StartupTalky

Tag: 📄Company Profiles

  • How Agentsync Is Changing the Game in Insurance Technology?

    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 AgentSync.

    Gone are the days when the insurance industry operated using a traditional, in-person approach. With technology affecting all aspects of the corporate world, the insurance industry is no exception. Several companies now deploy technological innovations to make the insurance industry model cost-effective and efficient.

    Now that the insurtech market is enormous, lucrative, and still developing, it is a prime space for technologically advanced companies to attack. AgentSync is one such ‘compliance as a service’ company that has been leading the insurance industry since 2018.

    Here we’ve compiled the important details of the company- its startup story, founders, funding, investors, achievements, and more.

    AgentSync – Company Highlights

    Company Name AgentSync
    Headquarters Denver, Colorado, United States
    Primary Industry Insurance
    Founders Niranjan "Niji" Sabharwal and Jennifer Knight
    Founded In 2018
    Website Agentsync.io

    AgentSync – About
    AgentSync – Industry
    AgentSync – Founders and Team
    AgentSync – Startup Story
    AgentSync – Mission and Vision
    AgentSync – Business Model
    AgentSync – Revenue Model
    AgentSync – Products and Services
    AgentSync – Funding and Investors
    AgentSync – Mergers and Acquisitions
    AgentSync – Growth
    AgentSync – Partners
    AgentSync – Awards and Achievements
    AgentSync – Competitors
    AgentSync – Future Plans

    AgentSync – About

    AgentSync is a developer of modern insurance infrastructure involved in connecting carriers, agencies, MGAs, and producers. The customer-centric design approach, along with APIs, automation, and premium quality service, enables AgentSync solutions to create onboarding, licensing, and appointing processes for insurers and producers while ensuring growth and compliance.

    AgentSync – Industry

    The insurance market is home to enterprises involved in researching, designing, and selling different types of insurance and analyzing and monitoring insurance data. The global insurance market size was estimated at $5946.74 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $8603.8 billion in 2027, with a CAGR of 7.4% during 2023-2027.

    Moreover, the rapid growth in internet penetration has led to the emergence of insurtech. The term insurtech combines two words, ‘insurance’ and ‘technology.’ It refers to using technology innovations to find cost-savings and efficiency from the conventional insurance industry model.

    The global insurtech market size was estimated at $5.45 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 52.7% from 2023 to 2030.

    Allianz Group, Axa Group, China Life Insurance, Anthem Inc, and Ping An Insurance are the major companies in the insurance industry. When it comes to the insurtech global market, ZhongAn, Oscar Health, Next insurance, and Wipro Limited are the top players.

    AgentSync – Founders and Team

    Niranjan “Niji” Sabharwal and Jennifer Knight are the company’s co-founders.

    AgentSync Founders - Jennifer Knight and Niranjan Sabharwal
    AgentSync Founders – Jennifer Knight and Niranjan Sabharwal

    Niranjan “Niji” Sabharwal

    Niranjan “Niji” Sabharwal graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Arts, Business economics. Before co-founding and holding the CEO role, he worked at LinkedIn and Zenefits.

    Jennifer Knight

    Jennifer Knight graduated from Boston University with a degree in BA, International Relations. She has worked in multiple companies, including Bluewolf, LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Stripe, before holding the role of co-founder and CTO in AgentSync.

    When it comes to the company’s team, AgentSync is working with an entirely onshore team with approximately 250 employees.

    AgentSync – Startup Story

    The idea of establishing AgentSyn was born during Niranjan “Niji” Sabharwal’s time at Zenefits. Sabharwal was focused on rebuilding Zenefits in a more compliant fashion. Thus, he built software that helped track agent complaints, a project which was later open-sourced and released by Zenefits.

    AgentSync was formed after Sabharwal left Zenefits to establish his own company with his partner, Jennifer Knight. Zenefits signed the IP from the earlier project over to Sabharwal before his team created any code for AgentSync. It allowed the company to get a clean start; thus, AgentSync was officially set up in 2018.

    In May 2022, the company launched a contracting solution for simplifying the carrier contracting experience. The Compliance library was launched in June 2022 to provide compliance information and updates to the insurance producer. Moreover, it launched the AgentSync ID – the industry’s first connected producer identity platform in September 2022.

    AgentSync – Mission and Vision

    The mission of the company is to revolutionize and modernize insurance companies.

    AgentSync – Business Model

    AgentSync is a ‘compliance as a service’ application built on Salesforce.com that helps insurance carriers and insurance agencies track insurance broker licensing data. Companies do not need to do this work with spreadsheets; instead, AgentSync’s products and solutions offer a faster method while reducing the chance of error.

    How SaaS Can Be the Future of the Insurance Industry?
    Insurance is a $5,838.43 billion industry. This is how SaaS is transforming the insurance industry in 2023.
    StartupTalkyHarshit Verma

    This software automatically enforces state producer licensing and appointment regulatory requirements by integrating with the National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) as a source of truth. The clients can minimize compliance costs and prevent regulatory violations by letting the application do the heavy lifting.

    AgentSync – Revenue Model

    The company earns revenue by charging per active agent its client has, with some price tiering based on the scale.

    AgentSync – Products and Services

    AgentSync is popular for offering 3 products, and these, are AgentSync Manange, AgentSync AutoPilot, and AgentSync APIs.

    AgentSync Self-Service Portal

    AgentSync – Funding and Investors

    AgentSync has undertaken 4 funding rounds in which it has raised a total of $111.1 million. Its latest funding round – Series B Round, was conducted on December 7, 2021, and raised a total of $75 million. Presently, the company is funded by 19 investors, and the main ones are Craft Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Anthemis Group, Valor Equity Partners, Caffeinated Capital, and Atreides Management.

    Date Round Number of Investors Money Raised Lead Investor
    December 7, 2021 Series B 6 $75 million Valor Equity Partners
    March 8, 2021 Series A 6 $25 million Craft Ventures, Elad Gil
    December 2, 2020 Seed Round 2 $6.7 million Craft Ventures, Elad Gil
    August 4, 2020 Seed Round 11 $4.4 million Caffeinated Capital, Elad Gil

    AgentSync – Mergers and Acquisitions

    The acquisitions of AgentSync include Finvera in 2021 and eContractPro in 2022.

    AgentSync – Growth

    The estimated annual revenue of AgentSync is $29.3 million ($127,598 per employee) in 2021. The company’s current valuation as of December 2021 stands at $1.2 billion. Moreover, its employee count increased by 219% last year, and the monthly website visit growth rate is reported to be -12.9%.

    AgentSync – Partners

    AgentSyn has partnered with other market leaders to expand its functionality. Its main partners are:

    • National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR)
    • Salesforce
    • Varicent
    • DocuSign
    • Verified First
    • Accurate
    • LIMRA LOMA

    AgentSync – Awards and Achievements

    AgenSync is honored with multiple awards and achievements and is recognized as:

    • One of the Denver’s Best Places to Work
    • Forbes Magazine Cloud 100 Rising Star
    • An Insurtech Insights Future 50 winner
    • Ranked 88 in Forbes – America’s 500 Best Startup Employers 2022

    AgentSync – Competitors

    Some of its main competitors are:

    • Omnichannel
    • Sircon
    • regEd
    • SuranceBay
    • Rhoads online institute
    • Spyder
    • Certificate Hero
    • REG
    • Exdion

    AgentSync – Future Plans

    AgentSync declared that 2023 would be the year of compliance. The company is looking forward to managing compliance in a more technologically enabled way, as it’s crucial for the players across the insurance industry.

    FAQs

    What is AgentSync and what does the company do?

    AgentSync is an insurtech company that provides automated insurance compliance for agencies, brokers, and carriers. The platform helps manage licensing and appointment-related tasks.

    How is AgentSync modernizing the insurance industry?

    AgentSync is using cloud-based technology to simplify and automate insurance compliance, which helps insurance companies save time and resources while remaining compliant with regulations. This enables companies to focus more on growth and innovation.

  • Hostinger – Success Story of the Employee-Owned Web Hosting Platform

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Hostinger.

    Revenue in the Web Hosting Segment is projected to reach $90.42 billion in 2023. With an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 12.42%, it is expected to reach $144.40 billion by 2027. With the internet and technological advancements, websites have almost become a part and parcel of life. There are over 1.13 billion websites, of which only around one-fifth are active. Over 70% of Small and Medium Businesses have started using websites to exhibit their profile and promote their products.

    Besides the rising needs, a major factor that impacted the growth of websites is the Web Hosting Platforms. A creation that once required immense knowledge of coding was now made in a matter of a few minutes by these companies. Their cheaper and more secure service paved the way for everyone willing to have a website. Hostinger is one such popular web hosting platform.

    Hostinger is a web hosting service platform that helps you to create and maintain websites quickly and in a simplified way. It was established in 2004 in Lithuania. This platform offers various services like shared hosting, cloud hosting, domain registrations, WordPress hosting, etc. Hostinger is one of the largest hosting service providers in the world.

    Hostinger – Company Highlights

    Company Name Hostinger
    Headquarters Kaunas, Lithuania
    Industry Web Hosting
    Founded 2004 (as Hosting Media), 2011 (Renamed as Hostinger)
    Founder Arnas Stuopelis
    Area served Worldwide
    Employees 1000+
    Website Hostinger.in

    Hostinger – About
    Hostinger – Key People and Team
    Hostinger – Startup Story
    Hostinger – Mission and Vision
    Hostinger – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Hostinger – Challenges Faced
    Hostinger – Funding
    Hostinger – Subsidiaries
    Hostinger – Growth
    Hostinger – Competitors
    Hostinger – Awards and Achievements

    About Hostinger

    Hostinger – About

    Hostinger is a web hosting and internet domain registering platform that also provides simple ways to create websites with just a click of a button. This company offers affordable, quick, and secure hosting services to its users. Hostinger is also helping customers with WordPress, Cloud, VPS, Minecraft, and Shared Hostings.

    Hostinger is an employee-owned company that was instituted in 2004. The company is based and headquartered in Kaunas, Lithuania, and has 3 other offices in Vilnius, Yogyakarta, and Florianopolis. Hostinger has over 29 million users around the world with an average of 15,000 new users every day. The company runs its operations in 178 countries to create a simplified platform for users to build websites and grow online.

    Hostinger – Key People and Team

    Arnas Stuopelis - CEO and Chairman, Hostinger
    Arnas Stuopelis – CEO and Chairman, Hostinger

    Hostinger is an employee-owned web hosting company that was established in 2004. An employee-owned company is a term used to refer to companies whose shares are owned by the employees of the same company. The other key people and team members involved in top management are listed below:

    • Arnas Stuopelis – CEO and Chairman
    • Balys Krikščiūnas – Chief Executive Officer (CTO)
    • Antanas Patašius – Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
    • Domantas Beržanskis – Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
    • Gabija Jasiulionytė – Head of People
    • Žygintas Rimkus – Chief Product Officer
    • Daugirdas Jankus – Marketing Head

    Hostinger – Startup Story

    A group of people with the same ideas and goals joined together to create Hostinger. It was initially started with the name Hosting Media in 2004. Their main goal was to make the internet readily available to all people and let them host their websites. They wanted to provide their services for free without limitations.

    With this idea, Hostinger was bootstrapped in 2004. The company started doing well right from the beginning. The initial customers were so pleased by Hostinger’s service and they kept recommending this web hosting platform to their circle of family and friends. This ensured Hostinger’s success in the early days and also helped them grow faster than expected.

    Hostinger – Mission and Vision

    Hostinger’s mission is to create a platform that helps web developers easily create and run websites. It wanted to provide reliable, fast, and stable hosting services for customers. The company has a vision that enables people around the world to explore the power of the internet and capitalize on them to learn and grow.

