These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2008, Rajasthan-headquartered CarDekho is a search and e-commerce platform that allows users to review, compare, buy and sell new and pre-owned cars. 

In 2021, the company became Rajasthan’s 1st unicorn after raising $250M, $200M in equity, and $50M in debt in a Series E funding round and is now valued at $1.2B. The company is backed by notable investors like Hillhouse Capital, Tybourne Capital, Sequoia Capital, HDFC Bank, Ratan Tata, Trifecta, and Times Internet.

It offers a catalog of more than 3,000 certified pre-owned cars from 4,000 used car dealers, traders, and entrepreneurs. In 2021, CarDekho announced its plans of going public in the next 18 months and expanding to 12 more tier-2 and tier-3 cities of India. 

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

CarDekho’s website and app offer automotive content to its users which includes, pictures and videos of the extensive range of car brands and models available in India, Detailed specs and prices of these cars, expert reviews as well as a detailed comparison of cars. Offerings on the website include options for:

• New Car

• Used car

• Sell car

• Compare cars

• News and reviews

• Car loan

• EMI calculator

Besides functioning as a marketplace for cars, CarDekho has other ventures that support their primary venture of being a marketplace for all types of cars. 

• CarDekho Gaadi store: An offline showroom for cars. 

• Car Insurance

• Health Insurance

• Term life insurance

• Loan against cars

• Car tires

CarDekho operates in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines and its products are used in more than 30 countries globally. 

How It Works

Customers can browse through numerous lists in the new car’s option. They can also see options for service centers and different schemes that offer them discounts & deals. 

For the used car option, customers can browse through offerings, find dealerships that offer used cars, offer loans and valuations on used cars amongst other options. The platform offers both the option to buy cars as well as sell cars.

Additional features include a car comparison feature, road test videos, user reviews, EMI calculator as well as car loans to ensure that it’s a one-stop-shop platform for car dealings. 

Business Model & Pricing

CarDekho has multiple revenue streams, the most important one being lead generation for dealers. Customers after choosing a car of their choice, are given multiple options of car dealers nearest to their location. The customers can then select and contact a dealer of their choice. The company charges dealers money for generating leads for them and also provides lead management solutions by following up on the leads themselves and helping them close the deal. 

Moreover, it also collects money from car manufacturers in return for running its product advertisements on its website and applications. TrustMark certification, a used car certification, and warranty program act as a major source of revenue for the company, so do commissions that it earns by its partnerships with car loans and insurance providers. 

Traction

In 2020, the company reported a 25% growth in revenues, from $92M in 2020 to $114M in 2021. In 2021, it had a $100M revenue run rate and became the first unicorn of Rajasthan and 3rd unicorn in the used car retailing space by raising $250M, $200M in equity, and $50M in debt in a Series E funding round. The company was reported to have 51 million unique users as of September 2020 and its app had been downloaded more than 10 million times.

Founder(s) & Team

Amit Jain: CEO and Co-Founder at CarDekho. Amit, an IIT graduate previously co-founded GirnarSoft, a business value-based IT solutions, and services company. He also worked as Product Manager at Trilogy and as Software Engineer at Tata Consultancy Services. 

Anurag Jain: COO and Co-Founder at CarDekho. Anurag, an IITian previously co-founded GirnarSoft. He also worked as Senior Systems Consultant at i2 Technologies and as Seniors Operations Research Analyst at Sabre Holdings. 

History & Evolution

• Two graduates from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Anurag Jain and Amit Jain, launched an IT outsourcing company called GirnarSoft after leaving their jobs and coming back to their hometown. They started emailing and calling billions of clients to get them on board. Once they started gaining traction, they hired a team, accumulated funds, and started CarDekho.

• CarDekho, a car search platform was launched in 2008 to digitize the auto ecosystem. Its main goal was to assist buyers of new cars and used cars to make informed buying decisions. It did so by offering a variety of support such as research tools, expert reviews, user reviews, on-road prices, pictures and dealers to help make the decision.

• In 2010, Comscore, the world leader in online audience measurement, ranked CarDekho as the No.1 Auto portal with 745,000 unique visitors for the month of June. 

• In 2014, CarDekho acquired Gaadi.com, one of India’s leading auto portals, and became the market leader of the automobile industry and helped them evolve in the pre-owned car market. That year it had a collective volume of 15 million visitors monthly. The company ventured into the world of television advertisements and as a result, its revenue grew 3x and unique visitors on site doubled as well.

• In 2015, CarDekho acquired ZigWheels, an automotive and motorcycling website, and BuyingIQ.com, an intelligent shopping engine. The company also launched CarBay.my in Malaysia and Thailand, both websites feature the products that established clear leadership for CarDekho.com in India. 

• In 2016, CarDekho acquired Help On Wheels, a roadside assistance firm. 

• In 2017, CarDekho partnered with Hero FinCorp to provide financing options to its used car buyers. It also created an in-house VR app that provided customers with virtual guided tours of commercial vehicles, test drives, and access to a lifelike experience like that in a showroom. 

• In 2018, CarDekho acqui-hired used cars platform Carbiqi and ventured into the auction model. 

• In 2019, CarDekho expanded its global footprint by acquiring an online car classifieds site, Carmudi Philippines. It also reported a revenue of $35M, a 62% increase from the previous fiscal year.

• In 2020, CarDekho witnessed a surge in customer traffic on both its website and apps. The brand moved from 13 million unique users to 15 million unique users within the span of one month. This was courtesy of their pandemic strategies, like providing health insurance to dealers and introducing home inspections to limit customers’ visits to the store.

• In 2021, CarDekho became Rajhastan’s first and India’s third unicorn in the used-cars auto space after raising $250M in a Series E funding round, raising its total valuation to $1.2B. It also moved towards a home inspection model, where the company will purchase cars only after a home inspection keeping in mind the coronavirus crisis. 

From archive.org 

Market Snapshot

• In 2020, India was the 5th largest auto market and it is expected to grow more than 2.3x to $512B by 2026. In 2021, the industry was valued at $222B.

• The industry received $30.51B worth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) between 2000 to 2021.

Additional Learnings

CarDekho’s unique features are what make it stand out from its competitors. The company’s website allows users to search cars by price, manufacturer name, and the model number of features. It also lets them compare four cars side by side, giving consumers a clear idea of the pros and cons of each car. Users can see how a car looks from inside and outside with the help of videos, snapshots, and a 360-degree mode where you can zoom in for a closer look. One user favorite feature is also the TrustMark certification for used cars that pass the 217-point inspection by CarDekho’s technical team. These checkpoints include the car’s steering, transmission, interiors, tires, suspension, and engine. The platform empowers users to buy used cars without the fear of being scammed. 

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• How CarDekho is zooming ahead amid Covid2019 pandemic (Dolly Mahayan, Indian Television, Nov ‘21)

• CarDekho is eyeing a public listing in the next 18 months: CEO Jain (Tarush Bhalla, Live Mint, Oct ‘21)

• Exclusive: CarDekho shuts down over 20 stores amid move to home inspection model (Soumyarendra Barik, EN Tracker, Sept ‘21)

• Amit Jain, 40, Anurag Jain, 38, Co-Founders, Cardekho - Open The Magazine (Amita Shah, Open The Magazine, Oct ‘17)

• Making sustainable automobile classifieds product from Jaipur: CarDekho's story (Jai Vardhan, Your Story, Dec ‘15)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2016, Karnataka-headquartered Acko Insurance is India’s leading Insur-Tech company that offers insurance policies through its digital platform. Alongside policies, it also provides bite-sized innovative products to consumers by partnering with tech companies. 

Acko Insurance has revolutionized the insurance industry by digitalizing it with zero paperwork hassle. The company claims to be the fastest-growing insurance company in India by serving over 70 million customers and clocking $175M in premiums annually. 

In 2021, the company entered the unicorn club after raising $255M in a Series D funding round led by General Atlantic, bringing its total valuation to $1.1B. It is backed by notable investors like Amazon, Accel, Catamaran Ventures, SAIF Partners, and Swiss Re Transamerica Ventures. Moreover, to launch its innovative products, it has partnered with leading brands like Ola Cabs, Zomato, Amazon, redbus, Rapido Bike Taxi, and OYO. 

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Acko General Insurance provides insurance products in the following categories: 

• Car & Taxi

• Bike

• Health

• Electronics 

The company operates digitally across India but has no physical location.

How It Works

Acko Insurance is a digital platform that provides insurance policies for cars, taxis, bikes, health, and electronics. Moreover, the company also develops innovative bite-sized products by partnering with online commerce platforms. These products include driver protection, ticket cancellation insurance, and rider protection. For instance, the company partnered with Amazon Pay to provide customers with car and bike insurance with zero paperwork. The buying process is seamless as the policy can be purchased within a few minutes and also includes a one-hour pick and three-day assured claims servicing for vehicles.   

The platform has also partnered with Ola Cab to provide customers cover for loss of baggage, emergency hotel requirements, missed flights and loss of a laptop, etc. These policies of INR 5 lakh ($6,610) can be availed for INR 1 ($0.013). The collaboration also allows users to opt for an in-trip insurance cover while booking an Ola ride.  

The platform offers customers a seamless and convenient platform with no offline hassle. Without the paperwork, everything from purchase to claims and renewals is done digitally. With an online insurance model, the company is able to carry out better data-backed underwriting and process claims quicker. All of this leads to a low cost of acquisition as well as sales. 

The company also customizes pricing by leveraging the vast amount of industry data available from organizations such as the Insurance Information Bureau. These sources provide national-level data on cohorts, cars, location, region, historical claims ratio, and more. For instance, bike owners who have a history of fraud claims are offered higher prices, while lower prices are quoted to customers with good driving history. 

Business Model & Pricing

Acko insurance has a direct-to-consumer approach where it offers insurance policies to consumers via its online platform. Moreover, it provides bite-sized insurance products like ticket cancellation, mobile protection, and rider insurance by partnering with major tech companies. 

The company’s digital model does not involve any third-party agents and as a result, Acko Insurance incurs less expense and passes on the savings to consumers in the form of low premiums. The company earns money through its insurance schemes.

Traction

Acko Insurance witnessed a 120% growth in sales of insurance policies for automobiles in the first quarter of 2021 as compared to 2020. It also posted $10M in Gross Written Premium in the first quarter of FY22, which is a 1.16% growth from the same quarter of FY21.

The company reported 3X growth in annual revenue to $26M in 2020 from $8M in 2019. In 2020 they also witnessed 688% increase in claims, from 1,95,695 in 2020 to 24,831 in 2019. Moreover, new customer growth increased by 2.5x in metro cities and by 3.5x in non-metro cities. 

To date, the company has provided 800 million insurance policies to over 62 million unique customers and their app has been downloaded more than 1 million times. The website was reported to have over 4 million monthly users and reported a consistent increase in traffic by 161% in the April to June quarter of FY22.

Founder(s)

Varun Dua  (LinkedIn): CEO and Co-Founder at Acko Insurance. Prior to launching Acko Insurance, Varun also founded GlitterBug Technologies and Coverfox Insurance. He also worked as Marketing Manager at Franklin Templeton Investments and Tata AIG Life Insurance.  

Ruchi Deepak (LinkedIn): Co-Founder at Acko Insurance. Ruchi has also served as a Board Member at Pitstop, a platform that offers general repair and maintenance services for cars through its doorstep service.

History & Evolution

• In 2016, Acko Insurance was founded by Varun and Ruchi claiming to be the first digital insurance service provider in India.

• In 2017, the company received its license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

• In 2018, Acko Insurance partnered with Ola Cabs to provide in-trip insurance to their customers in more than 110 cities in India.

• In 2019, the company received the ‘Golden Peacock Innovative Product Award’ for its bit-sized insurance product, Ola Ride Insurance.

• In 2020, Acko Insurance partnered with Amazon Pay to provide auto insurance policies to their customers. The company also partnered with HDB Financial Services to offer microinsurance on HDB Aabhar Cards (EMI cards). 

• In 2021, Acko Insurance concluded its first Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) liquidity program. It was valued at $2M for 40 employees who have served long-term at the organization. 

From archive.org 

Market Snapshot

According to a report by TechSci Research, the Indian digital insurance industry is estimated to reach $165.02B by 2024 at a CAGR of over 13% from 2019 to 2024.

In India, the digital influence on insurance sales is 13% for life insurance, 15% for health insurance, 9% for motor insurance, and 21% for travel insurance. Roughly, $1B of new insurance sales are digitally influenced.

Additional Learnings

Acko Insurance mainly stands out from its competitors because of its digital direct-to-consumer model. The company claims to be the first fully digital insurance provider in India that deals directly with customers, without involving a middleman or agent. This in turn makes its operations cheaper than other rivals and the company is able to provide 30-40% discounts on premiums. 

For IPL 2022, Acko Insurance has signed 5 teams including Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Gujarat Titans as its sponsor. 

