Tag: coronavirus pandemic

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Sales

Zomato Files for Rs 8,250 Crore IPO As Online Food Delivery Surges in Coronavirus Pandemic

Zomato (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Online food ordering and delivery startup Zomato has filed for an IPO (initial public offering) of up to Rs 8,250 crore on April 28 as the food delivery business witnessed a surge amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Zomato has filed its herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The food delivery platform has already converted itself into a public company from a private one. It intends to raise roughly Rs 7,500 by offering equity shares for sale. The rest amount of RS 750 will be raised through an offer for Sale by existing investor Info Edge.

“If the pre-IPO placement is undertaken, the minimum offer size (comprising the fresh issue so reduced by the amount raised from the pre-IPO placement, and the OFS) shall constitute at least 10% of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital of our company,” Zomato’s DRHP read.

Meanwhile, Zomato has not yet fixed the price band and lot size in which keen investors can bid for shares. The date for the IPO was also not declared in the DRHP.

Zomato, which was incorporated in 2008, is backed by China’s Ant Group. It is currently one of the most promising startups in India. According to Zomato’s official website, it has its presence in 24 countries across the globe. The food delivery startup also employs over 5,000 people.

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Strategy

COVID-19 Impact: 5 Tips to Help Your Businesses Recover from Coronavirus Pandemic

Businesses in India (Photo Credits: Pexels)

Businesses have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are now limping back to normalcy. The Indian economy is now expected to see a faster turnaround with less disruptions to business operations as it opens up gradually. The coronavirus lockdown forced several businesses to shut while consumption slumped, investments took a hit and jobs were lost. In the time of crisis, it can be hard to stay calm, be optimistic and find ways and means to drive your business. For entrepreneurs and business leaders, being calm and working under pressure is part of the job.

In this article, we’ve put together some ideas that will help you in business recovery. Your business recovery may not happen overnight, but you can make it achievable by trying and not giving up.

Here are 4 Tips that can help your Businesses Recover from COVID-19 Pandemic

Strategic Marketing Plan

The pandemic and the lockdown slowed down the world. However, this time can be utilised by business leaders to strategically think about different ways to establish themselves in the market again once things get normal. An entrepreneur need to think of ways that can help them establish the brand identity again in the market. You need to understand your competitors and work on the leads.

Expect Delayed Payments

Businesses have witnessed a lull amid the coronavirus crisis. As businesses struggle to get back to normalcy, you can expect any restart to be a little sluggish. Almost all of us are going to be in the same boat. As you are struggling to re-establish a healthy cash flow, it’s highly likely your customers will be grappling with that too.

Look For New Sales Channels

As people now prefer being home as a precautionary measure amid the pandemic, this gives an entrepreneur a chance to establish and look for new sales channels to sell their products. Find out ways to serve your clients and customers via alternative sales channels. If you have a retail business and the pandemic has hit you hard and there is no footfall, trying looking for e-commerce offerings. If you are into hotel business, majority of people are trying and avoiding meeting at public places, in such case, you can be open for takeaways meals instead.

Review Your Website and Enhance Digital Marketing

As the economy opens, this is an opportunity for you to review your website and update the information with latest trends and demands. Take a look at your competitor’s websites and try to understand if you can add more value to your content, which will help you stand out from the rest in the market. Go digital and promote your website on social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter among others. Try to build a marketing strategy if you are not already doing so. Having a plan and campaign ready as social media marketing campaigns can connect your targeted audience with a marketing message immediately.

Communicate Openly With Your Customers

‘A Customer is the King’ is an age-old business mantra which shows the importance of customers in every business. Businesses that treat their customers as king have reported higher returns than their competitors who puts little to the value of the customers. Hence, be open and clear with your customers and understand their demands. Don’t just sell your product, but provide solutions to them. If this your mantra, no force can stop you from succeeding and taking your business to another level.

 

Categories
Startup

Home Business Ideas: 4 Brilliant Work From Home Ideas That You Should Consider Taking Up

Home Business Ideas (Photo Credits: Pexels)

At a time when the world is battling the coronavirus pandemic, people have been forced to work from hone than ever. Whiles some are working remotely, some have started their own small businesses amid the crisis. Staying productive and maintaining a balance between professional and personal life is the only way out to survive the crisis. Amid the crisis, employers are encouraging or requiring people to work from home for an indeterminate amount of time. If you are planning to start a home-based business, you need to first understand what interests you and what you are good at!

Remember, a business will survive if there is a need of your product in the market. The struggle comes when you have to create a demand for your product, which takes a great deal of time, efforts and funding. Of course, there are pros and cons to consider when deciding whether a home-based business is right for you. If you’re new to the work-from-home lifestyle, you will have to change some of your routine habits to make working from home a success.

