What’s the best way to make quick cash while working at a decent job that you can add to your portfolio as a graphic designer or a digital marketer? Taking up a gig, of course! Through the gig economy, you can broaden your experience and horizons while getting the opportunity to work with many different organisations, thus developing entrepreneurial skills before you even start a business. 

What’s the gig economy?

The gig economy is a job market system that generates revenue through short-term, verbal, or on-paper contracts between an on-demand employer and a freelancer or an independent professional. Characterised by quick jobs and tasks that include an exchange of the job well done for cash, the gig economy creates self-employment for thousands of independent workers. Unlike full-time employment, gigs are much more effective in creating a variable source of income for workers and a faster completion of jobs for companies or employers. Also, it’s much more freeing for both employees and employers since they don’t get bound by stringent employment contracts. 

How GenZ and Millennials are supporting the gig economy

The GenZ and Millennial generations are a technologically savvy lot who can easily adapt to the evolving gig economy. Unlike their predecessors, they are looking for fulfilling jobs that capitalise on their talents and that don’t entail troublesome work timings or commutes. GenZ and Millennials are willing to use the most advanced technologies for the smallest tasks like connecting virtually across borders, using productivity tools, or AI (artificial intelligence) based automation tools to get their work done more efficiently. Thus, they are supporting and raising the gig economy.

Consumer Tech trends in the remote working economy

The work-from-home or the remote working economy rests on the foundation of consumer technology. Consumer tech trends are encouraging more workers to take up gigs instead of a 9 to 5 job. 

Gig marketplaces

Gig marketplaces like UpWork, PeoplePerHour and Fiverr have been around for a while but now they are seeing a huge influx of gig revenue. Since they have become the go-to source for relevant jobs, these consumer tech platforms are being sought after by organisations who are now creating a verified presence on them to hire qualified gig workers. Now even social media platforms like LinkedIn are turning into gig marketplaces as gig workers are actively looking to connect with employers. 

Conference and meeting apps

We are all too familiar with Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams. But now with the rise in popularity of Clubhouse, social audio apps are quickly becoming platforms that are facilitating collaborations between gig employers and workers. 

Digital gig wallets

For gig and remote workers, the biggest concern is to receive timely payments and not get defrauded by employers who are looking to get free work. Digital wallets like Escrows and PayPal bind gig employers into a financial contract where they are obliged to pay half of the project cost in advance and secure the remaining half so that the workers receive the payment automatically post completion of the project. A lot of gig marketplaces are already using this technology. 

Virtual events platforms

Whether you are a gig worker or a remote worker, attending conferences, events, and expos, is a part of professional networking. Virtual event platforms are AI based tools to set up real-time conferences, and events that look like they are happening in real life. A lot of prominent national and international events and conferences like the Startup India International Summit and Viva Tech have taken place through virtual event platforms. 

Team collaboration tools

Team collaboration tools like Slack and Trello are consumer tech trends that allow gig and remote workers to organise their work effectively especially when there are multiple projects in the pipeline. Using these technology tools, anyone can have a professional workspace experience irrespective of who you are working for, even if you work on small gigs. 

How the consumer market was transformed

Open to all price points

The demand for consumer technology like Tablets, laptops, and wearables has become very high. Industries like ed-tech rely on these devices and manufacturers are drastically reducing price points for tablets and laptops of different specifications to cater to the rising demand. For example, a remote learning tablet or contactless digital kiosks at public places come with lower specifications and variable price points. Before the remote working and gig economy were prevalent, purchasing a tablet was expensive, but now it’s much more affordable for students and workers. 

Equal distribution of wealth and opportunity across the world

Imagine the teachers of yesterday who had decent paying jobs even though they lived in villages, Tier II or III cities. They were respected and received all the employment benefits. But suddenly, they couldn’t even go to school every day and their income source was cut off. But now, teachers can easily get onboarded on ed-tech platforms from remote villages and teach globally through consumer technology thus enabling equal distribution of wealth and opportunity to every corner of the world. Same goes with handicraft workers like village and tribal women. They can easily sell their goods on social commerce platforms like Meesho.

Electric vehicles are the future of sustainability and an answer to the rising fuel prices in the country. The government is working hard to promote entrepreneurship in this segment. Ola’s newly launching EV is part of the Electric Vehicle Policy 2021. The EVangelise Challenge is also a part of these efforts. 

What is the EVangelise Challenge?

EVangelise is an Electric Vehicle Innovation Challenge organised by iCreate (International Centre for Technology and Entrepreneurship, India’s leading innovation-based start-up incubator) that’s occurring in conjunction with ‘Start-up India’. This challenge is designed for the Electric Vehicle Industry and is meant to encourage innovations in the two and three-wheeler segment in India. It is an international event that will unite innovators, the EV industry, institutions and government bodies. 

