Tag: Co-founder & COO

Pepperfry Launches The ‘Pepperfry Accelerator Program’, To Establish Over 200 Studios In A Year
Business World, News

Pepperfry Launches The ‘Pepperfry Accelerator Program’, To Establish Over 200 Studios In A Year

Jun 3, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Amruta Gupta, #Ashish Shah, #Co-founder & COO, #Head of Franchisee Expansion, #Pepperfry

Pepperfry, India’s No.1 furniture and home products marketplace, announced the launch of its new franchise program – Pepperfry Accelerator Program. In line with its objective to build the largest omni-channel network in the country, through this initiative, the company aims to establish over 200 Studios in one year. The new FOFO (Franchise-owned and Franchise-operated) Studios will be launched in neighborhood markets across Metros, Tier 1 cities, Tier 2 cities and beyond.

Pepperfry has always propelled local entrepreneurship in India with its unique business model and, today, enables more than 10,000 merchants to do business on the platform. Through the newly crafted Pepperfry Accelerator Program, it aims to take this effort a notch higher by adding one entrepreneur a day for the rest of the year. Reaching out to the new generation with a message – ‘Build Your Own Business – Why work for anyone?’, the company is targeting the young and aspiring graduates who aim to start a business of their own with minimal investments, corporate employees with one to two years of experience, housewives looking to do business locally as well as small-medium business owners who are looking to expand beyond their own market.

Similar to its current franchise model, FOFO Studios launched through the Pepperfry Accelerator Program will be based on 100% price parity and does not require the partner to hold product inventory, making it a mutually beneficial business association. Pepperfry also offers a revenue structure wherein the franchise owners can benefit by earning a commission of 15% on each online transaction made via the franchise studio. However, the big differentiator of the new program is the Capex required by franchise partners, which is around INR 15 lakhs, one-third as compared to the existing franchise program. Through this program Pepperfry is looking to reach the neighborhood markets and will target to be present through its Franchisee in markets with more than 5000 residential apartments.

Talking about the launch of the program, Ashish Shah, Co-founder & COO, Pepperfry said, “Omnichannel has always been an integral part of our growth strategy and our existing franchise program has helped us expand our offline footprint by creating several touchpoints across major metros and TIER II cities. Taking cognizance of the shift from offline to online among consumers during the COVID-19 era, we aim to further our network across markets, with this new program, and add many more partners in our growth story by providing them with a strong base to build a profitable business. This low-investment, high return program will serve as a great opportunity for first-time entrepreneurs who want to take the leap but don’t know where to begin; we are committed to walk every step with these young entrepreneurs to make them successful”.

Amruta Gupta, Head of Franchisee Expansion added, “We have continued to receive an overwhelming response to our existing franchise program after the lockdown last year and opened 20 new Franchisee Studios in last 6 months, which is a testimony of the model and the opportunity it presents. We are very excited about what this power of local entrepreneurship can present and with the new Pepperfry Accelerator Program, we are looking to enable hundreds of new entrepreneurs across the country.”

Studio Pepperfry has evolved to become a key consumer touchpoint with an average contribution of more than 30% to the overall business. Pepperfry currently has 73 Studios in 40 cities, of which 32 Studios are Franchisee Owned.

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Business World

Leading Ladies Breaking the Glass Ceiling in the Professional World

Mar 5, 2021 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #ChekMarc, #Co-founder & COO, #Co-Founder & CPO, #Co-founder & Director, #Founder and CEO, #Ms. Kriti Aggarwal, #Ms. Nisha Parikh, #Ms. Shikha Kumar, #Ms. Vrinda Johnson, #Nino Bambino, #Prerna Puri, #Prerna’s Handcrafted Ice Cream, #StoreHippo, #Telebu, #VP - HR & Marketing

The entrepreneurial norms are changing with each passing day. With the changing times and circumstances, women have now been able to break the glass ceiling and stand next to their male counterparts. Every woman is strong and possesses an individualistic approach towards life.

