Uber, the world’s largest ride-sharing company, announced a collaboration with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., part of the US$ 19 billion Mahindra Group, which will explore the deployment of electric vehicles [EVs] on the Uber platform in several cities across India.
To begin with, the companies will deploy hundreds of electric vehicles in Delhi and Hyderabad. Mahindra’s electric vehicles on the Uber platform will include the e2oPlus hatch and the eVerito sedan. As part of this collaboration, both the companies will also explore deployment of Mahindra electric vehicles to other cities. The joint deployment of electric vehicles will further reinforce the strong relationship between Mahindra and Uber. Over the years, there has been a strong deployment of Mahindra vehicles on Uber’s platform and Mahindra is also a key financier for Uber’s driver partner through Mahindra Finance.
According to Madhu Kannan, Chief Business Officer, Uber India & Emerging Markets
We are extremely excited about our collaboration with the Mahindra Group to deploy this electric vehicles pilot in India. Aligned with the government’s vision, we aim to build a more sustainable future of mobility, moving more people needing on-demand services with fewer, fuller, and more efficient vehicle trips. We see a key role for high efficiency vehicle technologies, and therefore believe that this collaboration with Mahindra, the pioneers in the electric vehicles space, will be truly beneficial not just for Uber but for our driver partners, riders and the cities we operate in.
Speaking on the collaboration, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said
Electric vehicle adoption is clearly gaining momentum in India. As the pioneers of electric vehicles in the country we would like to be at the forefront, leading this change toward smart and sustainable mobility. Our collaboration with Uber is an important next step to help accelerate the large scale adoption of electric vehicles on shared mobility platforms, and meet the nation’s vision for EVs.
Through this collaboration, driver partners on the Uber app can avail of a package which will include Mahindra electric vehicles at competitive prices, attractive financing and insurance premiums as well as comprehensive maintenance packages from Mahindra and its associates. Further, to make this model sustainable, Mahindra and Uber will work closely with public and private players who are in the process of setting-up a common use charging ecosystem across multiple locations in the cities.
Mahindra will also support with driver education and training related to various aspects of electric vehicles. Going forward, electric vehicles will play a major role in reducing urban pollution plaguing several Indian cities and resulting in health hazards. With the increased penetration of EVs and eventual 100% transition, the country and its citizens stand to benefit tremendously.
All these initiatives align perfectly with Mahindra’s Rise philosophy of empowering people with the right products and services to enhance the quality of their lives and earnings.
IFIM Institutions, in partnership with the Government of India and NASSCOM, hosted their Digital Innovation Conclave, which aimed to bring out the importance of a Public-Private Partnership [PPP] for improving the employability quotient of a skilled India. Prof Sadagopan, Director [President] of IIIT-Bangalore, Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO, IoT, NASSCOM, Dr Ramesh U representing AICTE, Government of India and Sanjay Padode, Secretary, Center for Developmental Education [IFIM Institutions] together inaugurated the session.
As per Analytics India Industry Study 2016, Analytics Market in India currently stands at $1.64 Billion annually in revenues, growing at a healthy rate of 28.8% CAGR. Though analytics is still largely considered a part of broader KPO industry, increasingly analytics is now being considered a separate industry of its own.
Understanding the role of analytics in shaping the career of future professionals, previously, IFIM institutions with NASSCOM had sketched out unique model of ‘Train the Trainer’ in three courses- Associate Analytics, Junior Data Analytics and Recruitment Associate. The program was Level 7 and intended to skill 10,000 Post Graduate students across state.
The Chief Guest for the occasion, Dr Sadagopan, Director, IIIT Bangalore inaugurated the event by stressing the need to upgrade the curriculum of technical and management education in India. He said
India is a magnet of talent and it is high time we nurtured this by providing them the right assistance. With the advent of technology, students, especially in the higher education segment, need to be trained to acquire the right skillsets. The country has a bright future in the space of Analytics, and therefore it is important for a greater focus on data and a good scope for businesses to grow in this space. This should be reflected right from the stage of curriculum design, to help nurture the right talent at the right time. A partnership of the government, along with the educational institutions and the IT sector, is crucial to help catalyze the growth in data analytics.
