Nine Small Town Startups That May Inspire Many More To Take The Big Leap & Start Out On Their Own - The Economic Times

5/30/2018 Nine small town startups that may inspire many more to take the big leap &
take the big leap & start out on their own - The Economic Times
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Nine small town startups that may inspire

many more to take the big leap & start out
on their own
By Rahul Sachitanand, ET Bureau | Updated: Jun 01, 2015, 05.07 PM IST
23
Comments
Startups in India absorbed over a billion

dollars in the first quarter of 2015. For the
most part, the investors chased ventures
based in India’s largest cities: Bengaluru,
Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. However, in the
Top Trending Terms
last few months, they have also been casting
their net further afield into India’s hinterland. E-way Bill Flipkart-Walmart Deal COMIO Smartphone
Silicon Valley BigBasket Startup India
Historically, India’s nonmetros and small How to update Aadhaar Card Details
How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
towns have been a poor place to do business
Small towns in India are the new playground for startups GST FAQs GST
—much less try to seed and catalyse the
growth of a startup — but things have slowly
begun to change. SPOTLIGHT
Jobs & Careers
Venture capitalists (VCs) point to some of these trends. “As an early-stage tech fund… we
are focused on discovering the next wave of entrepreneurs from emerging parts of India,”
says Karan Mohla, executive director & head of digital consumer investments, IDG
Ventures.
“There has been a significant increase in digital consumer activity, especially in the last
couple of years and more of this is being driven by consumers beyond the Top 10 cities.
Tier II and III cities are growing faster in terms of their online consumption of goods and
services compared to bigger cities and often drive 60-70% of transactions of ecommerce Companies in India to recruit
companies.” more permanent employees
Further, as per the report, "In 2018, almost
Entrepreneurship and starting up is no longer a big city phenomenon. As the success half (43 per cent) of companies had less
stories of Indian entrepreneurs are celebrated, more people in the hinterland are being than 10 per cent of their workforce made up
of non-employee workers. A
emboldened to try their hand at starting up.
Decision to shut Tuticorin plant will put
30,000 jobs on line: Sterlite
Across small town India, in places as diverse as Dharamshala, Udupi, Udaipur and Startups, SMEs reluctant to hire women
after improved maternity leave
Guwahati, the startup culture has taken hold and is producing dozens of entrepreneurs
with nifty ideas.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/nine-small-town-startups-that-may-inspire-many-more-to-take-the-big-leap-start-out-on-their-own/articleshow/
5/30/2018 Nine small town startups that may inspire many more to take the big leap & start out on their own - The Economic Times
Udupi, a town in coastal Karnataka, is best known as the birthplace of Darshini, a chain of
quick service south Indian restaurants. However, Robosoft, a startup based there, has
attracted millions of dollars from VC funds for its range of mobile apps and games. Hubli,
also in Karnataka, has gone from a budding software services destination to a hub of Looking for GST Consultant? Click here to
find now
startups, backed by the likes of Gururaj Deshpande, an early technology entrepreneur. In
Dharmashala in Himachal, ventures such as Mindgrep, Moonpeak Media and Earth Store SEARCH
have all been founded and nurtured in the bracing climate offered by the Himalayas.
Serial entrepreneurs Karthic Ravindranathan and Abhilash Thirupathy chased their startup
dreams with Shakti Aeros pace and Healthcare Magic respectively, both in Bengaluru, but
for their latest cleantech venture, Surya Power, they came home to Coimbatore in Tamil
Nadu. “Our products are targeted at the hinterland and we want to be close to our
markets,” says Ravindranathan.
Arohan Foods is possibly the only VC-funded venture in the northeast and its three
founders, Anabil Goswami, Arindom Hazarika and Rana Pratap Brahma, gave up careers
in Mumbai to head for Guwahati. “It made no sense being in a large city for our business;
we wanted to be close to the source,” says Goswami, who co-founded the branded pork
venture four years ago.
Investors say that entrepreneurs from small towns appear to be more charged to succeed Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
and willing to put in the hard yards to make their startups flourish. It also helps that costs Why renting stuff can be more beneficial for you
— from human resources to rentals — are lower, commutes are shorter and fewer people
Keeping the flock together: The secret behind OYO
quit jobs. retaining its top talent
Hike Messenger lays off 25% of its workforce

“Many employees prefer to be in smaller towns… [they are] closer to family, [have]
manageable work hours … In the end, there has to be a net long-term productivity gain for 9 tips on how to maintain a good credit score
the model to work,” says Kumar Shiralagi, managing director of earlystage VC firm Kalaari Angel investors in startups get income tax
Capital. exemption
More »
Robosoft, where Kalaari has invested, is in Udupi for its talent base alone. “The proximity
to good educational institutions (Manipal Institute of Technology, whose graduates include
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, is an hour away) in the region has helped,” he adds.
But is this enough? Some entrepreneurs suggest that while a small-town launch may be
handy to keep costs low initially, moving to a large city may be only a matter of time.
Unni Koroth, Abdul Hisham, Arvind GS, Arun Raveendran, Abdul Salam and Vishwajith A
started Foradian Networks, a provider of technology solutions for the education sector in
Kasaragod, perhaps Kerala’s most backward district. While being in the boondocks helped
keep early cash burn low, hitting the big time required the founders to shift to Bengaluru.
“Our business has been growing 300% year on year since we moved two years ago,” says
Koroth. “We all had families and deep ties to Kerala. This was our most difficult, but
necessary move.”
The start-ups we have profiled in the following pages may also be confronted with such
tough choices. Yet, as they try to make it big, they’ll surely inspire many more in small-
town India to take the big leap and start out on their own.
Pigs can Fly
By Rahul Sachitanand
Ola’s adventures in being more
The northeast of India and Guwahati the region’s largest city are hardly names that crop than just a ride-hailing firm
5/30/2018
j g
Nine small town startups that may inspire many more to take the big leap & start out on their own - The Economic Times
The northeast of India and Guwahati, the region s largest city, are hardly names that crop
up when you discuss places to found a startup with entrepreneurs and investors. While
Manpasand is running out of
Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and NCR may be the top places to venture forth, even smaller juice
cities such as Jaipur, Indore, Kanpur and Coimbatore feature well ahead in preferred
locations to start up. Oasis in a dead mall: the
Decathlon playbook
Anabil Goswami, Arindom Hazarika and Rana Pratap Brahma, who have all lived and
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worked in metro cities, defied the odds when they returned home to Guwahati to found
their startup and, what’s more, snag venture capital funding too. Their three-year old
venture, Arohan Foods, wants to be the preeminent brand in the branded, packaged pork Not to be Missed
market, a segment few meat marketers have addressed.
Flipkart deal good for India: Amazon’s
Amit Agarwal
While egg and poultry have established names, pork (India has some 14 million pigs, only
marginally below market leader Denmark with 17 million) remains an untapped market.
Goswami believes that being in Guwahati is central to the success of Arohan. Most of India will get normal rains this
“Threequarters of Indian pigs are east of UP,” he says. “It makes sense for us to be, so to time: IMD
speak, close to the source.”
From a job with Tata Chemicals in Mumbai, Goswami returned home to Guwahati to BCCI set to increase selectors',
cofound Arohan. He says Arohan wants to recast the piggery business in India. “If pork umpires' salaries
can come from Europe and south east Asia to India, then there’s no reason pork from India
can’t be sold around the world,” he argues.
Respite for Anil Ambani, RCom
Arohan’s founders are going about revolutionising the pork business in a phased manner. insolvency put on hold
They started with a couple of states in the northeast, then covered the entire region, before
embarking on an ambitious nationwide expansion. Today, Arohan’s products, which
include bacon, sausages, ham and salami are available in 22 states in India. 3 reasons why June will be rough for
you
“We can become a huge player in this market,” says Goswami. “We have barely started on
our journey and already we’ve got enquiries from international markets.” Arohan is working
to improve the quality of meat, helping farmers raise healthier (and tastier) pigs, even as it DGCA gave it clean chit in February
charts its ambitious expansion plan. 2017: AirAsia
While Arohan started out as a tentative business with a small office in the National Centre
for The Research on Pig in Guwahati, it has had to quickly scale up both its production and NCLAT adjourns hearing on NuMetal,
marketing efforts. ArcelorMittal
From barely a couple of tonnes of meat a year in 2014, Arohan’s facilities are today
capable of cranking out 45 tonnes annually and even that is being expanded.
Bank strike hits all India, tomorrow to
be no better
“We are first-generation entrepreneurs who relied on seed capital from friends and family
to get off the ground,” says Goswami. “But, we have expanded fast enough to be perhaps
the only VC-funded startup in the northeast.” Ironically, the company’s investors, Omnivore
This Mother's Day, Think Out of The
Partners, were conducting a study on the piggery business and ended up asking for Gift Box
Arohan’s help with its research.
“That was almost two years ago…we are already running out of production capacity and
UltraTech gets LoI to acguire Binani
space at our existing plant and need to quickly consider expanding our capacity to keep Cement
pace with this explosion in demand.” Arohan seems to have hit on a meaty business idea.
It will now have to prove it can outgrow its northeast roots and become a national, if not
Reliance to halt oil imports from Iran
global player in this market. soon
Dhoom Down South
AirAsia case: R Venkataramanan

