Posts in category: Entrepreneurs

Imagine earning a steady income, yet every month you find yourself struggling to invest and grow your wealth — what if you could change that? You want to save, invest, and plan for the future, but somehow only a small portion of your earnings ever makes it to an investment account.

This is what Mumbai-based Rohit Chauhan, a chartered accountant, began noticing as a common problem while working in the corporate sector. “If people have the capacity to invest ₹100, they end up investing only ₹80,” he observed. It wasn’t a matter of intent but of habit—financial discipline often gave way to impulse spending, and the need for a buffer held back potential investments.

This gap sparked the foundation of what would eventually become Ingood, a Mumbai-based fintech startup.

Rohit teamed up with Anuradha Singh, a fellow chartered accountant with sharp operational expertise. Together, they designed a platform that would do more than just track expenses—it would automatically invest surplus funds.

Their bold move was integrating credit card management with investment tools, allowing users to leverage the 40-day interest-free period on credit cards to invest smarter without affecting liquidity.

Redefining Financial Discipline: Ingood’s Services and Offerings

Built by Rohit Chauhan, Anuradha Singh, the Ingood app, developed by this Mumbai-based fintech startup, is designed to simplify financial management while encouraging smarter habits. It’s more than just an investment tool—it’s a personal finance companion.

Spending Analysis: The app tracks credit card usage to calculate an individual’s average monthly spending. Whenever the current month’s expenses fall below that average, the difference—your surplus—is identified as potential savings.

Automated Investments: Users choose what portion of that surplus they want to invest. At the end of the month, Ingood automatically moves that amount into selected instruments, either index funds with 10%+ potential returns for risk-takers or instant redemption funds offering 6–7% returns with full liquidity.

“The money is readily available to you,” explains Chauhan, emphasizing that flexibility is never compromised.

Credit Card Integration: Ingood links users’ existing credit cards and leverages the 40-day interest-free credit window. “For one month, we have already earned a return on that money which you have invested at the start,” Chauhan explains, showcasing how the platform turns surplus money on your credit card into compounding returns.

Spending Insights: The app also offers detailed spending reports, helping users develop financial awareness. Chauhan shares a revealing anecdote: “One user spent ₹33,000 on Zomato in 3 months, and his salary was just ₹35,000 a month.” These insights often become a wake-up call, nudging users toward better money management.

Introducing Smart Sweep by Ingood:

Say hello to a smarter way to manage your money. With Ingood’s innovative Smart Sweep feature, your idle funds are automatically optimized—seamlessly integrating investments and credit management. It’s not just better than traditional savings—it’s the future of financial intelligence.

Where and How Ingood Plans to Scale

Currently in its pre-launch phase, the Ingood app is being tested by a select group of developers, friends, and family. “We’ve released it to a closed group, and we’ll open it up to a larger set in the next 10 days or so,” shares Rohit Chauhan, hinting at a full-fledged rollout on the Google Play Store.

The platform’s initial focus is on Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, specifically targeting IT professionals and young earners who are eager to take control of their finances. Whether someone earns ₹40,000 or upwards of ₹3 lakhs, the app is designed to serve a wide income bracket with equal efficiency.

Backed by Afthonia Labs, their growth approach is deliberately organic, relying on word of mouth, early adopters, and user trust rather than aggressive marketing.

The goal is to acquire 20,000- 30,000 users in the first six months and gather deep insights into spending behavior. “At this stage, revenue isn’t our priority. Understanding our users is,” Chauhan emphasizes during the interview with Empowering Indians.

Challenges, Setbacks, and the Road to Launch

Building Ingood wasn’t a linear journey—it was a leap of faith carved out of conviction. In December 2022, Rohit Chauhan, the Mumbai-based founder, made a bold decision: he quit a cushy job paying ₹26–27 lakhs a year to chase his entrepreneurial dream. In hindsight, he calls it “a bad call”—not because he didn’t believe in the idea, but because he underestimated the climb.

“You can’t raise funds at the idea stage; you need to show up with a site,” Chauhan candidly shares. His original plan involved launching a co-branded credit card, but this proved nearly impossible without venture capital support. “Issuing your own co-branded credit card is like a mammoth of a job,” he admits, as banks and NPCI remained inaccessible for early-stage founders.

