<ul><li>Shop Quality Products at the Lowest Prices’ says Meesho in Latest ‘Loon Ya Na Loon?’ Campaign.</li><li>It is conceptualised by <keyword id="910338" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ddb-mudra-group" source="Orion">DDB Mudra Group</keyword>.</li></ul>Meesho has launched its latest campaign, which highlights the consumer dilemma of ‘Loon Ya Na Loon?’. The campaign continues to underline the unmatched value proposition of the company’s ‘Sahi Sahi Lagaya Hai’ (the right price) appeal. <div type="Youtube" id="UG8Op52U15A" title="Loon Ya Na Loon, sawal ka ultimate jawaab is here!" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UG8Op52U15A/mqdefault.jpg"></div> People shop to fulfill multiple desires and for many value-seeking consumers, shopping has become an exercise of choosing one desire over another. Meesho’s latest campaign puts an end to the ‘Loon Ya Na Loon’ dilemma often faced by consumers seeking to maximize their spend within a budget. Featuring three TVCs that target three different consumer segments - women, men and young adults, the campaign highlights Meesho’s unmatched value proposition of offering quality products at the lowest prices. <div type="Youtube" id="SjL2-dwqAFg" title="Stress-free shopping ka aasan raasta is here!" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SjL2-dwqAFg/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Megha Agarwal, Head of Growth at Meesho, said, “When consumers want to purchase something they desire, the guilt or need to cut down on other expenses often crop up, making them prioritize one desire over another. The core objective of the campaign is centered around resolving the ‘Loon Ya Na Loon’ predicament. At Meesho, we are helping millions fulfill their desires by providing them a wide selection of quality products at the lowest prices.” Conceptualized by DDB Mudra, the campaign is based on the insight that consumers often debate "Loon ya na Loon?" before making any purchase. The TVCs showcase the protagonist's journey from contemplation to a no-compromise shopping experience on Meesho. “To buy or not to buy – that is the question. Which bargain-hunting, value-conscious Indian shopper has not hit the pause button and wondered about all the demands on her/his budget, before picking up something? It is this behavioral truth that we played on to land a simple message – Meesho offers prices so low, you’ll never have to choose between one thing or the other again. The result was a breezy yet insightful campaign which we believe will resonate with our target audiences around the country,” says <keyword id="3282725" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pallavi-chakravarti" source="Orion">Pallavi Chakravarti</keyword>, Creative Head – West, DDB Mudra The campaign will air on major TV networks such as Star Plus, Colors, Zee TV, Aaj Tak, Sony Max, Zee TV in addition to YouTube, and OTT platforms. Each film is shot in three zonal master languages – Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali and further amplified in other regional languages like Assamese, Kannada, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi and Telugu.

Meesho targets value-seeking consumers; shares how they can maximise their spends within a budget