According to an independent research report, the $155-billion Indian IT sector employs around 3.9 million people, and McKinsey estimates that the skill-sets of half of the existing workforce will be irrelevant as they are not skilled to be in tune with the changing market needs.
Sanjay Padode, Secretary, Center for Developmental Education [IFIM Institutions], said
The event is organised as an acknowledgement of the need to re-skill the workforce in Analytics and AI as this technology is being adopted across industries. As data becomes the new fuel in running industries, the need for a professional knowledge of analytics and utilising it in artificial intelligence gains in importance. Largely, it will define how the existing businesses upgrade to incorporate AI and use analytics. Also, this opens up the gates to many more new business opportunities for young professionals.
IFIM Institutions has been working towards holistic development of the students who would be continuously employable. While automation has entered market like a storm, it is essential for our workforce to be in line with the requirement of industry. With Digital Innovation Conclave we have taken initiative to bring all industry stakeholders at one platform and brainstorm towards ensuring a better future for our society.
The Conclave culminated with the formation of a Think Tank in Digital Business chaired by Prof Chandrasekhar, Chairman of Centre of Excellence for Business Analytics at IFIM Business School. Sameer Dhanrajani, Chief Strategy Officer, Fractal Analytics announced the names of the invited members of this Think Tank and handed over the invitation letters. Members of the Think Tank are below
The Think Tank will be supported by a research group consisting of students and faculty, led by Prof Chandrashekhar, the renowned name in Data Analytics in country. This Think Tank shall develop a well-researched white paper for consumption by the Industry and Academia at large. The paper shall endeavour to outline the curriculum changes and development of coursework to align the present programs with the digital needs of the industry in the future. This paper would be presented to the Chairman of AICTE, UGC and would be circulated to the academic heads of all universities and institutions in the country.
BankBazaar, India’s leading Personal Finance marketplace, has revamped its mobile app with a host of new improvements. These include gold/silver and fuel rate trackers and personalized graphs for better visualization of expenses in the Personal Finance feature of the Android app. For the first time, a comprehensive number of Personal Finance features have been aggregated on one single interface to provide users a complete view of their finances.
With the new upgrade, the BankBazaar app now allows users to check specific details of their financial transaction history, letting them control their money better. Some of the other useful features include daily gold/silver and fuel rate updates, daily tips on money management and latest news from the world of finance. Moreover, the EMI calculator further simplifies all those complicated loan calculations, making the app a one-stop destination for everything related to personal finance.
Rati Shetty, Chief Product Officer, BankBazaar.com said
Our mission has been to help consumers access the right financial products and make their financial journey simpler. The introduction of Personal Finance feature in the BankBazaar mobile app is another step towards simplifying money management for users and encouraging responsible fiscal behaviour.
With more than 1M downloads, the BankBazaar app is one of the most handy personal finance apps available. The introduction of the provision to check Experian Credit Report on the go makes the app all the more versatile. Not just that, it also lets you track your bank balance and Credit Card dues. When put together, these features provide a holistic view of your finances that can help you:
Track better – The fuel trackers help you keep a city-wise watch on the rates, and let you manage and track your fuel spends. The option to view all monthly spends in graphical form will let you manage your money better.
Plan better – The Credit Card and EMI trackers keep you updated about your payment deadlines. When you have a clear picture of your balances and the payment deadlines, you can plan your finances better. With regular alerts prompting you to make the payments, you have lesser chance of missing a payment and letting it affect your Credit Score.
Save better – With all information available over a highly simplified interface on your mobile phone, you can manage your finances and control your expenses. These will eventually help you save better.
It is now simpler than ever to track all your finances on the go using your phone. Be it your credit, Credit Score, savings or expenses, the BankBazaar app can help you keep a track of every aspect of your finances and get a better handle on your money.
BankBazaar hosts the widest range of financial products from over 50+ of the biggest public and private sector banks, NBFCs, and Mutual Funds players in India. It gets an average of 20 million visitors per month. The company raised USD 110M through funding from investors such as Amazon.com, Experian, Fidelity Growth Partners, Mousse Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Walden International.