By Rahul Sachitanand denies allegations
By Rahul Sachitanand denies allegations
With over 15 million downloads, the mobile game Dhoom 3 is a runaway hit for its makers,
India "open, flexible" on Apple: Ravi
a company headquartered in Udupi, a town of some 1,13,000 in coastal Karnataka. The
Shankar Prasad
company, which started with remote software product development and was based for a
short while in Mumbai quickly moved to Udupi and refocused on the emerging
opportunities in the mobile space. Kerala to cut taxes on petrol, diesel to
reduce prices
As a specialist in building apps and games on the Apple platform, Robosoft has cornered a
niche for itself in the crowded mobile phone market. Dhoom 3 is hardly its only success
Fortis defers board meet scheduled for
story; another game named Star chef (launched in August last year) has already racked up Q4 results
over $3,50,000 in revenues for Robosoft.
“We want to build a series of super hits from both our businesses … Global Delight, which Bank strike may hit transactions worth
Rs 20k crore
builds mobile photo, video and audio apps, and 99games, which engineers casual mobile
games for a global audience,” says Rohith Bhat, founder and chief executive of Robosoft.
Johnson & Johnson India enhances

Star chef, the fastgrowing mobile game, itself is expected to earn $20 million in revenue flexi-working norms
this fiscal year. When Bhat first pitched his business to early-stage investors, barely a
couple showed an interest in backing a venture from the hinterland. “I had to really go out
there and hard-sell our abilities and our products,” he says. Three years later, the situation Vedanta can now make upfront
payment for Electrosteel
couldn’t have been more different. When the I-bankers went out scouting for funds, at least
18 or 20 investors queued up for a share of the fast-growing company.
CMs responsible for fuel price hike too:

“In the interim, we had proven our abilities and taken location of our business out of the SBI report
picture. We showed you can build a global business out of a small town.” While Robosoft
does have offices in Bengaluru and Mumbai, he says, the firm continues to be
headquartered in Udupi. “Entrepreneurs need to get the formula right…with a strong Why Italy is giving markets such a big
headache
business plan, location become irrelevant to the success of any venture,” he says.
Being in Udupi has given Robosoft business out of a small town access to an abundant
Mutual funds' dark secret: The smaller,
pool of talent — Manipal Institute of Technology nearby is an education hub — and the the better
opportunity to be among a few early successes in the region. Doing business has been
second nature to the people in and around Udupi, trading and banking have flourished
(several staterun banks including Syndicate, Vijaya and Corporation Bank were founded in No bids for AI so far, won't extend
deadline: Secy
the area) and Robosoft wants to lean on this tradition to grow.
“We can be a successful company without being based in Bengaluru,” says Bhat. “We
Moody's cuts India GDP forecast to
have strong customer support and an eagle eye on the competition… for our clients it was 7.3% from 7.5%
okay to be located anywhere
Smart prix: A bird in hand Sangh Parivar invites Raghuram Rajan

for Chicago talk
Will you pay dues of Bhushan Steel:

Bhat has looked to build on this reputation. In April this year, he raised some $12 million NCLAT to Tata Steel
for his venture and says the eventual goal is to spin both entities off into separate
businesses, to maximise valuations. “Both businesses have separate staff, both for
IMD predicts good rainfall in July,
engineering and support,” he adds. “In the long term, we are looking for investors who
August
have both the patience and deep pockets to fund our global expansion.”
From their IIT Delhi hostel rooms to Bharatpur was a natural progression for the founders India's e-comm wars to be reshaped
of comparison site Smartprix pread across nearly 30 square km, the Keoladeo National by pvt label brands
Park in Bharatpur in Rajasthan is home to around 400 different varieties of birds, besides
an assortment of other plant and animal life. The city that is home to this green oasis is an
Indonesia, India to develop strategic
unlikely destination as any to house a startup. You’d be more likely to bump into a keen
Indian Ocean port
ornithologist than an enthusiastic entrepreneur.
That didn’t stop Abhinav Choudhary and Hitesh Khandelwal, IIT Delhi computer science Bribes, mail and a secret note got
AirAsia into trouble
graduates, from calling the nearby town of barely 200,000 people their home. Their
entrepreneurial journey didn’t, however, start in this small town. In the third year of their
computer science course at IIT Delhi, Choudhary and Khandelwal tried to go online to buy
SBI hikes FD rates by 5-25 bps for
a mobile phone, and were duly greeted with a deluge of brands, models and offers. select tenors
They discovered that comparisons were almost impossible to come by, and they had to
take the long way around, visiting individual sites and drawing their own conclusions on Finding the path to reviving India's
banking system
prices, offers and other variables while buying online.
To try and give internet commerce consumers a one-stop place to make these
Rajini's Cauvery comments cast
comparisons, they founded smartprix.com in late 2011 out of their hostel rooms. For a shadow over 'Kaala'
couple of semesters, the duo ran their fledgling startup from there, coding in their spare
time, even as they raced to prepare for exams and submit projects.
Sebi seeks info from Jet Airways
following complaint
After graduating, the cofounders stuck with their startup, giving up lucrative job
opportunities, instead moving back home to Rajasthan to focus on their fledgling startup.
Although the going was slow in the first few months, soon the big ecommerce retailers
Labour crunch: Japan to open door to
(think Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart) were collaborating with Smartprix. unskilled workers
“We have added around $40 million in GMV [gross merchandise value] to our partners’
business and this year we expect the number to increase to $100 million,” says China slams surprise US trade
announcement
Choudhary.
Based on the growth of Smartprix, the duo is already looking beyond its staple of
Unlisted companies have to demat
consumer electronics and plans to add fashion to its kitty. shares
Leveraging the IIT Delhi network, the founders reached out to Rohit Bansal, a cofounder of
ecommerce site Snapdeal (he was a resident of the same hostel) to boost their growth. Highest UN peacekeeper deaths in
last 70yrs from India
Today, Snapdeal owns just under a tenth of Smartprix and the founders lean on Bansal to
guide them.
SGX defers the rollout of Indian

