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As the trending joke goes, it’s not the CTO or the CEO, but Covid-19 that has led to digital transformation in most companies around the world in 2020. Indeed, before the crisis broke, less than half of all companies even had a remote work program.

Today, institutions and industries where #WFH was, at best, a mis-spelt slang, are falling over themselves to decode and devise the right remote roadmaps. On the tech provider front, long rollouts are being accelerated to meet the sudden spike in out-of-office work. And while there’s nothing funny about a virus that runs amok without a vaccine, there may be reasons to smile for HR and organisations after the dust has settled – depending largely on how they approach this change. It is, after all, the biggest to happen to the workplace since the Industrial Revolution. And like all change, drags along opportunity.

When authors suffer from writer’s block, they need a gentle nudge to get back to the plot. In a way, Covid-19 is that nudge for our transition to a truly digitally connected workplace – one that started some years back but has been in WIP mode for a bit long now.

“We’re being forced into the world’s largest work-from-home experiment”.

Saikat Chatterjee, Senior Director, Advisory at Gartner.

Trends underscore the story powerfully. The rise of digital technologies has been letting more people work remotely – not just from home, but from parks, co-working spaces and while traveling. 95% of IBM’s workers are remote. According to Softchoice’s 2017 study Collaboration Unleashed, 74% of workers would be willing to switch jobs if they had an opportunity to work ‘off-site’ more often. The ‘work-from-anywhere’ headcount has ballooned 10X (as compared to the rest of the workforce) since 2005. Kirill Tatarinov (CEO, Citrix Systems) had famously claimed that 50% of workforce will be remote. Not even in his wildest dreams would he have expected that his estimate would turn out to be a conservative one (which in the #NewNormal of 2020, it certainly is).

The ‘New’ Worker 

• 83% do not believe they need to be in an office to be productive.
• 43% believe they would be more productive working from home.
• 70% (aged 16–44 years ) want to be more mobile at work.
• 88% use smartphones for work daily.
• 49% use a tablet at least three times per week.

(Statistics are based on data online and reports & surveys by tech firm Fuze)

The corona crisis will finally force us to get off that fence and commit to a workplace that is not just digital, but more optimised and humane as well. The gig and freelance economy – where companies regularly outsource work to professionals they have never met in person – has been clocking healthy growth. The huge popularity of collaborative work tools like Office365, Basecamp, Asana and Slack tells us that people are getting comfortable with ‘social distancing’ in a professional sense as well. Millennials and Gen-Z have been working ‘virtually’ practically their entire life and may wonder what the fuss is all about.

The #WFH tsunami is also a Litmus test of whether we have been doing our ‘People Strategy’ right all this while. For instance, organizations who have been able to bind their teams closer to a common purpose and engage them (with not only roles that are meaningful but authority and trust that comes without the micro-management) will experience the least amount of disruption – or bounce back the fastest – as work shifts from the office to the home. For others, the Covid-19 will mean revisiting the drawing board, this time with serious intent.

Either way, HR and CXO’s will have to realize that this is not about office vs remote. It’s a more fundamental shift. This is about a pre-crisis attitude versus a post-crisis mindset. Our world isn’t the same it was last winter – and it may never again go back to the old way (not in the near future anyway). Be it the worker, the employer, the client, the partner, the associate or the workspace itself – everyone has a new set of needs, priorities and wish-lists. Organizations will have to start looking beyond installing shiny new software or tweaking legacy workflows and get real about addressing these demands.

According to a webinar poll, over 90% ‘People Leaders’ from Asia & APAC shared that they have been putting in place ‘work from home’ arrangements since the current crisis started, but have been having a tough time figuring out the tech side of things – in addition to getting comfortable with the new way of work. That sentiment, one can assume, is not restricted to the respondents of the poll.

Change may be glorious at the end, but it can be messy at first. We can all make this journey a little easier by keeping in mind that it’s not just the HR’s job to reinvent the new workplace where remote could well be the norm instead of the exception. Each of us has a role to play and opinion to share, and the more responsibly and proactively we come forward to lend HR a hand, the faster we get a grip on the new reality.

Organizational design has been in metamorphosis for a while now, with clusters of smaller, more cohesive and agile ‘teams’ fast emerging as an alternative to the traditional, function-first hierarchy. A research by Josh Bersin’s team shows that 92% of companies believe their organisational design is not working, yet only 14% know how to fix it. The current churn may point a way out. We could be witnessing the dawn of a new era of workplace design where every function and leader has a ‘more equal’ voice in co-creating workflows and authority structures, leading to a matrix that is more logical, inclusive and organic – and leads to better outcomes. It could also spell more rewarding and personalized career models, luring untapped demographics into the workplace and adding diversity to the talent pool.

There’s no playbook. But you can still play.

The post When There’s No Playbook, Change The Game appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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As the pandemic changes the way Indians look at investing and saving money along with increased adoption of digital investment and wealth management platforms. This ecosystem is now at the cusp of a major regulatory overhaul after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allowed stock exchanges to propose a subsidiary to regulate investment advisors. 

To put it into perspective, there are around 1,300 SEBI-registered investment advisors (RIAs) in India, which includes both traditional offline advisors and new-age online platforms.

What Does The New SEBI Circular Say?

The new SEBI notification called for a wholly-owned subsidiary of a stock exchange to administer and supervise such advisers. The stock exchange needs to have an operational history of at least 15 years, a minimum net worth of at least INR 200 Cr.

The notification said that the stock exchange also must have infrastructures such as nation-wide terminals and investor service centres. Once authorised by SEBI, the exchange subsidiary is required to discharge several regulatory responsibilities. 

These include maintaining a database of RIAs, on-site and off-site supervision of RIAs, grievance redressal against investment advisors (IA) and administrative action against RIAs. The subsidiary also needs to monitor the activities of IAs by obtaining periodic reports and refer matters to Sebi for enforcement action.

History Of RIA Regulations In India

In hindsight, SEBI had established the first set of rules governing investment advisors in 2013 and has progressively tightened regulations since then to combat misselling and fraudulent stock tip operators.

At the time, SEBI had also decided to appoint a company floated by industry body Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) as a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) for mutual fund distributors. The decision was challenged by the Financial Planning Supervisory Board (FPSB) in the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT). The appeal by FPSB had alleged that the selection process contravened rules that applied to SROs. The SAT, and later the Supreme Court, ruled in favour of the FPSB.

Following the ruling, SEBI submitted an application in November 2018 to the Supreme Court saying that instead of inviting applications a company should be made an SRO based on its experience and capability. Later in April 2019, SEBI issued a consultation paper on SROs for intermediaries including investment advisors. The consultation paper allowed either a body of intermediaries or a subsidiary of a stock exchange to perform this rule.

Hence, the new rule comes in the follow up of the same consultation paper.

What This Means For India’s Wealth Management Startups?

Talking about the new regulations, ETMoney founder and CEO Mukesh Kalra told Inc42 that the decision will bring a positive impact on the business as this will make things more streamlined, reduce chances of frauds and enforce more transparency for the end consumer.

Kalra added, “In the most simplistic form, we believe the IA regulations mandate every business to be super clear – whether to charge advisory fees or get paid on commissions. Today advisory and commission are bundled for the end-user. A lot of advisories are not truly unbiased because the agents make money via commissions in the back and that’s the source of all miss-selling. 

We welcome the new regulations as it is unbundling the two. It provides opportunities on both sides.”

Explaining this further, Vijay Kuppa, cofounder, Orowealth told Inc42 that till now, RIA’s were directly regulated by SEBI, unlike mutual fund distributors who have an SRO called AMFI. This step by SEBI is to create the infrastructure to administer and supervise the growing RIA industry, he added.

“We do have an organisation called ARIA (Association of RIA’s) which is a forum for RIAs. They make representations on our behalf to SEBI and are consulted by SEBI on the evolution of various RIA regulations. However, the official regulation, issuance of new licences, renewals, supervision etc. of the RIA community is still done by SEBI themselves,” he further explained the existing regulations.

Neelabh Sanyal, COO and cofounder, Kuvera.in said that only the administration and supervision shall be moved to the new regulating authority. “IA have to maintain compliance on various fronts including Networth requirements, process compliance and client grievance redressal. On operational front corporate changes are also communicated to SEBI so they have updated database of all IAs,” he explained about the existing regulations.

On the changes which come into place with the latest circular, Orowealth’s Kuppa said, “Since stock exchanges are themselves regulated by SEBI, they (SEBI) will still have some kind of oversight of the regulatory body. Now we have to see which exchanges apply for this. It is still early days.”

Sanyal from Kuvera added that from a reading of the circular, administration and supervision of specific functions will be managed by the new entity. “In case of non-compliance, this entity will have powers to issue warnings and propose action where warranted to SEBI,” he explained.

Sanyal also noted that having a specialised entity perform these activities will help streamline reporting processes and compliance. It will also reduce the burden on SEBI as the number of RIAs has grown manifold over the years, he added.

Explaining the pros and cons of the new regulatory authority, Kalra of ETMoney said, “This will have a very negative impact on businesses who charge for advice and also make money via commissions from the manufacturers in the back. They will have to let go of one of the revenue streams.”

The post How Will New Regulatory Authority For Investment Advisors Impact Wealth Management Apps? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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The India Stack has been a work-in-progress since 2009 when UIDAI (the Aadhaar issuing authority) was founded. Aadhaar was the foundation for successive “layers” of the India Stack to built.

The Initial Focus Was On The “Less” Layer:

1. Aadhaar: Presence-less layer
2. DigiLocker: Paperless layer
3. UPI: Cashless layer

In anticipation of adoption of the Personal Data Protection (PDP) bill being passed, volunteers at iSPIRIT began work on a privacy-first framework called DEPA (Data Empowerment & Protection Architecture).

As a framework, DEPA formed the bedrock for two important consumer use-cases:

1. Consensual sharing of financial information (via the Account Aggregator framework)
2. Consensual sharing of health information (via the National Health Stack)

However, sharing financial information is a “tool” and not a “product” – on July 25, iSPIRIT announced OCEN (Open Credit Enablement Network) i.e. “UPI for credit” – an open protocol that acts as the “single API/integration for credit”.

OCEN Draws Upon:

1. The Account Aggregator framework – to access financial customer data for:
   • Loan underwriting (decision to lend)
   • Loan monitoring (pre-emptive diagnosis of future NPAs to take corrective action)
   • End-use control (i.e. ensuring funds disbursed are used for the stated purpose)
2. The LSP framework
   • LSP stands for Loan Service Provider – a new class of entities focused on origination of loans on behalf of NBFCs and banks who offer the risk capital for lending.
   • LSP was a recommendation in the UK Sinha MSME report to the RBI

Therefore, India has all the “building blocks” for open financial protocols. Credit now has its open protocol via OCEN – is insurance next?

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Before we jump into the ‘UPI for Insurance’ – OPEN (Open Protection Enablement Network), it is important to review how OCEN is expected to operate to understand how OPEN & OCEN are likely to be very similar.

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OCEN operates as a layer of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that standardize the loan disbursal, monitoring and collection process.

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Let’s Walk Through The Loan Origination Process Enabled By OCEN:

1. You select your new sunglasses from Lenskart (who has the LSP license).
2. When you arrive at the checkout screen, you have an opportunity to avail of a consumer loan. You select “Yes”.
3. You’re redirected to your Account Aggregator login and you give consent to Lenskart to query your ICICI bank account for

1. Details on your income/payments/assets etc (one-time)
2. Occasional access to assess your financial position (loan monitoring; optional)
3. Lenskart takes details regarding (a) Your financial position & (b) your purchase; these details get posted to the OCEN protocol.
4. 17 banks respond with loan quotes i.e. interest rate and loan covenants (repayment structure, default criteria etc)
5. Lenskart collects these quotes & applies its discretion in showing you the top choices.
6. You make your choice (or don’t and just pay upfront!)

