Insights Success is glad the Introduce The 50 Startups To Take A Look At in 2019, Who are sharing an enthusiasm to put resources into various new Indian startups, thereby enabling them to create more milestones.

1. The 50 Startups To Take A Look At In 2019 VOL-3
ISSUE-8
March-2019
Soumya Chatterjee
Co-founder CEO
Easyrewardz
www.insightssuccess.in
Outstanding Startup

4. SME-SMO Executives Manoj Shelge
Circulation Manager Tanaji
Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale
Technical Specialist Amar Sawant
Co-designers Mayur, Aparna
Art Picture Editor Rahul Kavanekar
Art Design Head Amol Kamble
Associate Designer Poonam Mahajan
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5. From the
Editor
ith each passing day, India is becoming a well-
Wknown name in the global startup ecosystem.
According to an independent survey, India is
prominently placed amongst the key five countries on earth
in relation to the number of startups established. The Indian
Startup Ecosystem has already witnessed various
noteworthy advancements in the year 2018; similarly the
start of the year 2019 has boosted the overall scenario of
the budding startups like never before! On the other hand,
the government reforms like the execution of GST and
expanded spotlight on ‘Make in India’ is adding an extra
plus to the Indian Startup Ecosystem.
The tech-enabled startups are alluring for investors and
investments from industry veterans with an aim to
withstand the complexities of the market. As of late, these
startups are grabbing the eyeballs of the Silicon Valley and
VCs based out of Silicon Valley. These VCs are sharing an
enthusiasm to put resources into various new Indian
startups, thereby enabling them to create more milestones.
While the investors strongly believe that the new-age
startups with their novel thoughts and expanding
collaborations have the potential of making the country
'developed'.
As per the business professionals, the trend that is
disrupting the Indian Startup Ecosystem is that the better-
financed corporates are putting their resources in the
all-around well-planned acquisitions of new companies.
These purchases would instill confidence in the finance
experts globally, consequently pull in reserves. As such, this
is a step towards fueling the development of the startup
ecosystem in India.
To be precise, the emerging startups are focusing on
cutting misfortunes, increment their general valuation, and
achieve operational brilliance in the longer run. These
significant characteristics along with the positive
assumptions of the investors and support from the
legislature will help the startup ecosystem of India in
reaching new heights in the coming future.
An Overview
to the Indian
Startup Ecosystem
Rahul Niraj
Rahul Niraj

6. A R T I C L E S
Money Begets Money:
Startup Finance Explained
28
Creditmantri
Igniting The Lamp Of
Financial Independence
BlueTie
Networking with Widened
Horizons and Sharpened Focus
Money Matters
Startup Lessons Every
Founder Should Know
Lessons to Learn
56
68
COVERSTORY
12

7. INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS
Easyrewardz
Smart Minds Make Smart Moves
36
ThoughtBit
A Young Technology Firm
Decoding Business Problems
20
OUTSTANDING STARTUP

8. Using Technology for
Reimagining Banking
Services for the Masses
CXOSTANDPOINT
Fintech Insights
Why Employers Should Adopt
Digital Technologies in Blue-Collar
Labour Heavy Industries
Expert’s Voice
106
58
AI ML Driving
the Technology Future
Tech Trends
The Digital Age
Leader's Thought
Challenges Faced by
Startupsof 21st Century and
Solutions to Overcome them
Industry Insider
Emerging Technologies
in Business
Tech Archieves
48
78
94
40

9. A Synonymous Name for
Seamless Poker Experience
9stacks
A Catalyst for
Career Acceleration
Board Infinity
Craftsmanship in
the Digital Age
Direct Create
Empowering Farmers,
Transforming Agriculture
EM3 Agri Services
Transforming Corporate
Ground Transportation
Management Landscape
Aaveg
Bridging the Digital
Divide in India
Budli
Mindful Eating,
Anytime, Anywhere
EAT Anytime
24
32
46
54
44
52
62
CONTENTS

10. A Preferred Parenting Partner
Footprints
The Perfect Blend of
Innovation and Learning!
INNOSTUD
Bringing the Impactful
Change in Healthcare
MedCords
Delivering Creativity
at its Best!
Mirraw
Unleashing New-age
Technologies for a Better Future
Hug Innovations
Matrubharti
Transforming B2B Pharma
Market Digitally in India
Medibox
64
66
74
82
72
76
84
Vernacular Content Community

11. World-Class Solutions
at Affordable Prices
Nextsky Technologies
Creating Choices for Customers
and Businesses for Service Experts
OKSir
Bag Up | Pick Up | Clean | Deliver
Wash N Dry
Activating Smart
Financing for the SMEs
OfBusiness
Striving for Better and
Timely Cancer Treatment
OncoStem
Helping People Discover
Good Health
Vitor Health
86
90
98
102
92
100
108
India's First Domestic
Consumer Venture Fund!
Sixth Sense Ventures
110
Decrypting Aerial
Data for Business
WeDoSky

12. Acknowledging
the New Era
of Startups
hile 2018 was an enthusiastic year for the
Wbusiness world, the start of the year 2019
has taken it beyond the success
horizons. Recognizing the startups that are
revolutionizing the corporate space and keeping
innovation on their radar by staying up-to-speed
with the developments, we have come up with this
special edition of “The 50 Startups To Take A Look
At In 2019”. This issue has featured a handful of
professionals offering a diverse and engaging mix of
creativity and distinctiveness. This edition of ours
will help you to walk through a list of startups
embracing multi-disciplinary approach and covering
a range of relevant issues in its sector.
On the Cover of the issue, we have featured Blue Tie
Global Pvt. Ltd. – a platform where professionals
network with an objective. You can meet and
network with those whose objectives complement
yours at that moment, right from the moment you
sign up.
Apart from such an insightful Cover Story, we have
also enlisted Easyrewardz Software Services
Private Limited as 'Outstanding Startup' – an
Information Technology and Services Company;
9stacks is India's fastest growing online poker
platform; Aaveg Management Services Pvt. Ltd. is a
one-of-its-kind company providing end-to-end
corporate mobility solutions with ground
transportation; Board Infinity is an online career

13. comfort of the masses; WeDoSky is a drone data
analytics company in India; and Wholesome Habits
Private Limited aims to make snacking experience
healthy and nutritious indulgence.
Alongside startups like Bushel Technologies, Ecom
Express, AirCTO, Alamak Capital Advisors,
IndusGuru, Mypoolin, Occipital Tech, StoreKing, No
Thepla holidays, TouchMagix, Robolab Technologies
Pvt. Ltd., Wandertrails, PixelVJ, Haptik, Bigbasket,
Nobroker, Intangles Lab Private Limited, Dazeinfo
Media Research Private Limited, Jaypore, Medlife
International Private Limited, HOPSCOTCH,
myGubbi, Startupwala Private Limited, Tinto Rang,
Fusion Microfinance, and Zophop Technologies Pvt.
Ltd have also been featured in the listing of this
edition.
While flipping the pages, take a note not to miss out
exclusive Interviews with Gowri Mukherjee,
Rajasundaram Sudarshan, and Ranjit Punja – Co-
founders of CreditMantri Finserv Private Limited
and Siddharthan Panneerselvam – CEO,
Rajeshwaran Venugopal – CTO, and Sai Santhosh –
CCO at ThoughtBit.
Turning some more pages will help you find out
articles masterly crafted by our in-house editors
which include Money Begets Money: Startup Finance
Explained from Startup Finance and Startup Lessons
Every Founder Should Know from Startup Lessons.
Also, the articles from CXO Standpoint by industry
experts would take you on a journey showcasing the
challenges, opportunities and tech-based
innovations in the Startup universe.
Looking at the emerging opportunities and the
growing possibilities, this issue of ours will introduce
you to a whole new world of novelty.
So enjoy the exciting read!
coaching platform for higher education; Budli
Internet Pvt. Ltd. is working on creating and driving
change in India through ReCommerce - Reverse
Commerce of used gadgets like Smartphones,
Tablets, Laptops and other gadgets; Direct Create is
an integrated product for the Handmade consumer
ecosystem; EM3 Agri Services Pvt. Ltd. solves on-
farm productivity and is a holistic service provider to
the Indian farmers; Footprints Preschool and
Daycare provides Play School and Day-care
programs for the parents looking for world-class
education and child-care for their children; Hug
Innovations is a next-generation Wearable and IoT
platform company; Innostud is a first-of-its-kind
mobile platform helping schools and coaching
institutes to automate their administrative work;
Matrubharti Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a vernacular
content community technology startup; MedCords is
an innovative platform that makes storage of
medical records easy; Medibox Digital Solutions Pvt.
Ltd. is a B2B Market Place for OTC, OTX, pharma,
healthcare and allied products; Mirraw Online
Services Private Limited is one of the leading Ethnic
Wear online marketplace; Nextsky Technologies
develops Cloud-based ERP solutions for the micro
small scale manufacturing sector; OfBusiness is a
technology-driven new-age fintech startup
providing smart financing solutions to the SMEs;
OKSir is an on-demand real time online-based
marketplace that seamlessly connects customers to
service professionals; OncoStem Diagnostics is a
company that focuses on developing innovative
tests in the personalized medicine space; Sixth
Sense Ventures Advisors LLP. is possibly the first
venture fund in India and maybe the world to return
capital within 3 years; Vitor Health Sciences Pvt. ltd
helps people discover good health and empower
them to proactively engage with it – in a simple,
confident and everyday manner; Wash N Dry is an
app-based laundry company rolling out end-to-end
laundry services with a vision to enhance the

14. Kunal Garud
Founder and CEO
Kalyan Garud
Founder and
Executive Director

15. Networking with Widened
Horizons and Sharpened Focus
The current day professional
world is an open marketplace
with increasing complexities
and layers of enmeshed challenges.
Given the current global digital
explosion – India alone has nearly half
a billion internet users – it has become
extremely important to be involved in
higher networking to learn from and
master solutions to existing as well as
future challenges.
Networking, however, is more effective
with easy accessibility to capable and
available professionals, given a
favorable, firm ecosystem. Blue Tie
Global Pvt. Ltd. thus steps in, as a
one-of-its-kind platform offering
access to profiles of relevant
professionals, replete with their
requisite information and professional
goals. Its algorithms successfully
enable effective networking, even
beyond the personal connections.
The company empowers objective-
driven technology and caters to the
needs of professionals by helping them
identify and connect with other
50Startups To Take
A Look At In 2019
The

16. professionals with complementary objectives. Thus this platform efficaciously addresses the essential need of the hour and
improves productivity, thereby helping the users to disassemble professional convolutions. BlueTie stands tall in taking
away all formalities and intricacies of building bridges with people far from the reach of common customers. Widening
horizons to network with relevant professionals, BlueTie plays a pivotal role in sharpening the focus on rolling out a
mutually synergized experience.
Recently, BlueTie was also recognized as the Fastest Growing Indian Company Excellence Award at the 11th Edition of
the International Achievers Conference held in Thailand recently.
The Professional Journey
Acknowledging the loopholes in the effective networking, BlueTie placed its cornerstones in the latter half of 2016 with
an aim to transform the networking landscape for better. The journey stemmed from the desire to bridge this gap by
enabling individuals to discover and communicate with professionals across diverse geographic locations. The platform
focused on helping individuals collaborate with other professionals with symbiotic synergies that match their objectives at
that time.

