US-Based AMJ Ventures Invests $2 Million in Alia Bhatt-Backed Fashion-Tech Startup StyleCracker

US-based investor AMJ Ventures has invested USD 2 million into Bollywood star Alia Bhatt-backed StyleCracker, India’s largest personal styling platform

The fashion-tech startup will be using the funds towards building out further capabilities in machine learning and in strengthening its moat on the personalisation front, its Co-Founder and Managing Director, Dhimaan Shah, said.

“The funds will also be used to build a strong pan India presence and move even closer to being the stylist to every Indian. StyleCracker has grown rapidly since inception at a CAGR of over 150% and is on track to grow the business over 250% this financial year, after its funding from AMJ Ventures. The rapid growth is complemented by healthy economics with the Company turning profitable at a unit economic level,” added Shah.

Commenting on the deal, Anish Patel, Founding Partner at AMJ Ventures, said his company partners with disruptive start-ups who are on a mission to change the status-quo, and is looking to potentially combine data science with human expertise and reinvent businesses. “Style cracker has shown great potential. The business has successfully maintained a low exchange and return rate which is nearly 1/3rd of what ecommerce sites have. The business is also supported by a great learning algorithm. Glad to partner and accelerate the growth of StyleCracker, with value proposition to make fashion accessible to India at large as the platform democratizes personal styling. We look forward to tapping into the booming start up market in India by investing in more businesses,” he added.

Existing businesses where AMJ has made investments in India include Avail Finance, a Bangalore-based loan financing service; and Propelld, a company which provides finances for higher education courses. AMJ Capital already has multiple successful investments in the US and is now looking at growing and expanding its portfolio in India.

Dhimaan Shah said “With the Indian consumer becoming increasingly fashion forward yet starved of time and access, the focus for the consumer has shifted from discounted deals to one of curated fashion and tremendous convenience, albeit at value driven prices. Hence, this partnership between AMJ and StyleCracker will ensure unmatched convenience in user experience as well as value driven, unique supply.”

"With increased accessibility to information today, the consumer has become more discerning and aware of trends. They have highly evolved preferences, yet are sensitive to price points. In this unique and complex landscape, we offer deep personalisation that’s deeply nuanced and super emotional because that’s how fashion is consumed.  Our vision has always been to be the stylist to every Indian. Our users are conscious about what they wear and how they look. With AMJ’s investment we see huge opportunity in decoding the complex needs of the Indian consumer and use several data points with predictive learning tech to make it scalable and better" said Archana Walavalkar Co-Founder & Creative Director, StyleCracker

About AMJ Ventures: AMJ Ventures is a fund that partners with disruptive entrepreneurs who are on a mission to change the status-quo. We fuse capital, insights, and strategy to create compelling partnerships that build transformational businesses. After having grown businesses globally (Collabera, Cognixia, ClikSource, Brillio), the family has now launched a fund to help younger entrepreneurs scale their businesses. AMJ has recently begun its foray into the Indian market, where it hopes to marry global best practices with local Indian dynamics to help startups solve their most pressing problems and achieve uncommon growth. Existing businesses where AMJ has made investments include Armarium (a NYC-based luxury rental platform), Avail Finance (a Bangalore-based loan financing service), and Propelld (financing for higher education courses).

Jetpreivilege is Now Rebranded as Intermiles in Indian Market

Jet Privilege Private Limited (JPPL), the independent loyalty and rewards management company, part of the Etihad Aviation Group, has unveiled its new brand identity ‘InterMiles’, propelling its intent to fulfil the evolving travel & lifestyle aspirations of discerning consumers. InterMiles will encompass both the award-winning loyalty and rewards programme (previously, JetPrivilege) and the ubiquitous rewards and recognition currency (previously, JPMiles). The programme will offer its growing base of close to 10 million members the opportunity to earn and redeem InterMiles, the new age currency of engagement, across travel, hospitality and lifestyle services across 10+ categories and 150+ programme partners.

The company has been on an exciting transformational journey over the last 5 years to expand from an airline-centric programme to emerging as an everyday travel-and-lifestyle rewards programme as discerning consumers have shifted beyond transactional rewards and cashback. In fact, over the last six months alone, the programme has managed over 33 billion InterMiles.

Speaking about the development, Mr. Manish Dureja, Managing Director, Jet Privilege Pvt. Ltd. said, “We are embarking on a new journey with InterMiles, built on sound business fundamentals, the trust of millions of members and the passion of a committed team. What started as a frequent flyer programme has, today, become the platform of choice that empowers our members to fulfill their travel and lifestyle aspirations. As we reinforce our commitment to the promise of making our members’ journey more fulfilling, our growth plan is, focused on aggregating more benefits and simplifying access to a growing bouquet of experiences and rewards.”

