Swiggy, India’s leading food ordering and delivery platform, has raised USD 100 million in Series F funding, its largest round yet. Led by Naspers, a global internet and entertainment group, and one of the world’s largest technology investors, the Series also includes new investor Meituan-Dianping, China’s largest service e-commerce platform.With this new funding, Swiggy will further strengthen its market leadership position by introducing a host of unique and advanced products and services. As part of its long-term strategy of solving for existing supply gaps in the marketplace, Swiggy will also make investments in its New Supply business line.
After the successful launch of its first New Supply initiative, ‘Swiggy Access’ last November, the new capital will be used for further expansion. Swiggy will also continue innovating its core technology platform, especially in the areas of data-driven self-learning systems that leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence. The company will build on its adaptive, real-time prediction and optimization systems to further improve consumer choice and personalization, along with speed, volume and efficiency of deliveries.
As India’s leading food ordering and delivery platform with a network of thousands of restaurants and millions of users, Swiggy has become part of consumers’ everyday lives. We want to continue to bring convenience, choice and reliability to our users as we fulfill our mission of ‘Changing the Way India Eats’.
With this funding, we will further invest in building differentiated offerings, plugging the white spaces in the ecosystem, and developing our technology while keeping superlative customer experience at the core.
Since the last round of funding, Swiggy has introduced a slew of new initiatives like Swiggy Access, long-distance deliveries and Capital Assist to help restaurants serve consumers in new and more powerful ways.
The company also strengthened its senior leadership with several additions to the team including those from the recent acqui-hire ofgourmet food startup 48East. The top-rated food app also underwent a revamp, making it more intuitive and personalized to each consumer, enabling a great food ordering experience. Swiggy has posted a record increase of 500 percent in revenues in the last financial year and saw order volumes nearly double since its previous funding in May 2017.
Swiggy has continued strong growth through 2017 and now has a clear lead in the market. The company’s performance is all the more impressive given the intense competition we see in the food ordering and delivery business in India. Swiggy has shown it has the ability to rise above the competition and create long-term relationships with its users.
Over the last three years, Swiggy has steadily leveraged its understanding of the Indian consumer to identify market gaps and introduce disruptive and differentiated service offerings. The fastest food delivery service in the country, Swiggy’s average delivery time is an industry benchmark of under 35 minutes. It has also unlocked the business potential of partner restaurants across eleven locations in India, including Delhi, NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Chandigarh.
Healthureum, blockchain based healthcare startup announced raising of $15 million in the bounty program of its Pre- ICO campaign. The company had undertaken it’s first ICO in the month of Nov~Dec and ended up raising an amount of $15 million. Healthureum an Estonia based startup that claims of bringing first blockchain based Healthcare announced its Pre-ICO in the month of Dec and after an overwhelming response from the market is all set for its Upcoming Token generation event which is scheduled for the 3rd week of February respectively.
New applications of blockchain technology are picking up pace and startups are bent on exploiting it in every way. As complex as it may seem, blockchain is a decentralized ledger that records transactions on blocks and encrypts them cryptographically. It’s decentralized nature enables preserving the integrity of data and hence makes blockchain ideal for application in data management.
Healthureum, launched its initiative aiming to revolutionize the healthcare technology by integrating blockchain and cryptocurrency into the existing system to eliminate malpractices and errors in order to ensure efficiency and accuracy in the operational procedures of healthcare. The company made news after it raised a sizeable fund in its Pre Token Generation Event [Pre-TGE] mounting up to $15 million at the very beginning of this year.
Healthureum is a platform designed on Ethereum based blockchain employing smart contracts to create a dynamic environment for stakeholders involved in the overall healthcare procedures by facilitating payments and rewards within the system with the use of an exclusive token called HHEM.
