SoftBank’s renewed focus on early-stage companies in India

In India, SoftBank with its $100 Bn Vision Fund has led to several new entries in the unicorn club in the past few years.

Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Tokyo, SoftBank has international operations across broadband, fixed telecoms, e-commerce, finance, media, and marketing.

The unit was born in 2000 at a boom time for South Korean startups, expanding its focus beyond that country in 2011. Around half of its investments have been early stage.

The firm is now looking to set up a fund which focuses exclusively on early-stage startups. At present, there are over 416 venture funds who have a focus on the early-stage startups in India.

In India, SoftBank with its $100 Bn Vision Fund has led to several new entries in the unicorn club in the past few years. It has already roughly deployed over $10 Bn in Indian startups to date out of its $65 Bn- $70 Bn active investments of the vision fund.

After missing out on companies such as Swiggy and Zomato, it wants to identify future stars early and back them while they are half-unicorns. “We would like to invest $100 million in a firm with $500-million valuation,” said senior SoftBank executive.

SoftBank and its Vision Fund have invested more than $600 million in SenseTime, valuing it in the most recent round at $7.6 billion, a source familiar with the matter said, declining to be identified because the information is not public. SenseTime declined to comment.

Ankiti Bose 1st Indian women CEO of $1 billion startup made into entrepreneur’s 35U35 list

Ankiti Bose is a 27 years old Mumbai native, who co-founded Zilingo with Druv Kapoor (both IIT Guwahati alumnus).

Entrepreneur’s 35 under 35 list is presented by Blenders Pride Reserve collection. This list includes some unconventional names from the field of entrepreneurship. Ankiti Bose is a 27 years old Mumbai native, who co-founded Zilingo with Druv Kapoor (both IIT Guwahati alumnus). She has graduated from St. Xavier’s college Mumbai with economics and math’s degree in 2012. ‘Zilingo’ is a southeast Asia focused fashion e-commerce platform.



It has grown over 11 times in revenue over last 12 months, which has helped it reaching unicorn status. Bose realized that there was a bigger opportunity in helping small merchants scale up & compete with big brands like Zana & Uniqlo through a B2B platform. Some of Bose’s early inspiration came from a visit to Bankok’s popular chatuchak market, which features more than 15,000 booths selling goods from across Thailand.

She realized the sellers didn’t have sufficient opportunities to expand. Bose is now part of a group of founders in Southeast Asia who are capitalizing on the region’s rapid adoption of smartphones and rising incomes. Online shopping in the region reached $23 billion in 2018, according to a report by Google and Temasek. It is expected to exceed $100 billion by 2025.





Story Of Gaurav Rana, From Collecting Cow Dung To Building A Rs 11 Crore Start-Up

At just 24, he has made his name in the start-up world and comes across as a charismatic young entrepreneur.

More than talent, skills or resources, it is the willingness to keep pushing your limits which brings you face to face with success. This incredible story is about a 24-year-old who everyone thought was a good for nothing chap but the very same people today can’t stop obsessing over his success. His unconventional ideas have made him the CEO of a company which has been valued at Rs 11 crore despite a very short span of operation.

Meet charismatic Gaurav Rana who grew up in a tiny, nondescript village named Sonf in Haryana. The wealth of his father had exhausted by the time he was five years old and all that was left for him was daily struggle with poverty. His father had become an alcoholic and was suffering from mental trauma. Whatever little money came their way was from his grandfather who ran a grocery store. They managed to buy food but couldn’t afford LPG to cook it so Gaurav and his elder sister spent all day collecting wood and cow dung in and around the village. The kids would make cow dung cakes and pass them on to their mother who would then cook some food for them.

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To divert his attention from the painful life Gaurav started painting. Well-off children came asking him to draw for them and would in-turn give him Rs 20. While he was in STD 8 he started going to a nearby salon and learnt the art of haircut and shaving. The owner let him handle a few customers everyday and give him some commission for his help. The situation at home was still as grim as ever and the only way out seemed to be in education. In STD 10 Gaurav scored 96.9% and took admission in a deemed university in Agra where his grades dropped consistently and he couldn’t even touch 60% by the time he passed out.

“I couldn’t appear for placement interviews because I scored abysmal 58%. I pleaded with my teachers and got a chance to appear in one interview”. His low grades fetched him just one chance but he cracked it. He got a job with Eicher Motors for a monthly salary of Rs 15,000. But this good news was overshadowed by problems at home. His parents were burdened under a sum of Rs 2 lakh that they had borrowed from friends and relatives who wanted their money back.

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“I had no money to go to Indore and join Eicher. There was no question of borrowing money as all our relatives had turned hostile. I was heartbroken to see how people change and decided to end our financial struggles somehow”, Gaurav recollects.

A friend’s mother helped him and he reached Eicher, Indore. He did night shifts there and worked as a dance teacher and event organizer in the day time. Gradually, he paid off all the credits his family has taken but had also realized that he couldn’t do job all his life. He was giving more and more time for organizing events which reflected poorly at his performance in his company.



“People had tagged me useless, for them I was good for nothing”, he says.

However, the perception of people changed when he did an event with FTV and the news splashed all over the newspapers. To celebrate his success he went back to him home in Haryana where his mother worked as a local beautician. She had to attend a client that day and the person was coming in every few hours to remind her of the task. Gaurav saw a gap here and thought he could fill this up with technology.

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He came back to Eicher and couldn’t stop thinking about his idea. At the company’s annual party he got to know that the VP’s wife has 25 years of experience in IT. Despite his friends warnings, he boldly approached the woman and pitched her the idea and asked if she would collaborate on this. To his utter surprise she agreed and became the initial investor for Calipso, a company that delivers beauty services wherever the customer is.



The idea was unique and has become a major hit in Indore. Calipso has tied up with OYO rooms and several beauty salons to reach out to their customers. The latest trend that Gaurav has introduced in the industry is setting up stalls at weddings. “Nobody even thought of doing this even when there was a clear need for it. Ladies now chat away while getting a pedicure at weddings while men get a touch-up down after sweating it out on the dance floor,” Gaurav says in his thick Hariyanvi accented Hindi.

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On being asked about competing against other doorstep beauty servicing giants he says, “I don’t think there is any competition because no matter how much funded they are they can never take away my guts from me.”

