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Tag: ICICI Prudential

  • Vodafone bets big on AI with veteran’s promotion to digital HR chief

    Vodafone bets big on AI with veteran’s promotion to digital HR chief

    LONDON: Vodafone has elevated Purwa Rathor to global senior human resources product manager for digital and artificial intelligence, promoting a 17-year company veteran as the telecoms giant accelerates its push into AI-powered workplace solutions.

    Rathor, who joined Vodafone in 2008, will spearhead the rollout of AI-driven HR technologies including Microsoft Copilot and experimental “agentic AI” assistants designed to handle everything from interview scheduling to maternity queries. The promotion marks Vodafone’s latest attempt to harness artificial intelligence for competitive advantage in an industry grappling with mounting cost pressures.

    Her track record suggests the appointment is more than corporate window-dressing. As global candidate experience manager, Rathor delivered a 50 per cent reduction in cost-per-hire and time-per-hire, while boosting application rates by 80 per cent across 28 countries. She also improved diversity hiring by 34 per cent and lifted candidate satisfaction scores by 58 points.

    The promotion comes as traditional telecoms operators face intensifying competition from digital-native rivals and pressure to slash operational costs. Vodafone’s bet on AI-powered HR automation reflects broader industry efforts to extract efficiency gains from back-office functions.

    Rathor’s career spans from financial services training roles at ICICI Prudential and India Infoline to nearly two decades architecting Vodafone’s talent acquisition systems. Her experience navigating complex regulatory environments—including negotiations with German and Spanish works councils—may prove crucial as AI deployment raises fresh concerns about worker surveillance and algorithmic bias.

    Whether Vodafone’s AI ambitions translate into sustainable cost savings or merely create new technological dependencies remains an open question. For now, the company appears willing to gamble on internal promotion over external expertise as it races to digitise its workforce operations.

  • Saugata Gupta stays at the crease as Marico extends CEO term to 2028

    Saugata Gupta stays at the crease as Marico extends CEO term to 2028

     MUMBAI: Still calling the shots, and how. Saugata Gupta is set for another two-year season at the helm of Marico Limited, with the FMCG major’s board approving his reappointment as managing director and CEO till March 2028.

    Having joined the company back in 2004 as head of marketing, Gupta’s rise has been nothing short of a masterclass in brand leadership. From captaining the India business in 2007 to taking the reins as CEO in 2013 and MD in 2014, he’s led the Parachute-to-Set Wet empire through market winds with a steady hand and sharp instincts.

    The boardroom decision, made on 2 May 2025, and filed with the stock exchanges the same day, means Gupta will notch up nearly 14 years as MD & CEO by the end of this renewed term, an impressive feat in an industry known for its churn.

    Outside of Marico, Gupta also wears several advisory hats, serving as an independent director on the boards of Delhivery, Ashok Leyland, and formerly JSW Paints. His career before Marico included stints with ICICI Prudential and Mondelēz, lending him a marketing pedigree as rich as the brands he’s built.

    With this extension, Marico’s leadership continuity seems sealed and set, as Gupta continues to script the brand’s next chapter in a fast-evolving consumer landscape.

  • Paisabazaar aims Rs 1500 cr mutual fund AUM by 2018

    Paisabazaar aims Rs 1500 cr mutual fund AUM by 2018

    MUMBAI: Paisabazaar has announced that assets under management (AUMs) garnered through its mutual funds products crossed Rs 1000 crore mark last month. The organisation says it is confident of reaching Rs 1500 crore of AUM by March 2018.

    The fin-tech company launched mutual funds on its platform in April 2016 and has over 20 partners, which includes India’s top asset management companies (AMC) on board. This department provides investment solutions to retail consumers as well as specialised advice to HNIs and institutions.

    Paisabazaar.com CEO and co-founder Naveen Kukreja says, “Paisabazaar.com has created a complete spectrum of financial products to cater to all personal finance needs of our customers. While we are the market leaders for lending products, our investment portfolio too has witnessed over 3X growth since launch.

    Since last year, the mutual funds AUM has grown by over 30 per cent with customers from over 650 cities and towns. The aim is to get more than 4000 new customers and over 6000 SIPs every month and the focus will remain on creating a seamless investment experience for consumers.

