Mahindra-backed P2P Lending Startup RupeeCircle Expands its Base to Chennai Within 2 Years Of Operation

RupeeCircle, the Mahindra Finance backed P2P Lending company, announced the opening of its new office in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The office, located at General Muthia Street in Sowcarpet, will be the foothold of RupeeCircle in South India and will give a boost to its financial inclusion initiative in the region.

Over the last 4-5 years the Government of Tamil Nadu has been successful in opening bank accounts for the multitude under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY, a financial inclusion programme of the Central Govt.). RupeeCircle plans to further financially include the unbanked and underbanked masses by making credit accessible with ease. The branch will employ around 10 employees initially and focus largely on digital loan processing and collections. The core operations of the organization (including products, services and support) will continue to be driven by its Mumbai team.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Ajit Kumar, Founder & CEO – RupeeCircle, said, “We are excited at the official opening of our new office in Chennai, which was chosen as a strategic location due to two reasons. Firstly, it is the hub of auto ancillary industries which will help us reach out to the blue-collared salaried workers who are still under-banked or may not have access to credit from traditional banks due to lack of traditional credit footprints. Secondly, a lot of our lenders are from Chennai which will give us an operational advantage. Our research also suggests that the default ratio in South India is comparatively less”.

Talking about the products and revenue estimates from the new location Ajit Kumar said, “We will be promoting all our existing products in the Chennai marketplace and will be entering into tie-ups with companies to provide salary advances and short term loans. And we expect around 20% of our annual disbursements from southern region. We have always envisioned a pan India presence and our latest office is just the beginning of our expansion strategy."

RupeeCircle was recently chosen to be an official part of Bharat Inclusion Initiative – an inclusion drive of IIM Ahmedabad's Centre for Incubation & Entrepreneurship. This is yet another feather in the cap of the organization that was founded in 2016 but has grown to be the most trusted P2P lending marketplace in India.

The startup received Rs 4 crore (around $588,000) in seed funding from Mahindra Finance, a non-banking financial company (NBFC) under Mahindra Group. Rupeecircle has achieved this feat by managing to keep loan defaults below 1.7% by using a proprietary algorithm that measures about 2000+ data points of the borrower. RupeeCircle is also licensed by the RBI (NBFC-P2P) and is a part of Oracle Global Startup Ecosystem.

It may also be recalled that in last month, London-based Welendus, a consumer P2P lending platform, has announced that it preparing to enter the competitive Indian market of P2P lending. Welendus made the announcement after raising funding from Unicorn Ascension Fund, a joint cross-border fund by Mumbai-based Unicorn India Ventures and Ascension Ventures, a London-based early-stage venture fund.

HomeLane to Invest ₹15 Crores to Expands to New Markets; Forays into Kolkata and Pune

Leading home design brand HomeLane.com has today announced its market expansion in two new cities - Kolkata and Pune. The start-up plans to invest INR 15 crores to boost business and brand in the new markets and aims to deliver 1000 homes in both cities in the next one year.

With Pune and Kolkata, HomeLane will be now 7 cities and 10 experience centres strong. The startup is already strengthening its market presence by doubling its experience centers in the existing markets. HomeLane also plans to add 200 interior designers from the two cities.

Close to 25000 new units are expected to come up for possession in Kolkata and Pune this year. This translates to a Rs. 1000Cr+ annual market for home interiors in both these cities.

Srikanth Iyer, co-founder & CEO, HomeLane says, “The growing consumer demand for quality living among urban Indians is what propelled us to consider Kolkata and Pune as potential markets. We have been noticing huge demand among the design conscious new homeowners in both Pune and Kolkata and we are expecting a huge volume of business coming from these two cities. We had closed FY 2018-19 with an ARR of 400% higher than last year and expect to double the numbers by the end of this year."

HomeLane.com had launched its proprietary virtual design platform, SpaceCraft in early 2017, which has boosted its business manifold. SpaceCraft not only facilitates e-meetings and virtual designing of the homes in 3-D but also comes with an in-built pricing engine which enables the customers to keep a track of the project pricing in real time. The removal of design gaps and reduction in iteration time has led to faster project finalization, cutting the ticketing window from 30-45 days to a mere 7 days. HomeLane has seen a whopping 300% growth in business with SpaceCraft in use.

