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<ul><li><keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shopclues">Shopclues</keyword> has finally been sold to Singapore-based <keyword id="8279466" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Qoo10">Qoo10</keyword> in an all stock deal. </li><li>The <keyword id="7321558" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="unicorn-startup">unicorn startup</keyword> was sold at a valuation ranging between just $70-100 million. </li><li>This year, Shopclues had been at the centre of multiple failed attempts at mergers as it tried to survive.</li></ul>Indian unicorn e-commerce startup Shopclues has finally <a href="https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/shopclues-acquired-by-singapore-based-qoo10/71839928">found</a> a buyer in Singapore-based e-commerce platform Qoo10. Shopclues which was once valued at $1.1 billion-- is sold in an all stock deal for a reported valuation ranging between $70-$100 million. Here’s a look at how it all went down for the e-commerce startup. 2011 Shopclues was founded in July 2011 by Sanjay Sethi, Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika Aggarwal. This was two years before Amazon came to India. It raised an angel round of funding. 2012 The startup raised its series A round of funding of $4 million. During this time, Shopclues had 2500 transactions a day and according to <a href="https://www.techcircle.in/2012/09/04/excl-shopclues-raises-4m-in-series-a-round-looking-to-gross-rs-100cr-sales-by-dec-2012">reports</a>, was hoping to turn profitable by 2013. 2013 Gaining momentum, Shopclues closes its series B round for $10 million from investors Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners. 2014 Shopclues raised $15 million as a part of its series C round of funding from its existing investors. 2015 In 2015, the startup scooped up its Series D funding for $100 million, also welcoming Tiger Global to its board of investors. “Shopclues has emerged as the leading marketplace of choice for the millions of small and local businesses seeking to reach mass consumers in India’s tier 2 and tier 3 cities,” the then Tiger Global private equity business head Lee Fixel <a href="https://www.vccircle.com/e-com-marketplace-shopclues-raises-100m-series-c-funding-led-tiger-global/">had said.</a> It also registered a GMV of $400 million. 2016 Between late 2015 and early 2016, Shopclues closed its series E round of funding to join the prestigious unicorn club. It also brought back its dreams for profitability while also reportedly hoping for an IPO. 2017 Shopclues was caught in the middle of a very public spat between its founders – husband and wife duo Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika. Aggarwal put out a post on Facebook accusing his wife of “an illicit affair” as well as ousting him from the company. It was also the year when the company’s <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/money/shopclues-fy-17-revenue-up-5-losses-decline-by-13/articleshow/61539773.cms">revenue began slowing dow</a>n. In FY17, the company’s revenue grew by 5% instead of the usual 50% jump it had been seeing. Its losses stood at ₹332 crores. 2018 It managed to come back in the game with a 46% revenue jump and cutting down its losses to ₹208 crore in FY18. But at this time, Shopclues also <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/shopclues-revenue-up-46-to-rs-273-crore/articleshow/66409043.cms">cut down</a> on operational costs, advertising spends and employee benefits. However, it was facing immense competition from Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm etc who were growing at breakneck speed. Meanwhile, Shopclues was focussing on its wholesale marketplace model. Once again, its plans to go in for an IPO in 2018, failed to see the light of the day. Multiple senior management <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/top-level-exits-at-shopcluescom/article23263804.ece">exits</a> too began in the company. It also fired 50 employees across verticals. It also lost a legal fight with L’oreal, which had <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/loral-india-wins-judgement-on-counterfeits-against-shopclues/articleshow/66652453.cms">accused</a> Shopclues of selling counterfeit products on its platform. 2019 Having survived on bridge rounds of investments, troubles started mounting for the company as its struggle to survive became public. The rumours of its probable sell began taking solid turns. Snapdeal (who was itself making a comeback from massive losses) was reported to be in talks with Shopclues for a possible merger, but the talks didn’t go through in the end. There were also rumours about ebay.in looking to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/ebay-in-talks-with-etailers-including-shopclues-for-a-fresh-bid-in-india/articleshow/65157378.cms">acquire</a> Shopclues. Shopclues also laid off about 200 employees to cut costs. Then came the news of its final sale to Singapore-based Qoo10 in an all stock deal, but with a massive fall in valuation. “This partnership presents new strategic opportunities for both companies, as it opens up cross-border opportunities for consumers and sellers across Asia,” the company said in a statement.

