Being associated with YES Bank, Chandraprakash Joshi used to travel a lot to small towns and villages for attending SHG (Self Help Group) meetings. 

On one such official trip to a village in Odisha, Joshi learned that villagers are using microfinance loans for paying school fees. Not only this, he got to know that villagers were ordering branded products online. On knowing this, he was amazed and got the startup idea to fill the gap. Unavailability of the quality education in small towns and people’s willingness to pay for education makes a huge business opportunity as more than two-thirds of the 300 million students in India live in remote areas. 

Sensing the need to address the gap and capitalize on the market opportunity, Joshi and 2 other co-founders founded ixamBee in December 2016. The edtech company provides training for more than 50 competitive exams like Banking, Insurance, Teaching, Railways, SSC and others prep tests in the form of online learning solution. 

“To create a firm plan, I met co-founder Arunima, who started Stratagem-a coaching institute for competitive exams, in 2010 after quitting her job with SIDBI. When I discussed this startup plan with her, she said that it’s a divine call as she was already working for expanding the success of Stratagem. In my search for a tech co-founder, I met Sandeep through my friends in Gurgaon and in the first meeting; I got impressed with his experience in the startup space. He was part of the core tech team of MakeMyTrip and has worked with founding team of MakeMyTrip for the initial six years. Sandeep also co-founded Babyhugz.com, an e-commerce platform for baby products,” informed Chandraprakash Joshi CEO, Co-Founder, ixamBee. 

The three musketeers bring complementary skills to the startup- Arunima is a passionate teacher, Sandeep a Tech-wiz and Joshi come from business development and senior leadership work experience. “We met in September 2016 and incorporated ixamBee in December 2016, while the website was launched in April 2017,” said Joshi.

What they Offer…

They started with Testprep because they found a large gap in the existing offering in this space. “We have the advantage of domain knowledge.  We provide complete learning solutions for competitive exams,” said Joshi.  At present they have learning courses for more than 10 exams and mock tests for more than 50 exams. Further, they provide crisp and quality content matching to the specific requirement of the exam. 

The co-founder boasts to have 870K registered students who have attempted more than 350 million 5practice questions at ixamBee. Every month 0.5 million users visit their website and the numbers are increasing rapidly.

Business Model

The edtech startup has a freemium business model in which 99% of our users learn for free. “Our content is created by subject matter experts and we use technology to create exam-specific content and personalize that for the user requirement. We provide mock tests for more than 55 competitive exams and all these tests match the difficulty level of exams. We provide all mock tests for free. Our video-based learning course is our paid product. We have learning courses for competitive exams like Bank PO, RBI, SEBI, NABARD, EPFO, RRB, IBPS SO and others,” said Joshi.

According to the founder, in the last year, ixamBee website traffic has grown more than 10 times and revenue has grown more than 4 times.

Funds raised…

More than Rs.80 lakh have been invested by the co-founders. However, they have raised angle money of Rs.19 Cr that helped them in accelerating their growth while developing a robust platform and finding a product-market fit. 

“We are now raising institutional funding for scaling up faster. We plan to raise $1.0 million to meet our growth target,” informed Joshi.

Who they compete with…

According to Joshi, when they started most of the existing players such as OnlineTyari, Testbook, Oliveboard, GradeUp, MockBank, and others were offering testing solutions by providing practice mock tests. “We are the only platform in the testprep market that does not sell any mock test but gets subscribers for complete learning solutions,” said Joshi.

Road ahead…

In the last 2.5 years, they have worked for developing the platform and processes for making online learning effective. “Now we are planning to grow rapidly by launching more courses while making the technology platform superiors to create an online learning experience. In the upcoming years, we plan to reach 5 million students with an annual revenue of over Rs.10 Cr. The organic traffic and word to mouth publicity of the existing users are helping us to grow faster,” informed Joshi.