Currently, Calipso is operating in Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain making its way to expand in metros next.

Today, Gaurav employs more than 25 people and Calipso is valued at over Rs 11 crore. At just 24, he has made his name in the start-up world and comes across as a charismatic young entrepreneur.

“My relatives who had stopped speaking with us are now cordial again. One should always remember that times keep changing and hardwork pays off, every single time”, he said.

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Hike Messenger joins unicorn club; bags $175 mn investment led by Tencent, Foxconn

Messaging platform Hike Messenger on Tuesday said it has raised $175 million in a new round of funding led by Tencent Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group, valuing the company at about $1.4 billion.

Messaging platform Hike Messenger on Tuesday said it has raised $175 million in a new round of funding led by Tencent Holdings and Foxconn Technology Group, valuing the company at about $1.4 billion.

Existing investors – Tiger Global, Bharti and Softbank Group – also participated in this round.

This is the fourth venture capital round and the biggest to date for Hike, a company founded by Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Mittal.

The company said it is looking at acquisitions in technology and people, but ruled out an IPO in near future.

The latest round of funding takes the total investment to over $250 million so far.

Kavin Mittal, founder and CEO Hike Messenger

“We will be investing this amount in services, people, office space and some long term bets in areas of machine learning, computer vision,” Kavin Mittal said at a conference.

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“Tencent and Foxconn both have pedigrees that speak for themselves and such an investment especially in today’s market just goes to show the strong foundation on which Hike is being built,’’ he added.

When asked if the company plans to go for an IPO, he said “it’s too soon in our journey. We are only three-and-a-half years into the business. It typically takes 6-8 years for business to reach maturity”.

In January 2016, Hike had announced it has a base of 100 million users. As much as 95 per cent of Hike users are based in India and 90 per cent of them are young and below the age of 30 year.

Hike users on an average exchange 40 billion messages per month, he added.

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With 123 M&As in 2016, Indian Start-up landscape is inching towards consolidation

The year 2016 has already started with a trend towards consolidation among start-ups with much M&A action in segments like local services, eCommerce along with software-as-a-service (SaaS), and analytics.

The beginning of last week, was thrilling with tunes of excitement all around in the start-up world. Putting an end to the several long tailed speculations, Flipkart-owned Myntra finally acquired Rocket-Internet backed Jabong in an all cash-only deal worth US $70 million. This creates a move towards biggest online fashion conglomeration in India and a world class example that elaborates on how synergies, when combined well can create a way towards successful longer-term business model.

Today, the Indian start-up scenario is at its unpredictable best. While 2015 witnessed huge funding rounds, with food-tech, hyperlocal & aggregators, in addition to e-commerce platforms, gaining edge over other segments. The year 2016 has already started with a trend towards consolidation among start-ups with much M&A action in segments like local services, eCommerce along with software-as-a-service (SaaS), and analytics.

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In 2016, India has seen an unprecedented rise in M&A activity with 123 deals in total, with a cumulative deal size of 534.9 million dollars (disclosed value). In July, there were as many as 36 M&As, almost twice that in June and about three times the January and February numbers.

The number looks exciting and signifies that there is one acquisition closure in every two days. While a bigger pie of this count resides within the domestic boundaries; this year has also explored new horizons in terms of much notified M&A activity across the foreign boundaries.

The numbers include a fair combination of outbound and inbound deals, covering matured markets including US, UK, Dubai, Canada and more, thereby, constituting 9 per cent (11 deals) and 10 per cent (12 deals) to the total deal volume respectively.

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While most of the outbound M&As revolved around the start-up space, some of the industry majors have also realised the benefits of marrying start-ups. A few notable acquisitions include Mindtree (acquisition of US based Salesforce consulting and implementation provider, Magnet 360); Tech Mahindra (acquisition of UK based IT and digital company, Bio Agency) and Dabur (acquisition of South African cosmetics manufacturing and trading firm, Discaria). The key commonalities for inbound acquisitions include SaaS (as the top most target industry segment) and USA (as the top most acquirer location).

In domestic market, we have seen a sale season for start-ups – the industry is now showing the big signs of consolidation, with over 100 M&As till date.

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Delhi-NCR remained the top location within the domestic market and snaps up 29 deals followed by Bangalore (26) and Mumbai (16) deals respectively. Bangalore has remained the top acquirer region across the geographical boundaries (including outbound M&As). Local Services remained the top segment with 15 deals followed by SaaS and eCommerce respectively.

This article was originally published in Xeler8.com





With its techie idea, this Indian startup offers to provide free wifi in 1000 temples of India

Pujashoppe.com offers complete solutions by offering access to religious festivals and pujas all across the country both online and its chain of religious stores keeping in mind the purity and utmost quality in every product and services we offer.

Free Wi-Fi is the dream of every youngster nowadays. The first thing that they do whenever they go out or check into a new restaurant or hotel, is to check about the Wi-Fi services provided by them. Banking on this enthusiasm about Wi-Fi, an Indian start-up has come up with a unique way to facilitate devotees to have ease of performing puja.

Pujashoppe.com offers complete solutions by offering access to religious festivals and pujas all across the country both online and its chain of religious stores keeping in mind the purity and utmost quality in every product and services we offer.

How the temple would be benefitted

  • Pujashoppe.com would design a web page specially for the temple and promote it through its popular portal and other media thus making it reach its global devotees.
  • The devotees visiting temple can log into the temple webpage free of cost while visiting the temple.
  • Devotees can also gather dynamic information about the temple as temple authorities would have complete access to the webpage.

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How one can use it

  • User will simply enable his mobile device in temples where they will see Pujashoppe free wi-fi signs.
  • Once it is connected to Pujashoppe Wi-Fi, He/she can open his web browser and search from any website which will redirect you to the login page.
  • User will just have to fill his required details (Name and mobile number) and submit, he would immediately receive a onetime password (OTP) on his smart phone. Once logged in he can use it to visit the temple webpage along with other websites of his choice. Maximum time for free use is 30 minutes.

The main objective of the proposed venture is to create a business out of a large market of puja related products and services, which has so far remained unorganized and try creating a brand. The venture is also aimed at facilitating devotees to have ease of performing puja.



