IndiaMART
CNBC-AWAAZ CEO Awards 2019 – Celebrating India’s Outstanding Leaders | CNBC TV 18
t a grand ceremony held in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, CNBC-AWAAZ CEO Awards, pioneered by CNBC-AWAAZ in partnership with the Chhattisgarh Government, recognized leaders who create and sustain entrepreneurial initiatives, develop best practices and carve out powerful businesses in the Indian economy.
For the second consecutive year, the awards paid tribute to entrepreneurship, celebrating the strategic vision and transformational initiatives of doers and performers, disruptors and innovators, pioneers and pathbreakers.
An evening to remember
The evening began with an engaging panel discussion on ‘e-Growth drivers and Opportunities in the Current Economic Environment’. Moderated by Pradeep Pandya, Deputy Executive Editor, CNBC-AWAAZ, the panel comprised Brijesh Agrawal, Co-Founder, Indiamart; RM Agarwal, CMD, ITI; Sanjay Nayak, CEO & MD, Tejas Networks and Arun Prasad, MD, CSIDC. The discussion covered various themes including international competitiveness of Indian enterprises, the need for technology development, policy facilitation expected from the government, the transition from old economies to newer ones, and many others that are relevant for the progress of the Indian business ecosystem. The audience, who were encouraged to share their questions, concerns and views on the themes being discussed, participated intermittently, making the session truly interactive.
This was followed by a one-on-one chat with V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO of IDFC First Bank, who has been a game changer and thought leader in the financial sector. He shared his perspectives on retail lending, consumption and spending at the bottom of the pyramid, financial inclusion though data analysis and fintech and his own professional journey this far. When asked what made him choose to serve the customer segment that he does, he concluded, “It gives me great joy to know that our employees derive happiness from their work because they can sense the social impact that it makes. Secondly, I will always continue to lend to those at the bottom of the pyramid because I believe that they are intrinsically honest and earnest.”
Next up was a brief address by Shailendra Bhatnagar, Managing Editor, CNBC AWAAZ and CNBC BAJAR. He explained the genesis, motivation and methodology for the awards and highlighted the immense contribution of the state of Chhattisgarh. “I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the state of Chhattisgarh and the government of Shri Bhupesh Baghel for their unstinted support in making this platform a great success.” He went on to introduce the jury and explain how the 26 winners from various categories were chosen, concluding by wholeheartedly congratulating the winners.
Categorical selection process
Like last year, business leaders were judged under stringent, objective and transparent criteria. Researched by CNBC-AWAAZ’s editorial team and validated by the esteemed jury panel, this marquee platform conferred two categories of awards – one by the esteemed jury and the other by the CNBC-AWAAZ editorial board.
The esteemed jury comprised world-respected management strategists, academics and corporate personalities, namely, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Former Chairman, State Bank of India; Pradip Shah, Chairman, IndAsia Fund Advisor Pvt Ltd / Director Grow Trees; Shailesh Haribhakti, Chairman, New Haribhakti Business Services LLP and Mentorcap Management Pvt Ltd; Nilesh Shah, Managing Director, Kotak AMC Ltd and Shailendra Bhatnagar, Managing Editor, CNBC-AWAAZ & CNBC-BAJAR.
For the CNBC-AWAAZ Editorial board selection awards, the research team followed a 3-phased approach, which entailed a comprehensive exercise through a unique process based on a combination of criteria, including financial performance, leadership, creativity, innovation and social responsibility. The nominees were also evaluated on their ability to create short-term advantages, long-term value, a competitive edge and demonstration of leadership in the business community.
Chhattisgarh – Classic, Contemporary, Progressive
As a prelude to the awards, the Chief Guest of the evening, none other than Shri Bhupesh Baghel, Honourable Chief Minister, Chhattisgarh State, took the centre stage. He began by congratulating CNBC AWAAZ for the outstanding success of their endeavour and welcomed all the delegates to the state of Chhattisgarh. “Chhattisgarh means different things to different people,” he said and went on to explain its cultural and historic significance, natural mineral endowments, excellent state of infrastructure, including electricity, and fast-growing industrial progress. He concluded the address by inviting one and all – from any sector or industry – to invest and do business in Chhattisgarh and benefit from everything the state has to offer, assuring that his government would do everything it could to facilitate entrepreneurs.
