Insights success the 20 fastest growing companies july 2016

Business Spotlight Effective Growth Strategies for Small Businesses

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Go Green Let’s Do Something Different.

Environmentally Friendly.

Market Dashboard India Is Becoming the World’s FastestGrowing Startup Ecosystem

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

July 2016

The way of business solutions

Centre of Interest Initiatives to Drive Innovation and Business Growth

CXO Satndpoint Franchising and Restaurant Industry “The Inseparables” Jayagopal Theranikal Founder & CEO

Cozy Infosystems: Providing Point of Sale Solutions for Retail Outlets

Editorial

F

requent unpredictable change in business dynamics have been raised in company revenue at a high extent. Decision makers scuffle to find some solidity during uncertainty using planned change methods and at the same time they are being aware of the need for flexibility and agility to leverage emergent change and survive.

Growth doesn’t come easily. It requires to realize early on best chance for growth with the greatest ideas in its particular sector that could potentially get a competitive advantage. Building a firm needs passion for the work, which isolates your identity from the others.

The struggle of all team players and game changing ideas makes the brand more creative and productive.

Game Changing Ideas That Work

In a fast-growing environment, the divergence among players becomes more visible, especially big industry players, who operate with millions, shift ways of doing business at a higher pace.

India has the best growth prospects for the coming decade, based on the increasing variety and sophistication of the products it exports.

As per the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian IT sector is expected to grow at a rate of 12-14 per cent for FY2016 in constant currency terms and also expected to triple its current annual revenue to reach US$ 350 billion by FY 2025. In new predicts by economists, led by Ricardo Hausmann at Harvard University’s Center for International Development, India’s 7% projected annual growth rate through 2024 would continue to put it ahead of China, where similar advances in productive know-how propelled the country’s rise over the past .

India seems to be a truly developed and empowered society by 2020.

However, to achieve this advancement, industries have to continue to re-innovate itself and strive for a long way, through partnerships, new business models, transformation and global delivery. A collaborative endeavour from all stakeholders will be required to make sure future growth of India. It needs to rise up to the contemporary challenges and put in unwavering efforts towards providing more and more of the whole stack solutions to the clients to keep the impetus gain in competitive edge.

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Sonal Burghate Co-Editors Ariana Lawrence Sugandha Sharma Archana Ghule Charlie Gupta Art & Design Director Rashmi Borkar Co-designer Mayur Khapekar Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Amol Kamble Visualiser Kalpesh Business Development Manager Manisha Priya Marketing Manager Karishma Joshi Business Development Executive Savitri, Pooja, Ketan, Gopi, Akansha, Ankush Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Swapnil Database Management Sharad Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com

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Contents

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

16 Centre of Interest

Initiatives to Drive Innovation and Business Growth

10

24 Go Green Let’s Do Something Different.

Environmentally Friendly.

Cozy Infosystems Jayagopal Theranikal Founder & CEO

Business Spotlight 44 Effective Growth Strategies for Small Businesses

32 Market Dashboard CXO STANDPOINT

Rohan Bhatt Founder & Head Consultant Square Consulting

26

Franchising and Restaurant Industry “The Inseparables”

India Is Becoming the World’s Fastest Growing Startup Ecosystem

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Nextgen Telesolutions: Secure Financial Services on Any Mobile Device, Network and Bearer Agnostic

42

iLeadFarmers: End-To-End Marketing in The Technology Space

Kobster: Revolutionizing the Way Businesses Shop

36

34

Codewave: Building Beautiful Apps with Reliable Technology

22 Monginis: The Celebration King to Deliver Happiness

40

Giftxoxo: Pioneers in Gifting Unique Experiences

30

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

CNB Technologies: Solution that Manage and Plan a Container Yard in Real Time Using IoT

20

Zomato: Catering the Hungry Millennial Pinnacle: On Time and Every Time

46

Testbook: A UniďŹ ed User Experience that Prepares for the Future

Evisipro: Leveraging Versatile Expertise to Deliver Innovative Solutions

28

50

48

MediaValueWorks: From India to the World: A Global Integrated Communications Approach

38

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Cover Story

Jayagopal Theranikal Founder & CEO

Cover Story

COZY INFOSYSTEMS www.cozyinfo.com

Providing Point of Sale Solutions for Retail Outlets

T

echnology is growing rapidly with the series of business requirements. An advent of the new hardware, software services in the market to solve various business challenges needs integration to Point of Sale software. Young entrepreneurs are more technical savvy and willing to use new technologies to solve their business challenges and improve their core business. However, Software development is a continuous cycle to upgrade as per current and future requirements.

Cozy Infosystems’ came up with their Research and Prototyping Team, who are always ready for any new trends. They upgrade their software to match the latest technology trends and customer expectations with end-to-end capabilities, so that they can easily manage their large volume of data.

Since its inception in 2001 in the USA, Cozy Infosystems has been providing excellent IT services with the focus to provide quality services with a cost and time effective process. In 2007, the company started its operations in India as Cozy Infosystems Private Limited with headquarters in Hyderabad. Run by well versed IT experts, Cozy Infosystems possess a team of highly skilled & proficient IT professionals having an ample industry experience from the major MNCs of the USA.

Cozy Infosystems’ services involve Software Development, Mobile Applications, ERP Services and Application Maintenance.

CozyPOS’ (www.cozypos.com) Flexible Architecture Cozy Infosystems is primarily into Point of Sale and ERP software products/solutions for retail industry. The company’s POS software under the brand name of CozyPOS caters to all formats of Restaurant verticals, Retail outlets, Salon/Spa outlets. CozyPOS is well designed with a flexible architecture to provide world class features.

CozyPOS software is being used by single restaurant and multi-chain outlets. They have customers in India, USA, Canada, UAE, Mauritius and few other countries.

Apart from Point of Sale software, Cozy Infosystems also develops specialized software products for other industries and also take up custom software development projects.

Jayagopal Theranikal, Founder & CEO of Cozy Infosystems has about 24 years of total IT experience in management and technical roles having hands on technical knowledge in various fields. His earlier roles involve Developer, development DBA, Team Lead, Manager, Senior Manager, Group Manager, and CEO. Jayagopal is a professional with varied experience in the technology industry, having worked in various leadership positions for big organizations he was associated with Bajaj Auto Ltd. (Pune), Tata Consultancy

Cover Story

At Cozy Infosystems, Jayagopal is responsible for managing complete operations and responsible for business development in India and USA. Team building, meeting customers, project management, technical guidance to the development team, administrative tasks, accounting, business development, day to day operations are some of the key responsibilities.

We always keep our eyes open to learn

NEW TRENDS

&

Quickly Provide Solutions through our software bundle

“

Services (Bangalore), Wipro Systems (Bangalore), Embarcadero Systems Corporation (Alameda, CA), PeopleSoft ( Pleasanton, CA), Oracle Corporation ( Pleasanton, CA), and at Hyderabad in Oracle India Pvt. Ltd., Pixel IT Solutions, and Gopal Systems.

Pricing, Multiple Ordering Types, Multiple Tax Management, Employee Management, Multi Level User Password Protection, Colour Code Menu, Unlimited Products, Order Time Statistics, Modifier Items Prompting, Line Discount/Invoice Discount Options, Detailed Sales History reports, Kitchen Order Printing, Auto Charge for Delivery/Takeout, Ability to Stores Old Invoices, Ability to Recall Reports from Any Given Day, Easy Printer Management, Customer Management, Loyalty Management, Table Layout Designer, Sections & Table Management, Table Reservations, Future Ordering, Online Ordering, Kitchen Display Solution and many more niche Choosing a right POS system for your lifeline operations is features. a big challenge; it should be feature-packed and sophisticated enough to handle thousands of inventory Using CozyPOS software, even a small coffee shop can items and various store locations. easily computerize the billing, inventory and also manage the operations through cloud software and mobile app.

Business owners are looking for that inventory management Additionally, the same coffee shop can start accepting system which is best in the POS industry also easy to use online orders through their online ordering plug-in that can and affordable. Moreover, it can do more than just be fully integrated with Point of Sale. All this can be accepting payments and processing it to sales. It should implemented in much less time and at much lower cost carry some additional features and other capabilities that when compared with their competitors. make it easier to run and scale your business. It should provide dedicated solutions for your type of business and Cozy Infosystems’ Client-First Approach offer 24/7 customer support.

CozyPOS is a license based software at the outlet and come with optional subscription based plug-ins for web based Cozy Infosystems has exactly solved all the above reporting, web based management, online ordering, online challenges through their CozyPOS flexible architecture. table reservation, multi-outlet management, franchise Retail outlet can run the operations without depending on management, loyalty management, digital signage, kitchen the internet all the time and business owner can access and display solution, automatic shelf labeling solution, control outlets through cloud software and mobile apps. centralized token display solution and many more niche CozyPOS architecture allows easier integration to third solutions. party software solutions such as loyalty solutions, integrated payment gateways, SMS gateway etc.

A melt of technical and functional knowledge is the key to product and company’s success. Their team follows the CozyPOS’ Impressive Features CUSTOMER FIRST theme in every stage. Their support CozyPOS Billing Software has impressive features such as team, serves 24 X 7 to provide support to their customers in Touch Screen Based Billing, Easy User Interface, Multiple Menu, Multiple Pricing for Menu products, Section Specific CozyPOS (www.cozypos.com): Easy, Fast and Affordable Nowadays, restaurant business operations have become very complex due to its nature of business. Restaurant management software should be easy to use, faster in response, flexible to use, manage inventory, recipe, manage employees, and handle day to day business operations efficiently. At the same time, the business owner would like to have central control of multiple outlets through web and mobile app access.

Cover Story

a timely manner. Their functional team takes input from business owners and recommend to product development team to implement in future versions.

Strong technical team is contributing to product development by adapting new technology trends.

The industry is changing rapidly. New business models and strategies are challenging the traditional software solutions. Upgrading the software to match the new trends is a key for success. Restaurants have been going through new trend in taking orders due to innovative online ordering and delivery aggregators to bring new revenue to them. Lack of integration of such orders with Point of Sale software is causing reconciliation issues for business owners.

Smooth and Seamless POS Integration Restaurant operators are immensely looking for that system which has easily integrated a variety of capabilities into their point-of-sale (POS) systems. According to Hospitality Technology’s Restaurant Technology Study, Foodservice operators cite integration as a vital business driver influencing their next POS upgrade. Integration between systems opens up capabilities on both the operations side, including kitchen efficiency and better intelligence, and the customer-facing side, like mobile and online ordering, and more sophisticated loyalty programs.

CozyPOS architecture to track third party order sources into the same Point of Sale software that they use at the restaurant and thereby track their sales and inventory more efficiently.

www.printmyaadhaar.com and customers can directly upload their EAadhaar files and receive the PVC copy to their home.

Also, the company’s Cozy GPS is an innovative and cost effective real time GPS/GPRS tracking solutions comprising of hardware device, GSM SIM and, Tracking platform software.

