Tag: Voonik

  • Everything You Need to Know About Zoho Mafia

    Zoho mafia refers to the group of companies that were founded by former Zoho employees. Zoho was founded in the year 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas in Pleasanton, California; it was initially known as Advent Inc. and later renamed Zoho Corporation in the year 2009.

    Vembu began his entrepreneurial venture from a small apartment room in Chennai, partnering with Tony Thomas, who specialized in Network Management. Zoho’s headquarters in Perungudi, Chennai, began its journey by building software products in the 1990s. The company focuses on building web-based applications and software products.

    Here are some of the companies founded by Ex-Zoho employees or Zoho Mafia:

    Company Name Founder
    Freshworks Girish Mathrubootham
    Chargebee Krish Subramanian
    Hippo Video Karthi Mariappan S
    Facilio Prabhu Ramachandran, Rajavel Subramanian,
    Krishnamoorthi Rangasamy, and Yogendra Babu
    Survey Sparrow Shihab Muhammed
    ULektz Dr. Sadiq Sait M.S
    B2Brain Sridhar Ranganathan and Karthik Mahadevan
    Bizapp Hasnol Mizam
    Edmingle Gaurav Doshi
    Securden Bala Venkatramani
    Voonik Sujayath Ali
    Delegate.ai Sachin Dev Duggal
    Hexnode Apu Pavithran
    StartPix Mathys van Abbe
    Bevywise Ranjith Kumar Diraviyam
    Tart Labs Gowtham Raj
    Testsigma Rukmangada Kandyala
    BrandMaxima Vignesh Annamalai
    Smackcoders Fenzik Joseph
    LogFuze Venkadesan Velu
    Daacoworks Gomanthisankar S.
    Docupilot Aravind S
    Quartrdesign Vigneshwaran Pitchai
    Yaali Appadurai A N, Karthi Mariappan S
    Spikra Radha Rengachari

    What does Zoho do?
    What is Zoho Mafia?
    Top Companies Founded by Zoho Mafia

    What does Zoho do?

    Sridhar Venmbhu | Founder of Zoho
    Sridhar Venmbhu | Founder of Zoho

    Zoho is an Indian multinational company that specializes in software development, cloud computing, and web-based business tools. Their first and most successful product is Zoho CRM, launched in 2005. Since then, Zoho CRM has reached its 1 million user milestone in the year 2008. The company has grown to become a leader in the SaaS industry and has over 100 million users globally. On Republic Day, celebrated on January 26th,2021, Sridhar Venmbhu was granted the Padma Shri Award for his contributions to Zoho and Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign. According to Forbes, Sridhar Vembu’s net worth of $3.75 billion makes him the 55th richest person in India.


    Challenges faced by SaaS Startups
    The SaaS [/tag/saas/] business model has been making a lot of traction over thelast few years. Stratospheric success of many companies built around SaaS (like Dropbox [/tag/dropbox/] or Slack) and seemingly effortless disruption of theexisting market landscapes they managed to achieve made this m…


    What is Zoho Mafia?

    The term ‘Zoho mafia’ has to do with the former employees of Zoho who began their entrepreneurial journey after working at Zoho. Zoho mafia is an outfit that creates jobs directly and indirectly in Chennai. It is a vital part of the Indian software industry as it not only creates jobs but also inspires future entrepreneurs.

    With revenue of more than $153.55 Mn in Q3-2023, this outfit is quickly turning Chennai into a breeding ground for deep-tech startups, said Girish Mathrubootham, a former Zoho employee who quit Zoho to start his venture called Freshworks in 2010. Since its inception, Freshworks has grown to become a global leader in software products built for small and medium-scale businesses for cloud-based business software, earning a majority of the revenue in North American and European markets. It generated $545 million in revenue in 2023.

    Freshworks Annual Revenue
    Freshworks Annual Revenue

    Freshworks is the first Indian SaaS company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. The growth of Freshworks has been exponential. The market capitalization of the company in 2023 is $5.38 Billion. The company launched Freshdesk in 2010 to engage customers with customer support and sales. It then rebranded to Freshdesk to launch other SaaS tools like Freshmarketer, Freshsales, etc., which help entrepreneurs in Customer Relationship Management.