Spearheaded by Data Scientist Malcolm Wilkinson, Medicine Specialist Tomoi Set, and Chief Project Office Danuta Kowalska, this integration of a 21st century technology, blockchain, and one of the most ancient practices of humankind, healthcare, is dubbed as the first step to a holistic environment where solutions to multiple health services related problems well forth from this sophisticated software.
As per the press releases from the company, Healthureum will proceed with its next ICO beginning 26th February, 2018 till 1st April, 2018 with an appreciated token price at $3.95 from a previous $3.53. Healthureum provides efficient support in doctor consultation, referrals, and diagnostics, medical infrastructure, philanthropic activities, data systematization, and research programs to enable cost cutting, population health management, innovation, and regulatory practices by adopting cooperative delivery models and transitioning to digitized operations.
Ritu Tyagi, Director of Marketing, Healthureum, said
The response to the Pre TGE has been encouraging and we are looking forward to another successful Token Generation event on 26th February. Our investors have immensely supported the development of our services in the early stages. We are positive that the establishment of a decentralized framework will induce a chain reaction to rejuvenate the operational and administrative procedures in both institutions and the bureaucracy not only in the west but across countries.
Studies conducted by American giants such as Deloitte and IBM state the role of blockchain in the evolution of healthcare and shortcomings of the prevalent systems further corroborate the scope of blockchain’s application in the industry. With a transparent and immutable ledger of longitudinal history of every patient participating in the system, the crippled structure of data management which causes prejudicial events for the patients as well as the caregivers in the industry can be stabilized and revived. More than 500 lives lost each day due to errors and accidents in the hospitals can be prevented by replacing the existing mechanisms with systems capable of managing mountainous data such as in the health industry.
Transitioning to a digitized system is expected to invite support from philanthropic contributors as well as investors. A monetary influx is essential to support the upcoming change while simultaneously filling the existing gaps in other fronts of the systems as lack of trained personnel, advanced equipment, infrastructure, and need for research and development. The cryptocurrency based model, using HHEM token on the ECR20 standard, is a self appreciating scheme to provide high yield to each participant as well as to the whole system at large.
The HHEM token will facilitate fast and secure transfer of funds across borders for payments for services and rewards on referrals both within the network and outside it enabling patients to seek video consultation from doctors in any part of the world without worrying about the hassles of transferring money to another country hence opening the doors to a globally connected network of doctors and patients.
Aiming to bring standardization, scalability, and social responsibility, blockchain is a blessing in disguise as it is expected to improve the overall state of people’s health in the country that it is established to. The health of a country’s population is an essential determinant of the growth of the economy, very well reflected in the GDP when more and more people are able to contribute to the development of the areas they work in while the financial burden on the economy is reduced when people are healthier.
Blockchain based initiatives, such as Healthureum, are garnering attention as experts and enthusiasts in finance and tech look for promising opportunities which are, of course, financially beneficial and also lead change in their niche. With an advantageous start at the Pre TGE, Healthureum has its road map ready with the implementation of its Alpha model in hospitals lined up in November 2018.
Scripbox was awarded the ‘Best Innovative wealth, asset and investment management service/product‘ by the Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] at the 8th India Digital Awards held last week. The awards were part of the 12th India Digital Summit held in Delhi. IAMAI’s India Digital Awards recognizes and rewards organizations, teams and practitioners who deliver successful business outcomes using the digital medium.Scripbox uses proprietary algorithms to simplify and automate the steps required for successful mutual fund investment. Human errors and bias are removed as the algorithm recommends the best mutual funds to invest your money in. Additionally, best investment practices such as periodic review and refreshing of funds are also automated by Scripbox. Since their inception in 2012, they have enabled over 1.1 million investment transactions.
Speaking about the award, E.R. Ashok Kumar, CEO and Co-founder of Scripbox, said
It is a proud moment for us to have our efforts recognized by IAMAI. We have been focused on delivering customer focused innovation and doing what is best for the customer in personal finance. This award will go a long way in encouraging us and endorsing our efforts.
