Ideas|Products|Startups|VCs

WhistleTalk, a social recruiting company, today announced an investment of $400K by Hyderabad Angels. The investment was led by Hyderabad Angels member, Raghu Bathina.

Whistletalk is founded by Vinoo Chacko and Ajay Nema, both worked together at Citrix before starting their venture.

WhistleTalk is a referral hiring application that enables company employees and hiring managers to use their social networks to find the right talent for the right job. The company’s matching and virality engine ensures that right opportunities reach the best candidates at the earliest. As openings are referred by friends, even passive candidates are more likely to apply. Job seekers are further motivated because all applications are employee referred. For the company, getting qualified candidates who already know about their company and at a significantly lower cost makes eminent sense.

“Social recruiting is a huge global opportunity. Companies worldwide are struggling to attract good talent. Globally, we see a trend of smart companies leveraging the influence circles of their current employees to find future employees,” explained Raghu Bathina, a Hyderabad Angel and Director at WhistleTalk. “WhistleTalk is out to revolutionise the way organizations find talent,” he added.

Ajay Nema, Co-founder and CTO at WhistleTalk said, “Given a job description, WhistleTalk uses a highly scalable, distributed computing engine to search thousands of profiles in real time and recommend relevant applicants, reachable through the social network of each employee.”

“We like to invest in companies with great teams that are addressing real world problems with unique solutions,” stated Srini Koppolu, President of Hyderabad Angels. “We appreciate how the WhistleTalk team is taking an innovative approach, empowering employees and job seekers to improve referral hiring.”

“We are excited to have the support of investors like Hyderabad Angels. The willingness of these successful serial entrepreneurs, to mentor and to guide us has been priceless,” said Vinoo Chacko, an ISB Alumni, WhistleTalk Co-founder and CEO. “Everyone wins with WhistleTalk: employees earn a referral bonus from their respective  companies, applicants find access to hidden openings till now known only to current employees and organisations quickly hire the best talent. WhistleTalk was launched just 60 days ago and we are excited with the response from both companies and jobseekers to our solution.”

-Hitesh, vcBytes

Chennai based Marquee Investor Peepul Capital LLC has invested Rs 70Cr in early stage lingerie and active wear manufacturer Brandis Marketing and manufacturing pvt. ltd. Brandis currently has got two brands in the market – Beyouty, an lingerie brand targetted at mid segment and have 2GO which is an active wear brand available in tracks, tshirts, shorts.

Investments will come in multiple tranche and Brandis has received Rs 30Cr in its 1st tranche. Funds will be utilized in developing the production unit, Hiring team in middle level, marketing and distribution and Brandis is confident of achieving a topline of ~Rs 280Cr in 3 years.

Brandis was incorporated in mid 2010 with the aim of launching global capable brands in the apparel and accessories space. Brandis is promoted by Nischal Puri veteran in the Indian apparel industry. Before starting Brandis, he was heading the marketing and strategy at Page Industries (Jockey India). He has been instrumental in establishing and growing Jockey brand in India.

During his tenure in Jockey he changed the direction of the brand from being an men innerwear brand to a lifestyle brand. He was instrumental in launching the exclusive stores for the brand besides changing the consumer perception of the brand from innerwear to an category inclusive brand. Nishcal Puri was responsible for spearheading the listing of Page Industries in NSE & BSE.

The market is growing at 24% and the unorganized is Rs20bn. The size of the Indian lingerie market is Rs56.28bn and can be segmented as follows:  a)  ECONOMY (Rs35.06bn growing at 17%) b)  MIDDLE (Rs12bn growing at 22%) c)  PREMIUM (Rs8.32bn growing at 32%) d)  SUPER PREMIUM (Rs900mn growing at 56%).

Brandis Marketing is going to launch lingerie in luxury segment and also coming out with specialized category targeted at youth.

In lingerie space Brandis Marketing will directly compete with Enamor, Lovable and Jockey and in men’s active wear space it will take head on with Jockey, Hanes.

