10 Best Startups of the Year 2019 Asia

Paving the Way for Technological Growth: Startups / PG-08 January 2019 Asia Monthly Leadership Technology CEOs News Business Features CIOs 10SR 2019 StarBteustps o f t h e Y e a r ASIA Keith Tan, Chief Product Officer Neeraj Sundarajoo, CEO In The Spotlight Zeemart is Transforming the F&B Industry with Digital Disruption of the Supply Chain www.thesiliconreview.com

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EDITORIAL TEAM Sreshtha Banerjee: Editor-in-Chief Vishnu Kulkarni: Managing Editor Michelle Williams: Co-Managing Editor Editor’s Note CORRESPONDENTS Michelle Williams It’s quite fun to do the Avinash Nayak impossible! Harshajit Sarmah Javid Ali Idealization of a startup may sound easy, but development of the same is just next to impossible. ART DIRECTOR Building a multi-million dollar company within a Smriti Kumari couple of months simply isn’t the case for the majority of startup businesses. Even multi-billion dollar companies VISUALISERS which are ruling the business world today stories flew Mira Sengupta under the radar for several years before reaching their G. Sai Pradeep goal. Parnasree Gangopadhyay S. Saipriyadarshini So,how to build a successful startup? You have to be passionate, committed and willing to work for the long SALES & MARKETING Sathish Kumar haul. Many startups don’t fail. Rather, the entrepreneurs Preeti Kumari Prabir Biswas just tend to give up too soon. Set realistic goals for Kundan Kunwar Arun Kumar growth and development and take your startup journey Adhees Bhanja Deo Satrasala Kavya one step at a time. Understanding the market and Sunny P Choudhary Spandana openness to innovation might be the difference between Sita Mounica a failed startup and a very successful one. RELATIONSHIP MANAGER Entrepreneurs should always lookout for new Nabanita Dutta innovations and ideas in order to stand as a winner. crm@thesiliconreview.com They should constantly reinvent themselves and think of better ways to run a business and improvise on the ADVERTISING BUSINESS HEAD products and services offered by them. Done talking, John Allen, Project Head now let us take a look at what makes a successful startup. john@thesiliconreview.com Here we introduce you to The Silicon Review ‘10 Best Startups of the Year in Asia 2019.’ These Arjun Pandey, Project Coordinator successful entrepreneurs are confident and optimistic, arjun@thesiliconreview.com they are disciplined self-starters, and more over, they are open to any new ideas which cross their path. MANAGEMENT Pavan Kumar Kalla: Circulation Manager Success recognized to the fullest! pavan@thesiliconreview.com Best PUBLISHER Manish Pandey VISHNU VARDHAN KULKARNI, Managing Editor, QUERIES The Silicon Review sales@thesiliconreview.com editor@thesiliconreview.com editor@thesiliconreview.com GET IN TOUCH The Silicon Review Corporate Office: Silicon Review LLC, #3240 East State Street Ext Hamilton, NJ 08619 Sales: 510.400.4523 Development Office: Siliconreview Technology India Pvt. Ltd #32, 2nd floor, CMH Road, Indiranagar, 2nd Stage, Bangalore - 560038 PH: +91-7760351041 MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS To Subscribe with The Silicon Review and get 20% off on the Cover price Visit: www.thesiliconreview.com or Email us: subscription@thesiliconreview.com © Copyright Silicon Review LLC. All rights reserved reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Silicon Review LLC. Does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscript and photographs. Printed & Published by Manish Pandey on behalf of Siliconreview Technologies India Pvt Ltd at Printo Document Services Pvt Ltd. #1, Double Road, Indiranagar Second Stage, Bangalore-560038, India The Silicon Review’s circulation is audited and certified by BPA International (Audit Pending) (CIN:-U72200KA2014PTC075778) (RNI REG. NO. KARENG/2017/75691)



CONTENTS PG-10 Providing Easier Access to Good Health Is the Sole Mission of: CallHealth JANUARY 2019 | Volume - 3 | Issue - 1 PG-14 Hari Thalapalli, CEO PG-18 PG-26 Tailor Made Services to Suit Every Need: Wilson Financial Services PG-30 Anand Singh & Nilesh Choudhary, Founders PG-34 PG-38 In The Spotlight: Zeemart is Transforming the F&B Industry with PG-42 Digital Disruption of the Supply Chain PG-46 Neeraj Sundarajoo, CEO PG-50 From Raw Data to Insights, Holistics Has You Covered Vincent Woon, CEO Making Your Life and Business Better Than Expected: 2b Limitless Mick Todd, Founder Connecting Anyone and Anything to Decentralised Services: TenX Toby Hoenisch, Co-founder & CEO The Rulers in the Field of Digital Marketing: Ittisa Sneh, Founder & CEO An Interview with Dicky Ying, Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited Co-founder and CEO: ‘We are the Digital Coupon Expert in the Region’ Dicky Ying, Co-founder & CEO Crafting Intelligent Micro Conversations for Banks: ACTIVE.Ai Ravi Shankar, Co-founder & CEO Building a Future that is Accessible to All: Oriente Hubert Shio-Hsien Tai, CEO & Co-founder

Feature Articles CPOgVNEoR.:S2T2ORY / PG - 18 8 Paving the Way for Technological Growth: Startups Zeemart is Transforming 12 Redefining What Is Possible: Media.net the F&B Industry 24 How Nykaa Emerged as the Largest and the Most with Digital Loved Beauty Destination in India: A Success Story Disruption of the Supply 28 Popularizing E-Commerce in India: Flipkart Chain 32 Widening Valley of Death for Startups: Ways to Close the Gap From practicing and preaching Yoga to promoting 36 “Made in India”, Baba Ramdev transformed the FMCG Industry in India 40 Firms That Hit the Unicorn List In 2018 44 Lessons to Learn From Billion-Dollar Startups to Make It into the Elite List 48 Arrived with Scepticism, Left with Success: Dunzo Keith Tan Neeraj Sundarajoo Chief Product Officer CEO 52 Silicon Valley-born Start-up Culture Moves International

Paving the Way for Technological Any person familiar with room and grew to mammoth sizes. are often many times the size technological advances With the recent boom in the IT of their invested amount. would surely have heard of industry, there are a number the term “startups”. As the name of venture capitalists willing to Angel Investments probably is self-explanatory, a support technology startups with startup is nothing but a company large sums of money, and other When we look at large that has recently been launched, valuable resources like an office, corporations today, it is to be or started. Whenever we hear of a servers, website domain and understood that the founding large corporation, we often imagine so on. For those people that are members of the company had a sprawling headquarters with unaware, Venture Capitalists (VC) access to money in order to thousands of employees working in are professionals who assess an launch and run their show. While different shifts. idea brought forth by a budding some entrepreneurs risk it all entrepreneur and determine if it is by mortgaging their own house What most people fail to fathom investment worthy. If it is, then the or physical assets, some are is the that any large corporation VC will pour money and even extend willing to part with a portion of from any sector, whether it is a line of credit to the founders to their company’s ownership by telecommunications, software, help them grow their company. bringing onboard an angel investor. real estate, hospitality or even if Later on, as the company grows and Such investors funnel money it is from the entertainment and makes it big, the investment also and provide different forms of transportation sector, was once grows and when the company goes expertise, in return for a percentage started by a handful of individuals public, the investors can cash in of ownership of the company. with a common vision in a small their investment, with gains which Several angel investors have raked in billions of dollars when the 8 JANUARY 2019

Growth: Startups companies they had invested period of time, gaining all the any development. Furthermore, in went public and valued their knowledge and honing their as a person whose idea led to investments in billions. skill sets. the founding of a company, a wrong partnership will result One of the most famous names It goes without saying that a in founder losing the majority in angel investing includes Peter person who wants to launch stake in his company and Thiel, who provided the initial a company needs to know thereby, lose the power to make seed funding of $2,00,000 for everything about the industry all the important decisions. Facebook and whose investment which he is about to enter. is now valued at an amazing Knowledge of the industry is Venture capitalism is an $2 billion (an increase of over paramount and without it, the important part of entire tech 10,000 times). A startup may founders would have no idea startup ecosphere, providing still be placed at an extremely where they stand and what a nurturing breeding ground high valuation even before its kind of competition to expect for companies to be born and initial public offering (IPO). and how far to go. Maintaining to grow. The Silicon Valley in However, it yields little money the quality of the products California in the United States to its investors when compared and services is important, but of America is one such breeding to being a public corporation. it is also immensely helpful ground that has set the pace if one would know how his for innovations all around the The Vision behind competitors are placed in the globe. In addition to being a Startup market. This is especially true good for the overall economy, in the case of technological startups are directly responsible Any promising startup is products and services. Most for improving the lives of people founded with an idea. The idea successful businessmen agree from all walks of life around is what drives the founder to that every entrepreneur must be the globe with their constant take the bold step towards mindful of serious competition breakthroughs in technology. managing his own company. right around the corner and The idea, in this case, is nothing needs to work constantly to stay SR but a lack of something or a ahead of any competition. As requirement in the market that the business grows, this threat others have not yet been able keeps on growing and needs to identify or have not been constant attention. able to exploit. After identifying the opportunity, the person A common mistake that most behind the idea sets out to build emerging businessmen make is upon it and develop it into a to make partnerships with the flourishing business. Some of wrong people. Such working the most successful startups relationships can result in were founded by people who regular clashes amongst the have worked in the relevant core team and negatively affect industries for a considerable JANUARY 2019 9