Union Minister for Commerce and Industries Suresh Prabhu and NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant attended the IAMAI 12th India Digital Summit which concluded with the 8th India Digital Awards. IAMAI is the only representative body of Internet Services business in India. IAMAI is a not-for-profit industry body which champions the interests of India’s internet services business among government, investors, consumers and other stakeholders.
About Scripbox
Scripbox is India’s most trusted online investment service. Scripbox simplifies the journey of wealth creation with jargon free and unbiased automated investing – scientifically choosing the best funds to invest your money in. Established in 2012, Scripbox today has over 3,50,000 subscribers across 1150 cities & towns who have invested over Rs.650+ crore of their savings with the company. For more information, please visit ScripBox, also available on Android and iOS.
Do you have a dream of starting something on your own? Do you have that spark in you? Are you in short of money to pursue your business? Always remember that most of the biggest companies were started on a very short budget.
Amazon’s office during the early stage
If you have that passion in you, budget constraint won’t be able to stop you from winning, period.
Let’s discuss a few pointers you need to consider if you are starting your business on a budget
Paperwork is optional
Unless you are dealing with some legal way or something, it is not mandatory to get your business registered. Many of the small business were started without any paperwork done. Once they validated their idea, they proceeded to get their site registered.
I see guys getting into all the paperwork without even validating their idea. Later on all the effort of registration and paperwork is wasted if the business doesn’t turn out well.
You don’t need an office
Jeff Bezos started his empire from garage and same is with Larry Page. Don’t hesitate to make garage your office if required. You can always opt for those swanky offices once you run in profits.
As most of the businesses these days run on laptops and phones, you can also get this done sitting in the comfort of your home! I understand that some guys hesitate sitting in garage or home, but if you are really serious about the work, you will be able to do it no matter where you are sitting.
Be ready to make your hands dirty
While in corporate world, there is a specific task assigned to each of the employee. But when you are starting up, you have to do it all yourself. Sometimes you be the sweeper and sometimes a telecaller. Man, this is startup and you have to get into multiple roles unless you are a Ambani or Tata.
Similarly, get things like branding and website by yourself too. I have used Canva’s Free visiting card maker to get some awesome cards done within seconds and used DesignEvo to make logos. Want a website done? Get website builder and do it yourself. Similarly you can do a lot of things by your own.
Want a website done? Get website builder and do it yourself. Similarly you can do a lot of things by your own.
Save Save Save, negotiate where you can
A penny saved is a penny earned, right? Negotiate everywhere. Always remember you are on a fixed budget. Buying computer parts? Search for wholesalers in your area. Always look out for wholesale places as there are always such places where the prices are low.
Similarly, ask your vendors to give you credit for a month or so. This will help you keeping cash in hand. Also, keep a check on minute expenditures. These small ones look negligible but they might result in huge expenses collectively.
Learn new things instead of outsourcing
As I said before, you don’t have to get everything outsourced when you are starting up. Learning new skills helps a lot. I know many startup guys who designed their website, who designed their logos, who painted their office.
There will be times where you will need expert’s help. For that, there are communities related to every industry. Just be bold and ask your query. Yes this is time taking, but who cares? When you are moving, it is good, whether it’s slow or fast 🙂
Do a lot of networking
Once I met a developer who turned out to a great guy. We met at local dev meetup where I offered everyone free hosting coupons I got from a friend who just started his web hosting company. The developers were so impressed, one of them offered me help to create my blog.
In a nutshell, networking helps a lot as you can help people as per your expertise and they can help you as per theirs. This is a win win situation where no one has to spend money to get things done!
Starting a business is no doubt a tough task. I have seen many guys sinking and getting back to their 9 to 5 within months of starting up. Don’t let any constraint hinder your way, keep your will as strong as stone and dive into the sea of entrepreneurship. All the best!
