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Amazon nears complete acquisition of Axio in all cash deal

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Amazon nears complete acquisition of Axio in all cash deal
Medial

E-commerce major Amazon appears to be inches away from its second acquisition in the Indian fintech space, after Emvantage. The company is in advanced discussion to acquire online lending platform Axio (formerly Capital Float), two sources told Entrackr. This would be the second acquisition by Amazon this year. It had acquired MX Player’s assets in May to scale its Mini TV offerings in India. “Amazon is buying Axio in a $150-175 million all cash deal,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. “The terms of the deal have been finalized, and it’s (Amazon) currently conducting due-diligence.” Amazon is already an investor in Axio which participated in its Rs 144 crore worth extended Series C round in 2018. Currently, the firm owns around 8% of the Bengaluru-based lending platform. Sources emphasized that Ribbit Capital-backed Axio would power buy now pay later (BNPL) for Amazon Pay. “The acquisition makes absolute sense for both companies as they are over-dependent on each other. Over 80% of Axio’s volume comes from Amazon, while the e-commerce major’s BNPL is largely powered by Axio,” said another source who also wished not to be named. Besides Amazon, Decathlon and Xiaomi are Axio’s other partners. As per its website, the company offered credit to 9 million customers till date. Axio acquired Elevation-backed Walnut for about $30 million in 2018. Sources indicate that Amazon invested in Axio at a valuation of around $350 million in 2018. This essentially means that the deal isn’t very lucrative for its investors and other stakeholders. Queries sent to Amazon and Axio didn’t elicit any immediate response. We will update the story in case they do. According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Axio reported 2X growth in its revenue to Rs 220 crore in FY23 as compared to Rs 110 crore in FY22. However, the firm’s losses grew marginally to Rs 137 crore in the same period (FY23). It’s yet to disclose FY24 numbers.

Flipkart targets to shift domicile from Singapore to India

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Flipkart targets to shift domicile from Singapore to India
Medial

E-commerce major Flipkart is planning to shift its domicile or holding company from Singapore to India, according to a media report. With this, it will join several late stage companies which are also planning to move back to India over the next few months. The domicile shift can be linked to Flipkart’s plan to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the near future, ET reports. Walmart-controlled Flipkart will be the second firm from the group which is planning to shift the domicile. Earlier, PhonePe became the first to do a reverse flip. It’s worth highlighting that PhonePe was fully separated from Flipkart Group in December 2022. PhonePe’s investors had to pay Rs 8,000 crore in taxes to the government for the move and Flipkart is also expected to pay heavy taxes in the process. The quantum of the tax to move domicile depends on the company’s valuation and third-party audits. Flipkart was last valued at $33 billion after a $600 million funding from existing backers in December last year. Also, it’s the most valued Indian-origin private company till now. In July 2021, Flipkart received $3.6 billion led by SoftBank at a valuation of $37.6 billion. The company was revalued at $33 billion after separation from PhonePe. Entrackr has reached out to Flipkart for comments. Walmart owns nearly 85% stake in Flipkart followed by Tencent and CPP Investment which own 7.1% and 2.3% shares, respectively. The company’s co-founder Binny Bansal officially exited the company in January this year. Most recently, fintech unicorn Groww announced moving back its base to India from the US. The firm already completed the process in March this year. Besides the above-mentioned three companies, KreditBee, Pine Labs, Razorpay, Meesho, Eruditus and Zepto have been working on reverse flips.

