Kiran Kennedy – Dutch Uncles

Zoom: A Video First Platform with One Consistent Enterprise Experience

Kiran Kennedy — Tue, 09 Feb 2021 04:35:02 +0000

To say that the year 2020 was an unexpected surprise to the world would be putting it mildly. The coronavirus pandemic and the global lockdown was one of the biggest hits to the economies of the world. This mass-scale, unprecedented shutdown had forced businesses to be behind the limelight. Virtual was the new normal and everyone had to adapt to survive. That is where Zoom found its fame and rose to glory and established its name globally.

About Zoom

Founded in the year 2011 by Eric S. Yuan, Zoom Video Communications is a remote video conferencing platform that offers a myriad of integrated services. These services include video meetings, voice, webinars, and chat across desktops, phones, mobile devices, and conference room systems to make for a seamless remote/virtual working experience.

Zoom’s ultimate goal is to provide an elevated enterprise experience by using these features and the platform to create a more customised and unique workflow that accommodates the current work-from-home lifestyle.

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Zoom stands out in the market and sets the pace for the competition with its diverse range of options within a single, streamlined platform that centers around video conferencing.

Zoom’s History

Zoom Video Communication is the brainchild of Eric Yuan, a Chinese immigrant who stepped into the US-based Silicon Valley start-up game in the mid-90s. He had come to the States following the Internet boom and joined a company called WebEx which was later acquired by Cisco for $3.2 Billion and he became a prominent player in the company.

Although WebEx was a complete A-to-Z video conferencing tool for the time, Yuan discovered that customers were not satisfied. Issues such as unstable connectivity lags in audio and videos, and lengthy installation made for a less than stellar customer experience.

This is where the vision for Zoom was born. After much resistance from the management at Cisco and WebEx, he left the company to invest time and energy into Zoom and founded the organisation in 2011. After two years of rigorous beta-testing, Zoom had finally seen the light of day and was launched in 2013. The company was founded on Yuan’s vision to give customers the experience they seek and deserve.

Initially, when Zoom was launched, it had a very streamlined and bare-minimum capability for hosting (quality, not quantity as they say) and the platform could host a grand total of 15 participants. Two years after its launch that number jumped to 25, then in 2015 it was 100 and in recent years that number has skyrocketed to a staggering 1000 participants, simultaneously.

To give an idea of the level of success the company garnered, one needs to look at the 1 million-plus user base that Zoom gained just one year after its success. In 2017, four years after the initial launch, the company entered the unicorn club.

Zoom’s Marketing Strategy and Business Model

The company’s primary business model was that of a customer-centric model that revolved around an organic outreach methodology and building of natural partnerships. This helped Zoom to integrate with existing B2B providers and use its distribution channels.

This model of business and outreach was realised early on in the company’s conception. With this business model in place, the company was able to generate direct leads as opposed to relying too heavily on other traditional means of marketing and advertising to get the brand’s name out globally.

Another ingenious tactic that the company employed was building the distribution within the product itself. That is to say, the more people used the product, the more the chain of growth and brand recognition would build naturally. The other half of the in-build approach was to make the product so simple and easy, that to use it no one needed an instruction manual to operate it.

In terms of the straight-forward approach, the company derived a lot of traffic and leads from its social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and so on. No doubt, in recent times, especially during the peak months of the pandemic you would have seen a lot of YouTube ads for Zoom’s superior video conferencing applications and the benefits for adapting it for your business. Contrary to popular belief their Facebook ads saw the most Return on Investment (ROI) in terms of leads. The reason being that these Facebook ads are kept simple and streamlined by first adapting the ads with the brand positioning and vision and then testing different angles to fit the audience’s preference. The most effective angles to these were product benefits, social proof of concept as well as collaborations and partnerships.

By pushing ads that played on these three simple angles Zoom drove traffic to specific landing pages and filled the sales funnel. Essentially what they were doing was bringing in traffic from all clients like the baseline customers, SMBs, Mid-Market, B2B, SaaS companies and Enterprises.

The use of actual visuals from real conferences and people using the application as well as video testimonials made for an authentic and organic atmosphere. It was a genius move.

When it comes to the actual service side of things, it again focused on the personal audience-oriented aspect of things by providing free accessibility to use a lot of its services at a limited capacity which gave customers a feel for the platform and acted as a further marketing ploy. This multi-faceted marketing approach that kept to its digital borders ensured that the brand could expand its branches far and wide at a minimum expense to the company.

Rise to Success and Growth: The Indian Perspective

When looking at the global scale, of the 300 million daily meetings that make its way through the platform, India makes up a large chunk of that number. Thanks to the Indian way of working and the fact that India is the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world, it stands to reason how those numbers came to be and how a platform like Zoom garnered popularity and became a necessity in the day-to-day of pandemic business operations.

Zoom became one of the most downloaded apps on Google Play Store during the peak lockdown months, even outdoing the likes of WhatsApp and Instagram as it was downloaded 343,000 times in a single day. The biggest uptick was surprisingly not in the B2B sector but in the education and training sector as Zoom was a primary vehicle for facilitating online classes and training programmes for schools and colleges around the country.

The company embraced this and even went as far as to release a paid education plan which allowed up to 300 participants and removed the 40-minute time limit on meetings for an uninterrupted session. From January to April 2020, according to statistics provided by Zoom, the company saw a 6,700 per cent growth in the free signups in India.