In a bid to ensure hassle-free communication and booking experience for its guests, OYO – India’s largest hospitality company, has started testing WhatsApp enterprise solution.
Travellers booking an OYO will now have the choice to receive their booking confirmations along with cancellation and navigation details for locating a hotel via WhatsApp. This development is in line with OYO’s pioneering use of technology in budget hotel operations in India – enabling users to book a hotel across 230 cities in India, Malaysia and Nepal within seconds via the OYO app.
Once a booking is created, the integration will allow OYO to send a confirmation message through WhatsApp. Customers will receive the message through OYO’s verified profile to ensure reliability. In case of connectivity issues, OYO will further notify the guests through SMS. Users who do not use WhatsApp will receive notifications through SMS and email.
In order to ensure privacy and security for guests, the company will only send relevant information about a guest’s stay through WhatsApp. Guests will also receive directions for locating their hotel on the day of the check-in and notification in case a booking is cancelled.
Commenting on the development, Anil Goel, CTO – OYO, said
Technology has been the biggest driver for OYO to create value in India’s hospitality industry and also the experience we offer to our guests. Since OYO’s inception, we have built first-in-industry tech solutions – such as OYO consumer app, Krypton and the Owner app for our hotel partners. With the latest WhatsApp integration, we will make the post-booking experience hassle-free for our guests. They can now easily access their booking details via WhatsApp, which enjoys a huge reach in India with over 200 million active users. It’s fast, secure and hassle-free – exactly how the OYO experience is.
Through innovation in technology, training and strong brand recall, OYO has established its leadership in the hospitality segment today with 8,500-plus hotels in more than 230 cities within its network.
About OYO
OYO is India’s largest hospitality company operating in more than 230 cities across India, Malaysia and Nepal. These include major metros, regional business hubs, top leisure destinations as well as pilgrimage towns. OYO was recently chosen as India’s Most Promising Hotel Network [HolidayIQ Better Holiday Awards 2017]. It was also recognized by Business Today as among the Coolest Startups in India [2016] and ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top employee attractors in India two years in a row [2016 and 2017]. For more information, please visit OYO
Swiggy, India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform, announced the launch of its food ordering and delivery service in Ahmedabad. After continued success in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, Swiggy is now expanding its operations to Ahmedabad – the food-lover’s hub.
Continuing with its superior consumer experience that has become synonymous with the brand, Swiggy is bringing the choicest food options at the doorsteps of Amdavadis. These include a range of legendary eateries, trendy new cafes, multi-cuisine food trucks and national and international Quick Service Restaurants [QSRs] across areas such as Prahladnagar, Vastrapur and Navrangpura. Around 300 of the city’s restaurants are already available on the food ordering and delivery platform.
Srivats TS, Vice President – Marketing at Swiggy, said
Adavadis are passionate about their food, which is as rich and vibrant as the city itself. With Swiggy’s lightning fast and hassle-free ordering and delivery service, food-lovers in the city can now enjoy food from the best neighbourhood restaurants with just a touch of a button.
Rushad Jinwala, owner of Tomato’s, said
As a popular restaurant in Ahmedabad, we are passionate about the dishes we serve to our customers. Partnering with Swiggy allows us to focus on making great food while they take care of ordering and delivery, helping us reach more customers.
Over the years, Swiggy has become a loved consumer brand by bringing convenience, choice, reliability and a great food-ordering experience. Recognising Ahmedabad’s love for food and its fast-changing taste, Swiggy now brings its signature offerings to the city.
Swiggy will deliver numerous benefits to both restaurants and foodies in Ahmedabad
Swiggy for Food-lovers – Swiggy connects foodies with the choicest restaurant options, including over 300 of the best restaurants in the city, including Cafe Coffee Day, McDonalds, Zen Cafe, No Mad Baker, Melt in and Mad by Tomato’s. To ensure consumers have access to the best restaurants in the city, Swiggy will deliver from a wider radius of as much as 6 kms. Consumers can not only order from these restaurants without any restrictions on the minimum order value, but also track their orders live on the Swiggy app. With the fastest food delivery service in the country, Amdavadis will now have their food delivered at a lightning speed.