Allegiance to religion has grown in the past few decades in India and worldwide and the market of puja materials and services have grown exponentially in the process. As per The Times of India the annual market of spiritual business in India is a US$ 15 Billion which translates to a whopping Rs. 1,90,000 Crore. The opportunity of this venture lies in the fact that the entire market is being catered by unorganised and small local operators.

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In order to achieve this goal a business idea has been conceptualized to offer these products and services online through a portal named PujaShoppe.com. The business is based on a simple idea that almost every Hindu wants to perform various pujas depending upon his allegiance and inclination; however many of them avoid doing for reasons such as lack of faith on the priests, their availability and expertise, lack of standardization and unscientific puja processes and poor quality of available puja materials in the market. Thus there exists a gap which can be addressed by creating a business to facilitate availability of premium quality of puja materials and allied services.

It has been observed in many a time that finding a priest with proper knowledge of the subject is a time consuming and rigorous task. Most often than not it is found that the priest may not be a trained one and does not have the requisite expertise. It has also been found that different priests do the same puja in different ways which means there are no standard protocols or practices that are followed. Thus there is a need of ‘standardization of puja processes’ and formulation of ‘best practices’ which would eventually give rise to a large market for a business. A corollary can be drawn from the fact that people prefer going to trained doctors rather than to quacks for their medical needs shelling out premium fees. Likewise the well informed devotees would prefer branded premium quality of puja materials and well trained priests with adequate expertise to unbranded poor quality products and untrained priests.

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Challenges faced by the team so far

  • Diversity: The same puja is performed in different ways and different puja materials are used in various parts of the country. Thus a detailed research has to be carried out to cover every part of the country and knowledgeable priests have to be put on roll.
  • Database creation: Collection of the database of the priests and validating the data will be a rigorous task.
  • Large no of products handling and its logistics management.
  • Sourcing of quality raw materials.
  • Promotion and marketing.
  • Creation of distribution channel

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Proposed products and services of PujaShoppe.com

  1. Premium quality puja materials with quality certifications
  2. Self Puja (Do it yourself puja kits which would also include complete stepwise puja process)
  3. Personalized puja planner
  4. Special puja for remedies of astrological malefic effects
  5. Priest services
  6. Divine gifts for every occasion
  7. Corporate puja/ HNI puja
  8. Puja management services / Turnkey puja: From pandal (tent) to idol to everything
  9. Online puja / Puja in absentia for NRIs using video streaming
  10. Remote pujas in famous temples of the country
  11. Overseas supply of priests
  12. Exports of puja materials
  13. Arranging of religious group tours

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Business Model

PujaShoppe.com follows a unique hybrid model where in a customer can buy products and services through online, telephone or just by walking in our stores to be located at vantage points all over the country.

Achievement so far

  • PujaShoppe.com in a span of just six months has become the most popular website with the national Alexa rating of 7500.
  • It’s has already opened more than 15 stores in states like Delhi, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, West Bengal and Chattisgarh.
  • The ‘Art of Living’ organization of Shri Shri Ravi Shankar has entered into a strategic alliance with the organization for cross branding and cross merchandising.
  • The company is opening its first overseas store in Dubai in April and has plans to open stores in Singapore, UK, Malyasia and USA.

Future

Dr.Amushree, co-founder says, Pujashoppe.com has plans to establish as a global leader in the spiritual space.

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205 crores raised by start-up Lendingkart in a second tranche series

Lendingkart recently raised 205 crores; 128 crores was raised as equity and 77 crores as debt.

Lendingkart recently raised 205 crores; 128 crores was raised as equity and 77 crores as debt.

The Dollar Business Bureau

Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) led the whole money raising event where over $32 million was raised in series B funding from investors. Lendingkart is an Online loan platform.

“With BII onboard, we are looking forward to leverage its deep knowledge of global financial products and Internet businesses,” Harshvardhan Lunia, co-founder and CEO, Lendingkart Group, said in a statement.

The company after having raised a massive amount in the second tranche funding claimed that BII had led the new tranche of funding in which big investors like Darrin capital management had paricipated along with existing investors such as Saama Capital, Mayfield India and Indian Quotient. The company also stated that with Financial Service leaders like Arvato Financial Solutions as a part of the investing group, Bertelsmann has certainly brought forth a fresh angle to the mundane digital forum and data analysed risk assessment. It will also help Lendingkart to pose themselves as the leading lending platform in the country.

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With the recent round of funding, Lendingkart has over 260 crores to its name. It has also helped to boost their tech platform and given them a sturdy infrastructure to enhance mobile capabilities.

The Managing director of BII said that they were proud to be associated with the LendingKart group to create a new generation of lending firm in the country. They believe that through lending money to the deserving, they will get to see a lot of new innovations in the country.

Lendingkart aims to expand its horizon, tap the lending market and emrge as a lending leader in the country by expanding its presence further across different regions of India. It has successfully organised loans to clients across 130 cities in 22 states and recorded a successful growth of 20% monthly in loan origination. In the future, Lendingkart also aims to facilitate loans to SMEs.

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11 Heroes who helped build the Indian startup industry

Although all entrepreneurs, regardless of whether they are established or new, have an equal in the Indian startup scene, here are 11 tech entrepreneurs that could be considered as largely responsible for these winds of change.

The Indian startup scene is witnessing a boom, with the number of entrepreneurs in India growing by the day.
Gone are the days when people shied away from quitting their jobs to start their own ventures. And although all entrepreneurs, regardless of whether they are established or new, have an equal in the Indian startup scene, here are 11 tech entrepreneurs that could be considered as largely responsible for these winds of change.

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart)

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are probably the two most important people in the Indian e-commerce industry today. Interestingly, they both completed their studies together at OP Jindal Modern School, Hisar, and then went on study Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi. Post that, Sachin Bansal started working at Techspan while Binny Bansal worked at Sarnoff Corporation. Before starting Flipkart in 2007, they both worked for Amazon for a while too. Like Amazon, Flipkart (valued today at US$17 billion) too started as a bookstore. Later, more product categories were added to the store. In September 2015, both its founders were ranked 86 th on the Forbes India list with a net worth of $1.3 billion. Flipkart has made a number of acquisitions, including Myntra, WeRead, Chakpak.com and Mime360.

Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal (Snapdeal)

Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal were both students of Delhi Public School before Rohit Bansal went to IIT Delhi and Kunal Bahl went to University of Pennsylvania.

Later, Kunal went to Wharton School and Kellogg School of Management before starting working with Microsoft. Prior to Snapdeal’s inception in 2010, the two started various other businesses, but nothing clicked as much as their e-commerce venture. Today, Snapdeal is among the largest online marketplaces in India, and has made quite a few acquisitions, including Exclusively.in, and Freecharge.

Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola)

Born in Ludhiana, Bhavish Aggarwal received his Computer Science and Engineering degree from IIT Bombay, and started his career with Microsoft Research. He stayed there for a good two years before quitting in 2010.
He then teamed up with Ankit Bhati and started his own venture – Ola Cabs, which went ahead to become India’s answer to Uber. As of September 2015, Ola is valued at $5 billion and the company has also made acquisitions like TaxiforSure and Geotagg.



Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Paytm)

The founder of Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, completed his education at Delhi College of Engineering with great difficulty because he couldn’t speak English.

However, that didn’t stop him from creating a website indiasite.net in 1997, which was sold two years later for $1 million. In 2005, Sharma started One97 communications (Paytm’s parent company), which offered news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results.

Later in 2010, he started Paytm, an online recharge, bill payment and e-commerce website. Recently, the company has also added bus tickets and movie tickets booking to its list of services. Vijay Shekhar Sharma also took a stand against Facebook’s Free Basics in December 2015, saying that it was against net neutrality.

Pranay Chulet (Quikr)

The person behind one of India’s largest online classified portals, Pranay Chulet studied at Kendriya Vidyalaya in Rajasthan.

He later went to IIT, Delhi and then to IIM, Calcutta to complete his higher education. Post that, the Quikr co-founder started working at Procter & Gamble and then worked at Mitchell Madison Group, Walker Digital, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Booz Allen Hamilton. It was in 2007 that Chulet started his first venture – Excellere. In 2008, he came together with Jiby Thomas to start Kijiji India, known today as Quikr.

Deepinder Goyal (Zomato)

Whether it’s slashing a large chunk of his employee force, writing open letters to his staff or taking a stand against HSBC, Zomato co-founder Deepinder Goyal knows how to stay in the limelight. The story behind Zomato is an interesting one. Back when Deepinder was at Bain & Co. along with his co-worker Pankaj Chaddah, he decided to scan restaurant menus and upload them on an intranet website exclusively for Bain employees.

In 2008, the website named FoodieBay, went public and quickly expanded to other cities. But it was only in 2010 that it came to be known as Zomato. After their venture started gaining popularity, the founders quit their jobs to devote their entire time to Zomato. Today, Zomato is available in 23 countries and has acquired a number of companies like Urbanspoon and Lunchtime.

Kavin Bharti Mittal (Hike)

Kavin Bharti Mittal is the founder and CEO of instant messaging app Hike, and also the son of business tycoon Bharti Mittal. Before he started his venture, he studied Electronics and Electrical Engineering at University of York and then went to Imperial College London to study further. Hike Messenger was started in 2012 and in just a few months, raised $7 million from Bharti SoftBank.

Hike Messenger competes with the likes of WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber and Telegram. The app is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Symbian operating systems.



Kunal Shah (FreeCharge)

Arguably the masses’ favourite way to recharge their pre-paid phones, Freecharge, was founded by Kunal Shah in 2010. Prior to starting Freecharge, Kunal Shah did his graduation at Wilson College in Mumbai, and then briefly pursued an MBA at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies before dropping out.

His idea behind Freecharge was simple. He wanted to launch a website that offered coupons and rebates to customers in return of each top up. FreeCharge became a super hit, and was recently acquired by Snapdeal for about $400 million.

Rahul Yadav (Housing.com)

Chances are, you have already heard about him. Rahul Yadav bags the prize for being the most popular and controversial face of the Indian startup scene. There is hardly anyone else about whom so much has been written. If we trace back his past, Rahul is an IIT-Bombay drop-out who started his venture with 11 other college mates in 2012. The real estate classified portal did really well and went on to raise $100 million in funding.

Rahul Yadav also made it to Forbes India list of 30 Under 30 young entrepreneurs for his work at Housing. However, things didn’t remain good for Rahul when he spent a large amount of money on marketing and also made rather nasty remarks about some key people at Housing. Following this, he resigned, withdrew his resignation, and then distributed all his shares among his employees. But it was the news of him getting kicked out of his own venture that made him popular. He is currently working on his next venture, backed by Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, Micromax’s Rahul Sharma and Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

This article was originally published in Times Of India





He begged on the streets once. Today, this entrepreneur has a turnover of 30 cr and dreams of an IPO

His company today has a turnover of Rs 30 crore and employs 150 people. This by no means is the finishing line even though 50-year-old Renuka Aradhya started life’s race with a major handicap.

His company today has a turnover of Rs 30 crore and employs 150 people. This by no means is the finishing line even though 50-year-old Renuka Aradhya started life’s race with a major handicap.

Renuka was born poor. Very poor. He has seen the kind of poverty that put him on the streets to beg. The poverty that kept him hungry both literally and metaphorically.

Where does one begin to tell this entrepreneur’s story? From pushing a handcart under a blazing sun to now owning a fleet of 1000 plus cars? Or from transporting 300 dead bodies to ferrying foreign tourists who left tips in dollars? Or from failing to clear class X exams to now rubbing shoulders with the industry’s who’s who?

Or the fact that with his foresight he was able to ward off Uber and Ola poaching his business, and is making the next generation ready to dream big by bringing his daughter-in-law (who comes from a poor family) into the business.

Ernest Hemingway wrote a long time ago, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

Here’s Renuka’s roller coaster journey in his own words because no other words will do it justice.

Every day is a winding road

I belong to a village called, Gopasandra, in Anekal taluk near Bengaluru. My father was apujari at a temple allotted by the state government though he did not get any fixed salary. After conducting the puja, he would go to nearby villages to beg for ragi, jowar, or rice. He would then sell the grains in the market and with the money that he got from the sale he would take care of us. We were three children, two boys and one girl.

I would go begging with my father to these neighbouring villages, which is now Electronic City.