    Hostinger – Business Model and Revenue Model

    As a web hosting company, Hostinger’s major focus is to provide hosting at a cheaper price with better quality and security. Unlike other competitors who offer many unlimited services for a higher subscription price, Hostinger takes a different path. It avoids unwanted bundling and excess add-ons of plans and services, thus enabling it to provide a low-cost service. The company’s 7 data centers located across the world help it to provide a reliable and quick service for its customers.

    Hostinger generates its revenue through subscription plans. The company offers multiple services in hosting and domain registrations, which have independent pricing plans for each of them. Hostinger also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for all its plans.

    Hostinger – Challenges Faced

    000webhost, a subsidiary of Hostinger faced a backslash in 2015. A major data breach resulted in the theft of around 13 million customers’ data. The company admitted that the breach was caused by hackers and necessary steps were taken to avoid more leaks. The web host was forced to block access to all customers temporarily and reset their passwords. The platform’s security was further enhanced after this issue and was made even more secure.

    About Zoho – Founders, products, competitors, Funding
    From a humble beginning in a small apartment near Chennai, to a $1 Billion Startup, Read Zoho’s Startup story.
    StartupTalkyMandagiri Praveen Kumar Reddy

    Hostinger – Funding

    In November 2004, a personal company named Hosting Media (today Hostinger) was bootstrapped in Kaunas, Lithuania. The company has survived successfully without raising funds for almost 16 years. Only in April 2021, a private equity company named ConHostinger led by the German entrepreneurs Jochen Berger and Thomas Strohe invested in Hostinger. They purchased approximately 31% of the company’s shares for an undisclosed sum from long-term employees.

    Hostinger – Subsidiaries

    Hostinger’s subsidiaries
    Hostinger’s subsidiaries

    This bootstrapped web hosting platform has established 5 subsidiaries so far. Here is the list of Hostinger’s subsidiaries:

    000webhost

    000webhost is the world’s first free web hosting provider launched by Hostinger in 2007. It offers services like website creation, SSL Certification, and WordPress hosting for free. 000webhost also has paid plans with additional features.

    Hosting24

    Hostinger established Hosting24 in 2008. It is a specialized company in web hosting that uses the popular cPanel platform to host websites. The company’s subscription plans come with the additional benefits of a free domain and SSL Certificate.

    Niagahoster

    This is another web hosting platform set up in Indonesia by Hostinger. Niagahoster was launched in 2013 as part of Hostinger International Ltd. to develop and build the company’s customer base around the country.

    Weblink is based in Brasil and was instigated as a part of the Hostinger group in 2014. This web hosting company offers services like Virtual Private Servers, cloud hosting, and WordPress hosting.

    Zyro

    Zyro was the latest addition to the list of subsidiaries of Hostinger. It was founded in 2019 and is based in Kaunas, Lithuania, the same as the parent company. Its main purpose is to help small businesses enter and succeed in the online world.

    List of Wipro’s Subsidiaries Which You Never Knew About
    Wipro is an Indian conglomerate known for its services like IT services. However, it earns much from its subsidiaries which will surprise you.
    StartupTalkyPV Vyshnavi

    Hostinger – Growth

    Beginning in 2004 as a bootstrapped startup, Hostinger’s journey for over a decade and a half contained more growth and expansion. Reaching from 0 to 29 million users in 17 years was their first achievement. This growth of the company was evident right from the beginning. With 3 offices and 7 global data centers, Hostinger has grown to be one of the largest Web Hosting companies in the world.

    Hostinger started expanding its operations in 2008 by establishing various subsidiaries across the world. These companies helped Hostinger secure a strong customer base in around 178 countries. It took 6 years to reach 1 million users in 2010 and another 4 years to reach 10 million. Now, with over 29 million users, the company’s growth trajectory is showing 2x growth in the past few years. To add a feather to the hat, Hostinger made its way into the annual list of FT 1000’s ranking on Europe’s fastest-growing companies in 2020.

    Hostinger – Competitors

    As the popularity and demand for websites grow, many web hosting platforms have entered the market. Hostinger has got multiple popular competitors offering the same services, at times even surpassing theirs. But when it comes to price, Hostinger offers a better service at an affordable price. Here are some of the top competitors for Hostinger:

    • Bluehost
    • DreamHost
    • HostGator
    • GoDaddy
    • A2 Hosting

    Hostinger – Awards and Achievements

    FinancesOnline, a respectable analytical platform lauded Hostinger as an Outstanding Hosting Service for the year 2021. It also presented them with two prestigious awards on the same occasion. Also in 2018, Hostinger was recognized with awards for Great User Experience and 2018 Rising Star. Hostinger was ranked 890 among the 1000 fastest-growing companies in Europe by Financial Times.

    Conclusion

    Hostinger is a web hosting provider that offers a range of hosting services at affordable prices. They offer shared hosting, Cloud hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated server hosting. They are known for their user-friendly interface, reliable uptime, and fast loading speeds. They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee and 24/7 customer support. Overall, Hostinger is a great option for individuals and small businesses looking for affordable and reliable web hosting services.

    FAQs

    What is Hostinger?

    Hostinger is a web hosting and internet domain registering platform that also provides simple ways to create websites with just a click of a button.

    Who are the competitors of Hostinger?

    Some of the top competitors of Hostinger are:

    • Bluehost
    • DreamHost
    • HostGator
    • GoDaddy
    • A2 Hosting

    When was Hostinger founded?

    Hostinger is based in Kaunas, Lithuania, and was established in the year 2004.

    Who is the CEO of Hostinger?

    Balys Krikščiūnas is the CEO of the Hostinger.

    Who owns Hostinger?

    Hostinger is an employee-owned web hosting service platform.

  • Slack Technologies—Collaboration Hub To Get Work Done Smoothly

    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.

    Slack is a popular team communication and collaboration platform that allows users to easily communicate and share information in real time. With Slack, you can create channels for different topics or projects, and have team members join the channels that are relevant to them. You can also direct message other team members for quick, one-on-one conversations.

    Slack also offers a wide range of integrations with other tools and services, such as Google Drive, Trello, and Jira, making it a versatile and flexible solution for teams of all sizes. Additionally, Slack offers robust search capabilities, making it easy to find the information you need. Overall, Slack is a great tool for improving team communication, productivity, and organization.

    With over 2,000 apps and a robust API, the Slack platform team works with partners and developers globally to build apps and integrations that streamline their client’s work, automate mundane tasks and bring context into their clients’ conversations in Slack.

    Slack – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Slack Technologies
    Formerly Called Tiny Speck
    Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
    Industry Software
    Founded 2009
    Founders Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, Serguei Mourachov
    CEO Stewart Butterfield (Mar 2009–Present)
    Acquired By Salesforce (January 2021)
    Area Served Worldwide
    Website www.slack.com

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

    Slack – About and How it Works?

    Slack Technologies is an American international software company that designs and develops a communication platform that provides real-time messaging, file sharing, archiving, and searching services for teams. Slack offers a team communication tool that consists of a set of open, documented application programming interfaces (APIs), developer tools, and an App Directory that lists apps that have met the guidelines.

    Organizations on Slack use its platform to create internal applications and integrations, ranging from simple notifications to complex internal workflows. Third-party developers build integrations and applications that make it easier for their existing customers to engage with their products as well as find new customers.

    Slack is a layer of business technology, where people work together to connect all their other software tools and services and find the information they need. Slack users communicate with one another by posting messages to a channel or sending direct messages to a person or a group of people. Slack’s core organizing principle is the channel, which brings the right people together to collaborate, share information, and get work done. Channels offer flexibility and can be organized by project, topic, team, or whatever makes sense for a specific task or situation.

    Slack enables communication and collaboration among organizations via shared channels and guest accounts. Shared channels securely connect the Slack workspaces of different organizations, enabling the same level of communication and collaboration between enterprises that Slack brings to teams within an organization.

    Slack – Logo and its Meaning

    Slack’s logo resembles a hashtag or octothorpe. The hashtag is an organizing element in the platform, signaling the beginning of the channels where teams can talk about individual projects.

    Slack Logo
    Slack Logo

    Slack – Founder and History

    Slack is famous for reaching a valuation of $1B after just eight months without spending a penny on traditional advertising or a Chief Marketing Officer. Slack was a runaway success because it had a multi-year head start on everybody else.

    Stewart Butterfield | Founder & CEO, Slack
    Stewart Butterfield | Founder & CEO, Slack 

    Slack founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield and his team set out to create something new and original for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) market. As it turns out, they revolutionized how companies communicate at work instead.

    Video game developers might not seem like the most logical group to make a sticky, engaging communications tool for today’s workplace, but Tiny Speck’s expertise in gaming was a major competitive advantage. Butterfield and his team already knew how to make repetitive tasks fun and engaging, as this is core to the gameplay experience of the MMORPG genre. Making work-based communication fun and engaging would be the secret sauce that made Slack so wildly successful.

    The Comparison Between WhatsApp And Telegram
    Currently, there are so many messaging apps and services are available. But this field becomes a bit narrow if privacy and security are your main concerns. WhatsApp and Telegram are considered as the major apps in instant messaging apps. Let us discuss more about these two messaging tools.
    StartupTalkyATHUL C K

    Slack – Mission

    Slack’s mission statement says,

    ” We live by our mission, and improving people’s working life starts with our own company. We’re building a platform and products we believe in – as well as a strong, diverse team of curious, creative people who want to do the best work of their lives and support each other in the process. ”

    Slack – Business Model

    Slack advertises that it is completely free to use for as long and with as many people as you want. So how does it make money?

    Well, a percentage of organizations pay premiums for special features. Such features include access to an unlimited communication history, unlimited app integration, additional file storage, screen sharing, statistics, and more. With no apparent plans to run ads shortly, Slack relies on a simple business model, charging monthly fees of $7.25 per user for the standard subscription and $12.50 per user for the plus subscription. It has also launched Enterprise Grid for larger organizations that have tens of thousands of users.

    Slack – Revenue and Growth

    For the Q1 Fiscal year 2022:

    • Total revenue was $273.4 million, representing year-over-year growth of 36%.
    • GAAP gross profit was $234.1 million, or 85.6% gross margin, compared to $176.0 million, or 87.3% gross margin, in Q1 FY21.
    • Non-GAAP gross profit was $238 million, or 87.1% gross margin, compared to $179.2 million, or 88.9% gross margin, in the first quarter of FY21.
    • GAAP operating loss was $55.3 million, or (20.2)% of total revenue, compared to a $76.2 million loss in the first quarter of FY21, or (37.8)% of total revenue.
    • Non-GAAP operating income was $10.8 million, or 4.0% of total revenue, compared to a $16.6 million loss in the first quarter of FY21, or (8.3)% of total revenue.
    • GAAP net loss per basic and diluted share was $0.05. Non-GAAP net income per diluted share was $0.08.

    Exponential Growth in the number of users of Telegram
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    Slack – Funding and Investors

    Slack has raised a total of $1.4B in funding over 13 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jan 28, 2019, from a Secondary Market round. Slack is funded by 45 investors. Light Street Capital and General Atlantic are the most recent investors.

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Jan 28, 2019 Secondary Market – –
    Aug 21, 2018 Series H $427M Dragoneer Investment Group, General Atlantic
    Sep 17, 2017 Series G $412.7M SoftBank Vision Fund
    May 1, 2017 Secondary Market – –
    Apr 1, 2016 Series F $208M Thrive Capital
    Apr 16, 2015 Series E $172.7M Social Capital
    Oct 31, 2014 Series D $110.8M GV, Kleiner Perkins
    Apr 27, 2014 Series C $42.8M Social Capital
    Apr 1, 2011 Series B $10.7M Accel, Andreessen Horowitz
    Apr 1, 2010 Series A $5M Accel

    Slack – Investments

    Slack has made 24 investments. Their most recent investment was on Oct 19, 2021, when Electric raised $90M.

