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<ul><li>Rapid <keyword id="11964795" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="digitisation" source="Orion">digitisation</keyword> has created an opportunity for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies to scale like never before. </li><li>Business Insider India’s special web series <keyword id="15419506" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="saas-scions" source="Orion">SAAS Scions</keyword> in partnership with AWS saw Beerud Sheth, co-founder and CEO of Gupshup, in conversation with Tim Barnes (GM, Advertising and Marketing Technology Vertical), Amazon Web Services, on the digitisation journey in <keyword id="6359891" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="emerging-markets" source="Orion">emerging markets</keyword>, protection of user privacy, and more. </li><li>According to Sheth, for markets like India, the time is now.</li></ul>The next two decades could see the greatest amount of digitisation and “maybe even wealth creation,” according to Beerud Sheth, co-founder and chief executive officer of unicorn conversational messaging startup Gupshup. Sheth was speaking with Tim Barnes, General Manager, Advertising and Marketing Technology Vertical, Amazon Web Services, at the SAAS Scions web series by Business Insider India. “(It’s) the kind of growth you saw in China for the last two decades, and in the US maybe the two decades before that. The baseline for digitisation was low (in emerging countries), and there was an enormous need to e-enable every aspect of the business (during the pandemic). That’s just for companies focused on the Indian market. For companies focused on the global market, of course, India has enormous cost advantages, scale and so on,” Sheth said. Sheth noted the remarkable differences in the digitisation journey adopted by India (and other emerging markets) as compared to developed economies. “Some of it is obvious, the moment people couldn’t get into physical spaces, clearly all of it moved online,” he said. “Everything from online banking to commerce, to online education, and even some business use-cases. All of that then requires a lot more notifications, updates, interactions, and more. All of that created a huge spike in demand.” The digital play in emerging markets A large part of Gupshup’s business comes from emerging markets, where, unlike the western markets, the pandemic-driven spike in digitization didn’t subside once things started returning to normal. For Sheth, the transition to digital in emerging economies was a metamorphosis that saw no coming back. “There’s a slightly different impact on the emerging markets because of a variety of reasons,” he said. “There were a lot of local businesses, which before the pandemic (would say) I don’t need to do this or we’ll do it later. But this really was a shock to the system, and it really accelerated the adoption of digital tech and so on. And that is not a temporary spike, you digitise and then you’re digital forever,” he added. According to Sheth, for markets like India, the time is now. Rapid digitisation has created an opportunity for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies to scale like never before. “Conversational messaging supports customers across the entire lifecycle, which includes the front end in the marketing side, in the middle around the commerce or purchasing side, and then in the post-purchase around support. Specifically, around martech, there’s a commensurate growth in use-cases, like people using it for lead generation, promotions, deals, offers and so on. So we’ve seen a massive growth spurt.” said Sheth. And this growth isn’t just with large enterprises, but significantly at the “lower end of the pyramid.” A restaurant or corner store didn’t have the same amount of time to digitise before the pandemic, but when customers stopped walking into the store, “what was once a nice to have, became a must-have.” Protecting user privacy However, he warned that SaaS firms must take company user privacy seriously while building their products. If privacy is an afterthought, Sheth reasons that it could disqualify firms from operating in certain jurisdictions since different countries have different requirements for compliance and user privacy. “We try to create federated solutions, which means it can be hosted in separate instances without needing to work with a centralised assistant. Which gives us the flexibility where different instances can support different privacy frameworks,” he advised. Establishing the new de-facto Beerud Sheth’s comparison of new-age chatbots to early internet-era websites demonstrates the potential for conversational messaging for businesses of all sizes. The company’s innovation, keeping in step with emerging cloud technologies and fine-tuned to various geographies, has unlocked a newer medium of communication which have radically transformed the very core of how businesses interact with their customers. If the old catchphrase,”The medium is the message” were to be recalled, then Gupshup is both the medium, and a strong message for every business that has a customer. Disclaimer: This article is generated and published by the Insider Studios team. You can get in touch with them on <a target="_blank" class="c-link" href="mailto:insiderstudios@businessinsider.in">insiderstudios@businessinsider.in</a>