Swiggy for Restaurants – Swiggy provides city-restaurants with the tools and technology to reach new customers. In addition to driving order volumes through the platform, partner restaurants can strengthen their delivery services, brand equity and recall value by coming on to the online delivery platform.
In the good old days, you had to step out to shop for clothes, books, grocery and had to refer to mass media advertisements [TV, Radio, Newspapers] in order to hunt for the best offers. Fast forward now, all these services are now available on the tip of your fingers due to the affordability of smart-phones, rising internet penetration, evolution of digital technologies, etc. Due to these factors, there is a rapid shift in the overall strategy in which companies market products to their customers.
Marketing is an essential part of any new start-up or business. To succeed in whatever domain you are targeting, you need to pay more attention to direct mail marketing as it is still a fundamental marketing tool. Though there are many channels to acquire/retain customers, email marketing is still one of the most productive ways to win over customers. Email still delivers the highest ROI for marketers, for every $1 spent; email marketing generates $38 in ROI [Source].
The Era of Hyper-personalization
How many times have you opted out of a newsletter from an Online Travel Agency [OTA], e-commerce website, etc. since it was not relevant to you or you found that there was zero personalization in the newsletter? It would be an annoying situation if you receive offers for a product that you have never searched for on an e-commerce website or receive promotional emails for products not pertaining to your profile. Marketers can now utilize plenty of data-points from customer generated data – social media information, browsing history, purchasing history, user preferences, location & demographics, etc. to provide them a near-about ‘Personalized Experience’. There is a shift to Hyper-Personalization so that customers are offered hyper-personalized experience, an experience tailor-made for them.
Hyper-personalization can be applied to entire umbrella of the digital-marketing strategy, but it is the most effective when applied to email marketing. One more problem that marketers face is the low open rate of emailers and newsletters, but with the advent of AI, Machine Learning and other evolving technologies, they can now leverage AI that learns to automatically maximize open rates of email campaigns. Startups are working on solving this problem so that they can help their clients in achieving maximum conversion rate thereby acquiring as well as retaining customers.
SendPulse – Making Marketing Simple
SendPulse, a US based startup is leveraging AI, Hyper-personalization, Predictive analysis for email, SMS, Web Push, SMTP in order to make Marketing Simple
It maximizes the core metric of e-mail marketing – newsletter open rate – automatically. SendPulse collects tons of data about billions of subscribers in their system and predicts the best time and channel for each subscriber when to deliver the next message to him. The result has been fabulous where their customer’s see 50% open rate increase in average. When compared to other popular email marketing solutions, the core USP of SendPulse is that it is an all-in-one integrated solution that offers bulk email, bulk SMS messages and web push notifications.
SendPulse follows a freemium model, which means that customers can try out all the features that SendPulse offers in the trial period. Though the email marketing space is largely dominated by MailChimp and GetResponse, the major advantage of SendPulse is its advanced email service As a part of the review; we would be digging deeper into the email service of SendPulse.
SendPulse was among the 3 finalists of The Next Web SCALE 2016 program. It was recognized as one of the best startups of 2016 by The Next Web.
SendPulse – Detailed Review
As mentioned earlier, major concern that digital marketers face with emailers, newsletters is the Low Open Rates. SendPulse leverages the potential of AI that helps its customers to increase email and message Open Rates & overall audience reach. When compared to the existing Email Marketing Services [EMS], SendPulse provides 70% increase in the Email Open Rates resulting in much better ROI.
The AI solution in SendPulse will choose an optimal communication medium [email, SMS, web/mobile push] and optimal time to send out the message so that there is maximum probability of an interaction with the subscriber.
Sending Personalized Emails
Once you have signed up with SendPulse, you can start using the plethora of useful features available in the product. We discussed about the importance of Hyper-personalization and SendPulse takes that to a whole new level with its email offering.