GPS/GPRS tracking solution is best suited for all vehicles to track them 24/7 with the help of satellites and the internet. It’s a unique way for companies and individuals to monitor and control their vehicles, by using the Cozy Infosystems’ Other Products internet or mobile phones from anywhere. It also enables you to The company’s CozyPrint is the monitor accurately the movements of Aadhaar Card printing software your employees, children or any other One of the biggest stumbling blocks to developed in-house. Software is well asset on the move. The same solution designed to take the e-Aadhaar file in a smooth POS integration - or can be integrated with any ERP integration of any technology type - is PDF format and convert the software to offer this GPS tracking information to the format required to connecting disparate systems. Trying print on a plastic card. This software is features under one solution. to get different systems to talk to one designed to take care of variations on another takes time and financial investment for both the operators and PDF format of e-Aadhaar file. This software is being used by several the vendors involved. businesses across the country. Same solution is also available as ECozy Infosystems has upgraded their Commerce platform with URL software to provide solution through Having more than 15 years of strong experience in Retail Business Software Solutions and dealt with a different Point of Sale software over the years, the company’s design and development team understands the challenges of business owners and developed solutions through feature rich CozyPOS software.

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016 Fastest Growing Companies Shifting the Ways of Doing Business into Higher Gear

O

ver the last few years, it seems India has become the seventh largest economy throughout the globe, where India’s growth story represents a resilient outlook. According to the latest World Bank forecasts, India’s economy is the bright spot among all the emerging and developing economies with an expected 7.3% GDP growth in 2016 as compared to 7% in 2015.

The Indian entrepreneurs came up with an ablaze idea. Slowdown meant a huge opportunity in niches for them. And lack of growth meant readying the whole hog for a small increase. They didn’t believe in the slowdown and develop strategies to grow their business rather than securing it from shrinking; they invested heavily in capacity multiplies for the future; and they recognized their personal growth in a depressed business environment.

We are honored to rank an exclusive list of India’s ‘The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016’. These companies are shortlisted as per the parameters such as profit, sales, capital return and market capitalization.

Our issue, ‘The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016’ has covered companies from the various sectors like innovative app development companies, Zomato for restaurant search and discovery app and Testbook app, as an online exam preparation portal. From e-Commerce, Giftxoxo has been shortlisted on the basis of its gifting unique services.

Kobster, for its specific devices which implements marketing strategies and tactics. Monginis, the celebration king to deliver happiness.

As a development company Codewave for building intelligent and good looking apps for the web and mobile. Evisipro for continuously adding value across industries by leveraging domain expertise in IT services and Engineering services.

From digital agency iLeadFarmers is the first digital agency across the globe. Pinnacle from Telecomm Industry, a leading Mobile Messaging Operator & Marketing Partners for digital communication. MediaValueWorks for its unique blend of an integrated communications approach which suits the Indian as well as global market.

While choosing a cover story, our criteria was to highlight the company who possesses a passion for new trends and ready to upgrade their software to match the evolving technologies of the industry. We are delighted to share Cozy Infosystems as the cover story for this issue, who is at the forefront of providing Point of Sale and ERP software products /solutions for the retail industry.

Centre of Interest

Initiatives to Drive Innovation and Business Growth

I

n today’s competitive in the global marketplace, firms need to be driving effective innovation in their services as well as products.

Furthermore, it is necessary for them to innovate rapidly and also, to do it costeffectively. This need has been there, but its significance has grown over the last few decades. Even during the period of recession, top leadership was focused on growth, and they believed technology to be the main enabler of innovation.

It is found during a survey that more than 3/4thof industry leaders believed that innovation drives efficiencies. It also leads to competitive advantage.

And most of them also believe that technology is one way of capturing both. Nearly seventy percent of decision makers surveyed were investing in IT to become more efficient and to reduce costs, while almost half of them were also funneling funds toward growth initiatives leveraging emerging technologies, like social media and wireless devices.

16

JULY 2016

Your Role as a Leader Once the right skills, strategy and processes are in place to embrace new ideas and initiatives, there is an opportunity for the thought-leaders to leverage technology to enable innovation.

find people others to collaborate and co-create with. Wireless devices enable access to the databases, to applications, and numerous other purposes.

Analytics help us to make actionderived meaning and presentation of all the data.

The list technologies that have converged to drive innovation can be long, but summarizing, cloud computing, analytics, social networking, and mobile device based computing are the key fundamentals.

These are the technologies that enable new ways to innovate, develop products, interact with crew & clients, team up, and manage data. It observed that firms showing remarkable results demonstrate greater mastery in leveraging these four digital technologies to innovate, plan, measure result and create value.

Driving Innovation and Growth There is a primary factor without which, even the most innovative tech can’t deliver high-value; and that is business strategy and goals. The airtight business plan and a crystalclear vision of where you want to see the organization are a must, as these factors will help in defining and setting the context for the role development, research, and innovation will play in enabling profitable growth. It will also help to determine the type of innovation wanted and the way you need to organize to effect change.

Excluding these, many other factors show unique impact when applied, also they are complementary in support of creating value and result. Still, to achieve the growth-driven innovation, the values need to be understood. For example, with social media, people can

Innovation can be manifested in multiple ways, but the type of innovation that is needed must be determined. Notably, there are three type of innovations based on industry goals and technology that needs to matched. The first one is, Incremental

Centre of Interest

innovations that make small changes to a company’s existing technologies and business models. Next, Breakthrough innovations that make significant changes to either the technology or business model, producing significant growth. And finally, Radical innovations, which take place more rarely, combine technology and business model innovation to create major new industries with exponential growth.

Companies need to build a set up their work culture around innovation and establish appropriate metrics and processes to integrate innovation into the corporate culture. The organisations who were able to apply this research culture and establish the processes, what difference did they apply? Which type of skillsets are needed to drive it and is ultimate responsibly in the company for innovation, how the location of various teams need to be decided and how will they collaborate? And finally, how

mechanisms and processes around innovation can be defined?

Getting started with innovation First and foremost, it is necessary for companies to understand the ways to organize themselves around innovation, and define processes to get the best results from innovation.

Initailly, companies need to consider their strategic imperatives, and ways to make a holistic transformation through process, structure, and people.

Technoception: Innovations used for Innovating The final step is to identify the innovations and latest technologies that are best-suited to their unique circumstances. Companies who work to improve enterprise productivity, need to reduce complexity and then drive a comparatively agile IT environment. As this environment is an enabler for business growth, while using emerging technologies. Notably, social networks can be used to

collaborate and communicate (internally as well as externally) and to co-create and generate ideas for solutions and service.

Enabling a remote and mobile workforce that can collaborate regardless of time and location can also be done.

Companies can leverage analytics to derive value from connected data and get a comprehensive overview of your information.

Utilizing the cloud technology to optimize your IT are some of the technologies that are adapted widely to for business growth. How companies would create and sustain appropriate executive commitment to execute the innovation program successfully, will depend on the business goals and predictions market scenario, for any particular company.

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Company Name

Management

Brief

Bagful Solutions www.bagful.net

Sham Kamboj Founder & CEO

Bagful is a leading Domain Registration & Web Hosting company.

CNB Technologies www.cnbtek.com

Rajesh Kumar & Nitin Sirohi Co-founders

CNB provides automation solution based on real time information technologies to port and container shipping industry.

Codewave www.codewave.in

Abhijith HK Founder & CEO

Codewave was founded in May 2013 with a vision to build intelligent, good looking apps for the web and mobile, helping brands create impact online.

Cozy Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. Jayagopal Theranikal www.cozyinfo.com & Founder & CEO www.cozypos.com

Cozy Infosystems Private Limited, India. Point of Sale and ERP software products /solutions for the retail industry, its solutions caters to all type of retail verticals and give an ability to run the software from a wide range of platforms such as Windows, Linux, Android, iOS.

Lovegin John CEO

Cubet Techno Labs provide end to end solutions which help organizations to competently collaborate and communicate with the various functional areas within the organization and with business partners in their value chains.

Evisipro Solutions Pvt. Ltd. www.evisipro.com

Yogesh Arjun Ghorpade Founder & MD

Evisipro provides end to end solutions, customizations, testing & validations, processes & operations applications/automations, mobile applications, enterprise mobile solutions, UI/UX expertise, web applications, ecommerce applications, CAD/CAE/CAM services as the principal business activities.

Giftxoxo.com www.giftxoxo.com

Manoj Agarwal Co-founder

Giftxoxo is a marketplace for gifting of unique experiences and gift vouchers.

iLeadFarmers www.ileadfarmers.com

Shashi Sudhanshu Founder & CEO

iLeadFarmers, a storyteller, is specialized in Experience Design, Marketing Communication & Lead Generation.

iSynergy TechSys www. isynergysys.com

Atul Thombre CEO

At iSynergy, they understand the dynamics associated with taking ideas to fruition and this, along with their clients’ insights, help them in designing innovative technology solutions for developing products that resonate with their audience.

Kobster www.kobster.com

Vineet Neeraj, Karthik Ramaiah & Mohan Gayam Co-founders

Kobster is a Businessto-Business e-commerce player which helps corporate buyers, retailers, SMEs, home ofďŹ ces, hotels, hospitals etc. to purchase business products in bulk at wholesale rate.

Cubet Techno Labs www.cubettech.com

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Company Name

Management

MediaValueWorks Rachana Chawdhary www.mediavalueworks.com Founder & Director

Brief MediaValueWorks offers a cloud based service for Global Public Relations enabling ‘Local Businesses to Communicate Effectively with Global Media’.

Monginis Foods Pvt. Ltd. www.monginis.net

Mr. Zoher H. Khorakiwala, Chairman & MD Mr. Kumail H. Khorakiwala, Jt. MD Mr.Qusai Z. Khorakiwala, Director Mr.Aliasger K. Khorakiwala, Director

Monginis is a premier and popular destination for lovers and connoisseurs of all varieties cakes, chocolates, pastries and cookies, with a commanding and distinguished presence in 12 cities around India and 2 in Egypt.

Nextgen Telesolutions Pvt. Ltd. www.nextgentele.in

Taron Mohan CEO

Nextgen enable their partners build a secure Financial Service offering on “any mobile, network”, and go to the masses with a 360 degree service offering on Financial Inclusion services.

NWDCo www.nwdco.com

Nishir Gordhandas CEO

With a vision to serve and excel in various ventures taken up in the field of IT and Technology, NWDCo evolved from a Web Designing company into a full fledged IT Product and Service provider, offering expertise in most IT related areas.

Pinnacle Teleservices Rajesh Banerjee Pvt. Ltd. Director & Co-founder www.pinnacleteleservices.com

Pinnacle is India’s leading Mobile Messaging Operator & marketing partners for digital communication focused in delivering communication with data analysis and engagement tools with Telecom, Internet, social media & Over the Air (OTA) platforms.

