Vijay Shekhar Sharma-backed Pai Platforms Launches New Shopping App as Part of ONDC Initiative

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, has backed Pai Platforms in launching a new shopping app. This app is part of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) initiative and aims to sign up at least 10 million merchants before the end of 2025.

While Paytm itself does not own shares in Pai Platforms, the 'PaiPai' app has been developed by Paytm's parent entity, One97 Communications. The launch represents a significant move in the e-commerce space, especially considering the previous experience with Paytm Mall and the renewed interest in ONDC among tech companies.

Pai Platforms' launch of a new shopping app is part of the broader Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) initiative, which aims to democratize digital commerce and reduce the dominance of a few large e-commerce entities.

The app seeks to onboard a significant number of merchants to expand its reach and influence in the e-commerce sector. It's an interesting development in the digital commerce landscape, especially with the backing of a prominent figure like Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Paytm E-commerce Private Limited (PEPL) owns Paytm Mall, and in May 2022, the company announced that it will focus on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) as its main focus. The partnership with ONDC aims to create a sustainable business and democratize the purchase and sale of goods in India.

This year in February, Paytm E-commerce renamed as Pai Platforms, acquires ONDC seller firm Bitsila. Bitsila was launched in 2020, and is among top three seller platforms on ONDC. It supports marquee brands like McDonald's, BigBasket on ONDC.

The rebranding of Paytm E-commerce Private Limited to Pai Platforms and the strategic acquisition of Bitsila, a Bangalore-based seller-side platform on ONDC, suggest that Pai Platforms is positioning itself to be a strong player in this competitive landscape. However, it's worth noting that Pai Platforms predecessor, Paytm Mall, faced setbacks despite substantial investment, highlighting the challenges in the e-commerce sector.

Besides, Pai Platforms also faces competition in the e-commerce space, particularly within the ONDC framework. One notable competitor is PhonePe, which launched a shopping app called Pincode. The ONDC initiative itself has seen significant growth, with a sixfold increase in monthly retail purchases, indicating a competitive and rapidly evolving market.

Pai Platforms and PhonePe's Pincode app are both part of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) initiative, but they have some key differences. While Pai Platforms is integrated into the Paytm ecosystem, PhonePe launched Pincode as a separate app. This strategic choice means that Pincode starts from scratch in terms of user base, whereas Pai Platforms can leverage Paytm's existing users.

PhonePe's decision to launch a separate app for ONDC could be seen as a move to not dilute its main app's user experience, which is centered around quick and efficient payments. In contrast, Pai Platforms seems to be more directly integrated with Paytm's broader digital commerce strategy.

Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's Success Story Makes it to Class 10 Pre-Board exam paper in Gurugram School

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the visionary founder of Paytm, has played a significant role in shaping the digital payments landscape in India. From a small startup in 2010, Sharma has built Paytm into India’s leading digital payments and financial services company. Over the years, Paytm pioneered the QR code revolution and became the most widely accepted digital payment company in India.

Sharma's leadership and vision have been recognized with numerous awards and accolades while his relentless hard work and dedication have made Paytm a true Indian success story, as well as a model for other entrepreneurs.

The ubiquity of Paytm has made its way into the classroom, with a question about the company and its founder appearing on a recent Class 10 pre-board exam in a Gurugram school, leaving students in awe. The question asks students to explain two qualities of an entrepreneur based on the case study of Paytm and its Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
 

The question reads, “Vijay Shekhar Sharma founded the fast-rising mobile wallet Paytm in 2011. One of the biggest beneficiaries of India's 2016 demonetization, Paytm has notched up 400 million users and 25 million transactions daily. Explain in detail, any two qualities of an entrepreneur based on this case study.”

It appeared in the Artificial Intelligence pre-board examination paper for Class 10 students in Delhi Public School, Gurugram. The question is a reflection of the company's significant impact on the Indian economy and society. It not only recognizes entrepreneurial qualities of Sharma but also encourages students to think about the role of entrepreneurs in shaping the business landscape

Paytm’s innovative approach to mobile payments has made it a household name and has played a key role in making digital payments mainstream in the country. In a recent episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati, an audio-based question using a past interview of the Paytm Founder enabled the contestant to win ₹1,60,000. This is a testament to the acclaim received by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. In the audio clip, Sharma lauds the miracle of technology and exclaims about India becoming digitized in a month’s time.

Paytm Refutes Proxy Firms’ Report; Co is Compliant With Overwhelming Shareholders’ Support

Even as the matter has already been resolved months ago by Paytm shareholders, a proxy advisory firm IiAS has raised concerns regarding grant of ESOPs to Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Chairman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Paytm. The firm’s latest report is not an advisory to shareholders, so one is unsure about the context of the report.

While the report has come as a surprise, Indian fintech giant Paytm has said that it has followed all provisions of applicable law and complied with due process for the grant of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), including approval by the shareholders and even earlier, at the time of clearance for initial public offering (IPO).

One97 Communications Ltd (OCL), which owns Paytm, in an earlier exchange filing had explicitly noted that Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s ESOPs are milestone-linked. In response to our queries, Paytm reiterated that Sharma’s reappointment and remuneration has been duly approved via a company law process that received a resounding vote of confidence from shareholders in August 2022. The resolution for Sharma’s remuneration received 94.48 per cent votes in favour. His remuneration is fixed for the next three years without any annual increment, unlike the policy/practice applicable to all other employees of the company as well as in other companies.

Additionally, One97 Communications’ annual report mentioned that there had been no change in the remuneration of Vijay Shekhar Sharma since November 1, 2020, which was approved by the members of the company at their extraordinary general meeting held on March 26, 2021.

“Moreover, in earlier years, Sharma gave 4 per cent of his equity to create an ESOP pool for Paytm that helped the company to attract talent. Sharma has never received any ESOP before the IPO, while there are enough examples of founders receiving 5 per cent to 10 per cent as ESOPs,” said the company.

On April 6, 2022, in a shareholder letter, Vijay Shekhar Sharma had said, “Rest assured, the entire Paytm team is committed to build a large, profitable company and to create long-term shareholder value. Aligned with this, my stock grants will be vested to me only when our market cap has crossed the IPO level on a sustained basis.” The company has followed all provisions of applicable law and complied with due process for the grant of ESOPs.

About Vijay Shekhar Sharma as a promoter, One97 Communications noted that there are specific provisions of law that dictate whether a shareholder is classified as a ‘promoter’ or not. Sharma’s classification as a non-promoter is entirely in accordance with applicable law and due process has been followed in this regard.