Sector overview…

India has the advantage of a demographic dividend and there are more than 300 million students in India. As per the various estimates, the education market in India is $100-150 billion. The confidence in online learning is increasing due to the better quality of content and measurement of the learning outcome. At present ixamBee is working in test prep in which there are 70 million-plus users preparing for various competitive exams. In March 2018, 28 million candidates applied for about 90k jobs in Indian Railways.  As per KPMG Google report published in 2017, the online education market is going to be 1.96 Bn by 2021. However considering the revenue of existing players like BYJU’S, Toppr, upGrad, Unacademy, Vedantu, etc the market seems to be growing much larger. The test prep market for govt jobs is about $3Bn with over 50 million aspirants. 

In India, talking about infertility is still a taboo. Although women in Tier 1 cities have come a long way and gone are the days when barrenness was attributed only to them. However, in tier 2 and 3 cities it is still considered taboo. 

Moreover, women’s health has long been devoid of technological innovation, but when it comes to fertility options, this started to change with the advent of Assisted Reproductive Techniques (ART) which covers a wide spectrum of treatments OI, AI, IVF, ICSI, PGT.

Due to many factors like high cost, less awareness and lack of regulatory practices, the ART industry in India is still at a nascent stage in India.  The consumers, who plan to access this service, often get confused with no platform to guide them towards their parenthood journey.  

Hence, ElaWoman, a startup in the field of reproduction took the burden to bridge this gap by building a transparent data-driven community where users can independent and trusted advice can connect with specialized experienced Doctors specific to their fertility needs. At present, there are more than five thousand fertility doctors and clinics listed across more than thirty-two cities in India.

ElaWoman was launched by NST (Netaji Subhas Institute of Management) Delhi alumni Ritu Singh. Her past work with Deloitte and cognizant helped her to hone her business planning and customer relationship skills. With abundant experience of working in the internet and healthcare industry, she was able to found and establish the startup ElaWoman.

During an interaction, Ritu Singh, CEO, Co-Founder, ElaWoman discussed about why Indian women are turning to science and technology for fertility. Below is the excerpt from the interview:

Women of reproductive age are turning to science and technology to get their treatments done for all infertility related problems. The reasons behind the same are many. IVF techniques are beneficial for women in and around their reproductive age. A notable number of female population is moving to IVF treatments owing to the IVF success rates. Fertility levels keep on changing with the age, majorly among women. There is an increased demand for artificial insemination and assisted reproductive technology procedures among women due to several factors such as medical conditions, late marriages and lifestyle changes. 

The medical conditions preventing a successful conception or pregnancy are an imbalanced menstrual cycle, ovulation disorders, vaginal infections, polycystic ovarian syndrome and endometriosis. It has been observed that women aging between 25-30 years of age are engaged in getting stable in their lives and working hard to fulfill their career dreams and goals. 

In the process of prioritizing their career and finances, these women have to rush for having kids and completing their families in later life. The trend of having delayed marriage leads to a delayed conception of babies. It is a well-accepted fact once a woman crosses her biological age; her body fails to make a required number of quality eggs. When women are young, their ovaries are full of egg follicles. After a certain age when women plan to start their families by natural conception, they might fail to conceive owing to the above-mentioned reasons. Women or couples experiencing infertility can take guidance and support from healthcare facilitators like Elawoman to welcome that adorable newborn complete their families. Combined research made on the infertility science and technology is carried by the Ela experts to increase the pregnancy success rates. 

The skill-gaming platform, Junglee Games has announced the completion of the acquisition of Algorin TechLabs, a Bengaluru based gaming company. The strategic acquisition strengthens Junglee Games’ position in the skill gaming space and is poised to provide a strong presence for the company in Bangalore. 

Speaking on the development, Ankush Gera, Founder and CEO of Junglee Games said, “I have known Vijay and Abhishek for the past few months and recognize Algorin TechLabs as an extremely talented and high-performance team which. They have taken significant strides in building skill based games like PlayFantasy and JustKhel. With the two businesses coming together, we at Junglee Games are excited to look forward to the next phase of skill games and the untapped $150bn market. More importantly, we’re quite excited to have a values-aligned team joining hands with us.”

