<keyword id="2057257" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bhavin-Turakhia">Bhavin Turakhia</keyword>, the serial entrepreneur who found five companies is a role model for a number of aspiring entrepreneurs. Starting his first company as early as 17 years, he rose up to create a list of firms driven by his belief, “It is our moral obligation to make an impact that is proportionate to our potential”. Through a series of technology-led innovations, he strove through his ventures to solve problems and maximizing efficiency, which he kept as the watchwords behind every achievement. Some interesting facts about Bhavin Turakhia that will inspire you. He founded three companies at the age of 17 Bhavin Turakhia co-founded Resellerclub, Logicboxes and BigRock at the age of 17. In 2014, all these companies were sold in a deal worth $160 million. At present, he heads Radix, a leader in registry for top-rated extensions, Flock, a portfolio of productivity apps, and Zeta, a platform for digital payments. Education and childhood He attended the Arya Vidya Mandir school in Bandra , Mumbai and later, enrolled himself DG Ruparel College only to drop the course midway. In an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n3ct5grl">interview with the BBC</a> , he said he discontinued the course since he learnt most of the syllabus himself. He then moved to complete his bachelor’s degree in commerce from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. As a child, he dedicated a lot of time to coding. Their father bought the first coding book at the age of eight. “ I would spend all of my short breaks, lunch breaks, several hours after school every day. My dad would buy me tons of programming books, and I would go through them one after another. I went through more than 25, 30 different books to learn programming and GW-BASIC, Visual Basic, and CC++ on MS-DOS back in the day. Turakhia is worth $1.3 bilion In 2016, Forbes ranked him along with his brother Divyank Turakhia as the 95th richest person in India credited with a net worth of US$ 1.3 billion. The World Economic Forum honored him as Young Global leader in 2011. According to Forbes, the Turakhia brothers were millionaires even before they were 20 years old. Their networth rose to $300 million in their mid-20s. They are among the youngest billionaires in the country. His mantra for success The billionaire entrepreneur says his mantra for success was a quote which his father often used to say, ‘You can achieve anything you set your mind to’. Turakhia says this mantra ringed in his ears all the time steering his journey towards success. ‘Family matters a lot’ Turakhia has a strong opinion that family plays a big role in shaping every individual. Talking about his father, he says, “Everything I am today is in many ways thanks to my father. He used to work from nine to nine everyday just to make ends meet. But this is what he used to say. Sometimes we’d be like, ‘Dad, we know’. But the number of times it was repeated, you really internalize it.” Future plans to venture US with ZETA The four-year old Zeta, started with Indian banks, and subsequently branched out to countries like Brazil, the Philippines, and Vietnam. But now Turakhia has plans to take Zeta to US and other European markets like Italy and Spain. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/paytm-founder-vijay-shekhar-sharma-unknown-facts/articleshow/69941150.cms">Paytm Founder Vijay Shakhar Sharma</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/10-interesting-facts-about-gautam-adani-that-you-should-know/articleshow/69900616.cms">Interesting facts about Gautam Adani</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/interesting-facts-about-binny-bansal-the-co-founder-and-former-ceo-of-flipkart-to-inspire-uou/articleshow/74474891.cms">Interesting facts about Binny Bansal</a>

Interesting facts of Bhavin Turakhia, Founder and CEO of Directi

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53544560.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> 
 
 <keyword id="1076906" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Directi">Directi</keyword> is a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=mumbai&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Mumbai</a>-based <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=tech+company&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">tech company</a> that was founded by <keyword id="2057257" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bhavin-Turakhia">Bhavin Turakhia</keyword> back in 1998. Over the years, the group has come to consist of multiple business units which are run independently by their respective management teams. 
 
The Directi portfolio includes numerous companies such as Media.net, Skenzo, Radix, Ringo, Flock, Zeta and Codechef to name a few. One unique feature of all of Directi businesses are the fact that they are all bootstrapped and extremely profitable. None of their 11 businesses have any external debt or investments. 
 
Thus, the company employs over 1500 people across 8 offices around the world catering to over 9 million customers and raking in revenues of over $300 million every year. 
 
At first glance, Directi may seem like any other entity in the burgeoning list of companies that exist in the Indian landscape. But, as you delve deeper, you find that there’s more to what meets the eye. 
 