Providing Easier Access to Good Health Is the Sole Mission of CallHealth CallHealth aims to deliver and brings them to the customer health insights, and enabling dramatic improvements as per his/her convenience. personalized care programs. in services leveraging Consulting a doctor, having current knowledge information diagnostic tests done, buying Simply stated, this platform and medical technologies for medicines, getting medical services not only assesses, customizes, integrated patient-centric new age like Nursing, Physiotherapy, and and recommends the best- healthcare. The traditional models more is now just a call or click fit healthcare plans but also of healthcare delivery struggle away. Even for visits to hospitals personalizes the progress across with challenges of a fragmented or imaging/diagnostic centers, prevention, wellness, care, and healthcare system. CallHealth is CallHealth provides facilitation cure. a new-age healthcare delivery services to make the experience that strings together the various easier and smoother. It synergizes and aids constituents of the healthcare collaboration between all role eco-system, bringing all healthcare It seamlessly blends the virtual players and institutions of the services to the doorstep of the and real world which essentially healthcare eco-system, making customer, anytime, anywhere. means that while customers/ them work in unison bringing patients consult a doctor virtually better synergies for efficient and New-age healthcare delivery not on phone or video call, CallHealth’s timely healthcare access. Moreover, only bridges the gaps of time qualified Mobile Health Officers it optimizes existing healthcare and motion but captures health will be physically present with infrastructure capacities for information at every touch them to conduct tests and samples improved healthcare inclusion point of healthcare delivery, as prescribed. It also enhances and better productivity for each deriving healthcare intelligence the clinical quality of healthcare healthcare provider who is for predictive, personalized, and delivery through its ability to partnered with CallHealth. evidence-based clinical care. capture, mine, and analyze healthcare information. The Services Offerings Uniquely Engineered intelligence derived from each Platform episodic transaction is leveraged Doctor Consultation: It for further enhancing the clinical CallHealth comprehensively decision support systems for provides quick access to doctors/ integrates all healthcare services smarter diagnosis, predictive specialist with in the comfort of 10 JANUARY 2019

Meet the Leader Hari Thalapalli, CEO Hari Thalapalli, Chief Executive Officer: Thalapalli is a multi-disciplinary leader in the technology and healthcare services space. Prior to joining CallHealth in 2015, Hari worked with leading technology services companies, in critical business and support roles. In his previous assignment at Tech Mahindra, he ran a business focused on enterprise products (in the areas of CRM, SCM, PLM, BPM etc.) and consulting, apart from being the Chief Marketing Officer for the USD 4 Billion global corporation. He was instrumental in Tech Mahindra’s brand positioning during its critical organic and inorganic growth phase. He started his career in the Human Capital function and was involved in building robust HR practices, to help raise the performance bar. He led the team that made a 50,000 strong organization to be recognized as the Best Employer, by Mercer and Hewitt. He has won many accolades, including the CPO of the Year Award from Bloomberg. its customers’ homes. It provides Physiotherapy: A lingering result in permanent loss of video conferencing facility mobility and capability to do the with the doctor. Doctors will back pain, a frozen shoulder, daily activities. Timely action can call them only at the appointed help such patients with pain-free time. CallHealth provides special knee pain, neck pain or any mobility. treatment for Dermatology, ENT, Dentistry, Internal Medicine etc. joint or muscle pain that might Nursing: Compassionate and Diagnostics- Radiology and be caused by Osteo Arthritis or attentive care within the comfort Imaging: While a mobile health of patients’ home is now possible. any other underlying medical They can reach out to CallHealth officer will visit home for sample for Basic Nursing services. One collection, patients require condition can now get treated can avail services like Enema visiting CallHealth’s nearest application with the best quality imaging centers for imaging tests. within the comfort of patients’ standards in the comfort of his/ It provides tests like Endoscopy, home by certified, specialized, her home. It also provides IV Impedance Audiometry, Speech and experienced physiotherapists. Cannula Insertion, Nebulization, Audiometry, Cytology etc. Difficulty in moving the joints Sitz Bath, child vaccination etc. due to inflammation or arthritis causes stiff joints. Some common SR etiological factors include old age, arthritis, diabetes, and family history of stiff joints. If untreated, the condition can JANUARY 2019 11

Contextual Ads Revolutionize your ad strategy. Display ads Get global demand for your inventory. Native ads Prioritize your user experience. 12 JANUARY 2019

Redefining What Is Possible Media.net Advertising on the internet is network which can reach over 100 already worth several millions, one of the most competitive million personal computers. became billionaires after this deal. industries and continues to get more and more challenging Internet marketing is one of the The entrepreneurial journey for every year. One company that largest and most effective ways of the brothers was fraught with has managed to make it big in marketing, with a simultaneous difficulties, as they had to teach this crowded sector is Media.net. global outreach to over a billion themselves to code, find clients Founded in 2010, the company users. Ad networks or advertising raise capital and keep their was started by two brothers, networks are companies that business afloat in the face of stiff Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia, connect internet advertisers to competition against established self-taught serial entrepreneurs relevant websites. What it means names in the business. They had based out of Mumbai. Both that internet users would only to work for 15 hours a day every brothers were born and raised in see relevant advertisements day for almost 20 years to launch a middle-class family and led an on various websites they surf. and maintain their companies, the average life that is common for all Although it sounds simple in largest of which was Media.net. school going children. However, theory, it is extremely difficult Furthermore, they also manage a both brothers harbored an innate to connect advertisers to several diverse portfolio of investments enterprising spirit that was million users. and divide their time between the evident even in their teens, when United States, Dubai, and India. they founded their first company Begun with less than twenty at age 16 and 18. It was a time people, the company grew to The story of the rise of Media. when Bhavin and Divyank had to have over 200 employees in just net is that of hard work, steadfast juggle studies and their company a matter 6 years, generating dedication, laser focus, and a and managed it with finesse. revenues of nearly $250 million. pioneering entrepreneurial spirit. Yahoo offered to buy the company Both of them discovered their for $180 million; the acquisition, SR passion for coding at a very young however, could not go through age and even managed to teach due to unforeseen circumstances it to themselves. This allowed and differentiating opinions. This them to start a number of internet was a blessing in disguise, as the companies, some of which they founders would be approached a sold to large corporations for few years later by a consortium hundreds of millions of dollars. of Chinese companies with Media.net was started to exploit an offer of $900 million. This the competitive, yet lucrative deal would become one of the market of online advertising. largest acquisitions in the field of The company is a contextual ad advertising. Bhavin and Divyank, JANUARY 2019 13

Tailor Made Services to Suit Every Need Wilson Financial Services “Our The financial services envisioned a way to Investment Manager entity mission is to industry is more than open India up to foreign domiciled in Mauritius. As alleviate the just banks where investments, creating jobs with any startup, the initial transactional people park their savings and helping the economy year was a struggle, as to be used when needed. in the process. WFS had to go up against journey of Financial services include established players in the India focused wealth management, Bespoke Financial industry and needed to creating a pension fund, Services cultivate a reputation for capital by investments, wealth build, itself. After taking on their providing purchase of stocks, mutual The term financial services first client, the team at bespoke funds, hedge funds and encompass a diverse range WFS had to interact with financial so on. While venturing of services that money multiple intermediaries solutions into such markets can be managers can provide for across two countries to get delivered extremely daunting for their clients. However, each the investment through, promptly by the common man, it is country has its own set of with strict constraints a team of a usual day at the office regulations to govern the on time. This was the specialists for providers of financial markets and India is no company’s first taste of services. Monitoring different. What works in success and which ended using markets in a country and most countries may not be up being exhausting as well technology & abroad and managing all that effective in India. as exhilarating for WFS. trustworthy their clients’ money is a In order to circumvent this compliance massive responsibility obstacle, the founders of Trust as a Key practices.” since people decide to pour Wilson Financial Services Component in their entire savings into had to come up with their a financial instrument and own set of tailor-made Any business in any corporations may decide to services to suit a diverse sector needs to have an do so with a large portion clientele, keeping in mind established image of it of their profits. all the different needs as being reliable and and laws in India. The last trustworthy, and this Wilson Financial Services couple of decades have is probably the most (WFS) is a Mauritius drawn significant global important factor in the based financial services attraction to India, both as world of finance where provider that among a preferred destination for customers entrust large other things, specializes technological expansions sums of money into the in easing the passage and investments in hands of fund managers. for foreign investors various sectors. With a Clients acquainted with to make their financial population of over 1.3 the financial sector would journey into India. The billion people, the south know what to expect, Indian markets are tightly Asian country presents however, for those who are regulated and several exciting opportunities for not aware, blindly trusting protectionist policies of multinational corporations someone with their money the government make it to invest in India. does not come easily. very difficult for foreign companies to navigate the Capitalizing on this Another major factor in tricky and meandering situation, Wilson Financial India is perception. Most corridors of the financial Services bagged their Indians view the financial services sector in India. first client for their very markets as something The founders of WFS own Global Fund and similar to making a bet 14 JANUARY 2019

and prefer to invest their savings drop in value. The drop began and bespoke services for its in tangible assets such as gold and when WFS was just a month into diverse clientele, with customer real estate. In such an environment, business and had to spend a lot of requirements as the singular point companies like Wilson Financial time and effort in wooing foreign of focus. It is the bedrock policy Services have to go the extra mile investors who had lost interest in of WFS to never ever compromise or two to cultivate a sense of trust the Indian markets. To add to the on its principles. While most such amongst clients, a process which woes, the turmoil was followed fund management companies is rendered tougher given their by tighter market regulations try to beat the market, Wilson recent entry into the market. The by lawmakers. While the laws Financial Services sees itself as company’s team of experienced themselves are passed keeping in a trendsetter, creating its own professionals knows the entire mind the interests of the general unique benchmarks of customer Indian market in and out and strives public, they at times make it more satisfaction and constantly striving to provide specialized services to difficult for services providers to do to surpass them. Theirs is an fulfill a wide range of requirements business. These incidents taught the industry that needs to strike a fine for an equally diverse set of clients. founders the most important virtue, balance between smaller short-term i.e. patience. gains and larger long-term profits, The last decade has been rather and WFS manages to achieve the tumultuous for the Indian currency Wilson Financial Services strictly balance while being acutely aware since it has witnessed a continuous adheres to its principles of trust of the looming market forces. SR Meet the Founders of Wilson Financial Services Previously the Head of Sales at Edelweiss Prime Brokerage, Anand was instrumental in building & scaling the business from scratch over a 10-year stint. Considered to be a thought leader in the securities services & the FPI space, Anand has been part of various panels & seminar on this subject such as Gift city and IVCA etc. Anand has advised & serviced a diverse set of clients including Hedge funds, HFTs, Long only & quant funds. He is also an advisor to a number of start-ups & helps them in their overall strategy & business development. Anand Singh, Founder A chartered accountant by profession, Nilesh comes with rich experience in International finance, compliance, asset management & business operations. Previously the Head of International Compliance (Asia & Africa) at Edelweiss, Nilesh was instrumental in building & scaling up the enterprise functions at various overseas offices of Edelweiss. He independently led Operations teams and implemented various financial systems. Nilesh Choudhary, Founder 15 JANUARY 2019

