#CEO Of Urbanclap

[navdeep-arora]

ceo of urbanclap

[monicasharmalove]

After Moglix, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy bets big on UrbanClap

Company News

Flipkart Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kalyan Krishnamurthy has put Rs 1.6 crore in UrbanClap, the Gurugram-based home services start-up, company filings sourced from business intelligence platform paper.vc showed.

Krishnamurthy, a former Tiger Global top executive, will also act as an advisor to UrbanClap, a source with direct knowledge of the development said.

In March, Krishnamurthy had invested in B2B e-commerce firm Moglix in a similar fashion. It is not immediately clear whether the investments are a precursor to potential business partnerships between Flipkart and either of Krishnamurthy’s investee companies, but the new deal lays bare his strategy to back companies with a proven e-commerce track records.

UrbanClap declined to comments for the story while Krishnamurthy could not be immediately reached for his comments.

Company filings dated April 5 showed, Krishnamurthy was allotted 310 equity shares in Urbanclap Technologies India for Rs 51,551 apiece. The investment is part of the firm’s $50 million series D round that closed in November, according to the source cited above. The said round was led by Steadview Capital and Vy Capital.

“We believe that UrbanClap is likely to raise a massively large round at a premium equal to or higher than the 51K that Kalyan paid," said Vivek Durai, founder of paper.vc. “UrbanClap is in a small tier of venture-backed start-ups that have displayed conventionally great financial performance.

FY18 numbers show a 14% reduction in losses and a 225% increase in revenue. There is no reason to believe that graph will not continue into 2019.”...Read More

[inventivaindia]

UrbanClap, India’s largest home services startup, raises $50M

UrbanClap, India’s largest home services startup, raises $50M

UrbanClap, a four-year-old startup that offers home services across India, has closed a $50 million Series D round for expansion.

The round was led by Steadview Capital, a hedge fund with more than $1 billion under management, and existing investor Vy Capital. It takes UrbanClap to $110 million raised to date, according to data from Crunchbase.

Via its platform, UrbanClap matches service people,…

[thestartupboard]

21 Most Popular Angel Investors in India For Startups

When you've lost money from friends and family, venture capital funding can seem like a pipe dream. When you're in the early stages of a business, angel investments can be a lifesaver. 

The following are the most active Indian angels:-

#1. Sanjay Mehta 

Sanjay Mehta belongs to the Indian Angel Network, Venture Nursery, and Mumbai Angel Network organisations. He has invested in over 100 firms, including Wow! Momos, Box8, Loginext, and OYO, where he achieved a 280-fold return on investment when he exited.

#2.  Sandeep Tandon

Sandeep Tandon co-founded Accelyst Solutions Pvt. Ltd in 2010 and has served as its Chief Business Officer since 2015. In 2017, he made over 23 investments and had three exits. In addition to being a Harvard alumnus, he is also the co-founder of FreeCharge. Internet services, fintech, healthcare, and education are some of his key investing areas. Razorpay, Unacademy, Ziploan, Pocket Aces, and Tablehero are some of his significant ventures.

#3. Kunal Bahl

Kunal Bahl, co-founder and CEO of Jasper, is passionate about operations and keeping an eye on market developments. He has invested in over 60 businesses and has had five exits to date. Ola, Bira 91, Snapdeal, UrbanClap, RazorPay, and Rapido are some of his significant investments. He put $275,000 into Wobb and $16.6 million into Geniebook in 2021.

Read Full Blog On :- Top 21 Angle investors in India

[un-enfant-immature]

UrbanClap, India’s largest home services startup, raises $75M

UrbanClap, a marketplace for freelance labor in India and UAE, has raised $75 million to expand its business.

The Series E round for the four-and-half-year-old India-based startup was led Tiger Global. Existing investors Steadview Capital, which led the startup’s Series D round, and Vy Capital also participated in the round. The startup has raised about $185 million to date, according to Crunchbase.

The financing round was split into two parts — a primary round which resulted in a share subscription by the aforementioned investors and a secondary share sale by some of its early backers, the startup said in a brief statement.

Through its platform, UrbanClap matches service people such as cleaners, repair staff and beauticians with customers across 10 cities in India and Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The startup supports 20,000 “micro-franchisees” (service professionals) with around 450,000 transactions taking place each month, cofounder and CEO Abhiraj Bhal told TechCrunch.

