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Shopify – Making Easier To Start, Run, And Grow a Business

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.

E-commerce has become mainstream in people’s daily lives with profound benefits. Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. It is also the name of its proprietary e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems.

Shopify offers online retailers a suite of services including payments, marketing, shipping and customer engagement tools.

Shopify – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Shopify Inc.
Headquarters	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Industry	Software, E-Commerce
Founded	2006
Founders	Tobias Lütke(CEO), Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake
Total Valuation	$122.3M (As of 2019)
Area Served	Worldwide
Website	www.shopify.com

Shopify – About and How it Works?
Shopify – Recent News
Shopify – Logo and its Meaning
Shopify – Founder and History
Shopify – Mission
Shopify – Business Model
Shopify – Revenue and Growth
Shopify – Funding and Investors
Shopify – Acquisitions
Shopify – Competitors
Shopify – Challenges Faced
Shopify – Future Plans
Shopify – FAQs

Shopify – About and How it Works?

Shopify Inc. is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario. Shopify is a company that develops a cloud-based, multichannel commerce platform for small and medium-sized businesses. It is used to design, set up, and manage stores across multiple sales channels, including web, mobile, social media, brick-and-mortar locations, and pop-up shops. The platform also provides a back-office and a single view of the clients’ business.

Shopify operates a cloud-based commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. Its software is used by merchants to run business across all sales channels, including web, tablet and mobile storefronts, social media storefronts, and brick-and-mortar and pop-up shops.

Shopify – Recent News

As of December 2020, Shopify Merchants Break Records with $5.1+ Billion in Worldwide Sales over Black Friday/Cyber Monday Weekend.

“We’re excited to share our Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend results, with sales of $5.1+ billion from the more than one million Shopify-powered brands around the world. From November 27 through November 30, total sales grew by 76% from the $2.9+ billion reported for Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend in 2019, a record that was surpassed this year on Saturday, November 28, at 5:00pm ET.”

Shopify – Logo and its Meaning

The calm green color of the Shopify emblem symbolizes comfort and growth, it also evokes a sense of safety and reliability. The logo, designed in 2006, wasn’t changed until today, as it is a perfect reflection of the company’s values and principles.

Shopify’s Company Logo

Shopify – Founder and History

Shopify was founded in 2004 in Ottawa by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake after attempting to open Snowdevil, an online store for snowboarding equipment. Dissatisfied with the existing e-commerce products on the market, Lütke, a computer programmer by trade, instead built his own.

The first iteration of Shopify (before it was called such) was an online store that sold snowboards. When Shopify was a store selling snowboards, it was called Snowdevil. When Shopify was first an e-commerce platform, it was called Jaded Pixel.

It only took two years for the company to turn a profit, and now the company boasts $29 billion in sales and over 377,000 active shops on its platform. It’s also grown by leaps and bounds internally. When Lutke started Shopify it was him and a few friends. Now, they have nearly 2,000 employees and five office locations.

Shopify has garnered recognition for its growth and success; in 2012 the company was named “Canada’s Smartest Company” by Profit Magazine and was also a finalist for Startup of the Year. The same year Lutke was a finalist for Entrepreneur of the year, and three years later Shopify was named Employer of the Year in the Canadian Startup Awards.

Shopify – Mission

Shopify’s mission statement says, “We help people achieve independence by making it easier to start, run, and grow a business. We believe the future of commerce has more voices, not fewer, so we’re reducing the barriers to business ownership to make commerce better for everyone.“

Shopify – Business Model

Shopify has a platform business model approach – Shopify acts as a platform that enables users to create an online store in order to sell their goods online. Shopify helps businesses connect with consumers by providing the businesses with the tools necessary to build an ecommerce site.

Shopify Plus is a service thought for enterprise customers, with larger volumes, which is several times more expensive than the advanced plan.

Shopify Plus is for merchants with higher-volume sales and it offers additional functionality, scalability, and support requirements, including a dedicated Merchant Success Manager.

That comprises brands like Unilever, Kylie Cosmetics, Allbirds, and MVMT. Shopify has around 5,300 enterprise accounts as of 2018, which are a key driver of both the company’s subscription and merchant revenues.

Shopify – Revenue and Growth

Shopify revenue for the twelve months ending September 30, 2020 was $2.457B, a 73.4% increase year-over-year.

| Year | Amount | Percentage Change from Last Year |
| — | — | — | — |
| 2019 | $1.578B | +47.05% |
| 2018 | $1.073B | +59.4% |
| 2017 | $0.673B | 72.94% |

Today, their platform Shopify hosts over 325,000 shops for individual sellers and internet giants like Google and Tesla. The more money customers made, the more money Shopify made. This drove Shopify to help their users become better merchants, and that’s the biggest reason they’ve grown to where they are today.

Shopify – Funding and Investors

Shopify has raised a total of $122.3M in funding over 4 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Dec 11, 2013 from a Series C round. Shopify is funded by 8 investors. Felicis Ventures and Insight Partners are the most recent investors.

Date	Round	Amount	Lead Investors
Dec 11, 2013	Series C	$100M	Insight Partners, OMERS Ventures
Oct 17, 2011	Series B	$15M	Bessemer Venture Partners
Dec 13, 2010	Series A	$7M	Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark
Jan 1, 2007	Seed Round	$250K	Klister Credit

Shopify – Acquisitions

Shopify has acquired 11 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was 6 River Systems on Sep 10, 2019. They acquired 6 River Systems for $450M.

Acquiree Name	Date	Amount	About Acquiree
6 River Systems	Sep 10, 2019	$450M	6 River Systems mission is to redefine fulfillment automation for e-commerce and retail operations.
Helpful	May 23, 2019	–	Helpful is a human way to build relationships at work. Create short mobile videos to energize your distributed team.
Handshake	May 23, 2019	–	Handshake is a B2B eCommerce platform that helps manufacturers and distributors grow their business by powering in-person and online trade.
Tictail	Nov 21, 2018	–	Tictail is an online marketplace that enables users to discover independent brands.
Return Magic	Jun 20, 2018	–	Return Magic is allows merchants to build loyalty while making shopping more convenient for consumers.
Oberlo	May 11, 2017	$15M	Oberlo connects Shopify merchants with suppliers who ship products directly to consumers.
Tiny Hearts	Dec 5, 2016	–	Tiny Hearts is an app studio that develops mobile apps and games.
Boltmade	Oct 3, 2016	–	Boltmade is a software development company that focuses on cloud development, user experience research, and mobile design.
Kit	Apr 13, 2016	–	Kit is a virtual employee that helps store owners sell more using digital advertising and marketing.
Jet Cooper	Aug 2013	–	Jet Cooper is a user experience agency based in Toronto, Canada. They provide strategy, design, and development services to leading

Shopify – Competitors

The top 10 competitors in Shopify’s competitive set are Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Volusion, PrestaShop, 3dcart and Ecwid.

Shopify – Challenges Faced

One of the main concerns for most online store owners is the lack of face-to-face customer interaction. This is one of the best and worst things about e-Commerce. These days, customers do a lot of research to avoid brick and mortar stores and shop online. So, store owners need a mechanism where, without having face-to-face interaction with their prospective customers, they can convince them to buy online.

This is the point when analytics comes into the picture. There are lots of analytics options available to the Shopify stores but still, there are some gaps which need to be filled.

In 2017, the #DeleteShopify hashtag campaign called for a boycott of Shopify for allowing Breitbart News to host a shop on its platform. Shopify’s CEO, Tobias Lütke, responded to the criticism, saying “refusing to do business with the site would constitute a violation of free speech”.

In October 2017, Citron Research founder, short-seller Andrew Left released a detailed report which described the e-commerce platform as a “get-rich-quick” scheme in contravention of Federal Trade Commission regulations. The day the report was released, the stock plunged more than 11%. The main question he posed was “Outside the roughly 50,000 verifiable merchants working with Shopify, who are the other 450,000 the company says it has?” Third-party marketing tactics were expected to be improved. Left was quoted in 2019 by The Street as saying about Shopify “I still think they are best in class”.

Shopify – Future Plans

In the last couple of weeks, the company has been making waves and announcing some major product updates and new features. Shopify is now offering not only an easy-to-use e-commerce platform but also a range of products from emailing and shipping to financial services. The company has also reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic by launching its Shopify Capital program in Canada, that offers cash advances between $200 CAD and $500,000 CAD to small and medium-size merchants. All this in the hopes of capturing an accelerating e-commerce penetration and as the founder, Tobi Lütke, emphasizes, to help struggling companies.

The unfolding economic crisis has hit especially small and medium-size businesses hard. With lockdowns in effect all over the world, many companies were forced to turn to online, hoping to restore revenues and keep their business afloat. E-commerce penetration in the U.S. took a steep increase from 16% at the end of 2019 to 27% at the end of April. This change is likely here to stay – even after the lockdowns are lifted, many shoppers will continue shopping online from the safety and comfort of their homes.

Shopify has come to the rescue of small businesses and offered a different kind of partnership. Even before the pandemic arrived, the company was known for its easy to set up and use e-commerce platform. During the crisis Shopify doubled down on the mission to help struggling businesses and capitalized on the increasing e-commerce penetration.

Companies are drawn to Shopify not just because of the platform’s simplicity and accessibility, but also because it allows them to create a unique touch point and relationship with their customers.

There is no “Powered by Shopify” branding on a merchant’s website. One can choose design of their online-shop and decide how to interact with customers. In a recent interview, the CEO and founder of Shopify, Tobi Lütke explained that his desire is to empower brands to create quality products that people love, and use customer feedback to continuously perfect them. This passion shows in the way Shopify builds its platform. It is centered around their merchants – “focus on your products and let us take care of everything else”.

Shopify – FAQs

What does Shopify Inc do?

Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone to set up an online store and sell their products.

Where is Shopify headquartered?

The company is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

Who is the CEO of Shopify?

Tobias Lütke is the current CEO of Shopify.

How does Shopify make money?

Shopify merchant solutions primarily make money from payment processing fees from Shopify Payments, transaction fees, Shopify Shipping, Shopify Capital, referral fees from partners, and sales of point-of-sale (“POS”) hardware.

January 1, 2021

Mailchimp – All-In-One Marketing Platform For Small Business

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.

Mailchimp is an all-in-one Marketing Platform for small business. The company aims to empower millions of customers around the world to start their businesses and grow with smart marketing technology.

Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Atlanta with additional offices in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Vancouver, Mailchimp is 100% founder-owned and highly profitable.

Mailchimp – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Mailchimp
Parent Company	The Rocket Science Group LLC.
Headquarters	Ponce City Market, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S
Industry	Software , Email Marketing
Founded	2001
Founders	Ben Chestnut(CEO), Mark Armstrong, Dan Kurzius
Total Valuation	$750 million (As of 2020)
Area Served	Worldwide
Website	www.mailchimp.com

Mailchimp – About and How it Works?
Mailchimp – Recent News
Mailchimp – Logo and its Meaning
Mailchimp – Founder and History
Mailchimp – Mission
Mailchimp – Business Model
Mailchimp – Revenue and Growth
Mailchimp – Acquisitions
Mailchimp – Competitors
Mailchimp – Challenges Faced
Mailchimp – Future Plans
Mailchimp – FAQs

Mailchimp – About and How it Works?