17. “When you have
the right thing to say,
you don’t need
recommendations”
With concrete endeavors, the company
engaged Sweden based Jorgen Nilsson, CEO,
Zenterio and the UAE-based Khalil Mohd Al-
Hindwan, VP, TransSys Solutions as the global
advisors. These personas made swift moves in
focusing on the aspect of global expansion for
BlueTie. Today, the company has grown from
a team of fifteen to over fifty, backed by
investments of over 1.2 Million USD.
Meet the Proficient Duo
Kalyan Garud and Kunal Garud, the
Co-founders of BlueTie and brothers by
relation, come from different professional
expertise. Having founded and led an
advertising agency, Shrooms Creatives, Kunal
comes from an entrepreneurial background. He
oversees the operations and product evolution
at BlueTie to keep it evolving in the right
direction in line with the global vision.
On the other hand, Kalyan comes from a
corporate sector with experience in global IT
companies such as IBM, KPMG, Mahindra
Satyam, etc for over a decade. Currently at
BlueTie, he fosters an ecosystem of growth by
cementing the overall organizational pillars
and the technical infrastructure for the
products to ensure the realization of its vision
in the longer run.
The duo understood the importance of
networking and recognised that the biggest
hindrance in effective networking was the
absence of a platform which enables
professionals to network and collaborates with
a purpose, thus bringing to life BlueTie.
“We strongly believe that shifting focus from
only network building to networking is the
key!” says the duo.
The Curated Set of Services
The company firmly believes that networking
is a one-stop solution to all professional
problems. Some of the core features of
BlueTie are:
Objective Based Networking – Users can meet
and network with the right professional for
every objective. Users can choose their

18. networking objective and connect with
professionals who share a co-relating objective
Get Searched Precisely – The platform allows
users to choose their fortes (Skills,
Certifications, Software expertise) and get
searched by those who are looking for
professionals with the same skill set.
Go Beyond Your Personal Connections – The
professionals who complement the objectives
that the users are looking to achieve can be
beyond their limited personal connections.
BlueTie allows one to look beyond one’s
personal connections, and reach out to
professionals in a cordial manner, cutting
straight to the chase without the frills of
introductory obligations.
Acknowledgement – Interactive and effortless
acknowledgement system so that the
professionals can utilize their time effectively
thus reducing the scopes of miscommunication.
Networking, without Network Building –
BlueTie enables professionals to start
networking the moment they join, without the
hassles of building and maintaining huge lists of
personal connections.
BlueTie Pin – A Professional Contact detail for
all professional communication dissuading the
use of any personal information in order to
minimize spam
A Bigger Canvas
Blue Tie Global believes that the foremost thing
to stand out from the clutter is to stay updated
with the trends and be prepared for the future
challenges. “You always need to keep learning
not only from market success but also from
market failures. Understand what is relevant to
you, absorb it and put it to use,” asserts Kalyan.
“Being in any kind of business, the biggest
difficulty that any startup faces is to execute its
innovations. A startup where ‘no idea is bigger
than execution’is the sustainable one and will
have a long term differentiation factor in the
ecosystem. In short, the game plan is to apply
the learnings, stick to the vision, and bring the

19. innovation to execution,” Kalyan Garud
included.
A decade ago, E-commerce industry saw
a huge impetus triggered by the
availability of a huge potentially virgin
market. The investment bait was the
expansion of customer base as opposed to
the unit economics which was then
considered as a long run business
objective.
Now, there is a similar wave for
networking. With the emerging career
scopes, networking has become a must for
every professional. Different platforms
offered different ways of building huge
networks, lots of them discontinued while
some settled to become industry leaders.
However, all these platforms focused on
the connection-based approach and the
other avenues were left unexplored,
limiting the scopes of actual pure
networking. BlueTie thus focuses on
leveraging these gaps and providing a
platform which enables professionals
today to bring effectiveness in the way
they network, by introducing and
inculcating objective-based networking.
Fueling the Emerging Masses
For budding entrepreneurs, the energy
that is driven by their passion is the key to
unlock the doors to success. Kalyan
Garud, advices the young minds to make
sure that they complete the cycle. “There
will be times when you are just two steps
away or likely to fail, that is fine! Backing
out or leaving that undone will do more
harm than failure. Do not give up,
complete the cycle that you started. Most
of the startups or ventures fail not
because they don’t have the potential; it’s
because they fail to complete the cycle.”
Kalyan also asserts the importance of
validating your ideas. However convinced
one is with one’s own idea, to make it fool
proof, it is important to validate it with a
proper documentation and experts who
have an experience in the field.
Lastly, for young entrepreneurs, starting
early gives an upper hand. There is little or
no added responsibility. There’s a lot to learn
and very little to lose. Youngsters can
explore more, take more risks and decide on
what they want to settle.
So, the company edifies the emerging
entrepreneurs to inculcate the habit of
starting things early and taking it to a
closure, irrespective of how big or small the
startup is. This habit is worth a million
dollars!
Turning More Pages
Cherishing a futuristic approach throughout
the organization, BlueTie is moving forward
to expand itself into a multi-dimensional one.
It looks forward to evolve as a frontrunner in
newer avenues of networking along with
bringing more effectiveness and efficiency to
the existing avenues.
The second objective down the line is to
place its best foot forward for and expand
globally. Currently having PAN India
presence, the company aims to be a leader in
the emerging markets, starting with South
East Asian countries like Malaysia,
Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines
and so on. The company is all set to launch
one of its major roadmap items in the near
future.
BlueTie looks forward to evolve as a
frontrunner in newer avenues of networking
along with bringing more effectiveness and
efficiency to the existing avenues.
“With over 185k+ users and a new
professional coming aboard every 70
seconds, we are on our way to add many
more feathers to our cap,” conclude the
co-founders.
The BlueTie mobile application is available
for download on the Google Play Store as
well as the App Store.
For more details, visit -
https://www.bluetieglobal.com
“Network
Building is
an option,
Networking
is not!
Hence,
professionals
need to shift
their focus
from only
network
building to
actual
networking”

20. Read it FirstRead it First
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22. Soumya Chatterjee
Co-founder CEO
Sapan Kadakia
Co-founder Director
Angad Singh
Co-founder Director
20 MARCH 2019

23. EasyrewardzSmart Minds Make Smart Moves
T
oday’s competitive market is flooded with a
plethora of choices that forces the consumers to
explore new brands and experience the latest
offerings. From the seller’s perspective, holding out
customers is the key to survive the fierce market
competition. Loyalty programs and reward points act as the most
impactful weapons in the armory of the sellers as they play a
pivotal role in retaining buyers. However, often it’s a tedious task
for the buyers to manage and take maximum benefits of these
programs as they are fragmented in nature.
This unique excerpt unveils the story of Easyrewardz Software
Services Private Limited – a company that was conceptualized in
2011 with the vision to address a white space, especially between
the available CRM tools for SMB’s in the retail sector.
Additionally, Easyrewardz is India’s first social collaborative
rewards market-place. At present, it has customers across diverse
segments including Apparels, Banking, FB, and a lot more!
Some of the biggest brands like PVR, Fabindia, Pizza Hut, Spykar,
Jack Jones, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hyatt, SRL Diagnostics
have bestowed their trust on Easyrewardz. Team Easyrewardz is
focused on delivering technology products with in-depth
analytical insights and best in breed services to create customer-
merchant ecosystems that foster growth for the merchant and
delight for the customers.
Exquisite Services
Right from inception, the company had set definite goals and had
commenced its operation accordingly. Offering two distinct
product lines, Easyrewardz has successfully managed to evolve as
a competent player in a very quick time.
Easyrewardz was
conceptualized in
2011 with the
vision to address
a white space,
especially
between the
available CRM
tools for SMB’s in
the retail sector.
Outstanding Startup
Tejas Kadakia
Co-founder and Director
MARCH 2019 21

