Furniture startup WoodenStreet receives $30mn headed by WestBridge Capital

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April 28, 2022

WoodenStreet, a furniture and home decor platform has raised $30 million in a fundraising round led by WestBridge Capital, valuing the company at $156 million (Rs 1,200 crore).

The funds were raised through a combination of primary and secondary investments.

Existing investors sell shares to new investors in secondary sales, and the money does not go to the company.

In 2020, WoodenStreet raised funding from the Indian Angel Network and Rajasthan Venture Capital Funds, totalling $3 million.

According to the company, the latest capital infusion will develop new areas, invest in technology, expand the supply chain, and add new categories.

It intends to open 200 stores in the following two years and bring on more than 3,000 home decor businesses.

The company today has over 50 locations and provides solid-wood and modular furniture, kitchen and wardrobe solutions, and home décor, lighting, and furnishings. It offers the service in more than 300 cities throughout the world.

WoodenStreet plans to enter the office and modular furniture markets, according to the company.

Lokendra Singh Ranawat, Virendra Ranawat, Dinesh Singh Rathore, and Vikas Baheti launched the company in 2015.

“WoodenStreet has grown 100% year-on-year in the past three years while maintaining profitability at net level, and we plan to achieve a turnover of Rs 600 crore in next two years with this fundraise,” Dinesh Singh Rathore, also its chief financial officer, said.

Kristal.AI buys Globalise, plans to expand its retail offerings

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April 27, 2022

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Digital-first global private wealth management platform, Kristal.AI, said it had acquired Globalise, which offers access to the US stocks, exchange-traded funds, and ETF baskets for Indian investors. The companies didn’t disclose the size of the deal.

For the affluent and high net worth (HNI) segment, Kristal.AI concentrates on institutional products such as pre-IPO deals, hedge funds, and venture capital funds. At the same time, Globalise offers stock and ETF investments with no minimum criteria for the affluent and retail divisions.

Kristal.AI now has $400 million in assets under management (AUM), and its user base has increased sevenfold to over 30,000 in the calendar year 2021. Kristal.AI has been providing institutional and accredited investors in over 20 countries with access to quality goods and advisory services since its debut in 2016.

According to Kristal.AI, Globalise’s strategic acquisition will allow individual investors to invest in global products through fractional investments.

Asheesh Chanda, founder and CEO of Kristal.AI, said, “The acquisition of Globalise is complementary as it will help us offer stock and ETF investing with no minimum requirement for the affluent and retail segments. The acquisition will help us penetrate the retail segment and deliver on our mission to bring access to best-in-class products and advisory within the reach of everyone. We see tremendous opportunity in global investing and growth via partnerships will continue to remain an important element of our growth strategy.”

Globalise will help democratize private wealth management by providing routes for fractional ownership of stocks, ETFs, and stock baskets. As a result, Kristal.AI can better serve this vast group of self-directed investors by assisting with asset allocation and wealth planning.

“The merger helps us deliver access to premium global products. We couldn’t have found a better home than Kristal.AI for our customers, partners, and team to continue living our vision,” said Viraj Nanda, CEO and co-founder of Globalise.

According to the companies, Globalise’s clients and partners will not see any price or product changes. Furthermore, Globalise’s complete operations team has been retained and will continue working from various locations.

Kristal.AI and Globalise teams will collaborate closely over the next few months to integrate product flows and customer accounts.

Teamonk bags ₹3.5-cr in funding headed by Inflection Point

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April 27, 2022

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Inflection Point Ventures, an early-stage angel investing platform, led a pre-series A financing of ₹3.5 crores for tea brand Teamonk.

The funds will be used to assist the company in expanding its domestic and international reach.

Ashok Mittal and Amit Dutta founded Teamonk, a direct-to-consumer packaged tea brand, in April 2017. Turmeric moringa green tea, Assam masala tea, and herbal infused teas are among the green and black teas available.

The company currently distributes its products in the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Germany, Australia, and India. Teamonk offers agreements with tea estates that can meet quality standards, simplify sourcing, provide vertical integration, and provide a managed supply chain.

According to Mittal, the pandemic has increased the demand for health and immunology products across all socioeconomic categories worldwide.

IPV is investing in the brand for the second time.

“While tea has been a universal and most preferred everyday antioxidant drink, the last few years have witnessed a tectonic shift in the consumer consumption behavior globally,” said Vinay Bansal, founder and CEO of Inflection Point Ventures.

Consumers are shifting to organic and healthy tea beverages that increase immunity, improve skin, provide anti-aging benefits, and improve mental alertness and attention.

“Consumers too are also willing to spend for an authentic cup of tea. Teamonk with their excellent product curation and innovation abilities have over 64 specialty tea variants and have created exactly what is needed in the market. The brand is all set to emerge as a leader in the specialty tea segment and IPV continues to support them in their endeavor to provide the best to tea consumers not only in India but also in the global market,” said Bansal.

