Sunkissed Goa is not just one of the hottest tourist destinations in India, but also an emerging startup ecosystem despite the limited connectivity, inadequate access to private investments and a myriad of infrastructure woes. Among these, the lack of investments is perhaps the hardest challenge for entrepreneurs to overcome. After all, connectivity and logistics issues can be overcome with ingenuity, but the lack of funds is a hurdle that founders cannot cross alone. 

Amey Karmali of Centre for Incubation and Business Acceleration (CIBA) agrees that the biggest challenge for Goan startups is this lack of access to funds. The state does not have any angel investor or venture capitalists, he added to emphasis the point. Unlike their major presence neighbouring Karnataka and Maharashtra, VCs view Goa only as a holiday destination. There’s some relief in the form of government intervention.

Even though the state government has started offering grants to emerging startups, the process is far from simple. It’s said to take about five to six months and that can be the difference between survival and shutdown for an early stage startup. 

Under the Goa state startup policy, the government is disbursing a one-time grant of INR 10 Lakh ($15,373) to startups with a minimum viable product. 

According to Karmali, the Goa startup ecosystem has only started growing in 2014, with the help of central government’s startup-focused initiatives such as Startup India. Hence, the volume of startups is low in the state but there is a definite sign of growth across the state’s coastline.  

Goa Startups To The Fore

The startups in the region are working across multiple sectors including healthtech, HRtech, digital payments, tourism and hospitality among others. 

1. Kallows

The healthtech startup was founded by Gajanan Nagarsekar in 2007. Kallows has built a flagship smart health monitor called MobMon which has the capability of streaming live diagnostic quality ECG, heart beat per minute and oxygen saturation (SpO2) to a phone or tablet. 

2. Jobsoid

The HRtech company was founded by Yashvit N in 2013. Jobsoid is an online applicant tracking system (ATS) for businesses to streamline all recruitment processes from sourcing candidates to making the right hire. It optimises recruitment time by automating the screening and shortlisting process. 

3. Minkspay

Founded in 2017, Minkspay is a mobile/DTH recharge and utility bills payment platform for small retailers. The company claims to have served 5K retailers in Goa, Maharashtra, and Karnataka.  Other services offered by Minkspay include seamless payment acceptance powered by UPI QR code, multiple value-added financial and micro banking services, and a progressive loyalty program for retailers to earn money with every transaction.

4. B:Live

Founded in 2018 by Samarth Kholkar and Sandeep Mukherjee, B:Live is a travel company offering electric bike tours across Goa. B:Live tours are driven by local and claims to give quintessential Goa experience to the tourists.

5. Real learning

Founded by Akhil Singh, and Mohsin, RealLearning.in is an artificial intelligence-backed software to evaluate handwritten answer-sheets. It claims to save about 70% of the time taken by evaluators and teachers, and generates data-based insights for each student. 

6. Mrinq technologies

 Founded by Malcolm DSouza, and Rohin Parkar in 2017, Mrinq is an IoT (internet of things) product development and solutions company based out of Fatorda, Goa. Its flagship product Spintly uses BLE mesh technology to offer smart lighting control and building access through a smartphone. 

7. HandyTrain

Founded in 2015, HandyTrain is a mobile-based training platform for corporate employees, which graduated through Prototyze, a venture studio based in Panaji. HandyTrain’s learning and training platform helps businesses and organisations enable training for on-the-ground workforces such as in the retail environment or sales personnel at startups or companies that feet on the street. HandyTrain’s bite-sized multimedia-rich content is tailored for the specific needs of each business and everything is done on a smartphone. HandyTrain claims to have trained over 150K users in 15 countries in 12 different languages.

8. Lightcat

Currently operating in stealth mode, Lightcat uses data science to optimise client products. It claims to create invisible customer polls, activating them at the right time, right action and for the right type of user. Eyeing the $15 Bn customer experience market, Lightcat says its product is at the intersection of Uber’s “why did you cancel this ride” feature and customer interviews. Lightcat has recently been selected in the Axilor Accelerator programme and hence, shifted base to Bengaluru. 

9. Transerve Technologies

Founded in 2009, Transerve is an enterprise SaaS company is working with geospatial technology to develop smart city solutions and advanced data collection tech for data democratisation. Some of its clients include SAIL, Goa government, Delhi government, Tata Trusts and more. 

10. The Legal Capsule

Founded by Gautami Raiker in 2018, The Legal Capsule aims to make legal documentation hassle-free and cost effective. The company offers pre-drafted, ready to use legal documents for users to edit based on their own requirements. 

In 1832, Robert Anderson developed world’s first crude electric vehicle(EV). Nearly two centuries later the world is waking up to the advantages of EVs. Today, China leads the market with around 45% (2.3 Mn) of total electric cars on its roads in 2018, followed by Europe with 24% of the global fleet and the United States at 22%.

According to the ICCT (International Council On Clean Transportation) report, nearly 50% of the world’s electric vehicle sales are concentrated in 25 global cities, called the EV capitals of the world.

And, what makes them the EV capitals? “They all have comprehensive policy packages that include mandates in addition to financial incentives for consumers, funding for infrastructure development, and consumer-awareness initiatives,” says the report.

Government EV Policies In India

As India is also slowly moving towards formulating an effective EV policy, here is a rundown of different policies that are in place in India:

India Central Government EV Policy

The central government of India launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme for a two-year period at an approved outlay of INR 795 Cr in 2015. The scheme, extended till September 2018, focussed on technology development, demand creation, pilot projects and charging infrastructure.

Under phase II of FAME, the government is planning to extend financial support of INR 8,730 Cr for three years. The government will be largely focussing on the deployment of electric buses on the Indian roads. This move comes from the response received by the centre during the first phase FAME from 2015-2018 when it received around 47 proposals which demanded deployment of 3,144 buses across 44 cities. There is no fixed timeline mandated by any government (state or central) to complete the transition of state transport union (STU) buses to EVs.

5595 electric buses have been sanctioned to 64 cities and the related STUs. 5095 units out of it are for intra-city transport. Currently, there are approximately 1.95 lakh buses under several STUs in India. The fund support includes INR 2,500 Cr for buses, INR 1,000 Cr for four-wheelers, INR 600 Cr for two-wheelers (with maximum speed greater than 25 km) and INR 750 crore for high speed three-wheelers. With this policy, the central government is planning to prioritise the development of public transportation, shared mobility, and smaller electric vehicles such as two-wheelers.

The government-backed Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has issued tenders for 20K EVs to be deployed across the country for government use. With this the government aims an EV sales penetration of 30% for private cars, 70% for commercial cars, 40% for buses, and 80% for two- and three-wheelers by 2030.

The government, in a recent move, has approved green license plates for electric vehicles in order to encourage people to use them. The purpose behind is their easy identification for proposed benefits such as concessional toll, preferential treatment for parking and free entry in congested zones.

Andhra Pradesh EV Policy

The policy released by the Andhra government mainly focusses on promoting innovation through grants and venture funds to research organisations, incubators and startups working on next-generation battery technology, fuel cell technologies, EV power trains and EV electronics and enable investment in charging/battery-swapping infrastructure and hydrogen generation and fueling station development.

The government plans to attract combined investments of more than INR 30K Cr in the next five years with an employment potential for 60,000 people. It also targets to bring in manufacturing units of high-density energy storage of at least 10GWh capacity in the next five years to cater to both domestic as well as export market. The complete APSRTC bus fleet of over 11K buses will be converted into electric buses (BEVs/FCEVs) by 2029, the government has claimed with the first phase of 100% conversion of the bus fleet in top 4 cities by 2024.

Bihar EV Policy

Still in the draft phase, Bihar Electric Vehicle Policy 2019 is aimed at the creation of manufacturing ecosystem for e-vehicles in the state, fulfilling sustainable development goals in the transport system and making Bihar the most preferred investment destination for EV sector.

• Mission of the state policy: End manual paddling of rickshaws in the state and upgrade them into 100% electric mobility by 2022
• Create fast-charging stations at every 50 km on state highways/national highways in the state
• Attract on-ground investments of INR 2,500 Cr and create direct empowerment opportunities for 10K persons in the state

Karnataka EV Policy 

Karnataka government formulated the policy in September 2017. The policy mainly aims to create an environment that would attract investments of INR 31K Cr and also create employment opportunities for 55K people. It aims to make Karnataka the preferred destination for development of electric mobility and to develop human capital to meet the needs of the industry. Being one of the early policymakers, the state provides incentives like interest-free loans on the net SGST for EV manufacturing enterprises. Karnataka also plans to develop charging infrastructure as a commercially viable business venture that attracts private investment.

Kerala EV Policy

Kerala plans to build world-class training and skill centres for EV professionals with niche skills for the global EV industry. The policy targets a 200K two-wheelers, 50K three-wheelers, 1K goods carriers, 3,000 buses and 100 ferry boats by 2020.

The policy has a strong focus on the production side in both the EV value chain and the infrastructure value chain.

Maharashtra EV Policy

Last year, Maharashtra came up with an effective EV policy to develop Maharashtra as the leader in EV manufacturing and use of EV and promote export of EV, components, battery and charging equipment.

It aims to increase the number of EVs registered in Maharashtra to 5 Lakh and grab an investment of INR 25K Cr in EV manufacturing and component manufacturing, battery manufacturing/assembly enterprises and charging infrastructure equipment manufacturing in the state. The policy also offers incentives for the purchase of e-buses and buyers and end-users of private vehicles.

Madhya Pradesh EV Policy

Madhya Pradesh also joined the EV bandwagon this year with the main objective to promote sustainable electric mobility and bring about a material improvement in Madhya Pradesh air quality by bringing down emissions from the transport sector. To do so, this policy will seek to drive the rapid adoption of electric vehicles in a manner where they contribute to 25% of all new public transport vehicles registrations by 2026.

This policy will also seek to put in place measures to support the creation of jobs in driving, selling, financing, servicing, charging and manufacturing of EVs. It further provides incentives like free parking, free road tax/registration, swappable battery to e-rickshaws, financial aid from the DUTF (Dedicated Urban Transport Fund) for electric buses.

Delhi/NCR EV Policy

Delhi being the state with utmost need for clean mobility thanks to its problems with pollution, the updated policy released in late 2019 aims to bring down emissions from the transport sector. The policy aims at pushing rapid adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) with the goal of their constituting 25% of all new vehicle registrations by 2023. The policy prioritises two-wheelers, three-wheelers, public transport (bus) and taxi fleets. Delhi plans to add 50% e-buses to public transport by 2023.

