Naina Sood – Dutch Uncles

Was IPL a Ticket to the Billion-Dollar Club for Start-Up CRED?

Naina Sood — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 06:35:04 +0000

“Not everyone gets it”, even Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Bappi Lahiri and Govinda. Intrigued? The goal was to start a conversation and it was indeed started among 40 million customers on CRED’s target list through its audition-styled campaign launched on India’s biggest advertising platform – IPL.

It has been raining start-ups when it comes to IPL associations since 2020. One of them being credit card bill-based rewards marketplace CRED, which joined the bandwagon of start-ups looking to score big with IPL and it indeed did.

The partnership came into being in September 2020 and within six months, CRED has managed to raise two rounds of funding (Series C and D) and successfully entered the billion dollar club. Was the start-up’s bet on the IPL association its ticket to the billion dollar club? Let’s find out.

Did it Make Sense?

CRED reportedly paid Rs 120 crore ($16.3 million) to become an official partner of the IPL for three seasons, starting the first one in October 2020.

With this additional investments and incentives it offers to users, CRED knew that it would be spending $12-15 million per year – almost 10% of its total funding. (Before Series C and D). CRED had ballooned its total loss by 491.9% in FY20, with the largest contributor, for the reported period, being costs relating to marketing activities. It rose over 9X year-on-year to Rs 180.30 crore.

Seeing these numbers, why did CRED become a part of this expensive sponsorship game amidst the mounting expenses and losses? The company targets credit card bill payments and it already had 60% of the total audience on the platform. Then why play such a “big game” for just 40% of the remaining target audience? Remember, this was before the Series C and D rounds.

A Ticket to the $1 Billion Club

It was a “go big or go home” scenario for CRED. Start-ups, especially fintech, have been looking to expand or raise their market share significantly and affiliation with a property like IPL is a win-win scenario.

CRED has been in a cashburn process (EBITDA margin of -1979.5% during FY20, annual loss of Rs 360.3 crore) but has been well-funded by deep-pocketed investors. Before its association with IPL, CRED stood at a valuation of about $450 million that it had attained after its $120 million Series B round in 2019 besides its seed funding of $30 Million.

Hence, its IPL investment made business sense for the start-up and did not dramatically affect its cash flows. The ultimate aim was to increase user base and target and attract credit-worthy customers to justify the investors’ money. Since its inception, the company grew to a customer base of 3 million and post joining the IPL, the number surged multifold. The user base has doubled to 5.9 million individuals in 2021 over the past year.

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Start-ups, especially fintech, have been looking to expand or raise their market share significantly and affiliation with a property like IPL is a win-win scenario.

In the start of 2021 itself, CRED secured a major funding round, drawing $81 million in fresh capital, which brought its total funds raised to $228 million across four rounds. This inched the burgeoning start-up towards the unicorn status with a post-money valuation above $800 million.

With further surge in customer base and shining numbers as the second season of IPL drew closer and closer, CRED managed to receive another major funding round on April 6 led by new investor Falcon Edge Capital and existing investor Coatue and has finally entered the Unicorn club. It raised Series D funding of $215 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion.

That’s two rounds of funding and a doubled-user base within 6 months of IPL association.

‘Clicking’ the Right Ticks With Ad Campaigns

It’s noteworthy how a comparatively new brand like CRED made the best of this association by running its campaign to its targeted users on television. It reached out to its premium class of audience i.e the first-generation wealthy, by leveraging the HD feed only for the IPL matches – helping the brand to target the audience who is more likely to use credit cards.

The star-spangled ads created a massive stir with the app registering six to seven times increase in sign-ups. CRED trended on Twitter during its 2020 campaign starring Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Bappi Lahiri and others. It created a constant recall value which helped in customer acquisition. It is important to note here that CRED wasn’t a robust advertiser before IPL.

Following this viral success, CRED is now all set to launch a total of six ad films over the course of the new 2021 IPL tournament. The first one came out this week featuring actor Jim Sarbh and legendary Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid in a never-seen-before avatar. As expected, it’s viral!

Besides these campaigns CRED reached out to people by focusing on digital engagements. One such activity included ‘CRED Power Play’ where those who pay their bills on time using CRED can win cash back offers as well as a chance to be on television during a live IPL match.

CRED managed to hit its target – increased user base, a household name, more money in the pocket and a Unicorn badge! Let’s see how the start-up manages to retain this user base captured through the IPL and spend that money raised wisely.

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Who Are the IPL Team Owners 2021?

Naina Sood — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 12:00:04 +0000

The Indian Premier League is an international event. A lot of money goes into conducting this most-watched event every year. Cricket fans must be wondering who owns the teams of this cash-rich league. So, here are the owners of each IPL franchise:

Rajasthan Royals

Indian businessman Manoj Badale (Emerging Media IPL Ltd) is the majority shareholder of the team with over 50% stake followed by Amisha Hathiramani from Nigeria-based Tresco International Ltd. Lachlan Murdoch is an Australian-British-American businessman and his Blue Water Estate Ltd owns 11.7% shares in the franchise. Former Australian cricketer Shane Warne himself represented the team in the initial few seasons. After retirement, he took up the co-ownership of the popular franchise through his undergarment brand called as ‘Spinners’. The former cricketer owns 3% share in the team.

Chennai Super Kings

The franchise is owned by Chennai Super Kings Cricket Ltd. which is a subsidiary of India Cements, managed by Narayanaswami Srinivasan. The industrialist, who is also former ICC chairman and BCCI president, has been in the cricket game for decades. Despite all the controversies, he has been credited for raising India’s profile on the international stage.

