Ameyo Reaches Turnover of Rs. 90 Cr in FY 2020 with 27% EBITDA

Ameyo, a leading provider of Omnichannel Customer Engagement Technology today revealed business results from FY 19-20, a year during which the company grew at 30% with 27% EBITDA to reach a turnover of Rs. 90 crores.

Over the last few years, Ameyo has been pivoting its revenue model from licenses to a subscription business with 50% recurring revenue of Rs. 45 crores in FY 19-20.

The firm has a presence in 60+ countries with international business contributing to almost 43% of the turnover at Rs. 38.4 crore

Commenting on this growth, Bishal Lachhiramka, Co-founder & CEO, Ameyo, mentions, “Ameyo has continued to grow at a steady pace with profitability, thanks to our focus on creating products & solutions that provide value to our customers. With COVID-19 and the focus on digital transformation, our growth has been accelerated. We will continue to focus on creating solutions for the unique problems of emerging geographies.”

During Q1, 2020, Ameyo grew its customer base by over 100 percent, adding HDFC ERGO General Insurance, Sridhar Insurance, Apollo Health and Lifestyle, Zolo, BYJU’S, D.Light, STC Channels, LR Data, SP Madrid, Toppr, Jubilant FoodWorks, Spice Money, Rebel Foods (Faasos), The Muthoot Group, Vistaprint, and many more.

Ameyo recently launched the RBI compliant Video KYC engagement platform with omnichannel capabilities that allow the Regulated Entities (REs) to reduce onboarding drop-offs by 20% and reduce the cost of KYC by 90%. The solution is built for scale and operates even at low internet bandwidth and a variety of devices to target the masses.

Sachin Bhatia, Co-founder and Global Sales & Marketing Head at Ameyo, adds, “Contact centers are going to play a pivotal role in the post-COVID-19 times, as they provide the last line of human to human interaction between brands and consumers. We are very bullish about the next wave of growth with our new product launches that enable brands with remote solutions for Sales, Onboarding, Customer Service, and Collection use cases.

In the near future, Ameyo plans to launch a series of solutions in the AI space using their own IP as well as by partnering with market leaders in the space. The firm has invested in AI to use sentiment analysis in the routing of interactions and is planning to use it for three main purposes i.e. Intelligent Routing, Assisted Service, and Quality Monitoring.

Geographically they will continue to expand into newer markets in Southeast Asia, ME, and Africa and have recently also entered the markets of South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Vietnam.

The 400+ employees strength company initially started off with solutions for contact center channels like voice and email but today they are catering to all social media and chat platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Google Play Store, Instagram, Twitter, and Viber.

About Ameyo

Ameyo is an Omnichannel customer engagement platform that helps businesses go remote with its 3 Unique Remote Contact Center Solutions and help them streamline their customer service, customer support, and collection processes.

Ameyo's robust platform is available for on-cloud and on-premise implementation with private, public, as well as hybrid instances. It has pre-built integrations with all significant industry-grade CRMs. Ameyo provides strong omnichannel capabilities of Voice, IVR, ACD, Dialers, Email, Chat, and Social Media such as Instagram, Google Play, Twitter, Facebook & WhatsApp. 

StanChart to hire 2,000 professionals in 2009, says Official

Global Banking giant, Standard Chartered on Sunday said it has no plans to freeze hiring in India despite the challenging market conditions and would recruit around 2,000 professionals this year.

StanChart had recruited 4,000 people in the last calendar year but has decided to scale down fresh recruitments in the face of financial downturn that has hit its operations globally, StanChart Human Resources Regional Head Madhavi Lall told the media here.

"We have not stopped hiring. Although, the number of new recruits may be lower in 2009 as compared to last year, the bank plans to recruit 1,500-2,000 people in the current calendar year," Lall said.

The lender already recruited 110 people in the last two months while it plans to hire 28 more people by July to strengthen its various business divisions, Lall said.

"These 28 people will be joining us from IIMs. The bank will go ahead with its hiring plans in the months ahead, which will include campus recruitments," Lall said.

Presently, StanChart has a staff strength of 19,000 in India as against its global headcount of 75,000, Lall said.

Out of 19,000 total employees, around 6,500 people operate in StanChart's retail banking division.

Agencies

Top Citi bosses like Pandit to forego 2008 bonuses

Citigroup Inc.'s Indian American chief executive Vikram Pandit and chairman Win Bischoff would forego bonuses for 2008, the ailing banking giant announced as it formalised its bailout agreement with the US government.

