With over 6,000 research reports, Ken Research aims to bring the power of market research into every sector
Have a startup idea? You are not the only one. So, what sets you apart? How does your product help improve the market? There are many questions a startup entrepreneur needs to be prepared to answer, and if there is one thing that helps one in their quest is market research and understanding. However, there is limited information available for niche and uncovered sectors.
It was while looking at the gap in the market intelligence and consulting space, that Ankur Gupta and Meetu Bhasin, friends from their time at Delhi University, decided to start up in the field. Their friend Namit Goel also joined in. “We were motivated to create a difference in the field and create a catalogue for otherwise uncovered and niche sectors,” adds 28-year-old Namit.
What does it do
Ken Research's core business model is that it generates its income through the sales of market intelligence and equity research, which can be either customised or syndicated.
The startup recently launched a subscription base via Ken Wallet to enable its clients to get a bundled research piece on a recurring basis as per their requirement at a discounted rate with a year or a tenure subscription.
“We create pull-market pitch through prior intelligence in sectors where information is seldom available. These research reports become case studies for clients who are seeking intelligence in that sector,” explains Namit.
Building an aggregator for market research
Around 70 percent of the company's revenue is generated from clients outside India, including from regions such as the US, Europe and Asia. Some of its marquee clientele include Roche, Amway, Emami, Freecharge, Eureka Forbes, Huron, Panasonic, Practo, Tata Communications, HSIL, IndiaMart, PayU and Western Union.
Ken Research also has started an aggregator platform while simultaneously publishing content with a separate SMO team to promote the reports of its channel partners including publishers such as Timetric, Canadean, Buddecomm, WealthInsight, World Market Intelligence, Verdict Financial, Pyramid Research, Conlumino, Kable and Others.
The categories it covers include consumer products and retail, agriculture and animal care, healthcare, media and entertainment, metal, mining and chemicals.
This aided Ken Research to create a one-stop research-need solution for the clientele across verticals. “We currently have a repository of over 6,000 research reports, which will extend to over 20,000 by the end of this year,” adds Namit. He adds that the face of market research has changed with the contribution of small and large enterprises. The market opportunity for outsourced market intelligence is huge with new business growth and optimism with startup ecosystem.
Namit says that their USP is their realistic research approach and analytics that they use to uncover facts and report CATIs bias, hypothesis testing from industry veterans.
A little bit of the past
Prior to joining Ken Research, Ankur and Namit worked as an investment banking analysts with UBS Investment Bank, followed by the stint with an investment bank in Bengaluru, where he was the part of the M&A, venture capital and private equity transaction advisory team, and was responsible for managing mid-market transactions and deal flow generation.
Meetu was part of the management team of Koncept Analytics, where she helped the company build strong relationships with global advocacy, and successfully expanded the product development process. She worked on varied industry verticals including education, healthcare, BFSI, technology and telecom, food and beverages, and others.
Market research for market research platforms
“Our strong network association aids the team to map the market and check the sanity of the market data from gamut of entities in the ecosystem. Our focus is to provide the hypothesis and logical reasoning behind the addressable market and confidence interval for the accuracy of the data and account for contingencies for the market intelligence,” adds Namit.
The team’s estimates say that outsourced market research sector has grown to almost around Rs 1,000 crore from Rs 350 crore in the last 10 years. The team believes that market research spending from startups and companies who wish to achieve scale in sectors such as e-commerce, logistics, healthcare and education will drive this market forward.
“Our competitors include firms working in the domain of industry research and consulting, such as markets and markets, RNCOS, IMRB International and others,” adds Namit. The team nevertheless believes that Ken Research has built a reputation of cataloguing uncovered and niche sectors research where intelligence is not available or the market is too fragmented or unorganised to get the information.
The platform clocks a 50 percent year-on-year growth in topline and research contribution to renowned intelligence marketplaces, such as Thomson Reuters, S&P Capital IQ, ISI Emerging Market, among others.