<ul><li>After building a company designed to provide payment solutions to small businesses, Razorpay is spending dollars to help build a healthy startup ecosystem. </li><li>Programme called <keyword id="12745792" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="razorpay-rize" source="Orion">Razorpay Rize</keyword> provides companies with mentorship, incorporation and fundraise activities. </li><li>Out of the 50 startups selected by YCombinator, those mentored by Razorpay <keyword id="6019177" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="rize" source="Orion">Rize</keyword> would account for 10%.</li></ul> Chances are that you will never see an advertising campaign of the Aditya Birla Group or Reliance Industries featuring the head honcho of the Adani Group. But in the brave new world of startups, the ecosystem is everything. Founding a startup is almost everyone’s dream, but few are aware of the regulatory hurdles that they need to cross before they even can get their nameplate on their door. Only a founder who has gone through the drill can understand this pain, just as Razorpay’s Harshil <keyword id="108548" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mathur" source="Orion">Mathur</keyword> learned back in 2014 and it is for this reason that his company has a full fledged division to help other founders. The programme is called Razorpay Rize. A startup founder’s dream of building a company only starts with registering a company with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. After registration comes the payroll, tax compliance and a host of other nitty-gritties. Most founders are unaware of these time-consuming processes. In fact, Mathur recalls his early days when he was vacationing at the end of the year and had to transfer salaries during New Year’s Eve festivities. Today, Razorpay has a payroll solution for early stage companies. Solving problems of young companies is, in fact, the raison d’etre of Razorpay considering that his company provides online payment solutions to small businesses. Having attained unicorn status and established his place in the startup ecosystem, Mathur and his co-founder <keyword id="205343" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shashank-kumar" source="Orion">Shashank Kumar</keyword> now devote their energy and resources to help other start-ups through a formal programme called Razorpay Rize. It is a programme that handholds startups in two key areas – incorporation and applying to the mentorship programme of YCombinator. Razorpay Rize is like any incubator programme that seeks to resolve problems faced by founders in these two areas. The two biggest challenges that founders face pertain to incorporation and fund raise. The Rize programme helps in both these areas. On an average, about 100 startups apply to Razorpay’s Rize programme. The tagline of this programme is Let’s Rize Together. Explains Mathur, “The purpose of Razorpay Rize is to establish a community of like-minded founders. Over time it has emerged as a community of founders. There is no direct financial benefit to Razorpay. We do a lot of events around funding, processes and marketing. Today close to 500 startup founders are part of Razorpay Rize community.” Explains Aman Singh, founder of SayF, a startup that helps people earn, save and invest on their everyday spends, “I got to know of Razorpay Rize after I graduated from IIT. We are trying to build a savings app and we have had several mentoring sessions with Shashank and the product team at Razorpay. I have been connected to a mentor too. They have regular meetups and I met other people from the ecosystem too there as we share experiences. These meetups are online and offline.” While incorporation is the first step that a founder can take towards scaling his business, there are a host of options (private limited, limited liability partnership and a one-person company). Then comes the payroll and tax compliance issue. Razorpay runs mentorship programmes for newbie founders on marketing and even payroll management. It offers credits to startups of leading technology solutions providers – both Indian and global. In addition, there are many start-ups that want to apply to the YCombinator programme. Razorpay Rize helps them with that process too. For this Mathur and his co-founder personally devote time to founders at their office through personal interactions. Razorpay has a full team that is dedicated to Rize. Rather than spend money on expensive brand campaigns using cricket or Bollywood stars, Mathur heroes other founders for his campaign. Explains Mathur, “We have a programme that helps startups prepare for the YCombinator programme. And out of the 50 startups selected, those mentored by Razorpay Rize would account for 10% of them. It is a good number to start with. Some of the Rize startups have gone ahead and raised more capital from VCs. We don’t pick up stake in these startups and we do not ask them to buy our products.” Recently, Razorpay ran a massive advertising campaign in media where it used AI tools to generate marketing material that starred other startup founders. Says Mathur: “We featured <keyword id="274057" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shashank-mehta" source="Orion">Shashank Mehta</keyword>, the founder of Whole Truth Foods, who was also our customer. We made a brand ad with him talking about payroll. We have products to serve startup founders. We launched ImagineByAI and we wanted to do a print campaign. So we decided to do the campaign sharing image of startup founders and their journey. The success of Razorpay lies in the success of startups that we power.” So where’s the catch? Why would any company invest precious management time and money celebrating other rivals if there is no benefit to the company? Conventional wisdom would call this stupidity, but in a brave new world, the ecosystem is your core business. Razorpay was not born to solve payment problems of mega corporations. It was born out of its own struggles. The more startups thrive, the better it is for Razorpay as it seeks to solve problems of startups and small companies. And by helping them at a very critical stage of their journey, Razorpay earns currency with these founders early on in their journey. As a company, Razorpay believes that its success lies in the success of startups that it powers. The fintech unicorn will enable these founders even if there is no commercial advantage in the short-term. Add Mathur: “We are expanding Rize slowly and expanding the offerings without diluting the experience.”

