Tech Data, a TD SYNNEX Company, Seals Strategic Partnership with Yugabyte In A First Globally

Partnership to support growth of cloud-native database market in Asia Pacific & Japan

Tech Data, a TD SYNNEX company, today announced a new partnership with Yugabyte, a leader in open source distributed SQL databases. This partnership in the Asia Pacific & Japan region is the first for Yugabyte across TD SYNNEX & Tech Data globally. It supports Tech Data’s strategy on driving digital transformation built on data for business partners by accelerating capabilities in cloud native architectures, especially for born in the cloud partner ecosystems.

With growing interest around transformative trends such as Mission Critical Microservices due to its promise of improved scalability when compared to monolithic systems1, born in the cloud apps, edge and IOT applications are driving shifts in today’s database market. IDC Futurescape predicts that “by 2024, nearly 60% of organizations’ new custom-developed applications will be built and managed using microservices as foundations for stronger and higher performing automation.”2 These shifts necessitate the need for modern databases to support these modern applications.

“We have observed a trend of end-customers looking to move apps to both hybrid and multi-cloud, as well as new startups building applications in the cloud. With a distributed SQL database built to power global-scale cloud native applications, Yugabyte is well positioned to value-add and support their needs as their operations scale,” shared Bennett Wong, Vice-President for Advanced Solutions, Modern Data Center & Analytics, Tech Data Asia Pacific & Japan.

“As more organizations and ISV’s in Asia embrace digital transformation and app modernization, the need for a cloud-native database is rising. YugabyteDB is built to simplify data geo-distribution as well as to enable speed, scale, resiliency, security and portability, all critical for modern workloads. Our partnership with Tech Data will help accelerate the adoption of YugabyteDB to support partners in modernizing the data layer for their customers. Tech Data’s alignment to open source technologies and presence across the APJ market will allow us to quickly connect and engage with the partner ecosystem effectively.” Says Danny Zaidifard, VP, Business Development & Partners at Yugabyte.

The benefits of this new partnership include:

• Expanded capabilities in cloud native architectures for born in the cloud partner ecosystems, allowing enterprises to focus on business growth instead of complex data infrastructure management.
• Full alignment with Tech Data’s Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy for Next Generation Data Centers in Infrastructure Modernization, Data Center Automation, Application Modernization, Cloud Operating Model, and Workload Segmentations, towards supporting digital transformation.
• Being the cornerstone of Tech Data’s Analytics GTM strategy for Data Modernization, Data Fabric, and Hybrid Motion to support modern applications, where microservices need a cloud native relational database that is resilient, scalable, and geo-distributed to complement our customers’ data maturity journey.

"We are excited to collaborate with Yugabyte to support the enormous growth of independent software vendors and startups across the Asia Pacific and Japan region, particularly in markets like India where Tech Data has deep roots in the enterprise partner ecosystem. This new partnership supports our goal of being a leader in Data Lifecycle and also enables us to expand into application and database modernization,” added Bennett Wong.

[1] Microservices: Migration of a Mission Critical System, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, Volume 14, Issue 5, Sep – Oct 2021.

[2] IDC Futurescape: Worldwide Developer and DevOps 2021 Predictions, Doc # US46417220, October 2020.

About Tech Data

Tech Data, a TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX) company, is a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem. We’re an innovative partner helping more than 150,000 customers in 100+ countries to maximize the value of technology investments, demonstrate business outcomes and unlock growth opportunities. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, and Fremont, California, TD SYNNEX’ 22,000 co-workers are dedicated to uniting compelling IT products, services and solutions from 1,500+ best-in-class technology vendors. Our edge-to-cloud portfolio is anchored in some of the highest-growth technology segments including cloud, cybersecurity, big data/analytics, IoT, mobility and everything as a service. TD SYNNEX is committed to serving customers and communities, and we believe we can have a positive impact on our people and our planet, intentionally acting as a respected corporate citizen. We aspire to be a diverse and inclusive employer of choice for talent across the IT ecosystem. For more information, visit www.TDSYNNEX.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

About Yugabyte

Yugabyte is the company behind YugabyteDB, the open source, high-performance distributed SQL database for building global, cloud-native applications. YugabyteDB serves business-critical applications with SQL query flexibility, high performance and cloud-native agility, thus allowing enterprises to focus on business growth instead of complex data infrastructure management. It is trusted by companies in cybersecurity, financial markets, IoT, retail, e-commerce, and other verticals. Founded in 2016 by former Facebook and Oracle engineers, Yugabyte is backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, 8VC, Dell Technologies Capital, Sapphire Ventures, and others. www.yugabyte.com

EnableX and C-Zentrix Announce Partnership to Revolutionise Customer Service Solutions

EnableX, one of the fastest-growing Communication Platform-as-a-Service provider, and C-Zentrix, a leading customer experience solutions provider, today announced their partnership to enhance the latter’s gamut of customer service solutions with EnableX’s voice and video communication capabilities.

To begin with, the two companies unveil the first product that has augmented – CZ Chat.  A leading online omnichannel chat that comes with integration with various messaging platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter and others, along with web analytics capabilities, CZ Chat will have its communications capabilities expanded from text chats to include audio and video calls as well. Additionally, now, it will also have collaborative features such as Screen sharing and recording.

“The digital revolution has transformed the way consumers behave and interact. Consumers expect immediate and engaging communications beyond just text chat to voice and video which is more personal and effective.

By partnering with EnableX, we can quickly and easily embed additional communication channels like Video within CZ Chat to drive deeper customer engagement and build meaningful customer relationship” said Mr Saket Setu, Chief Executive Officer, C-Zentrix.

This all-in-one solution will differentiate CZ Chat in multiple ways.  First, it gives consumers a choice to use their preferred communication channel(s). A consumer can start off with text chat or a phone call and move on to voice or video chat when more in-depth conversations are required.

Second, a video call allows agents to view the customer’s state of emotion and express empathy, both verbally and visually. This facilitates better customer engagement. In addition, the “see-what-I-see” experience via video allows the agent to better understand the context of the issue and address it accurately.

“A consumer may prefer to make simple inquiries over a text message but when faced with a complex purchase or when making a significant decision, like applying for a mortgage, most consumers would want to talk to a qualified human expert over a video call.

Once on a video call, together with screen sharing, co-browsing and annotation features, consumers can engage in an in-depth discussion. This results in reducing the time-to-resolve rate and improves customer experience” said Mr Pankaj Gupta, CEO and Founder of EnableX.

