Zuver, a driver on demand startup from Mumbai has tied up with QuikrServices, the services vertical of Quikr, India’s No.1 cross-category classified business. As per the tie up, any on-demand driver requests from Mumbai and Pune will be fulfilled by Zuver with its network of professional drivers.

The exclusive partnership aims to boost the need for the driver on demand category on QuikrServices which calls for skilled, trust worthy and well informed professional drivers. Quikr consumers across these two cities can now book drivers for daily commutes, outstation trips and also to avail valet services for help with parking.

Speaking on this, Sidhanth Mally, Co-founder of Zuver said

Zuver is a rapidly growing driver on demand service provider while Quikr is a market leading brand, through this partnership we are excited to share our expertise with Quikr consumers in the driver on-demand space. We have over 150 drivers in Mumbai and Pune all of whom are trained and validated to drive all types of cars ranging from hatchbacks to SUVs

Talking about this tie up, P D Sundar, Head of QuikrServices said

Partnerships like this help bridge demand and supply by offering service providers like Zuver access to our robust consumer base.  We are delighted to be associated with Zuver which provides skilled & well trained drivers who are knowledgeable of city routes.

Founded by co-partners Sidhanth Mally and Sovin Hegde, Zuver, a Mumbai-based startup provides 24*7 on demand driver requirement services at any location throughout the city. Zuver offers you drivers on demand to drive you to your destination, in the comfort of your car.

Zuver for Android and iOS is available here & here respectively.

About Zuver – Driver on Demand
Zuver is a start-up with a unique selling proposition –a service that promises reliable, skilled, well-trained ‘driver on demand’ at your doorstep. They aim to make their drivers the gold standard for industry drivers and create a new benchmark. This mobile-first company that offers the best in class service is on its course to expand its presence in other metros. Zuver, Your driver on demand is available on Android and iOS or at 022-43686868. For more information, please refer Zuver

HashLearn, the on-demand mobile tutoring app that instantly connects students to tutors, announced the launch of ‘Atom’, India’s most affordable, high-quality tutoring service. ‘Atom’ is priced at Rs.30/- for a 20 minute session.

HashLearn tutors are from the IITs, BITS, AIIMS, and leading institutions offering instant sessions in Physics, Chemistry, Math and Biology for all entrance exams like the JEE Main, CET, NEET as well as school exams. Tutors are available on-demand and round the clock thereby ensuring students never get stuck while learning.

‘Atom’ can be bought in packs of 1, 2, 4 and 5 sessions. Apart from regular payment options, another differentiator is the ability to buy the packs through one’s mobile operator right within the app itself. The amount will be deducted from one’s prepaid balance or added to the postpaid bill. Carrier billing is now available to 870 million subscribers of Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance, Aircel and Tata.

Jayadev Gopalakrishnan, CEO & Co-founder, HashLearn said

Our vision is to connect every student to a high-quality tutor by making the service accessible and inclusive. ‘Atom’ is a first step in this direction. By offering an affordable price point and enabling payment through mobile carriers, we are making access to high-quality tutoring frictionless and truly democratic

In India, only 20% of the tutoring market is organized. The vast majority cannot access high-quality tutoring owing to tuition costs or location constraints. Even for students from urban markets, they grapple with unique issues that conventional systems fail to address like lack of personalized attention and the lack of authentic help, right at the moment the student needs it.

HashLearn combines the power of the smartphone with a huge supply of tutors to enable anyone – whether from a city or from a small town/city – to access a high-quality tutor anytime, at an affordable price. The 20-minute session format is based on data from thousands of live sessions conducted on its platform over the last several months. Each session focuses on a specific concept or problem at the end of which students rate tutors.

Apart from ‘Atom’, HashLearn also offers an unlimited sessions plan under the ‘Infinity’ brand.  While most of its paying subscribers so far have come from metros and urban markets, the launch of  ‘Atom’ caters to a larger category of users looking for affordability and flexibility without compromising on quality.

The HashLearn Android app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or by SMSing ‘GETNOW’ to 56263. All new users can take the first three sessions free of cost.

