How one airport trip caused this 22-year-old college dropout to build a business with 6 million unique signins

22-year-old Ashrith Govind wasn’t just any regular child on the block.

Curious about technology, he got his first computer in the fifth grade, and seemed to be quite kicked about the dialup connection.

Soon, this fascination transcended to shuffling through tutorial videos on YouTube, and by high school, Ashrith had already built his first invention, a low-cost power bank.

Founders of WiLoop (L to R): Shirish Narsepalli and Ashrith Govind

And it didn’t stop there, the thirst to invent something new continued to thrive within him. This led him to kick start his first initiative – a hacker forum hosted on his own web server from home. Called HackerSource, the forum, over a period of three years, transformed into a community of 6,000 active users and 300 moderators.

An innovation spree

But the hacker forum couldn’t maintain much of Ashrith’s attention for long, as he went on to build an automated bar in the ninth grade, designing its complete software, with the hardware provided by a German company. This snowballed into other inventions around punching attendance during college and designing a couple of utility apps.

Having a family in the hospitality segment caused him to look into that segment closely.

After Pre-University, it was time to get serious, and Ashrith was looking to start something more real. It was during this time, in 2014, that he met his cousin’s flatmate, Shirish Narsepalli (24), who was experimenting, looking to start something in the home automation segment.

But what changed things was a trip to the airport. Travelling to the international airport in Bengaluru, both Shirish and Ashrith saw how seamless it was to connect to the WiFi there.

The simplicity and scalability of the idea struck them as interesting, and led them to the notion of bringing this solution to retail outlets. Thereafter, Ashrith dropped out of college and started building the solution.

Looping in through WiFi

The development of the idea started two and a half years ago. To get more perspective and feedback, the duo started making sale pitches to lounges, accelerating the process.

Their product, WiLoop, was finally taking shape, and Ashrith’s uncle’s pub, Beer Republik in Bengaluru, became the perfect testing ground for the product.

So, how does WiLoop work?

The food and beverage lounges, such as bars and restaurants, plug in the device to their WiFi devices, which beams out the WiFi. While the hardware of the device is outsourced, the software is proprietary. This is rented to the outlet by the firm, while charging a setup cost of Rs 4,000 for every action point involved.

Through the plugging, a layer of service is dumped over the access points of these WiFi devices. This essentially is the login page where the customer has to input his or her details for logging into the free network.

After registration, the customer is mandated to watch a 30-second advertisement, which is just one of the revenue making streams for the startup.

However, the customer is automatically logged in the second time they come near the WiFi enabled zone.

What’s in it for the outlets? 

For the outlets, what they get is a bird’s eye view of the demographic data of their customers. The dashboard stores data of new and repeat customers, and throws up age demographics and preferences, helping lounges know their customers better.

Not only does this reflect on their business insights, but it also helps these outlets target their audiences better for marketing.

At present, the startup claims to have tied up with some top food and beverage outlets in the country, including the likes of Harry Singapore and Arbor Brewing Company in Bengaluru, and Social and Smoke House Deli across cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and, very recently, Delhi.

WiLoop currently has 120 clients, with their solution live across 280 outlets in the country. The venture, incorporated in April 2015, has already completed six million user logins, with 800,000 unique users until now.

According to Ashrith, he assesses the business by the impact. He says that, on an average, every hour, 200 GB of free data is consumed by customers over their solution layer. If we take 1 GB of data as worth Rs 200 through a telecom operator, the firm saves its overall customer base Rs 40,000 on an hourly basis.

Shirish and Ashrith with the WiLoop team

Minting money

WiLoop at present works on a SaaS-based business model, where they charge businesses on a subscription basis.

Starting from Rs 999, the subscriptions go all the way to Rs 2,500 per month, based on the number of footfalls the outlet sees during that time. The higher plan also has options for targeted marketing, including more features like better filtering.

The firm bills these customers on a quarterly basis.

The second business model for the firm is the 30 second advertisement space, which is shared between WiLoop and the other businesses. This means that the lounges can use the space allotted to them when required for marketing a certain event or gig.

The company also has other advertising spots on the registration page for advertising campaigns. The firm can charge third parties more than a lakh for running advertisements. However, according to Ashrith, the pricing for third party advertisements remains dynamic in nature.

The team of 12 also claims to be earning monthly revenues upward of Rs 4 lakh every month, and has received a funding of $60,000 as a part of their angel round. They hope to be cash positive between February and March next year.

Moreover, the bigger aim for the founders is to make WiLoop an app-based loyalty programme where, based on a certain customer’s visiting patterns, he or she might get loyalty points to disburse for services at the outlet. The firm plans to roll this out by the end of the second quarter next year.

Next year, WiLoop is also looking to enter the retail store segment, and plans to partner with 3,000-5,000 outlets by the end of 2017. It is also aiming at touching 8-10 million unique logins while piloting with the government to bring public entities like bus stops under coverage.

What’s the issue?

In a recent report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the total number of mobile internet users in India was expected to grow by over 55 percent to 371 million by June this year.

Although promising, when mapped against other developing markets, which seem to be reaching saturation, India still seems to have a long way to go. Moreover, it is said that at present, a little over 36 percent of the Indian population might be under the internet network, still leaving a sizeable portion of the population devoid of access to the web.

Hence, the responsibility is indeed on the private players, and not just on the telecommunication networks, to work on technologies to increase this penetration, fostering the next wave of growth for internet users in the country.

