Last-mile delivery is a big business in India. According to KPMG, there will be 6.1 million delivery executives in India by 2025 making last-mile deliveries.

However, a majority of last-mile deliveries are completed using internal combustion engine vehicles. But electric mobility is making significant inroads in the sector.

One such startup is Zypp Electric, which is on a mission to make all last-mile deliveries electric. Headquartered in Gurgugram, the startup was founded by husband and wife duo Akash Gupta and Rashi Agarwal in 2017.

"We, at Zypp, aim to make India carbon-free by transforming the last-mile deliveries from ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) to electric vehicles, making them more affordable and eco-friendlier with our expertise in EV technology and tech-enabled operations on the ground," Akash Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Zypp Electric tells YourStory.

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The early days

Akash is an alumnus of the Institute of Management Technology in Ghaziabad and has worked for the likes of Airtel, Snapdeal, and MobiKwik. Rashi graduated from IIPM in 2007 and has worked for the likes of ICICI Bank and S&PCapitalQ.

The startup had begun as an electric rental mobility company for commuters. The founders observed that 50 percent of the commute in India is less than 5 km. In 2019, the founders saw that last-mile delivery was rapidly growing at 30 percent YoY, especially in ecommerce and e-grocery segments.

"So, we decided to tap into this last-mile delivery market and help it transition into an EV-led delivery ecosystem," Akash adds.

While several startups such as Bounce, Vogo Automotive, Yulu, and Rapido Bike Taxi are solving last-mile mobility, the founders of Zypp saw a similar rush of opportunity with companies in the B2B segment wanting to go electric to fit the sustainability demands of India.

The solution

"We serve businesses of all sizes, right from large ecommerce companies to e-grocery to kirana stores and restaurants. We handle their end-to-end last-mile deliveries – from stores to customers’ homes with various differentiated tech-enabled custom solutions, such as using e-vehicle, fixing the timings of services, IoT-enabled battery swapping infrastructure, ensuring good riders, and giving an exclusive experience to their end customers," says Akash.

All Zypp electric vehicles are enabled with IoT technology to track the vehicles and delivery executives in real-time. The tech tracks batteries that can be replaced at Zypp swapping stations which are installed at key touch-points.

The startup also monitors vehicle utilisation to maximise efficiency. In short, the founders believe that “moving vehicles make money, standing ones don’t.”

Businesses interested in Zypp Hyperlocal service can also list their stores on Zypp Merchant Panel to get more business through Zypp dedicated riders who handle all their deliveries.

"With Zypp delivery, orders get delivered to the customers’ doorstep. To increase traction and boost sales for the business, Zypp provides free marketing promotions with attractive offers to B2B businesses," says Akash.

For businesses to have their own delivery persons can stack up costs – from taking care of bikes, the rider, the fuel expense, and their absenteeism. Zypp offers businesses an electric fleet, and gives them trained riders, customised pricing with technology, and API integration.

The startup had a lot of challenges to solve, such as partnering with the right OEMs, getting the right batteries on board, setting up necessary swapping stations for the infrastructure layer, and leasing EVs.

Zypp solves for growth in the 'home delivery' market, including hyperlocal offline stores. To execute this, Zypp onboards their own their riders, use tech (AI, IoT, computer vision), and cross-utilise them throughout the day.

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Business model

ZYPP works on a B2B last-mile delivery model. It has partnered with a host of ecommerce, e-grocery, and hyperlocal businesses for deliveries.

Zomato was their first business client and began to help all their delivery executives who wanted to go electric.

"After a few months, big clients like Amazon and Bigbasket came forward and wanted to embrace EVs as well. This posed a new challenge as they didn’t just need the vehicle, they wanted the delivery executive as well. That’s when we started onboarding our trained pilots, and today, we have more than 300 B2B customers including the largest ecommerce, largest food delivery, largest e-grocery, bike taxi and offline chains, and hundreds of dark-stores working with Zypp, with over 1,000 Zypp pilots delivering good and essentials," says Akash.

Some of Zypp’s notable clients include Amazon, Big Basket, Grofers, Spencer's, Rapido, Flipkart, Myntra, Modern Bazaar, Easyday and many more, along with over 300 small local small stores and businesses.

"We have an annual revenue run rate of over $1 million right now – this is a 6x jump in revenues versus our revenues last year. We’re delivering 200,000 shipments a month as of now and have been growing 20 percent month on month for the last six months on average,” he adds.

Zypp is the last-mile delivery service provider for three main kinds of customers: pan-India ecommerce, hyperlocal offline stores, and bike taxis. It operates on mixed revenue models: dedicated riders (fixed monthly revenue), pay-per-delivery with minimum commitment, and on-demand pay-per-use.

"The add-on to the above core is the use of EVs. This gives Zypp greater margins due to the lower cost of operation of the vehicle as well as fully connected vehicles, thanks to BMS/IoT. It is also getting us inroads into large customers due to the pull factor of EV fleets," says Akash.

The startup also manages the leasing of the vehicles (for the model to remain asset-light) as well as provide battery-swapping facilities and charging points at convenient locations.

The founders have invested Rs 1.5 crore in the company.

The company raised its pre-Series A funding of $2 million (Rs 14 crore) from IAN Fund in late 2019. Prior to that, the founders had a raised seed and angel rounds of Rs 3 crore from a clutch of angels and with Venture Catalysts. Also, angels and individual investors have invested in over 1,000+ EVs for them, amounting to another funding of Rs 6 crore in the form of assets by people.

The company is now looking to raise its Series A round to expand its footprint.

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The road ahead

Zypp is already live in five cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai).

Over the next 18 months, it is all set to expand its EV fleets from 1,000 to 10,000 vehicles, of which, the company is aiming at least 15 percent to be women-led, and to cover 10 major cities in India.

As of today, it has 300 clients and is aiming to cross 1,000-plus partners within FY22.

"We have grown at a tremendous rate of 8X from the time IAN Fund had invested. We are planning to expand to different Tier-II cities too, which are seeing a rise in demand for ecommerce and e-grocery," says Akash.

“We’re looking to be at Rs 300 crore annual revenue run rate by March 2022, with 15,000 Zypp Electric EVs running across 12 cities in India," he adds.

Now, Zypp is exploring how the rider can be facilitated in owning or renting the EV themselves, as well as facilitating more charging points with the growing EV ecosystem.

Gone are the days when a brand could afford to focus only on its product. Today, companies also have to work on digital marketing, digital sales, and digital customer service, not to mention physical distribution, warehousing, and logistics.

To do so, D2C brands have to work with almost 10 different partners to manage pieces of their ecommerce value chain, including tech agencies, marketing firms, and warehouse operators.

Gurugram-based startup ANS Commerce is bringing all these different aspects on one platform with deep expertise and a technology-based approach.

Vibhor Sahare, Sushant Puri, Nakul Singh, and Amit Monga — who have rich experience in ecommerce, digital marketing, brand building, and operations — saw brands struggling with performance marketing to get traffic to their webstores and decided to focus on this domain.

"We started in early 2017 as a mere consultancy for brands to improve their marketing ROI, but soon realised that current international brand stores were becoming a bottleneck to achieving the true scale and performance," Vibhor tells YourStory.

Handling 'everything ecommerce' for D2C brands

In its first year itself, ANS Commerce won its first client, a B2B FMCG company wanting to start a D2C brand.

"We operated out of a basement office and had many late nights shipping products and solving customer pain points. By the end of our first year, we had grown to 50 people, and realised that brands were increasingly realising the importance of ecommerce but lacked the skills to manage the complexities involved," Vibhor recalls.

At the end of 2017, the startup was approached by a domestic foods brand seeking marketing solutions; it soon requested the ANS team to develop a brand store for them. That’s how Kartify was born.

The first pay cheque it got from the platform was of Rs 25,000 and business has grown manifold since then, says the founder.

Kartify helpsD2C brands with “everything ecommerce” and focuses on their core —bringing products to the market. The platform is pre-integrated with more than 60 partners such as Unicommerce, GoFynd, Delhivery, Razorpay, among others.

It offers sales-focused performance marketing, marketplace management, and warehousing and logistics solutions, and also helps brands sell on their own and on marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart.

"Our full-stack solution enables brands to create their online store and jump-start marketplace operations in no time. Our extensive experience across product, ecommerce, retail, and marketing helps a brand achieve higher sales and stronger brand differentiation," Vibhor says.

The startup works on a revenue-share model (percentage of sales),and also charges a monthly retainer for managing end-to-end services. It claims to be serving over 100 brands and plans to have 200 clients by the end of this year.

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A lucrative market and what lies ahead

In 2021, ANS Commerce was selected as one of eight finalists in Flipkart LEAP accelerator’s first cohort.

In 2019, the startup raised an angel round of $300,000 from Kunal Khattar, Managing Partner of AdvantEdge; Ankur Singla, Founder of Tapzo, OneDirect, Akosha; Akhilesh Bali, Founder of LimeTray, Foodpanda India; and Sahil Chalana, Founder of Collegedunia, Zouton.com.

The period between March and May 2020 was ANS Commerce’s most difficult time because of the uncertainty brought by the first wave of COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown.

"We had to work with even more determination to survive and thrive the period. But, our hard work and luck paid off. We are now profitable with 20 percent month-on-month growth and this was achieved without any lay-offs or salary cuts, " Vibhor says.

According to Avendus Capital, the D2C sector will be worth $100 billion by 2025, with over 6,000 homegrown brands from India.

Globally, companies offering similar to mid-market and enterprise brands include Shopify, Baozun (China), aCommerce (South East Asia), and Upaghna Ventures in India.

"We enjoy enabling first-time entrepreneurs who want to start a DTC startup but are intimidated by the complexities of ecommerce operations. It’s a treat watching them scale and get consumer love," the co-founder says.

Over the next 18 months, the startup wants to work towards this goal, sign up more partners, develop better products, and drive value for its clients.

“We aspire to drive more than one percent of all ecommerce sales in India by 2026 and be the preferred partner for every brand in the country for ‘all things ecommerce',” Vibhor signs off.

Success breeds success, and with the likes of Zoho, Freshworks, and Zenoti setting a precedence in gaining global recognition, many homegrown SaaS providers are poised to raise the bar.

Now with increasing players in the market, founders need a playbook to go global and build value-based SaaS companies. Instead of blindly chasing unicorn statuses or focusing on the end, would they not rather focus on the entrepreneurial journey?

Enter Upekkha, a platform that mentors and trains SaaS companies. Founded by Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, Sijo Kuruvilla, Thiyagarajan "Rajan" Maruthavanan and Shekar Nair in 2017, Upekkha is a SaaS accelerator. "With our tribe and network of SaaS founders, insights and past experience, we help SaaS founders build their SaaS Flywheel engine, which generates more than $1 for way less than the $1 invested into the business," says Prasanna.

This saves founders three to four years of self-learning, and more importantly, helps them avoid pitfalls. “Five out of our 10 startups in the first cohort in Upekkha built and scaled their "revenue flywheel" beyond a million dollar in AR,” claims Prasanna.

The early days

As the Managing Partner, Prasanna has more than a decade of experience with companies such as Microsoft and iSpirit, and also built a software defined networking product startup along with Upekkha co-founder, Shekar Nair. In his stint as CTO in residence for the accelerator programme at Microsoft Ventures, he worked with over 100 founders in several batches. This is where he noticed that many B2B founders are thrust on to the unicorn path, which does not really bode well for the entrepreneurs.

