IndiaMART
From Idea to IPO: How Growth Needs to Evolve at Every Stage | Entrepreneur India
Here’s a gripping account by Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, IndiaMART, of how digitalization has changed MSMEs and how much more still needs to be done to adopt the technology.
My journey began back in my graduation days in the late 80s when working in the US was seen as the ultimate success for an Indian techie. After working for CMC and C-Dot, I joined HCL technologies and moved to the US in 1992. However, the day India announced the launch of the Internet on August 15, 1995, I decided to quit my job with HCL Technologies and move back home to build something of my own.
Humble Beginnings
Upon returning to India, I started my entrepreneurial journey from my house in Patparganj, Delhi. My intention back then was not to create a large IPO-led business but start a small business of website making. When I started in 1996, the turnover was Rs 6 lakh in the first year and Rs 24 lakh in the following year. The website business was growing rapidly in 1998, following which we moved from proprietorship to a limited company in 1999.
Staying the Course
By 1999, we grew at a very rapid pace. However, with the dot-com bust and 9/11 attacks in America, our business revenue fell by nearly 40 per cent but we overcame the slump. We knew that we would have to add more value to the already existing website creation business, and hence we decided to create a searchable online directory of exporters from India that would replace the print magazines that were the only source of information till then. This proved beneficial for us.
From 2002-08, we grew big in business, generating a revenue of Rs 50 crore along with making good profits. The major turn in the business came in 2008 when China began to dominate the international trade which directly impacted the Indian exports and the rupee-dollar exchange rate fluctuated from Rs 38 to 54. Meanwhile, Indian domestic consumption started to grow, so we decided to pivot our focus on domestic markets. With $10 million in funding from Intel Capital, we re-launched IndiaMART as a domestic B2B marketplace in 2008, keeping its mission intact to “make doing business easy”.
In 2008, the economic crisis delayed our IPO plans. It was only Naukri.com that was able to do an internet IPO back in those days. It made its IPO cap with Rs 800 crore at that time, which today has a market cap of Rs 30,000 crore. It took them 15 years to achieve this.
By the end of 2011, we expanded aggressively and just when we were about to sign a new term sheet of about $100 million, an investor walked out. We were burning a lot of cash at that point in time and were witnessing high employee attrition and high customer churn. Over the next few years, we consolidated our business by focusing on customer experience and became profitable again.
Currently, we have 93 million registered buyers and 5.7mn suppliers who display about 63 million products. Every month, we do around 41 million business matchmaking on IndiaMART. One in every 15th Indian is already using IndiaMART. Today, I’m humbled to see ourselves as a listed entity. Going for an IPO not only takes your time but also your lifetime.
(This article was first published in the December 2019 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here)
Top 10 IPOs to watch out for in 2020: Burger King, UTI AMC, NSE & more
IRCTC, CSB Bank, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Prince Pipes, IndiaMart, Neogen Chemicals, Rail Vikas Nigam, Sterling and Wilson Solar, and Affle India were among the key IPOs that made headlines last year
Year 2019 saw a flurry of initial public offerings (IPOs) which hit Dalal Street and attracted investor interest. IRCTC, CSB Bank, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Prince Pipes, IndiaMart, Neogen Chemicals, Rail Vikas Nigam, Sterling and Wilson Solar, and Affle India were among the key IPOs that made headlines last year. Here’s a look at 10 key IPOs that are scheduled to hit the market this year.
Burger King
Fast-food major Burger King India plans to list on bourses this year. With the IPO, private equity player Everstone Capital, which owns a majority stake is likely to make a partial exit from the quick service restaurant (QSR) chain. The issue will comprise a secondary share sale worth Rs 600 crore by Everstone Capital and fresh fundraising worth Rs 400 crore, which will be used to fuel the fast food chain’s expansion plan.