About HashLearn

Founded by serial entrepreneur Jayadev Gopalakrishnan and technologist Gokul Janga. HashLearn is building a range of products and services that connect educators and students. HashLearn is an on-demand tutoring app that connects students to tutors from IITs/BITS & leading institutions, instantly, 24/7. HashLearn is backed by leading angels including the founders of Flipkart, Ola, People Group and Rajan Anandan.

We all know the importance of an insurance plan in this fast paced life. We insure our cars, house, bike, life and even mobile phones these days. Most of us have also insured our health by buying a health insurance plan but is it sufficient? In today’s fast paced life, life has become un-certain since we never know when a mishap can happen, this would not only affect you but your dependents as well !!

We are all aware that ‘Predictability‘ is the most ‘Un-Predictable‘ thing in life. All of us work hard to have a better life for us as well as our loved ones. When anyone thinks about such a scenario, the thought that comes at the back of our minds is “What would happen to my parents/kids etc. when I am not with them”. You would never want them to be financially challenged. This is a very critical question and since it is critical, you would always need to a “Rock-Solid answer” to it. Life Insurance is the answer to all these ‘worrisome’ questions. Life Insurance policy can help prepare for life’s uncertainties such as creating provisions for your family and loved ones following your demise.

However, choosing the right Life Insurance policy is many-a-times (if not always :)) very difficult since you are at the hands of the Insurance Agent who would show Rosy Pictures about the coverage, returns etc.

The most critical pointers to keep in mind while choosing a policy are:

  • Premium Payment
  • Payment Cycle [Monthly/Quarterly/Weekly]
  • Sum Insured and hidden Terms & Conditions [T&C]
  • Dependents covered in the Policy

The list of questions can be endless and the probable answer to all these dangling questions is a SOLID Insurance Plan. When my family members were discussing about Insurance Plans, there was a suggestion about eSmart Term Plan. We delved a bit into the plan and liked it (as compared to traditional policies), today we have a look at some of the benefits about the plan.

What is eSmart Term Plan

eSmart Term Plan is a pure life insurance plan, that can be bought online. You have the freedom to choose the amount your family will require in an unfortunate event and this amount will be paid to them as the Sum Assured. The protection plan is available to everyone and is not limited to the banking customers of Canara, HSBC and OBC. To put in simple words, it is a traditional insurance plan without any Bonus facility.

Benefits of eSmart Plan

There are many insurance companies (which we also see in TVC) that explain the pain-point of choosing the right insurance plan, the pain claimants have to go through when their dear one’s are no more etc. eSmart Term Plan solves those pain points, let’s have a look at them:

  1. You get an insurance policy at a low cost
  2. Easy Buying via Online channel. One of the major advantages of the policy is that it can be purchased online through Online Life Insurance thus many of the hassles are removed 🙂
  3. There is an option to cover accidental death
  4. Tax benefits on Premium Payments
  5. Dedicated Claims Manager who would be the one-point contact for settlement of claims. This is very important since everytime you call up the call-center agent, you might talk to a new agent and appointment of Dedicated Claims manager makes the claim process less frustrating & friction-less.

OnlineLifeInsurance : Less Hassles, Faster execution

As mentioned in the previous point, the plan can be purchased online through OnlineLifeInsurance, a microsite dedicated to eSmart Term Plan. Buying Insurance plan is a simple four step process and you can get an insurance cover in less than 10 minutes. You can get a cover of Rs 50 Lakhs for as low as Rs 3878 [Please refer https://www.onlinelifeinsurance.co.in/#calculator for detailed information].

There would be many questions popping up in our minds when buying insurance – How much insurance cover do I really need ? This depends on your age, earnings, health conditions, number of dependents etc. The Insurance Calculator helps you out to zero-in your insurance cover. It is a nice tool to simplify your insurance requirements !!

Unlike the other insurance companies, where processes and calls are endless; in eSmart Plan things get done in minimal clicks 🙂 No paper-work means less pain !!!

