Stanley Lifestyles Plans to Launch 55 Retail Outlets with an Investment of Rs 70 Cr and Targets an IPO by 2024

Stanley Lifestyles, the maker of premium furniture and home décor products, today announced its foray into complete luxury home interior solutions and personal accessories through Stanley Level Next, its new flagship premium lifestyle store launched in Bangalore. Over the next two years, the company plans to open five more Stanley Level Next new-gen retail outlets with an investment of Rs 20 Crs and expand its omni-channel mid-segment furniture outlets - ‘Sofas & More’, from 7 to 50 stores with an investment of Rs 50 Crs. Preparing for a global foray and plans for an IPO by FY 24, the company is targeting a revenue of Rs 650 Crs.

Committed to the ‘Make in India’ initiative, Stanley plans to expand its 3.5 Lakh sq. ft. state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Bangalore, with an additional 2 Lakh sq. ft. to meet the growing demand and looks to increase its employee base from 1200 to 5000 in the next five years. The company has commissioned two new factories in 2019, one for kitchen and wardrobes and the other for premium mattress and bedding, with an investment of Rs 15 Crs.

Present across 20 exclusive stores and 30 sales points in 10 Indian cities, which include Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, and with plans to grow, Stanley group aims to achieve Rs 700 Crs by FY 25 from its current sales of Rs 360 Crs.

The company, which is India’s first manufacturing-retail home furnishing brand, is a global vendor to IKEA & La-Z-Boy and caters to the automobile manufacturers in India such as Tata, Toyota, Ford, Mahindra & Mahindra, Renault; aviation manufacturers such as Boeing; and hospitality customers like Taj Hotels, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Starwood, among others.Stanley is an ‘A’ rated debt free company, with adequate cash reserves and has successfully raised growth capital fund with a company valuation of USD 125 million.

On his quest to make Stanley a truly global Indian company, Sunil Suresh, Founder Chairman and MD, Stanley Group said, “We compete with international brands and are known for our high quality standards & craftsmanship and proudly position ourselves in high-end home & lifestyle business. As India’s very own luxury brand, we strive to exceed the expectations of the discerning Indian consumers, and design and develop modern offerings with an International touch that are customised to suit Indian lifestyle and living conditions.”

“Our rich legacy of upholstering for top OEMs and our award winning OEM divisions has served some of the most iconic global brands. We have set up a cabinetry manufacturing unit with German know-how, to design and manufacture kitchens, wardrobes and storage units. We have also commissioned a prestigious design team to helm our collection of bespoke footwear and personal accessories,” he further added.

A pioneer in premium leather sofas in India, Stanley Lifestyles opened country’s largest Multi brand anchor store – ‘Global Living Emporio’. It is spread across an area of 1,00,000 sq. ft. with 5 floors and houses over 40 internationally renowned furniture brands from across the globe, offering premium luxury furniture designs, kitchens and wardrobes for every aspect of the home. Stanley’s wide portfolio also includes – ‘Stanley Boutique’, its legacy stores that primarily sell sofas and recliners; ‘Sofas & More’, its product driven omni channel concept, housing latest globally inspired furniture collection targeting mid and mid-high segments of the markets and ‘Stanley Level Next’, its new format stores that aim to position Stanley as a lifestyle brand, selling fashion accessories, furniture and custom automotive seat covers.

About Stanley Lifestyles

Stanley is India’s leading luxury furniture and home decor brand. Our 20 select outlets and design studios, across the country, are an inspiration for design aficionados. Beautifully crafted products are displayed, and colour coordinated in a manner that helps one visualise the products in home environment and conceive unique ideas for home décor.

Rooter Shifts Focus to Content to Create a Stronger Sports Fan Community

Rooter, India’s biggest Sports Fan Engagement Platform and online sports community has transformed its business model by adding Live and user-generated sports content to the Rooter app. The launch of the Rooter app, which is India’s only user Generated Sports Content Ecosystem, is widely expected to create greater traction by adding more sports enthusiasts to the platform.