Entrepreneurship dreams? Here is a door to knock for guidance

<ul><li><keyword id="11953189" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="supertails" source="Orion">Supertails</keyword>, a pet-care startup, has raised $10 million in Series A funding.</li><li>The round was led by <keyword id="2822035" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="fireside-ventures" source="Orion">Fireside Ventures</keyword>, along with <keyword id="1148513" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="saama-capital" source="Orion">Saama Capital</keyword> and DSG Consumer Partners.</li><li><keyword id="11953188" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="supertails-com" source="Orion">Supertails.com</keyword> is a pet-care ecommerce platform that offers pet supplies, training and vet consultations.</li></ul>Pet-care startup Supertails.com announced on Wednesday, November 9, 2022, that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding from Fireside Ventures, a Bengaluru-based investment firm. The round also saw participation from existing investors such as Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. Supertails.com was founded in 2021 by Varun Sadana, Aman Tekriwal, and <keyword id="5014857" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vineet-khanna" source="Orion">Vineet Khanna</keyword> to address the needs of first-time pet owners. The platform has now become a pet-care focused ecommerce marketplace for pet supplies, pet training and online vet consultations across the country. The company has already completed over 20,000 pet consultations and offers over 10,000 products from over 200 brand partners. “At Supertails.com, our vision is to create a platform that makes their (pet parents) lives easier. From providing pet nutrition to round-the-clock pet care and consultation, our aim is to build a platform that integrates products, services, and communities,” said Supertails.com co-founders Varun Sadana, Aman Tekriwal, and Vineet Khanna. The round also saw investment from angels such as Cred founder Kunal Shah, MamaEarth co-founder Varun Alagh, Genesis Luxury Fashion president <keyword id="3799" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sanjay-kapoor" source="Orion">Sanjay Kapoor</keyword>, Curefoods founder Ankit Nagori and The Whole Truth Foods founder <keyword id="274057" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shashank-mehta" source="Orion">Shashank Mehta</keyword>. “With this round of funding, we want to invest in making a one-stop platform for pet parents that caters to all their needs. We are thrilled to have the support of Fireside Ventures, Saama Capital, and DSG consumer partners in this journey and aim to leverage their expertise to become the most preferred and loved pet-care platform in India,” the trio added. Supertails.com plans on using the raised funds to scale its tech infra and launch its mobile application. The company is also expanding its newly launched brand Henlo, which currently sells diet enhancers for dogs. The money will also be used to expand its verticals, strengthen the supply chain and improve the post-sale experience. “Supertails.com stands out as a unique online platform that caters from pet-care to pet indulgences in spaces like food, grooming, and fashion too. We at Fireside Ventures, believe that there is a massive untapped potential in the pet care industry and are certain that with Supertails.com’s innovative vision and the strength of their leadership team, the pet ownership industry has huge potential in the years to come,” said Kanwaljit Singh, founder and managing partner, Fireside Ventures. Supertails.com had earlier raised $2.6 million during the Seed round, led by Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partner. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Company looks to double its ARR" comment="subhead" text="Company looks to double its ARR">Company looks to double its ARR</cmsannotation> Supertails.com reported an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of ₹50 crore in the last 18 months, and is looking to double it to ₹100 crore by March 2023. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/health-tech-startup-curebay-raises-50-crore-in-series-a-funding-led-by-elevar-equity/articleshow/95397581.cms">Health-tech startup CureBay raises ₹50 crore in Series A funding led by Elevar Equity</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/best-festive-auto-sales-in-the-last-4-years-but-sales-may-decline-says-fada-report/articleshow/95354054.cms">Best festive auto sales in the last 4 years, but sales may decline says FADA report</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/four-out-of-five-indian-business-executives-predict-an-increase-in-cybersecurity-budgets-in-2023/articleshow/95403725.cms">Four out of five Indian business execs believe that their cybersecurity budgets will rise in 2023</a>

