Archive: November 30, 2022

Team E42.ai Builds AI Workers Within 4 Hours in Their Latest Hackathon

New Delhi, 30 November 2022: The world’s leading AI-NLP-powered Cognitive Process Automation (CPA) platform, E42, hosted a hackathon that saw three teams go head-to-head to create an AI worker each within 4 hours. With 9 mentors guiding the teams, the participants were required to come up with the idea, build the AI worker, and create a pitch for the working AI worker that solves defined business challenges – all this within 4 hours. The winner was then decided based on criteria ranging from the novelty and innovative approach in the use case idea, tangible business value, its viability and relevance to the current market, and end-to-end functional implementation.

A result of the intense 4-hour effort by all three teams was three AI workers that aim at solving varied business problems. While the AI Learning & Development Manager can suggest applicable courses as per employee designation, offer employees training materials, and track their progress reports regularly, the AI Customer Onboarding Executive can gather customer details, collect PAN/TAN and OTP validations, and much more. The AI Teacher & Student Assist can evaluate students’ skills, display video and audio lectures/courses, offer a complete results dashboard, and more.

Speaking about the hackathon, Animesh Samuel, CEO and Co-Founder, E42, said, “At E42, we strive to ensure that work is always creative and never boring. This was evident in the thrilling hackathon, where three teams were able to come up with solutions to real-world problems like customer onboarding, L&D, and more in just 4 hours. We cannot wait to bring these capabilities to the market and implement these for our customers!”

5 Startups driving the Agricultural revolution 4.0

With numerous businesses utilizing technologies like data analytics, machine learning, and satellite imaging, among others, to assist farmers in maximizing their yield, the agritech sector in India has grown to be a thriving one. A few of the problems afflicting India’s agriculture industry include the use of out-of-date equipment, inadequate infrastructure, and farmers’ difficulty in easily accessing a wider range of markets. In order to improve and better meet the requirements of customers and restructure the value chain, agriculture 4.0, the next agricultural revolution, will need to consider both the supply and demand sides of the food-scarcity equation.

As a result of advancements in technology and digitization, numerous startups are disrupting and revolutionizing the Indian agriculture ecosystem. Let’s take a peek at a few start-ups fueling the agricultural revolution.

AgNext – Established in 2016 by Mr. Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, CEO & Founder, AgNext aims to facilitate trust and transparency in food value chains. By using deep-tech solutions in the agriculture sector to solve persisting legacy issues, AgNext aims to facilitate trust and transparency in food value chains. Working in Deep technology, AgNext under Taranjeet’s leadership has pioneered computer vision, spectral and IoT-based AI technologies, which today are employed at multiple transaction points enabling transparent and profitable trade in agriculture and food value chains.

Aquaconnect – Founded by Mr. Rajamanohar Somasundaram, Aquaconnect is a technology-driven full-stack aquaculture input and outputs platform with embedded fintech, supported by a phygital distribution network. Aquaconnect provides data-driven farm advisory and marketplace solutions to fish and shrimp farmers through artificial intelligence and satellite remote sensing technologies. Its eyes-in-the-sky and boots-on-the-ground model enables farmers to access formal credit.

Unnati – Unnati, conceptualized and co-founded by Mr. Amit Sinha & Mr. Ashok Prasad, is a fintech-based Agri platform that aims to minimize the risks in farming and ensure much-needed transparency in the farming business. Unnati’s founders recognised the difficulties farmers experience as a result of farming’s lack of predictability and regular access to production inputs and information. Digital technology has the potential to play a key role and deliver immediate answers in this situation.

Their objective to connect farmers to a single digital platform that supports farm entrepreneurship has been their driving force, resulting in the development of a complete ecosystem for farm entrepreneurs. From Unnati financial services to crop-specific consultancy, the brand works with farmers at every stage of the farming life cycle to ensure a sustainable future.

Agribazaar – Founded in 2016, the idea behind AgriBazaar is to deliver tech-enabled future-ready solutions to the farming community in a frictionless manner and revolutionize the way post-harvest management services are processed across the country. It is this vision that empowered AgriBazaar to facilitate INR 9000 crore (GMV) worth of transactions since its inception, making it one of India’s largest online agri-trading marketplace.

Dehaat – Founded in 2012, DeHaat offers agricultural services like access to agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers at affordable prices, personalized assistance, soil testing, weather reports, micro-finance, and insurance. DeHaat has raised $19.3 million to help Indian farmers.