Since its launch in 2016, Rooter has hitherto been focusing on building a community of sports fans via live prediction games, match chat forums, quizzes, trivia and news updates. With the latest move, it now seeks to provide customized sports content and comprehensive scorecards in eight vernacular languages. It not only allows them to upload video and audio content but also go live during the matches to comment & analyze for their followers, in its shimmering new avatar.

The central USP of the brand lies in personalizing sports content and lending a voice to millions of fans across sports and gaming. Rooter engages fans with User Generated Live Audio and Video content over different sports and offers a personalized sports feed & Scorecards in 8 Indian languages. It partners a number of technology companies in India to provide Sports Engagement to more than 50mn users on their platforms.

With the number of mobile internet users in India rising to 350MN+ and the number of non-English speaking smartphone users amounting to about 250MN+, the social media sector in the country presents a tremendous 10x growth opportunity with the current $300mn digital advertising market set to reach an astounding $3bn by 2023.

With the current legion of sports content users in India set to double from 330 million viewers in 2018-19 to around 600 million (65% of which are non-English speaking users) in the next couple of years, there arises a prominent void within the industry segment of a pure sports regional content platform that can provide vernacular users with a content experience that is curated specifically to suit their sports need in their preferred languages.

The online sports platform boasts of around 200K daily and 2.5 MN monthly users who dedicate around half an hour every day engaging with a variety of content spanning multiple sporting disciplines such as cricket, football, kabaddi, and gaming. Moreover, the app allows users to go live in its just-launched merged commentary option to create an all-round immersive sporting experience for every fan.

The app also provides a server to server plug-and-play integration that allows their partners to customize and present real-time sports data, content to their user’s satisfaction. As the new content mix of the rooter’s app, features about 85% of user-generated content, it will also include not just international and domestic games and tournaments, but also school and college-level games. The new business model of the company seeks to benefit from the high user monetization witnessed in audio and video content platforms by helping the fantasy platforms acquire users and create engaging content. Rooter will also drive social commerce by addressing the highly untapped sporting merchandise sector in India.

Commenting on the latest product launch, Piyush, Founder and CEO, Rooter, said, “The core mission of Rooter has always been to create a tech platform that will connect fans and create a strong community. We initially provided features around Live Sports Gaming to create the community but pivoted to content once we realized the opportunity to cater to more than 300mn non-english sports fans who are looking for content in their language and are more comfotable with audio and video to express themselves. The traction post this pivot has been very encouraging and we will at 10 mn monthly active users by the mid of 2020. ”

About Rooter:

Rooter is India's biggest Sports Community Platform that is Personalizing Sports Content and giving a voice to millions of fans across sports and gaming. Rooter engages fans with User Generated Live Audio and Video content over different sports and offers a personalized sports feed & Scorecards in 8 Indian languages. Aside from Cricket, Football, and multiple other sports, Rooter also allows gaming fans to do Live Streaming of their games and also share best game videos with other gamers. Rooter was started in 2016 by Piyush and Dipesh Agarwal and have raised funds from IeAD Fund, Venture Catalysts, Anthill Ventures, Boman Irani and a number of angel investors.

Mahindra Adventure Successfully Concludes Fifth Edition of ‘Club Challenge’

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), concluded the fifth edition of the Mahindra Adventure ‘Club Challenge’ where the top 15 off-roading clubs from across the country, competed for off-roading honors.

After an arduous battle, over two days and seven obstacles, the overall winner trophy was presented to Kerala based off-roading club ‘Wayanad Jeepers’ who took home a grand prize money of Rs. 5 lakh. The first runner up ‘Bangalore Off-Road Driver’s Association’ (BODA) won a prize amount of Rs. 3 lakh, while ‘R&T Off-Road Club’, grabbed the second runner up title, taking home a prize money of Rs. 2 lakh.

