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<keyword id="1956517" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Paisa-Swipe">Paisa Swipe</keyword>, India’s No.1 <keyword id="2003312" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mobile-lockscreen">mobile lockscreen</keyword> ad and <keyword id="1659188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="content-discovery">content discovery</keyword> network, has raised $350K from US-based angel investors, sources told Business Insider India. The eight-month-old start-up will use the <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> to launch its <keyword id="1335034" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Windows-app">Windows app</keyword> by March 2014. In October last year, the start-up launched its <keyword id="956764" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Android-app">Android app</keyword> (http://bit.ly/1cqWVim) in beta and one can download it for free from <keyword id="963171" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Google-Play">Google Play</keyword>. 
 Last we checked, total downloads at Google Play stood at 35,000 and the rating was 4.2 out of 5. According to <keyword id="170488" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="co-founder">co-founder</keyword> and India head <keyword id="1956519" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Revanth-Mittapalli">Revanth Mittapalli</keyword>, the app is currently seeing 1,000 downloads a day, has crossed 20 million ad impressions and is witnessing at least 600,000 ad impressions per day. The company is also eyeing expansion in five more countries in order to grow its user base. 
 The <keyword id="940588" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="mobile-ad-network">mobile ad network</keyword> was founded in May 2013 by a global team of three with expertise in the mobile business. CEO <keyword id="1956515" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jian-Tam">Jian Tam</keyword> has extensive experience in digital marketing and prior to Paisa Swipe, he had played a key role in setting up two other companies. Director <keyword id="1956516" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chris-Marshall">Chris Marshall</keyword> has studied in London School of Economics and specialises in the wireless space. Earlier, he held leadership roles at three companies and one of them, AePONA, was sold to Intel. Revanth Mittapalli is the India head with focus on digital marketing and four years of industry experience. The start-up has headquarters in Hyderabad and New York. 
 
So what’s unique about this start-up? As mentioned in our earlier <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/This-Mobile-AdNetwork-Lets-You-Control-What-You-See-Pays-For-Ad-Viewing/articleshow/26583316.cms">coverage</a>, Paisa Swipe not only connects brands, content and consumers, but also pays mobile users for viewing the ads. All you need to do is log in and provide more information about your interest areas. Now every time you turn on your phone, an advertisement appears on your lockscreen, related to your interests. The ‘earning’ part is also easy. If you like the content, simply ‘swipe’ it to learn more and you will get paid by the Paisa Swipe advertisers. 
 As of now, each member gets up to 60 paise per ad display, but the monthly earning cannot exceed Rs 300. But people can earn even more and win <keyword id="2003297" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Referral-prizes">referral prizes</keyword> if their friends sign up. These include cool prizes such as movie tickets, electronics, vacation packages and more. When the ‘encashment’ point (Rs 50) is reached, one can use the amount to cash out at <keyword id="1105324" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Freecharge-in">Freecharge.in</keyword>, which offers recharge services for mobile, DTH and data cards. You can also donate to charity with the money you earn here. 
 In spite of overall positive response, Paisa Swipe has also drawn flak for copycating <keyword id="5565" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="South-Korea">South Korea</keyword>’s <keyword id="2003304" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cash-Slide">Cash Slide</keyword> that runs a similar app. However, we must not forget two things in this context. 
 Blindly cloning a successful business does not guarantee success. Instead, much depends on the contextualisation of the concept and finally, the execution. Berlin-based <keyword id="1965711" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rocket-Internet-GmbH">Rocket Internet GmbH</keyword>, a venture arm of the Samwer brothers and known for cloning several successful online business models of the US in other markets, could be a case in point here. Although Rocket-backed start-ups at home and abroad are famous for their fast and furious cash burn, none is close to profitability yet and some ventures like Gurgaon-based 21Diamonds had been shut down. In contrast, Paisa Swipe has kept a close tab on the market pulse and is evolving accordingly – crucial factors that lead to success. Much of it will also depend on growing the user base and tying up with big brands. Once that is done, it will be interesting to watch if the US angels-backed <keyword id="1948071" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-start-up">Indian start-up</keyword> can make successful foray into global markets.

