All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The newest entrant in the taxi business in Mumbai – S3 cabs is finding indigenous ways to benefit the cab drivers and reduce their operational costs. While rival taxi companies are slowing down on the EV plans, due to lack of charging points; S3 has got the approval for a mobile bio-diesel distribution pump. The pump will be used to fill bio-diesel for its cabs across Mumbai.

Speaking on the development Sohel Kazani said

I am very excited that we have received a fantabulous response from the drivers and riders both. As a company, Sahyadri Smart Safe Private Limited was a late entrant in the business, but we always wanted to be the path leaders. Going forward with our vision, we have procured the equipment and supply for bio-diesel distribution.

The mobile bio-diesel distribution van will travel all over the Mumbai and have fixed timings at South Mumbai and near all Mumbai entry points. In the first stage we only want to supply the fuel to our taxis, if we are surplus, we will distribute it to other vehicles too.

The average consumption of fuel by the cab owners based on 300km per day traveling amounts to 30 liters of diesel, and that equals to INR 2200 per day. A 40% reduction would mean INR 880 saving per day on fuel account or as much as INR 26,000 approx a month by using bio-diesel and the oxy-power unit. A pilot study made us understand that it keeps the fuel systems and fuel injector cleaner thus reducing the vehicle maintenance cost and increasing the mileage. It will also help in additional employment generation. We would like to work closely with the government to make the shift to bio-fuels happen and we hope that they lower the GST on bio-diesel to 5%.

Bio-diesel blend has been made a mandate in many countries. The government had recommended a blend in 2017 but the same has not been made compulsory. Bio-fuels also reduce the emissions making the environment cleaner. It would help the economy by reducing crude import; India imports approximately 8 lakh crores of crude oil annually. Also, it is priced lower than convention diesel, resulting in savings for the drivers. Shifting to bio-fuels is also a long-term solution to the problem of rising fuel prices.

At the commercial inception of the cab services, S3 had provided a patented technology registered as ‘Oxy Power’ to all its drivers. This technology requires an external fitment in the car and helps in the better utilization of the fuel resulting in 20% and 30% reduction in fuel consumption. Reduced fuel consumption helped the taxis to operate at flat fares all the times. Now with Bio-diesel, there will be further 5% to 10% reduction in fuel costs resulting in Net overall 40% reduction in fuel bill to be paid by the taxi owners.

Biodiesel can be used in any diesel car without any additional modification as in the case of CNG. It is cleaner and more efficient than regular diesel. Biodiesel can be used alone or blended with regular diesel in any proportions.

About S3 Cabs
S3 cab service has been launched in Mumbai city in the month of May and currently operate around 3000 taxis in the city. Passengers who do not have the application downloaded or without a smartphone, have the option of booking the cab through service representatives designated at different parts of the Mumbai region and also through a phone call. SOS service with CCTV camera in every cab and voice recording has been implemented for passenger safety. Riders are able to customize the trip using language options, tourist guide option, etc. The service is an initiative by the Bharat Freight, a logistics company.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Today, one of the main components of an increasingly digital world is data and with data being collected in heaps, there are thousands of companies working on how to capture, store and leverage it to derive maximum business value. They are on a continuous look out for innovative solutions that will help them change the world with data. NetApp being one of the leaders in the data domain comes with a rich legacy of innovation in the data management space. In June 2017, the company launched the NetApp Excellerator program [information about first cohort here] with an aim to help data driven startups realize their full potential and enable them to build innovative world-class products and solutions that are market-ready.

NetApp had selected six data driven startups for their second cohort of the NetApp Excellerator program. The selected startups had received $15,000 equity free grant and access to NetApp facilities, their technology, HR, Marketing and other functions that would help them scale to the next level. The startups from the second cohort of NetApp Excellerator working in interesting areas [Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, Cloud & Machine Learning] graduated in June, 2018 and are all set to enter the market.

We were invited for the ‘Startup Meet’ that was held at the NetApp Premises in Bengaluru. Ajeya Motaganahalli, Senior Director – Engineering Programs and Leader of NetApp Excellerator walked us through the following

  • Overall selection process
  • Status of the first cohort
  • Learnings from the startup founders [and their team] and
  • How these startups [first and second cohort] are an integral part of the entire eco-system.