If you choose to pay your loan up midway through its lifetime, you have the opportunity to revoke your consent to let Lenskart monitor your financial statement too!

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For further information on OCEN; do check out the iSPIRIT blog. This brings us to the insurance analogue to OCEN – OPEN (which is at the idea stage).

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OPEN would operate as a layer of APIs to standardise the insurance underwriting, distribution & claims process. For technology platforms and consumer-facing apps, OPEN would act as a “single API for insurance distribution.”

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Let’s Walk Through The Insurance Sales Process Enabled By OPEN:

• You decide to book a trip to Maldives on Yaatra.com (who has a corporate agency licence to sell insurance).
• When you arrive at the checkout screen, you have an opportunity to avail of Overseas Medical cover for your trip; you say “Yes”
• You’re redirected to a Consent Manager login & you give consent to Yaara.com’s insurance partner to query Apollo Hospitals for your medical records.
• Your trip and medical details are posted to OPEN to collect insurance quotes regarding:

1. Premium payment (& structure)
2. Policy benefits, exclusions and value-add services 12 insurers respond with insurance quotes

• Yaatra.com collects these quotes & applies its discretion in showing you the top choices.
• You make your choice (or choose not to buy!)
• If you want, you can get advice on your policy purchase from a qualified individual (e.g. insurance broker)

Matters such as claims handling and mid-term adjustment of policies are yet to be fleshed out.

Benefits of OPEN For The Ecosystem:

For Insurance Companies

1. Distribution arrangements typically occur via group products often involve a high degree of opacity on membership composition; leveraging the India stack can lead to a “fairer” pricing structure via:
   • Viewing PEDs of members (via the National Health Stack)
   • Viewing financial position of members (via Account Aggregator)
2. Access to new sources of distribution (technology companies can tap into different audience pools)

For Distributors (Or Platforms)

1. No new regulatory structure is required since the existing corporate agency license is sufficient.
2. Access to the best commission rates by originating business for a broad range of carriers (no partner lock-in)

For Customers

1. Better product selection (tailored to their needs)
2. Best price

On The Health Side Of Insurance, iSPIRIT Has Been Working On:

1. The National Health Stack (which includes an electronic claims switch)
2. The Gamifier policy (a new kind of outcomes-based health insurance policy)

It is likely that the combination of the Health Stack and Account Aggregator will enable a version of OPEN for health insurance in India in the coming years.

The post Open Protection Enablement Network In The Indian Context appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Bengaluru-headquartered consumer lending startup ZestMoney has raised a fresh equity round of over INR 80 Cr from Singapore-based venture capital firm Primrose Hill Ventures.

According to filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and accessed by Inc42, the company on August 5 filed multiple documents which showed three rounds of investment from Primrose. The allotments have been made at a nominal value of INR 10 per share with a premium of INR 67,190 per share.

• June 16: 4017 equity shares worth INR 26,99,42,400
• May 5: 3,422 equity shares worth INR 22,99,58,400 
• March 13: 5,205 equity shares worth INR INR 34,97,76,000 

Prior to this, ZestMoney has raised $56.9 Mn from investors such as Goldman Sachs, Quona Capital, Alteria Capital and Xiaomi, among others, with the last $15 Mn Series B round in December 2019. The company had said that the funding would be used for product development, forming more strategic partnerships and scale its platform to get more customers on board. 

The company had also announced a strategic partnership with Japan-based credit financing company Credit Saison, under which ZestMoney would allocate $100 Mn to expand digital lending in India.

Founded in 2016 by Ashish Anantharaman, Lizzie Chapman and Priya Sharma, the Bengaluru-headquartered ZestMoney looks to target the underserved customer base, not through loans, but by enabling purchases through equated monthly installment (EMI) options. “This approach eliminates the need for a credit card or a credit score. The customers can use this feature to purchase products, which cost up to $3,000 (INR 2.12 Lakh),” Lizzie Chapman, cofounder of the company told Inc42 earlier this year.

According to Chapman, ZestMoney looks to serve the people living in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India, with the belief that many of these people don’t have access to formal credit. A whopping 80% of the formal loans in India are accessed by just 24 Mn households falling under the elite and affluent income categories, whereas the other 124 Mn households, who earn an annual income of INR 1.4 Lakh to INR 4.5 Lakh, have only received 10% of the total credit from the formal market.

Last month, Google Pay partnered with ZestMoney, as part of its plan to add lending to its payments business. Google Pay is expected to partner with more such digital lenders and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) in the future. 

Sources told Business Standard that ZestMoney has reportedly received thousands of applications through Google Pay partnership. Users can register themselves on Google Pay, complete KYC norms and check their eligibility for a credit limit without having to go through the ZestMoney website or app.

Besides Google, Amazon Pay Later offers a zero-interest credit to its customers in India to buy essential products or to pay bills. Amazon Pay has partnered with lenders such as Capital Float and Karur Vysya Bank. Amazon’s rival Flipkart has also introduced a similar feature for an instant credit line of up to INR 5,000 at zero additional cost for up to 40 days. Other microlending and pay-later platforms like LazyPay offer services through over 250 websites and apps for a credit limit of up to INR 1 Lakh.

Moreover, according to a TechCrunch report from April, Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp, which is planning to launch its digital payments venture WhatsApp pay in India, has also listed credit as one one of the opportunities it would pursue. In filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, WhatsApp provided credit or loans as one of the “main objects to be pursued by it in the country.” No other financial service was listed in the filing.

Lending Set For Boost In India

As per DataLabs by Inc42 estimates, the credit demand in India is projected to be worth $1.41 Tn by 2022. The estimated growth rate in credit demand is 3.73% between FY17 and FY22. However, the Covid-19 crisis is said to be an unprecedented boost to the lending space in India.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, talking at the ‘Ask Me Anything’ webinar hosted by Inc42, highlighted that lending is one of the biggest opportunities which comes out of these times. “Companies that swing around to the opportunity of distributing unsecured loans and collecting them well, and underwriting them well will become the champions of tomorrow,” he added.

The post Exclusive: ZestMoney Raises INR 80 Cr From Primrose Hill Ventures appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Working-from-home (WFH) was always considered as a flexibility offered by more progressive organisations. Though the number of people working from home or working remote has been on the rise for years, the pandemic may have pressed the fast-forward button on this trend. It is no longer flexibility, but more of a necessity.

The availability of low-cost data and free video conferencing options ushered by the cut-throat competition in the telecom and video-conferencing space has eased this transition for the new-bee remote workers.

With conferencing tools facilitating the primary mode of communication between co-workers, most of the meetings and 1-on-1s happen over video conferences. The complaints of sexual harassment over video conferencing are also seeing an increasing trend. Situations such as forcing an employee for a video call, at odd hours, explicit pictures/posters on the t-shirts or virtual backgrounds and insensitive comments about work-life balance in a group call have all resulted in subtle discomfort or even sexual harassment for fellow female employees. As the remote work is here to stay, we must understand the issue better and find ways to provide a conducive remote work environment for our colleagues.

Legal Definition Of Workplace

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 states that the workplace is “any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment”. Work from home or remote work happens during the course of employment. So even home is technically considered as workplace when the employee is working.

So the POSH Law will be applicable for sexual harassment and the employee may register a complaint with the organisation’s internal committee for further inquiry. If the organisation does not have an Internal Committee (IC), the women employee may register the complaint on the Shebox web portal provided by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, government of India. Any complaint to the IC or Shebox will be investigated and punishment will be based on the Service Rules of the organisation. If there is a misconception that “home is not part of the workplace, so office-rules won’t apply”, then it must be corrected with this awareness.

Privacy Is A Fundamental Right

While home can be considered a workplace as defined by law, it is still their home, a private place. The lines of boundaries in space and time are constantly blurring when working from home. Yet, it must be considered that the individual may not be comfortably attired to get on a video call all the time, or may not have an environment suitable to be shared on video. Calls at odd times may not be convenient for all, with the family sleeping in the same room. It is important to be sensitive and respect the privacy of the individual.

With home considered as a part of workplace (while working remotely) and yet it is a place where individual’s privacy must be respected, let us see some best practices during video calls.

Here are some Do’s and Don’ts one should take into consideration:

Working Hours

Ensure your colleagues are aware of your work schedule to avoid any assumption about your availability. If you are the organiser, schedule the calls during reasonable working hours.

Video Conference

If you are not comfortable turning your video on, you may politely inform that you will remain connected only with the Audio. Do not force other team members to turn on their Video if they are uncomfortable. If it is a critical call, where the video is a requirement, provide sufficient and reasonable advance notice to the participants enabling them to make arrangements. When on a video call, make sure the environment & dressing etiquette is maintained. Avoid insensitive pictures on your t-shirts, posters on the wall and revealing clothes.

Language & Etiquettes

Mind the language and body gestures during the call and demonstrate professionalism throughout the call. Avoid personal comments about appearance, family or other sensitive topics. If you are uncomfortable by an act, or incident, immediately communicate this to the other party, giving them an opportunity to correct their mistake.

If one still feels offended, contact your Superior, HR or Internal Committee. Creating a great working environment is everyone’s responsibility. With a little understanding and by being sensitive to other’s feelings, we can contribute positively to this endeavor.

The post The Biggest Dos And Don’ts Of Video Conferencing For Employees appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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The title of this article may incite anger, and understandably so, especially if you are running or working at a company that is struggling during these testing times. But bear with me, and you would see how the Covid-19 induced economic hardship is not as bad as it seems for the overall startup ecosystem.

In this piece, I argue that economies evolve through cycles of growth and shrinkage and that the overall health of an ecosystem, much like the Amazon forest, depends on the constant reinvention of various species. For the jungle to thrive and sustain, an act of “creative destruction” is not only inevitable but also, sometimes, urgent. And we are amid those times.

A recent report by NASSCOM puts the COVID-19 induced mortality rate for startups at as high as 40% and states that about 70% of tech start-ups have a runway of less than 3 months. The results are based on a survey of 250 startups, of which 60% are bootstrapped and over 70% are in early and mid-stage tech tenure. Once you pay attention to the profile and the sheer size of startups you quickly understand that the picture is not as bad as it seems. When was the startup mortality rate low?

Even in ordinary times, founders live on the edge, with their venture’s chances of survival at about 5% to 10%. The lockdown ensued slowdown has only made the problem more glaring, but by no means that it has led to the problem. Entrepreneurs can blame the socioeconomic landscape for their failures, or blame the inadequate financial interventions by the state, but they all knew what they were signing for, and if they didn’t I must “welcome” them to the arena.

Drawing a leaf from the literature of Design Thinking, a successful idea is one which meets the often conflicting demands of customer desirability, technical feasibility, and business viability. While most entrepreneurs base their ventures on customer desirability and even scavenge to meet technical feasibility, they mostly miss out on business viability.

And this problem of the founding team discounting business viability further gets exacerbated with venture capital, which, I argue, induces morale hazard in the team.  There is a highly pervasive misconception that “if you build it, they will come”, and so do people build, and the customers and investors are often spoilt for choices. A happy customer does not always lead to a successful business, as shown by the uneventful turn of events at Kingfisher Airlines, Jet Airways, Blackberry, and Moser Baer, amongst others.

