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  • Success Story of Rolls-Royce: Innovating Prudent Ways to Power the World

    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 Rolls-Royce.

    Rolls-Royce is a name that has always gone with luxury. In fact, Rolls-Royce can be used as a term to define luxury. Rolls-Royce refers to Cars, this is what we’ve known so far. But they are more than what we know.

    Rolls-Royce is an engineering company that manufactures Aero-engines and power systems for civil, defence and various other industries. It aims at creating power systems for the future that prove to be the safest and cleanest. On the other hand, Rolls-Royce cars are manufactured independently by the company called Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, which is now a subsidiary of BMW.

    The company has more than a century-long history dating back to 1904. Started as a car manufacturer, then was forced into the defence industry during the world war for making aero-engines, facing a financial collapse in the 1970s thus resulting in government take-over, various mergers, demergers and acquisitions which led them through a lot of ups and downs. Their journey is nothing short of excitement.

    Rolls-Royce – Company Highlights

    Company Name Rolls-Royce
    Headquarters London, England, United Kingdom
    Industry Airspace, Defense, Automotive
    Founders Charles Rolls, Henry Royce
    Founded 1904 (Partnership), 1906 (Company)
    CEO Warren East (Rolls-Royce), Torsten MĂŒller-Ötvös (Rolls-Royce Motor Cars)
    Parent Organisation Rolls-Royce Holdings plc (Rolls-Royce), BMW (Rolls-Royce Motor Cars)
    Website rolls-royce.com

    Rolls-Royce – About
    Rolls-Royce – Latest News
    Rolls-Royce – Founders and Team
    Rolls-Royce – Startup Story
    Rolls-Royce – Mission and Vision
    Rolls-Royce – Name and Logo
    Rolls-Royce – Business and Revenue Model
    Rolls-Royce – Challenges Faced
    Rolls-Royce – Funding and Investors
    Rolls-Royce – Mergers and Acquisitions
    Rolls-Royce – Growth
    Rolls-Royce – Competitors
    Rolls-Royce – Future Plans
    Rolls-Royce – FAQs

    Rolls-Royce Success Story

    Rolls-Royce – About

    Rolls-Royce formally referred to as Rolls-Royce plc, is a company involved in manufacturing propulsion engines for civil and defence services and power systems for oil/gas and other marine industries. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce initially established the company for making cars. But during the First World War in 1914, the government forced them to manufacture Aero-engines for military activities.

    They kept manufacturing cars between 1906 and 1973 but concentrated more on expanding their aerospace sector. Rolls-Royce builds engines for civil and defence aircraft, power systems for land and naval military vehicles including submarines. They also provide power solutions to the oil/gas industry and marine activities. In simple terms, Rolls-Royce is into innovating advanced solutions for meeting our planet’s power needs. Rolls-Royce is technically a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce Holdings plc since 2011.

    Since 1973, after its demerger from the core company, the Rolls-Royce automotive sector went through a number of changes in ownership. Currently, Rolls-Royce cars are manufactured exclusively by the company Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, which is a subsidiary of BMW.

    Rolls-Royce – Latest News

    November 8, 2021 – The United Kingdom Space Agency has joined hands with Rolls-Royce to explore the use of nuclear power in space travel. This may help them cut the space journey time and cost.

    May 28, 2021 – Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has launched a new luxury model ‘Boat Tail’ priced around $28 million. It allows you to customize not only the interiors but also the body shape of the car.

    Rolls-Royce – Founders and Team

    Rolls-Royce Founder - Charles Rolls
    Rolls-Royce Founder – Charles Rolls

    Charles Stewart Rolls and Sir Frederick Henry Royce are the co-founders of Rolls-Royce. Charles Rolls (1877 – 1910) was a motoring and aviation pioneer who graduated from Cambridge in 1898. Henry Royce (1863 – 1933) was a popular design engineer for car and aeroplane engines.

    Henry Royce - Rolls-Royce Founder
    Henry Royce – Rolls-Royce Founder

    In 1904, they both co-founded Rolls-Royce along with Claude Goodman Johnson, who was the founding Managing Director of the company after its incorporation in 1906. Their passion for cars and engineering expertise fuelled the company’s growth all through the years.

    Rolls-Royce – Startup Story

    The seed for Rolls-Royce was planted in 1884 when Henry Royce started a mechanical and electrical business in Manchester. In the beginning, he was making dynamos and cranes. Later, he acknowledged the market potential of the car industry in the future and started working on it.

    On the other hand, Charles Rolls graduated from Cambridge and got himself employed in various companies. But he was keen on marketing and motoring, thus started importing and selling cars.

    In 1904, Royce was designing and manufacturing a car of his own and that is when Rolls happened to meet him at an Automobile Club. He was impressed by Royce’s design and agreed to sell all the cars that Royce would make. Thus on 23rd December 1904, at the Paris Motor Show, the brand Rolls-Royce was introduced by displaying their first car Rolls-Royce 10 hp.

    It was initially started as a partnership in 1904. Then in 1906, Rolls-Royce was converted into a Private Limited Company and was further transformed into a Public Listed Company the subsequent year. After the death of Charles Rolls in 1910, Henry Royce and Claude Johnson took the company forward. They kept introducing new car models and by 1914, Rolls-Royce started manufacturing civil and defence aircraft engines too and made it a huge success.

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    Rolls-Royce – Mission and Vision

    Rolls-Royce’s mission is to provide “Better Power for a Changing World”. They aim at improving their standards and performances to provide competitive and clean energy for the future. Rolls-Royce also marches with a vision of Net Zero Carbon in all their endeavours to meet the present and future power needs, while also protecting our society.

    Rolls-Royce Logo
    Rolls-Royce Logo

    The brand name Rolls-Royce was derived after the founders Charles Rolls and Henry Royce. The company’s name is always used with a hyphen in between, which emphasizes the friendly association between founders.

    The logo of Rolls-Royce plc comes in the blue background where two ‘R’s are embedded closely to each other in the middle with Rolls on the top and Royce below. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd has a similar logo with a white background.

    Rolls-Royce’s “Spirit of Ecstacy” emblem is highly admired by many. It resembles a woman leaning forward, with her hands stretched back. Her clothes billow from the back of her neck to her hands which look like wings. The Spirit of Ecstasy, also known as Eleanor or Flying Lady, was designed by Charles Robinson Sykes.

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    Rolls-Royce – Business and Revenue Model

    Rolls-Royce’s business model focuses on reducing the costs of its power systems. This helps them utilize funds to invent and innovate techniques that help them move closer to achieving their mission and vision. They generate revenue by selling engines and other power systems to various industries. Also, a part of the income flows through service contracts from airlines for maintaining the aircraft engines.

    Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd sells premium luxury cars with high standard and customized features to its customers. Their cars are priced ranging from â‚č5 crores to â‚č10 crores with Rolls-Royce Phantom topping the price table. Rolls-Royce recently introduced a model named ‘Boat Tail’ for its highly exclusive customers, which is priced at a whopping â‚č202 crores.

    Rolls-Royce – Challenges Faced

    In 1971, Rolls-Royce declared Bankruptcy due to the losses suffered by mismanagement. Their fixed-price contract for manufacturing airlines engines with Lockheed Aircraft Corporation became the reason for their fall. This long-term contract made their losses unbearable. Rolls-Royce’s fall impacted various other industries, and as a result, the government stepped over the issue and nationalized the company. The government’s hold continued till 1987, after which it was again converted into a Private Limited Company.

    The next big challenge faced by Rolls-Royce was during the Covid-19 pandemic. The reason stated was, 50% of their revenue comes from aerospace activities which were completely halted due to the crisis. The company reported a loss of around ÂŁ4 Billion in 2020 which was the biggest loss reported in Rolls-Royce’s history.

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    Rolls-Royce – Funding and Investors

    Rolls-Royce has so far raised around $266 Million in 2 rounds. Their latest funding was through the Post-IPO Equity round for developing Small Modular Reactors (SMR).

    Date Round Amount Investor Name
    November 9, 2021 Post-IPO Equity ÂŁ195 Million BNF Resources, Exelon Generation Company
    January 21, 2021 Convertible Note $1 Million United States Navy

    Rolls-Royce – Mergers and Acquisitions

    Rolls-Royce Motors demerged from Rolls-Royce (1971) Ltd., in 1973. It operated independently of its parent company along with Bentley Motors until 1980, when Vickers plc acquired this car business. Later in 1998, the Rolls-Royce motors were sold to Volkswagen Group by Vickers but the rights for using the name “Rolls-Royce” and the logo were purchased by BMW for £40 Million. From 2003, BMW got the sole right to name, manufacture and sell Rolls-Royce cars.

    Roll-Royce plc was brought under Rolls-Royce Holdings plc as a subsidiary after the latter was incorporated in 2011. But all the major and principal operations are carried out by Rolls-Royce plc. The following are some of the top acquisitions and subsidiaries of Rolls-Royce Holdings plc:

    Name of the Company Year of Acquisition/Incorporation
    January 14, 2020 QINOUS
    March 30, 2015 R.O.V. Technologies
    2014 Rolls-Royce Controls and Data Services
    2014 Rolls-Royce Power Systems
    July 2, 2013 SmartMotor
    May 1, 2013 Hyper-Therm High-Temperature Composites
    January 8, 2013 PKMJ Technical Services
    May 23, 2011 Rolls- Royce plc
    September 2, 2011 R. Brooks Associates
    January 28, 2010 Europea Microfusioni Aerospaziali
    January 6, 2010 ODIM
    July 8, 2008 Scandinavian Electric Holding
    1995 Rolls-Royce North America (earlier Allison Engine Company)
    1998 Rolls-Royce AB (as a part of Vickers acquisition)
    1999 Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations
    1998 Vinters Limited (as a part of Vickers acquisition)

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    Rolls-Royce – Growth

    Since the car division was demerged in 1973 and later acquired by BMW, it has seen significant growth in its sales over the years. They’ve even made a record sale in their history by selling more than 5000 cars in 2019. Here is the growth record of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars since 2007, according to Statista:

    Year Sales in Units
    2007 1010
    2008 1212
    2009 1002
    2010 2711
    2011 3538
    2012 3575
    2013 3630
    2014 4063
    2015 3785
    2016 4037
    2017 3438
    2018 4194
    2019 5100
    2020 3756

    On the other hand, Rolls-Royce plc maintained their revenue with little ups and downs from 2016-19 but faced a pitfall of 28% due to pandemic in 2020. Here is their revenue chart for the past five years:

    Year Revenue
    2016 ÂŁ14.96 Billion
    2017 ÂŁ14.75 Billion
    2018 ÂŁ15.73 Billion
    2019 ÂŁ16.59 Billion
    2020 ÂŁ11.82 Billion

    Rolls-Royce – Competitors

    Though Rolls-Royce Holdings plc has a powerful brand identity, they have tough competitors in the market. Here is a couple of them:

    General Electric – General Electric along with its partners leads the aero-engine market occupying 55% of the market share and holds the 1st position. GE is also involved in various high-tech industrial activities like power systems, aviation, renewable energy, and the digital industry.

    Pratt & Whitney – Pratt & Whitney is another major competitor for Rolls-Royce in the aero-engine market. They also compete with Rolls-Royce in the manufacture of power turbines for marine and other industrial services.

    When it comes to cars, Some of the top competitors for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. are:

    Rolls-Royce – Future Plans

    Rolls-Royce invests huge money in inventing technologies for efficiently meeting our world’s power needs. Their innovations are awe-inspiring which reduces cost for the customers as well as protects our environment.

    Electic Planes – Rolls-Royce aims at electrifying the aviation sector. Their first all-electric plane made its maiden flight on 18th September 2021. This aircraft is further being enhanced to achieve a speed of 300 mph. In the view of combating climate change, Rolls-Royce is into developing zero-emission aircraft for the future.

    Small Modular Reactors (SMR) – Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd was created to build power plants that generate electricity using SMR to meet the future power needs of the UK. This technology is expected to be available by 2030.

    Space Exploration – Rolls-Royce is innovating nuclear technologies to develop power systems for space launch. Net Zero Carbon – Rolls-Royce put forth Net Zero Carbon as their major goal in all their present and futuristic development. They target to bring the carbon level to zero in  their operations by 2030.

    Rolls-Royce – FAQs

    What does Rolls-Royce do?

    Rolls-Royce is an engineering company that manufactures Aero-engines and power systems for civil, defence, and various other industries.

    Is Rolls-Royce owned by BMW?

    Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd alone is owned by BMW since 2003. It is a separate entity from that of Rolls-Royce plc which is involved in the manufacture of aero-engines and power systems.

    Who are the founders of Rolls-Royce?

    Charles Rolls and Henry Royce started Rolls-Royce in 1904 as a partnership and incorporated as a Private Ltd Company in 1906.

    Which is the costliest Rolls-Royce car?

    The company’s latest introduction of ‘Boat Tail’ is the costliest Rolls-Royce model. Its price is estimated at around â‚č202 crores and is made only for a few exclusive customers.

    Who are the top Rolls-Royce competitors?

    Some of the top competitors for Rolls-Royce are:

    • Williams International
    • GE Aviation
    • Safran Aircraft Engines
    • Honeywell
    • General Electric
    • Pratt & Whitney

  • Udacity – Training The World’s Workforce

    Due to the convergence of technological innovations, global use of the Internet, and the increasing need for a population trained regularly for the ever-evolving digital economy, online education in its different forms has been gradually rising globally. By 2025, online schooling is expected to become commonplace.

    Sebastian Thrun, David Stevens, and Mike Sokolsky created Udacity, Inc., an American for-profit educational business that offers massive open online courses. Udacity is an international, online, life-long learning network that connects education and employment opportunities. The company is on a mission to train the world’s workforce in the careers of the future.

    Udacity – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Udacity
    Headquarters Emeryville, California
    Industry Online Education, EdTech
    Founders Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens, and Mike Sokolsky
    Founded June 2011
    User base 1.6 Million
    Areas Served Worldwide
    Current CEO Gabriel Dalporto
    Website www.udacity.com

    About Udacity
    Udacity – Latest News
    Udacity – Industry
    Udacity – Name, Logo, and Tagline
    Udacity – Founders
    Udacity – Startup Story
    Udacity – Mission and Vision Statement
    Udacity – Partnerships
    Udacity – Spin-Off Company
    Udacity – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Udacity – Employees
    Udacity – Funding, and Investors
    Udacity – Acquisitions
    Udacity – Growth
    Udacity – Competitors
    Udacity – Challenges Faced
    Udacity – Future Plans
    Udacity – FAQs

    About Udacity

    Udacity is an international, online, life-long learning network that connects education and employment opportunities. Udacity provides online courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, data science, autonomous systems, and cloud computing, among other fields.