Mobile Ad Network Paisa Swipe Raises
Funding From US Angels, To Launch Windows App

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has stopped in its tracks the green shoots of economic recovery that were visible. Simultaneously, it induced a triple crisis of disrupting the supply chain, demand, and workforce for India's fragile Micro, Small, and <keyword id="126907" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Medium-Enterprises">Medium Enterprises</keyword> (<keyword id="6393272" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="MSMEs">MSMEs</keyword>), which are often cited as the backbone of the Indian Economy. While MSMEs were already finding it difficult to manage their cash flows including the rigorous lending criteria of banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) with limited assets to use as collaterals, this disruption meant a double whammy of further delay in settling of their receivables as well as lenders becoming more risk averse. While the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a slew of measures, including the issuance of credit schemes and calling out financial institutions to adopt cash-flow-based lending, yet the transmission of these relief measures to a majority of MSMEs remains a challenge. This highlights that the crux of the problem is not the lack of schemes, rather the informal nature of MSMEs and lack of organised set of financial documents, which casts a unique challenge for lenders to assess the creditworthiness of these enterprises. Today, just 40% of the sector’s credit demand is met by formal credit. Add to that the information asymmetry between the data available for MSMEs vis-à-vis large and mid-sized corporates where the lenders’ tend to apply the same lens of existing credit-risk assessment processes to MSMEs to those applicable for larger corporates. This often multiplies the operating cost for lenders to serve MSMEs as compared to the return on their loans. Though this scenario and the increasing credit requirements of MSMEs point to a colossal credit gap of ₹ 30 lakh crore, it underscores the critical role financial technology (FinTech) companies and new-age lenders can play in supporting MSMEs to adapt to the changing reality and respond to the challenges. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Capitalising on creditworthiness" comment="subhead" text="Capitalising on creditworthiness">Capitalising on creditworthiness</cmsannotation> The marriage between technology and financial services provides digital lenders an opportunity to focus on making MSMEs profitable and creditworthy. Alternative sources of data, such as cash flow, utility bill payments, point-of-sale transaction records, and even information from e-accounting programs can help put in place a comprehensive model to assess MSMEs’ business health. Further, by incorporating Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and analytics into these models, lenders can build a more accurate financial health model with a comprehensive credit risk profile to detect and mitigate fraud and NPA risks. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Unlocking cash flow and reducing days sales outstanding" comment="subhead" text="Unlocking cash flow and reducing days sales outstanding">Unlocking cash flow and reducing days sales outstanding</cmsannotation> In addition to simplifying the lending process, innovative technology leveraged by FinTechs can enable electronic invoice presentation, processing, and reconciliation that will also help in better credit monitoring. Considering that chasing late payments is a tiresome process that leads to locked up working capital, e-invoicing can help in significantly removing procedural delays resulting from manual processing of invoices. It also reduces the time required to make and receive payments, gives a real-time status of pending invoices, and helps release locked up cash flow. In addition, MSMEs can also leverage these e-invoices to avail loans instantly, as the process to verify the genuineness of invoices by lenders can be reduced significantly. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Financing through digital supply chain platforms" comment="subhead" text="Financing through digital supply chain platforms">Financing through digital supply chain platforms</cmsannotation> <keyword id="168300" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="digitalisation">Digitalisation</keyword> of supply chains has been a game-changer for MSMEs that has enabled faster liquidity for them. While banks continue to assess creditworthiness for collateral-based lending to MSMEs, new-age lending platforms can digitally evaluate transaction data through AI-driven credit models in near real-time and offer trade financing products and services contextualised to the parties involved in the trade. Some platforms allow integration of their products and services into banks’ MSME platforms, which can subsequently be offered to MSME customers through digital medium. While no one solution can bridge the existing credit gap for MSMEs, leveraging alternative financing tools, such as e-invoice financing, peer-to-peer lending, and TReDS can go a long way in addressing this issue and create an enabling environment for MSMEs. Further, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to disrupt economic activities worldwide, FinTechs, banks, and NBFCs will have to come together to build differentiated lending models to forge the right balance for financial stability and create solutions for the credit needs of MSMEs. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/sona-comstar-ipo-price-gmp-should-you-subscribe/articleshow/83505013.cms">Sona Comstar IPO worth ₹5,550 crore opens today – find out if this EV battery player has enough juice for a long ride</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/why-dodla-dairy-has-no-plans-to-expand-beyond-southern-india/articleshow/83503817.cms">Here’s why Dodla Dairy has no plans to expand beyond southern India for at least the next two years even with its IPO</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/adani-group-under-sebi-scanner-on-market-manipulation/articleshow/83501698.cms">Gautam Adani loses over $7 billion in net worth after questions over the meteoric rise in group stocks</a>

Cash, capital and credit trickle down to small businesses at a frustratingly slow pace — tech can speed them up