    10 Best Sales Intelligence Tools in 2020 | Software | Marketing Solution
    Sales intelligence software helps companies [/tag/companies/] use internal andexternal data to increase sales and improve sales processes. Companies use bestsales intelligence software to improve the quality and quantity of sales leadsby using data to find new opportunities and provide sales peop…


    Top Companies Founded by Zoho Mafia

    Chargebee – Automated Billing Software

    Founders Krish Subramanian, Rajaraman Santhanam, Thiyagaranjan T, Saravanan Kp
    Founded in 2011
    Headquarters Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Krish Subramanian | Chargebee Co-Founder & CEO
    Krish Subramanian | Chargebee Co-Founder & CEO

    Chargebee is a SaaS subscription billing and revenue management software that powers end-to-end recurring billing services for subscription businesses. It helps in automating subscriptions, billing, invoicing, and payments, as well as provides other key metrics and insights into the subscription business.

    Hippo Video – Easy-To-Use Video Solution for All Your Business Needs

    Co-Founder & CEO Karthi Mariappan S, Nilamchand Jain
    Founded in 2017
    Headquarters Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Karthi Mariappan S | Hippo Video Co-Founder & CEO
    Karthi Mariappan S | Hippo Video Co-Founder & CEO

    Hippo Video is an online video recording tool that provides an easy-to-use video solution for all your business needs. With Hippo Video, you can capture, record, edit, share, and store screen captures. It lets us record video from the desktop screen or the webcam with a click of a button.

    Hippo Video lets you automate your entire sales process to send personalized videos at scale. It delivers customized email campaigns to help you get more leads, drive sales, improve customer retention, and expand your brand reach.

    Facilio – Changing the Way Buildings Are Managed

    Founders Prabhu Ramachandran, Rajavel Subramanian,
    Krishnamoorthi Rangasamy, and Yogendra Babu
    Founded in 2017
    Headquarters Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Facilio Founders
    Facilio Founders

    Facilio is an AI and ML-powered data-driven property operations software that helps real estate owners and operators get hard-to-access building data, optimize building performance, and build operations across real estate portfolios towards a data-centric and driven model of operation.

    Survey Sparrow – Turn Surveys Into Conversations

    Founder & CEO Shihab Muhammed
    Founded in 2017
    Headquarters Palo Alto, CA 94306, United States

     Shihab Muhammed | Survey Sparrow Founder & CEO
    Shihab Muhammed | Survey Sparrow Founder & CEO

    Survey Sparrow is an omnichannel experience management platform that helps drive employee engagement and customer experience through the use of surveys. A conversational interface helps you deliver surveys in a chat-like experience and increase completion rates by up to 40% with the use of a mobile-friendly and highly engaging experience.

    This omnidirectional approach helps you reach your audience faster. This platform delivers many solutions to measure the loyalty of your customers and employees alike through NPS surveys, 360 surveys, chat-like surveys, and classic surveys.

    Ulektz – Delivering a Digital Learning Experience

    Founder & CEO Dr. Sadiq Sait M.S
    Founded in 2016
    Headquarters Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

    Dr. Sadiq Sait M.S | ULektz Founder & CEO
    Dr. Sadiq Sait M.S | ULektz Founder & CEO 

    ULektz is an EdTech SaaS Startup founded in the year 2016; it provides a wide range of resources for education, employability, and employment opportunities to higher education students. ULektz offers an ecosystem to connect students, educators, and all other stakeholders of higher education and provide them with curated quality resources and services for enhancing education, skills, and careers.

    They also help drive a digital learning experience by providing mobile apps (Cloud-based educational ERP software) to help colleges and universities leverage innovative technologies.

    B2Brain – Offers Lead Intelligence Software

    Co-founders Sridhar Ranganathan and Karthik Mahadevan
    Founded in 2020
    Headquarters Wilmington, United States

    B2Brain Co-founder and CEO | Sridhar Ranganathan
    B2Brain Co-founder and CEO | Sridhar Ranganathan

    Founded in 2020, B2Brain is the sales team’s companion for automated account intelligence. You can automate account research to focus on opening accounts, building pipelines, and creating opportunities. You can get Intel, Talking Points, and Leads directly in your CRM/SEP. Using B2Brain, you can accelerate outbound sales with contextual information on your leads and accounts.

    It is trusted by enterprises such as Auditoria, Capillary, Evolv, Salesloft, Flutura, and others globally. It integrates with leading CRMs, SEPs, and Collaboration tools such as Salesforce, Salesloft, Slack, MS Teams, Freshworks, Zoho, and more.