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"I designed this new accelerator from the ground up to help B2B founders solve the basic equation of getting one dollar of profit for a dollar of investment. Being a flywheel revenue model, it would keep equity dilution to a minimum, helping founders stay in control and keep their options open. This is called the Value SaaS way of building a SaaS business," says Prasanna.

Designed primarily as a SaaS accelerator that gives founders the option to remain in control and build scalable growth year on year without huge investments upfront, Upekkha focuses only on B2B SaaS.

“We are about Value SaaS (not vanity), which creates founder optionality unlike funding optionality," says Prasanna.

Value SaaS is different from the Vanity SaaS mindset, as the latter chases vanity metrics of business building and usually requires $5-$6 in investment for $1 in revenue.

In Value SaaS model, founders create highly valuable outcomes for all stakeholders - customers, employees, investors, and themselves because they are in control of their business.

The Vanity SaaS model is where financial outcomes for 80 percent of founders are near-zero due to dilution, deal provisioning, forced exit, forced M&A.

"Often, a total addressable market (TAM) chasm exists - while founders may be able to build sustainable highly profitable $10million ARR business in a $100million TAM space, they are forced to go for higher TAM markets, where there may be higher risk and founders have lower capabilities, primarily because of large fund economic models," says Prasanna.

Many vertical SaaS markets may be early and small, and may need time to grow and mature. Impatience from investors leads founders to try to grow these markets too fast, and more often than not, fail in the process.

“In 80 percent of such startups, employees make no financial outcome from their common shares. Investors struggle as well with the current power law model of returns - 90 percent of VC firms fail to beat their benchmark returns,” says Rajan.

The opportunity

According to Prasanna, the Indian SaaS industry is about to explode. In the 90s, there were 200 IT services companies exporting $100million in software services. In 2002, it was 8000 companies exporting software services worth $12billion. To use an apt metaphor, India is at the cusp of a Cambrian Explosion in the SaaS space today.

During the actual Cambrian Explosion over 500 million years ago, many new species were created. Similarly, the startup industry is witnessing the emergence of many SaaS startups with the help of tailwinds from recent success stories. Helping many of them survive is Upekkha.

"We expect thousands of SaaS startups of all sizes and types to come out of India - a multi million revenue horizontal SMB business like Zoho or Freshworks, a Dev Tools player like BrowserStack or Postman, a deeptech enterprise business like Druva, or a vertical business like Zenoti," says Rajan.

Upekkha is backed by leading SaaS founders in India and abroad such as Pallav Nadhani, Girish Mathrubootham, Aneesh Reddy, Krish, Khadmi Bhatti, David Hauser, Anand Chandrasekharan, Vijay Raypati, Vinod Muthukrishnan, Shekar Kirani and two dozen other SaaS experts and individuals.

Expert names on the board notwithstanding, Upekkha still encounters challenges in educating new founders and other startup builders that bootstrapping versus funding is a false dichotomy.

"Most first time founders are enamoured by funding. Experienced founders know better. They raise the right amount at the right time and stage. The biggest challenge that we face is in educating the founders that they should focus on solving the business equation of creating a startup run after funding," says Prasanna.

The business

Explaining their business model, Prasanna says as an accelerator, Upekkha holds an equity position in them, and when the startups win by making their equity liquid, Upekkha too wins along with them.  

"The challenge that we notice is that founders who have diluted more than 50 percent in their captable have still not figured out a repeatable way to earn their million-dollar ARR, and at this point, we have no way to help them," says Prasanna.

Over the next 18 months, Upekkha will work with over 80 new SaaS startups. The company is also witnessing an increasing mix of global founders applying for their accelerator programme.

The selection process involves two rounds of interviews – one with Upekkha Tribe (a community of Upekkha graduated startups) startup founders, and one with Upekkha Partners.

Aspiring founders will have to go through business sprints, reviews and consultative sessions. The programme includes a carefully crafted concoction of SaaS frameworks, actionable insights and peer learning modules.

Uppekha charges 4 percent equity for their accelerator programme, which runs for six months, and a lifetime Tribe membership.

The company has so far assisted 61 startups, 7 cohorts and 127 founders. The combined revenue of all these startups is more than $60 million ARR.

The accelerator also has its own fund for select startups. It recently announced a $2.5 million fund aimed at supporting about 20 startups annually by investing $100,000 in each startup under its accelerator programme. Some of the startups that have been part of Upekkha are SignEasy, SocialPilot, imocha and Garage Plug.

Not alone in their efforts, Upekkha has competition in two other accelerators - Acceleprise and Startfast Venture Accelerator.

Fitterfly, a healthtech company working in the field of Digital Therapeutics (DTx), has raised $3.1 million (Rs 22.3 crore) in a Pre-Series A round.

This was led by Fireside Ventures and also saw participation from 9Unicorns – the accelerator fund of Venture Catalysts, Venture Catalysts, and a clutch of angel investors from India, the US, and Singapore. Kanwaljit Singh, Managing Partner at Fireside Ventures also joins as a board member. 

The funding will be primarily used to deliver better patient outcomes at scale and impacting a large number of people by creating better awareness and reach. 

Dr Arbinder Singal, Co-founder and CEO, Fitterfly, said “As we scale up, we want to help millions of Indians prevent, reverse or manage their diseases using technology and remote care at a click. We are excited to have Fireside and Kanwaljit Singh join us on this journey and build a lasting outcome-focused company. Fireside team’s consumer focus and branding experience will help us build a great brand in the healthcare space.”

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“We plan to expand our DTx portfolio and invest in developing AI and smart health tracking tools. The timely and relevant real-world data generated will enable beneficial interactions between patients, caregivers, and support networks to permit personalized and human-centric treatments with greater transparency and improved outcomes.” Singhal added.

Kanwaljit said, “In the current post-pandemic era, we, at Fireside, believe that brands, platforms, and enterprises that address and serve well-being, holistic living, and health needs and concerns of consumers have acquired greater acceptance. Consumers are now amenable and willing to consider and adopt digital solutions that promise to improve and enhance their quality of life and keep them in a state of good health. The segment of digital therapeutics represents an incredible growth opportunity for us."

Fireside is known for investing in startups like boAt Lifestyle, Mamaearth, Vahdam Teas, Yogabar, etc., and helping them become strong consumer brands people love.

"As a consumer-focused fund, we want to play a more proactive and dynamic role in building and shaping consumer behaviour and the lifestyle choices they make. In line with this objective, we are confident and excited about our investment in Fitterfly," he added.

Fitterfly offers scientifically validated and personalised digital therapeutics (DTx) programmes for diabetes, pregnancy, PCOS, and obesity to deliver health outcomes that truly matter. The 140+ member strong team comprises senior doctors, nutritionists, psychologists, fitness experts, management experts, and technologists working together with the sole aim of creating a healthy tomorrow for society at large.

Designed to work complementary to the doctor's medical therapy, Fitterfly DTx programmes offer 360-degree guidance around nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and other factors which affect health outcomes. More than 10,000 people have subscribed and benefited from Fitterfly’s programs. 

Anuj Golecha, Co-Founder, 9Unicorns said, “At 9Unicorns, we are always on the lookout for ventures leveraging tech-based innovations to solve the most pressing pain points in society. With its focus on enabling digital therapeutics (DTx) and healthcare for patients with chronic diseases, Fitterfly crossed all the boxes on our checklist. Currently focusing on diabetes and women’s health, the brand is catering to addressable markets of $21 billion and $1.14 billion respectively.”

In June 2019, Fitterfly had raised a seed round of $1 million from HNIs, family, and friends. 

India is still one of the most financially underpenetrated markets in the world, and has some of the lowest rates of penetration in consumer credit, with less than 3 percent of adults using a credit card, according to Research and Markets. According to CEIC household debt ratios in India are 11-12 percent versus 80 percent plus in the rest of the world. 

One of the reasons for this low penetration is the cost of distribution and operations of financial services is high under traditional channels. If technology is deployed, even small-ticket size products can be made available.

Wanting to help more people get access to credit, former colleagues Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman started ZestMoney in 2015. It offers low-cost EMIs, referral earnings, and helps one convert their credit balance to an EMI.

The fintech firm is an AI-driven EMI financing and “Buy Now Pay Later” platform, which uses existing credit scores for repeat customers and creates credit scores for first-time borrowers. The platform looks at SMS data to understand the creditworthiness of the borrower and offers its technology to over 100 NBFCs to lend to the customer.

“We have a huge under-penetration challenge for a bunch of products -- from insurance to wealth management. But the problem we're trying to solve is of consumer credit. We felt the best way to do that was to create products that partner with retailers, manufacturers, and the entire digital ecosystem,” says Lizzie. 

Fast forward six years, ZestMoney is scaling significantly in terms of customer base, product offerings, etc. The founders believe India will double the number of people who want credit in the coming years. The EMI financing platform’s 'buy now pay later' option is currently available in over 15,000 stores across the country, and ut the company plans to ramp this up to 400,000 in 2021.

With nearly six million users at present, the company is looking to cross Rs 100 crore revenue in FY 2021. The company’s revenue was Rs 72 crore in FY 2020 according to RoC data. The company expects to close FY 2022 at Rs 350 crore.

Building the platform

Lizzie says the team learned very early to ignore naysayers who told them that their idea will not work. “We wanted to build the first completely digital end-to-end EMI platform with zero human intervention in the entire product and process. No one had ever done that, so we were repeatedly told that we would need to do physical KYC, we would need to collect cash, and we would need to take physical documents. We chose to ignore all this “advice” and plough through on building a completely digital product and it worked in the long run,” says Lizzie. 

In the early days, the company researched and made a list of investors who understood digital credit and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) in particular. Ribbit Capital was at the top of the list, given it had invested in Affirm, NuBank, and many similar businesses globally. Lizzie says it was such a thrill for the team when they said they would invest after a very short meeting.

Sachet loans

According to Lizzie, a one-size-fits-all approach to consumer credit doesn’t work in India. Products like personal loans and credit cards are solving the problem for a tiny slither of the market, she adds.

The consumer lending fintech company believes in the “sachet” approach and says consumer credit is a perfect use case for the creation of a complete digital sachet size solution. 

For a market like India, credit cards simply don't make sense as the costs are too high with a 4-5 percent monthly rate. India has only a small section of the market with the type of income to justify non-sachet size products like long-term borrowing. Most consumers in India need smaller ticket product in categories like credit, mutual funds, and insurance as far as buy now, pay later or EMIs is concerned.

However, the main innovation in the last couple of years has been the digitalisation of these products by providers like ZestMoney. Other players in the space include Kissht, LazyPay, Bajaj Finserv, and Snapmint.

The shift towards ‘pay later’ solutions represents the fact that consumers are looking for complete transparency and no hidden charges. According to ZestMoney, nearly 70 percent of its customers come from Tier II and III cities and a majority of them are new to credit or have only limited credit exposure. The average age of a customer on the platform is 34, and Zest claims to be helping them build a good credit profile.

ZestMoney claims to have convinced over 8,000 brands to work on the BNPL option upon checkout. Some of the big names it works with are OnePlus, Mi, Apple, etc.

“The rate of conversion is higher for a BNPL/EMI product than a full upfront payment. The average ticket size goes up too. Someone who has a budget of 10,000 for a smartphone would be willing to spend Rs 15,000 or 20,000 if they get an option of breaking up the purchase into a 3 or 6 or 12 months EMI,” says Lizzie.

