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Classplus: Empowering Teachers To Go Online

The education industry has gone through various changes in the last 4 years. Learning has been changing to virtual classrooms, e-books replace physical books, and assessments are conducted using webcams, Zoom, Google meet and many more.

The power of technology has unleashed its potential in classrooms, giving teachers the confidence to customize their classrooms while also empowering students to work at their own pace. ClassPlus makes it easy for teachers to create their own online coaching apps that let them teach asynchronously, reduce bustle during lectures and increase student engagement.

Today’s education has been massively transformed and students are now more comfortable with online coaching than with physical methods. Interested in learning how you can teach your students online and grow your online coaching business? Read on.

Today, a student needs tutoring for almost every other subject. Sometimes they even find it difficult to manage different tuition while on other occasions they struggle to get desired learnings from online tutoring. This leads to unsatisfying students and switching tutors, which ultimately leads to wasting the students’ time and hinders their performance.

To overcome these challenges, Classplus was founded in 2018 to cater to all the learning requirements of the students. Classplus is a coaching management program that helps to digitize coaching class operations. Classplus also provides personalized online educational content for students and helps lift students’ performance across the country.

ClassPlus incorporates features like virtual one-on-one interactions between teacher and student, multiple language support for different countries, video conferencing tools, real time analytics & feedback system that makes it easier for educators to measure success. It helps improve communication between teacher and student and provides online tutoring options that allows students from all over the world the flexibility to ask questions or receive help from an expert using this platform.

Moreover, Classplus brings cutting edge technology into the gartder such as whiteboard collaboration & screen sharing capabilities, interactive sessions with collaborative usage of code examples etc., making it easier for instructors to give clearer instructions. It is absolutely no brainer investment when it comes to creating your own web apps & connecting with a global audience. With its hybrid cloud architecture integrated with artificial intelligence capabilities, Classplus offers unique opportunities for leading remote education initiatives in this digital age.

About Classplus

Classplus is a mobile-first SaaS platform that helps coaching institutions, tuition centers and private tutors to bring their businesses online and streamline their content material, payments, communication, and online assessments through the all-in-one teaching app.

Classplus provides the best management software and mobile application service for coaching institutes, tuition centers, and private tutors. The teaching and learning approaches have been reformed with the innovative technology and unique features of Classplus, thereby empowering the education system to become future-ready.

Classplus – Founders

Mukul Rustagi, Bikash Dash, Vatsal Rustagi, Nikhil Goel and Bhaswat Agarwal are the founders of Classplus Ed- a tech educational website.

1) Mukul Rustagi

He is the co-founder & CEO of Classplus. He has completed his Bachelor’s Degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, after which he worked as the Design Engineer Summer Internship at ISA – Intelligent Sensing Anywhere.

He is also working as  Equity Research Analyst at ARC Financial Services Private Limited and also as a Derivatives Analyst at Futures First.

2) Bhaswat Agarwal

He is currently the co-founder of Classplus. He completed his B.E. in Electronics and Communication. Today, he is looking after the operations and service of Classplus. He was even working as the Technology Strategist at Microsoft.

3) Vatsal Rustagi

Vatsal Rustagi is one of the co-founders of Classplus. He got his Bachelor’s Degree from Delhi College of Engineering. Today, he is the co-founder of FactoryPlus as well. Before founding Classplus he managed the Industrial Switchgear Sales at Havells India Ltd.

He served as the Business Head at LocoNav Inc. after that he exited Classplus in March 2018. He eventually served as the Head – Of credit Cards at Happay – Expense Management Solution for Businesses and eventually started with FactoryPlus, after founding the company in June 2021.

4) Bikash Dash

He was also one of the co-founders and CTO of Classplus. He got his B.Tech in Computer Science. Dash is also one of the co-founders of FactoryPlus and later he left Classplus in April 2018.

5) Nikhil Goel

Nikhil Goel was another co-founder. He pursued his Bachelor’s in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Currently, he is the CEO of GOKADA. He has previously been the Co-founder of DropCalorie.

Nikhil, after leaving Classplus, became the General Manager of Online Ordering at Zomato, then later he became the Head of New Verticals at SafeBoda, and today he joined as the Vice President of Operations at GOKADA.

Classplus – Startup Story

Back in 2007 New Delhi Mukul Rustagi and Bhaswat Agarwal both used to study at the same IITJEE coaching centre which went shut for 10 months before their final exam date.

The reason is that the coaching institute’s owners find it boring to keep track of the performance and attendance of their growing number of students, so they knew it was time to embrace technology.

That’s when Rustagi and Agarwal realised the need to develop and scale B2B service in EdTech to solve the potential problem of teachers and students. Mukul went to IIT-Roorkee and Bhaswat went to Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology in Delhi for their bachelor’s degree. Later in 2015, they both teamed up to work together and launched Classplus in 2018.

Why choose Classplus?

Classplus has made it very simple and convenient for teachers to manage their classrooms through a mobile app with outstanding technology. More than 1 Lakh educational institutions have benefited from Classplus and seen booming growth in their online coaching business.

Classplus enables teachers to create customized lessons for their students and effectively manage every management related to learning. Student performance analysis, fee payments, assessments, and many more. can be operated.

Classplus offers amazing features which aim to bring the topmost security to your digital data. It has privacy control and you get all the control over the accessibility of your data to your faculties.

Classplus, the most efficient online learning management platform, aims to offer a hassle-free experience to students and teachers across the globe by providing numerous features.

Features offered by Classplus

Managing your whole classroom and related activities using a single app requires various integrated features to offer teachers and students a consistent and smooth experience. Classplus comes up with various amazing features to grow your online business.

You can create educational-related content of various types. This includes uploads on your app for your students and performing their progress,  assessments to analyze their progress. It helps you to process creating reviews, track students’ attendance, etc. and simplifies everything.

Apart from uploading pre-recorded videos, you can even connect with your students through live class sections. The automatic recording feature helps record and upload live sessions to make them available for your students anytime anywhere.

Online assessments for online coaching can be conducted easily. And you can create and upload a question paper for evaluations instantly without wasting time. You don’t have to spend your time checking their answers manually and everything is done automatically. Your only job is to upload the question papers and students can attempt them anytime anywhere.

You can track all your student’s performance using the dashboard available in your application. You will automatically get reports and analyses of your student’s performance through which you can track their result. The data analytics tools used by the app give you an accurate analysis of every student’s performance.

With Classplus you can quickly sell your online service to students worldwide through its eCommerce platform. You can successfully market your courses, assignments and lectures by creating coupons and notifying your students about all your classes.

Your learning app comes with a specially designed website to list your lectures, courses and their details. Students will be able to look at your systems, enrol in them, download the application, and even contact you.

  • Communication with parents

Classplus has an innovative attendance feature where parents can see their child’s attendance and monthly reports. They get personalized essays which elaborate on their child’s performance.

You can communicate and chat with the parents through the parent communication mode. Students and parents don’t need to worry about fee payment deadlines and installments. They will get notified of the fee payments, receipts, and installments by their learning app.

How does Classplus make money?

The revenue model of Classplus is based on subscription fees. The subscription fees of this platform begin from Rs 15,000 and can go up to Rs 50,000. The fees depend upon the services needed by the teachers.

Last year in 2022, Classplus made a revenue of $ 95.2 million. The company has raised $70 million in its latest round of funding co-led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global.

According to the company, 75% of its teacher base comes from Tier 2 Indian cities and over.

Marketing Strategy of Classplus

Classplus advertises by using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. The company has also posted videos on YouTube explaining how its channels have helped many teachers go online. The brand ambassador of Classplus is Sourav Ganguly Indian cricketer.

In January 2021, Classplus launched a two-part series ad campaign with Saurav Ganguly where was tells the struggles faced by teachers teaching offline and in the ad, he tells the advantages of Classplus and how online teaching is the future. This was one of the most successful marketing campaigns launched by Classplus.

