to bring out quality work and standing true to the SLAs. To overcome this, they invested massively on the product to get the gig-workers work-ready. The technology helped reduce the training time from 8 days to less than 24 hours and make gig-workers work ready. Mudit Arora – Head of Operation, ex-IIT, ex-Schlumberger and ex-Grofers, led the fulfillment part of Awign and ensured quality outcomes.
Awign – Advisors & Mentors
Pankaj Banal (Founder- PeopleStrong) and Rohit Bhatiani (Ex-director – Deloitte) are the advisors on board.
Awign – Awards
Recognized as one of the Top 25 Startups for 2020 by Entrepreneur.com
Awign – Growth & Future Plans
Awign is operational in 450+ cities in India. Since 2018, Awign executed more than 5 million tasks and are the largest work fulfillment platform in the Indian gig-economy sector. The startup is operationally profitable and has grown 20X in the last two years. Some top clients and partners of Awign include Britannia, ITC, OYO, Swiggy, Zomato, BigBasket, Betterplace, etc.
With its trained pool of gig workers and its performance focused business model, Awign aims at becoming a $100 million company in terms of top line in the next four years. Through Awign, the founders envision to nurture the world of work & making it happier
“As of May 2020, India was standing at a whopping 29% unemployment rate with millions of people losing jobs due to the downspiralling economy or reverse migration of workers due to COVID-19. Even as the percentage of unemployment is getting better through June and July, underemployment still lingers on. Mint says that if the COVID-19 recovery of India stretches beyond October 2020, India will go into a possible loss of 20 million jobs; while 136 million non-agricultural jobs are at risk as per National Sample Survey (NSS). Speaking of underemployment or about daily wagers, even during good days, a daily wager earns INR 178/day which might interfere with the basic requirements of livelihood, says Trading Economics. Apart from the scarcity of jobs, people are still not job ready or come with a lack of skills for a particular job which adds on to the challenge of unemployment and underemployment in the country. This is the challenge that Awign aims at addressing” the founders said explaining the difference they intend to bring through Awign.
Awign – FAQs
Who founded Awign?
IIT alumni Annanya Sarthak, Gurpreet Singh and Praveen Sah are the founders of Awign.
What is the meaning of ‘Awign’?
Awign is a Sanskrit word, which means “Removal of obstacles” . It is a Bengaluru based startup, that is simplifying hiring of gig workers for the companies by taking care of everything form hiring and training the workers to supervising the work and getting the task accomplished.
Ashwini