    Udacity collaborates with technology firms to study how technology is altering businesses and teaches the essential skills that employers need in their employees, allowing learners to prepare for the most in-demand tech positions.

    Nanodegrees offered by Udacity have gained much popularity and many consider these nano degrees to be more effective than the regular college degrees. Front-end and senior web developer, full-stack web developer, data analyst, machine learning engineer, iOS and Android developer, programming introduction, tech entrepreneur, iOS app development beginning, Ruby beginning, and 2D mobile game developer courses are among the nano degree programs available.

    Udacity – Latest News

    As of September 2021, Udacity conducted a renowned virtual conference enabling women to thrive in STEM (Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics). Despite global discussions and initiatives to address the gender imbalance in STEM disciplines, women continue to be underrepresented, undervalued, and frequently discriminated against. Udacity’s virtual conference ‘STEM Forward with Women’ seeks to create a forum for women to interact with female industry leaders while also providing them with the chance to gain in-demand technical knowledge.

    “Changing the face of technology, especially during unprecedented times, is no easy task. STEM Forward with Women is the pep-talk all women need to take the leap forward and pursue a career that they deserve in the field of technology and computer science,” stated Kimberly Bryant, CEO and Founder, Black Girls CODE.

    Udacity – Industry

    Over the last decade, online learning has grown significantly as the internet and education have merged to give individuals the possibility to learn new skills. Online learning has grown increasingly important in people’s lives after the COVID-19 epidemic. The epidemic has pushed schools, colleges, and businesses to operate remotely, which has resulted in an increase in the use of online learning. Even before the pandemic, Research and Markets predicted that the online education industry will be worth $350 billion by 2025, thus the figures may be revised after assessing the effects of COVID-19 on the sector’s growth.

    All of these online learning businesses have a large quantity of user data, allowing them to employ machine learning algorithms to improve people’s learning habits. Pattern recognition is used by machine learning algorithms to customize material for each individual. When a student struggles with a subject during the course, for example, the platform can alter the e-learning content to give more comprehensive information to assist the learner.

    Udacity – Name, Logo, and Tagline

    Company Logo of Udacity
    Company Logo of Udacity

    Sebastian Thrun, the company’s founder, claims that the term Udacity stems from the company’s ambition to be “audacious for you, the learner.” It used to focus on university-style courses, but today it mostly offers vocational training for professionals.

    Udacity’s slogan says, “Be in demand!”

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    Udacity – Founders

    Udacity was founded by David Stevens, Mike Sokolsky, and Sebastian Thrun in 2011.

    David Stevens

    From June 2011 to May 2012, David served as CEO of Udacity, then from April 2013 to April 2014, he served as President. As CEO, he grew the company to 30 people, registered the first 250,000 students from 195 countries, and introduced the first 12 programs, the first MOOC employment program, and the first MOOC certified tests in collaboration with Pearson VUE. He obtained a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford under the guidance of Sebastian Thrun. While at Stanford, David was one of the co-creators of Stanley an autonomous car that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. The Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC currently has Stanley on exhibit.

    Sebastian Thrun

    Sebastian Thrun is a researcher, educator, inventor, and businessman. Sebastian is the founder and CEO of Kitty Hawk, a company whose mission is to relieve people from traffic congestion. He is also the creator, chairman, and president of Udacity, an educational platform with the purpose to democratise education.

    Sebastian founded X (formerly Google X), where he oversaw the creation of the self-driving vehicle, Google Glass, and other initiatives. He was a professor at Stanford University for several years, where he led the Stanford Racing Team, which won the DARPA Grand Challenge with its vehicle “Stanley.”

    Founder of Udacity - Sebastian Thrun
    Founder of Udacity – Sebastian Thrun

    Mike Sokolsky

    Mike believes that technology should improve rather than complicate life. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University and worked in robotics at Stanford University and the University of Alberta. His background includes autonomous cars, medical robotics, reinforcement learning, and robotic soccer. In 2011, he co-founded Udacity.

    Udacity – Startup Story

    Sebastian Thrun had a dream career for most academics throughout the world. The Artificial Intelligence specialist was a tenured professor at Stanford University, where he’d spent almost a decade leading student attempts to create self-driving cars and acting as the head of the university’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. Thrun also created Google[x], the tech giant’s well-known R&D branch focusing on driverless vehicles, balloon-powered internet networks, and other “moonshots” in his leisure time.

    But the entrepreneur and thinker had bigger ideas. Thrun announced his departure from Stanford in 2012 to launch Udacity, an online education company aimed at delivering high-quality tech education to the people.

    Salman Khan and his Khan Academy, one of the early entrants into the field, introduced Thrun to the notion of MOOCs. Thrun and co-professor Peter Norvig opened up their next computer science course at Stanford to a global audience as an experiment in 2011. Soon after, other roboticists David Stevens and Mike Sokolsky joined engaged, and the inaugural course had more than 100,000 students enrolled by the time it started. Udacity was up and operating in no time, with Stevens as the company’s first CEO and Sokolsky as the CTO.

    Udacity – Mission and Vision Statement

    Udacity’s mission statement says, “Udacity’s mission is to train the world’s workforce in the careers of the future.”

    Modern technology influences every industry. Companies all around the world are eager to employ people with the right tech skills to help them adapt and improve their operations. Through their strong and adaptable digital education platform, Udacity collaborates with the world’s leading technology companies to teach these vital tech skills. Udacity has made it possible for even the busiest students to prepare for the most in-demand tech jobs.

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    Udacity – Partnerships

    Udacity’s top hiring partners include Google, Amazon Alexa, Auro, Bosch, CrowdAI, Dataspeed, HARMAN, Intel, Lucid VR, Mobvoi, Nod, Samsung, Slack, TelefĂłnica Germany, Upload, etc.

    Udacity – Spin-Off Company

    In April 2017, Udacity announced the launch of Voyage Auto, a self-driving vehicle taxi firm that would compete with ride-hailing services like Uber. The business has been testing its concept on low-speed private roads in a retirement community in San Jose, California, using production consumer automobiles. Voyage established a ride-hailing collaboration with The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, in 2018. Voyage was purchased by Cruise in March 2021.

    Udacity – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Udacity is a freemium EdTech platform that offers massive open online courses (MOOCs) (courses open to anyone for enrolment). Udacity collaborates with businesses and institutions to provide nanodegrees (short-term online education programs focused on specialized skills in computer science). The user can choose to pay a one-time or recurring charge to access one or all of the courses. The courses are available to private individuals, businesses too can buy these courses for their employees. The cost of the consumer courses varies from $718 to $1436.

    Udacity courses are delivered in a nanodegree format by the firm. Nanodegrees are made up of a series of lectures and homework assignments that culminate in a capstone project.

    In the past, Udacity’s payment models have been prone to change. The most recent modifications are in line with their new approach of providing high-quality educational content, which includes professional mentors and specialized career counseling.

    Furthermore, a freemium business model is an element of the company’s growth plan. Udacity provides free access to beginning courses or sections of nano degrees in this way. This assists users in determining if they are comfortable in the learning environment and have the time and abilities required to finish the courses.

    Udacity – Employees

    • Alper Tekin – Chief Product Officer
    • Dana Bennett – Chief People Officer
    • Gabriel Dalporto – Chief Executive Officer
    • James Richards – CTO
    • Kenny Kim – Chief Marketing Officer
    • Alvaro Biel – Head of Business Development & Partnerships, Europe and Latin America – Udacity for Government
    • Blake Tablak – SVP of Global Enterprise
    • Grace Rhee – Vice President of People and Places
    • Holger Kobler – Regional Vice President DACH
    • Ira Stone – Regional Vice President, Enterprise Sales

    Udacity – Funding, and Investors

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Aug 27, 2021 Secondary Market $5M –
    Jun 20, 2021 Secondary Market – –
    Jun 12, 2021 Secondary Market – –
    Jan 28, 2021 Secondary Market – –
    Nov 3, 2020 Debt Financing $75M Hercules Capital
    Nov 11, 2015 Series D $105M Bertelsmann
    Sep 24, 2014 Series C $35M –
    Oct 25, 2012 Series B $15M Andreessen Horowitz
    Jan 1, 2012 Series A $5M CRV

    Udacity – Acquisitions

    Acquiree Name About Acquiree Date Amount
    Terminal The Terminal provides bleeding-edge software and AI to edtech companies looking to improve student success. Mar 1, 2017 –

    Udacity – Growth

    The pandemic produced great burdens and drove individuals to make many tough decisions, and 2020 was a year of extraordinary challenges. At the same time, individuals continued to learn and grow despite the disturbance in their everyday lives. Over the course of 2020, Udacity increased its focus on assisting students in finding the courses they needed to prepare for a better future.

    Last year, the firm celebrated 14 million users, 1.5 million completed projects, and over 170,000 Nanodegree certificates granted, and they are looking forward to celebrating over 50,000 graduates in 2020 as well as some interesting improvements.

    The year 2020 was a momentous occasion for Udacity as a company. Enterprise and government bookings increased by 260 percent in yearly recurring revenue in the first half of 2020 alone, and the company just obtained $75 million in funding to assist support this remarkable development, tripling its Sales and Customer Success teams.

    Over the last year (2019-2020), the company welcomed a number of new team members to help them maintain this incredible trajectory with enterprise customers, including CFO Seamus Hennessy, CMO Kenny Kim, SVP of Global Enterprise Sales Blake Tablak, and SVP of Global Customer Success and Operations Jennifer Dearman, who joined in early 2021.

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    Udacity – Competitors

    Udacity’s top competitors include Khan Academy, Skillshare, Coursebirdie, MasterClass, Pluralsight, Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, BizLibrary, Articulate 360, iSpring Suite, PiiQ by Cornerstone, Infosec Skills, Pluralsight, and General Assembly.

    Udacity – Challenges Faced

    Udacity had to lay off roughly 20% of its employees and restructure its operations as of April 2019, as co-founder Sebastian Thrun attempted to decrease expenses in line with revenue without stifling growth.

    Udacity, which offers “nano degrees” in a variety of technical disciplines such as AI, deep learning, digital marketing, virtual reality, and computer vision, has been in financial trouble for months, owing to rising expenses and other inefficiencies. Thanks to popular initiatives like its self-driving vehicle and deep learning nano degree, the firm flourished in 2017, with revenue jumping 100 percent year over year.

    Udacity has also reduced expenses and streamlined marketing activities, shrunk and consolidated office space, and standardized instructional programs throughout its different locations, including the United States, Brazil, China, and India.

    The firm maintained an office in Mountain View, albeit in a smaller size, as well as one in San Francisco. Udacity has shuttered a second satellite office in San Francisco and is assessing its real estate requirements in other nations.

    Udacity – Future Plans

    Udacity has popularized the notion of “Nanodegrees” in fields including artificial intelligence, programming, autonomous driving, and cloud computing. Udacity will focus more on Sales and Marketing in the coming years.

    “On the enterprise and government side, we’re seeing enormous demand,” said Gabe Dalporto, Udacity’s CEO, who joined the firm in 2019. “However, it’s largely been inbound to date, with businesses, Fortune 500 firms, and government agencies seeking to collaborate with us.” Now it’s time to assemble a sales force to pursue them.”

    The interest in Udacity, both from investors and as a firm, is part of a larger emphasis on online education startups in the previous year. As schools, districts, governments, and public health officials implement social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19, the focus has been on developing better technology and content to help students stay engaged and continue learning even when they are unable to be in their normal physical classrooms. Udacity is not considering any acquisitions for the next 6-12 months.

    Udacity – FAQs

    What does Udacity do?

    Udacity (an American company) is an international, online, life-long learning network that connects education and employment opportunities. Udacity is an online training platform that provides courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, data science, autonomous systems, and cloud computing, among other fields.

    Who founded Udacity?

    Udacity was founded by David Stevens, Mike Sokolsky, and Sebastian Thrun in 2011.

    When was Udacity founded?

    Udacity was founded by David Stevens, Mike Sokolsky, and Sebastian Thrun in 2011.

    How does Udacity make money?

    Udacity earns money by selling instructional content to individuals and businesses. These courses are delivered in a nanodegree format by the firm.

    Which companies do Udacity compete with?

    Udacity’s top competitors include Khan Academy, Skillshare, Coursebirdie, MasterClass, Pluralsight, Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, BizLibrary, Articulate 360, iSpring Suite, PiiQ by Cornerstone, Infosec Skills, Pluralsight, and General Assembly.

  • BrowserStack – Success Story of The World’s Best Cloud Based Testing Platform

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

    Every aspect of human life, in one way or the other, is affected by Apps and Websites. They’ve become an integral part of our day-to-day life. As a result, the growth of the App and Website industry is reaching new heights every year. With the creation of the first website in August 1991, the industry has gone through massive growth. There are approximately 1.88 Billion Websites and 5.2 Million Apps on Google Play and the Apple store, as of September 2021. Around 2,50,000 websites and 3500 apps are born daily.

    Apart from developing apps and websites, the developers have another crucial role to play. To reach a wider audience, they have to ensure that their software functions effectively on various platforms, browsers and devices. Assuring the quality requires the software to be tested on each and every platform, which is a time-consuming and unachievable process for developers. This is where BrowserStack comes into play.

    BrowserStack helps the developers to test their apps and websites on multiple devices, browsers, and OS to ensure their functionality. It is an Indian Company established in 2011. BrowserStack’s customers include Microsoft, Twitter, Expedia and many more. It has turned out to be the leading software testing platform in the world.