Can we get more value from the significant investments going into renewable energy in <keyword id="19895063" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="India" source="keywords">India</keyword>? India needs to see USD 293 billion of <keyword id="19895437" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="investment" source="keywords">investment</keyword> made between 2023 and 2030 to meet our ambitious renewable energy (RE) targets, according to <a href="https://ember-climate.org/press-releases/india-needs-394-billion-additional-financing-to-reach-net-zero-targets/">Ember,</a> with an additional USD 101 billion required to align with the IEA Net Zero Pathway. This <keyword id="19955404" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="finance" source="keywords">finance</keyword> is needed to not only build capacity in solar and wind itself, but also the supporting transmission and storage infrastructure. This sum is significant by any measure, making it imperative that it is well-directed. For size comparison, India’s government spending on roads would be USD 230-265 billion over the same period, should recent trends continue. There are many other agendas that also require this funding. So what if this finance was “multi-solved”? What if it contributed to the decarbonisation of our energy system and helped advancement on health, meaningful livelihoods, economic and infrastructure resilience, while improving food, water and materials security and a stronger social fabric? What if financiers could ensure this money could fund more than just decarbonisation of the energy system, and quickly? To a certain extent, we can see evidence of increased awareness and intent for this multi-solving among the seven major types of financiers of RE in India (see diagram below). But evidence found through a Dalberg and Responsible Energy Initiative study suggests we’re definitely not getting the best bang for their buck. <keyword id="21390367" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ESG-integration" source="keywords">ESG integration</keyword> has become more common parlance across all RE financier types, indicating greater awareness of the need to consider environmental, social and governance factors within decision-making. Thematic investing is also growing, where investments target specific <keyword id="49089" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sustainability" source="Orion">sustainability</keyword> themes such as clean energy or the circular economy. Some mechanisms have become so mainstream that the government is using them widely. For instance, the 2023-24 budget included initiatives to scale RE that were funded by green bonds. ESG integration and thematic investing practices are playing a part in driving greater finance towards RE, but they are not yet enabling RE financiers to support developers or manufacturers to multi-solve. To do this, financiers need to move more towards investing for impact where they intentionally seek positive social or environmental impact alongside financial return, or even shareholder engagement, “suggestivism” or activism, where they actively engage with RE companies to enable and promote sustainability practices. Dalberg and Responsible Energy Initiative research suggests that, of the seven major types of RE financiers in India, the multilateral or bilateral development banks and finance institutions and the international pension funds have the strongest awareness, intent and capability to practice this shareholder engagement. Various examples were found of these types of financiers working to enable their RE investees to address decarbonisation while contributing to aims such as circularity, rural economic revitalisation and provision of climate-resilient infrastructure. The research found, however, that the development banks are the only type of financier that generally holds the capability to enforce sustainability standards and encourage greater impact post-investment. Even then, monitoring challenges means this is not the universal practice with all the projects they finance. Awareness and intent within foreign banks, sovereign wealth funds and private equity are certainly growing. In general, however, they are all still some way off supporting RE to multi-solve. Their understanding was found to be generally limited to ESG compliance and a net-zero goal. This means RE projects are often considered inherently sustainable, and therefore do not need support to realise more environmental and social goals — which is certainly not the case in reality. All financiers felt less able to consider social impacts due to complex quantification methods and varying global standards. Whilst global dialogue and stakeholder pressure (for instance from LPs and employees) is driving greater intent across all financier types, equity investors find it difficult to quantify the impact of more responsible investment processes (like shareholder engagement) on exit value, thus limiting their intent to act. There are some notable exceptions to this generalisation; for instance, TPG investors work to advise their RE investees on sustainability practices. However, these are islands of excellence in a large sea. Domestic banks in the majority lag behind in terms of awareness, intent and capability to engage in multi-solving due to low perceived legal and business risks. Anecdotal evidence suggests for instance that very few loan providers and relationship managers feel able to place or manage sustainability conditions on their lending to RE value chain members. Banks such as Axis Bank and Yes Bank have been working to improve this. So what might the seven types of financiers do to enable the RE sector to multisolve, therefore getting more impact bang for their buck? The first step for all types is to acknowledge the need to move from managing risk through ESG integration, to also intentionally seeking holistic positive benefit beyond net zero. The development banks and pension funds can lead this shift in narrative and intent, enabling the others to learn from their examples, contextualising the learning to the needs of each financier type. The second step is to move from intent to action. This means a broadening of what we mean by return to include impact and actively seeking to drive multiple positive impacts through each investment decision. This might require looking at longer time horizons than some investees are used to in order for the social and environmental benefits to be realised. This would inadvertently mean challenging some entrenched narratives around return periods. The third step is to see the role of financiers as enablers beyond the straightforward provision of capital. For instance, this may be through building in incentives for greater impact during the life of the plant and their financing. It may also be about taking a clear stand on specific issues, as <a href="https://www.eventideinvestments.com/insights/eradicating-forced-labor-from-solar-supply-chains/">Eventide</a> has on forced labour for instance, and engaging and collaborating with investees to overcome challenges. We need to move beyond collecting data on surveys to building knowledge and trying solutions together. We don’t have much time. At least USD 293 billion will be spent on RE in India alone by 2030. By taking the above steps, all types of financiers of the transition to RE can ensure that we get the maximum value from that money. RE can enable not just the decarbonisation of our electricity system, but also enhance health outcomes, meaningful livelihoods, and economic and social resilience. Anna Biswas is a Managing Director at the Forum for the Future India. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the author/interviewee do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India. The article has been partly edited for length and clarity.

OPINION: As India seeks $293 billion for renewable energy transition, how can we get more bang out of each green buck?