“We have been able to improve business and conversion rates for 3,000 online partners. We still count on large ecommerce players like Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm, Myntra, and MakeMyTrip. among others,” says Lizzie.

The company claims its zero cost 3/6-month EMIs are a big hit with almost everyone. Twelve-month BNPL plans are also popular because they help to spread out the cost of large ticket items like edtech, large appliances, etc.

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The business and technology

The startup has a unique business model. It is a three-sided marketplace with three sets of customers - the consumer side, the merchant side (where it offers a payment solution to them), and the lender side (where it is a software and acquisition partner).

The bulk of ZestMoney’s revenue is generated by integrating with merchants across online and offline channels - it acts as a payment partner to them and also as an affiliate partner, bringing them new transactions and customers.

“Technology is at the core of everything we do. ZestMoney uses AI and machine learning at various stages of customer onboarding, including risk assessment, fraud detection, affordability assessment, and KYC compliance. As far as risk in underwriting is concerned, looking beyond the traditional credit score is important, especially in terms of economic uncertainty like the times we are in now,” says Lizzie. 

“We also have an alternate data model for underwriting. We consume and process data points like a digital footprint, mobile technology, and transactional behaviour to map customers. We look at mobile technology, Artificial Intelligence, and machine learning to analyse dozens of factors besides a traditional credit score to underwrite risk both quickly and accurately,” she adds.

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Growth during the pandemic

The pandemic significantly sped up a trend that was happening in the market with UPI and other developments in digital commerce. At the same time, awareness of digital EMI and BNPL solutions also increased multifold.

During this time, Zest doubled down on categories like edtech and electric vehicles apart from smartphones, electronics, and fashion. It also launched one of the largest financial literacy programmes to help understand the importance of savings and the impact of the moratorium on people’s lives.

“We have always maintained that credit cards are not for the Indian market. Look at the innovation in payments and online shopping - Indians are leapfrogging cards to BNPL. It is happening right now at an incredible pace and we expect that to accelerate in the next 12 months, and we expect the market to double in the next two years,” says Lizzie.

Plans ahead

In the next 12 months, the company plans to double down on its partnerships and take its offline network from 15,000 to 4 lakh. It is planning for strategic partnerships with banks and will continue to collaborate with lenders and NBFCs.

“Our plans for credit on UPI will be a game changer and will play out strongly in the year to come. We are powering BNPL through our partnership with GooglePay and a presence on the Spot platform. We hope to launch in a new geography soon. We believe our tech infrastructure and the ability to strike partnerships is a win when we expand in global markets,” says Lizzie.

"In India, active credit cards are less than 25 million. Indians prefer a transparent digital pay later solution that has no hidden charges or ambiguity around interest rates. There is also a huge population that needs a better, cheaper form of consumer credit. So, many are switching to BNPL, skipping credit cards entirely. UPI has a role to play, and with the pandemic, people are a lot more comfortable doing a digital purchase and that spills over to financial habits too,” says Lizzie.

The COVID-led lockdown confined people to their homes for months, affecting their mental and physical health. People turned to fitness apps and virtual trainers to stay fit in these trying times, leading to the launch of many fitness-centric offerings.

Vikas Singh, an ex-Goldman Sachs employee, in February 2021 launched Fitpage, an integrated mobile-first platform for fitness and nutrition.

"We are democratising fitness for people. India loves to walk, which is extremely important for one’s cardiorespiratory and vascular health. The good health of heart and lungs are central to overall health, and we decided to bring nutrition, physical fitness and recovery on an integrated platform,” Vikas says.

The Mumbai-based fitness tech platform brings all the elements of good health - exercise, nutrition, personal hygiene, and more - on to one page.

“We centralise the entire ecosystem of nutrition, fitness, and recovery through walking, running, and the right nutrition. Everyone is different and needs a different plan that works to their abilities. Our cardio-respiratory assessment can be done on the app in less than 15 minutes. Basis the result, plans are instantly created – these progress and regress with your fitness,” he adds.

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The early days

Vikas grew up in a small village, Sarai Sevak, in Uttar Pradesh, in a family of more than a dozen people. His early years were tough; each day depended on how much cow dung his family collected or the amount of crop they were able to barter.

"We lived in a mud house where all of us, including the animals at times, came together under heavy rains. We could not afford two square meals and my mother wanted us to study to emerge from the cycle of adversity. At the age of 13, I and my younger brother, who was 10 years old then, moved to Pratapgarh for secondary schooling,” he recalls.

The brothers stayed in a lodge for the next few years. “My brother used to cook and I used to study in the university and play various sports professionally. I learnt Hindi at the age of 16, and spoken English at the age of 22,” he says. His brother, Vivek Singh, grew up to be a police officer. He has since then quit and became an entrepreneur himself.

Vikas, who moved to Allahabad in 1999, graduated in Economics from the University of Allahabad in 2003.

Vikas says his mother was his biggest inspiration. She opened a small school 5km from their home, in a hut, to enable education for kids. She would carry her slippers in her bag after crossing the boundary of the village, and only wear them when she reached school to “avoid any wear and tear of the slippers”.

However, after graduation, all Vikas got was a job as a Security Officer at Reliance in Mumbai. It gave him enough money to run his household, but standing at the gate and checking IDcards wasn’t what he wanted to do. He wanted to do more and he learnt the basics of operating a computer and started learning English while at Reliance.

In 2007, he got an opportunity to work with Goldman Sachs, and this “changed everything”. The company not only mentored him until he left in 2017 but also supported him with a 100 percent scholarship to an MBA at Chicago Booth School between 2014 and 2016.

After Goldman Sachs, Vikas worked at APGlobale as a senior executive for three years before starting up Fitpage.

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The birth of an entrepreneur

According to Statista, revenue in the fitness segment is projected to reach $2.15 billion in 2021. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2021-2024) of 2.68 percent, resulting in a projected market volume of $2.3 billion by 2024.

However, the fitness industry in India remains largely fragmented. Despite the emergence of brands like Cult, Cure.fit, and GOQii, the organised industry has not even touched the potential market opportunity. 

"Currently, group workouts, gym training, cross-fit, and yoga are popular. However, endurance sports does not have anyone’s attention as yet. Recreational walkers, runners, and cyclists account for most under these categories; they either participate in an event or perform any of these sports to keep fit,” Vikas says.

He adds that pre-COVID India witnessed between five running events every Sunday with large participation from recreational walkers and runners. “A large number of participants either end up getting injured or seek training from virtual platforms or coaches from outside India.”

Since the above target group takes up an endurance sport, mostly after they start working and do not have a prior experience of the sport, they lack a basic understanding of the demand of the sport. 

What Fitpage does

Fitpage offers education, training, and nutrition through an integrated platform where these are highly personalised. Once you sign up with Fitpage you get a personal nutrition and fitness person, in the form of a digital assistant, who will then guide you through digitally on fitness goals and objectives based on your body type. It also provides mental health training. The AI uses data to guide the user.

More than 1,000 people are enrolled in the programme as of now; the programmes are priced at Rs 5,000 per month. The startup is currently available in website and mobile web mode; an app will be launched soon. It competes with CureFit, GoQii, and HealthifyMe.

"We work with top exercise scientists, researchers, and content creators to maintain quality. The usage of our website will be subscription-based where we will charge for content, nutrition and training,” Vikas says. The company will individually assign experts to each person or client.

The company has raised Rs 26.5 crore in a seed round from Astra Ventures, a German family office this year.

The founder claims the fit-tech startup currently has resources and runway for the next 18 months, which will allow it to scale faster. 

"People do not need fancy gyms or expensive diets to get fitter. They need education and motivation to be able to make informed decisions about their health. We are trying to do just that. No one personalises the fitness experience as we do,” Vikas says.

Digitisation of transportation, where one can track the source routes on a real-time basis, is considered the future. For this to happen, organisations should transform digitally, and that’s how MTAP Technologies was started in 2014.

Founded by Satvir Singh Kohli and Srinivas Chitturi, it is a Software as a Service (SaaS) startup that uses technology to manage different kind of fleet operations. At present, the Bengaluru-based startup helps track, manage, and automate transportation for businesses.

“Our company is revolutionising transport automation,” says Srinivas.

Starting with just three clients in 2014, MTAP is now serving over 120 clients across six countries. It claims its revenue has crossed more than $1.5 million for FY 2021.

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The early days

An alumnus of IIT Madras, Srinivas Chitturi has worked with several leading multinational companies, including General Electric, Siemens, and Mentor Graphics UK.

Before co-founding MTAP Technologies, he worked with iOPEX Technologies as the Director of Research and Development. Here, he was working with various companies to help them automate the monitoring of thousands of their servers remotely to help optimise their operational costs across various company functions, and noticed the sheer volume of trips and the complexity of the transport operations.

Satvir Singh Kohli comes with 13 years of experience in business development across various fields, and has worked with companies such as American Express and ABC Consultants. At MTAP, he spearheads new product launches and business acquisition, in addition to driving growth, strategy, and global expansion. The co-founders met through common friends.

How does it work?

According to the co-founders, MTAP is working to embed four attributes in the transportation segment – optimisation, transparency, safety, and digitisation.

MTAP offers optimisation in terms of reducing the number of vehicles and trips required for both economic and ecological purposes.

Srinivas says, “We wanted to bring transparency into every step of the management process to obtain trust. We feel blessed that we can reduce the incidents of violence against women with our safety features and emergency protocols.”

Digitisation has taken lifestyle to a whole new level by making everything simpler, quicker, and in the moment, he adds.

The platform enables registered fleet operators like buses and cars used by corporates and schools, to accept requests for planned and real-time trips. It also autogenerates invoices instantly.

The startup claims to be enabling fleet operators to compete with major ride-hailing companies in the rental space at a fraction of the cost. It is also working with some of the largest EV fleet operators in the world to help them leverage technology, making it more adoptable.

The product

Some of MTAP’s products include Safebus – a school bus tracking and child safety platform; and Safetrax, a flagship product of MTAP that helps automate employee commute.

It has also launched Autologix, a rental taxi booking app, to manage ad-hoc trip requests; and Auto routes is an API that optimises routes for different types of delivery-based businesses.

With algorithmic optimisations, the company claims it can reduce transport costs by up to 30 percent. 

Srinivas says: “We offer B2B technology services for both corporates and schools. We have developed algorithms to reduce the number of vehicles and trips, which saves transportation costs.”

“Our team also ensures compliance to the regulations and safety controls for transport, digitisation, and transparency for hassle-free operations, better visibility, easy coordination, and predictability,” adds Srinivas.

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The startup has developed multiple algorithms to suit the different needs of different organisations. It has software that uses the smartphone and a GPS tracker that is embedded into smartphones to connect with GPS satellites to extract real-time data about the geographical location and all related events. 

“All computation is carried out on the cloud servers, which stores, analyses, and sends data to authorised devices without the need to be prompted. With fine grained data access controls, only the required data can be accessed by someone with the authorisation to do so. This process enables real-time communication, which in turn makes scheduling, live tracking, monitoring, troubleshooting, and invoicing available on fingertips," says Srinivas.

Even during the pandemic, the platform was updated to help identify COVID-contaminated zones and automatically make the necessary changes to avoid travelling to such areas. Further, it also updated the proprietary algorithms to determine the optimal seating capacities and arrangement in each vehicle to help enterprises, as well as schools, comply with social distancing guidelines.

