COVER STORY - Issuu

from 50 emerging Startup to watch in 2020 | Business Connect

Vol 2 |Special Edition|February 2020

Publisher & Editor : Abhishek Kumar Dubey

Creative Director ASHUTOSH OJHA Creative Team Rajat Pathak | Reena Kumari | Prince Shrivastav | Rohit Kumar Legal Affairs Mukesh Kumar Human Resources Nivedita Basu Digital Marketing Manager Ravikant Singh | Kritika Rajput

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CONTENTS Table Of

10

Bijesh C.K. Founder & CEO Client Informer Online Services Pvt. Ltd.

Karan Pal Singh Chauhan & Vivek Parmar Co-Founder 31 Parallel

20 24 26

Vikram Trivedi Chief Application Architect Save Your Brands

34 36 40

Naveen Mallesh Founder TrekNomads

Shubhashish Founder Wowpinch Marketing Pvt. Ltd.

Adventure Travel Makes You A Better Entrepreneur

Life Partners Turned Business Partners To Build Startups

5 Best Smart Home Gadgets You Need In 2020

41 30

India’s Top 5 Well-Known Startups And Their Success Stories

BIJESH C.K. Founder & CEO

FASTEST GROWING IMMIGRATION CONSULTANTS IN INDIA 2020

CLIENT INFORMER ONLINE SERVICES PVT. LTD.

A SPECIALIST OF VARIED SERVICES UNDER ONE ROOF

MOSES SUNNY PROCESSING MANAGER

‘Service’ is that sphere of the industry that earns its revenue by trading a variety of products and assistance in exchange of monetary value. The service sector has shown the highest CAGR of 6.96% in India that accumulates a growth of ($ 1,356.49 billion) in F.Y.19 from ($ 846.84 billion) in F.Y.12. Other than this, the service sector is the only chunk that comprises of branches like immigration, education, retail, IT & ITES, etc. making it the colossal giant among all the other segments in the country.

Client Informer Online Service Pvt. Ltd. is one of the admirable conglomerates of this segment. The company brings a trove of services in the market like immigration, IELTS education, transcript, etc. making itself a single platform for a wide variety of services.

BRINGING THE ENTERPRISE INTO THE SPOTLIGHT Client Informer Online Services Pvt. Ltd. was conceived to the industry on 08 Oct 2015 at the business district of Thrissur in Kerala, India. Primordially, the company established itself as an immigration consultant but with time and innovation, they further promulgated to other sectors.

as a consumer, generated his belief of the need of a specialist that can create a stipulated system of maintaining the conventional interface between the clients and service providers. Further, there was a huge gap between the two ends due to lack of knowledge, proper communication channels, etc. This unstable climate influenced with numerous obstructions was a wake-up call for Mr Bijesh to bring transitions through disruptive measures. With that approach in mind, he founded Client Informer Online Services Pvt. Ltd., which was focused to minimize these loopholes and ensure a smooth operational structure between both ends.

FORGING A PATHBREAKING ROAD WITH MULTIPLE VENTURES ON BOARD ‘Trust, Quality, punctuality, Technology, User-friendly, and reliability’. These are the core values that assist Client Informer to formulate its services.

The company initiated its operation with versatile immigration programs where the primary concerns were Canada & Australia PR, Dependent visa, open work permits, visit and tourist visas, Investment visas, student visas. However, Mr Bijesh envisioned to introduce a lot more than just immigration service which gave birth to the other branches of this foundation:-

Transcript Service A lot of economy and energy is utilized ever year in India to acquire transcripts and related facilities from all over the globe. To aid in these client informer’s comes up with services for WES, IQAS , ICAS, Marks Memo Correction, degree certificates, education credential assessment, etc. The company has mastered an automated process to avail transcript documents from more than 300 colleges and universities with a few clicks.

IELTS Service The company is highly focused on ensuring efficient linguistic training. After doing a lot of research on the needs and necessities of candidates that are aspiring to appear for IELTS, Client Informer has orchestrated an online systematic service with multiple filters to aid a candidate in scrutinizing the global network and find their choice of the centre. In addition to that, their services also provide online language training.

Business services This vertical comes up with a variety of services that can be categorised into three parts, GST Registration (GST Cancellation, GST Amendment (Principal Place Change, Branch Addition, Item Addition, Bank details change,Partner or Director Addition ,Name Change) and GST Return Filing), Company Registration services for

SAI BABA ASSISTANT PROCESSING MANAGER

Public Company, Private Company, Section 8 Company, One Person Company (OPC), Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) and Nidhi Company. Lastly, Tax Filings that ensures ITR Form Filing, Income Tax Notice, Payroll, TDS Return and ESI Return. Through this vertical Client Informer ensures a complete package of all business services required for an organisation.

Online Bakery Client Informer has come with online food dispensing features as well. Clients (bakery stores) can register themselves and customers can order food online which shall be delivered to the doorsteps by the respective stores.

Hospitality Industry From here customers will be able to find and book exotic homestays around the world. Owners can register their homestays and the company’ online framework and the company’s experts team will provide the customers with all the features and ratings accordingly. These help the customers find the best choice suited to their needs.

SAILING TO ITS OPTIMUM THROUGH MANY ENDEAVOURS “People only get to know you when you have made your mark in the domain. They will see your hard work, but will never understand how hard it was to make it work” – Mr Bijesh. This ideal is a brief portrait of the years of

SURAVI SHOW OPERATION HEAD, BANGALORE

endeavours the founder and his team had to do to make Client Informer a prime model for service segments. Mr Bijesh asserts about the time when they were at the initiation. As a startup focusing on immigration services the entire team had to put rigorous efforts towards furnishing an infrastructure compatible to signify their operations automating, designing of proper software to ensure smooth workflow, installing a talented bunch of software specialists for coding and testing and inspecting software programmes and automating the documentation process. This project took 2 years to complete and after that, the immigration unit was at its full throttle.