Suggested Next Reads

• Can Digital Insurance Startup Acko Disrupt The Complex Sector? (Rajiv Singh, Forbes India, Dec ‘20)

• Digital adoption helps ACKO auto insurance business grow 120 percent over one years (Business Standard, July ‘21)

• Acko – A Silent Storm Disrupting The Insurance Market (Sourav, Next Big Brand, July ‘19)

• Why Amazon has invested $12 million in Indian startup Acko (Business Today India, May ‘18)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2016, Karnataka-headquartered Digit Insurance is a tech-driven insurance and financial services platform that aims to simplify insurance for common people. It provides motor, health, travel, property and other insurance schemes and is the first insurance company to be fully clouded. 

In 2021, Digit Insurance became India’s first unicorn of the year after raising $18M from existing investors like A91 Partners, Faering Capital, and TVS Capital, bringing its total valuation to $1.9B. In the beginning of 2022, the company raised $70M in a venture funding round and is currently valued at $3.5B. 

The company is owned by Fairfax and its subsidiary Digit Infoworks. It is also backed by notable investors like TVS Capital Funds, Sequoia Capital India, A91 Partners, Faering Capital, India cricket captain Virat Kohli and the employees of Digit.

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Digit Insurance provides the following products and services through its website and app: 

Motor Insurance:

• Car Insurance

• Bike Insurance

• Commercial Vehicle Insurance 

• Taxi/Cab Insurance

• Auto Rickshaw Insurance

• Truck Insurance

Health Insurance 

• Normal Insurance

• Super top-up insurance 

• OPD Health Insurance

• Arogya Sanjeevni policy 

• Personal accident insurance

• Corporate health insurance

Other

• International Travel insurance

• Flight Delay insurance

• Shop Insurance

• Home Insurance

The company operates across 7 states in India – Karnataka, Gujrat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Bihar. 

How It Works

Digit Insurance has an all-digital model that is supported by analytical and other technologies to fasten the insurance process in various ways. 

The pre-inspection app reduces turn-around time for claims. As soon as a customer comes to the portal, the app determines whether there is a gap in their insurance or not. An SMS-based link is then generated and sent to the user which gives them instructions to carry out the pre-inspection. The app allows users to take 8-10 pictures which are automatically loaded into the system through the link. Particularly for bikes, AI recognizes basic checks like registration number, color, etc. This fastens the process of pre-inspection cases to below 2 hours. 

In-house-built apps help claim settlement faster. For example, travel delay claims are 100% automatic, as soon as a customer’s flight is delayed, they receive an SMS to send their boarding pass and bank details. Once the immediate claim registration and approval are done, money is transferred to the customer’s account. 

The self-inspection app is a smartphone-based solution that uses customers’ cameras to complete the process making it a hassle-free experience for users. The app reduced inspection time from days to just 10 minutes and has led to motor claims being approved in 24 hours. 

Moreover, there’s also an audio claim feature available for users who do not wish to fill out long applications. In order to file a claim, users can simply call to register one. This call is taped and then used to extract and store important details for processing the claim.   

Digit Insurance has an application programming interface (API) integration for all partners including Policy Bazaar, Flipkart, Clear Trip, and Amazon India, to cancel or make amendments to their policies. It also incorporates machine learning which helps with a faster reconciliation, float management, fraud management, and claims settlement. The analytical tools used by Digit Insurance are Python, BI tools such as IBM Cognos, visualization tools such as Power BI, databases such as Postgres, and Data Lakes such as Hortonworks. 

Business Model & Pricing

Digit Insurance has a cloud-based business model which has lowered the company’s operational and infrastructure costs. It creates beneficial partnerships with companies that it can integrate with to provide insurance alongside products. It has implemented this strategy with 1500 companies including international e-commerce powerhouses Amazon and Flipkart. 

The company earns revenue through its various insurance plans but mostly through premiums. These premiums start at a low cost making it an attractive option for users belonging to all kinds of financial backgrounds. For example, the two-wheeler insurance premium starts from only INR 786 ($10.82)

Traction

In 2021, Digit Insurance reported an operational revenue of $252M which showed a 56% growth bringing their consolidated revenue to $304M.  In the first half of 2021, sales crossed $292M and premium income grew 44% to $430M. The company also reported a profit of $16M. 

In 2021, it became India’s first unicorn of the year after raising $18.5M from existing investors and is now valued at $3.5B. Its valuation has grown almost five times in the past 5 years, it has processed more than 400,000 claims and has a claim settlement ratio of 96%.

The company has served over 20 million customers and its app has been downloaded over 100,000 times.

Founder(s)

Kamesh Goyal: Chairman and Co-Founder at Digit Insurance. Kamesh always held a fascination for the finance world. Initially, he started his career by working at The New India Assurance Co.Ltd. Later he worked at KPMG India as their Manager and as Head Of Asset Management and US Life Insurance at Allianz Asset Management. 

History & Evolution

In 2016, Kamesh Goyal had been working at Allianz for 16 years. He found himself yearning for a venture of his own where he could put his experience of 33 years in the insurance industry to good use. It was only after he failed to explain the basics of insurance to his teenage son that he decided to take a good look at the jargon-heavy industry and its complex operations. This is what motivated Goyal to start a business that would provide simplified and customized products and ensure fast and easy settlements. Go Digit Infoworks Services, an IT development, and consultancy firm was launched as a joint venture with Oben Ventures and Fairfax Financial Holdings. 

In 2016, a subsidiary of Go Digit Infoworks called Go Digit General Insurance was launched. At first, the company was named Oben but was later changed to Digit Insurance. 

In 2017, Digit Insurance received its license from IRDA and launched its first product, travel insurance. That same year Fairfax Group bought a 45% stake in the company for $52M making it the highest amount received by a startup in the insurance sector.

In 2018, Digit Insurance acquired ITI Reinsurance, an organization that helps insurers in their efforts to provide stable and affordable risk transfer solutions to their policyholders. That year it also partnered with Flipkart to offer mobile insurance. 

In 2019, the company gained a 1% market share in India, insured more than 5 million customers, and settled more than 100,000 claims.

In 2020, the company expanded its business by 30%. Two major products helped the company drive growth, covid health insurance, and fire insurance. The covid-19 product, a fixed benefit cover, was able to reach out to over 2 million Indians through the Digit Group Illness Insurance product. Despite the pandemic, it exhibited a promising growth of 31.9% and earned a premium of $186M.

In 2021, Digit Insurance became India’s first unicorn of the year by raising $18M from existing investors. The company is now valued at $3.5B and was the only Indian insurance company to feature in the CB Insights Fintech 250 list of the year. 

From archive.org 

Market Snapshot:

• In India, the gross direct premium income for insurance in 2021 was $14.62B with an increase of 12.3% in Year on Year growth (YoY) due to 28.8% growth in the health segment and $84.7% growth in the personal accident segment. 

• The insurance industry in India consists of 57 insurance companies, with the market share of these private sector companies increasing to 48.03% in 2020.  

Additional Learnings

The biggest difference Digit Insurance provides is using technology to simplify claims processes. It is the only company in the insurance industry to be fully clouded. There are no hard copies required and most of the claims processes are smartphone-enabled. This shortens the time for claim processing and makes it user-friendly for its customer base. 

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• Digit Insurance Startup Story by Startup Boy • A podcast on Anchor (Startup Boy)

• Never Been A More Exciting Time To Be In General Insurance, Says Digit Insurance's Goyal (Ishan Shah, Money Control, Oct ‘21)

• Will Digit Simplify Insurance to Pull in India? (A Junior VC, July ‘21)

• Digit Insurance eyes Rs 6,500 cr in premia sales by October 2022 (The Economic Times, Oct ‘21)

• Digit Insurance comes up with cover amid deadly coronavirus spreads (Business Standard, March ‘20)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2018, New Delhi-headquartered BharatPe is a one-stop shop for digital payments. It offers a portfolio of products to help merchants accept digital payments through QR codes that support government-backed UPI payments infrastructure. The company also helps merchants and shopkeepers across cities acquire a loan to facilitate their working capital needs and lend money to fellow merchants and traders who are in need of cash. 

In 2021, BharatPe entered the unicorn club after raising $370M in a Series E funding round bringing its total valuation to $2.85, a three-fold jump within 6 months. The company is among the top 5 most valued Fintech startups in India with over 7 million merchants on board and collaborations with more than 150 UPI apps like PayTm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, and more.

The company is backed by notable investors like Beenext, Sequoia Growth, Insight Partners, Steadview Capital Management, Ribbit Capital, Coatue Management, and Amplo. 

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Bharatpe is a payments app that provides end-to-end solutions for businesses. App features include:

• 1 QR code for all payment apps (Paytm, BHIM, and 150 others) 

• No setup or transaction fees for payments

• Loans up to INR 700,000 ($9.3k) without collateral and processing fee

• Credit Card cum debit card with up to INR 100,000 ($1.3k) credit limit

• Bill payments with numerous merchants added

• Points redeem option that ends with a grand prize to meet cricket stars

• Bharat Swipe: India’s first zero-fee card machine

The company operates across 100 cities in India and plans to expand to 300 by next year. 

How It Works

BharatPe has an artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithm which is extremely useful for shopkeepers as it gives them valuable insights into their business’s cash flow. The AI algorithm picks up signals like the kind of transactions a shopkeeper makes or the usage of other products on their platform and this information is then analyzed along with the merchant’s credit score and loan history to make a loan offer. Once the shopkeeper passes this screening process, the firm’s NBFC partner processes the loan and in a few days credits the amount in the merchant’s account. The loan can be paid back in daily installments with a low-interest rate and the entire process is digital and collateral-free which makes it an attractive option for users.

For merchants, in order to process digital payments, they have to put up a QR code in their shops. Customers can pay merchants digitally using a UPI-powered payment app. The app also allows merchants to track customers who owe them money and receive periodic reminders courtesy of a simplified dashboard on their phones. 

Business Model & Pricing

BharatPe’s business-to-business model is focused on creating products and services majorly targeting merchants. It not only provides a free digital payments platform but also grants merchants and shopkeepers instant loans with low-interest rates. The company does not charge any transaction or setup fees and has no hidden charges to speak of. It does not charge merchants commission for processing payment so that it becomes an integral part of their customer’s business and cash flow. 

To boost the revenue on its platform, Bharatpe relies on the interdependent recurring connection of credit and application usage. A huge chunk of the company’s revenue comes from the interest income it earns on the loans it issues to shopkeepers and merchants. These low-cost loans are provided at an interest rate of 2% while the time period varies from 3 to 12 months. Moreover, the company has also recently introduced Peer to Peer (P2P) lending at a 12% interest rate for both individual lenders as well as borrowers. 

Traction

In 2021, BharatPe disbursed loans worth $214M to 180,000 merchants which led to revenue of $93M, a 7x increase from last year’s $15M revenue. It also registered 106 million monthly UPI transactions which were worth $830M in March 2021. The company enjoys an 8.8% market share and has expanded its footprints from 30 to 100 cities in India.

In August 2021, it became India’s 19th unicorn of the year after raising $370M in a Series E funding round. The startup has raised $699.9M to date and is now valued at $2.85B. The company was reported to have over 7 million merchants and their app had been downloaded close to 10 million times

Founder(s) & Team

Shashvat Nakrani (LinkedIn) – Co-Founder at BharatPe.Shashvat, an IIT dropout is the youngest person to feature in the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List. He was in his 3rd year at IIT-Delhi, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Textile Technology when he co-founded BharatPe after recognizing a business opportunity for a payment gateway. 

Bhavik Koladiya (LinkedIn) – Group Head and Co-Founder at BharatPe. Alongside working at BharatPe, Bhavik has also been an angel investor for many companies including Digifin, Pristyn Care, ProtectPay, Flatheads, Walrus, Vested Finance, CityMall, Vahan Inc and LenDenClub. 

Ashneer Grover (LinkedIn) – MD and Co-Founder at BharatPe. Ashneer, an IIT graduate has served as the Chief Financial Officer at Grofers and as Director of Corporate Development at American Express. Prior to co-founding Bharatpe, he also worked as Vice President at Kodak Investment Banking and Head of New Business at PC Jeweller Ltd, the second-largest Jewellery retailer in India.

History & Evolution

Towards the end of 2017, Shashvat Nakrani, an IITian was working on a startup when he identified a huge gap in the digital payment market. Merchants were hesitant about accepting online payments because no payment getaway or wallet charged less than 1.5% commission. That is when he decided to come up with a platform for merchants that would leverage Unified Payments Interface’s (UPI) star feature- interoperability, to remove all charges on payments. Merchants would need only one QR code that could be used by any payments app. However, Shashvat was unsure of how to commercialize the idea when Ashneer Grover, his 16 years senior at IIT entered the scene and gave direction to the idea courtesy of his vast experience in the finance industry. 

In 2018, BharatPe launched its merchant-focused QR code as a pilot in Nehru Place, a commercial hub in New Delhi. In August it commercially launched the QR code and was able to bring 1000 merchants on board In the first month, attracted by the zero transaction fees and interoperability feature. 

In 2019, BharatPe announced short-term credit options for merchants by partnering with Apollo Finvest to enable lending on its platform at an interest rate of 1.67% per month. That year it also launched India's first UPI Bahi Khata for merchants which allows merchants to record their cash/credit (Udhar) sales customer-wise, request accounts receivable from customers via SMS payment links, and keep track of accounts payable to suppliers.

