10 Best Startups of the Year 2019 Asia

Paving the Way for Technological Growth: Startups / PG-08 Asia Monthly January 2019 Business Features Leadership Technology CEOs News CIOs SR 2019 10 Best Startups of the Year ASIA Keith Tan, Chief Product Officer Neeraj Sundarajoo, CEO In The Spotlight Zeemart is Transforming the F&B Industry with Digital Disruption of the Supply Chain www.thesiliconreview.com

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EDITORIAL TEAM Sreshtha Banerjee: Vishnu Kulkarni: Michelle Williams: Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Co-Managing Editor CORRESPONDENTS Michelle Williams Avinash Nayak Harshajit Sarmah Javid Ali ART DIRECTOR Smriti Kumari Editor’s Note VISUALISERS Mira Sengupta G. Sai Pradeep Parnasree Gangopadhyay S. Saipriyadarshini SALES & MARKETING Preeti Kumari Kundan Kunwar Adhees Bhanja Deo Sunny P Choudhary Sita Mounica It’s quite fun to do the impossible! Sathish Kumar Prabir Biswas Arun Kumar Satrasala Kavya Spandana I couple of months simply isn’t the case for the majority of startup businesses. Even multi-billion dollar companies which are ruling the business world today stories flew under the radar for several years before reaching their goal. dealization of a startup may sound easy, but development of the same is just next to impossible. Building a multi-million dollar company within a RELATIONSHIP MANAGER Nabanita Dutta crm@thesiliconreview.com ADVERTISING BUSINESS HEAD John Allen, Project Head john@thesiliconreview.com Arjun Pandey, Project Coordinator arjun@thesiliconreview.com MANAGEMENT Pavan Kumar Kalla: Circulation Manager pavan@thesiliconreview.com PUBLISHER Manish Pandey So,how to build a successful startup? You have to be passionate, committed and willing to work for the long haul. Many startups don’t fail. Rather, the entrepreneurs just tend to give up too soon. Set realistic goals for growth and development and take your startup journey one step at a time. Understanding the market and openness to innovation might be the difference between a failed startup and a very successful one. QUERIES sales@thesiliconreview.com editor@thesiliconreview.com GET IN TOUCH The Silicon Review Corporate Office: Silicon Review LLC, #3240 East State Street Ext Hamilton, NJ 08619 Sales: 510.400.4523 Entrepreneurs should always lookout for new innovations and ideas in order to stand as a winner. They should constantly reinvent themselves and think of better ways to run a business and improvise on the products and services offered by them. Done talking, now let us take a look at what makes a successful startup. Here we introduce you to The Silicon Review ‘10 Best Startups of the Year in Asia 2019.’ These successful entrepreneurs are confident and optimistic, they are disciplined self-starters, and more over, they are open to any new ideas which cross their path. Development Office: Siliconreview Technology India Pvt. Ltd #32, 2nd floor, CMH Road, Indiranagar, 2nd Stage, Bangalore - 560038 PH: +91-7760351041 MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS To Subscribe with The Silicon Review and get 20% off on the Cover price Visit: www.thesiliconreview.com or Email us: subscription@thesiliconreview.com Success recognized to the fullest! © Copyright Silicon Review LLC. All rights reserved reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Silicon Review LLC. Does not accept responsibility for returning unsolicited manuscript and photographs. Best Printed & Published by Manish Pandey on behalf of Siliconreview Technologies India Pvt Ltd at Printo Document Services Pvt Ltd. #1, Double Road, Indiranagar Second Stage, Bangalore-560038, India The Silicon Review’s circulation is audited and certified by BPA International (Audit Pending) VISHNU VARDHAN KULKARNI, Managing Editor, The Silicon Review editor@thesiliconreview.com (CIN:-U72200KA2014PTC075778) (RNI REG. NO. KARENG/2017/75691)

Providing Easier Access to Good Health Is the Sole Mission of: CallHealth Hari Thalapalli, CEO PG-10 Tailor Made Services to Suit Every Need: Wilson Financial Services Anand Singh & Nilesh Choudhary, Founders PG-14 In The Spotlight: Zeemart is Transforming the F&B Industry with Digital Disruption of the Supply Chain Neeraj Sundarajoo, CEO PG-18 CONTENTS JANUARY 2019 | Volume - 3 | Issue - 1 From Raw Data to Insights, Holistics Has You Covered Vincent Woon, CEO PG-26 Making Your Life and Business Better Than Expected: 2b Limitless Mick Todd, Founder PG-30 Connecting Anyone and Anything to Decentralised Services: TenX Toby Hoenisch, Co-founder & CEO PG-34 The Rulers in the Field of Digital Marketing: Ittisa Sneh, Founder & CEO PG-38 An Interview with Dicky Ying, Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited Co-founder and CEO: ‘We are the Digital Coupon Expert in the Region’ Dicky Ying, Co-founder & CEO PG-42 PG-46 Crafting Intelligent Micro Conversations for Banks: ACTIVE.Ai Ravi Shankar, Co-founder & CEO Building a Future that is Accessible to All: Oriente Hubert Shio-Hsien Tai, CEO & Co-founder PG-50

Feature Articles COVER STORY / PG - 18 Pg No.: 22 Zeemart is Transforming the F&B Industry with Digital Disruption of the Supply Chain 8 Paving the Way for Technological Growth: Startups 12 Redefining What Is Possible: Media.net How Nykaa Emerged as the Largest and the Most Loved Beauty Destination in India: A Success Story 24 28 Popularizing E-Commerce in India: Flipkart Widening Valley of Death for Startups: Ways to Close the Gap 32 From practicing and preaching Yoga to promoting “Made in India”, Baba Ramdev transformed the FMCG Industry in India 36 40 Firms That Hit the Unicorn List In 2018 Lessons to Learn From Billion-Dollar Startups to Make It into the Elite List 44 48 Arrived with Scepticism, Left with Success: Dunzo Keith Tan Chief Product Officer Neeraj Sundarajoo CEO 52 Silicon Valley-born Start-up Culture Moves International

Paving the Way for Technological Growth: Startups A the term “startups”. As the name probably is self-explanatory, a startup is nothing but a company that has recently been launched, or started. Whenever we hear of a large corporation, we often imagine a sprawling headquarters with thousands of employees working in different shifts. ny person familiar with technological advances would surely have heard of room and grew to mammoth sizes. With the recent boom in the IT industry, there are a number of venture capitalists willing to support technology startups with large sums of money, and other valuable resources like an office, servers, website domain and so on. For those people that are unaware, Venture Capitalists (VC) are professionals who assess an idea brought forth by a budding entrepreneur and determine if it is investment worthy. If it is, then the VC will pour money and even extend a line of credit to the founders to help them grow their company. Later on, as the company grows and makes it big, the investment also grows and when the company goes public, the investors can cash in their investment, with gains which are often many times the size of their invested amount. Angel Investments When we look at large corporations today, it is to be understood that the founding members of the company had access to money in order to launch and run their show. While some entrepreneurs risk it all by mortgaging their own house or physical assets, some are willing to part with a portion of their company’s ownership by bringing onboard an angel investor. Such investors funnel money and provide different forms of expertise, in return for a percentage of ownership of the company. Several angel investors have raked in billions of dollars when the What most people fail to fathom is the that any large corporation from any sector, whether it is telecommunications, software, real estate, hospitality or even if it is from the entertainment and transportation sector, was once started by a handful of individuals with a common vision in a small 8 JANUARY 2019

Paving the Way for Technological Growth: Startups companies they had invested in went public and valued their investments in billions. period of time, gaining all the knowledge and honing their skill sets. any development. Furthermore, as a person whose idea led to the founding of a company, a wrong partnership will result in founder losing the majority stake in his company and thereby, lose the power to make all the important decisions. One of the most famous names in angel investing includes Peter Thiel, who provided the initial seed funding of $2,00,000 for Facebook and whose investment is now valued at an amazing $2 billion (an increase of over 10,000 times). A startup may still be placed at an extremely high valuation even before its initial public offering (IPO). However, it yields little money to its investors when compared to being a public corporation. It goes without saying that a person who wants to launch a company needs to know everything about the industry which he is about to enter. Knowledge of the industry is paramount and without it, the founders would have no idea where they stand and what kind of competition to expect and how far to go. Maintaining the quality of the products and services is important, but it is also immensely helpful if one would know how his competitors are placed in the market. This is especially true in the case of technological products and services. Most successful businessmen agree that every entrepreneur must be mindful of serious competition right around the corner and needs to work constantly to stay ahead of any competition. As the business grows, this threat keeps on growing and needs constant attention. Venture capitalism is an important part of entire tech startup ecosphere, providing a nurturing breeding ground for companies to be born and to grow. The Silicon Valley in California in the United States of America is one such breeding ground that has set the pace for innovations all around the globe. In addition to being good for the overall economy, startups are directly responsible for improving the lives of people from all walks of life around the globe with their constant breakthroughs in technology. The Vision behind a Startup Any promising startup is founded with an idea. The idea is what drives the founder to take the bold step towards managing his own company. The idea, in this case, is nothing but a lack of something or a requirement in the market that others have not yet been able to identify or have not been able to exploit. After identifying the opportunity, the person behind the idea sets out to build upon it and develop it into a flourishing business. Some of the most successful startups were founded by people who have worked in the relevant industries for a considerable SR A common mistake that most emerging businessmen make is to make partnerships with the wrong people. Such working relationships can result in regular clashes amongst the core team and negatively affect 9 JANUARY 2019

