How a Personal Touch Reinvented a Company

All this while, Dhindsa and Kumar remained in touch and brainstormed occasionally over new ideas. The former’s analytical skills came into play when he, along with the latter noticed that the delivery system in India was in absolute chaos. Even though there were many big players in the logistics or hyperlocal delivery at that time, there was a lack of communication due to which customer service was not being optimised. In other words, they had discovered that if the hyper-local market space was tackled in the right way, the results could increase tenfold.

Albinder Dhindsa had very smartly identified this opportunity before any other firm, which goes to show that the entrepreneurial trait was prevalent in him which got activated when he saw the business opportunity in the gap. Working at Zomato was like a pool of information and first-hand experience regarding the food supply chain for Dhindsa and acted as a catalyst to push the entrepreneur to take the plunge. It was during his stint at Zomato itself that he, along with  Kumar, began working on his ambitious project – Grofers.

The two were so sure of their observation that they started their first company, OneNumber in 2013. Initially, they were just a delivery company that focused on dropping and picking up items around the neighbourhood. These items could be anything from groceries to cosmetics to accessories among others. They had a small team of delivery boys who worked much like Uber drivers. As soon as an order was placed by a customer, the nearest delivery boy would pick up the item and have it delivered.

Having personally spoken to small merchants and shop owners, Albinder Dhindsa knew too well the problems faced by them. In fact, the two carried out around 50-60 deliveries within a 4km radius themselves to understand the hindrances in such an unorganised system of delivery.

Although OneNumber did see success, Dhindsa felt that the flaws in the hyper-local market in India were not exploited enough. He had his eye on the bigger picture.

Despite having a wide range of businesses sign up with them, they found that the majority of the orders came from groceries and pharmacies. With that, the concept of an e-commerce platform solely for the purpose of grocery shopping came into being and OneNumber was rechristened Grofers.

Grofers started as a B2B model but shifted to a B2C soon. They facilitate delivery of almost 20,000 different products spread over categories like grocery, bakery items, cosmetics, fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, flowers, toys, accessories, personal and baby care, among others in a maximum of 90 minutes!

Dhindsa, being a man from humble beginnings, understood that customers value reliability above everything. To get customers to trust an e-commerce platform to handle their grocery shopping proved to be quite a task. Moreover, to get smaller merchants to sign up for their services was even more challenging. However, Dhindsa was determined to create a system that worked for everyone. Thus, he gave top priority to the merchants. The sign-up process was made extremely easy.

Another important aspect that worked in the founder’s favour was his belief in treating the customers and merchants the same. He understood the importance it would have in spreading awareness of the brand. Dhindsa knew exactly how to build a strong, organic user base, and within no time the brand established itself as a force to be reckoned with.

That being said, they were only breaking even despite having moved products worth almost 8 lakhs within 3 months.

Grofers had a seed funding of just $500k which came from Sequoia Capital followed by a Series A funding of $10 million by the same investor along with Tiger Global Management in 2015. By November 2015, the company had managed to raise $120 million in funding although that was not reflecting in their performance. By the end of 2016, they had reported an annual loss of Rs 225 crore and continued to do so for the following months.

After they were forced to lay off 10 per cent of their staff and temporarily suspend services, Dhindsa had to come up with new ways to actually get the ball rolling.

The thing about AR is that it is interesting to non-gamers as well. A report by Ericsson ConsumerLab shows that 35 per cent of non-gamers have shown interest in AR gaming. This is a significant amount as 23 per cent of AR consumers are, in fact, non-gamers. Furthermore, 6 out of 10 AR gamers have expressed that the sole reason for gaming is the experience AR platforms bring to the table. So, with augmented reality being in the hot seat, and the market lacking a semi-immersive gameplay platform, it only made sense to strike while the iron was hot.

How Krikey is Building an Arsenal

Augmented reality, as a concept, is not particularly a new one. One of the earliest mentions of the concept would probably be in the year 2006. With Sony and Microsoft dominating the market with the PlayStation and Xbox respectively, Wii by Nintendo proved to be revolutionary. While its counterparts washed Wii when it came to computational power and graphics, Wii brought something new to the table – Immersive gameplay. Users could now make their characters mirror their actions through the Wii console. Games like Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Play changed the way people looked at gameplay for the years to come.

It was in 2016 that AR gaming got propelled back into the mainstream. Pokémon GO, an extremely popular AR game, was making headlines for different reasons. Developed by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo, Pokémon Go allowed players to catch and explore their favourite Pokémon in real locations like your everyday Spencer’s or Starbucks. Players could also meet other Pokémon enthusiasts through the game. Even though the game’s popularity grew exponentially since its launch, there were rising concerns about how addictive the game had become. Incidents of children meeting with accidents while being engrossed in the game went viral and the game was even banned for a period of time. With the dos and don’ts of AR gaming laid out to them on a silver platter, the duo decided to make.

Their presence felt in the years to come. Any up and coming startup is incomplete without a unique branding strategy. The inspiration behind the name ‘Krikey’ comes from a popular Australian slang Crikey! , which is supposed to indicate surprise and delight, a feeling sisters Jhanvi and Ketaki hope their users experience through the platform.

Using Emotion As a Tool

The year 2018 saw the launch of Krikey’s flagship game, Wingspan. In collaboration with the National Audubon Society, the game was essentially Google maps had virtual birds layered over it. Users could explore different areas and virtually birdwatch. The game was inspired by a board game that already exists. The sisters went on to explain that the intention behind launching a game like Wingspan was to encourage people to appreciate nature and wildlife more. Birdwatching can be a painfully boring activity but with the aid of Wingspan, Krikey made it an easy and even educational process. Users play an ornithologist and collect different bird species while exploring different ecosystems.

After launching Wingspan, the start-up experienced a jump in user retention rates. In addition to that the application seemed to be getting a lot of traction. Even though the team refused to disclose official numbers, it was safe to say that Krikey had laid a solid foundation for future endeavors.

Another game that the application offers is Gorillas. Developed in partnership with The Ellen Fund, Gorillas is an augmented reality game that allows users to interact with the critically endangered mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Animation and 3D effect aside, the game encourages people to learn the lives of such endangered animals and interact with them.

Emotion is the one key factor that separates Krikey from its competitors. All of their games are designed to have an effect on the user’s behaviour. Through their platform, one not only gets the whole AR experience, but also learns something new about nature and the environment. The goal is to spread positivity through virtual interactions. Having said that, their platform is far from experimental. From user friendliness to accessibility to being up to date with the latest tech, Krickey checks all the boxes.