Mailchimp is an American marketing automation platform and email marketing service provider. It is the trading name of its operator, Rocket Science Group, an American company founded in 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Mark Armstrong, with Dan Kurzius joining at a later date.

MailChimp (also known as The Rocket Science Group) is a company that operates a marketing platform for small businesses that allows users to send marketing emails and messages, create campaigns, and share reports and analytics. The company also developed a related mobile application. Mailchimp is an all-in-one Marketing Platform for small business. The company aims to empower millions of customers around the world to start their businesses and grow with smart marketing technology.

Mailchimp – Recent News

In September 2020, Mailchimp launched new AI tools as it continues its transformation to marketing platform.

With this new set of products and services, Mailchimp is now aiming to give small businesses access to the same capabilities the larger e-commerce players have long had, but without the complexity.

To build tools based on machine learning, one needs data — and that’s something Mailchimp already had.

“We’ve been doing marketing for decades,” Mailchimp CPO Foreman said. “And we have millions of small businesses on the platform. And so not only do we build all these tools ourselves, which allows us to integrate them from a visual design perspective — they’re not necessarily acquisitions — but we have this common data set from years and years of doing marketing across millions of businesses, billions of customers we’re talking to, and so we thought, how can we use intelligence — artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. — to also sand down how all of these tools connect.”

Mailchimp – Logo and its Meaning

The company has evolved from “MailChimp” to “Mailchimp” with a lowercase c. Their name began as a playful metaphor: a chimp who delivers your mail.

Mailchimp – Founder and History

About 20 years ago, Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius started a web design agency called the Rocket Science Group. Their focus was on big, corporate clients, but on another side, they created a delightful email marketing service for small businesses.

Mailchimp was designed as an alternative to the oversized, expensive email software of the early 2000s. It gave small business owners who lacked the high-end tools and resources of their larger competitors access to technology that empowered them and helped them grow.

Ben and Dan loved serving these users. With Mailchimp, they found that working for small businesses gave them the freedom to be more creative and adapt quickly to their needs.

So, in 2007, Ben and Dan decided to shutter the web design agency and focus exclusively on Mailchimp.

While the new company started as an email marketing tool, customers repeatedly asked them to spread the magic to other channels. They made them realize that Mailchimp’s brand promise is to help small businesses “look pro and grow,” no matter the channel.

Mailchimp – Mission

Mailchimp mission statement says, “We collaborate with creative people to make fun, unique products for good causes.”

Mailchimp – Business Model

Mailchimp has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer segments. The company targets its offering at firms of all industries and sizes seeking e-mail marketing services. That said, a significant portion of its customer base consists of small businesses. Mailchimp’s business model entails maintaining a robust cloud platform for its clients. The platform includes its website and suite of mobile apps.

Mailchimp – Revenue and Growth

In 2017, the company was gaining 14,000 new customers every day. The company has remained owned by its co-founders and has not accepted venture capital funds. In 2016, Mailchimp was ranked No. 7 on the Forbes Cloud 100 list. Later in 2019, the company announced its annual revenue would reach $700 million.

Today, the company gross revenue is of $400 million annually and employs more than 700 people. It has also grown from 85,000 to more than 12 million customers, and shows no sign of stopping.

In February 2019, Mailchimp acquired LemonStand, a smaller competitor. Later in 2019, the company announced its annual revenue would reach $700 million. They later announced their plans to shift from mail distribution into offering “a full marketing platform aimed at smaller organizations.” To this end, Mailchimp acquired the London-based media and magazine company, Courier, in March 2020, with the stated goal of international growth. The magazine has a readership of 100,000 readers in more than 26 countries.

Mailchimp – Acquisitions

The company has acquired 5 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Reaction Commerce on Apr 22, 2020. They acquired Reaction Commerce for $16.1M.

Acquiree Name	Date	Amount	About Acquiree
Reaction Commerce	Apr 22, 2020	$16.1M	Reaction Commerce is an open and real-time commerce platform for modern retailers.
Courier	Mar 3, 2020	–	Courier is a stories of modern business reporting from London and around the world on startup culture. Published six times a year in print.
LemonStand	Mar 27, 2019	–	LemonStand eCommerce provides a flexible platform for growing eCommerce businesses
Sawa	Feb 8, 2019	–	Sawa. is a virtual graphic designer. It designs commonly-needed communication materials instantly, beautifully, and on brand.
TinyLetter	Aug 31, 2011	–	TinyLetter enables users to start their own mailing list and email newsletters.

Mailchimp – Competitors

Constant Contact, Sendinblue, Lead Forensics, MailerLite, and Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns are some of the most popular alternatives and competitors to Mailchimp.

Mailchimp – Challenges Faced

One key challenge that it faced along the way was the danger of being overshadowed by bigger, more powerful companies. Remember that Mailchimp chose the road less traveled and did not have much in terms of capital. Big companies such as Constant Contact often threatened to extinguish the existence of the company, but it strived to remain in the market and still grow.

The company’s trump card against such big companies was its deep understanding of how small businesses operate. It was only through this knowledge that this rocket science group company was able to ward off giant companies and establish itself as a favorite for small companies.

The second most threatening challenge the company faced was the fear that emails would eventually become extinct. Given that the existence of the company was built around the existence and continued use of emails, this was indeed a serious issue.

Mailchimp – Future Plans

Mailchimp, a bootstrapped startup out of Atlanta, Ga., is known best as a popular tool for organizations to manage their customer-facing email activities —the CEO of the company told that it has now grown to around 11 million active customers with a total audience of 4 billion, and $750 million in revenue in 2020.

Mailchimp has started to offer a full marketing platform aimed at smaller organizations.

The email services that it has been offering for 20 years has led to multiple acquisition offers as its valuation has crept up reportedly into the billions. Going beyond this, the new platform it has provided, will feature a number of new products within it. They include technology to record and track customer leads, the ability to purchase domains and build sites, ad retargeting on Facebook and Instagram, social media management. It will also offer business intelligence that leverages a new move into the artificial intelligence to provide recommendations to users on how and when to market to whom.

The latter of these will be particularly interesting considering the data that it has collected and will collect on 4 billion individuals and their responses to emails and other services that Mailchimp now offers.

Mailchimp – FAQs

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is an American marketing automation platform and email marketing service, provider.

Who founded Mailchimp?

Ben Chestnut(CEO), Mark Armstrong, and Dan Kurzius founded Mailchimp.

When was Mailchimp founded?

Mailchimp was founded in 2001.

What is Mailchimp used for?

Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform. Mailchimp Email marketing is a mostly used service.

Is Mailchimp free?

Mailchimp Free plan is for beginners which includes all the basic features with a limit of 2,000 contacts and 10,000 send limits per month, and a daily send limit of 2,000.

What is mailchimp pricing?

Mailchimp offers four main pricing plans: Premium, Standard, Essentials, and Free. They provide an option that fits your marketing needs. They also offer different pricing for add-on features to supplement your plan.

January 1, 2021

Criador Design Labs’ Smart Water Bottle Reminds You to Take Medicine on time

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.

Medication non-adherence is a major reason for people failing to recover from chronic diseases. World Health Organization reports that 50% of patients with chronic diseases do not take medication as prescribed. One of the crucial reasons for medication non-adherence is forgetfulness. Though there have been technological advancements, much has not been done to address the issue of forgetfulness.

Criador Design Labs has come up with a solution to address this problem of forgetting to take medicines. The company has come up with an innovative smart water bottle that helps patients by reminding them to take medications on time. Besides this, Criador Labs is also helping different companies to design various innovative products.

StartupTalky interviewed Criador Labs co-founder Abhishek Reddy. Know about Criador Design Labs Company Profile, Founders, How it Started, Business Model, Revenue Model and Challenges faced.

Criador Design Labs – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Criador Design Labs
Headquarter	Bengaluru
Sector	Consumer Healthcare
Founders	Abhishek Reddy & Hitesh Devara
Founded	2017
Parent Organization	Criador Design Labs Pvt Ltd.
Website	criadorlabs.com

Discover more about Criador Design Labs:

Criador Design Labs – About and How it Works
Consumer Healthcare Industry Details
Criador Design Labs – Founders and Team
Criador Design Labs – How it Started?
Criador Design Labs – Name, Tagline and Logo
Criador Design Labs – Business Model and Revenue Model
Criador Design Labs – Startup Challenges
Criador Design Labs – Advisors and Mentors
Criador Design Labs – Future Plans

Criador Design Labs – About and How it Works

Criador Design Labs is a product design firm that develops new innovative hardware technology products for consumer healthcare sectors.

The recent product by Criador Labs include EVE Health – A smart water bottle designed to improve medication adherence amongst chronic disease patients. It helps patients to stay aware of their dosages and reminds them when it’s time to take their medication. The bottle holds a patent-pending technology, with the sensors tracking all medication intake and the Wi-Fi chipset sending the live data to the servers. The data is analyzed, and custom notifications and reports are sent to caretakers, hospitals, and insurance companies for taking proper actions.

EVE Health - smart water bottle — EVE Health – smart water bottle

In medicine, compliance (also adherence, capacitance) describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice. Therefore the lack of could result in possibly dangerous situations for people suffering with chronic diseases. We have a patent pending technology for our systemic approach of solving this problem. We spent a lot of time on understand the reasons of non-adherence. Apart from the one reason of missing medication on time due to forgetfulness, we tried to address other major reasons which includes psychological issues, knowledge issues, laziness issues and few others –says Abhishek explaining the product

Criador Labs has worked with a lot of doctors and patients in India and the USA for the validation of their idea of the smart bottle. It’s been a journey of 1.5 years for Criador Design Lab to proceed from ideation to prototyping. Initially, it was challenging and still continues to be a challenge for them to interact with people not related to their field of work.

We had to do a lot of studies during that time. It was a great learning curve for all of us. We initially spoke with a few chronic patients, doctors (India and Abroad). They were in need for a product of this nature and wanted us to work on this – Abhishek speaks about the prototyping stage.

Besides, Criador Labs’ services wing provides wide range of services related to Industrial Design, Engineering Design, Brand Identity Design, UI/UX Design, Technology development, Rapid prototyping and Manufacturing Consultancy to its clients. It helps its clients take their ideas from design to production and ensures that the product created is functioning with efficiency.

Consumer Healthcare Industry Details

The size of the consumer healthcare market is about 27,000 crore and is growing at a CAGR of 10 to 11 percent year-on-year. The market is expected to reach 50,000 crores in the next 7-8 years (as per Euromonitor Research).

Criador Design Labs – Founders and Team

Abhishek Reddy and Hitesh Devara co-founded Criador Design Labs.

Founders ;of Criador Design Labs — Abhishek Reddy and Hitesh Devara

Hitesh Devara, is the CEO of Criador Design Labs. He Manages the Finance and Operations at the startup. He is a B.Tech Mechanical (2014) graduate.

Abhishek Reddy, handles Product Management at Criador Labs. He is a B.Tech Mechanical graduate from IIT Dhanbad(2014). He was a Co-founder at Divine Design Factory (2016-17) and worked as an Operations Analyst at Vdeliver (2014-15), and did Enterprise Management at IBM(2015-16).

Abhishek and Hitesh worked together on another startup called Divine Design factory before starting Criador Design Labs.

Criador Design Labs currently has a team of 12. They maintain a healthy work-life balance for all of their employees with a strict – 5 days 9-hour job – and no extra work. In order to provide a conducive environment for their employers and keep them satisfied, sponsors the birthday parties of their employees.

