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 Infosys.
Digital technology is transforming services and businesses in today’s world. It is fundamentally changing operations and delivering value to consumers. It is also a cultural modification that wants organisations to experiment with various things and get comfortable with downfalls.
Infosys is an information technology consulting company. It is an Indian multinational company that provides information technology, business consulting, and outsourcing assistance. It considers itself to be a global leader in next-gen digital consulting. It is the 2nd largest IT company after TCS (Tata Consultancy Services). It is also the 596th biggest company in the entire world based on the terms of revenue.
If the above stats have already grabbed your interest, then you can dive into the full Infosys success story below, which contains the Infosys company profile, and has all the details regarding the Infosys owner, Infosys CEO name, everything about “how Infosys make money?“, its Founders and Team, Funding, Growth, Competitors of Infosys, and all about Infosys company.
Infosys is hailed as an Indian multinational information technology company that offers information technology, business consulting, and outsourcing services. Originally founded in Pune, Infosys is currently headquartered in Bengaluru.
It is provider of next-gen services. The company enables clients in more than 50+ countries to stay ahead of the innovation curve and outperform in the game. It has more than 187,000 employees working within it.
Infosys – Startup Story
The Infosys startup story came into existence in 1981. It was founded by the former employees of Patni Computer Systems. 7 people who were enthusiastic about writing codes and wanted to make it big in the American market – N.R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, S.D. Shibulal, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ashok Arora, N.S. Raghavan and K. Dinesh started the company with a meagre amount of INR 10,000 and named it Infosys Consultants. Mrs. Sudha Murthy gave this amount to her husband, Mr Narayana Murthy. The company began with a small office room. It was the front room of Murthy’s home and the registered office was Raghavan’s home. The company didn’t have any computer till 1983 because they couldn’t afford it. It took them two years to buy a computer on their own and the model was Data General 32-bit MV8000.
Infosys – Founders And Team
N.R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, S.D. Shibulal, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ashok Arora, N.S. Raghavan and K. Dinesh are the founders of the company.
Narayana Murthy is an Indian billionaire businessman and the co-founder of Infosys.
Nandan Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur. He is the Non-Executive Chairman of Infosys.
S.D. Shibulal is an Indian business executive. He is the CEO and Managing Director of Infosys.
Kris Gopalakrishnan is the former executive vice-chairman of Infosys. Currently, he is the Chairman of Axilor Ventures.
Ashok Arora is also a founder of Infosys.
N.S. Raghavan is an Indian industrialist. He is one of the founders of Infosys.
K.Dinesh is the co-founder of Infosys. He completed his education from Bangalore University.
Nandan Nilekani, N.S. Raghavan, Kris Gopalakrishnan, N.R. Narayana Murthy, S.D. Shibulal and K. Dinesh (left to right), Founders, Infosys
Infosys – Tagline, Slogan And Logo
The tagline of the company is ‘Powered by Intellect, Driven by Values‘. This is the base tagline of Infosys. It focuses especially on re-communicating values. The company uses various slogans from time to time in its presentations.
The Infosys logo –
Infosys Logo
Infosys – Business Model
The Infosys business model is ideal. Previously the company concentrated only on Europe and the US preferring the (GDM) Global Delivery Model. During the 1990s Infosys focused on factors like Banking and Financial Services (BFSI), manufacturing, application development, maintenance, and testing. These all helped Infosys become a pioneer in the IT sector.
Infosys – Revenue Model
Improving Revenue by establishing productivity guidelines.
Improving Revenue by improving the process.
Improving Revenue by driving more work offshore.
Improving Revenue by increasing Reuse
Improving Revenue by taking giant leaps from small steps.
Infosys has raised a total amount of $200 million in funding over the 1 funding round.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investor
July 10, 2008
Post-IPO Equity
$200 million
Chrys Capital
Infosys is funded by Chrys Capital.
It has also made 21 investments.
Infosys – Growth
The Infosys growth story can be witnessed since it started trading in India in 1993. This was possible because the business had the ability to increase the per-capita revenues and attract the brightest investments on a go-forward basis.
Infosys was on unstable grounds when its first joint venture collapsed in 1989. However, the company saw a breakthrough with Data Basics Corp. where Infosys started to work as an onsite software developer for the US market.
Infosys eventually formed a JV again with KSA (Kurt Salmon Associates), which was nothing other than the completion of a full-circle for Infosys. It partnered with KSA this time to handle marketing in the US. The Narayana Murthy-led company went public in 1993 and was hailed as the first Indian company to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 1999. Pioneering the Global Delivery model and preserving and nurturing the entrepreneurial itch are some of the main secrets that lie behind the colossal growth of Infosys.
Infosys currently serves clients like Visa, Reebok, Cisco Systems, Nordstrom, Boeing, New York Life, Nortel, GE and more. The biggest market for Infosys is US.
Infosys market capitalisation surpassed the $100 bn (Rs 7 trillion) mark for the first time on August 24, 2021. One of the oldest and the largest software companies in India, Infosys witnessed a surge of 71% of its share values and became the fourth Indian company to record such a feat.
Infosys – Challenges
Infosys had witnessed numerous challenges, which started right from the day it was launched, or even before that if we go by the facts. Infosys started with a sum of Rs 10,000 borrowed from Mrs Sudha Murthy, starting from there to the place where Infosys is now was a path full of hurdles. One of the prominent challenges that Infosys witnessed is when its first Joint venture, KSA- Infosys failed in 1989. This was really a point when Infosys was almost on the brink of collapsing down. This led to the resignation of the Ashok Arora, who was absolutely dejected with the way Infosys progressed.
Mr Gopalkrishna reminiscing the days, said “we had nothing after eight years of trying to bring up a company. Those who studied with us had cars and houses.” With the resignation of Ashok Arora things started to get blurry for the other co-founders as well, but soon Narayana Murthy remarked “if you all want to leave, you can. But I am going to stick (with it) and make it”, which instilled courage in all the other founders of the company.
The top Infosys competitors are TCS, Wipro and HCL.
TCS is one of the biggest competitors of Infosys. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded in 1968. TCS operates in the IT Services industry.
Wipro is also one of the top competitors of Infosys. It is a public company headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. It was founded in 1945. It also operates in the IT services industry.
HCL is the top 3rd rival of Infosys. It is headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. The company operates in the IT Services Industry.
The company has got plans to hire around 12,000 local US additional workers for various roles by the year 2022. The eye will be especially on experienced technology professionals as well as new graduates from renowned universities and colleges to create a strong platform. This action will be taking place in order to decrease their dependencies on the H-1B visa. This is nothing but a strategy to increase local hiring in the US.
FAQs
What is the full form of Infosys?
The name Infosys is derived from Information Systems.
Who are the founders of Infosys?
The Infosys founders are N.R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, S.D. Shibulal, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ashok Arora, N.S. Raghavan and K. Dinesh.
What is the Infosys story?
Infosys is a provider of next-gen digital services with more than 187,000 employees.
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 Generic Aadhaar.
As per statistics, about 60% of Indians cannot afford to buy their daily medicines. The reason behind this inability is the high cost of medicines which are absolutely unnecessary in the Indian pharmaceutical market. About 85-90% of the medicines in the market are generic variants which ideally should be available at pocket-friendly prices. However, people end up paying enormous amounts for these drugs as the manufacturer has made it a wholesale business. The irony of the matter is that generic medicines are supposed to be dirt cheap.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Generic Aadhaar has embarked on a mission to make generic medicines available to all Indians at an affordable price. It has disrupted the conventional pharma industry and is determined to empower single-store owners and pass on the benefit to the end customers.
The venture provides high-quality generic medicines from pharmaceutical manufacturers at cheap prices and increases the accessibility to these medicines all over India. Generic Aadhaar follows a unique pharmacy-aggregator, profit-sharing business model to source generic drugs directly from the manufacturers. The items are then given to the retail pharmacies, thereby eliminating the 16-20 percent wholesaler margin along with other layers of margins such as C&F agents in the trade.
The most important differentiator in the case of Generic Aadhaar is the fact that the inventory-carrying cost is very low when compared to stores that stock branded drugs. Since the stores are minimally designed, the overall cost of maintaining the business for franchises is also low. In addition, Generic Aadhaar helps small pharmacies earn double the profits and allows them to stay relevant in the market through the affordable medicines it provides.
An Interview with Arjun Deshpande | Founder of Generic Aadhaar
Generic Aadhaar ensures that the franchise is taken by an FDA licensed retailer. The retailer should be a pharmacist; if not, he or she should appoint one before the franchisee is taken. The Generic Aadhaar team helps with branding and provides IT support and medicines to the outlet.
Started with a sole mission of making medicines available to every Indian, a 16-year-old set his eyes on the pharma industry in 2018. At this novel age, Mr. Arjun Deshpande, one of India’s youngest and most dynamic entrepreneurs founded this innovative venture, Generic Aadhaar.
Generic Aadhaar – How It All Started?
Arjun’s mother work in the pharma space. When he was around 14 years old, he had visited various pharmaceuticals companies and plants along with his mother and that’s when he understood that generic medicines are sold in the market at the same price as the branded ones. He noticed that the various countries he visited, import generic medicines from India and make them available to the masses at affordable rates. He wondered, “Why is this not the case in India when we are the manufacturing hub for pharmaceuticals?”
It stroked him and gave rise to the vision of creating a brand identity through ‘Generic Aadhaar’ outlets. He found that the extra cost for generic medicines could be reduced. What does he do then? He tied up with WHO and GMP-certified pharmaceuticals and directly started providing his franchise’s pharmacist with the medicines that are produced in WHO GMP-certified pharmaceuticals companies. This helped to reduce the cost of medicines by nearly 80%. Arjun, inspired by Ratan Tata, wanted to serve the nation through his generic medicines initiative.
Generic Aadhaar, the name says it all; it will give aadhaar to the customers on their medical bills on every purchase of Generic medicines. As a pharmaceutical company, Generic Aadhaar went for a white and green color combination. This combination is symbolic of the healthcare segment.
Generic Aadhaar Logo
The tagline of Generic Aadhaar is “Dawaiyan Kifaiti Daarome Lejayiye Aapne Gharome” which means that their companyrevolves around access to affordable medicines.
Generic Aadhaar – Vision and Mission
Vision: Generic Aadhaar is a pharmaceutical company with an aim to bring all small medical stores under one roof and help them to earn huge profit margins. It will support you to compete with big retail medical outlets giants and online pharmacies and help the citizens to avail good discounts on all medicines through generic aadhaar stores.
Generic Aadhaar holds a long-term vision of assisting the underprivileged sections for the betterment of India.
Mission: To serve customers by giving affordable quality healthcare medicines. To pull out all the stops to ensure no Indian is barred from the availability of generic medicines. The company is determined to empower single-store owners and pass on the benefit to the end customer.
India is a massive hub for medicinal drug intake and consumption. To cater to the underprivileged people who cannot afford high branded medicines, the Mumbai- based Generic Aadhaar is planning to expand its pan-India reach by opening more than 800 plus retail outlets across India. The company is currently operating 45 outlets in cities like Mumbai and Pune.
