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Tag: 📄Company Profiles

  • Spoonshot—Leveraging Artificial Intelligence To Predict Food Trends

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

    Artificial Intelligence is now penetrating almost every existing domain. Finance, healthcare, education, transportation and many sectors  are witnessing active use of AI. This intelligence is now being used for an upcoming niche: prediction of consumer tastes and food trends. Spoonshot, a startup based in Bangalore, is using AI to help businesses operating in the food and beverages sector serve their customers better by providing useful insights on future food trends and guest intelligence.

    Spoonshot’s AI-powered tool is saving FMCG companies time and money while enabling them to become trendsetters. StartupTalky interviewed Spoonshot CEO Kishan Vasani to understand more about the startup.

    Spoonshot – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Spoonshot
    Headquarter Bangalore
    Founders Kishan Vasani and Sai Sreenivas Kodur
    Sector FMCG
    Founded December, 2015
    Website www.spoonshot.com
    Parent Organization Spoonshot.com

    Spoonshot – About
    Spoonshot – Vision & Mission
    Spoonshot – Target Market
    Spoonshot – Founders & Team
    Spoonshot – How It Started
    Spoonshot – Ideation, Designing, & Prototyping Of The Product
    Spoonshot – Product/Service
    Spoonshot – How It Works
    Spoonshot – Work Culture
    Spoonshot – Name, Tagline, & Logo
    Spoonshot – Business Model & Revenue Model
    Spoonshot – User Acquisition
    Spoonshot – Startup Challenges
    Spoonshot – Funding & Investors
    Spoonshot – Advisors & Mentors
    Spoonshot – Acquisitions & Mergers
    Spoonshot – Future Plans
    Spoonshot – FAQ’s
    Spoonshot – Conclusion

    Spoonshot – About

    Spoonshot is a food AI company that is raising the bar for insight-led innovation. It believes in exploration as the catalyst behind the novel, successful products and uses it as the very fuel to help food and beverage companies shape the future and bring about new trends.  

    Spoonshot equips the food and beverage industry with unprecedented foresight of emerging market needs. By transforming long-tail, open information from diverse and authentic sources, Spoonshot’s proprietary food science infused algorithms connect disparate data sets, to deliver personalized insights, predict trends, and identify novel opportunities. Today, Spoonshot is supporting the world’s best-known brands in meeting the future needs of their customers.

    Spoonshot – Vision & Mission

    Spoonshot is on a mission to replicate human cognition in the domain of food. We humans have developed special skill sets—chef, nutritionist, doctor, foodie, scientist, psychologist, etc. Spoonshot’s core technology which is referred to as #foodbrain, is designed to adopt relevant components from each of these skill sets.

    Consumer tastes are influenced by many factors. Geography, purchasing power, external influence, mood, etc. are important determiners of  one’s taste buds. At Spoonshot, every variable that is likely to affect consumer taste is included to enable #foodbrain deliver the highest level of accuracy in prediction. This foresightedness is then used by the food and beverage companies while developing and rolling out products and services.

    “Today incrementalism is the go-to-strategy for most FMCG companies that want to create new products or flavors. And the sad reality is while 58% of R&D spending is directed at incremental innovations, only 14% is used for breakthrough or disruptive innovations. Under this scenario, Spoonshot  is working towards bringing about true innovation in the food industry” says Spoonshot CEO Kishan Vasnai  explaining how Spoonshot is making a difference.

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    Spoonshot – Target Market

    Spoonshot’s target industry is FMCG, where sales is forecasted to top $720 billion by 2020. Spoonshot’s target customers are large FMCG companies in North America.

    Spoonshot – Founders and Team

    Kishan Vasani and Sai Sreenivas Kodur are the founders of Spoonshot.

    Kishan Vasani & Sai Sreenivas Kodur | Co-Founders. Spoonshot

    Kishan Vasnai is the CEO of Spoonshot. He has 10+ years  of experience in the startup segment and 7+ years of experience in food tech domain. Kishan founded a digital marketing agency named ‘U Want Media’ in 2006, which he exited in 2011. Kishan is the ex COO of ‘Just Eat’ (India) and also worked as the head of international marketing in ‘Just Eat’. Besides, Kishan co-founded ‘One Cause’, a UK based NGO that promotes education as the solution to poverty

    Sai Sreenivas Kodur is the co-Founder & CTO of Spoonshot. Sai, who is a computer science graduate from IIT Madras,  has 5+ years of experience in the tech sector. He worked as a software engineer in Myntra, Zomato, and Kiwi, Inc. before joining Spoonshot.

    Kishan built the core team using LinkedIn, and came in contact with Sai through LinkedIn’s platform.

    When I first started looking for a technical partner, I quickly realized that I was not interviewing them, but that good candidates were really interviewing me, asking all sorts of difficult questions about my experience and the business model. I was specifically looking for someone with a computer science background, essentially a real geek, and while they didn’t need to have food tech experience, it was a great bonus. But the most important trait was that I needed to find someone that I could get along with, someone I could have a beer with. With Sai, I was lucky to get all of the above – Kishan

    When Kishan met Sai, the latter was at Myntra in a well-paid job. Kishan knew he would have to  work hard to on-board Sai. The duo met several times and discussed the industry and opportunity for hours before the decision to work together was established. Alignment on the opportunities in the food tech segment was relatively straightforward given that both Sai and Kishan had background in this domain. Also, Sai had a similar startup idea but didn’t pursue it. Finally, Sai and Kishan came together to start Spoonshot. Kishan even asked one of his friend, the CTO of a company, to interview Sai for ensuring his technical prowess.

    Spoonshot – How It Started

    Spoonshot founder Kishan Vasani’s, personal experience with food was instrumental in Spoonshot’s launch.

    During his stint at Just Eat Group in London (2011-2013),  Kishan stumbled upon several opportunities that interested him (like white-label apps for restaurants). Kishan noticed that the actual dining experience didn’t necessarily match the restaurant ratings and reviews available.

    One of my favorite dishes served by a restaurant in Bangalore has a restaurant rating of 3.1. Conversely, I’ve been to several highly rated restaurants (4.0+) and thought the food was average at best.

    With reviews and ratings being almost useless, Kishan wanted to find something that would give consumers more accurate insight on their dining/ordering experience.

    Initially, Kishan thought of dish rating as a good way to solve the problem because of its relevance and granularity as a data point. But further research highlighted that taste is subjective and varies greatly from person to person. A more innovative approach was required.

    “It wasn’t until 2015 after I had left Just Eat and started working at a London fintech startup called Osper, that I decided to jump off the entrepreneurial cliff. At Osper, I was working closely with the Founder & CEO, Alick Varma. Seeing him build his dream business with such passion and drive essentially drove me to leave and start my venture. ”

    Kishan and Sai did extensive research about the FMCG industry for almost 9 months. They met over 130 industry professionals to get a clear understanding about the problems and opportunities in the Food and Beverage industry before starting Spoonshot. Spoonshot initially started as a  B2C company that was building a personalized food discovery app for the Indian market. Spoonshot was then known as ‘Dishq'(a combination of dish and ishq, the hindi word for love). Dishq focused on shifting the notion of food ordering away from ratings and reviews to more visual and emotionally driven decision-making.

    Later, the company pivoted to become  a B2B company and re-branded itself as Spoonshot.

    Given that  Sai and I both previously worked in the food/restaurant tech, we made certain product and customer assumptions based upon our knowledge. In hindsight, we should have completed more thorough market research as this would have saved us a lot of time and pain – Kishan

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    Spoonshot – Ideation, Designing, & Prototyping Of The Product

    Spoonshot tested its very first insights through a Hackathon with Ferrero (the manufacturer of Nutella). Spoonshot received a positive response which gave the team confidence and conviction to further explore this opportunity.

    After 3 months of deep industry research in the US (Spoonshot’s target market), Spoonshot built its very first insights prototype for a US-based food startup called Milkful during the Techstars Farm To Fork Accelerator.

    Milkful’s product that comprises health snack bars has been created for a very specific audience. They wanted to understand new ingredient combinations that would meet their consumer’s needs. Once again, we received good feedback. This allowed us to iterate our solution further.

    The next version was used to deliver insights to a global ingredient giant. This project was far more complicated with high stakes. After 3 months of intensive engagement, Spoonshot delivered its insights and the client was satisfied with the results. This gave the Spoonshot team the conviction and validation to develop a full-fledged platform.  

    Spoonshot – Product/Service

    Spoonshot has built an AI-powered insights platform infused with food science to assist FMCG brands uncover hidden product opportunities and accelerate incremental revenue by leveraging Spoonshot’s unique insights.

    The platform is an innovation and trends research tool. It is designed to be the creative spark for product development by encouraging exploration, generating inspiration, a place for ideation. Following are some major components of the Spoonshot platform:

    (1) Ingredient Networks: A way to uncover emerging and novel ingredient combinations.

    (2) Startups Explorer: Details the innovation and product development of new food and beverage enterprises.

    (3) Trend Trek: A place to discover the latest food ingenuity around the world.

    Spoonshot has designed the platform such that users need not ask it questions, but are continually given answers or insights personalized to the user’s needs.

    The increasingly dynamic consumer landscape in the age of digital means that it is harder than ever before to track customer needs and tastes. There’s simply too much data and too many opinions. Quite frankly, it can be overwhelming. Also, legacy research and insights providers over-rely on lagging indicators and archaic methodologies, which lead to stale ideas. To add insult to injury, these agencies sell the same data to you and your competitors, so finding an edge is next to impossible.

    Spoonshot’s bleeding edge technology leverages the power of AI, food science, and large, diverse data sets, to give the companies a tool specifically for  early-stage product innovation, ideation, and inspiration.

    We want the consumers to have better, more relevant product choices, and not be overwhelmed by the current situation of over choice.

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    Spoonshot – How It Works

    Spoonshot uses domain knowledge (food science) as a means to contextualize and extrapolate insights based upon the changes it sees in its data pipelines.

    Food science refers to Computational Gastronomy and Nutrition Science.

    Computational Gastronomy refers to applying data science techniques to the chemistry of food. Spoonshot extends this by collecting data related to flavor, sensory and texture. Nutrition Science refers to the break up of nutrition in different items. Spoonshot also enriches this with data on how a style of cooking influences nutritional value.

    The company builds several types of ingredient networks using this data. These ingredient networks define how the ingredients are inter-related (e.g. ingredients could be similar in taste, smell, nutrition, substitution, texture, etc). This serves as a fixed knowledge base which acts as the backbone to build products.

    Spoonshot has built a trend data store which tracks food related data along with two key dimensions:

    1. Time.
    2. Geo-location.

    This gives the company information on which ingredients are trending and in which locations.

    Spoonshot – Work Culture

    Spoonshot currently has 22 employees comprising data scientists, food scientists, and developers with the common love for eating.

    We have a very friendly, no-hierarchy work culture and are as transparent about our decisions and plans with the team. We have a potluck once a month, team lunches, and learning sessions so that there is a good mix of fun and learning – Kishan says commenting on Spoonshot’s work culture.

    Spoonshot’s hiring funda is simple: Hire foodies with a problem-solving mindset.

    The five values below are the guiding stars for the Spoonshot team:

    • First-principles: Don’t make assumptions, but be curious and inquisitive.
    • Be bold: Don’t be afraid to think big and execute bigger and bring your personality to the problem.
    • Show passion: Commit wholeheartedly and with real belief.
    • Drive excellence: Lead by example, go the extra mile, and accept/deliver nothing less than great.
    • Give first: Be helpful, kind, and open.

    Spoonshot Logo

    The name Spoonshot has been derived from ‘moonshot thinking’.

    We are a great believer of the ‘moonshot thinking’ – a combination of a huge problem, a radical solution to that problem and the breakthrough technology that just might make that solution possible. Our core technology is focused on enabling FMCG companies to stay ahead of trends. It’s almost like a crystal ball for early-stage product innovation, ideation, and inspiration – Kishan explains

    Spoonshot logo represents the spoon for the F&B and moonshot thinking. The tagline is ‘Be The Trendsetter’, and the company did an extensive marketing exercise to derive at this motto.

    Spoonshot – Business Model & Revenue Model

    Spoonshot is a SaaS platform and charge an annual access fee which includes a number of licenses/seats.

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    Spoonshot – User Acquisition

    Spoonshot got accepted in the Techstars Farm To Fork Accelerator in the summer of 2018. The power and reach of their network was incredible and changed the trajectory of the business. Spoonshot was able to connect to many of its customers through this channel. The second major channel for customer acquisition was through a leading industry event where Spoonshot presented a demo of its platform on stage. Within 24 hours of the presentation, the company had 30 new B2B customers on-board.

    Spoonshot – Startup Challenges

    Finding product-market fit in the FMCG industry was a major challenge. The next major challenge was and continues to be tech recruitment.

    Bangalore has many developers but finding good ones, with the values aligned to our business, with reasonable salary expectations is very difficult. We have tried many things to improve our recruitment process and still I don’t believe we have a winning formula. Perhaps the most pertinent point is that whether you are hiring or not, recruitment should never stop.

    Kishan shares the following few tips that he keeps in mind while hiring.

    • Do not Hire fast: There’s the risk of bringing in people who are either not technically sound or culturally right.
    • Do not hire someone who is not a culture fit.
    • Do not Hire too slowly: Too many rounds means you can lose candidates to other companies.
    • Be cautious while using an agency: We’ve used some of the ‘best’ agencies in Bangalore and it did not led to a new hire.
    • Think before hiring interns: The quality is mixed but you get great executional bandwidth. Great interns have been hired as full-timers. Interns even after joining full-time may want to pursue further studies. Also, they do not have any other work experience to benchmark against; this can be both good and bad.  