    Date Organization Name Round Amount
    Oct 19, 2021 Electric Seed Round $90M
    Jul 21, 2020 Crosschq Seed Round $6.5M
    May 7, 2020 Compt Seed Round $1.5M
    Mar 18, 2020 Meru Health Series A $8.1M
    Sep 24, 2019 Sentry Series C $40M
    Apr 4, 2019 Halp Seed Round $2.6M
    Jan 30, 2018 Astound Venture Round $3.3M
    May 22, 2017 Loom Seed Round $3.2M
    May 1, 2017 Parabol Convertible Note $550K
    Feb 9, 2017 Demisto Series B $20M

    Slack – Acquisitions

    Slack was acquired by tech giant Salesforce in an agreement for a value of approximately $27.7 billion. This gives Slack the to compete with its competitors on a bigger platform. Now slack can target a bigger audience through Salesforce. This megadeal was said to be a “Deal made in heaven”.

    Salesforce Acquires Slack on January 2021

    Slack has acquired 7 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Rimeto on Jul 8, 2020.

    Acquiree Date Round About Acquiree
    Rimeto Jul 8, 2020 – Rimeto is an enterprise directory that provides customers with detailed employee profiles and information.
    Astro Technology Sep 24, 2018 – Astro has been acquired by Slack! We’ve shut down our apps, but you can find us at Slack making email and channels work better together
    HipChat Jul 27, 2018 – HipChat is a private group chat and IM network that provides real-time collaboration features for companies and teams.
    Stride Jul 27, 2018 – Stride is a cloud-based team business communication and collaboration tool.
    Missions Jul 17, 2018 – Missions is an enterprise software startup
    Screenhero Jan 28, 2015 – Screenhero lets users screen share any application with anyone, no matter where they are.
    Spaces Sep 26, 2014 – A Program that allows remote workers to collaborate on the same document simultaneously.

    Slack – Competitors

    Slack’s main competitors include Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype, Flock, Telegram, Mattermost, Rocket Chat, Hangout Chat, Matter most, Ryver, CAFlowdok, etc.

    Skype vs Zoom: The Better Video Conferencing Application for Different Use Cases
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    Slack – Future Plans

    “People deserve to do the best work of their lives,” Slack co-founder and chief executive officer Stewart Butterfield said in a video released alongside a live stream of its investor day event. “This desire of feeling aligned with your team, of removing confusion, of getting clarity; the desire for support in doing the best work of your life, that’s universal, that’s deeply human. It appeals to people with all kinds of roles, in all kinds of industries, at all scales of organization and all cultures.”

    Slack currently boasts more than 12 million daily active users across more than 600,000 organizations — over 88,000 on the paid plan and more than 550,000 on the free plan.

    There are a lot of privacy and security aspects to these Slack-based communications, and Slack will provide granular options for IT admins to manage exactly what’s shared. Slack is also improving its channels’ user interface, so it’s very clear when you’re using a shared channel and who is participating in the channel.

    There’s even some machine learning going on that will allow Slack to scan calendars across multiple organizations and help workers create meetings at appropriate times when everyone is free. Slack apps can also be shared across organizations, as long as both parties have them installed in their Slack instance. Slack has a big incentive to gradually move businesses away from email.

    “We believe that whoever is able to unlock that potential for people … is going to be the most important software company in the world. We aim to be that company,” he added.”

    Conclusion

    Being the fastest-growing startup in history isn’t the only thing that makes Slack unique. Its product development process was unorthodox. Slack was born out of a gaming company called Tiny Speck. Butterfield and his team didn’t intentionally set out to create a SaaS product for the workplace. They built a tool for themselves. They only realized their tool’s commercial potential later on.

    FAQs

    What do slack technologies do?

    Slack is the collaboration hub that brings the right people, information, and tools together to get work done.

    When was Slack founded?

    Slack was founded in 2009.

    Who founded Slack?

    Slack was founded by Stewart Butterfield, Eric Costello, Cal Henderson, and Serguei Mourachov.

    What was the former name of Slack?

    Slack’s former name was Tiny Speck.

    Who owns Slack?

    Salesforce Inc owns Slack.

  • PayPal – Empowers Digitalization with its Secured Online Payments!

    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.

    The transaction is the heart of the developing business world. It revolutionizes the global economy with its circulatory nature. Safety and Reliability are the main factors that define what the best transaction is, and thus describe the company PayPal.

    PayPal, a company based in the United States, is a digital payment platform that allows individuals and businesses to send and receive money online. It is widely accepted as a payment method for online transactions and can also be used for in-store purchases. PayPal also offers other services such as money transfers and the ability to pay bills and make purchases through a mobile app. It is a fast, secure, and convenient way to manage money.

    Let’s go through the Amazing Journey of PayPal along with getting a glance at PayPal’s Business Model, Founders, Revenue, Growth, Competitors, and more.

    PayPal – Company Highlights

    Startup Name PayPal
    Headquarters California, United States
    Sector Financial technology
    Founders Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, Ken Howery, and Yu Pan
    CEO & President Dan Schulman
    Founded December 1998
    Revenue $25.6 Bn (2022)
    Valuation $87.19 Bn (Jan 2023)
    Parent Organization PayPal Payments Private Limited
    Website www.paypal.com

    PayPal – About
    PayPal – Founders and Team
    PayPal – Vision and Mission
    PayPal – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    PayPal – Growth and Revenue
    PayPal – Business and Revenue Model
    PayPal – Competitors
    PayPal – Achievements
    PayPal – Future Plans

    PayPal – About

    PayPal was established as ‘Confinity’ in December 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek. The company functions as a payment processor in many e-commerce sites, and auction sites. PayPal’s first electronic payment was launched in 1999. Being the PayPal platform, Braintree, Venmo, and Xoom enable users in flexible transactions with different currencies. The company was acquired by eBay in 2002 and got separated in 2015.

    PayPal – Founders and Team

    PayPal was founded in 1999 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek.

    Dan Schulman is the President and CEO of PayPal. He did his Bachelor’s from Middlebury College and an MBA from New York University Stern School of Business. He was the former president of Sprint’s Prepaid Group and he was also the CEO of Virgin Mobile. He now works towards democratizing the financial services of billions of people.
    The core team of PayPal is as follows:

    • Mark Britto – EVP, Chief Product Officer
    • John Rainer – CFO and EVP, Global Customer Operations
    • Louise Pentland – EVP, Chief Business Affairs and Legal Officer
    • Jonathan Auerbach – EVP, Chief Strategy, Growth, and Data Officer
    • Peggy Alford – EVP, Global Sales
    • Aaron Karczmer – Chief Risk Officer and EVP, Risk, and Platforms
    • Sri Shivananda – SVP, Chief Technology Officer
    • Franz Paasche – SVP, Corporate Affairs
    • Gabrielle Rabinovitch – VP, Investor Relations

    PayPal – Vision and Mission

    PayPal’s vision is to democratize financial services and empower people and businesses to prosper in the global economy.

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    ‘Paying your Pal’ is the focus of the company, which gave rise to the name ‘PayPal’. ‘Because you have to’ and ‘Safe Hai’ are the taglines that PayPal used before.

    PayPal Logo
    PayPal Logo

    PayPal – Growth and Revenue

    PayPal’s revenue for the twelve months ending September 2022 was $27.053 billion, a 10.11% increase from 2021.

    PayPal currently has over 432 million active users with more than 200 markets around the world.

    PayPal – Funding and Investors

    PayPal has raised a total of $216M over six different funding rounds.

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    January 1999 Seed Round Undisclosed Confinity
    July 1999 Series A $3M BlueRun Ventures
    January 2000 Series B $23M Clearstone Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs
    April 2000 Series C $100M Madison Dearborn Partners
    February 2001 Series D $90M ING, Credit Agricole
    July 2015 Secondary Market Undisclosed Public
    July 2018 PIPE Undisclosed Third Point
    July 2022 PIPE – II $2B Elliott Management

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    PayPal – Business and Revenue Model

    PayPal charges its customers and merchants with net transaction fees which are based on Total Payments Volume. It also makes money through other value-added services such as from interest and fees earned on loans.

    PayPal – Competitors

    Google Wallet, Skrill, Wepay, and 2checkout are some of the biggest competitors of PayPal.

    PayPal – Achievements

    In the Forbes list, PayPal ranks 123rd among World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies (2022) and 45th in World’s Best Employers (2022). It is also recognized as America’s Best Employers By State (2022).

    By revenue, PayPal was ranked 143rd on the 2022 Fortune 500 of the largest US corporations.

    Year Title Rank
    2022 World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies 123
    2022 World’s Best Employers 45
    2022 Best Employers for Women 282
    2022 Global 2000 216
    2022 Best Employers for Diversity 20
    2022 America’s Best Large Employers 26
    2021 America’s Best Employers 8
    2021 Just Companies 26
    2020 World’s Most Valuable Brands 67
    2019 Top 100 Digital Companies 34
    2019 Top Regarded Companies 5
    2018 Growth Champions 218
    2018 America’s Largest Public Companies 102

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    PayPal – Future Plans

    Paypal has several plans and initiatives for the future, including expanding its services to more countries and regions, increasing the number of businesses that accept PayPal as a payment method, and developing new products and features to enhance the user experience.

    Some of the specific plans that have been announced include the launch of a new service called “PayPal Commerce Platform” which allows businesses to easily manage their transactions across multiple sales channels, and the development of new technology such as biometric authentication to make payments more secure.

    Additionally, Paypal is planning on expanding its cryptocurrency capabilities by allowing users to buy, hold, and sell digital assets.

    Conclusion

    PayPal is a widely-used and convenient online payment platform that allows individuals and businesses to easily send and receive money. With its secure and user-friendly features, it has become a popular choice for online transactions.

    FAQs

    Who is the founder of PayPal?

    Ken Howery, Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, Yu Pan, and Peter Thiel are PayPal founders.

    Where is the new owner of PayPal?

    Dan Schulman is the current president and CEO of PayPal, and the former eBay CEO John Donahoe is serving as chairman.

    Where is PayPal headquarters?

    PayPal’s corporate headquarters are in San Jose, California, U.S., whereas the operative center is in La Vista, Nebraska, U.S.

    Is it free to use PayPal?

    Yes, it is free to use PayPal unless it’s a business transaction involving currency conversion or you want an instant bank transfer.

  • Etsy – Start your Small Business Today!

    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 Etsy.

    Everyone has vintage products, handmade things, crafty goods, etc., but there is always a shortage of such products. Money is not always the key to reach towards the things desired. People need to enter the right place at the right time. This is the only way to find out extraordinary things.

    Leading Sellers on Etsy Worldwide in 2022
    Leading Sellers on Etsy Worldwide in 2022

    Etsy is such a place that especially focuses on handmade, vintage, and craft supplies. These three sections have got some categories within them. Here is the Etsy success story and exactly how it works!

    Etsy – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Etsy
    Headquarter Brooklyn, New York, US
    Sector E-commerce
    Founders Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, Jared Tarbell, and Haim Schoppik
    Founded 18 June 2005
    Website etsy.com

    Etsy – About
    Etsy – Startup Story
    Etsy – Founders And Team
    Etsy – Logo
    Etsy – Business Model
    Etsy – Revenue Model
    Etsy – Funding And Investors
    Etsy – Growth
    Etsy – Competitors
    Etsy – Future Plans

    Etsy – About

    Etsy is an American e-commerce company that has a wide range of categories. It includes bags, clothing, jewelry, furniture, toys, art, and tools. The specialty of the company is that it provides vintage, handmade, and crafty supplies to its customers. All vintage items available on the website have got the least age of twenty years. The present CEO of Etsy is Josh Silverman.