Bhal said that UrbanClap helps offline service workers in India, who have traditionally relied on getting work through middleman such as some store or word of mouth networks, to find more work. And they earn more, too. UrbanClap offers a more direct model, with workers keeping 80% of the cost of their jobs. That, Bhal said, means workers can earn multiples more and manage their own working hours.

“The UrbanClap model really allows them to become service entrepreneurs. Their earnings will shoot up two or three-fold, and it isn’t uncommon to see it rise as much as 8X — it’s a life-changing experience,” he said. Average value of a service is between $17 to $22, according to the company.

In recent years, UrbanClap has also began offering training, credit, and basic banking services to better support the service workers on its platform. On its website, UrbanClap claims to offer 73 services — including kitchen cleaning, hairdressing, and yoga training. It says it has served 3 million customers.

Bhal said that around 20-25% of applicants are accepted into the platform, that’s a decision based on in-person meetings, background and criminal checks, as well as a “skills” test. Workers are encouraged to work exclusively — though it isn’t a requirement — and they wear UrbanClap outfits and represent the brand with customers.

[nilnews4]

Amitabh Kant discusses transportation of essential goods with e-commerce, logistics firms

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Wednesday interacted with handful of e-commerce and logistics companies to understand how their expertise can be put to use to ensure steady supply of essential commodities and services at a time when the nationwide lockdown has been extended to May 3.

Abhiraj Bahl of UrbanClap, Pradeep Parmaweswaram of Uber India, Punnet Bhirani of Olawere the key participants…

[vsplusonline]

The art and science behind rebranding and renaming a brand

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/the-art-and-science-behind-rebranding-and-renaming-a-brand/

The art and science behind rebranding and renaming a brand

What do Google, Best Buy, Nike, Netflix, Accenture, and Apple Inc. have in common? The answer: All these companies had a different name when they were founded. Google’s earliest name was BackRub. Sound of Music became Best Buy. Blue Ribbon Sports was rechristened as Nike. Accenture was called Arthur Andersen. Apple Inc. was Apple Computers. It is, in fact, quite common for established companies to have their names changed for reasons varying from business expansion and mergers and acquisitions to new identity and brand crises.

Last month, Indian home services startup, UrbanClap became Urban Company. The move came after the brand expanded its international presence and forayed into new services. “It was imperative to have a name which resonates with consumers worldwide as well as that which encapsulates the bouquet of home services we do,” says Pratik Mukherjee, associate VP – marketing, Urban Company.

We asked Vani Gupta Dandia, founder, CherryPeachPlum Growth Partners and a former marketing director of PepsiCo India, what she thinks of this latest renaming exercise. Urban Company, she thinks, sounds ‘generic’, but there’s an advantage to changing a company’s name in a relatively early stage. Dandia says, “Nobody really knew the story behind the name UrbanClap. With the new name change, the brand could create a more meaningful story that is easier to understand and fit in a global cultural context.”

Interestingly, the company is not planning to spend any additional marketing monies to promote the new brand name. Mukherjee says, “It will be a gradual transition over the next few months leveraging existing marketing calendar and touchpoints.” Brand names cannot be changed in isolation, they need a build-up and a robust communication plan in order, think experts. According to Ashita Aggarwal, marketing professor SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, when a company changes its identity, building awareness is critical because “for consumers ‘out of mind’ is out of sight’.”

While UrbanClap and WeWork changed identities, Thomas Cook India Ltd (TCIL) shelled out approximately Rs 14 crore to acquire brand rights of the iconic UK travel giant Thomas Cook Plc that went bankrupt last year leaving customers stranded. At first, the Indian entity mulled a renaming after being linked to the UK company that it had no relation to. TCIL was previously contracted to pay an annual brand licence fee of Rs. 2 crore to TCUK until 2024 for usage of the brand. Eventually, management decided against a name change to distance itself from the bankrupt entity. In a news report, Madhavan Menon, managing director, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, said, “I am delighted that we have been able to sign an agreement to acquire the rights to the iconic Thomas Cook brand across India, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka. The brand is one of the most respected names in the travel services space and one that we at Thomas Cook India have operated uninterrupted for 138 years since 1881.” The estimated cost of a new identity and rebranding was around Rs 40-50 crore.