Providing Easier Access to Good Health Is the Sole Mission of CallHealth C current knowledge information and medical technologies for integrated patient-centric new age healthcare. The traditional models of healthcare delivery struggle with challenges of a fragmented healthcare system. CallHealth is a new-age healthcare delivery that strings together the various constituents of the healthcare eco-system, bringing all healthcare services to the doorstep of the customer, anytime, anywhere. allHealth aims to deliver dramatic improvements in services leveraging and brings them to the customer as per his/her convenience. Consulting a doctor, having diagnostic tests done, buying medicines, getting medical services like Nursing, Physiotherapy, and more is now just a call or click away. Even for visits to hospitals or imaging/diagnostic centers, CallHealth provides facilitation services to make the experience easier and smoother. health insights, and enabling personalized care programs. Simply stated, this platform not only assesses, customizes, and recommends the best- fit healthcare plans but also personalizes the progress across prevention, wellness, care, and cure. It synergizes and aids collaboration between all role players and institutions of the healthcare eco-system, making them work in unison bringing better synergies for efficient and timely healthcare access. Moreover, it optimizes existing healthcare infrastructure capacities for improved healthcare inclusion and better productivity for each healthcare provider who is partnered with CallHealth. It seamlessly blends the virtual and real world which essentially means that while customers/ patients consult a doctor virtually on phone or video call, CallHealth’s qualified Mobile Health Officers will be physically present with them to conduct tests and samples as prescribed. It also enhances the clinical quality of healthcare delivery through its ability to capture, mine, and analyze healthcare information. The intelligence derived from each episodic transaction is leveraged for further enhancing the clinical decision support systems for smarter diagnosis, predictive New-age healthcare delivery not only bridges the gaps of time and motion but captures health information at every touch point of healthcare delivery, deriving healthcare intelligence for predictive, personalized, and evidence-based clinical care. Services Offerings Uniquely Engineered Platform CallHealth comprehensively integrates all healthcare services Doctor Consultation: It provides quick access to doctors/ specialist with in the comfort of 10 JANUARY 2019

Meet the Leader Hari Thalapalli, Chief Executive Officer: Thalapalli is a multi-disciplinary leader in the technology and healthcare services space. Prior to joining CallHealth in 2015, Hari worked with leading technology services companies, in critical business and support roles. In his previous assignment at Tech Mahindra, he ran a business focused on enterprise products (in the areas of CRM, SCM, PLM, BPM etc.) and consulting, apart from being the Chief Marketing Officer for the USD 4 Billion global corporation. He was instrumental in Tech Mahindra’s brand positioning during its critical organic and inorganic growth phase. He started his career in the Human Capital function and was involved in building robust HR practices, to help raise the performance bar. He led the team that made a 50,000 strong organization to be recognized as the Best Employer, by Mercer and Hewitt. He has won many accolades, including the CPO of the Year Award from Bloomberg. Hari Thalapalli, CEO Physiotherapy: A lingering back pain, a frozen shoulder, knee pain, neck pain or any joint or muscle pain that might be caused by Osteo Arthritis or any other underlying medical condition can now get treated within the comfort of patients’ home by certified, specialized, and experienced physiotherapists. Difficulty in moving the joints due to inflammation or arthritis causes stiff joints. Some common etiological factors include old age, arthritis, diabetes, and family history of stiff joints. If untreated, the condition can its customers’ homes. It provides video conferencing facility with the doctor. Doctors will call them only at the appointed time. CallHealth provides special treatment for Dermatology, ENT, Dentistry, Internal Medicine etc. result in permanent loss of mobility and capability to do the daily activities. Timely action can help such patients with pain-free mobility. Nursing: Compassionate and attentive care within the comfort of patients’ home is now possible. They can reach out to CallHealth for Basic Nursing services. One can avail services like Enema application with the best quality standards in the comfort of his/ her home. It also provides IV Cannula Insertion, Nebulization, Sitz Bath, child vaccination etc. Diagnostics- Radiology and Imaging: While a mobile health officer will visit home for sample collection, patients require visiting CallHealth’s nearest imaging centers for imaging tests. It provides tests like Endoscopy, Impedance Audiometry, Speech Audiometry, Cytology etc. SR 11 JANUARY 2019

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Redefining What Is Possible Media.net A to get more and more challenging every year. One company that has managed to make it big in this crowded sector is Media.net. Founded in 2010, the company was started by two brothers, Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia, self-taught serial entrepreneurs based out of Mumbai. Both brothers were born and raised in a middle-class family and led an average life that is common for all school going children. However, both brothers harbored an innate enterprising spirit that was evident even in their teens, when they founded their first company at age 16 and 18. It was a time when Bhavin and Divyank had to juggle studies and their company and managed it with finesse. dvertising on the internet is one of the most competitive industries and continues network which can reach over 100 million personal computers. already worth several millions, became billionaires after this deal. The entrepreneurial journey for the brothers was fraught with difficulties, as they had to teach themselves to code, find clients raise capital and keep their business afloat in the face of stiff competition against established names in the business. They had to work for 15 hours a day every day for almost 20 years to launch and maintain their companies, the largest of which was Media.net. Furthermore, they also manage a diverse portfolio of investments and divide their time between the United States, Dubai, and India. Internet marketing is one of the largest and most effective ways of marketing, with a simultaneous global outreach to over a billion users. Ad networks or advertising networks are companies that connect internet advertisers to relevant websites. What it means that internet users would only see relevant advertisements on various websites they surf. Although it sounds simple in theory, it is extremely difficult to connect advertisers to several million users. Begun with less than twenty people, the company grew to have over 200 employees in just a matter 6 years, generating revenues of nearly $250 million. Yahoo offered to buy the company for $180 million; the acquisition, however, could not go through due to unforeseen circumstances and differentiating opinions. This was a blessing in disguise, as the founders would be approached a few years later by a consortium of Chinese companies with an offer of $900 million. This deal would become one of the largest acquisitions in the field of advertising. Bhavin and Divyank, The story of the rise of Media. net is that of hard work, steadfast dedication, laser focus, and a pioneering entrepreneurial spirit. SR Both of them discovered their passion for coding at a very young age and even managed to teach it to themselves. This allowed them to start a number of internet companies, some of which they sold to large corporations for hundreds of millions of dollars. Media.net was started to exploit the competitive, yet lucrative market of online advertising. The company is a contextual ad 13 JANUARY 2019

Tailor Made Services to Suit Every Need Wilson Financial Services T people park their savings to be used when needed. Financial services include wealth management, creating a pension fund, investments, wealth build, purchase of stocks, mutual funds, hedge funds and so on. While venturing into such markets can be extremely daunting for the common man, it is a usual day at the office for providers of financial services. Monitoring markets in a country and abroad and managing their clients’ money is a massive responsibility since people decide to pour in their entire savings into a financial instrument and corporations may decide to do so with a large portion of their profits. he financial services industry is more than just banks where envisioned a way to open India up to foreign investments, creating jobs and helping the economy in the process. Investment Manager entity domiciled in Mauritius. As with any startup, the initial year was a struggle, as WFS had to go up against established players in the industry and needed to cultivate a reputation for itself. After taking on their first client, the team at WFS had to interact with multiple intermediaries across two countries to get the investment through, with strict constraints on time. This was the company’s first taste of success and which ended up being exhausting as well as exhilarating for WFS. Bespoke Financial Services The term financial services encompass a diverse range of services that money managers can provide for their clients. However, each country has its own set of regulations to govern the markets and India is no different. What works in most countries may not be all that effective in India. In order to circumvent this obstacle, the founders of Wilson Financial Services had to come up with their own set of tailor-made services to suit a diverse clientele, keeping in mind all the different needs and laws in India. The last couple of decades have drawn significant global attraction to India, both as a preferred destination for technological expansions and investments in various sectors. With a population of over 1.3 billion people, the south Asian country presents exciting opportunities for multinational corporations to invest in India. “Our mission is to alleviate the transactional journey of India focused capital by providing bespoke financial solutions delivered promptly by a team of specialists using technology & trustworthy compliance practices.” Trust as a Key Component Any business in any sector needs to have an established image of it as being reliable and trustworthy, and this is probably the most important factor in the world of finance where customers entrust large sums of money into the hands of fund managers. Clients acquainted with the financial sector would know what to expect, however, for those who are not aware, blindly trusting someone with their money does not come easily. Wilson Financial Services (WFS) is a Mauritius based financial services provider that among other things, specializes in easing the passage for foreign investors to make their financial journey into India. The Indian markets are tightly regulated and several protectionist policies of the government make it very difficult for foreign companies to navigate the tricky and meandering corridors of the financial services sector in India. The founders of WFS Capitalizing on this situation, Wilson Financial Services bagged their first client for their very own Global Fund and Another major factor in India is perception. Most Indians view the financial markets as something similar to making a bet 14 JANUARY 2019

and prefer to invest their savings in tangible assets such as gold and real estate. In such an environment, companies like Wilson Financial Services have to go the extra mile or two to cultivate a sense of trust amongst clients, a process which is rendered tougher given their recent entry into the market. The company’s team of experienced professionals knows the entire Indian market in and out and strives to provide specialized services to fulfill a wide range of requirements for an equally diverse set of clients. drop in value. The drop began when WFS was just a month into business and had to spend a lot of time and effort in wooing foreign investors who had lost interest in the Indian markets. To add to the woes, the turmoil was followed by tighter market regulations by lawmakers. While the laws themselves are passed keeping in mind the interests of the general public, they at times make it more difficult for services providers to do business. These incidents taught the founders the most important virtue, i.e. patience. and bespoke services for its diverse clientele, with customer requirements as the singular point of focus. It is the bedrock policy of WFS to never ever compromise on its principles. While most such fund management companies try to beat the market, Wilson Financial Services sees itself as a trendsetter, creating its own unique benchmarks of customer satisfaction and constantly striving to surpass them. Theirs is an industry that needs to strike a fine balance between smaller short-term gains and larger long-term profits, and WFS manages to achieve the balance while being acutely aware of the looming market forces. The last decade has been rather tumultuous for the Indian currency since it has witnessed a continuous Wilson Financial Services strictly adheres to its principles of trust SR Meet the Founders of Wilson Financial Services Previously the Head of Sales at Edelweiss Prime Brokerage, Anand was instrumental in building & scaling the business from scratch over a 10-year stint. Considered to be a thought leader in the securities services & the FPI space, Anand has been part of various panels & seminar on this subject such as Gift city and IVCA etc. Anand has advised & serviced a diverse set of clients including Hedge funds, HFTs, Long only & quant funds. He is also an advisor to a number of start-ups & helps them in their overall strategy & business development. Anand Singh, Founder A chartered accountant by profession, Nilesh comes with rich experience in International finance, compliance, asset management & business operations. Previously the Head of International Compliance (Asia & Africa) at Edelweiss, Nilesh was instrumental in building & scaling up the enterprise functions at various overseas offices of Edelweiss. He independently led Operations teams and implemented various financial systems. Nilesh Choudhary, Founder 15 JANUARY 2019

