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Tag: Dinesh Agarwal

  • Panasonic India forms new strategic business division – Spatial Solutions

    Panasonic India forms new strategic business division – Spatial Solutions

    NEW DELHI: Panasonic India has unveiled its new Spatial Solution Division, a move to expand the company's strong presence in the smart home solutions market. The Japanese electronics giant has also promoted Dinesh Agarwal as the new joint managing director of Panasonic Life Solutions. 

    In this new role, Agarwal will directly report to Panasonic India and South Asia President and CEO Manish Sharma. 

    "At Panasonic, we aim at updating the quality of living spaces with comfort, convenience and seamless connectivity. The formation of Spatial Solutions is a strategic endeavour towards this objective. We already have a strong market presence across consumer appliances and living solutions, and I am confident that under Dinesh’s dynamic leadership, the Spatial Solutions Division will drive significant growth for us in the real estate sector too in the coming years," said Sharma. 

    Agarwal said, " These are exciting times for the smart home segment as the concept of ‘home as the new hub’ is driving demand for multi-use living spaces. My vision is to create a compelling opportunity for Spatial Solutions by providing smart capabilities in alignment with the market demand."

    Spatial Solutions will operate as a separate division that will combine the expertise of Consumer Appliances and Life Solutions to accelerate Smart Home Living Solutions including Miraie, Panasonic’s IoT & AI enabled Connected Living platform. The division will also focus on enhancing the solution architecture and develop new partnerships and alliances.

    The Smart Home Solutions is Panasonic’s key strategy for the Indian market and its progressive trajectory. The new division is expected to solidify the company’s commitment and focus that could fuel the growth of b2b, b2c, and b2g business segments.

  • IndiaMart clocks 60% traction on mobile

    IndiaMart clocks 60% traction on mobile

    MUMBAI: Online marketplace IndiaMart has said that 60 per cent of its visitor traffic is coming from its mobile app and mobile website. In line with the company’s mobile first strategy, IndiaMart launched the mobile app in March, 2013 and have registered 25 lakh downloads till date.

     

    Apart from the top eight cities, IndiaMart’s mobile app has witnessed significant traffic from cities like Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Indore and Surat. India is a mobile-first internet country for a large portion of the population. Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities along with other parts of rural India have been witnessing phenomenal growth in smartphone usage, helped in a major part by improvement in internet penetration and affordability.

     

    IndiaMart director Dinesh Gulati said, “The user base on IndiaMart’s marketplace comprises of over two crore buyers. B2B buying is following the B2C buying trend where mobile is becoming the dominant medium for accessing internet. As per the recent IAMAI report, year on year growth in Mobile Internet users has been 65 per cent in urban areas and 99 per cent in rural areas. Interestingly, now 90 per cent of users who access internet through mobile consider it as the primary device for accessing Internet. While the mobile internet brings a lot of opportunities to the SMB community, we will be present wherever our customers are, both online as well as on the app.”

     

    The average time spent on the app is measured to be seven – eight minutes per user everyday. Android followed by iOS and Windows have seen maximum number of mobile app usage.

  • IndiaMart targets revenue of Rs 2000 crore by 2020; tots 1 lakh customers

    IndiaMart targets revenue of Rs 2000 crore by 2020; tots 1 lakh customers

    MUMBAI: Online market place IndiaMart has accomplished one lakh premium customers on its online platform and is looking at net revenues of Rs 2000 crore by the year 2020.

     

    IndiaMart director Dinesh Gulati said, “We have recalibrated our strategy to enhance our focus on the big businesses. This will lend a fillip to our vision of IndiaMart 2.0, wherein we are looking at net revenue of Rs 365 crore in 365 days this year and take it to Rs 2000 crore by 2020. With our Big Brands initiative, we are moving from the motto of ‘More buyers, More Sellers and More Business’ to ‘Big Buyers, Big Sellers and Big Business.’ We are now focusing to cater to the procurement needs of bigger businesses and bigger orders.”

     

    IndiaMart’s big brands programme, an integral part of vision 2.0, will be a major growth area for the online marketplace, which initially built the Rs 200 crore businesses by catering to small and medium enterprises. Currently, IndiaMart has about one crore buyers, 15 lakh suppliers, 3.5 crore products listed on its platform.

     

    From April 2006, with about 10,000 premium customers online, the journey to 50,000 till July 2014 was painstaking, what with economic slowdown and inflation dogging businesses. Since April 2014, the paid-customer size saw a steep and steady twin-fold rise. Regular and timely innovative adaptations enabled IndiaMart harness the advantages of rising internet penetration & proliferation of smart devices. The milestone is best described a phenomenon never seen before in the e-commerce ecosystem.

     

    IndiaMart founder and CEO Dinesh Agarwal added, “I am extremely pleased to announce the milestone and I would like to thank everyone associated with us who have helped us reach this important landmark. 100,000 premium customers marks a watershed moment in our journey to become the undisputed e-marketplace leader. We will continue to innovate and grow to serve our customers in newer and better ways.”

