Tag: 📄Company Profiles

PostFold—Comfortable & Affordable Fashion for Every Occasion

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 PostFold.

Though there are people who discard it as unnecessary, fashion, in fact, is never futile. Especially clothing is a very important aspect of fashion. It’s not wrong to say that ‘what we wear is what we are. Wearing something good not only makes people have a positive perception towards you, but you too feel good and confident. But the problem is that, in India, fashion is not always affordable. High-quality, comfortable and stylish clothing is always overpriced. While those which are affordable, are not up to the mark. To solve this problem, Aashray Thatai and Ashish Gurnani, started up PostFold- a house of affordable yet classy apparel.

Company Highlights

Startup Name	PostFold
Headquarter	Gurgaon
Founders	Aashray Thatai & Ashish Gurnani
Industry	Apparel & Merchandising
Founded	2015
Parent Organization	AA Brands Pvt. Ltd.
Website	PostFold

PostFold—About
PostFold—Founders
PostFold—How It All Started?
PostFold—Products
PostFold—Business Model
PostFold—Challenges & Future
Fashion Industry In India
FAQ’s

PostFold—About

Founded in November 2015, PostFold is a clothing brand that offers contemporary and stylish apparel for every day and every occasion. PostFold through its clothing strives to strike a perfect balance of quality and design. The company sources the best quality fabric and the best of designers to deliver apparels that are stylish, comfortable, and at the same time affordable. It offers a wide range of essentials including shirts, blouses, polo, knit tops, and shrugs for both genders.

Their approach is simple. No middlemen. No crazy markups. They offer a collection of essentials that incorporate the perfect balance of quality, design, and price.

PostFold—Founders

PostFold was founded by Aashray Thatai and Ashish Gurnani, two guys from New Delhi, who are an alumnus of Northeastern University, Boston.

Aashray Thatai & Ashish Gurnani | Co-founders, PostFold

Aashray Thatai studied Mechanical Engineering at Northeastern University. Post that he moved to Memphis to work at the Williams Sonoma e-commerce distribution center as an Industrial Engineer. Worked at Williams Sonoma INC for two years which was a good experience with operations, process improvements, and hands-on experience with the B2C industry. In 2015 he moved to India to start PostFold. He sees PostFold as a brand that is soon synonymous with simplicity, sophistication, and subtleness. When not busy with work, Aashray enjoys playing sports like Golf, Lawn Tennis and is a fitness freak. He also invests in fitness equipment and apparel like tennis shirts, and golf hats.

Ashish Gurnani holds Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Finance from Northeastern University, Boston. Post that moved to Seattle to work at the mecca of e-commerce in Amazon as a Digital Advertising Analyst and worked with companies like John Hancock, EMC, and Amazon. He left his job to pursue his dream of creating ‘PostFold’, a brand that he hopes is looked up to for its culture, honesty, and style. Ashish is a big foodie who enjoys trying different types of food from all over the world, traveling and experiencing new cultures, and swimming on Sundays.

PostFold—How It All Started?

PostFold Logo

PostFold was conceived when the co-founders, Ashish Gurnani and Aashray Thatai could not find clothes that would work post office. They thought of coming up with a brand where the clothes are so versatile, they can be worn to work, after work, or on a Saturday night!

The idea was germinated when the co-founders, Ashish and Aashray returned to India after pursuing their education. They experienced a dent in the Indian apparel market and analyzed that affordable apparel is low quality and quality apparel is excruciatingly high priced. The most appalling fact being that India is one of the biggest manufacturers of the best brands in the world yet finding high-quality and great-looking apparel is a task. They decided to dig deeper into why luxury brands charge such a high premium even though the designs were not vastly different. They found out even if the fabric used is of a higher quality still the price does not justify the 10X markups. Hence, they came with a business model where they manufacture, and style apparel using high-quality fabrics and keep the fixed costs low and curate clothes with the experienced stylists so that they can suggest attire from “Desk to Dinner”.

PostFold—Products

PostFold offers a wide range of contemporary apparel for men and women. PostFold’s design ideology is simple. It starts with the customers and works backward to uncover their clothing needs to create thoughtful designs.

Each detail in the design has a purpose. After creating the designs, the highest quality materials from fabric to the threads are sourced to create the best and superior quality apparel. PostFold takes care of everything from pattern making to when the finished products are received from the factories.

The company work with the products right from pattern making to when the finished products are received from the factories. Each garment is constructed keeping in mind the highest level of quality. None of the products are just “wear three times and discard”. They are made to last. By putting in heart and soul into each design, the company’s goal is to make dressing up easy, effortless, and pleasurable.

ShopClues | Indian Online Marketing Website | 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. Today, the marketplace is flooded with several e-commerce options for shoppersto choose from. It …

StartupTalkySarika Anand

PostFold—Business Model

PostFold is direct to consumer brand. The company designs sources everything in-house and works with manufacturing partners to give life to its creation. It has eliminated all middlemen from the process so that customers get access to the best quality at honest and real prices. PostFold clothing is available on its own site and apart from it in e-commerce sites like Myntra, Koovs, and Limeroad.

Major USPs of PostFold apparels are-

Fabric: Quality is their highest priority; they source high-quality fabrics like the world’s best quality cotton called Supima Cotton. PostFold is one of the only two retailers in India authorized to sell Supima. This cotton is grown in the US and only 3% of the world’s cotton is worthy of being called Supima.
Fits: Fitting is still a major issue when it comes to online shopping in India, as there are majorly five sizes available. With the help of experienced fit-technicians based on the average Indian body type and the fabric used by PostFold has created a size for every body type.
Mood-based buying: With the help of the stylists, PostFold has created five moods for various situations like Sunday Brunch, Saturday Night, Traveling, etc. It is also planning to add more styles for suiting on various occasions.

Bewakoof Success Story – Business Model | Revenue | Founders

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. When most of the fashion portals are talking about being all chic and classy,there is one that pr…

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PostFold—Challenges & Future

PostFold is currently self-funded.

Startup Challenges

The most challenging part for PostFold has been to stand out in a very crowded market. It sticks to its mission of providing great quality and affordable prices to keep afloat among the competitors. Besides, PostFold is also one of the only few licensed Supima cotton retailers in India. Supima cotton is the softest cotton in the world.

Competitors

Some competitors of PostFold are-

Andamen
Cover Story
March Tee

Advisors and Mentors

PostFold is growing under the able guidance of Mr. Anoop Thatai (CEO & Joint Managing Director at Orient Craft) and Mr. CP Gurnani (MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra).

Awards

PostFold has been awarded the BW Businessworld Future of Design Awards 2018- Finalist for the Supima® Knit Shirt.

Growth & Future

In the past three years, PostFold has created a niche for itself within affordable fashion while managing end-to-end operations in-house – from manufacturing right up to design while utilizing high-quality fabrics. This not only keeps fixed costs low but also helps ensure that the garments are ethically produced (social audit) as every process can be audited. The Company has been able to achieve a month-on-month growth of almost 35%. PostFold is not only carving a niche for themselves but also coming up strong in a industry dominated by the big horizontal marketplaces.

“At PostFold, we make a conscious effort to ensure that every garment that is manufactured and sold by us is ethically produced. Our goal is not only to ensure the best quality product but also to assure the lives involved in crafting these products are treated ethically and live a comfortable life. Every factory that manufactures for PostFold is first audited and certified for fair trade practices by us. We believe that if the people making our garments are happy and taken care of, the garments coming out of that factory will automatically be of better quality. We personally make sure to visit each factory before we start working with them.”- says Ashish.

DesignerPeople Success Story – Branding and Design Agency for Startups

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Fashion Industry In India

The Indian retail industry witnessed a huge growth curve after the emergence of e-commerce and its impact on the fashion industry is very eminent. The fashion market in India is currently estimated at USD 70 billion, of which only 25% is the organized retail market. E-commerce is a key channel for fashion and the online fashion market is projected to grow 3.5 fold to reach USD 14 billion by 2020.

Also, in 2017, the total number of online transactions was 200 million. This is expected to increase by 65% by 2020. Of the online transactions, 60 million are online fashion shoppers, which are estimated to double by 2020 to about 120 million.

There are many clothing brands that are emerging that have led a huge competition in the clothing industry. The big clothing brands are going to lead the market with healthy competition from the new brands. Let’s see what the future has for PostFold.

Leave your comments down below about your experience and take on the emerging clothing brand. We would love to see your comment on our page. Happy Reading.

The Rise Of E-commerce Industry In India

With growing internet penetration and disposable incomes, people of India areexperiencing a massive change in their shopping habits. People from all frontsof life are using their smartphones to buy products and items. With the bigthree— Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba—entering the E-Commerce sector …

StartupTalkyDevashish Shrivastava

FAQ’s

Who is the owner of PostFold?

PostFold was founded by Aashray Thatai and Ashish Gurnani, two guys from New Delhi, who are both alumni of Northeastern University, Boston.

Who are the mentors of PostFold?

PostFold is growing under the able guidance of Mr. Anoop Thatai (CEO & Joint Managing Director at Orient Craft) and Mr. CP Gurnani (MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra).

What is PostFold’s Business Model?

PostFold is direct to consumer brand. The company designs sources everything in-house and works with manufacturing partners to give life to its creation.

Who funds PostFold?

PostFold is currently self-funded.

What is the future for PostFold?

The Company has been able to achieve a month-on-month growth of almost 35%. PostFold is not only carving a niche for themselves but also coming up strong in a industry dominated by the big horizontal marketplaces.

May 29, 2021

Fastor – Contact-Less Modern Dining With Good Food

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 Fastor.

In today’s life, nothing can make you as content as a sumptuous meal can. And this food fever has hit the entrepreneurial world as well. Food has become the secret ingredient for success in life for many Indian food startups. Digitalizing the food startups is a transformation in the food and retail industry.

That’s a no hidden fact that now every ‘cuisine connoisseur’ is taking hygiene as a serious concern before ordering their food or dining out in restaurants. Fastor is a food-tech startup offering its customers a new contactless dining experience amid this global pandemic.

Company Highlights

Company Name	Fastor
Headquarter	New Delhi
Founders	Karan Sood, Anmol Wadhwani, Rajeev Sood
Industry	Retail Technology
Founded	2019
CEO	Karan Sood
Website	fastor.ai
Registered Entity Name	Fastor7 Technology LLP

Fastor- About & How It Works
Fastor- Founders
Fastor- How It All Started?
Fastor- Name, Logo & Tagline
Fastor- Vision & Mission
Fastor- Products/Services
Fastor- Target Market Size
Fastor- Business & Revenue Model
Fastor- Startup Launch
Fastor- Challenges
Fastor- Future Plans
Fastor- FAQ’s

Fastor- About & How It Works

FASTOR is a Delhi-based food-tech startup that has now become a new normal to all food-lovers, by offering them contactless dining and keeping up with the hygiene factor. Fastor is the 1st AI- Enabled Self-Checkout Technology platform used for takeaway and dine-in at all food & retail places. Fastor has now become a new engaging experience that is going to change the user experience, and it is as simple as you can think.

They have digitalized the offline stores by enabling QR-based ordering, and payment can be done online with available payment methods. Fastor is also trying to build a network of such food places & retails to provide a holistic end-to-end business experience. The Tech and the overall working of the company are handled by Karan Sood, while Anmol looks over the marketing. The current size of the organization is 10 people. The work culture is very youthful and diverse. They always look for new emerging young talent that has the ability to think out of the box and to contribute with their ideas and expertise in the company.

Fastor- Founders

Fastor was founded by a trio – Karan Sood (CEO), Rajeev Sood and Anmol Wadhwani (CMO).

Karan Sood (CEO) is an IT engineer from BPIT, GGSIPU, and entrepreneur from IIT Delhi. He holds an exceptional command over coding skills like React Native and Java for web and mobile. He is a visionary who launched a startup straight out of college after engineering with a zeal to move forward. He has been looking after the products at Fastor while he was swamped with work very early in life by submerging himself into his father’s business. He had created various innovations in his school like Solar AC which was highly acclaimed at both intra-school and inter-school levels.

Anmol Wadwani is a BBA graduate and a Digital marketer. She is the Co-Founder and CMO at Fastor. She is also an exceptional digital influencer in Beauty, Lifestyle, and Fashion. She has established a dedicated reach of over 5 Lakh audiences monthly over various platforms. She has previously worked with CashKaro as Deals and promotion analyst before joining the Fastor startup. She is a budding YouTuber and is focused to help Fastor grow as a business with all her expertise in digital media.

Since they came from extremely different backgrounds, but their love for food brought them all together with Fastor. On the advisory board, they have Mr. Rajeev Sood, with experience of over 25+ years in the corporate industry and Mr. Sanjay Sharma, an ex-Microsoft Country Sales Head with experience of 20+ years of working in renowned companies, heading the sales and marketing.

Fastor- How It All Started?

The Fastor company is a food-tech startup with a new engaging experience that is going to change the user experience, but it is as simple as you can think. Fastor is now offering its customers a way of contactless dining with health concerns at its top priority. While founders were from extremely different backgrounds, their love of food was like an epicure. And so they wanted to build a food startup, which stupendously grew within a month. Guess what, it was a college full of food enthusiasts that led this business to gain its customers every hour.

At Fastor, the team is trying its best to leverage artificial intelligence in retail buying by enabling a very personalized experience for the buyers, along with providing business insights to their merchant partners. The main idea behind Fastor is to create an ecosystem.

Fastor is not just offering its technology for the merchants and their customers but is also trying to build a growth platform that leverages the technology and is capable of driving new businesses for the merchants as well.

Fastor- Name, Logo & Tagline

Sometimes there are interesting stories around coming up with names and we can’t afford to miss it.

Fastor Logo

The name is short for Fast + ORdering= FASTOR. While giving a name to the product, the idea was to make it very clear that customers can order their food faster than ever. The bolt inside the Fastor logo depicts every user who uses Fastor to get the orderings or work done as fast as possible.