Other participating clubs this year included Team XXPENDABLEZZ Club 4*4, D.OT, East Jainita Adventure Motorsport, Motor Sports Club of Meghalaya, Punjab OffRoaders Club, Kerala Adventure Sports Club, Verge Racing, Extreme OffRoaders, 4*4 KROC, Northern India OffRoad Club, KTM Jeepers, and Flywheel.

Participants from the best off-roading clubs from across India battled at the ‘Club Challenge’ to win the coveted title of ‘Best Off-Roading Club’ in India. All obstacles focused on teamwork rather than on individual performances. The Club Challenge kicked off on February 22, 2020 with exciting night stages. The next day, February 23, 2020 witnessed the day stages and concluded by a grand award ceremony in Bengaluru.

The signature obstacle ‘Demolition Derby’, continued to be a part of this year’s challenge, as the off-road vehicles negotiated a path over scrapped vehicles. Another iconic obstacle ‘Pass the Baton’ witnessed all classes of vehicles run a relay format of driving and pass the baton from one vehicle to another tackling the obstacles and then crossing the finish line. Some of the new obstacles introduced this year were Straps of God, Drag Race and Tug of War.

About Mahindra Adventure

A unique concept to showcase the tough and rugged DNA of Mahindra vehicles, Mahindra Adventure functions as an umbrella brand with a series of self-drive overland adventure expeditions organized under its banner. Mahindra Adventure was launched as an independent entity for all adventurous activities, in 2011, headed by Bijoy Kumar Y, Chief of Adventure Initiatives. He is a motoring enthusiast and the erstwhile editor of a popular motoring magazine.

To spread the DNA of off-roading, the Mahindra Adventure team has also launched the Mahindra Adventure Off-Road Training Academy in Igatpuri, India’s first dedicated facility providing a one stop solution to learning everything about a Mahindra 4WD vehicle and how to use it to its full potential. Through this, we hope to leverage the brand’s off-road heritage, showcase the vehicles abilities and give the participants the confidence to explore the limits of the vehicles. Custom-made Mahindra Thars equipped with radio sets are exclusively used as training vehicles at the facility. After dominating the Rallying scene in India with back to back victories in 2017, 2018 and numerous Cross Country Rally wins; the Super XUV500 has made way for the new kid-on-the-block the Super XUV3OO. The potent R2C spec XUV3OO won the last round of INRC 2019. And is roaring to set the stage on fire this year. 

Subex Unveils Findings of Cybersecurity Threat Landscape Report 2019

Subex has published the findings of its annual Threat Landscape Report 2019.  The report, prepared using threat intelligence gathered from Subex’s global honeypot network now operational in 62 cities globally, has presented ten key global trends that have the most significant implications for enterprises, governments, citizens, and other stakeholders. The report highlights rising malware complexity and sophistication, increasing reconnaissance capabilities of hackers, and increasing attacks on common IoT devices and critical infrastructure as areas of concern needing immediate intervention.

New York, New Delhi, Atlanta, London, and Kyiv are among the most attacked cities globally. 2019 saw the large-scale introduction of new malware coinciding with geopolitical events in South Asia, the Middle East, and North America.  The expansion of bot networks into new geographies has also contributed to the growth in cyberattacks globally. Attacks across classes grew significantly, with crypto mining attacks registering an 8 percent increase over 2018.

The report also found differences in patterns of attacks registered in certain regions and countries. For instance, in the USA, there were differences in industries targeted by hackers on the East Coast and the West coast. Middle East region was a hotbed of reconnaissance activity while India registered a whopping 34 percent increase in inbound cyber attacks over 2018. India accounted for as much as 3 percent of all new malware detected, and the country also registered the presence of many variants of common malware such as Mirai. A significant proportion of these variants were not detected anywhere else.     

The report provides a threat forecast for 2020.