About the Author
Prince Kapoor is a Freelance Marketing Analyst and Blogger. While not working, you can find him in gym or giving random health advises to his colleagues which no one agrees on :). If you too want some of his advises [on health or on marketing], reach out to him at @imprincekapur
Corporatedge, a leading provider of Serviced Office Infrastructure in India gets funded by SIDBI India Opportunities Fund to support the expansion of the company’s Serviced Offices business. With this funding, the company aims at expanding to over 6 locations across India.
Formed in 2012 as a privately held company, the company provides fully serviced offices, virtual offices, meeting rooms & co-working spaces for companies ranging from start-ups to multinational conglomerates. Since inception, CE Serviced Offices Private Limited [Corporatedge] has been passionately focusing on service delivery and premium yet value for money offering in the Serviced Offices vertical.
The company has two operational serviced office offerings in premium locations in Gurgaon. Corporatedge launched its first Centre with 40 office suites and 178 workstations spread over 16,000 sq. ft. – at DLF Cyber City in 2013. In 2016 another premium offering was set up at Corporatedge Horizon Centre, spread over 25,000 sq ft. with 60 suites and 280 workstations at DLF Two Horizon in April 2016.
Corporatedge has created a mark in the Business Center industry with MNCs and international firms largely working out of their state of the art modern facilities. They have a total of 500 desks operational and have grown their capacity by 60% in the last quarter of 2017.
Positioned as a Premium offering in the Serviced Offices space, ‘Corporatedge’ is known for its Premium offering as – Location, Address, Product-mix, Infrastructure, Interiors, Technology and Service support. With the India Growth story gaining momentum and the country’s brand equity in the business world being stronger than ever, the demand from foreign companies, domestic companies, and startups within the country for serviced offices will continue to grow over the next several years.
Mona Shukla, Founder, and CEO at Corporatedge Serviced Offices, said
We want companies to have a premium workplace environment experience, second to none in the world. The world wants to do business with India and in India. And they will demand the best service standards and settle for nothing less.
We are humbled by the support of SIDBI IOF Team. Our commitment of an excellent service, followed by manageable growth has made us reach this far. With this round of funding, we see ourselves grow into a national entity. We dream to be a global entity soon and this would be a major milestone in our journey.
SIDBI Venture Capital Limited [SVCL], incorporated in 1999, is an investment management company and a wholly owned subsidiary of SIDBI, the Apex Financial Institution in the country for the MSME sector. Over its life, SVCL has managed funds focussed on different themes including Startups/early stage technology businesses, manufacturing SMEs, service entities, agribusinesses, financial inclusion companies, etc. However, the common string in all investments has been the focus to identify strong & ethical leadership teams capable of executing innovation-based business models or robustly scalable businesses. Acupro Consulting, a boutique investment banking outfit based out of Gurgaon acted as exclusive advisor to the Company in this transaction.
Microsoft Accelerator, a global program built to empower start-ups, and Accenture Ventures, which partners with and invests in growth-stage companies that create innovative enterprise technologies, today announced a new ecosystem partnership that aims to strengthen the start-up ecosystem in India.
The two companies will help growth-stage technology B2B start-ups boost their enterprise readiness and go-to market, and help achieve scale in national and international markets. This was announced at Microsoft Accelerator’s flagship event, ThinkNext 2018. The event, which was attended by over 400 business and industry thought leaders, start-ups, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs also marked the graduation Microsoft Accelerator’s 11th winter cohort.
Microsoft Accelerator and Accenture Ventures will support growth-stage technology B2B start-ups in India specializing in artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, Augmented/Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Fintech, Big data, Security and Customer experience solutions, and provide access to Accenture’s global clients and Microsoft’s global network. The ecosystem partnership will help start-ups deploy solutions in large India and global client environments, improvise on their business model and sharpen their go-to-market strategy. Start-ups stand to gain by developing innovative solutions for enterprise use cases created out of the synergy between Microsoft Accelerator and Accenture Ventures and their shared innovation ecosystems consisting of start-ups, venture capitalists, universities and corporate R&D Labs.