Sify Technologies www.corporate.sify.com

Kamal Nath CEO

Sify Technologies are building a world in which their converged ICT ecosystem and their ‘bring it on’ attitude will be the competitive advantage for their customers.

Sphinx Solutions www.sphinx-solution.com

Anand CEO

Sphinx is domain expertise with rationalized knowledge about current industry technology & trends. They take pride in being One-stop IT service provider for the web application, mobile apps, software consulting and staff augmentation services.

Testbook www.testbook.com

Ashutosh Kumar CEO

Testbook App provides the best and most relevant practice questions for LIC AAO, GATE 2017, SSC CGL, Railways RRB NTPC, Aptitude for Campus Placements, Bank PO, Bank Clerk, Current Affairs & General Knowledge.

Unify www.unify.com

Amit Jain Chairman & MD

Unify is the newest member of the Atos family, combining Atos’ knowledge and reputation in the IT services market with Unify’s expertise in unified communications and collaboration to provide customers with seamless services solutions for their entire digital portfolio.

Zomato www.zomato.com

Deepinder Goyal Founder & CEO

Zomato is a restaurant search and discovery app, which provides in-depth information for over 1 million restaurants and enables users to order food online and make online table reservations in selected geographies.

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

CNB Technologies: Solution that Manage and Plan a Container Yard in Real Time Using IoT

E

mergence of IoT has changed the way we live and work.

Also, opening new opportunities for growth and innovation in less time. Companies possessing a huge amount of data has to be analyzed to understand more about their customers needs and trends.

Companies have started using IoT data as part of their planning in order to stay competitive and to give more innovative services and products.

Focussed towards creating a bigger technology barrier by bringing 10X improvements in information visibility and data analytics for the yard owners, CNB, a hardware-software product company is emphasizing on shipping logistic industry. The company has developed a unique and cost effective solution, globally, to manage and plan a container yard in real time using their IOT (Internet Of Things) platform. The solution is used for managing the complete yard by recording all the activities happening inside a container yard in a fully automatic manner.

There are no manual interventions, whatsoever, in recording these data, this is why it is error free.

Rajesh Kumar & Nitin Sirohi Co-founders

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Rajesh Kumar and Nitin Sirohi, cofounders of CNB Technologies, has a

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

relationship that goes long back during their college days at IIT Kanpur.

Where, Rajesh holds a B.Tech in Civil Engineering and Nitin holds Msc Integrated in Physics.

“We are both sportsperson at core of the heart and learnt a lot from it like coping with the team, how to celebrate winning moments and how to digest and improve after losses etc,” propounds Rajesh. While talking about their interests, he further adds, “I used to play hockey and Nitin used to play cricket for IITK during Inter-IIT sports meet. Both of us were having similar kind of interests as also big risk taking capabilities and never shied away from trying new things. This is one thing that brought us closer and we did enough things together to understand each other like brothers.”

CNB is motivated to take it to the next level and putting more than required to achieve the goal.

A Complete Innovative Solution CNB Solutions take best of the breed components from all across the world and manufactures hardware fitted for the particular usecase and provide endto-end solution to their customers. The software application is completely inhouse. CNB is a hardware-software company with a complete innovative

“

“Everyone gets the kick from the fact that we are doing something which no one in the world has done like this,” asserts Nitin. The feeling of being the best and self-sustaining without any external funding in itself is a big motivating factor. CNB is going to be a product originated from India for the global market, this is also quite motivating for everyone. Everyone at

“

Rajesh and Nitin started their entrepreneurial journey from 2006 in the field real time information domain. After trying different things during the initial years of their journey, they are now spearheading with their product for port and shipping industry since last 5 years.

Our solutions enables 100% container identication which has not been achieved anywhere globally till date solution. The main innovation is understanding the right set of different technologies like RFID, GPS, GPRS, different sensors and processing unit that are deployed in harshest of the conditions to capture the data in real time, automatically 24x7. The company has technically created barrier for any competition for at least 3 years of R&D on the field and not in the lab.

They have a dedicated R&D team who keep on experimenting with all the upcoming and new technologies related to their system. They keep a close tab on all the developments happening on that field. One thing for

which they are very sure is that they do not change a stable technology component in their solution unless and until it has got some significant advantages attached to it. which goes both for hardware as well as software.

India spends 13-14% of its GDP on logistics whereas developed countries do it at 6-7%, this explains a lot about the inefficiency in the system. For any country, port is the start and the end point of the logistic with the external world. Containerisation of cargo is the best way to utilise space and making cargo movement more efficient. In case of Import, cargo moves from Port-container yardwarehouse and then further down in chain; in case of export, cargo move out from various places to warehouse-container yard-port.

Focus on Port and Logistics Development CNB is looking to automate the complete start and end of the logistic chain by making port, container yard and warehouse more efficient. What excites CNB about the future is that today India’s 20-25% container uses their solution and one day when 70-80% container passes through their solution, probably they will reduce at least 1-2% of Indian GDP wastage on logistics. The government is also focused for development of port and logistics infrastructure which is a very good news for everyone. The company is seeing some good progress in terms of automation and visibility that the government is mandating on this segment.

JULY 2016

21

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Codewave: Building Beautiful Apps with Reliable Technology

S

tarting with “why”, understanding the product vision, articulating it with wireframes and design, Codewave goes about solving business problems with technology, holistically.

Codewave offers app design and development services for web, smartphones and tablets, with a focus on UI/UX, mobility and scalability.

Codewave today is a young, growing team of 45 people from diverse backgrounds and experiences, in various functions like Wireframing and Visual Design, Web Development, Mobile Development, Quality Analysis, Delivery Management, Account Management and Business Development. The company has accomplished product thinkers inhouse, to work with their clients; more like peers and connect with them at the product level, and holistically shape the outcomes.

Codewave design team works with the client team in close feedback loops to shape the overall product experience, define the app screens, content and interactions. During this phase, the development team in parallel, reflects on the backend architecture and database design to achieve scalability. While the design team takes care of UI/UX, the development team takes care of robustness and scalability of the app.

Abhijith HK Founder & CEO

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Vision behind Codewave Abhijith HK, Founder & CEO of Codewave, a Computer Science Engineering graduate, started his career as a software development

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

intern, doing mobile development. In a on the environment they’re in. web/mobile technologies and few months, he became a full stack frameworks, at the best possible cost. developer, worked with a travel startup An Integrated App Experience They continuously benchmark with and built mobile apps and sites, where Codewave’s core proposition to market latest open source technologies / is UI/UX, Mobility, Scalability at the he met his wife Vidhya, who was a frameworks, implement quick POCs to best possible cost and creating an product manager and together they validate feasibility and use in their integrated app experience. Codewave built many mobile solutions for projects. They also customize open source libraries to build their own, to connects with their clients at a vision travelers, hotels and enterprise apps. meet the needs of the end product.

Back in 2013, he noticed a growing level and aligns a team of individuals Codewave’s team of developers are who can productize the vision in a need in the market for good looking great way. They have a combination of constantly exploring new opportunities apps and sites. There were very few to code better; also a reason why they a business guy (account leadership) companies in India then who worried are able to swiftly switch from old to and a technology guy (team about good looking, mobile friendly leadership), jointly driving project new frameworks like AngularJS and interfaces and embracing mobility commitments and delivery. fundamentally. On one side were the NodeJS. Over the last 3 years, the creative agencies who were company has built technologically limited with design and complex applications such as IoT We believe, our biggest applications requiring heavy photoshop, on the other side were data computations, social legacy technology companies strength is our ability to realtime commerce /marketplace portals who were focusing purely on the create and maintain a with large data aggregation (on functionality, not the user interface. Abhijith felt there was workplace, which nudges MongoDB) and AI (artificial intelligence) based apps that a need for both these worlds, to people to be their greatest require deep data interpretations. come together and create Codewave has simplified solutions that give users a great selves. Everything else patient doctor communication in online experience and that are follows. hospitals, enabled satellite reliable to scale for a large education for African children number of users. He quit his job, where internet is unavailable, started a new journey with Codewave in May 2013. His wife enabled baby incubators to Codewave is one of the first joined him to help the team grow and proactively alert doctors using BLE companies, to have eliminated the bell to help enable sustainable business (Bluetooth Low Energy), built curve appraisal and generic rating growth. marketplaces for consumers to easily scales for performance reviews and Codewave grew from a team of 4 find legal, financial help and built have instead adopted a more dynamic to 45, over the last 3 years purely many more applications making the performance review practice that through team member referrals and world more deeply connected. carefully aligns potential to people directly reaching out to them Codewave’s upcoming product opportunity and promotes individuals through their site. The team puts “Peerly”, intends to illustrate their when they’re ready. They are proud to focused effort on raising potential, spirit of building a great workplace be a people first company, that has individually and collectively to be able developed unique, disruptive people with empathy, transparency and peer to attract the right opportunities, development practices and a workplace comfort. Peerly aims to make everyday enabling the organization to grow recognitions and opportunities more closer to home. sustainably. vivid, intensifying connections with people and their experience of life at The company organizes an event Early Adopters of MEAN Stack work. With Peerly, companies can every week ‘Codewave Leadership Codewave feels proud to be one of the Café, to have people share insights and early adopters of MEAN stack, Django bring positive change in the workplace inspiration from their lives. They draw (Python framework) technologies used not just once a year, but at all the inspiration from people and learn how moments of opportunity. by companies like Uber. They build each one of them is making an impact scalable applications using latest

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Go Green

Let’s Do Something Different.

Environmentally Friendly.

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he use of plastic has been increasing at a tremendous rate for the last few decades, which plays a major role in all facets of modern lifestyle. Plastics are used in the manufacture of a great number of products such as mobile phones, domestic appliances, furniture items, medical devices, protective packaging, lightweight and safety components in cars, and insulation materials in buildings, etc. Plastics are used because they are effortless and saving costs to make and it can be durable.

Destruction of plastic waste has come out as a major environmental challenge and its recycling is facing obstacles due to its non-degradable characteristic. The amount of plastic waste in our surroundings is continuously growing because plastic does not decompose biologically.

However, so many articles showed the situation on the ‘sea beaches contain plastic’. Plastic waste is often the most objectionable type of litter and could be viewable for months in landfill sites without degrading.

Reuse of plastics and recycling is obtaining as major as a sustainable method for plastic waste disposal.

Unluckily, plastic is one of the difficult kind of material to recycle than aluminum, glass or paper. What is the common problem with recycling plastics?, it is that plastics are often made up of more than one type of

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polymer or there may be some kind of fibre added to the plastic, can be a composite. Plastic polymers need a sustainable amount of processing to be recycled as a different type melts at different temperatures and has different properties, so be alert separation is very necessary.

Moreover, most plastics are not greatly compatible with one another. Except for familiar applications such as industrial packaging film and recycling bottles, there are also new developments, e.g. The Recovinyl initiative of the PVC industry.

