SupplyNote targets 300% growth in client base by end of fiscal year 2022-2023

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June 30, 2022

In the fiscal year 2021–2022, SupplyNote, a B2B software-as-a-service provider that assists food and beverage (F&B) firms in digitizing and automating their supply chain and procurement, witnessed remarkable growth and expansion.

In the fiscal year 2021–2022, SupplyNote successfully onboarded 2750 clients, and in the fiscal year 2022–2033, it aims to onboard an additional 7000 clients.

To digitize the food and beverage sector, SupplyNote connects retailers, service providers, and suppliers, giving them access to inventory management tools, order placement options, and sales performance data that can help them grow their businesses.

Currently operating in 83 cities across India, SupplyNote has aspirations to grow and offer its clients services in an additional 50 cities.

“The Indian SAAS market is developing at an exponential rate, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. We are capitalising on the current market trends, and I am pleased to announce that we are expanding and hiring in accordance with our business priorities and goals. As we are strengthening our presence in new geographies, we remain committed to improving the relationship between businesses and their suppliers while also refining our technology offerings to help our clients generate more revenue and build their business. The current development will undoubtedly motivate every employee in our company to stay committed and help us reach even more significant milestones,” said Kushang, Co-founder and CEO, SupplyNote.

Burgrill, Slay Coffee, Bakingo, Vadilal, Natural’s, Biryani By Kilo, ZFW Hospitality, Nazeer’s Foods, Burgerama, Theos, Wat-a-burger, Blue Tokai, and others are just a few of the SuppyNote’s well-known customers in the Delhi-NCR region.

By lowering costs and spending in the restaurant and hotel supply chain, the company helps its clients increase their bottom profit margins by 70%. It achieves this by minimizing theft and theft-related losses of up to 4% of net revenue, improving utilization to prevent expenditures of up to 6%, decreasing overpriced purchases by around 8%, and spending just about 2% to 3% on human resources.

Depending on the size of the company and the SupplyNote services that customers subscribe to, a food business that typically makes a profit of 15-20% may raise its profit margins by 6-15%.

TCS IT Hub to offer 20,000 jobs

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June 30, 2022

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will officially open the first phase of its IT Digital and Research Hub at Technopark-Phase-4 in Pallippuram.

Around 20,000 people are anticipated to get employment due to the 1,500 crore project that will be built on 97 acres of land. There will be about 5,000 employment available throughout the project’s first phase’s construction, which will take place over a five lakh sq ft area. In two-and-a-half years, the construction is supposed to be finished.

The project agreement was signed in February 2021 by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The project intends to deliver cutting-edge technologies to the construction, defense, and aerospace industries. The new company will create a variety of products and other related services by concentrating on robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, blockchain, and the internet of things.

A centre for startup assistance called incubation is also planned. With over 15,000 employees across its many centres, TCS now offers the most jobs in Kerala’s IT sector.

D2C brand Zouk enters footwear segment; plans to build a strong offline presence

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June 30, 2022

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Zouk, a D2C lifestyle brand, has entered the footwear category, according to Pradeep Krishnakumar, co-founder and COO of the company.

Zouk sells vegan and cruelty-free products created in India and founded by the IIM-A husband-and-wife team of Disha Singh and Pradeep Krishnakumar. The brand’s signature line of handcrafted bags is what it is recognized for today.

Commenting on the launch of this new category, Krishnakumar said, “When we saw the market, we realized most footwear brands have very west-inspired designs. We had observed something similar in bags and hence knew we could bring out differentiated, classic products. Thus, we decided to enter the footwear space.”

He said that while India has always been a big market for footwear, COVID has caused the demand to decline over the past two years. He then shared insights on the expansion of opportunities in the footwear business. He went on to say that in the following three years, the branded direct-to-consumer market for footwear will develop as a result of the extensive consumer education that has taken place on materials, comfort, style, and the convenience of shopping from home.

Zouk is primarily an online retailer, offering products on its website and via marketplaces like Amazon, Myntra, and Ajio.