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/12/wiloop/

On plastic and a prayer, travellers sticking to New Year’s plans despite demonetisation

The demonetization move threw a spanner in the works for year-end travelers. But armed with hope and the weapons of the cashless economy, many are going ahead with their New Year plans.

This New Year’s, the festive spirit seems to have been dampened by the demonetization move, with many cash-centric tourist destinations losing a bit of their sheen for travellers.

Those who had been looking forward to trips to their favorite destinations have either had to shelve their plans or stock up on cash and prepare themselves to forgo the small pleasures of exploring the local surroundings and getting those little keepsakes to return home with.

Ashok Kumar, a techie travelling to Goa to celebrate the New Year, says, “After a little indecision, my wife and I decided to go ahead with our trip as planned. High value notes ceasing to be legal tender has thrown things off a bit, though. We’re stocking up on cash, and I fear we will have to give our favourite dhabas en route a miss.”

There is no doubt that demonetization has discouraged and hassled several people looking to travel for the New Year; however, it appears that most are still going ahead, albeit armed with cards, mobile wallets, bundles of cash, and a whole lot of hope.

A highly planned affair

Sandeep Sahadevan says that his group, comprising four couples and six children, has made advance NEFT payments to hotels which include breakfast in their charges. “We checked with many hotels in Thekkady, Kerala, on whether they accept cards and negotiated a cost that includes a set number of mineral water bottles, lunch, and dinner too, as we are not sure about whether we can explore the local outdoors with cash in such short supply. As we are driving down with kids, we also did research on petrol pumps and food joints that accept cards. We are away for three days, and we have scheduled our pit stops at plastic-friendly locations,” he says.

Sandeep and his gang are setting aside Rs 10,000 in cash to take care of unforeseen emergencies like accidents and tire punctures. With a 1,000 km trip usually entailing about Rs 1,400 in toll, he is hopeful that toll plazas will accept cards.

Accepting the new norm

Dilip Chengappa from Kabbe Holidays, a remote homestay in Coorg, says that in the initial weeks after demonetisation, business was hit, with several cancellations. However, between December 23 and 31, the homestay is at full capacity. “People are getting used to the new cashless system. I have also installed a point of sale (PoS) machine with a 2G connection. It’s a bit slow, but serves the purpose.”

The local cash-centric economy of Virajpet, where he is located, was initially hit, but now, Dilip says that people are busy installing PoS machines. According to him, it’s only those who want to remain outside the system that continue to have cash transactions.

Bengaluru-based Rakshita Tours and Travels has had to change the way they accept payments from customers. “The first thing that most people ask now is whether we accept cards. The conversation starts from there. Only then do they ask for the type of vehicle and tell us their destination,” says Srikanth MK, owner of the travel agency. While they did see a drop in business in the immediate aftermath of high denomination notes being taken out of circulation, things are starting to pick up with the approach of the end of the year. What was primarily a cash business now has PoS machines in the office and accepts NEFT transfers and cheques as well.

Still merry times for startups

Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, says that while demand was initially hit post demonetisation, especially at more popular destinations, things have bounced back. “While there was a negative impact in the second week of November, year-end travel demand is not so elastic; people like to go out on a holiday during this period, even if for a weekend. Hence, we expect it to peak closer to the New Year,” says Ritesh.

“Demonetisation has resulted in flat airfares and hotel tariffs in this traditionally peak-travel season – so, this is great news for smart travellers,” he adds.

Hotel and homestay aggregator Stayzilla seems to be ringing in the holiday cheer. A spokesman for the company says, "We have been encouraging online payments since the beginning of this year as it is a secure and more convenient means of transferring money. For a company like ours, which provides homestays for travellers, we are aware that carrying large amounts of cash and finding ATMs could be a huge inconvenience and hamper the travel experience. Hence, the demonetisation initiative has been good for us. Our online prepaid booking for this Christmas season has gone up fivefold compared to last year.”

Meanwhile, Bengaluru-based redBus, an online bus and hotel booking platform, is reaping the rewards of its integration with mobile wallets earlier this year. A source in the company says, "Recent developments have actually benefited us. With several of our competitors relying on transactions in cash, our facilitation of digital payments has seen a boost in bookings over the past month."

The fun is still on

“I had planned a New Year’s outing with friends and saved for it. We are going ahead despite the tough times as we had planned three months in advance,” says Karthika Raju. She and her friends are off to Puducherry by bus and return by train. She is not unduly worried as Puducherry has a relatively high density of PoS terminals. She claims to have got this information on the town from the internet and jokes that she heard from friends in Chennai that even wine stores there accept cards.

N Chandana is looking forward to her trip to the Western Ghats, and says, “The year has been filled with a lot of hard work, and I’ve been looking forward to this break for a while. The cash scene is not encouraging, but my friends and I are not going to let it deter us. Some things will have to be given a pass, like the fruits and vegetables sold by villagers along the way, and ellneer (coconut water), of course. That’s a shame, but we just can’t afford to part with cash cheaply.”

The cash crunch may give the holidays a slightly gloomy look, but the party is far from over!