Their tagline is

What’s Future of Modern Dining: Fastor

They go with an afire Acronym- F.A.S.T.O.R. Let’s see that:

Fastor- Vision & Mission

Fastor is the 1st AI-Enabled Self-Checkout technology platform used for takeaway and dine-in at all food & retail places. The vision of this product is to revolutionize the way food places and retail stores are operated. They wanted to solve the real-life problem of waiting in queues and inconsistent order processing at such locations. Fastor has been on a mission to digitalize the offline stores by enabling QR based ordering.

The core belief of the team behind Fastor is to implement an efficient mechanism in retail by adding a new way to order and enhancing the customer experience to the next level. At the same time, Fastor is also trying to build a network of such food places & retails to provide a holistic end-to-end business experience.

Long Term vision of Fastor is to revolutionize 21st century retail buying. They want digitalization to take over the hospitality and retail industry. Their short-term goal is to restart the current challenging markets by introducing contactless ordering in the hospitality & retail industry.

Fastor- Products/Services

Whenever anyone goes out to eat the next time, they don’t have to touch the menu or wait for a waiter. They simply have to sit at the table, and there are QR codes assigned to each table. Next would be to open a google lens or an iPhone scanner and scan the QR code. After scanning, they’ll get the whole dynamic menu of the food place on their phone. They don’t have to download any application for it, they simply can access the catalog and order through a web app. The customer can select the food items and take as much time to think about it that they want to order in the cart, and can directly pay using any digital payment method.

They have Fastor Business which is another application where they can handle and process all their orders and take care of the workings of their food place.

Fastor- Target Market Size

Fastor is now targeting the hospitality & retail industry. Since, India is one of the fastest-growing retail markets in the world, with 1.2 billion people. The retail industry has reached US$ 950 billion already.

In the next 5-10 years, India is expected to become the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce market, driven by robust investment in the industry and a rapid increase in the number of internet users. Various agencies have high expectations about the growth of India’s e-commerce market.

Fastor- Business & Revenue Model

The Fastor Business model took off with its beta runs in October of 2019. Having tested their systems at high footfall locations, and they were ready for a full-scale launch by January 2020. Even with their first attempt at creating the market for this product, the response on the ground the company received was phenomenal.

Fastor had done close to 5000+ orders by February 2020. They took the global pandemic lockdown as an opportunity for the team to scale the product. In fact, a global launch within this period is in the pipelines as well. The company is now starting its operations in the major world economies and Fastor is fully compliant to execute orders in international markets.

Being a lean team, Fastor is looking to onboard over 2000+ new merchants in the next three months with a current rate of 20+ new onboardings per day.

Fastor- Startup Launch

They launched the company in the most youthful market, that is colleges. Their pilot run was started in college cafeterias; where the students were extremely tech savvy and could relate to the product very easily. The best growth channel for any medium is word of mouth and this helped them to acquire their first 100 users.

Fastor- Challenges

The challenges to bring Fastor to life were immense. When they initially started to work on the idea, there were no benchmarks that the trio as young entrepreneurs could set for themselves in 2018. The product that they were setting out to create was original and unique. Thus, as innovative founders, they had to ideate as much as possible. The drive behind Fastor was palpable – all were young, energetic, and passionate.

Fastor- Future Plans

Fastor started with its beta runs in October of 2019. They tested their systems at high footfall locations and were ready for a full-scale launch by January 2020. Fastor had done close to 5000+ orders by February 2020. they are now initiating their operations in the major world economies with major global gateways and are fully compliant to execute orders in international markets. Fastor is always looking for young talent that has the ability to think out of the box and to contribute with their expertise in the company.

Now, they are looking forward to onboard over 2000+ new merchants in the next three months with a current rate of 20+ new onboardings per day. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the business is on halt. Once the pandemic stables, the market will come back to normal.

There are new emerging startups coming up in the market. Startups that are more customer focused and solve some underlying problems are the ones that are going to survive and thrive this competitive market. Feel free to write to us, give some feedback and comments on this emerging food-tech startup Fastor.

Fastor- FAQ’s

What is Fastor?

FASTOR is a Delhi-based food-tech startup and is the 1st AI- Enabled Self-Checkout Technology platform used for takeaway and dine-in at all food & retail places.

How does Fastor work?

There will be QR codes assigned on each table at restaurants and people will be able to scan them to get access to the restaurant menu and order off of it as well as pay digitally.

Who is the Founder of Fastor?

The three Fastor Founders are Karan Sood (CEO), Rajeev Sood and Anmol Wadhwani (CMO).

May 29, 2021

IoTfy – A B2B Startup to Help Consumer Durable Companies

Most of us have grown up listening to stories where doors would open automatically on saying ‘Khulja sim sim’ or tales where lights would go on and off on uttering some magic verses or on just a clap of the hands. But all these unbelievable things have now become a reality, and there is not magic in it. IoT and AI has made many things possible and has simplified our lives in many ways. From ensuring that the geyser is on and you get hot water for a bath, to automatically switching on your favorite music when you reach home after a tiring day at office, IoT is making lives comfortable and saving a lots of time by helping you complete many mundane tasks. This is the reason why customers these days prefer IoT enabled appliances.

Delhi based startup IoTfy is helping consumer durable companies meet this growing demand for IoT enabled goods by offering them ready to use IoT designs for various consumer durables, thus making IoT integration simple and fast. We interviewed Arpit Chhabra, Co founder and CEO IoTfy, to get more details about the startup.

IoTfy Highlights

Startup Name	IoTfy
Headquarter	Delhi
Founder	Arpit Chhabra, Sushant Taneja, Shashank Saxena, Shivam Dikshit
Sector	IoT, Consumer Durables
Founded	2017
Parent Organization	IoTfy Solutions Private Limited
Website	www.iotfy.com

About IoTfy
IoTfy – USPs
IoTfy – Founders & Team
Why and How IoTfy was Started
The IoT Industry
IoTfy – Name & Logo
IoTfy – Funding
IoTfy – Revenue Model
IoTfy – Marketing Strategies
IoTfy – Challenges
IoTfy – Growth & Future Plans
IoTfy – Special Offers
IoTfy – FAQs

About IoTfy

IoTfy is a #MakeinIndia IoT & AI cloud suite that is making it simple for consumer durable brands to add IoT capabilities to their device categories. Through its Chip to Cloud IoT ecosystem, IoTfy works with India’s top consumer durable and appliance brands and enables them to create smart appliances that are responsive to Apps and Voice Commands.

Guided by the mission of “RoI with IoT”, IoTfy’s product suites are helping brands establish scalable business cases for their respective categories. The brand is working with the vision is to enable Consumer Electronics Brands, Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), to introduce Smart Home Products in their respective categories. Apart from enabling brands to furnish Smart, WiFi enabled products, across 28 categories including air-conditioners, fans, switches, lights, Chimneys, Inverters, Washing Machines, plugs, and air-purifiers, among the others, IoTfy also integrates the products with Voice Assistants like Google Home and Alexa.

IoTfy offerings primarily comprise of:

iACE IoT Platform
iota Device OS
White labelled Mobile Apps
Voice integrations

Apart from the above core products, the company also has other product modules for:

Service Management suite
AI & ML suite
Business Analytics suite
Sales & Dealer suite
Marketing suite

IoTfy recently launched GoCo (inspired by the caption ‘ Go Corona’) UV disinfectant bags, which disinfect the items put inside it. In the current times this product is truly of great help and customers can buy them directly from the website gocobags.com

“We are working towards creating an ecosystem for IoT in India. One thing for which we take a lot of inspiration from China is the ecosystem that they have developed around IoT products. We have started taking baby steps towards empowering ODMs in India to be a part of the larger IoT ecosystem, so that we together can fulfil local and global demands. We are providing them access to our Chip-to-Cloud IoT ecosystem, so that they can make their appliance categories smart .” IoTfy founder Arpit Chhabra says

IoTfy – USPs

Some of the USPs that makes IoTfy stand apart from its competitors are–

● Providing IoT Cloud cost as a one time SaaS fee based on the average lifespan of the product category.This stands out because brands/OEMs/ODMs traditionally work on a Bill of Material (BOM) cost for each product and with IoT coming into the picture, cloud becomes a variable cost. This is clearly out of their comfort zone, accounting for something variable to come up with their cost build-up.

IoTfy’s strategy of offering a fixed cloud cost makes decision making very simple for the brands and in turn results in quick decision making to adopt IoT in their categories.

● IoTfy decoupled WiFi Hardware from the IoT Cloud Platform, giving brand partners the option to source hardware from vendors of their choice. This also is a game changer because it gives an opportunity to the customers to source hardware as per their requirements and quality specifications.

● IoTfy’s iACE IoT Cloud Platform addresses all possible concerns w.r.t Data Security, Long term sustained usage and Data localization. This makes IoTfy a long term partner for brands/ODMs/OEMs customers alike

● IoTfy is focused on various India specific requirements such as adding vernacular support on Mobile Applications, adding WiFi Direct functionality (using this end consumers can control devices without having need of a WiFi router, which is a must for market like India)

● Focusing on “RoI from IoT” from day 1 by providing 360 degree coverage of business requirements w.r.t after sales service, sales, and marketing through its product suites.

● Engaging with OEMs and ODMs alongside brands has helped IoTfy build an ecosystem of manufacturers to scale IoT products adoption in India.

● Onboarding Electronic Component Distributors (ECDs) as channel partners to upsell IoTfy’s iota – Device Operating System.

“One of the key USPs of IoTfy is that we promise recurring business to our brand partners in the form of post-sale service. In addition to creating IoT capabilities for the brands’ various product categories, we offer them white-labelled Apps, that have been designed for the Indian end users. These Apps have a smart built-in feature, that gives the users prompters every time the service of a certain appliance is due and also allows them to book the service with the brand at the click of a button, leading to recurring business for them. Such intelligent features ensure guaranteed RoI and sustainable value to its brand partners.” Arpit quotes emphasizing IoTfy’s USPs

IoTfy – Founders & Team

IoTfy founders Arpit Chhabra, Sushant Taneja, Shashank Saxena, Shivam Dikshit were Part of the Startup Leadership Program in New Delhi in 2012. Shashank was Shivam’s co-founder in an IoT consultancy that they previously co-founded. During 2012-14, Arpit assisted a few brands such as Godfrey Phillips India and Barista, develop IoT solutions to meet some of their business requirements and during the same time frame, Shashank and Shivam had also helped a few of their clients with IoT solutions.

It all started when Arpit and Shashank were sharing notes w.r.t the solutions they had developed in the past and realized both of them faced the same problems while developing custom cloud platform for their IoT solutions, and they realized there is a need of an IoT Cloud Platform that is easy to set up, use-case agnostic, and vertical agnostic. Moved by this common idea, all the four founder started to work on the concept of IoTfy, leading to the launch of the startup in 2017.

Presently, Arpit Chhabra (36) is the CEO of IoTfy. He has been a serial entrepreneur having built four start-ups & successfully exiting two of them. His last exit was an IoT product start-up, Ad-Box.

Arpit has worked with start-ups since the last 14 years with the last 7 years in IoT products. He has worn multiple hats both as the hacker and the hustler.

Arpit graduated from Delhi University (NSIT) with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 2005

Sushant Taneja (33) is Vice President, Technology at IoTfy. He heads the cloud and mobile apps technology development. He has an exhaustive hands-on experience of over a decade in IT technologies. He has the technical know-how of things working at scale and was working with Snapdeal before co-founding IoTfy. Previously, Sushant had co-founded Ekayan Software Labs and has been a founding member in StoreMonk.

Shashank Saxena(31) is the Vice President, Embedded Systems at IoTfy. He takes care of all things hardware. Shashank has 10 years of experience in designing and developing hardware products. Prior to IoTfy, Shashank has been running an IoT consulting firm where he catered more than 200 customers. He was awarded two monetary grants from MSME, Govt. of India for two innovative IoT products in 2010 and 2011.

Shivam Dikshit (30) is Vice President, Marketing at IoTfy. He has been previously heading business development and marketing for an IoT consulting firm and was able to establish a diverse customer base ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. He is a community builder and has been a founding member of PeerHack, Bootstrap Weekend & Hack4India.

Smriti Talwar (36) is the Vice President, Pre-Sales at IoTfy. She has an industry experience of 15 years. Smriti is ex-Maruti Suzuki R&D and founder of two start-ups. She completed her Mechanical Engineering from Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women in 2005. She was part of the Start-up Leadership Program and also was the PL for the SLP New Delhi chapter. Smriti joined IoTfy later in January 2019.

IoTfy has a team of engineers with various expertise ranging from software developers to hardware engineers. The team has Front end developers with expertise in Javascript, HTML; Native Android and iOS developers; Cloud application developers with Python and Java skills. Firmware developers with expertise in embedded C/C++ and RTOS. The startup is in its growing stage and is currently hiring. Speaking about the hiring funda of IoTfy, founder Arpit Chhabra said,

“We look for people who are passionate about solving problems with practical aptitude. We believe that skills can be acquired, passion and problem solving attitude is something that we look for while we are hiring. Because of our previous experience in the field of IoT, we have been able to get onboard good technical talent.”

Why and How IoTfy was Started

IoTfy was started as a weekend project back in Dec of 2014, where Arpit, Sushant, Shashank and Shivam used to meet and do development hackathons. The idea at that point was to build a WordPress-like platform for IoT that can be used across the sectors for various IoT use cases. The team realized the need for an IoT platform that is easy to set up, use-case agnostic and vertical agnostic while developing custom IoT solutions for various clients in their previous organisations.

Based on inputs from the market, the team realized that sticking to a vertical will bring focus and long term future. With that understanding, Appliance and Consumer Electronics (ACE) space was chosen owing to its huge volume and IoT use cases.

IoTfy started with Water Purifier as a first appliance and now has moved to supporting 28 appliance categories such as Air Conditioners, Air Coolers, Water Purifiers, Water Heaters, Smart lights, Chimneys, Inverters, Fans, Smart plugs, and washing machines with its offerings.

