Docprime Technologies invests $7.5 mn in Visit Health

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October 12, 2021

Docprime Technologies, a unit of PB Fintech Ltd., which also owns Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, announced on Monday that it has invested $7.5 million in Visit Health, a telehealth and wellness platform.

Docprime has made its first investment in a complete telehealth and wellness platform.

Visit Health, which has been around for five years, offers an integrated solution that allows businesses to provide their employees with access to certified specialists while also guiding them in managing their healthcare needs. The technology enables businesses to improve their employees’ healthcare experiences while also reducing medical costs.

According to PB Fintech, the investment would help it improve its service capabilities in the health and wellness industry.

“Our goal with this investment is to back Visit Health in their vision to build a strong Digital Health Ecosystem – with outstanding customer service and new ways to help customers navigate a healthcare system. We are proud to back Visit as they approach their next phase of growth,” said Yashish Dahiya, chairman and chief executive officer, PB Fintech.

Docprime, the parent company of Policybazaar, launched its platform in August 2018 and allows customers to make appointments with doctors and diagnostic labs. The platform also serves as an agent, or a facilitator, for several healthcare, wellness, and personal care products.

“Visit is excited to have PB Fintech as a partner in our strategic vision to create a Digital Health Ecosystem. Our product offering is backed by Health insurers and the large cashless network stitched by us. With this investment, we plan to grow our platform and network capabilities and expand our teams across technology, sales, and network functions,” said Visit Health’s chief executive officer, Anurag Prasad on the acquisition.

Visit Health previously raised $1.4 million in a seed round and is backed by Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal and Hetero Drugs Director Murali Krishna.

Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, invested in the startup in 2018.

App developers and startups in India have petitioned the CCI for interim relief against Google’s new billing policy

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October 11, 2021

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The Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF) has filed a petition with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on behalf of India’s app developers and startup community in response to Google’s new pricing policy, which will take effect in March 2022. Google’s suspected abuse of dominance in India’s smartphone, smart TV, and app markets is presently being investigated by India’s competition authority.

In a statement, the ADIF said it had requested relief on behalf of app developers since Google’s new policy would force certain types of applications to exclusively take payments through the Google Billing System (GBS).

“This would be an issue for app developers because GBS charges 30 percent commission for all transactions on the Google Play Store, compared to 2 percent charged by other payment processing systems. There is a strong case for seeking such relief as this new policy, when it goes into effect next March, would have a destructive effect on the operating margins of a large number of startups and make their business models infeasible,” ADIF said in a statement.

Google had previously required app developers that use its Android Play Store to conduct all transactions through the company’s billing system, for which the company will charge a 30% fee.

After startups and app developers voiced concerns about Google’s approach and took the subject to regulatory authorities, the Mountain View, California-based company, delayed its stance. They said that the search engine behemoth is abusing its hegemony in the Android market. In India, Google has roughly a 97 percent market share.

The problem is not limited to India. In the United States, for example, Google is the subject of the largest antitrust investigation in decades, with the US Department of Justice alleging that the tech giant is abusing its monopoly by engaging in unethical business practices and paying companies millions of dollars to promote its search engine in their products.

In November of last year, the CCI instructed the Director-General to look into the problem of paid applications and in-app purchases being forced to utilise Google Play Store’s payment mechanism. The commission believes that such a restriction is discriminatory since it inhibits app developers’ freedom to choose their preferred payment processing solution.

In its appeal to the commission, ADIF, which represents the interests of different stakeholders such as startups, app developers, and others with the goal of strengthening the country’s startup environment, claims that Google’s 30% commission is excessively high and unjust. According to the organisation, the main concern is the forced use of the Google Play Billing system and the exclusion of other payment methods.

“This will have a disastrous effect on India’s digital ecosystem by reducing choices available in the hands of app developers and users as well as harming the country’s innovation ecosystem by disrupting the cost structures and margins of multiple industries,” it said.

