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Bhavin Turakhia: BigRock Founder to Set Name in The List of Youngest Indian Billionaires

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Websites have changed the shape of the digital world. However, to run the websites successfully domain as well as various hosting services are important. But most of the time small businesses find difficulties to get perfect hosting services. Presently, BigRock is one of the promising domains and website hosting service providers. In fact, its service is cost-effective and affordable to small businesses and personal bloggers. It is the Directi Group’s part which is founded by Bhavin Turakhia. 

What is BigRock?

It is an ICANN-accredited registrar. Also, an important segment of The Directi Group in domain services. BigRock is well-known for its competitive rates. In fact, those rates are almost 80% less than other such service providers. 

BigRock offers miscellaneous service with several domain plans. In addition, it ensures world-class services to assist businesses to reach the next level. 

At BigRock, a wide range of web services are offered. It includes domain name registration and hosting services. Especially, Website, email, and VPS hosting. Also, it offers many other value-added services. Includes, DNS management, WHOIS, and premium domain sales. 

Services Offered

Bhavin Turakhia

Bhavin is well-known as a serial entrepreneur for his miscellaneous start-ups. He is the CEO, Chairman and lastly the Founder of Directi Group. Similarly, he holds the same position at BigRock and the other two companies which are part of the Directi Group. These are known as ResellerClub and LogicBoxes. At a young age, he received many awards. Also, Bhavin marked his name in the list of Indian Billionaire. 

After serving as a Chairperson at ICANN, he became the youngest elected person to achieve the post. Here is a glimpse of the life and journey of Bhavin Turakhia.

Early life and Education

He is born on 21st December 1979 in Bombay. However, he went to Bandra’s Arya Vidya Mandir for schooling. At a very young age, he developed an interest in computers and programming. That time, he was used to teaching programming to his teacher and his friends. After that, he attended DG Ruparel college for graduation in science. But later he dropout and joined Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics.

Career

Bhavin Turakhia is a born entrepreneur. When he was 18, he set up Directi, his first tech company. That time, his brother Divyank Turakhia assisted him. Soon, he started other website ventures. Includes, BigRock, ResellerClub, Webhosting.info, and LogicBoxes. Later, these companies are sold for big money, almost 160 Million dollars. Currently, he handles the companies Flock Ringo and Radix. Also, he started a fintech company called Zeta in 2019.

Awards and Recognition

In 2016, he ranked 95th in Forbes India list of 100 richest people in India. Also, in the same year, he named Serial Entrepreneur of the year. As well, Entrepreneur of the year in innovation and Technology. Additionally, Economics Time awarded him as ETPanache Trendsetter Award in 2016. 

He also renown as Young Global Leader in 2011 by WEF in Geneva. In 2005, the Bharati Foundation and Entrepreneurship development institute of India presented him Bharti Entrepreneur of the year award. Bhavin is also serving as Chairperson of the ICANN. However, he set the record of becoming the youngest elected chairperson at ICANN.

Other Work

Other than this, he attends various seminars as a guest speaker. As well, Bhavin also assists local CyberCrime Investigation Cell as a technical advisor. In addition, he launched CodeChef. It is the platform for coding competitions. 

Bottom Line

Bhavin and his brothers set the tech venture at a young age, which is now flourished impeccably. Today, Directi and its other segments including BigRock are leading web service providers. In fact, the Directi groups have grown their customer base in more than 230 countries. However, it is valued more than 300 Million USD at present.

Schbang

SCHBANG- INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS UNDER ONE ROOF

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A company needs a variety of marketing resources for its proper functioning. Designing a proper website, frontend development, creating a mobile application, etc are the basic requirements of any company. From an apparel company to a software company, a strong technical back-up is always on demand.

Most of the companies tend to hire freelancers and assign projects. But, a separate team is needed to supervise the tasks as well. So, what can be the best solution than getting everything done under the same roof? Schbang, a Mumbai-based technical agency is providing marketing solutions for a wide range of audiences.

Harshil Karia, Sohil Karia, and Akshay Gurnani established the company in 2015. Since then the company is trying to provide the best advertising solutions to its customers.

About the Founders

After graduating from high school, Harshil went to the University of Mumbai. He studied advertising, media, and marketing and graduated in 2008. In 2009, he went to the University of Toronto to learn more about finance.