“Water Purifier has its own reasons to be our first offering for it being a very beautiful use case of IoT specially in the after sales market. Preventive maintenance, eliminating warranty frauds and maximizing after sales revenues we sought using IoT. We worked with the premium water purifier brand of India for this project. The response from the market was overwhelmingly positive.” says Arpit about the initial offering of the company

The IoT Industry

The Internet of Things (IoT) in India now is not a thing of the future, it is growing and thriving right in front of our eyes. From Smart appliances to Smart Energy metering, from Industry 4.0 to Smart vehicles, IoT powered products are touching our lives on a daily basis.

As reported, Internet of Things Market (IoT Market) Size was valued at USD 212.1 Billion in 2018 and is expected to witness a growth of 25.68% from 2019-2026 and reach USD 1,319.08 Billion by 2026.

Again another report published by MarketsandMarkets says that the global IoT in Smart Cities Market size is expected to grow from USD 113.1 billion in 2020 to USD 260.0 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.1% during the forecast period.

“Looking at this growing market alongside Prime Minister Modi’s call to make India “Self Reliant” or “AtmaNirbhar” unearths some very interesting aspects. Particularly because building blocks of any IoT product or solution require seamless amalgamation of hardware, cloud stacks, mobile applications, data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), it is a huge opportunity for the Industry to make India “AtmaNirbhar”. Arpit adds

IoTfy – Name & Logo

IoTfy means IoTfying the device categories to make them smart. IoTfy also means IoT for you. Making IoT implementation simple and easy for consumer durable brands. The founder’s idea behind the name is to keep it relevant, short, catchy and easy to recall.

IoTfy Logo

IoTfy – Funding

IoTfy is looking forward to raise a Series A funding. The IoTfy team intends to use the funds raised for

Tech team expansion for building new product features and adding support for new categories.
Expanding the client base in India (focus on hiring augmenting Pre-sales, Sales and Marketing teams)
Expansion in geographies outside India

IoTfy – Revenue Model

IoTfy levies a one time SaaS fee for the IoT cloud based on the average lifespan of the product category. IoTfy’s clients i.e brands/OEMs/ODMs are comfortable to work on a fixed cost system and the startup’s revenue model is designed considering this very comfort level.

IoTfy – Marketing Strategies

Acquiring clients is always challenging, however, the good part for IoTfy was that they were dealing with big brands who mostly had IoT in their roadmap. It was more about educating, consulting the customers and prospects w.r.t business cases and features IoT can open up, and finally helping them with technology implementation. As Arpit says,

“Our problem is half solved if there is a positive intent for IoT adoption, the remaining half is to help them develop trust in the IoT products and solutions that we offer. We counter that through quick Proof Of Concepts (POCs) on their existing appliances. This also helps us reduce our sales lead time and establishes our customer’s trust in our capabilities.”

Besides, quality and support has been two main features on which IoTfy banks for attracting and retaining customers.

The other ways of customer acquisition includes holding Product Conclaves to educate the industry at large w.r.t IoT. Every 3-5 weeks, IoTfy team picked up a category such as Air Conditioners, Smart fans, water purifiers etc and invited industry colleagues from various departments such as Product Planning, Marketing, R&D, and Product management to talk about nuances of IoT implementation for these categories. This helped the startup in creating a stronger demand in general.

In 2020, IoTfy also conducted various Virtual Round Tables inviting industry experts to talk about IoT at large and what opportunities Covid has brought for Smart products. These conclaves and VRTs were accepted and appreciated across the industry and also brought inbound inquiries.

IoTfy also has a strong network of channel partners who upsell our Device Licences (iota) to various brands and OEMs/ODMs. These licenses include the lifetime cost for the cloud usage and the firmware for the WiFi module.

IoTfy – Challenges

IoTfy founders believe that one of the biggest challenge for the startup was about being an early adopter in the segment, as the startup had to put in lots of efforts on educating the consumer durable brands on the benefits of adopting IoT.

“At that time, there was not enough acceptance of the IoT use cases because almost every brand felt IoT and these use cases are rather early for the market. Good part was they validated our hypothesis of the use cases and their potential impact on their businesses and end users.” says Arpit.

As they say “Seeing is Believing”, IoTfy developed its first IoT product for Water Purifier use case and started handing out product samples to major brands for evaluation. During the evaluation, brands were able to get a sense on how IoT water purifiers will work from the end user’s perspective. What will be visible to the end user on the mobile app, how the end user will control the water purifier, how alerts for AI-based service reminders and part replacement alerts will be notified to the end user and CRM systems used by the service team of these brands.

These exercises although were long and time consuming, but they helped the startup understand their potential customers better. The team was able to absorb a lot of information from them with respect to how various stakeholders such as R&D, Product Planning, New Product Development, Service, and Sales work at appliances and consumer durables companies. As the founders says, this experience has helped the IoTfy team a lot now both in terms of developing products and closing deals.

Long Sales Cycles is another challenge for the IoTfy team. Working with appliances and consumer durables on any product is a long cycle as they have to work with various stakeholders. During the initial days, the sales cycles were between 6-8 months typically. Now, as the startup has ready designs for over 28 categories, so they are able to demonstrate IoT capabilities on any appliance in a matter of hours and this has reduced our sales cycle to less than 3 weeks.

IoTfy – Growth & Future Plans

The list of IoTfy’s achievements is long indeed. The tech startup supports several multinational brands based in Japan, Korea and Germany, along with home grown Indian brands. It currently works with 2 of top 5 Air Conditioner brands, 3 of top 4 fan brands, 2 of top 5 LED light brands, and 3 of top 5 Water purifier brands in India. Working closely with top brands and OEMs, they been credited to quickly create innovative and meaningful use-cases and facilitate launch of IoT products in as less as two weeks.

IoTfy’s IoT platform currently powers over 450,000 devices and plans to onboard 1 million new devices on its platform within 2020 itself. The number of devices that it supports on its platform has grown by over 600% YoY in the last two Financial years. IoTfy started with a focus on large appliances such as Air Conditioners and currently, it is powering over 200,000 IoT Air Conditioners in the India market, virtually holding over 90% of the market share in the Smart Air Conditioning space in India.

In terms of revenue, the self-funded startup has grown by over 600% YoY in the last two Financial years and closed FY 2019-20 with revenues of around INR 4 crore and has projects over INR 12 crores of revenue for the upcoming FY 2020-21. With respect to the pipeline, IoTfy is currently also in the process of undertaking customer trials with 10 major brands, while products powered by the brand’s proprietary technologies will be launching in the Indian market all through the year. The brand’s strategy of working with ODMs/OEMs has provided rich dividends and 3 categories where it has already started to gain dominance include Lighting, Smart Plugs and Switches and Fans.

“We believe our biggest achievements are closing deals with leading Indian appliance manufacturers alongside marquee Japanese and Korean appliance manufacturers. Not only have we learnt a lot during the process, we also kept improving ourselves at every step. The kind of confidence we got by exceeding their benchmarks is something that we proudly wear as a feather in our hat. We also have managed to reduce the sales cycle from a typical of 6-8 months to 2-3 months.” Arpit says commenting on the startup’s achievements.

IoTfy – Special Offers

StartupTalky readers can avail discount of 10% on GoCo bags using the code “Talk IoTfy” on the IoTfy website.

IoTfy – FAQs

What is IoTfy?

IoTfy is a leading IoT solutions provider for smart home automation, smart home lighting.

Who are the founders of IoTfy?

Arpit Chhabra, Sushant Taneja, Shashank Saxena and Shivam Dikshit are the founders of IoTfy.

When was IoTfy Founded?

2017

May 26, 2021

Rovity – Revolutionizing The Hosting Service

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 Rovity.

It took the telephone 75 years to reach its first 50 million users, the radio 38 years, while television needed 13 years; the Internet only needed four years to do so. The power of the Internet shaped the entire human civilization & brought a never-seen-before revolution to our lives. The Covid-19 pushed the digital evolution to a whole new level as pandemic badly affected.

This led to an exceptionally drastic increase in the needs for having a website or an online store. And any website need a good hosting server. Hosting is the heartbeat of any online business.

Meet Rovity, a revolutionary firm that outperforms conventional shared hosting and is committed to helping you to launch a fast, eye-catching website quickly. We asked how Rovity is better than other services to the team behind it. The team said the secret lies in how Rovity resolves the major challenges of the web hosting industry.

Rovity – Vision & Mission

Rovity contributes to a healthy internet by offering a super-fast, performance-optimized, highly secured infrastructure at a very affordable price. Their vision is to bring more people online as content producers. India is a country that experiences massive growth in internet connectivity. We will have better connectivity in every village soon.

Many people wish to start selling their products and services online, start blogging, and earn money. But a large portion still has no idea how to get started; they don’t have a way to design a modern responsive website without investing a significant amount of money. Rovity is successfully reducing this gap by offering free domains and intuitive web sites builder with every subscription plan. Rovity wants to help these newbies make their websites as easy as possible without pulling their hair.

“We are achieving all of this without compromising our service quality as we are a premium shared web hosting provider in the nation. Websites are the extensions of the dreams of millions of people & we want to give them wings so that their dreams can fly.”
– Jafar Muhammed, the founder of Rovity

Stephen Hawking said a beautiful thing about the Internet: “We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.” Rovity claims to bring a new revolution in this giant brain of human civilization & it seems promising enough to achieve that.

Rovity – Features

Rovity’s Homepage

Scalability: Most shared hosting service providers are still relying on old hardware, such as dedicated servers. While dedicated servers are suitable if it is maintained well, it is not at all scalable.

Rovity is on the cutting-edge cloud infrastructure; this allows it to scale up quickly and efficiently whenever needed without pulling down the server or migrating the data between different machines.

Outdated Software: Software or languages in technology are rapidly changing. Having always up to date is a real challenge, especially for those who work with old technologies. Traditional hosting companies require to run on old Operating Software and PHP versions.

But since Rovity is a modern-era service provider that uses an agile methodology, it is offering the latest Operating Software like CloudLinux 8, updated PHP versions like 7.4 by default. It’s a fact that using updated stacks will always give them better performance and security. So, Rovity is continuously updating its infrastructure.

Support: Not everyone has technological expertise. If someone hosts a website, they will surely need help managing it, primarily if they have never hosted a website before. As per our experience, unfortunately, traditional hosting companies’ technical support is not efficient and humanly.

Most of the time, a support ticket will take at least 8 hours to get a response from the support team; and you know what? That reply will be useless as it will be a canned response that gives you zero value to solve your problems. That’s where Rovity’s technical support team differs. Team Rovity is proactive when replying to their customer’s support tickets & it provides personalized solutions that work.

Server Location: The web server must be located closest to the target audience for better SEO and high-quality overall performance. Traditional brands mostly have their servers located in the USA. If your audiences reside in India, there are at least 200 to 300 milliseconds in data transfer latency. This delay affects every file on your website.

Rovity’s servers are located in Mumbai and have a global CDN with PoPs in Mumbai and Bangalore. These nearest datacenters help visitors to access websites faster. The faster a website performs, the better the User Experience, Search Engine Optimization, and conversions.

Infrastructure – Rovity engineered its cloud infrastructure with Performance, Speed, Scalability, and Security in mind. That’s why the team built Rovity with AWS, CloudLinux OS, DirectAdmin, and LiteSpeed Web Server.

Free Domain Names for life – Rovity provides free domains for life with all subscription plans. As long as you continue to renew your hosting plan, you will never have to pay for domains ever.

Ultimate Support For Optimising Core Web Vitals – Rovity will optimize the Core Web Vitals of each website hosted with Rovity without charging anything extra; this will directly improve the SEO of the website. Rovity is probably the world’s first & only brand offering to optimize Core Web Vitals of sites hosted with them.

FREE SSL Certificates – It is essential to have an SSL Certificate for your domain. Their SSL certificates are A+ graded, and they offer them for free for all of your domains and subdomains.

Free Website Builder – Your website shouldn’t be just a place where you put some information together. Modern websites are mobile-friendly, very well designed, and optimized for performance.

Rovity offers a Free Divi theme builder to help you quickly launch your website. You can build any site with Divi, including an online shop, with ease.

No Need To pay More For Renewal – Almost all major service providers charge more when renewing a subscription plan; Rovity doesn’t do that. If you subscribe to any subscription plan of Rovity, you will be paying the same amount at the renewal that you paid for starting your subscription.

Robust Email Delivery System: Their conversation optimized email systems are robust and have partnerships with reputed Email Service Providers like Gmail to better the inbox delivery rate. Even if your domain is newly registered, your emails will be delivered to your recipient’s inbox.

30 Days Money-Back Guarantee: However, if something is not working as per your requirements, they have a 30 days money-back guarantee. Rovity will give you a risk-free opportunity to try it out.

Rovity – Unique Selling Proposition

The USP of Rovity is Zenith – India’s first fully-customizable shared hosting plan.

Rovity has three Deluxe Plans named Silver, Gold & Diamond with disk space of 1 GB, 2 GB & 3 GB, respectively. Only one website can be hosted with each of the deluxe plans.

Once an individual has a subscription to the diamond plan, he/she can upgrade to the Zenith plan for free. Once upgraded to Zenith, if a subscriber wishes to have an additional 10 GB for having more space for the website or storing emails, he/she can purchase this extra resource.

Similarly, if you wish to host multiple websites, you can host them within your existing account. You don’t need to subscribe to another plan. This method is way cheaper than placing a new subscription order for another website. This will give the subscribers more than a 67% reduction in cost.

Rovity – Founder

Jafar Muhammed, Founder of Rovity

Rovity was founded by Jafar Muhammed. Jafar had worked with 3 different organisations and gained 6 years of experience as a UI Developer before he founded Rovity in 2017.

“I started my career as a web designer ten years ago. As a freelance web designer, I served thousands of clients & I got the opportunity to work with various non-profit organizations, including Mozilla. This experience shaped my passion for bringing more people online & I wanted to create something marvelous using the Internet to empower people everywhere. So, I launched Host My Website Online & then rebranded it to Rovity.”
– Jafar Muhammed, the founder of Rovity

Rovity – Name, Logo, & Tagline

RObert Kahn, VInton Cerf, and Tim-Berners Lee are known as the Founding Fathers of the Internet. Rovity is named after these three great visionaries.