    Paisabazaar.com director of mutual funds Manish Kothari adds, “Our mutual fund customers benefit from cutting-edge features and hassle-free digital processes. Along with varied fund choices from top AMCs, we also provide assistance from an expert investment team that assists you to create a customised portfolio according to your needs and profile. Customers may also transact and track their investments on the go on a real-time basis through a personalised dashboard, which is also available on our mobile app.”

    ICICI Prudential AMC SVP and head of marketing, digital and customer experience Abhijit Shah believes that Paisabazaa, in a short span, has established itself as agile, trustworthy and customer friendly online financial marketplace. It has emerged as one of ICICI’s most valuable online partners.

    It is the only financial player to disburse loans worth Rs 2500 crore in the financial year 2016-17. The company is targeting a 3X growth and aims to cross Rs 6000 crore annualised disbursal run rate by the end of this financial year. It plans to touch annualised disbursal of Rs 25000 crore by 2020.

  • ICICI Prudential launches “Whats Your Number” Campaign.

    ICICI Prudential launches “Whats Your Number” Campaign.

    MUMBAI: ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has launched a new campaign ‘Whats your number’. ICICI claims that it has designed the campaign to fulfil the target audience’s goals and dreams within a time frame. The brand says that everyone has goals or dreams in their life, be it buying a house, creating a corpus for their retirement or for their child’s higher education. All these goals or dreams have a number. This number is the financial value of their goal or dream. The ad focuses on the finite time people have to achieve their dreams.

    ‘Whats your number’ is a print ad that asks a question to the consumer “What’s Your Number?” The visual of “Starting SIP Amount/Month” helps the consumer understand that he can start with a small amount which will not burden his current lifestyle. Further in a period of ’20 years’ he can accumulate a sizeable amount.

    The creative gives an example across three amounts viz. Rs.1 Crore, Rs.3 Crore and Rs.5 Crore. This helps the consumer gain a wider perspective of how much he would need to invest now, in order to reach a higher amount in the future. It is also very important for the consumer to note that he needs to TOP-UP his SIP annually and it is through this SIP TOP-UP he would be able to achieve his number and thereby his life-goal or dream.

    The lead medium for this campaign is print with all editions of TOI and ET, and has a regional boost through Maharashtra Times, Vijay Karnataka and NavBharat Times. This campaign has further been amplified on-ground through collaterals, one-pager and a SIP TOP-UP calculator and on digital media through display advertising, search marketing, email marketing and social media.

    www.iciciprumf.com features this campaign on its home-page which links to a SIP TOP-UP calculator that gives the customer the power to calculate his number and gain a deeper understanding of how he could go about achieving it. In order to seed the thought further, the campaign will also go live on our customer experience touch-points such as IVR, SIP Renewal Forms etc.

  • ICICI Prudential launches “Whats Your Number” Campaign.

    ICICI Prudential launches “Whats Your Number” Campaign.

    MUMBAI: ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has launched a new campaign ‘Whats your number’. ICICI claims that it has designed the campaign to fulfil the target audience’s goals and dreams within a time frame. The brand says that everyone has goals or dreams in their life, be it buying a house, creating a corpus for their retirement or for their child’s higher education. All these goals or dreams have a number. This number is the financial value of their goal or dream. The ad focuses on the finite time people have to achieve their dreams.

    ‘Whats your number’ is a print ad that asks a question to the consumer “What’s Your Number?” The visual of “Starting SIP Amount/Month” helps the consumer understand that he can start with a small amount which will not burden his current lifestyle. Further in a period of ’20 years’ he can accumulate a sizeable amount.

    The creative gives an example across three amounts viz. Rs.1 Crore, Rs.3 Crore and Rs.5 Crore. This helps the consumer gain a wider perspective of how much he would need to invest now, in order to reach a higher amount in the future. It is also very important for the consumer to note that he needs to TOP-UP his SIP annually and it is through this SIP TOP-UP he would be able to achieve his number and thereby his life-goal or dream.

    The lead medium for this campaign is print with all editions of TOI and ET, and has a regional boost through Maharashtra Times, Vijay Karnataka and NavBharat Times. This campaign has further been amplified on-ground through collaterals, one-pager and a SIP TOP-UP calculator and on digital media through display advertising, search marketing, email marketing and social media.

    www.iciciprumf.com features this campaign on its home-page which links to a SIP TOP-UP calculator that gives the customer the power to calculate his number and gain a deeper understanding of how he could go about achieving it. In order to seed the thought further, the campaign will also go live on our customer experience touch-points such as IVR, SIP Renewal Forms etc.