<keyword id="8901041" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="FamPay">FamPay</keyword>, a <keyword id="2461546" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="FinTech">fintech</keyword> startup focussed on teenagers, on Wednesday said it has raised USD 38 million (about ₹278.4 crore) in funding, led by Elevation Capital and existing investor <keyword id="136147" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sequoia-Capital-India">Sequoia Capital India</keyword>. Other early investors, Venture Highway, Y Combinator, Global Founders Capital and new Global Investors like General Catalyst, Rocketship VC, and <keyword id="2779666" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Greenoaks-Capital">Greenoaks Capital</keyword> also participated in the Series A round, a statement said. FamPay will use the latest round of funding to build a leadership team to further fuel growth, it added. FamPay makes it convenient for teenagers to make online and offline payments through FamPay app as well as FamCard. In addition to payment products, FamPay also offers gamified savings experiences. "FamPay is creating a market segment that a lot of brands don't focus on today. It's their (teenage users) first step at being responsible with money, their first step into adulthood. We plan to stay with them from this first step throughout their financial journey by evolving the product as they grow," Kush Taneja, co-founder of FamPay, said. The company has crossed 2 million registered users within 8 months of its launch and has been averaging 100 per cent month-on-month growth. In March 2020, the company announced raising USD 4.7 million in seed funding from Y Combinator, Venture Highway, Sequoia Capital <keyword id="3658" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>, and Global Founders Capital, as well as angel investors, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Robinhood co-founder Vladimir Tenev, CRED founder <keyword id="192201" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kunal-Shah">Kunal Shah</keyword> and <keyword id="1552189" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pine-Labs">Pine Labs</keyword> CEO Amrish Rau. Launched in 2020 by Kush Taneja and Sambhav Jain, FamPay is a marketing and distribution partner of IDFC FIRST Bank Prepaid Card. "With around 40 per cent of the Indian population being below 18, every year millions of new teenagers will start using their first smartphone and FamPay envisions becoming their go-to brand," Sambhav Jain, co-founder of FamPay, said. "We are privileged and delighted to partner with Sambhav, Kush and the entire FamPay team as they march ahead in their mission to reimagine banking for teenagers. We have been extremely impressed by FamPay's product innovations, growth trajectory and customer love - all early signs that FamPay is destined to become the destination app for GenZ and gateway for their access to fintech and beyond," said Mridul Arora, Partner, Elevation Capital. India today has a sizable population of adolescents and we believe that catering to this unserved audience with innovative products contextualised to their needs and behaviours will create a very valuable business, Arora added. "It was apparent to us they (FamPay) understood their users and had very nuanced views on how to serve them best. The team is excited to double down in this round and is looking forward to working with them to help build FamPay over the next many years," Shailendra Singh, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore, said. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/twitter-may-now-be-directly-responsible-for-every-single-tweet-in-india/articleshow/83565645.cms">Twitter may now be directly responsible for every single tweet in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/policy/news/china-will-not-buy-iron-copper-aluminum-zinc-and-some-other-commodities-from-foreign-countries/articleshow/83565216.cms">China has decided to take global commodity bulls by their horns ⁠— to protect the profit margins of its small businesses</a>

Teenager-focused payments startup FamPay raises $38 million led by Elevation Capital and Sequoia Capital

<ul><li><keyword id="7881551" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Resulticks">Resulticks</keyword> has developed advanced audience data management capabilities that help marketers overcome data silos. </li><li>It has been using AI and <keyword id="294572" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="20" keywordseo="machine-learning">Machine learning</keyword> to enable brands to orchestrate seamless, hyper-targeted experiences across all relevant channels and devices.</li><li><keyword id="7881550" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Redickaa-Subrammanian">Redickaa Subrammanian</keyword>, CEO and Co-founder, Resulticks tells us how the platform has been helping brands in their marketing journey.</li></ul>For years, marketers have been trying to harness the power of data to segment and target audiences to varying degrees of success. Even with technology evolving at a rapid speed, the challenge of consolidating, integrating, and analysing data to make it more actionable, contextualised, and relevant has been on top of the marketer’s mind. This is one of the many problems that Resulticks, an AI-powered <keyword id="2410330" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Marketing-automation">marketing automation</keyword> platform, is trying to solve for marketers. Six years after evolving from the digital marketing agency, Interakt Digital Group, the platform today has an impressive roster of clients from different sectors. We recently caught up with Redickaa Subrammanian, CEO and Co-founder of Resulticks, who walked us through all that the platform has achieved in the past 6 years and the factors that have been helping it grow at a rapid speed. Edited excerpts: Q) What role has Resulticks been playing in helping brands come up with more relevant and seamless experiences? We built the Resulticks platform on three major pillars. The first is our master audience data management capability—also referred to as customer data platform—which consolidates both structured and unstructured data from all the brand’s relevant internal and external sources. The second is our omnichannel communication orchestration capability, which enables our clients to deliver seamless customer journeys—single dimensional, multidimensional, or event triggered—across every relevant channel online and offline, including social, email, mobile, voice assistants, extended systems, chatbots, QR codes, and call centres. The third is our advanced analytics capabilities, which power all the deep insights required to create advanced audience segments and orchestrate targeted, highly individualised omnichannel campaigns. It empowers our customers with comprehensive campaign and audience reports with AI insights to take corrective measures in real time for results-driven marketing efforts. Although Resulticks is a full cloud, SaaS-based solution, we help businesses in highly regulated industries like BFSI and healthcare ensure data security with our unique, hybrid deployment model, which, hosts personally identifiable information on premises while ensuring access to the full benefits of cloud marketing. Q) How do marketers stand to gain by associating with Resulticks? For years, marketers have been trying to harness the full power of data to segment and target audiences to varying degrees of success. Even with ever-advancing technology, they