The 10 Most Inspiring Business Leader To Watch out 2021

www.theenterpriseworld.com | APAC Edition | May 2021

The

10 most inspiring

BUSIness

Leaders T o W at c h out 2021

MARC RIPPEN IMPROVING THE LIVES OF DIABETICS THROUGH ALERTGY

YURYI FERBER A DETERMINED LEADER IN THE FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY

HARISH B V Co- Founder | Unocoin

A MAN WHO PAVED THE WAY FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY IN INDIA

Subscribe How about showcasing your products to 75,000+ C-suite Subscribers?

To get recent updates of our magazines

SUBSCRIBE US info@theenterpriseworld.com

www.royaleneld.com

I

n today's corporate environment, it's no secret that modern business executives must play many roles and service multiple consumer groups. They wear multiple hats at once and play a critical role in improving their colleagues' performance and productivity.

The pandemic problem has not only put human lives in jeopardy, but it has also engulfed countless businesses. People have noticed how all the businesses have moved their platforms to digital overnight. This has emphasized the necessity for a leader who can read the broad picture and manage an uncharted business climate in the future. In reaction to problems like these, leaders frequently feel overworked and overwhelmed, making resilience and analytical ability valuable attributes.

In this issue of The Enterprise World, ‘The 10 Most Inspiring Business Leaders to Watch Out 2021’, we are featuring the business leaders which are lending a hand to change the market scenarios with their innovative and comprehensive solutions.

The feature for the Cover Story is Harish B V, Co-founder, and Chief Financial and Compliance Officer of Unocoin. During an interview for the TEW segment, read out a discussion with Abhishek Tyagi—CEO of AnyTechTrial. Some of the other profiles included in this edition are Anirudh Singh—Founder and CEO of SygiTech, Mr. Krishna Kumar—Founder and CEO of Cropin, Marc Rippen—CEO of Alertgy and Yuryi Ferber—Founder and CEO of BRITech.

Traditional leadership practices are critical, but so are new business acumen!

Rushikesh Deshpande

www.goldmansachs.com

The Enterprise World, 420, Pride Purple Square, Above SBI, Wakad, Pune. 411057

9552931801 Follow Us On:

For Editorial Concerns: editor@theentetpriseworld.com For Sales & Branding Enquiries: sales@theenterpriseworld.com For Subscription: info@theenterpriseworld.com Publisher The Enterprise World Creative Content Editor Rushikesh Deshpande Marketing Coordinator(USA) Peter J. PR & Marketing Coordinator James H. Business Development Executive Suchita P. Creative Design Head V. Mittal Social Media Manager Avinash G. Digital Circulation Manager Amanda V.

This list is NOT a ranking. The companies on listed in magazine serve different aspects of the market, making ranking them in any order except revenue impossible and unfair.

We try to bring a perfect platform for business organization to showcase their valued products/ services.

Copyrights © The Enterprise World | 2019. All Rights Reserved. The images and content included in this magazine should not be copied, transferred or reproduced in any form or by any means, electronics, mechanical, photocopying, recording, otherwise, without proper permission from The Enterprise World.

The Enterprise World solely owns all the reprint rights.

Leaders in Spotlight This issue of The Enterprise World Magazine, The 10 Most Inspiring Business Leaders to Watch Out 2021, features A cover story of Harish B V who is the Co-Founder of Unocoin. He is also the Chief Financial and Compliance Officer. Unocoin offers a unique blend of customer-centric support and userfriendly features on its platform. It understands the relationship between crypto trading concepts and user’s issues. Hence it acts as a perfect bridge between these to help the Indians do trading and exchanges on its platform.

The applications and website is designed in such a way that it gives services beyond the wants of the customers. The auto-sell, SBP, earn interest are some of the most unparalleled features of Unocoin, which makes it a pioneer in the Indian market’s trading platform.

A profile of Abhishek Tyagi— CEO of AnyTechTrial. The company reckons that its platform is the first of its kind across the globe which offers all the

SAAS applications on a single platform. Moreover, it enables the users to experience working on the software with a free trial before they make any purchasing decision.

Aniruddh Singh— Founder and CEO of SygiTech. SygiTech designs customized business solutions to make businesses easier to work thereby, increasing the time to focus on critical decision-making. The company also creates robust, cost-effective, and reliable solutions using the latest tech stack introducing a high-performancedriven service model. Sygitech is DIPP certified startup.

Also, Mr. Krishna Kumar—Founder and CEO of Cropin. The data-driven farming solutions offered by Cropin, enable agri-enterprises and growers to ‘maximize per-acre value’. Its farm data and agronomy management platform, SmartFarm, empowers stakeholders to improve efficiency, productivity, predictability, and sustainability of their crop valuechains. SmartFarm enables agri-

enterprises to adhere to food safety standards thereby ensuring farm-tofork traceability.

Marc Rippen—CEO of Alertgy.

Alertgy is renowned for providing the first non-invasive wearable continuous glucose monitor and alert system to measure true blood glucose. It sets diabetics free from having to think about taking glucose measurements by allowing for fully automated, continuous monitoring with pre-set alerts for low or high glucose levels, as set by the user.

And Yuryi Ferber—Founder and CEO of BRITech. BRITech is a FinTech that offers solutions for the Investment Management ecosystem with a SaaS business model. The company deals in state-of-the-art and cutting-edge software and technology that helps asset managers, brokers, fund managers, wealth & family offices.

CONTENTS

10.

Harish BV

22.

Yuryi Ferber 26.

Abhishek Tyagi 30.

Aniruddh Singh 38.

Marc Rippen 42.

Krishna Kumar

HARISH BV A MAN WHO PAVED THE WAY FOR CRYPTOCURRENCY IN INDIA

“

I like the fact that the citizens of my country are having control over their money. Once they know what works best for them, they invest their funds at the right time, on the right asset, over our platform, to make better investment decisions for themselves.

This gives me a feeling of empowerment. This is the empowerment and independence that I want my countrymen to have.

- Harish B V

“

Cover Story Harish B V Co-Founder, Chief Financial and Compliance O cer, Unocoin

| Cover Story Amid the Corona crisis, the demand and price of cryptocurr ency - a virtual currency, have gained in India. The virtual currency originated after the 2008 global financial crisis. In the last few months, the prices of virtual currencies like bitcoin, ether, and Ripple have risen sharply.

Numerous large companies around the world have decided to put a portion of their funds in cryptocurrencies following reports of a surge in virtual currency prices. Despite the pandemic disrupting the world’s economy on a larger scale, India seems to have gained higher crypto-user traffic since last year. The price of bitcoin is growing day by day and according to the experts, it will grow more in the future. If one ever wanted to invest in them, now is a good time to do so.

A

With the tremendous potential of growth in future, and with its worldwide hassle-free transaction processes, bitcoin is getting more popular in India. Today around 7 to 11 million Indian users own about one billion dollars’ worth of crypto assets.

The use of bitcoin or ether is simple & safe and it provides higher returns as well. The price of bitcoin has risen over four times and ether by over ten times in the last year. One can use cryptocurrency to buy goods or services, although most people worldwide use it as a store of money. Meaning, it is used as an 12

MAY 2021

investment tool just like stocks, bonds, gold etc.

The boost in such a digital economy attracted many first-time investors and many small business owners to invest in cryptocurrency.

With increasing demand, there was a need for a platform that could help users to streamline and smoothen their crypto transactions.