In 2020, BharatPe launched two voice-based features during the pandemic. Paisa Bolega, a button introduced in the BharatPe App that converts the shopkeeper's smartphone into a loudspeaker, announcing the value of transaction received. BharatPe Balance provides a single snapshot of the shopkeeper's daily QR collections, balance in 12 percent interest a/c, and the loan limit. The startup also launched Bharat Swipe, a POS card machine for merchants with zero fees and a lifetime warranty. That year it claimed to be the third-largest player in the merchant UPI payment acceptance space and reached an all-time high of 5% market share by transaction value and 7 percent market share by transaction volume. 

In 2021, BharatPe acquired Payback India, a multi-brand loyalty program from American Express and ICICI Investments Strategic Fund. It also entered the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) category with the launch of Postpe, a shopping and payment platform that lets users shop now and pay next month. The company also forayed into p2p lending with ‘12% Club’ which allows individual investors to invest and borrow at 12% interest through the app. It entered the unicorn club after raising $370M in a Series E funding round and is now valued at $2.85B. The startup was also issued a Small Finance Bank (SFB) license by The Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 

From archive.org

Additional Learnings

What makes BharatPe stand out from its competitors is that they have chosen to target merchants, a market with immense untapped potential. It does not have to spend too much cash to maintain a base of customers, as the no fees policy is enough to attract customers. Moreover, the lending feature for merchants and shopkeepers also serves as a competitive advantage since they were the first company to make lending this easy and quick for merchants. 

In Feb 2022, the company terminated Ashneer Grover’s wife, Madhuri Jain who serves as Head of Controls at BharatPe on charges of financial irregularities and canceled her stock options. This has started a cold war between the investors and Grover as the founder filed an arbitration plea to stop this probe into alleged financial mismanagement in the company which was refused by the Singapore Arbitration Centre (SIAC). The whole scandal started when an audio clip of an abusive conversation between Ashneer and a Kotak Mahindra bank employee was leaked, where the former was abusing the bank employee for not getting him a stake in Nykaa IPO. Initially, Ashneer denied this claim and termed it as an attempt at extortion but later he deleted that tweet. 

Market Snapshot

• Digital payments in India are expected to touch $1Tr by 2026, after hitting a value of $300B in 2021, mostly propelled due to the government creating a favorable environment for the same. 

• Driven by cheap internet, high smartphone penetration and government initiatives, India outpaced the world by registering 25.5B+ digital payment transactions in 2020. 

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• Inside story of how Centrum and BharatPe ‘unified’ for their banking dream. But challenges start now. (The Economic Times)

• BharatPe Redefined India's Payment Ecosystem. The Unicorn Now Wants To Challenge India's Banks (Manu Balachandran, Forbes India, Sep ‘21)

• Why BharatPe offered payments free of charge? (Nevin John, Fortune India, Oct ‘21)

• Centrum And BharatPe's Plans For INR 40,000 Cr Small Finance Bank (Sethu Pradeep, Inc42, Oct ‘21)

• BharatPe rolls out BMW bikes to new joinees; extends offer to product mangers (Business Today India, July ‘21)

• [Product Roadmap] How BharatPe built a robust, easy-to-use tech product for 50 million SMEs (Sindhu Kashyaap, Your Story, Oct ‘20)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2010, Maharashtra-headquartered FirstCry is India’s leading marketplace for newborn babies, kids, and maternity products. It is also the biggest parents networking platform for expert validated advice and tips on pregnancy, parenting, baby care, child development and more. 

In 2020, FirstCry became a unicorn after raising $296M in a Series E funding round led by Japan-based Softbank Vision Fund. The company’s latest funding round was in Feb 2022 where it raised $100M from India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund bringing its valuation to a little over $2B.

FirstCry offers 200,000 products from 6000 well-known brands like Disney, Fisherprice, Huggies, Giggles, Pampers, Barbie, Lego, Johnson’s Baby, Funskool, Babyhug, Carters, Mark & Mia, Mamy Poko Pants, Chicco, LuvLap and more. The company currently has 7.5 million registered users and over 400 stores across India with plans to expand to other countries and go public in 2022. 

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

FirstCry offers products in the following categories: 

• Boy fashion

• Girl fashion

• Footwear

• Toys

• Diapering 

• Gear

• Feeding

• Bath & skin

• Nursery

• Moms

• Health & safety

• Boutiques

It also offers a community platform called FirstCry Parenting where experts engage with expecting, first-time and experienced parents with the right content and solutions as per their child's age. The platform provides expert advice on topics such as parenting, pregnancy, and childcare. 

FirstCry operates across India and UAE with more than 400 stores in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, and Delhi and plans to expand its presence in the Middle East by opening stores in markets such as Oman and Saudi Arabia. 

How It Works

FirstCry app is a one-stop solution for babies, kids, and maternity products shopping, and access-pass to expert validated advice & tips on pregnancy, parenting, baby care, child development, and more.

Initially, the maternal and child products on FirstCry relied entirely on supply inventory. However, a few years later, the company introduced retailers to the platform, enriched the product category, and launched two in-house brands, BabyHug (clothing) and CuteWalk (shoes). The company puts data analytics to good use in order to drive offline traffic. Based on store pin codes, online customers in the vicinity are sent mailers about upcoming stores, while customer behavior data is shared with franchisees to help them stock popular products.

FirstCry provides free shipping over purchases above INR 699 ($9.33) while for orders below that amount, customers have to pay INR 50 ($0.67). All products purchased in the portal get ensured with timely delivery as the company houses a reliable delivery and shipping network, helping products reach customers within the prescribed time.

Price parity across online and offline stores is the company’s strongest strategy as it provides a 32-inch Internet-enabled touchscreen kiosk at most stores, where customers can check online prices to make comparison shopping easier. Subject to store size, a franchisee can only offer up to 2,000 pieces (called SKUs or stock-keeping units in the trade) in-store, while FirstCry sells over 200,000 pieces online. Through the company’s kiosk, customers can select products of their choice from the online inventory and get them delivered to their homes without any shipping costs.

It also runs a unique direct-to-parents program called FirstCry Box where free gift boxes are given to new parents across hospitals as a token of celebration on the birth of their child. The box contains basic necessities such as diapers, baby lotion, and baby oil. from leading brands such as Mamy Poko and Libero. Every box is bar-coded and contains coupons, which help track conversions up to the second purchase. 

FirstCry Parenting offers expert pregnancy and parenting tips, researched articles, Q&As, tools, and trackers to help customers through every step of their parenting journey. Be it tracking their pregnancy week by week, preparing their baby's diet chart, or recommending postnatal exercise, the platform offers it all. 

Business Model & Pricing

Firstcry has a hybrid business model which includes online platforms and over 400 offline stores spread across India. Initially, the company was following an inventory-based model by only handling the logistics of products with their warehouses. However, later it added retailers to the portal with an opportunity to sell their products on its platform.

The company has two main sources of revenue, one is the commission it charges brands for displaying their products on its platform and the other is the money it earns from its in-house brands: an apparel brand called Babyhug, and footwear brand Cutewalk. It also has a loyalty program where customers can avail discounts and benefits by either paying INR 299 ($3.99) for a 3-month membership or INR 999 ($13.33) for a 12-month membership. 

Traction

FirstCry reported a 65.8% jump in its revenue from $72M in 2019 to $120M in 2020. It also reported an 82.5% decrease in its net losses to $22M in 2020 from $125M in 2019. In 2020, Firstcry entered the unicorn club after raising $296M in a Series E funding round led by Japan-based Softbank Vision Fund and is now valued at over $2B. The company is reported to have over 7.5 million registered users and its app has been downloaded close to 10 million times.

Founder(s)

Supum Maheshwari: CEO and Co-Founder at FirstCry. Supum, an IIM graduate previously co-founded Brainvisa Technologies, an e-learning platform for the corporate, publishing, education, and government sector which was later sold to Indecomm Global Services. 

Prashant Jadhav: CTO and Co-Founder at FirstCry. Prashant previously co-founded Image Digital India and IrasLab Research and Development. He also worked as Delivery Manager at Brainvisa Technologies and as Cyber Security and IT Consultant at Consultant to Government Department. 

Amitava Saha: COO and Co-Founder at FirstCry. Amitava, an IIM graduate co-founded Xpressbees, a logistics service provider in India catering to end-to-end supply chain solutions and now works as their CEO. He also previously worked as Senior Officer at Tata Steel and as Senior Vice President at Brainvisa Technologies. 

Sanket Hattimattur: COS and Co-Founder at FirstCry. Sanket previously worked as Manager at Brainvisa Technologies and as Purchase Officer at Tata AIG Life Insurance. 

History & Evolution

Supam Maheshwari, founder of Brainvisa Technologies always used to shop for his infant daughter during foreign business trips because the quality of products abroad was top-notch. It was only when his journey with Brainvisa ended and so did his foreign trips, that he realized that none of the high-quality baby products he got abroad were available in India. This made him realize the huge demand-supply gap in the domestic market for children-focused brands. With that gap in mind, the idea of FirstCry came into existence, a platform that would provide parents easy access to quality baby and kids products. 

In 2010, Supam along with his friend Amitava Saha bootstrapped BrainBees Solutions and under this parent company, Firstcry was launched. 

In 2011, FirstCry started delivering 500 orders per day and also adapted the omnichannel model by opening its first franchise store in Bharuch, Gujrat.

In 2013, the platform crossed 1 million customers and started a hospital gift box program, where new mothers post-delivery receive a gift box that contains sample products like diapers, lotions, and baby wipes. That year the company launched two private labels called BabyHug, an apparel brand for babies and kids, and CuteWalk, a footwear brand.

In 2014, FirstCry introduced Kiosk innovation at their stores, a touchscreen catalog that allows customers to scroll through products on a 32-inch screen, order online on spot, and find the product available at the store in 2-3 days.

In 2015, Firstcry rolled out same-day delivery and next-day delivery service in 75 cities across India with the help of logistics player XpressBees.

In 2016, FirstCry acquired Babyoye, an e-commerce store providing pregnancy, infant-care, and mother-care products and services in India. That year it also launched Carters, a major American designer and marketer of children's apparel. 

In 2017, the company launched its virtual assistant – Jenna – an Artificial Intelligence-driven Chatbot for shopping products. That year it also launched Firstcry Parenting, a one-stop destination for all parents looking for expert pregnancy and parenting tips. 

In 2018, Masala Baby, a New York-based brand for lifestyle, kids, and infants collaborated with FirstCry to tap into the Indian market.

In 2019, FirstCry acquired Acquired Oi Playschool, a leading Play School Chain in India that provides educational programs including pre-nursery, nursery, and pre-preparatory classes. That year it also expanded its operations in the UAE by settling in the Dubai South Logistics Free Zone and establishing a track center.

In 2020, the platform entered the unicorn club after raising $296M in a Series E funding round.

In 2022, the CCI gave permission to the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund to invest around $100M in FirstCry as a part of its secondary sale round. FirstCry serves 20 million families with more than 2,00,000 products by 6000 brands and has 400+ shopping stores across India.

From archive.org 

Additional Learnings: 

FirstCry is gearing up for an IPO in 2022 and has appointed investment bankers Kotak and Morgan Stanley for this purpose. While the size of the issue isn’t finalized yet, it is said to be a mix of both primary share sale as well as offer for sale. 

Market Snapshot: 

• With a booming population owing to 27 million babies being born every year, the market size for baby products in India is estimated to be around INR 15-25B, with experts expecting the growth to double every 6-8 months.

• India’s low per capita consumption of baby care products presents a lot of scope for growth with India estimated to be in the high growth phase for the next ten years despite a fall in total fertility rate for the first time. 

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• FirstCry's Supam Maheshwari On His Success Secrets, The Global Bees Vision (Debarghya Sil, Inc42, July ‘21)

• FirstCry Looks To Acquire Online Sellers, D2C Brands With $75 Mn Fund (Romita Majumdar, Inc42, April ‘21)

• FirstCry Has Revamped Baby Apparel Shopping In India (Ashita Marya, Entrepreneur Europe, Jan ‘20)

• We are running exclusive gift box program in hospitals for new parents: Supam Maheshwari (Niharika Verma, Opportunity India, Sep ‘17)

• FirstCry: Child's play (Rajiv Bhuva, Fortune India, May ‘15)

• How did Firstcry become Asia's largest online baby store 

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Bykea is a technology company that provides instant transport and courier services. It aims to bring affordable ride-hailing and parcel delivery to regions where car bookings might be expensive for customers. It also aims to solve the problem of congested cities, via two assets – bicycles or motorbikes and smartphones – which the population’s majority owns in the cities Bykea operates within.

It was founded in 2016 with headquarters in Karachi, Pakistan. To date, it has raised $18.7M in funding with the most recent round a $13m Series A in September 2020. It currently operates in 3 cities: Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi.

About Bykea: Website, LinkedIn

Business Overview and Products

Bykea provides an all-in-one app for transportation, logistics and cash on delivery payments. It offers 4 core services: Bykea Ride, Bykea Commerce, Bykea Payments, and Bykea for Business. All of these are available as options within the Bykea App.

