Tag: 📄Company Profiles

moneyHOP Success Story – Enhancing the Cross-border Banking Experience

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 moneyHOP.

Being India’s Cross-Border Neobank, moneyHOP is enhancing the cross-border banking experience of Indians like never before! An interesting point to note here is – moneyHOP just commenced commercial operations and is already registering a 30% MoM growth in terms of customers.

moneyHOP is a neobank that provides a cross-border banking experience to people via two products, i.e. HopRemit and HOP app’s multi-currency bank account with international debit+Forex card.

In this article, learn more about moneyHOP, its founder, business model, funding, how it started, and more.

moneyHOP – Company Highlights

Startup Name	moneyHOP
Headquarters	Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Industry	Financial Services
Founded	2019
Founder	Mayank Goyal
Total Funding Raised	$2.5 million (Jan 2022)
Website	moneyhop.co

moneyHOP – About
moneyHOP – Cross Border Industry Details
moneyHOP – Founder
moneyHOP – Startup Story
moneyHOP – Name, Tagline and Logo
moneyHOP – Product and USP
moneyHOP – Business Model and Revenue Model
moneyHOP – Startup Launch and Customer Retention
moneyHOP – Funding and Investor
moneyHOP – Achievement and Recognition
moneyHOP – Challenges Faced
moneyHOP – Competitors
moneyHOP – Future Plans

moneyHOP – About

moneyHOP is a neobank that provides a cross-border banking experience to Indians via two products, i.e. HOPRemit and HOP app’s multi-currency bank account with international debit+Forex card.

HOP Remit extends instant, secure, and cost-effective remittance solutions to Indian customers for their outbound needs. On the other hand, the HOP app empowers its customers with a truly globalized banking experience with the ability to save, invest, borrow, and spend via ‘ONE Global Account, ONE Global Card’. It provides multi-currency wallets, charges nearly 0% forex markup, and offers completely paperless currency exchange in an ‘anytime, anywhere’ format. Furthermore, moneyHOP empowers its customers to lock in currency exchange rates for their future needs.

Mayank Goyal, Founder & CEO of moneyHOP says “Indians are increasingly becoming global citizens. They wish to live and travel abroad. However, the current banking infrastructure is such that it pertains to a sovereign nation. Our core belief is to leverage technology and provide a seamless cross-border banking experience to anyone, anywhere, and anytime”

moneyHOP – Industry Details

moneyHOP operates in the cross-border payments and remittance industry. At around $83 billion, India is the world’s largest market for inward remittance flow. The transaction value of global remittances and cross-border payments is expected to rise from $37.15 trillion in 2020 to $39.9 trillion by 2026.

Also, the Indian fintech market was valued at $50 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to $150 billion by 2025.

As moneyHOP commenced operations only a few months ago, it is still at an early stage and the current market share is not significant. Mr. Mayank expects the industry to grow 15 to 20 percent YoY and by 2024, engage about 45 million global travellers, 2 to 3 million Indian outbound students and a $45-50 billion outbound remittance market.

moneyHOP – Founder

Mayank Goyal is the sole founder of moneyHOP. He spearheads all moneyHOP operations.

Mayank Goyal - Founder and CEO, moneyHOP — Mayank Goyal – Founder and CEO, moneyHOP

Mayank Goyal has completed his Bachelor of Engineering, Telecommunications from PES University and his Master of Science, Financial Engineering from Imperial College Business School. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst. He currently serves as the founder and CEO of moneyHOP.

moneyHOP has three mentors at present including a banking veteran, foreign exchange payments expert, and senior executives from a Big Tech company.

moneyHOP – Startup Story

Mr. Mayank reminisces about the inspiration & background story behind moneyHOP. This is what he says – “The inspiration was a lot personal. My parents used to come and visit me in London. They used to get their money exchanged via a local money changer who would charge them a 5%-6% markup over the Inter-bank rate. Once visiting Dehradun, I wanted to remit money from India to the UK and experienced the ordeal myself. It involved heavy paperwork and I had to wait for 5 days to get the transaction done. The customer experience was absolutely terrible. I realized that thousands of people had to go through such ordeals for the lack of a better service. It was then that the idea dawned upon me to address the need gap”

He spoke with 100 people having diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. His findings were that this market was dominated by PSBs and the process involved heavy paperwork, was branch based and lacked customer experience. Mayank then obtained an FFMC license from the RBI and initiated our discussions with banks and payment processors. After the association with VISA and an AD-I license holder bank, many prototypes were built, tested, and enhanced. It paved the way for HOPRemit, which was launched in January 2021.

moneyHOP – Product and USP

moneyHOP provides a cross-border banking experience to Indians via two products, i.e. HOPRemit and HOP app’s multi-currency bank account with international debit+Forex card.

Any person can directly log on to www.moneyhop.co or download the HOP app and register in less than 3 minutes! They can then either send cash via HOPRemit or engage in globalized digital banking with the HOP app plus card solution.

The solution serves the needs of oversea travellers as well as Indian students who wish to send money abroad. It has minimized the turnaround time for this entire process, making it more cost-effective and eliminating the paperwork while adhering to all regulatory norms.

“This digital remittance experience, near 0% markup on-demand currency exchange along with ‘One Global Account’ & ‘One-Global Card’ as some of our USPs. We think about the product as a cross-border neo-banking platform which enables Indians to ‘Send’ & ‘Spend’, economically and conveniently across the globe.” Mayank added.

Tools Used by moneyHOP to Run the Startup

The tools used by moneyHOP to run the startup are Slack, Atlassian, Google Suite, AWS, and HubSpot.

moneyHOP – Name, Tagline and Logo

The idea of Mayank was to provide a platform which enables customers to ‘hop’ the money from one place to another and hence the name ‘moneyHOP’. Its tagline is ‘Smarter, Faster, Better.’

moneyHOP – Business Model and Revenue Model

moneyHOP has active partnerships with VISA and AD-I license-holder banks. It acquires customers directly via digital marketing channels (B2C) and also through partnerships with universities, education consultants, international schools etc. (B2B2C). The company didn’t directly reveal its revenue model.

moneyHOP – Startup Launch and Customer Retention

As recalled by Mayank, the initial days revolved around brainstorming about how to effectively solve the challenge while using minimal resources. The team at moneyHOP also applied for relevant licenses and worked on the back-end technology infrastructure in the meantime. It had a referral program and the first 100 users were achieved through a mix of referrals and digital marketing.

“Our cost-effectiveness, time-efficiency, paperless nature of transactions, and transparency on top of a good user experience have all proven pivotal in attracting and retaining customers” says Mayank, Founder & CEO, moneyHOP.

moneyHOP – Funding and Investor

moneyHOP has raised a total funding worth $2.5 million.

Date	Round	Amount	Lead Investors
Sep 1, 2021	Seed Round	₹91.2M	—
Oct 21, 2020	Non-Equity Assistance	—	Mass Challenge
Oct 1, 2019	Pre Seed Round	—	—

Please note here that Mass challenge is a non equity investor at moneyHOP.

moneyHOP – Achievement and Recognition

moneyHOP was incubated at IIM Bangalore.
It was also the only Indian startup to be a part of the Mass Challenge Boston program.

moneyHOP – Challenges Faced

Banking partnership was the biggest teething issue for moneyHOP. Mayank had to constantly visit Mumbai and meet all of the banks. However, they somehow saw him as an outsider. It took him a lot of effort to convince them that “I (Mayank) believe in the India story”. moneyHOP shared its vision with them and explained how powerful it can end up being. The team made the relevance of the product clear with constant efforts, grit, and persistence.

“Another challenge was more in terms of my own perception. I had never worked in India before. I assumed that the working culture would be similar to the U.K. It was not! It was a different ballgame altogether and I had to constantly tweak the way I interacted with the partners. I also analyzed what were the motivating factors for each individual to get better at it” Mayank added.

Lastly, Mayank felt that an entirely digital model will work the best. Perhaps, he overemphasized the trust deficit. He now believes that a Phygital model works the best as people need assistance and want to interact with the company, especially in its earlier days.

moneyHOP – Competitors

moneyHOP doesn’t have any major competition in the Indian market. However, on a global scale, its top competitors include Airwallex, NiYo, Nium, Fi, Transferwise, and Revolut.

moneyHOP – Future Plans

moneyHOP just commenced its commercial operations and is already registering a 30% MoM growth in terms of customers.

Founder of moneyHOP – Mayank says “The future is bright as the need-gap that we are bridging is enormous and multilayered”

moneyHOP is working on multiple projects and aims to unveil more offerings for its customers in 1 to 2 years. It is also aggressively expanding its business footprint in India and abroad. moneyHOP plans to launch inward remittances as well as foreign-currency bank accounts.

FAQs

Who is the founder of moneyHOP?

Mayank Goyal is the founder and CEO of moneyHOP.

What is moneyHOP?

moneyHOP is a neobank that provides cross-border banking experience to Indians via two products, i.e. HOP Remit and HOP app’s multi-currency bank account with international debit + FX card.

Who are the competitors of moneyHOP?

Some of the competitors of moneyHOP include Airwallex, NiYo, Nium, Fi, Transferwise, and more.

How much funding has been raised by moneyHOP?

moneyHOP has raised a total of $1.2 million in funding. The last round was raised in September 2021.

January 11, 2023

Vedanta Limited Success Story – One of the World’s Leading Natural Resources Companies

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 Vedanta Limited.

The history of mining dates back to around as early as the 1800s. It is considered one of the oldest industrial activities. In India, the mining industry is one of the core industries contributing to a massive part of the country’s economy.

Mining, as we know, is vital not only for society, but it is equally important for education, science, national defence, and technology. It is more than just digging underground for coal and metals. Furthermore, it is a business that also necessitates extensive financial knowledge.

Vedanta Group, founded 44 years ago, is an Indian multinational mining company that has built its reputation as one of the world’s leading natural resources companies. It was initially known as Sterlite industries, which was founded by Dwarka Prasad Agarwal. The company was later taken over by his son Anil Agarwal, who founded its parent organisation, Vedanta Resources Limited. Vedanta Group, otherwise known as Vedanta Limited is a mining company with primary operations in aluminium, iron ore, and gold.

This article gives brief information on the Vedanta Limited’s successful journey. Learn about its founder, business model, revenue, shareholding pattern, acquisitions, key products, and subsidiaries.

Vedanta Group – Company Highlights

Headquarters	Mumbai, India
Sector	Mining, Oil and Gas, Electric Utility
Type	Public
Founder	Anil Agarwal
Founded	1979
Revenue	$16.08 billion (FY22)
Parent Organisation	Vedanta Resources Limited
Website	vedantalimited.com

Vedanta Group – About
Vedanta Group – Vedanta Resources Limited
Vedanta Group – Industry Details
Vedanta Group – Founder and Team
Vedanta Group – Startup Story
Vedanta Group – Mission and Vision
Vedanta Group – Name, Tagline, Logo
Vedanta Group – Business & Revenue Model
Vedanta Group – Shareholders
Vedanta Group – Controversies and Challenges Faced
Vedanta Group – Acquisitions
Vedanta Group – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns
Vedanta Group – Awards and Achievements
Vedanta Group – Competitors
Vedanta Group – Future Plans

Vedanta Group – About

Vedanta is a world-class natural resource conglomerate with operations in India, South Africa, Liberia, and Namibia. The company has a diversified portfolio in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Aluminium, Iron Ore, Steel, Copper, Ferro Alloys, Power, Glass Display, Optical Fibre, and Semiconductors. It is the world’s largest producer of zinc, lead, and silver, as well as aluminium, iron ore, oil and gas, and ferrochrome.

Vedanta Group is known for its structurally low-cost and diverse assets that help them to deliver world-class mines and metals. The company has positioned itself as the world’s largest aluminium producer and also the first Indian company to manufacture low-carbon aluminium metal. Although the company was founded in Goa and Karnataka, it has gradually expanded its operations in recent times to Odisha, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat. Vedanta Group has the following subsidiaries:

Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO)
Lanjigarh Alumina Refinery
Electrosteel Ltd (ESL)
Sterlite Copper
Hindustan Zinc
Talwandi Sabo Power Limited
Sesa Goa Iron Ore
Cairn India
Gamsberg
Black Mountain Mining
Skorpion Zinc

Vedanta Group – Vedanta Resources Limited

Vedanta Resources Limited is the parent organisation of Vedanta Limited (formerly Sesa Goa / Sterlite) or Vedanta Group. It is a diversified Indian mining company headquartered in London, England. It is India’s largest mining and non-ferrous metals company, with operations in Australia and Zambia.