Once valued at $1.1 billion Shopclues finally gets sold for less than $100 million valuation

<ul><li>Ganesh <keyword id="79029" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="balakrishnan" source="Orion">Balakrishnan</keyword>, the co-founder of <keyword id="16008024" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="flatheads-shoes" source="Orion">Flatheads Shoes</keyword> received an offer that valued his company at ₹2.25 crore from two sharks on <keyword id="11924074" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="shark-tank-india" source="Orion">Shark Tank India</keyword> S2. </li><li>Balakrishnan, who had earlier invested personal money to keep the venture afloat, rejected the offer. </li><li>The shoe business that started right before the pandemic ran into trouble as lockdowns forced people to stay indoors. </li><li>After the episode aired last Friday, the startup managed to sell off its entire inventory over the weekend, Balakrishnan said on social media. </li></ul>Last Friday, Shark Tank India S2 aired the season’s most emotional episode when Ganesh Balakrishnan made a pitch for his venture, Flatheads Shoes. The startup <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ganeshbalakrishnan/">creates </a>‘all-day casual shoes for the urban workforce’ priced between ₹1,000-₹5,000 a pair. It also <a href="https://www.flatheads.in/">offers </a>India’s first linen sneakers, and the world’s first banana fibre sneakers. At the time Balakrishnan’s episode was shot, his company was on the verge of a shutdown. He said <a href="https://www.sonyliv.com/shows/shark-tank-india-1700000741/investing-in-the-future-of-india-1000203475?watch=true">on the show </a>that he personally invested ₹35 lakh to keep the business afloat, in the last two months. His co-founder Utkarsh Biradar, who helped design the shoes, too invested the same amount. Biradar exited the startup in 2022 but still holds 30% equity. In spite of his mounting troubles, Balakrishnan rejected the only deal he received on the show. Sharks Peyush Bansal (co-founder, Lenskart) and <keyword id="246967" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vineeta-singh" source="Orion">Vineeta Singh</keyword> (co-founder, Sugar Cosmetics), offered ₹75 lakh for 33.3% equity in the company. The offer values the company at ₹2.25 crore. Balakrishnan had asked for a valuation of ₹25 crore as its company generated sales to the tune of ₹3.4 crore in FY22. The company had raised ₹5.2 crore in April 2021, at a pre-money valuation of ₹28 crore, from angel investors. Pre-money valuation refers to the value of a startup that does not include external funding – basically a startup’s value before it raises funds. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Once in a generation troubles" comment="subhead2" text="Once in a generation troubles">Once in a generation troubles</cmsannotation> Balakrishnan started Flatheads Shoes in 2019, right before the pandemic struck. In less than a year, the company had no customers - as India stayed indoors, people barely needed shoes, much less urban workwear. “It’s not that I can’t run a company. I am capable of it. Thing is, when you step into the market and for 4 months nobody is wearing shoes, because nobody is stepping out only - such situations arise once in generations. And it happened to us,” said Balakrishnan on the show. He also said that angel investors were not willing to invest further in the business. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="‘Need to evaluate my priorities in life’" comment="subhead2" text="‘Need to evaluate my priorities in life’">‘Need to evaluate my priorities in life’</cmsannotation> Even as he rejected the offer, Balakrishnan admitted that he needed to change his perspective, re-evaluate his priorities, and gain more experience before entering the D2C market. “I need to evaluate my priorities in life right now. I will go out there and work with a D2C brand and understand how to do this before I come back and try again. I need a couple of years. But that perspective needs to be built. And the best way to build it is to work with somebody who’s done this before,” said Balakrishnan on the show. Balakrishnan’s emotional admission left all the judges teary-eyed, with Shaadi.com’s founder Anupam Mittal remarking, “Shark Tank is not just about getting funding, but also perspective.” <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Every tear has a silver lining" comment="subhead2" text="Every tear has a silver lining">Every tear has a silver lining</cmsannotation> When Balakrishnan pitched on the show, most of the Sharks asked him to shut down the business and instead, look to make a living through a regular job, leveraging his educational qualifications and work experience. While boAt’s founder Gupta shared his personal experience of going down the same road, Mittal even offered him a job. Shortly after the episode aired though, Flatheads Shoes trended on social media and consequently received enough orders that it almost sold out its inventory in India. “We've almost sold out our inventory in India, so pardon us if you aren't able to find your size on www.flatheads.in,” shared <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7017678455685226496?