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/12/travellers-new-year-demonetisation/

Touch, shake, drag, swirl ads –MCanvas bids adieu to banner ads with this new wave in mobile advertising

Reports surfacing in late 2014 suggested that banner view ability on mobile was under 27 percent. Out of those, 86 percent are simply ignored, because the user’s brains tune them out. Another report suggested that over 60 percent of the clicks on mobile banners are accidental. Imagine the wasted resources behind that! Now, when you put your marketer’s cap on, you will realize that the banner does not even give you enough real estate or creative flexibility to tell your brand story. Plus, you’re putting your brand’s burgeoning message in a box that is not only criminal to your cause, but also something that consumers detest so much that they’re installing ad blockers. It was thus time to bring a paradigm shift in the mobile ad space, decided “Madmen” Lavin Punjabi, Vishal Rupani, and Nikunj Soni.

Lavin and Vishal, and Nikunj, all in their thirties, were coworkers and buddies at Directi’s Skenzo. And when Lavin left Directi to setup Affinity as an advertising network in 2006, Vishal and Nikunj didn’t hesitate to trust his vision, and got on board, and are now part of the leadership team at Affinity. The three have thus been working together for over eight years, dealing with the daily ups and downs of the adtech business, and have established a Domain Parking network, PPC Network and a Display network.

In 2014, they studied the alarming statistics about the engagement of banner ads, and put their heads together once again to address the mobile ad monetisation problem for their publisher clients. Upon reviewing the state of the industry, they learnt that the biggest source of revenue was banners, but our senses and sensibilities have been numbed to these intrusive presences.

“That was our cue. We wanted to make mobile ads the way millennials would like them. Let’s create ‘storytelling ads for millennials,’” says Lavin. That’s how we began our journey. And when they decided to fill this gap in the mobile advertising space, their investors were kind enough to infuse more capital to fund this idea, saving them a lot of time in getting it up and running under the umbrella of Affinity.

A more vibrant canvas

Coining the name MCanvas for this brand new entity, the platform empowers brands to tell more effective stories. Creating ads on the form of non-intrusive “fun-sized” pop-ups, these race onto your screen, prompt you to tap them, and hold instructions that can be carried out through mobile sensors (motion, touch, location, compass, etc.) and features (haptic, camera, microphone, calendar, etc.).

For example, for one of India's leading jewellery brands, their in-house creative studio created an augmented reality ad. Users were encouraged to take a selfie and drag and drop various nose pins on the selfie to understand how they would each look. One could even share the selfie on social media to get their friend's opinions. “Compare all of this with a static traditional banner that the brand would otherwise use and users would ignore or accidentally click on,” Lavin notes.

Now creating the ads is one thing, but where will these ads show up? For that, Mcavas partnered up with the largest names in content publishing in the country - The Times group, The Hindu, India Today, specialty websites like SanjeevKapoor, MomJunction, StyleCrazeand a few others. Mcanvas pays the publishers a revenue share of what the advertisers pay them.

“Now technically, that would make us a network. We used this business model to start and prove that the business adds value to the ecosystem. In the next six months, we aim to become an open exchange (for rich storytelling ads), facilitating transactions between advertisers and publishers with complete transparency on pricing,” says Lavin, clarifying.

Paradigm shifts all the way

Advertisers typically pay in CPM - Cost Per 1,000 impressions, or CPC - Cost Per Click. But, Lavin feels that these models are flawed. “Paying on CPM means that 73 percent of your budget is paid for banners, which are not viewable. Paying on CPC means that 60 percent of your budget is wasted on accidental clicks. To solve this problem, we created a new metric called Cost Per Engagement, where the advertiser only pays when we engage a user on mobile for over three seconds,” he explains.

They started out officially in October 2014 by building all the relevant pieces of tech – until they grappled with a crucial decision: building for mobile web or mobile apps. At that time mobile app was huge and most ad budgets were allocated to mobile app. “We knew that the best environment for our storytelling ads was on article pages. But, most article pages were on mobile web. We decided to put our bets on mobile web and built our tech around that,” he says.

In the first month, they ran dummy campaigns for brands and paid the publisher partners out of their own funds. The first few campaigns set the foundation and answered the fundamental question about its engagement power - for engage, they did! 57x higher than standard mobile banner ads, claims Lavin.

Impressions and engagaments

They now sold their concept to a few brands and agencies, shipped a 'quick and dirty’ piece of code to publish a pilot with the content partners by January 2015.

By February 2015, they got their first paid campaign. There on out, it’s been a constant improvement cycle on the product - from targeting, cross device compatibility, sensor integrations into creatives, responsive ads, UX. “Big data analytics kept feeding us answers to what consumers wanted,” he explains.

“It’s an enormous task to get a Rs 1,500-crore market to take note that one of the biggest spends has some holes in it. But we’re fortunate that we have been able to speak to decision makers at various brands and sway their opinions,” he explains.

A milestone in their journey was getting telecom major Idea on board, just a year after they started. They came up with the idea of incorporating a live slot game into the ad, allowing users to win and share data packages. The campaign delivered stunning results and also helped the brand win an award.

Up and up

They now reach out to over 60 million connected, mobile content-consuming Indians. And from selling one lakh engagements in the first quarter, they are now in their eighth quarter selling over a 10 lakh. Consumers have rated their ads 4/5 on an average, and have been spending between 10 to 30 seconds on them.

By the end of this year, they will have clocked Rs 5 crore in total sales revenue.

The market size in India is Rs 1500 crore, and is expected to grow to Rs 9,500 crore by 2020. They are benchmarking themselves against international names like Celtra, Kargo and Opera MediaWorks.