Its services help move people, parcels and payments efficiently in a reliable and inexpensive way. It utilizes bikes as modes of transport which outnumbers cars by 3 times in Pakistan. It gets through cities’ congested streets and narrow alleyways faster than a rickshaw or car. Moreover, Bykea has partnered with clinics to provide fast, on-demand first aid staff to individuals in need. It has also partnered with pharmacies to help deliver over-the-counter medicine to those with no access.

The app has a strong ratings system for both customers and driver partners. Customers can rate driver partners on safety, hygiene, behavior and much more. Meanwhile driver partners are licensed and GPS tracked to ensure customer safety.  

How It Works

Bykea utilizes smartphones and motorbikes to enable business. For Bykea Ride, a customer may simply open the app, provide pickup details, ride to their desired destination and pay at the end via cash or in-app wallet. For Bykea Commerce, the driver picks up any order placed and delivers them to customers after details are entered via the app. In a similar fashion, for Bykea Payments a customer may send or request payment from anyone by choosing the appropriate option in the app, and this way transactions may be processed. Finally, Bykea for Business allows small businesses to deliver any shipments they want.  

For people who do not own smartphones, they may simply book the service by calling one of their call centers. A customer services representative connects them to the closest available Bykea. All vehicles are inspected to ensure quality of experience and a helmet is offered to each passenger and a driver-partner upon starting a ride.

Payments are made easy by allowing customers to pay in cash for each booking and to top up an in-app wallet for non-cash payments. Upon each booking, customers can track the driver’s estimated time of arrival and locate their precise GPS location at all times within the app.

Business Model and Pricing

Bykea uses transparent pricing. In regions where metered pricing is often ignored, Bykea ensures that customers get a clear itemized price. According to a source, Bykea charges a base fare of PKR 30, and additional charges are added on as PKR 4 per kilometer. To the base fare, time charges are also added, which are only PKR 1 per minute. The complete charges of the ride are calculated by adding the distance traveled in kilometers.

Driver partners at Bykea can choose the number of hours they want to log working for the company, which allows them a certain flexibility. According to a local Pakistani source, Bykea charges a commission of 20% from the earnings that driver partners make.

For Bykea Payments, the company charges PKR 70 as a flat fee for any transactions it initiates on behalf of users. This fee is charged in relation to the partnership Bykea has with utility companies, banks, and the companies behind mobile wallets.

Traction

• Bykea was named among the 10 tech startups with highest valuations in Pakistan in 2020. 

• Bykea’s core product offerings include ride-hailing and deliveries, which account for more than 80% of the company’s revenue.

• In February 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic, Bykea had a fleet of 33,000 monthly active bike drivers. According to a source, the company plans on cross-utilising this active driver fleet for e-commerce logistics, food and payment services.

• The company plans to have partnerships with 1Link for payments in an attempt to automate payments via direct banking channels to keep their services cost-efficient.

• Bykea also serves as a hyper-local marketplace, and in the first 17 months of operations it had 7 million transactions.

Founder(s) & Team

Muneeb Maayr [LinkedIn]: Founder and CEO of Bykea. Previously, Maayr has served as Co-Founder and CEO at Daraz.pk for 4 years, Pakistan's largest e-commerce platform acquired by the Alibaba Group.

History and Evolution

Bykea was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Karachi. It was launched based on 3 basic principles. Firstly, the company wanted to take existing technology and make it relevant to the Pakistani population. Secondly, it aimed to convert the existing possessions of people (i.e. motorbikes and smartphones into income generating assets). Lastly, it wanted to solve the transport problem in the three major cities of Pakistan, which include Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad.

Since then Bykea expanded to Lahore and Rawalpindi. In 2018, Bykea partnered with a Pakistani digital communications company called Jazz to enhance digital connectivity and efficiency to users. It also formed a collaboration with Mahvash and Jahangir Siddiqui Foundation (MJSF) for a Bikers Support Scheme. The company received its first funding in 2019.

Within two and a half years of operations, Bykea grew to become a big platform and managed to connect 200,000 motorcycle riders to its 2 million users. During the pandemic, it faced a loss as 90% of its business depended on pillion riding and the Pakistani government had placed a ban on it. Bykea has been lobbying to have the ban removed as they claim to follow pandemic safety protocols. According to Bykea, its motorbike riders wore helmets that serve as health visors, and ride in open air with gloves and face masks on.

In its rather short operating history, Bykea has swiftly expanded to new domains, offering a variety of services. These include Bykea Commerce, Bykea Payments and Bykea for Business. 

Additional Learnings

• Bykea has been modeled after an Indonesian startup known as Go-Jek. Its growth trajectory is often compared to Go-Jek as well.

• As Bykea is able to take advantage of lower fuel consumption and maintenance costs, it can offer much cheaper rates than conventional taxis or rickshaws.

• During the pandemic, the government of Pakistan put a ban on pillion riding to curb the spread of the virus. According to Bykea, an incoming investment of $13M was on hold due investor paranoia on investing in a category that the government of Pakistan continues to suspend.

• Bykea is the only app in Urdu that Pakistan’s middle class uses for affordable transport.

• Bykea operates with a focus on creating positive social impact. 

Market Snapshot

• Bykea introduced its services at a time when no one had been able to penetrate a significant portion of the market. In a country of 200 million people, the market size was estimated around 50 million smartphones and 100 million people using feature phones.

• It competes against Careem Bike and UberMoto in the regions it operates in. The founder credits Uber and Careem for developing the space for this business: “when Careem entered the motorcycle space, we grew as opposed to shrinking [...] because they had marketed bikes as an option.”

Suggested Next Reads

To get deeper insights into the company, the following readings would be a good starting point:

• Is Bykea the first (next?) Pakistani unicorn in the making? (PT Profit, May ‘16)

• Is Bykea a candidate for the Pakistani super-app? (PT Profit, November ‘20)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2017, Bengaluru-headquartered CoinSwitch Kuber is India’s leading user-friendly cryptocurrency trading platform. It allows users to buy, sell and trade over 400 cryptocurrencies instantly at the best prices with an easy-to-use app that simplifies crypto investments for first-time users. 

In 2021, CoinSwitch Kuber became India’s second crypto unicorn after raising $260M in a Series C funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. It is now valued at $1.9B making it the highest-valued unicorn in India’s crypto trading industry. 

The company has captured 60% of the market share with 10 million users and a trading volume of over $5B.  It is backed by some of the biggest names in the Crypto industry like Sequoia, Ribbit Capital, Paradigm and Tiger Global, and more.

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

• Trading & Investing: As CoinSwitch Kuber’s core product, users are able to instantly buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrencies. The company offers over 400 coins and 100,000 cryptocurrency exchange pairs.

• Kuberverse: A blog powered by CoinSwitch Kuber that keeps you up-to-date on topics regarding cryptocurrencies, investing, and more. It mainly focuses on educating users about Bitcoin, Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies to simplify their crypto journey. 

The company is operational across India and boasts users from 4,000 cities.

How It Works

Initially, a trader approaches CoinSwitch Kuber regarding their trade requirements, this includes the kind of trading they want to execute as well as its quantity. For instance, trading 0.25 Bitcoin for Ethereum. Once this information is entered by the trader, the company provides them with a list of exchanges to execute the trade on. In order for users to make their own informed decisions, they are provided with user rates from all exchanges. After finalizing the exchange, the user is provided a deposit address by CoinSwitch Kuber to send their coins to and they are also asked to provide the address of where they want the exchanged coins to be sent to. 

The company also offers a referral program that pays in Bitcoin. To avail this offer, the trader has to provide their Bitcoin address in return for a referral link. Afterwards, as long as the referred person keeps using the platform, the referrer will continue to earn revenue.

As for payment of these coins, CoinSwitch Kuber offers numerous popular payments methods like UPI (an Indian real-time payment system), bank transfer, and net banking to make transactions easier for users. However, to avail the credit card payment option, the user has to go through a KYC procedure to make sure that the transaction isn’t done with a stolen credit card. The entire purchase procedure takes about 10-30 minutes.

The platform provides traders with the option to accept one kind of cryptocurrency and get paid in another. Moreover, it also allows traders to pay an invoice in over 400 currencies. Once the invoice is paid, the platform exchanges the coins into different crypto of their choice and sends them to the person being paid. Traders on the platform can start trading with as little as $1.3.

The platform also has a blog called Kuberverse to educate traders about Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, and Blockchain. 

Business Model & Pricing

CoinSwitch Kuber offers consumers fixed prices with no fluctuations. The company charges no subscription, withdrawal, or deposit fees but reportedly has hidden charges. When a user purchases a cryptocurrency the company deducts 1-2% from the cost of the purchase. Traders are not charged any fee for their first 100 days but afterward pay a transaction fee of 0-0.49% depending on the selected exchange for their transaction, with the conversion rate inclusive of the fees. The platform also has different buying and selling rates.

Traction

In 2021, CoinSwitch Kuber reported a profit of about $8M and became the highest valued crypto trading platform in India with a valuation of $1.9B. The company raised $260M in its latest Series C funding round bringing its total funding to over $300M and making it the second crypto unicorn of the country in just 14 months of operations.  

The platform has 10 million users, 7 million monthly active users, and a transaction volume of $15B per month. It also attracts investors from 4,000 cities across the country, with nearly 55% of users belonging to tier 2 and 3 cities. The majority of its users are young and first-time investors in the crypto trading scene. The app has more than 10 million downloads and reported a 350 percent growth rate in user base in 2020.  In 2022, the company is hoping to earn a revenue of $50M and bring 50 million users on board. 

Founder(s) & Team

Ashish Singhal: Co-Founder and CEO at CoinSwitch Kuber. Other than CoinSwitch, Ashish has founded 2 other ventures, Urban Tailor, an online tailoring service, and CRUXPay, a cryptocurrency-focused blockchain naming solution.

Vimal Sagar: Co-Founder and COO at CoinSwitch Kuber. Previously Vimal worked as a Software Engineering Analyst at Accenture, a global professional services company, and later as a Senior Software Engineer at Zynga, a social game developer. He also co-founded CRUXPay along with Ashish Singhal and Govind Soni. 

Govind Soni: Co-Founder and CTO at CoinSwitch Kuber. Govind has worked at Amazon as their Software Development Manager and at Livspace as Senior Software Engineer. He also co-founded CRUXPay with Ashish Singhal and Govind Soni. 

History & Evolution

Govind, Vimal and Ashish are three software engineers who enjoyed experimenting with tech and participated in many hackathons together. It was during one of these hackathons that they noticed a significant gap in the crypto industry. The price of crypto varied slightly across exchanges based on supply and demand. If users wanted to get better returns from the market, especially at scale, choosing the right exchange played a critical role. That is how the idea of CoinSwitch Kuber came into existence. 

In 2017 they launched CoinSwitch Kuber, an aggregator of crypto exchanges that would provide real-time data on the best prices and exchanges for a certain cryptocurrency to be traded.  Within a month of the launch, the company was processing over $1M in trades and subsequently got funded by Sequoia Capital.  Soon it was catering to users in over 160 countries.

In 2020, CoinSwitch Kuber was launched in India after The Supreme Court overturned the Reserve Bank of India’s ban to not support crypto transactions. The company’s aim was to simplify cryptocurrency investments for Indian retail users. It hit 100,000 user sign-ups during the pre-launch period exceeding its 25,000 users target. The company also launched a mobile app to increase usage among crypto users in India. It became the first cryptocurrency platform to debut an ad campaign on national television. The campaign helped spread the word and educate people about its services, thus increasing the company’s trading volume by 500% and its users to 400,000.

In the first half of 2021, CoinSwitch Kuber raised $15M in its Series A funding round and $25M in its Series B funding round. In the same year, the company raised $260M in its Series C funding round, making it the country’s highest-valued crypto unicorn.

In 2022, the company has launched Recurring Buy Plan (RBP), a systematic way to buy crypto assets in India. This initiative will allow traders to buy a small amount of cryptocurrency every day and in the long run, help them beat market volatility and refrain from making impulsive buying or selling decisions. 

From archive.org 

Additional Learnings

What sets CoinSwitch Kuber apart from its competitors is the platform’s simplicity. It targets new retail traders who have never seen features like order books and buy or sell orders. The platform’s 75% user base is aged between 18 to 35 and consists of first-time crypto investors. The easy-to-use app and low minimum trade limit, combined with no service, deposit, or withdrawal fees make it the perfect platform for newbies who are just starting out in the crypto trading scene. The company has positioned itself as the go-to crypto trading app for beginners and that’s how it has managed to capture a market share of 60% in the industry.

Market Snapshot

According to Facts and Factors market research study, the worth of global cryptocurrency market was $800M in 2020 and it is expected to increase to $5200M in 2028 at a CAGR of 29.5% from 2021 to 2028.

According to reports, currently India has the highest number of crypto traders globally. At present the number of crypto owners is at 107 million while the investment by Indians in cryptocurrency is expected to reach $241M by 2030.

