All Posts in startups

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Ideaspring Capital, an early stage venture fund by entrepreneurs and for entrepreneurs have announced its official launch in Bangalore. The Rs. 125 crore fund will focus on early-stage product innovation startups and entrepreneurs in India. Ideaspring Capital aims to bring sustained partnerships to startups and entrepreneurs through a unique high-touch model to foster global scale product innovation companies from inception. Eminent investors and entrepreneurs including Naganand Doraswamy, Mohandas Pai, Arihant Patni, Amit Patni, Prashant Deshpande, Rajiv Mody lead the fund.

The fund will work with entrepreneurs having deep technical and domain expertise, developing early stage enterprise products in major cities across India. Intellectual property in the form of algorithms and deep technology will be a key differentiator. Key areas that the fund will cover include Machine Learning & Deep Learning, Computer Vision & Image Processing, Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things, Augmented & Virtual Reality, HealthTech, FinTech amongst others.

Through its ‘Startup Assist‘ program, Ideaspring Capital will help startups to build scale in product management, customer management and building products for a global footprint. Ideaspring Capital will provide key interventions in aspects that include Business Market fit, Product management, Customer connects and connect to next level of investors. Ideaspring Capital is planning to invest in only 4-6 startups a year and provide high touch Startup Assist program.

Start-ups across sectors are attracting early and growth capital. In 2015 alone, the total amount of investment in the start-up ecosystem stood at $5.4 billion according to data from VCCEdge, a financial research platform of VCCircle Network, which highlights the dependence on foreign capital for Indian start-ups.

The Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha mentioned that 90-95% of the venture capital money pumped into Indian start-ups comes from outside India. The government is now looking at ways to boost domestic funding to start-ups. Ideaspring Capital is one such venture fund that aims to fuel tech entrepreneurship in the country. Ideaspring Capital has raised majority of its investment from Indian investors with Aarin Capital as the anchor investor.

Naganand Doraswamy, Managing Director & CEO, Ideaspring Capital commented

We see immense growth potential for enterprise product innovation from India and are confident that India’s next wave of innovation will come from this space. Ideaspring Capital is a coming together of entrepreneurs and investors with rich experience to partner with entrepreneurs who are re-imagining technology to enable a better world. 

About Ideaspring Capital

Ideaspring Capital is an early stage venture fund focused on investing in technology startups in India. We take a hands-on approach, to nurture high-potential ideas, and transform vision into reality. They usher entrepreneurs and help transform their value proposition into sustainable businesses through their experience and business acumen. For more information, please visit Ideaspring Capital

|In: Interviews|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

As migrants to the city, we  face lot of issues while trying to find a place on rent. In fact, when I landed in Bangalore (in 2004), there were language barriers that I regularly faced when boarding bus, speaking to local people (though now things are far-better and Bengaluru is truly a cosmopolitan city) to name a few.

Similar issues were faced by Sudarshan Purohit, Ankur Agarwal and Kailash Rathi when they were trying to find a place on rent. This motivated them to startup Zenify, complete rental solution for tenants and owners

Today, we have a chat with Sudarshan Purohit, Co-founder & CEO of the startup where we dig deep into their entrepreneurial journey, Zenify, views on startup ecosystem etc.

Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and it’s founders ?

While there are enough and more property listing portals, Zenify is India’s only complete rental solution for tenants and owners. A Bangalore-based technology start-up, Zenify has simplified rentals to such an extent that tenant’s just needs to book the home of their choice online and move in, with Zenify handling the rest.

For owners again, Zenify is the only player to promise end-to-end property management. A quick look at Zenify will show how analytics and design can come together to create a fair, hassle-free experience in what used to be a chaotic business.

Prior to starting up Zenify:

Sudarshan Purohit [Co- founder & CEO of Zenify]

  • Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras
  • Prior to starting up, Sudarshan was working with Insilica Semiconductors as a Design Engineers on the project ‘Digital picture Frame’

Ankur Agarwal [Co Founder & Head of data analytics at Zenify]

  • Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras
  • Was working as a Business Analyst with Global Analytics in Chennai. He worked on SEO project and analytical model on credit worthiness for short term loans

Kailash Rathi [Co Founder & Director- Finance & Strategy at Zenify]

  • Aerospace Engineering from IIT Madras
  • Worked as a Strategic marketing Analyst [Go-to-Market strategy, studied the trends for marketing NetApp products] with Net-App in Chennai.

