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Tag: 📄Company Profiles

  • Wonderchef – Cook like a Chef!

    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 Wonderchef.

    The kitchenware industry is evolving at a fast rate. Once an unorganized sector, the kitchenware sector today is witnessing emergence of many new brands. The growth seems to be in an upward trajectory due to continuous technological advancement and evolving lifestyles. The Make in India initiative of the government has also attracted investors.

    As of now, as per several reports the revenue of the household appliances industry in India amounts to be US$1,678 million and is expected to grow at 13.9%. The user penetration rate is expected to increase to 21.8% in next five years, as compared to 13.4% of 2019. This increasing demand for quality kitchenware in the Indian market inspired Ravi Saxena to venture into the domain and start ‘Wonderchef’, a company offering stylish and convenient cookware and kitchen appliances. The other co-founder of ‘Wonderchef’ is well-known chef Sanjeev Kapoor, who contributes his rich experience to bring about the best of kitchen appliances to the Indian consumers.

    Know about Wonderchef Company Profile, Founders, Revenue, Funding, Growth etc. in this article.

    Wonderchef – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Wonderchef Home Appliance Pvt. Ltd
    Headquarters Mumbai
    Founders/Owners Mr. Ravi Saxena, Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor
    Industry Consumer Durables – Cookware & Appliances
    Founding Year 2009
    Revenue INR 300 Crore (FY19)
    Funding INR 700 Crore
    Website www.wonderchef.com
    Registered Company Name Wonderchef Home Appliances Pvt. Ltd

    Wonderchef – About and How it Works
    Wonderchef – Founders and Team
    Wonderchef – Story of Starting up
    Wonderchef – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Wonderchef – User Acquisition
    Wonderchef – Startup Challenge
    Wonderchef – Revenue
    Wonderchef – Funding and Investors
    Wonderchef – Future Plans
    Wonderchef – FAQs

    Wonderchef – About and How it Works

    Wonderchef is a leader in cookware and kitchen appliances that helps you cook healthy and tasty food with convenience. German standards of quality, Italian designs, & constant innovation are the hallmarks of Wonderchef. It brings warmth to every meal by creating a perfect blend of aesthetics and functionality.

    We are inspired by global trends to create beautiful kitchen stories that bring out the culinary artist in you! – says Wonderchef  Founder, Ravi Saxena

    Wonderchef offers a huge collection of non-stick cookware, stainless steel pans, pressure cookers, appliances, cooktops, chimneys, kitchen tools, flasks, bakeware and much more which are available through their dedicated website and 10,000+ retail outlets. What makes Wonderchef special is the customized recipes that are created for every unique product by none other than Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. These are shared with the consumers via beautifully crafted recipe books, social media interactions, and dedicated apps.

    Wonderchef  balances between the form and function of the particular appliance, be it choice of design, material, technology or production process. This helps them curate products which impeccably transitions from the kitchen to the table. Wonderchef prides itself in getting new ideas, solutions, & technologies to the market. Wonderchef Royal Velvet Pans brought forth a revolution of fresh hues & colors in non-stick cookware. Wonderchef has changed the perception of cookware from black & boring to colorful & exciting. They have over 25 color palettes form the repertoire of Wonderchef pans.

    Our customers often match their cookware to the hue of their kitchen cabinets, setting of their living room or the color of their curtains. Our products are made for making beautiful memories in the kitchen & on your dining table

    Being, beautifully designed, the customers love to share the Wonderchef products as treasured gifts. Every product comes in a beautifully designed gift box. Uniqueness, attractive prices and classy designs make them the best choice for gifting. Be it a housewarming party, a birth-day, a wedding or an anniversary, Wonderchef have the perfect gift for every occasion. Wonderchef sets and blenders are the perfect gifts when a young couple sets.

    24 Restaurant Marketing Ideas and Trends that Actually Work!
    Food industry is one of the heavily crowded and therefore a competitiveindustry. Some restaurants are making great profits while some are losing thegame. One of the major reasons for the failure of any startup, especially arestaurant or food startup [/tag/food-startups/], is not knowing how to ma…
    StartupTalkyShubham Kumar

    Wonderchef – Founders and Team

    The a question is who owns wonderchef? Ravi Saxena and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor are the Founders of Wonderchef.

    Wonderchef Founders, Owners
    Ravi Saxena and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor

    Wonderchef – Story of Starting up

    Wonderchef was an idea that emanated from Ravi Saxena’s interactions with Indians, whom he interacted with in over 65 countries when he travelled for work. These insights helped him identify certain latent needs that became the cornerstone of the business model of the company. The credibility Ravi had earned during his years of work helped him raise investment from across the globe from fellow professionals who trusted his skill sets and commitment.

    Wonderchef was started with a vision to bring in a change in quality, performance and style of kitchenware used in Indian kitchens and in our journey so far we have achieved this. Every product of Wonderchef has its unique story of health, taste and convenience.

    The passion to contribute to the growth of society and entrepreneurship in India led to the focus on DTH channel of supplying Wonderchef products. This DTH (direct to home) channel,  now engages over 62,000 independent women across 12000 cities in India.

    At Wonderchef, the core belief of the brand is to enable every Indian kitchen to cook tasty meals without any compromise on health. Along with this, we have always believed in empowering women by enabling them to create their own business and cook healthy for their families, with pride.

    Paper Boat Company Profile – Reviving Traditional Indian Drinks!
    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on. India is a land of diversity. This variance extends to language, culture, food,attire, and whatn…
    StartupTalkyShubham Kumar

    Wonderchef – the name highlights the innovation, modern designs and colourful kitchenware which they sell. Thus making anyone cooking with them a Wonderchef. Their products make cooking a wonderful experience!

    WonderChef Logo

    ‘Cook with Pride‘ is Wonderchef’s tagline.

    As per our detailed study, Indian women consider cooking a daily chore and don’t get recognized for the same. We wanted to add purpose and pride to this daily activity with quality and colourful cookware. Hence Cook with Pride.

    Wonderchef’s logo is an amalgamation of a chef’s hat and the W of Wonderchef logo, making it look like a star, which they consider themselves to be one.

    sanjeev Kapoor- Wonderchef

    Wonderchef – User Acquisition

    The focus on technology and innovation ensured that a new brand was able to cut through the clutter in a rather traditional industry, and became the company that took the shortest time to grow from 0 to 200 Crore level in the industry. Today, Wonderchef has a truly omni-channel distribution strategy with a 360 degree approach to target consumers.

    Wonderchef team believes that the point of purchase is only the beginning of the relationship. Their reliable warranty ensures that the customers continue to get their support long after their purchase. If the customers have a doubt or question about how to care for the product – Wonderchef  provides them with customer service and they are always eager to hear from the customers.

    Wonderchef – Startup Challenge

    Success never comes easy, and initially the Wonderchef team also faced its share of tough times.

    I have to sit back and think of the hard times we had for a number of years, to really appreciate what we have today with us – Ravi says recalling the tough times

    The company did everything to survive in the initial period which coincided with the global financial meltdown. It offered financial consulting services, strategy solutions, culinary classes, employee engagement services and a few other solutions to be able to pay the bills. Working capital was always in short supply as growth continued year after year. Building a team was also a long, arduous process and thus a challenge for the founding team.

    Startup Story of Karma Kettle- The gourmet tea makers
    Karma Kettle Startup Success StoryStartup NameKarma KettleHeadquarterKolkata FoundersPriti Sen Arora & DhirajAroraSectorFood & BeverageFounded2015Parent OrganizationA&S SolutionsAboutKarmaKettleKarma Kettle Target MarketFounders of Karma Kettle and TeamHow was Karma Kettle StartedKarma Kettl…
    StartupTalkyChayanika Goswami

    Wonderchef – Revenue

    The Wonderchef revenue in FY19 was INR 300 Crore It is aiming for a revenue of INR 800 Crore in next five years.

    “We are in 4,000 towns and villages at present. In terms of business, about 70 percent comes from the urban areas and 30 percent from rural areas” Says Ravi Saxena, MD & Co-founder, Wonderchef

    Wonderchef – Funding and Investors

    The  can be seen in the fact that they have raised a total of INR 700 Crore in funding over 1 round led by Amicus Capital.

    Date Stage Amount Investors Name
    June ’18 Series A INR 700 Crore Amicus Capital

    Funding has helped Wonderchef invest in marketing, hire the right resources and set up the right infrastructure to facilitate future growth.

    Wonderchef – Future Plans

    Wonderchef has clocked revenue of 300+ Crore in the last financial year and is growing faster than the category with a healthy bottom line. The company plans to clock in 1000 Crore in the next five years – profitable growth – and does not believe in cash burn. Most of the profit is reinvested in marketing, service infrastructure and hiring the best talent.

    Today, Wonderchef operates across India and 4 other nations (Australia, Mauritius, US, UK) and cater not only to the Indian diaspora but also to the locals with customized offerings suiting their needs.

    Wonderchef – FAQs

    Who is the Owner of Wonderchef?

    The WonderChef Owners are Ravi Saxena and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor.

    Is Wonderchef Indian Brand?

    Yes. Wonderchef is based out of Mumbai, India.

    What type of Products does Wonderchef offer?

    The product range of Wonderchef ranges from Cookers, Mixed grinders, cookware, appliances to Chimneys, flasks, Kitchen care etc., Wonderchef is a leader in cookware and kitchen appliances.

    How much is Wonderchef’s Revenue?

    The Wonderchef revenue in FY19 was INR 300 crore It is aiming for a revenue of INR 800 crore in next five years.

    Who is Sanjeev Kapoor?

    Sanjeev Kapoor is an Indian celebrity chef, entrepreneur and television personality. He is the Co-founder of Wonderchef.

  • Karma Kettle Brings Global Taste and Aroma in Your Cup of Tea

    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 Karma Kettle.

    “Teatime is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings” quoted Letitia Baldrige, the American etiquette expert and author. A cup of tea has the power to make us feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and stress-free. India is not only the 2nd largest producer of tea after China, but Indians are also vivid tea lovers. Indian’s love for tea is proved by the fact that 70% of the tea produced in India is consumed in the country itself. Taking this love for tea to the next level, Karma Kettle, a Kolkata-based startup is bringing you a wide range of tea in different textures, flavors and fragrances.

    Karma Kettle Startup Success Story

    Startup Name Karma Kettle
    Headquarters Kolkata
    Founders Priti Sen Arora & Dhiraj Arora
    Sector Food & Beverage
    Founded 2015
    Parent Organization A&S Solutions

    About Karma Kettle
    Founders of Karma Kettle and Team
    How was Karma Kettle Started?
    Karma Kettle – Name and Logo
    Karma Kettle – Target Market
    Karma Kettle – Funding and Investors
    Karma Kettle – Startup Challenges
    Karma Kettle – Competitors
    Karma Kettle – Growth
    Karma Kettle – Awards
    Karma Kettle – Future Plans
    Karma Kettle – FAQs

    About Karma Kettle

    Karma Kettle – World of Artisanal Tea

    Karma Kettle is one of India’s finest artisanal tea blenders with 100+ different tea varietals. Karma Kettle is headquartered in Kolkata. The startup founded in 2015, has established itself as a specialist tea brand offering a wide variety of tea to choose from.