Last year on the occasion of women’s day Classplus launched a video campaign highlighting challenges faced by women in the education industry. This marketing campaign showed that still, women have to meet gender norms.

Classplus has helped these female teachers by offering them the same technology that they have provided to the men. This marketing campaign was also very successful.

The company also has an affiliate program that has helped boost its sales. Apart from advertising, many teachers are happy with the services provided by Classplus. Even word-of-mouth marketing has helped the company increase its reach.

Classplus – Competitors

  • Ethena

  • Learn In

  • Aanaab

  • BabySparks

  • BYJU’S

  • Unacademy

Summary

Classplus focuses on digitising the learning experience and transforming it to the next level. It focuses on eliminating the effort and time spent by the teachers on managing the boring activities of a classroom.

Teachers can spend time designing learning patterns and crafting new learning ways to improve their teaching. You can have your own coaching app and transform your online coaching business to the peak using the various spectacular features provided by Classplus.

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Shaadi.com: A Bachelor Finds Success As An Online Matrimonial Matchmaker

Dating. It’s been a rough ride for bachelors of all ages. Shaadi.com defied the odds and emerged as a beacon of hope, optimistically solving the chronic problem of finding a compatible life partner in an efficient way.

Shaadi.com is an online matrimonial matchmaker that has revolutionized the way people search for love and life-long partnerships.

Since 1996, people all over the world have trusted Shaadi.com, the world’s oldest and most successful matchmaking service, to help them find their soulmates online. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have found their life partners and countless others have acquired some very special friends as a result of groundbreaking matchmaking service.

By 2008, it was a successful venture in becoming the world’s leading matrimonial website for Asians and had around 20 million customers by 2011. Its main objective is to offer a superior matchmaking experience to Indians all over the world.

Shaadi.com has revolutionized the way people meet for marriage, touching the lives of 3.5 crores (35 million) people across the world and assisting millions of people in finding their soul mates.

Shaadi.com was recently named one of the world’s 50 most innovative companies by Fast Company and awarded the Best Matrimonial Site  Reader’s Choice Award by About.com, among many other honors.

How it all started Shaadi.com:

It all started when the internet became available, and in 1996-97, Anupam Mittal, a resident of the United States, decided to launch an online marriage website. Anupam was a product manager for Microstrategy, a business intelligence software startup.

He met a traditional matchmaker by happenstance one day. He inquired about the matchmaker’s approach to the new concept of a home-to-home marriage. He inquired about the number of persons who participate in the house-to-home marriage matchmaking process and was told that the figure was between 50 and 60.

 So, by combining one item with another, he came up with the new concept of a matrimonial website, which was conceptualized and launched as an experiment in 1997. Anupam invested all of his money in the startups.

 Later, he changed the name of the website from Sagaai.com to Shaadi.com. He had to spend huge money to buy the domain Shaadi.com because the domain owner was unwilling to negotiate with him.

Shaadi.com Founder: Anupam Mittal

Any notion that Anupam Mittal is the worst advertisement for his company makes him sneer. He is the creator and CEO of shaadi.com, the “oldest and most successful” online marriage service worldwide, at the age of 39. (Shaadi is Hindi for wedding.) and the fun fact is Anupam is a bachelor himself.

He founded the company under the People Group umbrella with the simple objective of offering “a superior matchmaking experience by broadening the chances available to meet possible soulmates or you can say, life partners.” He describes himself as an “explorer, entrepreneur, and eternal optimist person.”

More than 2 million people have been paired through the platform, which recently marked its 15th anniversary of venture. According to Mittal, the website controls 40% of the $1 billion Indian matchmaking market.

How Does Shaadi.com Work?

1) Members Numbering in the Millions:

With over 35 million people in their database, you have a huge selection of communities to choose from and a massive NRI database to help you discover your life partner with the help of the World’s Largest Matchmaking Service.

2) System for Strict Profile Screening:

The company CRM team is dedicated to ensuring that every profile posted on Shaadi.com is thoroughly reviewed properly, ensuring that you continue to have a pleasant partner search experience.

3) Technology used for Search:

The company personalization, filtering, and blocking mechanisms are all designed to ensure that you only get matches that are relevant to you.

4) Controls for security and privacy:

The member’s safety and privacy are prior at Shaadi.com. As the world’s first IS0 9001:2008 accredited matchmaking portal, you can enable you to choose who gets your contact information.

5) Effective Communication:

Members can be contacted by email, phone, or chat through the portal! Shaadi Speak instantly lets you connect with online members, allowing you to identify and chat with potential life partners, improving your overall matchmaking experience.

Shaadi.com: Revenue model

Users can pay for a premium membership, Its plans include Gold, Gold+, Diamond, Diamond+, and Platinum which come in a variety of options. The platform’s registration is free, but if a person is interested in a person’s profile, they must upgrade to a premium membership to contact that individual.

The portal provides a number of premium membership options. The gateway began as an experiment, but it has now impacted the lives of over 35 million users worldwide. The Indian matchmaking sector is worth over $1 billion, and Shaadi.com controls around 40% of it.

Pricing Tier Available At Shaadi.com:

DURATION PACKAGE SUBSCRIPTION FEES (INR)
12 months Platinum Plus 7900
12 months Platinum 6301
6 months Diamond Plus 4900
6 months Diamond 4301
3 months Gold Plus 3100
3 months Gold 2701

According to Statista, Revenue in the Matchmaking segment will be $292.10 million in 2023. With an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 0.91%, the market volume will reach $302.90 million by 2027. The number of users will grow to 29.4 million by 2027.

Shaadi.com – Marketing Strategy:

Shaadi.com strives to engage its audience on a daily basis by taking initiative to solve real-life problems that individuals encounter in their personal lives, such as Love, Marriage, the Dowry system, etc.

Its campaign raises awareness about the issue in society, and the social media platform obtains a lot of customer involvement as a result of the campaign, which is focused on social concerns such as dowry, child marriage, and women empowerment.

Another attempt was launched to increase its customer base and to keep the users entertained, the firm has taken several initiatives which include the opening of 123 Shaadi.com centres across 72 Indian cities with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

They plan to expand the centre’s numbers to 250 counts.

 Games are hosted regularly on their social media accounts to keep the customers engaged along with creating awareness in society towards marriages and issues related to women. It used a ‘Dowry calculator’ to highlight the social evils prevailing in society which was appreciated by many people from more than 35 countries.

Social Media Campaigns: #FastForHer and #WohEkBaat

The matchmaking platform took a bold step by starting taking a step towards spreading awareness about the gender inequalities prevailing in society through social media channels.

Questions were asked to people over social media channels like Facebook and Twitter using polls. The campaign received a massive response as more than 18,72,272 people took the pledge on fastforher.com.

The hashtag #Fastforher kept trending and got over 78 million impressions. More than 20000 posts were shared on Facebook and got around 6500 re-tweets.

For Valentine’s day 2019, Shaadi.com came up with an Instagram-based campaign #WoEkBaat to showcase the brand as a celebrator of love stories. It highlighted around 6 million of its success stories on the platform.

This activity was driven by influencer couples on Instagram who talked about the one thing that got them and their partner together and their stories.

Shaadi.com Mission and Vision:

The company’s ambition is for a future where finding a life partner is as rewarding as finding a soul mate. Shaadi.com’s purpose is to improve people’s matchmaking experiences by searching for online partners by increasing the opportunity to meet possible life partners and get a satisfying relationship.

 Superior technology, in-depth research, valuable matrimonial content & services, and, most all, the best quality of customer service provided with a sense of warmth, understanding, respect, and corporate spirit are all part of the mission.

Shaadi.com’s world-class technology service provider and the organisation’s goals are based on in-depth study and knowledge of their clients.

Challenges faced by Shaadi.com

The biggest challenge for Shaadi.Com and other players in the industry is the increasing commodification of the service in the Technology industry.