The state reportedly also plans to encourage long-term investment by dealers and charging facility providers to create enabling conditions for private and public charging infrastructure. Delhi’s policy provides a unique electricity tariff for EV charging and encourages discoms to work with owners of residential and non-residential buildings to ensure adequate power supply infrastructure for the installation of these charging points. Additionally, the policy also promises that the state will have public charging infrastructure at least every 3 Km.

Tamil Nadu EV Policy

Like other states, TN also aims to attract huge investment for the EV industry in the state. The state has set a goal of INR 500 Bn in investment in EV manufacturing and created a comprehensive EV ecosystem in the state and thereby targetting the creation of 1.5 Lakh new jobs. The policy aims to:

• Create robust infrastructure for electric vehicles including adequate power supply and network of charging points with favourable power tariff.
• Promote innovation in EV for automotive and shared mobility by providing the ecosystem and infrastructure to make Tamil Nadu, the EV hub of India.
• Create a pool of skilled workforce for the EV industry through the technical institutions available in the State and create new jobs in the EV industry.
• Make Tamil Nadu the preferred destination for electric vehicles and component manufacturing units including battery and charging infrastructure.

Telangana EV Policy

India’s newest state Telangana aims to attract investments worth $3 Bn and create employment for 50K people by 2022 through EVs in shared mobility, charging infrastructure development and EV manufacturing activities. It also clearly defines incentives on the demand and supply side of the EV ecosystem, draws a clear roadmap for developing charging infrastructure in the state and provides incentives related to various components of ownership cost of Electric Vehicles

There is also an emphasis on skill development for EV design, development & manufacturing and aims to promote manufacturing of battery cells and packs through special status/ incentives. The Telangana government targets 100% electric buses by 2030 for intra-city, intercity and interstate transport with 25% targetted by 2022 and 50% by 2025..

Uttar Pradesh EV Policy

Drafted this year, the policy encourages the use of HEVs and plug-in EVs during the transition phase. It targets 2 lakh (200,000) charging (fast, slow and swapping) stations by 2024 and 1 Mn EVs on the road in all categories and 70% electric vehicles in public transport by 2030.

The state offers incentives such as capital interest subsidy, infrastructure interest subsidy, industrial quality subsidy, exemption from stamp duty and electricity duty, SGST reimbursement etc. for EV manufacturing units – large, medium, small and micro alike. It also has a single window system in place for all approvals for EV and battery manufacturing units.

Uttarakhand EV Policy

The policy aims to promote the adoption of EVs to create a clean Uttarakhand and establish the state as a preferred destination for EV and EV component manufacturing. The policy talks about 100% electrification of public transport (e-buses), shared mobility including e-bike-taxis and goods transport using electric 2W, 3W and 4W and other mini goods-transport vehicles in five priority cities by 2030.

Why We Need An Uniform And Effective EV policy

Policies have great influence on adoption of EVs. The EV capitals of the world offer measures such as fuel economy standards and incentives for zero and low-emissions vehicles and focus on charging infrastructure. An effective EV policy will help in building confidence of private manufacturers and effective programmes can increase demands for EVs.

“India is well placed to start the EV revolution. All that is required is the will to do it and the governments with their various steps have clearly indicated that it is in favour of the EVs,” Prerana Chaturvedi, CEO and spokesperson of Evolet told Inc42.

She added that the reception that various EV products are receiving is also very encouraging and at this rate we will soon witness the right penetration in the market

Renewable purchase obligation (RPO) regulations are in place for discoms to increase green power within their licensee area (both from solar and non-solar).  In the way forward, it could be stricter for better implementation and to ensure RPO compliance, feel experts.

“Battery manufacturing units could increase their RE-mix in their production process, usage of EV battery for secondary applications like grid storage as a stationery battery, and also recycling of critical materials such as cobalt etc. to limit new battery production and minerals exploration process thereby. Tesla is a similar example,” Alekhya Datta, fellow, electricity and fuels division, TERI told us.

This article is part of Inc42’s special year-end series — 2019 In Review — in which we will refresh your memory on the major milestones for Indian startups this year such as the major funding deals, their impact on various stakeholders from entrepreneurs, to venture funds and VC investors. Find more stories from this series here.

Indian tech startups raised the largest amount of funding, this year, according to the upcoming Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2019 by Datalabs by Inc42 . The year 2019 has surpassed 2018 stats in many aspects, with many new milestones and achievements.

In 2018, if the Indian tech startups had raised $11 Bn in funding across 743 deals with more than 637 Indian startups raising funding, in 2019, 660 unique startups raised a whopping $13.16 Bn funding through 800 deals. This is comparable to 2017, numbers. The record though still held by 2016, when 1,002 deals were recorded across the year. Despite a good start to the year, 2019 was not able to clear those milestones.

Startups That Entered The Unicorn Club

In contrast to 2018, when according to Inc42 DataLabs, 10 startups entered the unicorn club, only seven Indian tech startups have turned unicorns, this year. While this could also be a sign of Indian tech startup ecosystem stepping into 2.0 with more stability and maturity, analysing the growth curve and potential soonicorns, DataLabs also predicts that by 2025, India will have over 100 unicorns.

Startup India Milestones

Launched in 2016, Startup India has sensitised the Indian ecosystem about entrepreneurship, innovation and the business value, startups bring in to the country. While most of the states have now dedicated startup policies, the central government’s flagship Startup India programme registered a parabolic growth instead of an exponential one. However, it crossed plenty of milestones in 2019.

Interestingly, out of INR 10K Cr Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) committed to disburse by 2025, only INR 695.94 Cr has been disbursed to the startups. The government of India doesn’t directly invest in the startups but through Alternate Investment Funds. The investment made by the government varies from 20% to 30% of their funds. The catalysed fund that’s been invested in startups currently stands at INR 2,669.83 Cr.

In 2018, 541 recognised startups were registered on GeM with over 281 products being published. The total startups registered on GeM is currently 2,263.

Policy Developments

Policy-wise, 2019 has been a landmark year for Indian startups, as the finance minister in July, this year announced the angel tax abrogation for Startup India-recognised startups completely. FM Nirmala Sitharaman also stated that the decision will be equally applicable for startups which have already been notified.

This year, while the government passed laws to prohibit e-cigarettes completely, it also implemented new national policies on software products as well as electronics with little change to the previous ones.

Electric Vehicle Growth

Among the other major milestones for the startup ecosystem, the developments in the EV industry have been promising. According to FAME India stats, around 28K vehicles were sold out under the FAME subsidy this year. This includes Phase I as well as Phase II of the FAME scheme.

This year, we saw the implementation of Phase II of FAME India scheme after Phase I extension expired on March 31, 2019. With a budget allocation of INR 10K Cr, the Phase II subsidy scheme will be active for three years and will mainly focus on supporting electrification of public & shared transportation.

The scheme aims to support through incentives about 7000 e-buses, 5 lakh e-3 wheelers, 55000 e-4 wheelers passenger cars and 10 lakh electric two-wheelers.

In addition, a budget provision of INR 1000 Cr has been made for setting up of charging infrastructure under the Scheme and Department of Heavy Industry had issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) inviting proposals for the establishment of 1000 charging stations under this phase of the Scheme.

According to the official updates, out of about 500 charging stations sanctioned under Phase-I of FAME-India Scheme about 230 charging stations have been installed. PSU EESL has already deployed 65 public charging stations for EVs in the country. EESL is also tasked to deploy around 300 AC and 170 DC captive chargers across government offices in the country.

Concerned with India’s economic slowdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is now reportedly taking inputs from startups, software makers, and electronics manufacturers on how to increase exports and the pace for bringing fifth-generation (5G) network.

According to ET, Modi, in a three-hour-long meeting, urged the industry participants to share the problems that they are facing in terms of policies. “We need to found solutions,” Modi added.

During the meeting, representatives from the startup ecosystem told PM Modi that startups in India are facing difficulties in raising funds from Indian banks. Not getting funds from banks force these startups to sell their stakes for investments, which leads to dilution of their equity, industry leaders said.

One of the representatives who attended this meeting told ET that the PM has been clear in making India a manufacturing and export hub for electronics. For the same, the Indian government has recently highlighted that it is planning to increase export incentives for smartphone brands manufacturing in the country.

In the third quarter of 2019, India’s economic growth had crashed to 4.5%, which was a six-year low and the worst for the current BJP-led government. Moreover, economic experts are stressing that in the financial year 2020, the growth might slow down to below 5%.

Notably, the meeting was attended by venture capitalist and IT industry expert, Mohandas Pai, chairman of Indian Angel Network, Saurabh Srivastava, general manager of Intel India, Nivruti Rai, chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services, Rajesh Gopinath, founder of Practo, Shashank ND, among others.

New-Age Tech To Make India A Global Superpower

PM Modi, during the meeting, also discussed how the government can cope up with new-age innovations happening around the world. On their part, the industry experts said that the government needs to foster research and development in next-generation technology.

Highlighting how China is leveraging these new-age technologies, industry leaders echoed that if India wants to become the next global superpower, it needs to cope with the pace for adopting these technologies. “We spoke about how the Chinese had stolen the march in 5G already and how cutting-edge work in AI was happening there, even in comparison to the work happening in the US,” an attendee of the meeting told ET.

Zerodha’s fintech fund and incubator Rainmatter has invested INR 2 Cr ($280K) in the seed round of online tax planning and filing platform Quicko.

Founded in 2015 by Vishvajit Sonagara, Quicko is a complete tax filing platform for both non-residents and residents of India. The company allows taxpayers — both individuals and businesses — with Income Tax, Goods and Service Tax (GST) and tax deducted at source (TDS) fillings. The platform claims to have more than 50K users.

Quicko’s Founder Sonagara said, “We want to encourage more people to file their tax return by simplifying the tax filing process. Our mission is to simplify taxes for everyone and we have built our platform for Individuals & businesses across India keeping this in mind.”

Founder and CEO Zerodha, Nithin Kamath, added, “In India, traders are generally confused about their tax calculations. Taxes on Trading can get tricky sometimes as the rules vary depending on Asset Class such as Real Estate vs Equity vs Derivative, nature of the trading activity (speculative vs non-speculative), turnover limits & applicability of tax audit.”

With this funding, the company plans to build its income tax return filing service for the online trading community as well. In addition, the company will get access to the online stockbroking platform Zerodha’s customer base.

With this partnership, Quicko will allow Zerodha’s customers to upload their profit and loss (P&L) data and file their income tax returns. The company claims to have helped over 11K customers in the past year.

