Accel and Tiger Global backed Zansaar.com ties up with Severin.

Accel and Tiger Global backed Zansaar.com ties up with Severin

– By Prathamesh Patil

With the advent of cooking shows on primetime TV and an increasing number of restaurants offering a variety of global cuisines, a majority of the populace is acquiring a more discerning palette. Gone are the days when we’d be happy with spaghetti for special occasions or having waffles only when you travelled abroad. Today, a simple walk through any metropolis, no matter the size, gives you the opportunity to indulge in anything your taste buds desire. In fact, the gourmet food market in India alone is estimated at US$ 1.3 billion and expected to grow to US$ 2.7 billion by 2015.

However, more and more people want to whip up the delicacies they’ve tasted at a restaurant or seen on their favourite food show in the comfort of their own kitchens. The Indian home appliances market is pegged at US $ 70 million and is seeing a growth of 30% – 40%. Understanding that every amatuer cook needs the right tools to embrace their inner Cordon Bleu, Zansaar.com brings to you its Master Chef’s Kitchen; a collection of gorgeous imported home appliances that are crafted with finesse.

John Varghese, Category Head for Imports for Zansaar says about this collection, “The range comprises a handpicked selection of products from Severin, which is a premier German manufacturer. Established in 1892, Severin has developed a perfect balance between exclusivity, functionality and value for money that we feel is tailor made for today’s performance-oriented generation.”

Products like the Bread Maker, Waffle Maker and the Automatic Contact Grill are among the bestsellers on Zansaar with a 100% growth in demand for them in the last three months alone. The Toasters, Coffee Makers, Electric Kettles and Food Mixers make cooking convenient as well as delicious, while the Fondue Set, Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker and Food Steamer add a touch of exotic to home food.

While the hustle of everyday work life might whittle away at one’s personal time, the convenience of these home appliances by Severin make mealtimes fun and tasty.

Shopify – Bharti Airtel’s DIY ecommerce platform for SMBs. What’s on offer?

Shopify – Bharti Airtel’s DIY ecommerce platform for SMBs. What’s on offer?

– By Prathamesh Patil

Bharti Airtel has revealed that it will offer an end-to-end e-commerce solution named “Shopify” to Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) and SME customers by provisioning the service through its cloud platform.

Shopify will be powered by Airtel’s internet products like DSL and ILP enabling the SOHO and small and medium enterprises to create an online store to manage their e-commerce presence with great ease. It offers customizable site templates, an integrated shopping cart, search engine optimization(SEO), email marketing, inventory management and analytics.

Airtel’s data solutions such as DSL, ILP, 3G and 4G bundled with Shopify will offer all the features needed to host an e-Commerce platform such as built in m-Commerce shopping cart, payment gateways, social media integration which will be backed with requisite logistic support.

Airtel’s Internet products and Shopify’s content delivery network ensure the website load times are super quick from anywhere, anytime. The solution from Airtel allows customers to reach their audience via different sources like email marketing, social media integration and management apps which makes shopping on Shopify stores a wonderful social experience.

This latest addition to Airtel’s SAAS portfolio will allow customers to reach their audience via different sources like email marketing, social media integration and management apps which makes shopping on Shopify stores a wonderful social experience.

In India, today only five percent of SMEs have been able to expand on the digital platform, with Shopify more SMEs and entrepreneurs will be empowered to expand their digital reach.

 

Are you planning to jump on the ecommerce bandwagon? Have a look at Zepo.

Are you planning to jump on the ecommerce bandwagon? Have a look at Zepo.  

– By Prathamesh Patil

In order to cater to a growing generation of internet and ecommerce-savvy shoppers, businesses are rapidly going online; maintaining not just plain static websites but full-fledged online stores. And it’s not only the large financially well-off retailers or manufacturers. SMBs are not far behind in realizing that ecommerce has emerged as a wonderful channel of sales, to serve their existing customers better.

Ask a designer running a boutique in the Hauz Khas village in Delhi, if she had thought selling her dresses all the way to a customer in Chennai was possible before? With the growing usage of internet and social media, the far-fetched has become a reality now. It won’t be long before you find every business in the neighborhood handing out business cards with not just telephone numbers but their website address too!

Zepo, an ecommerce platform  based out of Mumbai, is playing its part in trying to facilitate small retailers and manufacturers across India, setup their own exclusive retail space on the web; their own online stores at literally half the cost. Zepo started with the mandate of equipping first generation entrepreneurs with the right arsenal to start selling online by giving them an easy interface, gorgeous storefronts and most importantly, the entire eco-system to help them sell online easily.

Like Madhavi Sani, a Zepo customer and an online jewelry retailer in Mumbai, says, “(Zepo) is definitely a blessing for the Indian e-commerce industry and entrepreneurs. Reasonably priced and easy to use interface which keeps getting better and better with new features and excellent team support. A match for the big daddy’s on the net!”

Powering over 900 online stores as of today, Zepo has seen an upsurge in the number of SMBs choosing ecommerce as another sales channel. They recently concluded an ecommerce census of the online stores operating on their platform, for the first two quarters of the 2013-14 fiscal year. The figures not only substantiate the claims that ecommerce is becoming a preferred point of sale among SMEs but also provides insights into the ecommerce trends of small businesses.

How are small businesses doing online?

All the online stores on Zepo, combined, managed to bill 245 million in sales in the first 2 financial quarters of 2013-14.