Having this need of the hour in mind, a leader with a futuristic vision, a role model to many budding entrepreneurs, Harish B V, in 2013 co-founded Unocoin along with Abhinand Kaseti, Sathvik Vishwanath and Sunny Ray. Today, Unocoin is one of India’s leading bitcoin companies that enables Indians to buy, sell, store, use & accept bitcoin. Let’s dwell more into the most innovative and easyto-use crypto assets’ platform, the company’s story, and most of all the iconic entrepreneur’s journey!

The Company Unocoin truly dominates the industry with its position as a leader in the cryptocurrency space.

Its sole aim is to provide services that are unique & differentiated and stand up to its legacy in the technology domain by offering new-age technology-powered security.

Its platform has one-of-a-kind user engagement and experience, as its unwavering focus is on emerging as a top global player in the crypto assets arena and contributing to the Indian as well as the global economy. Unocoin has transformed into one of the most popular bitcoin and ether platforms in recent times.

To provide better services, numerous other components have been added to its ecosystem. It

believes that continuously supporting the best quality service is the choicest way to develop this industry. Unocoin will continue to improve its services, as it is committed to render the best.

However, for Unocoin, this is far from enough.

Harish B V says, “Our customer is our topmost priority when it comes to being the best among the competitors. I also believe in having the perfect balance between innovations and maintaining the core values we have built our brand on. While innovations are happening day in and day out, based on the volatility of the market and crypto space, we also always make sure, the core agenda as to why Unocoin emerged in the first place is also maintained.”

The Journey The most formative and toughest time for a start-up is the initial days, as one has to take on a lot of steps. Right from setting up the start-up and the company right, down to handling almost everything. Then comes the marketing and sales along with the challenges to keep the start-up, the business afloat and running to full capacity without any loss in enthusiasm, resilience, and hard work. Unocoin also tackled well with challenges it faced, like the legalization process, finding the cofounders, building a team, gaining the trust of the investors, expanding the customer base, marketing etc in its early days.

Unocoin raised $2,50,000 from Bitcoin Opportunity Corp on 12th August 2014, and that’s when it experienced the accelerated growth.

THE GROWTH TIMELINE

December 2013 :

Unocoin Launched

May 2015 :

March 2020 :

2-factor authen ca on from 1st June 2015 mandated

Introduced Instant Loans

April 2020 :

February 2014 :

Unocoin’s BUY & SELL price calculator launched

December 2015 :

Introduced Auto Sell Feature March 2014 :

Collected BAI dona ons donated to charity

May 2020 : August 2016 :

Enabled u lity bill payments

User App launched October 2020 :

May 2014 :

Merchant Gateway launched

Introduced Instant deposits and withdrawals

September 2016 :

Raised $1.5M to set a na onal record

Unocoin Raised funding from Tim Draper in Targeted US$5 million, Series A Round

August 2014 :

Unocoin raised $250,000 from Bitcoin Opportunity Corp

January 2015 :

Unocoin enabled Instant Bitcoin Trades with new INR Wallets

April 2015 :

Unocoin introduced the feature Systema c Buying Plan -one of its kind of SIP for crypto

October 2016 :

Over the counter (OTC) launched

February 2018 :

Unocoin launched Mul -Crypto Asset Exchange

May 2018 :

Unocoin launched UNODAX, a live order-book trading pla orm for ac ve traders

October 2020 :

Unocoin and UNODAX merged into a single portal

November 2020 :

New app released featuring both Unocoin and UNODAX

February 2021 :

High Court Quashed (Dismissed) the FIR filed against Unocoin's co-founders

| Cover Story

Unocoin’s 20

14

MAY 2021

020 in Graphs

www.theenterpriseworld.com 15

Unocoin, “ a platform made

16

MAY 2021

“

with the dedication to not let India lose out on the new economy and technology that is getting built based on crypto-assets markets.

Harish B V A leader on a mission to make Indians the decision-maker of their money Unocoin's status and respect in the cryptocurrency industry are exemplary with its plethora of unique, innovative, and custom-made services, which not only speak highly of its handpicked team of industry experts and masterminds but also its unmatched leader, Mr Harish B V. Harish B V, Co-Founder, Chief Financial and Compliance Officer at Unocoin has 15 years of experience in the financial and telecommunication industry. He is a Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineer from Siddaganga Institute of Technology.

He started his career as a Director for Dream Groups from January 2000 till April 2002. Thereafter, he held the same profile for Blaze Air Networks Pvt Ltd from May 2002 till July 2013. Since then, he is holding the position of co-founder and COO with Unocoin, till today.

Winning the case against the RBIs plea at the Supreme court in opposition to banning cryptocurrency can be regarded as one of the major milestones in his entrepreneurial journey. The win has given Unocoin some great responsibilities to make sure it is the change many wishes to see in India in terms of the loopholes in the economy and the financial sector of the country. “When no individual in India was willing to step up and file the case as an individual petitioner, I had to do it on my own and be there in the Supreme Court during every single hearing of the case and fight it to lead it towards victory,” Harish commented.

Also, in opposition to ring-fencing, the financial institutions and banks in dealing with the cryptocurrency industry or servicing the Cryptocurrency industry can be regarded as another landmark. He also has installed enough confidence in himself and the company aiming the law enforces where the departments like CCB and CID entrust Unocoin to custody the ceased crypto from multiple crypto and financial crimes.

Harish admires Jim Harris the most, for his engaging keynotes, combined research, statistics, and great visuals to drive home messages around disruptive innovation, change, and leadership in an entertaining way. His thought-provoking presentations challenge Harish to reconsider how he thinks. He's strategic and results-focused, with insightful business ideas customized to each group, his approach to working with partners is always a 'win-win'.

The Platform Unocoin's unique and innovative platform is cognitively ahead, more advanced, sophisticated, and easier to use than any other platform in the market. Unocoin is more intuitive and proactively delivering the best-in-class experience to the users.

Unocoin offers a unique blend of customer-centric support and userfriendly features on its platform. It

understands the relationship between crypto trading concepts and user’s issues. Hence it acts as a perfect bridge between these to help the Indians do trading and exchanges on its platform. The applications and website is designed in such a way that it gives services beyond the wants of the customers. The auto-sell, SBP, earn interest are some of the most unparalleled features of Unocoin, which makes it a pioneer in the Indian market’s trading platform.

Team Unocoin is working hard on making this platform more userfriendly and easy to use. It is revamping its applications’ and website’s layouts, increasing the visibility of the most underrated but very useful services, expanding its user base, boosting PR activities, publishing articles and blogs to educate crypto-enthusiasts, energizing social media content and working on educational video content creation to make the whole process feel seamless for the users.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 17

| Cover Story

Unocoin is a group of many creative, highly skilled, and passionate professionals. Talents from different social foundations with comparable interests and enthusiasm for innovation in cryptocurrency make the Unocoin group remarkable. Everyone in the team is excited and consistently looking for cutting-edge innovations to help users in running their crypto transaction processes easily. The solid obligation of companionship and common trust between individuals at Unocoin makes the workplace sound that mirrors the best outcomes.

At Unocoin, people don’t compete with each other. As it is a diversified group of talents with

various skill sets, it always shares knowledge among itself, which assists it in enhancing, pioneering and preparing to stun the world out of the crate. A little thought or idea can have a gigantic effect. Thus, at Unocoin, there is respect for everybody’s view.

Everyone is enthusiastic about what they have to achieve as far as their roles and responsibilities are considered. Its employees are in the perfect space when it comes to learning about cryptocurrencies, trading, exchange, and the crypto market. The company’s work culture is output-driven and result-based, and its team works passionately to give the best user experience to its valuable

customers. Unocoin has a flexible and employee-friendly work policy, a homely and comfortable workspace, and the top learning and growth opportunity ambience.