Yes, ROVITY IS A REVOLUTION created with the names of founders of the Internet itself.

May 24, 2021
Builder.ai: Human-Assisted AI Platform Lets You Build Tailor-Made Software
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 Builder.ai

Builder.ai is a human-assisted AI that empowers everyone to independently build and operate tech products through two products that work together to be their virtual engineering team. Builder.ai is on a mission to turn ideas into developed products for everyone. Whether you want to build something new or are already operating on the cloud, they empower a single user to achieve more by doing less; and that’s why it says: Build. Run. Scale.

Builder.ai- Company Highlights

Company Name Builder.ai

Headquarter London

Founders Sachin Dev Duggal & Saurabh Dhoot

Founded 2016

Sector AI-Platform Builder

Website builder.ai

Builder.ai- About
Builder.ai- Founders
How was Builder.ai Started
Builder.ai- Company Size & Work Culture
Builder.ai- Name, Logo and Tagline
Builder.ai- Industry Details
Builder.ai- USP and Innovation
Builder.ai- Startup Launch
Builder.ai- Funding
Builder.ai- Business and Revenue Model

Builder.ai- About

Builder.ai offers a platform for entrepreneurs and enterprises to build, run and scale any idea, no knowledge of coding required. They help the world’s best ideas transform into great innovations that in turn support and enhance the work of entrepreneurs and businesses.

Building software can often prove to be complex, risky and inefficient. They level the playing field for companies that recognise the importance of having an online presence, but don’t have the technical knowledge to bring it to life. They believe that software development should be simple, immediate and efficient to make all kinds of ideas a reality.

Its human-assisted-AI platform lets one create on-demand, tailor-made software using a library of reusable features and a network of verified expert talent from around the world. Their recently launched and globally-recognised platform Studio Store, has been helping SMBs and SMEs amid COVID-19 to access quality software at lower costs and in most cases is delivered to them in 8-10 weeks. Just a few weeks ago, they were awarded at CognitionX 2020 for “Best COVID-19 Innovation for Recovery” and chosen as “the Hottest Startup – AI” at The Europas.

Builder.ai- Founders

Builder.ai is founded by Sachin Dev Duggal & Saurabh Dhoot.

Builder.ai Founders | Saurabh Dhoot & Sachin Dev Duggal

Saurabh and Sachin first met when they were both pursuing their engineering at Imperial College London. As founders, their roles are thorough: going and run right from the big picture down to microscopic detail. Therefore, both of the founders oversee different functions- from strategy to execution- pretty smoothly. Sachin sees it as the beauty of working with his best friend, Saurabh. Not too long ago, they had also co-founded Nivio, a cloud computing startup, taking it to $100mn in evaluation and exiting it after a major strategic sale in 2012.

Their partnership doesn’t end there. Saurabh and Sachin are also passionate about breakthrough technological innovations that have the potential to enhance society and environment. They are also working to bring necessary education to 100 million children within the next 50 years. Their projects keep growing.

How was Builder.ai Started

Four years ago, Builder.ai started out with a dream to be the connection between every great idea and a fully realized product. The ideology behind Bulider.ai was to empower everyone to build their ideas, regardless of their understanding of code. To achieve this, they went back to the drawing board on how software is made today. They looked at best practices across industries, naming-ly what Henry Ford did for the automotive industry with the assembly line.

They are applying this methodology to custom software by employing a human assisted AI to the software assembly line. This system brings together building blocks of frequently used features – such as Facebook login or shopping cart – alongside the best human talent from across the globe to work directly with the customer and ensure the software is built on time without errors.

They started their journey from there and the premise was to make software development accessible to anyone, anywhere. It stemmed from the belief that everyone should be able to unlock their true potential, to make their vision come to life irrespective of what they know, what they have and what they are potentially afraid of.

Builder.ai- Company Size & Work Culture

Builder.ai expanded from 30 employees to over 250 in just 2 years and now has offices in London, Los Angeles, Delhi, Dubai and Tokyo. This level of rapid global expansion had the potential to cause severe rifts in communication; something that wasn’t so much of an issue when it was just a few of them working together. Builder.ai is going through an exciting phase where they are seeing quick yet strategic growth, supporting both active digital markets and those that are ripe for digital transformation.

They work from different parts of the world and the solution to most business challenges is teamwork and constant alignment on goals making ‘precise communication’. A consistent transfer of knowledge and transparency across departments became a priority, so that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.

Sachin believes having inspirational leadership figures that keep their teams in the know and constantly empowered is critical to this. Video touch-bases, Slack messaging, project management tools are key to successful day-to-day communication, especially nowadays. Besides this, they ensure sending-out department-wide emails regularly, and conducting global town halls each quarter.

Builder.ai- Name, Logo and Tagline

When Sachin and Saurabh founded the company in 2016, they named it Engineer.ai with 2 essential products – DevOps and CloudOps. As Engineer.ai, they did some exemplary work with some of the best brands across the world. They built software that could solve all kinds of problems. Halfway through 2018 they decided to review their identity and conduct a branding activity and in early 2019 brought on board one of the best global creative agencies in London to support.

Builder.ai Logo

They wanted to simplify their brand to directly correlate and connect with its product offerings and their customers. That branding session led us to a huge realisation – that a lot of their customers were finding it confusing to deal with three different identities – DevOps, CloudOps and Engineer.ai. They learned that the name ‘Engineer.ai’ as a product in itself wasn’t effective. People aren’t simply looking for an engineer, instead, they’re looking for someone to help them build their dreams.

Hence, they renamed it as Builder.ai and the interpretation is quite simple: they don’t just build software. They help companies build phenomenal, revolutionary, business altering ideas.

Builder.ai- Industry Details

India has established approximately 48 million small businesses over the past decade, nearly double the number of the US. However, unlike the US, most businesses in India are hesitant to invest in digital transformation due to a lack of tech expertise, resources or both. For a country like India, that is the fastest-growing trillion-dollar economy in the world and the fifth-largest overall, a necessary shift to stay competitive is the democratisation of software development so that ideas can transcend borders, compete in the global market and take India to number one.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further nudged Indian decision makers to escalate their focus on harnessing technology in various sectors. Today consumers and businesses are utilizing online channels to promote their products and services and this is helping the country’s tech sector. Technology solutions have helped achieve key results in segments like healthcare, F&B industry, education, salons, etc. In the next 5 years, this trend will continue steadily till every business on the planet is a digital one. It is the only way to crisis-proof your business in uncertain times.

Needless to say, the market opportunity is huge. There are now 574 million active internet users in India, a growth rate of 24 per cent from 2019, according to data from consulting firm Kantar. It says India’s active number of monthly internet users are predicted to reach 639 million by the end of this year, with the coronavirus-induced lockdown a factor in this increase.

Why IT Services are essential in Startups

Information technology has changed the world as we know it in the past decade.It forms a fundamental part of all sectors, be it industrial, educational or anyother. The importance of information technology is prevalent in the various walkof life, it pertains to the design, study and development o…

StartupTalkyLakshya Singh

Builder.ai- USP and Innovation

The platform brings together all the required pieces to bring to life a customer’s dream – i.e. to build, run, and scale a business. All that someone needs are an idea. Creating these apps is as simple as ordering a pizza.

For example, if you’re wanting to create an app to launch in the market. Anyone can create apps in as little as 2 weeks, by simply using Builder.ai’s Studio store by logging on it, then select a pre-packaged app template be it an e-commerce app, grocery store app, gym app or even a spa app your looking to develop, then add the features to the list (just like adding pizza toppings), you need not have any technical or coding experience, this request will then be taken up by their global pool of experts to iron out the precise ask, custom features for example and finally the app will be delivered to the partner in weeks at a fraction of the cost otherwise and to add to it, Builder.ai will provide the first three months of live service for free.

Builder.ai Everyday Phenomenal

Key Products:
- Builder Studio: A unique software building interface so easy anyone can do it
- Builder Care: Keeps your software updated so you’re never blindsided by 3rd party changes
- Builder Cloud: Get scaled automatically with Builder Clou
- Builder Now: Prototype your big idea in less than 10 mins and it’s free
- Builder Studio Store: a new range of pre-packed apps – beginning with e- commerce and delivery designed to bring about digital transformation for businesses both faster and at a fraction of the cost to help the SMBs amid COVID-19
- Studio Rapid: A newly launched latest no-code product offering, Studio Rapid, which enables enterprises to build fully native custom apps.
Top No-Code Development Platforms | Why No-Code? | Benefits of No-Code

In this internet age, the world is innovating day-to-day. There are numbers ofsoftware developing day-by-day. In this tech world, many companies want todevelop their software to reduce the tension and manpower and to increase theefficiency of the business. If you are an employee of an IT company …

StartupTalkyAvinash kumar mahato

Builder.ai- Startup Launch

The ideation to start Builder was to empower everyone to build their ideas, regardless of their understanding of code. They started their journey from there and the premise was to make software development accessible to anyone, anywhere. It stemmed from the belief that everyone should be able to unlock their true potential, to make their vision come to life irrespective of what they know, what they have and what they are potentially afraid of.

They got together all the required pieces for their dream – i.e. to build, run, and scale a business. All that someone needs are an idea. They started with the following products including Builder Studio, Builder Care, Builder Cloud, Builder Now and since they believe in constant evolution of technology, when COVID-19 heavily impacted the businesses (specifically small and medium-sized businesses), they stepped up and launched “The Studio Store” to help all SMBs & SMEs build business apps.

This launch was part of Builder.ai’s larger mission to make the process of building a digital future more accessible, cost effective and efficient. Their mission is to give wings to the dreamers and for that its approach has always been progressive, they are constantly upgrading their product to give the best services to their clients, soon they are launching its new product to provide even better assistance.

Builder.ai- Funding

Year Stage Amount Investors Name

Late 2018 Series A $29.6 million Lakestar, Jungle Ventures with participation from Softbank’s DeepCore

Builder.ai- Business and Revenue Model

Builder.ai was bootstrapped for a considerable period of time. Their big chunk of customers are entrepreneurs who operate in the fashion, retail and hospitality businesses, along with some enterprise technology players. They have been registering just under 100 percent growth over the last three to four years with revenues tripling during the same period.

They have also succeeded in significantly shrinking costs and timelines around software development for their customers. Some of their apps are delivered in as little as 2 weeks! Then of course, their latest no-code product offering, Studio Rapid, enables enterprises to build fully native custom apps in a day.
May 24, 2021

Company Name	Builder.ai
Headquarter	London
Founders	Sachin Dev Duggal & Saurabh Dhoot
Founded	2016
Sector	AI-Platform Builder
Website	builder.ai

Year	Stage	Amount	Investors Name
Late 2018	Series A	$29.6 million	Lakestar, Jungle Ventures with participation from Softbank’s DeepCore

FreightBro – For a Smooth Freight Forwarding Experience

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

In a world, where everything is accessible on the screen touch of the smartphones, it wouldn’t be a surprise if we had a technology that made the logistics process swift and easy as a fiddle. One such initiative is FreightBro founded by Raghavendran Viswanathan, Mohammed Zakkiria, and V Anand Babu in the year 2016. FreightBro is an intuitive digital platform that enables forwarders to procure rates faster, reduce inefficiencies, boost sales, make data-driven decisions and provide a seamless customer experience.

Read the full article to know more about FreightBro, Founders & Team, Funding & Investors, Future Plans, Awards & Recognition, and its Business Model and many more.

FreightBro Highlights

Startup Name	FreightBro
Headquarter	Chennai
Co-founders	Raghavendran Viswanathan, Mohammed Zakkiria & V Anand Babu
CEO	Raghavendran Viswanathan
Sector	Freight Technology
Founded	October, 2016
Parent Organization	FreightBro Logistics Pvt. Ltd
Website	freightbro.com

FreightBro – Recent News
FreightBro – About & How It Works?
FreightBro – USP
FreightBro – Target Market
FreightBro – Founders & Team
FreightBro – How It All Started?
FreightBro – Name, Tagline & Logo
FreightBro – Business & Revenue Model
FreightBro – Funding & Investors
FreightBro – Partenrships
FreightBro – Startup Challenges
FreightBro – Competitors
FreightBro – Awards & Recognitons
FreightBro – Future Plans
FreightBro – FAQ’s

FreightBro – Recent News

Jan 2020 – FreightBro Becomes the First Indian Company to Integrate Maersk Spot on its Digital Platform. FreightBro now allows to book container space online with Maersk Spot APIs

Oct 2019 – FreightBro becomes first Indian startup to join Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg

Jun 2019 – FreightBro started to digitize UAE’s freight and logistics industry. FreightBro Signs MoU With The National Association of Freight and Logistics, Dubai

FreightBro – About & How It Works?

FreightBro is an online freight marketplace where we provide end-to-end digital solutions to shippers and freight forwarders. We aim to equip the forwarders with latest freight rate automation tool which not only enables them to generate instant freight rates but also allows them to get competitive freight quotes, online.

The idea behind FreightBro is to democratize technology for freight forwarders and enable them to digitize their services to deliver an exceptional user experience. The mission here is to enable the digitization of global trade. Digitization of global trade can be attained by making technology accessible to freight forwarders. FreightBro helps tackle shipment inefficiencies and uplift the freight forwarding experience with solutions such as rate management, price discovery, instant quote creation, quote management, shipment management, shipment tracking all on a single platform.

As SaaS (Software as a Service) based company, FreightBro offers web and mobile-based applications to forwarders & 3PLs which can digitize their key processes like sales, procurement, operations and give an end to end visibility to their customers. Digitization here refers to the automation of the manual and repetitive tasks that increase overall efficiencies and reduce logistics costs considerably. FreightBro platform impacts an approximate reduction of 50% of sales costs and 70% of operations costs.

FreightBro – Target Market

The entire logistics market is estimated at 4.3 Trillion which includes 700+ billion 3rd party logistics service providers & 150+ billion freight forwarders. Top 50 players hold major market share. Freight Forwarding is a 150 billion dollar industry globally. The Indian logistics Market size is 17 million TEU. There has been an approximate 10 percent growth year on year for the SME Market and a steady introduction of small and medium-sized players in the industry. Therefore, the demand for digitization is increasing and thus poses a promising potential for growth.