Every idea is born out of a problem, what was the trigger for starting Zenify ?

As migrants to the city, we  faced a multitude of issues while trying to find a place on rent. The language barrier and an unpleasant broker experience motivated use to come up with a solution to address the problems that migrants face in a new city. Having had a history of family business back in our home-towns, we had a strong urge to start our own business.

We had ideas, we were willing to take risks and had an undying entrepreneurial spirit. After a thorough market research,  Zenify was started in the year 2012 with an aim to help young migrants adjust easily in the city.  Our intention was to create a niche model for house rentals which is beneficial for both tenants and owners.

What are the core differentiating factors of Zenify from other real-estate startups ?

There are fewer players in the market who have tried to solve the property discovery problem, apartment finding problem, finding a Shared apartment, but nobody provides an end to end comprehensive rental solutions for the owner and the tenants which is only done by Zenify.

Zenify solves five basic problems in the realty industry which have been the biggest hassles so far for the owners and the tenants. Zenify stepped into the problem and simplifies the entire process of online residential property management.

Zenify helps to do away with the property visit for the owners and the tenants. Tenants can view the property online without making a property visit and book their property with a market rent.

  1. Zenify does the tenants screening and reports will be shared with the owner before allowing the tenants to occupy the property.
  2. Zenify drafts a standard rental agreement between owner and tenants.
  3. Zenify manages the end to end property management-From repair, painting etc.
  4. Zenify collects the monthly rent and hands it over to the owner.

What is the TAM of the ‘Renting/Leasing commercial property’ ?

Current market size is about $15 Billion based on 2011 statistics and increasing 15% YOY in India from urban cities. We expected to grow 35 % on quarter.

What is your revenue model of Zenify ?

Once an owner registers with Zenify, we review the property and if it is suitable Zenify becomes the tenants and are given the sublet rights. For a property owner, Zenify becomes the tenant and to a new tenant Zenify becomes the owner.

Zenify charges a month’s rent for every year as a service fee from the owners. For tenants, it’s completely free without any brokerage. If the tenant discontinues the agreement, Zenify continues to pay the rent to the owner even when the flat is vacant. A tenant registered on Zenify gets a broker free experience with standardized pricing and agreement terms.

Which are the cities where Zenify is currently operational ?

We are exclusively present in Banglore alone and managing 1800 properties. We are planning to extend our services to India’s top nine cities in near future.

One of the major concerns about Buying/Renting is that property is not as shown in the listing website. How does Zenify fix this problem ?

The owners whoever wants to rent out their property can share their property details to Zenify and one of our employees does the physical verification on the property, collecting property photos and will be uploaded in our website with all the property specifications along with fixed rent.

The tenant can view the property details on our website which provides the tenant 360 degree view of the property.If the tenant were to find his desired home from the list, the tenant can book the property by paying a token in advance and then, he can directly move to the property on his desired day

Can your throw some light on funding, whether Zenify is bootstrapped or seed-funded or angel-funded ?

We have received angel funding from Manthan Systems, Gana Yantrika Systems and K12 Techno service. Atul Jalan is the CEO and Founder of Manthan systems, Anant Pandit director of Gana Yantrika Systems Pvt Ltd, which is a privately held company which invests in companies with unique business models and use technology to advance market access and MSC Srikanth & M Bharath are the directors of K12 Technology Hyderabad.

We have set a few ambitious goals for our organization for which we will require more funds. We are currently in talks with a few investors who can bring in financial support as well as technology expertise to the table.

Does Zenify plan to provide End-To-End services (right from Estimating Valuation, Listing Property, Getting Buyers, Getting Legal Work done etc.) since that would be a great USP for Zenify ?

The below listed are our core USP and we are focusing this.