Everything you need to know about EVangelise

Dates and deadlines

This is an annual event spanning a duration of 7 months. Application submissions were opened on the 17th of July and the deadline for submission is the 15th of January, 2022. The winners will be announced next year on the 22nd of February 2022. 

Application process

Start-ups wanting to apply for participation need to visit the official ‘EVangelise’ website and submit your application by filling out a simple form containing details about your start-up along with contact information. 

Eligibility criteria

Entrepreneurs who are offering breakthrough innovations for the EV Industry and addressing key problem statements in the industry are invited to participate in the challenge. College students, independent innovators, and start-ups are eligible for the event. Key stakeholders from the Automotive industry including Investors, Mentors, Corporates and start-ups in the Ideation, Validation, Early Traction, and Scaling stages fulfil the eligibility criteria. 

Benefits for participants and winners

A number of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives are up for grabs for participants and winners. Fiscal incentives include cash prizes for the top finalists in three key start-up stages (Idea, Design, and the Build stage). Non fiscal incentives include organising Bootcamps, Masterclasses, and Tech Mentoring by iCreate and Industry experts. 

Participants that endure to the final stage of the event get the opportunity to participate in an International EV race at Kevadia, Guajarat in a landmark setting before the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue. Finalists also get to pitch their start-ups to an exclusive jury, and get access to incubation support, market connections, and mentorship. Finalists also get to showcase their innovations at the EV Expo. 

Food prepared by home cooks, housewives and stay-at-home mothers is the most valuable and precious asset which money can’t buy. No gourmet restaurant can provide the satisfaction of eating a fresh, home-style meal made by experienced hands. 

Daalchini, the Woman-led Enterprise

Daalchini is a food tech start-up based in the Delhi-NCR region that’s improving access to affordable home cooked food through IoT (Internet of Things) technology. The company sets up food kiosks and provides instant, affordable, healthy home cooked food through IoT enabled phygital (physical + digital) vending machines. Prerna Kalra leads the enterprise and is currently one of India’s emerging women leaders who turned an idea perceived as feminine (home cooked food) into a novel start-up innovation.

Prerna Kalra – Brain behind the company 

Prerna Kalra, the brain behind Daalchini is a former Paytm employee who co-founded the start-up alongside her Paytm colleague Vidya Bhushan. 

Her womanpreneur story

Prerna Kalra’s womanpreneur story stemmed from a brief work visit to China where she found the answer to her constant struggle with accessing fresh home cooked meals amidst a busy schedule every day. The answer was found in vending machines that could dispense fresh food items. She leveraged the huge tiffin services sector in India after thorough research into the market for home cooked food. 

Business acumen

Prerna’s keen eye quickly observed that despite the home tiffin market comprising over 3500 services providers back in 2017, access to home food was still difficult for consumers. Through Daalchini, she quickly tapped into the demand for strong tiffin and home food services. She also identified several gaps in the market like the shortfall of the logistics infrastructure which she fulfilled through her start-up Daalchini. 

Prerna’s Vision for Home-Cooked Meals in Food Tech

Prerna’s vision for home-cooked meals in food tech was to make healthy and affordable home food instantly available to consumers. The company’s fleet of smart vending machines that make this possible became operational in business settings such as offices, hospitals, and hotels. 

How she led the vending machine concept for home-style meals

Prerna led the company into a vending machine concept for home-style meals by bringing together a team of home chefs who started working at 3 am every day to prepare daily fresh food using prescribed recipes and ingredients. Food safety compliance norms are met with and monitored to ensure that the food is consumable, healthy, and safe to be vended out of the Daalchini kiosks. 

If you’ve been on LinkedIn, you’ll know that it’s a very Professional platform with industry leaders and experts sharing their thought leadership insights regularly. However, it’s safe to say that there’s not many opportunities for blue and gray collar job searching, or networking. Say a plumber or a carpenter joins LinkedIn. There’s not much he/she can do to connect with his peers or find recruiters hiring through the platform. But another big problem in India when it comes to Professional Networking is that most of the workers across the country are not even aware of a platform like LinkedIn. 

Apna, the Recruitment Start-up

Apna is a Professional Networking start-up created by an Apple alum. Headquartered in Bengaluru, it’s popular for its Professional Networking platform for blue and gray collar Indian workers. The start-up is bridging the networking gap for the low rung of workers in India. The platform is free to use for job seekers and provides them an opportunity to connect with the top recruiters in the country. They have a mobile app that goes by the same name which is available in multiple languages. 

Professional Networking – The LinkedIn for Blue and Grey Collar workers

Apna is a pioneer in the blue and gray collar workforce sector of India. They are enabling the hundreds of low-skilled workers in India to create a digital professional identity for themselves and get access to high-quality jobs. 