As IBM’s turnaround specialist and former CEO, Louis Gerstner, observed, “the best companies grow profits faster than revenue. They understand the cash flow not revenues, sustains corporate success.” Little doubt IBM celebrates its 100 years last decade and continues to lead the industry which it once formed. How many founders care about cash flow? For what seems to matter is burn rate, and the top-line growth, as it ensures rapid valuation. Nobody understands this better than Masayoshi Son of the SoftBank Group who lost $12.5 Bn on his funding ambitions, and that too on darlings like WeWork, Uber, and Oyo Rooms, amongst others.

The legendary investor, Warren Buffett, famously quipped, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.” And we are in such times. They have exposed the inherent vulnerability of startup, which should better get corrected sooner than spiraling out of control and causing serious economic and social damage. It would be appropriate to invoke the Thiel’s Law, which states, “A startup messed up at its foundation cannot be fixed.” Except maybe with a near-death experience that it can be.

One of the most widely felt and mostly genuine concerns about startups going out of business is the effect on its founders, employees, customers, and investors. Tell you what, the damages are nothing in contrast to a large enterprise going down, which are often based on weak economic principles. Let us look at these stakeholders in order. As for the founders and the earliest employees, they were all lured by massive windfalls and irrational gains, first from the investors, and then (hopefully) from the customers. Theoretically good, but practically mostly unfounded.

When the company goes down, the team emerges in some other form, with a different idea, which is more likely in pace with the market realities. As for the employees. Most of the late joiners come with fungible skills, talent which is typically not specific to any company or domain, and they have the highest possibilities of being redeployed.

The customers, more than ever, have more choice and less loyalty, and with a growing number of competitors and substitutes, customers typically have the last laugh. So, a startup holding customer on a ransom is very unlikely, unless the company is based on some proprietary asset, which, by corollary, lowers the chances of it going out of business. Think of how much do you miss Kodak or Nokia?  As for the investors, they knew it all along, and the more seasoned ones factored-in such failures. It is just a redeployment of funds, from a failing venture to another. In reality, the show goes on, for all practical purpose.

The Austrian Economist, Joseph Schumpeter, famously noted, “Situations emerge in the process of creative destruction in which many firms may have to perish that nevertheless would be able to live on vigorously and usefully if they could weather a particular storm (italics mine).” The gales of creative destruction have come and have come for good, for the Indian startup ecosystem needs discipline more than funding, or even talent. Creation emerges from the rubbles of destruction, as witnessed by the post-war meteoric rise of Japan, Germany, and the United States.

From an ecological perspective too, nature appropriates scant resources from an ailing to the rising, and as Charles Darwin professed, “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” Maybe that is where the panacea of the current crisis lies – collaboration and improvisation. Long live the “fittest”.

The post Why Startups Going Out Of Business Is Not Necessarily A Bad Thing appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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An expert committee framed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has recently released a report on Non-Personal Data (NPD) Governance Framework. It mandates sharing of NPD for the sovereign, core public interest and economic purposes.

The government intends to give a boost to startups/businesses via mandatory sharing of meta-data to develop innovative solutions, products and services and thus spurring innovation in the country. However, data dictates the dominant player in the market and is an intellectual property of the organisation – thus, cannot be shared with the competitors. Data is a property, and if one does not have any control over its property rights, the inclination to invest in it declines rapidly.

Thus, the intention behind the goal of the policy to enable a free and fair competitive market is applauded. However, there are concerns on three significant fronts concerning the intersection of data and antitrust issue which this article will talk about:

1) No definition of meta-data is provided

2) How will sharing of meta-data ensure the rights of data principal, is unclear and

3) There is no separate authority for dealing with antitrust issues, and non personal data authority is burdened with the complex issue.

Defining What Entails ‘Shared Data’

The policy states specifically that data businesses can make an access request to data custodians with respect to only meta-data, however, the word meta-data is void of any definition. Moreover, in relation to the economics of data, the report stipulates and distinguishes between voluntary, observed and inferred data.

Voluntary data is the data that is given by the user voluntarily while using a service, like a name, birthday, DOB etc. Observed data is obtained when the user uses a particular device or accesses a website like the nature of shopping, geo-location, or IP address etc. Inferred data is most competitive in nature, unlike the other two, and is obtained via data analytics – by combining the other two kinds of data, structuring them into a dataset and drawing inferences.

Even if we consider observed or inferred data to fall under the ambit of meta-data, sharing of it would impede innovation and disincentivize competitors to develop their own algorithmic business models (based on which prediction or filtering takes place). Thus, it is not the raw data that is lucrative rather the future inferences and predictions derived from the data that are both crucial and competitive.

Data Portability And Access To Essential Data

Apart from the definition of meta-data, its sharing mechanisms are unclear. While sharing data, the rights of data principals, as mentioned in the PDP Bill, 2019, should be taken care of. Primarily, the report should be cognizant of the right to data portability, while outlining the sharing protocol of meta-data. Data portability allows seamless movement of data across networks which is beneficial for the user. It is also useful for startups as portability aids access to the raw data.

However, ‘network effects’ (for example, in social networks, it arises when more users are connected to a particular service) create an impediment for the user to switch service. Markets with strong network effects tend to monopolise, because consumers gravitate towards a service or platform with more users, and thereby the market tip towards the dominant player. Thus, if enough users give consent to transfer their raw data, or there is a data access request under the ‘essential facilities doctrine’ (mandatory for the data business to supply meta-data), the right to data portability would come into play and promote entry and competition.

Freedom To Choose And Monopoly

In an era of automated systems, the user has limited knowledge about what kind of data is being collected, merged and how it is processed, stored and deleted – ‘data masking’ – which diminishes making an informed choice. The concept of ‘refusal to supply’ data can lead to the elimination of effective competition on the downstream market. It can also harm a consumer with respect to making an autonomous choice while buying products or services, as non-sharing of data would lead to a monopoly.

As Friedrich Hayek pointed out:

“Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy”

Autonomy is often conceptualized in the form of personhood, self-determination, or free will, being used interchangeably. In various jurisdictions, like India, the Supreme court has recognized that personal autonomy includes both the negative right of non-interference by others and the positive right of decisional independence.

Competition authorities and not NPDA, should thereby adopt a consumeristic approach to the balance bargaining power of consumers and rectify issues of information asymmetry. Further, defining meta-data and the obligation of the right to data portability would disable the network effects of a dominant player and allow a consumer an opportunity to choose from different products and services.

This approach would also be in consonance with Article 29 of the Data Protection Working Party Opinion which notes that in the age of data aggregation and large scale data collection, information sovereignty is at risk and thereby privacy and autonomy of an individual should be safeguarded. It is a significant concern which should explicitly vest under the purview of the Non-Protection Data Authority, which is the primary body for dealing issues with privacy and data protection, and not antitrust.

Conclusion

Due to a rapid shift in technologies, the distinction between personal and non-personal data is becoming blurry. Thus, the present report is an appropriate developmental step by the Indian government. However, a deep dive needs to take place into the intersection of law and economics and what role non-personal data can play to boost free, fair, and open market. The report proves to be myopic in a sense, it considers dominance to be anti-competitive rather than abuse of dominance.

The contours of Market Tipping as a consequence of network effects should be taken into consideration while formulating mandatory data sharing mechanisms. Also, if the report allows the sharing of meta-data for the sovereign, national security, and economic purposes, then to the least, it can define the same. Further, the sheer prospect of portability of data would incapacitate the dominant player and would give rise to more competition and thereby higher quality services to consumers.

[The article was co-authored by Kazim Rizvi and Harsh Bajpai, doctoral researcher and part-time tutor at Durham University]

The post Non-Personal Data Sharing Mechanism: Antitrust And Privacy Concerns appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced the kickstart of the consultation for Delhi’s new policy for startups in a meeting with industry leaders on Saturday (August 8).

The industry leaders who participated in the meeting included Ajai Chowdhry (cofounder, HCL), Rajan Anandan (MD Sequoia Capital), Padmaja Ruparel (cofounder, Indian Angel Network), Sriharsha Majety (cofounder and CEO, Swiggy), Farid Ahsan (cofounder, ShareChat), Suchita Salwan (founder and CEO, Little Black Book), Tarun Bhalla (founder, Avishkaar), Riyaaz Amlani (CEO & MD, Impresario Handmade Restaurants).

Those who participated in the consultations are likely to provide inputs in drafting the new startup policy.

The Delhi government said in a press release that the draft will soon be released online to seek inputs from the general public on the startup policy. “This will give the startup policy a fresh perspective and in the true spirit of the Delhi Model, cement Delhi government’s commitment to delivering results through teamwork and unity,” a spokesperson of the Delhi government said.

During the meeting, Kejriwal referred to a September 2019 TiE report to highlight that with over 7000 startups from the region, Delhi has the highest number of active startups in the country and now the valuation of the city’s start-ups is about $50 Bn. The report states that Delhi-NCR is set to become one of the top five global start-up hubs with 12,000 startups, 30 unicorns, and a cumulative valuation of about $150 billion by 2025.

Kejriwal said, “Right since my IIT days, I have seen some of the most brilliant minds from India go abroad looking for better opportunities. I believe Indians are the smartest entrepreneurs in the world and all they need is the right opportunity and the right conditions to help them thrive. With this start-up policy, we aim to make Delhi as one of the top 5 global destinations for startups.”

Delhi The New Startup Hub

Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) has witnessed the highest number of startups being founded in the first six months of this year, on the back of its digital ecosystem, government support and infrastructure, including startup accelerators, incubators and enablers.

Between January and June, 109 startups were founded in Delhi-NCR, followed by 63 in Bengaluru and 44 in Mumbai, according to data by venture capital industry tracker Tracxn. Sectors such as edtech, fintech and enterprise applications saw more traction with several start-ups also repurposing their solutions to offer Covid-related solutions.

Industry Welcomes Move

Welcoming the state government’s move, Anandan said, “NCR is already the largest startup region in India and within NCR, Delhi has the most number of startups. We were honored to be invited by the Chief Minister of Delhi to provide suggestions on how to make Delhi one of the world’s top 5 startup destinations. The discussion was very good with many ideas on what it will take Delhi’s startup ecosystem to the next level.”

Meanwhile, Amlani added, “I am glad that the CM has convened this panel. To battle the financial effects of Covid timely measures provided by the Delhi Govt would mean that we can defeat the financial effects of Covid and come out even stronger.”

Earlier Attempts 

However, this isn’t the first time Kejriwal has attempted to device a strategy for startups. Earlier, in 2018, the Delhi government had presented the first draft of its startup policy to NASSCOM, FICCI, and CII.

The Delhi government had earlier decided to establish an Incubation Centre at the Delhi Emporium Building with a goal to provide infrastructural support as well as a conducive environment for the startup ecosystem to grow.

As per the Inc42 DataLabs funding report 2017, since 2014, about $11 Bn has been invested across 924 deals in Delhi/NCR region. But the number of deals fell drastically in 2017. The year 2015 had witnessed 305 deals, which grew to 316 in 2016. However, in 2017, the deals fell by 30% in comparison to 2016.

The post Delhi Govt Kicks Off Consultations To Draft New Startup Policy appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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India’s SaaS ecosystem has come a long way since 2014 and given the pedigree and calibre of the IT services industry that created the SaaS wave, this must come as no surprise. But while so far, SaaS giants such as Zoho, Freshworks, ChargeBee, Deskera, CleverTap, Postman, Icertis, Druva and others have so far built their bases around international enterprises and clients, the focu in the post-pandemic world is on Indian small businesses. With digital penetration among SMBs also rising along with consumers, the floor is set for SaaS startups — particularly horizontal SaaS models — to tap the vast Indian market.