Knowing the Key Team Members Sumeet brings a decade of experience at heading the strategy, investor relations, corporate communication & new initiatives for listed entities as well as a bunch of startups. An MBA from NMIMS, he has a penchant for equity analysis and more recently was associated with cross border investment transactions with global majors like CLSA. Sumeet Chhabria, Head Strategy Formerly the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Edelweiss institutional equities, Anand played a pivotal role in setting up risk, electronic trading & business operations during his 11 years stint. Joining Edelweiss, as a trader, in 2005, Anand’s passion for technology led him to play an important role in process automation across different verticals within the group. Anand Mody, COO Neha brings with her over a decade of experience and proficiency in compliance related matters across verticals which include PMS, AIF, MF, Investment Advisors, Broking, DP, Research Analyst, Commodity, Housing Finance and NBFC. She has been instrumental in setting up fund management compliance practices at Wilson both for the Fund as well as for the clients of the Advisory entity. An MBA from MIT, Neha has previously worked with Edelweiss Corporate Compliance Team and Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd. Neha Malviya Kulkarni, Head Compliance Vinit joins from Edelweiss Prime Brokerage where he was a key member of the international sales team. In a short span, Vinit developed and nurtured deep relationships across the financial community that led him to play a crucial role in scaling up the Asia Business & win many accolades for his achievements. Vinit Shah, Head Sales 16 JANUARY 2019



COVER STORY In The Spotlight Zeemart is Transforming the F&B Industry with Digital Disruption of the Supply Chain The digital revolution now recognized as one of the hottest that a lot of the processes were very presents entrepreneurs startups from Asia. manual, opaque and offline which with unlimited led to inefficiencies, wastage and opportunities to solve a Zeemart simplifies procurement higher costs. This was a fairly big wide range of problems for F&B businesses with a powerful problem to solve with the potential and thereby disrupt or create and seamless order and invoice to make a huge impact with the right markets. With easier access to management platform that enables solution. Our quest to address this capital from private investors and buyers and suppliers to connect problem is the genesis of Zeemart. support from government bodies and transact with one another in that recognize the value of start-ups an easy and transparent manner. What teething troubles did in fueling job creation, the cliché With an interface designed to you encounter? “the best time to start-up is now” facilitate ease of use (and remove seems truer than ever before. potential barriers to change) and a Like most startups, our initial powerful suite of features, Zeemart roll out of the platform had a few However, as any start-up founder is enabling F&B businesses to hiccups. Our product is a critical will tell you, success doesn’t come manage their discovery, purchasing, part of a restaurant’s business easy. Most founders flounder. For invoice management and vendor operations and therefore we can every success story, there are collaboration from a smartphone. ill-afford to fail. Helping business hundreds of start-ups that fold up owners overcome any resistance within two years. Understanding the Zeemart founders, to change was an important area of distinguishing features of successful Neeraj Sundarajoo focus for us. There was an instance start-ups and their founders, who and Keith Tan spoke when our team went to collect manage to beat the odds stacked exclusively to barrels of beer for our restaurant against them, is priceless for any The Silicon Review. customer as the supplier failed to entrepreneur. Below is an excerpt. deliver it in time for a long festive weekend. In hindsight, going the Towards that end, we are thrilled to Why Zeemart? extra mile to serve our initial present two young and successful group of customers was immensely entrepreneurs from Singapore, We homed in on the Horeca (Hotels, beneficial. They overlooked some Neeraj Sundarajoo and Keith Tan, Restaurants & Catering) industry, of the early bugs and glitches in the who’ve not only given wings to their specifically the B2B side, where system and stuck with us seeing idea but gotten it to soar in just a startling statistic caught our our commitment to get things fixed two years. The duo is a rare breed attention: 50% of restaurants shut quickly. of startup founders who have been shop within the first 3 years. We able to repeat their entrepreneurial learnt that food costs account for What makes you confident success. Their second startup about one-third of revenues, leading that Zeemart can succeed Zeemart, founded with a vision us to study the entire food supply in such a dynamic and to transform and empower chain deeply, right from sourcing competitive marketplace? F&B businesses through smart and procurement. We discovered technology and digitalization, is In the highly competitive world of technology-driven startups, 18 JANUARY 2019

COVER STORY Neeraj Sundarajoo, CEO “We embrace change. And change matters to anWyeonemeblirvaicnegchinantghei.sAendrachoafndgeismruapttteiorsnt.oEven as “aonuyronueselivrinbgaisnethiins cerraeoafsdeissruapntidont.hAes ocuormpany gcroomwpsa,nwy egrocwosnatinndumouorselyuspeursrasrueeusiimngporuorvements toplathtfoermpl,awtefocromnt.inTuhoiussliyspounrseue‘Wthoernkeiend Pforrogress’ imptrhoavetmisenptes.rNeenvneiradloawnedswtoep acnadnsabyethpatroouurd of. product is done.”

A Word Of Advice From Neeraj And Keith To The Budding Entrepreneurs Having an idea, building a great product and gaining traction are the essential activities of any startup. What makes a startup successful is the strength and ability of the team to deliver on the purpose of the business. So, the most important aspect is to assemble a solid team first. Get that right and your chances of success will be higher than most already. innovative thinking and having a A startup may or may customer service to recruitment great product are merely the bare not function as originally and retention. These act as the glue minimum to survive and compete. envisaged. How do you that bonds the team to achieve our What differentiates Zeemart is our respond to this need for purpose. organizational DNA- the company change? knows how to build businesses • Enterprising - We love success. around strong principles of We’re living in a VUCA (Volatility, We are not afraid to take a excellence, passion and hard work. Uncertainty, Complexity & chance, think big & outside the Ambiguity) world, where ‘disruption’ box and achieve big results. We have a strong founding team is ubiquitous. Even seemingly We are nimble - quick to think, with deep domain knowledge and change-proof businesses like make our point, get to a decision rich experience across both F&B supermarkets and taxi services are and execute. We are self-driven, and digital product development. fighting for survival against online take ownership and challenge The two of us ran an interactive stores and on-demand transport ourselves & our teammates digital agency for 15 years building services. No business is immune to solutions and marketing campaigns the vagaries of change and anyone • Awareness - We are empathetic for global clients such as Unilever, can be caught blindsided. We are no & respectful towards the people P&G, Starbucks and Adidas. The different. Startups are even more we work with, clients, suppliers, other two co-founders are industry vulnerable being resource-strapped. time and our surroundings. veterans who previously held senior What we do is to be extra sensitive We appreciate the value in management positions in the Horeca to market change or demand and looking back, learning from our space and have also run successful respond with agility. We have to mistakes and taking our next companies. work constantly at peak efficiency steps confidently. When we and can’t afford to be ‘stationary’ make mistakes, we are humble, The quality of the collective for too long. Alertness, agility and a accept responsibility, and seek experience of the founding team, healthy dose of paranoia help push help to fix it with the appetite and ability to us forward continuously. take on calculated risks while • Transparency - We are all navigating through obstacles, has A startup is defined by its accountable. Each of us is been invaluable in scaling up our core values. What are your accountable to ourselves and company at speed. company’s core values the rest of the team. We are and how did they help you genuine in what we do, why we Attracting, grooming and retaining succeed? do it and how we do it. We work human talent are imperative for across organizational levels, any successful start-up. Zeemart Yes, core values are extremely geographical boundaries and leverages on the rich networks of important for a startup that is often break down any barriers the co-founders, as well as their subjected to enormous pressures stellar track record, to build a from various angles. We’ve defined • Integrity - We act with strong and committed team. The five core values that guide us in integrity. We are committed to strength of our team gives us the what we do and how we do things: maintain equity and fairness confidence to compete and succeed. from product development and in the decisions we make and how we treat one another. We respect and value each other for our diverse backgrounds, 20 JANUARY 2019

Neeraj Sundarajoo Keith Tan CEO Chief Product Officer experiences, styles, approaches down and to maximise revenues encouraging and benefited our and ideas. We believe in doing whilst capturing the attention of product development immensely. the right thing and know that an increasingly demanding new In the last two years, we have success cannot come at ‘any generation of diners. We enhanced our platform to cost’ see ourselves as market disruptors address more of our users’ pain • Openness - We communicate, who want to drive the F&B points based on their inputs. contribute and collaborate industry towards modernizing Unsurprisingly, this has accelerated freely. We are open to new their operations: from the number of users on our ideas, people and work as a front-of-house innovation and platform. Every note of appreciation team-sharing our ideas, back-kitchen productivity, to from our users is another mile knowledge and skills. We using robotics and analytics to that we’ll go further to make our continually simplify and drive workforce and supply chain platform experience better. improve processes and efficiency. We see ourselves as a procedures. We all share a leader. Our efforts have also been common goal of ensuring that recognized with several awards in we have a positive and vibrant What kind of responses Singapore and overseas. The biggest work environment have you received from recognition we got was from IMDA your users? How have they Singapore (Info-communications Any company, big or small, motivated you to shape the Media Development Authority) as must have the sense of company’s growth? they endorsed us to be the national authenticity and originality procurement platform for F&B to succeed. What do you The feedback from our users businesses in Singapore. Such want to be, a leader or a has been enlightening and recognition reinforces the belief in follower? being able to achieve our goals. The F&B industry has traditionally What factors help your been manual and ‘conservative’ company to compete on a with respect to change. It has never global platform? been better primed for disruption, as operators seek to drive costs We are driven by our vision to bring digitalization to the F&B industry. 21 JANUARY 2019