LeverageEdu Raises Funds from PayTM's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Rohit Kapoor (CEO of OYO), Amanpreet Bajaj (Southeast Asia Head, Airbnb), Others

Leverage Edu will utilize the fund raised to expand its team in India and abroad to cater to the needs of students worldwide

New Delhi, Sept 22, 2021: Leverage Edu, India’s most trusted study abroad platform today, announced that it has on-boarded marquee global investors, raising an undisclosed amount of growth capital from them.

Renowned industry names like Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder of PayTM), Rohit Kapoor (CEO of Oyo - India and Southeast Asia), Amanpreet Bajaj (Southeast Asia Head, Airbnb), Lalit Singh (Former COO at Udacity), and Mohit Garg (Founder of Softbank–backed Mind Tickle) are among the top investors.

The fresh funds raised will be utilized to expand teams in India and abroad. The broader vision is to double it's employee strength to over 600 people across 2 continents an to launch various products to cater to student demands.

Speaking on the latest development, Akshay Chaturvedi, founder & CEO, Leverage Edu said

I am thrilled to formally bring on table mentors who I have personally learned a lot from over the years. They are the most prominent institution builders. So having them associate with Leverage Edu motivates us to work even harder on our mission to help students win across the world and become truly global citizens.

Leverage Edu operates an expensive product suite for students and universities as a part of its ‘Study Abroad’ journey. These include AI Course Finder, which helps over 100k students figure out their course and college options. Aspirants also receive access to a Oneview portal, which gives them a 360-degree perspective on the mentorship process. The Leverage TV includes daily ‘overseas education’ focused programming and webinars alongside a 1000+ video library.

Further, the product suite also includes Uniconnect, the world’s largest virtual admissions platform used by 220+ universities and Leverage Live, a live IELTS learning platform used by 1000+ test takers every month. It also has Leverage Beyond, which brings applicants and admits together for post-admission life and more.

Moreover, LeverageEdu.com is also the largest study abroad platform globally, attracting over 6 million unique visitors a month.

The New Delhi-based company is also backed by a consortium of investors such as Blume Ventures, Tomorrow Capital, DSG Consumer Partners, Trifecta Capital. It is also supported by prominent individual investors like Vishal Gondal of GOQii, Ash Lilani of Samna Capital, Amrish Rao of Pinelabs, Karan Khemka of Parthenon, among others.

Recently, Leverage Edu also forayed into Europe with the launch of its UK office in London.

About Leverage Edu

Founded in 2017 by ISB Alum and Draper valley fellow Akshay Chaturvedi, Leverage Edu (https://leverageedu.com/) is India’s most trusted study abroad Ed-Tech platform providing full-stack services to students pursuing international education and careers. Headquartered in New Delhi, with offices in Hyderabad, Pune and the recently launched European office in UK, Leverage Edu offers specialised services along with various tech products such as Univalley- aimed at bringing together universities and students, Uniconnect- World’s leading virtual education fair platform that helps 150+ universities connect with thousands of students, helping students apply in real time uniconnect.leverageedu.com) and financial services.

For more information about our products and services visit www.leverageedu.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn and see all our latest videos on YouTube.

Homegrown OTT Platform STAGE Raises INR 3.5 Cr in Angel Round led by Inflection Point Ventures, Participated by Vijay Shekhar Sharma

(L-R) Shashank Vaishnav, Co-founder and CTO, Vinay Singhal, Co-founder and CEO, Parveen Singhal, Co-founder and CCO

Homegrown OTT platform STAGE, launched in 2019 by Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav and Parveen Singhal has raised INR 3.5 Cr in an angel round, led by Inflection Point Ventures, India’s largest and most active angel network. Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma along with other investors Sprout Investments Fund, Giri Malpani (Malpani Ventures) also participated in the round.

Being the first and the only dialect-based OTT platform, STAGE boasts of over 1.5 million downloads in Haryanvi dialect alone. It is now available in Rajasthani dialect too. STAGE plans to launch new dialects such as Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magadhi in 2021. It is also the only artist-based OTT platform in the country as well; with content in art forms such as comedy, poetry, folk, and storytelling.

STAGE plans to use the funds for building a stronger content library and launching subscription service of their platform.

Mitesh Shah, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures says, “India is a country made of micro countries, with different markets from each other. While the Hindi/English language dominated OTT platforms have changed the decades old entertainment rules, we believe vernacular OTT platforms will be the next wave, considering we have large regional media consumption in the Country. Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali are some of the biggest regional content churning industries with a much higher viewer engagement statistics. STAGE is the first and the only dialect-based OTT platform in India. With 1.5m+ downloads in Haryana alone, the platform is all set to build the most hyper local content company ever built in the world. Focusing on the diversity of the country, Stage is gradually taking up different regions and increasing its penetration. Its uniqueness in idea and a great founding team helped IPV decide to fund the start-up."

STAGE has kept its focus intact to optimize the ROI by working on professionally generated content at incredibly low prices. It has the production cost of 1/10th as compared to other OTT platforms. It aims to go beyond the centralisation and work on creating a platform focused on the regional diversity of the country.

Vinay Singhal, Co-Founder & CEO, STAGE says, “We found the right partner in IPV as their turnaround time, founder friendly processes helped us in closing the round quickly. IPV’s actively leverages its investor network strength to help its portfolio companies. They are aligned with us on our vision to build the most hyper local vernacular OTT platform ever built for Bharat.”

He adds, “We believe that languages are just an urban concept in our country, the moment we move beyond the urban settlements, everyone speaks a dialect. The great thing is most of these dialects are as big as some of the European languages. It is not just a great business opportunity to create quality content in these dialects, but absolutely necessary to preserve the unique diversity and culture of our country for the next generation."

STAGE aims to reach about 500 million users in the next 5 years.


About STAGE

STAGE is a leading digital, hyper-localized, professionally-generated content platform offering trending, entertaining, informative content in multiple languages and dialects. Launched in 2019, STAGE, the first of its kind, artist-led and dialect-based OTT platform offers sensible and premium content through stand-up artforms such as Poetry, Comedy, Storytelling, Folk, and many more.

Paytm Swears by India Digital Play, Lines Up Rs 20,000 Crores

Paytm, which has high-profile investors like SoftBank and Alibaba, has drawn up a massive investment plan of Rs 20,000 crore as the group expands its play into the digital payments, financial services and e- commerce space in the country.

"In the last 2 years and the next three years, we would have invested Rs 18,000-20,000 crore. I don't want to talk about profitability right now because we are still in an investment phase," Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma told reporters here.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the official launch of Paytm Payments Bank operations.

Paytm -- which offers a mobile wallet, recharge, bill payment services, e-commerce (Paytm Mall) and ticketing services -- saw a massive growth in its business after the government's demonetisation drive in November last year. Paytm has 28 crore registered users, of which 18 million use Paytm wallet service.