     

    IndiaMart has been empowering MSMEs and unrelenting in innovating to add to their customers’ profitability. The brand is recognised for its pioneering role in the Internet business for inclusive growth and has mentored over two million MSMEs across India since its launch in 1996.

  • IndiaMART ropes in Prateek Chandra as CFO

    IndiaMART ropes in Prateek Chandra as CFO

    MUMBAI: IndiaMART has appointed Prateek Chandra as its chief finance officer. In his new role, Chandra will be responsible for managing the company’s financial growth, driving key business initiatives and playing an integral role in ensuring the organisation’s success.

     

    IndiaMART founder & CEO Dinesh Agarwal said, “Prateek brings with himself an in-depth technology and media industry experience, along with immense knowledge of capital markets and financial and strategic planning. We are confident that he would be an outstanding addition to our leadership team and would help us implement our near-term operational goals, as we plan to scale up our marketplace to newer highs. It is my privilege to welcome him to the team and I wish him all the best in his role.”

     

    Chandra added, “I am pleased to be a part of the country’s leading online marketplace which has been growing significantly over the past, and also has an ambitious vision for future growth. IndiaMART is at a juncture of momentous growth and being a part of this inspiring journey will be elating.”

     

    Formerly, Chandra was HT Media CFO, radio business (104 FM), heading responsibility of finance and related operational aspects of the business. He holds over 14 years of experience in building business strategy, financial planning, M&A’s and managing investor relations in Indian and International markets. 

  • IndiaMart ropes in Mudit Khosla as senior VP, brand solutions group

    IndiaMart ropes in Mudit Khosla as senior VP, brand solutions group

    MUMBAI: IndiaMart, an online marketplace that connects buyers and suppliers has appointed Mudit Khosla as senior vice president, brand solutions group. As an integral part of the company’s leadership team, Khosla will be a visionary for devising innovative strategies and managing effective implementation of the same for smooth functioning of the big brands associated with IndiaMart.

     

    IndiaMart founder and CEO Dinesh Agarwal said, “I am extremely pleased to announce the appointment of Mudit Khosla to our leadership team. Mudit would play a pivotal role in driving the company’s strategy to cater to the sourcing and selling requirements of the big organizations. He brings with him rich, varied and elaborate knowledge in the domain of business development and brand building which will be instrumental in taking IndiaMart to the next pedestal. His wealth of experience in transforming online marketplaces will prove to be an asset for IndiaMart.”

     

     Khosla added, “I am excited to be a part of the country’s leading online marketplace which is poised to ride upon a stellar growth gradient by catering to the specific requirements of buyers and suppliers, encompassing individuals, SMBs as well as larger enterprises. I am looking forward to being a part of the inspiring journey that lies ahead for IndiaMart and add value at each stage.”

     

    With over 16 years of rich experience in building e-commerce companies from scratch and scaling them up rapidly, Khosla has played a key role in setting up of Indiatimes Shopping. He was also a part of the core founding team of Yatra.com and has served as CEO at organisations like Seventymm.com and Tradus.com (ibibo Group).

  • IndiaMart launches mobile app for Windows users

    IndiaMart launches mobile app for Windows users

    MUMBAI: IndiaMart has launched its mobile application for the Windows platform. The mobile app would assist the Windows users in finding the right business partners, even while on the move.

     

    Buyers can fulfill their requirements by searching for relevant suppliers, comparing prices, sending enquiries, posting requirements, etc., anytime and anywhere, by using a smart and intuitive, yet simple interface. The mobile app is available for download on the Windows Store and has been designed for Windows 08 and above.

     

    IndiaMart founder and CEO Dinesh Agarwal said, “The industry has been evolving each day, to drive the customer experience a notch higher every time. As per statistics, India is the second biggest user of Windows phone in the world, with a user base of 7.5 per cent. Having registered over 5 lac app downloads on the Android & iOS platforms, we strongly felt that the launch of the Windows App was important and inevitable. We are extremely confident that our new initiative would open up an array of business opportunities for Windows users.”

     

    The app also provides various benefits to the sellers, especially to the small and medium enterprises, by facilitating on-the-go business for them. IndiaMart Windows App supports exclusive features for individual seller accounts, as well as detailed product listing view as per categories and sub-categories, among many interesting aspects.

     

    Agarwal added, “Mobile has proved to be an important medium for our business, with about 40 per cent of the traffic on IndiaMart coming through mobile. Also, we have found that the average time being spent on IndiaMart Mobile App is more than the average time spent on our mobile site, clearly pointing towards a growing importance and usage of Apps. We are delighted to see a good response for our Windows App so far, with over 20,000 installations already witnessed within a few days of its launch. We expect this to grow further, and help more and more buyers and sellers grow their businesses.”

     

    With this new App on Windows, IndiaMart now has its application available on all major platforms, including Android, iOS, and Blackberry.