COVER STORY We have seen the positive impact next batch of features that will cover part of the WPP faculty in Lee Kuan and response from several inventory management, payments, Yew School of Public Policy. In 2013, markets for our product. The financing, logistics and last mile Neeraj was the overall winner of multiple-market validation tells us fulfilment. the DBS/SICCI Entrepreneur of the that we are on the right track. Year Award as well as the overall We have commenced operations winner of the OCBC/ASME Young Competing on a global platform in Indonesia and expect to start in Entrepreneur of the Year Award. requires us to offer a world-class Vietnam within the next couple of product and an equally robust months. We are running some trials In Dec 2016, Neeraj left WPP to fully support structure behind that. This in Malaysia, Thailand and India devote himself to his next venture, ambition and attitude to deliver a in collaboration with established Zeemart. world-class solution is ingrained in restaurant chains. Philippines is our DNA. Continuous improvement another market that we are on the Keith Tan and optimization of everything we do regularly is a mantra that we verge of entering. In the last 12 Keith co-founded Comwerks in practice diligently at Zeemart. 2002 with Neeraj Sundarajoo. He months, our team has doubled to be played a pivotal role in growing Tell us about your product 65-member strong and this figure the business into one of Singapore’s roadmap. will change very quickly to support top digital agencies, working with some of the world’s leading our expansion into various regional markets. Based on requests from our buyer We have some exciting challenges brands and corporations, NGOs community for recommendations and opportunities ahead. and government organisations. for new suppliers and contacts, Following the acquisition of we’ve recently built and rolled Meet the Visionaries Comwerks by Wunderman, part out Singapore’s first F&B-focused behind the Success of WPP, the world’s largest sourcing platform- Zeemart Zoom. marketing communications This platform allows suppliers to Neeraj Sundarajoo company, Keith rose to be the list an unlimited number of their Executive Creative Director of products online on our marketplace. Acknowledged as one of Singapore’s Wunderman South East Asia. We expect this platform to improve top digital agency leaders, Neeraj sourcing of new products and embarked on his entrepreneurial As its creative leader, he was the suppliers significantly for F&B journey in 2002, by co-founding driving force to expand their operators, while suppliers have Comwerks at 21. Within 3 years, digital services offering which an effective channel to get their eBay added the agency to its resulted in iconic account wins products in front of their target roster, making it one of the agency’s such as adidas, Starbucks, Energizer audience. The response to this largest clients. In recognition of & Lego. One of Keith’s early platform has been great with the early achievements of successes that demonstrated his interest from suppliers and buyers Comwerks, Neeraj was awarded product development talent was from Singapore and beyond. the leading Youth Entrepreneur the launch of a site called of the Year by DBS/SICCI in 2007. PetrolWatch which helped motorists Where do you see your He then led the acquisition of share and receive tips on fuel pump company a couple of years Comwerks by WPP in 2010 and prices. Developed as a side project from now? continued as CEO. He helped set with Neeraj in 2005, it attracted global media attention, including Notwithstanding our rapid growth, up Zed Academy, with the support we believe we have only scratched of EDB, to train young graduates coverage by the Associated Press the surface of the opportunity to from local universities on Digital and the BBC, due to its rapid organic modernize the traditional F&B and Mobile, increasing the available growth that saw over 25,000 sector. Our journey began with talent pool within the industry. drivers register in just 2 weeks. digitizing procurement, which put Keith is also regularly involved us in a very good position to exploit Neeraj then led the group’s with students from his local alma numerous other opportunities largest digital businesses such as mater, Temasek Polytechnic leveraging the convergence of digital Wunderman, Enfatico, AdPeople and where he helps to groom and & data to unlock enormous value to Comwerks. He also helped to set up inspire budding entrepreneurs both buyers and suppliers. We are and established WPP’s Government and designers to transition from already building and rolling out the and Public-Sector Practice and was academia to the industry. SR 22 JANUARY 2019



How Nykaa Emerged as the Largest and the Destination in India: A Success Story Nykaa, a Mumbai based entrepreneurs when she interacted achieved remarkable success in company has radically gaining the trust and loyalty of transformed cosmetic with them in the past. She thought its customers by providing a shopping in India and that too in one-stop store for all their less than ten years! Nykaa.com of different business plans before beauty and wellness needs. is an entrepreneurial dream of Falguni Nayar, who also served but what appealed her most was However, none of this came easy Kotak Mahindra Capital Company for her as there were challenges as its Managing Director. Falguni an e-store for beauty and wellness she had to face to prove the worth has spent 19 years as an investment of the idea. Flipkart, one of India’s banker and a successful stockbroker. products. She had seen how the biggest e-retail markets had its Nayar, an IIM Graduate is well cosmetic industries flourish in the sole dominance back then. Hence, versed with how business works. west and she wanted this sector to entering the competitive arena Her vast experience in the business with an idea to introduce an online domain gave her an edge when boom in India as well. “I was aware platform for beauty and wellness she started with Nykaa, her dream of how big the beauty space was products was a challenging task. entrepreneurial business. in the US and other countries like People have always been skeptical Japan, and I knew that it would have of buying beauty products online What enticed her to start her a positive future in India,” quotes because of the obvious fear of the own venture was the drive and Nayar. Hence, she introduced Nykaa! product not being genuine. The passion she saw in many successful myth that e-commerce and beauty Nykaa, derived from the Sanskrit word “Nayaka” meaning “the one in the spotlight”. Being true to the meaning, Nykaa envisions making everyone feel confident and well groomed providing affordable prices for the products. It has 24 JANUARY 2019

Most Loved Beauty retail cannot work that well in which are well-priced. Focusing the stairs of success to prove its India was busted by Nayar when on customers’ needs and working worth and be a profitable business, Nykaa turned out to become one closely with the trends and culture on the other hand, it is trying to of the most loved and used e-retail in the make-up industry, it has establish itself as a cosmetic and businesses in India. She had faith become a proud-seller offering a personal care brand. The company in her idea and hence she ignored comprehensive selection of makeup, has launched many products for everyone who was not convinced skincare, hair care, fragrances, makeup and wellness needs under enough and came up with a bath and body, luxury and wellness the label ‘Nykaa’. The company now business that broke all records of products for women and men. has its inventory spaces in Delhi being a successful startup venture. and Mumbai, 50,000 square feet Her passion, far-sighted vision, In today’s world where e-commerce each and one in Bangalore that is and belief in the idea were all the is such a booming sector, Nykaa is 15,000 square feet. ingredients to successfully create not only giving a tough competition Nykaa.com. by raising the bar but has also Nykaa has hoisted its flag of reached to break even and is triumph in a very short span of How Nykaa became the market gunning for IPO this year. Achieving time. With more than 35,000 leader and a preferred destination operational break even is a huge products and 400 curated brands, for beauty and personal care needs thing considering the fact that even Nykaa is one of the favorites of speaks volumes about perfect the e-commerce biggie Flipkart is all the fashion enthusiasts in business strategies. The company still struggling to break even. On India. After all, our beauty is their guarantees 100% genuine products one hand, where Nykaa is climbing passion! SR JANUARY 2019 25

From Raw Data to Insights, Holistics Has You Covered “Lifesaver in terms of getting you the reports you need.” Holistics was built to make business insights not days or months. It wants change data analysis a powerful • Work securely within their makers to have the best chance of differentiator for emerging success, by working with champions companies. It has taken BI solutions existing cloud infrastructure regionally to enable them for a that had previously only been set-up global stage. available to large enterprises, and developed a completely scalable, Most BI tools can generate any How It All Began flexible and affordable platform that charts, tables or visualizations allows you to handle the modern that a user needs after the data Holistics was founded by a team of big data needs of your company, has been prepared. But much engineers and business intelligence regardless of size. more time is spent preparing data professionals that started out as than reporting. Business users are university friends. With more than It also helps you take the first waiting for answers from their data 15 years of industry experience step for change. It believes that analysts, while the data analyst working internationally in places the ability to formulate high waits for the data engineers to such as IBM, Facebook, Microsoft performing data business assets integrate various data sources. It and other successfully acquired should be accessible to anyone, does not have to be this way. startups, the Holistics team is on from early-stage startups to tech a mission to make data tools and unicorns, so it can build new ways Data analysts should be asking new business intelligence a widely of accomplishing more together. business questions with your data, accessible force for growth. rather than answering questions Why Select this that your company already has. Holistics began with 3 founders Company? Holistics automates the manual from diverse backgrounds, preparation work behind presenting connected by a vision for building Holistics is flexible business and structuring raw data into great products. Originally intelligence (BI) automation and logical and actionable processes, conceived of as an internal analytics visualization software. It helps drastically reducing the time dashboard/query tool within data teams streamline their taken to build data-based business a startup, it realized that many data preparation and reporting solutions. The real measure of data other startups are spending large processes, to quickly get answers to workflow effectiveness is the time it amounts of time building their own questions. Designed with flexibility takes to create insights, going from custom data platforms from scratch. in mind, Holistics helps data teams: query to results. Holistics saves startups precious time, helping them focus their • Get full visibility of their data The company empowers people engineering efforts on product and context and business with the data tools needed to build growth, and even the playing field a new world, giving data analysts’ between emerging startups and • Speed up the preparation of full control of the data pipeline, with well-funded enterprises. data from different sources into the ability to operate in minutes and SR 26 JANUARY 2019