Suggested Next Reads

• Startup Fridays Episode 2: In Conversation With Ashish Singhal, Co-founder And CEO Of CoinSwitch (Harichandan Arakali, Forbes India)

• a16z backs CoinSwitch Kuber in first India investment (Manish Singh, Ted Crunch, Oct ‘21)

• Why Tiger Global bet on crypto firm CoinSwitch (V. Keshavdev, Fortune India, Aug ‘21)

• CoinSwitch Vs WazirX Vs CoinDCX: Who Is Winning The Crypto Battle In India? (Vaishnavi Dayalani, Inc 42, July ‘21)

• This startup is making cryptocurrency investing as easy as ordering food (Rashi Varshney, Your Story, Oct ‘20)

• CoinSwitch Kuber partners with ETMarkets to improve cryptocurrency literacy in India (The Times of India, Aug ‘18)

• Inside CoinSwitch Kuber's journey: How 3 engineers built India's largest crypto exchange (Rishabh Mansur, The Encrypting Story, Dec ‘17)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2010, Karnataka-headquartered Ola is India’s leading mobility platform and ride-hailing company. It makes availing of cab services easier by connecting commuters with drivers via a mobile application. The platform provides on-demand cabs to customers at reasonable prices in more than 250 cities in India.

In 2015, Ola entered the unicorn club after raising over $900M from various investors in Series E and Series F funding rounds. The company’s latest funding was in December 2021 where it raised $139M in its Series J funding round led by Edelweiss, bringing its total valuation to $7.3B.

Ola is backed by notable investors like Softbank, Tiger Global, Tencent, Matrix Partners, DST, Temasek and Warburg Pincus Temasek. It is planning to go public in 2022 and hoping to raise $1B from the IPO.

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

The primary services of the company include:

Ola Drive: Car-rental service with insurance cover and roadside insurance. 

Ola Select: Membership-based service that allows customers to book rides without peak pricing and the ability to skip the booking queue with free in-car wifi among other benefits. 

Ola Fleet: Ride Hailing services available for intercity and intracity rides with the following choices:

• Auto

• Bike

• Share

• Micro

• Mini

• Prime Sedan

• Prime Play

• Prime SUV

• LUX

• E-Rick

• Kaali Peeli

The company operates across India, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. 

How It Works

Ola is a ridesharing company that provides cab booking services by connecting partners (drivers) with passengers via their mobile application. 

The company does not own any of the cabs listed on its platform and only drivers with valid permits that are authorized and verified by transport authorities are allowed to sign up with Ola. To get listed on the platform, they have to go through a thorough inspection for authenticity. This includes due diligence of both the operator’s and driver’s commercial and personal papers. These drivers are either self-employed or work for an operator who owns multiple cars. 

Drivers are referred to as partners at Ola, and upon registering with the company, they get access to a driver-specific mobile app. These partners have the option to log in to the app at their own time and decide whether to accept or decline request rides from customers. 

As for customers using Ola, upon opening the app, their location is detected via portable GPS and the app then displays all the cabs available nearby such as Ola Share, Sedan, Mini, and Prime. Customers then select a cab according to their budget, as each cab’s price differs depending on characteristics like size, and luxury. After selecting a cab of their choice, they then have to enter a drop location and wait for the driver to accept their request. If the request is accepted, a confirmation along with the driver’s details is sent to the customer so they can coordinate together. After being dropped to their destination, the customer pays the driver through multiple payment methods available: cash, Ola money, Ola credit, debit/credit card, UPI payments, and more. 

Along with easy payment options, the company also provides in-car entertainment with Ola Play – the world's most advanced connected car platform. Customers can listen to their favorite music, watch films or TV shows from the comfort of their Ola cab backseat. Moreover, if a customer is simply looking to rent a car then they can use Ola Drive, a self-driving service that rents cars to customers for anywhere between 2 hours and 3 months. Customers can drive to any part of the country without any worry since Ola not only covers the insurance of the vehicle but also provides roadside assistance for a hassle-free journey.

There also exists Ola Corporate for employees to make their work trips easier. Through this feature, employees can pay for their rides from their company’s pre-paid account, hence eradicating the need for travel reimbursements. Customers can also use Ola Select, a subscription-based membership program for premium benefits like free wifi, access to discounts and Ola events, priority booking, and no peak pricing.

In case of emergencies, Ola provides features like an emergency alert button and a live ride tracking option so that the customer’s family and friends can keep track of their travel route. 

Business Model & Pricing

Initially, Ola’s business model was that of a taxi rental fleet business where it owned a fleet of cabs and customers had to call the company’s call center to book cabs. However, in 2015, the company decided to go digital by changing its business model to an app-based cab aggregation service. Now its two-sided network model connects customers seeking on-demand transportation with partners (drivers) listed on the platform via a mobile app. 

Ola’s prime source of revenue is the 20% commission it charges on trips that are carried out through its platform. Trip fares on Ola are based on several factors such as distance, ride time, wait time, peak pricing, service tax, parking fees, convenience fee, advanced booking fees, cancellation fee, etc. The company also earns money from in-cab promotions and advertisements, cab-leasing programs, corporate accounts, delivery services, Ola Select and Ola Play. 

Traction

Ola is India’s largest ride-hailing service and has been a dominant player in the industry ever since its inception. The company reported its first operating profit of $13M in 2021, however, that year its revenue declined 65% to $92M due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown that caused restrictions on travel and mobility. Moreover, Ola’s GMV is on the road to recovery as it crossed pre-pandemic levels in August 2021. The company also noticed a significant hike in customers with 10 million people trying their app for the first time in 2021 during the pandemic as more people moved towards private transportation in a bid to be safe from the virus. 

According to their website, Ola:

• Serves over 1 billion rides every year

• Onboarded 1.5 million driver-partners on their platform

• Operates in 250 cities

• Has a team of over 7,000 employees

Founder(s) & Team

Bhavish Aggarwal: Co-Founder and CEO at Ola. Bhavish, an IITian, previously worked as Assistant Researcher at Microsoft Research India where he filed two patents and published 3 papers in international academic journals. He was also featured in Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2018 list. 

Ankit Bhati: Co-Founder and CTO at Ola. Ankit, a fellow IITian leads product, engineering, and data sciences to ensure a seamless experience for both partners and riders. He has also co-founded Amnic, a SaaS startup that will be operating in the DevOps toolchain space.

History & Evolution

• In 2010, Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhatti after discovering a major gap in the cab industry. Initially, it entered the market as a taxi rental fleet business that would acquire a group of cars and hire drivers. To book a cab, customers had to call Ola’s call center and the cab would arrive at their destination at their desired time. 

• In 2015, Ola entered the online industry by moving its entire business into an app-based aggregation. It also changed its business model from purchasing cars to working as a mediator between customers and cab drivers via a mobile application. That year Ola acquired TaxiForSure, their rival in the taxi aggregator space and Geotagg, a trip planning app company. It also launched Ola Select, a subscription-based membership program that provides premium benefits to its customers. 

• In 2016, it acquired Qarth, a mobile payment startup; and launched its 2 wheeler motorcycle taxi service in Bangalore. That year it also launched Ola Play, an immersive in-car entertainment system for a connected in-car experience; and Ola Corporate for corporate travelers. 

• In 2017, Ola acquired Foodpanda, an online food delivery startup.

• In 2018, Ola expanded its operations globally to Australia and New Zealand; and acquired Ridlr – a public transport ticketing and commuting app. That year the company also expanded to the UK by introducing auto rickshaws. Ahead of its launch, more than 10,000 drivers applied both in online and offline mode. 

• In 2019, Ola acquired Pikup.ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) startup; and launched a self-drive car rental service called Ola Drive. 

• In 2021, Ola launched a 10-minute grocery delivery service in Mumbai and Bangalore by setting up around 15 dark stores. 

• The company has also acquired GeoSpoc, a geospatial services provider to build next-gen location technology; and adopted Siemens’ Digital Enterprise to build India’s most advanced manufacturing facility. 

From archive.org 

Additional Learnings

Ola stands out from its competitors because of its business model which is customized to cater specifically to Indian consumers. For starters, the company provides small hatchbacks for an attractive price which not only resonates with a huge chunk of Indian commuters but also attracts a lot of drivers on the platform. This shows that hatchbacks are preferred by a large portion of the Indian market. Moreover, the easy payment options available help them create value for a larger customer base as most Indian commuters do not feel comfortable sharing their credit card details. 

The company is often in the headlines for the wrong reasons, for instance in 2016, a privacy breach caused uproar in the media as customer details like names, phone numbers, and addresses were leaked to an individual in Chennai. Despite receiving complaints about these messages, OLA resolved this issue after 3 weeks, and that too due to media pressure. In 2015, the company’s driver-partners were under scrutiny when the Delhi Transport Authority questioned their credibility and inquiry revealed that 80% of the drivers did not have a permit to ply commercial transport services in Delhi. 

Market Snapshot

• In 2017, the global ride-hailing service market was valued at $36.4B and is expected to reach $126.5B by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 16.5% from 2018 to 2025. 

• According to data from Frost & Sullivan, India’s new mobility market is expected to hit $90B by 2030 whereas revenue from the ride hailing sector is estimated to reach $43.3B by 2025. 

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• Failed a few times, but learnt from them, still took risks (Prerna Lidhoo, Fortune India, October 11, 2021)

• Ola’s cabs business recovers to pre-pandemic levels ahead of IPO (Economic Times India, September 7, 2021)

• From tech to manufacturing, Ola’s brave move (M Chandra Shekar, The Hindu Business Line, August 18, 2021)

• How a Cab Ride for a Weekend Trip Prompted Bhavish Aggarwal to Start Ola Cabs (Sophia Graham, News 18, July 24, 2021)

• How Ola is hunkering down to ride out the storm (Live Mint, June 10, 2020)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2013, Haryana-headquartered OYO is a global virtual hospitality platform. It provides full-stack technology to entrepreneurs and businesses who own hotels and homes to ease their operations and increase earnings. It provides a standardized and trusted experience to customers by running a managed marketplace of properties under its own brand. The company claims to be the third-largest hospitality chain in the world.

In 2018, OYO entered the unicorn club after raising $1B in a funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank group. Its latest funding was in August 2021, where it received $5M from Microsoft, bringing its total valuation to $9.6B. The startup has filed for an IPO in the $9B range and is all set to explore the public markets.

The company is backed by notable investors like SoftBank Group, Didi Chuxing, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise, Airbnb, Microsoft and China Lodging Group.

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

• OYO Hotel Rooms: Provides affordable hotel stays at prime locations. 

• OYO Townhouse: A friendly neighborhood hotel for millennials that operates as a hotel, community hotspot, cafe, and merchandise store. 

• OYO Home: Private homes that offer high-quality amenities, service and surroundings that are managed by OYO. 

• OYO Vacation Homes: A leading vacation rental company.

• Capital OYO: Premium hotels for business travelers to target more corporate accounts.

• OYO Life: Provides fully furnished, managed, long-term accommodations at affordable rates to millennials and young professionals. 

• OYO Flagship: The company leases whole buildings/apartments to provide a homely atmosphere to clients. 

• OYO Wizard: A membership model where members can avail exclusive discounts, offers, deals, and cashback advantages

• SilverKey: Provides executive furnished accommodation to corporate travelers on business trips for a short or long duration. 

• Palette: An upper-end leisure resort for customers looking for an intuitive experience at affordable prices. 

• Collection O: Provides accommodation tailored to the needs of discerning business travelers. 

The company operates across 35 countries and 391 cities in India.

How It Works

OYO is an interface for users to search for and book hotels that are part of its network. It does not own any of the lodgings that the users book through its application.

The company renovates hotels listed on its platform according to its checklist of standard services and makes the property part of its ‘standardized budget hotel chain’ with OYO’s branding. The rooms are paid for once they have been booked. Besides the standard rooms, OYO also offers special options such as townhouses under different headers for business trips or other events.

The app, besides showing a list of available rooms in any given area, also serves as a tour guide by showing names of nearby recreation and food joints. Users can also book spots at these places like they do with their OYO rooms. While normally the app is free, users can also avail a subscription model called OYO wizard which comes with exclusive discounts, cashback offers, and deals not available on the free version of the app.

Business Model & Pricing

Initially, OYO had an aggregator business model where it used to partner with property owners to lease a part of their inventory of lodgings at negotiated prices under the company’s branding. The difference between the price negotiated with the hotel owners and the price, at which the rooms were sold to the customer, represented their revenue.

Now OYO has a franchise business model where it does not lease hotel rooms anymore, and instead, it manages the complete hotel property on behalf of the owners. The company now sells the whole inventory of hotels under its own branding which benefits hotels listed on the platform as it gives them more traction and helps them acquire more business. 

OYO’s primary source of income is the 22% commission it charges hotel partners. However, it also has other sources of revenue, like the sale of accommodation services, advertising fees, membership fees, sale of tours, packages, and events, cancellation income, and consulting fees. The company also earns rental income from the lease of office space, sale of food and beverages, and subscription income from customers on its platform. 

Traction

OYO has been growing consistently ever since its launch in 2013. In a short span of time, the company has managed to become the world’s 3rd largest and fastest-growing chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes & living spaces. In 2021, the company reported revenue of $850M which was a significant decrease from 2020’s revenue of $1.8B due to covid-induced lockdown. 