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    Spoonshot – Funding & Investors

    Spoonshot has raised a total funding of $1.712 Million in 4 rounds till date. Below are Spoonshot funding details-

    Funding Date Funding Stage Funding Amount Investor
    Early 2017 Angel Funding $37k HNI
    2017 Accelerator $120k Zeroth.AI
    2018 Pre-seed $555k Techstars, Arts Alliance & HNIs
    2020 Seed Round $1 Million SRI Capital

    The recent funding round on September 2020 was led by SRI Capital. This financing will be used to fuel the Spoonshot’s growth plan and for further investment in its Proprietary technology and team.

    Spoonshot – Advisors & Mentors

    Spoonshot has current and former executives at some of the industry’s leading US organizations including Cargill, Ecolab, McDonald’s, Conagra, General Mills, and the National Restaurant Association as its advisors.

    Spoonshot – Acquisitions & Mergers

    Spoonshot acquired Brisky, a restaurant analytics startup in 2018. Brisky provides restaurants and bars with customer satisfaction intelligence, helps them understand their customers needs better, and quickly highlights the areas that need attention.

    Spoonshot – Future Plans

    Till September 2019, Spoonshot was in the beta stage, and even then it  had over 40 companies, that includes over 15 billion dollar companies, testing its FMCG trends platform. The platform was publicly launched on 1st October 2019.

    In 2020, Spoonshot is planning to scale the business in the following ways:

    • Launch new features (as demanded by its customers).
    • The company is currently focusing on North America, and has plans to launch new markets (locations being evaluated include UK, Japan and China).
    • Launch a version of the platform designed for large restaurant operators.

    Sharing his vision, Spoonshot CEO Kishan Vasani said, “We believe our technology (#foodbrain) and the platform will become the de facto choice for the food industry, across FMCG and restaurant/food services, for being on-trend and providing customers with the choices they need and want”

    Spoonshot – FAQ’s

    Who are the Founders of Spoonshot?

    Kishan Vasani and Sai Sreenivas Kodur are the Founders of Spoonshot.

    What is Spoonshot?

    Spoonshot’s technology leverages food science and artificial intelligence to predict consumer tastes and food trends. It’s AI-powered tool is saving FMCG companies time and money while enabling them to become trendsetters

    How much funding was raised by Spoonshot?

    As revealed by the founders, Spoonshot has raised a total funding of $1.712 Million in 4 rounds till date. The recent funding round on September 2020 was led by SRI Capital for $1 Million.

    Who is the CEO of Spoonshot?

    Kishan Vasnai is the CEO of Spoonshot.

    Spoonshot – Conclusion

    Spoonshot delivers food & beverage innovation intelligence by leveraging AI and food science. Our insights reveal the future of food through a deep understanding of emerging and evolving consumer and market needs, enabling us to accurately predict trends and uncover innovation opportunities.

    58% of R&D spending is directed at incremental innovation, while only 14% is used for breakthrough or disruptive innovations.

    While incrementalism is fuelling the revenues of companies today, they have forgotten to look at how they can create revenues for the day after tomorrow. Consumer panels and surveys are square pegs in a world increasingly made of round holes. Incremental gains are a band-aid for a bullet wound.

    At Spoonshot, we believe that exploration is the catalyst for novel and successful food innovation, the very fuel to help you shape the future, to set the trend. We examine the root cause, start at the very beginning, and build from first principles. We adopt the mindset of our inner inquisitive child, always learning, never biased, always curious, never fearful. We believe that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. #bethetrendsetter

    That’s ‘Spoonshot thinking’.

    You can find out more about our thoughts and research on our YouTube channel.

  • ByteDance’s Success Story—World’s Most Valued Startup

    A survey carried out by TCS in 2011-2012 revealed that the younger generation in India prefers smartphones over television when it comes to entertainment. Not just India, around the world, today more and more people are turning to their smartphones for entertainment, information, and more, and one company that is making the most of this trend is ‘ByteDance’. Founded in the year 2012, this technology company has developed many platforms for information, education, inspiration, and more, and these platforms are being loved and used by people from all around the world. One of the most popular platforms developed by ByteDance being TikTok, which has over 800 million active users worldwide as of 2019.

    In the current scenario, owing to the growing tension between China and many countries in the world, made-in-China products including apps are being boycotted by many countries like the USA, UK, Australia, Philippines, Vietnam, and India. Though the growing hate for China has led to ByteDance losing many users, but from the startup point of view, ByteDance no doubt has done a commendable job, as it rose to be the ‘World’s most valuable startup’, just within 8 years of its inception. This article is a compilation of some important and fascinating facts and figures about ByteDance that you will love to know.

    COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS

    Startup Name ByteDance
    Headquarter Beijing, China
    Founder Zhang Yiming
    Founded 9th March 2012
    Industry Internet
    Parent Organization ByteDance Ltd.
    Website bytedance.com

    ByteDance—About
    ByteDance—Founder & Team
    ByteDance—Acquisitions
    ByteDance—Funding & Investors
    ByteDance—Competitors
    ByteDance—Growth
    ByteDance—Future Plans
    FAQ’s
    Conclusion

    ByteDance—About

    ByteDance Logo

    Based in Beijing China, ByteDance is a multinational internet technology company, and it has developed many popular mobile-first products. Some of the popular products of ByteDance’s include –

    • Douyin is similar to Tiktok and is available in China. Douyin lets its users create short-form mobile videos.
    • Toutiao or Jinri Toutiao, ( meaning today’s headlines) is one of the most popular content discovery apps of China. The company’s algorithm is designed to serve customized content to its users.
    • Tiktok – Similar to Douyin that operates in China, Tiktok is a platform that operates outside China. Tiktok lets its users create various interesting short lip-sync, dance, comedy, and other videos
    • Xigua – Earlier known as Toutiao video, Xigua video is an app through which users can discover, enjoy and share short as well as long-form videos.
    • Helo – Developed especially for India, the Helo app curates content in 15 Indian regional languages and provides customized content to each user.
    • Lark – Collaboration and communication platform Lark make work easy for a remote team through various features like messenger, video conferencing, cloud storage, calendar, and online docs and sheets.

    Besides these, there are several other platforms by ByteDance like, BaBe, which is Indonesia’s leading news and content app, Gogokid –  an English learning platform for kids, and Vigo Video – a video-making app. However, as per recent reports (June 2020), ByteDance is set to shut down Vigo Video in India.

    ByteDance—Founder & Team

    Zhang Yiming | Founder, Chairman, and CEO of ByteDance

    Founder, Chairman, and CEO of ByteDance, Zhang Yiming is an entrepreneur and philanthropist. A Chinese national, Zhang Yiming, presently is 37 years old. He completed his graduation (software engineering) from Nankai University in Tianjin. Yiming’s personal wealth is estimated at $13 billion, which makes him the 9th richest man in China.

    In the year 2006, Yimimg became the fifth employee and first engineer at the travel website Kuxun. Later he became the technical director at Kuxun. In 2008, Yiming joined Microsoft, however found it tough to cope up with the company rules of Microsoft which made him leave Microsoft to join Fanfou (Twitter clone in China). In 2009, Fanfou was shut down owing to certain controversies, and that very year, Yiming started his very first startup 99fang.com, which is a real estate search portal. Meanwhile, smartphones began to take over and more and more people started using smartphones, and Yiming could very well see the opportunity underlying it, which made him leave 99fang.com to start ByteDance in 2012.

    Currently, ByteDance has over 60,000 employees in 126 cities.

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    ByteDance—Acquisitions

    ByteDance has acquired several companies to date –

    • In 2017, ByteDance acquired ‘Flipgram’. Flipagram, Inc. is a place where cropping and editing of videos are made simple along with making a video, adding music to that, and making it a film.
    • In November 2017, the global news app News Republic got acquired by ByteDance.
    • Musical.ly, (a lip-sync video making and sharing platform) is another major acquisition made by ByteDance in 2017. In 2018, ByteDance merged Musical.ly with TikTok.
    • In 2019, ByteDance acquired big data firm Terark.
    • Baike.com, China’s local online encyclopedia was also acquired by ByteDance in 2019.
    • In 2019 itself,  ByteDance acquired Shanghai based mobile game developer, Mokun Technology
    • In January 2020, ByteDance acquired LevelupAI, An AI startup that provides AI solutions for Video Game Industry.
    • Baikemy.com, is the latest acquisition by ByteDance. Acquired in May 2020, Baikemy.com is one of China’s largest medical information portals.

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    ByteDance—Funding & Investors

    ByteDance has raised funding worth over $ 7.4 billion to date. Below are the details of the funding raised by ByteDance so far –  

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    January, 2012 Series A $5 Million SIG China
    January, 2013 Series B Undiclosed Yuri Milner
    June, 2014 Series C $100 Million Sequoia Capital China, Source Code Capital, Weibo
    April, 2017 Series D $1 Billion K3 Ventures, CCB International, Altimeter Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Qiming Venture Partners
    August, 2017 Private Equity Round $2 Billion General Atlantic
    October, 2018 Series E $3 Billion General Atlantic, SoftBank,Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Primavera Capital Group
    April, 2019 Debt Financing $1.3 Billion Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley
    August, 2019 Funding round – GGV Capital
    March, 2020 Seconadary Market – Tiger Global Management

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    ByteDance—Competitors

    In China, major Competitors of ByteDance are Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent.

    ByteDance took a larger piece of the digital advertising market than fellow Chinese companies like Tencent and Baidu during the first half of 2019. ByteDance has overtaken Baidu to become the second-largest performer in China. ByteDance took 23% of all digital media to spend in the first half of the year 2019, which is equivalent to $7 billion.

    Globally, ByteDance is competing with giants like Facebook, Google, and Snapchat.

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    ByteDance—Growth

    Many platforms developed by ByteDance have received wide popularity. As estimated by mobile app analytics platform Apptopia, one of ByteDance’s top popular products TikTok’s revenue raised by 310% to over $50 million in the last quarter of 2019.

    ByteDance’s revenue increased to $ 17 billion in 2019, from $7.4 billion in 2018. Again ByteDance’s profit for 2019, is reported to be $3 Billion.

    Talking about valuation, ByteDance is reportedly worth over US$100 billion as of May 2020 based on recent prices for the Chinese company’s shares on secondary markets, according to the Financial Times. Thus now ByteDance is valued over one-third higher than that in November 2018, when it was valued at around $ 75-$78 billion. The company is no doubt growing into a potent online force.

    ByteDance—Future Plans

    Amidst the coronavirus crisis, while many companies are busy cutting down their workforce, ByteDance in April 2020, announced that it is hiring staff to fill 10,000 vacant posts in different domains. In 2020, ByteDance is planning to hire 40,000 employees, in a bid to match Alibaba’s headcount. Besides, ByteDance is looking forward to strengthening its position in areas such as e-commerce and gaming. The company is also expected to go public soon.

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    FAQ’s

    What does ByteDance mean?

    ByteDance is the developer of the video-sharing social networking services and apps TikTok and Douyin, the Chinese-specific counterpart to TikTok.

    Who is TikTok owned by?

    A US trading firm reportedly owns 15% of TikTok-owner ByteDance, a stake potentially worth more than $15 billion. US trading firm Susquehanna reportedly owns 15% of TikTok-owner ByteDance, a stake that is potentially worth more than $15 billion.

    Is ByteDance a good company to work for?

    Even though the recent layoff, it’s very much satisfying to do a job here. Work culture, management, policies are excellent and I wanna go along with my ByteDance family for many more years.

    Is TikTok owned by Chinese government?

    TikTok is owned by the Chinese technology giant ByteDance. And while TikTok has taken steps to distance itself from its Beijing parent company, both the Trump administration and some Republicans and Democrats in Congress fear the Chinese Communist Party could use TikTok as a tool to spy on Americans.

    How does ByteDance make money?

    One obvious way TikTok makes money is by running ads. In June of 2020, the popular video-sharing app launched TikTok for Business as a way for brands to run their own ads within the app. There are several types of TikTok ads, including In-Feed ads, Brand Takeovers, and Branded Hashtag Challenges.

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    Conclusion

    ByteDance is a global tech company which is headquartered at Beijing, China. The company is operating on a range of platforms allowing people to connect across languages, cultures and geographies to create, discover and connect. The company has products mostly in social media applications. The company has a portfolio of applications available in over 150 markets and 75 languages, which includes TikTok, Helo, Douyin, Resso, Lark, Toutiao, and BaBe.

    Are you looking to work for ByteDance? They’re looking for creative, bold people who embrace ownership and are driven to make a positive impact on the world. If you’re excited to collaborate with diverse global teams and lead fast-paced initiatives that make a difference from day one, work with us and challenge yourself to move the world!

  • WinMagic Toys – Energizing Childhood with Wonderful Toys!

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

    India has traditionally been a risk-averse market, and most toy distributors focused on traditional categories like dolls, vehicles, and guns. Then came WinMagic Toys, which was launched by Mukesh Jagwani and the senior management team in 2017, which disrupted in the toy industry by launching new trendy categories and global brands into the market.

    Read this article to know about the success story of WinMagic Toys, founder, growth, vision, mission, and funding.