24. Customer Lifecycle Management
Stack: This is a full-stack CRM
marketing automation platform built
for retail SMBs. Through various
interweaved modules it helps retailers
to engage customers right from lead
identification, through the first sale, to
timely engagement, understanding
their preferences and guiding them
towards the right products. The CLM
stack helps retailers derive maximum
value by providing professional
services to integrate the technology
with their business processes allowing
their marketing team to use the insights
trends captured by Easyrewardz’ s
tools in the promotion pricing
strategies of the brand. Today, it
influences consumer experiences
across 8000+ stores of 125+ brands
that use this technology.
Poiink: Poiink is a ‘gee whiz’ channel
to drive business through customer
engagement and is a B2C platform for
businesses to maintain an Omnichannel
presence. It works as an enabler for
brands to reach a captive base, delight
customers and drive loyalty. This is a
platform for end consumers to allow
them to track manage several loyalty
programs offers of brands in a single
place get recommendations while
shopping. POIINK allows the clubbing
of points across several participating
brand programs, making points
redemption easy for consumers. Till
date, the app has over 100k downloads
and continues to create milestone
despite limited marketing.
The Team – Getting Up, Close,
Personal
The famous quote by Helen Keller, -
“Alone we can do so little; together we
can do so much” stands apt for
Easyrewardz as this entity was
co-founded by mavens who came from
diverse professional backgrounds. The
inspirational journey of these marvels
gives a glimpse of how they realized
their dream of building a castle
together. Let’s unveil these personas
and understand what makes them so
unique!
As the Co-founder and CEO, Soumya
Chatterjee (ex – CTO, Yebhi.com) is a
start-up veteran with deep experience
spanning geographies verticals
across strategy, technology or
operations in these disciplines. As a
CRM practitioner, he leads the product
vision strategy, which in turn also
shapes the organization strategy of
Easyrewardz. Prior to Easyrewardz, he
has been a part of various management
teams delivering core responsibilities
like Operations, Technology,
Payments, Customer Strategy, CRM
and much more!
Angad Singh (ex-investment banker,
Barclays) is an IIM Alumnus and a
people’s person. A Formula-One lover,
travel junkie, professional swimmer
and a strategist for life – is how his life
is defined! As the Co-founder
Director – Strategy, Angad leads
Business Development Alliances for
Easyrewardz. He focuses on the
business acquisition in the North
Eastern regions of India. In addition to
his existing responsibilities, he also
doubles up as a CFO, managing the
investor community corporate
finance.
Tejas Kadakia is another Co-founder
Director – Sales (ex-AVP of BNP
Paribas, New York). Often called the
‘Rainmaker’, he has mastered the art of
making relations and business deals.
His love for tech innovation drives
him to create strategies for next-gen
products. He heads Sales Business
development for Easyrewardz with a
core focus on West South regions.
He also onboards new strategic
partners who can work as our vendors
or resellers.
Completing this team is Sapan
Kakadia - Co-founder Director –
Marketing Operations. Over the
years, his intuitive nature coupled with
the analytical problem-solving
approach has uniquely positioned him
to overcome the obstacles in the
professional-life scenarios. At
Easyrewardz, he manages the strategic
alliances including vendors who list
We have
customers
across diverse
segments
including Retail,
FB, Healthcare,
Wellness,
Hospitality
Banking
22 MARCH 2019

25. their products along with managing the
resellers, who help the entity to
connect with retailers to onboard their
technology solutions.
Conquering the Challenges
Every successful journey carries the
imprints of the challenges and hiccups
faced during the initial days and the
same acts as a motivational force in
creating new milestones for the future!
While recalling the challenges,
Easyrewardz has segregated the major
issues under three categories that it had
faced to withstand the complexities of
the Startup Industry.
Raising Money: The foremost hurdle
was to raise money and back in 2011,
the venture capital industry was
enthralled in an e-Commerce or B2C
startup investment environment. The
Enterprise tech sector under various
segments – B2B, B2B2C, or SaaS had
not gained momentum yet and the total
available market for CRM in India was
being earmarked at ~$200Mn. Left
with limited options, it decided to
bootstrap with some seed capital and
built the first version of the core stack
and launched it by end of 2012.
However, it was still an uphill battle
and a lot was yet to be accomplished!
Onboarding Resellers: Despite
working on limited funds, they
launched the next version within the
next three months; however, the
immediate concern was to create a
reseller network. Lack of prior
knowledge of the industry and creating
the infrastructure in the market was
again an uphill task and the core team
had to devote a long time in
convincing and finalizing these deals.
Working Environment: By 2014, the
company started to deliver the
solutions but soon realized that the
ultimate challenge was to have a pool
of talented resources and that too on
limited budgets. As consistency of
delivering quality and innovative
services became a priority, flourishing
a positive work-place environment was
the need of the hour! All these efforts
paid off well and the icing on the cake
is that the first employee of
Easyrewardz is still a part of the
growing family.
Keeping Pace with the Future
As the startup eco-system continues to
flourish by each passing day, team
Easyrewardz is quite optimistic about
the future. The company plans to
consolidate its business across India by
upgrading the existing and new
customers to the integrated CRM
platform.
Alongside having a continual
progression in the MENA region,
Easyrewardz plans to expand its
footprints in the untouched territories
of the APAC region through its reseller
network. Analyzing the growth
prospects in the international arena, it’s
confident that around forty percent of
the total revenue will be coming from
the expanding overseas business in the
next twenty-four months. By 2022, the
entity plans to reach the pinnacle of
success by cementing itself as a
reputed leader in CRM for SMB in the
India and APAC region.
Alongside having a continual progression in the MENA region,
Easyrewardz plans to expand its footprints in the untouched
territories of the APAC region through its reseller network
MARCH 2019 23

26. 9stacksA Synonymous Name for
Seamless Poker Experience
C
reating a niche in an industry, where trust and
transparency is of utmost importance, 9stacks,
India’s fastest online poker platform has built an
empire with its sheer determination and unified efforts –
this not only counts the exclusive range of products and
services but also the distinct approach which the company
follows to outshine its competitors. Today, Enabling users
to play poker – online, anytime, and anywhere is what best
describes 9stacks. Recently, the company has been
recognized as the “Hottest Startup to Work for in 2018” by
an employment agency.
Team 9stacks consists of young individuals truly passionate
about poker. Every Friday, the company organizes a poker
evening where all the team members get together to
brainstorm for newer ideas and play poker, which makes the
work environment fun and challenging. Along with
believing in the adage ‘work hard, party harder,’ the
company also stands tall when it comes to work
responsibility and accountability.
Four Aces Ruling the Table
Sudhir Kamath, Pratik Kumar, Abhinav Nigam, and
Rishab Mathur are the Co-founders of 9stacks. All of
them come from various professional backgrounds and each
one has his core strengths in Marketing, Technology,
Operations and Management.
Sudhir is an IIM-A alumnus and ex-McKinsey consultant
with over seventeen years of experience. Prior to 9stacks,
he was also the CEO of Suntera Energy – a privately held
oil and gas exploration company.
Pratik is an IIT KGP alumnus, with over twelve years of
experience in e-commerce and online marketing. He was
the CMO of Nykaa.com and founding team member of
Zivame.com.
Abhinav is an IIT KGP alumnus and ex-BCG consultant,
with over twelve years of experience with Accenture
Strategy and the Boston Consulting Group.
Rishab is an IIT KGP alumnus with over twelve years of
experience in technology. He was the head of mobile
technology for Nearbuy and CTO of 9monks and Blot
Canvas.
Setting the Chips Right!
9stacks’ advocacy for poker as a recognized mind sport in
the country is loud and clear and it has partnered with the
All India Gaming Federation to take this to greater heights.
Like any other startup, 9stacks also faced some teething
troubles in the beginning. The biggest challenge was getting
the word out in an industry with already established
companies. Acknowledging this scenario, the company
started introducing innovative online poker tournament
formats and worked on launching highly achievable online
poker cash races. It added a variety of goals and milestones
with rewards to make the chase more exciting in its big
cash grind contests for the users. The company took the
largest contingent of poker players from India to Las Vegas
during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2018. After that,
it launched the Aussie100 Challenge which was spread
across three months. This was a compete-against-yourself
cash grind, where qualifiers won the Aussie package worth
two Lakhs and fly to Melbourne, Australia during the
Aussie Millions 2019 in January.
On 11th January 2019, 9stacks took the Indian poker
industry by storm when it announced the ‘version 2’ of the
#LFGVegas promotion. #LFGVegas2.00 is spread across 4
50Startups To Take
A Look At In 2019
The
24 MARCH 2019

27. “You Play
Safe With Us”
months (11th Jan- 31st May 2019) and brings back the
‘compete-against-yourself’ grind that poker players enjoy so
much. Participants have to play on cash tables, make atleast
50K points on the Vegas Board to win a trip to Las Vegas, the
poker capital of the world. There are more milestones to be
achieved and the prizes increase accordingly.
On 5th February 2019, the company opened the doors for
online poker tournament aficionados by launching its newest
promotion, ‘Vegas in Rs 2’. With this, 9stacks has effectively
taken online poker mainstream.
Vegas in Rs 2 is the first promotion of its kind ever, to be
launched by any poker company, in the India.
The winners will get to experience the poker capital of the
world, Las Vegas, first hand during the 50th Anniversary
edition of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the world’s
largest poker festival. 9stacks will fund flights, visa fees and
accommodation for winners.
9stacks’ tournaments like Peti@FT and leaderboard contests
like the Tournament Milestone, the Mini Tournament
Milestone, Prime Time Leaderboard Challenge, are
innovative formats that people enjoy participating in. Every
week there are individual prizes worth 1 Lakh and more, won
by leaderboard toppers.
With an aim to bring more women players into the pool, the
company took 9 women players this February 2018 to the
Deltin Poker Tournament in Goa. In March 2018, 9stacks
launched Ladies Night – India’s first women only, weekly
poker tournament, to encourage women to discover and play
poker.
Selling Poker Dreams
The company is a data-driven and focused on what the poker
players in India demand from an online playing platform. It is on
its way to add innovative features in its menu. It recently
launched a Skills Dashboard, where gamers can carry out in
depth analyses of their own strategy, and become better poker
players. A lot of poker players gave their feedback about their
experience and how this has helped them evolve their poker
game strategy on the table.
The company has been steadily increasing the prize pools of its
marquee tournaments and simultaneously the payouts in the cash
grinds are getting bigger and better to attract more players.
The Pro Tips
With its overwhelming experience, 9stacks advices the young to
be – obsessed about growth, data driven, nimble, and frugal. It
also advises them to keep a keen eye on its target group to
generate profitable outcomes.
The Next Game Plan
9stacks is on a mission to be the biggest player in ‘real money’
gaming space.
It would be exploring other gaming properties besides poker
over the next few years. The company is working towards
building a more responsible attitude towards gaming and will
introduce some unique features in the near future.
Pratik Kumar
Co-founder
MARCH 2019 25