“We have over 1,000 brands on our site, listing some 10 million products,” says derivatives products
Choudhary. “With the addition of fashion to our basket, we can become a heavyweight in
the price comparison space.”
Flip side of Sterlite shutdown in Tamil
Nadu
The duo is already looking to raise a fresh round of funding to boost its growth, even as it
h f t i i t d t ki f h t l ith t h t
has grown from two engineering students working from a hostel with too many phones to
pick from to a small office in semi-urban Rajasthan — and to a 25-person startup now Shinkansen: An innovation that can
based in Noida. change landscape
The founders will need to carefully consider a critical shift in the industry — from a
Sebi bans F6 Finserve, F6
browser-centric business, ecommerce is shifting to a mobile app-driven one. As large
Commodities from markets
players such as Flipkart and part-owner Snapdeal invest heavily in their mobile apps, is
there a future for Smartprix?
Choudhary seems to think so. “There’s a lot of headroom for growth,” he argues.
“Indian ecommerce is very pricesensitive and not everyone is going to be driven by what
they see on an app. We have over a 100 ecommerce businesses on our site and more are
being added as we expand our business.”
Achhe Din in Jhunjhunu
By Rajiv Singh
Ashutosh Modi needs an introduction, but the place he belongs to doesn’t. “Billionaire
investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is from Jhunjhunu,” Modi says proudly.
For the 30-year-old owner of EntrancePrime, an online test preparation startup,

Jhunjhunwala unwittingly has been a saviour. Whenever Modi is confronted with the
bugging yet persistent question about the geographic location of Jhunjhunu, he smiles and
retorts ‘Jhunjhunwala’. The queries abruptly come to an end.
Jhunjhunu, a nondescript town in Rajasthan some 180 km from the capital city of Jaipur, is
the unlikeliest of places for a startup.
That didn’t deter Modi when he started EntrancePrime in July 2013. In less than two years,
the test preparation startup has managed to garner 1.5 lakh registered users, including
9,000 paid members. Although it’s yet to make a profit, it posted revenues of Rs 80 lakh in
2014-15 and has set an ambitious target of Rs 2 crore for the current financial year. “It’s a
realistic target,” maintains Modi.
But why Jhunjhunu and not Jaipur or any other top city? “It helped me invest more time in
my product and stay focused,” contends Modi.
The business Modi chose was born from the pain of not making it to an Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT). Coming from a business family that runs a chain of schools in Jhunjhunu,
Churu and Sikar in Rajasthan, Modi settled down in his hometown to help his father after
working for L&T Infotech for three years in Mumbai.
But the failed IIT aspirant was still not able to come to terms with the bitter truth that the
lack of access to quality educational resources had ruined his IIT dream. He wanted to do
something on his own but the thought of leaving the family business was intimidating.
Finally, in 2013 he mustered courage and asked a loan of Rs 1 crore from his father to
y, g
start a website.
“My father was flabbergasted. Rs 1 crore for a website! You must be joking,” recalls Modi.
But the spunky engineer — he graduated from a private engineering college in Jaipur —
managed to convince his father and other family members.
EntrancePrime, which has a range of packages for students starting from Rs 299 and
going up to Rs 10,000, has opened offices in Noida, Pune and Kota. It’s easy to start in a
smaller town like Jhunjhunu but you have to move out to bigger places for growth, feels
Modi. So he has zeroed on in Pune for technical talent and Noida in the National Capital
Region to meet his sales and marketing needs.
While it was cost effective to set up a startup in Jhunjhunu in terms of infrastructure and
manpower, after a few years of operations the flip side became evident. Lack of access to
a startup environment, the absence of mentors and feedback from industry specialists, and
the dearth of investors started bothering Modi.
“Eventually moving out to a bigger city will become an imperative,” admits Modi. But that
doesn’t mean he will wander away from the roots. Value investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala is
doubtless an inspiration, but as far as this entrepreneur is concerned he “would like to
become the Ashutosh Modi of Jhunjhunu”
Desert Safari
By Rajiv Singh
CV Bhejo could easily have been Rajasthan’s naukri.com. Started in Udaipur in 2011, the
online hiring portal had a promising start — it got loads of resumés from candidates
hunting for jobs in Rajasthan, recruiters were thrilled with the talent pool and the startup
even managed to attract funding. But it shut down in October 2013.
“The business could not be scaled up and lack of paying capacity of people meant time
was running out for us,” recalls 33-year-old Nikhilesh Tayal, founder of CVBhejo.
Tayal, however, persisted with his dream of starting something of his own; last November
he flagged off Stagephod, a marketplace for independent moviemakers. Started with a
seed capital Rs 10,000, Stagephod has a list of over 200 filmmakers across India who
have closed 30 deals in just seven months. The startup charges a commission of 10%
from the filmmakers for every deal inked.
“Stagephod will not grow as fast as OLA or Snapdeal or Flipkart. A startup in smaller
places like Udaipur needs time, patience and money,” says Tayal, who had a harrowing
time after the failure of CVBhejo.
Financially, it became difficult to survive and emotionally there was a void as his family
didn’t support him and Udaipur didn’t have any startup entrepreneurs who could have
empathised with his situation. For Tayal, a software engineer, leaving Bengaluru after three
years at Infosys and a year thereafter with a startup to shift to Udaipur in 2011 appeared a
Himalayan blunder.
To be sure, Udaipur has its advantages, vis-à-vis the metros, a lower cost of living and
cheaper infrastructure being two of the bigger ones. But as Tayal puts it: “The cost of
survival was low but the price of continuing was high.”
In his second attempt at starting up, Tayal decided to combine his passion — he had a
tryst with theatre when in school — with business. But didn’t he ever think of bailing out
from Udaipur? “Startups can survive in Udaipur and flourish as well,” he says, adding that
one just needs to be a bit more patient. And Tayal is ready to play a patient game this time.
The business model of Stagephod is such that it doesn’t need to bother about the paucity
of local talent or any infrastructure issues as it’s not just confined to Udaipur or Rajasthan.
Recently, an NGO contacted Stagephod for a filmmaker in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. “To

our utter surprise, we did manage to get hold of one,” says Tayal. In a year or so, he
reckons the business will hit a critical level, and that’s when he will start scouting for
investors.
“If investors see value in a scalable business model and an efficient team, then I don’t
think location matters at all,” he says. Clearly, Tayal believes even a non-metro can allow
him to take centre stage.
A Helping Hand
By Malini Goyal
If entrepreneurship is a tough life, social entrepreneurship is arguably even tougher.