Pet-care startup Supertails.com raises $10 million in Series A funding

<ul><li>The number of <keyword id="7771650" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gig-workers" source="Orion">gig workers</keyword> earning more than ₹1,50,000 grew by 69%, while gig workers earning between ₹85,000 to ₹1,50,000 saw a spurt by 62%. </li><li><keyword id="982553" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-startups" source="Orion">Indian startups</keyword> are preferring to hire more gig workers than permanent employees. </li><li>While overall hiring has decreased, salary spends have increased by 64% since October 2021.</li></ul>Demand for gig professionals has been constantly rising in the country and this is reflected in the 153% growth in their salaries in the last one year, according to a report by Razorpay’s business banking platform RazorpayX Payroll. However, gig workers earning less than ₹20,000 saw the slowest salary growth at 26% in the last one year, while workers with salary between ₹20,000 to ₹40,000 witnessed a salary growth of 52%. The number of gig workers earning more than ₹1.5 lakh grew by 69%, while gig workers earning between ₹85,000 to ₹1.5 lakh saw a spurt by 62%. “This shows that gig-workers are gaining more popularity among startups than hiring full-time employees,” said the report. However, gig workers who are paid less than ₹20,000 form the largest chunk of the gig workers being hired by startups, followed by those who earn anywhere between ₹20,000 to ₹40,000. Indian startups’ preference for hiring more gig workers is seen in the 61% decline in hiring of new permanent employees since October 2021, while <keyword id="15395705" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hiring-of-gig-workers" source="Orion">hiring of gig workers</keyword> rose 15% in the same period. This dip in hiring is seen across seniority with the <keyword id="7604725" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CXO-hiring" source="Orion">CXO hiring</keyword> noticing a massive normalization, dropping by 93% since Oct 2021, the report added. “The Indian startup ecosystem has been facing headwinds in the past few months but they have been nothing short of resilient and adaptive to such a dynamic environment. Startups have been optimizing their workforce by building leaner yet stronger teams, keeping in mind the macro-forces,” said <keyword id="274057" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shashank-Mehta" source="Orion">Shashank Mehta</keyword>, vice president and head, RazorpayX. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Despite a drop in hiring, salary spends on a rise" comment="subhead" text="Despite a drop in hiring, salary spends on a rise">Despite a drop in hiring, salary spends on a rise</cmsannotation> While overall hiring has decreased, salary spends have increased by 64% since October 2021. “Contrary to previous trends, salaries across different salary levels have been rising gradually but not exponentially, at an average of 12%,” the report said. However, for gig workers, the growth in salary has been different across different scales. According to the report, the median salaries of gig-workers have increased by 19.9% in the last one year. The gender pay gap still prevails as salaries of males grew by 29% in the last one year compared to a 22% rise for females during the same period. This salary gap is accompanied by a lower participation of women in the workforce — for every 2 men that were hired in the last one year, 1 woman was hired. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/over-2-lakh-jobs-created-each-day-this-festive-season-says-report/articleshow/95204035.cms">Over 2 lakh jobs created each day this festive season, says report</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/indian-startups-make-deep-hiring-cuts-permanent-employee-hiring-down-61/articleshow/95206627.cms">Indian startups make deep hiring cuts, permanent employee hiring down 61%</a>

Number of gig workers earning over ₹85,000/month rose over 60% since last October: Report

Indian startups are going through steep <keyword id="14673042" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hiring-cuts" source="Orion">hiring cuts</keyword> and the hiring of permanent employees has dipped by a significant 61 per cent in the last 12 months, a new report showed on Monday. The hiring for chief experience officer (<keyword id="607308" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="cxo" source="Orion">CXO</keyword>) has decreased by a massive 1,300 per cent since October 2021, according to the annual insights report by <keyword id="15395027" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="razorpayx-payroll" source="Orion">RazorpayX Payroll</keyword>, the business banking platform of <keyword id="2777173" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="razorpay" source="Orion">Razorpay</keyword>. The changing dynamics of the startup ecosystem have resulted in massive shifts in hiring patterns in the last 12 months. Despite lower hiring, the total salary spent on existing full-time employees increased by 64.7 per cent. However, these rising salaries are not distributed equitably across genders, especially in the top salary bracket, said the report. "The Indian startup ecosystem has been facing headwinds in the past few months but they have been nothing short of resilient and adaptive to such a dynamic environment. The data indicates that startups have been optimising their workforce by building leaner yet stronger teams, keeping in mind the macro-forces," said <keyword id="274057" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="shashank-mehta" source="Orion">Shashank Mehta</keyword>, Vice President and Head of RazorpayX. With many startups facing the chills of funding winter, most of them are cutting back on their hiring. "While hiring across departments has decreased, hiring in technology seems to have been least impacted. Technology-related jobs have managed to marginally increase their contribution to the overall workforce by 4 per cent while the hiring trend is slowing down in general," the findings showed. While hiring permanent employees has seen a fall, gig workers seem to be the preferred way to go for startups. Payments to gig workers have seen a growth of 153 per cent since Oct 2021. The total number of enterprises that have shifted to a semi-gig workforce model has increased by 15 per cent. Semi-skilled gig workers who are paid less than Rs 20,000 have the highest contribution to the entire pool of gig workers being hired by startups, followed by those who earn anywhere between Rs 20,000-Rs 40,000, said the report. "However, these workers are one of the slowest growing cohorts growing at 26 per cent and 52 per cent, respectively. However, skilled gig workers who earn between Rs 85,000 to more than Rs 150,000, although contributing the least to the overall pool, have seen the highest growth in the last year," mentioned the report. The report analysed data from Oct 2021 to September 2022 of more than 25,000 employees across over 1,000 Indian startups from 20 sectors. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/hardika-shah-is-the-founder-and-ceo-of-fintech-company-kinara-capital/slidelist/95200480.cms">A mother’s struggles as a kirana-store owner drove her daughter to help small biz owners access loans</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/curated-menus-butler-services-expansive-lounges-at-mumbai-airports-renovated-private-jet-terminal/articleshow/95202285.cms">Curated menus, butler services, expansive lounges at Mumbai airport's renovated private jet terminal</a>