“

SOME WHERE OUT THERE, SOMEBODY IS WORKING HARDER THAN YOU.

“

The Team - The real asset of Unocoin

Co-Founders of Unocoin 09 18

MM 2021 MAY 2021

Sathvik Viswanath, (CEO)

Harish BV, (COO)

Abhinand Kaseti, (CMO)

Sunny Ray, (President) www.theenterpriseworld.com 19

Business Story

Yuryi Ferber Making Investment Management Possible at Fingertips through BRITech

B

usiness leaders not only show the inspiring and budding entrepreneurs how to lead the way ahead but also inspire people regardless of their career interests. Becoming a leader or a well-known personality in the world of business is not an easy feat, as it does not only require a person of a charismatic persona, discipline, effervescent but also an entrepreneur introducing cuttingedge and breakthrough products and services that not only revolutionize the way one looks and works but also brings a new wave of innovation and possibilities to their industry or niche. A leader not only inspires but also leads the way to the future, enabling the young individuals to not only learn from them but also to understand their life, their professional endeavours and take the most valuable lessons and apply them into their own life, enabling these individuals to become a true leader and a true inspiration for everyone.

Yuryi Ferber is the Founder and CEO of BRITech. He has shown the world of business that a true leader can emerge from anywhere and inspire the rest with his sincerity, dedication, and unwavering spirit to not only

22

MAY 2021

dominate the market but also show that he is no less than a vivacious, visionary, and unmatched business leader to watch out for in 2021.

Yuryi founded BRITech in 2012 and presented the world with innovative and breakthrough products and services which not only enhanced the working and performance of many industries but also proved his mettle as a flagbearer of BRITech. He has by far accumulated numerous achievements for his endeavours, inspired countless budding entrepreneurs, claimed the respect and loyalty of BRITech’s clients, and established a stronghold in the market and amongst the competition in the market.

BRITech, the Company, the story BRITech is a FinTech that offers solutions for the Investment Management ecosystem with a SaaS business model and more than 300 clients in 13 countries, with over 120 dedicated full-time professionals, processing daily + US $ 1 trillion AUC (Assets Under Control).

Founded in 2012 as a service company (BRIT Services at the time), in 2014 the company was renamed BRITech and started the

transition to a SaaS company with a focus on Investment Management.

It operates in 4 fundamental pillars in the delivery of investment management solutions: experience, technology, productivity, and excellence.

Yuryi doesn’t believe in Individual shows. The first rule is to be able to attract and retain exceptional people and allow them to work together in collaboration, establishing a direction and having a 360-degree alignment of interests between customers, staff, and partners. Thus, began the journey of BRITech, after he established the long-term vision, Yuryi brought in people that are not only experts in the field with thorough and extensive knowledge but are also dedicated to BRITech’s vision and mission and do not hesitate to help their clients in any way or anytime.

Since 2015 BRITech is an investee of Oria Capital, Growth Equity for B2B technology companies, creating business continuity and innovation in the world.

The exemplary services of BRITech BRITech deals in state-of-the-art and cutting-edge software and

technology that helps Asset Managers, Brokers, Fund Managers, Wealth & Family Offices. They are one of the leading companies in the domain that not only have one of the most satisfied and loyal clients but also best-inclass service and delivery standards. They are not only dedicated to providing impeccable user engagement to their clients via their services but are always in pursuit of excellence, finding ways to not only enhance their services but also introduce breakthrough services in the market.

- For Enterprises: Firms such as custodians, brokers, and outsourcing companies are always seeking ways to help their clients, financial advisers, and asset managers to be more successful.

Many are increasingly turning to technology as a way of differentiating their services.

BRITech can be a valuable partner in helping to make that difference.

Cloud-based components can be easily integrated with other software. They are experts in extending functionality quickly and adapting their features to suit any process flow.

Their components can be “whitelabelled” to conform to the look and feel of any firm. A competitive distinction is that their applications are multi-currency and multilingual. Whether it is to fill a gap in your portfolio of technology offerings, or to respond quickly to new opportunities in the market, contact BRITech for a solution.

If they cannot provide what you need from the components in their platform, they will customize a

Yuryi Ferber | Founder & CEO | BRITech solution for you, quickly and inexpensively. They stand by their quality, time-to-market for delivery, and price competitiveness.

BRITech indeed provides the best value-for-the-money for your IT dollar - For Family Office: In a connected world, it is imperative to have modern, scalable, and flexible solutions to fulfil all the needs required from demanding family members.

Simplified Workflow: Forget about spreadsheets and manually tying together information from disparate systems. Their platform is highly customizable and can be tailored to how you want to operate. Simplify workflow and reduce administration overhead

with their portfolio accounting functions and easy-to-understand dashboard. Their robust rebalancing and compliance engine make it a breeze to recompose your portfolio whenever it is needed.

Data Aggregation: Timely insights depend heavily on being able to collect all the information relating to your family portfolios. By compiling data across multiple sources, including custodians, banks, and held-away accounts, their platform will consolidate it into a single portfolio, allowing for a centralized view. Information on performance, portfolio deviation, comparison against benchmarks, cash flow, and other metrics become readily accessible at your fingertips, either through the dashboard or via their mobile version.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 23

Business Story Family Structures: By allowing and automating the process of creating chained family structures, they can cross multiple generations and provide detailed information for each household or single entity as needed. Once the family structure has been set, it is straightforward to query information through the dashboard or by specific reports on a case-bycase basis.

Their services are not only oriented and made for every type of enterprise and office, providing one of the most advanced services to manage huge amounts of transactions and data without having to worry about any problems or glitches. They constantly work to not only keep their service up to date with the latest industry trends and practices but also heavily rely on customer feedback to improve the performance and usability of their services.

What takes BRITech ahead of the competition in the market and strongholds its position in the market.

An essential aspect that is contributing to their global expansion is their franchise model.

They have a long-term win-win partnership model, capable of attracting entrepreneurs worldwide - they maintain their focus on product innovation and the partners focus on sales, implementation, and local support for each region in which they operate. They have a team to manage the distribution channels helping the franchisees expand their business. Their customer-centric mindset is not the only thing that makes it possible they have so many features 24

MAY 2021

addressing so many pain-points that able can up-sell frequently.

Their technology was designed to reach any size of customer, offering a cloud-based solution and monthly-basis payment per use. In the early days, back in 2014, they started offering solutions to a few pain points and, with constant R&D investments, year after year, they continue to expand the platform’s features and scalability.

All these factors help them in maintaining an NRR (Net Revenue Retention), which measures the total change in recurring revenue for a set of customers over time.

Their NRR is over 120% per year.

This is possible because they do their best to retain the customer, help the customer use their software in the best possible way, and help him extract the best possible value out of it.

BRITech’s work culture Yuryi feels that good people don’t just mean good technical people they need to share the same ideas and long-term vision. In other words, they must share the same culture, because they will hire more people and maintain the company’s culture.

This ideology not only led to the professional and highly dedicated and visionary team of BRITech but also enriching the work-culture and environment of BRITech with minds that are always looking to enhance BRITech’s services, help their clients in the best possible way, and most important of all, never stop learning, growing and become individuals who grow in both personal and professional domains of life.

All these factors, along with perfect sync and harmony among the team of BRITech, making them much more than a team, a close-knit family.

Yuryi’s message to running a business and becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Running a growing business is a constant exercise in identifying and fixing bottlenecks. Bottlenecks are constantly shifting from place to place and the sooner you identify it and fix it the better. If you don’t do it, inefficiency appears. To maintain the company’s good efficiency, we must try to position ourselves from the outside to have a clear diagnosis and help the executive of that specific area to fix the bottleneck. I am the CEO, but I like to joke that CEO means Coach Executive Officer.