With further evolutions in the trends and technology like AI and Machine learning the company has invested in a wide variety of services and renovated itself completely on the digital platform.

STRUCTURED WITH STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGY “Today’s world is moving through our fingertips, especially in the service industry, people are looking for faster, reliable and trustworthy service providers” - Mr Bijesh C.K. Staying abreast to the emerging technological innovations is very essential for the growth and prospect for an organisation. Client Informer has nurtured its operational structures with the most popular and innovative technological upgradations i.e. AI & Machine Language.

Bringing these two into the play, the company incubated a 24 x 7 customer care service, a fully automated documentation process along with its online service. These customer-centric approaches help in strategizing and understanding the customer needs, behaviours and emotional patterns and set parameters and benchmarks for each of their segments accordingly. Another exceptional instance of their technological innovation is the automated communication system. The system is actually an interactive mechanism for customers which resolve issues through mails. Engineered with AI the mechanism uses algorithms that make sure that all emails are answered on time making the company a punctual and faithful choice for its clients.

A HARMONIOUS WORK ENVIRONMENT CULTURED WITH VALUES AND ETHOS “I still remember what my father taught me in my childhood - never bring a single rupee in your home if you do not deserve it”.

Ideating this lesson Mr Bijesh ensure that his organisation is more focused on meeting client satisfaction over huge balance sheets. Acquiring profit is important in business but it is more important to be a preferable choice for your clients. Mr Bijesh acknowledges and idolizes the teachings of leaders like Dr Kiran Bedi and Dr Manny v Paul along with his brother Mr Binoj as the prime factors that gave him the drive to start his entrepreneurship.

The company has infused an authentic work culture where the communication between clients and customers are kept legitimate. Client Informer believes that nobody is perfect and based on that the team is encouraged to learn from their mistakes which act as a growth quotient for the employees. Also, the employees are rewarded with accolades as per their performance which aids in sustaining them and keeping them motivated at all times.

MILESTONES AND RECOGNITIONS THAT SHOWS THEIR FORTE IN THE MARKET With more than 5 years of experience, Client Informer has shown great performance in the service industry which

has made it the heir to numerous awards and accolades. In 2017, Client Informer has inaugurated 2 offices one in Hyderabad and the other in Bangalore. Client Informer currently holds a strength of 100 employees directly and indirectly. Client Informer was published in the cover page of Silicon India Magazine 2018 which paved the road to becoming the “Company of the Year 2019“ by the same magazine. The company boasts itself as the only one to receive an FDI from Canada.

But not just these, the company is also taking care of the education of more than 50 children in the villages of North East under their CSR Projects.

GROWTH ORIENTED FUTURE PROSPECTS By the end of 2020, the company is set to elevate itself by venturing in 10 different service sectors. In the next 3 years, the company is expecting an exponential growth that shall aid them in becoming a billion-dollar company and entering the stock market.

A MESSAGE FOR THE READERS “Learn from the mistakes, take calculated risks and maintain your energy. Give more to the society. Have the guts to face challenges; because the growth of your business depends on how good your solution is for a challenge”. Mr Bijesh C.K.

Mahesh

Meclin

Rasmi

Febina

Nisha

ADVENTURE TRAVEL MAKES YOU A BETTER ENTREPRENEUR

A successful entrepreneur tries to solve real-world problems with the help of a creative mind. To solve real-world issues, they see real problems from a different kind of perspective, and most importantly they are realistic. Just putting effort according to books isn’t enough solution. This is why A lot of successful entrepreneurs believe that exploring nature and the world could make mind piece and help them think effectively about businesses. Adventure traveling would be fun and give you a lot of advantages such as awareness, inspiration, and confidence. These advantages can help you to run any business effectively.

There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there who have a misconception about traveling. Also, several entrepreneurs don’t like mountain tracks, surfing Australia for several days, and walking among nature. I get it. but after knowing expertise opinion, I could promise that adventure travel can make you surprised while running a business. I met an entrepreneur who shared some experience with their business, he has traveled dozens of foreign countries and met so many people who are smarter than him. Doing so taught him several lessons that I’m going to describe here in my own way.

MUCH-NEEDED INSPIRATION When you travel the new foreign centuries, you enhance the opportunities to see the world from a different kind of perspective. Exploring the world means, you are aware of other countries’ cultures and the environment. At the time, you are able to examine your own issues and take challenges form a unique point of view. I know it won’t get you a new idea very frequently but staying at home isn’t the best decision at all. Work-related travel isn’t usually much success to trigger subconscious problem-solving. This is why unknown place travel or indirect adventure will help you to understand previous incomprehensible problems without forcing yourself.

ENHANCE COMMUNICATION Communication skill plays a very crucial role not only in business but also everywhere. Have you ever thought why We all get convened by celebrities and leaders? because they know what their audience wants. They travel a lot and meet different kinds of people which help him to know their culture and tradition which make celebrities reply according to the situation. This is why I suggest you take an adventure trip as much as possible. No doubt, having great communication skills can minimize more than half of all headaches in business even in your personal life. Here adventure travel will expose you to diverse languages, dialects and different kinds of communication styles. These things will give us a broader understanding of how people successfully connect with each other. To improve global marketing, you need to know different cultural awareness. If you also want to know how to reach and influence people, you need to expose yourself to new and unfamiliar communication, by making an adventure trip that will help you a lot.