30. CREDITMANTRI
IGNITING THE LAMP OF
FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE
This abstract unveils the enthralling startup journey of CreditMantri Finserv Private Limited, one of the
pioneers to embrace technology and innovation to set up a platform that caters to a diverse range of financial
services. Bringing in over sixty years of combined business acumen in the area of banking services, Gowri
Mukherjee, Rajasundaram Sudarshan, and Ranjit Punja are the Co-founders of the company. Over the years,
CreditMantri has evolved as a preferred choice for over 10.5 million customers who go along with the vision and
mission of the company. To get more insights about the company’s prominent services and uniqueness, we bring you
an exclusive interview with Gowri, Rajasundaram, and Ranjit.
Kindly brief us about the company.
CreditMantri uses data and technology to simplify credit decision making for both borrowers and lenders
and facilitates financial growth for ALL – whether credit healthy, new to credit or credit challenged. Our
mantra - “Credit Healthy toh Credit Wealthy” defines everything we do. We are a digital first company.
Everyone, not just technology and data science teams think of how to make it easier, quicker for the user.
Technology and Innovation has always been our strong suit – be it pioneering credit profiles using
alternate data or co-creating credit products. CreditMantri leverages data and technology to transform the
way credit is delivered in India.
Please tell us something about the Founder/CEO and his/her contribution towards the company.
We are three co-founders – Gowri Mukherjee, R. Sudarshan and Ranjit Punja, with the common thread
being that we all worked at Citibank for many years. The founders have diverse experience in digital
banking/marketing, product operations management, credit and collections management, technology
and data science. Together the co-founders have over 60 years of banking experience, both in India and
overseas.
Your perspective about the Startup world.
Startups are extremely exciting, high energy, adrenaline-rush providing, high stress and very satisfying
places to be. Besides being fully committed and passionate, one has to be wired a certain way to enjoy and
1.
2.
3.
28 MARCH 2019

31. thrive in the startup world. Some lessons learned so far on managing a high growth startup:
• Vision is critical, but results matter more
• Throw caution to the wind and GO FOR IT
• Inspiration should move team members to serve customers better than the competition
• Listening is often more important than talking
• You cannot do it all yourself – surround yourself with innovative collaborative high performers
• Ditch the strategies that you love but that don’t work
• Leadership gets more complex as the startup grows
Mention any awards and appreciations that your company has received.
Listed below are a few of the awards that we received in 2018:
• 100 Leading Fintech Companies Globally – presented by IFC and Stanford
• Global Fintech 250 – presented by CB Insights
• The Economic Times BFSI Innovation Tribe Award
• The CII Connect Award for Exemplary Application of IT
• The TIECon Award for Growth Story of The Year - 2018
4.
Gowri Mukherjee, Rajasundaram Sudarshan, Ranjit Punja
Co-founders
I N T E R V I E W
MARCH 2019 29

32. Please describe the journey of your organization so far.
CreditMantri received its Series A funding in May 2015 from IDG, Elevar and Accion. In March 2017 we
raised our Series B from Quona and NewID, besides participation from existing investors. We now have
over 10.5 million customers, deal with over 55 financial institution partners and deliver this with team
strength of 165. The entire team (except 2 team members) is based in our office in Chennai.
Kindly describe in detail about your distinct services and products.
At CreditMantri, we offer a customer-centric digital credit platform where users are credit profiled and
empowered to make better borrowing decisions. This platform also serves as an engine that helps lenders
discover borrowers who meet their credit requirements. Based upon the completion of the credit profile
our customers fall into the below listed categories where we offer them the services listed below:
• If you are credit challenged – CreditMantri provides credit improvement services designed to resurrect
your credit score and help you become credit healthy and regain access to new loans credit cards
• If you are credit healthy – CreditMantri helps select credit products that are best aligned to your
incremental credit needs, and also helps you to save money on your existing credit obligations
• If you are new to credit – CreditMantri helps obtain new credit by co-creating tailor-made products with
lenders that utilize alternate data (in the absence of Bureau data) to help underwrite and verify
applications received from customers in this segment
CreditMantri also offers lenders with a credit decisioning tool (the Credit Gateway) that enables lenders to
make instant and more efficient cost-effective decisions about potential loan applicants using traditional
and alternate data points that are gathered digitally.
What has been your game of plan to tackle the challenges in terms of changing trends, market
players and innovations happening in the Startup industry?
While tacking challenges is par for the course in running any business, provided below is our game plan in
managing some of these:
• Ensuring that there is a constant source of funding
• Constantly innovating and striving to stay ahead
• Making sure that the plan is being executed by a high caliber team
• Building a brand that inspires confidence
• Constantly managing to tight budgets and operating at high efficiency
• Building strong relationships and partnerships
Enlighten us about any new advancements and technologies that have had a huge impact on the
Startup industry.
Specifically, in the Fintech world, the Digital India initiative combined with the India Stack enablers will
enable Indians leapfrog even more developed economies. While there appear to be some more recent
5.
6.
7.
8.
30 MARCH 2019

33. roadblocks, these are likely to be cleared in short order making way for significant progress. Some
of these enablers are listed below:
• Aadhaar – ability to verify anyone with an Aadhaar, anytime and anywhere
• Jan Dhan Yojana accounts – providing widespread affordable access to financial services
• Increasing popularity/usage of smart phones
• eKYC – ability to digitize the KYC process and go paperless
• UPI – enables bank account holders to send/receive money instantly using smartphones
• eSign – Signing any document electronically using Aadhaar
Describe the unique solutions/products that make your company stand out amongst the
rest.
CreditMantri is the only player offering services to every segment of the population – credit
healthy, credit challenged and new to credit. We are the largest player helping the credit under-
served segments, either by rebuilding their credit scores or by making available credit using
alternate data to the hitherto new to credit segment.
What is your advice to the young entrepreneurs in the Startup Industry?
• Dream big and throw yourself fully into what you love doing
• Important to surround yourself with capable people who challenge you, who support you, and
build long lasting relationships with them
• Be a lifelong student – constantly learn and keep yourself updated
• Have an obligation to guide others and help them rise
• Stay healthy
How do you portray the future of your company? Tell us something about your upcoming
solutions.
Improving our offerings and products continuously is what makes our proposition compelling to
users. We soon intend to have an offering for SME’s similar to our current offering for
individuals. We will broaden our offering to traverse the entire gamut of financial services needs
of an individual. We want to be synonymous with credit health.
9.
10.
11.
MARCH 2019 31

34. Transforming Corporate
Ground Transportation
Management Landscape
Established in 2015, Aaveg
Management Services Pvt.
Ltd. is a one-of-its-kind
company providing end-to-end
corporate mobility solutions with
ground transportation, be it leasing,
business rentals, employee
transportation or car-pooling.
Headquartered in Delhi, the company
is on a mission to reduce CO2
emissions, reduce traffic congestions,
and facilitate optimum utilization of
resources. It is an integrated managed
services provider for MNC’s offering
solutions related to transport desk and
implementation of thought leadership
guidelines, selection of right vendors
for sourcing of wheels, etc.
Aaveg is amongst the few companies
in India having ISO certifications
9001: 2015 for Ground Transport
Operations. The company provides
consulting and advisory services such
as transport policy design, vendor
management process, floating RFP,
training of transport desks drivers,
and ERP technology solutions.
Currently, it is focusing on helping the
corporate commuters in surpassing the
challenges related to safety and
security, reducing road congestion
levels, and optimizing utilization of
transportation resources. The company
is also lending a helping hand to the
Indian Government in building up the
right kind of infrastructure for the
smart cities transportation project. It
prominently focuses on contracting and
managing SLA-based operations on
ground along with delivering MSP for
transport.
During its initial days, Aaveg
consistently focused on its key
deliverables / direct benefits to
customers and targeting the right
audience in order to dismantle the
challenges related to long gestation
period and policy change. Slowly and
steadily, it has come a long way in
making noteworthy contributions to the
Ground Transport space. The
company’s business plan showcases:
· End-to-end Management of
Employee Transport Solution.
· SLA based operations.
· Fleet, Team and Technology
under one umbrella.
· FTE based Pricing. or
· Per Person per Trip pricing.
· Centralized Command-Centre
for All-India Operations.
· Structured MIS and
Dashboards for Management
reviews.
Over the years, the company has been
bestowed with various accolades
including Company of the Year 2018
India by CIO Review and Asia’s
Greatest Brands and Leaders by PWC
in 2017.
An Ambitious Entrepreneur
Ashok Vashist is the Founder and
CEO of Aaveg Management Services
Pvt. Ltd. Mathematics graduate from
Mahatma Gandhi University; he also
holds a Post Graduate degree in
Ashok Vashist
Founder CEO
32 MARCH 2019