Sharma said its platform processes about 250 crore transactions annually worth of Rs 80,000 crore.

"We expect this to grow to Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of the fiscal. The number of merchants on our platform will also touch 60 lakh in a few months," he added.

The company, Sharma said, will invest Rs 5,000 crore over the next two years in its financial and payments services and Rs 1,700 crore have already been pumped in this year.

"Paytm is a contribution positive business. We are not profitable yet because we are investing in marketing, cloud and customer acquisition," he said.

He added that for the Payments Bank operations, the aim is to break even in the next two years.

10 Mn Customers Sign Up For Paytm Payments Bank Account In The Beta Launch

Paytm Payments Bank recently launched mobile-bank with zero charges on all online transactions and no minimum balance requirement. The bank is focused on driving financial inclusion by bringing half a billion Indians into the mainstream economy. Paytm Payments Bank Chairman, Vijay Shekhar Sharma owns 51% stake in the company, with the remaining share owned by Indian firm One97 Communications Pvt Ltd.

Paytm played an important role in democratizing access to digital payments for hundreds of millions of Indians ranging from small kirana store-owners and daily wage laborers to large retailers. As millions of customers have experienced the power of convenient digital payments within the large Paytm ecosystem, they have been waiting eagerly for the Paytm Payments Bank launch. This has led to over 10 million customers signing up for a Paytm Payments Bank account in the beta launch.

Owned and governed solely by Indians, Paytm Payments Bank was launched on May 23, 2017, with Renu Satti as its MD & CEO and is headquartered in the National Capital Region, India.

Commenting on the development, Renu Satti said, “We are glad to receive this opportunity to build first-of-its-kind banking services and serve our nation. We will bring unbanked and underbanked fellow Indians to the mainstream economy and help them become a part of the financial services ecosystem. We are excited about the incredible response to our consumer beta launch and are looking forward to further expanding our services.”

Paytm Payments Bank offers Savings Accounts with no minimum balance requirement and a free RuPay Digital Debit Card. This card comes with a free insurance cover up to Rs. 2 Lacs in case of death or permanent total disability. KYC customers can open a PPB account instantly on their smartphone. The company is also looking to partner with Universal Banks to offer additional financial services to its customers to roll out a full bouquet of banking services that include term deposits, retail & SME loans.

The bank’s board has Indian stalwarts such as former RBI Executive Director PV Bhaskar, former Shriram Group Director GS Sundarajan and Saama Capital Director Ash Lilani. Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Chairman – Paytm Payments Bank) and Renu Satti (MD & CEO - Paytm Payments Bank) are the other directors.

Earlier this month, Sharma and Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications have infused Rs. 60 crore more into the Paytm Payments Bank. Paytm Payments Bank aims to build a new business model in the banking industry that is focused on bringing financial services to hundreds of millions of unserved or underserved consumers across India.

Paytm’s Parent Company Pumps In Rs 60 Cr More In Payment Bank

Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Paytm’s parent company One97 Communications have infused Rs. 60 crore more into the Paytm Payments Bank. With Sharma owning the majority stake in the bank, Sharma and One97 had earlier invested about 220 crore in the payments bank.

Sharma has invested Rs. 30 crores in this tranche, while One97 Communications has put in Rs.23 crore. According to documents with the Registrar of Companies as per research platform Tofler, the rest has come from One97 Communications India, a subsidiary of One97. The shares were allotted on August 1, according to the documents.The new allotment brings the

The new allotment brings the authorized capital of the bank to Rs.400 crore and the paid up capital of a Rs.278 crore.

The Paytm Payment Bank was unveiled in May 2017, becoming the third payments bank in the country, after Airtel and India Post.

It offers customers a 4 percent annual interest rate which the lowest among the three payments banks that is, Airtel offers about 7.3 percent interest and India Post about 5.5 percent annually.

Having branch in Noida, Payment Bank had said that it will expand to 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points in the first year. The bank is focused on driving financial inclusion with a target of opening 500 million bank accounts by 2020.

The Paytm Payments Bank aims to build a new business model in the banking industry that is focused on bringing financial services to hundreds of millions of unserved or underserved consumers across India.

The company is aiming to replicate this success in the banking sector and further drive cashless transactions with the Paytm Payments Bank. The current Paytm Wallet will move to the Paytm Payments Bank in the same capacity, i.e. KYC Wallet as KYC Wallet and minimum detail KYC Wallet as minimum detail KYC Wallet. Users will continue to be able to use their Paytm Wallet in the same manner as before.

Today, PM Modi Will Meet Paytm, Myntra, BigBasket and 200 Startup Founders

Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet more than 200 startup entrepreneurs and chief executives. The meeting will be held to discuss about a range of issues including job creation, income growth and innovation at a session organised by federal policy think tank, NITI Aayog, a report by Live Mint said.

Modi will discuss with the start-up entrepreneurs issues such as job creation, income growth and innovation at a session organized by NITI Aayog.

Six groups of 35-40 have been formed among the entrepreneurs based on the core ideas on which they will work.

Startup owners who built their own businesses like Vijay Shekhar Sharma, owner of One97 Communications and Paytm are expected to attend the meet with PM Modi.

Along with Sharma the following entrepreneurs were named in the report -- Aashish Dhawan, founder and chairman of Central Square Foundation; Ananth Narayanan, chief executive of Myntra; Hari Menon, founder and chief executive of Bigbasket; Deepak Garg, chief executive of Rivigo; Naveen Tiwari, chief executive of Inmobi; Alok Bansal, co-founder and chief financial officer of Policy Bazaar; and Ritesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive at OYO Rooms.

PM Modi will spend about two and a half hours with the entrepreneurs and chief executives, listening to their ideas and suggestions on subjects such as digital economy, health and nutrition, travel and tourism, hospitality, financial sector reforms, sustainable growth, education and skill development, the report added.

Mobile Loyalty Firm MobiQuest Bags Investment From PayTM

One of the leading digital payment startups, PayTM has pumped in an undisclosed amount in MobiQuest Mobile Technologies, a loyalty firm. The Noida-based company, which uses data analytics and consumer loyalty programmes will help merchants on the PayTM platform target consumers through these programmes. The company will continue to operate as a separate entity post its partnership with Paytm.

This association will power Paytm partnered merchant network to leverage Mobiquest’s data analytics & precision marketing solution in acquiring, engaging and rewarding its customers. With this solution, merchants will soon be able to design customized multi-channel loyalty programs which will enable them to retain and engage their consumer base thereby increasing their revenues.

