Awfis to add 1500 seats in Noida

By

-

February 9, 2022

Awfis, a flexible workspace provider, has leased 85,000 sq ft in Noida’s River Side Tower. According to a media statement from the company, the centre will feature approximately 1500 seats and will open by the end of March 2022.

Awfis now operates 11 coworking centres in the Delhi-NCR region, with ambitions to expand to 10-15 more by the end of 2022.

Amit Ramani, CEO & founder, said, “We are delighted to partner with River Side Tower to open this new workspace in Noida. The sharp recovery and the growing demand for flex workspaces from this region inspired us to continue to create grade-A flex workspaces, so as to facilitate businesses of all size in the market. We are confident that this trend will continue to grow and even the most traditional companies will see merit in setting up hub & spoke offices to help people work in close proximity to their homes allowing them to spend lesser time in commuting.”

In the last 15 months, the company claims to have opened over 50 centres with 30,000 seats and entered three new markets.

By the end of 2022, Awfis wants to open 200 centres. It currently operates 121 centres in 14 cities, with 70,000 seats.

TresVista intends to double its workforce

By

BRL Editor

-

February 8, 2022

0

TresVista, a diversified service portfolio provider, stated that it intends to double its workforce to over 2,000 by the end of the current calendar year.

TresVista will hire freshers and experienced professionals with dynamic skill sets for strategic business and scaled expansion across three office locations in Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru, according to a statement.

Sudeep Mishra, Co-Founder and MD, TresVista, said, “Our employee base has increased more than threefold since 2017 to our current strength of over 1,100. This has helped us match our business growth across delivery centres and add new service lines.”

Mishra further said, “We have unprecedented demand for our services and see this momentum continuing for the next several years. Our increasing rate of growth is a testament to our ever-expanding and supportive client base. This visibility allows us to aggressively hire, train, and develop the best talent with a long-term outlook.”

With over 1,000 individuals expected to join TresVista this year, a corresponding investment in employee engagement, in-depth training and induction, office infrastructure, and other intangible investments in a diverse and inclusive office culture will be made as part of the expansion plans.

According to the statement, TresVista is led by over 42% women employees and has a close-knit alumni group of over 450 people from all backgrounds and professions.

TresVista’s future expansion ambitions are impressive, with a new distribution centre set to open in Europe in 2024.

The company plans to visit more than 30 prominent institutions and colleges for recruitment, including IIMs, NMIMS, Christ University, and the University of Delhi.

Xiaomi collaborates with Shell India to broaden its mainline reach

By

BRL Editor

-

February 8, 2022

0

Xiaomi and Shell India announced a partnership on Tuesday to increase Xiaomi’s mainline channel reach in India and make Xiaomi accessories more accessible to more consumers.

According to an official statement, the companies’ partnership began in Bangalore. The pilot is now live at five Shell fuel stations where customers can purchase Xiaomi accessories such as the Mi Portable Electric Air Compressor, Mi Smart Band 5, Mi Beard Trimmer 1C, Redmi Earbuds 2C, Redmi Power Bank 20000 mAh, and others, round-the-clock.

“Through our partnership with Shell, our aim is to increase the availability and accessibility of Xiaomi India’s range of accessories in the country for consumers,” said Sunil Baby, Senior Director of Offline sales, Xiaomi India.

“With this partnership, we are excited to explore the world of electronics and look forward to creating a long lasting relationship with the brand,” added Sanjay Varkey, Director, Shell Retail India.

Xiaomi India claims to have over 9,400 Mi Preferred Partners, over 4,000 large format Retail partners, and about 3,000 Mi Stores.

Xiaomi India managing director (MD) Manu Jain said last year that the company would invest Rs 100 crore over the next two years to increase its offline retail presence in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, towns and rural India.

It plans to increase the number of exclusive stores it has now, from 3,000 to 6,000+ in the next two years, resulting in direct employment for 10,000 individuals in its offline retail channel.

Livspace becomes unicorn with $180 million KKR-led funding

By

BRL Editor

-

February 8, 2022

0

Livspace announced that it had reached a billion-dollar valuation after obtaining $180 million in a late-stage funding round sponsored by KKR & Co, as it tried to expand internationally and compete against local rivals.

According to Venture Intelligence Unicorn Tracker, the home renovation platform is India’s 86th “unicorn” in an era of record fundraising for Indian start-ups, with 43 companies joining the club last year alone.

Ikea and Jungle Ventures, Venturi Partners, and Peugeot Investments were among the investors in the round.

Livspace, a Singapore-based company with extensive operations in India, has received over $450 million.

“Our business is growing exponentially in both India and Singapore, and we aim to replicate this playbook, launch new solutions and accelerate our launches across new markets with operations across APAC, MENA and Australia,” Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Anuj Srivastava said in a statement.

The deal is the latest in a succession of consumer internet transactions for private equity firm KKR, including Indian eyeglasses shop Lenskart, China’s digital dairy startup Adopt A Cow and small business-focused platforms GrowSari and KiotViet in Southeast Asia.