<ul><li>Home-grown platform Meesho is the latest start-up to join the unicorn club after raising $300 million from Softbank Vision Fund 2.</li><li>Founded in 2015, Meesho launched its first TVC in 2020 that aimed to celebrate financial independence of Indian women. It is now planning to go bullish on marketing with new campaigns and collaborations to expand its reseller user base.</li><li>Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO, Meesho walks us through the company’s journey from scratch, marketing goals for the year and shares his vision.</li></ul>It was in 2015 that Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO of Meesho decided to quit InMobi and start his own business. He and his partner Sanjeev Barnwal, Founder and CTO of Meesho came up with an idea to build a platform to help micro and small businesses shift online and leverage the power of digital technologies. So, as social commerce was struggling to make inroads in India, Meesho led the way and revolutionized the industry. “Social commerce was already a popular concept at that time but the challenges such as limited access to supply, lack of logistics/ payment options, customer friendly policies etc, were also on the rise,” shared Aatrey. Months went into experimenting with the idea, researching the market and getting the logistics right. They juggled between ideas until they perfected the core business proposition. Cut to today, Meesho has just raised $300 million in a new round of funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 on April 02. The startup has already joined the unicorn club. As per media reports, the new Series E round gives the five-year-old Bangalore-based company a valuation of $2.1 billion, up from about $600 million-$700 million in the 2019 Series D investment. The social commerce platform claims to have over 13 million entrepreneurs, a majority of whom are women. It has helped them start their own online businesses with zero investment, bringing the benefits of e-commerce to over 45 million customers across the country. Sharing why Aatrey started Meesho, he said, “‘Meesho’ stands for ‘meri shop’ or apni dukaan. Almost 9 out of every 10 individuals in India have a dream of starting his/her small business. Given the increasing number of self-employed, small business owners, gig workers in India it is no surprise that Indians have an enterprising mind. However, starting a business requires a lot of capital. India is not such a rich country. Most people do not have access to capital. These people who never had the opportunity to start a store came onto our platform and became entrepreneurs for the first time. One can come here, start his/her shop on WhatsApp, access anything from our supplier marketplace, and as per consumer orders, purchase is made from the marketplace.” Meesho primarily connects sellers with customers through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. It supervises logistics, online payment and provides real-time updates. Till date, the company has delivered orders from 100K+ registered suppliers to over 26,000 pin codes in more than 4,800 cities, helping generate over Rs 500 crore in income for entrepreneurs and serving customers in more than 4,500 Tier 2+ cities -- bringing e-commerce to Bharat. As per a recent report by Deloitte, India’s e-commerce is expected to grow from $24 billion in 2017 to $84 billion in 2021. Considering that India has about 60 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) currently, Meesho is just getting started. Aatrey said, “We have ~9M women entrepreneurs and India is roughly going to have more than 250M women who will be online by 2025. Given this understanding, we are just scratching the surfaces of enabling women to start their own business. With the growth that we have seen over the last year, we want to bring our value proposition to many aspiring women, and we see a lot of value in further communicating our value proposition. That said, we will consistently be communicating how Meesho can empower and enable women entrepreneurs in starting their home businesses.” According to Aatrey, the social reselling market in India is estimated to be $6-7 billion (GMV) in size as of 2020. By 2025, the social commerce is expected to be ~$70B and total ecommerce to be $200 Bn as the number of online shoppers, especially from tier II cities and beyond, continues to rise. After the pandemic, Meesho has also seen an increased adoption rate in Bharat. “Overall, more than 70% of our orders come from tier II+ towns. We have seen very good adoption in tier II+ towns during the pandemic: we have served 2000+ new tier 2+ towns since June and our order share from these towns has also increased from 67% earlier to 72% between July and December 2020,” said he. Aatrey believes that the future of online shopping is social commerce and more and more retail outlets have started exploring this medium after the pandemic. “I believe evolving technology is a wakeup call for everyone in business. It is imperative for all to realize the huge potential that digital has and ways to leverage it. The lockdown period came as a lesson for many of us. Many retailers in India resorted to selling products over WhatsApp and that shows how the retail market is also changing and moving towards digital. In fact, according to a retail website, today 85% of sellers using social commerce are small, offline retailers giving sharp competition to large organized sellers on e-commerce platforms. As per Bain Analysis, India has the highest number of internet users (572 million) globally, with substantial room for growth. So, the retail market has enough potential to leverage social commerce and bloom,” elaborated Aatrey. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Carving a niche beyond social commerce" text="Carving a niche beyond social commerce">Carving a niche beyond social commerce</cmsannotation> Since a majority of its sellers and buyers are women, Meesho’s communication also centers around women empowerment. Its mission is to help women achieve financial independence. Its first TVC, conceptualised by DDB Mudra, focused on an unstated need of a woman, which is to claim what she rightfully deserves – her own identity. The film celebrated the unstoppable spirit of women who overcome all social and economic barriers with the line that captures the sentiment of 'Not just a homemaker, a Meesho Entrepreneur.' <div type="Youtube" id="Y0nSzxtiShA" title="Many Names, One Identity #MyStoreMyStory" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y0nSzxtiShA/mqdefault.jpg"></div> Telling us more about the company's marketing proposition, Aatrey said, “We have more than 9 million resellers on our platform spread across 100 cities out of which 80% of them being women from smaller towns and cities. Social and cultural factors for years have kept this section of the society away from employment. Our strategy has always been to empower more and more people to fulfil their dream of becoming an entrepreneur, especially women, who due to social obligations sacrifice their dreams and fall behind in terms of financial independence. We wish to give them all a sense of self and accomplishment through our platform. Social media is our backbone and these entrepreneurs, our pillars of strength.” Meesho is also fighting against e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart, who are ploughing billions of dollars and have been around for a while. Meesho’s rivals have on-boarded Bollywood celebrities and have a huge media presence. “In the era of Amazon and Flipkart, we at Meesho are trying to build trust through social commerce. Our strategy has always been to empower more and more people to fulfil their dream. Our communication will remain around our USP- to help build entrepreneurs with zero capital. We will also find more channels this year to penetrate our value proposition further,” said Aatrey. Vision After the recent funding round, Meesho is aiming to build a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses to grow faster. “With the new round of funding, we are now focused on expanding our vision — from helping aspiring women entrepreneurs to creating Meesho as a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses in India to succeed online. In the last one year, we have seen tremendous growth across small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to move their businesses online. And with our new vision we will enable 100 million small businesses to start, succeed and lead their operations online with Meesho as their partner in their journey,” said Aatrey. The introduction of smartphones and penetration of the internet and WhatsApp in particular has made the market size for social commerce grow larger, which is estimated to reach $70B USD in 2025. Meesho aims to leverage this demand and go bullish on marketing with new campaigns and collaborations with different partners to accelerate its user base of resellers on the platform. “2021 has come with a new set of possibilities, opportunities, and challenges to tackle. We, at Meesho, are committed to our goal of letting anyone start a digital business with zero capital. Major focus area would be to enable increased adoption of Meesho’s platform across multiple categories which would be possible only when we are able to structurally reduce our prices for our customers. We also plan to leverage the digital ecosystem and unravel more benefits that it can offer for the betterment of our entrepreneurs and Meeho’s growth. We aim at surpassing all our achievements and recognitions from previous years and reach newer milestones. We are also looking at transforming the Meesho app for better experience for our entrepreneurs. With new built in features, we hope to enhance the look and feel of the app. ‘Meeshoites’ are looking at the year with great hope, plans and execution methods,” shared Aatrey.