The enhanced audio and video communications capabilities are completely embedded within CZ Chat and are transparent to the users.

This means that consumers will not need to exit the CZ Chat to access another video/audio communication tool to connect with the agent. This also means that historical communication data is readily accessible by customer service staff, providing the full context of the conversation.

“The EnableX carrier-grade platform comes with easy-to-use APIs allowing businesses to swiftly add live voice, video and other communication channels directly into the context of any website, software or mobile application, enabling seamless in-app conversations. Businesses don’t need to invest in costly proprietary hardware that lacks adaptability and scalability. EnableX allows service providers like C-Zentrix to go-to-market quickly and at minimum cost,” said Mr Gupta.

The newly launched CZ video chat is available to enterprise customers via C-Zentrix’s global offices.

“We are very excited about the new all-in-one CZ Chat and expect our customers to have a complete omni channel capability for superior customer experience. The full-stack of text, audio and video communications capabilities is what customers are demanding as they engage with businesses. Our customers can now provide a video contact center!”, said Mr Arijit Chatterji, Chief Business Officer, C-Zentrix.

EnableX, a product of vCloudx, is a communication platform for integrating real-time communication into apps and websites. The scalable and secure global platform provides developers and service providers with powerful APIs to create video, voice and messaging conversations with ease.

From one-to-one chats to large scale broadcasts, EnableX makes communications more flexible and personal, helping enterprises stay ahead in the digital world.

​Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Singapore, EnableX has established a strong foothold in ​APAC countries, especially India. Backed by a team of 30 ​passionate technologists, it constantly challenges the status quo to empower Fortune 500 companies as well as start-ups across the globe​ with its highly interactive and powerfully engaging customer experience​ platform.

C-Zentrix is a leading Customer Experience and Contact Center Software company which has been recognized by Gartner multiple times. Its AI infused Omnichannel contact center platform enhances business to provide better business outcomes and superior customer experience.

C-Zentrix solution for Contact center comes with its robust telephony along with chat, chatbot, social media, Whatsapp integration and Speech based IVR. It has its own service CRM as well as integrates with leading CRMs, globally.

C-Zentrix customers find the solution as very scalable, cost-effective and customizable to their requirements.

 

Lawyered partners with LAWyers Club India to create One-Stop-Shop Ecosystem for the Legal Community

United by common mission and vision, Lawyered - India’s first Legal-Tech Discovery Platform and LAWyersclubindia (LCI) - India’s largest Legal Community Platform have come together with a new alliance to better serve the community including legal professionals as well as legal advice seekers. This recently announced partnership presents an indisputable Power-of-Two platform and is going to transform how legal services are sought and delivered.

Seeing the overall effect of the Digital Revolution and the Internet Age, the Legal Industry is gradually adapting to technological calling. The Legal-Tech is changing the traditionally conservative field of law from merely being a buzzword to becoming the future of law. Law firms, too, are quickly realizing the value of Legal-Tech and are trying to adapt. Some have even started generating significant revenue by using various apps and tools standardizing, automating, and ‘productizing’ what were once labour-intensive tasks.



One of the key areas which Legal-Tech is transforming is how we find lawyers. With the population of internet users crossing the 4 Billion mark in 2018, showing a 7% growth year-on-year, consumer demand through the internet is driving big changes in the way we find lawyers.

In the past, businesses and individuals found lawyers through personal connections or word-of-mouth. Personal referrals can be as inefficient in law as in any other industry, as your network might not know the right type of lawyer for you. This is where the online platforms, like Lawyered - which help in lawyers discoverability and LAWyersclubindia - providing a knowledge-sharing community platform for individuals seeking legal advice and legal professionals, are adding value. In addition to enhancing the ease of availing suitable services of a lawyer, the Lawyered platform also ensures greater transparency in terms of price and quality. They are equally as beneficial to lawyers as they are for consumers, as now independent lawyers have a greater chance and platform to build brands as big as the largest law firms.

With a Mission "to help people feel legally empowered" and Vision "to create a world in which every citizen has a legal advisor" Lawyered finds a strong synergy with LCI helping in advancing the "rule-of-law" in the country.

Himanshu Gupta, co-founder & CEO Lawyered said, “The greatest beneficiaries of this alliance are the consumers, as they can now afford greater visibility and access to a wide range of legal services and providers.”

Praveen Sharma, CBO LAWyersclubindia said, “It is very clear that the legal industry in India is looking for new and innovative solutions to connect with and serve the clients. With this alliance we are adding technology with the power of community to create a strong bridge for the engagement between legal service providers and legal advice seekers - we are very excited about this partnership”

OYO Announces Partnership With Biz2Credit to Provide Small Business Financing Options to Asset Partners

OYO, the world's third-largest and fastest-growing chain of hotels, homes and spaces*, has partnered with Biz2Credit, a leading online financing resource for small businesses, to provide working capital and commercial real estate loans to existing and potential hotel partners.

OYO, the world's third-largest and fastest-growing chain of hotels, homes and spaces*, has partnered with Biz2Credit, a leading online financing resource for small businesses, to provide working capital and commercial real estate loans to existing and potential hotel partners.

The partnership with Biz2Credit will start from the US market and will aid its efforts to provide hotel owners with fast financing efficiently for a wide range of purposes, including renovation, redesign, infrastructure upgrade and investment in technology for improved revenue management and operations.

“We are excited about partnering with Biz2Credit to support our asset partners across the United States, with their financing requirements,” said Abhinav Sinha, Chief Operating Officer and Operating Partner, OYO Hotels & Homes, USA. “Biz2Credit is one of the best known, longest established and most successful companies in the FinTech space. They are an important strategic partner for OYO as we pursue our expansion plans in the U.S. and elsewhere while staying true to our commitment to our real estate partners by putting skin in the game. We are certain that through this partnership, our asset partners will be able to benefit from OYO’s tech-enabled and data science-backed world-class expertise in interior design and renovations and revenue management.”

A pioneer in the FinTech industry, Biz2Credit uses the latest technology to connect small business owners with financing options based on each potential customer’s unique business profile. All transactions are conducted in a safe, efficient, and price-transparent environment that’s fully online.

“This will be a mutual referral agreement in which Biz2Credit will also refer its hotel clients to OYO for potentially opening new OYO properties,” said Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit’s CEO and one of the top experts in small business financing and FinTech. "We are proud to partner with a growing global hospitality company that has brought its successful business model to the real estate owners across many countries. Biz2Credit helps streamline the financing process and saves time, effort, and cost in order to get business owners the best financing options available today."