  • Fair price to owners and tenants
  • Tenant verification
  • End to end paperwork management
  • Assured occupancy
  • A to Z flat maintenance and repairs
  • Regular inspection
  • A dedicated team of maintenance personnel
  • Assured rent for the owners

What are the major changes that you experienced when you became an entrepreneur?

However, we had zeal to be unorthodox from the existing systems and to be visionary in order to be a change maker in the society; we also had faced the trepidations during our venture. Because being just 22 old ,the society demanded a regular job to have a proper sustainable life than going for a risk which could be a paradox. Nevertheless, we decided to quit the job and started our venture. Initial days, the market did not accept our concept since it was very much unique and gradually people were able to adopt the concept and began to endorse the concept as well.

First, I had to adopt a strong mind set since Entrepreneurship  is not going to be a cake walk rather lot of bucks will stop at me, therefore I had to prepare mentally to encounter the challenges whatever is going to hit me.

I did not have a normal office hours 9 AM – 6 PM, instead the entire day was my office hours. The startup became our life. The startup taught me about leadership How to run the entire show being a leader, moreover the situations created a thirst in me to read and understand the concept of leadership in depth which led me to read many books on leadership.

In brief startup made me to master in every aspect of business.

What are your key advice(s) to people who want to start-up ?

Those who want to start  their own venture, they must do a proper market research whether the idea can bring a change in the market or will it be a scalable business idea. If they receive the positive result, they can confidently launch their venture. The focus should be on customer satisfaction and always try to learn from customer experience which will teach us where are we after its launch. The customers are the best advisers for any business.

After a certain period of time, the founders should look for funding at the early stages itself. Another difficult task to identify the right investors who would really understand your business model and willing to stay with you in any circumstances of the company, which will give more confidence to run the business in a better way.

Can you give some pointers on Scaling Up & Customer Acquisition [some take-away for entrepreneurs]

Primarily, you need to understand the biggest problem in the market and analyze whether it is possible to tap through technology? Secondly, one needs to understand the customer’s problem. Thirdly, you need to communicate the solutions that you have for the customer’s problems. If  this has been set ,then the customer acquisitions will be possible through various social media platforms, PR & marketing campaigns.

Bootstrapping or external Funding, what are your views on the same ?

Once the product or services has been  launched, entrepreneurs should look for seed funding which will provide them an adequate knowledge about the market behavior and will give enough space to create a better investment strategy. Such initiative also will give them how their product behaves in the market and helps to understand the demand of the market as well. Every initial launch will be a trial and error method, during the course of the journey everybody understands the real need of the market and spin their ideas.

Your views on the current start-up eco-system & valuation bubble in India ?

There are startups that have a substantial growth in the market and could capture a good  amount of the market share. They could achieve this far because they had a strong vision and better strategy.

Partially, the industry has faced a few setbacks because of few of the better performed startups happened to get shut down, because of the unforced errors of burning the investments quickly. The investments should have been handled better.

Funding for early stage & growth stage startups has dried up in 2016, what are your tips for entrepreneurs who are pitching in this tough period ?

In fact, the funds are flowing, but slightly in a slow pace because of the unexpected shut-downs of a few  good startups which forced the investor to take back seat in terms of investments.

Entrepreneur needs to create a scalable business model and present a realistic business forecasting which will indeed attract the investors and create the confidence so that they can invest in the product.

Some hiring tips for entrepreneurs [especially the core team] ?

Few basic elements need to be taken into account while hiring a core a team in any organizations .

  • Expertise
  • Attitude
  • Chemistry between Employee and Employer
  • Confident level
  • Team player

These are the core elements we need to keep in the consideration while hiring the core team in the startup.

Hope you liked the Q&A and there were many take-aways from it for aspiring entrepreneurs!! If you have any questions for the Zenify team, please leave them in the comments section.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Wooqer have announced that Ritesh Handa has joined the company as President – Operations, Finance & Corporate Development, reporting to Wooqer Founder & CEO, Vishal Purohit. Ritesh comes to Wooqer from a leading Indian publisher Pearson Education India. With a proven track record of over 15 years, he has worked with Microsoft, GE and Rockwell Automation.