Indian startups make deep hiring cuts, permanent employee hiring down 61%: Razorpay

<ul><li>The <keyword id="12257603" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="whole-truth" source="Orion">Whole Truth</keyword>, a health food brand, has dedicated its marketing efforts to telling the world the truth about its food and busting common food marketing myths to help consumers lead healthier lifestyles.</li><li>The Whole Truth’s latest campaign addresses the issue of misleading influencer marketing.</li><li>Its campaign ‘The Whole Truth Sayers’ is a clarion call to all Honest Influencers who only endorse what they actually use and love. And whose opinions can’t be bought with money.</li><li>As consumers moved to influencers, so did marketing dollars. And for the right price, experts started selling their influence, rather than telling the truth.</li><li>To fix this broken system, TWT has launched The Whole Truth Academy Project where they want ‘real’ influencers to tell the truth about their products. 25 honest influencers will be shortlisted by a jury who will narrate The Whole Truth later in their own ways.</li></ul>Over the last two decades, social media has become a huge part of our lives. After the recent Facebook outage, the world realised how dependent we are on social media platforms. While the six-hour outage only highlighted the tip of the iceberg, it is becoming more and more clear now that social media platforms have become an extended part of our body and existence. Due to this heavy reliance of consumers on digital media, influencer marketing has seen a huge boost and has become an integral marketing tool for advertisers to connect with their audiences on a daily basis. According to GroupM INCA, the <keyword id="11333696" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="influencer-marketing-industry" source="Orion">influencer marketing industry</keyword> will be a Rs 900 crore market in India by the end of 2021. So, there’s no doubt that influencers are heavily embedded in consumers’ day-to-day lives and gaining more attention from advertisers by the hour. However, influencer marketing started out with a revolutionary idea. It aimed to alter the celebrity-dominated advertising and marketing industry, create more space for honesty and do away with false, exaggerated claims made in traditional ads. The digital stars wanted to fade out fake reviews, connect with consumers on a personal level and eradicate the ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude in the industry. It was more about a few creative consumers talking to other consumers about brands they love and make marketing a tad accessible. In a short span of time, influencers forgot their mission statement and capitalism took over. The most earnest, honest reviews on the internet can be bought today and only brands with bigger money bags can afford to be portrayed as the most honest brand in the ad world. To debunk this system that has gotten a ‘bit corrupt,’ The Whole Truth’s Co-founder and CEO <keyword id="274057" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shashank-mehta" source="Orion">Shashank Mehta</keyword> has launched a new campaign titled ‘The Whole Truth Sayers.’ He is on the lookout for an honest batch of influencers who could represent his brand, help change the influencer marketing and revert it to its original form. <div type="Youtube" id="4Y_bXd03gpM" title="The Whole Truth of Influencer Marketing" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4Y_bXd03gpM/mqdefault.jpg"></div> In a 5-minute long film, Mehta and The Whole Truth team audition a bunch of influencers. Mehta asks, “Will these people promote our brand? Who are these people and why are they famous” And then, sitting across the table, Mehta watches influencers showcase their talent and pitch their ideas. They put more effort into their content for more marketing dollars. In a monologue, he later goes on to talk about how influencer marketing came into play as the answer to inauthentic celebrity marketing but has turned into a marketing gimmick in recent times. For the right price, experts started selling their influence, rather than telling the truth and influencer marketing thus became the problem it was meant to solve. The video is conceptualised by The Whole Truth and Gursimran Khamba’s Lights@27. It is being launched in collaboration with Big Bang Social, an influencer marketing agency, who also resonated with campaign’s problem statement. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Behind The Whole Truth and its latest campaign" text="Behind The Whole Truth and its latest campaign">Behind The Whole Truth and its latest campaign</cmsannotation> <div type="Video" msid="86830239" hostid="261" title="Behind The Whole Truth’s latest campaign that aims to reveal the truth behind misleading influencer marketing" dataSource="BUSINESSINSIDER" thumbUrl="https://denmark.timesinternet.in/cmslite/api/app/images.jpg?msid=86830239"></div> It all started when The Whole Truth raised $6 million in a series A round led by Sequoio Capital. After acquiring enough capital to take their marketing to the next level, Mehta realised that there’s a problem with how influencer marketing functions today. “The honest truth behind this campaign is that we wanted to do influencer marketing. We recently raised a round of funding, we had some money in the bank now and we thought we'll do influencer marketing but the more we dived into it, we realised there doesn't seem to be an honest way of doing it. And the current way it was being done, in most places not all, didn't sit well with the brand. So we were caught in a dilemma of either we just walk away from it saying that hey, this is not for us, or we do something about it. And we realised that usually whenever we've taken people behind the scene and shown them the whole truth of anything, they resonate with what we are saying. So, we thought that hey, maybe the way to do influencer marketing for us is first bring out what's going on which it seems like a lot of people resonate with and then mount our own attempt at doing this in an honest, truthful manner on top of this video,” shared Mehta. So, the video is a clarion call to all Honest Influencers who only endorse what they actually use and love. And whose opinions can’t be bought with money or as Mehta calls them, ‘TWT’s Truthsayers.’ With this, The Whole Truth aims to not only highlight the problem, but it is giving out a solution. It has launched a contest, wherein it is inviting influencers to make a fun reel, giving the jury an insider view of the problem. 