Amid these roadblocks, instead of issuing their own card, they pivoted to mapping existing credit cards—a workaround that dramatically accelerated Ingood’s development. This strategic shift not only made the product more agile but also kept it user-centric.

The journey wasn’t cheap. With ₹20–27 lakhs invested from their own pockets, Chauhan and Singh bootstrapped the entire development. Collaborating with tech partners like Cybrilla, SETU and ZET, they built a product from scratch. “We’ve been building this for the last seven months,” Chauhan says proudly. The first working delivery came just 15 days before the interview—a significant milestone that marked months of tireless work.

From One-Room Homes to High Finance: The Making of a Resilient Founder

Rohit Chauhan’s journey began in Patna, Bihar, where his family lived in a single-room home. Financial hardship interrupted his education in the 7th grade, but his sister—a chartered accountant herself—brought him to Mumbai and mentored him through his CA journey.

Rohit supported himself on an internship stipend that started at just ₹3,500. Yet, determination pushed him forward. He cracked his CA entrance exam with an impressive score of 185/200, setting the stage for a high-flying career. 

From an initial role at J.P. Morgan to working in alternative investment funds, he rose through the ranks, earning ₹26–27 lakhs annually by 2022.

However, he left the well-paying job to embark on his entrepreneurial journey.

Meanwhile, Anuradha Singh’s experience spans asset reconstruction, credit operations, and financial restructuring. Her clarity in execution and problem-solving mindset played a key role in turning InGood into a product rather than just an idea.

Together, they embody complementary strengths: vision, grit, and operational precision.

Vision and Plan Ahead

Chauhan and Singh have an ambitious vision for Ingood. They aim to empower India’s 50–60 crore underserved earners (those making ₹10,000–30,000 monthly), who lack access to investment opportunities and credit cards. “I want to capitalize on the growing UPI and e-commerce penetration,” says Chauhan. His plan is to introduce mutual fund-backed credit cards to serve this demographic, offering an alternative to high-interest credit cards used for small purchases like mobile phones.

“We want to sell investment, not credit cards,” he asserts at the end of the Empowering Indians interview.

In the bustling city of Bengaluru, known for India’s vibrant startup landscape, Afthonia Lab stands as a beacon of support for fintech startups.

The idea for Afthonia Lab, founded by Tanul Mishra, began with a simple realization during her entrepreneurial venture, Eatelish. She successfully exited the startup in 2018.

Those early days in the startup world highlighted a significant gap in India’s ecosystem for supporting fledgling businesses.

The Gap in India’s Startup Ecosystem:

The US and China, with leading global startup hubs, boasted over 2,500 and 1,500 incubators and accelerators, respectively. These were mainly tailored to specific industries like insurance or space technology.

On the other hand, India, the third-largest startup ecosystem as of 2018, lagged behind with only about 500 incubators, most of which were tied to corporations or academic institutions.

“Recognizing the gap, I decided to establish an incubation center specifically for fintech startups, drawing on my prior work experience in payments and regulatory frameworks,” said Tanul Mishra, the founder of Afthonia Labs, in an exclusive conversation with Empowering Indians.

In 2019, Tanul Mishra, a Mumbai-based woman entrepreneur, launched her fintech incubation center.

From Limited Pocket Money to Limitless Ambitions:

Tanul, who was born and brought up in a family of doctors, grew up with defined boundaries around money and resources. Little did she know that one day she would become an entrepreneur.

“Doctors in the 80s and 90s weren’t as affluent as they are perceived today. I went to school by a school bus and had limited pocket money,” added Tanul, reflecting on her childhood in Bengaluru.

After her graduation, Tanul’s career spanned media, telecom, and payments. She co-launched Eatelish in 2012, a food service bringing artisan food makers from across India directly to consumers’ doors.

After building Eatelish to a certain level, she exited the startup to bridge the gap in incubation support in India’s startup ecosystem.

Afthonia Labs: A Comprehensive Growth Partner for Fintech Startups: 

The Bengaluru-based fintech incubator is designed to be a comprehensive growth partner for startups. Given the capital-intensive and regulation-heavy nature of the fintech space, it requires a nuanced approach.