Knowing the Key Team Members Sumeet brings a decade of experience at heading the strategy, investor relations, corporate communication & new initiatives for listed entities as well as a bunch of startups. An MBA from NMIMS, he has a penchant for equity analysis and more recently was associated with cross border investment transactions with global majors like CLSA. Sumeet Chhabria, Head Strategy Formerly the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Edelweiss institutional equities, Anand played a pivotal role in setting up risk, electronic trading & business operations during his 11 years stint. Joining Edelweiss, as a trader, in 2005, Anand’s passion for technology led him to play an important role in process automation across different verticals within the group. Anand Mody, COO Neha brings with her over a decade of experience and proficiency in compliance related matters across verticals which include PMS, AIF, MF, Investment Advisors, Broking, DP, Research Analyst, Commodity, Housing Finance and NBFC. She has been instrumental in setting up fund management compliance practices at Wilson both for the Fund as well as for the clients of the Advisory entity. An MBA from MIT, Neha has previously worked with Edelweiss Corporate Compliance Team and Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd. Neha Malviya Kulkarni, Head Compliance Vinit joins from Edelweiss Prime Brokerage where he was a key member of the international sales team. In a short span, Vinit developed and nurtured deep relationships across the financial community that led him to play a crucial role in scaling up the Asia Business & win many accolades for his achievements. Vinit Shah, Head Sales 16 JANUARY 2019

COVER STORY In The Spotlight Zeemart is Transforming the F&B Industry with Digital Disruption of the Supply Chain T markets. With easier access to capital from private investors and support from government bodies that recognize the value of start-ups in fueling job creation, the cliché “the best time to start-up is now” seems truer than ever before. he digital revolution presents entrepreneurs with unlimited opportunities to solve a wide range of problems and thereby disrupt or create now recognized as one of the hottest startups from Asia. that a lot of the processes were very manual, opaque and offline which led to inefficiencies, wastage and higher costs. This was a fairly big problem to solve with the potential to make a huge impact with the right solution. Our quest to address this problem is the genesis of Zeemart. Zeemart simplifies procurement for F&B businesses with a powerful and seamless order and invoice management platform that enables buyers and suppliers to connect and transact with one another in an easy and transparent manner. With an interface designed to facilitate ease of use (and remove potential barriers to change) and a powerful suite of features, Zeemart is enabling F&B businesses to manage their discovery, purchasing, invoice management and vendor collaboration from a smartphone. What teething troubles did you encounter? Like most startups, our initial roll out of the platform had a few hiccups. Our product is a critical part of a restaurant’s business operations and therefore we can ill-afford to fail. Helping business owners overcome any resistance to change was an important area of focus for us. There was an instance when our team went to collect barrels of beer for our restaurant customer as the supplier failed to deliver it in time for a long festive weekend. In hindsight, going the extra mile to serve our initial group of customers was immensely beneficial. They overlooked some of the early bugs and glitches in the system and stuck with us seeing our commitment to get things fixed quickly. However, as any start-up founder will tell you, success doesn’t come easy. Most founders flounder. For every success story, there are hundreds of start-ups that fold up within two years. Understanding the distinguishing features of successful start-ups and their founders, who manage to beat the odds stacked against them, is priceless for any entrepreneur. Zeemart founders, Neeraj Sundarajoo and Keith Tan spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt. Towards that end, we are thrilled to present two young and successful entrepreneurs from Singapore, Neeraj Sundarajoo and Keith Tan, who’ve not only given wings to their idea but gotten it to soar in just two years. The duo is a rare breed of startup founders who have been able to repeat their entrepreneurial success. Their second startup Zeemart, founded with a vision to transform and empower F&B businesses through smart technology and digitalization, is Why Zeemart? We homed in on the Horeca (Hotels, Restaurants & Catering) industry, specifically the B2B side, where a startling statistic caught our attention: 50% of restaurants shut shop within the first 3 years. We learnt that food costs account for about one-third of revenues, leading us to study the entire food supply chain deeply, right from sourcing and procurement. We discovered What makes you confident that Zeemart can succeed in such a dynamic and competitive marketplace? In the highly competitive world of technology-driven startups, 18 JANUARY 2019

COVER STORY Neeraj Sundarajoo, CEO ““ to the platform. This is one ‘Work in Progress’ that is perennial and we can be proud of. We embrace change. And change matters to anyone living in this era of disruption. Even as our user base increases and the company grows, we continuously pursue improvements We embrace change. And change matters to anyone living in this era of disruption. As our company grows and more users are using our platform, we continuously pursue the need for improvements. Never do we stop and say that our product is done.”

A Word Of Advice From Neeraj And Keith To The Budding Entrepreneurs Having an idea, building a great product and gaining traction are the essential activities of any startup. What makes a startup successful is the strength and ability of the team to deliver on the purpose of the business. So, the most important aspect is to assemble a solid team first. Get that right and your chances of success will be higher than most already. A startup may or may not function as originally envisaged. How do you respond to this need for change? We’re living in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity & Ambiguity) world, where ‘disruption’ is ubiquitous. Even seemingly change-proof businesses like supermarkets and taxi services are fighting for survival against online stores and on-demand transport services. No business is immune to the vagaries of change and anyone can be caught blindsided. We are no different. Startups are even more vulnerable being resource-strapped. What we do is to be extra sensitive to market change or demand and respond with agility. We have to work constantly at peak efficiency and can’t afford to be ‘stationary’ for too long. Alertness, agility and a healthy dose of paranoia help push us forward continuously. innovative thinking and having a great product are merely the bare minimum to survive and compete. What differentiates Zeemart is our organizational DNA- the company knows how to build businesses around strong principles of excellence, passion and hard work. customer service to recruitment and retention. These act as the glue that bonds the team to achieve our purpose. • Enterprising - We love success. We are not afraid to take a chance, think big & outside the box and achieve big results. We are nimble - quick to think, make our point, get to a decision and execute. We are self-driven, take ownership and challenge ourselves & our teammates Awareness - We are empathetic & respectful towards the people we work with, clients, suppliers, time and our surroundings. We appreciate the value in looking back, learning from our mistakes and taking our next steps confidently. When we make mistakes, we are humble, accept responsibility, and seek help to fix it Transparency - We are all accountable. Each of us is accountable to ourselves and the rest of the team. We are genuine in what we do, why we do it and how we do it. We work across organizational levels, geographical boundaries and break down any barriers Integrity - We act with integrity. We are committed to maintain equity and fairness in the decisions we make and how we treat one another. We respect and value each other for our diverse backgrounds, We have a strong founding team with deep domain knowledge and rich experience across both F&B and digital product development. The two of us ran an interactive digital agency for 15 years building solutions and marketing campaigns for global clients such as Unilever, P&G, Starbucks and Adidas. The other two co-founders are industry veterans who previously held senior management positions in the Horeca space and have also run successful companies. • The quality of the collective experience of the founding team, with the appetite and ability to take on calculated risks while navigating through obstacles, has been invaluable in scaling up our company at speed. • A startup is defined by its core values. What are your company’s core values and how did they help you succeed? Yes, core values are extremely important for a startup that is often subjected to enormous pressures from various angles. We’ve defined five core values that guide us in what we do and how we do things: from product development and Attracting, grooming and retaining human talent are imperative for any successful start-up. Zeemart leverages on the rich networks of the co-founders, as well as their stellar track record, to build a strong and committed team. The strength of our team gives us the confidence to compete and succeed. • 20 JANUARY 2019

Neeraj Sundarajoo CEO Keith Tan Chief Product Officer experiences, styles, approaches and ideas. We believe in doing the right thing and know that success cannot come at ‘any cost’ Openness - We communicate, contribute and collaborate freely. We are open to new ideas, people and work as a team-sharing our ideas, knowledge and skills. We continually simplify and improve processes and procedures. We all share a common goal of ensuring that we have a positive and vibrant work environment encouraging and benefited our product development immensely. In the last two years, we have enhanced our platform to address more of our users’ pain points based on their inputs. Unsurprisingly, this has accelerated the number of users on our platform. Every note of appreciation from our users is another mile that we’ll go further to make our platform experience better. • down and to maximise revenues whilst capturing the attention of an increasingly demanding new generation of diners. We see ourselves as market disruptors who want to drive the F&B industry towards modernizing their operations: from front-of-house innovation and back-kitchen productivity, to using robotics and analytics to drive workforce and supply chain efficiency. We see ourselves as a leader. Our efforts have also been recognized with several awards in Singapore and overseas. The biggest recognition we got was from IMDA Singapore (Info-communications Media Development Authority) as they endorsed us to be the national procurement platform for F&B businesses in Singapore. Such recognition reinforces the belief in being able to achieve our goals. Any company, big or small, must have the sense of authenticity and originality to succeed. What do you want to be, a leader or a follower? The F&B industry has traditionally been manual and ‘conservative’ with respect to change. It has never been better primed for disruption, as operators seek to drive costs What kind of responses have you received from your users? How have they motivated you to shape the company’s growth? The feedback from our users has been enlightening and What factors help your company to compete on a global platform? We are driven by our vision to bring digitalization to the F&B industry. 21 JANUARY 2019