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    Etsy – Startup Story

    In the year 2005, the four founders of the company started Etsy in a Brooklyn apartment. The company started as a virtual storefront for arts and crafts. The actual vision of the four founders was to help the craftsmen sell their goods on an online platform. Rob Kalin, a founder of the company removed himself from the day-to-day operations. After a lot of struggle, today the company is an artisanal marketplace.

    Etsy – Founders And Team

    Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, Jared Tarbell, and Haim Schoppik are the Etsy Founders.

    • Rob Kalin is one of the Founders of Etsy. He was the CEO of the company from December 2009 to July 2011. His CB Rank as a person is 4,224.
    • Chris Maguire was the Co-founder and director of Etsy from December 2004 to August 29th, 2008. Now, he is the chairman and CEO of Cypress Equities.
    • Jared Tarbell is an entrepreneur. He is the Co-founder of the company Etsy. His CB Rank as a person is 76,313. He completed his education at New Mexico State University in the year 2000.
    • The founder of Etsy Haim Schoppik is also an entrepreneur. His CB Rank as a person is 6,161.
    Rob Kalin | Etsy Founder
    Rob Kalin | Etsy Founder

    Etsy has a simple logo with the words Etsy written on it.

    Etsy Logo
    Etsy Logo

    Etsy – Business Model

    The Etsy business model is that of an e-commerce marketplace. It enables artists to sell handmade unique products. Handmade products do not interest all. This platform is especially for those few interested and selective people. The business model of the company is almost like eBay or Amazon.

    But the difference here is Etsy provides amazing value to both its buyers as well as sellers. The business model of Etsy is a vertical one. It only focuses on handmade items. The company has got an android app, a website, and an iOS app to sell its products.

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    Etsy – Revenue Model

    The Etsy revenue model is unique.

    Etsy charges sellers to list items on its platform. The fee is meager for listing items. It is $0.20. The money paid is valid for four months. So, it’s a big point for the sellers.

    Etsy charges a commission fee for every sale, 6.5% is the fixed commission fee. Sellers have got the option of setting their own desired sale price. But Etsy cuts a commission of 6.5% from the sale price as mentioned above.

    Etsy – Funding and Investors

    The company has raised a total amount of $97.3 million in funding over nine rounds. The latest funding round took place on May 15, 2017.

    Date Transaction Name Money Raised Lead Investor
    May 15, 2017 Post-IPO Equity – –
    May 22, 2014 Private Equity $5.6 million –
    May 9, 2012 Series F $40 million Index Ventures
    August 26, 2010 Series E $20 million Index Ventures
    January 1, 2008 Series D $27 million Accel
    July 1, 2007 Series C $3.3 million –
    January 1, 2007 Series B – –
    November 1, 2006 Series A $1 million Union Square Ventures
    June 18, 2005 Angel Round $400,000 –

    Etsy has got 19 investors and TGP is the most recent investor.

    Etsy – Growth

    The company is trying its best to grow bigger. Etsy announced that they would start advertising on behalf of the sellers. It is also changing many designs to boost sales and show growth to its sellers. In the year 2015, Etsy hit the stock market. Investors were super excited at that time by seeing the potential of the platform. The company is willing to provide a fascinating look to an idealistic group of people. They are also trying hard to fulfill the demands of the public market.

    Etsy – Competitors

    The top competitors of the company are Shopify, Big Cartel, Zibbet, and Handmade at Amazon.

    • Shopify is a Canadian multinational e-commerce company.
    • Big Cartel is a unique online store. It helps people run creative businesses.
    • Zibbet is a marketplace. It helps people to know more about artists, entrepreneurs, and creativity.
    • Handmade at Amazon helps people to shop for handcrafted home decor, jewelry, accessories, and many more gifts.

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    Etsy – Future Plans

    The company has got a long-term strategy. The goal was, is, and will be to bring unique and creative things to the market. They have plans to deliver sustained growth. The company believes that four elements will help them grow its business better – a collection of unique items, first-class discovery, human connections, and trusted brands. These four things are very essential for a company. This applies not only to Etsy but also applicable in other companies to enlarge their businesses. Chief Financial Officer commented in a meeting that he and his team believe that product improvements have taken place.

    Conclusion

    Etsy is an e-commerce platform that focuses on handmade, vintage, and unique items. It allows small business owners and independent creators to sell their products to a global customer base. It has become a popular destination for unique and handcrafted items.

    FAQs

    What is Etsy?

    Etsy is a US-based online marketplace where anyone can sell handmade products.

    Is Etsy Available in India?

    Yes, Etsy is available in India.

    Is Etsy owned by Amazon?

    No, Etsy is an independent company.

    Who founded Etsy?

    Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, Haim Schoppik, and Jared Tarbell founded Etsy on June 18, 2005.

    How much does it cost to use Etsy to sell?

    Etsy will charge you $0.20 for listing each item and a 6.5% transaction fee for every sale.

  • Alibaba – A Platform Where Global Trade Starts And Ends

    The content in this post has been approved by Alibaba.

    Trust issues are common. People often face challenges with e-commerce companies. But the question is, are the suppliers verified? People usually worry about prices too. But with Alibaba, this is not an issue. Everything available here is at factory prices and all the sellers are verified.

    Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology. Founded in 1999 by Jack Ma, the company operates in various business segments, including wholesale and retail online marketplaces, such as Taobao and Tmall, as well as online and mobile payment systems, shopping search engines, and cloud computing services.

    It is also involved in the production of electronic components, as well as in the research and development of artificial intelligence and other technology. Alibaba is considered one of the largest e-commerce companies in the world and is often compared to Amazon. It is also one of the world’s largest venture capital firms and investment corporations. Here is the Alibaba success story.

    Company Highlights

    Company Name Alibaba
    Headquarters Hangzhou, China
    Founders Jack Ma, Joseph C. Tsai, Cathy Zhang, Trudy Dai, Peng Lei, Simon Xie, Jin Yuanying, Jianhang Jin, Jane Jiang, Eddie Wu, Ma Changwei, Tony Yiu, Zhou Yuehong, Shi Yufeng, James Sheng, Lou Wensheng, Han Min and Toto Sun
    Founded 4 April 1999
    Valuation $310.41 Bn (Jan 2023)
    Website alibaba.com

    Alibaba – About
    Alibaba – Founders and Team
    Alibaba – Startup Story
    Alibaba – Business Model
    Alibaba – Revenue Model
    Alibaba – Tagline, Slogan, and Logo
    Alibaba – Funding and Investors
    Alibaba – Growth
    Alibaba – Competitors
    Alibaba – Future Plans

    Alibaba – About

    Alibaba Group Holding Limited is also known as Alibaba Group. This is a Chinese multinational technology company. It is the world’s largest e-commerce company. The company has already made a record on the 2018 edition of China’s Single’s Day.

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    Alibaba – Founders and Team

    Jack Ma, Joseph C. Tsai, Cathy Zhang, Trudy Dai, Peng Lei, Simon Xie, Jin Yuanying, Jianhang Jin, Jane Jiang, Ma Changwei, Eddie Wu, Toto Sun, Shi Yufeng, Zhou Yuehong, Lou Wensheng, Han Min and Tony Yiu are the founders of the company Alibaba.

    • Jack Ma is the founder and also the former executive chairman of Alibaba group. He is a Chinese business magnate, philanthropist, and investor.
    • Joseph C. Tsai is also the founder of the Alibaba group. He is a Taiwanese-born Canadian billionaire businessman and philanthropist.
    • Cathy Zhang is the founder of the company. She is Jack Ma’s wife and is a former Chinese teacher.
    • Trudy Dai is a member of the founding team. She did join the company from the beginning itself. Since January 2017 she has been the president of wholesale marketplaces.
    • Peng Lei is one of the founders of the company. She is also known as Lucy Peng. She is a Chinese billionaire businesswoman.
    • Simon Xie is also a founder of Alibaba group. Before joining Alibaba group he completed his engineering degree from Shenyang University.
    • Jin Yuanying is another founder of Alibaba Group and Taobao. She has been responsible for both the companies mentioned above.
    • Jianhang Jin joined the Alibaba group in the beginning as a founding member. He has been the President of the company since August 2014.
    • Jane Jiang is a founding member of the company. Currently, Jane Jiang is the Deputy CPO of the company.
    • Eddie Wu is one of the founders of the company. Eddie Wu is the Senior Vice President. Eddie Wu handles three business units of the company.
    • Ma Changwei is also a founder of the company. Ma Changwei is an investor and director at Taobao Product Technology Center.
    • Tony Yiu is one of the founders of the company. In the  International Business Unit, he was responsible for IDC operation and maintenance.
    • Zhou Yuehong is also a founder of the company. He studied at Hangzhou Dianzi University.
    • Shi Yufeng is the co-founder of Taobao. He is one of the original founders of the Alibaba group.
    • James Sheng is the founder of the company. James Sheng is the senior vice president of the company.
    • Lou Wensheng is again one of the original founders of the company. In the beginning, he was responsible for the planning of the official website.
    • Han Min is also a founder of the company. He is a former South Korean Minister of Defense.
    • Toto Sun is also an original member of the company.
    Jack Ma - Founder of Alibaba
    Jack Ma – Founder of Alibaba

    Alibaba – Startup Story

    Jack Ma started the Alibaba group with other 17 original founders. Back in 1999, he started a wholesale online marketplace called Alibaba. The Chinese company blossomed into one of the most valuable corporations in the world. Now the world knows Alibaba. When Alibaba started, in India there was nothing in this sector. The dawn of the 21st century appeared to be lucky for Alibaba. It was growing as well as investing. It benefited from strict internet-controlling policies. The story seems like Alibaba grew into a global e-commerce giant from a small apartment.

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    Alibaba – Business Model

    The company acts as a middleman between buyers and sellers online. It facilitates the sale of goods. The majority of sellers are small merchants. Alibaba caters to almost all well-known big brands. Customer experience is a big issue for the company. Sellers cannot deliver goods that are sold. The company charges the merchant’s a fee to have their listings higher on the search rankings. The company has dominated the shopping space in China but doesn’t have a physical store anywhere.

    Alibaba – Revenue Model

    Alibaba’s revenue is derived from retail e-commerce and associated market services in China. The company collected a revenue of $134.567 billion in 2022, a 22.91% increase from 2021. It charges commissions as a percentage of the transaction value of goods sold. China Wholesale and Other Revenues are expected to be about 12% of the total revenues. Chinese consumption drives wholesale commerce and logistics service revenues.

    The tagline of the first Alibaba job advertisement was If not me, who? It’s not a question but a call of duty. The proverb shows a sense of ownership here.

    The Alibaba logo has got two typefaces. It’s the face of a satisfied customer. The person inside is smiling.

    Alibaba Logo
    Alibaba Logo

    Alibaba – Funding and Investors

    The company had raised an amount of $8.9 billion over 16 funding rounds.

    Date Transaction Name Money Raised Lead Investors
    June 2, 2016 Post-IPO Equity $1 Bn –
    March 10, 2016 Post-IPO Debt $3 Bn –
    August 1, 2014 Venture Round – –
    April 1, 2014 Secondary Market $100 Mn –
    October 9, 2013 Secondary Market – –
    October 1, 2013 Secondary Market – –
    March 4, 2013 Secondary Market – –
    September 1, 2012 Private Equity Round $2 Bn China Investment Corporation
    September 22, 2011 Private Equity Round $1.6 Bn DST Global, Silver Lake
    September 13, 2011 Secondary Market – –

    Alibaba is funded by 32 investors. GIC and Temasek Holdings are the recent investors.  