Meesho's marketing strategy has been to empower women who lack financial independence, says CEO Vidit Aatrey

<ul><li>The TVC is conceptualised by <keyword id="910338" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="DDB-Mudra-Group">DDB Mudra Group</keyword>. </li><li>It aims to communicate brand's missions to help women achieve financial independence.</li></ul><keyword id="3480589" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meesho">Meesho</keyword>, a <keyword id="10624624" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-commerce-platform">social commerce platform</keyword>, today launched a new TVC to create awareness about the wide range of products available on the platform for micro-entrepreneurs to choose from, share with their customers and make earnings towards their small-scale businesses. Taking the lead from the brand’s previous TVC campaign which reflected women achieving financial independence and creating their unique identity with Meesho; the new TVC highlights the ease Meesho offers to the new generation of ‘social commerce’ <keyword id="74945" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Women-Entrepreneurs">women entrepreneurs</keyword> to serve their customer’s varied demands as per their preferences. <div type="Youtube" id="3RXdnmEWPwQ" title="#MyStoreMyStory: Jitni lambi contact list, utne zyada products!" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3RXdnmEWPwQ/mqdefault.jpg"></div> The film showcases an interesting aspect of our social circles. Every person on our contact list has a specific persona. This reflects in their interests, fashion statement, and products they like to buy. This proved to be a significant insight for Meesho to collaborate with <keyword id="259349" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="DDB-Mudra">DDB Mudra</keyword> and create the TVC in order to reach out to ‘social commerce’ entrepreneurs in the country who are always on the lookout to buy products for their customers as per their varied taste and preference. Meesho platform has a wide range of products to choose from whether it is in terms of latest in fashion and garment, home décor, accessories and much more at affordable price-points. Commenting on the launch of the new TVC, Vidit Aatrey, Founder &amp; CEO, Meesho said, “At Meesho we are aware about the pulse of our audience – women entrepreneurs and we accordingly provide solutions. Access to smartphones and penetration of internet have brought many women entrepreneurs to the digital fold who run their micro enterprises via social commerce. Through our TVC we want to convey to these entrepreneurs to look no further than Meesho as we understand their aspirations to meet their customer's varied demands and preferences. One can always find something for everyone at Meesho." <keyword id="1106781" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rahul-Mathew">Rahul Mathew</keyword>, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group said “To take forward our journey of encouraging women entrepreneurs, we wanted to bring out how simple and powerful an ally Meesho is. The film effectively communicates that Meesho is as vast and resourceful as your contact list.” Today Meesho has more than 7 million re-sellers (entrepreneurs) on the platform spread across 100 cities out of which 80% of them are women from smaller towns and cities. The TVC will be running across regional, news, entertainment, infotainment, and sports channels. The advertisement will also be available in many regional languages like Kannad, Telugu, Tamil, Malyalam, Bengali, Odiya and Assamese.