We hire people based on attitude to work in a startup environment, quick learning skills and cultural fit. Technical Skill for us comes later once a person matches the above requirements.

Criador Design Labs – How it Started?

Hitesh’s passion for design pushed him to start Criador Design Lab. He started back in 2014 with the name of Divine Design Factory, as a mechanical design company. Later, his introduction with Product Design fascinated him about the process of new product development. Later, he shifted to Bangalore in 2016 to explore more about design. Abhishek’s love for entrepreneurship made him join Hitesh in his venture in Bangalore. Both of them started Criador Labs in 2017. Later in 2018, they pivoted the business by adding a product division with their first product being ‘Eve’.

Criador Design Labs – Name, Tagline and Logo

Our name Criador means Creator in Portuguese. We are the creators of innovation and hence the name.

The Logo was meant to show the hardware company elements like 3D Models. And the Yellow signifies freshness, happiness, positivity, clarity, energy, optimism, enlightenment, remembrance, intellect, honor, loyalty, and joy.

Criador Design Labs – Business Model and Revenue Model

Criador Design Labs’ ‘Eve’ has a simple revenue model. They charge their customers on:

Hardware product (Mobile App included) – One-time cost (Used by patients) – 79 USD/ unit
Web SaaS platform (API included) – Recurring subscription cost (Used by Hospitals, Insurance firms, Pharmacies) – 99 USD/ user/ year

Criador Design Labs – Startup Challenges

One of the major challenges Criador Design Lab faced while designing EVE – the smart water bottle was concerning the form factor of the product. To integrate such a complex technology into the compact form factor was an uphill task for their engineers. It took them five months to work on integrating the technology. Further, they had tested out a lot of pill container shapes for enhancing user experience. Criador Design Lab had to test 20 different shapes before deciding upon the present shape and form.

Success Story of Simply Blood: World’s First Virtual Blood Donation Platform

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on. The value of blood cannot be emphasize on no matter how much one tries to do soin oral or writte…

StartupTalkyShubham Kumar

Criador Design Labs – Advisors and Mentors

Dhanpat Raj Dhariwal, Ex- CEO Adithya Birla Group of companies for 20 years is mentoring Criador Design Labs.

Criador Design Labs – Future Plans

Criador Labs has so far worked on 72 inventions, 500k products and have secured 128 satisfied clients. The company is aiming to leverage their huge expertise in
product development to create a line of innovative consumer healthcare products that can reach to the masses and impact their lives positively.

December 29, 2020

MediaFire – Managing, Storing And Uploading Files Is Easier Now

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.

Your phone’s storage is turning full? Don’t know where to keep your files? Running out of space? Need a specifically designed host and a proper backup? Want a synchronisation process too? Adding, changing, deleting is no more an issue here.

MediaFire is a file hosting, synchronisation and cloud storage services. Now, it’s easier to upload all files like videos, documents, photos and audios and is super accessible. Customers can access them from anywhere using phones, tablets, etc. It is simple yet an efficient file storage service. It is an online solution. Read the MediaFire success story below.

MediaFire – Company Highlights

Company Name	MediaFire
Headquarters	Shenandoah, Texas, US
Sector	Cloud Storage, File Hosting and File Synchronisation
Founders	Derek Labian and Tom Langridge
Founded	August 2006
Website	mediafire.com

MediaFire – About
MediaFire – Startup Story
MediaFire – Founders And Team
MediaFire – Logo
Mediafire – Business Model
MediaFire – Revenue Model
MediaFire – Funding And Investors
MediaFire – Growth
MediaFire – Competitors

MediaFire – About

MediaFire is a cloud storage service that helps consumers to organize, share data and store via the Internet. It offers secure, unlimited and free cloud storage so that customers can share and store data with their friends, family members and colleagues.

MediaFire – Startup Story

A group of entrepreneurs and enthusiasts were having a difficult time with sending large files and emails. Together they all decided to create a site where customers of all ages could feel safe and happily share their large files or emails. They created one and it slowly continued to grow. More and more features got added as well as invented. Ultimately now it is providing unlimited cloud storage and also enabling users to share files with family, friends, etc with branding tools.

MediaFire – Founders And Team

Derek Labian and Tom Langridge are the founders of the company MediaFire.

Derek Labian is a Network, Software Engineer, Architect, Advisor and an Investor. He is currently the co-founder and CEO at 2 companies. One is Fast Technologies, Inc and the other one is MediaFire.com. He was also the Technology Principal at IntoMobile for 7 years. He was the founder and CEO at FileFront.com.
Tom Langridge is also currently the co-founder of 2 companies. Those are Fast Technologies, Inc and MediaFire.com. He was the co-founder at IntoMobile. He began his career as a Lead UI Designer at FileFront.com. He completed his education from The University of California, Davis.

Derek Labian and Tom Langridge (left to right), co-founders, MediaFire

MediaFire – Logo

Mediafire – Business Model

MediaFire allows its users to store and share various sizes of files. It is available for Android, iPhone, Web and Windows. It is the only storage solution that offers unlimited downloads all for free. MediaFire provides clients software for Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Blackberry and Linux. In 2014, it declared public access to its platform. They have a public forum and have released SDKs for JavaScript, Java, etc. Storage starts at 10GB and can be increased up to 40GB. The company’s features include up to 50GB of storage.

MediaFire – Revenue Model

MediaFire has got 43 million registered users. Also, the company attracted around 1.3 billion unique visitors to its sphere in 2012. MediaFire has got more than 150 million people using the application every month to store the professional data quickly and safely in the cloud. It has got different plans –

Basic plan – 10GB = Free
Pro plan – 1 TB (1000 GB) = $4.99 a month
Business plan – Up to 100 TB = $49.99 a month

Hence, there are 2 subscriptions levels – Pro and Business plan and the Basic plan is free. Subscriptions can be cancelled at any point of time without any obligations.

MediaFire – Funding And Investors

Date	Transaction Name	Money Raised	Lead Investor
April 2020	Debt	$150,000 – $350,000	U.S. Small Business Administration
October 2008	Self	$2.5 million	–

MediaFire hasn’t made any investments till date.

MediaFire – Growth

Reports say that MediaFire has progressed a lot in terms of growth. It has also become the fastest growing site on the web with 100% yearly growth. As it is allowing unlimited downloads and uploads it is gaining more customers. Every day the group of developers and designers are working to progress and advance the sharing interest to make it best for its customers.

MediaFire – Competitors

The top competitors of the company are Onehub, Tresorit and ArchiverFS.

Onehub is a secured file sharing and storage service built for various businesses. It has a role-based permission structure which means the user can control whoever is accessing his/her content and can also share business files with confidence.
Tresorit is an ultra-secure platform. It has got an end to end encrypted file sync & sharing subscription model. It is accessible to its users anywhere and at any point of time.
ArchiverFS provides file archiving solutions to its customers. It features a tiny footprint on the host system.

MediaFire handles all the file needs. It has made the storage issue easier now. It has got powerful features which can’t be found anywhere else. It simplifies the workflow.

December 22, 2020

refundme.in – India’s First Flight Compensation Provider

Company Profile is an Initiative by StartupTalky to publish Verified & Updated information on every company. Contents in this article have been approved by the Organisation itself.

The Indian aviation sector witnessed the growth of air passengers by 18.6% between January and December 2018, which carried almost 138.9 million passengers as compared to 117.1 million in the year 2017. Evidently, the growth in air passengers would motivate the growth of aircraft, and that eventually bring new innovations and new challenges. While the number of air passengers are increasing, there is still a large segment of air travelers who are not fully aware of the Air Passenger Rights. The Air Passenger Rights were laid down by DGCA (Directorate-General of Civil Aviation) to benefit the travelers but, people are failing take advantage of these rights because of the lack of awareness and technical jargon incorporated in policies as well as the airline manuals.

refundme.in, India’s first-ever flight compensation provider makes people aware of their passenger rights and help them get the compensation they are entitled to get in case of flight disruptions. Akanksha Anshu founded refundme.in in 2016.

refundme.in – Company Highlights

Startup Name	refundme.in
Headquarter	Noida
Founder	Akanksha Anshu
Sector	Aviation & Travel
Founded	April 21, 2016
Legal Name	refund.me India Services Pvt. Ltd.
Website	refundme.in

About refundme.in and How it Works
Aviation Industry Details
refundme.in – Founders and Team
How was refundme.in Started
refundme.in – Business Model and Revenue Model
refundme.in – Funding
refundme.in – Startup Challenges
refundme.in – Achievements
refundme.in – Growth

About refundme.in and How it Works

refundme.in offers a platform to the travelers where they can easily claim compensation in case of any unfavorable circumstances such as – flight delay, flight cancellation, overbooking, denied boarding, and so on. The platform is user-friendly to bring air passengers closer to their rights with minimal or no hurdles.

They make it easy for customers to understand the complex and ambiguous technicalities and laws related to flight compensation; thereby empowering the air passengers. The company takes care of all the air passengers and make sure that they receive accurate compensation that they are entitled to.

More than a company, it is a movement to wipe out the flying difficulties once and for all. refundme.in team is ambitiously helping air passengers across the world by making them aware of their rights and empowering them to get the compensation that they are entitled to. Moreover, refundme.in fights back in court, through official enforcement bodies, to prevent airlines from making unfair gains and provide justice to the air passengers.

Recently, the company has launched a product – “Mr Boie – Your Travel Assistant,” an online application to make travelers’ life easy. Mr Boie is a travel assistant application who’ll assist the user throughout their travel with his intelligence and omnipresence. He’ll be there every moment through the users’ travel.

Mr Boie is a perfect combination of uplifted technology and solution-centered actions. Simply, Mr Boie can do so many things at one go. With this application, one can –

Upload travel documents – so that you don’t misplace any important document.
Checklist & Reminder – so that you don’t leave anything behind
Expense Tracker – To never slip out of budget
Delay Prediction – it can foresee the likelihood of your flight delay
Airport Details – You will get all the details of itineraries at the airport
Airline Details – you will get all the details of your terminal, aircraft, gate, baggage belt, and everything
Cab Booking – You don’t have to flip between different apps. You can even book your cab through Mr Boie.‌

Aviation Industry Details

India is the fastest-growing aviation market and is expected to cater to 520 million passengers by 2037 and aims to become the third-largest aviation market globally by 2024. India has the fastest-growing domestic air market in the world.

The Indian aviation sector witnessed the growth of air passengers by 18.6 percent between January and December 2018, which carried almost 138.9 million passengers as compared to 117.1 million in the year 2017. As per the DGCA report, IndiGo topped the list with 54.79 lakh passengers.

India has 464 airports and airstrips, of which 125 airports are owned by the Airport Authority of India (AAI). These 125 AAI airports manage close to 78% of domestic passenger traffic and 22% of international passenger traffic.

Passenger traffic in India stood at 316.51 million during April 2018 – Feb 2019. Out of which domestic passenger traffic stood at 252.92 million while international traffic stood at 63.59 million.

refundme.in – Founders and Team

Akanksha Anshu is the founder of refundme.in.

Founder, Owner of Refundme.in - Akanksha Anshu — **Akanksha Anshu** – **founder** of refundme.in.