Avtar Gets Listed in Asia Pacific Steward Leadership 25 Listing, 2022

Avtar Group features in the Steward Leadership 25 (SL25) towards “Transforming Workplaces for Gender Inclusion” as the only Indian MSME among other corporate giants

Singapore/Mumbai/Chennai/New Delhi/Hyderabad, November 30, 2022: Avtar Group, India’s premier Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Solutions firm has been named in the annual listing of 25 companies in Asia Pacific that have demonstrated excellence in Steward Leadership. The recognition by Stewardship Asia Centre (SAC), INSEAD Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society, WTW (Willis Towers Watson) and The Straits Times is for Avtar’s work towards “Transforming workplaces for gender inclusion”. Avtar is one of the two Indian companies (other being, Marico) that has made to the SL25 among an impressive number of companies that are featured in the listing.

Avtar Group through its work in the space of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) for the past two decades has pioneered several DEI initiatives in corporate India and has helped over 500+ organizations in their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion cultural transformation. The 360-degree DEI solutioning from Avtar helps organizations aspiring for a performance-driven, inclusive culture to institute culture guidelines and follow a strategic diversity road map for gender balance and inclusive workplace for all.

“Even when there are alarming statistics reporting the widening gender gaps across the globe, this global recognition towards “Transforming Workplaces for Gender Inclusion” reaffirms the fact that India stands in a position to advance bridging the gender gap in the corporate corridors. We at Avtar are deeply honored for the SL25 recognition and inspired to further influence “social” pillar of ESG critically through our vision for gender inclusive workplaces. We hope to extend our impact beyond India by providing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion benchmarks and solutions for organizations in the Middle East and Singapore,” said Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder – President, Avtar Group receiving the commendation at the Steward Leadership Summit held at Shangri-La, Singapore.

Stewardship is creating value by integrating the needs of stakeholders, society, future generations, and the environment. Steward leadership excellence demands genuine desire and persistence to pursue a corporate agenda beyond profit-making. Organizations in the SL25 list are recognized for demonstrating steward leadership in strategy, execution and in shaping the culture.

Steward Asia Centre is a non-profit organization established by Temasek to help businesses and government leaders, investors and individuals activate stewardship practices through research, executive education, and engagement.

“A rapidly changing world reinforces the principle of taking ownership to do the right thing, and a mindset shift that is critical to driving all of us to work together towards enduring value creation for the benefit of stakeholders, society, the environment, and our future generations. These organizations’ initiatives have made a difference, and I hope they will inspire others to act,” said Mr Lim Boon Heng, Chairman of Temasek Holdings, who unveiled the inaugural list at the Steward Leadership Summit.

The 25 organizations and their initiatives were honored at the Steward Leadership Summit, held in Singapore. Mr Chan Chun Sing, Minister for Education, Singapore, graced the event as guest of honor and delivered the keynote address. More than 350 participants attended the event.

“It is really heartening to see the efforts and persistence of so many organizations striving to create lasting positive change in the environment and community. In honoring these 25 inspirational initiatives, our eventual goal is for steward leadership excellence to be the norm instead of the exception, where every firm is committed to establishing a win-win-win outcome for employees, shareholders, and society at large,” said Rajeev Peshawaria, CEO of SAC.

Among the corporates that are featured in the listing include Avtar Group, BNP Paribas Asset Management, DBS Bank Limited, Faber-Castell AG, Marico Limited and Tata Consultancy Services and UBS AG.

Gaja Capital Business Book Prize announces the shortlist for 2022

Mumbai, November 2022 – Gaja Capital today announced the shortlist for its Gaja Capital Business Book prize 2022 edition. The Jury selected the best five books from the longlist that cover a diverse range of stories of business leadership and entrepreneurship from a variety of different sectors – Cement, FMCG, Dairy, Home solutions and IT services.

The 2022 shortlist includes – Ambuja Story: How a Group of Ordinary Men Created an Extraordinary Company by Narotam Sekhsaria; Broke to Breakthrough: The Rise of India’s Largest Private Dairy Company by Harish Damodaran; Disrupt and Conquer: How TTK Prestige Became a Billion Dollar Company by T.T. Jagannathan and Sandhya Mendonca; Harsh Realities: The Making of Marico by Harsh Mariwala and Ram Charan; Maverick Effect: The Inside Story of India’s IT Revolution by Harish Mehta.

Currently in its fourth edition, the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize was instituted in 2019 with an aim to encourage Indian entrepreneurs, writers, and journalists to tell their stories for the world. It offers a prize money of INR 15 lakh, making it the biggest book prize in the country to honour and encourage writers and high-quality business research to help inspire and educate future entrepreneurs.