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7017678455685226496%29">Balakrishnan on his LinkedIn account</a>. The product is featured on the Shark Tank India website. The brand also has international ambitions. It launched its products in the US in October 2021 and plans to expand its international market in the US and UAE. As Balakrishnan admitted on the show, Flatheads enjoys a ‘price advantage’ in the US because people are willing to pay a premium price for a sustainable product. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="The serial entrepreneur" comment="subhead2" text="The serial entrepreneur">The serial entrepreneur</cmsannotation> After graduating as a mechanical engineer from IIT Bombay in 1999, Balakrishnan worked with an industrial technologies MNC Ingersoll-Rand International (India) for five years, before pursuing an MBA degree from IIM, Bangalore. He worked with Bain &amp; Company and Honeywell, before starting his entrepreneurial journey in 2013 with Windsleeve, a retail technology product company, and Momoe, a mobile payments product company. While Windsleeve shut down in a year, Momoe ran for three years, before being acquired by Shopclues in 2016, in a cash and stock deal. In 2019, Balakrishnan entered the startup space again with Flathead Shoes, inspired by his personal experience of dealing with reeking and ill-fitting shoes. Balakrishnan is married and has a 10-year-old daughter. Currently, his household income is managed by his wife, who’s working with a German company. His daughter is an artist who also wants to be an entrepreneur and is already taking orders for calendars created with her paintings. “Did I mention that my 10-year-old daughter wants to be an entrepreneur? She says she is a fan of Peyush's no-nonsense mindset, and I know that she admires Vineeta for her cheerfulness and positivity. She is super proud that I managed to get an offer from both of them,” stated Balakrishnan <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7017678455685226496?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7017678455685226496%29">on his LinkedIn post</a>. His perseverance and honesty on the show left the Shark Tank India panel and the audience so impressed, that the admiration translated into sales. <div type="twitter" handle="AbstractAkarsh" handlename="Akarsh hp" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1608027655529730050/ZdAybBsg_normal.jpg" favoritecount="75" retweetcount="4" status="The #Flatheads pitch in #SharkTankIndia was one of the best I've seen across two seasons. Emotional. Real. Uplifting." createdat="1673025864000" id="1611413387547938816"></div> <div type="twitter" handle="dssagar93" handlename="Sagar Khatri 🇮🇳" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1508142401172385794/MMugvnlw_normal.jpg" favoritecount="20" retweetcount="0" status="This #Flatheads guy is so genuine and transparent with his story and failures. Saying that you couldn't make it wit… https://t.co/rjcGdmhUCo" createdat="1673026813000" id="1611417367736877056"></div> <div type="twitter" handle="banerjee_bapi" handlename="Bapi Banerjee" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/975719104953962496/N_213Fro_normal.jpg" favoritecount="7" retweetcount="0" status="Nothing but respect for you. To be honest on the national television, it takes courage. And I am sure you will boun… https://t.co/3KSiXtM62Q" createdat="1673078555000" id="1611634388642729984"></div> SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sports/news/india-vs-sri-lanka-odis-2023-match-date-and-time-head-to-head-stats-and-more/slidelist/96849348.cms">India vs Sri Lanka ODIs 2023 – match date and time, head-to-head stats and more</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/health-edtech-platform-virohan-raises-7-million-in-funding-led-by-blume-ventures/articleshow/96849208.cms">Health edtech platform Virohan raises $7 million in funding led by Blume Ventures</a>