Akanksha Anshu is a tech-savvy, a visionary, entrepreneur, and founder of 3 successful ventures. She comes from an enterprise technology background, holds an Engineering degree, and has managed various roles so far from IT services to Business Development for the International market.

Through refundme.in she has given suggestions to the government, and the idea and efforts have helped the government to revise the Air Passenger Charter Act. She has been featured by many media platforms such as ETWealth, BW Disrupt, Business Insider, and more for her contribution to the Aviation Industry.

She has expertise in Technology, Marketing, and Automation. She has been mentoring various startups for their IT infrastructure and strategic planning. Besides consultancy, she is a traveler, story-teller, and a motivational speaker. So far, she has been a speaker at various events where she has presented her ideas on distinct topics, from technology to entrepreneur, IT automation, motivation, and web security.

How was refundme.in Started

Akanksha was once traveling from Delhi To Bengaluru for an important meeting, but few hours before the boarding, she received a message saying, “your flight has been canceled.” Within the limited time, Akanksha could not find any alternate flights; because of a lack of proactiveness and concern for passenger rights from the airline’s side, Akanksha could not attend the meeting. This situation has bothered Akanksha for all the right reasons and has eventually led her to establish refundme.in.

Akanksha has spent a good time abroad and was aware of Air Passenger Rights in countries like the US and UK. She researched to check if any such rights existed in India and found that India did have such rights. To her surprise, Akanksha found that only less than 1% actually receive their flight compensation, and almost more than 1 billion Indian currency was unpaid. Her experience supported by the statistics she came across in her research, she realized that there is a huge gap in the aviation industry concerning public awareness of Air Passenger Rights. With refundme.in she took on the lead to improve awareness among Indians about their Air Passenger Rights.

refundme.in – Business Model and Revenue Model

refundme.in operates on a B2B and B2c business model. For the services it provides, refundme.in charges individual customers on a case on case basis while for corporates, they have a a range of packages starting from Rs. 3000/month to 22000/ yearly for the clients to choose from.

refundme.in – Funding

refundme.in is a bootstrapped company and doesn’t have any funding till date (December 2020)

refundme.in – Startup Challenges

As refundme.in works closely with the dynamic and huge aviation industry, there have been numerous challenges in the way of refundme.in. The challenges faced are,

Decoding Indian Regulation‌‌In the whole process, decoding DGCA air passenger regulation was one of the most challenging parts for the refundme.in. Akanksha took help from legal authorities in understanding the technical jargon associated with the DGCA regulation and evaluating the benefits that the air passenger rights offer.

Lack of Awareness‌‌After decoding, making people aware of was another. refundme.in conducted a survey in India and abroad to get comprehensive data about the awareness of air passenger rights. The findings were shockingly disappointing, which suggested that there is a long way to go to make this world fully aware of their rights. 70 percent of the flyers were not aware of their rights, 17 percent did not think they were eligible for compensation, and 13 percent did not know how to file a claim. Hardly 1% of the total population knows about it, and this number is like a grain of dust in front of the country having the world’s second-largest population. In addition, the DGCA rule ambiguous and complex for an ordinary person to understand.

refundme.in – Achievements

One of the biggest achievements for the refundme.in team is that they have been successful in positively influencing the DGCA rule and bringing in more accountability and making the Air Passenger Charter Act more accommodative for the passengers.

Earlier, the compensation to air passengers under the DGCA rule was limited to the flight delay, cancellation, overbooking, or denied boarding. In 2018, refundme.in took the initiative and made an appeal to include compensation for baggage delay and baggage lost to the Indian Government. The government has accepted the request and revised Air Passenger Charter Act early this year (2019), and the revised act will be regulated soon.

refundme.in – Growth

refundme.in stands out in the Indian market because of its services that empathize with the problems of air travelers. The company targets not only the Indian market but also the European market and help passengers get their compensation. Since the idea resonates with the daily life struggles of people who travel via air, the company acquired 100 + users within the first year of establishment and growing amazingly to date. The company is working towards making more and more air passengers aware of their rights.

We envision that in the coming years, each traveler would be aware of his/her passenger rights; airlines get more responsible towards their passengers, and together they would make each other grow.

December 18, 2020

Docttocare – Making Healthcare Accessible

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.

Gone are the days when one had to rely on word of mouth to find a good doctor, or when one had to stand in queues to book an appointment with the doctor. Thanks to the online appointment booking platforms, finding the best doctors is now easier than never before. Through these platforms, one can find doctors specific to one’s health problem and book appointment in clicks.

One such platform that is simplifying the process of booking an appointment with the doctor and diagnostic centers is Docttocare. Moving a step forward this Bangalore based startup even arranges for transportation of the patient to the clinic if required, thus making good quality health care services more accessible.

StartupTalky interviewed Docttocare founder Sugandha to learn further about this startup.

Docttocare – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Docttocare
Headquarter	Bangalore
Founder	Sugandha Agarwal
Sector	Healthcare
Founded	2016
Parent Organization	Doctto Online Healthcare Innovation Pvt. Ltd.
Website	www.docttocare.com

About Docttocare and How it Works
Global Appointment Scheduling Software Market
Docttocare – Founder and Team
Docttocare – Name and Logo
Docttocare – USP and Innovation
Docttocare – Revenue Model
Docttocare – Funding and Investors
Docttocare – User Acquisition
Docttocare – Startup Challenges
Docttocare – Advisors and Mentors
Docttocare – Growth
Docttocare – Future Plans

About Docttocare and How it Works

Docttocare is an online healthcare service provider. Docttocare provides its users information about the best doctors, clinics, hospitals and diagnostic centers. The platform also offers virtual walkthroughs of the ambiance to showcase hospitality and their facilities. It makes booking appointments super easy and assures the confirmation of online appointment through call, SMS or email. Docttocare launched its services in 2018 at NASSCOM Bangalore.

Docttocare is one of the leading healthcare online portals that enable users from non-metro cities to access and book an appointment with doctors and hospitals located in major cities. Docttocare app handholds the users through the entire process of identifying the right doctors/hospitals and scheduling appointments on the desired date. Docttocare covers everything from dentist, gynecologist, dermatologist, ENT, ayurvedic and homeopathy.

Docttocare is making lives easy for doctors too. Docttocare helps the doctors increase the visibility of the services provided by them, and also provides facilities such as seamless integration with online payment. It also lets the doctors view patient records from anywhere, remind the patients about the appointment and manage the clinic through Docttocare dashboard.

Global Appointment Scheduling Software Market

The global appointment scheduling market was valued at 160 million USD in 2017 and is expected to surpass 360 million USD by the end of 2023. Again, the doctor’s appointment booking software market alone is expected to grow at a rate of 16.56% for the next five years, i.e. till 2023.

Docttocare Founder, CEO and Team

Sugandha Agarwal is the founder and CEO of Docttocare

Sugandha Agarwal is CEO & Founder of Docttocare — Founder & CEO of Docttocare

Docttocare is a single female founder company. Sugandha Agarwal is the founder and CEO of Docttocare. An electrical, electronics & communication engineer by qualification, Sugandha worked with reputed organizations like Infosys, Oracle and Google Maps before starting Docttocare.

I do everything except writing codes. Jokes apart, driving partnerships with hospital brands, building end-user acquisition strategies, spending time with product positioning, etc are key responsibilities, says Sugandha Agarwal.

Docttocare has 15 members of team right now and looking for expanding in a couple of months.

Docttocare – Name and Logo

The name Docttocare has been derived from ‘Doctor to care’.

Docttocare – USP and Innovation

Some USPs of Docttocare are-

Instant online ambulance booking – This feature allows the users to book an ambulance online instantly. Once booked, the user can track the live status of the fleet, the arrival time of the ambulance the expected time it will take to travel.
Blood Bank Facility – Lets users track the availability of bold groups with the hospital.
Manages health reports – Docttocare lets the users search, compare, evaluate and also share health record and prescription with doctors, thus making the platform user-friendly.
Simplifies the process of shortlisting a doctor or medical center – Docttocare allows the users to choose the best of doctors and clinics or hospitals based on ratings and helps the users in making an informed decision. It also provides a virtual 3D panoramic tour of the hospital thus making the users get a fair idea of the hospital or clinic even before visiting the place.
Docttocare also offers free cancellation and re-scheduling of appointments.

Docttocare – Revenue Model

Docttocare has a simple commission – based revenue model. While the services are free for the patients, it charges a 10% commission from the hospitals.

Docttocare – Funding and Investors

Docttocare raised seed funding worth INR 4 Crore in May 2019.

Funding Date	Funding Stage	Funding Amount	Investor
May 2019	Seed	INR 4 Crore	Krishna Kumar Devnally

Docttocare – User Acquisition

Getting the initial set of customers required great effort. The Docttocare team roamed around Bangalore and enrolled the small clinics.

“We used to visit at least 20 clinics per day. After some time when we started getting revenue from appointments then we realized Tier 2 cities people are more keen to get treated by reputed doctors, and they need transport as well, which we tried to solve”, recalls Sugandha.

Currently, Docttocare is focusing on tier 2 and tier 3 cities to provide access to prime hospitals and connecting them with ambulance service and proving stay also.

Docttocare – Startup Challenges

“Startup journeys are full of challenges, which to be honest, I didn’t realize before taking the plunge. Thanks to the media, who always show the shiny side of it. Keeping professional and personal life separate & fulfilling is one of the biggest challenges and I had to let one of them go for a few years.” said Sugandha.

Building the team, acquiring an initial set of customers/partners, honing her selling skills were part of the early days’ challenges for Sugandha. Besides, though she had a brief coding background and was able to keep up with the engineering/product team but being in sync with them fully took her some time.

Challenges like customer acquisition, revenue were there since day one, but Docttocare now has a qualified team to take care of these aspects. Another major problem was raising funds.

“Raising funds was the other (good) problem we solved. While starting up, I did not realize that I’d have the inherent disadvantage of being a solo female founder. I got my reality check, when one of the prominent angel investors with a massive following on social media, mentioned this fact bluntly to me. They didn’t even delve into business and rejected the deal outright. But being a female founder gives you additional strength (in terms of team management and creativity), which not many investors realize. Incidentally, I met with our investor/mentor a year ago and he decided to support us” narrates Sugandha.

Docttocare – Advisors and Mentors

Along with being the investor of Docttocare, Krishnakumar also plays the role of a mentor for the company. He is the Director of M-Power Solutions.

Docttocare – Growth

Through its excellent services, Docttocare has been successful to slowly gain trust from doctors and patients alike.

The company has enrolled all the major hospitals like Apollo, Manipal, Medanta and many more.
Docttocare is now getting around 300 + appointments per day.
4000+ medical tests have been done through Docttocare.
500+ clinics, 100+ hospitals and 2000+ doctors are registered with it.

Docttocare – Future Plans

Docttocare is planning to bring many positive changes in the healthcare scenario of India.

Emphasizing on Docttocare’s future plans, Sugandha said “I want to take healthcare in India to a much higher level. We have a dearth of doctors in this country and the patient count is undoubtedly increasing. People often ignore their minor health-issues, either due to lack of healthcare service or because of effort/cost that may go into addressing it.”

Awareness of health issues would be their next goal. How can they help you to be healthy without investing much? Something as simple as cutting refined sugar & unhealthy fat from the diet, eating your dinner early in the day, etc can go a long way in improving the fitness standard.

