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Sonal was a writer on startups and entrepreneurship for BW Businessworld,
A search for a plumber on Just Dial gives an exhaustive list of more than 10-pages of contact details for plumbers. For a task as mundane as finding the right handymen, the hundreds of ‘unfamiliar’ choices seems to be a promethean task.
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The Right to Education (RTE) Act may have been passed but more than 95 per cent schools are still not compliant with the infrastructure standard prescribed in the RTE Act, says a 2012 civil society survey.
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About three lakh farmers have committed suicide in India in the last 20 years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of India. The farmers' suicide is a disgrace for the whole country as India is primarily an agri-based economy with 58 per cent of its population depending on agriculture for livelihood. It is this agri-based population that contributes to 16 per cent of Gross Value Added (during 2014-15) as per Central Statistics office. In spite of the huge impact they have on our economy, it is the incidences of their suicides that we read day after day in newspapers. To show the reality behind these number of suicides, Skymet Weather, the weather monitoring and agri-risk solutions company, launched a digital campaign #HelptheFarmer last week. The creative agency that worked with Skymet to make the four-minute short film was Gurgaon-based company RK Swamy BBDO. The film is about a little village girl, Duniya and her father who is a farmer. Duniya lives in perpetual fear about her father's well being, even following him to the field and back home. The background score informs that she is anxious that her father might commit suicide like many of her friends' fathers who hanged themselves due to bad monsoon. Sunil Kukreti, senior partner of RK Swamy BBDO shares that "the movie is a humble attempt to sensitise the country about the grave reality of the farmers' lives and how their suicide has been reduced to the facts and figures in newspapers especially for the urban population." So, it was a conscious decision, he adds, to show the world as a little girl sees it to heighten the emotional part - the trauma of the family, the anxiety that surrounds them and the crisis they live in. The rationale behind the video was, says Jatin Singh, founder and CEO of Skymet, "to convey how weather forecasting data can help the farmers plan their crop cultivation cycle and also prepare them in advance for the drought or the excessive rains, enabling them to reduce their production cost." Skymet provides the weather forecast free, for short and long term, for each village in India through its website and mobile app in 10 local languages. "Though the viewership will be more in urban areas but due to the deep penetration of mobile internet we hope to reach what I call 'rurban' areas such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, east Rajasthan that have a better urban connect than other argi-based states," adds Singh. Dave Banerjee, CEO of advertising agency, Fisheye Creative Solutions feels that, "there was no need for the tyre-swing in the end. I think that made the film a little filmy and the issue a little frivolous. It somewhat negated the father's concern for rain and therefore made the 'farmers' suicide' seem less alarming. This doesn't bring to life the severity of the death of three lakh farmers." The video has got over one million views from social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube (Watch Video Here) and Twitter. "We want the entire nation to use our forecast so we will launch another on-the-ground campaign for rural areas," says Manav Singh Gahlaut, digital media head at Skymet. Skymet is also working with India.org to create a lighter version its website and app so people in interiors of the country can access the information from their platform.
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As employees increasingly speak out against sexual harassment, companies will find it costly if they are unprepared to deal with it
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Sanjeev Bikhchandani and Indian Angel Network fund Kolkata-based Momo chain, writes Sonal Khetarpal WOW! Momo, a Kolkata-based branded momo chain, has raised over Rs 10 crore in its first round of funding from Naukri.com’s founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani and Indian Angel Network (IAN). Investors like Saurabh Srivastava, Ashvin Chadha, Ajai Chowdhry, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Raman Roy, Anand Ladsariya, amongst others also participated in the funding round. The company was valued at $10 million. Commerce graduates Sagar Daryani and Binod Kumar Homagai founded WOW! Momo in 2008 with an initial investment of Rs 30,000. They have grown the QSR chain to 50 outlets across six in India such as Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, and Kochi. The company will use the funds to expand its presence with 60 more stores across major cities in India out of which 30 will be based out of Delhi. They will be in high street locations, outlets in malls in areas such as Lajpat Nagar, Satya Niketan, Prashant Vihar, Kirti Nagar, Dwarka and Noida,” says Daryani. Last week, the company opened its new outlet in the tony Hauz Khas area of New Delhi. Some of their product innovations include Chocolate Momo, MoBurg, Sizzler Momo’s, Baked Momo Augratin etc. because of which their business model is being studied as a case study at various Multi National Organizations and B-Schools. “We closed FY2014-15 at a turnover of Rs 20 crores and have a monthly run rate of 2.7 crores,” informs Daryani, CEO of WOW! Momo. Sanjeev Bhikchandani IAN investor commented on the company’s growth strategy saying, “While you have access to multiple momo stalls across your locality, Wow! Momo as a brand promises great and consistent quality, while exciting taste buds with innovative Momo’s that have never been created tried before.”