    BrowserStack – Highlights

    Company Name BrowserStack
    Headquarters Mumbai, India
    Sector Enterprise Software, Web Development
    Founder Ritesh Arora, Nakul Aggarwal
    Founded 2011
    Valuation $4 Billion
    Total Funding Raised $250 Million
    Website BrowserStack.com

    BrowserStack – About
    BrowserStack – Latest News
    BrowserStack – Founders
    BrowserStack – Startup Story
    BrowserStack – Mission and Vision
    BrowserStack – Business Model
    BrowserStack – Revenue Model
    BrowserStack – Products and Services
    BrowserStack – Funding and Investors
    BrowserStack – Acquisitions
    BrowserStack – Growth
    BrowserStack – Partnership
    BrowserStack – Awards and Achievements
    BrowserStack – Competitors
    BrowserStack – Future Plans
    BrowserStack – FAQs

    Success story of BrowserStack by Ritesh Arora – Co-founder of BrowserStack

    BrowserStack – About

    BrowserStack is a SaaS platform that provides cloud-based mobile and web testing services. It helps the developers to deliver a quality service by testing their software on numerous devices, operating systems, and browsers. The company holds five primary products to test software for Quality Assurance (QA) namely, Live, Automate, and Percy for testing websites, App Live and App Automate for testing mobile apps.

    BrowserStack is a Mumbai-based company founded by Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal in 2011. The company has its global offices in Mumbai, Dublin, San Francisco, and New York. With more than 25,000 paid customers and 750 employees across the world, BrowserStack became a Unicorn valued at $4 billion in 2021. The company swanks itself as the world’s leading software testing platform.

    BrowserStack – Latest News

    September 28, 2021 – $50 Million worth of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) was bought back from its employees by BrowserStack for the second time. This Buy-back exercise was carried out to help employees financially and more than 100 employees participated in it.

    August 10, 2021 – Forbes 2021 Cloud 100 named BrowserStack to its list of top 100 private cloud companies in the world. The judging panel for this ranking consisted of 34 CEOs from public cloud companies.

    BrowserStack – Founders

    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal - BrowserStack Founders
    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal – BrowserStack Founders

    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal are the co-founders of BrowserStack. Ritesh Arora also serves as the CEO and Nakul Aggarwal as the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of the company. They are ‘Serial Entrepreneurs’ who co-founded QuarkRank, QuarkBase, and Downcase (all were tech companies) before BrowserStack. Arora and Aggarwal, both were good friends and graduates in Computer Science from IIT Bombay.

    BrowserStack – Startup Story

    BrowserStack Logo
    BrowserStack Logo

    BrowserStack was created as a result of difficulties faced by the founders while creating Downcase, a cloud computing and consulting company. The founders faced an inability to run the test for their newly built website across various browsers and devices. The lack of resources got them frustrated. This forced Arora and Aggarwal to build a testing platform on their own, which resulted in BrowserStack.

    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal founded BrowserStack in 2011 at a coffee shop in Mumbai. Today, 10 years later, the company is valued at $4 Billion and provides its service in more than 135 countries.

    BrowserStack – Mission and Vision

    “To empower developers to build amazing experiences” is the mission with which BrowserStack is functioning. The company wanted to build easy, quick and quality software testing tools. This in turn ensures Developers and Quality Assurance teams offer a flawless experience to billions of users. BrowserStack is also sticking towards its vision of “Becoming the testing Infrastructure of the Internet”. With the growing customers and services, the company has already started leading the software testing industry.

    BrowserStack – Business Model

    BrowserStack provides a cloud platform that offers cross-browser testing services to its users. Web/App designers and developers can use the platform to assess the quality and functionality of their software.

    BrowserStack runs the software through multiple combinations of devices and browsers to test for bugs if any, that cause malfunctions or glitches. They have 5 products for the users to choose from to perform the testing. BrowserStack ensures that the developers deliver a web/app, which gives a seamless experience to the end-users.

    BrowserStack – Revenue Model

    BrowserStack generates revenue through its subscription plans. The company also additionally made â‚č44 Lakhs through interests and â‚č77 lakhs through foreign exchange fluctuations in the financial year 2020.

    The five products offered by BrowserStack have a separate pricing plan for each of them. But all the products come at a discount of 25% if purchased annually. There’s also a free trial available for users with limited features. Here are its plans and prices:

    Live

    • Desktop – $39/month
    • Desktop & Mobile – $49/month
    • Team – $150/month (5 users)
    • Enterprise Team – Custom

    Automate

    • Desktop – $169/month
    • Desktop & Mobile – $249/month
    • Enterprise – Custom

    App Live

    • Individual – $39/month
    • Team – $30/month
    • Enterprise Team – Custom

    App Automate

    • App Automate – $249/month
    • Enterprise – Custom

    Percy

    • Free – $0/month
    • Professional – $129/month
    • Enterprise – Custom

    BrowserStack – Products and Services

    BrowserStack performs testing of apps and websites through five primary tools. Here are their brief descriptions:

    Live – It helps test cross browsers on mobiles and desktops. Any bugs detected can be eradicated in real-time using their pre-installed developer tools. ‘Live’ helps you to test in more than 3000 desktop browsers.

    Automate – Automate helps to run tests quickly and parallelly in both cloud devices and real browsers. Scaling can be done using a Selenium grid which gives flexibility, and at the same time, maintains the stability of your tests.

    Percy – Percy looks for visual bugs and performs tests that give a pixel-perfect user interface (UI). The Visual Testing can be automated and the running of tests is done real-quick in Percy.

    App Live – This is an exclusive cloud tool for Android and iOS devices. Similar to ‘Live’, App Live also comes with real-time debugging and running tests on development environments. You can also scroll, swipe and interact using many hand gestures while testing, just like you would do in any mobile.

    App Automate – App Automate allows you to run tests simultaneously on thousands of devices. This reduces the time for testing and helps to identify and fix the bugs swiftly. It also makes the integration with BrowserStack easy.

    BrowserStack – Funding and Investors

    Three Investors invested a sum of $250 Million in BrowserStack through 2 rounds. The 2nd round of funding made BrowserStack a Unicorn Company valued at $4 Billion. It was the 15th company in India to become a Unicorn in 2021.

    Date Funding Round Amount Investors Name
    June 16, 2021 Series B $200 Million Bond, Accel and Insight Partners
    January 30, 2018 Series A $50 Million Accel

    BrowserStack – Acquisitions

    BrowserStack Acquisition
    BrowserStack Acquisition

    BrowserStack acquired Percy, a visual review and testing platform based in San Francisco, on 9th July 2020 for an undisclosed price. This was the only acquisition made by BrowserStack so far.

    BrowserStack – Growth

    Born out of a coffee shop in Mumbai in 2011, BrowserStack has achieved a humongous growth in a decade. Profits started flowing in right from day 1 and the founders managed to run BrowserStack without any fundings. It took nearly 7 years for the company to reach a revenue of $20 Million whereas, it surpassed $100 Million in the next couple of years.

    The first milestone for 1000 paid customers was achieved within 6 months of commencing business. They slowly started enhancing their service by adding tools like ‘Automate’ and partnering with Microsoft. The mobile testing service for Android and iOS was launched in 2015. By 2016, BrowserStack started expanding its business by establishing offices in San Francisco and Dublin. The company also had constructed 15 Global Data Centres so far, widening its operational reach around the world.

    BrowserStack – Partnership

    Zuci Systems

    BrowserStack, has partnered with Zuci Systems, a digital consulting and solutions company, in a strategic alliance on August 8,2023.

    BrowserStack – Awards and Achievements

    BrowserStack was named twice as one of the top 100 private cloud companies by Forbes. Here are some of the BrowserStack achhievements:

    • Forbes 2018 Cloud 100 and Forbes 2021 Cloud 100 included BrowserStack in their definitive list.
    • Economic Times Startup Awards recognized BrowserStack as the Bootstrap Champ in the year 2015.
    • G2 has recognized BrowserStack as the Leader in the Test Automation Software category for the year 2021.
    • LinkedIn has awarded BrowserStack as one of the 25 most attractive startups in India in 2018.

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    BrowserStack – Competitors

    BrowserStack Competitors
    BrowserStack Competitors

    BrowserStack has few competitors who are better in terms of stability, support, and meeting the needs of customers. Here are some of the top competitors of BrowserStack.

    • Sauce Labs
    • TestComplete
    • LambdaTest
    • Browserling
    • RobusTest

    BrowserStack – Future Plans

    BrowserStack is expected to double its employee count in the upcoming years. The company is also planning to increase its onboard global talent pool in the future. As the first step to it, BrowserStack transformed itself into a Remote-First company on September 14, 2021. This eliminates geographical limits and enables employees to work from any part of the world.

    BrowserStack – FAQs

    What is BrowserStack?

    BrowserStack is a SaaS platform that provides cloud-based mobile and web testing services for developers.

    Is BrowserStack an Indian Company?

    It is an Indian company with 4 global offices located in Mumbai, San Francisco, Dublin, and New York.

    Who are the founders of BrowserStack?

    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal are the BrowserStack’s founders.

    In how many other countries does BrowserStack provides their service?

    BrowserStack is offering services in more than 135 countries with 15 global data centres.

    Who are the top Competitors of BrowserStack?

    Some of the top competitors of BrowserStack are:

    • Sauce Labs
    • TestComplete
    • LambdaTest
    • Browserling
    • RobusTest

  • Success Story of Notion – An All-in-one Productivity Tool That Collaborates Your Workspaces

    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 Notion.

    With the evolution of time, our way of creating and storing records and managing our work-life has changed. Our day-to-day work was made easy by various modern tools, where one tool creates files, other stores and another reminds us about the work and time it should be done, etc., There is a tool for every activity we do as a part of our work life.

    Now, this extended tools list has made our life difficult. Jumping between them for every activity consumes time and creates chances for missing out on some tasks. So, what if we get software that merges the activities of all those tools together? What if it further provides various work management services all in one place? It’ll definitely be a boon.

    Notion is one such tool that puts together all our work-related activities right from file management, scheduling tasks to project management. It is an all-in-one workspace that helps to collaborate and customize our entire work. It was developed by Notion Labs Inc., in 2013. They’ve shown huge growth in the past five years in terms of valuation and customer base. This was evident when the company became a Unicorn in 2020.

    Notion – Company Highlights

    Company Name Notion
    Headquarters San Francisco, California
    Founders Ivan Zhao, Simon Last
    Founded 2013
    Industry Software
    Developed by Notion Labs Inc.
    Valuation $10 Billion (October 2021)
    Total Funding Raised $343.2 Million
    Website Notion.so

    Notion – About
    Notion – Latest News
    Notion – Founders
    Notion – Startup Story
    Notion – Mission and Vision
    Notion – Business and Revenue Model
    Notion – Employees and User Acquisition
    Notion – Challenges Faced
    Notion – Funding and Investors
    Notion – Acquisitions
    Notion – Growth
    Notion – Competitors
    Notion – Future Plans
    Notion – FAQs

    Notion – About

    Notion Logo
    Notion Logo

    Notion is a software that combines all the apps and tools that we use as a part of work and serves as an all-in-one workspace. Performing management works like task management, project management, and knowledge management can also be integrated into Notion. It offers customization of all the functions and activities as per our needs.

    In other words, Notion is a Collaborative Tool that blends documents, projects, teams, other work apps, and various other work-related functions, that we use as a part of daily work, in one place. With thousands of templates offered to design our workspace and with a simplified way to create and edit wikis, Notion proves to be a worthy choice for both personal and professional use.

    Notion was created in 2013 by Ivan Zhao and Simon Last. After a terrible failure in 2015, the company rose back strong with the founder’s perseverance and investor’s funding. Today, Notion is valued at $10 Billion with over 4 Million users worldwide.

    About Notion Productivity Tool

    Notion – Latest News

    October 8, 2021 – Notion raised huge funding of $275 Million, since its inception in 2013. This was raised in the Series C round and the lead investors were Coatue and Sequoia Capital.

    September 28, 2021 – A new startup program was launched by Notion to give access to their tools for new companies. The early companies can customize and use Notion’s tools for up to a credit of $500.

    September 28, 2021 – Notion initiated a new partnership between Amazon Web Services and Stripe to expand their researches. This partnership also encourages new users of Notion by offering them discounts up to $1000.

    Notion – Founders

    Ivan Zhao - Notion's Founder and CEO
    Ivan Zhao – Notion’s Founder and CEO

    Ivan Zhao and Simon Last are the co-founders of Notion. Ivan Zhao is also currently the CEO of the company. Ivan’s interest in coding and programming started during his childhood. He graduated in cognitive science and fine arts and worked at a software company named Inkling, before establishing Notion.

    Simon is a designer and engineer residing in SanFrancisco. Simon earlier worked as a software engineer at Space Telescope Science Institute and Nebula Inc. He graduated in Computer Science from the University of Maryland. Ivan and Simon together started Notion in 2013 with an aim to make it different and more customizable for users.

    Notion – Startup Story

    Ivan Zhao and Simon Last started Notion in early 2013. They were keen on creating a collaborative tool, during a time where most of the tools were for a single purpose and specialized ones. Ivan and Simon wanted to build LEGO-style software that makes their tool different from others and customizable for workers. With some personal investments and many sleepless nights, the model for notion got designed and was brought into shape.

    Notion – Mission and Vision

    Notion’s mission is to bring in the advancements in Computer Science and make them available to all users. Their aim is to make the work easy for everyone, without a need for coding. The company put its mission simply in this way, “To make it possible for everyone to shape the tools that shape their lives”. Notion’s vision is to be the “Foremost factor that pioneers the latest technological breakthroughs”.

    Notion – Business and Revenue Model

    Notion provides you with a workspace that helps to collaborate all our work-related activities. It collaborates with work teams and performs various management-related functions. Notion generates revenue by charging customers through their Priced Plans. There is a Free Trial offered with a limit of 1,000 blocks limit.

    Personal – Free
    Personal Pro – $4/month billed annually or $5/month
    Team – $8/ month billed annually or $10/month
    Enterprise – Customized price as per needs

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    Notion – Employees and User Acquisition

    There is no exact figure for the number of employees working at Notion but it is estimated to be between 200 and 300. Notion started its operation with just 4 employees in 2013. Until December 2019, they scaled their operations with just 27 employees. Notion’s employee count has increased multifold only in the past couple of years.

    Notion had 1 Million users as of September 2019. After reaching a valuation of $2 Billion in April 2020, Notion announced that it has secured a customer base of 4 Million users. Notion has gained the trust of companies like are Spotify, Pixar, Cornershop, TravelPerk, and headspace.

    Notion – Challenges Faced

    Notion faced a terrible downfall in 2015. The software was almost dead when it started crashing continuously and the founders ran out of funds. Ivan and Simon fired their four employees and shifted their office to a cheaper place. Ivan Zhao even borrowed $150,000 from his mother to prevent the company from sinking. After months of hard work and sleepless nights, they rooted the company strong enough to enter the market and released Notion 1.0 in 2016.