    WinMagic Toys – Company Highlights

    Startup Name WinMagic Toys
    Headquarter Mumbai, India
    Sector Toys & Games
    Founder Mukesh Jagwani
    Founded 2017
    Parent Organization WinMagic toys pvt ltd
    Website winmagictoys.com
    Contact Sayali.gaidhani@winmagictoys.com

    WinMagic Toys – Vision and Mission
    WinMagic Toys – About and How it Works
    WinMagic Toys – Products/Services
    WinMagic Toys – Target Market Size
    Founders of WinMagic Toys and team
    WinMagic Toys – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    WinMagic Toys – Startup Launch
    WinMagic Toys – Marketing Approach
    WinMagic Toys – Business Model and Revenue Model
    WinMagic Toys – Startup Challenges
    WinMagic Toys – Growth
    WinMagic Toys – Future Plans

    WinMagic Toys – Vision and Mission

    WinMagic Toys is a company that creates and distributes world-class marketable & unique products that bring happiness for kids and fulfillment for parents.

    They aims to be the ‘go-to’ company that makes it easy for all the international brands desirous of entering India in the kids & games space! WinMagic Toys acts as a catalyst that ongoingly transforms the industry and promotes the cause of India at international platforms.

    For the customers, it is a marketing-oriented company that always creates new and innovative categories at retail, provides a significant product or price differentiation, and drives strong communication campaigns to create consumer demand and affect shopper conversions at retail.

    For the employees, it is a company that empowers them to create the future they dream of, for themselves and their families, which makes them spring into action every day.

    WinMagic Toys is a company that delivers a veritable portfolio in its space, that touches consumers from birth to their full lifecycle. They sees their final play to be a company with two separate and equally thriving divisions, third party distribution and owned portfolio marketed globally, with a host of owned brands, being made in India!

    WinMagic Toys – About and How it Works

    WinMagic Toys creates and spreads happiness, pride, and oneness amongst kids and families! A full portfolio-kids’ product creation, manufacturing, marketing & distribution company, that touches consumers from birth & remains a companion for life, through its product offerings.

    The company dominates the pre-school retail aisle with Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, and Peppa Pig toy lines that are the top 3 licensed content and toy properties globally as well as in India. Similarly, this fastest-growing toy company of India has also transformed the girls’ aisle with brands like L.O.L Surprise! Dolls, Hatchimals, and Shopkins.

    WinMagic Toys Products
    Products

    To ensure product quality, the company only works with global brands that are already supplying to the US and Europe. Their products comply with American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), European Standard EN 71, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and other independent standards likes Facility and Merchandise Authorization (FAMA) certification by The Walt Disney Company.

    Recently, the government of India conducted a survey where 66% of imported toys failed to comply with quality standards – these are all unbranded toys. WinMagic Laboratories have claimed that not even a single toy that it has offered into the country has ever failed a test.

    WinMagic Toys – Products/Services

    Fisher-Price and Thomas were given a run for their money, with WinMagic Toys distributing Spin Master’s – Paw Patrol, which is today the number 1 preschool licensed toy property at retail. Paw Patrol is a TV series that runs on Nick Junior, a content co-owned by Viacom and Canada’s Spin Master Entertainment (SME).

    Paw Patrol Toys - WinMagic
    Paw Patrol Toys – WinMagic

    Spin Master Toys, a top 5 listed toy company globally, and a sister concern of SME owns the global rights to Paw Patrol toys. Through its distribution partnership with Spin Master, WinMagic Toys brought into the country many trendy toy lines, like Hatchimals for example – that became toy retailer Hamleys’ number 1 selling toy when it was launched in 2016, while the inventory lasted.

    Hatchimals - WinMagic
    Hatchimals – WinMagic

    Hatchimals is an egg-shaped tech toy, that has a unique hatching feature, where with a kid’s love & care an electronic pet hatches itself out of an egg and there are various play possibilities at pre-hatching, during-hatching, and post-hatching stages. Hatchimals has since then developed into a veritable array of collectible and tech toys that have become one of the best-selling toy ranges in the girls’ aisle.

    Through its partnership with Spin Master, the company is set to launch toy lines like Bakugan, a massive hit from a decade ago that is being relaunched by Spin Master globally, Batman & DC action figure lines based on the popular entertainment franchises and Monster Jam Monster vehicles lines based on World’s Number 1 Monster Truck racing show.

    The company has created the category of girls collectibles in India literally from scratch. Shopkins, from Moose Toys of Australia, was its entry into the girl’s collectibles aisle which took the industry by pleasant surprise in 2015 and kickstarted the trend of girls collectibles in India, like in global markets a few years ago. Along with Hatchimals, L.O.L, Hairdorables from Just Play, Bananas, and Twisty Petz apart from others, WinMagic Toys has been leading in the girl’s collectibles category in the Indian toy industry.

    WinMagic Toys – Target Market Size

    With 26% of the population under the age of 15 years, it’s no surprise that the Indian toy industry is accelerating. Valued at USD 1.5 Billion in 2018, registering a CAGR of 15.9% during the year 2011-2018. According to market research firm IMARC, the market is further estimated to cross USD 3.3 Billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 13.3% during 2019-2024.

    The estimated Rs 2-lakh-crore global toy market is dominated by China (from a manufacturing point of view, America is the biggest from a consumption point of view), which sells close to Rs 1.4 lakh crore worth of products annually. In India, the toy market is dominated by unbranded Chinese products with 90% of the market being unorganized.

    In a post COVID scenario, toys & games, and in general kids play assumes even more relevance with kids and parents staying more at home.

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    Founders of WinMagic Toys and team

    Mukesh Jagwani is the founder of WinMagic Toys.

    Mukesh Jagwani - WinMagic Founder
    Mukesh Jagwani – WinMagic Founder

    Mukesh has over two decades of practice including leadership roles in setting up multinationals in India to leading start-ups to profitability and turnover goals. He is a complete believer in empowering people to be the best they can be, unconditionally, and, in keeping commitments ruthlessly!

    The management team comprises of:

    • Heena Natu – National Sales Manager (Key Accounts & Exports) with over 13 years of experience in modern trade (retail chains) account management, ex Mattel, Ex Pepe Jeans.
    • Shailesh Kumar – National Sales Manager – General Trade with over 18 years of experience in general trade distribution, Ex Funskool, Ex Nuby.
    • Surabhi Mathur – Marketing Manager (INDIA & SAARC) with over 10 years of experience in Marketing communications – ex EURO RSCG, EX Times of India, Ex Business Standard.
    • Sandeep Nirban – Finance Manager. Chartered Accountant, MBF with over 7 years of experience, Ex Reliance, CIPLA.

    Heena, Shailesh, and Surabhi are part of the founding team along with Mukesh.

    The current company size of WinMagic Toys is around 50 employees. The recruiting team is very selective about hiring talent. They always look for character and not personality. Since the team firmly believes that character is in-built and personality is what you acquire and get trained in.

    To elaborate, they look for qualities like energy, enthusiasm, willingness & intent to take responsibility for not only their job description but also have a natural intent to help & support others, humility, integrity, and authenticity. In addition to character traits, they work on training people on maturity and ability to get things done through a work environment that is straightforward and holds people to account.

    They focus a lot on training people for their development and growth – not just for business but overall holistic growth of an individual and the team looks at life as one. Not a split between work and life. When people grow, they bring all about growth to be it at home or work.

    Winners with the magic of play made WinMagic Toys!

    WinMagic Logo

    WinMagic Toys – Startup Launch

    WinMagic Toys are known for their freshness and new ways to play at retail. Since its inception, India has seen some of the categories that never existed in the country in the toys and games aisle before. It created Collectables as a category with iconic brands like Shopkins. They launched all globally successful brands including – LOL Surprise! Dolls, Hatchimals Colleggtibles, Hairdorables, Soft n Slo – squishable, etc.

    WinMagic Toys always offers brands and play patterns that are trending globally. They are dominating the retail aisles with the latest DIY trends. For the girls, the categories were limited to dolls and a few accessories, however, the company has brought all these different categories into the country.

    Preschool aisles were dominated traditionally by brands like Thomas or Fisher-Price which are owned by legacy players like Mattel, who has been in the country for 30 years. And nothing changed for the past 30 years, companies were averse to getting anything new to India. But, WinMagic Toys decided to change that and offered consumers products that have been trending globally and created that access for Indian consumers to world-class toys.

    It launched the 3 biggest Preschool properties in India- Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, and PJ Masks, which are the dominating brands at retail as well as on TV as content. From a retailer point of view, they always bring in a portfolio that is unique or differentiated from a price perspective.

    The success of the WinMagic model can be attributed to three major factors that are key to their way of working:

    • Firstly innovative, on-the-trend, and unique feature-driven products and a category domination approach.

    “We do not mind cannibalizing ourselves at the aisle, as, if we do not, then we are leaving ourselves open for a competitor to do that. We grow by increasing our category share even if we may have brands that compete within a category. Like Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig and P.J Masks, or the many collectible brands in the girls’ aisle.”, explained Mukesh.

    • The second factor is retail visibility & break-through marketing that enables their products to stand out at retail and have a strong recall amongst the kid fans.

    “For example, at Toys “R” Us, we have 26 dedicated brand spaces and at Hamleys all our brands are present with key brands like Paw Patrol and Hatchimals occupying dedicated spaces. This approach has enabled us to be a top 3 vendor at all the retail points including an over 20% share of the shelf at top mom & pop retail outlets in the country.”, said Mukesh Jagwani, founder of WinMagic Toys.

    • Finally, the company’s industry and functional expert teams apply the right load of energy, ownership, and meticulousness from product selection to business operations at all levels.

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    WinMagic Toys – Marketing Approach

    They are a marketing-oriented company and their marketing team does not follow the box-in-box-out approach. They believe in launching unique marketable concepts and back them up with 360-degree marketing efforts. WinMagic Toys’ social media campaigns are appreciated by retailers and the team is the trailblazer on the digital front in the industry.

    Some of the key marketing tie-ups of the company include:

    • Youtube Sensation and a famous toy reviewer – My Miss Anand
    • Hatchimals video that was viewed 4.2M times –
    Hatchimals video
    • Wrapples Dance challenge with 3.8M Views –
    Wrapples Dance challenge
    • WinMagic Toys has also partnered with Child actor Myra Singh, from Kulfi Kumar Bajewala.
    • Wrapples Dance Challenge
    • WinMagic Toys’ Social Media Handles

    WinMagic Toys – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Revenue Generation Model – WinMagic Toys directly sells to retail chains, and resellers on Amazon, Flipkart. It also sells to sister concerns of Amazon, Flipkart, etc. Being a foreign-funded company, they cannot do multi-brand retail. In the General trade sector, it supplies to the sub-distributors who then in turn supply to mom and pop stores. The company caters to 3000+ stores. It works on a Firm sale Model.

    “We cater to an upmarket target group and follow a consumer-centric ‘perceived-value’ pricing model. We always strive to position our products well within the perceptual price elasticity that our consumers are willing to accept, happily. To achieve that we follow a line pricing financial model, and always work with suppliers who understand the Indian consumers’ price sensitivity and are willing to move most favorably on unit costing.”, added Mukesh Jagwani, owner of WinMagic toys.

    This ensures that they can make the right pricing available to the consumer. For a target group looking at a lower price band, they have their private labels and they plan to aggressively expand this business. WinMagic Toys provides a price point of as low as Rs 50 to as high as Rs 15,000.

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    WinMagic Toys – Startup Challenges

    The challenges that WinMagic Toys faced were – Duplicates, unorganized nature of trade, government regulations, experiments: cash & carry model, launching collectible toys, new/trending brands like Paw Patrol, Hatchimals – even though expensive, PJ Masks, and branding the generic category like bubbles.

    In India, the toy market is dominated by unbranded Chinese products with 90% of the market being unorganized. These Chinese toys do not comply with the channel, quality or safety norms and thus turn out to be much cheaper for the Indian consumer, whose purchase decision is heavily influenced by price. It’s not uncommon to see small mom and pop stores selling Chinese replicas of the Disney/Marvel or DC line of toys due to their ever-increasing demand.

    However, making licensed, high-quality international brands available in India continues to be a challenge due to tough import norms and the recent increase in import duty. As a result, small businesses, who wish to legitimately license and sell these products suffer, while low quality, low-cost Chinese toys continue to flood the market.

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    WinMagic Toys – Growth

    With a veritable portfolio of world-class brands of toys, games & kids merchandise, WinMagic Toys has a presence across all the major toy retail chains namely Hamleys, Toys “R” Us, Landmark Stores, Shoppers Stop, Crossword, Hyper City, Lulu along with 3,000 Mom & Pop stores and over 20,000 outlets for mass products through wholesalers.

    The company has also partnered with all major online channels including Amazon, Flipkart, Firstcry, Hopscotch, etc. With legendary brands in the portfolio like – Paw Patrol, PJ Masks, Hatchimals, Shopkins, etc., WinMagic Toys is the No.1 third party distributor in India in the toy specialty channel.

    In under 3 years, the company has grown its portfolio to 40 plus brands and plays in 84% of addressable toys & games categories at retail. The year 2020 is the year of boys, with the likes of Batman, DC, Monster Jam and Bakugan from Spin Master slated to launch in the next few months, and brands like Infinity Nado, that was recently acquired & re-launched, and Treasure X the boys collectible brand launched in the first half of 2019, going steady at retail.

    WinMagic Toys today are India’s largest independent distributor in the toy specialty channel, competing with a few of the legacy players, like Mattel, Hasbro, and Funskool who have had their presence in India for more than 30 years. In 2019, they sold more than 100 crores worth of toys from retail, which marks the fastest growth by any player in the industry over the years!