However, 2020 was a particularly great year for the company mainly due to its aggressive expansion strategy, where within a year it globally expanded its footprints in markets such as China, Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. As a result, OYO’s storefronts and hotels grew 7.3x from 21,616 in 2019 to 158,176 in 2021 and its gross booking value grew 170% as well. The company now claims to be EBITDA positive.

Founder(s) & Team

Ritesh Agarwal: CEO and Co-Founder at Oyo. Ritesh, an Indian billionaire entrepreneur previously served as a Fellow at the Thiel Foundation, a two-year program for young people who want to build new things. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the Business World Young Entrepreneur Award.

History & Evolution

• In 2012, Oravel Stays was founded by Ritesh Agarwal to enable the listing and booking of short-stay budget accommodations. The venture was built on the lines of Airbnb, an on-demand vacation rental app. 

• In 2013, Oravel Stay pivoted to OYO and launched in Gurgaon. 

• In 2015, the company launched its app and expanded to Malaysia. 

• In 2017, OYO launched OYO Townhouse, a mid-market brand at handpicked locations for tasteful travelers. 

• In 2018, the company expanded to the UK, China and Indonesia. 

• The company launched OYO OS, a hotel management solution; OYO Life for long stay rental service; and OYO Wizard, a customer loyalty program. 

• That year it also acquired Chennai-based service apartment operator, Novascotia Boutique Homes; and Weddingz.in, a Mumbai-based online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors. 

• In 2019, the company expanded to the US, Europe, and the Middle East. 

• It also launched OYO Lite, a lighter version of the consumer app; Yo! Chat, a real-time customer care assistant; and OYO Workplaces, a flexible friendly coworking space. 

• That year OYO acquired Leisure Group, one of the largest players in the European online market for accommodation rental; Innov8, a co-working space in New Delhi; and Danamica, a European data science company.

• It also announced a strategic partnership with AirBnB where OYO would list their properties in the Airbnb platform and a strategic global distribution partnership with Hotelbeds.

• That same year the company launched the OPEN program, an initiative for its partner hotels to help them attain their business goals; and also set up 26 training institutes for hospitality enthusiasts across India.

• In 2020, it launched Sanitised Stays, a safety protocol for its hotels and homes; and Discover OYO, a low-cost new user acquisition engine.

• In 2021, the company launched Ota Powerplay, a revenue-generating product that boosts the property's OTA ranks and increases conversion rate; Vaccinaid, a vaccine visibility initiative that shows the vaccine status of staff of its partner hotels; and OYO360, a self onboarding platform.

• It also collaborated with Yatra, Airbnb and EaseMyTrip to form the Confederation of Hospitality, Technology, and Tourism Industry (CHATT) – an industry body for the tourism sector of India.

From archive.org

Additional Learnings

OYO’s competitive edge is its standardized hospitality services. The company has always focused on user experience rather than the availability of hotel rooms and prices. This is why OYO renovates all hotels listed on its platform so that they meet their standard services checklist and customers all around the globe have the same quality experience. 

Market Snapshot

• The global hospitality industry is supposed to be worth $1.1Tr in 2022

• India’s hospitality industry is estimated to account for 53 million jobs in the country by 2029, with earnings to reach around $50.9B in visitor exports. 

• In 2021, the hospitality industry accounted for 7.5% of the GDP in India. 

Next Suggested Reads

• The great promise and dangers of being OYO (Divya Guha, Fortune India, October 13, 2021)

• A Budget Hotel Chain That You've Never Heard Of Is Exploding In The United States (Suzanne Rowan Kelleher, Forbes, October 24, 2019)

• How OYO Rooms redefines living spaces with technology (Ritesh Gupta, Phocus Wire, July 2, 2018)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2015, Haryana-headquartered Ofbusiness is a platform that facilitates raw material procurement and credit for SMEs in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors. The platform brings in institutional credit, both secured and unsecured to SMEs at low cost and aggregates raw material sourcing, and passes on most of the aggregation benefits like volume discounts from manufacturers to the SMEs.

In 2021, Ofbusiness entered the unicorn club after raising $160M in a funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund-II. The company’s latest funding round was in December 2021 when it raised $325M in a Series G financing round bringing its total valuation to $5B. 

The company is backed by notable investors like Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, SoftBank Group, Matrix Partners, Falcon Edge Capital, Creation Investments and Zodius. It currently offers 100+ raw material product categories to over 700,000 registered SMEs and is serving more than 3000 SMEs by providing them with tailor-made financing solutions. 

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

OfBusiness offers raw materials in the following categories: 

• Steel

• TMT Bars

• Cement

• Agriculture

• Non-ferrous

• Polymers

• Textile

• Chemicals

• Solar panel

• Petroleum 

• Leather

• Paper

The company’s Oxyzo platform provides secured and unsecured credit up to $20M to SMEs belonging to manufacturing and infrastructure sectors that have an annual turnover of over $3M. It also has a government and private contracts portal called BidAssist, which makes searching for tenders simpler. 

The company serves over 24 states in India, including cities like Gurugram, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Indore, Tiruchirapalli, Vapi and is rapidly expanding to other states.  

How It Works

Ofbusiness provides institutional credit (secured and unsecured) to SMEs by aggregating several raw materials, getting them financed by local distributors and financiers, and then passing the majority of the aggregation benefits, such as volume discounts from manufacturers, to the SME.

This process is called Purchase Financing and the company lets SMEs attain credit lines for a variety of raw materials such as industrial steel, electrical goods, cement, bulk polymers, chemicals, building materials, solar installations, and more. However, Ofbusiness has a selective lending approach thus it only lends to SMEs in manufacturing and infrastructure services. Based on their contracts, SMEs have repayment cycles that extend up to six months.

After a purchase financing limit has been sanctioned from the company, the SME places inquiries within the limit and uses it for purchasing raw materials from the platform. Ofbusiness then aggregates the selected raw materials that SMEs across clusters order directly to the manufacturer, generating channel efficiencies. Fulfillment of raw materials is done by using a bidding engine that helps buyers and suppliers get discovery and commercial benefits.

The company also leads acquisition online by capturing SMEs as they bid and win tenders (aided by Ofbusiness), which makes the marketing effort efficient in both cost and quality.

Underwriting of loans is done by not only evaluating the financial data of the SME, which at times is inadequate but also by several other alternate data sources of SME operations. These are contributed by the SME community of buyers and sellers.

Business Model & Pricing

Ofbusiness has a B2B business model which combines the power of commerce and finance to be both a raw material aggregator and procurement finance provider to its customers. While local lenders and traders offer loans at a cost of 24-48%, Ofbusiness offers loans up to $20M at 15-18%, making it an attractive option for SMEs.

The company’s major chunk of revenue of around 55% is generated through the sale of raw material, whereas 43% comes through lending and the remaining 2% by its SaaS offerings. However, when it comes to profits, lending is its biggest contributor followed by commerce. It makes margins between 5-10% on sales currently but aims to increase it to 20% by acquiring companies thus gaining more control over the supply chain.

Traction

Ofbusiness has been profitable since its inception. In 2021, the company witnessed a 72% jump in profit to $7M and a 2x growth in revenue from operations to $234M from $114M in the previous fiscal year. Currently, the company has reported an annual revenue run rate of $1.4B. It entered the unicorn club in 2021 after raising $160M in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund-II. After its latest $325M funding round, the company is now valued at $5B. The company reported having over 700,000 registered SMEs on its platform, with their app downloaded more than 5000 times.

The company was reported to be doing over $120 Million in GMV as of December 2021.

Founder(s) & Team

Vasant Sridhar: CSO and Co-Founder at Ofbusiness. A graduate of IIT Madras, with a Bachelor’s Degree in IT Engineering, previously founded Bloodline, a mobile and web-based platform for patients, potential donors, and healthcare facilities.

Nitin Jain: Co-Founder at Ofbusiness. A graduate of IIT Delhi, with an M-Tech degree in Computer Science, he worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland before founding O’AgriFarm, an Agri financing and fulfillment platform where he’s currently the CEO. 

Asish Mohapatra: CEO and Co-Founder at Ofbusiness. A graduate of the Indian School of Business, with an MBA he founded Oyxzo Financial Services, a platform that offers credit solutions to SMEs. 

Bhuvan Gupta: A graduate of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, with a B.E degree, he was V.P Engineering for SnapDeal before co-founding Oyzco Financial Services with Ashish Mohaparta. 

Ruchi Kalra: A graduate of the Indian School of Business with an MBA degree, she was a partner at McKinsey before co-founding Oyzco Financial Services with Bhuvan and Ashish.

History & Evolution

In 2015, Asish Mohapatra, Vasant Sridhar, Ruchi Kalra, Bhuvan Gupta, and Nitin Jain were looking to start a venture together that would solve India’s B2B problems. Even though B2C was experiencing a big wave at the time, they realized the way the B2B ecosystem was operating, there was no innovation, technology adoption, or efficiency in the ecosystem. This was a market gap they could benefit from. Hence, Ofbusiness was founded – a large B2B platform catering to small and medium enterprises across sectors like manufacturing and infrastructure. 

In 2016, Ofbusiness got NBFC status and started providing loans to its customers by collaborating with other NBFCs. It also planned to set up a nonbanking finance company subsidiary that would map customer data, specific products for SMEs and lend to them. By that year it had served over 700 customers with a repeat rate of over 60%. It operated in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, National Capital Region, Maharashtra, and Odisha with plans to expand to five more states, taking its presence to 30 clusters. 

In 2017, Ofbusiness launched Bidassist.com, an SME business opportunity platform that aggregates new opportunities to enable discovery as well as makes recommendations for the SMEs based on their profile. Right after its launch, the platform was aggregating over 3,500 government tenders daily from across the country. That year it also received an NBFC license and launched OXYZO Financial Services to provide credit to its SME customers. The company also became part of The Smart CEO-Startup50 List for India. 

In 2018, Ofbusiness stated that it had close to more than $14M in AUM and sports disbursals of over $14M. It also expanded to 13 states across India and was rapidly growing. In 2020, Ofbusiness’ credit rating was upgraded from BBB to BBB+ by ICRA and CARE. The company was also listed in Top Fintech Startups by Soonicorn Club, ranked 17th in Asia Pacific High Growth Companies list, and 5th in India’s Growth Champions list. 

In 2021, Ofbusiness joined the unicorn club after raising $150M in a funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund-II. The company was also recognized as one of India’s Growth Champions and its credit rating was upgraded from BBB+ to A by CRISIL Limited. It is now preparing for an IPO in the next two years and is in talks to raise a new round of funding at a valuation of over $4.5 billion. The startup is currently valued at $5B.

From archive.org

Additional Learnings

Ofbusiness has combined financing and fulfillment – two very different operating models through technology. This is the company’s competitive advantage. The multipurpose it serves to customers makes it stand out from the rest of its competitors. So does its strategy of selective lending, where the company only lends to SMEs belonging to the manufacturing and infrastructure industry that have an annual turnover of over $3M.

The company is planning to file papers for an IPO by 2022 and is eyeing a domestic listing. According to co-founder and CEO Asish Mohapatra, Ofbusiness will be appointing investment bankers by March-June 2022.  

Ofbusiness’s SaaS offering for marketing, Bidassist has become India’s largest and most engaged scale platform for SMBs interested in revenue opportunities in the public sector domain. In such a short span of time, it has grown to 2.7 million unique users. 

Market Snapshot

• Indian financial services were estimated to be worth around $500B in 2021 with the fintech market being valued at around $31B. 

• India also has the highest fintech adoption rate globally at 87% while the average rate stands at 64%.

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• India's OfBusiness in talks to raise new funds at over $4.5 billion valuation (Manish Singh, TedCrunch, October 22, 2021)

• OfBusiness was the only woman led startup that entered the unicorn club this year (Kritti Bhalla, Business Insider India, September 27, 2021)

• Can OfBusiness help SMB's get Supply Smarter? (A Junior VC, September 19, 2021)

• OfBusiness On The Turning Point That Paved The Way To Become Unicorn (S Shanti, Entrepreneur Europe, August 25, 2021)

• From Incredulous To Incredible: How OfBusiness Turned Into A Profitable Unicorn (Rajiv Singh, Forbes India, August 3, 2021)

• Press and News (ETPrime, August 22, 2019

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2015, Karnataka-headquartered Blackbuck is India’s leading online trucking platform that digitizes freight and logistics. It connects businesses and shippers with truck owners and freight operators to facilitate inter-city goods transportation like agricultural goods (rice and wheat), coal, oil, metals, chemicals, and FMCG products. 

In 2021, BlackBuck became the first logistic firm to enter the unicorn club after raising $67M of equity financing in a Series E funding round led by Tribe Capital, IFC Emerging Asia Fund, and VEF. 

The company serves leading brands like Amul, Asian Paints, Cocacola, Colgate Palmolive, Hindustan Zinc, ITC Limited, Reliance, Tata Steel, United Breweries Limited, and Unilever. It is backed by notable investors like Accel Partners, Apoletto Asia, B Capital, Flipkart, Goldman Sachs, IFC, Light Street, Sands Capital, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, Tribe Capital, VEF, and Wellington. 