The pharmaceutical entity wants to touch every corner of India in the next five to seven years. It is getting calls from all parts of India for extending its franchise outlets. Generic Aadhaar is also working on an initiative called “Entrepreneurs Under One Umbrella.” Under the Generic Aadhaar umbrella, they provide quality medicines from reputed pharma companies by offering up to 80% lesser prices. It provides the biggest portfolio of Generic medicines from government-approved quality manufacturing facilities.
Generic Aadhaar provides affordable generic medicines (particularly for the underprivileged class of India) through its outlets that are present across the nation. The medicines sold by the company cover all types of ailments like minor diseases or life-threatening illnesses. The USP of the company is the pharmacy-aggregator business model wherein it sources generic drugs directly from the manufacturer and hands them over to the drug retailer who delivers medicines to the masses at cheap rates.
Generic Aadhar supports single-retail drug stores all over India. It provides medication directly from the WHO-GMP pharmaceuticals and has tied up with drug retailers from Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Odisha in a profit-sharing model.
Generic Aadhaar – Business and Revenue Model
Generic Aadhaar follows a B2B2C model. It is appointing franchisees across India by aggregating single medical stores that are in bad shape due to the intense competition in the pharmaceutical segment. The company is passing on various benefits to the franchise owners.
Generic Aadhaar has introduced a business model that can support multi-disciplinary medications. The stores are equipped to sell all types of allopathy medicines. The company is actually complementing the Indian government’s effort of making affordable medicines available to everyone.
Generic Aadhaar | General Chemist
Generic Aadhaar’s franchising model helps in generating employment for the youth in India and also promotes entrepreneurship. While taking stock of the customer’s advantage, Generic Aadhaar ensures that small chemists and retailers earn the benefits of the business too. The medicines are given to the pharmacies at their manufacturing cost which is then sold to customers, thereby reducing the retail price up to 80 percent. The organization also collaborates with the manufacturers by increasing their supply as demand increases, thus manufacturing facilities, in turn, double their profits. Generic Aadhaar protects the interests of customers, retailers, and manufacturers alike.
Generic Aadhaar started this venture for helping and benefiting the people of India. Earlier there were very few targeted people but now, by word of mouth they are able to expand Generic Aadhaar outlets across India. Due to affordable medicines, they are growing and getting demands for their brand “Generic Aadhaar” as an identity in India.
They are not only aiming in their business growth but also, to be the best in providing Generic Medicines to every Indian through their venture. Most of the senior citizens who purchase generic medicines have cut their medical bills up to 50% with the same effect of Branded Medicines.
The biggest challenge for Arjun Deshpande, the founder of Generic Aadhaar, was to make people aware of generic medicines and build their trust in such medicines. Buyers were more inclined towards branded medicines that were quite expensive when compared to their generic counterparts.
Arjun Deshpande, the brain behind Generic Aadhaar, has several recognitions bestowed upon him.
At Asia’s Biggest Entrepreneurship Awards 2020, Arjun Deshpande was awarded “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” by Mrs. Madhuri Dixit Nene.
Young Achievers Award 2020 by Indian Achievers Forum India (IAFI).
Dynamic Entrepreneur of the Year 2020.
Indian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Association felicitated him in the presence of the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2019.
Being a young entrepreneur doesn’t mean he lacks experience; Arjun has always demonstrated his presence and abilities by sharing his journey infamous talk shows as a key-note speaker.
Generic Vs. Branded Medicine | Arjun Deshpande | TEDxDSCE
Generic Aadhaar is rapidly expanding the presence of its franchise outlets in India. The company wants to reach every corner and every Indian in the future coming years. Today they have extended to 130+cities across India, but later they are planning to reach every corner it may be not only tier-1 cities but also tier-3 cities and rural towns of India, where there is more requirement. They want to be the only brand that never fails to provide Medicines of Different segments in India.
Generic Aadhaar – FAQs
What are Generic Medicines?
A generic drug is a non-branded medicine that is cheaper as compared to the original branded drug. It has the same active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) but it costs 30-80% less compared to the original ones. It is a pharmaceutical drug that contains the same chemical substance as a drug that was originally protected by patents. Generic drugs are allowed for sale after the patents on the original drugs expire.
Who is Arjun Deshpande?
Arjun Deshpande, a teenager and a founder of “Generic Aadhaar – the fastest growing pharma company”, managed to convince Ratan Tata to invest in his startup. He is the youngest entrepreneur of India in the pharmaceutical sector.
Why you should buy from Generic Aadhaar outlets?
The team at Generic Aadhaar works aggressively towards making the largest portfolio of quality generic and branded medicines available at its outlets, at prices up to 80% lower than their branded counterparts in Generic Medicines.
Why are Generic medicines cheap?
Generic medicines are cheaper because it doesn’t have to face the brand name and manufacturing cost. The drugmaker doesn’t have to undergo the invention or marketing cost as the chemical formula.
Are the medicines prescribed by doctors are Generic medicines?
In India, 80-85% of prescribed medicines are Generics. However, due to immense marketing by the pharma companies, the price benefit does not reach the patients and even the generic medicines are costing much higher.
Who introduced generic medicines in India?
The Government of India launched the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana in 2008, under which it would provide good-quality generic drugs at affordable prices. So far, it has opened 7,290 distribution centers around the country; there should be more.
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 NimbusPost.
The Indian logistics industry is expected to grow by USD 10.74 billion during 2021-2025. While there are many startups disrupting this industry with tech-based solutions, NimbusPost is determined to create a tech-enabled logistic ecosystem to provide the most beneficial shipping services to eCommerce sellers.
Founded by Yash Jain and Rajeev Pratap, NimbusPost aims to bring together India’s leading local and national courier partners onto a single platform. Offering unmatched benefits like 17+ courier options, zero subscription cost, lowest shipping rates, API integration, access to real-time NDR panel, early COD settlements, and much more, NimbusPost has set a benchmark of quality logistics services.
StartupTalky interviewed the founders of NimbusPost to know the company’s growth story & startup hacks. Also to get insight on NimbusPost’s products, how it started, its competitors, future plans & more…
NimbusPost is one of the leading logistics platforms in India. With the team’s strong technical background and a reliable customer support team, NimbusPost offers tech-enabled logistics services to SMEs and large enterprises.
Its vision is to create a tech-enabled logistic ecosystem to provide the most beneficial shipping services to eCommerce sellers. As a young company, with a fresh outlook towards business issues, it aims to help businesses overcome their day-to-day order-fulfillment challenges.
“We believe in looking for solutions when others see only problems. By creating an advanced, multi-faceted logistics platform, our mission is to be the first choice for every logistics need of online sellers” as said by NimbusPost’s founders.
The key attribute of NimbusPost’s services is to make shipping easier for businesses by automating their shipping process. The use of advanced technology like AI and automation empowers it to provide quick and hassle-free shipping, lesser RTO, maximum transparency, quick COD remittance, integration to eCommerce channels along with many other benefits.
Following are some points highlighting how NimbusPost helps online sellers take care of their shipping challenges.
Wide range of courier options: Depending on a single courier partner keeps the sellers from serving customers in all locations. As NimbusPost brings India’s top 17+ local and national courier partners (DTDC, FedEx, Blue Dart, UPS, Delhivery, Gati, XpressBees, etc.) on a single platform, sellers can deliver packages to 27000+ pin codes across India, including even the remotest locations.
Reduce RTO: High return shipments mean high RTO. Delayed shipments and fake delivery attempts are the major reasons behind the increased RTO percentage. As NimbusPost offers the quickest deliveries with help of India’s leading courier partners, it can help reduce RTO orders. Also, by accessing the NDR panel in real-time, sellers can act on RTOs immediately and resolve them to reduce the RTO.
NDR panel: High RTO and fake remarks can cost a lot to the online sellers. NimbusPost allows real-time access to the NDR panel to let the sellers verify and resolve each RTO request at the earliest.
Shipping cost: Shipping at higher costs limits the online sellers from earning a good margin, but NimbusPost suggests courier partners that can offer delivery services at the best rates.
Auto cloud-calling: Without receiving any confirmation for COD orders, it’s difficult for online sellers to segregate spam orders from real ones, which mostly results in high RTO. NimbusPost’s automated cloud-call feature for COD order confirmation allows the sellers to immediately confirm the COD orders and manage the shipping accordingly.
Integration: Using NimbusPost’s integration feature, online sellers can directly ship the orders from their online stores on Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Prestashop, and Unicommerce.
Early COD remittance: Waiting for months for COD settlements disrupts the cash flow for proper inventory management. NimbusPost offers the quickest COD remittance or even same-day COD withdrawal* on request to help the sellers with non-stop cash flow.
Real-time tracking: NimbusPost offers real-time order tracking to its sellers and end customers which enhances the sellers’ post-shopping experience and customers’ shopping experience to a great extent.
Zero subscription fee: Paying a high subscription fee adds to the unnecessary expenses of the online sellers. NimbusPost offers a free account set up and subscription to its services to allow the sellers to find their best shipping partner for each shipment.
NimbusPost – Logistics Industry Details
The sudden rise in the number of online purchases after the pandemic hit the world became the primary reason for the eCommerce industry’s exponential growth. This growth further led to the substantial growth of the logistics sector. Considering the pattern of online shopping is going to be continued by 67% of urban Indians even after the pandemic is over, eCommerce logistics is likely to grow at a rapid rate in the next 5 years. Stats show that the Indian logistics industry is expected to grow by USD 10.74 billion during 2021-2025.
NimbusPost was founded by Yash Jain and Rajeev Pratap together in 2018. Both the founders lead the strategies related to methodology, marketing, and clients.
Currently, NimbusPost is a team of 200+ logistics specialists and technology experts who work together to make a difference under experts’ guidance.
NimbusPost Founders – Yash Jain and Rajeev Pratap
NimbusPost’s Ideation – How it Started
NimbusPost’s foundation story goes back to the time when its founders, Yash and Rajeev, came across the shipping woes of e-commerce sellers. Most online sellers would struggle with their business because of being associated with less-motivated third-party courier partners. Be it a delayed delivery, damaged package, or some other shipping issue, the sellers would have to pay the price. Their dependency on these courier partners would often lead to a negative customer experience and eventually business loss.
With NimbusPost, the founders aimed to bridge the gap between buyers and sellers with the help of professional shipping services. When they saw how much loss the e-commerce sellers had to bear owing to the everyday shipping obstacles, Rajeev and Yash saw an opportunity to create a quick and hassle-free shipping solution by bringing together India’s leading local and national courier partners onto a single platform.
NimbusPost – Challenges Faced
The biggest challenge that the team faced so far was right at the inception, which is to develop a tech-enabled platform using state-of-the-art tools and enlisting the country’s leading national and local courier partners to help the sellers maximum pin codes throughout the country.
Apart from bringing on board names such as Blue Dart, Delhivery, XpressBees, FedEx, Gati, Shadowfax, and DTDC, NimbusPost has also joined hands with some of the best e-commerce platforms too such as Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and Unicommerce, Prestashop, etc. to come up with a brilliant customer service dimension to its logistics platform. Today, NimbusPost has a strong team of 200+ logistics and technology experts all of whom are between 25 and 40 years of age.
Another word for “parcel post”, the name “NimbusPost” signifies shipping. The moving design of its logo symbolizes smooth shipping flow.
NimbusPost Logo
Launch & Strategic Growth Hacks of NimbusPost
NimbusPost has been a seller-centric platform since the beginning and has focused on easing out the shipping problem areas of online sellers. By using advanced technology, it has been able to offer unique features along with the free signup benefit to its clients. Offering all these benefits led NimbusPost to gain its first 100 customers.