    Edmingle – Build Your Online Teaching Empire

    Founders Gaurav Doshi, Harshit Sharaff
    Founded in 2016
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka

    Gaurav Doshi | Edmingle Founder & CEO
    Gaurav Doshi | Edmingle Founder & CEO

    Edmingle is a SaaS-based LMS platform for educators, colleges, and coaching institutes. It allows educators to design personalized courses, create exams, quizzes, exercises, and assignments, have conversations, and track student performance across subjects and courses. Teachers and administrators can send real-time notifications to students and parents for real-time monitoring and feedback. It also has marketing capabilities built in to boost student registrations and marketing for coaching institutes. It has an app for both Android and iOS devices.

    Tart Labs – Crafting Innovative Software Solutions

    Founder Gowtham Raj
    Founded in 2014
    Headquarters Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

    Gowtham Raj | Tart Labs Founder
    Gowtham Raj | Tart Labs Founder

    Tart Labs is a leading software development company headquartered in Coimbatore, India. The company was founded in 2014 with a vision to revolutionize the software industry. Since then, Tart Labs has grown exponentially and has become a trusted partner for businesses of all sizes across the globe.

    Tart Labs offers various services, including mobile and web application design and development, enterprise applications, cloud consulting, and cybersecurity solutions. The company’s team of experienced and skilled professionals is passionate about creating innovative and user-friendly software solutions that meet the specific needs of their clients.

    Voonik – Fashion for Every Woman

    Founder Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan
    Founded in 2013
    Headquarters Bengaluru, Karnataka

    Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan | Voonik Founders
    Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan | Voonik Founders

    Voonik is an online marketplace for women’s fashion. It offers a wide range of products from over 10,000 brands, including apparel, footwear, accessories, and beauty products.

    Voonik’s mission is to make fashion accessible and affordable for every woman. The company uses technology to provide its customers with a personalized shopping experience. Customers can create profiles and specify their style, size, budget, and preferences. Voonik then uses this information to recommend products that are likely to interest the customer. The company has been growing rapidly in recent years. 2017, the company raised $20 million in funding from RB Investments. Voonik is now one of India’s leading online marketplaces for women’s fashion.

    Securden – Secure Your Privileged Access, Protect Your Most Critical Assets

    Founders Balasubramanian Venkataramani, Kumaran Balan
    Founded in 2018
    Headquarters Newark, United States

    Balasubramanian Venkataramani, Kumaran Balan | Securden Founders
    Balasubramanian Venkataramani, Kumaran Balan | Securden Founders

    Securden is a leading provider of privileged access management (PAM) solutions. PAM is a critical security discipline that helps organizations protect their most sensitive data and systems from unauthorized access. Securden’s solutions provide comprehensive features to help organizations manage and control their privileged accounts and passwords, monitor and control privileged access to systems and applications, and assess and mitigate the risks associated with privileged accounts.

    Startpix – Fueling Digital Transformation With Content and Personalized Commerce

    Founders Mohammed Yasar Ibrahim
    Founded in 2018
    Headquarters Chennai, Tamil Nadu

    Mohammed Yasar Ibrahim | StartPix Technologies Founder
    Mohammed Yasar Ibrahim | StartPix Technologies Founder

    StartPix Technologies is a Chennai-based digital transformation company that delivers content and personalized commerce solutions, fueling the transformation in digital experiences.

    StartPix Technologies offers a wide range of services, including digital commerce, content management, customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP). The company helps businesses to build and manage their online stores, create and manage their content across all digital channels, implement and manage CRM systems to improve customer engagement and loyalty and implement and manage ERP systems to streamline their operations and improve efficiency.

    Docupilot – Automate Your Documents to Grow Your Business

    Founders Aravind S, Rohit Reddy Abbadi
    Founded in 2018
    Headquarters Newark, Delaware, United States

    Aravind S, Rohit Reddy Abbadi | Docupilot Founders
    Aravind S, Rohit Reddy Abbadi | Docupilot Founders

    DocuPilot is a document automation and generation software that helps businesses create and manage documents more efficiently. It allows users to create dynamic documents from intelligent templates and data and send the created documents as email or to their favorite apps like DocuSign, Dropbox, Zapier, etc. DocuPilot can generate PDF or Word documents from Google Forms response, Google Sheets, Jotform, NinjaForms, Salesforce Leads, and other sources.