Return Prime aims to make return management seamless for brands

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Return Prime aims to make return management seamless for brands
Medial

Bengaluru-based Return Prime provides a customer return platform which includes a business dashboard for managing returns. The company aims to make it easier for brands, specially smaller ones, to use its services through a plug-and-play model. Beyond basic returns, brands can use the Return Prime platform for automating return logistics, refunds, replacements, and more. We spoke to founder and CEO Shashwat Swaroop to learn more about Return Prime, what distinguishes it from the competition and the roadmap ahead. Here are the edited excerpts: How did you come up with this idea? I have always been extremely passionate about creating something and solving problems, building my brand which helped other people solve their challenges was always something that I intended to do. Once an eCommerce brand came to me with their return management nightmare. They were doing everything manually and it was too cumbersome. It was not only time-consuming but was impacting their customer experience too. Customers were used to a certain speed, standards, and experience, and to ensure their shoppers wouldn’t leave them, they needed a solution to cater to this. But building a whole software program was just out of reach – both financially and in terms of time! I then began researching, and my study confirmed what I suspected – there was a massive gap in the market for managing returns. Existing solutions were few and far between, and mostly focused on the US. We saw a chance to empower brands worldwide to make return management extremely seamless, one that ensures their GMV losses are minimized while customer experience is maximized, that’s what led to the birth of Return Prime. Please help understand how you generate revenues. The pricing models are quite fair and simple. This was one of the most important things for us to simplify. When we started building Return Prime, we were simplifying the complicated experience of returns for both brands and their customers so keeping everything around Return Prime simple was important. The pricing model is just based on the scale of business which is how many returns they do in a given month. One can start with the Free Forever plan if they are a small brand and pay nothing forever. They only have to choose a paid plan when they start to grow. As you grow, you can choose one of our Grow plans which starts at $9.99 a month. What are the key challenges in the industry that have not been addressed yet? And how do you plan to address this? We are working to solve the way businesses see returns. The correct solution is not to focus on reducing the returns but on figuring out how you can turn your returns into a revenue-making opportunity. Returns are simply inevitable so the merit is not in reducing it by another few per cent but in converting the majority of it into additional revenue. We are constantly working on it and on average, our brands see an ROI of 183%+ with Return Prime, which is on the cost they pay for Return Prime every month. This is going up constantly with our focused effort to turn returns into revenue. How has your startup performed since its inception? Please share statistics. We have been growing from day 1, completely bootstrapped. We grew 150% YoY in the last 3 years and this is not just India, across the globe. We serve merchants in 100+ countries today and our market share across these countries continues to increase every year. In the last 3 years, we have processed over 12 million returns for brands and customers globally. What are your short-term and long-term goals in terms of product and business expansion and diversification? From a product expansion point of view, we are focused on increasing the ROI for our brands as we believe in keeping strong fundamentals. While we do this, we will continue to increase our market share across other regions as well along with India. As consumer behaviour evolves, we are also trying to help brands offer Omnichannel returns experiences to their customers making it super easy and delightful for them. This not only helps the customer but also increases the repeat purchase and LTV for brands as this customer will trust them even more. On the other hand, we are also trying to help bigger brands solve more complex operational problems and policies which now with Return Prime is just a matter of click. We will continue to simplify complexities as we grow along with brands. In terms of geographical expansion, we will go deeper into some of the regions and increase our market share while we continue to turn returns into revenue for the rest of the world.

Cygnet aims to drive business process digital transformation through specialized offerings

EntrackrEntrackr · 1y ago
Cygnet aims to drive business process digital transformation through specialized offerings
Medial