Zoom recognised the untapped potential of the massive Indian market and went one step further in 2020 by initiating employment opportunities for Indians within the organisation. This dual approach of job creation and having a hyper-focused frictionless video communication platform pushed them to the forefront of the market and outdid the pre-existing competitors like Skype and Google Meet.

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Zoom's infamous viral reputation was a large part of what propelled it forward into the public's eye and even cornered the market on those who did not even use the application.

Hilarious Blunders: The Viral Sensation

The clever marketing ploys and business models aside, the popularity for Zoom rose more with the frequent occurrence of blunders that took place during Zoom meetings. As you might have come across on YouTube or on someone’s Facebook feed, the hilarious and unfortunate mishaps are plentiful. From people coming on camera in a state of undress, or saying something inappropriate or even getting into altercations while a session or class is in progress was something that took the internet by storm.

Zoom meetings became a viral sensation, not just for its performance capabilities but for the ways in which people amused themselves through the platform. So much so, that ‘Zoom’ became one of the most searched keywords during peak lockdown season.

A True Unicorn in Our Backyard

Zoom officially entered the exclusive and coveted unicorn club in 2017 after Sequoia Capital had invested $100 million in the company and brought the total valuation up to the mark of $1 billion. As of October 2020, just three years later, the company once again stole the spotlight as it came into the market with a valuation of $139 billion as reported by Forbes.

The company beat out forecasts in the second quarter and ended the month of August with a revenue of $663.5 million, which far surpassed the anticipated $500 million which was estimated earlier. This rapid pace of growth from their early days as a start-up to the current unicorn status, the credit goes to their approach to the market as well as the confidence of investors.

The company demonstrated early on that even if they do not make too much money in their early stages, they definitely will not be losing either. This made them a safe investment and given how the economy was sinking in 2020, it makes sense that investors were desperate to place their bets on something safe and reliable. This is proven by the fact that they were primarily backed by world-renowned investors Sequoia Capital and Emergence Capital at a sum total of $145.5 million.

As early as 2019, just two years after their rise to unicorn status, the company registered for Initial Public Offering (IPO). With their stock opening at $36.00, and the company’s habit of meticulously managing their funds and investor confidence at an all-time high, the stocks remained stable in 2020 when most others were floundering to survive. It was the beginning of a much larger journey ahead.

Current Market Standing

In hindsight, Zoom was not the first one to work around the idea of video conferencing, far from it. Prior to its existence, the market was saturated with industry titans like Microsoft’s Skype, Google Meet, Google Duo, Webex, Hangouts, Slack and other third-party hosting platforms that offered many similar services to that of Zoom. So, what made it any different?

The answer to that is product-centric development. That is to say, while brands like Microsoft and Google offered video conferencing as an add-on, they primarily had their focus on the audio calling and messaging applications for long distance communication. While on the other hand, Zoom was video-oriented from the beginning. The entire premise of the company is to provide face-to-face interaction between users regardless of the distance and at high-quality output.

This combined with user-friendly interfaces that are adaptable to a myriad of devices and Operating Systems, multiple product lines and options to choose from, sound marketing tactics and heavy financial backers who saw its potential, made for the success that we see in the industry today.

The CEO and Founder of Zoom, Eric S. Yuan, is the man behind the success of this now globally recognised brand. With a Masters in applied mathematics and computer science from the Shandong University of Science and Technology, China. Yuan moved to the states during the Silicon Valley Internet Boom and went onto build and establish Zoom after seeing the state of disarray that the video conferencing segment was in. He had truly bridged a gap between technological capabilities and customer satisfaction.

Two reasons make this company very successful; one is the company’s sound practices and two, it has a founder who believes in the vision he is working towards and actually practices what he preaches. His belief of the customer-first approach is evident in the way the company operates, which is a core part of why Zoom Video Communications is at the top of its league. As the old saying goes, Zoom may have not invented the game, but it sure has mastered it.

Read more stories like this in our Inspire section.

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AgTech Sector Trends: Disruption or Boom?

Kiran Kennedy — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 12:35:02 +0000

As a result of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown that followed, the agriculture and agtech sector did face an initial disruption of their supply chain as well as labour shortages during the peak months of the lockdown.

Despite this, agriculture in India seems to be on an upswing according to the latest estimates by the National Statistical Office (NSO), with the sector having added a tremendous amount of private investment between the months of July and August in 2020.

According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) India has 450 Agtech start-ups that are growing at a rate of around 25 per cent annually. Additionally, the agricultural ministry of India has also pledged to fund a further 234 agricultural businesses with a sum of Rs 24.85 crore in the financial year 2021. With numbers looking good, new business owners and entrepreneurs in the Agtech sector can safely assume that a large-scale growth will be seen going forward.

Trends in the Agtech Sector to Watch Out For

Technological Advancements

The emerging trend going forward seems to be that more Agtech firms and farmers are using real-time information technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) to track and monitor crops, soil quality, supply chain management, weather and yields. These technologies can and are being used to make long-term and short-term decisions regarding current and upcoming crop cycles.

This is a crucial step in the right direction that makes monitoring more cost-effective and more importantly increases the yield by giving firms and farmers all the vital information at a moment’s notice.