The company, which employs more than 20,000 people, is primarily owned by Anil Agarwal’s family through Volcan Investments, a holding vehicle company owning 61.7% of the company.

Vedanta Group – Industry Details

Everyone is aware of how mining plays a significant impact in the development of the country’s economy. Natural resources like minerals are essential in the evolution of most industries. This industry holds vast potential for improving GDP growth, foreign exchange, and other infrastructural expansions. According to some reports, it is seen that the global mining industry grew from $1,825.21 billion in 2021 to $1,990.9 billion in 2022 at a CAGR of 9.1%.

The Government of India has also launched many initiatives to boost the mining industry of the country. Furthermore, the government intends to sell assets in the mining sector worth Rs. 28,727 crores ($3.68 billion) over the fiscal years 2022-25.

Vedanta Group – Founder and Team

Vedanta Group is founded by Anil Agarwal. As of now, Anil Agarwal is the Non-Executive Chairman of Vedanta Limited.

Anil Agarwal

With 40 years of entrepreneurial and mining experience, Anil Agarwal has shaped Vedanta into a gigantic multinational company. He holds a 100% stake in Vedanta Resources through Volcan Investments, a holding vehicle company. Born and brought up in a Marwadi family, Anil Agarwal joined his father’s aluminium conductors business instead of attending university. The breakthrough of his career began in the 1970s when he began trading in scrap metal from different cable companies and sold them in Mumbai. In 2003, Anil Agarwal and his team established Vedanta Resources Plc in London to gain access to international capital markets.

Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta group has made several investments in various Indian states. Vedanta accounts for nearly 4% of Odisha’s GDP. Recently, Anil Agarwal achieved the CIF Global Indian Award 2022 in Toronto, Canada. Besides this, he has won awards like The Economic Times, Business Leader Award (2012), Mining Journal Lifetime Achievement Award (2009), and many more.

Anil Agarwal lives in London with his wife, Kiran Agarwal, and two children. His family has a net worth of $2.5 billion.

Sunil Duggal

Sunil Duggal is the Whole-time Director and CEO of Vedanta Limited. He has over 30 years of experience in leading various performance teams. A graduate in Electrical Engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, Patiala, Sunil Duggal has also participated in many leadership development and management programmes across major institutions.

Sunil Duggal is also the Vice-Chairman of the International Zinc Association, President of the Indian Lead Zinc Development Association, Chairman of the FIMI Non-Ferrous Metals Committee, and Co-chair of the FICCI Non-Ferrous Metals Committee 2017.

Vedanta Group – Startup Story

It all started when Vedanta known as Sterlite Industries began in the 1980s. Sterlite Industries was initiated by D.P. Agarwal who purchased mining concessions in various Indian states. With this business, he also ran a small aluminium conductor business in Patna.

Anil Agarwal decided to go to Mumbai to help with his father’s business at the age of 19. After going through a lot of analysis and experiments, Anil finally came up with his own business, Vedanta Resources. As a true entrepreneur, Anil Agarwal did business that gained a lot of profits and went into the widespread expansion of his business by making notable acquisitions. He established Sterilite Communications in Aurangabad in 1993 and built a plant to produce aluminium sheets and foils as well as another plant to produce optical fibre.

As the saying goes, when it comes to luck, you make your own. These words inspired Anil Agarwal when he moved to London. Things changed for him and his company when he got Vedanta Resources Plc listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and raised $876 million through an Initial Public Offering in 2003. Anil’s company was not only the first Indian company to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, but it was also the first Indian business group to have global mining and metal production within a decade of starting its manufacturing work.

Vedanta Group – Mission and Vision

The mission of Vedanta Group is, “To create a leading global natural resources company”

Through research, discovery, acquisition, sustainable development, and utilisation of diverse natural resources, Vedanta Group aims to create long-term value for all of its stakeholders. The company also abides by world-class governance, safety, sustainability, and social responsibility standards.

Vedanta Group – Name, Tagline, Logo

Vedanta Logo

Vedanta Group’s tagline speaks for itself as it says, “Transforming for Good”.

Vedanta was previously known as Sterlite Industries. The company’s name ‘Vedanta’ is derived from ancient scriptures of India, known as Vedas, which depict the philosophical aspects of life. Vedanta means ‘ultimate knowledge’ that an individual gains about his or her innate self.

The Vedanta logo is made up of a symbol and the company name that are inextricably linked. As seen, the symbol is circular, representing the global nature of Vedanta as a corporate organisation while also representing the earth, the source of its product and business existence.

Vedanta Group – Business & Revenue Model

Vedanta Group can be said to have a diversified business model as it has widespread business activities in the mining of iron ore, gold, and aluminium mines throughout India in states like Odisha, Goa, Karnataka, and Rajasthan. Vedanta Group earns its revenue mainly through producing zinc, lead, silver, aluminium, and power. Moreover, Vedanta is regarded as the key leader in zinc, silver, lead, aluminium, and power.

Vedanta Limited has the following business operations in producing some of the best products;

Zinc, Lead, and Silver – Vedanta Group runs the Zinc, lead, and silver business through its subsidiary Hindustan Zinc Limited (HZL). It operates the Zinc India business. By volume, HZL is one of the world’s largest integrated zinc-lead producers.
Oil and Gas – Cairn India (a subsidiary of Vedanta Group) accounts for more than 25% of the country’s crude oil output and is India’s largest private-sector crude oil producer.
Copper – In Tuticorin, a district in Tamil Nadu, Vedanta Limited operates the largest copper smelter. This accounts for nearly half of Vedanta Limited’s profits.
Aluminium – In February 2001, the Government of India approved the sale of its 51% stake in Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) to then Sterlite Industries, which is now Vedanta Limited for Rs.551.5 crores in a major dis-investment deal. BALCO has a 345 ktpa smelter capacity and can produce ingots, wire rods, billets, busbars, and rolled products. In the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, BALCO operates mines, refineries, smelters, and captive power plants. In addition, this company has a 1.75MTPA aluminium manufacturing unit in Jharsuguda, Odisha.
Iron Ore – Vedanta Group carries out its iron ore mining activities in the Indian States of Goa and Karnataka. Through its subsidiary, Sesa Sterlite, it is the largest private-sector exporter of iron ore in India.
Power – Sesa Sterlite, the subsidiary of Vedanta, is considered one of India’s leading power producers. The company also has a commercial power generation business that currently operates the 2,400 MW Jharsuguda Power Plant in Odisha, the 270 MW BALCO power plant in Chhattisgarh, the 100 MW MALCO power plant in Tamil Nadu, and the 274 MW HZL wind power plants in India.
Pig Iron – The company is also engaged in manufacturing steel or steel mills, mainly in the Western and Southern parts of India.
Metallurgical Coke – The group through its subsidiary Sesa Group consumes nearly 65% of total production for pig iron production.

Vedanta’s CSR and Sustainable Activities

To launch Project Nandghar across the country, Vedanta Group has formed a first-of-its-kind, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. The goal of this project is to modernise and build the Anganwadi infrastructure in India. Furthermore, Vedanta focuses on women empowerment through its CSR initiatives in order to supplement inclusive economic growth in India.

Through its CSR foundation, the company has contributed around Rs 300 crores, which benefited more than 40 million people.

Vedanta Group – Shareholders

Since June 2018, Vedanta Group has been owned 50% by the promoters Finsider International and Twinstar Holding, both of which are owned by 12 members of the Agarwal family. The rest 50% is held by the general public. The promoters own 51% of the company through “Westglobe limited” under “Twinstar holdings” which owns 37%, and “Finsider International” owns about 11%.

The remaining balance of 49% is owned by mutual funds such as ICICI Prudential, foreign portfolio investors (17%), Corporate bodies (7%), LIC India (6%), Citibank New York (4%), individual retail shareholders (5%) and Citibank NYADR (4%).

Vedanta Group – Controversies and Challenges Faced

When there are good times, there are also bad times. It happened so when SEBI found Vedanta (then Sterlite Industries), BPL, and Videocon guilty in 2001 of conspiring with broker Harshad Mehta and 17 other brokers (10 from the BSE and 7 from the NSE) to corner shares and rig share prices. As a result, Sterlite industries were banned for almost two from accessing capital markets. Eventually, after all this incident, Vedanta Resources, the parent company of Vedanta Limited, was listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Vedanta Group – Acquisitions

To date, Vedanta Group has made only one acquisition. On July 7, 2022, Vedanta Ltd acquired Athena Chhattisgarh Power for INR 564 crore. Athena is a company that plans to build and operate a domestic coal-fired thermal power plant and is headquartered in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India.

Vedanta Group – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns

To promote the concept of AtmanirbharBharat, Vedanta launched a campaign known as #AtmanirbharBharatKeLiye and #AtmanirbharHumHaiVedanta in 2021 that shows a video of a teacher along with a group of children singing the essence of sustainable India. Later on, an employee of Vedanta joins them in the quest to emphasize the company’s vision of sustainability and how it is empowering India’s growth and prosperity through its mining sector.

Atmanirbhar Bharat Campaign by Vedanta

Vedanta Group – Awards and Achievements

Vedanta Group has achieved some of the following awards:

Vedanta Aluminium received the prestigious recognition of “Indian Affairs India’s Most Valuable Aluminum Producing Company of the Year 2018
Vedanta Sesa Goa Iron Ore Karnataka Unit has won 46 awards at the Mines Safety Association Karnataka Zone -3.
Vedanta Group has achieved Bronze at the Public Relations and Corporate Communications Awards 2019
Vedanta Group was recognised as the Most Sustainable Company in the Mining Industry 2021
Vedanta Group has achieved the Zee Hindustan Award for its remarkable contributions in the promotion of sporting activities at Zawar mines
Vedanta Group has been recognised as a ‘Great Place to Work’
Vedanta Group gets listed in The Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, one of the world’s prestigious environmental, social, and governance (ESG) indices.

Vedanta Group – Competitors

Some of the major competitors of Vedanta Group are:

Tata Steel
JSW Steel
Coal India
Jindal Steel
NMDC Limited
Lloyds Metals

Vedanta Group – Future Plans

By the end of 2030, Vedanta Group aims to decarbonize all of its light motor vehicles (LMVs). Besides this, Vedanta Group is aggressively setting up major changes in its renewable energy operations.

KKR, a private equity investment firm, has announced plans to invest in a new renewable energy platform in India. It is reported that KKR will invest $400 million in Serentica Renewable, a renewable energy company promoted by the Vedanta Group. As per sources, Vedanta Group intends to build 5 gigatonnes of renewable energy capacity over the next few years.

FAQs

What is Vedanta Group?

Vedanta Group is an Indian multinational mining company that has built its reputation as one of the world’s leading natural resources companies.

When was Vedanta Group founded?

Vedanta Limited or Vedanta Group was founded in 1979.

Who is the founder of Vedanta Group?

Vedanta Group is founded by Anil Agarwal. As of now, Anil Agarwal is the Non-Executive Chairman of Vedanta Limited.

Who are the competitors of Vedanta Group?

Some of the major competitors of Vedanta Group are:

Tata Steel
JSW Steel
Coal India
Jindal Steel
NMDC Limited
Lloyds Metals

January 11, 2023

BANKIT Success Story – Making Digital Banking Accessible to Everyone

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 BANKIT.

BANKIT operates on a B2B2C business model to provide banking and financial solutions under one roof. The startup was officially founded in 2010, took seven years to research the market, and launched its first service in 2017. Founded by Amit Nigam and Satyajeet Limaye, BANKIT is all set to become India’s most trusted payment solutions company and create a ‘Millionaire Agents Network’.

BANKIT focuses to give banking and monetary administrations to underserved individuals who face difficulties in financial offices and are not educated enough. The company’s 50,000+ agents are spread across PAN India across level 2, level 3, and level 4 urban areas and towns to help and furnish clients with banking and monetary offices.

Walkthrough the exciting journey of BANKIT in this article, with highlights on BANKIT’s business model, how it started, its future plans and more.

BANKIT – Company Highlights

Startup Name	BANKIT
Headquarters	Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Industry	Fintech
Founder	Amit Nigam
Founded	2010
Launch Date	2017
Revenue	$15.1 million per year (approx)
Website	bankit.in

BANKIT – About
BANKIT – Industry Details
BANKIT – Startup Story
BANKIT – Founders and Team
BANKIT – Name and Logo
BANKIT – Product and USP
BANKIT – Business Model and Revenue Model
BANKIT – Startup Launch & Marketing Strategy
BANKIT – Growth
BANKIT – Challenges Faced
BANKIT – Competitors
BANKIT – Future Plans

BANKIT – About

Being a fintech company, BANKIT operates on a B2B2C business model to provide banking and financial solutions under one roof. It partnered with 15,000 neighbourhood retail stores in tier 2 and tier 3 areas of India, which can offer assisted digital financial services like Domestic Money Transfer, Cash out through APES/ micro ATM, also it has its own Prepaid card apart from additional services in Recharges, Utility Bill payments, loan, Insurance, Travel Booking, etc.