One of the biggest threats to tie-up with the local players in the export market for Shaadi.Com is the threat of losing IPR (intellectual property rights).

Even at present Shaadi.Com is still the leader in service innovation in the Computer Services segment. It is facing stiff challenges from worldwide and local competitors.

Shaadi.com – Future Plans:

The founder, Anupam Mittal,  said in an interview that “We are profitable and will be IPO-ready in about 12 months, and it’s a good position to be in.” The business, now, doesn’t need funding, Mittal added, The founder withheld further information on the IPO as well.

After more than a decade of pausing, the matrimonial service website Shaadi.com is considering making a second effort to start its initial public offering (IPO).

In 2009 it launched its initial effort to go public. Shaadi.com’s initial IPO effort was made with the aim of diluting between 15 to 20% of the People Group, Shaadi.com’s parent company,’s share. Shaadi.com is getting ready to introduce new services such as one of which is Shaadi Live, according to him. Another will enable virtual face-to-face meetings between matches.

Shaadi.com – Competitors in the market

  • Jeevansathi.com

  • BharatMatrimony.com

  • TeluguMatrimony.com

  • TamilMatrimony.com

  • Bandhan.com,

  • CommunityMatrimony.com

  • DivorceeMatrimony.com

  • Matrimonials India.com

Shaadi.com Awards and Recognitions:

  • Won an award for Best Social Media Campaign – Social Cause.

  • Shaadi.com has received an award at the IDMA for the second year in a row.

  • The ‘Best Use of Social Media in Marketing Award.’

  • In the 2011 About.com Readers’ Choice Awards, Shaadi.com was named the Best Matrimonial Website.

  • Shaadi.com was chosen from hundreds of nominations and garnered significant votes.

  • The 2012 Internationalist Awards for Innovative Digital Marketing Solutions awarded Shaadi.com’s Angry Brides campaign.

  • Shaadi.com was a first-time competitor, competing against roughly 200 other companies from more than 30 countries.

Summary

Shaadi.com is a website trusted by millions of members who had excellent matchmaking experiences. Shaadi.com offers firm profile screening processes, security and privacy restrictions, and other unique features.

Compared to other dating services, Shaadi.com assures that each member’s pairing trip is worthwhile.

So, if you’re looking for a soulmate, Shaadi.com is the place for you. With all of the features available and the certainty of absolutely meeting the one you are waiting for, Shaadi.com is without a doubt a key to getting your life partner!

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Everything You Need To Know About Kunal Shah, CEO of CRED

Kunal Shah is a leading figure in the world of technology and startups. He is the CEO of CRED, a digital-first fintech venture that has revolutionized consumer financial services.

Kunal is a visionary leader who thinks ahead of the curve and strives to create products with which are intuitive, elegant, and easy to use. His focus on customer experience led him to develop Cred’s innovative credit score monitoring platform, which makes credit management easier for millions around the globe.

Kunal Shah is an Indian entrepreneur, venture capitalist and also a founder of CRED. Born on 20th May 1983, he was born in a middle-class family. He began working at a very young age to support his family’s financial expenses.

Since his early days, has worked hard to achieve his goals and now stands as a prominent entrepreneur in India. He pursued his Bachelor’s degree from Wilson College, Mumbai, India.  He attended Narsee Monjee Institute of Management for an MBA but later dropped out. He was always interested in behavioural finance and science.

Throughout his career, Kunal has worked with some of India’s most successful companies, including Flipkart and FreeCharge. From his extensive experience in business strategy and marketing, Kunal understands the needs of today’s tech-savvy customers.

He not only helps make consumer finance more accessible but also amplifies its impact by advising small businesses on best practices for success.

With his deep understanding of technology and marketing, Kunal has been able to bring his passion for problem-solving to bear across various sectors within Startup India’s ecosystem.

He continues to inspire others through sharing his innovative ideas at conferences around the world which emphasize how best to thrive in this quickly changing economic climate while staying true to one’s core values.

Kunal is setting new standards not only in terms of product innovation but also in terms of responsible business practices that must be observed by organizations looking towards becoming industry leaders in the long run.

Ideation of CRED

Inventing new ideas for a credit company involves taking the time to commit to understanding customers, their needs and preferences. It requires developing a deep understanding of industry trends as well as thoughtfully examining past successes and failures.

Knowledge is power; your ability to go beyond data into insights will help you see opportunities that are otherwise hidden from view. You need new perspectives — from internal teams, external consultants and groups with diverse experiences — to imagine outside the box.

Collectively, these inputs create a clear vision of the most promising pathways forward. Armed with this perspective, you can quickly develop actionable tactics that inspire innovation and strategically pivot your brand.

The concept of getting credit or rewards has been introduced previously. People have been opting for credit for decades. Credit is crucial when your capital cannot support certain investments, and credit cards have certainly made them easy to avail. However, paying credit card bills is a priority and equally difficult to manage for some people.

This is why Cred decided to come forth with the unique idea of a platform that will help Indians pay their credit card bills on time and also offer them instant offers, discounts and rewards for the same.

Cred is a fintech company headquartered in Bengaluru. It lets its users make credit card payments through its app and get exclusive offers and other benefits online discounts, rewards and many more.

Furthermore, Cred has also come with house rent payment options, Rent Pay; flexible credit lines, Cred Cash; and Cred Mint, with which the lenders can lend their idle money to borrowers who exhibit decent credit scores at interests of around 9% per annum.

The career of Kunal Shah

Kunal Shah began his working journey first job as a junior programmer in a business process outsourcing company. From 2000 to 2010, he worked as CEO of multiple companies.

In 2010, he founded a company “Freecharge” and served as its CEO till October 2016. Later he worked at Y Combinator, an American seed money startup from January 2016 to December 2016.

From January 2016 to May 2017,  he worked as Chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India. He worked as Advisor at Sequoia Capital, Times Group and Angel. His company Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal in 2015 and this acquisition was touted as one of the giant e-commerce acquisitions at that time.

Then, Axis Bank acquired “Freecharge” for $60 million in July 2017. Kunal used all these revenues to invest in his new startups in India and abroad. Finally, he invested these revenues in 80 startups including Unacademy, Razorpay, and many more.

He later founded CRED, an Indian fintech company, in 2018. The app currently has over 5.9 million users and processes more than 20% of credit card payments in India.

CRED CEO Kunal Shah reveals that he earns just Rs 15,000 as salary per month; Here’s why

Kunal revealed his salary while replying to a user on Instagram.  He claims that he only earns Rs 15,000 per month as the company is not profitable yet. He conducted an Ask Me Anything session on Instagram and a user asked him, “Your salary at Cred is so low? How do you survive?”

To this, Kunal Shah said , “I don’t believe I should get a good salary till the company is profitable. My salary at CRED is 15,000 per month and I can survive as I sold my company FreeCharge in the past.”

There are CEOs who take salaries in crores then we have Kunal Shah. 💖 pic.twitter.com/aahaDJmdAm

— Ajeet Patel | Leetcode ⚡ (@Iampatelajeet) February 26, 2023

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As per The Hindu Businessline, CRED recorded a net loss of Rs 1,279 crore in the financial year (FY) 2022 even though its revenue jumped by almost 340% from Rs 95 crore in FY21 to Rs 422 crore in FY22.

Why Kunal Shah believes you shouldn’t envy others’ money but their skills instead

Kunal believes that India has been massively resilient as most of its population comes from a background that aims at essentials only. But it is important to note that job growth happens because of non-essential things.

“While India will come back, it is a huge opportunity for the youth to realise how to thrive in economic crises. Either people will emerge as winners or get exterminated. Every turn can make you win or lose, in life and many people have to be responsible for their actions,” he says.

Kunal believes “Startups need to reduce their burn rate so that people get enough runway to take off after the economic crisis. This holds true for individual wealth as well,” advises the entrepreneur he gave.

According to Kunal, money is the biggest tool to unlock choices or your needs in life, but one must not look for shortcuts to make money or become emotional when it comes to money.