Commenting on the development, Sudhanshu Gupta, vice-president, PayTM said, "In the next phase of growth, we aim to enable our offline partner merchants with tools that will help them drive incremental sales and revenues. Our partnership with MobiQuest will help us offer mobile-based loyalty programs to our partnered merchants."

Paytm’s partnership with Mobiquest will help its partners to engage with their consumers and leverage the power of mobile technology to widen their consumer base.

Established in August 2008, Mobiquest uses the mobile device to create the largest ecosystem of performance advertising, last mile data capture and data analytics in both digital and offline world through their platform m'loyal. According to the company, more than 100 brands/companies use m'loyal to have one-one connect with their consumers based on actual real time data coming from their Point of Sales (POS). M'loyal platform is available for brands across retail, F&B, fashion, malls, health and wellness and hospitality.

“We are excited to partner with Paytm and leverage the huge consumer base of the platform. Our teams are dedicated to the mission of using real time transaction data to drive meaningful insights for the brands and consistently drive up their Marketing ROI,” said Vineet Narang, CEO, MobiQuest.

M’loyal offers a self-serve mobile enabled loyalty, analytics and campaign management platform to brands across Retail, F&B, Fashion, Malls, Health & Wellness and hospitality among others. M-loyal combines mobile technology with deep drill down analytics to provide higher ROI for marketing spends made by brands.

m’loyal™ today is deployed across more than 200 brands, with over 80 million users on the platform with transactions worth Rs 5000 crore and growing. It not only h the s national presence, but it has expanded its footprint in international markets like Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai.

PayTM, with the current user base of more than 225 million, is on a mission to bring half a billion Indians to the mainstream of the economy using mobile payment, commerce and recently launched Payment Bank. Founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, PaTM is headquartered in the National Capital Region, India. Earlier this week PayTM has announced the acquisition of Insider.in. The startup has acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, a ticketing platform for about 35 crores.

PayTM Officially Acquires Insider.in For Around Rs 35 Crores

Finally, all the speculations are over. One of the biggest digital payment startups, PayTM has finally announced the acquisition of Insider.in. The startup has acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, a ticketing platform for about 35 crores. This acquisition will enable hundreds of millions of PayTM customers to discover a wide selection of events and book instantly.

Shreyas Srinivasan, Insider.in founder will continue running the business, while Only Much Louder (OML) founders and brothers Vijay and Ajay Nair will remain stakeholders and members of the advisory board.

Earlier owned by OML, Insider.in is one of the leading ticketing platforms in India for events and properties including for events and properties, including NH7 Weekender, EDC and The Grub Fest. "From the first meeting with Vijay Shekhar and Madhur, we realised that Paytm was a perfect partner for Insider. We are excited to join forces with them and build out the best event discovery and ticketing experience in India,” said OML Founder Vijay Nair.

Following the acquisition, the focus will be on making Insider.in accessible to Paytm users. Commenting on the development, Madhur Deora, Chief Financial Officer and SVP, PayTM said, "Events discovery and ticket booking is a challenge for customers and organisers alike. We believe that digital discovery and events marketing expertise will increase the supply of quality events in India. This is a natural extension for us as we continue to build India’s go-to destination for online movies and events.”

The confirmation of this deal came after two to three months when Vijay Nair met Vijay Shekhar Sharma founder of PayTM to discuss the matter before closing the deal.

“ At Insider, we curate the best events and experiences so users can seamlessly discover the best way to spend their leisure time. Our platform also provides tools, data and analytics to organizers that enable them to conceptualize, market and execute their events more efficiently. Our partnership with Paytm will enable us to reach more organizers and event goers, and exponentially grow this ecosystem in India,” said Shreyas Srinivasan, Founder-CEO, Insider.in.

With the current user base of more than 225 million, Paytm is on a mission to bring half a billion Indians to the mainstream of the economy using mobile payment, commerce and recently launched Payment Bank. Paytm is founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and is the Consumer brand of India’s leading mobile internet company One97 Communications. Headquartered in the National Capital Region, India, the company’s investors include Ant Financial (Alipay), Alibaba Group, SoftBank, SAIF Partners and Mediatek.

As per PayTM, India’s organized events industry is currently at Rs. 4,000 Cr, with organized sporting leagues and events accounting for the largest portion of ticket sales. Online ticketing accounts for a mere 10% of the overall volume since customers face hurdles in the form of limited event discovery.

After establishing the country’s fastest growing online movie ticketing service spanning 3500 screens across 550 cities Paytm has been expanding into the event's ticketing and discovery, helping customers discover events on its platform.

Paytm Mall Launches Campus Icon Programme, Offers Industry Focused Learning To College Students

With 700 universities and more than 35,000 affiliated colleges enrolling over 20 million students, India’s higher education is a massive system that cuts across demographics and income levels, fostering the nation’s future leaders. With the vision to offer a unique learning experience to these young minds, Paytm Mall, owned by Paytm Ecommerce Pvt. Ltd has launched Campus Icon, a nation-wide programme to offer industry-focused learning to college students.

Commenting on the development, Amit Sinha, Chief Operating Officer, Paytm Mall said, “Our initiative will provide a unique opportunity to college-goers to harness their skills from a young age and showcase their talent. Becoming innovative thinkers and developing creative solutions will help them achieve a stronger sense of leadership and adapt to the changing demands of the new-age workplace. This would also spark an entrepreneurial spirit among students as they develop a wide range of skills spanning multiple disciplines.”

As a part of this six-week program, student participants will be assigned variety of tasks that would enhance their skills. Paytm Mall leadership will also mentor students on critical real-world techniques related to product, marketing, design among others via seminars and training material. Top performers of the programme would be awarded internships and full-time job offers as they get an opportunity to work closely with the Paytm Mall core team revolutionizing the face of mobile commerce in India.

Given that mobile technology is poised to transform lives in semi-urban and rural India, Paytm Mall would also facilitate technology adoption in these areas as a part of this programme, enabling students to buy laptops at discounted prices. They can also recommend laptops and other educational products to their peers to earn added incentives as they develop their skills.

The initiative will see Paytm Mall reaching out to 10,000+ students and inviting applications from across colleges. Students can log on and file their nominations till July 31, 2017

Paytm recently de-merged its e-commerce business into a separate entity by the name of Paytm Mall to address India’s large online retail opportunity. This new entity started off with the same shareholding as the parent company of Paytm, One97 Communications Limited and raised $200 million from SAIF Partners and Alibaba Group Holding. Paytm Mall works with retailers and brands to build their online stores integrated with supply chain in a partner model. It is currently targeting to launch its new app in a coming month.