The name InterMiles suggests the interchangeable nature of the rewards currency where it can be earned and redeemed across platforms including airlines, hotels, dine, shop, fuel among others. A critical part of the new design was to create a distinctive marque that would both be recognizable and memorable. The marque, comprising a dot (the first step of the journey) and dash (the way/path one takes on the journey), signifies the brand’s promise to customers to make their every journey more rewarding. The brand colour is a bespoke shade, ‘Twilight Red’ that combines warmth, enthusiasm, playfulness and energy that will appeal to the core target group of experience seekers.

Commenting on the brand identity, Mr. Zameer Kochar, Vice President – Marketing and Member Engagement, said, “We know that seeking unique, fulfilling and memorable experiences is a key driver for India’s growing segment of discerning consumers. InterMiles is driven by our vision to make a positive difference in our consumers’ lives.

We have therefore designed a distinctive brand identity that represents this growing community of experience seekers. The brand identity stood out among our consumers for the simplicity of the name that created easy understanding and high appeal.”

The InterMiles journey is a rewarding one as every InterMile a member earns, moves them to a higher Tier with additional benefits and privileges. Earning Miles has never been easier and there is more to gain from every booking made across all travel and lifestyle categories, including more airlines with any flight to any destination, up to the last seat available, hotels, dining, shopping, re-fueling and co-brand cards. Members can discover new places, make new memories and have more fulfilling journeys with free flights, free hotels, free fuel as well as 2500+ merchandise options at the Reward Store.

Members can earn InterMiles for all their activities on intermiles.com.

Bangalore Qualifiers of Red Bull Shuttle Up to be Held on November 16

After an overwhelming response last year, Red Bull Shuttle Up- India’s first ever exclusive Women’s Doubles tournament, will be back in action with the upcoming qualifiers round on 16th November in Bangalore.

Set to be held at the Fair Play Arena in J.P Nagar, the tournament aims to give wings to the next generation of Women’s Doubles badminton players while encouraging them to take up the sport professionally.

Qualifiers have already been held across Delhi, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Chandigarh. The winning pair from each qualifier will be flown down to Hyderabad for the National Finals on 8th December 2019. The national finals winners will get a chance to play against Ashwini Ponnappa- one of India’s best doubles badminton players of all time – and a partner of her choosing.

With the growing popularity of the sport be it viewership (5th most viewed) or participation (2nd most played), the tournament aims to further boost and improve participation and popularity amongst aspiring women players.

India’s ace women doubles shuttler and Red Bull athlete Ashwini Ponnappa said, “It has been my ambition to promote badminton in India, especially for women. It’s great to be associated with brands like Red Bull that create such platforms and that give wings to the dreams of aspiring talent. It’s been a great journey with Red Bull Shuttle Up and I only see it growing in the years to come. I would like to wish all the participants the very best of luck.”

Winners of the other city qualifiers:

Delhi qualifiers Results:
Winners: Kavya Gandhi and Rageshri Garg

Runners up: Anahita and Ojashwini

Hyderabad qualifiers:
Winners: Poorvi Singh and Vanshika Kapila
Runners up: Likhita Gouti and Maitreyi

Guwahati qualifiers:
Winners: Ernacles Syiem and Mamta Singh
Runners up: Niyanta Das and Nandini Goswami

Chandigarh qualifiers:
Winners: Daman Raj Kumar and Akanshi Baliyan
Runners up: Ishita and Garima

Upcoming Qualifiers:
Bangalore qualifiers:
Date: 16th November 2019
Venue: Fair Play Arena, 66, 3rd Cross Rd, Nrupathunga Nagar, Kothnoor Dinne, 8th Phase, J. P. Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560076

Mumbai qualifiers:

Date: 23rd November 2019

Venue: Khar Gymkhana, 13th Rd, Khar, Khar West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400052

Open exclusively for women above the age of 16, all matches are played in the knock out format. All pairs will play of 3 sets with 11 points in the knockout phase and 21 points in the city qualifiers finals match. Each pair, with prior notification to the referee, can call for a super point once in a set. By calling for a super point, the pair will get 2 points if they win that particular point. There will be no deduction of points if the pair loses that point. Players must be prepared to play 5/6 matches in a day, during the event. The winning pairs of each qualifier will make it through to the National Finals on 8th December 2019 in Hyderabad.

