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Tag: Neville Taraporewalla

  • 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

  • Contextual marketing with web content is the next big thing

    Contextual marketing with web content is the next big thing

    MUMBAI: The third WatSummit took place in Mumbai and it brought together executives from the digital industry to a single platform. The panellists not only shared industry insights but also gave a forecast of the biggest trends for this year.

    The summit began with a welcome note from WatMedia founder, CEO Rajiv Dingra.

    Keynote speaker Microsoft senior director for Emerging Markets, India, Malaysia, Thailand & Korea Advertising and Online Neville Taraporewalla shared his views on the growth of social media, the smartphone culture across the world. “Growth of smartphones and tablets are changing consumer experience are catalysts in building an identity in the digital space” he said. According to him the smart phone culture has given a huge impetus to gamification. “Games are everywhere. Everything is becoming a game. In Korea, games are ranked no. 2 activity, after talking on phone”he added.

    The first panel discussion of the summit – Social Media Marketing – Making sense of jibber-jabber by brands saw personalities like MTV India head digital Eklavya Bhattacharya, PaulWriter CEO Jessie Paul, KRDS business head Asia Preetham Venky and Komli Media VP and country head Ad Network Gulshan Verma discussing social media platforms and the opportunities it brings for the B2B and B2C brands.

    While Jessie Paul thought that B2B is a major challenge on social media, Eklavya deciphered the pros of contextual advertising catering to the B2C industry. It was commonly agreed that platforms like Facebook and Twitter drive engagement and help you converse with the B2C group and platforms like Linkedin are more influential for B2B. “B2B is a slow adopter of social media.” said Paul.

    The second panel discussion – Digital Media Marketing – ‘Can it build a brand on its own?’ saw panelists discussing conversions and the effectiveness of the digital medium to enable conversions. There is a lot of investment that goes into digital. Madison Media digital director Amit Duggal said, “Any medium that converts more than 100 million users is a huge medium in itself.”

    The effectiveness and importance of mobile marketing was discussed at length at the fourth panel discussion – Mobile Marketing – Promises of reach Vs. Actual Impact. The panelists were seen conferring the various aspects of mobile marketing. Mobile First is the way for marketers. The point was made that advertisers have realised the need of the mobile medium and its penetration. It was also stated by the panelists that there is a lot of impact-oriented strategies taking place on mobile. ‘App routes’ and ‘Web routes’ are the best ways to target consumers on mobile.

    Known for his expertise at start-up Games2Win co-founder, CEO Alok Kejriwal said, “If you are a start-up, you don’t spend money, you spend your brain.”

  • Microsoft Advertising launches Global Creative Storytelling Contest

    Microsoft Advertising launches Global Creative Storytelling Contest

    MUMBAI: Software giant Microsoft has announced the launch of a creative storytelling contest -The Microsoft Advertising Story Awards (MSAs) – which invites marketers from 30 countries across the world, including India, to submit a campaign idea for a brand or nonprofit of their choice, using Microsoft Advertising‘s storytelling platforms.

    Marketers are asked to submit a hypothetical digital media plan and creative idea for the brand or nonprofit of their choice that addresses a “key business challenge” for that organisation‘s 2012 or 2013 calendar year. The contest does not judge work that has already been executed and challenges marketers across the globe to tell a brand‘s story using Microsoft Advertising technology and solutions including MSN, Mobile, Windows Live, Xbox and Messenger to solve real marketing challenges.

    Microsoft India country director advertising and online Neville Taraporewalla said, “At Microsoft Advertising, we have initiated this contest to highlight the wider focus of the business which is to help brands step back from the clutter and put storytelling back at the heart of marketing. We strive towards providing an International platform to the enormous amount of talent residing in India and are confident that entries from India will be innovative and engaging.”

    Y&R global chief executive Officer David Sable added, “It is all about inspiring digital marketers to take their discipline back to its roots by developing fresh ideas that focus on reaching a target audience with a powerful story. We encourage anyone with a knack for great storytelling and a creative brain to pair up and throw their hat into the ring.”