    Alibaba – Growth

    The company has positioned itself as the gateway to Chinese consumers. The company continues to grow. It had over 903 million users in Q1 2022 and the number is growing.

    Alibaba’s Annual Active Consumers in China from 2017 to 2022
    Alibaba’s Annual Active Consumers in China from 2017 to 2022

    Alibaba – Competitors

    The main competitors of the company are Amazon, Tencent, Huawei, and China Mobile.

    • Amazon is a technology company. It focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.
    • Tencent is also a Chinese multinational company. It specializes in Internet-related services and products, artificial intelligence, and technology.
    • Huawei is a leading platform that provides information and communications technology.
    • China Mobile is a company that provides mobile voice and multimedia services. Through its nationwide mobile telecommunications network across mainland China and Hong Kong.

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    Alibaba – Future Plans

    The company is aiming towards reaching 2 billion global consumers by fiscal 2036. The company is also looking forward to creating more than 100 million jobs. And also support small and medium businesses.

    FAQs

    What is Alibaba?

    Alibaba Group is a Chinese multinational conglomerate holding company specializing in e-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology.

    Is Alibaba bigger than Amazon?

    Alibaba ranks second with a market cap of over $304.1 billion, whereas Amazon ($1 trillion market cap) ranks first among the leading large-cap e-commerce companies worldwide.

    When was Alibaba founded?

    Alibaba was founded in 1999 by 18 people.

    What is the Indian version of Alibaba?

    TradeIndia is an Indian version of Alibaba.

    Is Alibaba banned in India?

    Yes, the Alibaba marketplace has been banned in India with the ban of Chinese apps in the country.

  • Ford Success Story – Making Mobility Affordable And 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 Ford.

    Ford Motor Company (often referred to as Ford) is an American multinational automotive manufacturer based in Dearborn, Michigan. Henry Ford created the company, which was formed on June 16, 1903. The Ford brand offers autos and commercial vehicles, whereas the Lincoln premium brand sells luxury cars.

    Based on 2015 car production, Ford is the second-largest U.S. automaker, GM being the first. As per 2017 data by OICA, Ford is the fifth-largest automaker in the world, led by Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and GM. As published by carlogs.org, Ford Motor is the World’s fourth-largest car company on the basis based on 2020 revenue. Ford’s Revenue is projected to reach $140.80 billion in 2023. With an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 1.86%, the projected market volume is $151.60 billion by 2027.

    The firm became public in 1956, although the Ford family retains 40% voting rights through special Class B shares.

    Ford – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Ford Motor Company
    Predecessor Henry Ford Company
    Headquarters Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.
    Industry Automotive
    Products Automobiles, Luxury vehicles, Commercial vehicles, Automotive parts, Pickup trucks, SUVs
    Founder Henry Ford
    Founded 1903
    Chairman & CEO Jim Farley
    Website www.ford.com

    About Ford Motor Company
    Ford – Industry
    Ford – Founders and Team
    Ford – Startup Story
    Ford – Mission and Vision
    Ford – Logo, Slogan, and Tagline
    Ford – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Ford – Employees
    Ford – Sponsorships
    Ford – Challenges Faced
    Ford – Investments
    Ford – Growth
    Ford – Competitors
    Ford – Awards and Achievements
    Ford – Future Plans

    Success Story of Ford

    About Ford Motor Company

    Ford Motor Company is an American automaker that designs, manufactures, distributes, and serves a wide range of Ford trucks, SUVs, automobiles, and Lincoln luxury vehicles.

    Automotive, Mobility and Ford Credit are the company’s three segments.

    The Automotive division is responsible for designing, producing, distributing, and maintaining Ford and Lincoln cars, as well as their components and accessories. Ford Mobility is a wing dedicated to innovation in the automobile sector. Ford Mobility is working in the field of designing emerging mobility services and also invests in new innovative ventures in the automobile sector. Ford mobility is also working to develop autonomous vehicles. While Ford Credit division provides automobile financing and leasing services.

    Ford also holds ownership in Argo AI, a developer of autonomous driving systems, and Spin, a micro-mobility service provider.

    Ford – Industry

    Before the coronavirus crisis threw the globe into chaos, the automobile sector had been on an upward trend throughout 2018 and had just begun a period of stagnation in 2019. Between March and May 2020, global car sales fell by almost 15% worldwide. China was the first market to recover from the crisis, with car sales remaining at pre-pandemic levels for months after the outbreak. Electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and mobility services are expected to continue to fuel the industry, resulting in an overall rebound in the coming quarters.

    Ford Motor Company – Founder

    In 1903, Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company.

    Founder of Ford - Henry Ford
    Founder of Ford – Henry Ford

    Henry Ford

    Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, in Springwells Township, Wayne County, Michigan to Mary and William Ford. While Henry was just 12, he had his own small self-built machine shop where he spent much of his time experimenting with machines. He was just 15 when he built his first steam engine.

    Henry started his career as a machinist’s apprentice in the shops of James F. Flower and Brothers in Detroit(a city in the US). In July 1891, Henry joined as an engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit and became the chief engineer of the company in 1893. During his stint at the Edison Illuminating Company, Henry ford also developed a deep friendship with Thomas Edison.

    Henry Ford’s automobile manufacturing journey began in the winter of 1893 when he built a modest one-cylinder gasoline model inspired by his interest in internal combustion engines. On a wooden table in the kitchen of the Ford house at 58 Bagley Avenue in Detroit, the first Ford engine flickered to life. His first vehicle, which was a frame-mounted with four bicycle wheels, was powered by a later version of that engine. The Quadricycle, Ford’s first automobile, was built in June 1896.

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    Ford Motor Company History

    Henry Ford resigned from Edison Illuminating Company in August 1899, to start his venture. In 1899, he created the Detroit Automobile Company, which became bankrupt just within 18 months of its inception.

    Leaving the firm paved the door to his achievement. “Failure is merely the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently,” remarked Henry Ford. With this guiding concept in mind, he tried again and established what is today known as the Ford Motor Company in 1903. He also revolutionized the automobile business by introducing the then-unheard-of ‘assembly line’ for his vehicle manufacture. Ford grew to be one of the world’s most successful and lucrative businesses that even managed to survive the Great Depression of 1930.

    Ford is also the world’s largest family-controlled company, which has been controlled by the Ford family for over 110 years. Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Mercury were previously part of Ford’s premium portfolio. These brands were sold to other firms over time, and Mercury was eventually phased out.

    Ford – Mission and Vision

    Ford’s mission statement says, “to make people’s lives better by making mobility accessible and affordable.”

    This mission statement emphasizes the movement of people, which is a fundamental function of vehicles and the transportation industry. The fact that Ford places such a high value on mobility reveals the company’s social mission. The firm strives to make people’s transportation more efficient as one of the largest participants in the international market.

    Ford – Slogan, Tagline, and Logo

    Ford's Company Logo
    Ford’s Company Logo

    Ford’s first slogan that was used by the company in 1914 was “Ford: The Universal Car.” Over the years Ford has tried to appeal to its customers across the world through various slogans. Some popular slogans by the company are –

    • Go Further
    • All-New Focus Drive One.
    • Everything We Do is Driven By You
    • Built Ford tough!
    • Ford has a better idea
    • Better Ideas. Driven by you
    • Built for the road ahead.
    • Have you driven a Ford lately
    • Quality is Job one
    • There’s a Ford in your Future.
    • If you haven’t looked at Ford lately, look again.
    • Build for life in Canada
    • Ford. Designed for living. Engineered to last.
    • The Best Never Rest.
    • Answer the call to any adventure.

    ‘Built Ford Proud’ is Ford’s latest slogan.

    Ford – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Ford’s operations are divided into three categories: “Automotive,” which is by far the largest, “Ford Credit,” and “Mobility.”

    The majority of Ford’s revenue comes from producing and selling automobiles to consumers. Electric vehicles and self-driving automobiles are two areas where the firm wants to increase its capabilities. Ford also makes money through its leasing and financial divisions, which provide automobile loans and lease agreements to customers.

    Ford Credit is a Ford service that supplies dealerships and consumers with a variety of automobile finance options. These solutions enable dealerships to buy new inventory and expand existing capabilities, as well as provide clients with finance for car purchases and leases without having to leave Ford’s business environment. In the United States, Canada, and Europe, Ford Credit is offered.

    Ford’s Mobility business is primarily the company’s research and development division for self-driving cars and the software that goes with them. This segment generates no revenue because the company has yet to sell any of these cars.

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    Ford – Employees

    • Marion Harris – Board Member and Audit Committee
    • Niki Doak – Vice President, Operations
    • Fred Lobo – Digital Performance Manager
    • Don Bunker, Pmp, Csm – Project Management Consultant
    • Aakash Puntambekar – Product Development Engineer
    • Aarik Kimberlin – Process Coach
    • Aaron Anderson – Parts Specialist
    • Aaron Bresky – Product Development
    • Aaron Brunke – Product Engineering Designer
    • Aaron Estelle – STA Engineer

    Ford – Sponsorships

    Ford Center in downtown Evansville, Indiana, and Ford Field in downtown Detroit are two major sports facilities sponsored by Ford In the USA.

    Ford also sponsors many events across the globe. Ford is a major sponsor of Sky media channel’s coverage of Premier League football. Ford also sponsored the UEFA Champions League for 20 years, before ending the sponsorship in 2014.

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    Ford – Challenges Faced

    In recent times, automobile demand in important countries such as North America and Europe, as well as China, has fallen short of expectations. These excesses have boosted prices for automakers that have ramped up their capabilities to match projected future growth, as Ford explains in its annual report. In China, for example, surplus capacity in the car sector reached 78% in 2018. According to Ford, surplus capacity will average 47 million vehicles until 2024.

    The rush by automakers to tap into the enormous Chinese market has heightened competitiveness in the sector. This, along with declining demand and the growth of Chinese automakers like Chery Automobile Co. and BYD Auto Co., has put pressure on firms like Ford to maintain high prices.

    The development of startups like BYD and Tesla (TSLA) has fueled demand for hybrids and electric vehicles, increasing competition and putting pressure on traditional automakers to make their vehicles more efficient and technologically advanced.

    Ford – Investments

    Date Organization Name Round Amount
    May 2, 2022 Cavnue Series A $130M
    Sept 22, 2021 Redwood Materials Private Equity Round $50M
    Jul 23, 2021 Rivian Private Equity Round $2.5B
    May 3, 2021 Solid Power Series B $130M
    Oct 13, 2020 Solid Power Series A $28M
    Jun 19, 2020 Motorq Series A $7.3M
    Apr 2, 2020 Phantom AI Series A $22M
    Dec 23, 2019 Rivian Private Equity Round $1.3B
    Oct 29, 2019 Cellink Series B $22.5M
    Apr 24, 2019 Rivian Corporate Round $500M
    Nov 7, 2018 SAIPS Corporate Round $12.5M
    Mar 19, 2018 Desktop Metal Series D $65M

    Ford – Growth

    Year Amount Percentage Increase/Decrease from last year
    2022 $151.736B +12.72%
    2021 $136.433B +4.63%
    2020 $127.144B -18.45%
    2019 $155.9B -2.77%
    2018 $160.338B +2.27%

    Ford – Competitors

    General Motors Company (GM), Honda Motor Company (HMC), Toyota Motor (TM), Daimler (DDAIF), Tesla Motors (TSLA), Navistar International (NAV), and Spartan Motors (SPAR) are Ford’s main competitors.