COVER STORY We have seen the positive impact and response from several markets for our product. The multiple-market validation tells us that we are on the right track. next batch of features that will cover inventory management, payments, financing, logistics and last mile fulfilment. part of the WPP faculty in Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. In 2013, Neeraj was the overall winner of the DBS/SICCI Entrepreneur of the Year Award as well as the overall winner of the OCBC/ASME Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. We have commenced operations in Indonesia and expect to start in Vietnam within the next couple of months. We are running some trials in Malaysia, Thailand and India in collaboration with established restaurant chains. Philippines is another market that we are on the verge of entering. In the last 12 months, our team has doubled to be 65-member strong and this figure will change very quickly to support our expansion into various regional markets. Competing on a global platform requires us to offer a world-class product and an equally robust support structure behind that. This ambition and attitude to deliver a world-class solution is ingrained in our DNA. Continuous improvement and optimization of everything we do regularly is a mantra that we practice diligently at Zeemart. In Dec 2016, Neeraj left WPP to fully devote himself to his next venture, Zeemart. Keith Tan Keith co-founded Comwerks in 2002 with Neeraj Sundarajoo. He played a pivotal role in growing the business into one of Singapore’s top digital agencies, working with some of the world’s leading brands and corporations, NGOs and government organisations. Following the acquisition of Comwerks by Wunderman, part of WPP, the world’s largest marketing communications company, Keith rose to be the Executive Creative Director of Wunderman South East Asia. Tell us about your product roadmap. Based on requests from our buyer community for recommendations for new suppliers and contacts, we’ve recently built and rolled out Singapore’s first F&B-focused sourcing platform- Zeemart Zoom. This platform allows suppliers to list an unlimited number of their products online on our marketplace. We expect this platform to improve sourcing of new products and suppliers significantly for F&B operators, while suppliers have an effective channel to get their products in front of their target audience. The response to this platform has been great with interest from suppliers and buyers from Singapore and beyond. We have some exciting challenges and opportunities ahead. Meet the Visionaries behind the Success Neeraj Sundarajoo Acknowledged as one of Singapore’s top digital agency leaders, Neeraj embarked on his entrepreneurial journey in 2002, by co-founding Comwerks at 21. Within 3 years, eBay added the agency to its roster, making it one of the agency’s largest clients. In recognition of the early achievements of Comwerks, Neeraj was awarded the leading Youth Entrepreneur of the Year by DBS/SICCI in 2007. He then led the acquisition of Comwerks by WPP in 2010 and continued as CEO. He helped set up Zed Academy, with the support of EDB, to train young graduates from local universities on Digital and Mobile, increasing the available talent pool within the industry. As its creative leader, he was the driving force to expand their digital services offering which resulted in iconic account wins such as adidas, Starbucks, Energizer & Lego. One of Keith’s early successes that demonstrated his product development talent was the launch of a site called PetrolWatch which helped motorists share and receive tips on fuel pump prices. Developed as a side project with Neeraj in 2005, it attracted global media attention, including coverage by the Associated Press and the BBC, due to its rapid organic growth that saw over 25,000 drivers register in just 2 weeks. Keith is also regularly involved with students from his local alma mater, Temasek Polytechnic where he helps to groom and inspire budding entrepreneurs and designers to transition from academia to the industry. Where do you see your company a couple of years from now? Notwithstanding our rapid growth, we believe we have only scratched the surface of the opportunity to modernize the traditional F&B sector. Our journey began with digitizing procurement, which put us in a very good position to exploit numerous other opportunities leveraging the convergence of digital & data to unlock enormous value to both buyers and suppliers. We are already building and rolling out the Neeraj then led the group’s largest digital businesses such as Wunderman, Enfatico, AdPeople and Comwerks. He also helped to set up and established WPP’s Government and Public-Sector Practice and was SR 22 JANUARY 2019

How Nykaa Emerged as the Largest and the Most Loved Beauty Destination in India: A Success Story N shopping in India and that too in less than ten years! Nykaa.com is an entrepreneurial dream of Falguni Nayar, who also served Kotak Mahindra Capital Company as its Managing Director. Falguni has spent 19 years as an investment banker and a successful stockbroker. Nayar, an IIM Graduate is well versed with how business works. Her vast experience in the business domain gave her an edge when she started with Nykaa, her dream entrepreneurial business. ykaa, a Mumbai based company has radically transformed cosmetic entrepreneurs when she interacted with them in the past. She thought of different business plans before but what appealed her most was an e-store for beauty and wellness products. She had seen how the cosmetic industries flourish in the west and she wanted this sector to boom in India as well. “I was aware of how big the beauty space was in the US and other countries like Japan, and I knew that it would have a positive future in India,” quotes Nayar. Hence, she introduced Nykaa! Nykaa, derived from the Sanskrit word “Nayaka” meaning “the one in the spotlight”. Being true to the meaning, Nykaa envisions making everyone feel confident and well groomed providing affordable prices for the products. It has achieved remarkable success in gaining the trust and loyalty of its customers by providing a one-stop store for all their beauty and wellness needs. However, none of this came easy for her as there were challenges she had to face to prove the worth of the idea. Flipkart, one of India’s biggest e-retail markets had its sole dominance back then. Hence, entering the competitive arena with an idea to introduce an online platform for beauty and wellness products was a challenging task. People have always been skeptical of buying beauty products online because of the obvious fear of the product not being genuine. The myth that e-commerce and beauty What enticed her to start her own venture was the drive and passion she saw in many successful 24 JANUARY 2019

How Nykaa Emerged as the Largest and the Most Loved Beauty Destination in India: A Success Story retail cannot work that well in India was busted by Nayar when Nykaa turned out to become one of the most loved and used e-retail businesses in India. She had faith in her idea and hence she ignored everyone who was not convinced enough and came up with a business that broke all records of being a successful startup venture. Her passion, far-sighted vision, and belief in the idea were all the ingredients to successfully create Nykaa.com. which are well-priced. Focusing on customers’ needs and working closely with the trends and culture in the make-up industry, it has become a proud-seller offering a comprehensive selection of makeup, skincare, hair care, fragrances, bath and body, luxury and wellness products for women and men. the stairs of success to prove its worth and be a profitable business, on the other hand, it is trying to establish itself as a cosmetic and personal care brand. The company has launched many products for makeup and wellness needs under the label ‘Nykaa’. The company now has its inventory spaces in Delhi and Mumbai, 50,000 square feet each and one in Bangalore that is 15,000 square feet. In today’s world where e-commerce is such a booming sector, Nykaa is not only giving a tough competition by raising the bar but has also reached to break even and is gunning for IPO this year. Achieving operational break even is a huge thing considering the fact that even the e-commerce biggie Flipkart is still struggling to break even. On one hand, where Nykaa is climbing Nykaa has hoisted its flag of triumph in a very short span of time. With more than 35,000 products and 400 curated brands, Nykaa is one of the favorites of all the fashion enthusiasts in India. After all, our beauty is their passion! SR How Nykaa became the market leader and a preferred destination for beauty and personal care needs speaks volumes about perfect business strategies. The company guarantees 100% genuine products 25 JANUARY 2019

From Raw Data to Insights, Holistics Has You Covered “Lifesaver in terms of getting you the reports you need.” H companies. It has taken BI solutions that had previously only been available to large enterprises, and developed a completely scalable, flexible and affordable platform that allows you to handle the modern big data needs of your company, regardless of size. olistics was built to make data analysis a powerful differentiator for emerging business insights Work securely within their existing cloud infrastructure set-up not days or months. It wants change makers to have the best chance of success, by working with champions regionally to enable them for a global stage. • Most BI tools can generate any charts, tables or visualizations that a user needs after the data has been prepared. But much more time is spent preparing data than reporting. Business users are waiting for answers from their data analysts, while the data analyst waits for the data engineers to integrate various data sources. It does not have to be this way. How It All Began Holistics was founded by a team of engineers and business intelligence professionals that started out as university friends. With more than 15 years of industry experience working internationally in places such as IBM, Facebook, Microsoft and other successfully acquired startups, the Holistics team is on a mission to make data tools and business intelligence a widely accessible force for growth. It also helps you take the first step for change. It believes that the ability to formulate high performing data business assets should be accessible to anyone, from early-stage startups to tech unicorns, so it can build new ways of accomplishing more together. Data analysts should be asking new business questions with your data, rather than answering questions that your company already has. Holistics automates the manual preparation work behind presenting and structuring raw data into logical and actionable processes, drastically reducing the time taken to build data-based business solutions. The real measure of data workflow effectiveness is the time it takes to create insights, going from query to results. Holistics began with 3 founders from diverse backgrounds, connected by a vision for building great products. Originally conceived of as an internal analytics dashboard/query tool within a startup, it realized that many other startups are spending large amounts of time building their own custom data platforms from scratch. Holistics saves startups precious time, helping them focus their engineering efforts on product and growth, and even the playing field between emerging startups and well-funded enterprises.SR Why Select this Company? Holistics is flexible business intelligence (BI) automation and visualization software. It helps data teams streamline their data preparation and reporting processes, to quickly get answers to questions. Designed with flexibility in mind, Holistics helps data teams: The company empowers people with the data tools needed to build a new world, giving data analysts’ full control of the data pipeline, with the ability to operate in minutes and • Get full visibility of their data context and business Speed up the preparation of data from different sources into • 26 JANUARY 2019

“We are a Cloud- based Business Intelligence & Data Analytics Platform who connect to your databases and help you get the data- driven insights you need.” The Three Musketeers Vincent Woon, CEO Vincent’s focus is on the business development of enterprise software technology for sales, marketing, and reseller relationships, and also to work with emerging technology companies to identify and validate their product-market fit. Sales Focus: Enterprise Technology, Business Development, Relationship Management, Solution Consultant, Business Analysts, Channels Management Thanh Dinh Khac, Chief Engineer & Customer Success He wore so many hats during his past work experiences that he wants to call himself as a full-stack engineer. In terms of the backend, he has a relatively deep understanding of multiple Unix/Linux systems, networking configuration and troubleshooting, especially cloud/virtualization/data technologies. He also has an extensive web development experience, covering frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Django, Flask, Grails, etc. as well as Angular.js, Backbone.js, d3.js, etc. During his time in Revolution Analytics, he got himself familiar with AI, big data and machine learning techniques, especially text analytics. He currently works at Holistics Software as Co-founder and Chief Engineer building a data reporting and management platform. Huy Nguyen, CTO & Product Architect He was also the Co-founder of Grokking Vietnam. In the past, he worked as a Software Engineer (Data Infrastructure) at Viki. Huy was also a Software Engineer Intern at Facebook. 27 JANUARY 2019

