Teachmint partners with Kuala Lumpur-based edtech Pandai to

 Teachmint partners with Kuala Lumpur-based edtech Pandai to
power live classes for over 5 million students in Malaysia

• This comes at the heels of Teachmint’s partnership with Bangladesh-based edtech Shikho last month
• With their Video-as-a-Service offering, Teachmint plans on partnering with edtech startups globally to enable them with Teachmint’s state of the art live class technology

Teachmint, an education infrastructure provider and India’s largest teaching platform, and Pandai, a Malaysian edtech startup, today announced a partnership to deliver classroom solutions to 5 mn+ students in Malaysia through Teachmint’s live class technology. This partnership comes as a part of Teachmint’s Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) offering for edtech organizations across the globe to enable them with their proprietary, state-of-the-art plug and play live class solutions.

With this, Teachmint solidifies its expansion into Asia, having also recently partnered with Dhaka-based edtech startup Shikho to power live classes for millions of students in Bangladesh.

Teachmint is a mobile and video-first teaching platform which has helped over 1.5 million teachers in India to digitize their classrooms. Their proprietary video technology, built entirely in-house, is highly optimized for low bandwidth use and distinctly customised for educators with features like live classes, recording and storing lectures, automated attendance, polls, etc.

Teachmint is building the infrastructure for education globally and their VaaS offering is specifically enabling edtech organizations to deliver a distinctive online learning experience to their students. The offering is also significantly reducing go-to-market time for edtech players by providing them ready-to-launch classroom solutions.

Announcing this partnership, Mihir Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, Teachmint, said, “With our proprietary classroom technology, we want to power the edtech economy across the world by partnering with startups that are solving unique, scalable problems in their respective geographies. Pandai has made great strides in creating a holistic learning ecosystem with a deep focus on quality content in Malaysia and we are delighted to partner with them in their journey.

Today, Teachmint is the only player catering to end-to-end infrastructure needs - from independent teachers to even edtech players. We have created a new category within edtech that is focused on building the core infrastructure of online teaching itself. Our LIVE class platform is functioning at an unprecedented scale with over 10 million users adopting our platform in just over 15 months since inception. With our international partnerships, we want to revolutionize digital education across the globe and help education providers and learners truly reap its benefits.”

Also founded in 2020, Pandai is a learning app which focuses on K-12 learning and assessment to help school students perform better in school. Through Pandai, students learn using gamified quizzes which are aligned to the curriculum, and receive personalised analysis using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms that allows them to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

Backed by Y Combinator, Pandai currently has more than 300,000 registered users in the Malaysian market alone. Dedicated functions for Parents and Teachers are also integrated to monitor and support students’ progress.

According to Khairul Anwar Mohamad Zaki, Co-founder & CEO of Pandai, “By integrating the Teachmint platform into the Pandai ecosystem, we are creating a more comprehensive offering for our growing customer base."

"At the moment, our users are already completing more than 1,000,000 questions per month on Pandai, on top of other activities that they can do in the Pandai app. This partnership is a step towards our eventual goal of creating an education super app for the Malaysian market, and significantly transforming the learning outcomes of students.”

Josh wraps up #EkNumber challenge with thunderous response

 Josh wraps up #EkNumber challenge with thunderous response, 

garners over 3 billion views

~Marks first anniversary celebrations by unveiling Josh All Stars, India’s first and the largest creator training academy~

India’s fastest growing and most-engaged short-video app, Josh has turned one and celebrates an extraordinary year by concluding the #EkNumber challenge on a high note. Paying forward all the love and support Josh received in its first year, the leading short-video app marks its first birthday with the announcement of winners of the #EkNumber challenge, that served as a launch pad for creators to enrol themselves in the Josh All Stars training academy. ‘Josh All Stars’, newly launched by Josh is India’s largest and first-ever formal training academy for short-video creators.            

Josh #EkNumber challenge has recently concluded as one of the biggest and most engaged challenges on the app, clocking over 112K videos, 242M hearts and 3B views. As a part of this challenge, creators were invited to showcase their creativity by submitting video entries across five categories namely, food, fashion, fitness, dance and comedy, spearheaded by experts like Sonu Sood and Mouni Roy, who were also joined by celebrities like KPY Bala, Kings United Suresh and Ruhi Singh. The top 120 creators who posted stellar content coupled with a virality quotient were declared winners and awarded a sum of up to INR 50,000 each with a never before opportunity to get enrolled into the ‘Josh All Stars’ program. Winners will also get an opportunity to be part of a meet-and-greet with celebs and role models and be mentored by them.