OYO, as the world’s third-largest hotel chain, is using technology, business expertise and talent to create beautifully designed, chic and comfortable living spaces. The company has attracted some of the world’s leading investors, including Airbnb, SoftBank Vision Fund, Greenoak Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Hero Enterprise.

When 19-year-old Ritesh Agarwal founded OYO, he couldn’t have imagined it would be the world’s fastest-growing hotel chain only six years later. That success in the U.S. and across the world led Agarwal to sign a $2 billion primary and secondary management investment round, allowing him to increase his stake in the business.

Opening its doors in 2013, OYO Hotels & Homes is the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing chain of hotels, homes, and spaces, by room count*. The portfolio combines fully operated real estate comprising of more than 23,000 hotels and 125,000 vacation homes.

Additionally, OYO along with Vacation Homes categories managed by the company under OYO Homes, Belvilla, Danland, Dancenter along with Germany-based Traum-Ferienwohnungen brands can be found in more than 800 cities in 80 countries, including the U.S., Europe, U.K., India, Malaysia, Middle East, Indonesia, Philippines, and Japan. For more information, log onto https://www.oyorooms.com.

Founded in 2007, Biz2Credit has arranged more than $2 billion in small business financing and has several times been named to Crain’s New York’s Fast 50 and was ranked among the top 200 fast-growing companies on Deloitte's 2018 Technology Fast 500.

Biz2Credit is expanding its industry-leading technology in custom digital platform solutions for leading banks and other financial institutions. Biz2Credit has operations in four large global markets: the United States, Canada, India, and Australia.

The platform is SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certified and runs on Amazon Web Services with 99.9% availability.

~Via Business Wire India

PayU, IRCTC Joins Hand To Lends Online Payment Services To Users

India’s leading internet payment service provider, PayU has announced its collaborations with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to provide users a safe and secure option to pay for rail tickets booked via the IRCTC website.

According to ETRetail, PayU will now be available as a payment option under the Multiple Payment Services or MPS option on the IRCTC website at the payment stage of booking an e- ticket. Clicking on this option will enable users to make a safe and secure transaction via various payment options like internet banking, debit/credit card, and e-wallet.

Commenting on the development, Rahul Kothari, Enterprise Business Head, PayU India said, “Our payment gateway operates around 80% of the e-commerce business in India today, and this collaboration with IRCTC is aligned with our vision to simplify the payment experience for the growing digital savvy consumers as well as the merchants. Undoubtedly, this is a very large and prestigious mandate for us. IRCTC's biggest strength, its traffic, combined with the success rate of our payment gateway, which is the best in the industry today, is a great match and has a huge potential to enhance the digital transactions landscape and contribute towards making India a cashless/less cash economy.”

Earlier in May 2017, PayU has partnered with Mswipe Technologies Private Limited, India’s largest independent POS merchant acquirer and network provider for digital payments. PayU India claims to processes over 6500 crores worth of digital transactions every month and enjoys a success rate that is 10% higher than the industry average.

Talking about IRCTC, it claims to records 6 lakh transactions per day on an average with the total number of bookings hitting a whopping 13 lakh figure on peak days. Earlier this year, IRCTC has partnered with ePayLater, India’s first of its kind “Buy Now Pay Later” checkout service to offer a quick and completely frictionless payment experience for ticket bookings.

New York Based Blockchain Plans To Enter Indian Market; Join Hands With Unocoin In India

It was in 2008 when the world was introduced to a new crypto currency called Bitcoin which changed the cryptocurrency game forever. In the last couple of years, the technology has grown to become one of the most talked about trends in the financial world.

If talk about India, Bitcoin trend is slowly and steadily gearing its pace. In the recent development, amidst discussions within the government of India on the regulatory mandate for bitcoins, Sir Richard Branson backed Blockchain has decided to enter the Indian market with a strategic partnership with Bengaluru-based cryptocurrency exchange Unocoin.

New York based Bitcoin wallet provider and software developer, Blockchain has its offices in London and is soon planning to bring their software platform for digital currency to India through Unocoin, reports ETtech.

According to Nicolas Cary, Co-founder, Blockchain, their platform will give users greater hold on their bitcoins purchase without any compromise on security.

Commenting on the development, Cary said, "For the last eight years, using bitcoins has been difficult with not many knowing about it. There have been issues on many processes, settlement delays, verification procedure issues and two faced service providers."

With this partnership, Cary aims to reduce the issues between the end user and exchanges and provide a seamless experience.

Founded in 2011 by Peter Smith, Nic Cary and Ben Reeves, Blockchain has raised around $70 million from Google Ventures, Lakestar, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sir Richard Branson, Digital Currency Group and others. Among the key stakeholders are Antony Jenkins, former, CEO, Barclays, Michael Jackson, former COO, Skype, Arthur Levitt, former chairman, SEC and Salil Pitroda - investor & entrepreneur.

Cary believes that the market cap for cryptocurrency is around $164 billion and economies like India have a great potential to add to that. He highlighted a report which says that around 2500 Indians are investing in bitcoins daily and they would try and increase that number through their platform.

"I hope that legal hassles related to bitcoins would soon be solved in India and it will become a legal tender," he informed.

For those who are unaware about the currency, it is invented by a cryptographer with the help of pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a digital currency that allows people to perform peer-to-peer transactions without taking the help of any third party such as the banks.

If we talk about India, the country has emerged as one of the important nation for Bitcoin’s growth and future. And do you know what is the main reason behind its surge? It is none other than the demonetization drive. With ATMs and banks running dry, people were left with no other choice than to turn towards digital currencies and mobile wallets to quench their cash which in turn helped boost Bitcoin usage like never before.

But it is important to note that Bitcoin players in India have urged the government to provide clarity on the exact legal status of virtual currencies in India so as to enlighten the consumers who are still confused on using these digital currencies in the country.

Though not yet recognized by the country’s government, the Bitcoin industry in India is still seeing an increasing growth in the number of Bitcoin players as well as users.

With the fast-paced world of fintech, technology is transforming the conventional financial industry. Today, the application of blockchain can be used to secure land record maintenance. The technology offers great potential to India’s property right governance, especially with the country’s current focus on digital India. With such development we can surely say that Blockchain is soon going to become the "it" thing of the technological world.

ISB Partners With Sap India To Nurture Tech Startups

The Indian School of Business (ISB) and SAP Labs India have entered into a collaboration to nurture technology-based startups. They will focus on the ventures dealing in the social space and that are working in areas that have relevance to national priorities.