[Image Credit – Wooqer]

Vishal Purohit, Wooqer Founder & CEO said

He is a passionate finance and operations senior executive with diversified business and management experience. He will be responsible for thought leadership by executing business strategies and operating plans.

We are fortunate to have incredible depth and breadth of talent across Wooqer’s executive team. Ritesh is hands-down the best operations executive I’ve ever worked with.

Prior to joining Pearson Education, Ritesh was associated with Core Objects in the capacity of VP & Director Finance. He was responsible for preparing monthly forecasts, annual and long-range financial plans at a country level resulting in financial plans that aligns with business/corporate objectives.

He holds Master in Business Administration from Faculty of Management Studies – Delhi and is also a Chartered Accountant from Deloitte.

About Wooqer
Wooqer is pioneering “end user computing” with an easy-to-use, do-It-yourself cloud based tool-set that enables faster, cheaper and smarter execution. Wooqer leads the space between the core systems for a business [dominated by software, hardware and services vendors] and consumer platforms [like Google, Facebook & others].

Founded by Vishal Purohit and backed by Indian business veterans like Harsh Mariwala, Chairman-Marico & BS Nagesh, Founder-TRRAIN as well as Silicon Valley legends like Michael Marks and Jim Davidson. Wooqer is among the most valuable B2B software companies in India by iSpirit Index for two consecutive years. Harvard Business Review has developed a business case on Wooqer now being taught in over 10 universities globally. For more information, please visit Wooqer

|In: India|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship [Independent Charge], Rajiv Pratap Rudy released the India Entrepreneurship Report 2015 by Amway. The reports aims to understand the latent enthusiasm for entrepreneurship in the country, as well as factors that motivate and obstruct the creation of new enterprises.

Research partner Nielsen India surveyed 250 households in each of the 21 states across 50 different cities. One male & one female member in the 21-65 age group were interviewed from each household taking the total no of respondents to 10,768 individuals [Male 5,402 and Female 5,366].

Unveiling the report, Rajiv Pratap Rudy

The contribution of MSME sector in India, is much less as compared to some of the developed nations. This needs to change. It is critical that there is entrepreneurship led boom at the grass root level so that India can leverage the demographic dividend to the maximum possible extent. The understanding of motivations, attitudes towards entrepreneurship, offers valuable insight to the policy makers.

Anshu Budhraja, CEO, Amway India, said

We are aiming to engage different stakeholders on what drives entrepreneurship in India and contribute to the on-going discussions on the role of skill development and self-employment in improving employability of the youth.

Entrepreneurship is a way for people to realise a better life for themselves and their families. Entrepreneurs also create jobs and encourage competition. They spur economic growth and bring opportunities to communities. So, it’s important that businesses like Amway know how entrepreneurs think and act in order to better support and encourage them.

Findings of India Entrepreneurship Report 2015

Two-Thirds of Indians view entrepreneurship positively

Entrepreneurship is valued in India. India Entrepreneurship Report 2015 reports tangible enthusiasm for entrepreneurship as being a good prospect to earn a livelihood in India, with nearly two-thirds of the respondents viewing it favourably. Kerala [78 percent], Punjab [77 percent] and Uttarakhand [76 percent] were the states with most positive attitude towards entrepreneurship.

Access to finance [41 percent] and Family support [35 percent] emerged as the most important factors to start one’s own business. 73 percent of the respondents believe that anyone can be trained/educated to be an entrepreneur. 62 percent of all respondents thought that the education they had right now was sufficient to start their own business.

Nearly 50% of respondents considering to start their own business

Almost one in two respondents [47 percent], said that they had either thought about starting their own business or are actively pursuing one. Overall, 19 percent of respondents said that they are “very open to starting a new business and in fact are actively pursuing one”. Jharkhand has the highest number of respondents [60 percent] who say that they are actively pursuing a new business, followed by Uttarakhand [40 percent] and Uttar Pradesh [29 percent].

Environment for entrepreneurs to start business in India has improved

Nearly half of all respondents [45 percent] said the environment to begin a business in their state has improved over the past five years. 11 percent of the respondents felt that the environment has ‘improved significantly’.