Shravani Pawar, 28, will agree. For the graduate in social work, it all began when she got
picked as a social fellow by the Deshpande Foundation, an NGO founded by venture
capitalist and entrepreneur Gururaj Deshpande and his wife Jaishree. Pawar figured the
best way to empower women was to help them get financially independent. So in 2009,
when she was just 23, she started Safe Hands 24/7.
The first and biggest challenge was at home with her parents asking her to drop the plan
and pick up a regular job and get married. Pawar chose her passion over her parents.
“Their opposition made my resolve even stronger to make a success out of Safe Hands,”
says Pawar.
When she started, there were two other cofounders but they soon left the waferthin margin
business.
“It is a treat to see Pawar, her phenomenal energy and her passion to work for women
empowerment,” says Naveen Jha, chief executive officer of Deshpande Foundation, who
has been mentoring her since inception.
Safe Hands today deploys 400 security guards in five districts of Karnataka, and a majority
of them are women
of them are women.
Pawar hopes that in one to two years, Safe Hands will be able to have a presence across
Karnataka. And maybe even outside the state; a proposal from an NGO in Kolkata to set
up office there is lying with Pawar. Safe Hands works with mostly uneducated women who
are deployed as security personnel or guards in commercial complexes like hospitals ,
colleges , schools and malls.
Almost all women who are deployed by the startup have stepped out of their homes for the
first time to earn their livelihood. Their starting salary is Rs 6,000 plus statutory benefits.
Since inception, she has been supported by the Deshpande Foundation which also put in
the seed capital of Rs 1.25 lakh, besides mentoring and monitoring. Today, the startup has
an annual turnover of Rs 2.6 crore.
Profits came in from the second month itself, although it is a low-margin business. By
2017, Pawar hopes to grow the revenue to Rs 5 crore. A constant challenge for Pawar is
to keep going in a male-dominated industry.
“They do not take women seriously,” says the mother of a one and a half yearold son. Her
husband has joined the business, and Pawar has decided to make the company a private
limited one and hire more experienced staff.
There are societal challenges, too. “In a small town, getting women guards to wear a shirt
and pant has been a big problem and often a deal-breaker as their families often do not
allow them to,” says Pawar. But she is clear that to sustain a professional operation she
cannot compromise on these basics.
Being located in a small town means competition is minimal, although the flip side is that
there’s no rival to pick up best industry practices from, and thereby improve. Also, the
ticket size is lot smaller in the non-metros. “Despite the odds, we would prefer them to
focus on smaller towns,” says Jha.
The startup has reached a stage where it needs to put structures and processes in place;
and it needs additional funding to hire seasoned executives who will help the company
scale. “Getting an investor in a low-margin business is difficult. And, often, the so-called
impact investor or patient capital in India is more impatient for returns than a VC,” says
Jha.
So Pawar most likely will lean on a bank loan and organic growth to generate funds and
slowly scale up. “The way we are able to make a difference to the lives of these women is
the biggest motivator for me.”
Smile, we’re in the Hinterland
The city of textiles and a hub for the powerloom business in India, Bhiwandi is an unlikely
location to seed a dental services startup.
However, that’s just what Rushi Trivedi, Alpesh Chaudhari, and CM Pandey, dentists by
training, did when they founded Smile Merchants, a dental services provider for the
hinterland.
The troika took small steps to build the business.
The first was a misstep — an overambitious move to provide dental services to villages
flopped. Doctors didn’t want to travel so deep into the hinterland to provide dental services
(they yet don’t want to). Instead, the trio retooled the startup’s focus, shifted away from
villages and decided to focus on the yawning demand gap in small towns.
According to a recommendation from the World Health Organization, the ideal patient to
dentist ratio is around 1 to 7,500. In the top five or six cities in India, there is an oversupply,
according to estimates, with one per 5,000 residents. On the contrary, in smaller towns it is
closer to one per 10,000 and in villages far more skewed at one dentist for every 2.5 lakh
residents.
If Smile’s founders had to rejig their business plans due to travel-wary dentists, they are
fortunate to have a large talent pool to target. According to government estimates, over
3,000 dentists graduate annually from Maharashtra alone. Other states such as Karnataka
graduate an even larger number, around 5,000, annually.
“There are a huge number of graduates and not all of them can afford to work in a Mumbai
or Delhi,” says Trivedi. “We think there’s a pressing opportunity to provide quality,
affordable dental care in smaller towns.” Smile Merchants’ approach then is to hire young
dentists (fresh from medical college or with a couple of years of experience) and help them
set up a branded practice in small towns.
Smile pays dentists more than the market rate and also helps retrain them to be medical
entrepreneurs and not just doctors alone. “Convincing patients to pay for quality dental
care in the hinterland is a challenge… they prefer to travel 50 to 100 km to a larger city and
then wait in line to see a dentist there,” admits Trivedi.
Smile, then, is taking a more measured road to success. Its first few clinics are in places
such as Ulhasnagar and Bhiwandi on Mumbai’s outskirts, which will be used as prototypes
to gauge the feasibility of this model and make tweaks as required.
However, there are signs that most pieces of this model are already in place and Trivedi is
already plotting an ambitious expansion plan. “We already have eight clinics operational
and we want to reach 60 clinics in the next 12 months,” he says. “We raised our first round
of funding from Unitus, but we’re already talking to investors again to back this expansion.”
While towns such as Nashik, Amravati and Akola are on Smiles’s radar, Trivedi is
considering expanding Smile’s focus beyond Maharashtra. “Most other chains [Smile Kraft,
Vasan Dental Care, Alliance Dental Care] are based in metro cities,” he adds. “We want to
bring a dental revolution to the hinterland.”
Priming the Pump
Karthic Ravindranath and Abhilash Thirupathy have known each other since they were in
class VII and threatened to work together for years, but career compulsions kept getting in
the way. Ravindranath, an aerospace engineer, last worked with Sakthi Aerospace, a
startup in Bengaluru; Thirupathy, an IIM Lucknow graduate, was technology chief for Rx
HealthCare Magic. After existing these startups, both got an opportunity to finally start up
together.
This time around the duo is in the field of clean energy, specifically solar irrigation solutions
to farmers. The first leg of the business is in and around Coimbatore, their home town, with
plans afoot to sell their solutions nationally. “It was easier for us to be in a familiar, smaller
city and be closer to our core market — farmers — than try to be distantly located in a
large metro,” says Ravindranath. “Being close to our core market helped us be in touch
with farmers and, especially in the pilot phase, tweak our technology to suit their
requirements.”
Surya Power Magic, their startup, takes aim at a few frailties in Indian agriculture. First,
farmers in Tamil Nadu and beyond are heavily dependent on the monsoon to water their
crops. Faced with the vagaries of the rains, several farmers have leant heavily on artificial
irrigation. However, they battle with poor electricity supply to their pumpsets.
Even when power is supplied it is of poor quality and erratic, says Ravindranath. According
to World Bank data, only 35% of land is irrigated.
Surya Power thinks its solar-powered irrigation sets offer a handy alternative. In the first
year of operations, it sold barely 18 units, in the second 100 and, in year three, the number
jumped to almost 400 pumpsets. As order numbers have racheted up, word has also
spread to neighbouring districts of Coimbatore and to adjoining states. “Orders have been
pouring in...we want to be a national player soon,” says Ravindranath. “We have already
starting shipping to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and want to expand further this year.”
Ravindranath claims that Surya Power is the largest vendor of solar pumps in Tamil Nadu
and possibly nationally. “With the addition of business from Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh, our revenues have grown three-fold,” he adds. “We are currently reaching out to
around 2,000 farmers to promote our products…this is a small fraction of the number who
will benefit from these pumps.”
With orders showing little signs of abating, both cofounders are already thinking ahead to
the startup’s next stage of growth.
“We are improving our technology and hiring specialists to upgrade the energy efficiency of
our products,” he adds. Solar pumps for farmers may only be the beginning of Surya
Power’s journey. As the company establishes itself, Ravindranth already envisions the firm
morphing into a technology-led provider of a range of agricultural inputs, and not just
pumps. “This is a grey area, with little transparency for farmers…technology can transform
their lives,” he says.
Techies’ Prescription
By Rajiv Singh
Amit Agrawal’s father suffers from chronic lung disease. The 75-year-old has to be taken
for a medical checkup every week in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. But routine visits were turning
out to be “mental harassment” for the 34-year-old techie. In spite of having an
appointment, Agrawal would on most occasions have to wait for hours at the clinic with his
ailing father as the doctor was rarely punctual.
In that experience lies the genesis of Agrawal’s five-month-young online healthcare