LEAD INSTEAD OF MANAGE Most new entrepreneurs know that running business systematically means, you need to know how to manage everything, no doubt, it is true. However, just manging things with one idea won’t let your business survive for a long time. If you are really dreaming to grow your business that means, you need to lead your company with new and bigger ideas. Going on an adventure vacation, you insist depended on work associates back home to continue without you which not merely makes you independent workers but also ultimately makes you feel free to consternate more on strategic development. We cannot spend all our time just balancing the status quo. It may sound crazy, but absence from the workstation can give you other benefits.

EXCEPTIONAL CONFIDENCE We all surprised when we do something and the unexpected thing occurs. A lot of entrepreneurs got amazed they made a favourable impression or great deal after sharing a recent adventure travel experience. For your information, it had nothing to do with work. I have met dozens of smart entrepreneurs who remind me that if they can do it, anybody can do it too.” What we have discussed these are not enough, it will also help you improve your physical health, make a better person, and reduce mental sickness. There are a lot of advantages you can get which you will find by yourself.

Blu Ocean Studios Redefining Beauty and Wellness Industry

Millions of people follow an unhealthy lifestyle. Majority factors to individual health and fitness are correlated to lifestyle. The habit of following an irregular and unbalanced diet, sedentary and chaotic lifestyle degrades the health. All this gets reflected in several ways, it adversely affects our physical appearance and hastens the biological process of aging of skin, premature hair fall, obesity, etc.

To counter these issues we visit a Salon to roll back such adverse lifestyle issues and feel good and renewed for a flawless beauty. But are we really satisfied with the services provided by the Professional service providers? Are we really sure that we got the right treatment or what is best suited for our skin, and of course, in original form as manufactured by the cosmetic company.

Do our service providers understand the difference between natural, organic and herbal products and trained to understand botanical names, extracts, vitamins, minerals, proteins. Next, how will they be able to identify which product suits best to what kind of skin?

Business Connect is in conversation with Mr. Apar Gupta, the founder of Blu Ocean Studios Pvt. Ltd. The company has been identified as an innovative startup by the MSME and recognized by Business Connect as “The top 50 innovative startups to be watched in 2020”.

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME ‘BLU OCEAN STUDIOS’? Blu Ocean Studios is a name inspired from a Business Management concept named “Blue Ocean Strategy”, based on an innovative and unique approach to counter existing market problems or to create an entirely new market that never existed before.

Apar Gupta Founder

problems so that existing competition becomes irrelevant to both, us and our customers.

YOUR COMPANY HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS AN INNOVATIVE STARTUP BY THE MSME, MINISTRY OF MICRO, SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES. WHAT IS IT THAT ‘BLU OCEAN STUDIOS’ DOES? We have been identified as an Innovative Startup by MSME. Our initial innovative Business solutions are for Beauty, Wellness and Healthcare.

I was personally never convinced with the way Professional beauty industry operated. There have been several identified loopholes, gaps and as a result, high failure rate for beauty products as well as service providers and of course, large number of dis-satisfied customers.

After reviewing a great deal and introspecting at micro level, I compiled all solutions and drafted a unique model (Patent pending), branded as “Glameura”. It’s based on a unique model as compared to conventional Salon system that doesn’t exist anywhere across the globe. We have taken care of all flaws of salon industry through this business model. We are hopeful and confident that this would turn around the landscape of salon industry across India and hopefully we can spread it across the world too.

WHEN YOU SAY THAT YOU HAVE TAKEN CARE OF ALL THE FLAWS IN THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY, WHAT ARE SOME OF THE EXISTING FLAWS THAT THE INDUSTRY HAS? A digital payment system to counter all cash based transactions. This shall also help in monitoring and tracking the growth of industry and plugging several loopholes.

A same beauty service is offered at different prices at different Salons. We have provided a system where a customer can compare the prices for same service offered by different salon and book the service accordingly.

Hair care services such as Keratin treatment may contain formaldehyde (which is a known carcinogen that is dangerous to both, salon clients and salon workers). We shall be providing services / products that are completely safe and doesn’t affect the health of salon clients and workers in any adverse manner.

HOW IS THE INDIAN SALON INDUSTRY DIFFERENT FROM THOSE IN THE DEVELOPED NATIONS? In developed nations, there is a standard operative procedure for beauty services. How a service has to be done? What is the total duration of the service? How a serum has to be applied, etc.

Surprisingly, most of the service providers and clients aren’t aware of any allergic or highly reactive cosmetic ingredients. They are too casual in their approach. On the contrary, in developed countries, they are aware and cautious towards the allergic reactions and consider all important precautions.

When we enter a salon, looking at the attractive bottles, we become pretty sure that our skin related problems would resolve. We get excited having seen before-and-after photos for any beauty service, it’s simply more convincing. What we never figure out is that skincare is certainly not one-size-fits-all situation. We are all aware about the weak and flawed, highly expensive healthcare system, henceforth, we have designed a system that counters rising healthcare costs and improves the overall healthcare ecosystem.

ANY FUTURE PROJECTS OR INTERESTS? I admire well scripted and directed movies. I am an admirer of celebrities like Keanu Reeves and wish to make movies with such talents in entertainment industry.

WHAT WERE YOUR OBSTACLES? We faced lot of challenges initially. We started working on minimal cost involvement plan, with strong focus on product research and Intellectual property, selection of right team / vendors and business partners. Set of right decisions and hard work came up to our expectations.

WHAT’S YOUR MESSAGE TO YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS? Focus, Commitment, Sheer Will and professionalism are important for any organization to grow. Startups should focus on Innovations and creativity. Turn them into examples and success stories for others to follow.