Lots of construction firms are using plastic materials. The components used involve everything from plastic screws and hinges to enlarge plastic parts that are used in electric wiring, decoration, flooring, water proofing, wall covering, etc.

Humans create 660 billion pounds of plastic in a year, and the manufacturing process produces three times as much carbon dioxide by weight as actual plastic. “That’s an insane amount of material,” states Newlight Technologies CEO Mark Herrema.

“Wouldn’t we be better off using plastic as a conveyor belt for capturing and sequestering carbon emissions instead?” That’s exactly what his company does.

Typically, plastic is made by exposing hydrocarbons from fossil fuels to tremendous pressure and energy.

Newlight's first commercial plant, in California, captures methane generated by a dairy farm’s waste lagoon and transports it to a bioreactor. There, enzymes combine the gas with air to form a polymer. The resulting plastic, called AirCarbon, performs identically to most oil-based plastics, but costs less-creating a market-driven solution to global warming. Companies have already signed on to use AirCarbon in their products, including KI desk chairs (pictured), Dell computer packaging, and Sprint smartphone cases.

CXO Standpoint

Franchising and Restaurant Industry The Inseparables - Rohan Bhatt

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Today, almost half of the Restaurant businesses in the United States are franchised units and that is what caused the Fast Food Revolution, as we know it. In fact, Franchising is mostly responsible for the creation of the most successful format of Restaurants - the Quick Service Restaurant. The whole dynamic of the relationship between these two industries is what has revolutionized the entire business of eating out across the world.

advantage is that the business model is easily recognizable and acceptable. From the industry’s point of view, franchising is the most suitable way to make brands and products popular with regular customer visits and high brand recall value. From the point of view of an entrepreneur (franchisee in this context) is that the business model is well established and defined. Even the roles and responsibilities of the different crewmembers as well as the owner himself are well defined and as a result, the customers feel more secure and confident about the consistency and quality of the products. This leads to a more confident and a more loyal customer base for not just the brand or chain but for the entire concept of franchise stores hence increasing the footfalls to any particular location among other things.

Franchising is important in different ways to different people, and its importance varies from the utility it offers to all the sections of the business applicable. For the Restaurant concerned, Franchising is the best way to expand to various territories in a fast and effective way without the need of a large network of highly skilled individuals or the need to have a super costly core management team for each store. For the Brand, the

Restaurant Operations are a typically complicated as they have to be able to build on the concept that even the most complicated products are made in the simplest and most effective manner by the most unexpected source of manpower. Simpletons who have very little or no training or background of the industry are usually introduced to the operations as entry-level crew and trained on the job by means of an intricate system of operations broken up and

ranchising has been around since the 19th Century but it was not until Ray Kroc, a Multi-Mixer Salesman adopted Franchising for the expansion of his little known acquisition back then Mc Donald’s Fast Food that it gained such a strong popularity and momentum.

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Franchising is the best way to expand to various territories in a fast and effective way without the need of a large network of highly skilled individuals or the need to have a super costly core management team for each store - Rohan

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CXO Standpoint

simplified to a great degree of detail by effective restaurant systems. Creating such systems is no child’s play and requires the highest skills and knowledge of operations and franchising. Brands take the decisions like developing a correct business operations plan and expansion well in advance to accommodate the possibility of major problems at later stages.

Every business needs a proof of concept and the flagship store or the pioneer store of a potential franchise system usually has one (or more) profitable prototypes across the business models to highlight the strengths of the business model in a variety of scenarios. However, a correct expansion plan is of utmost importance as gradual growth and planning are important to sustain and manage growth considering the importance of correct logistics and material management, organizational support and observation and support from the HQ to the units etc., which are crucial for the growth of the business model.

Rohan Bhatt, Founder & Head Consultant of Square Consulting, is a Franchise & Hospitality Consulting professional with over 11 years of hands on experience in developing and sustaining franchise brands across India.

He has headed the expansion and franchising part of various brands such as La Marque World Dining, Singh Saaab Di Rasoi, Unique Brew Café, Moodies Restro Café, Tasty Khaman, Mexican Rodeo & The Dough Company.

His acute sense of retailing & hospitality and his innovative restaurant support & development systems make him an integral part of the team showing the company’s commitment to not just large numbers but systematic development & support for the large number of stores planned in the network.

He has also provided end to end solutions for various brands on a strategic level which gives the businesses a correct direction for organic and sustainable growth.

India has been one of the late bloomers in the field of Franchising and Organized restaurant industry both and this has been more of a blessing for the market dynamics as the factors like economy and society development has taken major leaps only in the past two decades and eating out has evolved a lot. The Indian Growth story largely loses its shine to the fact that the brands that are opting for Franchise route for their expansion are either locally run stores with a considerable home market value or brands that have ambition and uniqueness of concept but are not at all financially ready to take the required steps. Important aspects of franchise marketing like branding and organizing resources to display the franchise opportunity on a more practical and real way.

The whole idea of franchising is just to make more money in India by way of Franchise Fees and post-sales support and organizing operations is still a distant reality for India and the considerably small number of brands that do so have achieved unmatched success and growth through this excellent medium of expansion.

In conclusion, the first generation entrepreneurs who want to enter the industry in a correct way with genuine serious efforts made behind developing brands and business models is what makes the franchise opportunity worthwhile. The business owners need to have more faith in the business model and should be able to stick around a little longer to give the franchisee unit holders what they want to run their units successfully.

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Evisipro: Leveraging Versatile Expertise to Deliver Innovative Solutions

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oday, because of rapidly changing demands for online market, it is very challenging to create a big fortune in IT field.

Along with providing a wide range of services, simplifying the complex situations is the major barrier of the IT services. With the gigantic goals and highly passionate nature, Evisipro has emerged as a leading company in IT services. Evisipro was formerly known as evision which started back in 1999.

Till 2007, company’s main focus was on engineering services, but since 2007 Evisipro is continuously adding value across industries by leveraging domain expertise in IT services and Engineering services.

Yogesh Arjun Ghorpade Founder & MD

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The Creator of Evisipro Yogesh Arjun Ghorpade, Founder and Managing Director of Evisipro Solutions has 21 years of experience which helped him to bring this company on the road of success. His various expert areas of Software Development include Software Architecture, Designing and Enterprising Mobility. Yogesh developed skills like CAD, CAE, PLM and Experimental Stress Analysis, which are the foremost applications in Engineering. The peak of discipline he achieved while working with corporate giants like Siemens, Bharat Forge, Virgo (Emerson) can surely be seen in his creation of Evisipro.

Yogesh not only mastered different skills in the industry, but he also successfully applied them in the welfare of Industries. Yogesh along with the Evision’s team successfully delivered huge data conversion 2D to 3D of a large missile program in the

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Defence Industry in 2 years’ time. their business development. These analyze them and prepare clear Also, he participated in some of the SaaS based solutions are highly cost 'Problem Definition’ followed by preparing competitive solution notable engineering programs like The effective, easy to use and offering strategies using cutting edge Hydrogen Fuel Cell program, The complete business management tool technologies, which keep them ahead Geostationary Satellite program and for the customers. in every race. Business The Stairs Climbing Robot.

These IP protected solutions are Application Solutions are During Siemen’s tenure, he customized according to customers’ developed, delivered and worked in the core product brands so to help them building up supported throughout their lifedevelopment team of world's their own brands strongly. All of these cycle by the domain experts of the leading PLM software - Team are B2B2C solutions covering all industries. The company believes center for 9.5 years. He was the aspects from SMAC. Evisipro’s part of varied projects from customers experience Business Growth in creating sound IT infrastructure which is the key for enterprises in Aerospace, Automotive and Space along with genuine customer data executing business agenda Research Industries. capture and detailed successfully.

Furthermore, Yogesh business dashboard.

Foreseeing the Future contributed to Finite element While keeping an eye on the analysis and motion analysis in the present situation, the founders of Nuclear Energy program. And with Principally same but varying Evisipro keeps a keen vision on the Mobile First Enterprise Solutions (with applications across industries make future goals and forecasted challenges.

ESPL) where he was an architect and these solutions fit in entire Retail Meanwhile, in labs, Evisipro has been designer of a wide range of W/M umbrella; Ex. Hospitality, Spa-Salon, already working on the Augmented Solutions solving complex business Nails, Apparel, Groceries, etc., Reality version of its products in Retail problems evolving marketplaces in Healthcare, Construction, industry. These will be launched healthcare, hospitality, malls, Manufacturing, Social and Education. towards the end of 2016. groceries, spas & salon, nails, Evisipro’s main motive of this construction, education.

As Evisipro is coming from strong unique strategy of treating each experience in engineering domains it Paramount Services Enterprise as a Brand is to make them has a robust base which is fully applied IT Services- Evisipro provides end-to- independent of any third party in delivering Projects and Building end solutions to Web Applications, solutions; so to deliver freedom in the Solutions. Evisipro started contributing Mobility & Enterprise Mobility, operations as long as they are in the to the SMAC ride of IT since 2013.

Digital Marketing, Testing & business. Evisipro’s advanced tools Since then, it successfully delivered Automation, Portal Management also help Enterprises with intelligent many projects and end-to-end solutions Services and Third Party integrations. business analytics. in different industries. Continuing the Proprietary SaaS based SolutionsEvisipro is one of the rare same philosophy of working within Evisipro manages to provide 3 Tier organizations who believe in strong latest technologies, Evisipro sees Business Development for Hospitality, value system. ‘These values run in the delivering quality projects in the areas Retail, Construction, Beauty and blood of our organization and this has like IoT, Enterprise Mobility and Big Entertainment Industries. It also become the very culture of Evisipro’, delivers DPS&DIS in healthcare and they claim. Paying respect to everyone, Data Analysis across the industries solving more and more complex RF/RFID based solutions in every situation and thinking of the business problems.

Manufacturing, Process, Construction, positive irrespective of ill or crisis Future growth in IoT, Artificial Retail,etc. situations are the qualities which Intelligence, Augmented Reality and Products and Platforms- With the allows them to dream big. Integrity, their applications in real world helping highly expertise solutions, Evisipro transparency in every transaction, tremendously in sophisticating the provides Moodifoody, IDOJ, Medi-9, customer satisfaction, flexibility and world around us. A lot of applications Goeogo, fb_all, techedutube, consistency in self-improvement are of these technologies in mainstream Toffsociety, Edu-9, Commt-9, Blueme, the key values of Evisipro. etc.

Evisipro’s deep domain expertise in industries like Energy, Healthcare, Retail, Manufacturing, and Education Evisipro’s Unique Strategy various kinds of Industries is always excite Evisipro and looks forward to Evisipro’s Solutions empower each leveraged while dealing with complex make a huge technology contribution Enterprise with an independent IT business problems. They accurately to the world. infrastructure helping its customers in identify the business complexities,

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Giftxoxo: Pioneers in Gifting Unique Experiences

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oday, every fast-moving company’s biggest asset is its employees, for that the most important thing is appreciation for their grueling work. In most corporate cultures, they express employee appreciation through gifting. Basically, gifts are meant to affirm relationships and enhance personal connections between clients, customers, and employees. In fact, according to the Promotional Products Association International, gift giving has proven to increase business activity.

