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New Delhi, Feb 19 () Food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy on Wednesday said it has raised USD 113 million (over Rs 805 crore) in the latest funding round led by existing investor Prosus NV. Meituan Dianping and Wellington Management Company also participated in the funding round. Having grown beyond food delivery, the company aims to use the funds to further develop its new lines of business, addressing visible gaps in the market, Swiggy said in a statement. The company will continue to invest in new growth areas (Stores, Go and SuprDaily) as it delivers on its promise of bringing unparalleled convenience to the lives of urban consumers, it added. "We have become synonymous with exceptional customer experience and created multiple growth avenues for our partners while continuing to invest in new lines of business," Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety said. The company is focused on continuing to execute on its vision while building a sustainable path to profitability, he added. "Swiggy continues to exhibit strong execution and a steadfast commitment to delivering the best service to consumers and has one of the best operational teams in food delivery globally. We are confident Swiggy will continue on a path to earn a significant place in the daily lives of Indians," Prosus Ventures and Food CEO Larry Illg said. AKT HRS

Swiggy raises USD 113 mn from investors led by Prosus

<ul><li>After the government in states like Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Delhi instructed schools, colleges and malls to remain shut till March 31, <keyword id="1640900" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Online-grocery">online grocery</keyword> stores like <keyword id="2466939" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Grofers">Grofers</keyword>, <keyword id="964794" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="BigBasket">BigBasket</keyword> and Supr Daily have seen an upsurge in orders for essentials. </li><li>Online grocery delivery majors have seen an increasing demand for products such as sanitisers, masks, atta &amp; dal, fruits, and vegetables.</li><li>Platforms are also advising customers to avoid using cash, which can be a source of transmitting the virus between individuals. </li></ul>As the number of people infected by Covid-19 keeps increasing with each passing day, there has been an increase in the demand of orders from online grocery stores in the past few days. The government in states like Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have instructed schools, colleges and malls to remain shut till March 31. The government is also advising social distancing, with a lot of organisations asking its employees to work from home. The closure of malls, and with it, a lot of supermarkets, has led to a direct increase in the order of staples online. Much like the US and UK, that witnessed a huge surge in online orders for essentials, in India too, a lot of online marketplaces like BigBasket, Future Group and Grofers are witnessing an increase in demand, with most people ordering for staples. Supr Daily, that delivers daily essentials like milk, bread, fruits and vegetables, told its customers that it will deliver till 9 a.m. instead of the usual 7 a.m. due to increased demand. In the past few days, BigBasket has witnessed a 2X increase in its traffic and its revenue. BigBasket said in a statement that they are witnessing a 15-20% increase in the basket value. Increased demand has been for essentials such as staples, atta &amp; dal, fruits, and vegetables. However, it said that it is in control of the supplies, given that a predominant share is from its private label products. The platform is currently not facing any shortage for FMCG branded products except in the case of sanitisers. In the last 30 days, as per Google Trends, there has been a rise in web search for sanitisers. 
 <div type="image" title="web search saniti" msid="74657409" hostid="261"></div>