A Well-Structured Network

The integration of technology into the agricultural sector also helps connect buyers across the market, it automates much of the supply and logistics processes as well as making for a more transparent engagement, and allows for faster cash settlements and transfers.

More Consumer-Oriented Practices

With the onset of the pandemic, consumers have shifted their sites to a more sustainable, organic and healthy menu of foods. They also look for foods produced with fewer insecticides and pesticides. With the afore-mentioned advancements, farmers can now opt to selectively implement changes to a specific portion of crop as per the demand.

With the growing demand for more exports and advancements in operational technology, Indian Agtech companies will be playing a crucial role in bolstering the rapidly expanding agricultural ecosystem.

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What Went Right for These 21 Unicorns?

Kiran Kennedy — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 08:35:02 +0000

India’s 21 Unicorns: The Current Scenario For These Start-up Companies

India is currently the third-largest ecosystem of start-up companies globally, only coming in behind the US-based Silicon Valley start-up ecosystem and China. With a valuation of around $ 73 billion and growing, it is projected that this ecosystem will continue to see an exponential growth as time passes. India’s Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu said that he expects another 50 start-ups to join the unicorn club as early as 2022 at this rate.

The rarefied and exclusive unicorn club is at present home to 21 innovative start-up companies that are leading the pack. The Indian start-up sector has so far raised a grand total of $9.3 billion until mid-December of 2020.

What Did These 21 Unicorns Do Right?

These unicorns took advantage of the rise of Indian IT companies over the past decade, a large talent pool as a result of India’s immense population, increased expendable income of Indian middle class and availability of capital have contributed to the growth of India’s start-up ecosystem.

In recent years the increased use of smartphones, access to the internet, recent reforms to push digital finance as well as the government’s efforts through initiatives like Digital India and Start-up India have also contributed to their expansion efforts.

Who Are the Pack Leaders and How Did They Succeed?

Byjus

BYJU’S stands out in the market thanks to a combination of their immersive learning app that promotes a contextual and adaptive learning experience as per the need of students and prominent investors that boosted brand confidence.

Ola

The company achieved success through a successful word-of-mouth branding strategy combined with a referral programme, which gave Rs 50 for referrals and a free ride for every new customer brought to the Ola Cabs. This affordable, safe and comfort-oriented approach paved the way for investors and the current status it holds as a unicorn.

Oyo

Centred around the premise that everyone deserves a comfortable and budget-friendly place to stay the company initially only targeted budget travellers. By expanding their domain to a more diverse audience and maintaining a customer-oriented approach is what sets them apart from the crowd.

Paytm

From providing only DTH recharge and shopping bill transactions, the e-wallet and e-commerce platform expanded its services to provide a multi-faceted platform for anything from payment of metro cards, utilities, official bank transfers and even booking flights/trains/busses and so on. This combined with their official RBI (Reserve Bank of India) tie-up gives security and popularity to the name.

Hike

This Indian social platform gained prominence for its unique approach to boosting hyperlocal interactions through engaging initiatives like Hikemoji and HikeLand which offers users the ability to express themselves in a fun and customised manner with an emphasis on their local identities.

To read more about the start-ups of India and the situation they will be facing down the line, read our article ‘Union Budget 2021: Fund Allocation for Small Businesses And Start-ups Allocation For Small Businesses And Start-ups’.

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FirstCry The Unicorn: Asia’s Largest Baby and Kids Store

Kiran Kennedy — Sat, 06 Feb 2021 04:35:02 +0000

New parents have a hard enough time trying to balance life with a new-born or toddler thrown into the mix. Now add to that all the baby essentials like diapers, bottles, toys and clothes that need to be purchased while they are still acclimatising themselves to their parental roles and you have a recipe for a tough time ahead. This is where FirstCry comes in.

Nowadays, with the advent of globalisation and online shopping, things have become easier for parents in terms of purchasing these items, but still, there is a gap. Despite the boom that e-commerce platforms have seen over the last decade or so in India, there still remains a massive gap in the demand-supply of the domestic market for child-oriented products. In that, parents either have little to no access to high-quality brands or if they do it comes at a steep price, which is not feasible in the long-term, considering the pre-existing strain on the budget that new parents have to contend with.

What is FirstCry All About?

FirstCry is essentially an online and offline brand provider that gives parents and their children access to a wide range of child-oriented products such as diapering, nursing/feeding equipment, bath and skincare products, toys, footwear, nursery items, furniture, boutiques and even products for new or expecting mothers.

The Pune-based start-up was the brainchild of Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha. It was founded with the goal of bringing parents and high-quality brands together, at an affordable price point. What sets this company apart from the crowd is that it provides these quality products at an affordable price with the ease and convenience of an online shopping experience as well as fast, reliable delivery services.

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FirstCry took the baby-care market by storm as with a multi-faceted marketing approach that bridged the gap in the sector and gave them the edge over the competition.

How Did it All Begin?

The company which was founded in 2010 was initially just an inventory-based operation that was following a business model centred around shipping these products across the country, from warehouses in Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata. After a few years, FirstCry started adding retailers to its online platform, which bolstered their website into a multi-branded catalogue that retailers could sell their products on. This integrated click-and-brick model saw an unprecedented boom in success. Now it stands as one of Asia’s most recognised and popular child-product platforms with a whopping 400 plus stores across 100 cities in India and a product inventory of more than 90,000 different items from 1200 international and national brands.