Delhi Capitals

The team is jointly owned by JSW Sports and GMR Sports Pvt Ltd under a common entity called JSW GMR Cricket Private Limited. Managing director of JSW Group, Parth Jindal is one of the youngest franchise owners in the IPL. The ambitious entrepreneur, who has been eager to carve his own path, has been at the forefront in steering the sports division of the steel major business conglomerate JSW Group. He took over the charge of Delhi Daredevils in 2018 and rebranded it to Delhi Capitals, brought in Sourav Ganguly as mentor and went in with a very clear auction strategy. Today, the franchise has the most balanced and strong squad.

Co-owner Kiran Kumar Grandhi nurtured the franchise for 10 years before getting into a 50% partnership with JSW in 2018. Besides solidifying the core team, both the scions involved a number of new age enterprises from the Tech space which were complemented by their own well-established national brands and created Delhi Capitals as a formidable IPL brand.

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What works for Punjab Kings team is each owner’s personal zeal for sports. They have given the mandate to manage the team to mentor and coach Anil Kumble.

Punjab Kings

The franchise is jointly owned by Dabur group’s Mohit Burman (46%), the Wadia group’s Ness Wadia (23%), Preity Zinta (23%), and Karan Paul (Apeejay Surrendra Group) (8%).

What works for this team is each owner’s personal zeal for sports. They have given the mandate to manage the team to mentor and coach Anil Kumble. Amongst all, Preity Zinta has come out as most prominent on ground, cheering and encouraging the team and is counted amongst the most successful businesswomen in Bollywood.

Kolkata Knight Riders

The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment has a 55% stake in KKR whereas Mehta Group has a 45% stake. Both the actors, who successfully donned entrepreneurial hat, are a brand name in themselves and are reportedly Bollywood’s most successful business people.

Mumbai Indians

The team is owned by India’s biggest conglomerate, Reliance Industries of Mukesh Ambani through its 100% subsidiary IndiaWin Sports. It is the most valuable team in IPL among all eight franchises. Owner Nita Ambani is famous for her enthusiasm for sports and is directly active with the team.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

The Bangalore-based franchise is a fully-owned subsidiary of United Spirits (now owned by Diageo India), of which Vijay Mallya had been chairman and non-executive director, till he resigned from his post in 2016. Diageo India CEO Anand

Kripal took over as the chairman in 2020 and is the new owner. He has been leading Diageo India’s journey since 2014 prior to which he held the position of President, India and South Asia at Mondelez International, and Managing Director of Cadbury India Ltd.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

The franchise is owned by Kalanithi Maran, the CEO of Sun TV Network. He is the son of the former union minister Murasoli Maran and also the grandnephew of erstwhile Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi. Kalanithi is believed to have good relations with team management and also the players and is often seen in the stands supporting his team and also exchanging a smile or two towards everyone hollering at the top of their lungs for his team. Kalanithi’s daughter Kaviya Maran seems to have taken over the operations of the team from 2020.

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What Are the Technology Trends in Direct-to-Consumer Market?

Naina Sood — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 06:35:04 +0000

Advances in technology are an integral part for any business to grow, including Direct-to-Consumer (D2C), which has been on a steady rise since past few years. India alone has over 600 D2C brands and the number is witnessing a double-digit growth. Let’s have a look at some technology trends that will shape the industry.

Data-Driven Insights

Covid-19 was a shot in the arm for digital-only D2C brands. As the competition grows, there is an ever-increasing need to attract interested shoppers, deliver increased revenue and conversions and data will come to the rescue. The D2C players have been moving away from age-old strategies of spending heavily on social media and search ads or running influencer campaigns for customer acquisitions. Instead, a data-driven approach is being embraced to help businesses grow. D2C companies already have a pool of customer data from various sources like behavioural, financial and demographic data.

All they need is a system that can gather this data, analyse usage patterns, subscriber preferences and financial metrics and provide actionable insights. This would make marketing content more relevant to their target audience.

AI-Powered Technology: Demand for Personalised Shopping

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR) will take a strong place among D2C market trends. By adopting the same, platforms will be able to give an immersive experience to the customers and pave a way for customised shopping. Virtual stores and inventory will be in the offing to give a play-on experience to shoppers. Besides, AI-enabled decision making, advanced forecasting and recommendations, localised content and native regional language interfaces will lead the way for D2C growth.

Chatbots and Virtual Reality (VR) will also propel a humanised customer experience by addressing the queries in a conversational fashion. Internet of Things (IoT), Connected Devices, Voice-Based Searches Voice search is a trend that will continue to grow in 2021, be it directly on the website or through connected devices. D2C businesses who want to grow will have to find a way to incorporate voice technology into their digital marketing strategies. Hence, players will have to optimise their websites for voice search which will open up new opportunities and expand the customer market.

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Besides, AI-enabled decision making, advanced forecasting and recommendations, localised content and native regional language interfaces will lead way for D2C growth.

Shoppable and Interactive TV

This trend came to the spotlight when NBCUniversal Media LLC rolled out its shoppable TV ads in 2020. The company incorporated pop-up ads that gave QR codes that directed consumers to the products seen on the scene. This interactive union between watching TV and shopping online will be the D2C e-commerce trend to watch out for.

This also brings social commerce on the surface. With more and more people spending time on social media, D2C brands will be going for this trend where people will be able to buy products directly from their social media app. This year Facebook launched Instagram Shops and Shopify partnered with TikTok. In 2021, we’ll see what brands can do with these changes.

Progressive Web Apps

D2C business will be all about comfort and ease. The shopping experience is usually disrupted when a customer is asked to download an app when they were just ready to pay and leave. Going forward, you do not need a necessary app for everything. Rather progressive web apps will be the game changer. It refers to websites that provide a seamless app-like experience to customers. This is going to be popular in the D2C marketplace given low bounce off rate and lower cost.