  • Germin8 raises $3 million venture funding from Kalaari Capital

    Germin8 raises $3 million venture funding from Kalaari Capital

    MUMBAI: Germin8, a Big Data analytics company, has raised USD 3 million in Series-A funding from Kalaari Capital. The funds will be used to strengthen Germin8’s position in India through increased sales and marketing, and fuel its foray into international markets. A significant portion of the funds will also be deployed for R&D and new product development.

     

    Since the launch of its first product in 2012, Germin8 has leveraged its proprietary technology platform and algorithms to build and reinforce its position as a leading Big Data analytics firm. Germin8, through its proprietary tools, helps companies make more informed decisions in real time, based on what their stakeholders are saying in the public domain including social media and news, and in company-owned sources like emails and chats.

     

    Germin8’s technology platform is, today, used across marketing, corporate communications, customer care and sales functions at over 100 leading brands such as MTV, Marico, ICICI Prudential, Godrej Industries, Johnson & Johnson and Asian Paints. Germin8’s technology is also being used by several national and international media and advertising agencies including GroupM, Publicis, Dentsu Aegis, Rediffusion and Ormax Media.

     

    According to Kumar Shiralagi, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, “We believe that in a competitive, evolving landscape, Germin8 has all the ingredients to be a global player especially because of the strength and flexibility of its technology platform, and its strong focus on innovation and customer satisfaction”.  Underscoring the importance of this investment, Kumar added, “Today no company can afford to underestimate the impact of social media on its business and Germin8 allows companies to monitor, analyse and take the right business decisions in a timely way.”

     

    Germin8 was founded by Dr. Ranjit Nair, a PhD in Computer Science from University of Southern California, and Raj Nair, a strategy consultant and alumnus of IIT-B and IIM-A. Germin8 now has a team of over 50 experienced professionals from top engineering and management institutes.

     

    “This is an important milestone for Germin8. Since our launch in 2012, we’ve been adding value to our customers in India by delivering actionable insights and analytics. With this investment by Kalaari Capital, we hope to make our technology available to companies outside India as well, even as we aim to consolidate our position as a significant analytics player in the Indian market,” says Ranjit Nair, CEO of Germin8.

     

    Kalaari Capital invests in early-stage technology-oriented companies in India. Their focus is on companies which are capturing new markets, providing innovative solutions, and creating wealth for entrepreneurs and investors. Mosaic Capital acted as the exclusive advisor to the company. Mosaic Capital (www.mosaiccap.com ) is a boutique investment bank specialised in M&A and Private Equity, with offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

  • The History Channel looks to build a local connect for ‘Ultimate Cars’

    The History Channel looks to build a local connect for ‘Ultimate Cars’

    MUMBAI: The History Channel (THC) is looking at different ways in which to build a closer brand connect with viewers.

    Last month it had announced a slew of initiatives which includes airing a set of interstitials called Timepieces. Now it has done a unique stunt for its show Ultimate Cars.

    The show which airs every Wednesday at 10 pm looks at cars including Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Porsche 91, Corvette. It looks at what makes them special, the history as well as their novelty value. The channel has now tied up with car designer Dilip Chhabria.

    Speaking to indiantelevision.com on this THC VP marketing Rajesh Sheshadari says, “Dilip Chhabria is an expert on the subject of cars. We therefore chose him as our endorser of the show. On air we have cut promos which air during the course of each episode. He gives his views on a particular car being featured.

    “Online we have created a microsite at www.historychannelindia.com/dc.html. Visitors can read his views on the cars. They can also offer their feedback. There is a car of the week feature as well as an episode guide. For the next season next year we are looking to take the relationship to the next level by possibly organising an on-ground event with a motoring association.” The channel has roped in Pepsi, Visa, Nokia, ICICI Prudential, Club HP and Kinetic Blaze as sponsors.

    As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com THC has kicked off an online initiative is a campaign called Save Your History. This is a community sharing site that will allow Indians to share and collaborate on important historical happenings in their lives, which could be in the form of photos, precious documents and artifacts.

    Right now a trial version of the site is up. The final version will be launched at the end of next month. The channel is also in the process of roping in well known personalities like industrialists to endorse the initiative. Promos featuring them will be cut and will go on air towards the latter half of next month.