Bridging the Gap

Supam Maheshwari found inspiration for FirstCry from his travelling lifestyle. He would often go on business trips and buy things for his child from the different countries he visited. This eventually brought to the forefront the issue that many Indian parents face, a lack of access to the best baby-care brands. This made him realise that there existed a gap in the market that he could capitalise on. This opportunity, however, was made challenging for the same reason the issue itself existed. While the baby care market in India is huge and has untapped potential, it remains untapped because it is so unorganised. This is where Supam’s entrepreneurial skills and previous experience came into play as he implemented a never-before-attempted business model that would set FirstCry in a league of its own.

The Business Model

Apart from the unique and innovative business model of running online and offline stores, FirstCry also supplements its outreach efforts through a special program called ‘FirstCry Box’ which reaches over 70,000 parents across India.

The idea behind the ‘FirstCry Box’ initiative is to give new parents in hospitals across India gift packages that contain basic necessities that every child and parent needs to have after the birth. Items include diapers, baby lotion, baby oil and so on. This is given as a token of congratulations to new mothers and it doubles as a marketing vehicle that gets the brand name out into the public domain. The items in the box which can be valued at Rs 700 to Rs 1000 is given freely at hospitals that have tie ups with FirstCry.

This marketing model, one of the biggest outreach initiatives that the brand does, has seen a tremendous ROI and is tied up with around 6000 hospitals in 30 different cities. They work with top healthcare franchises like the Apollo group, Aditya Birla group and Columbia Asia to name a few. This campaign is being executed in all metros and even most tier 1 cities.

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Thanks to its skilled leadership, FirstCry now stands as one of Asia's largest baby-brand providers and making it one of the latest entrants into the Indian Unicorn scene.

Marketing Strategy

In terms of marketing, FirstCry has taken the path less travelled by way of primarily sticking to the realm of social media and word-of-mouth to promote the brand. While the founders did initially opt for the traditional route of television and print advertisement, they soon realised that this was not a feasible long-term strategy as the method was high-cost and the returns were too low.

The advantage of the new method meant that they could reach more people at a significantly lower cost to the company. Of their social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram are the most traffic-heavy with over 500,000 fans on Facebook and well over 467,000 followers on Instagram.

In supplement to this, the aforementioned ‘FirstCry Box’ initiative plays a major supporting role as it covers the word-of-mouth aspect of the company’s marketing strategy.

Additionally, after the company’s fourth round of fundraising, it approached Amitabh Bachchan to be its brand ambassador to push that star power. Now one can see the ‘Big B’ in around six different commercials that are being promoted on tv.

This multi-faceted marketing methodology has proven a great success with the company being able to allocate an annual budget of $1 billion just for advertising. A clear sign of the growth it has seen.

FirstCry’s Growth and Revenue

When the company was co-founded by Supam and Amitava, the seed-funding for the company of $25 million was completely out-of-pocket and the initial future looked rocky. FirstCry was founded under its parent company, BrainBees Solutions and took off from there. It was one of its kind in the market back in 2012, being an online platform with offline retail stores. One of the major milestones and turning points for the company was when Supam realised that most consumers in tier 3 cities did not use the online platform to access the products. With this information in hand, FirstCry expanded its physical operations to cities like Bhilai, Dehradun, Haridwar, Kanpur and Bharuch.

This gave rise to the logistical support company XpressBees, which is now headed by Amitava, helped provide the logistical support to these locations and raised an additional funding of Rs 85 crores for the company. The new store locations had some difficulty in the initial stages achieving a strong footing for the first 2 years, but with aggressive marketing and a strong brand USP things started to take off.

The company now stands as one of the latest entrants into India’s unicorn club with a staggering $1.2 billion valuation. The exponential growth was seen even as far back as 2017 when FirstCry saw a 48 per cent growth between FY17 and FY18. This level of growth gave way to expansion and the company branched out and established its online presence even more with ‘FirstCry Parenting’ which sees well over 13 million parental engagements and an overall engagement of 92 million every month.

Much of this funding and growth was a combination of two factors. One, their outstanding and engaging marketing strategy, and two, being backed by investors who saw the potential of the company. FirstCry had raised $429 million in over 8 rounds of funding over the years with their most prominent investors being SAIF Partners, Vertex Ventures, Valiant Capital Partners and most recently since the 2019 SoftBank Vision Fund. SoftBank has been their Funding.

FirstCry’s Market Presence and Standing

It is not that FirstCry was the first to enter the baby-products market, in-fact the demand and presence of other companies in the market goes far back even before the company was founded. It is notable, however, to mention that FirstCry was the first of its kind in terms of strategy, practice and service delivery.

Given that the Indian market for these products was so severely limited, you could say that FirstCry was the first to bridge the gap and they did so in a spectacular fashion. Now, the brand has essentially become synonymous with the market segment for baby-brand products and stands as one of, if not the largest players to provide such an upscale service for parents and their children. Their dual online and offline approach cornered the market and quelled the consumer demand by meeting their needs in a convenient and quality-assured way.