[L-R] Bala Girisabala, Managing Director, Microsoft Accelerator and Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director, Accenture Ventures India on the signing of MoU between the two entities
Speaking on the ecosystem partnership, Bala Girisaballa, Managing Director, Microsoft Accelerator, said
Start-ups are the centers of innovation, and over the past decade they have played a crucial role in disrupting many industries worldwide. Today, the need is to create a collaborative environment and bring start-ups and corporates together to co-create and co-innovate. Our partnership with Accenture showcases our commitment to connect start-ups with large corporates and help them scale up to become successful businesses.
At Accenture Ventures, we believe that an open innovation approach can help enterprises accelerate adoption of ‘The New’, underpinned by innovation and digital. This ecosystem partnership is an example of how we orchestrate the innovation ecosystem and create opportunities for start-ups to grow and scale-up. We are excited about the unique value that Accenture Ventures and Microsoft Accelerator can together create for start-ups and enterprises.
Through this ecosystem partnership, Microsoft Accelerator and Accenture Ventures together will host various start-up events and summits in India which will enable them to engage deeply with the start-up network and bring new opportunities to innovate for clients. In the process, the ecosystem partnership will significantly strengthen the Indian B2B start-up network and support Startup India and Digital India programs.
About Microsoft Accelerator
Microsoft Accelerator is a global program built to empower startups around the world on their journey to build great companies. We work with market-ready startups to provide the tools, resources, connections, knowledge and expertise they need to become successful companies. Our goal is to help startups mature into enterprise-ready companies by scaling every aspect of their business. For more information, please visit Microsoft Accelerator
NiYO Solutions Inc., an emerging fintech startup for salaried employees, has raised $13.2 million [85 crore] in Series A funding to drive the continued expansion of its payroll and benefits platform in India. The investment was made by Social Capital, JS Capital LLC [the family office of Jonathan Soros], and Horizons Ventures with participation by existing investor, Prime Venture Partners. In total, the company has raised more than $14 million in venture capital. Adding on to its continued growth and popularity among businesses across India, NiYO aims to serve 5000 organizations and over 1 million salaried employees by the end of 2018.
NiYO was launched in July 2016 as a pilot in Bengaluru and has already clocked more than 500 corporates and is being used by over 100,000 salaried employees in these organisations, through its partnerships with YES Bank and DCB Bank. NiYO is a one-stop solution for all employee payouts; it’s solutions include salary accounts, meal cards, canteen solutions, corporate gift card, reimbursements account, international travel card and corporate credit cards.
With this fresh funding, NiYO plans to strengthen and expand its product suite for the salaried segment besides taking the product to tier 2 and 3 towns. The funding will also be used for further product development, team expansion and increasing presence in tier 1 cities. The addressable market is close to 75 million salaried employees in India who can benefit through a simple payroll & benefits solution which can increase the take home salaries and simplify financial planning & other banking needs.
Employee Payroll in India and around the world has traditionally seen very little innovation in the past several decades with banks hardly providing any differentiation to customers. This, coupled with inefficient, paper-driven processes mean that most employers and employees fail to take advantage of tax exemptions and other savings that the law provides for. Same holds true for investment and lending products for salaried class where the power of payroll is largely ignored in product design.
NiYO believes that it’s cutting edge technology and processes can combine the erstwhile unconnected worlds of Human Resources and Financial Services. The future is mobile and with support for disruptive platforms such as Aadhaar and the Unified Payment Interface [UPI], NiYO will enable its customers to simplify and control their banking, taxation & finance needs. All this while ensuring a transparent, compliant & efficient process for employers. NiYO has also filed multiple product & process patents in this space.
NiYO comprises of a corporate portal for salary disbursal, payroll card to receive salary and spend on ATM/POS/Online and a mobile app to track transactions and do basic banking functions like fund transfer etc. With eKYC and self-onboarding enabled on the NiYO app, users can easily access their account details and keep a tab on their expenditures and allowances digitally. It also has a capability to attach bill proof through mobile and also allow digital storage of bill and receipts on the cloud.