35. Management from International
Management Institute, Delhi. He has a
huge experience of successfully
exhibiting a host of leadership
positions across sales and marketing
landscape. Ashok has been associated
with renowned brands like Hertz
Eurocar rental business for
International Travel House an ITC
Group company. He has an exemplary
expertise in Team Management, New
Business Development, Sales
Management, and Operations
Management. At Aaveg, his chief
responsibilities comprises of Brand
Management and Corporate
Development. With an aim to assist
Aaveg in creating a prominent niche in
the corporate mobility space, Ashok is
confident that every 3rd vehicle will be
an Aaveg vehicle in years to come.
Apart from all this, Ashok also played
a vital role in managing transportation
activities during the commonwealth
games held in India, and is recognized
by AsiaOne (PWC) as the leader in
Transport category.
What’s so Unique?
Aaveg visualizes creating a perfect and
highly optimized corporate mobility
infrastructure that is efficient, effective,
and ecologically sustainable. The firm
envisages an ownership of 33% fleet in
Indian enterprise mobility market. In
order to achieve these overarching
objectives, Aaveg has been
aggressively expanding its business
footprint in India and acquainting
businesses and government bodies in
urban cities with modern tech-driven
tools and processes.
Along with this, the company also
embraces some crucial measures for
keeping the team motivated which
include:
• Be Transparent
• Lead by example
• Radiate positive energy
• Give and follow purpose
• Reward based on feedback
• Prioritize life and work balance
• Have an open door policy
• Let them lead
• Create a bigger picture and show
them
• Create recognition rituals
Tactics to Maximize the Returns on
Minimum Investment
Listed below are some of the tactics to
gain maximum returns with minimum
investment:
- Advanced routing
- Clubbing multiple picks and drops
- Using Fleet Management
Technology
• Vehicle tracking (usually GPS
based)
• Mechanical diagnosis to gather
data on mileage and fuel
consumption
• Remote vehicle disabling system
• Fleet replacement and cycle
management
- Monitoring the driver’s behaviour
- Real-time metrics
- Automated billing
- Data analysis
Adopting these strategies and
harvesting the best out of cost
optimization can lead an organization
towards achieving higher milestones.
Words of Wisdom
In order to reach the peak, Aaveg
advices the present day enterprises to:
· Offer flexible work timings
· Provide benefits to commuters
· Make processes easy
· Pay heed to employee’s
preferences
· Clearly communicate the
policies
· Providing proper employee
commute
The company advices the young minds
to:
· Be a risk taker
· Keep enhancing your
knowledge
· Find your passion
· Know your market
· Get your finances in order
· Prepare to make sacrifices
· Find a mentor
· Tune up your business
knowledge
· Be a planner
A Futuristic Approach
The managed corporate mobility
solutions are experiencing massive
demand in India and the market is
expected to grow with a CAGR of 25%
till 2022. As such, Aaveg is majorly
focusing to improve and optimize the
employee transportation. With its state-
of-the-art technology it has effectively
managed to hold the reins of its curated
menu of solutions. Subsequently, the
company is planning to venture into
the community commuting and traffic
management space. Additionally, it is
also working on effective deployment
of Electric Vehicles which will help in
controlling the pollution menace.
50Startups To Take
A Look At In 2019
The
MARCH 2019 33

38. ThoughtBitA Young Technology Firm Decoding Business Problems
Rajeshwaran Venugopal
CTO - The Technocrat
Sai Santhosh
CCO - The PolyMath
Siddharthan Panneerselvam
CEO - The MasterMind
Interview with Insights Success
36 MARCH 2019

39. C
atering innovative Enterprise Software solutions
across various industry verticals, ThoughtBit is a
one-stop shop for compliance and business
analytics requirements. Established in 2017, by
Siddharthan Panneerselvam – CEO, Rajeshwaran
Venugopal – CTO, and Sai Santhosh – CCO, its mission
is to provide cutting-edge data-driven solutions by
nurturing ingenuity and fortifying customer relationships.
To get more details about the services and uniqueness the
company offers, we bring you an exclusive interview.
Kindly brief us about the company.
ThoughtBit Technologies was founded in 2017 with focus
on Enterprise Software. Founders of the organization bring
in more than thirty-five years of industry expertise. They
have worked with many Fortune 500 clients on mission-
critical assignments.
ThoughtBit focuses on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
offerings for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)
segment. It delivers technology solutions to empower SMEs
and ameliorate their growth on a rapid trajectory. The
organization’s vision is to be a Data-Driven SME
Accelerator serving 10000 businesses by 2022.
Please tell us something about the Core Team and their
contribution towards the company.
Siddharthan Panneerselvam, the Mastermind, is a veteran in
Information Technology with two decades of industry
expertise. He oversees Operations, Finance and Business
Development at ThoughtBit. Sid was part of Global
Leadership Cadre in his previous organisation, an elite task-
force comprising leaders of the future. He was driving
strategy and growth for Latin America, with special focus
on Banking and Financial Services. He has headed large-
scale strategic programs including Core Banking
Transformation, Internet Banking Modernisation, Financial
Services Centre of Excellence and Payments Innovation
Lab. He was runner-up of Economic Times Young Leaders
2011. Sid is a Post-Graduate from Indian Institute of
Management Ahmedabad.
Rajeshwaran Venugopal, the Technocrat, has participated in
a wide array of technology challenges in a career spanning
16 years and came out successful in every instance. Rajesh
heads Technology and Innovation at ThoughtBit, infusing
the culture of solving customer problems with a pioneering
spirit. In his previous avatar, Rajesh was Product Head at a
successful media-tech startup, and led end-to-end
development of multiple solutions including monitoring and
control systems, mobile applications and productivity
enhancement tools. Rajesh holds a Bachelor’s Degree in
Mathematics from University of Madras.
Sai Santhosh, the Polymath, is the Go-To person for a
variety of things, be it adopting new technology or
preparing marketing content or running a focused
campaign. Santhosh handles Customer Engagement at
ThoughtBit, and ensures every customer is attended to with
utmost care and attention. He is the key to each customer
becoming a flag-bearer of ThoughtBit. He has single-
handedly developed and deployed mobile applications
using modern tech-stack. Santhosh holds a Bachelor’s
Degree in Computer Science Engineering from Anna
University.
Your perspective about the Startup world.
The Indian Startup Ecosystem is undeniably a growth story
in the making. There is a spurt of activities in recent years
with increasing technology adoption, strong government
support, availability of abundant talent and higher infusion
of funds. Many startups deal with the latest technology
trends where the full potential may not be realized today,
but will turn out to be game-changers in the near future.
Startups, investors, customers and all stakeholders are
bound to reap rich rewards. India will soon become a world
leader in skilled work through startups, going beyond
traditional IT outsourcing.
Please describe the journey of your organization so far.
ThoughtBit started in early 2017 to enable Small and
Medium Enteprises to move in the right direction at a fast
clip. With the advent of Goods and Services Tax (GST),
SMEs were having problems in understanding the nuances
and staying compliant. ThoughtBit team gathered
exhaustive intelligence by meeting a large number of
businesses and understanding the exact nature of
challenges. There was a clear gap in the solutions offered
by existing products in the market. Armed with this
knowledge, ThoughtGST was built grounds-up and
th
launched with minimal fanfare on 15 August 2018. This
compliance platform is now used by a number of SMEs,
especially those who handle a large volume of invoices
routinely. The platform also helps GST Practitioners to
ensure complete compliance for all their clients.
The next suite of products will continue to focus on a
complete overhaul of the technology landscape for SMEs
and put them on a super-fast growth track.
MARCH 2019 37

40. Kindly describe in detail about your distinct services
and products.
How do you reshape and transform a new tax system that is
less than 2 years old? Step in ThoughtGST! ThoughtGST is
a one-stop-shop for all GST compliance needs. Core mantra
is 100% Compliance, 100% On Time, 100% Savings. The
focus is on creating the best experience for users to prepare
and file timely returns within minutes while ensuring zero
anomalies. For instance, reporting sales volume accurately
and claiming Input Tax Credit (ITC) correctly are two
critical parts of the return filing, as these directly dictate the
amount of tax to be paid. ThoughtGST seamlessly enables
these activities.
ThoughtAI, an Artificial Intelligence powered data engine,
forms the core of ThoughtGST and addresses numerous
challenges with minimal human intervention.
Some of the salient features include:
Seamless GST returns filing at the click of a few buttons
GST data retrieval from ERP systems in one click
Configurable Smart Reconciliation with built-in ThoughtAI
acumen
Automatic calculation of Input Tax Credit (ITC)
Multi-User Multi-Company model
Secure access to data anytime, anywhere on any device
What has been your game of plan to tackle the
challenges in terms of changing trends, market players
and innovations happening in the Startup industry?
In today’s high-tech era, change is inevitable. GST rules
and regulations are a good example. There is a need to
identify the impact of change and adapt quickly, in order to
sustain and move ahead. The market always offers multiple
solutions to similar problems. It has become an unfortunate
trend to first pick up the latest fashionable technologies and
then go looking for problems to solve and customers to
serve. ThoughtBit’s motto has always been to identify core
problems of customers first and solve those in unique and
intuitive ways with the aid of technology.
Enlighten us about any new advancements and
technologies that have had a huge impact on the Startup
industry.
Cloud Computing has enabled startups to reduce the
timeframe between ideation and production. It has also
increased cost-efficiency, thereby leveling the field for
startups to compete on par with large enterprises.
Social media is becoming an absolute necessity. Startups
with a clear game-plan have a significant advantage.
Technologies like AI, ML, IoT and VR will cause
disruptions. Startups understand this, but could still be
unprepared. Awareness combined with agility will open up
new avenues.
Describe the unique solutions/products that make your
company stand out amongst the rest.
The devil is in the data! ThoughtBit has ingrained
methodologies of Data-Driven Intelligence into its core.
ThoughtGST’s Smart Reconciliation is an example. It
analyses huge volume of invoice data in seconds and
identifies problems related to payments, tax credits and
compliance.
ThoughtBit’s clients are a critical part of the differentiation
and growth cycle. ThoughtGST is enhanced regularly based
on user inputs. This inclusive approach has created
opportunities to design unique customer-oriented solutions.
Technology adoption is relatively low with Indian SMEs,
but the trend is changing with second and third generation
entrepreneurs. Business owners are realizing the positive
impact of technology. Yet challenges are abundant when
guiding them through a transformative journey. It involves
empowering them and their teams to assess more data than
ever easily and gain meaningful insights. ThoughtBit is at
the forefront of dealing with this tough landscape and
delivering success through its SME Accelerator.
What is your advice to the young entrepreneurs in the
Startup Industry?
Do what you love! Start as early as possible, but probably
not right after college – unless you have a validated idea
and a great team in place. It would be better if young
aspirants gain some expertise in their field of interest before
starting up. If they work in a startup environment, that’s
even better.
How do you portray the future of your company? Tell us
something about your upcoming solutions.
We will achieve our vision to serve 10000 SMEs in 3
phases in close collaboration with our customers:
Phase 1: Complete Compliance – accounting, taxation and
legal needs.
38 MARCH 2019