Josh All Stars aims to produce India’s next 10000 stars by identifying, grooming and mentoring creators in understanding the A-Z of content creation across categories. Envisioned as a six-weeks program, each set of creators will go through levels of personalised grooming, expert guidance and extensive promotions before landing up at the third level where they get a chance to be mentored by a group of renowned industry experts known as ‘Agents of Josh’. Agents of Josh would then closely mentor the creators in eight different content categories that include music, dance, fashion, food, skits and comedy and will promote the top ones to the next level. The top content creators from each category will get a chance to become a part of Josh IPs like Josh CreatorThon, Josh World Famous and other upcoming campaigns. 

Sunder Venketraman, Head of Creator and Content Ecosystem, Josh said, “We are thrilled by the response and superlative attention received for #EkNumber, thus making it the biggest and most engaged challenge ever hosted on the Josh app. At Josh, we always look at exploring new possibilities to redefine the space of content creation and bring the best of experience to our creators and users. We wish our winners the best in their journey and promise to introduce more such exciting opportunities and challenges on the platform.”

Calling out to aspiring young stars, Seher Bedi, Head of Josh Studios said, “We brought the Josh All Stars to life with an aim to build a community that celebrates all forms of content and gives flight to youngsters with talent and ambition, through collaborative efforts. With the help of our experts, we look forward to mentor and groom the next 10000 stars in India, for India.”

Paytm is India’s largest payments platforms in terms of

 Paytm is India’s largest payments platforms in terms of consumers, merchants, transactions and revenue

 

India’s leading digital payments and financial services platform Paytm filed its DRHP on 15^th July 21 which gives an insight into the numbers which make the company India’s largest internet ecosystem.

The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company is headed for India’s largest IPO worth $2.2 billion.

Here’s how Paytm has grown over the years

Today, Paytm has over 333 million consumers and 21 million merchants.The company is building India’s largest internet ecosystem that expands beyond payments. In fact, Paytm has become synonymous with all things digital for the Indian consumer.

Here are the numbers from its DRHP which prove the same.

-       Paytm is the largest payment gateway aggregator in India based on total transactions, for the fiscal year ended March 31,

     2021, with the widest ecosystem of payment instruments

-       Paytm is leading the market on both sides of the segment — customers and merchants.

-       Paytm recorded 5.9 billion merchant transactions in FY 2021.

-       According to RedSeer, the company has the largest payments platform in India with a GMV of ₹4,033 billion in FY 2021.

-       As per the company’s DRHP, in consumer to merchant transactions Paytm has a 40% market share, whereas in consumer to

     merchant wallet transactions, Paytm has a 65-70% market share.

-      Starting with bill payments and mobile top-ups as the first use cases, and Paytm Wallet as the first Paytm Payment Instrument,

    the company has built the largest payments platform in India based on the number of consumers, number of merchants,

    number of transactions and revenue as of March 31, 2021 according to RedSeer.

-       As per the Kantar BrandZ India 2020 Report, the "Paytm" brand is India's most valuable payments brand, with a brand value of 

     US$ 6.3 billion.

-     Paytm has the largest payments merchant and consumer base in India, according to RedSeer, which lets the company leverage

    the power of both the consumer and merchant side on the payment network, and which the company believes will be a major

    driver of its digital lending products.

-   The company said in its DRHP, “We have the most comprehensive suite of payment services for both consumers and

    merchants, according to RedSeer, which enables merchants to make and receive payments in a convenient, seamless and

    secure manner, online and in-store”.

-    During FY 2020, Paytm sold movie tickets across 5,700 screens and was the second largest booking platform in India, in terms

   of movie tickets sold, according to RedSeer.

-    Paytm Payments Bank has the largest scale among all licensed Payments Banks in India, according to RedSeer, in terms of

    mobile transactions.

-       Paytm Payments Bank is the largest issuer of FASTags in India, according to RedSeer

-       Paytm Payments Bank is also the largest Electronic Toll Collection (“ETC”) acquirer bank for FASTags, according to RedSeer.