Quicko claims to provide its services at a cheaper rate than any chartered accountant. The company’s founder Sonagara told ET that Quicko charges traders INR 2,500 for tax filings, whereas a traditional chartered accountant charges INR 15-20K for the same.

Zerodha set up Rainmatter in April 2019 to boost stock market investments by funding entrepreneurs. The company in its press release said, “Less than 1.5 crore Indians invested in the stock markets last year, out of which less than 70 lakh directly into stocks. For an economy like ours to truly reach its potential, we need people to back entrepreneurs by investing in their companies be it directly (stocks) or indirectly (mutual funds).”

Through Rainmatter, Zerodha invests between $100k -$1M for a minority stake in startups that are trying to bring more Indians to invest in stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, Bonds, G-Secs, and participate in the economy more directly.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), on Monday (December 30), announced that it will be hosting a three-day national traders’ convention from January 6 in New Delhi. The aim of this convention will be to discuss various reforms for ecommerce business, digital payment systems, policies for comprehensive financial inclusion and easy financing options to small traders among others.

The traders association will also be addressing the core challenges faced by the traders in India and will issue the ‘Delhi declaration form’ to bring a clearcut solution at the end of the convention.

The president of CAIT BC Bhartia told TOI that the summit will be attended by Union home minister Amit Shah, commerce minister Piyush Goyal, defence minister Rajnath Singh, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman among others.

National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog’s CEO Amitabh Kant will also be attending the event.

CAIT Goes On Hunger Strike Against Ecommerce Companies 

This also comes at a time when CAIT on December 27 had held a day-long hunger strike across 500 cities in India. The traders association demanded the government to take immediate action against all the ecommerce companies working in logistics, travel, real estate, consumer durable and other segments.

Praveen Khandelwal, secretary-general of CAIT said that the team wants to see ecommerce market free from all the unethical and unfair business practices. He further stated that the traders will continue their nation-wide protest until the government takes necessary steps against ecommerce companies.

In addition to this, both  Bhartia and Khandelwal alleged Amazon and Flipkart of orchestrating a narrative of being traders friendly by luring small traders on their platform. CAIT blames the ecommerce giants for indulging in preferential seller system, where 80% of their sales are fulfilled by only 10-15 sellers on the platform. CAIT, which claims to have more than seven crore traders in its association, said that they will not fall for ecommerce companies trap.

However, the decision of going on a hunger strike comes after CAIT had reportedly sent multiple letters to the government, including PM Narendra Modi, where they had highlighted their concerns about ecommerce companies violating the FDI policies.

In October 2019, Piyush Goyal had taken the lead on the matter between CAIT and ecommerce players like Amazon and Flipkart. Taking necessary action, the department for the promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) had asked the details of the top five sellers, investments and ecommerce platform’s commission agreements with vendors.

However, the commerce minister said that the ecommerce players Amazon and Flipkart have been cooperating with the government.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance has finally entered the grocery delivery market with its new hyperlocal Kirana stores-led retail emarketplace, Jio Mart.

Jio Mart is currently operating in Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Thane. The company eventually plans to scale its operations to a national level soon.

Reliance’s chairman Ambani had hinted towards the company’s entry into the ecommerce segment last year. Then again in August 2019, at the Reliance’s 42 annual meet, it announced that it plans to connect three crore offline retailers to more than 20 Cr households with its latest venture.

Ambani also added, “Our beta trials with thousands of merchants across multiple locations in the country established the premise of New Commerce with significant increase in sales and improvement in margins for the participating merchants. We are now getting ready to roll out the platform at a larger scale.”

According to the company’s website, the platform is expected to host a catalogue of 50K grocery products. It will also provide free home delivery against no minimum order value. The company also assures that it will offer no questions asked return, and express delivery.

A report in Mint highlighted that Reliance has invited its telecom service Jio’s users to register for Jio Mart and avail preliminary discounts. Reliance’s website also highlights that the early customers will get up to INR 3K for pre-registration.

With Reliance’s entry into the online grocery delivery market, the competition has become more difficult for unicorns like Grofers and BigBasket, who are currently working on their path to profitability.

How Are Grofers And Bigbasket Fairing?

Recently, Grofers announced that it is profitable in Delhi and is on the same path in Mumbai. In addition, the company also noted that it is at a break-even point in Kolkata, with Lucknow on the way. The company believes that this progress in its independent regional units would fuel its overall profitability.

On the other hand, Bigbasket has announced that it is close to the breakeven point in 10 Tier 1 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, in the next three to four months. Bigbasket’s cofounder Hari Menon also announced that the company will start discussing its path to profitability in 2020-21.

In addition, even the major ecommerce players like Amazon and Flipkart have entered the grocery delivery businesses.

Delhi based fintech startup WealthBucket, on Tuesday (December 31), announced that it has raised INR 18 Cr in a funding round from NorthStar Ventures, founder of Devnagri, Vinod Khatumal, and other high net worth individuals (HNIs).

With the recently raised funds, the startup will take its mutual fund product offerings to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Additionally, WealthBucket will utilise the funds to improve technology capabilities, customer acquisition, and improving the overall experience of users on the platform.

Founded by Himanshu Jain and Pulkit Jain, WealthBucket is an online marketplace that provides mutual funds investment options such as systematic investment plan (SIP), equity-linked saving schemes, lump sum mutual fund, and other investment tools.

Since its inception in 2018, the startup claims to have processed over 150K transactions till date. WealthBucket also claims to have witnessed more than half of its users are first-time investors. The startup also claims to have generated investments worth INR 150 Cr on the online platform.

As of now, the startup doesn’t charge any fee from users to invest in mutual funds using its platform. Additionally, a user without a Demat account, which is required to trade in stocks registered in India, can invest in various mutual fund options on WealthBucket’s platform. Himanshu said, “Our idea is to provide a zero-commission model, where the investor can choose through a multitude of investment options.”

Additionally, the startup also helps individuals to become mutual funds distributors, earning commissions by selling WealthBucket’s offerings. These WealthBucket partners get all the essential tools and services which are required to create a successful distributing system of mutual funds.

After the customer submits the online application, WealthBucket’s algorithm connects the investor to the right type of investment (suitable to the needs of the investor).

Stressing that the startup’s focus is to help people who are not investing because of low credibility in fintech companies, Pulkit said that WealthBucket’s focus is to encourage this unserved segment of the market to come forward and invest in options available to them.

Online mutual fund products have become a lucrative segment for fintech players in the country. For instance, in September 2018, Times Group’s ETMoney shifted gears from offering regular mutual funds to direct mutual fund plans.

Recently, Flipkart’s cofounder Sachin Bansal’s BAC Acquisitions has acquired Essel Mutual Funds. Moreover, in September 2019, personal wealth management platform Scripbox had acquired another wealth management startup Upwardly to support its mutual product offerings.

Venture capital is about capturing the value between the startup phase and the public company phase. — Fred Wilson, co-founder of Union Square Ventures

India, being one of the youngest countries in the world and boasting a rapidly-growing startup ecosystem, offers a widely untapped opportunity for many sectors, both locally and globally. Venture capitalists have gravitated to the Indian market in great numbers in the past decade to pour capital into this opportunity, pushing startups towards scalability in every sector. Edtech is no different, and in recent years, this sector has become one of the biggest opportunities for tech startups in the Indian context.

As Unitus Ventures’ senior associate Sunitha Viswanathan told Inc42, the large market of close to 250 Mn students in the K-12 segment and over 10 Mn youth graduating every year mean that India is the land of massive potential for edtech disruption.

“Given the huge lopsided teacher: student ratio, this can only be solved by using tech. Hence, there is a necessity more than a choice. And rightly so,” she added.

While we spoke to edtech startups about the trends they expect to observe in 2020, we also wanted to take the VC view and what they expect from the ecosystem in the new year. What will be the factors that make or break edtech startups in 2020.

Factors For Success In Edtech

Indians spend tens of billions on education every year. With disposable incomes continuing to rise, there is a massive prize for the startups that achieve success in this space.  According to Anirudh Damani, managing partner, Artha Venture Fund, the key to success for an edtech startup will be to sell directly, thereby keeping a short feedback loop.

“That will allow them to innovate faster, adapt, and cater to their end-user requirements quicker.  Therefore, in my opinion, selling directly to end-users is the key to creating success in the edtech space,” he added.

Sajith Pai, director, Blume Ventures further said that the increased focus on regional language learning and data analytics will play an important role in the success of edtech startups in 2020, just like it did in 2019.

Edtech’s Focus On Increasing User Adoption In 2020

Omkar Kulkarni, the head of GMC Calibrator (Gray Matters Capital’s Digital Accelerator Program, suggests four areas that edtech startups in India need to focus on in the near future:

• Gain engagement by learning insights through user behaviour analytics
• Highlighting common user patterns to improve product and monetisation at early stage
• Cut reliance on digital marketing to reach out to users
• Deliver content through a human-centric design process to increase engagement

Blume’s Pai further added that products that teach with a mix of technology and human intervention will be able to generate faster adoption while keeping costs low and scalability high.

“Also, college admissions and employability are becoming highly competitive and thus big stress points for parents and students. Thus, education platforms that can create FOMO among students (or parents) – either by having a large number of students on board or by having the best students onboard, attract more customer adoption faster,” Pai told Inc42.

Pranjal Kumar, CFO and head of Education Fund at Bertelsmann, believes that being outcome focussed i.e. credentials, test results, job placements etc will deliver a higher chance of success for edtech startups. “High-quality product with high average-order-value and the right balance of online and offline, depending on the target learner and segment of education should be the focus in the near future for edtech startups.”

7 Trends For Indian VCs In Edtech In 2020

Indian edtech startups are currently focussing on all fronts — B2B, B2C, B2B-B2C and C2C. The most prominent sub-sectors have been test preparation, online certification, skill development, online discovery, STEAM kits, and enterprise solution among others.

According to Datalabs by Inc42, in terms of the number of unique edtech businesses funded between January 2014 and September 2019, skill development-focused startups have been the most preferred. However, capital inflows into the test preparation and online certification segments are comparatively higher. Together, these two sub-sectors make up for 91% of the total funding in edtech startups. This shows an imbalance in terms of business models in the Indian edtech ecosystem.

However, according to Bertelsmann’s Kumar, a few more models are expected to see a lot of innovation in the near future. He said bootcamps with or without job assurance, higher education, online programme management models, K-12 tutoring will be huge markets and are currently starved of quality teaching both in curricular as well as co-curricular subject.

Here’s what VCs told us to expect in 2020.