HomeLane.com has always been an advocate of an online-offline mix approach to doing business. With a sharp focus on the brick and click model, HomeLane’s value proposition is to solve the interior design problem with technology and be predictable in terms of timelines, pricing, and quality. The start-up designs and delivers customized fit-outs for homeowners, with an industry first 45-days guarantee, failing which HomeLane pays the pro-rata rent. HomeLane aims at enabling every average Indian homebuyer to have access to bonafide interior designers, which usually is a dream for most Indian middle-class homes. HomeLane brings quality, transparency, and predictability to urban Indian home buyers, which is unheard of in the conventional home design process.

Founded in 2014, HomeLane.com is India’s #1 online provider of home fit-out solutions. With presence in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, NCR, Kolkata and Pune HomeLane.com has established itself as a key enabler for homeowners in furnishing their dream home. HomeLane.com already delivered 3900 projects since inception.

Valley based Startup Grabs Former SBI Deputy MD Sunil Srivastava in Its Advisory Board

Silicon Valley based Harvesting Inc announces the joining of Sunil Srivasatva, Former Deputy Managing Director of State Bank of India in the advisory board. Srivastava joins pro-bono to extend his advice to FinTech enterprise Harvesting Inc for its India expansion and global strategy.

Srivastava was at the helm of the Corporate Accounts Group at SBI. He served as Deputy Managing Director of Corporate Strategies and New Businesses at State Bank of India since May 2014 and served as its Chief General Manager of Kolkata. Srivastava joined State Bank of India as a probationary officer in 1980.

Srivastava has been Additional Non-executive Director at Paisalo Digital Ltd, an NBFC since April this year. He also serves on the Board of Nasdaq-listed Eros International.

Speaking on his appointment, Sunil Srivastava, former Deputy MD, SBI, says, “The new era belongs to synergies between Fintech innovation and banking sector to create on ground social impact and I would like extend my services and be part of this ever evolving space of innovation in agri lending that Harvesting is working on.

Harvesting Inc rolled out its India operation since April this year. Ruchit Garg, Founder and CEO, Harvesting, says, “India is undoubtedly the most important market for us because the agriculture base here is strong and with Mr Srivastava’s deep understanding of Indian banking system and lending specifically, will be a big boost to Harvesting’s growth plans in India. We are honored to have Mr Srivastava join our advisory board pro-bono.”

[caption id="attachment_125001" align="alignleft" width="330"] Sunil Srivastava[/caption]Mr Srivastava comes with a keen insight into the behavioural dynamics of the rural and agri borrowing community and is also well versed with the lending norms and practices of the banking system in India, which will be an added benefit for Harvesting as it accelerates its business here.

Harvesting is currently in the process of building its India team and has undertaken a series of pilot projects with financial institutions here.

Harvesting (www.harvesting.co ) is a FinTech company focused on connecting finance with small farm holders in emerging markets. Harvesting has been awarded Best Fintech for Financial Inclusion by FMO - Dutch Development Bank at African Microfinance Week. Harvesting is also a proud recipient of Global Grand Challenge Award by Singularity University. Harvesting is present across five continents.

Harvesting has received a grant from Catalyst Fund, an initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase & Co as a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Valley based Startup Grabs Former SBI Deputy MD Sunil Srivastava in Its Advisory Board

Silicon Valley based Harvesting Inc announces the joining of Sunil Srivasatva, Former Deputy Managing Director of State Bank of India in the advisory board. Srivastava joins pro-bono to extend his advice to FinTech enterprise Harvesting Inc for its India expansion and global strategy.

Srivastava was at the helm of the Corporate Accounts Group at SBI. He served as Deputy Managing Director of Corporate Strategies and New Businesses at State Bank of India since May 2014 and served as its Chief General Manager of Kolkata. Srivastava joined State Bank of India as a probationary officer in 1980.

Srivastava has been Additional Non-executive Director at Paisalo Digital Ltd, an NBFC since April this year. He also serves on the Board of Nasdaq-listed Eros International.

Speaking on his appointment, Sunil Srivastava, former Deputy MD, SBI, says, “The new era belongs to synergies between Fintech innovation and banking sector to create on ground social impact and I would like extend my services and be part of this ever evolving space of innovation in agri lending that Harvesting is working on.

Harvesting Inc rolled out its India operation since April this year. Ruchit Garg, Founder and CEO, Harvesting, says, “India is undoubtedly the most important market for us because the agriculture base here is strong and with Mr Srivastava’s deep understanding of Indian banking system and lending specifically, will be a big boost to Harvesting’s growth plans in India. We are honored to have Mr Srivastava join our advisory board pro-bono.”