According to Krishnakumar, the company has only recently begun its offline adventure and is currently in a few boutique stores spread throughout major metros. The retailer anticipates laying the groundwork for a robust offline distribution by the end of this year.

Regarding its flagship bags category, Krishnakumar said the company had witnessed 16X growth over pre-covid levels. “Bags will continue to be our main category this year too, as we launch new products and expand our distribution and geographies,” he shared.

Last year, the company raised funds in a pre-Series A round. The founders of the direct-to-consumer companies Mamaearth, Beardo, and Wow Skin Science are among its investors, along with Titan Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners.

Regarding upcoming fundraising plans, Krishnakumar stated that although the company is well-capitalized, it is open to working with the right partners.

Sobha enters JV to build housing project in Chennai

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June 29, 2022

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To build a housing project in Chennai, real estate firm Sobha Ltd. has signed a joint development agreement (JDA).

In a statement, property consultant Savills India claimed to have facilitated Sobha Ltd. negotiate a joint development agreement for a 2.5 acre land parcel in Chennai.

“We are looking to leverage the growing demand in premium residential through this joint development. The connectivity and social infrastructure of Velachery are going to be a bonus for this project,” said Ravi Namboodiri, Regional Head Tamil Nadu, Sobha.

Bengaluru-based Sobha Ltd is one of the leading real estate firms in the country.

Instead of buying land outright, many real estate developers now prefer to enter into JDAs with landowners to expand their businesses.

Airtel Payments Bank joins Axis Bank to digitize cash collection

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June 29, 2022

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The third-largest private sector bank in India, Axis Bank, and Airtel Payments Bank have teamed up to digitize the country’s tier III cities and semi-urban regions’ cash collecting systems.

The companies said in a joint statement that Airtel Payments Bank would use the broad reach of its digital-led neighborhood banking model to support Axis Bank with the digitization of last-mile cash collections and would also speed up the payment cycle while helping to free up the bandwidth of field agents who operate across the country.

“We are delighted to join hands with Axis Bank for digitization of last-mile cash collection. Our collection management services reduces the challenges of managing physical cash and also mitigates the risk of cash in transit by digitizing the entire chain. This brings in huge operational efficiencies for our partner as well as their customers,” said Gaurav Seth, chief finance officer and head of institutional business, Airtel Payments Bank.

“This partnership with Airtel Payment Bank is yet another step towards embracing digitisation, offering greater convenience and faster solutions to our vast customer base in the semi-rural regions of the country,” Munish Sharda, group executive, and head – Bharat banking, Axis Bank said.

The collected EMI amount can now be deposited at any nearby Airtel Payments Bank. It will be instantly credited to the agents’ Axis Bank accounts, eliminating the need for them to return to the branch.

Since Airtel Payments Bank locations are open well beyond regular banking hours and on weekends, this procedure will reduce the risk of agents carrying the cash collected over long distances and aid in preventing any delays.

Customers of Axis Bank will soon have access to the 5,00,000 Airtel Payments Bank banking locations to make direct EMI deposits for loan payments. Clients can save time and travel expenses by choosing to pay their EMI at the closest Airtel Payments Bank location.

Indian exporter SaaS startup Sourcewiz raises ₹20 crores in funding

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June 29, 2022

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Business-to-business (B2B) digitization platform Sourcewiz has raised Rs 20 crore in a fundraising round headed by Matrix Partners India.

The round also included participation from angel investors such as Rohit Kapoor, the global chief marketing officer of Oyo, Wami Capital, the family office of Transworld Group, and Aniket Deb, the cofounder of B2B packaging company Bizongo.

The Software-as-a-Service (Saas)-based platform intends to use the money to increase the number of export hubs in India where its team would be located.

The company presently operates in hubs such as Panipat, Agra, Jaipur, and Karur.

“We also plan to deepen our offering to customers by helping them access newer demand channels and automate other aspects of factory operations such as procurement and payments,” cofounder Divyaanshu Makkar said in a statement.