    The company offers a wide and innovative range of tea like green tea with peach and jasmine, green tea with lychee, chamomile & lemongrass caffeine-free tree, Strawberries, Cockscomb & Hibiscus tea, Ashwagandha tea, Green tea with tulsi, ginger & marigold, Masala chai, etc.

    Besides packaged tea, Karma Kettle sells loose tea leaves. Karma Kettle’s pyramid tea bags and iced tea has become quite popular among the target customer. The pyramid tea bags allow space for the tea brew to infuse properly. Karma Kettle also offers tea and teaware in different gift packages.

    We launched our teas in 2014 selling them in biodegradable pyramid tea bags, although the market was very receptive to our loose leaf blended teas, the response for bio-degradable teabags was not as per our expectations (they cost Rs2-3 more than the standard pyramid teabag)- this stemmed from the lack of awareness of the benefits of switching to a biodegradable teabag.  We thus decided to move our focus back to standard pyramid teabags & loose leaves.  In 2019, the situation has changed a lot, we do get more and more requests from various B2B and B2C clients inquiring about biodegradable teabags- so reintroducing them is in our pipeline.  

    Karma Kettle envisions–

    • To educate the Indian consumer to look at tea beyond Chai or CTC and introduce Indians to fine artisanal teas of the world.
    • Making tea a versatile ingredient that can be enjoyed in many different forms- as a hot brew, cold brew, cocktail, mocktail, patisseries or / Tea infusions in food, cocktails and mocktails.
    • Reviving the ritual of afternoon tea in Indian households.

    Founders of Karma Kettle and Team

    Karma Kettle was founded by Dhiraj Arora and Priti Sen Arora in 2015.

    Founders of Karma Kettle
    Founders of Karma Kettle

    Dhiraj Arora is a passionate tea connoisseur who did his specialization from the World Tea Academy USA and is also a certified tea Sommelier from Sri Lanka. He has personally blended most of these fabulous tea varietals, which are also now available in various hotel tea bars, cafes and gourmet stores across India.

    Priti Sen Arora is the person behind the marketing and vibrant packaging of the Karma Kettle products.

    Dhiraj and Priti co-owned two restaurants in Singapore. With their backgrounds, it only made sense to start Karma Kettle to carry back those flavors and pour out the story of their voyages in a teacup. As mentioned by Priti, Karma Kettle is inspired by global travels.

    Karma Kettle aims to take you on a voyage across the globe with a teacup.

    Karma Kettle currently has a young and dynamic team of 30+ members.

    How was Karma Kettle Started?

    Dhiraj & Priti owns a 32 room heritage boutique hotel- Cochrane Place in Kurseong located in the center of the world-famous Darjeeling region. During this feat, they formed a lot of close associations with Darjeeling tea estate owners & planters.

    They realized that most established Indian tea companies were packaging tea in a very traditional format (stand-up metallic pouches) and most of their season’s freshest picks were sent to export markets. Having already been involved with the F&B industry in Singapore, Priti and Dhiraj were convinced that India has huge potential and that tea could be packaged & marketed in a more globally appealing format.

    “Voyages in a teacup” is the theme at Karma Kettle – teas inspired by travel destinations across the globe. Karma Kettle lets the Indian consumer enjoy an authentic cup of Moroccan Mint tea or Genmaicha tea or Japanese Matcha at reasonable prices. Also, every packaging weaves a story of its origin (take Istanbul as an example).

    We started in 2015 with around 10 blends and today we have over 100+ blends packaged in different formats- Pyramid teabags, Loose Leaf, Double chambered teabags.

    Relevant Read: Startup Story of PaperBoat- India’s Favorite Beverage

    The name of the startup combines two words ‘Karma’ and ‘Kettle’.

    Karma Kettle's Logo
    Karma Kettle’s Logo

    Karma is at the heart of our journey which broadly translates to what goes around comes around, says Priti. Karma relates to spreading good energy through one’s actions and reap positive benefits. The Kettle is something that is always related to tea.

    The name Karma Kettle was coined in 2005, much before the company was actually started in 2015. Dhiraj wanted to start a tea room in Singapore. Initially, the idea behind Karma Kettle was to take on the traditional English tea room concept. The word ‘Karma’ was added to give an Eastern feel to the name.

    Deeply rooted in our company’s philosophy is the belief that tea is a healthy beverage and that in blending tea with the purest botanicals we are able to transform tea to a salubrious infusion that positively impacts peoples body, mind and spirit. We also consciously source our tea through small and medium scale tea growers positively impacting the lives of the tea plantation workers and helping them with a better livelihood.

    Karma Kettle Target Market

    Karma Kettle majorly caters to the HoReCa industry – Hotels, Restaurants & Cafes. In the last couple of years, there has been a surge in gourmet cafes and restaurants in India that are looking to serve upscale food and not compromise on the quality of ingredients.

    According to Karma Kettle co-founder, Priti, Gifting is another one of the biggest segments for brands like Karma Kettle – be it weddings, corporate gifts, or other similar events. Owing to their low caffeine content, wellness and health-related benefits, tea makes for an ideal gifting option. For those looking for something unique, brands often create custom blends to suit a particular occasion or event.

    Increasingly artisanal teas are also making their way into gourmet food, cocktails, desserts, and much more, owing to their versatile flavor profiles.

    Though India is not as experimental as the rest of the world, over time the change in people’s preference towards gourmet and local food has been visible. At the same time, Consumers also no longer just consume tea, they expect a complete tea drinking experience with an extravagant drinking option, an inviting brand vibe, etc.; They crave authenticity and the story which can connect them to the tea sommeliers. We believe the potential for growth is certainly there, especially as consumer tastes evolve in India.

    Relevant Read: Gingercup- Innovative Marketing through Paper Cups

    Karma Kettle – Funding and Investors

    Karma Kettle is a Bootstrapped Startup. Bootstrapping means building a company from scratch with no outside funding. All the fundings are invested by the owner itself.

    Karma Kettle – Startup Challenges

    According to Priti, getting the tea consumers to move beyond the regular chai/CTC is a major challenge that Karma Kettle is facing.

    Karma Kettle – Competitors

    Some competitors of Karma Kettle are:-

    • Tea Trunk
    • Teabox
    • Anandini Himalaya
    • Chai Diaries
    • Dancing Leaf
    • No. 3 Clive Road
    • Gardener Street
    • Goodwyn
    • Jugmug Thela
    • La Plant

    Karma Kettle draws inspiration from David’s Tea’. Dhiraj while pursuing his specialization in Tea at World Tea Academy in the USA had the opportunity to be a part of a project at David’s Tea.

    Karma Kettle –
    Growth

    Karma Kettle started as an online platform. It acquired its customers online and sold products through its own site and other e-commerce portals. Now, Karma Kettle tea is also available in selected gourmet stores and cafes in different parts of India. Karma Kettle started its exclusive brand outlet in Kolkata in 2017.

    Karma Kettle Kolkata's Outlet
    Karma Kettle Kolkata’s Outlet

    Today, the company is also catering to some of the eminent five-star hotel chains in the country. Karma Kettle teas can now be enjoyed in the Novotel Hotels, Le Meridien Hotels, CGH Earth Hotels and many more.

    The company-curated various tea tasting and tea-themed events in collaboration with the different five-star hotels and boutique restaurants across the country. It also arranges training at the hotels, restaurants and other retail spaces where Karma Kettle teas were served. These trainings were organized to upskill the bottom line so they can, in turn, educate the consumers/guests about the best way to consume each tea blend/tea infusion.

    Karma Kettle – Awards

    Karma Kettle received Award for Excellence in the Tea category in “The Telegraph Food Guide Award 2019”.

    Karma Kettle – Future Plans

    Karma Kettle is looking to open flagship retail & tea room concepts in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Goa, Pondicherry, Mumbai & Delhi in the next 2-3 years. The company is planning to expand its tea range and also to export its products to foreign countries. Karma Kettle is working with leading food and beverage developers to come up with exciting food and beverage recipes for people to try. Karma Kettle has also made inroads overseas so that it can send teas to Singapore, Mauritius, Brazil and Australia. Finally, tea education is on the cards and we want to cater to tea enthusiasts as well as aficionados about our tea varietals.

    Karma Kettle – FAQs

    What is Karma Kettle?

    Karma Kettle is a tea company, headquartered in Kolkata, with 100+ tea blends inspired by travel.

    What is the best thing about Karma Kettle?

    Karma Kettle offers a variety of tea likes rooibos chai, chili chai, ayurvedic chai and green chai. They have categorized their tea in terms of wellness, vegan tea, organic tea and much more. Also, they provide teaware and tea gifts options. They have a unique collection of tea gift boxes at a reasonable rate.

    Where can I buy the products of Karma Kettle?

    You can buy Karma Kettle’s product on various e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, BigBasket, etc. They are also available on Swiggy as well. You can also place your order directly by visiting their website or social media platforms.

    How Karma Kettle engages with small tea businesses or farms?

    Karma Kettle has been working closely with independent and small-scale tea farmers and growers to source teas. This essentially cuts off the middlemen and allows them to give the owners a fair price for their tea directly.

    What is the USP of Karma Kettle?

    To come up with a new blend consistently is the USP of Karma Kettle. Their aim is to bring the best tea experience among customers and stay ahead of the competitors.

    What is the business model of Karma Kettle?

    Karma Kettle operates on B2B as well as B2C business models as they sell their products to various business organizations and customers.

  • My Dream Store: Start Your Merchandise Business With Zero Investment

    Do you have that hidden talent to design beautiful merchandise and apparel? But then how do you showcase your creativity? This post discusses “My Dream Store“, a platform that helps you showcase and monetize your creative abilities.

    My Dream Store lets you design awesome products and sell them online while it takes care of everything else—from manufacturing the product to packaging, delivery, and even customer service!

    My Dream Store – Company Highlights

    Startup Name My Dream Store
    Headquarter Hyderabad
    Founders Karthik Venkat & Bala Satish
    Sector E-commerce
    Founded 2014
    Parent Organization Pratyaya E-commerce Private Limited
    Website mydreamstore.in

    About My Dream Store and How it Works
    My Dream Store – Founders and Team
    How was My Dream Store Started
    My Dream Store – Startup Challenges
    My Dream Store – Business Model and Revenue Model
    My Dream Store – Funding and Investors
    My Dream Store – Growth

    About My Dream Store and How it Works

    Based out of Hyderabad, My Dream Store allows people to create and sell products such as T-shirts, hoodies, vests, mobile cases, coffee mugs, and more online with zero inventory and zilch cost. Its platform also provides free design support. My Dream Store has partnered with other vendors to handle demand surges and the manufacture of special products.