The key strategic hacks of NimbusPost are:
Tech front – It offers the most advanced technology platform
Traditional Marketing front – Groundwork has been the startup’s key strategy to reach the platform where it is today. NimbusPost participated in various industry events like seminars, webinars, exhibitions to make its footprint in the market
Digital footprint: Using the complete 360 of digital marketing space to create the buzz about our tech-enabled platform in the market
Alliance front: Strategic alliances with the industry leaders
Offering unmatched benefits like 17+ courier options, zero subscription cost, lowest shipping rates, API integration, access to real-time NDR panel, early COD settlements, and much more, NimbusPost has set a benchmark of quality logistics services. However, it considers Shiprocket and Shyplite to be its major competitors. Learn how to do competitor analysis in 5 easy steps.
NimbusPost – Recognitions and Achievements
Recognized by major media platforms like Hindustan Times, Outlook India, and others for its efforts to provide enhanced logistics solutions.
NimbusPost recently won the Logistics Tech Startup of the Year Award at an award show hosted by Franchise India.
Gaining 10,000+ customers in only 365 days is another major achievement of NimbusPost.
NimbusPost – Current State and Future Plans
Currently, NimbusPost register 2 million+ transactions every day and have 10,000+ happy sellers. It aims to double this number soon by increasing its operation areas.
As the startup is about to launch hyperlocal delivery, cross-border services, and more in the coming months, NimbusPost aims to reach a notch higher in terms of operations, quality of services, number of sellers, and business revenue.
Cross Border Logistics – Delivering products across the border isn’t possible for all online sellers due to various legal restrictions. NimbusPost’s cross-border logistics service will aid online sellers with cross-border trade very soon.
Hyperlocal Delivery – Through its hyperlocal delivery services, sellers will be able to enjoy an exceptional distribution experience. Retail sellers offering grocery, pharma products, food, etc. will be able to deliver at customers’ doorsteps in minimal duration.
NimbusPost – FAQs
What is NimbusPost?
NimbusPost is one of the leading logistics platforms in India. With the team’s strong technical background and a reliable customer support team, NimbusPost offers tech-enabled logistics services to SMEs and large enterprises.
Who are the founders of NimbusPost?
NimbusPost was founded by Yash Jain and Rajeev Pratap in 2018.
Is NimbusPost bootstrapped startup?
NimbusPost started as a bootstrapped organization and has a self-sustainable revenue model.
How does NimbusPost make money?
NimbusPost stands with the notion – ‘Pay only for what you ship!’. It has various plans like Starter (starts @ 27/500 gm), Enterprise (starts @ 24/500 gm) & so on. Services under each plan differ a little based on the need of businesses.
Who are the competitors of NimbusPost?
NimbusPost considers Shiprocket and Shyplite to be its major competitors.
What is NimbusPost’s vision?
NimbusPost’s vision is to create a tech-enabled logistic ecosystem to provide the most beneficial shipping services to eCommerce sellers.
Is NimbusPost an Indian Company?
Yes, NimbusPost is an Indian company headquartered in Gurgaon.
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 Honeywell.
Destiny is what the company makes by itself. Honeywell believes themselves to be the shapers of the future and their plans can change the entire world. Transforming the way of working and solving business-related problems are the company’s toughest challenges.
Honeywell is an American publicly traded conglomerate company. It has got 4 areas of business. Those are Aerospace, Building Technologies, Safety & Productivity Solutions and Performance Materials & Technologies. The company has got a workforce of more than 110,000 workers. Read the Honeywell Success Story below to know more.
Honeywell is a Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures technologies to address tough challenges linked to global macrotrends such as safety, security and energy. With approximately a total of 110,000 employees worldwide that includes more than 19,000 engineers and scientists, the company is completely focused on quality, delivery, value, and technology in everything.
Honeywell was acquired by AlliedSignal in 1999. The company chose the name, Honeywell because of its considerable brand recognition. This company was also a Dow Jones Industrial Average index component from 1999 to 2008. It provides various products and services for aircraft and vehicles. The company also offers aircraft engines and service solutions. It helps the owner of the homes to stay connected.
Honeywell is also engaged in manufacturing and developing materials. These all-to-do things are the parts of various categories of the company.
Honeywell – History
The official beginning of the company was considered in 1885 with the invention of furnace regulator and alarm. Later, the company was founded in 1906. It was founded by Mark C. Honeywell. He was the first president of the company. William and his son Harold Swett were the first and second chairman of the company. Thermostat heating control was their first business venture. Also in the 1950s, the company developed the Automatic Master Sequence Selector. It was an automatic control system for airplanes, which reduces pilots’ workload. It’s also into the computing business since the 1960s.
Key Dates
1885 – Invention of the furnace regulator
1906 – Honeywell Heating Speciality Co. formed
1920 – Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation formed
1927 – Heating companies merge
1969 – Moon mission support
1999 – AlliedSignal acquires Honeywell
2005-2016 – Two decades of acquisitions
2018 – Home and Transportation System become new companies
2019 – Honeywell Forge launched & headquarters move to Charlotte
Honeywell – Founder And Team
Mark C. Honeywell | Founder of Honeywell
Mark C. Honeywell, the founder of Honeywell was born on 29th December 1874 in Wabash, Indiana, the United States and spent his childhood there itself. He took his last breath on 13th September 1964 in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States and was an American electronics industrialist. When he was young, he did various jobs like working in the bicycle business, citrus and also in his father’s Wabash mill. He completed his education from Eastman Business College.
Darius Adamczyk | CEO of Honeywell
Honeywell – Tagline and Logo
The tagline of the company is – “The Power Of Connected”, which emphasizes Honeywell’s distinctive approach towardsconnecting with people. The power to connect, inspire change and build trust.
Honeywell Logo
Honeywell – Business Model
The company has got the following business model –
The company generates revenue by the 3 following segments mentioned below –
It is especially driven through sales.
Aerospacesales, PerformanceMaterials&Technologiessales and Automation& Control Solutions Sales
Aerospace sales – Here revenue is derived from the sale of original equipment.
Performance Materials & Technologies sales – Revenue is derived from the division of process solutions. It is the sale of oil products and advanced materials.
Automation & Control Solutions Sales – Revenue is derived from energy sales, security and safety products, distribution services and also from building solutions.
Honeywell – Funding and Investors
Honeywell has raised a total of $11.4M in funding over 1 round. This was a Grant round raised on Oct 27, 2009.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
October 27, 2009
Grant
$11.4 million
It is funded by the US Department of Energy.
Honeywell – Growth
The company achieved margin expansion of more than 140 basis points and a share of $2.21 in the 1st quarter of 2020, up to 15% with operating profit growth of 3% and segment property growth of 2%. EPS growth was 15%. It generated $0.9 billion of operating cash and $0.8 billion of free cash. This strengthened their balance sheet.
The top competitors of the company are Garmin,General Electric,3M,JohnsonControls & Siemens.
Garmin is one of the top competitors of Honeywell. It was founded in the year 1989 and is headquartered in Olathe, Kansas. It operates in the Electronics industry. The company generates less revenue than Honeywell.
General Electric is a high-tech industrial company engaged in energy, healthcare and transportation.
3M is also the competitor of Honeywell. It was founded in the year 1902 and is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota. This company works in the Retail Distributors industry. 3M also generates less revenue than Honeywell.
Johnson Controls is also among the top competitor of Honeywell. It was founded in the year 1885 and is headquartered in Milwaukee, WI. This company is almost similar to Honeywell. Likewise, it also operates in the Industrial Machinery and Equipment Industry. It has got fewer employees than Honeywell.
Siemens is a global technology company focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization.
The company wants an expansion of the segment profit margin to 50%. The goal of the company is to provide its consumers with a diverse range of technical solutions and industrial products across the automotive, petrochemicals, and commercial industries, and aerospace.
Honeywell has evolved throughout the years and reinforced its services harnessing the technologies of the age. The company, which has utilized the 90s to maneuver into the digital world, and has already been fueled by AI and quantum computing since 2010, is now looking to successfully wield autonomous systems.
According to the words of Ashish Gaikwad, Managing Director, Honeywell Automation India Ltd:
“This new decade is going to be all about autonomous systems.”
Gaikwad further mentioned that Honeywell is not just meaning to work on driverless cars but will be going beyond that to innovate the concepts, technology, and machinery that would help in preventing road accidents, making transportation accessible for all!
Honeywell provides various products and services for aircraft, buildings, cybersecurity, industrial and workers. The company also offers aircraft engines and service solutions. Furthermore, they provide a wide range of services, ranging from remote technical support to product repair to help keep their customers moving forward.
What products does Honeywell make?
Honeywell makes a wide array of products such as Fans, Heaters, Thermostats, Ceiling Fans, Air Coolers, Air Conditioners, Humidifiers and Air Purifiers.
What is Honeywell known for?
Honeywell International Inc. is a diversified manufacturing and technology company that operates through four business segments: aerospace, building technologies, performance materials & technologies and safety & productivity solutions.
What makes Honeywell unique?
Honeywell is a well-diversified company. It operates in the aerospace, automation and controls, materials and chemicals and transportation sectors.
What does Honeywell PMT do?
Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies helps to improve productivity with high-quality and consistent chemicals.
What is Honeywell Forge?
Honeywell Forge is Enterprise Performance Management Software-as-a-Service, purpose-built on a native edge-to-cloud, data-driven architecture to accelerate digital transformation by:
Providing apps that deliver value in days
Delivering a system of record that is always up-to-date
Future-proofing investments via extensible applications
Avoiding the rip-and-replace approach to extensive capital projects.
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 GrabOn.
The number of online shoppers in India is on a rise. As per a study conducted by Boston Consulting Group, there were 90 million online shoppers in India in 2017, and the numbers are increasing. The convenience of shopping from the comfort of one’s home, availability of a wide range of choices, and incurring lesser cost when compared to offline shopping are some of the major reasons why many prefer to shop online. Besides, the emergence of affiliate marketing companies offering attractive coupons and discounts on online shopping has made online shopping even more preferable. GrabOn is a startup that is helping more and more Indians fall in love with online shopping with all the irresistible offers and deals that it brings for various sites and brands.
GrabOn is helping Indians save big on online shopping. GrabOn provides the user with the latest deals, offers, coupons, and discounts across categories like Fashion, Food, Travel, Recharge, Entertainment, and more. They have now ventured into the e-Gift Cards space, providing discounted Gift Cards from top merchants like Amazon, Myntra, BookMyShow, Shoppers Stop, MakeMyTrip, PVR and more.
The end product delivery model is via digital dissemination of information, for e.g., providing information onscreen upon clicking, to access the same on website and mobile web, through emails, & SMS; and via physical dissemination of the same in a few use cases, e.g., paper coupons and gift cards directly to consumers.
GrabOn’s user-focused interface and non-intrusive coupon browsing experience combined with innovative and rich tech stack are designed based on customer feedback and consumer insights that they gather carefully.