Backed by rising investor interest, India’s SaaS ecosystem is poised for a golden moment. In 2019, for the first time ever enterprise tech startup funding crossed the billion-dollar mark with the total funding of $1.03 Bn. A whopping $809 Mn of this was invested in horizontal SaaS plays or startups that offer SaaS products that seek to solve a specific use-case within companies. The model, which covers areas such as accounting, sales, marketing and HR, aims to cover a wide swathe of the market, and target different industries.

Covid-19 forced millions of businesses in India to shut down temporarily or curtail their operations. Some moved to remote workforces to tackle the restrictions on movement and social distancing. This has expanded the addressable market for horizontal SaaS solutions greatly, since any company that did not use a suite of software to manage its operations is now a potential target. SaaS startups in the space of offline-to-online (O2O) marketing and enablement, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM have a golden opportunity in India.

In many ways, the pandemic was the inflexion point. As per a recent survey by CII, the complete shutdown of operations identified as the biggest business constraint due to Covid-19. In recent times, multiple SaaS companies from India and around the world have shown confidence in Indiaʼs vibrant SMB ecosystem and have been offering solutions to help them survive and thrive.

Some of the key startups in the horizontal SaaS space include Zoho, CleverTap, Wingify, Freshworks and Deskera. The market confidence towards the Indian SMBs for SaaS solutions has increased with even the government bringing many of its departments online, which forces the SMBs working with them to also digitise their operations. This is highly likely to translate into higher revenues from the Indian market for SaaS companies and break their dependence on the Western market for scale and growth.

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Horizontal SaaS In India: Scale With Sustainable Revenue

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As part of the latest DataLabs by Inc42+ report “Opportunities For Horizontal SaaS In India’s SMB Market 2020”, we have formulated the aggregate revenue for India-registered entities of the top 30 horizontal SaaS companies which account for over 80% of the total domestic market.

In FY2019, the aggregate revenue of Indian origin horizontal SaaS startups stood at over $518 Mn, which is a 27% surge compared to the previous year. The fact that this deals with the India-registered entities, indicates the growing adoption of Indian origin horizontal SaaS products in the domestic market as well, besides overseas.

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Furthermore, the median revenue surge for India-registered entities of SaaS startups was 57% from FY18 to FY19, which has outpaced the 53% growth in median expenses. So in fact, SaaS startups have had sound and sustainable unit economics over the past two financial years, which has allowed them to further iterate on the products, create moats and achieve scale without stretching resources.

Zoho vs Freshworks: The Battle Between India’s SaaS Giants

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Zoho and Freshworks are two of the most famous names in the Indian startup ecosystem and together these companies have put Chennai on the global SaaS map, which has allowed the city to become India’s SaaS capital. The influence of these two startups on the SaaS cannot be understated and they have inspired hundreds of other startups in Chennai and around India.

Among the two poster boys of Indian SaaS ecosystem, if we look at the financial performance over the past two fiscals (2018 and 2019) Freshworks definitely has had an upper hand. The Indian entity of the company recorded a total revenue growth of 58% and PBT (profit before tax) surge of 59%, compared to Zoho’s decline of 13% in the revenue whereas as 5% in the profit before tax.

The market competition between Freshworks and Zoho has also spilled over into an ugly courtroom battle. In March this year, Zoho filed a lawsuit alleging that Freshworks stole confidential information and built a business out of it. Will this lawsuit have an impact on future revenue and distract these two SaaS behemoths?

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It’s been said many times in the past — small and medium businesses are the most crucial pillar of a nation’s economy. Some say that the ease of doing business and scaling it in the local community has been a key factor in the economic might of the US. In developing countries where the reach of corporates is proliferated to selected urban regions, small and mediums enterprises play a vital role in uplifting commerce, employment, economic productivity among the non-urban regions.

Despite such significance to the economy, SMBs do not enjoy modern luxuries such as access to formal finance, new-age tech-enabled business solutions and others — at least not so far. A study by the World Bank concluded that the global formal finance gap among SMBs world over was a staggering $5.2 Tn out of which $337 Bn is from South Asia. But in India, 70% (44 Mn out of 63 Mn) SMBs, do not have a formal registration for their business making it even more difficult for the government and banks to include them in the formal circle.

The two chief reasons behind the low formalisation quotient of India’s vibrant SMB sector are the lack of understanding for the value proposition that tech brings and lack of digital literacy. Due to this reason, SaaS startups in India have for long been dependent on international geographies to garner high LTV (long term value) clients. But with the pandemic and other structural changes in the past two years — such as the GST and demonetisation — SMB owners have had to force themselves to end this reluctance and embrace SaaS and other tech solutions.

With a wide addressable market and even wider utility, the business opportunity in the horizontal SaaS market has a very high ceiling. The financial performance of horizontal SaaS companies is also more sound and sustainable than other startups in tech sectors such as ecommerce and fintech. With VCs also tightening their belts, the flow of capital will be largely towards sectors and startups that have the best long-term survival prospects and superior unit economics in the short term. In a post-Covid world, if horizontal SaaS startups are able to crack the SMB market, we estimate the sector to grow exponentially over the next five years, even having the potential to grow into a $8.7 Bn market opportunity by 2025.

The post Steady Revenue & High Investor Confidence: India’s Horizontal SaaS Startups Poised For Post-Pandemic Boom appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Agriculture is a significant source of livelihood for almost 1.3 Bn population in India. However, the coronavirus-led lockdown has hit the farming community and impacted their livelihood adversely. The first phase of complete lockdown had a prominent impact due to restrictions on transport and logistics, supply chain, and shutting down of local markets. Even after the announcement of lockdown 2.0, there were restricted movements of agricultural machinery, shortage of essential agrochemicals, and other hindrances in the entire supply process.

To get through the pandemic situation, a stimulating package of a whopping INR 1.63 Cr announced by the government focuses on reviving the sector’s growth. The amendment of the Essential Commodities Act also poises as a strong effort to bolster the farming community by deregulating cereals, pulses, onions, and potatoes.

Moreover, the option for farmers to trade online has resulted in a massive growth of agritech startups. They are creating channels that allow farmers to choose their market and sell their produce at better prices.

The agritech startups are bringing innovation to keep the sector functional. With the integration of new-age technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and remote sensing, the startups are offering immediate solutions in streamlining the supply process and helping the farmers to produce more efficiently.

Nearly, there are more than 450 agritech startups in India and according to the estimates of FICCI, they are growing at 25% year on year. In the initial phase of the lockdown, the startups struggled to survive in the market. However, after a few weeks, the sector started to stabilise even faster than the pre-Covid times. Several of them are transforming the agriculture landscape in India disrupted due to the pandemic situation. This led to opening up an immense network of opportunities to drive the sector sustainably.

Unlike other businesses, there is a clear V-shaped recovery in the sector as farmers are being more open to adopting new-age technologies and practices to keep their farming cycle running. To remove the disruption from the food supply chain, the agritech startups are stepping up in redesigning the farming ecosystem.

Hydroponic / Soil-Less Farming

Eating healthy during Covid-19 has become crucial for our body. People are becoming more aware of eating habits and food to prevent infections and build strong immunity. There are agri-tech startups that have stepped-onto hydroponic and soil-less farming techniques. It demands less-operations, space, and produces nutritious food using the highest level of hygiene. Being one of the most efficient farming methods, Hydroponic is also a resilient option in a pandemic situation such as Covid-19.  Unlike conventional methods, it takes less time to grow the vegetables and offers better food security and fills the demand-supply gap quickly.

During the pandemic situation, food supply already dropped due to several movement restrictions. However, this allowed many agritech startups that specialise in hydroponic farming to create highly productive and sustainable farming models for the new age farmers. Additionally, they are offering end-to-end farm management solutions to train the new-age farmers to impart technical training and run a farm efficiently.

The Smart Farming Model

The transition from traditional farming experiences to managing a farm using new-age technology has led to incredible results. Using IoT enabled systems, farmers can manage growth factors, optimize produce and labour on their field. It helps them monitor crops, weather conditions, and soil quality. Additionally, it helps in adjusting indoor growth factors that can optimise crop yields for efficient production.

Smart farming model is still an emerging concept in India that makes sensors, data analytics, software, and many other tools available to farmers. The implementation of Artificial Intelligence and IoT in Agriculture during Covid-19 offered more efficient ways of producing, monitoring, and selling crops. It presented a completely new universe of farming to sustain farmers’ living.

Since the farmers have to fulfil a huge demand, agritech startups have come up with precision-based sowing techniques. There are AI-based apps for predicting weather conditions and determining the right time to sow seeds with precision to ensure better growth and minimize the wastage. The self- reliant IoT enabled apps to leverage sensors that monitor the health of the crop and soil.

For instance, the farmers incorporate drones equipped with cameras and sensors for field inspection that draws up insights to determine crop conditions, irrigation, damage caused by weeds and pests, etc.

Effective Supply Chain

The initial phase of lockdown led to extreme difficulty in keeping and trading the food. The restrictions on intrastate and interstate movement unsettled the complete supply chain process. However, post the lockdown, many agri-tech startups have revolutionised the concept of physical marketplaces for farmers to sell their produce.

With the concept of an online marketplace, the startups are offering robust end-to-end supply chain management. It allows farmers to directly sell their produce to consumers and even retailers at a better price. The model of e-aggregator and marketplace works closely with resellers and farmers. It lets the farmer upload their produce online and once the order is received, they facilitate doorstep pickup with compliance to social distancing norms. It also benefits MNCs and small-scale industries in procuring the items to sell in the market.

During the ongoing pandemic, agritech startups are playing a critical role in advancing the sector. It is bringing innovation to remove disruption and solve challenges hampering the growth of the farming community. Many technology-based players are using Artificial Intelligence, IoT and big data to improve the crop cycle and harvest quality. While others are making use of Machine Learning and Blockchain technologies to solve credit and payment issues for farmers.

The post Agritech Startups Leveraging The Golden Opportunity In Covid Times appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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According to a Brand Finance report, Covid-19 may cost 100 most valuable Indian firms a staggering $25 Bn in terms of brand value. These are trying times. As people go into all-out protection mode, a dreaded sense of collective anticipation hangs over our everyday lives.

Keeping socio-physically away from others and diligently following personal hygiene practices are even precipitating irreversible and lasting behavioural changes. Add to it the economic and income uncertainties and the psycho-emotional baggage that comes with them.

In such times of crisis, how do brands evolve their communication strategies to stay relevant and connected with their customers?

Reliability A Top Virtue

In a crisis, reliability and dependability are perhaps the top attributes that customers would expect in a brand. Brands must not only ensure that even in the face of crisis, they are there for their customers but must also communicate this message in time. Making consumers know that you are going all out to fulfil their needs and ensure their convenience at a time when they need you the most will certainly leave a lasting impression on their minds.

Here both agility, as well as the brevity of response, is important. When online grocery delivery service Grofers reassured customers through “Not to worry, we will still be key to your essentials,”  it was an exemplary and reassuring communication at a time of crisis.

Make Humanity Quotient Your Differentiating Factor

Instead of hard-selling your product and brand through ultra-creative and loud advertising while giving that aggressive ‘buy-now’ call to action in times of crisis, your brand should radiate humanity and empathy. Through more sobering portrayals and actions, you should convey that you identify and relate to the ‘emotional disruption’ that people are going through and you are standing with them in this hour of need.

The path ahead is to humanise your brand. Equally significant is that your altruistic action should not sound opportunistic at all. That you are taking responsibility in a time of need should shine through. After all, responsible brands mean responsible citizenry.