Key trends observed in 2019:

Revenue leakage attributable to cyberattacks remain a source of concern
Surveillance cameras remain the most attacked category of devices
Most attacked regions – NA, South Asia, and the Middle East
Malware prices have registered a significant increase in H2 2019
Ransomware is the most common category of malware detected
Global increase in reconnaissance (listening) attacks on critical infrastructure
Significant increase in outbound attacks from China targeting India
Ukraine, Slovenia, and India reported many variants of common malware
Increase in the detection of malware engineered in academic/ other sophisticated labs

“Our continuing efforts to monitor the global threat environment and the results it has yielded has led us to believe that hackers, malware developers and other entities are ramping up their efforts to monitor, break into, steal data from and disrupt the operations of a range of businesses and institutions. These findings should be seen in the larger context of the evolving threat environment that surrounds Information Technology, Operational Tech, and Internet of Things deployments and infrastructure. We hope this report helps cybersecurity decisionmakers and stakeholders to take appropriate decisions and interventions,” said Vinod Kumar, Managing Director & CEO, Subex.

Accenture Opens Innovation Hub in Pune to House It’s Second Nano Lab in Asia Pacific

Accenture has opened its third Innovation Hub in India, expanding its innovation capabilities for clients. The Accenture Innovation Hub in Pune provides an immersive environment for clients to co-innovate with Accenture experts in a variety of industries and across a range of advanced technologies, including extended reality, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, blockchain and quantum computing, among others.

Part of Accenture’s global innovation network, the Innovation Hub in Pune will seamlessly integrate with the Innovation Hub in Bengaluru and the Innovation Hub in Hyderabad, and will bring best of innovations and capabilities from India using state-of-the-art collaboration technologies.

“Rapid technology innovations are increasing the competitive pressure on businesses across the globe. At Accenture, we are focused on helping our clients predict and prepare for these changes by applying advanced technologies to shape their future,” said Bhaskar Ghosh, group chief executive, Accenture Technology Services. “Our new Innovation Hub in Pune will bring together the best of Accenture’s technology and innovation capabilities from around the world, enable our clients to scale their technology investments and boost their business outcomes across the enterprise, and create new opportunities for local talent.”

Located in SP Infocity in Pune, the new innovation hub will have more than 1,200 people working out of it and will feature Accenture’s second Nano Lab in the Asia-Pacific region. The Nano Lab will showcase the latest breakthroughs in applied research from Accenture Labs worldwide, featuring uses for advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, extended reality and quantum computing. It will allow clients to connect with researchers in Accenture Labs globally through immersive sessions and workshops.

Some of the focus areas of the innovation hub include helping clients develop new customer experiences using digital technologies to address the growing complexity of brand-customer interaction, and using the Industry X.0 framework and resources to help clients accelerate innovation outcomes and recast business models.

Accenture Innovation Hubs are an integral part of the Accenture Innovation Architecture, which brings together capabilities needed to ideate, prototype, build and scale disruptive solutions for clients across geographies and industries. The Innovation Hub in Pune will join others in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, India; Recife and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Toronto, Canada; Shenzhen, China; Helsinki, Finland; Tokyo; Zurich; Perth, Australia; Singapore; and 11 Innovation Hubs in the United States, including Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Houston; New York; San Francisco; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

McAfee Offers Managed Threat Detection and Response Platform Collaborating With DXC Technology

McAfee, the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, has announced that it is launching a global Managed Detection and Response (MDR) platform. DXC Technology will be McAfee’s first strategic MDR partner to leverage McAfee’s MVISION EDR solution to proactively detect cyber threats faced by customers and resolve security incidents faster.

With a rapidly evolving threat landscape, cybersecurity talent has been unable to keep up with demand. A report from (ISC)2 estimates the global IT security skills shortage to exceed four million unfilled positions up from nearly three million in 2018, putting acute pressure on skilled security operations personnel. MVISION EDR’s AI-guided investigations help DXC alleviate these challenges for its customers by proactively identifying threats that matter, and by shortening the investigation time.