The market and challenges

The startup raised $1.5 million from IOPEX Technologies in 2015.

MTAP’s business model is based on billing on a per user (employees/student) per month and per vehicle per month. 

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global fleet management software market size stood at $14.59 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $50.09 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 16.8 percent during the forecast period.

Speaking about challenges, Srinivas says: “There were a few hiccups in our journey. Making the process transparent made a lot of people uncomfortable and it was an uphill task to convince them of the long-term benefits. Now, everybody appreciates the change and the industry is far more receptive.”

“We also had some resistance from employees complaining that they are travelling with more people than earlier owing to the usage of algorithmic optimisations,” says Srinivas.

The founders learnt from the feedback and iterated the product to offer multiple algorithms with different constraints and leeway for the transport admins to strike a balance between comfort and optimisation. 

The future

In the next 18 months, the startup is looking for clients in the Middle East, Malaysia, China, Qatar, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam, and other countries. 

MTAP is also venturing into new avenues of transport optimisation by riding on its success in India.

“We hope to add more clients across more countries. We see ourselves as market leaders in route optimisation. Our home-grown algorithms offer customers a plethora of parameters for route optimisation, including seating capacity. Yet, we recognise that the real challenge is to be in sync with our customers’ goals,” says Srinivas.

He adds that the startup is aiming for 10x growth in the next three years by adding new products and regions. The company has crossed over $1.5 million in revenue for FY 2021.

At present, MTAP competes with LogiNext, Locus, and Skyy.

What’s the first thing you check out while buying a car? The mileage or maybe the performance? Gaurav Rane and Varun Shah realised that the first thing people look at is the visual elements of the automobile. Looking at ways to enrich buyers’ experience, they realised that experiential marketing is playing a significant role in influencing people’s purchase decisions.

In 2012, they founded Mumbai-based startup Eccentric Engine, which uses 3D visualisation to impress customers at dealerships and on OEM websites.

"With our One 3D platform, we are democratising3D visualization of vehicles. We help our auto OEM customers by providing authentic product visualisation– on the internet, at their dealerships, or any other relevant touch point. We simulate how one is likely to explore a physical car. This gives buyers the confidence to proceed with their purchase decision-making in absence of access to a physical vehicle," Varun Shah, Co-founder of Eccentric Engine, tells YourStory.

For over a decade, with the entry of industry platforms such as CarWale and CarDekho, automotive OEMs have been aimed at showcasing information about the vehicle and creating curiosity around the product to motivate a prospective buyer to walk into a dealership and experience vehicles.

"Traditionally, the strategy has always been ‘Explore online, experience offline. Buy offline.’ However, we are gradually moving towards ‘Explore online, experience online and offline. Buy online/offline.’ This has been further accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic that saw the emergence of contactless initiatives in the industry," says Varun Shah.

The early days

Eccentric Engine Co-founder Gaurav Rane and Varun originally started Eccentric Engine as a brand services company, which leveraged gaming and interactive technology to create omni-channel experiences for companies across sectors.

In 2016, it saw the opportunity and the need to democratise3D visualization for vehicle exploration. This was on the back of two developments.

"After being a services company for three years, we needed to be a tech company. In 2015,the adoption of a VR project for one of our automotive customers failed at the dealer front. We realised that AR/VR has a long way to go before it becomes accessible to people. Till then, the only way to explore a car in its entirety on the web was throughvideos or the 360-degreeimage turntable, which was just not immersive,” narrates Varun.

“We thought why3D visualization should be restricted to AR/VR, and started to finda way to provide 3D visualization without downloading any application or using any external device. That was the genesis of Eccentric Engine’s visualization technology platform One 3D," he adds.

The startup serves the automotive retail ecosystem, and claims to be the only company in India that is strategically enabling omni-channel digital experiences.

The product

Eccentric Engine not only provides visualization but also works closely with its partners to ensure that their tech interventions fit their ecosystem and maximize their business. While there are fragmented individual players such as small creative agencies who deal with content visualisation, the founders say Eccentric Engine’s One 3D platform provides a holistic solution that can work at multiple touch points.

The platform allows potential buyers to do a walkthrough of a car and immerse themselves in its features. The tech is embedded in the website of the OEM, which helps the buyers to walk through every single variant, and accessorise and trim the vehicle as per their taste and get an instant quotation based on their selections, which they can save for their future reference.

Two things make the startup stand out. Its proprietary compression algorithm ensures high quality of visuals within the lowest size so they can load on all devices and internet connectivities. Secondly, its analytics gives the right insights on purchase intent, interest, and trends.

Business model and market trends

According to AlliedMarketResearch, the global visualization and 3D rendering software market was valued at $1.48 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $7.96 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 23.1 percent from 2020 to 2027.

Over 60 vehicles sold in India, including Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Nissan, MG Motor, and most recently, Citroën, are visualised using One 3D. The platform is used on over 20,000 devices of auto sales workforce to enable superior consultation to their prospective buyers.

For visualisation, the startup uses a subscription-based business model where it gets revenues on the number of vehicles and touch points where it was showcased, for a given period of time.

For One 3D, its revenue comes from analytics, deployment, and customisation for a given OEM.

Its first revenue came from Tata Motors in 2016. Sources say that it works with over ten OEMs, and raked in Rs 7 crore in revenues from its visualisation tool and the platform in FY2021. The company is self-funded and does not want to disclose details.

The startup competes with CityZenith, Hover, Augment, and Floored, however, these companies don't focus on automobiles as their core vertical.

Overcoming challenges

When the founders decided to use 3D visualisation, the initial issue they encountered was a lack of awareness.

"One 3D was initially benchmarked for visual quality against static images and videos. This was like comparing apples with oranges. It needed a lot of customer education, evangelism, and creating awareness to make 3D visualization mainstream. Over the years, we have been able to bridge this gap to a significant extent," says Varun.

The founders often had to struggle to understand who were the right stakeholders in large OEMs – as Eccentric Engine's product intersects with IT, product planning, product marketing, and digital transformation. Also, the founders say managing different expectations from different stakeholders has always been challenging.

It was an uphill task for the team to win over their first client as there was no clear reference in place and it made their job of explaining the product a little harder.

"It began with multiple PoCs, some of which were rejected in the first attempt due to stringent visual standards. However, we iterated, evolved, and improved very quickly. Overtime, we won the confidence of various teams within the organization,and their customers adopted it and loved it," says Varun.

The team has grown to employ 60 professionals, including those working at research centres for One 3D’sproduct development in Europe and Russia.

The road ahead

The company plans to go global over the next 18 months. It aims to scale up its visualization platform to solve the holistic needs of its customers, including imaging and videos. It is also rolling out new features on its proprietary platform to enhance the quality of sales consultations across touch points.

The startup wants to make this a progressive technology solution while also leveraging data to help understand the evolving consumer behaviour, preferences, and patterns while exploring vehicles.

"The One 3D platform collects rich consumer insights to understand the ‘when, where and how’ of the consumer exploration pattern. We have launched our first trend survey on how consumers explore cars digitally. Enabler platforms like ours can help make informed and smarter buying decisions, with the visualization bringing accuracy and eliminating ambiguity," says Varun.

In late 2007, Sanket Gupta had just graduated from Galgotia College of Engineering in Greater Noida. Like many aspiring entrepreneurs, he was brimming with ideas. He could be a retailer, a chocolatier, and a tech entrepreneur.

Four years later, after trying his hand at many things, a discussion on how seafood retail was a 95 percent disorganised industry led him to change tack. It led him to helm seafood startup United Industries.

"I travelled all the way from Delhi to Nellore and Bhimavaram, in Andhra Pradesh, to understand how prawns were grown and retailed. I also visited local markets, which supplied fish that was at least seven days old. I wanted to understand if individual quick freezing could be a method to get fresh prawn and fish to market,” Sanket says.

In Andhra Pradesh, Sanket began talking to farmers and supply chain solutions providers. Both sides stated that seafood was borderline stale when it entered big cities because it would be “on ice, and not frozen”.

Clear that frozen was the way forward when seafood was being transported, Sanket began trading in seafood like any ordinary trader arranging deals across the country. He did this for six years and learnt the tricks of the trade. He soon realised that he was ready to move up the value chain - from being a trader to manufacturer - and create a brand in the process. He set up a food processing unit in Bhimavaram and worked with over 20 farmers in 30 acres of land to source prawns and fish. And that’s when the brand United Industries was born in 2016.

Today, the company farms and harvests 45 tons of prawns and fish on a monthly basis. After harvest, the seafood is cleaned and individually quickly frozen to maintain freshness for a week.

“This means the fish stays fresh till it reaches the plate within five to 15 days. We have more than 30 customers buying directly from us, including meat ecommerce companies,” Sanket says.

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The brand

In 2016, Sanket roped in his sister, Shipra Gupta, to take over the marketing and operations of the business. "I was a techie and was working in a couple of IT companies when my brother began expanding business pan-India. From being a trader, he had gone on to set up a factory, integrate farms, and B2B clients. I came in to help him with branding and expanding the operations," says Shipra.

Both of them began to meet large hotel chains like the Taj Group of Hotels and the Oberois to get them to try and taste their produce. As the quality standards were high - in harvesting, cleaning, and supply chain - United Industries became the go-to vendor for these chains. The company works with 27 HORECA clients.

In 2019, the company started its own B2C brand called Aquastar and began to supply fish directly to consumers. In 2020, just when the pandemic hit, the brand turned to WhatsApp to ensure that operations were not affected. It began to create communities in cities where it operated, including Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi, to supply seafood to direct orders on WhatsApp.

“The pandemic hit the supply chain hard for two months. It affected our B2C and B2B businesses. But with seafood being an essential product, we found our way in to retail stores and markets. WhatsApp helped us clear stocks and we were able to work with our farmers in Andhra Pradesh,” Sanket says.

The product range in the Indian industry includes a range of seafood, including fresh such as Vannamie Prawns, Indian Basa, Pomfret, Surmai, Tilapia, Mahi, and Rohu, and frozen produce such as IQF Prawns, Vietnamese Basa, River Salmon, Bombay Duck, and more. It is in trading IQF Prawns that United Industries has made its mark.

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The family-owned company's business model is simple – it buys from farmers at a farmgate price and sell it at Rs 570 and then sells them at a margin in the market.

The startup competes with distributors such as Amigo, Siam Canadian, and Angel Plus. These companies also supply to the HORECA market. According to E&Y HORECA is $55 billion to $65 billion food purchase market in India.

Over the last year, United Industries has reached a revenue of Rs 25 crore. It has big plans for the future: it aims to be a Rs 100 crore business in five years. The company, which doubled its B2B clients in 2021, has plans to invest in its D2C business, and increase its market share in the Northern, Western and Southern markets.

According to Expert Markets Research, seafood is a $15 billion market in India, and poised to double in five years.

“It's a great market to go after in India. There is increased consumption of protein and seafood is a great way for people to increase their protein intake. United Industries will scale up very fast,” Shipra says.

SuperOps.ai — a professional services automation (PSA) and remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform — on Wednesday said it raised $3 million in seed funding led by Elevation Capital and Matrix Partners India.

Angel investors, including Kayako Founder Varun Shoor, Kovai.co Founder Saravana Kumar, POSist Technologies Co-founder Ashish Tulsian, and Livspace Founder Ramakant Sharma.

Founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneur Arvind Parthiban, SuperOps.ai unifies PSA and RMM tools from the ground up as a single platform. The Chennai and US-headquartered startup will use the funding to strengthen its R&D for product innovation and usability, expand its team, and drive market adoption.

Speaking on the investment, Arvind Parthiban, CEO and Co-founder, SuperOps.ai, said,

"SuperOps.ai’s platform is tailored to cater to various segments of the MSP market, and intends to build a truly unified PSA, RMM solution powered by intelligent automation (IA). Further, it is helping MSPs with several benefits, including centralising control, minimising training requirements for technicians, and streamlining work processes, among others will be key.”   

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The global managed services market was valued at $223 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $329.1 billion by 2025, registering a CAGR of 8.1 percent. It is estimated that successful deployment of managed services will help in reducing IT cost by 25-45 pecent and increasing operational efficiency by 45-65 percent.

Tarun Davda, Managing Director, Matrix Partners India, said, “Several industries have adapted to a new way of working in 2020 as companies increasingly relied on managed services for their IT needs. The $300-billion MSP market has the potential for rapid growth and expansion, with the right tools, resources, and ideas. With its modern MSP platform, SuperOps.ai has a strong advantage in positioning itself as a leader, pioneering change in a market filled with legacy tools."

Akarsh Shrivastava, Vice President, Elevation Capital, said, “MSP software market is at an exciting inflection point. Challenges brought on by the shift to the cloud — coupled with strong tailwinds of remote work and distributed teams — have pushed MSPs to adapt faster and become more productive and agile. Superops.ai will give small and mid-sized MSPs an easy-to-use, modern tool, which will not only allow them to be more efficient but also serve their clients better as they embrace the cloud era.” 

In March 2020, when the Supreme Court of India lifted the ban on Crypto currency exchanges, it could not have come at a better time for the crypto-coin industry. Since then, Cryptos have witnessed a bull run with several currencies witnessing an 80 percent growth in value. Their value received a further boost when global giants like Tesla, PayPal, JP Morgan and Visa all gave credence to the crypto industry.

All this growth enabled home grown crypto exchange, CoinDCX, to reach an astounding trading value of more than $1.5 billion a month. But, how did this play out?

“Success and growth have not been easy for us. When CoinDCX started in the year 2018, the same year the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) put a banking ban on transactions for cryptocurrency, which led to the shutdown of several companies in the crypto space. We were one of the few players that decided to contest the move of the banking regulator in the court," says Sumit

Finally, in March 2020, the Supreme Court of India invalidated the banking ban put by RBI. The decision boosted the morale of the cryptocurrency industry and community in the country.

At the same time, globally, Bitcoin saw a whopping 159 percent rise in its value, Ethereum saw a 337 percent year-to-date rise in value, and XRP saw 221 percent gain in value year-to-date. For Mumbai-based CoinDCX, this led to its user base growing from 150K to 400K investors on its exchange in the last 15 months.

According to Coinmarketcap.com, the daily trading volume in the CoinDCX exchange is around $96 million as on May 15th. CoinDCX founders Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal say that the platform has crossed a total of $10 billion in trading volumes cumulatively, and hit that figure in February 2021. They also say that the platform clocks a monthly trading volume of close to $1.5 billion. The growth has been incredible, with the trading volume close to $0.5 billion per month from April 2020, crossing $1billion in Jan 2021, and $1.5 billion in April 2021.

“We have witnessed a 4x growth, quarter-on-quarter, in daily active user base and we aim to add 50 million Indians in the near future. CoinDCX, which started with 50 tokens listed on its exchange, has 500 plus coins and thousand plus trading pairs listed on the platform,” says Sumit.

Interestingly, CoinDCX is the only startup in the crypto space in India that has raised three rounds of funding in less than a year, in a pandemic year to boot! In total, it has raised $19 million, and its Series-B round of Rs 100 crore was led by Block.One and includes several investors. Some of the investors, in all its rounds, include Polychain Capital, Bain Ventures, Bitmex, Coinbase Ventures, DG, Jump Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Mehta Ventures and Alex Pack.

The company tripled its headcount in 2020-21 from 30 to 100. Now it aims to double the workforce by the end of 2021. It also went on to launch its own product, Insta, which allows fiat-crypto buying and selling. It allows investors to trade in Indian currency, and the product witnessed a month-on-month growth of over 38 percent between 2018- 2020.

Today, CoinDCX is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the country in terms of liquidity, and has all crypto-trading products under a single roof. By introducing top cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Huobi Global, and HitBTC on its platform, it brought the highest liquidity into the Indian market.

“As an exchange, our objective has been to make the user experience as simple as conventional share trading. In a bid to help novel investors adopt cryptocurrency as a potential asset class, we have also launched CoinDCX Go - an app to invest in cryptocurrencies. With the app, we are eyeing mass adoption among beginner investors in crypto, especially millennials, and aim to onboard 50 million Indians. Additionally, we are in the constant process of advancing the app’s functionality to give first-time users an easy and efficient investing experience,” says Neeraj.

However, private Indian banks are still reluctant to allow crypto traders from settling payments on exchanges even after the KYC of the customer is verified by the exchange.

There are global cues for such behaviour, and it is rooted in governments trying to stop the outflow of forex and the current account deficit that it increases. Indians are allowed to invest $250,000 every year abroad in mutual funds, ETFs, debt securities, venture capital funds, promissory notes, but unfortunately, since this order was passed by the RBI in 2013, it does not include crypto currencies.

According to KPMG, Hong Kong (SAR) and Singapore have developed regulatory frameworks and licensing regimes for virtual asset providers, while the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) updated its regulatory framework for virtual assets. Super-regulatory bodies like International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have also continued to provide recommendations on regulatory structures.

These kinds of initiatives are essential for bringing in good practices to further operationalise the crypto and virtual asset industry, adds KPMG.

What does Cryptocurrency Bill 2021 mean for CoinDCX?

The Budget session of the Parliament in February this year considered the introduction of The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021. Although the RBI has sought to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, it will allow for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses.

Since then, CoinDCX, along with other industry players and experts, have been constantly engaging with the government and other relevant stakeholders for a positive framework.

“We have also been running a campaign to drive industry dialogues and awareness among the policymakers and investors. The idea was to highlight the size of the crypto ecosystem in the country, and the financial opportunities for millions of Indian investors, such that the regulators will usher sensible and positive regulations for the industry,” says Sumit.

The industry has witnessed several shifts in narrative since then. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the government will be looking at ways in which experiments can happen in the digital world and the crypto-currency industry.

Recently, the Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Thakur, has also said that the government is keeping an open mind towards crypto-currencies and “the interests of crypto investors will be protected” in the new Bill which is being drafted. He also added that the government is in favor of the technology.

“This is welcome news for the industry. At CoinDCX we have always reiterated the need for smart regulations, taxation, and transparency for our sector. We will continue with our dialogues with the Indian government, the finance ministry and its committee, as we believe the market has matured to a point that we usher in smart regulations in the best interest of the investors and the economy as a whole,” says Sumit.

CoinDCX, however, must make some fast moves, because its competition includes WazirX, a Binance company, with a trading volume of $265 million as on May 14.  

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According to KPMG, the year 2020 was a solid year for blockchain. Despite the total funding dropping to US$2.8 billion, blockchain-based companies continued to grow, as evidenced by new unicorn Chainalysis, which raised US$100 million in November. The virtual asset space was particularly active, with service providers continuing to emerge and banks and other well-known asset providers increasingly offering investment portfolios, ETFs and other products. 

The total deals in the crypto space have fallen since 2017. Back then the total deals were 339 with a total deal value $5.2 billion. In 2018 there were 827 deals with a deal value of $6.9 billion, in 2019 there were 598 deals worth $4.7 billion and in 2020 the total deals were 498 with a deal value of $2.8 billion. Now the question is, is the boom time done for crypto ideas?

To that, Neeraj has only this to say - “India is an under-penetrated market. We, along with our investors, are pretty bullish to develop a larger crypto ecosystem.”

The race to increase users

Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder of Polychain Capital, a returning investor, says, “We have worked with CoinDCX in the past and we are really impressed with the amount of development, the company has carried out. With a seasoned team that is growing, CoinDCX is poised to strengthen its position as the largest crypto company in India.”

Additionally, the startup has developed and implemented a 7M framework, which means that they have a criteria consisting of Model, Mechanics, Management, Market, Motivation, Momentum and Money. They have this framework to ensure that newcomers invest in crypto safely and securely. #TryCrypto and DCX Learn are the two initiatives through which the startup is educating customers and growing its new customer base.

The startup launched DCX Learn in 2020, which is an edtech platform for those who want to learn about cryptocurrency and blockchain. Each course costs Rs 9999. The platform aims to play a vital role in leading the nationwide movement towards borderless financial services and digital asset adoption.

“Our apps (Insta & Go) have also witnessed a sharp rise in acceptance in the past year, which have 250K users. These are the initiatives that have instilled confidence among investors who are looking for organic growth,” says Sumit.

CoinDCX, like any crypto exchange, makes money on deposit fees (charged on transferring currencies), withdrawal, trading commissions (.01 percent of the total trade is the standard on an any exchange), and listing fees.

With crypto currencies being increasingly accepted in many countries, there will be many more institutional investors coming into the blockchain and crypto space as compliance and regulations set in. In the coming years, crypto currencies and fiat currencies are expected to co-exist together, and that’s where stablecoins (coins pegged to a currency) come in. But that is another story, reserved for another day.

9Unicorns, an idea phase accelerator VC fund, has announced an undisclosed amount of seed funding in Malaki, a premium brand in the functional beverage space.

The round witnessed participation from individual investors — Dharmesh Dalal, Partner at Inga Ventures, and Rahul Parekh, Director of Suraksha Realty. While the amount remains undisclosed, sources say the investment is above $500,000.

Founded by Ashish Bhatia and Mohit Bhatia, both members of a family that has over 60 years of experience in the F&B industry, Malaki aims to redefine India’s functional beverage landscape. Since its launch in 2018, the brand’s luxury beverage offerings have earned acclaim both at home and abroad. Its unique range of premium beverages includes 24-karat gold water, alkaline nutrient-rich drinks, zero-calorie tonics, sparkling vitamin beverages, and sparkling water from the Himalayas.

Mohit Bhatia, Co-founder, Malaki, commented, “Every generation has a voice, and we are representing ours by marrying technology and art to create products that delight. We are excited to partner with 9Unicorns and others who share our vision to build the next disruptive homegrown non-alcoholic beverage brand, made in India, for the world.”

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Anuj Golecha, Co-founder, 9Unicorns added, “The market for luxury dining and drinking products in India has a lot of white space that discerning brands with innovative products can capture. India’s functional beverage market alone is worth $5.9 billion and is growing at a CAGR of 21 percent. On the back of its swanky range of beverages and a strong founding team with unrivalled expertise under its belt, Malaki is disrupting this space and carving a new niche for itself. We are delighted to associate with a homegrown brand with global ambitions and are committed to guiding the founders towards placing India’s functional beverage industry on the world map.”

Besides establishing its stronghold in India’s functional beverage space, the homegrown brand began exporting its premium, innovation-driven products to more than four countries in a short span since its inception.

The company has been targeting all forms of distribution channels right from D2C  to HORECA for sales.