Making quality healthcare accessible to masses has been the company’s dream and they are very early in solving it. Currently, they have to move people to let them enjoy the benefits of high-quality services, but the eventual goal would be to send services wherever they are. Training local people on healthcare services, equipping them with the right tools and making them work under the supervision of qualified practitioners is the way forward.

December 18, 2020

Goldman Sachs – Good To Have Money, Good To Invest Money

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.

Goldman Sachs is an American multinational investment bank. It has got a net worth as of December 17, 2020, as $83.41B. It offers services in investment management, securities, asset management, and securities underwriting. Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs founded Goldman Sachs in 1869.

Read about the Goldman Sachs success story, Founders, Competitors, Business Model, Funding, and Revenue Model below.

Goldman Sachs – Company Highlights

Company Name	The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Headquarters	New York, U.S
Sector	Financial Services
Founders	Marcus Goldman & Samuel Sachs
Founded In	1869
Revenue	$47.4 Billion (2022)
Website	Goldmansachs.com

Goldman Sachs – About
Goldman Sachs – Industry
Goldman Sachs – Founders and Team
Goldman Sachs – Startup Story
Goldman Sachs – Mission and Vision
Goldman Sachs – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Goldman Sachs – Solutions
Goldman Sachs – Business Model
Goldman Sachs – Revenue Model
Goldman Sachs – Employees
Goldman Sachs – Marketing Strategy
Goldman Sachs – Challenges Faced
Goldman Sachs – Mergers and Acquisitions
Goldman Sachs – Investments
Goldman Sachs – Philanthropic Activities
Goldman Sachs – Awards and Achievements
Goldman Sachs – Competitors
Goldman Sachs – Growth
Goldman Sachs – Future Plans

Goldman Sachs – About

Goldman Sachs is a leading investment firm. It maintains offices and all major financial centers around the world. Goldman Sachs brings capital, people, shareholders, clients, and ideas together. They actually serve all. Serve the community to grow more. Advice about buying and selling businesses is always given. Starting from raising capital to managing risks takes place here.

Goldman Sachs – Industry

The financial services industry is considered to be one of the most powerful industries in the world as it contains a wide range of businesses that manage money.

As per the latest reports, the market size of global financial services grew from $25848.74 billion in 2022 to $28115.02 billion in 2023 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8%.

Goldman Sachs – Founders and Team

Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs are the Founders of Goldman Sachs.

Marcus Goldman was a German banker, financier, and businessman. He was born in Trappstadt, Bavaria. He immigrated to the United States in 1848. He was the founder of the company. His company is now known by all and is one of the world’s largest investment banks.
Samuel Sachs was an American investment banker. He was born in Maryland, United States in 1851. He was the business partner of Marcus Goldman. But actually, Marcus Goldman was his father-in-law. He joined the business. He died in 1935.
David M. Solomon is an investment banker. Since the year 2018, he is the CEO of Goldman Sachs. He is 58 years old as of 2020. He has a net worth of around $100 Million

David M Solomon - CEO, Goldman Sachs — CEO, Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs – Startup Story

As you have read before, Samuel Sachs was the business partner as well as the son-in-law of Marcus Goldman. Before, accepting the offer. Samuel Sachs used to work as a bookkeeper and ran minor businesses. After his joining, Marcus named the company M. Goldman, Sachs & Co. in 1888. An updated listing took place in 1883. Samuel established the company’s reputation day by day. He stood in the banking community. By 1890, Goldman Sachs became one of the largest dealers of commercial paper in New York. Later, Samuel retired and passed away in New York.

Goldman Sachs – Mission and Vision

The mission of Goldman Sachs reads as, “We aspire to be the world’s most exceptional financial institution, united by our shared values of client service, excellence, partnership, and integrity.”

The company has four core values, which are based on:

Client Service
Excellence
Partnership
Integrity

The aim of the firm has always been towards serving its clients well. Besides this, the goal of the company is to ensure that they deliver returns to its shareholders.

Goldman Sachs – Name, Tagline, and Logo

In the tagline, the goal of Goldman Sachs speaks for itself. Hence, its tagline is “Our people are our greatest asset.”

Goldman Sachs – Solutions

Goldman Sachs is known for building and integrating developer-centric, cloud-based financial products and services into the ecosystems of its clients to enable them to provide better service to their own clients and customers.

As we are aware that the company is mostly into offering services related to finance, it offers 3 major platform solutions for its clients, these are:

Transaction Banking

This platform designed by the company is to assist clients in creating a future treasury and enabling software partners to improve their services. It is a straightforward and secure transaction banking platform with 24/7 accessibility so that its clients can easily use it.

Merchant Point of Sale Lending

Merchant point of sale lending is a growing network of retailers that are offered clear and uncomplicated solutions to assist them in expanding their operations and better serving their clientele.

Embedded Consumer Finance

Through its API-first platform, a SaaS technology, the company enables businesses to directly offer its highly regarded consumer financial products within their online experiences. This doesn’t end here. The company also offers tools that will help enable developers to drive long-term growth for their businesses and derive smart decisions.

Why Goldman Sachs Went From Investing For The Rich To Targeting Everyone

Goldman Sachs – Business Model

The company deals with a range of financial services. It has got a diversified client base which includes financial institutions, governments, and corporations. The company has got 4 operable segments. These are Investment Banking, Institutional Client Services, Investing & Lending, and Investment Management.

Investment Banking is advising organizations on capital raising strategies. This feature helps to raise capital and grow businesses.
Institutional Client Services are actually financial services with both financial and non-financial firms. The firm makes clear client transactions. For future exchanges, security lending, prime brokerage, etc.
Investing & Lending are something very common, which everyone already knows. Still investing is putting money into property, shares, and schemes. The firm makes investments both directly and indirectly. And lending is allowing someone or something to use an amount of money. Money can be paid back later.
The firm also offers wealth advisory services, portfolio management, and financial counseling.

Basically, the company’s business is to help people, companies, shareholders, and clients on the following points:

It advises on what to buy or sell depending on the marketing conditions.
It helps local or national governments to finance their operations.
It transacts for its clients in all financial marketing conditions such as bonds, equities, currencies, etc.
It helps or supports markets to remain effective and liquid for investors and businesses to meet up with their needs.
It manages to safeguard and improve the value of assets for both private individuals and institutions like mutual funds, pension funds, and foundations.
It also invests in capital to help grow its clients’ capital.
It also aggressively helps to innovate and come up with new ideas, and new products to grow further.

In addition, the company offers the following solutions for corporates and institutions:

Asset Management
FICC and Equities
Comprehensive Solutions for Nonprofits
Financial Cloud
Investment Banking
Global Investment Research
Ayco Personal Financial Management
Marquee
Liquidity Investing

On the other hand, for individuals, some of the services provided by Goldman Sachs are:

Marcus by Goldman Sachs
Private Wealth Management
Global Investment Research
Ayco Personal Financial Management
Personal Financial Management

Apart from all these, Goldman Sachs is a key trader in the market for Treasury securities issued by the United States. It offers custodian bank and clearing services.

Goldman Sachs – Revenue Model

Investing activities and the origination of loans are to provide financing to clients.
After clearing client transactions on major stock, commissions, and fees are executed.
Financial advisory fees and underwriting fees are charged by the clients.

In 2022, the company generated a revenue of $47.4 billion. As of September 26, 2021, the firm has a market capitalization of $134.8 billion.

Goldman Sachs – Employees

As of 2021, the number of employees the company reported having was 48,500. However, as a result of the earnings report from July of 2022, which showed significantly decreased earnings, Goldman Sachs announced in September 2022 that hundreds of employees across the company were laid off.

Goldman Sachs – Marketing Strategy

The company invests around 90% of its marketing budget in digital marketing schemes. The main focus is on the creation of content and social media. With the help of social media platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

The company enables itself to reach its customers. Innovation and expansion of the market are increasing day by day. Social enterprises are also contributing to the UK economy and community. After a lot of research, the company designed a 10,000 small business program. This was created to bring high-quality business support to the leaders for growing their small businesses across the country.

Goldman Sachs – Challenges Faced

One of the most challenging parts for Goldman Sachs was during the aftermath of the financial crisis that happened between 2007-2008. The firm came under fire for allegedly deceiving its investors and making money through the collapse of the mortgage market. The situation was so bad that there were investigations into this matter. It was conducted by the US Congress and the US Department of Justice, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit. As a result, the company agreed to pay a $550 million settlement.

While this was one of the many challenges faced by the company, there was another major controversy in 2021, wherein a group of first-year bankers complained to managers that they were working 100 hours a week with only 5 hours of sleep at night. This was highlighted and the company faced scrutiny. However, the firm announced a 15 days vacation every year for its employees to maintain their work-life balance.

Goldman Sachs – Mergers and Acquisitions

The company has made 28 acquisitions till now. Some of the details are:

Date	Aquiree Name	Amount
September 15, 2021	GreenSky	$2.2 Billion
August 19, 2021	NN Investment Partners	1.6 Billion
December 8, 2020	Goldman Sachs Gao Hua Securities	–
October 2, 2020	General Motors – Credit Card Business	$2.5 Billion
May 14, 2020	Folio Institutional	–
June 3, 2019	Capital Vision Services	$2.7 Billion
May 16, 2019	United Capital	$750 Million
November 9, 2018	ClearFactr	–
July 11, 2018	Boyd Corporation	$3 Billion
June 14, 2018	Slickdeals	–

Goldman Sachs – Investments

It is recorded that Goldman Sachs has made 956 investments, out of which 376 are lead investments. Some of the latest investments are:

Date	Name Of The Organization	Amount Raised
February 2, 2023	Syngene	$11.9 Billion
January 25, 2023	Fever	$110 Million
January 25, 2023	Forward Networks	$50 Million
January 12, 2023	LePure Biotech	–
January 11, 2023	Xpansiv	$125 Million
January 3, 2023	InsuranceDekho	$110 Million
December 15, 2022	Mews	$185 Million
December 13, 2022	Vestiaire Collective	$75 Million
December 8, 2022	Younited	$60 Million
November 17, 2022	Bikaji Foods	$566.4 Million
June 25, 2020	Capital Markets Gateway	$25 million
July 14, 2020	Permira	–
July 14, 2020	Nasuni	$25 billion
July 15, 2020	Bond Financial Technologies	$32 million
July 23, 2020	Missfresh E-Commerce	$495 million

In addition to this, the company has made 46 diversity investments. These are:

Date	Organization Name	Amount Invested
February 15, 2022	Homebound	–
January 11, 2022	Wonderschool	$25 Million
November 27, 2021	H2O.ai	$100 Million
March 4, 2021	Flywire	$60 Million
February 24, 2021	Madison Reed	$52 Million
October 6, 2020	BlocPower	$11.8 Million
September 17, 2020	Ellucian	$1.6 Billion
July 14, 2020	Nasuni	$25 Million
February 13, 2020	Flywire	$120 Million
January 15, 2020	Moneythink	$10K

Goldman Sachs – Philanthropic Activities

Under Goldman Sachs Foundation, the company has contributed about $1.8 billion towards philanthropic activities. With a maximum employee donation match of $20,000, the business provides a donor-advised fund (DAF) called Goldman Sachs Gives that makes donations to nonprofits.

Even during the pandemic when companies struggled to operate, the company made progress in reuniting its teams across the world and in supporting their employees and their families.

