Sunday, October 23, 2022

Deals Site MyDala.com Raises $ 3.6 Million Funding from Info Edge |

Deals Site MyDala.com Raises $ 3.6 Million Funding from Info Edge |

Running a group-buying site is a million-dollar business – atleast as far as the funding process is concerned. If you’re thinking of starting an e-commerce site of the scale of SnapDeal, Flipkart, or Infibeam – you cannot think below millions when it comes to the moolah being invested. That estimate of mine was reconfirmed when I came to know that India’s second ranked group-buying site MyDala.com has raised Rs 18 crores or $ 3.6 Million from Info Edge.

MyDala had also received an initial funding of Rs 9 Crores or $ 1.8 Million from Info Edge and Rs 1.1 Crores or $ 250,000 from the founders at CX Partners. For those who are unaware, Info Edge is the investment arm of MakeMyTrip.com

Here are some more points worth knowing about MyDala:

  • It has its own BlackBerry app where customers can not only browse through the deals but also pay for them using the in-app payment options.
  • The company was founded by a lady – Anisha Singh.
  • It surpassed 3 million subscribers in the month of July. Then, the company had around 60 employees.
  • The deals site also claims to be the first deals site in India. While we cannot confirm this, we can tell you that MyDala has been amongst the top three group-buying sites. Here’s a small graph:

The funding received will definitely help MyDala scale its operations. After all, it is not just a website which is important when you’re running a group-buying platform. You need to have employees handling HR, customer satisfaction, sales and much more. If you don’t have money to pay them, you just cannot aim to compete with the biggies.

Saturday, October 22, 2022

BillBaba.com: The free web app that will help Indians manage theirbills better |

BillBaba.com: The free web app that will help Indians manage theirbills better |

Most people’s worst nightmares include forgetting bill payments. With the amount of services that crowd our lifestyle these days, this definitely does not come as a surprise. Be it electricity, mobiles, water supply, credit cards, telephone and what not. Remembering each one of their bills, due date and their amount ain’t an easy task! This is where BillBaba steps in and comes to your rescue.

BillBaba is an Indian web application which is primarily aimed to serve as a reminder for all your current and future bill dues. But its utility doesn’t end here, it supplements itself with functionalities which include maintaining your payment history, analyzing your spendings, setting financial goals and keeping track of your lendings/borrowings. Yes all that and what’s more important, it’s completely free.


Simple Registration

The usage is simple, register through your Facebook account and you are done! No tiresome registration form fill up procedure required.

Reminder Service

Once logged in, simply add reminders for anything and everything and they’ll alert you via facebook, email and sms. The SMS feature is only available for people residing in India.

The reminder setup includes options like the frequency (monthly, weekly, daily), due date and Alert threshold which lets you choose the number of days prior to the due date that the notifications should start coming. The bill calendar lets you preview your reminders and their due dates for the entire month. The reminders are simple to stop, once you have paid your bill you can simply mark it as “paid” on the Facebook or web app or reply with the amount to the email and it won’t bug you until the next due date.

Financial Goals Feature

Personally I find the financial goals feature most compelling. It lets you specify the details about the goal (car, house etc.) in terms of amount needed and already collected, the reminder frequency and starting date. What’s more, the Goal calculator lets you input the annual rate of interest and notifies you of the savings you need per month to achieve it within the target time.

You can also keep track of the amount of money you have lent or borrowed. You need to specify the amount and the person whom you have lent and the app would do the awkward task of reminding the person of the loan once the person registers himself. Your borrowings can also be added and reminders for the re-payment will start off according to the frequency and date specified.

Analyse Your Spending – Graphical Depiction

The analysis feature is another winner from the developers. How we would all love someone to graphically and pictorially depict our spending trends both by category and by bill. BillBaba does that for you by helping you spot your over-spending instantly!

BillBaba is constantly gaining popularity. Future growth includes, aim to be a one stop shop for all bill payment related problems. To get all the bills at one place and at the end of the month, users only need to specify the total amount due and the app takes care of the rest.

Our Take

You rarely get to see such a good product providing so much of utility from Indian developers. As fas as monetising the app is concerned, the founders must be having some plan. Right now, their aim should be dishing out more features to the product and adding more users. I have a feeling that the feature which will pay bills automatically, might be a source of revenue for them in the form of percentage cuts of each bill paid. What’s your take?

If you want to explore more, the promo video below will help you understand the dynamics of the app better.

Thursday, October 13, 2022

E-Commerce in India and its Potential [Infographic] | Hungry N Foolish

E-Commerce in India and its Potential [Infographic] | Hungry N Foolish

This infographic is a part of the infographic series we try bringing to you every now and then. There are some interesting infographics in there related to India, technology, and startups. If you’ve a cool infograph to show us get in touch.

E-Commerce in India is on a boom. If you ask a school student to tell where he can buy a book – he won’t mention the nearby book-store but would name Flipkart. Earlier, it was tough finding people who bought things online in India, but now the trend has reversed. Professionals are seen buying gadgets, books, and even clothes online. Welcome to the start of a e-commerce boom in India.

While I am nobody to predict anything, but can say that e-commerce is going to be huge in India. The guys at Referral Candy came out with an interesting infographic depicting the e-commerce situation in India. Here are the fast facts about e-commerce in India. They’ve even tried comparing it to e-commerce in the US:

  • E-Commerce in India is still small: 1/16th of that in the US
  • India’s e-commerce potential is huge. The infographic shows that the market can be worth as much as $ 500 Billion.
  • With time, India’s popualtion is surely going to become more affluent and is going to use online shopping for most of its needs.
  • Amazon may come to India the next year. The market is so big, that every online retailer can survive and do business.
  • Infact, it’s being predicted that an e-commerce company will become India’s biggest retailer in the year 2015.
  • The current problems infront of the e-commerce indsutry are low internet penetration and usage, slow internet speed, low credit card penetration, and transport of goods to far-flung places.

Here’s the infographic:

Abhineet Kumar is the co-founder of Hungry N Foolish. A student of Business Administration, he is passionate about entrepreneurship and blogging. Abhineet urges you to do your bit in making this world a better place to live in, in your own small ways. Catch him on Twitter @abhineetsays.