The company has over 80,000 outlets in 29 states that target to strengthen its presence in tier 2 and tier 3 areas with financial services. Recently, the company launched prepaid card solutions for corporates. Also, the vision of the company is to make a “Millionaire Agents Network” (MAN). It wants to maximize the number of agents who are able to make Rs. 10 lakhs as revenue in a year by delivering various BANKIT services.

BANKIT – Industry Details

According to Mr. Amit Nigam, the fintech industry is at the evolving stage to become three times more valuable in the coming 3-5 years. Gladly the government is helping companies to modify their services that add extra creation and strengthen the business. The Indian fintech market is expected to reach a valuation of $150-160 billion by 2025.

BANKIT – Startup Story

The journey of BANKIT started with Amit Nigam, who was also one of the founding members of Spice Money. During that journey, he understood the gap in banking requirements in backward areas. Hence, the idea of BANKIT arrived, where he targeted to enable the unbanked and underserved portions of the country by protected, secure, and advantageous banking, finance, and payment arrangements. BANKIT provides the fastest and easiest money transfer to around 400 banks, based on IMPS technology. It provides safe and instant domestic money remittances. The company was founded in 2010, took seven years to analyse the market, identify gaps, and determine the need for banking services in different states, and launched its first service in 2017.

The founders of BANKIT got in touch with a lot of family members and friends to discuss the idea; many of them gave positive feedback and were impressed by the larger mission that it was to serve. A few of them connected and joined hands, and support was extended in terms of manpower to create an incredible team.

BANKIT – Founders and Team

Amit Nigam - Founder of BANKIT — Amit Nigam – Founder of BANKIT

BANKIT is the brainchild of Amit Nigam, a fintech leader with extensive experience of more than 22 years who has worked at the top of management in telecom, FMCG, and fintech companies like Airtel and Aditya Birla Group. Amit serves as the Executive Director and COO at BANKIT. He was also one of the founders of Spice Money. He is an experienced leader with skills in leading direct reports as well as cross-functional teams, justifying new product development investments, determining and documenting new product requirements, developing sales forecasts and product pricing, and launching new products into the marketplace. He also supervises the key management of large-scale projects for the company.

Whereas, Mr. Satyajeet Limaye, Chief Strategy Officer, works alongside Amit Nigam to lead equity deals on both the buy and sell sides, incubating, challenging strategy, and restructuring revenue streams through strategy and financial analytics.

BANKIT – Name and Logo

BANKIT Logo

The team at BANKIT wanted to connect and be relatable to the masses and wanted the name to be relatable with its mission of providing banking and financial services to the last mile.

BANKIT – Product and USP

BANKIT offers financial services to clients through its retail channels, outlets, and banking specialists. Monetary Services are effectively accessible at neighborhood shops. Individuals can visit the closest specialists for administrations with no reports. BANKIT is a stage that has various Banking, Financial, and Payment administrations under one roof and it continues to add more to it as indicated by the client’s needs.

BANKIT focuses on providing banking and financial services to underserved individuals who face difficulties in financial offices and are undereducated. The company’s 50,000+ agents are spread across PAN India across level 2, level 3, and level 4 urban areas/towns to help and furnish clients with banking and monetary offices. It offers B2B2C administrations that address dual-purpose occupations for specialists who offer various types of assistance to buyers and help clients with our quick, simple Banking, Financial, and Payment administrations that require no documentation.

The USP of BANKIT is its web-based interface and versatile application, which is easy to use and user-friendly for the end customers. Its portal and app are much more secure, authentic, and easy to use, if a customer is registered (prior done any exchange with BANKIT) his cash can be sent with 2-3 ticks just right away. The startup continues to update its app and portal according to the client’s needs. BANKIT has added numerous new administrations and guarantees free miniature advances for its agents, which was of great importance and ended up being helpful for the representatives just as much as for the clients. BANKIT is a solitary stage for various administrations accessible 24×7.

BANKIT – Business Model and Revenue Model

Being a fintech organization, BANKIT works on a business-to-business-to-client plan of action to bring banking and monetary arrangements under one roof. It offers financial services like Domestic Money Transfer, and cashouts through APES/miniature ATMs, and has its own prepaid card separate from extra administrations like recharges, utility bill instalments, insurance, travel booking, and so on. Its cutting-edge arrangements are intended to make monetary exchanges consistent, simple, and fast to engage the Agents.

The company offers types of assistance to the purchasers through its agent organization, and for help like DMT, it charges customers @1% on the settlement business according to RBI rules. Different models like money withdrawals through AePS/mATM, Mobile/DTH/Fastag, recharges, bill payments, protection, CMS, and so on are either through banks or aggregators. BANKIT gets a commission from them, which it gives to the retail channel.

BANKIT – Startup Launch & Marketing Strategy

As BANKIT’s target group is mainly from rural and semi-urban areas, the team approached retailers through direct marketing via sales personnel. The response received from the same proved to be successful and many retailers joined hands with BANKIT.

The COVID-19 pandemic and induced lockdown forced a lot of migrant workers from urban areas to internally migrate back to their hometowns. BANKIT utilised this opportunity to help these people get opportunities locally and thus get more people on board for its larger mission.

BANKIT – Growth and Revenue

Noida-headquartered start-up BANKIT has a presence in 29 states with more than 70,000 correspondents and 50,000 agents. Its significant business comes from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Telangana, Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, etc. The fintech stalwart’s estimated annual revenue is currently $15.1 million per year.

BANKIT – Challenges Faced

The team has experienced a huge number of difficulties all throughout their excursion, but the one prominent one that can be highlighted is its colossal business work during the Coronavirus lockdown.

At the point when the Coronavirus began influencing the Indian business market, the test was to re-plan the business and showcase systems totally at an ideal opportunity to settle and develop the business. The team was happy that BANKIT was not simply made due in the hardest season of the World yet, in addition, made the greatest business in lockdown as the interest of banking and monetary administrations gathered by buyers and BANKIT was prepared to give something very similar in those difficult occasions.

Since BANKIT began its first activity, it has seen that organizations have been confronting a few challenges during this pandemic opportunity to support on the lookout however for them, their huge line of administrations assisted BANKIT to cope in this difficult time and spotlight move on sought after administrations like Cash-out help has turned out a distinct advantage for its business. The company has enlisted the greatest income development and exchanges in the midst of the lockdown and has seen an upward pattern for a few of its contributions.

BANKIT – Competitors

Some of the prominent competitors of BANKIT are PayNearby, Fino PaymentS Bank and Spice Money.

BANKIT – Future Plans

The organization has kept an objective to add 1 lakh+ such outlets in the metropolitan and rustic piece of the country in this monetary year under its channel extension plan. Additionally, the organization is intending to dispatch another line of items and administrations in the coming months.

BANKIT wants to be the pioneer in the formation of a new India where everyone has access to banking facilities and doesn’t have to struggle for basic banking and financial needs. With the vision to become India’s largest and most trusted payment solutions company, the team is working to open more than 10,000 digital and brand BANKIT stores across the country. The startup aims to translate the vision of the government of digitizing rural India and making new entrepreneurs.

FAQs

What is BANKIT?

BANKIT offers financial services to clients through its retail channels, outlets, and banking specialists. It partnered with 15,000 neighborhood retail stores in tier 2 and tier 3 areas of India, which can offer assisted digital financial services like Domestic Money Transfer, Cash out through APES/ micro ATM, also it has its own Prepaid card apart from additional services in Recharges, Utility Bill payments, loan, Insurance, Travel Booking, etc.

Who are the founders of BANKIT?

BANKIT is the brainchild of Amit Nigam. Mr. Satyajeet Limaye, Chief Strategy Officer, works alongside Amit Nigam.

What is the USP of BANKIT?

The USP of BANKIT is its web-based interface and versatile application which is easy to use and user-friendly for the end customers. Its portal and app are much more secure, authentic, and easy to use, if a customer is registered (prior done any exchange with BANKIT) his cash can be sent with 2-3 ticks just right away.

How much is BANKIT’s revenue?

BANKIT’s estimated annual revenue is currently $15.1 million per year.

How BANKIT works?

BANKIT offers financial services to clients through its retail channels, outlets, and banking specialists. Monetary Services are effectively accessible at neighborhood shops. Individuals can visit the closest specialists for administrations with no reports. BANKIT is a stage that has various Banking, Financial, and Payment administrations under one rooftop.

Is BANKIT safe?

BANKIT provides the fastest and easiest money transfer to around 400 banks, based on IMPS technology. It provides safe and instant domestic money remittance. Its portal and app are much more secure, authentic, and easy to use.

Who are the competitors of BANKIT?

Some of the competitors of BANKIT are PayNearby, Fino Payment banks & Spice Money.

January 10, 2023

SketchBubble Success Story – One of the Leading Presentation Design Firms

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 SketchBubble.

SketchBubble is one of the leading presentation design firms that specialize in pre-prepared, professionally designed, and completely editable PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Apple Keynote templates. The startup prides itself on its expertise in professional presentation creation & design and on its longstanding commitment to fostering creative innovation, generating high-quality products, and maintaining uniqueness.

In this article, learn more about SketchBubble’s business and revenue model, startup story, founders, and more.

SketchBubble – Company Highlights

Startup Name	SketchBubble
Headquarters	Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Industry	Design Services
Founders	Ashish Arora, Rohit Khariwal, Pankaj Narang
Founded	2014
Parent Company	InfoShore
Website	sketchbubble.com

SketchBubble – About
SketchBubble – Industry Details
SketchBubble – Startup Story
SketchBubble – Founders and Team
SketchBubble – Name and Logo
SketchBubble – Business and Revenue Model
SketchBubble – Tools Used to Run the Startup
SketchBubble – Launch & Marketing Strategies
SketchBubble – Challenges Faced
SketchBubble – Competitors
SketchBubble – Future Plans

SketchBubble – About

We all know how important presentations are for Professionals from all domains. After spending hours on the presentation design, still, the outcome is not that appealing to many professionals. (Even the founders of SketchBubble faced the same issue when they were creating an investor presentation for one of their earlier businesses).

Using SketchBubble’s pre-designed presentation templates, professionals can easily create compelling presentations in minutes. It has one of the largest libraries of presentation templates for all possible categories. All its templates are entirely customizable, very easy to edit, and available in 2 colour themes. SketchBubble recently started animated PowerPoint templates as well.

The platform provides pre-designed instantly downloadable presentation templates which are compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and Google Slides. Professionals find it very cumbersome to design engaging presentations (whether it is for educational purposes or pitching an investor or explaining a concept to staff). All of its templates are 100% customizable and users can easily edit without any designing knowledge. It’s like downloading, editing, plug, and play. SketchBubble’s visually appealing and easy-to-use templates save a lot of time for its users. They can focus on the delivery of the presentations and leave the design part to the platform.

SketchBubble – Industry Details

SketchBubble’s target audience is every professional either a project manager, business executive, startup founder, educator or someone working in a position where there is a need to explain/present some core concepts, financial data, an investor pitch, a company’s values, educational concepts, an onboarding or business plan, etc.

Presentations have always played an important role in business, but in the next few years, Mr. Ashish Arora (Co-founder, SketchBubble) sees a great scope in the field of educational presentations, as well as online, which has come to the forefront during this COVID-19 crisis. Presentations can make online learning engaging and fun with the help of creative visuals.

SketchBubble – Startup Story

“This idea of starting a presentation templates marketplace ignited in our minds when we were designing a presentation to pitch potential investors for one of our products (mobile monitoring software). Since we were good at technology but not at designing, they were not satisfied with their own PowerPoint presentation. Ultimately, they spent $500 to hire a professional designer. Thus, this led to the creation of their startup that began with 50 PowerPoint templates in 2014; and now has over 10,000 templates with 150000+ slides!” – says Ashish Arora (Co-founder, SketchBubble).

SketchBubble – Mission and Vision

SketchBubble’s Vision – Saving the valuable time and effort of presenters by providing them with professionally-designed, innovative, and pre-made presentations in line with the knowledge level, interests, and experiences of the audience.