Every time a shopper purchases a product/service online, orders food, or hails a cab, they look for savings. With GrabOn’s coupons, people can access deals with ease and security. Besides, with GrabOn’s Gift Cards platform, users are enabled to save on online gifting by availing various ongoing offers and exclusive deals. GrabOn offers its users the best and the latest coupon/promo codes, deals, offers, and gift cards. These coupons are genuine and are validated frequently by their team of in-house experts. GrabOn has been able to provide consistent, authentic services even on Gift Cards, owing to their position as industry leaders and due to its strategic alliances & relations with top clients. These coupons/deals can be redeemed, and Gift Cards can be purchased by visiting the website or directly through the mobile app.
Ashok Reddy is responsible for organizing, coordinating, and overseeing the company strategy in terms of business decisions, partnerships, and more. He is an alumnus (M.B.A., PGPMAX) of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and pursued executive MBA from Harvard Business School. Before founding GrabOn, he served as the president & co-founder of Sellers Commerce and Landmark IT Solutions. He served as the Chief Technology Officer position at SmartTouch Interactive and as the Vice President, Information Technology at IncentOne. Prior to that, he worked as a project manager at Infosys Technologies Ltd.
GrabOn Team
GrabOn’s current employee strength is 50. GrabOn boasts of a cool office space designed to bring out the best in its employees.
The team at GrabOn believes that a person can give his or her best when they are in a relaxed state of mind. And their cool office space bears testimony to this fact. Their workspace is the very definition of ”style means substance”. Elegant yet practical, GrabOn’s floor is divided into various zones which serve different purposes. There is an ‘Ideal Zone” where one can relax and engage in conversation with one’s own mind to produce exemplary and creative ideas – says Ashok
As the leader, Ashok believes in investing time in building and nurturing the company culture by engaging with the employees and helping them grow professionally while contributing to the overall growth of the organization.
GrabOn’s hiring structure is designed in a way that it selects not only the best talent but the right fit of candidates who share and believe in the company’s vision of helping India save on everything.
Grabon Coupons
GrabOn – How was it started?
While Ashok reddy was in the US working at the managerial position across several MNCs and Fortune 500 companies, he came across the multi-billion-dollar coupons industry. Such an encounter fascinated him and simultaneously realized the potential of the same industry in India. He, therefore, returned with the motive of setting up a coupons & deals company that will make online shopping affordable and comfortable. While most of the existing coupon websites would roll with a cookie-cutter version of a website, GrabOn dared to go with a platform that emphasized more on user experience and less on coupon listing. Within months of launch, the company registered huge footfall with visitors actively using GrabOn to redeem coupons and activate deals.
I have been blessed with a team of hardworking and passionate individuals who gathered actionable insights and data points based on months of extensive market evaluation, competitive research, and assessment of risks and growth possibilities – Ashok says speaking of GrabOn’s product validation stage
Once they gathered all the required information, the GrabOn team started working on designing the service, perfecting their business model, and simultaneously prepared their pitch deck and started networking with the right individuals and organizations. They started small and bootstrapped their way to the top of the industry.
The initial people who were a part of the discussion process during the early days of GrabOn were merchants mostly from the SME background, who supported a user-focused approach adopted by GrabOn.
The company’s growth has been possible because of our user-first approach, whether it is our offerings or the technology that we implement. The people with whom we initially discussed about GrabOn realized the potential of what we had and kept on pushing us till we had a huge traffic footfall and returning visitors, which in turn helped us become the #1 player in the industry
After a lot of deliberation, the GrabOn team finally zeroed in on GrabOn- signifying grabbing onto the right deal/coupon. The brand caters not only to the coupon users but also deal-seekers. However, unlike many of its competitors, the brand name does not include the word ‘coupon’.
GrabOn Logo
GrabOn’s tagline ‘Save on Everything’, is representative of the things the company wants to do i.e., help users save on anything and everything by availing the best deals, offers, and discounts.
GrabOn’s USP is its customer-centric approach, which translates into offering only up-to-date and verified coupons & deals helping its customers make a decisive choice. This, along with their completely ad-free, non-intrusive UI/UX and strategic alliances with top players from different verticals, is what makes it India’s most trusted savings destination.
GrabOn – Target Market
The industry that GrabOn operates in broadly includes coupons and deals, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and online shopping. Their primary target market is basically the e-commerce segment in India, with a market cap of about USD 40 billion with a 30% Year-Over-Year growth. While the e-commerce market continues to grow, the competition between major brands will increase as they fight over gaining consumer share. With internet penetration happening across tier-3 and tier-4 cities, new consumer sectors will open up, providing an opportunity to smaller, niche brands to grow their local audience further through e-commerce. Affiliate Marketing has been one of the sectors providing the highest ROI to the e-commerce sector. In future, the collaboration between e-commerce companies and the affiliate marketing industry is only to grow further.
GrabOn – Business Model and Revenue Model
GrabOn operates on the B2C model. Their Business and Revenue model are based on coupon redemption, affiliate/performance marketing, direct partnerships with merchants, brand marketing services via their website, and Gift Cards sale. It is based on a cost-per-sale model generating revenue through end-user sale.
It generally works on Strategic business model by listing all the Top online brands/business in its platform. With a network of over 2000 Clients, some of the top clients of the company are:
GrabOn is running profitably for the last 4.5 years. The Grabon revenue is speculated to be around 4 million, $4.88 million to be precise, as recorded on December 31, 2019. GrabOn’s market share in India’s deal and coupons industry is 70-80%. The brand boasts of having 40 million subscribers, as of April 2020 and receives around 25 million page views.
Revenue model is based on coupon redemption, affiliate/performance marketing, direct partnerships with merchants, brand marketing services via their website, and Gift Cards sale. It is based on a cost-per-sale model generating revenue through end-user sale.
GrabOn – User Acquisition
GrabOn launched its services with an awareness that there is an existing gap in the industry concerning the coupon service provider. Hence, through individual referrals about the authentic deals available on GrabOn, its customers had naturally increased. The excellent user interface and state of the art coupon browsing experience have further promoted customer satisfaction and customer base expansion.
Post-launch GrabOn rolled out the Buzz Notification feature, which alerts users with the latest coupons, hottest offers, ongoing sale events, and limited-time exclusive deals. They were the first in the country to partner with Uber’s hot air balloon initiative during Diwali 2015. GrabOn’s partnership with ACT Fibernet has allowed them to expand their services across India by leveraging ACT Fibernet’s country-wide network. Their subsequent tie-ups with Paytm and Mobikwik have also proved fruitful.
Grabon coupons user
GrabOn – Startup Challenges
One of the major challenges faced was providing a seamless coupon browsing experience to the user.
While most of the existing companies ran their website on a cookie-cutter script, we started designing our website from scratch with a customer-first mindset. Our non-intrusive design and lack of irritating pop-ups were rewarded by the customers.
GrabOn team strives to keep the platform updated, keeping in tune with user requirements. GrabOn launched the industry-first Buzz Notification feature, which was one of the experiments that worked out really well in company’s favor. After that, they kept on experimenting, and the latest one is in-app Coupon and Cab Finder, which helps the user find coupons for food, entertainment, recharge, and cab-hailing directly from our GrabOn app without switching between apps.
GrabOn – Awards and Achievements
Recognized as a trailblazing startup within months of launch, by CNBC, YourStory, Business Standard, Inc42 and more.
GrabOn’s efforts were recognized by IBM during the Startup Star award in 2016.
GrabOn’s website won the ‘Best Design’ award at the HYSEA Annual Awards 2016.
Winner of Future Group’s Retail Startup Awards, 2017
Winner of the Entrepreneur of the year (IT, Internet & Telecommunication) Industry Award from Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Awards in 2018.
Ranked 266th among 1000 High-Growth Companies in the Asia Pacific region, 2018 in a survey conducted by the Financial Times in association with Statista.
Winner of Tech Companies to watch out for at BW Business world #TechTors, 2018.
Winner of the High Growth Startup Award, at TiE-ISB Connect 2017.
Some of GrabOn’s biggest achievements so far include –
It introduced industry’s first Buzz Notification feature which alerted the users about the latest coupons, hottest deals, ongoing sales, etc.
GrabOn Savings App launched with innovative features such as Coupon and Cab Finder
Collaborations with successful movies viz. Bareilly Ki Barfi, Half Girlfriend, Naam Shabana, and more.
Onboarded top players across several verticals like Truecaller, PhonePe, PayPal, NPCI, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, SpiceJet, TruJet.
Launched GrabOn Gift Cards and sold over a million e-Gift Cards since the operation started.
GarbOn has helped over 3000+ brands in the past 6 years. It has become the #1 player in the coupons and deals industry and retained the position organically. Their strength lies in understanding the user behavior and presenting the most refined shopping deals, right when they need it. Every aspect of its business is centered around the audience. The trust of its merchant partners follows automatically as they have been able to provide them with the highest ROI year on year. Its Loyalty Engagement Partners are Vodafone, ACT Fibernet, Spiceject, Idea, Jio, Saavn, trujet, ICICI bank, IndusInd Bank, DBS, Apollo, Truecaller, MI and others. GrabOn also boasts of a robust client base, with clients like, Paytm, Amazon, Uber, Mobikwik, Foodpanda, OYO, Ola, GoDaddy, BigBasket, Flipkart, Dominos, PhonePe.
The company currently has plans to introduce a 1-2 year subscription-based loyalty program. GrabOn’s vision is to grow from coupons and deals market leaders to one of the top 10 digital transactions companies in India by 2020. With over 25 million page views per month and more than 40 million subscribers, GrabOn is right up there with the e-Commerce giants. The foray into Gift Cards space has already started to bring in some significant traction with more than million e-Gift Cards already sold and counting.
GrabOn – FAQs
What is GrabOn?
GrabOn provides the user with the latest deals, offers, coupons, and discounts across categories like Fashion, Food, Travel, Recharge, Entertainment, and more
How much is the Revenue of GrabOn?
GrabOn is running profitably for the last 4.5 years. The company’s revenue is around $4.8 million (FY19). With a userbase of 40 million subscribers, GrabOn’s market share in India’s deal and coupons industry is 70-80%.
Who is the Founder of GrabOn?
Ashok Reddy is the Founder and CEO of GrabOn.
How does GrabOn make money?
GrabOn’s revenue model is based on coupon redemption, affiliate/performance marketing, direct partnerships with merchants, brand marketing services via their website, and Gift Cards sale. It is based on a cost-per-sale model generating revenue through end-user sale.
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 Kilowott.
By realigning some of its verticals – Creometric, Kodework, Fat Hamster Studio, and Nine Stack. Pooling its strength into one, Kilowott is now a design and technology powerhouse that offers digital transformation services, innovative solutions to digital challenges, and best-in-class user experience design to craft enduring customer experiences.
Kilowott is headquartered in Goa and operational across three continents. The company has already clocked more than 2000 projects all over the world and works with various Fortune 500 companies, governments, international agencies and has a strong association with the Norwegian Diplomatic Mission in India.
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Aaron Fernandez, Co-founder of Kilowott to get insights into the Startup Journey and Growth Story of Kilowott. Know all about Kilowott’s business model, how Kilowott started, its future plans, founders, competitors and more in the article ahead.
Kilowott offers consultancy and strategic support in customer journey mapping, customer experience process assessment and surveys, consulting, assessment, roadmap ideation and modeling with use cases, brand positioning and go-to-market strategies, brand identity development, concept design, and prototyping. All strategies are customized as per real data analytics and right down to the minutest detail generated through innovative coding.