Gifts can be available through Retail Catalogs and Store Purchases, but when it involves multiple people or booking an experience, handling everything on your own can quickly become complicated. You may try to buy direct from manufacturers, talk to incentive representatives, or engage the services of companies. This is where Giftxoxo comes into the picture, whose business organizes experience gift boxes and customized gift baskets.

When exploring the possibilities for gift giving in your office, don't get overwhelmed. Use the expert advice from professional gift giving companies to give wisely, create a better work environment, and keep your employees happy.

Manoj Agarwal Co-founder

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Nreach Online Services, the parent company works under two brands Giftxoxo and Frogo. The essence of

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Giftxoxo is one of the pioneers in experience gifting in India. The company started with experience gifting in 2012, and later in 2014 added a SaaS platform which helps companies engage with their employee and other stakeholders through a seamless platform. Today, Giftxoxo work close to 700 global organizations to handle their rewards, recognition, employee engagement, and channel incentive programs.

Giftxoxo offers over 4000 unique experiences and activities across categories like Travel, Adventure, Gourmet, Health & Wellness, Hobbies & Learning. These services are seamlessly integrated through technology platform to ensure high quality and automation to manage catalog, inventory, scheduling and bookings.

In 2015, Giftxoxo also started their consumer centric mobile app and website Frogo, which helps one discover and book amazing experiences on the go.

Giftxoxo cater to consumers who are looking to enrich their lives with exclusive and curated experiences.

Their consumers are the ones who are looking for quality and uniqueness in an experience. Their consumers are not the ones who look for a discount.

Giftxoxo is very focused on bringing an awesome consumer experience through strong technology and operational excellence.

Manoj Agarwal, Co-founder of Giftxoxo, is a Computer Science Engineer from PEC Chandigarh and an MBA from IIM Kozhikode. Manoj brings over 10 years of experience in Technology, Product, Marketing and Business Excellence to the table. He has worked with companies like Yahoo, Manipal Education and Flipkart in various roles. Manoj has been always active in promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship in India. His

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We have been very progressive on leveraging technical capabilities and have invested well in bringing automated solutions and seamlessness

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the company lies in providing curated experiences and activities to the consumers.

wanderlust led him to explore different places of the world and how different societies follow its beliefs and the way of life. Manoj’s greatest enthusiasms are sports, yoga, reading and music.

Considering Technology as a Key Enabler to Business Giftxoxo is a strong believer in how technology can disrupt complex business problems and make it very simple for various stakeholders.

However, technology should solve real business and consumer needs. They consider technology as a key enabler to business, and not the business itself.

Hence all their technology focus is to solve basic consumer and business problems instead of doing any fancy

stuff which may not be a real consumer need. The company keeps investing in technology as long as it serves a real need.

Culture of Innovation and Collaborative Working The company is as good as its team.

Their team is one of their key strengths and their pillar to success. They have built a good team and today, have a good senior and middle management team to take the growth to the next level. They have a culture of innovation and collaborative working. Team contributes a lot in various strategic decisions and brings lots of new ideas to the table.

The experience and activities industry has come a long way since they started in 2012. “ I remember that most suppliers or consumers hardly understood the concept of experience then. And see now, there are so many companies, large and small, who are betting big on this idea,” affirms Manoj. Consumers are looking for unique and curated experiences for various reasons. Suppliers are well aware of the fact that by providing unique experiences to their customers they can differentiate themselves from the competition and also earn better margins. Hence, overall the ecosystem is building up very well.

Giftxox is upbeat about this growth and being one of the first movers in this sector, they have been growing well. The company feels proud that they are bringing lots of technological and operational excellence in this unorganized sector.

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Market Dashboard

India Is Becoming the World’s Fastest Growing Startup Ecosystem

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n recent years, the Indian startup ecosystem has really taken off and come into focus on its own-driven by factors such as massive funding, consolidation activities, evolving technology and a burgeoning domestic market. The numbers are depicting-from approx. 3000 startups in 2014 to a projection of more than approx. 11000 by 2020, this is surely not a passing trend. It’s just a revolution. And in India, it’s will change the way the markets are working today.

Disruptive Startups from India A lot of startups in India have entered in the industry either unearthing an entirely new market or through gaps in existing markets or product lines. Although there are various successful startups that are growing rapidly and

changing how an existing industry works in the process like Paytm, Redbus, InMobi, Housing.com, Zivame, AdPushup to name a few. This listing is not only exhaustive but it also serves as an appetizer for delving deep into the world of the Indian startup ecosystem which is the 4th largest on the entire planet.

Indian Startup Ecosystem Enablers In India startups have given rise to more startups. Enablers, accelerators, and incubators are firms providing startups with growth advice and decision-making tools. From advising on government policies to act as market catalysts, they grow the maturity of young ventures. Enablers like iSpirt and NASSCOM brought together key stakeholders of the ecosystem including startup accelerators, incubators, venture capitalists, angel investors, support groups, technology corporations and mentors. Simply, their main aim is to provide funding and support for startups.

Closing Thoughts While coming out of their difficult ruts Indian investors as well as investors abroad are becoming experimental, yet extremely wellinformed decision makers. But still funding activities are the biggest driving factors in any startup ecosystem. The average valuation of an Indian startup is $2.3 million as compared to $4.2 million of an American one. 43 percent of product/digital organizations are focusing on the global market and 28 percent continue to be technology hotspots. With a 59 percent of B2C, 37 percent of B2B, and 4 percent of B2C/ B2B startups, this ecosystem

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Market Dashboard

has a lot of ground to cover in terms of securing funding.

fast and eagerly buying other startups.

Successful entrepreneurs are taking initiation to support other emerging What Indian Ecosystem Gets Right startups by mentoring them through Technology acquisition, customer various channels. Young entrepreneurs acquisition, acqui-hiring and market are dominating the startup landscape consolidation are the main drivers for with a larger percent of founders in the increase in M&A of Indian startups. age bracket of less than 36 years.

With increase of momentum in M&A Women entrepreneurs have started in India, investors are getting more exit becoming more prominent in the opportunities. Startups are adopting innovation economy. innovative approaches to attract and retain top talent.

In the near future, listing of various startups is touted to be the next big What It Gets Wrong frontier. Every day, a lot is written Indian startups are often asserted for about funded startups, unicorns, fund copying foreign startups. It is seen raising startups, that often, cockroach quite often that they don’t have a startups never get the limelight, even proper scaling plan. There is always a for the right reasons. Several need for directional efforts to help companies are preparing for initial them in increasing their supportive share sales, but these will most likely government policies. happen in startup heavens and not in India. Today, predictions made for What Other Ecosystems Can Learn startups are more in number compared From This to the startups themselves. But the Nowadays, startups are consolidating interest these few companies are

generating cannot be undermined.

Conclusion To summarize in terms of revenue, growth and active userbase, entrepreneurs believe that they have done a fair job despite being a bootstrapped / self-funded and are already ahead compared to many funded startups in this space. The fast growing product and startup ecosystem in the country provides a platform to engage with thought leaders in the product space and discuss issues of common interest. One can only wonder what these funded competitors have been doing whose growth, revenue and active userbase is quite low. The pressure of investor is already mounting on a few who are ‘globally expanding to Malaysia, Indonesia’ for namesake! It is clear that they must be struggling to raise their next round of funding. Vanity metrics can only get them so far.

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

iLeadFarmers: End-To-End Marketing in The Technology Space

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hrough digitization, the world has been stepped up for years now; despite that, it might be surprising to step back and gaze at how hard copies of our work have changed into something like digitizing everything. There are digital companies who will take control of your business’s online marketing with their unique style of solutions side by side, they help you to generate more leads, win more business and obtain more customers.

Shashi Sudhanshu Founder & CEO

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iLeadFarmers is the first digital agency across the globe that covers end-to-end marketing for companies in the technology space through this age of digitalization. The company initiated their online platforms with designing & developing websites, & collaterals that magnify & portray a brand through its overall positioning within its target markets. Followed by a project of generating leads for a business through their unique approach of account profiling fused with storytelling. Tailor made for the human inside of a professional. The company’s highly specialized UI and UX team of Experience Design undertake projects for designing and developing User Interfaces and User Experiences for products that are at the threshold of technology innovation.

Starting with consulting, strategy, roadmapping to implementation, iLeaders have developed the prowess to work as an indispensable strategy for technology companies in defining

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

never seen before customer experiences.

certification and punching time-sheets at MNCs, was not success, The knowledge and experience I gained over the years while working with companies across the globe, to create a platform to share with others, was the real success for me. My capabilities of continuous learning & unlearning form anybody & everybody is my success.”

digitalization projects with the world premium software and technology gaints.

Inspiration behind Every iLeader Shashi Sudhanshu, Founder & CEO Generating Value in ROI of iLeadFarmers founded the company “I am working towards a vision to in 2009 after leading 5 different change the traditional way of handling companies from the Tech Industry Business. I am marching ahead with a varying from less than $5 million to practice of putting my philosophical $500 million annual revenue. His thoughts aligned with logic and “We are Storytellers” knowledge of B-School, significant practicality into action which will The company has positioned experience in management consulting eventually change the perception of themselves as Storytellers, because and corporate leadership in multiple marketing and design,” Shashi they believe stories travel faster than domain, tech expertise gained at IT evinced. light in a mind and relate to audiences. companies, international exposure to handle front end business face iLeadFarmers is nothing but a and above all passion towards group of people, working together, doing something different was Our acumen of connecting in different streams, for achieving the foundation of his the same goal & vision. At the dots between Design, entrepreneurship venture. iLeadFarmers, each iLeader Marketing, Storytelling, understands that the key to Prior to iLeadFarmers, Shashi succeed with their outcomes, is Technology and Business has worked with P&O Nedllyod directly proportional to the is what makes us stand as a Business Analyst, Sr. expectations being set. Every Business Analyst at Mearsk, iLeader at iLeadFarmers identifies proud and tall above the Project Manager at HP, and who are their internal, as well as rest Delivery Manager at Morgan external customers. Each team Stanley. member has a deep understanding of the client and keeps empathize Shashi loves the simplicity at work, he Aligning a company’s objectives with with the fact that they have to generate its portrayal through apt messaging, is not a big follower of processes, value in terms of ROI. designs & positioning is as important rather he would love to go with his to them, as is growing revenue. They intuition backed up with intelligence. iLedFarmers is excited about the future hone of a team which is par excellence in Storytelling & Digitalization.