  • Timesaverz.com raises a seed round from leading angel and seed investors

    Timesaverz.com raises a seed round from leading angel and seed investors

    MUMBAI: Timesaverz, a GSF Accelerator company, is a “mobile first” marketplace that connects home service seekers with home service providers. It has secured a seed round of financing from a group of leading angel investors led Neville Taraporewalla, Senior Industry Leader in Consumer Internet, and by Rajesh Sawhney, Founder of GSF Accelerator and the GSF Superangels platform. The other investors include AshishJhalani (Founder at eTailing India), Nitesh Kripalani (ex-Digital Business Head at Sony Entertainment) and leading GSF Superangels like Dinesh Agarwal, Founder of Indiamart and Nish Bhutani, COO of Saffronart.

     

    Co-Founded by Debadutta Upadhyaya & Lovnish Bhatia in April 2013, the Timesaverz.com platform has built a strong network of 500 plus service partners over the last 15 months of operations.Each service partnergoes through a rigorous process before enlisting with the Timesaverz network, this includes – a thorough background check, verification of skill-sets and polishing of soft-skills. This network of skilled agents across Mumbai helps time-stressed Mumbaikars outsource their home service requirements in the area of cleaning tasks, handymen jobs, appliances repairs and errands coordination.

     

    It’s a very simple process.All the user has to do is – visit www.timesaverz.com online or through a mobile device, choose the task that needs to get done, select the date and time they want the job to be completed and pay up. Timesaverz then uses its proprietaryalgorithms to assign the right service partner to complete the job. Quality service delivery on time is ensured through LIVE tracking of the entire process from job request to job completion and feedback gathering through mobility solutions.

     

    Says Rajesh Sawhney, Founder of GSF Accelerator and GSF Superangels, “Timesaverz is a mobile first company. It is a unique mobile marketplace which combines “uberification of services” with a deep understanding of the needs and dynamics of Indian household. The seasoned leadership team of Timesaverz has curated a strong network of service partners and have built a scalable model of service delivery.

     

    Says Debadutta Upadhyaya (Nominated as one of the top 30 women entrepreneurs in the country by sumHR),  “Over the last 15 months, the Timesaverzteam has established a business around organizing a disorganized home services market through mobile technology intervention.At 33% repeat customers month on month and 10x revenue growth trend vis-?-vis’ last year, the business is now poised for ahuge growth. Not only that, the social impact of this model has seen job creation and supplementary income for individual skilled workers. The current fundraising will be used to expand into other cities and strengthen our mobile-first vision.”

     

    Although a new concept in Indian context, this genre of business has seen some robust funding in the developed markets in the likes of Thumbtack, Handy (previously Handybook) and Taskrabbit

  • ET NOW & IndiaMART celebrates entrepreneurial spirit of Indian SMEs

    ET NOW & IndiaMART celebrates entrepreneurial spirit of Indian SMEs

    MUMBAI: The fourth edition of ET NOW presents IndiaMART Leaders of Tomorrow, which is India’s biggest SME awards, awarded the most promising and innovative SMEs from across the country on 30th May 2014 at The Oberoi, New Delhi. The event was graced with the presence of chief guest Mr. K. V. Kamath (Non-Executive Chairman, ICICI Bank) who gave away the awards. Other special guests included notable dignitaries like Mr. Vijay Thadani (CEO, NIIT) and Mr. Kunwer Sachdev (Founder & MD, Su-Kam).

     

    The fourth edition of ET NOW presents IndiaMART Leaders of Tomorrow garnered enormous response with over 1 lakh nominations. The entrepreneurs were awarded in 17 categories spread across manufacturing, services and special recognition. Prior to this, Regional Awards were held at Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru to recognize corporate leaders from different parts of the country.

     

    ET NOW presents IndiaMART- Leaders of Tomorrow aims to recognize and establish the importance of small & medium scale enterprises in sustaining economic growth, increasing trade, generating employment and creating new entrepreneurs in India.

     

    Commenting on the success of the fourth edition of ET NOW presents IndiaMART- Leaders of Tomorrow, Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO, IndiaMART said, “When we had conceived the idea of bringing recognition to the unsung heroes of our country, we had little idea that our initiative would make such an impact in the SME space. I believe SMEs have the Midas touch when it comes to creating jobs, safeguarding the economy from taking a hit from a slowdown or building a robust economy. Through these awards, ET NOW & IndiaMART have tried to acknowledge the massive contribution they have made to the Indian economy.”

     

    Speaking on this initiative, Mr. Hemant Arora, Business Head, Branded Content, Times Television Network said, “Leaders of Tomorrow was probably our first foray in the Branded Content space.  Today in the 4th year it has become the largest & most recognized exercise of truly celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit of India. Spanning over a period of 10 months with integrated marketing efforts across India, Leaders of Tomorrow is looked forward to by the SME’s across categories and anyone who has engaged with the property in the past.  We are glad that we have been able to deliver on the vision and the objectives of IndiaMART as set 4 years ago and in the process have been able to impact the most important segment of the Indian industry in a substantial way”.