History Files Historically, some successful cases of rebranding to signal expansion and move away from out-of-date attributes include Indian multinational corporation Wipro. The company’s name changed a few times – first from Western India Vegetable Products Limited to Wipro Products Limited. In the early 1980s, it went from Wipro Products Limited to Wipro Limited. Each time the change was created around the brand’s purpose of expanding its offerings.

When Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) was in the process to change its name, many thought it would be difficult for the company to navigate the identity associated with the ‘Hindustan’ prefix. HLL was adopted in 1956, consequent to the amalgamation of Hindustan Vanaspati Manufacturing Company Limited and Lever Brothers India Limited.

It took three years and long deliberations with employees, consumers, and other stakeholders to arrive at Hindustan Unilever, a new identity after 51 years as HLL. Harish Manwani, who was chairman, HLL and president, Unilever Asia Amet, at the time, said, “The name change is a significant milestone. It retains the company’s continued commitment towards its local roots while leveraging the global scale and reputation of Unilever with its consumers and other stakeholders in India.”

Two tips to take into account if one’s mulling a renaming exercise in today’s world Name games in a Voice world: As more consumers move to voice-activated commands, it’s best to have clear and easy to pronounce names. Interestingly, Apple’s virtual assistant’s name ‘Siri’ is also slang for “penis” in Georgia (the country) and in Japanese, it is a term for “buttocks”. That brings us to the next top tip.

In an increasingly borderless consumer world, brands have to pay more attention to language and cultural differences. ‘Irish Mist’ is a great name for a whisky, just not in Germany where ‘mist’ means manure. Nokia’s once popular phone Lumia translates to Spanish slang for prostitute.

Fun Fact: A mash-up of the words for “world” (monde) and “delicious” (delez) in Latin led to Mondelez, the global foods major that owns global snack and food brands of Cadbury and Kraft Foods Inc. The word was coined by two Kraft employees after the company held an in-house naming contest that got about 1,700 entries. But the new name didn’t go down too well initially. One investor thought it sounds like a disease. Experts also pointed to the fact that the word sounds like a Russian word for a sexual act. The company press note announcing the change came with a pronunciation guide – it is “pronounced mohn-dah-LEEZ.”

Will it work? Last year, WeWork, the startup operating co-working spaces in more than 25 countries, was rebranded to The We Company. The new name was meant to better reflect the ambitions of ousted CEO Adam Neumann to expand the company “to encompass all aspects of people’s lives, in both physical and digital worlds,” as per reports. But the rebranding also came a day after reports surfaced that WeWork would not receive an expected $16 billion investment from SoftBank, the company’s biggest investor. 2019 turned into a nightmare year for WeWork after an attempt to go public led to several tumultuous months as concerns over its falling valuation, corporate governance, and Neuman’s actions kept mounting. We suppose WeWork will need a lot more than a mere renaming ceremony to change its fate.

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[thetechmedia1]

UrbanClap is now ‘Urban Company’, announces six new service-specific sub brands

In an announcement which had quite a lot of social media hype preceding it, UrbanClap has today announced a massive re-branding exercise. The home services upstart has now become ‘Urban Company’, with as many as six sub-brands under the umbrella brand.

Under the newly announced ‘Urban Company’ umbrella brand, the company will now run six sector-specific verticals. The home beauty/grooming division gets 3 brands of its own. There is a women-focused brand Urban Beauty and a male grooming brand called Urban Grooming. One of erstwhile UrbanClap’s most popular services, the home spa treatments, get a brand of their own under ‘Urban Spa’. Home improvements and repairs will come under the Urban Cleaning, Urban Repairs, Urban Painting sub-brands. The upstart also announced that Urban Company will also offer fitness and yoga at home and pest control and extermination services.

So why this rebranding? The company states a couple of reason. One, it feels that consumers, specially the new ones, can easily relate to the service they wish to explore. “This repositioning helps our customers rediscover use cases on the platform that they may have earlier missed and drive cross-category repeats,” said Abhiraj Bhal, CEO, Urban Company. “Eventually the thesis is that each of these sub-brands over a period of time have their own identity, microsites or apps”, adds Bhal.

The other reason is UrbanClap Urban Company’s aggressive global expansion in the past two years. In light of the same, the brand was looking at a name that can portray its global presence. The company has expanded its presence to UAE, Australia and more recently in Singapore.