Kilowott’s vision is to blend digital and design seamlessly to craft enduring digital user experiences that have a direct impact on customers’ business outcomes. The company is led by the core philosophy of the founders, ‘to offer cutting-edge digital solutions in a global marketplace to enhance digital customer experience.”
Kilowott – IT Industry Details
India is already an IT powerhouse and there is a robust presence of skilled professionals, innovators, and access to the most advanced technologies in the world. The startup ecosystem has not lost momentum even after the pandemic outbreak, and it is going to evolve rapidly in the new normal. Even during pandemic times, a large number of new startups have come up and many of them also joined the unicorn club. The startups will contribute significantly to help India achieve the goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy in the years ahead.
Spearheaded by a strong leadership team, Kilowott is poised to achieve its goal of being a global tech powerhouse while being rooted in Goan soil. The team is keen on transforming ‘Kilowott’ into a 500+ employee company, something the company’s COO Nitish Raikar, formerly associated with Infosys and IBM, is helping us inch towards.
Reminiscing the start journey of Kilowott, Aaron Fernandez (Co-founder of Kilowott) says –
“I found my first fortune in the Indian coastal state, Goa’s most popular stretch of sand. And a sense of purpose too. In 2002, I was on a summer break after completing my final year at high school and grabbed an offer from my father’s friend to distribute flyers along Goa’s gold coast – the Sinquerim-Baga beach stretch – to promote a restaurant. My first brush with entrepreneurship earned me 13 USD a week, good money for someone just out of high school. I roped in a friend into the venture because the beach stretch was a long one and I could do it with help. While the entrepreneur in me was still coming to the fore, back then, the word ‘company’ meant companionship and not a business enterprise; many of which I would come to start years later”
End of college and the salad days brought along new opportunities with the potential to broaden Aaron’s professional horizon. Let’s dive into the next chapter! Aaron continues –
“I moved to Norway to work as a graphic designer, a new country, with new ways. I adapted to the new environment. Some years later, the media company I was employed with at the time, as part of my day job, had a large requirement of design and development chores. I stepped in and pitched them design services by outsourcing them from India, which was already a world-renowned BPO market. The media company agreed and became my first client. What followed was one of the most successful startup stories Goa has witnessed
We started with KodeWork, a website development firm that was born out of India’s city of dreams, Mumbai in 2014. Despite being a metropolitan city, establishing a dedicated team in Mumbai turned out to be a challenge due to several reasons. We then decided to move the entire team to Goa in 2015 and started afresh. It took a while to even out the transcontinental chinks. Work cultures in India and Norway were different, so were expectations in terms of quality and meeting deadlines. But over time, things fell in place.
In late 2020 the various companies established by me with my siblings Judah and Caleb were consolidated and brought under a single banner – Kilowott. The company today has partner deals in Norway, Holland, India, France, Switzerland, and the US.
The company creates customized digital interfaces and operational solutions by using design elements like CX, AR, and VR as well as the latest technologies like analytics, AI, IoT, and others to ensure customers’ business growth and profitability.
Kilowott uses an amalgamation of cutting-edge technologies and innovative approaches to offer consulting and strategy services in customer journey mapping, customer experience process assessment and surveys consulting, assessment, roadmap ideation and modeling with use cases, brand positioning, and go-to-market strategy, brand identity development, and concept design and prototyping.
The desired outcome is achieved on the basis of real data analysis, down to the minutest details which are extracted through innovative coding. It helps the customers enjoy desired marketing, revenue generation, and profitability success. Kilowott’s USP lies in its consolidation of different services to create one single platform where the clients can get a diversity of services. Our impeccable insights generated through an in-depth understanding of core markets give us an advantage over various other generalists.
Pivot from Initial Offering –
Aaron’s time spent in Norway paved the path for his entrepreneurial journey. Their first major website development firm was ‘Kodework’. He and his brothers Judah and Caleb relocated the company to Goa in 2015 and started operations from scratch from a 700 sq. mts office space in Porvorim. Their clients grew organically across Europe.
As the client-base spread across continents, the brothers started a clutch of other IT firms like ‘Nine Stack’, an app development agency, ‘Creometric’, a digital marketing agency, ‘Bootcamp’ a mentoring and training firm, ‘Fat Hamster Studio’ an animation and virtual reality studio, etc., as well as Nordic Hub India, a start-up accelerator, in 2018.
In 2020, the world changed and we decided to realign some of our verticals into a single entity – ‘Kilowott’.
Their core philosophy, however, stays the same – to offer cutting-edge digital solutions in a global marketplace to enhance the digital customer experience.
Post-2020, they pivoted the business strategy to focus outward, servicing clients outside of the country, mainly across Europe, Scandinavia, and the US. The operations continue to be rooted in India where Kilowott employs some of the best creative and tech talent.
The media company, Aaron was employed within Norway, as part of his day job, had a large requirement of design and development chores. He stepped in and pitched them design services by outsourcing them from India, which was already a world-renowned BPO market. The plan worked. And thus, began the journey. He swiftly kept adding clients to its portfolio as his brothers Judah & Caleb joined in.
Once Kilowott started getting regular business, the team realized that scaling up now becomes imperative and for this, they had to address major challenges. They realized that clients have to scout for various agencies to get different solutions. Thus, Aaron, Judah & Caleb decided to bring everything together for them and that worked. They addressed the pain points for most of the clients.
Kilowott – Founders and Team
Kilowott is co-founded by the three Fernandez brothers – Aaron, Judah, and Caleb Fernandez.
(R-L) Aaron, Judah and Caleb Fernandez – Kilowott Co-founders
Aaron, the eldest of the brothers looks into the overall strategy and direction of the company. Judah spearheads business development and talent acquisition while ensuring quality control and timely delivery systems. The youngest brother Caleb is a commerce graduate who takes care of the company’s backend operations such as administration, finance, taxation, legal, and compliance.
“Thanks to my brothers Judah and Caleb, the office space and office culture are far removed from a ‘cut and dry’ atmosphere” Aaron added.
The company’s office in Porvorim reflects that spirit. Caleb was involved in every aspect of setting up the office space, right from drawing up the blueprints to picking furniture and designing every corner of the office space. It is spread over 700 square meters and is beautifully designed.
When it comes to the motivated workforce at Kilowott, appearances matter little in terms of the delivery of targets. The company has a great team of 150+ employees and a fantastic leadership team who love what they do. Some quotient of informality was already brought in by their early crew members, who had walked in with dreadlocks and shorts. The work culture at Kilowott is fun and celebrations have been epic.
Since the pandemic hit, the company has adopted a Work-From-Home model. It’s a challenge to keep the work culture alive while adopting this model but the team has found their own ways. From virtual fun team sessions, festive celebrations, coffee meet-ups, and contests, they keep the fun element alive!
Meaning of Kilowott & Logo
The company was named Kilowott as it is inspired by “kilowatt – which denotes a unit of energy” and the team believes very much that the energy one brings to work is very critical. If a person is pumped and motivated he can always do wonders even with the smallest of details or resources. The logo also denotes the same, the power icon.
Kilowott Logo
Kilowott – Business Model and Revenue Model
The business model of Kilowott is simple. It is entirely a tech service company and offers cutting-edge tech services to clients across verticals. The startup charges a fee from its clients for services and collaboration.
Aaron had been working in Norway for a number of years, and when he launched his startup in India, the transcontinental differences had to be dealt with. The work culture and approach in India are very different from Norway, and there were challenges in terms of quality and timelines.
He started off by hiring freelancers from various locations – Israel, Ukraine, Vietnam, Poland, and India. What the team noticed is that the communication with resources from countries other than India as well as deliverables was a constant challenge. They then moved to work largely with Indian resources on technical aspects. However, things have since fallen in place.
“Opportunities have been plenty. We are blessed to have a great team of 150+ employees and a fantastic leadership team who love what they do and we are proud to have them all be a part of this Kilowott journey” says Aaron.
Real-life Example on How Kilowott Helps Clients
This is just one of the many examples of how the Kilowott team used market insights, client preferences, business objectives, creativity, and cutting-edge technologies to ensure that its clients stay ahead of the competition.
One of the clients was the ‘Wendell Rodricks’ brand, a renowned fashion label from India. The fashion designer label wanted to expand their global digital reach and improve online presence with youth as a target segment. Wendel Rodricks has been an icon, pioneer, and visionary in many ways. Hailing from Goa, he was deeply connected to the culture of the state. Aaron continued – “The world lost a wonderful human being with his (Wendel Rodricks) passing away a while ago. We are deeply grateful to be able to have worked closely with him and his team.”
In order to build the desired online presence for the client, the design and creation of a custom-made website were undertaken in collaboration with Kodework, the web development agency the team had at the time. In 2020, they realigned some of the verticals including Kodework into a single entity – Kilowott. Subsequently, a website with press articles, blog posts, and information about the client’s latest collections was launched. It also had a fully functional E-shop integrated into it. In essence, a feature-rich website offering a blend of a museum and a boutique was created for online visitors.
The brand awareness was boosted by digital campaigns to connect with luxury and slow fashion enthusiasts. Social media marketing, brand positioning, and ad campaigns were used to drive traffic to the website. While designing the website and creating social media strategies, it was felt that the client’s social media presence was not strong and impactful enough. Thus, alongside generating the traffic for the website, a holistic revamp of the existing social media pages of the client was carried out. The content’s aesthetic appeal was beautified to match the impact that matched the brand’s work. A combination of grids and minimalistic color palettes was deployed to transform the ‘brand’s look on Instagram.
Kilowott – Growth and Current Status
“There is a significant uptick in the quantum of interest in brands wanting to expand their digital presence across geographies. We saw an opportunity and have realigned our strategy to meet the needs of the global business community” says Aaron Fernandez, Co-founder, Kilowott.
The company has realigned some of its verticals – Creometric, Kodework, Fat Hamster Studio, and Nine Stack. Pooling its strength into one, Kilowott is now a design and technology powerhouse that offers digital transformation services, innovative solutions to digital challenges, and best-in-class user experience design to craft enduring customer experiences. Kilowott claims to have done more than 2,000 projects globally. Some of its prominent clients include Craft, Bosch, Mazda, Netflix, and Nickelodeon to name a few. Today Kilowott has a 150+ employee workforce. In the near future, it aims to grow to a 500+ workforce and the leadership team is aiding Kilowott to inch towards that target
The bootstrapped startup initially worked on a freelance model. Over the years since the Fernandez brothers set up this company, they have largely invested in themselves. In 2014, when they took on projects from clients based in Europe, it started off by being based in Oslo, Norway working with freelancers from Israel, Ukraine, Vietnam, Poland, and India. What they noticed is that communication with resources from India as well as deliverables was far better with professionals based in India.
“Moreover, we are from Goa so we wanted to set up our headquarters in the sunny state. When we moved to Goa we made a transition from the freelance model to hiring a small team working full-time out of a rented apartment” Aaron added.
Steadily business and revenues grew. Down the line, the team decided to take a loan to be able to scale up and build a team in-house. At every stage, they have reinvested the profits into the company. Today Kilowott has a 150+ employee workforce. In the near future, it aims to grow to a 500+ workforce.
Kilowott – Advisors/Mentors
“Myfather Donald Fernandez has been a constant source of strength to us and has mentioned us through our journey. The ethics and morals imbibed by our parents Donald and Jessyl Fernandez from childhood are what held us in good stead while we built this company from the ground up” Aaron says.