According to a statement issued by the ISB, titled Jumpstart Social Enterprise Accelerator, the programme aims to identify and support 10 early stage and 5 growth stage promising ventures by providing guidance, mentorship and scaling up their technology solutions that can bring about a large scale impact on the lives of common people.

Commenting on the development, Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Managing Director of SAP Labs India said, "Through this initiative, we are supporting in creating investible and growth oriented social enterprises which can contribute to the economic development of our country."

Startups that are targeting sectors such as education, healthcare, water and sanitation, energy, agriculture, financial technology, infrastructure, livelihoods and others are eligible to apply for the programme, reports PTI.

According to the Dean of ISB, Rajendra Srivastava the B-School is committed to its goal of taking on a larger role of incubating and supporting entrepreneurial ideas as well as scaling up ventures that will potentially generate employment, foster economic and social progress and create significant social value for the country.

"The ISB SAP Jumpstart accelerator programme is one such initiative to support promising entrepreneurs in thinking big and help scale their businesses to create impact in areas of national priority and help build a better tomorrow," Srivastava concludes.

IAN Partners With Kolkata Based Neotec Hub To Help Bolster Startup Ecosystem In The East

Reaffirming its commitment to support Startups countrywide including East India, Indian Angel Network (IAN) has announced a strategic partnership with Neotec Hub, an incubator started by Kolkata based corporate house - Ambuja Neotia, bringing innovative entrepreneurs, angel investors and corporates together on a single platform.

Kolkata is a little nascent in the development of the startup ecosystem but that exactly is the opportunity for innovative companies to start and create high growth companies. The city breeds high-quality talent which is critical for a robust startup ecosystem to breed.

With Neotec breeding innovation in the ever-emerging startup ecosystem, IAN would help fine tune their business strategy, provide mentorships as well as help them access to funds through IAN’s group of more than 450 angel investors.

Commenting on the partnership, Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN said, “The IAN - Neotec partnership will provide a huge impetus to the startup ecosystem in the entire Eastern Region and we should see many innovative ventures. We are really excited to bring the IAN platform along with the IAN Fund to entrepreneurs who can raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores off a single platform.”

Indian Angel Network has been instrumental in shaping India’s entrepreneurial landscape and has played a key role in incubating startups around the globe and support them through the entire journey from ideation to becoming enterprises and even after that. By collaborating with IAN, Neotech hub brings in a high-quality infrastructure accessible in the buzzing entrepreneur space of the city and empowering young entrepreneurs to access IAN's global mentoring pool and leverage its market reach.

“Lately, I have seen a lot of interest from the government towards the development of startups in the country. While there are incubator support in cities such as Hyderabad and Bangalore, in Calcutta it was yet to happen in a major way. With IAN joining hands with us, our aim is to create and offer a platform for the startups which not only encourages and promotes innovation but also give them the necessary hand-holding to grow,” said Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman Ambuja Neotia.

The strategic partnership will bring in the power of IAN’s network of highly successful and experienced entrepreneurs who are keen to mentor young startups with their domain expertise and experience in alignment with Neotec Hub’s One Year Incubation Program –which includes access to their existing businesses, Mentorship, Funding, Space and Infrastructure which will be made to available to the maximum number of Startups.

Earlier in August 2017, IAN has announced the signing of a MoU with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). This partnership brings the biotechnology startups closer to angel investors, who apart from money will provide invaluable mentoring and global market access. In June 2017, the firm has announced the launch of its operations in Israel.

Established in 2006 to foster entrepreneurship with a prime focus on nurturing and mentoring new generation entrepreneurs, IAN brought the concept of angel investment to India and has been instrumental in bringing India’s startup ecosystem on the global map. With investors from 10 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded startups across 17 sectors in India and 6 other countries growing global footprint companies.Some of its marquee investee companies include WebEngage (6x in 15 months of investment), Druva (289x over 7 years), Box8 (~3x over 4 years), Consure (10x over 40 months) amongst many others.  Most mainstream Indian VCs (like Sequoia, Nexus, Matrix Partners, Tenaya, IDG, Kalaari, USF, Accel, Inventus) have done a follow on round in IAN’s portfolio companies or co-invested with it.

Some of its marquee investee companies include WebEngage (6x in 15 months of investment), Druva (289x over 7 years), Box8 (~3x over 4 years), Consure (10x over 40 months) amongst many others.  Most mainstream Indian VCs (like Sequoia, Nexus, Matrix Partners, Tenaya, IDG, Kalaari, USF, Accel, Inventus) have done a follow on round in IAN’s portfolio companies or co-invested with it.

Israel's OurCrowd Joins Hand With LetsVenture To Fund Startups

A global leader in equity crowdfunding, OurCrowd has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with LetsVenture, India’s marketplace for startup funding.

As part of this partnership, OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform, giving selected Indian startups access to accredited investors globally and to business development opportunities.

Commenting on the development, Shanti Mohan, Co-founder and CEO, LetsVenture said, “Having made startup funding easy, our vision is to make angel investing easy with a focus on portfolio management (startup reporting, portfolio diversification and exits). The partnership with OurCrowd aligns with our vision of offering our investors access to some of the best startups across geographies including Israel, along with giving LetsVenture portfolio companies access to global investors for their next round of funding. In this partnership with one of the largest equity crowdfunding platforms globally, we do believe this is a win-win for both of us.”

OurCrowd and LetsVenture will be also be collaborating on an ‘India Fund’ to invest in Israeli, Indian and global startups. The investment into this fund would primarily be from family funds and HNWIs in India and OurCrowd’s global network of accredited investors.

Leveraging LetsVenture’s domestic network, OurCrowd will offer Indian corporates access to the Israeli innovation ecosystem.

“India is a critical growth market for our business with a huge number of very exciting startup investment opportunities in a range of sectors. Israel and India have a great joint heritage sharing many of the same entrepreneurial qualities that are the backbone of our economies. I am excited to be entering into this collaboration with LetsVenture, which I believe will deliver great value to our investors,” said Jon Medved, OurCrowd CEO.

In addition to this, LetsVenture will facilitate ‘Take to Market’ activities for OurCrowd’s portfolio companies to access the Indian market, the activities of which are under development by LetsVenture and are targeted to commence in 2018.

Managed by a team of seasoned investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd vets and selects opportunities, invests its own capital, and brings companies to its accredited membership of global investors. OurCrowd provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and takes board seats. The OurCrowd community of almost 20,000 investors from over 112 countries has invested over $450M into 120 portfolio companies and funds. OurCrowd already has thirteen exits to date, two IPO’s and eleven acquisitions.