Following the Chief Minister’s address, he sat down for a tête-à-tête with Pradip Pandya, Markets Editor – CNBC AWAAZ, during which they discussed the benefits of investing in or doing business in Chhattisgarh and even working and living in the state.
And the winner is…
Finally, came the much-awaited highlight of the evening – the CEO awards presentation by the Chief Minister. The Jury Awards for CEO of the Year, in various categories, went to Ameera Shah, Managing Director, Metropolis Healthcare; Keshab Panda, CEO, L&T Technology Services; Suresh Narayanan, Chairman & Managing Director, Nestle India; S N Subrahmanyan, CEO, L&T; Keki Mistry, Vice-Chairman & CEO, HDFC Bank and Aditya Puri, Managing Director, HDFC Bank. The most prestigious award of the evening went to V. Vaidyanathan, IDFC First Bank for being the Most Promising Entrepreneur of the Year in the Editorial Board Category, while the rest of the accolades in the category went to companies from different sectors.The evening concluded with a splendid photo op of all the winners followed by a networking dinner for all the participants.
For IndiaMART, No “Adverse” Impact From Coronavirus Epidemic | Inc42
- Indian businesses are looking to cut down reliance on sourcing from China
- IndiaMART says Indian sellers and suppliers are seeing more inquiries for medical supplies and electronics
- CEO Dinesh Agarwal said that IndiaMART will be the last company to be affected by coronavirus
The ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has affected more than 90K people and claimed the lives of over 3,100 people across 77 countries, has slowed down the progress of global businesses. Companies are running out of raw materials, spare parts and the constant supply chain that China has built over the years. Not for B2B ecommerce marketplace IndiaMART.
Even as India’s automobile and electronics industry suffers, IndiaMART has managed to avoid the impact from the outbreak, according to IndiaMART CEO Dinesh Agarwal.
With Indian businesses focusing on localising production in light of the problems in China, B2B marketplaces such as IndiaMART have seen a growth in sales inquiries for Indian sellers. Cofounder and CEO Agarwal told Inc42 that the recent coronavirus outbreak has impacted the business in a “positive” way, as sales inquiries have gone up and even foreign businesses have started sourcing materials from Indian sellers.
“Traffic that was going to China has now started coming to India,” Agarwal said about the higher flow of incoming inquiries for Indian sellers and businesses on the IndiaMART platform.
Agarwal specified that the foreign inquiries in several categories have increased. The inquiries on medical equipment and accessories have shot up by 20x, whereas for electronics the growth has been over 4 to 10 times. Citing an anecdote, Agarwal said that a seller that used to get “100 calls” earlier has now started getting 30x the number of calls.
He highlighted that there are very few economies that have large manufacturing and supply chain and as India is one of them, B2B marketplaces like IndiaMART that act as a discovery channel are not “adversely” affected by such epidemics.
But with around six new registered cases of coronavirus-led disease Covid-19 in India this week, fear has begun to spread in the minds of Indians as well. Over the past week, multiple new cases have been reported in the US and parts of Europe, which has increased calls for global action to combat the disease.
Indian Tech Companies Reel From Coronavirus Impact
Recently, popular Indian consumer electronics brand boAt’s cofounder Aman Gupta said that the company has to cancel its upcoming sale in order to save up the inventory, in case the outbreak lasts any longer. Indian startups and businesses are now actively looking at Indian manufacturing and production partners as well as sourcing material from local companies and countries other than China.
For instance, micromobility platform Yulu’s investor automobile company Bajaj Auto will provide cheaper electric two-wheelers to the company so that Yulu can overcome any slowdown due to Chinese imports being blocked. On the other hand, boAt is also looking to increase manufacturing in India, especially due to the difficulties faced in the ongoing US-China trade war and now the coronavirus outbreak.
But IndiaMART CEO said that the disruption is not something that has affected the company directly yet.
“If the overall economy starts to get adversely affected, where businesses start to shut. Then obviously, we [IndiaMART] will be affected as well, but will be the last ones to get affected.”