Afthonia’s incubation program offers customized blueprints for startups to help them achieve critical inflection points. This is done by providing access to capital, markets, networks, and domain-specific mentorship.

“We are stage-agnostic. Startups at any stage—whether conceptual, early MVP, or even those with initial traction—can join us. It’s their vision that matters and how we can help them scale,” explained Tanul Mishra, the founder of Afthonia Labs, in the Empowering Indians interview.

The team at Afthonia follows a proprietary evaluation process to select startups, engaging founders in conversations that go beyond their business plans. These dialogues, involving mentors and domain experts, help craft a roadmap for each startup’s journey, ensuring their potential is fully realized.

Tanul further explained, “We bring multifaceted value to the table. Building a startup without an incubator often means relying on personal networks and cold outreach. But investors and industry leaders are overwhelmed with such requests. So, being part of an incubator adds credibility and enhances accessibility.”

Afthonia acts as a bridge between startups and the larger ecosystem, saving founders time and money, accelerating their growth, and bolstering their market reputation.

In return, Afthonia acquires a small equity stake in its portfolio companies, negotiated on a case-by-case basis.

Success Stories at Afthonia:

Since its launch in 2019, the Bengaluru-based fintech startup incubator, Afthonia Lab, has incubated over 25 startups. One of them has already been acquired by a US-based company. Most of their portfolio is either cash-flow positive, profitable, or well-funded.

The lab has also extended its reach globally through initiatives like a partnership with Invest New South Wales to help fintech and cybersecurity startups enter the Indian market.

Among its success stories is Block Survey, Afthonia’s first portfolio startup, which leverages blockchain for data privacy. The startup has thrived under Afthonia’s mentorship, securing funding from Gossamer Capital and Stacks Accelerator, and establishing a strong presence in the US market.

Another notable success is Funngro, which connects young talent with corporations through TeenLancer programs. So far, the platform has attracted over 4,000 companies, facilitated 60,000 monthly projects, and amassed 40 lakh users.

Overcoming Challenges in the Evolving Indian Incubation Landscape: 

Like every company, Afthonia Labs has faced its share of challenges. Despite its achievements, the Bengaluru-based fintech incubator encountered hurdles along the way.

“When we started, incubation was not a well-understood concept in India. There was a lot of myth-busting and awareness-building involved, especially around the value an incubator can add,” explained Tanul Mishra, founder of Afthonia Labs, in the Empowering Indians interview.

Operating with a lean team of just five members, Afthonia emphasizes strategy over operational bulk. This approach mirrors that of investor teams, focusing on intellectual and strategic support rather than day-to-day operations.

Vision and Way Ahead:

For Tanul, success isn’t measured in numbers but in impact. “We don’t talk about our revenue; we talk about how well our startups are doing,” she said.

By focusing on building a thriving ecosystem, Afthonia Lab is setting the stage for India’s fintech revolution.

As Afthonia’s portfolio grows and its global partnerships expand, it remains steadfast in its mission: to be the wind beneath the wings of fintech startups, enabling them to navigate challenges and soar to new heights.

With a firm belief in the power of collaboration and innovation, Afthonia Lab is not just incubating startups—it’s shaping the future of India’s startup ecosystem.

Shivkumar Borade, once a mechanic in a small village garage, stunned everyone when he arrived in grand AUDI SUV. It was hard to fathom that someone who had once lived in a dilapidated house and endured days without food had risen to such heights of success.

Shivkumar’s journey began in small village of Pandharpur, a tehsil of Solapur, Maharashtra. His family lived in a kuccha house that barely provided shelter, with rainwater seeping through the roof during monsoons. His mother was a homemaker, and his father ran a modest garage to support the family. Despite their struggles, Shivkumar was determined to change his circumstances.

“There were times when we couldn’t eat for two days straight. Our house was so run-down that rainwater would leak in through the ceiling,” Shivkumar recalled in an exclusive interview with Empowering Indians.

To support his education, Shivkumar started working at a young age while attending the local government school. He took on various jobs—welding, working in the garage, painting jobs, teaching karate, and even driving a newspaper delivery vehicle from midnight to early morning.