Earlier in April 2017, Paytm Mall had launched an omni-channel commerce platform that enables shopkeepers to expand their business. Paytm Mall aims to partner with the large offline merchant network of Paytm and will adopt the QR code technology to bring efficiency in product discovery and supply chain.

Under this initiative, consumers can visit the Paytm Partner stores in their neighborhood and scan the QR code using their Paytm or Paytm Mall app to browse and order products.

Paytm is the first company to invest in QR code-based payment solution and has created an offline merchant network where consumers can scan and pay.

Paytm Payments Bank Joins UPI Bandwagon

In line with the government’s initiative to build digital payments in the country, Paytm Payments Bank is all set to adopt Unified Payments Interface (UPI) by August.

This will enable consumers and merchants to transact with ease on its banking platform by using a virtual payment address issued by the bank. With 50 banks already live on the platform, Paytm Payments Bank will be the latest one to join the UPI bandwagon.

Commenting on the development, Renu Satti, CEO, Paytm Payments Bank, said “ We will soon enable the seamless creation of UPI IDs on our platform so that users can send and receive money to each other, and for merchant payments. It will be one of the most important components of our payments platform and enable us to bring cost-efficient digital payment services to every Indian. Our significant consumer base makes us well-positioned to become a large issuer of UPI handles, driving its adoption in the country.”

Launched in May 2017, Payments Bank is all set to open 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points in a year. The recently launched bank with zero charges on online transactions and no minimum balance requirement has been designed to help achieve financial inclusion and bring half a billion Indians into the mainstream economy.

Run and operated by One97 Communications, Paytm founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma owns a majority stake in the company, with the remaining share owned by One97 Communications Pvt Ltd.

The Paytm Payments Bank aims to build a new business model in the banking industry that is focused on bringing financial services to hundreds of millions of unserved or underserved consumers across India.

Paytm Payments Bank is aiming to replicate the success in the banking sector and further drive the adoption of digital transactions.

Paytm Mall Appoints Amit Sinha As Its Chief Operating Officer

Paytm Mall has appointed Amit Sinha as the Chief Operating Officer (COO). He will be responsible for overall operations of Paytm Mall and expanding the team to ensure customers have access to the widest assortment of products across categories, delivered quickly through an efficient and optimised partner logistics network. Sinha has served in several key business roles in Paytm and helped implement critical business, HR and financial processes for the company.

Commenting on the development, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO, Paytm said, “At Paytm Mall, we are addressing a unique opportunity of giving small businesses and retailers access to mobile internet technology to address India's large mobile consumer base. Amit's experience in building various businesses since their inception makes him our best choice to lead our commerce business.”

“Our goal is to build the country’s largest platform that enables trusted partners including brand and merchants in growing their business. We are innovating on multiple aspects of business and offering newer business opportunities for sellers. Paytm Mall also aims to be the preferred destination for consumers looking for the largest selection of products being sold by trusted sellers," said Sinha.

Paytm recently de-merged its e-commerce business into a separate entity by the name of Paytm Mall to address India's large online retail opportunity. This new entity started off with the same shareholding as the parent company of Paytm, One97 Communications Limited and raised $200 million from SAIF Partners and Alibaba Group Holding. Paytm Mall works with retailers and brands to build their online stores integrated with supply chain in a partner model. It is currently targeting to launch its new app in a coming month.

Paytm Achieves Over 1 Mn Train Ticket Bookings In A Month, Eye 3x Growth This Financial Year

M-commerce firm, Paytm has announced today that it is booking over 1 million train tickets in a month.It further boosts that it has become India’s largest train tickets booking platform after IRCTC making it a preferred platform for users to plan their journeys and book train, air, bus and hotels instantly.

The company launched online train ticket bookings in partnership with IRCTC in October of 2016 to become an integrated platform for all travel bookings. Currently, 90% of the train ticket bookings on Paytm are done through the mobile platform.

Commenting on the development, Abhishek Rajan, Vice President, Paytm said, “Our partnership with IRCTC is a major leap towards bringing the trusted and convenient Paytm experience to train tickets booking. Emerging as the country’s largest platform in train ticket bookings is a definitive step towards our goal of building the country’s largest travel booking platform.”

In recent months, Paytm has witnessed exponential growth in its travel vertical with more than 10 million tickets sold in FY 2017. This year, the company is aiming to be the country’s largest destination for all travel booking needs. The travel marketplace team is headquartered in Bengaluru and has scaled up to 150+ members in the last 12 months. It is looking to ramp up to 250 in next two-quarters.

In May 2017, Paytm had unveiled its Payments Bank, becoming the third payments bank in the country, after Airtel and India Post.

Paytm Unveils Payments Bank, Plans To Open 500 Mn Accounts By 2020

Finally, after waiting for one long year Paytm has unveiled its Payments Bank, becoming the third payments bank in the country, after Airtel and India Post.

It will offer customers a 4 percent annual interest rate which the lowest among the three payments banks that is, Airtel offers about 7.3 percent interest and India Post about 5.5 percent annually. Apart from offering its customers cashbacks on deposits, Payment bank will offer zero charges on all online transactions and no minimum balance requirement.

Commenting on the development, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Chairman, Paytm Payments Bank said, “RBI has given us an opportunity to create a new kind of banking model in the world. We are proud that our customer deposits will be safely invested in government bonds, and be used for nation building. None of our deposits will be converted into risky assets”.

Having its first branch in Noida Paytm plans to open 31 branches and 3,000 customer service points in a year. The company is setting up KYC centres across India to complete KYC for customers and make them eligible for a Payments Bank account.

Paytm Payments Bank accounts will initially be available on an invite-only basis. In the first phase, the company will roll out its beta banking app for its employees and associates. Paytm customers can request an invite by going to www.PaytmPaymentsBank.com or on the Paytm iOS app.

Every customer to open a Payments Bank account will get a cashback of Rs. 250 as soon they bring deposits of a total of Rs. 25,000 in their bank account. The account will have zero balance requirement and every online transaction (such as IMPS, NEFT, RTGS) will be free of charge. For savings accounts, the company would also offer an interest of 4% per annum. The company will also offer current accounts to its millions of merchants.

“ Our ambition is to become India’s most trusted and consumer-friendly bank. Leveraging power of technology, we aim to become the preferred bank for 500 million Indians by 2020,” said Renu Satti, CEO, Paytm Payments Bank.

Run and operated by One97 Communications, Paytm founder and CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma owns a majority stake in the company, with the remaining share owned by One97 Communications Pvt Ltd. The Paytm Payments Bank aims to build a new business model in the banking industry that is focused on bringing financial services to hundreds of millions of unserved or underserved consumers across India.