They had received close to 450 applications for the first, from around 250 that registered for the first cohort. Of these, 11 were shortlisted to participate in a rigorous boot camp that concluded with the six being selected for the second cohort [the selection was based on their team and technical expertise, product capability, etc.]. He stressed upon how the NetApp Excellerator is more than a startup accelerator and how the startup’s team members are fueling the startup mojo and entrepreneurial culture in NetApp.

The six startups from the second cohort presented their respective ideas along with core differentiators, business potential, funding status, NetApp’s role in helping them with technology; marketing and deep-rooted expertise in building B2B focused products. Below are the startups that graduated from the second cohort

Blobcity

BlobCity provides its customers with end to end data capabilities by making storing and processing diverse data easy. Most analytic products today are required to collectively analyse data of diverse natures, BlobCity offers real-time analytics over this diverse data. For the analysis of transactional data at the speed of transactions, one needs a real-time analytics system. Example in case could be ATM fraud detection, where your analytical algorithm needs to analyse possible fraudulent nature of an on-going ATM swipe, before the machine actually dispenses the cash.

Unlike ATM’s, not all systems need analytics at real-time. If you want to analyse stock market data of the previous day, compare it with a year’s trend and then take a position when the market opens next day, you need a system that can perform this analysis with low-latency to be able to complete analytics for all stock quotes before the markets re- open. Depending on the nature and complexity of the requirement, the term low-latency covers processing times from a few milliseconds to even several hours. BlobCity’s analytics solutions are extremely well suited for such requirements and support high volume of transactions without compromising on analytics speeds. More information about Blobcity can be found here.

DataKen

Dataken’s Data Science Platform with cognitive capabilities provides Ingest, Transform, Visualize and Analyze capabilities to deliver actionable proactive and predictive business insights across segments. With highly scalable computational, storage and machine learning capabilities along with 250+ industry adaptors are designed to deliver results in complex ecosystem. The platform’s capability has empowered business and operations team to extract, configure and analyze data to meet business demand, real-time.

Dataken’s platform provides one-stop solution to meet the future demand of organizations embarking on IoT, SDN, NFV, LTE, Social commerce and data monetization. The business layer provides 100+ out-of-box solutions for Communications, Banking & Finance, Insurance, Health Care and Manufacturing sectors to accelerate their outcome. More information about DataKen can be found here.

SigTuple

SigTuple builds intelligent screening solutions to aid diagnosis through AI-powered analysis of visual medical data. They are building an artificial intelligence (AI) platform called Manthan which helps them analyze visual medical data efficiently for their customers. Manthan enable Sigtuple team to work on five major high-volume, screening processes of the healthcare industry – analysis of peripheral blood smears, urine microscopy, semen, fundus & OCT scans and chest x-rays.

They are working with pathology labs and hospitals to get data for developing our solutions. Each of their solutions is built in partnership with a medical institution and specialists so that the product scope and roadmap are in line with the requirements of the final users. More information about SigTuple can be found here.

Nanobi Data & Analytics

Nanobi delivers analytical insights to clients that help them better understand their customers. Their analytical solutions deliver measurable business impact across revenue upside, cost optimization and end-consumer delight to clients in the Healthcare, BFSI space.

Their powerful LiquiData Platform integrates data warehousing, business intelligence, predictive and prescriptive analytics into a single visual stack thereby allowing their clients the ease, efficiency and flexibility of using a one-stop platform to serve their analytical requirements. With a “nanomart” based data architecture and a rich API framework, solutions are built speedily and in easy to consume modules. Nanobi’s platform has built-in conversational bots, which makes it easy for anyone across the enterprise to use analytics to drive decision-making. More information about Nanobi can be found here.

Anlyz

Anlyz is a next-gen security product with granularity and visibility of enterprise threat landscape, using machine/deep learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to address enterprise cybersecurity needs.

