Articles for Entrepreneurship

5 Startups To Watch Out For

Every month a large  numbers of startups enter the economy but only a few sustain in the long run and make it big. New-age startups believe only innovation will lead the venture to success. Global communication giant, Ericsson organised an event to give recognition to startups, which stand distinct in the list. BW|Businessworld's Arshad Khan interacted with a few new age entrepreneurs, who are bound to stay and aspire. Excerpts Sushanth Poojari  of Arterial Pulse Analyser: a joint effort of two engineers, the healthcare focus startup aims at lowering cardio vascular arrests in the country by developing a cost effective machine which tracks down symptoms of any cardio related issues.  The effort has got support from regulatory bodies and they are also in talk with international body USFDA to certify their innovation. Chetan Chauhan of Constapark: - the Bangalore-based startup hopes to make big by aggregating parking zones in busy localities and providing it to vehicle owners by charging a service fee. Currently the company charges Rs 1,200-3,500 per month for the service from its 300 clients in Bangalore. The startup has plans to expand its services in Delhi and Mumbai. Shashank Singh of Faceless: a social service startup, Faceless has developed an app which tracks down address of missing children. The startup has photos of 70,000 lost children and uses face identification algorithm technology to find a possible a match for children who are found in unconscious stage of mind. The startup is on the way of making it big as few South American countries have shown interest in hiring their services. 4. Ranjan Kumar Pejaver (Immunize India) - launched in 2014, Immunise India is the world’s largest free SMS service that gives parents vaccination reminders, developed by Dr. Ranjan Kumar Pejaver and Gopala Krishnan. Parents only need to register their child’s name and DOB to get timely reminder till the kid reaches 12. The service is free of cost and has attracted over 6 lac parents to benefit from the service.   5.  Raj Desai of WiFi Trash Bin: An innovation by two young achievers (Raj Desai and Pratik Agarwal), the startup provides free wifi to individuals throwing their cans in dustbin. It gives out a password for users to access the wifi every time they put the trash in the bin. Ericson also organised an award ceremony ‘Networked India 2015’ at New Delhi in where the winning Projects were given Cash Rewards of Rs 5 lakh each. The winning projects are: Arterial Pulse Analyzer and Immunize India.      

Wow Momo Raises Rs 10 Cr In First Round Of Funding

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.”     

One-stop Shop For Your Legal And Tax Requirements

 MeetUrPro is expanding its operations pan India by establishing its presence in Bengalure, Mumbai, and Delhi, reports K Chandra MohanSince 2014 December, Laxman Prasad, a CA, has been partnering with ‘MeetUrPro’, a Chennai-based startup, which provides all sorts of professional services starting from personal taxation, real estate deeds, salary structuring, compliance management and international taxation. “Technology is transforming the lives of people. Any service can partner with MeetUrPro. I am getting good business and can work from anywhere. It’s like providing services online”, says Laxman.  In July, 2014, Divakar Vijayasarathy and Rajesh Inbasekaran founded ‘MeetUPro, a one stop-shop for all kinds of legal and tax requirements. A dedicated team of 1200 at MeerUrPro were expanding their network with reliable and affordable services across the nation.  Sanjeeth Suman, a Patna-based lawyer who collaborated with MeetUrPro, is rendering services to Ranchi clients. “I am able to offer services to my clients who approach meetUrPro. The client, who approached me through MeetUrPro, is quite happy about the fee that I charged for him”.  MeetUrPro offers various services with multiple pricing options. Consumers have the flexibility of choosing the pricing. The end team reduces the initial engagement time, and the chain management team monitors every stage of delivery. The services offered by MeetUrPro are 50 per cent cheaper than those offered by brick and mortar companies. MeetUrPro gets 5-10 per cent margin over a single transaction.  Divakar Vijayasarthy, Co-Founder, MeetUrPro.com says, “We are offering a reliable online platform for professionals to expand their business through connecting with businesses and individuals. The customer can choose his option and benefits and is given access to standardised professional services.” According to Vijayasarthy, every transaction at MeetUrPro.com is tracked. Deadlines are adhered to, and high-quality service is provided through a secure workflow management software (TIMI), thus ensuring trustworthy transactions across geographies. The company is registering 50 to 100 transactions per week. And continuously growing and managing today’s marketplace as far as options, pricing and an organised scheme of delivery are concerned.  MeetUrPro’s startup clinic will offer fall the services required to start a business right from the incorporation to ongoing compliance requirements, including receipt of certificate of incorporation, PAN , TAN, DIN, liaison for opening bank accounts, consultancy on VAT and Service Tax registration, RBI  and FEMA compliance for inbound investments.  Vijayasarthy says, “For the Startup Clinic, both online and offline, the initial consultation fee is zero. We guide customers in picking and choosing those of our products which would be required for their stream of business. The prices are market-determined, and we do not have any say in them.” MeetUrPro is expanding its operations pan India by establishing its presence in Bengalure, Mumbai, and Delhi shortly. Divakar Vijayasarathy is firm on consolidating Indian market and by 2017, will begin operations overseas and to reach $1 million in revenues.   