Niki.ai, BookMyShow Partnership Provides Smart Movie Booking Experience To Its Users

AI startup, Niki.ai has partnered with online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow. Fulfilled by BookMyShow, Niki users can now search and book movie tickets across the country at their preferred cinema venues, while simply chatting with Niki. The Artificial Intelligence powered chat experience provides easy discovery and a host of options to the customers.

Commenting on the development, Parikshit Dar, Director, BookMyShow said, “BookMyShow has always been keen to partner on initiatives that promote new technologies and we are now excited to take lead in exploring the potential of chatbots in movie ticket bookings in India. With 75% of transactions coming through mobile on BookMyShow, we understand the importance of a ‘mobile first strategy’ and believe that our association with Niki.ai is a step forward in this direction.”

How does it work?
Want to watch a movie today with your office colleagues? But you can only watch after work and for the convenience of everyone, you want to watch it in a theatre near your office. For this you just need to type ‘Show English action movies near MG Road after 8 PM for today’ on Niki app and by applying multiple filters, such as movie name, genre, show timings, theatre location and more, easily in a single text message to Niki to can get your movie ticket booked.

Niki, while using emerging technologies of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, makes the whole movie booking process as simple as talking to a human booking agent since chatbot ‘Niki’ has the capability to understand complex queries.

It understands that users have multiple preferences while booking movie tickets and makes it extremely simple to work around these by presenting the users with options and recommendations that best suits their needs.

“With our vision to provide consumers with the most natural, simple and intelligent mode of transacting online, we have leveraged our technology of artificial intelligence combined with tackling consumer problems to build a one of a kind conversational theatre discovery and ticket booking experience,” said Sachin Jaiswal, CEO, Niki.ai.

Founded in 2015, and funded by Ratan Tata and Unilazer Ventures, Niki.ai envisions to provide one shop for everything commerce. Niki is an AI bot who converses to help its users shop for products and services and makes the whole journey from discovery to transaction fast, convenient and extremely simple. The company provides a simple and easy to use chat interface to shop for products and services. To the businesses, it provides a plug and play technology that can be easily integrated everywhere including operating systems, on messaging platforms messenger, and on the brand’s applications (app and web).

With a 35% month-on-month revenue growth, the company has 50+ partners on board, with much more in the pipeline. On the customer front, the company claims to have more than 400,000 customers using Niki.

The company plans to integrate many more services on its platform. It also plans on being on a lot more platforms like iOS and messaging platforms like Slack.

Defence IoT Startup CRON Systems Inks Technology Pact with Israel’s Defence Robotics Company ARI

CRON Systems, the Delhi-based defence IoT startup, today announced signing an exclusive technology agreement with Israeli defence robotics company, Automotive Robotic Industry Ltd (ARI) to integrate ARI rovers with CRON’s laser-guided surveillance systems. The integrated smart solution is targeted to serve the $50 billion perimeter security market globally. The collaboration could significantly improve the way the nation’s borders are guarded, by allowing machines to be the eyes on the ground and be the first responders and thereby reducing risk to the life of thousands of soldiers. At least 30 pilots have been scheduled for the BSF in Punjab and Jammu to demonstrate effectiveness in intrusion detection while reducing risk for soldiers.

The technology collaboration comes weeks after CRON secured pre-series A funding from early stage VC Fund YourNest. “This merger opens up the $50-billion international market for us. We want to contribute in defence forces’ equipment and weapons modernization drive. We can make a number of existing defence products smart and automated,” said Tushar Chhabra, founder and CEO of CRON Systems.

Started in 2015, CRON Systems combines deep research in lasers, data, artificial intelligence, encrypted communications and automation to offer accurate and seamless laser-guided intruder detection infrastructure. It has already bagged orders from the BSF and the Indian army for border surveillance. ARI builds all terrain and weatherproof Amstaff automated-rovers for defence forces. The tech merger will allow CRON to integrate Amstaff rovers with its command & control dashboard, which can be rushed to respond to intrusions instantly. The solution reduces response time to intrusions and mitigate element of surprise for soldiers patrolling the border.

“ARI develops the most advanced mission-oriented autonomous ground vehicles (AGV). While CRON surveillance system will be the mind and eye, ARI rovers will be its troops to respond to intrusions. The combined product will make the entire surveillance apparatus more reliable and responsive. This merger aligns with our vision to develop user-friendly and cost-effective AGV solutions,” said Amos Goren, founder of ARI Ltd.

CRON’s array of offerings include, integrated intrusion detection and smart fencing solution comprising laser walls, surveillance drones, and a command & control dashboard connected with an independent and encrypted communication network. It is a suitable product for every area or facility that needs to be fenced or guarded; like army camps, defence airstrips or industrial facilities.

Housing.com and Tata Housing Sign Strategic Deal to Build End to End Marketing Platform

Housing.com, Indian real estate platform and Tata Housing, a subsidiary of TATA Sons Limited have signed a multi-level strategic partnership deal as part of which Housing.com will offer a full stack solution by creating an exclusive integrated pan-India brand platform showcasing their current inventory (premium homes as well as Tata Value Homes) as well as exclusive launch of their upcoming projects. The deal is considered to be the biggest of its kind in terms of delivery and scale of services being deployed.

As part of this partnership, Housing.com will implement a wide gamut of solutions that include interactive tools like Virtual Reality, creation of exclusive content through Housing.com design studio, leveraging Housing News, IREF platforms as well as Housing.com’s events and brand platform. The partnership will also entail working jointly with Tata Housing to develop new and innovative solutions to manage the home buyer experience across online and offline channels.

This platform will offer users on Housing.com an unparalleled and seamless access to an inventory of properties across all major cities in India on a single integrated platform across premium and affordable segments. As part of this agreement, Tata Housing would also be deploying some of these solutions and technologies on their digital platforms. From Tata Housing’s perspective, the brand will get exclusive access to users of Housing.com that will augment their reach which would be further enhanced through Housing.com’s call centre and channel partners including broker ecosystem.

Speaking about the partnership, Mani Rangarajan, Chief Business Officer, Housing.com said, “Tata Housing is one of India’s most trusted names in the real estate sector and has been on the forefront of leveraging technology in the space. Technology and trust are also two of the most crucial pillars on which Housing.com was founded which makes this partnership all the more special for us. The deployment of a solution of this nature and scale is unprecedented in India and we are certain that it will change the way we buy homes. We have had a long standing association with Tata Housing and look forward to strengthening the relationship in the years to come.”