Malaki is the only Indian company to have been sponsored the Rolls-Royce club event in the UK in 2018 — where the brand launched its first product. The brand has been awarded a quality mark for its beverages by Acque Minerali Academy (Italy).

iBus Networks and Infrastructure Ltd. has acquired Ubico Networks from Shyam Group in an all-cash deal. As per the agreement signed, iBus Group has acquired a 100 percent stake in Ubico Networks, its in-building and in-campus neutral-host infrastructure business, and all related assets for around Rs 100 crore.

Ram Sellaratnam, CEO and MD, iBus, says, “iBus is on a mission to empower telecom companies and its consumers in utilising the power of data as India gets ready to board the 5G bus. Our data consumption pattern is one of the highest in the World. With Ubico’s acquisition, iBus Networks will lead the way in providing neutral IBS and DAS infrastructure sharing with mobile operators, enabling them to serve their customers seamlessly.”

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Ubico founders have completely exited the company while 33 employees of Ubico will be joining iBus. Post this acquisition, iBus will become one of the largest neutral IBS companies with a pan-India presence covering every Tier-I city in India. 

iBus was founded by Sunil Menon, Subash Vasudevan, and Ram Sellaratnam. The company raised its first round of funding in 2015 from Vallabh Bhansali, Chairman of Enam Capital, and the family offices of Naresh Nagpal and Sandeep Mehta.

iBus offers IBS and last-mile connectivity solutions and acts as a neutral connectivity infrastructure provider for mobile operators.

Heera Girish, CFO, iBus, believes that the combined entity of iBus and Ubico would lead to more consolidation in this space, delivering value and efficiency to all stakeholders. 

Sanjay Kapoor, who has been an advisor and investor in iBus, since its early days, says, ''Unlike voice, 80 percent of data gets consumed indoors. Without effective in-building coverage, both data monetisation and customer experience remain suboptimal. It’s been gratifying to see the iBus management team execute on their vision of developing a nationwide footprint of in-building coverage and playing a leadership role in enhancing the quality of in-building networks. Strong and wide availability of such networks is a pre-requisite to the adoption of fifth-generation network in India."

Cipher Plexis was the exclusive advisor to the transaction.

Ubico currently covers over 200 million sq. ft spread across 400 sites in 42 cities with an average tenancy of 1.5 spread across 600 buildings & campuses. Ubico’s spread includes hotels, hospitals, IT parks, commercial office space, malls and educational institutes, with many leading real estate developers across the country.

iBus recently raised $21 million from Morgan Stanley India Infrastructure fund for its inorganic expansion and technology development of the platform. It deploys IBS infrastructure across 233 commercial and retail sites in India that help mobile operators to improve network capacity and coverage. 

Launched in 2015 with a corpus of $50 million, Silicon Valley-based VC Rocketship.vc closed its second fund in 2020 with a corpus of $100 million. Founded by Anand Rajaraman, Venky Harinarayan, and Sailesh Ramakrishnan, the firm has invested in 54 companies so far, of which 16 are startups from India.

In fact, it has already had two exits in India — Fynd, which was acquired by Jio in 2019, and PaySense was acquired by PayU in 2020.

Rocketship.vc chooses its investee companies based on data. It has built a large database of potential startups, and has several metrics to measure their growth. Then, it uses ML to scan this database to find the most exciting companies around the world. But these data points vary across sectors.

For example, when it looks at the B2B SaaS market, it chooses a company not based on the number of people who have tried the application or have visited the website, instead, the algorithm looks at the quality of people that they have hired.

In a conversation with YourStory, Anand, who has been an angel investor, entrepreneur, and tech-thinker for three decades now, says he believes in ideas.

"Entrepreneurs are the ones on the ground and they are the ones who figure out the opportunity. That's what excites me.”

Here are the excerpts from his interview.

YourStory (YS): You have been in the US for three decades now, but you started from Chennai. What has changed about India?

Anand Rajaraman (AR): Nobody could have predicted what would have happened in 2020. In a country like India, there is a lot happening in business and technology. Thanks to smartphones, "access" has been democratised.

The adoption curve of online services has just increased. What would have taken a few years has accelerated over the last year. Look at the way people have adopted ecommerce and have used online government services. It has been remarkable and I believe we have to invest in these access solving businesses.

Data shows that India is the epicentre of global consumer adoption. In the US, it is mostly B2B startups and technologies such as AI. In India, the consumer sector is growing fast and this is why I believe in companies that are democratising "access" in smaller towns. The “Serve Bharat" trend is very real.

India has leapfrogged the US in payments. It takes a click to transfer money between two parties, while it takes two days here. Emerging economies can leapfrog the US for sure.

I also believe Aadhaar is the way forward. Look at the way vaccines will be provided based on Aadhaar; information is being sent to your mobile phones and you are asked to take the vaccine.

It's an organised way of getting things done. This form of administering the vaccine has not happened even in the US. Here, we have a 30-year-old system, and we’re only now thinking of modernising the infrastructure. Technology, I believe, can change emerging markets rapidly.

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YS: Tell us why you think entrepreneurship is growing so rapidly in India.

AR: When I dropped out of my PhD programme to set up Junglee in 1996 in the Valley 25 years ago, the world was a very different place. We were one of the earliest companies in the internet technology space. At the time, we had to buy our own servers that were so expensive. The hardware was so sensitive that if a truck went by outside, the hard disk would crash.

Those days, each startup had to source their own hardware and if one ordered a new one, it would take a month to come home. It was tough to do any business. Startups these days don't have such problems. Today, you have the cloud and you can immediately start your services.

We had to build our own software stack from scratch. Today's software is open-source — it is pre-packaged and containerised; one can just pick and build things. You don't have to solve the basic elements today.

I teach computer science and a lot of students come and ask me about the kind of algorithms that one must use. I tell them not to worry about the algorithm. Instead, they have to have the data to apply algorithms.

You don't have to build algorithms from scratch; you can buy them off the shelf. An engineer or entrepreneur needs to understand the problem that they are solving.

YS: Where do you think entrepreneurs and policy will find common ground when it comes to data protection?

AR: In terms of data protection, governments do have a role. They have to create the policy and work with modern engineer entrepreneurs to understand how data is used and how it protects consumers.

Instead of micro-regulating, governments should work with entrepreneurs to ensure that the consumer is protected. Technology will always outpace policy. Look at Uber and Airbnb, and the impact that they made and how policies had to change.

GDPR has de facto become the regulation to look up to across the world. Each country is coming up with its own solution to data privacy.

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YS: Talk about your India investments. How are they significant?

AR: We chose solutions that solve for Bharat. Khatabook serves small merchants in thousands of cities across India. It's a mobile-first solution and is perfect for all merchants who want a system of record on their smartphone.

We invested in Apna, a job platform for blue and grey-collar workers. It was processing 30,000 interviews a day and is growing very fast. We have also invested in Animall, a marketplace to buy and sell dairy cows; and well-known startups like Mad Street Den, Locus, Yulu, and NoBroker.

I also want to bring in edtech startups as it became such a global phenomenon last year. We have already invested in a couple of US-focused edtech companies.

YS: Why do you think India has been able to bring out such great ideas over the last five years?

AR: What is interesting for me is that founders are coming from smaller towns. Earlier, most came from Bengaluru, Chennai, or Hyderabad. Things have changed now. In days, I have met founders from Udaipur, Patna, and Rameshwaram.

I am going to draw parallels with cricket. Today, a lot of the talent is coming from smaller towns. This is why India is the top cricketing nation in the world. Similarly, in the startup world, we are drawing from people from different states and cities; this large pool of talent has made entrepreneurs blossom across the country.

Startups from the US are building teams in India because of the talent. And it's also vice versa; the idea starts in India and the founders move to the US.

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YS: What would you like to see more of in the Indian startup ecosystem?

AR: The only thing that I would like to see more often from an Indian perspective is several smaller exists in the range of $200-300 million because there aren't many acquirers in India.

In the US, you see unicorns, IPOs, and several $100-million exits each year.

Once there are a few IPOs in India, those listed companies will perhaps buy other startups. I would tell startups founders in India to build great companies without having to worry about building a unicorn.

There will be a dozen IPOs from the startup world in a year or two in India. For many years, Silicon Valley was the only interesting place for startups. Today, there so many startup ecosystems globally. Until 2013, only Israel, the US, and China would create unicorns.

Now, I see startup ecosystems in South East Asia, Europe, and South America. There are going to be at least 30 startup ecosystems and India will be leading the way.

Inflexor Ventures, a deep-tech VC, has invested an undisclosed amount in content translation platform, Vitra.ai, as a part of its DeepTech Fellowship Programme with Venture Capital firm 100X.VC.

Inflexor Ventures invests anything between $150,000 to $1 million.

Jatin Desai, Managing Partner, Inflexor Ventures said, “Vitra.ai’s vision of a future where content and communication are not limited by language barriers is something that resonates deeply with our values. We have strong conviction in their technology capability, as well as Satvik and Akash’s ability to deliver on this future. We also hope that our partnership with 100X.VC will bring out many more such strong players in the DeepTech ecosystem.”

Launched in December 2020, Vitra.ai is an AI-based video translation platform, which helps customers translate videos to 50+ languages with just one click. It can translate content 10X faster and 80 percent cheaper than most existing manual translation solutions.

Vitra.ai has both self-serve and managed service models where customers can translate any content (video, audio, speech-to-text, or text-to-speech) into 50 different languages with multiple voice profiles.

The AI-based platform is context-aware and comes included with auto-suggestion, auto-correction, and semantic correction features.

While Vitra.ai’s primary focus would be on News, social media, and Video Content Creators, they have also engaged with a broad spectrum of clients across industries such as edtech, media, fintech, healthtech, etc. Vitra.ai‘s product roadmap includes the development of voice cloning and emotion transfer technology.

Ninad Karpe, Partner, 100X.VC said, “Our investment in Vitra.ai reflects the level of commitment with which both Inflexor Ventures and 100X.VC are driving the DeepTech Fellowship Program. We believe in the ‘Idea of India’ and that indigenous early-stage startups can tap wide-ranging global opportunities if they are given the right platform. Vitra.ai has a unique offering for the global markets and we are optimistic that their pioneering efforts in the AI space will scale rapidly.”

The DeepTech Fellowship Programme is aimed at 100X.VC’s DeepTech portfolio companies, wherein additional networking and funding access are provided by Inflexor Ventures.

The Inflexor team also conducts specialised workshops, experience-sharing sessions, and one-on-one mentorship sessions. It further opens the door for strategic partnerships between the two VC funds’ portfolio companies and other industry alignments.

The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners Co., Ltd. (UTEC) announced the first close of its new fund, UTEC 5 Limited Partnership (UTEC 5). UTEC 5 is expected to exceed $275 million (30 billion yen) in total by June 2021.

The aggregated amount of Assets Under Management (AUM) from UTEC 1 to UTEC 5 amounts to approximately $780 million (85 billion yen), making it the largest venture capital fund in Japan in science and technology fields, and one of the largest deep-tech funds in Asia.

UTEC 5 is backed by leading institutional investors from Japan and greater Asia, including a large Southeast Asian sovereign wealth fund. 

UTEC is an independent VC fund associated with academic institute The University of Tokyo, that invests in deep-tech startups that solve global issues of humankind using science & technology. Started in 2004, UTEC has invested in over 110 startups with a track record of 13 IPOs & 12 M&As. 