Tools used by Kilowott
Kilowott uses design elements such as CX, AR, VR, and futuristic technologies like analytics, AI, IoT, and others to create digital interfaces and operations that boost the customer’s business growth and profitability.
Kilowott – Future Plans
The company has recently consolidated all its diverse businesses under a single banner of Kilowott. A 700 square meter office was launched prior to the pandemic and another office is under construction. The company is currently 150+ strong and there are plans to make it a 500+ team with a global footprint. The company’s long-term plan is to become global tech powerhouse rooted in Goa.
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 Simply Blood.
The value of blood cannot be emphasized no matter how much one tries to do so in oral or written. In India, someone needs blood every two seconds. Unfortunately, many Indians die due to the unavailability of blood.
A report by WHO puts India’s requirement for blood at 12 million units annually with only 9 million units being collected. Moreover, it is shameful that some immoral and wicked individuals are resort to blood donation-related scams, a heinous act that has come under the spotlight recently. From illegally selling blood to its adulteration, the incidents are spine-chilling. While many are concerned about the pathetic condition of the blood donation industry, Kiran Verma, a youth from Delhi, actually took a step forward to purge this sector of corruption. Kiran Verma started ‘ Simply Blood’ — the world’s first virtual blood donation platform. It allows an individual who requires blood to directly connect with blood donors, thus eliminating middlemen and any sort of fraud.
StartupTalky interviewed ‘Simply Blood’ founder Kiran Verma to understand more about his venture that has now saved the lives of many to date by arranging blood on time.
Simply Blood is the world’s first virtual blood donation platform having more than 10,000 registered users from more than 180 countries. Simply Blood can be accessed through the ‘Simply Blood’ Android app available for download on Google Play Store. Non-Android users can connect to Simply Blood through its website.
All About Simply Blood
A user has to download the app and register as a blood donor by choosing a date for donating blood. The ‘Simply Blood’ real-time GPS enabled app tracks the user’s location on the selected date and shares their availability on the app to other platform users within a 10 km radius. This way, Simply Blood will notify only the needy closest to the blood donor on the selected date.
Within 3 clicks, a person can raise a request for blood requirement and their notification goes to all the potential donors available on that date and location.
Simply Blood – Team
Kiran Verma founded Simply Blood alongside Achal Garg, Jatin Sahgal, Neeraj Mehraniya, Saurabh Gupta, and Mohit Kumar Balyan.
Kiran Verma | Founder, Simply Blood
Kiran is a school dropout while the other co-founders are software engineers and alumni of Ch. Devi Lal State Institute of Engineering & Technology, Sirsa (Haryana).
Achal Garg left Simply Blood in March 2019 and Jatin Sahgal quit the same in June 2018.
Simply Blood – How It All Started?
The idea for a blood bank startup came to Kiran’s mind when he was just 7 years old and lost his mother due to cancer.
Her death left me all alone. I realized the meaning of losing my own at an early age. This was the initial step towards SIMPLY BLOOD – First Virtual Blood Donation Platform. I took an oath that I will do something for mankind. Just after I turned 18, I immediately started blood donation as a volunteer.
Kiran started donating blood regularly and as his connections increased, he formed a Whatsapp group of blood donors with the common aim to help people in need of blood. He experienced another life-changing event in August 2016. A member of the WhatsApp blood donors group Kiran had fostered needed platelets for his mother who was fighting dengue. The member assumed he would manage to reach his mother soon as he was around 2-3 hours away from the hospital. Alas! By the time he reached the hospital, the worst had happened. That day Kiran realize the value of time, especially in critical medical cases.
On 28th Dec 2016, he got a random call mentioning somebody required blood at a hospital in Delhi. After donating blood, Kiran wanted to meet the blood receiver. He couldn’t meet the patient but luckily met his wife. Kiran was shocked and hurt to know that the blood he donated for free was sold to his wife for INR 1500. I called the person who called me but he didn’t respond to my calls. I realized the person was a tout who is doing black marketing in Delhi and also runs a blood donation society through their app and blood donation camps – Kiran recounts.
Kiran decided to quit his job the same day and give 100% to this cause. He found a few developers willing to provide technical support to Simply Blood for the next few years at a nominal cost. They collaborated and got the Simply Blood Online Platform ready for launch on 3rd Jan 2017. The app was released to the general public on 29th Jan 2017. The second version of the Simply Blood app was launched on 23rd September 2017 by Vijay Goel, the former Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports.
After the launch of Simply Blood, Kiran traveled a lot to different parts of the country as well as Nepal and Bhutan to spread awareness about his initiative. Over 600,000 people were educated on the importance of donating blood during his travel.
Blood donation is generally done at camps organized by NGOs, societies, and hospitals. The donor in most cases is unaware about who is getting their blood. There are occurrences of blood donated by a donor for a noble cause being sold anywhere between INR 1500 to INR 5000 (depending upon the rarity of the blood group) by private blood banks and NGOs. Moreover, a huge amount of blood in spite of being available ends up unused for donation. You may refer to a report on the wastage of blood.
Organizing Blood Camps – Simply Blood
If somebody needs blood, they either buy the blood or have a donor arranged for it. Even though there are many large networks where one can find a number of blood donors, it’s not feasible to call up each potential donor and inquire about their availability. This leads to the wastage of precious hours and efforts. Even the time spent traveling by the donor is a bottleneck. Such deterrents often lead to the loss of lives that could have been saved by timely blood donation. Simply Blood is the solution to these deterrents.
Simply Blood, with a database of 60+K blood donors across India and more than 6000 registered donors on its platform, provides a medium to reach out to potential blood donors in the vicinity of the individual seeking blood. It eliminates the involvement of middlemen through the platform.
Someone who needs blood need not call hundreds of donors. They just raise a request for the desired blood type and all of the donors associated with Simply Blood see this request via the App, SMS, and email in a few seconds. If the search doesn’t yield any donors, the request is then handled manually using the help of the 60,000 strong donor database (with the count increasing every day) and partner agencies.
Simply Blood – Revenue Model
The motto behind Simply Blood is not to make money. As mentioned by Simply Blood founder Kiran Verma, the company is planning to follow the Wikipedia way of raising money to sustain its operations. The Simply Blood team shall do a fundraising event for a month every year and run the operations out of raised funds.
Some of the competitors of Simply Blood are as follows:-
BloodPlus is a Hyderabad-based startup with 1300+ donors. One does not require to download any app. Just register and get SMS alerts for donation.
BloodConnect has been started up by a group of young individuals from Delhi IIT led by Nitin Garg with the mission to contribute to the shortage of blood in India.
Khoon is an NGO that deals with blood donations and operates across India. It has handled thousands of blood helpline requests through its app.
e-Rakt Kosh is an initiative to connect, digitize and streamline the workflow of blood banks across the nation.
Simply Blood – Growth
A platform like Simply Blood was much needed and has received positive responses from both within and outside India. In 2016, around 13 lives were saved (from August to December) through the blood donors’ Whatsapp group that Kiran had initially created. Since January 2017, Simply Blood has saved 600+ lives in 8 countries. Some milestones achieved by the venture are:
The App reached organically to 170+ nations in less than 16 weeks
Simply blood has impacted 7000+ users in more than 15 countries
One of the highest-rated Android apps for Blood Donation on Google Play Store (4.9 ratings from 200+ users)
More than 100+ students are a part of the Simply Blood Ambassador Program (SAP)
Kiran Verma was awarded the “Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2017” honor during the India International CSR Conclave 2017 held at Ph.D. Chambers of Commerce.
Simply Blood is on a noble mission to save millions of lives!
Tell us about your story where you helped someone in need of blood. How you felt after helping a person? What was going through your mind? Should everyone donate blood to a random person or a genuine startup-like Simply Blood? What’s your take on this? We would love to hear from you. Comment below on how you’re helping the community in difficult times like this ongoing pandemic.
Simply Blood – FAQs
What is Simply Blood?
Simply Blood is the world’s first virtual blood donation platform.
Is Simply Blood an NGO?
Simply Blood works on a Wikipedia revenue model where the people can donate whatever amount they deem the startup to be worthy of to keep it running.
When was Simply Blood founded?
Simply Blood was founded in 2017 by Kiran Verma.
What revenue model does Simply Blood follow?
The motto behind Simply Blood is not to make money. The company is following the Wikipedia revenue model to raise money to sustain its operations.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verifiedinformation ondifferent startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the Websites.co.in
There’s no mystery in the fact that in today’s world, online presence is the face of the organization. However big and small a firm is, websites and digital media marketing are of utter importance to them. To help businesses get discovered online and attract more customers from all over the world, Kartik Raichura founded Websites.co.in in the year 2017.
Websites.co.inis one of the world’s easiest and instant Business Website Builder Platform that makes it extremely easy for a business owner to create a digital footprint of his business.
With the vision to empower India’s 63 million-plus micro and new businesses with online visibility, discovery and customers, Kartik started the journey with India because if something works for India, it by default works for the world.
Indian business owners know that “online jaega, toh dhandha aaega” but they struggle with the complexities of existing service offerings.
With a mobile-first approach, this venture has made the platform so easy that even a school kid or a grandfather can make the business website. Indian business owners know how to install apps and use WhatsApp, Facebook, and Youtube. They can upload status updates, add friends, play videos, and send messages. This platform is created in such a way that if one knows how to use the basic smartphone features, one can easily use the platform and grow the business online.
Furthermore, websites.co.in have also been selected by the early-stage startup mentorship program of Facebook, FbStart, in 2017. This association also helped the government-recognized startup to raise credits close to $40,000 along with other free tools and services from Facebook. Amazon, UserTesting, Dropbox, and MailChimp are some other partners from over 30 companies that are there with Facebook.
All in all, the idea is to empower the world’s 200 million micro-businesses with an online identity that’s easy for them to manage. This platform puts the world’s businesses noticed by customers globally and online. Websites.co.in’s journey so far is certainly one among the most inspiring SaaS success stories. Read on to know more about this Mumbai-based SaaS startup that is helping millions of small business owners in taking their businesses online.
Websites.co.in is a SaaS platform that enables businesses to get an active online presence within minutes using their App or Web dashboard. This application was featured as the “top-grossing business application” on the Google play store at the 1st position.
Websites.co.in logo
There are 200 million Microbusinesses in the world, 51 million in India but 68% of them don’t have an online presence. Digital SMBs grow profits up to twice as fast as offline SMBs. However, 35 million businesses in India are lagging in the digital movement. The World’s Micro businesses need some sort of online identity.
This app or web dashboard that websites.co.in offers, is designed to empower the business owners to quickly create business websites, update them and manage content on their website on the go in a hassle-free way.
The client only has to push content on the website and this platform completely takes care of the technology stack, custom domain name, SSL certificate, hosting, auto-SEO, auto social media pushes, statistics, business inquiries, e-commerce, dynamic responsive mobile-first themes, etc.
KartikRaichura and Dhaval Mehta founded Websites.co.in in 2017.
KartikRaichura and Dhaval Mehta- Founder of Websites.co.in
Websites.co.in founder and CEO Kartik Raichura, is a business post-graduate from Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai. Kartik is a serial entrepreneur, a TEDx speaker and an angel investor.