 

Flipkart raises US $3.6 bn in funding

 Flipkart raises US $3.6 bn in funding

to accelerate the growth of the consumer internet ecosystem in India

Investment values the Group at US $37.6 billion

 Investors include reputed sovereign wealth and pension funds,

and global private equity and hedge funds 

The Flipkart Group, India’s homegrown consumer internet ecosystem, today announced that it has raised US $3.6 billion in funding as it continues to grow and advance the digital commerce ecosystem in India. The fundraise demonstrated significant interest from global investors, including sovereign funds, private equity and crossovers in addition to Walmart. This round of funding was led by financial investors GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), SoftBank Vision Fund 2* and Walmart, along with investments from sovereign funds DisruptAD, Qatar Investment Authority, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, and marquee investors Tencent, Willoughby Capital, Antara Capital, Franklin Templeton and Tiger Global. The investment values the Group at US $37.6 billion post-money.

Speaking on the development, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Chief Executive Officer, Flipkart Group, said, “At Flipkart, we are committed to transforming the consumer internet ecosystem in India and providing consumers access and value. This investment by leading global investors reflects the promise of digital commerce in India and their belief in Flipkart’s capabilities to maximise this potential for all stakeholders. As we serve our consumers, we will focus on accelerating growth for millions of small and medium Indian businesses, including kiranas. We will continue to invest in new categories and leverage made-in-India technology to transform consumer experiences and develop a world-class supply chain.”

This investment reflects global investor confidence in digital commerce in India, which has continued to accelerate over the last year when access to products safely and convenience took priority. With this development, Flipkart will continue to make deeper investments across people, technology, supply chain and infrastructure to address the requirements of a rapidly growing consumer base in India. A key focus area for the Group is to help informal commerce segments leverage the power of technology. As one of the leaders in the fashion segment, this means working with the fashion industry and helping small businesses explore untapped opportunities that technology presents. Through its expanding grocery and last-mile delivery programs, the Group will also work with kiranas to help them digitize and grow.

“One of the key investment themes for CPP Investments has been Asia’s domestic consumption. We believe India will be a leading source of global growth in the decades ahead, supported by positive demographics, a growing middle class and deepening Internet penetration,” said Agus Tandiono, Managing Director, Head of Fundamental Equities Asia, CPP Investments. “This investment in Flipkart builds on our program to provide long-term capital to industry leaders. We look forward to supporting Flipkart’s efforts in growing India’s e-commerce market.”

“SoftBank’s re-investment in Flipkart is driven by our experience with and conviction in the company’s management team to continue addressing the needs of the Indian consumer in the decades to come,” Lydia Jett, Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers, said. “From our platform as one of the largest Asian eCommerce investors, SoftBank has a broad lens on the fundamental trends shaping digital commerce in the region. The opportunity to meet consumer demand for high-quality selection at low prices and a young population make online consumption critical to India’s quest for the ‘$5 trillion economy’ that Flipkart’s growth story has been enabling,” Jett added.

“Flipkart is a great business whose growth and potential mirrors that of India as a whole — that’s why we invested in 2018 and why we continue to invest today,” said Judith McKenna, President and CEO – Walmart International. “Kalyan and the team have put the Indian customer at the center of everything and they have continued to innovate in the categories and services Indian customers want most, creating new jobs and growth opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs and small businesses alongside them. The quality of the investor group and valuation announced today is further confirmation of global confidence in Flipkart and its mission to transform commerce in India.”

Sukumar Rajah, Director of Portfolio Management, Franklin Templeton Emerging Markets Equity, said, “We are optimistic about the growth prospects of e-commerce and digitalization in India and believe Flipkart is well-positioned to benefit from this growth.”

With more than 350 million registered users from across the country, Flipkart has been investing in key categories, including fashion, travel and grocery, that reflect India’s maturing digital commerce industry. Myntra, the Group’s fashion entity, is among the leaders in the category, with a wide consumer base offering the most comprehensive and latest collections in fashion. Flipkart’s logistics and supply chain arm, Ekart, employs more than 100,000 people and makes deliveries to more than 90% of the addressable pin-codes in India, which, coupled with strategic warehouse infrastructure investments, is one of the group’s core strengths. Venturing into the social commerce space, Flipkart recently announced the launch of Shopsy, which will encourage local entrepreneurship.

More than 300,000 registered sellers from across the country are on Flipkart’s marketplace, and 60% are from tier 2 cities and beyond. Flipkart also works with more than 1.6 million kiranas in India through its wholesale business and its last-mile delivery program, thereby contributing to the incomes of these kiranas and encouraging employment creation in the ecosystem. In addition, Samarth, Flipkart’s program to support small businesses, underserved communities and artisans, has more than 750,000 beneficiaries.