Popularizing E-Commerce in India: Flipkart E revolutionized the way people shop. Walmart ushered in the first revolution in retail in the early twentieth century by introducing the concept of supermarkets. Amazon kick-started the second revolution with the e-commerce model, wherein customers can order goods from the comfort of their homes. An Indian startup named Flipkart has brought the same idea to a market of over 1.3 billion customers. -commerce is one of the largest industries in the world which has hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs to follow their dreams of owning a business and making it big. Several critics concur that the startup culture in the Indian city of Bangalore was begun by Flipkart. even have computers and fewer still, an internet connection. Most people prefer the traditional way of shopping, i.e. going to the shop/ supermarket. Changing this mindset of the average Indian was one of the biggest accomplishments of Flipkart. The early days of Flipkart were riddled with difficulties for the founders since the concept of ordering stuff on the internet was very new to India and it was highly uncertain if people would take to it. One of the most challenging obstacles was to convenience vendors to sign up with them, which was followed by setting up the website and payment partners, getting the necessary permits and finally advertising their idea to investors as well as the general public. A significant percentage of the Indian population was and continues to live in villages and towns where a few people would An e-commerce startup requires numerous technologies to support it and what Flipkart couldn’t innovate, it acquired. The company embellished itself and its capabilities by acquiring other companies and integrating the new technologies with their own. Flipkart laid the groundwork for its nationwide expansion, while at the same time expanding their network of merchants and vendors. It required many years of hard work, market speculation, and dedication, but in the end, it paid off. Flipkart managed to capture the attention of Conceived by 2 visionaries who are alumni of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology and has worked for Amazon, Flipkart initially was limited to selling books. The entrepreneurial journey of Sachin and BinnyBansal (who are not related) has inspired

Popularizing E-Commerce in India: Flipkart the masses, with their inventory covering millions of products ranging from appliances, furniture, electronics, apparel, accessories, kitchenware, and so on. offers during festivals propelled Flipkart’s popularity to stratospheric levels. Flipkart would even go on to acquire two other e-commerce companies to expand its user base. However, its growing popularity meant that India was now an attractive e-commerce market and was on the radar of giants like Amazon, the pioneer of e-commerce. Since Amazon’s foray into India, Flipkart saw a significant portion of its market share slip away to the American behemoth. In 2017, The American retail giant Walmart acquired a 77% stake in Flipkart for an astounding $16 billion. The founders of Flipkart were instrumental in catalyzing the Indian e-commerce sector and inspired countless entrepreneurs to follow their vision. It was one of the first companies to make it big in India’s Silicon Valley.SR The company enjoyed a time of steady growth, with sales of hundreds of millions of dollars on certain days, which the company christened the ‘big billion days’. Such sales, combined with the periodic 29 JANUARY 2019

Making Your Life and Business Better Than Expected: 2b Limitless “Coaching, training and 2BYB” 2 focused on Strengths, Engagement, Performance and Transformation. Headed by Mick Todd, ‘Acquisition International’ UAE Executive Coach of the Year 2016 and ‘International Advisory Experts’ UAE Executive Coach of the Year 2017. It is focused on C-Suite Executives, Senior Leaders, Entrepreneurial Leaders and High- Performance Teams. The company currently has offices in Dubai, Phuket and Brisbane. b Limitless is a multi-award winning professional coaching and training organization components of the modern leaders’ toolbox. As business continues to become more and more complex a leader’s ability to simplify and identify the true priorities, take agile action and make a meaningful impact is key. That is where 2b Limitless comes in and help leaders to develop a roadmap and the tools that they need to deliver excellence in performance. and creating the space for each and everybody involved to ‘2B Your Best’. The speciality of the Team 2017 has seen 2b Limitless grow significantly as an organisation based on the quality of its team and the outstanding achievements of its clients. The firm has assembled its strongest ever team that deliver excellence across a broad spectrum of personal and professional success. It now feels that it has complete coaching and training offered. 2b Limitless training and facilitation philosophy is based on connecting and aligning organizations and teams with their strategies, purpose, vision, values and goals. Its powerful and inspiring programs, it helps individuals, teams and organizations to leverage strengths and increase engagement and performance. Its aim is to build a culture of trust and vision with its clients, facilitating the path toward growth and success. Organizations consistently come back and work with 2b Limitless because of its proven ability to produce tangible and measurable results. The outstanding professionals of the company have given it the bandwidth and skills to deliver in an elegant manner that better support its client’s needs. The focus is growth across all of its key markets, success measures and programs. The firm is making plans to develop a centre of excellence so that it can offer pathways and standardised coaching process. The company is also looking to enhance its stand-alone high- performance coaching and training facility in Asia in order to offer its clients unrivalled coaching and goal setting retreat through its 2BYB (To Be Your Best) process so 2017 promises to be another amazing year at 2b Limitless. The core business is built around executive coaching programs and its 2BYB International Goal- Setting Events. The company also deliver targeted training and workshops around Strengths, Goals, Strategy, Purpose, Vision & Values and Extraordinary Success. The pace of change in business is staggering. Leaders are faced with an unprecedented number of real- time decisions that have far-reaching ramifications for clients, employees and shareholders. Having real clarity of purpose, objectives, goals and the rituals and behaviours that will deliver performance that will lead to a meaningful impact are critical The company also delivers bespoke & inspirational development programs in breath-taking locations that focus on amazing life experiences, challenging boundaries and comfort zones, building enduring relationships 30 JANUARY 2019

The Key Services • Executive Coaching • Strategic Development & Goal Setting • Leadership & Management Development • 2byb Goal Setting International Workshop 2b Limitless’s award-winning team of coaches love to work with high- performers and in high-performance cultures. As a result, our bespoke personal and corporate coaching programs are designed to develop the best version of you, your team or your business. It focuses on the core principles of Strengths, Engagement and Performance to deliver outstanding results and develop the knowledge, skills, tools and behaviours of world-class performers. SR “We will help you design the journey and support you as you take the steps toward your personal, professional and organizational goals.” Mick Todd, Founder The Senior Executive Success & Leadership - Strengths Coach Mick Todd, Founder Mick is the leader and founder of 2b Limitless. For the past 15 years, he has tirelessly made it his mission to help individuals to succeed, to improve their quality of life and help define and achieve their goals. Mick has worked with a vast array of amazing individuals and high profile regional and global organisations to help them employ proven tools and techniques to unlock their potential and empower them to define their true purpose. The rituals of sustainable success are his focus. With his support, encouragement and guidance, his clients have expanded their self-awareness and leveraged their innate gifts and talents quickly, effectively and sustainably. Mick works extensively in the Middle East, Europe and Asia giving individuals, leaders and organisations the tools they need to achieve clarity, direction and success. 31 JANUARY 2019

Widening Valley of Death for Startups: Ways to Close the Gap B to take the first step,” some say and few others say that the beginning is easy but later comes the problems. But in general, it all depends on what business you are in or what the startup is based on. Keeping that in mind the process begins with the right investment since no business runs without money. It is said that there will be an abundance of capital at two ends of a startup in its spectrum. In today’s generation, there is far more capital chasing fewer quality companies. Very few breakouts of companies followed by a fear of missing out in the market are always on everyone’s mind. It is because many feel it is not easy to raise growth rounds with the revenue growth. Also, many feel it will be hard to scale since creating a great attraction toward one’s business is difficult. Eventually creates false realities that lead to the rise of big rounds at a high price by the founders. This move should only be done if there is an over-abundance uilding up a company in the initial stages is always a major task. “It is never easy of capital. All in all, there are always factors such as capital scarcity, underpinnings of revenue, growth and economic scaling. All of these fears can be solved through the following solutions. the role? All of these factors need to be considered since it is a startup we are talking about. Work In Massive Markets to Find Efficiency Keep in mind, capital does not always grow business. There is a misleading metaphor - “Pouring fuel on the fire”, which is often taken in a wrong way and many end up going down the wrong path. Many of the business models we see nowadays or the market itself is simply not native to the much-sought-after venture growth profile. This is the reason why most later-stage startups fail after raising large amounts of capital. Almost all markets are facilitating businesses that have a high DIS- economies. Eventually implying to the dwindling margins and as a result, end up serving just the locals or small-scale customers. Remember technology alone cannot consolidate your business, you need many other factors. The Right Candidates It is wrong to expect the founding team will build and sell what the company is offering. Why are the employees hired? It is a huge team effort and only if everyone is at equilibrium it is possible to reach the bigger vision. It is up to the early founding team or the major decision makers to recruit the right candidates who can build the existing products and services, leverage unique tools to satisfy the unmet need and be there when the company needs them the most. Experience is certainly something every single company seeks, but something more to consider than that is the heart of the candidate. Is the candidate ready to learn? Will he or she fit the company or can the company mould the candidate to fit 32 JANUARY 2019

Widening Valley of Death for Startups: Ways to Close the Gap Metrics That Actually Matters The first thing to do is to have to develop a clear understanding of how your business will be measured. That will give your investors an idea on where the business is going because you will be presenting a concise hypothesis for your unfair advantage in a growing market with your current traction being evidence to back it. Do not go for SaaS just because everyone else does, your business might not be suited for it. In the end, it is just a tool and your business spirit is what matters. service. Just by creating a product or offering a service that already exists in the market will give you no customers. Either you should have a name for yourself in the market or provide something that the leading brands don’t. You will have to experiment and consider customer’s opinions and feedbacks. This is where the secret found to have a better business and to roadmap the bigger vision. SR The Bigger Vision The management team invests a lot of time on revenue. But revenue that is not representative is better than no revenue at all, this is the bigger vision that every startup needs to consider. The bigger vision here is to create a model that will be representing your product or 33 JANUARY 2019