Gopal Jain, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Gaja Capital said, “Much has been written about India’s steady march to becoming the world’s 6th largest and fastest growing economy. This business book prize is an effort to encourage stories of Indian entrepreneurship and business leadership behind India’s growth. These are stories of some of the special women & men from diverse backgrounds who, through their hard work, enterprise and risk-taking, have created tremendous wealth and employment and will leave behind an enduring legacy of strong, globally competitive businesses. We hope that these books encourage budding entrepreneurs to read and learn from the experience of others and for writers, journalists, and entrepreneurs to share their stories and create a body of knowledge for others to leverage and build upon.” Jain added.

Former Mint journalist, Amrit Raj won the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2021 for its book, Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield, a riveting story of the creation of a powerful Indian brand going global. Author, Mihir Dalal won the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize 2020 for his debut book, Big Billion Startup: The Untold Flipkart Story. The 2019 prize was won by Girish Kuber and Vikrant Pande, the author of The Tatas: How a Family Built a Business and a Nation.

This year’s shortlist of Gaja Capital Business Book Prize honours the painstaking pursuit of notable homegrown businesses as well as offers a commentary on business ecosystems. These chronicles of Indian business stories are canonizing the struggle and joys of entrepreneurship, creating a repository of pioneers and their experiences. The jury, consisting of success Indian business personalities, have arrived at a shortlist of five books after careful deliberation. Gaja Capital announced the longlist of ten books earlier this year.

Commenting on the shortlist of 2022 and the overall reading experience, Manish Sabharwal, Chairman Teamlease and Chairman of the Gaja Capital Business Book Prize Jury said, “This year we had record nominations and an excellent selection of books. The jury had a tough time selecting the shortlist of 5 books. It was great to see a diverse set of stories straddling most of Independent India’s economic history and key sectors of the economy. In a world obsessed with “present-ism”, it’s good to go back to a bit of history and see how entrepreneurs created long lasting, sustainable businesses by overcoming their own unique challenges – valuable lessons that are as relevant today as they were decades ago.”

Vidyamandir Classes Releases Dates of Its Biggest Incentive Test of the Year – VINIT

In pursuit of rewarding good students across the world towards academic growth and endorsing them with incentives, Vidyamandir Classes (VMC), the Apex Institute of the Country and an Epicenter for the preparation of JEE (Main & Advanced), NEET, Boards, INSPIRE-KVPY, NTSE & Olympiads, has announced the dates to conduct its International Incentive Test, which will be held on 4th, 11th, 18th, 24th & 25th December 2022.

This is a one-of-a-kind Admission-cum-Scholarship Test that has got a tremendous response not just in India but internationally also. This test aims to help students realize their potential, conceptual strengths & weaknesses while also helping them brace for various competitive & scholastic exams.

Under the banner name of VIN IT, this test is an opportunity for the students to WIN BIG. On qualifying, students will get the opportunity to WIN, Cash Incentives & Fee Concessions up to 205 Crores*, Rapid Revision Classes for the Current studying Class, a chance to enroll in your preferred VMC Classroom / Online Program and get set to realize your dream of becoming an Engineer or a Doctor, Mentorship under India’s Leading Faculty including VMC Founders & Experts and Scientifically designed Free Practice Tests, Mock Board Tests, extensive E-study Material for the current class

“Building a solid foundation of scientific and technical knowledge and thus preparing competent and motivated engineers and doctors is the primary motto of Vidyamandir Classes. VMC International Incentive Test (VIN IT) is targeted to provide an early start advantage to students so that they get more time to adapt to the quantum leap in the level of difficulty with ease. The emphasis on our courses will enable students to imbibe the fundamental concepts of Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics/ Biology and on sharpening their analytical skills and parallel thinking process, thus enabling to creatively solve complex and tricky problems by mere application of basic concepts,” said Mr. Saurabh Kumar, Academics Director, Vidyamandir Classes.

For the last 4 decades, VMC has been rewarding students with the best mentorship and guidance in India and with VINit, VMC broadens its rich pedagogy with students outside India and further looks forward to rewarding exceptional genius with strong incentives.

