WATCH: The week that was – from how Jumbotail has digitised kiranas to Swiggy's tech head on tapping AI
This week, we bring to you the story of Jumbotail, which helps run kiranas as a retail-as-a-service, and an interview with Swiggy’s tech head. We also decode how milktech startups are spearheading the second wave of hyperlocal daily delivery in India.
Mom-and-pop retailers are the life line of the Indian economy. But they have never had the opportunity to use technology to scale up. Over the last four years, Jumbotail has digitised the kirana store with its wholesale online marketplace. The Bengaluru-based startup provides full-stack services for kirana stores, including storefront delivery and payments collection for its sellers.
Jumbotail also has a fintech platform that provides payment solutions and access to working capital credit from its lending partners to its customers. It has till now tied up with over 20,000 kiranas in Bengaluru, and has raised $23.2 million in funding.
Watch our video where we go into what made headlines the past week:
This week, we spoke to Swiggy's tech head on how the foodtech startup is using AI to go beyond food deliveries. In an interview with YourStory, Dale Vaz, Swiggy’s engineering and tech head, explains how the startup unicorn aims to transform itself into an artificial intelligence-first product and leverage this tech to add become an all-round convenience provider.
Dale Vaz, Head of Engineering & Data Science, Swiggy
On Techie Tuesday, we connected with Pitt Huang, The Co-founder, CTO, and COO of Pundi X, who made history in October 2018, with the world’s first blockchain-powered phone call. The man who began coding at 10 believes that the future applications of the new Function X will be wider than just telephony. This, he feels, will be a protocol for future forms of communication as blockchain enables users to securely send and receive data of all kinds, and also have a decentralised file storage system.
Pundi X Co-founder, CTO, and COO Pitt Huang made history by making the world’s first blockchain-powered phone call in late-2018.
From Milkbasket and DailyNinja, to Doodhwala, several milktech startups have had a taste of success based on a simple subscription model of daily essential delivery. So far in 2019, the segment has seen funding activity to the tune of over $25 million. The model’s high customer stickiness and touch point have made it a lucrative segment to start up and invest in. We decode how milktech startups came to spearhead the second wave of hyperlocal daily delivery in India.
In the digital age, startups need new-age accountants. Enter Mumbai-based Savage and Palmer, which handles accounts, tax compliance, and financial reports so entrepreneurs can focus on growing their business and company. Here is how this startup by childhood friends, bootstrapped with just Rs 5,000, makes accounting easy and automated for small businesses.
Watch other video interviews and stories our viewers loved this week:
Why interactive video platform Toch is now betting big on live commerce
Toch founders
After its success with its AI video platform, Mumbai-based Toch is now setting its sights on live commerce, which combines live video streaming with the ability to interact with sellers and buy immediately during the streaming. Founded in 2016 by Vinayak Shrivastav, Alok Patil, and Saket Dandotia, the ecommerce and social media platform uses AI and deep learning technology to detect objects, people, emotion, location and activity seen in the video content in real time.
Why Indore-based Batooni built a platform that pays users to watch ads
Jitendra Chaturvedi, Co-founder of Batooni
Advertising on phone screens may not be new, but Batooni, an Indore-based adtech startup, is focusing only on your dialler. The Batooni app doubles up as a phone dialler, and every time you use it to dial a number, an ad of 10-15 seconds crops up. If you watch the whole ad, you get compensated on a real-time basis with real money that can be used to recharge prepaid phones and pay postpaid phone bills.
Money View is targeting a new generation of loan seekers to scale its business
Puneet Agarwal and Sanjay Agarwal started Money View in 2014. Initially, the startup it would gather data on spending patterns and offer guidance on savings to users. That changed in 2016 as the startup became a full-blown fintech player - the data gathered in its earlier role enabled the team to understand the credit worthiness of people. At present, Money View disburses loans between Rs 10,000 and Rs 5 lakh, for a period of three to 60 months.
Finnable wants to make credit available to SME employees in one minute
Amit, Nitin and Viraj
Furniture, appliances, vacations…our “wants” keep increasing with every paycheque. How can our salary let us have it all? Enter Bengaluru-based fintech startup Finnable, which aims to make personal and consumer loans available in less than one minute. Launched in 2016, by Nitin Gupta, Viraj Tyagi, and Amit Arora, the firm has an NBFC licence and wants to make loans hassle and paperwork-free.
Shoe startup Rapawalk wants to get a foot in the door with its handcrafted offerings
Kashif Mohammad and Aravind Madireddy, alumni of IIM-Ahmedabad’s 2014 batch, started online shoe startup Rapawalk. to give Indian men a taste of Savile Row.
Online shoe startup Rapawalk is bringing the world to Indian men’s feet. The Bengaluru-based online platform lets customers shop for curated designs or personalise any style depending on feet size, width, and comfort, using an advanced 3D configurator.
In a conversation with YourStory, Co-founders and IIM alumni Kashif Mohammad and Aravind Madireddy reveal why they launched a range of handcrafted, Italian leather shoes, and the path they want to traverse now.
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)