What’s in It for Me?

Unique user experience will be a key differentiator. D2C businesses need to meet this demand for customisation to engage and retain their subscribers. Start by using AI tools that can help you streamline your marketing, improve the customer experience or perform critical tasks for your business much faster. For example, SparkToro crawls social profiles to determine which podcasts, social profile and more are popular with your audience.

As far as voice commerce purchases are concerned, consumers seem to be reluctant to purchase expensive products. Therefore, businesses that consider engaging in voice commerce should be aware of this factor and ensure consumers that their privacy is protected.

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These are the Public-Private Partnerships in Agritech

Naina Sood — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 08:35:04 +0000

Agritech startups have been continuing in their effort to innovate with the goal of improving farmers’ lives. However, the complexity of the agriculture sector makes it difficult for them to remedy these challenges independently. The answer lies in collaborations. The government bodies/financial institutions have initiated several measures for improving agriculture services and are constantly moving ahead in collaborations with the private sector, especially start-ups, to bring in tech-driven innovative solutions. We evaluate the latest public-private partnerships in Agritech:

Digital Platforms: Partnering to Connect Stakeholders

Digital platforms have been the most common proposition between public and private partnerships in agriculture. Agritech startups have been providing online marketplaces for farmers, connecting them with large institutional buyers, including the government for transparency and fair prices.

For instance, recently, Pune-based Agritech startup Agri10x announced collaboration with Indian government to help remote farmers sell their produce directly in the market using blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. The government has been looking for partners to launch blockchain-powered marketplace for integrating farmers with markets.

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NITI Aayog and other academic institutions have opened their doors to reattach alliances with several leading tech firms to implement AI projects in agriculture.

Financial Institution Tie Ups: Opportunity in Backend Tech & Lending Management

With an aim to reach the last mile and diverse the borrower base, banks are partnering with public enterprises, especially Agritech start-ups, in multiple ways. First is partnership where the private players can provide the bank with collateral management and warehousing services to help farmers with effective market linkage. This way the banks are able to extend finance to farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations, processors, and various depositors whose agri-produce is stored in warehouses managed by the private company. This is similar to the tie up between Canara Bank and post-harvest Agritech start-up Arya. Bank of Baroda also signed an MoU with Allfresh Supply Management Pvt Ltd for extending finance to the farmers against pledge of warehouse receipts issued by the company.

Second is a partnership model where banks leverage the technology offered by the private company to make lending decisions. Banks find it difficult and uneconomical to gather and verify farm-level and farmer-level data and have limited visibility on financial information like cash flows and credit history. This is where the private sector comes in to fill in the gap and hence partnerships.

Technology Alliance: AI & Data-led Forecast, Monitoring

State governments are forming technology partnerships to forecast prices of agricultural produce using AI to help farmers in efficiently planning their harvest cycle. Agritech start-ups are bringing in technology for data collection on soil health, weather forecast, cropping pattern etc. For instance, the government partnered with Bengaluru-based Agritech startup CropIn Technologies to streamline the CCE (Crop Cutting Experiment) process and make it more accurate and scalable using AI and ML. CCE is aimed at accurately estimating the yield of a crop in a region during a given cultivation cycle. CropIn will help the government in providing technical support to conduct reliable, accurate, and large scale CCE within a short harvesting window and limited manpower.

Similarly, the Karnataka government partnered with IBM for tomato price forecasting using AI, ML technologies. Partnerships are also being forged between state government enterprises and technology players for quality, safety, traceability and monitoring services using AI and quick response (QR)-code tagging during packaging and warehousing process.

NITI Aayog and other government academic institutions have also opened their doors to reattach alliances with several leading AI technology players to implement AI projects in agriculture.

What is in it for me?

As an agriculture solution developer, you need to build a product/offering that fits into the existing government framework, workflows and technology platform as there is a lot happening from the public sector’s end as well in technology. Government flagship programs like Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Soil Health Card, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, require specific technology which can be catered by private sector. The golden rule is to first understand what is the gap in agriculture sector and then jump into the market with the product.

The post These are the Public-Private Partnerships in Agritech appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

The Taste of India, Amul: Spearheaded the White Revolution of India

Naina Sood — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 04:30:11 +0000

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress and working together is success” – Henry Ford.

The famous quote, which came from Henry Ford while he was sitting in his plush office in Michigan, United States, found its relevance in a remote village of India seven decades back. This story goes beyond a company or a brand. It is India’s inspiring narrative of resistance, empowerment, revolution, community team strength and leadership which gave rise to the 75-year-old legacy brand – Amul, the taste of India.

This historic brand, built on a basic cooperative philosophy with strong execution, is today credited for revolutionising the entire sector and a true inspiration for ‘dairy aspirants’.

Confronting the Status Quo

It all began from Anand, a small village of Kaira district in Gujarat, where dairy farmers operated at the mercy of contractors and middlemen, who controlled the milk marketing via a locally-owned diary — Polson Dairy. The farmers witnessed how they were compelled to sell their produce at throwaway prices to be further sold by Polson diary (where the milk was pasteurised) at huge profits to the Bombay (now Mumbai) government.

The discontent had been brewing for long. Fed up with the exploitation, the farmers decided to break free by taking the advice of Sardar Patel and Morarji Desai to demand to set up a cooperative society of their own. The demand was turned down by the government which led to the famous ‘milk strike’ called by farmers. Not a drop of milk was delivered across regions for almost 15 days, ultimately forcing the authorities to accept the same.