startup. Ineeddoctor, which connects patients with doctors, was started by Agrawal along
with his friends Abhishek Tiwari and Akansh Goyal in January this year in Raipur.
In less than half a year, the venture managed to rope in 55 doctors and 80 health partners,
including diagnostic centres; and Agrawal claims they’re already in the black. “It’s not big
money but we are making a profit,” he says, declining to disclose numbers.
Agrawal and Tiwari worked in Infosys for nine years. Though both were located in different
geographies — Agrawal in the US and Tiwari in Australia — they were in the same training
batch and were roommates in Bengaluru and Hyderabad before their foreign stints. Goyal,
meanwhile, was in Raipur working for TCS. In 2011, when Agrawal decided to come back
to India to take care of his father, Tiwari too made up his mind to shift to his hometown in
Raipur and start up. “We met Akansh in Raipur and set up an IT services company in
2011. And early this year we rolled out ineeddoctor,” says Agrawal.
The reasons for choosing Raipur were obvious: optimisation of costs, a virgin market, an
opportunity to stay with the family and a chance to make most of the experience gained
through their IT venture in four years.
Ineeddoctor makes money from health partners and affiliates, by charging for premium
listings and advertisements on its apps and website and by selling customer relationship
management (CRM) software to doctors.
While the going has been smooth so far, the startup is gearing up to negotiate sharp
curves on its growth path. Unconducive government policies like no tax benefits, lack of
access to funding options and creaking infrastructure are some of the issues to contend
with. “One of the investors told me: jab tak Raipur main rahoge, invest nahin karunga [As
long as you are in Raipur, I won’t invest],” says Agrawal.
However, he doesn’t regret the decision. “I envy startups in top metros who have all the
luxuries of the world, especially easy access to funding, but I don’t regret settling down in
Raipur.”
O th tf th h l t ffi i t i il t b i t h ith
Over the next few months, he plans to open offices in metros, primarily to be in touch with
investors and recruit for the sales team. In Raipur, more and more citizens may be ready to
say I need (a) doctor, but Agrawal also realises that he needs an investor.
23
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Musk blames tough government rules for no

Tesla in India
IANS | May 30, 2018, 03.28 PM IST
0
Comments
NEW DELHI: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on

Wednesday that he would love to roll out
Tesla cars in India but the tough government
Tesla cars in India but the tough government
regulations have forced him to apply the
brakes on his India plans till date.
"Would love to be in India. Some challenging Top Trending Terms

government regulations, unfortunately," Musk
E-way Bill Flipkart-Walmart Deal COMIO Smartphone
tweeted in a response to a Twitter users who
wrote "No Tesla in India" to him. How to update Aadhaar Card Details
Musk has revealed plans to install 10,000 Supercharger
How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
stations for his company's electric vehicles around the
"Deepak Ahuja, our CFO, is from India. Tesla GST FAQs GST
world by 2019 end.
will be there as soon as he believes we
should," added Musk, also the SpaceX
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founder.
find now
Ahuja, a seasoned auto industry finance executive with 15 years experience at Ford Motor SEARCH
Company, joined Tesla Motors as Chief Financial Officer in 2010.
He holds Bachelors' and Masters' degrees in Materials Engineering from Banaras Hindu
University and Northwestern University, respectively and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon
University.
Ahuja works out of Tesla's San Carlos headquarters. He quit Tesla in 2015, only to join it
back in 2017.
Last year, Musk said Tesla's cars could come to India the summer but there has not been
any further development.
Musk later blamed the FDI norms in India for delay in Tesla's entry into the Indian market.
Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
"Maybe I'm misinformed, but I was told that 30% of parts must be locally sourced and the
supply doesn't yet exist in India to support that," he had tweeted. What led to Sachin Bansal's exit from Flipkart
Why renting stuff can be more beneficial for you

The Make in India's Twitter handle replied: "@elonmusk With respect to news reports on
launch plans of Tesla in India being delayed, please note some key
clarifications#MakeInIndia". Keeping the flock together: The secret behind OYO
retaining its top talent
Musk has revealed plans to install 10,000 Supercharger stations for his company's electric Now, Flipkart looking for senior executives to take
on competition
vehicles around the world by 2019 end.
More »
He tweeted a global map of the upcoming Supercharger stations, mainly in Europe, North
America and China but not in India.
There are at present 1,229 Supercharger stations across the world, with 9,623
Superchargers installed which can charge an electric vehicle in just 30 minutes (nearly 80
per cent capacity).
Tesla recently confirmed that it has produced its 300,000th vehicle. There are now 212,821
Model S vehicles, 71,927 Model X vehicles, and 1,770 Model 3 vehicles.
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India's e-commerce wars to be reshaped by

private label brands
Reuters | Updated: May 30, 2018, 12.10 PM IST
0
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MUMBAI: For Lalit Bisht, buying Roadster

jeans and T-shirts off Myntra, Flipkart's
fashion operation, is a no brainer. It may take
a week to deliver clothes to Bisht's small
hometown in India's hilly northern
Uttarakhand state, but the wait is worth it.
Top Trending Terms
"The fit is perfect and price is just about right.
It's a value-for-money brand," said 32-year-old
Bisht, a government worker who lives in How to update Aadhaar Card Details
Walmart could expedite Flipkart's push into private
Haldwani, which had a population of just over How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
brands and help develop new brands to differentiate and
360 000 at the time of the last census in 2011 GST FAQ GST
360,000 at the time of the last census in 2011. GST FAQs GST
counter Amazon, whose Prime loyalty programme is
growing faster in India than in any other part of the It is a place where options for good quality,
world. affordable apparel are mostly lacking.
find now
Bisht's purchases of at least 20 Roadster items from Myntra are symptomatic of the appeal
of private label brands for tens of millions of aspirational Indian shoppers looking for low- SEARCH
cost alternatives for everything from clothes to smartphones. These are people who may
want to look hip and cool but can rarely afford to splurge on the big global brandnames.
And with Walmart now taking on Amazon Inc in India with its $16 billion purchase of the
homegrown online retailer Flipkart, India's e-commerce wars are likely to pivot more
toward private label brands.
Up until now, the battle has more often been fought through flash sales of discounted
electronics but the losses in that game are unsustainably large.
Both Flipkart and Amazon have been burning through cash to offer those discounts and a
bigger push into private labels could help them make money as they control the pricing,
marketing and supply chain of these brands, say analysts.