Kiran Mysore, Principal at UTEC, who leads Global AI investments in the company, said,

“We started investing in Indian deep-tech startups from 2018, and have so far invested approximately $25 million as lead investors in four Indian companies. The science-and-engineering-led startups from India will herald a golden age of deep-tech innovation and societal value creation with a global impact. UTEC is committed to proactively contribute by building bridges between India and Japan,”

UTEC has a portfolio of over 80 Japanese startups and 30 global startups in USA, India, Southeast Asia, and Europe. 

Tomotaka Goji, Managing Partner & President of UTEC, said, “Since 2004, UTEC has helped our startups grow so as to go public and get acquired worldwide. Thirteen of our portfolio companies have gone public on Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and NASDAQ with an aggregate market cap of  ~$15 billion. UTEC 5 will allow us to provide more funds from seed/early to pre-IPO/M&A stages in Japan and worldwide, on a wider scale and in a more consistent manner. I believe this will further help our startups expand to address global issues of humankind.”

UTEC typically invests in seed/early-stage (Seed, Pre-Series A, Series A) to later stage companies, and support the entire lifecycle of the startups that apply science & technology to multiple sectors such as healthcare & life sciences, Information Technology (IT) and Physical Sciences & Engineering.

“We back startups that are characterised by a strong and diverse team of scientists, engineers, and business leaders. UTEC also has a penchant for bold startups going after global markets from day one by tackling issues of humankind in a scalable and profitable manner. We are especially interested in global startups which could have potent Japanese synergies in terms of market, technology or/and collaboration with Japanese companies. ” said Noriaki Sakamoto, Partner & Board Member of UTEC. 

With the launch of its new fund, UTEC also became a member of IVCA (Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association). 

UTEC categorises the deep-tech innovations coming out of India into two categories - Science-led innovation, where it has invested in Bugworks; and Engineering-led innovation, where it has invested in Tricog and Agara.

Prasad Vanga worked with Genpact before he decided to start a seed-stage fund in 2015. His Anthill Ventures distinguishes itself as a speed scaling ecosystem that invests in and helps scales early-stage companies in media, healthtech, and urban tech.

The fund, which has invested in more than 40 startups, has funded the likes of DoctorC and Rooter, and launched several accelerator programmes.

Driven by a strong team across the US, Singapore, and India, Anthill Ventures claims to partnered with some of the most innovative corporations and governments in Asia, giving startups access to valuable connections and resources needed to scale.

The founder, an alumnus of Stanford Graduate School of Business, is an active angel investor and has funded companies like Zenoti. His fund has had four partial exits in six years, and believes that the differentiator is the “ability to make targeted and timely interventions” to move startups to “stronger growth trajectories”. The fund says that it has successfully exited its investments in Ketto, Roadzen, Travelio and Shieldsquare.

As Anthill Ventures readies to launch a large $100 million dollar-plus fund, which is in the works, and the founding team is yet to make an announcement, Prasad talks to YourStory about their many programmes to help startups scale with speed, the fund’s journey over the last five years, and plans for the future.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

YourStory (YS): How many programmes have you conducted and what was the objective?

Prasad Vanga (PV): We have several programmes. Let me start with the India Immersion Program- A-Scale. It is conducted in partnership with Enterprise Singapore. Anthill Ventures selected 10 Singaporean urban tech startups for a market access mission in September 2020. Selected startups were given access to leading experts in the urban tech ecosystem for requisite knowledge, and were introduced to corporates and investors in India to help them in their scaling journey.

Lumos is a healthcare accelerator with capabilities to help startups expand into India, Singapore and other parts of Asia through our strong business networks and access to experts in the industry. For example, with close ties to HCG, we are able to help companies in the oncology space and adjacencies, which include immuno oncology, digital pathology, genomics, and general applications of AI/ML that make more effective use of data for early cancer detection among other things.

We just launched a third programme, Indus-X, which will invest and scale early-stage startups in the urban tech space by bringing together players from relevant stakeholder groups across the ecosystem to accelerate smarter cities.

The verticals we’re most interested in include smart mobility, waste and water, energy and grid, smart security, smart infra and smart governance. Within these, our focus will be to provide mentorship, marketing, brand building, sales, distribution, support, and market access.

We also love brands, and have a programme called Urban-I, an accelerator for consumer brands that service the needs of the new-age consumer.

Through our ecosystem, we try to scale companies with speed by giving them marketing and distribution channels and myriad infrastructure credits. We also align mentors for startups to help with various aspects such as manufacturing or operations.

Lastly, we've also built an in-house marketing team to help address the marketing needs of early-stage companies as the agency model is not conducive to their cashflows. Through Urban-I we want to develop a portfolio of the finest consumer brands across sectors and get access to the best early-stage deals in the consumer space.

Through Anthill Studio, we have invested in startups that have evolutionary technology for content creation and consumption. This includes OTT models, using AI/ML for understanding sentiment analysis around content, creating and disseminating content in vernacular media, and more.

We have partnered with Suresh Productions, Viacom18, Alt Balaji, and numerous other forward-thinking media houses, and luminaries in the field to source, interact, advise, and invest in media tech companies at the edge of next-generation innovation.

YS: How many startups have you invested in? How have the last five years been?

PV: Anthill has invested in more than 40 startups and plans to invest in another 20 startups within the next two quarters through our cohort-based programmes. We have had four full/partial exits in the past five years at an IRR of ~33 percent. Our LPs are a combination of family offices, UHNI, and strategic institutional investors. Anthill’s LP network brings strategic value beyond just the cheque investment.

YS: Everyone is predicting the D2C business will be worth $100 million in five years. How do you see Urban-i working with this?

PV: Urban-I is an accelerator programme for consumer brands that service the needs of the new-age consumer. Through our ecosystem, we enable startups to scale with speed by giving them marketing and distribution channels. We also align mentors for startups to help with various aspects such as manufacturing or operations. Lastly, we've also built an in-house marketing team to help address the marketing needs of early-stage companies.

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YS: What have been the challenges over the last five years for a platform like this?

PV: Five years ago, the ecosystem in India was not this developed. Corporate innovation charters were being discussed in board rooms and startup ideas in incubators.

Investors were not high-risk takers, and family offices did not see this as an asset class or understand that venture investing was not the same as other asset classes. Venture investors need an ecosystem of corporate market access, investment across various stages of growth, and continuous business mentoring for scalability.

YS. Everybody is now talking about an ecosystem, but what makes an ecosystem work to help startups succeed?

PV: VCs in India have cohort-based programmes. These include Sequoia - Surge, Kalaari - KStart, Accel Partners - Founder Stack, Blume Ventures - Blume Founders Fund, Arka Ventures Labs (anchored by Blume, Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV) and Emergent Ventures), Axilor Ventures, GSF, Fireside Ventures, and Chiratae Ventures.

Over the next two years, Anthill will expand its sales distribution network globally so we are able to build truly global companies. We will offer new go-to market offerings and a deeper engagement in marketing strategy execution for our portfolio.

We will also have global speed-scaling labs where early-stage entrepreneurs can build their products and leverage the lab ecosystem to scale up.

डिजिटल थेरेप्यूटिक्स (DTx) के क्षेत्र में काम करने वाली एक हेल्थटेक कंपनी Fitterfly ने प्री-सीरीज़ ए राउंड में $ 3.1 मिलियन (22.3 करोड़ रुपये) जुटाए हैं।

इस राउंड का नेतृत्व Fireside Ventures द्वारा किया गया था और इसमें 9Unicorns की भागीदारी भी देखी गई थी - जो कि Venture Catalysts का एक्सीलरेटर फंड है, Venture Catalysts और भारत, अमेरिका और सिंगापुर के एंजेल निवेशकों ने भी भाग लिया थी। कंवरजीत सिंह, फायरसाइड वेंचर्स के मैनेजिंग पार्टनर भी बोर्ड के सदस्य के रूप में शामिल हुए हैं।

फंडिंग का उपयोग मुख्य रूप से बेहतर रोगी परिणाम देने के लिए किया जाएगा और बेहतर जागरूकता और पहुंच बनाकर बड़ी संख्या में लोगों को प्रभावित करेगा।

Fitterfly के को-फाउंडर और सीईओ डॉ. अरबिंदर सिंघल ने कहा, “जैसा कि हम बड़े पैमाने पर हैं, हम एक क्लिक पर टेक्नोलॉजी और रिमोट केयर का उपयोग करके लाखों भारतीयों को उनकी बीमारियों को रोकने, रिवर्स करने या प्रबंधित करने में मदद करना चाहते हैं। हम Fireside के लिए उत्साहित हैं और कंवलजीत सिंह इस यात्रा में हमारे साथ शामिल हैं और एक स्थायी परिणाम-केंद्रित कंपनी का निर्माण करेंगे। फायरसाइड टीम का उपभोक्ता फ़ोकस और ब्रांडिंग का अनुभव हमें स्वास्थ्य सेवा क्षेत्र में एक महान ब्रांड बनाने में मदद करेगा।"

सिंघल ने आगे कहा, “हम अपने DTx पोर्टफोलियो का विस्तार करने और एआई और स्मार्ट हेल्थ ट्रैकिंग टूल विकसित करने में निवेश करने की योजना बना रहे हैं। समय पर और प्रासंगिक वास्तविक दुनिया के डेटा उत्पन्न, रोगियों, देखभाल करने वालों और समर्थन नेटवर्क के बीच लाभकारी बातचीत को सक्षम करने के लिए अधिक पारदर्शिता और बेहतर परिणामों के साथ व्यक्तिगत और मानव केंद्रित उपचार की अनुमति देगा।"

कंवलजीत ने कहा, "मौजूदा महामारी के बाद के दौर में, हम विश्वास करते हैं कि ब्रांड, प्लेटफॉर्म और उद्यम जो अच्छी तरह से रहने वाले, समग्र जीवन और स्वास्थ्य आवश्यकताओं और उपभोक्ताओं की चिंताओं को संबोधित करते हैं और अधिक स्वीकृति प्राप्त करते हैं। उपभोक्ता अब सौहार्दपूर्ण और डिजिटल समाधानों पर विचार करने और अपनाने के लिए तैयार हैं जो उनके जीवन की गुणवत्ता में सुधार और वृद्धि करने का वादा करते हैं और उन्हें अच्छे स्वास्थ्य की स्थिति में रखते हैं। डिजिटल थैरेप्यूटिक्स का सेगमेंट हमारे लिए अविश्वसनीय विकास अवसर का प्रतिनिधित्व करता है।”

फायरसाइड को boAt, Mamaearth, Vahdam, Yogabar, आदि जैसे स्टार्टअप्स में निवेश करने के लिए जाना जाता है, और उन्हें मजबूत उपभोक्ता ब्रांड बनने में मदद करता है।

उन्होंने कहा, "एक उपभोक्ता-केंद्रित फंड के रूप में, हम उपभोक्ता व्यवहार के निर्माण और आकार देने में अधिक सक्रिय और गतिशील भूमिका निभाना चाहते हैं और वे जो जीवनशैली विकल्प चुनते हैं। इस उद्देश्य के अनुरूप, हम Fitterfly में अपने निवेश के बारे में आश्वस्त और उत्साहित हैं।"

Fitterfly वैज्ञानिक रूप से मान्य और वैयक्तिकृत डिजिटल थैरेप्यूटिक्स (DTx) कार्यक्रमों को मधुमेह, गर्भावस्था, पीसीओएस और मोटापे के लिए स्वास्थ्य परिणाम प्रदान करने के लिए प्रदान करता है जो वास्तव में महत्वपूर्ण हैं। 140+ सदस्यीय मजबूत टीम में वरिष्ठ चिकित्सक, पोषण विशेषज्ञ, मनोवैज्ञानिक, फिटनेस विशेषज्ञ, प्रबंधन विशेषज्ञ और तकनीकी विशेषज्ञ शामिल हैं, जो बड़े पैमाने पर समाज के लिए एक स्वस्थ कल बनाने के एकमात्र उद्देश्य के साथ काम कर रहे हैं।