This marked the beginning of the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union Limited, Anand, in 1946 under Tribhuvan Das Patel, who became the founding chairman of the organisation and led it until his retirement in the 70s. It was in 1949, that late Dr Verghese Kurien arrived in Anand as a government employee to manage the dairy and stayed back to take the co-operative movement forward. More dairies were opened as the proven model of low capital requirement, short operating cycle and steady returns was replicated across various regions.

While the milk production and supply was streamlined, there was a problem of excess production which was solved by setting up a plant in 1955 to process all that extra milk into products such as milk powder and butter.

The duo was joined by dairy technologist HM Dalaya who brought in the expertise to take this proposition forward. Products like butter, cheese and baby food were churned out under the trio’s leadership besides the world’s first plant to manufacture milk powder from buffalo milk, creating history. Kaira Union introduced the brand “Amul” for marketing its product range. The brand name was handed over to The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) in 1973. By then, Amul had become a brand name in its own right.

What began as a socio-economic movement to improve the conditions of farmers across the country led to curation of one of India’s strongest brands Amul with Dr Kurien as its captain.

“I am in the business of empowerment. Milk is just a tool in that,” said the man who revolutionised the Indian dairy industry by scripting Operation Flood. Dr Kurien served the organisation for almost 30 years before resigning from his chairmanship in 2006.

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The idea of having farmers own the brand went a long way in creating a sense of ownership and, in turn, responsibility for the product’s quality.

A ‘billion-litre’ Idea: Becoming a national ideal

GCMMF, which markets Amul milk and dairy products, had gained, and still holds, a monopoly over milk processing and distribution. It operates the country’s most modern and sophisticated dairy plant at Gandhinagar, Gujarat besides 30 other plants across Delhi/NCR region, UP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.

It sells around 4-5 lakhs litres of Ultra-high-temperature processing (UHT) milk and other value added products per day and forecasts this demand to continue growing at 25%. The UHT products have enabled Amul to position itself as the market leader in the packaged milk segment without the need of maintaining cold supply chains.

Amul’s current milk product range has some 40 products. The brand owns 85% share in the butter market, 65-66% share in cheese, 88% market share in butter, 63% share in infant milk, and 45% market share in dairy whitener. Amul products are sold in over 40 countries, some of which include the United States, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Japan, China, etc.

Amul isn’t just a legacy. The brand is a disruptive innovator with a unique model solving purpose and profit. The idea of having farmers own the brand went a long way in creating a sense of ownership and, in turn, responsibility for the product’s quality. Branding gave a farmers’ cooperative a quasi-commercial strength, enabling it to adapt to competition. This is unlike any other corporate company in the world where the brand is owned by villagers who contribute tirelessly to their cooperative company.

The business model of the Amul is simple: sell-profit-reinvest. Amul was a three-tier cooperative structure:

● At the village level, there are cooperative societies producing milk.

● At the district level, there are milk unions with processing centres.

● At the state level, there are milk federations responsible for consolidation.

The end price of Amul products are decided by GCMMF and marketed further.

This transparent model leads to maximum returns for the suppliers – the farmers, who get remunerative prices for the milk sold besides a share in the company’s profit at the end of the year.

The earnings from the sale of all the products are plugged back into the production, eliminating all the intermediaries. Hence, sell-profit-reinvest. This makes Amul the brand name of 2 million farmers. Having no owner makes the Amul saga special and unique.

Seeping Into the ‘Dairy’ Routine

Faith and trust is not an overnight job. It would come from decades of consistent messaging. This brings us to the key ingredient to Amul’s success — consumer trust. Consumers have blind faith in Amul. They know this brand will not cheat them in any way. The perception of the brand is such that it is consumed by a millionaire living in a big city as well as by an autorickshaw driver in a small town.

This is the reason why it doesn’t believe in market segmentation, the opposite of what is interestingly taught in B-schools’ books. How has this trust been built? The foremost reason being the sheer quality and authenticity of the products. Besides being the best-in-class, the products are affordable which has helped the brand seep into almost every households’ kitchen. It has been offering value for money since the very beginning when consumer’s had a limited purchasing power. Its unique transparent model with a strong distribution strategy helps it keep the pricing low.

Despite competition in the high value dairy product segments from firms such as Hindustan Lever, Nestle and Britannia, GCMMF ensures that the product mix and the sequence in which Amul introduces its products is consistent with the core philosophy of providing its product, say butter, at a basic, affordable price to appeal the common masses. This helped the product to create its brand image in the household sector of the society.

Amul’s Contemporary Twist

Another reason for the huge success of Amul as a brand is its diversification into numerous dairy products. This brings out a very important aspect of the brand which has managed to keep up with the changing trends and market demand over the years and placed its products smartly on the shelves.

In 2010, RS Sodhi, who had worked with the company for almost 30 years, was promoted to managing director. The period was crucial as the dairy giant was beginning to lose its touch in the market and going into a hibernation mode. It was time to wake up the giants.

Sodhi applied changes across the supply chain, exports markets and new launches which made Amul grow 2.5x in 5 years (2015), the most in its entire history. This was evolution of Amul 2.O, with a contemporary twist. From ice-creams to mozzarella cheese, Amul has built a diversified product range besides its usual anchor products —milk, butter, curd and paneer, which are its cash cows as they drive the bulk of revenue and profits. In FY19, Amul launched value-added products such as flavoured milk, camel milk, fruit based Amul Tru (combo of milk and fruit) and new range of kulfis. It also launched the Happy Treats brand with products such as french fries, aloo tikki and hash brown.

By the early 2000s, Amul had launched ‘Real Ice-cream’, branded yoghurt, mozzarella cheese, coffee products, tapping into the growing and changing consumer demand. It has been constantly innovating and investing its branded dairy product portfolio along with adjacent food categories. It plans to expand its presence in packaged sweets beyond Gulab Jamun and Rasmalai. It also entered the branded edible oils segment last year with its launch of ‘Janmay’ brand with five variants.