Google Chrome introduces a new logo

By

BRL Editor

-

February 5, 2022

0

The Google Chrome logo has been redesigned. The logo appears to have brighter colors and a larger blue circle in the center (if you look closely). In addition, unlike the old icon, the new one lacks shadows. After an eight-year gap, Google Chrome’s logo has been updated.

In 2008, the browser was released. The logo’s style and core parts have stayed unchanged since then, with updates in 2011 and 2014.

In a series of tweets, Chrome designer Elvin Hu described the changes to the browser’s logo. “Some of you might have noticed a new icon in Chrome’s Canary update today. Yes! we’re refreshing Chrome’s brand icons for the first time in 8 years. The new icons will start to appear across your devices soon,” he wrote in a tweet.

“We simplified the main brand icon by removing the shadows, refining the proportions and brightening the colours, to align with Google’s more modern brand expression,” he further added.

Another enhancement made by the corporation is the ability to customize Windows, Mac, and iOS devices based on their operating systems. Chrome’s symbol on Windows 10 and 11 will have a gradated appearance that blends with other taskbar icons. The icon on macOS will be 3D, similar to Apple’s system programs.

The beta app for iOS will have a blueprint-like symbol as a reference to Apple’s developer-focused apps, and the Stable app icon will have new proportions on the tile. At the same time, it uses brighter colors and no different gradients on ChromeOS.

All these changes, Hu said, are being introduced to “align with Google’s more modern brand expression. “You might ask, “why bother with sth. so subtle?” We tailor Chrome’s experience to each OS, with features like Native Window Occlusion on Windows, day-one M1 support on macOS, Widgets on iOS/Android, and Material You on Android. We want our brand to convey the same level of care,” he said.

ZFW collects $300,000 in a pre-seed round

By

BRL Editor

-

February 5, 2022

0

ZFW Hospitality, which operates dark kitchens and stores under the ZFW brand, announced that it had raised $300,000 in pre-seed funding from a group of investors, including Epigamia yogurt co-founders Rahul Jain and Uday Thakker; Renee Cosmetics and Beardo co-founders Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah; and others.

Arjun Vaidya, founder of Dr. Vaidya’s and India’s leader Verlinvest; Varun Sheth, founder of NOTO ice cream; and Ashika, a financial services business, are other investors. This brings the total amount raised by the company to $415,000.

Rahul Jain, the founder of Epigamia, said, “The model that enables brands to reach more customers in the fastest possible time while solving for customer experiences, high RTOs, and profitability, is well-poised to capitalize on India’s $100+ billion D2C opportunity by 2025.”

The Delhi-based startup plans to use the funds to expand its dark kitchen operations into southern India, hire more people, and develop a strong tech platform. Using its network of tech-enabled dark stores across India, the company works with D2C brands to expand and deliver orders in 30 minutes, two hours and the same day.

Madhav Kasturia, a food and beverage entrepreneur who launched the startup in 2020, said it currently serves about 20,000 orders per month and expects to reach 50,000 by the end of the quarter.

“The pandemic rapidly accelerated the emerging trend of direct orders for a huge segment of the e-commerce space. We’re building a strong dark store network for D2C brands who will ride this wave. ZFW is on track to grow 10x by the end of 2022,” he said.

Arjun Vaidya, the founder, Dr. Vaidya’s, and India lead for Verlinvest said, “ZFW solves a real problem of quick fulfillment for brands using unutilised spaces. It’s a clever business model that makes sense.”

By the end of 2022, ZFW plans to open 500+ dark stores across all major metro and mini-metro markets as part of its next phase.

Dark or cloud kitchens are expected to become a $2 billion industry in India by 2024, according to RedSeer Management Consulting.

Phab targets to earn INR 100 crore in revenue

By

BRL Editor

-

February 5, 2022

0

Phab, a homegrown healthy snacking and protein supplement brand, aims to become an INR 100-crore brand in the next three years, with a presence in at least 30000 retail outlets across India. Revenues are expected to double in 2022, according to the company.

Ankit Chona, the ex-promoter and MD of Havmor ice cream founded the brand in 2019. Chona chose to hunt for the next chance when the company was sold to a Korean conglomerate. As a result, he founded Phab, a healthy snack company.

In 2021, the company experienced a 4X increase in revenue while expanding its retail footprint to six new markets. Within 18 months of its start, the company had spread to 12 cities across India. The healthy snacking market in India is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 25% over the next five years due to rising consumer awareness.

Phab began by selling protein powders and gradually expanded to include snack bars, protein smoothies, and protein bombs. According to the brand, the products are said to be free of preservatives, sugar, and artificial sweeteners.

The company’s retail network expanded across major outlets, including Foodhall, Nature’s Basket, 24Seven, Wellness Forever, Haiko, Modern Bazaar, Ratnadeep, Noble Plus, and others when the lockdown was phased out in 2021. Along with its e-commerce platform, it sells its items on Amazon, Flipkart, 1mg, and Smytten, among others.

“We focus on the insights derived from the consumer database that enables us to orchestrate personalised campaigns through paid, owned, and earned channels, thereby providing an ideal customer experience. Tracking customer feedback enables us to enhance our product development,” Chona commented.