Edelweiss, Kotak Mahindra Capital, JM Financial, and CLSA are the investment bankers managing the Burger King IPO. Its rivals Jubilant FoodWorks-the operator of the Domino’s chain in India-and Westlife Development, which runs McDonald’s outlets in the southern and western regions, went public in 2010 and 2009, respectively.
UTI AMC
India’s oldest mutual fund UTI AMC will sell up to 8.25 per cent stake via initial public offer (IPO) route this year as it looks to divest the stake held by its five shareholders.The public issue consists of an offer for sale by shareholders including State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, LIC, Punjab National Bank and T Rowe Price. First three shareholders will sell 10,459,949 shares each, while the other two will offload 3,803,617 shares each. UTI AMC’s four domestic shareholders LIC, State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) own 18.5 per cent stake each and also have their own AMCs.
SBI Cards & Payments
SBI Cards and Payments, the credit card unit of State Bank of India filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with SEBI in November last year. The issue size is expected to be around Rs 8,500 crore and Rs 9,500 crore. According to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), the offer will comprise fresh issue of equity shares aggregating Rs 500 crore and an offer-for-sale by promoter SBI (3.72 crore equity shares) and by investor CA Rover Holdings (9.32 crore equity shares). On November 11, SBI in a communication to bourses said the executive committee of its central board of directors accorded final approval for the divestment of up to 4 per cent of the bank’s stake in SBI Cards through an IPO, by way of an offer for sale.
Home First Finance
Home First Finance Company (HFFC) in November filed a draft red herring prospectus with SEBI for its proposed IPO through which it expects to raise Rs 1,500 crore. The IPO comprises a fresh issue of Rs 400 crore and Rs 1,100-crore offer for sale by promoters and investors. The Mumbai-based firm is expected to hold its IPO this year. The offer for sale consists of Rs 498.4 crore worth of shares by True North Fund V LLP, Rs 332.2 crore worth of shares by Aether (Mauritius) (both are promoter selling shareholders), and Rs 176.4 crore shares by Bessemer India Capital Holdings II, Rs 56 crore shares by PS Jayakumar, Rs 35.9 crore shares by Manoj Viswanathan and Rs 1.1 crore shares by Bhaskar Chaudhry. Axis Capital, Credit Suisse, ICICI Securities and Kotak Mahindra have been appointed for the share sale. The firm is a mortgage financier in the affordable housing segment.
EESL
State-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) plans to enter the primary market to fund its energy efficiency programmes this year. The firm plans to use the funds from initial public offer (IPO) for leasing electric vehicles to companies and installing smart meters to measure power consumption.
EESL is a joint venture of four public sector enterprises – NTPC, PFC, REC and PowerGrid. Financial services company Investec has valued EESL at around Rs 5,000 crore.
Computer Age Management Services
Computer Age Management Services (CAMS) , a registrar and transfer agent (RTA) serving several mutual funds in India plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore this year. Based in Chennai, CAMS is co-owned by – NSE Investments Limited (Subsidiary of NSE), Warburg Pincus LLC (a leading global private equity firm), Faering Capital (a leading Indian mid-market private equity firm), ACSYS Investments Pvt Ltd and HDFC Group. These investors are expected to partially offload their stake via IPO.
Equitas Small Finance Bank
Equitas Small Finance Bank in December filed draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the regulator SEBI for Rs 1,000 crore initial public offer. The IPO will comprise a fresh issue aggregating up to Rs 550 crore and an offer for sale of up to 80,000,000 equity shares by Equitas Holdings Limited (EHL), the promoter.
EaseMyTrip
Online travel company EaseMyTrip filed draft papers with capital markets regulator Sebi in December last year to float a Rs 510-crore IPO. Company’s founders Nishant Pitti and Rikant Pitti will each sell shares to the tune of Rs 255 crore through offer-for-sale mechanism. EaseMyTrip.com is operated by Easy Trip Planners Private Ltd. The company said the object of the public issue is to achieve the benefits of listing the equity shares on stock exchanges.