 A spokesperson from the Future Group that owns Big Bazaar and Easyday reported a similar increase in their online orders. "We have seen an upswing in the demand for daily essentials from our customers in certain geographies. We are making sure that we are managing our stocks and supply chain in a way that meets all our customer needs. We are also following and complying with various government/local body directives related to store operations.” While there were a lot of instances of hoarding in the US and UK with a lot of essentials being sold out quickly, most of these platforms haven’t witnessed hoarding yet. BigBasket said, “We are not witnessing hoarding behavior thus far. To our customers, our stance will be not to panic and buy more than what they need. We will gear up for the increased demand and availability of products will not be an issue.” In a note on its website, Grofers asked its consumers to avoid hoarding. “Buy what you need and maybe add some cushioning on top as we will keep working hard to keep items in stock and reasonably priced for all our customers. Excessive buying or multiple orders to bypass inventory limit can lead to order cancellation,” its blog read. Grofers has disinfected its warehouses and is sanitising on a daily basis to keep the inventory virus free. Telling us more about the spike in their business and safety precautions, Albinder Dhindsa, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, Grofers, said, “Over the last couple of days, we have seen customers buying items on our platform in large quantities across cities as well as categories. Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad have seen a higher surge with nearly 80% growth followed by Delhi NCR and Hyderabad at a 60% spike in business. We have seen a rise in both the number of orders (45%) as well as order value (18%). Personal hygiene products, followed by floor cleaners have seen a surge in demand along with immunity-boosting products such as chyawanprash and honey. Essential items such as atta, dal and rice are also being bought in large quantities by our customers." Grofers has suspended travel between locations and offices, so each of its 20+ units across the country can stay isolated and clear of the virus. Its supplies are now passing through separate areas, manned by different personnel than those that work in crowds in store. The crates are also being washed and disinfected after every usage. However, a lot of delivery partners are hesitant to come to work. With higher demand and lack of resources, there is a delay in delivery. It is currently 3 days in Delhi and less than 2 days in most other cities. In such a scenario, it is advisable to plan your groceries in advance and avoid dealing in cash as it can be a possible source of transmitting the virus. A spokesperson from Big Basket said that they are working to expedite their product deliveries. “We will face some constraints for a few more days because it takes time to build capacity in terms of storage, delivery fleet and people. Our teams are working hard to streamline this and we will be back on track very soon.” Some platforms have been kind enough to provide essentials at a price lower than its usual market rate. For example, Grofers is selling N95 face masks at Rs 90, when the general market prices are in the range of Rs 450-500.