During his bachelor’s degree, Harshil was an intern at Dentsu Marcomm Pvt. Ltd as a trainee copywriter. In January 2007, he started a job at LifeStyle Networks Ltd as a marketing executive. He continued for six months and shifted to WATConsult in November 2007. In 2008, Harshil co-founded FoxyMoron, a digital agency. He co-founded Schbang in 2015 and currently serves as the managing director of the company. He is also the CEO of Proof Analytics.

Sohil went to Greenlawns School, Worli and then completed his bachelor’s in commerce from Podar College of Commerce and Economics. In May 2010, Sohil joined FoxyMoron as a junior visualizer and finally became the senior art director before leaving the company. After co-founding Schbang, he became the chief design and technology director.

Akshay went to the same school as Sohil and completed his higher studies from H. R. College of Commerce and Economics. In June 2010, he started a job at TresVista Financial Services as a financial analyst. He worked at FoxyMoron for four years and currently serves as the CEO of Schbang. All three co-founders decided to start their journey while working for FoxyMoron.

The Decision

The trio started planning the layout of their future business before resigning from FoxyMoron. But, when Harshil stepped down it was a shock to the world because till then media had no information about Schbang. Harshil also said that they chose not to involve media and it is the reason they became successful in launching the product.

Everything is Planned

Resigning from FoxyMoron wasn’t an impulsive decision for any of them. Because they planned and strategized for eight long months before launching Schbang. So, when they founded the company it already had sixty good numbers of employees. The main office was established in Mumbai. And, apart from that they also had an office on Delhi.

When Schbang was launched, it already landed many lucrative clients like BBlunt, Good Knight, FirstyCry.com, Sequoia Capital, and many more. When Harshil was asked why they kept themselves shrouded, he said they were busy creating partnerships with big companies. This proves that Harshil is good at marketing and strategizing.

Passion

The co-founders try to create a very positive working environment with brimming passion. The founders are also deeply indulged in spreading social awareness in any kind of necessary situation. It also promises good quality product which is budget-friendly as well.

The Journey of Four Years

Within the span of four years, the Schbang community size has expanded both in terms of customers and employees as well. Currently, some of the top-most clients of Schbang are Baskin Robbins, Mattel, Castrol, etc.

One can provide better solutions for their customers when they understand them well. This is one of the main strategies rather fundamental rules of Schbang. Since the entire business depends on better marketing on behalf of their customers; they try to maintain a very friendly relationship.

Apart from keeping its customers close, Schbang prioritizes technology. Because let’s just admit what’s more important to a company than tech when it is providing IT solutions. The two main targets of Schbang for the year 2020 are growing to a family with more than 500 members and hitting a net revenue of 100 crores.

Freshworks

The Indian Co-Founders Took Freshworks To A Whole New Level

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Indian engineers have their demand all over the world. Both the quality and quantity of engineers our country produces every year contributes to a massive part in overall development. And, among all fields, the demands of IT people are at peak. With the new start-ups in any sector, engineers are required very much. The story of Freshworks narrates the tale of two Indian engineers and how they established a company. Freshworks is a software company based in the United States. Founded in 2010, the company got into the uniform club in 2018. Girish Mathrubootham and Shan Krishnasamy founded the company in 2010 as Freshdesk.

About the Founders

Girish graduated from high school in 1990. He went to Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy and studied Electrical & Electronics. He graduated in 1996 and then went to the University of Madras for pursuing his MBA.

His first job was in HCL Cisco ODC as technical staff and he worked there for a year. In 2000, he joined eForce Inc as a senior software engineer. He also worked at AdventNet as a product manager. Before co-founding Freshworks, Girish was the Vice President of product management at Zoho Corporation.

Shan studied mechanical engineering from Vellore. He graduated in 2001 and joined Zoho right away. He worked there for nine long years and then co-founded Freshworks with Girish.

Founding a new company

Girish hovered here and there a few times before establishing Freshworks. Before joining HCL he also taught Java and wanted to open a training institute. But, the idea wasn’t productive for a long time because one time he had plenty of students and next to the moment he had to convince people to learn it.

In 2010, after Girish returned from the U.S. he suffered some trouble with a company. The customer service of the company was poor and he got frustrated by it. This is when he realized that a proper helpdesk still has a lot of potentials. So, with his prior knowledge from working at Zoho, Girish decided to build his own company.