He says that now is the biggest opportunity to understand how capitalism works. He believes that the world is going to optimize to be a little lazy – leading to a rise in remote working.

“Salary and status are the output of skill and contributions in life. If you keep increasing your basic skill, your salary will keep increasing, and you will be given extra responsibilities. And if you chase money, skills will not come.  Keep the focus on insanely improving skills, and money will chase you.”– Kunal shah

Lessons to learn from Kunal shah

  • Observe people who can thrive in a crisis and learn from them.
  • For people who hate wealthy people, or hate wealth, wealth will not come to them.
  • Money is a medium to unlock choices in life and is not your identity.
  • More money leads to more choices and more access.
  • If you grow your skills, money will chase you. Upskill like crazy and money will hunt you down.

Some lesser-known facts about “Kunal shah”

  1. Kunal Shah was an MBA dropout.
  2. He was a humanities graduate, But both of his companies are in the fintech space
  3. In his teenage, he worked in an internet cafe and sold mehendi cones, To pay for his education
  4. Kunal Shah’s salary as the founder of CRED is 3 lakhs P/A.

Summary

Kunal Shah is an entrepreneur, an angel investor, founder of CRED and previously founded FreeCharge. CRED is a members-only credit card bill payment rewards platform that offers incentives and rewards to users for clearing their bills on time.

Kunal has served as a part-time partner at Y Combinator and an advisor at Sequoia Capital.  He holds a BA in Philosophy from Wilson College, Mumbai.

He had earlier launched ventures such as PaisaBack, a cashback and promotional discount campaign platform for retailers.

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The success story of Jugnoo India’s largest auto rickshaw aggregator and taxi booking app

Founded by Samar Singla in November 2012, Jugnoo, India’s largest auto-rickshaw aggregator platform, is an innovative way people commute in the country.

The company was started with a vision to create a more efficient way of utilising available auto rickshaws, providing customers across India with a convenient and affordable way of hailing an auto rickshaw with a single tap. By crafting an integrated transportation experience, it quickly caught the imagination of commuters in India.

The company expanded into hyperlocal services, building an alternate platform for auto rickshaw drivers to deliver goods and meals alongside the provision of rides.

Jugnoo leveraged technology to digitize and streamline the traditional practices that were impeding growth in the auto rickshaw sector. To gain entry into the market, they designed a mobile app that gave users multiple options like fare calculator, online payments and GPS tracking which was tailored to their specific needs.

The app provided value beyond all expectations; it provided riders with convenience, comfort, and control. Jugnoo collected data on auto rickshaws along important routes making them more organized and accountable than ever before. Over time, users began to trust the service due to its speed and reliability.

Jugnoo experienced a surge of growth by constantly innovating, diversifying services and expanding their partner network across India-investing further into research and development. The company secured funding from leading investors and achieved milestones in scale without compromising customer experience.

By reimagining how people could interact with new transportation mediums and leveraging technology to turn ideas into sustainable opportunities, Jugnoo disrupted industry norms for alternate mobility solutions across India – paving the way for innovation in other cities as well.

Founders

1) Samar Singla

Jugnoo CEO, Samar Singla is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and graduated with a Btech degree in Physics. Before this company, Samar also founded Click Labs. He has also been working as a researcher at the University of Maryland and IBM.

He has also worked as a scientist at CERN, Geneva. He was aiming to change lives with the help of new technology.  He is now the CEO of Jugnoo. Besides Jugnoo, he is also serving as the CEO of JungleWorks. Founded in 2015 by Samar Singla, JungleWorks offers a complete technology stack for businesses.

2) Chinmay Agarwal

Jugnoo Ex-Co-founder and COO Chinmay Agarwal were also added from IIT Delhi. He got his Master’s in robotics from the University of Genoa and was a scientist at Smart Cane. He was also the Co-founder of Click Labs with Samar.

He also has a patent for Methods and applications for altitude measurement and the fusion of customers’ context detection with elevation motion for personal navigation systems.

In the beginning, Jugnoo’s founders, Samar and Chinmay were unaware of the major influence they were about to make on the daily lives of the common messenger and the auto drivers. Initiated with a casual attitude, they soon realized the situation was way more challenging and worse than anticipated.

Jugnoo success story

Jugnoo was started as an on-demand auto rickshaw service provider and introduced various user-friendly features to make it simple for users to book a ride. In 2016, Jugnoo introduced Jugnoo Bot, which allowed Facebook users to book a ride via Facebook Messenger, Jugnoo’s website, or its Facebook page.

Samar observed that the major issues in the auto rickshaw transport network were the stubborn uncooperative attitude of the auto drivers, unavailability, and unreasonable charges.

The idea was to tap the potential public transport medium in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, here you can take example the auto-rickshaw, so the public can hail it by using the mobile application, and the auto drivers can save on the waiting time; a concept similar to the cab services like Ola or Uber.

Jugnoo auto application was introduced on all major smartphone platforms such as ios, Android, and Windows.  Customers can also book Jugnoo rides using the company Jugnoo’s Facebook bot. The company also offered a Multilingual interface for drivers, with over eight languages other than English.

The other services offered by Jugnoo

  • Dodo deliveries – It enables sellers to deliver goods to their customers. Its deliveries are now renamed Jugnoo Delivery.

  • Flight map – It is a comprehensive routing solution that solves travel salesman and vehicle routing issues.

  • Fatafat – Hyperlocal deliveries of goods like food, grocery, and veggies. It was shut down in October 2015. The service was launched and relaunched again in Chandigarh in May 2016, after acquiring SabKuchFresh.

  • Menus – The company had launched Jugnoo meals but it was closed down in October 2015, and in 2017 it was re-launched as Menus. Jugnoo Menus has brought onboard famous restaurants and outlets like Burger King, Pizza Hut, Subway, Baskin Robbins, Super Donut, Burger point, Rolla costa, Copper Chimney, Marky Momos and Dhaba.com

  • AskLocal – The AskLocal feature of the Jugnoo app will not only offer local information but is also a platform where users can ask questions, give recommendations, and share content.

Jugnoo – Business Model

Jugnoo has two different business models in both B2B and B2C segments. While it started operations in the B2C segment as an auto-rickshaw, Jugnoo also launched other B2C services like ‘Fatafat’ and ‘Menus’.

Jugnoo wiped out into the B2B segment with, with B2B logistics service, ‘Jugnoo Delivery’ and comprehensive routing solutions, ‘Flight Map’

Regarding the auto aggregator service,  costing for Jugnoo autos differs on a city basis. The strategy is to be the most affordable A-2-B transport option for the application users in that city.

The challenges that Jugnoo faces and how it plans to overcome them

The initial Jugnoo challenges faced by the company could be attributed to the demography of the tier 2 locations, which were the hesitance of the drivers to use the technology and break the clients’ mental barriers and introduce new plans.

The two other significant challenges in the otherwise journey were Jugnoo Fatatfat, which did home delivery of custom orders application from stores within the city to users.

It was launched in March 2015 with the plan of cashing the auto network, however, it was shut down after being operational for eight months straight. Also, the company had to close down Jugnoo Meal in October of the same year.

However, the company later re-launched Fatafat and launched Jugnoo menus. The team stands by the bumpy rides and says that they have chosen to be careful rather than keep investing in something which returns a loss for the company.

Jugnoo will need to sign up many of these operators to offer its customers a huge choice of vehicles.

Auto-rickshaw Aggregator will need to ensure that its drivers provide a good quality service to customers to keep them coming back. Jugnoo has introduced a number of initiatives such as training programs for drivers and a 24/7 customer support line.

Jugnoo’s impact on the Indian economy

Jugnoo has had a positive impact on the Indian economy; it has created thousands of jobs for auto-rickshaw drivers and has helped reduce traffic congestion in cities across India.

Jugnoo’s success is a testament to the boosted potential of the Indian startup ecosystem. The company’s story is an inspiration for other Indian entrepreneurs who are looking to make a difference in the world through their startup idea.