Plans to scale up include enabling the programmatic buying and selling of this inventory via their own marketplace. And on the supply side, the team intends to give the publishers access to a marketplace, which allows them to control pricing and the ads that show up on their sites.

Apart from that, they have signed a partnership with IAS media in Dubai, which will take their business to the GCC market.

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/12/mcanvas/

This former railway clerk has rescued over 120 underprivileged children who beg and steal on platforms

It doesn’t take a blood-tie to become a father. Sometimes, the primal instinct to protect, nurture, and care for others is all it takes to receive the same kind of revered adoration reserved for a paternal figure. Such was the case with Nellore’s Sarath Babu. His stint as a former railway clerk gave him his life’s purpose – to become a ‘father’ to over 120 underprivileged children. These ill-fated little ones had resorted to either begging for alms on the platform or skilfully picking the pockets of the everyday train-goers with an almost military finesse.

Sarath Babu had observed the abject misery and helplessness that made these children embrace such decadence. Some of them hadn’t even hit the double digits yet. Overcome by a need to help improve their situation, even by a little, he began providing them with food. Some hadn’t eaten in days. With the long-term in mind, he approached the elders of the Gollapallem village of the Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh. Requesting them for a spare piece of land with the intent of rehabilitating these children, he managed to procure the same on a temporary basis, thus enabling him to go ahead with his plan. His first step was to build a makeshift shelter, which he did by borrowing available materials and support to create a 30 x 15 feet hut.

The second, and much harder, step was to actually carry out the process of rehabilitating these children. Since most of them were victims of a fate created by the world of adults, they harboured a distinct distrust of the entire operation. Some ruled by old habits pick-pocketed Sarath Babu himself, while the more aggressive ones once even tied the man to his sleeping cot and ran away.

But as a man who spent many years professing the faith of the legendary Sai Baba, Sarath Babu refused to be daunted by these unfortunate incidents and never lost his faith or temper with the children. Instead, his patience and dedication won them over and soon enough, they were complying with his wishes. At the same time, the village elders were noting Sarath Babu’s breakthrough with the children and the single-lined dedication with which he was pursuing his dream – to give these children the chance at a better future. The village thus donated four and a half acres of land to develop a school and living space for the children, which came to be known as the ‘CHILD ashram’.

Today, this ashram is a haven for over 120 underprivileged children, all of whom look at Sarath Babu as their ‘Daddy’. Refusing to call this shelter an orphanage, Sarath Babu prefers to view it as a developmental home for children in need and considers himself as a mere ‘enabler’. The home works itself as a school in some ways, where all the children are encouraged to reach maximum levels of self-sufficiency.

Each child is put into a group and each group has a different function in the ashram. For instance, while one takes care of cleaning, the other takes control of bringing food from the market for another group that is in charge of cooking. At the same time, there are also groups of children who are given the task of teaching other children as well. Their education is a priority for Sarath Babu and today, several of his students have reached the far ends of the academic world as doctors, scientists, and engineers.

One of the children, who, following his father’s suicide and his mother’s helpless depression took to petty thefts for survival, went on to pursue his M.Sc. in organic chemistry under Sarath Babu’s care, which he passed with distinction. Today, he is now working as a junior scientist at the National Institute of Technology, Suratkal, Mangalore. Another, who fell into the throes of bad company, has not only completed a polytechnic course in civil engineering, but is serving as a work inspector in the Panchayat Raj Department. Another, who used to beg on the railway platforms dressed in nothing but ragged underwear, today serves as a sub-inspector in the Andhra Pradesh Police Department.

Sarath Babu always encourages his children to go out into the far reaches of the world and make something good and honourable of themselves. His dream is that someday, they will help others like he helped them, and turn their lives around for the better.

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/12/railway-clerk-rescued-underprivileged-children/

From earning Rs 4 per month to owning 22 restaurants across the world; the success story of Suresh Poojari

It was in the early 1950s that a 10-year old hailing from Padukone, a village in Udupi district, Karnataka, arrived in Mumbai (then known as Bombay), aspiring to make it big in the city of dreams. Starting off as a casual helper at a small eatery near a temple is South Mumbai for Rs 4 per month, he later moved to the Bombay Port Trust canteen, where he earned Rs 6.

Soon enough, he went on to open up his own food joint, where he sold fruit juice and the famous Pav Bhaaji. He started it off on a small cart in the Chowpatty area, and with a distant relative assisting him financially, he opened up a second joint on Lamington road, which was a hub for electronics in Mumbai. Serving sandwiches, idlis and fried rice, he affectionately named it ‘Sukh Sagar’. This venture became very successful in the city, and after a lot of struggles and success, Sukh Sagar now has 22 joints in total, with eight in Mumbai, seven in Bengaluru, one each in Mysore, Chennai and Saudi Arabia, and two each in Dubai and Qatar. There are still a lot of prospective joints about to be opened up, making Sukh Sagar a magnificently successful franchise.

This is the story of Suresh Poojari, 76, a successful man who has gone from rags to riches.

Starting out with a small wooden cart and going on to shaking hands with Amitabh Bachchan, Suresh has seen it all. Ex-Defense Minister George Fernandes, who often visited Sukh Sagar in the early days, made it a point to visit Suresh's joint even after he emerged as a figure of importance in national politics.