Skilling Startups

The pace of change in technology continues to accelerate. Therefore, education is no longer just the standard 12+4+2 experience.  There’s a need for continuous education that will re-skill or up-skill the workers of today for the challenges of tomorrow. Startups that provide platforms to teach, train, and engage the working population to improve their skills will do very well.

AI Transformation

AI in edtech can help understand better how learning actually happens. If we can understand how one learns the steps in quadratic equations, then this can be used in classrooms by teachers to deliver it more effectively. This will help define pedagogy more tightly

OTT Educators

Even though we hear a lot of buzzwords like artificial intelligence, virtual reality and blockchain, it is the exponential increase in viewership of the likes of TikTok, YouTube and other OTT platforms that will see a trend of content creators delivering educational content on OTT platforms to improve discoverability, reach and scale.

Parents To Invest More

Another challenge for edtech platforms is the cost aspect for families. As far as high school education is concerned, VCs see parents getting more accustomed to spending on tech products for cognitive learning as well as a change in focus of parents from traditional curriculum to 21st-century skills.

Unbundling Of Education

Don’t hope for an edtech superapp. Venture capitalists see startups providing customers (students and teachers) specific standalone services (test prep, counselling, professional and vocational training among others) rather than a combined / bundled product which does it all.

Vernacular Learning

Just over 10% of India’s population can speak English. To build large businesses that can capture greater value, incorporating vernacular learning is key. As seen in the OTT, media and entertainment space, regional language learning will be one of the biggest trends in 2020, according to the VCs that Inc42 spoke to.

Learning for ‘Yearning’

Learning programmes that cater to non-professional interests, or those that work with passion projects and hobbies will see an uptick according to investors. These may or may not lead to employment-related outcomes, but will be about holistic individual skill development, which will be critical for the edtech ecosystem as well as startups at large.

This article is part of Inc42’s special year-end series — 2019 In Review — in which we will refresh your memory on the major developments in the Indian startup ecosystem and their impact on various stakeholders — from entrepreneurs to investors. You can read more stories from this series here.

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language and next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning –TS Eliot 

As the curtain falls on 2019, Inc42 is taking a look back at our coverage over the past 12 months to recall our achievements, milestones and growth so far. India has had an eventful year to say the least — and we have already recapped some of these highlights in our 2019 in Review series. It gives us so much joy to share that Inc42 didn’t just do what it does best but also took up new endeavors and aced them. 

We have expanded this year. With some highly talented professionals joining our team, our coverage is now wider and deeper than ever.

This year we published more than 5,300 stories, which reached over 20 million people every month. Besides this, Inc42 organised 19 events bringing the ecosystem together at various times and with different agendas — in particular, the BIGShift series took an expanded form with a six-city tour — and Datalabs by Inc42 published over 19 reports and research articles on the ecosystem. 

This year, we dug deeper to get more exclusive stories and original insights than ever before.

Exclusive: Quikr Lays Off Up To 2000 Employees In Aftermath Of Major Scam

Exclusive: Doodhwala Employees Also File FIR Against Founders Over Unpaid Salaries

Exclusive: Reliance Acquires Majority Stake In Deeptech Startup Tesseract

Exclusive: Behind Amazon India’s Food Delivery Platform Coming This December

Exclusive: Vijay Shekhar Sharma Backs Up Admiration For Nurturing Green With Investment

Exclusive: Social Commerce Startup Wooplr Shuts Down As Merger Talks Fall Through

Exclusive: Government Says No Plan To Create 1 Lakh Digital Villages, Reveals RTI

Inc42 would also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to you. While we were busy garnering startup stories or brainstorming to hook you in with our events, our readers showered us with love and support. 

Inc42’s Biggest Stories Of The Year

We began the year with the Inc42 Startup Watchlist of the most promising startups in India. As was expected, many of these have gone on to clinch funding this year to validate our predictions. 

As it is said old habits are hard to die, so Inc42 revived the much-loved Moneyball series in the middle of the year as VCs and investors opened up about the new India and their approach to investments. 

Here are some of the best Moneyball stories from the year:

Moneyball: Lightspeed’s Vaibhav Agrawal On Converting Startup Ideas Into Numbers

Moneyball: Aavishkaar’s Anurag Agrawal On Investing For Social Change

Moneyball: BV Naidu On Why StartupXseed Targets Low Investment Size And Prefers Faster Exits

Our signature ‘What The Financial’ series went through a major revamp this year as well. Inc42 laid bare the financial performance of startups and analyzed what makes the company tick and where it is losing money. Here’s our pick of the best:

[What The Financials] Heavy Discounts Helped Grofers Boost Revenue But Expenses Eat Up Growth

[What The Financials] Despite TikTok Success, ByteDance Earned Almost Nothing From India Business In FY19

[What The Financials] Ola’s Path To Profitability, IPO Blocked By Losses In Food, Vehicle Leasing

[What The Financials] Dunzo Comes Undone With No Real Revenue And Towering Expenses

[What The Financials] PhonePe Continues To Burn Cash But Revenue Grows 4X

And while unicorns go through growth pains, soonicorns represent the next big hope for the Indian startup ecosystem. The Inc42 UpNext series captures the mood at soonicorns and their plotting to reach the unicorn club. Here’s a selection:  

Inc42 UpNext: Nazara Bets On Its Gaming Ecosystem To Get India To Pay To Play

Inc42 UpNext: Livspace Fuels India’s Appetite For Home, Interior Design With Omnichannel Play

Inc42 UpNext: UrbanClap On Designing AI Systems To Expand And Scale Up Sustainably

Inc42 UpNext: Can Zerodha’s Million-Strong Investor Base Hold Its Digital Investment Fort?

Datalabs By Inc42 Shines

It was a great year for Datalabs by Inc42 as the team of analysts, data engineers and researchers dug out the most insightful trends of the ecosystem across sectors and for various quarters. The Datalabs team also plays the role of the data enabler for the Inc42 editorial stories and many of our biggest stories this year would not have been possible without this invaluable support. 

In addition, Datalabs gave us in-depth articles about the scope of Indian drone and aerospace startups in the well-received feature — ‘To Infinity And Beyond: India’s Aerospace Startups Are Starting To Blow Their Thrusters’. It turned its attention to the foodtech industry amid protests from restaurants. Read ‘The Dark Side Of Discounts: Lessons From Zomato Gold For India’s Food Startups’ to know more about the Datalabs insights.

Here are some interesting reads from the Datalabs vault this year: 

Why It’s Time To Take Notice Of India’s Evolving Food Service Market

Why Data Is Not Oil: Here’s How India’s Data Localisation Norms Will Hurt The Economy

Japanese Investors In India Are Placing Safe Bets As They Chase The Billion-Dollar Dream

Are Investments In Indian Startups Slowing Down? Here’s The Base Year Fallacy

Union Budget 2019: Sitharaman’s Fresh Ideas To Push India’s Towards A Digital Economy

See all stories from Datalabs by Inc42 here.

Inc42’s Top Stories Of 2019

Finally, we produced stories that not only changed the narrative of the industry but also enabled players to raise important questions, debate over policy decisions, analyse market trends and perceive the changes as they happen. 

Here are the top news stories from this year: 

Exclusive: Amit Bhardwaj And The GainBitcoin Investor Saga Lands On President Kovind’s Desk

The main accused in the massive GainBitcoin scam case, Amit Bhardwaj, in September, filed a separate application in the Supreme Court of India, seeking to deposit INR 2 Cr in lieu of Supreme Court’s order of depositing INR 10 Cr within six month period, which was passed on April 3, 2019.

Sex Sells, So Why Not Sexual Wellness? India’s Startups On Emerging From The Shadows

Flipkart Video Originals Are Here: Has Flipkart Got The Timing Right?

Production houses such as Studio Next, Frames and Sikhya Productions will be bringing original content across languages and genres to Flipkart Video Originals, said Flipkart said in a press statement.

White Revolution 2.0: Dairy Tech Startups Rise On India’s Cow-Friendly Policies

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, India produces 160 Mn tonnes of milk in over 75 Mn dairy farms per year for a market that is worth around $30 Bn. The country is the second-largest milk producer after the US.

Searching For Superman

Indians, nowadays, are overtly dependent on apps, which take precious space on smartphones. However, Tapzo (one of India’s earlier super apps) founder Ankur Singla, in a blog post in 2017, said that almost all apps (except for the top 5-8 apps) see 60-80% uninstall rate within 90 days of users installing the app.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold: The Hard To Digest Economics Of Zomato, Swiggy & Co

The Economics Of Foodtech Part 2: The Math Behind Cloud Kitchens In India

One of Delhi’s first cloud kitchen restaurateurs and owner of 11 online kitchens across Delhi and Mumbai, Madhav Kasturia, told Inc41, “We started four years ago with a high street restaurant but soon realised that paying INR 45K on just rent for the orders we were raking in was too high, so in a year we pivoted.”

Indian Govt Requests Maximum Social Media Content Takedowns In The World

The “which government censors online data the most” report states that social media platforms and global technology companies have received as many as  77,620 takedown content requests from India in a span of nine years. 

‘I Do’: How Indian Couples Today Are Tying The Knot With Wedding Tech Startups

Exclusive: 100X.VC Fund’s Sanjay Mehta On Creating A Finishing School For Startup Founders

“Think of us as a finishing school for founders who have no idea how to raise money. Our aim for this class is to get everyone 100% placement among VCs,” said serial investor Sanjay Mehta.

Inc42’s Stellar Events 

Last but not least, INC42 expanded its repertoire of events this year! Inc42’s events are not just for the glamour and glitz but for networking and connecting. Any recap of 2019 will remain incomplete if we do not mention the VC Dinner and BIGShift series.

VC Dinner, which was supported by HSBC, commenced on November 28, 2019, in Bengaluru. The event brought together the decision-makers of the investment world for interesting collaborations, global connections, cross learnings, and umpteen interesting stories. 

The latest edition of BIGShift — an initiative to enable, engage and empower startups in India’s Tier 2 cities — saw more than 350 attendees and more than 30 pitches. This year’s BIGShift events were also attended by more than 300 startups in six cities — Kochi, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Vizag, Chandigarh and Indore. 

Here are some stories of startups discovered at the BIGShift events.

Discovered at Inc42 BIGShift: Vizag Edtech Startup Botclub Is Helping Kids Discover The Joy Of Science

Discovered At Inc42 BIGShift: Raipur’s Minocular Takes The SaaS Route To Boost Mining Efficiency, Safety

Discovered At Inc42 BIGShift: Indore’s ClassMonitor Takes Students Back To Tradition With Hybrid Digital Learning

Other events by Inc42 that grabbed limelight this year include Founders Meetup 10 By Inc42; The Dialogue By Inc42 And Ikigai Law; Pulse42, Mumbai: The Pulse Of Tech and Huddle Kerala.

