details - Bank Properties Auction in India

24 Companies
THE ECONOMIC TIMES | NEW DELHI | TUESDAY | 2 DECEMBER 2014
Startups Bank on Senior Execs
for Expertise to Get a Headstart
They hunt for people with entrepreneurial skills & those who can guide them on managerial & business processes
Shonali Advani &
Aditi Shrivastava
Bengaluru: The young and the
restless with the urge to kick off
something big are fuelling India’s startup ecosystem. But if
the idea takes off, such ventures
need more experienced hands to
nurture dreams into businesses
with respectable valuations.
Corporate executives typically come to the rescue of such infant companies with domain
knowledge, managerial expertise and networks, along with
experience of scale, structure,
systems and processes from
large companies which they apply to accelerate the growth
curve of startups.
CommonFloor.com, Ola Cabs,
Housing.com and Wingify are
among companies that have
hired senior executives.
Mitesh Shah is one of them. A
chartered accountant with 12
years of post-qualification experience in corporate finance
and strategic management, he
joined Ola as chief financial officer a year ago.
He’s well versed in areas ranging from fundraising and financial management to going public and corporate governance
practices.
“What I was doing in my later
years there (previous jobs), I
bring to Ola in its early years
now as my expertise,” he said.
Ola has also hired professionals
for corporate affairs, public policy, marketing and category
management among others.
“We look for people who have a
shared vision in shaping something futuristic and have done it
in their own,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO,
Ola Cabs.
How do startups find the right
senior manager. Look for the
right spark, suggested Krishna Tanuku, executive director,
Indian School of Business,
Hyderabad.
“Indian entrepreneurs should
look at someone who has aspirations of becoming an entrepreneur,” he said. Shah, for instance, said Ola gave him the
opportunity to build something
from the ground up.
“Execution is key in startup
environments. The time taken
from ideation to implementation is little and there’s a lot of
learning in being able to do multiple things at that speed,” he
said.Online real estate portal
CommonFloor.com brought in
the older guys last year after expanding to 18 cities in India,
raising significant funding and
reaching an employee base of
500 since its launch in 2007.
“The scope of the problem was
growing and part of a founder’s
job is to ensure people are
aligned to the same vision.
In Safe Hands
Cos such as
CommonFloor.com,
Ola Cabs, Housing.com
& Wingify have hired
senior execs
Ventures need
experienced hands
to create suitable biz
environment
Young entrepreneurs
have zest &
commitment but lack
industry experience
There should be a
balance between
good ideas &
practical exposure
Ola has roped in
professionals for
corporate affairs, public
policy & marketing etc
What do execs bring to table?
Know-how of scale, structure,
systems & processes of large cos
Fundraising & financial management
Corporate governance practices
When you become big, you can’t
afford to make too many mistakes, so you need people who
know more about particular aspects and so you can then put
their expertise in a particular area,” said Sumit Jain, co-founder
and CEO, CommonFloor.com.
Property portal Housing.com,
founded by 12 IIT Bombay graduates in June 2012, needed handholding in some areas, even basic ones such as registering a
company. After raising the first
round of funding, they felt the
need for supervision.
“We suddenly realised that a
great product is the first step to
Housing.com needed
experts for basic areas
such as registering a co
With an expert at its
helm, Wingify doubled
its annual revenue run
rate to $8 mn last year
create a great company. There
are many more parts that have
to be put in place to build a company that lasts for hundreds of
years,” said Advitiya Sharma,
co-founder and board member,
Housing.com.
“While our investors and advisors have helped us take key decisions (like buying the Housing.com domain etc.), we have
always believed in getting people better than us to do work that
makes everyone in the company
feel proud.”
The key is getting the balance
right said Tanuku of ISB.
“Young entrepreneurs have en-
ergy, enthusiasm, personal
commitment but less experience in dynamics of industry
impacting business,” said Tanuku. “Companies that start
with great ideas need to be
mixed with practical experience and exposure--no single individual can bring it altogether.
It’s important for entrepreneurs to lean on professional expertise as early in the journey.”
The benefits of such experience are evident at Delhi-based
Wingify. It has doubled its annual revenue run rate to $8 million in the last year since hiring
Tejaswi Chawla as vice president of global sales.
Chawla expanded the sales
team from two to 16 and brought
in people with relevant experience at established companies.
“She was responsible for
changing our sales culture from
reactive to proactive selling,”
said Paras Chopra, founder and
CEO of Wingify, realising that
even the best product need to be
marketed.