    My Dream Store is predominantly a crowd-funded merchandising platform. This means that the seller can easily upload his or her designs, create products like T-shirts and hoodies, set the desired pricing and the quantity of items to be printed, and then go on to promote them. When the seller campaign reaches its goal, the platform prints, packs, and delivers the item to the buyers on time and hands over the profits to the seller.

    My Dream Store provides the following features:

    • Create and Sell – This is for young designers and entrepreneurs who want to step in and solve problems but face barriers of varying degrees while starting an apparel brand. To minimize the overhead expenses on inventory creation, My Dream Store offers such individuals zero inventory and warehousing costs. With added facilities like distribution and packaging, the platform is an aid to the startup ecosystem.
    • Create and Buy – This feature is mainly for students who may need T-shirts and other apparel for annual college meets, occasion, groups, and hobby clubs. My Dream Store is a convenient option to solve the tedious process of ordering tees from the traditional vendors.

    Relevant Read: FableStreet – Making Tailored Fit Workwear for Women by Using Algorithm

    My Dream Store – Founders and Team

    My Dream Store was founded by Karthik Venkat and Bala Satish in 2014.

    My Dream Store Founders
    My Dream Store Founders

    Both Karthik and Bala are NIT Allahabad graduates who left their corporate jobs in 2011 to start a custom merchandise platform called eSparsha; it manufactured customized T-shirts for corporate sessions, college events, etc. The founder duo later jumped into the e-commerce segment to start My Dream Store.

    • Karthik Venkat, the CEO of My Dream Store, is an experienced founder with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry. He is quite skilled in sales, strategic planning, building and running teams. He also is an expert Facebook advertiser!
    • Co-founder Bala Satish, the COO of My Dream Store, is motivated to build the best sales accelerator platform to help creators and micro-brands sell their products. He wants to foster an awesome team to assist these creators and brands.

    How was My Dream Store Started

    Although E-Sparsha (which Karthik and Bala launched after quitting their jobs) had established itself as a reliable service provider for custom merchandising, the idea to explore the e-commerce market caught the attention of the duo which led to the launch of My Dream Store in 2014.

    Regarding the initial phase, Karthik quoted, “The initial phase was relatively easy as we had already built a strong vendor network from E-Sparsha. However, getting into the online space and running an E-commerce portal was a different ball game altogether.”

    My Dream Store Logo
    My Dream Store Logo

    While dealing with online marketing, entrepreneurs have to consider several intricacies to strengthen the strategic pillars and optimize their business operations. The Beta version of My Dream Store was built in September 2014. Since then, the company is working on a way to minimize the risk of over-burdening the inventory by giving sellers access to upbeat scalable technology, efficient and risk-free inventory management, optimized operations, well-defined product, and a seamless marketing strategy.

    My Dream Store – Startup Challenges

    My Dream Store is based on a ‘bring-your-customer’ model where sellers have to promote their products to the right target audience. However, sellers aren’t too aware of modern online advertising tools such as Facebook advertising, Google advertising, etc. To counter this problem, the startup created learning programs on its platform (targeted towards educating the sellers) through an online course-ware called the ‘My Dream Store University’. This initiative by the company helped the sellers improve the success rates of their campaigns.

    In addition to the My Dream Store University, My Dream Store has put in efforts to enhance community engagement and overcome various other challenges startups commonly face:

    • Campaigner Connect – This is a closed group meant to build a network where buyers and sellers can easily communicate with community managers and solve any hurdles that arise on the way.
    • Google Hangout – The creative store has regular hangout sessions where every member of the community reaches out to both existing and potential buyers and sellers for meaningful conversations.
    • Open door policy – My Dream Store invites young designers and aspiring entrepreneurs to its office on a regular basis . The My Dream Store team interacts with the visitors and motivates them to join the platform.

    Relevant Read: Myntra – Bringing top-notch fashion with every click

    My Dream Store – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The revenue model of My Dream Store seems quite simple. It charges a standard fee per unit which is based on the type of the product and printing requirements. This fee includes everything ranging from manufacturing cost and packaging to delivery, handling charges, and profit margins.

    My Dream Store – Funding and Investors

    In 2015, the company received an angel investment of $320K.

    My Dream Store – Growth

    • More than 820,000 visitors.
    • More than 9,000 registered sellers.
    • Delivers products to more than 150,000 customers across India.
    • A 100% margin on sales on an average.
    • A team of 45 employees that continues to grow.
    • Extension of its services to Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, and Kolkata.
    • Conducts 30,000 transactions per month on an average.

    Moving further, My Dream Store plans to venture into other product categories like posters, tote bags, stickers, etc., thereby opening up new opportunities for itself and its partners.

    Fast forward to July 2021, My Dream Store has become NOBERO, an online shopping site for men and women.

  • 3Hcare – Find the Best Healthcare Services In India

    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 3Hcare.

    Diagnostics tests are done to find if a person has a certain disease. An accurate diagnostic test is important to avoid trial and error in treatment. 3Hcare, a Delhi-based healthcare startup is here to ensure that your diagnostics are done safely and conveniently. It provides different health packages, 3Hcare Thyrocare Aarogyam being the most popular one. Read this article to know more about a healthcare startup in India, 3Hcare and its success story.

    3Hcare – Company Highlights

    Startup Name 3Hcare
    Headquarters Delhi
    Founders CA (Dr.) Ruchi Gupta, Dr. Ravinder Pal Singh Malhotra & Dr. Gurdeep Singh Ratra
    Sector Healthcare
    Founded September 2016
    Funding $1.1 Million
    Parent Organization 3Hcare.in

    About 3Hcare
    3Hcare – Healthcare Industry Details
    3Hcare – Founders of 3Hcare and Team
    3Hcare – How was 3Hcare Started?
    3Hcare – Name and Logo
    3Hcare – What is 3Hcare?
    3Hcare – USP and Innovation
    3Hcare – Revenue Model
    3Hcare – Funding and Investors
    3Hcare – User Acquisition
    3Hcare – Startup Challenges
    3Hcare – Future Plans
    3Hcare – FAQs

    About 3Hcare

    3Hcare is a Delhi-based startup operating in the healthcare sector. 3Hcare is an online marketplace for healthcare services. It provides detailed information on healthcare services provided by PAN India. A user can simply log on to 3Hcare’s website and find nearby diagnostics and hospitals as per their requirements.

    Our mission is to assist in getting quality health services and facilities for the community, to promote wellness, to relieve suffering and to restore health as swiftly, safely and humanely as it can be done, consistent with the best service we can give at the highest value for all concerned. – Ruchi Gupta (Founder of 3Hcare)

    HealthKart | Company Profile |
    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. The content in this post has beenapproved by the organization it is based on. Healthcare is going to fundamentally transform in years to come. Technologyadvancements are at th…
    StartupTalkySarika Anand

    3Hcare – Healthcare Industry Details

    According to the Indian Diagnostic Services Market Outlook 2020, the diagnostic services market will be growing at 27.5%  for the next 5 years. The market has reached INR 860 Billion in revenues by the end of 2020. Some of the major causes for this fast-growth are increasing health consciousness, an increase in the number of people having insurance cover, improving healthcare services, etc. Covid-19 is also one of the major reasons for the borne of the healthcare industry. The Novel Coronavirus has not only hit the nations mentally but also economically, especially the healthcare industry.

    The healthcare market is expected to reach $372 billion by 2022.

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    Founders of 3Hcare and Team

    CA (Dr.) Ruchi Gupta, Dr. Ravinder Pal Singh Malhotra and  Dr. Gurdeep Singh Ratra are the founders of 3Hcare.

    3Hcare's Founders
    3Hcare’s Founders

    Ruchi Gupta is a doctorate in Risk Management and a fellow member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. She pursued her MBA from GGSIP University and Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from SRCC, University of Delhi. She is a prolific educationist, qualified UGC NET-JRF having a decade-long experience in mentoring management students for the corporate world in the field of applied Finance & Business Management. She also has extensive experience in reviewing and writing subject-specific books in finance & management. Her numerous papers have been published & presented in renowned journals and conferences. She is a member of the panel of authors in the Central Board Of Secondary Education (CBSE).

    Exclusive Interview of 3Hcare’s Founder Dr. Ruchi Gupta

    Dr. Ravinder Pal Singh Malhotra is an MBBS, MS (General Surgery, MAMC, Delhi) and M.Ch. (GI & HPB Surgery and Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery, GB Pant Hospital, Delhi). He did his fellowship in Liver & Multi Visceral Transplant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi. He worked as an online CME Observer at John Hopkins Hospital, USA and Chairperson in Harvard Accredited CME’s for GI Surgery. He has around 13 years of experience in Liver Transplant, HPB & GI surgery in India with exceptional donor and recipient surgery safety records. Ravinder has been a part of more than 700 live-donor-related liver transplants, 500 pancreatic surgeries, 2000 liver surgeries, 500 gall bladder cancer resections and has vast experience in other GI surgeries.

    Dr. Gurdeep Singh Ratra is an MBBS, M.S. (Orthopaedics) and M.Ch. (Orthopaedics). He did his fellowship in Joint Replacement (Endoklinik, Germany) and Joint Replacement and Sports Medicine (AKH Hospital, Vienna, Austria). Dr. Gurdeep has clinical experience of more than 13 years in the field of Orthopaedics. He has a special interest in joint replacement and deformity correction. He is passionate about the Ilizarov technique and limb-lengthening procedures.

    The other core members of the team are–  

    Mr. Ankush Mehra, who is the director of 3Hcare. Ankush is a Post Graduate in Commerce and MBA. Ankush is a prolific supply chain specialist and a startup man with 22 years of experience, known for creating and managing highly responsive yet cost-effective and efficient solutions. He worked with corporates like Honda Siel Cars India Pvt. Ltd., Samsung Electronics India Information & Telecommunications Ltd., Metro Cash & Carry, Reliance Hypermarkets & LimeRoad.

    Mr. Sumit Gupta is an IT manager at 3Hcare. He did his MCA from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University. He is an expert at C#.net and VB.net languages, with extensive experience in working on databases like SQL SERVER, MYSQL, ORACLE. His functional domain encompasses operating systems like Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2012.  He is proficient in scripting using HTML, ASP.net, Javascript, and Jquery. He has over 8 years of experience with a number of projects for Indian as well as international clients.

    The founders decided to divide the team into three departments – one to focus on the medical field, one on the marketing and the other in the technical domain. Initially, the startup was functional with only 10 members including founders. But with the growing response from the public, the team had managed to expand over 50 members within less than 6 months.

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    3Hcare – How was 3Hcare Started?

    Ruchi had never planned to become an entrepreneur. She pursued her MBA along with CA and is also a Ph.D. scholar. Inherited the interest in teaching from her parents, she also wanted to become a lecturer. In pursuit of her dreams, she became a mentor to management students and worked as a lecturer in a college in Delhi for many years.

    She noticed many complications that the common public faces while getting a diagnosis in hospitals and other test centers, one incident that especially left her wanting to make a difference was the difficulty faced by a relative in finding a good hospital and diagnostic services during the time of emergency.