The first edition of Red Bull Shuttle Up was an overwhelming success as India’s U19 ranked number 1 women’s doubles pair Ritika Thaker and Simran Singhi from Mumbai claimed the championship title after a charged 11-1; 11-6 final match win over opponents Daman Rajkumar and Muskan Taya from Delhi. The duo also got a chance to play against one of India’s best doubles players Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy at Phoenix Marketcity Kurla, Mumbai

Exide Life Insurance launches First-of-its-Kind, Non-Linked Participating Individual

Highlights

• Pay Premium for a limited term, enjoy Life Insurance Cover for age up to 75 or 100 years
• Flexibility to avail guaranteed regular income or lump sum payouts or both
• Highly customizable plan offering 5 bonus options
• Single plan to address multiple life goals
• Get Tax benefits as per prevailing tax laws

Exide Life Insurance today announced the launch of its non-linked participating individual Life insurance plan, Exide Life Sampoorna Jeevan. The first-of-its-kind plan, Exide Life Sampoorna Jeevan, not only provides life insurance cover till age 75 or 100 years but also offers an individual the power to customize the payouts to suit the financial needs at multiple life stages.

Addressing the customer need to plan their life goals, Exide Life Sampoorna Jeevan allows the customer the flexibility to avail guaranteed regular income till age 75 or 100 or lump sum payouts or even opt for both. The plan offers 4 guaranteed benefit options and 5 bonus options to choose from, making the plan extensively comprehensive to suit the varying and changing needs of the customer. With 28 possible permutations made available to the customers, each of the Guaranteed and Bonus options provides a unique benefit, allowing customers to create a plan that works best for them.

On the occasion of the launch, Mr. Sanjay Tiwari, Director, Product Management & Customer Service, Exide Life Insurance said, “For us, the customer is always at the forefront. All our product offerings are conceptualized keeping the customer needs in mind. Through extensive customization, Exide Life Sampoorna Jeevan offers customers the freedom to select their preferred means of benefit payouts thereby helping them plan better for their life goals. Be it 2nd income or legacy creation, long term cover for family’s financial protection or bonus payouts from end of first year itself, partial withdrawal for unplanned expenses or pre-defined lump sum payouts for life’s important milestones, this plan has all the customer needs covered. It has aptly been positioned as the plan that stays ‘with you, through life’. We believe this product will create a disruption in the market.”

TKM Cheers Up School Children with a Newly Constructed School Building on Children’s Day

Highlights

* Inaugurates the newly-renovated Government Model Higher Primary School at Bidadi on the occasion of Children’s Day, ensuring a better learning experience for school children
* TKM upgrades the school with modern facilities including: new classrooms, Computer room, Laboratory, Library, Toilets, Sports room, Dining Hall for wholesome growth of school children
* Further supports ‘Right to Quality Education’, benefitting over 260 children in the community
* Toyota reconstructed 9 school buildings under CSR [total 940 children benefited]

In line with its mission to support and enrich neighbouring communities through sustainable solutions, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, today, inaugurated the newly constructed Government Model Higher Primary School at Bidadi. Equipped with modern facilities, the school will benefit the school children thereby, creating a wholesome environment for the overall growth of the students, ensuring improvement in the standard of their learning experience.

The refurbished Government Model Higher Primary School was inaugurated by Mr. A Manjunath, Hon’ble MLA, Magadi Constituency, Mr. C M Lingappa MLC, Mr. Basappa President Zilla Panchayat Ramanagara, Mr. Ganakal Nataraj President Taluk Panchayat Ramanagara, Mr.  Somashekaraiha, Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI Education), Takuya Nakanishi – Senior Vice President TKM, Mr. Naveen Soni, Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor along with other Town Municipal Corporation Officials and elected representatives.

Built post-independence, the Government Model Higher Primary School at Bidadi has around 260 school children, providing education to students studying from Standard I to VIII. However, due to its dilapidated condition, the school was under-utilized and not able to provide required facilities to school children in the community.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor took up this project, under its CSR initiative and restored the school infrastructure at a grass root level. The school now is upgraded and equipped with modern facilities including: six new classrooms with restored furniture, computer room, laboratory, sports room, toilets for students, kitchen, dining hall, and a library. This upgradation of the Government School will benefit a larger number of school children in the community and help them avail advanced facilities at the school.

