The turning point - your startup fix for the week

So, you want to start up but you don't know which idea you want to work on. You are not alone. In our new series, The Turning Point, we focus on the moment when an entrepreneur hit upon their winning idea. 

We began with Bengaluru-based online meat brand Licious. Launched in 2015, by Abhay Hanjura, Senior Vice President at Futurisk, a risk advisory and corporate insurance brokerage firm, and Vivek Gupta, an investor at Helion Venture Partners, Licious focusses on quality and promises the best quality meat at your doorstep. 

Four years down the line, Licious delivers 6,000 orders in a day and has an average basket size of Rs 700. In the first year of operations, Licious clocked a revenue of Rs 1.47 crore, which has since zoomed to Rs 180 crore at the end of FY19.

Next, we took a look at Razorpay, which is one of the first payment gateways in India. To make payments simpler for startups and SMEs, Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar started Razorpay in 2014. With no background in finance, the duo decided to build a payment gateway after they realised the existing online payment systems were long and tedious. 

The idea was simple - get a payment gateway integration for startups and merchants within 15 minutes. The existing systems needed a lot of paperwork and took close to a month to integrate.

Inspired enough? We also have many other startup stories to boost your Monday!

This startup wants to lessen the woes of medical tourists

IIT-Guwahati alumnus Harmeet Singh started Avocure in 2017. It is a medical travel startup that aims to connect patients from across the world with local hospitals. The Gurugram-based startup also helps patients get a second opinion from expert doctors across the globe.

This wearable air purifier lets you deal with pollution

AirTamer is a simple wearable (it can be worn as a neckpiece) that lets you breathe in clean and pure air. Exclusively launched on ecommerce platform GlobalKart in November last year, the air purifier is also available on Amazon and Paytm Mall. It is currently priced at Rs 9,999, the same price it is available for in the US.

Namaste Credit is facilitating easy credit for SMEs

Bengaluru-based B2B loan marketplace Namaste Credit is automating the process of underwriting loans. With 80 banks using the platform as of now, the startup has disbursed Rs 1,700 crore so far.

Patna's Work Studio is driving coworking in Bharat

While there are the likes of WeWork, Cowrk, Innov8, and CoLive in the metros catering to the segment, smaller towns and cities seem to have a lack of quality coworking spaces. Spotting the gap in the market, Alok Kumar, Prakhyat Kashyap, Rahul Samrat, Ishan Paul, and Sonu Sourav started Work Studio Coworking in Patna in April 2018.

EBTL designs energy automation devices for India

Engineer Bringing Technology to Life (EBTL) focusses on the home automation segment where an ordinary electric switch panel could become a hi-tech but simple to use device connected to the internet. The Delhi-based startup is confident of achieving Rs 100 crore revenue in the next two years as demand for its smart energy automation devices.

CLIRNet ensures better healthcare by connecting doctors

Mumbai-based CLIRNet's platform helps doctors to collaborate on complex patient cases over audio calls, allowing customised discussion, irrespective of geographic limitations.

Kolkata's Tea Junction is brewing up plans to expand across India

Started as a single tea-and-snacks shop in a Kolkata mall, Tea Junction has grown into a chain of 50 stores across Kolkata and Siliguri. The startup has ambitious growth plans: 100 outlets or more, by 2020.

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