This tactic has ensured that the company has no direct means of competition in this particular segment, but that is not to say that they do not have contenders to deal with on a daily basis. Despite FirstCry being a unicorn, it is still a fairly young company, but even so, it manages a hold in both the online and offline realms. When considering the online segment of the business it does face some resistance in the market from brands like Amazon, Kraftly, Snapdeal, BeiBei and Myntra. On the other side of the coin, in the offline brick-and-mortar business, they will likely face the day-to-day struggles of contending with local stores and vendors depending on the geography and demography of the audience.

Despite being surrounded on all fronts, the company has made a name for itself and stands tall as an industry leader in consumer servicing and product quality thanks to the one-stop-shop setup that it follows. They have placed themselves in a powerful position in the market to say the least. So much so, in fact, that in 2016, one of FirstCry’s first and biggest acquisitions was of the Mumbai-based and Mahindra-owned ‘BabyOye’ for $54 million. The acquisition company was an ecommerce platform that specialised in pregnancy, infant care, and mother care products and services in Indian, making it a direct competitor.

If it was not a big enough milestone that they bought out the competition, FirstCry also acquisitioned ‘Oi Playschool’ in November 2019. The Oi Playschool was a chain of premium play schools focusing on safety, security and hygiene.

With all this success and growth, one has to wonder how it all came to be. The answer to that, is quite simply a great vision that was executed well. Leading one of the leading online retail platforms in Asia is no small feat and takes a significant level of technical skills and entrepreneurial instinct so as to get a good read of the ever-shifting market.

The founders of FirstCry, Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, both IIM graduates. Supam who is the CEO and co-founder of FirstCry is a first-generation entrepreneur and also has a hand in co-founding XpressBees, one of the largest logistic companies in India. Having said that, this is not the first race that he has run. Prior to founding FirstCry, Supam was the CEO and co-founder of ‘BrainVisa Technologies’, one of the largest e-learning platforms in India.

His business partner and co-founder of FirstCry, Amitava, was a key person in the establishment of the company and is currently the COO. Being an IIM graduate himself and B.Tech degree from IIT Varanasi, he is uniquely qualified for the role he played alongside Supam in the growth and development of the company.

FirstCry’s success as a company can be attributed to the rapid and aggressive take-over strategy of the online retail scene, the ingenious marketing schemes that ran parallel to one another, as well as excellent business strategy on the part of these revolutionary founders.

For more stories like this, check out our inspire section.

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Workplace Trends 2021: Why Hybrid Model Is the Way Forward?

Kiran Kennedy — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 06:35:02 +0000

The Pandemic changed every aspect of the traditional workplace concept. Remote work has rapidly become the new norm as concerns for safety in the workplace and preventing the spread of the virus have become the top priorities for employers and employees alike. This has led many businesses, especially start-ups, to opt for a hybrid workplace model that combines elements of remote work and work from the office.

While the pandemic eliminated the need to commute long distances, it brought to the forefront a sense of claustrophobia in employees. This in turn has shown to severely affect the overall morale of the workforce.

Looking at the preferences for remote working versus that of office work, employers and employees alike are opting for remote work simply due to the safety issues involved in working on-site. The remote working model may not be ideal for every company, but it was necessary nonetheless. So much so, that around 75 per cent of companies in India are looking to permanently switch to remote work even after the pandemic dies down.

On the other hand, since remote work is not possible across the board, and with each industry having individual needs, the hybrid model presents itself as a feasible solution. The hybrid model is a combination of remote work, in-office-work, and semi-remote work. The model is gaining popularity for a number of reasons.

For one, it empowers employees with a greater degree of flexibility and autonomy in terms of where they want to work and how they want to engage with work-life depending on their own need for safety and convenience. This also works to the business’s benefit as it still has elements that help the work process adhere to the safety concerns one might have, while also fulfilling the need for a physical presence of a minimum number of employees to get the job done where physical attendance is required. Data suggests that around 48 per cent want to stay home while the other 52 per cent want to go to the office. A good indicator that the hybrid model will work if implemented.

Impact Of The Model

In terms of impact, the hybrid model has many benefits for business owners, especially entrepreneurs. The most obvious benefit is cost saving as office maintenance fees drop drastically. Employees also benefit as they don’t need to spend on commuting every day.

The most significant impact that the hybrid model will have however is the change in work culture and an increase in efficiency. With the rise of this new model comes the breaking down of hierarchical barriers, which leads to more transparent communication between employees and employers. All these factors make the hybrid model the ideal method for start-ups to follow in 2021 and beyond.

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Budget 2021-2020: Fund Allocation for Agtech Sector

Kiran Kennedy — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 08:35:02 +0000

The 2021-2022 Union Budget came with several new changes for the economy, especially the Agtech sector by way of budgetary increases to the agricultural ministry, the agricultural sector and allied services as well as major central sector schemes, which together form the foundation for India’s Agtech sector. There was a significant budgetary increase as compared to previous years, with Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, having delivered the 2021 Union Budget Speech.

The Agtech Sector Budgetary Breakup

The Agricultural Ministry

The agricultural ministry was given a budget expense of Rs 1.32 lakh crores with the breakup being, Rs 1.22 lakh crore being allocated to the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare for revenue expenditure and 56 crores being allocated for capital expenditure.

The Department of Agricultural Research and Education on the other hand only received Rs 8,513 crores for revenue expenditure and was given no allocation for the capital expenditure.