The company now sells in geographies such as Japan, Australia, and Singapore.
“If I had to do this without hiring a VP sales with a good network it would have been difficult. With Tejaswi on board,
people took it as proof that the
startup has potential,” said
Chopra. Investors are often involved in hiring senior talent.
Hyderabad Edible Oil Cos Eye Sunflower Oil Market
Plan to push sales by moving into new geographies on the back of price cuts & increased spending on marketing
RajiReddy.Kesireddy
@timesgroup.com
Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based
edible oil manufacturers have
drawn up ambitious plans to tap
the growing demand for sunflower oil in the countryand
benefit from a fall in prices of
crude edible oil imports.
The domestic market for sunflower oil, pegged at `. 18,000
crore in FY14, is growing at
about 10%, more than double
the growth rate of the overall
edible oils sector (4%), fast replacing soya and groundnut
oils in most Indian kitchens.
Sunflower oil accounts for
over 11% of the domestic edible
oil market and commands more
than two thirds of the markets
in certain geographies, like
south India, where it has over
70% market share. Companies
including Gemini Edible Oil,
Saraiwwalaa Agrr Refineries
(SARL) and 3F Industries are
looking at pushing sales by
moving into new geographies
on the back of price cuts and increased spending on marketing.
Apart from investing nearly
`. 400 crore on adding capacity at
refineries near Krishnapatnam
Port — where dedicated pipelines carry crude edible oil to
the refineries — they have also
lined up marketing campaigns
involving expenditure of over
`. 100 crore for the southern mar-
kets alone. Most of these firms
have slashed prices of their
sunflower oil by at least 10% to
about `. 70 a litre from `. 77 to help
them compete better with the
established brands.
This follows increased acceptance of branded sunflower oil in
urban markets, thanks to good
marketing and growing awareness regarding health issues. India is the world’s biggest importer
of edible oils, meeting more than
half of its domestic needs through
overseas purchases. Imports
have surged of late due to attractive prices.
Saraiwwalaa Agrr, a
`. 2,000-crore edible oil company that sells sunflower
oil under the Naturalle
EAST CENTRAL RAILWAY
CORRIGENDUM
Corrigendum Notice No. W.584/DHN/
2014-15/Open/42, Dhanbad,Dt. 27.11.14
It is further to notify that in tender
notice & tender document of Item
No.1 & 2 of Tender Notice No. W.
584/DHN/2014-15/Open/42 dated
14.10.2014, "Cost of tender
document (In Rs.)", Read as Rs.
5,620/- (Five thousand six
hundred twenty) [i.e. Cost of
tender document + 12.36%
Service Tax] instead of Rs.5000/-.
All others details, terms and
conditions exists in the tender
Notice No.W.584/DHN/2014-15/Open/42 dated 14.10.2014 will
remain unchanged and unaltered.
Sr. Divisional Engineer (4),
PR/1088/DHN/C/28 E.C. Railway, Dhanbad
brand, is looking at achieving at
least 50% growth in the next
three years on the back of growing acceptance for sunflower
oil, said its managing director,
Ravinder Kumar Gupta.
The company, which has presence in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka
and Chhattisgarh, is now moving
into Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. “We have spent
.̀ 200 crore on the refinery near
Krishnapatnam and earmarked
at least .̀ 25 crore on marketing
and brand building exercise,” he
said. Similarly, Gemini Edible
Oils, which has a turnover of
.̀ 1,100 crore, has invested .̀ 135
crore to build a 800 tonnes a day refinery near Krishnapatnam port.
InMobi Raises $5 M
from SoftBank, Looks
to Woo More Investors
SoftBank keen on investing
$25 million more in the
Bengaluru-based co if new
investors come on board
Krithika.Krishnamurthy
@timesgroup.com
Bengaluru: Mobile ad network InMobi
has raised $5 million (.`31 crore) from its
high-profile investor SoftBank, with the
Japanese company promising another
$25 million if new investors come on
board, three people familiar with the
matter said.
The focus for the Bangalore-based company is to become profitable to attract
new investors, as it also aims to make an
initial public offering in the next two
years. “Talks with new investors are on,
but the company is looking to hit profitability in two months,” said one of the
people.
Manish Dugar, who heads the finance
and legal division at InMobi, said SoftBank’s investment had come four
months ago and the amount was “significantly higher” than $5 million.