Meesho's latest ad encourages women entrepreneurs to explore social commerce

<ul><li>The football icon has signed an agreement with the edtech company to promote the cause of equitable education. </li><li>Football has roughly 3.5 billion fans worldwide, and <keyword id="704" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="lionel-messi" source="Orion">Lionel Messi</keyword> has a social media following of nearly 450 million. </li><li>With this social initiative, the company aims to make education accessible, equitable, and affordable for all on a global level.</li></ul>Edtech platform BYJU’s on Friday said that global sports icon Lionel <keyword id="6355806" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="messi" source="Orion">Messi</keyword> had become the first global brand ambassador for its social impact arm ‘<keyword id="56156" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Education-for-all" source="Orion">Education for all</keyword>’. Football icon Messi, who plays for Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentinian football team, signed an agreement with the edtech company to promote the cause of equitable education, the company said. “He (Messi) is a once-in-a-generation talent whose pursuit of excellence, all-in mentality, humility, and reliability resonate deeply with BYJU’S brand values. I am sure this partnership will inspire millions of people around the world to dream bigger and learn better,” said <keyword id="5563078" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="divya-gokulnath" source="Orion">Divya Gokulnath</keyword>, co-founder of BYJU’S. Football has roughly 3.5 billion fans worldwide, and Lionel Messi has a social media following of nearly 450 million. “I chose to partner with BYJU’S because their mission to make everyone fall in love with learning perfectly aligns with my values. High-quality education changes lives, and BYJU’S has transformed the career paths of millions of students worldwide. I hope to inspire young learners to reach and remain at the top,” said Messi. With this social initiative, the company aims to make education accessible, equitable, and affordable for all on a global level. Earlier this year, the company also became the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="94834320" title="The many troubles at BYJU’s that goes beyond the recent layoffs" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> “The long-term engagement, which begins as Lionel Messi embarks on his final campaign to win the FIFA World Cup 2022 as captain of Argentina’s national football team, will see him feature in campaigns promoting BYJU’S Education For All,” the company said in a statement. The edtech company believes that Messi will be an ideal mentor for hundreds of millions of young people around the world through his unwavering work ethic, study of the game, and love for learning. This trend of roping in big stars as brand faces is not only limited to BYJU’s. E-commerce platforms too relied on big Bollywood stars like Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone (for Meesho); Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt (for Flipkart) for their new campaigns. Beauty startup brand Nykaa too has celebrity brand ambassadors who are investors too — like Bollywood actresses Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt. Kaif was also present at the listing ceremony of Nykaa along with founder Falguni Nayyar, as a business partner. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/a-new-study-reveals-pistachios-are-an-antioxidant-powerhouse/articleshow/95295445.cms">A new study reveals Pistachios are an antioxidant powerhouse</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/international/news/bank-of-england-warns-of-longest-recession-in-100-yrs/articleshow/95294929.cms">Bank of England warns of longest recession in 100 yrs</a>

Football icon Lionel Messi is global brand ambassador for Byju’s ‘Education for all’ social initiative