“We further envision scaling up our existing product portfolio and introducing new affordable superfoods. We believe that healthier and cleaner alternatives to the currently available snacking products that are high on unhealthy ingredients must be made available across India through retail and e-commerce channels, especially the tier-2 and beyond cities,” he further added.

Phab made INR 65 lakh in revenue in November 2021 and is on track to make INR 1 crore by March 2022.

Designaren announced its rebranding as Bokaap Design

By

BRL Editor

-

February 4, 2022

0

Designaren, a branding, packaging, and UX/UI design studio announced a rebranding as Bokaap Design. They’ve revamped with a new perspective.

It has since evolved into a branding and product design consulting firm that works with customers in the start-up and corporate space across various industries. Consumer products, SaaS, e-commerce, and other services are among them.

Bokaap is pronounced bow-cap, according to the company, and refers to a Cape Town neighborhood noted for its cobbled streets and colorful homes. Since 2020, Bokaap Design has been an amalgamation of Niraali Parekh’s (founder) personal journey and professional vision to evolve with market shift and digital escalation. According to Parekh, the goal is to take a more strategic approach to design and provide end-to-end product design solutions to clients.

Parekh said, “At the heart of this revamp is the intent to focus on our core strengths owing to our exposure and versatility and delivering products for bridging business goals while meeting user needs. I have taken time to reflect on my journey through Bokaap for my next phase of growth. Some things about us have changed, and others, like our commitment, integrity, and personalised service will always stay the same.”

Tech Mahindra concentrates on platforms, acquisitions in specific areas

By

BRL Editor

-

February 4, 2022

0

Tech Mahindra, the country’s fifth-largest software services firm, will focus on building platforms and developing its intellectual property to gain an advantage over its competitors. According to the senior leaders of the corporation, this will be accomplished through a combination of internal development and acquisitions.

Tech Mahindra acquired CTC and two insurtech platforms in January, bolstering its position as a provider of digital engineering services to insurance companies.

Tech Mahindra’s CEO, CP Gurnani, said the company was now taking a more systematic and analytical approach to acquisitions, emphasizing adding either engineering or domain capability.

“We will do it more to build our engineering capabilities. Or we will acquire businesses where we are now going to do a double click on some of the verticals,” Gurnani said.

“These give us stickiness and a competitive advantage that’s integral, and that’s how we see the industry evolving,” said Vivek Agarwal, president – banking, financial services, insurance and HLS, and corporate development. He explained that this was a combination of technology-enabled platforms and new business models. And the firm will continue to make significant investments in this arena.

“As we look at our strategy going forward, it is going to be a combination of creating platforms internally, as well as making selective acquisitions,” said Agarwal.

According to Emkay Global Financial Services, the CTC acquisition would strengthen TechM’s digital transformation capabilities and expand its offerings to high-end digital engineering services for some of the world’s leading insurance, reinsurance, and financial services companies.

The company’s primary goal is to acquire smaller businesses with unique capabilities to grow up. According to Agarwal, revenue size is an important metric that the organization considers.

India ranks first in digital skills readiness: Salesforce study

By

BRL Editor

-

February 4, 2022

0

According to a global study conducted by Salesforce, India ranks first in digital skills readiness. In the Salesforce Global Index, India came out on top with 66 out of 100, followed by Brazil at 53, Thailand at 48, and Mexico at 47.

The score is based on a survey of more than 23,500 workers in 19 countries. The global readiness score is 33 on average. In India, 72% of respondents said they are learning digital skills very actively to prepare for the future of work. Over 66% of respondents claimed they are well-equipped to develop digital skills in India.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson and CEO of Salesforce India, said the government’s and industry’s initiatives to raise awareness about digital and the skills required for it are paying off. “The baby boomers are way ahead in adopting digital as it is a matter of survival, and they are reinventing themselves. India has done a few things right and this is a virtuous circle of learning the right things at the right time,” she said.

According to the report, India’s baby boomers are leading the way, with 83% of respondents’ actively’ learning and training for needed skills. As professionals work remotely in a hybrid workplace, the pandemic has pushed digital skilling initiatives.

“Online platforms became available as the digital transformation took root across the world, and the need for more and more skilled people became evident,” Bhattacharya said.

In India, digital marketing has been regarded as the most valuable workplace skill. However, only 39% of respondents rated their digital marketing skills at work as ‘advanced.’

According to IDC, by 2026, the Salesforce economy in India will create 1.3 million jobs and generate $66.4 billion in new business income. Salesforce’s partner ecosystem in India is expected to grow at a rate of $6.5 for every $1 Salesforce makes locally by 2026, according to the report. Only 25% of respondents had advanced collaboration technology skills needed specifically for the workplace, even though abilities in collaboration technology, such as Slack, are recognized as the most important skills needed by organizations today globally.

“The pandemic has enabled us to tap into talent that would have been difficult to access. Collaborative tools are absolutely required, especially to tap into talent in the hinterlands of India,” Bhattacharya said.

CONNECT WITH US