However, it is not that all its products have been well-perceived. For instance, Amul chocolate and pizzas have failed to penetrate the markets, including international.

Despite these glitches, Amul is a winner in each and every category on Indian dairy business—revenue generation, turnover, product categories—Amul beats its deep advertising pocketed-competition by a huge margin. This has been made possible with the brand’s penchant for quality at affordable prices.

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Amul has been offering value for money since the very beginning when consumer’s had a limited purchasing power. Its transparent model with strong distribution strategy helps it keep pricing low.

Staying Ahead in the Game: Tackling Competition

One of the main reasons why Amul has secured its standing in the overall dairy market against its competitors is its large audience. Amul is perceived more as a local brand in various regions of India. Instead of competing with national or international brands, it focuses on local and hyper-local markets.

Also, this line between a local and an international brand has faded over the years with both occupying the front shelves with equal weightage. The preference of the former over the later has changed. Rather, consumers seek local brands, which are at par with international brands in terms of quality, pricing and ingredients. In this scenario, Amul fits all categories.

It is perceived as a brand of ‘my region’ or ‘my city’. Therefore, its competition is not multinational brands but regional and city brands. Even premium products like cheese are not restricted to urban markets anymore.

The rural consumer wants to buy the same but in a smaller pack size and Amul has tapped this opportunity at the back of its humongous processing capacity and distribution team, which is ever-growing.

‘Taste of India’, and the World

Amul started shifting its focus towards the international market around 2008 to fuel its revenue growth with packaged consumer products (butter, cheese, ghee) and commodities (milk powder and white butter). The confident move was backed by the trust it had built over the years.

In 2016, Amul partnered with Amazon to cater to the demand for ghee of the overseas audience. To scale the business, Amul began to set up production facilities abroad (US and European market) for ghee, shrikhand and other products.

The results were extremely positive reflected in its growing exports numbers. This strategy helped Amul outpace global FMCG brands like Unilever and P&G which had a growth rate of 6-7%, in contrast with 20% CAGR of Amul, between 2010 and 2017.

The ‘Utterly Butterly’ Genius Idea: Iconic Amul Girl

Amul is available, affordable and visible ! Amul’s branding game has been extremely strong, yet simple. It is inspiring to see how ‘Taste of India’ and ‘Amul Doodh Peeta hai India’ brought in the sense of nationalism in them and became an ideal.

This brings us to the brand’s lucky charm — The Amul Girl, who is 56 years old today and hasn’t aged a day! The little girl in a polka-dot dress, long lashes, blue hair and a ribbon has managed to steal everyone’s heart with her innocence, without polarising her audiences. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t shy away from thanking the brand for its humour in 2018, when the little girl wished him birthday.

The (original) Amul Girl was created by creative head Sylvester daCunha (daCunha Communications) and art director Eustace Fernandes, with the suggestions of Dr Kurien in 1966. The creation was later taken over by his son Rahul da Cunha in 1994, who along with copy writer Manish Jhaveri and Jayant Rane, the artist, have been keeping the magic alive.

The mascot has remained relevant even to date. Reason — It connects everyone. Some people connect with satire, some with politics, some with humour, some with celebrities and so on. Amul found a common ground with its mascot, which remained consistent and crisp all these years. The narrative continues to be current and contextual displayed in a way that has always captured the imagination and attention of every Indian irrespective of age, gender, or religion.

The brand’s overall advertising cost is merely 1-4% of its revenue unlike other brands who have around 20-30% of revenue as their ad-spend budget. Amul has stood strong on its umbrella branding-meaning, it markets all its products under a single name which leads to this low costing.

Besides the traditional newspaper advertising and hoardings, the brand has been balancing the new-age digital medium with fresh creatives. However, it still holds its strength and belief in the former and rightly so. It rather uses its social media for listening to its customers and solving their queries.

Amul’s brand story is inspiring in every way. Even today, despite being the dairy king, it refuses to rest its laurels with new innovations, tech penetration, even more robust supply chains and ever growing distribution channels. It is a true remarkable story of a traditional cooperative model in today’s tech-driven global system.

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These are the Latest Public-Private Partnerships in Fintech

Naina Sood — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:35:03 +0000

Financial Institutions (FIs) have been collaborating over the past few years to harness the technology offered by Fintech players to offer a plethora of more efficient, secure, digital-first financial products to customers. Fintech partners, on the other hand, are benefiting from the significant financial resources, valuable data on customers, and market insights that banks have to offer and create disruptive solutions. We evaluate some of the latest public-private collaboration trends and future opportunities in the same:

Blockchain

Public lending institutions and insurance companies have been paying increasing attention to blockchain and drawing on the technological expertise of blockchain-focused Fintech companies so they can continue to focus on their core business. Application of blockchain is in three forms: Cross-border payments, settlement of securities and trade finance.

Recently, a consortium of top Indian banks was formed for the purpose of collaboration on blockchain initiatives. As many as 11 Indian banks, including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra, Standard Chartered, RBL, and South Indian Bank, have aligned in the consortium to introduce and execute a blockchain-based loan system for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. The FIs are looking to collaborate with blockchain developers/ Fintech start-ups which can demonstrate the use case and what is the role for the bank in that use case.

RegTech

FIs have also started partnering with RegTech companies to strengthen their identification verification and background checks, financial crime surveillance and fintech risk management. Tech ventures, such as Mumbai-based CogNext Analytics, are collaborating with FIs, which are regulated bythe Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to help them comply with regulations for transaction monitoring, fraud and risk management, identity management, among other functions.

