If these economic jolts of last few weeks are called recession; I am pretty amused by it.
- Pleasantly amused by my all brokers (companies like ICICI Direct, Kotak) sending me mailers explaining different plans and simple logic behind them. None of them cared a quarter back. Last year it was a “take it or leave it” attitude.
- Pleasantly surprised that companies are talking about online, mobile, low cost models, leveraging technology etc etc. A quarter back, everybody was in a land grab mode - open as many outlets as possible, hire as many people as possible
- Pleasantly surprised when I went to my school back at ISB. Students’ expectations seem to be with rest of the world. An year back - everybody was dreaming for a Cr job
I think two main +ive developments have happened:
1.) Businesses are willing to spend time with their customers. There is a thought of “Customer Retention”.
2.) Cost of doing the business - from real estate cost, talent cost etc has come down.
Overall, I think lot of arrogance, which comes with growth have moderated. I understand that a recession also brings lot of pain (I lost my entire savings of last year) but I think it’s necessary to set things right for further growth. Thoughts? Comments?
-Mukul
Published by Mukul on September 15, 2008
in General.
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NASSCOM has extended discounted entry fee for the VentureWoods community for its upcoming NASSCOM EmergeOut Conclave 2008 scheduled for 29th Sep 2008.
Please find attached the registration form. Please email to avinash@nasscom.in for any clarifications.
Second episode of TiE Canaan Entrepreneurial Challenge would be aired on CNBC TV18
on:
Saturday – 26th July – 1:30 PM
AND
Sunday – 27th July – 9 AM; 1:30 PM; 6 PM
I am happy to share that we have led an investment round of $6MN in UnitedLex with Helion. UnitedLex is a legal consulting and outsourcing firm. Sahad has covered some numbers on broad KPO market in his posts.
Since last 12-18 months, we came across many companies in the broad KPO market - Legal Outsourcing, Financial Analytics, Market Research etc. We believe that ability to scale and sustain growth will become a key success factor in the KPO space. While on sales side, one needs a good sales engine which can close deals in the competitive and fragmented US market. W.r.t delivery, you need ability to drive efficiency by bringing more and more processes on a technology platform. UnitedLex has been able to excel both on sales and delivery front and we hope to help build this into a big business.
-Mukul
The play out time for The TiE- Canaan entrepreneur challenge are as follows:
Saturday: 1.30pm
Repeat on Sunday: 9.30am and 10.30pm
This Saturday the 1st episode goes on air. There will be a total of 3 episodes at these times.
-Mukul
TiE Canaan Entrepreneurial Challenge 2008 was concluded on Saturday, 5th July.
The winners of the Challenge are:
Equitas – A microfinance company, which started 6 months back with great management team. They have been able to innovate around processes to scale very fast in this business.
Druvaa Systems – It’s a backup company focusing at laptops and handhelds.
Iken – A company with core IP in analytics and is applying that to storefronts (web and mobile) to present the “right catalog” to each customer.
Overall, it was an exciting series and pretty enjoyable interacting with all the companies. I think feedback from participants, if they are reading this entry would be valuable.
The inside working of series would be aired by CNBC later this month. Due to lack of any other communication platform, I’ll inform here on the dates.
Today, RBI took another incremental step in defining Mobile Payments in India. The bank has published draft guidelines for Mobile Payments - “Mobile Payments in India – Operative Guidelines for Banks” . It’s encouraging that steps are taken in recognizing the industry and putting standards around it. However; it seems like a cautious approach. My observations:
RBI has defined Mobile Payments as
• Exchange of Information on mobile – Balance Enquiry, Statements etc
• Payments done involving mobile
RBI has acknowledged Banks as an important partner (since banks are liable for KYC norms) in offering mobile services and therefore, such services are restricted to KYC/AML compliant instruments – Bank Accounts, Credit/Debit Cards
Implications:This would bring services like eWallet / mWallet / Store value cards under RBI scanner and I see a regulatory risk in such businesses
The bank has recognized the long term goal of mobile payments to enable Peer to Peer (or Peer to Business) money transfer. However; RBI has also limited this scope to bank accounts.
Implications:Going back to my above point; I think businesses like Paypal might not pass regulatory hurdle in India. All operators & service providers have to partner with banks to enable payments involving mobile. I also don’t see any hope for relaxing this in future.
RBI has also raised the entry barriers for new entrants. Banks have to take board approval for offering such services to their customers. It would mean longer sales cycle – good for existing players but bad for new ones.
We have been following payment space from last some time and it looks interesting to us. I have also seen some case studies in geographies similar to India. In my opinion, two top most success factors in this industry would be:
• A strong use case to drive user adoption – In all success case studies, I have seen there is one use case which compels customer to try mobile payments. It can be mobile recharge, peer-to-peer money transfer, ticketing for mass transit system etc etc
• It would need active involvement of banks and mobile operators. While banks provide the backend payment infrastructure (& regulatory issues around payments); operators are best partners to acquire customers.
If you want to read technologies related to Mobile Payments in India, find them here
I would be happy to discuss and understand what new payment start ups are doing in Mobile Payments
Hi All,
It’s my pleasure to introduce this community to final eight entries of TiE Canaan Entrepreneurial Challenge 2008
| Name |
Category |
| 11rupees.com |
Internet - Financial Services |
| Good Morning Research |
KPO - Financial Services |
| Druvaa Software |
Software |
| Ginni Systems Limited |
Software |
| iKen Solutions Pvt Ltd |
Software |
| Infogile Technologies |
Mobile |
| Rx Healthcaremagic Pvt. Ltd |
Internet - HealthCare |
| Micro Finance India Private Limited |
Financial Inclusion - MicroFinance |
We received around 140 plans.
Regards,
Mukul
VentureSource has published a news article on VC activity in India for the period Jan - Mar 2007
“Venture capital firms invested $98.9 million in 16 Indian companies in the first quarter, a fraction of the year-ago period but about steady with the quarterly pace of 2007, according to data released today by VentureSource.
It’s difficult to compare the data to last year’s first quarter, when investment suddenly skyrocketed with 37 companies raising $512.7 million. But the next three quarters of 2007 averaged out to about 13 companies raising some $113 million.” more here
Internet has its decent share in terms of Value & No. of Deals - Cleartrip and BharatMatrimony are large size deals done in Q1. Among early stage ventures: Ixigo, 123Greetings.com, Kijiji India, Study Places are few, I am aware
Regards,
Mukul
Hi - Last date for submitting entries for TiE Canaan Challenge has been extended to 25th May.
We are seeing a good response. Also, CNBC TV18 has been roped in to feature the Winners and the working of Challenge in three series.
Regards,
Mukul
(5 votes, average: 3.4 out of 5)
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