SketchBubble’s Mission – To embrace the power of words and engaging visuals in all the products to help all professionals deliver impactful presentations and make a lasting impression, keeping pace with the latest visual communication and design trends.

SketchBubble – Founders and Team

Though SketchBubble was launched in 2014, its parent company InfoShore is providing IT services since 2008.

InfoShore and SketchBubble are co-founded by Ashish Arora (Head of Product & Design), Rohit Khariwal (Head of Technology), and Pankaj Narang (Head of Social Media Marketing). They all completed their graduation from NIT Jaipur in the year 2005.

SketchBubble – Name and Logo

SketchBubble Logo

When the idea of starting a business of professionally designed presentation templates was conceptualized, the founders wanted to connect the domain name with graphics (not just slides and presentations so that in the future, they can add more types of templates like MS Word, MS Excel, Website templates, etc.). Thus, the journey of SketchBubble started.

SketchBubble – Business and Revenue Model

SketchBubble has a subscription billing model. Customers can choose Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly plans which can be cancelled at any time. It also offers 1 Day access plan to users who want to give it a try with a smaller amount. SketchBubble’s 1 Day access plan costs $14.95 and other plans start from $49.95.

SketchBubble – Tools Used to Run the Startup

Mailchimp – Email Marketing
Razorpay Payroll – Employee Self-Service and Payroll
Hubstaff – for Time Tracking
Zendesk – Customer Support

SketchBubble – Launch & Marketing Strategies

When the product was developed, the platform received social media and startup story coverage on some popular platforms. From the very first day, the team at SketchBubble worked on Content Marketing, which eventually resulted in a good Google ranking.

“So getting initial customers was not that hard for us; we focused on quality so that we get repeat customers and by the time that paid off well” – Ashish added.

Unlike its competitors, SketchBubble not only worked on the quality of its products, but it kept launching a lot of new templates each week. The team worked on multiple colour themes, and a variety of designs, and provided the same template not only for Microsoft PowerPoint but also for other popular platforms like Google Slides and Apple Keynote.

SketchBubble’s founders always believe in a customer-centric approach. They give priority to customer requirements. Even if they provide pre-designed templates and do not officially provide customized presentations, whenever a customer requires custom slides, the team is always there to help them and provide their required presentations within 48 hours. As compelling presentation designs are the core of its business, the team keeps improving the designs on a regular basis so as to match the market trends.

When SketchBubble started Email Marketing – 1 Free Slide every week to its free product subscribers. This resulted in many converts within 3-4 months as users started to see the value of the products offered.

SketchBubble – Challenges Faced

Like every other online business that is dependent on traffic from Google, SketchBubble had its own ups and downs in Google ranking, which resulted in lower traffic a few times in the last couple of years. The team conquered every time they were affected by Google updates. The startup is constantly working on its content and design quality in order to have a lifetime of customers. Apart from this, finding the right talent is a challenge every organisation faces.

SketchBubble – Competitors

PresentationLoad and PoweredTemplate are the top competitors of SketchBubble.

SketchBubble – Future Plans

Currently, SketchBubble is working on making all its presentations animated so that customers will have the choice of opting for Static or Animated presentations. Apart from that, it is also working on MS Word and Excel Templates which should be live in a few months.

FAQs

What is SketchBubble?

SketchBubble provides pre-designed instantly downloadable presentation templates which are compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and Google Slides.

Who founded SketchBubble?

Ashish Arora, Rohit Khariwal, and Pankaj Narang are the founders of SketchBubble.

Is SketchBubble free?

SketchBubble offers a few free templates to test the quality of its offerings. The platform charges subscription fees based on monthly, quarterly and yearly plans. Its plans start from $49.95 per month.

January 9, 2023

Story of uEngage: Technology Solutions for New Age Restaurants
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 uEngage.

uEngage provides subscription based-technology solutions to the local businesses for better market services. It is on a mission to help restaurants save aggregator commission and build their long term digital data growth. Started in 2018, uEngage has clocked over 700+ crore worth orders through its client apps.

StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Sameer Sharma (Founder, uEngage) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. Read ahead to know more!

uEngage – Company Highlights

Startup Name uEngage

Founders Sameer Sharma, Sunil Rawal

Founded 2018

Headquarters Panchkula, Haryana

Industry Foodtech

Website uengage.in

uEngage – About and Vision
uEngage – How it Started
uEngage – Founders and Team
uEngage – Products/Services
uEngage – Challenges Faced
uEngage – Marketing Strategies
uEngage – Growth and Stats
uEngage – Future Plans
uEngage – FAQs

uEngage

uEngage – About and Vision

uEngage offers digital and technology solutions for food ordering apps, cloud kitchen, contactless ordering, CRM services, grocery delivery, and many more.

uEngage’s uniqueness lies in its balanced combination of its innovative products and digital growth consultant. It can be broken into 3 core pillars –
- Online ordering solutions
- User acquisition and demand generation
- Rider tracking platform + Third party riders integration
uEngage Services is founded with the vision to provide subscription based-technology solutions to the local businesses for better market services. They are a team of young aspirants who believe in providing business and technology solutions to the local business houses. Within the next two years (2023), uEngage’s mission is to be one of the best solution provider platforms for all the merchandisers and create maximum job opportunities for qualified youngsters.

uEngage – How it Started

The founders come from middle-class families, a town where most of the youngsters have to leave their hometown to look for good job opportunities. They wanted to break this chain and thus thought of creating opportunities where prospective people don’t have to leave their hometown. Coming from a technology & business background, Sameer & Sunil started their first venture Trideal in 2012.

“The journey wasn’t easy as the investors in Tier-2 cities lack confidence in startup’s but with our hard work, we were able to get the support of the talented people that made it a success. With certain ups and lows, Trideal was acquired by Paytm and after some gap, I started uEngage and ShoutLo in 2018. To date, we have been quite successful in achieving our mission” -says Sameer Sharma, Founder, uEngage & Shoutlo.

The founders noticed that the local food joints pay huge commissions to companies like Swiggy, Zomato for the delivery services. So they thought of solving that problem by providing them with a direct delivery option. At uEngage, the team provides subscription-based technological solutions to the local business houses.

uEngage – Founders and Team
- Sameer Sharma – Founder at uEngage & Shoutlo
- Sunil Rawal – Co-Founder, Business Head at uEngage & Shoutlo
uEngage has a team of promising youngsters who have the zeal and determination to provide technological solutions to the local business and expand job opportunities for qualified professionals. In 2018, uEngage was established and run by Sameer Sharma and his Co-founder Sunil Rawal looks after the business strategies of the company.

Spoonshot Story- Leveraging AI to Predict Food Trends | Funding | Founders | Business Model

Spoonshot is an AI based startup offering data backed insights to companies operating in food & beverages sector. Read about Spoonshots funding, revenue, founders and business model.

StartupTalkyChayanika Goswami

uEngage – Products/Services

uEngage offers digital and technology solutions for food ordering apps, cloud kitchen, contactless ordering, CRM services, grocery delivery, etc.,

uEngage – Products & Services

DISCOVERY
1. Food Ordering App: uEngage allows you to enhance the online food ordering experience for your customers with your own food ordering app. There are no upfront costs/commission and a low-cost fixed rental model.
2. Web Ordering: Have your customers place orders directly with your own food ordering website. There will be no commission charged for every order placed. The features include displaying a digital menu, accepting orders online, and showcasing multiple outlets on a single website.

3. Cloud Kitchen App: Run your delivery-only restaurant online with uEngage’s Cloud Kitchen App. Manage all your home delivery, takeaway, and in-car dine-in orders seamlessly.

4. Contactless Ordering Solution: Integrate a contactless ordering solution by eliminating physical touchpoints. The features include QR code ordering, a digital menu, and a digital mode of payment.

MARKETING
1. CRM for restaurants: uEngage offers a complete CRM solution helping your business to connect and engage with your customers in a smarter way and converting your audience into potential buyers. Enabled with features like – segment-based audience, personalized SMS campaign, customer feedback management, and smart reporting.
2. Digital Marketing: Includes SEO, SEM, PPC, Email marketing, Social Media, and content marketing.
3. SMS Solutions (DLT): Stay Connected to your customers with DLT Approved Transactional, Promotional & OTP Bulk SMS Service.
4. Mini App Store/3rd party integration: Launch your business in Paytm Mini App Store and PhonePe Switch to showcase your products/services and get access to the huge customer base of active users of Paytm & PhonePe.
DELIVERY & LOGISTICS
1. Rider tracking app: This app will let the rider make deliveries efficiently by letting him know the best routes based on current traffic status and all the delivery information on the app including the customer calling options and the address.
2. Rider Management: Manage all your on-demand deliveries and logistics services with your own Rider App. Features include – Rider Allocation, real-time rider tracking, and 3rd party rider management.
3. 3rd party logistics: Integrate with third-party logistics with Rapido and Dunzo to eliminate the need to invest in warehouse space, technology, transportation, and employees to carry out logistics processes.
OTHER TOOLS
1. In-store feedback app: Get to know what your customers think about your food, ambiance, service, staff, and more with customer reviews and ratings, all in real-time.
2. Digital Check-in App: Check-in guests at the door by entering their name or confirmation number on uEngage’s Digital Check-in App and reduce their waiting process.
3. Grocery Delivery App: Take your grocery store online and offer a hassle-free grocery shopping experience to your customers with your own grocery delivery app.
uEngage – Challenges Faced

“Challenges make you stronger. If you are not getting challenges on your road to success, you aren’t growing. My first challenge came when my Trideal Co-founder left the startup after 6 months and I had to learn the business mechanism in addition to my tech background. Getting the right kind of people under my umbrella and convincing the investors to invest in startups especially in Tier-2 cities is a real challenge. Slowly and gradually with our sustained efforts, we not only attracted investors but also created job opportunities for qualified professionals” – Sameer added.

uEngage – Growth and Stats

uEngage has successfully provided technology solutions to many brands and helped them provide better services to the clients. The startup’s presence is in more than 127 cities and has clocked 700+ crore worth orders through its client.
- 3500+ outlets onboarded
- Provided Technology solution to Outlets in 127+ cities
- One of the Prominent Pizza Chain has acquired 1.7 million users and is among top 7 apps on Play Store
- uEngage has empowered essential delivery platform for Govt of Punjab while Covid Lockdown
- uEngage does 5.2 lac+ Transactions on a monthly basis across its white-labeled apps/PWAs
- uEngage has helped its partner restaurants to clock more than 700 Cr worth Sales in last 4+ years journey
The Rapid Growth Of Foodtech Services In India

India is a leading venue for food tech companies or Indian food startups. Read on to know more about the food startups in India or food tech startups in India.

StartupTalkyDevashish Shrivastava

uEngage – Future Plans

In the years to come, uEngage wants restaurants to start direct online delivery services rather than spending money on commission base apps. The team is also inclined to make Uenage one of the biggest solution providers in the Northern region and create job opportunities for young aspirants.

FAQs

What is uEngage?

uEngage provides subscription based-technology solutions to the local businesses for better market services. It offers digital and technology solutions for food ordering apps, cloud kitchen, contactless ordering, CRM services, grocery delivery, and many more.

Who founded uEngage?

Sameer Sharma and Sunil Rawal founded uEngage in 2018.

Is uEngage an Indian company?

Yes. uEngage is an Indian company headquartered in Panchkula, Haryana.
January 9, 2023

Startup Name	uEngage
Founders	Sameer Sharma, Sunil Rawal
Founded	2018
Headquarters	Panchkula, Haryana
Industry	Foodtech
Website	uengage.in

Success Story of Outplay: The New-Age Sales Outreach Platform to Help You Book More Meetings

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 Outplay.

The sales team plays a crucial role in any business. Increasing annual sales and profit is the core focus of any business. With the evolution of automation in business processes, the scope of the sales industry is continuously changing. Businesses are leveraging sales and marketing automation tools to quantify their marketing campaigns and workflows. Sales engagement platforms are one example of automating sales activities. A Sales engagement platform helps businesses in streamlining the communication of the sales team to their customers.

Outplay is an Indian-American SaaS (Software as a Service) company headquartered in San Francisco, United States. The company offers a sales engagement platform that helps businesses to prospect efficiently and reach their revenue goals faster. Read to know about Outplay, its founders, the startup story, solutions it provides, funding, and more.