As I learned from my father: reputation is the most important asset for anyone. It takes time to acquire, but very little time to lose it. Therefore, we must be very careful about what we do, how we do it, and the quality of our network of people. Once you’ve built your reputation and become a trusted individual, you will be able to attract good, trustworthy people to your business.

Another personal, non-technical skill I have is being humble. When you are humble, you know you are always learning and you know how important it is to be surrounded by good and honest people at work, personal, and family circles.

Finally, I would say persistence this is a must-have skill for any business owner.

MOMENTUM True Wireless

A new dimension in wearable sound Uncompromised sound performance, state-of-the-art technology and refined design all come together in Sennheiser’s True Wireless premium earbuds.

en-in.sennheiser.com

Interview with TEW

CEO AnyTechTrial.Com

Abhishek Tyagi A determined leader with a 360-Degrees futuristic vision

26

MAY 2021

I

n this fast-paced digital era, there is new technology rising with every new dawn.

Particularly in the digital technology, software, and IT sector, there are endless options for products and services which confuses users. AnyTechTrial a perfect and cognitively ahead SaaS marketplace allows users to make their best choice for perfect and reliable software, apps, and so on.

AnyTechTrial is led by a serial entrepreneur Mr. Abhishek Tyagi, a determined and responsible CEO with more than 10+ years of learning experience in cross-domain functionalities while working with Clevel and Country head executives of many Fortune 500 organizations. Abhishek believes that delivering meaningful customer experiences is the new battleground for brands, with accelerating complexity, delivering a cohesive brand experience remains elusive. With decade-long learning in BTL, ABM, and the Data-driven marketing domain, he expertise in strategizing and implementing business plans for enhancing operations, profits and performance.

Along with establishing the world’s largest SaaS Marketplace AnyTechTrial.Com, in the past decade Abhishek has founded and established one of Asia's leading BTL agency “Value Prospect Consulting”, also successfully spearheaded and built 1.5 Million companies Analytical Database across the Asia Pacific to be used by various companies for Sales and Marketing operations.

In a conversation with Mr. Abhishek Tyagi, he shared his views on the current industry scenario and what AnyTechTrial.Com is all about.

• Brief us about the company.

The software runs this tech-driven world. Not everyone can be a techie to break down the correct usage of such software for themselves or for their firms, which invites added costs and delays in understanding if the software purchased will be right for one's needs or not.

We Power the Business to rapid growth with thousands of cloud-based solutions. We take pride to reckon that our platform is the first of its kind across the globe which offers all the SAAS applications on a single platform. This has certainly opened new avenues for our venture as well. We enable the users

to experience working on the software with a free trial before they make any purchasing decision. Anyone can meet all their SAAS requirements on our single website.

• What were the initial challenges you faced?

In the commencing phase some of the challenges like driving and sourcing authentic sources. Identifying the opportunity in terms of what best could be serving the people, what are the major trends people are looking at, and what kinds of challenges they are facing in terms of all their software needs. Then pinpointing their challenges and finding the solutions to them.

Earlier people were unaware of the concept of the free trial of the software they need and often ended up buying the Incorrect software, so in the initial stages, we find complexities in making people understand the fact that they can try the software before the actual purchase.

• Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company?

After the advent of COVID-19, companies across the globe saw a surge in manpower cuts, declined revenues, and a serious strain on their resources. As businesses shut, there was an overarching increase in the number of job losses and revenues. At such times, we @AnyTechTrial were not only able to stay afloat throughout the pandemic and also the time growth of the company triggered when we experience a lot of traffic reaching us out from different countries from across the globe with their different need regarding their business.

• How have the company graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics?

Our company is a bootstrapped Indian company, built by persistent effort. In a very little time, our company has outshone the market very well. Therefore, it speaks volumes about the ability of our Indian foresighted founders in providing robust solutions to everyone across the globe. 3 months back, we ranked globally around 78 lakhs but today we rank around 60k global rank, numbers speak for themselves. We have also seen a huge response from our users, we get a good 8k-10k daily web traffic from all around the world.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 27

Interview with TEW

• What is the reason behind your company’s longstanding success?

The company has a more user-friendly and problemsolving-driven platform that focuses more on the SME and enterprise market. The vision and mission of the company are to solve the overarching problems of the industry; the business will certainly grow with utmost support from the market. Being authentic and informative to our website users is one of the main pillars on which we stand strong.

• How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your products/services?

Having a clear vision for the future and with a more global approach, we need to target niche markets across different geographies. We would be keen to have information regarding the user experience across different user segments to add local flavors for every region.

• How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?

Certainly, the committed management at AnyTechTrial.Com is driven to facilitate a robust environment where both their users and their employees can work towards their best efficiencies

28

MAY 2021

without any apprehensions or doubt. Such organizations are exemplary in showcasing a responsible approach towards building a congenial environment for a healthier world. Recently it was made public that AnyTechTrial would cover the vaccination costs for all AT Ventures employees and their spouses. So, together we all can move forward towards a COVID-free India with confidence.

• It’s a rat race out there. How do you cope with that?

We take pride to reckon that our platform is the first of its kind across the globe which offers all the SAAS applications in a single place. This has certainly opened new avenues for our venture. We enable the users to experience working on the software with a free trial before they make any buying decision.

Anyone can meet all their SAAS requirements on our single website. We stand unique in every context in providing the information to our users. But we emphasize that the information we provide is credible and authentic for any user. We also feel delighted to serve our customers irrespective of the size and nature of their business. We serve them with equality whether their operations are small or large.

Interview with TEW

Founder & CEO Sygitech

MR. ANIRUDDH SINGH A leader revolutionizing software and IT eld.

30

MAY 2021

I

n today's era, the computer is one of our basic needs, we use it to run our daily work, from an office or at home. It is possible to say that today's world is computer-driven; Where every action is through a computer.

In these ongoing pandemic times, if a business still doesn’t have its digital presence and if it doesn’t adapt modern technology yet, it might be holding its growth back.

In this scenario, to help businesses to be relevant in the market race, a visionary leader in software and IT technology, Mr. Aniruddh Singh offers a comprehensive plethora of differentiated software development and managed IT services.

In an interview with Mr. Aniruddh, the Founder and CEO at Sygitech, he shared his journey throughout and what Sygitech is all about. ●

Brief us about the company.

We are a group of tech nomads who aspire to bring a sea change in how IT services and application development can be simplified. We work towards designing customized business solutions to make businesses easier to work thereby, increasing your time to focus on critical decisionmaking. We boast of creating robust, cost-effective, and reliable solutions using the latest tech stack introducing a high-performance-driven service model. Sygitech is DIPP certified startup. ● What were the initial challenges you faced?

I was new to the market, without having any experience in sales and marketing, no funding, (funding was available mostly to the product companies, not service-based companies with few exceptions), I started just after demonetization, and then GST was enforced, global slowdown followed with the pandemic. We did see all of this quite early in the last 4+ years of our start, the only thing that I had was the solid knowledge of technology and goal to deliver robust solutions to the customers. ● Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company?

We got some software development projects to start with, then quickly started with managed services (IT/Cloud infrastructure management). Covid brought us misery, starting 2020 and that was a tough time for everyone.

Nevertheless, the business model we have, catered to most of the clients. We focused more on remote delivery and increased client engagement that triggered growth and new

client acquisition. The quality and timely delivery of projects with value-added services manifold the opportunity. Starting Jan 2021 we started growing faster than before. ● How have the company graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics?