    Another issue faced by Notion was in February 2021. The company went offline due to an issue caused by a DNS (Domain Name Servers) outage. Then the service provider Name.com jumped in to resolve the issue. A lot of users were unable to access the site during that period. After the issue got resolved many users’ data went missing and Notion faced severe criticisms for that.

    Notion – Funding and Investors

    Notion has secured a fund of $343.2 Million through Five rounds. With the fund raised in April 2020, Notion became a Unicorn Company.

    Date Round Amount Investors Name
    October 8, 2021 Series C $275 Million Sequoia Capital, Coatue, Shine Capital
    April 2, 2020 Venture Round $50 Million Index Ventures, Assiya Capital Partners
    July 19, 2019 Venture Round $18.2 Million A. Capital Ventures, Next Play Ventures, Josh Kopelman, Elad Gil, Aydin Senkut, Ram Shriram, Daniel Gross, and Lachy Groom
    January 1, 2017 Angel Round – SV Angel, Sequoia Capital, First Round Capital, Felicis Ventures, Thibaud Elziere, Matt Maclnnis, Sherpalo, Elad Gil, Naval Ravikant, A.Capital Ventures, Draft Ventures, Third Kind Venture Capital, and Terrence Rohan
    January 1, 2015 Seed Round – SV Angel

    Notion – Acquisitions

    Two organizations have been acquired by Notion so far. They made their first acquisition outside the US in September 2021 in India.

    Date of Acquisition Company Name Amount
    September 8, 2021 Automate.io Undisclosed
    January 1, 2014 Sugarbox.io Undisclosed

    Notion – Growth

    Starting with 4 employees, the two co-founders Ivan Zhao and Simon Last commenced the operations of Notion in 2013. With a little investment that was slowly burning out, they suffered a huge setback in the year 2015. The Notion app that was built on a sub-optimal tech stack started crashing continuously. The lack of funds left them in turmoil. The company was almost dead.

    Zhao and Last reduced their expenses in every possible way, used the borrowed money from Zhao’s mother and kept the company afloat. Keeping their primary motive in mind, they worked hard to rebuild the company and as a result, the first version of Notion was released in 2016. The company grew steadily through the years and in July 2019, Notion raised a fund of $18.2 Million in a Venture round, thus raising its Market Valuation to $800 Million. Notion became a Unicorn in April 2020 with the fund of $50 Million raised in another Venture round.

    Despite the Covid-19 Pandemic, Notion kept rising in terms of employee count and customer base. They acquired a fund of $275 Million in October 2021, after which, Notion reached a $10 Billion Market Valuation.

    Notion surprised and inspired many through their growth. A startup, from the stage of death to being valued at $10 Billion in a period of 6 years showcases their hard work behind this achievement.

    Notion – Competitors

    Notion has got competitors who outperform them in a few areas. Here are some of the top competitors of Notion:

    • Evernote
    • Trello
    • Quip
    • Microsoft OneNote
    • Coda
    • Confluence
    • Joplin
    • Slab
    • Tettra
    • ClickUp

    Notion – Future Plans

    Notion is planning to expand its operation in Asian and European countries. Most of the customers of Notion are outside the US. So the company wants to set its feet beyond geographical limits to offer a seamless service to its users. The company is considering countries like Brazil, France, Japan, and Russia to open its office in the near future.

    As the company enters the global market, there is a demand for them to provide their services in a country’s native languages. Also, there arises a demand for integrating various local apps of respective countries into Notion. Notion is currently working on these activities, to attract wider audiences. As a first step, the Korean version of Notion app was launched in 2020 in South Korea. More of such regional launches are planned for the future.

    Notion – FAQs

    What is Notion?

    Notion is a Collaborative Tool that blends docs, projects, teams, other work apps, and various other work-related functions, that we use as a part of daily work, in one place.

    Who are the founders of Notion?

    Ivan Zhao and Simon Last are the founders of Notion. Ivan Zhao is also the CEO of the company.

    Is the Notion app free to use?

    Yes, there is a free version of Notion available to users. In addition to it, there’re two priced plans with a free trial and an enterprise plan that can be customized.

  • Sapio Analytics: Artificially Intelligent Government Support Company

    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 Sapio Analytics.

    Founded by former senior government officers, social entrepreneurs, and technology experts, Sapio Analytics aims to provide the most intelligent AI-powered policy-making solutions for government institutions across the world. Basically, Sapio helps government create and execute policies through decision support systems powered by artificial intelligence.

    Sapio Analytics is currently valued at 100 million USD and it targets to achieve a valuation of 1 billion USD by 2022. With more than 15 million citizens under its direct and deep impact, Sapio targets to directly impact 100 million more in a year.

    StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Ashwin Srivastava (CEO, Sapio Analytics) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll discover how Sapio was conceptualized, its subsidiaries, business model, growth, future plans, and more.

    Sapio Analytics – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Sapio Analytics
    Founders Prashant Nikam, Ashwin Srivastava, Hardik Somani, Shripal Jain, Viral Vora, Arpit Palod
    CEO Ashwin Srivastava
    Headquarters Mumbai
    Founded 2019
    Industry Artificial Intelligence, Analytics
    Valuation 100 million USD (as of 2021)
    Website sapioanalytics.com

    Sapio Analytics – About and Vision
    Sapio Analytics – Market/Industry Details
    Sapio Analytics – Founders and Team
    Sapio Analytics – Idea & Inspiration
    Sapio Analytics – Product/Service
    Sapio Analytics – Subsidiaries & Acquisitions
    Sapio Analytics – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Sapio Analytics – Business Model & Revenue Model
    Sapio Analytics – Startup Launch
    Sapio Analytics – Challenges Faced
    Sapio Analytics – Growth & Statistics
    Sapio Analytics – Funding
    Sapio Analytics – Advisors/Mentors
    Sapio Analytics – Competitors
    Sapio Analytics – Recognitions/Achievements
    Sapio Analytics – Future Plans
    Sapio Analytics – FAQs

    What is Sapio Analytics

    Sapio Analytics – About and Vision

    Sapio Analytics provides an artificial intelligent government support system, to various governments, as well as tools to capture the voice of the citizens by providing them a plethora of solutions for their growth.

    Its long-term vision is to create a world where governments are driven by data and data is driven in real-time by the voice of the citizens. In the short term, the startup is working on transforming the lives of citizens by recommending and executing government policies through decision support systems powered by artificial intelligence.

    Sapio’s core belief is that dynamic data is powerful yet complex to understand, and hence new age mechanisms to collect data, analyze the same, and visualize the analyzed data, are needed for governments to function. If that starts happening, all problems of the world can be solved using decision support by AI.

    Sapio Analytics

    Sapio Analytics – Market/Industry Details

    Based on the budget data provided by the Government of India, 411 billion USD is targeted to be spent by the central government alone. Sapio’s market size is around 2% of the same, as decision-making can create an impact that saves costs from 2-10% and makes things much more efficient. Taking the budget of Africa and various other developing countries, the overall direct market size becomes more than 40 billion USD annually. And the startup is at the forefront of driving this today, expecting at least 50% of the market for it.

    In addition, part of the budget dedicated towards execution and share of revenue with the governments (part of the GDP increase done through us) make for a higher market size. With digitization becoming mainstream, the growth rate is unpredictably high.

    Sapio Analytics – Founders and Team

    Sapio’s founders are a combination of former senior government officers, social entrepreneurs, and technology experts. Prashant Nikam (former IRAS, former Director of Police, MHA), Ashwin Srivastava (serial entrepreneur with multiple multinational companies and successful exits), Hardik Somani (social entrepreneur), Shripal Jain (government entrepreneur), Viral Vora (construction, infrastructure, and transport expert), and Arpit Palod (IIT Bombay alumnus, data genius) form the core team of founders.

    Founding team of Sapio Analytics
    Sapio Analytics Founders

    The current company size is around 200 including various subsidiaries and interns working with the company. The size is constantly growing.

    “We believe in the concept of creating impact, with revenue being a byproduct of the same. With this mindset, we look for DNA of impact in everyone we hire. Besides the passion to create an impact, we also look for those who believe in Speed and those who demonstrate a passion for the causes they believe in” – says Ashwin Srivastava, CEO, Sapio Analytics.

    If someone has a desire to become a part of the history of this world, contributing to the creation of the world’s first artificially intelligent government, they can join Sapio Analytics!

    Sapio Analytics – Idea & Inspiration

    Through the founders’ close works with governments, they realized that there exists a significant gap between the use of data science and the government’s decision-making. Their aim was to fill this gap. Once they started filling this gap, the founders further realized the kind of impact decision-making through data analytics can bring. They saw the potential of economic transformation happening. The founders saw that healthcare, law enforcement, geopolitical relations, and every aspect of governance can be impacted sustainably through the use of artificial intelligence-driven by dynamic sources of citizen data.

    And the team also noticed how government departments working in silos are preventing the creation of intelligent decision-making.

    Having clearly seen the potential of something huge, thanks to the team’s in-depth understanding of government functioning and excellence in data science, they started talking to former government officers, people who have been at the top and played a critical role in driving India’s governance.

    “The response from them was mixed. There were some who believed that what we are doing has been in their minds for a long and yet they have been unable to do anything about it. Some offered to join us, as they could see us doing what they have always wanted to do. Some others felt what we were talking about was impractical due to red tape within governments at all levels. There were few who appreciated the wishful thinking but cautioned us against the challenges of creating a new market altogether” – says Ashwin Srivastava, CEO, Sapio Analytics.

    The founders were determined to create this new market and become its leader, effectively becoming the artificially intelligent shadow government support system, that everyone wanted to have.

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    Sapio Analytics – Product/Service

    The product works in 3 stages:

    1. Data Collection, where through a series of tools and innovations including the world’s first smart digital census, Sapio Analytics empathetically understand the needs of citizens on a real-time basis, empowering its artificial intelligence systems
    2. Data Analytics, where tools and products around analytics, powered with deep domain intelligence, gathered through the objectification of the brains of world leaders and domain experts, are used to derive intelligence out of the collected data
    3. Data Visualization, where special innovations are used to present data in formats that is understandable and acceptable by those who can benefit from the same

    There have been multiple small changes in the product throughout its journey, all evolution happening based on new data inputs that Sapio Analytics gets from citizens and governments.

    Today, Sapio Analytics has the following main divisions within its organization:

    1. Economic Growth Division: This focuses on increasing the GDP of a state/country, and involving both individual citizens and businesses in the process
    2. Local Administration Division: Hyperlocal analytics is its core expertise, and this division focuses on the same, working at all local governments’ level
    3. Law Enforcement and Intelligence Division: Helping law enforcement agencies, as well as intelligence agencies, use the power of digitization and artificial intelligence is the core goal of this division
    4. Smart Healthcare Division: Creating a new smart healthcare ecosystem, that works on hyperlocal analytics and operates through artificially intelligent support given to medical professionals, is what this division does.
    5. Heritage and Culture: Also known as the Heritage Restoration Division, Sapio Analytics is bringing back the glory of the ancient heritage and culture of any region in the modern world. This division is also closely tied up with the startup’s Geopolitical Division.

    Sapio Analytics – Subsidiaries & Acquisitions

    Besides running the above-mentioned divisions, there are a number of companies that partly owned subsidiaries or part of the group through control over the same:

    1. Sapio Parthiv Heritech (Private Limited): This subsidiary uses the power of its Heritage and Culture division and is focused on providing innovative beautification and advertisement options to outdoor real estate. It works closely with governments, local bodies, and advertisers, and is transforming the world of advertisement forever, through the use of smart beautification and intelligent communication
    2. Banking Correspondent Network (Public Limited): One of Sapio’s recent acquisitions (name undisclosed) gives it part control over the growth of a public company known for having a large banking correspondent network into a network of on-ground data collectors and consumer behavior drivers, in smaller towns and villages of the country. With 12 million citizens currently being directly impacted by this company, and at least 20 million more in the pipeline, this becomes an important tool in the startup’s plans of knowing the voice of citizens. Currently, this company provides financial transaction services, retail shop services, electronic shop services, entertainment services, and healthcare services, through its on-ground reach.
    3. Saksham Score (Private Limited): This is another subsidiary owned by Sapio Analytics, and is aimed at knowing every citizen of a developing country in a way that their trustworthiness in any skill or behavior they are supposed to display can be quantified. This becomes the future of any form of social or credit or employability rating.
    4. EV Jagat (LLP): When Sapio talks about transforming governments, one of the most critical changes in the world of transport driving the global economy cannot be ignored. Through EV Jagat, it is driving the EV Ecosystem in India.
    5. Sapio Prime Joint Venture (JV): Artificially Intelligent Surveillance of Critical Infrastructure around the world is provided through this JV.
    6. Sapio Quantum Joint Venture (JV): Sapio Analytics is creating India’s largest network of branded primary healthcare guidance centers India, with thousands of medical professionals on board with it.
    7. Sapio Bharat Incubation Center: India’s first incubation center for government technologies and citizen impact in the interiors of India
    8. Sapio Foundation: Sapio Analytics’ foundation is geared towards using the CSR budget of companies towards the achievement of core goals and vision of the leaders of India, establishing India’s significance in the world
    9. KGS Microsystems LLP: It is Sapio’s new acquisition that is now India’s largest Smart Digitization Company

    In addition to the above, Sapio Analytics also has a shareholding in Technology-enabled Insurance Aggregator InsureEfficient, and LC financing company LC Bidding. Both companies are transforming the space of financing and insurance in the interiors of India, with physical offices in 70+ locations. Other new subsidiaries, such as MSME Jagat, are in the process of creation.

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    Sapio stands for intelligence, and the startup derives intelligence out of data. This is how the team came up with the name. They wanted a name that could signify intelligence of data all around us and make us realize that we are missing the power of the same if we do not use them to create AI.

    Spaio Analytics
    Sapio Analytics Logo

    Sapio Analytics’ tagline – Impact, Influence, Improve – shows the startup’s desire to create an impact on the citizens, influence policies by the governments, and improve the lives of all of us creating a transformation in the world of governance.