डॉक्टर की मेडिकल थैरेपी के पूरक के रूप में काम करने के लिए डिज़ाइन किया गया, Fitterfly DTx कार्यक्रम पोषण, व्यायाम, नींद, तनाव और अन्य कारकों के आसपास 360 डिग्री मार्गदर्शन प्रदान करते हैं जो स्वास्थ्य परिणामों को प्रभावित करते हैं। 10,000 से अधिक लोगों ने Fitterfly के कार्यक्रमों से सदस्यता ली और लाभान्वित हुए।

9Unicorns के को-फाउंडर अनुज गोलेचा ने कहा, “9Unicorns में, हम हमेशा समाज में सबसे अधिक दबाव वाले दर्द बिंदुओं को हल करने के लिए तकनीक-आधारित नवाचारों का लाभ उठाने के लिए तत्पर हैं। पुरानी बीमारियों से ग्रस्त रोगियों के लिए डिजिटल थेरैपीटिक्स (DTx) और स्वास्थ्य सेवा को सक्षम करने पर अपना ध्यान केंद्रित करने के साथ, Fitterfly ने अपने चेकलिस्ट पर सभी बॉक्स को पार किया। वर्तमान में मधुमेह और महिलाओं के स्वास्थ्य पर ध्यान केंद्रित करते हुए, ब्रांड क्रमशः 21 बिलियन डॉलर और 1.14 बिलियन डॉलर के बाजार में पहुंच रहा है।"

जून 2019 में, Fitterfly ने HNIs, परिवार और दोस्तों से $ 1 मिलियन का सीड राउंड जुटाया था।

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इन दो दोस्तों ने हिमाचल प्रदेश से शुरू किया पुरुषों का पर्सनल केयर ब्रांड, 4 वर्षों में खड़ा किया 7.5 करोड़ रुपये का कारोबार

The low-code and no-code movement is fast becoming popular among businesses. While most enterprises today invest in ERP and CRM tools like SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, etc., not all processes can be managed through them.

This is where Zvolv comes in, putting technology in the hands of businesses, enabling them to automate processes in-house without having to go through large IT shops. Founded by Hardik P Gandhi, Pushkar Prasad, and Sujoy Chakravarty in 2015, the Pune-based startup provides an alternative way — a no-code intelligent automation platform — to build enterprise applications faster, with little to no upfront cost, and no developer dependence.

"Legacy ERP tools are adept at storing and maintaining data, but not optimally suited to tracking and managing end-to-end processes. The time and costs of developing any new functionality on these tools are extremely high. This limits access to only a small part of an organisation,” Hardik, Co-founder and CEO, tells YourStory.

The co-founder adds that the extreme criticality of data stored in these systems also makes changes risky, which is why most enterprises choose to handle many processes outside these tools. This often results in offline or excel based processes, leading to loss of efficiency. The complexity of some of these processes requires a combination of business process management, robotic process automation and AI/ML technologies to be used, which is often difficult to find in a single platform.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the need to automate internal enterprise processes that are currently manual or offline has become even more urgent. Applications need to be created fast, and development and maintenance costs need to be justified. However, custom development approaches require hiring experienced coders with specific skill sets and take a lot of time to design, test, and deploy applications.

"Not every organisation can hire specialised resources and partnering with external agencies has many challenges in code quality, maintenance, and on-going support. Zvolv provides a unique combination of BPM, RPA, AI/ML, and advanced analytics capabilities under one platform, enabling building even the most complex applications with little to no coding involved," adds Hardik.

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How it works

Zvolv’s product development started with early experiments with smaller businesses to refine and test the product. The entire product development was bootstrapped with an early investment by Hardik and Sujoy.

In 2018, the startup's platform was launched to initial enterprise customers, and in the same year, it raised a seed round from Lead Angels, Eagle10 Network, and Contrarian Fund. The startup’s early customers included Future Group, Dominos, and Tata Group that are still using the product today.

"We decided to build the product in India and test it out with Indian businesses, to begin with. While we were apprehensive about the realisation of revenue, we haven’t been disappointed so far. However, product evaluation and decision-making timelines are quite long with Indian customers, and that is a challenge we continue working around," says Hardik.

Zvolv offers a white-glove onboarding package to all customers where a Zvolv business analyst and implementation expert works with the customer to build the first application collaboratively, offer training, and change management support.

This enables getting realisable value from the application much faster than trying to learn and implement with trial and error as with other self-help tools.

Zolv’s platform provides granular building blocks that are necessary to build complex enterprise applications. These include features like task management, form builders, project management, document automation, drill-down dashboarding and reporting, and intelligent automation bots, among others.

“With drag-drop visual builder capabilities, process experts (mostly business users) with little to no coding experience can put together a large part of the applications themselves. IT help may be required for integration with other tools or complex automation, but that too would require generic IT folks rather than specialised skills in any particular technology," says Hardik.

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Business model and competition

Zvolv charges an annual license fee based on the number of building blocks utilised in building the applications. The startup charges for how many blocks a business uses, rather than how widely or how often the applications are used.

This enables customers to launch applications more broadly to vendors and partners without having to worry about escalating license costs.

While the startup began with retail customers, including the likes of Aditya Birla Group (Pantaloons), Lenskart, Swiggy, More supermarkets, and others, the pandemic changed that. Amid COVID-19, the co-founder says that its new retail customer engagements were getting stalled.

“We had to focus on other verticals, which wasn't a big challenge. Now, we have customers in manufacturing, construction management, healthcare, large services organisations, as well as some large government projects," adds Hardik.

Zvolv competes with the likes of OutSystems, Unqork, Zoho Creator, Appian, and Salesforce Lightning. According to BrandEssence Market Research Global, the low-code development platform market is expected to reach $65.15 billion by 2027.

The next step

Moving forward, the startup is looking to replicate its success in India in APAC, the Middle East, and the US markets. It is setting up its GTM strategies in these geographies with relevant reseller and sales partnerships, consulting and SI partners like KPMG, Accenture, and Tech Mahindra, as well as product/platform partnerships with the likes of AWS.

Zvolv’s target is to grow to 4-5X in revenues over the next 18 months, with a large percentage of the revenue coming from outside India.

"We are in this for the long haul. We are looking to become the next ServiceNow or Pegasystems or Salesforce — conceived and built in India, but servicing large global companies with an enterprise-grade product that holds its own against the best of breed," concludes Hardik.

India is home to 50 million SMBs, which are often called the backbone of the country’s economy. However, barely two million of these have an online presence and an even smaller number use a completely integrated suite of cloud applications – a necessity in today’s digital-driven world.

R S Maan realised that SMBs needed hand-holding to think cloud-first, which could help India leap-frog legacy applications.

In 2020, this thought led him to found IT services startup Codleo. The company, which has offices in Delhi and Delaware, US, offers a range of services, including cloud migration, digital marketing, data analytics, mobility solutions, and application development along with Salesforce CRM services.

“We are in the business of automating business processes, increasing the productivity of companies, and streamlining and easing their daily workflows, with the help of CRMs and other latest tech tools,” says R S Maan, Managing Director and Global Chief Revenue Officer of Codleo.

“Companies come to us with challenges and issues, and we solve them. We like to think of ourselves as catalysts of change. We have a couple of products designed/created for MSMEs to enable better and holistic HR, vendor, and project management in any industry vertical,” he says.

Why Codleo?

The idea of Codleo came about from Maan’s personal experience. He graduated with an executive MBA from IIM Calcutta and worked for a decade with tech consulting firm Bodhtree. He soon realised he could offer great customer service to Indian companies and “show them their journey to the cloud”.

Maan came up with the idea in April 2019, and along with his friends, Mohit Sharma and Rahul Ray, launched the company in 2020. 

The three founders decided to build holistic solutions for customers, rather than consult and leave them with technology. “Currently, we integrate CRM-Salesforce for corporates and SMBs in India and North Eastern USA,” he says.

“Our products - basically apps for MSMEs - are created keeping their needs in mind. We have three products. They deal with vendor, project, and HR management and are created to simplify workflows, automate mundane tasks, streamline processes, and give 360-degree visibility into the lifecycle,” Maan says.

In two years, the Codleo family has grown from a three-member founding team to 60 members, and has clients in the education, healthcare, and NGO industries.

“We are an IT consulting company providing solutions, mainly to the education, healthcare, and non–profit sectors. We enable customers to better understand the requirements and issues of their clients and leads. This leads to an enhanced ROI and increased revenue for them. We work in the B2B domain and are focusing on MSMEs that have woken up to the need for tech and digital transformation,” he says.

Issues and challenges

Maan says varied industries in India have different issues and challenges, which need relevant and pointed solutions. For example, in the education sector, the issues are related to the admission cycle or counselling.  

“We focus on relevant CRM solutions in different industrial verticals. The basic idea is to connect our customers with their customers. Our solutions also help increase employee productivity, streamline and automate processes, and give transparent and holistic visibility to their customers, prospects, and their engagement journey.”

Codleo’s first customer was in the enterprise space. The customer wanted to modernise applications and Codleo stepped in to build and integrate the processes. It was tough for a small IT services firm to gain trust and get businesses to invest their resources in a new player, But Maan and his team won more than 30 customers in one year.  

“Tier 2 and 3 cities are hard to crack as most companies here (family-run or SMBs) still use legacy systems and outdated methods.  But COVID-19 has forced them to relook at their strategies and requirements, and get a digital makeover to survive and thrive in the ‘new normal’. Hopefully, more will jump on to the bandwagon and get out of their comfort zones,” Maan says.

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Business model and future plans

Codleo’s business model focuses on IT consulting ervices, which include CRM deployment, cloud services, digital and tech solutions, and makeovers. It is also diversifying from being a service provider to a producer of focused B2B apps. Revenues are based on payment for services and solutions provided on a case-to-case basis.

“As we deal with education and healthcare industry verticals, this year we plan to tie up with different universities and introduce CRM as a subject, especially under technical programs like B Tech and get them trained in Salesforce as a technology. In our product line, we are building products for MSMEs to manage Vendors and recruitment. These products will be an extension to our current product line of project management and HR management apps,” Maan says.

Codleo presently has 70 customers in the B2B domain, but the founders feel that some challenges persist. “SMBs in India are still warming up to tech and digital solutions, especially in smaller towns.  They are cautious and still getting used to industry-focused tech solutions.”

IDC forecasts that the IT and business services market is expected to grow annually by 5.4 percent to reach $13 billion by December 2020. Of the IT and business services market, the IT services market contributed 77.4 percent in 1H20 and grew by 5.9 percent year on year in H120 compared to 9.3 percent growth in H12019.

The company competes with Evolut, Marlabs, and Appevolve, but believes its offerings differentiate it from the competition.

For the next 18 months, Codleo’s focus will continue to be on Indian SMEs, followed by the North American market. The startup also plans to open sales offices in Tier 2 cities. But Hyderabad and New Delhi will be the main market for now because of the number of large family businesses the cities are home to.

Maan says the company has no plans to raise funding this year and will “focus on running the business with the money we make from the IT services business”.