“My family wanted me to find a stable job to escape our struggles. I did find one permanent government job, but I couldn’t continue because deep down, I wanted to run my own business and make a significant impact,” Shivkumar, the co-founder of Mytek shared in the interview with Empowering Indians.

He briefly worked at CSF in Kota before realizing his true calling lay elsewhere.

The Birth of Mytek
Shivkumar ventured into government contracts for construction projects, where he noticed a recurring problem: delays in project completion due to communication gaps between contractors and subcontractors.

“When a government contract is awarded, it typically takes 3-4 months to mobilize resources, involving multiple subcontractors, local resources, manpower, and other factors. This delay often leads to cost overruns, which eat into profits,” Shivkumar explained.

Recognizing the need for a solution, Shivkumar and Ashwajeet Wankhede co-founded Mytek Innovations Pvt. Ltd. in 2020, a tech startup designed to streamline the project management process.
Ashwajeet, coming from a modest upbringing with an MBA in Marketing and HR, brought extensive experience from his work with multinational companies like NIIT, TCS, and UST Global. The two entrepreneurs met through a client and, realizing their complementary skills, decided to collaborate.

Mytek’s Vision and Impact
Mytek Innovations Pvt. Ltd. Is a project management and scheduling platform aimed at bridging the gap between contractors and subcontractors. The platform facilitates seamless collaboration, offering tools for detailed scheduling, resource allocation, and cash flow management.

By creating an ecosystem where clients, subcontractors, suppliers, Mytek management, and business associates are collaborated to achieve the mutual objectives, Mytek is revolutionizing the project execution process.

The startup’s mission is to reduce delays and cost overruns, fostering an environment of innovation, reliability, and excellence in project management.

Today, Mytek manages projects across Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, and Telangana, with a client roster that includes prestigious names like Piramal Pharma, Adani, and various government entities and universities.

“Every week, we receive orders worth ₹250 crore on our platform. We have to be selective about which orders to pursue and which to decline,” Shivkumar revealed in an interview with Empowering Indians.

Financial Growth and Future Aspirations
Mytek’s journey began with its first major order of Bharatnet-Mahanet, which was executed in 2021 in challenging circumstances and a rough terrain. Since then, the company has seen exponential growth.

In 2020-21, Mytek’s revenue was ₹17 lakhs, which surged to ₹1.5 crores in 2021-22, and further skyrocketed to ₹10.48 crores in 2022-23.

“We are targeting a revenue of ₹300 crores this year (2024-25) and ₹700 crores by 2026-27,” Shivkumar confidently stated in the interview with Startup Pedia.

The company is also exploring fundraising options, with a current valuation estimated at ₹500 crores.

Reflecting on his journey, Shivkumar shared a piece of advice: “Everyone aspires to be rich and successful, but few have the patience and dedication to achieve it. Work hard and stay patient; success will follow,” in the end of the Empowering Indians interview.

Coming from a village in Bihar where IIT is often mistaken for ITI, Kundan Shahi always aspired to be an entrepreneur. In Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it’s common for people to get into real estate, earn big money, buy a Scorpio or Fortuner, and then venture into politics. Kundan wanted to make good money too, but in a different way.

“I always wanted to create something of my own, but not in a way that would make people whisper about how I made my money,” said Kundan Shahi, who was born to a farmer father and a homemaker mother.

Education and Early Career

He completed his schooling at a government school in his village and then earned a BCA (Bachelor in Computer Applications) from Muzaffarpur district in Bihar. After graduation, he moved to Delhi in search of a job to support himself.

Driven by the desire to do something significant and earn money to become independent and help his family financially, he literally ran away from home. Upon arriving in Delhi, he initially stayed with relatives but soon rented a place of his own to live independently.

He took up a job in a call center and was earning a monthly salary of Rs. 4500.

Introduction to Insurance and Entrepreneurship

“I also worked at EXL, a Noida-based company, in their quality and process experts department. During my time there, I assisted one of the largest US-based insurance companies by identifying potential risks and suggesting improvements for their business. This experience introduced me to risk insurance and writing, which I initially found boring but gradually became very interesting to me.”

This newfound interest led him to the idea of setting up his own insurance company, focusing on the substantial legal insurance segment.

“I wanted to start a legal insurance company in India to support businesses and individuals by helping them offload their financial risk associated with litigation,” said Kundan during the conversation with Empowering Indians.

