Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byNothing.
Remember carrying those cassette walkmans as a teenager? Well, we no longer need one, as we have mobiles now. Similar is the case of VCR and Analog TV, which too has now become obsolete. The evolution of consumer technology is not unknown. Consumer electronics products have become sleeker, comfortable, and easy to use. There are many businesses and technology experts who are working to make consumer electronics even better. Here we are featuring one such newly established startup that seems all set to make some noise in the consumer electronics industry.
The London Based Startup named ‘Nothing’ is formed with the vision to offer smart consumer electronics products that look so natural that it blends with the background, and seems like ‘nothing’. Nothing’s products are made using custom-made components, which makes the products look stylish and different from the rest.
Nothing was founded in October 2020 by ex-OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei with a mission is to remove barriers between people and technology, to create a seamless digital future. The company wants to come up with consumer electronics products that are beautiful, look very natural, and can be used comfortably and effortlessly.
Nothing’s first product, Bluetooth wireless earbuds ‘Nothing ear (1)’, is ready to hit the market worldwide on 31st August 2021. Nothing has partnered with Flipkart to launch ‘ear (1)’ in India. Starting 17th August 2021, one can pre-order ‘ear (1)’ at Flipkart. ‘ear (1)’ comes with attractive features like state-of-the-art noise cancellation, 3 high definition mics, and clear voice technology that ensures that calls via these earbuds are loud and clear. Besides, earbuds are sweat and water splash resistant. If you are someone who often misplaces your earbuds and wastes time looking for them, you can easily find your earbuds through the ‘Find My Earbud’ option in the ear (1) App. Nothing ear (1) come with a beautiful transparent design.
Nothing ear(1)
Nothing plans to come up with a wide range of products in different categories in near future. All the products will be designed considering the following principles –
Weightless: The products will not have anything unnecessary. Nothing’s products will only have those features or qualities that will enhance the user experience.
Effortless: The products will be easy to use. Nothing ensures seamless interaction between the product and the consumer.
Timeless: The designs will be closer to nature and timeless.
Nothing plans to introduce consumer electronics products that are simple. The products should look so natural that it blends into the backdrop and seems unnoticeable or ‘nothing’. The company’s name is inspired by this very philosophy.
Nothing’s Company Logo
Nothing – Founder
Ex OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei founded Nothing in October 2020.
Carl Pei – Founder of Nothing
Carl Pei is a dropout from Stockholm School Of Economics. He worked as an International Markets Manager with consumer electronics company OPPO, before launching his own consumer electronics brand OnePlus in December 2013.
Nothing – Mission and Vision
As Carl Pei says, “Nothing’s mission is to remove barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future. We believe that the best technology is beautiful, yet natural and intuitive to use. When sufficiently advanced, it should fade into the background and feel like nothing.”
Nothing – Business Model
According to Nothing co-founder Carl Pei, initially, the company will not foray into selling software, and will just focus on selling hardware. However, as indicated by Carl, in the future Nothing may sell software products as well.
Many consumer electronics brands use similar components. Thus, the products of these companies look similar. ‘Nothing’ is using custom-made components for making its products, which will surely help the company stand out from its competitors.
Tony Fadell, Casey Neistat, Kevin Lin, and Steve Huffman.
Nothing – Acquisitions and Partnerships
Acquiree Name
About Acquiree
Date
Amount
Essential
Essential is a mobile and home devices company focused on creating consumer technology products for the 21st century.
Feb 15, 2021
–
Besides, acquiring Essential, Nothing has partnered with Swedish consumer electronics company Teenage Engineering. Nothing announced Teenage Engineering as its founding partner. The CEO of Teenage Engineering, Jesper Kouthoofd, has been appointed Nothing’s creative lead. Tom Howard, the Vice Head of Design, Teenage Engineering, is operating as the Head of design at Nothing.
Pei said in a statement:
“I’m really excited to welcome Teenage Engineering to the growing Nothing family. They consist of some of the best designers and creatives that I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Together, we’ve created a product roadmap that’s unique and true to Nothing’s vision.”
In the future, Nothing plans to come up with more consumer electronics products under different categories, thus building an ecosystem of devices. The brand’s vision is congruent with the brand name and wants to make technology so natural that it resembles ‘ nothing’.
As Pei says, “I kind of envision a grass field with people having a picnic and there’s no screen, there’s no laptop screen, there’s no phone screen, there’s no smartwatch screen, there’s no billboard screen,” That’s the end state that Nothing aims to achieve.
Nothing – FAQs
What does Nothing do?
Nothing is a new consumer technology business based in London that aspires to eliminate barriers between technology and people to create a frictionless digital future.
Which country is Nothing based in?
Nothing is a new consumer technology business based in London.
Who founded Nothing?
Nothing was founded by Carl Pei in October 2020.
What’s the first product of Nothing?
Nothing’s first product is ear(1), a set of wireless earbuds that can be purchased from Flipkart.
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 AdmitKard.
AdmitKard is a venture capital-funded Edtech that simplifies access to higher education opportunities. Founded in 2017 by Piyush Bhartiya and Rachit Agrawal, the startup has already facilitated admission for 1500 students and is tied up with 2500 universities across the globe.
AdmitKard’s platform suggests the best possible universities through data-backed algorithmsand applies to these universities from the same platform in a few clicks. The platform also suggests relevant current international students, called Mentors, who can share their real-experience of their journey to studying abroad. From end-to-end guidance on best education loans to profile building and accommodation services, students can get it all in one platform!
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Piyush Bhartiya (Founder & CEO of AdmitKard) to get insights on the startup story and growth hacks of the company. In this article, you’ll discover how AdmitKard started, its founders, AdmitKard’s funding details, and more.
AdmitKard is a venture capital-funded Edtech that simplifies access to higher education opportunities. A lot of times students are not even aware of the possible opportunities abroad. All they know is the popular universities and courses. For the students who aspire to avail higher education abroad, AdmitKard is here to ensure that they are aware of all the courses, universities, admission criteria, financial support, application procedures, and other necessary details.
AdmitKard’s long-term goal is to make global education easily accessible to all by building information transparency and process simplicity. Enabling the flow of global talent is the only way to unlock individual potential.
AdmitKard – Industry Details
As per MEA, there were 5.88 lac Indian students who went to study abroad where globally there are 5mn students who chose to study outside their country. This has been growing at 20% YoY and in next 5 years, more than 1 mn students should go abroad from India. This is one of the fastest-growing market segments.
Rachit and Piyush were in London celebrating the success of their first startup venture. Sitting at a cafe in London, surrounded by 20 Indian students, they realized that most of them could have grabbed better opportunities. They could not avail themselves of the course or stream that they aspired for, only due to lack of awareness. Either they were misguided, misinformed, or simply lacked awareness. That is when Rachit and Piyush decided to establish AdmitKard to address the gap.
To be sure of the feasibility of the idea, the founders spent 6 months just researching, conducting surveys, and discussing the idea and model with their mentors. A lot of communication had to be done with the universities as well to understand the channel.
AdmitKard – Product/Services Offered
AdmitKard is an end-to-end platform equipped with all that is required to understand the universities and the courses. The platform suggests the best possible universities through data-backed algorithms and applies to these universities from the same platform in a few clicks. The platform also suggests relevant current international students, called Mentors, who can share their real-experience of their journey to studying abroad. Students get end-to-end guidance from availing of the best education loans, academic, and language test preparations, profile building, accommodation services, and financial services.
AdmitKard’s services are its USP. The startup is trying to solve a challenge that has been prevailing for the longest, as offline counselors are unorganized and not tech-enabled.
AdmitKard – Founders and Team
Rachit Agrawal and Piyush Bhartiya are the founders of AdmitKard.
Rachit Agrawal and Piyush Bhartiya – AdmitKard Founders
Rachit and Piyush used to work together at BCG. Then they started their own first venture.
“Since we were already enthusiastic entrepreneurs, we understood the fact that if there is a gap, then there is scope too. We decided to start AdmitKard as we could see the scope, challenges, and a feasible model. And all this following an experience that he and I shared together” Piyush added.
AdmitKard is a team of 60 dynamic and young people. A large number of members have been hired on referrals and they maintain a positive work environment. The company has monthly town halls as well as each team member has personalized development plans.
As a founder, Piyush’s responsibility is to reach out to more and more students and create the guidance framework while Rachit ensures that each student is delivered the best in class guidance.
AdmitKard Team
AdmitKard – Startup Launch
If you look at the students, they throng to various social media channels when they are in doubt and are seeking help. AdmitKard created a student community on Facebook and enabled them to get their queries answered by its mentors. Getting the first 100 was a breeze for AdmitKard.The team’s entire focus has been on creating a world-class product that enables 2 things –
Best recommendations for the student based on their objective, profile, and preferences
Making the process simple and transparent by giving them all they need on a single dashboard.
This has enabled AdmitKard to scale its advisory multi-fold with much more additional costs and yet be able to deliver quality at scale. Mentor sessions and webinars have been the most successful campaign for the startup.
It is a complex problem that AdmitKard is trying to solve. It needs information about lakhs of courses and a wide variety of interests. The team has solved this with their mentor network, where the startup crowdsources data and enables live conversation between mentors and students thereby resolving the most peculiar of doubts.
AdmitKard – Growth
AdmitKard is a startup based in Delhi-NCR. Over the period, the startup has been able to process around 12000 student applications and has guided over 1 lakh+ student. Due to the pandemic, a lot of students were struggling with the admissions, prospects, and uncertainties, which lead to a rise in the number of queries by over 1100 percent on its platform.
AdmitKard has already facilitated admission for 1500 students and is tied up with 2500 universities across the globe.
The team at AdmitKard has tried its best to create relevant tech-enabled solutions. AdmitKard’s algorithm helps students discover the best for them. And, it has heavily implemented AI to facilitate counseling for aspirants. All this requires a tech team and a lot of investment, which the startup has been able to pursue following the financial support provided by the investors.
Most of the players in the field of foreign education counseling are offline counselors only. And that market is very unorganized. In terms of edtech, AdmitKard claims to be the pioneer in this specific model.
AdmitKard’s biggest achievements are its student testimonials and it has 1000s of those. There is no bigger or more important trophy than that. That said, the startup has received multiple awards within the academic community for its career guidance to students by multiple universities and schools.
AdmitKard Review
AdmitKard – Future Plans
AdmitKard aims to help students not only from India but globally to use its platform for taking their education and career decisions. There is already fast traction that the team is seeing and a record number of students are applying through the platform. The startup plans to become a $100 revenue company in the next 2-3 years.
AdmitKard – FAQs
What is AdmitKard?
AdmitKard is a venture capital-funded Edtech that simplifies access to higher education opportunities.
Who are the founders of AdmitKard?
Rachit Agrawal and Piyush Bhartiya are the founders of AdmitKard.
How much is AdmitKard’s funding?
AdmitKard has raised total funding of $1 million from Vamsi ( Vedantu), Ravi Shankar (Doubtnut), Ashneer (Bharatpe), Mayank (Upgrad), and Sumit Jain (Unacademy) in Pre-series A Round.
Is AdmitKard trustworthy?
AdmitKard’s biggest achievement is its student testimonials and it has 1000s of those. One can check AdmitKard’s website for more details.
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 JumboTiger.
Founded by Mayank Pokharna and Subbu Athikunte, JumboTiger is a real-time, collaborative, configurable, new-age property management software that brings multiple features from different apps and software into one platform and contextualizes it for property management of the future. The product developed by JumboTiger is set to go live on1st Sept 2021 for public use, hurry up to its website & sign up for early access!
Meanwhile, tag along and read the story behind the ideation of JumboTiger, it is something you can’t miss! Know How JumboTiger came into being, its features, business model, future plans & more. StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Mayank Pokharna to get insights on the journey & growth plans of JumboTiger.
JumboTiger is built on real-time technology (Elixir and Erlang), which opens a lot of different possibilities for the field of property management like easy IoT integrations, better collaborations, live staff management, etc. thus, bringing the physical world operations closer to the digital software world, which is the need of the hour.
JumboTiger also brings in many features from different apps and puts it right at the core of property management software like inspections, communication, community apps, etc. This expands the whole property management system horizon and enables deeper insights and better control for any operator and property manager.
Founders Shift from SimplyGuest to JumboTiger
Mayank & team started SimplyGuest as a shared living business in 2015 with a wide variety of portfolio properties: student housing, housing societies, condos, coliving, hostels, single-family, multi-family, and purpose-built accommodation. SimplyGuest started with the idea of aggregating shared living spaces. They realized huge gaps and created a service solution with the intersection of apartment rentals and paying guest facilities, which later became coliving. They were doing close to $1mn in yearly gross revenue and were bootstrapped. But with the pandemic, a different set of challenges came for an operationally heavy business like SimplyGuest.
The occupancy started falling as people were moving to their hometowns. The homeowners were not ready to part with any revenues; they were on a master lease model and had to slowly give away possession of the properties to keep SimplyGuest alive. They still kept it running throughout 2020 in the hope that the pandemic will be over soon, that didn’t! While this was happening, Subbu and Mayank started toying with different ideas on making this business work.
During the same time, a building owner reached out to them after reading blog.simplyguest.com, where Subbu used to write about the technology they had been building for the last 5 years of running SimplyGuest. In addition, he used to write in-depth analyses on how the future of living is service and technology-driven. Finally, the owner asked Mayank & Subbu for the software they had built; this was their eureka moment.
Mayank & Subbu started exploring the gaps in property management and coliving software domain in the mid of 2020 and looked at the USA, Europe, and UK markets. They spoke to about 70 different property management and coliving operators from across the world. All the existing software was built on older tech stacks; the market’s needs had been changing in recent years, and with a lot of newer technologies at disposal, there was a need to overhaul the property management software space, and thus, JumboTiger came into being.