25 influencers will be shortlisted later by a marketing expert jury consisting of Gursimran Khamba, Varun Duggirala of The Glitch, Vani Gupta Dandia of CherryPeachPlum, to name a few. Later, The Whole Truth will pay for the influencer’s art, hard work and talent - not their opinion. Any equipment fees, production fees, location costs etc, (within a pre-agreed budget) will be taken care of. TWT will not influence the influencer’s opinion or interfere with their art. Neither will they give a brief or push pre-set scripts. Whether the Truth-Sayers choose to make a video or write a blog or make a podcast to introduce The Whole Truth to their followers - the brand will offer complete support. And zero intervention. The process of finding TWT Truthsayers is quite simple. “So we have a two step process, one is we're asking them to apply. The application is a fun thing where we're asking them to make a story or a reel and show us the whole truth of influencer marketing as they see it. And that becomes their participation. Which gets shortlisted to the top 50 people by our panel of judges and we have a very, very respected panel of judges. They will shortlist it down from 50 people to 20-25 eventually we're just going to send them our products and ask them to write us a note about what they liked, what they didn't like right and and whoever falls in love and says that you know I love this brand and these are the 10 reasons why I loved what you did or the only people you work with,” explained Mehta. However, the film is 5-minute long and we all know how infamous millennials and GenZ are for their short attention span, who are all the target group for this campaign. Marketing gurus advise brands to place their product in the first 30 seconds of the advertisement and The Whole Truth’s latest campaign doesn’t follow that thumbrule either. Mehta said that it was a conscious decision to make a long ad. Sharing the reason why, Mehta said, “When we wrote the script, we didn't write it as an ad. That's why you will see that there is very little of the brand. But yeah, it's a it's a long video, given attention spans nowadays. We took that conscious call because we didn't want to make a superficial half-hearted point. We wanted to be do justice to both the problem and at the end, our take on the solution and why we believe things are not the way they should be, etc. And again, the hope is that, when a AIB or TVF come out with a 10-20 minute videos, because the content is so good people do watch through it. So let's see, whether we are thinking too much of our content and people will drop off or will it be engaging and relevant enough for them to watch through -- that's the punt we've taken, but we were very clear that we don't want to do a half-hearted superficial ad-ey job of it was for us, it's not an ad, we're not like promoting a product in this.” Considering that The Whole Truth is calling out an industry for its divergence from an ethical path, there’s a good chance that this campaign will cause a controversy. In today’s time, it doesn’t take much to boycott a brand. Influencers also have a cult following now and there are always some fans who wouldn't watch 'The Whole Truth' and just jump to conclusions by reading a video’s caption or watching an ad for a few seconds with context. Mehta candidly told us that he is worried about this. He said, “It's something that worries us, but we don't know what to do about it. If someone doesn't listen to our whole point of view, and reacts to half baked information, then it does become difficult.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The Whole Truth in the making" text="The Whole Truth in the making">The Whole Truth in the making</cmsannotation> Before launching The Whole Truth, Mehta was working with FMCG giant HUL. He told us that he wanted to launch his own food brand because he has fallen for the lies told by foodbev brands and his body has suffered through enough ups and downs due to the false claims made on food packaging and dishonest FMCG advertisements. So, in The Whole Truth’s maiden campaign, it started by dropping a giant truth bomb about the FMCG industry and its marketing techniques. Titled ‘Our Food is Screwed’ was inspired from The Dollar Shave Club ad and aimed to bust food myths and inconvenient food labelings. <div type="Youtube" id="cT-rTkvhLNo" title="Our Food is Screwed | What Food Companies Don't Want You to Know | #TheWholeTruth" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cT-rTkvhLNo/mqdefault.jpg"></div> The Whole Truth was only 9-months-old and everyone was talking about its campaign. It takes a start-up at least a few years of investment rounds to use the right marketing tools to gain popularity and some media coverage. The Whole Truth was quick to rise to fame, thanks to Mehta’s marketing background. So, we asked Mehta, if he were to give a TedTalk on what helped the start-up gain media attention and become a popular consumer brand in a short time, he said, “TedTalk, I’m not sure of, but the one big learning is do something which is purpose driven. I think it speaks to people, when you're doing something for a fundamental reason, which is beyond just money, profit and fame. Like for us, the mission is to bring honesty back to foods. And that mission comes from a very personal plce because I've suffered at the hands of incorrect and dishonest food marketing, I had to go through multiple weight gain and loss cycles when I used to think that switch from that unhealthy cola to this healthy juice or switch from that unhealthy paratha or that my mom makes in the morning to breakfast cereals. And then I realized that actually, the breakfast cereal is much worse than my mom's parathas and, and the juice has the same amount of sugar as that coke does. So, that's betrayal, that feeling of being lied to, no one likes. Hence, the mission comes from deeply personal space. And I think consumers resonate with that -- they can see that these guys are out not to make a quick buck that they're out to change the world in small but meaningful ways. So that would be my big learning. When you do that, consumer love, fame and revenues -- all of that starts falling in place.” Going forward, The Whole Truth will be on the lookout for expansion opportunities. It started as a protein bar and aims to expand into different food and health sub-categories. Mehta has an interesting approach to decide company’s next foray. “Our focus areas are very clear. We intend to go on getting into different food categories where we see that consumers today are being lied to and create a product that lives up to the whole truth philosophy, so for example, till eight, nine months ago, we were only making protein bars, then we launched a range of muesli, peanut butters in another two, three months. We're gonna launch another food category in five months from then we launch another food category. So our mission is simple. We just take different food categories, we check whether currently, most of the brands there are offering 100% clean label food, or are they lying to consumers? And unfortunately, the answer in most turns out to be the latter. And then we start trying to formulate a product that lives up to The Whole Truth philosophy because we don't have any option, we have to declare each and every ingredient on the front of it, so that takes a little while. So that remains the focus not just the next half, but the foreseeable future, too,” told he. Mehta told us that the brand will keep on unearthing the 100% honest truth of anything that touches food or food marketing in the future as well.