In addition, the company advised the governments of several nations on how to raise more than $15 billion for vulnerable populations, contributing $30 million to a COVID-19 Relief Fund and $775 million to a Small Business Stimulus Package during this time.

Goldman Sachs – Awards and Achievements

The company has won many awards and achievements, some of which are listed below:

The Wall Street Journal – 250 Best Managed Companies of 2022 (December 2022) Ranked 105
Euromoney – Market Leaders Awards (November 2022) Ranked 1 in Chile and Ranked 2 in Brazil
Goldman Sachs has been recognized for the International Financing Review (IFR) Awards – Bank of the Year
Achieved the Fintech Futures Banking Tech Awards – Best Use of Cloud
CNBC Select – 5 Best Personal Loans of December 2022 – Marcus by Goldman Sachs named Best for Debt Consolidation
Received the Interbrand – Best Global Brands by ranking 49
The Banker – Investment Banking Awards (October 2022) Investment Bank of the Year
FinTech Futures – Banking Tech Awards USA (May 2022) – Best Digital Initiative – Marcus by Goldman Sachs products and app
Mergers & Acquisitions – Middle-Market Deals of the Year (May 2022) – Industrials Deal of the Year
Ranked No. 19 in the Fortune – Modern Board 25 (April 2022)

Goldman Sachs – Competitors

The top competitors of Goldman Sachs are:

Morgan Stanley
JP Morgan Chase
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC)
UBS Group
Bank of New York Mellon
Wells Fargo
Bank of America
Credit Suisse
Merrill Lynch & Co Inc.
Macquarie Group

Goldman Sachs – Growth

The company especially focuses on investments and technology-driven companies. The Merchant Banking Division has invested more than $5 billion in strategic capital. For entrepreneurs and management to execute long-termed growth plans. This process is, going on since 1994. They usually tie up with strong management teams. This formula helps the company to grow more. Giving value to customers, shareholders, and partners is the key to success. The target of the team is investments ranging between $20 – 250+ million in companies. A proven proper management team is also very essential to walk toward growth.

Goldman Sachs – Future Plans

While the company remains one of the leading financial and investment banking companies, it is reported that the company is soon going to change its business strategy. The company plans to expand its transaction banking and wealth management operations. Given the economic crisis going on, the company is looking for ways to change its overall business plan soon.

FAQs

When was Goldman Sachs founded?

Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869.

Who are the founders of Goldman Sachs?

Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs are the Founders of Goldman Sachs.

What services does Goldman Sachs provide?

Goldman Sachs provides a range of financial services to individuals, corporations, and governments. Some of the services offered by Goldman Sachs include:

Investment Banking
Securities
Asset Management
Consumer and Commercial Banking
Investment Advisory
Risk Management
Securities Lending

December 18, 2020

Maruti Suzuki – Emerging Stronger than Ever

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.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited, formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited, is an Indian automobile manufacturer headquartered in New Delhi. It is a subsidiary of the Japanese automotive manufacturer Suzuki Motor Corporation.

Maruti Suzuki has 3,598 sales outlets across 1,861 cities in India. The Brand Trust Report published by Trust Research Advisory, a brand analytics company, has ranked Maruti Suzuki in the thirty-seventh position in 2013 and ninth position in 2019 among the most trusted brands of India.

Maruti Suzuki – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Maruti Suzuki India Limited
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Industry	Automotive
Founded	24 February, 1981
Founder	Government of India
CEO	Kenichi Ayukawa
Parent	Suzuki Motor Corporation
Area Served	India
Website	www.marutisuzuki.com

Maruti Suzuki – About and How it Works?
Maruti Suzuki – Logo and its Meaning
Maruti Suzuki – Recent News
Maruti Suzuki – Founder and History
Maruti Suzuki – Mission
Maruti Suzuki – Joint Ventures
Maruti Suzuki – Business Model
Maruti Suzuki – Revenue and Growth
Maruti Suzuki – Recent Acquisition
Maruti Suzuki – Competitors
Maruti Suzuki – Challenges Faced
Maruti Suzuki – Future Plans
Maruti Suzuki – FAQs

Maruti Suzuki – About and How it Works?

Maruti Suzuki India Limited is a holding company. The Company is engaged in the manufacture, purchase and sale of motor vehicles, components and spare parts (automobiles). The other activities of the Company comprise facilitation of pre-owned car sales, fleet management and car financing.

Its geographical segments include the domestic segment, which includes sales to customers located in India, and the overseas segment, which includes sales to customers located outside India. The Company’s product portfolio includes Alto 800, Alto K10, Wagon R, Celerio, Ritz, Swift, DZire, Ertiga, Omni, Eeco, Gypsy, Ciaz, etc.

Its service offerings include Maruti Finance, True Value, Maruti Genuine Parts, Maruti Genuine Accessories, Maruti Suzuki Auto Card and Maruti Driving School. It has approximately five plants, located in Palam Gurgaon Road, Gurgaon, Haryana, and at Manesar Industrial Town, Gurgaon, Haryana, with an installed capacity of over 1.5 million vehicles per year.

Maruti Suzuki – Logo and its Meaning

The present variant of Suzuki logo is designed in red and blue colours. The red colour (the letter S of Suzuki) represents passion, integrity and tradition, while the blue(the letter M of Maruti) stands for excellence and grandeur.

Maruti Suzuki’s Company Logo

Maruti Suzuki – Recent News

Maruti Suzuki sees ‘much better’ 2021 as economy rebounds: Chairman
Maruti Suzuki sales increase 1.7% to 1,53,223 units in November

Maruti Suzuki – Founder and History

Maruti Udyog Limited was founded by the government of India on 24 February 1981, only to merge with the Japanese automobile company Suzuki in October 1982. The first manufacturing factory of Maruti was established in Gurugram, Haryana, in the same year.

The company was formed as a government company with Suzuki as a minor partner to make a people’s car for middle class India. Over the years the company’s product range has widened ownership has changed hands and the customer has evolved.

On October 2, 1982 the company signed the licence and joint venture agreement with Suzuki Motor Corporation Japan. In the year 1983 the company started their productions and launched Maruti 800. In the year 1984 they introduced Maruti Omni and during the next year they launched Maruti Gypsy in the market. In the year 1987 the company forayed into the foreign market by exporting first lot of 500 cars to Hungary.

In the year 1990 the company launched India’s first three-box car Sedan. In the year 1992 Suzuki Motor Corporation Japan increased their stake in the company to 50%. In the year 1993 they introduced the Maruti Zen and in the next year they launched Maruti Esteem in the market.In the year 1995 the company commenced their second plant. In the year 1997 they started Maruti Service Master as a model workshop in India to look after sales services.

In the year 1999 the third plant with new press paint and assembly shops became operational. In the year 2000 the company launched Maruti Alto in the market. In the year 2002 Suzuki Motor Corporation increased their stake in the company to 54.2%.

Maruti Suzuki – Mission

Maruti Suzuki’s mission statement says, “To be The Leader in the Indian Automobile Industry, Creating Customer Delight and Shareholder’s Wealth; A pride of India.”

Maruti Suzuki – Joint Ventures

Relationship between the Government of India, under the United Front (India) coalition and Suzuki Motor Corporation over the joint venture was a point of heated debate in the Indian media until Suzuki Motor Corporation gained the controlling stake. This highly profitable joint venture that had a near monopolistic trade in the Indian automobile market and the nature of the partnership built up till then was the underlying reason for most issues.

The success of the joint venture led Suzuki to increase its equity from 26% to 40% in 1987, and to 50% in 1992, and further to 56.21% as of 2013. In 1982, both the venture partners entered into an agreement to nominate their candidate for the post of Managing Director and every Managing Director would have a tenure of five years.

Maruti Suzuki – Business Model

Maruti Suzuki’s product range extends from entry level small cars like Alto 800, Alto K10 to the luxury sedan Ciaz. Other activities include facilitation of pre-owned car sales fleet management, car financing. Its Business Segments are divided into : Operating Income from sales of cars and Interests from Investments.

Maruti Suzuki offers 17 models of cars
Company focuses on catering to the needs of almost all the segments from the middle class to high class through wide range of products

Maruti Suzuki – Revenue and Growth

Maruti Suzuki: growth highlights are:

It has a presence in 34 cities as of March 2024
The company has 16,500 employees as per LinkedIn as of March 2024
It has served over 27 million happy customers in India as of March, 2024
It acquires news stakes in AI startup Amlgo Labs as per a news report from March 23, 2024
The company has manufactured close to 2 million cars a year in FY 2022-23

Financials

Auto major Maruti Suzuki reported 2.05 per cent year-on-year growth in consolidated profit at Rs 1,419.6 crore for the September quarter of FY21 (Q2FY21) while revenue rose 10.34 per cent to Rs 18,755.6 crore. In comparison, the company had posted revenue of Rs 16,997.9 crore and profit of Rs 1,391 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year.

Maruti Suzuki – Recent Acquisition

Maruti Suzuki India on 13 May 2020, said its board took a slew of decisions, including acquisition of Delhi-based JJ Impex, and supply of Vitara Brezza to Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM). The car major on said its board has approved acquiring 39.13% equity stake held by Sumitomo Corporation, Japan and 10% held by Sumitomo Corporation India in JJ Impex (Delhi), a company engaged in automobile service and repair business.

The cost of acquisition or the price at which the shares are to be acquired is fixed at Rs 21.73 crore, the company said.

After the acquisition, the company shall become the wholly-owned subsidiary of MSIL. MSIL shall have the right to nominate/ appoint all the directors on the board of the company. The nominee Directors of Sumitomo Group shall resign from the board of the company, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) said. The acquisition does not require any government approvals, it added.

Maruti Suzuki – Competitors

The top 10 competitors in Maruti Suzuki’s competitive set are Tata Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Mahindra, Toyota, Chevrolet, Ford, Volkswagen, Ashok Leyland and Mercedes-Benz.

Maruti Suzuki – Challenges Faced

Suzuki Motors Corporation had to recall certain models of vehicles such as the Grand Vitara and XL 7 which were manufactured in the year 2005. A problem was detected in the adjuster pulley for the drive belt which has the outer portion made up of plastic and operates the power steering pump and air conditioner compressor. Repeated heat stress caused the outer body made up of plastic to weaken and pieces of the pulley broke off.

The company found out that the broken pieces of pulley can get caught between the pulley and the drive belt which can cause the drive belt to come off resulting in increased effort to steer the vehicle by the driver which in turn increased the risk of a crash or accidents. The company made a plan to resolve the issues in the vehicles with this problem and the dealers of Suzuki Motor Corporation replaced the power steering pump belt tension adjuster free of charge for the customers whose vehicles had the same defect.

Suzukis subsidiary Maruti Suzuki India Limited faced a great challenge to keep its lead in the small market segment of automobiles in India. The company was facing severe production issues which resulted in a long gestation period for some top-selling brands such as Maruti Suzuki Swift, Maruti Suzuki Swift Desire and a few other models. These production issues could have lead to loss in the market share of Maruti Suzuki in India however the company dealt with the situation by working with their vendors to increase the supply of the materials and the company was able to deal with the backlogs of its normal sales on many models.

Difficult days, but we will emerge stronger—This was the message India’s biggest car company gave out on Wednesday as it came out with its annual integrated report for the 2020 financial year and took stock of the toll that the pandemic was inflicting on its bottom line.