WHAT MADE YOU BEGIN BLU OCEAN STUDIOS? I attended few start-up seminars and used to question myself if I can solve the existing perennial problems such as in wellness and healthcare sector. Furthermore, I saw rising unemployment in our country.

After my post-graduation in Business Management, I worked for some years in cosmetic industry and identified some major gaps. I used to question if I can overcome these flaws or if there is a way to counter such gaps. All this curiosity, ideas, experiences led me to start Blu Ocean Studios.

THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY IN INDIA IS JUST AN OCCASION-BASED INDUSTRY. DO YOU AGREE? People don’t visit a Salon regularly. It’s only limited to occasions such as wedding. Very recently, from last 6-7 years it has been when our country has seen a change. People are becoming more conscious and caring about their looks and physical well-being. They have started to visit salon more frequently.

WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER PROJECTS? We are constantly working on the “Science of never aging cells” what we call as “Beauty Kinetics” (Patent pending). We have already filed a patent for the same and we expect the product to be available in the market soon.

5BEST

SMART HOME

GADGETS

YOU NEED IN 2020

What if all the devices in your life connect to the internet? Not just computers and Mobile phones, but everything such as Fan, lights, clocks, speakers, doorbells, cameras, room windows, window blinds, hot water heaters in the washroom, kitchen appliances, and cooking utensils. This is not science fiction at all, its the IoT (Internet of Things), and it is the key component of home automation and smart homes.

The year 2020 is the technological era, that upgrade your house to a smart home. In today’s consumer-friendly age, it is very easier than ever to install and program smart appliances at home such as smart lighting, smart speakers, mobile-friendly security cameras, smart thermostats, video doorbells, vacuum cleaners, and so much more. All these technological advancements make your life better than you could even imagine. As long as you wish to buy the best smart devices from trusted brands, your home will be a smart home within less than a day. As smart home freak, we presented the list of personally researched products that are strongly recommended each and every one of them.

Although it must have taken years to become these technologies into a reality, smart home gadgets have finally arrived. These are the Devices designed to turn your ‘dumb’ home into a smart hub that is more popular than ever. For example, by a smart home, you can now turn your thermostat up, lock and unlock your doors, and play music with a simple voice command.

The main objective of smart home devices is to add automation for your everyday home activities in life. It always looks fancy that lights that turn on when you wake up, a thermostat that adjusts based on weather and temperature, security cameras that notify you when they detect any person. Moreover, these all are examples of conveniences you’ll have a hard time living without once you have it. Hereby, we have curated the list five best and the most recommended selling smart devices available today.

WEMO MINI WI-FI SMART PLUG - PHILIPS HUE OUTDOOR RANGE

The Philips new bulb range of Hue smart bulbs line had an extensive range in 2019, but somehow it still has more range to give in 2020. This parent company significantly came to Vegas to show off a new outdoor lighting range that includes the wall-mounted Appear light, a new spotlight named the Lily XL, and the new Econic pedestal light.

All of them supported Hue’s full range of around 16 million colors, as well as packing both Zigbee and Bluetooth support to the bulbs. Most people choose the Econic pedestal light as their favorite of the bunch and it will cost $129.99.

The Amazon Echo is a Bluetooth speaker powered by Alexa, Amazon’s handy voice assistant that reports to your command. Alexa can work with a number of smart home devices directly in many languages, as well as with its control you can make plenty of recipes for yourself. It will take some time, but you can easily use Alexa to control most of the gadgets in your house by the sound of your voice only. If you already have a favorite speaker in your home then the inexpensive Echo Dot can connect to it and add Alexa functionality to it also. On the other hand, if you want a touch screen to see search results and make video calls then check out the Echo Show, Echo Show 5, or Echo Spot.

ARLO ULTRA

The Arlo Ultra raises the bar for all outdoor cameras and It’s the first model that streams and records video in true 4K, or Ultra High Definition (UHD). At the cost of $400, it’s also one of the most expensive cameras out there for smart homes, but it’s finely loaded with cool technology including automatic zooming, motion tracking, proper color night vision, integrated spotlight, and siren feature, one-click emergency connectivity, and 180-degree field of view. This home tech gadget is also completely wireless and a simple snap to install. You simply have to sign up for one of Arlo’s subscription plans to take advantage of the camera. Hence, Arlo merits top honors for outdoor security cameras.

SMART SWITCH SO YOU CAN TURN OFF THE LIGHTS FROM BED

The switch is very responsive in working with Alexa and Google Assistant, they offer three-way switch compatibility.

They are much look alike to smart bulbs and smart dimmers, you can simply control your lights at home remotely by using this smart in-wall switch. This set of responsive commands for light generally works with Google and Alexa. A smart switch can also be a good idea if you just want to give the appearance that you’re at home like turning the lights on and off at certain times, just to see your pet and home even when you’re not there.

WEMO MINI WI-FI SMART PLUG - PHILIPS HUE OUTDOOR RANGE

The Smart Thermostat is tested with Iphone’s Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa, and each one instantly updated both the app and the thermostat itself.

Sometimes in technology, there are the little things that make the biggest differences like being able to turn on the heat on a cold winter morning or either adjusting the air conditioning while hot summer day when you’re on vacation. You can simply do just that with the smart thermostat, the Emerson Sensi Touch WiFi Thermostat. Nest and Honeywell as another thermostat may commonly be known as smart thermostat brand, but the Emerson Sensi Touch WiFi Thermostat had the least stressful installation process and best in the market in terms of Smart Thermostat. Its easy function includes a helpful app and functionality across multiple “smart” assistants.