On the other hand, regulators are also benefiting from RegTech companies by using their artificial intelligence and other technologies to streamline resources, understand rogue consumer behaviour and to prioritise and maintain market stability.

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The FIs are looking to collaborate with blockchain developers/start-ups which can demonstrate the use case and what is the role for the bank in that use case.

Open Banking Partnerships

Open banking is slowly growing in the Indian financial services with several Fintech partnerships happening in this area. During COVID-19, several banks adopted open banking via Open APIs and have started offering a major chunk of their banking services outside their firewalls. Fintechs are able to use data from banks using secure protocols built on sharing models via API. This trend is expected to magnify in India through 2021 as more and more customers demand digital financial services.

Fintech players, however, need to keep in mind the security challenges and bring in a tighter system in open banking platforms.

Cloud-Based Technology

A recent example of this is the ICICI Bank’s collaboration with cloud-based accounting software solution provider, AlignBooks, to add accounting technology to their system and strengthen its SMB services. Current account holders at ICICI Bank can now link their bank account data into AlignBooks software to automate data entry and streamline reconciliation. The partnership will enable SMBs to access their account information even when they do not have an internet connection. FIs are looking for similar tie ups, especially with the ones that utilise secure cloud-based technology, to find unique solutions for better user experiences, personalisation and automation.

Neo Banking

Neo-banking in India is expected to see a huge spur in 2021, attracting investments from global players as well. Indian Neo Banks like NiYO, RazorPayX, Instant Pay etc., have already collaborated with traditional banks and support them with customer acquisition as well as new-age digital services. The Neobank model is a little different in India as the RBI presently does not allow pure-play digital banks to operate yet. Therefore, collaborations are the win-win case scenario.

What is in it for me?

Fintech players/start-ups looking for successful collaborations must evaluate how their new product and service is bringing something new to the FIs—a new segment of customers the FI could not access earlier, or a new service to existing customers, or a new way to approach existing problems and workflows. FinTechs challenges revolve around areas like performance of systems, speed, security and vulnerabilities. Hence, they must standardise the systems performance, user authentication and security controls for a successful tie-up.

The post These are the Latest Public-Private Partnerships in Fintech appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

What are the New Products and Services in Restaurant and Food Services?

Naina Sood — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 02:35:05 +0000

After witnessing a global shut down, the Food & Beverage industry is getting back to its feet by adopting means to adhere to the new normal. With changing consumer needs and industry demands, companies, especially new-age start-ups, will have to base their offerings on the same and pivot from the existing services to the ones that will hold relevance.

The Rise & Rise of Ghost Kitchens

The future of food has become increasing take-out and delivery-heavy. This has given rise to fully operated ghost kitchen models or what people call “placeless” restaurants. Having just a kitchen cuts rentals, servers, furniture, electricity cost and much more. This way, the kitchens are able to serve you the best of the high-quality ingredients and dish out the best menus at lower costs.

Takeaway models have become the need of the hour to stay financially viable, especially amidst the new normal of “social distancing” norms. Restaurant layouts are also being planned or revised to accommodate delivery and takeout functions, including drive-in windows and curbside pickup. Third-party delivery will also remain a growing (and consolidating) player for an extended period of time.

Reduced Menus/Aspiring Home Chefs

The ‘simplicity’ trend is here to stay. The necessity of maintaining social distancing has led to many outlets having fewer staff in the kitchen to check overheads, leading to a reduced menu which is easier to maintain. Also, for guests, a smaller menu indicates more freshness. Chefs are altering the fine dining style to more simplified comfort food that is easily transported for takeout and delivery diners.

This surge in demand for home-cooked food has also given a boost to home chefs, local home cooks and bakers.

Outdoor Dining/Private Dining Pods

A lot of restaurants are seeking outdoor sitting permits with some setting out tables on sidewalks, in parking lots and alleys, and even on streets partially closed to traffic. There is also a rising trend of individual dining structures, also known as igloos, bubble tents, and domes. However, this trend seems temporary as it would be difficult to maintain these exclusive pod dining experiences, post the pandemic.

Go Digital: Contactless Menus, But Personal

Digital menus, payments, feedback are becoming the new normal. Restaurants are leveraging technology to effectively communicate with customers in the most contactless way. Besides QR codes, we may also see apps like OhWaiter that would connect tables to servers’ phones where they can communicate menu information, specials and suggestive sales, rather than just having the customer rely on a digital copy of a one-dimensional menu.

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With work from home becoming the new norm, ‘ready/easy to cook’ kits have become extremely popular. Just pick one from the supermarket and the hassle of ‘what to cook’ is gone.

Packaging, Design and Labels

Labels and menu descriptors are getting more and more informative. It’s a product differentiator, especially at the times of shelf-shopping. Besides, food nutrition information and design aesthetics for food packaged companies, restaurants (dining/takeaway) are also moving towards sustainable packaging with respect to serving. Recyclable, minimal, sustainable and not containing hazardous chemicals packaging is the latest buzz. For instance, Diageo recently launched the Johnny Walker Black Label paper bottle, keeping in mind the latest trend.

Go Healthy: Nutrition Hacking, Immune Health & Functional Foods

There is a paradigm shift in food consumption towards healthy dishes, especially the younger generation which is more than keen to adopt vegan (plant-based food), gluten-free and protein-rich and nutritious-rich food lifestyle. In future, we will see more and more such products, especially specific ‘functional foods’, which would be more based on repositioning of products to include new health and label claims. For example, ingredients that provide immunity boosting, a beverage that also works as a sleep aid, and kombucha as a functional beverage. Along with this, there is an increasing penetration of food and beverage products that support immune health.