About BlackBuck: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

BlackBuck offers products and services for Shippers and Fleet operators. It currently operates out of 300+ locations. 

For shippers it provides:

• Competitive Pricing

• Pan India Service

• Tracking solutions

• End-to-end Freight Management

For Freight Operators it provides:

• Daily Loads across India

• Fast Payment Settlements

• Ease of Operations

• Quick Issue Resolution

• Facilities for Drivers

• Assured Savings

How It Works

Blackbuck is a digital marketplace for trucking logistics that helps shippers connect with the right freight operators depending on their location, sources, materials to be shipped, and other details. 

It has digitized the logistic industry in two ways. First, it operates as a marketplace that connects organizations that need to move goods across India with truckers looking for deliveries or maximizing their loads with additional capacity. Second, it is asset-light, which means it does not own any trucks on the platform, which is why it offers technology to help track trucks during the transportation process. 

The platform provides shippers with a holistic shipping management solution by offering price transparency, granular shipment tracking, and guarantees that mitigate risk. Shippers also get to choose between two shipping services, contract-based or on-demand, that incentivize them to use the platform. 

Fleet operators get to book loads for their fleets with ease and transparent pricing. They also register their trucks with the platform which ensures higher truck utilization resulting in higher earnings. Services such as FASTag, an electronic toll collection system, GPS devices, truck mapping, insurance, and efficient route planning are also provided to ensure smooth transport. 

The platform also has a feature called ‘dashcam’, which continuously monitors the truck driver by capturing their image. This is further relayed to the command center that deciphers the implications of those images. The algorithm detects if the driver’s behavior does not meet standards, for example, if they are drowsy, looking at their phone, accelerating too fast, driving rashly, or taking sharp turns. In which case, the driver is immediately alerted to be attentive. If there is no change in behavior despite the warning, the fleet owner is notified to take charge of the situation.

Financial transactions on the platform are seamless and easy as clients and fleet operators can send and receive money through the app. Features like early payments, financial aids, and fuel cards incentivize truck drivers to choose Blackbuck over other platforms. 

Business Model & Pricing

BlackBuck has a B2B2C business model that digitizes the freight and logistics industry in India and caters to both shippers and fleet operators. For fleet operators, the platform offers a simple, easy-to-use app to help them accept work and navigate their destination using Google Maps. On the other hand, shippers use the app to place orders and manage their shipments by tracking them online.

The company earns revenue by charging both shippers and freight operators a commission of 15% to 20% depending on the freight value. 

Traction

When Blackbuck was founded in 2015, only 40% of truck owners and 7% of truck drivers had smartphones, however by 2019, 100% of truck owners and 70% of truck drivers got access to smartphones which is what majorly contributed to the growth of Blackbuck. The company has benefited greatly from the digital revolution in India, with digital tolls and GPS becoming mandatory, making Blackbuck’s offerings more relevant and important than ever.

In 2020, BlackBuck reported a 27% increase in revenue from $240M in 2019 to $304M  In 2021, Blackbuck entered the unicorn club after raising $65M of equity financing in a Series E funding round led by Tribe Capital, IFC Emerging Asia Fund and VEF. The company has served over 15,000 clients to date and has a network of 700,000 truckers operating 1.2 million trucks in 2000+ locations. It records more than 15 million transactions every month.

Founder(s)

Rajesh Yabaji: Co-Founder and CEO at BlackBuck. Rajesh, an IITian, always had a keen interest in operations why is why before starting his career, he did multiple internships in that field. Post his internship at Schindler India Pvt Ltd, Rajesh started working at ITC as the Business Manager to further hone his skills in the operations area, and finally, after 4 years, started his own company, BlackBuck along with his co-founders. 

Ramasubramanian B: Co-founder of BlackBuck. Ramasubramanian, an MBA graduate from IILM Business has experience of over 20 years in the supply chain across geographies and industry sectors. Prior to co-founding BlackBuck, he was working as the Managing Director at Miebach Consulting, a consulting platform that offers logistics and supply chain consulting to large and medium-sized companies.

Chanakya Hridaya: Co-founder of BlackBuck. Chanakya, an IIT graduate initially interned at ITC Limited and then 2 years later, started working there as Assistant Manager. Before co-founding BlackBuck, he also served as a Visting Researcher at the University of Strathclyde. 

History & Evolution

• In 2015, Yabaji came up with the idea of BlackBuck after joining a supply chain project, which made him realize how appropriate use of technology had the power to evolve the supply chain system. He started working on various solutions that could revolutionize the logistic industry. During this time, he met Subramaniam who had more than 17 years of expertise, and Chanakya Hridaya who was an intern at IIT Kharagpur. 

• Together they launched BlackBuck, formerly known as Zinka Logistics Solutions Private Limited. The Supply app allowed companies to request trucks according to their requirements and timings. Moreover, the machine learning algorithm enabled them to make accurate matches between shippers and truckers. Initially, the company started with 10,000 trucks available for booking.  

• In 2016, BlackBuck launched the Demand app which helped small and medium enterprises in finding trucks. It also signed an MOU with Indian Oil Corporation to generate value for fleet operators and transporters by tying up fuel businesses of vehicles on the platform through Indian Oil’s Xtrapower Fleet Card Program. 

• In 2017, BlackBuck launched ‘Fleet Management Services’ to enable efficient fleet management for truck owners. It also rewarded employees with an ESOP repurchase plan and the buyback provided 11x returns within the one-year time window, for people who exercised this option.  That year the company also witnessed 7x growth in revenues and reached operational break-even. 

• In 2018, BlackBuck launched the Driver app for truck drivers and received the ‘Start-up of the year’ award by CNBC TV18 and the ‘Company of the Year’ award by ZEE Business. It was also featured as a case study at Harvard.

• In 2019, BlackBuck partnered with Maersk, the world leader in integrated container logistics to provide an online marketplace for containerized trucking in EXIM logistics in India. It also partnered with IDFC Bank and YES Bank to offer free FASTags to truckers.

• That year the company went global, taking its vision to digitize the trucking ecosystem to new frontiers. Moreover, it also became India’s second most valued logistics startup with BlackBuck’s app having over 2 million downloads, continuing its dominant position as the largest trucking platform.

• In 2020, when the logistics industry had come to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, BlackBuck came up with an initiative called ‘Move India’ which aimed to kickstart the movement of trucks and goods across the country to revive the broken supply chain. Under this initiative, the commission charged to truckers was completely waived off to encourage them to resume operations. Keeping the risks of the pandemic in mind, several safety nets were also provided to them such as direct money transfers (DMTs) and trip insurance. 

• As a result, more than 500,000 fleet owners, with over 10 million trucks, were allowed to discover demand, get access to services including FASTag, GPS, and Fuel Cards, and earn more. 

From archive.org 

Additional Learnings

• The coronavirus pandemic affected the logistics sector greatly as a restriction on transport and movement resulted in the majority of the industry being on a standstill. To deal with this issue, Blackbuck is planning to foray into financial services with an aim to help its trucking partners with insurance and working capital needs. This will help the company not only double its expansion but also increase its presence in the trucking community. 

• The company is planning to take over the global market, last year in 2020 it entered Europe by opening an office in Poland. Now it’s running pilots for its trucking management solutions to disrupt the European logistics market. 

Market Snapshot 

• In 2021, according to research reports, the estimated size of the Indian logistics market was $215 billion. Meanwhile, the industry was growing at a CAGR of 10.5%.

• According to the “Intercity Logistics Market Study” released by RedCore, the road market logistics in India is estimated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 8% in the next 5 years and is expected to reach $330 billion by 2025.  

• The truck population in India is growing rapidly at a rate of 15% every year, bringing the current number to over 2,000 trucks per million population.

Suggested Readings

• Loaded, And Reloaded: How BlackBuck Turned Into A Trucking Unicorn (Rajiv Singh, Forbes, July 29, 2021)

• The upside and downside of the Maersk-BlackBuck truck aggregation deal (P Manjo, The Hindu Business Online, August 19, 2019) 

• Blackbuck- The Rich Trucker (Suraj Iyyengar, IIT Tech Ambit, November 1, 2018)

• Blackbuck brings Uber-like efficiency to India's truck owners (Meghna Rao, Tech in Asia, March 4, 2016)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2013, Gurgaon-headquartered Blinkit is an online grocery delivery platform that has 21 categories and over 120,000 products. It provides 10 minutes express delivery to its customers and offers products at a discounted rate making it cheaper than other online stores. 

Blinkit operates in 12 cities currently but aims to expand to 100 cities by the end of March 2022.  The company has a number of key partnerships with notable brands like Opinio, Grab a Grub Services, Happy, Yes Bank, and more. It has raised funding from major investors like Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Capital, SoftBank Vision Fund, Grofers International, Abu Dhabi Capital Group, BCCL, Tiger Global Management, Yuri Milner, KTB Ventures, Tiger Global, and Sequoia Capital India. 

In 2021, the company became India’s 24th unicorn after receiving an investment of $120M from Zomato as well as existing investor Tiger Global Management bringing its total valuation to over $1B. The company’s last funding round was in September 2021 where it raised $16.7M from its existing investor KTB Ventures in a Series G funding round.

About Blinkit: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Blinkit operates as an online grocery shopping platform with super-fast delivery services and the lowest rates on groceries. It currently has 21 categories:

It also has its own 8 in-house brands: Blinkit Happy Day, Blinkit Happy Home, Blinkit Mothers choice, Blinkit Happy Baby, G Fresh, O’range, One number, and budget brands like Savemore. 

The company previously used to operate in more than 40 cities in India but has temporarily halted operations in cities where their instant delivery system isn’t available. Currently, Blinkit is running successfully in 12 cities.

How It Works

Blinkit has dark stores where it stores products procured from various brands and local businesses. These dark stores store approximately 3,000-4,000 stock-keeping units. This way the company delivers at a more consistent rate by being in charge of the entire delivery process from procurement to storage. The products purchased from regional brands as well as local manufacturers go into the inventory for further action. The company has also introduced private label brands, partly taking over the production step in their supply chain. 

Blinkit has QR Code tracking for their products to monitor every aspect from the number of items to their expiration date. To place an order, the customer can either use the Android or IOS app or opt for the company’s website. Once the order is placed, employees in the dark stores locate, check, pack and prepare items for delivery. The delivery executive then picks it up from the dark store and follows the direction on their smart device to then deliver the order to the customer.  

Blinkit’s partner stores are situated within 2 kilometers of the customers which makes express delivery easy. These stores are so densely located that 90% of the orders can be delivered within 10 minutes even if the drivers drive at 10km/hr. The packing process is also time-efficient because of in-store planning and management with the help of advanced technologies. This results in employees being able to pack orders within 3 minutes of receiving them.

Business Model & Pricing

In the beginning, Blinkit had a marketplace business model, which is also referred to as a hyper-local on-demand logistics system. The startup did not own any dark stores or warehouses so all the products came from local stores. It generated revenue from the commission it charged merchants and local stores for orders placed through the app. However, it suffered a massive loss due to this business model as local stores were unreliable and their quality was not up to standard. 

Hence, Blinkit switched to an inventory-based model in 2017, where all the products would be stored in warehouses owned by Blinkit so it could be in charge of the entire process from procurement, storage to delivery. Since the company started buying products in bulk, it was able to save money and offer products at cheaper prices to its users. It also invested in original labels which now account for 20% of their total revenue. The company is a quick commerce brand now and prides itself on delivering essentials within 10 minutes of ordering. 

The startup has multiple revenue streams from the sale of groceries to advertisements as well as commission. It charges commissions based on the price of orders. For instance, if the orders are below 700, it charges a commission of 8% to 15% and if the orders are below 1000 ($13.40), then 12% to 15%. It also charges a delivery fee starting from INR 49 ($0.66) for orders that are below INR 250 ($3.35).

Traction

In 2021, Blinkit’s GMV run rate was $600M with 4 million orders a month. In 2020, the company turned operationally profitable after experiencing a huge rise in sales during the coronavirus pandemic as people saw online shopping as the safer option during those uncertain times. As a result, Blinkit acquired 2.6 million new customers and saw a significant hike of 64% in first-time online grocery shoppers. It also saw a 78.52% growth in revenue from $172M in 2019 to $307M in 2020. Around 92.8% of revenue came from the sale of groceries, which amounted to $285M, while commission income and advertising revenue stood at $13M and $8M respectively. 

In December 2021, the company rebranded itself as a quick commerce brand and made an announcement about the closure of all its locations where 10 minutes delivery service isn’t available. Blinkit claimed that its 10-minute delivery service had already resulted in over a million orders a week and a 3 million monthly order run rate. Moreover, Blinkit also boasted about opening 200 dark stores in the last three months as well as gaining one million quick commerce users in a short span of time. 

The company offers express delivery to 12 cities and hopes to decrease the 10-minute delivery time in the future. It raised $120M in Series G funding round by Zomato and is now India’s 24th unicorn.  

The company was recognized as one of the top 10 startups in Delhi by YourStory.com. It also won the “Comeback Kid” award in ET Startup Awards and IndianWeb2 listed it amongst the top 10 promising Gurgaon-based startups. 