As malls shut down, online grocery stores in India see a surge in demand

<ul><li>In a difficult year, <keyword id="5968693" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="wavemaker-india">Wavemaker India</keyword>'s performance, according to its CEO, <keyword id="4337750" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ajay-gupte">Ajay Gupte</keyword> has been A+, and understandably so. In a year when many agencies are struggling, <keyword id="3313068" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wavemaker">Wavemaker</keyword> India has won new businesses worth Rs 700 crore.</li><li>In a conversation with Ad &amp; Media Insider, Gupte discusses the year almost gone by and also looks back at the last 3 years, on the agency's 3rd anniversary.</li></ul>The year 2020 has been a difficult year for not just the advertising industry but the world in general. A recent report by KPMG stated that India’s media and entertainment (M&amp;E) sector will take till 2022 to recover from its current levels. However, there are a few organizations and agencies that took the challenge head on. They innovated, acted with agility and made the most of an otherwise challenging year. It’s been 3 years since GroupM merged its agencies MEC and Maxus into Wavemaker. Since its inception, Wavemaker has been able to win an enviable roster of clients that include <keyword id="6398864" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mondelez">Mondelez</keyword>, Vi and Mother Dairy, among many others. Moreover, the agency also clocked in new businesses worth Rs 700 crore. Some of the newly won accounts included Sun Pharma, Chumbak, <keyword id="10247458" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="religare-healthcare-insurance">Religare Healthcare Insurance</keyword> (now Care Health Insurance), Lido learning, Glance and Supr Daily. On the agency’s 3rd anniversary, we caught up with Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker who took over the reins after Kartik Sharma moved on from the agency early this year. It’s been an eventful year for both him and the agency and he walks us through all that happened at Wavemaker and how the agency managed to win Rs 700 crore worth of new business in such a tumultuous year. Excerpts: Q) Let's look back at what has been a very difficult year for the world in general. How has Wavemaker fared during this adverse year? Yes, it has been a very difficult year for all of us. The year has been tough on business and on our people. No one has ever experienced being in such a lockdown before, so everyone is trying to grapple with this phenomenon in the best way possible. We’ve made concentrated efforts to take advantage of adversity to accelerate on the journey to achieve our ambitions. In many ways, Covid-19 has brought the future closer. The consumer journey has been altered. Digital plays a much more integral role from brand discovery to purchase. This has enabled us to bring into play the investments we have made in better understanding the consumer journey, in delivering meaningful engagement with the consumer and in effecting purchase. I am hugely proud of the team for showcasing great agility and acclimatizing to the changes. The year wouldn’t have been easy without the support and trust shown by our clients and partners. Despite being such a tough year, Wavemaker India has managed to clock in new business worth Rs 700+ crore. What more could we ask for! Q) You took the reins as the CEO of the agency in one of the most challenging years in recent times. What were your key focus areas and your strategies that helped minimize the impact of the pandemic on the agency's numbers? I do like to look at things positively. Looking back at the year, I think I’ve achieved what I couldn’t otherwise achieve in the normal scheme of life. I was able to meet a large number of our clients (although virtually) within these 6 months. It would have otherwise taken me more than a year to meet our entire client roster. I’ve regularly interacted with our team across the country, which would have been otherwise very difficult, had we to do this in person. So I would say we have been able to make the most of what was dished out to us. As Wavemaker, we believe in investing in capabilities to build tools which will help us and our clients grow. Automation, analytics, data &amp; technology, digital are some of the key areas where we have been investing continuously. These investments have proven effective as 2020 has altered the consumer journey to a large extent. However, we were able to navigate through these changes and offer appropriate solutions to clients to engage with the consumer along their purchase journey. The work we have done in this year has helped us add that much more value to our clients, thereby strengthening our relationship with them. Q) There has been a lot of movement when it comes to the leadership team in Wavemaker. Kishan Kumar MS, Premjeet Sodhi, <keyword id="2932055" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Vishal-Jacob">Vishal Jacob</keyword> and Mac Machiach have taken over key roles. What are your expectations from this power-packed team? You have rightly termed the team as power-packed and I’m quite fortunate to have such a great team. A highly experienced leadership team is the biggest asset of any agency and I am glad we have the best minds leading Wavemaker. The mandate