After I finished Class VI, my father thought that he would put me in somebody’s home as a domestic help to make ends meet. My school fee till Class X was taken care of by my teachers because they would get me to do their domestic work like washing utensils and dusting and sweeping.



I started working for an old man who had a severe skin ailment. I would tend to him, give him a bath, and apply skin ointment all over his body. Since I belonged to the pujari clan, I also had to perform puja at a nearby temple. After that, I would go to school. I lived there for one whole year.

Soon after, my father admitted me to a boys’ ashram in Chickpet, where I remained for three years. The hostel would give us two meals a day, one at 8 am and the other at 8 pm and nothing in between. I remember I was always hungry. I could not focus on my studies at all and my mind was occupied with trying to find how I could lay my hands on some food.

It was mandatory in this ashram to learn Sanskrit and the Vedas. I quickly picked this up because I realised that if I could accompany the seniors in some naming ceremony, weddings, or pujas I could eat at those events. But it was not very easy to get hold of these opportunities. I had to placate my seniors by offering to do their personal chores like washing their clothes.

As a result, I failed in Class X, passing only in Sanskrit. I then had to return home as my father passed away and the responsibility of my mother fell on me. My older brother was married and not keen on taking care of her or my sister and me.

In poverty, there is no unity. Lack of money can make people selfish and mean. If people lived happily together in the midst of poverty then they are gods.

I soon started working in a factory in Audgodi. I was there for a year. This was followed by a stint in a plastic manufacturing company and then an ice-making factory. I then found a job as a sweeper in an AdLabs branch. My mind is sharp. I soon got a hang of printing and helping out with the work. I was there for three years and had to quit because I was getting drawn into nefarious activities by some employees, who expected me to join them as well. I am glad I quit because I heard later that they were found out and sacked.

Road to nowhere

I joined Shyam Sunder Trading Company where I started working as a helper. The company was into making and trading in bags and suitcases. I had to load a handcart with suitcases. Another helper and I took turns pushing and pulling it through the city roads and transported them from the factory to the shop. Soon, I was promoted to a sales position.

After working there for a few months, I thought ‘why not start my own business?’ Since I was familiar with this business, I decided to make covers for suitcases and vanity bags. I would take my bicycle and go around the city shouting for customers who wanted covers stitched for their suitcases and bags. It did not work out well for me and I lost some 30,000 rupees.

I was back to square one. My brother, who was a security guard, found me a job as one.

The reason I kept moving and starting all over again is because I wanted to achieve something. I did not have any educational background. I was not even a high-school pass. I had no money and no family connection. I did not have any mentors, no one to guide me. But I was always in search of opportunities.

I was around 18 when I got into bad company — drinking and gambling. Thankfully, the older boys I used to hang out with moved out and I escaped a life that would not have taken me anywhere.

When I turned 20, I told my mother I wanted to get married. I thought that marriage would make me more responsible and focussed. I was earning Rs 600 as a security guard, so to make a few extra bucks I started taking on odd jobs like that of mali, or climbing coconut trees. I remember that I charged Rs 15 per tree and I would climb 20 trees per day.



A bend in the road

Not satisfied with what I was doing, I decided to become a driver, though I did not know how to drive. I did not have any money to learn driving and to get a driver’s licence. So I borrowed some money from my brother-in-law and pawned my wedding ring.

All went well and I got my driving licence. But the first day of my driving job was a big nightmare. I was meant to reverse the car and park it, instead, I banged it into the gate. That job lasted only a few hours. I was back to being a security guard.

It was very depressing. I would go to the temple and bang my head on the steps lamenting my destiny and how God was being so unkind to me. I wanted to drive and yet here I was going back to doing what I thought I had come out of.

 

Since I was always looking out for an opportunity, I met a taxi operator who decided to give me a break. He told me not to worry if I banged the car. ‘Just run away from there,’ he told me. I was so grateful that I told him he needn’t pay me till I can prove myself. I’ll manage with the driver ‘batha’ (per day charges on an outstation trip), I told him.

I remember carrying large stones in the car. Whenever I had to halt at an incline, I would pull the handbrakes and quickly place the stones next to the rear wheels to prevent the car from rolling back. Imagine how many stones I must have left behind me in a trail (laughs).

I was determined not to go back to being a security guard this time. In the nights, I would practice reversing the car, parking it, and managing inclines on the road without the stones. Slowly, my confidence grew.

My first outstation trip was to Gokarna. I learnt that if you drive slow and steady then everything works out well. So that’s what I did. I was so nervous that I did not dare press on the accelerator too hard. Imagine my surprise when I got this feedback from the guests saying that I was a very good driver (laughs).

One more thing I learnt was that if you take care of your customers, then you’ve won the battle. I got very good reviews from my customers and because of this, I was always in demand.



I worked at a transport company for four years. Besides ferrying passengers, the company also provided vehicles to hospitals like Nimhans to transport dead bodies back to their homes for the last rites.

I have transported approximately 300 dead bodies across India. And many times, I have done so alone because there was no one from the deceased family to accompany the body.

And look at the irony, immediately after I came back from one of these trips there would be a group waiting to go on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala. I would sprinkle some holy water on the vehicle and get on with the next journey.

This also taught me the impermanence of life. That nothing is enduring. That life and death are nothing but two ends of a long journey.

You know the most important learning for me in my journey has been that to earn money you must have a vision. And to make that happen, you must make the best of opportunities that come your way. You must do whatever you are doing with total dedication and keep a good track record. One day, fortune will surely smile upon you.

Two-way street

My wife used to work in the garment industry. First, she was a helper and then she went on to become a tailor. Together, we would earn Rs 900.

I was soon upgraded to another travel company. Here I got an opportunity to drive foreign tourists. I would get good tips in dollars. Over the four years that I worked there I had a neat sum saved up from these tips. I got my wife to withdraw her PF money, and together with the amount I had saved I started a company called City Safari with some other people.

Once the company started doing well, I was made the manager. When I was only a driver, I would often think that one day instead of submitting a trip sheet I should be the one collecting it. And that dream came true with my new post as manager (smiles).

Around this time, I bought my first car. It was an Indica. I had to take a loan from the bank. My older brother refused to be a guarantor, and I had to seek someone else’s help. In another year-and-a-half, I bought one more car. With these cars, I went to work for two years with Spot City Taxi.