Connecting Anyone and Anything to Decentralised Services: TenX “Stay in crypto - Spend your crypto - Benefit from crypto.” T Its mission is to bring the entire financial system right to your fingertips. TenX is a Singapore- based blockchain company that makes cryptocurrencies instantly spendable anytime anywhere. It gives people an opportunity to conveniently use their digital assets in everyday life. enX believes in connecting anyone and anything to decentralised services. convenient and secure. Creating an outstanding experience from product to the customer is at the very core of what we do. accepted, with Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Dash and 18 different ERC20s. Why go for TenX? TenX has a vision that is of decentralisation beyond crypto- spending. It thinks bigger than a cryptocurrency payment company. It wants to be the fabric for the decentralised world. It also aims to connect anyone and anything to decentralised services. Success over the Years Incubated by Paypal in 2016 TenX received its first outside investment in 2016, which was also the time when PayPal started to incubate the company for further growth. The company rebranded to TenX—a name inspired by not wanting to grow “one-bit” at a time anymore, but rather by “10x”—meaning ten times as much, covering the whole range of crypto space. TenX was founded in June of 2015. Back then, the company was called OneBit, as it was still focusing only on Bitcoin. The four co-founders Toby Hoenisch, Julian Hosp, Paul Kittiwongsunthorn, and Michael Sperk believe that the blockchain and cryptocurrency are the future of payments. They founded the company with a vision to have assets on the blockchain, available not only to industry insiders but to anyone in the world. “We’re more than just a digital currency card. Our mission is to bring the entire financial system right to your fingertips.” ICO in 2017 On the 24th of June, 2017, TenX completed one of the biggest and most rapidly funded initial token sales to date, having sold around 100 million PAY tokens and received 80 million USD worth of cryptocurrencies in 7 minutes. TenX is one of the few companies which has conducted a token sale while having a working product and an existing global user base. TenX has set the standard for a well-executed token sale. During the token sale, we accepted one of the most diverse ranges of coins and tokens any company has ever The TenX payment system includes TenX mobile wallet that can be funded with different cryptocurrencies (available on iOS and Android) and TenX debit/ prepaid card, which can be used in almost 200 countries at over 42 million points of acceptance online and offline upon its launch. It offers users access to several cryptocurrencies making it 34 JANUARY 2019

Meet the Leader Toby Hoenisch | Co-founder & CEO Thrill-seeker, passionate learner of everything learn- able, who makes impossible possible, Toby started programming at the age of 10. Having realised the unlimited potential of technology, he studied Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and became a serial entrepreneur & blockchain expert. Toby is a frequently invited speaker at global Tech/FinTech events as well as a regular commentator in the media on current blockchain trends, the future of cryptocurrency and best ICO practices. When he is not architecting and re-envisioning the world of finance, he can be found dancing salsa or practising acro-yoga. He along with Julian Hosp (Co-founder and President), Paul Kittiwongsunthorn (Co-founder and CDO), and Michael Sperk (Co-founder and Engineering Lead) Toby Hoenisch, Co-founder & CEO Pair your TenX Card and Wallet to spend your cryptocurrency anytime, anywhere. Its unique range of products allows you to bring together both fiat and crypto with the flexibility to choose from different payments methods. Spend at over 42 million points of acceptance online and offline, in almost 200 countries. Choice of multiple digital currencies is given by the company. Enjoy access to several cryptocurrencies across different blockchains. Send and spend Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin with the TenX wallet and Card. With advanced security its strives to offer users access to an ever growing range of blockchain assets at a maximum degree of convenience, all while adhering to the highest security standards in the industry. together many types of local and global currencies with the flexibility to choose from different payment methods with a tap of a button. Spend at over 42 million points of acceptance online and offline, in almost 200 countries - perfect for the world traveller. Travelling? Spend your cryptocurrencies anytime, anywhere. Be in full control. Hold, send and receive popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin— right at your fingertips. SR Spend in the real world at a real time. Cryptocurrency usability brought to a whole new level. Global payments enabled anytime and anywhere. Its unique range of products allows you to bring 35 JANUARY 2019

From practicing and preaching Yoga to promoting “Made in India”, Baba Ramdev transformed the FMCG Industry in India R business industry for dramatically transforming a small business into an empire. He rose to popularity after preaching the benefits of Yoga and reaffirming Indians’ faith in it. The Yoga master brought back the craze of meditation and Yoga in India. He founded the Divya Yog Mandir Trust in 1995 after years of practicing self-discipline and meditation. amkishen Yadav, fondly known as Baba Ramdev is a popular name in the Nestle, Colgate- Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson etc. a run for their money. No Indian company has such an exponential growth when it comes to gaining brand loyalty in the FMCG product range, Patanjali has also started working on the textile front. Patanjali Paridhan, a recently launched line of apparels including more than 3,000 products ranging from kidswear to Yogawear and sportswear is bringing Patanjali recognition in the textile industry. Although Baba Ramdev is not the real owner of Patanjali as he holds no profits or shares in the company, he is the face of the business. Not only as an incredible yoga teacher, but he is also well acknowledged as a smart businessman. American business magazine Fast Company ranked Baba Ramdev 27th in its list of “Most Creative Business People of 2016”. There is no doubt about his amazing business strategies. With “Made in India” becoming a mass movement in India, he exploited the opportunity really well to drive people’s attention towards products made in India. Patanjali succeeded in gaining customers’ loyalty because the products claim to be adulteration free and are sold at a comparatively cheaper price. Ramdev’s journey from being a Yog guru to a business tycoon is amazing. Back in 1997, Baba Ramdev, along with Acharya Balkrishna, started Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd., a small-sized pharmacy with an intention to promote Ayurvedic medicines and reap the benefits of Ayurveda. Who knew that the small step taken almost 20 years back will turn out to become a billion dollar empire? The Patanjali brand turned out to be the fastest selling brand. Patanjali Ayurveda Ltd. completely dominated the FMCG sector to an extent that it gave many business behemoths like P&G, sector. The company has a versatile product folio, ranging from food items like ghee, noodles, biscuits, flour, canned juice, honey etc. to other consumable products like toothpaste, aloevera gel, shampoo etc. Talking about diversity in the So, what is the secret ingredient for creating Patanjali? Well, it is simple! The blend of ancient Indian science 36 JANUARY 2019

From practicing and preaching Yoga to promoting “Made in India”, Baba Ramdev transformed the FMCG Industry in India Ayurveda and modern technology is all that was needed to extract maximum benefits of what India already had in raw form. There are many takeaways from the success story of Patanjali like the attention to the details, demands, quality, and most importantly, the advantages of having a strong brand ambassador. creating a brand that speaks about fitness and also gives its product an indigenous flavor. Another factor would be product advertisement and branding. As a promotion strategy, their sole agenda was to promote the Swadeshi campaign. It advertises its products being completely void of synthetic and artificial ingredients. As the Indian market is driven by culturally rooted ideas, Patanjali became a huge hype. be a long-lasting business may just be a matter of fluke. It is difficult to say whether Patanjali will be able to maintain the trajectory of growth or it will die out with time. Considering the fact that there is an enormous amount of competition and the company has to deal with brands that have been there for ages running successfully, it needs a lot to stand firm. But if it manages to have a grip on people’s trust and continue with the same drive and passion to sell impurity free products, it definitely has a long way to go! SR One of the biggest factors that worked in favor of Patanjali’s success is the image of Baba Ramdev. As a propagator of health and fitness, he successfully managed to attract people by Undoubtedly, Patanjali is the game changer to boost the Indian economy. However, what seems to 37 JANUARY 2019

The Rulers in the Field of Digital Marketing: Ittisa I excellent business strategies being conceptualized and together these achieve disruptive digital transformation! stories, build communities and transform their business. ttisa is a place where technology meets design and design meets data which leads to creativity! Ittisa, one of the best digital marketing companies in India, believes in building world- class digital experiences that easily metamorphose into offline experiences and help brands tell digital marketing is now a pre- requisite for any brand’s marketing strategy. Furthermore, it is often a new brand’s only marketing strategy for the initial few years. Ittisa blends technology with creativity to ensure that clients make an impact on the market. Founded in June 2014, Ittisa is a one of its kind, a girls-first digital media agency. The name Ittisa in Sanskrit means ‘The Ruler’ and it aims to rule not just the creative world but also the technology world with its highly imaginative and passionate team. Ittisa is a unique captivating mix of innovativeness and diligence with the additional sprinkle of Branding and Strategy: Ittisa has a passion for launching, reinventing, and propelling brands. Its goal is to create a lasting impact and build meaningful relationships between clients’ business and its audience through sharp brand experiences. Ittisa enjoys strategizing and building campaigns Services Offerings Digital Marketing: Digital Marketing is a huge spectrum of tactics and assets that encompasses all online marketing efforts. With people spending twice as much time online as they used to 12 years ago, “We are a unique captivating mix of innovativeness and diligence with the additional sprinkle of creativity!” Sneh, Founder & CEO

Technologies for everyone from startups who are just about taking off to established companies with decades of experience and a set audience. their premium inventory in a niche advertiser auction, which means advertisers enjoy access to this premium inventory via a less-competitive auction. With the PMP, publishers can maintain control over the advertisers serving ads on their websites. Web Development: With expertise in designs for websites, Ittisa adds a creative edge to every module of clients’ website and will help them optimize it in the most efficient way. Design: Design is the mainstay of Ittisa’s agency: a pillar on which Ittisa stands. Ittisa prides itself on its highly creative, innovative, and strategic design capabilities that push boundaries of vision everywhere. Ittisa focuses on creating a delightful customer experience that highlights key values, human emotions, and a measured approach. Brand Partnership: Ittisa specializes in brand partnerships in order to deliver brand awareness, drive engagement, and generate better ROI. Ittisa aligns their brand with the right partners to acquire new customers and generate more revenue for clients’ business. It strongly believes in the concept of collaboration and that’s why it brings together companies, people, and ideas that are different but work well together. Web Applications: Ittisa’s web application development addresses a wide range of business needs. What separates the company isits highly innovative and effective solutions which will be easy, reliable, intuitive even for not-so-technical users and will require minimum maintenance. Programmatic Ads: In the digital age, programmatic advertising is a leading technology in the world of mass media. Itissa has robust programmatic advertising capabilities, andits exclusive partnership with ad tech companies makes this a smooth and seamless process. What makes programmatic advertising popular is its ability to help advertisers reach their target audience across a variety of media effortlessly and accurately. With programmatic ad buying, advertisers are not just paying for views and clicks; they also get access to niche customer groups. On the supply side, the company offers publishers’ access to the Ittisa Private Market Place (PMP) that allows them to offer Social Media Apps: Ittisa builds social apps that grab more eyeballs and enable clients to create new connections with their consumers. Its services include Facebook custom tabs for campaigns, custom blogs, online products, or service forums etc. Brand partnerships are all about building relationships, mixing backgrounds, values, and specializations, and watching something new emerge. One of the main reasons as to why most brands fail is because of a faulty customer acquisition strategy. Brand partnerships are a cost-effective way to accelerate growth and get word about brand out there. Mobile Application: Ittisa strives to serve clients with savvy mobile marketing plans and strategic consulting services. They could reach out to the company for an end to end Mobile application development right from the idea of what the app can be. It works on all major mobile platforms – iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, and Blackberry. SR 39 JANUARY 2019