  • Huge market in rural areas through Mobile Value Added Services

    Huge market in rural areas through Mobile Value Added Services

    MUMBAI: Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) industry is fast growing in India. “VAS is taking a wider view to content providers and expanding the demographic segments”, said Mr. Pankaj Thaker – CEO, Cellcast at The India Digital Summit 2007 hosted by Internet & Mobile Association of India in New Delhi. Advocating the use of VAS in India, he added that 80% of the participation in China is via VAS.

    Chief Guest Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Hon’ble Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said that today telecom companies in India are receiving global attention. He added “It is only a matter of time that Digital offerings will be across products and services. The content and services will become the unique selling point. His vision for digital India comprises of the country being connected with a network of communication technologies spanning optic fiber and wireless, interacting in all the 22 languages and cross lingual information access facilities.”

    Mobile VAS is slowly becoming a critical source of information and interactivity. MVAS market is pegged at 2200- 3000 crores. Commenting on VAS, Mr. Rajiv Hiranandani said that India is lagging behind China as the latter has been using VAS for the past 4 years while India is still an infant. The role of VAS is very critical to the growth of the industry in India.

    Eminent speakers / leading industry experts like Neville Taraporewalla, MD & CEO – Connecturf, Arvind Chawla, Advisor TDSAT, RK Arnold, Secretary – TRAI, Pankaj Thaker, CEO- Cellcast,

    Rajiv Hiranandani, Mariam Mathew – CEO, Malayalam Manorama among others presented an insight on convergence, communication, content and commerce.

    Speaking at the summit, the distinguished panelists highlighted that rural Indian market plays a pivotal role in the growth of internet and mobile sector. Rajiv Hiranandani added that 50% of the internet subscribers are from rural India. Mobile phones have permeated to smaller towns, cities and villages expanding the opportunity for adoption and use of value added services. Expansion of mobile subscriber’s base beyond cities presents a great opportunity to the MVAS industry to grow. However, the challenge is the role of entertainment in adoption, pricing, packaging and local content.

    The India Digital Summit 2007, IAMAI’s flagship annual event, had set a tough agenda for itself this year and though there were some tricky questions, each panelist provided a “view” of the future. The Summit this year focused on two distinct areas: internet and related issues of current and future policies, communications tools and commerce; and mobile devices and connected issues of mobile value added services over two days.
     

  • IAMAI appoints Anupam Mittal as chairman, Subho Ray as president

    IAMAI appoints Anupam Mittal as chairman, Subho Ray as president

    MUMBAI: The Governing Council of the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has announced a change of guard at the association with effect from 1 April, 2006.

    People Group chairman and managing director Anupam Mittal has been appointed as the chairman and CII ex-director IT and telecom Dr. Subho Ray as the president of IAMAI.

    While Mittal takes over from Neville Taraporewalla, Dr. Ray takes over the mandate from Preeti Desai.

    The association also announced the appointments of ebay India CEO Avnish Bajaj as vice chairman and Times Internet CFO Ravi Ramu as its treasurer.

    Commenting on the new role as the chairman of IAMAI, Mittal said, “Under the able guidance of Neville and Preeti, IAMAI has played a significant role in organising and bringing together the internet and the mobile industry towards a common vision and agenda. IAMAI now enters its third year as an association and it is important to recognise how much has been achieved in the last two years. The association has gone from an idea to the most credible authority on the Internet and Mobile VAS industries in this country. The foundations have been laid to collectively build one of the leading digital and networked economies of the world.”

    Mittal outlined the three areas that IAMAI will work towards in the coming months:

    Play the role of a thought leader (research, events, networking) to further spur Internet usage and ecommerce growth in India
    Generate awareness amongst consumers and government of the economic as well as social benefits of broad based Internet usage
    Proactively address challenges and hurdles that can hamper the growth of what is perhaps one of the most transformational opportunities of our time
    “I am honored to be nominated for this position and am looking forward to working with and learning from pioneers such as Dr. Subho Ray, Ravi Ramu and Avnish Bajaj,” he added.

    Dr. Ray added, “Ecommerce and MCommerce and mobile content are some of the most exciting sectors today in India. Proliferation of Internet and Internet access through mobile communications has the potential to bring a wide range of financial transactions to an entirely new customer base. IAMAI will play a crucial role in channelising the digital economy’s effort and communicate its true potential for social and economic development. We will continue our concerted efforts of bringing 100 million Indians online by 2007 and empower society and businesses to benefit from the time and cost savings offered by the Internet.”