VMC(Vidyamandir Classes), has been instrumental in molding the lives of countless students by empowering them to become successful Engineers, Doctors, future leaders & change makers. This extraordinary streak of success has been accomplished under the able guidance of their eminent Founders who have been the backbone of VMC’s value-based pedagogy for close to 4 Decades. They are the torchbearers of teaching as they continue to not just actively & passionately teach, guide & shape the lives of students but also interact directly with them at every stage of their JEE preparation. They are the inspiration behind their mantra of THINK IIT, THINK VMC.

VMC International Incentive Test will provide an Early Start advantage to students of classes VI, VII & VIII and assist in building strong fundamentals which will be an added advantage for various competitive exams like JEE (Main & Advanced), NEET, NTSE, INSPIRE – KVPY, and Olympiads as well. With exposure to competitive exams from an early-stage, Best-in-class faculty and a comprehensive teaching methodology, students will be geared up to take on various Competitive / Scholastic exams.

“Understanding students’ academic needs at different stages of their preparation has been the guiding force behind the teaching methodology at VMC. It is also the secret behind the success of our students in various National and International Level exams. VMC facilitates classes from highly experienced faculty with minimum experience of 10 years in the field of preparing students for competitive exams like JEE and NEET,” said Mr. Brij Mohan, Co-Founder, of Vidyamandir Classes.

The test is planned for not only JEE & NEET aspirants but also for those students who wish to excel in scholastic exams like NTSE, Jr. & Sr. Olympiads, INSPIRE-KVPY and even School & X, XII Boards. Students qualifying VINit Test will get the opportunity to join VMC’s path-breaking & a transformational classroom / online programs which will empower them over the course of time to conquer any hurdle, exam be it National or International.

Noventiq announces strong results for H1 FY2022, including 44% constant currency turnover growth, and 67% gross profit growth

November 2022, London, UK – Noventiq [Softline Holding PLC / SFTL, US83407L2079] (Noventiq, the Group, or the Company), the Cyprus registered global digital transformation and cybersecurity solutions and services provider headquartered in London and operating in almost 60 countries, announces unaudited key operating highlights for the second quarter and first half of FY2022.

Q2 AND H1 2022 BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

 Q2 2022 turnover was $320.4M, an increase of 35% in USD, and 48% in constant currency. For the 6 months to 30 September 2022 turnover was $691M, an increase of 32% in USD, and 44% in constant currency.

Q2 2022 gross profit was $49.9M, an increase of 66% in USD, and 77% in constant currency. For the 6 months to 30 September 2022 gross profit was $95.8M, an increase of 58% in USD, and 67% in constant currency.

Broad based geographic growth, with strong double-digit growth in all 4 regions, including strength in
India, with $315M turnover in H1, and growth of 43% in constant currency.

Services turnover growth in USD of 105% in Q2, driving 63% share of gross profit.

Hardware turnover grew 217% year-over-year in Q2.

Recurring turnover was 73% in H1, up from 60% in H1 last year.

Successful completion of demerger of Russian business.

Rebranded to Noventiq, a strong business with more than 25 years of IT experience, and a strong track
record of growth.

Destination for talent, with c. 3,900 people, up 54% year-over-year overall, and up 76% in Services.

Enhancing Microsoft capabilities and expanding in existing and new geographies.

Investment in growth innovation with key vendors including AWS, Apple, Google.

Continued investment and execution of M&A strategy with 4 transactions announced in FY2022 enhancing skills, capabilities and geographic presence.

Expanded geographic footprint, establishing presence in 4 new countries in Q2 in the Middle East and Asia.

Accelerating the business to multi-cloud > Services > multi-vendor > cybersecurity > digital transformation.

Sergey Chernovolenko, Global CEO at Noventiq, said: “I would like to thank our nearly 4,000 talented professionals at Noventiq for their relentless focus on driving value for our customers. I am proud that we have delivered on the commitments we made 90 days ago. We have delivered tremendous turnover growth in Q2 of 48% in constant currency which was well above our business outlook. I am particularly pleased with the broad-based strength in the business, with all four regions delivering strong double-digit turnover growth. Gross profit growth of 77% was also incredibly strong, well ahead of turnover growth, and significantly above our guidance. At the same time, we have been investing and transforming our business at unprecedented pace and scale. We have not let anything distract us from our key strategic priorities, and we are better positioned than ever before to continue delivering on our strategy for long term profitable growth.”