Financial institutions play a key role

83 percent respondents voted banks as their main port of call for starting a business. This insight clearly point to the role of financial institutions in fostering and facilitating entrepreneurship. Friends and family came second on this index with 78 percent.

Fear of Failure

Across gender, income and age, the fear of failure emerges as a clear obstacle to starting a business with 63 percent of the overall respondents saying so. The fear of failure is composed of different factors. 31 percent of respondents found “financial burdens up to bankruptcy” as the “most important” cause for the fear. Non-conducive market conditions [24 percent] and fear of unemployment [23 percent] were the other key causes of the fear.

The complete report can be downloaded from here

About Amway India

Amway India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amway with headquarters located in Ada, Michigan, USA.  Amway is one of the largest Direct Selling companies in the world with presence in over 100 countries & territories.

Globally, Amway is over 56 year old, US $ 9.5 billion, manufacturer and direct seller of high quality consumer goods. Amway’s innovation and industry-leading R&D has seen more than 1,150 patents granted and another 500 patents pending.  Amway has more than 950 scientists across 75 research and development and quality assurance laboratories worldwide. Amway India sells more than 130 daily use products across categories like Nutrition, Beauty, Personal Care and Home Care through individuals who make personal recommendations regarding the use of distinctive high quality products. Amway products are widely recognized and appreciated for their quality and value. These products are backed by a money back guarantee for 100% satisfaction of use. For more information, please refer Amway India

Source – Euromonitor International Limited

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

EazyLeazy is a Mumbai based rental startup which provides customers access to great products as and when they need them. So for consumers who want to rent something for a short period of time [and not buy it] or try something out before they buy it, EazyLeazy is the place to go.

They aim at making rental so easy, whenever you want something, you Don’t Think… Just Rent it. They make rental super easy by

  1. Having very low rentals and deposits
  2. Delivering in under 3 hours if required
  3. Having easy online booking with instant order confirmation
  4. Being easily available over Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email and on the phone
  5. Giving a complete package [for example a GoPro comes with all the mounts as standard
  6. Allowing cash/card payment at the door
[Image Credit – EazyLeazy]

EazyLeazy currently has four portfolios of products

  1. Travel and photography – Entry-level DSLRs, GoPros with mounts and Kindles [Professional DSLRs and lenses coming soon]
  2. Party and entertainment – Karaoke machines, board/card games, hover-boards, party speakers, HD projectors, giant Jenga and beer pong [Barbeques and portable speakers coming soon]
  3. Hobbies – Baking kit [precision digital weighing scale + electric mixer + measuring cups and spoons], keyboards
  4. Try before you buy – Smartwatches, fitness bands and flagship mobile phones

But why EazyLeazy? The founders realized that there were a lot of things that they would want to use but did not want to buy. For example, Peshotan Kapadia wanted a DSLR camera when on holiday but didn’t want to buy one [since he had but little interest in photography]. Similarly, Meheryar Tata wanted access to entertainment products [games, karaoke machines or speakers for his housewarming parties] but it made no sense to buy these things which he wouldn’t use frequently. And so EazyLeazy was born – an online rental portal that would provide these consumer products to people who needed them on a short-term basis.

Peshotan Kapadia, Co-founder of EazyLeazy said

We are not here to replace ownership. There will always be things you should own – like a Play Station if you are a gamer or a keyboard if you play the piano. But what about hundreds of other products you want to use just once in a while? We found no credible, convenient or professional business providing this service. Prices were all over the place, they wouldn’t deliver, and companies gave no assurances on breakage or on the assets being in good condition. So there was a big gap. And online was clearly the way to go.

Meheryar Tata elaborated

We wanted to make renting these things so easy, that you wouldn’t have to think if you wanted something. Just rent it! That’s why we focus on delivering to your doorstep in under three hours, on keeping our prices low, and on providing great service.

Meheryar Tata added

The one thing we are proud of is that all our customers are happy. They appreciate our honest pricing, our super service and the care we take of both them and our products. And we have the testimonials to show it.