Outplay – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Outplay
Headquarters	San Francisco, United States
Industry	Software
Founders	Ram Papineni and Laxman Papineni
Founded	2019
Total Funding Raised	$9.3 Million
Website	outplayhq.com

Outplay – About
Outplay – Industry
Outplay – Founders and Team
Outplay – The Idea and Startup Story
Outplay – Vision
Outplay – Products
Outplay – USP
Outplay – Marketing Strategy
Outplay – Funding
Outplay – Growth
Outplay – Competitors
Outplay – Tools Used in the Company
Outplay – Recognition and Achievements
Outplay – Future Plans

Outplay – About

Outplay is a new-age sales engagement platform that combines multi-channel outreach and sales automation to help sales teams hit their revenue goals.

The company’s core belief is to always deliver top-notch services to their customers, along with stellar support. It believes in providing meaningful opportunities for their employees to grow in, at all levels and takes pride in sharing all their wins, thoughts, and failures openly across the team. Its mission is to help salespeople achieve their dreams.

Outplay – Industry

Outplay is part of the Sales Software Industry. The company is rapidly expanding and bringing in more customers from the SMB market.

Outplay – Founders and Team

Brothers Ram and Laxman Papineni co-founded Outplay in the year 2019 in Wilmington, Delaware. Laxman is the CEO of the company while Ram serves as its CTO.

Ram and Laxman have always been building things together. Ever since they were little boys, the idea of building something of their own fascinated them – anything that was creative, or would help people around them. Being brothers, both of them understood each other’s plus points early on. Ram was more interested in building platforms/tools, and Laxman was more inclined toward connecting with people and sharing stories. That’s how their current roles fit perfectly with their personalities and goals.

Outplay currently has over 100 employees, and offers the most flexible work culture that helps in delivering a sense of belongingness to the employees and makes them create a proper work-life balance. Outplay sees its employees as the most important assets in the company, and does everything possible to make them feel comfortable and seen. They believe that it’s only when the employees’ needs are met, that they can continue building a world-class product.

Coming to the hiring part, the company is able to bring in a lot of its employees through the simple means of referrals. Its existing employees – the Outplayers as they are commonly known, are always eager to share the openings within their network. And when they bring in someone, they’re rewarded for it. Apart from that, we’re also big on campus drives to hire college freshers, helping them start their professional journey with Outplay.

Outplay – The Idea and Startup Story

Outplay Logo

The whole idea of offering a Sales Engagement Platform began with blogging. Ram and Laxman’s first venture was a blogging network. That’s where Ram and Laxman learned about start-ups and what goes behind running one. They started their first startup called AppVirality – a referral marketing software that was backed by shoppingmode Microsoft Accelerator.

During their first start-up stint, they realized the importance of sales and charted down how they could make it better for all the sales folks out there. They had 2-3 of their friends who left their jobs to join them at AppVirality first, which then morphed into Outplay. Together all of them sat through hours to build the right framework, get a few investors interested, and started pitching Outplay to people who were looking for a switch.

Outplay – Vision

Outplay’s short-term vision is to get good brand recognition and generate substantial revenue from the SMB market.

Its long-term vision is to become a household name for large enterprises and expand fully to regions like ASEAN and APAC. Outplay aspires to become the No. 1 sales engagement platform in the world.

Outplay – Products

Outplay currently offers one product, which is a sales engagement platform that helps salespeople journey through their goals with ease, removing unnecessary clutter and providing top-class features to help enhance their outreach every step of the way. The product has a sleek UI that helps sales reps navigate between various tasks and sequences with ease, and also helps them hit their targets on time, with proper prioritization and automation.

Outplay – USP

Outplay’s USP includes multi-channel outreach which is a mix of channels like email, phone, SMS, social media, and magic chat – a webchat box that is launched when a prospective customer clicks on an email link. Apart from this, they also provide access to top-notch features such as multi-channel outreach, smart sales sequences, real-time sales insights, website, and email tracking, the ability to set activity triggers, and powerful analytics among others.

Outplay – Marketing Strategy

Outplay launched an eBook as part of its marketing efforts and was able to create a lot of buzz in the market. The ebook is titled ‘30 Sales Teams Share Their Sales Sequences’ and contains a list of full-fledged sales sequences from top companies like Drift, Hubspot, Vidyard, etc. along with 30+ sales sequences from hyper-growth companies.

Outplay – Funding

Date	Stage	Amount	Investors
3rd March 2021	Seed funding	$2 Million	Sequoia Capital
21st July 2021	Series A	$7.3 Million	Sequoia Capital

Outplay’s series A funding which was in July 2021, helped the company successfully expand its operations, increase its workforce to 100+ employees, and work towards building features for its current and future customers, by understanding its current needs and issues.

Outplay – Growth

The company currently operates in the US and Indian markets. It has users spread over both regions.

Outplay – Competitors

Some of the top competitors of Outplay are:

Outreach
Salesloft
Klenty
Yesware
Reply.io
Mixmax
Mailshake
Lemlist

Outplay – Tools Used in the Company

Few tools that help accelerate the startup are:

Hubspot
Gong
Salesforce
Slintel
Sales Navigator
Seamless
Lusha

Outplay – Recognition and Achievements

The company’s recent funding news made it to Times Square, New York – announcing how Outplay raised $7.2 Million, Series A. Apart from that, its podcast ‘The Hype is Real’ was added to Sequoia’s Surge Academy.

Outplay – Future Plans

Since artificial intelligence is the future, especially of SaaS platforms, Outplay is also infusing AI into its sales platform. This step will simplify the lives of sales reps even further.

Its users already have access to a feature that can magically write their sales sequences with the power of AI, but the future will see them making the AI capabilities more stronger and robust. With the company’s sole focus being on the USA for now, it wishes to expand towards ASEAN and APAC countries in the near future.

FAQs

When was Outplay founded?

Outplay was founded in 2019 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Who are the founders of Outplay?

Ram Papineni and Laxman Papineni are the founders of Outplay.

Who are the top competitors of Outplay?

Some of the top competitors of Outplay are:

Outreach
Salesloft
Klenty
Yesware
Reply.io
Mixmax
Mailshake
Lemlist

January 9, 2023

Chime Success Story – Making Banking Easier Than Ever

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

Businesses in the banking and financial sectors are increasingly focusing on mobile devices as a means of increasing consumer engagement and streamlining processes. The extensive use of mobile devices and the quick acceptance of mobile banking as a practical substitute for the expensive cost of completing transactions in physical branches is a big appeal for financial executives. As a result, the banking industry has been actively incorporating mobility into its client interaction strategy.

Mobile banking is the concept of doing monetary operations via a smartphone. Some financial organizations, particularly banks, provide this service. Customers and users of mobile banking can complete a variety of transactions, which may differ depending on the financial institution.

Chime is a company that creates mobile financial and banking platforms to provide banking services on the move. Users may avoid costs, save money, and lead better financial lives thanks to the company’s platform, which sets a predefined amount of funds away in savings following a payment and generates income from transaction fees paid by the merchants.

Chime – Company Highlights

Company Name	Chime Financial, Inc.
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Industry	Financial Services
Founders	Chris Britt, Ryan King
Founded	2013
Total Funding Raised	$2.3 billion
Valuation	$25 billion (2021)
Revenue	$950 million (2021)
Website	chime.com

Chime – About
Chime – Industry
Chime – Founders and Team
Chime – Startup Story
Chime – Name, Logo, and Tagline
Chime – Mission, and Vision Statement
Chime – Business Model
Chime – Funding, and Investors
Chime – Acquisitions
Chime – Competitors
Chime – Future Plans

Chime – About

Chime Financial, Inc. is a financial technology business based in the United States that offers fee-free mobile banking services through The Bancorp Bank or Stride Bank, Visa debit or credit cards are provided to N.A. account holders, who also have access to secure online banking platform through the business’ website or smartphone apps.

Chime is not a bank, and its customers do not have any banking relationships. Chime may and does deactivate user accounts with no warning; it is not obligated to give the client a cause for the termination or even have one. Customers cannot file a complaint with banking regulators to get their deposits back since they might not be paid out right away.

Chime doesn’t have any physical branches, doesn’t impose overdraft or monthly payments, and doesn’t ask for an initial deposit or a minimum amount to start a free bank account. At present the accounts are only accessible to persons with private accounts; all money received must be in the name of the personal account holder.

The following are some features of the app:

A thorough dashboard snapshot of their expenditures and account balance.
Automatic savings account contributions.
Early payments via direct deposits.
Zero overdraft charges
There are approximately 60,000 ATMs in the US, yet none charge fees for withdrawals.
Instantaneous payments to other Chime users.

Chime – Industry

The term “financial services” refers to the monetary services provided by the banking sector, which comprises a wide range of companies that balance a budget, which includes credit unions, financial institutions, individual asset managers, card companies, insurance providers, accounting firms, consumer finance firms, brokerage firms, investment funds, and some govt-sponsored entities. Several other businesses that depend on credit and loans to function are supported by financial services. Despite mixed findings, the majority of estimates place the financial services industry at 20–25% of the global GDP.

With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7%, the worldwide financial services market increased from $23,319.52 billion in 2021 to $25,588.3 billion in 2022. Economic sanctions on many nations, a rise in commodity prices, and disruptions in the supply chain as a result of the conflict between these two nations have all had an impact on several markets throughout the world. At a CAGR of 6.9%, the financial services industry is anticipated to reach $33,358.77 billion in 2026.

Chime – Founders and Team

Chime was founded by Chris Britt and Ryan King in the year 2013.

Chris Britt

Chime is a San Francisco-based firm that Chris Britt co-founded in 2013 as a no-fee mobile banking app and debit card. Chris attended Tulane University to earn his degree. At Visa, Inc., he held the position of senior product leader. Before establishing Chime, he previously worked for a company called Green Dot Corporation.

Ryan King

Ryan is Chime’s Co-Founder and Cheif Technological Officer. Ryan was previously the VP of Engineering at Plaxo, an early professional social networking pioneer bought by Comcast Interactive Media. Ryan formerly previously served at Microsoft and Liberate Technologies. Ryan has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and engineering from UCLA and Stanford University, respectively.

Some other team members include :

Dennis Yu – Chief of Staff
Jeff Trudeau – Chief Information Security Officer
Russ Branzell – CEO/President
Adam Burde – Sr. IT Systems Engineer
Amine Asmerom – VP, Controller
Arkadiy Tetelman – Head of Application & Infrastructure Security
Beth Steinberg – Vice President, People & Talent
Jay Parekh – VP, Business Development & Partnerships
Ori Dugary – Vice President of Operations, Member Experience

Chime – Startup Story

Regardless of its importance, the covid outbreak and quarantine had an impact on every aspect of society as it turned our existence upside down. In spite of the fact that it is a huge aid, most individuals became hesitant to visit bank offices. Despite the fact that banks were open during the lockdown, people started switching to other options. In the field of online transactions, the majority of banks have noticed a noticeable improvement of about 40%. With the help of various banking and UPI applications, people were increasingly using the internet to exchange money and pay their bills. Many banks have been inspired to adopt this shift by the US-based banking company Chime.

Chris Britt and Ryan King founded Chime in 2013, and the company is based in San Francisco. The formal debut was on the Dr. Phil Show on April 15, 2014. Chime stands out since it was founded in the era of smartphones. As a result, they were able to launch an app right away for the convenience of the user. It is simple for clients to use for monitoring their financial standings. They can manage their credit cards and get their questions answered by customer service representatives.

The environment that Chime has developed for its customers is actually establishing new standards for banking services. The company’s absence of branches is quite intriguing and sets them apart from its opponents. They provide Visa debit cards and access to an online banking platform through chime.com for account holders. The clients have the option of doing their business using an Android or iOS mobile application.

Chime – Name, Logo, and Tagline

Chime Logo

Chime’s tagline says “It’s your money. It’s your life. Chime in.”

Chime – Mission, and Vision Statement

Chime’s mission statement says, “We created Chime because we believe everyone deserves financial peace of mind. We’re building a new online bank account that helps members get ahead by making managing money easy. It’s your money. It’s your life. Chime in.”

Chime – Business Model

By charging its customers’ interchange fees on transactions they complete through the Visa payment gateway, Chime generates revenue. ATM fees and interest on cash are other revenue sources for Chime.

Exchange charges – The interchange fee model is where Chimes makes the most money. This stream covers the costs that Chime’s affiliate retailers incur while using its network to process transactions. The business is responsible for paying a processing charge to Chime each time a Chime user swipes their Visa card.

Chime receives a portion of the 1.5% cost that merchants pay to Visa, which is far less than the processing fees charged by other legitimate credit card providers like Amex. Chime generates a sizable amount of revenue from the roughly 40 transactions every month that its millions of customers perform.

Chime leverages its merchant revenues to give customers a better experience by doing elimination of account fees, ATM fees, and other expenses connected to traditional banking.