Like every year, Inc42 is wrapping up this year with the year-ender series — ‘2019 in Review’. For the year 2020, we are lining up our signature Startup Watchlist, which is coming next month, along with the usual dose of exclusive scoops, insights and data about the Indian startup ecosystem! 

Have a great new year and all the best for 2020 and beyond from Team Inc42! 

Since the demonetisation of 2016, there has been rampant growth in the digital payments space in India. Moreover, as digital payments adoption among individuals is increasing, it is also helping the government to collect various taxes electronically. One such example is FASTags, which has changed the way taxes were paid at toll plazas.

Since the implementation of Electronic Toll Collection through FASTag on December 15, 2019, the government has issued over 1.15 Cr FASTags, according to a PIB notification. Moreover, the government has issued more than one lakh FASTags since it was implemented. It was earlier reported that on the first day of introduction, FASTag was used by more than half of the commuters travelling through national highways.

FASTag is an electronic device that facilitates cashless toll tax collection at toll plazas operated by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). The device uses an RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to make toll payments directly from the prepaid wallet or savings account linked to it. The technology helps commuters to save a lot of time at the toll plazas, while also reducing the reliance on cash.

As of now, the total transaction made via FASTag has reached 30 Lakh. Additionally, the daily transactional worth of electronic toll collection has even crossed INR 50 Cr mark.

Further, to simplify the recharge of FASTag, the government has also incorporated BHIM unified payments interface (UPI) app among other modes of adding money.

Officially launched by NHAI on October 1, 2017, FASTag was initially rolled out across 370 toll plazas established on national highways in India. Prior to this official launch, NHAI, in April 2016, had announced the launch of e-tolling service at about 300 such toll plazas.

FASTags comes with a validity of five years and a user needs to buy a new device to enjoy cashless transactions at toll plazas. FASTag can be ordered online through platforms such as Amazon, Paytm, and Airtel app. Additionally, it can also be bought at point of sale (PoS) locations set up by 23 banks and the NHAI at Road Transport Authority offices, transport hubs, bank branches, and select petrol pumps.

Twenty years ago India’s young millennials were entering their teenage years and got their hands on broadband (or what passed for broadband in India). These early years of the internet in India were dominated by dial-up connections (that took sometimes up to 15 minutes to just connect), the blue screen of death from Windows 98 and XP, Yahoo and MSN Messenger and chat rooms and chain emails! Startups and technology were limited to international imports. But come 2020 things have indeed taken a drastic turn.

Well, we have come a long way since then, but the journey has been far from simple, and the rise of tech in India has coincided with the new millennium.

The new century began with young millennials (18-22 years) witnessing the Y2K scare and thousands of Indian engineers being hired to fix the Y2K bug. This job, which could have been given to workers in many other countries, was outsourced to India and made India a global powerhouse for outsourced work. It built India’s IT prowess and by the middle of the first decade of the 21st century, India was seen in a different light, presenting itself as a serious contender in the global software race of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Smartphone Boom Ushers In Startup Age

One would be forgiven for forgetting India’s first startup wave that came with the dotcom boom. Only a handful of companies that arrived on the scene then still survive. But the early 2000s brought the heady buzz of mobile — Nokia, Blackberry, Moto Razr, Windows Mobile and Palm and finally the iPhone and Android smartphones. The domination of mobile was accompanied by the rising ambitions of India’s sprouting middle class, the birth of India’s first few global metropolitan cities, Facebook ‘scrapping’ with Orkut in the social media game and, most importantly, the birth of India 1 or Tier 1 markets.

As many have said over the years, there are many different versions of India. India 1, as the upwardly mobile urban population of the country is known, has built a reputation for being quick tech adopters and with 31 Mn workers, represents 6% of the population in the country, according to some estimates.

While the first decade of the 21st century was all about this ‘India 1’, the decade of 2010-2019 began with over 100 Mn millennials entering the workforce and the rise of Tier 2 and 3 markets or India 2 and India 3. India is today home to the world’s largest working population thanks to this workforce.

This coincided with one of the most prosperous periods of growth, with GDP growth being unrivalled by any economy in the world and per capita income grew by nearly 300%, leaving India’s youth with increasing disposable incomes and spending power. In short, the India tech story was going great and things looked to be in full bloom.

As India leapt into the smartphone era in the early 2010s after the 2G scam and the rise of 3G, there was palpable excitement in the air around the potential of India. The economic growth coupled with the rise of the internet and smartphones made India a ripe destination for tech products and services.

The last few years of the decade have shown India has a great appetite for technology, data and the internet. In just the last 2 years, mobile data users have nearly tripled to 460 Mn, data prices have reduced by 98%, and data consumption has increased by 11x.

In the midst of all this, we started Inc42 five years ago, and the word ‘startup’ had just found its mainstream moment. From having a handful of tech companies to dozens and thousands of innovative new ventures, India’s startup ecosystem has grown immensely in the past decade.

From 29K startups in 2014, the numbers grew exponentially from 2015-2017 to touch 49K in 2018. In less than half a decade (2014-2019) startups and their enabling ecosystem have flourished with the support of the government’s ambitious Startup India, Make in India and Digital India programmes.

Thanks to favourable factors, Indian startups have created a value combined value of about $130 Bn with overall funding skyrocketing to touch $53 Bn during 2015-2019 alone. Moreover, apps developed by Indian companies surpassed their Chinese counterparts in terms of downloads this year — 41% of the top 200 applications downloaded in 2019 were Indian — which is another sign of the market maturing.

In 2020, India will have over 410 Mn millennial consumers, contributing more than $330 Bn to total consumption expenditure, which is ripe for the taking for startups in the Indian market. This growth has been unparalleled in any modern economy, and much of it has been written in the past ten years when startups hit it big time. In the decade the follows 2020, this promise will be fully realised as India’s data user base for startups is expected to cross 1 Bn users by 2030.

“Our vision of India in 2020 is of a nation bustling with energy, entrepreneurship and innovation…” – India Vision 2020 Report — Planning Commission, 2002

But things are changing rapidly. While so far the Indian startup story has just been about tapping into India 1, as we move into the next decade from 2020, startups have begun to look at capturing ‘India 2’. The opportunity in India 2 and 3 begins with job creation, skill development and working to improve financial inclusion and reducing the digital gap.

Speaking of jobs, together, India’s unicorns and soonicorns alone have created over 100K white-collar jobs and more than 2.5 Mn blue-collar jobs. According to the government of India, the Startup India initiative has helped create an estimated 187K direct jobs since its inception in 2016, with the number of related indirect jobs currently estimated to be at 560K. This job growth has come at a rough cost of over INR 2,500 Cr disbursed by the government to fund startups. But more is needed to make this a holistic transformation, across the different Indias.

The major contributor and benefactor of this startup job creation wave have been the gig economy with companies such as food delivery startup Swiggy, which employs around 210K delivery partners and plans to increase this to 500K by 2021. Swiggy rival Zomato, on-demand delivery service Dunzo, hyperlocal services company UrbanClap, cab-hailing companies Uber and Ola together employ millions of workers who were not considered employable in the past before startups came on to the scene. While unemployment continues to be a major problem in the country, tech companies are doing their share of the work to solve this.

Not just this, companies such as Flipkart have contributed directly to the launch of new startups by nurturing tech workers into entrepreneurs. As per DataLabs by Inc42, over 250 of Flipkart’s former employees are now founders at startups that have created thousands of jobs. And that’s just one unicorn.

2020 And The Decade Ahead For Indian Startups

Over the next decade from 2020 to 2029, the India growth story is likely to include growth across sections of society. That’s because one of the key focus areas of tech companies has been inclusion. The unique nature of the Indian market makes growth and scale impossible without inclusion, as India has such a massive Tier 2 and Tier 3 base.

As seen in the fintech developments over the past few years, technology inclusion will come to the fore in the next decade through edtech, cleantech, agritech, SME-focussed products/services and social impact startups. These sectors present great opportunities for Indian tech startups as they are primarily about solving the problems in India 2 and India 3.

But as the population migrates from Tier 3 to Tier 2 and Tier 2 to Tier 1, startups will find it challenging to balance their models for these mingling segments.

According to a Mckinsey report, India is expected to grow from a largely lower-middle-income economy to an upper-middle-income economy by 2030, with per-capita income estimated to grow $2,000 currently to around $5,700 in the next ten years.

By 2030, India’s cities are expected to account for nearly 40% of the population and this massive urban population will contribute to as much as 75% of the total GDP from 63% currently. This rising urban class will dominate the tech landscape opening up more opportunities for startup products and services. Estimates say that India’s capital Delhi could overtake Tokyo as the world’s largest city by population by 2030, and 68 cities in the country are expected to have a population of more than 1 Mn.

Given the state of the environment today, climate change poses a real threat to life. Consequently, between 2020 and 2029, cleantech and green mobility innovation will be thrust into the limelight. There definitely is plenty of investor interest in this segment at this time, and this is likely to realise its potential in the next decade. Besides investors, the government has allocated a huge amount of its budget to transform the mobility sector with electric vehicles.

In many ways, green mobility and cleantech are having their internet moment, and it’s only just starting. There was a time when the internet was a good-to-have element in everyday life, but now it’s become indispensable. Cleantech products and services will become similarly — if not more — critical to life and business.

When it comes to improving inclusion and closing the digital gap between Tier 1 and Tier 2 India, startups have already doubled their efforts towards this by going deeper on the localisation and value-creation fronts. Consequently, we expect the growth in startups to accelerate as these efforts come to fruition.

By 2025, the number of startups in India is expected to cross 100K, creating more than 3.25 Mn jobs in the process. At the same time, the total funding in Indian startups is likely to increase to over $150 Bn and with the total value creation exceeding $500 Bn. Innovation will be more broad-based in the next decade with several new sectors emerging as value creation spreads across segments and tiers. As can be expected, newer business models within existing sectors will be the norm as the market matures. In fact, we region-specific sub-sectors to sprout up by 2030 given the vast geography and landmass of India.

By 2025, India will have 100 unicorns compared to around 160 unicorns in China in 2019. While that figure seems rather small in comparison, in relative terms — given the market factors and vibrancy of the Indian startup ecosystem — this is still the dawn of digital innovation in India. In other words, the day has only begun!