Buy products in bulk to sell

If you want to start with a small business, this hack can work wonders! Amid the pandemic and COVID-19 restrictions, people avoid venturing out to buy things. If you have good contacts, you can buy products in bulk and sell them in your circle, neighbourhood and among your pals. These products can be really simple ones, like cups, mugs, coasters or maybe other daily essential items. Maybe you know of some unique products that aren’t readily available in your market despite a demand for them.

Sell homemade products

Be your own boss and sell what you make. There is no other joy that creating something of your own and selling your own handmade products. If you are the maker yourself, you can consider turning your hobby into a business. If you like making candles, cushion covers, curtains, dresses, or anything else, you can create your products and make it commercial. You can also sell gift baskets, handmade jewellery, sweets, homemade cookies, personalized gifts, etc. The only thing you should focus on is to promote and make it reach large audience via social media. As home business idea, there are plenty of opportunities for designers to create and sell their own clothing from home.

Baker

If you enjoy cooking, especially baking, and you can spend a great deal of time baking in order to create enough goods to sell, taking up baking as a profession is meant for you! It is rewarding which fetches you decent income. With too much competition in the market, it is tough to stand out in the crowd. To take up baking business, buy some equipment and set up a commercial kitchen at home. You can sell your products to local shops or businesses or sell products online. Read up on regulations to be compliant!

Freelance Writer

If you are fond of writing and can play with words, it has huge potential to be one of the most profitable business ideas. Freelance writing is the perfect job for people planning to set up their own blog or digital content firm. You don’t need any formal training to become a freelance writer.

Categories
Startup

Festive Season 2020 Sees Around 40% Rise in E-commerce Volumes Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Growth Similar to Last Year

Online shopping
Online shopping (Photo Credits: pxfuel)

New Delhi, November 26: We have seen how COVID-19 has been a major roadblock to every category this year. The world saw the adoption of online technology and sales amid the coronavirus outbreak. A report by financial services major, Bernstein said that the festive season has seen a 30 to 40 percent growth in e-commerce volumes with overall growth similar to that witnessed last year.

The report further mentioned how in the festive season some categories seeing the strength and some others still down year on year. Another interesting read was that there were no major supply constraints this season suggesting adequate channel re-stocking.

Another interesting trend in the report was that tier 1 and 2 mainly comprised of existing shoppers who are buying more, while Tier 3 and 4 reflected new online shoppers. Apparel (including footwear and sportswear) continued to be the largest category in e-commerce. The number 2 category was filled by consumer electronics like mobiles, laptops and others.

Another positive factor highlighted in the report was that people have been increasingly comfortable buying things online. The sharp reduction in return orders which declined by over 25 per cent, and is a good indicator of increased consumer engagement with the online platform and also reflects the quality of growth.

Categories
MSME

Here Are 3 Major Roadblocks on the Path of Indian MSMEs’ Road to Digital Transformation

Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation (Photo Credits: Pxfuel)

New Delhi, November 24: Indian MSMEs realised the importance of digitisation amid the coronavirus crisis. Infact, digitisation opened the gates for many local businesses and helped them strengthen their operations and cope better with stressful times.

However, there are some roadblocks on the path of Indian MSMEs which needs to be cleared to achieve success.

Limited growth capital: MSMEs have limited growth capital that makes technology adoption and digital transformation demanding.

Expensive: Digitisation is an expensive affair, from buying the latest smart devices, strong internet services, to getting skilled employees to manage the system.

Unaware of digital impact: Indian MSMEs are still unaware of digitisation and they fail to create customer loyalty and retention.

India’s micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprise sector is a vital contributor to the country’s growth story. According to a 2019 study conducted by YES Bank, it revealed that over 50 percent of digitally-empowered MSMEs improved their profits, operational efficiencies, as well as customer engagement. In addition to this, the Narendra Modi government has pushed out several initiatives to boost the sector.

MSMEs are not alone in their journey to digitisation, e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart to corporates like Mastercard all have been doling out initiatives to help the MSME sector. Also, several startups like Khatabook, FarEye, Udaan, and others are dolling out several initiatives to help MSMEs in the digitisation journey.

 

Categories
Startup

Microsoft Launches New Programme to Help Health Tech Startups in India, Recover From COVID-19 Pandemic Blow

Microsoft
Microsoft (Photo Credits: Twitter)

Bangalore, November 18: Microsoft launched a dedicated programme to give a boost to health-tech startups in India amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to an IANS report, for this purpose, Microsoft has collaborated with startup incubator Social Alpha to accelerate the growth of participating startups.

The objective of the programme will be to help entrepreneurs with technical support as well as resources for co-selling and co-building tech tools to achieve better outcomes across healthcare.

The programme will focus on enabling these companies to fast track their progress with some of the best technology resources and accelerate their innovation pathways.

Some of the benefits which the Microsoft programme offers are:

Qualified Seed to Series C startups can boost their business with Azure benefits (including free credits), unlimited technical support and go-to-market resources with support for Azure Marketplace onboarding.

Startups which are looking to create healthcare solutions also have access to Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.

