Startup news and updates: daily roundup (May 12, 2022)

IPO-bound Navi appoints Meesho Co-founder and CEO as an independent director

Navi Technologies has appointed Vidit Aatrey, Co-founder and CEO, Meesho, as an independent director on its board, effective from April 9, 2022.

Aatrey’s appointment is in continuation of Navi’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its board, having recently appointed three others — including Abhijit Bose, Shripad Nadkarni, and Usha Narayanan.

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With this appointment, Navi’s Board, which now comprises seven members, will have majority representation from independent directors. Other board members include Sachin Bansal, Promoter and Co-founder, Navi; Ankit Agarwal, Co-founder, Navi; and Anand Sinha, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India.

Sachin Bansal, Co-founder of the Navi Group, said,

“I am pleased to welcome Bobby (Abhijit), Shripad, Usha, and most recently, Vidit to our Board. They each bring a unique perspective, and I believe they will add significant strategic value to Navi as we continue to grow. These appointments  further reinforce our commitment to setting high standards in corporate governance.”

Evenflow, Unicommerce partner to strengthen supply chain, streamline operations

Ecommerce roll-up brand Evenflow partnered with Unicommerce to incorporate the latter's order management and warehouse management solution for its nine brands.

Some of Evenflow's brands managed through Unicommerce are BabyPro, Rusabl, Vifitkit, Senego, and Rolid, among others. At present, the company manages its multiple warehouses located across India.

Unicommerce’s technology will enable Evenflow to streamline its supply chain leading to improved warehouse efficiency and automated order processing to ensure on-time and faster deliveries. Evenflow has brands across sports and fitness, baby care, home and kitchen, garden and outdoors, and daily sustainable products, where Unicommerce’s solutions make for a perfect fit. 

Unicommerce’s supply-chain SaaS platform will also assist Evenflow in elevating the post-purchase experience, bringing operational efficiency to achieve cost optimisation. 

Volopay teams up with Visa for fintech fast-track programme in APAC

Post the company’s Series A announcement, Y Combinator-backed corporate cards and payable management company Volopay has partnered with Visa’s fintech fast-track programme to offer financial management solutions.

Rajith Shaji, CEO and Co-founder, Volopay, said, 

“The partnership with Visa’s fintech fast-track programme gives us an edge that we haven’t had before. The ability to issue our own cards sets us apart from other fintech providers who are merely distributing cards. This way, we will have full control over the product we provide to our clients.” 

The programme is not just a licence to issue Visa cards, but a gateway for Volopay into a thriving financial ecosystem. The programme also grants Volopay access to a fair share of guidance, credibility, and establishment aid.

“We intend to keep moving up the value chain, and the Visa programme allows us to do that. Multiple markets allow non-banks to issue cards. With our card, we can create a rounded financial stack to offer our customers. It is an unparalleled mark of credibility,” added Rohit Bhageria, Founding Member, Volopay.

Humsafar India to expand its fuel at doorstep services in 200+ cities during FY22

Humsafar India, a diesel at doorstep service startup, plans to expand its energy distribution services in 200 more cities in India during FY22-23. At present, it offers its services in about 100 cities across the nation.

“The doorstep fuel delivery model has grown rapidly across the country and scaled up even faster in the post-Covid era. This is due to a multitude of factors, including, the global supply chain and economics of fuel trade, structural constraints of the existing distribution model, changing buying behaviour of consumers, and technological disruption. Above all, the government is actively promoting the concept of doorstep diesel delivery (DDD), which has successfully enabled over 1,000 entrepreneurs to make energy more accessible,” said Sanya Goel, Co-founder, Humsafar India.

“Currently, we have 20 percent of the market share for diesel at doorstep service and plan to capture 30 percent share during the current FY22-23,” she adds.

“We are eager to launch e-Humsafar Mobile Petrol Pumps (e-HMPP) to help our customers in their efforts to reduce their carbon footprints. We are also planning to enter the e-vehicle charging station business, and talks are on with renowned companies in this field,” said Nishit Goel, Co-founder, Humsafar India.

Broking firm BP Wealth launches B2C retail offering "Stoxbox" 

BP Wealth has entered the B2C retail digital broking industry with Stoxbox to make investing easier for individual investors. Stoxbox is available on Google Playstore and Apple App Store.

Stoxbox works on a subscription basis, which starts at Rs 499 per month for a user, and eliminates the need for the investor to pay additional brokerage on trading in equity delivery, F&O, currency, commodity, mutual funds, ready-made portfolios, trading calls, and a variety of other services.

Yuvraj A. Thakker, MD, Stoxbox, said, 

“We are delighted to launch Stoxbox. We saw the problem that solid investing advice is difficult to come by. When investors accept recommendations from social media groups or watch specific YouTube videos, you run the risk of losing money. The recklessness caused by faulty counsel is just as harmful as the recklessness caused by ignorance. We concluded that competent counsel is just too expensive to obtain, so we developed a subscription pricing model that does not include brokerage costs to save on brokerages and provide advice in the form of professionally curated ready-made portfolios and thematic investing.”

Thakker added, “Enhancing digital strategy to more effectively harvest data helps increase market penetration, which is how we branched out into verticals like advisory portfolio management, non-banking financial spectrum, and fintech by leveraging our technology, but it's important to remember that services and products must be more personalised to cater to financial needs of segments to support your revenue streams and maintain customer centricity.”

India Inc’s hiring volume set to reach 23 pc, says Indeed hiring tracker

Job site Indeed's findings from the quarterly hiring tracker showcased that a 5 percent increase is likely in the proportion of employers hiring during April to June 2022 as compared to January to March 2022. 

The percentage increase in hiring volume is also likely to see a 3 percent increase to reach 23 percent during Q1, FY23 as compared to Q4, FY 22. 

The findings further revealed that first-time job seekers gained widespread acceptance from employers with nearly eight out of ten jobseekers surveyed (77 percent, up from 54 percent during the December 2021 quarter) securing their jobs during Q4, FY22.

Most of the hiring of first-time job-seekers was from employers in the Information Technology (85 percent), Telecommunication (79 percent) and e-commerce (75 percent) sectors. 

Sashi Kumar, Head of Sales, Indeed India, said, 

“The increase in the hiring volume at the start of the financial year comes as great news for both employers and job seekers, it is bound to unlock a lot of growth opportunities. Infact, companies across sectors are already looking at ramping up their businesses and are focused on building skilled and resilient workforce, We foresee that this hiring momentum will continue to increase in the coming quarter as more employees return to office.”

About 53 percent (up from 47 percent during the previous quarter) of all job seekers wish to work in MNCs, while 13 percent (down from 22 percent) wish to work in startups/SMEs. Travel and hospitality (51 percent) and construction and real estate (55 percent) were among the few sectors, where job seekers preferred medium-sized companies over MNCs and startups. Startups were popular among job seekers in the ecommerce (32 percent) and BFSI (22 percent) sectors.