He is passionate about design, and is delivering direct business ROIs technology, believes in providing a They've been blowing their trumpets platform and opportunity to young and to their clients. on how Storytelling can change the enthusiastic minds. He loves to share way they do business through a Technomarketers who chooses not to his thoughts, ideas, experience with Human-to-Human approach. Finally, young, dynamic students who wants to code - that’s what they are. They’ve the world is coming to realize the true built their foundation on and around be entrepreneur and had been invited potential Storytelling holds. The icing technology. And the same, is as a guest speaker at IITs, Symbiosis on the cake for ileadfarmers is fusing inculcated within their hiring and other BSchools of India.

Storytelling with Technology and methodology. iLeadFamers promotes a bringing forth an experience, a story, learning environment, incultating a While throwing light on his successful that truly complements a business in deep sense of business understanding journey Shashi adds, “Cracking their digital transformation. and acumen. With the skills business deals worth $20 MM is not success to me. Working in London and iLeadFarmers have built, they are working on hi-tech IoT and NewYork, Multi-color belt Six Sigma

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Kobster: Revolutionizing the Way Businesses Shop

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commerce business is on the rise, as online shopping is predicted to increase more in the coming years. To stay ahead of the game or to grow their online business, entrepreneurs need to benchmark against the latest growth rates, both for overall business in a category for speciďŹ c devices and then implement marketing strategies and tactics that work to achieve business goals.

Ultimately, entrepreneurs need to be exible enough to be able to adjust their newly hyper-empowered customers and have the foresight to know what trends to bet on, and which ones to sit back on. Understanding consumer demand requires tools and processes like social monitoring, customer feedback channels, and so on. Retailers and brands that do this well will gain market share quickly where their consumers are telling them they need to be.

Mohan Gayam, Vineet Neeraj & Karthik Ramaiah Co-founders

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Quenching these strategies for craving the success stories of their company, three such dynamic leaders from SRM University are Vineet Neeraj, Karthik Ramaiah and Mohan Gayam, Cofounders at Kobster. Vineet Neeraj is an engineer by academic but an

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

entrepreneur by passion. He learned his basics from companies like ArrayShield and Cognizant Technology Solutions in technical as well as sales departments.

Karthik Ramaiah is a tech enthusiast and is skilled with problem solving techniques. He earned his industry expertise by working with some wellknown firms such as Cognizant Technology Solutions. Mohan Gayam gained experience as a Tester in HCL Technologies and is an ardent entrepreneur whose quench for supply-chain related activities are never ending.

corporate/industrial needs. It is a shop, or one can say a virtual shop where customers will find every product that they are searching for in front of their gadget screen that their work-place demands. They do not believe in clichés and self-promotion at all.

Kobster has different teams working towards a single goal of delivering whatever client’s wanted and make their procurement job, less complicated.

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Vast & Versatile With a vast catalog comprising lakhs of genuine products across wide range of categories, their customers span across industries including Information Technology, Hotels, Manufacturing, Facility Management, Construction and Healthcare.

Kobster is a business to business e-commerce retailer working towards the never ending quench of

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From Idea to a Business What started as an idea in 2012 has flourished into a company called Kobster. It is a B2B ecommerce start-up which has enabled 5000+ businesses to shop online. From being incubated at PayPal’s prestigious Start Tank Programme to getting funded, Kobster today is a team of diverse young individuals with an ambition to build a great company.

Being the pioneer of Indian business to business E-Commerce industry, we are on a mission to simplify the sourcing needs of businesses and resellers through technology

Technology is at the Heart of Kobster Kobster Elite is transforming the lives of procurement managers and resellers by letting them discover new products, procure at bulk, centralize sourcing, cut cost and analyze spends by intelligent reports & analytics. This platform is a gateway to a hassle free voyage to your procurement destination. It is an e-procurement tool where the client is provided with a platform to go through a never experienced ease of placing orders which could be easier than ever.

Kobster Elite allows to place orders for different company locations across

Pan-India and a detailed report of monthly expenses with breathtaking, simplified charts can be found which will be concentrating on the client’s understanding of expenditure in a better manner. Members of Kobster Elite get exclusive deals and offers which will be unfortunately missed by the other usual Kobster users. It is absolutely free to get a Kobster Elite account and avail a 3 step approval process from Kobster.com to get products delivered in a swish.

Not Just a Thought, it’s Their First Principle The team at Kobster is driven by a strong First Principle, they believe in setting sky high expectations and pushing themselves beyond their limits to do the impossible.

Team Kobster is a crazy bunch of people who not just believe that they can change the world, but they actually do!

Future Outlook Kobster believe technology has a crucial part in building the future, they keep in pace with the current trends in technology and keep updating the upcoming trends in the world of technology. They are expanding their presence in Tier2 and Tier 3 cities.

They are looking to tap the domain specific industries to supply them with their requirements like Hospitality industry and Medical industry. They are going to expand more and more into the B2B sector which is a billion dollar business in few years down the lane.

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

MediaValueWorks: From India to the World: A Global Integrated Communications Approach

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t is Friday 15th July 2016, 3 pm and the team at MediaValueWorks is busy putting together an international campaign strategy covering three continents, six countries, and four time zones.

For this bootstrap start-up (now into its 5th year) this is a typical day at work, developing and delivering the complete range of global communications consulting, services and solutions for its growing number of Indian and Global clients.

There has been an increasing pursuit on the part of Indian & Global companies to cater to international markets in search of growth, expansion and proďŹ ts; and communication is at the heart of it.

MediaValueWorks steps in here and by offering its consulting, services and solutions for all the requirements of the ever-growing diaspora of companies with global communication needs.

Rachana Chowdhary Founder & Director

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The company was born with the premise of being an integrated global communications ďŹ rm catering to the growing requirement of a large base of organizations seeking out business globally, here in India and across the world.

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

With the experience of having executed assignments in Africa, South America, Australia, North America, Europe, Asia minor and major and having the expertise of Communications Consulting, Services, and Solutions; MediaValueWorks today is the only company in this part of the world, delivering global communications.

While most of its clients are Indian companies seeking and doing business worldwide, the company has a sizeable portfolio of international clients doing businesses across different geographies, both in the B2B as well as B2C space.

Australia, Fiji, New Zealand to name a few, and not to forget India (pan India in over 20 states).

For these businesses MediaValueWorks has executed campaigns, events and programs in

Today the company has over 80 clients across India, USA, Singapore, Africa and Europe with its presence across India, USA, UK, Singapore, Dubai and Africa.

“

We offer a unique blend of an integrated communications approach which suits our Indian and global clientele; every client has a different and specic requirement, and we custom craft our services and solutions to their tailor made requirements”, says Rachana Chowdhary, Founder & Director of MediaValueWorks

This is manifested in the diverse range of clientele that the company has.

Starting from Aviation Technology, FinTech and Enterprise Mobility to Language and Application Software Development companies in the technology sector to Luxury Real Estate companies, Dot Com startups, Telecom companies, Specialty Hospitals and Healthcare companies, Hospitality and Food & Beverage,

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The company has many firsts to its credit; from country specific customized media outreach programs to Digital and Online PR, in 40 plus languages to India’s first cloud based Communication Solutions platform, MediaValueWorks has the entire range of cutting-edge services and solutions for its clients.

Education, Media & Entertainment and Banks & Financial Services companies.

Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Rwanda, Mauritius, UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, Russia, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil,

The unique proposition that MediaValueWorks has, stems out of the fundamental core and conceptual understanding of global communications nuances, cultures, and dynamics.

At the heart of MediaValueWorks are its people. The team comprises 20 members spread across eight offices in four continents. It is a diverse and multi-lingual team.

“We are small, but very sharp and agile and know our craft”, says Rachana Chowdhary, the Founder & Director.

The company has heavily invested in technology and believes in the philosophy of “size does not matter; substance does”. After all the company has been registering cash profits from the very second year of its inception.

With an eye on high growth and future in mind, the company is embarking on an aggressive expansion plan with a presence in more markets.

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Monginis: The Celebration King to Deliver Happiness

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or every special celebration, cake is an essential part, because of it the party or celebration doesn’t seem to be complete. Even a small piece of cake brings an extra charm in our surroundings with lots of happiness, fun and joy, which is a best way to express your feelings towards the delightful person in your life about how much you care for them with a momentous or with a meaningful message that the cake is topped with.

You can bring happiness to someone through a cake,which will definitely appear a reason for their happiness.

Monginis, a popular destination for connoisseurs of all varieties of cakes, chocolates, pastries and cookies, with a commanding presence in 12 cities in India and Egypt. The cities are serviced by an effective network of 650+ cake shops through 12 manufacturing plants.

Monginis offers aesthetically designed personalized cakes, photo cakes, seasonal confectioneries, snacks like puffs, rolls, pizzas, burgers and sandwiches.

Mr. Zoher H. Khorakiwala (L) Chairman & Managing Director Mr.Qusai Z. Khorakiwala (R ) Director

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Monginis, for All Happy Occasions Monginis is the ‘Celebration King’ with virtually no popular or special occasion remaining outside its range.

Its clients have now become habituated to celebrate all happy occasions with

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Monginis cakes. Their packaged cakes division with a shelf life of 60 days is distributed through more than 1 Lac outlets across the country.

Monginis website ‘www.monginis.net’ for gifting and ordering is a rapidly expanding E-commerce business. With nearly 5000 hits daily and huge army of Monginis fans on social media, the e- business is all set to go places.

Finding the right technology has been the biggest challenge ever, however, there is always a room to optimize the various components of your strategy or approach which can turn your marketing into the more effective revenue generator. Monginis has a team of marketing specialists who constantly keeps a pace of current

their daily operations.

Technology is updating & expanding tremendously. To stay ahead, it is necessary to be in line with the latest technology trends. M-commerce and E-commerce are majorly spoken about as they have maximum outreach.

Digital Marketing & Mobile Marketing is crucial as televisions are replaced by Smartphones and tablets. Smartphones have successfully replaced mobile to the major screen in our daily lives.

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Monginis creative team comes up with new innovations to engage the customer base via various activities. Mongini’s customers become habituated to such activities and expect for the next invention, which forces the team to think more and thrive.

‘Consolidation more than Expansion’ Monginis believes in consolidation more than expansion. Thus, it has always preferred to stay as a low profile Brand when it comes to Media.

But, its sheer size and reach across the length and breadth of the country with its complex mix of design of perishable ‘one day shelf life products’ is Unique, differs Monginis from others.

Keeping Pace with Trending Technologies The company believes that the unique and dynamic business model gives the entrepreneur a turnaround before he

We focus on customer retention and the team ensures the same by delivering happiness and that's what our aim is to deliver happiness

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Monginis headquarters has a well equipped lab and has gained the ISO 22000: 2005 certification for maintaining and assuring best of the Hygiene and quality standards of their products and for their customers.

knows it. Moreover, the engagement & passion built in this kind of a business is unmatched.

technology trends in the market. A well visualized map of carefully curated marketing technology resources is planned that focuses on solving the business problems.