The Group is also a majority shareholder in PhonePe, one of the leading Payments Apps in India with more than 300 million users, facilitating over 1 billion transactions per month, 80% of which occur in tier 2 and 3 cities and beyond.

J.P. Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Limited and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as placement agents to Flipkart in connection with this transaction, Hogan Lovells and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co served as legal counsel.

*As of the date of this press release, SoftBank Group Corp. has made capital contributions to allow investments by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 ("SVF 2") in certain portfolio companies. The information included herein is made for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy limited partnership interests in any fund, including SVF 2. SVF 2 has yet to have an external close, and any potential third-party investors shall receive additional information related to any SVF 2 investments prior to closing.

 

MX TakaTak introduces the Launchpad Program

 MX TakaTak introduces the Launchpad Program:
An initiative to foster the growing UGC creator community on its platform

This initiative aims at nurturing and furthering the growth of emerging content creators on the platform, who have made a mark for themselves with compelling video creations

Leading short video platform MX TakaTak has emerged as the preferred destination for India’s leading content creators and has seen massive growth in the user generated content category as well. With an aim to nurture and train the creators on the platform who have made a mark with their engaging videos and consistently continue to entertain the platform’s wide and diverse audiences, MX TakaTak has announced the Launchpad Program.

This initiative handpicks UGC creators who are deeply engaged with the platform through regular participation in challenges and other content curation, and aspire to have a digital career. Thus far, 30 unique content creators have been identified and onboarded onto this exciting program. The program aims at building success for these creators that enjoy an organic following on MX TakaTak. Creators like Srinithi, a young girl whose passion is to be an actor, Shivansh Sharma who is an extremely talented singer and Krishna Sood who is a Chhau dancer are thrilled to be part of this program as this offers them the chance to learn the tricks of the trade from the experts at MX TakaTak to gain more followers and access to exciting features and monetisation opportunities. 

Commenting on the Launchpad program,Janhavi Parikh, Business Head - MX TakaTak said, “We’re delighted to see such a phenomenal rise of user generated content on the platform and this initiative is our way of acknowledging the relentless efforts of these aspiring creators who have shown so much potential on the app. With this program, we will be giving UGC creators an all-round learning model aided by expert/ mentor interactions, as well as guidance on creative and  growth strategies. The  prime goal of this program is to enrich the craft of our native content creators by providing a collaborative learning environment and helping drive faster growth in their digital careers to eventually enter into the mainstream creator ecosystem by leveraging our creative, analytics and platform might.”

Ranging from interactions with experts and mentors that will help them with content creation strategies to connecting creators to a partner manager, the program intends to offer these creators increased visibility along with the opportunity to grow on the app faster. This career acceleration will  include monetisation opportunities, a chance to collaborate with other leading creators on the platform, who are some of India’s finest KOLs and it also will equip the participants with insights that will help innovate in their creative journey. Another avenue of support includes providing the best performing creators with equipment that will keep them motivated in their content creation journey. Aided by evaluations at specific intervals to study the progress of its creators, the program shall function as an effective learning model in this otherwise niche and self taught field with multiple opportunities for aspiring influencers.

Already underway, the pilot program has given worthy contributors of the MX user community a once in a lifetime opportunity to follow their creative passions. Click on this link if you wish to apply to this exciting program as well -  https://takataklaunchpad.onelink.me/ZHHU/da1efebd

Download the MX TakaTak app here: https://bit.ly/MXTakaTakApp

 

JLL’s latest Global Real Estate Transparency Index

JLL’s latest Global Real Estate Transparency Index reveals significant improvement in India 

• The country has bagged the 34th position on the Index and is one of the top improvers globally and regionally 
• It has also edged into the top 20 for Sustainability Transparency
• India’s rank in World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Ranking’ improved significantly from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019

India’s real estate industry has registered one of the largest improvements globally and regionally in JLL and LaSalle’s biennial Global Real Estate Transparency Index (GRETI). The country ranks 34th globally on the index, with higher levels of transparency observed in India due to regulatory reforms, enhanced market data and sustainability initiatives. 

This improvement is led by the progress in the country’s REIT framework attracting greater interest from institutional investors. India has also edged into the top 20 for Sustainability Transparency through the active role of organizations like the Indian Green Building Council and Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment.