    Some of the suppliers of WinMagic Toys are Spinmaster – World leader in innovative toys, Just Play – A manufacturer known for its high-class plush toys, and Moose Toys – A company that created a revolution in the collectible’s category. Some of the customers are Hamleys, Toys “R” Us, Crossword, Amazon, Flipkart, and Firstcry.

    WinMagic Toys – Future Plans

    WinMagic Toys has plans to constantly innovate & upgrade their portfolio. They will be soon adding world-class toys like Batman & DC action figures, Bakugan, Monster Jam vehicles, and its own unique private labels in categories like Games and Puzzles, Sports Goods, & Impulse Play.

    The top 3 ranked vendor, with retailers like Hamleys & Toys “R” Us, WinMagic Toys has always been ahead of the curve. Having already crossed Rs. 60 crores in revenue in 2019, the company is sure to cross Rs. 100 crores by FY 2020. Marching forward, WinMagic Toys aims to go for listing besides generating a turnover of over Rs. 500 crores in the next five years.

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  • Refrens – A Revolutionary Payment Gateway for Freelancers

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

    As people look for alternatives beyond their day jobs, they are quick to stumble upon freelancing. Freelancing is now emerging as a viable career option. Gone are the days when it was merely seen as a source of side income. However, this path isn’t void of difficulties. One such obstacle is a slow payment gateway. A freelancer’s will to take up projects dies down when payments aren’t received on time!

    This is where Refrens comes into picture. It aides freelancers by providing an optimal mechanism for payments gateway.

    Refrens – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Refrens
    Headquarters Bengaluru
    Founders Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain
    Sector Fintech
    Founded 2019
    Parent Organization Refrens Internet Pvt. Ltd.

    Refrens – Vision And Mission
    Refrens – Product
    Refrens – Industry Details
    Refrens – Founders And Team
    Refrens – The Idea And Launch
    Refrens – Product And Services
    Refrens – Name, Logo, And Tagline
    Refrens – Business Model
    Refrens – Funding and Investors
    Refrens – Customer Acquisition
    Refrens – Challenges
    Refrens – Future Plans
    Refrens – FAQs

    Refrens – About

    Refrens provides a payment gateway system for freelancers to send and receive payments comfortably, which offers free invoicing, payments, and expense management system. It was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain in 2019.

    The platform currently has 12,000 businesses and freelancers using the system, which is growing at 10 percent every week.

    Refrens – Vision And Mission

    Refrens wants to create the easiest way for freelancers to collect payments and collaborate with other freelancers. Refrens provides a payment gateway system for freelancers to send and receive payments comfortably.

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    Refrens – Industry Details

    The freelancing industry, better known as the ‘Gig Economy’, has since immense recognition and growth over the last decade. There are around 20 million people working as full-time freelancers in India. This number stands at more than 6 million in the USA; such is the influence of freelancing.

    On the other hand, the payment gateway service is also witnessing rapid adoption in India. Since this is the digital era and everything’s online, the technologies and tools powering the internet need to be efficient and flawless. This includes payment gateways as well. The existing payment mechanisms have tremendous scope for improvement which Refrens is working on.  

    Refrens – Founders And Team

    Refrens was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain in 2019.

    Naman Sarawagi, founder of Findyogi
    Naman Sarawagi, Co-founder of Refrens

    Naman Sarawagi is the product and marketing manager at Refrens. Moreover, he is the founder of FindYogi.com. Naman has previously been a product manager at Freecharge and ZipDial.

    With a penchant for investing in the right places, Naman has put his money in Daily Ninja and Holidify. Daily Ninja is a startup providing subscription based delivery of daily products whereas Holidify is a holiday planning website.

    Mohit Jain, Co-founder of Refrens

    Mohit Jain handles Refren’s technical division. He was the CTO at Findyogi.com. Mohit has been a tech consultant at various startups.

    Findyogi.com is a website that compares the prices of the product across different e-commerce websites out there. The company was acquired by Way2News in 2016.

    Refrens – The Idea And Launch

    I met a lot of good freelancers during my course of growing multiple startups but finding them and interacting with them was tough. It looked like a good market to solve problems for – Naman Sarawagi, Co-founder of Refrens.

    The duo scrutinized industry reports on the market size and the tools used by freelancers and other professionals for payments. They launched a raw product in a closed group. With the feedback received, they started improvising on the product.

    Their initial product wasn’t well-received by the audience. It called for excessive change in user habits. After incorporating the responses received by some freelancers in the product’s second iteration, Refrens’ offering was quick in getting accepted by the freelancing community. People found the tool simple and slick.

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    Refrens – Product And Services

    Refrens is a simple invoicing and payments collection system. Once the user has processed their first invoice through Refrens, the intuitive system gets the user hooked onto it through the numerous features the platform offers. For freelancers, it becomes easy to enable options like adding payment methods, offering discounts, etc. for their clients via Refrens.

    Refrens - Freelancers receive payments
    Refrens – Payment gateway system

    Refrens is an invoicing and payments service provider. The company’s core segment revolves around B2B freelancers. The Refrens team strongly believes in freelancing as the future of work. As a result, this domain needs significant enhancements and advancements to be successful.

    Refrens was launched to solve the delay and inefficiency freelancers face when collecting payments from different customers. It is possible to create an invoice within 30 seconds on Refrens.

    Refrens- Name, Logo, And Tagline

    Refrens - Payment gateway system
    Refrens Logo

    Refrens is a play on the reference. The team believe that the freelancers get business from reference of past clients so it is an important part of their growth.

    Refrens – Business Model

    Refrens plans to monetize the platform through its optional payment gateway facilities and by selling custom financial services.

    Refrens – Funding and Investors

    On May 2020, Refrens raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of angel investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder of Paytm) and Anupam Mittal (Founder of Shaadi.com).  

    Date Amount Investors
    May 2020 Undisclosed Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Anupam Mittal

    The investment round also saw participation from The Collective fund, Mumbai-based early-stage fund Firstcheque, Amiya Pathak of Ezcred, Gireesh Subramaniam of Freshworks, Sujayath Ali, and Navaneetha Krishnan – Founders of Voonik.com, Amit Lakhotia of Park+, Ajeet Khurana – CEO of Zebpay, Founders and senior management of Kaleyra, Founders of DailyNinja, Springworks, and few others.  

    The startup said it will use the funds for expanding reach of the platform and adding freelancer friendly financial services.

    Refrens – Customer Acquisition

    Both the founders had a closed group of friends who were the first 10 users. They later announced the product on a couple of forums and freelancing groups. The platform currently has 12,000 businesses and freelancers using the system, which is growing at 10 percent every week.

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    Refrens – Challenges

    “Convincing freelancers about a new tool is difficult and time taking to do 1-on-1. We are now growing from our customer base.”, said Mohit Jain, co-founder of Refrens.

    Naman says that social media has stopped working when it comes to attracting customers. They tried a couple of hacks around Facebook groups and pages but weren’t successful in driving mass attention.

    Refrens – Future Plans

    The company is just a few months old and has a little over 500 users.

    Please note that we publish profile of companies of at least 8 months old startup. However, an exception was made in this case because of the team, vision, and its product.  

    Over the next few months we will expand our capabilities around accepting multiple currencies through multiple payment instruments. Over the next 2 years, we want to be the leading platform serving freelancers in india. We will be going deeper in their workflow and more useful features to collaborate – Naman

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    Refrens – FAQs

    What is Refrens?

    Refrens has created the easiest way for freelancers to collect payments and collaborate with other freelancers. It provides a payment gateway for freelancers to send and receive payments comfortably, which offers free invoicing, payments, and expense management system.

    What is the Pricing Plan of Refrens?

    Refrens is Free Forever. You can create invoices, quotations and can manage your expenses anytime. You can access any of these for lifetime for free. But you only pay a small fee if you wish to receive payments online.

    Who are the Founders of Refrens?

    Refrens was founded by Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain in 2019.

    What is the state of Refrens Funding?

    On May 2020, Refrens raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a group of angel investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder of Paytm) and Anupam Mittal (Founder of Shaadi.com).

    How does Refrens make money?

    For every online payment done through Refrens, it keep a small payment gateway fee.

    How many transactions can you make on Refrens?

    Unlimited. There is no limit for the transaction you make. You can create unlimited invoices and record transactions. All absolutely free.

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  • VakilSearch- Ease in availing Legal Services like never before!

    When it comes to legal matters, we Indians always get a little scared because of the perceived complexities. To kill this preconceived notion and also to make the legal process easier for the common man, Hrishikesh Datar in 2011 came up with this brilliant concept of VakilSearch. Conceived with the mission to provide an one-click access to individuals and businesses for all their legal and professional needs across India, this startup is making legal simple for one and all in the country

    VakilSearch – Company Highlights

    Startup Name VakilSearch
    Headquarter Chennai
    Founder Hrishikesh Datar
    Sector Legal Services
    Founded 2011
    Parent Organization Uber9 Business Process Services Pvt.Ltd
    Website vakilsearch.com

    VakilSearch – About and How it Works
    VakilSearch – USP
    VakilSearch – Target Market
    VakilSearch – Founders and Team
    How was VakilSearch Started
    VakilSearch – Name, Tagline and Logo
    VakilSearch – User Acquisition
    VakilSearch – Business Model and Revenue Model
    VakilSearch – Revenue
    VakilSearch – Startup Challenges
    VakilSearch – Competitors
    VakilSearch – Advisors and Mentors
    VakilSearch – Funding and Investors
    VakilSearch – Awards & Recognitions
    VakilSearch – Future Plans
    VakilSearch – FAQs

    VakilSearch – About and How it Works

    VakilSearch provides legal services that cover over 300+ services such as Company Registration, Trademark Registration, Property Verification, just to name a few. Additionally, it also has two apps, Libra-The Advocates’ App (a one-stop case management tool) and MySteno – The Virtual Stenographer (helps lawyers draft legal documents in minutes)

    As legalities for different sectors and services in India play a crucial role in acquiring registrations for businesses, VakilSearch is addressing the huge need for legal in the country to be made simple. VakilSearch also developed solutions for lawyers and litigators to effectively track cases and manage their cases and clients in one place. Thereby, bridging the gap and simplifying the legal problems and offering a unique solution through technology. Vakilsearch.com is emerging as India’s biggest legal-tech pioneer.

    VakilSearch – USP

    The unique selling proposition of VakilSearch is that all services are offered 100% online and with quick turnaround time. And the consultation charges for all the services are free of cost.

    VakilSearch – Target Market

    The online legal market has grown considerably in the last 5 years. There is a growing online market for legal services. It emerges out as a viable opportunity. Day by day, there is an increase in demand.

    However, the global legal services market size is anticipated to reach USD 1,045.24 billion by 2025, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.1% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Radiant Insights, Inc. The growing use of latest technologies in offering legal services is expected to drive the market growth. A strong emphasis on ensuring transparency in the relationship with clients is also expected to drive the growth of the market.

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    VakilSearch – Founders and Team

    Hrishikesh Datar is the founder of VakilSearch.

    VakilSearch founder – Hrishikesh Datar

    Being an Alumnus of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, Hrishikesh is a keen Debater and Mooter. With increase of interest towards debating, he was always on a quest to find new approaches about a career in Law.

    He realized that “Entrepreneurship as a way of Life”, while starting a T-Shirt business in college. As far as the family is concerned, Law runs in the veins. Hrishikesh’s father is a reputed lawyer in the Madras High Court and Supreme Court, Great-Grand father was a lawyer in Pune and also some of his grand-uncles were lawyers and judges in different courts in Maharashtra.

    VakilSearch currently has a team size of 300+ employees.

    How was VakilSearch Started

    While Hrishikesh Datar, the Founder of Vakilsearch was at LawWeb (a portal to provide quality content for lawyers) showcasing an idea, at IIM, Bangalore, a question from the audience ignited the idea of launching something to ease and simplify the legal industry in India. This planted the initial seed. From there on, it grew into being a provider of every kind of legal solution, online.

    VakilSearch’s naming is plain and simple. People who are looking for legal help can reach out to VakilSearch where the word “Vakil” means lawyer representing legal & legalities and “Search” denotes customers who are seeking.

    The tagline of VakilSearch is “Legal is now simple” keeping the message straight and clear.

    VakilSearch Logo
    VakilSearch Logo

    VakilSearch – User Acquisition

    The very first day the VakilSearch website was launched, it garnered its first customer. After the launch, it’s strategy was obviously like any other startup to acquire more customers through developing its websites and creating a strong presence on all Social Media forums.

    Vakilsearch’s primary growth hack has always been focused on rendering good customer service. Additionally, Vakilsearch garners most of its customers through its gateway services. As in, when customers come for Company Registration, they also end up coming for other Mandatory registrations such as Compliance, business license, Tax Registration and so on.

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    VakilSearch – Business Model and Revenue Model

    The VakilSearch business model is Direct Online Marketing. The services are offered at economical pricing in comparison to others in the same field. One of the main reasons customers love VakilSearch is because of the quality it offers at extremely affordable pricing. VakilSearch is the only legal company in India to offer a Subscription-based revenue model for its customers.

    VakilSearch- Startup Challenges

    Finding the right product mix was VakilSearch’s biggest challenge when it initially began. However, a few months down the line, VakilSearch started helping entrepreneurs set up businesses, aiding them with the documentation, copyright, VAT and service tax registration, and income tax filings. Today it has 300+ services in its product & service range.