    Ruchi’s relative was suffering from dengue and needed immediate admission, wherein the hospitals denied admitting him due to overcrowded. She was not in a position to wander around to different hospitals in search of bed availability. But giving reference to a known doctor, the patient was immediately admitted. The problems did not end, soon the admin staff asked her to get the patient tested for platelets, due to lack of facilities during that time. This was another challenge for her to track and locate a diagnostic lab that can provide the test results immediately for further treatment. In the end, only her reference helped the patient with regular tests and treatment. This incident came as a wake-up call for Ruchi and the idea of starting 3Hcare was formed.

    However, to practically execute the idea, she still had many hurdles to cross. She wanted to create an online portal by tying up with various labs to make all the tests available to the patients with ease and transparency. To develop a team, she actually shared the idea with more than 300 people and at last, found 4 reliable sources who were convinced with her idea – Dr. Gurdeep Singh Ratra, Mr. Ankush Mehra, Mr. Sumit Gupta and Dr. Ravinder Pal Singh. And finally, with the initiative of the co-founders, 3Hcare was started in September 2016.

    The 3H stands for – Help, Health, and Happiness.

    Our aim is to help the common masses to bridge the gap between healthcare services and patients .  

    3Hcare Logo
    3Hcare Logo

    3Hcare – What is 3Hcare?

    3Hcare is an online marketplace for health services. They provide several featured tests and packages. 3Hcare Thyrocare Aarogyam provides Aarogyam profile packages and preventive health checkup packages. The services currently provided by the company are –

    1. Diagnostics – With over 1500 labs and 350 test centers (NABL accredited) to choose from over 50+ locations throughout India, this vertical provides ease for every patient to search, compare & book online lab tests with the value addition at discounted rates.
    2. Plan My Surgery – One of the essential innovations rendered by the online portal includes Plan My Surgery vertical. An innovation by which the patient can plan their surgeries with the best surgeons at the viable cost & schedule. Moreover, a price comparison is available and the patient is also able to seek time availability and appointment with the best in class doctors and hospitals.

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    3Hcare – USP and Innovation

    Some of the USPs of 3Hcare are–

    • Free sample collection.
    • Option to choose among the best labs in the patients’ preferred locations.
    • Price transparency.
    • Attractive discounts and offers on services.
    • Under Plan My Surgery, 3Hcare makes all information available such as expenses required for surgery, doctors available and the accreditation of the hospital. All this information is available online, which makes it easier for patients to make informed decisions.

    3Hcare – Revenue Model

    3Hcare’s revenue model is simple. As its services are free for the patients, it charges only support fees from centers and hospitals.

    3Hcare – Funding and Investors

    3Hcare has raised a total of $1.1 Million in 2 rounds of funding. Its funding details are as follows:

    Funding Date Funding Stage Funding Amount Investors
    September 2017 Angel round $100K Angel Investors
    August 2018 Venture round $1 Million –

    3Hcare received an angel funding of  $100K, just within 11 months of its inception. The funds were used to develop the IT infrastructure and enhance the other verticals. Recently 3Hcare also raised a second round of funding of $1 million.

    3Hcare – User Acquisition

    For 3Hcare, the main focus was to provide the best of services to the public. Word of mouth publicity is something that the healthcare startup focused on acquiring new users. Price transparency and discounted prices/offers have also attracted new customers.

    Further, to add to the CSR activities, and spread awareness about the importance of timely diagnosis, the team organizes regular free health checkup camps at various locations like rural areas, slums and villages across India.

    The main focus was to deliver the best services to the public. If the services are provided with the best class quality, the word of mouth power by the patients/persons seeking the services are the best reference publicity.

    3Hcare – Startup Challenges

    In the initial months when the website was under construction, it was a huge challenge for the 3Hcare team to convince tying up with diagnostic centers. Still, they managed to bring around 180 centers. Today the portal is ready with over 1000 test centers (PAN India) to choose from with further verticals yet to be added.

    According to Ruchi, apart from developing a reliable team, the other major challenge was to self-check for quality labs before getting associated with them. The task was tedious to completely check each and every lab initially for quality, report accuracy and accreditation.

    While the further expansion of 3Hcare’s other vertical – Plan My Surgery, rendering comparative quotes, providing real-time data of bed and doctors availability was initially a challenge.

    With the progression of data management in our cloud, synchronization helped to overcome the herculean task. Our main aim was to develop the IT infrastructure and strengthen it with the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

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    3Hcare – Future Plans

    3Hcare has established itself as a trusted name among its niche customer base. In terms of patients, booking tests through 3hcare.in have increased 10 folds in the past 2-3 months, and the same is the case with revenue.

    3Hcare currently has 400+ diagnostic partners and 40+ hospital partners.

    The company’s future plans are-  

    • Launch Diagnostic Centre vertical of 3Hcare with the initiation of website functional throughout the world (with an aim to boost medical tourism in the upcoming years).
    • Launch all verticals along with Mobile applications on a PAN India basis.
    • International Tie-ups for the second opinion.
    • Opening of Branches and regional offices.
    • Covering PAN India and start of Medical Tourism Services.
    • Adding new Healthcare and wellness verticals like  Yoga, Homeopathy, Ayurvedic and fitness centers.
    • Starting “Manage My Health” vertical.
    • To open offline labs throughout the tier 3 and tier 4 cities in India to encourage patients to get timely tests.
    • Become the Leading Marketplace in India’s Healthcare sector by 2022.

    Our team has already commenced the opening of offline labs by the name of ‘3Hcare Labs’ in the rural areas. Presently, we have targeted to cover the western UP and Eastern Haryana belt where most backward villages are still devoid of diagnostic centers (that has only sample collection centers, report generation takes 2-3 days there).

    3Hcare – FAQs

    Does 3Hcare provide Healthcare services?

    No, 3Hcare provides details about healthcare services available pan India along with the specialization they have. Users need to register and choose as per their needs.

    How much is the registration fee to use 3Hcare?

    3Hcare registration fee is free. After registration, customers can avail themselves of the benefits provided by 3Hcare.

    How is 3Hcare review?

    3Hcare has average to good ratings. It is quite safe to trust and use 3Hcare.

    Who is the 3Hcare founder?

    CA (Dr.) Ruchi Gupta, Dr. Ravinder Pal Singh Malhotra & Dr. Gurdeep Singh Ratra are the three founders of 3Hcare.

    How much is 3Hcare funding?

    3Hcare has around $1.1 Million of funding.

    Who are the competitors of 3Hcare?

    DocPrime, Zoylo, Renew Health and Spreemo are the top competitors of 3Hcare.

  • Quizizz – Think Fresh, Think Different!

    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 Quizizz.

    Did you ever give a second thought to a better constructive process? What about discovering something new, maybe a new product? Creativity is a process or a pathway towards expressing brand new relationships or so. One should always scrutinize ideas to explore relatively in a different way because, in today’s world, the difference has got a great glamour!

    Quizizz is a creative software company and is also considered to be the world’s most engaging learning platform. The platform allows the users to create as well as find gamified quizzes. Quizzes are simple and an old concept but Quizizz have made this more interesting therefore by gamifying it! Read the Quizizz success story below.

    Quizizz – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Quizizz
    Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India
    Sector E-Learning, EdTech, Gamification, Software and Training
    Founders Ankit Gupta and Deepak Joy Cheenath
    Founded 2015
    Website quizizz.com

    Quizizz – About
    Quizizz – Startup Story
    Quizizz – Founder and Team
    Quizizz – Business Model
    Quizizz – Revenue Model
    Quizizz – Funding and Investors
    Quizizz – Competitors

    Quizizz – About

    Quizizz is a software company. The application is mostly used in group works, examinations, classes and tests. This allows both the parties – the teachers as well as the students to stay online at the same time. Presentations can also be made with the help of Quizizz. So, Quizizz is a user-friendly application not only for the students but also for the working professionals like teachers or the employees of the MNC’s. It is nothing but an online assessment equipment!

    Logo, Quizizz

    Quizizz – Startup Story

    Since quizzes used to be a common and a boring subject, eventually, people started to lose interest and the subject material got lost into the hustle and bustle of life. BITS-Pilani alumni Deepak and Ankit thought of making this more interesting by adding creativity to it. The founders combined the concept of gaming along with the questions and feedback was too attached to it to aid the youngsters to learn more! This made online classes much more interesting than the usual. It especially helped the teachers to bring a smile to the student’s faces. The team made the theory of quizzes easier and made it more enjoyable.

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    Quizizz – Founder and Team

    Ankit Gupta and Deepak Joy Cheenath are the founders of the company Quizizz.

    Ankit Gupta

    Ankit Gupta is the CEO and the Co-Founder of the company. He began his career as an Intern at Pentair Water India Ltd. Ankit worked as a Contract Developer in Google. He was also an Intern at Flipkart.com. Ankit was an Analytics Specialist at Opera Solutions. He was also the Co-Founder of the company WizenWorld. He completed his education from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.

    Deepak Joy Cheenath

    Deepak Joy Cheenath is also the Co-Founder of the company. He is a software developer. He began his career as an Intern at SAP Labs. Deepak was the Software Development Engineer at Amazon. He was also the Co-Founder of the company WizenWorld. Deepak has also completed his education from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani.

    Founders, Quizizz

    Quizizz – Business Model

    The business model of Quizizz is quite simple! This application helps the teachers to construct quizzes of a particular topic in their own way by enhancing the curated subject on the platform. Then, the students take the quiz in their online classrooms, especially which can be later checked by the subject teachers with the help of the collected data.

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    Quizizz – Revenue Model

    Quizizz can be operated on any device like Android, Web browser, Chrome and iOS. It is kind of a free equipment for quizzers. Creation of a quiz or ready-made quizzes, everything is accessible over here. Quizizz Super is an upgraded version of Quizizz where one needs to pay. This platform has got a new paid plan along with itself. It helps the teachers a lot especially with amazing offers whenever he or she is upgrading their basic plan.

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    Quizizz – Funding and Investors

    Quizizz has raised a total amount of $47 million in funding over the 4 funding rounds.

    Date Transaction Name Money Raised Lead Investors
    June 29, 2021 Series B $31.5 million Tiger Global Management
    March 9, 2021 Series A Rs. 910 million Eight Roads Ventures India
    August 9, 2018 Venture Round $3 million Nexus Venture Partners
    January 1, 2015 Seed Round – Prime Venture Partners

    Quizizz is funded by 8 investors. Tiger Global Management is the most recent investor.

    Quizizz – Competitors

    The top competitors of the company Quizizz are Quizlet, Kahoot and Gimkit.

    Quizlet

    Quizlet is one of the top competitors of Quizizz. This company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, USA and was founded in 2005. Quizlet works in the Educational Software sector.

    Kahoot!

    Kahoot! is the top #2 rival of Quizizz. This company is headquartered in Oslo, Oslo. Kahoot! also operates in the Educational Software industry.

    Gimkit

    Gimkit is also perceived as one of the top competitors of Quizizz. This company is headquartered at Seattle, WASHINGTON, D.C. and was founded in 2017. Gimkit also works in the Educational Software field just like the other above mentioned companies.