“We are a Cloud- based Business Intelligence & Data Analytics Platform who connect to your databases and help you get the data- driven insights you need.” The Three Musketeers Vincent Woon, CEO Vincent’s focus is on the business development of enterprise software technology for sales, marketing, and reseller relationships, and also to work with emerging technology companies to identify and validate their product-market fit. Sales Focus: Enterprise Technology, Business Development, Relationship Management, Solution Consultant, Business Analysts, Channels Management Thanh Dinh Khac, Chief Engineer & Customer Success He wore so many hats during his past work experiences that he wants to call himself as a full-stack engineer. In terms of the backend, he has a relatively deep understanding of multiple Unix/Linux systems, networking configuration and troubleshooting, especially cloud/virtualization/data technologies. He also has an extensive web development experience, covering frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Django, Flask, Grails, etc. as well as Angular.js, Backbone.js, d3.js, etc. During his time in Revolution Analytics, he got himself familiar with AI, big data and machine learning techniques, especially text analytics. He currently works at Holistics Software as Co-founder and Chief Engineer building a data reporting and management platform. Huy Nguyen, CTO & Product Architect He was also the Co-founder of Grokking Vietnam. In the past, he worked as a Software Engineer (Data Infrastructure) at Viki. Huy was also a Software Engineer Intern at Facebook. JANUARY 2019 27

Popularizing E-Commerce in E-commerce is one of the hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs even have computers and fewer largest industries in the to follow their dreams of owning still, an internet connection. Most world which has a business and making it big. people prefer the traditional revolutionized the way people Several critics concur that the way of shopping, i.e. going to the shop. Walmart ushered in the first startup culture in the Indian city of shop/ supermarket. Changing this revolution in retail in the early Bangalore was begun by Flipkart. mindset of the average Indian was twentieth century by introducing one of the biggest accomplishments the concept of supermarkets. The early days of Flipkart were of Flipkart. Amazon kick-started the second riddled with difficulties for the revolution with the e-commerce founders since the concept of An e-commerce startup requires model, wherein customers can ordering stuff on the internet was numerous technologies to order goods from the comfort of very new to India and it was highly support it and what Flipkart their homes. An Indian startup uncertain if people would take couldn’t innovate, it acquired. The named Flipkart has brought the to it. One of the most challenging company embellished itself and same idea to a market of over 1.3 obstacles was to convenience its capabilities by acquiring other billion customers. vendors to sign up with them, companies and integrating the which was followed by setting up new technologies with their own. Conceived by 2 visionaries who the website and payment partners, Flipkart laid the groundwork for its are alumni of the prestigious getting the necessary permits and nationwide expansion, while at the Indian Institute of Technology finally advertising their idea to same time expanding their network and has worked for Amazon, investors as well as the general of merchants and vendors. It Flipkart initially was limited to public. A significant percentage required many years of hard work, selling books. The entrepreneurial of the Indian population was and market speculation, and dedication, journey of Sachin and BinnyBansal continues to live in villages and but in the end, it paid off. Flipkart (who are not related) has inspired towns where a few people would managed to capture the attention of

India: Flipkart the masses, with their inventory offers during festivals propelled share slip away to the American covering millions of products Flipkart’s popularity to behemoth. In 2017, The ranging from appliances, stratospheric levels. Flipkart American retail giant Walmart furniture, electronics, apparel, would even go on to acquire two acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart accessories, kitchenware, and other e-commerce companies for an astounding $16 billion. so on. to expand its user base. However, its growing popularity The founders of Flipkart were The company enjoyed a time meant that India was now an instrumental in catalyzing of steady growth, with sales attractive e-commerce market the Indian e-commerce of hundreds of millions of and was on the radar of giants sector and inspired countless dollars on certain days, which like Amazon, the pioneer of entrepreneurs to follow their the company christened the e-commerce. Since Amazon’s vision. It was one of the first ‘big billion days’. Such sales, foray into India, Flipkart saw a companies to make it big in combined with the periodic significant portion of its market India’s Silicon Valley. SR JANUARY 2019 29

Making Your Life and Business Better Than Expected: 2b Limitless “Coaching, training and 2BYB” 2b Limitless is a multi-award components of the modern leaders’ and creating the space for each and winning professional coaching toolbox. As business continues to everybody involved to ‘2B Your Best’. and training organization become more and more complex a focused on Strengths, Engagement, leader’s ability to simplify and identify The speciality of the Team Performance and Transformation. the true priorities, take agile action Headed by Mick Todd, ‘Acquisition and make a meaningful impact is key. 2017 has seen 2b Limitless grow International’ UAE Executive Coach That is where 2b Limitless comes significantly as an organisation of the Year 2016 and ‘International in and help leaders to develop a based on the quality of its team and Advisory Experts’ UAE Executive roadmap and the tools that they need the outstanding achievements of Coach of the Year 2017. It is focused to deliver excellence in performance. its clients. The firm has assembled on C-Suite Executives, Senior Leaders, its strongest ever team that deliver Entrepreneurial Leaders and High- 2b Limitless training and facilitation excellence across a broad spectrum Performance Teams. The company philosophy is based on connecting of personal and professional success. currently has offices in Dubai, Phuket and aligning organizations and It now feels that it has complete and Brisbane. teams with their strategies, purpose, coaching and training offered. vision, values and goals. Its powerful The core business is built around and inspiring programs, it helps The outstanding professionals of the executive coaching programs individuals, teams and organizations company have given it the bandwidth and its 2BYB International Goal- to leverage strengths and increase and skills to deliver in an elegant Setting Events. The company engagement and performance. Its manner that better support its client’s also deliver targeted training and aim is to build a culture of trust and needs. The focus is growth across all workshops around Strengths, vision with its clients, facilitating of its key markets, success measures Goals, Strategy, Purpose, Vision & the path toward growth and success. and programs. The firm is making Values and Extraordinary Success. Organizations consistently come back plans to develop a centre of excellence The pace of change in business is and work with 2b Limitless because of so that it can offer pathways and staggering. Leaders are faced with its proven ability to produce tangible standardised coaching process. an unprecedented number of real- and measurable results. The company is also looking to time decisions that have far-reaching enhance its stand-alone high- ramifications for clients, employees The company also delivers bespoke & performance coaching and training and shareholders. Having real clarity inspirational development programs facility in Asia in order to offer its of purpose, objectives, goals and in breath-taking locations that clients unrivalled coaching and goal the rituals and behaviours that will focus on amazing life experiences, setting retreat through its 2BYB deliver performance that will lead challenging boundaries and comfort (To Be Your Best) process so 2017 to a meaningful impact are critical zones, building enduring relationships promises to be another amazing year at 2b Limitless. 30 JANUARY 2019

The Key Services Mick Todd, Founder • Executive Coaching The Senior Executive Success & • Strategic Development & Goal Setting Leadership - Strengths Coach • Leadership & Management Mick Todd, Founder Development • 2byb Goal Setting International Mick is the leader and founder of 2b Limitless. For the past 15 years, he has tirelessly made it Workshop his mission to help individuals to succeed, to improve their quality of life and help define and 2b Limitless’s award-winning team achieve their goals. Mick has worked with a vast of coaches love to work with high- array of amazing individuals and high profile performers and in high-performance regional and global organisations to help them cultures. As a result, our bespoke personal employ proven tools and techniques to unlock and corporate coaching programs are their potential and empower them to define designed to develop the best version their true purpose. The rituals of sustainable of you, your team or your business. success are his focus. With his support, It focuses on the core principles of encouragement and guidance, his clients have Strengths, Engagement and Performance expanded their self-awareness and leveraged to deliver outstanding results and their innate gifts and talents quickly, effectively develop the knowledge, skills, tools and and sustainably. Mick works extensively in the behaviours of world-class performers. Middle East, Europe and Asia giving individuals, leaders and organisations the tools they need to SR achieve clarity, direction and success. “We will help JANUARY 2019 you design the journey and support you as you take the steps toward your personal, professional and organizational goals.” 31

Widening Valley of Death for Startups: Building up a company in of capital. All in all, there are always the role? All of these factors need to the initial stages is always a factors such as capital scarcity, be considered since it is a startup major task. “It is never easy underpinnings of revenue, growth we are talking about. to take the first step,” some say and and economic scaling. All of these few others say that the beginning is fears can be solved through the Work In Massive easy but later comes the problems. following solutions. Markets to Find But in general, it all depends on Efficiency what business you are in or what The Right Candidates the startup is based on. Keeping Keep in mind, capital does not that in mind the process begins It is wrong to expect the founding always grow business. There is a with the right investment since team will build and sell what the misleading metaphor - “Pouring no business runs without money. company is offering. Why are the fuel on the fire”, which is often It is said that there will be an employees hired? It is a huge team taken in a wrong way and many abundance of capital at two ends of effort and only if everyone is at end up going down the wrong a startup in its spectrum. In today’s equilibrium it is possible to reach path. Many of the business models generation, there is far more capital the bigger vision. It is up to the we see nowadays or the market chasing fewer quality companies. early founding team or the major itself is simply not native to the Very few breakouts of companies decision makers to recruit the much-sought-after venture growth followed by a fear of missing right candidates who can build profile. This is the reason why out in the market are always on the existing products and services, most later-stage startups fail after everyone’s mind. It is because leverage unique tools to satisfy the raising large amounts of capital. many feel it is not easy to raise unmet need and be there when the Almost all markets are facilitating growth rounds with the revenue company needs them the most. businesses that have a high DIS- growth. Also, many feel it will be economies. Eventually implying hard to scale since creating a great Experience is certainly something to the dwindling margins and as attraction toward one’s business every single company seeks, but a result, end up serving just the is difficult. Eventually creates false something more to consider than locals or small-scale customers. realities that lead to the rise of that is the heart of the candidate. Is Remember technology alone big rounds at a high price by the the candidate ready to learn? Will cannot consolidate your business, founders. This move should only be he or she fit the company or can the you need many other factors. done if there is an over-abundance company mould the candidate to fit 32 JANUARY 2019