This IIT-IIM startup founder denies Shark Tank offer, sells his entire inventory over the weekend

<keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>.com, the mass-market online retailer founded in 2011 by renowned wall-street analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, has received an undisclosed amount of funding in its Series E round. 
 
This funding has brought the retailer’s valuation at more than $1.1Billion. 
 
The round of capital infusion was led by GIC, which happens to be the largest sovereign wealth fund of Singapore. Existing investors of ShopClues.com, including major names like Tiger Global and Nexus Venture Partners, also participated in this funding round. 
 
“As a long-term investor, GIC believes in the strong growth potential of India's e-commerce industry. We are confident that ShopClues’ merchant-first mind-set and solid management team will enable the company to expand its reach, especially in the Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, bringing its unique value proposition to even more consumers and merchants,” said Ravi Balasubramanian, GIC’s Head of Asia Equities Research. 
 
Sanjay Sethi, CEO &amp; Co-founder of ShopClues, had his two cents to share on the same. “ShopClues has consistently demonstrated that hyper-growth and strong business fundamentals are not mutually exclusive. The recent addition of GIC and the continued strong support from our existing investors is a validation of our capital efficiency with a clear path to profitability. This investment will enable us to double our focus on digitizing our merchants’ businesses so that they scale to fully leverage the opportunity online commerce provides them.” 
 
The gross merchandise volume (GMV) of online retailer has grown over four time since January 2015. They are currently shipping out over 3.5 million items on a monthly basis, thereby attracting more than 100 million visits per month. 
 
The business growth, which is accompanied by strong improvements in capital efficiency, is expected to prove profitable by H1 2017. 
“Today, we are the dominant player in low price-point &amp; unstructured categories like lifestyle, home, kitchen, electronic &amp; automotive accessories etc. Our focus on selection, value and trusted shopping for Indian middle class consumers has given us tremendous scale with a rapidly growing buyer &amp; merchant network. We are confident that our capital efficiency &amp; execution will make this our last fund raise before we become profitable with the eventual IPO in 2017,” said Radhika Aggarwal, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer of ShopClues. 
 
The capital raised in this funding round will be used to focus on building and rolling out new products so that SME merchants can be enabled to digitize their businesses. It would also be used to further establish itself as the e-commerce operating system on the cloud. 
 
Image source

ShopClues raises Series E at a valuation of $1.1 Billion

<ul><li><keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> hit 344 million visits, <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and Myntra combined had 314 million visits in September.</li><li><keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> had 87 million visits in the same month.</li><li>Clubfactory, <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shopclues">Shopclues</keyword>, Tata Cliq and <keyword id="4225623" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paytm-Mall">Paytm Mall</keyword> followed in the list.</li></ul>It comes as no surprise that Indian e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart managed to get a lion’s share of traffic in September. But what is unbelievable is the vast margin they managed to achieve, setting them apart in a crowded e-commerce market. Amazon received 344 million hits while Flipkart and Myntra combined got 314 million visits in September. The third highest number of shoppers came to Snapdeal which got 87 million visits in the same month, according to a SimilarWeb report. Amazon and Flipkart individually had over twice the number of visits than that of Snapdeal, Club Factory, Shopclues, Tata Cliq and Paytm Mall combined, showed the data from the report. 
 <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[
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 On an interesting note, Snapdeal scripted a comeback story as its numbers grew to current 87 million from 27 million visits in October 2017. “The growing volumes on Snapdeal are built on a sound and granular understanding of the importance of value in Bharat-focused e-commerce. Our ability to build scale along with favorable unit economics gives Snapdeal an immense competitive advantage,” said Kunal Bahl, CEO &amp; Co-founder, Snapdeal in a statement. Meanwhile, Amazon and Flipkart rode on the festive sale discounts that started in September. Flipkart’s Big Billion Day sale too started towards the end of September.

Amazon and Flipkart have more than twice the site visits of next 5 other e-commerce companies combined

' She was on one of the panels of the <keyword id="3003094" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Startup-India">Startup India</keyword> Summit. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Radhika+Ghai+Aggarwal">Radhika Ghai Aggarwal</a>, Co-Founder, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ShopClues">ShopClues</a> has come a long way. She believes the company would be profitable bu 2017, and handles one of India’s biggest managed marketplaces. 
 
BI Insider India caught up with her after the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Startup+India">Startup India</a> event, and this is what she had to say: 
 
“Modi has done what he does best. He has acted like a disruptive startup. Most importantly, he got rid of the License Raj. What he has really done in the licensing and taxation policies is allowing Indian startups to succeed, and fail”, Aggarwal says. 
 
Anything that could have been done, or done better? 
 