But, he needed a co-founder at the same time. This is when he contacted Shan who is a good friend of him. As he agreed instantaneously, the duo started planning for the company. But, both of them were married and had a family. It’s a huge risk to quit your well-paid job when you have to take care of your family. But, they finally went with their guts and made Freshworks a grand success.

The Beginning

Girish didn’t have good exposure to the business world. So, finding big venture capitalists was a hard task. He started landing investors after his blog on the Freshworks start-up story went viral. The blog was such a big hit that customers started signing up before the actual product was ready for launch. Anand Daniel offered Freshworks a helping hand during this time and finally, the company launched its product.

Surprisingly, the company landed its first customer from Australia. And, the following six customers were also from different countries making it an international company from day one. Many customers signed-up just after trying the trial version.

Funding and Acquisition

When the company was founded, it had six team members. With no outside funding, the team spent $160 each month as rent for their new office. Girish didn’t take any salary back then.

In 2011, Freshworks won $40,000 from the Microsoft BizSpark contest. Since it was a new company then, contests like this helped in gaining exposure followed by good funding. In the same year, the company raised one million from Accel Partners. After from Accel, Freshworks also has investors like Tiger Capital and Sequoia Capital.

In 2018, Freshworks raised $150 million in the Series H funding round. The main investors were Sequoia Capital, CapitalG and Accel. This year, the company received the unicorn tag and it became the third Indian company to receive the same in 2018. After the Series H funding, the company’s total valuation became $1.5 billion.

Success

The main products of Freshworks include Freshdesk, Freshcaller, Freshsales, etc. The company has over 250,000 customers to date. Freshworks made a profit of 21 crores in the financial year 2018. It has also acquired companies like Natero and CanvasFlip.

razorpay logo

Razorpay- A Company Leading In The New Digital Payment System

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With the developing tech ecosystem in India, competitors are also increasing in the market. Previously, very few people had the guts to take a risk and do something unconventional. But, once a company achieves success, competitors keep on increasing because everyone wants to follow what’s trending. With the developing tech ecosystem in India, competitors are also increasing in the market. Previously, very few people had the guts to take a risk and do something unconventional. But, once a company achieves success, competitors keep on increasing because everyone wants to follow what’s trending. Similarly, only a few years ago who would have thought about money transfer with a swipe of fingers. But, now so many companies are trying to establish easy and secure online money transfer facilities. Razorpay, a company founded in May 2014 and promises a secure, developer-friendly payment system for every Indian user. The platform can access any kind of payment method through Razorpay which includes net banking, debit card, credit card, and also wallets like Ola Money, Airtel Money, etc.

About the Founder

Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur are the founders of Razorpay. Shashank did his schooling from St. Xavier’s High School, Patna. He went to IIT Roorkee and completed his bachelor’s in Computer Science and was also a part of Y Combinator 2015.

While his time at IIT, Shashank worked as the summer intern at the University of Minnesota and also at Microsoft during the next summer. He joined SDSLabs and worked there as the Vice President for one year. Before founding Razorpay, Shashank worked at Microsoft as a software development engineer.

Harshil also went to IIT Roorkee and was an employee at SDSLabs. He also worked at Schlumberger as Wireline Field Engineer for nine months. Currently, Harshil serves as the CEO of the company, Razorpay.

The Initial Stage Of Razorpay

The start-up started through the Y Combinator program and initial it raised $2.5 million in the seed funding round. The seed funding round was led by Matrix Partners along with other investors which includes Jeff Huber, Justin Kan, etc. In 2015, the company raised another $9 million from the funding round led by Tiger Global.

The founders started the company in Jaipur and in 2015 they shifted the headquarters to Bengaluru. The company had a fifteen-member team by this time. The money that was raised in this round was planned to invest in exploring other segments of the payment industry and building other products.

Baby Steps

When Shashank and Harshil co-founded Razorpay, a lot of competitors were already present in the market. So, they set small goals and gradually expanded the company. The best thing about using Razorpay is the user can carry out a transaction using the 2G net. So, within a couple of years after founding Razorpay, the users witnessed a 30% higher success rate. By the end of 2015, 1,800 merchants were using the platform of Razorpay.

