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Tag: SugarBox

  • SugarBox’s Naarayan TV joins IDFC First Bank as CMO

    SugarBox’s Naarayan TV joins IDFC First Bank as CMO

    Mumbai: SugarBox’s marketing head Naarayan TV has joined IDFC First Bank as chief marketing officer (CMO), as per his LinkedIn profile.

    “As I begin my new innings at IDFC FIRST Bank in the marketing team, I feel energised at the opportunity to work with some of the best minds in the BFSI industry,” Naarayan wrote in a LinkedIn post.

    In his eight-month stint at SugarBox, Naarayan had set up the marketing and communications team across brand, digital, creative, PR and partnership marketing. “To my friends at SugarBox Networks and my incredibly talented marketing team, grateful to have worked with you. As always, I will cheer for your success,” he further said.

    In a career spanning over 16 years, Naarayan worked with companies like HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and PayPal among others. He has completed B-Tech in civil engineering from Calicut University and an MBA in marketing from PSG Institute of Management.

  • ZeeL to scale down investment in SugarBox significantly

    ZeeL to scale down investment in SugarBox significantly

    KOLKATA: When things aren’t working out, it’s better you step back until they start looking better.  Exactly how Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) is doing with its investment in internet connectivity start-up Margo Networks. It was barely a year ago that it had announced that it would invest Rs 522 crore in the latter which offers bandwidth to consumers under the brand name SugarBox.

    The broadcaster aimed to create a tech-content synergy through the investment in order to help subscribers get over connectivity constraints that plague India’s mobile networks. However, Zeel has decided to scale down its investment in SugarBox owing to the changing situation.

    “Given the current pandemic and uncertainties, we will not be investing very aggressively behind SugarBox. From our original plan itself, it will be scaled down significantly for the foreseeable future,” ZeeL MD & CEO Punit Goenka said during an investors’ call.

    Of all the reasons behind the decision, one is that the project has been delayed significantly. ZeeL was expecting it to roll out in February but the pandemic has hindered its execution. As no one knows how long Covid2019 will last, there are fair chances of a further delay.

    “More importantly, even after everything stabilises, we don’t know how the traffic will build. Traffic consumption was very different when we planned the project. For FY22, we do not see that kind of investment that we were planning earlier,” ZeeL investor relations, corporate strategy head Bijal Shah said.

    Reduction in non-core investments in Sugarbox due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a welcome step, brokerage firm Motilal Oswal said in a recent note.

    “The unique technology will enable us to serve content to consumers across the nation, without being restricted by connectivity constraints. We are confident that this synergy will create a strong foundation for us, as we progress towards offering relevant content to consumers across platforms,” Goenka said at the time of the investment.

    However, analysts were sceptical of the timeliness of the investment from the beginning. Brokerage firms found it ill-timed due to a weak ad environment.

    In the year 2017, ZeeL had acquired an 80 per cent equity stake in SugarBox. The latter creates a hyperlocal data distribution ecosystem by installing CDN Edge servers at key places of interest (POIs), which users can connect to over a local Wi-Fi network.

  • Zeel company SugarBox makes senior level appointments

    Zeel company SugarBox makes senior level appointments

    MUMBAI: Content distribution network (CDN) services provider SugarBox –  in which Zee Entertainment Enterprises infused Rs 522 crore recently – has announced  a series of appointments at senior leadership levels to take the company to the next level.

    SugarBox has installed 200 CDN edge servers at key places of interest (PoI)  – including public transport, public place, rural area, hotels and co-living spaces and malls – in nine cities which allow users to connect to a local wifi network. Users have to look for “sugarbox” in their wifi settings and connect, open their Zee5 or Freeplay app, register using their mobile number  and stream and download movies and shows  without buffering or data charges. The service provider counts Railtel, Hyderabad railway station, CMRL, CSC WiFi, Central Railway and NMMT among its partners.

    Amongst these:

    ·       Ashish Kulshresth  who has come on board as business head. Ashish has over 20 years of strategic experience in strategic alliances, sales and marketing across edtech, e-commerce, telecom and media. Most recently, he was the VP – partnerships & online growth at WhiteHat Jr. At SugarBox, he will take up P&L responsibility and oversee the network expansion, as well as  revenue functions.