S were raised. Other than that, 2018 was an extraordinarily lucky year for eight startups that joined the unicorn club crossing the mark of $1 billion valuations. However, the seed-funded startups demonstrated moderate development in terms of funding. tartups in India witnessed several positive outcomes in the year 2018. The firms saw a 108 percent growth from funding to global expansion and about $4.2 billion funds Below mentioned are the startups that achieved the unicorn status in a few years of their inception. Firms That Hit the Unicorn List In 2018 • Byju’s Bangalore-based edtech and online tutoring firm, Think and Learn Private Ltd has made it big this December by becoming the most esteemed startup achieving a net worth of $3.6 billion. Working with the brand name, Byju’s, the company steered its way into the unicorn club this year while also raising $540 million in funding by Naspers Ventures to support its expansion plans. It is the first investment made in Asia by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and now, it aims to expand into the markets across the UK, US and Australia. Additionally, the firm is also eyeing for IPO. • Oyo Rooms Oyo Rooms was founded by RiteshAgarwal to develop a listing and network of budget-friendly hotel and accommodation options. With Oyo Rooms, Ritesh sets a clear example that nothing can stop you from achieving big success if you have the will to do so. He founded the company when he was only 19 years old, and has now led the company to become the second most valuable startup in the country. It raised $1 billion from SoftBank Vision Fund, Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Oyo Rooms is expanding outside of Asia and has been working hard to capture the markets in China, Southeast Asia, UAE and UK. It has also acquired weddingz.in to dive into the $40 billion wedding industry of India. • Paytm Mall Paytm Mall, the e-retailer of Paytm aims to provide a fusion of the mall and bazaar to its customers. It is lucky to have found a place in the unicorn club early in 2018. After raising $450 million as per reports, Paytm Mall’s valuation reached $1 billion in April. The company is making further efforts and investments to enhance its technology to buy and sell products. It has launched several new initiatives including the QR-code technique that enables customers to scan the product, browse information and make their purchases through the Paytm Mall app. 40 JANUARY 2019

The company launched many new initiatives like QR-code technique to allow customers to scan the product, browse information, and make purchases online via the Paytm Mall app. • Zomato While many firms were aiming to reach for the top, Zomato, the food delivery app made it happen and set its foot on the way to success with achievements and developments one after the other in the Indian food-tech space. Its market valuation crossed $1 billion when it raised $200 million in a funding round led by Ant Small and Micro Financial Services Group. Zomato worked hard throughout the year to improve its marketing and delivery services and has also launched various key offers and packages for its customers. Zomato used to operate in fifteen Indian cities in the beginning of 2018, but today it has expanded its presence to more than a hundred cities across India. • Swiggy One more firm that has made its mark in the food delivery space and the Indian unicorn club is Swiggy. Founded in 2013, the food delivery app raised $201 million in Series H round led by South Africa’s Naspers. With over ten million app downloads, Swiggy’s demand has reached to around 50 cities in the country. It has acquired two on-demand delivery app, namely Scootsy and SuprDaily to strengthen its operations. Over the course of the year, Swiggy has been focusing on its hyperlocal expansion in India. • PolicyBazaar PolicyBazaar joined the unicorn club after raising a funding of $200 million in June 2018. The online insurance aggregator platform has scaled its fast growth over the course of 2018 with its new investment in the health tech sector. • Freshworks Freshworks was started by the ex-ZOHO executive and is headquartered in San Bruno, California. Its offices are set up in India, the UK, Australia and Germany. The Chennai- based firm has raised $100 million from existing investors like Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and CapitalG. Some of the clients betting on its global expansion are Honda, Hugo Boss, Toshiba, etc. • Udaan Growing at a very fast rate as a B2B firm, Udaan made it into the unicorn list in just two years of its inception. Early in 2018, Udaan raised $50 million in series B funding and in September, it raised $225 million funding from DST Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners.SR

An Interview with Dicky Ying, Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited Co-founder and CEO ‘We are the Digital Coupon Expert in the Region’ I and tablet use has made coupon and code usage so much more simple. With no coupons to clip or no emails to print out, customers can simply take their mobile device to a store, or enter a code online for a great deal. It’s best not to approach this method of marketing blindly, however. A few simple strategies can increase revenue while increasing customer loyalty. t is no secret that customers love deals and discounts, and the initiation of both smartphone to create, distribute, and redeem coupons without technical or financial barriers. corporations and institutions. Underneath these project-based platforms, the company has also launched several platforms for all and Mezzofy Merchant App for coupon creation is one such example. It is now listed on Google Play and App Store. Mezzofy Coupon platform is now used by merchants worldwide to issue their own coupons. For SMBs, the company enables Merchants to create and distribute the digital coupon via various social channels to reach their customers in just three minutes or less without any tool on the mobile app. And for the enterprise, Mezzofy has APIs ready for them to easily integrate and adapt to use Digital Coupon for their business. The company also offers ‘Coupon Solution Management System’ for the enterprise to custom the process flow and customisation for their unique business lead. A startup may or may not function as expected. It takes everything to stand out and compete in the business world, was it same for your company? Mezzofy prides itself on its simplicity and its ability to deliver tangible benefits to all stakeholders: • Brand owners gain access to a much deeper network of consumers • Merchants benefit by being able to create unlimited coupon marketing campaigns, at lower cost, with no need for technical help • Developers benefit by being able to access to ready coupon tool that can be easily integrated with other solutions • Marketers benefit by being able to open up new channels for Merchants to embark on various coupon campaigns; and • Consumers get access to thousands of deals by receiving the coupons and no need to download any apps In view of the above-mentioned scenario, we’re thrilled to present Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited. Mezzofy is the world’s first digital coupon marketing and settlement platform that disrupted the global Retail and Supply Chain industry. It provides a comprehensive Digital Coupon platform for merchants Mezzofy was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Hong Kong. It has additional office locations in Singapore, India, and Malaysia. Dicky Ying, Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited Co-founder/CEO, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt. “We provide a comprehensive Digital Coupon platform for merchants to create, distribute, and redeem coupons without technical or financial barriers.” Where does your company stand in the current market scenario? Mezzofy already has an established foothold in the Asian coupon market. In the past four years, it has been invited to cooperate on a series of cutting-edge projects with a number of leading multi-national As and when all stakeholders can gain benefits from our platform, we

can stand out and compete in the business world. as Maxims Group, Starbucks (Hong Kong/Macau), GS1, NTT, LoReal, and NeoDerm amongst its rapidly growing customer base. They show their response by their action: they rely on us, and we are reliable. existing platform is now beacon- enabled which means we can use the beacon to detect all nearby Bluetooth users (provided the consumer turns on the Bluetooth on his/her mobile) and send the digital coupon to them. This method is called “Proximity Marketing”. Our Blockchain Coupon platform will provide the same function. Any company, big or small, must have a sense of authenticity and originality to succeed, what do you want to be, a leader or a follower? Mezzofy has become one of the market leaders in Hong Kong and Asia and now wishes to take a leadership role in delivering the efficiencies that blockchain unlocks, combining innovation in point of sale technology, coupon authentication techniques, the near ubiquitous use of social media and last, but by no means least, a considerably more fluid payments and settlements system. How do you keep your company up and running? What are the factors that help your company to compete on a global platform? Mezzofy is the strategic partner of GS1 Hong Kong. As GS1 is dominating the product barcode already, we are working with them and try to do the same thing for the digital coupon and create a global digital coupon standard on a global platform. Where do you see your company a couple of years from now? We plan to expand our business in the coming years while focusing on upgrading our product offerings. SR Email:hello@mezzofy.com Website:www.mezzofy.com What kind of responses have you received from your consumers over the years? How have they motivated you to shape the company’s growth? Mezzofy has an enviable client list, counting well-known brands such Do you have any new products ready to be launched? Yes, we’re launching Beacon. It’s a Bluetooth device which can send and receive digital signals at a distance of up to 70-100 meters. Our Leadership | Mezzofy (Hong Kong) Limited Dicky Ying, Co-founder/CEO: Dicky Ying is responsible for the overall development of the company and has over 20 years of management experience in various industries. Eric Pang, Co-founder/CPO: Eric Pang takes care of product development process. He has over 20 years of experience in project and product design and business process optimisation. Dicky Ying Co-founder/CEO Kris R, Co-founder/CTO: Kris R leads the research and development team. He has over 20 years of development experience in various software platforms and programming languages. Maverick Tan, Co-founder/COO: Maverick Tan manages and leads operations team. He has over 20 years of operations experience in supporting and managing a large user base. 43 JANUARY 2019

Lessons to Learn From Billion-Dollar Startups to Make It into the Elite List T to their efforts, innovations and a strong belief in their ethics. And this success gets a kick start when founding teams create solutions that are focused on improving the daily lives of their consumers. Owning a Market Share Is Not Limited to Just One Disruptor After Uber made a disruption in the ride-sharing industry, Lyft soon walked through the same path three years later. Though it didn’t have much advantage like Uber, the company is growing at a faster rate and is worth $11 billion. Lyft is the perfect example that shows that a company can still be welcomed in a market where there’s already a well- established pioneer in the market. here is no shortcut to success. Anyone or any team that has ever achieved success is due has idealized the art of conveying its clear mission to its target customers. Every WeWork space has a large sign saying “Do what you love”. The mission that the firm works with is held precious by several entrepreneurs and business communities. Due to its mission driven company culture, WeWork has grown really quick. Its take sheer bravery and talent to establish a company these days. While a significant percentage of companies fail somewhere around in their fifth and tenth years, an elite number of startups have made their own path to drive them towards becoming billion dollar organizations. Some of the lessons that other firms can learn to uncover valuable business ideas and market strategies are mentioned below. Focus On What Customers Love Back then in August 2008, when Airbnb started, it was struggling to gain traction in the market. Paul Graham, the co-founder of the influential startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator told Brian Chesky that he should put his major focus on developing a product that people will truly love, and not just a product that they like. Now Chesky has been following that principle and goes on to say that it is always better and smarter to create a product or service intended to be loved by a hundred people rather than something that is liked by a million people. The network thus formed when people love and talk about a product is enough to propel a business to their heights. Forward-Thinking Organizations Are Always Supported According to a study by Google, millennials consider Tesla as one of the best companies in the world. As many respondents were too young to have owned a Tesla, this is a prominent achievement that the company has made. Therefore, it’s clear that a company striving to bring a transformation in the world will always find a strong foothold in the market. SR Mission-Driven Company Culture Goes a Long Way WeWork is an organization aiming at offering private and share workspaces for small and medium- sized businesses. Though it started off small, the firm is now worth $20 billion approximately, making it one of the largest privately held companies in the US. WeWork