Many start-ups also started using Razorpay as their primary money transaction platform. The start-ups include Lookup, LocalOye, NeoStencil, and many more.

Getting Bigger

In 2016, Mobikwik came into a partnership with Razorpay. This gave Razorpay access to Mobikwik’s Power Wallet API and the success rate increased. By this time, Razorpay did business with 3,000 merchants and they were expecting 1,000 more by the end of the year. After the partnership with Mobikwik, the business deals of Razorpay increased geometrically.

The code of conduct

Shashank said that his time in Microsoft taught him the quality of leadership. The one thing and the founding rule of Razorpay are that be honest with your clients. Shashank follows it strictly and he expects every employee of his office to maintain this standard.

Success

In 2018, Razorpay raised $20 million from Tiger Global and Matrix Partners. In 2017, Razorpay came into a joint partnership with Telegram for chatbot payments. This Company came up with its advanced version of Razorpay 2.0 during this time.

In 2019, the company raised $75 million from the funding round led by Ribbit Capital. After this round of funding, the company raised a total funding of $450 million. They have also declared that the new funding will be invested in new sectors of the company. Currently, they are focusing on the neobanking platform Razorpay X and its lending arm Rayzorpay Capital. This strategy is a part of Rayzorpay 2.0.

Zoomcar

The American Duo Launches Zoomcar i.e A Self-Drive Car Rental Start-Up In India

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American start-up culture is more developed than the Indian start-up culture. Recently India is making big news on this ground. But, the start-up ecosystem has not been this strong in our nation since the beginning. It took years for entrepreneurs and visionaries to establish a rigid concept of start-ups in India and eradicate the orthodoxy.

Since India is just at a budding stage for young entrepreneurs to shine, the potential is extremely high. So many business ideas and resources are left unturned. But, a perfect business mind always finds a path to achieve the goal.

The unexplored market of India attracted the American duo to our nation and establish a start-up. Greg Moran and David Back were fascinated by the potential business market in the field of transportation in India. They decided to open a business for car rentals and kudos they made it. They founded Zoomcar in February 2013 through the market research that was going for a long time.

About the Founders of Zoomcar

Greg Moran went to the University of Pennsylvania and acquired his bachelor’s degree in international relations. During his time at this university, he worked as a summer associate in Cerberus Capital Management. After graduating, he joined Fieldstone Capital Private Group as an analyst and worked there for almost two years.

Before pursuing his master’s he worked at International Power America for a year. In 2011, he joined USC Marshall School of Business for acquiring his MBA. Greg worked as FloDesign Wind Turbine as a summer associate in 2012. While pursuing his MBA, he developed a very keen interest in the market of India. Hence, one fine day he decides to fly to India with David and plan a business.

David has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania. He also went to Harvard Law School and he completed his MBA from Cambridge University. In 2006, he worked as a summer research intern at the American Enterprise Institute. He also has teaching experience at the University of Pennsylvania.

David also has working experience at McKinsey & Company and Goldman Sachs. He resigned from Zoomcar in 2015 and joined Idein Ventures as an entrepreneur in residence. He was a speaker at The London Speaker Bureau for four years and in 2019 he became the managing partner of Icarus Ventures.

The Beginning

Intrigued by the potential of the Indian market, Greg, one day decided to take a vacation and explore business opportunities. David accompanied him. It seems Greg saw a huge scope in the car rental sector and started planning seriously about it. The duo was in a dilemma between the transportation business and renewable energy space but decided to pick the former one.

Honestly, the obstacles were immeasurable. They faced a lot of problems initially which included getting a license in the first place. Greg received the seed funding, everything was ready but at the eleventh hour, they weren’t given the permission to have a license. It was a do or die situation for them, but they managed to sign in a deal with someone already having a license. The entire procedure wasn’t a piece of cake but the business kicked off really well.

Investors and Partnerships

The initial investors of Zoomcar include Lawrence Summers, Lady Barbara Judge, William P. Alford, and many more. Some famous companies Zoomcar raised funding from are Mahindra&Mahindra, Ford Motor Company, Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners, Funders Club, Athene Capital, and etc. To date, Zoomcar has raised total funding of 673 crores.

Throughout this journey of seven years, Zoomcar has established a firm relationship with Mahindra and Ford. Zoomcar in association with Uber has also launched some campaign increasing driving awareness among the public.