Jacques Guers, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Noventiq, noted: “We have very successfully navigated significant change in the business throughout this year in the context of a complex market dynamic. In October, we completed the sale of the Russian business, and we have moved forward to a new era under the brand of Noventiq. The brand reflects changes in the technology industry over the last 20 years. Enterprises and organisations around the world require purposeful and intelligent innovation on demand to improve their business outcomes. Noventiq is a strong independent company which comes from the heritage and experience of more than 25 years of deep technology experience. It has a solid foundation and a well-established strong track record of growth driven by a highly experienced management team. The company is growing rapidly, at scale, and operating nearly 60 countries. We have the right recipe for growth, as we continue to leverage global relationships to deliver local outcomes for our customers all around the world.”

BUSINESS REVIEW

Services – Services remains a segment with a highest growth rate. Q2’22 turnover grew 105% to $31.3m. Services continues as the most profitable segment with gross profit margin of 83%.

Services represents 10% of Group turnover, and contributes 52% of total Gross Profit. Services growth reflects the impact of acquisitions, as well as strong organic growth.

Software & Cloud – Turnover from Software & Cloud increased by 23% in Q2’22.

Hardware – Hardware grew 217% year-over-year in Q2’22. Growth in all regions, and includes a mix of both organic and inorganic growth.

Geographic Turnover – Strong double-digit growth in all regions, both organically and due to recent acquisitions.

Profitability

Gross Profit in Q2’22 was $49.9M, up 66% year over year. Growth was particularly strong in the Hardware business (+475% YoY) and Services business with 71% year-over-year. Gross Profit margin, turnover based, was 15.6% compared to 12.7% for Q2 last year, partly driven by the contribution of the Services business.

For Q2’22, adjusted EBITDA was $4.4M. Adjusted EBITDA margin, Gross Profit based, was 8.7%. Adj. EBITDA reflects the significant investments the company is making for future growth. These investments include people, motivation and retention, continued company diversification into Services, corporate governance, systems such as CRM, ERP and digital platforms.

Other selected financial events

Further to the announcement on the 7 th October 2022 of the sale of its Russian business: EGM Sale of Russian business, the company completed the transaction on the 20 th October: Sale confirmation.

At the general meeting held on the 25 th October 2022, shareholders approved the bonus issuance in relation to the transaction: GM Result.

Balance sheet and liquidity

As of the reporting date operational Net debt was negative (cash>debt).

The Cash position as at 30 Sept 2022 was $221.6m.

Net WC at 30.09.22 was $55.8m. This is due to the seasonality of the business.

M&A

Noventiq’s M&A strategy underpins the 3-dimensional growth strategy, and the company has been active over the past few years with a specific focus on key strategic objectives. Of the notable transactions this year, Noventiq announced two deals in the first half of financial year 2022. Both acquisitions will help the company to strengthen Noventiq’s positioning in the Middle East region and beyond:

Seven Seas Technology (June 2022): Noventiq significantly bolstered its Middle East presence through the acquisition of Seven Seas Technology, which is a leading system integrator and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solution provider in the UAE. In partnership with major technology vendors such as Microsoft, HPE and Cisco the company provides medium and large enterprises with collaborative, multi-cloud strategies. SST has 15 Gold competencies with Microsoft, as well as several advanced specialisations. SST’s 300+ ICT trained and certified professionals serve large and medium businesses across a number of sectors including civil aviation, government, oil & gas, banking & finance, hospitality, healthcare, education and retail.

Makronet (Sept 2022): The acquisition of the leading Turkish Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) partner by Noventiq represents a significant addition to Softline’s business in Turkey and the MEA region. It contributes to two dimensions of Noventiq´s three-dimensional growth strategy: geographical expansion, and strengthening sales channel capabilities with Makronet’s own unique platform MyAdmin, which is globally awarded by Microsoft. This solution, which simplifies and optimises customers´ management and operations of CSP assets, complements Noventiq´s own ActivePlatform to further digitally transform customers´ ecosystems. In addition to Microsoft´s cloud solutions, they also offer Software Asset Management (SAM) services and General Data Protection

Regulation (GDPR) security services and managed services. Makronet has almost 1,000 cloud customers in Turkey.

During the second half (H2) of FY2022, the company signed agreements to acquire Saga Group in Serbia
and also Value Point Systems in India.

Value Point Systems (October 2022): Value Point Systems (VPS) is an Indian digital infrastructure and cybersecurity solutions & services with more than 1,200 employees, and over 2,000 local customers. This acquisition accurately represents Noventiq´s strategy and vision for this market:

“Investing in India for India”. Once the transaction is completed, Noventiq will strengthen its global cybersecurity proposition with the skills of VPS’ Security Operation Centre (SOC) – including the cybersecurity integration capabilities and a sophisticated cybersecurity consultancy offering –, which is one of the industry’s leading SOCs in India.