NSE
Country’s largest bourse NSE is likely to come up with its IPO this year. Its listing plans have been stalled for almost three years due to probe by SEBI against the bourse and its top officials. NSE said an external panel had found potential instances of some traders having preferential access to its network through co-location facilities – where private servers are placed at exchanges to speed up algorithmic trading. In April 2019, Sebi passed an order against the NSE and the officials, barring the bourse from accessing the capital market for six months. The ban ended on October 31.
The IPO is likely to see existing shareholders offload 20-25 per cent stake to the public through the offer for sale (OFS) route.
IREDA
Integrated Renewable Energy Development Agency ( IREDA), a 100% govt-owned entity, received final nod for an IPO from SEBI in October last year. The government is eyeing Rs 700 to Rs 750 crore after selling its stake in IREDA.
In June, 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the listing of IREDA. Under the listing proposal, IREDA will issue fresh 13.90 crore shares, increasing the paid up share capital of the company from Rs 784 crore to Rs 923 crore. At present, the company has 78.46 crore equity shares. IREDA is registered as a non-banking financial company with RBI.
If e-comm players lose the discount carrot…
Consumer goods giants ITC, HUL, Marico, Dabur, Haldiram’s, recently met the distributors, assuring them that parity of price, pack size and offers between products being supplied to general trade (kirana stores) and modern day sales channels would soon be brought in.
There is no denying the fact that the rise of e-commerce platforms has affected the business of kirana stores that can be located in almost every Indian lane. New age consumers prefer ordering items from a virtual store from the comfort of their sofas, getting the products at discounted rates, and getting deliveries at their doorsteps. They find it a better option than walking out with a shopping bag to a shop next door to get the same item, while being unsure of the availability of the product at the store. The ease of ordering, availability of choices, discounts and offers, doorstep delivery and the comfort of e-comm is a big lure and speaks volumes about our current lifestyle.
That said, the kirana stores are still a reality and business slowdown is affecting many – from the kirana store owner to the distributors. Reportedly, consumer goods giants ITC, HUL, Marico, Dabur and Haldiram’s recently met distributors who had threatened to de-stock FMCG products last month, alleging discrimination by consumer goods companies between general trade and modern trade/e-commerce platforms. The FMCG giants assured them that parity of price, pack size and offers between products being supplied to general trade (kirana stores) and modern day sales channels, such as large departmental store chains and e-commerce would soon be brought in.
This makes us wonder – if discounts disappear, what advantage do e-commerce platforms have when it comes to FMCG products?
Here’s what experts think:
Sumit Bedi, Vice President, Marketing and CX, IndiaMART
Though many FMCG players had introduced products and packs specifically for the e-commerce channel over the last few years, its contribution to the overall volumes is currently just around one to two per cent. Despite the recent assurances to distributors to bring parity in products and offers across channels, I believe e-commerce platforms can still thrive as the ease and convenience provided by them is unparalleled. With free deliveries, they eliminate travel time and cost, offer products 24*7*365 with multiple payment options and provide abundant information about the product that can’t be displayed in a physical store.
Secondly, online players have more relevant consumer data based on past transactions. They can do a better job of engaging with the customers and retaining them for a longer period, thus increasing the CLV. Most of the brick and mortar stores lack this capability and haven’t invested in systems to capture customer preferences.
With personalised recommendations and ease of use, e-commerce will continue to grow even without price or product differentiation.
Rajat Girdhar, head of marketing, ShopClues
Channel conflict is across categories, not just in the FMCG sector. As far as companies are concerned, this is a fairly cost effective way to get sales and cash flow. To resolve this channel conflict, there are various strategies companies follow – like, a variation of the product that is available online or different margin structure or not bundling service with the sale.
Therefore, companies that form an important channel online will figure out a way. Also, there is the threat from DTC (Direct to Consumer) brands to be considered, as established brands will not like them to grab a share of the demand that exists online.