During his teenage years in 2004, he founded ManagementParadise.com – World’s leading social learning platform focused on management education. He started his company when he was 19and kept at it for more than a decade. As one of the top 10 educational portals in India, it has served over 100 million visitors and created a user base of 1 million + members and growing.
Kartik is a ‘Star Young Entrepreneur Award’ recipient by the Indira Innovation Summit 2013 and his company was among the top 100 startups to work for in 2014. He was felicitated as as one of the Top 100 MARKETING TECHNOLOGY INNOVATORS in 2018 by WORLD MARKETING CONGRESS and TOP 100 INNOVATIVE LEADERS in 2017 by World Innovations Congress.
In 2019, Kartik was felicitated with the prestigious Karmaveer Chakra award and Rex Karamveer Chakra Global Fellowship for impact contributions in getting micro businesses of the world visibility through Websites.co.in and education equilibrium through his past edtech startups by the United Nations & iCongo.
Websites.co.in Team
Websites.co.in cofounder, Dhaval Mehta, has been in technology industry for over 13 years. After dabbling with several software solutions worth millions as an employee, he started his own infotech solutions company and kept at it for over 7 years. He has delivered projects for Fortune 500 companies and SME’s from different fields across the globe however his heart lies in helping SMBs grow their business – be it web, software or app. After successfully exiting his past SaaS startup focused on healthcare, he took the plunge to join Websites.co.in and champion digital movement for micro businesses of the world.
Websites.co.in – How was it started?
“I had been on the lookout for an idea that has a large target addressable market and is in the unorganized sector that had a potential technology disruption play. Technology has been a challenge for me personally in my previous startup.” Kartik on the idea that built this venture.
Kartik Raichura- Websites.co.in CEO
Kartik came across several business owners, who would inquisitively always ask him, how they can take their business online, and always be fascinated by the opportunity.
“Ideally, getting their business online has been a Pandora’s box for a large business population in India and he wanted to solve this challenge with simplicity. That’s how the idea of assisted instant websites built-in front of the client was born” quotes Kartik, Founder & CEO, Websites.co.in
To start with, the team only build an MVP and took it to the market to achieve a product-market fit. Kartik would himself do telephone calls to random business owners from online business directories, introduce himself as a consultant and set up a physical meeting with them. The services and product offerings developed and evolved from consultative conversations the team had with their clients. The prime focus in the first six months was to deliver on the promise of instant websites that get SMB’s online, get them more visibility, more customers and more profit.
As seen for most startups, the first 100 users were founder-driven.
“As the founder, I diligently and shamelessly demonstrated the product to just about everyone I could. It isn’t uncommon to say that I used to take up OLA and Uber Pool cabs to and fro from office just so that I could demonstrate the product to my co-passengers.” Says the founder fondly.
Websites.co.in – USP and Innovation
The whole idea behind Websites.co.in is based on the fact that the internet is an empowering tool for the world’s business owners and this venture is going to pass the toothbrush test for this audience.
“Our startup will be used at least 2 times a day by these business owners as an enabler.” Says the founder
Websites.co.in’s USP is that unlike other website builders, who charge before you can take the website online, Websites.co.in puts the website on the internet immediately as soon as the users fill up a few basic details about their business. They also get a 30-day risk free trial and can try out all the features of the platform. If the user is convinced and wants to upgrade to one of the premium plans, they can go ahead and purchase an affordable subscription plan of their choice.
This platform is available in 98 world languages and can collect payments from 190+ countries. The team is striving hard to create a world-class “Made in India” SaaS platform with a vision to empower micro-businesses and business owners globally.
Websites.co.in – Business Model and Revenue Model
Websites.co.in is a Freemium model. It gives the users a 30-day free trial of the platform. Post which if the customers choose to continue, they have to upgrade to a paid premium plan. The pricing bit is a little trickier as a user from a third world nation will not be able to pay the same price as a business owner from a developed country.
For this reason, this platform maps the purchasing power parity according to geographies and dynamically come up with a pricing that is best for that particular location.
Websites.co.in – Funding and Investors
Websites.co.in got pre-seed funding at the ideation stage itself. Before Kartik had an MVP or even a corporate bank account, he had commitments from a few angels. This confidence shown by his early investors was a real boost.
“I did knock many unknown doors too but the conversions from known friends and their network came in pretty quickly.” Kartik, Founder & CEO, Websites.co.in
Here are some key growth highlights of Websites.co.in:
App downloads per day- 2500 +
Total App Downloads – 300,000 +
Total Reviews – 2000+ reviews
Ratings – On an average of 4.5 stars out of 5
Paying customers – Paying customers from 49 + countries.
Websites.co.in – FAQs
Who is Kartik Raichura?
Kartik is the Founder & CEO of Websites.co.in, a SaaS platform that enables businesses to get an active online presence within minutes using their App or Web dashboard
What is Websites.co.in?
It is a SaaS platform that enables businesses to get an active online presence within minutes using their App or Web dashboard.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verifiedinformation ondifferent startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Crio.Do.
In the last few years, we have seen India transform and grow beyond the software services spectrum. The rise of so many new startups, and the influx of established tech giants, all trying to solve local and global problems with the help of brilliant product-building minds is extremely encouraging. These tech startups and companies require competent product developers who can think through complex customer problems and build technology to solve them.
However, existing ways of nurturing talent through video-based learning tools and traditional universities are not really geared for driving product-led innovation. Crio.Do is an experientiallearning platform that empowers developers with work-like experiences that aid them in developing real skills and building a demonstrable portfolio.
Tech is transforming every industry and quality developers are going to be the driving force behind that change. Crio.Do beliefs developers need & deserve better ways to learn and create a new world.
That’s precisely what Crio is solving. Crio.Do is an experiential learning platform dedicated to product development skills. It empowers developers with work-like experiences that aid them in developing real skills and building a demonstrable portfolio.
Crio.Do – Product/Services
Crio.Do is a unique experiential learning platform, where developers “Learn by Doing” and not just listening/watching videos or lectures and answering questions. The users build real products in a structured fashion through Crio Micro-Experiences whilst learning key software tools, concepts, and frameworks. They learn to handle scenarios faced by engineers working on live products by taking the avatar of an engineer in a real tech company.
They follow actual development practices applied by leading engineers, start thinking like them, research genuine problems and build authentic products like them. Along with technical skills, the company’s methodology also enables users to develop competencies like “independent problem-solving”,“product sense”, and “willingness to stretch out of one’s comfort zone” throughreal experiences in the program.
Crio.Do offers four direct to developer experiential learning programs:
Crio Launch: This free program caters to student developers working on their software engineering skills. The month-long program is open only to student developers in their pre-final and final years. The Freshers get an opportunity to build real products and to learn foundational concepts like Databases, OOPs, Developer Tools, Applied Data Structures, Algorithms and more.
Crio Launch+: This is an invite-only paid program where students get to learn key tech skills in a hands-on work-like software product development environment. The four-month-long program is open only to Crio Launch graduates. Once the students complete this program, they are ready to work in some of India’s best tech companies.
Crio Accelerate: The program offers early-stage working professionals to get work-ready software product development experience. This five-month-long program is open to working professionals with 0-3 years of industry experience.
Crio DevSprint: The program offers early-stage working professionals to get work-ready software product development experience and land the best product development job.
Founders of Crio.Do and Team
Rathinamurthy R and Sridher Jeyachandran are the founders of Crio.Do.
Founders of Crio.Do
Sridher and Rathinamurthy have known each other from their undergraduate days. They both took different career paths before coming together in 2018 to start Crio.Do.
Sridher moved to the USA for his masters and then spent over a decade in Silicon Valley working with companies such as NetApp and Google. Before starting Crio, Sridher spent a stint at the Google India office as a product manager.
Sridhar envisions establishing Crio.Do as an experiential learning platform for the tech world that would fundamentally change the way tech is learned with high-quality applied learning opportunities at scale.
Rathinamurthy has worked across engineering, product and consulting fields with companies like Novell, E&Y and Flipkart. Before starting Crio.Do, he was Senior Director at Flipkart, leading Marketplace Product.
Crio.Do’s Team
How was Crio.Do Started?
In early 2018, the co-founders’ mutual passion for technology and education brought them together. Being part of world-class organizations, they both had the first-hand experience of building and managing great teams and witnessed the impact good developers can make. They could also visualize the trend of tech transforming every traditional industry, and proficient developers being the driving force behind that change.
When they looked around the ecosystem for nurturing developer talent, they realized that existing ways of developing talent were neither adequate nor efficient. There was no way the learning & education ecosystem could supply the massive number of product developers the country’s start-up and tech ecosystem demanded and deserved. That was the seed for Crio – to democratize the applied learning opportunity at scale with its unique experiential learning platform and pedagogy which leverages deep tech, data and learning sciences.
Crio.Do – Target Market Size
India produces the world’s largest number of Computer Science graduates(2.15 lakh)each year, and there are multiple reports to indicate that over 80% of these graduates have skill gaps. Some reports indicate that CS graduates in the US (around “65,000” per year) are much ahead of their Indian counterparts in their ability to use their skills in a real-life environment.
On the opportunity side, there is a rapid increase in jobs in software product development due to tech disruption in most industries. These tech companies look for real experiences and a strong work portfolio in the profiles of their prospective engineers while hiring. But the opportunities for engineering graduates to get real experience and build a portfolio are very few and dispersed.
At Crio, the team believes in enabling this really large pool of CS graduates to become better equipped and better skilled in software product development through their experiential learning platform and pedagogy. This is also true for a large number of entry-level employees in the software sector that could benefit from Crio’s pedagogy in terms of upping their skills and competency.
Further, the platform can ramp up the skill levels of newly hired employees in tech companies to make them productive much faster. Crio can make a meaningful difference in improving the skill level of engineers, such that it can be demonstrated to their employer or a prospective employer.
Crio.Do operates on a B2C business model. The company has four direct to developer experiential learning programs –Crio Launch, Crio Launch Plus, Crio Accelerate, and Crio DevSprint.
Crio Launch is a free community program for student developers to strengthen their software engineering foundations. Crio Launch Plus and Crio Accelerate are career programs for students and working professionals respectively. In these programs, developers get work-like software product development experience and learn key tech skills hands-on. Crio.Do claims, “Pay us ₹ 89,999 + GST at the start of the program. If you do not land a job paying more than your Minimum Guaranteed CTC within a year, we will refund your money. No cost EMI options are available via our partners.”
Crio DevSprint is a premium experiential learning program where developers strengthen their backend engineering skills by building real software products and addressing various product development scenarios in a work-like environment. This is a pure learning program that does not come with referral services.
There is also an experiential learning program for tech organizations called Crio Onboard, where the training modules are fine-tuned to the specific requirements of the company to ramp up their engineering talent. In this case, developers of the company spend anywhere between 2 to 3 weeks going through the curriculum to ramp up on the required skills before hitting the floor running. Companies pay per developer in a cohort for Crio Onboard.
Crio.Do company has raised total funding of $1 million in January 2019.
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors
January 2019
Seed Round
$1 million
Binny Bansal, Mekin Maheshwari, Ravi Garikipati
The investors of Crio.Do are Binny Bansal, Co-Founder Flipkart; Udaan Co-Founders – Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta and Sujeet Kumar; Ravi Garikipati, Co-founder & CEO, Davinta Financial Services; Mekin Maheshwari, Founder, Udhyam Learning Foundation.