Urban Company will continue to operate as a master app, with the sub-brands eventually getting their own separate apps.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2U89vAX via IFTTT

[unicommerce11]

Read what Abhiraj Bhal, CEO of UrbanClap said after #UrbanClap partnered up with Unicommerce to strengthen their Ecommerce operations Read the full story here https://t.co/asT1c71GvB #Unicommerce #SellmorewithUnicommerce https://t.co/F8HGY6kZfy

Read what Abhiraj Bhal, CEO of UrbanClap said after #UrbanClap partnered up with Unicommerce to strengthen their Ecommerce operations Read the full story here https://t.co/asT1c71GvB#Unicommerce #SellmorewithUnicommerce pic.twitter.com/F8HGY6kZfy

— Unicommerce (@Unicommerce1) December 20, 2019

from Twitter https://twitter.com/Unicommerce1 December 20, 2019 at 06:44PM via IFTTT

[mybrandbook-ict-industry]

After investing in UrbanClap, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Flipkart Group's CEO is systematically investing in Unacademy, an educati

[inventivaindia]

UrbanClap's Abhiraj Bhal digs deep on the process of fundraising

UrbanClap’s Abhiraj Bhal digs deep on the process of fundraising

In the last podcast with Abhinav Chaturvedi, we discussed the key aspects of picking the right investor and also the actual process of fundraising.

Today, we are looking at the same topic from an entrepreneur’s perspective. We are chatting with Abhiraj Bhal, the co-founder and CEO of UrbanClap, a path-breaking company in the home services space which has grown from zero to over 300,000…

[toomanysinks]

Acko, a digital insurance provider in India, raises another $65M at a $300M valuation

Acko — a startup out of India that has taken on the country’s antiquated insurance industry with a digital-first product for drivers and others in transportation-related scenarios (for example, cancelled ticket insurance) — has raised more funding as it passes 20 million customers on its books. The company has closed a Series C of $65 million from a list of investors that includes not just the co-founder and former CEO of Flipkart, but also its arch-rival, Amazon — speaking to the opportunity in the market as a number of players zero in on services

Binny Bansal, who had been the CEO until November of the e-commerce giant, and Amazon are joined in the round by another strategic investor, Intact Ventures Inc., the corporate venture arm of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer; along with RPS Ventures (the VC led by Kabir Misra, ex-managing partner at Softbank), Accel, SAIF and TechPro Ventures. Amazon had also led the company’s previous round of funding, a $12 million investment, last year.

Acko now has raised $107 million, and while it is not discussing valuation, a reliable source close to the company said that it is now in the region of $300 million.

Varun Dua, the CEO and founder, had spent 10 years in the insurance industry before founding Acko, most recently building a site aggregating different insurer’s quotes called Coverfox. But when it comes to the companies building the products themselves, he believes that there has been very little innovation in the past 30 years.

Acko has built its business on two fronts up to now. A direct to consumer offering sells automotive insurance both for people insuring for themselves, a business that has now insured some 200,000 cars. It also works with third parties to provide what we described to me as “microinsurance” products around other companies’ services. For example, ticket cancellation insurance, rider protection, and driver protection for about 15 companies at the moment, including Ola, redBus, Zomato, UrbanClap and Amazon.

Amazon may appear a little out of left field in the at list, but Dua said that it’s because of trends specific to the Indian market that the two work together. First, it offers vehicle insurance alongside cars that are sold on the Amazon platform. But beyond that there is the opportunity to build services for what he calls “ecosystem” players in the market, those who provide a wide array of different services, and links to services, to consumers, leveraging their data on consumers to help shape those offers.

“We continue to be impressed by Acko’s focus on data-led innovations in the insurance sector that are solving for important customer needs in this sector. We are always excited to work with companies like Acko that are led by missionary founders and management teams and we remain committed to investing in technology-backed innovations that address real customer problems,” said Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Head, Amazon India, in a statement on the investment.

While Bansal is recently no longer in an executive role at Flipkart, it’s notable that he is getting involved with Acko at a time when Dua says he would like to be working more with the company, which is also developing an array of services beyond the basic selling of goods to service India’s rapidly growing base on online consumers.

“Technology-led insurance is expected to play a significant role in growth of the underpenetrated insurance sector in India,” said Bansal. “Acko is the pioneer of digital-native insurance and I am delighted to partner in its exciting growth journey.”

Just as Acko partners with companies to provide its insurance, it’s also working with an increasing array of insurers who are looking for better ways to tap consumers in the market.