Emerging markets’ digitisation roadmap different from West: Gupshup CEO

<ul><li>Tiger Global, Think Investments and Malabar Investments participated in the round.</li><li>The company will be exploring mergers and acquisitions to expand its business.</li><li>A part of the funding will also be used to buyback shares from the company's employees.</li></ul>Messaging platform <keyword id="755674" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="GupShup">Gupshup</keyword>, which became a unicorn earlier in April 2021, has raised an additional funding of $240 million in a follow-on funding round. Several marquee investors like Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC, Tiger Global, Think Investments, Malabar Investments, Harbor Spring Capital participated in the round, along with certain accounts managed by Neuberger Berman Investment Advisers LLC, White Oak, and others. A unicorn is a startup valued at or more than $1 billion. The 17-year-old company will use this funding to invest in its product and also enable buyback shares from existing and former employees. The company will also be providing partial exits to few of its initial investors. Gupshup is also exploring merger and acquisition (M&amp;A) opportunities to expand its business, it announced in the press release. “We have followed Gupshup’s progress for a long while and believe that they are the most evolved customer communications platform In India and increasingly in other emerging markets, with a leadership position in the most attractive and fastest growing sub-segments of the market,” said Sumeet Nagar, managing director of Malabar Investments. Gupshup was founded by Beerud Sheth in 2004. It is a conversational messaging platform that enables businesses to manage internal communications. The company provides a platform for developers to build bots for SMS, Twitter, Slack, WeChat, Teamchat and others. The company’s clientele is spread across banking, ecommerce, hospitality, consumer goods and other industries. A few big names in its client list are Zomato, Flipkart, HDFC Bank, and others. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/the-whole-truth-a-healthy-packaged-food-brand-raises-6-million-from-sequoia-capital/articleshow/84815594.cms">The Whole Truth, a ‘healthy’ packaged food brand, raises $6 million to enter new categories </a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/rolex-rings-ipo-opens-on-july-28-and-closes-on-july-30-with-a-price-band-of-880-900/articleshow/84813639.cms">Rolex Rings IPO opens today with a price band of ₹880-900</a>

Business communication platform Gupshup raises $240 million, to buyback ESOPs

Leading US asset manager <keyword id="174755" type="General" weightage="70" keywordseo="vanguard" source="Orion">Vanguard</keyword> has further slashed its holding in ride-hailing major <keyword id="6354720" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ola" source="Orion">Ola</keyword> by more than half, which takes the Bhavish Aggarwal-run company's valuation down to nearly $3.5 billion from $7.3 billion at the end of 2021. According to a TechCrunch report, citing Vanguard's filings, the investment firm has cut the worth of its shares in Ani Technologies, Ola's holding firm, by 51.6%. "The asset manager marked down the holding of its Ola shares to $25 million, from the $51.7 million purchase price years ago, the filings showed," according to the report. Vanguard had valued its Ola's shares at about $33.8 million in February this year. In May, Vanguard had slashed Ola's valuation by 35% amid global macroeconomic conditions, reducing its valuation to about $4.8 billion. Ola has raised more than $3.9 billion over the years, according to public data. IPO-bound Ola Electric has also recorded an operating loss of $136 million (roughly Rs 1,116 crore) and revenue of $335 million (roughly Rs 2,750 crore), missing its revenue goal disclosed publicly. The company reported sales of over 1,50,000 electric scooters for FY23, according to a Reuters report. In the first two months of FY23, Ola Electric claimed to have surpassed Rs 500 crore in revenue and was on track to surpass $1 billion by year's end. In January, Ola laid off 200 employees from its <keyword id="6362049" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="ola-cabs" source="Orion">Ola Cabs</keyword>, Ola Electric and Ola Financial Services verticals as part of the "restructuring" exercise. Ola joins a growing list of Indian unicorns who have significantly lost their valuations. Invesco lowered Swiggy's valuation by almost half to $5.5 billion in earlier this year while leading US investment firm Fidelity reportedly slashed the estimated worth of its holding in homegrown conversational engagement platform Gupshup by over 20% in a month.