[caption id="attachment_125001" align="alignleft" width="330"] Sunil Srivastava[/caption]Mr Srivastava comes with a keen insight into the behavioural dynamics of the rural and agri borrowing community and is also well versed with the lending norms and practices of the banking system in India, which will be an added benefit for Harvesting as it accelerates its business here.

Harvesting is currently in the process of building its India team and has undertaken a series of pilot projects with financial institutions here.

Harvesting (www.harvesting.co ) is a FinTech company focused on connecting finance with small farm holders in emerging markets. Harvesting has been awarded Best Fintech for Financial Inclusion by FMO - Dutch Development Bank at African Microfinance Week. Harvesting is also a proud recipient of Global Grand Challenge Award by Singularity University. Harvesting is present across five continents.

Harvesting has received a grant from Catalyst Fund, an initiative supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase & Co as a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Paytm's Parent One97's Revenue Grows To ₹829 Cr; Cuts Employee Benefits To Half

Indian e-wallet firm Paytm's parent, One97 Communication saw its revenue grew to Rs 829 crore for the financial year 2017, up from Rs 598 crore in the year before, even as its losses narrowed for the same period.

Last year, Paytm's parent split into two separate entities -- Paytm Payments Bank and Paytm E-commerce -- to comply with RBI’s regulatory requirements and transferred its primary wallet business to its bank. Paytm E-commerce had paid Rs 620 crore to One97 as part of the transfer of assets which has helped the parent reduce losses.

As Paytm benefited from the restructuring, the parent firm trimmed its losses to Rs 900 crore from Rs 1,497 crore, in the financial year 2015-16, as per filings made with Ministry of Corporate Affiars, said the TOI report citing filings sourced from Paper.vc.

Moreover, Paytm also managed to reduce its expenses by 14% from the previous financial year to Rs 1,775 crore as it cut its marketing costs by 30% for the same period. Its parent firm One97 also halved its employee benefits to Rs 143 crore from Rs 334 crore.

For financial year 2016-17, Paytm Payment Bank reported a loss of Rs 30 crore even as its e-commerce entity saw its losses trim to Rs 229 crore from Rs 318 crore the previous year. The company said because of its transfer of physical goods, online marketplace to Paytm e-commerce through business transfer agreement with effect from March 28, 2017, the loss of Rs 229 crore has been shown separately as loss from discontinued business in its filing.

Paytm's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's annual salary remains relatively unchanged. Filings for 2016-17, show he was drawing about Rs 3 crore, at par with his salary in 2015-16. The year before, he was drawing Rs 2.3 crore annually.

Paytm, one of the biggest spenders on marketing and advertising in the online payments space, has been on a customer acquisition drive with its new payments bank and hopes to cash in on the government's push for a digital India. With the company set to invest as much as Rs 5,000 crore in its payment bank in the next three years to enhance payment facilities for customers, Paytm has said it stands to gain from the surge in UPI and IMPS transactions. According to an earlier filing, the company plans to become operationally profitable by financial year 2019, as per a valuation paper commissioned by Paytm and prepared by Deloitte Haskins and Sells.

In July 2015, One97 Communications, the firm that owns the brand Paytm, acquired the title sponsorship rights for India's domestic and international cricket matches at home for a period of four years starting in August 2015.

In August 2015, Paytm received a license from Reserve Bank of India to launch a payments bank. The Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma hold 51% share in Paytm Payments Bank while One97 Communications holds 39% and 10% held by a subsidiary of One97 and Sharma.

Flipkart Shows The Door To 700-1000 Underperforming Employees

It's said in the world of startups, it is always the survival of the fittest. Whether you're a company or an employee, you work, you perform, show results, only then you get to stay; otherwise it's ta-ta, bye-bye, sayonara and you're quickly shown the door. Flipkart, one of India's most successful e-commerce startup employees are currently facing this very scenario.

According to reports doing round in the media, the Indian e-commerce giant is letting go of its underperforming employees in line with its strategy to have a leaner organisation structure and make an optimum use of its monetary resources. Apparently, the company has already asked some 700-1000 of its employees to either resign or be sent off with severance pay.

