daily roundup (July 5, 2022)

Simpl appoints Shikha Tomar as Senior Director of its Partner Success Team

Checkout network Simpl has appointed Shikha Tomar as Senior Director and Team Leader of Partner Success. With this strategic hire, Simpl aims to help its trading partners achieve their business goals.

With over 12 years of rich and varied experience, Shikha has been instrumental in creating innovative digital solutions across multiple domains. She is one of the key female leaders at Simpl, managing an important portfolio: merchant growth and success.

Shikha, Senior Director and Head of Partner Success Team, Simpl, said, “I look forward to innovating and creating an interconnected ecosystem conducive to the fintech growth space and leveraging existing partnerships. My efforts will be focused on expanding into new markets and driving partnerships with new members more effectively.”

Hiring activity remains strong, up 22 y/y in June: Naukri JobSpeak

The latest Naukri JobSpeak Index saw +22 percent year-on-year growth in June 2022 over June 2021. The Indian job market continues to show positive hiring sentiment as the Naukri JobSpeak Index stands at 2878, which is only second after peaking in Feb. ’22 when it passed 3,000. Since the beginning of this year, the country’s hiring activity has shown an upward growth trajectory.

Among industries, travel and hospitality continued to show the largest jump in hiring activity in June 2022 over June 2021 at +125 percent. Following a similar trend, retail (+75 percent) and BFSI (+58 percent) showed growth in hiring compared to June 2021, while reflecting a steady MOM trend.

Freshmen rejoice as demand for entry-level talent continues to post highest annual growth (+30 percent) in June 2022.

GoMechanic provides Rs 30 share options to partners

GoMechanic, India’s growing automotive after-sales service and support platform, has announced the launch of ‘Partner Incentive Plan’ for its service partners, workshops, retailers, distributors and consultants across India. The company has offered to issue shares worth Rs 30 crore as a reward for its vast network of service partners. The stock options will have a four-year vesting period with an annual vesting of 25 percent and a one-year decay period.

Speaking about the new initiative, Kushal Karva, Co-Founder, GoMechanic, said: “Our company’s growth is based on the diligence and trust of thousands of partner workshops across the country who continue to grow their association and maintain operations even during Covid and lockdown. The partner stock option program is a step towards incentivizing and strengthening our collaboration with our partner workshops, giving them the opportunity to participate in the long-term value creation of GoMechanic as well as the expansion of the automotive sector.”

Bounce extends its reach into rural areas through a shared network of service centers

In a move to promote the adoption of cleaner and affordable mobility solutions, Bounce has partnered with CSC e-Governance Services India, an SPV set up under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.

Through this agreement, Bounce will strengthen its presence in rural India by selling its products and services through the CSC network. Initially, the company will offer the following products and services – Bounce Infinity electric scooters, Fleet Rental & 2W/3W Retrofitting. This partnership is a collaborative effort to bring Bounce’s smart mobility offerings to rural customers across the country.

With the MoU, Bounce will aim to improve mobility in over seven lakh villages across India with its diverse consumer-centric offerings. To facilitate smooth trade in rural areas, the centers are equipped with highly skilled Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) who answer all financial and product queries; and enabling rural end customer sales and service under one roof.

Gramophone begins expanding its offline sales network to 10,000 stores

Agritech startup Gramophone on Tuesday announced plans to expand its offline sales network to 10,000 stores across the country by the end of September this year. The company, which forayed into offline retail this year, already has 5,000 stores operating across key geographies such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, western Uttar Pradesh and eastern Maharashtra. While some of these stores are owned and operated directly by Gramophone, the majority are in partnerships with existing agricultural retailers.

The owners of each of these stores will rely on GramKonnect, a new app for retailers launched by Gramophone in April 2022. The app aims to transform agricultural retail through technology, enabling Indian retailers to realize the true potential of their business and achieve seamless growth. It is a one-stop solution that allows agricultural input retailers to purchase seeds, high-quality fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and farm hardware tools and equipment without having to deal with multiple suppliers.

In these partner stores, these Gramophone-trained agri-entrepreneurs will assist farmers when it comes to decisions such as choosing the right products and providing relevant agronomic advice.

Tide partners with Transcorp to roll out RuPay powered Expense Card

Tide, the UK’s leading SME-focused business finance platform that began setting up operations in India in 2020, has announced that it has partnered with Transcorp International Limited, a 27-year-old Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulated authorized dealer of Category II and holder of a permanent Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) license to launch co-branded prepaid cards (Tide Expense Card) as an input product. This rollout stems from Tide’s expansion strategy in India, its first international market outside the UK and a pillar of its global ambitions.

Tide will offer payment services to small businesses across India, starting with the Tide Business Account accompanied by the Tide Expense Card. These Tide spending cards will be offered in partnership with Transcorp, powered by RuPay. Other payment and business services will follow later this year. The partnership leverages the expertise of RuPay, India’s local payment network, Transcorp’s long-standing reputation and Tide’s vast experience with UK SMEs to help small businesses in India save time and money.