41. Phase 2: Operations Optimizer – web presence, brand
building and business expansion.
Phase 3: Factory Floor Enhancer – efficiency improvement
and modernization of workplace.
In each phase, our focus will be on acquiring data and
efficiently using it to:
Automate processes to improve efficiency and enhance
accuracy
Adopt measures like hybrid cloud and IoT to improve
Machine-to-Machine communication, enhance control and
optimise costs
Derive meaningful business insights using Analytics,
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Future is Bright! Future is ThoughtBit!
MARCH 2019 39

42. About the Author
Saurabh Tandon is the Co-founder
and COO at BetterPlace – a tech
platform for the lifecycle management
of India’s blue-collar workforce. He is
an industry veteran, a global strategic
leader and an entrepreneur. Having
done his MBA from Kellogg School of
Management, Chicago, he has held
leadership roles at organisations like
Mu Sigma. He blends his expertise of
analytics and data science with his
vision of creating a better place for the
next billion Indians by helping them
migrate into the formal economy.
Saurabh Tandon
Co-founder COO
40 MARCH 2019

43. With over 135 crore Indians and a multi-level social hierarchy like no other, Indian society
has always been fascinating. In the last few decades, there has been clear progress in many
areas such as economic productivity and adoption of technology, but some dimensions are
changing rather slowly. In particular, the life of over 45 crore Indians who work in informal blue-collar
job roles such as automobile drivers, construction, maids, logistics etc. and the 65 crore Indians who
are the agricultural backbone of the country continue to face challenges such as financial exclusion,
poor skill sets and lack of dignity of labour.
However, initiatives such as Aadhaar, mobile penetration and government focus initiatives such as
Skill India have also enabled possibilities that one could not envision even a decade ago for this
segment aka the ‘next billion’. Using these platforms, a transformation must begin to help these people
climb the socio-economic ladder and escape the vicious cycle of poor skills leading to poor wages and
continued services exclusion. The responsibility falls upon businesses that continue to be key job
generators but are unable to do much more than that.
Our study found businesses to have the intent to solve these issues but the inability to execute at scale
given challenges such as rampant attrition which leads to workers leaving jobs regularly for just a few
hundred rupees of monthly increment. It is also no secret that job-satisfaction leads to improved
performance, but this is not just about incentive – it is also about working conditions and much more.
The floor for retention today is no longer limited to a providing a job and reasonable compensation – it
extends to include things like feeling valued, being listened to, and the ease and possibility of
advancement.
Statistics show that Indian blue-collar workers tend to skip work and/or frequently switch jobs. The
segment has an incredible attrition rate of 80-150%. The key contributors to this phenomenon are the
high demand for blue-collared workers and that employees do not experience a sense of loyalty to the
business. Workers have no incentive to stay with a company when they can easily find another job after
gaining some experience for slightly better wages. The solution is to enrich technical and soft-skill sets
through on-the-job training. This will make employees feel that they have gained value from being a
part of the company and are therefore not as likely to switch jobs. With smartphones now costing as
little as Rs.2000, this is best done digitally through smartphone apps. Employees will not be
unproductive while they learn as they would if they went to a physical training center, and the cost of
training to the employer reduces significantly as well. As industry becomes more and more customer-
centric employees with soft-skills are now invaluable. This is a win-win as employers benefit from
more competent employees and employees themselves experience job-stability along with potential
career advancement through skill-acquisition.
Perhaps the biggest way to foster loyalty is to help blue-collared workers where they hurt most – their
financial condition. This segment experiences financial exclusion (inability to acquire loans) due to
lack of data (credit history). Wages paid in cash combined with wage rates that result in hand-to-mouth
situations where income is spent as it is earned. Therefore, there is no incentive to open bank accounts
– which means no credit history. However, the advent of the Aadhaar card and the recent
Expert’s Voice
MARCH 2019 41

44. demonetization situation which gave rise to a plethora of cashless transaction options such as Paytm,
financial inclusion is now actually possible. The key to this is information – making wage and salary
payments through cashless transactions creates credit history which makes loans, healthcare etc.
a possibility.
Unevolved hiring practices, paper-based management and a general lack of organization are also severe
bottlenecks to business efficiency as well as to the career progress and quality of life of blue-collar
employees. Not utilizing digitalized hiring processes that intelligently verify potential employees through
proper multi-factor background checks is cancerous to businesses and to employees. Only hiring
processes that verify against digital databases are trustworthy and provide quality data about a potential
employee as paper-based processes are time consuming, cumbersome, and susceptible to data-
manipulation. IT based verification processes standardize requirements of employee reliability which
enables employers to hire only quality candidates. This also promotes better work ethic and can
potentially improve employee careers in the long run. Another potential trend that would improve
business efficiency is if organizations start abandoning paper-based attendance management systems
(which can be manipulated) in favor of ‘smart’ tech-based ones which ensure that employees comply with
company policy.
To conclude, India is steadily moving forward - but some things will not change until those in a position
to incite change actively do so. With intelligence and action employer problems of attrition, poor
attendance and poor performance can be solved while simultaneously solving common issues such as an
unfulfilling work life, financial exclusion and a lack of dignity of labor. It seems that businesses which
seek to improve the lives of their employees are more likely to flourish than those that ignore their social
responsibility to enrich their workers’ lives. It is the responsibility of business to utilize the phenomenon
of digital penetration to propel our society and economy and this can only be done with active
participation.
42 MARCH 2019

46. stablished in 2017, Board Infinity is a full-stack
Ecareer platform for students and jobseekers enabled
by personalized learning paths, career coaches, and
access to opportunities. Assisted by industry experts, it is an
online career coaching platform for higher education
aiming to bridge the students and the industries. Creating
synergies by connecting the right partners, the company
intends to build a platform in order to defy the conventions
and redefine the learning landscape.
A career is a personal journey which needs to be crafted
Board
InfinityA Catalyst for Career Acceleration
uniquely. This is where Board Infinity stands tall along with
its highly passionate team, embarked upon the mission of
accelerating careers through personalized coaching, career
discovery, training, and placement opportunities with the
help of its diversified network of coaches.
Embracing each opportunity with the utmost prominence,
the company focuses on:
Students ∞ Coaches – Enable meaningful connections
between students and coaches.
Colleges ∞ Employers – Coach and train college students
and provide employers with business-ready talent.
Students ∞ Employers – Connect talent to the right
opportunities.
The Dynamic Duo
Abhay Gupta and Sumesh Nair are the Co-founders of
Board Infinity. Being the alumni of the prestigious SPJIMR
(S. P. Jain Institute of Management And Research), both
have astounding expertise in business and management.
While Abhay acts a prominent pillar by being the COO,
Abhay Gupta
Co-founder and COO
Sumesh Nair
Co-founder and CEO
44 MARCH 2019

47. Sumesh is stirring the organization as
the CEO.
Coming from a Tier 2 city, the duo
brings in a strong execution and
strategy experience. Sumesh has been a
trainer in learning and development
teams, TIME, IMS, and Career
Launcher. They have spent two years
understanding the market before
entering the business world. They
discovered the opportunity in the
career management space with an aim
to help individuals on their career
journey and established Board Infinity.
Apart from placing the cornerstones of
the company, the co-founders also have
experience of working with various
organizations. Abhay was a Category
Manager of the Future Group. On the
other hand, with strategy and
operations experience as a
Management Consultant in the
technology and retail industry, Sumesh
was a Senior Consultant in PwC US
Advisory.
About Board Infinity
In August 2018, Board Infinity
launched its Beta version and scaled to
15000+ users in two months by
partnering with more than 45 colleges
and 9 companies. With consistent
dedication and unified efforts since the
launch, the company has successfully
cherished 3000+ Students ∞ 700+
Coaches, 400+ Colleges ∞ 140+
Employers, and 700+ Students ∞ 140+
Employers.
Be it a career transition, first job,
campus placements preparation or any
career guidance, Board Infinity has
emerged as a one-stop solution for all
the career requirements. Currently, the
company works onboarding customers
through referrals, word of mouth and
job sites. Its coaches are industry
experts selected from over 50+
diversified fields. These professionals
discover the talent of the masses and
help unleash their potential to say
‘Ready. Set. Go’.
To be precise, Board Infinity is defined
by a team of achievers and go-getters –
a combination of young and bright
minds, who are the primary reason for
its success.
The company assists students in
defining their dream job, help them
build a great career and achieve their
career goals. It provides tailored career
advice and coaching which can be
accessed online completely. It also
provides aptitude tests to gauge the
aspirant’s knowledge and skills, to
patch them up with a relevant industry
coach for becoming business ready.
The competitive advantages checklist
includes:
Ÿ Building intelligence through
expert and student interactions
Ÿ Real experts to guide students
Ÿ Some jobs are exclusively hosted on
the platform
Ÿ Guaranteed interviews for learners
Ÿ Ability to choose multiple learning
paths for different job roles
Ÿ Exclusive long term partnerships
with coaches
Ÿ Partnerships with premium
institutions like XLRI, IIMs,
NMIMS, and SDA Bocconi
Ÿ Ability to make informed decisions
in career post higher education and
access to opportunity
In these two years of the daunting
voyage, the company has been
recognized by various media
publications including Edtech Review,
Your Story, Entrepreneur Magazine
and Startup Success Stories to name a
few.
Giving autonomy of time and task for
employees and continuously motivating
them to withstand the complexities of
the market with a larger vision is the
company’s forte.
Words of Wisdom
Board Infinity advices the young minds
to focus on their dreams and never give
up on them. Also, making concrete
efforts to solve one problem at a time
would create opportunities and unlock
the doors of success.
The Future Goals
Striving with the same philosophy to
pass on erudite earth to the Gen Z,
Board Infinity is on its way to build the
world’s first AI career coach and
revolutionize the learning landscape.
‘Our mission is
to personalize
your career
journey, help
you realize
true potential,
and meet
your career
dreams
‘
50Startups To Take
A Look At In 2019
The
MARCH 2019 45