Interest on money – Chime users may use the app to invest in savings accounts and other financial instruments.

Users’ money is transferred into a high-yield savings account through the automated savings option. Chime makes short-term loans of this money to banks and other financial organizations. Chime earns interest on the cash as payment for the loan at an interbank rate that is far higher than the 0.5% APY that users receive on cash balances in their accounts.

ATM fees – VPA and MoneyPass are two of Chime’s ATM networks. Consumer pays $2.50 for each ATM withdrawal if they use an ATM outside of this 38,000-location network.

Additionally, ATM providers may impose additional fees at their discretion. Up to 20% of Chimes’ earnings come from ATM revenue.

Chime – Funding, and Investors

Date	Round	Amount	Investors
Aug 13, 2021	Series G	$750M	Sequoia Capital Global Equities
Sep 18, 2020	Series F	$533.8M	–
Dec 5, 2019	Series E	$700M	DST Global
Mar 5, 2019	Series D	$200M	DST Global
May 31, 2018	Series C	$70M	Menlo Ventures
Sep 27, 2017	Series B	$18M	Cathay Innovation
May 19, 2016	Series A	$9M	Aspect Ventures
Nov 5, 2014	Series A	$8M	Crosslink Capital
Aug 30, 2013	Seed Round	$3.8M	–

Chime – Acquisitions

Acquiree Name	About Acquiree	Date	Amount
Charlie Finance Co.	Charlie Finance is a financial services company that helps ordinary Americans worry less about money and get out of debt faster	Aug 16, 2021	–
Pinch	Pinch makes it easy to build its clients’ credit history just by paying their rent.	Sep 17, 2018	–

Chime – Competitors

Chime is a market leader in fintech, but it faces stiff competition from other companies that operate in the same industry.

The company’s main rivals as a digital bank include Dave, Marcus, Ally Bank, and Varo Bank. Chime relies on its partner banks, Stride Bank and The Bancorp Bank, as each of them does have a charter. Chime may provide FDIC-insured deposits to its clients on all balances and assets kept with the new bank, just like its rivals.

Chime – Future Plans

Chime’s bank accounts are guaranteed up to the typical maximum deposit amount of $250,000. The Bancorp Bank or Central National Bank, which changed its name to Stride Bank, N.A. in 2019, is their main collaborator. The accounts on Chime are also managed by Stride Bank or Bancorp Bank. Chime does not seek to push credit on its clients, in contrast to conventional banks that encourage customers to acquire overdraft assurance and advances. Additionally, they are not required to maintain a base balance, incur monthly costs, or pay overdraft fees. The business provides customers with discounts or money back at the time of purchase through its money-back rewards program.

Chime has become one of the most popular and effective digital banking apps in the United States over the years. The organization has so far raised 2.3 billion dollars of funding and is currently valued at $25 billion (2021). It reported an estimated profit of close to $200 million in 2019. In order to maintain its leadership position among challenger banks, Chime also plans to expand into Visa and trading services.

According to Chime’s CEO, the firm bases its products on four fundamental aspects of sound monetary planning: spending, saving, managing credit, and investing. In order to help people with little to no credit manage their finances better, Chime will continue to create programs that offer tools and information.

FAQs

Who is the CEO of Chime?

Chris Britt is the CEO of Chime.

Is Chime owned by Amazon?

No, Amazon doesn’t own Chime.

How much is Chime valued?

Chime has raised a total of $2.3 Billion and is valued at $25 Billion.

January 7, 2023

Kroger Success Story: One of the Largest General Retailers in the USA

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 Kroger.

Over a period of time, finding your daily needs quickly has become very important. People have busy lifestyles and need one place to shop for their groceries. This led to the emergence of multiple retail giants who slowly expanded their base all over the USA.

Kroger is one such online grocery and in-store retailer. It has set up various drug stores, supermarkets, marketplaces, multi-department, and jewellery stores across the country.

Started with a single grocery store in Cincinnati to now owning 2500+ outlets in 35 states they provide products like natural food, medicines, general merchandise, apparel, fresh seafood, toys, electronics, home goods, etc. Read on to have detailed information about Kroger and its business model, revenue model, startup story, founders and team, and more.

Kroger – Company Highlights

Company Name	The Kroger Company
Headquarters	Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Industry	Retail
Founded	1883
Founders	Bernard Kroger
Area Served	United States
Revenue	$137.888 Billion (2022)
Market Cap	$32.74 Billion (Jan 2023)
Website	www.kroger.com

Kroger – About
Kroger – Industry
Kroger – Founders and Team
Kroger – Startup Story
Kroger – Mission and Vision
Kroger – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Kroger – Business Model
Kroger – Revenue Model
Kroger – Employees
Kroger – Challenges Faced
Kroger – Funding, and Investors
Kroger – Mergers and Acquisitions
Kroger – Growth
Kroger – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns
Kroger – Awards and Achievements
Kroger – Competitors
Kroger – Future Plans

Kroger – About

Kroger is one of the largest retail store chains operated in the USA. It was founded by Bernard Kroger in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1883. It is a retail company known to operate supermarkets and multi-store companies across America. Kroger currently owns around 2,800 stores in 35 various states.

The graph shows the number of stores operated by Kroger as of January 2022

Kroger – Industry

The United States is home to some of the largest retail companies in the world. The introduction of the Pandemic and National lockdown did affect the industry revenue and was considered a pathway to introduce more e-commerce retail sales within the year.

For the year 2021, the total retail sales in the US were 6.59 billion USD. The retail trade accounts for 5.5% of the Country’s GDP in total.

Different segments of the retail sector are Products (Food and Beverages, Personal and Household Care, Apparel, Footwear and Accessories, Furniture, Toys and Hobby, Electronic and Household Appliances, and Other Products), Distribution Channels (Supermarkets/Hypermarkets, Convenience Stores, and Department Stores, Specialty Stores, Online, and Other Distribution Channels), etc.

Kroger operates in the retail sector. It is a grocery retailer specializing in distributing and producing food through stores. The store offers a variety of products. However, the retail sector in the USA is vast. There are many players in the market vying for the same customer base.

Kroger – Founders and Team

Bernard Kroger founded Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Bernard Kroger (Founder)

Bernard Heinrich Kroger was born on January 24, 1860. Kroger was born to a German immigrant couple named Johan Heinrich and Mary Gertrude. He was the fifth child out of ten children born to the couple. At the age of 13, Kroger had to quit school and went to work in order to support his family.

He used to live in a modest store that his family was running. However, during the 1873 economic recession, the store closed. He had multiple job changes before starting to work as a salesman for Imperial Tea Company.

Kroger was made the manager of one of their outlets, and he quickly transformed it into a profit-making one. He has been credited with the introduction of self-service grocery outlets.

William Rodney McMullen (Present CEO)

William Rodney McMullen - Chairman and CEO of Kroger — William Rodney McMullen – Chairman and CEO of Kroger

William Rodney McMullen was born in 1961 and is the present Chairman and CEO of Kroger. He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in the field of accounting from the University of Kentucky. McMullen started his career as a part-time stock clerk in his local Kroger grocery store.

From there he worked as a financial analyst in the corporate headquarters in Charlotte. In 2009, McMullen was appointed as the vice chairman and COO of the company. However, for the CEO position, he ascended to the position on 1st January 2014. McMullen is also the non-executive director of Cincinnati Financial.

Kroger – Startup Story

In 1883, Bernard Kroger decided to set up his own store. He invested his entire savings of $372 in opening a store in Cincinnati. His product list included self-produced items that increased his credibility.

In 1884 he moved to open another store. Tasting success with this one, the company started expanding. In 1902 the Kroger Grocery and Baking Company was launched. Now the number of stores has increased, and the company is making sales of $1.75 million. Kroger then became the first retail store to have their own bakery.

Kroger – Mission and Vision

Kroger adopts a focussed approach to specific areas of retailing. Its vision statement is as follows:

“To be a leader in the distribution and merchandising of food, pharmacy, health, and personal care items, seasonal merchandise, and related products and services.”

Their mission statement is:

“We’re on a mission to end hunger in the communities we call home and eliminate waste across our company by 2025.”

Kroger – Name, Tagline, and Logo

Kroger has always encouraged healthy and fresh eating. Their tagline, therefore, resonates with the same:

“Fresh For Everyone”

Below is the logo for Kroger Corporation

Kroger Logo

Kroger adopts its signature colour, blue, to create attractive logos every now and then. The choice of blue is to signify the heritage of the brand being food savvy. It also portrays a feeling of trust and safety for the customers.

Kroger – Business Model

Kroger comes in the top 5 retail store chains operating in the USA. They have a unique methodology to get their customers onboard. Their business strategy has been to adopt a cost leadership approach. However, they do not offer low prices to get sales. Kroger reduces the operating costs so they can sell the merchandise at low prices yet make a profit.

The company gives a lot of importance to its customer’s opinions. It takes their feedback and creates products based on that information. They also use the data to stock the products needed, set affordable prices, and give them a fantastic shopping experience.

Kroger also uses the latest technologies to gain a competitive advantage over other players. For instance, in 2013, they started using a temperature monitoring system in their stores. This helped them in ensuring only fresh products for display in the store.

Kroger – Revenue Model

Kroger generates revenue from the sales of products stocked in its stores. As per their website, the revenue of Kroger for the last quarter was $146.48 Billion. They had an operating profit of $841 million. Their digital sales showed a jump of 10%. The company is doing reasonably well and will pay the quarterly dividend without any hitch.

Kroger – Employees

Kroger is committed to giving its employees a motivating work environment. The estimated number of employees working for Kroger is believed to be around 465,000 (2022). They offer the following benefits, so their employees work for them sincerely.

Some of the benefits include Dental and health insurance, Disability insurance, a Flexible spending account, a Health saving account, Vision benefits, team building events, retirement plans, paid parental leaves, and many other facilities.

Kroger – Challenges Faced

Kroger had to face many problems due to high supply chain costs and an increase in the prices of food items. The grocers were facing the impact of inflation. Whereas, it was difficult for Kroger to know when to increase the prices.
2017 was a challenging year for Kroger. The stock prices were not up to the mark because of the increasing costs.

At present, there are a lot of waste items in their warehouses. The company had no clue about how to use these items. Kroger started working on a robust distribution system to ship the items before they perish.

By knowing the customer’s requirements, the company would only make items that were in demand. This way, they cut down another aspect which could increase the waste inventory.

Kroger – Funding, and Investors

Kroger has made multiple investments with their most recent investment done on July 25, 2022. Other details are shared below in the table with the most recent investments done by Kroger.

Announced Date	Organization Name	Funding Round	Money Raised
Jul 25, 2022	Kitchen United	Series C – Kitchen United	$100M
Nov 2, 2021	Nuro	Series D – Nuro	$600M
Feb 2, 2021	Everytable	Grant – Everytable	$1M
Jan 1, 2006	I-Wireless	Venture Round – I-Wireless	—

With regards to investors, the lead investor for Kroger is Berkshire Hathaway. They have raised $550 million with Berkshire Hathaway

Kroger – Mergers and Acquisitions

Kroger has acquired a number of organizations on its path to success. there are around 12 acquisitions noted by Kroger. The most recent oneth are shared below.

Acquiree Name	Announced Date	Price
Albertsons Companies	Oct 14, 2022	$24.6B
Home Chef	May 23, 2018	$200M
Murray’s Cheese	Feb 8, 2017	—
ModernHEALTH	Jul 20, 2016	—
Roundy’s	Dec 18, 2015	—
Vitacost	Jul 2, 2014	$280M
YouTech	Feb 11, 2014	—
Harris Teeter	Jul 9, 2013	—
Kessel Food Markets	Dec 20, 1999	—
Fred Meyer	Oct 19, 1998	$13B

Kroger – Growth

In the third quarter of 2022, Kroger clocked $34.2 billion in sales. The company’s sales showed a rise of 6.4% from the last year. This excluded the sales of fuel. The digital sales for the company also rose by 10%, which was due to a 34% increase in online delivery sales.

At their outstanding performance, the CEO of Kroger, Rodney McMullen, said:
“Kroger achieved strong results in the third quarter as we continue to execute our Leading with Fresh and Accelerating with Digital strategy.”

Kroger – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns

Kroger actively posts its ads, thus garnering enough visibility for its brand. Its latest ad focuses on human relationships and the memories that holidays bring out. They want to remind the people of the love and warmth associated with the holiday season. Kroger’s ads are usually animated and the characters used are called Kroji.