When people get to use these useful products which they otherwise wouldn’t have experienced, it gives us great joy. That’s what EazyLeazy is all about. It’s not about saving money or being practical (which for us are collateral benefits). It’s about not having to give up experiences because ownership is the only option.

EazyLeazy went live on 13th December 2015 and already have over 170 happy customers from Cuffe Parade to Borivali in Mumbai. They have had as customers a Spanish teacher wanting to shoot a 100 online lessons for Youtube, an oncology surgeon recording a thyroid surgery, a college student who wanted to convince his parents that the Apple Watch was worth it, a band manager going on tour with his band, holidayers going diving, a regular joe who became a karaoke addict overnight, young studs going surfing, professional film makers, bikers, a brand manager introduced to the madness that is Twister, a consultant who wanted to check if Apple watch was actually useful, a baking enthusiast who doesn’t have space for a large oven at home, a cafe owner wanting to have a karaoke evening for his patrons and many more.

If you are from Mumbai, do give EazyLeazy a spin and share your experience in the comments section.

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

With an aim to fuel the dreams of India’s aspiring entrepreneurs, Haywards 5000 has launched Haywards 5000 Hauslay Ki Udaan – country’s first start up reality program. The initiative, launched earlier by the Haywards 5000 Hausla Buland Academy, encourages the spirit of those who have an innate resolve to succeed in spite of challenges. The first of its kind program received over 40,000 calls in its last season and over 500 exciting entries went through auditions, leading to one winning idea.

To announce its second season, the Haywards 5000 Hausla Buland Academy has also launched a new TVC campaign – Naa Se Haan Tak. The TVC showcases the challenges of an aspiring entrepreneur who hails from a small town of India. In spite of being rejected by everyone, his will to fulfill his dream motivates him to make his business idea a reality. The TVC also highlights his strong resolve [Hausla] that transforms every “Naa” to a “Haan”. He charts his own path and finally reaches his next milestone.

Haywards 5000 will conduct auditions across the nation which will serve as a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs from small and big towns to showcase their innovative business ideas and share their stories of unrelenting resolve. The participants will be mentored by an interview panel consisting of well-known entrepreneurs and industry experts as well as Hausla Buland Academy professional counselors through online and offline mediums. The winning business idea will receive a seed funding of Rs. 15 Lakhs from the Hausla Buland Academy.

The finalists will be selected basis a combination of factors including market opportunity, uniqueness of the presented business idea, the growth potential, the strategy, the enthusiasm and passion of the participant, the knowledge of the industry, realistic goals and finally the total investment required. The on-ground auditions will be held this year in the following cities: Gurgaon, Faridabad, Jaipur, Pune, Nagpur, Kolkata, Bangalore, Secunderabad, Rohtak, Ludhiana, Amritsar and Mohali and will begin in July 2016.

Entries are open until the date of these on-ground auditions and participants can register on HauslaBulandAcademy to participate in “Hauslay Ki Udaan”.

About Haywards 5000 Hauslay Ki Udaan
The first year of the “Haywards 5000 Hauslay Ki Udaan” initiative was held in 2015 and received a tremendous response from all over the country. Last year’s initiative’s calling for entries began in April 2015 with an association with India’s biggest media event – IPL 2015, where Haywards 5000 was one of the co-sponsors.

The campaign received over 40,000 calls from across the country and after this remarkable response the Haywards 5000 team conducted auditions across 10 cities over a period of 3 months in order to find “City champions” from each city from a total of over 600 entries. Last year the judges ranged from entrepreneurs like Sumit Jain, Co-founder & CEO, CommonFloor, Vivek Singh, Co-founder & CFO of Tone Tag, Naidu Darapaneni, Founder CEO of Meraevents, Santhosh Karnananda, CEO of MeraEnglish to industry Stalwarts like Sunil Subramaniam, CEO of Sundaram Finance among others.