Ways to Close the Gap Metrics That Actually service. Just by creating a product Matters or offering a service that already exists in the market will give you The first thing to do is to have to no customers. Either you should develop a clear understanding have a name for yourself in the of how your business will be market or provide something that measured. That will give your the leading brands don’t. You will investors an idea on where the have to experiment and consider business is going because you will customer’s opinions and feedbacks. be presenting a concise hypothesis This is where the secret found for your unfair advantage in a to have a better business and to growing market with your current roadmap the bigger vision. traction being evidence to back it. Do not go for SaaS just because SR everyone else does, your business might not be suited for it. In the end, it is just a tool and your business spirit is what matters. The Bigger Vision The management team invests a lot of time on revenue. But revenue that is not representative is better than no revenue at all, this is the bigger vision that every startup needs to consider. The bigger vision here is to create a model that will be representing your product or JANUARY 2019 33

Connecting Anyone and Anything to Decentralised Services: TenX “Stay in crypto - Spend your crypto - Benefit from crypto.” TenX believes in connecting convenient and secure. Creating accepted, with Bitcoin, Ether, anyone and anything to an outstanding experience from Litecoin, Dash and 18 different decentralised services. product to the customer is at the ERC20s. Its mission is to bring the entire very core of what we do. financial system right to your Why go for TenX? fingertips. TenX is a Singapore- Success over the Years based blockchain company that TenX has a vision that is of makes cryptocurrencies instantly Incubated by Paypal in decentralisation beyond crypto- spendable anytime anywhere. 2016 spending. It thinks bigger than a It gives people an opportunity cryptocurrency payment company. to conveniently use their digital TenX received its first outside It wants to be the fabric for the assets in everyday life. investment in 2016, which was decentralised world. It also aims also the time when PayPal started to connect anyone and anything to TenX was founded in June of 2015. to incubate the company for decentralised services. Back then, the company was called further growth. The company OneBit, as it was still focusing only rebranded to TenX—a name “We’re more on Bitcoin. The four co-founders inspired by not wanting to grow than just Toby Hoenisch, Julian Hosp, Paul “one-bit” at a time anymore, but a digital Kittiwongsunthorn, and Michael rather by “10x”—meaning ten Sperk believe that the blockchain times as much, covering the whole currency card. and cryptocurrency are the future range of crypto space. Our mission of payments. They founded the is to bring the company with a vision to have ICO in 2017 entire financial assets on the blockchain, available system right not only to industry insiders but to On the 24th of June, 2017, TenX anyone in the world. completed one of the biggest and to your most rapidly funded initial token fingertips.” The TenX payment system sales to date, having sold around includes TenX mobile wallet that 100 million PAY tokens and can be funded with different received 80 million USD worth cryptocurrencies (available on of cryptocurrencies in 7 minutes. iOS and Android) and TenX debit/ TenX is one of the few companies prepaid card, which can be used which has conducted a token sale in almost 200 countries at over while having a working product 42 million points of acceptance and an existing global user base. online and offline upon its launch. TenX has set the standard for a well-executed token sale. During It offers users access to several the token sale, we accepted one of cryptocurrencies making it the most diverse ranges of coins and tokens any company has ever 34 JANUARY 2019

Meet the Leader Toby Hoenisch, Co-founder & CEO Toby Hoenisch | Co-founder & CEO Thrill-seeker, passionate learner of everything learn- able, who makes impossible possible, Toby started programming at the age of 10. Having realised the unlimited potential of technology, he studied Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and became a serial entrepreneur & blockchain expert. Toby is a frequently invited speaker at global Tech/FinTech events as well as a regular commentator in the media on current blockchain trends, the future of cryptocurrency and best ICO practices. When he is not architecting and re-envisioning the world of finance, he can be found dancing salsa or practising acro-yoga. He along with Julian Hosp (Co-founder and President), Paul Kittiwongsunthorn (Co-founder and CDO), and Michael Sperk (Co-founder and Engineering Lead) Pair your TenX Card and Wallet assets at a maximum degree of together many types of local and to spend your cryptocurrency convenience, all while adhering to global currencies with the flexibility anytime, anywhere. Its unique the highest security standards in the to choose from different payment range of products allows you to industry. bring together both fiat and crypto methods with a tap of a button. with the flexibility to choose from Travelling? Spend your Spend at over 42 million points of different payments methods. cryptocurrencies anytime, acceptance online and offline, in Spend at over 42 million points of anywhere. Be in full control. almost 200 countries - perfect for acceptance online and offline, in Hold, send and receive popular almost 200 countries. Choice of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the world traveller. multiple digital currencies is given Ethereum, and Litecoin— right at by the company. Enjoy access to your fingertips. SR several cryptocurrencies across different blockchains. Send and Spend in the real world at a real spend Bitcoin, Ethereum and time. Cryptocurrency usability Litecoin with the TenX wallet and brought to a whole new level. Card. With advanced security its Global payments enabled anytime strives to offer users access to an and anywhere. Its unique range ever growing range of blockchain of products allows you to bring JANUARY 2019 35

From practicing and preaching Yoga Baba Ramdev transformed the FMCG Ramkishen Yadav, fondly Nestle, Colgate- Palmolive, Johnson product range, Patanjali has also known as Baba Ramdev & Johnson etc. a run for their money. started working on the textile is a popular name in the No Indian company has such an front. Patanjali Paridhan, a recently business industry for dramatically exponential growth when it comes launched line of apparels including transforming a small business into to gaining brand loyalty in the FMCG more than 3,000 products ranging an empire. He rose to popularity from kidswear to Yogawear and after preaching the benefits of Yoga sector. The company has a versatile sportswear is bringing Patanjali and reaffirming Indians’ faith in it. product folio, ranging from food recognition in the textile industry. The Yoga master brought back items like ghee, noodles, biscuits, Although Baba Ramdev is not the craze of meditation and flour, canned juice, honey etc. to the real owner of Patanjali as he Yoga in India. He founded other consumable products like the Divya Yog Mandir toothpaste, aloevera gel, shampoo holds no profits or shares in Trust in 1995 after etc. Talking about diversity in the the company, he is the face years of practicing of the business. Not only self-discipline and as an incredible yoga meditation. teacher, but he is also well acknowledged as a smart Ramdev’s journey businessman. American from being a business magazine Fast Yog guru to a Company ranked Baba business tycoon is Ramdev 27th in its list of amazing. Back in “Most Creative Business 1997, Baba Ramdev, People of 2016”. There is along with Acharya no doubt about his amazing Balkrishna, started business strategies. With Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd., “Made in India” becoming a a small-sized pharmacy mass movement in India, he with an intention to promote Ayurvedic medicines and reap the exploited the opportunity really benefits of Ayurveda. Who knew well to drive people’s attention that the small step taken almost 20 towards products made in India. years back will turn out to become a Patanjali succeeded in gaining billion dollar empire? The Patanjali customers’ loyalty because the brand turned out to be the fastest products claim to be adulteration selling brand. Patanjali Ayurveda free and are sold at a comparatively Ltd. completely dominated the cheaper price. FMCG sector to an extent that it gave many business behemoths like P&G, So, what is the secret ingredient for creating Patanjali? Well, it is simple! The blend of ancient Indian science 36 JANUARY 2019

to promoting “Made in India”, Industry in India Ayurveda and modern technology creating a brand that speaks about be a long-lasting business may just is all that was needed to extract fitness and also gives its product an be a matter of fluke. It is difficult maximum benefits of what India indigenous flavor. Another factor to say whether Patanjali will be already had in raw form. There are would be product advertisement many takeaways from the success and branding. As a promotion able to maintain the trajectory of story of Patanjali like the attention strategy, their sole agenda was to to the details, demands, quality, and promote the Swadeshi campaign. growth or it will die out with time. most importantly, the advantages of It advertises its products being having a strong brand ambassador. completely void of synthetic and Considering the fact that there is an artificial ingredients. As the Indian One of the biggest factors that market is driven by culturally rooted enormous amount of competition worked in favor of Patanjali’s ideas, Patanjali became a huge hype. success is the image of Baba and the company has to deal with Ramdev. As a propagator of Undoubtedly, Patanjali is the health and fitness, he successfully game changer to boost the Indian brands that have been there for managed to attract people by economy. However, what seems to ages running successfully, it needs a lot to stand firm. But if it manages to have a grip on people’s trust and continue with the same drive and passion to sell impurity free products, it definitely has a long way to go! SR JANUARY 2019 37

The Rulers in the Field of Digital Marketing: Ittisa Ittisa is a place where technology creativity! Ittisa, one of the best digital marketing is now a pre- meets design and design digital marketing companies in requisite for any brand’s marketing meets data which leads to India, believes in building world- strategy. Furthermore, it is often a excellent business strategies being class digital experiences that new brand’s only marketing strategy conceptualized and together easily metamorphose into offline for the initial few years. Ittisa blends these achieve disruptive digital experiences and help brands tell technology with creativity to ensure transformation! stories, build communities and that clients make an impact on the transform their business. market. Founded in June 2014, Ittisa is a one of its kind, a girls-first digital media Services Offerings Branding and Strategy: agency. The name Ittisa in Sanskrit means ‘The Ruler’ and it aims to Digital Marketing: Digital Ittisa has a passion for launching, rule not just the creative world but reinventing, and propelling brands. also the technology world with its Marketing is a huge spectrum of Its goal is to create a lasting impact highly imaginative and passionate tactics and assets that encompasses and build meaningful relationships team. Ittisa is a unique captivating all online marketing efforts. With between clients’ business and mix of innovativeness and diligence people spending twice as much time its audience through sharp with the additional sprinkle of online as they used to 12 years ago, brand experiences. Ittisa enjoys strategizing and building campaigns “We are a unique captivating mix of innovativeness and diligence with the additional sprinkle of creativity!” Sneh, Founder & CEO