Agriculture and Allied Services

The ministry’s budget allocation aside, the agricultural sector and the allied services witnessed a rise in its budget allocation, making the Agtech sector one of the largest funded sectors of the 2021-2022 budget allocation breakup. The agricultural sector and the allied services sector received Rs 1.48 lakh crores for 2021-2022.

The Outlay of Major Schemes

When it comes to the Major Central Sector Schemes, the Agtech sector saw a more specified budgetary allocation towards its efforts and purposes. The budget allocation for the ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for in-situ Management of Crop Residue’ was Rs 700 crores from last year’s Rs 600 crores.

On the extreme end of the spectrum, the ‘Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF)’, which had seen a revised budgetary allocation in the 2020-2021 budget for Rs 208 crores, saw a drastic spike in the 2021-2022 budgetary allocation of Rs 900 crores.

Another staggering jump in allocation was that of ‘Crop Science’ with a budgeting of Rs 708 crores, a significantly higher budget than last year’s allocation of Rs 612 Crores.

What Agtech Players Can Look Forward to:

During her two-hour budget delivery, Sitharaman also announced an increased allocation of funds to ‘Rural Infrastructure Development Fund’, from Rs 30,000 crores to Rs 40,000 crores. This is a significant development as these investments will increase rural-Agri infrastructure development such as enhanced crop monitoring and post-harvest facilities.

Many Agtech players see the increase in the credit as a sign of good things to come and a larger role for the agricultural and Agtech sectors in the economy.

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Start-up Investment Growth in 2020: Education and Training, E-Commerce and Retail

Kiran Kennedy — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 02:35:02 +0000

Education and Training Sector

According to a marketing intelligence report by Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and Praxis Global Alliance (PGA), the Indian Education and training sector, more specifically the start-ups, have received a funding of $2.2 billion in the FY2020. As per the report, 92 start-ups received funding while 61 of them received seed funding. This is a massive step-up from previous years funding $553 million.

The most active investors in the education start-up sector were Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital India, GGV Capital, Coatue Management, WestBridge, Omidyar Network, Tiger Global and General Atlantic.

The Indian online education companies have been the most prominent aspect of the education sector in terms of funding raised as over the last five years from 2016-2020 they have raised a sum total of $4 billion.

The Breakdown of Education Sector Funding

K-12 and test preparation start-ups accounted for the largest of the shares with a total of $1.9 billion. The next largest segment was continued learning at $142 million, followed by higher education at $84 million and pre-K and EdTech companies at $12 million and $7 million respectively.

The Education and training sector in India is expected to grow a total approximate value of $225 billion in India by the FY25 at a rate of 14 per cent CAGR.

The E-Commerce Sector

According to reports from Venture Intelligence, funding by Venture Capitalists and Private Equity in the e-commerce sector dropped significantly in 2020 between January-September to $1.2 million. This marks a 55 per cent drop from previous year’s investments of $2.7 million.

In 2020 only 66 firms were part of the group that raised the funding as opposed to the 107 companies in 2019. This drop in investment comes despite the higher than usual consumer purchasing patterns as a result of the pandemic.

The Retail Sector

The Indian retail sector has proven to be a resilient sector as it was estimated to reach Rs.76.87 lakh crore in 2020, as per an ibef report. This number was despite the fact that the pandemic was in full swing. According to the same report, the sector received a Foreign Direct Investment of $2.2 billion between 2000-2020.

The retail sector was also able to obtain funds in 2019 worth $970 million from different private equity funds.

In the peak pandemic the sector survived due to the efforts of 12 million plus kirana and mom-and-pop stores around the country that drove consumer purchasing at the local level. Thanks to Investors like Reliance Industries, which managed to raise Rs 47,265 crores with the support of global investors: Silver Lake Partners, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, GIC, TPG, General Atlantic and PIF.

In short, by the end of 2020 the sector was already back to an 80 per cent pre-covid operational capacity.

Check out our articles on more sector-based funding trends for the FY2020 and get the full picture.

The post Start-up Investment Growth in 2020: Education and Training, E-Commerce and Retail appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Trade Shows: The Art of Building Your Industry Network

Kiran Kennedy — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 04:35:03 +0000

What Is A Trade Show?

A trade show is similar to a convention in some ways but it can stand as an entity of its own. The most widely accepted definition of a trade show is that it is an exhibition where companies gather to showcase their products and services. The difference here, between a trade show and an expo, is the audience limitations. Trade shows are generally not open to the public. Instead, it is limited and restricted to only those who register to attend, such as company representatives, members of the press and some select group of consumers. This type of limitation of attendees helps promote a constructive conversation between companies, competitors, buyers, investors and consumers alike.

The Tie-In: Trade Shows, Expos and Conventions

Exploring the other end of the spectrum, let us have a look at conventions. Conventions are similar to trade shows and expos, in that, they are large scale gatherings. The difference here is that often it is merely a gathering of like-minded people who are looking to connect and network with others who share similar interests. A good example of this is Comic-Con where comic book enthusiasts gather to dress-up, talk about and take part in activities relating to their favourite comic-book publication.

Now that you have an idea of what trade shows and conventions are, how exactly does the expo fit into the picture? An expo or exposition is simply a large-scale trade show that is open to the general public and often conducted on an international scale. Think of it as a hybrid of a convention and a trade show. It has all the company and sales networking elements of a trade show with all the conferences, seminars and idea-sharing of a convention.