Being a company that focuses primarily on technology comes with its own set of challenges- the chief being finding the right set of people who can help the organisation reach its targets and grow. But, as the company soon found out, that was easier said than done. 
 The founders soon realised that the root of this problem was the generic <keyword id="606888" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="hiring-process">hiring process</keyword> which comprised aspirants coming in with their resumes and giving a half-hearted interview. 
 
Culture-fit was an important part of the organisation from the beginning itself and the company soon realised that it was impossible to gauge the know-how or creativity of candidates just by holding a generic <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=hiring+process&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">hiring process</a> like every other company. 
 
It was time to be different. And, thus STAR was born. To understand candidates better, Directi started using an approach called STAR - Situation, Task, Action and Result. 
 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/53545014.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> 
 
It started assigning case studies to candidates across all functions and positions as part of the hiring process. Since these case studies are quite extensive, candidates are given enough time to come up with a solution. This, the company believes is an excellent tool to evaluate an individual’s competency to think on their feet in a stressful situation and was anyday better than them answering a question on the same. 
 
As time passed, the company started introducing more and more task-oriented hiring processes. For instances, candidates applying for tech roles are often asked to develop web applications using a bunch of technologies or they are asked to make an existing app using a different language. Bonus points are awarded to candidates who come up with additional features like integration with Facebook. 
 
The most unique interview has definitely been when the company asked candidates to solve a Rubik’s cube to test their problem solving ability. 
 
Directi also goes a step ahead and keeps asking unusual questions to test the ability of a candidate to think out of the box, from time to time. 
 
For example, candidates who applied for sales and design positions in the company had to answer questions like- “How many flights are in the air over Mumbai right now?”, “How many diapers are sold in Mumbai every day?” and even “How will you design a spice rack for blind people?”. 
 
That sounds like one fun interview. We wonder what the candidates answered!

This Indian tech company has one of the most fun
hiring processes ever

<ul><li>Banking technology startup <keyword id="702953" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zeta">Zeta</keyword> is the latest to join the Indian <keyword id="152045" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Unicorn">unicorn</keyword> club.</li><li>The company has been valued at $1.45 billion after raising $250 million in its Series C round of funding.</li><li>Zeta plans to use the fresh infusion of capital to expand its presence in the US and European markets where banks are moving away from branches to offering their services online.</li></ul>Zeta, a banking technology startup based in Bengaluru, is the newest Indian startup to attain the ‘unicorn’ status. In its Series C round of funding the company raised $250 million from Softbank Vision Fund II at a valuation of $1.45 billion. A ‘unicorn’ is a private company that is valued at $1 billion or more. The deal more than quadruples Zeta’s valuation since 2019, when Sodexo SA valued the startup at $300 million. With new money in its pocket and a brand new unicorn tag, Zeta plans to use the new funding to expand in the US and European markets. “They [banks] have been slow to innovate and provide poor user experiences,” said Bhavin Turakhia, co-founder of Zeta. According to him, Zeta is poised to capture the markets where banks are moving online and away from the conventional branches. It provides backbone technology for credit and credit-card processing, core banking, loans, mobile banking and personal finance management. <div type="ExtQuote" text="“Banking software is a $300 billion industry globally. Most banks still employ technology, which is significantly older than their customers, impacting user experience and engagement." auname="Munish Varma, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers"></div> The company is banking on its simplified approach being different enough to attract customers. Rather than work with numerous supplies, as banks and financial institutions typically do, Zeta wants to combine all of those services and provide one cloud-based offering. So far, Zeta has 10 banks and 25 <keyword id="2461546" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="FinTech">fintech</keyword> companies across eight countries among its customers. This includes bigwig Indian banks like HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Axis, and others. Sodexo, an existing investor, is also a customer. It participated as a minority investor in the Series C round of funding. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="List of startups that have entered the unicorn club in 2021:" comment="subhead" text="List of startups that have entered the unicorn club in 2021:">List of startups that have entered the unicorn club in 2021:</cmsannotation> <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;"><colgroup></colgroup><col /><col /><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Startup </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Valuation </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Digit Insurance </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1.9 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Innovaccer </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1.3 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Meesho </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$2.1 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Infra.Market </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">PharmEasy </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1.5 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Cred </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$2.2 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Groww </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">ShareChat </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$2.1 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Gupshup </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1.4 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Chargebee </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1.4 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Urban Company </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$2 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Five Star Finance </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1.4 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Moglix </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1 billion </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Zeta </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$1.4 billion </td></tr></tbody></table> Turakhia doesn’t normally rely on external funding. In fact, most of the startups he’s been involved in, in the past, have been without institutional funding. Zeta’s move to raise capital marks a departure from his preference for bootstrapping his businesses. Zeta founder, 41-year old Turakhia, launched the startup in 2015 after already having dipped his toe — more like submerged his toe — in multiple startups with his brother, Divyank. He was already coding at the age of 10 and had attained millionaire status by the time he hit 20. By the time he was 26, he shared a billion-dollar fortune with his brother. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/environment/news/indias-silicon-valley-bengaluru-is-awed-by-the-rainbow-coloured-halo-in-its-skies/articleshow/82909806.cms">India's Silicon Valley is awed by the rainbow-coloured halo in its skies — but take pictures at your own risk</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/indias-prime-minister-narendra-modi-gets-a-unique-proposal-via-a-newspaper-advertisement/articleshow/82908689.cms">India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets a unique proposal via a newspaper advertisement</a>