“We can ease the process of foreign investors coming into India a little more easily. We can also encourage India-born VCs to invest in Indian companies”, she says. 
 
Way to go Radhika! 
 
Image credit: Kenathjayashankarmenon.wordpress.com

Radhika
Aggarwal, Co-founder, ShopClues on Startup India Policy

Online marketplace <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>, which recently joined the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/ShopClues-raises-Series-E-at-a-valuation-of-1-1-Billion/articleshow/50547081.cms">billion-dollar</a> valuation club, has acquired Bengaluru-based startup <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Shopclues-eyeing-Momoe-for-acquisition/articleshow/51391246.cms">Momoe </a>in a bid to build a payments business. This deal will mark ShopClues’s entry in Bengaluru, the start-up capital of the country. 
 All five <keyword id="2683896" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Momoe">Momoe</keyword> founders are also joining the senior management team of ShopClues, in several functions like design, corporate development and technology. 
 
As per ET reports, the deal is valued at $10-12 million, to be paid in both cash and stock; however, the deal size was not confirmed by Sanjay Sethi, ShopClues CEO. 
 
Momoe, which was founded by Utkarsh Biradar, Karthik Vaidyanathan, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Neelesh Bam, and Aiman Ashraf, has been in business for two years now. 
 
Biradar will be joining <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Shopclues-goes-local/articleshow/51681993.cms">ShopClues </a>as VP, heading design and product on the merchant side; Balakrishnan will lead platform monetisation and services; Bam will head merchant acquisition helping ShopClues expand base in South India; Ashraf will head technology for payment and Vaidyanathan will work on strategic initiatives along with ShopClues cofounder <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/The-glorious-rise-of-Radhika-Aggarwal-Indias-only-Woman-Startup-founder-in-the-Unicorn-Club/articleshow/51309145.cms">Radhika Aggarwal</a>. 
 
"Momoe comes with a working merchant base, PCI compliance which would have taken us 8-12 months to obtain and banking relationships. Building a payments business requires a different DNA," said Sethi. 
 
Using Momoe's technology, ShopClues will be able to build payments solutions for its merchant base, for them to use it for not only online transactions but also for offline payments. 
 
<a href="http://blog.iimjobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Mr.-Sanjay-Sethi-Co-Founder-CEO-ShopClues.com_.jpg">Image source</a>

ShopClues acquires mobile payment start-up Momoe to expand business

Online marketplace <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-shopclues-predicts-how-the-e-commerce-space-will-turn-out-in-2017/articleshow/56592792.cms">ShopClues</a> is looking forward for a possible public share sale, as it struggles with internal disputes amongst co-founders. 
 
The Gurgaon-based company, which entered the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/ShopClues-raises-Series-E-at-a-valuation-of-1-1-Billion/articleshow/50547081.cms">unicorn club</a> in January last year after exceeding the valuation of $1 billion, has been reportedly in talks with investment banks including <keyword id="6361649" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Goldman-Sachs">Goldman Sachs</keyword> and Credit Suisse, two people in the know told ET. 
 
The issue is said to be ready for the first quarter of financial year 2018-19, and would have at least two investment banks as the lead book runners. 
 
Talking of the conflict, co-founders <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/slideshows/sai/heres-how-startups-like-oyo-paytm-snapdeal-reacted-to-budget-2017/sanjay-sethi-ceo-co-founder-shopclues/slideshow/56938870.cms">Sanjay Sethi</a> and Radhika Aggarwal are dealing with accusations from co-founder and former CEO Sandeep Aggarwal, regarding the issue of illegally taking away his voting rights. Both Sethi and Radhika Aggarwal have denied the charges, and are being supported by the company's board. 
 
In other development, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/shopclues-launches-shopclues-surety-to-ensure-quality-products-on-its-platform/articleshow/57667609.cms">ShopClues</a> is looking to raise a fresh funding of somewhere between $75 million and $100 million, a transaction that's expected to be a mix of primary and secondary components from its investors Nexus Venture Partners, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/billionaire-chase-colemans-tiger-global-made-a-nearly-500-million-bet-on-fiat/articleshow/57156399.cms">Tiger Global</a>, GIC (the sovereign fund of the government of Singapore), and Ronnie Screwvala, founder of Unilazer Ventures, among others. 
 