HCL pegs FY23 revenue growth at 12-14%

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April 22, 2022

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HCL Technologies Ltd said that revenue for this fiscal year would grow between 12-14% in constant currency, following a positive market environment and strong growth momentum in the last three quarters, particularly in the services business, after a year of only providing directional guidance. For FY23, the company expects an 18-20% Ebit margin.

HCL Technologies, situated in Noida, reported a net profit of ₹3,593 crores for the March quarter, up 24% from the previous year, discounting the impact of a one-time incentive paid to staff and tax charges.

Revenue for the March quarter increased 15% year over year to ₹22,597 crores. The services industry, which has grown at a compound quarterly growth rate (CQGR) of 5.2% for three quarters, drove revenue.

The company’s full-year revenue increased 13.6% to ₹85,651 crores, owing to excellent performance across all business areas, headed by its digital business, or ‘Mode 2,’ which increased 31.8% in constant currency.

In constant currency, HCL’s dollar sales increased 13.3% to $2.99 billion in the third quarter, boosted by new deal wins and clients’ digital agenda acceleration.

“Over the last three quarters, our services business has been consistently growing organically at 5% and higher, delivering one of the highest CQGR in the industry. Our overall growth on YoY basis stands at 12.7%, which is better than the guidance, led by strong momentum in digital, cloud and engineering services. We continue to invest proactively to create a larger talent pool to address the demand,” said C. Vijayakumar, HCL’s chief executive and managing director.

Meanwhile, the company’s attrition rate increased to 21.9% in the March quarter, up from 9.9% a year ago and 19.8% in the December quarter, indicating that demand for IT expertise outweighs supply. However, the high attrition rate is predicted to decrease progressively during this fiscal year.

During FY22, HCL added 39,900 people, bringing its total headcount to 208,877. It hired 22,859 freshers last year, and it expects that number to rise by 50% this year.

The Burger Company plans for 100 total outlets

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April 21, 2022

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According to The Burger Company’s recently announced targets, the company plans to reach a century in 2022. In Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, The Burger Company has opened its 50th location. The company operates in 20 cities and nine states. At the moment, there are 49 franchisee-owned outlets and two company-owned outlets.

Neelam Singh, founder and CEO of The Burger Company, informed that the company is getting tremendous response from tier 2 and 3 cities. “We have a strong presence in North India and in coming months we will be opening stores in West, South, Center and East India as well. Stores are under fit-outs in cities like Agra, Meerut, Moga, Malout, Pathankot, Srinagar, Ahmedabad, Nagercoil, Chennai, Hyderabad, Patna, Purnia, Deoghar, Kanpur and many more,” she added.

To reach a wider customer base, the company has rapidly increased its footprints and product offerings.

“In April ’22 we have added six stores to our tally, practically we have opened a store every fifth day in the month which is a great milestone,” Singh added.

According to Singh, the majority of the stores are profitable from the first month of operation since the cost structure is well-managed. For example, the Burger Company operates on a zero-commission strategy and passes the entire cost-benefit to the outlets as a brand policy. In addition, all raw ingredient deliveries are coordinated centrally, with stores receiving them at their doorstep.

The Burger Company first opened its store in Gurugram in 2018 and will shortly announce international outlets.

RBI’s pandemic rate cuts give strong support to realty

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April 21, 2022

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The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) aggressive rate cuts and liquidity push through the pandemic benefited real estate. Commercial properties reported a financing-cost decrease of 283 basis points-roughly three times the reduction in official policy rates.

One basis point is 0.01%.

As a result of the unprecedented lockdowns, the RBI cut policy rates by 115 basis points, lowering the cost of financing to its lowest level in history.

On average, the repo rate remained stable at 4%, although commercial real estate loans averaged 7.14% at the end of February 2022. Similarly, rates on home loans were reduced by 129 basis points.

Rates on unsecured loans dropped 218 basis points. Trade and agriculture had the least benefits with 5 and 64 basis points, respectively.

“Our conversations with lenders in recent months suggest extremely high levels of bullishness,” said MB Mahesh, director, Kotak Securities. “This implies that they are likely to go down the risk curve or duration curve, and borrowers are still quite wary to take credit.”

The transfer on outstanding rupee loans was the highest in the unsecured category, with rates lowering by nearly 165 bps and interest averaging 10.39%. Housing loans, too, got a substantial boost of 110 bps. Rates on outstanding loans to the medium and small sector declined by 124 bps, while rates on loans to large enterprises fell by 122 bps.

The low interest rate cycle is about to reverse, with the RBI signalling that inflation control is now its top priority. As a result, the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India, has increased its marginal cost of lending rate (MCLR) by 10 basis points for all types of loans, including residences, autos, and corporates.

3i Infotech gets ₹12 crores digital deal from Indian insurance company

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April 20, 2022

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3i Infotech Ltd announced that it had signed a ₹12-crore digital business process services (BPS) transformational deal with one of India’s largest insurance companies.

The deal is for three years, and the procedure will be delivered from their new Hyderabad facility. The company will use its integrated omnichannel contact centre technology, which includes automated service quality automation and end-to-end business process management linked to the client’s business KPIs, to transform the customer experience.