Popular investments Peepul Capital has made in are – Unibic cookies, Medplus, Univercell.

vcBytes, a product and investment consulting firm played the role of transaction adviser to Brandis Marketing and closed the deal with Peepul Capital. vcBytes Congratulates Brandis Marketing and Peepul Capital and quite confident of excellent outcome from this investments.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

1)      How did you come up with the idea of one-stop online solution for TopTomato?

In an era where time and money have become mutually convertible commodities, we are passionate about creating a solution for the regular shopping chores of the people of Bangalore. Grocery shopping at conventional stores is often related to long queues at billing desks, tiring exercise of carrying the grocery bags back home, fighting for parking space and many more endless hassles over procurement of daily necessities.

The team did a study of the existing retail scenario of India and realized that an average Indian spends 58% of his monthly retail spend on food and personal care segment alone. Hence, the idea of integrating convenience into the experience of household shopping has the potential of touching every household in India.

2)      What is the USP of TopTomato?

Toptomato team aims to redefine the shopping experience of every household by introducing the following unique concepts:

1. Concept of household subscription – for the first time in India. You need to order your regular needs just once and relax, while TopTomato Team takes care of your household needs
2. Nothing sells at MRP – you get discounts on all products
3. Customised home delivery solutions – delivery from 7 am to 11 pm
4. Shopping Lists and customised packages for all segments of the population

3)      Whom do you compete with directly in the e-commerce market?

There are a couple of companies in Bangalore which are in the grocery ecommerce market, including Bigbasket and Zopnow. However, Toptomato is the first in the market to have the concept of subscription for daily essentials.

4)      One of the major issues in e-tailing is the customer churn. How is TopTomato ensuring customer loyalty?

We strong believe in creating an unparalleled customer experience by offering our customers services like delivery within 24 hours, late night delivery slots and no-questions asked return policy at point of delivery. Also, the concept of subscription has been designed in such a manner that high level of flexibility and priority is assigned to such customers, which makes them high on loyalty. Also, we have seen that customers who opt for subscription with us also tend to club their one time requirements along with their subscriptions.

5)      Recently focus has been on mobile internet based e-tailing. Is TopTomato planning to expand in mobile/telephone based order subscription?

TopTomato is planning to launch its mobile application – a pocket supermarket – very soon. The application is currently under development and focus is on creating a user friendly and simple UI for the customers. This will further expand the reach of TopTomato and enable people to place and edit an order from any place at any time.

6)      Is there any plan to expand into perishable food items segment or adding any additional product line?

We are already working on adding fruits and vegetables into our product line very soon. Apart from perishables, we plan to start our own brand of staples in the market very soon.

7)      What are the expansion plans within next 12 months for TopTomato?

Currently the focus is on stabilizing operations and then expanding our operations in entire Bangalore. We have had several requests from people living in areas where we do not cater currently to expand our services there, and our first priority is to reach all these people and cover entire Bangalore within the next 6 months. After that we would be expanding to other metros in India. We plan to have our operations in atleast 3 other metros within the next 12 months.

-Abhishek, vcBytes.com

E-Commerce business focused on groceries are back in focus with few companies tying up funding recently. Although investors were wary about online stores, but that sentiment has changed. Bangalore witnessed the launch of Toptomato, founded by the alumnus of IIT KGP.

Toptomato.in is an online platform for ordering all household items in a simple and convenient manner. They have over 6000+ products in their portfolio spanning the FMCG segments of food, personal care and household care items. They also have highly customized delivery solutions to take care of the preferences of customers in the best possible way. Toptomato.in is the answer to mundane Sunday morning shopping chores, long queues at the billing desks and daily procurement hassles.

TopTomato has couple of unique features which sets it apart in the e-com marketplace.  The website offers packages for different segments of customers and specific delivery slots for comfortable shopping. One can also opt for Toptomato subscription which is based on weekly/bi-weekly/ monthly basis. The website currently retails kitchen and daily essentials and currently features deep discounts on several products. Currently they are operational in South, East and Central Bangalore.