It would have been even better if there was an Android App of OnlineLifeInsurance so that they could also utilize the mobile medium (which has become much more important than desktop).

eSmart Plan : Voice of Customers

The success of any brand depends on the service that it has provided to it’s customers. Customers who have opted for eSmart Plan have found it to be beneficial which can be easily seen from the Testimonials Page

In fact, CHOICE (Canara Bank, HSBC & Oriental Bank of Commerce) won Best Brands 2016 at  You can refer to this page for more information on CHOICE.

Strong Brand, Encouraging Customer sentiments definitely gives an upper hand when compared to it’s competitors…

eSmart Plan : Closing Thoughts

As mentioned in this article, it is very important that we follow the PSI [Protect, Save and Invest] approach so that our hard-earned money is invested in the right place. If you are planning to safeguard the future of your family members, log on to OnlineLifeInsurance and get yourself insured ….

If You Fail to Plan & You Plan to Fail

YES BANK has announced the financial results for Quarter ending 30th June, below are some of the highlights and insights into revenue from various sectors.

Key Profit & Loss (P&L) Statement Highlights

  • Net Profit of INR 731.8 Crores in Q1 FY17; y-o-y growth of 32.8%
  • Total Net Income of INR 2,217.1 Crores in Q1 FY17 y-o-y growth of 38.1%
  • Net Interest Income of INR 1,316.6 Crores for Q1FY17; y-o-y growth of 24.2% on back of growth in Advances & CASA. NIM expanded to 3.4% in Q1FY17 from 3.3% a year ago
  • RoA stands at 1.7%, RoE at 20.7% for Q1FY17
  • Book Value at INR 345.2 per share as on June 30, 2016

Key Balance Sheet Highlights

  • Y-o-Y growth in CASA of 63.0%; CASA Ratio improves to 29.6% from 23.4% a year ago, 6.2% improvement in one year. SA deposits posted robust growth of 81.6% y-o-y
  • CASA+Retail FDs as % of Total Deposits stands at a healthy 55.3% as at June 30, 2016
  • Advances grew by 33.0% y-o-y to INR 1,05,942.0 Crores as at June 30, 2016
  • Total Capital Adequacy as per Basel III is robust at 15.5% with Tier I ratio at 10.3% (including profits and excluding prorated dividend)

Total Capital Funds at INR 22,394.3 Crores as of June 30, 2016

Key Asset Quality Highlights

  • Credit Costs at 15 bps for Q1 FY17
  • Gross Non Performing Advances (GNPA) at 0.79% and Net Non Performing Advances stable at (NNPA) at 0.29% as at June 30, 2016
  • Provision Coverage Ratio (PCR) stands at 64.2% as at June 30, 2016
  • Standard Restructured Advances as a proportion of Gross Advances at 0.49% (INR 522.9 Crores) as at June 30, 2016, down from 0.71% (INR 567.1 Crores) as at June 30, 2015. No additional restructuring done during the quarter.
  • Security Receipts (SRs) stand at 0.19% (INR 199.4 Crores) of Gross Advances as at June 30, 2016. There has been no sale to ARCs during the quarter.
  • Standard SDR Advances at 0.03% (INR 34.3 Crores) of Gross Advances as at June 30, 2016 from single SDR account undertaken during the quarter.
  • Nil 5:25 refinancing during Q1 FY17

Financial Highlights from Q1FY17 Results

Click to Zoom
Click to Zoom

Commenting on the results and financial performance, Mr. Rana Kapoor, Managing Director & CEO, YES BANK said

YES BANK has delivered another highly satisfactory quarter of financial performance reflected in strong & quality growth, sustained profitability and continued resilience in asset quality. The Bank continues to witness a robust CASA growth with the CASA ratio improving to a healthy 29.6% from 23.4% a year ago demonstrating significant momentum in the underlying Retail franchise platforms, as well as ongoing mandate in several corporate relationship groups. Further, YES BANK has received an in-principle approval from the Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to setup an Asset Management Company (AMC) which will further deepen our value proposition for our retail customers. Given the improving macroeconomic environment along with stable Asset quality and accelerating Retail franchise, the Bank is well poised to capture Market share across Retail and Corporate segments at an enhanced pace.