It took them around 6 months to build the MVP, and they did a live launch of the beta product on 16th February, which 220 people from 30 different countries attended. Mayank & Subbu showed everyone what the future of property management software would look like. The initial response to the product has been great, and since then, they are working with 7 different customers in beta and developing the product, which is going live for public use on 1st Sept 2021.
The revenues funded the initial development of JumboTiger they were generating from SimplyGuest; they decided to keep it bootstrapped. However, Mayank & Subbu had a couple of funding opportunities. Property management is one of the oldest professions, and real estate is one of the biggest asset classes with a value of more than 1.4tn dollars, but still, it’s one of the laggards in terms of technology usage. The team believes that it will require patience to get people used to the newer technologies right from the start of their business cycle. Hence, remaining bootstrapped was a conscious choice to keep developing a product with depth.
“Real estate technology is behind the curve when it comes to property management. However, with the new technologies available, we can change and enhance property management; JumboTiger is our take on that. It brings together real-time tech, collaboration, different feature sets, etc., to make property management more efficient” says Mayank
With SimplyGuest, they were a mid-sized property management firm handling shared living, coliving, student housing, and single-family properties. While Mayank & Subbu were doing that, they searched for a software platform that could help them manage these different asset classes under one roof. After researching for more than a year in 2016, they started building something of their own based on-ground experience and business problems.
SimplyGuest provided with all the practical use-case, which started taking the shape of features, ultimately turning into a full-fledged property management software. But till 2020, they were the only user of the tech they had built. It changed everything when a landlord asked if he could use what they have built to manage his space.
This was their eureka moment. This pushed Mayank & Subbu to explore and study the gaps in the property management software domain across different markets. They did 6 months of research and found out that the technology they had been developing solves a much larger use case and can be used by property management companies and coliving operators across different geographies.
They then kept on developing what took the shape of JumboTiger with the 16th Feb 2021 beta launch, where 220 people attended it from 30 different countries. They launched beta with 7 people from different geographies to build a geography agnostic configurable product. JumboTiger has more than 50 people on its early access waitlist waiting to use the product, which is launching for the public on 1st Sept 2021. It’s a real-time, collaborative, configurable, new-age property management software that brings multiple features from different apps and software into one platform and contextualizes it for property management of the future.
Mayank Pokharna and Subbu Athikunte are the founders of JumboTiger.
JumboTiger & SimplyGuest Founders and Team
Mayank was the 5th customer of SimplyGuest in 2015 and started helping out Subbu in sales and marketing. This lasted for about two years till 2017 when Mayank joined SimplyGuest full-time as a co-founder. Both of them scaled SimplyGuest to about 500 tenants and a $1mn in gross revenues. The same team founded JumboTiger. They hired few interns at the start, and one of them is now the full-time employee taking care of all things development with Subbu. The team is building JumboTiger on erlang and Elixir, and hence finding initial resources was a challenge.
Mayank, 31, did his engineering, followed by an MBA from Nirma, Ahmedabad. He worked with high-growth startups such as Practo and Cuemath before joining SimplyGuest full-time. He single-handedly maintained occupancy of 98% at SimplyGuest and take care of sales, marketing, brand, and everything business at JumboTiger
Subbu, 43, is a software engineer. He worked on distributed systems, databases, analytics, and UI at Apigee. He designed some key analytics infrastructure. Google acquired Apigee. He has more than 20 years of experience in tech and takes care of all things product and engineering at JumboTiger.
Ritvik | Software Developer,JumboTiger
Ritvik, 23, started as a JavaScript programmer with JumboTiger as an intern while still in college. Now his hands run deep across the product stack and take care of all the developmental work.
How JumboTiger Works?
Anyone with a residential rental portfolio can come to the jumbotiger.com website, sign up and create an account. You will be redirected to set up your account and configure it to suit your business operations. The software comes with sensible defaults, and you can select the country to load all defaults and then change it as per your requirements.
Jumbo PMS financial
Some of the functionalities in the JumboTiger property management system are –
Marketing/ Sales
Generate SEO friendly marketing websites based on the PMS (property management software) data
A powerful self-scheduling tool that syncs your leasing agent’s calendar with incoming requests for showing/viewings.
The completely white-labeled solution to enhance your end-user experience.
Tenant/ Community Management
Take tenant applications, onboard tenants, and manage documentation and agreements.
Tenant portal for payments, expense tracking (tenants) issue management, remote move-ins & move-outs, profile, and documents management.
Host and manage community events using the tenant portal. Book facilities, talk to other residents, download invoices, and raise issues.
Operations (Inventory, Maintenance, Inspections, Work Order, & Control Centre, Communications)
Onboard large properties within minutes with an onboarding wizard.
Manage all your operations, communications, and issue/ ticket management from a slack like-interface called the control room. This is a single screen that lets you manage your complete business once the PMS is set up.
Set a standard for performance using SLAs, escalation policies
A rule engine to automate your incoming maintenance/resident requests. (JumboTiger Property Management: SLA management)
Schedule preventive maintenance tasks and JumboTiger will track these for you. Automate the property management workflows according to your business needs.
Real-time staff management and move-ins, move-outs, periodic inspections via a staff app. You can also push tasks to on-field staff in real-time using this app.
Contact the center to manage the PO’s and vendor services
Ready to go IOT integrations
Rent Payments/ Reports/ Analytics
Flexible invoicing, expense management, and payments system customized for each country and to your needs.
Revenue recovery/ dunning to make sure you don’t lose on any invoice and take appropriate actions
Detailed reports/ Analytics on what’s happening in your organization.
Very detailed audit logs to make sure you have visibility of what’s going on in your organization.
These are some things that JumboTiger property management software does. When you start using it, you will explore many more use cases. This can help you run a property management business on a single platform without the need for any other software.
JumboTiger is a SaaS business that works on a subscription model. The use of software starts at $99 to manage up to 20 units and then is charged on a per-unit basis managed on the platform. There is no feature gating, and all features are available to everyone. The rationale behind it is to enable small and medium businesses and set them up for sustainable scale.
JumboTiger is ideal for all-size property management companies, coliving operators, HMOs, letting agents, and anyone managing a rental portfolio and wants to build, manage and grow their rental business.
The SaaS model is pretty standard and has existed for a couple of decades but has been popularized and adopted in the last few years with the availability of better infrastructure and cloud capabilities.
The gross margin for a SaaS business is generally more than 70%-80%, and the customers are charged subscriptions on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.
JumboTiger – Funding
JumboTiger is a bootstrapped startup, and the only source of funds for it is its customers.
JumboTiger is in this for the long term. It will replace all the traditional property management software and help property management companies and coliving operators build a sustainable and scalable business. The team plans to keep expanding the horizon and scope of property management software with JumboTiger. The next few interesting features that will get added to JumboTiger after its public launch are seamless IoT integrations, Self Serving billing for tenants, and a lot more. So stay tuned to keep getting surprised.
Lastly, JumboTiger wants to remain close to its customers and solve actual problems rather than building features that no one uses. So the team plans to keep listening to its customers and solve their problems via JumboTiger.
JumboTiger – FAQs
What is JumboTiger?
It’s a real-time, collaborative, configurable, new-age property management software that brings multiple features from different apps and software into one platform and contextualizes it for property management of the future.
Who founded JumboTiger?
Mayank Pokharna and Subbu Athikunte are the founders of JumboTiger.
When will JumboTiger go live for public use?
JumboTiger will go live for public use on 1st Sept 2021.
Do visit https://jumbotiger.com/ to know more about the company and sign up for early access!
Is JumboTiger Bootstrapped startup?
Yes, JumboTiger is a bootstrapped startup.
How does JumboTiger make money?
JumboTiger is a SaaS business that works on a subscription model. The use of software starts at $99 to manage up to 20 units and then is charged on a per-unit basis managed on the platform. There is no feature gating, and all features are available to everyone. The rationale behind it is to enable small and medium businesses and set them up for sustainable scale.
What is SimplyGuest?
Mayank & Subbu started SimplyGuest as a shared living business in 2015 with a wide variety of portfolio properties: student housing, housing societies & more. SimplyGuest started with the idea of aggregating shared living spaces. The same team co-founded JumboTiger.
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 HSBC-backed Serai.
The global textile market size is anticipated to reach USD 1412.5 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2028. Disrupting the supply chain solutions in this domain, HSBC-backed company Serai has built a digital B2B platform that allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other.
Serai is the non-banking extension of HSBC’s global physical network and hence is a fully owned subsidiary of HSBC. While the company is a part of HSBC Group, it is not a financial institution and acts outside the bank. It has over 10,000 companies on its B2B platform from over 100 countries including India, Bangladesh, the US, UK, and Australia. The number of companies on the platform has grown at 98% QOQ. In 2021, Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Vivek Ramachandran (CEO of Serai) to know the growth story and roadmap of Serai. He also shared insights on how Serai started, its business model, expansion plans, marketing strategies adopted & more…
Serai – Company Highlights
Company Name
Serai
Headquarters
Hong Kong
Owner
HSBC
CEO
Vivek Ramachandran
Founding Team
Andrew Dennison (COO), Kar-Lyn Tan (Head of Product Partnerships), Patrick Balling (Partnerships Director), Vivek Ramachandran (CEO)
Founded in 2019, Serai is the digital B2B platform by HSBC that makes global trade easier for apparel businesses. As a member, you can build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Companies can share information about their business, products, and services to create a trusted ecosystem across the supply chain.
Through a single platform, members can access industry business solutions and exchange complex information from multiple data sources to gain visibility into their supply chain.
Serai Platform
Serai’s digital B2B platform allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other. Companies can create a profile to showcase their products, services, facilities, and credentials. Serai helps companies reduce time and money spent on sourcing high-quality suppliers. With Covid making international travel almost impossible, Serai makes it easy for brands and buyers to build relationships with suppliers and manufacturers globally.
This year (2021), Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They can easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners. Having all this information in one place can help them drive operational efficiencies, manage underlying risks and eventually achieve greater transparency and trust in their extended supply chain.
Serai’s vision is to build technology that can help to shape the future of trade.
Its B2B network aims to simplify global trade by enabling apparel businesses to showcase their products and services, connect and build stronger relationships. Its supply chain solutions help consolidate fragmented supply chain data, providing large apparel companies with the right data and insights so that they can make more informed decisions.
“It’s all about taking the complexities out of global trade. Beginning with a focus on the apparel industry, Serai’s goal is for every company, regardless of industry, to have a profile on its platform” says Vivek Ramachandran, CEO @ Serai
Serai – Industry Details
Serai currently focuses on the apparel, textile, and fabrics industries. The global textile market size is anticipated to reach USD 1412.5 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 4.4% from 2021 to 2028. The Asia Pacific is also set to rebound faster from Covid, with China, Japan, and India dominating the top five apparel markets in the world.
The apparel industry has always been quite traditional and opaque. Businesses have always relied on sourcing garments and fabrics in person. However, travel restrictions brought about by Covid-19 have forced businesses to digitize. The team has seen a huge change in mindset where apparel companies are more open to exploring new ways of forming connections and doing business.
On the other hand, there is also rising pressure from regulatory bodies, consumers, and NGOs for the apparel industry to be more transparent about where their products come from. They see large brands and manufacturers exploring technology that helps them track their supply chains from end-to-end, and gain visibility into where their products come from. These have been positive changes and the team sees the industry continuing to head on this trajectory.
“In the next five years, we also imagine that data will play a bigger part in driving more informed decision-making. For example, the insights could help them understand their consumers better and build a more targeted product mix” Vivek added.
Supply chain data on areas such as consumption of water, energy, and greenhouse gas, or man-hours spent throughout the various stages in the supply chain, can help companies increase operational efficiencies or be more sustainable.
Serai’s digital B2B platform allows verified apparel buyers, brands, suppliers, and manufacturers to easily search for and connect with each other. Companies can create a profile to showcase their products, services, facilities, and credentials. Serai helps companies reduce time and money spent on sourcing high-quality suppliers. With Covid making international travel almost impossible, the Serai B2B network makes it easy for brands and buyers to build relationships with suppliers and manufacturers globally.
This year, Serai also launched a Traceability solution that allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They will be able to easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners. Having all this information in one place can help them drive operational efficiencies, manage underlying risks and eventually achieve greater transparency and trust in their extended supply chain.
Serai Traceability
Pivot from the Initial Offering & Why
While its mission has always been to simplify global trade through technology, Serai’s target audiences have evolved for its B2B digital platform.
While it has apparel businesses of all sizes on the platform, Serai has seen more usage from small and medium-sized companies. They may not have the sourcing network that a larger, more established brand would have, and so, have seen a lot of value from a platform like Serai’s. Hence, many of the features that Serai introduced recently are focused on helping them further. For example, Serai launched a request for quotation (RFQ) feature where brands and buyers can upload specific requests for manufacturers and suppliers to respond directly to.
Serai’s Traceability solution is another example of something it built in response to industry requirements. It was initially developed to help a global manufacturer client to trace their supply chain from material to shelf, but having seen such a positive response from the industry at large, the team @ Serai continue to build on the core offering, adding more modules aimed at helping apparel companies achieve supply chain sustainability.
Serai – Founding Team and How it Started
HSBC was founded in 1865 with one key objective – facilitating international trade. Ever since HSBC has used its global network to connect customers to opportunities around the world. However, despite tech-driven improvements in most areas of business, international trade remains as complex today as it was more than 150 years ago.
To simplify trade, HSBC needed to look beyond banking. Serai was born from this insight and a big idea – a data-powered platform to help businesses grow and connect globally.
The idea for Serai came out of a ‘Dragon’s Den’-style competition organized by HSBC UK. Vivek Ramachandran, current Chief Executive Officer of Serai, led a team of four in pitching the idea of a digital platform aimed at simplifying trade. At that time, he was the Global Head of Growth & Innovation for HSBC Commercial Banking where part of his role was driving the adoption of new technologies.