Jugnoo’s Future plans

The Jugnoo is currently operating in more than 50 cities across India. The company also plans to continue expanding its operations to cover more cities in India in the upcoming years.

The company also has a plan for domestic expansion, the company is also looking to enter new markets across the globe. The company has already launched its services app in Pakistan and is planning to expand into other countries in South Asia and Africa.

Jugnoo – Growth

  • The company has completed 19 Million rides to date.
  • Jugnoo has its footprints in over 120 Indian cities.
  • The company boasts of having more than 8 Million users.
  • It now has over 0.1 million drivers onboard.

Summary

Jugnoo has been one of the most successful startups in India in recent years. The company has disrupted the transportation sector in the country and is quickly expanding to other markets in India.

Jugnoo is an auto-rickshaw aggregator and taxi booking app founded in August 2014 by two of IITians Samar Singla and Chinmay Agarwal. The company is based in Chandigarh, India.

The company offers a much-needed solution to the last-mile transportation problem in India. By letting users book auto-rickshaws and taxis through a mobile app, Jugnoo is making it simple and more convenient for people to get around in Indian cities.

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Prafull Billore (MBA Chaiwala): From tea stall owner to selling franchise

Sometimes things don’t go according to your plan. But you can achieve everything you set your mind to if you believe in yourself even in bad times. There are no limitations out here, just have to keep trying hard until you get success.

MBA Chai Wala’s owner, Prafull Billore, was determined to pursue his dreams and succeeded today. He had his share of setbacks, but he overcame them to get to where he is now and become a successful entrepreneur. His success story serves as an encouragement to today’s young.

Prafull Billore also known as the MBA Chaiwala is the successful owner of his venture named MBA Chaiwala franchise. He started his business with Rs 8,000 investment only and is now essentially a Rs 3 crore business built on India’s all-time favourite drink tea (chai).

Born on January 14, 1996, Prafull Billore who came from Madhya Pradesh had completed his graduation in commerce. After graduation, he earned a salary of Rs. 25,000 per month and worked in Amway as a Salesman.

Just like every other student and MBA aspirant in India, he also has a dream of going to IIM Ahmedabad to pursue his MBA degree. He was attracted to the fact that MBA graduates would receive many job offers and good salary packages from reputed companies or firms.

Hence, he passed the CAT exam and secured a seat at IIM Ahmedabad.  Like every other parent, his parents were eager for their son to get into the esteemed management institution.

Prafull Billore – Career

“I wanted to be a big man. Bachpan se bahut tang samay dekha tha (I have seen tough times since childhood), so my only passion was making more money and living a comfortable life.”

Prafull admits that his aspirations did not lie with his parents. He was 20 and was still struggling to understand what he could do. He travelled to various cities in India, allowing him to meet people from diverse backgrounds.

Meeting and talking to them gave him many insights and experience with jobs.

He read success stories about popular businessmen like Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. He realized a common thread among these people. All of them had worked for McDonald’s at some point in their lives.

So he joined McDonald’s in Ahmedabad and earned Rs. 300/- a day.  Prafull says, “I also took a part-time job at McDonald’s to see how it feels to work somewhere. The salary was not much and it made me think (how will I become a big man if even after MBA I’d work like this}?” over here

Although he quickly rose up the ranks from the housekeeping employee to the cashier, he was not satisfied. Soon he began exploring business opportunities and quickly realized that most businesses asked for a very high initial investment.

An amount that he did not have. So, Prafull set up a simple plan.

He decided to start selling tea (chai). He called his father and borrowed Rs. 8000/- from him for false reasons.

He then invested that money towards buying the inventory he needed to launch a small roadside tea shop. All the while, he kept his day job working at McDonald’s.

Prafull says he doesn’t drink tea and he had no idea how to make it. The first day that he made tea, he could not sell a single cup of it. Not one to give up, he came up with a plan B. The next day, he started approaching people and engaging them in conversation.

The fact Prafull became popular because people were fascinated that a roadside tea seller was speaking fluent English. To top it up, he was serving tea in earthenware cups with a slice of toast and tissue paper – a completely new image of a regular tea seller.  And so this tea was becoming famous, as was his conversation.

His growing fame in the market. The other tea vendors in the surrounding market area were unhappy with the new kid on the block. They conspired to close his venture and resorted to bullying and threatening him. He wanted to ensure that nobody should be able to displace him again legally or by any force and that his business shouldn’t get close.

So Prafull decided to close his stall, but, undaunted, he approached a hospital owner and with his permission and help from other authorities, opened up another stall around the hospital and had requested some space and that he would be paying rent for the place.

The hospital authorities, after much consideration of his approach, accepted Praful’s proposal and gave the nod for setting up his tea stall around the hospital. He started setting up his business. Between all the hassle of setting up the shop and boosting it up, he had forgotten to keep a name for his chai business.

So here he named it MBA Chaiwala. But he says – “MBA stands for Mr Billore Ahmedabad” for fun.

To increase his customer base, Prafull came up with a strategy to increase his customer engagement by creating a small corner for job seekers. He put up a whiteboard for the job seekers to share their details so potential companies could contact them.

Such was his fame that YouTubers put up videos of him further helping him reach a more customer base. This was how when his parents first heard of him selling tea instead of earning an MBA degree. Initially upset with him, they, however, understood his situation and motivated him.

Challenges Faced by Prafull

Kisi motivation ki jarurat nahi honi chahiye, Tum jo bhi kaam kar rahe ho aisa karo ki tumse accha koi na kare. – Prafull billore.

Prafull intended to get his master’s degree from IIM Ahmedabad before launching his own venture. You must take the CAT in order to be accepted into a good MBA program from any university.

The CAT is one of the most demanding exams available in India. He studied for over 10 hours a day to achieve his aims.

But unfortunately, he failed the CAT exam three times out of all three attempts. Despite his failure, his parents continued to support him with his dream. Prafull became depressed due to this and could not concentrate on anything else in his career.

He travelled around Ahmedabad cities for comfort during this time and discovered that it seemed like a second home to him in the city and gained experience from the people.

His dream of pursuing an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad had been destroyed, and he didn’t know what to do next and his career.

Finally, he settled on a job at McDonald’s in Ahmedabad. He started his career as a housekeeper. He was quickly promoted to kitchen crew and began taking orders and serving customers at McDonald’s.

MBA Chaiwala’s Beginnings

On July 25, 2017, he began his venture with an investment which he took from his father INR 8,000. He worked at McDonald’s from 9 am to 4 p.m. and then at his tea shop in the evening.

When you have a small business, getting customers was difficult for him. A tea shop can be located on practically every street corner in any city. Prafull served tea in earthen pots with toast and tissues to draw people interested in him.

He not only amused those who came to his stall, but he also approached those who were sitting around it. People were drawn to him because of his excellent communication abilities and the distinctive method he served his meals. Then he eventually began selling snacks and coffee on his menu.

Within a few months, his company generated millions of dollars per month by selling tea. He started a personal website and is the Facebook and Instagram manager for MBA Chaiwala. He is well-known among young youth, particularly MBA students at IIM Ahmedabad.

He’s also spoken at over 200 events, which include women’s empowerment programs, entrepreneurship events, and many more. On Valentine’s Day, he gave away free chai to single people and this strategy went viral across all social media platforms, and he gained international prominence as a result.

Prafull says, “My ambition is to sell tea in India across every city and have every Indian consume my tea.” He runs a 300-square-foot restaurant with an employee of over 20 people.

Prafull’s Income

He had a revenue of Rs 3 crore in the financial year 2019-20. Today, MBA Chaiwala has opened up so many franchises and outlets across the country. Today, MBA Chaiwala’s per day income is approximately Rs 1.5 Lakh.  In 2023 his net worth is 25  – 30 Crores

The total net worth of Prafull is 30 million dollars estimated. And yearly Income of 4-5 Crore in 2023. Other than that, he has his YouTube channel where the income is not mentioned anywhere.