“The COVID-19 epidemic has given your company as well as its vendors and dealers an opportunity to review all systems of working and become more efficient and competitive. Thus, while we are going through difficult days, I believe we will emerge stronger and fitter in the future,” Maruti Suzuki chairman R.C.Bhargava said, addressing stakeholders.

The market leader had posted losses for the first time in about two decades, as the April-June 2020 quarter showed nearly Rs 250 crore loss. Net sales had declined to less than Rs 4,000 crore, compared to nearly Rs 19,000 crore from the period in the previous year.

Maruti Suzuki – Future Plans

In an alliance with Toyota, Maruti Suzuki will be targeting the Hyundai Creta space with a midsized SUV in 2022, and this vehicle will be based on the current Brezza architecture. A C-segment MPV in 2023 is also planned, and both vehicles are likely to be produced at Toyota’s factory in Bidadi.

Unlike the re-badged Baleno, Ciaz and Ertiga, which will be shared by Maruti and Toyota in India till 2022, the SUV and MPV under development are likely to have distinct characteristics or differentiation to ensure that both companies gain from India’s growing preference for utility vehicles.

“With over a dozen SUVs planned by its rivals, Maruti Suzuki knows it has to have competitive offerings to retain its 50% overall share. The exit from diesel makes compact UVs a challenge, but a 1.5-litre diesel engine is not yet ruled out,” said one of four executives aware of Maruti’s plans. “Plus, Maruti will be relying on the localised hybrid solutions from Toyota to spruce up its future portfolio.”

The utility vehicle segment is expected to overtake the humble hatchback segment in India, as an increasing number of buyers prefer the tall and high-seating SUVs and MPVs that cost as low as Rs 5 lakh and as high as Rs 1 crore. According to vehicle forecasting firm IHS Markit, utility vehicle sales will close 2019 at 38%, a tad behind the hatchback segment, before overtaking the latter in 2020. The share of entry-car or mini-car segment, once Maruti’s mainstay, today accounts for just 10% of the overall market as against 25% share it enjoyed 5-7 years ago.

Apart from bringing in the petrol versions of Vitara Brezza and S-Cross, Maruti created an entrylevel SUV with S-presso. Maruti expects a significant number of its Swift, Dzire, Ciaz, and Ertiga buyers to eventually upgrade to a bigger SUV and MPV.

Maruti Suzuki – FAQs

Who is the owner of Maruti Suzuki?

The company is a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan.

Which country company is Maruti Suzuki?

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited, a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan, is India’s largest passenger car company, accounting for over 50 per cent of the domestic car market.

Where is the head office of Maruti Suzuki?

Maruti Suzuki India Limited, formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited, is an Indian automobile manufacturer headquartered in New Delhi.

Who is the CEO of Maruti Suzuki?

Kenichi Ayukawa is the current CEO of Maruti Suzuki.

December 9, 2020

Icertis – Providing Contract Management to Businesses

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.

Icertis is a software company that provides contract management software to enterprise businesses. The company is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington with 12 offices globally, including an engineering office in Pune, India, new offices in Singapore and Sydney, and 3 support centres, with the most recent one opened in Sofia, Bulgaria.

With Icertis, companies can accelerate business by increasing contract velocity, protect against risk by ensuring regulatory and policy compliance, and optimize the commercial relationships by maximizing revenue and reducing costs.

Icertis – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Icertis
Headquarters	Bellevue, Washington, United States
Industry	Internet Contract Software Provider and Services
Founded	2009
Founders	Samir Bodas and Monish Darda
CEO	Samir Bodas
No. of Locations	12
Website	www.icertis.com

Icertis – About and How it Works?
Icertis – Logo and its Meaning
Icertis – Founder and History
Icertis – Mission
Icertis – Recent News
Icertis – Business Model
Icertis – Revenue and Growth
Icertis – Funding and Investors
Icertis – Competitors
Icertis – Challenges Faced
Icertis – Future Plans
Icertis – FAQs

Icertis – About and How it Works?

Icertis is a provider of a contract management platform for enterprises. It covers the full lifecycle of contract management capabilities beginning with intelligent contract setup and then continuing with authoring, approvals, negotiations, and all other aspects of ongoing contract operations. With Icertis, companies can accelerate business by increasing contract velocity, protect against risk by ensuring regulatory and policy compliance, and optimize the commercial relationships by maximizing revenue and reducing costs.

“Contract management on the cloud reduces friction and increases the value of a contract by bringing all stakeholders on one seamless platform,” Samir Bodas(Co-Founder of Icertis) says.

The AI-infused Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform is used by companies like 3M, Airbus, Cognizant, Daimler, Microsoft, and Roche to manage 5.7 million contracts in 40+ languages across 90+ countries. Icertis claims to provide intelligent contract authoring. In the future, they intend to use blockchain technologies to enable basic contract management functions through a shared ledger, which would offer universal performance tracking and ratings

Icertis – Logo and its Meaning

Icertis’ logo includes a cloud structure with “Applied Cloud” written in it that means Icertis provides AI-infused Icertis Contract Management.

Logo of Icertis

Samir Bodas and Monish Darda started off building multiple cloud-based applications but scaled up when they homed on a contract management solution that has them competing with biggies like SAP and Oracle.

Icertis – Founder and History

Icertis was founded in 2009 by Samir Bodas and Monish Darda.

The Icertis Contract Lifecycle Management (ICLM) product has been built on the Microsoft Azure cloud-computing platform and is aimed at improving contract management efficiency and compliance by providing access to contract lifecycle information across many device types including smartphones and tablets. According to Microsoft, which has deployed ICM globally, the system can assist in the management of “hundreds of thousands of contracts”.

Icertis claims to provide intelligent contract authoring. In the future, they intend to use blockchain technologies to enable basic contract management functions through a shared ledger, which would offer universal performance tracking and ratings.

In March 2020, Icertis announced the appointment of Pranali Save as Chief Human Resources Officer.

Icertis – Mission

Icertis’ mission statement says, “At Icertis we are passionately committed to a values-driven approach to doing business – in our mission to be the contract intelligence platform of the world, how we get there is as important as the destination.“

Icertis – Recent News

Icertis is strengthening the ‘Beating Heart’ of Business with Contract Intelligence
Icertis Adds Former Airbus and BMW Chief Procurement Officer Dr. Klaus Richter to Board of Advisors
Icertis Named for Second Year in a Row on Deloitte’s Prestigious 2020 Technology Fast 500™

Icertis – Business Model

The business model of the company is an annual subscription model based on the total number of contracts drawn up and tracked. The India market provides 10 percent of the company’s revenues. Icertis has a 500-member R&D team in Pune. It also employs another 200 members in the US.

“At that moment we and the team began to focus only on that, and worked to scale up fast,” recalls Samir, who was CEO of Aztec Soft (acquired by MindTree) before starting up Icertis in 2009.

The Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform helps companies transform their commercial foundation, ensuring compliance, improving governance, mitigating risk, and enhancing user productivity. This ultimately improves the bottom line. The platform is used to managing 5 million contracts by 3 million subscribers at companies like 3M, Daimler, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Roche Wipro, ABB, Infosys, and Airtel in 40+ languages across 90 countries.

Icertis – Revenue and Growth

The India market provides 10 percent of the company’s revenues. Icertis raised its first round of funding, of $6 million, by the spring of 2015. There has been no looking back. In the first round, the company had a pre-money valuation of $22 million. It has a valuation of $500 million today and has raised $96 million.

Icertis – Funding and Investors

Icertis has raised a total of $211M in funding over 5 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jul 17, 2019 from a Series E round.

Date	Amount	Round	Lead Investors
Jul 17, 2019	$115M	Series E	Greycroft, PremjiInvest
Feb 8, 2018	$50M	Series D	Meritech Capital Partners
Mar 29, 2017	$25M	Series C	B Capital Group
Mar 10, 2016	$15M	Series B	Ignition Partners
Apr 28, 2015	$6M	Series A	Eight Roads Ventures, Greycroft

Icertis – Competitors

Top competitors of Icertis Contract Management are:

Conga Contracts
DocuSign CLM
Apttus Contract Lifecycle Management
PandaDo
SAP Ariba
Agiloft Contract Management Suite
Qwilr
SurveyMonkey

Icertis – Challenges Faced

“I think there are a lot of hurdles that companies have to jump over. It is easier for startups and companies in general, as compared to 10 years ago but still there are a lot of filings that need to be done. The government should make it easier for innovators to innovate, make it easier for entrepreneurs to create companies as at the end of the day, entrepreneurs create employment,” Bodas said.

Icertis isn’t the lone player who has found challenges in the industry and finds lack of government support. According to a spokesperson of Icertis there’s no institutional support for the players in the deep tech contract sector.

Icertis – Future Plans

Icertis said it would use the fresh capital to expand its technology platform to address wider use cases. It said it would also expand its blockchain framework that integrates with enterprise contract management platforms to solve challenges such as transparency in supply chain and certification compliance. Its revenue is at about $100 million currently — another key area it intends to scale.

The firm, which claims that five of the world’s most valuable companies are its clients (one of which is Microsoft), said it would also scale its sales and marketing efforts to reach “every leading company in the world” and expand its partner ecosystem. It is also looking to acquire startups that are a good fit to its contracting business.

Icertis lets users manage almost all kinds of contracts. Companies use Icertis’ products to handle procurement, sales and corporate contracts, including non-disclosure agreements. In addition to helping users create contracts, Icertis’ software also tracks when terms are met, ensures regulatory compliance and automates administrative tasks like sending renewal reminders.

Icertis – FAQs

What does Icertis do?

Icertis is a provider of a contract management platform for enterprises covering the full lifecycle of contract management capabilities beginning with intelligent contract setup and then continuing with authoring, approvals, negotiations, and all other aspects of ongoing contract operations.

Who’s the CEO of Icertis?

Samir Bodas, is the CEO and Co-founder of Icertis.

When was Icertis founded?

Icertis was founded in 2009.

Who are the founders of Icertis?

Icertis was founded in 2009 by Samir Bodas and Monish Darda.

December 4, 2020

Huawei – Implementing Innovation 2.0

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.

Huawei was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, an ex-military officer. It was merely formed as a private company. The main mission of the company was to provide consulting and operations services to most of the enterprises in China and outside the country.

There are around 3 core business units in the company, Telecom Carrier Networks, Enterprise Business and Devices, and manufacturing communication devices.

Huawei – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Huawei Technologies
Headquarters	Shenzhen, China
Industry	Consumer electronics, Telecom equipment, Networking equipment,Semiconductors
Founded	September 15, 1987
Founder	Ren Zhengfei
CEO	Ren Zhengfei
Areas Served	Worldwide (exempting United States since 2019)
Website	www.huawei.com

Huawei – About and How it Works?
Huawei – Logo and its Meaning
Huawei – Founder and History
Huawei – Mission
Huawei – Recent News
Huawei – Partnerships
Huawei – Business Model
Huawei – Revenue and Growth
Huawei – Investments
Huawei – Acquisitions
Huawei – Competitors
Huawei – Challenges Faced
Huawei – Future Plans
Huawei – FAQs

Huawei – About and How it Works?

Huawei is a global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. The company offers a range of products, services, and business solutions for telecom carriers, including wireless network, fixed network, cloud core network, carrier software, IT infrastructure, network energy, professional services, and network rollout services.