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    VakilSearch- Competitors

    Some of the Top VakilSearch competitors are India Fillings, MyOnlineCA, QuickCompany, MeetUrPro, Taxmantra.com, Venture Easy, DoBiz, Filingmantra, Bishnoi Advocats and HiGrit. Besides, there are some amazing apps like Willstar, which can be downloaded for free and takes the pain out of making a will. A similar kit is available on the Amazon marketplace, which costs Rs 399. The kit is self-explanatory and makes it possible to make a will within 15 minutes.

    VakilSearch – Revenue

    The VakilSearch revenue stood at $2.17M as on Dec 31, 2018 from 1.3M in the Calendar Year 2017

    VakilSearch – Advisors and Mentors

    Rajiv Luthra has joined hands with VakilSearch as one of its key advisors.

    VakilSearch – Funding and Investors

    As of Recent Funding, VakilSeacrh raised an undisclosed sum from technology growth investor and the Co-founder of B2B ecommerce platform Udaan, Sujeet Kumar.

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    2015-2016 Series A over two rounds of Funding 2.5 million Kalaari Capital
    May 2020 – Undisclosed Sujeet Kumar

    VakilSearch – Awards & Recognitions

    VakilSearch has been awarded the Ritz Entrepreneur Summit, 2016. It’s founder Hrishikesh Datar has been recognized as Forbes 30 under 30.

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    VakilSearch – Future Plans

    Besides its headquarter in Chennai, VakilSearch is operating from co-working spaces in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.

    As per the last fiscal year (2018-19) , the Company’s average annual turn over has been around 30 Crores. VakilSearch is further looking to upscale its business and achieve 3-4 times more than the usual. Its average website traffic month-on-month is 3.5+ lakhs. So far, VakilSearch has catered around 400,000+ customers.

    VakilSearch – FAQs

    Who is the Founder of VakilSearch?

    Hrishikesh Datar is the VakilSearch Founder.

    What is VakilSearch?

    It is a technology-driven platform, who provides services that cover the legal needs of startups and established businesses. Services include incorporation, government registrations & filings, documentation etc., In addition, it also offers services to individuals, such as property agreements and tax filings.

    How much is the revenue of VakilSearch?

    VakilSearch’s revenue stood at $2.17M as on Dec 31, 2018 from 1.3M in the Calendar Year 2017.

    Who are the Top competitors of VakilSearch?

    Online legal platforms that are posing a competition for VakilSearch are India Fillings, MyOnlineCA, QuickCompany, MeetUrPro, Taxmantra.com, Venture Easy, DoBiz, Filingmantra, Bishnoi Advocats and HiGrit.

    How does VakilSearch make money?

    VakilSearch is the only legal company in India to offer a Subscription-based revenue model for its customers.

    What is the tagline of VakilSearch?

    The tagline of VakilSearch is “Legal is now simple” keeping the message straight and clear.

  • Spintly- Smart Access Control System Allowing Secure Entry

    The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.

    A modern and efficient smartphone-based access control solution to manage your accesses. Spintly Smart Access Solutions enables indoor as well as outdoor management of your access points like doors and gates. Its contactless attendance management system helps you monitor the attendance of your employees in real-time or download comprehensive reports from anywhere in the world through Spintly’s cloud-based access control system.

    Spintly offers its contactless technology solutions for workplaces, residential and hotels. Meet Goa-based Spintly, an IoT startup that develops wireless cloud-based access control systems for homes and businesses.

    Spintly- Company Highlights

    Company Name Spintly
    Headquarter Fatorda, Goa
    Founders Rohin Parkar, Malcolm Dsouza
    Sector Access Control
    Founded 2017
    Website spintly.com
    Registered Entity Name Mrinq Technologies LLP

    Spintly- About and How It Works
    Spintly- Founders
    How Spintly Started?
    Spintly- Name, Tagline and Logo
    Spintly- Vision and Mission
    Spintly- Target Market Size
    Spintly- Hardware Products
    Spintly- Smart Access Features
    Spintly- Products/ Services
    Spintly- Business Model and Revenue Model
    Spintly- Startup Launch
    Spintly- Challenges
    Spintly- Competitors
    Spintly- Funding
    Spintly- Advisors and Mentors
    Spintly- Future Plans
    Spintly- Coupon Code/ Offers

    Spintly- About and How It Works

    Spintly is the world’s first truly wireless, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) smart access control system. The company provide contactless, touchless, and smartphone-based access control and attendance management solutions for enterprise, hospitality and residential applications.

    Spintly is built upon firm values that foster innovation and continuous improvement. The founders took a special interest in developing local talent from surrounding universities into world-class engineers. Their team consists of young passionate minds that do not consider what they do as just a job. It is a community where the thirst for knowledge and logical thinking is highly valued.

    As both the founders have experience working in world class companies like Nokia, Broadcom and TCS, they have adopted the best practices from these companies. A lot of focus is given to self-improvement and knowledge acquisition. The employees are given freedom to choose their own style of working and no formal titles are used. They believe in compensating their employees fairly and motivating them by sharing with them the company’s successes. They have always encouraged the spirit of questioning set rules and continuous learning and improvement.

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    Spintly- Founders

    Spintly is founded by Rohin Parkar and Malcolm Dsouza — engineers with nearly two decades of experience in Bluetooth and wireless technology.

    Spintly Founders | Malcolm Dsouza and Rohin Parkar
    Spintly Founders | Malcolm Dsouza and Rohin Parkar

    Being childhood friends, the two founders; Rohin and Malcolm, often talked about their experiences and future plans. They were based in America and always talked of starting something of their own, back in their hometown in Goa, India. They found that their combined expertise and experience favourably complemented each other and they decided to join hands to make this dream come true.

    Rohin Parkar has completed his BE (ETC) in 2001 from Goa college of Engineering, Goa; and management studies from MBA School – UTD Dallas TX. He has 17 Years of experience in wireless product development, manufacturing and leadership, Rich Silicon Valley startup experience. Rohin handles the business, Sales, funding and marketing aspects of the company.

    Malcolm Dsouza has also completed his BE (ETC) in 2001 from Goa college of Engineering. With 17+ years of experience Firmware development, signal processing and wireless Technology, he handles the technology and operational aspects. Mr. Dsouza has even worked at Nokia in Chicago, IL.

    Their hiring funda keeps them alleviating at each step of their business. One of their USP is passionate and talented team of engineers. They have invested considerable time and efforts in searching for the right candidates. Their main focus has been the involvement with local colleges and establishing ties with the professors. By attracting the most talented young minds with the right attitude to do industry relevant project/internship with Spintly, and they were able to evaluate and select a right team.

    Spintly team
    Spintly team

    How Spintly Started?

    The 2 co-founders agreed that they needed to build a product company that would solve real-life problems. So, it all started with a quest to find the right problem; one that was concrete enough to warrant a solution and one that they could leverage their skills and knowledge to solve. They also felt that they should do something to build a technology and a knowledge-based ecosystem in India, which can make use of the immense talent of young engineers in India.

    They started with a simple 3-D printed version of the product and deployed it in known organizations. Continuous feedback collected from these initial customers helped Spintly to steer-up their product in the right direction and to get a validation to their idea.

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    Early in the journey they were working on generic BLE-mesh based IoT platform for Smart buildings. They started interacting with customers with their platform and came across a pain point the buildings were facing in the access control space, which was the access control systems they had were very bulky. These bulky access control systems needed a lot of labour and wiring for deployment and in addition these systems were dumb. They quickly ideated a fully wireless, cloud-based access control solution which eliminated more than 90% of the cabling. They built their own initial boards in house and 3D-printed the products.

    Spintly Product Image
    Spintly Product Image

    Their first 50 units delivered to the customers were 3D-printed. Once they got a stable product and good customer feedback. They already knew that they were on to something which can turn out golden and it started to scale-up.

    CIBA, FIIRE, P&G, MyGate – were some of Spintly’s early customers. They spoke to and received a very positive feedback on their products and technology. They also spoke to their network in Silicon-valley and got their product-platform vetted and validated as a globally disruptive solution for access control.

    Spintly- Logo

    The founders were searching for something catchy and fresh. Rohin one day suddenly inspired by Swiggy came up with it. It doesn’t mean anything, but we find it apt as we are here to spin and revolutionize the access control industry. “Simplify” was the key word and “Spintly” sounded pretty close.

    Their tagline goes with “Amplify The Simplicity”– They asked suggestions from our team, and this one got the most votes and was closest to what Spintly is up for– Simplifying access control.

    Rohin came up with the initial hand drawn logo with a wireless symbol on the letter “I” in Spintly. Then they got it designed by a professional designer. The logo has been trademarked by Spintly.

    Spintly- Vision and Mission

    Spintly aims to simplify access control by contact-less control due to COVID-19, and providing solutions at ease to its customers. The company keeps up with the vision to be the leader in the wireless access control space. The long-term goal that they are constantly working upon is to become the 1st truly wireless access control solution provider, we want to revolutionize the way the world does access control.

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    Spintly- Target Market Size

    Markets and Markets forecast the physical security market to grow from USD 84.1 billion in 2018 to USD 119.4 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.3% during the forecast period. Their target market- Global TAM = $119B, SAM = $1B (Over next 4 Years in India and USA). Currently, Spintly is in its 2nd year of Revenue and Spintly intends to grow rapidly to an Annual Revenue of $50M in 2024. They calculated it with the help of this source.

    The major factors driving the physical security market are rising incidents of terror attacks, technological advancements and deployment of wireless technology in security systems, increasing use of Internet Protocol (IP)-based cameras for video surveillance, and rising adoption of Internet of Things (IoT)-based security systems with cloud computing platforms.

    Spintly- Hardware Products

    Spintly hardware products
    Spintly hardware products

    3 In One Access Control System

    Seamless access control experience with Smartphone, key cards, and fingerprints.

    SMACC-OUT

    Designed to work with outdoor access barriers.

    SMACC-UNO

    Mobile based indoor access control system.

    Spintly- Smart Access Features

    Mobile-Based Access

    Smartphone has replaced many devices like cameras, watches, etc. Replacing the access card as well to mark attendance and gain access. Mobile is the safest means of identification as it has its own authentication known only to you. It is also the most accessible and handy device always in your hand.

    Spintly Mobile based access
    Spintly Mobile based access

    Eliminates Wirings

    Wireless Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh technology needs no wiring except for a power connection. No more messy and cluttered server rooms. No more ugly cables running from access points with Spintly.

    Works without Internet

    Their technology works on Bluetooth Low Energy Mesh, so all swipes will be recorded even with no internet. Once the internet comes back on, the swipe data will be automatically uploaded on the cloud through the Spintly gateway.

    Cloud-based access

    Accessing entry/exit data from anywhere in the world at any time. Their cloud-based system can be accessed by the Spintly Android/IOS app or the Spintly website on your laptop.

    Third-Party Integrations

    Spintly is integrated with the top Payroll and HR management software like GreytHR, Extenta, Tally, etc. More integrations are currently under process.

    Multiple Access Methods

    Spintly want more options to grant access to your employees, they have a wide range of access options. From conventional NFC card-based access to fingerprint/biometric access. They even provide with a manual button for those access points where identity capture is not necessary.

    Spintly IoT | Spintly contactless access and attendance management system

    Spintly- Products/ Services

    Spintly’s access control readers get installed on each of the doors which require access control. These readers communicate with each other over a wireless mesh network powered by Bluetooth Mesh. Users are granted access to the doors by passing a digital key from the cloud to their smartphones. Now, users can unlock doors with their smartphones and the access logs and history is captured in Real-time. Some of its exceptional features are:

    • The system solves the problem of excessive wiring and need for skilled and expensive labor to deploy access control systems.
    • It also solves the problem of managing access cards for employees.
    • Finally, it eliminates the need of maintaining expensive hardware equipment for access control.
    • Fully wireless access control system which is easy to set-up and is smartphone friendly.

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    Spitnly has pivoted twice, before. First, from being a Smart Home platform to a Smart-building Platform to finally a Smart access control platform. The Pivots were required to get more focused into a narrow-problem area. However, the technology developed can be used for other use cases in future.

    Spintly- Business Model and Revenue Model

    Spintly generates one-time sales revenue through product sale and then generated recurring revenue through software subscription. Spintly sells its products and services directly to end customers and also through channel partner network spread across the country.

    Aiosell Technologies – Taking the Hospitality Industry to the Next Level!
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    Spintly- Startup Launch

    The company was initially launched as a technology development company and slowly evolved into a product focused company with access control as the main offering. This was achieved by establishing a feedback loop with the customers by constantly interacting with early Pilot customers. Constant customer interaction and feedback is what worked to build a product which customers wanted and that is how Spintly reached their first 100 users.

    Developing a culture of extreme customer obsession is something which Spintly strives for and that is what has worked for them to retain their customers. They have built key partnerships with other software companies like GreytHR and Mygate which allows them to acquire more and more customers.

    Spintly- Challenges

    One of the major challenges, Spintly faced was- the recent ongoing global pandemic “The COVID-19.” It not only struck the Indian economy but their business also got adversely affected. They quickly were able to change their messaging to a contact-less system and were able to attract customer attention. But for 2-3 months, going without revenues was a very difficult phase in the business.

    Spintly- Competitors

    Spintly’s top competitors include Openpath, GHA Technologies, Axis Security and Netsync. Openpath (also known as Openpath Security) is a company developing smart security solutions for offices.