At Monginis,they have a dedicated team of IT professionals, who takes care of making available right technology that suits the business logic & functionality like implementing effective marketing automation software.

The company’s analytics team does an indepth Research & Analysis of their business model to enhance the reach of their business and with the help of professionals,their IT team designs softwares & tools which smoothen

The study says that “By 2017, over a third of the world’s population is projected to own a smartphone, an estimated total of almost 2.6 billion smartphone users in the world.” Hence moving forward penetration in digital masses via mobile & internet marketing for a booming business would be sketched.

Monginis is a brand whose strength is trust and loyalty because of which a customer would choose to recommend Monginis products to friends or family members. Great reviews from them clearly expressed excellence of the Monginis products. Monginis team strives to collect feedbacks and recommendations from the customers to provide best possible savor.

In India, it is one of its kind, reaching newer benchmarks in Operational & Logistical excellence. Monginis plans to open 6 states & 150+ cake shops in the financial year alone. Where No other brand can strike a balance between expansion & consolidation like MONGINIS. No Brand can strike a healthy Top line as well as bottom line in just one year.

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Nextgen Telesolutions: Secure Financial Services on Any Mobile Device, Network and Bearer Agnostic

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ith a Platform-As-AService or a Full Service Solution, NextGen enables partners build a secure Financial Service offering on “any mobile device”, from the original Nokia 5110 to the modern day smart phones, and take to the masses a 360 degree offering on Financial Inclusion services. Built around payments / money transfers and more, deeply and securely integrated with the mobile as a base technology platform, NextGen has included banking, wallets, cards, money transfers, bill and utility payments / top-ups supported by retailer mPOS terminals and multiple Financial Instruments into a unified service menu on a secure overlay element, affixed on an existing SIM card and used with any mobile device.

Mobile network and bearer independent, it’s a one of its solution globally with this wide a service envelope on a single platform.

Taron Mohan CEO

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NextGen is helping clients expand their service portfolio and penetrate untapped customer segments with a highly secure offering, integrating their secure overlay banking platform as a front end and enabling customer services on the secure overlay menu.

With added capabilities of a low cost mPOS terminal for merchants / agents, enabling merchant acquisition at the lowest level, virtual debit / credit cards and full service banking on the secure overlay, this is a unique proposition to global customers. The edge of zero cost card issuance and management, enabling M-Visa and

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

MasterPass as a contactless solution on any device is futuristic and a roadmap for expanding financial services at the bottom of the pyramid. Adding the 2 Factor Authentication (now 3 factor) for online / mobile payments without the SMS based OTP, secure tokenisation of customer ID mapped to Aadhaar#, cards / bank accounts or any other digital identity, enhances transaction security. EMV capability with Contactless Payments on any mobile device brings in a lot more capabilities to the service envelope.

“secure overlay” and “contactless” financial services solution, enabling secure financial services on any mobile device, network and bearer agnostic.

add a new service avenue to help clients tap an uptapped and yet a very large customer base for secure financial services.

“It’s this ecosystem that we’re trying to change and disrupt… enabling everything on a mobile device and making this the center of all data storage and transaction initialization, with multiple financial instruments hosted on this unified interface.” says Taron.

NextGen has built a lot of innovation and unique design features into their solution to make it unique, disruptive, different and future proof. This approach enabled them innovate with the solution and take to the industry a product offering meeting or exceeding their current service requirements.

NextGen’s next development on enabling any mobile device Working not as a banking become a secure contactless solution provider, but more as terminal for Merchants and the capability to upgrade any mobile a “Fintech Solution provider”, device to a contactless device, we brought in a lot of with EMV certifications, further integrations which are broadens the scope of a fully different, yet imperative to digital ecosystem for payments. help grow the overall Financial We can replace any Visa / Master Card / Rupay card virtually on a Inclusion ecosystem secure microSD card, thereby, working towards a 100% virtual ecosystem for payments.

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Later than he came in the mobile boom and set up the country’s first mobile VAS service company Phoneytunes.com. Next, he dabbled a bit into HD Glass Free 3D screens for mobile devices / laptops / PC screens in partnership with a laboratory in Korea and also Green power solutions for Telecom Towers. Unfortunately, he could not move in well into these and then moved into building and enabling secure payments on mobile devices looking at the ecosystem differently and as a technology solution, breaking the regular moulds of the banking industry. This is where he build this

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Venturous behind NextGen Taron Mohan, CEO of NextGen Telesolutions, a dynamic entrepreneur, graduated in Engineering from IIT Delhi.

From building engineering products which included music systems to Air-jet weaving looms for Mafatlals, to backpacking across Europe in a princely sum of USD 1000 for 6 weeks which included a Eurail pass, food and stay, he graduated to set up the country’s first precision sheet metal fabrication facility for the electronics, communication and telecom industry.

In 1994, he moved into cutting edge CAD / CAM services for the sheet metal industry.

Their services don’t stop here - they’re providing advanced banking grade security using private / public encryption keys, EMV / 3DES security and encryption, contactless capability for instant, low cost micro payments, a self-service and an assisted service model / menu offering, enabling low cost mPOS terminals on the same hardware - regular and contactless, virtual card issuance - zero cost card management for the issuers, Customer “pull” / Merchant “push” payment capabilities with a user alias, added security in transactions, Banking, wallets, money transfers, bill payments, top-up, cards and more on the same platform.

Catering to both user segemenets - an existing company, wanting to bring on additional capabilities for their customers or a new company wanting to start afresh on everything, they help

The company enjoys learning and working with the banking sector handling multiple banking switches, encryption and data security at the lowest end of the mobile devices and then building an easy to use interface for their partners to use.

Most Secure and Affordable Ecosystem By bringing wallets and direct integrations with cards and banking services at every user mobile device, NextGen hopes to bring about a change in the way consumers transact at any point. A major factor to enabling these services at the lowest end of the pyramid is the capital cost and the operational costs for the services. This is our strength and we’re expanding on this - building an extremely low cost ecosystem for merchants and consumers for secure transactions at every transaction point.

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Business Spotlight

Effective Growth Strategies for Small Businesses

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very businessman wants a growth in their business, whether it is small or medium scale business. Most of the businessmen are successful in it, with the way they implement for maintaining the revenue of the business. But how do you scale your business?

There are few strategies for small business growth that have been implemented by successful businessmen again and again.

And these are the basic growth strategies for all businesses - without any restriction of space, area, or the type of an industry, that can follow to generate new revenues. No matter from which industry you are, from Google, Microsoft or a small scale industry these growth strategies are useful to achieve higher levels of success.

products or services than others will help you to grow your business. For an instance, think about Nike brand who adds some new features to its sneakers to improve them. And what about Reebok? Did anyone really need sneakers with a pump in the tongue when they debuted back in the 1980s? Definitely not, but improvements are raised sales of nike, because people chose Reebok Pump sneakers, still they made a comeback in 2015 as the ZPump Fusion.

Ask Yourself: How can I improve my current product or service to make it superb?

What characters can I increase which will differ my product or service?

Can I try any new marketing strategies to attract my customers to reach, that they don’t know before that?

2. Widen Your Audience Second strategy to upgrade your small business is to further enlarge the market you operate in by getting customer outside of your available target audiences to begin choosing your product or service. Remember when Buick needed to appeal to teenagers and diverse audience? The firm recruited Tiger Woods to appear in their commercials.

Ask Yourself: I cannot say that each strategy will come How do I change or modify my marketing strategies and messaging ways without any risk, that’s why we call them to appeal new audiences? businessmen backers. They do it with the Where can I advertise my product or service to draw attention of new right planning, proper implementation, and audiences? right team selection, which are the key What do new audiences require from a product or service like mine, and factors to grow their business. Below are the does my product or service provide that? Or do I need to improve your strategies for you: existing product or service?

1. Improve Your Product Offering something unique or different

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Business Spotlight

3. Increase Your Geography Now in the era of internet lovers, any small business can be a national or international business easily. If you can offer your products and services across your location, then you can make larger your small business beyond your local area.

Don't forget, this growth strategy needs a lot of research and planning. Plus you need to consider financial, insurance, tax, and legal implications.

Ask Yourself: Where are there other customers like those in my target audience?

Are those customers really interested in my product or service?

How do I have to make some changes in my product prices and processes to transfer my products and services to a new geography?

4. Broaden Your Market Horizons What market do you sell your products or services in? Does your label do fine in another market? For an instance, PF Chang’s restaurant is popular that successfully spread into the frozen foods market by providing pre-packaged, frozen meals in grocery stores.

Ask Yourself: What kind of product or service I can add to a different market in a different or better way than the others that already exists in that market?

What kind of markets does it make sense for my label to come in without confusing consumers about my label

promise and damaging my label in its existing market?

Do I have the resources to successfully compete against the existing market leaders?

5. Launch New Products When none of the above will work for you, then create entirely new products or services that will appeal to your current customers to new customers. Because, new products are the key that can help you to increase single customer purchases and purchases from those customers who have never bought from your small business earlier. Suppose, when McDonald’s wanted to appeal to health-conscious consumers, it created a new line of healthier menu options.

Ask Yourself: What needs do consumers facing problems, do they require to solve that I could deliver with a new or modified product or service?

How much cost will it require to develop and launch a new product?

Do I have the right resources, money, and people to successfully create and launch new Products?

These all mentioned strategies are the indicators for your business plan. But proper business plan is a key to your business growth.When you customize your growth strategy to your business and customers, you’ll keep your customers happy and accomplish their needs, which will keep them coming back.

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Pinnacle: On Time and Every Time

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he constantly-evolving dynamics of business are seeing companies and sectors waxing during one phase and waning during another. Telecom is one of the fastest-growing industries in India. The tide has turned for the telecom sector in India, as growth and profitability has accelerated in recent times. The ongoing expansion of the mobile ecosystem, coupled with demand for high-bandwidth applications and services such as video and gaming, is keeping pressure on the industry to increase the availability and quality of broadband connectivity.

Rajesh Banerjee Director & Co-founder

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Players in the Market One of the leading players in this field is Pinnacle Teleservices. Incorporated in 2008, Pinnacle is India’s leading Mobile Messaging Operator & marketing partners for digital communication. The company is focused in delivering communication with data analysis and engagement tools with Telecom, Internet, social media & Over the Air (OTA) platforms. By virtue of their stringent work processes, they are an ISO 9001: 2008 and ISO / IEC 27001: 2005 Certified Company. Over the years Pinnacle has emerged as a fast growing online Bulk SMS service provider and Value Added services like 5digit Short code services, IVR Dialers, Outbound & Inbound call solutions, Text to Speech & Speech to text Recognition,

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Cellular Events and promotions etc.

