‘Investment’ and ‘scale’ are two indispensable words for the startup ecosystem because even profitable startups require external investment at some stage if they really want to scale up. And if someone can help that startup scale up fast, it’s almost a dream come true.
This is exactly how Bengaluru-based startup MoveInSync is creating a perfect synergy by working very closely with two entities – investors and accelerators. While the former is infusing the necessary money into the startup, the latter is helping it scale up fast.
MoveInSync is a technology-enabled startup that offers a transport management platform to corporates to help them manage employee transport more efficiently at a reduced cost. It currently manages nearly 5 million shared rides a month in the enterprise space.
On the investment side, Inventus Capital, along with Saama Capital and Qualcomm Ventures, invested $2 million in a Series A funding in 2014, when MoveinSync was yet to see growth. “We invest in technology companies when they have some small revenue and are typically 6-18 months away from an accelerator programme,” says Samir Kumar, MD, Inventus Capital.
On the accelerator side, MoveInSync is working with Microsoft Accelerator which is helping the startup to scale up quickly by solving real-life customer problems. “We see what traction we can build together…Our conversation is around how to push a startup outside the escape velocity of the orbit,” says Bala Girisaballa, CEO-in-Residence, Microsoft Accelerator India.
Through this programme, Microsoft has built in a mechanism wherein the sales team’s conversation with the startup changes and instead of selling specific products, they look at offering solutions towards solving customer problems, Girisaballa says.
With scale and investment in place, MoveInSync is now focusing on disrupting the enterprise transportation space by providing a full-stack solution for end-to-end transportation. “We are also using artificial intelligence (AI) for face recognition of the drivers which ensures safety of the women passengers,” says Deepesh Agarwal, co-founder & CEO, MoveInSync. “We also use AI for route optimisation and reducing the travel time for the employees.”
In the last two-and-a-half years, MoveInSync has grown 10x in revenues and it is currently growing at 100 per cent on a year-on-year basis. “We plan to continue to grow at this rate,” Agarwal says.
MoveInSync, which counts Wipro, LinkedIn, NetApp, AT&T, and Oracle as some of its top customers, acknowledges that ride hailing companies like Ola and Uber could emerge as competitors in the future. But, Agarwal is confident his company will always have an advantage as they are a B2B company versus Ola and Uber which are fundamentally B2C. “Also, while their focus is only on pick-up time, our focus extends to the drop-off time which clearly differentiates us,” he says.