The company is aiming to replicate this success in the banking sector and further drive cashless transactions with the Paytm Payments Bank. The current Paytm Wallet will move to the Paytm Payments Bank in the same capacity, i.e. KYC Wallet as KYC Wallet and minimum detail KYC Wallet as minimum detail KYC Wallet. Users will continue to be able to use their Paytm Wallet in the same manner as before.

15 Startups Funded By Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Paytm founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has had an incredible journey so far. Though life hasn't particularly been a bed of roses for him, but he has fought through all the challenges that life has thrown at him and emerged victorious in quite a few of them.

As a child, Sharma was a child prodigy of sorts. He passed his higher secondary when he was just 14 years old, but when it came to college, he had his first bump in the road. Hailing from a Hindi background and small town like Aligarh, Sharma found it hard to find his place in a big town like Delhi. This is when his direction changed from college to entrepreneurship. Though towards the end, he ended up conquering both.

Sharma is now the owner of One97 Communications, which was recently valued at $4.2 billion, according to research firm CB Insights. Not only is he fulfilling and living his dream now, but Sharma is also helping other entrepreneurs and startups that are trying to make their mark in the startup ecosystem. His first investment was in the year 2010, and the most recent one was in February, 2017. 

Here's a list of Startups that Vijay Shekhar Sharma has invested in till date:

Milaap

Year Of Investment -- September, 2010

Bangalore headquartered Milaap claims to be India's leading crowdfunding platform for personal and social causes. Using the platform, one can raise money for personal causes, emergencies, loved ones, neighbourhood projects and social causes. Founded in June, 2010 by Mayukh Choudhury, Anoj Viswanathan, and Sourabh Sharma, Milaap has been successful in helping raise over $12 Million for 50,000+ projects across India.

Within two months of its launch, Milaap raised a seed funding round of $75k in September, 2010 from investors Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Rajiv Madhok (who is the COO of One97 Communications).

Hiver

Year Of Investment -- November, 2011

Palo Alto, California-based Hiver is a software facilitating email collaboration which allows users to share email labels and collaborate from their inbox. The tool turns a user's email inbox into a simple, powerful collaboration tool. It (Shared Gmail Folders/Inbox for Support and Sales) helps teams collaborate right from their email inbox and helps companies in making their Support, Sales, Project Management, Recruitment and Operations processes more efficient.

Hiver started out as GrexIt in July, 2011 and Vijay Shekhar Sharma made an undisclosed amount investment in the startup in November, 2011. Though headquartered in US, Hiver has an Indian set up in Bangalore.

Zapr

Year Of Investment -- May, 2013

Bangalore-based Zapr claims to be one of the world's first media consumption repositories and cross-targeting platforms. Founded by Deepak Baid, Sandipan Mondal and Sajo Mathews in the year 2012, Zapr's technology platform auto-detects comprehensively all offline media content being viewed by millions of people. According to the startup, it is currently over 1000x larger than any audience measurement database in India.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma made an undisclosed investment in the startup in May, 2013.

Sourceasy

Year Of Investment -- April, 2014

San Francisco, California-based sourceasy is a web platform that enables designers and brands to get their apparel manufactured and delivered to them. Founded on March 1, 2013 by Pranay Srinivasan, Samudra Neelam Bhuyan and Chirag Chamoli, the startup is meticulously working towards building a global framework to power apparel manufacturing and distribution.

On April 18, 2014, Sourceasy announced that it has successfully raised a seed funding of $126.5k from 7 investors of which one was Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

GOQii

Year Of Investment -- July, 2015

Born in the year 2014, GOQii though headquartered in California has offices in Mumbai and Shenzhen as well. With GOQii, its founder Vishal Gondal aims to bring a permanent shift in the society to a healthier lifestyle with the combination of advanced wearable technology, the world's leading experts, coaches and karma. A collaboration of some of the world's leading experts and an amazingly hardworking management team, GOQii focuses on sustained engagement and goal reinforcement, and offers a complete ecosystem as a single integrated solution, which is a powerful combination of technology and human connection.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma made an undisclosed amount of investment in GOQii in July, 2015.

Applied Life Pvt. Ltd.

Year Of Investment -- August, 2015

Noida-based Applied Life Pvt. Ltd. is the parent company of SHEROES.in, which is a popular platform that helps women find opportunities, including work from home jobs, part time jobs, corporate roles, startup options, including other entrepreneurial options like franchising and affiliates.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma contributed in an undisclosed amount seed funding round in Applied Life in August, 2015.

InnerChef

Year Of Investment -- September 2015

Founded in the year 2015 by serial entrepreneurs Rajesh Sawhney, Sanjeev Singhal and Bal DiGhent, InnerChef claims to be one of the fastest growing food experience companies in the country. It offers ready-to-eat meals, gourmets do-it-yourself recipe kits (InnerChef DIY gourmet), detox cleanses and healthy eats (InnerChef+) as well as decadent desserts (Indulge by InnerChef). The service is currently operational in Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

InnerChef raised a seed funding of $1.66 M in September 2015 by 13 investors, of which one was Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

DealStreetAsia

Year Of Investment -- December, 2015

Founded in the year 2014, dealstreetasia is a news and intelligence platform that provides international and regional investors insights into some of Asia’s most opaque markets. They lay extra focus on reports on investments, mergers, acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, investment banking and the business of startups across the ASEAN region.

In December, 2015, the startup announced that it has successfully raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from 3 investors, namely: Hindustan Times, Singapore Angel Network and Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Tapchief

Year Of Investment -- April, 2016

Founded in the year 2016, Bangalore-based Tapchief acts as a cohesive platform to discover and schedule calls with experts to get advice across domains. The startup claims to leverage the power of technology to make the process of discovery seamless and provide end to end service in terms of scheduling and executing the phone calls.

In April, 2016, Vijay Shekhar Sharma invested a whopping $150k in Tapchief.

FactorDaily

Year Of Investment -- May, 2016

Born in January, 2016, Bangalore-based FactorDaily is a technology news website that provides insights on companies, culture, future, and lifestyles. The startup's mission is to help its audience cut through the chaff and make sense of the future. For those in the business sectors, FactorDaily presents a realistic and in-depth commentary and stories about the companies and the people that matter in the business world.

FactorDaily raised a seed funding of $1 M in May, 2016 from 4 investors, namely: Accel Partners, Axcel Partners, Blume Ventures and Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Remitware Payments

Year Of Investment -- August 2016

Palo Alto, California-based Remitr is a compelling money transfer platform that makes global payments simpler, faster and cost-effective. According to the company, it considers the security of its customers money and information as their topmost priorities and makes sure that their remittances are completely safe. Its state-of-the-art technology and efficiencies helps save costs and optimise one's savings every time one makes a transfer.