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    Spintly- Funding

    Date Stage Amount Investors Name
    March, 2019 Pre-Seed $100,000 Angels
    March, 2020 Seed $250,000 Saltwater Venture Sparks + Angels

    Spintly- Advisors and Mentors

    Spintly has 2 of its advisors:

    • Travis Willis, USA
    • Mitul Mehta, USA

    Spintly- Future Plans

    Spintly currently operates out of 4 locations, Bangalore being the main office which runs the Sales and marketing operations of the company. Goa is the R&D center, Mumbai Office is focused on the Sales for the West region and they have an Office in Los Angeles, USA which takes care of the Sales for North America.

    Spintly has reached 3000 users within a Month and an on-month growth rate of 15% prior to COVID-19. Spintly, currently has an order pipeline of about 1.5Cr and a user on-boarding visibility of over 20,000 users in the next 4-5 months. Spintly has acquired notable clients like Mygate, Smartworks, FF21, L&T realty etc.

    Spintly plans to grow its sales and distribution network across the country in 2020-21 and also plans to acquire a sizable customer base in the USA. Spintly is also in discussions with Global industry leaders for key technology partnerships.

    Spintly- Coupon Code/ Offers

    Spintly gives away the below Coupon Code to avail 10% discount and 2 Months Free Software Subscription.

    Coupon Code- “SP-DISC”

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  • Just.Jobs – A Job Portal For The Blue-Collar Workforce In India

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

    One of the remarkable trends in the job market today is the expansion of the blue-collar workforce. Blue-collar jobs include jobs like that of delivery boys, drivers, security guards, beauticians, maintenance workers, carpenters, etc that involve manual labor.

    According to a report by BetterPlace, a platform for blue-collar workers, by 2020, approximately 21 lakh blue-collar jobs will be created in India. To meet these fast-increasing demand for blue-collar workers, ‘Just.Jobs’ a Delhi based startup is offering an online platform that connects the blue-collar workforce directly to the employers, thus providing better opportunities for this under-served category of workers.

    StartupTalky interviewed Just.Jobs co-founder Kishore Beniwal to know more about this startup.

    Just.Jobs – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Just.Jobs
    Headquarter New Delhi
    Founders Kishore Beniwal & Sitaram Madhukar
    Sector Employment & Jobs, Recruitment
    Founded 2016
    Parent Organization Just Jobs Internet Services Pvt. Ltd.

    About Just.Jobs and How it Works
    Just.Jobs Founders
    How was Just.Jobs Started
    Just.Jobs – Revenue Model
    Just.Jobs – Funding and Investors
    Just.Jobs – Startup Challenges
    Just.Jobs – Competitors
    Just.Jobs – Growth

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    About Just.Jobs and How it Works

    Just.Jobs is a one-of-its-kind job portal designed & developed for informal sector workforce/jobs & hiring. It is an innovative recruitment portal which solves the problem of hiring semi-skilled and skilled workers, by connecting the employers with the job-seekers.

    Every job portal has 2 different types of users i.e. employers & job seekers. In case Just.Jobs, jobseekers belong to the BoP (bottom of economic pyramid) of India who is often underpaid and in search for better jobs. The job portal is designed for delivery boys, drivers, beauticians, cook, tailor, waiter and sales boy, etc. Employers registered with Just.Jobs are small to medium-sized businesses, startups, even some big firms who need to hire staff for blue-collar jobs.

    Just.Jobs came into existence due to the lack of connectivity to job opportunities in the informal or rather unorganized sector. Jobseekers belonging to this sector face challenges while looking for new jobs or the right job. Blue-collar job seekers in most cases go to traditional job agencies which are often times manipulative as well as not being effective. Just.Jobs is one-of-a-kind fully-featured job board, exclusively designed and developed for Indian blue-collar jobs sector.

    Some notable features of Just.Jobs for employers are–

    • Jobseekers registered with Just.Jobs are verified which ensures that the employers get genuine candidates.
    • No question asked, 100% money-back guarantee.
    • Employers enjoy lifetime validity and can post jobs at any time.
    • Just.Jobs provides a beautifully integrated employer profile.
    • The platform has simple, all-inclusive, and most inexpensive pricing plans
    • There is no hassle of long term contract with Just.Jobs. One can upgrade, cancel and ask for refunds any time.

    Some attractive features for jobseekers are–

    • Personal information of Job Seekers are always safe with Just.Jobs
    • It’s free for jobseekers
    • Registration or profile creation is not obligatory for the jobseekers
    • One can apply for jobs simply with a click without hassles of uploading resume.
    • Job Seekers can filter their preferences to get their dream jobs.
    • Gets free and instant job alerts

    One can mark one’s favorite jobs and employers instantly to get more related updates.

    Unique thing about our product is that it is easy to use. We have invested heavily on the portal’s UX to ensure a hassle-free process for our users. This allows better and faster results compared to conventional methods. Moreover, it’s 100% free for our users who are looking to search for jobs and will remain forever

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    Just.Jobs Founders

    Just.Jobs was founded by two childhood friends Kishore Beniwal and Sitaram Madhukar in 2016.

    Kishore Beniwal is the CEO of Just.Jobs. A “believer” with clear and inspiring thoughts. He started “Just Jobs” in Aug 2016 with a clear vision – to organize the unorganized, to create a platform where India’s most unserved or under-served part can connect with the right opportunities for the betterment of their life. He is a hardworking person with a “never quit” attitude. Kishore is a commerce graduate from Delhi University and is a serial entrepreneur who also founded two other startups ‘Xoxo Tours LLC’ which is a travel dating app and ‘Intense Interactive’ a web solution provider company.

    Sitaram Madhukar is the CFO of Just.Jobs. He is a highly self-motivated, hard-working, grounded and trustworthy guy focusing on operations & financial issues within the organization. He believes in learning something new every day.

    How was Just.Jobs Started

    At the start of his career, Kishore himself worked as a construction laborer as well as a waiter for almost 4 years. Having worked in an informal work environment and tough conditions, he understands the problem that such a platform can solve. He has lived the life of a blue-collar sector worker and knows that to most of them, the future seems desolate. Due to the lack of the right jobs and awareness of available job opportunities, they find it difficult to move up in their career. He wanted to do something to solve these issues faced by the blue-collar workers, and this led to the idea to start Just.Jobs.

    Just.Jobs was launched on 1st Aug 2016 through a formal press release. It was picked up by 70+ news sites/apps (newspapers or news channels) including many prominent ones like AajTak, India Today and VCCircle.

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    Just.Jobs – Revenue Model

    Just.Jobs follows a similar business model to any job portal business modes. It is a job portal for blue collar workers. Just.Jobs offers 3 different types of pricing/hiring plans to employers. As Just.Jobs have different types of employers registered on its portal, from small shops/ parlors/ restaurants, startups including prominent & popular ones like Swiggy & Myntra, SMBs to large scale companies, it offers different types of hiring plans which can satisfy the requirements of these employers.

    Just.Jobs has ‘Pay-As-You-Go’, ‘Unlock-Contacts’ and ‘One-Time-Payment’ plans. Each one of it is a different hiring method and an employer can choose one or more among it according to the number of candidates one is looking to hire. Just.Jobs is completely free for job seekers.

    Just.Jobs – Funding and Investors

    Just.Jobs has not raised any funding till date. (March 2021)

    Just Jobs Logo

    Just.Jobs – Startup Challenges

    Like many other startups, Just.Jobs didn’t generate much revenue initially, which disheartened the team.

    “We expected people to come looking for us. However, what happened was opposite. Running a bootstrapped company isn’t an easy thing. But we did our best in working hard.” says Kishore recalling the initial challenge.

    The team also found that there were few flaws in Just Job’s future plan which needed to be worked upon. But with continuous & persistent efforts towards finding the flaws & improving on the same basis, Just.Jobs was successful in building a strong product.

    They introduced a freemium model in the first few months which is still there in the site which allows every employer to post 1 job for free. After that, it started gaining new clients and sustained with the revenues from the product they built.

    Launching Just.Jobs & going through that time was painful as expected by us. It took more time, money and efforts than we envisioned. Just.Jobs didn’t make much revenue in the start which made us feel sad but we didn’t lose any hope. Our passion & belief kept us moving ahead, working hard and kept iterating the product as humanly as possible to make it more fast, intuitive and useful with which we started attracting the right audience. And soon users were making registrations on our portal. However, we keep improving our platform; identifying the flaws in it which need to be worked upon has been our continuous plan.

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    Just.Jobs – Competitors

    Quikr Jobs, Aasaan Jobs & WorkIndia are some competitors of Just.Jobs.

    However, Just.Jobs is not just another traditional & complex job board. It has its own USP which makes it stand out from the competition. It regularly updates the platform and it is incredibly easy, and in fact, the fastest and the most reliable job board when it comes to hiring or job search within the Indian informal jobs sector.
    Just.Job also takes a lot of care when it comes to data privacy. It does not sell off the user’s database for quick bucks.

    We consider it our onus to solve the actual problem. Just.Jobs is committed to making the experience of hiring or finding the right job as easy as possible without compromising any aspect of the overall selection process, and fast. Thankfully, we are in a market where the idea is already validated. But unfortunately, existing players or as we think, are finding it hard to add any value to the lives of people of this sector. Some are still following the practices of traditional offline agencies/consultancies. That we feel are not good enough.

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    Just.Jobs – Growth

    Just.Jobs is in line with many initiatives of the government of India such as Digital India, Skill India, Startup India and Made in India. The company has come up with a 100% digital solution to empower the most underdeveloped informal sector of India by connecting the right skill with the right opportunity. That’s how Just.Jobs makes the hiring process more transparent, easy and fast even in case of informal jobs sector which conventional methods have not been able to do so.

    Currently Just.Jobs is a well-known blue-collar jobs marketplace in India. In a meager 8 months after its launch, Just.Jobs surpassed 10,000+ registered employers. As of today, there are 50,000+ employers registered on Just.Jobs which include some prominent Indian startups and established companies like Swiggy, Myntra, Axis Bank, BigBasket, Flipkart, UrbanClap, Ola, Portea, Uber, Jugnoo, Omaxe, CrossRoads, Zoomcar, and 1 MG along with many others.

    “For us, there is nothing like anything which went viral or success overnight. The key strategy which worked & has been working for us is continuous & persistent efforts towards finding our flaws & improving on the same basis which makes our product & process tight as well as strong” Kishore says explaining Just.Jobs’s growth strategy.

    Currently, Just.Jobs is focusing to promote its product in 12 big cities of India which includes Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh, etc., as it is one of the few blue collar job portals available in India. The team also is looking forward to setting up Just.Jobs in overseas countries like Australia, UK, US and other countries shortly.

    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    What is Just.Jobs?

    Just.Jobs is a one-of-its-kind job portal designed & developed for informal sector workforce/jobs & hiring.

    What is a reliable job portal for blue collar workers in India?

    Just.Jobs is one the best job portal for blue collar workers in India.

    What is a blue collar job?

    Blue-collar jobs include jobs like that of delivery boys, drivers, security guards, beauticians, maintenance workers, carpenters, etc that involve manual labor.

  • Shuttl – Offering Services At Around One-Eighth The Price Of a Cab

    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 Shuttl.

    Public transportation provides a good deal of mobility, safety, and economic benefit to people and businesses. Beyond those key benefits, it also offers the most significant environmental advantages that contribute to a better quality of life. Public transportation reduces the number of cars in the street, and thus helps improve air quality, alleviate traffic congestion, and noise.

    Shuttl is an app-based office bus service that provides buses for intra-city commute by allowing users to search and book AC bus-rides for travel.

    Shuttl – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Shuttl
    Headquarters Gurugram, Haryana, India
    Industry Transportation
    Founded 2015
    Founders Amit Singh and Deepanshu Malviya
    CEO Amit Singh
    Area Served India
    Website www.ride.shuttl.com

    Shuttl – About and How it Works?
    Shuttl – Logo and its Meaning
    Shuttle – Recent News
    Shuttl – Founder and History
    Shuttl – Mission
    Shuttl – Business Model
    Shuttl – Revenue and Growth
    Shuttl – Funding and Investors
    Shuttl – Awards and Recognition
    Shuttl – Competitors
    Shuttl – Challenges Faced
    Shuttl – Future Plans
    Shuttl – FAQs

    Shuttl – About and How it Works?

    Shuttl being India’s largest bus aggregator platform, provides office goers an easy and stress-free mode of travel to their workplace and back. Shuttl offers its services via their mobile application, which is available on both Google Play store and App Store. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Gurgaon.

    The company started operating first in Delhi-NCR. By now, Shuttl has extended its services to other cities of India such as Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai.

    Shuttle provides reserved seats in AC buses, real-time bus tracking, affordable single day and monthly plans, guaranteed safety via advanced technology integrations, and robust identity checks of drivers and co-passengers.

    “India isn’t as evolved a market where a passenger would feel safe in a stranger’s personal vehicle. That same person would be perfectly fine sitting next to a stranger in a public vehicle, like a bus. Commuting is the worst part of the day, and we wanted to come out with a solution to take the pain away from people of daily commuting and buses are the most efficient and cost-effective. Shuttl was the credible alternative to these people,” said the CEO.

    You can explore bus routes between two locations and the app assists you in finding the best possible route to reach there. Once the booking process is done you need to browse your bus route on the Map. The application helps you navigate to your pickup point. The tech sourced app facilitates user to keep track of your Shuttl on the app to plan the journey. A user receives the vehicle’s details within 30 minutes before the scheduled boarding time. User can cancel or reschedule the booking before Shuttl reaches your pick-up point.