“SoftBank has said that if new investors come in, they would like to make a
pro-rata investment to maintain their
stake,” said Dugar, even as he denied any
specific conditions that the Internet and
telecom giant has put in to invest more
money. “It is for us to decide whether we
want the money or not from SoftBank,”
he said, adding that the company would
go for an initial public offering in oneand-half to two years.
SoftBank, which owns one-third of InMobi, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
While $5 million may not be a large
sum, it could be a necessary step to getting newer investors on the board, say experts. “If a large investor like SoftBank
is not excited about the business prospect, it becomes a big signaling issue for
newer ones,” said an investment banker
who did not wish to be identified. “It is
better than not having anything.”
But InMobi says things are looking
bright after all.
“We have never been as close to profitability as we were in October — we were
almost breaking even,” said Dugar, who
joined the company in June last year.
“Our November financials are looking
amazingly good.”
The mobile ad network had earlier told
ET that it was likely to hit profitability in
November and December on a month-onmonth basis. It signed up five customers
in October who will annually contribute
$35 million in run rate — a metric that uses the most recent data to estimate future
performance. SoftBank has recently
been on a shopping spree in India. With
$10 billion at its disposal, it pumped in
$627 million in Snapdeal and $210 million in taxi-hailing firm Ola Cabs.
InMobi had raised $15.1 million from
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and
Ram Shriram’s Sherpalo Ventures in
two rounds in 2008 and 2010. SoftBank
followed that up with a $200 million
round in 2011.
The seven-year-old company, which
started as mobile-search engine mKhoj,
now has an outreach to 872 million
unique devices around the world.
Money Matters
„ SoftBank owns one-third of InMobi
„ For InMobi, this investment is key to
lure more investors
„ Mobile ad network is in talks with
new investors
„ It may hit profitability in two months
„ It was looking at a valuation much
larger than $1 billion
„ Co has an outreach to 872 mn unique
devices around the world
PREVIOUS INVESTMENTS
Co raised $15.1 mn from
Kleiner Perkins Caufield &
Byers and Ram Shriram’s
Sherpalo Ventures
„
SoftBank had then pumped
$200 mn into the co in 2011
„
Over the last three years, the company
has evolved to better target its ads in different formats such as banner, video and
native. Over the past few months it has
also rolled out a slew of products aimed
at engaging deeply with developers and
advertisers alike.
Dugar said the company was looking at
a valuation which was much larger than
$1 billion. Currently, InMobi’s board comprises representatives from the three investors and two cofounders. Jaswinder
“JP” Singh, faculty at Princeton University, represents Sherpalo Ventures, while
Atsushi Taira represents
SoftBank and Michael
Abbott represents KleinCompany
er, Perkins, Caufield and
would go for
Byers. From the founan initial
ders' side, CEO Naveen
public
Tewari occupies a peroffering in
manent seat while the reone-and-half
maining three co-founto two years
ders – Amit Gupta, Mohit
Saxena and Abhay Singhal – occupy the
fifth seat on a rotational basis.
The profit margin for an ad network is
usually around 15-20%, according to International Market Analysis Research
and Consulting Group.
“They have reached their peak. Unless
they want to continue on that streak,
they need to do something more and diversify,” said Neha Dharia, research
analyst at Ovum. Dugar said revenue
over the last three years has grown nine
times and the company has managed to
cut down costs by bringing in a lot of automation of process and adjusting people by location. “We are currently at a
run rate of $1.5 million a day and we aspire to reach $2 million by the time we reach December,” he said.
SC Offers
No Interim
Relief to
AI, Unions
Press Trust of India
New Delhi: The
Supreme Court on
Monday refused to
pass any interim
order on a batch of
cross-appeals filed
by Air India (AI)
and various employees’ unions
against a Bombay
High Court order
on implementation of Dharmadhikari panel’s recommendations on
merger of erstwhile Indian Airlines and AI.
“There has to be
a practical way
out. Any order
should not be
harsh on your employer (AI) also,”
a bench of Justices Anil R Dave
and Kurian Joseph said.
The bench added, “At this stage,
we are not going
to grant interim
reliefs (to employees’ unions).”
On being asked
by the bench to
find a “way out”
to the impasse,
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi,
appearing for the
airlines said a
four-member
panel headed by
former Supreme
Court judge Justice DM Dharmadhikari was
appointed to look
into various issues that had
arisen after the
merger of Air India and Indian
Airlines.