given and expectations are very clear – keep, growing by positively provoking ourselves, our clients and our partners. Investing in the right talent, nurturing the existing talent along with providing cutting edge solutions to our clients to help them grow is the focal point of our business and offerings. The team needs to keep this at the essence of everything they do. Q) Wavemaker completed 3 years. What have some of the agency's biggest milestones been so far? We have had many milestones in this last 3 years. Right from winning Agency of the year in 2018 at Emvies and winning client of the year for Vodafone for 2 consecutive years in 2017 and 2018 at EMVIEs have been one of the most memorable moments for us. We also launched the Content Effectiveness lab with Ogilvy, launched the first-ever influencer marketing offering ‘Thrive’. We created some great analytical tools like Athena, the budget optimizer tool created by our analytics team for L’Oréal which has been highly appreciated by the client and our global teams. Q) Give us a report card for Wavemaker in 2020. How would you rate your performance so far, in terms of new account wins, the quality of work and overall performance? If I have to rate the performance of Wavemaker in 2020, I would rate it A+. We have brought our capabilities in data, analytics, content and Technology to the fore by doing some fantastic work for our clients. Very happy with the way the teams have been able to rally together for our clients bringing in learnings from all over the world and using our tools with insights and recommendations to support our clients in this time. Additionally, winning new business worth Rs 700+ crore in an exceptionally tough year like this has been a phenomenal performance. We’ve bagged new accounts like Sun Pharma, Chumbak, Religare Healthcare Insurance (now Care Health Insurance), Lido learning, Glance, Supr Daily and many more. We have also won the e-commerce mandate for Mondelez. Additionally we’re hoping to hear some more positive news in the last 2 months of 2020. I couldn’t have asked for anything more than this in a year when the world is grappling with challenges and trying to keep business sentiments high. Q) Tell us about some of the work done this year so far that you are proud of. We have been extremely proud of the work we have rolled out in this year. Creating engaging content campaigns for our clients was one of the highlights and we have done it exceptionally well. Some of our noteworthy campaigns are ‘Maa ka Haath Ka Khana’ with the famous stand-up comedian <keyword id="10247459" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="zaakir-khan">Zaakir Khan</keyword> for Mother Dairy, Thank You campaign for <keyword id="570619" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cadbury-Dairy-Milk">Cadbury Dairy Milk</keyword> Silk, Myntra Fashion Super star, Iss Saal Har Ghar Pandal for Gemini Oil to the latest <keyword id="6399124" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="cadbury">Cadbury</keyword> Celebrations to help the local businesses which suffered during the pandemic. Also we are hugely proud of the amazing work done for the launch of Vi! All these great pieces of work have been pulled off successfully while the teams were working remotely. Q) In today's environment, what does it take to become an agency of the future? In today’s VUCA world, it’s difficult to always predict the future but we can prepare for it. 2020 has been a real test of agility and collaboration. Investing in data and technology to deliver effective solutions with the consumer at the centre is key. Also absolutely essential is the investment in automation to ensure that the basics of implementation and reporting are efficient and error-free, allowing talent to focus on brand requirements. Q) The lockdown also led to some great innovations. How have you as an agency innovated in the past 7 months to ensure you have an edge? Our digital and tech teams have been constantly working on devising newer modules for clients that will help them connect better with their consumers. The initial phase of the lockdown got us all thinking and reassessing our business plans and we have sharpened our capabilities in data and analytics and technology. We have implemented several path-breaking innovations for our clients too. One such innovative product we launched for one of our clients was an online platform to allow the client to train and equip their on-ground support team across the country. The product was developed within 10 days and implemented by the client at a lightning speed as that was the need of the hour. Q) As we inch towards 2021, what will your key focus areas be as a leader? Our focus will always be on our clients, our people and our product. We will remain<a name="_GoBack"></a> to build on our capabilities while we will continue to positively provoke ourselves, our clients and our partners. Upskilling our capabilities and training our talent will be a high focus area. We will continue to invest and enhance our capabilities in e-commerce, content, data, analytics, technology and measurement. In early 2020, we announced Positive Provocation as our proposition and backed it with our Operating system which consists of three major aspects – Unlock, Transform and Maximise. We will ensure every Wavemaker is equipped to Positively Provoke our clients to maximise growth.