    Therefore, Commuting with Shuttl reduces congestion, pollution, stress on city infrastructures (toll plaza, parking spaces), and gives back precious travel time that was lost earlier in driving/standing.

    Shuttl – Logo and its Meaning

    Shuttl’s company logo consisting of a bus in light blue colour, depicts how the company leverages on technology and focuses on comfort, and time-saving process of travelling through buses. All one has to do is install Shuttl app for easy commute.

    Shuttl's company logo
    Shuttl’s company logo

    Shuttle – Recent News

    • Shuttl begins testing international market with Thailand
    • Amidst dealing pandemic, Shuttl expands its ESOP pool
    • Bus aggregator startup Shuttl raises INR 57 Crore from SIG Global India Fund
    • Shuttl raises $8m from SIG Global and more updates
    • Amazon backed Shuttl raises $36 Million from Toyota, others for expansion

    Shuttl – Founder and History

    The company was founded by Amit Singh and Deepanshu Malviya in 2015.

    Founders of Shuttl
    Founders of Shuttl

    With buses, it was possible to offer a service at around one-eighth the price of a cab.

    The Shuttl startup began intra-city bus fleet operations in 2015 within Delhi-NCR. The story of Shuttl dates back to 2014 when IIT-graduates Amit Singh and Deepanshu Malviya used to work for e-commerce company Jabong. They wanted to start their own venture, which led them to quit their jobs at Jabong. They started with a mobile content platform and later tried their hands at inter-city cab services. However, both these projects failed to take off. Nonetheless, neither Amit nor Deepanshu lost hope and kept looking for new opportunities.

    When the founders noticed the huge challenges faced by commuters every day in Delhi-NCR and how people were usually forced to travel in crowded buses. The entire experience was quite stressful, they started with a pilot project wherein they hired two Toyota Innova cars and launched a basic app for the Shuttl service. With reserved seats, reliability and comfortable rides, the word soon spread and Shuttl started getting more requests from office goers. As of now, Shuttl operates hundreds of buses across various cities it serves.

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    Shuttl – Mission

    With a mission of solving the pain of commute, Shuttl offers a space-efficient, safe, and cost-effective solution for urban India. Shuttl has demonstrated the ability to simultaneously address the dual challenge of congestion and pollution.

    Shuttl – Business Model

    Since the startup’s inception, the bus sharing commute offered more than 8 lakh rides and clocking about unimaginable rides a day. Apart from Delhi the company operates in the cities like Hyderabad, Kolkata, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, and Pune and expanding to other cities as well.

    The Shuttl business model is simple. They are an online aggregator and works with multiple service providers to sell their services under the Shuttl branding. The service providers in this case are Bus Operators with a valid licence to ply their buses on particular routes. Shuttl does not own any of the vehicles that are operated under its branding. It merely enters into service contracts (often at a fixed price) with bus service providers for the use of their vehicles under the Shuttl branding.

    The responsibility to provide the actual transportation service lies with the bus service operators. It is also the operator’s responsibility to hire drivers and other crew necessary to ply the vehicles.

    The fare that individual users pay to avail the shuttle bus services is collected and retained by Shuttl.

    Shuttl – Revenue and Growth

    App-based bus aggregator Shuttl surpassed INR 100 Crore in revenue in the financial year ended March 2019, clocking a 123% year-on-year growth compared with INR 44.8 Crore revenue reported in FY18, according to the company’s unaudited financial results released. Shuttl claims to have a rider ship of over 1 lakh rides per day across the six cities. Shuttl which raised over $50 million since its inception in 2015, currently has a network of over 350 shuttle routes operating 1,800 buses across different locations in India. Shuttl also claims to have completed over 33 million rides till date. Around 38% of Shuttl users are women.

    “We attribute our sustained growth to our riders and uniquely designed services that we are offering them. Our endeavor is to deliver a safe, reliable and environmentally sustainable mobility for urban India, and by attaining one lakh daily ridership, we are confident that our constant efforts to enhance asset utilization, lowering transportation costs and improving rider convenience will help us transform the mobility landscape of cities in future,” Amit Singh, Co-chief executive of Shuttl said.

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    Shuttl – Funding and Investors

    The Shuttl funding has raised a total of $122.3 Million in funding over 13 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Feb 18, 2020 from a Corporate Round round. Shuttl is funded by 22 investors. Sojitz and SIG Global India Fund are the most recent investors.

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Feb 18, 2020 Corporate Round $3M Sojitz
    Feb 14, 2020 Series C ₹570M SIG Global India Fund
    Dec 17, 2019 Series C $2.5M Moving Capital
    Nov 25, 2019 Series C $18M SPARX Group, Toyota Tsusho
    Oct 29, 2019 Series C $42M SMBC Trust Bank, Toyota Tsusho
    Apr 17, 2019 Venture Round ₹350M NAV.VC
    Mar 28, 2019 Series B ₹499.9M Lightspeed India Partners, SCI investments, Sequoia Capital India, Times Internet
    Jan 17, 2019 Debt Financing ₹100M Trifecta Capital Advisors
    Oct 23, 2018 Debt Fiancing $1M Trifecta Capital Advisors
    Jul 30, 2018 Series B $11M Amazon, Amazon Alexa Fund, Dentsu Ventures

    Shuttl – Awards and Recognition

    In June 2018, Shuttl was felicitated in the sustainable mobility category at the International Ashden Awards held in London.

    In November 2017, in the FICCI Road Safety Awards, the firm had won the Special Jury Award in the category of Road Safety Product and Solution.

    Shuttl – Competitors

    ZipGo, WhistleDrive VProtect India, VAJOR.COM, EazyDiner, The Man Company Cityflo, and Commut are the leading contenders to Shuttl.

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    Shuttl – Challenges Faced

    Shuttl, an app-based on-demand shuttle service has suffered a loss of $8.21 million in fiscal year 2015-2016.

    In a media interview, co-founder Amit Singh said the company plans to scale its fleet to at least 700 by the end of the ongoing financial year. It is also expected to hit a monthly sales run-rate of INR 10 Crore after that.

    However, for Shuttl, the path to growth was not going easy as the company was facing various regulatory issues with state governments.

    The transport department of Delhi government impounded over 50 Shuttl buses for permit violations. Besides, the department also threatened the two co-founders of Shuttl for ‘illegally’ plying buses in the national capital. In defence of the impounding, a senior official in the State Transport Ministry stated that these private buses are contract carriers and cannot act as stage carriers to pick up individual passengers as it leads to safety concerns, besides congestion and pollution.

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    Shuttl – Future Plans

    India’s largest bus aggregator Shuttl has entered the highly contested food delivery space by launching meals on buses for daily commuters, as it looks to further monetize its captive customer base.

    “Our customers are demanding food to be served on buses. The metric we track, ie Items sold per ride, show that about 90% of the people are buying something which validates that there is a consumer demand for it….we are working with cloud kitchens and building an ordering product to scale this offering,” Amit Singh, cofounder of Shuttl, said, adding that the service would target commuters who on average use the Shuttl service 22 times a month.

    The company expects to break even at an operating level on the back of an increase in prices, bigger buses, and improved occupancy levels. Selling daily essentials on buses like bread, butter, curd, eggs and milk would be the next step for the startup, Singh said. The Shuttl startup also aims to expand their franchise in other cities of India.

    Shuttl – FAQs

    When was Shuttl founded?

    Shuttl was founded in 2015.

    Who is Shuttl’s CEO?

    Shuttl’s CEO is Amit Singh.

    Who are the Shuttl Founders?

    The company was founded by Amit Singh and Deepanshu Malviya in 2015.

    Who are Shuttl’s competitors?

    Shuttl’s top competitors are ZipGo, Easy Commute, and Cityflo.

  • Craftsvilla – Ethnic Junction with Artistic Products of Top-Notch Quality!

    The Indian handicrafts sector provides livelihoods to millions of people around the country, especially women. However, linking small-scale rural producers to urban and global markets has been a challenge. Efficiently connecting buyers and sellers in the handicrafts and handmade clothing market could have an exponential impact by improving the incomes of the poor and help preserve crafts that are rapidly disappearing. CraftsVilla.com is aiming to do exactly that, using the power of the Internet.

    In a world full of trends, being a classic is what Craftsvilla is all about. Selling ethnic apparel and accessories on its online portal since 2011, Craftsvilla was launched by Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta.

    Craftsvilla – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Craftsvilla
    Headquarter Mumbai, India
    Sector E-Commerce
    Founders Manoj Gupta, Monica Gupta
    Founded 2011
    Parent Organization Craftsvilla Handicrafts Pvt Limited
    Website craftsvilla.com
    Contact customercare@craftsvilla.com

    Craftsvilla – About and How it Works
    Craftsvilla – Products and Services
    Craftsvilla – Founders and Team
    How was Craftsvilla Started?
    Craftsvilla – Business Model and Reveue Model
    Craftsvilla – Funding and Investors
    Craftsvilla – Startup Challenges
    Craftsvilla – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Craftsvilla – Competitors
    Craftsvilla – Growth
    Craftsvilla – Revenue
    Craftsvilla – Acquisitions
    Craftsvilla – Future Plans
    Craftsvilla – Partners
    Craftsvilla – FAQs

    Craftsvilla – About and How it Works

    Craftsvilla is essentially an e-commerce portal based out of India that mainly sells ethnic items for women like ethnic apparel, ethnic footwear, ethnic fashion accessories, ethnic handcrafted home accessories, and ethnic fashion and lifestyle products along with other parallel industry products like beauty products.

    Founded in 2011 by Monica & Manoj Gupta, Craftsvilla is an online marketplace for unique handmade, handcrafted, organic, and gift items. The startup claims to have over 25,000 sellers on its platform, selling close to 3.5 Million products.

    The platform aggregates artisans, designers, and retailers from all around the country on a single platform and directly connects local artisans and designers to global customers over the world. Also, this startup over all these years has launched several in-house brands namely Anuswara, Avanya, and Jharokha, all in the affordable and classy ethnic and handloom segment.

    Craftsvilla – Products and Services

    Craftsvilla ship globally and it’s free for goods worth more than $250. The startup claims to have over 25,000 artisans and designers selling over 4 million products. The products are categorized into different segments like Jewellery, Handbags, Home Décor, Clothing, Food & Health, and Footwear etc., each further divided into sub segments.

    About 80% of the buyers are women. The push has been to revive handicrafts and make it conveniently accessible. They try to keep things colorful and lively and that attracts the 18-35 age group buyers. More than 50% of the orders come from Tier 2 cities. And as it is with e-commerce portals in India, 50% of sales are Cash On Delivery (COD).

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    Here are some examples of what you can expect on Craftsvilla:

    1. The collection of Gowns is an ode to fusion friendly fashion and perfect for all sorts of occasions.
    2. Their drape collection is quite enviable as it includes a plethora of styles including, Printed, Traditional, Designer Sarees and fabrics like Cotton, Satin, Art Silk and Georgette Saree.
    3. They have new and novel collection of Kurtis full of embellished styles, embroidered kinds and hues of every kind.
    4. There are times when you need an ethnic ensemble that is not only trendy but also timeless in terms of style, splendour and a perfect fit for that special occasion. That’s where their latest range of Lehengas comes in! From Net Lehenga Cholis to hip and happening co-ordinate Designer Lehenga Sets, Craftsvilla have it all!
    5. Complete with traditional kinds like Silver, Golden Plated and Oxidised, their collections of Earrings and neckpieces have something for everyone, right from statement making to subtlety sensational ones.

    Craftsvilla – Founders and Team

    The founders of Craftsvilla are Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta.

    Monica Gupta and Manoj Gupta are founders of Craftsvilla
    Monica Gupta and Manoj Gupta
    • Manoj Gupta, Founder and CEO – He is an IIM graduate and a venture capitalist, founded Dreams Early Stage Fund and was Board Observer at Snapdeal before launching Craftsvilla. Prior to Craftsvilla.com, Manoj was Principal at Nexus Venture Partners where he invested in ecommerce companies in India. Manoj has also started a Tech company in San Diego, US from 2001-2006.
    • Monica Gupta, Founder and COO – She is graduated from San Diego State University.

    How was Craftsvilla Started?

    The idea for Craftsvilla struck the couple during their visit to Kutch, the hub of ethnic apparel and accessories. They saw supply in abundance with no channelized demand segregation and a portal that could connect the suppliers and the buyers not just in India, but globally. This is exactly how Craftsvilla was born.

    Following this, the company was launched by Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta in 2011 with funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Initially, this ethnic-focused startup was incepted with 80 employees and 5 offices across the country.

    But it so happened that by 2012, this venture completely exhausted the entire amount of INR 10 crore series-A funding. And due to this, the company had to downsize to an only 10-member team and carried their business operations in a small one-room office.

    With the downsizing coming too early for Craftsvilla, if it was anybody other than Manoj Gupta, they’d have easily given up. But not the Craftsvilla founder. He kept faith in himself, in his idea, and his passionate team of 8. And in just a short span of 5 years, this ethnic fashion portal, Craftsvilla went from an allegedly failed startup to a big-named company with a huge valuation of $250 million with more than 4 million products in its inventory.