    Sapio Analytics – Business Model & Revenue Model

    Sapio Analytics’ core business model lies in working with the governments and providing them solutions that can be used on a recurring basis, while also helping them earn more revenue and take a part of the same for it, as a reward for increasing the GDP.

    Sapio Analytics – Startup Launch

    The founding team started with their connections, people who they know, and people who trusted them based on the works that they had done in the past. The entire group of founders and senior leadership team comes from a background of strong connections and pedigree of success, which was used to get the first few customers.

    Once the startup had some governments on board, they got access to citizens through them, and then the cycle of getting more governments onboard was created.

    The large-scale growth happened with COVID-19. And it was not out of any desire to do any growth hacking or marketing.

    “When COVID-19 hit us, we decided to pause all our works for some time and give our lives to solving the problem using our technologies. Our team members did not sleep while we slogged trying to create an impact by saving lives. And we believe we saved millions of them” – Ashwin added.

    This led to a lot of brand value for Sapio Analytics, in a way that government leaders started talking about the startup. The Prime Minister of India also praised their work in an address to the nation, albeit in a different context related to the preservation of the culture of India is an important act of consciousness and happiness during the tough COVID times.

    The best part of this strategy was that it was not a strategy! Though many brands tried to create a strategy out of this misfortune, Sapio Analytics just went about solving the problems. And, strategy happened to the startup organically.

    Sapio Analytics – Challenges Faced

    Challenges are common in a business that is creating a new market. When the founders approached clients (in form of governments) or even distinguished citizens, they were told by some that India is not ready for such a transformation where decisions will be taken by AI. Some leaders even feared that AI may take over their decision-making powers.

    In such cases, the solution was to prove by showing. When their work was able to create a genuine impact, while increasing the powers in the hands of the decision-makers (the entire idea of artificial intelligence is to empower and not replace), with case studies around the same, they started solving this major challenge.

    “Nothing speaks better than success, and we started getting success by this first set of successes” comments Ashwin.

    Sapio Analytics – Growth & Statistics

    Sapio Analytics is currently valued at 100 million USD and the target is to achieve a valuation of 1 billion USD in the coming year (2022). With more than 15 million citizens under its direct and deep impact, the target is to directly impact 100 million more in the coming year.

    Confirmed contract values across its various companies cross 13 million USD with a few months in the year to go. With some new partnerships and contracts in the pipeline, the target valuation is very much insight.

    “We believe that we have not even initiated our real revenue plans yet, as we are here for the long haul, earning our assets in form of trust and data initially” says Ashwin.

    The company is open to strategic funding at a special valuation for special players who would be interested in becoming part of its journey in the long term.

    Sapio Analytics

    Sapio Analytics – Funding

    Sapio Analytics is primarily bootstrapped with only strategic funding.

    Sapio Analytics – Advisors/Mentors

    Sapio Analytics has a large pool of mentors, advisors, and strategic partners, including leaders apart from founders who are part of the core leadership team.

    Some of the names in the Global Advisory Board

    • Lt Gen K J Singh (former Commander in Chief, Current CIC)
    • Lord Rami Ranger (member of the House of Lords UK, rags to riches entrepreneur)
    • Dr. Dinesh Tryambake (celebrated doctor based out of Australia)
    • Saumil Mehta (global businessman based out of Europe)
    • Nooryusazli Yusoff (new-age technology leader based out of Indonesia)

    Other Leaders

    These leaders come from various backgrounds in the government, business, and corporate leadership, having collectively managed billions of dollars of budgets.

    • Dr. B S Tiwary
    • Ashok Gowani
    • Gaurav Aggarwal
    • Kamal Maheshwari.

    Sapio Analytics – Competitors

    Palantir Technologies in the US is a major competitor though they do not focus on the countries Sapio Analytics is active in. The startup is even called Palantir of Developing Countries by various supporters, because of the same.

    In addition, Sapio Analytics believes that it competes with the major consulting companies and big tech companies such as Google as well, though it believes in growth through collaborations.

    Sapio Analytics – Recognitions/Achievements

    “Rewards and recognition are aplenty, but we have not focused ourselves on any, as our biggest achievement to date is impacting the lives of citizens and causing an economic transformation. Testimonials from leaders such as the Prime Minister are also bigger than any awards” says Ashwin, CEO, Sapio Analytics.

    Sapio Analytics – Future Plans

    Sapio Analytics is expanding to the world. Guyana is a country that recently found oil and is taking its journey from being developing to a developed nation. Sapio’s partners are driving this journey and they are supporting them with data. This is just an example of Sapio Analytics’ planned geographical expansion.

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    Sapio Analytics – FAQs

    What is Sapio Analytics?

    Sapio Analytics aims to provide the most intelligent AI-powered policy-making solutions for government institutions across the world. Basically, Sapio helps government create and execute policies through decision support systems powered by artificial intelligence.

    Who are the founders of Sapio Analytics?

    Prashant Nikam, Ashwin Srivastava, Hardik Somani, Shripal Jain, Viral Vora, and Arpit Palod form the core team of founders.

    How much is the valuation of Sapio?

    As of 2021, Sapio Analytics’ valuation stands at 100 million USD.

    Is Sapio an Indian company?

    Yes. Sapio Analytics is an Indian company headquartered in Mumbai, India.

    Who are the competitors of Sapio Analytics?

    Palantir Technologies in the US is a major competitor though they do not focus on the countries Sapio Analytics is active in. The startup is even called Palantir of Developing Countries by various supporters, because of the same.

    Is Sapio funded?

    Sapio Analytics is primarily bootstrapped with only strategic funding.

    What is Sapio’s tagline?

    ‘Impact, Influence, Improve’ – shows the startup’s desire to create an impact on the citizens, influence policies by the governments, and improve the lives of all of us creating a transformation in the world of governance.

  • How Mogi I/O aims to disrupt the video streaming space by leveraging AI

    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 Mogi IO.

    MOGI is a B2B Video Tech SaaS venture startup that leverages Artificial intelligence (AI) in building cutting-edge IPs to disrupt the Video streaming space in the media tech domain. It has created various products catering to different industries. The startup enables content platforms to stream buffer-free videos, of high quality, at 50% of their size, leveraging its patented AI technology.

    StartupTalky interviewed Vikrant Khanna, Founder & CEO of Mogi I/O, to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article you’ll discover how Mogi was conceptualized, its future plans, business model and funding details, etc.,

    Mogi – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Mogi I/O
    Founders Vikrant Khanna (CEO), Rahul Lahoria (CTO)
    Headquarters Delhi
    Founded 2019
    Industry Media Tech, SaaS
    Website mogiio.com

    Mogi – About and Vision
    Mogi – Idea and Inspiration
    Mogi – Products/Services Offered
    Mogi – Founders & Team
    Mogi – Ideology behind name, tagline & logo
    Mogi – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Mogi – Launch & Marketing Strategies
    Mogi – Challenges Faced
    Mogi – Funding and Investors
    Mogi – Competitors
    Mogi – Future Plans
    Mogi – FAQs

    Mogi – About and Vision

    Mogi’s solution lies in three buckets: Video Tech, Image Tech, and White Label Solutions.

    • Video Tech – Mogi has built a disruptive IP – Mogi Streaming Engine for which it has filed for a patent. Mogi Streaming Engine delivers buffer-free videos through its multi-CDN architecture. Its second IP is wherewith AI. Mogi can successfully achieve video compression, which is 50% superior to another transcoding/compressions solution. It does this while enhancing the quality of the video.
    • Image Tech – Mogi compresses the images of any website or app by up to 80%, which positively impacts the performance of the website/app. It improves their SEO Ranking, while their bandwidth consumption for image data transfer decreases by 80%.
    • White label solutions – If anyone has the content and wants to launch their own OTT app, they can do so in a few days using Mogi’s plug & play solutions. One can start monetizing their content via Subscription (SVOD), Pay per View (TVOD) & Advertising (AVOD)

    Company’s long and short-term Vision: Mogi aims to disrupt the video streaming space by leveraging Artificial intelligence (AI). Its Vision is to be known as a video tech company from India that builds disruptive technology in the video streaming industry. It also aims to bring to people worldwide to enjoy video viewing experience seamlessly with high quality.

    The core belief of Mogi: The core belief is that today the 80% of traffic on the internet is video, and as the companies advance, this market will further explode exponentially. The team at Mogi wants to make the whole video viewing experience seamless and pleasurable for every individual user on this planet.

    Mogi – Idea and Inspiration

    Vikrant and Rahul were initially building a short format video app of their own. To start chatting with the content creators, in this video app, viewers could gift the content creator’s with small ticket values, such as virtual gifts of a small denomination. While building this video app, they realized that a typical content platform has to undergo many tech challenges and complexities. Different solutions providers are involved in streaming the videos seamlessly to the end-user, but still, the user was facing issues like buffering, poor video quality, and jerkiness.

    The duo realized that the user experience could be enhanced while watching the videos, but they did not find optimal market solutions. Thus, Vikrant and Rahul decided to build their in-house solution, an answer to address these problems. They were very excited with the results, which encouraged them to file for the patent for the new technologies in 2019. In the meantime, they showed the results to many stakeholders & industry players and got their validation which was another milestone before commercializing it.

    One of the early stage clients was MOMPRESSO and Zee digital. Their response was encouraging, and since then, the team has been working with leading companies who have always encouraged them.

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    Mogi – Products/Services Offered

    Mogi enables content platforms to stream buffer-free videos, of high quality, at 50% of their size, leveraging its patented AI technology. This buffer-free video results in superior viewer engagement while reducing streaming costs to half for the video platform. Mogi has built various products catering to different industries.

    These include –

    • Photo – Image Tech for faster website loading time. 80% image compression for superfast website & app page downloads speeds. Smart Crop and Auto resize based on device. Higher Organic SEO Ranking, Lower bounce rates, Higher Revenue
    • Video– Video Tech, End-to-End or Individual Modules. 50% Compression with AI-enhanced quality, Patented Multi-CDN tech for buffer-free streaming and emergency redundancies.
    • MOTT – White Label OTT solutions (App, Backend CMS, Monetization) All monetization options like the content library with no revenue share and all AVoD (advertising video on demand, SVoD (subscription video on request), and TVoD (transactional video on demand) integration with Plug n Play. It takes less time, just 7, to launch one’s own OTT solutions.
    • Live – Lightweight RTMP live stream, with easy access and easy share.

    Idea Pivot

    Initially, when the founders pivoted, they had launched it as a short video app. But soon, due to technical issues and market demand, they decided to build their own in-house technology.

    “We decided to pivot our business model to what we are today. Presently, MOGI is a B2B Video Tech SaaS venture startup that leverages Artificial intelligence (AI) in building cutting-edge IPs to disrupt the Video streaming space in the media tech domain” – says Vikrant Khanna, Founder & CEO, Mogi I/O.

    Mogi – Founders & Team

    Vikrant Khanna is the founder and CEO of Mogi. Vikrant’s co-founder is Rahul Lahoria, CTO of Mogi I/O.

    Rahul takes care of technology and product management, and Vikrant oversees business, investments, and salary.

    Founder of Mogi
    Mogi Founder & CEO – Vikrant Khanna

    Rahul had met Vikrant when he was the vice president of the platform in Airtel, and they kept in touch with each other. The duo had a long & close friendship, and when Vikrant decided to start on his own, Rahul accepted his offer.

    Vikrant’s co-founder is Rahul Lahoria, an MTech in computer science from IIT Kharagpur. Rahul has built AI Solutions & Patented technology, AI, cloud computing & mobile apps for over 10+ years. He has filed six patents to date.

    Initially, the foudners wanted a name for their short-format video app Mogi; they called it Mogi because it is about mobile gifts. i.e., MO- mobile and GI – gifts. In the short format video app, the fans could give virtual gifts. So when they pivoted the model, the name remained the same. They wanted a catchy logo and thus selected a monkey wearing sunglasses.

    Mogi IO
    Mogi Logo

    The tagline of Mogi: Next-gen media technologies

    Mogi – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Mogi is a B2B video tech SaaS venture. Thus its business model and revenue model circles around subscription fees.  Mogi is a Saas product with a subscription fee model, where they charge the end-users based on their bandwidth consumption for videos/images delivered.

    Mogi – Launch & Marketing Strategies

    Mogi relied on channel partners who had spent more than two decades in the media industry. These people had deep connections in the media community at CTO/ CXO level.

    As a part of its GVM strategy, Initially, the team at Mogi relied on the market and now on inside sales, one-on-one sales & a personalized selling/enterprise selling model.

    “As we are on our way to scaling up, we have realized the importance of the retail sale model. So, presently, we are also marketing through our website and selling them through online stores, thus investing in marketing, advertising, or similar networks” – Vikrant added.

    Also read: Top 7 Ways to Create a Buzz around your Startup

    Mogi – Challenges Faced

    The most crucial challenge for any startup is acquiring customers and providing them with the belief in the product. Mogi overcame this by regularly giving them the demos and showing them the value of money.

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    Mogi – Funding and Investors

    Mogi raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Pentathlon Ventures.  

    Mogi – Competitors

    There are various global companies like brivecurve, JW, Bitmovin, etc.,

    Mogi – Future Plans

    Mogi recently raised an undisclosed amount from Pentathlon Ventures and has plans to raise another round by the end of this year. It is also planning to launch retail products for video & image tech solutions across product segments along with their white label OTT.

    Mogi – FAQs

    What is Mogi?

    Mogi is a B2B Video Tech SaaS venture startup that leverages Artificial intelligence (AI) in building cutting-edge IPs to disrupt the Video streaming space in the media tech domain. It has created various products catering to different industries.

    How does Mogi make money?

    Mogi is a Saas product with a subscription fee model, where they charge the end-users based on their bandwidth consumption for videos/images delivered.

    Who are the founders of Mogi?

    Vikrant Khanna is the founder and CEO of Mogi. Vikrant’s co-founder is Rahul Lahoria, CTO of Mogi I/O.

    What is Mogi’s tagline?

    Mogi’s tagline is ‘Next-gen media technologies’

  • Investing in physical assets has now been made easy by Grip Invest!

    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 Grip Invest.

    Grip Invest is democratizing investment opportunities in lease finance. The startup curates investment opportunities in lease finance by identifying companies looking to lease assets to meet capital needs. It then presents these opportunities on its platform for the retail investors to participate by investing as minimum as INR 20K for an IRR of over 15%.  