    DocuPilot is a cloud-based solution, so it is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. It is also easy to use, with a drag-and-drop interface and pre-built templates for common documents. DocuPilot is affordable and offers a free trial, so businesses of all sizes can try it before they buy it.

    Conclusion

    In conclusion, there are various companies founded by former Zoho employees. With experience working in Zoho combined with their engineering knowledge, they have developed many successful products hailing both Indian and Overseas markets in the niche technology segment of cloud-based applications across various industry verticals. They also help each other to thrive in the SaaS marketplace by providing their services to one another.

    FAQs

    What does Zoho do?

    Zoho is a web-based online office suite containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, web conferencing, customer relationship management (CRM), project management, invoicing, and other applications. Specific needs of the businesses can be met through Zoho.

    Who is the founder of Zoho?

    Sridhar Vembu is the founder and CEO of Zoho.

    When was Zoho founded?

    Zoho was founded in 1996 by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas.

    What are the companies founded by Zoho Mafia?

    • Freshworks
    • Chargebee
    • Hippo Video
    • Facilio
    • Survey Sparrow
    • ULektz
    • B2Brain
    • Bizapp
    • Edmingle
    • Securden
    • Voonik
    • Delegate.ai
    • Hexnode
    • StartPix
    • Bevywise
    • Tart Labs
    • Testsigma
    • BrandMaxima
    • Smackcoders
    • LogFuze
    • Daacoworks
    • Docupilot
    • Quartrdesign
  • Why Did Fashion Ecommerce Startup Voonik Fail?

    Between 2017 and 2019, horizontal eCommerce players like Amazon and Flipkart were experiencing business growth within India while vertical players in the eCommerce space were struggling. Among the worst hit were online niche fashion startups that failed to make a mark. These startups were quickly riddled with cash crunches, failed to secure funding, could not sustain consumer interest, and failed at customer relationship management. Within a space of a few years, many of these vertical online fashion startups disappeared from the market as quickly as they had begun. Among the many names was Voonik, an online marketplace for women’s fashion.

    About Voonik
    Funding of Voonik
    The Beginning of the End
    Reasons for Voonik’s Failure

    Why do Most Clothing Brand Startups Fail?

    About Voonik

    Founded in 2013, as an online marketplace for women’s fashion, Voonik was initially launched as a personal mobile application. The company was started by Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan and was headquartered in Bengaluru.

    In 2015, Voonik acquired TrialKart and a year later Getsty, a personalized shopping portal for men. This allowed Voonik to take a step into the premium eCommerce segment with the launch of Vilara in 2016. Voonik also acquired three startups called Zohraa, Picksilk.com and Styl in a bid to build and expand their platform. Voonik announced the acquisition of Dekkoh, a personalization and styling app in 2016. This move was aimed at steering the Voonik platform towards personalization and connecting its users to personal stylists through a chat-based app.

    Funding of Voonik

    Voonik has raised a total of USD 34.5 million in funding to date from investors like Sequoia Capital, Times Internet, Seedfund, Beenos, BEENEXT, Parkwood Bespin, Tancom Investments, Kunal Shah, and more. Its latest round of funding, worth USD 6 million, was raised in February 2017 with RB Investments Pte. Ltd. as the lead investor.

    The Beginning of the End

    Voonik Revenue from FY17 to FY20
    Voonik Revenue from FY17 to FY20

    In November 2017, reports first emerged that the fashion retailer had requested 200 of its total 350 workforce to forgo their salaries for the next 3 months. This move was a part of the cost-cutting plans of the company as it faced stiff competition from Myntra, Jabong, and Amazon among other eCommerce marketplaces. However, the CEO and Co-Founder Sujayath Ali firmly denied such reports.

    He said – “This is incorrect information and we deny it. In an all-hands meeting, I had asked team members to be ready for an uncertainty in the worst case event of the salary payments being delayed. We have full intent of paying the salaries on time. It was an exercise of preparing the team to be ready for self-sustenance from operational cash flow instead of continuing to spend from investor money.”

    Just a year before, in 2016, Voonik had increased its spends on hiring, marketing and advertising resulting in the company struggling for cash burn within a year. Voonik also failed to secure any further funding.

    In a struggle for survival over the years, Voonik had also resorted to multiple pivots, the final one being in May 2019, when it began moving to a fully private label business. This was the beginning of the end.