With nearly 500 million Indians using the internet in 2018 and many just dipping their toes
into online shopping, private labels will woo price-sensitive customers and create loyalty Why renting stuff can be more beneficial for you
and higher margins, say retail analysts. Keeping the flock together: The secret behind OYO
For example, Roadster jeans for women on Myntra that start at 389 rupees ($5.73), could Hike Messenger lays off 25% of its workforce
lure many more buyers than the cheapest Levi's for women that begin at about 1,999
9 tips on how to maintain a good credit score
rupees ($29.47) on the denim brand's Indian website.
Angel investors in startups get income tax
exemption
Billion brand
Last year, Flipkart launched its private brand Billion which sells everything from T-shirts to More »
air conditioners. It also owns electronics brand MarQ and furniture label Perfect Homes.
Myntra's private brand portfolio, which comprises 13 labels, is profitable.
Amazon too has been slowly pushing into private labels in India. Its portfolio includes its
global AmazonBasics brand that sells everything from headphones to stationery; Solimo
for dry fruits and bed sheets, women's ethnic-wear brand Myx, men's clothing brand
Symbol, and a low-cost smartphone brand 10.or.
"The role of private brands for us is to fill in specific need gaps that are not being serviced,"
Amazon India head Amit Agarwal told Reuters in an interview last month. "We'll keep
looking for these opportunities."
And although Amazon says making money in India is years away, Arun Sirdeshmukh, the
head of its fashion business in India told Reuters last month that private brands will help it
embark on "a overall long-term profitability journey."
One supplier, who asked not to be named, said retailers typically price the shoes he sells
at three or four times the factory gate cost, indicating how much potential there is for the
private brands to price competitively and still make a profit.
Others see opportunities for Flipkart and Amazon to take some of these Indian private
label brands overseas.
Following the deal, Flipkart's co-founder Binny Bansal said a lot of the private brands it has juice
created will be very popular with the Indian diaspora in the countries where Walmart
operates "That's something we'll be looking at " he said Oasis in a dead mall: the
operates. That s something we ll be looking at, he said. Oasis in a dead mall: the
Decathlon playbook
Sources familiar with Walmart's plans say private labels will be a key focus for the
Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer in India, an e-commerce market forecast by Morgan than just a ride-hailing firm
Stanley to grow to an annual $200 billion in a decade.
GO TO ET PRIME →
Walmart's fashion brands, with clothes priced from $5 to $30 an item, could also be a hit
with Indian shoppers, including labels like women's apparel brands Time and Tru, men's
clothing brand George and kids label Wonder Nation, say analysts.
"The U.S. private label for Walmart has always been an entry price, it tends to be at the
lower end of the pricing spectrum, I think that's how it will probably work in India as well,"
said Neil Saunders, managing director of consultancy GlobalData Retail.
Road to profit
Bengaluru-based Flipkart, founded in 2007 by two former Amazon employees, has grown
to become India's top e-commerce firm, thanks, in part, to the exclusive launches of
electronics with deep discounts.
Flash sales of smartphones or TVs, typically exclusive to one online retailer, create hype
around a brand and help move inventory, but hit profitability - making them a bad long-term
bet, analysts warn.
Flipkart reported a net loss of 87.71 billion Indian rupees in the year to March 2017.
Amazon's international operating loss grew 29 percent to $622 million in the first quarter,
partly due to its expansion push in India, where it has pledged a $5 billion investment.
Sources say Walmart could expedite Flipkart's push into private brands and help develop
new brands to differentiate and counter Amazon, whose Prime loyalty programme is
growing faster in India than in any other part of the world.
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Comio puts small town phone retailers on

speed dial Top Trending Terms
By Vikas SN, ET Bureau | May 30, 2018, 10.42 AM IST
0 Silicon Valley BigBasket Startup India

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BENGALURU: Chinese budget smartphone How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
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brand Comio is betting on a differentiated
offline strategy to gain a foothold in India’s
hyper-competitive smartphone market. Looking for GST Consultant? Click here to
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The company, which offers smartphones in Rs
SEARCH
5,000-10,000 price segment, is taking a
bottom up approach by initially focusing on a
network of small offline retail stores in towns
and non metro cities to sell its smartphones.
Comio initially focused on the north and west regions in Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
the country and forayed into the east and south regions
“We don’t have national distributors or
in the past two weeks, to become a pan-India Why renting stuff can be more beneficial for you
smartphone brand.
regional distributors onboard. Every city will
have a distributor from the company, who in
turn distributes it to the retailers,” Comio India
chief executive Sanjay Kumar Kalirona told ETtech. Comio will also focus on multibranded
outlets rather than setting up exclusive stores in these regions, Kalirona said. 9 tips on how to maintain a good credit score

Comio, a smartphone brand from Chinese original device maker Topwise exemption
Communications, started its India operations in August 2017. It initially focused on the
More »
north and west regions in the country and forayed into the east and south regions in the
past two weeks, to become a pan-India smartphone brand.
Kalirona claimed that they currently have a network of more than 20,000 retailers and 400
distributors across 650 towns and are hoping to expand it to around 35,000 retailers and
700 distributors across more than 1,300 towns in India in coming months. The company
also plans to have more than 1 000 service centres from 650 service centres in the
also plans to have more than 1,000 service centres from 650 service centres in the
country. Last month, it had stated plans to invest Rs 500 crore into its Indian operations
towards marketing, R&D and manufacturing and sales & distribution by the end of this
year.

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Silicon Valley keeps giving founders too

much power Top Trending Terms
Bloomberg | Updated: May 30, 2018, 11.14 AM IST


Comments
By Shira Ovide How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
GST FAQs GST
No one has learned any lessons.