“We recognized that while MVISION EDR enables security teams to act faster and with higher precision than was previously possible, it was important to find a partner that could help deliver a fully managed threat detection and response service for organizations that needed it,” said Ash Kulkarni, executive vice president and chief product officer of the enterprise business group at McAfee. “DXC was selected due to their proven security expertise in threat hunting and forensic investigation, as well as their deep knowledge of endpoint security. We are excited to see our partnership expand into new areas of growth that support these vital customer needs.”

“As threats continue to grow and become more sophisticated, it’s important to understand that not all organizations have the time nor resources to manage a modern security operations center,” said Mark Hughes, senior vice president and general manager, Security, DXC Technology. “With MVISION EDR, MVISION ePO and McAfee Advanced Threat Defense, we will be able to deliver a leading managed Endpoint Security solution that will benefit from cloud-based analytics with automated AI-guided investigations for efficient triage and investigations, to enable faster response times.”

DXC will deliver the following MDR services:

Threat Hunting – This service, which augments MVISION EDR with DXC’s Threat Intelligence and hunting expertise, will proactively uncover advanced attacks and stop breaches to minimize impact.
Forensics and Investigations – Using MVISION EDR’s automated AI-guided investigations, this service will immediately conduct in-depth investigations of endpoint security alerts and incidents to identify the origin of compromise, extent of the breach, and malicious actor attribution and intent. DXC will provide specific recommendations to contain the ongoing incident, minimize potential damage, develop or enhance security capabilities to prevent future breaches, and finally, assist in remediation coordination.
Complete Managed Endpoint Threat Detection and Response Service – Upon availability, this service will provide a 24x7 end-to-end Managed Endpoint Threat Detection and Response service that will address the needs of organizations with limited to no security staff.
This announcement enhances the collaboration between McAfee and DXC to accompany the Managed Endpoint Protection (MEP) service.

Trend Micro Blocks Over 61 Million Ransomware Attacks in 2019

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today released its 2019 security roundup report. The report details the most important issues and changes in the threat landscape to provide businesses with insights into best practices and strategies for protecting their infrastructures from current and emerging threats.

Ransomware continued to be a mainstay cyber threat last year. Overall, Trend Micro discovered a 10% increase in ransomware detections, despite a 57% decrease in the number of new ransomware families. The healthcare sector remained the most targeted industry, with more than 700 providers affected in 2019. Additionally, at least 110 US state and municipal governments and agencies fell victim to ransomware.

“Digital transformation has been a business buzzword for decades, and the concept has yielded very positive results over time. But security is often an afterthought, which leaves digital doors wide open for cybercriminals,” said Jon Clay, director of global threat communications for Trend Micro. “Despite the prevalent ideals of digital transformation, lack of basic security hygiene, legacy systems with outdated operating systems and unpatched vulnerabilities are still a reality. This scenario is ideal for ransomware actors looking for a quick return on investment. As long as the ransom scheme continues to be profitable, criminals will continue to leverage it.”

Known vulnerabilities remain key to successful cyber attacks, including ransomware. In 2019, Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) disclosed 171% more high severity vulnerabilities than in 2018. The criticality score reflects the likelihood of these flaws being leveraged by attackers, so high severity bugs are more likely to be weaponized and the patches should be prioritized.

To protect against today’s threat landscape, Trend Micro recommends a connected threat defense across gateways, networks, servers and endpoints. Additionally, these best practices can increase a company’s security posture:

Mitigate ransomware with network segmentation, regular back-ups and continuous network monitoring.
Update and patch systems and software to protect against known vulnerabilities.
Enable virtual patching, especially for operating systems that are no longer supported by the vendor.
Implement multi-factor authentication and least privilege access policies to prevent abuse of tools that can be accessed via admin credentials, like remote desktop protocol, PowerShell and developer tools.