“We are thrilled to support Acko in its mission to become the leading digital insurer in India.  In addition to their innovative direct-to-consumer strategy, Varun and his team have taken a creative approach by developing impactful distribution partnerships that allow millions of customers to protect assets that are meaningful to them,” said Karim Hirji, Senior Vice-President of Intact Ventures. “We are excited to offer our expertise and partner with a company that shares our vision of creating simple and transparent new-age customer centric insurance products.”

Earlier today, I posted a story about Drivezy and how it was raising a lot of money to double down on building its car-sharing network out of India. One of the gaps in the market for it is that only seven percent of Indians actually own vehicles. Interestingly, that’s a number that Dua thinks is a great start.

“Seven percent is still very large in India given the size of the population,” he said. “It’s the fourth largest auto market in the world, and the auto insurance space is likely to be worth $10 billion usd in the next several years. That’s big size for a company like us.”

  source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/13/acko-a-digital-insurance-provider-in-india-raises-another-65m-at-a-300m-valuation/

[fmservers]

Acko, a digital insurance provider in India, raises another $65M at a $300M valuation

Acko — a startup out of India that has taken on the country’s antiquated insurance industry with a digital-first product for drivers and others in transportation-related scenarios (for example, cancelled ticket insurance) — has raised more funding as it passes 20 million customers on its books. The company has closed a Series C of $65 million from a list of investors that includes not just the co-founder and former CEO of Flipkart, but also its arch-rival, Amazon — speaking to the opportunity in the market as a number of players zero in on services

Binny Bansal, who had been the CEO until November of the e-commerce giant, and Amazon are joined in the round by another strategic investor, Intact Ventures Inc., the corporate venture arm of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer; along with RPS Ventures (the VC led by Kabir Misra, ex-managing partner at Softbank), Accel, SAIF and TechPro Ventures. Amazon had also led the company’s previous round of funding, a $12 million investment, last year.

Acko now has raised $107 million, and while it is not discussing valuation, a reliable source close to the company said that it is now in the region of $300 million.

Varun Dua, the CEO and founder, had spent 10 years in the insurance industry before founding Acko, most recently building a site aggregating different insurer’s quotes called Coverfox. But when it comes to the companies building the products themselves, he believes that there has been very little innovation in the past 30 years.

Acko has built its business on two fronts up to now. A direct to consumer offering sells automotive insurance both for people insuring for themselves, a business that has now insured some 200,000 cars. It also works with third parties to provide what we described to me as “microinsurance” products around other companies’ services. For example, ticket cancellation insurance, rider protection, and driver protection for about 15 companies at the moment, including Ola, redBus, Zomato, UrbanClap and Amazon.

Amazon may appear a little out of left field in the at list, but Dua said that it’s because of trends specific to the Indian market that the two work together. First, it offers vehicle insurance alongside cars that are sold on the Amazon platform. But beyond that there is the opportunity to build services for what he calls “ecosystem” players in the market, those who provide a wide array of different services, and links to services, to consumers, leveraging their data on consumers to help shape those offers.

“We continue to be impressed by Acko’s focus on data-led innovations in the insurance sector that are solving for important customer needs in this sector. We are always excited to work with companies like Acko that are led by missionary founders and management teams and we remain committed to investing in technology-backed innovations that address real customer problems,” said Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Head, Amazon India, in a statement on the investment.

While Bansal is recently no longer in an executive role at Flipkart, it’s notable that he is getting involved with Acko at a time when Dua says he would like to be working more with the company, which is also developing an array of services beyond the basic selling of goods to service India’s rapidly growing base on online consumers.

“Technology-led insurance is expected to play a significant role in growth of the underpenetrated insurance sector in India,” said Bansal. “Acko is the pioneer of digital-native insurance and I am delighted to partner in its exciting growth journey.”

Just as Acko partners with companies to provide its insurance, it’s also working with an increasing array of insurers who are looking for better ways to tap consumers in the market.

“We are thrilled to support Acko in its mission to become the leading digital insurer in India.  In addition to their innovative direct-to-consumer strategy, Varun and his team have taken a creative approach by developing impactful distribution partnerships that allow millions of customers to protect assets that are meaningful to them,” said Karim Hirji, Senior Vice-President of Intact Ventures. “We are excited to offer our expertise and partner with a company that shares our vision of creating simple and transparent new-age customer centric insurance products.”