The mobile app allows employees to review all card transactions as well as check balances in real time. While it helps the organizations to digitize the benefits and payroll process and be more compliant and transparent, it also provides employees a unique experience of a single card for all requirements. The solution does not require either the corporate or the employee to change bank accounts.
These are exciting times at NiYO. We deeply believe that the rapidly growing number of salaried employees in India have not seen much innovation when it comes to their own payroll and benefits. They are mobile and app-savvy and very demanding. At NiYO, our core objective is to maximize employees’ effective salary by bringing innovations in payroll and benefits processes. Our aim is to optimize the product suite for employees in areas of taxation, lending and wealth. We have been fortunate to partner with JS Capital, Social Capital, Horizon Ventures and Prime – all of whom are top tier investors with deep fintech and operational expertise to take us to the next level.
NiYO is digitizing the entire employee payroll and benefits value chain, making the process easier and more transparent for employers and employees alike. This is an area that hasn’t seen much innovation in the Indian technology ecosystem, despite the massive addressable market. We believe that India is on the brink of unprecedented consumer consumption, and that movement begins with infrastructure that manages people’s earnings in a reliable and modern way.
Sanjay Swamy, Managing Partner, Prime Venture Partners, said
NiYO’s strong growth since its inception is testament to both the innovative nature as well as rapid customer adoption of their solution which addresses a massive opportunity – providing effortless and innovative solution to manage payroll and benefits, powered by mobile. The combination of SmartPhone penetration and IndiaStack makes the timing right for NiYO’s patent-pending innovations to come to market. We are privileged to be associated with this stellar team from the start of their journey and be part of their vision to disrupt the payroll landscape.
About NiYO
Founded in 2015 by Vinay Bagri and Virender Bisht, NiYO’s mission is to increase cash flow for all salaried individuals by leveraging technology in areas of payroll & benefits. NiYo features an integrated solution comprising of a Multi-Pocket Card, a Mobile App and a digital account with multiple wallets.
Vinay has spent more than 18 years working with diverse organisations like Parle, 3M, ICICI Bank, SCB, ING and Kotak Mahindra Bank. He combines deep understanding of distribution and retail banking having spent over a decade in leadership roles across unsecured lending, retail liabilities, corporate salary and retail banking strategy.
Virender is a seasoned technology professional with 16 years of experience in creating world-class software products for companies like MobiKwik, Makemytrip (MMYT), StudyPlaces.com, Exponential Inc, GE Medical Systems and Tata Consultancy Services. Virender is a hands-on technologist and has a reputation for building scalable solutions for e-commerce and payments domain. For more information, please visit NiYO
There is a saying by the well-known investor Warren Buffet – ‘Never become dependent on a single source of income’. This saying is also applicable to someone who has a stable job but has to invest his money in order to get better returns. Everyone has some hobby e.g. photography, music, writing, etc. but few of them might be aware that there is a manner in which they can convert their ‘hidden talent and passion’ into a tangible business. Many times it is about identifying a lingering problem and finding an effective solution to solve that problem.
There are close to 3 million Indians living in the United States but there was not a single reliable portal where they could buy stuff like Puja Items, Sarees, Mandirs, etc. online. There are India based websites that ship abroad but shipping, tracking, and returns is always a huge hassle. This is the problem that entrepreneur couple Deepak Agarwal & Sadhana Bothra, who are settled in the US since last 19 years wanted to solve and also make that a secondary source of income. With this intention, they founded DesiClik.com [earlier called theindiabazaar.com] in 2014, a vertical e-commerce marketplace that addresses the above mentioned problem and also provides Indian homepreneurs in the US an opportunity to sell online through their platform.
Today, we have a chat with Deepak Agarwal, Co-founder of US-based DesiClik.com. The discussion revolves around their e-commerce foray, overall market, competition, etc. So, let’s get started with the Q&A….