still face the challenge of how to consolidate, integrate, and analyse it to make it more actionable, contextualised, and relevant. To address this global challenge, we developed advanced audience data management capabilities that help marketers overcome the data silos that have historically prevented them from having a 360-degree view of the customer. Our AI and machine learning layer, combined with an intuitive user interface, enables brands to orchestrate seamless, hyper-targeted experiences across all relevant channels and devices. And with our omnichannel rules engine, brands can specify in advance detailed business rules and customer actions to trigger relevant, contextual communications at every critical touchpoint along the customer’s pathway to conversion—always in real time. Q) You say that today consumers demand the utmost levels of personalization. However, how do you ensure that you draw a line between hyper-personalization and intrusion? At Resulticks, our advanced technologies enable audience identification and tracking at the segment-of-one level. This helps ensure that each consumer is not simply identified, but also engaged with contextualised messaging that builds on past moments and resonates with the present. We also enable individualised conversion attribution at every relevant touch point, which contributes to continuous performance improvement. With all that hyper-personalised power comes responsibility. First, marketers must ensure complete customer privacy at all times. Any privacy breach has the potential to hamper the relationship with customers or to inflict potentially serious damage on the brand. Marketers must also avoid customers with overly individualised messaging that can unsettle and drive them away from the brand. Q) Can you share some stats where brands have benefited from using your offering? For every client, the platform has delivered exceptional business results, including: <ul><li>Over $125 million in incremental revenue in the last 36 months for one of the world’s largest smartphone brands</li><li>20% incremental revenue through online sales on travel retail partner sites in APAC for the one of the world’s most respected beauty and cosmetic brands </li><li>$34 million in incremental inflows in 18 months for one of the leading Asian banks through omnichannel customer engagement </li><li>15% uplift in sales through segment-of-one communication for an Indian healthcare brand</li></ul> The platform has also delivered operation results to clients such as: <ul><li>2.8X uplift in segment performance with advanced audience segmentation </li><li>20% increase in profile augmentation through our 360-degree audience view analytics </li><li>22% cost efficiency in campaign management with channel optimization </li><li>40% savings with resource optimization thanks to our detailed campaign analytics</li></ul> Q) What you do is still an evolving space. How are you educating marketers about what you do and how that'll help them in their journey? Is it difficult to convince them about the importance of what you do? Resulticks evolved from the digital marketing agency, Interakt Digital Group, which I founded along with my business partner Dakshen Ram in 2004 and ran it successfully on a global scale for ten years. Through our work with some of the world’s most respected brands, we gained experience with virtually every marketing technology platform and application in existence at the time, learning both their strengths and weaknesses. As a result, we became acutely aware of the universal difficulty our clients faced in managing big data, orchestrating omnichannel communications, and documenting marketing ROI. So, leveraging that knowledge and experience, we set out to address each of those challenges in a holistic, integrated way. After three years of development, we named our solution Resulticks and launched it officially in 2014. We’ve continuously enhanced the solution ever since to address even more fully our clients’ most pressing marketing challenges including delivering a seamless, highly individualised customer experience in real-time while also ensuring data security and privacy. Q) Was there any challenge while launching in India? When entering the Indian market—as in all markets—a major hurdle was helping the brands realize the full potential of digital technologies holistically and strategically. We have to show them the bigger picture of how they can leverage digital marketing automation to create coherent customer lifecycle journeys across channels and devices. Brands everywhere tend to stay in their comfort zones, which can prevent them from expanding their strategic perspective. We sometimes must enable them first by taking small steps, securing quick wins, and integrating a true omnichannel approach over time. Q) There's constantly a lot of conversation around data privacy. Does working with constantly evolving data mean infringing on the consumer's privacy? In today’s AI-focused world, data is the fuel that fires the growth engine. What has changed dramatically in the past decade is the speed and scale at which brands can use it. In a digital-first world, marketers must balance data-driven marketing with privacy concerns by collecting data responsibly and using it wisely to engage audiences. Every year sees new customer privacy and audience data management regulations being enacted by various governing bodies including the likes of GDPR. There might be a need for brands to transition from solely relying on second and third-party data managed by other platforms. They have to build a stronger reliance on data they collect themselves. Data is typically used by marketers to segment and target audiences accurately and to organize and deliver omnichannel customer experiences. In delivering these experiences, Resulticks provides both technical and process-wise measures to help marketers conform to compliance requirements, ensure consumer consent, and maintain data security. This mitigates risks associated with the handling of sensitive data at a fundamental level. Our initiatives around data security and privacy have been widely acclaimed by leading information security leaders within our client organizations. Q) What is the future of marketing automation? Leading marketers are now breaking away from traditional strategies to take on a more omnichannel marketing approach. For example, in the past two years, voice has exploded as a potentially powerful channel on a global level with intelligent voice assistants such as Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant inserting themselves into daily lives. While the investment necessary for an omnichannel strategy may seem steep, real-world experience with our clients has resulted in, for example, upto 30% of cost savings and double the incremental conversions. In a recent survey commissioned by Resulticks to study omnichannel readiness among Indian marketers, 90% of the total 414 marketers participated in the survey have either already implemented an integrated approach to omnichannel customer engagement or are inclined to do so. Obviously, the future is omnichannel and individualised,as digitally empowered audience member increasingly expects highly tailored brand experience on demand. Armed with unified customer data, advanced analytics, and seamless campaign orchestration across all channels and devices—and in real time—marketers will not only meet their customer’s demands, they’ll exceed expectations and develop the kind of brand loyalty that ensures continuous growth.