It also builds a digital infrastructure platform utilizing cloud computing, software-defined networking, big data, and IoT to enable the digital transformation of the government, public utilities, finance, energy, transport, and manufacturing industries. In addition, Huawei provides smartphones, tablets, wearable devices, converged home devices, and applications on these devices for consumers and businesses.

Huawei – Logo and its Meaning

Huawei Logo

In addition to Huawei’s name, its own brand uses a flower-shaped logo. This is a symbolization of the “Hua” syllable that can mean petals or can also mean a lavish and luxurious in Mandarin. So it can be concluded Huawei logo symbolizes the achievement that surge or boast.

Huawei – Founder and History

The company was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei, an ex-military officer.

It was merely formed as a private company. The main mission of the company was to provide consulting and operations services to most of the enterprises in China and outside the country. The company has around 140,000 employees working. 46% of the employees are involved in research & development.

After a few years, the company got a research centre of its own and started doing research and development. The set up got an initial breakthrough by launching its C&C08 digital telephone switch. The company got its first international project in 1997. It then started providing fixed line networks products to a company in Hong Kong.

In 1999, Huawei set up its first R&D centre in Bangalore, India. The company also entered into a 5-year contract with IBM till 2003. Huawei continued to expand into international markets. It is the first company to deliver LTE/EPC commercial network for Telia Sonera in Norway in the year 2009.

In 2013, the company opened its new office in Canada. Over the years, Huawei always focused on enhancing its mobile technology and has a number of partnerships with other companies. It also formed a joint venture, 3Com-Huawei and focused on R&D and production of the networking products.

Huawei is a collective company now and not privately owned any more. By the year 2010, 80% of the top 50 telecom companies worked with Huawei. Some prominent partners include Motorola, Vodafone, Talk Talk, T-mobile, Clear wire, Bell Canada, etc.

Huawei – Mission

Huawei’s mission is to expand the benefits of technology to everyone, everywhere. To achieve this, they’ve developed a digital inclusion strategy that focuses on three areas: technology, applications, and skills. Huawei believes that technology will make life better for every individual, home, and organization.

Huawei – Recent News

The research report provides deep insights into the regional market revenue, parent market trends, macro-economic indicators, and governing factors, along with market attractiveness per market segment of North America. The report provides an overview of the growth rate of the North America 5G Chipset market during the forecast period, i.e., 2020–2027 in which top key players are Broadcom, Inc., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, Mediatek Inc., Nokia Corporation, Xilinx, Inc.
Lawmakers passed a motion demanding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decide within 30 days whether to ban Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. from Canada’s next-generation wireless network.
The chief executive of Ericsson has come out in support of arch-rival Huawei after Sweden blocked the Chinese firm from building its 5G networks.

Huawei – Partnerships

As of the beginning of 2010, approximately 80% of the world’s top 50 telecoms companies had worked with Huawei.

Current prominent partners include:

Bell Canada
BT
Clearwire
Cox Communications
Globe Telecom
Motorola
Orange
PLDT
Portugal Telecom
Google
T-Mobile
TalkTalk
Vodafone

Huawei – Business Model

When you look at the rise of the Huawei it’s clear that the success has come from adopting new business models to fit current market trends and to ensure that they remain competitive towards its competitors. The adaptation and change for its business models over the years has ensured that it remains a dark horse in the smartphone industry. Many years ago, Huawei was known for selling ‘cheap and cheerful’ products, which were renowned to not last very long.

As a company, Huawei has invested millions in R&D to help them pursue better approaches to the industry and to try and get the company renowned as one of the best. As you can see from the image below the amount of units that Huawei now sells compared to back in 2013 is a substantial improvement, which can effectively be down to several improvements it has made as a company over the period of 3 years. The willingness of adapting and changing its ideas to fit and match companies such as Apple and Samsung will be a major factor of its success.

Huawei – Revenue and Growth

Huawei announced worldwide revenues of $105.1 billion for 2018, with a net profit of $8.7 billion. Huawei’s Q1 2019 revenues were up 39% year-over-year, at US$26.76 billion. In 2019, Huawei reported revenue of US$122 billion.

Huawei – Investments

Huawei Technologies has made 5 investments. Their most recent investment was on Dec 19, 2019, when Lero raised €6M.

Date	Organization Name	Round	Amount
Dec 19, 2019	Lero	Venture Round	€6M
May 8, 2017	Falcon Computing Solutions	Series B	$8M
Mar 1, 2015	Che Youyuan	Angel Round	CN¥3M
Jul 21, 2014	XMOS	Series D	$26.2M
Jan 1, 2011	Teewon	Venture Round	CN¥320M

Huawei – Acquisitions

Huawei Technologies has acquired 9 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Vocord on Jun 4, 2019.

Aquiree Name	Date	Amount	About Acquiree
Vocord	Jun 4, 2019	–	Vocord is a developer & manufacturer of intelligent video surveillance systems, biometric identification and computer vision
Vokord Telekom Zao	Jun 3, 2019	$50M	Vokord Telekom Zao manufactures radio and television broadcasting and communications equipment
HexaTier	Dec 27, 2016	$42M	HexaTier delivers unified database security solutions utilizing a patented database reverse proxy technilogy
Toga Networks	Dec 7, 2016	–	Toga Networks is a privately held company that provides advanced technologies research and high level design for the IT and Telecom markets
Neul	Sep 22, 2014	$25M	Neul develops wireless network technology to enable the use of TV white space spectrum
Centre for Integrated Photonics	Jan 26, 2012	–	Centre for Integrated Photonics designs, develops, and manufactures semiconductor optoelectronic chips for telecommunications applications
Huawei Symantec Technologies	Nov 14, 2011	–	Huawei Symantec Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei Symantec) is a leading provider of network security and storage appliance solutions to
3Leaf	Feb 19, 2011	–	3Leaf offers server virtualization solutions for data center initiatives such as power management and architectural support
Harbour Networks Holdings	Sep 11, 2006	–	Harbour Networks Holdings provides internet protocol-based networking equipment and services management software for varied industries

Huawei – Competitors

Huawei’s top competitors include Lenovo, Ericsson Nikola Tesla, Ericsson, ZTE, Apple, Nokia, Xiaomi, Sony, Samsung Electronics and HTC.

Huawei – Challenges Faced

Huawei’s globalization efforts were marred by issues of security concerns expressed by countries that were sceptical over its lack of transparency. The US had vehemently opposed Huawei’s growth activities in its country. To become a truly global company, Huawei had to develop its market in the US. Against the backdrop of such security concerns, the case study would analyse the growth of Huawei in its home country, China, its international growth strategies and whether the hue and cry raised by the US authorities on security concerns would really impede the growth of Huawei globally.

During the first three quarters of 2020, the Chinese telecoms and smartphone giant reported revenue of 671.3 billion yuan (about USD $100.7 billion), an increase of 9.9% year-over-year, with a profit margin of 8%. The company said those results “basically met expectations,” but it represents a huge drop from its performance during the same period last year, when Huawei reported 24.4% growth with a profit margin of 8.7%.

The company wrote that “as the world grapples with COVID-19, Huawei’s global supply chain is being put under pressure and its production and operations face significant challenges. The company continues to do its best to find solutions, survive and forge forward, and fulfil its obligations to customers and suppliers.”

Huawei – Future Plans

Looking to the future, Huawei’s innovation will transition as we move from an Innovation 1.0 era to an Innovation 2.0 era. Huawei said that it was going to start with smartwatches, wearables, in-car head units and it’s powering the Honor Vision smart TV, although the company stuck to open source Android for its smartphones in 2020, while its wearables still use LiteOS at the time of writing.

The company says, “In Innovation 2.0, based on our vision for the intelligent world we are entering, we will aim to break the bottlenecks in theories and basic technologies that have hindered the development of ICT. In this stage, we will focus on theoretical breakthroughs and inventions, which means going from 0 to 1. “

The philosophy of Huawei’s Innovation 2.0 will bring together universities and research institutes and connect the academia with businesses, to allow all types of global scientific research resources and talent to come together in the pursuit of innovation.

To better implement Innovation 2.0, Huawei will adopt a number of approaches, including supporting the research programs of universities and research institutes, building its own labs, and investing along multiple technological paths.

Huawei – FAQs

What services Huawei provide?

Huawei Technologies designs, develops, and sells telecommunications equipment and consumer electronics.

Can Huawei phones be used in India?

Yes, Huawei phones are used in India as it was relaunched in January 2020 itself.

Can Huawei still use Google?

Despite executive comments to the contrary, Huawei says it’s still open to using Google services after being forbidden from including them on devices last year.

How does Huawei make money?

There are around 3 core business units in the company, Telecom Carrier Networks, Enterprise Business and Devices or manufacturing communication devices.

Where was Huawei banned?

The company was blacklisted in 2019 by Trump when the US alleged that it was too close to the Chinese government.

December 2, 2020

Tag: 📄Company Profiles

Shopify – Company Highlights

Shopify – About and How it Works?

Shopify – Recent News

Shopify – Logo and its Meaning

Shopify – Founder and History

Shopify – Mission

Shopify – Business Model

Shopify – Revenue and Growth

Shopify – Funding and Investors

Shopify – Acquisitions

Shopify – Competitors

Shopify – Challenges Faced

Shopify – Future Plans

Shopify – FAQs

What does Shopify Inc do?

Where is Shopify headquartered?

Who is the CEO of Shopify?

How does Shopify make money?

Mailchimp – Company Highlights

Mailchimp – About and How it Works?

Mailchimp – Recent News

Mailchimp – Logo and its Meaning

Mailchimp – Founder and History

Mailchimp – Mission

Mailchimp – Business Model

Mailchimp – Revenue and Growth

Mailchimp – Acquisitions

Mailchimp – Competitors

Mailchimp – Challenges Faced

Mailchimp – Future Plans

Mailchimp – FAQs

What is Mailchimp?

Who founded Mailchimp?

When was Mailchimp founded?

What is Mailchimp used for?

Is Mailchimp free?

What is mailchimp pricing?

Criador Design Labs – Company Highlights

Criador Design Labs – About and How it Works

Consumer Healthcare Industry Details

Criador Design Labs – Founders and Team

Criador Design Labs – How it Started?

Criador Design Labs – Name, Tagline and Logo

Criador Design Labs – Business Model and Revenue Model

Criador Design Labs – Startup Challenges

Criador Design Labs – Advisors and Mentors

Criador Design Labs – Future Plans

MediaFire – Company Highlights

MediaFire – About

MediaFire – Startup Story

MediaFire – Founders And Team

MediaFire – Logo

Mediafire – Business Model

MediaFire – Revenue Model

MediaFire – Funding And Investors

MediaFire – Growth

MediaFire – Competitors

refundme.in – Company Highlights

About refundme.in and How it Works

Aviation Industry Details

refundme.in – Founders and Team

How was refundme.in Started

refundme.in – Business Model and Revenue Model

refundme.in – Funding

refundme.in – Startup Challenges

refundme.in – Achievements

refundme.in – Growth

Docttocare – Company Highlights

About Docttocare and How it Works

Global Appointment Scheduling Software Market

Docttocare Founder, CEO and Team

Docttocare – Name and Logo

Docttocare – USP and Innovation

Docttocare – Revenue Model

Docttocare – Funding and Investors

Docttocare – User Acquisition

Docttocare – Startup Challenges

Docttocare – Advisors and Mentors

Docttocare – Growth