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Crafting Intelligent Micro Conversations for Banks: ACTIVE.Ai B In the present generation where A.I. is making its way into various verticals, it was most likely that it would make its way to the banking sector. Seeing the opportunity, Active.Ai made its move. It is a Singapore based Fintech startup with an innovation lab in Bengaluru, using artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver Conversational Banking services. It helps banks redefine their digital strategy for the future, bringing in automation and insightful customer engagement. The company’s Built-for-Banking technology uses advanced NLP and machine intelligence to enable customers to have natural dialogues over messaging, voice or IoT devices. anking is one such sector where we still see human interaction with customers. services across various distribution channels. The Company’s Products Morfeus It is a conversational middleware that acts as an orchestration layer with the capability to consume the trinity AL engine. It has hooks to front channels including messaging, voice, social and IOT with advanced integration interface to complex backend APIs of the bank and financial systems. Ravi Shankar, Co-founder & CEO Triniti It is conversational AI engine tuned specially for banking, insurance, and capital market services with built-in Pre-processor, NLP, NLU, Machine Comprehension and NLG. Its key strength is the ability to handle context driven conversations. It is developed to support language pack such as English, Spanish, Thai, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia with Mandarin, its Chinese dialect and Korean in the works based on demand. It believes customers will be engaging in unstructured micro- conversations with their banks. Active.Ai will be helping banks and other financial institutions to intuitively and intelligently engage with the customer on mobile, chat, or voice-enabled IOT devices using AI. The Innovative Solutions Omni Connector AI Platform Its Omni Connector AI Platform combines specialised solutions using AI and NLP to deliver seamless conversational interactions to provide financial Create flawless natural conversations Triniti’s flexible AI platform incorporates an extensive suite of tools that allow you to build next- 46 JANUARY 2019

generation smart applications where your data lives: whether on-premise or in the intelligent cloud. Give your customers innovative ways to interact flawlessly with your product by building advanced voice and text-based conversational interfaces powered by the Triniti AI. names, nicknames etc. Expand and normalises acronyms like “acc” to account, “xfer” to transfer. It is able to standardise forms like “CreditCard” to Credit Card. “We build active intelligence culture, contextual, predictive & personalised experience at every level of customer journey.” Intent Classification Auto-Calibrating Classifier that is tolerant of differences in instances of training data across intents, able to differentiate between FAQ and non- FAQ intelligently and detect adversity. Gain an in-depth understanding of user conversations with machine learning In natural conversation colloquiums, abbreviations, acronyms and the like are more common than is perfect grammar and syntax. Provide examples of what customers may say during typical interactions with your product and let Triniti’s intelligent AI algorithms learn the true meaning. Sentiment & Profanity Detection It is able to detect if the user’s current input is positive, neutral or negative. The Products are also able to detect if the user is being abusive and able to respond appropriately. Entity & Modifier Extraction Highly Trainable with trainable entity linking and Auto-Calibrating features. It is able to extract entities with high precision and confidence. Extracts and links Modifiers like “from” and “to” to related entities. Also, it is able to extract modifiers that modify the complete intent, such as “minimum” in “Minimum Balance”. Triniti is smart enough to: • recognise and comprehend intent, • interpret discourse and reactions, • extract entities and identify pragmatics, • analyse feelings and emotions, • A whole lot more. Smalltalk It responds to most commonly-used ‘small-talk’ or ‘chit-chat’ that users have with bots. The Speciality of the Company Context Sensitive Spelling Correction & Acronym Expansion Corrects misspelt words based on user’s input. Knows not to correct Engage Personalise engagements with customers via predictive conversational offers. SR 47 JANUARY 2019

F allows one to find people who are willing to run any type of errand - be it rounding out shopping lists or picking up and dropping off chargers forgotten at home. Arrived with Scepticism, Left with Success Dunzo ounded by a quartet of youngsters in Bangalore, Dunzo may be actually abetting laziness, the Bangalore- based startup has silenced critics by drawing the interest this year of one of the most successful businesses in the world. Some of the early investors in Dunzo included Blume Ventures, Aspada and angel investors like Rajan Anandan and Sandipan Chattopadhyay. Biswas was joined by Mukund Jha, Ankur Aggarwal, and Dalvir Suri as co-founders in September 2015. The company migrated from WhatsApp to its own app in February 2016 – an engineering team was set up and things started moving fast. By April that year, traffic started doubling almost every three weeks. “We learnt something then,” said Biswas. “That this is not a user or demand problem, but a supply business.” Ever since its inception in January 2015, Dunzo has become the go-to app for residents of Bengaluru, where the company is headquartered, to get everything delivered from laundry, important documents, a laptop charger forgotten in the office, to sanitary napkins, cigarettes, beer, speakers repaired and even large potted plants. “Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.” - Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO What started off as a hobby on a WhatsApp group has become the first Indian company to receive direct funding from Google to the tune of $12 million in December. It recently expanded into Pune and Gurgaon and is looking to reach four more cities by the end of 2018. Biswas moved to Bengaluru in 2014, after Hike Messenger bought over Hopper, a location-based couponing start-up that he had co-founded in Gurgaon. The idea behind Dunzo had been brewing in his head for more than a year now, rooted in the thought, “Why should I do the things I don’t enjoy doing?” This was the gap that he identified in the market and it became the cornerstone for Dunzo. Just Dunzo it! Dunzo is an app-based service that lets users ‘hire’ people, who in turn, run errands for them or carry out odd jobs on their behalf. While skeptics may attempt to start a dialogue on how this time-saving technology

A WhatsApp group was created and friends started asking Biswas to run their daily errands for them. instance, I needed a tube of ointment and a razor blade - both of a certain kind. I simply sent my partner pictures of what I use, who in turn sent me images of what was available on the store, and once confirmed by me, bought it and dropped it off at my residence.” “Think of Dunzo as a product that completely eliminates the need for users to search. Need to get something picked up from another part of the city? Want to avoid trivial paperwork? Or get a pair of shoes repaired? Dunzo can do all these and much more in less than half the time,” says Biswas. “Starting your own business is like riding a roller coaster. There are highs and lows and every turn you take is another twist. The lows are really low, but the highs can be really high. You have to be strong, keep your stomach tight, and ride along with the roller coaster that you started.” - Lindsay Manseau, photographer, and entrepreneur Launched only in Bangalore and certain pockets of Pune as of now, Dunzo has seen 3X growth compared to last year. According to the startup, the coverage in Bangalore alone went up to about 80% of the city from 40% in just the last 9 months, supported by a team comprising of 1500 partners. “Once the partner and user have been paired, the user can add, edit or cancel tasks by using the chat interface on the app. They can also send relevant images for cases where their needs are specific,” said Biswas. “For We are pretty sure this startup has a long long way to go! SR 49 JANUARY 2019

Building a Future that is Accessible to All: Oriente The Largest and Most Innovative Financial Services Company A them has a different pay scale or a business that generates a different amount of ROI. Keeping this in mind, Oriente was established in 2017 by the co- founders - Hubert Tai, Geoffrey Prentice, and Lawrence Chu of revolutionary internet companies Skype and LU.com who saw an opportunity to build a better, more equitable financial system for underserved consumers in Asia’s fastest-growing economies. sia is a fast-growing economy with different levels of people. Each of as a weapon against it. It brings together highly successful teams with a wealth of experience working in emerging markets. Leveraging cutting-edge technology and data-science combined with its strategic partnerships and their resources it creates bespoke-to-market financial solutions that put more people in control of their financial lives. talent in technology (AI, the blockchain, data-science), finance (asset management, banking, credit, private equity), operations (retail, sales, support), and alternative credit (micro-finance, consumer lending). Its products are built using proprietary, next-generation technology to put more power in its customer’s hands – unlocking their potential and enabling greater economic freedom and opportunity. The company is building the largest and most innovative financial services company in Asia’s fastest-growing economies. Its mobile-first solutions are designed to unlock financial freedom and opportunity for communities that have been left behind by the limits of existing financial systems. By making access to credit affordable, easy and timely, everyone benefits especially when it has the ability to empower and transform lives. The Partners The company’s partners are forefront and share our vision. Being local and collaborative is at the core of its quest to deliver the most complete suite of smart financial services tailored specifically for people in emerging Asia’s fastest growing economies. The Company’s Products Bespoke to each market and designed locally to bring greater access and equality to millions of financially underserved consumers and MSMEs - empowering them to do more. It is creating a new infrastructure using next-gen technology: purpose-built to serve consumers wherever they are, offline and online, through a range of lending products and services. Initially, these will include powerful app-based financing solutions. Today, the lack of affordable credit, even for the salaried middle-class, is a trillion-dollar problem. It is the result of a broken financial system that has undervalued millions of people. Hence now the team of digital natives with deep financial expertise and success in building and scaling innovative companies are at full pace. With this, the company will surely move up in the market due to its unique approach. The Firm Brings Together Great Minds, Visionary Partners, and Next-Gen Technology Oriente’s way of developing meaningful financial solutions designed to democratize access to credit people who are highly talented and excited to take risks. It brings together the best global The Difference in Operations Oriente firmly believes that credit should be used as a tool for progress and opportunity, not 50 JANUARY 2019

10 Best Startups of the Year 2019 Asia

10 Best Startups of the Year 2019 Asia

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