Cygnet is an Ahmedabad-based SaaS startup that aims to help organizations achieve business process digital transformation with its specialized offerings in compliance, digital and quality engineering, enterprise modernization, data, AI and analytics, hyper-automation, test automation, digital signature, and a myriad of other offerings. We spoke to the company founder, Niraj Hutheesing, to learn more about the startup, how it works, the growth of cloud and automation in the context of new-age AI, the future roadmap, and much more. How has the cloud and automation industry evolved with the arrival of new-age AI? How do you plan to make the transformation? The cloud and automation industry has evolved significantly with the advent of AI, enhancing capabilities in data processing, predictive analytics, and process automation. Our AI solutions excel in cloud monitoring and developing self-healing scripts, reducing Service Level Agreement (SLA) breaches through consolidated alerts. Additionally, AI-driven FinOps optimizes cloud infrastructure costs, while business process automation delivers real-time insights to operations teams. As pioneers in business prediction, we use AI to nullify data gaps, empowering businesses to enhance data-driven decision-making with accurate forecasts and strategic advantages. Do you also offer cyber security solutions? If yes, please explain them. If no, please help understand your point of view on adding a security layer to yourservices given the increasing risks. Yes, Cygnet offers comprehensive cyber security solutions under our ‘Security as a Service’ portfolio. Our approach is to implement ‘security by design’, ensuring all controls are implemented as a regular practice rather than add-on activities. Cygnet, certified on ISMS and SOC 2 Type 2, ensures overall compliance with industry standards for products and services provided. We also cater to our client’s needs in performing specific security practices, including Network Security assessment, Application Security assessment, Cloud assessment, documentation, Compliance reviews, etc., to help them achieve the required security posture. Cygnet also ensures the ‘Single Source of Truth’ concept using a data warehouse is implemented product-wide to ensure data reliability and integrity are maintained. Our approach includes compliance automation, ensuring adherence to industry standards and regulations. We implement infrastructure automation to maintain robust security protocols across all systems. Our applications support regulatory-required User access management modules, which ensure appropriate authentication, authorization, roles, rights, and logging are performed and stored in a secured format for future reviews. There are a bunch of companies operating in your space, with some well-established ones too. How do you stand out from the competition? With a couple of decades of robust experience in providing solutions to multiple organizations globally, Cygnet understands the need for agile deliveries and challenges occurring in a dynamic environment. The ability to adapt to changes and implement a solution or product tailored specifically for the client helps us to stand out from our competitors. Be it on critical integrations with legacy systems on the tax tech or fintech side or modernizing decade-old applications without incurring major downtimes. Cygnet is a CMMi v2 L3, SoC 2 Type 2, and ISMS-certified organization that helps us provide our clients with prompt and secure solutions. We also have a 24/7 support model for functional, process, and technical aspects to ensure client support is not hampered. With a process-driven approach, we have specific delivery teams that ensure client requirements are met in a cost-effective and efficient manner. Which are your key markets? Please explain what makes India different from other developing and developed markets? Cygnet’s key markets include India, the Middle East, America, and Europe. In India, we have a significant presence, managing one-fifth of the country’s e-invoicing traffic through our portals. India’s market is distinct due to its decentralized and distributed systems, emphasizing the importance of data integrity and integrated systems. Unlike other regions, India’s regulatory environment and digital infrastructure necessitate robust, scalable solutions tailored to diverse requirements, making it a unique and dynamic market for our product solutions. What is your roadmap for increasing your local and international footprint? Cygnet’s roadmap for increasing its local and international footprint involves leveraging its unique COSMOS Digital Transformation Framework, based on co-ideate, co-innovate, co-create, and co-evolve pillars, ensuring a collaborative and innovative environment. This strategy fosters strong client relationships and delivers tailored solutions. By partnering strategically and offering holistic service offerings for BFSI, Manufacturing, and Healthcare industries, Cygnet aims to achieve a robust global footprint. As a core thought leader in tax, compliance, and data understanding, Cygnet excels in transforming financial processes across local and global markets. Please help understand your growth trajectory in terms of users or clients or any other metric you use. And also share your future projections and measures to achieve them. Our growth trajectory has been impressive, scaling our client base and securing multi-million dollar deals across 1000+ Enterprise accounts globally. We’ve successfully retained 90%+ clients and expanded our valued clients during global economic downturns, strengthening our position as a trusted partner in driving sustained growth. Amongst all the proprietary platforms, we have more than half a lac user base globally. Wherein one of the platforms, Cygnet Tax, processes 19% of India’s E-invoicing volume. Over the past year, our product vertical grew by 45%, with a projected 50% growth this financial year. Amongst solutions provided to our clients for their Go-To-Market, we have achieved 97% client satisfaction & 65% referral-based business. Looking ahead, we plan to achieve vertical growth through cross-selling services and horizontal expansion with global e-invoicing solutions to address compliance challenges for MNCs.

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