The Whole Truth’s latest campaign aims to reveal the truth behind misleading influencer marketing

Behind The Whole Truth’s latest campaign that aims to reveal the truth behind misleading influencer marketing

<ul><li>The video is titled ‘Our food is screwed’ and is inspired by the iconic <keyword id="1591678" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dollar-Shave-Club">Dollar Shave Club</keyword> ad.</li><li><keyword id="3613961" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Whole-Truth">The Whole Truth</keyword> is on a mission to rebuild the trust of consumers on food labels.</li></ul>The Whole Truth, a HealthFood 9-month-old start-up, has launched its first ever advertisement. The campaign aims to act as a mirror to the malpractices that food giants have followed in our country for generations. Titled ‘Our Food is Screwed,’ the film is inspired from The Dollar Shave Club ad and aims to bust food myths and inconvenient food labelings. It tells you a little bit about things that ‘Food Companies don’t want you to know.’ <div type="Youtube" id="cT-rTkvhLNo" title="Our Food is Screwed | What Food Companies Don't Want You to Know | #TheWholeTruth" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/cT-rTkvhLNo/mqdefault.jpg"></div> It is a common notion that healthy food isn’t tasty but The Whole Truth (TWT) aims to change that perception. It says that the food industry is ‘very clever, a little too clever,’ that is built on marketing tricks. It sells practically anything as ‘healthy’ and designs its packaging to ‘highlight what they want you to see.’ TWT also says that the Food giants label anything man-made as natural, which isn’t the truth. To make it look more real and appealing to the consumers, the start-up decided not to on-board any celebrities to represent it. They have featured its founder, <keyword id="274057" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shashank-Mehta">Shashank Mehta</keyword>, who busts a few misconceptions. It is a clever marketing decision because people would associate with a common man and believe in the brand. He declares each and every ingredient that goes into their pack, upfront so that consumers don’t have to turn the label and squint to find out what chemicals are going inside their bodies. Since the 1990s, <keyword id="1242256" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Food-and-Drug-Administration">the Food and Drug Administration</keyword> (FDA) has required food companies to include Nutrition Facts labels on product packaging. The intent was to help consumers make informed choices - but look where it’s led the world. Global obesity has tripled in the last 40 years. 1 in 5 humans above 65, on the entire planet, now have diabetes. With this, consumers have lost trust in the food industry and TWT is aiming to change it. It also highlights how women are often objectified in advertisements to sell completely unrelated products. While walking the consumers through the process of how the bar is made, it subtly conveys that they follow all precautions sincerely by placing their employees in their background. This video is a way to introduce consumers to honest products with honest packaging and great taste. In a statement released for the press, Shashank Mehta, Founder, The Whole Truth, explained the philosophy behind its start-up. He said, “When The Whole Truth was launched nine months ago, the team started receiving positive responses early on. In fact, people started asking us, ‘are you sure this is healthy? Because it is this tasty’. Our food philosophy told us that when you use good ingredients, food automatically becomes tasty. Food and fitness is a $1 trillion to $4 trillion industry globally. This industry is growing at twice the rate of the global GDP, and yet, all markers — obesity, heart disease, diabetes — are at all-time highs.” Karan Talwar, Founder, Harkat Studios, said, “The dollar shave club is a hero for us. Somehow, they managed to keep the honesty and truth of what they were saying together. They broke the traditional advertising format to present a brand new vision - and that resonated with all of us. The dollar shave club is so striking in its directness. For us, it’s really the evolution of advertising and reaching out to an audience which is done with lies - whether it be in the ingredient list or in the advertisement itself. After all, we all know that putting on deodorant does not get you that hot girl. The objective was to simply tell the whole truth in a way that doesn’t need a documentary." On his experience of working with Shashank, Talwar added, "When Shashank approached us with the idea of this ad film we were clear that we will overturn everything that advertising is, reveal its fakery in some way - because we have too spent years pandering to the same system that we are now looking to dismantle. This is a condensed starting version of something much larger. Because even the truth in our world needs to be a short consumable film. We believe in Shashank and the way he is trying to excavate the truth and present an honest alternative, we also do the same with our work and our industry. Nothing could be a better fit than this." The start-up also says that it might falter in the future and come up short but “it is, after all, an impossible ideal to aspire to.”

