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Women’s day: How a simple newspaper reading habit led Shibani Kurian down the fund management path

Money ControlMoney Control · 1y ago
Women’s day: How a simple newspaper reading habit led Shibani Kurian down the fund management path
Medial

To celebrate International Women's Day 2024, Moneycontrol Personal Finance features five women fund managers who have made their mark in the male-dominated Indian Mutual Fund industry. Shibani Sircar Kurian, Head of Equity Research at Kotak Mutual Fund, manages five equity funds and oversees assets under management of INR 7,500 crore. Kurian's career in finance began as an equity researcher at UTI Mutual Fund and she later joined Kotak Mutual Fund in 2007. She now manages equity schemes and heads a research team of 16 analysts. Kurian believes in analyzing a company's cash flows and balance sheets rather than solely focusing on top-line growth. In terms of sector preference, Kurian is positive on select private and public sector banks and asset financing NBFCs, as well as companies focused on specialty pharmaceuticals in the healthcare sector.

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Build for customers, not VCs

YcombinatorYcombinator · 3m ago
Build for customers, not VCs
Medial

It’s easy to analyze your way out of taking the first step. It’s something YC sees a lot, particularly when founders try to choose what to build based on what they think VCs will like. These founders will find a great problem that they could solve, only to convince themselves it’s not “venture scale.” Before they’ve written a line of code or even talked to a single person about it, they’re trying to predict market opportunities and exit strategies a decade down the road. That’s just not how early stage startups work. In this one, they talk about the risks of “thinking like a VC”, how to know when you’re stuck in this mindset, and how to unlearn it (spoiler: stop reading so much about who’s raising what.) They’ll also cover a short list of things that we’ve found actually matter when starting a company — it’s simpler than a lot of people think.

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.

Eruditus' journey: From being rejected by 20 investors to becoming a unicorn

Money ControlMoney Control · 1y ago
Eruditus' journey: From being rejected by 20 investors to becoming a unicorn
Medial

Watch the full podcast by clicking on source button below. Founded by Ashwin Damera and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu in 2010, executive education startup Eruditus started out with offline classes with faculty from Europe’s INSEAD and the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), teaching a 10-day classroom programme in a 5-star hotel for 10-15 people, mostly working professionals. From 2015 onwards, it started an online teaching model and raised venture capital from investors such as Bertelsmann and Sequoia Capital India. Today, Eruditus and Emeritus, its online wing, make Ivy League education accessible and affordable to those who seek it, having tied up with the likes of MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley and INSEAD. In this episode of Bits to Billions, second-time entrepreneur Ashwin Damera spoke about the state of ed tech in India, how the idea of Eruditus came about, the initial struggle and his plans to give back to the ecosystem through Damera Ventures.

Byju’s auditor resigns over lack of transparency; founder cries foul

EntrackrEntrackr · 10m ago
Byju’s auditor resigns over lack of transparency; founder cries foul
Medial

Byju’s perils have been deepening with every passing day, and in a recent development, its auditor has put in papers citing several reasons, including lack of transparency and pending legal matters, among others. BDO (MSKA & Associates), which was appointed as Byju’s auditor for a period of five years (2022 to 2027, has stepped down through a letter submitted to the Registrar of Companies (RoC). However, Byju’s co-founder Byju’s Raveendran reportedly termed BDO’s (MSKA & Associates) resignation as blackmail tactics. As per his letter to the auditor, he said that the firm has complied with every request made by the auditor. BDO made a request to conduct forensic audit on Byjus after the beleaguered firm admitted into insolvency in July. “There has been inadequate support from the management of the company in providing us the books of account, information and explanations sought by us and sufficient appropriate audit evidence to enable us to complete the audit for the Financial Year 2022-23. We had requested audit information from the management through multiple communications including emails” mentioned the auditor resignation letter. BDO said that Byju’s has lost control over certain of its subsidiaries and had no access to their books of account due to litigation with lenders. Liquidation process, shareholder’s allegations and show cause notice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) were some other key issues. Byju’s has been grappling with a clutch of issues circling corporate governance for the past two years. However, the stepping down of the auditor just after a year is another big blow. It’s worth pointing out that BDO is the second auditor to resign in the past 15 months. In June last year, Deloitte resigned as auditor from Byju’s and its affiliate company Aakash Educational Services citing delay in submission of financial statements for FY22.