Saga Group (November 2022): Noventiq has signed an agreement to acquire the majority of Serbian software and digital solutions leader Saga Group, bringing 400 people to Noventiq´s team.

Saga Group, which has operations in more than 25 countries, will contribute to Noventiq’s growth in Central and Eastern Europe. This transaction will also help Noventiq to reinforce its global portfolio, as Saga Group is an advanced partner of Oracle and Cisco, as well as Microsoft, DELL, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Juniper, VMWare, and others. Saga Group has built an impressive portfolio of proprietary digital products, including its own IP for digital banking, Fintense – created by Saga’s subsidiary NF Innova –, which is an omnichannel digital banking platform. Saga’s other sophisticated IP platforms are, Weaver, a sophisticated AI chatbot; and Selecta, a next generation
AI-powered CRM platform – these two platforms are created and owned by Intellya, another of Saga Group’s subsidiaries

Noventiq’s management team continues to be pleased with the M&A opportunities in the market, and the strength of the pipeline of deals currently in progress.

Microsoft

Noventiq is one of 10 globally managed Microsoft’s partners and has been further progressing this cooperation. Noventiq sees very significant potential to partner with Microsoft and scale in many more markets around the world. Noventiq works closely with Microsoft across multiple customer segments ranging from SMBs to large organizations across private and public sectors. Noventiq, and formerly
Softline, has collaborated with Microsoft for more than 25 years and is continuing to expand its services footprint with Microsoft solutions. Noventiq is now a Licensing Solutions Provider and Cloud Solutions Provider in more than 35 countries. The company is a member of the prestigious Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, a Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Services Provider, with twelve Advanced

Specializations by Microsoft, and maintains 5 out of 6 Microsoft solutions partner designations. In 2022, Noventiq has received a number of Partner of the Year awards.

ESG

Noventiq continues to advance and embed ESG across its operations, and it continues to be at the forefront of Noventiq’s strategy. The company focuses on creating an environment where people can prosper. Noventiq’s commitment to its teams has been recognized with the certification of Great Place To Work in many of its regions. The company has a longstanding dedication to the preservation of basic rights
and human dignity in the workplace and beyond, including diversity and inclusion policies which areincredibly important to the company’s leadership team.

As part of its ESG strategy, Noventiq’s purpose is to ensure environmentally sound and sustainable development of the company, and will continue to look for ways to reduce the climate impact of its business. Noventiq also has a resilient framework in place for ethics and compliance in all the markets where they operate. The company will continue to promote diversity across its extended governance structure. The company has implemented a Board governance structure in line with best practice

Awards

Noventiq was recognised as a ‘Visionary’ in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SAM Managed Services.

Noventiq continues to benefit from very strong vendor relationships, and this quarter, Microsoft recognised Noventiq Vietnam and Noventiq Cambodia with the Partner of the Year Award, for excellence in innovation and implementation of Microsoft´s solutions.

Embee, a company acquired by Softline in January 2020, was also recognised with the Microsoft India Area Award 2022 – MWP Partner of the Year. This acknowledgement emphasised Noventiq’s leading position in the market, and comes after Softline India was recognised by Microsoft as the leading Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) in India early this year.

Business Outlook

Based on the sale of the Russian business and the visibility across the Noventiq regions, the company is now able to reinstate its business outlook for the full year 2022.

Noventiq expects to deliver turnover growth of at least 28% in reported currency in FY22, or at least 39% in constant currency based on FX rates at the end of H1. This would represent nearly $350M of new turnover.

This outlook reflects the continuation of a solid demand environment; however, the company is also conscious of the broader economic and geopolitical uncertainty. The company is managing the business responsibly, and based on what it sees today, it does see a path to potential upside.

As it relates to Gross Profit overall for FY22, the company expects gross profit margin in the range of 13 to 14%, and is targeting the upper end of the range.

Noventiq expects to deliver adjusted EBITDA margin on gross profit of close to double digits in FY22. This includes the impact of the very significant investments the company has been making this year. Including the impact of M&A proforma, and additional IPO organic investments, which are starting to fuel the top line, the adjusted EBITDA margin on gross profit is expected in the high-teens.

The company believes this is a significant achievement for the business given the macro environment dynamics related to the geopolitical situation.

Noventiq remains focused on delivering on Q3 and driving continued profitable growth for the full financial year 2022, and will continue to manage the business responsibly while closely monitoring the demand environment.