In the current ecosystem, information is the most valuable currency. Anlyz’s wheels are constantly in motion, scanning the slightest digital cues to keep information safe for their clients. Equipped with advanced cyber capabilities like machine learning, AI & sophisticated hunting, Anlyz is geared to take on threats to predict and prevent attacks even much before they happen. More information about Anlyz can be found here.

ArchSaber

Founded in Feb 2016, ArchSaber automates the diagnosis and prediction of issues occurring in a large and complex IT stack. ArchSaber helps enterprises by giving real-time diagnosis of an incident including comprehensive details, from root cause(s) to the critical services, so the resolution can be handled immediately before it becomes an outage.

The firm does deep analytics over finely grained data and ensures that clients get clear causalities amongst events, depicting the domino effect in form of a cause & impact graph. More information about ArchSaber can be found here.

A snapshot of all the startups that presented is below

Adya & Scalend Technologies, startups from the first cohort also presented about their experience and business developments. Each team was given approximately five minutes for the presentation [which sounded more like an Elevator Pitch :)]. After the presentation, there was demo walk-through and interaction with the startups where we had a chance to interact with the members present from the respective startups. You can get more information about the ‘Startup Meet’ on NetApp India’s official Twitter Page.

We plan to interact with founders of a couple of startups from the second cohort, so if you have questions for any of the startups do leave them in the comments section.

|In: SocialMedia|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

ScoopWhoop, India’s most exciting youth media brand has renamed its Hindi content platform – Gazabpost to ScoopWhoop Hindi. The new brand will continue to engage specifically with Hindi-speaking millennials & Gen Z’ers with addictive, interesting and relatable content while also bringing in the quintessentially ScoopWhoop flavor that audiences across India know and love. The content will cover everything from entertainment & social news, to infotainment to original video content and series created exclusively for Hindi-speaking youth.

Image Source – ScoopWhoop

The future of content is most decidedly regional. Media & entertainment needs of regional audiences are constantly growing, and the youth market specifically has been underserved for quite some time. ScoopWhoop Hindi is an opportunity to capture hearts & minds of young Bharat by combining Gazabpost’s existing reach with the brand love around ScoopWhoop.

Sattvik Mishra, CEO – ScoopWhoop said

With this rebranding, we are poised to build India’s only content brand that engages the Hindi belt’s youth at scale. We are confident that advertisers too would see greater value in an integrated ScoopWhoop offering that reaches young audiences across India & Bharat.

About ScoopWhoop

Founded in 2013, ScoopWhoop is India’s most exciting youth media platform for social news & entertainment largely appealing to the 16~35 demographic. About 30 million unique users visit the website monthly and it’s widely considered to be India’s most popular social content brand with over 250 million video views and over 400 million content views across social media per month.

Apart from the flagship portal, ScoopWhoop, the company has multiple properties that include ScoopWhoop Hindi [ScoopWhoop’s Hindi publication], Vagabomb [a go-to publication for the modern Indian woman], OKTested [a youth-oriented channel for challenges, ties and other game shows] and Unscripted [a video platform for interesting and untold original stories from around India].

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

CashKaro – India’s Largest Cashback & Coupons Website has launched the CashKaro App for Android devices. The app which is available for download on the Google Play Store clocked over 10,000 organic downloads within just a week of its launch. In line with CashKaro’s mobile first approach, it is loaded with benefits that make it more lucrative than the website.

Image Source – CashKaro

The CashKaro App promises to give users a smooth and unified Cashback experience. Users will now earn cashback and rewards at over 1500 sites like Amazon.in, Tata CliQ, Nykaa, Jabong among others. The power to shop at all of India’s most popular e-commerce sites from one simple app will likely attract many new users to CashKaro.

CashKaro App users will also get special access to App Exclusive deals of up to 100% Cashback on many retailers. This essentially translates into free shopping opportunities for App users every month. The App Exclusives section offers users nothing but the best cashback deals in the country. For example – The CashKaro App offers Flat Rs 425 Cashback on Rs 425 at Teafloor, Rs 150 Cashback on Rs 150 at MyVishal and a Flat Rs 100 Cashback over Rs 100 on Chumbak – all of which essentially allow users to shop for free!