Founded in 2017 by Vijay Verma and Abhishek Bharti, Algorin TechLabs was instrumental to introduce PlayFantasy and JustKhel – skill-based daily fantasy sports platforms for serious gamers with close to real-match scoring. 

Post the acquisition, the team of 20 people from Algorin TechLabs along with founders Abhishek and Vijay have joined Junglee Games to build products focused on fantasy sports and help expand presence in the Indian market.  

Launch of Howzat, fantasy sports platform

In the past five years, the skill gaming industry has grown to an industry worth $500 million annually. A large part of that revenue is generated by fantasy sports. The acquisition witnessed the development and launch of Howzat – India’s newest fantasy sports platform, co-developed by the Junglee Games and Algorin TechLabs teams. Howzat allows gamers to create their own fantasy (Cricket/Football/ Kabaddi) teams from among the players playing real matches on the ground. Once a virtual team is created, gamers can compete with other players’ teams and win cash and prizes. 

“We are thrilled to be joining the team at Junglee Games which has charted a high growth path in the skill-based game space and has successfully created a global community of 25+ million gamers. Culturally, both the companies are aligned and now with Howzat, we hope to combine our knowledge and tech expertise in order to produce high skill games for the ever-increasing demand in the country,” said Abhishek Bharti, Co-Founder of Algorin TechLabs.

A bit about Junglee Games

Founded in 2012 by Ankush Gera, Junglee Games operates from San Francisco and Delhi. They have over 250 employees between San Francisco, Hong Kong, Austria, India, Vancouver, Argentina, and Poland. The startup has paved the way for a new class of games where gaming enthusiasts can win prizes and cash. 

With over 25 million users across the globe, the company is on a mission to build games that will entertain, and be remembered by millions of people for years. After establishing a strong footing and a dominant position in India, Junglee Games plans to expand to the US and the UK. To support this endeavor, the company plans to build and launch new global IP while foraying into eSports and mSports. Overall, it is helping build a community of players who use their cognitive skills and allow users to compete with real players from across the country.

Billy a 26-year-old entrepreneur from New Jersey who got his start in e-commerce at 18, and 8 years later has grown multiple 7 to 8 figure brands. Along with his e-commerce ventures, he recently launched a media agency, ‘Howell Media Group’ where he helps companies in different variety of industries to scale their business using the same digital marketing strategies that he utilized to grow his own brands.

That’s what made Billy a renowned name in the social media world. Becoming one of the top influencers and carrying years of experience Billy left no stone unturned for maximum revenue generation and marketing his company through social media means. Thus passing over the same to the other companies.

His tactics his work experience and knowledge have helped a number of companies in different ways to achieve their targets. Which made Billy the best mentor of the year leading a number of companies in different ways to conquer their goals.

Billy is a  public figure, who has reached millions with his products, and mentorship. Based out of New York he is always networking and on the go. His most renowned brand, ‘Vulcan Bags’ launched in early 2017 has since then grown over 250,000 followers on Instagram and 8 figures in revenue over the past 2+ years.

He still owns and runs that company to this day, and recently sold a male skincare brand he launched in 2017 for an undisclosed amount of money.

After talking to a few of his peers, it is clear that what separates Billy from other entrepreneurs and public figures in his industry is his ability to see trends before they start.

When asked about his digital game Billy states “Whether you like it or not, social media is the driving force of almost every trend out there in today’s world. We have so much potential at our fingertips, but way too many people have no idea how to properly take advantage of it. My goal is to help everyone I come in contact with learning how.”

He is widely known as one of the best in the business at creating organic viral growth and pairing it with paid digital media campaigns for both his clients and his own companies.