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    Ford – Awards and Achievements

    In 2022, Ford Motor Company received two awards, and 6 awards in 2021. Ford Motor Company took home the awards for Best Engineering Team 2022 and Best Global Culture 2022.

    Other recent awards are as follows:

    • Best Company for Diversity 2021
    • Best CEO 2021
    • Best Company Culture 2021
    • Best Company Happiness 2021
    • Best Leadership Teams 2021
    • Best CEOs for Diversity 2021
    • Car of the Year 2019 – Finland
    • Car of the Year 2019 – Croatia
    • Belgian Family Car of the Year (two price categories) – Belgium
    • Irish Car of the Year awards: Small/Compact Car of the Year – Ireland
    • Autobild Golden Wheels Award: Best Compact car – Bulgaria
    • BusinessCar Awards: Best Lower-Medium Car – U.K.
    • Parkers New Car Awards 2019: Best Small Family Car – U.K.
    • 2018 Scottish Car of the Year Awards: Best Family Car – Scotland
    • Auto Zeitung Auto Trophy 2018: Compact category winner – Germany
    • Great Austrian Automobile Prize: Start category winner – Austria
    • Entrepreneurs Car of the Year – Spain
    • Czech Republic Fleet Awards 2018: Benefit category winner – Czech Republic

    Ford – Future Plans

    In the face of an auto sector destabilized by increased rivalry, uncertainty, and technological innovation, Ford has launched a “global redesign” to become more nimble and less bureaucratic. According to Ford CEO Jim Hackett, this revamps promises to save $14 billion in expenses by 2024.

    Cutbacks
    Ford eliminated about 3,000 of its paid workforce in the U.S., Canada, and India. The company was looking to lay off as many as 8,000 positions in a move to shift its focus to electric vehicles. Ford promotes the layoffs as part of its new, creative approach, but others view them as a last-ditch cost-cutting move.

    Ford stated in January 2021 that it would devote 90% of its worldwide capital allocation through 2023 to a shift to trucks, SUVs, and commercial vehicles. This means that Ford will phase out sedans and other compact automobiles during the next four years.

    Self-driving cars
    Ford is expanding its investment in self-driving cars, as shown by its Mobility business unit. This is undoubtedly a forward-thinking move on Ford’s side, but breakthrough autonomous cars are unlikely to arrive fast enough to provide the benefit Ford requires. Ford is developing its first fully self-driving car, with a cost of $2.7 billion.

    Electric and Hybrid Vehicles
    Ford announced intentions to invest $11 billion in electric vehicles in January 2018, much above its prior aim of $4.5 billion. By 2022, the firm hoped to have 40 electric cars on the road thanks to this investment. The rest would be plug-in hybrids, with 16 being entirely electric.

    Ford has established itself as the second electric vehicle company in the US after Tesla. Since the Mustang Mach-E model debuted in late 2020, Ford has produced 150,000 of them. It intends to build 600,000 by 2023 and over  2 million EVs annually by 2026.

    Conclusion

    Ford is a well-established American automotive company known for producing a wide range of vehicles, including cars, trucks, and SUVs. With a history of innovation and a commitment to quality and durability, Ford has built a loyal customer base and remains a major player in the global automotive industry.

    FAQs

    What does Ford do?

    Ford Motor Company is an American automaker that designs, manufactures, distributes, and serves a wide range of Ford trucks, SUVs, automobiles, and Lincoln luxury vehicles.

    When was Ford founded?

    In 1903 Henry Ford, an American automobile manufacturer established the Ford Motor Company.

    Who founded Ford?

    Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company in 1903.

    Which companies does Ford compete with?

    General Motors Company (GM), Honda Motor Company (HMC), Toyota Motor (TM), Daimler (DDAIF), Tesla Motors (TSLA), Navistar International (NAV), and Spartan Motors (SPAR) are Ford’s main competitors.

    Ford company belongs to which country?

    Ford is an American based in Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.

  • Discord – Bringing People Together Around Games

    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 Discord.

    People love to stay in touch whether it’s by talking to friends and family through video calls, messaging through apps, or touching base working remotely. Gamers are no different. That’s why online gaming and chatting go together like Han and Chewy.

    Gamers have always faced two problems, how to talk to one another and how to organize people to get an online game going. Discord is one such app that was created by the gamers for gamers to solve such problems. But outside of the gamer’s realm, what is discord all about?

    Discord – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Discord
    Developer Discord Inc.
    Headquarters San Francisco, CA
    Industry Social Media, Gaming
    Founded May 13, 2015
    Founders Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy
    CEO Jason Citron
    Area Served Worldwide
    Website www.discord.com

    About Discord And How it Works?
    Discord – Target Market Size
    Discord – Name, Logo, and Tagline
    Discord – Founder and History
    Discord – Vision and Mission
    Discord – Business Model
    Discord – Revenue Growth
    Discord – Funding and Investors
    Discord – Acquisitions
    Discord – Partnership
    Discord – Competitors
    Discord – Challenges Faced
    Discord – Future Plans

    About Discord And How it Works?

    Discord is an easy-to-use free communication app, similar to apps like Skype or Slack but aimed mainly at gamers with a lot more features. Discord lets friends chat with each other at one to one or as a group via a server.

    It provides user-friendly text, voice, screen-sharing, and video chat services through public or private servers that can be set up pretty quickly and easily. No doubt Discord started as a gamers’ chat app and became quite famous for it. But its users started finding non-gaming ways of using this platform which inspired Discord to make a few changes.

    Discord specializes in text, image, video, and audio communication between users in a chat channel. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and in web browsers. One of the most critical differentiators that makes Discord the go-to app for video gamers is its open-bot-friendly ecosystem.

    COVID forced everybody to social distance and communicate via chat platforms. So, because of its users and the pandemic Discord thought about growing beyond its only for-gamers image, and now it wants to be seen as a general-purpose chat app for everyone with even non-gaming needs and wants, to go mainstream all over the world, just like Zoom. Discord is for anyone who could use a place to talk with their friends and communities.

    Discord – Target Market Size

    Founded in 2015, Discord successfully identified who the early adopters of their platform would be, the gamers.

    Leading Countries for Monthly Traffic to discord.com in July 2022
    Leading Countries for Monthly Traffic to discord.com in July 2022

    However, in recent years, as the company continues its expansion, the target market size has also been growing hand in hand with the same. The vicinity of their platform’s services is gradually starting to attract more users outside of the gaming community.

    From large corporate meetings to job recruitments, from live karaoke nights to virtual wedding parties, the possibilities are pretty endless. That’s why they have changed the branding and introduced the new tagline which specifically says, “Your Place to Talk and Hang Out”.

    In short, Discord is projecting itself because of the way forward for platforms where you’ll chat with friends, learn something online, or simply share ideas albeit you are not into gaming. They have successfully gained a sustainable advantage above their competition within the gaming sector and now the company appears to have shifted its focus to target users from various industries.

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    Discord – Name, Logo, and Tagline

    Discord Logo
    Discord Logo

    Whether you’re a part of a faculty club, gaming group, worldwide art community, or simply a couple of friends that want to spend time together, Discord makes it easy to speak a day and hang around more often.

    About Discord’s logo, the most popular theory is that the discord logo is a game controller, with a face. But according to its Twitter account, it’s a friendly bot named Clyde.

    Discord’s tagline says, “Your Place to Talk and Hang Out”. Whether you’re a part of a faculty club, gaming group, worldwide art community, or simply a couple of friends that want to spend time together, Discord makes it easy to speak a day and hang around more often. Discord is not just for people with gaming requirements, but for everyone to communicate.

    Discord – Founder and History

    Founded in May 2015 by Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy, Discord continues to be the most preferred app for gamers for communicating while gaming.

    The idea of Discord came into Jason Citron’s mind when he noticed how difficult it was for his team to work out tactics in games like Final Fantasy XIV and League of Legends using available voice-over IP (VoIP) software. He founded OpenFeint, a social mobile gaming platform that got sold in 2011 for $104 million.

    Founders of Discord - Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy
    Founders of Discord – Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy

    He founded a game development studio, Hammer & Chisel in 2012. Their first product was Fates Forever, released in 2014, which Citron anticipated being the primary MOBA game on mobile platforms, but it didn’t become commercially successful. He then noticed the glitches and issues faced by gamers all over the world while gaming which was communication. He also found that some VoIP options required players to type in IP addresses just to connect, while others were resource-heavy and had known security problems. This led the developers to develop a chat service that was much friendlier to use and based on more modern technologies.

    Discord addressed all of the issues of its predecessors. It was free to use. It had a remarkable product design. It had a desktop client, but it also had an internet app. Users could invite friends with a link and start conversing through the browser without downloading anything.

    Discord was publicly released in May 2015 under the URL discordapp.com. consistent with Citron, the sole area that they pushed Discord into was for the Reddit communities, finding that a lot of subreddit forums were replacing IRC servers with Discord ones. Discord became a known name among Esports and LAN tournament gamers, and other Twitch streamers.

    Discord – Vision and Mission

    “Discord  wants you to build genuine relationships with your friends and communities close to home or around the world. Original, reliable, playful, and relatable. These are the values that connect our users and our employees at Discord.”

    Discord’s mission is closely associated with its vision. Its mission is to bring people together around games. That’s why most of the app’s features consider meeting the requirements of gamers. For Discord, diversity and inclusiveness are critical a part of how it intends to succeed in its mission.

    “It’s where your world talks. Discord is a voice, video and text communication service used by over a hundred million people to hang out and talk with their friends and communities.”

    Discord – Business Model

    Discord is against advertisements and the selling of user data. It has been relying on funding money till recently and has no intentions to make users pay to use the application in the future.

    Discord’s basic service is free. But there’s also a premium version called Nitro that comes with added features—custom emojis, higher-quality video for sharing gaming screens, and higher file-upload limits—starting from $2.99 monthly.

    Explaining the rationale behind the decision, Citron said,

    “I didn’t want to sell ads because I felt like selling ads would require us to spend a tremendous amount of energy investing in building ad technology that doesn’t make the end user experience better. It actually subtracts from the end user experience. So, we would be spending a ton of energy taking value away from our users so that we could make money. And I wanted to build a business where the incentives of our team and our user base were directly aligned. And that is why, at that moment, I said let’s not do the easy thing and slap ads on this. Let’s double down on Discord Nitro, which is all about making it more fun to talk and hang out, and see if we can build a real business around that.”

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    Discord – Revenue Growth

    • In Q2 2022, Discord reported $28.72 million in revenues, an increase of over $5 million compared to Q2 2021.
    • Almost all of Discord’s revenue comes from its Nitro, its premium enhancement bundle.
    • Discord has over 150 million active monthly users and over 300 million registered accounts.
    • In 2021, it was valued at $7 billion, doubling its value in under a year. In 2022 it was valued at $15 billion.
    In-App Purchase Revenues of Discord Mobile App Worldwide
    In-App Purchase Revenues of Discord Mobile App Worldwide

    Discord – Funding and Investors

    Discord has raised a total of $995.4M in funding over 16 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on March 12, 2022, from a Secondary Market round. Discord is funded by 31 investors. Arcane Group and Flat Capital are the most recent investors.