(more…)

Vamaship, world’s first integrated logistics platform, founded by Bhavik Chinai & Rohit Chemburkar had raised $500K in their first round of funding from the BVC Ventures, Mumbai. Soon they will be announcing their second round of funding by end of 2016.

Vamaship is a technology-driven logistics platform launched in October 2015, where shippers can ship through India’s best logistics companies, creating a win-win for all the stakeholders. Traditionally, shippers never had visibility of the right price for shipping and logistics companies are not able to reach thousands of SMEs due to limited sales resources, Vamaship brings the two stakeholders together.

In 9 months, Vamaship is now facilitating shipping of any commodity through air, ocean and surface, in India to over 10,000 pin codes and 200+ countries globally.

Vamaship has 100+ partners which include e-commerce logistics companies, freight forwarders, trucking brokers, trucking companies and courier companies. It has over 500 customers ranging from 50 year old listed entities to 2 day old Instagram sellers.

Growing at over 100% month-on-month, Vamaship has a strong team of serial entrepreneurs and domain experts from logistics, consulting and technology, and is mentored by the managing director of the world’s largest diamond company. It’s big successes has been collaborating with the world’s third largest bauxite mining company for their global logistics, taking over shipping for Caratlane – India’s largest jewelry website and the one of India’s fastest growing lifestyle start up, Label Life. It is also witnessing incredible feedback and support from all customers to help make the platform better each day. Instead of competing, Vamaship has partnered with logistics startups like Blackbuck.

Speaking on this, Bhavik Chinai, CEO of Vamaship said

We are delighted at the phenomenal response we’ve received from shippers and logistics companies. We’re gearing up for expanding rapidly by going international, hiring and setting up offices in smaller towns in India. Currently with offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, we are planning to expand our sales penetration to 20+ cities to activate over 10,000 SMEs. We’ll announce our next, larger round within 6 months

Rohit Chemburkar, Co-founder and CTO of Vamaship added

In the first round, we invested in upgrading our technology and be in sync with global best practices. With the next round, we intend to invest in further automation and better tech tools and upgrade our existing processes to ensure an extraordinary shipping experience, each time.

About Vamaship

Launched in October 2015, Vamaship is a revolution in logistics that connects shippers with industry’s best logistics companies. Vamaship as a market place facilitates shipments to over 10,000 pin codes in India and to 200 countries from India. With a nationwide network of partners, Vamaship brings the best of technology and logistics to create a seamless shipping experience. Vamaship is focused on the vision & mission to become the world’s shipping partner and to set global benchmarks in service quality, growth rate and stakeholder satisfaction, respectively. For more information, please visit Vamaship

Microsoft Accelerator at Bengaluru is now taking applications for its Winter 2016 cohort. These applications are open to technology and technology enabled startups in any vertical.  Scale Up is focused on helping later stage startups in growing traction. The High Potential program [Hi-Po] is designed for series stage startups, where corporates work with startups and Microsoft Accelerator in order to speed up their business potential.

Image Source* – e27.co

Launched in 2015 – these programs have received tremendous traction with leading corporates like Citibank, Patni, Reliance and Kyron partnering with Microsoft Accelerator. The program has also seen the maturing and success of startups like Reverie, Altizon and Aureus Analytics who are now closely working with corporates from Microsoft’s own corporate customer network.

Over the years, the program has received over 3500 applications till date. Ravi Narayan, Global Director, Microsoft Accelerator said

The Indian startup ecosystem is evolving rapidly and so are the needs of startups. Through the common application process for @acceler8, we can identify the right fit for applicants and recommend the right set of interventions.

Applications for these programs will also be eligible for screening and recommendation to Microsoft’s partners under the @cceler8 program. Through a single @acceler8 application, eligible startups will be recommended for programs run by Microsoft’s Partner Accelerators. These include Reliance’s GenNext Hub, ISDI and AIM Smart City, which is the latest addition to the list.

The final date for application to the Hi-Po and Scale-Up programs is 10th August 2016. To know more and apply visit the@cceler8 website.