It kept on changing for every few months initially, sometimes positive, negative at other times. From the revenue perspective, we remained cash positive since we started, and were religiously paying taxes every year. ● What is the reason behind your company’s longstanding success?

We are customer-centric and more of a partner to them than a typical service provider. We take an extra step every time in each engagement we do and go beyond promised work.

We believe in long-term relationships and stand trusted and honest on our project deliveries. ● What are the solutions the company focuses on?

How are your offerings different from those in the market?

We primarily focus on software development and managed IT services. Consultancy is the byproduct of what we offer to our customers. With multiple domain experts in the team, we have the agility to pick up projects that are not limited to software development but driving end-to-end management of your IT needs. With the already crowded market for such services, we rely on quality work, timely delivery, and a one-stop shop for all your IT needs. A proven record of accomplishment on our offerings and significant happy partners (customers) speak volumes about the mark we have made in just a few years. ● How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your solution offerings?

We keep on adding new skill sets, we learn from the existing customer base that we have and then we brainstorm on what can be done next or how we can further improve the quality of our service. ● Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?

We started as a service-based company, but now coming up with few products as well 1. SygiOps – Primary objective of the SygiOps is to

www.theenterpriseworld.com 31

Interview with TEW

Success is just a station in your journey, not a destination. eliminate chances of human errors and execute tasks in minutes, against hours or days. In the current scenario, technology has become very complex, and finding resources, training them introduces big costs and huge efforts, we plan to simplify that.

2. SygiCloudSync – With the larger adoption of cloud platforms and the need of handling huge amounts of data, it has become cumbersome to keep backup of the data with different cloud providers. Syncing this data in real-time is another big challenge. We are going to make it very simple through SygiCloudSync.

3. Few others in the pipeline as well but in a very initial phase and it's too early to discuss them ● Can you please brief us about your professional experience?

Before starting Sygitech, I was Head of Technology with IndiaMART, where I turned around the whole technology platform to support the huge traffic growth and was rewarded many times. I was always enthusiastic about technology and IndiaMART recognized it awarding me with the Einstein award. Before IndiaMART, I worked with HCL Technologies, where I was instrumental in completing multiple successful projects. I was also a part of the Technology excellence group and in my 3.5 years of engagement with HCL, I won 7 rewards. ● What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?

Quick customer acquisition, least go-to-market time, Affordable services for all segments, and none of our customers left us since we became partners. and most importantly, my tech background which was initially a bottleneck in selling has now become my strength, since I can understand customer’s problems easily and provide quick solutions (because of tech experience).

32

MAY 2021

● How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?

Every person at Sygitech is considered a family member, which makes it easy to look after them. We not only cherish new challenges but also accept failures together. Freedom in work brings responsibility and accountability. The team is open to putting forward ideas and we consider everyone’s opinion during a fresh start. We work hard and play hard. ● Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight?

We worked with several clients and had a very different and special relationship with all of them. StarQuick (A TATA Enterprise), TickOps (a US-based client), Easypolicy, MilkBasket, and AuthBridge are a few of the many customers we have. ●

One person, who you admire the most?

I Admire Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam the most. ● Whose business story do you find the most inspiring?

There are many but just to name one Ankur Warikoo ● Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views.

Necessity is the mother of invention. But it’s best to keep a strategy ready for unprecedented circumstances. Try to think and design solutions that are simple but usable, for a large portion of the community ●

It’s a rat race out there. How do you cope with that?

Good competition fuels innovative ideas. Monopoly has not shown much improvement, be it eCommerce platforms, IT, medicine, technology, and the like. The idea is to work towards solving problems for a large community and bring healthy competition that would directly benefit the end-user.

Growth will follow.

4 Ways To Stream

mline Your Business

A

re you looking to streamline your business? This is something that business owners should continuously be looking to do as it can have such a positive impact on the daily operation and overall success of the company. Streamlining is not easy, though, and even small changes can be risky and create teething issues, especially if you have not made changes to the operation in a long time.

Therefore, it is helpful to be aware of the best ways to streamline your business that should deliver positive results immediately and help to boost your company and make work easier for your team.

Let’s go through some positive ways to streamline your business: 1. Discuss Problematic Areas With Staff When looking to streamline your business, you should always first pay attention to the problematic areas. You will never be able to improve without addressing these areas, so it is the best place to start. You should discuss with staff any bottlenecks and areas of their role that

they struggle with and also encourage them to come forward with ideas and solutions. Staff usually have the best ideas as they are the ones carrying out the tasks each day, plus this will also help them to feel valued.

2. Invest In Tech, IT & Equipment Tech, IT, and equipment are all areas that can have a huge impact on the daily operation. Many businesses are reluctant to invest in tech and IT areas because they can be expensive, but you need to view it as a long-term investment that should end up taking your business to new heights. Having the best and latest tech, IT, and equipment can make work much easier for your team, improve overall performance and help to modernize your operation.

3. Use Managed Print Services You should also use managed print services to ensure that your print equipment is optimized and will not let you down. Curious about what is managed print services? This is an agreement

between a company and a specialist-managed print provider that can include the supply of print equipment and any relevant supplies that you need, including toner. It can also include the ongoing maintenance and any repairs needed, which means that you should not encounter any printing issues – a great deal of frustration for many business owners.

4. Outsource You will also find that outsourcing different aspects of the business can help to streamline the operation, make work easier for your team, and scale the business. Outsourcing is cost-effective compared to hiring new staff, and you can get the work completed by a specialist. Plus, there are many different aspects of the business that you could outsource. A few common areas that are outsourced include: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Accounting HR Customer service Sales Admin

These are a few of the best ways that you can streamline your business operation, which could take your business to new heights while also making the day-to-day more efficient and easier for staff. Business owners should always be looking to streamline, but you also need to be careful because making changes to the operation will always bring risks, and you need to be prepared for teething issues.

Summing Up In order to maintain and then grow business, it is important to streamline your business first. As we know, business is the output of team efforts that leadership and staff puts in. So, inputs and suggestions of all members along with the correct technological decisions and advancements is necessary. The leadership must have vision to identify the problems and take correct course of action. If the leaders become successful in this, then there is no hurdle for growth of the respective businesses.

Interview with The Enterprise World

Marc Rippen | CEO | Alertgy

38

MAY 2021

Mr. Marc Rippen Improving the lives of diabetics through Alertgy

D

iabetes is a disease that affects thousands of people worldwide every year. At present, statistics related to diabetes are quite shocking – more than 1.5 million people die due to diabetes every year. Diabetes problem is seen in 9 percent of the youth worldwide. Most of these people suffer from type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Since many people are not fully aware of diabetes, this disease is increasing day by day.

The glucose level monitoring before and after meals makes diabetics’ lives crucial and it is hectic to check the glucose level frequently through traditional methods. Many times those methods provide false values that might affect the patients’ health.

In this context, to empower

diabetics and make their lives easier, Alertgy provides a noninvasive wearable continuous glucose monitor and alert system to measure true blood glucose.

Mr. Marc Rippen, CEO of Alertgy, and his team of experts at Alertgy are revolutionizing the health sector with their innovation and cutting-edge offerings.

In a conversation with Mr. Marc, he shared his views on the current industry scenario and what Alertgy is all about.

• Brief us about the company.

Alertgy provides the first noninvasive wearable continuous glucose monitor and alert system to measure the true blood glucose. It sets diabetics free from having to

think about taking glucose measurements by allowing for fully automated, continuous monitoring with pre-set alerts for low or high glucose levels, as set by the user.