FreightBro – USP

FreightBro is trying to solve issues regarding inefficiencies & speed in the logistics and freight forwarding industry that have never been addressed before. The time taken from inquiry to quote to book to actual cargo movement to visibility & data insights isn’t smooth and comes with major inefficiencies. Multiple communication channels are involved and activity as basic as procuring rates essentially comprises of multiple emails, phone calls or complex spreadsheets. Workflow automation is very much required in everyday operations and here is where FreightBro steps in. This provides real-time visibility and information, data standards and predictive analytics for businesses. FreightBro’s solutions help save 70% time, 50% cost that further increases sales by 30%.

The fact that the FreightBro platform is built to be an enabler is the biggest differentiator as a product in the industry. We built the product around the whole belief that the for the digital revolution to thrive in the industry, it needs more enablers than disruptors – Raghavendran quotes explaining FreightBro’s USP

The FreightBro team believes in enabling the forwarders to grow and stride the digitization wave in the industry rather than disrupting the ecosystem or wiping freight forwarders off. Therefore FreightBro aims to emerge as an enabler of change and not a disruptor in the ecosystem.

FreightBro – Founders & Team

Raghavendran Viswanathan, V Anand Babu, and Mohammed Zakkiria. A. are the co-founders of FreightBro.

Raghavendran Viswanathan | CEO, FreightBro

FreightBro CEO Raghavendran Viswanathan, is responsible for strategizing and managing the team at FreightBro. With his expertise in technology and logistics, he aims to solve the freight forwarding industries’ complex challenges. Before FreightBro, Raghavendran was the Business Development Manager at Panalpina, a Swiss company and one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain solutions. Before Panalpina, he was the Territory Manager at DHL handling diverse responsibilities. He has earlier worked at Vodafone and HCL Technologies in technical roles.

Raghavendran is an MBA in Sales, Distribution, and Marketing from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, where he was also part of the entrepreneurship cell. He studied engineering from Anna University, Chennai in Electrical and Electronics.

V Anand Babu, Director & Co-founder, FreightBro heads the Partnerships vertical while mentoring and nurturing organizational growth. His primary aim is to research and enable synergies between various partners and vendors enabling organizational growth through the creation of global opportunities.

A veteran in the logistics industry, Anand was associated with AP Moller Maersk Group, a leading logistics company, for over 25 years. Anand has also been a part-time faculty at the Indian Institute of Logistics and was actively involved in social causes as the President of the Rotary Club of Chennai for a significant period.

Mohammed Zakkiria is responsible for strategizing the company’s growth and heads marketing functions. Mohammed quit his well-paying job to realize the dream of solving real-world freight forwarding problems using technology and innovation. He has been involved right from the ideation stage and along with like-minded industry, veterans have built a core team that is rich in extensive industry knowledge and expertise. With over 14 years of experience in international freight forwarding, he has held a broad range of leadership positions across sales, marketing, and global customer management has generated 20+ million sales deals and managed logistics operations of many Fortune 500 companies for their India movements.

Before FreightBro, Mohammed held the position of Sales Head of Cargo Partner, responsible for top-line growth including direct sales and strategic initiatives. He has also been associated with leading organizations such as Panalpina, DHL, and Damco in the past.

Mohammed was born in Pollachi and graduated in Computer science, he also holds a Masters in International Business from Bharathiar University, Coimbatore. Mohammed lives in Chennai with his wife and a daughter and is a startup enthusiast. He is also a keen photographer and loves trekking. He aims to make FreightBro a global brand in logistics technology space and build a solid ecosystem in India.

Mr. Viswanathan worked with Mohammed Zakkiria at Panalpina and they used to brainstorm about how all other industries leveraged technology to improve user experience to drive business and growth. They drew parallels to the logistics industry and intended to do the same for the industry that had overlooked delivering an excellent end-user experience for quite some time. After careful understanding of the business and weighing in the risks of industry adaptation, they met Mohammed’s ex-colleague Anand Babu. The discussion between the trio assured that they were in the right space and time and further led three of them to start FreightBro to simplify freight forwarding processes for hundreds of enterprises globally.

Currently, FreightBro’s employee strength is 70+ between Mumbai and Chennai offices.

FreightBro – How It All Started?

Mr. Viswanathan always wanted to have a business of his own. His career in the logistics sector was an unplanned one and happened by chance post his MBA. Working with DHL and Panalpina gave him an understanding of the logistics and freight forwarding industry and the nuances of the business. His ex-colleague, Mohammed whom he met at Panalpina and now the current partner of FreightBro, played a major role in its inception. After analyzing the business implications and a meeting with Anand Babu (also a current Co-founder at FreightBro), this magnanimous entrepreneurial journey began.

The trio designed an initial MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and regularly did feedback visits with possible customers. About the product validation stage, Raghavendran says-

Feedback visit is when you visit a possible client with the Minimum Viable Product which is still in ideation/ conception and seek their feedback about what they think of the product and will it be a good one. So on one such visit we met our first client, he listened to us and was excited about our product and was kind enough to give suggestions to improve as per the industry

Ideation and prototyping happened together. In B2B SME space, the customers would like to see the product rather than listening to an idea. Hence they went with the first cut of working product to their first customer and the willingness to pay for the skeleton or just the concept was the proof of the pudding.

The FreightBro founders also spoke to one or two representatives from all domains of the supply chain apart from speaking with their potential customers. They wanted to get feedback from the supply chain ecosystem as logistics is just a network-driven play. The team kept correcting their product based on the feedback and strengthened their value proposition.

FreightBro pivoted twice from the initial product. Both times, the pivot was market-driven and to cater to customer needs. The pivot is specific to the Indian market and as a startup, they intend to keep their ears on the ground and pivot if necessary for other markets as well.

FreightBro – Name, Tagline & Logo

Freight forwarders were called FreightBrokers / FreightBrokerage firms in the past. FreightBro is a short form of Freight Broker that just stuck with all the key members as a catchy and relevant title.

FreightBro Logo

The logo is a representation of the digital elements of 1 and 0 as i and o connected by a curve which can also be interpreted as a connection between input and output in a digital context. The colors used are Blue, Orange, and Black each of them representing the ocean, air, and surface respectively.

FreightBro – Business & Revenue Model

FreightBro is a cloud-based SaaS platform and has a pay per user model. It can also work on a per-bill value model.

FreightBro – Funding & Investors

FreightBro raised seed funding in May 2018.

Date	Stage	Amount	Investors
May 2018	Seed	Undisclosed	Suresh Kumar (former global CIO of Bank of New York Mellon)

FreightBro – Partnerships

FreightBro partnered with Port Of Wilhelmshaven, Germany’s only deep-water port situated between the river Ems and Western, as their official digital partner to facilitate trade and digital transformation of shipping. Port Of Wilhelmshaven is the first port to be a part of FreightBro’s official partner ecosystem that consists of all major shipping lines, transporters, insurance companies, trade, and finance entities. It is a significant central transshipment location for bulk commodities. The partnership promises both of them access to each other’s market and connection with stakeholders in respective countries.

FreightBro, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The National Association of Freight and Logistics, (NAFL), Dubai, to help their 400+ members to digitize their services. With this partnership, the forwarders in the Middle East region can now access import rates of China and India on the go and book shipments instantly. The platform enables them to manage quotations, shipments, communication, and visibility on the go.

Also, they have recently joined the Digital Hub Logistics, Hamburg as the first Indian Startup to join the network of German startups and corporates.

FreightBro – Startup Challenges

Since they do not have direct competition and the product isn’t a regular ERP convincing the industry the need or rather creating a need for it as a solution for logistics way forward was an evident challenge. To convince that this product would be imperative for the survival of a Freight Forwarder without using it in the first go was a challenge. The benefits of the platform can only be understood after a freight forwarder has used it firsthand which was evident from the fact that after one Freight forwarder started using it, the word of mouth marketing worked.

FreightBro – Competitors

There’s no direct competition to FreightBro in the market but that doesn’t mean that it operates in a monopolistic market. There are players like iContainers solutions SL, COGO Freight Pvt Ltd, Cargomatic to only name a few that provide similar and other kinds of services.

FreightBro – Awards & Recognitons

FreightBro has been listed in NASSCOM 10000 Startup-2016 and CIBA- Centre for Incubation and Business Acceleration and Startup India-2017.
Won E-commerce Startup Award at 10th South-East India Cargo & Logistics Awards 2018 (Chennai)
Digital Transformation Award – Finalist at by Lloyd’s Loading List Global Freight Awards 2018 (London)
Best SaaS Solution of the year- 4th Indian ISV Awards under Startup category

FreightBro – Future Plans

They started with bootstrapping mainly. The initial capital came from promoters, friends and family. FreightBro has grown 100 percent quarterly to date. From a bootstrapped startup to a million-dollar revenue in two and a half years, they have come a long way. And they plan to continue working on their IP to ease the workload for freight forwarders and save their time.

FreightBro – FAQ’s

What is FreightBro?

FreightBro is an intuitive digital platform that enables forwarders to procure rates faster, reduce inefficiencies, boost sales, make data-driven decisions and provide a seamless customer experience.

Who is the founder of FreightBro?

Raghavendran Viswanathan, V Anand Babu, and Mohammed Zakkiria. A. are the co-founders of FreightBro.

What services does FreightBro provide?

FreightBro offers web and mobile-based applications to forwarders & 3PLs which can digitize their key processes like sales, procurement, operations and give an end to end visibility to their customers.

Who is the CEO of FreightBro?

Raghavendran Viswanathan is the CEO of FreightBro. He is responsible for strategizing and managing the team at FreightBro.

Which is the targeted market of FreightBro?

The entire logistics market is estimated at 4.3 Trillion which includes 700+ billion 3rd party logistics service providers & 150+ billion freight forwarders.

May 24, 2021

Codevidhya – Coding for the 21st Century!

In India, there has been a growing gap between the industry needs and the skills of students. A study by employability assessment company ‘Aspiring Minds’, carried out in 2017, shockingly revealed that 95% engineers in India are not fit for software development jobs.

Technology is not something which can be learned once and for all, it is a must to keep oneself abreast of new developments. While it is not possible and convenient to go for formal offline education at all stages of one’s career, online technical education can do a lot to keep one up-to-date with new technologies, without giving up the current job.

Codevidhya is an Ed-Tech company converting classrooms of Indian schools into programming powerhouses with a vision to empower the young generation to innovate.

Read this article to know more about Codevidhya founder, funding, courses, business model, tagline, logo, challenges and future plans below.

Codevidhya – Company Highlights

Startup Name	Codevidhya
Headquarter	Jaipur, India
Industry	Ed-Tech
Founder	Shivram Choudhary
Founded	2016
Parent Organization	Codevidhya India Private Limited
Website	codevidhya.com
Contact	contact@codevidhya.com

Codevidhya – About & How It Works?
Codevidhya – Target Market Size
Codevidhya – Products/Services
Codevidhya – How It All Started?
Codevidhya – Founders & Team
Codevidhya – Name, Tagline & Logo
Codevidhya – Business & Revenue Model
Codevidhya – Startup Launch
Codevidhya – User Acquisition & Growth
Codevidhya – Competitors
Codevidhya – Startup Challenges
Codevidhya – Funding & Investors
Codevidhya – Recognition & Achievements
Codevidhya – Future Plans
Codevidhya – Conclusion
Codevidhya – FAQs

Codevidhya – About & How It Works?

Codevidhya is an EdTech company highly inspired by technology to facilitate technical education besides contemporary learning. The company is dedicated to explore new future of young minds through integrating the learning with creativity, sharing and collaboration. They develop the concepts to help understand the future needs and to make complex learning easy with effective tools and techniques.

“We believe in the future that would be written by code. In fact, the ability to code could be the ‘Next level of Literacy’.” – Shiv Ram Choudhary, founder of Codevidhya.

As an EdTech startup, Codevidhya follows the ‘Learn by Doing’ approach. Adhering to this philosophy, the company integrates such tools in their platforms and practices that leverage students’ learning and knowledge. The startup has ambitious plans underway to expand to more schools and has already partnered with 50 schools catering to 20,000 students.

Codevidhya differentiates itself by offering a futuristic Computer Science curriculum that empowers the future generation. Students are encouraged to find out real problems of the real world and solve it with the help of technology.

Codevidhya – Target Market Size

“We consider ourselves to be in the Online(Platform) + Offline (Text Book) market both. Currently there is no player in the Indian industry who is offering this approach for coding.”, says Shiv Ram.

As such, the startup consider the entire Indian education industry from Grade 1 to Grade 10 as their market, the size of which is upwards of 250 million. Since this is a new market that is being created, they are yet to identify the potential of it, however the startup has seen a 100% YOY growth in terms of student acquisition for the past 2 years.

Codevidhya – How It All Started?

Codevidhya was built around the idea that in India we have around 45% of the population under age 24, yet there is a big unemployment pool. Initially, Shiv Ram, founder of Codevidhya, had a discussion with several experts and each one of them had their own views. When he collated those thoughts and did differential analysis he came to one conclusion that we are not adequately skilled. Finding the solution to this issue was itself a problem as the education system in India is still archaic.

When the founder visited Canada to attend a seminar with Robin Sharma, he met this young kid Tanmay Bakshi. He had a discussion with him for more than one hour and it was an enlightenment for Shiv Ram. Then & there, Codevidhya as an idea was incepted, that the problem is in the core. If we shape our children from the grassroot level then in future they will have a skill.

As Shiv Ram says, “Right now everyone is thinking in a reactive way, I thought why reactive and let’s be proactive and catch them young and shape their future. There is a drawback in this thinking that the results of your efforts will come after 10-15 years, but yes we are ready to take that risk, as it is a noble cause as well as we are addressing the issue from very basic, making things foundational.”

Shiv Ram came back to India and discussed with his in-house tech people (people in his school) and met Rajesh, who along with a team of four developers gave basic shape to the idea. Basic concept or say mission and vision of Codevidhya is to Enable Students to Create; using Technology leading to Entrepreneurship and become Global Powerhouse of Skill Development for tomorrow’s world.