Highlighting the growth opportunity in the digital payments industry in India, Google and Boston Consulting Group have launched a report, Digital Payments 2020. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the current transformation underway in digital payments and its impact on the overall payment landscape in India. The report is based on Nielsen’s qualitative and quantitative research with over 3,500 respondents, combined with BCG and Google’s industry intelligence.

  • The report projects that by 2020, the size of digital payments industry in India will be $500 billion; contributing 15% to India’s GDP.
  • By 2020, Non-cash* contribution in the consumer payments segment will double to 40%. Already 81% of existing digital payment users prefer it to any other non-cash payment methods.
  • Online, shopping, payment of utility bills and buying movie tickets have emerged as the three top things that a user primarily interacts with.
  • Indian consumers, are 90% as likely, to use digital payments for both online as well as offline transactions. Over 60% of digital payments value will be contributed by offline points of sale such as unorganized retail, eateries, transport etc.
Click to zoom
Click to zoom

Speaking about the key findings of the report, Rajan Anandan, VP, SEA & India, Google said

Spurred by smartphone penetration, and supported by progressive regulatory policy, the digital payments industry is at an inflection point and is set to grow 10X by 2020. It is telling that half of India’s internet users will use digital payments and that the top 100 million users will drive 70% of the GMV – a clear indicator of the growing importance of the digital consumer.

Alpesh Shah, Senior Partner & Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group, India said

Global digital payments is undergoing rapid transformation and is set to grow four times in value by 2020. India is on an even more exponential growth trajectory. The smartphone explosion will usher in a new era in digital payments in India over the next few years that will see digital payments exceed $500 billion by 2020 and non-cash transactions exceed cash transactions by 2023

Based on the research conducted, convenience has emerged as the most important factor that is driving this growth. This is followed by availability of offers while opting for digital payment methods. The report also highlights that micro-transactions will form a substantial portion of the industry, with over 50% of person-to-merchant transactions expected to be under INR 100. The report predicts that the value of remittances and money transfer that will pass through alternate digital payment instruments will double to 30% by 2020.

*Non-cash includes cheques, demand drafts, net-banking, credit/debit cards, mobile wallets and UPI

The report identifies the various challenges that the digital payments ecosystem will need to overcome in order for the industry to grow to its potential. The research has shown that 1 of 2 non-users haven’t used digital payments because they found the product too complicated to understand and 61% of non-user merchants find it complex to use. Additionally, universality of acceptance of digital payment methods and merchant concerns around speed of transactions during peak hours have emerged as other inhibitors to usage.

Report Methodology

The report is based on a qualitative and quantitative research executed by Nielsen. Insights from this research were then combined with BCG’s proprietary sizing model as well as Google and BCG’s industry intelligence.  

For the purpose of the study, Nielsen conducted 14 group discussions, and 26 In-depth interviews for users and merchants in 3 cities [Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi], and inputs from these were then used to form a comprehensive consumer and merchant quantitative survey. The consumer survey covered over 3,500 respondents [Digital consumers – 1,516, remittance users – 917 and merchants – 917], across nine geographies – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Indore, Surat, Vishakapatnam and Coimbatore.

Thinking of buying a new consumer electronics device? Buying the device involves a set of activities like Feedback from existing users, Discussion with friends/colleagues, Online vis-a-vis Offline etc. As per a Morgan Stanley report, Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow fastest globally over the next three years. Though there have been markdowns in valuation of many e-commerce companies, it has not stopped the sky-rocketing growth and one who has benefited the most from ‘Online v/s Offline War’ is you i.e. The Consumer !!!
With the growth of online-commerce in India, there are many businesses that have been built to cater to that explosive growth. Number of startups have emerged in the field of Customer Support, Chat Bots, Payments, Catalogue Design, Last Mile Delivery, Automation to minimize operational costs etc.
Along with Coupon & Deal websites, there are many players that want to own a pie of the e-commerce/affiliate market by helping users to make well-informed decisions by highlighting various aspects of the gadget based on User-Feedback. Consumers are not only interested in deals but before they purchase a product but they also want to “compare prices” across different e-commerce websites. Customers are always on the lookout for good deals [focus on prices] since there is no customer Brand Loyalty
Product Discovery & Product Insights are the most important factors that can change customer’s buying decision and this is the pain-point that AspectWise, an IIT Alumni Startup aims to solve.