North Korea-based notorious <keyword id="279456" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="lazarus" source="Orion">Lazarus</keyword> hacking group is back in action, targeting <keyword id="6354427" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="apple" source="Orion">Apple</keyword> <keyword id="62949" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="mac" source="Orion">Mac</keyword> users with fake job emails that contain malicious files. Researchers at cyber-security firm ESET posted a screenshot on Twitter that showed fake job listings from leading crypto exchange <keyword id="1972612" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="coinbase" source="Orion">Coinbase</keyword> by Lazarus, famous for spreading the WannaCry ransomware globally in 2017. The fake job listing was for an engineering manager, product security, at Coinbase. "A signed Mac executable disguised as a job description for Coinbase was uploaded to VirusTotal from Brazil. This is an instance of Operation by Lazarus for Mac," the ESET researchers posted in a tweet. The fake job emails have an attachment containing malicious files that can compromise both Intel and Apple chip-powered Mac computers. "Malware is compiled for both Intel and Apple Silicon. It drops three files: a decoy PDF document, a bundle and a downloader," warned researchers. The Mac malware campaign is new and not part of previous Lazarus campaigns. This time, "the bundle is signed July 21 (according to the timestamp) using a certificate issued in February 2022 to a developer named <keyword id="14778863" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shankey-nohria" source="Orion">Shankey Nohria</keyword>. The application is not notarised and Apple has revoked the certificate on August 12," the researchers noted. Last month, cyber-security researchers linked Lazarus with stealing $100 million worth digital tokens from Harmony, the crypto startup behind Horizon Blockchain Bridge. The Lazarus Group has perpetrated several large cryptocurrency thefts totalling over $2 billion, and has recently turned its attention to Decentralised Finance (DeFi) services such as cross-chain bridges, according to London-based blockchain analysis provider Elliptic. The same group is believed to be behind the $540 million hack of <keyword id="14283106" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="ronin-bridge" source="Orion">Ronin Bridge</keyword>. SEE ALSO : <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/meet-indias-real-gully-boy-vidit-aatrey-of-meesho-is-taking-the-entrepreneurial-dream-deep-inside-bharat/articleshow/93702491.cms">Meet India’s Real Gully Boy: Vidit Aatrey of Meesho is taking the entrepreneurial dream deep inside Bharat</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/indians-spend-half-an-hour-every-day-on-memes-and-thats-gone-up-80-in-the-last-year/articleshow/93702734.cms">Indians spend half an hour every day on memes and that's gone up 80% in the last year</a>