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With an estimated 160 million smartphone users, growing at a CAGR of 26 per cent from 2013 to 2017, India is the fastest growing smartphone market. This boom in the Indian smartphone market, is primarily being propelled by Indians under the age of 25 years, with 63 per cent of users fall in that age bracket, according to Smartphone User Persona Report (SUPR) 2015. The report was released by Vserv, the smart data platform for mobile marketing and commerce. The report findings are based on a study conducted by Nielsen Informate Mobile Insights on usage patterns of Indian smartphone consumers. As per the study, smartphone users spend on average 169 minutes per day on their devices. The persona report segments Indian smartphone users into different user personas and delves into their usage patterns. Six smartphone user personas that emerged are — App Junkies, Social Stars, Conversationalists, Entertainment Buffs, Utilitarians and Dabblers. App Junkies are nearly 25 per cent of the total smartphone users who download 18.5 mobile apps and games every month. Nearly 20 per cent of the smartphone users that spend over 2 hours a day using chat and social networking apps are classified as Social Stars. 15 per cent smartphone users that spend almost an hour each day playing games, listening to music or watching videos on their smartphones are segmented as Entertainment Buffs. Only 10 per cent people use their smartphones infrequently, seldom accessing apps and sites. “Today, it is imperative for marketers to move beyond demographic data and embrace smart data based targeting to stay ahead in the game. Marketers need to formulate their strategies focused on user personas and their intent,” says Pranab Punj, associate vice president, global marketing, Vserv. SUPR is based on an automated usage data collection from over 12,000 smartphone users in India, over a three month period. The study was conducted using innovative smartphone metering technology installed by opt-in panelists on their smartphones.
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The service is currently available in Delhi-NCR and will soon be launched in major cities all across IndiaFor the next level of growth, mobile payment company MobiKwik is looking at capturing the segment of people who use smartphones for browsing but don’t transact digitally. “From the 250 million people in India who use smartphones, only 35 million use digital modes of payment. As a wallet company we want to fill in this gap and make it easy for these people to pay for transactions through the wallet,” says Upasana Taku, co-founder of MobiKwik. To reach to these customers, MobiKwik has introduced ‘cash pick up’ service, a facility that allows cash to be directly added to MobiKwik wallet. “No other online payment company in the world has a cash pickup service to add money to the wallet,” shares Taku. The service is currently available in Delhi-NCR and will soon be launched in major cities all across India. Cash pickup allows anywhere from Rs 100 to Rs 10,000 to be added to user’s MobiKwik wallet in real time. The company assures that the representatives reach within 30 minutes of submitting the request and update their wallet with cash immediately. The users can make payments across diverse use cases such as recharge, bills, food, travel & cabs, shopping, entertainment, money transfer, etc. What is interesting is the user gets to view on the app the name and photograph of the agent responsible for the pickup. It’s mandatory for all MobiKwik agents to be dressed in uniform, which further helps in identification. To ensure safety of the users’ money, the process of cash pickup is OTP protected. MobiKwik is focussing on creating an offline retail network of 1,00,000 vendors which will serve both as points for cash loading into the wallet and for wallet payments acceptance. For this, the company has already tied up with bigwigs such as ICICI Bank, Big Bazaar, PVR Cinemas, Café Coffee Day and WHSmith India. The aim of the company, shares Taku, is to make it easy for people to pay for things that they require frequently, such as, ordering food, buying movie tickets, paying for cabs and buses. Taku shares, this will help consumers not only in paying their bills but also in exchanging purchased goods. This way, companies instead of using a cheque to refund the money can add the amount into the consumer’s wallet. MobiKwik, recently raised $25 million in a Series B round from Sequoia Capital, American Express, Cisco Investments, and Tree Line Asia. The company plans to raise another $80 - $100 million in 2015.
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It is turning an idea into a successful commercial story that captures the imagination of the NextGen today. Gone are the days of young people pursuing stodgy jobs; this is the age of following your passion and starting your own enterprise. BW | Businessworld applauds this spirit; and to capture it, is organising the Young Entrepreneurship Conference and Awards to felicitate the enterprise in today’s youth. The event is on 23rd July 2015 at The Leela Ambience, Gurgaon, Delhi NCR. BW | Businessworld did a special issue on startups, issue dated June 2015, and it is with this event we are felicitating the young winners who can be the potential future leaders of corporate India On the sidelines of the awards ceremony, BW Businessworld is organising a half-day conference. This is an attempt to bring the best minds together in the startup ecosystem and discuss the key attributes for entrepreneurial success. The event will kickstart by a welcome note from V Vaidyanathan, CMD of Capital First, who has been responsible for India's largest management buyout of a listed company. As part of this MBO, private equity player Warburg Pincus acquired a majority stake (70.57 per cent) in Capital First. Our first panel discussion is on how these business leaders built fastest growing companies out of India. Some of the founders that the startups can learn from are Rahul Sharma, co-founder and CEO, Micromax; Mohit Tandon, CSO, Delhivery; and Yatin Shah, founder, IIFL Wealth. Business owners have to take several decisions, big and small, every minute in their entrepreneurial journey. This can be quite overwhelming, personally and professionally. Our next discussion is on how these founders – Rahul Yadav, former CEO of Housing.com, Vikas Malpani, co-founder of Commonfloor, Neeru Sharma, co-founder of Infibeam went against the tide and stood by what they believe is right. India needs to do much more to improve the ecosystem for women entrepreneurs is a given. It ranks a low 70 out of 77 countries in the Female Entrepreneurship Index 2015 (formerly known as the Gender GEDI). It is to talk about these issues we have five women leaders — Anshulika Dubey, COO, Wishberry; Ashwini Deshpande, co-founder, Elephant Design + Strategy; Sairee Chahal, founder, SHEROES.in; Neha Juneja, co-founder and CEO, Greenway Grameen Infra; and Upasana Taku, co-founder, MobiKwik — to share their experience of building companies and suggest policy changes to get more women to join the fray. When to raise funds? How to raise money? These questions can be mind boggling for any first time entrepreneur. To unravel the funding game for these entrepreneurs we have Natarajan R, MD and CFO, Helion Ventures; Mohit Bhatnagar, MD, Sequoia Capital; Karan Mohla, executive director, IDG Ventures; and Dev Khare, MD, Lightspeed Ventures India on the panel to share their gyan.