Launching Advok8 and LegalPay

In 2016, Kundan Shahi launched his first startup, Advok8, an Indian legal tech company aimed at improving access to justice by connecting lawyers and clients and offering innovative funding options for lawsuits. However, it did not resonate with Kundan’s vision of what he wanted to create for the Indian legal ecosystem, so he began exploring other options and landed on LegalPay.

In 2019, Kundan and his brother, Chandan, launched LegalPay with the aim to assist businesses and individuals in offloading their burden of litigation expenses and gaining access to justice.

LegalPay’s Unique Approach

Being a fintech startup, LegalPay focuses on a specific and substantial market segment that traditional fintech companies do not typically address: the legal sector. Recognizing that one size does not fit all, LegalPay tailors its customer segments, user journeys, and services to meet the unique needs of this market.

LegalPay provides credit services designed to facilitate credit payments and resolve collection issues in legal cases. In India, the legal system is often sluggish, partly because the country is credit-thirsty. For example, if an MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise) has a significant case against it, it might prefer to invest money back into the business rather than settling the case, which can generate higher returns.

Addressing Delays in the Legal System

In the Indian judicial system, the defendant often has significant power. If defendants believe a case is not viable, they might delay payments, exacerbating the backlog of cases. LegalPay addresses this issue by bridging the gap between litigants (those pursuing the case) and defendants (those who need to pay).

When a court order triggers a financial transaction, LegalPay steps in to facilitate the payment process. For example, if a party owes Rs. 1 crore, LegalPay might offer the claimant an upfront payment of 80 lakhs in exchange for their claim, then structure a deal with the defendant to repay this amount in installments over a year. This arrangement ensures liquidity for the litigant and manageable payment terms for the defendant.

Additionally, LegalPay provides funding for litigations when parties lack the financial resources to pursue their cases. This dual approach of facilitating payments and providing litigation funding helps streamline the legal process and reduce case backlogs in India. In the first year, the fintech startup had around 10 clients. In the second year, they grew to around 44 clients. Currently, they now have over 400 clients.

Growth and Financial Impact

In the first year, they handled claims worth 10 crores. The following year, they managed claims worth 20 crores due to limited capital. The next year, they funded around 70 crores.

Currently, LegalPay’s assets under management are approximately INR 4000 crores as deferred revenue, expected by March.

“The plan is to manage assets worth USD 1 billion dollars from INR 4,000 crores within the next year,” Kundan told Empowering Indians.

Introducing QuickSettle

QuickSettle offers a solution for B2B payments by providing credit lines to customers (who purchase or transact with other businesses for products/services) only to repay the vendors (who deliver goods and services to other businesses), ensuring 100% advance payments to businesses and eliminating the risk of credit and delays.

With flexible Buy Now, Pay Later options, it enables businesses to manage expenses ranging from working capital, marketing, legal, salaries, etc., boosting financial stability and cash flows. By slashing payment cycles and mitigating credit risk, QuickSettle promotes cash flow, customer loyalty, and revenue growth by up to 20%, making it a transformative tool for B2B operations.

Currently, QuickSettle has disbursed INR 200 crores. However, the goal is to disburse INR 1,000 crores annually over the next three years.

When four passionate tight-knit work colleagues transformed their friendship into business partnerships they founded a venture called Nuvepro Technologies in Bangalore.

Challenging the conventional thought of settling by the 50s, Jankiraman S, Giridhar LV, Rajesh Menakath Vasudevan, and Moyukh Goswami collectively took the risk of quitting their jobs to focus on their passion for entrepreneurship. Like every startup encompasses stories of struggle and failure, this venture’s tales are no short of it. 

In conversation with Empowering Indians came one of the co-founders of Nuvepro Technologies to share about the brand and their entrepreneurial journey.  

Giridhar LV, speaking about the brand’s journey from when it started in 2014, originating as a spin-off from LTI Mindtree shed light on how their experience of failures and learning molded their vision along the journey. 