Warehousing and logistics are crucial factors for companies to gain a competitive edge. With the advent of modern manufacturing, which combines smart and effective products with advanced and innovative technologies, the very definition of warehousing and logistics has evolved to a much larger and integral concept.

With the projected growth in the Indian economy and altering business perspectives, the logistics and manufacturing sectors have moved beyond the rudimentary transportation of trade goods in the supply chain. The solutions include an about-face in the utilization of warehousing to drive business profits.

The dynamic shift between manufacturing and warehousing

Warehousing has evolved in its role in the active supply chain. The volume of the entire warehouse sector has been pegged at a value of US $7.8 billion with the exponential growth of 10% annually. With manufacturing as the key pillar in the supply chain, it is also responsible for driving the warehousing industry. 

According to a report released by Knight Frank, in FY19 alone there has been a spike of 77% in warehouse leasing. Businesses are now taking yet another strategic step to drive profits through leasing warehouses to store the goods, thereby contributing to a major shift in the manufacturing leg of the supply chain.

Customized Warehousing

Warehousing has been utilized by manufacturing companies to manage their inventory and storage needs since its inception successfully. In the current supply chain and retail scenario, warehouses utilization isn’t limited to being ‘just a traditional storage room.’ Warehouses today have evolved and double up as kitting and assembly hubs, contributing significantly in today’s competitive retail scenario. 

Furthermore, with e-commerce players expanding their operations to meet the growing demands of the consumer, the need for warehouses has increased. There has been a sharp increase in warehouse occupancy in both, tier I and II markets, especially in states like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Chennai.

Customized warehouses have allowed companies to speed up their delivery and assembly processes while investing lower capital on the core manufacturing process. With the introduction of warehouse automation, operations like picking, warehouse robots, barcode labels, and other technology-infused developments have allowed companies to cut manufacturing time and reduce expenses. It has also provided opportunities to reach out to compete at a global level by expanding to countries like the US, China, and others.

Modern warehousing software has developed effective techniques, reduced the need for high-cost labor, and operational expenses while fulfilling customer needs. Some parts of manufacturing processes which were earlier performed in the company-specific plants like assembling parts are now possible through evolved warehousing utilization. 

Modern Supply Chain

The evolution of the traditional supply chain ecosystem in India has been possible owing to customized warehousing developments. According to Make in India’s database, the country’s rank has gone up from 54 in 2014 to 44 in 2018 in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI), relating to the overall logistics performance. With a current valuation of US $160, the sector is expected to be valued at US $215bn in the next two years. Modern manufacturing doesn’t terminate when the products reach the warehouse. Storing, production, packing and shipping across different distribution channels with on-time delivery complete the supply chain.

Modern logistics and supply chain has complemented the manufacturing process by handling the operations which would have made the manufacturing process complicated and complex. By adding value to process right from the ‘Point of origin’ (managing the flow of raw materials) to ‘Point of consumption’ (managing the packaging, transportation, and delivery), logistics has defined what modern manufacturing is today. 

Final Words:

The evolution in traditional warehousing powered by technology is not only impacting logistics but the supply chain as a whole. The retail market in India has revolutionized in time. With more companies entering the retail market, businesses have to invest more in processes that are cost-effective to produce results better than their competitors. Customized warehousing and logistics have allowed companies to invigorate their manufacturing process and make it more robust. 

Furthermore, with the exponential increase in international trade, the modern supply chain processes are positively disrupting the global economy and reach. By complementing the end-to-end manufacturing process, it has impacted businesses at the very core with a promising vision for the future. 

(The author is CEO, Robinsons Global Logistics Solutions)

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow. Never lose the passion and the love for what you do. One such Interior and product designer based out in Hyderabad is a 27-year old champ named Mr. Raja Abhishek Reddy. He has done his Bachelors and Masters in Interior and Product Design from Italy.

He was an engineering student. But he never was willing to get into a 9 to 5 job in a software company. Hence he decided to follow his passion which he had for Design.