Desamangalam Food Pvt. Ltd. Ready-To-Cook Food Products

BEST QUALITY AT BEST PRICES DESAMANGALAM FOOD

COMPANY OVERVIEW Desamangalam Food also known as “Urban South”, was started in 2017, in a 100 sq ft room with limited resources and manpower. Today, after nearly three years, Urban South has grown from an apartment production to a full-fledged factory having advanced machinery and more than fifteen staff members.

The vision of Desamangalam Food is to feed the world with hygienic and quality food and enrich their lives with convenient-to-cook products: to have their products reach every home.

It all began when former bank employee, Mr. D. N. Balasubramanian, in 2016 visited a local grocer to buy idli/dosa batter. The grocer handed over a batter packed in a polythene tied bag containing no information about the product at all. When the batter was opened for consumption he realized that it was stale with very low quality packaging. When he went to complain about the stale batter, the local grocer refused to take any responsibility for the quality, saying he shall communicate it to the manufacturer. That is when he thought of putting some research work into how this industry works and found out that it was not one grocery store but an entire cartel of the local unbranded batter producers and local grocery shops involved in it. Most of the branded batters were priced above Rs.70 per kg and there were no branded batter selling under Rs.55 per kg. These batters are produced and sold without any proper precautions or expiry date attached to it. Neither are they FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) licensed and approved.

They are all made, sold and consumed purely based on the goodwill of the grocery stores thereby compromising on the health of hundreds of local families. What’s surprising is that almost 80% of the local population buys these unhealthy batter and thereby risks the health of their families. That’s when Mr Bala who was earlier working with HDFC Bank and Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd as Senior V. P. decided to quit his well-paying and settled corporate job to do some good to the society by giving everyone quality products at affordable rates.

Urban South was the first to enter the price brand of under Rs.55/- with proper packaging as per FDA rules and challenge the batter manufacturers in the unorganised sector.

The Urban South Idli Batter has created its own niche of loyal consumers and is adding new customers every day due to its batter quality and idli/dosa taste. Desamangalam Food Food is also bringing in 13-minutes ready-tocook products which include Sambar PreMix, Rava Dosa PreMix, Umpa PreMix, etc. The target consumers include not only housewives or working women but also students and bachelors. Desamangalam Food Food aims to be a part of their “I made it’’ moment. With Urban South RtC (ready to Cook) products, people who don’t know how to cook or don’t have the time can cook in a jiffy.

CHALLENGES CONQUERED Innovation seems to be the key component in staying ahead in the competition with the companies looking at new ways to enhance the visibility of their products in the milieu of fast-changing consumer preferences and increasing popularity of regional cuisines. From value-added spices and curry powders, most have migrated to blended masala mixes, ready-to-cook (RTC) and readyto-eat (RTE) categories.

Desamangalam Food is launching soon its ready to cook gravy masalas and other ready to cook items. They realize that if a consumer gets excellent quality products which can help them save almost 80% of their cooking time, why won’t they go for it. They also have a fairly large growing B2C segment which helps them understand the difficulties of working women, mothers or for that matter, bachelors. Moreover, they are now bringing in smaller packs (one time use) to ensure that housewives need not block their kitchen storing space for unused gravy mixes. They are also bringing in regional specialized gravy mixes.

Desamangalam Food was one of the first companies across India to challenge the local unorganized idli batter manufacturing sector with proper packaging as per FDA including expiry dates. They were discouraged by the retailers saying they will lose money due to the replacement of expired stock. They did suffer losses in the first eight months but were determined to stick to their vision.

And today it’s paying off. They broke that wall down and the customers have now changed the way they look at buying idli batter. Consumers are getting educated about hygiene and quality of products. Consumers have realized that they need not pay a huge price to get a hygienic and quality idli/ dosa batter.

Another struggle the company faced was the local unorganized batter manufacturers cartel (also called Anna’s) who kept threatening them not to enter the market. These local manufacturers never allow any new brand or manufacturer to enter the local market in the under Rs.40/- price band category. But eventually Desamangalam Food succeeded because the quality of their batter exceeded the customer’s expectations. Today they have loyal customers who don’t prefer any other brand.

KEEPING AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION To be able to adopt and adapt to the latest technologies is utmost important for survival. They are in the process of adopting various food safety and quality assurances mechanisms like Total Quality Management (TQM), ISO 22000, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Good Hygienic Practices (GHP), which ensures adherence to stringent quality and hygiene norms and thereby protects consumer health, prepares the industry to face global competition, enhances product acceptance by overseas buyers and keeps the industry technologically abreast of international best practices.

Desamangalam Food sells about fifteen products and idli batter is their flagship product. Idli batter is a very complex product to sell as it needs proper handling while manufacturing and also needs proper cold chain management till it reaches the consumer’s hand and all this within 48 hours of manufacturing the batter. Hence they keep experimenting with various ways to enhance the shelf life and reduce the speed of fermentation of batter.

In their other products, they keep analyzing the B2C client’s pain area which helps them bring in new products or improvise the existing products. They have a lab and the quality and control team of the company helps them in achieving this goal.

The Indian food industry is poised for huge growth, increasing its contribution to world food trade every year. In India, the food sector has emerged as a high-growth and high-profit sector due to its immense potential for value addition, particularly within the food processing industry. Desamangalam Food has been growing at a 100% YoY growth rate.

In 2018 they got their first break to work with a billion dollar Indian company and since then they have been catering to many big corporate and high end star hotels.

MEGHA SWETHA CEO

PRIVATE LIMITED WORKING HARD FOR YOUR WELLNESS

“We had many obstacles especially in product stability & in achieving the taste, our customers want. All our product has unique ingredients and formulations in this case to source those rare ingredients were a challenge until we discovered our best vendors.” says Megha Swetha, CEO of GMN Health Care

Addressing the protein/nutrition need of the widest range of customer needs, GMN Healthcare Pvt Ltd was started in the year 2018 and has been in the pharmaceutical distribution business for more than three decades. More than a typical pharmaceutical organization, which works more on illness, GMN provides products for wellness.