How Resulticks, an AI-powered marketing automation platform is helping brands orchestrate seamless, hyper-targeted experiences

<ul><li>Dating has seen a phenomenal change during the <keyword id="43587" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="pandemic">pandemic</keyword> and dating apps like <keyword id="228306" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="OkCupid">OkCupid</keyword> are helping simplify meeting and building deep connections with people online.</li><li>We chat with <keyword id="3448882" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anukool-Kumar">Anukool Kumar</keyword>, <keyword id="267929" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing-director">Marketing Director</keyword>, OkCupid India on the pandemic's impact on its business and how it is making sure its platform is able to evolve with the changing needs of its users. </li></ul> The year 2020 had a profound impact on all our lives. As we were restricted to our homes, there was a transformation in the way we live our lives, buy, consume, watch, or even interact with people. With almost no physical contact with friends, families, technology came to our rescue. Businesses had to pivot quickly to stay relevant. For dating apps, the game is all in helping build human connections. So when people were socially distanced, the challenge was to do find new ways of building that connect. Again, technology came to the rescue. We saw many platforms introduce new features that enhanced overall experience for people using these apps. Virtual dates became an acceptable way of dating. It also brought a lot of first-time users to these platforms. For dating app OkCupid, the past one and a half years has been all about innovating and making it easier for people to connect on their platform and make the most of the experience. Last year, the platform rolled out its mobile app redesign globally called Stacks which is a new matching system that consolidates multiple discovery methods into one, making it even easier to find the type of person users are looking for. We caught up with Anukool Kumar, <keyword id="6354839" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="marketing">Marketing</keyword> Director, OkCupid India to understand the kind of impact the pandemic has had on the platform, the strategies it used to keep its users at its core and its future in India. Excerpts: Q) How have the last 1.5 years been for OkCupid as a brand? How did the pandemic impact your business? In 2018, OkCupid was brought to India in response to a growing number of women looking for a serious relationship on their terms. The last few years have been so exciting for us as we’ve seen women discovering their independence and extending that security to choosing relationships that see them as more than just a horoscope or radius of a roti. The same holds for men in India who are seeking a partnership instead of traditional Indian gender roles in a marriage. The pandemic then created two major changes that affected the business of dating apps and OkCupid in particular. First, with fewer avenues to meet people we saw a surge in the number of first-time users on OkCupid with more women than ever before actively opening conversations. The second was a change in mindset-with time on their hands to introspect on the sort of relationship they’re looking for, single millennials ended conversations missing a spark faster while engaging in old school courtship online blurring the lines of IRL and online romance. What this meant for us as OkCupid is that there were more moments of serendipity on our platform impacting business (currently and in the future) positively while making a tangible difference in the social fabric of India. Q) Dating also evolved in these last 13-14 months. How have you as a platform been able to keep up with these changing times and evolving consumer needs? OkCupid has always been a platform that empowers users to find their kind of love based on shared interests, quirks and beliefs. With over 3000 questions at the heart of the product and more topical questions added in a timely manner, we ensure relevant subjects that matter most to millennial Indians are addressed by the app. In 2021, a lot of the focus has been on expressing one’s intent to get the vaccine and match with someone who believes in the same science; we've seen a 763% increase in mentions of the vaccine on OkCupid India's bios since March 2021. Hence to make it easier for our users to find a potential match who believes in the benefit of getting vaccinated, we introduced the ‘I’m vaccinated’ badge and stack as an endeavour to help people make informed decisions, especially in their search for love. Last year, we had also rolled out our biggest mobile app redesign globally called ‘Stacks’ which is a new matching system that consolidates multiple discovery methods into one, making it even easier to find the type of person you’re looking for. The new Stacks discovery experience shows matches in a focused, thoughtful way, and gives OkCupid daters the choice and control over who they could match with through a series of new categories including ‘online’ (to match with people who are online), ‘recommended’ (a stack of OkCupid’s top recommendations based on preferences), ‘nearby’, ‘match %’, etc. One of the key examples of this was the release of our first-ever global Climate Change Advocate Profile Badge and Stack in the weeks leading up to World Earth Day 2021, which was inspired by dating millennials on OkCupid who are passionate about climate change and believe in being advocates of the same. Q) Have there been any interesting trends you have witnessed on the platform since the pandemic? Dating has seen a phenomenal change during the pandemic with millennials increasingly taking their time to get to know each other, discovering love through long, profound conversations and digitally shared experiences. The quest for love has continued to increase, mirroring the need for human connection. We witnessed more and more millennials investing their time in forming stronger emotional bonds with their potential matches online before making plans to meet them in real life. There were also higher engagements with a potential partner, where the intentions are clear of wanting love by expressing exactly what they want in a relationship, also leading to higher unmatches that didn’t have any spark. The best parts of “courtship” or slow dating, is now the norm and it's proving to be a far more fulfilling connection. In fact, 85% of users on OkCupid believe it’s important to develop an emotional connection before a physical one, so the switch to virtual dates has allowed these emotional connections to thrive. Q) What kind of growth have you witnessed? Was there increased traction during the months of lockdown? What is your current user base? At OkCupid, we