Codevidhya – Products/Services

Codevidhya’s latest offering is ‘Live 1-1 Classes’ with India’s best educators. ‘Codevidhya Live Coding Classes’ are for digital classroom where you can start learning from your trainer.

Codevidhya’s flagship product is Annual School Curriculum that focus on Coding through a hands on approach wherein the startup offers Text Book and an online platform for students to practice their exercises; the same platform is used by the teachers to assign quiz, assignments and projects.

Also, Codevidhya offers a well-structured coding curriculum for Schools to teach coding right from Grade 1. The curriculum is at par with the latest trends in programming languages such as Python, HTML and JavaScript to prepare young manpower for future challenges. Currently working with 50 schools in the Rajasthan & South region, the startup aims to grow all over the country in the coming years.

The program offered by Codevidhya to schools consists of the following set of resources:

Curriculum books for Grades 1 to 10.
Access to Codevidhya online tools such as QuickBook and CodePlay.
Multiple Training Sessions for Computer Science teachers for the whole academic session to equip them to teach conveniently and more effectively.
Regular workshops for students to introduce them to the coding concepts and the latest innovations in the field of Computer Science.
Online Assessments to track the students’ performances.
Program Monitoring.
One to one support for teachers and students.
Coding Challenges for students to create the competitive environment.

Codevidhya – Founders & Team

Shivram Choudhary is the founder of Codevidhya.

Shivram Choudhary, founder of Codevidhya — Shivram Choudhary | Founder, Codevidhya

In his role as Chairperson, Mr. Shiv Ram considers himself responsible for equipping the students with all the skills necessary for the 21st century. Having identified a considerable gap between what is being taught in the schools as part of the Computer Science curriculum and what is it that the market demands, he wanted a curriculum that could cater to the students in sync with the need of the hour.

Vikas Bahar, CEO of Codevidhya – He is equipped with extensive and diverse experience, and is tremendously skilled with knowledge in IT strategy, Market Research, Management, Pre-sales, Business Process, Re-engineering as well as Business Development. With an MBA degree from the prestigious S.P. Jain Centre of Management, Singapore, Vikas Bahar is a functional & process re-engineering specialist with experience of working in distinctive streams of Information Technology and Service industry in the domain of Banking & Financial Services.

Subhash Bohra, Technical Officer of Codevidhya – He looks after all the technical and product development aspects. Subhash carries the vision of the work as his motivation and wants to achieve this unique goal of teaching students code at an early age. Subhash believes that in the coming years the world will be technical so that every student from the coming generation should learn everything that can ease their complexities for the future.

The company currently has 15 Full-time employees and 10 Part-time employees/interns. The average age of the employee is 25, the team is young, ready to experiment, open to learn and willing to stretch.

Majority of the current team has been with the firm since the beginning and the rest have come through references. The entire team believes in the concept and the importance of teaching coding to students from an early age. Anyone who believes in it is welcomed with open arms to join the team.

Codevidhya – Name, Tagline & Logo

Codevidhya has a clear focus on what the output of the program is. Since they believe Coding is also a Vidhya that needs to be learnt by students to be ready for the upcoming Tech Driven world hence the name Codevidhya.

The startup’s tagline is an extension of what they are trying to do, “Teaching Kids to Code”.

Codevidhya Logo

Codevidhya – Business & Revenue Model

The startup’s flagship offering is Annual School Curriculum for students from Grade 1 to Grade 10, this is their B2B offering for schools. The Codevidhya revenue model is on a subscription basis, where they charge on an annual basis per student with prices varying from 800-1200.

Under B2C offerings, they have Self Online Learning, LIVE 1-1 Coding Classes and Byte Sized Courses. The prices of these courses depend on the duration and technology, they start as low as INR 1,200 and go up to INR 12, 000.

Codevidhya – Startup Launch

“We were lucky to have a school trust us and allow us to run the pilot program for 400 students. This pilot gave us enough confidence on the need of the program as well as feedback on things to improve.”, said Shivram Choudhary, founder of Codevidhya.

Codevidhya – User Acquisition & Growth

The startup haven’t used any sort of marketing campaign, the first 10,000 customers came to them through reference and word of mouth promotion. The team believes that satisfied customers are their brand ambassadors and this clarity has not only made their services and offerings good but also made everyone using the platform happy.

The company has seen 100% growth in terms of students using the platform for the past 2 years thus making the team believe in the product as well as the mission they are onto. They believe the awareness of coding to be included in schools is going to increase leading to more schools and students willing to join the platform.

Codevidhya – Competitors

Codevidhya being in the edtech industry definitley has stong competition from other startups who have been around longer and have aggressive marketing techniques. Some Competitors of Codevidhya are :

Codevidhya – Startup Challenges

The biggest challenge that the company face even today is the lack of qualified people who are interested to move to Jaipur and join the team, specially Tech and Trainer. They offers ESOPs to certain candidates who they think believe in the vision of the firm.

Codevidhya – Funding & Investors

Codevidhya is currently a bootstrapped company.

Codevidhya – Recognition and Achievements

Got Silver Badge in QRATE program by ISTART Govt. of Rajasthan.
Selected in top 5 most innovative and scalable startups of 2018 by TIE Global (CNBC Young Turks Program).
Featured by CIO magazine amongst 20 top most promising EdTech startups of 2018.

Codevidhya – Future Plans

At Codevidhya, the team believes that every student of this nation should have the opportunity to learn to code and create. For this opportunity, the startup is about to launch a subscription based Codevidhya Program for individual students also. AI and ML are new trends and also the future of programming. In step 2, they will be introducing AI and ML as part of their program.

Codevidhya – Conclusion

Codevidhya is India’s first company that introduced Coding e-learning. The company has grown to educate 20,000 Young Keen Coders in its curated Codevidhya Annual School Curriculum alone. The Young Keen Coders grew to blossom into National Award-winning Coders at competitions such as the Google Learn to Code Contest. Codevidhya scientifically developed curriculum is molded to effectively educate children from the age of 6-16 years of age.

Codevidhya’s research and expertise curate a large variety of well-researched and structured curriculums and programs that ensures students’ smooth transition into Coding.

Codevidhya – FAQs

Who is the Founder of Codevidhya?

Shivram Choudhary is the founder of Codevidhya.

What is the state of Codevidhya Funding?

Codevidhya is currently a bootstrapped company.

What does Codevidhya offer?

Codevidhya, an EdTech company is highly inspired by technology to facilitate technical education besides contemporary learning. Codevidhya follows the ‘Learn by Doing’ approach. Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, Database etc. with Codevidhya.

What are the future plans of Codevidhya?

AI and ML are new trends and also the future of programming. In coming days they will be introducing AI and ML as part of their program.

May 24, 2021

SportVot Startup Story – Digital TV for Local Sports Talent

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 SportVot.

SportVot has made streaming sports tournaments a one-click process with the use of smartphones. It is a digital TV for local sports talent and emerging leagues in India. SportVot provides a platform for sport bodies to stream their games online, local sports talent to show their skills, make them more marketable and helps them get discovered by a network of scouts/coaches as well as connect the fans to their local heroes.

Founded by Siddhant Agarwal, Shubhangi Gupta and Yash Bhagwatkar in 2019, SportVot has managed to build its presence in local areas by covering 5000+ games across 56 different sports, profiling 20,000+ athletes in just 12 months!

StartupTalky interviewed Shubhangi Gupta (Co-founder & CMO, SportVot) to get an insight on the Startup Story of SportVot. Also get a glance on SportVot Revenue model, funding, growth, marketing strategies and more in this article ahead!

SportVot – Company Highlights

Startup Name	SportVot
Founding Team	Founder – Siddhant Agarwal (CEO), Co-founders – Shubhangi Gupta (CMO), Yash Bhagwatkar (COO)
Founding Year	2019
Headquarters	Mumbai
Sector	Sports Media Technology

About SportVot
SportVot – Sports Media Industry Details
SportVot – Founders and Team
SportVot Ideation – How it Started?
SportVot – Products/Services offered
SportVot – Name Meaning and Logo
SportVot – Business Model and Revenue Model
SportVot – Startup Launch
SportVot – Challenges Faced
SportVot – Marketing Strategy
SportVot – Growth and Current Status
SportVot – Funding and Investors
SportVot – Competitors
Tools used by SportVot
SportVot – Recognition and Achievements
SportVot – Future Plans
SportVot – FAQs

About SportVot

SportVot is a digital TV for local sports talent and emerging leagues in India. Grassroots or local sports tournaments have a longer recall and emotional value with kids, parents and their friends and family. But unfortunately broadcasting them via traditional media platforms is not an economical fit for both the Sports bodies and media houses, leaving about 94% of the ecosystem uncovered.

SportVot with its technology and services has made broadcasting economical and easily accessible to these sports bodies. SportVot provides a platform for sport bodies to stream their games online, local sports talent to show their skills, make them more marketable and helps them get discovered by a network of scouts/coaches as well as connect the fans to their local heroes.

“There are around 10m athletes and 100k tournaments worth streaming in India, we want to grow from 150 to 1000 tournaments in the next one year (by 2022) and unearth more hidden talent in the country” says Shubhangi Gupta, Co-founder & CMO, SportVot

SportVot – Sports Media Industry Details

In India, there are approximately 10 million aspiring/emerging athletes (U-19), and around 100k+ semi-professional/ professional tournaments that takes place annually. But most athletes do not get access to the right set of tools and platforms to showcase their talent. This results in a lack of transparency in talent discovery which in turn increases the number of dropouts in the Indian Sports Ecosystem.

The sports media revenue in the Asia Pacific is estimated to grow to up to USD 6.6 billion by the end of 2024. Out of this, 40% is estimated to be through the OTT/digital channels. These estimated numbers are across the super-premium level. Currently, there are more than 10 Billion Impressions on local sports content scattered over YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms. There can be see an increase in demand & engagement for local sports content with limited supply available. In India, sports as an industry is scattered and disorganized, SportVot has been strategically designed to create unique IPs and generate revenue from this fragmented sports economy.

SportVot – Founders and Team

SportVot Founder – Siddhant Agarwal (CEO), SportVot Co-founders – Shubhangi Gupta (CMO) and Yash Bhagwatkar (COO)

SportVot Founders and CEO — (L-R) Yash Bhagwatkar, Siddhant Agarwal, Shubhangi Gupta – **SportVot Founders**

Siddhant Agarwal | Founder & CEO

Siddhant has 8 years of experience building software and technology products. He has Worked with Oracle and Cashcare in the past. Built Thisgameweek, the first cross geography real money multi currency fantasy gaming platform, operational in India and Africa, partnered with Nazara games (largest mobile gaming platform in India) for publishing the game across geographies. Exited it in late 2018. Currently, at the helm of SportVot since January 2019.

Yash Bhagwatkar | Co-Founder & COO

Yash has 3 years of operational experience, with 2 years of corporate operations at Accenture. He has spearheaded the sports operational network of broadcasters, content creators, sports talent, and data collectors in Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

Shubhangi Gupta | Co- Founder & CMO

Digital marketing and Branding executive with around 4 years of experience. She has developed around 40+ brands including some marquee brands. She also had 2 other startups in the past. One named EthKnits, a handicraft online boutique, and Nite Owls, a small Digital Marketing agency specializing in startups.

SportVot Ideation – How it Started?

Siddhant and Yash being a passionate sports lover, they used to work on cricket & football analytics together and also had their own YouTube show named The Free Hit Project. A couple of months into their show, they kept interacting with a couple of sports enthusiasts and saw the need of more sports coverage beyond the regular International Football and Cricket leagues. A lot of upcoming talent came to them to make their cricket performance reports to help them get better placements. That was the beginning of the idea of SportVot’s core product and vision of the company. To create a technology to cater to the grassroots sports.

SportVot – Products/Services offered

With the rise in penetration of 4g and affordable smartphones, high speed internet is available to everyone at a reasonably low price. SportVot has made streaming sports tournaments a one click process with use of the hardware that you all possess i.e. your smartphone, thus reducing the dependency on the use of external hardware and software. The SportVot ecosystem enables these tournament organizers and clubs to make their tournaments fully digital right from streaming, instant highlights, scoring to fixture management. This, in turn, makes these games and the athletes participating in them more marketable and discoverable to a wider audience.

SportVot – Name Meaning and Logo

The SportVot team wanted to keep the name Indian friendly.

“We were just joking about the fact that how Indians say namak shamak, kal wal, etc. So we came up with SportVot, with the intention that we may not just limit ourselves to sports but other talent as well at some point in time.” Shubhangi added.

SportVot – Business Model and Revenue Model

Currently, the primary sources of revenue of SportVot are – direct income from streaming services and advertisements/sponsorships. Pay per view has been tested at very low scale on a pilot basis. They basically get paid to acquire its own consumers.

SportVot – Startup Launch and Marketing Strategy

The first 100 users of SportVot were via streaming DSO games and building a sports community on social media channels. The team made sure to put relevant content to build the community on Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook. With the help of that, SportVot kept growing and its name became more evident in the sports community.

Apart from community building, SportVot received incredible partnership opportunities with Barcelona Academy Delhi for live streaming their annual Asia Pacific Cup in January 2020. It also covered some esteemed games like Rajasthan Basketball League, Yuva Sena Kabaddi League, etc.

The main marketing strategy of SportVot that helped the company a lot was building a sports community for all kinds of sports. It now has a good fan base on its digital platforms, who are loyal and keep approaching the platform for more content.

SportVot – Challenges Faced

Figuring out the camera set up for live streaming at low cost was a challenge. Not every tournament organizer can afford expensive set up and a lot of the team’s time went in research and development for the right set of tools required to make this process cheap and easy.

SportVot – Growth and Current Status

In just 12 months, SportVot has managed to build its presence in local areas of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Kerala and Delhi by covering 5000+ games across 56 different sports, profiling 20,000+ athletes, and building a strong community of more than a million sports enthusiasts on its digital channels. This passionate sports community of tier 2, tier 3 and rural areas of India helps the team to get more brand sponsorships which in turn assist these unique sports talent, and even tournaments, to get more support and visibility.