But Agarwal did admit that in certain categories there is a bit of a supply crunch since nobody was prepared for a situation like this. Even then, some sellers have managed to procure material from other sources, he added.
“We ourselves are trying to access how to best help the country and the world by the kind of database we have. It is very unfortunate it has happened.”
IndiaMART becomes first B2B marketplace in India to register 10 Cr users on the platform
IndiaMART is India’s leading B2B marketplace with over 60 percent market share of the online B2B Classified space in India
- IndiaMART is not just a marketplace; it is a market ecosystem in itself, pioneers of B2B ecommerce in the country
- IndiaMART par business karna ‘Bada Aasan Hai’, a one-stop-shop for all the user needs
- IndiaMART building credible avenues for businesses and creating an everlasting customer experience
New Delhi 27th February 2020: IndiaMART has achieved 10 crore registered users on the platform. IndiaMART, India’s leading B2B marketplace with over 60 percent market share has seen a tenfold increase in the user base in the last six years.
Expressing his delight on the occasion, Mr Dinesh Gulati, COO, IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd., said that, “We have aimed at making IndiaMART a one-stop-shop for all the business needs and have strived for curating a platform that is simple and convenient for millions of MSMEs in India. IndiaMART has always been committed to make doing business easy. This has helped us in delivering an everlasting customer experience and service that has increased our userbase tenfold in just 6 years, that is from 1 cr in 2014 to 10 cr in 2020.”
Presently, 36% of the traffic on IndiaMART comes from the metro cities and the remaining 64% from tier 1, tier 2 and smaller towns. IndiaMART, with the aim of enabling even the smallest of businesses through a digital platform, has evolved itself into an end-to-end holistic solution with features like lead management system, cloud telephony, and payment facilitation system named Pay With IndiaMART. These simplified solutions have helped in making doing business easy for millions of businesses on the platform. Coupled with these, IndiaMART launched voice search and vernacular features which have increased the ease-of-use quotient of the platform and has encouraged the people hailing from the remotest geographies of the country to leverage the digital medium in order to scale their business.
Mr Gulati further added, “We have tried to show the masses the digital way of doing business. Sellers nowadays are increasingly realising the importance of an easy-to-use digital platform that can help them to generate high intent leads, increase their visibility and reach even in the remotest parts of the country, and buyers are able to conveniently access over 6 cr products from these sellers. Going forward, we would keep investing in our platform with the use of voice, vernacular, AI and ML that will further ease out doing business in India.”
About IndiaMART:
IndiaMART is India’s largest online B2B marketplace for business products and services. It is a platform that connects buyers and sellers across borders and time-zones through business solutions. IndiaMART provides ease and convenience to the buyers by offering a wide assortment of products and a responsive seller base while offering lead generation, lead management and payment solutions to its sellers.
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IndiaMART Basks In Post-IPO Glory As It Crosses 100 Mn Users Mark | Inc42
- Incorporated in 1999, IndiaMART went public in June 2019
- The company has managed to double its user base in 25 months
- CEO Dinesh Agarwal said the company saw 23% YoY revenue growth post IPO
As one of the earlier Indian startups, IndiaMART is already an inspiration for many aspiring entrepreneurs. Incorporated in 1999 by Brijesh Agrawal and Dinesh Chandra Agarwal, Noida-based B2B marketplace IndiaMART went public in June 2019 and gave startup founders some new goals in the process. And since then the company has seen steady growth across markets and segments.
Announcing that it has reached the 100 Mn user mark, Dinesh Agarwal added that the company has started getting much more media attention and recognition now that it has listed publicly. And all that public glare has brought in many positives. Dinesh noted that larger brands and companies are joining IndiaMART as sellers. This includes Fortune 500 companies such as Tata, Jindal, Phillips and many more. In addition, the company has also been able to hire better talent.
The IndiaMART cofounder and CEO added that the IPO has also enabled the company keep its employees happy, as IndiaMART has allotted 14% of the shares in the company to over 500 employees, under the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).
In the second quarter after listing publicly, the company has also managed to get INR 181 Cr in revenue, INR 44 Cr as EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) and 71 Cr in cash of operations, Dinesh highlighted.