I would rate Wavemaker's performance in 2020 A+: Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker

<ul><li>As consumers started cooking or baking more evolved, gourmet dishes at home during the lockdown, <keyword id="9613152" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="britannia-cheese">Britannia Cheese</keyword> witnessed an increase in its demand. </li><li>We caught up with <keyword id="917197" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gunjan-Shah">Gunjan Shah</keyword>, CCO, <keyword id="146218" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Britannia-Industries">Britannia Industries</keyword> to understand if the brand has been able to retain the demand it saw in the beginning and how it has changed its marketing strategy in the unlocking period. </li><li>He also told us how the company transformed its business digitally during the lockdown and all about its biggest digital campaign, Britannia Cheese StarChef starring Saif Ali Khan, that brought in the highest growth for the brand till date. </li></ul>With the pandemic-induced lockdown, consumers started brushing up their cooking or baking skills and eating became more of a family exercise. It brought out people’s hidden talent for cooking, especially among the urban masses, which they were exploring only now, thanks to them staying at home and not having to travel to work everyday. In April, recipe searches also surged on the internet, as people began experimenting with a variety of cuisines ranging from the easy to the complex, gourmet varieties. Cheese became one of the ‘star ingredients.’ Britannia Cheese was quick to recognise this opportunity and it amped up its digital marketing strategy to latch onto the increasing demand for cheese, which became an integral part of consumers’ grocery list -- providing a huge impetus for the growth of the category. As a result, cheese became one of the highest growing food categories during the lockdown. As per Nielsen’s report on COVID-19 Impact on FMCG &amp; Retail, the cheese category saw a 60% growth. The report also highlighted how the rapidly evolving preference of urban consumers includes cheese as part of the monthly shopping cart. <div type="image" title="cheese trend" msid="78258099" hostid="261"></div>(Source: Nielsen RMS) Britannia Cheese saw 300% of its business coming from E-commerce during April to August. To leverage this demand, Britannia executed a three-way plan. Elaborating on the company’s digital plan, Gunjan Shah, CCO, Britannia Industries, said, “We provided ease of discoverability and convenience to new users on key ecommerce platforms like BigBasket by creating Britannia Cheese Brand stores on the home pages for an extended shop-in-shop experience. Secondly, we have tied up with several subscription-based e-commerce platforms like Milkbasket and Supr Daily, which provide daily essentials delivery services across all major metros. This helped us recruit new users, gain consumer retention and increase stickiness by incentivizing purchase frequency. Thirdly, to strengthen the last-mile delivery, we have also entered into partnerships with portals like Dunzo, Swiggy and Zomato which provide superior hyper local grocery delivery services.” Star campaign on digital mediums To become a part of people’s daily meals, Britannia Cheese launched a digital campaign with Saif Ali Khan called Britannia Cheese StarChef. The show transforms Khan into a StarChef as he learns to cook from MasterChef winner Shipra Khanna. It targeted newbie cooks and keen learners and provided easy-to-cook recipes. Sharing the insight behind the campaign, Shah said, “The dramatic rise in in-home cooking since the outbreak of the pandemic, was the key trend that informed the making of the show. We worked on the insight that every home chef is looking for extraordinary dishes that makes her a star in the kitchen! And Cheese is the magical ingredient that has the power to help make those dishes. The adage ‘Life is great, Cheese makes it better!’quite sums up the universal love for cheese. The Britannia Cheese StarChef show hones in on Cheese as that special, star ingredient that turns a good dish into a dish extraordinaire.” It soon became the company's best performing digital campaign. Shah said, “The Campaign was significant on two fronts- first, it is the largest single brand Digital Campaign that Britannia has ever embarked upon and second it has performed the best in terms of the metrics that we track for our digital investments. The Click throughs achieved on our promos have been between 200-250% of the industry benchmarks and the campaign has helped drive a significant spike in growth for Britannia Cheese Year till date. The overwhelming response to the campaign made us take it to mainstream TV media towards the end of August.” Altering marketing strategy with changing times The lockdown period proved to be challenging for companies across business verticals in India. There was no rulebook in place for an unprecedented situation such as a pandemic. However, Britannia Cheese understood the magnitude of the situation. To seize the opportunity, it altered its strategies and concentrated on achieving short-term goals. Sharing how the company responded to lockdown, Shah said, “First and foremost, we responded quickly to the changing consumer preferences by keeping our ears on the ground. The Britannia Dairy Team reached out to over 500 retailers in the first month of the lockdown, analyzed the demand-supply situation and the swiftly emerging consumer trends. Anticipating a rapid uptick in cheese consumption, we worked with our manufacturers to ramp up supply by removing bottlenecks and increasing the supply of the fastest moving formats like Cheese Slices, Cubes, Blocks and ‘Cheezza’. Secondly, on the field, we focused on Pareto outlets to ensure that we get a massive increase in throughput from the same stores. We also mapped geographies displaying a huge shift in consumer awareness and adoption to increase our width and depth of distribution of cheese, in the process leading to a sustained growth in our cheese business and growing revenue from E-commerce by over 300% (Apr-Aug’20).” Changing consumer preferences after lockdown Globally, more than <a href="https://www.marketresearchreports.com/blog/2020/07/07/cheese-market-india-leading-players-industry">3,000</a> varieties of cheese are available for consumption, whereas only about 30 to 40 variants are marketed in India. With the changing preference, this presents a huge opportunity for global and local players to grow in the country. As we start entering the unlock phases, the consumer is demanding a range of products to experiment with. Britannia Cheese is also working on expanding its portfolio to meet this demand. “We have put the focus on new outlets and towns and will scale up both range and depth to ensure that we are ahead of the curve, while continuing to tap the potential of e-commerce platforms. Driving availability of even smaller SKUs like Spreads and Cream Cheese is becoming more important and hence, Britannia is driving the width of availability,” said Shah. “The extended stay-at-home period has led to consumers learning how to use the many available cheese formats for the first time. This has led to inorganic business growth in new stores and new towns. Post unlock phase, it’s imperative for us to nurture these stores and towns through loyalty programs, tracking and monitoring,” added Shah. On the brand’s unlocking strategy, Shah said, “With demand stabilizing, the market is again becoming competitive and hence there is a need to increase investment in the ATL and BTL space. We have now taken Britannia Cheese StarChef content on to TV which still delivers the widest reach for us. We have also increased our in –store investment.” Britannia’s focus is going to be on staying agile and invested in making the most out of the behavioral shifts and macro consumer trends. Vision for the brand Britannia is currently the second-largest player in the Rs 850+ crore Indian retail cheese category. Even post-COVID, it aims to be the consumers’ most preferred ally for culinary experimentation. “We will continue to build preference for Britannia Cheese. In the past few years, a lot of consumers have made us an integral part of their cooking forays and celebrations. We value this and are committed to stay invested with a unique positioning and taste delivery, peerless quality and easy accessibility. We aim to build an ever-expanding consumer franchise firmly rooted in their passion point of cooking,” said Shah.