    Grip Invest has facilitated Investments worth INR 100 crore for 40+ companies such as Udaan, Furlenco, Holisol, Everest Fleet, Loadshare, IPL Tech, ChargeZone, among many. It has a strong 100,000+ retail investor community, growing 30% month-on-month for the last 12 months.

    StartupTalky interviewed Nikhil Aggarwal (Founder & CEO of Grip Invest) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll discover how Grip Invest was conceptualized, its ideology, business model, funding, growth, future plans, and more.  

    Grip Invest – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Grip Invest
    Founders Nikhil Aggarwal, Vivek Gulati
    Headquarters Gurgaon
    Founded 2020
    Industry Investment Tech, Fintech
    Website gripinvest.in

    Grip Invest – About and Vision
    Grip Invest – Industry Details
    Grip Invest – Idea and Inspiration
    Grip Invest – Founders and Team
    Grip Invest – Ideology behind Name & Logo
    Grip Invest – Business Model & Revenue Model
    Grip Invest – Launch and Marketing Strategies
    Grip Invest – Challenges Faced
    Grip Invest – Growth and Stats
    Grip Invest – Funding and Investors
    Grip Invest – Advisors and Mentors
    Grip Invest – Competitors
    Grip Invest – Future Plans
    Grip Invest – FAQs

    Grip Invest – About and Vision

    Grip’s mission is to democratize investment opportunities and help individuals to create wealth at an attractive risk-reward ratio. At the same time, it also wants to contribute to the growth of the startups and companies by supporting them with capital in the form of assets.

    Grip Invest presents a unique investment option of earning a higher fixed income return along with the backing of an asset (lower risk). The startup curates investment opportunities in lease finance by identifying companies looking to lease assets to meet capital needs. It then presents these opportunities on its platform for the retail investors to participate by investing as minimum as INR 20K for an IRR of over 15%.

    Grip Invest – Industry Details

    Karvy’s India Wealth Report 2019 puts the total individual wealth in India at $5Tn, growing 13.2% annually to $11.4Tn by 2024. While alternative investments are a fraction of the market today – just 0.5% of financial assets, the report estimates that it will be the fastest-growing segment and account for $500Bn by 2024.

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    Grip Invest – Idea and Inspiration

    At Grip, there were two insights that got the team going –

    1. Individual investors have very limited investment options – all their friends and family were just investing in stocks or bank deposits. They knew other products existed and that there was an appetite for them but they just were not available to individual investors
    2. Technology is making companies adopt an asset-light business model – The largest transport provider will not own vehicles (Ola, Rapido, Chalo); the largest furnishing company will not own furniture (Furlenco, Rentomojo); even Amazon Web Services, the cloud server of the world will never need to own the servers. All these business models are a layer of technology where the physical asset – cars, furniture, servers will be owned by someone else. This meant that leasing would be incredibly in demand.

    Grip Invest – Founders and Team

    Nikhil Aggarwal (CEO) and Vivek Gulati are the founders of Grip Invest.

    Grip Invest Founder and CEO
    Nikhil Aggarwal – Founder & CEO of Grip Invest

    Nikhil’s co-founder, Vivek Gulati, used to report to him at his previous start-up, Chalo. Aashish who is Grip Invest’s Chief Product Officer also worked with Vivek and Nikhil at Chalo.

    Vivek Gulati | Co-founder, Grip Invest

    Over the last 6 years, Vivek has been part of multiple early-stage ventures with responsibilities in business development, business expansion, and operations. During his tenure at OYO, Vivek grew from handling business development in NCR to being a micro-market CEO to then heading OYO’s business expansion across 70 cities. Vivek’s role included sales, business strategy, revenue management, and scaling all tier-2 city businesses from 0 to $100Mn/year. Subsequently, as part of the business development team in Chalo, he brought these skill-sets to scale-up partnerships with private and government bus operators across India. In 2016, Vivek also co-founded and ran Frubox, a health food venture doing a 300+ daily delivery of fresh food. Vivek has a B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from the Malaviya National Institute of Technology.

    Aashish Jindal | Chief Product Officer, Grip Invest

    Over the last 5 years, he has taken up responsibilities in product management, program management, and new product launches. Having worked with large corporations such as ICICI Lombard as well as startups, Pepperfry, Chalo, he understands how to execute and implement things in a fast and efficient way. Having worked in both technology and operational roles has helped him succeed in his last role where he grew ARR from $0.2Mn to $5Mn in 5 months. He has a B.Tech degree from one of IIT Roorkee.

    Current company size: 30

    Work Culture

    Grip Invest has always been a people-first approach based and wanted to clearly lay down on its cultural values and style of working. Given it started post first lockdown in 2020 and the team hiring, joining and all the processes happened online, it wrote down about the cultural values early on and started onboarding people post a session on cultural values only.

    Also read: Importance of Work Culture in the Success of a Startup

    Grip Invest’s Cultural values:

    1. Ownership
    2. Commitment
    3. Courage – Ask, Listen, Do
    4. Transparency
    5. Celebrate wins

    Style of working:

    1. Data backed decisions
    2. Encourage out of box thinking
    3. Giving context
    4. Fun place to work
    5. It’s okay to make mistakes but repeating is not

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    The team wanted to decide on a name that can resonate with the idea of democratizing the investment for Indians by bringing the opportunities at a low minimum transaction value.

    Initially, they thought of names like investxs (read – Extra Small), investequal, etc but could not finalize anything. Then Nikhil had this old business idea for real estate opportunities which was GRIP – Group Real Estate Investment and then in one of the PPTs he just used the GRIP name and it just clicked that Grip means in someone’s reach or hand and resonated so much with their current idea.

    Grip Invest
    Grip Invest Logo

    About logo designing: Grip Invest is a data-driven company and the team here believes in creating a process first before doing. So they finalized a process that involved understanding different color schemes, fonts, etc, and then created draft versions. Later they shared those versions with friends and family members to get feedback and finalized the one it has now.

    Grip Invest – Business Model & Revenue Model

    Grip’s Role for Investors

    The startup undertakes the following activities for its investors –

    1. Identify assets for investment and construct deals with leasing partners that meet its financial and risk criteria
    2. Make these investment options (asset, details of leasing partner, and leasing terms) available on the Grip platform
    3. Set up and ensure compliance of the SPV which owns the asset. The assets for each deal are held under an individual SPV structured as a Limited Liability Partnership to ensure transparency and avoid any chance of co-mingling of funds.
    4. Monitoring of the investment over the tenure including ensuring timely payment of lease rental and in adverse situations resale/ release of the assets

    Grip’s Proposition for Lessee’s

    Generally speaking, companies use leasing as an alternative option to taking a loan to purchase an asset for a variety of reasons. In fact in countries in Europe and North America, leasing and hire purchases account for 20-40% of total investments annually while India is at a few percentage points at best.

    These reasons are:

    1. Desire to maintain an asset-light business
    2. Inability to make the upfront payment of 20-30% of the asset value required to take a loan
    3. Desire to match the timing of inflow and outflow or revenue and interest/ lease payments
    4. Ability to achieve a lower cost via lease vs. loan. This depends on the financial profile of the lessee, tax, and depreciation rates that vary case by case.
    5. Inability to take bank finance due to need to provide additional collateral or have a certain financial profile as a borrower
    6. The flexibility of being able to replace the asset before end-of-life, especially applicable for electronics
    7. Desire to avoid hassle or purchasing, maintaining and then selling the asset

    Revenue Model

    Grip Invest charges 1 to 2% from both investors and lessees on the investment amount. Additionally, it gets a 1 to 3% OEM discount on the assets.

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    Grip Invest – Launch and Marketing Strategies

    “We are always thankful to our friends and family members who became our early believers and helped us in making references” says Nikhil, Founder & CEO, Grip Invest.

    It started with a small list of 60 to 70 people in the beginning and then went ahead with word of mouth and introductions made by these people helped the startup to reach its first 100 customers. The team at Grip Invest always believed in collaboration and sharing. They started on simple yet powerful tools like Google Sheet, Asana, and Mailchimp.

    Social Media is a boon for scaling up! Grip Invest started with its organic content on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. It followed a basic process of posting content that resonated with its audience about their investment woes and pain points around fluctuations in the share market, uncertainty in returns, and the mind share all this took. The team saw good traffic flowing in and eventually, people started registering and investing on the website. Great content is the best marketing strategy!

    The startup has always worked with lessee partners who have great due diligence and many times a good brand presence. Th team started doing webinars with the CEOs or Founders of the companies that they leased to and eventually, they promoted the upcoming webinar events, and later the unfiltered session was launched on its YouTube Channel. All these efforts helped in building good trust and brand with their investors.

    Grip Invest [Webinar]

    Grip Invest – Challenges Faced

    The biggest challenge faced by Grip Invest: TRUST

    Investment is all about trust and it is an ongoing thing! Building that trust from scratch for a new and completely online platform was the biggest challenge.

    The team at Grip Invest has always made sure –

    1. To make their due diligence strong
    2. To maintain great transparency on the opportunities for the investors
    3. To get monthly/quarterly updates from their lessee partners
    4. To take proactive measures to fix any problems that they foresee
    5. To build for fallback mechanisms such as re-lease or sale of assets

    The efforts put into building trust have gone a long way and allowed the startup to scale very quickly. It has also created a very powerful brand in the mind of its users which is reflected in the fact that at least 25% of them have referred another user to Grip.

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    Grip Invest – Growth and Stats

    Grip Invest has a strong 100,000+ retail investor community, growing 30% month-on-month for the last 12 months. And since its investment model is entirely based on digital payments, physical presence for investment isn’t required.

    Some of the key metrics & stats of Grip Invest are –

    • 100,000+ registered users from 42 countries and 322 cities
    • 5,000 registered users who have made at least 1 investment
    • 43% of users have invested more than once and 12% have invested more than 5 times. Typically an investor makes their second investment in just 25 days of the first investment.
    • Assets have been leased to 40 different leasing partners
    • 13 Cr have been processed in returns to investors with nil default
    • The startup’s annualized revenue run rate is 7.2 Cr.

    Moreover, Grip Invest has facilitated Investments worth INR 100 crore for 40+ companies such as Udaan, Furlenco, Holisol, Everest Fleet, Loadshare, IPL Tech, ChargeZone, Zypp, Vogo, FleetX, FabAlley, BlueTokai to access a different channel of growth capital.

    Grip Invest – Funding and Investors

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    Aug 2021 Series A $3 Mn Venture Highway, Endiya Partners, AdvantEdge
    Pre-series A – Anicut Capital, Gemba Capital

    • To date, Grip Invest has raised a total funding of $3.6 million
    • Grip Invest recently raised INR 21 Cr ($3 million) in a Series A round led by Venture Highway, Endiya Partners, and AdvantEdge
    • Its Pre-Series A round was led by Anicut Capital and Gemba Capital
    • Key angels in the company include Anupam Mittal, Maninder Gulati, Akash & Reeju (Founders, CashFree), Satyen Kothari (Cube Wealth and Citrus Pay), Ankit Aggarwal (Navi)
    • The founders personally invested 15 Lakhs in the company before receiving the first round of funding

    “We will utilize the capital raised to expand the range of investment products offered, launch new user features and strengthen our team as we aim to facilitate INR 1,000 Cr in investments by Sept’22” – Nikhil added

    Grip Invest – Advisors and Mentors

    • Anupam Mittal, Founder & CEO at People Group
    • Sidharrth Shankar, Partner at J. Sagar Associates
    • Rajiv Gupta, MD at DBS Bank

    Grip Invest – Competitors

    There are several platforms offering new forms of investment and Grip Invest considers them to be its key competitors. These include companies like pyse, TradeCred, KredX, Klubworks, and Wint Wealth. Globally, YieldStreet in the US has been a path leader in this product with 250,000 investors and $1.3 billion in capital invested.

    Grip Invest – Future Plans

    Grip Invest plans to expand the range of investment products offered, launch new user features, and strengthen its team. It is eyeing to facilitate INR 1,000 Cr in investments by Sept’22.

    Grip Invest – FAQs

    What is Grip Invest?

    Grip Invest curates investment opportunities in lease finance by identifying companies looking to lease assets to meet capital needs. It then presents these opportunities on its platform for the retail investors to participate by investing as minimum as INR 20K for an IRR of over 15%.

    Who are the founders of Grip Invest?

    Nikhil Aggarwal (CEO) and Vivek Gulati are the founders of Grip Invest.

    When was Grip Invest launched?

    Grip Invest was launched in 2020 to democratize investment opportunities and help individuals to create wealth at an attractive risk-reward ratio.

    How does Grip Invest make money?

    Grip Invest charges 1 to 2% from both investors and lessees on the investment amount. Additionally, it gets a 1 to 3% OEM discount on the assets.

    How much funding has Grip Invest raised?

    To date, Grip Invest has raised a total funding of $3.6 million.

  • The Natural Wash: Ayurveda-based Personal Care Brand

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

    The Natural Wash (TNW) is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality. The brand offers a plethora of completely natural products such as handmade soaps, hair oil, shampoo, body lotion, facial oil, sunscreen, etc. These products have undergone deep research and are an amalgamation of Ayurveda, herbal ingredients, and modern science.

    StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Akshit Goel (Co-founder/MD, The Natural Wash) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll discover how TNW was conceptualized, its business model, revenue, growth and more.

    The Natural Wash – Company Highlights

    Startup Name The Natural Wash
    Founders Akshit Goel, Shivangi Goel
    Headquarters New Delhi
    Founded 2019
    Industry Personal Care, Skincare
    Website www.thenaturalwash.com

    The Natural Wash – About
    The Natural Wash – Market/Industry Details
    The Natural Wash – Idea and Inspiration
    The Natural Wash – Founders and Team
    The Natural Wash – Name, Tagline & Logo
    The Natural Wash – Business Model & Revenue Model
    The Natural Wash – Growth and Revenue
    The Natural Wash – Launch & Marketing Strategies
    The Natural Wash – Challenges Faced
    The Natural Wash – Competitors
    The Natural Wash – Achievements
    The Natural Wash – Future Plans
    The Natural Wash – FAQs

    The Natural Wash – About

    TNW- The Natural Wash is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality, which already makes it exceptional as most products in the market are chemical-based ones. The brand offers a plethora of completely natural products such as handmade soaps, hair oil, shampoo, body lotion, facial oil, sunscreen, etc. These products have undergone deep research and are an amalgamation of Ayurveda, herbal ingredients, and modern science.