1. Prerna Puri, Founder and CEO, Prerna’s Handcrafted Ice Cream – This revolutionary ice cream brand is the brainchild of Prerna Puri, a concerned mother and a homemaker who is now a strong business enthusiast. The mompreneur is a fashion designer from NIFT and has worked as a fashion designer/stylist & interior design consultant prior to her role as a mother and entrepreneur.

Driving inspiration, motivation, courage, support and constant strength from her family, Prerna has been able to create this revolutionary product. Apart from being a visionary entrepreneur, Prerna loves spending time with her family and friends. Also, she is a travel enthusiast and loves adventure sports like sky diving and scuba diving. She is also a mother of one child and on the other hand she manages the both work and parenthood smoothly.

2. Ms. Shikha Kumar,Co-founder & Director, Nino Bambino – Motherhood led this woman to kickstart her own venture into organic clothing for kids, Nino Bambino in the year 2014. Realising the uprising need of safe and sustainable clothing for her new born opened great avenues in the form of Nino Bambino for Shikha. It’s been close to 8 years, and there is no looking back for this womanpreneur who has been striding to create and bring a positive change for the kids as well as the environment.

A proud mother of two, Shikha has developed the concept of Nino Bambino along with her husband, who is also the founder of the brand, Mr Vickram Kumar.

3. Ms. Kriti Aggarwal, Co-Founder & CPO, StoreHippo – A dynamic leader with a demonstrated record for finding innovative solutions and delivering constructive business results, Kriti Aggarwal is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Hippo Innovations. She is the driving force behind the avant-garde designs, overall UI/UX of its product StoreHippo, and heads the marketing and branding efforts of StoreHippo.

4. Ms. Nisha Parikh, VP – HR & Marketing, Telebu – Unleashing the power of communications and innovation, Nisha believes that doers own land of success. The visionary is erudite with a strong academic background. She holds her Master’s degree in Psychology. Nisha also has a deep domain experience of 14+ years where she has been successfully playing the role of a creator, communicator, trainer, leader, entrepreneur & startup evangelist.

5. Ms. Vrinda Johnson, Co-Founder & COO, ChekMarc – Vrinda began this journey with ChekMarc because she believed (and continues to believe) wholeheartedly in the need for a platform that unites people in the simplest, purest of ways. Vrinda is an academic and believes that one never really stops learning. Prior to ChekMarc, Vrinda spent most of her career in Leadership and Financial Services consulting at Russell Reynolds Associates and PwC. She has over 15 years of experience in strategic consulting including leadership development, customer experience and digital transformations, and large-scale enterprise transformation projects. Vrinda is a devoted mother of two, and she and her husband spend most evenings and weekends between homework, art lessons, and basketball and track competitions. In her non- existent free time she is also an athlete & fitness enthusiast, and is just getting back into her first love, dance.

Presenting ‘Practically School Solution’, A Need-Of-The-Hour Free App For Schools And Teachers
Education, News

Presenting ‘Practically School Solution’, A Need-Of-The-Hour Free App For Schools And Teachers

Jan 21, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #“Leading schools, #Co-founder & COO, #Director, #Dr. KKR Gowtham Group of Schools, #Latur and Indore, #Mr. Avinash Kosaraju, #Ms. Charu Noheria, #Ms. Supriya Jadhav, #Practically said, #pune, #Vice Principal, #Vishwanath Karad

Mumbai: Practically, a product of 3rdFlix Visual Effects Pvt Ltd, has a cutting-edge product ‘Practically School Solution’ catering to school teachers. The solution from Practically enables teachers to conduct their own virtual classes absolutely free for designing and delivering content with teaching material, streamlined by topics across STEM subjects for classes 6-12. The solution with its don’t just Learn, Learn Practically approach enhances student engagement in a physical classroom or in a virtual format.

Designed to make learning come alive, Practically is the only such app in the world that combines game engine, immersive learning assets, and AI-assisted study buddy in one compact cross-platform app. It is currently used by close to 13,500 teachers across 130 schools in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and UAE.