Kroger – Awards and Achievements

Some awards that Kroger has received over the years are:

Kroger ranked #10 on Forbes Corporate responders Top Employers in Pandemic ranking.
Newsweek named Kroger as one of America’s responsible companies in 2021.
In 2021 Kroger was ranked number 4 in LinkedIn’s top companies of Cincinnati.
Computerworld mentioned Kroger as the best place to work in IT for the fourth time in a row.
Omnikal has listed Kroger among America’s top 50 companies offering Multicultural business opportunities.
WBENC recognized Kroger as being an excellent place for women to work.

Kroger – Competitors

Kroger is an established player in the retail sector. Its Competitors include some of the popular names like:

Amazon
Target
Rite aid
Costco
Walmart
Dollar General
Kmart
Safeway
Whole Foods Market

Kroger – Future Plans

In the coming years, Kroger will continue to focus on its in-house brands, i.e., Fresh and Our Brands. The company would also improve its digital service landscape. This would help the company to enter new areas irrespective of geographical boundaries.

Kroger would also work to achieve the Zero Hunger/Zero commitment they build their brand. The company aims to further its rising sales and get a total shareholder return of 8-11% over time.

Conclusion

Amazon is the world’s biggest e-commerce retail company and is acknowledged by all. Similarly, Kroger is also one of the biggest retail companies in the USA. It was started by Bernard Kroger in 1883.

The company now holds approximately 2849 stores across the country. The current CEO of the company is Rodney McMullen. Kroger is responsible for the introduction of many revolutionary products/services in the market.

FAQs

Are there Kroger stores in Florida?

Yes, Kroger owns a store in Florida. Even though the number of Kroger Stores is limited to one, it does have a store there.

Does Kroger own Winn Dixie?

No, Kroger does not own Winn Dixie. Winn Dixie was acquired by BI-LO in 2011, so it is not owned by Kroger.

What is the largest grocery chain store in Texas?

Some of the largest grocery chain stores in Texas as Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, Walmart, and Kroger.

Are Kroger stores there in all 50 states?

No, Kroger has not yet made its store available in all 50 states. The rough number of Kroger stores in states is around 42. That is Kroger is available in 42 states from 50.

January 7, 2023

Success Story of Plaid – How Is It Connecting the Financial World With One Tap?

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 Plaid.

The way in which people pay for their day-to-day purchases is changing drastically. We’re approaching a new era where using digital wallets for payment is the mainstream option. Account-based payments are at the heart of this change as more money moves online and more consumers use financial applications and services. Plaid acts as a middleman for your private bank account and the financial mobile apps you use.

In general, users are required to link their bank accounts to utilize the fintech platforms, enable the applications to evaluate financial statements and be able to deposit and withdraw money. The issue has historically been that each bank has a unique, complicated existing system that necessitates app developers to create unique links for every one of them, which may also lead to several security issues. By providing an intermediary connection layer, Plaid addresses this issue by providing a safer way for people to connect their financial accounts to an app.

Plaid – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Plaid
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, United States
Industry	Fintech
Founders	Zach Perret, William Hockey
Founded	2013
Total Funding Raised	$734.3 million
Valuation	$13.4 billion
Revenue	$300 million
Website	plaid.com

Plaid – About
Plaid – Industry
Plaid – Founders, and Team
Plaid – Startup Story
Plaid – Name, Logo, and Tagline
Plaid – Mission, and Vision Statement
Plaid – Products
Plaid – Business Model
Plaid – Funding, and Investors
Plaid – Investments
Plaid – Acquisitions
Plaid – Competitors
Plaid – Challenges Faced
Plaid – Future Plans

Plaid – About

In 2013, Zach Perret and William Hockey established the American financial services business Plaid. The main offering is a platform that lets customers link their bank accounts to different fintech firms. Customers may connect well-known financial technology apps to their conventional bank accounts using Plaid’s network service programming interface. The company’s platform accesses financial transactions and individual data from large numbers of financial companies, validating and validating it in real-time while enabling clients and companies to use financial technology apps to communicate with their bank accounts, inspect balances, and transfer money.

The Plaid technology platform provides the resources and access required to create a financial system with digital capabilities. Plaid thinks that its platform makes it simpler and safer for developers to create financial services and apps. In the beginning, Plaid offered an API to help developers link customers and financial institutions. Since then, they have used a variety of data analytics technologies in conjunction with their access to data to give further actionable insights.

How Plaid Works

Over 11,000 financial institutions in the US, Canada, and Europe are connected with Plaid. It’s simple to link your bank account to Plaid:

Step 1: You can choose your banking institution from a list when you sign up for an app supported by Plaid. Put in your username and password next.

Step 2: Plaid encrypts the information you’ve decided to share (such as your account balance) and securely sends it to the app you wish to use in a couple of seconds. Your username and password are never shared between the platform and the app.

Step 3: A safe, continuing connection between the app and your bank is being built by the firm in the background.

Plaid – Industry

With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7%, the worldwide financial services market increased from $23,319.52 billion in 2021 to $25,588.3 billion in 2022. At least temporarily, the Russia-Ukraine conflict hampered the possibilities of a COVID-19 pandemic-related global economic rebound. Economic sanctions on many nations, a rise in commodity prices, and disruptions in the supply chain as a result of the conflict between these two nations have all had an impact on several markets throughout the world. At a CAGR of 6.9%, the financial services industry is anticipated to reach $33,358.77 billion in 2026.

Plaid – Founders, and Team

Plaid was started in 2012 by Zachary Perret (CEO) and William Hockey in San Francisco, California.

Zachary Perret

As Plaid’s co-founder and CEO, Zachary Perret leads the company. He formerly had a consultant position at Bain. He attended Duke University to complete his undergraduate studies.

William Hockey

Plaid’s co-founder, William Hockey also cofounded a company named Column. He was formerly an Associate with Bain & Company. William Hockey attended Emory University for his bachelor’s degree.

Some other team members include :

Helen Min – Head of Marketing
Jean-Denis Greze – Chief Technology Officer
Pouya Fatemi – Head of Business Operations & Finance
Paul Williamson – Head of Sales
Eric Sager – COO
Luke Miner – Head of Data Science

Plaid – Startup Story

Zachary Perret and William Hockey, the founders, really got to know one another while interning at the titan of consulting, Bain & Associates. They clicked right away and started experimenting with other entrepreneurial concepts they may eventually pursue.

They first decided to create a platform for managing and recommending customer finances. Unfortunately, it turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated.

They had to create unique connections with each bank to connect to the financial accounts of the customers they planned to serve. Some of those possible banking partners were still utilizing technology from the 1950s, which complicated matters further (such as COBOL).

The couple saw right away the challenges even the most basic traditional banking system posed. Initially, the internet was not taken into consideration while designing banking; instead, branch-based consumer contact was emphasized. Today, the average user interacts with their bank accounts through more than 15 web applications. Consequently, the team realized that for people to realize the potential of their financial identities fully, the financial services industry needed to be revolutionized.

Plaid started as a consumer app company and invested around six months in creating card-linked financial management software. For instance, Plaid’s restaurant suggestion service used the user’s past spending information to suggest new restaurants. The items were made to persuade customers to cut back on their spending. Then they stopped and wondered if they needed an app that advised users to cut back on their spending. In no way. The company came to the same conclusion after working with a Venmo client. As a result, Plaid changed its direction and is now working to provide a genuinely straightforward and interoperable infrastructure for the financial sector.

Plaid was finally able to obtain its first round of investment as more and more clients were added. Spark Capital and several other investors invested $2.8 million in the business in September 2013.

With the additional funds, Plaid was able to relocate its corporate headquarters from New York to San Francisco, where it had access to a far larger number of software engineers and FinTech firms who were eager to work with it.

In the following three years, Plaid mainly avoided the spotlight and concentrated primarily on enhancing its service and gaining new customers. That changed when it revealed a massive $44 million round headed by Goldman Sachs in June 2016.

Plaid – Name, Logo, and Tagline

Plaid’s tagline says, “The safer way for people to connect financial accounts to an app”

Plaid – Mission, and Vision Statement

Plaid’s mission statement says,

“Plaid is focused on democratizing financial services through technology. We build beautiful consumer experiences, developer-friendly infrastructure, and intelligent tools that give everyone the ability to create amazing products that solve big problems.”

Plaid – Products

With Plaid’s collection of APIs, developers can create fantastic financial solutions with ease.

Assets – Asset and Account Owner Verification API for Underwriting
Auth – Instant bank account verification
Balance – Verify bank account balance
Identity – Verify users’ identities
Identity Verification – Global IDV to ensure KYC compliance
Income – Income and Employment Verification API
Investments – Retrieve liabilities and loan data
Monitor – Easy AML and PEP Compliance
Signal – ACH Risk Assessment and scoring API
Transactions – Access transaction data

Plaid – Business Model

With Plaid’s freemium business model, customers may utilize all of its services for free. With the free plan, potential customers may connect to 100 bank accounts and evaluate sample data in a sandbox environment.

For extra capability, there are two premium subscription plans available. Before we get into these alternatives, it is crucial to realize that the company’s pricing strategy is not meant to pressure a prospect into choosing from a menu of plans. Instead, the strategy permits a brand-new user to become acclimated to the free platform before upgrading to a personal account that is catered to their requirements.

In light of it, the following are the paid programs:

Launch: Users may authorize accounts, track transactions, and view account balances with Launch, a pay-as-you-go option. The price information is available upon request.
Scale: Prices for this more specialized service start at $500 per month and include bulk pricing, specialist premium support, and integration assistance. Customers who sign up for this package get full access to user data about their financial investments, obligations, and possessions. For example, this data may be employed to decide whether to approve or reject a loan application.
Costs per request: Plaid charges a certain amount for each request. The user must ensure that the receiving account has enough funds, to begin with if their financial app allows account transfers. To enable the transfer and generate revenue for the app company, Plaid will review the member’s account.

Following the consumer’s selection of a paid plan, the following costs could be assessed:

One-time fees: Fees are assessed for services that must be completed just once. For instance, a one-time fee must be paid each time a personal financial app accepts a user account and verifies their identity.
Membership dues: The same personal finance program would also like to know how its customers are spending their money. The company does this by utilizing Plaid’s real-time account balance monitoring tool. Because this is a frequent action, the expense is charged as a recurring subscription cost. Plaid gives volume discounts and assesses a per-connection, per-month fee for this service.

Plaid – Funding, and Investors

Date	Round	Amount	Lead Investors
Aug 25, 2021	Series D	–	–
Aug 17, 2021	Series D	–	JP Morgan Private Capital and AmEx
Apr 7, 2021	Series D	$425M	Altimeter Capital
Dec 11, 2018	Series C	$250M	Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins
Jun 19, 2016	Series B	$44M	Goldman Sachs Investment Partners
Nov 15, 2014	Series A	$12.5M	New Enterprise Associates, Spark Capital
Sep 19, 2013	Seed Round	$2.8M	Spark Capital

Plaid – Investments

Date	Organization Name	Round	Amount
Jun 8, 2022	Codat	Series C	$100M
May 4, 2022	Sensible Weather	Series A	$12M

Plaid – Acquisitions

Acquiree Name	About Acquiree	Date	Amount
Cognito	Cognito develops an identity verification and compliance platform for businesses.	Jan 20, 2022	$250M
Flannel	Flannel renders brand marketing, corporate identity, graphic design, communication, application development and web services.	Jun 15, 2021	–
Quovo	Quovo provides account aggregation and data analytics technology for finance.	Jan 8, 2019	–

Plaid – Competitors

The top competitors of Plaid are :

Codat
Stripe Connect
MX
Lightico
Envestnet Yodlee
Flinks
IntSig OCR Solutions
TrueLayer

Plaid – Challenges Faced

Zach Perret, the company’s founder, claims that paper is their greatest opponent and that digitizing data is their biggest challenge. The first line of defense is the availability of precise and understandable data. Analytics and other value-added services will now be the focal point of the conflict. As a result, Plaid gave data engineers priority before giving data scientists any thought.

If there is anything, it is stated that security will be the entity that keeps Plaid’s employees up at night. Data security and privacy are essential since they are in charge of millions of people’s financial information. In order to accomplish this, Plaid incorporates a tiny infrastructure element into each application, which collects user credentials and tokenizes them on the user’s device. By sending this tokenized data via its system, it then makes sure that the original data is not made public. You can never stop thinking excessively about security, according to the designer.

Plaid – Future Plans

Plaid set a target last year to dedicate 75% of our traffic to APIs by the end of 2021. One of the company’s major aims is to provide fair, dependable, and secure API-based data sharing as the sector accelerates its transition to a completely digital financial system.