Serai team
While HSBC’s key objective has always been to facilitate global trade, this would be the first time the bank would invest in a non-financial project. The HSBC executives saw great potential in a platform like Serai to disrupt the otherwise traditional industry of apparel.
The rest of the founding team comprises – Andrew Dennison, Chief Operations Officer; Kar-Lyn Tan, Head of Product Partnerships; and Patrick Balling, Partnerships Director at Serai. They were all working at HSBC UK in various capacities at that time.
In two years, Serai has grown to about 60 people in its headquarters in Hong Kong in various departments such as Growth & Marketing, Product, Technology, and Data Analytics. Serai was founded on the values of Simplicity, Empathy, Transparency, Boldness, Partnership which remain integral in everything Serai does.
Serai Office
Serai – Name, Tagline and Logo
Serai comes from the word Caravanserai, which was inns along the Silk Road. Merchants between East and West would rest, trade goods, exchange knowledge, and build relationships at these inns. The Serai of that time was an entry to international trade. Inspired by these ancient hubs, it aspires to build a digital equivalent for today.
Serai’s logo symbol is inspired by the aerial view of the ancient Serai. The central squared hole resembles that of an ancient Chinese coin, reflecting its Hong Kong origin.
Serai Logo
Its tagline, ‘Your Advantage in Apparel Trade’, clearly represents what Serai wants to deliver to its clients.
Serai – Business Model and Revenue Model
Serai is the digital B2B platform. Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow. Serai’s supply chain solutions, such as Traceability, also come at an added cost.
At Serai, the team has always taken an integrated approach to its marketing strategy. While it is a global company, Serai believes it’s incredibly important to localize its marketing for its target markets. This is especially pertinent for a diverse region like the Asia Pacific, where one has to cater to various languages, cultures, and audience preferences.
When we first started, our primary objective was to build brand awareness so we engaged the main trade and business media globally to get media coverage” says, Vivek Ramachandran, CEO @ Serai.
The company also saw success through digital marketing campaigns via channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google which has helped in customer acquisition.
Partnerships are also key to Serai’s growth strategy. The company has established good relationships with local trade associations in its focus markets, working with them to run initiatives and marketing programs that support the manufacturers and brands in the apparel industry. Another focus area has been to develop partnerships with other like-minded technology and data providers, and sustainability-focused organizations to collaborate on developing solutions that support its users to learn and understand their potential and existing supply chain partners.
Serai’s marketing mix continues to be a mixture of digital and offline activities aimed at increasing brand awareness and customer acquisition including paid ads on major social media and search platforms, events and media engagement. With all these initiatives, though, it’s important to ensure they are integrated and convey similar messaging. This has helped the company build a strong brand identity.
Events have played a huge part in increasing its brand awareness. The company has taken part in major industry conferences and organized its own webinars. In India, for example – the company ran a webinar on how Indian apparel businesses can grow through digitization earlier this year. Serai is currently looking at participating in upcoming trade conferences in India.
Naturally, the marketing team has grown over the last two years so there are teams dedicated to areas such as content, digital marketing, events, PR, and partnerships. It has ramped up content creation, with topics localized for focus markets. Partnerships with major industry associations such as the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) in India have also helped the company reach a wider audience.
The apparel industry is one that is very traditional and opaque. The team realized at the beginning that a lot of companies rely on traditional methods of sourcing and connecting with companies. There was a low digital quotient across the industry.
“We’ve seen this slowly change, though, with more companies embracing digitization. We had to do a lot of education on the importance of having a strong digital presence” Vivek Ramachandran added.
This included working closely with many of its MSME clients in helping them create strong digital profiles on Serai’s platform and making meaningful connections to help grow their business. There is definitely an appetite for them to improve which is heartening.
Serai – Current State and Expansion Plans
Serai is headquartered in Hong Kong, with a team of about 60 employees – a number that is rapidly growing as Serai continues to build its Technology, Data, and Product teams.
There are over 10,000 companies on Serai from over 100 countries including India, Bangladesh, the US, UK, and Australia. Out of this, Serai has registered over 4600 are Indian companies on its platform. These include leading Indian manufacturers such as Pearl Global, Shivalik Prints, Radnik Exports, and Indian Designs. The number of companies on the platform has grown at 98% QOQ.
Serai’s expansion strategy is aligned with market demand. Most of its business is centered around countries that are major apparel hubs. Being headquartered in Hong Kong, it was a natural focus in the beginning. While it still is, the company has branched out to Bangladesh and India as there are two major manufacturing hubs in Asia. India will continue to remain a huge focus over the next year. Over in the West, it has focused on the US and the UK as many major apparel brands are based there.
“We will continue to monitor trends in trade corridors as we prioritize market expansion” Vivek added.
The team is also continuously building new features for its solutions. For the B2B digital platform, it is adding features that encourage more interaction between its member companies, making it easier for them to network and trade with each other.
Serai would also be launching a supply chain Visibility solution soon which allows apparel businesses to visualize, analyze and verify information on their supply chain in one place. With supply chain sustainability and transparency being huge priorities for the industry, this is an area that would be a key focus in terms of product development.
Serai has built great partnerships with industry associations such as the BGMEA and AEPC, with whom it has collaborated to help apparel companies in Bangladesh and India grow respectively. However, the company’s greatest achievement would be the rapid and tremendous growth it has seen of companies joining and building relationships with each other on the platform. Serai was established to simplify trade and the team is doing that slowly but surely. Serai has seen various success stories over the last few months of apparel MSMEs who have established new business partnerships with companies all over the world.
Serai – FAQs
What is Serai?
Serai is the digital B2B platform by HSBC that makes global trade easier for apparel businesses. As a member, you can build new relationships and strengthen existing ones. Companies can share information about their business, products, and services to create a trusted ecosystem across the supply chain.
Who founded Serai?
Vivek Ramachandran, the current CEO of Serai, led a team of four in pitching the idea of a digital platform aimed at simplifying trade. The rest of the founding team comprises – Andrew Dennison, Kar-Lyn Tan, and Patrick Balling.
What is Serai’s business model?
Serai is the digital B2B platform. Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow. Serai’s supply chain solutions, such as Traceability, also come at an added cost.
What is Serai’s tagline?
Serai’s tagline, ‘Your Advantage in Apparel Trade’, clearly represents what Serai wants to deliver to its clients.
Is Serai free?
Creating a profile on Serai is free. However, businesses can pay for premium services such as being promoted as a featured business on its platform or gaining access to data and analytics to help them further grow.
What is Supply Chain Traceability solution?
Serai launched a Traceability solutionthat allows global apparel brands and manufacturers to trace and map their global supply chain from raw material to finished product. They can easily collect and manage data from their supply chain partners.
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 What a Story.
What a Story is a creative agency that specializes in Modern Solutions for Modern Businesses. It offers video production, branding, and development services. A dream which started in an 8×8 feet room is currently holding 300+ clients and a family of creatives.
What a Story is not just a general creative agency that knows a couple of designs or video software. At What a story, the team understands the technology and enjoys it! They are and have been at the consumer side, creator side, and seller side too. This experience makes What a Story a more reliable partner than current agencies.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Vikas Tiwari (Founder & CEO, What a Story) to know the organization’s startup story & the roadmap ahead. In this article, you will get insight on How What a Story started, its business model, funding, growth, USP, future plans & more…
What a Story is a creative agency that specializes in Modern Solutions for Modern Businesses. It offers video production, branding, and development services
Vision
Its vision is to become the world’s most impactful creative agency of the 21st century by creating effective, scalable, and personalized solutions for businesses. So, they can help their audience to achieve more and make a change in the world!
The startup’s short-term goals include improving the processes, capturing the market, and building a strong reputation. This will redirect it to reach the big goal; which is to help 1000 businesses to get noticed and understood so that both businesses and consumers get empowered and create greater opportunities. What a Story is building its studio to shoot and produce videos for medium-size businesses as well!
The core belief of the team
The team believes that if ideas are communicated right, it ensures wider opportunities, better choices, and faster growth.
What a Story – Animated Video Production
What a Story – Industry/Market Details
The startup is targeting modern businesses like SaaS or Mobile Apps etc; Where there is innovation, there is What a Story.
Target market size
It’s huge and growing
Mobile apps are increasing day by day
SaaS accounted for 20% of the overall enterprise software market. (Source: crikle.com)
Future prospects of the Industry
Everyone is using some application and 73% of businesses switch all systems to SaaS. This means the demand will increase more! If there is any new business, then they need videos to make sales, make themselves a part of the current solution or if the idea is new, then educate the audience about it.
What a Story started in 2015, with a dream to give the most compelling story to every business and topic! The team wants to make the world understand the technology and its impact.
All of its founders have been working in the same domain for a long time and understand its pain points very well. They decided to start an agency where every member of the team is a vision partner and the customer’s trust is the ultimate revenue. So, the founders structured the company accordingly; And hence, the core team decided to start this agency!
Research and Validation
The service industry is a validated industry. If one can provide good customer satisfaction and growth to the team, then one can get the kind of success the company aims for.
Journey of Ideation, Designing & Prototyping
The startup What a Story is a Video production and Global Creative Agency with a chain of offices across India.
A dream that started off in 2015, to give the most compelling story to every business and topic! A dream to make the world understand the technology and its impact. A dream to build an agency where every member of the team is a vision partner and the customer’s trust is the ultimate revenue.
During the early days, the team realized that modern businesses were going to need simple communication and collaboration, as that will be the key. So, they structured the company accordingly. They wanted to build an agency of the best creative yet service-minded team on the planet. The quality should become the first parameter to judge the agency, not the fancy office space. The team was going to get work preference. Home or office didn’t matter. Creativity & Quality did!
The journey started with a small motion graphics video which got a huge success very late, then T-shirt designs which flopped, then a branding project which made it through, and then a video shoot which was quite upbeat at that time, and many more. What a Story started offering service to the first 2-3 clients and they were very happy and satisfied with their work. They are still working or in contact with What a Story. The projects were raining and the startup started hiring many people. Soon a team of 2 became 18. The current company size is 25.
What a Story making
Then came the need for an unexpected organizational restructuring. The team learned the lesson from its own experiences and from others. They restarted the agency in Indore with a new team and this time, better than before. Its spirit became stronger in 2019 when What a Story won the Clutch Award for Best Creative Agency in India.
Today, What a Story is the top video production and creative agency in India, operating with 25+ amazing talents from all over the country! It set a new benchmark in the Creative Industry and Impacted billions of lives through its clients. A dream which started in an 8×8 feet room is currently holding 300+ clients and a family of creatives.
“We had simple dreams and we are still conquering them. We were stupid enough to think that ours could be the first Indian creative agency listed in stock exchange. We are still stupid to talk about that! ” says Vikas Tiwari (Founder & CEO, What a Story)
What a Story – Product and USP
How does the What a Story work?
Once you reach out to What a Story, you can get a free consultation and diagnose the business problem. Based on that, the agency will advise you the solution which you can opt or try DIY.
What problems does What a Story solve?
Here are a few problems that customers may have & What a Story solves –
What a Story is not just a general creative agency that knows a couple of designs or video software. At What a story, the team understands the technology and enjoys it! They are and have been at the consumer side, creator side, and seller side too. This experience makes What a Story a more reliable partner than current agencies.
What a Story is a place where Strategy, Creativity, Technology, and Service-minded people, merge together to explain complex things in the easiest way possible.
The founding team of What a Story continues Vikas Tiwari, Himani Verma, Raunak Hajela, and Nagendra Ch. (former co-founder). The current company size: is 25.
About the Core Team
The Core Team of What a Story
Vikas Tiwari | CEO, What a Story
Vikas Tiwari is the CEO, he was working as a video professional in the industry for the last 8 years. He also has a visual branding background.
Himani Verma | Director, What a Story
Himani Verma is the director, she was working as a branding and design consultant for many small and big brands!
Raunak Hajela | CTO, What a Story
Raunak Hajela is the CTO, he is into core tech, which is the backbone of any service business today! He has developed many tech products and consulted startups!
Nagendra Ch. | Bd & Sales, What a Story
Nagendra was a co-founder but left What a Story earlier due to his personal issues. Now he is with the startup as an advisor and leader in his department!
Work culture @ What a Story
What a Story follows the open door policy and collaborative culture! Have certain and limited expectations from each member. Below are the Key Actions the startup expects from all members:
What a Story tries to match 3 Characteristics in every member whom the team wants to work with –
Clear (Clarity will improve the work & reduce the time required. Understand the requirement first)
Creative (Try different ways to do a task, do not be afraid to fail)
Effective (Focus on the output, not the input)
“Find Creative People, Provide them enough resources, and give them enough freedom, whether it’s related to ideas or working style” Vikas added.
What a Story – Name and Logo
The common thing in all the co-founders was ‘The Story’, which connected them. Each story is mind-blowing and inspiring. They will chat about that sometime and then one may say “What a Story!”
The team wanted the same impact for its clients and make content that can inspire their audience! And honestly, each business has a story to tell, and What a Story wants them to invite the audience in their story.
What a Story Logo
What a Story – Business Model and Revenue Model
As of now, What a Story has a general business model, Project to Project and Recurring.
Price Range: 50k – 20 lac in between. It varies from project to project.
Profit margin: Currently, around 20%
What a Story – Launch and Marketing Strategies
Asking their own people to give some work and referrals.
What a Story made a few viral designs in the early days, which helped it to get eyes in the market.
What a Story’s strategy was simple: Do Quality work so people can refer
The partnership was definitely useful for a business like What a Story. The startup did multiple partnerships with web, graphics, digital marketing, and other agencies.