For instance, when a leading hygiene brand while explaining how to fight the virus had exhorted users to use any soap they have access to and had even named competitor brands, it was responsible public service gone beyond individual branding. There are also several examples of brands pitching in to provide supplies and equipment meant for Covid fighters as well as patients. A popular biscuit brand had announced the donation of one crore packets every week during one phase of the lockdown.

Amplify Brand Integrity: Principles Above Profits

While profit-making is a reasonable goal of companies, in extraordinary circumstances, the brand’s moral compass must show the way and not allow it to be driven towards the blind pursuit of sales and profits. At a time when businesses and brands themselves are strenuously trying to remain feasible, it is not an easy task.

However, in the long run, it could yield a bigger pay-off than the short-term costs involved now. For instance, TATAs and Wipro have not laid off a single employee during the Covid crisis adds infinitely to their already huge brand appeal. Or Google rolling out advanced Hangouts Meet for free to help businesses and schools during Covid times would have earned tonnes of goodwill for the technology giant.

Pivot To Authentic & Context-Relevant Messaging & Product

At the same time, brands also have to show that they are acutely aware of the enormity of the crisis and clued into the state of affairs on the ground. Accordingly, they have to tailor their messaging with a view to project and place them as a solution within the context of the ongoing crisis. For instance, when QSR brand Pizza Hut adjusted its logo to Pizza Home instead of Hut, it was with an eye on conveying the ‘stay at home’ message. Similarly, when Fevicol came with the tagline ‘Ab sabse mazboot door – Indoor,’ it was to prod people into staying indoors.

This tweaking adds to the authenticity of the messaging and the brand. Similarly, just as they alter the messaging, brands have to be ready to overhaul their production lines to manufacture new types of products necessitated out of the crisis. For instance, while several automobile companies switched to manufacturing ventilator and other equipment, many alcohol and personal care firms migrated to producing hand sanitizers and other related products. This brand resilience further connects them with their end-customers.

Adopt Omnichannel Tracking As Well As Engagement Systems

With the whole family cooped up indoors, online, social media and OTT platforms would have been the ideal place to track as well as engage with customer conversations among the younger generations.

However, the good-old television would still be the first choice of older generation customers. This requires the brand to adopt an omnichannel customer tracking/engagement strategy that can take care of digital as well as traditional mediums of communication and sharing. Making good use of data analytics is crucial in this regard.

While engaging, remember messages have to be very carefully designed and placed because in this age of instant social media and user-generated-content, any slip-up can come back to haunt and hurt the brand for a long time in the future. This also implies that brands should communicate with customers more frequently providing regular updates on their positioning and offerings eliminating any scope for miscommunication or gap in communication.

So, standing up for a cause becomes as important as standing out for your brand during a crisis. In essence, spreading positivity while ‘walking the talk’ constitutes effective communication during a crisis. If you do it successfully through the crisis, it helps you build lasting brand equity.

The post Brand Building In The Time Of Crisis: Why An Effective Communication Strategy Is Pivotal appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has not only triggered a global healthcare emergency, but it has also disrupted the world economy and posed a major threat to the survival of small businesses. In India, factors such as low demand due to job losses and pay cuts, liquidity crunch, disrupted supply chain, subsequent lockdowns, lack of funding & labor and a general sense of uncertainty, have adversely affected MSMEs.

Small businesses are also struggling under the burden of high taxation, loan repayments, and interest payments. Many companies are facing serious challenges to business continuity, while others have already collapsed under the crippling weight of the economic slowdown.

In this unprecedented crisis, the government, industry leaders, and other key stakeholders can play a critical role in helping MSMEs weather this crisis and revive small businesses. A slew of measures for MSME revival has been announced, such as INR 3 Lakh Cr collateral-free loans, backed by a government guarantee on both the principal and the interest, making it easier for otherwise risk-averse lending channels like banks to provide credit support to small businesses.

Besides government reforms, technology and tech-enabled services can help MSMEs level playing field by providing them with the resources and opportunities to adapt to the new normal. Let’s take a look at the numerous ways technology can help resuscitate small businesses in India.

How Can The Implementation Of Technology Help Drive MSME Growth In A Post-Covid World?

MSMEs are truly one of the worst-hit sectors by Covid-19. Small businesses, especially brick-and-mortar stores, are struggling to operate, due to the continuous pan-India lockdown and social distancing measures. In this scenario, these companies must embrace digital transformation and shift their business online. They must also integrate technology in all critical areas of function, such as inventory management, sales & marketing, accounting, customer service, and more, to optimise business performance, maximize efficiency and drive business growth.

But digital transformation requires significant investments. At a time when almost all small businesses are struggling with liquidity crunch, lending institutions like banks and NBFCs, policymakers, and other stakeholders can make a huge difference by adopting technology that can help businesses receive capital without the hassles of endless waiting.

With technology, financial institutions can reduce the cumbersome loan application and sanction processes of yesteryears, by digitizing the entire process. Innovative tech-enabled solutions can help automate risk assessment of small businesses, which will immensely speed up the lending processes.

Lenders can harness data to create comprehensive credit profiles for prospective borrowers and identify potential risks.  Solutions like AI and ML can help derive insights such as cash flow forecasts, loan repayment behavior, digital payment behavior, and so on for borrowers, especially those without a formal credit score.

Lenders also need to deploy advanced technologies like ML-based cash flow analysis, which can help them differentiate cash flows pre and post Covid, to assess the creditworthiness of MSMEs better. This will make the loan application and disbursal processes more efficient by drastically reducing the paperwork and red tape. It will protect the interests of lenders and reduce the rate of delinquency by providing easy access to credit for needy businesses while. This is especially helpful for MSMEs that struggle to access credit from formal lending channels.

Furthermore, it is heartening to see the efforts undertaken by the government, industry leaders, and other key stakeholders to support vulnerable MSMEs and give them a fighting chance by creating a technology-empowered entrepreneurial ecosystem. Initiatives like conducting video KYC, as approved by the RBI, has vastly helped lenders offer quick and easy remote onboarding services to small business owners.

A groundbreaking government initiative revolutionizing the Indian digital lending infrastructure is the India Stack. A part of the Digital India initiative, it can help lenders provide credit to borrowers, especially small businesses, through quick, hassle-free Aadhar-based authentications, by reducing the dependence on normally required financial documents like bank statements, tax returns, GST filings, credit history, and so on. India Stack has also pioneered the introduction of account aggregation that facilitates consent-based financial data collection and sharing among customers and financial service providers for easier and more secure customer due diligence.

Thanks to India Stack, there also has been a rapid growth of the digital payment ecosystem in India, with more and more businesses adopting digital payment solutions. Therefore, the time is ripe for lending channels to either invest in the digital transformation of small businesses or partner with the right fintech platforms to help MSMEs stay competitive.

Besides technological innovations that can improve the ease of doing business for MSMEs, in the near future, measures like more sovereign guarantee-based programs and liquidity boost to small and mid-sized NBFCs by the government can help investors provide last-mile funding to cash-starved MSMEs.

The MSME industry forms the backbone of our economy, generating employment for over 100 million people, contributing about 29% of India’s GDP, which is poised to reach 50% by 2025. Digital transformation, along with policy reforms, is the need of the hour to enable MSMEs recover from the economic crisis caused by the Covid pandemic, as well as unlock their potential and help them thrive by becoming more agile, efficient and resilient. Thus, technology presents a huge opportunity to drive MSME growth in India, and it has never been a better time to use it to the fullest to make our economy truly self-reliant.

The post Covid-19: Role Of Technology In Reviving Small Businesses In India appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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The pandemic and the lockdown were devastating for many, to say the least – we saw an exodus of migrant labourers trying desperately to get back ‘home’, not for the fear of catching a disease, but for the fear of facing hunger. We realised that about one-third of Indians are daily wage earners who live from day to day, having very little left to handle an unprecedented crisis of this magnitude.

These vulnerable people, all around us, remain invisible, though they are the ones who construct roads, malls, run retail chains, work in the factory, or clean our houses. While we feel thankful to have a roof over our head and food on our plate, the inequitable conditions we live in force us to witness wrenching visuals of children carrying weights on their heads, and dry ‘rotis‘ wrapped in a newspaper scattered on a railway track.

Once we attempt to resume our normal lives, it will become important to introspect why the plight of more than half of India was overlooked for all these years. Moreover, India must seize this opportunity to develop an economy that is both equitable and sustainable.

An economic growth rate is a parameter of a promise of a better future for the disadvantaged people in a country. The coinage of ‘trillion-dollar economy’, a terminology that indicates a prospering economy should mean something and bring the hope of a more comfortable life to the disadvantaged, the middle-class and the rich alike, for the daily wage earners who toil at construction sites will convert this dream into a reality – it is not possible without them.

Assess Needs To Reduce Wasteful Expenses

The life created by the modern civilization, especially in the large pockets of urban areas, is the most comfortable life in the history of mankind – making fire is a button away, running water is available round-the-clock, it takes only a light touch to have light, just to mention a few. The contribution of technology and all those who toiled to develop it is unparalleled but exploitation of natural resources is one of its avoidable and sad ill-effects – in the last 200 years alone, human beings have exploited more natural resources than the last 2000 years of written history.

Technology changes life much faster than it is perceived, assessed, and processed by people – there is no time to reflect on whether the change that technology is supposed to bring in his life, is desired, required or aspired; he can only come to terms with it. Therefore, houses become a stockpile of all kinds of waste – discarded clothes, gadgets, furniture, food, etc. in our bid to keep up with ‘trend’.

While renovating the house, one may suggest that a false ceiling will give a better look to your room and better options to place lighting fittings. However, you must take time to assess whether you would like to take the pain of unreachable, unclean corners. Worse, in a few years, false ceilings may no longer be the ‘trend’, will you take the pain of changing it again? What about a few years after that? And more importantly, what possible harm can the bare, white ceiling do? False ceiling is a euphemism for all the comforts that are not so essential in modern living.

The lockdown gave us an opportunity to think about the false ceilings we already have – as one of the fastest-growing that is projected to grow at 9.5% in the next fiscal, it is important to think where are we going and what we are we leaving behind, and how many who do not have the basic amenities to lead a life. It will take a lot of hard work for these people to get a comfortable life for these people and unless we act fast and decisively, their comfortable life may dawn at a time when clean air and water may be scarce, not because a lot of people would have risen out of poverty but because the other half would have gotten used to a certain lifestyle.

Choose Products And Services Suitable To Local Conditions And Needs

Those who offer the choice have well-oiled machinery of product development strategies, social influencers, and marketing professionals who spoil people with choice and project them as a technological development and scientific innovation. They exaggerate the truth, if not fabricate it, and act as channelizes human thoughts in a certain direction to opt for an ‘ideal lifestyle’, led by some and aspired by many.

The utility of products is not debated and must be adopted without question. Thanks to the advantage of scale, they successfully supersede local food chains, handloom and handicrafts that make life richer – a simple life, close to nature, with necessary of the modern comforts is not only charming and less harmful to nature, but also helps local economy where you are contributing directly. While bigger enterprises will frown upon ‘carbon footprint’ and other such parameters to reconsider your support to their smaller and local competitors, one must remember that consumers are their only scale and continued support of one can make or break their enterprises, an impact far greater than losing a ‘segment’ may have on their bigger brothers.

False ceiling creates a fallacy, if it is thrusted upon us. We have to be wiser.