That’s the discouraging takeaway from a Wall find now
Street Journal article on Tuesday about the
SEARCH
nearly unchecked power held by founders of
many young technology companies. The
people bankrolling those companies are
Boards of private tech startups should also show the responsible for providing oversight, too, but
tiniest glimmer of backbone by forcing their young Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
don’t seem to be doing much of it.
charges to adopt a sunset provision for supersized
voting shares. What led to Sachin Bansal's exit from Flipkart
The Journal reported that two-thirds of US
startups with venture capital investors that
went public last year had special stock giving insiders more votes than other shareholders Hike Messenger lays off 25% of its workforce
and therefore disproportionate power over the company’s direction. These terms aren’t Keeping the flock together: The secret behind OYO
unusual in the technology and media industries. retaining its top talent
Now, Flipkart looking for senior executives to take

Google parent Alphabet Inc., Facebook Inc. and the New York Times Co. have dual-class on competition
shares that in theory allow executives to pursue important initiatives without inference from
More »
investors pushing for a quick buck.
That sounds sensible, but dual-class shares and other “founder-friendly” investment terms
have done too much damage in Silicon Valley and beyond. There was, of course, the
boardroom brawl at Uber Technologies Inc. over ending the voting control of co-founder
and CEO Travis Kalanick. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes had near absolute authority
over a startup that proved to be far less than she claimed. I wonder how public market
investors feel now about Snapchat stock that leaves them without any power at all to
overrule young leaders that have proved to be inept.

juice
Decathlon playbook
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And yet many founders still have near absolute authority over their young companies. A
particularly disheartening example in the Journal article was the real estate startup
WeWork Cos., whose co-founder and CEO is one of only two members of the board’s
compensation committee. In short, it’s possible the WeWork CEO is helping determine
compensation for himself and other members of his executive team.
It’s ironic that the other member of WeWork’s compensation committee is from
Benchmark, the venture-capital firm that led efforts to eliminate Kalanick’s voting power
over Uber after he proved to be a toxic presence who shrugged off oversight from his
investors and others.
The prevalence of startup executives with near-absolute power is the result of economic
logic. Now more than ever, there’s a huge supply of capital for the most promising young
tech companies, and those investors are often chasing a small startup elite. The imbalance
enables executives of superstar startups to demand whatever terms they want from
investors, and they often want the ability to make decisions without interference.
The problem is there have been so many examples of young companies stumbling — with
disastrous effects — when founders are left to run wild. In addition to Uber, there were
several scandals involving improper workplace behavior at startups including Social
Finance Inc. and Zenefits Inc. that made me wonder whether backers of young tech
companies feel they can’t ask too many tough questions about employment conditions or
dodgy financials for fear of being shut out of potentially lucrative investments.
Lax oversight and overpowered founders from the earliest days of a company can enable
corporate rot that takes years to root out. Tesla CEO Elon Musk sure looks like he could
use more oversight from his own board. Turmoil at Viacom and CBS is a cautionary tale
about the ill effects of perpetual insider control.
It’s hard to imagine that tech startup financiers are going to push back against founders
who demand absolute authority. Startup economics simply have swung too much in
founders’ favor. But there is one cudgel that public and private investors can employ to
mitigate the danger of over-entitled founders: sunset provisions on superpower stock.
This idea is a favorite of corporate governance advocates including Lucian Bebchuk of

Harvard Law School, and a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission recently
advocated for dual-class shares to expire after a period of time. The theory is that the
executives of young companies can have more authority over a company when it’s still
young, but built-in defenses should fall away as it matures and strengthens.
Yelp Inc. ended its special class of stock in 2016, more than four years after its IPO,
thanks to a built-in kill switch that flipped when special shares held by the CEO and other
insiders fell below 10 percent of all Yelp stock. The company also had provisions that
would have ended the supervoting shares seven years after its IPO. This multitrigger
sunset clause should be a model for every young tech company.
There has already been some backlash in capital markets against perpetual founder
power. The overseer of the S&P 500 Index said recently that it wouldn’t permit companies
with dual-class shares to join. That’s a good idea. Boards of private tech startups should
also show the tiniest glimmer of backbone by forcing their young charges to adopt a
sunset provision for supersized voting shares. It’s not a panacea to prevent startup
disasters, but it’s a good start.
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T ff I i $1 5 illi
Toffee Insurance raises $1.5 million

ET Bureau | May 30, 2018, 09.21 AM IST Top Trending Terms
0
Comments E-way Bill Flipkart-Walmart Deal COMIO Smartphone
BENGALURU: Digital insurance platform
Toffee Insurance has raised $1.5 million in a How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
seed round led by Kalaari Capital, Omidyar GST FAQs GST
Network and Accion Venture Lab. The firm
plans to use the fresh funds on product
development and expanding its team. The Looking for GST Consultant? Click here to
find now
firm said that buying insurance on its platform
takes less than 90 seconds and simple claims SEARCH
are processed in under two hours via a

The firm said that buying insurance on its platform takes completely digital interface.
less than 90 seconds and simple claims are processed
in under two hours via a completely digital interface.
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BigBasket’s operating loss up 12%

ET Bureau | May 30, 2018, 09.15 AM IST Top Trending Terms
0
Comments E-way Bill Flipkart-Walmart Deal COMIO Smartphone
BENGALURU: BigBasket’s wholesale arm
recorded a 12% rise in operating loss during How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
fiscal year ending March 2017. The company, GST FAQs GST
registered under the name Supermarket
Grocery Supplies, made an operating loss of
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during the previous fiscal, according to its
financials with the Ministry of Corporate SEARCH
Affairs, sourced from Tofler.
Innovative Retail, the consumerfacing platform of Big However, the company’s overall loss shot up
Basket reported revenues of Rs 1,090 crore in FY17,
by almost 7 times from Rs 95 crore in FY16 to Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
translating into a 107% jump from Rs 527 crore a year
ago.
Rs 653 crore in FY17 due to “fair value
changed to the financial liabilities”. Some of Why renting stuff can be more beneficial for you
the major expenses that contributed to the Keeping the flock together: The secret behind OYO
company’s mounting losses include employee benefit expenses of Rs 138.9 crore. retaining its top talent
Meanwhile, the company more than doubled its revenue from Rs 563 crore in FY16 to Rs Hike Messenger lays off 25% of its workforce
1,176 crore in FY17.
BigBasket has two registered operating entities. Supermarket Grocery Supplies is the Angel investors in startups get income tax
exemption
business-to-business entity which sources products and sells it to Innovative Retail, that
runs the online grocery portal. More »
Innovative Retail, the consumerfacing platform of Big Basket reported revenues of Rs

1,090 crore in FY17, translating into a 107% jump from Rs 527 crore a year ago. Losses
increased to Rs 191 crore when compared to Rs 103.4 crore in FY16.
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Vokal acquihires quizzing app company

StupidChat Top Trending Terms
By J Vignesh, ET Bureau | May 30, 2018, 09.04 AM IST

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BENGALURU: Vokal, which runs a How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
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knowledge-sharing platform, has acquihired
quizzing app firm StupidChat Technologies in
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It plans to use the six-member team to work
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on the existing products and also come up
with daily engagement products for the
platform.
The StupidChat Technologies team has been assigned The StupidChat Technologies team has been Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
roles spread across product design and technology
assigned roles spread across product design Why renting stuff can be more beneficial for you
verticals.
and technology verticals.
t i i it t t l t
StupidChat Technologies was founded in November 2017 by Sourav Karmakar and Saheb
Roy in Kolkata before the team shifted to Bengaluru.
“They had a healthy traction in the short span of time they ran the StupidChat app.
However, there were a number of players that sprouted at the same time, making the exemption
funding circumstances unfavourable,” said Mayank Bidawatka, cofounder of Vokal.
More »
Vokal was founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna, cofounder of TaxiForSure and Bidawatka,

who had earlier cofounded GoodBox, which ran a hyperlocal app. It runs a voice-first peer-
to-peer knowledge-sharing platform where experts share their knowledge with seekers.
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WhatsApp is said to hasten payments push

for 200 million Indians
for 200 million Indians Top Trending Terms
Bloomberg | May 30, 2018, 08.48 AM IST