The product offerings are Pro360 Vanilla, Pro360 Chocolate, Pro360 Kesar Badam, Pro360 Elaichi, Pro360 Diabetic Real Badam, Pro360 Diabetic Roasted Coffee, Pro360 Dry Fruits, Pro360 Women Butterscotch, Pro360 Women Strawberry, Pro360 Women Chocolate, Pro360 MOM Saffron with Dry fruits, Pro360 Hair Grow Chocolate, Pro360 Hair Grow Vanilla, Pro360 Ortho Vanilla (Veg) Pro360 Ortho Vanilla (Nonveg), Pro360 Slim Strawberry, Pro360 Slim Chocovanilla, Pro360 Weight Gainer Chocolate, Pro360 Canpro Orange, Pro360 Hepa Vanilla, Pro360 Nephro HP Vanilla, Pro360 Nephro LP Vanilla, Pro360 Respiro Strawberry

THE INSIDE STORY Right from the start, the group had their basics correct. R & D has also been the key to achieve 100% palatability of the product which serves as a key selling point. With a strong R&D which aims to develop world-class products for customers, the team of GMN healthcare takes great care in choosing the quality & right ingredients so that the taste of the products are incomparable in the market. Constant Research has helped the company in improvising and developing products according to the needs of the consumers. High interactions with the consumers as well as the doctors have kept GMN healthcare stay ahead. Due to the constant interactions and field surveys conducted with consumers, there is a constant update on the needs of the end-users. This way the company can fulfill every need of the consumer’s expectation in a nutritional drink with upgradations in the product to make it better every day.

When the team of BUSINESS CONNECT asked “what gives you an edge over your peers and how your company is different from others in the same arena”

MOHAN BABU, Founder of GMN Health Care feels “We are the only company which provides protein/nutrition supplement to all kinds of needs viz., general wellness, pediatric, pregnancy & lactation, diabetic care, derma care, sexual wellness, renal care, onco care, liver care, weight management, ortho care. Next, we have online B2C marketing as well as ethical (Doctor) marketing. Additionally, we provide a wide product range of packing and flavors which is unparalleled in the market. We are end to end integrated exclusive nutraceutical organization. Our opportunities are wide for covering all the nutraceutical needs in one organization.”

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN GMN Group of companies has always been keen on creating employment opportunities and this startup (GMN Healthcare) had a greater opportunity in creating employment opportunities for women employees. The history of GMN Groups has always been exploring new industries and excelling in them. In the challenging world of scaling heights and handling materials, GMN Groups introduced 360 Degree Global Equipments Private Limited as an emerging player in the scaffolding and ladders manufacturing industry with its high profile supply of materials across the globe. It has been a passion more than returns and the nutraceutical industry was one such. With the previous expertise in the pharmaceutical field, it was even more interesting for the team of GMN to explore the nutraceutical market.

“Nutrition / Nutraceuticals is a fast-growing segment and GMN is in the right market. Our vision is to take the product to the doorsteps of the patients hence we have strongly adapted to online sales platforms viz Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Paytmmall, Netmeds, 1mg, Pharmeasy & growing. Not only the product but we all provide much sought after nutritional information through our website and electronic mailers. The company aims to expand pan India in the next two years and achieve USD 100 million (Rs 750 crore) in the next five years. The plan is not only to take a fair share from the market but also to be the nutritional partner of every single person living in India in very few years.”

THE SECRET MANTRA One needs to keep the passion to achieve the vision, be highly observant and need to be highly versatile & adaptive in the initial period to be successful. The history of GMN Groups has been to explore and capture new industries. Every time there is a startup from GMN Groups the sector or the industry might differ but the same ethics are followed in motivating and holding on to the company through the days of struggle.

FROM THE TEAM OF GMN: A Message To All Young Entrepreneurs Have a strong vision, build & believe in your human resources, stay focused on the vision, seek feedback actively, be versatile and you will surely be successful. A start-up is like typically growing a tree and harvesting fruit out of it. There is constant care, watering, and patience needed in enjoying the taste of the fruit similarly constant hard work, patience and focus only can bring success to any startup irrespective of the industries.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTAL PRACTICE The workforce is highly motivated and energized because of the unique and healthy model ie GMN focus is more on prescription generation (secondary sales) and not on primary sales & the usual sales pressure. The sales are driven by strong marketing fundamentals & creative campaigns Similarly the field force is well aware of the organization’s vision, growth & recognitions. The company constantly works on educating and training the workforce which not only helps the company’s growth but also grooms them individually. Apart from the Monthly & Quarterly sales achievement award, GMN is also motivating the workforce by giving awards on their call average & doctor coverage.

OF VARIOUS MILESTONES GMN HAS ACHIEVED, HERE ARE A FEW • GMN Health care is well accepted in the market and has around 5,000 doctors prescribing its products. The products are available in major hospitals like SIMS, Apollo, VS Hospitals - Advanced Cancer Care, Dr. Rai Memorial Medical Centre, Prashanth, Bloom, Jeevan Fertility, Indigo, KHM, CFC. Our products are available in Apollo Pharmacy, Medplus, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi stores, etc. • The company is one among the few companies to a breakthrough in the shortest period (less than 2 years)

“Our customers are regular buyers and are deeply connected with the organization. The team is in regular touch with customers to get insights, feedback, and product development ideas. Also, we understand & provide their critical requirements ie., information of nutrition & latest ingredients, highest quality ingredients & taste at their doorsteps We have tie-ups with top research-based raw material suppliers across the world so that we bring out the best in our products. It is our constant endeavor to provide our customers with the latest products with exceptional taste/flavor.”