About Haywards 5000 Hausla Buland Academy
Haywards 5000 launched the Haywards 5000 Hausla Buland Academy in 2012 to provide online skills development courses and training through workshops and has so far reached out to over 100,000 people from different walks of life. For more information, please visit Hausla Buland Academy

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Tee20 have announced the official launch of the first and only shopping service for men. Tee20 offers the convenience of e-commerce with the confidence of traditional retail shopping, utilizing the power of the Internet to bring the benefits of boutique shopping to the masses.

Tee20 puts a unique spin on shopping, offering live fashion experts to help determine any man’s clothing needs. Upon signing up for the service, Tee20 members receive a variety of hand-picked items based on personal preferences such as personality, profession, budget and lifestyle. Tee20 is a 100% free service with no shipping costs for delivery or returns on merchandise. You pay only for what you keep.

[Image Source – http://www.tee20.com]

Prasanna Venkatesh, CEO of Tee20 said

I found that many men were too busy to enjoy shopping, but they still wanted to look and feel good in their clothing. I created Tee20 as a way to give the savvy man a truly hassle-free, personalized and customized shopping experience that would not interfere with their busy schedules.

We use machine learning programs to help determine clothes that our members are most likely to keep. After being a member for over a period of time, we should be able to send you exactly the clothes you like matched with stuff missing in your wardrobe.

Personalized Service – Fashion Experts

Tee20 is based on relationship building by creating a personal, professional, one-on-one shopping experience for all customers, and has experts based across the country to help serve any fashion need.

Join the Revolution – How Does Tee20 Work ?

Simple. Choose a plan. Once you are done picking a package, give them some details by filling a really short questionnaire’. Super Stylists will receive a notification that you are on-board. They will immediately start working on how you will look with what. Once they find a perfect match, our job is to ship those shirts/Tees to you. Fall in love with it.

Visit tee20 for more information

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Exotel, one of India’s leading cloud telephony companies has announced its global expansion plans, beginning an entry of their popular API platform into the South-east Asian market, with a foray into Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The company is primarily targeting the tech-enabled service industry which can benefit greatly with their developer-first approach; with an aim to help businesses talk to their customers with accountability, tracking and privacy intact.

An initial investment of USD 10 million is planned for the next two years, a majority of which will be operational and sales spends.

Exotel will be launching their API platform globally as opposed to the product that is available in the Indian market, as the API is easily scalable and customisable for any tech-enabled service. The overseas operations will be overseen by Varun Raj, who was the co-founder of Voyce, a customer-feedback firm that Exotel had acquired last November. Singapore will be the headquarters for Exotel’s South-east Asia operations.

Speaking on the expansion, Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-founder and CEO, Exotel said

When we were thinking of our expansion plans, we first wanted to target markets similar to India. Both in terms of culture and population, South-east Asia is therefore the logical first step. The propensity of people to use the service of tech-enabled companies in this region to go about the daily lives, is high. In India, we estimate that people in the metros use tech-enabled services 0.27 times a day. This tech-enabled service could be anything ranging from booking a cab to ordering a meal online to buying something from an e-commerce website. In Singapore for instance, we estimate the same to be at least 0.7 times a day per day. This makes the addressable market for Exotel in Singapore over 50 million SGD.

Many players in these verticals are looking to optimize their operational efficiency thereby saving money, and Exotel plays an important role in helping them do this.  For the current customers looking to expand, Exotel is their preferred partner and many are already in talks with the company for support in the new markets as well.

Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-founder and CEO, Exotel added

We are going to be adopting a developer-first approach globally. As a behind-the-scenes ecosystem enabler, we will also support early-stage startups by offering them Exotel for free. We will look at these startups as fellow entrepreneurs and not customers, helping them in whatever little way we can.

The South-east Asian market already has a couple of international players whose platform, however, is primarily tuned to the US market, and not so much region-focused. Exotel’s infrastructure has been designed in such a way that the call quality and reliability will be far superior for the local market.

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, it powers voice communication for over a 1000 businesses including brands like Ola, Uber, Flipkart etc. Voice & Data picked Exotel as the Editor’s Choice Emerging Company of the Year 2014. Nasscom’s Emerge Product conclave picked Exotel as one of the top 10 emerging startups in India. For more information, please visit Exotel