Commenting on this, Tarun Mehrotra, Head Sales and Marketing at Tata Housing said, "The way we buy homes has evolved over the last few years due to the advent of technology and the emergence of digital platform. This partnership will not only give us a much wider reach, but will also enhance the overall home buying experience for our customers. Housing.com has a very deep understanding of this space and is best suited for a strategic association of this nature. We look forward to working with them to make a substantial contribution to the real estate landscape in India.”

Image : Tarun Mehrotra, Head Sales and Marketing at Tata Housing

GetMeAShop Partners with PayPal to Enable Small Merchants to Access International Markets

GetMeAShop, a Times Internet backed e-commerce platform announced that it will enable small and medium merchant’s sell their products in the international market with the help of the PayPal payment system.

GetMeAShop develops 360 degree platforms and solutions that are easy and affordable for people, enabling them to sell their products online through internet and mobile mediums. Currently, GetMeAShop has more than 8000 registered merchants. According to a survey done internally, more than 30% clients wanted to sell internationally; hence GetMeAShop team solidified these partnerships. Through this partnership GetMeAShop will be able to do merchant onboarding with PayPal.

Pushkal Srivastava, Founder and Business Head GetMeAShop is quite enthusiastic about enabling merchants to sell internationally, “We are excited to partner with PayPal to help all our GetMeAShop merchants accept payments internationally. Along with our market leading omni channel technology ecosystem to help them in running their business offline and online;and by making the process completely hassle free, we can now enable and back them for a global footprint. With a deep technology integration and partnership, we will enable paperless on-boarding on the international payment gateway and are confident our existing merchants will make the most of this association while we welcome other businesses to go online with GetMeAShop.com right away!”

Along with enabling payments in a safer & more secure manner, PayPal offers Seller Protection which will protect the merchants online sales, minimize claims and chargebacks and help prevent merchant fraud . This is particularly important for small merchants selling in the global marketplace.

Speaking on the partnership, Himanshu Rajpal, Director Paypal, Small & Medium Business said, “Our partnership with GetMeAShop is in line with our vision to enable small businesses to sell globally. PayPal, backed by a strong risk and security infrastructure, presence across 200+ markets and a base of 192 million active consumer accounts is uniquely positioned to play a pivotal role in enabling these merchants access international markets and transact in a safe & secure manner.

GetMeAShop is striving to live by the vision “Technology for Everyone”. Also, after the government’s demonetization move, merchants are showing an increased interest towards setting up online stores to increase consumer interest towards digital payments. GetMeAShop has seen a 100% increase in the number of merchant queries every day, and all of them want to setup an online store and receive digital payments.

GetMeAShop will not only help its merchants accept domestic payments but also international payments with the assistance of PayPal. Presently, they are also working on developing some cutting edge sales solutions for the online retail industry. Logistics is an important component of the eCommerce ecosystem thus to enable logistics GetMeAShop have integrated one-click technology integration to schedule shipments and pickups.

Image Source: ShutterStock

InMobi And Tapjoy Forge Exclusive Partnership in India

InMobi, a global mobile advertising and discovery platform, today announced that it is partnering with Tapjoy, a leading platform for mobile advertising and app monetization, to monetize Tapjoy’s inventory in India.

Mobile gaming continues to see growing adoption in India. According to a report by Nasscom, mobile game downloads are expected to grow at a CAGR of 58% over the next five years, touching an estimated 5.3 billion downloads in 2020.

Capitalizing on this trend, InMobi’s partnership with Tapjoy presents a robust opportunity for Indian advertisers to enhance their reach to a wide selection of global mobile gaming apps. Tapjoy has 40 million unique users in India across popular mobile games such as 8 Ball Pool, Criminal Case, Shadow Fight 2, and Subway Surfers, and advertisers will be able to expand their reach beyond InMobi’s 135mn unique devices in India through access to Tapjoy’s India inventory.

Tapjoy’s Interplay ads help marketers connect with a qualified audience in premium apps. Tapjoy offers a complete suite of advertising products including engagement-based ad experiences like video and gamified rich media, as well as performance-based ad solutions to drive a direct response, grow advertisers’ consumer base, and increase in-app engagement.

“We are excited to be Tapjoy’s exclusive monetization partner in India. Mobile gaming is growing at an exponential pace in India and through this partnership we are bringing the best of global mobile gaming inventory to advertisers in India who want to reach high quality users,” said Vasuta Agarwal, VP and GM India, InMobi.

“InMobi is a fantastic partner for Tapjoy in India thanks to it's long-standing reputation for delivering high-quality mobile advertising solutions for local performance advertisers and brand agencies” said Paul Longhenry, SVP of Strategy, Business and Corporate Development for Tapjoy. "Our international game studio partners are seeing very strong growth with Indian consumers and we're excited to work with InMobi to ensure those audiences are presented with highly engaging rewarded ads from their favorite local brands."

AuthBridge Partners With Baxi for Background Verification of Bike Taxi Riders

AuthBridge, a global background verification and risk mitigation company, has announced its tie-up with Baxi, an on demand bike taxi company as exclusive background screening partners. As an exclusive partner, AuthBridge will conduct background verification of Baxi’s ‘Buddies’, the bike taxi riders associated with the company. Baxi is India’s first on-demand bike taxi service that operates with commercially-licensed two wheelers.

On this occasion, Ajay Trehan, CEO, AuthBridge said, “Baxi has very aggressive growth plans and we are glad to support their expansion with background verification of all new Baxi Buddies, thereby helping Baxi provide safe and reliable services to their customers across multiple cities.”

This announcement follows Baxi’s plans of on-boarding 10,000 buddies to improve last-mile connectivity across cities in the current financial year. Baxi currently operates in Gurgaon and Faridabad and will be launching operations across Haryana in the coming months. AuthBridge will play a vital role in verifying these new riders.

“Technology is what links us. At AuthBridge, we use the latest technology and advanced algorithms to deliver fast and accurate background screening results. This will help Baxi ensure customer safety while on-boarding buddies quickly” said Ajay.

Ashutosh Johri, Co-founder & CEO at Baxi said, “The arrangement with AuthBridge allows us to pre-screen the individuals who approach us to buy bikes and become part of the Baxi network. This helps us provide an added level of security to the end customer, and also gives comfort to the lenders to offer excellent financing terms to buy these commercial bikes. Over time, since most of the other operators are using the same service, we can create a verified list of bikers, on the lines of CIBIL, which can act as a deterrent for any negative behaviour or infraction on their part."