Apna’s services for India’s Workforce

On Apna’s platform, users can upskill themselves, join communities of job seekers in their own league and get employed. Users can connect with employers who are offering attractive jobs for their skillsets and discover opportunities they wouldn’t have stumbled upon otherwise. They also get a platform to submit digital applications and interact with potential employers. Other features of Apna which job seekers can benefit from include interview performance prep.

Designations available for skilled professionals

Technical roles are up for grabs for blue and gray collar workers. Also, job roles like Carpenter, Painter and Field Sales Agent are the prominent job opportunities available on Apna. 

Apna’s numbers speak for itself

The total user base of Apna is averaging around the 10 M mark. The month of May saw 15 M job interviews conducted through their app. It currently hosts over 10,000 top-notch recruiters including unicorn start-ups. Apna’s market position is strengthened to the level that they can open their services in a new Indian city and drive 10,000 job interviews there in a span of two days. 

Apna’s Differentiators – why are they different?

Their main differentiator is that the platform is available in multiple languages. They are a vernacular professional networking platform for workers across India who are well-versed in their native, local languages. The next differentiator of the start-up is that they are giving recruiters an avenue to connect with hyperlocal candidates with relevant skills who are difficult to find otherwise. Employers can successfully find high quality talent on Apna with the lowest friction possible compared to traditional recruiting practices for the Blue and Gray workforce segment. 

As the number of start-ups in the Indian start-up ecosystem grows exponentially, many are unable to get access to industry leading mentorship and resources. Such start-ups struggle to make an impact, despite harbouring sustainable and robust ideas. Accelerator programmes are platforms that propel start-ups forward with the much-needed guidance and support that acts like the backbone in their growth. 

What is this programme?

BITS Pilani’s programme extends help to Indian start-ups to break into the entrepreneurial world which is currently riddled with a number of challenges. It’s a programme that’s working to boost the Indian start-up ecosystem as well as the market for lucrative start-ups that are getting government recognition. 

What is Conquest?

Conquest is an initiative by BITS Pilani with its 17th chapter currently in progress. It is India’s pioneering non-profit start-up accelerator run by students. It’s also a programme which is the largest of its kind in the country. Conquest provides start-ups in India access to mentors, investors, and a much-needed knowledge base. Start-ups get a chance to have one-on-one interactions with sector-specific mentors. Early-stage start-ups also enjoy individualised feedback and guidance. 

Beneficiaries of the Conquest programme

The beneficiaries of the Conquest programme are mainly aspiring founders. Start-ups backed by sustainable ideas with the potential to solve complex problems are being given the spotlight by Conquest. So far, the most interesting start-ups belonging to a variety of sectors and domains have been picked by Conquest. 

Application process for start-ups

This year’s edition of Conquest is currently underway. Registrations closed on the 25th of May for prototype and early-stage companies at the pre-funding stage. Start-ups can apply for the programme next year by registering on the official website, free of cost. Currently, the Online Mentoring Programme is underway for 15 shortlisted start-ups. 

The Mentoring Programme which is happening online will conclude on the 15th of July. The Grand Finale of the 17th edition of Conquest will take place on the 25th of July in Bangalore where winning start-ups can directly pitch their business models to industry leaders. 

Eligibility criteria for start-ups

The eligibility criteria for start-ups to be considered by Conquest for the accelerator programme are that they should be homegrown, domestic ideas or established businesses. They can belong to any industry sector and must have a team size between 1-20 members (as per Conquest 2020’s criteria). 

Sectors covered by Conquest

Some of the prominent industry sectors covered by Conquest include E-commerce, Packaging-as-a-Service (PaaS), social media (consumer tech) and data intelligence (enterprise tech), IoT based Smart Water Management, Agri-Tech, SaaS, Robotics, Health Tech, and the EV (Electric Vehicle) segment. 

WinZO is a Gaming start-up founded in the year 2018. They have a pure ‘Made in India’ product which is a vernacular Android app available in 12 languages with a curated portfolio of more than 70 games. It is India’s largest social gaming app which creates competitive multi-player gaming experiences. They have a vast influencer network of 50 million registered users and are targeting largely underserved demographics in India.

They partner with leading game developers and third-party game studios providing in-game integration of their social gaming framework. WinZO hosts their partners’ games on their app. In turn, gamers on WinZO can enjoy a Netflix-like multiplayer user experience. 

WinZO and Griffin Gaming Partner’s unification

Griffin Gaming Partners is uniting with WinZO through the latter’s recent Series C funding round valued at $65 M which was led by Griffin. As part of this deal, Griffin’s co-founder ‘Phil Sanderson’ will be inducted into WinZO’s Board of Directors. This fundraise will be Griffin’s maiden investment in the Indian mobile gaming market. 

Griffin is headquartered in California, and they were attracted by WinZO’s management team as well as the extraordinary vision they held for their product. Their interest was also piqued by WinZO’s incredible retention and monetisation metrics. 