48. Bridging the Digital
Divide in India
Established in 2015, Budli
Internet Pvt. Ltd. is a
pioneering company striving to
transform the ReCommerce industry.
The company plays a pivotal role in
enabling the clientele (consumers and
businesses) to buy as well as resell
their used gadgets like smartphones,
tablets, laptops etc. in a socially and
environmentally responsible manner.
Living by its name Budli – change, the
company is working with a vision to
revolutionize the Re-commerce
landscape by filling the loopholes in
the digital space and reducing e-waste.
The company sells certified pre-owned
refurbished gadgets at competitive
pricing with warranty and guaranteed
buy back across the country. With
concrete endeavors and will, Today,
Budli successfully operates across
25,000 pin codes with over 325,000
registered users pan India.
Embracing new-age technologies and
delivering trust, convenience, and
value-for-money to the buyers and
sellers is what best describes the
company. By using Dynamic Instant
Pricing System (DIPS), maintaining
partnerships with e-commerce
companies and 1000+ offline retailers
for exchange, it offers users which best
suits their portfolio. B2B selling to
companies with guaranteed buyback
has made Budli a one-of-its-kind brand
in its sector.
Since inception, the company has
featured in various renowned media
publications like BBC, CNBC, and
Fortune Magazine. Adding more spice
to its glory is its list of awards
including CNBC Business Excellence
Award, EO Startup of the Year and
Business Leadership Award.
Meet the Zentrepreneur
Rohit Bagaria is the Founder and
CVO of Budli. He has completed is
education from UC Berkeley,
California and St. Xavier’s, Kolkata.
He is a seasoned zentrepreneur on a
mission to provide technology access
to the masses through re-commerce at
ease. Rohit has more than one-and-a-
half decade of experience in various
sectors including software startup in
Silicon Valley, manufacturing and
international B2B sales across 35
countries, and e-commerce in India,
China and the US.
Rohit Bagaria
Founder CVO
46 MARCH 2019

49. “We help you responsibly dispose
off your used gadgets”
Rohit has earned several awards and has been featured in
various national and international media publications. He is
also invited to speak at various forums including Indian
Institute of Management Bangalore and Calcutta.
Apart from all this, Rohit is passionate about writing and is
also the author of a book titled ‘Embrace Change’.
The Initial Journey
“In life, we regret more of the things we do not do than the
things we do. Unless we are prepared to fail, we cannot
succeed,” says Rohit.
For Rohit, entering into the business world with a vision to
improve the selling experience, where the e-commerce
space was focusing on the buying experience was not an
easy task. His idea was to provide an instant price discovery
mechanism, offer free shipment pickup across India and
prompt direct payment to the user after verification of the
device. Acknowledging the unsolved problem, finding a
tech-enabled logistical way to solve it and understanding
the viability and scalability of the business, led to the
foundation of Budli.
Building a POC and MVP without a professional team and
financial backup was a major challenge for Rohit. Slowly
and steadily his concrete efforts outsourced the website,
successfully. Now, the website was aboard but had no firm
marketing approach to reach the masses. His conviction and
abilities to improve the selling experience helped him to
outshine every barrier coming his way. Stirring
comprehensive operations related to tech, marketing,
product design, finance, sales, packing and delivery, Rohit
converted every challenge into an opportunity and stepped
towards scripting his own success story through Budli.
More about Budli
“We try to find technology related solutions which are
sustainable and scalable,” says the founder.
Budli objectifies the loopholes through its novel design
thinking process, ideate on creating solutions, run
experiments to validate them and measure the results in
order to roll out out-of-the-box solutions for the clientele.
Being a tech-focused company, it consistently endeavours
to embrace technology to the core. This helps the company
to empower its proprietary tech platform for efficient
transactions.
Budli’s WhatsApp AI Chatbot – BELA offers customer
support and solves customer queries with utmost
proficiency. Providing employees the necessary guidance
and freedom to operate along the way gives it an edge over
the competitors.
The customers save upto 66% compared to new or rented
devices when aligned with the company.
Get it Right!
Rohit believes that Clarity, Certainty, and Purpose to stand
against all odds are the keys to unlock the doors leading to
success. Apart from all this, patience, perseverance and
passion are also essential to withstand the market
complexities.
“I believe that entrepreneurs overcome their problems using
these strengths along the way,” asserts Rohit. Besides, the
long-term success of any company depends on its vision
and core values, which can never be replicated.
Future is Now
Re-commerce is in the same space where e-commerce was a
decade ago. Some of the key challenges have also been
similar as that of being a category creator. These include
creating awareness, building credibility and in reverse
logistics. The evolution of the whole eco system including
the growth of e-commerce and organized retail in India is
helping solve these problems. Re-commerce market is
flooded with opportunities as well as challenges.
Acknowledging this scenario, Budli is continuously
embracing new-age technologies to expand its online
presence. On the other hand, it is also focusing on
expanding its offline existence with the help of its partners.
50Startups To Take
A Look At In 2019
The
MARCH 2019 47

50. UsingTechnology
forReimagining
BankingServices
fortheMasses
Fintech companies are revolutionizing and
reimagining the way banking services are made
available to consumers in India. The use of
technology has made banking services accessible to all
segments of society with extensive reach at much lower
costs in a timely and efficient manner.
Lakshmi Devi,52, has owned a small Kirana shop for the
past 15 years in a small village on the outskirts of Mumbai.
In her free time, she also takes up tailoring assignments to
supplement her earnings. Laxmi Devi, like most others in
her village, has a low cost smart phone which she uses for
both her entertainment and information needs. Lakshmi
recently learnt how to check her bank account and transfer
money through her mobile, it saves her the monthly trip to
the bank and a working day. Her neighbour recently took
loan from a company by applying through the phone, she is
exploring the idea as well.
Until recently, this would have been a distant dream for
Lakshmi Devi and many like her. Even accessing simple
bank account services meant having to travel to the district
level bank branches, standing in long queues or grappling
with complex forms incomprehensible to customers with
limited literacy. Most traditional financial services in India
create products first, and then try to appropriate customers
within the product requirements.
For instance, the credit application process for both an INR
10,000/- loan and an INR 1,00,000/- loan were similar,
despite the wide margins. This resulted in long waiting time
and high rejection ratio for small loans. This was a time
consuming and costly affair for both the customer and the
bank. Hence banks were unwilling to provide additional
services to customers with low-value/volume of savings.
However, innovations by Fintech companies has made it
possible for them to reach customers like Laxmi Devi in an
affordable, timely and efficient manner.
Accessibility and reach: Mobile technology has made it
possible for Fintech firms to reach out to over one billion
mobile phone users in India across geographies, across
segments. In parallel, low cost internet data allows for cost-
effective channels to reach out to a wider group of people.
Most banking services today, such as checking bank
balance or money transfers, a customer can now access
financial service providers through their mobile app or
desktop. For instance, SME Corner which offers loans to
the unorganized retail sector can now reach small
entrepreneurs such as vegetable vendors through their app.
Fintech companies employ flexible technology backends
that are adaptable to needs of various consumer groups
including corporate employees or unorganized labor.
In addition, fintech firms offer services on mobile apps in
regional languages, explaining their products and
Spadika Jayaraj
Associate – Network Partnerships
48 MARCH 2019

51. Spadika Jayaraj is the Associate – Network Partnerships
at Kaleidon Private Limited, a ntech company aimed
at offering well-designed, nancial solutions to address
the needs of the 600 million underbanked and
unbanked Indians. She helps nancial institutions get on-
board on the Kaleidon platform. Prior to joining
Kaleidon, she was a consultant at McKinsey and
Company. Spadika is passionate about nancial
inclusion and believes in the power of nance as a
crucial enabler in people realizing their aspirations.
procedures in a language relevant to
the consumer.
Structured products: In the initial years
of technology evolution in India, most
fintech firms chose to focus on linear
product models, offering single
solutions like credit or savings. Back
then, customer awareness and
acceptance of online financial services
was slow and hence offering them
complicated products would have
deterred the acceptance of these
services. However, with an influx of
smart mobile phones and mobile
internet, customers now have access to
new opportunities.
In the next fintech space, we expect to
see a number of innovative platforms
that offer a combination of services,
backed by efficient customer service
tools. For e.g. Kaleidofin offers their
customers a combination of saving,
investment, credit and insurance
products.
A unified product approach provides
the firm an opportunity to create a
long-term impact on the customer’s
life.
Improved Efficiency: The Indian
Banking sector, until recently relied on
‘wet signatures’ and physical
documents for almost every
transaction, leading to high operational
cost. High operational costs proved to
be one of the major roadblocks for
servicing customers at the bottom of
the pyramid.
Introduction of new technologies led to
the creation of new business models to
reach out to a wider customer base. For
instance, a paperless transaction,
enabled through DigiLocker facility
allows for faster and cost-efficient
transactions. Digitization of records
has enabled fintech service providers to
service a large demographic of
customers with small saving amounts.
Innovations in the payments space,
such as UPI and mobile wallets have
also helped bring in efficiency in
operations.
Algorithm based predictive solutions:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) based on
structured and unstructured data
enables fintech firms to create an
almost instant credit score and assess
risk-taking capability of individual
customers. This results in a quick and
efficient decision-making process,
especially for credit and investment
services. For instance, MoneyTap, a
new-age fintech targeted at mass-
market, works on the principles of a
credit card company. Based on its risk
profiling of a customer, it provides an
upper credit limit for a customer to
borrow according to his variable needs
on a per-day basis.
The use of AI has also reduced a
financial firm’s dependence on
multiple documents and introduced
flexibility to the credit approval
process. For instance, a fintech
providing working capital uses easily
available cash-flow statements to
assess the credit eligibility of a small
shop owner.
In India, about 600 million people do
not have access to formal financial
services or are underserved by the
current banking system. The market
opportunities therefore are enormous.
Fintech firms are working
systematically on customising products
and services that work for the lower
income group. It is heartening to see
them adopt a customer-driven
approach-create services that are
customised for customer’s unique
needs. We are hopeful that the new
approach towards financial services
will especially have a long-term impact
on improving the economic conditions
of millions in India.
Fintech Insights
About the Author
MARCH 2019 49