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By Rahul Satija and Anto Antony How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
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Facebook Inc. is set to offer its WhatsApp

payment services to the whole of India as Looking for GST Consultant? Click here to
early as next week in an attempt to win find now
market share, even though its partners aren’t
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all ready, said people familiar with the matter.
The messaging app will partner HDFC Bank

Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and Axis Bank Ltd. to
process the transfers, and State Bank of India Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
will join once it has the necessary systems in What led to Sachin Bansal's exit from Flipkart
place, the people said. Facebook was aiming
Facebook was aiming for a full rollout with four partners for a full rollout with four partners but decided
but decided to go ahead with just three as its rivals were
to go ahead with just three as its rivals were Hike Messenger lays off 25% of its workforce
racing ahead.
racing ahead, the people said, asking not to
be named as the information isn’t public. retaining its top talent
Now, Flipkart looking for senior executives to take

The entry of Whatsapp into India’s payments space has been likened to WeChat, which on competition
reshaped payments in China when it expanded beyond messaging. The pilot version of
More »
WhatsApp Pay - started with 1 million users in February - received rave reviews,
threatening the market share of incumbents Google Tez and Alibaba-backed Paytm, which
lack the benefits of a social network.
“WhatsApp has a great starting point: a monopoly in chat,” said Vivek Belgavi, leader for
financial technology at PwC India. “High engagement makes it a credible competition.”
More than 200 million Indians already use WhatsApp messaging, equivalent to 60 percent
of the U.S. population and a daily active usage that Forrester Inc. estimates to be about 20
times higher than Paytm’s.
‘Walled garden’
A representative for WhatsApp said the company doesn’t comment on speculation. ICICI Manpasand is running out of
Bank couldn’t immediately comment and emails to State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and juice
Axis Bank weren’t answered.
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One of the most outspoken critics of WhatsApp Pay has been Vijay Shekhar Sharma,
founder of Paytm Payments Bank Pvt. His startup has been one of the biggest winners Ola’s adventures in being more
from the Indian government’s clampdown on cash and Sharma fired off a barrage of angry than just a ride-hailing firm
tweets in February, claiming that WhatsApp had bypassed security requirements and that
GO TO ET PRIME →
Facebook was trying to create a walled payments garden.
National Payments Corp. of India, the umbrella body that oversees retail payments and
settlement systems in Asia’s No.3 economy, has no concerns about data security on the
payment services offered by WhatsApp, Dilip Asbe, chief executive officer of NPCI, said in
Mumbai on May 9.
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Qtrove gets Rs 350 crore from BCCL’s

Springboard Top Trending Terms
ET Bureau | May 30, 2018, 08.42 AM IST

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BENGALURU: GrowthStory-backed Qtrove, a How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
GST FAQs GST
curated marketplace for natural, handmade
and sustainable products has raised Rs 350
crore from Springboard Ventures, an Looking for GST Consultant? Click here to
investment arm of Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd find now
(BCCL), the publisher of The Economic
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Times.
Qtrove, founded in 2016 by Vinamra Pandiya,

curates and sells about 6,000 products from
Qtrove has been promoted by GrowthStory founder K small and medium enterprises and aims to be Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
Ganesh, who has also been involved with companies
the ‘Etsy’ of India. “Funding from Springboard Why renting stuff can be more beneficial for you
like BigBasket, Bluestone and FreshMenu, among
others.
will fuel the next level of growth in helping us
create a trusted marketplace for today’s
consumers,” Pandiya said. “We expect the
company to reach out to 3-5 million customers in the next five years from the current
100,000 users.” 9 tips on how to maintain a good credit score

Qtrove will be using the funds to further intensify their marketing, customer acquisition exemption
efforts and vendor network through BCCL’s stable of print, television, radio and digital
More »
media.
Qtrove has been promoted by GrowthStory founder K Ganesh, who has also been
involved with companies like BigBasket, Bluestone and FreshMenu, among others. “With
Springboard coming on board, we are very well poised to reach a wider audience and
increase our seller network,” K Ganesh said.
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Tyroo is Snapchat’s monetisation partner

here Top Trending Terms
By Biswarup Gooptu, ET Bureau | Updated: May 30, 2018, 01.57 PM IST

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NEW DELHI: Snapchat has partnered with How to link PAN with Aadhar GST Guide GST Rates
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ad-tech platform Tyroo, an arrangement that
will see the latter operate as the monetisation
partner of social media giant in India. Looking for GST Consultant? Click here to
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Tyroo, owned by Harish Bahl and Manish Vij-
SEARCH
promoted Smile Group, will drive Snapchat’s
ad monetisation and infrastructure for
Snapchat in India, a geography where the
latter, which competes with Facebook-owned
Snap will bring its three primary products to India and Instagram, has a limited presence so far. “At Most Read Most Shared Most Commented
potential brands to leverage the same.
the start of the year, Snap took a fundamental Why renting stuff can be more beneficial for you
call that the Indian market has grown large
enough for them to have a dedicated focus, and their products for marketeers here,”
Siddharth Puri, CEO of Tyroo told ET.
“We have entered into a partnership with them, under the terms of which we will be helping 9 tips on how to maintain a good credit score
them to add business for the Indian market, and make their products available to Indian
marketers,” he added. exemption
More »
Snap will bring its three primary products to India and potential brands to leverage the
same. This includes its augmented realitydriven lens product, its filters and its its story
platform. The partnership between the two, according to Puri, will focus solely on India at
this point.
“This strategic partnership with Tyroo will allow us to bring Snapchat to more advertisers in
India, and help them see the value in connecting with our highly-engaged users through
the most fun and effective ad products on the market,” Geoffrey Reed, Snapchat’s Head of
International Expansion, said.
While Tyroo CEO did not disclose the commercial terms of the partnership, there is a
revenue-sharing agreement between the parties. “There is a commercial partnership of
course… but for marketeers, there are no additional or incremental charges… There is a
value proposition for them, similar to a direct sales team sells in the UK or the US
markets,” Puri said.
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Decathlon playbook
Tyroo has also appointed former Bennett, Coleman & Co executive Akshay Mathur as its
Chief Revenue Officer to drive growth through such partnerships. Ola’s adventures in being more
The development comes at a time when Snap has been under pressure from the market,
GO TO ET PRIME →
as well as advertisers, following middling-to-poor quarterly results that saw it miss analyst
expectations. For the quarter ended March 31, Snapchat’s daily active users rose to 191
million, falling short of Street expectations of 194.15 million. It also missed quarterly
revenue estimates.
Additionally, in 2017, the company faced backlash from users, after CEO Evan Spiegel
was reported to have said that the product was for only for “rich people.” Spiegel denied
making such a statement. According to media reports, Snapchat had a user base of 4
million in India as of 2017.
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