What a Story started providing services to solve the problem instead of delivering the scope of work. It focuses on the actual problem and then consults its customer in the right way to solve it. It could be What a Story or others, but the problem has to be solved and the client has to have a good impression. The true value of money is the team’s promise!
What a Story has a zero budget spend on marketing. The startup is just near to finalizing the CMO who will decide the future of What a Story’s marketing strategy.
In early days, everything was challenging apart from making its own logo!
The one major challenge,What a Story faced was the Price, which it wanted to get paid by customers. The startup does personalized work which takes longer than usual but has a way more impact than general communication design or videos. So its pricing was slightly upmarket too which was hard to explain to clients. So, the team started documenting each step of work and started showing it to the clients! Also, video testimonials played a big role in its sales pitches!
Due to lack of sales conversion, the team tried to put its hands in low-budget creation but since the team is built with a purpose to make high quality solutions, they couldn’t make it happen.
What a Story – Current Status & Growth
Operating locations: Fully Remote but it has a presence in multiple places in the country. Head office is in Hyderabad
Revenue: Seven Figures
Profit: 15-20%
Userbase: 600+ Clients
Notable clients and partners: Cyient, HCL, MakeMyTrip, Tahaluf, IMI Mobile, Shuttl, Conneqt Business
“We have bigger and ambitious plans for our Video Department. Setting up our end to end video studio so we can optimize the cost for business owners is an important plan! You will see a lot of news on our website in the coming days!” Vikas added.
“We can’t say that they are competitors. Being a creator, we need inspiration from many other companies, cultures and people. We get our inspiration from Sandwich video, DemoDuck, YumYumVideos, and couple more!” says Vikas Tiwari, CEO @ What a Story
What a Story – Tools Used to run Startup
Apart from the Google apps and Adobe apps, What a Story uses QB, Clickup, Clustdoc & many more!
Best Animation Video Production 2019 by DesignRush
Top Animation and Multimedia Company by goodfirm.co
Top Video Production Company by Superb Companies
Agency of the year 2020 – Ad World Master
Featured at: Inc42, vidsaga, FilmLifeStyle, SmartWebCreator
What a Story – Future Plans
What a Story has amazing plans for the future which include services expansion and product development! To conclude everything in a simple line – “What a Storywants to be the world’s most impactive end to end video agency”
What a Story – FAQs
What is What a Story?
What a Story is a creative agency that specializes in Modern Solutions for Modern Businesses. It offers video production, branding, and development services.
How does What a Story make money?
As of now, What a Story has a general business model, Project to Project and Recurring. Price Range: 50k – 20 lac in between. It varies from project to project. Profit margin: Currently, around 20%
Who founded What a Story?
The founding team of What a Story continues Vikas Tiwari, Himani Verma, Raunak Hajela, and Nagendra Ch. (former co-founder). The current company size: is 25.
Is What a Story bootstrapped?
What a Story is a bootstrapped startup.
How does What a Story work?
Once you reach out to What a Story, you can get a free consultation and diagnose the business problem. Based on that, the agency will advise you the solution which you can opt or try DIY. It offers video production, branding, and development services.
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 aisle 3.
aisle 3 is disrupting the e-commerce space by showing shoppers all of their buying options in one trusted location. The startup aggregates retailer offers and rich product information without any input from retailers by deploying machine learning and AI algorithms. This provides shoppers a complete view of all of their buying options for all products on a single screen. To achieve this the team has built a web crawler that discovers products, uses AI to transform and enrich product data alongside neutral networks to aggregate products without barcodes, product IDs or manufacturer numbers.
Within just 15 months since its inception, aisle 3 has 2,000 organic shoppers each day, and 20+ Digital Agencies have signed up as partners covering more than 100 advertisers and million products. It has also raised more than $600k in two funding rounds securing the support of some of the most credible retail investors out there. The startup recently announced the launch of a new division in India as it continues the rapid growth trajectory. Aisl3 India Pvt Limited has launched with a team of 12 and has plans to triple the size of the team in the next year (2022).
On this note, StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Thomas Vosper (Founder & CEO, aisle 3) to get insights on the startup story and growth hacks of the company. In this article, you’ll discover how aisle 3 started, its business model, USP, funding details, future plans, and more.
Founded just 15 months ago, aisle 3 is a new, disruptive eCommerce marketplace that creates ‘a universal view of shopping’. aisle 3 aggregates retailer offers and rich product information by deploying machine learning and AI algorithms, so shoppers have a complete view of all of their buying options for all products on a single screen. The company’s core belief is that the current eCommerce experience is broken, with product research being disconnected from product purchases. The experience is deeply flawed as a result of too much power being in the hands of the tech giants. This leads to aisle 3’s revolutionary idea to disrupt the eCommerce experience. This approach will put power and choice back into the hands of Shoppers. Whilst other businesses focus on logistics or payments, the aisle 3 team’s focus is on the Shopper and putting power & control back in their hands.
The team has built this business entirely remotely and internationally, during lockdown by developing the proprietary web crawler, software, and product aggregation algorithms from scratch. They have also carried out two pre-seed funding rounds, winning the backing of some of the most credible retail investors.
aisle 3 – eCommerce Industry Details
Despite a challenging year for retail in 2020, according to emarketer, worldwide retail eCommerce sales posted a 27.6% growth rate for the year, with sales reaching well over $4 trillion. They estimate $5 trillion will be achieved by 2022, and $6 trillion will be reached by 2024. In 2020, 18.0% of all retail sales took place via eCommerce. In 2024, that figure will reach 21.8%.
In the current eCommerce market, Thomas J. Vosper (Founder & CEO, aisle 3) thinks that we are seeing increasing distrust of the big tech players who have aggregated too much power and this has stifled innovation. The truth is a lack of competition leads to often poor outcomes for customers and brands. For example, Amazon has an iron grip on the eCommerce market and is focused relentlessly on the bottom line. 75% of the products above the folder are either adverts or Amazon’s own brands. This means Amazon and Google show you what they can best monetize, not always what you want to see!
Thomas believes the band of rebels that form startups have the most exciting opportunity to change the world and that’s where he hopes to see aisle 3 fittings in – as a trusted partner for retailers and brands and a trusted Shopper destination site.
Having seen the inner workings of a failed price comparison startup and being made redundant when the company folded at the start of the first lockdown, Thomas realized that now was the time to create a business out of years of industry experience. The likes of Amazon and JD focus on delivery, Klarna and Alipay on the checkout – but no one is taking care of the Shopper before the buy button.
“We are finally at the intersection of technology, demand, and funding to finally be able to aggregate all offers and products across the internet without the input of any retailer or brand. What would have once lead to a Capex that required a entire city full of servers, now becomes an Opex of infinitely scalable cloud infrastructure. This leads to the unique proposition of aisle 3 and the reason I took out a startup personal loan to create the business” Thomas J. Vosper (Founder & CEO, aisle 3) added.
aisle 3 – Product/Service
It is a really frustrating experience when you can book a flight, rental car, and hotel on a single site, but you can’t find a pair of trainers in the right color and size without opening a bunch of tabs on your browser and checking a myriad of retailers. We can walk on the moon but still can’t show someone the best price for a pair of wireless headphones. Nothing has changed with the product data powering online shopping since Thomas was at Amazon 14 years ago, with the reliance still on retailer-provided data.
aisle 3
This leads to the unique proposition of aisle 3, creating the source of truth that shows shoppers all of their buying options in one trusted location. The company’s product truly disrupts the fragmented online shopping experience by aggregating all offers onto a single screen, aisle 3 will save Shoppers hours of research across a myriad of open tabs, boards, spreadsheets, or note apps. To achieve this the team has built a web crawler that discovers products, uses AI to transform and enrich product data alongside neutral networks to aggregate products.
The company started with trainers but now plans to roll out a whole series of products. It recently announced the launch of a new division in India as it continues the rapid growth trajectory.
Aisl3 India Pvt Limited has launched with a team of 12 and has plans to triple the size of the team in the next year (2022).
aisle 3 India Team
aisle 3 – Founders and Team
Thomas J. Vosper (CEO) and James Valbuena are the founders of aisle 3.
Thomas Vosper – Founder & CEO of aisle 3
Thomas and James worked at the same price comparison site that folded at the start of the first lockdown and decided to launch the business together and leverage their 30+ years of collective eCommerce experience at retailers including Amazon, Tesco, Lastminute. They both saw the flaws in the eCommerce experience and it was something they had a shared vision and were determined to change. James is an expert on AI & ML and has experience in building large technical and marketing teams over the years. Thomas was one of the early employees at Amazon and was responsible for launching thousands of sellers across new categories and products.
aisle 3 has grown to now be a team of 18 – all based remotely – most in India. Whilst they were hired across 5 continents, the company found that the majority of its talent came from India. To deepen its commitment to the team and the region the startup has subsequently formed a local subsidiary that means it can offer its team the comfort and security of working with a registered legal entity in India.
It was important for the founders that they paid homage to their physical retailing roots; whilst explicitly eschewing blunt brand names (PriceSpy, Pricesearcher, Pricerunner) which frame the business in price comparison and become off-putting to retailers. Fixing shopping is not only comparison – the team are passionate about ensuring Shoppers can discover new brands and retailers they may never have heard of.
aisle 3 logo
aisle 3 – Business Model and Revenue Model
At the moment aisle 3 is at the pre-revenue stage, but it’ll work to a performance-based model with retailers and brands. Over 900 retailers (including the likes of Nike, Farfetch, Ralph Lauren) have signed up to the waiting list and over 20 agencies have agreed on partnerships for their clients.
Most marketplaces like Amazon and price comparison sites work by processing product data supplied by retailers – which is why shoppers come across products poorly matched up or duplicates when they are searching. aisle 3 decided to take on the task of searching the internet for the product details itself before aggregating everything without the retailers’ input. It started with trainers and this was its first business proof point – achieved after just a few months.
aisle 3 – Startup Launch & Marketing Strategy
As a pre-revenue startup tackling a big issue in Shopping aisle 3 is still very much in stealth to the general population. This has granted it the freedom to secure some amazing talent (especially in India) and explore commercial partnerships.
It very quickly gained commercial traction within the thriving agency and advertising ecosystem in the UK by supporting some of the very biggest advertisers to reach Shoppers through the EU-wide CSS program. aisle 3 now has over 100 advertisers across 20 agency partners and this includes names such as Liberty London, Schuh, Secret Sales, and Claire’s Accessories.
In the run-up to Christmas 2021, aisle 3 looks forward to launching its new Shopping site to the public and saving Shoppers both time and money – – “Our focus is on the Shopper and putting power and control back in their hands.”
This momentum of its launch and story saw the startup secure some excellent press coverage about its story from redundancy to fundraising (aisle 3 became one of only 342 companies in the UK that secured investment for the first time in 2020) around this time. The momentum that led to it closing two funding rounds of more than $600k from some of the most relevant and credible investors around.
aisle 3 – Challenges Faced
The team at aisle 3 has faced some extraordinary challenges due to running a remote team during the pandemic year. Many of the events of the past year outside of Covid have directly impacted its global team, for example, Black Lives Matter protests in the US, Belarus elections and protests obstructing its UI designer, Terrible flash flooding in Hyderabad, Conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan disrupting the Head of Machine Learning and most recently the terrible surge of COVID infections in India. It learned that by assembling a culturally diverse group of people, aisle 3 also proved its mission was global!
aisle 3’s key markers for growth will be GMV (the value of sales it generates for the retailers that it signs commercial relationships with) once it is publicly launched in Q4 (the startup has a waiting list of around 900 retailers). aisle 3 gets 2,000 organic shoppers each day in stealth, and 20+ Digital Agencies have signed as partners with more than a million products. It has also raised more than $600k in two funding rounds securing the support of some of the most credible retail investors out there.
aisle 3 – Funding and Investors
aisle 3 has raised a total funding of more than $600k (£450k) in 2 rounds of funding. The funding details are as follows:
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
Oct 30, 2020
Angel
£200k
–
April 1, 2021
Pre-seed
£250k
Hezi & Gabby Leibovich, Laurence Guy – Wearepentagon
aisle 3 works closely with the former FD of Secret Escapes (Alex Wakeford) alongside its excellent investors, the Leibovich brothers who founded Catch of the Day in Australia. The startup benefits from the support of investors with a rich background in eCommerce from companies such as Visualsoft, Redbrain, Amazon, Pouch, and Connectd.
aisle 3 – Recognition and Achievements
aisle 3 has been winning widespread recognition in the tech, eCommerce, and startup media with dozens of write-ups and profiles for a company recognized for doing something different, new, and exciting. It has been dubbed ‘the Wikipedia of product search’ and Thomas J. Vosper was even invited to give a TEDx talk about his journey as a first-time founder.
Thomas J. sVosper was invited to give a TEDx talk about his journey as a first-time founder
aisle 3 – Future Plans
The team at aisle 3 is ambitious to completely revolutionize the advertising experience which currently relies on interruptions when they can instead form a symbiotic relationship with retailers and brands that presents Shoppers with relevant, personalized offers at the right time.
Voice and conversational commerce will begin to have more impact on the Shopper’s journey and they’ll continue to work hard on the enabling foundation which is best in class product and offer information and a source of truth for Shoppers.
aisle 3 – FAQs
What is aisle 3?
aisle 3 is a new, disruptive eCommerce marketplace that creates ‘the only universal view of Shopping’. aisle 3 aggregates retailer offers and rich product information by deploying machine learning and AI algorithms, so shoppers have a complete view of all of their buying options for all products on a single screen.
Who founded aisle 3?
Thomas J. Vosper (CEO) and James Valbuena are the founders of aisle 3.
Is aisle 3 an Indian company?
aisle 3 is headquartered in London. It recently announced the launch of a new division in India as it continues the rapid growth trajectory. Aisl3 India Pvt Limited has launched with a team of 12 and has an office in Ahmedabad, with plans to open 2 more in the next 12 months.