Commending TKM on its relentless efforts towards the betterment of the society, Mr. A Manjunath, Hon'ble MLA, Magadi Constituency said, “Development of rural education plays an important role in economic and social betterment of the people. We are glad that responsible corporates like TKM have been consistently working towards ensuring quality school infrastructure in rural Karnataka.  Earlier the school was in a dilapidated condition and students and staff were scared to sit inside the classrooms. We hope more such organizations will come up to work together in bridging the gap in rural education system. Such initiatives will definitely help in bringing up the literacy rate by encouraging more and more parents to send their children to schools. With the dedicated support from TKM we hope will be able to bring about a positive transformation by providing holistic solutions for quality education “

Inaugurating the upgraded Government Model Higher Primary School, Mr. Naveen Soni, Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “Quality infrastructure and quality teachers have a huge impact on the learning outcomes and consequently, the retention of children in schools.  Lack of clean, safe, accessible and adequate school infrastructure have been responsible for increasing school dropouts in Rural India. The need of the hour is to create a safer and comfortable learning experience for the school children.”

He further added, “ Education is the premise for any country’s progress and as a responsible corporate citizen, over the years, we have been working with Government to upgrade school building with functional toilets, provide learning aids, engage with teachers for their skill enhancement to build a conducive environment. Aligned with our commitment to improve education for the underprivileged in the community, we hope the upgraded Government School will help foster better learning for the school children to learn and grow, and be the change makers for tomorrow.”

Toyota Kirloskar Motor, over the years, has initiated several projects to accelerate access to quality education in Karnataka. Recently, the company distributed school supply kit consisting of bags, books, geometry box’s, drawing books and crayons to 24,500 students across first to tenth grades in Government schools at Ramanagara district. Toyota also initiated school health programme to address the malnutrition, anaemia and eye problems of government school children in Ramnagara district. With this project, TKM is aiming to cover around 10,000 school children.

As part of its CSR intervention and supporting Government of India’s “Swachh Bharat Mission”, TKM introduced Project ABCD (A Behavioural Change through Demonstration) in 2015, covering 58,518 children in 1004 schools at Ramanagara district (Karnataka) to improve public health and sanitation in villages. Project ABCD has been significantly contributing to the Government’s Sustainable Development Goal of ending open defecation in India. 

This program impacted the children to motivate the parents to construct toilets at the homes.  Total 12634 household toilets have been constructed since last 4 years. All children of 687 schools under ABCD program have 100% sanitation facilities at home.

Toyota remains committed to bring in more enriching and sustainable CSR projects for the holistic development of the community members, thus effectively contributing to the underlying cause of positive societal development and bring in a change towards transformation of the larger community.

CreativeSprout’s Assimilate to Organize India’s First Health Marketing Summit in New Delhi

Highlights

* A gathering of top healthcare and marketing professionals to discuss and share evolving market challenges and insights and develop custom strategies for the healthcare industry

* Top-notch global leaders from healthcare, marketing, and communication to share insights and ideas around branding and positioning specifically keeping the focus on healthcare and  medical industry’s requirements

CreativeSprout’s Assimilate is organizing the first-of-its-kind national-level Health Marketing Summit in association with Medvarsity. This summit is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on Nov. 22, 2019. Experts from healthcare, marketing, and communication will gather at Taurus Sarovar Portico Hotel near IGI Airport for a day to share insight on evolving marketing challenges of the healthcare industry and how they could be tackled effectively.

Marketing has evolved over time and has become the most important function with a vital role in every sector. When it comes to healthcare organisations, patient-centricity has become the key focus with respect to its offerings and solutions. It is crucial to build patient engagement which goes beyond physical solutions & well-being, and also focuses on the emotional aspect of it. In this digital world, search engines are quickly becoming ‘first opinion’ source and are enabling primary research when it comes to checking performance or seeking reviews of healthcare organizations, hospitals, clinics or small nursing homes; or even an individual. This carefully curated marketing summit will help small, medium, and large healthcare organizations to chart the future course of action when it comes to strengthening their presence and brand.

The Health Marketing Summit is a conference designed to address each of the aspects of building a strong brand when it comes to all types of healthcare enterprises. Participants will learn about the most advanced tools and tricks of marketing, such as social media marketing, search engine optimization, geofencing, reputation management, etc. Challenges like patient acquisition, how to develop communication keeping in mind regulatory compliances, patient engagement beyond prescription will be discussed at this event. The conference will also be beneficial for senior doctors who’d like to strengthen their services and individuals looking to build a startup in the healthcare industry.