The medical device and diagnostic industry are constantly growing and changing, with new technologies being introduced to the market all the time. We are entering a new era of medicine that will be significantly impacted by the incredible growth and breakthroughs in wearables, cloudbased IoT sensor systems, application of AI 10, and digital health. Our vision is to provide a product and service to save and improve the quality of life for diabetics and help those that are borderline diabetics from becoming diabetic.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 39

Interview with The Enterprise World • What were the initial challenges you faced?

Throughout the initial three years of development, there have been a few challenges we have faced and had to overcome. Initially, we had to determine the correct placement of our device to maximize our accuracy and reliability over a long-term period. After this was established, we have focused on sensor development to get the highest quality data and stability within our device. This is an everevolving process inside our research and development team, and we will continue to improve our device so we can deliver the highest quality product to our customers when we begin manufacturing.

• Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company?

The foundation of Alertgy was due to a tragedy, I found my wife nearly slipping into a diabetic coma and became unresponsive due to being in a prolonged low blood sugar state. After I was able to rehabilitate her, I took a stronghold of the situation and started Alertgy.

• How have the company graphs changed since the foundation?

Can you share a few statistics?

The company has grown to 12 fulltime and 6 part-time employees, hiring leading experts and talent from electrical, mechanical, and AI engineering along the way. We’ve

“

won numerous health tech awards, Medtech accelerator challenges, obtained our first US patent, and completed two proof-of-concept studies. We are in the process of raising $10M Series A funding for our first set of clinical trials.

• What is the reason behind your company’s long-standing success?

There are many reasons, including desire/readiness to shoot for the stars, entrepreneurial spirit, believing in the science behind our device, trust in our people to do their utmost, and providing a compelling story to our investors and prospects.

• What are the products the company focuses on?

Alertgy is a pioneer in 100% noninvasive continuous blood glucose monitoring technology. Through the use of its patented radiofrequency sensor Alertgy’s DeepGluco wearable device can accurately measure blood glucose in real-time, up to 3 times per minute. Most importantly, using our proprietary AI algorithm, DeepGluco can provide invaluable, up to the minute life-saving alerts to the users and their designated HCPs. Unlike other CGMs, we eliminate interstitial lag as well as painful and uncomfortable side effects of patches, needles, and implants associated with. The final DeepGluco form factor will be similar to modern smartwatches, available to consumers following

N E V E R

G I V E

U P

FDA approval.

• How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your products?

We base the next steps based on documented scientific research before we delve into possibilities of investing and building additional products and services.

• Is there any new addition to the list of products/services?

Anything exciting you would like to share?

Yes, we are currently funding research to determine the feasibility of using our patented sensor technology to detect virions like Covid-19 and others through the respiratory build-up.

• Can you please brief us about your professional experience?

I was a former army officer, and most recently the director of Engineering for the Marine and Space Technology Division of Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International. I hold degrees in microbiology, analytical chemistry, and aeronautics. I have always been involved in the development of technology to solve critical problems starting as a material engineer at Pratt & Whitney where I managed advanced research and development programs that supported the development of advanced materials for jet and rocket engines. I then transitioned to become a field engineer for

O N

S O M E T H I

leading atomic and molecular spectroscopy companies where I provided turnkey solutions to materials analysis for a broad variety of industries from agriculture to environmental to manufacturing to advanced research and development in leading research institutions. From there I became the director of the FIU College of Engineering NASA tech transfer center where I helped companies utilize NASA technologies in the commercial arena. In this role, I helped small businesses raise venture capital and pursue SBIR and STTR programs to fund the commercialization of their technologies. From there I co-founded an Internet Start-up company and raised 1 million dollars and eventually was able to take the company public in an acquisition. The combination of my education and experience allowed me the means to launch Alertgy and bring it to where it is today.

• What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?

Alertgy currently employs 12 fulltime and 6 part-time employees in a family-friendly, growth-focused environment. The management strives to provide a stimulating, entrepreneurial environment where employees are rewarded and enticed by a combination of competitive salaries, stock options, and benefits. The company has grown to 12 full-time and 6 parttime employees, hiring leading experts and talent from electrical, mechanical, and AI engineering

N G

T H A T

along the way. We’ve won numerous health tech awards, Medtech accelerator challenges, obtained our first US patent, and completed two proof-of-concept studies. We are in the process of raising $10M Series A funding for our first set of clinical trials.

• How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?

Being a tech start-up we understand that our people and their skills are the key ingredients on our journey and our future success. As such, we have a fairly informal set of corporate guidelines and encourage employees to share their ideas, thoughts, and input, no matter how trivial. We are lucky to have some of the best minds in the industry working at the company and pride ourselves on what we’ve been able to achieve in a short amount of time with our team. A cohesive team that moves as one is paramount to success. All our employees are incentivized with stock options/stock, as well as regular compensation.

• Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight?

• Whose business story do you find the most inspiring?

Richard Branson’s and Werner von Braun’s.

• Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views.

It’s a combination of both and they have to complement each other along the way. Without a wellthought out and developed strategy, constant vigilance is useless, and vice versa. Fail to plan, plan to fail.

• It’s a rat race out there. How do you cope with that?

We are still in the pre-clinical / prerevenue stage so at this time we don’t have special experiences.

• One person who you admire the most?

I have always enjoyed helping people overcome technical

R E A L L Y

problems, where I could apply my out-of-the-box thinking skills to creatively solve their challenges. I admire my father who inspired me to become an entrepreneur by successfully establishing a start-up in his late 50's. However, due to traumatic personal experiences—my father’s demise due to diabetes and my wife’s transition from gestational diabetes to Type2—ultimately pushed me towards the medical device industry. Consequently, to develop a non-intrusive blood sugar monitoring system to help diabetics, I established Alertgy in 2016.

We commit ourselves to work hard and playing hard. Having a balance, especially in a start-up with young staff, is important in keeping everyone committed yet relaxed and engaged to accomplish their respective tasks.

M A T T E R S

T O

Y O U .

www.theenterpriseworld.com 41 04

Interview with TEW

Founder & CEO CropIn

42

MAY 2021

Krishna Kumar

A leader revolutionizing Agriculture ecosystem through cutting-edge technology

C

ropIn is a leading global AI-driven AgTech organization that provides SaaS and data solutions to Agri-enterprises globally. CropIn enables enterprises and businesses in the agriculture ecosystem to adopt a data-driven, sustainable approach to functioning through its ground-to-cloud technology solutions.

CropIn’s unique suite of innovations enables various stakeholders to adopt and drive digital strategy across their crop value-chains and operations. The company empowers the Agri-enterprises with data insights that help drive initiatives around Digitization, Predictability, Traceability, Financial Inclusion, Climate Smart Agriculture, and Sustainability.

CropIn operates on a B2B model and caters to customer segments like seed production companies, farming companies, agri-input companies, governments, development agencies, CSR arms of private organizations, exporters, commodity traders, and the BFSI sector.

CropIn’s product offerings are crop- and location-agnostic, thus enabling high-speed and scalable technology implementations in the AgTech space on a global scale.

In a talk with Mr. Krishna Kumar, Founder, and CEO of CropIn, he shared his thoughts on the current industry scenario and how CropIn is transforming agriculture businesses.

• What were the initial challenges you faced?

CropIn was started in 2010, with a vision of maximizing per acre value and farmer livelihoods by harnessing the power of smart technology. In the AgTech space, we

identified there are quite a few challenges that needed to be addressed. The first is adaptability, specifically in India, because a majority of Agri enterprises who have already been working with conventional practices see any drastic change towards digitization with skepticism. Also, the common misconception that the use of the application is only to track them and evaluate their performance only adds to the challenge and distracts them from the bigger picture.