Furthermore, Maharashtra emerged the leader at embracing ecommerce, closely followed by Delhi. SMEs across states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are also rapidly going online with growing internet penetration and ecommerce awareness. Online shoppers across Maharashtra and Delhi contribute towards a large majority of transactions seen by small and medium businesses. But other states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka are not far behind.

And as far as product categories go, the popular categories of clothing and electronics are predominant online, with 22% and 14% of online stores selling these products, respectively. But the more unconventional product categories like gourmet food, books and personal care products fast catching on.

Looking at the numbers and figures, it can definitely be said that ecommerce is for anyone and everyone with a product that can be sold. The time has gone when small business shied away from the web and stuck to conventional retail channels. With changing times, the consumer behavior is changing too. And it’s about time that small businesses took to ecommerce as another sales channel, like they started using a telephone to take orders in the 90s.

Olacabs raises Series B funding led by Matrix Partners and Tiger Global Management

Olacabs raises Series B funding led by Matrix Partners and Tiger Global Management

– By Prathamesh Patil

Matrix Partners India recently announced that it has acquired a significant minority stake in Olacabs, India’s leading aggregator of car rental and point-to-point cab service operators. Matrix along with the existing investor Tiger Global Management, co-invested in the second institutional round of equity funding for the Company. Olacabs will use the funds to expand its operations to newer markets and to deepen its technology and analytics expertise.

“We are excited to bring Matrix Partners India on board along with Tiger Global as key investors. Matrix as a partner has a portfolio of high pedigree investments and rich experience in emerging markets. Combined with the rich global expertise of our existing investor Tiger Global, this partnership gives us the support and resources to grow rapidly at the pace we intend to. We will continue to create substantial value for our customers in terms of the Ola experience, as well as for our drivers and operators by helping them buy their own cars and improve business for them, thereby nurturing micro-entrepreneurship.” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co–Founder and CEO of Olacabs.

“Ola is leveraging technology to revolutionize ground transportation and is aggregating the highly fragmented cab and car rental market – one of the large travel verticals yet to be organized in India. It is our privilege to be associated with Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, the co-founders of Olacabs, who have built a scalable platform for online cab bookings. This platform provides a public utility by allowing Indian consumers to experience a safe, comfortable, standardized service offering at transparent and competitive prices.” said Avnish Bajaj, co-Founder and Managing Director, Matrix India.

Founded in January 2011 by two IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola aims to change the largely fragmented and inefficient car rental market by integrating technology both at the supply as well as demand side, in order to offer a seamless and predictable travel experience. Ola is the first service to offer an iPhone and Android mobile app that not only books a cab, but also helps customers track their cab in real-time.

Currently, well over 30% of Ola’s bookings come through its mobile app.

The Olacabs app for drivers acts as an in-car navigation cum fare device. On the supply side, the Company deeply analyses GPS / customer travel data and uses complex algorithms and analytics developed in-house, to derive consumable information that is used for inventory management, demand estimation and route planning.

Ola conducts regular car audits, driver training and sensitization sessions to ensure standardized service delivery and customer delight. Olacabs currently has over 6500 cabs on its platform and operates in 5 cities – Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.

Zomato raises fresh $37 million funding led by Sequoia along with Info Edge

Zomato raises fresh $37 million funding led by Sequoia along with Info Edge

By Prathamesh Patil

Deepinder Goyal founded restaurant discovery guide Zomato has raised $37 million in Series D funding from Sequoia Capital and existing investors Info Edge to launch its services in three new countries – Brazil (Sao Paulo), Turkey (Istanbul, Ankara), and Indonesia (Jakarta). In these three countries, Zomato will be available in local languages as well – Portuguese, Turkish, and Bahasa Indonesia respectively.

Available across web, mobile, and print, Zomato provides in-depth information such as menus, directions, contact details, pictures, and user reviews, for over 160,000 restaurants in 11 countries with its India and UAE operation having achieved break even already. More than half of Zomato’s traffic is seen on its mobile apps which is a testimony to the fact that local search is moving to mobile very fast. Over the next two years, Zomato plans to expand to 22 more countries across Europe, South-East Asia, Australia and the Americas.

“This is an exciting phase for us. We believe that we can disrupt restaurant search with our rich content-driven model. This financing will help us develop a product that will change the way people look for restaurant recommendations around them. We are excited to partner with Sequoia Capital as our venture partner to help us succeed internationally, and we can look forward to seeing Zomato in many more countries over the next couple of years.” Deepinder Goyal, Founder and CEO of Zomato.

With an aggressive tactics it aims to take on the likes of San Francisco-based Yelp which happens to be one of the most valued companies in this sector with a market capitalisation of over $4.5 billion.

Started as Foodiebay in July 2008 with a list of 1,200 restaurants in the Delhi NCR region, it was able to break even in June 2010 and rebranded itself as Zomato in November 2010. It has previously raised close to $16.5 million from Info Edge, owner of naukri.com. The current round of funding values Zomato at $125 million which helped Info Edge dilute its stake from 57.9% to 50.1%.

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder of Info Edge said, “Zomato is one of the finest consumer Internet businesses to come out of India. It has a great team, a great brand, a super user experience, a dominant market share, excellent revenue scale-up with a known path to profit, and a global opportunity. We are excited to partner with them to build a world-class restaurant search engine.”

It follows a rich-content approach to restaurant search and has a team that collects menu cards, clicks pictures and gets mapping information on its own which is updated every three months.

For the love of food and how true!