This banking tech startup is the newest Indian unicorn with a $1.45 billion valuation

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/56686511.cms" />Post <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=demonetisation&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">demonetisation</a>, digital payment companies have been enjoying the good days as their businesses flourished exponentially. Now such companies are looking forward to better things in the upcoming <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Union+Budget+&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Union Budget</a> to ensure customers stick to <keyword id="6358577" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Digital-Payments">digital payments</keyword> instruments and don’t migrate back to cash. 
 
The whole sector is hopeful that center, in a bid to drive cashless economy, will follow the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=South+Korea&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">South Korea</a> model where their government succeeded to switch a major chunk of payments in the country to digital means through <keyword id="6358231" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="tax-benefits">tax benefits</keyword> for both merchants and consumers. 
 
“The government of South Korea did the maths around the fact that the number of people coming into the tax nets incrementally because of digital payments and the cost of cash to the GDP reducing would offset the temporary hit that they had in terms of tax payments. I think this would be not only sustainable but also of great attraction for Indians who are careful about saving taxes under investments, home loans, etc,” TR Ramachandran, group country manager, India and South Asia for Visa, told ET. 
 
The whole payment industry has been meeting Finance Minister Arun jaitley and it is said that they have presented various case studies of different countries to showcase a direct relation between tax benefits and uptick of digital transactions. 
 
“Tax benefits from both sides — merchants as well as consumers — will get more people to transact digitally. Merchants can get discount on service tax, sales tax, etc. while consumers can get benefits on income tax,” Paresh Rajde, founder of Mumbai-based domestic remittance and payments company Suvidhaa Infoserve, told ET. 
 
Reportedly, Mastercard has said that the government should focus on small merchants and promote digital payments among them to address issues around credit underwriting and onboarding for this sector. 
 
“One of the biggest resistance factors for consumers to adopt electronic payments is their fears around safety and security. It is critical that the government take the safety and security agenda very seriously and invest in technology and fraud protection tools,” Porush Singh, country corporate officer and division president South Asia for Mastercard, told ET. 
 
According to people with knowledge in the field, major reason why merchants and small shopkeepers prefer to transact in cash is because they want to avoid tax net. Hence if they are given tax benefits on accepting payments digitally there would be more number of people taking it up. 
 
The industry has also requested for extension of the import duty waiver on PoS terminals for card payments beyond March 31as it expects the demand for such terminals to go up. While industry executives seek more support from the government to promote digital payments, there is also talk around some mention of cyber security as there are security concerns around digital payments. 
 
“Everything that the government has announced, from UPI payments to Aadhaar authentication, there are huge security concerns around its implementation,” said Bhavin Turakhia, chief executive at payments technology company Zeta. “The government needs to recognise such concerns for both cards as well as UPI,” he said.

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Interesting facts of Bhavin Turakhia, Founder and CEO of Directi

BI India Bureau

This Indian tech company has one of the most fun hiring processes ever

Poulomi Das

This banking tech startup is the newest Indian unicorn with a $1.45 billion valuation

BI India Bureau

Digital payments businesses are hoping for tax benefits from Budget 2017

BI India Bureau