Recently, along with some of the biggest YouTube creators he invested in SuperCluster Pi. This D2C botanical company is developing an ecosystem of health and wellness-focused brands. This company is also aiming to complete a 6-8 D2C brand within the coming year.

Prafull has 268.5k followers on Twitter, 121k followers on Instagram, and 32365 followers on LinkedIn and YouTube has 1.63 million subscribers as of 2023 which is also a source of income for him.

The story behind MBA Chaiwala’s name

Praful sat down and listed down hundreds of names for the venture. He wanted the name to reflect his identity, as the tea startup was his life and all that he loved.

After striking down hundreds of names, he finally got a name that would resonate with his personal identity. The signboard read, ‘Mr. Billore Ahmedabad Chaiwala’, which is now known as the ‘MBA Chaiwala.’

Using criticism as fuel Prafull

The tea shop name gave him a lot of criticism as people started mocking him, ‘How can a person who doesn’t have an MBA degree be called an MBA Chaiwala?’. He even got criticism from his close friends too, as they mocked, ‘Kahan MBA kar raha tha, kahan chai wala ban gaya.’ Even his parents felt that he brought shame to his family’s name by doing the tea-selling business.

Prafull’s positive mindset turned a deaf ear to these comments as he considered that the ones who were not there to support him during the struggle period don’t deserve a chance to be heard during the success.

The Growth of MBA Chaiwala

Within a few years, the small tea stall was transformed into a chain of franchises and cafes in cities. Praful’s hard work and dedication paid off, and MBA Chaiwala became a name-brand name that resonated in the minds of chai lovers all over India.

Praful has graced almost 200+ events with his chai that range across women empowerment, entrepreneurship, LinkedIn program, and many more. He got invitations to cater marriage functions and even political rallies to spread his warmth and love of his tea.

Apart from focusing on the tea-selling business, Praful also supports social causes like the economic upliftment of underprivileged people and women’s empowerment by organizing fundraising social events and campaigns to support society. In 2023, he will have 200+ franchises in 100+ cities in India.

From a tea stall owner to giving motivational speeches

Praful Billore’s successful journey did not end with his chai stall. His success story reached across the countries.

He was invited by IIM-Ahmedabad, the B-school he was trying to pursue his MBA to share his business journey with post-graduate students. He also got invites from various other IIMs and Harvard Business School to share his journey.

Today MBA Chaiwala venture has over 20 employees and a business turnover of three crores. This is no ordinary feat considering the hard work and struggles prafull faced.

He believes that fear was temporary, but the mark of regret is forever in life, and one should not live with such regrets and pursue their dreams, even if it is small.

Things you learn from Prafull Billore’s Success story

Prafull’s story inspires us to work hard and determination pays off. Prafull story shows us that anything is possible if you are willing to do hard work and take risks.

He taught us the importance of learning and growing, as Prafull Billore continued to educate himself and develop new skills even after becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Through hard work, and dedication, he was able to turn his small tea stall into a multimillion-dollar company.

3 things to learn from Prafull Billore

1. In Life, try to learn from the people that are ahead of you. Be ready to take experience, wisdom or success.

2. When You know “that you don’t know, ” you have better chances of Learning.

3. When you’re trying to do something different, most people won’t support you and might call your vision useless/crazy. But it’s important that you believe in yourself & don’t stop doing it.

Top 3 motivational speeches By Prafull Billore

Motivation isn’t enough, but why?

Because you can’t rely on motivation, it doesn’t let you work on the days you don’t want to, says Prafull.

Therefore self-discipline is more important than motivation and here are motivational speeches by Prafull.

3 popular quotes by Prafull Billore

1) “The biggest risk is taking no risk.”

In a world that’s changing quickly, the only strategy you can have is to take risks and try to move ahead only when you stop fearing negative consequences.

2) “Success comes to those who work consistently. Not occasionally.”

Nothing is more effective than consistency when it comes to making your business, or any performance in life, stand out.  So try to be consistent with your routine or the path you choose for your success.

3) “Sacrifices are the common component of success.”

You don’t have to make big sacrifices in order to be successful but sacrifices are important. Remember by sacrificing for your goals you are temporarily giving up one thing, for the long-term success of another thing.

Summary

The journey to success is never easy for anyone. It takes hard work, dedication, time, and commitment to achieve your dream. Getting an MBA from a reputed institution can be anyone’s dream.

Praful has become a millionaire several times over, and his story is an inspiration to anyone who dreams of successful venture. Through his venture, he earns an estimated Salary of 3 Crore Per Year.

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Bhaskar Puran Poli Ghar from selling puran poli on a bicycle to Coming Shark Tank India Season 2

KR Bhaskar, who came from Karnataka, runs his own brand named ‘Puranpoli Ghar of Bhaskar’. Today they are earning crores every month by selling snacks called Puranpoli.

Their outlets are across Karnataka and Maharashtra and are so popular. His business is making a net profit of 3.6 crores in this financial year.  He has reached the heights of success today, but this journey was not so easy for him.

Bhaskar told in the Shark tank India Season 2  that 25 years ago he used to work as a waiter in a hotel in Bangalore, India when he was 12 years old. For five years, he worked in a hotel where he used to clean tables and utensils. Then he worked as a dance instructor for 8 years. He opened a pan shop, but nothing much was being earned in all this.

When Bhaskar was 23, he started selling Puran Poli on a bicycle on the streets of Mumbai. Today he has become a businessman who has business worth crores.

He told me how he got selected for a cooking show which made him famous. Gradually Bhaskar established his brand in the nation.

Today Bhaskar opens its new outlet every 8 months across the nation. Today he has 17 shops and more than 10 franchisees in Karnataka itself. His monthly earnings from these shops are close to 18 crores.

Bhaskar with his hard work made Bhaskar Puranpoli Ghar a profit-making venture. Now two more partners have joined him, who are expanding their business in Maharashtra today. Bhaskar’s venture sells more than 1000 Puran Poli every day. Apart from puranpoli, their outlets sell over 400 snacks.

Summary

KR Bhaskar of Karnataka set up a company worth crores who once worked as a waiter. His food chain runs in Karnataka and Maharashtra. Bhaskar Woh Shark Tank India may not get investment from the sharks, but his story has won hearts.




Indian e-commerce Giant Flipkart Success Story

We are all familiar with the successful e-commerce giant Flipkart. But how did they founded Flipkart and rise to the top?

Flipkart’s success is a unique story of innovation and sheer determination in the face of adversity. Many people can learn from their journey through struggles and perseverance as ultimately, Flipkart is one of the few companies that have been able to sustain themselves at the top tier of Indian e-commerce for such a long time.

Today, Flipkart stands among India’s most acclaimed e-commerce companies. The company’s success lies in its razor sharp focus on customer experience and innovation, which have enabled it to constantly surpass expectations and remain competitive against rivals such as Amazon.

In this article, we will discuss what led them to success and what can be done going forward for other industry players striving to reach similar heights.

About Flipkart Company

Flipkart is among India’s dominant e-commerce platforms which were started in October 2007 with its headquarters in Bengaluru, India. Founded by two entrepreneurs, alumni of the IIT, Delhi and former Amazon employees  Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.

The online venture had initially started as an online bookstore with country-wide shipping but as the firm’s fame escalated, it grew and expanded its activities slowly grew in prominence and was receiving 100 orders per day by 2008.

The platform started selling a variety of other products like earphones, mobile phones,  mobile accessories as well as movies. With e-commerce gradually revolutionizing the world of retail and garnering momentum in India, Flipkart expanded at its pace steadily supplementing various new item categories in its collection.

Today, the company facilitates over 80 million+ products across a range of over 80 categories from mobile phones & accessories, computers, laptops, books and e-books, home appliances, electronic goods, fashionable clothes and accessories, sports and fitness, baby care, games, and toys, jewellery, footwear, and so on.