“ADIF foresees that barring an order passed by this Hon’ble Commission to maintain status-quo until the completion of the ongoing inquiry, Google shall proceed to enforce its terms on the Play Store, thereby leading to adverse and irreversible consequences on India’s fledgling startup ecosystem,” said Sijo Kuruvilla George, Executive Director, Alliance of Digital India Foundation.

bookingjini to extend its product suite overseas

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October 9, 2021

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bookingjini, an online hotel booking firm, will launch and expand its product suite in North America and Canada by December 2021.

bookingjini, based in Bhubaneswar, was founded after Sibasish Mishra, the company’s founder and CEO, realised that boutique hotels were highly reliant on online travel agencies for bookings. He wanted to create something that would give hotels their sales funnel, boost traffic to their websites, and ultimately help in saving them money because OTAs charge up to 35% in margins.

Sixty-six percent of Indian travellers look for hotels online, but only 31% actually book them. There are 35% of travellers who seek hotels online but book them offline. The biggest barrier is a lack of trust and personal touch.

“At BookingJini, we not only assist travellers in booking hotels online, but we also help them to build trust by giving a personal touch using AI technology. Furthermore, we help the hoteliers in increasing room sales at zero percent commission,” Mishra commented.

Direct booking, distribution, experience, marketing, and analytics engines are included in the solution, which aids hoteliers in efficiently managing, marketing, and analysing their operations. The company also uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to improve online inventory distribution and other services.

While commenting on what makes BookingJini different from other intermediaries, Mishra stated, “Intermediaries help hotels to list their property on their website to receive online booking and increase online visibility, but for each online booking, the intermediaries also charge a huge chunk of commission to hotels which results in a gradual decrease in the Average Room Rates (ARR). On another hand, we, as BookingJini, empower hotels with software solutions that help them to sell rooms directly to travellers without parting with any commissions.”

Customer data, sales data, and marketing data are traditionally stored in separate silos in a hotel website’s property management system, and handling these data from different silos is a time-consuming operation. The company has developed a platform that combines numerous existing technologies to streamline processes in response to this difficulty.

Twinings and Ovaltine to join in Strategic Partnership

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October 9, 2021

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TwinningsOvo, the market leader in speciality tea, has formed a strategic alliance with Nihilent, a global consulting and change management firm that takes a human-centered approach to problem-solving. “Nihilent will play a critical role in scaling up Twinings Digital Centre in India by providing the necessary skill sets and expertise for Twinings to build its digital capabilities,” reports the press release announcing their partnership.

TwinningsOvo and Nihilent will collaborate closely on different transformational initiatives. TwiningsOvo will benefit significantly from Nihilent’s services in crafting compelling corporate value propositions, establishing systems thinking, and developing metrics-based performance management processes. Furthermore, Twinings will curate a ‘Wow’ user experience owing to Nihilent’s Design Thinking approach and patented consulting frameworks.

According to the company, the Centre will help TwinningsOvo accelerate its digital capabilities, and the availability of a talent pool will enable TwinningsOvo to rapidly scale its business technology capabilities in line with global business demands.

“We wanted to create a strategic global IT organization that can provide the right technology mindsets, skills, and capacity. We believe that the creation of the ‘Digital Centre’ will go a long way in manifesting our long-term business vision and providing consistent technology-enabled business operations. We found Nihilent as an ideal partner due to its rich experience, broad technology capabilities, and good cultural fit.” Peter Taylor, CFO, Twinings, observed.

“We want to accelerate our technology strategy and deliver a WOW experience to our stakeholders. The launch of this Digital Centre along with Nihilent will serve as a springboard for us to evolve to the next level of business performance enabled by technology.” reflects Sandeep Seeripat, CIO, Twinings.

Commenting on the launch of the center, LC Singh, Director, and Executive Vice Chairman, Nihilent, said, “TwiningsOvo’ partnership with Nihilent will help accelerate its Digital Transformation initiatives and at the same time usher in a nimble, agile, and superior digital capabilities. Nihilent understands TwiningsOvo’s objectives and has proposed an engagement model that delivers future scalable, reliable, and secured services.”