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Mar 12, 2022 Secondary Market – –
    Mar 3, 2022 Secondary Market – –
    Sep 15, 2021 Series H $500M Dragoneer Investment Group
    Dec 17, 2020 Series H $100M Greenoaks Capital
    Sep 29, 2020 Secondary Market – –
    Jun 30, 2020 Series G $100M Index Ventures
    Dec 21, 2018 Series F $150M Greemoaks Capital
    Apr 19, 2018 Series E $50M –
    Jan 1, 2017 Series D $50M Index Ventures
    Jan 26, 2016 Series C $20M Greylock, Spark Capital
    Feb 10, 2015 Series B – 9+ Program, Benchmark, Tencent
    Nov 21, 2013 Series A $8.2M Benchmark
    Jul 11, 2012 Seed Round $1.1M –

    Discord – Acquisitions

    Discord acquired Blitz App on Nov 6, 2018. The gaming chat app giant acquires augmented reality startup Ubiquity6 in 2021. The latter was experiencing problems in finding audiences for its products, as per reports.

    Acquiree Name Date Amount About Acquiree
    Blitz App Nov 6, 2018 – Your gaming coach for League of Legends, Valorant, CSGO, Fortnite, and more— powered by AI and built with professional players.
    Ubiquity6 June 2021 – An augmented reality startup founded in 2017 aimed to bring augmented reality experience to mobile users.

    Discord – Partnership

    After the initial growth spurt, Jason’s team had to come up with a strategy to reach out to a larger target audience for which they partnered with video game streamers such as Twitch. This partnership did result in more visibility, allowing more gamers to adopt as well as invite others to join the discord users’ community.

    Discord – Competitors

    The top 10 competitors of Discord are:

    • TeamSpeak
    • Troop Messenger
    • HeySpace
    • Slack
    • Mumble
    • Flock
    • Overtone
    • Hangouts chat
    • Microsoft Teams
    • Steam Chat

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    Discord – Challenges Faced

    But obviously, Discord also faces several challenges. The principal among them is that it allows users anonymity that creates an “anything goes” environment. Anybody from anywhere can technically create “servers,” which are chat groups. This could also lead to younger users being exposed to adult content or bullying. For his part, Citron defended Discord by saying it kicks out users who are younger than 13 if they’re found, but verifying ages on the service is almost impossible.

    “For teenagers, you know, obviously, it’s still important that parents are aware of apps that their kids are using, and sort of who they’re talking to on the internet,” says Citron.

    During Q2 2022, over 27.7 million Discord accounts were deleted due to spam activity, and approx. 532,000 accounts were banned due to child safety concerns. Similarly, 106,00 accounts received a ban due to exploitative and unsolicited content approximately. Additionally, the platform permanently deleted nearly 27,500 accounts following reports of regulated or illegal activities.

    Number of Banned Discord Accounts in Q2 2022
    Number of Banned Discord Accounts in Q2 2022

    “The truth is that yes, I am [frustrated],” says Citron about the abuse. “We built Discord to be a way for people to be together with their friends and, as a parent, it’s important to me for that to be safe for everyone. Ensuring Discord is an inclusive and welcoming place for our users is our highest priority.”

    Discord – Future Plans

    Discord leveraged heavily on the essential human need for communicating. The strength of Discord lies in its ability to cater to the growing needs of huge web-based communities.

    Discord continues to refresh and refine its services by creating perks like a guided bot, meme bots, bots that could fetch player stats, and many more which makes discord a fun platform for users to interact via. All of this could happen only because of the founding team’s in-depth knowledge of the gamer’s mindset and insight into industry trends.

    It’s pushing to show the platform as a communication tool not only for gamers but for everyone from study groups to sneakerheads to gardening enthusiasts. At the top of June, Discord’s rebrand was complete. Its new tagline was “Your place to speak,” which cleared the misunderstanding of many folks that the app is simply for gamers.

    In the coming years, according to Citron, Discord has many works to do including improving moderation tools and making sure the communities on its platform operate the way the company hopes is not being just confined to a group of people with gaming interests.

    Conclusion

    Discord is a popular communication platform that allows users to create and join virtual “servers” to chat and collaborate with others. It offers features such as text and voice chat, file sharing, and integration with other apps and services. It is widely used by gamers but has also gained popularity among other communities such as artists and educators. Overall, Discord is a versatile and user-friendly tool for online communication and collaboration.

    FAQs

    What kind of company is Discord Inc.?

    Discord is an easy-to-use free communication app, similar to apps like Skype or Slack but aimed mainly at gamers with a lot more features. Discord lets friends chat with each other at one to one or as a group via a server.

    Who founded Discord?

    Discord was founded in May 2015 by Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy.

    How does Discord make money?

    Discord is against advertisements and the selling of user data. Its basic service is free. But there’s also a premium version called Nitro that comes with added features.

    What is Discord used for?

    Discord is used for voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media, and sharing files in private chats. It continues to be the most preferred app for gamers for communicating while gaming.

    What is Discord’s initial release date?

    Discord was initially released on May 13, 2015.

  • Skillshare Success Story – How the Online Learning Platform Became a Global Marketplace for Creative Education

    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 Skillshare.

    To live in this era of a highly competitive world, one must be highly skilled as well. Gaining knowledge and having a hunger for developing your skills play a central role in modern civilization.

    Today, with easy access to the internet and technology in our hands, online learning has become very convenient. In other words, ed-tech, or educational technology, is a major thing right now. The combination of software and educational theories with the help of the internet has given people a new way to consume knowledge in a much more uncomplicated manner.

    Skillshare is an American online-based learning community whose website went live in 2011. It is one of the leading platforms for online education, with over 12 million registered members. The online learning platform is accessible to the majority of countries and offers a wide range of creative skills and courses.

    Let’s dig into the details of Skillshare’s success story in this article, where you will learn about its business and revenue model, funding details, growth, and more.

    Skillshare – Company Highlights

    Company Name Skillshare
    Headquarters New York, USA
    Sector E-learning, Ed-tech
    Founder Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Malcolm Ong
    Founded 2010
    Website skillshare.com

    Skillshare – About
    Skillshare – Industry
    Skillshare – Founders and Team
    Skillshare – Startup Story
    Skillshare – Mission and Vision
    Skillshare – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    Skillshare – Business and Revenue Model
    Skillshare – Funding and Investors
    Skillshare – Growth
    Skillshare – Competitors
    Skillshare – Future Plans

    Skillshare – About

    Skillshare is a US-based online learning community platform for people who want to learn from educational videos. It offers thousands of courses that enhance a person’s creative journey. The majority of courses emphasize interaction rather than lecturing, with the primary goal of learning through project completion. Anyone can take or offer online classes on the Skillshare platform.

    Skillshare is used by organizations like Staples, Mailchimp, Evernote, and Disney for the professional development of their employees in addition to the millions of individual learners on the platform.

    Creative arts, design & illustration, video, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, and technology are some of the main course categories.

    Skillshare – Industry

    As of today, Skillshare is considered one of the leading players in the ed-tech industry.

    The global education segment is estimated to have a value of US$7.08 billion in 2022. It is projected that the segment will experience an annual growth rate of 6.95% from 2022 to 2027, resulting in a market volume of US$10.50 billion by 2027.

    Skillshare – Founders and Team

    SkillShare is founded by Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong in New York in 2010.

    Michael Karnjanaprakorn

    Michael Karnjanaprakorn - Co-founder of Skillshare
    Michael Karnjanaprakorn – Co-founder of Skillshare

    Michael Karnjanaprakorn is an entrepreneur, investor, and creator. He has attended the University of Virginia. Along with Skillshare, Micheal also founded Otis in 2018, which is an investment platform. Otis was acquired by Public in 2022. Before establishing Skillshare, Micheal has been associated with companies like Behance (acquired by Adobe) and Hot Potato (acquired by Facebook). Micheal has angel invested in companies like Street FC, Notion, 88Rising, and Polkadot.

    Malcolm Ong

    Malcolm Ong - Co-founder of Skillshare
    Malcolm Ong – Co-founder of Skillshare

    Malcolm Ong graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a B.S. in Computer Science, a double major in Business Administration, and a minor in E-commerce. He was a Senior VP of Product at South China Morning Post SCMP for four years. Malcolm has worked in various organizations like IBM, Lyft, Razorfish, 500 Global, and OMGPOP. Malcolm has also co-founded Sandstorm and was the CEO of the same in 2014 for one year.

    Matt Cooper

    Matt Cooper - CEO of Skillshare
    Matt Cooper – CEO of Skillshare

    Matt Cooper is an experienced entrepreneur and business executive who currently serves as the CEO of Skillshare. Prior to Skillshare, he held leadership positions at several companies, including Visually and Upwork. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics with a concentration in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a double concentration in Finance and Accounting from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management.

    Skillshare – Startup Story

    Skillshare’s journey began when its site went live in 2011, almost after a year after Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong founded Skillshare in New York in November 2010. In August 2012, Skillshare launched 15 self-paced online courses in which students collaborated to complete a project. It hosted over 250 courses by November 2013 and launched its School of Design. Eventually, Skillshare partnered with Levi’s to launch the School of MakeOurMark, which focused on individual creativity through courses in photography, tattooing, and various forms of illustration.

    Over 27,000 premium classes and more than 2,000 free classes were available on Skillshare during March 2019. With the platform’s new ‘Groups’ feature, users could collaborate with other creators, share their work, and advance their skills through stimulating conversations and challenges. However, Skillshare stopped offering classes for free in September 2021 and started mandating users to sign up for either a paid membership or a free trial to access all courses (including classes that were previously available for free).

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    Skillshare – Mission and Vision

    The goal of Skillshare is to empower teachers and democratize learning. It wishes to create a society in which anyone can teach anything, supported by a never-ending cycle of sharing knowledge and interests. The platform wants to transform each neighborhood into a campus, each address into a classroom, and each resident into a learner and a teacher. Skillshare epitomizes the modern educational landscape because it is for doers rather than scholars or theorists.

    Skillshare Logo
    Skillshare Logo

    The name “Skillshare” was inspired by the concept of a “skill share” where people come together to share their skills and knowledge. The name reflects the company’s mission to make education more accessible and engaging through a collaborative platform.

    Skillshare is known for providing multiple courses that mainly focus on people’s creative side and evolve their skills. Thus, the tagline of Skillshare is “Inspiring discovery through creativity.”

    Skillshare – Business and Revenue Model

    Since skillshare is an online-based learning platform that allows anyone to either teach or learn in various creative fields, it operates on a marketplace business model. It also offers scholarships for college and university students. As mentioned earlier, Skillshare used to offer classes for free, but it stopped its free service and made it a paid-based platform in a manner similar to Netflix or Amazon Prime.

    Monthly, yearly, and enterprise subscriptions account for the majority of its income. In addition, Skillshare receives commissions from the related products it displays to customers who subscribe for a year.

    Skillshare can be said to have two sections through which it operates its business and makes money:

    Subscription-fee

    Through subscription fees, students get unrestricted access to thousands of courses in virtually every subject area. Additionally, students will be able to take part in group projects. Initially, the platform allows a free trial, after which users will have to pay certain fees. It is then available for a monthly membership fee of $32, and an annual Premium membership fee of $168 (roughly $14 per month).

    These monthly and yearly subscriptions account for the majority of Skillshare’s income, with 30% of the revenue going to the teacher royalty pool, which rewards instructors for creating engaging courses based on factors such as the number of minutes watched and the number of new students enrolled.

    Referral-fee

    The other way Skillshare does business is through referrals. It makes money from referral fees for promoting other products in addition to subscription income.

    Skillshare – Funding and Investors

    Skillshare has raised total funding worth $136.8 million in over 11 rounds. Its funding details are as follows:

    Date Funding Round Amount Investors
    Nov 2, 2020 Private Equity Round – –
    Oct 5, 2020 Series D – –
    Aug 10, 2020 Series D $66 million OMERS Growth Equity
    Jan 1, 2019 Debt Financing $20 million –
    Jul 23, 2018 Debt Financing $8 million –
    Jul 23, 2018 Series C $20 million Union Square Ventures
    May 26, 2016 Series B $12 million Amasia, Omidyar Network
    Feb 28, 2014 Venture Round $6.1 million Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures
    Jan 31, 2013 Venture Round $1 million VTF Capital
    Aug 16, 2011 Series A $3.1 million Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures

    Skillshare – Growth

    To improve the quantity and quality of its lessons as well as to refocus on its strengths, Skillshare has continuously tweaked and updated both its chronicle and its platform. The business does define creativity broadly and includes lessons in all forms of art, including writing, design, animation, filmmaking, photography, and content creation.