There was even a time when the food from his cart would find its way to being served at star hotels. In an interview with Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) three years ago, the humble Suresh said, "This was my real learning ground - understanding people as customers, their tastes and affordability. I worked hard for nearly 18 hours, attended night school up to Class IX, but could not complete my SSC. I loved reading, and compensated by becoming a voracious reader. Now, I have a personal collection of over 1,000 books, each of which I have bought and read thoroughly."

Sukh Sagar also provides education and food to underprivileged children through their Corporate Social Responsibility. Providing employment to over 1,000 people, Suresh now owns 22 eateries, a shopping mall, an ice-cream factory and a three star hotel in Bengaluru.

He was married to Santoshi in 1976, and has three sons who look after various operations in India and in Sukh Sagar's international ventures. Despite his fortune, Suresh continues to be humble and down-to-earth, giving back to his native village Padukone by assisting the children there in terms of education. He even decided to have a free community hall and takes care of his staff's entire medical bills, apart from being generous with them on paid leaves.

Having learnt the struggle himself the hard way, Suresh now offers loans to his employees who are in need and even encourages them to start up their own businesses. Being a true selfless entrepreneur, Suresh is an icon of simplicity and humbleness, certainly an inspiring personality to look up to.

Reference:https://yourstory.com/2016/12/suresh-poojari/

The Curofy storyline — highlighting entrepreneurial lessons of 2016

The name Curofy has become synonymous with the healthtech boom in India. Founded in 2014 by three engineering graduates from IIT Delhi, Pawan Gupta, Mudit Vijayvergiya and Nipun Goyal, Curofy is a medical networking app that enables communication between doctors.

Learnings from 2016:

Nipun Goyal, co-founder, Curofy, told YourStory, “2016 has been a great learning curve for us. With the industry on the verge of a digital makeover, acting fast and making our product ready for the wave has been an outcome of our learnings in 2016. Doing fast iterations has been the key to moving rapidly as a product company, and we have significantly accelerated a typically slow-moving healthcare industry’s pace to adopt digital as a mode of communication to connect with relevant stakeholders. Pharmaceutical and devices companies have started allocating good chunks of their marketing budgets to digital.”

He further added, “We also realised that both engagement and monetisation have to go hand in hand, one driving the other; else, it might be an opportunity lost. However, 2016’s biggest learning has been our understanding of the industry. We have always believed that offline behaviour needs to be replicated online for sustainability. And with the industry still taking baby steps, the onus was on us to spread the word and to understand the aspects of the healthcare industry that can go digital.

Nipun hopes to further understand their capabilities and make the necessary product iterations accordingly, and 2017 will be another learning curve for the company. The lessons of 2016 will play a great role as they embark on their 2017 journey. And with the government’s push towards taking India digital, they are game for any challenge that lies ahead.

Key milestones till 2016:

Reached a user base of 2,00,000 verified doctors

Reached a user generated case repository of more than 80,000 cases

With 300 cases being posted every day, we are the most engaged platform for doctors

Started monetising and have a pipeline of more than Rs 2.5 crore worth of projects today, including one worth a significant Rs 55 lakh. Roped in more than 30 big clients, including Abbott, GSK, Boston Scientific, Boehringer Ingelheim, Dr Reddy's, MSF ,and Cipla.

Among the top seven Indian startups selected for 3rd Google Accelerator Programme in Silicon Valley (only Indian healthcare startup).

Featured among the five best Android apps for doctors by Times of India.

Reference:https://yourstory.com/2016/12/chinmay-shah/

Hybrid technology: 3 engineering PhDs and a finance guy go Altigreen

Mahadevpura, a suburb of Bengaluru, is an extension of the traffic congested Whitefield area. While primarily known for its malls and IT parks, it is also an industrial area where commuters have to face gravel roads. It is in one of the corners of a bylane here that a hybrid technology startup called Altigreen Propulsion Labs resides. Like the name suggests, this is not a company filled with pseudo-green activists who go out on the road and ask the world to go green in the day while drinking several bottles of beer and making snide remarks on capitalism at the pub by night.

That being said, Altigreen does make the world greener, retrofitting conventional fuel-guzzling cars with hybrid technology, saving both the environment and money for the driver in the form of fuel costs.

The company has over 37 engineers calibrating their software box to make the batteries assist the drive train, which transfers power to the wheels of the car, and reduce the fuel consumed by the engine to propel the drive train. Remember that these are additional batteries installed in the boot of the car, and Altigreen’s systems do not tamper with the engine or the existing battery, factory-fitted in the bonnet, at all. At their facility, they are testing a sub-one ton truck and cars of several makes on their speed rollers, to check their ability to perform on retrofitted hybrid platforms.

Altigreen’s core team consists of people who have expertise in finance, controls engineering, aerospace, and software. It’s a deadly combination indeed.

“We are using our skills to solve a business opportunity. We are building cost-effective hybrid systems to assist fuel-based powertrains. This is the future of automotive technology in developing regions,” says Amitabh Saran, Founder of Altigreen.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), Delhi tops the list of most polluted cities. The WHO continues to add that India is in the group of countries that has the highest particulate matter (PM) levels. Its cities have the highest levels of PM10 and PM2.5 (particles with a diameter of 10 microns and 2.5 microns). At the level of more than 150 micrograms, Delhi has the highest level of airborne particulate matter PM2.5, considered most harmful. These figures are six times more than the WHO “safe” limit of 25 micrograms. Uncontrolled vehicular traffic seems to be the primary reason.