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Startup

Mobility Startups Like Bounce, Vogo & Others Working to Increase the Electric Vehicles Market Space And Ensuring Green Environment

Electric Vehicle
Electric Vehicle (Photo Credits: Pinterest)

Bangalore, November 7: There has been a surge in mobility startups like Bounce, Vogo and Rapido, which are increasing the share of the electric vehicles (EVs) space. In fact, the Indian government is emphasising on the sale of only electric vehicles by 2030 or having a larger percentage of EVs on the road by then.

According to a Livemint report, scooter rental startup Vogo aims to turn 70 percent of its fleet into EVs over the next five years. Similarly, Bounce raised capital to invest in transitioning a significant portion of its fleet to EVs.

The EV market currently makes up less than 1 percent of total vehicle sales in the country and experts said that this has not helped to bring down the cost of batteries, which account for almost half of the vehicle’s cost.

More than 90 percent of all EVs in India comprise of low-speed electric scooters. Experts believe that the induction of more EVs will help to bring down the operating costs for mobility startups, which were affected due to the pandemic and amid the nationwide lockdown.

As per reports, in the past two years, more than one million electric vehicles (EVs) hit the road in India. Talking about numbers, over 350,000 units were sold in FY18 and 750,000 units were sold in FY19. This shows that the government and startups are going all out to up the electric mobility game to ensure a clean and green environment.

Categories
MSME

Good News! MSME Business Activity Returning to Near-Normal Levels, Tier 2 & 3 Witness Faster Recovery Than Tier 1 Cities

Startup Growth
Startup Growth (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Mumbai, November 4: It comes as a ray of hope amid the pandemic that the business activity of the micro, small and medium enterprises is returning to near-normal levels. According to a report published on PTI, the SMEs are rapidly developing a digital business tool to increase efficiency and growth.

The positive sign is that out of 36, 16 states and Union territories have witnessed business activity levels higher than pre-covid times. The data gathered by startup OkCredit further pointed out that business activity in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Delhi are trending at 90-95 per cent of their pre-COVID levels.

A similar positive trend is being witnessed in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattishgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Haryana, Assam, Rajasthan, and Himachal Pradesh.

The report further mentions that businesses activity in tier 2 and tier 3 cities are witnessing faster recovery than tier 1 cities. This has been attributed to the rise in micro-retail players increasingly taking up digital bookkeeping solutions.

 

Categories
Business motivation

MSME Credit Health Index: New Indicator Launched to Help Govt, Policymakers, Lenders & Others to Measure the Health of MSME Sector, Check Details

Ministry of MSME
Ministry of MSME (Photo Credit: PIB)

Mumbai, November 2: In order to boost the MSME sector in the country, TransUnion CIBIL in partnership with the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has launched the MSME Credit Health Index.

This becomes very important as the MSME Credit Health Index will provide government, policymakers, lenders and MSME market participants, a unique and reliable numeric indicator to measure the health of the sector.

Here are details about the MSME Credit Health Index:

The MSME Credit Health Index is built using credit data submitted by lending institutions to TransUnion CIBIL. The index measures the credit health of India’s MSME industry on two parameters: Growth and Strength.

Growth will be measured by plotting increase in exposure value (outstanding balances) over time and strength is measured by a decrease/ increase in credit risk in terms of non-performing assets (NPA).

The first version of the MSME Credit Health Index is based on data from March 2018 to June 2020. Rajesh Kumar, MD and CEO, TransUnion CIBIL, in a statement mentioned.

According to reports, the MSME sector has seen an increased level of NPAs in the last two years due to a slower rate of economic growth. The cash flows of MSMEs have been impacted over a period of time thereby limiting their ability to service debts. This has resulted in the Strength Index reflecting a decreasing trend.

 

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Categories
Startup

COVID-19 Impact on Women-Founded Startups: Funding Drops 24% in H1 2020

Startup
Startup (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Bengaluru, October 29: The coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone, from businesses being shut to people being offered pink slips. It has not been a great time for women-founded and co-founded startups. According to an IANS report, funding fell 24 percent to $280 million in the first half of this year, compared to $369 million in the same period last year.

It was witnessed that finding declined across all the three stages- early, growth, and late — compared to H1 2019, said the report by MAKERS India. The report titled “State of Women in Tech Entrepreneurship in India 2020” shared that many women-led startups in order to stay afloat in the middle of the pandemic scaled down their operations or pivoted their business models

There were a few women, who infact branched out to different operations. Like women behind some apparel startups branched out to manufacturing protective face masks and PPE kits.

The positive news was that despite Covid-19, startups with at least one woman founder were able to secure 71 funding deals in H1 2020, at par with H1 2019 (70 deals) and H1 2018 (70 deals).

The study highlighted an interesting trend that between 1990 and 2010, only 26 startups had at least one woman founder. However, 75 startups added at least one woman founder by 2014 and 184 more by 2019. Female-founded and co-founded tech startups in India currently stand at 285.