The company plans to expand to other geographies like Bangladesh, Turkey, and Pakistan, Makkar added.

Sourcewiz, a company founded in 2021 by Makkar, Vikas Garg, and Mayur Bhangale, helps exporters digitize their sales and marketing operations by automating tasks including product design, cataloging, quotation creation, invoicing, and trade show management.

“Presently we are into digitising the factories’ operations. However, we have plans to venture into setting up ecommerce businesses for the factories we cater to,” Makkar said.

In October last year, Blume Ventures and Alpha Wave Global invested $3 million in the company’s seed round.

“Sourcewiz’s SaaS-led approach has received strong early traction, customer love and adoption within the Indian export community, reinforcing the need for such a platform,” said Sudipto Sannigrahi, principal, Matrix India.

The firm said it had onboarded around 500 customers.

“We serve 500-plus factories, and we have a present annualized revenue run rate of $0.5 million. We don’t burn a lot of money, so we still have scope for more growth and expansion,” Makkar said.

Google’s Earth observation data now accessible to businesses, govts worldwide

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June 28, 2022

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Google now offers all commercial, and government organisations worldwide access to its Earth Engine, which has previously only been accessible to academics, researchers, and non-profit organisations.

Google said its decision was in response to global business and government authorities’ calls for increased sustainability efforts, which its Earth Engine can facilitate.

One of the largest, publicly accessible databases of Earth observation data is the Google Earth Engine. The latter provides a constant and nearly real-time feed of Earth-imaging data to individuals who have access to the platform by scrolling a stream of Earth observation imagery from various satellites placed in orbit around Earth as well as other imagery resources. When combined with geospatial cloud computing platforms built into the Google Earth Engine, these data provide analytics and insights on a wide range of regional issues, including climate information, assessments of the likelihood and effects of natural disasters, and the control of diseases across different regions, and more.

This, according to Google, will assist businesses and governments worldwide, who can now monitor target forest sections or other critical locations and take appropriate action. Using Google Earth Engine, SC Johnson, a US-based global consumer chemicals company, has already launched a test project to create predictive models of mosquito populations worldwide. These models predicted which regions of the world may have the greatest concentration of the disease vector shortly using existing mosquito breeding patterns and more than one billion data points produced by Google Earth Engine.

The liberalization of geospatial imagery data worldwide, including in India, has given many commercial operators in space the opportunity to provide comparable satellite imagery and analytics to governmental entities and private businesses on Earth.

For instance, the private Indian space technology startup Pixxel will provide customers with hyperspectral imagery and image-based data analytics for actionable insights on climate change, sustainability, agroforestry, and defence applications. Pixxel launched its first satellite, “Shakuntala,” in April this year as a secondary payload aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

GalaxEye, an Indian space-tech firm developing a platform for data analytics based on satellite images, is anticipated to launch in 2023 and provide satellite data to organizations and governments operating in the insurance, mining, and disaster management industries among others.

Google’s Earth Engine data, which is now accessible to businesses and governments, will be a significant competitor for such private operators. However, Google has guaranteed that, at least soon, access to the Earth Engine will continue to be accessible for non-profit organizations and academia.

IHCL to launch its seventh Taj Hotel in Bengaluru

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June 28, 2022

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A new Taj resort has been signed by the Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) in Bengaluru. The second phase of this development project, which is managed by Sattva Homes Private Limited from the Sattva Group, will also include branded villas as a part of the complex.

Commenting on the signing, Puneet Chhatwal, MD and CEO, IHCL, said, “The signing of this resort, the seventh property under the Taj brand in Bengaluru, will further strengthen IHCL’s presence in one of India’s top commercial cities with a constantly evolving hospitality landscape. This resort getaway will be our 13th hotel across brands in Bengaluru. We are delighted to partner with the Sattva Group for this project.”