    In February 2020, Voonik announced its merger with Bangladesh-based ShopUp. Both the founders of Voonik also joined as Co-founders. As per several media reports, this was a distress sale as Voonik failed to find buyers within India. ShopUp is a social commerce platform that helps micro-entrepreneurs in Bangladesh to set up a storefront on the social networking site Meta (erstwhile Facebook), access working capital and grow their business by automating many sales and operational processes.

    Reasons for Voonik’s Failure

    Most online fashion brands succumbed to the general economic slowdown. However, behind the failure of Voonik were various business reasons that led to the eventual merger of the company.

    No Clear Path

    Although it began as an online niche fashion marketplace, the company operated without a clear business strategy or goal. In one of the interviews, Sujayath Ali, one of the Founders of Voonik said – “Unfortunately, I won’t be able to give a full-year guidance. But, overall, the idea is to start focusing on growth.” This statement was indicative of their lack of clarity and the direction that the business was focused on.

    Incorrect Allocation of Funds

    Although the company was able to raise funding, it focused the majority of its expenses on marketing and advertising rather than establishing and correcting operational issues. This caused a huge cash burn in 2017, causing Voonik to delay salaries in an effort to reduce costs.

    Multiple Pivots

    This was a result of a lack of clarity. In the few years since its inception, Voonik pivoted five times which caused expenses to soar while business revenue suffered. With no clear idea, the company failed at raising any further funding as well.

    Conclusion

    In 2018, Voonik was also exploring the idea of offline channels through franchise stores in tier II and tier III cities. It was piloting its offline store in the small town of Thiruthuraipoondi in the Thiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu. However, Voonik was running in different directions without any real focus or clarity. This was a tailor-made recipe for disaster that struck hard and quickly. Voonik is a case study of a series of failed attempts that eventually ended in a distress sale.

    FAQs

    What is Voonik?

    Voonik is an online marketplace for women’s fashion. It was initially launched as a personal mobile application before developing a website.

    Who founded Voonik?

    Voonik was founded by Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan in the year 2013.

    Has Voonik merged with another startup?

    In February 2020, Voonik announced its merger with Bangladesh-based startup ShopUp. Both the founders of Voonik joined the company as co-founders.

    Why did Voonik fail?

    Reasons for Voonik’s failure include:

    • No Clear Path
    • Incorrect Allocation of Funds
    • Multiple Pivots
  • Voonik – Personalizing The Shopping Experience More Than Ever

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

    There was a time when women/men used to take their friends to go shopping just to have a little help in the selection process. Roundabout the same time, people were paying huge amounts to the stylists and designers to get a personalized style statement.

    To shift this paradigm online and optimize the whole process to being smooth and handy came in Voonik in 2013. Get insights on Voonik’s Company Profile, Voonik Founders, Funding, Competitors, Business Model, Growth, Revenue and more.

    Voonik – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Voonik
    Headquarter Bangalore
    Sector eCommerce
    Founders Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan
    Total Funding $34.5 Million
    Net Profit Rs 28.9 crore (FY20)
    Revenue/Turnover Rs 44.76 crore (FY20)
    Expenses Rs 15.99 crore (FY20)
    Founded 2013
    Website Voonik.com

    Voonik – About & How it Works
    Voonik – Founders and Team
    How was Voonik Started?
    Voonik – Name, Logo and Tagline
    Voonik – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Voonik – Funding and Investors
    Voonik – Startup Challenges
    Voonik – Competitors
    Voonik – Acquisitions
    Voonik – Growth and Revenue
    Voonik – Awards
    Voonik – Future Plans
    Voonik – FAQs

    Voonik – About & How it Works

    Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan launched Voonik to personalize the shopping experience for men and women. Yes, Voonik initially was launched for both men and women but later they decided to only focus on women’s clothing.

    Now, Voonik is a personal clothing shopping app for women, allowing them to buy apparel from multiple brands and fashion stores, according to their body type, lifestyle, and budget.

    Voonik enables women customers to directly shop like on any other e-commerce portal or the customer can provide some inputs like her body shape, skin tone, height, and personal style to let the application advise some dresses for her.


    FableStreet Success story – Fablestreet Founder,Revenue.Funding,Business Model
    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information
    on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been a
    pproved by the organization it is based on. Female office goers often feel the boredom with kind of formal and semi-formal
    apparel that they …


    Voonik – Founders and Team

    Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan are the founders of Voonik.

    Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan - Founders Voonik
    Founders of Voonik

    Sujayath Ali

    Sujayth did his MBA in Technology and Finance from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science Engineering from MepcoSchlenk Engineering College.