After finishing his studies in Italy he started working with good Italian companies in Milan and Florence where he was able to strengthen his knowledge and gain experience through freelancing.

Later by the end of 2018 he decided to get back to India and decided to work as a full-time freelance designer and he is fortunate enough to work on various projects from different parts of the world and now one of his on-going projects is from Hyderabad.

His early age passion for Art and design has bought him in such a prestigious place wherein he works according to his interests and is free to try something innovative and creative each day.

It is said that “Technology is a good servant but a bad master.” It takes a vision to understand this saying. The Internet can be a boon as well as a curse, depends on the usage of the same. YouTube is a website where people can share videos and generate subscribers for the same. They can not only share, but they can also upload, view, comment, rate, and many more other features enhance this website. Having said that, being a digital marketer would be like a cherry on the cake for an aspiring YouTuber.

Gaurav Dixit, a young aspiring YouTuber and a digital marketer, also famous as the owner of the YouTube channel VIRAL DUNIA.  It feels incredible when the people at a very young age, accomplish the sense of goals and aims they need to pursue.

Being born and brought up in a very small place called Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, Gaurav has been an inspiration to a lot of youth in the country. The thing to be most acknowledged in the case of Gaurav is that the scarcity of resources did not lead him to become a quitter but instead,

Gaurav became more determined and leaned how to make the most of the situation he is in.

Being a digital marketer, his access to the knowledge about the internet and the marketing schemes and strategies on the internet have become diverse and refined. His own channel on YouTube is gaining subscribers at a very high rate. It’s become facile for Gaurav to maintain his YouTube channel because of his achievements in the field of digital marketing.

Having said that, it is extremely important to mention that Gaurav understands and interprets the tastes and demands of his audience, which is needless to say, is quite heterogeneous.

Gaurav’s aim is to become one of those YouTubers’ who would be known for his creativity and his talented outlook. His videos are unique and attractive at the same time. The name of his channel in itself describes his perception and his passion. His viewers must crave for more new videos each time they visit his channel. There are a million things happening across the globe today but not everything is being posted or viewed or uploaded by anybody at all. Gaurav wants the people to witness such incidents and give their insight regarding the same.

Gaurav Dixit’s passionate love towards his profession is admirable and impressive. His efforts are to be applauded for sure. To become a digital marketer it takes education and resources, which were very limited as per his needs. He staggered initially but made it a rule that he would not give up no matter what. He created a YouTube channel because he wanted recognition in the world. This is also a source of income for him but most importantly, it is one platform, that will give his name and fame. Being on this journey of success, he hasn’t forgotten to be humble and sincere towards his profession.

It is inevitable for a YouTuber to be constantly updated about his channel and the number of views on his videos or the number of subscribers to his channel. In addition to this, Gaurav would have to have a conversation with his audience and learn about their demands. He has been striving hard day and night to promote his channel and to give the best contact he can to his followers. His social media is also a platform where he promotes his channel. Gaurav has diligently given his time and sweat for this profession and he believes that sooner or later, it will bear fruits.

Content creation has become a popular thing today’s time. It has seen the birth of many influencers on social media who have been working with various fashion brands and making a name for themselves in the digital medium. Karishma Yadav Bhalla, popularly known as ‘Pinktrunkk’ on Instagram, is a content creator in the fashion and beauty industry. Karishma has always been a fashion enthusiast and she studies fashion styling and media from London College Of Fashion. Delhi girl who pursued her masters in fashion management from NIFT. The fashion influencer began her career as a fashion stylist at Cosmopolitan, India. Besides this, she even worked as a head stylist at Exclusively.com. 

While she was studying fashion styling in London, she was asked to create a blog and document things that inspired her, be it fashion, beauty or lifestyle. Being a part of her curriculum, Karishma enjoyed it so much that she decided to work hard towards her goal and become a fashion expert which she is today. Later, she started her personal blog ‘Pinktrunk’ where she initially documented her daily outfits and later started exploring the beauty and lifestyle industry. She has also been a personal stylist to South Indian superstar Amala Paul. 