Earlier today, I posted a story about Drivezy and how it was raising a lot of money to double down on building its car-sharing network out of India. One of the gaps in the market for it is that only seven percent of Indians actually own vehicles. Interestingly, that’s a number that Dua thinks is a great start.

“Seven percent is still very large in India given the size of the population,” he said. “It’s the fourth largest auto market in the world, and the auto insurance space is likely to be worth $10 billion usd in the next several years. That’s big size for a company like us.”

  Via Ingrid Lunden https://techcrunch.com

[un-enfant-immature]

Acko, a digital insurance provider in India, raises another $65M at a $300M valuation

Acko — a startup out of India that has taken on the country’s antiquated insurance industry with a digital-first product for drivers and others in transportation-related scenarios (for example, cancelled ticket insurance) — has raised more funding as it passes 20 million customers on its books. The company has closed a Series C of $65 million from a list of investors that includes not just the co-founder and former CEO of Flipkart, but also its arch-rival, Amazon — speaking to the opportunity in the market as a number of players zero in on services

Binny Bansal, who had been the CEO until November of the e-commerce giant, and Amazon are joined in the round by another strategic investor, Intact Ventures Inc., the corporate venture arm of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer; along with RPS Ventures (the VC led by Kabir Misra, ex-managing partner at Softbank), Accel, SAIF and TechPro Ventures. Amazon had also led the company’s previous round of funding, a $12 million investment, last year.

Acko now has raised $107 million, and while it is not discussing valuation, a reliable source close to the company said that it is now in the region of $300 million.

Varun Dua, the CEO and founder, had spent 10 years in the insurance industry before founding Acko, most recently building a site aggregating different insurer’s quotes called Coverfox. But when it comes to the companies building the products themselves, he believes that there has been very little innovation in the past 30 years.

Acko has built its business on two fronts up to now. A direct to consumer offering sells automotive insurance both for people insuring for themselves, a business that has now insured some 200,000 cars. It also works with third parties to provide what we described to me as “microinsurance” products around other companies’ services. For example, ticket cancellation insurance, rider protection, and driver protection for about 15 companies at the moment, including Ola, redBus, Zomato, UrbanClap and Amazon.

Amazon may appear a little out of left field in the at list, but Dua said that it’s because of trends specific to the Indian market that the two work together. First, it offers vehicle insurance alongside cars that are sold on the Amazon platform. But beyond that there is the opportunity to build services for what he calls “ecosystem” players in the market, those who provide a wide array of different services, and links to services, to consumers, leveraging their data on consumers to help shape those offers.

“We continue to be impressed by Acko’s focus on data-led innovations in the insurance sector that are solving for important customer needs in this sector. We are always excited to work with companies like Acko that are led by missionary founders and management teams and we remain committed to investing in technology-backed innovations that address real customer problems,” said Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Head, Amazon India, in a statement on the investment.

While Bansal is recently no longer in an executive role at Flipkart, it’s notable that he is getting involved with Acko at a time when Dua says he would like to be working more with the company, which is also developing an array of services beyond the basic selling of goods to service India’s rapidly growing base on online consumers.

“Technology-led insurance is expected to play a significant role in growth of the underpenetrated insurance sector in India,” said Bansal. “Acko is the pioneer of digital-native insurance and I am delighted to partner in its exciting growth journey.”

Just as Acko partners with companies to provide its insurance, it’s also working with an increasing array of insurers who are looking for better ways to tap consumers in the market.

“We are thrilled to support Acko in its mission to become the leading digital insurer in India.  In addition to their innovative direct-to-consumer strategy, Varun and his team have taken a creative approach by developing impactful distribution partnerships that allow millions of customers to protect assets that are meaningful to them,” said Karim Hirji, Senior Vice-President of Intact Ventures. “We are excited to offer our expertise and partner with a company that shares our vision of creating simple and transparent new-age customer centric insurance products.”

Earlier today, I posted a story about Drivezy and how it was raising a lot of money to double down on building its car-sharing network out of India. One of the gaps in the market for it is that only seven percent of Indians actually own vehicles. Interestingly, that’s a number that Dua thinks is a great start.

“Seven percent is still very large in India given the size of the population,” he said. “It’s the fourth largest auto market in the world, and the auto insurance space is likely to be worth $10 billion usd in the next several years. That’s big size for a company like us.”