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The Pune-based Hinjewadi Industries Association along with Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation set up a shuttle bus service called MetroZip “Daily 2,50,000 employees come to Hinjewadi to work and this number increases every year by 10-12 per cent,” says Anil Patwardhan, president of the Hinjewadi Industries Association, an industrial association for companies based out of Hinjewadi area of Pune. He adds that there has been no major infrastructural development, road or flyover, in the last five or six years. “There is only one three km long road that leads to the industrial park and it gets highly congested during office hours. Being stuck on that road for two hours every day has become a normal routine,” Patwardhan adds. In September last year, HIA along with Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) proposed a private transport system to ease the traffic woes of Hinjewadi and the area around it. They got facility management company Supreme Facility Management (SFM) on board to be their transport vendor and did a pilot study last year. They realised that 30 per cent of the employees were using four-wheelers, 35 per cent would use two-wheelers and the rest used company provided buses or other means. The idea was to discourage one-car-one-user practice and get these 65 per cent people using independent transport to start using shuttle service. So, in September 2014 they launched a shuttle bus service called MetroZip. They started with four popular routes in Pune with 13 buses. In the first week of the project 70 people registered on the online portal to use its service, shares Prashant Mohite, Chief Operating Officer of SFM. The popularity of this project grew by leaps and bounds and by December 2014, 700 started using its service daily, he informs. Along with that, SFM kept doing more surveys and realised the need for buses at several more routes. Due to the growing demand in February 2015 they started with 24 more routes with 38 buses. In fact, companies like Tata Technologies have shifted all their 650 employees to use MetroZip, shares Mohite. SFM is also trying to get WiFi and other facilities in the buses to make the commute more attractive and get more and more people to use this service. Presently, they have 48 routes all over the city of Pune with 74 buses and are catering to 3000 people per day. “From these 2,300 are those that have ditched their private vehicles for the bus,” shares Patwardhan, president of the HIA. “Due to MetroZip, more and more companies are applying to become the member of Hinjewadi Industries Association,” he quips.
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Online redressal company Akosha is changing to become Helpchat, a chat-based personal assistant app. Ankur Singla, CEO and founder of Akosha (now Helpchat), shares, “Over the last two years I observed how more and more users were contacting companies for information on their new products or deals than filing a complaint. A lot of time was getting wasted just to get information on very simple stuff.” Singla saw this as a viable business opportunity and decided to pivot Akosha as an online app wherein users can get information about anything and everything on their everyday task list. Currently, their 350 chat experts help to resolve queries whether it is about grocery, travel, doctor, laundry or phone recharge. These experts are available from 7am to 2am and get 30,000 chat requests in a day. They got Mumbai-based agencies Ogilvy & Mather and Open Design onboard to help reposition their company’s branding, design and service. The focus of the company for this year is to improve user’s experience and engagement, thereby increasing the number of interactions per day. The service is free for users and the company plans to monetise based on commissions or leads model in the future. Helpchat has a call facility too wherein users can call the chat experts to get their queries answered. But Singla says, “The focus is on promoting chat as it is more intuitive, cost-effective and allows for automation. Right now, 25 per cent of our chats are automated. Moving forward as we get more data, we will try to automate up to 50 per cent of our conversations.” Helpchat also acts as a messenger for brands such as Aircel, Voltas, Eureka Forbes, MakeMyTrip, Bookmyshow, Oyo Rooms, HDFC Life and Spice Mobiles wherein users can directly connect with the representatives from these companies. More than 100 local businesses in Bangalore (Kormangala and Indiranagar) across categories like grocery, fitness, laundry and beauty use this app to help their customers. Helpchat competes with other apps such as LookUp, Haptik and HeyBiz in India. In May 2015, the company raised Rs 100 crore in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital.
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