How does aisle 3 work?
aisle 3 scours the internet to find the latest products and offers before aggregating all offers and rich product information by deploying machine learning and AI algorithms – without any input, product IDs, barcode numbers, or manufacturer codes from Retailers and Brands.
This provides shoppers a complete view of all of their buying options for all products on a single screen for the first time ever.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Upside AI.
Upside AI is a SEBI-registered PMS (Portfolio Management Service). Founded by Kanika Agarrwal, Nikhil Hooda and Atanuu Agarrwal, Upside AI creating a new class of investing that sit between active and passive – its goal is to deliver consistent alpha through eliminating bias/emotions from the process.
Today, Upside AI ranks among the top-performing PMS’ in the country delivering 33% annualized returns since it came out of beta in Jul 2019. family offices. asset management is a highly fragmented market and is not a winner-take-all play. Even at a sub-1% market share, Upside AI can scale to ~$5B in AUM while delivering a robust return on capital.
Startuptalky interviewed the Founders of Upside AI to get insights on the startup story and the roadmap of the organization. In this article, you’ll get to know all about Upside AI’s history, how it launched, its future plans, competitors, funding details, growth, and more.
Upside AI is a SEBI-registered PMS (Portfolio Management Service). It is essentially an investment management startup that uses technology to drive investment decisions. Nikhil Hooda, Kanika Agarrwal, and Atanuu Agarrwal started Upside AI with the belief that technology will make better decisions than humans over the long term since machines are unbiased and unemotional decision-makers. It is therefore focused on building products that follow a rules-based, systematic approach to investing.
Upside AI’s first two products focus on equity investing using proprietary machine learning algorithms to understand, recognize, and buy companies that are fundamentally good businesses. It provides Portfolio Management Services or PMS, which caters to HNI’s, institutions, and family offices in India and globally. The minimum investment size is INR 50 lakhs.
Upside AI logo
The team wants Upside AI to be a world-class 100% tech-driven asset management company (AMC). They aim to achieve this by building an array of products across asset classes and strategies. Apart from the two live products, Upside AI has another couple of products in development, which it plans to launch over the next 6-12 months (2021-2022). Over the next couple of years, the company aims to add 1,000 HNIs, family offices, and institutional clients and grow to INR ~1,000cr in AUM.
“We are also working on building an end-to-end digital platform where we want tech to drive the entire chain from client onboarding to sophisticated investment tech to live tracking and reporting via a seamless UI/UX experience for clients” as said by the Founders of Upside AI.
The asset management market in India today is INR 52 trillion (as of December 2020). Retail mutual fund penetration in India is very low (~6% of GDP vs. ~36% in other emerging markets and ~60-70% in developed markets.) Hence, it has been growing at ~25-30% over the last 5 years; the team @ Upside AI expect this momentum to continue.
Over the last decade, tech has disrupted several areas of financial services like payments, lending, insurance, etc. However, asset management has stayed the same in India i.e., human investors taking calls and large armies of sales/ back-end staff running distribution and operations.
Over the next 5 years, Upside AI aims to create off-the-shelf, standardized products across asset classes that can be pre-packaged and sold to even retail investors. Distribution will be built online with end-to-end integrations with brokerages and bank accounts. The back-end ops and reporting that the team is building are already online and extremely scalable.
By its nature, asset management is a highly fragmented market and is not a winner-take-all play. Even at a sub-1% market share, Upside AI can scale to ~$5B in AUM while delivering a robust return on capital (even traditional players with large physical networks today have 30%+ ROEs) by leveraging digital distribution and algo-based systematic investment. (Source: AMFI, McKinsey’s Asset management database)
Journey of Upside AI – How is Started
Spark of Idea: Upside AI
“Graham is my guru in every sense of the word. I had no background in finance or investing when I picked up “The Intelligent Investor” almost 15 years ago. It led me to Graham’s other seminal work “Security Analysis”, meant for professional investors. They are the inspiration and spark behind the idea for Upside AI. They led me to the framework for our core algorithm” – Atanuu Agarrwal (Co-founder, Upside AI) added.
It took nearly a year to build out the tech, including –
cleaning up ~20 years of financial data
Unbiased and robust back-testing, and
Frameworks for qualitative issues like corporate governance
In addition, the team conducted primary research by talking to CIOs and decision-makers at:
The largest fund houses in the country
Largest wealth managers in India
20-25 of the largest family offices in India
100+ retail investors
It took nearly a year to build out the tech and back-test it; then another year to test it in the live market, before it took out of beta and started offering to third-party distributors and clients in July 2019.
Challenges Faced by Upside AI:
One of the major challenges that the team faced was that they were pitted against established players in an industry built on trust. Adding to that was the fact that Upside AI was perceived as an outsider since the team came from a background in venture capital and technology. Building a network of investors and distributors virtually from scratch remains one of its biggest challenges even today.
Additionally, convincing people to put their trust and money into a newly introduced tech-based product was a mammoth task. However, the company’s aim since day one has been to make investors realize that one must diversify away from human-led investing. Over the due course, on the back of consistent performance and sustained alpha, clients, wealth managers, and distributors associated with Upside AI have come to appreciate that tech-based products should be an integral part of one’s asset allocation strategy.
The current state of play in the Indian AMC industry is that –
Human managers are struggling with outperformance
Fees in the industry are shrinking where a human heavy cost base means low ROE, and
There is an ongoing system redesign on how asset allocation will change over the next decade.
Already, technology/rules run 60% of the markets in the US. With ETFs overtaking active investing in the last few years, developed markets are moving away from the traditional human-driven investing models (which tend to be driven by irrational emotions/ biases).
This will be the future for India and other developing countries – that users will increasingly look for an unbiased rules-based approach to equities and tech will drive much of asset management.
At Upside AI, the team is creating a new class of investing that sits between active and passive – its goal is to deliver consistent alpha through eliminating bias/emotions from the process.
Upside AI’s first few products focus on equity investing using proprietary machine learning algorithms to understand, recognize, and buy companies that are fundamentally good businesses.
The first step is parsing of P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow data of all companies listed on the NSE. This was a non-trivial exercise, as meticulous data clean-up and standardization.
The secret sauce is however the next step where the algorithm uses ML to shortlist companies that are not just fundamentally good businesses but also in-demand stocks.
It does this exercise quarterly, to pick a portfolio of 10-25 stocks. It has also developed a framework for corporate governance checks to make sure the numbers fed into the algorithm are kosher.
Nikhil Hooda, Kanika Agarrwal, and Atanuu Agarrwal are the founders of Upside AI.
Nikhil Hooda, Kanika Agarrwal, and Atanuu Agarrwal – Upside AI Founders
How the Co-founders Met:
Nikhil and Atanuu were batchmates from IIT Bombay and in fact, have been friends since even before that when they started preparing for IIT JEE together. Kanika and Atanuu crossed paths while working in the investment banking team at Credit Suisse.
“All three of us love playing strategy board games and that is what led to a deep friendship and then eventually the partnership. So much so that Kanika and I are married and Nikhil was the witness on our marriage certificate. We are a very close-knit group and share not only the same set of interests but also common values which is ideal if you are starting a business together.” – Atanuu Agarrwal added.
Atanuu Agarrwal | Co-founder, Upside AI
Since Atanuu is the in-house Ben Graham disciple and pretty much spends most of his time on the investment and product side of the business. he has a B.Tech and M.Tech from IIT Bombay. He has experience in both public and private investing in the US and India. Atanuu spent the last 7 years prior to Upside AI working in New York with the CEO/Founder managing $1bn in AUM across PE, VC, and SPAC strategies.
Kanika Agarrwal | Co-founder, Upside AI
Kanika focuses most of her energies on sales and distribution. She is a Chartered Accountant (All India Rank 18), a CFA charter holder by qualification. She previously worked at Mayfield India for a brief time, Credit Suisse, and EY for nearly a decade before starting Upside AI.
Nikhil Hooda | Co-founder, Upside AI
Nikhil is the brains behind the technology at Upside AI. He has a B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Bombay (All India Rank 43) and a PhD in Computer Science. Every single line of code has been written by Nikhil and there has been no outsourcing or licensing when it comes to actually building the product.
Upside AI – Business Model
The business model in asset management is “solved”. Clients are charged a percentage of AUM periodically.
Growth of Upside AI
Currently, Upside AI has ~80 customers and about INR 85cr in AUM. Its goal is to cross 1000 customers and 1000 crores in AUM within the next 18-24 months (2022-23) while delivering consistent returns for its investors.
As mentioned earlier, Upside AI ranks among the top-performing PMS’ in the country delivering 33% annualized returns since it came out of beta in Jul 2019. The company recently raised a seed round of $1.2 Million, led by a VC fund, Endiya Partners. It has already attracted marquee clients ranging from large family offices, VCs, CEOs of large MNCs in India and the US on the back of unique investment tech that the team has built in-house and extensively tested. The funding will help Upside AI build a robust pipeline of differentiated tech products and a network of large distributors, wealth managers, brokers, and IFAs.
“I believe that a product-focused and client-centric approach can help us achieve our vision of being a world-class, tech-driven asset management company that will democratize access to sophisticated investment technology, built for Indian investors” Atanuu Agarrwal added.
Upside AI – Funding and Investors
Upside AI recently raised a seed round of $1.2 Million, led by a VC fund, Endiya Partners. Other investors in the round include – Vijay Kedia (a veteran stock market investor), Ajay Nanavati (Chairman of Quantum Advisors, previously Chairman of Syndicate Bank, MD of 3M), and Gopichand Katragadda (CEO of Myelin Foundry, ex-CTO of Tata Group).
The team @ Upside AI believes that the funding and guidance from Endiya and their esteemed angel investors will propel Upside AI towards the milestone to cross 1000 customers and 1000 crores in AUM within the next 18-24 months (2022-23) while delivering consistent returns for its investors.
Traditional Asset Management Companies (AMCs), and
Boutique investment firms run by human fund managers.
There are companies building digital distribution like Paytm, Smallcase, and Groww, etc. Upside AI would leverage these pipes to distribute its products. However, they might become competitors in the future if they backward integrate into asset management.
Having said that, asset management is not a winner-take-all market and there is space for multiple large players to exist.
“In addition, as far as we know, we are amongst only a handful of players leveraging tech for investment decision-making in India. Our proprietary tech and track record are sustainable moats, which should hold us in good stead vis-à-vis the competition” says Atanuu Agarrwal, Co-founder, Upside AI
Upside AI – Recognition and Achievements
Upside AI ranks among the top-performing PMS’ in the country delivering 33% annualized returns since it came out of beta in July 2019; this represents a ~14% alpha (outperformance) over the benchmark index (Nifty 500 TRI).
In June 2021, PMS AIF World ranked Upside AI Multicap in the top 10 products of its peer group. Upside AI’s AUM has grown by 10X since 2020 to over INR 75cr with investments from several HNIs, and family offices.
Its goal is to cross 1000 customers and 1000 crores in AUM within the next 18-24 months (2022-23) while delivering consistent returns for its investors
Apart from the two live products, Upside AI has another couple of products in development, which it plans to launch over the next 6-12 months(2021-2022)
Over the next couple of years, the company aims to add 1,000 HNIs, family offices, and institutional clients and grow to INR ~1,000cr in AUM.
The team is also working on building an end-to-end digital platform where we want tech to drive the entire chain from client onboarding to sophisticated investment tech to live tracking and reporting via a seamless UI/UX experience for clients
Over the next 5 years, Upside AI aims to create off-the-shelf, standardized products across asset classes that can be pre-packaged and sold to even retail investors
Upside AI – FAQs
What is Upside AI?
Upside AI is a SEBI-registered PMS (Portfolio Management Service). It is an investment management startup that uses technology to drive investment decisions.
Who are the founders of Upside AI?
Nikhil Hooda, Kanika Agarrwal, and Atanuu Agarrwal started Upside AI in 2017.
How does Upside AI make money?
Clients are charged a percentage of AUM periodically.
What is the USP of Upside AI?
At Upside AI, the team is creating a new class of investing that sits between active and passive – its goal is to deliver consistent alpha through eliminating bias/emotions from the process. Upside AI’s first few products focus on equity investing using proprietary machine learning algorithms to understand, recognize, and buy companies that are fundamentally good businesses.
Is Upside AI an Indian Company?
Yes. Upside AI is an Indian Company headquartered in Mumbai.
How much funding has Upside AI raised?
Upside AI raised a seed round of $1.2 Million, led by a VC fund, Endiya Partners. Other investors in the round include – Vijay Kedia, Ajay Nanavati, and Gopichand Katragadda.
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 Azah.
Feminine hygiene and its awareness have never been given its due importance in India It is only recently that people have become cognizant of it. Still, there are many women who compromise on their health by using below-par products for menstrual hygiene.
While awareness about feminine hygiene is seeing an uptick, the existing products available on the market, especially sanitary pads, aren’t up to the mark. The optimal ones do their work but are often out of reach of the lower classes due to their costs. To tackle this issue, two individuals from Gurgaon launched a venture named ‘Azah‘ in 2018.
Azah was founded with the aim to innovate, improve, and deliver high-quality products that solve menstruation-related hygiene issues faced by the Indian female population. Azah sanitary pads are the most well known product of the company as it is ultra-soft organic sanitary napkins known to be safe and comfortable, according to Azah sanitary pads reviews.
StartupTalky interviewed Azah founder Mr. Aqib Mohammad to learn more about the company.
20th December 2019 – Female wellness startup, Azah Raised funding from Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl & Rohit Bansal
Gurugram based female Wellness Startup, Azah.in, announced that the company has raised an undisclosed amount in Pre- Series A funding round from Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Angel List India and a few other HNIs. According to a press release made by Azah on 20th December 2019, the lead funding came via Titan Capital, a VC arm run by Kunal & Rohit.