Sommet Education Group collaborates with Saudi Arabia’s TDF

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October 8, 2021

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The Tourist Development Fund (TDF) in Saudi Arabia has inked an agreement with Sommet Education, an international network of hospitality education institutes, to boost the development of the kingdom’s tourism sector.

Sommet Education will collaborate with TDF to improve the knowledge, skills, and competencies of TDF workers and clients in tourism, hospitality, and entrepreneurship through dedicated programs and training courses and workshops, training sessions, conferences, and consultancy.

The new agreement offers a world of opportunity for TDF’s employees and clients to study hospitality with globally approved institutes, which aligns with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030’s Human Capability Development Program.

Sommet Education, which includes the Glion Institute of Higher Education, Les Roches Global Hospitality Education, and École Ducasse, a culinary and pastry arts school established by world-renowned chef Alain Ducasse, specializes in hospitality management and culinary arts.

Sommet Education is committed to fostering future talent for the service industry as part of this partnership. TDF’s workers and clients will enroll in training courses for various professions, including investment, hospitality, and tourism, through the organization. Courses will be available at various educational levels, making them accessible to everyone. Individuals, entities, and companies working in the Saudi services industry will use the services, which TDF will supervise.

Tata Digital may provide Esop to woo top startup talent

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October 7, 2021

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According to the sources aware of the development, Tata Digital may offer all employees an employee stock ownership plan (Esop) to attract and retain good talent from the startup ecosystem.

The company, which houses consumer-focused digital businesses and competes with startups, initially awarded management stock options to the founders of online grocery retailer BigBasket, in which Tata Digital owns a majority stake.

It may extend similar offers to employees as well, according to the sources, because several of the startup prospects the business has examined for various posts have requested ESOP as part of their salary packages.

The company had begun by hiring some senior TCS employees. Some industry analysts questioned whether the company would provide the necessary startup culture and empower young people to compete with unicorns and other fast-growing digital service firms.

“It is all about building unicorns and encashing stock options within a short period of time compared to established older conglomerates who are into institution building,” said G C Jayaprakash, founder-director of boutique executive search firm Accrete Executive Search.

He said Tata Digital would have to offer remuneration packages comparable to those offered by startup companies.

“All the startup companies including Flipkart, Byju’s, Zomato and Swiggy offer huge compensation packets given the short shelf life of growing revenues and building valuations to attract top investors,” Jayaprakash said. “Tata Digital as a new company will also have to offer such compensation to attract startup talent.”

The digital entity is also focusing on its organizational structure, which is currently testing a super app among a major part of Tata group employees as it prepares to offer multiple consumer services across group firms on the same platform.

Max Life Insurance collaborates with Vymo

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October 7, 2021

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Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd. recently announced the launch of mSmart, a mobile application for digital monitoring of its agency distribution channel, in collaboration with Vymo, the leading sales acceleration platform for financial institutions.

Over 5,000 Max Life Office Heads and Agency Development Managers will effectively manage their day-to-day activities and business planning with streamlined sales governance and focused engagement matrices with Vymo’s mobile-first application.

The partnership is the latest digital transformation project conducted by the San Francisco-based startup, aiming to serve managers and business leaders through its monitoring and relationship management platform in the fast-growing financial industry and fintech market.

V Viswanand, Deputy Managing Director, Max Life, said, “In line with our vision to become a digital-first insurer, the launch of ‘mSmart’ will help transform our agency governance and bring high agility levels and efficiency in monitoring processes. We are excited to partner with Vymo and look forward to working closely with them on this journey.”

To streamline Max Life’s existing business processes, mSmart leverages sophisticated mobile capabilities and nudge intelligence to provide value for users.

The mobile application captures sales and interaction activities automatically, eliminating the requirement for users to update their records system every day manually.

Managers will have real-time visibility into the performance of their teams via the platform. Max Life may also use intelligent dashboards to discover certain engagement behaviours that may affect sales performance. Overall, these new services will boost sales productivity and allow sales teams to link sales support activities to revenue results.

