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Startup

Zomato-Blinkit Deal: Here is everything you should know!

After approval of the proposed acquisition, food delivery application Zomato plans to start integrating Blinkit on multiple fronts. On June 24, 2022, Zomato announced that its board had approved the acquisition of quick commerce company Blinkit for INR 4,447 crore.

According to the terms of the agreement, Blinkit shareholders will get a cumulative stake of 6.88 percent in Zomato, and the target company’s leadership team, including co-founder and CEO Albinder Dhindsa, will continue to hold their positions in the company.

The move comes at a time when Zomato is gearing up for 10-minute delivery. It has been said that “Zomato Instant” is already on track in Gurugram along with dark stores and how they will help Zomato in its 10-minute delivery plan.

A dark store is a micro-fulfillment center for online orders. It is a retail distribution warehouse or center that is specifically dedicated to those who shop online. A dark store acts as a lifeline for quick commerce platforms like Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart that promise to deliver groceries to customers within 15 to 20 minutes.

Blinkit has visibility into inventory owned by third-party distributors and retailers that stock about 4,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) across a variety of product categories in a network of warehouses and distributed dark stores. Even after shutting down several dark stores in the recent past to cut losses, Blinkit still has about 400 such stores as of May 2022.

Zomato’s founder and CEO, Deepinder Goyal, said in a blog post announcing the deal, “Quick commerce has been our stated strategic priority since the last one year.” He says quick commerce’s close synergies with Zomato’s core food business give the company the right to win in the long term.

Now that Zomato has acquired Blinkit, the priorities will be customers, cross-selling products, and delivery fleet integration. “We will experiment with different ways of integrating the two customer bases or rather make sure that we are able to leverage Zomato’s customer base for the growth of the Blinkit business,” said Zomato CFO Akshant Goyal. Zomato may consider moving the Blinkit to the Zomato app.

Blinkit had become a unicorn—a privately held company with a valuation of $1 billion or more—last year following a $120 million funding round from Zomato and New York-based investment firm Tiger Global. Zomato invested $100 million in Blinkit when it was operating as Grofers before the food delivery company was listed on Indian exchanges last year.

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Startup

5 Smart Tips To Create Successful Moment Marketing For Startups!

We can never forget the moment when during a press conference Cristiano Ronaldo moved aside Coca-Cola bottles. While this one small action resulted in the reduced valuation of the famous brand overnight, many other brands made the most out of this opportune moment to score a creative goal.

A lot of creative memes were captured on the screen followed by several famous brands like Fevicol hijacking the event to connect with their customers. The idea was simple- custom-fit the controversy according to their brand, to market themselves, appeal to their clients, and rope in new ones. This was a moment of marketing that was used by all popular brands across the globe and equally works for small start businesses.

 So what exactly is this concept of Moment Marketing that has become all the rage?

Moment Marketing is an awesome technique that utilizes the ongoing viral event without having to pay for it. Though many people assume that it is a new thing, they are completely mistaken. The Utterly Butterly Amul girl has been hijacking the ongoing events for decades. The creative and witty liners have been received well and enjoyed by the audiences as well.

If you are an entrepreneur, who is looking to hijack a viral moment for your brand presence to reach more audience, here are 5 tips to ace it:

1. Stay Updated with the Trends & Keep Your Product in the Centre

One of the most crucial aspects of Moment Marketing is to stay updated with the viral trends. It helps you to recreate the viral moments and this connectedness helps you to spot trends and stay upgraded with the important news.

While you may be already attuned to the growing trends on social media, you still might have to keep an eye out for those trends that can be utilized as a part of moment marketing for your brand.

Another thing that should be kept in mind while crafting a marketing strategy is to link it smartly back to your product. It will help to create brand awareness and accomplish the ultimate goal of improving sales and customers.

2. Incorporate Humor

Humor is the best way to put across your brand message on the internet and bring a smile to your customer`s face. Irrespective of the trends, brands that manage to capture viral trends with a funny jab on them are usually rewarded with high audience engagement, increased followers, or even paid media mentions.

Brands like Burger King, Amul, Zomato, and IKEA understand the power of humor and hence utilize it to take on current topics. If you are an entrepreneur with a small startup business, you can follow their page to realize that this approach works well for them.

3. Pop Culture All the Way

Can we ever forget the evergreen superhero movies or memes that have funny references from Gangs of Wasseypur? Pop culture references are the best way to grab your customers` attention. Your brand can create posts that have a feel of an inside joke using your brand`s voice while sharing your brand`s ethos and subtly building affinity without your target audience.

If you have a startup business, you can use this trend to increase your brand awareness on Social Media Platforms.

4. Maintain your Brand`s True Voice Without Being Pushy

Marketing strategies that appear effortless work like a breeze. There is a fine line between effortless moments marketing and marketing that appears to be a desperate attempt by a brand to look cool. Always ensure that your efforts don`t fall into the latter category by keeping your brand`s core values at the forefront of all your moment marketing activities.

5. Choose Trends Wisely

Not every customer is a potential customer. Similarly, not every trend is meant for your brand. Not every incident, or event needs to resonate with your brand`s personality. Neither should you try and insert your brand into every trending topic out there.

When a trend talks about controversial issues like politics, religious sentiments, wars, or any other sensitive issues, it is best to keep a distance as you would not want your brand to be associated with something which is remotely offensive. You can also watch video-based on Moment Marketing, here:

Moment marketing for brands is a fun way to engage with your customers. And while Ronaldo or Zomato may provide the push to set the marketing ball rolling, it is the quick, witty, and collaborative thinking that results in successful moment marketing. Try our helpful tips mentioned above while preparing a solid marketing campaign.

To learn more about marketing, you can take our online Problem Solving Course that is designed for specific business problems.