Apart from these offers, CashKaro also have Cashback Deals for popular sites that already offer great discounts. For example: They offer 24% CashKaro Cashback on top of a Flat Rs 1500 Off Code at AJIO and Rs.300 CashKaro Cashback on top of a Flat 20% Off Code at Shoppers Stop. In a bid to simplify the Cashback journey the app will use push notifications to display important Cashback updates at a glance. This will be a huge convenience since users won’t have to rely on email & SMS updates alone.

The App also gives users a native experience even if they are on the retailer’s site. This is something no other Cashback site offers and will make shopping more intuitive than it has ever been. The app allows, users to check CashKaro powered coupon codes even when they are on the retailer’s site.

Commenting on the launch of the CashKaro App, Rohan Bhargava, Founder, CashKaro.com said

We are excited to share the CashKaro App with the world because it makes earning Cashback and using coupons super simple. It gives users the freedom to save money on everything they buy online from over 1500 of India’s top retailers. The CashKaro App therefore, adds great value to the lives of online shoppers.  Considering the 215% rise in Indian app downloads over the last two years, we expect a large number of users to adopt the CashKaro App. An added incentive for people to use the app is that the deals & cashback rates on our app are even better than the website many have grown to love.

We also plan to roll out the iOS version of our app in the next 3 months. Going forward, the CashKaro App will open up a path to tech innovations in the Cashback & Offers domains.

Everything is seamlessly integrated for ease of navigation- including a section for click tracking that is updated in real-time. Users can easily track their cashback purchases which is a huge factor in evoking trust among consumers. Users can download the App from here.

|In: CryptoCurrency|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Bengaluru-based CoinSwitch, a multiple cryptocurrency exchange platform has partnered with four leading crypto-assets exchanges, across the globe. The association will make available the offerings of Live Coin, Cryptopia, Hitbtc and KuCoin to the Indian users. By its extension, digital assets available at these platforms will be up for grabs for Indian crypto traders and investors.

Image Source – Coin Switch

As an exchange aggregator platform, CoinSwitch allows Indians to participate in the global phenomenon of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Supporting over 100 cryptocurrencies in India and 300 across the globe, CoinSwitch hosts daily transactions worth more than USD 1 Million. With the entry of these four globally leading exchanges, the aggregator platform aims to offer further ease, convenience and choices to Indian crypto enthusiasts.

Commenting on the latest development, Ashish Singhal, Co-Founder & CEO of CoinSwitch said

We started CoinSwitch with a vision of making it easier for everyone to transact in crypto-currencies, bringing in transparency and trust in these transactions. To the same end, we are glad to partner with four of the global leaders crypto exchange platform and provide our Indian users with more investment alternatives. At CoinSwitch, our users can expect parity with the international standards and find easier alternatives to bank upon the growing wave of cryptocurrencies.

With the latest development, CoinSwitch users will enjoy a truly world-class experience. For instance, Live Coin is multi-cryptocurrency exchange supporting both, newcomers and experiences digital assets traders. Cryptopia is a powerful exchange supporting over 400 global crypto assets. HitBTC is a world-renowned exchange, allowing users to transact in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Zcash and others, while KuCoin supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero, ZCash and more. With the addition of these exchanges, Indians at CoinSwitch will also be able to trade in Tron, EOS, Zilliqa and BAT [Basic attention Token], Request network, and a lot more.

About CoinSwitch

Headquartered in Bengaluru, CoinSwitch is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency exchange aggregator platform that supports transactions in over 100 cryptocurrencies in India and 300 across the globe like altcoins, tokens like Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], Ripple [XRP], Litecoin [LTC], etc. Given its diverse offering, CoinSwitch.co has been driving daily sales volumes upwards of USD 1 Mn.

CoinSwitch aggregates multiple exchanges, facilitating transactions in all coins that are available with partner exchanges. Users can easily compare the price across multiple exchanges and opt for the best bargain. CoinSwitch further allows users to convert their existing crypto-assets into other pairs, supporting over 7,000 currency pairs in India and over 45,000 across the globe.

|In: Finance|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

This year, Father’s Day falls on June 17. So be prepared to be pleasantly surprised when your little kid hands you a cute little gift and wishes you a Happy Father’s Day. Being a dad is one of the greatest joys in life. But this love and happiness come with a great deal of responsibility. Right from the moment of your child’s birth, there are a lot of expenses. Toys, clothes and visits to the hospital are some of them. But as your child grows, the list of bills only gets longer. In this article, let’s discuss how you can be a responsible father and secure your child’s future.