Giridhar  said while talking to Empowering Indians, “In the beginning, Nuvepro Technologies was mainly dealing with the multi-cloud management for data centers. Gradually our brand began to focus on helping workers and learners gain the skills they need to do well in projects, tasks, or jobs. We achieve this by filling in skill gaps and providing practical learning opportunities. The shift resulted when we began to recognize the needs of the customers closely, which led to efficient growth in our company as well.”

Nuvepro is a learning lab that helps the workforce to upskill through three stages of learning; real-world training, assessments, and practice environments. 

For the first stage, learners start by learning from an instructor or a faculty. The startup gives learners Practice Playgrounds for this part, which are like ready-to-use practice spaces. Then comes the next step where learners reinforce what they have learned. 

“We offer projects with guidance that are based on real-world scenarios and lastly checking what you’ve learned with tests – again, these tests are like real-world situations done in a practice space. When we have a certain skill we want to teach, we put together these practice spaces, projects, and tests into Skill Bundles,’’ added Giridhar- co-founder of Nuvepro. 

Having collaborated with around 60 to 70 organizations, with 30 active clients monthly, mostly in India. The platform serves three categories: IT service organizations, upskilling platforms, and higher education institutions. 

For enterprises, Nuvepro provides packages of skills that help workers become really good at using cloud technologies. This makes them capable of performing better in their projects and tasks. 

Educational technology (EdTech) companies can easily include Nuvepro’s skill packages in their teaching methods, making learners better at skills and boosting their chances for a successful career. 

Universities can connect what industries need with what they teach using Nuvepro’s complete solutions, training partners, pre-configured sandboxes, and industry projects. 

Read more: With Rs. 4 lakh, two friends launched ‘Cosmofeed’ to help creators monetise contents, made Rs. 200 crore turnover in 2023

Nuvepro Technologies aims to focus on providing B2B training services, working with organizations and not individual users. The company’s major clients include IT service organizations like TCH, Mahindra, Wipro, and global companies like Genpact, and HP. The platform serves three categories: IT service organizations, upskilling platforms, and higher education institutions like Bits Pillani, IIMs, and IITs.

Looking back at their startup journey, Giridhar talked about how they went through the first four years of their startup until they finally figured out what was missing and the business didn’t work out. 

“In 2014, we started with data software, but it didn’t work because we didn’t understand what customers needed. In 2018-19, we switched to training services because people wanted to learn online. During COVID, our team grew to about 70 members. At first, we made a mistake by thinking technology would sell itself, but we learned from it. We used our experience in IT services and managing a team to meet customer needs and changed our platform to provide hands-on training online.”

Continuing with the journey, he also reflected on the growth of customers. He added that before 2019, the data software business had 8-10 customers and made less than $250,000 a year. With training services, Nuvepro managed to have 60-70 customers, with 30 using it regularly each month. 

“But it’s been a bit up and down after this year because of economic challenges. Right now, 40,000 to 60,000 people use our platform every month,” told Gridhar.  

The prices vary, starting at Rs. 30 per hour for some services and going up to several thousand rupees for bigger packages. Sometimes it can even be Rs. 25,000 for one user, considering everything from start to finish. 

The startup Nuvepro Technologies from Bangalore began with 15 people and found success by learning from their mistakes and listening to what customers needed.

While talking about the financial aspect of the business, Gridhar mentioned during the interview with Empowering Indians that  Nuvepro Technologies was launched with an initial investment of Rs. 6 crores that came from all four co-founders. They aimed to use the investment primarily for product development and building a team for engineering, support, sales, and marketing. 

Mentioning the revenue of Nuvepro Technologies over the years, Giridhar said, “The startup’s growth has been notable, transitioning from annual revenue of one crore before 2019 to Rs. 15 crores now.” 

He further added, “One of the primary reasons for success goes to understanding the needs of the customers to plan your startup, and the second is to find a large customer base willing to pay for the services.”

Upskill yourself: Learn skills from successful personalities and boost your career.

Giridhar believes that the confidence in their valuable skills have motivated them to take the risk of starting a venture  in their middle age when many people are considering retirement. 

He added, “We were intrigued by the emerging technology of cloud systems and saw potential opportunities in the field. All of us were assured of our skills that if we failed at setting up this business, we still had valuable skill sets and the confidence to return to our jobs.”