have a growing consumer base of millions of Indian users, as we continue to help millennials find love. The onset of the pandemic resulted in an increased number of conversations on OkCupid as millennials look for more serious and meaningful relationships. Globally, there’s been an overall 30% increase in messages sent on OkCupid each day since 2020. In India, we witnessed a 26% increase in conversations with over 91% of millennials still looking to date virtually and find love. We also noticed that during the lockdown millennials were not restricting their intention to find love within a certain pincode and expanded the distance to match with their potential partner. In fact, those who removed geographical restrictions continue to see 10% higher likes. Q) The last few years has seen the coming in of a lot of dating apps. How have you been able to differentiate yourself in space? OkCupid was founded in 2004 by Harvard mathematicians who believed in the power of questions to lead you to meaningful connections. The app is built around an algorithm that uses answers to over 3000 questions to introduce daters to people on the same wavelength - their kind of person. We make sure the algorithm makes connections based on the answers and preferences shared by the users and these are further contextualised by location, gender identity, and cultural realities. Over the last 15 years the questions that form the heart of the app have constantly evolved to serve daters looking for love. No other app tries to learn about your personality and preferences as much as OkCupid does, and our sophisticated algorithm makes the most relevant matches for users based on deeper things, like beliefs and interests, instead of just a photo and other parameters such as location. For that same reason, we have an intentionally long sign-up process of answering relevant questions to contextualize potential matches better. The algorithm considers your responses to questions, your preferences, interests and hobbies, and your profile to find the people you’re compatible with. This is the inimitable core of OkCupid and the reason why the app has led thousands of people to find their kind of love. OkCupid was also the first dating app that gave users the choice to use their preferred pronouns or create one to add to their profile along with 20 sexual orientations, 22 gender options and over 60 identities thus making it truly inclusive. Q) Give us a sense of your marketing journey so far... From a marketing POV, what is your current area of focus? Going ahead, what will be your broad marketing strategy? Is Digital your biggest spend? At OkCupid, the focus is towards creating a superior product for our Indian users to find love on their terms and our marketing efforts are directly correlated with that purpose. One of the biggest challenges the pandemic has caused is the hit that traditional media has taken. On the other hand, it has been an opportunity for digital media to grow. Digital content consumption is at an all-time high, which has led us to completely revamp our overall marketing strategy towards platforms that hold our audience’s attention. Our digital-first approach is not limited only to social media, but covers all platforms like YouTube or even podcasts. Our aim is to put our brand narrative out there - be it on a video streaming platform like Hotstar, or a music streaming platform like Spotify, or working with influencers to speak to our users on the app and connect with our target audience. The core of our strategy is to keep reinforcing the brand narrative of finding one’s own kind of love- across platforms and keeping our messaging consistent in all the engagement that we do. Q) Where will OkCupid's next phase of growth come from? From a marketing perspective, we are witnessing more and more people engaging in conversations around the kind of love they want. From an industry perspective, the pandemic has heightened digital content consumption and social media has managed to garner a lot of user engagement in the past year. Hence, our strategy is to keep reinforcing the brand narrative of finding one’s own kind of love across platforms and keeping our messaging consistent in all the engagement that we do. We will continue with our ‘Love Is’ campaign over the years to come, and continue to introduce features and questions on the app that make it more relevant to daters today. Q) Has there been an increase in your user base from smaller cities or do users from metros still make a majority of your users? At OkCupid, the bulk of our users in India belong to the age group of 25-35 years. These users are from metropolitan cities as well as Tier 2 and 3 cities. Q) How are you making the platform more inclusive? Since its inception OkCupid has been exclusively inclusive, respecting and celebrating every individual find their kind of love without fear of judgement. It was the first dating app to give users the choice to use their preferred pronoun or create one to add to their profile and expand gender and orientation options for users with over 20 sexual orientations and 22 gender options. This led to almost 2 million straight and queer users proudly displaying their pronouns on their dating profiles worldwide and find a meaningful match for themselves in an authentic way. In its endeavour to provide an inclusive experience for all daters, this Pride Month, OkCupid also made a global announcement to release over 60 identities for users to choose from an array of options like Bear, Bottom, Butch, Femme, Hard Femme, High Femme, Otter, Boi, Versatile, etc, to allow members of the LGBTQ+ community the option to signal who they are, how they identify and what they want in a partner. These identities were developed in consultation with staff and community experts, including the Human Rights Campaign, which is thelargest LGBTQ rights organization. This app development reinforces OkCupid’s message of ‘Find Your Kind Of Love’, and reminds people looking for love to never compromise. Q) What is your vision for OkCupid in India? Our vision is simple- remind single millennials that they deserve the love they seek and will find it. We live in a world that is filled with disappointment and despite the growing number of people seeking love there is also a growing sentiment that love doesn’t exist- not the romantic love that takes your feelings, beliefs and values into consideration. At OkCupid, we care about our users and are committed to helping users find their kind of love. For us, it’s all about giving our daters the value they look for and expect from the world on our platform. The pandemic has made us more careful of where we invest our emotions and time, and daters are no different. The fact that daters are coming on the app and actually finding love and the OkCupid love stories of all ages and types are a testament to this.