Social+Capital Partnership Plans To Invest $1 Billion In India

Silicon Valley venture capitalist to focus on financial services, energy and farm sectors, reports K Chandra Mohan Silicon Valley venture capitalist and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya is all set to invest $1 billion in Indian start-ups over the next 10 years. Recently, he invested $20 million into Indian mobile payments start-up Ezetap through his venture capital fund, The Social+Capital Partnership, the four-year-old VC firm that has backed companies like Box, Palantir and Slack. Later, Palihapitiya became chairman of the Ezetap board, the first for him in a portfolio company outside the US."We don't do board meetings Ezetap, because it can be done through mails. As a chairman, I prefer to review products, and build the right product and strategise the product road map, most importantly give them the benefit of my learning at Facebook," he said. Palihapitiya is looking to invest in businesses with products and solutions that target a billion plus people in the field of financial services, energy, power and agriculture. To understand the degree of the Indian market which is totally new to him, has partnered with Bengaluru based, seed-stage VC fund Prime Venture Partners (previously known as Angel Prime). Outside of Silicon Valley startups, Palihapitiya is more interested in investing in India. In India, the Social+Capital is introduced through Prime Venture Capital to Ezetap.  The California based, The Social+Capital partnership has raised $ 1.2 billion in three rounds to date, and has already invested in 50 companies. Palihapitiya was instrumental in bringing Facebook's user base from 18 million to 1 billion. The Social+Capital VC hatch and spends in disruptive start-ups in the areas of healthcare, education, finance, mobile and enterprise software. 

Ezetap Raises Rs 150 Cr To Fund Growth

Ezetap Mobile Solutions, the Bangalore-based pioneer in mobile payments for emerging markets, announced on that is has raised Rs 150 crore in fresh funding. Ezetap’s current investors; Social+Capital, Helion Advisors, and Berggruen Holdings are joined by Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm for Li Ka-Shing, and the Capricorn Investment Group in this round. Social+Capital founder Chamath Palihapitiya will become Chairman of Board - the first time the former Facebook executive has taken on this role with a portfolio company outside the United States. Started in 2011 and launched in 2013, Ezetap has grown much faster than the rest of the industry, deploying over 60,000 new points of sale across India in under 30 months. Ezetap processes transactions worth over $1 million per day and has a customer base ranging from the most well known enterprises to tens of thousands of small retail businesses. While many enterprises, including some of the leading eCommerce, Insurance and mobile companies, have standardized on Ezetap and deployed its integrated solution, the company also sees huge potential in the smaller and medium business sector. Ezetap is already activating over 500 new small retail merchants a week and will use some of its funds to increase that by 5X in the next few months.Ezetap has partnerships with leading banks including Citibank, HDFC Bank, and American Express, who is also an investor in the company. Most recently, State Bank of India chose Ezetap to be its mPOS partner in order to help scale electronic payments and banking services to every corner of the country.  

Practo Raises $90 Mn Series C, Led By Tencent

Funds to help Practo accelerate its march towards becoming a leading global digital healthcare platform Asia’s leading healthcare platform,  Practo, on Thursday (6 August) announced that it has closed $90 million in Series C funding. This round was led by Tencent, with participation from marquee institutional investors including Sofina, Sequoia India, Google Capital, Altimeter Capital, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Yuri Milner. This comes a few months after closing a $30 million Series B round from Sequoia India and Matrix Partners, bringing Practo’s total funds raised to $125 million - one of the largest in the world of Digital Health. Over the past six months, Practo has grown over 6 times to become one of the fastest growing healthcare platforms in the world with nearly 200,000 healthcare practitioners on it and over 10 million monthly searches by consumers looking to make the right healthcare choices. Over the next three to six months Practo will expand product lines and continue to look for potential acquisition of companies to encompass key healthcare segments and provide a seamless experience across medicine, wellness and fitness, globally. Practo will continue to add top notch talent to its world class team of 1,500 Practeons to continue to build the best products that will transform healthcare for consumers around the world. The footprint will expand from the current 35 Indian cities and three countries to over 100 Indian cities and 10 countries across South east Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Eastern Europe. “We are hard at work building a single health app that helps people live healthier by making better healthcare decisions for themselves and their loved ones. We are excited to partner with some of the best investors on the planet. Our global partners will give us the edge to continue building global healthcare products that our users love. Millions of users trust our platform every month and with our international expansion we aim to take Practo to billions of people globally” – Shashank ND, Founder & CEO, Practo. “We are very excited to partner with Practo as one of our first few investments in India. We look for ambitious, visionary Internet companies that are improving people’s lives at a global scale. Practo is a digital healthcare leader and one of the fastest growing healthcare companies in India.  We look forward to working with the Practo team as the company transforms healthcare in India and international markets,”  said Hongwei Chen, Senior Director of Investment and M&A at Tencent. "Sofina is proud to join Practo on its journey to transform the way stakeholders interact in the healthcare space, consistent with our strategy to be a long-term partner of world-class entrepreneurs and investors in growth markets." - Maxence Tombeur, Head of Asia at Sofina.

Data Scientist Training Startup To Raise Money

Online  higher education could be worth Rs 6000 crore domestically if startups can scale up their customer acquisition programmes, writes Vishal KrishnaAfter three years of setting up processes and courses to train executives in data analytics Jigsaw Academy, a tech-enabled education startup, has signed term sheets with a couple of investors to raise $3.5 million. If the deal comes through in 3 months then we will see other tech focused education companies, like Simplilearn, either raising more money or buying online voice and video education platforms.Jigsaw Academy was founded by data scientists Gaurav Vohra and Sarita Digumarti. The company has in three years hit a turnover of Rs 12 crore per year and employs over 70 people. It focuses on making executives use data more efficiently rather than just collating data. The company declined to comment on the fund raising. But mentioned that it's course work was becoming popular in the USA, India and South East Asia. "We are not a course aggregator. Our courses are built in house by a team of data scientists and focuses on subject understanding," says Gaurav Vohra, founder of Jigsaw Academy. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, the online education industry can be worth $40 billion by 2017. This includes all forms of education. However, online  higher education could be worth Rs 6000 crore domestically if startups can scale up their customer acquisition programmes. There is a need to skill 300 million Indians by 2015 and companies like Jigsaw fall in the middle of enabling this growth. 

Talent Vouch Aims To Bring Employee Referral To The Mainstream Recruitment, Says Sudhakar Adapa