According to an industry report by IBEF, the Indian ecommerce industry has been witnessing tremendous growth and is expected to surpass the US to become the second largest ecommerce market in the world by 2034. While it presents a massive opportunity for retailers, the industry has been characterized by rapid transformation in terms of product innovations, new channels and augmentation of emerging technologies.

This prediction report aims to uncover the technological and customer trends that are likely to make the biggest impact on ecommerce in 2020 and beyond.

Rise Of Hyperlocal Commerce

While books spurred the initial ecommerce momentum, fashion/apparel and electronics, the next phase of growth – especially in emerging economies like India and the Middle East. This growth will be fueled by hyperlocal-based SKUs like grocery, personal care, beauty services, food and FMCG product sets. And for a good reason – Asian consumers prefer to shop at their local neighbourhood stores, due to multiple factors, mostly related to trust and emotional reasons.

For instance, in India, 96% of the commerce still happens at mom and pop stores and in the coming years, India and China are poised for explosive growth in the hyperlocal space. Several hyperlocal startups (BigBasket, Zopper, Swiggy, Dunzo) along with ecommerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart are investing heavily in logistics and mobile technology to capture this massive opportunity.

Innovations In Mobile Commerce

Mobile Commerce or m-commerce is merely a natural subset ecommerce. However, it’s turning out to be a significant extension with the potential to outgrow its parent in terms of sales, engagement levels and conversions.

Here Are The Major Mcommerce Trends And Innovations That Will Gain Traction In 2020 And Beyond:

• The Need for Speed: Mobile users expect sites to load almost instantly, if not they will move on to the next one. Brands will need to think mobile-first and adopt newer technologies like PWAs and server-side compression to reduce bounce rates and improve conversion rates
• Deeper AI Integrations: From automated chatbots to image recognition and personalization, Artificial Intelligence is expected to play a larger role in m-commerce.
• Focus on User Experience: M-sites and apps will continue to be optimized for a better experience on the small screen through simpler navigation, dynamic product pages, autocomplete features and one-click checkouts.
• Hyper personalisation: While personalization in the desktop realm has seen some traction, the trend is likely to cascade to m-commerce as well in the form of personalized product recommendations, dynamic content, offers, and loyalty rewards.
• Geo-targeting: As much as privacy is a major discussion point today, 88 percent of consumers are okay with sharing their location if they get something of value in return. Retailers with physical stores are likely to invest in beacons and other proximity-based marketing technologies to target customers who are within a certain radius of their stores.
• Augmented Reality: While AR technology has existed for some years, its likely to mature in the coming year and more brands will start embracing the technology to help customers to virtually try out and interact with products using AR-capable apps.

AI And ML Will See A Greater Play In Ecommerce

One thing that has helped ecommerce giants like Amazon gain a competitive edge above other ecommerce businesses is their ability to leverage AI and other cutting-edge technologies to enhance and improve all aspects of their business. From using Natural Language Processing to power Alexa to leveraging Collaborative Filtering to personalize recommendations and enhancing its logistics using predictive rerouting, Amazon has managed to expand the use cases for AI and ML. Here are top expected applications of AI in Ecommerce:

• Personalized User Journeys
• Predictive Product Recommendations
• In-store Insights & Customer Engagement
• Dynamic Pricing
• Predictive Behavior Modeling
• Visual Search

Social Commerce Will Become A Key Revenue Channel

Social commerce has been slowly gathering momentum in the last few years, and 2020 is expected to be its ‘flywheel’ moment. It’s a great way for brands to acquire more customers at a lesser cost besides simplifying the purchase journey. In the coming years, it’s expected to become the third major sales channel, taking its place alongside ecommerce and traditional retail.

The major factors that will fuel its rise are spike in video/visual content, progressive web applications, cheaper data, greater smartphone penetration, improvement in user experience in terms of native checkouts and payment security and the continually increasing amount of time spent by millennials and the younger generations, on social media apps.

Dark Stores Will Gain Greater Prominence

Dark stores are essentially retail distribution centres that resemble a typical supermarket but is used primarily to fulfil online orders. While the concept started out as a way to fulfil grocery orders, several brands are testing out the dark store concept for apparel and food deliveries.

For several brands, dark stores have become strategically important in matching the ever-shrinking shipping time and superior customer service levels of major etailers like Amazon and Alibaba. The proliferation of dark stores is a direct consequence of the rise of hyperlocal commerce and the rapid growth of the online grocery market.

They also fuel the growth of cross-border commerce by making it easier for retailers to expand their operations into new regions and markets.

Cross-Migration Of Innovations Between Ecommerce & In-Store Retail

The last few years saw traditional retailers adopt innovations and best practice from ecommerce counterparts like interactive websites, PWAs, and mobile point-of-sale solutions. As more brands realize the benefits and advantages of physical and digital retailing, expect the divide to further break down in the coming years.  Once pegged as rivals, ecommerce & brick and mortar stores will become closely intertwined to create a collaborative, integrated and interconnected retailing.

Going forward, expect the migration of advanced ecommerce innovations into the brick and mortar realm like highly personalized recommendations and customer engagement using AI-powered computer vision technologies and staff enablement apps. On the other side, pure-play ecommerce brands are expected to continue their offline expansion in the form of pop up stores, experience centres, dark stores and other O2O innovations like order-online-pickup in-store.

RPA market is evolving at a tremendous pace and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20.3% between 2019 and 2025. This growth can be majorly attributed to how RPA streamlines and enhances legacy processes and results in high returns on investment (ROI).

Some of the key RPA trends to watch out in the year ahead are:

RPA will emerge as a complementary technology

The key benefit of RPA is that it plays well with other existing technologies. RPA has the potential to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and learn accordingly, hence it enhances processes rather than replacing them.  Since it’s not always feasible to redesign workflows from the ground up, automating inefficient processes with RPA can greatly improve productivity.

RPA would shift from being a point solution to a comprehensive offering

In 2020, the automation market will see a shift from point solutions to more comprehensive offerings that will address integration challenges and enable best-in-class features that enterprises require. Digital transformation is a journey. RPA implementation shouldn’t be treated as a short term project to gain cost efficiency. It must be integrated in the processes from the beginning to avail comprehensive benefits.

RPA driving Hyper Automation

Organizations across the globe are realizing the benefits of incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) within RPA framework to result in intelligent automation. Understanding the range of automation mechanisms, how they relate to one another and how they can be combined and coordinated is a major focus for hyper-automation. This allows software robots to mimic human behavior and handle complex use cases, which was earlier not possible without human intervention.

Autonomous Things

The emergence of autonomous things is a major landmark in technological progress. Early examples of this include autonomous drones and self-driving vehicles. In 2020, we expect a shift from stand-alone intelligent things to a swarm of collaborative intelligent things, with multiple devices working together, either independent of people or with minimum human input. In the future, autonomous things will go beyond process automation and integrate AI to deliver advanced behaviors that interact more naturally with the environment and people.

RPA transforming the Job Market

RPA taking away jobs is the most debated topic in the industry. It is anticipated that RPA will affect employment and half of the jobs will be replaced by automation. Contrary to popular beliefs, future trends suggest that there will be a collaboration between machines and humans in many areas. As a result, more jobs will be created by enhancing the nature of jobs and there will be a need for RPA and process experts to augment user interfaces and solve business problems.

As per Forrester, the RPA market will reach $2.9 Bn by 2021, which means RPA market will continue to grow at an exponential rate. There will be a sharp rise in adoption and implementation of RPA. It will be used for multiple processes in the organization across departments and it is expected to largely manage customer-focused and external processes.

Unlike last year, we witnessed a downward trend in the M&A transactions during the year 2019 both in volume and deal numbers, however, M&A activities saw a spur due to sale of distressed assets under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). IBC although in its nascent stage has already garnered a lot of investor attention to be classified as an M&A category in itself, exclusively involving distressed assets.

This is also evident from the India M&A Report 2019 published by Bain & Company in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) wherein they account that 70% of the of growth in M&A activity in 2018 was led by distressed deals, enabled through the corporate insolvency resolution process under IBC.

The year 2019 saw some remarkable foreign investments across various industry segments making its way into the country albeit the downward trend, the details of a few are as follows:

• Acquisition of a majority stake of 71% in Yatra for $337.8 Mn by Ebix Inc.
• Lately, Edtech Companies are also catching investor attention through deals like Blackstone Partners-Aakash Educational Services Limited and Byjus’s-Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) investments.
• Acquisition of Aadhar Housing Finance Limited by the Blackstone Partners and other deals in the sector include investment of $250 Mn by the CDPQ in the non-banking arm of Edelweiss Group named ECL Finance Limited.
• 4% stake pick by total S.A. for $864 Mn in Adani Gas Limited being the largest FDI investment in the highly regulated gas distribution sector.
• Logistics sector being the arm of e-commerce business saw foreign investments in the form of Delhivery-Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Shadowfax-Flipkart deals.

We also observed quite a few M&A deals in the startup ecosystem namely, acquisition of Nightstay by Paytm, acquisition of Fastfox by Elara Technologies, CRIDS by Sachin Bansal and Wibmo by PayU.

Key Events And Trends That Dominated M&As In 2019

The global economic slowdown and the growing tensions steered by the US-China trade war triggered a likely restrained approach concerning M&A activities in the world. This uncertainty around geopolitical landscape led to a corollary effect negatively impacting the investment activities in the previous year. In addition to the above, the investor sentiments in India were also conscious due to the 17th Lok Sabha elections in the country.

Besides IBC, the key trends dominating M&As was the dynamism of the present government to bolster the economy through its business-friendly initiatives. These initiatives introduced through reforms in the regulatory regime is apparent to offer a much needed impetus to the M&A activities in the country going forward. We enumerate below few of the reforms introduced during the year which may boost the M&A activities:

• SEBI’s new framework on issuance of Shares with Differential Voting Rights which provides an effective tool to receive investments without losing control;
• Foreign Exchange Management (Cross Border Merger) Regulations, 2018 which happens to be another first of its kind piece of legislation;
• Code of Wages, 2019 which codifies four existing Labour Laws into one;
• Foreign Investment Regulations, 2019 (classified as Debt and Non-debt Regulations) which replaces the erstwhile TISPRO Regulations, 2017 and Acquisition of Immovable Property in India Regulations, 2018;
• Tax incentives and exemptions to registered startups.
• Reforms in the manufacturing sector advocating the ‘make in India’ campaign; and
• the Quintessential reform of reduction in the effective corporate Income Tax Rates thereby placing India onto the map of an attractive investment destination at par with most of the highly regarded investment destinations of the world.