The second is mobility and literacy. Though mobile communication and broadband connectivity are at their best yet, there are limitations in its penetration of broadband in rural areas, and there is much to improve with regards to rural literacy. This subsequently affects our reach of expansion in working directly on-ground.

We realized that the existing solutions in the market are based on traditional or classical farming practices with a minimal and sometimes inefficient use of technology. The agribusiness sector is yet to adapt to advanced technologies to harness its true potential. There are information gaps at different levels of the agri-ecosystem, and the existing solutions do not eliminate this information asymmetry.

Many agribusinesses, on the other hand, are yet to let go of traditional practices and switch to more efficient use of advanced technology. Information gaps at different levels of the agri-ecosystem are also prevalent, and the existing solutions work only at certain levels of the ecosystem and do not connect the entire ecosystem. One of the important challenges we face today is ensuring farm-to-fork traceability of produce, especially when global markets are in question. Some of the major challenges that the small and marginal farmers face in the Agri sector include limited access to investment, inadequate technological

www.theenterpriseworld.com 43

Interview with TEW

interventions, lack of quality inputs, unorganized farming operations, and not enough integration with markets.

• How have the company graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics?

Since the inception of the company, we have catered to 225+ clients globally. CropIn has digitized over 13 million acres of farmland, enriched the lives of nearly 4 million farmers, and manages data of 388 crops and 9,400+ crop varieties. CropIn’s global footprint spans 56 countries across 5 continents. The company has seen significant growth over the last 2-3 years and the graph is only growing exponentially on a positive scale. The company was founded with an initial investment of around 7 lakh rupees, which was funded by friends and family. Today, CropIn has been able to raise a Series C funding of $20M recently, in these times of market uncertainty and financial crunch, being amidst a global crisis.

• What is the reason behind your company’s longstanding success?

CropIn’s consistent focus on making the solutions more diverse in their implementation, prioritizing client satisfaction through an in-depth understanding of each challenge faced, the ever-innovating attitude the product team carries, and our commitment to the vision set are broadly the reasons for the company’s long-standing success. We understand the market and hence make continuous innovation in our offerings, making our solutions adaptable. This builds trust in the solution and ultimately, in us.

CropIn caters not just to one industry vertical but to many segments. The product offered to each segment varies according to the requirement and the geography involved.

CropIn caters to various customer segments at different levels of the agro-ecosystem, such as seed production companies, agri-input companies, Government bodies, development agencies, exporters, commodity traders, and BFSI, thereby providing a platform that benefits all stakeholders.

CropIn’s superiority in providing world-class Agri-tech solutions has been validated by Indian and international challenges put forth by major enterprises like AWS Digital Innovation Challenge, Accenture Ventures Applied Intelligence Challenge, Ag-Tech Developer Challenge conducted by Rainforest Alliance, Artificial Intelligence Innovation Challenge organized by Govt. of Maharashtra and NITI Aayog (India), HDFC Bank Digital Innovation Summit, Artificial Intelligence Connect, Agrow Awards

44

MAY 2021

2018, London, UNDP’s Agorize Challenge for its Cultiv@te Program in the Philippines, World Bank's Innovation Challenge for Agriculture and Food Security Risk Financing in Southern Africa, among several others.

These add to the vast experience and success that the company has been associated with, ultimately building credibility.

• What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market?

CropIn’s data-driven farming solutions enable agrienterprises and growers to ‘maximize per-acre value’. Its farm data and agronomy management platform, SmartFarm, empowers stakeholders to improve efficiency, productivity, predictability, and sustainability of their crop value-chains.

SmartFarm enables agri-enterprises to adhere to food safety standards thereby ensuring farm-to-fork traceability. The platform helps growers adopt sustainable farming practices to build long-term economic viability and resiliency for local farming communities. CropIn has partnered with several global players in agriculture, including development finance institutions and government entities in 56 countries, to drive their digital and sustainability goals.

CropIn’s machine learning-based predictive analytics platform, SmartRisk, improves underwriting and risk assessment, enabling banks, insurance providers, and other financial institutions to make informed underwriting decisions, identify new markets and expand product portfolios to service high-volume low-ticket opportunities.

By analyzing and interpreting farm-centric data for over 388 crops with nearly 9,500 variants across trillions of data points that grow every day, SmartRisk helps achieve high prediction accuracy at a plot level. It does this by combining computer vision with deep-learning algorithms, on multispectral imagery derived from aerial scouting (satellites and drones), field scouting data, and hyperlocal weather.

Other Products: SmartWare: A comprehensive solution for packhouse, processing, and export companies that enables farm-to-fork traceability and compliance, quality control, and flexible inventory management.

AcreSquare: A unique farmer application that helps companies interact directly with their farmers, share content, educate them and provide consultation, thus enabling companies to extend the power of technology to their farmers and cultivate farmer loyalty.

ecosystem through partnerships with local companies through a channel partnership model.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.

And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.”

• Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share?

CropIn is currently working on developing a technological upgrade to SmartFarm, an integrable platform for all tech implementations in the farm controlled under a single interface. There are also consistent efforts being made to make our products implementable in external conditions and geographies where remote sensing can be challenging due to cloud cover.

Can you please brief us about your professional experience?

PlotRisk: An application that enables a farmer to remotely monitor his/her farm plot through satellite imagery and analyses every farm pixel to provide crop health, yield estimation, water stress, pest and disease predictions and other parameters at a plot level.

Competitive Advantage: CropIn’s innovations are crop and location-agnostic in nature. This makes them scalable, customizable, and integrable to the client’s requirements. The solutions act not only as problem solvers but also as knowledge repositories for the agribusinesses to be future-ready. The innovations are highly efficient given they are data-driven and built on a 0.3 trillion datasets-based algorithms. The testimonials and a retention rate of 92% speak for themselves about the reliability of the solutions designed by CropIn. • How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your products/services?

CropIn is always innovating towards addressing new and more complex challenges every day. We aim to expand our innovations into newer geographies, understand the regionspecific challenges and make our innovations adaptive to those conditions. The intent has been proactive and positive. CropIn is looking to explore the predictive and prescriptive analytics side of AI further and deeper than before. The company is working extensively towards building capacious AI innovations for addressing the newer challenges stemming in the world as we speak. CropIn is expanding its global presence further in the SEA region, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. This is being achieved by diversifying into newer customer segments such as Telecom, Machinery, Plantations, to name a few. The company looks to strengthen connectivity with the Agri

I hold a B.E degree in Instrumentation and Electronics Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum. I worked at GE for a brief period before cofounding CropIn in 2010 with Kunal Prasad. I played various roles during my stint at GE (Appliance, Industrial, and Energy) - As Graduate Engineer Trainee, Programmer, Senior Programmer, Information Management Leadership Program (Leadership Role) From launching a start-up with a vision to bring a datadriven approach to agriculture to creating an organization that has enriched the lives of nearly 4 million farmers, my entrepreneurial journey has been full of some amazing lessons that helped me learn and grow.

• Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company?

There were many critical decisions we took during our journey which helped CropIn to scale globally. Within 6-8 months of starting up, we realized the B2C model is not scalable and hence we moved to the B2B model. We took a platform approach - building crop and location-agnostic platforms which can scale quickly in any geography. We decided to scale globally and made necessary changes in our product to service global customers and meet their standards. We decided to invest in AI & Machine Learning technologies to advance the agriculture sciences using data and building on Agriculture knowledge graphs.

• What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?