This wisdom needs to come from the policymakers who will decide on how to help local enterprises in the current scenario and create demand for local products. It will be imprudent to identify technology as the devil. In the next ten years, machine learning will relieve human beings of many analytical, time-consuming jobs, as manufacturing inventions are relieved of arduous manual labour in many cases. The politico-economic system should be able to develop policies that are incisive and inclusive. At the same time, there must be comprehensive awareness campaigns that will help people to learn how to question their lifestyle choices and choose those which are essential.

The post India’s Wiser Choice For Sustainable Development: Live Frugal, Live Local And A System That Pushes for It appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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On Thursday, an 18-month-old startup was acquired by BYJU’S in an all-cash deal worth $300 Mn. Even though it is a high value exit, the most interesting part about the WhiteHat Jr acquisition was the claimed $150 Mn annual revenue rate (ARR), which suggests that coding courses are indeed a goldmine for edtech startups. 

Founder and CEO Karan Bajaj had told Inc42 in January this year, WhiteHat Jr was growing at 30% – 40% and had clocked about $12 Mn ARR. So what happened in the past five months, that took the revenue run rate from $12 Mn to $150 Mn. The number also attracted some controversy on Twitter as many questioned how WhiteHat Jr got there. Well, here’s the story. 

As with many success stories, it’s about choosing the right goals. For WhiteHat, it was the decision to go for a 10x scale in trying circumstances and the launch in the US market which accelerated the overall growth trajectory and opened up the roadmap for future growth in overseas markets.

The startling fact, perhaps, is that much of this journey for WhiteHat was through its barebones MVP (minimum viable product), which was launched in April 2019 and which was its only product till December 2019. After Pranab Dash joined as the CTO in July 2019, WhiteHat Jr began building the current version of its product and launched it in January 2020. 

“In February, I said that everything is ready and we want to scale 10x — completely unapologetic and uninhibited scaling. In February and March, our revenue doubled and that’s when the pandemic hit,” WhiteHat CEO Bajaj told Inc42, a day after the BYJU’S acquisition.

Of course, 2020 had other plans. With an ambitious target set in February, by the time it was April, Bajaj was forced to wonder whether WhiteHat should pull back its scaling-up plans and wait for the full team to return to the office. But soon as remote work became the new reality for most startups, WhiteHat resumed hiring for operations, teachers and the sales staff, and doubled down on the scale-up track. 

From 1,000 teachers in February, WhiteHat now has 5,000 teachers taking classes all over the world. This focus on scaling up despite the challenges has been a key factor in the revenue growth given the focus on the US market.

Covid-19 and the lockdown forced many new users to take up online coding courses. How much did that help WhiteHat Jr in this interim, in terms of adoption? 

Bajaj does not think that number of new users is a significant metric as the only thing that matters in a business is the growth in paying customers. While WhiteHat’s conversion percentage has come down since Covid-19 because of financial concerns among consumers, the number of people actively taking classes was higher. Bajaj clarified, “For instance if 60% people used to show up for a class booking before Covid-19, that number went up to 65% after the pandemic. So the net effect of Covid is fairly neutral for a business like ours.” 

While many are of the belief that the pandemic and the lockdown helped edtech startups accelerate growth in the past few months, Bajaj believes that the Covid-19 impact was overhyped to a certain extent. 

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Cracking The Customer Acquisition Puzzle

Even before the acquisition by BYJU’S, WhiteHat Jr was the talk of the town thanks to its viral ads. The company grabbed eyeballs with its “Wolf Gupta” campaign, which focussed on a 13-year-old who took an AI-focussed course on WhiteHat and ended up earning an INR 20 Cr salary package with Google. 

This ad hit the right chords with the Indian parents and one does wonder whether this cheeky messaging has something to do with the uptick in customer registrations. Bajaj thinks these ads are just the top of the funnel solutions, but what really works for the company is the dedicated website that each student gets, which can be easily shared with others. This makes using WhiteHat more than just about learning, it adds an aspirational touch to the whole thing. 

“Surprisingly enough I would say, 60%-65% of business in India is coming from word of mouth. Parents want to tell other people that their kids are building something and be appreciated by them,” he added.  In the US too, the parents’ aspiration of sharing their kids’ successes has been a significant driver for sales. 

Until yesterday, WhiteHat’s customer acquisition strategy was limited to just digital ads and word-of-mouth. It’s only after the acquisition that it is considering experimenting with TV ads. While we were not told the net customer acquisition cost, according to our sources, WhiteHat was spending about $119 per user in India (as of March 2020) and a similar $117 per user in the US. This, however, does not account for expenses incurred in branding activities and long-term user testing.

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$18 Mn In The Bank & BYJU’S Comes Knocking

In a short span, WhiteHat Jr raised $11 Mn in funding from Omidyar, Owl Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners. It was also in talks to raise $50 Mn at a valuation of around $350 Mn. Bajaj claims that all of this funding was kept away in the bank as the focus was on running the business at profitability and with minimal cash spending. All three investors have gotten a straight exit after the acquisition. 

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A portion of the funding was used to build the product and as the product turned cash flow positive in India from January 2020, the company expanded to the US. The US market is said to be cash flow positive from day one. 

“Month-on-month, we have generated enough cash flow that we have covered the entire funding that we have raised, plus we had more. We had $18 Mn in the bank before the BYJU’S acquisition,” said Bajaj.

Further, a large portion of WhiteHat’s revenue is said to be driven by renewals which make about 30%-40% (on average) of the whole revenue pool. Explaining the reasoning behind it Bajaj said that new users tend to buy a 48 classes package in the beginning and then the next purchase is usually of a 100 classes package.

The company claims to have a customer return rate of 80%, making renewals a significant component of WhiteHat’s revenue growth. 

With healthy cash flow, the question then is, why get acquired by BYJU’s? 

“This is the first time India has created a category for the world, a true good B2C category from India. I want to take this category to every major market like Brazil, South America, US, Europe and create 1000s of teaching jobs in India,” Bajaj claimed. 

WhiteHat Jr teachers are said to be making more than IITians/IIM MBAs make because of the growth in global demand. To achieve this vision of entering major markets, startups can either work alone and take the long road, or partner with a bigger player to get there faster. Bajaj believes BYJU’S shares a boundaryless vision of the world like WhiteHat. It also has much more expertise in edtech and allows WhiteHat Jr to add new categories such as math, without going back to the drawing board.

“I felt that there is nothing that I can do alone, that I cannot do better with the expertise of BYJU’S. It was a no brainer, I decided within a day. Also, I have had my 4-5 minutes of fame, now what I am really after is the impact of things,” said Bajaj. 

And like that in a matter of six weeks, WhiteHat Jr became the fifth largest venture exit in the Indian startup ecosystem and the first major one in edtech, besides low-value acquisitions. 

Growing In India Vs The US 

Clearly, the more mature US market has been a significant piece in WhiteHat Jr’s growth story Besides the larger addressable market opportunity in the US ($26 Bn) which is more than twice as large as India ($11 Bn), the average revenue per user is also higher in the US, because of the higher spending capacity. 

The target audience of WhiteHat Jr in the US includes households with kids aged between 6 and 18 years of age and with a median family income of over $80K. In India, the target audience is urban households with kids of 6-18 years of age and an income over INR 10 Lakh.  

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At the moment, India contributes 45% of the overall revenue, while the US makes up the rest. But in terms of the number of users, India makes up 65% of WhiteHat’s user base, which goes to highlight the disparity in average revenue per user from India and 35% from the US.

WhiteHat Jr courses are priced around $9 per class for each student. In comparison, its US-based competitor Coding with Kids has charges about $23 to $28 per class. 

“I see this as a boundaryless world, I have always believed that the same product will work in all the markets because it is a very robust product and it was getting great traction in India,” said Bajaj.

So WhiteHat’s product is pretty much the same in India and the US. The only thing that’s changed is that even first grade kids in the US were very comfortable with laptops and digital gadgets, so the company accelerated some of its early grade courses. Interestingly, all teachers on the platform even in the US are Indian. 

WhitHat Jr is running a completely global marketplace where teachers are from India but students come from any part of the world. A teacher can schedule classes in any time slot in a 24-hour span and there are many that prefer night classes because they have more free time after their kids sleep. With success in the US, now WhiteHat Jr is looking to expand to similar markets such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

However, WhiteHat’s growing focus on global markets does not mean that Indian market does not have that depth. Just last month, the Indian market saw a 90% growth for WhiteHat. Further, the platform has regional languages built into the architecture from day one. WhiteHat’s algorithm maps all teachers and students using location and language-based matching to ensure that a teacher in Tamil Nadu connects with a student who is familiar with Tamil. 

Is Coding The Holy Grail In Edtech?

Till date, WhiteHat Jr claims to have introduced 3 Mn kids to coding, and currently conducts 20K live classes per day taught by 5,000 teachers. But the market is huge and there’s room for competitors to grow and find a niche too. 

Specialist startups such as Camp K12 and Codevidhya made some inroads into the market. Recently, other edtech players such as Toppr, Vedantu, Coding Ninjas have also added kids-focussed coding solutions to their portfolio. With WhiteHat Jr’s acquisition, BYJU’S has joined the slew of companies adding kids-focussed coding offerings.

Also Read: The Future Of India’s $2 Bn Edtech Opportunity Report 2020

WhiteHat Jr is very similar to BYJU’S in terms of its high growth trajectory and being more revenue positive. The deal clearly provides a huge launchpad for WhiteHat to scale up in overseas territories and further accelerate its growth journey. Both BYJU’S and WhiteHat also dominate the market and are among the top edtech startups by ARR, with the likes of Unacademy ($30 Mn ARR in Feb 2020) trailing these two pacesetters. WhiteHat is now also planning to add another product soon and Bajaj plans to lead it. He added he will be sticking around for at least the next three years to build the next generation of products. 

As a bestselling author and yoga practitioner, Bajaj is always looking to increase his competence as an entrepreneur.  “Like any entrepreneur, I am a restless individual but yoga has helped me to stay slightly more balanced and it also makes me very calm,” he said. 

The post Untangling WhiteHat Jr’s $150 Mn ARR: Is Coding Edtech’s New Holy Grail? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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SEO is a lot like dieting. There is so much advice out there promising fast results. Most of which fail to deliver. Plus, most of the quick fixes and shortcuts that defined SEO strategies, in the beginning, don’t work anymore.

If you are implementing outdated SEO practices, it is time to discard them. You should also know that many of the new and highly touted SEO strategies won’t work for you.

Still, many legit SEO strategies take time to show results. To start with, you will have to spend time optimizing your website properly. Luckily, you don’t need a Ph.D. in computer science to do it. Although it takes months and years to show results, your SEO strategy doesn’t have to be outdated.

Let’s focus on the actionable and proven search engine optimization strategies that will help you today. These 6 tips include the most important SEO basics. Which anyone can apply to rank their website better in the search engine results (SERPs). I bet you would’ve skipped many of them.

Optimise Your Website For The Audience 

One of the biggest mistakes companies make while trying to implement SEO is that they optimise the site to appease search engines, and not for humans.

Sure, search engines determine your organic ranking. However, to determine how a page ranks, search engines turn to the users. For example, Google uses metrics such as dwell time, pages visited, bounce rate and more to indicate how much a user enjoys your website. If the visitor stays on your site for a long time or visits many pages, it shows your website is useful and relevant.

However, when your website isn’t optimised for the audience, you risk them bouncing from your web pages, which results in lower rankings in the search results and less organic traffic.

To prevent this, focus on writing for the readers first. When you write in a language that people understand, you will keep them on your page for longer. Writing for humans helps in improving rankings and increased organic traffic to your website.