WinZO, on the other hand is all set to disrupt the Indian gaming ecosystem by using the experience and insights into the global media and entertainment landscape which Griffin brings with it through their unification. This funding deal has taken the total valuation of investment raised by WinZO so far to $90 M.

What are Private Equity (PE) funds?

Private Equity Funds are investment bodies which put capital into non public traded companies. PE money comes from private sources. PE firms specialise in specific industry sectors and are mostly located at Tier I Indian cities.

Private Equity’s interest in Consumer Technology

Private Equity Funds are interested in funding sprees for technology-based consumer brands with the potential to disrupt the market. Consumer Tech is on the hot list for PE funds this year alongside sectors like healthcare, IT, and ITES. Consumer Tech is showing ample growth opportunities making it a hotbed for investor play. The main reason for this is that PE funds’ strategic exposure to industries like Consumer Tech which have largely been resilient during Covid is working well for them.

The Consumer Technology sector has been seeing investments from PE funds right from 2019. So, this is not a new trend but one that’s been picking up pace. Among consumer tech companies which saw highest PE funding, the name that pops up is Jio Platforms. In fact, Jio Platforms bagged the highest PE funding in India amounting to $8.9 B. The second most well-known name is of course, Byju’s which recently received $500 M from PE fund Silverlake. PayTM is the next start-up from the Fintech world which has partial private equity ownership. Nykaa had in 2019 obtained INR 100 Cr in funding from private equity fund TPG capital. General Atlantic, a Private Equity firm has invested in Unacademy, India’s Unicorn ed-tech start-up.

Machbee Innovations Private Limited is an Indian tech-based company that uses the latest technologies such as artificial intelligence, embedded systems, Internet of things (IoT) and blockchain to create innovative solutions for easing everyday problems. Founded in 2018, Machbee offers a wide range of hardware and software products for the healthcare, consumer electronics and biomedical industries.

The start-up has come at the forefront in providing aid for battling the COVID crisis in India. Due to the virus, more and more COVID-19 patients need respiratory assistance and intensive care. So Machbee Innovations has begun commercial production of its small and affordable COVID-focused emergency ventilation equipment- the Jeeva Vaayu Series (JV-50) Emergency Ventilators.

Machbee Innovations: ‘Jeeva Vaayu’ Giving Oxygen to the Nation

The Jeeva Vaayu Series (JV-50) ventilator manufactured by Machbee is an emergency respirator specifically designed to deal with COVID-19 cases. The device is based on the automatic Ambu bag (manual or self-inflating bag) model. It is portable, compact and easy to use.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) recently shared its immediate growth perspective for the smartphone market in its ‘Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker Report’. IDC is a premier global provider of market intelligence for the telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. The ‘Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker Report’ is a product of IDC which offers technology and forecast coverage on price bands, and geographic scope of feature phones and smartphones. 

Key highlights from the report: What MSMEs can expect by 2022.

Increase in smartphone shipments

Smartphone shipments will touch an all-time high of 1.38 B units by 2021. By the end of 2022, this number will grow by 3.8 per cent and touch a new high of 1.43 B. Even amidst the tough competition from parallel consumer tech markets, the smartphone market is recovering at an accelerated pace. 

Demand for 5G devices 

By the end of 2021, 5G shipments will see a growth of up to 130 per cent and see triple digit growth in all regions apart from China. 2021 will be the biggest year for the smartphone market in terms of growth. 

Low price points on smartphone devices 

The Average Selling Price (ASP) of smartphones will peak with a 9.7% growth due to the arrival of 5G in 2021. After the peak, the prices of 5G Android devices will plummet. MSMEs can expect high demand for mid-range and low-end 4G phones within emerging markets. A low, single-digit growth will be seen up till 2025 along with a five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.7%.

Today, wearable items are being promoted and adopted by companies more than ever. And there’s a reason for that. Wearable devices are electronic devices that can be worn on the body and have specific practical applications. Modern wearables can, in fact, replace your smartphone in various instances. The devices are expected to have a major impact on health, fitness, and recreation in the future, and that’s the reason for the big push in the segment.

As per the latest data, smartwatches and fitness bands in electronic wearables recorded the biggest quarter in India in 2020. Retailers sold 15.2 million units, an increase of 198.2% over the previous year. In addition, the country exported 1 million units in the first quarter and 1.3 million units in the subsequent quarter.

Chinese Electronics Giant Xiaomi Leads the Indian Wearables Market

Subsequent new launches are driving the growth for brands like Noise, Realme, Apple, and Amazfit. Chinese electronics company Xiaomi is the largest company in the wearables sector in India with a market share of 48.1% and an annual growth of 54.7%. TATA-owned Titan has mounted a surprise push to emerge in the second spot with a market portion of 14. 5 per cent as its shipments grew 24.1 per cent during 2020.