Flipkart’s Founders story

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal founded Flipkart as an e-commerce platform in October 2007. Both graduates from IIT Delhi were officially exposed to the retail sector while working with Amazon. The two met at amazon and explored their mutual interest and thought to bring a change in the e-commerce industry of India.

This led to both quitting their jobs at Amazon in 2007, and beginning their journey to build a similar e-commerce company such as amazon but focused specifically on the Indian consumers. The two wished to offer Indians an online store that was created in India which led to the making of Flipkart.

Flipkart – Business Model

Comprising more than 150 million products in 80 categories, Flipkart is one of the dominant e-commerce companies in the country.  The platform adopts social media platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Instagram for marketing strategy .

Being a Business to Consumer model firm, it offers its consumers the freedom to choose their sellers and items from an extensive assortment of options as well as help them by suggesting products.

One of the principal Unique Selling Propositions of this platform is its pricing. The platform is known for offering branded products at more or less economical costing. Aside from this factor, consumers are also offered with sales and discounts frequently.

And additional benefits include its cash on delivery (COD) options, its refund policy as well as its customer service. One unique trick which Flipkart uses is the column of the Flipkart Assured product where the items that have been allotted the Flipkart Assured product are assessed and double-checked to ensure better safety as well as quality.

In November 2020, as per Walmart, Flipkart registered a record number of monthly active consumers. In order to ascertain prompt delivery to its user base, the venture presently contracts over 1 million square feet of space in various areas which include Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, etc across the country.

Recently the company has started a hyperlocal 90-minute delivery service termed Flipkart Quick in Bengaluru only across categories including grocery, mobiles, electronics, and home accessories with this launch, the venture is into items like fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as meats and milk on its platform.

Flipkart – Industry and Target Market Size

Flipkart uses an undifferentiated targeting strategy, since they have consumers of all demographics purchase items online which is available to everyone where delivery is possible in the country. Flipkart has positioned itself as a trustworthy and customer-friendly ECommerce brand in India.

The online retail industry market is of a size of around $60 billion. It is estimated to reach $200 billion by the year 2026.

Flipkart – Parent Organization

In August 2018, U.S.-based retail chain Walmart acquired a 77%  ruling stake in Flipkart for US$16 billion, valuing the company at $20 billion. These stakes were further expanded to 81.3% towards the end of the same year. Soon after the acquisition, one of the founders Sachin Bansal left the company.

With this acquisition, Walmart claimed that the omni-channel retail sector has a huge potential for future growth on a global level.

Flipkart Revenue Model

Flipkart makes its revenue through commissions and other services, Flipkart India’s revenue mainly comes from selling goods to sellers and sales through its B2B ecommerce marketplace to stores across the country.

They also earn revenue by collecting transaction and logistics fees from vendors who place orders through Flipkart’s B2B ecommerce marketplace. Flipkart India purchased goods worth around Rs 53,878 crore in FY22 compared to Rs 47,629 crore in FY21.

Flipkart posted a 33% rise in operating revenue in FY22 to Rs 10,476 crore. The Walmart-owned Flipkart, saw revenue jump 34.5% to Rs 50,992 crore in financial year 2021-22 (FY22), regulatory filing sourced via business intelligence platform Tofler showed.

Flipkart – Acquisition

  • The platform initiated its acquisition in 2014  when it purchased Myntra for an amount of $400 million.

  • In 2016, the platform purchased the fashion website Jabong for $70 million.

  • In 2017, the company purchased the payment website PhonePe

  • In 2017 e-commerce corporation eBay .

  • The platform also consolidated all of its Bangalore offices to develop a single big campus across 8.3 lakh square ft.

  •  In 2011, Flipkart set up an office in Singapore.

  • 21 acquisitions and 23 investments have been undertaken by the company and around $395 million has been spent by the corporation on acquisitions.

Flipkart’s Funding

In 2020, Flipkart stands at a valuation of $24.9 billion USD.  It has raised $560.45 million from Walmart as part of the $1.2 billion round it announced in July 2020.The company’s primary investment had been infused by the founders which was a total of 5,600 USD. Post this followed the investment from Tiger Global who is a key investor of the company.

A few of the key investors of the Flipkart include eBay, Axis Bank, Manhattan Venture Partners, Naspers, and Softbank Vision Fund.  The biggest funding for the platform was when it was acquired by Walmart for $16 billion, with Walmart acquiring a 77% stake in the company.

As reported by NDTV Gadgets 360, Flipkart’s most recent funding was the $1.2 billion (roughly Rs. 9,048 crores) it raised in a recent equity round which was headed by Walmart.

Flipkart – Partnership

Flipkart has a wide range of partnerships throughout the years it has been started. Some of the major of its partnerships are:

  • Authentic Brands to license and distribute Nautica in India in August 2019.
  • Announced a strategic and commercial partnership with the Adani Group on April 12, 2021, to increase its supply chain and logistics infrastructure.
  • On September 8, 2021 with Urbanic to target young consumers across India.
  • A collaborating with the leading Indian kids’ fashion brand, Hopscotch to strengthen its kids’ fashion segment.
  • A major collaboration was with the Indian Institute of Management, Sambalpur, with an aim to support and promote small businesses.

The Challenges faced by Flipkart

In order to process the products from thousands of sellers, maintain inventory and ensure timely delivery, a good supply chain and logistics network is the biggest challenge and reverse logistics is still a major issue for the company as more than 15% of shipments are returned by customers for a variety of reasons which bring huge losses to the company.

Cash On Delivery Issues creates a burden on e-commerce firms such as Flipkart. Many customers return the product without paying the amount and the company ends up losing all the money spent on procuring, storing and shipping the product.  Managing a massive number of sellers on a platform is the biggest task for the company.

Flipkart – Competitors

Flipkart India competes primarily with Amazon’s Indian subsidiary

Here are some of Flipkart’s competitors in the industry:

  • Etsy

  • Amazon

  • eBay

  • Alibaba

  • Myntra

  • Paytm

  • Snapdeal

Summary

In this article, we have mentioned the success story of e-commerce giant Flipkart,  which was recited by young enthusiastic entrepreneurs for many upcoming years.

Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce firm based in India  which is owned by Indian software engineers, Sachin and Binny Bansal who witnessed the changing dynamics of technology and saw the value of E-commerce ventures in the country.

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Notsize0: Redefining the definition of plus-size fashion

 Somwya tells us it takes one reason to find purpose to do something.”

She  is a passionate fashion designer, talented and creative personality with a welcoming heart who decided to be in this field for a reason. Somwya just launched her fashion brand  for Plus-size people to redefine plus-size clothing in most fashionable ways.To know more about her entrepreneurial journey and launch let’s read further.

Being a plus-size herself she had faced a lot of difficulties in choosing clothes that fitted her and society’s view. All these could not break her spirit, though there were times she was left disappointed. But her hunger for creating value for all individuals like her, was much higher than the obstacles she was facing. Thus, on  17 October 2020  her journey took a new step.

She launched her brand ‘Notsize0’ website Virtually, to make this launch a grand success guest from different fields joined her. The main guest for the launch was a Celebrity Actor Delnaaz Irani. She shared her strong and insightful opinions for the same and supported Somwya enthusiastically. 

Many respected personalities from different segments joined the launch to support Somwya in full-force. Mr. Hardeep Arora (Fashion choreographer and Founder of Maven Ms. Plus Size India), Dr. Satnam Deucchakar (Co-Founder of Deucchakar Group UK), Seema Gumber (Boss Lady, Zee TV fame from Dilli Darlings and Director of Star Buzzz Events), Pallavi Agarwal (Plussize Model, Dancer, and Entrepreneur), Anu Singh Bagal (CEO & Managing Director at AB Consulting and Founder of Le Amanah), Sonal Mahendru (Plussize Model and Influencer), Chetna Chauhan (Fashion Model, Actor, and Body positivity Influencer), and Sushmita Godayal (Plussize Model, Influencer, Actor and Writer).