KV Sridhar aka Pops, founder and chief creative officer at HyperCollective
This war started long before the advent of e-commerce – when organised sale was introduced in the market. In the last three-four years, with the rise of e-commerce and modern trade, discounts became a thing and consumers started moving towards these platforms, given their efficiency and inventory management.
Today, even the unorganised sector and kirana stores are organised. The pressure on these brands to give discounts on products offered even at these stores to maintain the consumer footfall is tremendous as otherwise, the stores will barely survive.
Also, brands today are losing their ‘premiumness’ – both, price and emotional premiumness. They can be easily replaced, given the abundance of choices. The only way for these brands to survive is through innovation and by holding up their values. E-commerce can add number and volume, but not value to a brand. Selling products on these platforms can add value to the name of the platform but not to the brand. These platforms act as a rock between the brand and the consumer. One way for brands to hold up their equity would be to promote sales on their digital channel/website instead of promoting their goods on these platforms. That way, they won’t even lose their consumer insight.
IndiaMART doubled investor wealth in just 6 months since listing. Did you subscribe? | CNBC TV 18
- The company, which listed on bourses in July this year, has doubled investor wealth since then.
- In just six months, the stock has risen as much as 120 percent from its issue price of Rs 973 per share to Rs 2,143 currently.
- The IPO of the company was carried out from June 24 to June 26 in a price band of Rs 970-973 per share.
ndiaMART InterMESH, an online marketplace for business products and services, which listed on bourses in July this year, has doubled investor wealth since then. In just six months, the stock has risen as much as 120 percent from its issue price of Rs 973 per share to Rs 2,143 currently.
The stock listed at Rs 1,180. Since listing, the stock has gained nearly 82 percent. It hit its 52-week high of Rs 2,310 on October 10, 2019, and a 52-week low of Rs 952 on August 28, 2019.
The IPO of the company was carried out from June 24 to June 26 in a price band of Rs 970-973 per share. The initial public offering of IndiaMART received an overwhelming response from all investors with a subscription of 36.16 times.
The company, however, posted a 55 percent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 9 crore for the September quarter, mainly on account of change in tax rate and regulations. The company had posted a profit of Rs 20 crore during the same period of 2018-19.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Dinesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of IndiaMART InterMESH said, “We have seen that the incremental growth in the deferred revenue has slowed down considerably over the last two quarters and that’s probably going to show up in the revenue over the next couple of quarters if the economic conditions do not improve substantially quickly,” Agarwal revealed that growth will be lower than the 25 percent target.
Recently, global brokerage house, Jefferies initiated coverage on the stock with a buy call and target price of Rs 2,500, implying a 26 percent potential upside from current levels.
“It is the dominant B2B classified platform in India. It has strong moats to defend it against the competition,” it said, adding that it expects a 20 percent revenue CAGR over FY20-22 despite macro headwinds.
Jefferies also believes that the margin should expand to 28 percent by FY22 from 16 percent in FY19. The brokerage sees multiple growth drivers for the company which should help drive 20 percent revenue CAGR over FY20-22 despite macro headwinds related to the economic slowdown.
The Weekend Room: Brands, ads, and marketing gimmicks that matter to advertisers
The special column features marketers who talk about their favourite brands, web-series, and apps among others…
This column is specially curated for advertisers to peek into the minds of the CEOs and CMOs to discern their marketing strategies. The weekend special column shall feature the head honchos across industries and services.
This weekend we feature Sumit Bedi, VP- marketing and CX, IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd., who talks about his favourite brands, ads, and web-series amongst others.
1. A brand which is your life-line and why?
Consider the amount of time we spend on our devices these days, it’s got to be the smartphone brand which in my case is One Plus. It’s performance is infallible, speed is the fastest and the battery life is still solid even after 18 months. It’s a genuine flagship killer!