    Craftsvilla – Business Model and Reveue Model

    The business model of Craftsvilla majorly focuses on removing middlemen from the supply chain mechanism and increasing the livelihood of local artisans and cultured designers to help them create/promote their brand, with preserving the Indian culture, traditions, and values in a broader picture. In current times, the company charges a 20% commission on every transaction which excludes service tax.

    Craftsvilla – Funding and Investors

    Their latest funding was raised on Mar 20, 2020 from a Venture – Series Unknown round.

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

    Date Stage Amount Investor
    October 2011 Venture Round – –
    June 2012 Series A $1.5 million Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners
    April 2015 Series B $19 million Sequoia Capital India
    November 2015 Series C $34 million Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital India
    February 2019 Venture Round ₹40M Supera
    March 2019 Venture Round ₹30M Supera
    April 2019 Venture Round ₹170M Supera
    May 2019 Venture Round $34M Supera
    March 2020 Venture Round ₹294M Supera

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    Craftsvilla – Startup Challenges

    Normally, entrepreneurs face challenges after the inceptions of their startups. This was not the case with Manoj Gupta. He faced the most crucial challenges right before launching Craftsvilla. It so happened that when Manoj presented his idea of launching an online portal that would sell ethnic stuff to his friends and family, he, unfortunately, received a lot of unenthusiastic feedback relating to it.

    Most of his acquaintances pointed out that there is no real market for ethnic fashion wear and there clearly hasn’t been a successful replica of it in the industry across the globe. But Manoj was firm on his idea and despite negative response, Manoj believed in his entrepreneurial idea and the potential that he saw in the untapped market filled with opportunities. Later in the same year, he went ahead and launched Craftsvilla with his wife.

    Craftsvilla has a tagline. “The Marketplace to discover India”. This tagline goes perfectly with the site, because it has huge range of Indian products & almost all the products are made keeping in mind the Indian craft & culture.

    Craftsvilla Logo

    Craftsvilla – Competitors

    There are a lot of e-commerce portals in the country that deal with ethnic fashion and lifestyle products combined with other western and beauty products. Hence Craftsvilla competes with big and small online marketplaces like Myntra, LimeRoad, Voonik, Amazon, Flipkart, and Fabindia among many others.

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    Craftsvilla – Growth

    • Craftsvilla has more than 62 outlets in total across India in cities such as Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Kolhapur, Coimbatore, Delhi, Chandigarh, and Varanasi.
    • This ethnic fashion and lifestyle online marketplace is pegged at around $300–500 million in size.
    • It claims to have over 25,000 artisans and designers on board.
    • Craftsvilla currently is selling over 4 million products.

    Craftsvilla – Revenue

    In FY18, Craftsvilla’s revenues spiked by 3.6% from Rs 30.35 crore in FY17 to Rs 31.45 crore.  The expenses from Rs 116.33 crore to Rs 59.13 crore. Losses followed the pattern and decreased from Rs 85.98 crore to Rs 27.68 crore.

    Craftsvilla – Acquisitions

    Craftsvilla acquired 3 organisations – F2SO4, Place Of Origin and Sendd.

    Acquired Date Amount
    Sendd January 2016 $4.5 Million
    Place of Origin February 2016 –
    F2SO4 April 2016 –

    Place of Origin is an online retailer of ethnic food curated from sellers around the country. The online platform currently offers a range of products, from sweets and confectionary to local snacks and health food sourced directly from sellers across several cities.

    Chandigarh-based F2SO4 was founded in 2015 by Delhi-based IIT alumni, Amrit Singh and Sachin Goel along with Partik Bhuchar. The startup was an app-based venture that offered branded and high-end designer clothes on rent. The startup was earlier bootstrapped and was founded as an apparel-as-a-service platform.

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    Craftsvilla – Future Plans

    For the future goals, Craftsvilla is aiming straight on pushing its offline foray. For the same, the venture is also planning to invest INR 100 crore to open more than 1,000 outlets in the coming years.

    Craftsvilla – Partners

    Craftsvilla has tied up with the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, for e-marketing of handloom products from small weavers. As per this agreement, Craftsvilla has tied up with Weavesmart, an online marketplace that offers handloom weaves from across India.

    Craftsvilla – FAQs

    Who is Monica Gupta?

    The founders of Craftsvilla are Manoj Gupta and Monica Gupta.

    What is Craftsvilla?

    Craftsvilla is essentially an e-commerce portal based out of India that mainly sells ethnic items for women like ethnic apparel, ethnic footwear, ethnic fashion accessories, ethnic handcrafted home accessories, and ethnic fashion and lifestyle products along with other parallel industry products like beauty products.

    What is the Tagline of Craftsvilla?

    “MarketPlace to Discover India”

    What is the Business Model of Craftsvilla?

    The business model of Craftsvilla majorly focuses on removing middlemen from the supply chain mechanism and increasing the livelihood of local artisans and cultured designers to help them create/promote their brand, with preserving the Indian culture, traditions, and values in a broader picture.

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  • RentRoomi – Find The Perfect Room and Roommate

    The urban population is growing exponentially. Indian urban population is expected to reach 600 million by 2030.  As per the United Nations World Cities Report 2016, around 9.6 million people will move only to New Delhi by 2030. In this scenario, the crisis for accommodation for this huge population has become a major problem. However, the Indian cities are slowly gearing up to face this problem with innovative concepts such as co-living. RentRoomi, a Jaipur based startup has added a new dimension to co-living by allowing the tenants to choose not only the living space but also the roommates with whom they want to share their space. StartupTalky interviewed  Nitin Sharma, the man behind RentRoomi to understand more about this innovative startup.

    RentRoomi is currently operating in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Thereby making it easier to find Rooms and Roommates in the city.

    Startup Name RentRoomi
    Headquarter Jaipur
    Founder Nitin Sharma
    Sector Affordable Housing, Co-living
    Founded 2016
    Parent Organization 9194Hosts Venture

    About RentRoomi
    Co-living in India
    RentRoomi Founder and Team
    How was RentRoomi Started
    What is RentRoomi
    RentRoomi – Revenue Model
    RentRoomi – Competitors
    RentRoomi – Awards
    RentRoomi – Growth
    RentRoomi – Future Plans

    About RentRoomi

    Roomates Startup
    RentRoomi

    India’s biggest tech-enabled marketplace for affordable housing, RentRoomi is one of the fastest growing companies for sharing home space. RentRoomi simplifies the search for accommodation by doing away with the hassles of fake listing and endless site visits. The company exists to solve the problem of generationY by letting them find suitable accommodation in cities and provides an option to find preferable roommates as well.

    RentRoomi is currently operating in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

    At RentRoomi, we dedicate our passion and performance toward our collective goal of providing a better and more affordable solution to stay for people at nominal prices. We are on a mission to build more transparency and trust into this business along with process with the goal of increasing more positive living experiences! – Nitin, Founder of RentRoomi

    Co-living in India

    India, the world’s fastest growing economy is also home to the world’s largest youth population. By 2020, the average age in India will be 29 thus India is set to become the world’s youngest country with 64% of its population in the working age group. Besides, with the increasingly growing work stints, younger workers in megacities are typically moving every six months. Millennials from across the country are migrating to big cities like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, etc.

    “The concept of co-living in India is still at a developing as compared to the US and China. But owing to the ever-increasing number of youth who are shifting to cities, the future of co-living in the country does appear broad and promising” – Nitin

    The depth in the market is already there with $20 Billion market size. It’s just a matter of providing growth with quality to an existing market, by consolidating it under brand umbrellas.

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    RentRoomi – Founder

    Nitin Sharma is the Founder and CEO of RentRoomi. An engineer by qualification, Nitin worked in a software development company as a project planning and business developer prior to starting RentRoomi.

    How was RentRoomi Started

    “The idea of cohabitation isn’t a new one”.

    Nitin got the idea for RentRoomi from his father. Nitin’s father had moved to Rajasthan in the eighties. At that time he was earning just a meager salary of INR 740. He had a family to look after and could not spend much on house rent. Nitin’s father then decided to share a room with another family, thereby halving the cost and expenses. Nitin realized the benefit in incorporating the same concept into his business model. He saw how people today make a lot of money but are equally saddled by the high cost of living and believed that he could make it easier for the youth to find a good living space at an affordable rent.

    Again, as an engineering student residing in a college hostel, Nitin recognized the importance of finding the right roommate.  

    Recalling his hostel days Nitin said,  “From the one that bullies, to the one who leaves his dirty socks under your bed, from a kleptomaniac to a self-proclaimed ‘bhakt’, in college and then work life, I encountered numerous types of roommates. Though some became friends for life, others were a disastrous experience, which left me disgruntled. After swallowing this bitter pill and learning from my ordeal, I decided to build a platform catering to those who wanted to share a flat or a room, and looking for the right ‘roomi’.”

    With help from some of his friends, Nitin started RentRoomi in 2016. When the company started off, roping in flat owners and vendors was a challenging task.

    “While initially, it meant expending a lot of energy in convincing, it became an easier task when the owners realized that they stood to benefit as well,” says Nitin.

    What is RentRoomi

    India’s biggest tech-enabled marketplace for affordable housing. RentRoomi makes it easier for the youth and millennial moving out of their hometowns to find rented space in the new city. Through the platform, one can find whole properties for rent and can find roommates and room seekers to share a room with.

    One can search for rooms or flats based on price, locality and the amenities available. Besides, the platform provides the opportunity to know about the fellow roommates before selecting a room or apartment. Thus it facilitates finding like minded roommates with whom one can share the living costs, utility bills, etc.

    RentRoomi logo

    Also, the platform lets house owners list their properties with details about price and amenities.

    RentRoomi follows the ‘3C approach’ i.e. Comfortable plug and play homes, Convenience driven by tech and Community living experience to offer more value to the customers.

    RentRoomi’s target audience constitutes more than 40-50% of the population: the heavily tech-dependent youth, who believe in optimal usage of resources, students, and job seekers who worry about finding the right roommate.

    The tagline of the company is “We make Community”

    RentRoomi – Revenue Model

    As said by Nitin, RentRoomi’s core website will always be free for listing properties and for looking for occupancy in already occupied apartments.

    Early revenue streams proven highly scalable, RentRoomi’s revenue model is directly related to move-ins. If booked, RentRoomi collects a fee between 1-10%. Also provides value-added services like background checks, ID verifications, rental furniture, and roommate agreements are included if booked online and otherwise available to purchase separately in future.

    RentRoomi – Competitors

    There are many classified websites that let users find or list a property for rent. RentRoomi is different from other classified websites because it offers the user the opportunity to not just choose a room but also preferred roommates.

    “As it acknowledges the competition in the online renting space from established market leaders, we at RentRoomi are optimistic of its growth. Metro cities are attracting single working and educational class youth in the prospect of a better life and this has created a huge demand for rentals. Though existing players are offering rental properties, they are lacking a personal touch. This gap is bridged by RentRoomi, which helps you to foresee and decide the person you will be sharing your room with” says Nitin.

    The target audience of RentRoomi is the tech freaks, who believe in using sources to the best of their capacity. Students, job seekers who get worried and tired of finding a roommate for them can easily use this platform.

    RentRoomi – Awards

    RentRoomi has received many national and international Awards. Few of those are-

    1. Ranked under 100 start-up to showcase their brand in start-up turkey fest. (Istanbul)
    2. Ranked under top 30 by pitch city organized by Headstart.in
    3. India’s rising platform to provide the safest and fastest solution for shared accommodation and roommates by Entrepreneur Media
    4. Founder Nominated as Forbes Under 30 fellow 2018  

    RentRoomi – Growth

    RentRoomi is India’s fastest growing flexible accommodation provider for both corporate and end customers. The company has-

    • Providing accommodation to 1000+ corporate
    • 25000+ rental properties listed in the platform
    • It has 4000+ agents.
    • Providing accommodation to 4000+ SMEs
    • Shared housing marketplace with 14x growth in 2018 and  200K+ users
    • Over 85K+ apartments listed as of Sept 2018
    • Has more than 5x listings for 1+ month sublets in Bengaluru and Hyderabad compared to compared to any other platform.

    Apartment rents in big cities are high, as are the security deposits; and then there are the furnishing costs too. So residents choose to go through with co-living. Nowadays rental market offers decent space to establish a disruptive concept like co-living. While PGs and hostels have always been there, what is perhaps luring millennials is the new avatar of co-living: standardized and less cumbersome experience, better common facilities, the opportunity to network with like-minded people and socialize, and a plug n play kind of model. And what’s pulling entrepreneurs is a business opportunity that never existed before. Another comforting factor for entrepreneurs is the success of global counterparts in spreading communal living  – Nitin Sharma

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    RentRoomi – Future Plans

    It plans to enter New York, London, and Hong Kong in a bid to tap new monetization models, according to a top company executive.

    “When we compare Bengaluru with New York, the American rental market is pretty organized. For instance, if I provide a verified roommate and start charging for it no one would pay. But the same thing works in developed markets,” says Nitin Sharma, founder, RentRoomi.

    So if you are looking for roommates in Bangalore or flatmates in Delhi or a shared accommodation in Mumbai, do check out RentRoomi, one of the the best housemates startups in India.

    Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

    What is RentRoomi?

    RentRoomi, is a coliving startup with an added a new dimension to co-living by allowing the tenants to choose not only the living space but also the roommates with whom they want to share their space.

    Where is RentRoomi available?

    RentRoomi is currently operating in Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore, Jaipur, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

    What is the RentRoomi funding till date?

    The funding for RentRoomi is bootstrapped. They haven’t raised any funding till date (March 2021).