    Moreover, the brand has always endeavored to provide a one-of-its-kind experience to its customers with best-in-class, clinically tested beauty products. Excelling in the field while catering to the patrons of nature-based products, TNW envisions to inspire and empower more people as it packages the secrets of the Earth and the magic of nature in its products and focuses on customer satisfaction and acquisition rather than just profits.  

    TNW always prefers quality over big bucks. The brand wants everyone to appreciate its products for the Ayurvedic goodness, chemical-free formulation, and natural & herbal ingredients.

    The Natural Wash – Market/Industry Details

    The skincare product market was valued at INR 129.76 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.22% during 2021 – 2025 to reach a projected value of INR 191.09 billion by 2025. On the basis of demographics and how the beauty segment was dominant, it accounted for more than half of the market share in 2017 and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.

    The Natural Wash – Idea and Inspiration

    United by similar thinking, upbringing, and passion, Shivangi and Akshit joined hands and came up with products that are cost-effective, chemical-free, and come in handy to people. This is why many of their products are blends of age-old recipes into handy everyday essential products.

    Inspired to make people more aware and switch towards a natural and chemical-free life, this Delhi-based homegrown startup was started by Shivangi and Akshit, at the age of 21.

    Co-founder, Akshit Goel says -“Fortunately, both of us had a common passion and vision to establish a skin and hair care brand that is cost-effective, natural, and chemical-free. So, we joined hands together and decided to come up with such products. I was inspired by my mother who is fond of organic farming and grows herbs in her terrace garden. My vision for chemical-free and natural products with pure ingredients was embraced by my mother’s practices. While Shivangi was always admired for her grandmother’s flawless skin and natural beauty that was possessed using age-old methods, Indian remedies, and ingredients. This was enough to inspire us and come up with a brand that is natural, organic, and beneficial for both skin and hair. Together, we came up with our brainchild: TNW- The Natural Wash”

    The initial phase was very tough. Ingredient suppliers used to deny working with them as no one was interested in working with such low quantities. Akshit used to carry cartons and bags of around 20-30kgs on his head in order to save 50-70 rupees of freight charges.

    Shivangi and Akshit, both used to dry the herbs in sunlight. To just be in the sunlight in summer, every day for a minimum of two hours, to stir the herbs continuously. They could not afford to buy an herb drying machine or hire a person who could do this for them.

    After the initial two months of their stint, the duo was on the verge of giving up. The tides were tough for them to face alone, and they both almost decided to not continue with it. But ‘the don’t give up attitude’ stopped them from backing out and they continued.

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    The Natural Wash – Founders and Team

    Akshit Goel and Shivangi Goel are the founders of The Natural Wash.

    Akshit is responsible for managing day-to-day operations of e-commerce, accounts, and marketing and he is consistent with his efforts to make the brand a great success. Whereas, Shivangi Goel manages the Graphic, Content, and Social media departments. She has studied English Literature at Khalsa College, DU. Akshit Goel has done Bachelor in Business Administration.

    Company Size – Currently 50 members and the company also aims to have a team of approximately 125 to 150 members by the end of 2022.

    TNW’s work culture and zeal are contiguous and provide the best working environment to shape talent that is still rough on the edges. Colleagues are treated like family here and thus it’s a great learning experience together with everyone.

    Initially, the founders just started with soaps. They wanted to name it something that included the word “Wash.” As they provided natural products, the duo chose “Nature Wash” and then “The Natural Wash” in a few days.

    TNW logo
    The Natural Wash Logo

    As for the tagline, Akshit & Shivangi wanted something that described the nature of their company, which provides ayurvedic, herbal, and natural products. Keeping the tagline short and simple, they chose ”Dive into Flora” since flora is something natural and comes from the earth.

    The Natural Wash – Business Model & Revenue Model

    The Natural Wash (TNW) functions on a D2C business model. The company ships its products all over India from different warehouses situated throughout the country. Customers can order TNW products from its website and from almost all the key eCommerce portals. Right now, the startup doesn’t have an offline presence, though it is exploring this space and soon it will launch the products in the offline markets also.

    TNW’s products are ranged from INR 99 to INR 650.

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    The Natural Wash – Growth and Revenue

    TNW- The Natural Wash personal care brand made over 10 Cr revenue in the first full financial year. The founders invested Rs 2 lakh as an initial investment in the business. Growth came from reinvestment of earnings. Every rupee earned has been reinvested in the business. The startup’s target revenue for the financial year 2021-22 is 40+ Cr. As of now, it is selling out 2500+ units on an average every day.

    The Natural Wash – Launch & Marketing Strategies

    “It was for our family members and friends who were among our list of first few customers. We started with soaps like charcoal, potato rice, oats and honey, neem, and ubtan soap. Apart from these, we had Rose Water and Lip Balm” – Akshit added.

    Some of the key strategies the team employs to make sure the company retains and grows its customer base are sticking to the mantra of providing their patrons with all-natural products, providing customers with cost-effective offers, and making the product accessible to every class of society. TNW makes sure that its internal team is constantly engaged and motivated to deliver its goals in alignment with the companies. Moreover, keeping in mind the market demands and new trends to be up to date to make a mark in the market. Most importantly, the startup invests in quality rather than brand marketing and endorsements.

    The best-recorded strategy which has given TNW the most traction and sales is word of mouth. The startup is planning on other marketing strategies as well.

    The Natural Wash – Challenges Faced

    Speaking about the challenges faced, Mr. Askhit Goel says –

    “When the first lockdown happened in March-2020, it was all about keeping ourselves safe from Corona and keeping our spirits high. We got zero support from the employees and the business was closed down. Sales numbers hit zero. Our cash flow was badly hit as there was no way we could stop the recurring costs like rents, maintenance, and salaries. It was very tough to get back on track after the lockdown for the obvious reasons mentioned above. However, we started again with high spirits, and there is no looking back. During the second lockdown, it was pretty normal. Our sales were normal and deliveries were running as smoothly as possible at that time.”

    The Natural Wash – Competitors

    TNW considers Mamaearth, Wow, Moms & co., The Man’s Company, Juicy Chemistry, Biotique, Kama Ayurveda, Just Herbs, Plum Goodness, Soul Tree, Khadi Naturals, Organic Harvest, and Aroma Magic as its major competitors.

    The Natural Wash – Achievements

    The Natural Wash has had its share of success and awards, some of them include the White Page award to the company for most admired brand, White Page award dedicated to Mr. Akshit Goel for the most inspirational leader, Amazon, and Flipkart awards for being premium category sellers across. To boot, Akshit has been honored to receive a call from Josh Talks as they chose him to be a speaker on their platform.

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    The Natural Wash – Future Plans

    Five years down the line, the team aims to make TNW- The Natural Wash the top-selling brand for skin, hair, and body products in the beauty care industry. They are planning to have a brand face soon. TNW wishes to target a larger audience by creating cost-effective products with the goodness of natural ingredients. It plans to launch the baby care range in the month of November 2021, wherein, they are also planning to launch the cosmetics range by the end of FY2021.

    The Natural Wash – FAQs

    What is The Natural Wash (TNW)?

    The Natural Wash is a personal care brand for skin, hair, and body care products focusing on Ayurvedic modality, which already makes it exceptional as most products in the market are chemical-based ones.

    Who are the founders of TNW?

    Akshit Goel and Shivangi Goel are the founders of The Natural Wash.

    How does The Natural Wash make money?

    The Natural Wash (TNW) functions on a D2C business model. Customers can order TNW products from its website and from almost all the key eCommerce portals. TNW’s products are ranged from INR 99 to INR 650.

    Who are TNW’s competitors?

    TNW considers Mamaearth, Wow, Moms & co., The Man’s Company, Juicy Chemistry, Biotique, Kama Ayurveda, Just Herbs, Plum Goodness, Soul Tree, Khadi Naturals, Organic Harvest, and Aroma Magic as its major competitors.

  • Video Factory: Your One-stop Video Production Company!

    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 Video Factory.

    Video Factory is India’s leading video production company creating both animated and live-shoot: explainer videos, training & e-learning videos, corporate videos, promotional & branding videos, content marketing videos, and more. Their content-driven and result-oriented videos help brands simplify and enhance their business communication and optimize their conversions and visibility. Being video specialists, they help businesses explain their ideas in a crisp, interesting, and simplified manner and meet their communication objectives through videos.

    With a team of 25+ members across Kolkata and Bangalore, Video Factory has delivered over 1000 videos to 500+ businesses, in 11+ vernacular languages, across 15+ countries. Working with brands like the World Health Organisation, United Nations, Tata Group, Ola, Uber, Berger Paints, Times Of India, Bajaj Finserv, GE Healthcare, and many more, has helped the team learn at an exponential rate & helped the brands/companies meet their communication objectives.

    StartupTalky interviewed Rashika Jain (Co-founder & CEO, Video Factory) to get insights into the startup story and roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll discover how Video Factory was conceptualized, its products/services, future plans, and more.

    Video Factory – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Video Factory
    Founder Rashika Jain, Mansi Binani
    Founded 2015
    Headquarters Kolkata
    Industry Video
    Website videofactory.in

    Video Factory – About
    Video Factory – Startup Journey
    Video Factory – Product/Service and USP
    Video Factory – Founders & Team
    Video Factory – Ideology behind name, tagline & logo
    Video Factory – Launch and Marketing Strategies
    Video Factory – Challenges Faced
    Video Factory – Future Plans
    Video Factory – FAQs

    Video Factory – About

    Video Factory’s services include, but are not limited to:

    1. Marketing or Branding Videos – Explainer videos, Promotional & Branding videos, Presentation videos, Product videos, Corporate videos, Content Marketing videos, and more.
    2. Training & E-learning Videos – Mobile-app Tour videos, Orientation videos, Onboarding videos, Technical Skills & Development videos, Warehouse-based & Manufacturing videos, Soft-skills Development videos, and more.

    It creates its videos in different styles, such as:

    • Animation – 2D Animation, 3D Animation, Whiteboard Animation, Motion Graphics, and more
    • Live-shoot

    The team at Video Factory is sparked by the spirit to simplify communication for the brands and empower them to leverage their digital presence by creating compelling videos for them.

    Video Factory – Startup Journey

    Rashika Jain (Co-founder & CEO of Video Factory) always knew that she wanted to be an entrepreneur and the start-up world seemed very exciting to her. So she left her corporate job in the quest to find the calling and started meeting with startups, attending startup events and workshops across the country, reading startup stories, blogs, and so on.

    During her interaction with start-ups, she noticed how startup founders struggled to communicate their startup ideas. Some were too passionate and kept on talking, some went too deep into the technical aspects so a layman couldn’t really understand, while others simply lacked the gift of gab. They were all doing great stuff and knew their work, but a good chunk of these smart founders couldn’t articulate their ideas in a crisp manner and was losing opportunities because of this. Rashika knew that’s the gap that she wanted to fill and provide one-minute solutions to brands.

    This gave rise to Video Factory, a 3 member team, delivering simple animated explainer videos to start-ups. They received a great initial response and realized there was a great demand for videos, which led to their expansion, and today they deliver almost every and any kind of video that helps companies excel and become more efficient.

    Video Factory – Product/Service and USP

    How does it work?

    People can go to the Video Factory website, share their contact details & the team will get in touch with them, understand their problem, find the best solution for it & tailor a video accordingly.

    What problems does Video Factory solve?

    Today, more than 70% of the content consists of videos, and by 2022, online videos will account for more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic. 93% of brands got a new customer because of a video on social media & 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.

    In such a situation, video is not only the most powerful tool of communication, but its potential is ever-increasing, with entertainment, business, and even educational sectors relying on videos to interact with the audience & keep them informed and interested. And being one of the forerunners who jumped on the bandwagon of videos, Video Factory has been utilizing every opportunity to create videos & also creating opportunities for brands to utilize videos, ever since.

    Video Factory’s services help clients save a fortune on time and money and:

    • Enrich business communication (both internal and external)
    • Enhance employee training & increase the productivity of a workforce
    • Simplify and explain complex ideas in a concise manner; whether it’s a product/service, process, functioning of an app, etc.
    • Increase the reach of digital marketing campaigns
    • Achieve a greater reach and visibility
    • Increase conversions and drive sales
    • Overcome barriers of language through vernacular content
    • Overcome geographical barriers through training and e-learning content
    • Build audience trust

    Covid-19 has given rise to a new business landscape; remote working, online classes, technological adoption, digital promotions, etc. These created various challenges for businesses worldwide that had to adopt newer methodologies to adapt to the changing world. Videos for training, social media promotions, presentations in webinars, etc., are really helping overcome these new challenges. Video Factory has focused on Training & E-learning videos for quite some time now & has helped many companies, even the Government, enhance their training & internal communication with videos. The team knows for a fact that videos are the closest to replacing human training effort with actionable results that make the target audience think, perceive, and react, according to the message that is meant to be conveyed.

    USP and Innovation

    As a women-led organization, they are a bunch of creative thinkers, visual animators, and growth drivers who look upon themselves as a factory that up-skills itself each day to be Collaborators of Change and Harbingers of New Possibilities. In their quest to serve and do the best for their clients, the team is trying to learn every day. Video Factory focuses more on the content and does a lot of research on it, instead of just focusing on the design. They don’t promote a brand, they believe in delivering a content-driven and result-oriented video by creating a unique & intriguing story that resonates with a brand’s identity.

    Since 2018, Video Factory is the only video production company substantially creating training and e-learning videos, especially in the Indian market, and it prides itself as a company that masters learning & development content.

    The startup has made its internal processes very swift and set them in a very standardized format which makes the client experience really good and also reduces the time in which it delivers its services. The team has designed the content and streamlined the processes in such a way that they deliver the service in half the time of the industry’s standards, which helps reduce time and effort, thereby reducing costs and passing the benefit to their clients.

    Video Factory – Live Shoot

    Video Factory – Founders & Team

    Rashika Jain and Mansi Binani are the founders of Video Factory.

    About Founders –

    Rashika Jain | Co-founder & CEO, Video Factory

    Founder and CEO of Video Factory
    Rashika Jain; Co-founder & CEO of Video Factory

    Rashika was previously an electrical engineer and MBA gold medalist. A stint at Bharti Airtel led Rashika to entrepreneurial waters with Video Factory in 2015. With her analytical & pragmatic skills, she aspires to enhance industries and create a body of work that can add to their business goals and revenues.