2. An ad which is an all-time favourite/ or an ad which inspires you/ or an ad which is a work of creative genius according to you.
Dear Brother (Johnnie Walker) – Not exactly a commercial ad but possibly it’s the best student work ever. An academic project of two Germans who made this for $9000 proved again that nothing beats genuine emotional storytelling that connects with the audience.
3. A marketing gimmick which you believe is pure gold and why?
Ola‘s epic April fool’s day pranks over the last few years like ola air, ola rooms, ola wheels have raised the bar for everyone! And this year they took it one step forward with ola restrooms by bringing in the social awareness around lack of sanitation in India.
4.Your current web-series obsession and why?
Black Mirror is a dark & twisted gem by Netflix. It’s fascinating and disturbing at the same time.
5. An app you can’t live without.
As a football fan who follows multiple leagues across Europe, I can’t manage without the Onefootball app. It’s packed with all the latest football news, videos, fixtures, scores, stats and calendars for your favourite teams.
[Startup Bharat] With just Rs 20 lakh capital, this Nashik-based e-marketplace has sold products worth Rs 31 Cr | YourStory
The Purchase House is a bootstrapped B2B e-marketplace bringing together sellers and buyers of excess and unused industrial product inventory.
Six years ago, Rushikesh Bhandari and Kanchan Bhandari were providing industries customised procurement solutions, saving organisations the hassle of coordinating with multiple vendors, figuring out logistics, and negotiating costs.
But what irked the husband-wife duo during the process was seeing all the pile-up of excess and unused inventory. This consistent observation led them to start up with The Purchase House in 2017.
“Owing to unpredictability in the industrial sector and general slowdown in the market, we were left with a stock of untouched, high-quality inventory that blocked our huge capital and disturbed the cash flow,” says Rushikesh, 33.
The Purchase House is an industrial e-marketplace for excess and unused inventory, connecting buyers and sellers of excess inventory in an efficient and automated environment.
“Identifying with a problem that many industries with surplus stock have to be facing, the brightest idea came at a rather bleak time, when we decided to risk taking this idea to an online platform, revolutionising it with changing times, and making buying and reselling more accessible and convenient for all industries,” Rushikesh adds.
Based in Nashik, the startup is bootstrapped with the founders’ personal savings of Rs 20 lakh.
Building the portal
The startup achieved a milestone of listing 100 crore industrial products in the past two years. The onboarding process is simple: sellers of excess inventory need to register on the platform, select the listing type, get an easy-to-use dashboard, choose the plan that suits them best, make the payment, and start listing the products. The Purchase House platform will facilitate their contact with buyer leads. Sellers can accept the best offer and close the transaction.
The buyers, on the other hand, can register themselves, browse through all the options available on the portal, contact sellers directly and close the deal on mutually-decided-upon terms. There are no middlemen in the whole process.
The Purchase House also provides value-added services like coordinating logistics and placement during the transaction process with the consent of buyer and seller.
“Our portal is completely free for buyers to use. We charge a 0.2 percent commission on the product value according to the listing. If the seller wants us to coordinate everything on their behalf, then we come into the picture and charge 1.8 percent after sale,” says Rushikesh.
The challenges
The Purchase House has managed to get on board clients like Bosch, Mahindra CIE, ACG Global, Reliable Autotech, Technoshell Pvt Ltd, SMP Electricals, and Sterling Industries as sellers. However, the initial days were not without challenges.
Rushikesh explains that SMEs and MNCs were used to working in the conventional manner of disposing of excess inventory and it was a big challenge to convince them to take the process online.
“Our direct customers are decision-makers of a company so reaching out to them and getting approvals from them was a big task but with determination, we managed to succeed building our credibility and bringing them online,” he notes.
Rushikesh is the COO of The Purchase House, while Kanchan, 30, is the CEO. The others in the team include Vivek Jain, who has worked in Infosys before, and is now CTO of The Purchase House; Naman Maheshwari, who has been with Ernst & Young earlier; and Darshak Shah, who is the Chief Data Scientist at The Purchase House.