Image Source – Money Saving

Huge costs in the future

Did you know that an engineering degree from a top-tier government-aided college costs around Rs. 5-6 Lakh. The same degree costs Rs. 8-10 Lakh in a private college and in case of a college abroad, it would cost more than Rs 1 crore! The cost of education has risen exponentially in recent years. And if you include the cost of a wedding [the other major expense], it becomes pretty evident that you need to save a huge sum of money before your child grows up. In other words, you have roughly 18-20 years time to create a substantial fund to meet these huge expenses in your child’s life.

Financial planning to meet these expenses

Rs 1 crore! In 18 years!! How will I ever create such a large sum of money on my regular salary?

Well, don’t go into panic mode, yet. The amount might seem extraordinarily large. But guess what, it is possible. But for that, you need a proper financial plan. The first step is to list down all the expenses you may encounter in the future. You need to account for schooling, healthcare, clothing and those intermittent hobbies your child may get interested in all of a sudden.

Yep, between the 8th and 9th grade, your son’s only goal in life might be to become a drummer in a rock band. You relent and buy him a drum kit [that costs thousands of rupees]. But by the time school starts again, he has lost all interest in drumming. Now, he wants to become a cricketer. Sigh!

The point here is not to quash your child’s dreams and goals. Rather, it means that you need to be prepared financially to meet any of these unexpected costs.

Where can you invest?

Putting money in your bank account might sound like a good idea. However, at 3.5-5%, the returns are not very high. There are different investment avenues that can help you reach your financial goals at a much faster rate.

Consider mutual funds through a Systematic Investment Plan [SIP], it is possible to meet your financial goals at a smooth and steady rate. For example, by investing Rs 10,000 per month in a Mutual fund [at an interest rate of 13% per annum], you can create a corpus of Rs 1.14 crore in 20 years!

Similarly, you can invest in stocks for long-term financial goals provided you are comfortable with the associated risk. For short-term goals, you can consider debt funds or liquid funds to meet your goals.

To sum up, in the eyes of a child, a dad is a superhero. He can do anything. The good news is, you can keep up this image by providing for your child in the right way. So, get out the cape and mask, invest money and become a super-dad!

|In: Retail|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Delhi-based Nysaa Retail Pvt. Ltd, which operates a chain of ‘Value Retail’ stores under the brand name ‘1-India Family Mart’ across Eastern and Northern India has stepped up its expansion plans. The fastest growing value retail chain in India plans to invest Rs. 200 crore and open around 100 stores in the next two fiscal.

Image Source – One India Family Mart

1-India Family Mart has been consistently proving its mettle as one of the fastest growing value retail chains by providing affordable fresh fashion and general merchandise to its large customer base in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities. With its inception in 2013 and a vision to address the need of 75% of the population that resides in the small towns and cities of India, Nysaa Retail Pvt. Ltd backed 1-India Family Mart looks to expand and accumulate around 12 Lakh square foot of retail space by 2020.

Jay Prakash Shukla, a retail veteran and the founder & Chief Executive Office of 1-India Family Mart, said

Value retail has long been associated with consumers having to compromise in terms of the shopping experience, ambiance and customer service. 1-India Family Mart wants to change this perception and provide a value retail experience akin to the experience of walking into a supermarket in a Tier I city. The understanding of business for this segment was scarce but there was an innate enthusiasm about the possibility of business that could be extracted from these towns.

The plan is to expand and accumulate about 12 lakh sq. ft. of retail space by 2020 from the present 4.25 lakh sq. ft. Following the opening of the new stores, we expect to record net revenue of about Rs 750 crore in 2019, which will further increase to Rs 900 – 1,000 crore by 2020.