The 2020 Index is launched at a time of massive economic and societal disruption where the need for transparent processes, accurate and timely data and high ethical standards are in closer focus. The backdrop of COVID-19 is also ensuring that transparency within Asia Pacific’s real estate legal and regulatory systems is more important than ever to global investors as they look to deploy approximately $40 billion* in dry powder capital into the region.

“India has seen a steady improvement in the Global Transparency Index over the years. In fact, along with Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam, we are among the handful of countries that have seen the highest  improvement owing to positive governmental support and an enhanced ecosystem of transparency. In particular, the national REIT framework has been a major contributor to transparency in India, and with ongoing progress and governance, will continue to attract more interest from institutional investors,” said Ramesh Nair, CEO and Country Head (India) JLL. “Encouragingly, India has also edged into the top 20 for Sustainability Transparency through the active role of organisations like the Indian Green Building Council and Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment. I see these as extremely positive signs of how much we have covered in the real estate sector and a strong base in which to build on transparency gains,” he added.

According to JLL, pressure exists from investors, businesses and consumers to further improve real estate transparency to compete with other asset classes and meet heightened expectations about the industry’s role in providing a sustainable and resilient built environment in the age of COVID-19. Furthermore, innovative new property technology (proptech) is changing how real estate data is gathered and analyzed and influencing industry transparency at a regulatory level. 

“While investment into commercial real estate has inevitably paused during the pandemic, the overarching trend toward rising allocations to this asset class will continue. As investors look to allocate more capital into Asia Pacific real estate, transparency becomes fundamentally more important, as will the enforcement of robust regulatory frameworks,” said Dr. Samantak Das, Chief Economist and Head – Research & REIS, India, JLL.

Emerging markets have once again shown the greatest advancement in the Index, with six Asia Pacific markets – Mainland China (32nd), Thailand (33rd), India (34th), Indonesia (40th), Philippines (44th) and Vietnam (56th) – among the top 10 biggest improvers globally. Mature markets such as Australia (3rd) and New Zealand (6th) have maintained their positions near the top of the global ranking.  

Greater transparency translates into higher investments. 

Over the last decade, India has shown promising developments and is now at the cusp of being ‘Transparent’ within the GRETI 2020 rankings. At the same time, India’s rank in World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Ranking’ improved significantly from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019. 

Amongst the indicators used to measure the ease of doing business, the country’s ranking for ease in obtaining construction permits witnessed the highest jump from 182 to 27 in the same period. This significant jump is a testimony to the fallout of the several reform measures introduced by the government to remove red tape and increase efficiency in undertaking business. Within the realty sector, key structural reforms such as the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act  2016 (RERA), GST, Benami Transaction Prohibition (Amendment) Act, 2016, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, digitization of land records etc. have brought about greater transparency in what was an erstwhile largely unregulated sector a few years back.

Institutional flow of investments into India real estate

In both Asia Pacific and outside of the region, JLL’s research concludes that sustainability commitments have become the biggest single driver of real estate transparency globally since 2018. An increased focus on corporate social responsibility and acknowledgement of the need to create sustainable buildings bring environment, social and governance (ESG) considerations into the mainstream. Additionally, green building certification systems and energy efficiency standards are widespread in the region’s most transparent markets and the most improved national real estate sectors.

Another key driver of transparency is the volume of real estate market data now available due to the growing adoption of Proptech platforms, digital tools and “big data” techniques. Although real estate markets have historically faced challenges when implementing new technology, the COVID-19 pandemic is leading to an acceleration in new types of non-standard and high-frequency data – especially relating to health, mobility and space usage – being collected and disseminated in near-real-time.

Going ahead, it is amply evident that real estate transparency will be driven by technology led innovation and sustainability with a focus on health & wellness. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to help fast-track digitization and stimulate innovation in the use of technology. We could see the confluence of proptech and medtech in the next generation of smart buildings. It is significant to note that India is fast progressing on both the vital aspects of proptech and sustainability, which will be the torchbearers of real estate transparency in the coming period.

JLL and LaSalle have been tracking real estate transparency and championing higher standards since 1999.  This 11th edition of GRETI covers 99 countries and territories, and 163 city regions. This latest survey has been extended to quantify 210 separate elements of transparency, with additional coverage on sustainability and resilience, health and wellness, proptech and alternatives sectors.