Can you please give a small background about the company and its founders ?
DesiClik.com was started by us, an Indian couple named Deepak Agarwal and Sadhana Bothra in 2014.
I [Deepak Agarwal] am from Udaipur and grew up in Kolkata. Apart from a degree in commerce, I hold a diploma in computer science from NCC Education, UK. I completed my Masters Certification in Business Management from Tulane University as well because I wanted to have some formal knowledge of growing a business. I have been in the US for 19 years.
Sadhana also grew up in Kolkata. A commerce graduate from Calcutta University, she too holds an honours Diploma in Computer Science from NCC Education, UK. She is a Java Certified Programmer from Sun Microsystems who quit her top-notch position in the IT industry as an Assistant Vice-President with Whitehall Bank on Wall Street when our first child was born.
After Sadhana gave up her career to be with our first born, we realised it was not easy to survive in the US on a single paycheque. So we were looking at creating some extra income while letting Sadhana also enjoy motherhood. After a lot of research, we found out that there was a huge demand for Indian apparel for kids. That’s how we started Desi Vastra. We didn’t have any competition at that point and the business did well till 2008.
While the recession brought bad tidings to Desi Vastra after four years, we decided to use the competition in the market to our advantage by bringing together our competitors through a marketplace. In 2010 we started theindiabazaar.com, which we re-branded as DesiClik.com in 2014. Today DesiClik.com is the largest US-based vertical e-commerce marketplace specialising in Indian products that span apparel, jewellery, handicraft, gifts, furniture, grocery, restaurant equipment, religious and puja items, festive goods and household items.
What is the problem you are trying to solve and how has the overall response been from the Indian diaspora ?
The response from the Indian diaspora has been quite positive and encouraging. There are many towns in the US where people have to drive for not less than an hour to find an Indian grocery store. With more than 3 million Indians living in America, and the expanding space and possibilities of online shopping, there was no single shopping portal where people could find everything Indian and talk to someone in their language while shopping for them. Added to this was the fact that when they bought from sites in India, delivery took longer, there was no easy way to return goods and service was not reliable. It is this yawning market gap that we have tapped into.
DesiClik is a very interesting name, what are some of the other potential names that you explored before you zeroed in on this name ?
Our team went through a significant list before zeroing in on DesiClik.com. We wanted a name that wouldn’t exceed eight characters, is easy to remember and connects people instantly with what the site is about.
We evaluated Mangoes, Mirchi, Jhalak, Spicykart to name a few. Prior to DesiClik, our site was call theindiabazaar.com which was lost among others, was too long, hard to spell and was very generic.
What are some of the items being sold on DesiClik and if you can highlight details about the top-5 bestselling items on the website ?
We have broadly classified the products into nine main categories – Clothing, Accessories, Jewellery, Home & Garden, Indian Grocery, Music & Movies, Books & Magazines, Puja & Festivals, Toys & Games. As for categories, Puja & Festival, Home & Garden are our top sellers. Apart from seasonal items, mandirs, gifts, kids’ clothes, utensils and puja items are the top 5 bestselling items on the site.
How does your venture promote homepreneurs and what is some of the hand-holding that your team does in order to get the sellers started [and accelerated] on the platform ?
We have managed to bring together more than 50 Indian women home entrepreneurs in the US to sell their products online on our site. These are women who want to build their business without sacrificing their family goals.
For immigrant women, it is quite a challenge to set up a business from scratch, beginning with networking and figuring out everything about running a business. As Sadhana was faced with several hurdles when we started off, she felt there were many women like her who could do with help to build their businesses. As Desiclik is a vertical marketplace, we used the platform to help these women to sell their products online. We offer guidance in terms of product optimization, competitive pricing, service and internals of doing business online.
Logistics is a very important aspect of the e-commerce experience, how do your sellers manage logistics to provide an enhanced shopping experience ?