“We are excited to welcome the Max Life team in our growing community of Digital Leaders,” says Rajesh Sabhlok, Managing Director – Asia Pacific, Vymo. “Applications today have become very intuitive and reliable in today’s digital world. However, a majority of the insurance workforce still rely on legacy systems to grow their businesses. With this strengthening partnership, the Max Life agency team will have access to modern-day technologies to drive predictable business outcomes.”

Reliance Retail to open 7-Eleven convenience stores in India

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BRL Editor

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October 7, 2021

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On Thursday, Reliance Industries (RIL) announced that Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, a subsidiary of RIL, will open 7-Eleven convenience outlets across India. For the launch of its convenience stores in India, Reliance Retail’s subsidiary has signed a master franchise deal with 7-Eleven, Inc (SEI).

“The first 7-Eleven store is set to open on Saturday, October 9 in Andheri East, Mumbai. This will be followed by a rapid rollout in key neighborhoods and commercial areas across the Greater Mumbai cluster to start with,” RIL informed in an exchange filing.

The RIL, which Mukesh Ambani leads, has stated that 7-Eleven stores aim to provide shoppers with a distinct type of convenience by offering a variety of beverages, snacks, and delicacies and refilling daily needs.

“SEI will also support RRVL in implementing and localizing the unique 7-Eleven convenience retail business model for India, including bringing best in class processes and practices,” RIL’s retail arm stated.

This comes just two days after Future Group-owned Future Retail Limited’s termination of a Master Franchise Agreement with 7-Eleven on Tuesday, after more than two years of planning to open outlets in India. The agreement fell through as the Future-7 “was not able to meet the target of opening stores and payment of franchisee fees.”

Future Retail and 7-Eleven signed a master franchise deal to build and operate convenience stores in India in 2019. It then suggested opening its first store in India in early 2020. However, no store was ever built.

7-Eleven is a convenience store business headquartered in the United States that operates, franchises, and licences over 77,000 stores in 18 countries. They provide packaged foods, beverages, personal care products, and other daily essentials.

Apple supplier Pegatron partners with Microsoft

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October 6, 2021

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Pegatron, an Apple supplier, is partnering with Microsoft to build private 5G networks, according to Nikkei Asia.

According to the article, Pegatron, the second-largest iPhone assembler after Foxconn, has worked on 5G technologies since late 2019. The company is now looking beyond Apple as the smartphone market slows.

“The company has been looking for new growth drivers as the smartphone industry has peaked,” a Pegatron executive told Nikkei, asking not to be named. “We see possibilities in the rising 5G market, and the top management team fully supports the allocation of resources to catch these opportunities.”

According to Nikkei, Pegatron has invested over 1 billion New Taiwan dollars (USD 36 million) and hired over 200 networking engineers to support its 5G commercial goals.

After nearly three years of work, Pegatron’s collaboration with Microsoft has resulted in the company’s first private 5G network implementation.

The iPhone assembler joins the likes of Foxconn, Quanta Computer, and Compal Electronics in their pursuit of a private 5G network.

In fact, at its Xindian production site in Taipei, the Taiwanese firm is already deploying a private 5G network. It’s also testing a specialized local network in Tokyo to show off its potential and attract international clients.

Zoomcar sets up office in San Francisco

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BRL Editor

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October 6, 2021

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Zoomcar, a car-sharing firm, has announced the launch of a new office in San Francisco.

Geiv Dubash, Zoomcar’s newly appointed CFO based in San Francisco, will be essential in assisting Zoomcar with future capital markets transactions, including a potential public market listing.

Zoomcar has already grown in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, dominating India’s self-drive car rental market.

Zoomcar’s drive to build a global car-sharing platform will be bolstered by opening a new office in the United States, which will help the company prepare for a broader international market.

Commenting on the new office opening Greg Moran, CEO & co-founder Zoomcar, said, “At Zoomcar, we’re focused on becoming a public company in the next 12 months. As we continuously evaluate the best possible alternatives for a public listing, our new office in San Francisco will help the company for this next phase of growth as we expand the platform and brand globally.”

“Like Geiv, we plan to hire more key roles who will bring a wealth of relevant industry knowledge and expertise to the company at this critical inflection point as we rapidly emerge from the pandemic,” Moran added.

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