Founder(s)

Albinder Dhindsa: Founder and CEO of Blinkit. Albinder, an IITian started his career as a transportation analyst at URS Corporation. After working for a consultancy firm as a Senior Associate, he decided to quit his job and pursue masters in the USA. Once he returned to India, he joined Zomato as Head of International Operations and that job piqued his interest in the fast-growing potential of the startup industry. 

Saurabh Kumar: Founder and former COO of Blinkit. Saurabh, a fellow IITian, also worked at the same consultancy firm as Albinder. He then served as the Chief Operating Officer of Rasilant Technologies prior to co-founding Blinkit. After 8 years of building Blinkit however, Saurabh decided to call it quits and step down from his role as COO in 2021. Now he serves as a board member and shareholder of the company. 

History and Evolution

• In 2013, Kumar started Onenumber, a B2B provider of a supply chain platform. The aim was to help larger brands distribute consumables to smaller merchants, and for those smaller merchants, who are almost completely offline, to better keep track of their stock. However, after interacting with merchants, he realized the struggle they faced with delivery logistics. 

• In December 2013, Onenumber was rebranded as Grofers, a hyperlocal delivery service focused on pharmacies and Kirana shops, while Albiner Dhindsa hopped on board as the co-founder. 

• In 2014, the company started delivering grocery and FMCG goods for businesses in Gurugram with four delivery boys. It started gaining traction quickly because of its 90-minute delivery service which gave it an edge over its competitors. That year the company launched its first mobile application. 

• In 2015, Grofers grew to 200 on-field delivery people and 40+ employees in tech, operations, and marketing units. 

• In 2016, the startup suffered a loss of $30M after spending a huge amount on rapid expansion activity and customer acquisitions. The high cash burn led to Grofers’ closing its operations in nine cities citing that business was not viable. It also laid off about 100 employees as part of a massive restructuring.

• In 2017, Grofers changed its business model to an inventory-based model. As a result, it grew 4x from last year. The company ended the year at a revenue annual run rate of $134M and saw a significant hike in sales.

• In 2018, the company grew at a monthly rate of 15% across the cities. That year Grofers also started a subscription-based service, Smart Bachat Club, and entered the packaged milk category with a new brand, G-Fresh.

• In 2019, Grofers expanded its operations to 27 cities as part of its expansion plan and witnessed a 56% hike in its revenue growth. 

• In 2020, during the pandemic, Grofers saw a two-fold growth in sales and the value of orders. There was a 75% growth in business, a 45% growth in the number of orders, and an 18% growth in order value. It also switched to 24-hours service to cater to the growing needs of consumers during the pandemic. The company finally achieved profitability at the end of the year as well. 

• In 2021, Grofers introduced express delivery in 12 cities by claiming to deliver orders within 10 minutes. It received a lot of criticism from consumers for putting its drivers at risk with this new strategy. The company also expanded into new categories like apparel, home decor, books, toys, and more. Moreover, Grofers’ co-founder Kumar decided to exit the company to start his own venture. 

• By the end of 2021, Grofers rebranded itself as Blinkit to reflect its pivot from scheduled grocery deliveries to a quick commerce brand. The company now focuses on delivering everyday essentials within 10 minutes in several cities of India and has set up more than 200 dark stores for this purpose. It has also announced the temporary closure of all its locations where their 10-minute delivery system isn’t available. 

Additional Learnings

Blinkit has come to identify its sweet spot – the middle and lower-middle-income group, whom Dhindsa calls the ‘motorcycle families’. These groups actively look for discounts and are intrigued by low prices. This is why the company’s way of serving consumers is about offering attractive price points through its in-house brands. Consequently, it has lined up an array of private brands which fetch higher margins than third-party brands. Moreover, the company also offers 10 minutes express delivery which is a concept not many online delivery platforms have been able to master in India. This quick commerce model makes them stand out from the majority of their competitors and makes them the go-to place for customers looking for instant delivery of products.

Market Snapshot: 

• Due to an increase in digital adoption during the pandemic, the Indian eCommerce market has witnessed tremendous growth. India’s eCommerce market is now the 8th largest in the world with a revenue of $50B in 2020 which places it ahead of Canada and right behind France. 

• In 2021, the market was estimated to be worth over $55B in Gross Merchandise Value. 

• Groceries make up for 66.5% of the total retail spending in India, which translated into a $600 billion+ market in 2019.

• According to RedSeer Consulting, the online groceries segment has grown by about 75 percent in the lockdown period during the pandemic alone. The market is estimated to see a $200 billion increase by 2024 driven by new segments and accounting for India’s over 100 million online shoppers.

Suggested Next Reads 

• Grofers taking multiple steps towards building more inclusive org: CEOs (Business Standard, September 17, 2021)

• Will Grofers 10-min delivery promise end up exploiting workers? (Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz India, September 7, 2021)

• Grofers founder responds to criticism of 10-minute grocery delivery (The Economic Times India, August 29, 2021)

• We are a unicorn now: Grofers co-founder Albinder Dhindsa (Tarush Bhalla, Live Mint, August 23, 2021)

• Grofers co-founder Saurabh Kumar exits amid funding talks with Zomato (The Economic Times India, June 18, 2021)

• EP #54: Combating user retention challenges like India's leading online grocery app, Grofers - Netcore Cloud (The Martechno Beat, January 18, 2021)

• How IIT-Delhi Guy Albinder Dhindsa Accidentally Built Grofers (Divya Gupta, Dropout Dudes, July 12, 2019)

Snapshot

Founded in 1998, Noida-headquartered Pine Labs is a leading merchant platform in India that offers a wide range of finance solutions and value-added services to accept offline and online retail payments. 

In 2020, Pine Labs became India’s first unicorn of the year after receiving an undisclosed amount of funding from US-based Mastercard, bringing its total valuation to $1.6B.The company’s latest funding was in 2021 when it raised $100M from Invesco Developing Markets Fund. In June 2021, the venture was valued at $3B. The company is looking to file for an initial public offering within the next 12 months and has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to advise the firm on the IPO.

Pine Labs is backed by notable investors like Actis Capital, Altimeter Capital, Sofina, Sequoia Capital India, Temasek, PayPal, and Mastercard. The company serves leading brands like Hypercity, Pizza Hut, Mcdonalds, Westside, Flipkart, Hotspot, Big Bazaar, Marks & Spencer, Croma, Starbucks, Reliance Digital, Bata, Burger King, and more. 

About Pine Labs: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Pine Lab offers a suite of fintech solutions for merchants to accept payments. Its presence spans 3,700 cities and towns in India and Malaysia, with its services being used by more than 70,000 retailers in India. 

• 360-degree payment solution: An omnichannel payment solution for both online and in-store selling. These include Plural Gateway – a payment dashboard for credit cards, debit cards, and UPI; Plural Checkout which is a mobile software development kit; and a single tech framework for multiple payment gateways called Plural Console. 

• BNPL Solutions: Clients can also avail the BNPL solution where their customers can buy products and services first and pay later for them. 

• Loyalty Rewards: Loyalty program tailored right into the POS system so that no extra equipment or hassle is required in rewarding customers. 

• Qwikcilver: A global SaaS prepaid and gift card solution. 

• Pine Lab Analytics: Use business data to tap into customer behavior and optimize business performance. 

• Working Capital Loan: Clients can leverage a network of NBFC partners that can be used to get working capital loans. 

• Product Development: Open APIs to help developers join a network and build fintech products. 

How It Works

Pine Labs offers a range of customized credit solutions to customers and businesses through partnerships with different banks and non-banking financial institutions in India. The company offers in-store and doorstep payments, PayLater at the point of sale, prepaid issuance, online payments, instant EMI, instant discounts, cashback programs, loyalty solutions, eWallet, dynamic currency conversion, and gift solutions to large, mid-market, and small retailers. 

The company’s POS machines allow merchants to accept credit and debit card payments and are connected to the cloud. They also offer a variety of additional services such as working capital to the merchants. Merchants use these POS  machines to increase revenue whilst reducing costs, complexity, and risks.  

Pine Lab’s applications integrated with its POS machines to digitize important aspects of a merchant’s business such as inventory management, GST compliance, capturing customer feedback, barcode scanning, invoicing, and more.  

Business Model & Pricing

Pine Labs had a B2B business model initially but they have recently forayed into the B2C field through their partnership with Fave. This collaboration aims to provide cashless payment solutions to offline SMEs and enterprises in an attempt to increase digitization and growth post-COVID-19 recovery. By integrating Fave’s QR code into Pine Lab’s terminals, the company enables secure and effortless payment acceptance and loyalty solutions for merchants.

The company serves the omnichannel needs of its merchants through a wide range of financial solutions and value-added services. This is made possible due to their smart, cloud-based POS machines which have redefined the fintech space and helped both large and small merchants increase their presence in local markets.

The company’s major sources of revenue are the monthly fees it earns from its POS machines and from its sales of products such as POS payment devices. The venture also earns money by leasing its devices as well as from subscription charges and the sale of services.

Traction

Pine Labs turned profitable in the financial year ending March 2017. In 2021, the company reported a 64% growth in revenue from $65M in FY20 to $107M the next year. It has processed an annualized gross transaction value (GTV) of $1B and payment gateway transactions worth $20.1M.

The company prides itself on being one of the oldest fintech companies in India and is now the 3rd most valued fintech in the country aswell.To date,it has managed to power more than 350,000 POS terminals and onboarded over 100 million customers on its platform. Pine Labs serves over 140,000 merchants and has more than 70,000 retailers across India. Moreover, since its inception it has partnered with over 15 major banks, 7 financial institutions and 100+ brands.

Founder(s)

Tarun Upaday: A graduate of IIT Delhi with a Masters in Mathematics and Computer Applications, he founded Gallop, a personal travel assistant for businesses. He is currently CEO for Routespring Inc, which provides travel management for teams. 

Lokvir Kapoor: A graduate of IIM Bangalore with an MBA preceded by a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, he previously worked with Schlumberger in the areas of financial management and business development.

Rajul Garg: A graduate of IIT Delhi with a BTech in Computer Science, Founded Leo Capital, a venture capital fund, investing in early-stage, technology-centric opportunities, Sunstone Eduversity and Global Logic. 

History & Evolution

• In 1998, Pine Labs was founded by Kapoor, Garg and Udhapaya for providing automated solutions for the Indian retail petroleum industry.

• In 2005 Pine Labs complied with EMV and Visa certification to process debit and credit card payments.

• In 2007, the company launched multi-acquiring payment solutions. 

• In 2009, the company moved from petroleum-focused solutions to POS payment solutions by providing mainstream payments and financial offerings for merchants.

• In 2010, Pine Labs launched the Plutus Transaction Reconciliation Management and Airpost Lounge Program.

• In 2017, Pine Labs entered the Malaysian market with an exclusive partnership with CIMB Bank.

• In 2019, Pine labs acquired Qwikcilver Solutions, a gift solution provider.

• The company won the 2019 ‘Indian Merchant Platform Customer Value Leadership Award’ at the Frost & Sullivan - 2019 India Best Practices Awards.

• In 2020, Pine Labs partnered with Mastercard to deliver a range of card and real-time payments.

• That year the company was declared the winner of the ‘Best Digital API’ award in the category of Best Technology Solutions at the 11th India Digital Awards.

• In 2021, Pine Labs acquired Fave, a Fintech platform empowering small and medium-sized enterprises to grow in the digital economy.

• It also launched Plural, a merchant commerce platform.

Pine Labs from archive.org 

Additional Learnings

• One thing that differentiates Pine Labs from its competitors is that its payment terminals have integration with over two dozen banks and financial and technology partners. However, rival companies typically have integration with just one bank, which is why every time they form a new partnership with a bank, they need to deploy new machines into the market. This in turn makes the whole deployment process expensive for the fintech and bank. 

• The company has now changed its name to Pine Labs Limited as it is looking to make its venture public by March 2022. According to reports, the venture has confidentially filed for a US IPO to raise $500M. 

Market Snapshot 

• The Global FinTech Market was valued at USD7301.78 billion in 2020 with India hailed as one of the fastest-growing FinTech markets in the world. 

• India’s FinTech market size was $31B in 2021, making it the third-largest ecosystem after the USA and China. 

Product & Organization Reviews

Ad Intelligence

• Pine Labs advertisements are focused on how AllTap can provide ease of payments to traditional small and medium services and businesses that are adapting to the pandemic.

• Ads also emphasize the various modes of payment available in the AllTap app (NFC, QR, Payment Link etc.)

Facebook Ad Library: Active Ads Link
Campaigns: Pine Labs Advertising Campaign; Sample ad:Link

Suggested Readings

• Success Story of Pine Labs - Founder, Revenue, Funding, Products (Sarika Anand, Startup Talky, October 15, 2021)

• Nearly as old as Google, Pine Labs is betting on these two segments to make it worth $6 billion (Ridhima Saxena, Business Insider India, September 28, 2021)

• Pine Labs – Unicorn Future, Hoary Past (Sumanth Raghavendra, The Ken, February 7, 2020)