Strategy behind Britannia Cheese’s 300% growth in online sales between April and August 2020

<ul><li><keyword id="3269053" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rapido">Rapido</keyword> is aiming to achieve at least 1.5x growth than last fiscal. It is the only mobility company that is eyeing profits this year. </li><li>Rapido has already seen 25% of its business bouncing back. </li><li>Pavan Guntupalli, Co-founder, Rapido, talks to us about the story behind launching the brand, its growth, and mantra behind its road to profitability. </li></ul>The lockdown impacted most businesses across the globe. Some shut down and some learnt how to evolve with the changing tides. Home-grown brand Rapido, a Bike-Taxi service provider, saw its revenue plunge in the first two months after COVID hit the country and people were locked inside the four walls of their houses. With it, mobility came to a complete standstill. However, it soon saw a silver lining in June and July as 25% of its business bounced back. One of the reasons behind this demand was that people started avoiding public places and transport. Although, according to Rapido, 80% of India still doesn’t own private vehicles and due to COVID, they needed a safe and secure commute. This presented an opportunity in adversity for Rapido. Explaining why the brand’s demand came back, Pavan Guntupalli, Co-founder, Rapido, said, “Customers became aware that bike taxi is a more open and personalized way for intra-city travel. The customer has an advantage of less exposure to any infection due to his/her limited interaction with the captain (driver) and less touch points.” People also started renting its bikes for longer commutes. “Our average distance has suddenly changed, earlier people were using us for the last mile 3-5km but suddenly because of unavailability of regular public transport, our average distance has increased to 35% in some cities and overall, we saw 25% increase. Now people are using us for home to home travel and not just for last mile connectivity. Somewhere in December, we are hoping to come back to 100% of our business as before,” said Guntupalli. Shifting gears Rapido was growing at around 15% month-on-month from the last 3 years before the pandemic-infused lockdown hit India. It also doubled its presence from 50 cities to 100 in 6 months. Post lockdown, it had to shift its business model from offering bikes and taxies from consumers to distributors. Around 92% of its business came from bike and taxi model (intra-city mobility) and 8% came from logistics (essential supplies). Now, 30% of its total business comes from logistics and 70% from bike taxis. So, it decided to pivot its focus on accelerating the existing logistics business model by following a few initiatives such as delivering essentials at home, supporting the government to resolve supply-chain challenges, etc. “Rapido has been operating delivery services for e-commerce companies for close to 2 years now namely Zomato, Swiggy, Delhivery.com, Myntra, Eat.Fit. SuprDaily, Mapprr, 24*7 Stores, Kalerya, Bharatpe. During the lockdown, we amped up the existing Rapido-Delivery services to provide for the delivery of essential goods and partnered with major online companies like Big Bazaar, Big Basket and Spencer’s for delivery of essential goods,” shared Guntupalli. Building on the demand for logistics further, Rapido launched Rapido Local, a person-to-person delivery service. “Rapido Store is a convenient tool for offline and online businesses to help them reach out and deliver products to their customers in these challenging times. Rapido Store helps local businesses take care of multiple customer deliveries simultaneously in the most affordable and trusted manner. The service is currently operational in Bangalore &amp; Vijayawada and will scale to all cities Rapido is present in,” explained Guntupalli. Marketing Strategy and Understanding Consumers To gain its consumers' trust in a volatile market, Rapido introduced Safety Shields that helped consumers to maintain a safe distance from the driver or Captain, as Rapido calls them. <div type="image" title="rapido safety shields" msid="78221466" hostid="261"></div> Guntupalli said, “The Shield weighs around 400 gms -- it is a lightweight, PVC board that is attached to the Captain’s back like a rucksack. The shield covers the Captain’s body and makes for a considerable distance between the customer and our Captain. Apart from the usual measures, like using masks, sanitizers and the ArogyaSetu App, that we have taken, we felt the Safety Shields will be an added measure of safety during the rides.” It also tweaked its marketing strategy to increase awareness about the safety measures they followed. Its strategy is multi-lingual and