Industry experts are considering this step taken by Flipkart as a response to the recent valuation slash down that the company faced by Morgan Stanley and its continuous trouble in finding funding from investors. Prior to this, Flipkart was in the news for deferring the joining dates of its IIMs campus recruits.

Currently an organisation of 30,000 employees, Flipkart's aim is to be profitable and sustain it. In the times, when the online retail industry is experiencing a lull period and witnessing a number of shutdowns, Flipkart’s strategy to strike a balance between its growth goals and costings seems like an intelligent decision on the part of the organisation.

Recently, the company even placed a cap on the salaries of its employees and put a curb on its discount pricing. It is also striving to cutback its monthly burn rate by approximately 50 percent from about $ 80-100 million in the first half of 2016 to $40 million.

Recent times have seen a number of startups going on a layoff spree in an effort to realign their resources and focus on their core areas. One of the major layoff this year has been Grofers which let go off 10 percent of its workforce this year in June. In addition to this, Hiree decided to fire about 80% of its workforce in April and was joined by InMobi letting go off close to 100 of its employees. January also saw more than 150 CommonFloor employees getting the pink slips when the former was acquired by Quikr.

In an effort to curb the rumours and regain the confidence of its employees, Flipkart has issued a statement stating, "As a performance oriented organisation, we have a transparent evaluation process in place. Employees are assessed in a fair, simple, transparent and development oriented manner. We use our review process to differentiate performance and maintain a high bar, which is reflected in our total rewards philosophy. The top performers are rewarded highly and promoted to the next growth level. The solid performers are accordingly recognized and groomed for future roles through mentoring, coaching and on-the-job learning opportunities. At times, we have employees who do not meet the performance bar. In those situations, we work closely with employees to enable them to improve their performance. In due course, if these employees are unable to make the desired progress, they are encouraged to seek opportunities outside the company where their skills can be better utilized. This is a fairly common practice across various industries- especially in high-performing internet organizations."

This is a developing story. Keep watching this space for more updates.

Flipkart sues "FlipkartDiscounts", for using its name

Bangalore-based Tiger Global-backed ecommerce company Flipkart  has filed a case against a firm named FlipkartDiscounts, a Seoni, Madhya Pradesh based company before the Delhi High Court accusing the latter of copyright and trademark infringement.

FlipkartDiscounts provides several discounted listings on its site and also directs consumers to various ecommerce portals including Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and Paytm.



"The court has accepted case against the website from operating under the current name and transfer the same to any third party," a Flipkart spokesperson said.

The case is currently open with Delhi High Court and Flipkart is being represented by the lawyer Pratibha M Singh. A high court bench said in its interim order on March 23.

"The grievance of the plaintiffs is that the defendants are using the domain name www.flipkartdiscounts.net which infringes the plaintiffs' registered trademark 'Flipkart'," a high court bench said in its interim order on March 23. "The plaintiffs are operating the website www.flipkart.com since 2007, which is very popular for making online purchases for a variety of products," it said.



On its website, FlipkartDiscounts has given the name, email address and social network handles of one Shubham Thakur as the contact person. An email query to Thakur did not elicit any response till press time Friday.

The success of homegrown ecommerce companies like Flipkart and Snapdeal in India has triggered a rush of me-too online retailers.

There are at least 15 ecommerce sites that have 'kart' appended to their name, ranging from relatively better known portals such as HealthKart and LensKart to lesser known ones like VeggieKart, SafetyKart, Mygreenkart, Metal-kart, Bagskart and AssamKart. Similarly, at least a dozen sites have 'deal' in their names like entedeal and freedealsguru.

Last year, a similar situation had come to play involving Snapdeal wherein Snapdeal.pk, an ecommerce store based out of Pakistan, was cashing on Snapdeal’s name, copying everything from the design to the logo.

According to Flipkart's spokesperson "We at Flipkart take stringent steps to safeguard our brand and trademarks," . Flipkart is also accusing FlipkartDiscounts of using similar logo.

"The defendants, on their website, are using the name and logo of the plaintiffs and selling the same products as offered by the plaintiffs, with discounts and at prices offered by the plaintiffs, by creating links to the plaintiffs' website and displaying the same on their own website," the Delhi High Court interim order said. "The submission is that even this constitutes infringement of the plaintiffs' trademarks and copyright."

What's your opinion on this copyright infringement case by Flipkart?