For the full year FY2021, Noventiq reported turnover of $1,155,753, and gross profit of $146,461.

Other selected events

Since the 20 th of October 2022 the company operates under the brand name of Noventiq: Noventiq RNS.

Renowned Marathi Poets Ashok Naigoankar & Mahesh Keluskar Inaugurate Maati Nature Restaurant At Kankavli

30 November 2022, MUMBAI: There are two things that the world hungers for: food and entertainment. When you get the best of both in one place, you are in seventh heaven. This is what happened to guests at the inauguration of Maati Nature Restaurant by Maati Nature Resort, which opened with a celebration of Marathi Athav Divas by Swamiraj Prakashan. Renowned Marathi poets, Ashok Naigoankar and Mahesh Keluskar regaled the guests with hilarious anecdotes and soul-stirring poems at the inaugural of the eco-friendly restaurant in Kankavli.

The inaugural, on a cold evening, warmed up with a love poem in Malvani by the glocal poet, Keluskar, who hails from Sindhudurg and has performed across the globe. Naigoankar Kaka, who at 75 is still 18 in his heart, made amusing observations about how women can be ruthless, if they choose to be so, by comparing their behaviour in the kitchen vis-à-vis men. Giving the example of curry leaves, he quips that while women think nothing of separating the leaves from the twig in one go and putting them in steaming oil, men will be gentler, peel them leaf by leaf, and include it gently into the dish during the cooking process. He quipped, “Have you seen them grating coconut? It’s like they are grating your heart out.” His quirky observations generated laughter among both women and men.

The restaurant was launched following the engaging jugalbandi of Naigoankar Kaka and Keluskar. Everyone present at the inaugural event got to enjoy authentic local Malvani food cooked on chulha (wooden fire) under the open sky.

Stating that the resort group’s policy is ‘Atithi Devo Bhav’, Sakshi Sawant, the owner of the resort, said, “As a theme-based restaurant, Maati Nature showcases an innovative menu and vibrant and quirky décor. It has also made room for ‘live barbeque sessions’ where guests can customize and make tandoors as per their taste. Foodies can also get to explore and satiate their tastebuds with iconic Konkan dishes – from Malvani chicken to kombdi vade, fish fry, prawn curries, and solkadi.”

The owner added, “Apart from the scrumptious local food, our restaurant also offers indoor and outdoor games as well as several selfie points for social media engagements. The enriching experiences out here will leave you with memories for a lifetime.”

Prominent doctors, lawyers, teachers, businessmen and politicians were spotted at the inaugural event of Maati Nature. They left quite impressed with the food and services at the unique eco-friendly and earthy resort and restaurant.

Bank of Baroda announces Winners of Hackathon held in collaboration with Microsoft

Hyderabad/ Mumbai, 30 November 2022: Bank of Baroda (Bank), one of India’s leading public sector banks, today announced the winners of the online nationwide Hackathon that was launched on July 20, 2022, with Microsoft as the Technology Partner. The bank received a total of 23,420 entries from developers, students, professionals, start-ups, fintechs etc. The participants in the hackathon were expected to build innovative solutions to address specific business problems given by the bank. The hackathon finale was concluded on November 25, 2022 in Mumbai.

Team Brenin, Team Forza Analytica and Team 1001001 were adjudged the first, second and third winning teams respectively. They were felicitated by Mr Joydeep Dutta Roy, Executive Director, Bank of Baroda along with other senior management of the Bank in the Grand Finale held at the Bank’s Corporate Office. The winners received cash prizes ranging from Rs 5 lakh to 2 lakh. Further, Mr Sanjay Mudaliar, Chief Technology Officer of the Bank informed that the Bank will explore the feasibility of implementing the winning solutions within the Bank, giving the winners an opportunity to enhance their prototypes to make them production grade.

Team Bernin won the first prize for their project Digital Doppelgänge, a conversational AI/ML based Digital Avatar. This multilingual doppelganger addresses user queries while reducing cost and effort and improving customer experience. The Digital Avatar is a Virtual Banker for assisting the Bank’s customers in their enquiries, account and loan details along with providing details on the Bank’s other offerings. Team Forza Analytica were the first runners-up for their Call Centre Analytics prototype which is built for the collection, measurement and reporting of performance metrics of calls made through the Bank’s call centre. It processes the audio of the call recordings to gather information regarding multiple call centre data points, i.e. Customer Sentiment, Problem Category, Agent Performance, Call Resolution Metrics, etc. Team 1001001 was the second runners-up for their innovative Alternate Authentication solution based on Keystroke Dynamics, which authenticates customer access by recognizing certain unique and habitual patterns in a user’s typing rhythm. All of the innovative solutions are built using Microsoft Azure services.