As you can gather, I wanted to build my own travel/transport company. A company called Indian City Taxi was on a distress sale. I did not have any knowledge of merger and acquisition, just paisa de do, company le lo. I bought that company in 2006 with Rs 6.5 lakh. I had to sell all the cars that I had by then to produce this money. The company had 35 cabs attached to it and they would make Rs 1000 commission per vehicle, so in a month Rs 35,000 was assured.

I took a lot of risks, which thankfully paid off.

I had earlier registered the name ‘Pravasi Cabs’ when I had three cars of my own. So I now called my new company that. I was an entrepreneur now. The name came to me from the foreign tourists and expatriates I drove around. Pravasi is the Sanskrit word for expatriates.

However, it was not all that easy. There were a lot of complications. Anyway, to cut a long story short I soon got my first client – Amazon India. When they were setting up their Chennai office, they also helped me expand my business there.

Now the thing with corporates is they pay after three months, and I did not get my payments even after six months. So I took loans, and through the years have ended up paying lakhs as interest. But mind you, the money was not for me. I would give my wife Rs 20,000 every month to run the house. The rest was all for the company. I poured my days and nights with hard work. Slowly, revenue started coming in.

I thought of expanding my business and getting more clients. What if Amazon withdrew? I would end up on the streets. Hence, I slowly got more clients like Walmart, Akamai, General Motors, and others. I did not have a sales team, no marketing team, nothing.

I never lost an opportunity even if my cut was three percent, I did not care. I just wanted to get into operations. I had to increase my turnover, only then would I get funding from the market or banks. But if I concentrated only on profits, my turnover would decrease.

At this time, we were in on-call service, employee transport service (ETS), and train/bus ticketing (which I left after a year). I owe a lot to Amazon for supporting my growth.

I do not have any barrier to starting operations. I just look for three things: the attitude of the local drivers, their behaviour towards customers, and vehicle availability.

Are we nearly there, yet?

I learnt English by conversing with tourists. When the car would be parked while the tourists did the sightseeing I would wait in the car either trying to read from an English newspaper or write passages from it. I did not waste time gossiping with other drivers or smoking. I would either read or catch up on my sleep.

As my business grew, I felt the need to attend networking sessions, workshops and talks on marketing, customer retention or economics of running a business. A lot of my personal growth happened this way. The other advantage I had was that I am very tech-savvy; I can work any gadget.

Three years ago, I started providing buses to schools. Initially, the understanding was that we had to manage with the transport fee that the school charged. The first year, I lost Rs 10 lakh. I made an agreement with the school that I would give them 35 percent for the next 10 years. So I would invest in the buses. This is the first year that I am going to break-even. I started this because I could not rely on only ETS.



And, surely, when Ola and Uber came along, it impacted the taxi industry greatly.

But I escaped because I had around 700 cabs attached to me. I lost about 200 to them. But I was still left with 500. My idea was if I had more than 500 vehicles then no one can touch me. But if I had 100, 200 cars, then certainly I would have had reason to panic. In fact, many taxi operators had to shut shop when Ola and Uber speed chased them.

I believe that because I dreamt big, I managed to escape. If I had a small cab agency and was satisfied with earning Rs 40,000 a month, my business would certainly have been punctured.

I realised the best solution was to have a new scheme for my drivers, which was an owner-cum-driver scheme. The deal was that for an advance of Rs 50,000, I would buy them a new car. He had to work for 36 months, and after that, the car would be transferred to his name. Whatever he earns, he keeps, we just deduct the EMI for the vehicle. We now have 300 vehicles like that, and I have the liability of all those vehicles on my head.

An all-women group picked Renuka to drive them because of the trust they had in him.

Besides this, we also provide training to the drivers regarding behaviour and how to manage their finances.

You know, my growth has been only this much because I wasn’t educated enough. I do not know the planning and strategies like the IIT and IIM guys.

I am also a director in three startups. Along with six other directors, I sit on the board of loaddial.com. It is an aggregator of goods vehicles. I am also a director in a company that will provide affordable housing to people like drivers and garment workers. I have a few other concepts like having a Foodpanda like app for smaller cities and towns.

In three years, once I cross Rs 100 crore I will go for an IPO.

As a social responsibility, I want to encourage women drivers. I am ready to even waive the Rs 50,000 advance if women come forward saying they want to become owner-cum-drivers. We have also created an all-women call centre for Pravasi in Karwar.

I believe in the power of the mind. What we think, we become. How many times will you say ‘I do not have any experience so how will I do this?’ Initially, there will be more criticism and less goodwill. But slowly the criticism will fade away.

Whatever God has given me, I have shared with everyone. And I firmly believe that because of this I have managed to get myself educated and get rich. I took my chances and during all those times when I picked up an opportunity even though it was not financially viable, I firmly believed that one day God would give me back double. Otherwise how else can a security guard today drive a Rs 23-lakh car?





What entrepreneurs can learn from Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory

Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory is a rare species of entrepreneur. She is indeed the Elon Musk of entrepreneurship fraternity.

There aren’t many entrepreneurs who break the conventional mode of thinking and embrace the radical innovation. An entrepreneur who has taken the road less travelled is a rare species. Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory is a rare species of entrepreneur. She is indeed the Elon Musk of entrepreneurship fraternity. Her venture, YourStory stands for a promise and exists for a purpose beyond just topline and bottom line growth. She set the ball rolling by challenging the status quo. YourStory.com is India’s no.1 media platform for entrepreneurs, dedicated to passionately championing and promoting entrepreneurial ecosystem in India.

Here is what entrepreneurs can learn from Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory:

1. Make your choice:

Life is a harried race where nothing is absolute. To achieve preposterous goals, one has to make tough choices. Shradha Sharma opted for a tough choice. Many opined that a venture covering the stories of entrepreneurs cannot become a commercial success. However, she listened to her heart and made it big.

Related Post: 7 Indian women entrepreneurs who have carved a niche for themselves

2. Stay relentless:

Entrepreneurship is a rat race where only the determined, dedicated and dutiful survive. At times, Shradha Sharma questioned herself and the credibility of her venture. However, she found spots of solace by keeping the action plan simple- She did what Einstein asked us to do “Learn the rules of the game and then play it better than anyone else.” Her relentless efforts yielded rich dividends. In August 2015, YourStory completed seven fruitful years.