    Since everything is online now, Quizizz being an online assessment equipment has allowed the users to create quizzes. And this has turned out to be a fantastic idea recently because of its uniqueness which no one has examined before!

  • SignalX Startup Story: AI-powered Risk Intelligence Platform

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

    With a vision to build a global counterparty verification platform catering to risk intelligence requirements across industries, Govind Balachandran, Zakir Wahab, and Piyush Arora founded SignalX. SignalX is an intuitive AI-powered Risk Intelligence platform that runs comprehensive risk assessment & credibility verification on any given target – individual or a corporate entity, in just 48 hours. In just 3 years, SignalX has served over 200+ risk and compliance professionals across various domains.

    StartupTalky had an Exclusive Interaction with Govind Balachandran, Co-Founder & CEO of SignalX to get insights on the Startup Journey of SignalX. Also to know the business model of SignalX, its funding status, How SignalX started, its future plans & more.

    SignalX – Company Highlights

    Startup Name SignalX
    Founders Govind Balachandran (CEO), Zakir Wahab (CFO), Piyush Arora (CTO)
    Headquarters Hyderabad
    Founded 2018
    Total Funding $750K (Seed)
    Industry Regtech, Compliance, Due Diligence, Risk Assessment
    Website signalx.ai

    SignalX – About and Vision
    SignalX – Industry Details
    SignalX – Founders and Team
    How SignalX Started?
    SignalX – Product/Services
    SignalX – Name Meaning & Logo
    SignalX – Business Model and Revenue Model
    SignalX – Startup Launch
    SignalX – Startup Challenges Faced
    SignalX – Marketing Strategy
    SignalX – Growth
    SignalX – Funding and Investors
    SignalX – Competitors
    Tools used by SignalX to run startup
    SignalX – Awards and Achievements
    SignalX – Future Plans
    SignalX – FAQs

    SignalX – About and Vision

    SignalX is an intuitive AI-powered Risk Intelligence platform that runs comprehensive risk assessment & credibility verification on any given target – individual or a corporate entity, in just 48 hours. It provides detailed financial, legal, compliance, and reputational analyses on potential clients, vendors, business partners, investment targets, and all counterparties and third parties. SignalX enables businesses to build trust and transact faster. The platform is used by Risk, Audit, Valuation, Compliance, and Forensics teams across industries.

    The long-term vision of SignalX is to build a global counterparty verification platform catering to risk intelligence requirements across industries.

    “We want to evolve and be recognized as a trusted RegTech and Compliance brand across the globe.” says Mr. Govind Balachandran, Co-Founder & CEO, SignalX

    SignalX – Industry Details

    In a broader sense, SignalX operates in the domain of credibility verification and risk tech technologies which cuts across Regtech, Fintech, LegalTech, ComplianceTech, GRC, and more. There have been massive investments by the Big4, Compliance Firms, and Law Firms into forensic technologies. GRC as a domain is expected to be at 60B USD over the next 5 years. The team at SignalX is hoping to play a meaningful role in this space.

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    SignalX – Founders and Team

    Govind Balachandran (CEO), Zakir Wahab (CFO), and Piyush Arora (CTO) are the founding team of SignalX. Govind looks after the sales, marketing, and delivery ops of the business. Zakir looks into finance, compliance, hiring, and other ops. Piyush looks into product and engineering.

    “We have been working together for many years now. It was a no-brainer decision to start together. We met each other through our previous ventures” Govind added.

    Govind Balachandran | Co-Founder & CEO, SignalX

    SignalX founder and Ceo
    Govind Balachandran, Co-Founder, and CEO of SignalX

    Govind Balachandran has over 7 years of experience in marketing and product development. At SignalX, his prime focus is on growth and New Business acquisition. Previously, he was the Director at Nebulae Software. He also co-founded Kaddy Analytics, a cloud-based analytics platform for stakeholders in the education system. Govind has devised enterprise solutions for forensic and fraud analytics, Edtech, and HRTech verticals and has worked with various Series A and Seed-Stage startups, playing a key role in their growth and product development. Govind holds a Bachelor of Technology (Honors) in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Economics from IIT Hyderabad.

    Zakir Wahab | Co-founder & CFO, SignalX

    Zakir Wahab is a serial entrepreneur & a co-founder/CFO at SignalX. He is an alumnus of Andhra University, is an early-stage investor, and brings immense experience across the fields of finance, strategy & e-governance.

    Piyush Arora | Co-founder & CTO, SignalX

    Piyush Arora heads the technology team at SignalX. As co-founder & CTO, he also looks after product growth & engineering. Piyush is an alumnus of IIT Hyderabad and previously worked at Qualcomm.

    SignalX founders and team
    SignalX Team 

    How SignalX Started?

    It started out wanting to build a simple tool that can help in assessing the credibility of counterparties. The team had known first hand, the challenges faced by risk and forensic teams and their expectations from technology. SignalX has been focused on this objective from day 1 and over time, through many iterations, today it is one of the most comprehensive risk intelligence platforms with analytics that helps you make risk decisions faster and accurately.

    SignalX – Product/Services

    SignalX runs its proprietary machine learning algorithms to gather data through sources that are publicly available like datasets managed by government agencies, regulators, media journals, and other third parties. Its algorithms assure reduced false positives and ensure the efficacy and accuracy of an extensive research process. SignalX also generates and shares reports with clients in just 2 days, which gives them the edge of speed for the next steps and reduces the extremely tiresome and tedious process of diligence.

    The core value proposition of SignalX is to offer risk signals pertaining to any target whose name is given to the platform – an individual or an entity. Hence the name SignalX.

    SignalX
    SignalX Logo

    SignalX – Business Model and Revenue Model

    SignalX offers multiple pricing options. Its pay-as-you-go model is quite popular. However, most of its users prefer a subscription service.

    SignalX – Startup Launch

    “We’ve been creating content on our blogs from day 1. Inbound has been a strong channel for us. Customer referrals are another channel that continues to bring us leads. We have had a strong focus on customer service and retention from the very beginning” says Govind.

    SignalX has a strong focus on organic traffic. Some of the content the team created about a year back is performing better month on month. The company is continuously driving improvements to these assets. The brand is a key element for SignalX going forward.  A risk intelligence platform must be comprehensive, thorough, auditable, and credible. These are some of the values that the customers expect from the company. To develop its PR channel, SignalX has signed up with SSPR.

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    SignalX – Startup Challenges Faced

    Having bootstrapped the firm for the first two years, it was required to develop cash flows from month one. Being a new firm in the market, it is very tough to build trust and credibility. Being bootstrapped also makes one conscious of not undercutting the pricing such that it’s not profitable to operate. Early on, the team had to deal with situations where they had to develop trust with clients to get them to give SignalX business. Today SignalX has worked with over 200+ compliance and risk teams. So, it’s much easier to represent itself in front of newer clients.

    The pricing strategy was one of the items that took quite a bit of iteration. The iterations are also difficult since it creates discrepancies between newer and older customers. However, since SignalX has been able to deliver strong value, it has been able to work with the customers in updating the pricing.

    SignalX – Marketing Strategy

    SignalX is heavy on Organic and Referrals. Email marketing is something it incorporates a lot. The company has received some of the best throughputs from the long-form content it created on its blogs a while back. “We’re still driving continuous improvements on this front” Govind added.

    SignalX – Growth

    SignalX has served over 200+ risk and compliance professionals across various domains. Its solution has made a mark in Section 29A (IBC) due diligence requirements in the Insolvency & Bankruptcy domain. Its product is also used by the forensic teams at some of the Big4’s.

    The company’s goal is to build a global counterparty risk intelligence solution that can cater to requirements from across industries, law enforcement, governments, and more. It is adding newer use cases to the platform every quarter. SignalX recently launched Supplier and Partner Risk Intelligence modules to help supply chain or distribution heavy businesses to assess legal, financial, reputational, and compliance risks associated with counterparties.

    SignalX – Funding and Investors

    Being bootstrapped since its inception in 2018, SignalX received seed funding from 3Lines VC, 9Unicorns, and Hyderabad Angels for $750k in September 2020.

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    Sept 2020 Seed Fund $750k 3Lines VC, 9Unicorns, Hyderabad Angels

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    SignalX – Competitors

    SignalX’s competitors include RDC, Bloomberg, Dun & Bradstreet, Exiger, DueDil, DDIQ, and others.

    Tools used by SignalX to run startup

    Few tools which SignalX uses to run the startup are – Hubspot, ActiveCampaign, Jira, Hootsuite, etc.

    SignalX – Awards and Achievements

    • SignalX got recognized by the Government of Telangana
    • Winners of EmergeX, Microsoft in the domain of Emerging Technologies

    SignalX – Future Plans

    SignalX will continue to add more use cases to its platform to cater to a wider set of requirements. The team will be strengthening the ML to bring best-in-class technology for risk professionals. SignalX will also be expanding its database coverage across borders and also forensic analytics to improve fraud and risk signal detections. “We have some exciting features coming up that look at how we fundamentally address credibility verification and manage the risk process.” says Govind Balachandran, Co-Founder& EO of SignalX.

    SignalX – FAQs

    What is SignalX?

    SignalX is an intuitive AI-powered Risk Intelligence platform that runs comprehensive risk assessment & credibility verification on any given target – individual or a corporate entity, in just 48 hours.

    Who are the founders of SignalX?

    Govind Balachandran (CEO), Zakir Wahab (CFO), and Piyush Arora (CTO) are the founding team of SignalX.

    How much funding has SignalX raised?

    SignalX received seed funding from 3Lines VC, 9Unicorns, and Hyderabad Angels for $750k in September 2020.

    Is SignalX Indian Company?

    Yes. SignalX is an Indian company headquartered in Hyderabad, India.

    Who are SignalX’s competitors?

    SignalX’s competitors include RDC, Bloomberg, Dun & Bradstreet, Exiger, DueDil, DDIQ, and others.

    How does SignalX source data for analysis?

    SignalX sources its data from datasets managed by government agencies, regulators, publicly available media, and various other third-party datasets. SignalX runs its proprietary machine learning algorithms to reduce false positives and infer meaning. SignalX does not look into any data points that are not made publicly available by the target company or by other parties either through the media or in their regulatory filings.

  • SleepyPanda Startup Story: Get Affordable Mattresses Online

    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 SleepyPanda.

    With the advent of young Indian players and big brands in the Indian Mattress industry, many customers have switched from traditional street-side shops and local ‘Bhaiyas’ to branded mattresses. It is undeniable that the organized sector is multiplying in India with rising demand for good quality mattresses by customers. One of the startups in this industry, SleepyPanda is here with its innovatively designed mattresses.

    Founded by Ms. Monica Thakur, Mr. Suhas Masuti, and Mr. Veerendra Koujalagi, SleepyPanda is gearing to disrupt the bedding industry! Since its inception, SleepyPanda has been growing immensely, with 35 mattresses sold in the first week itself. The company targets to sell at least 1200 mattresses per month and secure 100 Cr sales by the end of FY21.