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Trade shows are an ideal place to build brand awareness, especially within one's industry given that the majority of the attendees will be top industry professionals and members of the press.

Why is it important even in an ever-digitising world?

Builds Brand Awareness

Trade shows are an ideal place to build brand awareness, especially within one’s industry given that the majority of the attendees will be top industry professionals and members of the press. Having face-to-face interaction with such a niche audience will help widen your brand’s reach in future endeavours.

Targeted Leads

The aim of a trade show is to sell, and that is exactly what you can do here. It is a well-known fact that human interactions have far greater results in terms of recollection and relationship-building when done face-to-face. Giving these niche attendees the opportunity to interact with the type of product or service you will be providing is a great confidence booster for any potential buyers or investors. By building these connections, you increase the chances of a successful follow-up, which brings us to the next point.

Closing the deal

Given that it is such a limited list of attendees, if you plan your targeted marketing strategy right, you can easily identify and close the deal with industry leaders that you wish to align your brand with.

An Opportunity to Study the Competition

Think of it as one big spy-game, all the top players are at the trade show to study each other and maximise their marketing and networking efforts. You should do the same. Take a stroll around the floor, casually engage in conversation with competing businesses, get them to tell you about their pricing strategies, marketing plans and so on. Compare this information to what you already know about the industry, do a cross-analysis and find out what is working and what is not. If you can identify a weak point that can be used to your advantage then it will put you ahead of the competition.

The Ideal Networking Space

All the selling, scheming and analysis aside, at the heart of a trade show is the intent to network with like-minded industry professionals that will not only help foster long-lasting relationships but help you as a business owner gain the lay of the land. It is a great opportunity to gain some very valuable industry insights.

The Benefits and Risks of Tradeshows Going Forward

The Benefits

It costs less to close a sale at a trade show than it does in any other external way. Think about it, at trade shows you have industry titans who are actively looking to purchase and invest in businesses, it is ideal. However, in the day-to-day marketing grind, a company will easily spend twice what they spent on a trade show booth to invest countless hours of labour and cold-calls trying to get potential buyers on board.

The other advantage – there is a trade show for nearly every industry or business. If you Google trade show alongside your industry name, there is a fair to a good chance you will find an event for it.

Having said that, it is a risky time to be meeting in large crowds given the state of the world and the looming presence of the pandemic. However, given that you take the appropriate safety measures it is clear that these events have a lot of value to contribute towards the growth of your business.

The Risks

The pandemic poses the largest risk currently. Despite vaccines coming into play, there is still a significant risk there.

Apart from that, the majority of the risks rear their heads in the planning and funding stages:

- - Trade shows are time-consuming and often require more than a day or two to successfully complete.
  - If it is a travelling trade show the cost can be significantly higher in terms of moving, setting up, accommodations and so on.
  - If you do not do your research you will have a hard time navigating the immense amount of competition that will be present at the trade shows, thereby dragging down the productivity of your outreach efforts.

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Trade shows are time-consuming and often require more than a day or two to successfully complete.

Setting Up Trade Shows

Phase 1: Planning

- - Gather Data– If you attended past shows or know of past shows, reach out to the attendees and do a survey, analyse sales leads, the cost they faced and the overall success.
  - Work Your Budget – Prepare to spend a decent amount on renting a space, booth design, promotional giveaways, advertising, salary compensation, accommodations, meals, travel and so on.
  - Run a Cost-Benefit Analysis – Look at the expenses you might incur and weigh it against the benefits of possibly succeeding in meeting your goal to see if this endeavour is worth doing.
  - Set a Timeframe – The initial setup itself takes days if not weeks, set a timeframe that accounts for this and helps maximise your floor time.
  - Research Your Audience – Understand your audience to craft a specialise marketing plan that is guaranteed to make its mark at the show. Look into demographics, economic backgrounds, lifestyles and so on.

Phase 2: Pre-Show Planning

- - Practice the Pitch – Run your employees through drills for best and worst-case scenarios that will help them think on the spot. This will improve the customer experience on D-Day.
  - Advertise – Use whatever tools you have to advertise across the industry. Social media is a good option as is Google AdWords where you can target specific target audiences.
  - Outsource – It is possible that your business may not have the bandwidth to handle a large-scale task like a trade show if you are a start-up. If that is the case then outsourcing is the next best option. Find an agency that can work within your set budget and that it has a reputable standing in the industry.

Phase 3: The Actual Show

- - Make a Good First Impression – The booth will do most of the work, so make it inviting and eye-catching. Use different media such as video, audio explainers, pamphlets and so on to make it a comprehensive experience upon first glance.
  - Build a Relationship –At a trade show, you are the face of the company, so make it count. Be warm and inviting, encourage them to ask a lot of questions and try to genuinely get to know them. This sets the base for a strong relationship with a higher likelihood of a sale down the road.
  - Give Them a Show – Take Elon Musk and one of his recent shows where he did a live demonstration of Tesla’s Cybertruck. Regardless of the fact that it faltered a little the aim of making it memorable was achieved. A live demonstration creates buzz and gets people excited about your product or service.

Phase 4: Follow-up

- - Be Fast – Do not waste any time after meeting your potential buyer/investor. Follow-up with them and engage before your competition has the chance to do the same. Follow them on social media, write them an email, and try to close the deal with a hard-sell phone call to make the most of the freshly forged relationship.
  - Internal Audit – Take a look at how your team performed after the show, and see how many leads they got, how many of those were successful prospects and where it fell short. This will give you an idea of what needs improving for the next show.