Lazarus hackers targeting Apple Mac users with fake job posts

<ul><li>India Inc is now preparing for a long funding winter that can last anywhere between 12 months to 24 months.</li><li>The companies are now looking to extend their runway by the means of layoffs, freezing hiring and cutting down on marketing expenses.</li><li>About 10,000 employees from startups like Ola, Unacademy, Vedantu, Meesho, Cars24 and others have lost their jobs so far.</li></ul>The anticipation of a rough funding winter may make Indian startups more conscious about their spending habits, according to several analysts and industry experts Business Insider India spoke with. While the newer players will be forced to do it, it may come off as a choice for heavily backed players, We Founder Circle’s cofounder Gaurav Singhvi said. Madhur Singhal, managing partner and CEO of Praxis Global Alliance, specified that some companies operating in the healthtech, ecommerce, and direct-to-consumer (D2C) would be able to use their cashflow much more efficiently, leadin to lower cash burn rate. “It will be difficult for edtech and social commerce to reduce cash burn because the pace of new customer acquisition must be maintained to support growth,” Singhal told Business Insider. But again, it’s not the same for all. Singhvi <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/the-worst-for-indian-startups-is-yet-to-come-be-prepared-for-layoffs-unicorn-slowdown-and-startup-shutdowns-in-2022/articleshow/91681195.cms">added </a>that this funding winter would have the biggest impact on the young startups that are yet to establish their market. There will be less liquidity in the market — not ‘no liquidity’ — so the investors will choose to invest in well-established, heavily-backed startups. However, it would create a new age of investors and entrepreneurs who are more conscious about their spending. The change will be because of will and not force, he noted. There may not be any change coming from the publicly listed companies like Zomato, Paytm, PolicyBazaar, Delhivery and others as the value consciousness is always there once the company is listed on the stock exchange, Singhvi added. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Slimmer teams, marketing budget may now be a popular choice" comment="subhead" text="Slimmer teams, marketing budget may now be a popular choice">Slimmer teams, marketing budget may now be a popular choice</cmsannotation> India Inc — which was<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/2021-indias-year-of-the-unicorn-and-its-many-high-points/slidelist/88528773.cms"> basking in the glory of an undisrupted flow of funding and expensive valuations last year</a> — is now preparing for a long funding winter that can last anywhere between 12-24 months. The first signs of this can be seen in the extensive layoffs and reduction in hiring activities amongst startups. About 10,000 employees from startups like Ola, Unacademy, Vedantu, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Meesho, Cars24 and others have lost their jobs so far. In total, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/60000-jobs-in-startup-companies-may-lose-their-jobs-this-year-in-india-experts-say/articleshow/91804572.cms">60,000 are expected </a>to be out of work this year. This is only one way for these companies to reduce their cash burn rate. The other would be cutting down on marketing expenses. “Funded companies looking at inorganic growth may also slow down their pace of acquisitions to conserve cash,” Neha Khanna, director at management consultancy firm ValPro, said <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;">Startups </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;">Cash Burn </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;"><a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/meesho-looks-to-cut-costs-extend-cash-runaway-with-new-seller-policies/articleshow/91947322.cms">$46 million</a> per month </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;">Ola </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;"><a href="https://yourstory.com/2021/11/ola-b3-credit-rating-moodys/amp#:~:text=According%20to%20Moody's%2C%20a%20high,%2C%202021%20(FY%202021).">$73 million</a> as on March 31, 2021 </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;">Unacademy </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;"><a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/unacademy-lays-off-around-1000-employees-as-edtech-major-begins-a-massive-cost-cutting-exercise/articleshow/90703708.cms">$15 million</a> per month </td></tr></tbody></table>Source: Media reports Startups contributed around 11 percent to the overall AdEx in 2021, which stood at around ₹74,000 crore as per industry estimates. The companies have now been <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/storyboard18-ad-spends-dip-as-startups-slash-marketing-budgets-8611681.html">slashing their budgets</a> to increase their runway. <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/startups-prioritise-performance-marketing-over-brand-building-8639361.html">Reports </a>also suggest that companies are spending on performance marketing that can bring them instant results, instead of focusing on brand building. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What can startups do?" comment="subhead" text="What can startups do?">What can startups do?</cmsannotation> Shahan Sud, an investment banker-turned-VC, elaborated that the companies should focus on reducing their customer acquisition costs and surround themselves with an honest team that can help the entrepreneurs sail past this situation and get a reality check on their position in the market. The companies can “use capital frugality to ensure creative low-cost marketing campaigns, focus on their core business, and selectively hire a hero team (rather than hiring for non-core business verticals) to help them scale their core business,” he said, adding that a healthy mix of this can help shareholders navigate startups for the next 18 months. Singhvi of We Founder Circle explained that several startups have ignored their bottom line for a long time and the investors are now putting pressure on these companies to focus on their finances and numbers. “Revenue is all good but now they are looking at profitability and long term sustenance,” he added. “Bear markets call for prudent measures for running any startup. While these are challenging times, not only owing to a funding crunch but also inflation and a squeeze on the supply chain, it would help startups build lean operations to achieve better unit economics for products they’re building,” ValPro’s Khanna elaborated. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/spicejet-hiked-its-ticket-prices-indigo-and-others-might-follow-suit/articleshow/92251751.cms" style="">SpiceJet hiked its ticket prices; Indigo and others might follow suit</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/ready-to-take-off-rakesh-jhunjhunwalas-akasa-air-receives-its-first-boeing-aircraft/articleshow/92247189.cms" style="">Ready to take off – Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's Akasa Air receives its first Boeing aircraft</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/amazon-flipkart-and-myntra-sales-all-unaffected-by-low-consumer-sentiment/articleshow/92245806.cms" style="">Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra sales – all unaffected by low consumer sentiment</a>

Tough times will make startups go for ‘hero teams’, slash ad budgets and focus on profits