Increasing The Engagement By Creating High-Quality Blog Content 

One of the best SEO tips to increase your organic search traffic is by blogging. Creating high-quality content helps you reach your audience, drives people to your website and gets them to remain on the site.

In-depth blogs boost your website’s trustworthiness and authority, driving more traffic to your page. Blogging enables you to bring more leads to your website by providing information that the audience is searching for.

Publish content regularly to drive organic traffic continuously. You can format this content in the form of videos, blogs, infographics, e-books and whitepapers. Create a variety of content to attract new leads. This establishes you as an authority in your field. When readers spend more time on your website reading your blogs or watching the videos, it sends a positive signal to Google. Your website is relevant to the user’s search queries. This helps you rank higher so that more people will find your content.

High-quality content is a great way to gain brand exposure and relevant traffic to your business website.

Optimise Your Content For Featured Snippets 

Can you outrank the #1 position on Google even when you don’t have significant backlinks on your website?

The answer is, yes. By claiming a featured snippet.

A featured snippet is a block of content that contains the exact answer to your query. Because it is found even above the first organic results, it is called position 0.

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The featured snippet space has become highly-after because it gets more eyes than the first search results. The top organic results get 34% of the total clicks. When a featured snippet appears in the search, the click-through rate (CTR) of the first position drops by 8%.

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When a featured snippet is present, more people click on it because they see the answer to their question at a glance. Additionally, you can appear as a snippet even when you rank in the 4^th, 5^th or lower position.

The feature snippets appear in the form of:

• Bullet lists
• Paragraph
• Video
• Table
• Image

So how do you appear in a featured snippet? While there is no single answer to earn the featured snippet position, here are the 2 main strategies to increase your chances to rank for this spot.

• Use bulleted or numbered list to answer the query – Don’t litter your page with lists. Find an appropriate position to integrate the list.

For example, if you are writing about “how to use videos for lead generation” a numbered list of tips would be helpful to the readers.

• Giving to-the-point answers – Provide direct and clear answers. Don’t bluff or add unnecessary words.

Deliver your answer precisely to increase your chances of appearing in the snippet. Integrate your core keywords in the section you are optimizing for the featured snippet. Add relevant videos and images with the snippet query.

Target Long-Tail Keywords On Your Pages

Long-tail keywords play a crucial role in helping your page appear in front of people searching for your business.

When you choose the long-tail keywords, the most qualified and relevant audience will land on your website.

For example, if you try to rank for one- or two-word keywords such as “resume for job” it won’t make sense even if the keyword drives tons of traffic. They may not click on your listing because when someone searches for a “resume” or “resume for job” it is hard to know the user’s search intent. They could be looking for various types of information such as general, about a service, product, or on similar lines.

When you include long-tail keywords you know exactly what the user hopes to find. Focusing on keywords such as “resume template for engineering jobs”, “resume samples for fresher” will drive more interested leads to your website.

As you rank in relevant search results, you are likely to drive more traffic to your page. Visitors will spend more time on your website. This sends a positive signal to Google as per the RankBrain algorithm indicating that your page is relevant, helping you rank higher in the search results.

To find relevant keywords for your website and each page, you can use:

• A Google search shows you the type of questions asked. You can use these keywords as well as those that Google suggests at the bottom of the search results.

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• You can use AHREFS or RankWatch SEO tools to find top-ranking keywords.

A trick here is to target multiple long-tail keywords instead of going for 2 or 3 highly competitive ones.

Focus On The User Experience

Seemingly less obvious, focus on the user experience while optimizing for SEO. When your page is user optimized, it keeps the audience on the website for longer. Positive user experience is proportional to the dwell time on the page.

When you provide the user with a smooth experience on your site, they will have a favourable opinion of your brand. Here are the 3 aspects you should improve, to make your website user-friendly.

Make The Navigation On Your Website Easy To Use

Don’t let your users struggle to find information on the web pages. Good navigation means simple and easy to use the website for the readers to remain on your website and read your content.

Make Your Website’s Design Appealing 

Your website’s design should be modern, simple and eye-catching for the visitor, to drive leads to your page. Remove popups, have 14 px+ font, use subheadings, videos and images.

Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly 

What’s the use of a beautifully designed website if your mobile readers cannot view the information properly? To improve the user experience, ensure that your website is mobile-friendly.

Focus On The Search Intent

As per the RankBrain algorithm, search intent, also called user intent is Google’s #1 ranking factor. To succeed with SEO, search intent must be an important part of your approach.

With Google’s report on “How Search Intent is Redefining the Marketing Funnel” if your page does not satisfy search intent, it is not going to rank.

Let’s take the example of keyword “backlink checker”.

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If you notice, they’re all tools. This means people don’t watch to read about how content checkers work. The results are dominated by articles that list the best tool.

A quick way to start is by reoptimizing your existing content for the search intent. This is a good way to get traffic to your blogs without having to revamp the content from scratch.

Wrapping Up 

Whether you are running a blog, an ecommerce store, a SaaS website, or a brick and mortar store, these 6 tips should be followed by everyone. Follow them for every page of your website. They are a good starting point to help your website rank better, organically.

The post 6 Actionable SEO Strategies To Help Your Website Rank Better appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Indian foodtech unicorn Zomato may receive an investment of up to $100 Mn from US-based investment firm Tiger Global Management, with an option to inject another $100 Mn, ahead of a proposed initial public offering (IPO) by the Indian startup next year. 

Sources familiar with the developments told Moneycontrol that both parties are in talks for a total investment of up to $200 Mn.

Tiger Global counts other Indian unicorns such as ecommerce giant Flipkart and online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar, among others, in its portfolio. The investment firm has reportedly valued Zomato at $3 Bn, which is the same valuation at which the Indian food delivery startup is looking to raise funds from existing investor Temasek Holdings, a Singapore-based investment company. In June, Inc42 reported that the attempts to raise funds from Temasek are a rescue act, after the company’s plans of raising funds of ANT Financial, a unit of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, were delayed because of simmering anti-China sentiment and changed foreign direct investment (FDI) rules.

Temasek started investing in Zomato in 2015. So far, it has infused close to $41 Mn (INR 310 Cr) and holds a 3% stake in the Gurugram-based food delivery business. Its latest investment in Zomato is a part of the larger $500 Mn round.

In December 2019, Zomato CEO and cofounder Deepinder Goyal had announced that the company would raise $500 Mn to $600 Mn by January 2020. Within a few days, Zomato announced the $150 Mn investment from ANT Financial, after which came the $5 Mn investment from British investment manager Baillie Gifford’s Pacific Horizon Investment Trust. Zomato had a post-money valuation of $3.25 Bn for the deal.

According to sources cited above, Zomato is looking to reduce its cash burn and show a clear path to profitability ahead of a proposed IPO next year. However, the financial disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has seen food delivery startups such as Zomato and Swiggy suffer a significant loss of revenue. Both companies have announced layoffs for several employees this year, and have also tried to partner with ecommerce companies to offer logistics support, while also transitioning to grocery delivery business. 

An Inc42 analysis of Zomato’s annual report, released last month, showed that the company is likely to incur a 50% loss of revenue in the current fiscal year. 

The post Zomato Set To Raise $200 Mn From Tiger Global Ahead Of Proposed IPO Next Year appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Indian fintech decacorn Paytm has launched India’s first pocket Android point-of-sale (PoS) device for contactless ordering and payments. The company says that the device forms part of Paytm’s mission to empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with technology-led solutions for digital payments. 

‘Paytm All-in-One Portable Android Smart POS’ at an introductory price of INR 499 per month rental, is styled like a mobile phone for accepting orders and payments on the go. The company says that it’s the first such Android-based PoS device, as the ones currently being used in the country are powered by Linux. Among the other features available in the device are — contactless ordering software for SMEs, restaurants and takeaway joints, integrated billing software, camera for QR scanning, 4G-enabled, Wifi and Bluetooth connectivity. Paytm says it would invest INR 100 Cr in distribution and marketing of these devices in the fiscal year 2020-21. 

Renu Satti, senior vice president at Paytm said, “We innovate products and services that are aligned with our mission of enabling SMEs with technology-led solutions. We are confident that this affordable pocket-sized Paytm Android POS device will enable everyone from SMEs to delivery personnel of kirana stores to collect payments safely. It is our endeavour to help merchants and traders to easily digitise their business operations, without any investment in technology or backend infrastructure.”

The device, which weighs only 163 grams, is 12mm thick, and has a 4.5-inch touch screen, is integrated with the ‘Paytm for Business’ app, to generate GST compliant bills and also to manage all transactions and settlements. 

The ‘Paytm for Business’ app helps merchants avail business services such as loans, insurance, and business khata (account) to manage digital ledger of all their transactions including loan, cash, and card sales. 

PoS devices for contactless ordering and payments have come into the focus during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, with social distancing norms pushing their adoption. Recently, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, during his monetary policy statement, also talked about a soon-to-be-launched pilot for offline-based digital payments, to increase their adoption in areas with low internet bandwidth. 

This would be done with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the unified payments interface (UPI), looking to add near-field communication (NFC) capabilities to its payments infrastructure to take on its rivals Visa, Mastercard and another NPCI-owned service Rupay.

Visa, Mastercard and RuPay offer contactless tap-and-go payments at point-of-sale, using the NFC feature. The tap-and-go contactless payment is not only easy and convenient to use. 

During the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2020 held last month, Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said that despite the overall fall in digital payments, his company had witnessed a 3.5x growth in digital payments during the lockdown, adding that the company was planning to venture into stockbroking. 

The post Paytm Launches Android PoS Device For Contactless Ordering, Payments appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Last month, a fairly innocuous matter of five men playing a game of cards for stake near a ‘thorny bush’ on a farm in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, was somehow deemed worthy of being prosecuted by the Sub-Inspector of Police, Kudankulam Police Station. The police filed an FIR against the five men under Section 12 of the Tamil Nadu Gaming Act, accusing them of real-world gambling in a public space. 

The fifth-accused in the matter filed a petition in the Madras high court, asking for the charges to be quashed as he contended that he was a spectator, and the game was being played on private farmland owned by his friend, one of the co-accused. 

While hearing the arguments, the Madurai Bench of the Madras high court asked the police why they were so prompt in filing an FIR against five men playing cards near a ‘thorny bush’, even as online rummy is permitted in the state of Tamil Nadu, also in the entire country. The court mentioned platforms such as RummyPassion, Nazara, Ace2Three and PokerDangal, among others, “mushrooming and there are so many advertisements appearing in almost all social media and websites,” the judgement read. “It appears these advertisements are mostly targeting the unemployed youth, inducing them to play such games, on the pretext of earning money comfortably from their home.”

The police, in response to the court’s query, filed a status report, claiming that online gaming was causing a gambling addiction among youngsters, leading to financial crises in their families. 

The judgement, while quashing the charges against the petitioner, also noted the perils of online gaming in encouraging gambling and other illegal activities and the need for a central regulation to curb the same. It added that having a regulatory body and law for online gaming could attract investments in the ‘sunrise sector’. 

The judgement has once again, thrown light upon the very confusing legal landscape for online gaming in India.  

Laws For Online Skill-Based Gaming In India

Supreme Court judgements since the 1960s have held that games such as poker and rummy have a dominant element of ‘skill’, which trumps the element of ‘chance’, hence ruling that both games are skill-based card games and as such, should be exempted from the anti-gambling regulations when played for stake. 

However, given that gambling is a state subject, different states have framed their laws, some of which have outrightly banned all real-money card games. These include Telangana and Odisha, where there’s a blanket ban on card games played for stake. 