Important Legal Aspects To Consider While Exploring M&A Transactions In India And Ways To Streamline Its Process

In this era of rise in corporate frauds and overnight bankruptcy cases, the indispensable aspect prior to negotiating any mergers and acquisition transaction is an efficient due diligence activity. Therefore, more often than not diligence is termed as a ‘measure of prudence‘ which can rock the sails of any transaction towards a prudent direction.

However, diligence is not the basis but only a facilitator to undertake any M&A transactions in India. Apart from the diligence exercise, the degree of corporate governance exercised by the entities in their ordinary business course is another vital tool to measure the synergies of any M&A deal.  This age is the age of technology and its effective integration would set a forward-looking path in our continuous endeavour to streamline the process of M&A activities.

Moreover, the most recent initiative by the government to expedite M&A’s is the process of deemed approval under Green Channel Route by the Competition Commission of India for certain categories of M&A’s. These initiatives of the government, has led India to move 14 places up at 63^rd rank in ‘Ease of Doing Business‘ rankings by the World Bank.

Expected Trends In 2020 For M&As In India

As we set our foot forward in the new decade, we expect a lot of buzz in the M&A space of the country since the regulatory regime introduced earlier are tested in the real world. One of the key reforms introduced was incentivising of manufacturing facilities favoured by the reduced tax rates which may encourage setting up or acquisition of manufacturing facilities thereby inviting foreign investments directly or indirectly supplementing M&A transactions.

We also expect the future of M&A deals fostered by IBC at the forefront as entities envisage into expansion of its core/non-core vertical and horizontal businesses through buyouts to remain competitive in the markets.

Another lucrative trend, augmenting the M&A arena of the country would be divestments of group businesses through restructuring and reorganization in order to eradicate archaic ways of doing business. Outside of the above, the business proactive initiatives facilitating foreign investments would set the stage for growth of M&A deals in the country not only in volume but also by value.

On a concluding note, we fairly attribute that the headwinds in investment activities through mergers and acquisitions to be favourable in the years to come. The expectant efforts of the government may also be seen as another reason favouring acquisition activities.

The year 2019 proved to be exciting and electrifying for the EV sector as the investment flow by corporate and private equity (PE) investors into the startups working in the EV space rose by a phenomenal 170% margin valued at $397 Mn. The year also proved instrumental in raising public awareness and government patronage regarding the urgent need to lay the blueprint for an effective and efficient EV model. With the planet’s natural resources (oil and gas) recording an alarming decline and the climate in jeopardy, it was only imperative for the globalized world to accelerate the all-electric transition.

The Achievement Highlights Of 2019

The year 2019 witnessed an array of landmark events that were realized in a bid to boost and promote the rise of the alternate energy sector. Here we look upon the central highlight reel of 2019 and the major achievements therein:

• The government approved an INR 10,000-crore program under the FAME-II scheme for the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles in February. The scheme, which materialized on 1st April 2019, was aimed to encourage faster adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles through incentivizing the purchase of electric vehicles and also by way of establishing the necessary charging infrastructure for EV.
• According to a report released by the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises (MHIPE), the subsidies allotted by the government under the FAME-India program have benefitted about 285,000 buyers of electric and hybrid vehicles to the tune of INR 3.6 Bn.
• The GST reduction on EVs from 12% to 5% in July and the additional income tax deduction of INR 1.5 lakhs on interest paid on loans taken to buy electric vehicles by the finance ministry of India has helped monumentally in improving the sentiments. In her maiden budget speech, the Finance Minister also underlined her plan of action to make India a global manufacturing hub for EVs.
• Additionally, the union cabinet also propounded exemption from paying the customs duty on importing certain key EV parts including the e-drive assembly, on-board charger, e-compressor, and a charging gun. The underlying aim was to cut down the cost of EVs to advance their sales in the country.
• Apart from the rise in consumer adoption, the domestic EV industry also witnessed significant development on the manufacturing front as well. The Niti Aayog report outlined the nation’s need of a minimum of 10 GWh of cells by 2022 and to about 50 GWh by 2025. Therefore to localize the value chain, the union cabinet proposed a five-year phased manufacturing program (PMP) till 2024 for a few large-scale, export-worthy competitive integrated batteries and cell-manufacturing Giga plants in India. Through such a move the government sought “to bring technology-driven sustainable and holistic mobility solutions within the reach of the common man by scaling up the manufacture of these vehicles.”
• Owing to the industry’s dedication towards developing green and sustainable mobility, Indian states are leading with their policies to achieve their EV targets. While Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala have their final policies ready, states like Uttarakhand, Telangana, New Delhi, and Bihar have their policies in the draft stage.

Overcoming The Major Hurdles In 2019 

The National Institute of Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, the government’s think tank’s, ambitious move to mandate electric vehicles by 2030, was vehemently opposed by automobile manufacturers. They argued that such a move would spell doom for the domestic industry and jobs as a significant chunk of products in the value chain in the existing automobile manufacturing was outsourced to smaller companies who specialized in manufacturing only select components.

• The government duly acknowledged that its vision of achieving 100% e-mobility by 2030 cannot be realized without a robust e-mobility ecosystem, which includes the domestic vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure companies, fleet operators, and service providers.
• Owing to the threat of the looming technology disruption and the shift in employment that will arise from switching to electric vehicle manufacturing urged transport minister Nitin Gadkari to acknowledge these concerns in a new roadmap.
• The union cabinet has also approved the creation of the much-awaited Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP) to support the development of large-scale, export-competitive integrated batteries and cell-manufacturing giga-scale projects in India. The program will help in localizing the production across the entire electric vehicle value chain. Further, to boost domestic manufacturing, the PMP has also proposed a 15% customs duty on EV parts, the doubling of customs duties on completely built-up (CBU) buses and trucks to 50% and hiking rates for semi-knocked down two-wheelers, buses and trucks to 25% from 15%.
• The ministry of road transport and highways (MORTH) put forward a proposal to relieve electric and battery-operated vehicles from registration charges. It said it had planned to introduce differential registration fees as per the Central Motor Vehicles Rules (CMVR), 1989.
• The government is concentrating all its efforts in developing a robust infrastructure for the charging of electric vehicles as without an adequate charging network, the widespread adoption of EVs will remain unviable and out-of-bounds.
• In line with this, the Union Power Minister R.K. Singh endorsed modifications in the electric vehicle charging guidelines and specifications. He also stated that to address issues regarding inter-city travel and long-range or heavy-duty electric vehicles like buses and trucks, the central government planned to install fast-charging stations at every 100 km.

Key Trends To Watch Out For In 2020

• The coming year looks bright and promising for the domestic EV sector as the EV sales are expected to increase at an exponential rate. With the BS6 norms becoming valid from April 2020, electric vehicles will become more price-competitive with the traditionally fueled vehicles, thus stepping up the sale of electric vehicles in the country.
• Many new startups backed by giant investors shall pave the way forward to launch their electric vehicles in the Indian market. India has the potential to become the largest electric vehicle (EV) market in the world as a plethora of startups is spearheading the EV revolution through technological innovation.
• The country presently hails as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world with 21 unicorns determined to mobilize the power of technology to solve pressing problems in the various domains of education, healthcare, infrastructure, etc. Even in the country’s electric vehicle sector, there is an ever-growing host of inventive and audacious startups that are working to combat pollution from traditional vehicles by introducing ultramodern, zero-emission mobility solutions.
• To cut the long story short, EVs are the future. But the future will materialize only when an inexpensive next-gen battery manifests itself in the market. The current ecosystem comprises namely of startups that manufacture two-wheelers, and startups working in battery tech, vehicle diagnostics, and analytics, charging and other such aspects of electric vehicles.

With all the vital cogs and pieces falling into place, that day is not far when India manages to ascertain its position as a global EV leader, to ensure an all-electric transition to meet the burgeoning energy needs of this planet.

As we enter the new year, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, big data analytics and drone technology have started becoming popular across various industry verticals, including BFSI, automobile, energy, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture and public sectors among others.

At the forefront of emerging technologies is the state of Telangana. The state government will officially be declaring 2020 as the ‘Year of AI’  on January 2, 2020. The government said that the state will be announcing exciting AI and blockchain projects and launch the calendar of events.

The Telangana government will be formulating AI and blockchain-related incentives, which is said to generate 800K jobs in India. In addition to this, the government will be preparing the state’s AI strategy framework document, under the guidance and support of NASSCOM and various industry veterans and technology experts. Interestingly, Telangana claims to be the first state to have prepared blockchain and drone framework documents in the country.

According to the NASSCOM Avasant blockchain report, Telangana and Andra Pradesh are two of the leading states in terms of blockchain adoption in the country. The Telangana government has implemented blockchain technology in various projects such as land registry, chit funds operations, microfinance for self-help groups (SHGs) and digital education certificates among others.

The government has collaborated with a lot of stakeholders to push the adoption of blockchain technology in the state. Recently, the government has signed an MOU with Tech Mahindra and is collaborating with IIT Hyderabad and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to build a state-level blockchain platform. It has also partnered with NITI Aayog for blockchain in governance.

Blockchain Graph Of The Week:

The blockchain technology has disrupted the financial space. The below-mentioned graph showcases the advantages of blockchain technology. According to various banks in the US, blockchain in payments topped the chart, followed by securities settlement, fraud detection and security and trade finance.

Blockchain News Of The Week:

Here are the biggest blockchain-related headlines from across the world.

Indian Govt To Organise Blockchain Training Programme 

The National Power Training Institute (NPRI), under the Ministry of Power, is organising a programme called ‘Blockchain Technology’ at various cities including Nanga (Punjab), New Delhi and Shivpuri (Madhya Pradesh)  from January 6 to 10, February 17 to 21 and March 16 to 20, respectively. It is a five-day programme, where the attendees will get to explore the potential of blockchain technology and learn directly from the experts, blockchain use cases, ledgers, smart contracts, Ethereum framework, concepts and applications of crypto assets, cryptography, mining and more.

Amex, Accenture, Wipro And Byju’s To Hire Blockchain Developers 

A lot of companies have already started looking out for blockchain talent in the country. Both domestic and international companies are looking for experienced professionals in the areas of blockchain and other emerging technologies. The candidate with relevant experience working in IBM Hyperledger, Ethereum, Stellar, Ripple and Corda, along with other software skills such as Java, Scala, Erlang, Haskell, Python and other programming languages, can apply. Some of the job roles include blockchain architect, blockchain engineer, and blockchain developer among others.