Success

Both David and Greg had to overcome a lot of struggles to make Zoomcar a huge success. Firstly, it was a big challenge to make people believe that they were serious about the start-up. Because most of them thought it was just a plan which will never come into play. And, licensing was another nightmare for the company.

But, Zoomcar currently witnesses over 5,000 bookings per day. Their next target is to make 8,000 cars on the road turn to 25,000 cars on the road.

Both the co-founders think that users will increase at a rate more than twice in the following years. Because a good part of India’s population consists of adults aging between 25-30 who believe more in experimenting than having an asset. So, anytime they will pick a car rental service rather than buying one.

vedantu-logo

Vedantu: An Online Learning Platform Created by IITians for Changing Education System

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We have noticed significant changes in many things throughout the 21st century and so, in the Education system. In fact, it is a need of the present era to change the way of education with a changing world. Also, 21st-century schools need an education system that maintains and cultivate the interest of students. It is the need to show them how to apply knowledge in the real world. Here comes the role of the ed-tech industry. Vedantu is a well-known ed-tech startup. It is set up by four entrepreneurs & IIT Students.

Vedantu- An Ultimate Ed-tech platform

It is an online platform dedicated to live coaching. Basically, it offers live coaching classes for 6 to 12 students. Also, a dedicated platform for the training of several exams like IIT foundation. In addition, online teaching sessions are available for exams like JEE, IMO NTSE, as well as many other entrance exams. To support the 21st century’s education system, it enabled online learning between pupils and educators. In fact, it uses advanced technology for an excellent experience. Also, students can select the tutors of their choice.

Backstory

In 2006, Vasmi Krishna set up Lakshya with his other three IITian friends Pulkit, Saurabh, and Anand. The main purpose of the company to train students for different tests. That time, they noticed that the Indian education system needs talented and motivated teachers. So, they create such a platform with the help of Lakshaya. In 2012, their first start-up that lately handover to MTEducare. After that, they set up another ed-tech start-up called Vedantu and launched for the public in 2014. Today, Vedantu has the vision to improve the education system with its superior online ed-tech platform. 

Founders of Vedantu

Vedantu Founders
Image Source : Google Images

Vamsi Krishna

He is the present CEO of Vedantu. However, he is well-known as a Tech Enthusiast, Edupreneur, and a Tutor. Before founding Vedantu, he also co-founded Lakshya with his college mates. They all have a teaching experience of over 13 years. Also, he served as a Management trainee at L&T for about one year. 

Vasmi Krishna earned his degree in B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Also, he went to St Pauls Senior Secondary School at Indore.

Pulkit Jain

He is another co-founder of well-known Ed-tech start-ups Vedantu and Lakshya. Before joining that, he served at EvalueServe until 2006. Pulkit is also an IITian who graduated from IIT Roorkee. From the beginning, he is extremely passionate about entrepreneurship. Now, he is an inspiration for many young entrepreneurs for his entrepreneurial journey. 

Anand Prakash

He has studied Pulp and Paper Technology from IIT, Roorkee. Also, he studied primary education at Delhi Public School. 

Anand also helped in the establishment of Vedantu and Lakshya. Presently, he is an account academic head at Vedantu. Earlier, he was Manager at Abhishek Industries.

Saurabh Saxena

Another milestone of Vedantu, Mr. Saurabh Saxena. He has studied Chemical engineering from IIT Roorkee. He also helped in the foundation of Vedantu in 2014. Apart from that, he co-founded many such Ed-tech start-ups. Presently, he is the founder and CEO of Uable, an ed-tech company that changed the learning experience. Also, he is the director of Ekya Schools.

Triumph of Vedantu

In 2016, Vedantu won the DNA Innovative Education Award for the Best Organization to Develop Technology for Education. Also, in the same year, it won KINSES2016 EduAwards. In addition, Vedantu was among the 100 startups by SutraHR. 

In 2015, it was the Online Education Start-up of the year. Also, the Praxis media awarded Vedantu as the ‘Most Promising and Innovative Live Online Tutoring Platform in India’. 

Current Achievements

Over the years, Vedantu trained more than 10K students. Also, it launched many scalable web products that reached millions of users. Presently, it is aiming to make the Vedantu platform more student eccentric.