3. Belief in karma:

Life is enmeshed deep within our lives where circumstances are closely entwined. We are all gifted with imperfections. Burgeoning expectations have made us all selfish. Being selfish is not necessarily the only way to begin. A strong belief in karma gives us all a window to our thought process. Having faced the rapacious corporate world, Shradha Sharma quipped, “I believe in good karma. I have seen good gestures being returned 100 fold, if not more. I have seen many entrepreneurs change and I have tried very hard not to (helped by my team who I can always rely on to bring me back to earth). But having said that, I know that everything around me will keep changing. As long as I can feel my ‘centeredness’ – acutely, deeply and vehemently, I know I will be fine.”

Related Post: Success story: Nina Lekhi and her struggles to make Baggit reach the pinnacle of success

4. Live your experiences:

Sometimes, mistakes in our lives become unpardonable. Quite clearly, the prevailing ‘war for being the supreme’ will leave us with encumbrances where the road ahead seems replete with hindrances. The incessant struggle to meet the seemingly insurmountable deadlines and delusive expectations will never be an easy one. Shradha Sharma reveals the most startling secret- “Live your experiences. Learn from good and bad. Your career will never be decides by an ugly spat, a heated argument or a disagreeing opinion. It depends on how you take life.”

For budding entrepreneurs equipped with unduly theoretical knowledge and markedly low practical exposure, Shradha Sharma’s success story provides food for thought.

This article was originally published in myventure.in

Image credit: riseconf.com





Oyo Rooms turns profitable with 15x growth year over year

According to a report shared by the OYO Rooms, SoftBank-backed budget hotel room aggregator OYO Rooms said it has attained profitability at an aggregate level, which means, on an average, they are making profit on every room sold.

According to a report shared by the OYO Rooms, SoftBank-backed budget hotel room aggregator OYO Rooms said it has attained profitability at an aggregate level, which means, on an average, they are making profit on every room sold.

Oyo Rooms claimed that it was operationally profitable until June 2015 before it went for expansion but regained profitability at a network level from February 2016, as per a statement.

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Oyo Rooms said,

“Our team delivered 15 times year-on-year growth with 2.3 million booked room-night transactions in the January-March 2016 quarter while our gross merchandise volume (GMV) continues to grow every month. Over 95% of the traffic comes from our own sales channels such as app, web and call centre”

Gurgaon, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata have been among the cities which have been driving profitability for the company. The firm aims to triple its inventory by December 2016, he said.

Ritesh credited the profitability to OYO’s innovating revenue-sharing models, a deep understanding of markets, to enabling new demand growth channels, and a strong data science driven approach to control occupancy and room pricing.

In April this year, Oyo Rooms had raised $100 million in its fifth round of funding from existing investors including Japan’s Softbank, and an international sovereign fund. The startup, has forayed into south-east Asia through the launch of its operations in Malaysia.

Founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal, Oyo rooms is one of the largest aggregator in Hotel rooms in the country. The company has already raised a total of $125.65 million in four rounds.

In February 2016, OYO Rooms had acquired Tiger Global-backed smaller rival Zo Rooms in an all-stock deal.

This article was originally published in KnowStartups





Truejodi – How this startup solves the core problems in online matrimony

Truejodi is an online matrimonial site that aims to solve a very important problem in online matchmaking – eliminating “fraud” profiles and getting in genuine people who are looking out for matches based on their requirements.

Are you inspired by the advertisement of a matrimonial site featuring Chetan Bhagat and his love story, but reluctant to create your profile on any of these matrimonial websites because you do not know how reliable they are? India is a country where marriages and matchmaking are taken very seriously and in a county where most of the people rely on the match to be arranged by their parents and family peeps, matrimonial sites have revolutionized these searches – both, for the bride & the groom.

Friends and family who used matrimonial sites to seek matrimonial alliances often cribbed about fake profiles and frauds on these sites. Having seen this happen with close family and friends, Ravi Mittal thought that no matrimonial site was looking at authenticating profiles. This led him to build Truejodi – a reliable place to find a 100% verified match.

Truejodi is an online matrimonial site that aims to solve a very important problem in online matchmaking – eliminating “fraud” profiles and getting in genuine people who are looking out for matches based on their requirements. This startup understands that the matrimonial club has two major issues:

  • There are hordes of singles looking for matches online, but are often cheated by fake profiles due to lack of verifications.
  • People seeking matches are often scared to ask about their match’s education, age, income, medical records and have to rely on the vocal commitments without any facts



Understanding these two major problems that force people to avoid using the internet to find matches, Truejodi is trying to solve this twin problem of removing fakes and bringing in transparency to matchmaking with a 9 step verification process and zero-tolerance towards frauds. Users are awarded trust ratings based on the information they verify. This helps others take a better call on their match. Once a user signs up, the next step is an elaborate 9 step verification process where users have to submit their photo ID proof, education, income, address proof, Facebook and mobile number and even undergo medical test before they can enter to find a match. There is an entry barrier for users who do not verify themselves.

Truejodi is a team of 15 passionate people comprising of web developers, app developers, digital marketers, social media specialists, graphic designers, UI/UX designers, moderators and more.

This startup sprang into action in November 2015 and in just 3 months has managed to gather a user base of 4000+ users. Out of these 70% are female users. They expect to cross 300,000 users by end of 2016 and help people find true life partners.

Kudos to the entire team in coming up with such a trusted source for taking the most important decisions of our lives – choosing a life partner.

Also read: HyperTrack: A start-up to track people and products

This article was originally published in Start-up Hyderabad



11 Times when Indian startup wars got very real

Here are the top 11 times when the things got a bit heated in the Indian startup ecosystem.

The Indian startup ecosystem is normally a friendly place. People offer each other tips, share insights and generally have each other’s backs. But when there’s intense competition and big money at stake, the niceness is sometimes cast aside and bitter rivalries surface.

Here are the top 11 times when the things got a bit heated in the Indian startup ecosystem.