The Altigreen team

A made in India story

Post his PhD, Amitabh had stints in NASA and HP. He also started two startups in the technical and online fields, and successfully exited both. Shalendra Gupta, the CFO and co-founder, has worked with engineering companies and capital markets for the last 25 years. Dr Lasse Moklegaard has a PhD in control engineering and is an expert in hybrid systems, and Dr John Bangura has a PhD in electrical engineer and has worked in large corporates in the aerospace industry. Both of them were working in the US when Amitabh invited them to join the company in 2013.

Amitabh stumbled upon the idea of building a hybrid for India in Gurgaon, at a golf course.

“I was unhappy that the only hybrid launched in India, in 2011, was an expensive Japanese make. But I then realised that these systems could be built by us,” he says.

Amitabh discussed the idea with Lasse, who was more than happy to build a platform for the Indian market. Next, Shalendra, who was an old friend of Amitabh’s, jumped in. Lasse then convinced Bangura to be a part of the startup, post which the two of them moved full time to India.

Amitabh moved the company’s base to Bengaluru because it had the best battery technology and engineering talent. “I studied various clusters across the country before placing my bet on Bengaluru,” says Amitabh.

Market size

Amitabh and team have caught on to a global trend, one that has not caught up in countries like India, or even in Asia. The world over, hybrids are becoming popular. Most hybrid cars in India are unaffordable, priced over $40,000. These expensive cars also have a battery that needs to be charged constantly.

According to PwC, sales of electric, plug-ins and hybrids will grow 433 percent to 2.2 million units by 2021 in Europe alone. This, the consulting and advisory firm says, is driven by a number of factors, including regulatory pressure. PwC adds that alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) — including hybrids and pure electric — are gaining consumer acceptance in the European Union (EU), even in the face of decreased fuel prices.

Future Market Insights, a research and consulting firm, says that a hybrid vehicle uses two or more distinct power sources to produce motion. For example, distinct power sources can be a combination of diesel and electricity, fuel cell and diesel, or gasoline and electricity. The usage of the battery reduces emissions and improves utilisation of fuel.

The patented motor that does the trick to save fuel

The business model

Altigreen’s business model is to retrofit the software and the hybrid system into fleet vehicles. There are over three million fleet vehicles in India (sub-one ton trucks and taxis), and if you include passenger cars, there are over 10 million vehicles that are less than five years old. Altigreen charges Rs 60,000 to retrofit a vehicle. But in this, there is a government subsidy of 15 percent. “We are going after the B2B market and are creating a roadmap to also offer B2C services in two years,” says Amitabh.

The company has filed several patents. The USPTA has already approved one patent for the motor. This brings exclusivity to the company and the IP becomes valuable in case the company will be valued by automobile or technology companies,

“Going after the right market segment is very important for such a company,” says Naganand Doraswamy, Founder of IdeaSpring Capital.

According to ReportsNReports, a total of 549,000 electric vehicles were sold across the world last year. However, the total number of hybrids that sold last year was around 2.2 million vehicles.

Altigreen works with five corporates and has several fleet cars piloting on their hybrid platform. The company has plans to set up a factory to assemble their hybrid systems onto cars when their business scales up. The capacity of the plant is to be 20,000 units per month. Altigreen’s founding team has raised a total of Rs 20 crore from Jupiter Capital and Chetan Maini, the founder of Reva.

It has been a hard four years for the team as Altigreen is constantly in R&D. It is only now that they are going commercial.

More importantly, it is not one of those CNG systems built by a small-time mechanic, which connects to the car engine and destroys the driving experience. These are serious engineers building a system that works for car owners to bring down the usage of fuel. The average fleet car travels 150 km a day, which means that the driver spends close to Rs 600 per day and around Rs 20,000 per month. The hybrid saves at least Rs 5,000 on this total monthly cost. Altigreen guarantees their product for three years.

Other Indian companies in the space spending on R&D and yet to launch a product are Ather Energy, Tork and Ulraviolette. However, Altigreen sets itself apart because the plugin hybrid works best, not requiring the customer to buy a new car or bike. Just fix the product with the system and save on fuel. Keep in mind that the system does not touch the engine or the engine management system of the car; it is a separate system that will assist the vehicle.

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/12/altigreen/

Thanks to this Bill Gates-backed startup, domestic maids are now getting paid in India’s cash crunch economy

Jatin Agarwal has been a businessman for the last 20 years. But one moment was all it took to put everything in perspective.

A year ago, while his house was getting built, Jatin would swing by every day to check on the work. He started interacting with the labourers during this period, who were also working with him as a part of his real estate business.

Founders of SERV'D (L to R): Jatin Agarwal, Tarun Sharma and Suhas Kelkar

This interaction led him to an invite by one of his workers for his son’s birthday celebrations, at the labour camp.

And on landing there, Jatin was in for a surprise.

He saw a lavish party being thrown at the camp, with confetti and the works. Jatin says,

What struck me then was the fact that there was no difference between me and the others. Except for one - the provision of basic facilities.

And this was the very foundation of thought for him to create an impact startup that empowered the poor to come increasingly under the financial gamut.

Hence, in November of 2016, after the government’s demonetisation announcement, Jatin, along with two other co-founders, Tarun Sharma and Suhas Kelkar, kick-started their social impact startup, SERV’D.