About 50% of the total investment required would be raked in through internal accruals and the remaining through debt. Nysaa Retail Pvt. Ltd has recorded more than 60% growth over the previous fiscal, with net sales rising to Rs 235 crore as against Rs 147.5 the previous fiscal year. Earlier this year, Nysaa raised Rs. 42.5 crore from private equity firm Carpediem Advisors Private Limited in the company’s first and only external funding round since it was founded in 2012.

Currently the company has established 56 stores across Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and the North East and will touch a top line of Rs. 750 Crore in net revenue by 2019. More stores have translated into significantly higher revenue, which has grown at a steady clip and 1-India Family Mart has been profitable for three years running.

The retail sector in India contributes to 10% of the GDP. However, lack of innovation and new-age infrastructure has hindered the rise of organized retail in rural areas. To combat this, 1-India Family Mart analyses big data insights accumulated from their customer’s buying habits and trends. These insights then give way to their unique growth strategy by anticipating the fashion and lifestyle changes required by their consumers.

So far, the company has already implemented this in 35 stores and aims to further gain competitive insights regarding their customers’ frequency of visits, buying behavior, instant preferences and repetitions via big data. The concept of Value Retail has been successfully cracked by 1-India Family Mart by catering to the aspirational and pocket-friendly requirement of the buyers, bringing high street designs at affordable prices for the multitude.

Value retail stores have pioneered the concept of meeting their profits by virtue of large scale reach and unique target audience segmentation. What is noteworthy here is that 1-India Family Mart manages to maintain quality products in a brick and mortar presence at extremely competitive and affordable prices.

About 1-India Family Mart

Nysaa Retail Private Limited, the holding company of 1-India Family Mart was established in 2012 with a vision of providing Fresh and Affordable Fashion and General Merchandise to its customers. The Value Retail Chain began operations in 2013. The company established its first store in UP and soon expanded operations to Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and North East. Today, 1-India Family Mart has 56 stores across East and North of India. Being a customer focused Value Retail chain; 1-India Family Mart is committed to providing the latest range of affordable fresh fashion apparels, lifestyle products and general merchandise to its customer across India.

|In: acquisition|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Last year in March, Truecaller had announced its foray into the digital payments segment, incorporating UPI-based transfers in its app. Truecaller has announced a strategic investment into the payment space in India by acquiring Chillr, India’s first multi-bank payments app launched in 2014.

Image Source – Chillr

The founders of Chillr, Sony Joy, Anoop Sankar, Mohamed Galib and Lishoy Bhaskaran and the rest of the organization will be joining Truecaller, and Sony Joy will be the Vice President of Truecaller Pay. Chillr’s team of engineers and designers have a profound understanding of mobile payments, and a deep passion for products that they will now bring to Truecaller. The company plans to leverage its full reach of over 150 million users in India as well as its 300+ existing partnerships in India to enable Truecaller Pay as a platform.

Nami Zarringhalam, CSO – Truecaller

Nami Zarringhalam, Truecaller Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer, said

Since launching Truecaller Pay in 2017, we have seen an increasing number of use cases to make the lives of our users in India easier. By acquiring Chillr, we are reaffirming our commitment to mobile payments and strengthening our plans to increase its adoption amongst our user base. We will, together, have a far bigger impact in this space through the foundation of the team’s expertise and a strong user base that trust our platform and use it on a daily basis.

Sony Joy, Co-founder & CEO – Chillr

Sony Joy, Co-founder, Chillr, said

After spending time with the founders and the Truecaller team, we have realized that we share a lot of synergies; values; culture; and a sharp focus on user experience. Our roadmap on payments and financial services which when combined with the scale and resources of Truecaller, can create amazing experiences and solve genuine problems at an accelerated pace.

About Truecaller

People use Truecaller to stay ahead. It helps them know who’s getting in touch, filter out unwanted calls and SMS, and focus on what really matters. The company provides a suite of unique services such as a dialer that offers caller ID, spam detection, messaging and more. Truecaller’s mission is to build trust everywhere by making communication safe and efficient. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company was founded in 2009 by Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Atomico and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.

With the launch of Truecaller Pay 2.0, the company has brought banking and payments features to the forefront of its app, and in the coming months Truecaller is planning on rolling out credit and other financial services to users in Indiain a mobile-first way.