Practically School Solution

The Practically School Solution, a B2B2C offering, provides FREE access to the Practically teacher app to schools and their teachers. The niche solution offers 3,000+ videos and 1,000+ Simulations & Augmented Reality (AR) to teachers making the teaching process more convenient and engaging. Learning intertwined with immersive storytelling and real-life examples increase the retention of concepts by over 90 percent after two weeks of learning as compared to about 30 percent using traditional methods of teaching. The Practically School Solution additionally offers features like reports, test-preps, polls, analytics, assigning homework, etc. which empowers the teacher to closely monitor the progress of each student.

Speaking about the solution, Ms. Charu Noheria, Co-Founder & COO, Practically said, “Leading schools like Dr. KKR’s Gowtham Schools and GEMS -The Millennium School have benefited greatly from Practically’s unique experience of School-from-Home. The app enables its users to benefit through experiential learning using immersive videos, interactive augmented reality, and 3D simulations helping teachers connect and engage with students as they would in a real classroom. With the Practically School Solution, we are aiming to equip teachers with a new-age e-learning solution full of hi-tech, hi-touch features. Thanks to Practically School Solution, teachers have been able to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic and teach in a more engaging and controlled manner without incurring any charges.”

“Practically School Solution is absolutely a one stop shop. When we started using Practically for Virtual Classroom Management System, our teachers were extremely satisfied with the experience thanks to a number of useful features. Later on, we realised that students were performing better as they found the gamification and AR videos to be so fascinating that they were better able to retain and apply what they studied. Many of them have also gone on to use Practically outside of school hours because parents have found them to be beneficial for after-school learning as well.”, said Mr. Avinash Kosaraju, Director, Dr. KKR Gowtham Group of Schools.

Ms. Supriya Jadhav, Vice Principal, Vishwanath Karad, Pune, Latur and Indore said, “Covid hit us hard just like the rest of the world. We had to shut down our campus and only recently did we reopen. Practically School Solution helped us tide over the challenges we faced in keeping classes going while we all worked and studied from home. The virtual classrooms, with videos and simulations, quizzes and assessments encouraged teachers and students alike. Practically’s exhaustive content library, scheduling and test prep etc. were all ready when we started using it helping us derive value from day one and ensure continuity of lessons.”

Recently, Practically raised $4 Million in a pre-Series B round led by Siana Capital and YourNest Venture Capital taking its overall funding to $9 Million since its product launch in 2019. The company plans to strengthen operations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and expand operations across India, Middle East and the US in the next 12 months.

Practically Raises $4 Million led by Siana Capital
Education, News

Practically Raises $4 Million led by Siana Capital

Jan 5, 2021 by Rekha Nair 0 Comments #Co-founder & COO, #Founder & CEO, #Mr. Subbarao Siddabattula, #Mr. Sunil Goyal MD, #Ms. Charu Noheria, #Practically, #YourNest Venture Capital

Mumbai: Practically, a product of 3rdFlix Visual Effects Pvt Ltd, announced that it has raised $4 Million in a pre-Series B round. The round was led by Siana Capital, a deep tech investor, with participation from existing investors YourNest Venture Capital and Exfinity Ventures. The company had previously raised Series A funding of $5 Million in 2019. The funds will be invested in expanding the operations of Practically.

Practically is an intelligent, interactive and immersive learning app for students of classes 6-12 with a focus on STEM learning. It is the only experiential learning app that brings learning alive through immersive videos, interactive augmented reality and 3D simulations. It offers an edge over other learning apps by enhancing conceptual understanding and improving retention of concepts with features like life-like video content, hands-on learning, experiential learning, 24×7 seek help with access to subject experts for doubt resolution, live classes, Proton – the AI assistant and study buddy and Coding++. 3,00,000+ students have already benefited from the engaging content on Practically.

Key Points

  • Practically raises $4 Mn in pre-Series B funding; Raised $5 Mn in 2019.
  • Funds to be invested in expanding operations of Practically – a cutting-edge EdTech product for classes 6th to 12th.
  • Practically uses 3D, AR, Simulations to help students learn experientially.
  • The Company plans to strengthen operations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and expand operations across in India, Middle east & US in the next 12 months.