Customers have the option to choose from the Free Email Templates on their website that cater to different segments like Travel, e-commerce, Business, Healthcare, etc. or prefer to design their own template using the WYSIWYG drag & drop email editor. If you are well-versed with HTML, you should definitely give a try to design your own personalized template.
The look & feel of the emails are adapted as per the device and display resolution so that there is uniformity in the design when the users switch from one device to another.
Create Unique Mailings with Personalization and Segmentation
Mailing Lists are a very powerful medium where companies can connect with their customers. With SendPulse, you can create a template that is tailored for each and every recipient. The best part about the personalization is that it is all in the form of Macros. A sample is shown below
There is a huge difference when you refer a person by his/her name e.g. ‘Hey Himanshu’ when compared to ‘Hey’. SendPulse takes personalization to a different level, where multiple fields like Gender, Company, Position, etc. can be customized in order to Wow their customers.
Segmentation consists of dividing your customer base up into different groups according to the criteria you set. In order to deliver unique experience to every recipient on the mailing list, customers of SendPulse can do Segmentation on the basis of Gender, Place of residence, users’ subscription details date. Segmentation according to users’ subscription details date are useful for sending personalized offers, sending re-activation emails to customers who have been in-active after sign-up.
Web Push, Analytics and REST API
Customers of SendPulse can leverage the power of Web Push that lets them reach their customers when they are active on their devices.
SendPulse provides support for REST API that can be used by developers/engineers for their app/web development. SendPulse API’s can be integrated with existing CMS and CRM systems like WordPress, WooCommerce, etc.
A product is in-complete if there is no Developer Support and if there is no way to track What approach has worked and what hasn’t? Google Analytics is a powerful tool used by marketers for detailed tracking and measuring the CTR & taking appropriate actions. Emails that have been sent via SendPulse can be tracked using Google Analytics, hence there is no learning involved in it. Along with the number of emails opened, links clicked and other details, customers of SendPulse can track the activity of the subscribers, segment their mailing lists and work with clients with an individual approach.
SendPulse Pricing
As mentioned earlier, SendPulse follows the Freemium model so that it can cover a varied spectrum of customers right from startups to MNCs. Below are the different plans of SendPulse
Free Plan – If you have less than 2,500 subscribers you can send up to 15,000 emails per month for free.
Monthly Subscription – The pricing in this plan would vary based on the number of subscribers and emails that you need. The pricing for 50K subscribers is $191.
Pay As you Go – This prepaid email package gives you the option to pay for the emails that you need.
VIP Plan – If you have more than 1 million subscribers and if there is a plan to start a regular mailing program, than you should opt for the VIP Plan. You need to send a mail to sales@sendpulse.com for getting more information about the VIP Plan.
For further details about the Email Marketing Pricing, SMTP Service, Web Push Services, etc. please visit SendPulse Pricing Page
SendPulse – Conclusion
SendPulse is an interesting product that solves a ‘much-needed’ problem for online marketers. If you are looking out for a hybrid series of communications to target your customers, than you should definitely give SendPulse a try.
Since they have integrated SMS, Web Push, and Emails in one single platform hence, you can build/change your online strategy on the fly. If you are an existing SendPulse customer, please leave your feedback in the comments section.
CleverTap, the pioneering provider of a mobile analytics and user engagement platform announced their integration with cloud telephony solution from Exotel as part of their holistic product offering.
With this partnership, CleverTap’s diverse range of clients can engage with users via SMS in a more timely, personalized, and effective manner. This further increases the efficacy of CleverTap’s industry-leading analytics and segmentation engine, helping clients run multi-channel SMS campaigns to increase user engagement and retention.
Speaking on this latest development, Kuldeep Dhankar, Head of Business at CleverTap, said
In today’s hyper-competitive market landscape, a satisfactory customer experience drives business growth. Thus, it is vital for businesses to have the right technology in place to deliver the best possible user experience and stay one step ahead of the competition. At CleverTap, we adopt a customer-first approach and take into account all the feedback and requests that we receive.