The market and revenue
There are B2B ecommerce portals like Indiamart and TradeIndia that list the profile of the sellers on their portal and provide them active leads for material purchase requirements. The Purchase House believes their direct competitors are machine and scrap dealers who are mostly into stock and sale.
“We started with the listing of 25 SKUs in the first month; now we have 4,000 industrial products worth Rs 130 crore listed, have sold products worth Rs 31 crore, and have served over 3,000 SMEs. The team pegs the customer acquisition cost (CAC) at Rs 1,685, and margins are at 70 percent with a lifetime value (LTV) of Rs 4,580.”
Speaking of their future plans, Rushikesh says that they are looking at data analysis and the use of AI for simplifying the procurement processes.
He adds that based on scores of relevant data sources, consumer trends and algorithms, The Purchase House can provide a broader, holistic, and realistic understanding of the market to the manufacturing industries, curbing wasteful production at source, enabling industries to alter their production trends and channelise resources towards products in demand in the market.
“The startup is constantly looking out for the best opportunities for sellers who register on the portal, so when there is a requirement for equipment in the market that the seller may be unaware of, they’re given a gentle nudge to bring it to their notice with the help of efficient algorithms,” says Rushikesh.
Campaign Trail: Work That Works
Feat: Good Day, Mid-Day, Oyo, Michelin, Star Sports, IndiaMart…
This column will feature ads that caught the reviewer’s attention for the right reasons, released or live during the week gone by. The hunt is for real work that cuts through the clutter from a consumer perspective, work that breaks new ground, work that elevates communication in the category, with an admitted bias towards campaign-able ideas.
IndiaMart – Bada Aasaan Hai
The role the brand plays in the life of a business and the entrepreneur/s behind it comes through; so does the promise of making it easier for them. It also appeals to the smaller businesses, saying nothing is too small. This is a feel-good hat tip to the businesses IndiaMart seeks to partner. The unhurried storytelling helps.
IndiaMART is growing at 30% over the last 5 years: Sumit Bedi | Exchange4Media
IndiaMART has 93-mn buyers registered at the moment. 64% of their overall traffic comes from tier II or below markets, reveals Sumit Bedi, Vice President – Marketing & CX, IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd.
While the recession has affected some businesses, Flipkart and Amazon claimed to have had the highest sales during the festive season 2019. Not just the B2C platforms but B2B eCommerce giant IndiaMART is also witnessing new growth opportunities, especially in Tier II and Tier III towns.
In a chat with exchange4media, Sumit Bedi, Vice President – Marketing & CX, IndiaMART InterMESH Limited., speaks about how the company witnessed consistent growth despite the economic slowdown in the country. He also spoke about the marketing approaches and consumer behaviour in Tier I, Tier II and below towns.
While the B2C platforms have limited products offering (just gadgets and apparels), B2B giant IndiaMARToffers 6000+ products across 54 industries.
A lot of industries claim to have faced serious consequences of the economic slowdown but just like the online B2C market, B2B business continues to run at a steady pace. Bedi revealed that IndiaMART is growing at a rate of 30% over the last 5 years. With this consistent growth, Bedi feels that despite the recession in the country, online B2B is growing persistently.
With the fast-paced digital adoption being propelled by growth in rural and semi-urban India, the reach of eCommerce to Tier II or below towns has opened up a whole new space for people residing in these regions. According to Bedi, IndiaMART has 93 million buyers registered at the moment. Interestingly, 64% of their overall traffic comes from tier II or below markets.
Talking about the challenges that online B2B platforms are facing these days, Bedi said that there are multiple challenges that enhance opportunities too. The user profile is now shifting to smaller screens (mobile devices). Earlier when on desktop, we used to have a bigger space to showcase product offerings. Today, with the growth of smartphones, adjusting on smaller screens has become a significant challenge.