    * Ishan Choudhury is the growth head. With 14 years of experience across diverse strategy roles, including co-founding a hyperlocal services venture, he brings a balance of start-up exposure and key insights from running micro-ventures in large enterprises like Jio. He joins SugarBox from Weddingz, where he worked as the director of customer strategy. He will be responsible for driving strategic initiatives and customer traction for the company.

    * Rupsa Sinha as the brand head. With 12 years of experience across consumer brands like ICICI and Thomas Cook, Sinha has undertaken the unique challenge of creating a category defining brand – aLL from scratch, prior to SugarBox. She will be primarily responsible for building the SugarBox brand and creating awareness for the unique value proposition and disruption that the company creates.

    * Ashish Rana as the head of app partnerships. He has more than 15 years of experience, primarily across media & consumer businesses. He will be responsible for evangelism of SugarBox across digital industries with a key focus on OTT, e-commerce, fintech, edtech, mobility and foodtech.

    * Vishwanath Kulkarni  as the head of network rollout. He brings with him over 15 years of experience in the IT & Telecom domain, having been instrumental for the rollout of 2G, 3G and 4G networks for a telco in UAE and Reliance Communications. At SugarBox, he will own the network rollout and network maintenance function enabling the company to scale operations rapidly.

    Says SugarBox co-founder & CEO Rohit Paranjpe said, “We welcome AK, Ishan, Rupsa, Ashish and VK to the team and I’m grateful for the rich and diverse experience they bring to the company. We are at a very interesting juncture in our journey and their arrival brings fresh energy, expertise and perspective that will be pivotal in our rapid scale-up aspirations. We have an exciting couple of years ahead of us as we kick-start our association with the Indian railways and these key appointments will play a vital role in shaping our future.”

  • ZEEL invests Rs 5220 mn in tech startup SugarBox

    ZEEL invests Rs 5220 mn in tech startup SugarBox

    MUMBAI: The Board of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), at its meeting held on 8 April has agreed to invest a sum of Rs 5,220 million in Margo Networks Private Ltd (SugarBox). With this investment, ZEEL will be able to enhance its growth in the digital ecosystem, expanding its presence beyond OTT and ad-tech.

    "Our investment in SugarBox, gives a strong fillip to the overall digital business, sharpening its approach by many folds. The unique technology will enable us to serve content to consumers across the nation, without being restricted by connectivity constraints. We are confident that this synergy will create a strong foundation for us, as we progress towards offering relevant content to consumers across platforms,” ZEEL managing director and CEO Punit Goenka said.

    SugarBox is a first-of-its-kind platform in the world that enables internet services to work even in areas of bad or no network and empowers users to access them without an active data connection. It creates a hyperlocal data distribution ecosystem by installing CDN Edge servers at key places of interest (POIs), which users can connect to over a local Wi-Fi network.

    “We are extremely excited about this development. ZEE has been a pioneer in the field of entertainment in India and with their strong strategic focus on the digital space, our synergies matched perfectly. With this investment, SugarBox will commence commercial operations across exclusive long-term contracts like L&T Metro, Chennai Metro, NMMT, Kolkata Metro, Indian Railways and forge new partnerships to scale up its network. SugarBox is at the forefront of revolutionising availability, affordability and reliability of digital services for the next billion users globally – something that even Big Tech has struggled to achieve sustainably. This investment will provide a giant leap towards us achieving that goal,” SugarBox co-founder and CEO Rohit Paranjpe said.

    SugarBox POIs include public transport, public places, rural areas, hotels & co-living spaces, malls, etc. where a critical mass of users access a host of digital services. Using the SugarBox platform, a user will be able to stream & download videos, listen to music, play games, learn on-the-go, shop online, pay bills, order food & groceries, book onward transport and access other digital services, all without dependence on cellular data or even the need of an internet connection.

    In the year 2017, ZEEL had acquired 80 per cent equity stake in SugarBox. This investment will be made by ZEEL to exploit strong synergies of the technology developed by SugarBox with the current businesses of the company and with a potential to significantly augment the digital content consumption.

    The SugarBox platform is expected to reach 25 million users daily and 300 million monthly unique users by mid-2022, unlocking an aggregate of 2.5 billion hours of monthly consumption in a near-captive environment, where access to internet services is otherwise limited due to uneven connectivity.