    Before Voonik, he was working as VP, head of Visa Checkout merchant program at Visa. He has also worked for Amazon as a senior product manager in the states for 7 Years.

    Before co-founding Voonik, he worked for Freshdesk as a Principal Developer, Narus Networks as Tech-Lead and Aryaka Networks as Technical Architect. Voonik originally started with a 12 member team which now grew to more than 150 employees.

    How was Voonik Started?

    Navaneetha and Sujayath went to college together and have known each other for more than 20 years now. Navaneetha was not very new to the startup scene because he had been a garage stage engineer at big companies like Zoho, Freshdesk, and Aryaka. And as we know, the other co-founder, Sujayath was in America spending 7 years at Amazon and Visa.

    “We first discussed the idea of starting something together over a Facebook chat session” Says Sujayath.

    Back then, Navaneetha had an idea for a SaaS offering based on his long and intriguing experience at Zoho and Freshdesk. On the other hand, Sujayath pitched an idea of creating an entirely new way of shopping to enable the users in buying what suits their build, lifestyle, and budget. The former was convinced by the idea of the latter, both quit their jobs and that’s how the idea of Voonik was originated.

    Voonik – Name, Logo and Tagline

    Voonik’s tagline is “Everyday Fashion”, suiting its tagline, Voonik offers a range of options in every fashion category for the Indian urban market.

    Voonik Logo
    Voonik Logo

    How Myntra Is Using Data To Disrupt The Fashion Industry
    With COVID-19 pandemic emerging in the country the economy and many big
    companies took a hit including fashion industry, Amar Nagaram CEO of Myntra
    which is India’s leading online fashion retailer was set to face one of the
    biggest challenges. Nagaram and his team not only needed to consider busines…


    Voonik – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Business Model

    Voonik basically is a marketplace where the retail stores register and get to showcase their products. Voonik brings multiple online stores into a single cart. So it showcases product ranges from stores like Jabong, Snapdeal, Fashionara, Fashionandyou, Yepme, Zovi, etc.

    Revenue Model

    The revenue model of Voonik is generated by charging a 15 percent commission on every sale to the brand or the seller. And the deliveries are done by a third-party logistics partner.

    Voonik – Funding and Investors

    Voonik has raised a Total Funding of $34.5 Million till date.

    Here is the Vooniks Funding Details:

    Date Amount Round Investors
    February 2014 $500k Seed SeedFund
    June 2015 $5 Million (~Rs 32 crores) Series A Sequoia Capital, SeedFund
    June 2016 $20 Million Series B Sequoia Capital India
    July 2016 $3 Million Debt InnoVen Capital
    February 2017 $6 Million Series C RB Investments Pte. Ltd.

    Voonik – Startup Challenges

    Costly Shipping

    Our biggest challenge for Voonik in the initial days was extremely costly shipping. It was particularly losing money on every shipment. And so the venture decided to work on projects where the team observed shipping across each category.

    They eventually came up with the right algorithms through permutations and combinations to make shipments more cost-efficient. And soon after, Voonik had a 20% gross margin on shipping.

    Marketing

    The second-biggest cost driver for Voonik was marketing. Apparently, to save recurring overheads, it stopped focusing on traditional channels like Facebook and Google.

    Instead, Voonik approached innovative channels for marketing to make money immediately. One of these initiatives was referral programs that allowed Voonik to make money from the very first transaction.


    A Complete Guide on How to Start an Ecommerce business in 2020
    If you are looking to start a hassle free business, eCommerce is the one way to
    to go. Basically, eCommerce is an online process of buying or selling goods and
    services. There is not any paperwork involved in making any transaction. One of
    the best things I like about e-commerce startup is that you …


    Voonik – Competitors

    Voonik’s Competitors – LimeRoad, Jaypore, FabAlley, Myntra, Jabong, FashionAndYou, Adoro Marketplace, ShopClues, Yepme and Snapdeal.

    Online fashion space is as crowded as it can get. New players are coming in fashion industry. And now with Instagram and its buzz, it has become very easy for people to sell fashion apparel online.

    Given that, there’s so much happening out there in the online fashion zone. Be it creative concepts like style cracker who customly assigns stylists to its customers to make a box of accessories paired with the dress. Be it bag fashion portals like Myntra and Shein, all of these along with Voonik are competing neck to neck to cater to the same audience.