This start-up tells us exactly why 'Our food is screwed' in its first-ever campaign

New Delhi, The month of September is all set to bring an exciting slate of titles on the <keyword id="1245953" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ott" source="Orion">OTT</keyword>, filled with thriller, crime, action, and comedy drama. IANS has brought an enthralling slate, which will captivate audiences of varied choices with titles spanning across genres and languages. Presenting a list of five titles on various OTT platforms: '<keyword id="14135675" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="friday-night-plan" source="Orion">Friday Night Plan</keyword>' Directed by Vatsal Neelakantan, 'Friday Night Plan' stars Babil Khan and Amrith Jayan and is produced by Excel Entertainment. The film is a tale of self discovery, companionship, packed with a lot of fun and a ton of chaos. Produced by Ritesh Sidhwani, Kassim Jagmagia &amp; Farhan Akhtar's Excel Entertainment, this heartwarming story also stars Medha Rana, Aadhya Anand, Ninad Kamath, and Juhi Chawla in a special appearance. It will premiere on Netflix starting September 1. '<keyword id="14015982" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="scam-2003" source="Orion">Scam 2003</keyword>: The Telgi Story' Actor Gagan Dev Riar is set to essay the role of the convicted Indian counterfeiter, Abdul Karim Telgi in '<keyword id="41357" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="scam" source="Orion">Scam</keyword> 2003: The Telgi Story'. The second season of the show tells the story of India's biggest stamp paper scam plotted by Abdul Karim Telgi, which shocked the nation with its unimaginable scale. Helmed by Hansal Mehta and directed by Tushar Hiranandani, the series is based on one of India's biggest scams by Abdul Karim Telgi, which shocked the nation with its unimaginable scale. The show also stars Sana Amin Sheikh, Bhavana Balsaver, Bharat Jadhav, J. D. Chakravarthy, Bharat Dabholkar, Shashank Ketkar, Talat Aziz, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Vivek Mishra, Hitha Chandrashekhar, Ajay Jadhav and Dinesh Lal Yadav. Produced by Applause Entertainment in association with StudioNEXT, 'Scam 2003: The Telgi Story' will drop on September 1 on Sony LIV. 'The Freelancer' The riveting thriller series is based on the book - 'A Ticket to Syria' by Shirish Thorat. It is directed by Bhav Dhulia, produced by Friday Storytellers and Neeraj Pandey is the creator and show-runner. The book attempts to share the story about the insidious operations of the Islamic State, and how the terror group has perfected a cross-country operation that converts thousands to a depraved cause. 'The Freelancer' helmed by Mohit Raina, is about an extraction mission where a girl is held captive in the war-torn hostile environment of Syria, and her escape from the world of death. It also stars veteran actor Anupam Kher, along with Sushant Singh, Kashmira Pardeshi, John Kokken, Gauri Balaji and Navneet Malik, Manjiri Faddnis, Sarah Jane Dias amongst others. It will air on September 1 on Disney+ Hotstar. 'The Wheel of Time' season 2 The American fantasy television series developed by Rafe Judkins, is based on the novel series of the same name by Robert Jordan with Brandon Sanderson, Season Two of 'The Wheel of Time' finds the show's beloved characters facing down the deadly threat of the growing darkness, and gives a sneak peek at the introduction of fan favourite book characters such as Elayne Trakand, Aviendha, and Lady Suroth. The series stars Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Zoe Robins, Madeleine Madden in pivotal roles, and will premiere with the first three episodes in English, with dubs in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada on Prime Video on September 1. 'Tahir's House' Starring Mohammad Bakhsh, Mohammed AlFaza, al-Hashimi al-Faisal, Joud Sofyani, it is directed by Sultan al-Abdulmohsen. A family of amateur entrepreneurs must come together to convert their failing fish shop into a thriving business, but branching out isn't easy. With their Jeddah fish store weeks away from bankruptcy, can the Tahir family sow the seeds of success, or just cause familial chaos? In this comedic series, a Saudi family harnesses their granny's green thumb to go from "surf" to "turf" and be first to a blossoming new market. As they reinvent their business, and themselves, they learn the meaning of sacrifice, brotherhood, and family, with plenty of shenanigans along the way. The six-part series will release on September 6 on Netflix.