Gerald Jaideep, Founder of CreativeSprout Media Pvt. Ltd. & CEO Medvarsity Online Ltd. expresses his views by saying, “Context matters when it comes to effective communication. The healthcare industry needs to be in sync with the fast-evolving digital tech space and be agile in communicating effectively with its customers. Right message at the right time and place is key to driving effective engagement. At HealthMS, we will explore all these aspects with industry experts."

Leaders from industry giants like Apollo Group, Ogilvy Healthcare & PR, 1mg, Medanta Heart City, Adfactors, Medulla Communications; as well as founders of some of the most innovative healthcare platforms like Plexus MD, Weljii, Avanzar Health will share their unique insights and learning at HealthMS. 

New Liftoff Reports Shows Asia has Highest Early Mobile User App Retension Rates but Drops Off Over Time

Liftoff, the leader in performance-driven mobile user acquisition, today released its annual Mobile App Trends Report, which provides insights into the booming app economy. The report found that Asia is home to some of the highest-performing countries in terms of Day 1 mobile app user retention, although loyalty towards the apps, in general, tends to drop off after 30 days.

Based on Liftoff’s internal data, the report analyzes over 349 billion impressions across 992 mobile apps, 5.35 billion clicks and 76.6 million total post-install events. Spanning a variety of app categories, including those in Finance, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music & Audio, Education, Gaming, Shopping, Social Media and more. The report covered 30 countries in four regions; including 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam). The report found the following:

First Impressions Count: Asian countries show highest Day 1 retention rates among all countries in dataset

The mobile app user retention rate measures the percentage of consumers that continue to use an app over a given period of time. In Asia – where the average Day 1 retention rate was recorded at 25.2 percent, Taiwan (at 29.5 percent) outperformed the region’s average retention rate, followed by Malaysia (29.1 percent), Japan (28.4 percent) and Thailand (27.0 percent).

Despite the high figures recorded for first day retention, the figure was shown to drop off considerably after a month. This is as the Day 3 retention rate stood only at 12.6 percent in Asia – the lowest across all regions – while Day 7 retention rates dropped to 8.1 percent (lower than the 8.9 percent and 8.5 percent in the North America and EMEA regions respectively, but still higher than the 7.9 percent in Latin America). By Day 30, Asia’s retention rate stood at 3.1 percent; lower than the 3.5 percent seen both in the EMEA and North America regions, however still higher than the 2.8 percent in Latin America.

A key factor explaining the high early retention rates in Asia is the relatively low cost to engagement ratio for users to install an app which, at US$1.11 cost for 100 percent engagement, signifies one of the lowest ratios amongst all the regions. The drop off by Day 30 could then be explained by the low conversion of cost to engagement for in-app purchases (US$85.95 cost for 1.3 percent engagement) and purchases (US$67.68 cost for 1.6 percent engagement). Amongst all the other regions, the figures highlighted the second-highest costs in their categories yet only showed the lowest engagement rates.

Despite this, there seems to be more value derived from app subscriptions in Asia. For instance, the cost to acquire users in Asia was US$28.95 whereas the engagement rate was 3.8 percent. While the engagement rate was only the third highest amongst all the other regions, the cost was the lowest.

Gen Z(ero Ownership): Consumers Are Far More Willing to Subscribe to Services than to Make a Purchase…

The trend seen in app subscriptions in Asia reflected an overarching trend seen across all the regions studied. Liftoff’s latest report showed that there is a cultural shift in consumer purchase behaviour, as subscription rates jumped more than 1.5x year-over-year. This is as the subscription economy has taken off in recent years, as consumers have moved increasingly away from ownership, and the market has noticed: today, there are over two thousand consumer-focused subscription businesses capitalizing on customers’ diverse tastes. This trend is also set to take off in Asia, where a Citi Bank study showed that companies will increasingly move towards subscription-based models to access products and services rather than a one-time purchase.

For the past two years, Liftoff’s data pointed to the growth of the subscription model, but this year it shows one key difference: mobile users are far more willing to subscribe to a service than to make a one-time purchase.

“The subscription model, particularly in e-commerce, offers consumers a convenient, personalized, and often lower-cost way to buy what they want and need,” stated Mark Ellis, CEO and co-founder of Liftoff. “In Asia, we are now seeing more regional companies attempting to emulate the subscription-based models seen in the West and try to replicate it in the region.

“With, internet and mobile penetration set to grow even further, we only see such services not only becoming more popular in the region, but even going as far as to say that they could be the norm. Marketers looking to capitalize on this cultural shift should explore subscription-based models or tiers, or take note of key points in the year when purchase behavior is up to get the most bang for their buck.”