Artisans behind Pinnacle Teleservices

Telecom, managed by multi-talented group of young professionals and dynamic team with vast experience in Database migration, reverse engineering, database development and possessing sound performance records.

capable to serve 150 million SMSes in a day. Similarly, in voice domain, Pinnacle holds the largest delivery capacity for the enterprise segment.

Under the dynamic leadership of Team Pinnacle five at the management level, Ashish Pinnacle is having a young and agile Srivastava, Rajesh Banerjee, Amit A large number of potential Indian team with an average age of 30 years.

Srivastava, Anurag Srivastava & consumers are offline. The emerging They have team strength of 140 Muktesh Narula at Pinnacle market is very demanding. They have dynamic people and the key Teleservices, the company is to be innovative all the time and try management is led by 5 people. flourishing in the market. Pinnacle new methods to engage the brand with Pinnacle always tries to ensure that provides seamless & integrated end to their consumers and fill up this gap. In their customers get Value for Money. end solutions on various The team ensures to help customers platforms. Pinnacle’s Hybrid for creating engagement with their solutions in mobile marketing is existing and prospect stake We aim to become an a fusion of services such as SMS, holders to drive business growth. undisputed leader in the Pinnacle has a network of its Voice solutions, USSD, Internet existing domain in India. Marketing team, a regular and and Social Media platforms like Facebook, Tweeter and others, to We are planning hard to prompt back end support team engage the brands with its along with a network of its promote our products, consumers. They aim to create Channel Partners, contributing to operations and services leverage strengths. They try to powerful interactions that globally empower their clients to connect create a “WOW” experience in with customers. They help the every task that they do for their brands to develop different ways customers. to interact with customers, to sell telecom and digital emerging market, more, to increase loyalty or simply to Pinnacle has a combination of multiple A look ahead Towards the Future As more and more people are getting offer a better service. products and applications to offer its digitally connected. The digital customers. They have around 6000 Services They Proffer marketing is getting more powerful active and satisfied customers with The Services are generally aimed and them. Also, the domain experience also and allowing users to self- select their focused on driving for user friendly own experiences. The marketers are contributes to it. The major difference online applications. Pinnacle has gaining the ability to bridge media, comes with the infrastructure. delivered a variety of tailor made collect feedback, iterate their message, applications for its esteemed clients till In A2P SMS domain, Pinnacle is not and collect relationships for an now. Their expertise and actionable and measurable objective, just an aggregator, it has its own innovativeness are acknowledged and which in itself is very thrilling. The SMSC’s integrated and connected to used by large numbers of corporate company is very much focused to all telecom circles across India. The clients in India. The solutions arm of create its own “market place” with technology is of global standards and Pinnacle is one of the acknowledged some futuristic concepts and products is totally an in-house product. This and advanced IT Solution Providers in to help brands and engage audiences gives an added advantage in terms of India. Their combined and core they’re desperate to reach. services and meets critical delivery expertise lies in the domain of commitments too. The technology is

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Testbook: A Unified User Experience that Prepares for the Future

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ith the focus of bringing the best exam preparation experience to any student, anytime, anywhere, and with an undying passion to break the cycle of unemployment and poverty that plagues the country, Ashutosh Kumar has introduced his innovative website & app ‘Testbook’, so that nobody suffers because of what background they belong to, where they come from or how much money they can afford to spend on securing a job.

“I have never shied from a challenge.

Getting students comfortable with taking tests online, when they have no access to computer infrastructure or the internet, was always going to be an uphill struggle. But where government after government has failed, the promise of good jobs and the assurance that Testbook understands their needs, has brought such students on to our site by the droves,” expresses Ashutosh.

Ashutosh Kumar CEO

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Ashutosh Kumar, CEO of Testbook, has been teaching kids since his childhood. He started teaching Physics & Mathematics when he joined IIT Bombay as a fresh undergrad. With 8 years of teaching under his belt, all the entrepreneurial experiences from his past and the growing promise shown

by Education Technology (EdTEch), he set out to create the best online platform for students to learn. He gathered around him all those he

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

thought could see his vision through 5 other IITians he had known through his life. Thus, Testbook.com was born.

From its tiny beginnings, they have made Testbook, the premier-most online exam preparation portal.

Testbook chiefly provides online test series for a range of government and banking recruitment exams like SBI PO, SBI Clerk, IBPS PO, IBPS Clerk, IBPS RRB, SSC CGL, SSC Stenographer, and Railways RRB. There are also test series for other exams like GATE & Company Placements. These test series can be accessed on the web as well as on smartphones through the Testbook app.

They all have the “what else can I do?” attitude which is great for any startup with limited resources.

Testbook is full of the brightest minds in the industry handling Tech, Content & Marketing (both online and offline).

The best thing about the team members at Testbook is that they treat their own work like a tiny startup within a larger startup environment. They set their

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Growing Giants of the EdTech Space EdTech is rapidly becoming the space to watch out for, even while interest of investors in other online sectors is waning. Today, the Government and the Banking Industry realize the benefits of going online and have been phasing out all its recruitment exams away from the paper-based ESTs and to online tests.

The Testbook app aims to bring a unied user experience on desktop and mobile so that students can access tests even on their smartphones - who would have thought of this 10 years ago?

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A second app is on Current Affairs & General Awareness, which is now the #1 Current Affairs app on Playstore. The app has a smooth interface of short, daily Current Affairs capsules and daily quizzes. It requires very little data and is tiny enough in size to fit on any mobile device. This is a boon to students using low-end smart phones and 2G connections.

stores and, just like a prepaid mobile card, purchase coupon cards using cash. They then use these to sign up for online test series.

own goals aside from the goals of the organization. Everybody celebrates each little tiny startup’s achievement as much as they do their own.

Besides this, Testbook provides a host of free online learning material and instant notifications through the blog.

And for students lacking in computer infrastructure & internet access, Testbook has also ventured into offline centers where students can come take tests in a proctored, exam-like environment.

Live Tests “Live Tests” is one of their earliest models of success that sets them apart from the rest. These are simulated mock tests that are taken by lakhs of students across the country at the same time, all vying for an All India Rank.

Students flocked to get the actual exam experience and the detailed analytics.

Team of the Brightest Minds Testbook has around 35 full time team members. Every team member is a team player and wants to be there.

Learning from Other Industries Through Testbook’s cash cards, students can go to their local book

Testbook stands at the cusp of an educational revolution. It offers unique advantages that can, one day soon, eliminate the shortcomings of classroom teaching and the exam preparation industry.

With the help of the best team, Testbook keep themselves ahead of the curve in every field technology, content development, content marketing, offline marketing, digital marketing. They use technology to aid them where traditional educational companies would throw up their hands in defeat. Their Current Affairs app went from conceptualization to hitting the playstore in just 20 days and it’s now the #1 app. This shows not just the calibre of the team, or that they are up to facing challenges from any corner, but also that a good product does not require lengthy production spells and can stand the test of time.

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The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Zomato: Catering the Hungry Millennial

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he online food ordering culture is booming in India, bringing variations in the way traditional restaurants worked. Not very long ago, looking for your favorite cuisines and ordering food online seemed like a thing of the distant future. But now, online food ordering has become a normal weekday activity, especially with the working community in metro cities, youth living away from home and looking for easy food options, and housewives wanting a break from cooking.

Owing to fierce competition and vast market, the space is coming up with a lot of innovation catering to customer convenience, satisfaction and retention.

Zomato is currently among the toprated food ordering apps. Zomato is a ‘restaurant search and discovery app’, which provides in-depth information for over 1 million restaurants and enables millions of users every day to decide what and where to eat in over 10,000 cities across 23 countries. In addition, Zomato also allows users to order food online and make online table reservations in selected geographies.

Deepinder Goyal Founder & CEO

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Pioneer behind Zomato After the turmoil, the food ordering space has witnessed lately, Zomato has became the pioneer in the battlefield. It was established in 2008 under the dynamic leadership of Deepinder Goyal, Founder & CEO at Zomato.

The 20 Fastest Growing Companies 2016

Deepinder graduated with an Integrated Masters in Mathematics and Computing from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 2005.

Prior to founding Zomato, Deepinder worked as a management consultant with Bain & Company. It was at Bain that he conceived an idea of an online restaurant information service, after seeing the demand for paper menu cards among his colleagues. He left Bain in 2008 to work full-time on Zomato, and has built a strong, global food-tech business based out of India. Since the very beginning, he has also led product development and evolution efforts at Zomato.

Their focus on digitization of discovery, communication, delivery, reservation and restaurant operations overall will help in creating greater dining experiences for users. They also see convergence of these business models in different forms to provide greater value to both merchants as well as the users in the near future. With more and more players entering the marketing, what will set one apart from the other is the overall customer experience and unit economics. All

Firstly, the rising digital adoption amongst restaurants to help them create great dining experiences. From cloud based POS systems which help restaurants with inventory and menu management, better customer insights for using digital platforms to communicate and reach out to their potential customers.

Secondly, to build stronger communication channels between restaurants and users. Convenience services such as online ordering and table reservation have made Starting with information the whole ordering in or dining out experience as seamless as for over 1 million possible for both - the users as restaurants globally, we’re well as the restaurants.

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making dining smoother and more enjoyable with services like online ordering and table reservations.

Zomato has grown to become the largest search and discovery platform dedicated to restaurants across the globe, over the past 8 years. People search for places to eat using Zomato 90 million times every month, and more than 20,000 restaurants have trusted them with helping them grow their business.

metrics of customer adoption of a product, the frequency of use and the end conversion will be driven by the quality of service a product offers.

And thirdly, small scale merchants have a more level playing field today with better access to data, economical marketing channels and digital tools to help improve efficiency.

They are now able to focus on their core product offering which are the food and the experiences around that, which they offer to consumers.

Leaning Towards Future For the past two years, the food tech space has seen a lot of activity from both entrepreneurs and investors. As it is seen, a lot of food-tech start-ups mushroom and help grow the market overall over the last couple of years, it is now also great to see an increasing effort on getting the business fundamentals right with more companies and investors largely focused on building the food-tech space in India for the longer term.

Zomato too has seen a conscious effort and the biggest strides along three fronts.

Moreover, this sector will see convenience services take more prominence over the coming couple of years. The order online segment for Zomato, for example, is growing at a healthy double digit growth rate month on month. They are processing over 28,000 orders a day across India and UAE - and this is with barely 3% of their active user base searching for restaurants having placed orders online. Recently, Zomato also launched their order business in the Philippines and are looking to see a significant uptick in the order volumes there as well in the next few months.

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Your Digital Assistant in the World of Appetite Zomato is used by consumers globally to discover, rate, and review restaurants, as well as create their own personal networks of fellow food enthusiasts for trusted recommendations. In addition to restaurant search and discovery, Zomato has expanded its offering to include transactions - Online Ordering, Table Reservations, and a Point-ofSale system - creating cutting-edge technology to connect restaurant businesses and customers in ways that will revolutionize the restaurant industry.

JULY 2016

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