SportVot – Funding and Investors

SportVot recently raised AUD 25,000 from StartupBootCamp in an accelerator programmer. Prior to this, SportVot received INR 25,00,000 as Friends and Family round.

SportVot Funding Details is as follows –

Date	Stage	Amount	Investors Name
September 2019	Friends & Family	INR 21 Lakhs	Ashay Pradeep Bandivadekar
September 2019	Friends & Family	INR 4 Lakhs	Rakesh Murarka
June 2021	Accelerator Programme	AUD 25,000 (~ INR 14.2 Lakhs)	StartupBootCamp

SportVot – Competitors

SportVot has no direct Indian competitors in this domain yet. Some indirect competitors of SportVot are Overtime, Pitchvision, Dfocus.

Tools used by SportVot

Airtable, Gsuite, Slack are tools used by SportVot to run the startup.

SportVot – Recognition and Achievements

SportVot received recognition from local and political event organizers for streaming events at very low cost.

SportVot – Future Plans

SportVot wants to expand to more geographies in India and work on interesting features on the app to promote talent discovery. There are around 10m athletes and 100k tournaments worth streaming in India, SportVot wants to grow from 150 to 1000 tournaments in the next one year and unearth more hidden talent in the country.

SportVot – FAQs

What is SportVot?

SportVot is a digital TV for local sports talent and emerging leagues in India. SportVot provides a platform for sport bodies to stream their games online, local sports talent to show their skills, make them more marketable and helps them get discovered by a network of scouts/coaches as well as connect the fans to their local heroes.

Who founded SportVot?

SportVot Founder – Siddhant Agarwal (CEO), SportVot Co-founders – Shubhangi Gupta (CMO) and Yash Bhagwatkar (COO)

Who are the competitors of SportVot?

SportVot has no direct Indian competitors in this domain yet. Some indirect competitors of SportVot are Overtime, Pitchvision, Dfocus.

How does SportVot make money?

Primary sources of revenue of SportVot are – direct income from streaming services and advertisements/sponsorships. Pay per view has been tested at very low scale on a pilot basis. They basically get paid to acquire its own consumers.

May 24, 2021

Marico – An FMCG with a Positive Impact on The Entire Business Ecosystem

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 Marico.

The consumer goods market is a group of stocks and companies that deal with goods purchased by individuals and households rather than by businesses and industries. Food manufacturing, baked goods, garments, drinks, vehicles, and electronics are also part of this industry.

Marico Limited is a leading consumer goods company in India, offering a wide range of food, beauty, and wellness products and services. Marico has offices in over 25 countries across Asia and Africa, with its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Marico – Company Highlights

Company Name	Marico Limited
Headquarters	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Industry	Consumer goods
Founded	2 April 1990
Founder	Harsh Mariwala
Products	Personal care, Skin care, Convenience food
Areas Served	Worldwide
Website	www.marcio.com

Marico – Latest News
About Marico and How it Works?
Marico – Vision and Mission
Marico – Founder and History
Marico – Name, Logo and Tagline
Marico – Products
Marico – Business Model
Marico – Revenue and Growth
Marico – Key Financial Metrics
Marico – Investments
Marico – Acquisitions
Marico – Competitors
Marico – Challenges Faced
Marico – Future Plans
Marico – FAQS

Marico – Latest News

As of January 2021, Marico was adopting a digital-first approach for premium foods.

Marico, a major Consumer goods business, is aiming for a bigger share of the food market. Marico wants to increase revenue from its food sector to INR 500 crore in FY22, up from less than INR 200 crore the previous fiscal. Sanjay Mishra, COO of Marico, spoke about the company’s renewed emphasis on the men’s grooming market, as well as strengthening the company’s premium product range and introducing “mass products with differentiation.”

“The big picture is that we want to be present in the foods segment, in the premium as well as mass categories. For the premium segment, we are going to adopt a digital-first approach. This calls for doing multiple things including creating new categories and tapping categories that are huge in the digital space. We started by prioritizing Saffola Fittify and Coco Soul as digital-first brands to see the response we got. Over time, we have learnt that there is a demand for these categories, but at this time, the market size is very small in the country. Hence, we are focusing on creating categories digitally,” said Sanjay Mishra, COO of Marico.

About Marico and How it Works?

Marico Limited is a leading consumer goods company in India, specializing in food, beauty, and wellness. Marico has a presence in over 25 countries across Asia and Africa, with its headquarters in Mumbai. It nurtures leading brands in hair care, skin care, edible oils, nutritious foods, hygiene, male grooming, and fabric care, among other categories. Marico’s goods are a part of millions of people’s everyday lives all over the world.

Parachute, Parachute Advansed Livon, Set Wet, Mediker, Saffola, Nihar Naturals, and Revive are some of the famous Indian household brands. Parachute, HairCode, Ingwe, X-Men, Caivil, Isoplus, Code 10, Hercules, Black Chic, and Thuan Phat are among the foreign brands that have been localized to meet the fashion needs of international customers.

Marico – Vision and Mission

Every member of the Marico family has a vision of long-term growth and prosperity while also attempting to have a positive impact on the entire business ecosystem. They collaborate to improve the lives of all of their stakeholders, including consumers, investors, members, and society at large.

The corporation has always taken steps to minimize negative environmental impacts while focusing on the common benefit of the people. It inspires people to contribute to society in every way they can. Marico claims that businesses and social organizations can improve their economic and social values through creativity and innovation. Instead, it is one of the company’s core principles.

Marico – Founder and History

Harsh Mariwala entered his family’s company, Bombay Oil Industries, in 1971, and by 1974, he had imagined an FMGC market for coconut and refined edible oils in smaller consumer packs, and had established a national distribution network for Parachute. And it was then that the first blue bottle of parachute oil appeared in Harsh’s invention.

Marico was born on April 2nd, 1990. Marico also released another haircare product, Hair & Care, a non-sticky hair oil, in the same year. Sweekar sunflower oil has also become a household name.

In 1992, Marico relocated its headquarters from Masjid Bunda Bazar to upscale Bandra. The business transitioned from being an exporter to an international marketer in 1992, when it opened its first overseas office in Dubai.

Marico – Name, Logo and Tagline

Marico’s tagline says, “Marico – make a difference”. The firm has always taken steps to minimize negative environmental impacts while focusing on the common benefit of the people.

Company Logo of Marico

Marico – Products

Hair Oil

Nihar Naturals Sarson Kesh Tel
Nihar Naturals Shanti Amla Badam Hair Oil
Parachute Advansed Deep Conditioning Hot Oil
Parachute Advansed Aloe Vera Enriched Coconut Hair Oil
Parachute Advansed Coconut Hair Oil
Parachute Advansed Jasmine Hair Oil
Hair & Care Fruit Oils
Nihar Naturals Coconut Hair Oil

Coconut Oil

Parachute Coconut Oil
Nihar Naturals Coconut Oil
Nihar Naturals Uttam Coconut Oil

Hair Serum

Livon Silky Potion Hair Serum
Hair & Care Silk n Shine Hair Serum

Anti-Hairfall

Livon Hair Gain Tonic
Parachute Advansed Ayurvedic Hair Oil
Parachute Advansed Ayurvedic Gold Hair Oil
Parachute Advansed Scalp Therapie Hair Oil

Male Grooming and Styling

Parachute Advansed Men’s Hair Cream Range
Set Wet Beard Styling Gel
Set Wet Deodorants
Set Wet Styling Gel

Wellness

Saffola Oils
Saffola Aura – Olive & Flaxseed Oil
Saffola Masala Oats
Saffola Multigrain Flakes

Skincare

Parachute Advansed Body Lotion

Marico – Business Model

The Marico business model is centered on focused growth across all of its brands/and territories, which is powered by constantly enhancing customer value propositions, market expansion, and expanding its retail presence. The model ensures Marico’s presence in niche / ethnic Indian product or service categories where traditional MNCs are weak.

Marico is a well-managed company that has created a stimulating work environment that empowers employees, facilitates teamwork, and encourages innovative ideas. Marico has risen to become one of the few profitable Indian FMCG companies over the years as a result of this.

Marico – Revenue and Growth

Marico Ltd posted a 13 percent increase in profit in the December quarter compared to the same period the previous year, despite rising raw material prices.

The company’s earnings beat analysts’ expectations, owing to strong growth across most of its portfolio. For the three months ended December 31, the manufacturer of Parachute coconut oil and Saffola edible oil posted a net profit of INR 307 crore, up from INR 272 crore the previous year.

In response to increasing prices, the company implemented selective price hikes in its main Parachute brand during the quarter. In India, Marico posted strong demand across 95 percent of its portfolio, suggesting that consumer sentiment is improving.

“In the India business, the company witnessed robust demand trends across more than 95% of its portfolio amidst steadily improving consumer confidence and a declining covid-19 graph. Traditional trade led the growth as the company took concerted efforts to drive excellence in execution. The company also continued to operate at reduced distributor inventory levels. Among the alternate channels, e-commerce witnessed augmented growth and modern trade also recovered sequentially to end flattish on a year-on-year basis,” the company said in a filing to the exchanges.

Marico – Key Financial Metrics

Financial Metric	2019-20	2018-19
Total Income	3504.00	3489.00
PAT Margin	-7.86	36.88
Equity Share Capital	93.03	93.03
Asset Turnover Ratio	5.61	7.14

Marico – Investments

Date	Organization Name	Round	Amount
Apr 18, 2018	Revofit	Corporate Round	–
May 18, 2017	Beardo.in	Funding Round	₹500M

Marico – Acquisitions

Acquiree Name	About Acquiree	Date	Amount
Beardo.in	Beard is an official brand manufacturer of natural ordinary oils or incompatible products to bearded man.	Jul 1, 2020	–
Isoplus	Isoplus, a hair styling brand in South Africa.	Jul 28, 2017	₹360M

Marico – Competitors

Top competitors of Marico :

Hindustan Unilever
Procter & Gamble
Dabur
Advantice Health
Emami
Gillette India
Bajaj Consumer
Colgate

Marico – Challenges Faced

Marico faced an extreme challenge from Unilever at a critical juncture in its growth path. Back then, it was no secret that Parachute, Marico’s coconut hair oil brand, was the single largest contributor to the company’s portfolio. With the aim of wresting the market away from Parachute, Hindustan Unilever launched and began vigorously advertising their own brand Nihar.

HU’s aggressiveness was evident in its promotional campaign, which outspent Marico at every turn and drowned Marico out in the media with its deafening voice. Then came some alarming news from the field, with Marico salespeople reporting “green walls in retail stores.” Nihar was a green brand, while Parachute was a blue one. For Mariconians, visions of green walls became nightmares.

Explaining Marico’s strategy, Sameer Satpathy, Head of Marketing, said, “Our strategy has always been to focus strongly on brands; investments in brands in terms of what is correct for the brands, which builds long term preference for the brand. So, we fundamentally keep doing that and I believe that it is more important not only during times of slowdown, but also when there is a boom.”

Marico – Future Plans

Marico’s most aggressive strategy is in the food industry. It recently introduced honey, which it says is one of the purest in the world, as part of the Saffola brand. With Covid-19 still raging, Gupta says that people’s eating habits have been reorganized into three categories: health and hygiene, nutritional immunity, and ready-to-cook foods or between-meal snacks.

Marico does not yet have critical mass in health and hygiene, and has made its foray into the immunity room with honey.

Fortunately, 80 to 90 per cent of our portfolio consists of items of daily consumption where we can grab market share. And there is also a huge opportunity to quickly get scale in others so that they become a significant part of our portfolio,” says Gupta of the immunity-giving foods the company plans to launch.

Marico – FAQS

What does Marico do?

Marico Limited is a leading consumer goods company in India, offering a wide range of food, beauty, and wellness products and services.

Who founded Marico?

Harsh Mariwala is the founder of Marico.

Is Parachute a product of Marico?

Yes, Parachute oil is Marico’s product.

What companies do Marico compete with?

Top competitors of Marico are Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Dabur, Advantice Health, Emami, Gillette India, Bajaj Consumer and Colgate.

May 21, 2021

Nearbuy Success Story – How the Paytm-owned Company is Taking Hyperlocal E-Commerce to New Heights?

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 Nearbuy.

Owing to a lack of time and fair prices, everybody nowadays prefers online shopping. The eCommerce industry was last valued at $22 billion in 2018 and is estimated to be worth around $200 billion by 2027. Thus, the growth that the eCommerce industry is seeing is beyond comparison. This outstanding growth that the industry has seen and the exponential growth that is predicted for the industry could only be possible with the range of successful players and the pioneers of the idea. Moreover, the e-commerce players have rapidly grown over the past couple of years to become hyper-local entities to serve their customers better.

Gurgaon-based Nearbuy is one of the firsts of Indian hyperlocal eCommerce companies. The Indian hyper-local eCommerce company, founded in 2010, has been built to extend an array of products across diverse categories for the customers to buy almost anything when it comes to services. So, whether the users want to dine online, relax at the best spas, or discover their city most intimately, it is Nearbuy that they looked up to.

Nearbuy.com, which was formerly known as SoSasta, Crazeal, and Groupon, was formed in 2015 and now stands acquired by Paytm since December 7, 2017, when the digital payments giant acquired Nearbuy and its parent organization, Little, signed a merger deal of the two well-funded companies. The company still stands as a hyper-local, deals-based, e-commerce services company owned by Paytm.

Here’s a look at Nearbuy.com and its Founders and Team, Mission and Vision, Startup Story, Business Model, Revenue Model, Growth, Funding and Investors, Competitors, Challenges Faced, Future Plans, and more.