The 45-acre resort is situated near Rajanukunte, North Bengaluru, and is easily accessible by driving from the airport and the city centre. 50 Taj-branded villas and 254 keys will be part of the greenfield project. It will have multiple restaurants and bars and a variety of flexible conference spaces with outdoor areas, making it the ideal getaway from the city for hosting both business and social events. Additionally, guests will access recreational amenities like a pool, exercise centre, and the renowned Jiva spa.

Adrija Agarwal, the director of Sattva, said, “The proposed Taj urban resort will be a great new address in the city and it would appeal to all kinds of guests. It is the group’s formal foray into hospitality and we are pleased to collaborate with IHCL’s iconic brand Taj as a first step in our partnership.”

With the addition of this hotel, IHCL will have a total of 13 hotels with around 3,000 rooms in Bengaluru, including five under development.

Google invests in fintech startup Progcap as a part of $40mn round

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June 28, 2022

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Progcap raised $40 million (about ₹308 crores) in its Series C funding round, led by existing investors Creation Investments and Tiger Global Management, while Google joined as a new investor. Progcap focuses on financing small and mid-sized businesses.

The startup, which has its headquarters in New Delhi, was valued at $600 million during the fundraising, a three-fold increase from its initial valuation of $200 million.

The Series C fundraising round totalled $70 million (about ₹539 crores) with the participation of Sequoia Capital India, another existing investor.

Soon, Progcap also hopes to become operationally profitable, according to co-founder Pallavi Shrivastava.

In the past 12 months, Progcap, owned by Desiderata Impact Ventures Pvt. Ltd., has raised close to $100 million in equity funding. Additionally, a $1 billion annualised disbursal was recorded.

The company stated in a separate statement that it intended to use the new funds for product development and to support ongoing expansion initiatives.

The fintech startup claims 700,000 retailers use its platform. It is also looking to acquire a non-banking financial company (NBFC) through acquisition to aid business growth, Shrivastava said.

“Progcap is becoming the core operating engine for all the transactions of its customers, providing them with credit and technology solutions that make their businesses more efficient,” said Srivastava and another co-founder Himanshu Chandra.

The company claims that its financing solution offered to merchants in tier-2, tier-3, and tier-4 locations offers customers easily accessible and flexible collateral-free working capital loans.

Shrivastava, an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur, had previously worked with International Finance Corporation as the regional lead, Hinduja Group and Infosys. Chandra was earlier associated with Barclays and Standard Chartered Bank.

KFin Technologies opens Mumbai office, plans to hire over 300 employees

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June 27, 2022

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KFin Technologies, a financial services platform, announced the opening of its Mumbai office and its plans to hire around 300 people for the new location. Additionally, KFintech is seeking out new opportunities for growth with a planned site at GIFT City in Gujarat, which would allow it to improve global interactions as it strives to become a financial hub for asset classes across regions, the company said in a statement.

The Hyderabad-based company offers services to corporate issuers and asset managers in India across all asset classes. Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Malaysia are also served by it.

“KFin is looking at increasing capacity with plans to onboard over 300 employees at its new facility (Mumbai),” the company said.

With more than 5,000 employees serving diverse organisations across the global capital market spectrum, KFintech’s new building will host its Mumbai-based employees.

The presence of the Mumbai office will facilitate smooth communications with regional clients and investors.

“At KFintech, we’re always on the lookout for the right talent, people who align with our values, and share our commitment towards providing exceptional value to our clients and investors,” Sreekanth Nadella, CEO of KFin Technologies, said.

“As one of the biggest Registrar and Transfer Agents in the country, Mumbai is a strategic location for us. Having a physical presence in Mumbai makes it easier for us to coordinate and cooperate with all our stakeholders,” he added.

In April, KFin filed preliminary papers with market regulator Sebi to raise Rs 2,400 crore through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The IPO is entirely an offer-for-sale by promoter General Atlantic Singapore Fund Pte. Ltd.

KFin is majority-owned by funds managed by General Atlantic, a leading global private equity investor, which holds a 74.94 per cent stake in the company. Last year, Kotak Mahindra Bank acquired a 9.98 per cent stake in the company.

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