The startup plans to use procured funds to enhance its production, launch new products and expand sales operations in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. As said by Azah sanitary pads owner Aqib Mohammed, a good portion Azah funding will go into the research and development of new products and carrying out further innovation in the company’s current product line. The company is also planning to expand its reach to newer demographics while exploring alternative channels to drive growth and acquisition
6th March 2020 – Female Wellness Brand Azah launches #RashFreePeriod Campaign on International Women’s Day
On the occasion ofInternational Women’s Day 2020, Azah, India’s fast-growing female wellness brand, has launched a month-long #RashFreePeriod campaign. The campaign aims to encourage healthier menstrual practices and help women better protect themselves from rashes and irritation.
The campaign to be run by Azah, invites women from all across India to buy Azah sanitary pads and use them while promising its customers a 100% refund should they get any rashes during their period.
According to a survey done by Azah among urban Indian women, around 50% of the women reported facing rashes and irritation during their period. The #RashFreePeriod campaign aims to educate women that these problems need not be an unavoidable reality of their lives and can be easily be prevented by using chemical-free products and following basic hygiene practices. Which is why the Azah rash-free organic sanitary pads became popular in the market.
Shashwat Diesh and Aqib Mohammed, Azah pads owner said that, “As men, we were ourselves oblivious to the problems faced by women during their period. It was only when we saw our sisters’ lives get severely impacted because of rashes, did we realize that there is still a lot that needs to be done with respect to this category. #RashFreePeriod Campaign is our effort to help tackle this problem and make comfortable, rash-free periods a much more accessible reality for women. It is an Azah promise.”
“During the course of our journey, we realized that a lot of women have accepted rashes as an unavoidable part of their lives. Our aim is to educate as many women as possible that rash-free periods are completely possible and women need not suffer from rashes every month throughout their menstrual lives. A testament to this is the fact that more than 97% of our customers who used to face the problem of rashes with standard pads no longer face the problem after switching to Azah. This insight is based on an internal research study that was conducted with more than 3000 Azah customers.”, added the duo.
Azah.in currently manufactures ultra-soft organic sanitary pads that are available in 3 packages – a box of 12, a box of 15, and a box of 30 pads. Azah pads are made to ensure premium quality at every stage of the production process. The price of Azah sanitary pads is Rs 239 for the pack of 12 pads, Rs 289 for the pack of 15 pads, and Rs 519 for the pack of 30 pads. Azah sanitary napkin scan be purchased online from the company’s website as well as from other major e-commerce portals.
The USP of Azah rash-free organic sanitary pads are:
Convenient: The pads are available in 2 sizes. Both can absorb the light, medium and heavy flow.
Ultra-soft: The top layer of the pad is made with the finest organic cotton. This ensures a smooth velvety surface to prevent irritation and rashes.
Chemical-free: According to azah sanitary pads review, they don’t have harmful chemicals such as chlorine, dioxins, and artificial fragrances.
Super absorbent: can absorb up to 1000 times its weight in water.
Eco-friendly: All the layers except the bottom-most are made of either cotton or paper. Each pad comes in a sealed biodegradable disposal bag.
FDA approved: Azah is also amongst those Indian organizations that have been approved by the United States FDA, one of the most reputed quality certification bodies in the world known for its exacting standards.
Free of harmful plastic and synthetics.
Azah Pads
Azah – Industry Details
The Indian feminine hygiene industry is growing rapidly with women becoming more educated, financially independent, and aware of personal hygiene. Which is why companies like Azah are launching fem care line installation company in India.
The revenue in the feminine hygiene segment has been US$105 Mn in 2019. The market is expected to grow annually by 6.7% (CAGR 2019-2021).
Azah – Founders
The Azah founders are Aqib Mohammad and Shashwat Diesh, and the platform was launched in November 2018. Shashwat and Aqib met while they were working with Snapdeal and came together to start Azah.
Aqib Mohammad graduated from IIT Roorkee in 2015. He worked with Snapdeal and co-founded Edtech startup Xolvr.com that got acquired in October 2016.
Shashwat Diesh graduated from R.V College of Engineering in 2012. He worked with Ola and Snapdeal before Azah. He also founded an FMCG brand ‘Flossy’ in 2017 which he exited in February 2018 to focus on ‘Azah’.
Menstruation and openness are rarely mentioned in the same breath because of the social stigma around them. Therefore, it is was a courageous act for Aqib and Shashwat to start a company based on manufacturing sanitary pads.
It began with a casual conversation.Sometime around May 2018, Shashwat was having a general talk with one of his sisters. She casually mentioned the problem of rashes and itchiness due to the conventional sanitary pads in the market.
Sashwat was moved by his sister’s ordeal decided to take corrective measures. He spoke about the same with his friend Aqib and the duo began researching sanitary pads. They did a survey at the end of May 2018 and got a response from 285 women attesting to the fact that 1 in 2 women face rashes and itchiness from menstrual pads. They inquired further about feminine hygiene from gynaecologists and experts.
On the 1st of June 2018, Aqib and Sashwat left their respective professional commitments and to work full time on Azah. On 28th October 2018, Azah.in officially launched its products in the market.
“Without support from family and friends it would have been very tough to start up a company to produce sanitary pads considering the taboo associated with it”, says Aqib, the Azah founder.
Azah – Name And Logo
Azah logo and the name is a Hebrew name meaning strong and bright. The brand name is inspired by the immense strength a woman carries within herself and consequently as a brand, it aims to lend the same qualities to its product line.
Azah Logo
Azah – Funding
When it comes to Azah funding, the company has raised USD 200,000 in seed-round funding from a group of angel investors in April 2019.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investor
April 2019
Seed
$200,000
Angel Investors
Azah funding is said to be used for the expansion of its inventory and operations across India. Azah.in plans to use a part of the fund to optimize its supply chain management and improve customer service by leveraging technology.
It’s extremely hard to develop and design a product that you yourself can’t use – Aquib (Azah Founder)
While the company got its first set of customers through friends and family, the biggest factor that helped the company scale to 5,000 customers in a matter of 90 days was through positive word of mouth publicity. The company also runs social media campaigns to promote its products.
Azah – Major Challenges
According to founder Aqib Mohammad, brand stickiness is unusually high in this industry. There is very little consumer awareness and women resort to whatever brand they were introduced to in the beginning by their mother or sister. It has always been a challenge for an upcoming brand to convince customers to switch brands, especially when they’ve been using a specific one for as long as a decade.
Azah – Competitors
The company faces tough competition from international market leaders like P&G and Johnson & Johnson. The company has been still been successful in carving its niche in the market and earn the trust of consumers. The other Azah Competitors are Peebuddy, Carmesi, Nua, Heyday Care, GlamEgo, Bharti Sales, My Urifiemme, GoGirl, among others.
When it comes to azah pads vs nua pads, Azah Sanitary pads is better because is free of harmful synthetics such as chlorine, dioxins, and artificial fragrances, and is FDA-approved. Besides that, it also helps to prevent rashes and itchiness. Whereas Nua on the other hand, is super light, chemical-free and has great absorption, but is more expensive.
Azah pads vs Nua pads
Azah – Advisors And Mentors
Azah is moving forward under the expert guidance of Mr. Mehmood Khan who served in the Global leader innovation process at Unilever from 1990-2009.
We are friends first then colleagues – said Aqib Mohammad.
Every member of the Azah team is motivated by the positive impact fostered through the work done at Azah. This enables the team to go above and beyond in making ever-lasting contributions.
Azah – Achievements
The Azah sanitary pads review are usually positive from all customers across various e-commerce platforms. It sold more than 200,000 pads within 5 months of launch.The Azah pads review also helped the company to successfully served customers in over 1800 pin codes across India with the average delivery time being only 2.5 days.
Azah’s average monthly revenue is growing at 50%. The company’s revenue crossed INR 10 lakhs in March 2019.Azah.in claims to have a retention rate of 90% and has a net promoter score (NPS) of +6.
Azah – Future Plans
Azah plans to become a one-stop solution for all premium feminine hygiene products. Azah.in is expecting a ten-fold growth in order volumes by 2020. The company envisions expanding globally over time since the Azah sanitary pads review are positive and the demand for Azah sanitary pads has increased over the years.
Azah – Founders Advice
Don’t be afraid of taking risks. More importantly don’t be afraid of failure – Aqib, (Azah pads owner).
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 GingerCup.
Tea is India’s most favourite beverage and tea breaks are something that everyone enjoys. We rewind, relax, chat and discuss over a cup of tea. Bengaluru based paper cup startup, known asGingercup is trying to make the best out of tea breaks, by reaching out to potential customers at tea time through their branded and beautiful paper cup.
GingerCup is a paper cup startup that thrives to provide the most innovative and effective marketing solutions, to its clients in creating a strong emotional connection with their customers. Ginger Cup is also known as the Ginger media group, has a long term goal is to be a media company that is the best and the default choice for branding across various verticals and to convert every white paper cup into a coloured cup branding.
Gingercup – Industry Details
The offline marketing industry is rapidly growing with the evolution of new media in OOH space. Consumers spend more than 70% of their working hours outside their homes. 60% of them are dedicated to regular consumer tasks such as commuting to work, working in the office, socializing, and drinking and eating outside their home or in the workplace.
Also, since India is a tea-drinking nation, people from the age group of 18 to 80, from tier 1 city to villages, everybody loves tea. A typical Indian starts their day with tea and consumes at least 2 to 3 cups throughout the day. And that is where all the hot topics of the day get discussed.
The ability to engage with consumers in their tea break makes paper cup marketing a powerful standalone medium and this is how the Ginger cups marketingstrategy complements with other media. When an emotional moment combines with a discussion topic over tea, it exceeds the reach of word of mouth, amplifies the campaign and drives consumers to engage with brands online and in-store.
Gingercup – The Idea
GingerCup founders is Deepak Bansal and Devleena Neogi said –
Deepak came up with this innovative idea and discussed it with me one day. I could completely visualize the impact of paper cups as a media for branding at that very moment. The beauty of the idea was its simplicity. That was my AHA moment. I loved it, but I had mixed emotions. I was very excited to execute the idea but at the same time a bit hesitant because of my stability in profession. Back in our mind, we were thinking – Why no one has tried this so far? Is it really going to be impactful? Whether the market will accept it or not?
Every idea has its pros and cons. When we say simplicity is best at the same time it’s a threat in terms of business perspective. After hours of research, observation and executing a pilot campaign, they realized that it really was a breakthrough paper cup advertising concept.
They both then decided to dedicate their full time to Ginger Cup. Also, the families and friends encouraged and supported us in every way. And that’s how GingerCup was started.
GingerCup logo and name comes from India’s favourite, “adrak wali chai” or ginger tea.
‘adrak wali chai’ holds a special place in the hearts of every individual. That’s where the name of our company, GingerCup, came from. Just like ginger gives flavor to the tea, our cup branding concept enhances the look of plain-white boring paper tea cups by displaying marketing messages.
The tagline of the Ginger Cup reads-“‘cup that serves a purpose”. It serves a dual purpose, as it can be used to serve any beverage such as tea, coffee or water and for advertising purposes.
The paper cup startup has a beautifully designed and meaningful logo.
Gingercup Logo
The letter ‘G’ denotes a piping hot paper cup reaching out with an arrow to a brand’s target audience.
Gingercup – Product
Ginger media group is a creative advertising agency that specializes in paper cup advertising. The paper cup business helps brands engage and interact with their target audience by printing marketing messages on paper tea cups. It helps brands reach out to their target group during tea breaks at offices and colleges.
Unlike other advertising mediums, our paper cups advertisement provide an exposure time of 5-7 minutes in a clutter-free environment. Every cup branding campaign is planned keeping a client’s target audience in mind. For example Professionals in Tech parks, Corporate Companies, HNIs in Airlines, Trains, Colleges, Hospitals or Fitness centers, shopping malls etc.
Gingercup Marketing
Gingercup – Business Model
GingerCup business model is based on outsourcing paper tea cups from third-party vendors and prints advertising messages on them. The uniqueness of cup branding is the biggest USP of the company. Today, brands are constantly on the lookout for innovative ways and techniques to reach out to their target group and get them to take a call to action. This paper cup startup helps brands realize this dream.
We strongly believe that our product is different in the market because it is a personal, dynamic and cost-effective marketing medium. We want our client’s message to reach as many people as possible. Thus, we have created a large inventory base through our tie-ups.
Paper cup advertisement with Gingercup, allows brands to get access to 1400+ corporate companies that include MNC, SME, Startups, Co-working spaces, Food Courts of tech parks, 1500+ colleges, 60+ Hospitals, Shopping Malls, 7 Airlines (International and Domestic) and 75+ Premium trains (Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto) across India.
Gingercup – Funding
When its comes to Gingercup funding, the company gets its funds through seed funding and angel investors. The two major Gingercup investors are
Sanket Gupta, Programme Lead, Google USA.
Rahul Shah, Technical Lead, Microsoft.
Gingercup – Customer Acquisition
Initially, Ginger Cup acquired clients through general sales and marketing techniques. Cold emailing worked great for them. After a couple of pilot campaigns, people began to notice and contact them.
That’s when they truly started getting recognition for their work. From facility managers to leading brands, everyone was interested in understanding the advertising concept and ginger cup business model.
Word of mouth has really helped us become who we are today – Devleena
GingerCup counts Hotstar, Uber, Volkswagen, Huawei, NH Hospitals, Bookmyshow, Exide Life Insurance, Clovia, ISL – Delhi Dynamos, bahubali and Jet Airways as their clients.
Gingercup – Challenges
There are two major challenges faced by GingerCup at the beginning was getting the right manpower and building an inventory base.