If you wonder, how she has got a tremendous presence on social media, we tell you that she has been a former social media head at NIMAI – a multi-designer jewellery brand in Delhi. “I believe that it is the audience who makes you popular on social media. I always make sure to share genuine content with my viewers and connect with them at regular intervals. Social media has seen rapid growth in recent times, and it is the best way to engage with a larger audience”, said Karishma. 

Till now, she has associated with many renowned brands like Nike, Google, Reebok, Thailand Tourism, Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, Foreo, Dyson, Hyundai among others.  A strong fanbase of 134K followers on Instagram has made Karishma Yadav Bhalla one established name on social media. 

One of the most popular app TikTok has made many people overnight stars. The best thing about it is that it takes no time to spread on the internet. Many people have become popular on social media with their TikTok videos. Yousaf Razzaq is that name who surprisingly made everyone his fans through the lip-syncing app. Popularly known as ‘YousifIsHere’, he has got a great fan following on TikTok and is growing faster on Instagram as well. He is from Dubai and has been a model and an actor.

Yousaf became a talk of the town when his latest video featuring Sanjay Dutt with the song ‘Aakhir Tumhe Aana Hai’ playing in the background broke the internet. He has been a former advertiser and has great expertise in social media. “I started making TikTok videos just for the sake of passing my time. I enjoyed doing it so much that I started to post my videos regularly and I got a great response from everyone. Gradually I was going through the flow, but I never realized that it would make me a talking point on the internet. It feels really great when good things happen unexpectedly”, said the renowned TikTok star.

He has been working as a model and an actor in Dubai. Being an actor he is very disciplined about fitness and believes in simplicity. Besides this, Yousaf is a big car lover and loves to travel across the globe. Moreover, he also revealed that his dream car is Bentley and he is really working hard to make it a reality. With making everyone go crazy with his videos, we wonder what unique content Yousaf plans to bring on the internet. Well, it is really interesting as well as surprising to see how the internet makes ordinary people overnight stars.

Shoaib Patwary, a certified ethical hacker, has finally got the break of his life as he will soon be directing a short film on cybersecurity in Bollywood.

He has been working on a number of cases which he has solved over the years through ethical hacking. He believes that with the ever-advancing world and technology taking over the traditional ways of living, cybersecurity is of utmost importance to ensure the safety of the country as well as its citizens.

His film will be an eyeopener for those who do not take cybersecurity very seriously and give some important insights on how to approach such cases.

“I am extremely glad to have this opportunity to make a short film on my favourite subject. I have been travelling around the world due to my profession and have solved some very clustered cases over the years. Whatever I have learned through this practice, I will try to convey through my film so that people would be able to understand the importance of cybersecurity,” said Patwary.

“In India, people do not take cybersecurity very seriously as it doesn’t sound like murder or any other grevious crime. But trust me, cybercrimes have caused even bitter deaths around the world and there are plenty of countries who have already started taking this very seriously,” he added.

He has not revealed much about the project but has said that this short film will change people’s perception towards cyber crimes.

“I have seen many cases in my life where people lost their everything just because someone hacked into their accounts andThere were cases in which people got stalked on the internet and were conspired to death. I have put all these ingredients in my short film and I hope this hits the right spots in the hearts of the viewers and they start taking this a little more seriously,” he hoped.

The film is expected to hit floors by January 2020 and may feature some big names of the Hindi film industry. Looking at the confidence of Patwari, it seems like a game changer in the Indian film industry as so far we do not have many movies based on cyber crime.

If the short film does well, the director wants to work with some of the leading actors of the industry. “If my fils goes well enough, I would surely love to work with Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Shah Rukh Khan if ever given a chance. That will be a dream come true moment for me,” he concluded.