Also, there is a trend of curating ‘nutrition-packed’ food/meals that use specific ingredients to achieve individualised goals.

Ready to Cook Kits

With work from home becoming the new norm, ‘ready/easy to cook’ kits have become extremely popular. Just pick one from the supermarket and the hassle of ‘what to cook’ is gone. These kits come with a lot of variety, especially low carb meals. These meals have all the ingredients and give people the satisfaction of a safe home-cooked meal.

Spicing Up the Pantry

Speaking about new food products, this one is slowly gaining traction. With more and more meals being cooked at home, consumers are looking for a quick and easy way to spice up pantry with handcrafted shelf-stable sauces and spices.

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5 Travel and Hospitality Trends Transforming Job Market in 2021

Naina Sood — Sun, 28 Mar 2021 06:35:04 +0000

The year 2020 changed the way many industries operate, setting way for new trends. In the context of jobs, there are some which are or will remain no more prevalent which would also mean many new ones will be created too. We evaluate the travel and hospitality trends that will be on the table in 2021, paving way for new kinds of roles.

Buying Travel Certainty: Independent Travel Experts and Insurance Boom

A lot of tourism and travel businesses went bust in 2020 due to travel restrictions amidst Covid-19. Take for instance, high street stores of companies like Thomas Cook which closed operations across the globe as they were no longer competitive enough. There is now a factor of uncertainty when it comes to making a travel plan. Nobody wants to make a booking which could be cancelled the next day. This will pave the way for independent travel experts which can provide intimate and personalised services and hence a reassurance to travellers during uncertain and turbulent times. Having a personal consultant for travel might become a new trend.

Change In The Marketing Game: Influencer Market

It’s all about the influencer market these days. Every second Instagram post of an influencer will see them show you around a beautiful location, a great resort stay and the hospitality provided by them. From luxury chains to small boutique homestays, everyone is scouting for barter/paid deals with influencers, bloggers, Youtube stars to up their marketing game as the restrictions open up.

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Covid has given sustainable tourism a fast-forward of several years. Areas like eco tourism, rural tourism, volunteer tourism, glamping and slow travel are expected to see a surge.

Smart Tourism: Calling Technology Developers/Experts

Recovering from Covid-19 losses, majority of the players in the hospitality industry are wanting to adapt to smart tourism to improve the efficiency of resource management, maximise their profits and most importantly adhere to the “no touch” policy through the use of technological innovations and practices. For the hospitality segment, smart tourism could be implemented in varied forms starting from QR code for menus, devices for safety protocols, IoT devices for hotel management etc.

Smart tourism is going to be big business in travel. IoT technology will help to reopen tourism destinations and facilities while preventing and limiting the spread of the Covid-19. This would involve things like smart motorways, facial recognition, virtual tours, robot vending machines etc which will lead to more and more demand for technology products, developers and experts.

Sustainable/Niche Tourism: New-Age Consultants, Design Experts

Covid has given sustainable tourism a fast-forward of several years. Areas like eco tourism, rural tourism, volunteer tourism, mountain climbing, outdoor activities, glamping and slow travel are expected to see a surge. This will create opportunities for independent guides and organisers/companies besides consultants who specialise in sustainable tourism. Countries are on a hiring spree for sustainable tourism experts as the tourism business revives. This is also an opportunity for start-ups as the industry moves away from mass tourism to more smaller and more unique types of tourism, known as niche tourism.

Secondly, eco-friendly practices are becoming the norm, as properties focus on renewable energy resources and water scarcity. This has been around for quite some time now but the adoption rate is likely to increase in future, paving way for design experts, architects and consultants which would help the properties go clean and green.

What’s In It For Me?

In order to survive and grow in the travel and hospitality sector, one needs to go beyond the knowledge of old basic operations, especially adapting to new technology and personalisation. There would be a need to re-skill in terms of concepts like sustainability, responsible travel etc. Unique short term courses are coming up like ‘coding for hospitality’ to help students/entrepreneurs ride the tech-driven disrupted wave in the sector, service operations management, hotel market analysis and valuation, hotel revenue management, excellence in spa operations, financial planning for wellness centers.

The post 5 Travel and Hospitality Trends Transforming Job Market in 2021 appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Upcoming Business Conferences and Expos in E-Commerce Industry

Naina Sood — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 02:35:05 +0000

Events are a great way to not only network but also understand the industry dynamics and keep yourself upbeat with the latest trends. However, the year 2020 brought everything to a halt. The new year has brought in new hopes with things bouncing back slow and steady, including business conferences and expos which are ready to help industry professionals navigate the massive changes in the way they do business. We have put together a list of some of the upcoming e-commerce events, conferences and expos you should attend in 2021.

Internet Commerce Summit

Internet Commerce Summit is scheduled to be held on 10-11 June 2021 at Conrad Bengaluru in Karnataka. The event is being organised by technology solution providers platform PHYGITS LIVE. Over 500-1000 delegates are expected to attend the summit. There are four broad themes of the summit: Omni-commerce, Lifestyle commerce, Marketing and Channels and Society and Culture and all the sessions will be based around them.

Seamless India Conference: The Future Of Commerce In India (online)

The two-day event is being organised by Seamless Asia and is scheduled to be held on 24 – 25 November 2021. The online conference will bring insights from more than 80 banking, payments and e-commerce leaders across a series of live presentations, live panel debates and live digital town halls. Join in live from wherever you are, or watch the sessions on-demand.

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International online conference ECOMWORLD has a great line-up where you can learn about practical strategies and exclusive secrets that the biggest businesses use to grow and profit.