Building it for the nation

Targeting the market of domestic help, the core idea of the startup is to bring them within the ambit of financial inclusion, while empowering them with basic financial products.

Moreover, it allows workers such as maids/housekeepers, cooks, nannies, drivers and others to have legal work history, in turn enabling them to have access to financial loans.

Jatin believes that domestic help, as a market, is not below the poverty line. The first basic problem is that their relationships are not strong with their employer. Second is the problem of insurance, as none of the insurance companies wants to lend to this particular segment.

Moreover, neither is the segment privy to savings nor is it offered credit products, since they don’t have a steady income. And this could be all because of a lack of institutionalisation in the space.

Addressing the problem, SERV’D has created a home service management app for service consumers and service providers (domestic help), trying to further institutionalise the space.

How does it work?

The service asks the domestic help to register their bank account, Aadhaar number and phone number. Further, the Aadhaar number is linked to their bank account and is used to verify the identity of the service provider. Next, the terms of service are defined by the consumer who is employing the provider (domestic help). This could be pointers like the number of workdays, job description and so on.

At present, the service is trying to engage with the domestic help through educational townhalls or their respective employers.

Once all this is done, the service provider gets a call for verification. The service also reduces the communication gap between the consumer and the domestic help.

For example, if your domestic help doesn’t turn up for two days, the service calls him or her to check on his or her status. Moreover, technologies like GPS history will allow the service to understand disputes better.

Consumers can also give a rating and review to these helpers based on their punctuality, reliability and quality of work.

But the main benefit of the service is to help these service providers create a legal work history.

The real deal

The firm at the backend creates automatic salary slips and documentation like terms of service for these domestic helpers.

Jatin says that once the firm has six months of data available for these service providers, it can start deploying loans to them, which under normal circumstances are given to them by loan sharks at unreasonable interest rates of 10-25 percent.

Further, it is in talks to partner with various NBFCs and microfinance institutions for providing this class with access to easy loans at fair prices. According to the founders, the interest levied wouldn’t be more than one to two percent per month.

Moreover, in order to avoid any lapses, the firm may automatically deduct a part of the service provider’s salary, which will be used to pay off the credit loaned to them. SERV’Dalso claims to carry out a lot of education about credit rating and managing credit with this particular class of workers.

The firm is also planning to provide insurance to these individuals nine months from now and is looking at partnerships on that front. The firm also claims that the insurance will be issued at a cost of Rs 350 per month.

The business model for SERV’D is simple. The company takes a percentage cut from the margins made by NBFCs on every financial product sold to SERV’D customers.

Goals and numbers

At present, the 10-member core team is working on grass root activations in and around Pune. Once the firm has rolled out the first 10,000 contracts, it will allow its existing set of customers to further act as evangelists for the service.

The firm is also looking to reach a count of 100,000 customers in eight cities by the end of 2017. According to Jatin, the initial plan was to go live on January 1st next year; however, with the announcement of demonetisation, the team decided to expedite the process.

Within two weeks of the launch, the firm had 100-odd contracts (or terms of service) closed and had already received 400-odd downloads of the app. SERV’D has also introduced SMSes in regional languages and guided assistance in the form of a missed call service.

However, the long-term vision of the firm is to reach two percent of the country’s population, bringing more than one crore Indians under formalisation. By April 2017, the firm plans to be present in eight cities, including geographies like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai.

Good stead

Earlier this week, SERV’D received funding worth $100,000 from the Digital Financial Service Lab (DFS Lab), a fintech incubator fully backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

According to Jatin, SERV’D made the cut out of 700 applicants who had registered for the prize. He says that the money will be utilised to develop tech for new roles as well as drive activation for the existing product.

While there are other means to still pay your domestic help, Jatin cites the behavioural change that platforms like SERV’D can bring to the process. 

“There is certainly a huge liquidity crunch in the economy. Cheque and net banking are easy to do through conventional means. But, whichever method you choose, it must be preceded by a five-minute one-on-one interaction with your domestic help to explain to them how banking works and ways to access their money by simply using an ATM. Thus, driving the fear of banking from them and encouraging this behavioural change.”

Moreover, domestic workers are part of the legitimate cash economy, and the demonetisation decision has certainly caught them unawares. Because of them using cash as the only means to transact, they have been spending part of their productive time exchanging their money. But considering their limited incomes and frugal saving habits, it is safe to assume that they have made ends meet through a great deal of hardship.

Therefore, platforms like SERV’D could be monumental in bringing about the change in behaviour necessary to dilute the hardships of demonetisation in a cash crunched economy.

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/12/servd/

What are the most common life mistakes young people make?

I lied, stole from my parents, cheated, scammed, humiliated others and laughed, threw rocks at people with the intent to kill. All by the time I was 10 years old.

Later it got much worse. Later I actually thought I was smart.

This is the great thing about being young: you’re so arrogant and stupid and unreasonably confident that you have 100% confidence that everything you do will fit right into the picture.

A million piece jigsaw puzzle where you never pick up the wrong piece as you try to put it in the right position.

But this part is good: you have no money, so it’s really hard to blow it. And if you destroy a relationship, then good for you – you were too young anyway.

This I can say from my experience. I proposed to a girl when I was 19. Then when I was 21, 22, 23, and 24. All to different women.

And they all said yes. That’s how stupid we all were then. It was like the convention of stupid. StupaCon.