New Delhi, Apr 10 (PIT) Consumer internet firm Prosus, which has invested in companies like Swiggy, Byju's etc, on Friday pledged to donate Rs 100 crore to the Prime Minister's relief fund for supporting coronavirus relief work. "Prosus, the global consumer internet group of Naspers, has committed Rs 100 crore to the Indian government's response to the Covid-19 crisis. The donation will be made to the 'Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund'," the company said in a statement. Prosus has invested around USD 5 billion (about Rs 37,900 crore) in Indian technology companies since 2005. Its portfolio includes Brainly, Byju's, Codecademy, eMAG, Honor, iFood, LazyPay, letgo, Meesho, Movile, OLX, PayU, Red Dot Payments, Remitly, SimilarWeb, SoloLearn, Swiggy, and Udemy. "These are unprecedented times and we want to play our part in contributing to the efforts underway in India. By working with government and civil society, we hope to help India overcome this very difficult period," Prosus and Naspers Group CEO Bob van Dijk said. In addition to its direct contribution to the PM CARES Fund, Prosus is working closely with the companies it partners with to support measures designed to help Indians affected by the situation, the statement said. Byju's has offered its learning platform for free in India until the end of April to help parents support their children's learning while away from school. On the other hand, Olx is allowing advertisements to stay on its site for an additional 30 days, at no extra cost and PayU has built a platform to enable any brand in India to start raising funds from its customers for the PM CARES Fund. "Swiggy has launched a campaign to donate meals to persons in need in India. The public can also donate to this campaign. The campaign is currently donating approximately 35,000 meals per day, with a goal of raising this to 500,000 meals per day as soon as possible," the statement said. PRS ANU

Prosus commits Rs 100 crore for PM's Covid relief fund

New Delhi, May 2 () Internet companies like Urban Company, MakeMyTrip, Dunzo, HealthifyMe and Zomato are changing their social media handles and app icons to promote wearing face masks as a hygiene practice amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Apna Mask initiative -- an effort by StartUpVsCOVID (a startup community with over 1,000 members) -- is promoting homemade masks and aims to drive behavioural change to ensure that people wear masks and stay protected as they step out of their homes. The #ApnaDeshApnaMask campaign was kicked off by startup industry stalwarts like Rajan Anandan of Sequoia India, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Alok Mittal (Indifi), Vishal Gondal (GoQii) and others. They were later joined by celebrities like Vidya Balan, Dia Mirza, Juhi Chawla, Divya Khosla Kumar, Juhi Parmar, Deepshika Deshmukh, Sonu Sood, Shama Sikander, Preetika Rao and others. Within a span of two weeks, the initiative has garnered 100 million outreach across digital platforms, including WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The team working on the campaign also reached out to various organisations to support the initiative, especially as parts of the country get ready to come out of the lockdown which has been extended till May 17. "Urban Company, MakemyTrip, Dunzo, HealthifyMe, Zomato, Redbus, Ixigo, MoneyTap, MyUpchaar, Bounce, RazorPay, Medanta, WittyFeed, LBB, Porter, Meesho, Daily Hunt, 1mg, Paytm Games have changed their social media handles while some are changing the app icons as well," a statement said. These brands are also inviting more companies to join the initiative. "Given the immense response we have received, we will have more brands join #ApnaMask in this critical initiative. We believe some of these steps will be helpful in building habit changing behaviour towards wearing homemade masks," Poonam Kaul, co-founder of ApnaMask, said. In a separate statement, Crowdera -- an online fundraising platform -- said it is offering its premium syndicated fundraising technology solutions for free to companies and NGOs working to help the COVID-19 affected individuals, families and health workers. "Crowdera will be extending its support through offering its products and services worth almost USD 150,000 (Rs 1 crore) free to organisations aiding the affected...The solution will help corporations and NGOs to quickly syndicate with their own employees, influencers, other foundations, or charity partners to raise funds 10X more than through a regular crowdfunding campaign," it said. Under this pledge, Crowdera has already extended its support to companies like Rapido, Repos, BYJU'S, SirfTaxi, and Tartl to engage their employees and partners in fundraising for the COVID-affected workforce. SR ABMABM

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