PharmEasy's three co-founders step down, Siddharth Shah to lead

EntrackrEntrackr · 5m ago
PharmEasy's three co-founders step down, Siddharth Shah to lead
Medial

PharmEasy's three co-founders step down, Siddharth Shah to lead Online pharmacy company PharmEasy is undergoing a major transition as three co-founders—Dharmil Sheth, Dhaval Shah, and Hardik Dedhia—have stepped back from the Bengaluru-based firm. The fourth co-founder, Siddharth Shah, will continue to lead the company. According to a company statement, these co-founders will remain part of the group, align their shareholding for the long term, and continue as board members or observers. However, they have expressed their desire to reduce their involvement in active day-to-day executive responsibilities. In November last year, Entrackr approached the co-founders of PharmEasy for confirmation, but they firmly denied the claims. PharmEasy also said that this transition has been in the works for several quarters, adding, "We are delighted that the new team has achieved operational cash flow break-even and continues to handle all responsibilities effectively." “The three of us—Dhaval, Dharmil, and Hardik—are starting something new in the consumer space. Reputed VCs who backed us at PharmEasy are backing us again,” the co-founders said in a joint statement. PharmEasy has raised approximately $1.1 billion to date from investors, including Ranjan Pai’s MEMG, Prosus, and Temasek. In April 2024, the company secured $216 million in funding during a down round, valuing it at around $710 million (post-money). However, in September, global asset management firm Janus Henderson reduced its valuation by 91.8% to $458 million. This development coincides with PharmEasy's efforts to relaunch its initial public offering (IPO). The company initially filed draft papers for an IPO in November 2021 but later withdrew the application, citing adverse market conditions and strategic considerations. PharmEasy’s revenue from operations declined by 14.8% to Rs 5,664 crore in FY24 from Rs 6,644 crore in FY23. Following cost-cutting measures, the company reduced its losses by 51.4% to Rs 2,533.5 crore in the last fiscal year.

Zepto launches Zepto Atom and Zepto GPT

TwitterTwitter · 1m ago
Zepto launches Zepto Atom and Zepto GPT
Medial

The Zepto Atom subscription is a top-up to the already existing Zepto Brand Portal (which gives brands listed on the Zepto platform basic day-to-day data on their performance on Zepto and is available for free). The value of the Zepto Atom subscription is the next level of insights brands can derive from this tool, most of which are not available on any e-commerce platform in India today. For example: 1) PIN-code-by-PIN-code market share data and brand performance: Through Zepto Atom, brands can examine a live map of every neighbourhood and PIN code they have presence on Zepto and derive hyperlocal insights on their performance. For example, a brand can see on Zepto Atom Maps that their sales are under-indexed in the western neighbourhoods of Hyderabad and double down on pricing, marketing, or distribution efforts in those geographies to unlock growth. 2) Live metrics visibility refreshed every minute: On Zepto Atom, brands can see minute-by-minute sales, customer impressions, and conversion data and optimise advertising campaigns, pricing, and their product range according to different consumption trends for their products throughout the day and week. 3) Zepto GPT: Zepto Atom has an in-house Natural Language Processing (NLP) assistant that is trained on the Zepto Data set to give brands insights that can improve their performance. For example, brands can ask Zepto GPT "How can I grow my market share in Bengaluru for the protein bar category?" or "What are the key consumer preferences driving energy drink sales among Gen Z in Mumbai?". Zepto GPT then analyses the vast datasets within Zepto Atom to provide actionable answers, strategic recommendations, and even generates data reports on behalf of the brand. 4) Advanced Behavioural Data: Zepto Atom goes beyond basic sales and conversion data. We are now providing brands data on customer repeatability and retention, share of voice in search and home page, full-funnel visibility on customer purchase behaviour with their product etc.

Massive Earth Foundation and UNEP launch 5th edition of LowCarbon.Earth

EntrackrEntrackr · 1m ago
Massive Earth Foundation and UNEP launch 5th edition of LowCarbon.Earth
Medial

The Massive Earth Foundation, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has launched the 5th edition of its climate startup accelerator, LowCarbon.Earth, on World Environment Day at the India Habitat Centre in Delhi. The event was inaugurated by former MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) Secretary Leena Nandan and saw participation from delegates of UNESCO, UNEP, NPC, APC, and senior IAS officers. Started in 2021, LowCarbon.Earth helps early-stage climate tech startups through a venture capital (VC) framework. So far, it claims to have supported over 180 startups, helped deploy $350 million in funding, and driven global partnerships for climate innovation. The accelerator focuses on key sectors like air and plastic pollution, EV mobility, agriculture, and waste management, offering mentorship, funding access, and support from UNEP. It encourages applications from women-led, youth, and marginalized community founders. “These startups not only succeed in cutting down carbon emissions, supporting the circular economy, and building sustainable solutions but also achieve this while generating wealth. With the right support, framework, and financing, building sustainability can become a highly profitable venture,” said Vinutha Raju, Program Head at MEF. Startups can now apply for the 5th edition at Lowcarbon.earth. The initiative aims to promote a green, circular economy and achieve net-zero targets by 2030.

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