for everyone from startups who are their premium inventory in a Technologies just about taking off to established niche advertiser auction, which companies with decades of means advertisers enjoy access Web Development: With experience and a set audience. to this premium inventory via a less-competitive auction. With expertise in designs for websites, Design: Design is the mainstay the PMP, publishers can maintain Ittisa adds a creative edge to every control over the advertisers module of clients’ website and will of Ittisa’s agency: a pillar on which serving ads on their websites. help them optimize it in the most Ittisa stands. Ittisa prides itself efficient way. on its highly creative, innovative, Brand Partnership: and strategic design capabilities Web Applications: Ittisa’s web that push boundaries of vision Ittisa specializes in brand everywhere. Ittisa focuses on partnerships in order to application development addresses a creating a delightful customer deliver brand awareness, wide range of business needs. What experience that highlights key values, drive engagement, and separates the company isits highly human emotions, and a measured generate better ROI. Ittisa innovative and effective solutions approach. aligns their brand with the which will be easy, reliable, intuitive right partners to acquire new even for not-so-technical users and Programmatic Ads: In customers and generate more will require minimum maintenance. revenue for clients’ business. the digital age, programmatic It strongly believes in the Social Media Apps: Ittisa builds advertising is a leading technology concept of collaboration and in the world of mass media. Itissa that’s why it brings together social apps that grab more eyeballs has robust programmatic advertising companies, people, and ideas and enable clients to create new capabilities, andits exclusive that are different but connections with their consumers. partnership with ad tech companies work well together. Its services include Facebook custom makes this a smooth and seamless tabs for campaigns, custom blogs, process. What makes programmatic Brand partnerships are online products, or service forums advertising popular is its ability to all about building relationships, etc. help advertisers reach their target mixing backgrounds, values, audience across a variety of media and specializations, and Mobile Application: Ittisa effortlessly and accurately. With watching something new programmatic ad buying, advertisers emerge. One of the main reasons strives to serve clients with savvy are not just paying for views and as to why most brands fail is mobile marketing plans and strategic clicks; they also get access to niche because of a faulty customer consulting services. They could reach customer groups. On the supply acquisition strategy. Brand out to the company for an end to side, the company offers publishers’ partnerships are a cost-effective end Mobile application development access to the Ittisa Private Market way to accelerate growth and right from the idea of what the app Place (PMP) that allows them to offer get word about brand out there. can be. It works on all major mobile platforms – iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, and Blackberry. SR JANUARY 2019 39

Firms Startups in India witnessed several positive outcomes in That the year 2018. The firms saw a 108 percent growth from Hit the funding to global expansion and about $4.2 billion funds Unicorn were raised. Other than that, 2018 was an extraordinarily lucky List In year for eight startups that joined the unicorn club crossing the 2018 mark of $1 billion valuations. However, the seed-funded startups demonstrated moderate development in terms of funding. Below mentioned are the startups that achieved the unicorn status in a few years of their inception. • Byju’s Bangalore-based edtech and online tutoring firm, Think and Learn Private Ltd has made it big this December by becoming the most esteemed startup achieving a net worth of $3.6 billion. Working with the brand name, Byju’s, the company steered its way into the unicorn club this year while also raising $540 million in funding by Naspers Ventures to support its expansion plans. It is the first investment made in Asia by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and now, it aims to expand into the markets across the UK, US and Australia. Additionally, the firm is also eyeing for IPO. • Oyo Rooms Oyo Rooms was founded by RiteshAgarwal to develop a listing and network of budget-friendly hotel and accommodation options. With Oyo Rooms, Ritesh sets a clear example that nothing can stop you from achieving big success if you have the will to do so. He founded the company when he was only 19 years old, and has now led the company to become the second most valuable startup in the country. It raised $1 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Oyo Rooms is expanding outside of Asia and has been working hard to capture the markets in China, Southeast Asia, UAE and UK. It has also acquired weddingz.in to dive into the $40 billion wedding industry of India. • Paytm Mall Paytm Mall, the e-retailer of Paytm aims to provide a fusion of the mall and bazaar to its customers. It is lucky to have found a place in the unicorn club early in 2018. After raising $450 million as per reports, Paytm Mall’s valuation reached $1 billion in April. The company is making further efforts and investments to enhance its technology to buy and sell products. It has launched several new initiatives including the QR-code technique that enables customers to scan the product, browse information and make their purchases through the Paytm Mall app. 40 JANUARY 2019

The company launched many new initiatives like QR-code technique to allow customers to scan the product, browse information, and make purchases online via the Paytm Mall app. • Zomato While many firms were aiming to reach for the top, Zomato, the food delivery app made it happen and set its foot on the way to success with achievements and developments one after the other in the Indian food-tech space. Its market valuation crossed $1 billion when it raised $200 million in a funding round led by Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group. Zomato worked hard throughout the year to improve its marketing and delivery services and has also launched various key offers and packages for its customers. Zomato used to operate in fifteen Indian cities in the beginning of 2018, but today it has expanded its presence to more than a hundred cities across India. • Swiggy One more firm that has made its mark in the food delivery space and the Indian unicorn club is Swiggy. Founded in 2013, the food delivery app raised $201 million in Series H round led by South Africa’s Naspers. With over ten million app downloads, Swiggy’s demand has reached to around 50 cities in the country. It has acquired two on-demand delivery app, namely Scootsy and SuprDaily to strengthen its operations. Over the course of the year, Swiggy has been focusing on its hyperlocal expansion in India. • PolicyBazaar PolicyBazaar joined the unicorn club after raising a funding of $200 million in June 2018. The online insurance aggregator platform has scaled its fast growth over the course of 2018 with its new investment in the health tech sector. • Freshworks Freshworks was started by the ex-ZOHO executive and is headquartered in San Bruno, California. Its offices are set up in India, the UK, Australia and Germany. The Chennai- based firm has raised $100 million from existing investors like Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and CapitalG. Some of the clients betting on its global expansion are Honda, Hugo Boss, Toshiba, etc. • Udaan Growing at a very fast rate as a B2B firm, Udaan made it into the unicorn list in just two years of its inception. Early in 2018, Udaan raised $50 million in series B funding and in September, it raised $225 million funding from DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners.SR

An Interview with Dicky Ying, Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited Co-founder and CEO ‘We are the Digital Coupon Expert in the Region’ It is no secret that customers love to create, distribute, and redeem corporations and institutions. deals and discounts, and the coupons without technical or Underneath these project-based initiation of both smartphone financial barriers. platforms, the company has also and tablet use has made coupon and launched several platforms for code usage so much more simple. For SMBs, the company enables all and Mezzofy Merchant App With no coupons to clip or no Merchants to create and distribute for coupon creation is one such emails to print out, customers can the digital coupon via various social example. It is now listed on Google simply take their mobile device to channels to reach their customers Play and App Store. Mezzofy Coupon a store, or enter a code online for a in just three minutes or less without platform is now used by merchants great deal. It’s best not to approach any tool on the mobile app. worldwide to issue their own this method of marketing blindly, coupons. however. A few simple strategies can And for the enterprise, Mezzofy increase revenue while increasing has APIs ready for them to easily A startup may or may not customer loyalty. integrate and adapt to use Digital function as expected. It takes Coupon for their business. The everything to stand out and In view of the above-mentioned company also offers ‘Coupon compete in the business scenario, we’re thrilled to present Solution Management System’ for the world, was it same for your Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited. enterprise to custom the process company? flow and customisation for their Mezzofy is the world’s first digital unique business lead. Mezzofy prides itself on its coupon marketing and settlement simplicity and its ability to deliver platform that disrupted the global Mezzofy was incorporated in 2014 tangible benefits to all stakeholders: Retail and Supply Chain industry. It and is headquartered in Hong Kong. • Brand owners gain access to provides a comprehensive Digital It has additional office locations in Coupon platform for merchants Singapore, India, and Malaysia. a much deeper network of consumers “We provide a Dicky Ying, Mezzofy • Merchants benefit by being comprehensive (Hong Kong) Limited able to create unlimited coupon Digital Coupon Co-founder/CEO, spoke marketing campaigns, at lower exclusively to The Silicon cost, with no need for technical platform for Review. Below is an help merchants to excerpt. • Developers benefit by being create, distribute, able to access to ready and redeem Where does your company coupon tool that can be easily coupons without stand in the current market integrated with other solutions scenario? • Marketers benefit by being able technical to open up new channels for or financial Mezzofy already has an established Merchants to embark on various barriers.” foothold in the Asian coupon coupon campaigns; and market. In the past four years, it • Consumers get access to has been invited to cooperate on a thousands of deals by receiving series of cutting-edge projects with the coupons and no need to a number of leading multi-national download any apps As and when all stakeholders can gain benefits from our platform, we

can stand out and compete in the as Maxims Group, Starbucks (Hong existing platform is now beacon- business world. Kong/Macau), GS1, NTT, LoReal, enabled which means we can use and NeoDerm amongst its rapidly the beacon to detect all nearby Any company, big or small, growing customer base. They show Bluetooth users (provided the must have a sense of their response by their action: they consumer turns on the Bluetooth authenticity and originality rely on us, and we are reliable. on his/her mobile) and send the to succeed, what do you want digital coupon to them. This method to be, a leader or a follower? How do you keep your is called “Proximity Marketing”. Our company up and running? Blockchain Coupon platform will Mezzofy has become one of the What are the factors provide the same function. market leaders in Hong Kong that help your company and Asia and now wishes to take to compete on a global Where do you see your a leadership role in delivering platform? company a couple of years the efficiencies that blockchain from now? unlocks, combining innovation in Mezzofy is the strategic partner point of sale technology, coupon of GS1 Hong Kong. As GS1 is We plan to expand our business in authentication techniques, the dominating the product barcode the coming years while focusing on near ubiquitous use of social media already, we are working with them upgrading our product offerings. and last, but by no means least, a and try to do the same thing for the considerably more fluid payments digital coupon and create a global SR and settlements system. digital coupon standard on a global platform. Email: hello@mezzofy.com What kind of responses Website: www.mezzofy.com have you received from your Do you have any new consumers over the years? products ready to be How have they motivated launched? you to shape the company’s growth? Yes, we’re launching Beacon. It’s a Bluetooth device which can send Mezzofy has an enviable client list, and receive digital signals at a counting well-known brands such distance of up to 70-100 meters. Our Leadership | Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited Dicky Ying Co-founder/CEO Dicky Ying, Co-founder/CEO: Dicky Ying is responsible for the overall development of the company and has over 20 years of management experience in various industries. Eric Pang, Co-founder/CPO: Eric Pang takes care of product development process. He has over 20 years of experience in project and product design and business process optimisation. Kris R, Co-founder/CTO: Kris R leads the research and development team. He has over 20 years of development experience in various software platforms and programming languages. Maverick Tan, Co-founder/COO: Maverick Tan manages and leads operations team. He has over 20 years of operations experience in supporting and managing a large user base. JANUARY 2019 43