On August 9, 2016, Remitware Payments raised a whopping $ 1M in a seed funding round from 11 investors, of which one was Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Unacademy

Year Of Investment -- August, 2016 and January, 2017

Starting its journey as a YouTube channel in 2010, Unacademy officially launched in January, 2016. Within such a short period of time, Unacademy claims to be India's largest education platform with over 2 million views every month. Its success stories boosts of thousands of students who have successfully cracked toughest of examinations in the country, improved their ability to speak and write better and increase their overall knowledge.

Unacademy raised a venture funding round of $1 M from 14 investors on August 24, 2016, of which one was Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The Paytm founder once again invested in the startup earlier this year in January when unacademy raised a $4.5 M Series A funding round from 13 investors.

Flyrobe

Year Of Investment -- August, 2016

Founded in 2015, Flyrobe is an online fashion rental platform that supplies western wear on-demand with a three-hour delivery timeline and ethnic wear on advance booking. Having 50 designers onboard, including industry leaders like Ritu Kumar, Masaba Gupta and Shehla Khan, the startup is currently live in Mumbai and Delhi and plans to branch out to Bengaluru and Hyderabad very soon.

Flyrobe raised a Series A venture round of $5.3 M in 2016 by 5 investors, of which one was Vijay Shekhar Sharma. The round was lead by IDG Ventures.

Innov8 Coworking

Year Of Investment -- February, 2017

Founded in October, 2015, New Delhi-based Innov8 claims to be Delhi’s most Central and Premium Coworking Space, and Innovation Centre. Aiming to disrupt the Indian Startup Culture, Innov8 is working towards making India the Silicon Hub of the world and change the ecosystem and collaborative structures of entrepreneurs in India.

Founded by Entrepreneurs & Investors at Project Guerrilla, Innov8 is an ambitious project to house 100 entrepreneurs & help them build their vision & create impactful startups from the National Soil. An area of 8,000 square feet in the midst of the Heritage Complex of Regal, dreams to change the way founders ideate, innovate & create products.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma invested an undisclosed amount in the company in February this year.

The Ken

Year Of Investment -- February, 2017

Founded on October 3, 2016, by a team of experienced journalists and entrepreneurs, The Ken is a new, digital, subscription-driven publication based out Bangalore. The publication's goal is to deliver fresh and original business insight through well-narrated stories to professionals, entrepreneurs, investors and leaders every morning. Its stories combine together analytical thinking, deep reporting and persuasive storytelling in order to provide its readers a peek into how innovation and disruption will impact the future of business.

The Ken raised an angel round of $400 K from 11 investors in February, 2017, of which one was Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

12 Indian FinTech Influencers You Must Know About

Fintech is one among the fastest growing industries in India. It is ruled by the some of the best entrepreneurs and investors who aim to revolutionize completely the financial service industry.

Over the last few years, some Indian whiz kids have become famous as they came up with the fresh innovations to compete with the world’s leaders from FinTech realm. Here are top 12 Indian FinTech influencers who are featured in a list of 63 top FinTech influencers disclosed by Fintech Asia, a digital platform based in Singapore. The list is made on the basis of their social media influence or Klout score.

Meet the Top 12 Indian influencers in the FinTech that you must know about:

1. Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the Founder& CEO of Paytm Mobile Solutions Private Limited, leads the list with a Klout score of 78. His venture Paytm became a household name in India after Demonetisation and Digitisation announcements made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016. He has used a disruptive technology platform to change the conventional ways of payments and cash flow.

Total Twitter Followers: 94,500 | @vijayshekhar

2. Prakash Somosundram

Prakash Somosundram, Co-founder & Director, The Singapore FinTech Consortium ranked on the 6th position in the list of FinTech influencers in Asia! He is a serial entrepreneur who aims to facilitate fundraising, mergers & acquisitions, partnerships and exits in an effective and efficient way through his venture “The Singapore FinTech Consortium”. His Klout score is 63.

Total Twitter Followers: 282 | @prakashsomo

3. Aman Narain

Aman Narain, CEO, BankBazaar, International Markets is helping the Indian companies to go global. Beginning with Singapore, he aims to strengthen BankBazaar’s international presence and expanding operations in the promising markets like Philippines, Malaysia, and the UAE. He was the former Global Head of Digital Banking for Standard Chartered. He is ranked on 9th position in the list with a Klout score of 61.

Total Twitter Followers: 1,389 | @amanwhotweets

4. Amit Goel

Amit Goel, Co-Founder & Chief Curator of Let’s Talk Payments (LTP) brings the most comprehensive news and insights for professionals in the FinTech industry covering payments, commerce, and technology etc. , Amit has provided deep insight and advice to several firms that are jewels in the space of payments, commerce, banking, and technology. His Klout score is 61 and ranked 10th on the FinTech Asia list.

Total Twitter Followers: 10,600 | @amitTwitr

5. Suvodeep Das

Suvodeep Das, VP, Marketing at Sodexo SVC India is ranked as the 13th top FinTech influencer in Asia. He has a Klout score of 59. Before coming on board at Sodexo, he led Marketing, Communication, Channel Expansion and Global Innovation at Greenlight Planet.

Total Twitter Followers: 7,173 | @suvodeep

6. Varun Mittal

Varun Mittal, heads Partnership & Marketing at helloPay, a fintech platform incubated by Lazada Group. Earlier, Varun was with Samsung and SingTel, Singapore’s biggest telecom operator, developing mobile payment operations. He has also worked with Microsoft and Gemalto. With a Klout score of 57, Varun Mittal is ranked 17th on the FinTech Asia list of influencers.

Total Twitter Followers: 860 | @analogVarun

7. Shwetank Verma

Shwetank Verma, an innovator at MetLife is driving forward new revenue opportunities and focusing on the application of new technologies (VR/AI) in FinTech and digital health. He is ranked on 29th position in the list of top influencers with a Klout score of 52. He is a start-up specialist who is focusing on bringing new concepts to the financial market and setting them up to scale by combining the concepts of design thinking and lean entrepreneurship.

Total Twitter Followers: 2,226 | @shwetankv

8. Balasubramaniam G D

Balasubramaniam G D, Senior VP, DBS Risk Management Group is a start-up specialist, with expertise in managing and setting up fraud risk management across banks and financial institutions in Asia Pacific Markets. He has over 24 years of experience in this industry knows well risk, audit and fraud related subjects. He stands on 37th postion on the list of FinTech influencers with a Klout score of 48.