Since the younger generation is shifting to smaller screens, we’re dealing with a whole new type of user profile. “The user profile has evolved significantly over the last four years. The metro brand that targets people between 35 to-44 years, to a brand that gets most of its traffic from smaller towns,” Bedi highlighted.
Now, the challenge is how we stay relevant to this new user profile, he said. To deal with such issues, IndiaMART is making every possible effort to speed up the site and make it user-friendly.
When it comes to online eCommerce, it has been seen that there is a lack of trust among buyers. Bedi feels, in the digital age companies and buyers don’t know each other personally. And people dealing with each other for the first time is the key reason behind this lack of trust.
On quizzing how IndiaMART deals with this lack of trust issue and takes care of consumer security, Bedi said, “We remain very transparent to our customers. Unlike other platforms, IndiaMART is very open to show its price. You can check the price in your region and all the other regions of India as well. We feel that this creates a sense of faith among our consumers.”
On the other hand, IndiaMART is also investing heavily in making the content credible to allow for only GST verified and Geotagged assets.
Further, from a consumer perspective, Bedi added, IndiaMART felt the requirement of a secure transaction. So they took a step forward and launched a payment solution. To gain more reach and faith in smaller towns, IndiaMART has also launched the messaging feature on its platform. Now, buyers and sellers can interact with each other easily. For a buyer, such features are surely convenient as well as secure.
When it comes to the brand face, earlier IndiaMART had Irrfan Khan but right now they do not have an ambassador, instead, they’re focusing on storytelling. The most recent campaign of IndiaMART is Bada Aasaan Hai. The campaign is centred on a brand film, which shows the story of an aspiring candle maker and a wedding planner.
From being a functional platform with the tagline “Kaam Yahin Banta Hai”, IndiaMART has come a long way. The brand has influenced the entire business ecosystem. Now the brand is set on a journey to bring in ease of doing business in India, and to show millions of offline businesses, how easily they can scale their business using an easy-to-use online platform.
Real estate ancillary industries counting on ‘stress fund’ for revival | The Economic Times
The real estate sector and the construction industry together form the second-largest employer in India. Once construction of housing projects resumes, ancillary industries expect to get more business.
NEW DELHI: Real estate ancillary industriesNSE -1.85 % such as elevator, tile and pipe manufacturers are counting on the government’s Rs 25,000 crore stress fund for reviving stalled projects to improve their business prospects.
IndiaMART, an online B2B marketplace connecting buyers and suppliers, said growth in queries had fallen 50% and the government’s intervention will help revive the ancillary industries.
Lift manufacturers and makers of tiles, sanitaryware, faucets and plastic pipes claimed that after housingNSE 0.56 % projects stalled, payment for orders worth several crores of rupees have been pending, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
“We hope that the introduction of the stress fund for stalled real estate and housing projects will be a much-needed relief, both for homebuyers and for millions of small businesses involved in the sector,” said Dinesh Agarwal, managing director of IndiaMART
Agarwal said growth has slowed for cement, tiles and sanitaryware, construction equipment, elevators and escalators, UPVC doors, windows and glass.
The real estate sector and the construction industry together form the second-largest employer in India. Once construction of housing projects resumes, ancillary industries expect to get more business.
“This (stress fund) will also then have a multiplier effect, having a positive impact on numerous ancillary industries. This gives a signal that RERA (Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act)-registered positive projects will need to be completed on time and some of these funds will help with these pending real estate projects, further helping in job creation in the sector,” said Amit Gossain, managing director of elevator maker KONE India.
Gossain said growth in the elevator industry has stagnated and although the commercial segment has started to pick up, it is the residential segment that matters.
“Impetus to the housing market to revive over 1,600 stalled housing projects covering 458,000 units also brings in a huge economic cycle in play, not just for real estate market, but also for the 27 ancillary industries connected, hence creating a huge employment opportunity canvas across the country,” said Amit Modi, director of ABA Corp., a real estate developer based in Noida.