IREC 2021

The two-day expo is being organised by Franchise India in partnership with ShopX and Indian retailer.com, and will bring together leading minds, entrepreneurs, innovators and brands across retail, e-commerce and digital sectors. There will be innovation labs, start-up zones, rapid fire pitches besides discussion on e-commerce industry. The expo will be held from 19th-20th May 2021 at Hotel Sheraton Grand, Bengaluru.

India Omnichannel Forum 2021

India Omni-Channel Forum, co-located with MAPIC India, is the premier annual event for showcasing the future of retail Digitech solutions to decision-makers. The two-day conference will be held on September 29-30 at Renaissance Hotel in Mumbai. It is a good opportunity for powerful buyers and online solution providers to interact.

India Shopping Centre Forum 2021

The event would cover the entire shopping value chain, including B2B and B2C trends, technologies and concepts that support a growing business besides networking opportunities. The event is likely to be held in April 2021.

ECOMWORLD (Online)

The line-up for this online event is impressive. It would feature most successful DTC brand founders, CEOs, and CMOs, as well as top industry authorities and the brightest minds in e-commerce. They’ll reveal some of the practical strategies and exclusive secrets that the biggest businesses (including their own) use to grow and profit. The event, which includes in-depth speeches, panels, workshops & live Q&A sessions, will take place on 28-29 June 2021.

What’s in it for me?

Events are a great way to network besides being a learning platform. As a start-up, you can gain tremendous insides on industry dynamics and get to understand how you can turn your idea into business or take your already building business to a level further. Virtual events also serve the same purpose.

The post Upcoming Business Conferences and Expos in E-Commerce Industry appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Contactless Health Monitoring Technology is Transforming the Healthcare Industry

Naina Sood — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 08:35:06 +0000

The world has been heading towards a significant shift in the way healthcare is delivered for quite sometime now. Contactless health-monitoring has been gaining grounds since past few years with companies leveraging the power of technology to bring in efficiency in the healthcare industry. Then, Covid-19 happened.

Now, the term ‘contactless’ has become the need of the hour rather than an upgrade in the industry and it is here to completely transform the way healthcare is delivered.

What is contactless health-monitoring technology? In simple words, it is IoT-enabled devices that can help by minimising the need for physical touch and close proximity between staff/doctors and patients without diminishing the quality of care.

Filling in Gaps: Monitoring at Hospitals to be the New Normal

Let’s consider India’s scenario. The doctor-patient population ratio in the country is 1:1456, as opposed to the WHO recommended 1:1000. This ratio is even worse in remote areas. The Covid-19 highlighted this gap in a major way where medical services were strained amidst dearth of resources and professionals besides a complicated situation of “no contact” healthcare delivery.

Technology came to the rescue with “remote patient monitoring”, which allowed physicians and hospitals to monitor patients outside of the conventional clinic setting with technology providing 24/7 data between patients and physicians “without any touch”. For instance, healthcare start-up Dozee recently launched an AI-powered triaging system that converts any bed into a step-down ICU in under 2 minutes and enables remote monitoring of patients outside of the ICU.

The device, which is to be kept right underneath the patient’s chest area or attached to a thin sensor sheet below the mattress, gives continuous data (250 data samples per second) of a patient’s heart rate, respiratory rate, and other clinical parameters like sleep apnea, myocardial performance metrics without coming in contact with the patient.

With such technologies, doctors are able to monitor hundreds of patients from a web-dashboard or a mobile app, no matter where they are located. This real-time body vitals monitoring and readily available patient data without manual intervention (admitted or in home-care) will change the way healthcare is delivered.

First, this will reduce the constraints on limited medical infrastructure as doctors will be able to cater to the emergency cases and strike an overall balance. The rate of casualties will come down significantly. Patients can obtain timely healthcare services at lower costs — without having to travel to the hospital every time.

Second, with custom alerts on every patient, doctors are able to optimise treatment plans, focus on deteriorating patients and provide improved proactive care. In short, an efficient healthcare delivery with early intervention and treatment. The contactless technology will also serve as an effective tool to keep a tab on the vitals of people during their post-surgery recovery phase at home. This means patients will not be seen running the corridors of the hospitals for every day post surgery checkups.

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The kind of “catch illness before its symptoms are visible” with the use of technology without even going to the hospital or having no knowledge about it yourself is the future of healthcare.

Am I Heading Towards a Heart Attack?

Contactless health monitoring is disruptive in terms of early detection of patient deterioration. For instance, Hyderabad-based start-up Vigocare has also come up with a device that enables doctors to measure body vitals like ECG, skin temperature, respiratory rate, blood oxygen, and heart rate, among others and notifies the care team of any abnormalities before it becomes critical. As soon as the device is positioned on the chest of the patient, the medical-grade biosensors in it gather the health data which, in turn, is transferred to the cloud where an AI-driven central command centre analyses the data to produce results, as well as alerts on the app.

This kind of “catch illness before its symptoms are visible” without even going to the hospital or having no knowledge about it yourself is the future of healthcare. I might be breathing normally right now, but who knows if I am headed towards an illness. This kind of technology will become vital in future given the lifestyles we are leading.

AI monitoring with the help of these devices (which might become the most valuable accessory in future!) will eliminate regular checkups and predict health issues in advance. The contactless device will monitor your vitals on a regular basis and precept the future health issue that may or mayn’t arise. Hope my heart is doing well…

Predictive Data Analysis will be a Boon

Contactless health monitoring is creating a big data pool of patients’ medical history. This combined with AI is helping companies churn out algorithms for analysis and future predictions. With doctors having access to patient data, the delivery rate will be much more efficient. This will also pave the way for companies to accurately predict specific disorders, especially in neurology, pulmonology and cardiology space besides providing an impetus to medical research.

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