Snapdeal Opens New 450,000 Sq. Ft. Campus in Gurgaon

Millennium city Gurgaon recently got to witness the grand launch of a campus-style office of online shopping heavyweight Snapdeal by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Snapdeal, one of the largest digital commerce marketplaces in the country, has been planning to consolidate its offices and relocate to a campus-style office, since the beginning of the year.

According to statistics available, the number of Snapdeal employees have jumped fourfold within a year. The new Gurgaon office is a 450,000 sq. ft campus, capable of housing close to 4,500 employees.

According to Saurabh Nigam, vice-president of human resources (HR) at Snapdeal, the number of Snapdeal employees have grown from 1,200 employees to 5,000-plus in just one year. While the pace of hiring might not remain the same next year but the ramp-up will surely continue and hence, consolidation was a necessary step for the company.

The company, which had eight offices in South Delhi’s Okhla region by the start of the year, plans to retain some of its existing offices.



Speaking at the inauguration, the Haryana CM said, "I am quite certain that with Snapdeal now here, Gurgaon will also become an important hub of India's e-commerce sector."

According to information available till now, the new campus is most likely to house the technology, category, finance and HR teams, while the sales and customer services team will continue to work from the Delhi offices.

It took Snapdeal more than six months to search the perfect location for its campus-style office. In the end, Gurgaon made the cut and emerged as a clear winner.

Following the mantra of a "happy employee means a successful company," Snapdeal's new office reportedly has amenities such as a medical centre and a food court, along with services like library, gym, spa and a crèche for working parents.

Backed by big investors such as SoftBank, eBay Inc., BlackRock, Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Temasek, the ecommerce giant is expected to grow at a larger pace in the future.

Speaking about Snapdeal's plan for the future, Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder and CEO, Snapdeal said, "E-commerce is a new-age industry and it requires young professionals to drive it."

He further added, "Snapdeal, as one of the vanguards of digital commerce wants to create an environment of enterprise and long-term sustainability for the sector. Our Gurgaon campus is home to 5,000 of the biggest and sharpest minds in the country."

Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce company, is also building a similar 1.5 million sq. ft campus in the city Bengaluru. The campus, that is expected to be completed by the year 2017, will have a housing capacity of 12,000 people.

Snapdeal Opens New 450,000 Sq. Ft. Campus in Gurgaon

Millennium city Gurgaon recently got to witness the grand launch of a campus-style office of online shopping heavyweight Snapdeal by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Snapdeal, one of the largest digital commerce marketplaces in the country, has been planning to consolidate its offices and relocate to a campus-style office, since the beginning of the year.

According to statistics available, the number of Snapdeal employees have jumped fourfold within a year. The new Gurgaon office is a 450,000 sq. ft campus, capable of housing close to 4,500 employees.

According to Saurabh Nigam, vice-president of human resources (HR) at Snapdeal, the number of Snapdeal employees have grown from 1,200 employees to 5,000-plus in just one year. While the pace of hiring might not remain the same next year but the ramp-up will surely continue and hence, consolidation was a necessary step for the company.

The company, which had eight offices in South Delhi’s Okhla region by the start of the year, plans to retain some of its existing offices.



Speaking at the inauguration, the Haryana CM said, "I am quite certain that with Snapdeal now here, Gurgaon will also become an important hub of India's e-commerce sector."

According to information available till now, the new campus is most likely to house the technology, category, finance and HR teams, while the sales and customer services team will continue to work from the Delhi offices.

It took Snapdeal more than six months to search the perfect location for its campus-style office. In the end, Gurgaon made the cut and emerged as a clear winner.

Following the mantra of a "happy employee means a successful company," Snapdeal's new office reportedly has amenities such as a medical centre and a food court, along with services like library, gym, spa and a crèche for working parents.

Backed by big investors such as SoftBank, eBay Inc., BlackRock, Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Temasek, the ecommerce giant is expected to grow at a larger pace in the future.

Speaking about Snapdeal's plan for the future, Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder and CEO, Snapdeal said, "E-commerce is a new-age industry and it requires young professionals to drive it."

He further added, "Snapdeal, as one of the vanguards of digital commerce wants to create an environment of enterprise and long-term sustainability for the sector. Our Gurgaon campus is home to 5,000 of the biggest and sharpest minds in the country."

Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce company, is also building a similar 1.5 million sq. ft campus in the city Bengaluru. The campus, that is expected to be completed by the year 2017, will have a housing capacity of 12,000 people.