Mr Joydeep Dutta Roy, Executive Director of Bank of Baroda said, “Banking today is one of the most vibrant sectors, marked by digital disruption and a constant evolution in consumers’ preferences. To thrive and be at the forefront in such a dynamic environment requires us to be forward-looking and progressive in our approach. The hackathon gave us a platform to interact with some of the country’s most promising talent and understand their outlook on banking for the future. It is also a great opportunity to mentor aspiring change makers who have the potential to be future industry leaders.”

Mr. Vijayant Rai, Country Head – BFSI, Microsoft India said “Bank of Baroda has been a frontrunner in adopting emerging technologies to introduce innovative products and services to enable an enhanced digital banking experience for its 150 million customers across the world.  As Microsoft, we are honoured to be the ‘Technology Partner’ and participate in this initiative and are enthused to see the innovative solutions that came out of the hackathon and the potential scale of some of these applications. Our heartiest congratulations to all the finalists.”

The Bank of Baroda hackathon was divided into two phases – the first phase called for idea submissions while the second phase included prototype development. The six themes of the hackathon were:

• Automated Cheque Processing
• Video Analytics
• Virtual Avatar
• Call Centre Analytics
• Virtual Assistant
• Alternate Authentication

The top shortlisted teams were invited to the finale in Mumbai where they presented their prototypes to an eminent jury panel comprising subject matter experts from Bank of Baroda and Microsoft. The entries were evaluated on the basis of their uniqueness, security standards and scalability of the solution.

SEGULA Technologies and TEEPTRAK Join Forces to Offer 15% Performance Gains to Manufacturers

Accurately measuring the efficiency of industrial production is a major challenge for all sectors of industry. There is a good reason for this: productivity losses are costly. The implementation of performance indicators, based on the consolidation and analysis of data collected from the machines, assembly lines and workshops of a factory, is essential. SEGULA Technologies’ engineering departments have long been aware of this issue and they are constantly looking for cutting-edge solutions to offer their clients around the world.

The potential of the monitoring solutions developed by the young company TEEPTRAK was identified in the framework of HeXplora, the industrial innovation project accelerator orchestrated by SEGULA. Their flexibility and ease of installation, as well as the modularity of the proposed monitoring systems, which have already been tried and tested with 200 clients on four continents, with performance gains of at least 15%, have won over SEGULA’s Process and Manufacturing experts. Today’s partnership between the scale-up and the engineering group illustrates SEGULA’s constant desire to integrate ever more innovative solutions into its offering.

Founded in 2014, TEEPTRAK’s mission is to make industrial performance measurement accessible to all through Plug&Play solutions that are ultra-competitive and made in France. Its offer includes several monitoring tools based on a combination of sensors, tablets and software accessible on a platform. It offers several thematic approaches: quality (QualTrak), machine performance monitoring (PerfTrak), analysis of industrial process data using an artificial intelligence algorithm (ProcessTrak) and real-time monitoring of manual tasks (PaceTrak).

TEEPTRAK solutions are compatible with virtually all types of industrial equipment, translated into more than 18 languages, and able to be installed and configured by users themselves – without the need to be integrated into their IT systems, but easily done. They can be installed in less than an hour and provide simple, useful visualizations for field teams to help them identify the causes of non-performance.

Accessible, these solutions deployed within numerous small and medium-sized companies, as well as at major industrial players such as Stellantis, Hutchinson, Savencia, Essilor or Alstom, have already proven their effectiveness, with significant gains in Overall Equipment Effectiveness and a return on investment that can be counted in a month.

“For us, improving performance and industrial efficiency are permanent challenges, regardless of the country, the sector concerned or the type of production. We therefore make sure that we integrate the most innovative and effective tools into our support offerings,” explains Aurélien Tribolet, SEGULA’s Strategy and Industrial Performance Manager. With TEEPTRAK, we can offer manufacturers a turnkey, functional measurement tool which, with a suitable strategy, will help them to optimise their productivity without heavy investment.”

“This partnership with SEGULA, whose experience and expertise are deployed across all major industry sectors, is a sign of confidence and recognition of the solidity of our solutions, comments Guillaume Artigue, Director of Operations at TEEPTRAK. We want to prove that the transition to Industry 4.0 can be done in an accessible and simple way, with quick and tangible results.”