Blockchain To Solve Food Wastage 

The global Agri value chain is constantly changing. Most food wastages happen due to inefficiencies, primarily in the logistics area. A recent study conducted by researchers shows that this can be prevented by applying supply-demand algorithms based on consumer behaviour and agriculture science to draw data from advanced sensor technology — all connected via blockchain, which can be used to track the quality of harvest from the field through processing and supply chain intervals or touchpoints. This will help in preventing food from getting wasted as the technology brings efficiency into the system, thereby minimising loss, maintaining supply and demand, among others.

UN Running A Blockchain Pilot To Track Cashmere In Mongolia 

Highlighting the importance of sustainable practices, the United Nations (UN), under its United National Development Programme wing, recently announced that it is running a blockchain pilot to check the possibility of fair transactions for customers in Mongolia for a premium product like cashmere wool. The pilot will be led by Convergence.tech using Ethereum-based blockchain technology to interact with over 70 different herders and eight cooperatives. The herders will be using an Android app to register their cashmere wool along with RFID tags, which will then get pinned on a map instantly.

This way, the authorities will be able to track, monitor and provide targeted incentives for herders who have been following sustainability practices, training and allows end-to-end supply chain access, thereby showing where the quality cashmere came from or which cooperative or herders responsible for it.

Honeywell Aerospace Tackling Counterfeiting Using Blockchain 

A global aerospace products and services manufacturing company Honeywell recently announced that it has introduced a multi-faceted authentication system, based on serialised codes, security inks and blockchain, to protect aerospace products and components from counterfeiting. The company has developed the new platform powered with iTRACE and SecureMarking, a system that employs two-factor authentication to allow customers to ensure Honeywell aerospace parts are genuine. More than anything, the platform claims to bring in transparency across the supply chain, thereby enabling an easier and quicker way for traders to check the certification and origin of Honeywell Aerospace components on the go.

As the nation is on a rapid digitisation trajectory, India is reaping the rewards that technology delivers. Growing convergence between new-age digital tools and business processes is unlocking unparalleled opportunities to streamline operations, enhance service delivery, tap into new business opportunities, and improve profitability. Little wonder, then, that a 2019 McKinsey report estimates the country’s digital economy to create business value to the tune of $1 trillion by 2025.

But while growing digitisation in the enterprise ecosystem is undoubtedly driving business growth, it is also leaving the door open for a major business challenge: cybersecurity.

Security Visibility And Proactive Remediation: Keys To A Secure Digital Future

The Indian enterprise ecosystem’s poor security readiness is no secret. A recent Frost & Sullivan report estimated that more than two-thirds (69%) of Indian organisations were at the heightened risk of a security breach, while around 44% had suffered a data breach in the past 12 months. More importantly, the report highlighted how 25% of the organisations surveyed had not conducted any breach assessment in over a year.

This is alarming, particularly in light of growing interconnectivity and the proliferation of digital devices within the business ecosystem. The BYOD work culture is now prevalent across many offices and workplaces; more and more personal devices are now being used to complete professional tasks, access critical work emails, and store enterprise data. IoT adoption is also increasing at a rapid pace within the enterprise ecosystem. With the pace of this digital penetration expected to increase exponentially in the near future, enterprise IT architectures will become more complex.

Cybercriminals are viewing this as a unique opportunity, devising more evolved attack methodologies and campaigns that can turn each device, each endpoint into a potential point of entry into the larger enterprise network. Add to this the fact that an overwhelming percentage of Indian enterprises don’t have adequate visibility into their cybersecurity health, and it becomes apparent that CIOs/CISOs have a monumental challenge facing them. Countering the scale and sophistication of these new-age threats will require CIOs/CISOs to have seamless, real-time visibility of their enterprise architectures.

This is why, in 2020, there will be a large-scale shift towards AI-powered vulnerability management solutions that can map threats and vulnerabilities across the entire organisational IT stack and present in-depth actionable insights to address the same. Doing so will allow enterprises to initiative more proactive and robust enterprise defence against cyber-attacks, as well as to streamline security operations for better structure and reportability.

To say that cybersecurity, today, has become a critical business imperative would be making a massive understatement. The introduction of global data privacy policies and recent large-scale breaches caused by poor enterprise security frameworks have renewed the conversation around the need for more robust and effective cybersecurity solutions around the world. The Indian business ecosystem is already leading the way when it comes to digital adoption – it has an unparalleled opportunity to do the same for enterprise cybersecurity by adopting cutting-edge vulnerability management practices.

With 2 Bn users (400 Mn in India), there’s no doubt that Whatsapp has emerged as one of the most effective communication platforms in the world. Even as it reached an incredible scale, Whatsapp stayed true to its simplicity and efficacy — which is why it still boasts of an incredible open rate of 95%.

Naturally, Whatsapp is the tool of choice for companies who want to engage with customers in a meaningful, personalized manner. But given that Whatsapp has always prioritized user experience, they take several measures to ensure that users don’t get inundated with spam. That’s why they make it compulsory to collect Whatsapp Business opt-ins to interact with customers on the platform.

How does Whatsapp’s Opt-in Work?

Whatsapp requires companies to have explicit consent from the customer before they connect with them through Whatsapp Business. This opt-in has to be done through a third-party channel before the company can begin sending messages. The opt-in also needs to meet certain specific conditions:

• It must adhere to this format: “receive [noun], [logo and name], on [number]”
• It has to have a specific user interface. – The opt-in must be through a visual element (like a checkbox), should have the WhatsApp logo in it, and the user explicitly has to enter their phone number.

The Best Ways To Collect Whatsapp Business Opt-Ins

It’s best to have a comprehensive strategy in place when it comes to Whatsapp Business Opt-ins. Here are some of the most effective ways to do this:

Own Website

You can do this in two ways. The first is to have a pop-up on your website so that you can drive customer interaction to Whatsapp whenever the need arises. You can also have banners across your most popular webpages. Yet another option is to have a specific campaign around Whatsapp opt-in. So you can create a landing page for opt-ins and then share the links on your homepage and social media channels.

Existing Communication Channels

Using an existing communication channel is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to get consent from customers. SMS, for instance, is a great way to get customers to opt-in. You can use a simple one-click, opt-in SMS option to direct consumers to your new and improved communication channel. Emails and social media announcements are another, more comprehensive way to get your customers on to your Whatsapp communication channel. A more innovative way of obtaining consent would be an automated Voice IVR. Use your existing IVR system to send an automated call to customers wherein they need to press one key to consent.

Within The Purchase Journey

Imagine this— a user is purchasing an airline ticket on a website, and the site gives them an option to opt-in and move the process to Whatsapp. Now the customer can receive their tickets, boarding passes, and flight reminders on Whatsapp itself. Naturally, an opt-in message that comes during the customer’s purchase journey will be far more likely to be successful, as the customer can foresee the advantage immediately.

In-Store Opt-ins

If you have offline stores, then a Point-of-Sale opt-in can be extremely effective. On-ground opt-ins are even more successful than online opt-ins. You can tell customers how Whatsapp communication will help — from things like information about reward points to collecting CSAT scores, to filing for refunds.

Contact Us Forms

When customers are filling out Contact forms, they already have an urgent need to communicate with you. If you have a separate field asking them on which channels they’d like to be contacted and add a checkbox with Whatsapp as an option, chances are they’re going to tick it.

It’s also important to remember that Whatsapp is very particular about user experience, and you will need to respect this at all times. You can only send outbound messages that follow a pre-approved template. Having stringent regulations around using the platform means that you can actually deliver a user experience that’s efficient, personalized, and right on target.

Children have moved far beyond the phase of Barbie dolls, video games or Play stations. Today’s kids demand gadgets, love to wear trendy clothes, stay groomed and are even born with Instagram handles. We are referring to Gen Z and Generation Alpha whose rising influence is urging the brands to rethink their marketing game.

Gen Z And Gen Alpha – Who Are They And How Do They Matter To Brands

Born between 1996 and 2010, Gen Z is today’s teenagers and young adults who are already in their early 20s. This means that the oldest members of this generation are either graduating or are just stepping into the workforce. Meanwhile, the Gen Alpha kids have their birth dates starting from 2010, which will go on till 2025.  With the oldest member in this group just aged 9, it is quite obvious that a majority of this generation is wearing diapers, or are yet to be born.

Since both these generations have been exposed to technology all their lives, they have become the marketing’s newest power brokers. These kids are intensely aware of the socio-economic, political, and environmental problems that society faces today and likewise care deeply about the world they live in. Therefore, they choose brands that are environment-friendly and ethical.

But the role of technology in the lives of Gen Zs impacts far beyond the obvious and health and wellbeing is one such area that is getting a lot of attention from them. They are trying to lead a far healthier and sensible lifestyle than the youth of the past. But that does not mean they are compromising on their parties but rather moving towards the healthier direction in terms of eating right and spending on beauty and personal hygiene products. This reflects their holistic view of self-care. So, startups that can make the conscious decision to cater to Gen-Z’s healthful outlooks and beliefs will grow rapidly in 2020 and become the brands of tomorrow.

What Is Different About Gen Alpha?

Poised to be the most formally educated and wealthiest generation ever as per research released by Grant Thornton, Gen Alphas are expected to be included more in the conversations and influence many purchases including big expensive trips, gadgets, eating out and more. Since these kids barely watch TV, brand marketers are contemplating different ways to reach them.

They are tapping into a rising bunch of child influencers who have their own Instagram handles and YouTube channels with subscriber count hitting millions. After all, these Gen Alpha kids today have become some of the strongest promoters for brands, through influencer marketing. They are already advocating brands on social media before they can even walk.

10-year-old Anantya Anand from Noida has drawn more than 4.5 Mn subscribers to her lifestyle-based YouTube channel MyMissAnand. The tween has worked on sponsored videos with channels Disney and Nickelodeon, toymaker Mattel, and even Mc Donalds.

Like Anantya, there are many other 5-to 12-year-olds kids who belong to this new category of content creators — the kids’ influencers, featuring in videos and promoting brands on their Instagram pages. Their soaring presence across social media platforms gives them an edge that brands typically look for — impact on followers.

That said, for brand advertisers and marketers, Generation Alpha will be an easy target as they can be reached effortlessly through technology. However, it has been anticipated that this generation will seek more seamless experiences than any other previous generation when it comes to advertising and marketing. So, the brands will have to keep it unpretentious yet effective while encouraging consumer loyalty in them.

Both Generation Z and Gen Alpha are big opportunities for businesses to target, the latter is going to change the world forever. So, if brands haven’t already started thinking about how to attract and build loyalty with these groups, it’s time to start.