54. DirectCreateCraftsmanshipintheDigitalAge
t Direct Create we are
Adedicated to enriching
modern day design with
authentic and excellent
craftsmanship, whilst building
societies and protecting these
exceptional skills.
Direct Create is India’s only
bespoke, online creative
community platform that is
bringing artisans, designers and
interested customers together to
co-create customized and
premium handcrafted objects.
They have a handpicked network
of over 15,000 artisans and
designers ensure that they work
with only the best. Through a
premium, bespoke service of the
in-house curators they match
client’s ideas by executing quality
craftsmanship and by using the
best of materials and timely
delivery.
India has been long lauded for its
exquisite handicrafts and its
venerable place in the Indian
traditions and culture. With
digitalization and the internet
connecting the world, it is indeed
high time that the world
recognises the beauty that lies in
the expressions of the artisans
through their handicrafts. The
realization that India has the
world’s largest community of
hand producers and still in need to
develop a solution perturbed the
architect couple, Sheela Lunkad
and Rajeev Lunkad. At the same
time it also pushed and gave them
a boost of energy and motivation
to go ahead and build Direct
Create (DC). A truly integrated
online platform for the Handmade
50Startups To Take
A Look At In 2019
The
Sheela Lunkad
Co-founder
Rajeev Lunkad
Co-founder
52 MARCH 2019

55. institutions, and businesses for India’s
first public-private partnership-based
tourism revival.
Staying Relevant
In the field of handmade, Direct Create
is working to create a unique
collaboration based community. From
working with the hand producers,
developing new, exciting and relevant
products with design intervention and
enabling the makers with a knowledge
base to create market linkages and
exposure in the country and abroad.
It aims to overcome the challenge of
low awareness of the sustainability,
aesthetics, and design implementations
on Indian crafts.
Through the company’s efforts, its
global clients are getting access to
talented artisans from across the
country. It gives craftsmen, a reason to
continue evolving their art by
providing a steady flow of customers
and also patronage. With a seamless
connection , easy accessibility through
web-portal and app, and a fully
enabled support network, Direct
Create aims at re-building the broken
bridge between the consumers,
designers and the makers. It reaches
out to the remotest of the makers and
brings to them powerful business
management, logistics and financial
tools - to access not just Indian but
global markets.
The Societal Connection
The curated handicraft items at Direct
Create bear a detailed description of
the artisans. So the buyers exactly
know what they are buying, from
whom and what makes each product so
special. This creates an emotional
connection between the consumer and
the maker - breathing life into a brand.
This community-based model
developed by DC is at the heart of its
business, and it’s not just a good thing
to do but also the right thing to do.
It recently worked with domain leaders
such as Reliance Foundation for the
setting up a one-of-a-kind bazaar
showcasing the best of Indian crafts.
Putting together the finest of Indian
Arts, Craft and Design, 108 crafts of
India were chosen as a thematic
representation from across the country.
The highlights of the bazaar were the
Masters Treasures that showcased the
best pieces of Indian craftsmanship and
live demonstrations of crafts by
artisans.
Handcrafting the Future
Direct Create is working with larger
B2B markets, including the Interiors
and Architecture domains, which are
one of the biggest consumers of
customized solutions. They are now
targeting the design fraternity with
unique sourcing solutions that were
unthinkable in the past. Soon they hope
to have a significant presence across
the Interior Designers and Architects
communities, enabling them to source
for their projects directly from the
Hand-producers who can rapidly
customize for them. All these efforts
are aimed at establishing a well-
defined market link up, revive crafts,
build trust, create jobs, keep the jobs in
rural areas and establish an integrated
model for sustainable and equitable
livelihood.
consumer ecosystem, Direct Create
aims to maximize the opportunity for
the artisan community and showcase
the art at the global level.
One-of-a-kind
Direct Create not only forges new
bonds, but also works on empowering
the craft community by providing them
with the best tools possible and gives
them the freedom to tap their potential
to the fullest and exposes them to the
global market. With the launch of
Direct Create operations in Europe
through its new office in Amsterdam,
the future holds innumerable potential
for the Indian crafts representation in
the global design community.
Direct Create is exhibiting an
installation on the theme of
“Craftsmanship in the Digital Age”
at the MIlan Design Week 2019.
Engaging in diverse projects that
involve its network of artisans and
craftsmen, each year Direct Create
incubates new handcrafted product
development projects and presents it to
the retailers and independent stores.
Dedicated Founders
Sheela has more than two decades of
experience in the area of design and
sustainable practices in areas ranging
from craft revival, textiles, hand-
crafted design space, and architecture
and eco-sustainable hospitality. With
an in-depth knowledge flow of
artisanal communities, she has helped
craft a 360-degree design solution,
building ecosystems for self-reliance,
innovation and growth within these
communities.
Rajeev has worked on a wide range of
culture linked design projects, both at
the micro and macro scales. He is one
of the primary designers and the
Project Director of the Jal Mahal
Project, which also helped restore Jal
Mahal Monument and revive the
ecology of Man Sagar Lake in Jaipur.
He has succeeded in bringing together
the government, civil society,
“THE ETHOS OF
SUSTAINABLE
LIFESTYLES THAT
CHARACTERIZES
THE HANDMADE
COMMUNITY
RESONATES
WITH OUTLOOK”
www.directcreate.com
MARCH 2019 53

56. Food is a basic necessity. But in this fast-paced
life, this basic necessity is perhaps the most
neglected one. In an attempt to get more out of
life and time, people cut corners and mostly
compromise on what they eat. Takeaways, quick bites,
junk food, food loaded with everything except
nutrition is what people feed on in order to live. They
only realize the damage when their body sends out a
strong signal in the form of various ailments that this
needs to stop. In order to live a filling life, it s’
necessary to boost the body with quality food and
nutrition first.
Rishit Sanghvi was no exception to this scenario,
eating without thinking and whatever he could grab at
a given time. But what was different about him is that
unlike others, he chose to listen and not ignore what
his body was trying to tell. That s when he started’
eating homemade healthy nutrition bars and realized
how tasty and fulfilling healthy food can be. Inspired
by the healthy transformation of himself, he wanted
and set out to provide these healthy alternatives. So, with
determination and aim to provide healthy snacks for all,
Wholesome Habits Private Limited, which owns the
brands ‘EAT Anytime’ and ‘Mindful’ began its journey.
Laying Foundations
EAT anytime, started by Rishit Sanghvi and Rohit
Garodia, and is built on good faith and a dream. Both
having worked at senior positions with large corporates
are well-versed with the complexities a startup can face
and well equipped to deal with. The duo is
complemented by a team which comes from different
strata of Education and Qualification but carry the same
vision and mission to create products which tasty and
healthy.
Redefining Healthy and Mindful Eating
Being healthy and fit is the latest lifestyle revolution. But
defining healthy is perhaps trickier than being healthy
Rishit Sanghvi, Founder MD Rohit Garodia, Co-founder
54 MARCH 2019

57. itself. Seeing the craze behind
healthy and super-foods, the market
is flooded with products that promise
to be the manna from heaven. But are
they really? When Rishit and his
team started research with respect to
the healthy snacking market, they
realized that there is no standard
definition of health. Products being
marketed as healthy were high on
Sugar, Glucose, or simply too
processed to provide natural
goodness. So their first task was to
have their own definition of Health
which could reflect their philosophy.
As a result, EAT Anytime and
Mindful products contain no added
sugars, have a low glycemic index,
no transfat or cholesterol and are rich
in anti-oxidants, protein and essential
fatty acids.
Their second task is to re-educate the
consumers. Since the last few years,
they are being fed with information
and healthy food that is far from
healthy. And it certainly takes time to
redo something that’s been undone.
Through the seminar, pop-up carts,
events at various other platforms,
Rishit and his team are making
people see their definition of health.
If the response to their products is
something to go by, people are
actually agreeing that a healthy snack
with a nutrient advantage like
wholesome products is what they
need.
Best of Both Worlds
EAT Anytime started with the sole
aim of providing easy snacking
solutions to people. With health at its
core, EAT Anytime products are what
today people need which is a perfect
amalgamation of Health and Taste.
From nutritious energy bars to pure
whey protein cookies and wholesome
trail mixes, each and every product is
carefully crafted under the
supervision of Industry experts such
as Nutritionist, Food Technologist,
Chefs, etc. to give best to the
consumers. Flavors like mango-
ginger and chyanwanprash are
combining the best of taste and
health secrets that are known to every
Indian.
Standing Out
Rishit says, “Health industry is the
most evolving industry and offers
“We believe
that being
honest and
transparent
is what
makes us
unique and
will help
us evolve
and flourish”
wide scope for innovation. The
biggest advantage we have is the
consumer today needs and demands
healthier options.” He agrees that
there is a huge competition and to
keep it on the top his team focuses on
two things only:
• Deliver what is promised in
terms of quality and health
• Nurture the trust of the
patrons
• Be transparent and true to
the
core philosophy of health
For a Healthy Future
EAT Anytime started with an idea, a
vision and an inspiration and it is
amazing to see its growth chart and
how far it has come. Rishit, a set
entrepreneur now, advised the young
entrepreneurs making their way to,
“Go for it, work on that idea, work
on that dream and Give your best. It
is going to be a roller-coaster ride
and a lot of bumps on the road but in
the end, it is worth it all.”
The start-up market is in full rage
and Rishit expects a lot of
competition springing up this year.
EAT Anytime is extensively
researching ways to benefit its
consumers and trying to come up
with innovative and healthier
options.
50Startups To Take
A Look At In 2019
The
MARCH 2019 55

58. STARTUP
LESSONSEvery Founder Should Know
“I don’t know a startup that hasn’t
been through tough times”
- Vinod Khosla,
American-businessman
56 MARCH 2019