At this time, sellers use their own preferred method of shipping. DesiClik does help them in finding better options for shipping the products faster and reliably.
Deepak and Sadhana, Founders of DesiClik
e-commerce sector is clogged with Fake Products Problem [especially if it follows a marketplace model], how does your team ensure the authenticity of the items being sold on the platform ?
We work very closely with vendors so that the DesiClik brand and customer satisfaction are maintained. We have implemented a good feedback mechanism. Since orders are fulfilled directly by the vendor, our main source of feedback is from the customer. Once an order is received by the customer, we reach out to the customer to get feedback about the quality and the service to help us rate the vendor.
Can you please comment on the Return Policy and what is the Rate Of Return for the items being sold on DesiClik since Reverse Logistics plays a very important role in optimizing of the e-commerce supply-chain ?
We have guidelines on return policy for each seller and they all set their own return policy. In case of material defect, products can be returned for no cost to the customer and in most other cases – customer pays for the shipping. Our rate of return is less than 2 per cent.
Is DesiClik serving only the B2C segment or you have also cater to the B2B segment ?
At present we are only catering to the B2C segment. We have plans to expand with a B2B offering sometime this year which will help connect manufacturers in India with vendors in the USA.
What is the metric your team uses to calculate the overall growth [GMV, etc.] and can you comment on the Daily Active Users [DAU] & total number of active sellers on the platform ?
We have more than 10,000 products listed on the site from 100 plus vendors. Daily page views at DesiClik is 12,000 plus and over 25 per cent returning visitors.
Since DesiClik follows a marketplace model, can you let us know if your sellers also sell on other marketplaces like Amazon, etc. ?
Many of the sellers exclusively sell at Desiclik. Some of them do sell at other marketplaces such as Amazon, Rokutan and others.
Repeat Customer Rate and Customer Retention are two important parameters for growth in any venture, what are some of the measures taken by your team to ensure that there is customer delight ?
As mentioned before, we do have a feedback mechanism and are actively looking to improve based on customer feedback. Our testimonials and reviews do speak for themselves.
Can you walk us through the funding of DesiClik & are you looking out for institutional funding ?
DesiClik has been completely bootstrapped, with no external funding till date. We had started with an investment of $15,000 initially and have so far invested around $150,000 over the past few years. We are looking for investments to take the business to the next level – both in terms of the B2B platform as well as for our worldwide expansion
Right now there is no mobile app for DesiClik, is there any definitive plan for releasing the same ?
By mid 2018, we will evaluate the potential of having an app and based on the analysis, we will release it at the end of 2018.
How exactly is the Startup Eco-system in US different as compared to that in a country like India ?
The recent boost in the startup eco-system is not too different from the US. Many of the venture capitalists who invest in India have their headquarters in the US. Good validated ideas with good execution team make the difference.
AI, ML, AR/VR, etc. are some of the emerging trends, what according to you would be technological highlights of 2018 ?
I feel that AR/VR related technology will become more prominent in areas that have not been seen earlier.
DesiClik is a bootstrapped company, when according to you should an entrepreneur approach for external funding and if you can highlight some pros/cons of being a bootstrapper ?
I feel that the idea must be validated by the entrepreneur with their own initial investment. Once the company becomes a real business with a path to the future, it should approach the VC. Many of the start-ups have failed due to a lack of vision and as they wanted to grow too big, too fast without an idea on how to get there. This is true both in India and in the US. Lack of funds in a bootstrapped company may slow the growth and is built on solid foundation.
Any closing thoughts for aspiring entrepreneurs and what keeps you motivated in your entrepreneurial journey ?
To all the young entrepreneurs – If you have a good idea, sit on it like sitting on a needle. It should make you jump and do something about it. Validate your idea, assemble a good team and go for it. Do not be scared of failure.
We thank Deepak for sharing her insights with our readers and walking us through his journey. If you have any questions for him, please share them via a comment to this article.
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