AspectWise : Make informed Buying Decisions

AspectWise is a product from XCognition Technologies, founded by Vivek Arya, Anand Ramachandran, Parth Bhalothia and Ankit Arya. They previously co-founded MakeSense Technologies, a recruitment technology venture which was acquired by Naukri.com
It showcases products from e-commerce websites – Flipkart, Amazon India, Snapdeal and earns affiliate revenue from these online gadget retailers. AspectWise enables you to quickly understand everything about a product, by analyzing the product’s user reviews thus simplifying the entire Buying Process. It uses Artificial Intelligence, National Language Processing, Sentiment analysis to generate a comprehensive summary of user reviews across the web.

AspectWise : Filter Products as per Aspects that Matter to You

As mentioned earlier, there are startups like 91Mobiles, MySmartPrice etc. that want to make Product Discovery easy for consumers but one stand-out feature in AspectWise is “Use-Case based Search”. For example – If you are searching for a Mobile Phone in the range of Rs 1,000 ~ Rs. 10,000 along with Price Search you can further narrow down the search by mentioning your Usage Pattern [Heavy User/Gamer], Use-cases you give more priority [Camera/Video] etc. which is termed as ‘Aspects’

Source – AspectWise

We performed a search for Mobiles under Rs. 10,000 and these are the results of Normal Search v/s Search with Aspect = Camera It becomes much more easier on AspectWise to search for products that really ‘Matter to you’ 🙂

AspectWise : AspectWise User Verdict makes Buying simpler

The UX of the website is simple and makes browsing for useful products very easy. Once you have filtered the products, you can look into the reviews about the product based on various parameters like Camera & Pics, Performance, Battery, Design, Display and Value for money. Once you click on any of these Review Parameters, Canned reviews open up in a ‘Pop-Up Window’ and if you wish to read the complete review, you would be routed the originating e-commerce website.

The product is displayed on the left-side with the prices being shown below the product photo. Since, India is a cost-sensitive market and consumers look for products at best prices; it would have been even better if the ‘Best Priced’ could have been shown in a different color [as seen from Box marked in Blue Color] or marked with a ‘Tag’.

The unique highlight about AspectWise is their internal ranking algorithm – AspectWise User Verdict. It shows you how a particular gadget ranks for requirements specified by different users. For example – Huawei Honor 7 has overall rating of 4.4 but Nexus 5X is more suited for users who prefer a better display. On the other hand, if you are looking out for Best Phones for Performance and Display, you are presented with the Best mobiles matching those criteria’s based on user-reviews and Nexus 6P topping the list.

AspectWise : Price Drop Alert

If you love the gadget but somehow feel that it is ‘Heavy on Price’ than you have an option to subscribe to ‘Price Drop Alert’. Once you subscribe for the same, you would be notified by email once your favourite gadget is available at a lesser price.

Though the AspectWise app is not yet released, it would have been better if along with Email Alert there was an option to set a ‘WhatsApp Alert’ or an option to ‘Share Link via WhatsApp’ !!

AspectWise : Feedback & Closing Thoughts

The product images shown on AspectWise are very small [and of lower resolution] and there is no Zoom facility. This make it difficult for users to see the nitty-gritties of the product. It would have been even better to have a Chat feature on AspectWise since that would be a great opportunity to convert a ‘Window Shopper’ [who logs in the site without any agenda] into an ‘Impulsive Shopper‘. But given that AspectWise is a bootstrapped startup, they might be taking a ‘Leaner Approach’ to product development and working on more important features !!!

AspectWise definitely has a huge advantage in terms of Design when compared to it’s competitors. The concept of AspectWise User Verdict gives an immense amount of clarity to consumers when they are making the important decision of buying a gadget.

Do give AspectWise a spin and leave your feedback in the comments section …