1. When Rahul Yadav had a tussle with the Housing investors

The most (in)famous battle in the startups world began when Housing.com cofounder and CEO Rahul exchanged a war of words with one of his own investors, Shailendra Singh of Sequioa capital. This was followed up a reposte from Singh and another barb by Yadav including some colourful language. Rahul’s temper ultimately ended up costing him his job, as after falling out of favour with the board, Rahul was fired from the company he cofounded.

2. When Rahul yadav called Deepinder Goyal a restaurant menu scanner

During his whole Housing saga, Rahul Yadav challenged other startup founders to follow in his footsteps and distribute a part of their equity amongst their employees. While Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal decided to not dignify Yadav’s cheek with a response, Deepinder Goyal replied to Rahul Yadav’s Facebook post with a “cute”. Rahul Yadav followed the snark with some photoshop work where he called Goyal a “restaurant scanner.”

3. When Haptik accused Helpchat of copying its business model and app design

Before the personal assistant chat app Helpchat came into its current form, it was a consumer complaint redressal forum called Akosha. However, Haptik, accused the then-Akosha of copying their entire app, despite Haptik being part of a judging panel of a hackathon organised by Akosha. “Imitation is the best form of flattery. And to everyone at Akosha, we at Haptik are truly humbled that you decided to build a clone to our app, not missing out on a single feature.”, the Haptik blog said. Not taking the barbs without a fight, Ankush Singla, founder of Akosha denied all such accusations and in a detailed blogpost explained how his startup came to make the app which for it was a natural progressions and a product of its 300+ engineers. Akosha is the personal assistant app Helpchat now, and competes more closely with Haptik than ever before. But looks like even after more than a year since the incident, the bad blood between the two startups is far from over as a current message on Haptik clearly seems to take a dig at Helpchat.



4. When TVF founders were embroiled in a legal battle over ownership

After its hugely popular take on India’s startup scene captured all the drama associated with entrepreneurship, TVF had a new resource to draw inspiration from – its own internal feud. TVF Founder Arunabh Kumar was dragged to court by former colleague Prashant Raj. Raj, who quit the company in 2014, demanded a 4% share in the company as well as cash compensation for his work with TVF.

5. When Zomato offended Dineout with its “first” claim

When last year Zomato launched its restaurant booking service and announced that it wanted “to ensure that we are the first in the market”, Dineout wasn’t pleased. Dineout had been taking restaurant booking since 2012, and sensing that Zomato was stepping on its toes, and not missing the marketing opportunity this would bring, Dineout wrote a scathing open letter to Zomato, pointing out how Dineout, not Zomato were the first restaurant booking service in India. Carrying on with the “cute” comeback, Zomato came up with this.

6. When Vijay Shekhar Sharma admitted to not respecting Snapdeal or Flipkart

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is known to mince no words when talking about Paytm. At a company party, VSS – as he’s popularly known – gave a rousing speech to his employees, proclaiming how “no fucking brand was better than us”. A few months later, in an interview with Dainik Bhaskar, VSS also mentioned how comparing Paytm with Flipkart and Snapdeal is unfair as those were mere “retailers”, and he didn’t enjoy comparisons with startups he didn’t even respect.

7. When Sachin Bansal wanted to have a go at competition, but himself was slayed

The otherwise soft spoken and reticent Flipkart co-founder and ex-CEO Sachin Bansal has had his share of controversy. Amidst talks of Chinese etailer giant Alibaba looking to set up shop in India, Bansal tweeted how Alibaba coming to India is a sign its investments (Snapdeal and Paytm) not doing so well. While VSS let this one pass without a comment, Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl wasn’t one to take Bansal’s slight lying down. He came up with this, to which Bansal had no response but a tame “:P”

8. When Rapido Bangalore blamed Uber of unfair competition

Uber launched its bike taxi service, UberMoto in Feb this year, and the response was grand. However, the bike taxi startup Rapido, that claims to be the first of its kind in India wasn’t happy. Not only had Uber poached many of its drivers for UberMoto, but had also compromised on training standards that rapido had provided, causing Rapido to respond to OfficeChai’s UberMoto tweet with a heartfelt message that read “No training, and poaching Rapido’s drivers. A fair playing field is all we ask for, @Uber”. Rapido’s tweet to OfficeChai has since been deleted.



9. When Uber took Ola to court over foul play

Ola and Uber are locked in a several battle for street dominance in India, but the two have sparred off the streets as well. Uber accused Ola of trying to sabotage its business by creating fake accounts to make and immediately cancel fake bookings, causing loss of revenue and customer dissatisfaction for Uber. While Ola has denied involvement, the court hearings are scheduled for later this year.

10. When Jugnoo followed suit and accused Ola of the same

Following in Uber’s heels, auto-rickshaw aggregator Jugnoo accused Ola of foul play just like Uber had. It claimed that Ola employees created multiple fake accounts to make and cancel bookings, trying to sabotage Jugnoo’s business. Jugnoo even published a proof of their claim through screenshots showing a pattern in the cancellations.

11. When Kishore Biyani dismissed the whole ecommerce industry

Retail oldie Kishore Biyani has never been a fan of e-commerce. As Chairman of the Future Group, India’s largest retail chain, he had predicted last year that “none of the grocery delivery companies will survive”, and he has been consistently disdainful of India’s e-commerce boom. He then decided to take on the entire ecommerce industry in a provocative campaign wherein Brand Factory, Future Group’s value retail chain poked fun at three main ecommerce players, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon. With a straightforward theme of “Stop looking online”, the campaign was trying to wean users away from the e-commerce companies who’ve been luring them with discounts.



[Infographics] How Sachin Bansal started: Life of Flipkart founder

The story of how the two men started with just two laptops and grew to its current size is inspirational. At the time of raising $1-billion last year, the Bansals’ combined stake of around 15 per cent in Flipkart was valued at Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion).

Sachin Bansal – The master mind behind the Flipkart idea, one of the first people to establish an e-commerce website in India, an IIT graduate and a business man who created something of a history in the great Indian internet shopping revolution.

At the time of raising $1-billion last year, the Bansals’ combined stake of around 15 per cent in Flipkart was valued at Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion).

The story of how the two men started with just two laptops and grew to its current size is inspirational.

They were not only able to ride India’s robust consumption story, but also earned the investors’ willingness to place their bets on their company.

Image credit: www.forbes.com