He noted that IndiaMART has achieved 23% year-on-year growth in terms of revenue, 58% growth in EBITDA and 18% growth in terms of cash flow for the quarter ending December 2019. Besides that, the company has also managed to match 348 Mn buyers and sellers and achieved 18 Mn daily active users in the third quarter of FY2020.
All this is part of the golden phase for the company, the IndiaMART CEO told us. It managed to double its registered user base from 50 Mn in December 2018 to 100 Mn in February 2020. The Noida-based B2B marketplace claims that it now controls 60% of the total market share. All in all, the IPO was a grand success.
Dinesh noted that even though there is an economic slowdown, this hasn’t hampered the growth of IndiaMART. “I know, there has been an economic slowdown for the last four-five quarters, which is causing our buyers’ traffic to be stagnant. However, the number of new buyers that are coming, that continue to be handsome in the last 25 months.”
With a focus on artificial intelligence models and data science, Dinesh said the company is able to attract more customers by improved matchmaking, based on behavioural data and the specialisation of the seller.
He also said that the larger geographical reach and product assortment has helped the company record 10 Cr buyers on its platform. The IndiaMART CEO claimed this is the first B2B marketplace to reach this mark. With 66 Mn products listed in over 100K categories ranging from groceries to electronics, this allows the company to attract large numbers of buyers and sellers. Besides this, the platform also has close to 6 Mn sellers listed on the platform.
“Because of this large base, our penetration in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets is strong. At IndiaMART, only 33 to 34% of our traffic comes from the top 8 metro cities. Rest of the traffic comes from Tier II and Tier III towns and especially from small villages and tehsils and districts across India,” Dinesh added.
Behind the Scenes: Designing the new office of IndiaMART!
Hi there! I believe you would have already gotten used to your new office by now, BUT today you will get to know about the most exciting part of this relocation!
The team and the work that unfolded Behind the Scenes to create the new office space.
It all started in late September 2019 when two interior designers visited our office in Sector 142 with a proposal for the new office at Sector 135. After reviewing a couple of agencies, we decided to go ahead with them. After a range of iterations and brainstorming over a period of 3 months, was the new office design conceptualized, reviewed, and implemented. Though it’s not possible to mention everything related to the project, but three incidents stood out for me that I would like to share in this blog.
Take 1: Lights (The First Site Visit at Assotech Business Cresterra)
We began the initial round of discussions with the design team for the Fourth Floor i.e., the Apparel Floor. After a few site visits in October-November, we zeroed in on the measurements, the designs, and the themes for all the floors. When we first saw the site, it was nowhere close to what you see now (as seen in the pics) with pretty much everyone trying to draw an understanding of the gigantic task that we had to accomplish. It served as the first reality check of the magnitude of work that we all had to do to create a spectacular office space in the weeks to come.
With due time and support from DG and Sumit Bedi, it was all made possible not to mention the sheer sense of perfection that was brought in through their intervention.
Take 2: Camera (The Team)
Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, it certainly wasn’t built by a single man or woman. For building the new office space, there were a range of people involved right from our design team that comprised of Shreya, Vee Marshall, and Sunny, Marketing team with Sumit, Rahul, Sourabh and me, the Printing team with Ashish, Admin team with Praveen, GD and Kamil, Aditi from the Category team, and with our very own DG in the driving seat, leading the entire project with his periodic reviews and vital inputs.
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Take 3: Action (The Launch)
Everything in marketing has to be promoted and the new office launch was not going to be any less buzzworthy. With daily quizzes from ‘Guess the Design,’ ‘Fastest Fingers First,’ ‘Thoughts about your new office,’ and ‘142 Memories,’ the floors were abuzz with campaigns which got everyone thinking and participating. However, it wasn’t just the digital office launch, but the last-minute execution of the finer details like ‘Bhaiyya woh final hogaya cabin?’ to ‘Praveen ji has the printer done the last lap of designs on the 11th floor?’ It was indeed the excitement that kept all of us going.
Day 1 early morning shot
I would like to take this opportunity to drive home a lesson that I learned from this experience, “A team is built on the principles of ‘Together Everyone Achieves More,’ and we should always strive to be better team players.”