Nearbuy – Company Highlights

Company Name	Nearbuy.com
Former Name	Groupon India
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Parent Company	Paytm
Industry	Hyperlocal eCommerce
Founded	2015
Founder	Ankur Warikoo, Snehesh Mitra, Ankur Sarawagi, Sumeet Kapur, Sachin Kapur, Ravi Shankar
Funding	$37.2 mn (December 2021)
Revenue	$4.45 mn (Rs 33.28 crore in FY18)
Areas Served	India
Website	www.nearbuy.com

Nearbuy – Latest News
About Nearbuy and How it Works?
Nearbuy – Mission and Vision
Nearbuy – Founders and Team
Nearbuy – Startup Story
Nearbuy – Name, Logo and Tagline
Nearbuy – Business and Revenue Model
Nearbuy – Revenue and Growth
Nearbuy – Funding and Investors
Nearbuy – Competitors
Nearbuy – Challenges Faced
Nearbuy – Future Plans
Nearbuy – FAQs

Nearbuy – Latest News

As of September 2019, Ankur Warikoo, the co-founder and ex-CEO resigned from Nearbuy. Warikoo announced that he would step down as CEO of Nearbuy in November, handing over the reins to co-founders Ravi Shankar and Snehesh Mitra. Shankar, who was previously the COO of Nearbuy, will take over as CEO, with Mitra taking over as COO of the Paytm-owned firm. Warikoo will remain a shareholder and member of the company’s board of directors.

About Nearbuy and How it Works?

Nearbuy.com (Nearbuy India Private Limited) is India’s first hyper-local online services platform, built to let consumers and local merchants connect and interact along with helping them get the best deals possible. The company was first founded as SoSasta and was eventually acquired by Nasdaq-listed Groupon Inc in 2011. The company then changed its name to Groupon India in 2013. Finally, the company was named Nearbuy in 2015 when Sequoia Capital India and Ankur Warikoo bought majority stakes in the firm. Ankur Warikoo has no longer been the CEO since November 2019 when Ravi Shankar was appointed for the position.

Nearbuy.com was built with the aim to make things easily available for users. Whatever the needs of the customers may be, whether it is to enjoy fine dining, unwind at the world-class spas, or simply get their city known a little better, Nearbuy.com aimed to make all of them possible for the users.

Nearbuy provides its merchants with a clear branding and visibility-driven network that makes it easy for consumers to find their businesses in and around their locations. Nearbuy is available in 35+ markets, 18+ categories, and 100,000+ unique places, with over 50,000 merchants.

You can download the Nearbuy app from the Google Play Store or the iTunes Store to discover, purchase, and share exciting experiences around you.

Nearbuy – Mission and Vision

The mission statement of Nearbuy says, “We at nearbuy.com are taking hyperlocal ecommerce where it’s never gone before. So, if you thrive on the thrill of operating in a world of firsts, you belong at nearbuy.com.“

Nearbuy – Founders and Team

Ankur Warikoo, Ankur Sarawagi, Sumeet Kapur, Sachin Kapur, Ravi Shankar, and Snehesh Mitra are the founders of Nearbuy, which was founded in 2010.

Ravi Shankar, current CEO and Co-Founder of Nearbuy

Ravi Shankar L

Ravi Shankar did his Bachelors of Engineering before pursuing an MBA Marketing from Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development. Ravi Shankar started with Wipro as a Presales Technical Consultant and went on to become the National Sales Manager there. Shankar was then the Business Director at Groupon. After leaving Groupon, Ravi Shankar joined Little Internet, where he was appointed as the CEO and Board Member. Nearbuy was the next company where he went on to become the COO, who was later appointed as the CEO for a brief period of more than a year. Shankar is currently serving as a Co-founder and Board Member of Nearbuy along with being the SVP at Paytm.

Ankur Warikoo

Mentor, angel investor, and public speaker, Ankur Warikoo is a Hindu College and Michigan State University from where he graduated with a BSc in Physics and an MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics, eventually pursuing an MBA in Finance from the Indian School of Business. Warikoo started as the Head of APAC market at Groupon Inc and was then appointed as the CEO. He was also a co-founder and CEO of Nearbuy and is currently serving as a Board member. Along with this, Warikoo is an Educator and Content Creator at Brand Warikoo and a Board member of the Indian School of Business.

Ankur Sarawagi

Another co-founder of Nearbuy, Ankur Sarawagi is an IIT Bombay alumnus from where he completed his BTech and MTech in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Integrated Manufacturing along with a Minor in Operations Research. Starting from Bain & Company, Ankur joined Groupon as the Director of Sales. However, it was only a brief stint that Ankur had with Groupon, eventually moving on to co-found Nearbuy. Ankur is currently serving as the Vice President, International Growth & Managing Director of WeddingWire India at The Knot Worldwide, which came into being as a result of the merger of WeddingWire and The Knot. Sarawagi has also served as the VP & Country Manager at WeddingWire.

Snehesh Mitra

Snehesh graduated from IIT Kharagpur in Electric and Electronics Engineering. Mitra was the co-founder Urban Blocks and Nearbuy along with being the CTO of the former and CTO, COO, and CPO of the latter organization. Mitra is currently serving as a Product Manager of Google. Along with these, Snehesh had also previously worked with Algo Works, Mobicules Systems, NDS Limited, Headstrong, HCL Technologies, and more in numerous key designations.

Sumeet Kapur

Sumeet Kapur is also known as the co-founder of Nearbuy. Kapur was a student of Delhi University from where he completed Bcom. (Hons.) before moving on to The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and completing his CA degree. In his career, Sumeet has been the Co-founder and Director of Finance at Edutopper, CFO and Regional Financial Director of Emerging Markets (APAC), Co-founder and CFO at Nearbuy.com, Co-founder at Inflexion Point and is currently serving as a Founder and CEO at Wellcure.com.

Sachin Kapur

Sachin Kapur is also a Delhi University alumnus, who next went to obtain a PGDBM, Management from the Centre for Management Development. Starting with a brief stint at Fever 104 FM, Sachin went to become a Sr. Manager Marketing and Strategy at BigRock. Leaving the company after a year and a half, Sachin Kapur then moved on to become the CMO of Groupon. He eventually became the CO-founder and CMO of Nearbuy. Presently, Sachin is serving as Sr. Director Marketing at Coupang.

Nearbuy, owned by Paytm, is currently around 160+ employees strong.

Nearbuy – Startup Story

Nearbuy was formed or rather named in 2015. The company was founded as SoSasta in 2009, but it was acquired in 2011 by the Chicago-based parent of Nearbuy, Groupon Inc., in 2011 with an aim to begin operations in India. It then changed its name to Groupon India in 2013.

Ankur Warikoo and Ravi Shankar worked for Groupon as executives, with the former leading the company after the founders of SoSasta left.
After Sequoia enabled the exit of Groupon Inc in 2015, Groupon India was rebranded as Nearbuy. Nearbuy, along with Little, was purchased by the payments company Paytm in a distress deal two years later. Paytm helped promote a share exchange arrangement between Little and Nearbuy shareholders, which resulted in Nearbuy becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Little Internet.

The purchase price for both companies was set at INR 272.31 crore. Following the acquisition, the company gained access to a large pool of capital along with a large Paytm userbase. It, however, struggled to make an impact because sales were unable to keep up with expenses. The company had total revenue of INR 33.28 crore in FY18, with losses of INR 49.11 crore.

Nearbuy – Name, Logo and Tagline

Nearbuy’s old name is Groupon India. After the rebranding of Nearbuy in August 2015, Groupon became a minority stakeholder in nearbuy.com.

Nearbuy’ s Company Logo

“The Lifestyle App” is the tagline of Nearbuy. Nearbuy comes in and says “Let us give you a discount for visiting the place through us.”

Nearbuy – Business and Revenue Model

Nearbuy is an Online-to-Offline services ecommerce platform, which is currently owned and funded by Paytm, established to connect the consumers with India’s largest network of local businesses. nearbuy.com makes it easy for the consumers to discover their worlds along with helping them avail exclusive deals across categories such as restaurants, spas, salons, movie halls, retail stores, amusement parks and more.

The key highlights of Nearbuy business and revenue model are as follows:

Nearbuy makes a contract with local stores and service-based businesses such as spas and salons.
Retailers promise to lower their rates in exchange for being featured on the website.
Nearbuy makes the majority of its profits by charging a fee of 2% to 25% of the sale price.
Retailers receive a substantial amount of revenue in exchange for providing such steep discounts on the website.
They often accept advertisements on the website, increasing the company’s revenue.

Nearbuy – Revenue and Growth

In terms of sales, FY18 was another low year for the firm. Though the company’s overall revenue rose by just 4.9% from INR 31.73 crore in FY17 to INR 33.28 crore in FY18, its basic turnover decreased by 16.4% from INR 28.22 crore to INR 23.58 crore. This simply suggests that the minuscule rise in sales was not due to the company’s main operations. Instead, it leaned on a 2.76X increase in other revenue, which increased from INR 3.52 crore to INR 9.7 crore.

Nearbuy.com claims to be present in more than 33 cities across 18+ categories. Furthermore, the company has more than 68,000 merchants to deal with across 100,000+ unique locations. Here’s some more growth highlights of the company, as reported on March 2019:

It has a monthly active users count of 3 million
It receives around 7.5 million monthly visits
Nearbuy app has been downloaded by 4.9 million users
Nearbuy has 68,000+ merchant outlets
It has a market share of 88% in India

Nearbuy – Funding and Investors

The Nearbuy funding is as follows:

Date	Round	Amount	Lead Investors
Apr 3, 2017	Venture Round	$15M	Sequoia Capital India
Sep 13, 2016	Debt Financing	₹150M	BlackSoil
Mar 10, 2015	Venture Round	$20M	Sequoia Capital India

Nearbuy – Competitors

Top competitors of Nearbuy are:

Gmarket
Magicpin
Grofers India Pvt
Shopee
Blibli
Amazon India
Swiggy
CashKaro
LivingSocial

Nearbuy – Challenges Faced

The biggest obstacle, according to Ankur, the former CEO of Nearbuy, was to build the group, to which Nearbuy belongs. Users would mistakenly think of the business as a deal and discount platform, which is exactly what Groupon was. The mission of Nearbuy is to put the offline world online in a way that allows users to discover, buy, and save.

Simply informing consumers that they can purchase their favorite restaurants, spas, salons, entertainment zones, hotels, brands, and other services online and then walk in to consume them while saving money is a huge challenge in and of itself. Few people get it, but the majority do not. They don’t consider it a normal part of their lives.

“I often say this internally – our job at Nearbuy is not to grow the company, rather to build a completely new way for Indian consumers to explore the offline world which was a big task,” says Ankur.

Nearbuy – Future Plans

Nearbuy expects revenue of INR 255.99 crore and a net profit of INR 17.73 crore by 2022-23. The estimated sales, according to Warikoo, are reasonable and vary from the Gross Merchandise Value (GMV, or total value of merchandise), which is much higher.

“We are capitalized and on a growth expansion mode. As long as we are unit economics positive, we can manage our fixed costs with the investment raised out of this merger. The plan is to grow this number to 250,000 in three years. We have a maximum available universe of roughly around 350,000 merchants” says Warikoo.

Warikoo claims that discretionary spending among Indian consumers has increased by more than doubling to 7% of individual income over the last decade.

Nearbuy – FAQs

What does Nearbuy do?

Nearbuy.com (Nearbuy India Private Limited) is India’s first hyper-local online platform, allowing consumers and local merchants to connect and interact. Nearbuy.com makes it possible for you to enjoy fine dining, unwind at world-class spas, or simply get to know your city better.

Who founded Nearbuy?

Nearbuy was founded by Ankur Warikoo, Ravi Shankar and Snehesh Mitra in 2015.

Which company owns Nearbuy?

Paytm owns Nearbuy.

How does Nearbuy make money?

Nearbuy did not charge its merchant anything for setup. Customers are only charged a fee for each purchase they make. Depending on the popularity and category, the commission ranges between 2% and 25%.

Which companies do Nearbuy compete with?

Top competitors of Nearbuy are Gmarket, Magicpin, Paytm, Grofers India Pvt, Shopee, Blibli, Amazon India, Swiggy, CashKaro, and LivingSocial.

May 21, 2021

Tag: 📄Company Profiles

Company Highlights

PostFold—About

PostFold—Founders

PostFold—How It All Started?

PostFold—Products

PostFold—Business Model

PostFold—Challenges & Future

Startup Challenges

Competitors

Advisors and Mentors

Awards

Growth & Future

Fashion Industry In India

FAQ’s

Who is the owner of PostFold?

Who are the mentors of PostFold?

What is PostFold’s Business Model?

Who funds PostFold?

What is the future for PostFold?

Company Highlights

Fastor- About & How It Works

Fastor- Founders

Fastor- How It All Started?

Fastor- Name, Logo & Tagline

Fastor- Vision & Mission

Fastor- Products/Services

Fastor- Target Market Size

Fastor- Business & Revenue Model

Fastor- Startup Launch

Fastor- Challenges

Fastor- Future Plans

Fastor- FAQ’s

What is Fastor?

How does Fastor work?

Who is the Founder of Fastor?

IoTfy Highlights

About IoTfy

IoTfy – USPs

IoTfy – Founders & Team

Why and How IoTfy was Started

The IoT Industry

IoTfy – Name & Logo

IoTfy – Funding

IoTfy – Revenue Model

IoTfy – Marketing Strategies

IoTfy – Challenges

IoTfy – Growth & Future Plans

IoTfy – Special Offers

IoTfy – FAQs

What is IoTfy?

Who are the founders of IoTfy?

When was IoTfy Founded?

Rovity – Vision & Mission

Rovity – Features

Rovity – Unique Selling Proposition

Rovity – Founder

Rovity – Name, Logo, & Tagline

Builder.ai- Company Highlights

Builder.ai- About

Builder.ai- Founders

How was Builder.ai Started

Builder.ai- Company Size & Work Culture

Builder.ai- Name, Logo and Tagline

Builder.ai- Industry Details

Builder.ai- USP and Innovation

Key Products:

Builder.ai- Startup Launch

Builder.ai- Funding

Builder.ai- Business and Revenue Model

FreightBro Highlights

FreightBro – Recent News

FreightBro – About & How It Works?

FreightBro – Target Market

FreightBro – USP

FreightBro – Founders & Team

FreightBro – How It All Started?

FreightBro – Name, Tagline & Logo

FreightBro – Business & Revenue Model

FreightBro – Funding & Investors