Fortunately we were all so stupid and broke that nothing ever happened.

Here’s the truth: you can’t fail as a kid. I sometimes get messages like, “I’m 23 and I failed and now I don’t know what to do.”

A) No, you didn’t fail.

B) Yes, you do know what to do.

Just do the next thing. That’s all you have to do. Regret of the past or anxiety of the future are the thieves of the present.

And don’t do “failure pornography.” You don’t get to succeed now because you failed. You’re not Luke Skywalker.

You get to succeed because if you do enough bad things in a row with the intention of doing a good thing, then eventually you get lucky and a good thing happens.

You don’t meet the love of your life until you’re lonely and looking. You don’t invent “hand washing” until you realize that people are dying in hospitals when doctors don’t wash their hands.

You don’t get to be a brilliant musician until you’ve spent many hours being a bad one and trying to improve.

Every good creation in history was the child of really ugly parents.

So don’t do failure porn. And don’t say you don’t know what to do.

Do the next thing. And the next thing might simply be “improve the old thing.”

Oh, and don’t make any of the mistakes in the attached infographic.

I wish I had this graphic when I was 18. I wish my kids would listen to this infographic.

Kids, if you ever listen to your father: print out this infographic, make it poster-size, hang it on your wall, and look at it every day. And say, “I love you, Daddy.”

I can say that because I know you won’t listen. How come?

Because you’re going to do many bad, stupid things and then, just by luck, good things will start to happen.

I hope so. I hope they will. If they don’t, then just do the next thing with hope and verve and that same zest you had before the arrogance was beaten out of you.

Oh. Don’t die though. Let me die first. I deserve at least that.

Tell me a mistake or two you made before age 25. Help my kids and others learn from you.Infographic design by Pamela Sisson

Reference : https://yourstory.com/2016/12/most-common-life-mistakes/

How this 16-yr-old aims to make the computer an affordable asset for every Indian household

The market for refurbished products is growing, and the category is seeing a great deal of interest from many stratups

Jayant Parab, a 16-year-old 10th standard student, creates computers from e-waste. He aims to provide computers to every household as well as solve the rising e-waste issue in the country, killing two birds with one stone. Three years ago, at the age of 13, he had built his first assembled computer.

“Owing to high prices, owning a computer is still a distant dream for many. But if we address the price point, we could be able to change the situation and realise the dream of making it a household necessity. And it is possible. We can create computers from e-waste and produce the cheapest of machines. Building computers from e-waste will be a twofer,” says Jayant.

Jayant’s computer costs a mere Rs 5,500. It’s portable and has all the specifications that a normal computer has, and also comes with a one year service warranty.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has also committed to providing Jayant with any sort of help he needs in his endeavour.

An early and inspiring start

“In 5th standard, Jayant repaired a laptop than an office had disposed of. For me, it was an exhibition of extraordinary quality. He had then expressed the desire to address the e-waste problem of the country and bring the computer within reach for the common man,” says father Ravindra Parab, who is a scrap dealer.

He adds that he was an auto driver at the time of his son’s vow. Jayant inspired him to get into the business of scrap dealing.

Jayant says that lakhs of tonnes of e-waste are produced in India ever year, only a small percentage of which is refurbished. Scrap dealers tend to treat the entire e-waste dump as scrap, which is not the case. A large number of items are in functioning condition or can be made functional after some repair. Just consider the possibility if the country refurbished this waste to its full capacity.

He adds that he sources e-waste from offices, schools, residences and individuals as they replace old machines with new ones. He is working with his father and brother, and they have collectively built around 70 computers from e-waste in the past two years. The assembled computers are sold in Jayant’s father’s shop. Besides, they also use references from people and friends to sell the refurbished computers.

Jayant also wants to create job opportunities for less educated, unemployed people. If these people were to undergo training and learn the assembling of a computer, they could earn a living through this job, while simultaneously solving the pressing problem of e-waste.

E-waste, a growing issue

India is the fifth largest producer of e-waste, discarding roughly 18.5 lakh tonnes of electronic waste each year, says an Assocham study. The rising levels of e-waste generation have been a matter of concern in recent years.

During June this year, Assocham released a report stating that India’s ‘production’ of e-waste is likely to increase nearly threefold, from the existing 18 lakh metric tons (MT) to 52 lakh MT per annum, by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 30 percent.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, in which producers are for the first time covered under extended producers’ responsibility (EPR).

An Assocham-cKinetics study pointed out that the global volume of e-waste generated is expected to reach 130 MT in 2018 from current levels of 93.5 MT, growing at a CAGR of 17.6 percent.

Amidst this alarming growth in e-waste, many companies have come up aiming to offer solutions in this area.

RenewIT, Renew and many more are offering renewable solutions and have a common goal — to make the computer an affordable asset and address the rising e-waste challenge. Besides these, there are startups like JustLikeNew, Gozunk and Reboot that are providing solutions in damaged electronics products.

Last year, JustLikeNew closed Pre- Series A funding of almost Rs 1 crore.

According to experts, the estimated latent PC market demand is projected to be over 50 million units, which is an opportunity of about Rs 50,000 to 60,000 crore, in addition to the existing market. The startups in this category are vying to capture the desktop market as they also eye the growing mobile market and try to offer refurbished solutions in that segment.

Reference:https://yourstory.com/2016/12/jayant-parab/