    Voonik – Acquisitions and Mergers

    TrialKart

    Voonik acqui-hired TrialKart in 2015. TrailKart is a mobile platform providing a virtual dressing room experience to the users.

    Getsty

    In 2016, Voonik acquired Getsty which is a personalized shopping portal for men.

    Vilara

    In June 2016, Voonik stepped into the premium e-commerce segment by launching Vilara.

    Dekkoh

    In September of 2016, Voonik undertook an acquisition of Dekkoh which was a personalization and styling app.

    Dekkoh

    Voonik did not stop here. It has also acqui-hired three startups, Zohraa, Picksilk.com, and Style, to further build the platform and taking it deep towards personalization by adding more and more personal stylists and connecting them with its users through a chat-based app.

    ShopUp

    According to the reports in February 2020, Vooniks B2B business was merged with Bangladesh-based startup ShopUp. ShopUp is a platform that helps businesses go online. It enables e-commerce, store, logistics, sourcing, marketing and working capital requirements.

    Schoolay

    On February 2020, Vooniks B2C business was merged with kids activewear startup Schoolay.

    Voonik – Growth and Revenue

    • Voonik reported 264% jump from losses of Rs 17.63 crore (FY19) to the Net Profits of Rs 28.7 crore (FY20)
    • Voonik had a revenue of Rs 44.76 crore in FY20 as compared to FY19 i.e Rs 21.45 crore
    • Voonik had over 10,000 downloads in the first month with an average rating of 4.7.
    • Today, it has over 20 Mn registered users
    • Total 17 million application downloads
    • Close to 2 million unique visitors per month
    • Displays more than 15 Lakh products from 22,000 sellers.
    • Caters to an average of 20,000 daily orders
    • Currently has a rating of 4.1 at Google Play Store.

    Voonik – Awards

    2014 – Voonik was amongst the Microsoft Ventures India’s list of 16 startups for its summer batch of the accelerator program.


    PostFold – Quality Fashion Apparel at Affordable Price
    Though there are people who discard it as unnecessary, fashion, in fact, is
    never futile. Especially clothing is a very important aspect of fashion. It’s
    not wrong to say that ‘what we wear is what we are’. Wearing something good not
    only makes people have a positive perception towards you, but you …


    Voonik – Future Plans

    Voonik has big plans of taking onboard offline boutiques and launching chat-based features. Currently, the app is only giving recommendations to the customers, but the users are not able to chat with the stylists. Hence their main priority in the long term plan is to take personalization to the highest level on Voonik.

    Voonik – FAQs

    Who are the Founders of Voonik?

    Sujayath Ali and Navaneetha Krishnan are the founders of Voonik.

    How much is Voonik Funding?

    Voonik has raised a total funding of $34.5 Million till date.

    How much is Voonik’s Revenue?

    Voonik reported 264% jump from losses of Rs 17.63 crore (FY19) to the Net Profits of Rs 28.7 crore (FY20).

    How does Voonik make money?

    Voonik basically is a marketplace where the retail stores register and get to showcase their products. The revenue for Voonik is generated by charging a 15% commission on every sale to the brand or the seller.

    What is Voonik store?

    Voonik is an online marketplace operating in products for women’s fashion.

  • 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).


    Voonik – Founders | Funding | Business Model | Competitors
    There was a time when girls used to take their friends to go shopping just tohave a little help in the selection process. Roundabout the same time, peoplewere paying huge amounts to the stylists and designers to get a personalizedstyle statement. To shift this paradigm online and optimize the who…


    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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    The 90′s kids would have never thought that when they become parents, they’ll beable to shop the baby products online. But nor did anyone think that onlineshopping would be such a delight and would turn the world around. Taking theonline shopping spree one step further, Supam Maheshwari and Amita…


    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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  • Amazing Fashion E-Commerce Startups To Build Your Wardrobe

    Fashion has been an inbuilt statement in our lives, fashion eCommerce startups are making a good mark as they are gathering a lot of varieties of products.

    Clothes, jewellery, and other accessories are taking away a major part of our lifestyle and shopping is one of the most tiring tasks, to click for a good product involves lot of time, confusion and trials.

    Top 5 Fashion E-commerce Startups to Build Your Wardrobe.