Together, AuthBridge and Baxi are expected to create a safe and powerful two wheeler transport infrastructure across the country.

Trainman Partners With Ola, Boosts Mobility, Access to Indian Railway Travelers

Trainman, the online platform that caters to Indian Railway travelers by assisting them with extensive train related information and intelligence, has partnered with Ola, India’s most popular mobile app for transportation. The tie-up enables Trainman consumers to book Ola rides while travelling to and from railway stations or anywhere in the city. The service will be made available to users of the Trainman android app across India where Ola is currently operational.

With this integration, Trainman users across cities will now be able to book an Ola cab across categories such as Micro, Mini, Prime and Lux directly from the Trainman app. A special Ola icon has been integrated on the home menu of the Trainman mobile app. Users can click on the icon and request for the nearest available Ola cab. Other than seeing the nearest available cabs, they will also get the details of estimated fare and the expected time of Arrival (ETA) for the cab. Real-time tracking will also be available for users booking an Ola cab through the Trainman app.

Talking about the development, Anuj Sahai, Vice President – Alliances at Ola said, “At Ola, we are focused on solving the diverse transportation needs of users across the country, by offering them the widest range of mobility use cases to choose from. We are looking at a number of solutions to provide a wholesome mobility experience to our customers. Our integration with Trainman will allow users to book their rides from and to railway stations in their cities. We have also partnered with local railway stations in large cities like Bangalore, where customers have the option to board their cab, from dedicated Ola Zones at the stations. We are committed to our mission of building mobility for a billion Indians by additionally leveraging such unique integrations.”

Speaking of the association, Vineet Chirania, Director and CEO – Trainman said, “We are happy to partner with Ola, India’s leading aggregator for transportation in India. With virtue of this tie up, we not only aim to provide our existing customers easy mobility and access but also look forward to expanding our user base by reaching out to all potential users of both Ola and Trainman mobile app(s). We believe this integration is a win-win situation for both Ola and Trainman as it will lead to organic growth in terms of reach and expansion across categories.”

A one stop shop for all information related to Indian Railways, Trainman enables consumers to check PNR status, seat availability, train schedules, all at one go. Available in 7 Indian languages apart from English, namely, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali Trainman has close to 6 lakh app downloads and receives over 2.5 lakh visits a day across its site and app.

Image : Vineet Chirania, Director and CEO – Trainman 

DJUBO and Indifi Partner Together to Provide Unsecured Loans for Upto 1400 Hotels in India

Indifi Technologies, an enabler for SME funding in India, has partnered with DJUBO, a cloud-based hotel tech solution. Under this partnership, over 1400 hotels that are associated with DJUBO, will have the opportunity to avail unsecured loans of up to 50 Lakhs within 3 business days through Indifi technologies.

The quick and convenient availability to these loans will be made possible for hotels by simply choosing to share their revenue data from their DJUBO systems with Indifi, to act as proof of creditworthiness.

The partnership between DJUBO & Indifi is aimed at making available, convenient & unsecured capital loans for hotels to invest in growth initiatives and improve their guest experience, in addition to the hotel digitization and revenue maximization technology suite already being offered to them by DJUBO.

Non-availability of adequate & timely financial aid is a major impediment in a hotel’s upkeep and growth. This partnership will help DJUBO's client hotels get business loans from Indifi’s extensive lender base with ease, enabling them to invest in modern amenities, service quality and operations, thereby improving guest delight. This positive spiral will result in better room realization, occupancy & profitability over time.

Elaborating on the successful association, Alok Mittal, Co-founder and CEO, Indifi Technologies said, “Indifi is committed to solving the credit access issues faced by small businesses across sectors in India. Our partnership with DJUBO creates a seamless platform for hotels, as well as the data infrastructure to enable strong credit quality for lenders”.

Sankalp Goel, Co-founder, DJUBO, “We strive to deliver value beyond a regular hotel tech product. DJUBO itself is revenue-focused tech product and on average our clients using the complete DJUBO platform experience, on average, 30-40% growth in revenues. We also became premium partners with TripAdvisor to allow hotels to acquire more bookings at lower commission via TripAdvisor and are partnering with Google to provide a similar opportunity to our clients. So this partnership with Indifi is another one of our attempts to deliver meaningful opportunities for our clients that will impact their business bottom lines and help independent hoteliers in India reach their true potential.”

Image : Tarun Gulati & Sankal Goel, Co-founders DJUBO

HealthCare at HOME Joins Hand With Critinext to Enhance Their ICU at Home Services

HealthCare at HOME (HCAH), a leading home healthcare service provider in India has partnered with ‘Critinext’, Asia’s largest e-ICU network, to enhance their ICU at Home services with e-monitoring capabilities. Through this partnership, HealthCare atHOME and Critinext will provide 24/7 intensive care facility managed by India’s top experts, who will e-monitor patient’s routine medical procedures through ICU setups at the comfort of their home.

ICU at home services by HCAH provides best-in-class step down care which will be delivered at home and patients will receive tech-friendly monitoring through digital clinical assessment forms and electronic visit reports from doctors. These services will be provided by 100% on-roll and registered staffs, who are comprehensively trained with Live ICU Training, and BLS Training, i.e. certified by American Heart Association. In a nutshell, it is a one-stop shop for all the critical care services that is incorporated with modern equipments and lab diagnostic services and medicine.

Commenting on this new partnership, Vivek Srivastava, Co-Founder, and CEO, HCAH said, “This joint venture will help HCAH increase its service offerings to the Healthcare sector. With this digital monitoring service, we hope to help the doctors with their long-term ICU patients whom they could not send home due to lack of quality care. This partnership will offer 24*7 intensive care under expert supervision to the patients at the comfort of their home and help us improve the services.”

There are many benefits to doctors, hospitals, and patients by this initiative. When patients get admitted to hospital there are various expenses, plus the recovery time is unpredictable, treatments at hospital stacks up high medical costs, whereas HCAH provides hospital like treatments at a reasonable cost at the comfort of your home. Hospitals can have higher community connect and extended reach via these services. Further, it has been observed that there is a drop in ALOS (average length of stay) for post-surgical and ICU patients through early discharge. And treatments that require long-term care at home instead of hospital leads to better average revenue per bed (acute care reserved for a hospital).

Dr. Gaurav Thukral, Senior Vice President, and Business Unit Director, HCAH India said, “There are many benefits to patients as it saves upto 50% of their expense, if we compare it with hospitalization that too with an assurity of early and safe recovery. The service also decreases the chances of complications and hospital acquired infections, as there are experts who look after the patients 24/7.”