Key USPs:

• Customised home delivery solutions – delivery within 24 hours
• Periodic Deliveries – you place your order once and they are automatically delivered to you
• Concept of shopping list and customized packages

 About the Founders:

Ms. Sneha Roy, Director – Sneha is an Instrumentation Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Post her graduation, Sneha joined ITC where she handled diverse profiles including Project Manager & Plant Maintenance Manager. Sneha believes in doing things differently and innovation is her passion.

Ms. Sananda Misra, Director – Sananda is an Instrumentation Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. After IIT, Sananda joined Procter and Gamble, Bhopal where she spearheaded multiple projects.

Direct Competitiors : Bigbasket, Zopnow.

Investments in this space:

ZopNow – (July 2012)- Raised Series A from Accel Partners, Qualcomm Ventures and media group     Bennett Coleman & Co.

EkStop: (June 2012) – Undisclosed angel funding from angel investors. The investors include:

• Jayesh Parekh (co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television),
• Deepak Shahdadpuri (head of Beacon India Private Equity Fund),
• Patrick Turner (Runs the entrepreneurship department at INSEAD),
• Jungle Ventures, Sanjay Kamlani (co-CEO of Pangea3)
• Senior Google and McKinsey executives.

Bigbasket – (March 2012)-Bangalore-based private equity firm Ascent Capital invested $10 million in the first round of funding in BigBasket.com

Give TopTomato a spin and let us know your feedback.

-Abhishek, vcBytes.com

Kaizen Private Equity LLC, India’s first private equity fund focused on $86 billion education sector in India is leading a Rs 24 crore or $4.6 million round in the Bangalore based Ace Creative Learning Private Limited.

ACE provides training and guidance to students preparing for various engineering and medical entrance examinations. It previously raised funds from Accel partners, Catamaran and few angel investors for its Series A round of investment, who will be funding for the current around as well. Kaizen will also be appointing a nominee on the board of the company.
Ace creative learning plans to expand beyond Karnataka and Kaizen Private Equity are supporting their growth plans. Ace has also shortlisted a few location to spread over the next couple of years. Masterkey Holdings, the Bangalore based boutique investment bank has been sole advisors to Ace learning.

Ace learning has been providing comprehensive training for the IITJEE, AIEEE, AIPMT, FMS and NTSE for more than 10 years since its inception in 1998. The company also offers an online platform for students to attend lectures and study at their homes.

Dr Ganpathy Sridhar, the founder of Ace creative learning obtained his B. Tech from IIT Kharagpur in 1989 and later completed his PhD from The Johns Hopkins University. Today, team Ace consists of 450 members including experienced faculty members who are graduates from the IIT, experienced retired professors from reputed institutes and doctorates from India & the US.A dynamic team of professional deliver high quality education across various teaching environment.
“With education as our focus, we have been looking for high-end companies with a differentiated edge. Ace has doubled its IIT JEE ranks and increased AIEEE ranks by 50 per cent last year, alongside ensuring students are also receiving a balanced preparation for their school board examinations. This success in ranks is because of the company’s ability to attract good students and more effective teaching methodology,” quoted Sandeep Aneja, Founder and Managing Director of Kaizen Management Advisors on joining hands with ace learning private limited.

In June 2011, Kaizen closed its maiden fund at Rs 400 crore. With a keen focus on education sector, it invested RS 25 crore ($4.5million) in Altus Learning pvt ltd, a company providing management and other service form playschools to K-12 segment.

Previously, Kaizen has invested in the corporate day care services firm Your Kids ‘R’ our kids (India) Pvt ltd. It also funded the distance education provider Universal training solutions (UTS) a few years ago. Ace creative learning is the fourth disclosed investment by this education focused investment company.

-Hitesh, vcBytes