regional. “We are trying to help change consumer behaviour towards safety, by helping them embrace the new norms through best practices when it comes to precautions, like bringing their own helmet, and avoiding stepping out. We also ensure that we leverage push notifications, SMS, emailers, in-app training videos, social media campaigns and marketing campaigns in various languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, to communicate regularly on our company updates and initiatives. We recently launched our first-ever video campaign, #PromiseofProtection, that showcases Rapido’s commitment to the safety and protection of its users, through an understanding of different relationships in our lives. In the initial phase of COVID, we launched a fundraiser for the Captains to provide them with the support they needed to weather the difficult times,” said Guntupalli. Goals for this fiscal As we inch towards normalcy and people have started stepping out, Rapido is aiming to achieve at least 1.5x growth over last fiscal. It is the only mobility company that is eyeing profits this year. According to PGA Labs, bike taxi service is now a $150 million market, growing at 20% month-over-month. In India 300 million people commute every day out of which only 1% happens via apps. It is estimated that bike taxis in India have the potential to create 5+ million livelihood opportunities, generating a revenue of $10 billion. With rapid urbanisation and smart status of cities, bike-taxi is becoming the future of intra-city transport. Due to COVID, they are also avoiding public transport. As a result, Rapido has become the third largest ride sharing platform in the country that sees around 10 million transactions in a month. Now, after securing a leadership position in the Bike Taxi ecosystem across cities, Rapido’s next focus area is to use technology to propel newer models that will help serve end users as well as businesses in the post COVID world. However, vehicle ownership in India is less. Hardly 18-20% people own a vehicle, that means 80% people still don’t have their own vehicle. When the pandemic hit, a huge problem statement was the need for a safe and secure commute. This became an opportunity in adversity for Rapido, as it saw a 25% spike in the month of June and July. Where it all began Rapido introduced bike sharing in our country in 2015. The product was built to bridge the last mile connectivity gaps. People in Tier II, III and beyond towns and cities have limited public transport solutions, some are not even available late in the evenings, making it difficult to look for an affordable option to travel within the city and getting shared autos are a hassle especially if you are a woman. However, being a first mover has its own set of challenges. Rapido was dealing with both cultural and social challenges. People did not feel comfortable sitting behind a stranger. So to woo consumers, Rapido took a quirky route. Guntupalli said, “We took a multilingual approach for our consumer outreach. The idea was to reach larger sets of audiences across Tier I, II and III cities and build affinity with the message. We worked on short, quirky videos that are a trend among tech-savvy millennials. We introduced the brand in a fun and different way to them through 7 videos with themes such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgGQYrlpRHA">Don’t be late, Save Your Date</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMOxf64njqE">KabhiBhiKahinBhi</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXPThvwLKSo">Don’t’ Get Crushed Away In Traffic</a>,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbvxRnLayYI"> Late for Exam, Just Stay Calm</a>.” It also partnered with traffic police in cities like Vijayawada, Mangalore, Mysore, Kota to name a few, to drive awareness about road safety with helmet distribution campaigns. To make its women customers feel safer, Rapido masks their phone numbers from its captains. It was also the first bike taxi company in India to introduce insurance for both customers and Captains from Day 1. Rapido is now present in 100 cities serving over 10 million customers with 15 lakh+ registered Captains. It is the 3rd largest ride sharing platform in the country with 10 million transactions a month and has recorded over 25 million app downloads.

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Swiggy raises USD 113 mn from investors led by Prosus

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As malls shut down, online grocery stores in India see a surge in demand

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I would rate Wavemaker's performance in 2020 A+: Ajay Gupte, CEO – South Asia, Wavemaker

Samarpita Banerjee

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