How OkCupid is evolving with the changing needs of its users

<ul><li>In times when growing a business is becoming increasingly complex, only the right branding &amp; marketing strategy can help brands register sustained profits.</li><li>The stories a brand tells, the way it tells it and who the stories are told to become an important part of the brand’s journey.</li><li>Vivek Pandey, Vice President, Revenue Strategy &amp; Analytics, Times Internet lists down 5 effective story-selling tips for brands to expand their reach and presence.</li></ul>Growing a business may seem like a complex affair. Why, one may ask? After all, we live in an age where Google Analytics lets marketers track the average conversion rate of each webpage, and Facebook Ads and Google AdWords allows bids for leads and sales. This is because, irrespective of the tools available, it remains indispensable to discover a profitable niche by defining a target demographic and then appealing to that TG. Whether a brand is selling products, services or simply knowledge or news, irrespective of analytics tools and digital channels at disposal, only the right branding &amp; marketing strategy will help it register sustained profits. Why focus on branding, when it is so much easier to track PPC and SEO results! Digital marketing activities are outcome-oriented and metric-driven, while branding is a deliberate, subjective process that is both an art and science. This is unfortunate because building a strong, trusted and purpose-led brand is a powerful differentiating asset for any business, especially in today’s highly competitive crowded markets. Here are 5 tips to help marketers establish, expand and strengthen a brand’s digital brand presence and reach in an effective manner: Think Stories Stories<a href="https://hbr.org/2014/03/the-irresistible-power-of-storytelling-as-a-strategic-business-tool"> have a profound effect</a> on the listener - stories are what our lives are made up of, stories are how we remember people and stories make us feel a little less alone in the world. The art of storytelling cuts across histories and cultures as the single most important communication form. Your brand is a story and only<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/billeehoward/2016/04/04/storytelling-the-new-strategic-imperative-of-business/"> as good as you tell it</a>, to yourself and your customers. Mission, Vision, Strategy and possibly even Profits flow from it. So, the first thing we should do when we are thinking about building brands, is to think “What’s the story here?”. Render Stories Stories have to be rendered and rendition is an art in itself. Be it<a href="http://www.dastangoi.com/"> dastangoi</a>, puppetry,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwyzYhjIjVk"> pandwani</a> or good old fables, the rendition is as, if not more, important as the story. Your story can become your employee culture, your next marketing video, your blog or website, a news article in some<a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/"> trusted publication</a> or a series of banner ads running on 4 faces of a<a href="https://timesinternet.in/advertise/premium-display#cube"> cube ad format</a>. It is something very specific, and more about the medium than the message itself.<a href="https://econsultancy.com/good-digital-video-ads-aren-t-just-tv-spots-on-different-devices/"> Don’t blindly take your television ad and run it on digital video</a>, don’t take your newspaper ad and plaster it on the homepage of all news websites.. Work with the owners of media and co-create digital appropriate renditions of your stories. Industry leaders in digital co-creation are BBC Storyworks, Economist’s ‘Thought that Counts’. In India, Times Internet’s<a href="https://timesinternet.in/advertise/spotlight"> Spotlight</a> partner with brands render digital-first stories. Amplify Stories There is an idiom in the Hindi language - “Jungle mein mor nacha, kisne dekha”. Translated in plain English it means what is the use of the dance of a peacock in a jungle when no one is there to see it. It is similar to the English saying that one shouldn’t<a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hide-your-light-under-a-bushel"> hide one’s light under a bushel</a>. And all of this ultimately implies there is not much use of an awesome story or it’s rendition, unless it reaches a critical mass, the `<a href="http://www.wikisummaries.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point">tipping point</a>”. But this amplification need not be through a loudspeaker - it can be through a community network that builds traction through identified influencer nodes. It need not be a fixed banner ad but a targeted native ad running on adtech platforms like Times Internet’s<a href="https://colombiaonline.com/"> Colombia</a>. Gone are the times when an advertiser put up an ad and hoped for the TG to read it. Choose Who To Tell The Story To We all know that marketing begins with a target group of consumers, or TG. Unlike the earlier definition of TG, the audience is not a homogenous identity. Marketers today define their TG sharply, contextualising on the basis of usage patterns, psychographic triggers and other nuances. Here’s where Adtech comes in. Colombia has more than 7000 addressable audience segments among it’s 520 million+ users, enabling marketers with the needed flexibility to define their target audience. Coupled with Colombia’s Machine Learning capabilities, a marketer can optimise his campaign for better performance, all of this neatly hidden behind a self serve interface. Your agencies or marketing teams can easily find the best audience for a particular campaign and ensure that the story is heard loudly by all the right ears. Listen To Their Stories It is not a one-way street and there is no such thing as a passive audience. This truism is getting truer with the evolution of generations from X to Y and now Z. Gen-Z is not the listening type. Have open arms and open channels to listen and process the stories your audience have to share. Not all of them would make you feel good, some of them may not even sound relevant right now - but it is in these brutally honest, shamelessly public and emotionally personal stories that the future of your brand lies. Shutting your eyes and ears won’t stop the video or the music. Responsible media houses would allow you to take data back, take learnings back, not create walled gardens that rob you of a direct connect with your consumers. Invest in media that welcome deep partnerships and can also do custom research and insights for you, not one-size-fits-all standard dashboards. Almost every single<a href="https://timesinternet.in/advertise/spotlight"> Spotlight</a> +<a href="https://colombiaonline.com/"> Colombia</a> campaign on Times Internet is dovetailed with consumer research, dedicated account management and deep insights so you take away not just conversions but learnings from every campaign you do. And if none of this makes sense, don’t overcomplicate. Forget catchy headlines, memorable visuals, narrow or wide funnels and lower and lower CPAs. Just get down straight to thinking in stories, and whispering them loudly into relevant ears. - By Vivek Pandey, Vice President, Revenue Strategy &amp; Analytics, Times Internet

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