Critinext provides Intensive Care Support & Monitoring. Those who opt for Critinext services, get support from intensivists and experts from all other specialties with daily medical round system and on-demand tele consultation. In addition to this, the company also offers live streaming of continuous bed-side monitoring to the command centre.

Pinak Shrikhande, Director, Critinext, said, “We are pleased to collaborate with HCAH, who is the leading provider of home healthcare in India. Not just patients, Doctors will also get benefits by this services as the service aids with increased retention of patients and greater reach. With such facility, patients also get peace of mind with a quality care service that we usually maintain at home.”

Global Accessories Company CAPDASE Joins Hands with YMS Mobitech

CAPDASE, a global pioneer in mobile accessories, has inked a strategic partnership with YMS Mobitech Pvt. Ltd, India’s largest app-based e-distribution ecosystem to spread its reach across YMS’ network of 11,262 retailers and 361 distributors across 383 cities. CAPDASE also announced its intent to set up its first manufacturing unit in India, outlining an aggressive sales target of 60 million dollars over the next three years.

Headquartered in Hong Kong, CAPDASE currently caters over 45 countries worldwide with strong presence in key smartphone markets of China, Indonesia, Philippines and Hong Kong. In 2016 alone, CAPDASE has sold more than 100 million mobile accessories. CAPDASE’s top product line includes Armour Suit Case for iPhone 7 & 7+, Quick Charger for car and wall charger, High protection tempered glass for most of the smart phone models, lifestyle car mint series, amongst others.

Making the announcement, Roy Chan, Channel Head-Asia Pacific, CAPDASE said, “While the accessories segment mirrors growth in the smartphone market, demand for varied and top-of-the line accessories is set to grow multi-fold in India. Phase 1 of our partnership with YMS Mobitech will involve reaching out to the metros and over 100 tier-1 cities and towns. Our target is to reach sales in excess of 10 mn USD in the financial year 2017-18, and grow from there.”

Talking about the collaboration, Ajay Laddha, Co-founder, YMS Mobitech Pvt Ltd said, “We are excited and honored to be CAPDASE’s partner in its offline retail journey in India. The mobile handset market in India has witnessed exponential growth over the last few years, leading to a surge in demand for mobile phone accessories. E-distribution platforms like YMS Mobitech will help high-end accessories players like CAPDASE make a successful transition from just online to offline presence as manufacturers can directly bill to Retailers as per their need – making it more efficient and at lesser cost. I am optimistic that our wide-spread and strong distribution channel will enable CAPDASE to gain valuable competitive edge and reach out to every single handset user in the country.”

Recently, YMS Mobitech announced its tie-up with leading smartphone manufacturer, Mi India to distribute its range of accessories in key states of Eastern India. The e-distribution company is also the Distributor (West Zone) for end-to-end sale of LeEco Mobiles in India.

The YMS e-distribution network boasts of over 11,262 retailers and 361 distributors across 383 cities in what is India’s largest app-based distribution ecosystem, guaranteeing on-demand sales with zero dead stock and zero loss of business opportunity. Its mobile app can keep a track of all tasks & reports via the YMS Mobile App and a web dashboard.

YMS Mobitech also creates financial products for the electronics industry, under its brand Apps You Need, and uses its technology-driven platform to sell and monitor these products. Few months ago, it also launched an accessories and IoT brand CULT.

Image : R-L Ajay Laddha, co-founder, YMS Mobitech and Stanley Chu, Founder and Director, CAPDASE

DrivoJoy Partners With Lubricants Brand Shell To Deliver New Age Services

DrivoJoy, one of India’s first two-wheeler doorstep servicing startup, announced today a new strategic partnership with Shell, world's largest lubricants brand. The alliance between the two aims to bring about change in the 2-wheeler servicing industry by bringing the best services and products to a customer’s doorstep. This partnership will provide a comprehensive solution to make the two wheeler service industry reliable, convenient and affordable. It also marks Shell’s entry into the organised two wheeler servicing sector as a lubricants partner.

With the help of this partnership, DrivoJoy will be able to provide their customers with high end lubricants and necessary products from Shell. Shell will also offer customized set of training skills to DrivoJoy’s mechanics and help them deal with increased levels of situational awareness and formulate streamlined responses to incidents.

Meanwhile, DrivoJoy will help Shell in expanding its digital footprints by communicating to customers about Shell being their exclusive lubricants partner across their website, app and other digital platforms. By educating the broad base of customers about their various lubricants and its benefits, Shell plans to witness an improvement in the sales of their oils and other range of products. Shell and DrivoJoy will also be involved in cross promotional activies for brand awareness and engagement.

Aman Singhal, CEO and Co-Founder of DrivoJoy, commented, “Shell is arguably the biggest, most trusted brand in the lubricants industry, and having more than 80% of our customers prefer Shell over other brands only reinforces this fact. Periodically changing the engine oil is vital for longevity of 2-wheelers and hence in the interest of consumer awareness around best practices and recommendations, we're deeply integrating Shell's range of products and services with our supply chain. This collaboration will help us in our endeavor to provide best in class service to our consumers and make the entire 2-wheeler servicing process more fluid, simple and enriching. We collectively aim to take a leap in customer outreach and turn this association into a mutually benefiting one. Along with training programs and loyalty schemes specially designed for DrivoJoy mechanics, this alliance will also engender several other opportunities towards unification of the 2-wheeler after sales ecosystem."

Neeraj Bhatia, Chief Marketing Officer, Shell Lubricants said, “At Shell Lubricants, we are committed towards developing collaborations that help us deliver greater value to our customers and we are happy to partner with Drivojoy for this endeavour. Digital is the new market space and this association not only provides an exciting platform for the brand to showcase our technologically advanced products and services, but also gives us an opportunity to extend our skill training modules to mechanics. We have always believed that mechanics are an important stakeholder in the service value chain. We hope a partnership like this will help us strengthen our position while extending our digital footprint.”

DrivoJoy, which launched their services in August 2015, is presently servicing over 1000 bikes/month and has been witnessing 30% MOM growth. The company has already served 8000+ users in the short period since its inception.

Shell has been an established fuels and lubricants partner for leading market players across the globe. With a formidable track record globally, Shell’s commitment towards excellence extends over 70 years with dedication to research and development of excellent products and services to deliver cutting edge technology and outstanding service to its consumers.

Image Source: ShutterStock