Paytm & Seasoned Entrepreneurs Invest in Bengaluru Based Career Advice Platform TapChief

TapChief (owned by Pilani Experts Technology Labs Pvt. Ltd) has announced that it has raised an undisclosed sum from PayTm, Aprameya Radhakrishna of TaxiSure, Subramanya Venkat of Fisdom and Venk Krishnan of NuVentures amongst others.

TapChief, a platform to seek advice from industry experts for students and startups was founded in early 2016 by BITS Pilani alumni Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna & Arjun Krishna.

“There is a strong onus on skill development across sectors due to the rapid pace at which the industry is evolving. Our vision is to break the numerous barriers in knowledge sharing through this thriving open community of help-seekers & experts across the globe.” says TapChief CEO Shashank Murali.

TapChief currently facilitates career & business advice where users can schedule a telephonic consultation with any of the 5000 listed experts on the platform. These experts include CEOs, Entrepreneurs, Consultants & Senior Executives from over 2000+ organisations. Students can also opt for the Job Coach program where they get trained for Job Interviews and Placements by professionals from a company of their choice.

Every expert can set their own consultation charges and TapChief charges a fixed commission on every paid consultation on the platform.

“There is a strong onus on skill development across sectors as India’s startup landscape evolves,” said Madhur Deora, chief financial officer, Paytm, confirming the deal.

“Over 40% of our experts do this on a pro-bono basis while the experts who do charge for their time usually donate their earnings to charitable organisations and NGOs through our platform. Having seen over 50000 minutes worth of interactions on TapChief, the backing of a strong consumer-centric brand like PayTm will help us gear up for the next phase of growth” added Shashank.

In April, the startup raised $150K funding from Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. In June, TapChief named as India's best startup at Seedstars Bangalore.

TapChief Named India's Best Startup at Seedstars Banaglore

Seedstars World, the global seed-stage startup competition for emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes brought its India round to a successful close during Seedstars Bangalore. The event took place this Saturday in Tech Hub, and 9 selected startups were invited to present their ideas in front of the local jury panel.

The local winner, TapChief, a platform to seek advice from industry experts via phone calls, was selected the best startup in India for its user-friendly solution that has generated a lot of early traction. As a part of the prize, TapChief will be participating at Seedstars Summit, taking place in Switzerland in March 2017, a weeklong training program with the opportunity to meet the other 60 winners, as well as investors and mentors from around the world. Traditionally, the final day of the Summit will be dedicated to pitching in front of audience of 1000 attendees, with the possibility of winning up to the USD 1 million equity investment.

Playlyfe, with its hub of employee engagement products, came second, and Fullonwedding, an end-to-end solution that enables couples to do their wedding planning online, grabbed the last spot in the top 3. The other startups invited to pitch were Cirtru, HipShip, Sportzify, Piki Poll, Trukky and neoEYED.

Seedstars Bangalore also featured an exciting panel, focusing on “Going global - how Indian startups can succeed on the international stage” and discussing the Indian ecosystem and startups from a global perspective. The local Ambassador of Seedstars World, Prateek Khare, from swissnex India organized the event with Seedstars World’s local partner Google. Further support was provided by NUMA, Excubator, Jaaga, BHive, Young Indians and Tech Hub. The event attracted interest from over 130 startups and over 100 attendees.

Continuing on its world tour of startup scenes in emerging markets and fast-growing startup scenes, Seedstars World’s next stop is Sri Lanka at Colombo’s TRACE, to select the best startup in Sri Lanka. Seedstars World is looking for smart startups that solve regional issues and/or develop profitable products for the global market.

Seedstars is a global organisation based in Switzerland with activities in more than 50 countries around the world. Its mission is to impact people's lives in emerging markets through entrepreneurship and technology. The company's goal is to develop and foster startup ecosystems by connecting, building and investing in driven entrepreneurs. Seedstars connects the best entrepreneurs with investors, corporates and media, and helps them to scale to new markets. They build companies by bringing together resources, talents and growth techniques, and eventually, invest in the most promising entrepreneurs. Sharing the values of trust, efficiency and diversity, Seedstars aims to support the whole entrepreneurial ecosystem from entrepreneurs to investors passing through governments and corporates.

Image Source: ShutterStock

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma Invests $150K in TapChief

TapChief, a platform which connects individuals in need of professional advice to experts across domains, has raised $150K funding from Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The startup offers a cohesive platform to discover and schedule calls with experts across domains. It leverage technology to make the process of discovery seamless and provide end to end service in terms of scheduling and executing the phone calls.

TapChief is striving to create a global network of individuals who can mutually benefit from each other. The company's vision is to democratize knowledge sharing by helping its users gain access to knowledge limited to niche circles. Its goal is to help the world do what they love doing.

Bangalore-based Tapchief was founded in 2016 by Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna Shivam and Arjun Krishna Vashisht.



About Co-founders

Shashank Murali, a BITS Pilani alumnus, is the CEO at TapChief. Previously he built and sold Edvice, an on-demand tutoring app to HashLearn & is now known as HashLearn Now. He headed product for HashLearn Now before he decided to set upon a path to democratize knowledge sharing with TapChief.

Binay Krishna Shivam, also a BITS Pilani Alumnus, is the COO at TapChief. He built and sold Edvice along with fellow BITSian Shashank Murali to HashLearn. He headed operations and marketing at HashLearn before he decided to take the plunge again with TapChief.

Arjun Krishna Vashisht, a BITSian of the 2012 batch, heads Tech at TapChief. He was a founding member of Edvice and was backend lead at HashLearn Now after the acquisition of Edvice by HashLearn. Arjun has been instrumental in building product at TapChief from the ground up.

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma Invests $150K in TapChief

TapChief, a platform which connects individuals in need of professional advice to experts across domains, has raised $150K funding from Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The startup offers a cohesive platform to discover and schedule calls with experts across domains. It leverage technology to make the process of discovery seamless and provide end to end service in terms of scheduling and executing the phone calls.

TapChief is striving to create a global network of individuals who can mutually benefit from each other. The company's vision is to democratize knowledge sharing by helping its users gain access to knowledge limited to niche circles. Its goal is to help the world do what they love doing.

Bangalore-based Tapchief was founded in 2016 by Shashank Murali, Binay Krishna Shivam and Arjun Krishna Vashisht.



About Co-founders

Shashank Murali, a BITS Pilani alumnus, is the CEO at TapChief. Previously he built and sold Edvice, an on-demand tutoring app to HashLearn & is now known as HashLearn Now. He headed product for HashLearn Now before he decided to set upon a path to democratize knowledge sharing with TapChief.

Binay Krishna Shivam, also a BITS Pilani Alumnus, is the COO at TapChief. He built and sold Edvice along with fellow BITSian Shashank Murali to HashLearn. He headed operations and marketing at HashLearn before he decided to take the plunge again with TapChief.

Arjun Krishna Vashisht, a BITSian of the 2012 batch, heads Tech at TapChief. He was a founding member of Edvice and was backend lead at HashLearn Now after the acquisition of Edvice by HashLearn. Arjun has been instrumental in building product at TapChief from the ground up.