Total Twitter Followers: 3,728 | @GDBALA

9. Tejasvi Mohanram

Tejasvi Mohanram, Founder & CEO of RupeePower is at number 39 in the elite list of influencers disclosed the FinTech Asia! RupeePower is redefining the way credit is disbursed to retail borrowers. This venture is creating synergies and a disruptive point-of-sale credit disbursal model that combines speed and precision in matching customers with lending institutions. His Klout score is 48.

Total Twitter Followers: 322 | @tejasvimohanram

10. Sopnendu Mohanty

He has joined as the new Chief Fintech Officer at Monetary Authority of Singapore. He is developing regulatory policies around technology innovation to ‘better manage risks, enhance efficiency and strengthen competitiveness in the financial sector’. He facilitates effective ways of using technology to better manage risks, enhance efficiency and strengthen competitiveness in the financial sector. His Klout score is 47 and position is 41st in the list.

Total Twitter Followers: 880 | @sopnendu

11. Manish Agarwal

Manish Agarwal, VP at Kotak Mahindra Bank provides new direction and strategy for using the interactive channels and helps leverage the same for the benefit of business. He carries two decades of experience in the field of IT & Finance and expert in setting up digital marketing and innovation units. He Ranked 55th on the list with a Klout score of 43.
Total Twitter Followers: 380 | @armagarwal

12. Yosha Gupta

With a Klout score of 41, Yosha Gupta is the only Indian woman to be listed in the prestigious FinTech influencers list. She is the Founder & CEO of LafaLafa, a leading coupon, and cash-back website that rewards customers with extra cashback for online shopping. She has ranked on 59th position in the prestigious list of influencers in FinTech industry.

Total Twitter Followers: 1,055 | @yoshagupta

Online Fashion Rental Portal Flyrobe Raises Rs 35 Cr Led by IDG, GREE Ventures & Sequoia India

Mumbai-based online fashion rental portal Flyrobe has raised Rs 35 crore in its second round of funding led by IDG Ventures, with the participation of Tokyo-based GREE Ventures and existing investor Sequoia India. The other investors who participated in the round include Paytm's founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Stanhope Capital chairman Leon Seynave. Till now, the startup has raised a total of $7 million funding.

Flyrobe aims to utilize the raised funding to expand to five more cities including Hyderabad, Bangalore, as well as to strengthen its technology, product and business teams, as reported by ET. Flyrobe is currently operational in Delhi and Mumbai.

"We want to build the country's largest virtual wardrobe which women can rely whenever they have an occasion," said Shreya Mishra, 27, CEO and cofounder at Flyrobe.

Omapal Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs Flyrobe, was founded by IIT Bombay alumni Shreya Mishra, along with Pranay Surana and Tushar Saxena, it is an on-demand apparel rental platform that provides premium designer wear and branded outfits and accessories on rent at 10-15% of the retail price from for upto eight days.

On the supply side, the company is partnering with designers and brands to list their merchandise on a revenue sharing model. Also, it expects to grow 4-5 times, and triple its designer roster to 150 by March 2017.

Flyrobe competes with players like Bangalore based Flont, Delhi based Swishlist, Stage3, Mumbai based Blinge and Chennai-based HiFlame14 among others.

Unacademy Raises Additional $1M from Blume Ventures, Stanford Angels India and Marquee Angels

Unacademy, Indian free online learning platform, has raised additional $1 million in their second round of external investment. In April 2016, they raised their first round of funding worth $500k. The current investment round is being led by Blume Ventures, along with Stanford Angels India, WaterBridge Ventures, Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, Sandeep Tandon, Ashish Tulsian, Tracxn Labs and most of their existing investors participating in the round.

Unacademy is India’s largest free online learning platform that allows educators to create courses using their app on various subjects, including exclusive content for various competitive exams. Their vision is to get the best minds of the country share their knowledge in an easily comprehendible form. More than 100 educators have created 200+ courses in the last eight months since the launch of their platform Unacademy.in. The platform attracts more than 1M video views monthly now, their growth so far has been mostly organic.

“What started as an experiment has today become one of the most reliable sources of online education. From content specific to competitive examinations to basic English learning techniques, we are in a process to make Unacademy the one-stop destination for online courses across myriad fields and subjects. From IAS topper 2016, Tina Dabi, to India’s first woman IPS officer, Kiran Bedi, we aim to get courses from only the best on our platform. Within two months, the Unacademy Create app will be made available to all, so anyone across the world can create lessons in any language they like. After a thorough screening process, we will make the relevant lessons available on our platform that will be free for all to see,” says Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder and CEO, Unacademy.

In a span of eight months, over 300,000 students have benefited from over 2,400 online lessons and specialised courses on cracking various competitive examinations, on our platform. Our success stories include thousands of students who have cracked toughest of examinations, improved their ability to speak and write better and increase their knowledge. Some of our students have today become educators on Unacademy and that is what we call a true educational revolution. India is home to 19 per cent of the world’s youth and we are empowering them to take on the world in a manner that classrooms will never do. Our vision is to partner with the brightest minds and have courses on every possible topic in multiple languages so that the whole world can benefit from these courses.

Karthik Reddy,Managing Partner, Blume Ventures, says, “Unacademy presents a great example of the beginnings of an incredible shift in India’s Internet—the ability of millions of new internet users using smartphones as their only access device to create and consume high quality curated educational content as easily as laying hands on a textbook. And the product is designed for both lightweight production and consumption—in that it’s ingenious. This can change learning to an entirely different plane and kill a lot of ineffective institutional frameworks. And it’s an absolutely crack team of young founders for whom all else, including the IAS, didn’t compare to the ambitiou” goal and impact that an Unacademy can have. This is why we think tech can be such a game changer even in education in this country.”

Sachin Bansal, Executive Chairman, Flipkart, says, ”Education and learning from the best suited teachers and professionals is a global problem, which, I believe, Unacademy solves seamlessly with its interactive and intuitive content. In a short span of eight months, the founding team has proved that leveraging technology to empower its educators and students is a problem that can be solved effectively at scale. I am impressed by the ease with which educators can speedily upload videos and touch a billion lives with effective lessons. I am confident that the strong founding team of Unacademy is well positioned to truly disrupt traditional classroom teaching with more impactful content, and I am proud to back the venture.”

Kiran Bedi, Lt Governor, Puducherry, and also an educator at Unacademy, says, “ It took me ten minutes to make a video lesson on ’Time management and productivity’ on the Unacademy Create app, and impact a million lives with my learning. The overwhelming response from students, along with the simplicity with which the app has been designed, encourages working professionals to share their experience. It is an unconventional way for students to get the perspective of real life challenges and lessons and makes me believe everyone can be a teacher. I urge Unacademy to conduct lessons and workshops in Puducherry. Unacademy cuts across boundaries. It’s truly global and in one’s own hands.”