I started CropIn with a vision to improve farmer livelihoods and increase per-acre value for smallholder farmers. The goal is today a reality with CropIn digitizing over 13

www.theenterpriseworld.com 45

Interview with TEW

million acres of farmland and positively impacting the lives of 4 million farmers worldwide.

CropIn was able to raise 3 successful rounds of Series funding from prestigious investors like ABC World Asia, CDC Group, Kris Gopalakrishna, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Strategic Funds, Chiratae Ventures a total of $33M so far.

Recently, we have received Series C funding despite such difficult times. This has been possible only through consistent performances in terms of business and innovation growth.

List of external awards won BusinessWorld’s 40 Under 40 Achiever 2018 Listed in the Top 25 Tech Entrepreneurs of 2019 by Entrepreneur India Magazine for innovation in harnessing technology for the greater good of the businesses.

Won the 2019 Indian Farm and Agriculture Technology Customer Value Leadership Award presented by Frost & Sullivan.

DFID UK Tech Rocketship Awardee: June 2018 - Awardee and Delegate at the International Business Festival London.

1. CropIn started from an office in Bengaluru to a fullfledged AI-based AgTech which has a presence now in Netherlands, Mumbai, and Delhi. Through the team's continuous efforts, CropIn today caters customizable AIand Data-led Agtech solutions to clients in 56 countries and has been able to identify more than 9,500+ crop varieties and work with 388 different types of crops. CropIn has become the partner of choice for 100+ enterprise clients globally. The company is now a 200+ strong family and has seen significant growth in the last 3 years.

The Innovation India forum awardee, supported by FICCI and Millennium Alliance

2. CropIn has been to establish elite partnerships with Governments around the world in working on agricultural development projects like the CCE Optimization Initiative carried out by the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY), the center’s flagship crop insurance program to name one. CropIn partnered with UNDP, World Bank, IFC on developmental projects that focus on sustainable agriculture and growth.

Speaker at Planet A International Agricultural Forum

3. Through the implementation of Cropin’s innovations, We have been able to contribute towards women and rural empowerment as well. The field facilitators for many projects where CropIn engineered the solutions have been rural women and these projects have opened opportunities for them to take up crucial responsibilities. Educating farmers on scientific methods of farming is another contributing factor towards a better tomorrow for their families.

4. CropIn has developed agri innovations that work on prescriptive analytics, remote sensing, and climate-sensitive advisory. SmartFarm, SmartRisk are great examples of the same. By harnessing the power of AI, CropIn has successfully been able to implement risk monitoring and mitigation, forecasting intelligence and traceability into farmlands and the results have been lucrative for agribusinesses, and Banking and Financial Services.

46

MAY 2021

Nominate as a non-official member of the National Startup Advisory Council, to build a strong ecosystem for start-ups in the country Speaker at the ‘Horasis India Meeting’ in Malaga, Spain, organized by the Government of Spain and the Confederation of Indian industry.

• Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight?

Back in 2010, during the earliest days of CropIn, the clients were a little skeptical about moving towards the digitalization of agricultural practices. We were one of the first to bring in an innovation that was data-driven in agriculture, the one which is a fusion of data, agronomy, traceability, and sustainability. But once they saw the wonders that the innovations started to bring in postimplementation, they were very helpful and they helped us connect with their peers, generating new leads and ultimately a growing clientele for us. The clients not just brought in business but also helped in the evolution of the product through agronomic inputs and voluntary support for the product. One of the special mentions would be to that client who helped in starting our international journey and funded my trip to the UK and Europe. The belief that our clients have in our products has today translated to the credibility we have in the AgTech space.

It’s a comprehensive orthopaedic super specialty hospital with all sub specialties of orthopaedic available under one roof Trauma Spine & Back Joint Replacement Hand and Limb Foot and Ankle Surgery Rheumatology & Arthritis Clinic Shoulder Arthroplasty Paediatric Orthopedics Orthopaedic Oncology

www.sanchetihospital.org

An Entrepren Starting A Limited

M

ost entrepreneurs prefer a limited liability company (LLC) because of its many favorable terms and conditions, including the protection it provides to members against legal and financial liabilities.

This means the personal assets of members of an LLC are protected from their company creditors.

If you’re thinking about starting your own LLC, this article would explain to your more about LLCs and walk you through the process of forming one.

What Is A Limited Liability Company?

A limited liability company has many similarities to a corporation, except the fact it offers its owners some personal protection from legal and financial liabilities.

LLCs also offer a wide range of advantages, including favorable taxation and management flexibility.

An LLC can act as a separate entity from its owners.

Therefore, it could sign documents, leases, bank accounts, and contracts in its own right. This means when an Limited Liability Company is sued, the owners are protected from it, so no member would be liable for the business’s obligations.

What Is The Process For Starting An LLC? If you’ve already decided and you’re now ready to form an LLC, follow this step-by-step guide. And surely, it’d make your journey a lot easier.

1. Select Your State

It’s always best to register your LLC in the state you intend to run your business. If the LLC is an extension of an existing company abroad, be sure to register it as a foreign LLC in each state you plan to operate.

Research about the advantages of the different states before you decide. It may be worth checking all the extra fees required for registration. Who knows, your decision could be based on the requirements of particular states.

2. Choose A Name The next step is the naming of your company. You have to choose a unique name that’s not been registered before. To be sure no one else is using the same name, you’d have to do a name search through online directories, county clerks, or the secretary of state’s office or website. Depending on your state, you could be allowed to reserve an Limited Liability Company name for a specified period while you’re handling the paperwork.

Generally, the following rules apply when naming your LLC: Your name has to include the phrase ‘limited liability company’ or the acronym ‘LLC.’ The name mustn’t be confused with a government department.

Restricted words or phrases may require a licensed person to be a member of your Limited Liability Company and some extra paperwork.

neur’s Guide To d Liability Company 3. Choose Your Registered Agent A registered agent is a person you authorize to handle all official communications on behalf of your LLC. Your registered agent must have a traceable physical address and be someone trustworthy and competent. LLCs would usually allow someone within the company to perform the duties required of a registered agent. But for official purposes, it’s always important to have a third-party registered agent.

4. File Your Articles Of Organization To officialize your LLC, you have to file some formation documents, particularly the articles of organization, with the authorities. Generally, states would require some information about your business. This shouldn’t be difficult if you’ve already thought about your business structure and plan. To help you understand what they mean, you may need an expert, like an attorney, to step in.

5. Get An Employer Identification Number The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires all businesses that employ people to have an identification number, known as the Employer Identification Number (EIN). This ninedigit number is used mainly for tax purposes. Therefore, ensure to apply for your EIN so your Limited Liability Company is IRS compliant.

6. Have An Operating Agreement An operating agreement is a legal document explicitly showing the roles of the members of your LLC. The

agreement should also outline the ownership structure of your company and include other information like members’ voting rights, powers of the members, and the distribution of profits and losses. The operating agreement is not compulsory in some states, but it has many benefits for your LLC. 7. Have A Business Checking Account If you want your LLC to operate effectively and aboveboard, you must keep business and personal matters separate. One way to ensure this separation is by having a business checking account. A business account is important if you’re to keep your personal and business finances clearly separate. In the case of a legal suit, your personal assets would be protected unless they were mixed up in the business assets.

The Bottom Line Once you’ve gone through all the processes of legalizing your LLC, you should be good to conduct your business.

However, it’s important to make sure you have an ideal location for your business and have registered with all the local authorities. Also, make it a point to accomplish all the necessary paperwork and ensure your data security is on point. If you need professional help during the process, never hesitate to seek advice.

Starting an LLC is fairly easy. But be sure to do your homework before you begin any process; otherwise, you’ve got this.