(Image source: LiveMint)

Internal conflicts aside, ShopClues might bring out an IPO

IITians have done it again! IIT Entrepreneurs have created 12 unicorns so far, thereby becoming creators of the fourth-largest number of Unicorns (privately held companies valued at more than $1 billion) in the world. 
 
It is precisely for this reason, India is recignized as the world's third-largest startup hub. Interestingly, a 2014 study by Pitchbook Data, a US private equity and research firm had ranked IITs as fourth among top 50 universities globally, whose graduates were entrepreneurial. It said around 264 entrepreneurs founded 205 companies and had raised a total of $ 3.15 billion in venture capital and private equity funding. 
 According to a report by Sage, a UK-based accounting and payroll company, IITians are next only to <keyword id="101399" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Stanford-University">Stanford University</keyword>, which tops the list with 51 Unicorns, <keyword id="53675" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="harvard">Harvard</keyword> (37) and the University of California (18). 
 
A major credit to them is also that IITs' ranking on the list is higher than Massachusetts Indstitute of Technology (MIT), whose alumni have set up nine unicorns. 
 
OUR HEROES: 
 <keyword id="225032" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sachin-Bansal">Sachin Bansal</keyword> and <keyword id="6364080" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Binny-Bansal">Binny Bansal</keyword>, co-founders of India's largest e-commerce firm <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> graduated from IIT Delhi, as also Rohit Bansal, co-founder of smaller rival <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>. 
 
InMobi, the ad tech firm, which turned profitable last quarter, is founded by Naveen Tewari, Abhay Singhal and Amit Gupta, all from IIT Kanpur. 
 
Bhavish Agarwal and Ankit Bhati, co-founders at Ola, the country's largest taxi aggregator graduated from IIT Mumbai. 
 Some other names are <keyword id="118292" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sanjay-Sethi">Sanjay Sethi</keyword> of Shopclues, Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Jyoti Bansal of AppDynamics and KV Rao of Zuora.

IIT entrepreneurs have created fourth-largest number of unicorns in the world - It's more than MIT!

<keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword> is looking to garner sales worth around USD 2 billion on its platform in 2017 and plans to file for public share listing at <keyword id="6357328" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="NASDAQ">Nasdaq</keyword> by September next year. 
 "With last investment round in January, ShopClues is valued at around Rs 7,100 crore. We were earlier expecting gross merchandise volume of USD 2.3-2.5 billion in 2017 but due to <keyword id="3315394" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="demonetisation">demonetisation</keyword>, we expect our topline to be around USD 2 billion," ShopClues CEO and co-founder <keyword id="118292" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sanjay-Sethi">Sanjay Sethi</keyword> told reporters. 
 On plans to go for public listing, Sethi said, "We expect to file our documents with Nasdaq for listing by September 2017 but the <keyword id="6354763" type="EVENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="IPO">IPO</keyword> will depend on market condition." 
 
He further said the customer traffic on its platform has fallen 30 per cent after the scrapping of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes by the government on November 8. 
 
"We were expecting the demonetisation impact to have gone by now. Business traffic is almost back to normal. There is still 5 per cent depression in traffic compared to one we see during this period," Sethi added. 
 
The company launched a SMS-based payment service 'Reach' for merchants after the demonetisation drive to help facilitate cashless transactions at a monthly subscription fee of Rs 99. 
 
"If merchants are on ShopClues platform, this means they are already on e-platform. We can help people in organised business to grow but can't help those who are in undocumented economy. 'Reach' will help merchants who are looking for growth by enabling them go for hassle-free cashless transaction in three steps," Sethi said. 
 
Using this platform, merchants will feed the transaction amount and mobile number of the customer. After this, the customer will receive an SMS with a link of payment where he can pay using net banking or mobile wallet. 
 
ShopClues has over 5 lakh sellers on its platform and ships products in over 30,000 pin codes across India.