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Sales

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

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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Startup

Hottest Startups of 2020: Paytm, Dream11, Zomato, Ola, Swiggy Among Top 10 Startups of 2020, Says Report

Mumbai, December 10: As per the Hottest Startups of 2020 Report, Paytm, Dream11, Zomato, Ola, Swiggy, Big Basket, Oyo, Byjus, Snapdeal, and Unacademy are the top 10 hottest startups of 2020. It needs to be mentioned here that all the ten startups hold the title of unicorns.

Paytm topped the list in terms of creating the most consistent buzz throughout the year while Dream11 bagged the title for the prominence of its brand.

The Hottest Startups of 2020 Report by Wizikey, celebrates the top 100 most influential startups in India emerging sectors like Fintech, E-commerce, SaaS, Logistics & Edtech, that have successfully redefined the ecosystem in 2020.

2020 also emerged as the year of Fintech due to the strong wave of cashless transactions like UPI and wallet payments that were witnessed in both metro and non-metro cities.

Some of the new players that have found a place in the list of hottest startups are- CRED and Khatabook. Big Basket found itself leading the sectoral list but ranking overall at number 6, way above Grofers which is ranked at 15.

 

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Startup

Zomato, Toppr, Rebel Foods & Other Startups Raised Funding Amid COVID-19 Pandemic; Here Are 5 Indian Startups Which Closed Funding Deals

Mumbai, October 6: The year 2020 has not been an easy year so far due to the pandemic, from the rising infections, increasing deaths to job losses, businesses being shut to the dwindling economy. However, there have been few players who performed well and managed to hold high in spite of the challenges laid out on their path.

The crisis has also seen some startup raising funds and closing deals. Here is a list of five startups who raised funding during the coronavirus lockdown.

Cloud Kitchen Hoi Foods: In May 2020, Cloud Kitchen raised $2 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by 1Crowd. The cloud kitchen startup also saw participation from Sprout, Angelist, Samar Singla (Founder of Jugnu), Jaideep Mehta (CEO of VCCircle), Mukund Kulashekaran (SVP of Business at UrbanClap), and other

Zomato: Gurugram-based Zomato closed four rounds of funding, securing its latest round of $100 million in September from Internet Fund VI Pte Holdings.

Toppr: In July, ed-tech startup Toppr raised Rs 350 crore in Series D round, led by Foundation Holdings, with participation from existing investors, including Kaizen Private Equity.

Rebel Foods: In April 2020, cloud kitchen operator Rebel Foods raised $50 million from existing investor US-based hedge fund Coatue Management, according to its filings with the Registrar of Companies.

JetSynthesys: In July 2020, gaming and entertainment startup JetSynthesys crossed 100 million users across 180 countries. It raised an equity round of Rs 300 crore led by Adar Poonawalla and Kris Gopalkrishnan.

According to a report published earlier this year, the funding in Indian tech-led startups rose by 14 percent in the first quarter of 2020 as compared to the same period last year, yet only 16 percent startups and SMEs had the cash to survive for more than three months revealed a study in June.

The consumer confidence collapsed in May 2020, with the Current Situation Index (CSI) touching historic low and the one year ahead Future Expectations Index (FEI) also recording a sharp fall, entering the zone of pessimism, as per the Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) released by the RBI during the COVID-19 lockdown.

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Startup

Indian Startups Can Now List Overseas Before Going Public in Country

New Delhi, September 21: In a big relief to Indian startups, the government has finally allowed Indian companies to list abroad before getting themselves listed in India. According to a Moneycontrol report, this was part of a series of amendments under the Companies Act, 2013, including moves to decriminalise various offences and improve the ease of doing business in India.

This move will now enable dozens of loss-making domestic startups to opt for an initial public offering (IPO). The amended law will “permit the direct overseas listing of Indian corporates securities in permissible foreign jurisdictions through an enabling provision.”

Most Indian startups want to list in US, the country which has the maximum investors. In India, the investors and entrepreneurs have ben asking for this amendment for the past few years, because under the current law, loss-making companies are not allowed to list in India.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected the market everywhere, from job losses to companies being shut, the economy of most nations is in the doldrums. Despite COVID-19, global stock markets, including US have held up. Technology stocks have also performed better than many sectors.

The amendment of the law surely comes as a positive sign to the startups who have been waiting to go public. There are reports, that Zomato, Policybazaar, Delhivery have expressed their desire to go public in the next 12-18 months.

 

 

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Startup

Zhenhua Data Leak: Tech Startups And Online Ventures Among 1,400 Indian Companies Being Snooped by Chinese Firm

Mumbai, September 15: There are reports that Shenzen-based Chinese technology company Zhenhua has reportedly been snooping on famous people, including 10,000 prominent personalities and organisations, according to an Indian Express report. It claimed that a database compiled Zhenhua has at least 1,400 Indian companies

Heads of Indian companies like Nykaa, PayU, Flipkart, Zomato, and Swiggy are also being monitored. Binny Bansal, Deepinder Goyal, Nandan Reddy, Falguni Nayar, and PayU business head Nameet Potnis are mentioned in the list.

Chinese online spies are aiming at the venture capitalists, angel investors, founders and chief technology officers of India’s new online ventures including payment apps, technology startups and foreigner investors based in the country.

The list also includes names of payments, education, and delivery apps. Several promising start-ups and e-commerce platforms are also under the watch.

Payment apps like Paytm, Razorpay, PhonePe, Pine Labs, Avenues Payments, and FSS payment gateway, are under the radar. Some of the delivery startups apps that are under the watch are – Bigbasket, Daily Bazaar, Zappfresh, Fresh Meat Market, Zomato, Swiggy, FoodPanda, online meat delivery platforms.