    Myntra
    Jabong
    Voonik
    Limeroad
    Kraftly

    Myntra

    Startup Name Myntra
    Headquarter Bengaluru
    Founders Ashutosh Lawania, Mukesh Bansal and Vineet Saxena
    Launch 2007

    Myntra is one of the successful fashion Indian e-commerce companies, with their headquarters in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It was founded in 2007 by Ashutosh Lawania, Mukesh Bansal and Vineet Saxena. Initially, the company used to sell personalised gift items such as T Shirts, mugs, mouse pads and others.

    Fashion eCommerce Startups
    Myntra

    In 2011, Myntra began selling fashion and lifestyle products and stopped it’s personalized  product service. Myntra was acquired by Flipkart in 2014 and then, it has grown many folds, it is working independently as well as a part of Flipkart. It offers more than 350 Indian and international brands, it also has a 30 day return policy which makes customers comfortable.

    Myntra – Bringing top-notch fashion with every click
    Today, we can sit in one space and browse through the top and internationalbrands and also get it delivered right to our doorstep. Thanks to onlineshopping. One of the most prominent names in this industry, as we all know isMyntra. Myntra was established by Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania and Vin…

    Jabong

    Startup Name Jabong
    Headquarter Gurugram
    Founders Praveen Sinha, Lakshmi Potluri, Arun Chandra Mohan and Manu Jain
    Launch 2012

    It was founded in 2012 by Praveen Sinha, Lakshmi Potluri, Arun Chandra Mohan and Manu Jain, the company has its headquarters in Gurugram, India. Jabong sells shoes, apparel, accessories, home decor and furniture.

    Fashion eCommerce Startups
    Jabong

    The e – store carries over 1000 brands and over 90000 products. Jabong is one of the largest e commerce business in India. It is keeping pace with new trends and fashionable products, that is why, it has scored well in selling goods to customers.

    Voonik

    Startup Name Voonik
    Headquarter Bengaluru
    Founders Sujayath Ali, Navaneeth Krishnan
    Launch 2013

    Voonik has got some unique features, it provides suitable products according to your style and personality, this is why it stands different from other fashion startups. It was founded in 2013, by Sujayath Ali, Navaneeth Krishnan. Voonik was launched as a personal mobile application, before being introduced as a web platform.

    Fashion eCommerce Startups
    Voonik

    It has become user friendly platform, by asking customers questions about their choice and personality. The application fetches answers and provides outfits according to the individual information, it made various developments and improvisations for a customer better experience.

    Voonik – Founders | Funding | Business Model | Competitors
    There was a time when girls used to take their friends to go shopping just tohave a little help in the selection process. Roundabout the same time, peoplewere paying huge amounts to the stylists and designers to get a personalizedstyle statement. To shift this paradigm online and optimize the who…

    Limeroad

    Startup Name Limeroad
    Headquarter Bengaluru
    Founders Suchi Mukherjee
    Launch 2012

    Limeroad was founded by Suchi Mukherjee in 2012. Limeroad has its own speciality waving in a new path, it allows you to create your own look-on a virtual scrapbook- using products from thousands of vendors on it’s site, and can share it with others. If you are not the creative type, you want to buy a look created by someone else.

    Fashion eCommerce Startups
    Limeroad

    You can also find styles by subscribing to limeroad feed or follow people whose fashion you like. The creator of the look gets reward points and buyers get full fashion package at one place, limeroad is one of the best destinations to find beautiful products for women.

    Kraftly

    Startup Name Kraftly
    Headquarter New Delhi
    Founders Saahil Goel
    Launch 2015

    Kraftly was founded in 2015 by Saahil Goel, and has its headquarters in New Delhi. The company started as C2C. Mobile flea Market platform and focused on selling handcrafted products, and now it has a great collection of women’s clothes, jewellery and accessories, footwear, toys, and more. Kraftly bridges gap between sellers and buyers, where people can sell their artefacts apparels, home decor items.

    Fashion eCommerce Startups
    Kraftly

    Here, sellers have an advantage of chatting with the buyers which enables direct contact between the two, helping them understand their needs properly. Sellers can upload pictures of their products into the kraftly app and sell. It’s a great platform for people who want to earn money by their art and craft, therefore unique products come up in this way, where customers have access to a variety of products and not the routine ones all the time.

    FableStreet Success story – Fablestreet Founder,Revenue.Funding,Business Model
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    And these fashion eCommerce startups are going around different brands, making customers comfortable having all at one place, keeping track with styles and latest trends, fashion startups are running out well, they have developed their technology and providing a variety of options and trials.

    So, that was all about Top 5 fashion eCommerce startups of India.