    StartupTalky interviewed Ms. Monica Thakur, Founder & J.MD of SleepyPanda to get insights into the Startup Journey and Growth Story of SleepyPanda. Know all about SleepyPanda’s products, How SleepyPanda started, its history, future plans, founder, competitors & more in the article ahead.

    SleepyPanda – Company Highlights

    Startup Name SleepyPanda
    Founder Monica Thakur, Suhas Masuti, Veerendra Koujalagi
    Founded 2020
    Headquarters Bangalore
    Industry Bedding, Sleep Wellness, Mattress
    Funding Bootstrapped
    Website sleepypandaindia.com

    SleepyPanda – About and Vision
    SleepyPanda – Mattress/Bedding Industry Details
    SleepyPanda History – How it Started
    SleepyPanda – Products/Services
    SleepyPanda – Founders
    SleepyPanda – Name Meaning and Logo
    SleepyPanda – Growth
    SleepyPanda – Business Model and Revenue Model
    SleepyPanda – Competitors
    SleepyPanda – Tools used to run startup
    SleepyPanda – Future Plans
    SleepyPanda – FAQs

    SleepyPanda – About and Vision

    SleepyPanda deals with the mattress and provides comfort at an affordable price. SleepyPanda kicked off in 2020 with a simple idea to improve peoples’ well-being through comfy sleep experiences.

    • The long-term vision of SleepyPanda – To get into the furniture business as well.
    • The short-term vision is to get the change in sleeping style from using traditional to modern mattresses.
    • The Core Belief of SleepyPanda – “People should get this Quality and comfort across pan India”

    SleepyPanda – Mattress/Bedding Industry Details

    • SleepyPanda Industry -The bedding industry
    • Target market size- Age group 20 to 60 years pan India
    • Future Prospects of SleepyPanda in the next five years – In Top 5 best mattress brand

    The memory foam bedding market is gearing for growth of more than INR 300 crore by 2022. Given the current scenario, memory foam is touted as an ‘In’ thing. Body pain and aches are appearing to be driving up the demand for memory foam. Who would have thought that our key working hours and day will be spent working on the bed? Sleep has never been more critical – and challenging – during periods of stress, fatigue, and untimely routines. Changing lifestyle and working patterns —are leading to create this new market for the startups. The bedding industry and mattresses as a category have welcome news for this industry.

    The wave of technology has revolutionized the sleep industry. With huge expertise in coir, cotton, and foam, the unorganized sector has a significant role in the Indian mattress industry. The Indian mattress market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent and is on route to attain a USD 2.5 Bn mark by the year 2022.

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    SleepyPanda History – How it Started

    Reminiscing the start journey of SleepyPanda, Monica Thakur (Founder of SleepyPanda) says –

    “We got into the mattress business because I didn’t like the people who do not believe in Modern mattresses. As with thought, my mother and other family members too were facing back pain issues due to traditional mattresses, thus there comes thought for purchasing a modern mattress and to experience the WOW feeling!

    When I went with my mother to shop for a new mattress. This idea of having a business in the bedding industry came to my mind. We were still sleeping on the mattress that we had purchased  7 years back after shifting to a new house. I wanted to continue with the same but the issue is not 1 or 2 they were many hence we decided to get a new mattress. I personally felt I should not repeat the same mistake that we have done 7 years ago. So was hunting for a good mattress to solve the issue of my family because, Good sleep=Happy Family.

    After experiencing the buying process, I felt, nothing had changed, and we were depressed. The stores were dull and unfriendly, the salespeople pushy, and showed 2 to 3 varieties of the mattress. Also, we felt awkward to have a trial at a store in front of people and were uncomfortable too.

    The sales and prices were different in every store, so it was impossible to compare the shops, and I later learned that this is actually a confusing state for us. We came back with an empty hand and my mind full of business ideas with the bedding industry. Which would not just build a better mattress, it would totally change the mattress buying experience.

    When I did not find my wow feeling I decided to give this to all the people across Pan India with just a single click. This idea of having a bedding industry came to my mind with the behind the scene story which was matching with other business partners too and we decided to get a life for Sleepypanda comforts Pvt Ltd. Through various google research, we found that comfortable sleep requirement is never-ending demand. Hence we started with this”

    SleepyPanda – Products/Services

    Sleepypanda Comforts Private Limited is the manufacturer and wholesaler of Vita Ortho Memory Foam Mattress, Mattress Protector, vita Ortho and Luna dual comfort Ortho mattresses, natural yoga mats (Samba, Darba, Banana), Sofa cum bed, memory foam, and microfiber pillows.

    USP and How the Product Works

    SleepyPanda helps you to get rid of sleepless nights. Its Vita Ortho memory mattress helps to get relief in Backache, Cool gel technology used in memory foam helps to maintain the body temperature as per the room temperature, 100 night trial period – if the customer doesn’t like the product then they can return it with full refund assured.

    Indian consumers are still unaware of the necessity of a modern bedding space in today’s hectic and chaotic lifestyle. As a result, they continue to use traditional products, which not only fail to guarantee quality but are also highly overpriced. SleepyPanda endeavors to change this perception. The brand also provides 100-night trials of ortho mattresses so that consumers can make experience-based decisions after using them firsthand. Other added benefits include free shipping and a whopping 10-year warranty.

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    SleepyPanda – Founders

    Monica Thakur, Suhas Masuti, and Veerendra Koujalagi are the founding team of SleepyPanda.

    “We are Mutual friends and one day I informed them of the idea behind good sleep and everyone showed interest to start this brand” Monica added.

    Stressing on SleepyPanda’s Work culture, Monica says – It is flexible. Employees are encouraged to work when they like and how they like it’s just that the work should be effective and completed in time.

    The significance of the name SleepyPanda – As pandas live half of their life in resting, enjoying, and sleeping, Panda was incorporated in the name and logo. The team wants users of its mattress to experience the same sleep as a panda with no worries.

    SleepyPanda Logo

    SleepyPanda – Growth

    Since its inception, SleepyPanda has been growing immensely, with 35 mattresses sold in the first week itself. The company targets to sell at least 1200 mattresses per month and secure 100 Cr sales by the end of FY21. Although the brand is present in PAN-India, it majorly aims to cater to the South India market, including Bangalore, Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad, Telangana, Kerala, followed by Mumbai and Goa.

    Further, it looks forward to becoming a thought leader in the modern bedding space by crafting high-quality products to address all consumer concerns, while also giving back to society through various CSR initiatives, and thus making a difference in the world, globally.

    SleepyPanda – Business Model and Revenue Model

    SleepyPanda’s business model is simple, B2C i.e, Business to Consumers. It is the process of selling products and services directly between a business and consumers. SleepyPanda makes money by selling its products online.

    SleepyPanda products
    SleepyPanda Revenue Model

    SleepyPanda – Competitors

    SleepyPanda’s top competitors are Wakefit, Sleepycat, Emma, flo Mattress, and Duroflex.

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    SleepyPanda – Tools used to run startup

    Few tools which SleepyPanda uses to run the startup – Google Analytics helps SleepyPanda to track the traffic on its website and Freshdesk for CRM ticketing tool.

    SleepyPanda – Future Plans

    SleepyPanda plans to add new technology depending upon the demand and requirement. “Once the bedding industry is set we will get into home furniture.” says Monica Thakur, Founder of SleepyPanda.

    SleepyPanda – FAQs

    What is SleepyPanda?

    SleepyPanda deals with the mattress and provides comfort at an affordable price.

    Who are the founders of SleepyPanda?

    Monica Thakur, Suhas Masuti, and Veerendra Koujalagi are the founding team of SleepyPanda.

    Is SleepyPanda an Indian Company?

    Yes, SleepyPanda is an Indian company headquartered in Bangalore.

    How SleepyPanda makes money?

    SleepyPanda’s business model is simple, B2C i.e, Business to Consumers. it makes money by selling products online. Its products include – Vita Ortho Memory Foam Mattress, Mattress Protector, Microfibre Pillows, etc.,

  • Startup Story of Qandle: All-In-One HR Platform

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

    Qandle is a young startup focused on re-engineering HR Technology from employees’ perspectives. Founded by Chayan Mukhopadhyay and Himanshu Aggarwal in 2016, Qandle aims to build connected, engaged, and empowered workplaces. It has launched an all-in-one cloud-based HR software solution that impacts the entire employee lifecycle from hire to retire and makes each step smooth and hassle-free.

    StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Chayan Mukhopadyay, Co-founder & CEO of Qandle to get insights into the Startup Journey and Growth Story of Qandle. Know all about Qandle’s business model, How it Started, its funding details, marketing strategy future plans, tagline, and more.

    Qandle – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Qandle
    Founders Chayan Mukhopadhyay (CEO), Himanshu Aggarwal (CTO)
    Founded 2016
    Headquarters Gurugram
    Industry HR Tech
    Total Funding USD 1.2 Mn (Pre-seed)
    Team Size ~ 40 Employees
    Website qandle.com

    Qandle – About and Vision
    Qandle – HR Tech Industry Details
    Qandle – Founders and Team
    Qandle History – How it started?
    Qandle – Product/Service
    Qandle – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Qandle – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Qandle – Startup Launch
    Qandle – Marketing Strategy
    Qandle – Growth
    Qandle – Funding and Investors
    Qandle – Advisors and Mentors
    Qandle – Competitors
    Tools used by Qandle to run the startup
    Qandle – Awards and Achievements
    Qandle – Future Plans
    Qandle – FAQs

    Qandle – About and Vision

    All-In-One HR Platform – founded in 2016, is a young startup focused on re-engineering HR Technology from employees’ perspectives. The brand provides HR Tech solutions that ease the way HR departments operate in companies. It has created an array of different tech-based solutions to fill in the gaps in the usual HR operations.

    The company’s vision is to build connected, engaged, and empowered workplaces. In the short term, the brand plans to continue growing sustainably and profitably, while in the long run, the startup aims at being a leading HR tech solution across the globe. The brand believes that with the right employee experience-focused technology implementation, there can be a sea-size transformation in the way the HR industry operates in India.

    Qandle – HR Tech Industry Details

    According to many credible industry reports such as People Matters, Bersin, IDC, etc. the size of the HR tech industry varies between $50-100Bn. It is growing at 10% CAGR.

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    Qandle – Founders and Team

    Chayan Mukhopadhyay (CEO) and Himanshu Aggarwal (CTO) are the founders of Qandle.

    Qandle Founders and Owners
    (L-R) Himanshu Aggarwal, Chayan Mukhopadhyay – Qandle Founders

    When Chayan met Himanshu, who was proficient with tech, and discussed the idea, he already felt convinced. Himanshu himself had the same experience in terms of clunky HR tools at the organization. He was confident that this idea can be very successfully implemented through refined tech skills.