Firstly, hiring the right set of people was a big hurdle. However, to our luck, we were soon able to overcome it. Thanks to networking and references, we soon had the right talent joining our team.
Secondly, building an inventory base was not a breeze either. Based on a campaigns demand, we were required to build consumer networks in new domains. Soon, we tied up with consumers in various locations and set up a large inventory base. Ginger media group is now operational in PAN India.
Within a short period of time, Gingercup has started offering services Pan-India, in cities such as Bangalore, Delhi, Noida, Pune, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Kolkata, and many more. The paper cup startup is also planning to expand abroad.
Gingercup – Founders
Deepak Bansal and Devleena Neogi are a couple entrepreneurs and teh Ginger Cup founders.
Deepak Bansal was working in the IT sector. He also worked as ‘Tech Lead’ in Samsung Research Institute, Bangalore.
Devleena Neogi was an HR professional with exposure in business development for 6 years at different organizations like Wipro Technologies, iGatePatni and Magna Infotech Pvt Ltd.
Gingercup – Work Culture
We encourage an open door policy and believe every person should have a voice. We bridge the gap between leaders and employees by fostering open and honest communication. Our culture fosters diverse communities to create a large impact. Every employee in our organization works together to enhance the value we provide to customers.
There is no direct competition to GingerCup. But some of the GingerCup Competitors are Cupshup, Google and Facebook.
We look at Google and Facebook as our competitors. Today, digital marketing and social media marketing have created a firm place for itself. We consider ourselves still in the nascent stage of experimental marketing. – Devleena
Gingercup – Future Plans
To sustain the attention of various target groups, GingerCup is looking to add a burst of innovation to their paper cups.
Paper cup advertising and innovation are synonymous We are already working on an AR-enabled paper cups that will offer brands enhanced awareness, visibility, and engagement. Ginger cups aim is to make paper cup business a potent marketing tool rather than just limiting it to a beverage container.
Mr. Rahul Shah and Mr. Sanket Gupta who happens to be the GingerCup investors and also is the mentor of the startup.
Gingercup – Founder’s Advice
Start fast, move fast and fail fast.
I would like to tell my fellow entrepreneurs and readers not to rush immediately into fundraising. Rather create a real profitable business, solve real problems, and provide real products and services to real customers.
Also, stay away from mental pollution. Maintain a good work-life balance by taking care of physical health and well being. Prioritize eating well and exercise. Only when the mind, body, and spirit are energized you will be able to get the taste of success.
Being an entrepreneur, it’s sometimes a lonely journey. Besides, look at the brighter side. You get to do what you want and you get to do it your own way.
Gingercup – Founder’s Productivity Hacks
GingerCup founder Devleena Neogi shared some of her productivity hacks with us. Starting up a paper cup startup is definitely not easy. But it’s very important to keep yourself productive and organized always.The biggest productivity hack for Devleena is to strike a fine balance between his work and personal life.
I give a lot of emphasis to self-care. Only when your mind is clutter-free can the creative juices flow. I also lead a systematic and disciplined lifestyle. My morning starts with yoga and meditation. Staying in sync with nature keeps me refreshed and helps me take on every new day with enthusiasm and confidence.
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 AAA 2 Innovate Pvt Ltd., the parent company of Zipaworld.
The Indian logistics market is one of the most significant ones in the global logistics and supply chain market which is worth $4.3 trillion. The growth of the logistics and supply chain sector is phenomenal and contributes to more than 14% of India’s GDP. Zipaworld is a logistics engine or can be called a marketplace, or an e-Mall that exclusively caters to the logistics services needs of the market and customers. Zipaworld happens to be the most unique digital logistics platform where e-booking and other transactions can be done related to air freight, ocean freight, and surface freight all from one platform.
Zipaworld has already managed to bring multi-modal transportation and logistics like air freight, ocean freight, road freight into one platform just within a span of 9 months since its launch in September 2020. Over the past few months, it has grown organically with partnerships and associations with various vendors and other players within India, in the Gulf countries, Europe, and the USA. It managed to have associates in over 35 countries across the world providing logistics services.
StartupTalky interviewed the core team @ Zipaworld to know the Startup Story and the roadmap of the organization. Get insights on How Zipaworld started, its business & revenue model, founder, parent company, what Zipaworld does, its growth/expansion plans, and more…
Zipaworld is a logistics service provider but the digital way, or a digital logistics platform. The team calls Zipaworld – The Logistics E-mall. The concept of E-mall is applied here, that is, a single-window portal that displays several catalogs, products, or vendors providing their products and services. The idea is to provide a single-window solution to the customer who is otherwise required to go from pillar to post for their requirements.
In the logistics arena, there has been a dire need for the centralization of processes and single window sources, as currently, the customer must go to various vendors and service providers. The concept of e-Mall for logistics was coined by the founder, Dr. Ambrish Kumar, and named Zipaworld. As the name suggests, Zipaworld provides various logistics services to the numerous zip codes of the world. This includes multi-modal transportation, other freight forwarding services through air, ocean, rail, road freight along with the other aspects of the supply chain.
Zipaworld is an online platform that provides automated solutions for domestic and international courier services, air freight, ocean freight, road/ rail freight, door-to-door services, first/ last mile pick-ups and deliveries, express services, warehousing services, customs brokerage services, and other logistics services. Zipaworld offers a seamless digital experience with features like freight query management, freight rate comparisons, online booking, prompt freight forwarding, automated freight documentation, live tracking, instant invoicing, online payment gateways, e-dockets for storing and archiving e-documents, and so on.
Zipaworld Integration Process
The vision for the next few months is to integrate more than 25000 zip codes of India into the platform and integrate the same with the global zip codes connecting them using the various modes of cargo transportation. The idea is to provide a seamless convenience to the end consumers like manufacturers, distributors, exporters, importers, traders to avail transparent logistics services at their own ease without much interference by the multiple mediators. The concept of delivering anything and everything will be achieved by the end of this year. The company plans to expand outside India on a large scale in the coming couple of years and become a global player with a virtual presence in more than 150 trading countries. It plans to create a huge network in the supply chain integrating all stakeholders for smooth movement of trade.
The long-term vision of Zipaworld is to use the latest technology like Machine Learning, AI, IoT to automate the complete logistics processes and bring in blockchain technology in the logistics and supply chain. The idea is to turn the tables for the supply chain bringing in sheer visibility, mitigating risks, reducing the demand and supply gap, consequently reducing the logistics cost which is currently very high.
The logistics and supply chain sector in India is the second-fastest-growing sector after e-commerce. The growth of the sector is phenomenal and contributes to more than 14% of the GDP. The worth of the sector stands at USD 170 billion currently and is expected to grow up to USD 250 billion at a CAGR of 10.5% in the next 5 years. This was the prediction pre-COVID, but the prediction has not changed much post-COVID as well. As the global trade is increasing and the dependency of the various nations on one another is also increasing, logistics is a sector that is getting benefitted. The Indian logistics market is one of the most significant ones in the global logistics and supply chain market which is worth $ 4.3 trillion.
Also, India is set to become a global investment hub for production and manufacturing, warehousing, and a potential trans-shipment hub and gateway for trade movement from the nearby countries. The supply chain and logistics sector in India is also the largest employment provider, with more than 8 million people employed across India. However, there are several drawbacks that keep the logistics cost at 14% of the GDP.
The major reason being the unorganized, disintegrated, and fragmented processes and players across the whole supply chain ecosystem. Only 15% of the players have an organized and integrated working model. Other reasons include the under-developed infrastructure of ports, cargo terminals, not up to the mark road and rail network, an uneven network of warehouses, lagging cold-chain facilities, lack of multi-modal transportation, issues pertaining to first and last-mile connectivity, decentralized customs procedures, and most of all non-availability of centralized and single-window logistics platforms.
Zipaworld – Founders and Team
AAA 2 Innovate Pvt Ltd, the parent startup company, and Zipaworld were founded by Dr. Ambrish Kumar. The core team comprises of his co-companions from his previous company, some experts of the supply chain & technology sectors, fresh young minds aspiring to kick-start a career in logistics and supply chain and IT fields of work, and those seeking to grow with the growth of the start-up. The core team that is taking the concept forward consists of personnel from the shipping line, airline, ports and terminals, freight forwarding, technology backgrounds.
AAA2 Innovate Pvt Ltd. Logo
About Dr. Ambrish Kumar | Founder, Zipaworld
Dr. Ambrish Kumar is a renowned name in the logistics and supply chain fraternity. He has been the brain behind the award-winning Indian startup LogYcode that revolutionized the Air Freight logistics ecosystem a couple of years back. The concept coined and implemented by Dr. Ambrish Kumar turned out to be one of the initial movers to launch a mobile app for Logistics services. Dr. Ambrish holds the acumen of more than 16 years of experience in stalwart diverse combinations in the domains of Logistics, Freight Forwarding, CFS, Operation, Supply Chain Management, Warehousing & Evaluating New Project Movements.
He has held senior management pedestals of different reputed organizations like APM Terminals India Pvt. Ltd., Eastern Cargo Carriers India Pvt. Ltd, Group CEO of S.A. Consultants and Forwarders Pvt Ltd (SA Group) and LogYcode Tech Solutions Pvt Ltd (Founder).
He has an affluent academic background, having attained P.HD. in Economics, with his thesis on ‘Industrial Policy and Industrial Growth’. Also, his qualifications include M. A. in Economics and MBA in International Trade and is also SAP qualified. There is an innovation involved in every action of Dr. Ambrish and his team whether it is designing the office space of the start-up or designing a digital gateway to revolutionize the logistics sector.
Team and Work Culture
AAA2 Innovate Pvt Ltd. – Office Reception Area
The startup is gradually growing which started with a team of 6 core members and now has a team of more than 30 members in the direct payrolls. In addition, the start-up has also managed to acquire stakes in a domestic transportation company by the name of Radiant X-Ways Logistic Pvt Ltd, which has offices in more than 40 locations across India.
The startup has formed a vibrant work culture and the office resonates an aura that every employee looks forward to every day. The startup follows a circular hierarchy rather than the usual vertical or horizontal hierarchy, where any member of the team can approach any other member or senior without any hurdles or protocols.
There are only mentors and no reporting managers. The company promotes working from home as the processes are fully digitized.
Anyone can use the office space any time with sheer flexibility in timings.
There are no strict office hours to be followed as the company has aligned its work partners with its vision and everyone feels responsible towards their work.
The office encourages leisure and fun with an in-house chill-out and gossip area with couches, bean bags, and recliners, reading nooks, Table-Tennis, and other activities to keep its people engaged with more than just work.
The startup focuses on the happiness index of its workforce with policies and norms molded to justify this factor.
The startup has done its best in supporting the team members and their families during the crisis hours and the pandemic.
AAA2 Innovate workspace
Hiring and Head-hunting
While head-hunting, the company looks for partners in their crime and not employees. The aspirants who wish to be an integral part of the team, who are responsible themselves, and who wish to grow with the growth of the company. The startup is highly instrumental in campus recruitments and offering internships to freshers and thereafter rendering them opportunities to make a career in the company itself.
Zipaworld’s Ideation Journey – How it Started
The founder of Zipaworld, Dr. Ambrish Kumar is a hardcore logistics professional who has grown from ground level and held senior-level positions in various levels of the supply chain like, ports and terminals, shipping lines, freight forwarders, etc. He is also SAP qualified and always was inclined towards technological advancement, artificial intelligence, and human development. As he has experienced several loopholes in the conventional logistics processes that still exist with manual workflows and heavy paperwork, he realized that automation and integration are the need of the hour.
He, along with a team of logistics and IT experts had developed a prototype model of a logistics platform in his previous company where he held the position of CEO. However, since the company was only into freight forwarding, the scope of the digital platform was only limited to the B2B model and could not explore the larger supply chain. So, he planned to start his own venture by the name of AAA 2 Innovate Pvt Ltd which was launched during the pandemic in July 2020.
While the industry and most businesses were apprehensive of taking any new risks during the pandemic, Dr. Ambrish and his team found the pandemic as an opportunity to capitalize and bring about a digital transformation which was the need of the hour. During the unexpected and prolonged lockdowns, many conventional enterprises of the logistics sector suffered as they could not carry out their operations due to dependency on manual working, and businesses were badly affected. Zipaworld was launched within a record time of three months in September 2020 and started with automated processes for air freight transactions. This turned out to be a boon to many exporters and importers, traders of pharmaceuticals, and also to small freight forwarding enterprises as they could carry out their logistics transactions like checking competitive pricing options, book shipments, get automated freight documents, pay the freight online, track their shipments, get deals and discounts, and much more, all round the clock at their convenience.
Within a month’s time, it managed to get more than 20 customers and 30 vendors onboard the platform. There are some other reasons that rendered an impetus to Dr. Ambrish Kumar and his ambitious team to develop Zipaworld. The increasing logistics and supply chain cost which is almost 14.5% in India, compelled for integration and digitalization of the processes offering single-window solutions. Another major reason is the improving Government policies and initiatives to encourage the logistics industry and draw global trade opportunities and investments.
Zipaworld is a logistics engine or can be called a marketplace, or an e-Mall that exclusively caters to the logistics services needs of the market and customers. Zipaworld happens to be the most unique digital logistics platform where e-booking and other transactions can be done related to air freight, ocean freight, and surface freight all from one platform. Not just that, Zipaworld can be used to book both international and domestic air freight. The platform integrates multi-modal transportation. The customer can just feed their zip codes for the origin and destination and Zipaworld offers an end-to-end solution and booking options. Zipaworld has now also reached the doorsteps of people across India by getting into the B2C concept with its newly launched domestic and international Courier product, where it is even providing doorstep pick-up services from more than 2000 pin codes across India.
Hence, the customer does not need to go to various vendors for various services like transportation, warehousing, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, and so on. The portal negates conventional delays caused by time zone differences, as the price quotes and the processes are fully automated and are available 24×7.