Bonuses for other top executives will be "reduced substantially," Pandit said in a memo to Citigroup employees Wednesday.

Citigroup has received $45 billion in federal capital infusions and a government-financed arrangement to insulate it from hundreds of billions of dollars in potential losses after the bank lost three-quarters of its market value.

"The harsh realities of 2008, primarily our earnings results, mean that our bonus pool is dramatically lower," Pandit said.

Citigroup, the biggest recipient of US bailout funds, completed an agreement for a $20 billion government investment, Pandit said in the memo. That was on top of an earlier $25 billion and a US guarantee on $306 billion in troubled assets.

Pandit is cutting 52,000 jobs worldwide after four straight quarters of losses tied to bad loans and failed investments with the last quarter alone accounting for a loss of 2.8 billion dollars.

Citigroup expects "major challenges" to continue into 2009, Pandit said, describing the proposed actions as part of a major overhaul of executive compensation to confront the problems for the company and banking sector.

The new plan may also include "clawbacks" to "recoup executive compensation that over time proves to be based on inaccurate financial or other information," according to the memo.

"The most senior leaders should be affected the most," Pandit said. "Win and I believe this is fair, in light of the challenges of the year and the need for compensation elsewhere in the organization."

The memo said bonuses for the "senior leadership committee "will be reduced substantially." Members of Citi's executive committee would see bonuses "cut even more" and in some cases given as deferred compensation.

Pandit said the principles to guide the company's executive pay would include "pay for performance" and "meritocracy," adding that "compensation will vary based on each person's performance - again, relative to the overall performance of the company."

Severance compensation will be subject to "significant new limitations" for executives and that the top five executives "no longer can receive severance," said Pandit, who became Citigroup CEO in December 2007.

Those affected executives are Pandit, Bischoff, Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden and Vice Chairmen Lewis Kaden and Stephen Volk.

Pandit noted that former treasury secretary Robert Rubin, an advisor to the company who has no direct management responsibilities, "has elected to take no bonus for the second consecutive year."

"The overall objective for all of us at Citi is to build shareholder value, serve our clients and customers superbly well and create growth opportunities for our employees," he said.

"Adherence to the principles of compensation outlined above is fundamental to achieving these goals."

Pandit, 51, received 1 million shares from Citigroup as part of a "sign-on" bonus in January, in addition to a $2.5 million "retention equity award," the company said in March. He was paid $250,000 in salary in 2007.

Pandit got $165 million from Citigroup in 2007 when he sold Old Lane Partners LP, the hedge fund he co-founded and ran. Citigroup closed New York-based Old Lane in June and took a $202 million writedown on its $800 million investment.

Source: Agencies

Troubled banking giant Citigroup gets bail out

The US government will inject $20 billion into troubled banking giant Citigroup and will provide a guarantee of $306 billion to the financial firm.

"The US government on Sunday entered into an agreement with Citigroup to provide a package of guarantees, liquidity access, and capital," the Federal Reserve said in a statement.

As per the rescue plan, the treasury would invest $ 20 billion in Citigroup from the Troubled Asset Relief Programme in exchange for preferred stock.

Besides, the Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) would provide protection against $ 306 billion of toxic loans and securities backed by residential and commercial real estate and other such assets, which will remain on Citigroup's balance sheet, the statement added.

"As a fee for this arrangement, Citigroup will issue preferred shares to the Treasury and FDIC. In addition and if necessary, the Federal Reserve stands ready to backstop residual risk in the asset pool through a non-recourse loan," the release said.

The move comes close on the heels of the sliding 60 per cent fall in the share price of Citigroup last week.

"Citigroup will comply with enhanced executive compensation restrictions and implement the FDIC's mortgage modification program," the Federal Reserve added.

The Federal Reserve asserted that "we will continue to use all of our resources to preserve the strength of our banking institutions and promote the process of repair and recovery and to manage risks."

Once the world's most valued bank Citigroup, headed by NRI banker Vikram Pandit whose own job is reportedly under attack, had over 3,75,000 employees at the end of last year and it aims to trim it down to below three lakh, as part of efforts to cut costs and help the crisis-ridden bank return to normalcy.

Close to 25,000 jobs have already been axed so far this year.

The financial crisis, that began 15 months ago, is now taking toll and recent months have seen government taking over quasi-public mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae, bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, sale of Merrill Lynch, rescue of American International Group among others.