ShopClues plans Nasdaq listing next year, eyes $2 billion in sales due to demonetisation

<keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>.com, India’s largest marketplace for small medium businesses (SMBs), has raised investment worth $100 million. The new round of investments was led by <keyword id="526777" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tiger-Global">Tiger Global</keyword>, one of the largest global institutional investors. 
 <keyword id="118292" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sanjay-Sethi">Sanjay Sethi</keyword>, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder, ShopClues said, “So far we have brought 100,000 sellers and 10 million products online and the next three years will be focused on bringing 10 million sellers and 1 billion products to the online domain. We will continue to build Technologies &amp; services to enable and empower retailers to participate in the e-commerce revolution that is happening in India. ShopClues levels the playing fields for SMBs to compete with other organized retailers both in the online and offline space, said Sethi.” 
 
Lee Fixel from Tiger Global said in a statement, “ShopClues has emerged as the leading marketplace of choice for the millions of small and local businesses seeking to reach mass consumers in India’s tier two and tier three cities. Sanjay, Radhika and the team have done a great job aggregating the country’s largest online catalog of regional and local brands and we are excited to partner with ShopClues as it expands its offerings.” 
 
Elaborating about the deal, Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, co-founder, ShopClues said, “In Tiger Global, we found a strategic partner who showed confidence in our capability to operate the country’s largest marketplace for the masses – be it the millions of small merchants wanting to sell online or the vast pool of shoppers in tier 2/3 towns looking for access to the products and categories that they never had before. The fact that another ace investor has been added to our list of institutional investors is a strong endorsement of our team, strategy and business performance.” 
 
ShopClues was set up in 2011 as the country’s first fully managed marketplace. At present, ShopClues has 1.5 million transactions per month. More than 70% of its transactions come from tier two and three cities. ing about 40 million monthly visitors, it is growing by 600% year-on-year.

ShopClues.com Bags $100-million Investment

Gone are the days when bigger necessarily meant better for startups across the country. While a billion dollar valuation meant the world to upcoming entrepreneurs as early as a year back, with the global financial tides turning, the focus has shifted from big GMV figures to driving efficiency in business models. 
 
This comes at a time when well-funded hyper-local startups like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=PepperTap&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">PepperTap</a> have shut down and larger ones like Grofers and Zomato have been forced to scale down operations. The so called ‘unicorns’ are struggling to raise funds, and recklessness with investors' money is punished with tighter purse-strings. 
 
Meet <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Sandeep+Aggarwal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Sandeep Aggarwal</a>, co-founder of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ShopClues&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">ShopClues</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Droom&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Droom</a>. He was a wall-street analyst who bootstrapped his venture with his own funds and angel money that he raised from his friends and family till he first received institutional funding to the tune of $4 million in January 2012. 
 
Interestingly, Aggarwal’s latest startup <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Droom&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Droom</a> has a mere three employees in customer support. The company’s GMV to human resource ratio stands at $1 million annualized GMV per person. Aggarwal claims it’s the highest amongst startups in the country. His company is currently doing close to $170 million in annualized GMV. 
 
Business Insider sat down with Aggarwal to understand where machines can replace man, and where they can’t. 
 
Journey to automating <keyword id="2947589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Droom">Droom</keyword> 
While I’m proud of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ShopClues&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">ShopClues</a>, we still had to hire hundreds in customer support, and I didn’t want to repeat that mistake. 
 
It took me over a month to conceptualize Droom as a wireframe. I still remember, there were 127 slides. I thought through the workflow cycle, where one may need to call customer support, and what can and can’t be automated. 
 
Today we have only one supervisor and three employees in customer support. 
 
Potential of <keyword id="294572" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="80" keywordseo="machine-learning">machine learning</keyword> 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Machine+learning&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Machine learning</a> will allow us to have similar, if not better results in customers support. I think we can touch Rs. 250 crores in GMV per customer support employee. We can improve on that with keywords-based FAQs. One can also use IVR. 
 
 ‘Labor is cheaper than tech’ 
That’s the kind of thinking that has limited us to the services industry. It’s time we create quality product and platform companies. Human resource is cheap because it accounts for limited financial exposure, human errors and lack of reporting. 
 
Technology replacing employment 
Technology may deem some redundant. It’s their job to adapt and re-train themselves. That’s called survival for the fittest. That way people would actually end up earning more than they are currently. 
 If we wouldn’t have had built <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ShopClues">ShopClues</keyword>’ returns platform, over 500 people would have been doing returns alone. While from a socialist perspective you could say that employs 500 people, it drives severe inefficiencies in the supply chain. 
 