“The omni channel platform will be embedded with self-learning AI systems to assist customer support associates with real-time Cognitive assistance. It would also come bundled with virtual agent assist, email automation and flow based chatbots to cater to customer’s claim queries. The process will involve delivering inbound voice customer services and slowly transforming the digital tools to deflect call volumes to digital channels which include app, chat and email using self-service bots,” 3i Infotech said in a statement.

3i Infotech will focus on automating their claims handling in the next phase and partnering with them to alter their IT applications.

“We are seeing a huge uptake in our Digital BPS services offering, and this latest win of ours will add to our marquee set of clients who are on the path to digital transformation. Organizations are looking at higher return on investments and greater scale in this highly competitive market, and we will partner them in achieving this,” said Kiran Chittar, Business Head – Digital BPS, 3i Infotech.

The announcement follows 3i Infotech’s statement that it will hire 500 people for its newly-established BPS division in HITEC City, Hyderabad, to support its regional and market-specific clientele.

Neobank Freo exceeds 1 million customers; targets 2 million by December

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April 20, 2022

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Freo, a consumer neobank, announced that it had onboarded over one million customers across its credit, shopping, and banking offerings.

According to the company, it slightly had more than 300,000 customers in March 2021. Freo boosted its user base by 300% during the next 12 months, reaching the million-customer mark in March 2022.

Freo processed 4.6 million transactions totalling ₹2,800 crores at this time. As a result, the lifetime value of Freo-powered transactions has exceeded ₹8,000 crores.

“Last year, customers across 85 cities and towns in India could enjoy Freo products. This year, our aim was to multiply that reach exponentially,” explained Kunal Varma, Freo’s CEO and co-founder. “Today, customers from more than 16,000 pin codes across 1,200+ cities are using Freo products. This means that Freo’s products are used in over 85% of India’s pin codes.”

“By the end of this year we aim to cross two million customers. We want to help our customers from the first day of their first job to their last working day before they retire, “Varma added.

Freo’s growth has been fueled by excellent connections with some of India’s most prominent names in finance, including banks regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

Freo has constructed an innovative and highly successful product and data engine that leverages machine learning to generate actionable insights across functions, including risk, collections, product, marketing, and operations, with a 100+ robust technology, data and product team.

MoneyTap, an app-based personal credit line, Freo Save, a digital savings account, Freo Pay, a shop now, pay later app, and Fit.Credit, a credit score, and an insights app are part of Freo’s current product lineup.

SupplyNote to expand team force to facilitate growth plans

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April 20, 2022

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SupplyNote, a food and beverage supply-chain automation platform, has announced aggressive hiring plans for the next two quarters. The brand intends to increase its workforce by 100% in the six months. While the company now has 80 employees, it aims to hire another 70 across several divisions.

The brand has been bolstering its personnel in every aspect. The hiring comes on the heels of the brand’s recent important announcement about the addition of Yogesh Bellani, the former CEO and director of Del Monte Foods India, to its advisory board. In addition, the company has gone on an effective talent acquisition campaign as an immediate move after adding another stud to the board of advisors.

According to Kushang Kumar, co-founder and CEO, SupplyNote, said, the plan is to work towards strengthening the team for a couple of months. “This is imperative in order to achieve the brand targets moving ahead. We recently welcomed Bellani which widened the horizons for us in terms of insights and business strategy. The current talent acquisition initiative comes in line with the brand strategy, as we believe it is all about the right team in place.”

Over 50 professionals will be hired to fill 36 different positions. The business will look for talent in large cities such as Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, and tier-1 cities.

Adtech platform Parva collaborates with domestic publishers to scale up media buying solutions

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April 19, 2022

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Parva, an adtech platform, has teamed up with domestic publishers, including Times Internet, Sakal Media, and others, to develop a scaled-up media buying solution for its customers.

Parva is a technology platform that enables media buyers to reach out to their clients in a trusted, premium and brand-safe environment. In addition, Parva enables advertisers to reach their customers at scale while achieving improved business outcomes for them, using a tried-and-true adtech stack.

Parva aims to bring together India’s top publishers to expand their reach while also providing media buyers with quality inventory that is 100% viewable and brand safe. In addition, it aims to give media buyers a consistent and integrated experience across numerous platforms and touchpoints.

Raghu Seelamsetty, the founder of Parva, said, “The explosive growth of digital media has created amazing opportunities for digital media buyers and sellers alike. We see a need for a scaled-up adtech service that delivers real measurable results for our customers while leveraging a transparent business relationship with our publisher partners.”

Puneet Gupt, chief operating officer of Times Internet, said, “Parva is an exciting new partnership for TIL. Parva creates new opportunities for advertisers to reach some of the most premium audiences in an environment they trust across a curated list of premium publishers. Parva enables top-tier publishers, like us, to create additional direct sources of revenue while continuing to exceed our customers’ marketing objectives.”

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