In the coming months, Crio.Do look at doubling their investment and accelerating their expansion in the tech learning space across the world through their experiential learning programs.
Crio.Do – Growth
Last year has been amazing for Crio. In its direct-to-developer offerings, they launched a very successful free community program called Crio Summer Of Doing for student developers from 200 engineering colleges across the country. They followed it up with the launch of Crio Launch for student developers, another free community program where they witnessed participation from students in over 500 engineering colleges across the country.
These talented student developers have just graduated from the program and signed up for Crio Launch Plus, a career development program for students. The company has also launched its career development program for Working Professionals called Crio Accelerate.
Crio Developers from these career development programs have successfully cracked opportunities in fast-growing tech organizations like CRED, Vogo, Ninjacart, Jumbotail, Playment, Postman, UrbanLadder and more.
The first version of Crio DevSprint, an experiential learning program that helps both students and working professionals become sought-after product developers has also been launched successfully this May.
In the space of tech learning for businesses, the team has delivered their experiential learning programs (Crio Onboard) to engineers in leading tech organizations like Flipkart, Visa, Rakuten, Goibibo, Jio, Kaleyra, Capillary and more.
Crio.Do – Future Plans
“Over the coming months, we will continue to double down our investments to deliver our learn-by-doing programs to student developers and working professionals early in their careers. We will also be accelerating our expansion in the tech learning space across the world through our experiential learning programs.”, says Rathinamurthy R, co-founder of Crio.
Crio.Do helps you to learn technology through work-like experience if you’re looking for a program where you can learn by doing.
Is Crio.Do free?
The program called ‘Crio Launch’ is a completely free and app-based solution that promises to offer real product development experience to students and empowers them with relevant technical skills.
What can I expect from Crio’s program?
Crio’s program will arm you with practical skills that translate into career growth and success at work. You will gain job-like experience while advancing your learnings.
Why should I choose Crio.Do?
Companies expect students and young professionals to have practical experience, which most of the curriculum and certification courses do not provide. Crio.Do helps you to bridge this gap.
What does Crio mean?
The English Translation of Crio is a child.
Is Crio winter of doing worth it?
Crio Winter of Doing externships are a great opportunity for you to solve real-world problems in an actual tech startup setting, and learn key skills that will help you advance your career.
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 Ozonetel.
The internet has showered us with myriad useful tools, cloud communication being one of them. Cloud telephony is all about internet-based voice and data communication where telecommunication applications, switching, and storage are hosted by a third party that falls outside the organization using these. Cloud telephony is among the latest tech that moves your business phone system to the cloud, allowing you to manage your business calls without compromising on quality and cost.
An emerging player in this domain is Ozonetel Communications—a cloud software solution that replaces your conventional business telephone setup with their VoIP services and widgets. Get an insight on Ozonetel Communications Success Story, Revenue Model, Growth, How it began?, Acquisition and Future Plans.
Transform Customer Experience with Ozonetel Communications
Ozonetel is a pioneer in providing on-demand cloud communication services in India. The full-stack customer experience software was built from the ground up to solve the practical problems that keep call centers worldwide from making the most of their communications platform. It is mainly known for developing and launching the first cloud-based customer experience platform in the Indian marketplace.
The solutions offered by Ozonetel are KooKoo CloudAgent and KooKoo Interactive Assistant.
KOOKOO CloudAgent
It is a call center software solution functioning as an inbound and outbound call center. CloudAgent shifts a company’s entire contact center and related setup into a single browser, making it easier for the workforce to monitor, track and make critical decisions. Equipped with business intelligence, the KOOKOO CloudAgent ensures that businesses provide a world-class experience to their customers. It provides a platform for them to engage with their customers through multiple channels such as voice, email, chat, SMS, and social media.
Ozonetel’s inbound call center solution is bundled with the following features:
CRM Integration.
IVR flexibility: The KOOKOO speech API lets users speak to the IVR instead of punching numbers.
ACD software distributes calls, SMS, emails and social media messages based on customer needs and agent skill set.
Improves agent productivity time and cost per ticket.
Improves speed of resolution.
Exceed SLA’s, boost CSAT.
Reduces call queues by live monitoring.
Ozonetel’s outbound call center solution comes with interesting features:
Clients can choose from multiple power dialers as per their business needs. Ozonetel offers both progressive and predictive dialing modes. These dialers can double agent productivity.
Remote dialing.
Improves agent productivity.
Reduces unproductive work.
Burns through the call list.
Easy integration with third-party solutions.
Data to be dialed can be prioritized based on various parameters.
Supervisors can monitor the agents on a real-time basis.
Outbound IVR lets send personalized automated messages to a large database.
Number Masking to protect consumer privacy.
Ozonetel provides more than 70 reports that give a detailed picture of the call center operations. Currently, Ozonetel has ready-made implications for the major CRM solutions as well as social media integration with Facebook, Whatsapp and Shopify.
KOOKOO Interactive Assistant (KIA)
A first-of-its-kind widget enables customer service help desks to run voice calls and chat sessions in parallel. The KIA widget integrates with Zendesk, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and all other CRM solutions to automatically capture lead details.
By integrating the Kookoo interactive assistant with its website, a company gets the following benefits:
Customers browsing the company’s site can instantly contact agents through a click.
On-call agents can send critical details to the customer through the live chat window.
Visual IVR lets customers connect to agents in the right department.
It automatically captures customers’ details in the CRM.
Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy and Rajiv Bharathan are the people behind the technology of Ozonetel Communications.
Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy and Rajiv Bharathan
Murthy Chintipalati is the Founder and CEO of Ozonetel. He started Ozonetel along with his co-founders by leveraging the core strengths of his team to solve the most pressing enterprise communication challenges. Even after a decade leading Ozonetel, he ensures being available in real-time to address his clients’ needs. He has been a serial entrepreneur for 25 years and is vested in starting his own initiatives in the software, hardware, semiconductor, systems spanning networking, security, telecom, embedded systems, and applications segments.
Atul Sharma is the Chief Technology Officer of Ozonetel. He is responsible for identifying the right technology for the platform, making it future-proof and highly scalable while keeping the overall cost affordable for the clients. He is also responsible for managing and driving the technology team for network, telecom, application, security, operations, delivery, pre-sales. He brings deep domain knowledge of self-service applications & Customer Interaction Management to bear on the solutions Ozonetel delivers.
Chaitanya Chokkareddy is the Chief Innovation Officer of Ozonetel. He works with the latest technological breakthroughs and sees what innovative products can be built on top of them. This includes grid computing, cloud computing, cloud telephony, WebRTC, No SQL databases, and now AI. He makes sure that the right technology can be used in the Ozonetel stack at the right time. He has more than 15 years of experience working with the latest tools and loves bringing the latest research to life and applying it to this industry.
Rajiv Bharathan is the Sr. VP of Sales at Ozonetel. He collaborates closely with clients to find the best solutions to their call center challenges. Since 1980, He has worked in sales across IT and Telecom with major companies like HCL, HP, Wipro, and Reliance Communications. He has been with Ozonetel since 2012. He is passionate about being in the thick of the action from landing new accounts to helping existing customers get more out of their platform.
Ozonetel Communications – Vision and Mission
Ozonetel Communications provides a cloud communication software suite as a service to their customers. The company envisions making business communication seamless, intelligent, cost-efficient and easily available. Its mission is to provide a scalable multi-channel communication platform on the cloud to enterprises & entrepreneurs on the OPEX/ transaction model, enabling them to provide value-added communication services to their customers.
Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy had come back from the US and wanted to get their hands in entrepreneurship. They recognized that when businesses were in the initial stages of setup, they’d been extremely serious about the company website but would rarely focus on setting up the right business phone system. In fact, many businesses did not even have a proper business phone system. The trio realized that it was happening because setting up a business phone system wasn’t as easy as ABC. They then decided to make the process of “setting up a business phone system” as convenient as “setting up a business website”. With that in mind, Ozonetel Communications first launched the KOOKOO cloud telephony platform followed by CloudAgent, the world’s first cloud contact center solution.
Ozonetel Communications – Name and Logo
Ozonetel wanted to be a layer around telephony, thus come out as the amalgamation of Ozone (layer) and Tel (telephony). The name KOOKOO was conjured in a jiffy (the team wanted a name with lots of vowels, like Yahoo!).
Ozonetel Logo
Ozonetel Communications – Startup Launch
Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddylaunched their product at the Unplugged Conference. Their marketing strategy at the time revolved aroundblogging and networkingat startup events. Word-of-mouth feedback from satisfied customers played a major role.
Ozonetel Communications is a SaaS company and has a “per agent/per month” revenue model.
Ozonetel Communications – Funding
Ozonetel has not raised any funding to date. It is a Bootstrapped Company. Bootstrapping means building a company from scratch with no outside funding. All the fundings are invested by the owner itself.
Ozonetel Communications – User Acquisition and Growth
Ozonetel’s only hack has been customer happiness. Interestingly, the company does not spend anything on marketing. Most of its leads are generated through blogs and word-of-mouth publicity.
With over 1500+ enterprise clients across 20+ verticals, Ozonetel’s KOOKOO platform supports over 50,000 live agents and has handled over 3 billion calls.
Ozonetel Communications currently serves in India, the USA, UAE and South East Asia. Reputed brands like Food Panda, Practo, Big Basket, Uber, WeWork, Medlife, HUL, Healthcare at home, and Zomato are some of its top clientele.
Ozonetel Communications – Startup Challenges
The major challenge Ozonetel faced early on its journey was technical in nature. It couldn’t guarantee on-call quality with the store-bought PRI cards; it overcomes this obstacle by designing custom PRI card hardware.
Ozonetel considers US-based Twilio as a source of inspiration aside from the competition. The venture tries to stay ahead in its segment through innovation. Ozonetel launched the world’s first cloud contact center product and is now bolstering its existing solutions by incorporating AI.
Ozonetel Communications – Mergers and Acquisitions
Ozonetel acquired Yantrasoft, a speech recognition company, in 2014.
Ozonetel Communications – Future Plans
Ozonetel is looking forward to disrupting the contact center industry through AI-based techniques.
Ozonetel Communications – FAQs
What is Ozonetel?
Ozonetel is India’s No. 1 contact solution provider. It is a cloud-based telephony service provider that enables businesses to communicate with their clients effectively and efficiently via all the channels, i.e. chat, email, social media, call, SMS, on one platform with no capital investment. The solutions offered by Ozonetel are KooKoo CloudAgent and KooKoo Interactive Assistant.
How does Ozonetel make money?
Ozonetel Communications is a SaaS company and has a “per agent/per month” revenue model.
What is cloud communication?
Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. It is a totally fresh approach to building, deploying and scaling enterprise communication systems. Cloud communications have the potential to reduce expenses and provide higher quality services.
How are customers finding value in Ozonetel’s products?
Ozonetel helps contact centers go live in a day with a reliable platform that improves customer experience and agent productivity at a lower total cost.
How does Ozonetel see the road ahead in cloud telephony technologies?
Ozonetel is going to be about omnichannel and AI in the coming future. Customers can reach out to businesses on multiple channels like Whatsapp, email, chat, SMS, video, etc. and will expect a quick resolution.
Sarika Anand