Somwya is coming up with her beautiful, elegant, and classy designs that help you to stand out from the crowd. Her definition of plus size is different from the existing definition in the market. “For her, plus size is not being fat and chubby, it’s about having an abnormal fat in your body at some point.”  She says everyone has one part of the body that has major fat and to help them to be confident in their shape and size, she has come up with a brand that helps them to dress up most fashionably. 

The uniqueness of Somwya’s work is that along with designing plus-size clothes she also introduces grooming sessions to help individuals to accept themselves just the way they are and understand what is their body type and how it works. 

She has a team of beautiful and talented models Dr. Nancy Pathak, Sakshi, Jeesha Chowdhury, Anamika, who are playing a major role in changing the definition of plus-size and encouraging people to accept themselves just the way they are. 

Startups like “NotSize0” is a positive step against the social stigma around overweight people.




This Woman Entrepreneur led the way for change in Footwear

Being a graphic designer and commercial artist Trishla dabbled in hair accessories for kids but was always obsessed with footwear and challenged why it wasn’t creative and colorful.

It didn’t deter her that she was not from the footwear background and wanted to create a beautiful pair of footwear which would stand out and attract customers but the problem was how to explain it to the artisans who are used to working traditionally and cannot work without having a sample for reference.

Thus began Trishla’s journey in the dusty lanes of Kurla in distant suburbs of Mumbai where she had to spend thankless evenings struggling with the artisans and explaining her concept of the ‘colorful and creative’ sandals she had in her mind.

She was lucky to find help from local people which somehow was the glimmer of hope for her to develop world-class footwear in India which is used to importing most of its footwear requirement from China and the rest of it is locally manufactured but seldom focusing on quality and finish.

Trishla says that her first breakthrough “when she was able to figure out how to print her designs directly on flip flops but on testing realized that the print wouldn’t stay on the flip flop once it was put to use.”

This led her to the learning that printing on the fabric would be the next best thing to do and she was able to make printed flip flops which looked cute but got a rude shock when she went to a college festival where the students got attracted to the prints but didn’t find it worth the premium for the product.

She and her team went back to the drawing board and in the process of research, Trishla discovered cork which originated from a cork oak tree and one of the best materials for the feet.

So the printing technology was applied to cork footbed in the form of an insole and the first pair of cork footbed sandals was launched by Colour Me Mad at a lifestyle exhibition in Mumbai which was an instant success and Trishla was sold out to her surprise.

Having tasted blood, Trishla started doing exhibitions across India and got resounding success with customers queuing up to buy her cork sandals which not only looked good but provided instant comfort to the ladies who bought it.

To take her journey forward she decided to venture overseas with the help of Govt. of India which sponsored her travel to Milan, the fashion capital of the world which she was excited about and nervous also as this was her first attempt to exhibit her cork sandals outside India at a show called La Artigano which attracted one million customers.

Trishla arrived in the chilling winters of Milan in December and when she visited the venue a day before the exhibition she got goosebumps as the venue was huge with country pavilions all around and Indian pavilion comprised of cheap Xmas gifts starting at as low as Euro 1.

She had initially priced her sandals at Euro 40 to Euro 60 and seeing the price points at which other stuff was selling and the wrong weather in which she landed, she crashed her prices at Euro 15 to 20 but was unable to sell the stuff and had to dump the remaining stock in Milan as getting the stock back to India would be a major hassle due to customs duty hassle.

This was a temporary setback for her but she took the next step and hired a PR agency to reach out to Bollywood celebrities and generate more visibility for the brand. This initiative immediately paid off and several Bollywood celebrities started unboxing the footwear and were spotted wearing them at airports and casual outings.

The real highlight was when the fashionista of Bollywood, Sonam Kapoor unboxed CMM sandals on her Instagram page and it let to a deluge of orders on her website which led to the crashing of the website and they had to take orders on Instagram to handle the surge in demand.

This led to a move to retail and selling in stores across India but soon they realized that they were unable to manage the complexity of retail operations and the resultant issue of unsold inventory.

The setback in retail along with the feedback from investors made Trishla and the team realize that their footwear has broad targeting and it needs to be positioned clearly for a target audience.

This led to self-reflection which made Trishla realize that most of her customers were patients which made her pivot to medical footwear and provide complete foot care solutions.

 




This startup innovating new concepts in Apparels

Experience of a flourishing history of the family business into retail textile, Pushpak gained knowledge of this field & thus his interest to bring innovation in apparel started. During the final year of the textile engineering diploma, he spent days experimenting and exploring new prospects in the garment fashion industry. He succeeded in several of his experiments that helped him to understand his concepts that are new in the market. 

Post his education, he passionately portrayed all his concepts with his brothers Bhavesh & Vineet. Together they found that his idea of concept-based apparels has the potential to fill the gap in the market for such products. Thus, the idea behind starting this venture began with the “Vision of 3” to become the most unique brand in the apparel and accessories industry. Also, to make people accept new concepts in garments and customers should be happy displaying their products to family and friends.

Vineet says that “At the beginning of any startup it is very crucial to generate a regular source of income and get more clients, and the same was for them. Hence, we decided to enter the B2B market before entering B2C, as it requires a huge amount of capital to run B2C.”

Adding to this he said, “They focused on dealing with customized corporate orders generated by references and leads. There were many ebbs and flows during this journey but all these struggles taught them the different aspects of the business.” 

No doubt their idea of concept-based apparels was unique but to reach the mass audience digital platform visibility is vital. Somewhere in between, they found that vision of 3 was not an ideal brand name for their concept-based products. Hence, after brainstorming for days they came up with the new label “MUFFYNN”.

“We associate Muffynn with our concepts. Like there are many varieties of muffin with different flavors and colors. We aim to create different concept-based products for our Muffs (a term created for our customers). And to position our brand in the competitive market, this year we launched our website to make orders easy for our customers. ” says Bhavesh. 

Muffynn is based on exploiting the unique concepts of Technical textiles on various products, mainly apparel and thus making them SMART or INTELLIGENT. These smart textiles can not only sense environmental changes, but can automatically respond to their surroundings such as thermal, chemical, or mechanical changes. It’s an extraordinary concept in the Indian market and loved by many who desire some changes in their everyday wear to stand out.

Their concepts based products include: photochromic (sun activated), sweat-activated, color bleeding, stain repellent, fragrance finish, etc. on main apparels accompanied with umbrellas, mugs, phone covers, and other accessories. People love wearing t-shirts, but the colors, prints, and the finish make it appealing and relishing. 

A year back they have started and today at a stage where they are aggressively selling through websites & offline via references, exhibitions, and events. One thing common everywhere was the awe and attention that they have received. Their corporate leg was also growing fast as they worked for Morgan Stanley, Chaturvedi & Shah, Purohit Holidays (Lonavala), RVG Foundation, etc.

Along with these plans they are also planning to open ‘Muffynn’ stores in the future and will get into exports which have huge potential for their unique products. Also, for corporates, they are trying to add novelty to their needs by applying their concepts to regular merchandise. For example: – Think of a Company Logo that changes color in sunlight at an outdoor event or Tshirts that changes color under the sunlight or adding fragrance to the cloth that helps you to feel fresh for the entire day. Apart from this, they are also experimenting with these ideas on phone covers, mugs, umbrellas, and other accessories.

“The textile industry will witness many innovations in the garment sector. New functionalities are added in the same product which increases the product’s utility and is believed to be widely accepted as the change.”  Pushpak says.

They believe that in the post-COVID-19 world there will be a huge potential for anti-microbial fabric products like antimicrobial bed sheets, pillow covers for the hotel industry. Also, a lot of scope for fragrance finish fabric products. Change is indeed the only thing constant, but as Mahatma Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in this world. For three of them, Introspection has been a guide to keep working tirelessly for their vision and create something of their own.