Ola's valuation slashed by more than half by Vanguard

<ul><li>SAAS startups have more than doubled in India since 2018.</li><li><keyword id="4621694" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="freshworks" source="Orion">Freshworks</keyword> now has over 5000 employees around the world.</li><li>Startups should focus on hiring right and making the right decisions, Freshworks CEO explained.</li></ul>The number of startups coming from India and building products for the world is set to be a “very big long term trend,” according to <keyword id="2167965" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="girish-mathrubootham" source="Orion">Girish Mathrubootham</keyword>, co-founder and chief executive officer of NASDAQ-listed software-as-a-service (SAAS) company, Freshworks. <keyword id="4621834" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="mathrubootham" source="Orion">Mathrubootham</keyword> was speaking to <keyword id="14316094" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="brian-e-taptich" source="Orion">Brian E Taptich</keyword>, VP, Worldwide Specialist Organization at <keyword id="141088" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="amazon-web-services" source="Orion">Amazon Web Services</keyword> (AWS), at the SAAS Scions web series by Business Insider India. “What we are seeing is how durable the Indian startup opportunity is,” Mathrubootham said, explaining the startup opportunity in India. Taptich noted that the country now has over 9000 SAAS companies, which is almost double the number of such companies that were present in 2018. Some of these companies, like Gupshup, have even achieved unicorn valuations. “It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur in India,” Mathrubootham exclaimed. He cited a recent report by consulting firm Mckinsey, which said that over 450 different categories of SAAS software are up for disruption, which in turn creates more opportunity for SAAS companies in India to build new products. Further, according to Mathrubootham, the growth of the startup community in India has been partly enabled by AWS, “which is levelling the playing field” in a way that anyone sitting anywhere in India can start working on a startup. That, combined with a “disruptive go-to-market capability” through online customer acquisition and “product-led growth” could be the secret sauce for startups to achieve success in India, Mathrubootham said. But amid this growth phase, the other big worry that the industry is facing is talent acquisition. Mathrubootham noted that talent is the “number one challenge” for any CEO or team today, irrespective of whether they’re in India or the US or if they’re a startup or a full-blown enterprise business. He advised younger entrepreneurs and startups to pay close attention to their hiring plans and who they are hiring. For Freshworks, he said that the company took advantage of the fact that AWS also allows firms to get rid of IT infrastructure costs and focus on building their core product. The company collaborated with AWS when it had only six employees and has brought the task back in-house. Now that Freshworks has 5,000 employees around the globe, “We’re on a mission to make people love using their business software,” he said. “Our next frontier is to clearly break down the silos of sales, marketing and support,” he added. For young startups, Mathrubootham said that it’s crucial to focus on the company’s ability to attract new talent rather than simply scaling internal employees. “I think founders should always think about the company two-three years ahead, and make sure that people you hire as directors and VPs will suit those positions even after you’ve grown,” he said. He advised against throwing large titles to attract talent and said companies should be setting expectations right; so employees aren’t disappointed later. Lastly, Taptich and Mathrubootham discussed emerging technologies and how it is necessary for companies to experiment smartly. He said Freshworks breaks the company into a performance zone, an operational zone, an incubation zone, and a transformational zone, with the performance zone responsible for quarterly results, while the startup zone moves fast and experiments with new products.

Indian startups building global products will be a ‘big long trend’, says Girish Mathrubootham

<ul><li>The company is reportedly looking for commercial properties which have 20,000 to 30,000 square feet of space.</li><li>The company has reportedly shortlisted New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to open showrooms and service centres.</li><li><keyword id="107096" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tesla">Tesla</keyword> India Motors and Energy Private Limited was incorporated, on January 8, in India’s southern state of Karnataka.</li></ul>California-based electric car titan Tesla, Inc. is reportedly searching for a space to set up their first showroom in India. The company, founded by <keyword id="6355315" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="elon-musk">Elon Musk</keyword>, has also hired an executive to lobby with the government, according to a<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-tesla/tesla-scouts-for-showroom-space-in-india-hires-executive-for-lobbying-sources-idUSKBN2BV0Q9"> report</a> by news agency Reuters. Tesla had registered itself in India, via its<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/why-elon-musk-tesla-indian-subsidiary-has-a-parent-company-registered-in-the-netherlands/articleshow/80331151.cms"> Amsterdam</a> arm, earlier this year. Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Limited was incorporated, on January 8, in India’s southern state of Karnataka and the registered address is in Lavelle Road, Bengaluru, with ₹15 lakh authorised capital and ₹1 lakh paid-up capital. Sridhar Ramachandran, a tax partner at Grant Thornton Bharat, had told Business Insider this route would help Tesla with tax benefits related to capital gains and dividend payments. According to the Reuters report, the company is looking for commercial properties which have 20,000 to 30,000 square feet of space. According to unnamed sources, who talked to Reuters, the company has shortlisted New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to open showrooms and service centres. The world’s most valued carmaker, by market capitalisation, has also reportedly roped in <keyword id="1665358" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Manuj-Khurana">Manuj Khurana</keyword> who was formerly with the government of India’s body for promoting investments in the country – <keyword id="1980753" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Invest-India">Invest India</keyword>. Khurana will reportedly lead Tesla’s “policy and business development efforts” in India. Business Insider has mailed Tesla requesting comments on the media report. We will be updating the story if and when we receive a response. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/how-samsung-is-repurposing-old-galaxy-phones-into-medical-cameras/articleshow/81968501.cms">Samsung is repurposing its old Galaxy phones into medical cameras for countries like India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/gupshup-messaging-platform-raises-100-million-from-tiger-global/articleshow/81968331.cms">Gupshup, an Indian AI startup, raises $100 million from Tiger Global to join India’s fast growing club of unicorns</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/meet-muons-tiny-subatomic-particles-that-indicate-there-could-be-a-fifth-fundamental-force-of-nature/articleshow/81967950.cms">Meet muons — tiny subatomic particles that indicate there could be a fifth fundamental force of nature</a>

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Emerging markets’ digitisation roadmap different from West: Gupshup CEO

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Business communication platform Gupshup raises $240 million, to buyback ESOPs

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Ola's valuation slashed by more than half by Vanguard

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Indian startups building global products will be a ‘big long trend’, says Girish Mathrubootham

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Elon Musk's Tesla reportedly shortlists New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to open its first showrooms in India

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