    Skillshare shifted the majority of its attention to creative lessons for its brand relaunch in 2020. The platform saw significant growth during mid-march 2020 as a result of social distancing and Covid-19 guidelines that made many people sit indoors.

    The company claims that it is expanding and becoming popular outside the borders of the United States. It further adds that India is Skillshare’s fastest-growing market without any support from local teachers or location-based content.

    Today, Skillshare has over 13 million registered members and more than 11,000 teachers, and 34,000+ classes.

    Skillshare – Competitors

    The top competitors of SkillShare are:

    Skillshare – Future Plans

    Skillshare has mentioned that it plans to stay focused on English content in the coming future. Furthermore, the company is planning to accept payments in different currencies and support subtitles in various languages to promote global viewership.

    Skillshare – FAQs

    What is Skillshare?

    Skillshare is a US-based online learning community for people who want to learn from educational videos. It offers thousands of courses that enhance a person’s creative journey.

    Who is the founder of Skillshare?

    Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Malcolm Ong are the founders of Skillshare.

    Who is the CEO of Skillshare?

    Matt Cooper is the CEO of Skillshare.

    Who are the top competitors of Skillshare?

    The top competitors of SkillShare include Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, edX, Khan Academy, MasterClass, and CBT Nuggets.

  • ZebPay Success Story – From Humble Beginnings to Leading Cryptocurrency Exchange

    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 ZebPay.

    While scrolling through your news feed, you will find at least one piece of info related to cryptocurrency or bitcoin. Indeed cryptocurrency is taking over the world by storm. This digital currency has changed the dynamics of how people transfer their money or make transactions.

    India is also seeing a rising trend in the cryptocurrency market. A couple of years ago, the ban on cryptocurrency was lifted by the Supreme Court of India. These days, there is another fad that is going around the corner, and that is Cryptocurrency Wallets. It is a digital solution that allows users to securely store and manage blockchain assets and cryptocurrencies. These wallets also allow users to spend, receive, in short, make transactions through mobile phones or computers.

    ZebPay is currently one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency exchanges in India. The company was founded in 2014 by three co-founders, Mahin Gupta, Sandeep Goenka, and Saurabh Agrawal.

    In this article, we will explore ZebPay’s business and revenue model, startup story, founders, and more.

    ZebPay – Company Highlights

    Startup Name ZebPay
    Headquarters Singapore
    Sector Financial Services, Cryptocurrency
    Founder Sandeep Goenka, Mahin Gupta, Saurabh Agrawal
    Founded 2014
    Website zebpay.com

    ZebPay – About
    ZebPay – Industry
    ZebPay – Founders and Team
    ZebPay – Startup Story
    ZebPay – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    ZebPay – Business and Revenue Model
    ZebPay – Funding and Investors
    ZebPay – Investments
    ZebPay – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns
    ZebPay – Competitors
    ZebPay – Future Plans

    ZebPay – About

    Founded in 2014, ZebPay is a cryptocurrency exchange platform with a simple interface and advanced crypto trading features. It offers a simple and easy-to-use app and wallet facility that allows users to set trading alerts, trade pairs, and buy a variety of cryptocurrencies. The ZebPay app is available on both Android and iOS. This crypto wallet service provider has its headquarters in Singapore with a registered office in Australia and offers its services in over 160 countries.

    There are over 5.5 million registered traders on ZebPay. It is considered one of the safest crypto platforms because safety is the company’s top priority. The company’s security measures have kept its customers’ funds protected as more than 98% of coins are reserved in cold wallets, and robust internal controls make transactions stress-free and highly secured.

    In 2020, after Supreme Court lifted the ban on the crypto market in India, ZebPay launched a new feature known as INR trading and introduced instant deposit and withdrawal features. The company claims to be India’s number one choice for Bitcoin-INR trading. In India, its offices are in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

    ZebPay – Industry

    The need for cryptocurrency is anticipated to grow rapidly in the coming years as a result of improved data transparency and independence in payments in banks, financial services, insurance, and other business sectors.

    As per reports, the global cryptocurrency market is set to grow at a CAGR of 12.2% from 2022 to 2030. It is expected that the cryptocurrency market is going to reach $11.71 billion by 2030.

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    ZebPay – Founders and Team

    ZebPay was founded by Sandeep Goenka, Mahin Gupta, and Saurabh Agrawal. The founders are no longer involved in the daily operations of ZebPay after Rahul Pagidipati took over the leadership of the company in 2020 and became the CEO of ZebPay. In 2021, ZebPay announced that Rahul Pagidipati and Avinash Shekhar would share responsibilities as co-CEOs. Later in 2022, Rahul came back in charge as the CEO, as Avinash embarked on his entrepreneurial journey with the launch of his own venture in the Web3 space.

    Mahin Gupta

    Mahin Gupta - Co-founder of ZebPay
    Mahin Gupta – Co-founder of ZebPay

    Mahin Gupta’s crypto journey began in 2012. He founded India’s first bitcoin company, ‘BuySellBitco.in’. Mahin Gupta graduated in Computer Engineering from Hemchandracharya North Gujarat University. He has over ten years of experience in managing wallet infrastructure, where he has organized billions of dollars in transaction volumes and digital assets with bank-grade security and performance. Mahin Gupta founded a bespoke wallet infrastructure, Liminal in 2021 with its headquarters in Singapore.

    Saurabh Agrawal

    Saurabh Agrawal - Co-founder of ZebPay
    Saurabh Agrawal – Co-founder of ZebPay

    Saurabh Agarwal obtained his Master’s degree in Marketing Research from the University of Wales, Cardiff. Before co-founding ZebPay, he was previously the Founder and Chairman of Red Events. His company, Red Events is India’s award-winning event management company, a three-time winner of EEMA and GIWA.

    Sandeep Goenka

    Sandeep Goenka - Co-founder of ZebPay
    Sandeep Goenka – Co-founder of ZebPay

    Presently, Sandeep Goenka is the CEO of 21Towers. He had also founded Blynk Systems before co-founding ZebPay. Sandeep is a certified Bitcoin professional from Cryptocurrency Certification Consortium. He holds a Master’s degree from SP Jain Institute of Management in Entrepreneurial studies.

    Rahul Pagidipati

    Rahul Pagidipati - CEO of ZebPay
    Rahul Pagidipati – CEO of ZebPay

    Rahul Pagidipati is the Chairman and CEO of ZebPay. He acquired a majority stake in the company in 2020. Before ZebPay, he was the co-founder and director at Anion Technologies for 20 years. Rahul holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s School of Law and Kellogg School of Management. He is a licensed attorney in the state of Florida and a partner at the corporate and bankruptcy law firm Rhodes Tucker. Since 2011, he has been investing in Blockchain and Digital Currencies.

    ZebPay – Startup Story

    ZebPay was started in 2014 by three young minds, Mahin Gupta, Sandeep Goenka, and Saurabh Agarwal. Initially, ZebPay was known as BuySellBitco.in. The then platform allowed its users to exchange and trade in cryptocurrency and became one of India’s largest exchange platforms. The three founders started the firm knowing that crypto was a risky business. Their dream took its unexpected turn when they had to shut down the company in 2018.

    The shutting down of the company was mainly due to RBI not supporting the crypto market in India, which led to many Indian banks not showing any usefulness to the company.

    The firm bided its time during 2018 and 2020 by working to secure existing customer accounts, adding various multi-signature wallet infrastructures, and exploring business opportunities in Malta, Australia, Singapore, and other places. However, this was also not working well for the founders, as a result, they started to consider other options or the possibility of shutting down ZebPay entirely.

    In 2019, Rahul Pagidipati, who was a silent partner of ZebPay, purchased the majority of the company.

    By 2020 with the Supreme Court’s decision, a new ray of hope came for ZebPay. The company had its new management system and was revived from the scratch. Today, ZebPay’s trading volumes have grown to a great extent and have helped more than 5 million users begin their crypto investment journey.

    ZebPay Logo
    ZebPay Logo

    The name, ZebPay was chosen as a combination of the words “zebra” and “pay”. The founders wanted a name that was catchy, easy to remember, and also conveyed a sense of trust and reliability, which are key attributes for a cryptocurrency exchange platform.

    ZebPay is seen going with the tagline, ‘CryptoMeinPro’.

    ZebPay – Business and Revenue Model

    ZebPay’s business model can be said to be B2C, B2B, and B2B2C. It works as a three-pronged business model, which means that ZebPay operates its business through three segments, these are:

    • Trading fees – When users use their platform to buy or sell bitcoins.
    • Membership fees – For the registered accounts that have cryptos and are inactive.
    • Crypto holdings – Gets revenue from its own crypto holdings.

    Overall, ZebPay’s revenue model is based on providing a secure and user-friendly platform for cryptocurrency trading and generating revenue through trading fees, membership fees, and its own cryptocurrency holdings.

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    ZebPay – Funding and Investors

    ZebPay has raised a total of $1.1 million in funding over two rounds. The company is funded by two investors; Arjun Handa and Nagendra Chaudhary.

    Date Funding Round Amount Raised Lead Investor
    Jan 6, 2016 Series A $1 million Arjun Handa
    Sept 14, 2014 Seed Round $125K –

    ZebPay – Investments

    As of 2022, ZebPay has made a total of three investments. The details are as follows:

    Date Company Name Lead Investor Funding Round Money Raised
    Oct 18, 2022 Shardeum – Seed Round $18.2 million
    Apr 14, 2022 Ethereum Push Notification Service – Series A $10.1 million
    Mar 28, 2022 Paxo Finance – Seed Round $1 million

    ZebPay – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns

    ZebPay – #CryptoMeinPro Campaign

    ZebPay appointed Lowe Lintas Bangalore for managing its creative responsibilities. The company launched a multi-film campaign, ‘Crypto Mein Pro’, created by Lowe Lintas. The primary objective of this campaign was to create awareness and establish a unique brand positioning for ZebPay as ‘Crypto Mein Pro.’ It was designed to show that even beginners can become experts in cryptocurrency investing with the help of ZebPay’s easy-to-use platform.

    The campaign received a positive response from the audience and helped the brand in increasing its user base and trading volumes.

    ZebPay – Competitors

    ZebPay competes with the following companies:

    ZebPay – Future Plans

    According to a source, ZebPay aims to create a more referral structure and have incentives, and AMEX-like membership programs for its users in the coming days. Furthermore, the company also plans to become a financial advisor like a crypto investment bank for various crypto startups, and eCommerce, travel, healthcare, and other such sectors.

    ZebPay – FAQs

    What does ZebPay do?

    ZebPay offers a simple and easy-to-use app and wallet facility that allows users to set trading alerts, trade pairs, and buy a variety of cryptocurrencies.

    Who is the founder of ZebPay?

    ZebPay was founded by Mahin Gupta, Sandeep Goenka, and Saurabh Agrawal in 2014.

    Is ZebPay an Indian company?

    Yes, ZebPay is a company based in India but with a global perspective. While its headquarters are in Singapore, it was founded in India and has operations in several countries including India, Australia, and Singapore.

    Which country uses ZebPay?

    ZebPay can be used in Singapore, Australia, India, and other 160 countries.