In states such as Sikkim and Nagaland, while the respective state governments have excluded the staking of money on games of skill from the ambit of gambling, the operators of online portals for such games are mandated to get licenses for conducting such games within state boundaries. 

Besides the fact that the Public Gambling Act, 1867, the centre’s enactment on the subject, is outdated since it doesn’t take into account gaming or gambling in the virtual space, a section of the populace which refuses to delink ‘gaming’ and ‘gambling’ has also been dogging the industry’s growth. 

Notably, days after the Madras high court judgement, a petition was filed in the same court calling for a ban on all ‘gambling’ websites. It also mentioned that celebrities endorsing such platforms such as Virat Kohli and Tamannah Bhatia (both faces of fantasy gaming platform Mobile Premier League), should also be prosecuted. 

Gaming Startups Speak

Harsh Jain, CEO of fantasy gaming platform Dream11, India’s first and only gaming unicorn, while talking about the confusing legal scenario for online gaming and gambling in India during a recently-held event, said that it also affects investor sentiment. 

“Anti-gambling laws in some states which also include online skill-based gaming within their purview became a huge challenge for us in India. The investor sentiment at that time in India was pretty shaken. I pitched everywhere, from New York to San Francisco in more than 150 meetings before getting a Series A cheque from Kalaari Capital in 2015,” said Jain.

Founded in 2012 by Bhavit Seth and Harsh Jain, Dream11 has so far raised more than $100 Mn from investors such as Tencent and Steadview, among others. Today, Jain claims to have 82 Mn online sports fans on his platform. 

When asked about the gaming-gambling conundrum, Jain claimed that the average ticket size on his platform is INR 30, while 80% of his users play for free. 

Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies, a Mumbai-based mobile gaming company, told Inc42 that clarity about a policy framework which could apply to all operators across the country is essential for any sector. “A self-regulatory body which is working in guidance of some central ministry, or working to ensure that the rules of a central regulation are imposed in letter and spirit, is important for responsible gaming,” said Agarwal. 

He added that the lack of central regulation across states was creating uncertainty for the stakeholders. “In the absence of a central law, some of the decisions which are taken, highlight a lack of information or full understanding. That creates uncertainty in the minds of operators as well as investors.” 

When asked about whether a self-regulatory body exists for the Indian online gaming industry, Agarwal said that discussions have been held among stakeholders for creating such a body. “The fact that the industry is still nascent and has seen phenomenal growth in a relatively short amount of time has meant that discussions are happening and bodies are being formed.”

“Very soon, in a couple of months or so, policies for self-regulation will be laid out. All of this is happening under the direction of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).” 

Meanwhile, the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), a not-for-profit organisation focused on bringing recognition to the online skill-based gaming industry, has a skill games charter in place to ensure self-regulation by operators and responsible gaming among users. It is being implemented by various online gaming platforms such as Adda52, SpartanPoker and PokerDangal. 

“The AIGF skill games charter is built on the fundamentals of player protection, responsible gaming, integrity and good governance by all members. Members can take assistance from our esteemed panel of advisors including Jhulan Goswami, Retd Justice Vikramjit Sen, educationist Fatima Agarkar and others on various aspects of gaming ranging from skill testing to mental health,” AIGF CEO Roland Landers told Inc42.

Among the provisions listed in the AIGF self-regulation charter are — options for the user to set daily, weekly and monthly deposit limits, ‘time-out’ or ‘cool-off’ periods for a pre-specified duration of time to be decided by the users, the availability of ‘responsible gaming’ resources on the website, and that all games offered on the platform are predominantly skill-based, among various other such provisions.

Other platforms such as WinZO and Teen Patti by Octro, while not members of the AIGF and hence not adhering to its self-regulation charter, claim to be conscious of people spending an indiscriminate amount of time on their platforms. 

“At WinZO, there are limits imposed on the amount that can be withdrawn or deposited. These limits are decided by an AI algorithm which keeps evolving,” said Paavan Nanda, cofounder of WinZO, during the India Internet Day 2020. 

Saurabh Agarwal, the founder of mobile gaming company Octro, with popular titles such as Teen Patti and Rummy, said that the platform reaches out to the top 3% of users who spend the most amount of time on the platform and if need be, put in regulations. 

No resources talking about ‘responsible gaming’ are available on either Teen Patti by Octro or WinZO’s platforms. The same is true for Nazara, which is also not a member of the AIGF. But the company says its presence in the real-money gaming sphere is minuscule, with sports simulation being the major focus area. “Because of a lack of clarity and a regulatory framework, we have not been aggressive in that space. The contribution of real-money gaming is just 5% of our total web views,” said Agarwal. Besides titles such as Carrom Clash and World Cricket Championship, Nazara also owns fantasy gaming platform HalaPlay. 

Online Gaming Outlook In India

Currently, India is home to more than 278 Mn online gaming users which make up approximately 46% of the total 604 Mn internet subscribers in India. This number is expected to reach 312 Mn by the year 2020. A major driving force behind the rise of mobile gaming in India is due to the 54% surge in internet users from 391 Mn in 2016 to 604 Mn in 2018.

Since the launch of Reliance Jio’s 4G service in 2016, the Indian telecom market has become the most affordable in the world, which has increased penetration greatly. Combined with economic growth factors, the outlook is quite favourable for the overall media and entertainment industry and gaming startups seem to be making the most of it.

Between 2014 and H1 2020, the total venture capital funding in Indian gaming startups was $448 Mn, according to DataLabs by Inc42+. Among the gaming startups, the top-funded startups are Dream11 with $100 Mn in total funding, followed by Smaaash Entertainment with $82.6 Mn in funding and Nazara Technologies with $79 Mn.

The forecast for the online gaming industry in India in terms of revenue is also buoyant. A recent report by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and consultancy firm EY noted that the online gaming industry, including transaction-based real money skill games and casual games, clocked around INR 6,460 Cr in revenues in the financial year 2019-2020, with transaction-based games accounting for around INR 4,600 Cr. The report estimates the CAGR of the industry to be more than 40 per cent and the industry to reach a size of around INR 18,700 Cr by the financial year 2021-22.

The study further states that the number of gamers in the country would be around 36.5 Cr and the sector would employ around 40,000 people by 2022.

With the ever-increasing internet penetration in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, falling mobile tariffs and an estimated 500 Mn smartphone users, there is no telling how a central regulation for online gaming could further benefit the already booming sector. That will depend on whether the industry as a whole, fragmented and disorganised currently, manages to gather its stakeholders and collectively work to shed the ‘gambling’ tag through self-regulation.

The post Will India’s Online Skill-Based Gaming Startups Be Able To Shed ‘Gambling’ Tag? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has committed to invest $10 Mn (nearly INR 75 Cr) in Hyderabad-based early-stage venture capital firm Endiya Partners’ Fund II. Along with this, IFC has also committed an additional $10 Mn for direct co-investments alongside Endiya Fund II.

The partnership with IFC will provide Endiya’s portfolio companies with financial and strategic support resulting in increased access to growth opportunities and sustainable scalability, the homegrown investment firm has claimed.

“Early-stage venture capital (VC) investment volumes in India are markedly lower than VC volumes in countries like the US and China. Our investment in VC funds like Endiya helps mobilise capital from other LPs (limited partners) and brings that capital to path-breaking early-stage businesses… Endiya Partners has demonstrated differentiation in access to high-quality Pre-Series A opportunities in enterprise technology and healthtech sectors” said Jun Zhang, IFC country head, India.

Prior to this, IFC has invested $20 Mn in early-stage venture fund Chiratae Ventures, formerly known as IDG Ventures, in 2019 and 2017. Besides this, it has also invested another $20 Mn in Jungle Ventures in 2015. In 2017, IFO has also invested in Stellaris Venture Partners and Pi Ventures to boost the investment in Indian startups.

According to DataLabs by Inc42’s Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2019, the Indian startups have raised $58 Bn between 2014 to 2019, whereas the total count of funding deals crossed the 5K mark with 5,011 investments. In 2019, the total funding raised by tech startups in India across 766 deals was $12.7 Bn, which is a 15% increase from 2018.

But 2020 has been a bad year for Indian startups due to the pandemic and the resultant restrictions. The investment in the startups have fallen across the charts. The total funding raised by Indian startups saw a massive dip between March and April 2020. The total capital inflow plunged by a whopping 55% from $1.05 Bn in March to just $474 Mn in April and $222 Mn in May.

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Endiya Partners is a B2B-focused early-stage investment firm that has made investments across healthcare, enterprise technology solutions and consumer services sectors. The company’s portfolio includes deeptech startup Myelin Foundry, health and fitness startup Cure.fit, healthtech startup ekincare and cloud kitchen Innerchef, among others.

It has launched two funds till date. It had announced the final close of its debut Fund I at INR 175 Cr in early 2017. The first close of the Fund I was announced in 2016 at INR 100 Cr. Currently, Endiya Partners is working on its INR 500 Cr Fund II, which had announced its first close in May last year at INR 303 Cr ($40 Mn).

The early-stage VC firm usually invests between $500K to $1.5 Mn in Seed or Pre Series A funding rounds, but with the new fund it may invest up to $5 Mn per startup. Endiya team includes Sateesh Andra, Ramesh Byrapaneni, Abhishek Srivastava and Abhiram Katta along with Lakshmi Kancharla and Dipesh Chawla.

The post World Bank’s Investment Arm Backs Endiya Partners’ Fund II appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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Homegrown ecommerce marketplace Flipkart has launched a 16-week-long virtual accelerator programme, Flipkart Leap, to help new and upcoming startups to scale their B2B and B2B ventures.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart Group said, “With innovations and disruptions in the field of technology coming about each day, we want to be at the forefront of driving scalability and helping these startups bring value to the industry as well as Indian consumers.”

“Flipkart Leap is aimed at unlocking this potential and nurturing new ideas that bring innovation, curiosity and unconventionality to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem while boosting the government’s ‘Start-Up India’ initiative,” he added.

Flipkart Leap has been curated in partnership with global management and strategy consulting firm Zinnov to bring innovation in technology and consumer internet space for users across Tier I, Tier II, Tier II and beyond regions. The programme is open for startups based out of India with a working prototype and early adoption metrics.

Upon completion of the program, the final participants of Flipkart Leap can pitch their successful model to investors, corporates and other ecosystem players on the demo-day, and get an equity-free grant of $25,000 (nearly INR 19 Lakh). These startups may also get an opportunity to get funded by Flipkart.

Besides this, the homegrown ecommerce unicorn has also selected mentors across its leadership from several verticals —  business, operations, product and technology —  to mentor the selected startups and share best practices. The mentors will also be holding masterclass sessions with industry experts.

Flipkart Leap aims to provide tools, framework, knowledge and an ecosystem to help startups create world-class value-driven products by supporting them in building market-ready solutions. The programme has also identified five themes to shortlist relevant high-potential startups that tap into the most innovative solutions in the technology and consumer internet space.

These include ‘design and make for India’, ‘innovation in digital commerce’, ‘technologies to empower the retail ecosystem’, ‘supply chain management and logistics’, and ‘enabling relevant deeptech applications’.

Flipkart, in its press statement, clarified that the focus is on bringing digitisation and tech advancement in these thematic areas, including any startups that will be working on disruptive solutions that have the potential to transform the landscape of e-commerce in the next five years.

The programme has been designed and will be managed by Flipkart’s product strategy and deployment team led by Naren Ravula. The team is responsible for shepherding innovation within the Flipkart commerce companies, Flipkart and Myntra, and the broader ecosystem.

The post Flipkart Eyes Consumer Tech Space With Its Latest Accelerator Programme appeared first on Inc42 Media.