Edtech Superapp Ken42 appoints

Edtech Superapp Ken42 appoints startup evangelist
Sasi Kumar Sundararajan as Advisor

Sasi joins the edtech company after having held senior leadership roles at Ernst & Young, Deloitte and PwC

Edtech Superapp Platform Ken42 has announced the appointment of Sasi Kumar Sundararajan as their Advisor. Sasi will be based out of Ken42’s Bangalore office. 

Sasi joins Ken42 with over 23 years of experience in the industry. His extensive experience with PwC, Deloitte and EY as Practice Leader cover Public, Govt. and Private sector consulting in Growth, Restructuring, Investments, Technology and Capacity Building across several sectors in India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Middle-East and GCC. 

In recent years Sasi has also been a guide, mentor and advisor to Startups, Incubators, Accelerators, PE Funds and Universities in the areas like Future of Work, Industry 4.0, Big Data, Digital, Disruption, Startups, Mid-markets, Growth, Sharing Economy and Circular Economy. 

Talking about Sasi joining the team, Ganesh Raju, Founder and CEO, Ken42 said “Sasi’s extensive experience as a growth enabler for startups and ample knowledge about the startup ecosystem, makes him the ideal fit to lead the Ken42 team towards innovation, efficiency and improvement. It’s a privilege to have him on board and we are ecstatic to have him be a part of Ken42’s journey into cultivating a Superapp Edtech Platform for India’s vast education ecosystem.” 

Sasi has completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, went on to study Management from esteemed Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and Masters in Labour Law & Labour Welfare from Symbiosis Law College, Pune. An engineering and management professional by education and a successful career in big 4 consultancy prepared him for entrepreneurship. In 2017, Sasi became the Founder and Director of Fungised Solutions Pvt. Ltd. a start-up that works in the areas of FoodTech, Robotics, Automation and IoT. 

On his new role at Ken42, Sasi Kumar Sundararajan said “During the lockdown, the edtech industry has boomed, finally getting the limelight it has been vying for all these years. In these testing times, Ken42 has outshined the market tremendously and is aiming to become the one-stop-shop solution for education and all its stakeholders, which is no mean feat. I am excited to join the Superapp in the making and aid in its growth and success to democratize education across the country.”

SOCH Group to launch ‘This or That’, a one-of- a-kind Experiential

SOCH Group to launch ‘This or That’, a one-of- a-kind Experiential and Exclusive platform for Startups

·         A platform that allows you to bargain

·         Encourages you to order free product samples

·         Company to onboard 250 brands in phase -I

·         Will cater to brands across Fashion & Lifestyle, Food & Beverages, Beauty & Wellness, Furnishing & Décor, and Sports & Nutrition

SOCH Group has announced the launch of This or That, the World’s first Omni-channel Retail Platform exclusively for Start-up brands.  It will have one-of-a-kind Experiential online shopping as well as offline stores. The store would comprise handpicked & Quality-assured products from Innovative, Interesting & Unique Start-up brands. The launch of ‘This or That’ will take place in a phased manner and, in the first phase, they intend to launch with 250+ of the best start-up brands in India registered under Startup India. These brands will be spread across 5 categories viz. Fashion & Lifestyle, Food & Beverages, Beauty & Wellness, Furnishing & Décor, and Sports & Nutrition. This or That will be an inventory based model as opposed to the usual marketplace one – to ensure that only genuine products with strict Quality Control are sold to consumers.

This Or That aims to enable the hopes & aspirations of the Millennial & Gen Z in terms of helping them follow trends in online shopping and making a very personal statement about themselves by enabling them to easily and conveniently find and experience a wide range of genuine and hand-picked products that have a stand-out element in them.

TOT has been designed with the primary aim to help startups reach their audience with their variety of products. It also aims to bring about a significant change in the way e-commerce is looked at today with a number of other benefits such as:

·         Encouraging customers to order product samples for free

·         Option of allowing customers to bargain on certain products on certain days

·         Allowing customers to try and compare products prior to purchase

·         Opportunity for brands to get funded

·         Voice-enabled discovery of products on the platform

This platform provides the end-consumer with the exquisite opportunity of access to hand-picked and curated products possessing standout elements, which would be unique and appealing. Moreover, it provides the consumer with a ‘Phygitial’ (mix of physical & digital) experience in Indian e-commerce & retail space.

Mr. Rohit Mohan Pugalia, Founder Director, This or That (A SOCH Group Initiative) says, “SOCH Group always works with the purpose of building a strong and a healthy relationship with society and keeping the Hon’ Prime Minister’s vision of Start-Up India in mind. ‘This or That’ is one such initiative that will benefit startups as well as customers in terms of getting them the best experience. We will offer a ‘Phygital Experience’ to customers in the Indian e-commerce and retail space” (A Phygital retail experience is a shopping journey in which physical experiences and digital technologies interact with each other for a far more enhanced shopping experience). We will also nurture potential start-ups and help them reach new avenues by way of providing them with an exclusive platform, solving problems of brand visibility and helping them reach a broader audience for business growth though provision of support services like Marketing & Branding, Accounting, & Startup funding, he added”.

The number of startups in the country have increased seven-fold over the last decade and they are revolutionizing the world by innovating solutions and adding value to society. This unique platform has been designed for startups keeping in mind the growing startup ecosystem in India.