Intending to carve their name in the start-up ecosystem, Giridhar LV and his three friends, who have been friends for decades, are aspiring to grow their company, Nuvepro Technologies, all around the world to bring significant revenue growth in the future.

Beyond the realm of their entrepreneurial journey, it often makes a reader curious how entrepreneurs manage their work-life while doing a venture that requires a person’s presence in fulfilling the responsibility quite closely. 

In the interview, Giridhar shared pieces of advice as entrepreneurs on putting up with the work-life balance. He emphasized one should be ready to be available based on the demands of the hour, whether it’s for work-related matters or family commitments. 

“As an entrepreneur, the work-life line is always blurry because your presence often revolves around the immediate needs of the business, such as fulfilling customer needs or resolving issues. Rather than striving for a strict work-life balance.” Giridhar has participated in numerous marathons 

Unknown to each other, Vivek Yadav and Vishnu Pathak, crossed their paths in an event and became good friends. While exchanging business ideas they came across an idea about starting a digital platform for digital entrepreneurs to run and grow their businesses seamlessly. Hence, the duo launched Cosmofeed in 2021. In less than two years, it has already made Rs. 200 crore in turnover. 

Empowering Indians had an exclusive conversation with Cosmofeed co-founder Vivek Yadav to chronicle the journey of Cosmofeed. 

While researching on various business ideas, Delhi based Ex-investment banker Vivek Yadav and techy Vishnu Pathak found that small digital entrepreneurs such as sellers, coaches, educators face a huge challenge to discover tools, build communities, and monetize their content.

Determined to tackle the challenge, the duo friends toiled away day and night to build a digital platform called Cosmofeed and launched it in December 2021. They initially invested Rs. 4 lakh on the same which was their savings from the corporate jobs they have done for years. Interestingly, Vivek and Vishnu worked on the business from home for the initial six months.   

Also read: Kolkata’s Ayush Sarda empowers thousands of Sundarbans villagers through social enterprises- HumTree

Explaining about the platform, Vivek said during the conversation with Empowering Indians, “Cosmofeed is a platform (Smartphone app) which gives creators tools and infrastructure to launch their own products and services. Let’s say, you have built content around different topics and you have a following on the internet, then you can use our platform to monetise your contents via courses and webinars.” 

He further added that digital entrepreneurs or creators don’t have to use any other tools to monetise and manage their customers’ database. Everything is done automatically on Cosmofeed. 

For instance, you launch a webinar and promote it across your network. When customers start subscribing to your webinar, the Cosmofeed will take care of everything from customers payment, maintaining the list of customers and updating them about their plans and renewals etc. 

“This automatic process reduces the efforts, time, and cost of the creators who otherwise would do all this stuff manually with the help of multiple resources and tools,” said Vivek. Cosmofeed charges around 10-12% from the creators when users make payments for a subscription. 

To promote the platform, the friends-turned-business partners contacted thousands of small digital entrepreneurs or creators and asked them to use Cosmofeed for free. Since it is easy to use, the first 100 creators got onboard seamlessly. From there, the word spread and more creators began using the digital platform to monetise their products and services. 

In the first three months, Cosmofeed had around  20,000 users and since then the users were doubling down month-on-month. “It’s been two years now and we have got close to around three million users signed up on our platform,” Vivek told Empowering Indains. He is a CEO of Cosmofeed, while Vishu is a CTO. 

Upskill yourself: Learn skills from successful personalities and boost your career.

So far, the platform has more than 25,000 creators spread across India. Users are those who use or subscribe to the services creators are selling on Cosmofeed.  

As the number of users and creators increased, the financial growth of the platform also grew month after month. From December 2021 to March 2022, a business of Rs. 100 crore was done on Cosmofeed. This figure has been doubled down in the financial year 2022-23. “Out of the total business, Rs. 2.5 crore was made in revenue by us (Cosmofeed),” said Vivek. Now, they have an office in Gurgaon where 60 employees are working.  

Vivek and Vishnu have raised Rs. 12.5 crore in seed funding which was led by growx ventures, Waveform Ventures, 9 Unicorns in March 2022. The whopping funding helped Cosmofeed grow exponentially.  

“From India, for the globe. This is the major dream for us. Cosmofeed will be the very strong creators’ brand from India for the globe,” signed off Vivek Yadav.