Data till August 2019 INDIA’S TOP 5 well-known

and their SUCCESS stories STARTUPS

SUPAM MAHESHWARI, FirstCry Funding amount: US$69 million Key Official: Supam Maheshwari Industry: Ecommerce Products: Baby products Supam Maheshwari is an Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad graduate and he acquires his further studies from Delhi College of Engineering as well.

He started his venture for FirstCry, baby products online retailer, in Pune in 2010. Nine years ago, when the market choices for baby products in India online and retail both were quite limited. He used to buy a lot of products for his son only on his business trips abroad.

Therefore, he discovered an opportunity for such a platform and established FirstCry.com. As he began researching further in this market, he figured that the baby and kids industry in India had an approximate turnover of about Rs.50, 000 Cr and 95% of these sales were offline by the stores.

YASHISH DAHIYA, Policybazaar Funding amount: US$78.3 million Key Official: Yashish Dahiya Industry: Fintech Products: Insurance and Policies

Yashish Dahiya, CEO & Co-Founder, PolicyBazaar.com holds trio in education. A Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from IIT Delhi, Post Grad Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad, and an MBA from INSEAD. Yashish started his career as a Business Unit Head at Illinois at a position of Tool Works and later moved on to the Bain & Company to work as a Management Consultant.

Before starting his entrepreneurial journey with the most well-known company PolicyBazaar.com, he worked with First Europa,which is a Global Online Insurance Broker company. He worked as their CEO. He is an alumn of two of the country’s top colleges - IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad - Yashish being a CEO of PolicyBazaar likes to call himself a hugely risk-averse person. Yashish states that “Of course he is always excited about insurance because it’s all about risk and risk management is his favorite consultancy.

Supam Maheshwari Yashish Dahiya Abhinay Choudhari VSS Mani

ABHINAY CHOUDHARI, BigBasket Funding amount: US$95 million Key Official: Abhinay Choudhari Industry: Groceries, eCommerce Products: Wide range of Grocery

Bangalore based CEO of BigBasket, Abhinay Choudhari founded BigBaskate (BB) in 2009 by Abhinay Choudhari, Hari Menon, and Vipul Parekh. Together their trio has scaled up the name BigBasket to be the largest online grocery platform in India.

Long-time before Flipkart tapped into the retail industry for online products, a group of people like Abhinay Choudhary fuelled with passion to create and experience on founded the Big Basket as the country’s first online shopping platform which revolutionized the way of buying groceries to people. This platform establishes a unique mark in every way, the story of how Big Basket came to be is also motivating startups in India.

VSS MANI, JustDial Funding amount: US$103.2 million Key Official: VSS Mani Industry: Search Products: Market search services

Founded in the year 1996 by VSS Mani, Just Dial is a Mumbai-based company that tends to be biggest search engine for the local market. It generally offers classified listings of small businesses for an annual fee and it can be used to make small businesses well known. People can easily search for local and every business via phone, subscription SMS, the website, or now through the mobile app of Just Dial.

Justdial is India’s Market finding search engine for local search which initially started as a classified website to list your business but as of now it’s transformed into a local search engine. Today, it employs around 9,000 employees in 15 different offices, which are spread across the country. It has also sets record for 12+ million listings in its database that are offering market services in more than 2000 small and big cities of India. The company receives a huge count of over 1.9 million calls on daily basis for the search-related causes. Other than this, number of online searches that were listed over the website was recorded to be 1125.7 million for the year 2012-2013. Hereby, form that phase the company is growing day by day and has seen almost 1.16 million unique visitors on a daily basis contributing to 7.22 million daily page views.

• SANJAY SETHI of ShopClues, Gurgaon • RITESH AGGARWAL of OyoRooms – A formidable hotel industry • PHANINDRA SAMA of Redbus – A ambiguous transport service provider • ALBINDER DHINDSA of Grofers – A wide range of grocery platform • DEEPINDER GOYAL of Zomato – Best food chain restaurant services provider • PRANAY CHULET of Quikr – Platform for buying and selling old goods • VIJAY SHEKHAR SHARMA of Paytm – The biggest e-commerce payment system and digital wallet. • BHAVISH AGGARWAL of Ola Cabs – Tremendous transportation service provider • KUNAL BAHL of Snapdeal – Man Behind everyday eCommerce shopping online • KUNAL SHAH, of FreeCharge – Financial marketplace for Recharge and Bill-payments • SAHIL BARUA of Delhivery – The most renowned logistic service providers • AMBAREESH MURTY of PepperFry - Online Furniture Shopping platform • AMIT JAIN of CarDekho – Platform for buying and selling Used Cars Online • RICHA KAR of Zivame – A lady behind the biggest nightwear and women’s undergarment provider • ASHISH GOEL of UrbanLadder – A High-Quality Furniture products provider Here are the list of few more successful entrepreneurs that remark with their startup story in the Indian market

PROTECT YOUR BRAND IDENTITY THROUGH SAVE YOUR BRANDS

The world has become digital and in this era of digitization, a multitude of brands are going online to sell and promote. But, a number of unscrupulous activities affect their identity and presence.

Right from planning a vacation to shopping - everything starts with an online search. The internet provides brands with digital platforms to showcase, market and sell products and services. In such a scenario, brands continually run the risk of counterfeits and brand infringements. Saveyourbrands.com headed by Apurva Babaria and Vikram Trivedi provides an end-to-end platform for brands to manage maintain and safeguard their brand identity.