    Chayan Mukhopadhyay | Co-founder & CEO, Qandle

    Chayan is an MBA graduate from IIM Bangalore (2009-11). Before that, he completed his B.Tech in ECE from IEM (Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolkata). Chayan started his career in 2011, with American Express as Associate Manager. After working for 2 yrs with Amex, next Chayan switched to Jabong as Senior Manager- Operations. He gained good experience and rose to the designation of Deputy General Manager and Head – Marketplace Operations in 2015. He wanted to start building something of his own. That is when he started Perkkx, followed by Qandle, which is his HR Tech venture along with Himanshu.

    Himanshu Aggarwal | Co-founder & CTO, Qandle

    Himanshu is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee. He completed his Engineering in 2007 and started his career as a Software Engineer with Techkriti. After working there for 2 years, he had 2 years stints each with Ibibo Group and Naukri.com as well. Then he joined the founding team of a US-based Foodtech startup Munchado and worked there for about 4 years. He is a cybersecurity expert and has been a tech consultant to multiple growing companies including Shopclues and Askmebazaar. He started Qandle along with Chayan in 2016.

    On paper, Chayan looks at the business and the product side of things while Himanshu looks at the Tech side, but in reality, Chayan and Himanshu discuss everything and they both jointly look at all aspects of the business.

    The current company size is about 40 employees. The team is intentionally kept lean. Work culture is – Get the work done. Qandle hires for just 3 things – attitude, ability, and willingness to learn.

    Qandle History – How it started?

    The idea was first conceived by Chayan. At his previous workplaces, he had experienced the challenge of working on clunky software solutions for different aspects of HR such as leave and attendance, performance, recruitment, reimbursements, etc. While he was working with American Express, it would take him over 30 minutes to submit his mobile bills. However, what struck him most was that organizations had to conduct training sessions for employees on how to use HR tools, which implied that the tools were not very user-friendly. Next, when Chayan worked with more companies, his experience with these tools was no different.

    What further highlighted the lack of a perfect solution was that at least one of these tools would change every 6 months, and since these tools didn’t speak to each other, it would cause a lot of issues.

    However, this alone was not the launchpad for Qandle. When Chayan first entered into entrepreneurship, he launched an employee benefits platform- Perkkx. However, when he met HRs to pitch it, he figured the true pain point – an end-to-end HR tool. They wanted to know if Perkkx could provide an HR tool that worked seamlessly.  That is when Chayan saw the gap and decided to address the same by launching Qandle.

    To explore the model Chayan and Himanshu connected serendipitously. Himanshu had been a techie all throughout his career. They discussed the idea with each other, realized they had complementary skills and decided to launch Qandle together.

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    Qandle – Product/Service

    Qandle leverages different technologies for various solutions depending on the relevant, expected impact, and affordability for the client. It has launched an all-in-one cloud-based HR software solution that impacts the entire employee lifecycle from hire to retire and makes each step smooth and hassle-free.

    The name is a play of letters on Candle. It signifies how we aim to spread light around us by enlightening companies about how to manage, engage, and empower their most valuable asset – employees.

    Qandle’s logo looks like a magnifying glass, it is also a play on the letter Q, as the team named themselves Qandle because they didn’t get the domain candle.com. The logo signifies how companies need to look and listen closely to their employees in order to grow and win in the marketplace.

    Qandle Logo
    Qandle Logo and Tagline

    The tagline  – Smart HR for the Modern Workplace, signifies what Qandle stands for. Qandle wants to work with companies that care about their employees, organizations that want to create connected, engaged and empowered workplaces.

    Qandle – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Qandle follows a classic SaaS (Software as a Service) model where they charge the customers a subscription fee per employee per month. The amount depends on the modules subscribed, the number of employees, and the frequency of payment chosen (discounts are offered for quarterly or annual advance payments as opposed to monthly advance payments).

    Qandle – Startup Launch

    “We used our network and cold emails to get the first 20 customers. The journey of 20 to 100 was easy, as we ensured the initial 20 customers were happy, and then they recommended others” Says Chayan Mukhopadhyay, Co-founder & CEO, Qandle.

    There are no growth hacks that work for the long term, except being customer-focused and ensuring customers are happy. That is the only thing Qandle does.

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    Qandle – Marketing Strategy

    Qandle’s most successful campaign has been ‘word of mouth’. When happy customers recommend others, they purchase the solution without the company having to do much work. As mentioned earlier, keeping current customers happy and satisfied is Qandle’s only growth strategy.

    Qandle – Growth

    Qandle has been cash neutral since March 2020. It operates primarily in India, all across the country.

    Notable clients of Qandle – Spinny, Quality Council of India, Shadowfax, Vidyamandir Classes among others.

    Qandle – Funding and Investors

    Qandle has raised total funding of USD $1.2 Mn to date.

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    2018 Pre-seed USD 1.2 Mn Arun Chandramohan, Redwood Internet Ventures

    Qandle – Advisors and Mentors

    Multiple people including Arun Chandramohan (Ex MD and Founder of Jabong.com). We are part of 2 accelerators as well – Village Capital Future of Work India and Newchip.

    Qandle – Competitors

    “Our biggest competitor is paper and spreadsheet as most companies in India are using those, and these are error-prone, inefficient, difficult to archive and require a lot of manpower. Other companies who are trying to solve the same problem as we are, and who we admire are Darwinbox and SAP Successfactors” Chayan added.

    Tools used by Qandle to run the startup

    Its own software – Qandle, Google Workspace, and Whatsapp

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    Qandle – Awards and Achievements

    Biggest achievement – being able to grow profitably since March 2020, i.e. when the pandemic struck. Managing cash flow is crucial for the survival of any company, and the team is proud that they have been able to do that so far.

    Software Suggest Recognition awards 2021 in 5 categories:
    1. Best support
    2. Best value
    3. Easiest to do business with
    4. Fastest implementation
    5. Best software
    Software Suggest Recognition awards 2020 in 2 categories:
    1. Most popular
    2. Customers’ choice
    Software Suggest Recognition awards 2019 in 2 categories:
    1. Best usability
    2. Highest quality
    Techimply:
    1. Top payroll software
    2. Top HR software
    Financesonline awards 2018 in 2 categories:
    1. Great user experience
    2. Rising star
    CIO awards in 2 categories:
    1. 10 most recommended employee management software solution providers 2019
    2. 20 most promising HRMS solution providers 2018

    Qandle – Future Plans

    Qandle’s aim is to expand the number of clients they serve and make its solution even more intuitive and configurable.

    Qandle – FAQs

    What is Qandle?

    Qandle is a startup focused on re-engineering HR Technology from employees’ perspectives. The brand provides HR Tech solutions that ease the way HR departments operate in companies.

    Who founded Qandle?

    Chayan Mukhopadhyay (CEO) and Himanshu Aggarwal (CTO) are the founders of Qandle.

    Is Qandle an Indian Company?

    Yes. Qandle is an Indian company headquartered in Gurugram.

    How does Qandle make money?

    Qandle follows a classic SaaS (Software as a Service) model where they charge the customers a subscription fee per employee per month.

    Who are Qandle’s Investors?

    Arun Chandramohan and Redwood Internet Ventures led the Pre-seed funding round of Qandle for USD $1.2 Mn.

    What is the tagline of Qandle?

    Qandle’s tagline is  – ” Smart HR for the Modern Workplace”

  • Drivezy – Self-driven Cars at the Most Affordable Prices!

    When it comes to automobiles, millennials today do not believe in ownership and maintenance of their cars and bikes. They believe in renting, using, enjoying, and being merry! Exploiting this insight merely on its merit, Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, Abhishek Mahajan, Vasant Verma, and Amit Sahu started Drivezy in the year 2015.

    Drivezy (formerly JustRide) is India’s largest marketplace for car and two-wheeler sharing. Through Drivezy, travelers can book scooters, motorcycles and cars from people living around them.

    Drivezy – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Drivezy
    Headquarter Bengaluru, India
    Sector Automotive ecommerce, Rental
    Founders Abhishek Mahajan, Amit Sahu, Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, Vasant Verma
    Founded April 2015
    Parent Organization Drivezy India Travels Private Limited
    Website drivezy.com
    Contact support@drivezy.com

    About Drivezy and How it Works
    Founders of Drivezy and team
    How was Drivezy Started?
    Drivezy – Startup Launch
    Drivezy – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Drivezy – Startup Challenges
    Drivezy – Competitors
    Drivezy – Funding and Investors
    Drivezy – Growth
    Drivezy – Future Plans

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    About Drivezy and How it Works

    All in all, Drivezy is a car rental platform. Car owners can list their vehicles on Drivezy when they are not using it and the customers can rent it whenever they want to. It offers the following features to the users:

    1. Bookings can be done on the website or from the mobile application.
    2. 18+ is the legal age to book bikes and cars on Drivezy.
    3. The users can book the vehicles on an hourly, daily, weekly basis. They also have the option of fuel or no fuel vehicle bookings.
    4. The security deposit on Drivezy is minimal. It can range from INR 0 to INR 999.
    5. Drivezy provides its customers with home pickup service.
    6. Drivezy releases instant payments to the car owners and refunds to the consumers in the given case.

    Founders of Drivezy and team

    The Drivezy founders are Abhishek Mahajan, Amit Sahu, Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, and Vasant Verma.

    Drivezy Founders
    Drivezy Founders
    • Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Co-founder and CEO of Drivezy – Ashwarya is a graduate in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Also an alumnus of Y Combinator batch of 2016 and the first batch of Google Launchpad. He served as a mentor at Launchpad during his post-Graduation.
    • Hemant Kumar, Co-founder of Drivezy – Before launching Drivezy, Kumar was an application developer at Service Now and a senior consultant at Oracle India before that. Kumar has graduated in B.tech from MNNIT.
    • Abhishek Mahajan, Co-founder of Drivezy – Graduated from IIT Bombay, Abhishek was an Associate Consultant at PwC India. He is also a CFA Level 2 candidate.
    • Vasant Verma, Co-founder and COO of Drivezy – Before Drivezy, Verma worked as a global market analyst at Nomura. Vasant Verma has a graduation degree in B.tech from MNNIT.
    • Amit Sahu, Co-founder of Drivezy – After graduating from the MNNIT, Allahabad, Sahu worked as a vehicle testing engineer in Honda R&D India Dept. Performance testing of Various cars would fall under his domain. After this, he went on to work at Drivezy.

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    How was Drivezy Started?

    It all started when one of the co-founders Ashwarya Singh bought a new car that met with an accident in the early days itself. Singh didn’t use the car so much but still considerably spent a chunk of his salary in the maintenance of the car. This got him thinking about creating a platform where one could rent cars.

    There was one more thought that drove the inception of Drivezy, then justride.in, that the majority of people in India can’t afford to buy cars. He then went on to discuss this idea with his college friends, now the co-founders and launched Drivezy in 2015 in Bangalore.

    Drivezy – Startup Launch

    Drivezy was previously called Just Ride. In 2017, the team thought of adding bikes to their range of products to expand and increase their user base. Drivezy works on a model where the ideal cars and bikes of the owners are listed with them and the vehicle owners can generate cash even when they are not using the bikes or cars. The individual owners of the commercial vehicles are also registering with Drivezy to make money.