Moreover, the whole process moves in a simple ‘Previous-Next’ model, which makes the user comprehend the flow easily. The portal logs and records stage-wise updates and send push messages and notifications to the customer thereby keeping utmost transparency of the transactions.
Zipaworld is developed keeping in view the end customer or a layman. So the user interface of Zipaworld and its flow are easily understandable by even a layman. The portal simplifies the complexities of logistics and renders an easy gateway to book cargo just like booking travel or vacation. While the platform provided end-to-end logistics services like door-to-door logistics, but it does not use complex terminologies like the Incoterms or confusing documentation names. The platform has simple-to-understand terminologies that anyone can use without any training or demonstration. Moreover, the platform does a single invoicing for multiple services availed for a single shipment. There are various analytics and reporting available for the users to assess the trends and anticipate seasonal fluctuations based on historical data.
Zipaworld is a web and cloud-based platform that makes it readily handy for anyone with a smartphone or laptop to use. It is developed in such a way that people located in remote areas can also carry out their logistics and supply chain transactions from one gateway without having to go through the otherwise puzzling processes and documentation formalities.
While discussing the pain areas that have been addressed by Zipaworld, let us first highlight the pain areas of the customers seeking logistics services –
The logistics sector is largely disintegrated and fragmented. This causes the end customer or the owner of a consignment, to suffer the most.
Currently, not just in India, but across the world, there are very few single-window gateways that offer all logistics and multi-modal transportation services from one gateway.
Hence, the end customer must go to various disintegrated vendors for various services, like a vendor for warehousing, another for transportation, another for freight forwarding, and so on.
Moreover, the customer is required to manage the pricing, invoicing, and payments separately for each vendor.
This calls for not just wastage of time and energy, heavy paperwork, multiple authorizations, etc., but also fetches high-cost factors as there are many players and mediators involved.
In a nutshell, the uniquely designed Zipaworld portal addresses the pain areas and optimizes cost-effectiveness, time efficiency, and service efficiency.
Zipaworld – Name, Tagline and Logo
Significance of Name ‘Zipaworld’
The name ‘Zipaworld’ signifies the various zip codes of the world. As Zipaworld is a centralized platform that is involved in 3PL/ 4PL services, the name justifies the service portfolio encompassing all logistics services from origin zip code to destination zip code from a single window, anywhere in the world.
Notion Behind Zipaworld’s Logo Design
The logo shows speeding lines with Zipaworld written, which shows fast and prompt service.
Zipaworld Logo
Zipaworld’s Tagline
The tagline ‘The Logistics E-Mall of India’ again means a one-stop e-marketplace that offers all logistics services.
Logo & Tagline of Zipaworld’s Parent Company
AAA Logo
The logo of the parent company AAA 2 Innovate Pvt Ltd is a pencil with a tree growing on top of it. This denotes writing and starting innovation and flourishing into various levels and fields of work. As the startup is into various other services like software (ERP, SaaS) development, digital marketing, cloud and server services, Trading and sourcing, financial management services, logistics consultancy. The tagline of the parent company is ‘Innovation is our addiction’, resonating with the innovative addictive impetus that each team member carries with them.
Zipaworld is an online marketplace from where the customers can choose and book one or more logistics services as per their requirement. Zipaworld offers options to pick and choose services with instant pricing quotes available for air freight, ocean freight and express services thereby optimizing the turnaround times. For air or ocean consignments, just like booking a travel ticket, one needs to insert some basic information like origin, destination, date of materialization, number of packages, weight and dimensions, and commodity type, checking the requisite services from the checkboxes.
The portal flashes instant live market pricing options with all-inclusive cost options to view cost break-up. The customer may choose based on service levels and cost, and e-book the consignment. Upon booking, the Airway Bill, Bill of Lading, or other freight documents get automatically created after which the online payment can be made. The pricing is fetched real-time from the various contracted vendors and carriers, thereby making the pricing realistic and competitive.
Zipaworld’s revenue comes from the incentives, performance-linked bonuses and volume-based contracts, and commitments with vendors and carriers. The margins levels and service/ convenience fees and commissions have always been kept on the lower side as the bigger aim is to cater with a competitive and reliable gateway for the service seekers.
Zipaworld – Startup Launch and Growth Hacks
The company was launched during the pandemic which was a time of disillusionment for most businesses. However, the team saw it as an opportunity and looked forward to launching the platform for prospective customers from the pharmaceutical and medical sectors. The idea was planted rightly and they started getting pharmaceutical customers on board just within a fortnight of the launch. The first customer to be on board with the company was a pharmaceutical manufacturer and trader. The customer located in Mumbai could easily access the portal and e-book shipments on their own which helped them during the pandemic when they could not rely on their vendors who were mostly closed.
Earlier people had to approach multiple vendors like transporters, warehouse providers, freight forwarders, customs brokers, which was hectic and they could not focus on their core business. Also, they had to chase the vendors for freight documentation, trade-related authorizations, billing invoices which was a painstaking hassle. Also, they did not get proper information regarding the status of the processes and shipments. Zipaworld portal helped them improve their supply, procurement, exports, and distribution turnaround time to less than 1/4th of what it was before. They were able to focus on their core business more and maximize the production and distribution activities during the COVID time.
It initially managed to multiply the customers through existing customers who suggested Zipaworld to other exporters of pharmaceuticals, mostly they were from western Indian cities. Hence it can be stated that the initial customer onboarding was through word-of-mouth and traditional sales and marketing drives.
Zipaworld started carrying out digital marketing activities through social media, news media, and email marketing which further enhanced the reach of Zipaworld to other parts of India and also globally. It managed to get recognition from customers from the Middle Eastern countries and Europe as well. Gradually the startup managed to gain more than 100 customers within 4 months of the launch of the Zipaworld portal.
By the first quarter of 2021, Zipaworld started witnessing a huge influx of visiting customers and prospects through the Zipaworld portal which could be used for price comparison purposes without logging in or registration process. The launch of the Ocean Freight Module in early Feb 2021 saw an increasing demand for ocean freight inquiries through the portal mostly from the western Indian regions.
Further, the team managed to leap ahead investing stakes in Radiant X-ways Logistic Pvt Ltd, a 10-year-old Indian domestic logistics giant renowned for express distribution, catering to the first and last-mile transportation by air and road to a huge client base that consisted of electronics, spare parts, and pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors. This helped it gain access to catering to the international logistics requirements of the customers.
Zipaworld – Challenges Faced
The Logistics sector still follows an orthodox working model. If one compares the air freight forwarding process with the passenger air travel industry, the latter is fully automated for almost 15 years with e-booking platforms and smooth paperless transactions.
In the logistics and freight forwarding sector, the fraternity is still accustomed to using e-mails and phone calls for inquiries with paper-based transactions galore. The team at Zipaworld faced an initial reluctance from the prospects to cling to a new digital means to carry out the transactions. However, they started getting overwhelming penetration and recognition amongst its customers within a month as the need of the hour was a digital single window gateway during the pandemic. The customers started understanding the dire need for automation of processes, accuracy, transparency, visibility thereby reducing turnaround time and following best practices. The idea of saving time, cost, and manpower and rather using these elements for more productive works has been comprehended by the customers.
Zipaworld is a digital portal that can be accessed from across the world, hence the idea is to be virtually omnipresent in all parts of the world. Over the past few months, it has grown organically with partnerships and associations with various vendors and other players within India, in the Gulf countries, Europe, and the USA. It managed to have associates in over 35 countries across the world providing logistics services.
The complete logistics market of India is worth $170 billion and is growing at a CAGR of 10.5% to reach $ 250 billion in the next 5 years. For assessment, the startup takes into consideration only the exports market from the top 8 cities of India, which as per its study from the DGCA data, stands at approx. 1020 tons.
With the kind of centralized and multimodal platform developed, Zipaworld has considered a modest 5% of the total volumes handled from the origin. This is only an instance of the exports market, however, its scope includes imports, domestic market, express and courier, and other logistics services.
The team at Zipaworld expects the payback period of the initial investment in 2.5 years as per the growth trend and assessment of volumes, revenues, and cost.
The Zipaworld has an average of more than 5000 visitors daily which forms the base for the visiting customers. This is in addition to the already registered 250+ regular customers availing of logistics services across the world. The popularity of the Zipaworld website (zipaworld.com) has been growing phenomenally with the website being ranked 70000 among the global websites and 7200 among the Indian websites in just within a span of 9 months on Alexa ranking and various other popularity measures.
Zipaworld – Funding
The startup has remained self-funded and bootstrapped till now and has managed to successfully stay above the breakeven. The team shall look for the funding when it is the right time and have encompassed most of the supply chain activities within the online platform.
The concept and the idea are formulated and mentored by the founder of the company, Dr. Ambrish Kumar who leads from the front to propel the ventures to achieve the larger vision and mission.
However, it has several IT consultants and mentors guiding to use the right technology, switch gears whenever required to stay abreast with the market requirements. Zipaworld has a robust team of logistics professionals who keep the workflows up to the mark with the present standards also adhering to the trade norms and protocols. It has reliable and renowned vendors and partners associated who provide the most competitive and transparent pricing options.
Zipaworld – Acquisition & Investment
It invested a stake in Radiant X-ways Logistic Pvt Ltd, a 10-year-old Indian domestic logistics giant renowned for express distribution, catering to the first and last-mile transportation by air and road to a huge client base that consisted of electronics, spare parts, and pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors.
The company has a presence in over 27 states across India with more than 40 offices and warehouses. The direct control over own and fixed transport fleet of specialized vehicles enabling reach to the remotest part of the country makes Radiant commit pick-up from and delivery to any corner of India.
There are several traditional logistics players embracing technology to automate processes and a lot of startups entering the supply chain arena to bring innovative solutions to the pain areas. However, one fact to be noted is that most of the digital transformations are taking place at the entity or enterprise level. That is, the automation is taking place to simplify a particular process and not integrating the complete end-to-end workflow.
For instance, there are enterprises and startups that have come out with solutions for first and last-mile connectivity, there are others that have brought solutions for warehousing, some others with ocean freight booking platforms. However, until the integration between these players happens with more single-window solutions, the loopholes in the supply chain ought to remain and the end customer will suffer.
If looked at the competition, it can be stated that there are very few online platforms across the world that offer multi-modal freight options in one dashboard. However, there are ocean freight platforms like Cogoport, FreightBro, air freight platforms like Freightos, and other logistics platforms like Far-eye, Shipsy, etc.
The growing popularity of the Zipaworld website across India and around the globe is the most significant recognition for the team.
Zipaworld has been in the news for all the good reasons that have been highlighted and praised by the various media that have covered the endeavors of Zipaworld in addressing the pain areas, especially during pandemic times.
The team has seen enterprises and organizations showing interest and getting associated with them over the past few months from the Middle-east, Europe, and the USA.
The parent company AAA 2 Innovate Pvt Ltd is registered with DPIIT (Start-up India), is MSME registered, and is a member of the global logistics trade network 7Connetwork.
Zipaworld – Future/Expansion Plans
Zipaworld will be soon having its Partner program for registering on-board the aspirants who wish to carry out a logistics business from their convenience and location and be a part of the logistics ecosystem.
The online portal is all set to integrate more than 25000 zip codes across India with extensive global connectivity in the remainder of the year 2021, thereby resolving the first and last mile connectivity issues pertaining to the sector.
Zipaworld will soon be introducing a fleet of more than 150 Electronic/battery-operated transport vehicles along with its partner companies in their drive to reduce carbon footprint and also to reach out to cover the remotely commercial and non-commercial locations across North India.
Further ventures this year include integrating goods transportation and drivers to the Zipaworld application and connecting them with the manufacturers, exporters, shippers, traders, bookings through Zipaworld App. The concept of delivering anything and everything will be achieved by the end of this year.
Zipaworld plans to expand outside India on a large scale in a coming couple of years and become a global player with a virtual presence in more than 150 trading countries. It plans to create a huge network in the supply chain integrating all stakeholders for smooth movement of trade.
The long-term vision of Zipaworld is to use the latest technology like Machine Learning, AI, IoT to automate the complete logistics processes and bring in blockchain technology in the logistics and supply chain. The idea is to turn the tables for the supply chain bringing in sheer visibility, mitigating risks, reducing the demand and supply gap, consequently reducing the logistics cost which is currently very high.
Zipaworld – FAQs
What is Zipaworld?
Zipaworld is an online platform that provides automated solutions for air freight, ocean freight, road/ rail freight, door-to-door services, first/ last mile pick-ups and deliveries, express services, courier, warehousing services, customs brokerage services, and other logistics services.
Who founded Zipaworld?
AAA 2 Innovate Pvt Ltd, the parent startup company, and Zipaworld were founded by Dr. Ambrish Kumar.
What is AAA2 Innovate?
AAA2 Innovate Pvt Ltd is the parent company of Zipaworld. It is into various other services like software (ERP, SaaS) development, digital marketing, cloud and server services, Trading and sourcing, financial management services, logistics consultancy.
How does Zipaworld make money?
Zipaworld is an online marketplace from where customers can choose & book one or more logistics services as per their requirement. Zipaworld’s revenue comes from the incentives, performance-linked bonuses and volume-based contracts, and commitments with vendors and carriers.
What is Zipaworld’s USP?
Zipaworld is a logistics engine or can be called a marketplace, or an e-Mall that exclusively caters to the logistics services needs of the market and customers. Zipaworld happens to be the most unique digital logistics platform where e-booking and other transactions can be done related to air freight, ocean freight, and surface freight all from one platform.
When was Zipaworld launched?
Zipaworld was launched in September 2020, amidst the pandemic.
Is Zipaworld an Indian Company?
Yes. Zipaworld is an Indian Company headquartered in Noida.
BharathJinda