Check out our article on expos to see how you can explore different and larger avenues for growing your business network.

The post Trade Shows: The Art of Building Your Industry Network appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How Does the Government Help Indian Start-ups Grow and Flourish?

Kiran Kennedy — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 02:35:02 +0000

The Indian Government is very keen on encouraging the growth of start-ups in India and the concept of easy business to boost the economy. Under government-funded schemes, start-ups in India, irrespective of the sector they fall under can avail certain benefits, concessions, tax exemptions and so on.

The Benefits Start-ups Can Avail from the Government

Many of the government’s schemes provide aid to start-ups in need of incubation and seed-funding by connecting investors and incubation centres with new businesses. This allows start-ups to avail the benefits of these programs in the shape of initial seed-stage funding, customised mentorship programs, business and marketing strategising, as well as aid with filing patents and registration forms.

Start-ups in India also receive tax exemptions in the form of a complete tax removal on angel investments and a partial tax reduction of Foreign Venture Capital in the Indian start-up ecosystem.

What are the parameters for being considered for government schemes?

To qualify as a legally recognised start-up in India:

- - The organization’s turnover should not exceed Rs 25 crores in any of the preceding financial years.
  - The organization is headquartered in India
  - The organization has been recognized to be working towards innovation, development, deployment, and commercialization of products/ delivery of services powered by technology or intellectual property.
  - It has to be registered under the Companies Act, 2013, the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 or be a registered as an LLP under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2002.

The Start-up India Initiative

There are many popular schemes provided by the government for start-ups. One such popular scheme is the ‘Start-up India Initiative’ and ‘Start-up India Seed Fund’. The Seed Fund was launched on 16 January 2021 and has a valuation of around Rs 1000 crores. The Start-up India Initiative which was set up in 2016 as an overarching scheme that aids in the continued growth of the start-up ecosystem.

Financial benefits – Start-ups can avail up to 80 per cent on the fees spent on patents and Intellectual Property Right (IPR) registrations.

Registration benefits – The registration process for start-ups is streamlined into a single portal, allowing companies to get registered within a day through the start-up-hub India.

Tax benefits – Businesses are eligible to be exempt from tax for the first three years under the condition that they obtain a certificate from an Inter-Ministerial Board. Additionally, as per Section 54EE of the Income Tax Act, start-ups are exempt from long-term capital gains tax.

Special/Other benefits

- - National Credit Guarantee Trust Company ensures guaranteed funds for over four years.
  - Labour Laws inspections will not be held in the first three years of incorporation.
  - Environment law compliances are only mandatory after self-certification.
  - Winding up of the company can be done in just under 90 days under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

All these benefits aside, the government of India is driven to see the start-up culture in the country grow and there is no shortage of schemes and initiatives to look to.

The post How Does the Government Help Indian Start-ups Grow and Flourish? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Agtech Start-ups: How You Can Benefit from the Incubation Ecosystem Under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) Scheme

Kiran Kennedy — Mon, 01 Feb 2021 00:30:42 +0000

The Current Scenario in the Agtech Sector

Agtech start-ups are a rapidly growing influence in the Indian agricultural landscape as the need for a healthy blend of agricultural practices and technological integration is ever-mounting.

With the traditional agricultural sector still facing resistance to adopting modern technology and fully integrating, Agtech start-ups have stepped in to work on pre-and post-harvest management systems.

Currently there are more than 450 Agtech start-ups working in the country and considering that the Indian agricultural ecosystem is one of the largest in the world, government-funded schemes like the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) make a big difference.

What is Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana Scheme?

It is a Central Government funded, state-plan scheme that encourages and enables states to increase public investment in agriculture and allied services.

How Can Agtech Start-ups Benefit from the Scheme?

The advantage of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana scheme is that it facilitates the incubation of Agtech start-ups through support services such as seed-funding and bolstering infrastructure, manpower, equipment and upskilling.

- - Orientation for start-ups – Agtech start-ups receive a two-month training and orientation during which they gain an additional Rs 10,000 per month. The benefit is that new businesses and owners get a lay of the land while simultaneously receiving mentorship on how to handle finances, technical issues, business planning and networking.
  - Seed funds – Businesses under the scheme receive funding of up to Rs 25 lakhs which will cover roughly 85 per cent of the project’s funds while the remaining 15 per cent will be the responsibility of the incubatee.

- - Project funding – Agtech start-ups will receive a funding of up to Rs 5 lakhs for the idea stage of their businesses, depending on the scale of the project.
  - Customised mentorship – Subject-matter experts help formulate strategic market analysis and structure a business accordingly.
  - Infrastructure furnishings – Work-station equipment, Wi-Fi connectivity, conference rooms and high-tech Conference Management Systems (CMS) are provided.
  - Filing for intellectual property right – Patents, trademarks and copyrights can be filed under the guidance of the scheme.
  - Funding preparations – Agtech start-ups receive aid in applying for Grand, Equity and Debt funding schemes.
  - Support in technology development – Incubatees are mentored by industry innovators to help commercialise and develop their technology.

The Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana scheme is essentially an all-inclusive hand-holding guide that can help your Agtech start-up find its feet during the infancy stages.

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