    Drivezy – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The Drivezy business model works on commission. Drivezy lets the vehicle owners list their vehicles on their mobile applications. The company takes roughly 20-25% of the revenue pooled from renting this vehicle.

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    Drivezy – Startup Challenges

    The first and foremost hurdle for Drivezy was the trust issues amongst the vehicle owners. They wouldn’t just rent their cars to random strangers. Though Drivezy provides guarantees, aggregator model, a peer-to-peer sharing model, and background checks of the users, this is a major challenge in the Indian markets.

    The second hurdle was difficulty in leasing and buying of cars due to the financial problems.

    With the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic, most of the businesses that relied on transport and communication, and mobility found themselves on unstable grounds. Drivezy is not an exception and therefore, after bearing with the economic downturn for over a year, the Bengaluru-based car and bike rental startup has finally decided to be acquired by Yamaha. The size of the acquisition will range between $45-50 million, as per reports.

    Drivezy – Competitors

    Drivezy cars kind of operates in a perfectly competitive market. There’s immense competition in the market with major players having massive market standing. Drivezy in totality competes with taxi aggregators and ridesharing startups like Ola, Uber, Bounce, LetsRide, PoolCircle, ZoomCar, Carzonrent, Wunder, and Ryde among others.

    Drivezy – Funding and Investors

    When it comes to funding, Drivezy has raised a total of $149.3M in funding over 10 rounds from various investors including Das Capital, Axon Partners, IT-Farm, Yamaha Motor Ventures, and Y Combinator, among others.

    Here is a list of all the funding rounds of Drivezy:

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    August 2015 Angel Round $1 million Anirudh Damani, Alok Mittal, Niraj Singh
    November 2015 Seed Round $2 million –
    March 2016 Series A $400K Dheeraj Jain
    August 2016 Venture Round $120K Y Combinator
    November 2016 Venture Round $3 million Susa Ventures, Kima Ventures, Axon Ventures, SCM Holdings and ITFarm from Japan
    October 2017 Venture Round $10 million Das Capital
    February 2018 Initial COin Offering $5 million Susa Ventures, Kima Ventures, Axon Ventures and other exiting investors along with other HNIs from Japan and Singapore
    April 20, 2018 Second Round of Initial COin Offering $8 million Susa Ventures, Kima Ventures, Axon Ventures and other exiting investors along with other HNIs from Japan and Singapore
    November 2018 Series B $20 million IT-Farm, Das Capital, Yamaha
    November 2018 Debt Financing $100 million AnyPay

    The company, since inception, had raised total funding of $49.45 million before closing the huge asset financing deal. In 2018, Drivezy secured $100 Mn in an asset financing deal with which the Drivezy team plans to induct close to 50,000 vehicles. The company had raised an amount close to $149.3 million.

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    The company’s tagline is “Drive It Like You Own It!”

    Drivezy Logo
    Drivezy Logo

    As pioneers in the Indian self drive car rental industry, the company believes in the mantra- “Why buy a car, when you can rent one?”.

    Drivezy – Growth

    Drivezy’s growth is coming at what seems to be a key inflection point for the transportation industry. The company claims to have a customer base of about 1.5 million registered users and with around 93% of them coming from the 18-35 age bracket. Cofounder Ashwarya Singh told that it has processed over 4 lakh bookings, and has 500 employees in 11 cities.

    • Operating cities- 21 cities of India
    • Average monthly customers- 2,00,000
    • Average monthly pending requests- 2300
    • Average monthly revenue- $150,000
    • Average monthly GMV- $950,000

    The company earns a 15-30% commission for every successful transaction. In FY18, it clocked a GMV (Gross Merchandising Value) of $32 Million, growing by 200% since 2017.

    Drivezy – Future Plans

    Drivezy clocked gross sales of $32 million in 2018 and is targeting $80 million in 2019. Besides this, the company plans to launch in the US by starting with a fleet of 200 cars in San Francisco. Drivezy also plans to lunch its operations in Southeast Asia soon.

    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    How does Drivezy work?

    Car owners can list their vehicles on Drivezy when they are not using it and the customers can rent it whenever they want to and they will be required to pay a nominal amount for every km travelled. The user will get the vehicle with full fuel tank and He/She has to return it with the same fuel level.

    How much can I earn with Drivezy?

    Drivezy claims that owners can earn up to INR 30,000/month by leasing out their vehicles.

    Who are the Drivezy owners?

    The Drivezy founders are Abhishek Mahajan, Amit Sahu, Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, and Vasant Verma.

  • Pinkvilla Startup Story: One-stop source for Bollywood news!

    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 Pinkvilla.

    Gone are the days when people learned about their favorite Bollywood stars’ love affairs, domestic fights, or street fight gossips from magazines or newspapers. Though many Indians love such news and gossips over any other story, the platform or source of this information is no more the same. Since the media and its mediums have now changed a lot, the nature of Bollywood gossips has been overhauled. People now have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and 24×7 paparazzi all just on a few clicks.

    While there have been many platforms where Indians are engaged to grab such entertainment, information, and news, there is one platform or a brand, which has won millions of hearts and has become their favorite. It is Pinkvilla, one of the most prominent entertainment websites in India. To know more about the startup story and business model of Pinkvilla read this article.

    Pinkvilla – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Pinkvilla
    Founder Nandini Shenoy
    Industry Entertainment
    Founded 2007
    Website pinkvilla.com

    Pinkvilla – About and How it Works
    Pinkvilla – Founder
    Pinkvilla History – How it Started
    Pinkvilla – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Pinkvilla – Competitors
    Pinkvilla – Growth
    Pinkvilla – Awards and Achievements
    Pinkvilla – FAQs

    Pinkvilla – About and How it Works

    Pinkvilla is a one-stop shop for all Bollywood news, whether it’s about a specific celebrity or a particular film. In the year 2019, the website was one of the most successful entertainment portals. On the web channel, Pinkvilla has over 40 million followers and over 100,000 posts about celebrities, beauty, fashion, Bollywood news, movies, and lifestyles.

    From having movie ratings and learning about all of your favorite celebrities’ latest sassy airport looks, Pinkvilla covered it all.

    Pinkvilla’s content is mostly focused on Bollywood, including celebrity news and movies. Apart from Bollywood, Pinkvilla’s content types include niches such as lifestyle, fashion, and beauty, as well as Indian industries such as Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu, and Kannada.

    Pinkvilla, in partnership with Facebook, launched India’s first live Bollywood game, dubbed “Jhacaaash.” In 2018, Pinkvilla partnered with Hotstar on a number of programs, including Cheat Meals with Stars, Under Cover on the Internet, Primetime Partners, Untold Tale, No More Secrets, and a few others that are only available on Disney Hotstar.

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    Pinkvilla – Founder

    Nandini Shenoy is the founder of Pinkvilla.

    Pinkvilla founder and Owner
    Nandini Shenoy – Founder of Pinkvilla

    She came from a family where all her family members were extremely talented engineers. And to follow the tradition she went on to pursue engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka. After completing the graduation program, Nandini went on to pursue her Master’s in ECE from Rutgers University, the United States.

    After completing the post-graduation program she joined Microsoft, Seattle in 2004 as a software engineer. Though she admired her work as a software engineer, she always fantasized about the idea of Pinkvilla. She was a Bollywood fanatic and somewhere knew that she could foster her passion at a jiffy.

    Even though Nandini had a plan for Pinkvilla, she did not quit her job at Microsoft right away, since she wasn’t completely sure about her business idea. After humongous hard work and sleepless nights and weekends, her idea or the dream of Pinkvilla came to a beautiful reality.

    Nandini Shenoy Ted Talk – Founder, Pinkvilla

    Pinkvilla History – How it Started

    While Nandini was working in the United States, she was missing the Bollywood fun. In many interviews, she has mentioned that while she was working there with her husband, she couldn’t find any websites that helped her in knowing the latest happenings of Bollywood and its celebrities.

    Since Nandini was missing her daily dose of Bollywood gossips she tried to make an online community of Bollywood fans so that these fanatics come together and have discussions on Bollywood. She made a website that was unusual because all famous websites had blogs related to technical content or news information but Pinkvilla was a website where Nandini started blogging about Bollywood, Fashion, and Beauty gossip. One of the most popular platforms of that time was Orkut. Along with Orkut and word-of-mouth publicity, Pinkvilla got established.

    In the year 2009, Pinkvilla started getting popular after a few pictures of Sonam Kapoor went viral. That was when Hindustan Times contacted Nandini to use the photos and would backlink to Pinkvilla. That is when she realized that this is something big and a lot can be taken out from this platform. She had quit her job and made a team of editors, photographers, PRs and made links with production houses. It was by the year 2011 when Bollywood celebrities themselves wanted to get featured in Pinkvilla as there wasn’t any digital presence for them. Nandini started doing celebrity interviews from the United States and later opened up an office in Mumbai.

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    Pinkvilla – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Pinkvilla earns its revenue from almost all the major movie production houses. These production houses give heavy amounts to Pinkvilla for creating ad sales on their website. Pinkvilla gets more than 50 million new views every month and more than 10 million visitors. Its engagement on portals like Instagram and Facebook also helps them to endorse these Bollywood celebrities. PinkVilla also aims to have its online web store and e-commerce.

    Pinkvilla – Competitors

    Nandini is unconcerned about the proliferation of dedicated Bollywood websites. Instead, she swears by Pinkvilla’s model of becoming a customer-centric hub, claiming to have amassed a dedicated user base that she keeps engaged and committed.

    Similar websites and portals like Pinkvilla are Bollywood Hungama, Zee Entertainment, Rediff, Filmi Beat, Bollywood Life, Santa Banta, First Post, Koi Moi among others.

    Pinkvilla – Growth

    Pinkvilla, which also has a presence in the South of PinkVilla South and PinkVilla Telly with all the small-screen news, has amassed quite a following, as shown by its massively successful social media presence on Instagram (3.9 million followers), Facebook (1.8 million likes), YouTube (60 million+ video views), and Twitter (951K Followers). Pinkvilla has also featured on television and in international markets such as Kollywood.

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    Pinkvilla – Awards and Achievements

    Pinkvilla won two Cosmopolitan awards in the categories of Best Celebrity Blogger and Best Celeb-Spotting Blog in the years 2019 and 2016. Pinkvilla received the Website of the Year award from DigiPub in 2019 and has received many such accolades to date. Pinkvilla has been a successful and one of its kind platform and an Indian startup.

    Pinkvilla – FAQs

    What is Pinkvilla?

    Pinkvilla is a one-stop shop for all Bollywood news, whether it’s about a specific celebrity or a particular film.

    Who is the founder of Pinkvilla?

    Nandini Shenoy is the founder of Pinkvilla.

    How does Pinkvilla make money?

    Pinkvilla earns its revenue from almost all the major movie production houses. These production houses give heavy amounts to Pinkvilla for creating ad sales on their website. And

    If you like reading posts and blogs about fashion, lifestyle, appearance, and, of course, Bollywood celebrities, then visit the Pinkvilla website.