September debuts on OTT: Scam 2003, Friday Night Plan, The freelancer & more

<ul><li>The company was founded by Shashank Mehta in 2019 to offer health alternatives for packaged food.</li><li>The <keyword id="11733786" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="whole-truth">Whole Truth</keyword> plans to use this funding to hire talent and expand its manufacturing capabilities. </li><li>The round was led by <keyword id="122716" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sequoia-Capital">Sequoia Capital</keyword>, with participation from <keyword id="366603" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Matrix-Partners-India">Matrix Partners India</keyword> and Sauce.vc.</li></ul> Healthy packaged food startup The Whole Truth (TWT) has raised $6 million in its Series A round led by Sequoia Capital India. The company plans to use this funding to hire talent and expand its manufacturing capabilities. The company was founded by Shashank Mehta in 2019 to offer healthier alternatives for packaged food. The company currently makes muesli, protein bars, energy bars and immunity balls. The company claims that their products have eliminated all hidden sugars, artificial flavours and harmful preservatives. "Sequoia Capital India is thrilled to partner with Shashank [Mehta] and [the] rest of the team at The Whole Truth. They have a simple yet very powerful mission of making 100% clean-label food. We have been very impressed with the customer's love for their early set of products and excited about the journey ahead," Abhishek Mohan, Principal at Sequoia India, said. Rachna Aggarwal, a bakery chef and chocolatier with over 15 years of relevant experience, heads The Whole Truth’s product development and creates these products under the company’s label. A part of the funding will also be used by the company to enter new food categories, where less or no healthy alternatives are available. “At TWT, we’re hell-bent on bringing truth back to food. We do this through our 100% clean-label products, and through clutter breaking content that helps consumers spot the misleading information they’re being provided,” Shashank Mehta, founder of The Whole Truth, said in a statement. The Whole Truth’s existing investors Matrix Partners India and Sauce.vc have also participated in this Series A funding round, along with angel investors like Flipkart’s Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Udaan’s Sujeet Kumar, BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover and Shashvat Nakrani. Prior to this, the company had raised funding from Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath, Swiggy’s Sriharsha Majety and Rebel Foods’ Jaydeep Barman. SEE ALSO <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> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/interglobe-aviation-maruti-suzuki-indusind-bank-and-other-stocks-to-watch-out-for-on-july-28/slidelist/84812927.cms">InterGlobe Aviation, Maruti Suzuki, IndusInd Bank and other stocks to watch out for on July 28</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/ratan-tatas-fund-backed-axio-biosolutions-raises-6-million-to-strengthen-its-position-in-india/articleshow/84790703.cms">Ratan Tata’s fund-backed Axio Biosolutions raises $6 million to strengthen its position in India</a>

The Whole Truth, a ‘healthy’ packaged food brand, raises $6 million to enter new categories

New Delhi, Apr 8 () The Supreme Court on Wednesday suggested that the Centre should create a mechanism wherein private laboratories conducting COVID-19 tests do not charge exorbitant fees from public and government should reimburse the fees charged by labs. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Ravindra Bhat was told by the Centre that earlier 15,000 tests were conducted per day by 118 labs and later to enhance the capacity, 47 private labs were allowed to conduct the COVID-19 tests. The top court was hearing a plea filed by advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi seeking a direction to the Centre and authorities to provide free of cost testing facility for COVID-19 to all citizens in the country. Sudhi told the bench that there should be free testing of COVID-19 by labs in the country as it is expensive. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said it is a developing situation and government at this juncture does not know how many laboratories will be needed and how long the ongoing lockdown will continue. To this, the bench suggested that the Centre should ensure that private laboratories do not charge high amount and government should create a mechanism for reimbursement of the fees charges for the tests. Mehta said he would like to take instructions on this front after which the bench said it would pass orders in the matter. On April 3, the top court had sought response from the Centre and other authorities on the plea filed by Sudhi. The petitioner has also sought a direction to the authorities for ramping up the testing facilities for COVID-19 at the earliest "given the escalating mortality and morbidity rate across the country". The petition has questioned the March 17 advisory of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) which capped Rs 4,500 for testing of COVID-19 in private hospitals or labs, including screening and confirmatory tests. "It is extremely difficult for the common citizen to get himself/herself tested in the government hospital /labs and being no alternative in the sight, the people are constrained to pay the capped amount to the private hospital/labs for protecting their lives," it said. The plea said the impending danger of coronavirus is extremely serious, given the deprived population of the country, and testing is the only way to contain the pandemic. It alleged that authorities are "completely insensitive and indifferent" to the plight of common citizens who are already financially burdened on account of complete lockdown across the country. "Further, the capping of the prices of the testing facility of COVID-19 in private hospitals/labs strikes at the Article 14 of the Constitution of India as being arbitrary and unreasonable," it said and urged that the March 17 advisory be declared arbitrary. It also sought a direction for ensuring that all tests relating to COVID-19 are conducted under the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) or ICMR accredited pathological labs. It said ICMR should be directed to hold regular news briefings through national TV channels about the current situation on coronavirus and precautions to be taken by the citizens. The plea also said that authorities must ensure adequate numbers of testing kits and centers for COVID-19 across the country. MNL ABA SJK SRY

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