Lessons to Learn From Billion-Dollar Startups to Make It into the Elite List There is no shortcut to success. has idealized the art of conveying Owning a Market Share Anyone or any team that has its clear mission to its target Is Not Limited to Just ever achieved success is due customers. Every WeWork space One Disruptor to their efforts, innovations and a has a large sign saying “Do what strong belief in their ethics. And you love”. The mission that the firm After Uber made a disruption in this success gets a kick start when works with is held precious by the ride-sharing industry, Lyft soon founding teams create solutions that several entrepreneurs and business walked through the same path are focused on improving the daily communities. Due to its mission three years later. Though it didn’t lives of their consumers. driven company culture, WeWork have much advantage like Uber, the has grown really quick. company is growing at a faster rate Its take sheer bravery and talent and is worth $11 billion. Lyft is the to establish a company these days. Focus On What perfect example that shows that a While a significant percentage of Customers Love company can still be welcomed in a companies fail somewhere around market where there’s already a well- in their fifth and tenth years, an Back then in August 2008, when established pioneer in the market. elite number of startups have Airbnb started, it was struggling made their own path to drive them to gain traction in the market. Paul Forward-Thinking towards becoming billion dollar Graham, the co-founder of the Organizations Are organizations. Some of the lessons influential startup accelerator and Always Supported that other firms can learn to uncover seed capital firm Y Combinator told valuable business ideas and market Brian Chesky that he should put his According to a study by Google, strategies are mentioned below. major focus on developing a product millennials consider Tesla as one that people will truly love, and not of the best companies in the world. Mission-Driven Company just a product that they like. Now As many respondents were too Culture Goes a Long Way Chesky has been following that young to have owned a Tesla, this principle and goes on to say that it is is a prominent achievement that WeWork is an organization aiming always better and smarter to create the company has made. Therefore, at offering private and share a product or service intended to be it’s clear that a company striving to workspaces for small and medium- loved by a hundred people rather bring a transformation in the world sized businesses. Though it started than something that is liked by a will always find a strong foothold in off small, the firm is now worth million people. The network thus the market.SR $20 billion approximately, making formed when people love and talk it one of the largest privately held about a product is enough to propel companies in the US. WeWork a business to their heights.

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Crafting Intelligent Micro Conversations for Banks: ACTIVE.Ai Ravi Shankar, Co-founder & CEO Banking is one such sector services across various distribution 46 JANUARY 2019 where we still see human channels. interaction with customers. In the present generation where The Company’s Products A.I. is making its way into various verticals, it was most likely Morfeus that it would make its way to the banking sector. Seeing the It is a conversational middleware opportunity, Active.Ai made its that acts as an orchestration layer move. It is a Singapore based with the capability to consume Fintech startup with an innovation the trinity AL engine. It has lab in Bengaluru, using artificial hooks to front channels including intelligence (AI) to deliver messaging, voice, social and IOT Conversational Banking services. with advanced integration interface It helps banks redefine their to complex backend APIs of the digital strategy for the future, bank and financial systems. bringing in automation and insightful customer engagement. Triniti The company’s Built-for-Banking technology uses advanced NLP It is conversational AI engine tuned and machine intelligence to specially for banking, insurance, enable customers to have natural and capital market services dialogues over messaging, voice or with built-in Pre-processor, NLP, IoT devices. NLU, Machine Comprehension and NLG. Its key strength is the It believes customers will be ability to handle context driven engaging in unstructured micro- conversations. It is developed to conversations with their banks. support language pack such as Active.Ai will be helping banks English, Spanish, Thai, Bahasa and other financial institutions to Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia with intuitively and intelligently engage Mandarin, its Chinese dialect and with the customer on mobile, chat, Korean in the works based on or voice-enabled IOT devices using demand. AI. The Innovative Omni Connector AI Solutions Platform Create flawless natural Its Omni Connector AI Platform conversations combines specialised solutions using AI and NLP to deliver Triniti’s flexible AI platform seamless conversational incorporates an extensive suite of interactions to provide financial tools that allow you to build next-

generation smart applications where names, nicknames etc. Expand and “We build your data lives: whether on-premise normalises acronyms like “acc” to active or in the intelligent cloud. Give account, “xfer” to transfer. It is able to intelligence your customers innovative ways to standardise forms like “CreditCard” to culture, interact flawlessly with your product Credit Card. contextual, by building advanced voice and predictive & text-based conversational interfaces Intent Classification personalised powered by the Triniti AI. experience Auto-Calibrating Classifier that is at every level Gain an in-depth tolerant of differences in instances of of customer understanding of user training data across intents, able to journey.” conversations with machine differentiate between FAQ and non- learning FAQ intelligently and detect adversity. In natural conversation colloquiums, Sentiment & Profanity abbreviations, acronyms and the like Detection are more common than is perfect grammar and syntax. Provide It is able to detect if the user’s examples of what customers may say current input is positive, neutral or during typical interactions with your negative. The Products are also able product and let Triniti’s intelligent AI to detect if the user is being abusive algorithms learn the true meaning. and able to respond appropriately. Triniti is smart enough to: Entity & Modifier Extraction • recognise and comprehend Highly Trainable with trainable entity intent, linking and Auto-Calibrating features. It is able to extract entities with high • interpret discourse and precision and confidence. Extracts reactions, and links Modifiers like “from” and “to” to related entities. Also, it is able • extract entities and identify to extract modifiers that modify the pragmatics, complete intent, such as “minimum” in “Minimum Balance”. • analyse feelings and emotions, • A whole lot more. The Speciality of the Smalltalk Company It responds to most commonly-used Context Sensitive Spelling ‘small-talk’ or ‘chit-chat’ that users Correction & Acronym have with bots. Expansion Engage Corrects misspelt words based on user’s input. Knows not to correct Personalise engagements with customers via predictive conversational offers. SR JANUARY 2019 47

Arrived with Founded by a quartet may be actually abetting Scepticism, of youngsters in laziness, the Bangalore- Bangalore, Dunzo based startup has silenced Left with allows one to find people critics by drawing the Success who are willing to run interest this year of one Dunzo any type of errand - be it of the most successful rounding out shopping lists businesses in “Chase the vision, not the money, the or picking up and dropping the world. money will end up following you.” off chargers forgotten at - Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO home. Some of the early investors in Dunzo included Blume Ever since its inception in Ventures, Aspada and January 2015, Dunzo has angel investors like Rajan become the go-to app for Anandan and Sandipan residents of Bengaluru, Chattopadhyay. Biswas where the company is was joined by Mukund headquartered, to get Jha, Ankur Aggarwal, and everything delivered Dalvir Suri as co-founders from laundry, important in September 2015. The documents, a laptop charger company migrated from forgotten in the office, to WhatsApp to its own app sanitary napkins, cigarettes, in February 2016 – an beer, speakers repaired and engineering team was even large potted plants. set up and things started moving fast. By April that What started off as a hobby year, traffic started doubling on a WhatsApp group has almost every three weeks. become the first Indian “We learnt something then,” company to receive direct said Biswas. “That this is not funding from Google to a user or demand problem, the tune of $12 million but a supply business.” in December. It recently expanded into Pune and Biswas moved to Bengaluru Gurgaon and is looking to in 2014, after Hike reach four more cities by Messenger bought over the end of 2018. Hopper, a location-based couponing start-up that he Just Dunzo it! had co-founded in Gurgaon. The idea behind Dunzo had Dunzo is an app-based been brewing in his head service that lets users ‘hire’ for more than a year now, people, who in turn, run rooted in the thought, “Why errands for them or carry should I do the things I don’t out odd jobs on their behalf. enjoy doing?” This was the While skeptics may attempt gap that he identified in to start a dialogue on how the market and it became this time-saving technology the cornerstone for Dunzo.

A WhatsApp group was instance, I needed a tube “Starting your created and friends started of ointment and a razor blade own business is asking Biswas to run their - both of a certain kind. I like riding a roller daily errands for them. simply sent my partner coaster. There are pictures of what I use, who in highs and lows and “Think of Dunzo as a product turn sent me images of what every turn you take that completely eliminates was available on the store, is another twist. the need for users to search. and once confirmed by me, The lows are really Need to get something picked bought it and dropped it off low, but the highs up from another part of the at my residence.” can be really high. city? Want to avoid trivial You have to be paperwork? Or get a pair of Launched only in Bangalore strong, keep your shoes repaired? Dunzo can do and certain pockets of Pune stomach tight, and all these and much more in as of now, Dunzo has seen ride along with the less than half the time,” says 3X growth compared to roller coaster that Biswas. last year. According to the startup, the coverage in you started.” “Once the partner and user Bangalore alone went up - Lindsay Manseau, have been paired, the user to about 80% of the city photographer, and can add, edit or cancel tasks from 40% in just the last 9 by using the chat interface months, supported by a team entrepreneur on the app. They can also comprising of 1500 partners. send relevant images for cases where their needs are We are pretty sure this start- specific,” said Biswas. “For up has a long long way to go! SR JANUARY 2019 49

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