Their in-house technology architecture collects data based on multiple parameters, processes the data and presents a transparent picture to brands. Their automated tools help them to save time and resources. The components of the platform are as follows:

Vikram Trivedi Chief Application Architect

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Automated algorithms crawl the internet to extract, filter raw data elements and provide actionable insights regarding products/brands. An AI algorithm processes raw data to understand the tone/sentiment behind a purchase or a service. Data is presented in the form of dashboards, exportable reports and can be made even more specific through the use of data filters. This algorithm works natively on the cloud and can be scaled depending on the magnitude of data.

IDENTIFYING COUNTERFEITS: Applicable for brands listing product’s on e-commerce platforms. Their algorithm combines brand intelligence (e.g. product branding, description, reviews, etc.) and customer sentiments to identify probable counterfeits. Datasets are then run through their proprietary ranking engine. The ranking engine is built with the combination of cloud AI technology and sophisticated algorithms and works in parallel with fuzzy logic for improving predictions.

LEGAL SERVICES AND ENFORCEMENT: They have a dedicated team dealing with IPR violations and taking enforcement action against infringers for infringement / passing off / sale of counterfeit goods and piracy. The team works closely with IP prosecution groups and their Attorneys use state of the art case law databases for research. Their enforcement teams can be deployed to initiate physical raids for search and seizure of the identified counterfeiters.

Apurva Babaria says, “Transparency is a critical element for us, and we bring out the same attributes when dealing with clients. They have the foundation solidly built. In their conversations, they kept coming across how gathering business intelligence is a resource and time-intensive process for brands- big and small. Technology should be able to solve these problems in a more resourceful way. That prompted them to embark on this journey.”

From the latest trends to the services of the Company, let’s cover what makes them different from the crowd? First is Technology. From data collection to making sense of data, their platform uses the most contemporary technology architecture.

Second is the legal and enforcement arm. Research indicated that typically brands would engage with different vendors to manage these two pieces. With Save Your Brands, everything is under one umbrella. Vertical stacking of their technology, legal and enforcement teams ensure seamless communication within and with the clients.

Technology is the most important trend in the market. So, how the Company can lag in it.

TECHNOLOGY IS PIVOTAL Their technology stack runs on the cloud AI and data mining technology which improves over time. The tools become more sophisticated with more data. Their monitoring and testing teams ensure the correctness and precision of the algorithm, and make the necessary amendments to improve the precision ratio.

Their teams of legal and enforcement have a collective experience of many decades. They are always on top of the current laws and legislatures.

FROM TECHNOLOGY, let’s traverse through the struggles of the Company There were a plethora of detours in the trajectory. Initially, they had to understand the actual pain points of their clients. The magic of Save Your Brands platform is of interdisciplinary nature. Brands can utilize the entire platform to manage product portfolios and brand protection. Market research companies can use the platform to quickly collect data and understand market sentiment at scale. They had to accommodate the expectations of varying client segments even before starting to write a single line of code. That process took time.

Secondly, they are 100% bootstrapped. In the beginning, raising capital to develop infrastructure was a big challenge. Eventually they figured their way out.

Apurva Babariya Director of Operations

Vikram Trivedi says, “We asked ourselves this question, “If I were a client, would I trust Save Your Brands?” We’ve written code, then re-written, then re-written to get it to a point where the answer to that question is a “yes” for us.”

An intention to do the right thing is the most essential thing, and this is the lesson learnt by Save Your Brands from complex situations. There were curveballs along the way during the development phase.

Apurva Babaria says, “And there were times when we would think was it even worth it. We always reflected on the intent that we are here to help brands to maintain and manage their brands. That way we are benefitting not only brands but the customers also.”

Moving from the struggling period to the future, they have designed.

Now that they have their product ready, the entire focus is on closing the ‘ongoing conversations’ and ‘demonstrate value’ for the clients. Secondly, they want to position the company as the go-to resource for anything to do with data. They foresee multiple brands using their platform to effectively manage their brands.

TO BUILD STARTUPS Life Partners

Business Partners TURNED

Of late, India has witnessed an upsurge in the innovating concepts which have given a new recognition to our country worldwide. This is why a sleuth of investors has shown interest in many budding entrepreneurs across the nation. The stage of startup uprising was set by a few techpreneurs a decade back by primarily by an e-Commerce giant Flipkart. The humongous success of the company paved the way for many young entrepreneurs to deliberate about their ideas and give a final touch to those with the help of investors. In line with this, many couples led their relationship quite further to establish startups which were quite revolutionizing. These startup companies keep featuring in many popular business magazines in India including Business Connect. Today, we will see how such life partners turned business partners are shaping a new startup ambiance.

Cashkaro: This startup company was established by good friends turned couples, Rohan and Swati Bhargava. Their idea was duly recognized by some UK-based investors and they successfully managed to launch this company based out of Gurgaon in April 2013. It has raised $4.6 million till date.

Chumbak: In our coveted list of successful partners is the next pair of Vivek Prabhakar and Shubhra Chadda. Their company yields accessories for everyday living. This couple went to an extreme of selling their apartment in the year 2010 in order to fund their startup. They have been successful to raise an investment to the tunes of $28.9 million.

AapKaPainter: Two alumni of NIT from different campuses met by virtue of coincidence. Anupam Singh Chauhan and Divya Raghavan were motivated to start this venture due to a burdensome experience which Divya had to undergo while getting her home painted. Before getting married in the year 2016, they laid the foundation stone in the year 2015. Samosa Singh: A Scientist by profession wanted to take his love for Samosa (an Indian snack stuffed with potato) to a next level. He along with his wife Nidhi had kept living his passion of making it big. They sold the flat they had just shifted to a day before. That is how they gave a final touch to the passion and invested in this company.