IndiaMart inspires more businesses to come online in new campaign | Best Media Info
Conceptualised by WATConsult and taken forward by Interactive Avenues, the ‘Bada Aasaan Hai’ campaign focuses on new-age buyers and suppliers who demand a hassle-free and convenient platform that will help them scale their business easily
IndiaMart, the online marketplace, has rolled out its new brand promise with the core message as ‘Bada Aasaan Hai’.
From being a functional platform with the tagline “Kaam Yahin Banta Hai”, now the brand is set on a journey to bring in ease in doing business and to show how easily offline businesses can scale themselves using an easy-to-use online platform.
Sumit Bedi, Vice-President, Marketing & CX at IndiaMart, said, “IndiaMart’s new brand promise ‘Bada Aasaan Hai’ clearly resonates with the way the brand has functioned over the last two decades and is aligned with our long-term mission to make doing business easy for the millions of businesses by providing them tech-enabled, easy and cost-effective solutions. We have just scratched the surface; there is a huge scope for business inclusion which will only be possible by encouraging digital adoption within the SME sector.”
The refreshed brand identity runs across multiple layers. While the tagline clearly states that IndiaMart as a platform is “Bada Aasaan”, which makes doing business easy, it also plays on the right strings which state that with IndiaMart it is now easier for both the buyers and the suppliers to expand their business, ‘Bada banna bhi bada aasaan hai!’. IndiaMart, with this, wants to establish itself as a brand that is synonymous to the concept of ease of use.
Bedi added, “The heroes of this campaign are the small businesses that are the backbone of the Indian economy. The brand film seeks to reinforce IndiaMart as the ultimate destination that brings in ease in doing business and shows how easily offline businesses can scale themselves using an easy to use online platform.”
The brand has shifted from making a celebrity the face of the campaign, which they had done previously in “Kaam Yahin Banta Hai” launched in 2014 when their primary objective was to grow the brand awareness among the masses.
Conceptualised by WATConsult, and then taken forward by Interactive Avenues, the initiative is set to use digital portals and a mix of social media. It primarily focuses on the new-age buyers and suppliers, who demand a hassle-free, simple, and convenient platform that will help them scale their business easily.
Rajiv Dingra, Founder and CEO, WATConsult, said, “We wanted to take the brand’s philosophy of providing a convenient and a faster online trading marketplace, ahead with a new yet convincing thought. Also, considering the fact that the brand targets a mixed set of audiences including traditionalists, new-age entrepreneurs, CEOs and CXOs and employees, ‘Bada Aasaan hai’ perfectly fits with the brand’s easy-to-use interface and the legacy of helping businesses reach the top. It was our pleasure to assist IndiaMart in their new proposition.”
The campaign is centred around a brand film created by Interactive Avenues, that tells the story of an aspiring candle maker and a wedding planner, a story many businesses will be able to resonate with. The scene opens with a couple making candles in their house with the hope of getting in touch with the right buyers and setting up a well-established business one day.
The film then goes on to show a wedding planner receiving a gift request from one of his clients. Upon receiving the request, he uses the IndiaMart platform to look for a supplier and stumbles upon the candle-making couple, who accepts the order and delivers it on time. The film ends with a scene that shows that both the wedding planner and the candle supplier in a well-established settlement.
The underlying current of the film tried to show that not only was it easy for the buyer who is the wedding planner to look for a relevant supplier quickly, it was also easy for the supplier to expand his newly established business using IndiaMart.
The film seeks to reinforce IndiaMart as the ultimate destination for the buyers and the suppliers to easily expand their business by using an easy platform.
The TVC:
Credits:
Client: IndiaMart
Agency: Interactive Avenues
Production House: Faraway Collective
Executive Director: Rishab Malhotra
DOP: Arnold Fernandes
Director: Shakti Raj Singh Jadeja