Based on their requests, we decided to integrate SMS as a user engagement channel on our platform. Exotel’s proven track record convinced us to choose their service offering. This will help our clients run personalized engagement campaigns right from our dynamic platform using push notifications, in-app messages, web notifications, emails, and now SMS as well.
Elaborating on the announcement, Shivakumar Ganesan, CEO and Founder at Exotel, said
We are delighted to partner with CleverTap to integrate Exotel’s solutions with their offerings. Technology can empower businesses to transform and create a profound impact. The combination of Exotel’s cloud telephony solutions with CleverTap’s next generation mobile engagement platform creates an enhanced user experience which is of significant value to the marketplace today. We value our relationship with CleverTap and remain committed to their success, as they continue to transform their services.
About CleverTap
CleverTap provides a comprehensive behavioural analytics and user engagement suite that enables brands to identify, target, engage, measure, and monetize users across mobile and web. CleverTap’s unique platform which combines analytics and engagement with industry-first features such as live user segments, is a powerful solution for businesses who want to design and implement real-time, personalized, and impactful strategies for rapid business growth. For more information, please visit CleverTap
About Exotel
Exotel is the most reliable and scalable cloud telephony platform in India. Founded by Shivakumar Ganesan, Ishwar Sridharan and Siddharth Ramesh in 2011, the company powers voice communication for over a 1300 businesses including brands like Ola, Uber, Flipkart, Quikr, and Practo. For more information, please visit Exotel
Nuvepro, a managed cloud environment solutions provider has raised $400K investment led by 1Crowd and its investor community. The investment will be used to deepen their R&D efforts and continue to expand into the worldwide market.
1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. It has more than 500 investors, 50 mentors and has made over 12 investments since March 2016. With the funds, the company will be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic to operational support.
As part of the managed cloud environment solution, Nuvepro delivers ready-to-use infrastructure and applications on a single or multiple clouds, automates the resource provisioning, manages cloud resources & spend, ensures governance and compliance of cloud usage, integrates with your existing tools. All of this is done through a single-source self-service portal. The platform ensures that CIOs have complete control over resources, hierarchy, and subscription management. The embedded analytics provides insights that will help CIOs to track the cloud usage, optimize the resources and cut costs by over 50%.
80% of enterprises are using the cloud. However, the CIOs are still finding it challenging to increase the cloud adoption and utilization. The returns on their cloud investments are far from realized. Nuvepro was founded with a singular vision to make the cloud work, help CIOs make the most of their cloud investments and enable them to take the competitive-edge. We do it by taking complete ownership through managed cloud environment so that CIOs don’t need to worry about provisioning, governance, security, skill building, shadow IT and managing multiple clouds.
Along with a well-respected, experienced and dedicated team, Nuvepro addresses key modern day challenge of cloud adoption. Microsoft Azure and Amazon web services have made strong strides in moving resources to the cloud and making the value proposition for enterprises attractive. We believe Nuvepro would be able to form a crucial bridge between enterprises and cloud providers by driving faster adoption. The underlying business model of providing ready to use cloud infrastructure available on a subscription or pay per go basis is also a strong pull for enterprises.
The debate on cloud is over. The focus now is to improve the cloud adoption and utilization. 1Crowd’s trust and investment in this vision gives us extra push to enable more CIOs to realize the true benefits of the cloud.
The startup was founded in 2014 by Janakiraman S, Giridhar LV, Umesh Bhatt, Moyukh Goswami and Rajesh Vasudevan, all having significant years of professional experience.
About Nuvepro
Nuvepro enables organizations to improve the cloud adoption and utilization. They do it through ‘managed cloud environment solution’ where we take complete ownership in providing ready-to-use infrastructure and applications on any cloud, automating the resource provisioning, managing cloud resources & spend, and ensuring governance and compliance of cloud usage. For more information, please visit Nuvepro
About 1Crowd
1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on investing in early stage ventures. 1Crowd and its investor community has made 12 investments since last year. 1Crowd has close to 500 investors on board and over 50 eminent people as mentors. For more information, please visit 1Crowd