[cryptswahili]

2018 in Review: The Best Of Inc42

This year we at Inc42 published over 4,000 stories, with a  mix of news, features, startup stories and special editions about the Indian startup ecosystem. Looking back at the biggest stories of the past year, the recurring observation we made was the sudden maturity that startup founders and investors were showing. After the blind optimism of 2015,  the funding winter of 2016, and the return to form in 2017; in 2018 the startup ecosystem replaced gung-ho enthusiasm with a carefully thought-out strategy.

While we continued to serve the startup news and deep-dive features, we also experimented with some new formats. We also refreshed the look of the website this year.

In January we started the ‘Watchlist’ series, which was also the most read series in 2018. The series curated the most innovative and promising startups in various sectors such as AI, fintech, agritech, blockchain IoT and more are a must watch, and these startups are definitely going places. While we are going to come up with this 2019 soon, here are some of the watchlists you can read through! :

11 Indian IoT Startups To Watch Out For In 2018

12 Indian Agritech Startups To Watch Out For In 2018

11 Indian Healthtech Startups To Watch Out For In 2018

You can view the complete list of Startup Watchlist here.

After a successful run in 2017, we introduced ‘Moneyball’ column which throws the limelight on investors and the important role they play in shaping the startup ecosystem. This year we featured some of the most prolific investors such as:

Karan Mohla Of IDG who spoke on reaching the next 300 Mn smartphone users in India

Blume Ventures’ Sanjay Nath, who spoke on the spurt of Chinese and Japanese investment in India

Sanjay Swamy Of Prime Venture Partners, who said that digitalisation is leading to huge potential in verticals such as healthcare and education

If you have been a reader of Inc42, you know we are in love with data (DataLabs)and 2018 was no different. We crunched the numbers and broke down the data in our ‘What The Financials’ (which we introduced this year), focusing on the oft-ignored aspect of startups – their toplines and bottomlines. Here are top picks from the series:

BYJU’S Set to Achieve Profitability Target Of $83.3 Mn By 2022 With Flying Colours

With Positive FY18 Financials, Pepperfry Looks To Become Profitable In Next 4-6 Quarters

On-Demand Service Startups UrbanClap, Housejoy Finally Home In On Growth

The year 2018, was also about celebrating where the startup ecosystem has reached today! Our stories, our flagship report and our flagship event — The Ecosystem Summit reflected the same.

In November we held our flagship event — ‘The Ecosystem Summit’ which brought together unparalleled group of CEOs, founders, investors, luminaries, and all those who matter in the Indian startup ecosystem. The idea was to bring together all the stakeholders under one roof to foster collaboration, the exchange of ideas, and synergies to facilitate conversations to further globalise the work done by Indian startups and recognise their contribution to the community.

The Summit accompanied the launch of our flagship report — The State of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018 by  Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation; Hiro Mashito, Director, M&S Partners; TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of PE fund Aarin Capital; and Inc42 founders Vaibhav Vardhan and Pooja Sareen. In the report, we have filtered and encapsulated the essence of our years of expertise and insights on India’s startup and technology ecosystem with the goal of facilitating a deeper, perspective-driven understanding of the industry.

Here is a selection of some of the most insightful conversations and debates from the event:

How To Scale Up Your Startup Fast But Not Break Things

Japanese Investors Look Towards India As The Land Of Rising Startups

India’s Tech Entrepreneurs To Create A $10 Tn Economy By 2030, Says TV Mohandas Pai

Order The Report Now

Here’s a list of some of the most popular stories this year:

Startups’ Demand: CBDT Notification Not Enough, Angel Tax Must Be Exempted

Vivek Wadhwa On The Dark Side Of Technology, End Of Bitcoin And More

Here Is Fynd’s Pitch Deck That Made Google Invest In It

Snapdeal’s Offices Are A Reflection Of Its Shifting Fortunes: What Will Its New Office Bring?

Girish Mathrubootham, The ‘Thalaiva’ Of Indian SaaS, On The Making Of The Blockbuster Freshworks

To wrap things up, just like every year, we introduced “2018 in Review” series where we compiled the major developments in the Indian startup ecosystem and their impact on various stakeholders in 2018 — from entrepreneurs to investors. Find stories from this series here.

It has been an absolute pleasure telling the stories of some of India’s brightest entrepreneurs, big ideas and investments and the challenges they have faced and conquered,  From all of us at Inc42, many thanks and a happy new year. 

The post 2018 in Review: The Best Of Inc42 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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