    Mansi Binani | Co-founder, Video Factory

    Founder of Video Factory
    Mansi Binani: Co-founder of Video Factory

    Mansi has helmed leadership roles in brand & marketing communications for ten years. A NIFT graduate & recipient of the “Most Creative Collection” award by the Ministry of Textiles, she has worked as the Marketing Lead at MyJobs in Myanmar, a top online recruitment company. A design storehouse, she dreams of enhancing & enabling the most ambitious brands.

    How is Work divided?

    While both the founders strategize and work together to ensure that there is cohesiveness in what they are doing and all the different verticals work for the same kind of goals, they have divided the roles based on the different verticals – sales, marketing, finance, operations, etc. Being the CEO, Rashika takes care of the operations, partly sales, since it has to be driven by both of them, and the overall work happening in the company. Mansi takes care more of the marketing & the PR and the branding of the company, as well as sales and client management. Within sales, they divide their work on the basis of the scale & revenue of the project. The smaller, day-to-day work is handled by one & the larger, bulk work is handled by the other.

    Team & Culture

    Video Factory’s culture is dominated by three main aspects – Empowerment, Independence, and Responsibility. Empowerment & Independence is the motto Video Factory lives by. The founders believe that each person should have the freedom of thought & be given the chance to execute those thoughts. Video Factory’s team members have the autonomy to try working in different roles and are always encouraged to follow their gut and be the decision-maker. They believe that if every member is a master of his own, then there is more scope for growth and members also get space to be independent. In fact, they don’t even have any fixed time for lunch and don’t have a formal dress code because the founders feel that is something they can’t and don’t even want to dictate. Hence you can basically wear your mood to the office and don’t have to wear something you’re not comfortable in. But with freedom comes responsibility. At Video Factory, the team believes in taking accountability for the actions that they have freedom for. If they are given the gift of flexibility & freedom, then they also have to be accountable for it.

    Founders & Team of Video Factory
    Video Factory Team

    Video Factory believes in the underrated power of research for accurate results. Most of their work involves such thorough research that the actual execution becomes extremely easy. Working with clients from different industries and with companies who are into complex businesses keeps the job interesting. Working with big brands also helps them in gaining exposure and experience, challenging themselves, and working under pressure and learning. At Video Factory, everyone has to be self-reliant & do things on their own, which helps them be their own teacher and learn in the best way.

    “We don’t have any rigid workstations, our workplace gives members physical space which leads to a creative flow, more room for discussions, and an overall healthy environment that ensures better teamwork. Even our flexible WFH options and timings and a safe environment, especially for women, help our team feel comfortable, which in turn makes them more confident and perform better at their job.” says Rashika Jain, Co-founder & CEO, Video Factory.

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    Name: Name: From Day-1, the founders knew that they wanted to be a company that creates lots of videos, and only videos. They wanted to be video specialists. They didn’t want to venture into 10 different domains like digital marketing, graphics, content, etc. Their focus was on their hero – VIDEO, which is why they wanted to keep ‘video’ in the name.

    When they were thinking of specialists, they thought about where these specialized products were created, the standardization of the kind of work they do. That’s when they thought of a ‘factory’, the one place where a product is made from start to end, and they envisioned the company to be exactly like that; a factory where the product, that is, the video, is created right from ideation to execution.

    Tagline: Video Factory’s goal behind making videos was very clear and simple from the start – it wanted to simplify communication for businesses. Every step the team has taken since then, whether it was creating explainer videos, mobile-app tour videos, or training videos, has been to simplify communication internally (within the company’s workforce) or externally (for the company’s target audience). So it was a no-brainer that “simplifying communication” should be the tagline.

    Logo: The founders wanted to just represent the name in a visual format. So they literally just drew their own logo by converting the words into an icon. This is why the logo looks like a factory (where videos are made), a camera (with which videos are made sometimes), and has a “play” button (which is the classic representation of a video).

    Video Factory
    Video Factory Logo

    Hence, every aspect organically came together to form VIDEO FACTORY, a company that creates videos from start to end, to simplify communication for businesses.

    Video Factory – Launch and Marketing Strategies

    “Our vision & idea was really strong, we were absolutely clear about what we can do for, & provide to a brand, which is why our first customer literally fell on our laps. Digital platforms, social media networks, & digital marketing definitely helped us get more clients, but we genuinely believe that it was the good work we delivered that resulted in the classic word-of-mouth & truly helped us grow to 100 customers. And once we reached that peak, things just happened organically for us” – Rashika added.

    Video Factory – Challenges Faced

    Being one of the forerunners who jumped on the bandwagon of videos in 2015, a time when images were still considered to be the best, Video Factory has been utilizing every opportunity to create videos & also creating opportunities for brands to utilize videos, ever since.

    Initially, not everyone understood the power & potential of videos but the start-up sailed through, firmly believing in its vision. And soon the industry & market started to change, videos became the buzz and their impacts started to show. Video Factory was undoubtedly a contributor to bringing about this change & knew that it was time to expand the horizon & delve into something new again. The online world was gaining momentum rapidly, with a digital option for almost everything available at your fingertips. That is when the team understood that digital training & e-learning is going to be the next big thing. So, they started creating training & e-learning videos in 2018, but with the sudden influx of the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire world shifted to a ‘Digital’ mode of being, that’s when they played their masterstroke & turned the tables around by getting learning & development content in vogue.

    Video Factory was already on the path to becoming the best training & e-learning video production company in India & Covid-19 acted as an accelerator for them. The team can proudly state that with their hard work & innovation behind training & e-learning videos, they managed to turn even the harshest of adversity into an opportunity for themselves & have successfully worked with UNDP, JSI, WHO, in supporting them with the overhaul of their training from being rigidly offline to training their ASHA/ANM online & communicating vital social reforms schemes digitally through videos. They have even worked closely with both National & International development sectors over the years and voiced the efficacy of several state-initiated novel endeavors like – Vidhwa Pension, State Treatment Fund Pension, Old age Pension, Economic Self-reliance through rural Self-Help Groups, Ration card entitlement, Micro-financing for women alcohol sellers, besides communicating several important messages on farmer training, safe abortion, childbirth, and achieving zero malnutrition.

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    Video Factory – Future Plans

    Video Factory wants to be the leading training & e-learning video production company in India that helps businesses meet their communication objectives.

    It has already created videos in more than 11 vernacular languages, all of which have been received very well by the targeted audience, and the team wants to develop its vernacular language capability even further because they believe that that is the future. They believe that if you are doing things at the grass-root level and are reaching out to the masses, then companies will need to have content in vernacular languages, and Video Factory wants to build its capacity to be able to assist them in doing so. The startup is already working with 15-20% of clients outside India; German, Spanish, and Arabic companies. It wants to grow its base because the startup’s business is such that it doesn’t have any geographical boundaries, so they want to reach out to more people abroad.

    Video Factory’s fundamental goal, something that the team has envisioned from the start, is that they literally want to be a factory. They want to create videos in bulk, daily, while having a set standard for the quality, just like in a factory. They want to churn out videos like a factory, automate the processes, get technology infused into its systems in a way that a lot of the manual work can be automated while keeping the design, creativity, and the human element intact.

    “We go and grow as long as you grow along that infinite ladder of success” – this is the message that Video Factory gives to its clients and the principle upon which the team envisions success.

    When Video Factory talks of itself as harbingers of new possibilities, it looks forward to building one of the best video production teams in the country, working with all kinds of brands, creating the most compelling videos, reiterating remarkable socio-economic impacts, and blooming the knowledge engine in their factory to be the most robust video growth solutions provider in the millenniums to come. This is the future the startup is working for and the team knows that they will make this possible!

    Video Factory – FAQs

    What is Video Factory?

    Video Factory is a team of video specialists providing both animated and live-shoot videos. Its content-driven and result-oriented videos help brands optimize their conversions and visibility.

    Who founded Video Factory?

    Rashika Jain (CEO) and Mansi Binani founded Video Factory.

    What is the tagline of Video Factory?

    “Simplifying Communication” – is the tagline of Video Factory.

  • Success Story Of 10Club Startup: Helping Entrepreneurs & E-Commerce Business Grow

    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 10Club.

    Each and every business is unique and respectable in its own way. Planning only for business growth is certainly a good idea but before that, it is essential for the founders/entrepreneurs to go to the depth of the matters to achieve something big and credible.

    10Club believes in Data + Insights = Scale + Efficiency. This is the only formula the company follows. This organization believes to go down to the depth of the matters individually and build the foundation of successful businesses. The company ensures that great entrepreneurs will surely reach great heights one day because these people have already taken greater risks.

    Read the 10Club success story below to understand the company better with useful insights from its Founders and Team, Tagline, Slogan, Logo, Business model, Revenue model, Funding and investors, Growth, Future plans, and more.

    10Club – Company Highlights

    Company Name 10Club
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Sector Consumer Goods and E-Commerce
    Founders Bhavna Suresh, Deepak Nair and Joel Ayala
    Founded 2021
    Website 10club.team

    10Club – Latest News
    10Club – About
    10Club – Founders and Team
    10Club – Tagline, Slogan and Logo
    10Club – Business Model
    10Club – Revenue Model
    10Club – Funding and Investors
    10Club – Growth
    10Club – Acquisitions
    10Club – Future Plans
    10Club – FAQs

    10Club – Latest News

    21 September, 2021 – 10Club announces the acquisition of My Newborn, a brand selling baby products, which is the first acquisition of the brand.  

    10Club founders talking about the success story of 10Club

    10Club – About

    In today’s daily life great businesses are growing, holding the hands of competent entrepreneurs. Competition is always really very tough in the marketplace and as a result, these companies get their foundational years right but often face difficulties to understand their current position in the market. This is where companies like 10Club step into the scenario. The aim of 10Club is to allow these great entrepreneurs to enjoy rapid growth and participation hassle-free. 10Club is a trustworthy company on which entrepreneurs can be sure of.

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    10Club – Founders and Team

    Bhavna Suresh is the co-founder and the CEO of the company. Deepak Nair and Joel Ayala are the other co-founders of the company, 10Club.

    Bhavna Suresh

    She is the co-founder and the CEO of the company 10Club. She is an entrepreneur, who started her career as a Business Development Manager at 22feet Tribal Worldwide. Bhavna is also known as the founder of another company, StyleBank, and the CEO of Lamudi Philippines.

    Deepak Nair

    He is the co-founder of the company 10Club. He works as a business strategist, digital marketer, and also as advertising strategist. He previously worked as the CEO of White Canvas Communications Pvt Ltd. Deepak was also the Chief Executive Officer at 22feet Tribal Worldwide.

    Bhavna Suresh, Deepak Nair and Joel Ayala | 10Club Co-founders
    Bhavna Suresh, Deepak Nair and Joel Ayala (Left to Right) Co-Founders of 10Club

    Joel Ayala

    Joel Ayala is another Co-founder of 10Club and also known as the Co-founder and Managing Partner at Class 5 Global LLC, a venture firm that aims to invest in the next generation of global entrepreneurs.

    The tagline of the company is, ‘Sach Ke Sath‘.

    10Club Logo
    10Club Logo

    10Club – Business Model

    The business model of this company is very unique. The company believes in working together, going into depth, operating and growing e-commerce startup businesses. 10Club has a tried and tested model. It works quickly and provides its clients with the best possible and actionable insights which help the entrepreneurs to understand where exactly their new business is standing in the marketplace and how to take it forward towards growth and success.

    10Club – Revenue Model

    The revenue model of the company is very simple. By using simple words, we can say that the company 10Club is taking all the responsibilities of a new entrepreneur who has just started his/her new business.

    • Business Review – a valuation of the entire business based on the potentiality and performance is established after the connection.
    • Paper Agreement – verification of all of the financial statements is done simultaneously. Contracts and other agreements are prepared too.
    • Fund Transfer – paperwork will be signed by both parties. Data analysis will be done and initially, the process will be taking 6 to 8 weeks.
    • Business Integration – optimization is done.
    • Business Acceleration – data analysis and expert insights are provided or showcased to scale the newly growing business.

    By following all the above-mentioned processes the company collects a good amount of revenue from each startup business it is connected to.

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    10Club – Funding and Investors

    10Club has raised a total amount of $40 million in funding over the one funding round. 10Club is funded by six investors. Fireside Ventures is the lead investor, followed by Secocha Ventures, HeyDay, PDS International, Class 5 Global, and boAt founders.

    Date Transaction Name Money Raised Lead Investor
    June 29, 2021 Seed Round $40 million Fireside Ventures, HeyDay, PDS International

    10Club – Growth

    As mentioned above, the company raised $40 million in the funding round and it is one of the largest seed rounds in the e-commerce roll up space. Since it is one of the largest ones that is why it is a big matter of talk now and more or less everybody knows about it.

    10Club – Acquisitions

    10Club has acquired 5 companies in total. The company last acquired 3 gardening startups – Kraftseeds, Gate Garden, and Kriti Kalash on November 19, 2021. This acquisition would further help the company to scale through product mixes, sales channel expansion, and pricing models. My Newborn was the maiden acquisition of 10Club on September 21, 2021, after which it acquired Skudgear on September 30, 2021.

    Acquiree Name Date Price
    Kriti Kalash November 19, 2021 –
    Gate Garden November 19, 2021 –
    Kraftseeds November 19, 2021 –
    Skudgear September 30, 2021 –
    My Newborn September 21, 2021 –

    10Club – Future Plans

    The company 10Club wants to create a better space for startups. It wants to collaborate with promising businesses on e-commerce platforms and roll them up to help them grow. Startups often fail to manage everything after the initial months of growth that they gain in the beginning. Competition has undoubtedly increased in the marketplace over time but all of the existing companies want growth. This is why 10Club has set out in the market to aid such startup companies with more technology, supply chain, and marketing expertise in the future. More and more funding will help the company to expand its portfolio and bring changes for the upcoming startup businesses to acquire.

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    10Club – FAQs

    What is 10Club startup?

    10club is a Bangalore-based startup that acquires small e-commerce platforms and scales up those businesses.

    Who is the founder of 10Club?

    Bhavna Suresh, Deepak Nair, and Joel Ayala are the other co-founders of  10Club startup.

    When was 10Club founded?

    10Club startup was founded in 2021.