The Practically School Solution, a B2B2C offering, gives schools and its teachers access to the Practically teacher app FREE of cost. Teachers can access 3000+ videos and 1000+ Simulations/AR and features like virtual classes, test -prep, assessments, analytics, and assigning homework, etc. The app covers universal curriculum across Math and Science for 6th to 12th grades. Over 130 schools across India are already using Practically to enable online classes during the pandemic.

Speaking on the successful funding round, Mr. Subbarao Siddabattula, Founder & CEO, Practically said, “This pre-Series B funding showcases the extreme faith our investors have reposed on Practically. The tremendous response that we are seeing for Practically from schools, administration, faculty, parents and students validates our model. Our progress so far is in-line with our strategic growth plans and we are very well placed to tap the accelerated growth that the EdTech industry is witnessing today.”

Practically is an outcome of deep-rooted insights based on several man-years of study around children’s learning & retention modes leading to the innovative use of new-age tech tools such as AR to provide an immersive learning experience for children.

“The recent round of funding will be utilized strategically to expand the market for Practically beyond Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Our expansion plan includes establishing a footprint pan-India in the next 12 months. We are also aiming to expand operations in the Middle East and set foot into the US market in the near future,” added Ms. Charu Noheria, Co-Founder & COO, Practically.

“We have seen a perfect blend of robust technical expertise, understanding of the industry, and a strong business acumen in the Practically team. To us, Practically is a very carefully crafted product that can create a niche for itself in the booming EdTech industry due to its focus on experiential learning.”, added Mr. Sunil Goyal MD, YourNest Venture Capital.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has estimated that India’s EdTech expenditure would reach $10 trillion by 2030. The EdTech sector is seeing significant investments and expenditure by governments, schools, universities, students, and professionals globally. The increasing usage of online learning, propelled by the COVID-19 lockdown, comparatively lower operational costs than physical classes, high penetration of internet and smartphone, and 43% of the population falling between the age of 5 – 24 years, have proven to be significant growth drivers for the industry. The education market is expected to grow 2x to $225 billion by FY25 at 14 per cent CAGR over FY20-25 as per an IVC and PGA Labs report titled ‘The Great Un-Lockdown: Indian Edtech’.

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Business World

BASIC Home Loan to Hire, Develop & Train 25k Entrepreneurs

Dec 9, 2020 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #a Germany-based early-stage technology investment firm, #BASIC Home Loan, #Co-founder & COO, #Kalyan Josyula, #Picus Capital

Gurugram: BASIC Home Loan, an early-stage startup developing a platform for automating home loans for middle and low-income households in India, will create 25,000 entrepreneurial opportunities across India over the next 12 months.

Aiming to become a partner in India’s goal of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Housing for All’, the Picus Capital-backed company plans to hire, develop and train entrepreneurs, especially solopreneurs, under its BASIC Force initiative. The Basic Force will become a PAN India home loan advisor network.

Started in July 2020, BASIC Home Loan is targeting to disburse Rs 3,500 cr of home loans over the next 30 months, as it focuses on the underserved Rs 10 lakh cr affordable housing market.

Commenting on this announcement, Kalyan Josyula, Co-founder & COO, BASIC Home Loan, said.

“Our motivation to start this venture came from our professional journey and experience of closely observing the pain points that a consumer goes through to buy a home in Bharat. The entrepreneurs, especially solopreneurs, in tier-2/3 cities are immensely talented, and our objective is to empower them with BASIC technology to help them become truly Atmanirbhar in our journey of disrupting the affordable home loan market.”

The role of home loan advisors will entail educating and advising home buyers the right lending product according to their needs. They will be expected to do end to end documentation and fulfilment on behalf of customers using the BASIC technology platform.

In its first three months of operations, BASIC Home Loan has sourced $30 million loans for Indian borrowers, and sanctioned $15 million so far, across India’s 125 pin codes in seven states. In October, BASIC Home Loan raised a $500,000 seed round from Picus Capital, a Germany-based early-stage technology investment firm.