We hope that you loved your new office design and would cherish it for years to come.
Devan Bhalla
Senior Brand Manager
Marketing Team
This smallcap stock has risen 172% in less than 8 months of listing | CNBC TV 18
- The scrip has already risen 25.34 percent so far this year.
- “It is the dominant B2B classified platform in India with strong moats to defend it against the competition,” global brokerage Jefferies said in a note.
- On July 4, 2019, IndiaMart made a strong listing on the bourses at a premium of 21.27 percent at Rs 1,180 level compared to its issue price of Rs 973 per share.
hares of IndiaMART InterMESH, an online marketplace for business products and services, have rallied over 172 percent since its debut on the stock exchanges in July last year.
The scrip has already risen 25.34 percent so far this year. The company holds a market cap of Rs 7,479 crore.
On July 4, 2019, IndiaMART made a strong listing on the bourses at a premium of 21.27 percent at Rs 1,180 level compared to its issue price of Rs 973 per share.
At 2:35 pm, the shares were trading 0.32 percent lower at Rs 2,585.95 apiece on the National Stock Exchange.
“It is the dominant B2B classified platform in India with strong moats to defend it against the competition,” global brokerage Jefferies said in a note.
The company reported decent Q3FY20 earnings with revenue growth of 23 percent YoY.
EBITDA and EBIT margins also surprised positively at 26.4 percent and 22.9 percent, respectively beating analysts’ expectations by 250 bps as most of the incremental revenue flowed to the bottom-line.
Collection growth remained stable at 15 percent YoY similar to the last couple of quarters but down YoY as the weak economic environment continued to hurt.
Jefferies maintained a ‘Buy’ rating on the stock as it expected a strong 30 percent+ EPS CAGR over FY20-22E through a combination of revenue growth and margin expansion.
Paid subscriber addition remained at 4,500 in the quarter while the total base was up 15 percent YoY to 142,000 versus 124,000 in Q3FY19. Annualized revenue per paid subscriber increased 7 percent YoY to Rs 45,300.
The management of the company indicated Indian language content as a potential opportunity to increase traffic to the site or application.
The company also indicated that while it does not see much value in B2B logistics, which some transaction-based B2B sites are attempting, given its prior experience with Tolexo, it is witnessing some interesting experiments with credit, which it could look into at an opportune time.“We expect 20 percent revenue CAGR over FY20-22E despite macro headwinds related to economic slowdown; this, in turn, should drive sharp margin expansion to 28 percent by FY22E versus 16 percent in FY19 given strong economies of scale. It is also free cash flow positive helped by upfront collections and low capex,” Jefferies said in a note.
Ending FY20 On The Right Note: Founders Meetup On March 12 With Innov8’s Ritesh Malik | Inc42
The last edition of Founders Meetup in the FY’20 will be held on March 12 at the Inc42 HQ. We are calling all attendees, including the past attendees of the event for a fireside chat with Ritesh Malik Of Innov8.
Supported by annual partners NetApp, HSBC, Times Internet, Paytm and AWS, the early bird price for the Founders Meetup is INR 499
“Founders Meetup is definitely an evening well spent with creative & youthful folks. The enthusiasm & engagement level of the audience at the event is infectious.”
Brijesh Agrawal, cofounder and director, IndiaMART, is just one of the many names, from the prominent startups of India, to join a gathering of early-stage startups and entrepreneurs at Inc42 HQ for an evening of networking and conversations.
Over the course of ten editions, Founders Meetup has crossed over from Delhi and gone over to other cities such as Hyderabad, thanks to popular demand from the startup ecosystem. During this journey, we have hosted many prominent names from the Indian startup ecosystem, who took time out to meet aspiring and early-stage entrepreneurs. Discussing their journey, challenges, successes and failures, we have hosted the likes of IndiaMART cofounder Agarwal, Nitin Saluja, founder and CEO, Chaayos, Rahul Singh, founder and CEO, The Beer Cafe and more.
This time we are doubling our efforts to bring to you the last Founders Meetup for the financial year 2019-20. This edition is to be held on March 12 on the fifth floor of Inc42 HQ.
IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd board to consider interim dividend on Mar 3, 2020 | Equity Bulls
A meeting of Board of Directors of IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, March 03, 2020 to consider the proposal for payment of Interim Dividend, if any, on the Equity Shares, for the financial year 2019-20.
The Record Date for determining the entitlement of the shareholders for the payment of aforesaid Interim Dividend shall be Friday, March 13, 2020, subject to the approval of Interim Dividend by the Board of Directors.
The Trading Window for dealing in Securities of Company shall remain closed from February 25, 2020 till the end of forty-eight (48) hours after the declaration of the Interim Dividend, if any.
Magic Book Of Business Dinesh Agarwal | Outlook Business
A movie that inspires you…
Gandhi by Richard Attenborough. It is a story of a man who showed the world that you can revolt against power, without power or violence.
…and a song?
“Jeevan chalne ka naam, chalte raho, subah aur shaam” by Manna Dey. This song reminds me that no problem is too big if one is persistent.
When anxiety sets in?
Travelling clears my mind and gives me a fresh perspective on things. Amsterdam is a favourite destination, for the walks I can take around the city, and Kenya for its wildlife. I also listen to music, especially songs by Mukesh. I have been a fan of his since childhood and still have a collection of his cassettes.
Lowest point in your life? How did you deal with it?
In 2001, we bought an office land in Sector 8, Noida, and even had a puja on September 10. The very next day, the infamous 9/11 terror attack happened in the US. Our business tanked by 50% overnight because exports were affected. All of a sudden, everything turned topsy-turvy. Our orders and advertising deals were cancelled. Sometime before this incident, I had enrolled for an MBA programme, which I had to give up on to fully focus in the business. We had to sell our house, didn’t have work for next nine months and struggled to pay salaries. Thankfully nobody left us.
How a 40-year-old business transformed itself digitally through IndiaMART!
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus,” stated Bruce Lee.
and this holds true for our IndiaMART champions who’ve become top sellers on India’s largest B2B platform because they know where their Target Group (TG) resides, which city would give them maximum ROI, and which marketing service is tailor-made for their business. Puneet Matreja, owner KayVee Footwear, Delhi touched and on boarded bulk buyers in the small towns and far-flung Indian cities, where it was difficult for his sales team to reach through IndiaMART.
Operating out of Naraina Industrial Area, New Delhi, KayVee Footwear had been in the business for the last four decades and manufactures school shoes, PT shoes, army jogger shoes, tennis shoes, and canvas shoes, etc. However, the company operations expanded unprecedently, [1] when Puneet decided to leverage the digital edge IndiaMART offered through its City Star service.
What’s City Star solution all about?
The IndiaMART City Star/Leader service boosts the visibility of sellers in selected city markets. While an ordinary seller gets 7/14 Buy Leads in a week, a seller who opts for the City Star/Leader service gets a 5x lift and can expect 35/49 Buy Leads, respectively. These sellers also benefit from a complimentary Keyword City Premium Listing, which is a top-up service that helps sellers appear higher in IndiaMART search for select keywords in the cities of their choice.
How City Star helped KayVee Footwear?
Puneet shares that he divided his marketing reach by choosing 50% cities where he had the bulk buyers already available, while the rest 50% was mapped for new cities to explore the hidden opportunities and untap potential buyers. The primary objective behind mapping new cities was to reach the buyers who had never heard of KayVee Footwear before, and it was easy to rank higher in the shortest time possible. The return on investment maximizes for the sellers who choose IndiaMART City Service, as the company profile shows on top for city-specific searches in their chosen product category.
As per Puneet, the City-Star service positions the seller as a local vendor and wins the confidence of buyers who otherwise hesitate to source goods and customized products from a manufacturer sitting more than 500 kilometers away.
There are many more sellers like Puneet Matreja, who have used City Star/Leader service to drive results, and enhance their consumer journey. IndiaMART hosts 93 million buyers, 5.7million suppliers, and 63million products and services, and by tapping into this humongous B2B connect, every business has to only gain, just like KayVee Footwear.
Share KayVee Footwear’s story with others, or share your own story with IndiaMART at marketing@indiamart.com, and we would love to feature your digitally empowered journey.