The recent partnerships between Plaid and other companies show the industry’s commitment to building a better ecosystem that allows users more control and choice over where and how their information is shared across digital tools. With projects like Plaid Portal, a tool (now in beta) that allows users to examine and manage their account connections, helping to guarantee that they retain control over where their data is shared, innovation will continue in this area.

In significant ways, Plaid is assisting the industry in meeting this historically high level of consumer demand for digital banking. First, Plaid can integrate to provide more dependable data connectivity on behalf of the company’s shared customers and the developers constructing its network for banks with the capacity to implement an API-based data interchange. The sector must continue to adopt cutting-edge digital solutions that provide customers easy access to their financial information so they may better manage their daily lives as the globe gets closer to an open finance future.

FAQs

Who is the CEO of Plaid?

Zach Perret is CEO of Plaid.

Where is the Headquarters of Plaid?

The headquarters of Plaid is in San Francisco, California.

How much funding has Plaid raised?

Plaid has raised a total of $734.3M.

Is Plaid a Unicorn?

Yes. Plaid is currently valued at $13.4 Billion.

January 6, 2023

Verizon Communications – Bringing the World Closer

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

It was just a decade or two back when everything was done manually. Even communicating with somebody was a tedious process. However, technology boomed, and very soon, email, mobile phones, and the internet transformed the scene.

Talking to someone far off is now a matter of seconds. The communication industry started thriving, and that meant new and better players were entering the arena. Verizon Communications is one of the older communication giants that exploited this change in the scenario.

The company tasted success as it innovated with the changing times. Here we will tell you more about Verizon communications journey and the efforts it made.

Verizon Communications – Company Highlights

Company Name	Verizon Communications
Founded	1983
Key People	Charles R Chuck Lee and Ivan Seidenberg
Headquarters	Manhattan, New York City
Revenue	$135.651 billion (2022)
Area Served	Worldwide
Industry	Telecommunications, Mass Media
Website	www.verizon.com

Verizon Communications – About

Verizon Communications is a telecommunications company having its headquarters in Manhattan, New York. It was founded as Bell Atlantic when the Bell group of companies was divided into seven separate units. At that time, the company was headquartered in Philadelphia.

At present, Verizon’s mobile network coverage is the largest in the USA. It has around 120.9 million subscribers. The company also sponsors many sports events like National Hockey League, National Football League, Motorsports, USA team handball, etc.

Verizon Communications – Industry

Verizon Communications is one of the top players in the telecommunications industry. With the entry of 5G networks, the industry is literally booming. The global telecommunication market was valued at $1.74 billion in 2021. It is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.4% through 2020-2027, reaching nearly $2.66 billion.

In the future, the industry will be governed by increased mergers and acquisitions. Even during the recession, the telecommunications industry did not lose revenue. That implies the sectors’ growth will remain stable no matter what happens.

With other markets like China and India entering the fray, the industry is upping its standards. Hardware producers are creating better products and keeping up with the demand in the market.

Verizon Communications – Founders and Team

Verizon was formed after the merging of Bell Atlantic and GTE on 27th July 1998. The Verizon brand was launched in April 2000, and the company Verizon communications started its operations in mid-2000. At that time, Charles R Chuck Lee and Ivan Seidenberg assumed co-CEO positions for the company.

Charles R Chuck Lee

Charles Lee grew up on a farm in Wexford and obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical training from Cornell University. After doing his MBA from Harvard University, he went back to Pittsburgh. After working at Columbia Pictures Industries Inc and Coca-Cola Co, he joined GTE in 1983.

He was elected the president and director of the company in 1988 and became the CEO in 1992. When Verizon Communications was formed in 2000, Charles Lee assumed the Co- CEO position.

Ivan Seidenberg

Ivan Seidenberg’s telecommunications career started with New York Telephone as a mere splicer. Moving on, he was considered for the co-CEO post for Verizon communications limited in 2000. He was then appointed the CEO and then the chairman of the company.

Seidenberg retired in 2011 though he still continued to serve as chairman and part of the board of directors for the company.

Verizon Communications – Startup Story

GTE, in 1984, was one of the leading telecommunications companies in the market. In 1984 AT & T created seven regional holding companies. Bell corporation was created out of one of these companies.

In 1996 it was announced that Bell Atlantic and NYNEX would merge. This would make the company the second-largest telecommunications brand. The merger was completed in 1997, and Bell Atlantic expanded itself globally.

On the other hand, GTE corporation merged with Contel corporation keeping its name intact. After NYNEX, Bell Atlantic merged with GTE, and this led to the formation of Verizon Communications.

Verizon Communications – Mission and Vision

Verizon Communications’ vision statement is as mentioned below:

“To inspire tomorrow’s creators to use technology to build brighter futures for themselves, their families, and the world.”

Their mission statement is known as Verizon Promise and is as follows:

“We deliver the promise of the digital world to our customers. We make their innovative lifestyles possible. We do it all through the most reliable network and the latest technology.”

Verizon Communications – Name, Tagline, and Logo

Verizon Communications’ tagline is catchy and created with a desire to be unique:

Can You Hear Me Now? Good.

Verizon Previous Logo

The Verizon logo was created in 2000. Prior to that, the versions featured the original company’s name. For the logo, the agency created a wordmark showing the new company’s name. On top of that was a big red mark like a check.

The Z of Verizon was zoomed and larger than others. Only z and the checkmark were created with red color. The rest of the alphabet was in black color.

Verizon Recent Logo

Post-2015, a new logo was created where the checkmark was reduced in size. Only the check mark was red, while the other alphabets were black. The gradient was also removed in the new logo.

Verizon Communications – Business Model

Initially, the company faced some problems. A majority of its profitability comes from the US market. However, it also operates in almost 40 other countries with around 200 call centers. The company operates in three segments.

Wireless

This includes wireless voice, data services, and equipment sales. The revenue in this segment comes from both postpaid and prepaid connections. Some services that the company provides in this segment are Mobile wi-fi, 5G, USB modems, etc.

Wireline

This segment comprises voice, data, video communication and services, and broadband data services.

Corporate and other segments

Under this segment come Verizon’s telematic business, Verizon Connect, and other small businesses.

Verizon Communications – Revenue Model

Verizon’s revenue for the third quarter of 2022 was $34.241 Billion. This was a 4.03% increase since last year. Its overall revenue for the year 2022 was $135.651 billion. Again, this figure showed a hike of 1.05%.

Verizon Communications – Employees

Verizon Communications considers its employees in very high regard. That is why taking care of their health and well-being remains an essential factor. Here are some benefits that the company provides:

Dental and health insurance
Disability insurance
Employee assistance program
Resilience toolbox to help their employees
Free flu shots and health screenings for health issues
Mammography screenings at the office
One -on one coaching sessions with health experts
Charity and community events
Corporate events
My health vault app for employees to know their health parameters regularly

Verizon Communications – Challenges Faced

Inflation and consumer pressures create a challenging situation for Verizon Communications. Consumers easily switch from one carrier to another if they get a chance. Verizon has had to work to retain its existing base, so the number of switchers is less.

The company faces threats from its competitors like AT&T and T-Mobile. These companies are in a constant tussle, and Verizon must offer a unique idea to gain a strong foothold.

Lastly, the company faced issues of data leakage in 2017 due to a misconfigured cloud server and did not want another similar situation to arise. During the outage, the company lost the trust of its customers, and another setback could be damaging.

Verizon Communications – Funding and Investors

Details of Verizon Communications’ Funding and investments are as mentioned below in different tables.

Fundings

Announced Date	Transaction Name	Number of Investors	Money Raised
Sep 16, 2022	Grant – Verizon	1	$11.5M
Jul 11, 2022	Grant – Verizon	1	$78K
Mar 18, 2022	Grant – Verizon	1	$11.8M
Feb 28, 2014	Post-IPO Equity – Verizon	—	$21.3B
Mar 1, 2013	Post-IPO Equity – Verizon	—	$3.8B
Mar 5, 2012	Post-IPO Equity – Verizon	—	$3.8B
Mar 4, 2010	Post-IPO Equity – Verizon	—	$1B
Jan 26, 2010	Post-IPO Debt – Verizon	1	$150M
Jan 20, 2004	Grant – Verizon	1	$170.4K
Jan 29, 2002	Grant – Verizon	1	$141.1K

Investments

Announced Date	Organization Name	Funding Round	Money Raised
Apr 18, 2022	Casa Systems	Post-IPO Equity – Casa Systems	$40M
Feb 3, 2022	Imanyco	Grant – Imanyco	$50K
Mar 1, 2021	Parrots	Funding Round – Parrots	—
Jan 29, 2020	Lexset	Grant – Lexset	$250K
Jan 24, 2020	Byte Back	Grant – Byte Back	$100K
Sep 20, 2019	Juncture Media	Seed Round – Juncture Media	$400K
Sep 20, 2019	Colorfiction	Grant – Colorfiction	$400K
May 1, 2017	Renovo Auto	Venture Round – Renovo Auto	$10M
Dec 8, 2015	Bounce Imaging	Grant – Bounce Imaging	$1M
Mar 10, 2015	Pursuit	Grant – Pursuit	$1.8M

The lead investors for Verizon Communications are Connect Maryland, the American Rescue Plan, and the US Department of Defence.

Verizon Communications – Mergers and Acquisitions

The mergers and acquisitions that Verizon Communications has gone through are roughly 33 in the count. Some of the most recent acquisitions are dated below:

Acquiree Name	Announced Date	Price
Senion	Jun 21, 2021	—
Incubed IT	Feb 16, 2021	—
Bluegrass Cellular	Oct 19, 2020	—
TracFone Wireless	Sep 12, 2020	$6.9B
BlueJeans Network	Apr 16, 2020	—
Jaunt	Sep 30, 2019	—
ProtectWise	Mar 1, 2019	—
Vidder	Nov 16, 2018	—
Moment	Apr 19, 2018	—
Niddel	Jan 5, 2018	—

Verizon Communications – Growth

Though the telecommunications industry had slow growth, Verizon Communications maintained the pace. In the third quarter of 2022, it grew by 1.4%. This was when the communications industry was down by -8.74%.

The sales for the company in the third quarter were high by 1.34%. This is in comparison to their second quarterly sales. Annual sales growth for Verizon Communications remained at 0.74%, and the average yearly sales growth for the past five years is 11.93%.

Verizon Communications – Advertisements and Social Media Campaigns

Verizon Communications devotes a considerable spend of its marketing budget to advertising. Their latest commercial features Paul Giamatti and Cecily Strong and focuses on holiday cheer.

It showcases the Uncle Scrooge story, where Giamatti plays the lead character. He is unable to find the network, but Cecily appears and asks him to switch to Verizon. The ad emphasizes their free 5G smartphone offer. Watch the commercial here:

Verizon Communications – Awards and Achievements

A few awards that Verizon Communications has received over the years are:

For the 16th time, Verizon won the best network award decided by RootMetrics
Last year Verizon was in the top 100 companies considered best for employees
The HACR Corporate Inclusion Index rated them a five star
Verizon Communications was at rank 12 in the JUST Capital 2022 Workforce Equity and Mobility Ranking
RootMetrics also judged Verizon’s 5G network as the best for the third time.

Verizon Communications – Competitors

Verizon is a strong player in the communications industry. Its competitors are:

AT & T
T Mobile
Aeris
Kore Wireless
Vodafone
Sierra Wireless
Cisco
Telit
Rogers
ORBCOMM
Itron

Verizon Communications – Future Plans

The future of the communications industry is 5G, and that is what Verizon is focussing on. Verizon expects to achieve 1 Gbit speeds by 2024. For this purpose, they would be spending $10 billion per year.

Apart from that, the company hopes to cover 50 million households with their fixed wireless internet by the end of this time period. This would, in turn, generate more than $1 billion in revenue.

Conclusion

Verizon Communications is a big telecommunication company in the US also known to provide its services worldwide. The firm was started by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE company in 1989.

However, the name Verizon was introduced in 2000. The company is headquartered in New York City and has good competition from AT&T, Aeris, Vodafone, etc.

FAQs

Who is the current CEO of Verizon Communications?

The current CEO of Verizon Communications is Hans Vestberg. He took over this position on 1st Aug 2018.

Who currently owns Verizon?

Verizon is currently owned by Verizon Communications Inc.

Did Verizon and AT&T merge together?

Not exactly, AT&T acquired a license from Verizon Wireless and some of its part. Apart from that, both firms are independent of each other.

Is Verizon changing its name?

The name Verizon was appointed after the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE firm. The merged company was renamed Verizon in 2000.

January 6, 2023