Is it a sector-specific problem? 
It’s all about the founder’s vision and mindset. There are three types of founders – the marketing guy, the ops guy and the product guy. You can throw money at a problem, and get it solved. Automation for the first time may have its own set of problems than deploying manual labor. 
 Consider this, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> is only 20-30% bigger than ShopClues in terms of GMV, but has a 7-8x bigger workforce. 
 
Challenges in automation in hyper-growth markets 
There is a price for everything. 
 
For hyper-growth sectors, you have to train yourself to ignore certain things. However, you shouldn’t be left trying to dig the well after the fire. 
 
The eternal debate that a machine doesn’t know right from wrong 
The best brain on earth is the human mind. There’s no substitute to that. 
 
However, in an assembly line scenario, there’s always the option to have a separate bin that can come under human inspection. Everything doesn’t boil down to a yes/no. Our technologies can also capture the scenario where there is no option but manual labor to step in. 
 
To scale quick, you have to automate certain processes. Repetitive things can actually burn human resources. Artificial Intelligence can anticipate how much information is worthy enough to process a decision. 
 
<a href="http://img.etimg.com/photo/51271877/image-4.jpg">Image Source</a>

Droom, a lesson in efficiency for startups

If you are looking for a job in sector such as wholesale, retail (including e-Commerce), utilities -mainly logistics - and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=transportation">transportation</a>, there is a good news for you. These sectors are likely to hire aggressively in the fourth quarter, ending December 2015. 
 
Globally, Indian employers are the most upbeat on hiring plans in the Q4, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey. 
 
The survey also said that more than 41% of employers in India would be looking at increasing hiring numbers for the fourth quarter as compared to the quarter ending September. 
 
The survey covered around 5,000 employers in India and found that about 45% and 44% of employers in the wholesale &amp; retail sector (including e-Commerce) and the transportation &amp; utilities sector, respectively, are looking at increased hiring in the next quarter compared to the previous one. 
 
From a regional perspective, around 42% employers in the eastern region anticipate the most opportunities for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=job+seekers+">job seekers</a> in the months ahead. 
 
Moreover, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=e-Commerce">e-Commerce</a> sector will provide more job opportunities. “With the onset of the festival season, there is a renewed focus on employing additional staff to boost businesses and greater hiring is expected across all domains," said AG Rao, group managing director at <keyword id="652409" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="ManpowerGroup-India">ManpowerGroup India</keyword>. 
 In view of the positive outlook for the <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword>, e-Commerce firms are ramping up their workforce across functions, particularly engineers and other specialists with an intention to be technology, product and engineering-driven companies, added Rao. 
 <keyword id="6357066" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ShopClues">Shopclues</keyword>.com, for instance, is planning to add 1,200 employees to its team of 800, while <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal+">Snapdeal</a> is looking at doubling its headcount of 5,000 by FY16. 
 
"We have robust hiring plans in place for the coming months. Most e-Commerce companies at this stage are busy ramping up their teams," said ShopClues co-founder, Sanjay Sethi. 
 
At the same time some industry sectors reported weaker hiring plans when compared with the fourth quarter of 2014. 
 Mining &amp; construction sector employers report the most notable decline of nine percentage points while outlooks are seven and four percentage points weaker in the <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword>, <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="insurance">insurance</keyword> and <keyword id="6354553" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="real-estate">real estate</keyword> sector and the services sector, respectively. 
 
However, while comparing Q4 outlook with the Q3 2015, hiring intentions remain relatively stable in the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=finance%2C+insurance+%26+real+estate+sector+">finance, insurance &amp; real estate sector</a> and the mining &amp; construction sector. 
 
French multinational, Saint Gobain, is also looking at adding more to its manufacturing and marketing teams. "India is a very important market for Saint Gobain and in the coming months, we hire for new positions in manufacturing and marketing," said P Padmakumar, team leader &amp; head -human resources, flat glass business. 
 Globally, ManpowerGroup interviewed nearly 59,000 employers across 42 countries and territories to forecast fourth quarter <keyword id="6357125" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="labour-market">labour market</keyword> activity . 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

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