Marking a milestone with an exclusive feature in Forbes Magazine - September 23, 2022

1. PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
/
VOLUME
14
ISSUE
19
SEPTEMBER
23,
2022
FORBESINDIA.COM
RNI
REG.
NO.
MAHENG/2009/28102
www.forbesindia.com
How the husband-wife duo of
Ruchi Kalra and Asish Mohapatra
guided two startups to
$1 billion-plus valuations and to
profits. Can they stay on that path?
Ruchi Kalra,
co-founder and CEO,
Oxyzo; co-founder,
OfBusiness, and Asish
Mohapatra, co-founder
and CEO, OfBusiness;
co-founder, Oxyzo
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SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
RIDEOF
THEIRLIVES
Mamaearth: From Red to Black Lenskart’s Bottomline Focus

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3. Letter From The Editor
India needs many more of its unicorns
to find the road to profits and viability
O
ne of the more popular adages that has
been part of investing folklore from
Wall Street to Dalal Street goes this way:
“Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity and
cash is king.” In tandem ran the truism that, along
with prospects, current earnings are an imperative to
determine a business’ intrinsic value. This contrasts
with market value, which is often sentiment-driven.
Then came venture capital (VC), and the need to value
businesses—essentially startups—differently. For the simple
reason that these business models are at an early stage,
without profit and often without even revenue. VCs, for
their part, have an exit in mind—in typically three to seven
years—and accordingly work backward to arrive at a post-
money valuation. What is more, VCs are aware that just one
or at best two investments will deliver outsized returns, and
another two or three will fail spectacularly.
So, in essence, the nature of venture capital is such
that bets are made largely based on future success and the
inevitability of duds resting in the portfolio. That explains
why the bulk of VC money can be tracked to startups
sailing in a sea of red. Consider the 100-plus member boat
of unicorns (ventures valued at $1 billion and over), where
four of five ventures are steeped in losses. This has resulted
in the old street wisdom being rewritten to: Valuation is
vanity, with sanity and the king going out of the window.
Not across the board, however. In this current issue,
Forbes India shines a light on the 20 percent unicorn club:
Those that seem to have it all going their way (at least
for now): Valuation, growth and a bottom line to boast.
A couple of caveats at this point would be prudent: One,
current profitability is no guarantee that these businesses
will continue to tread the black line. And the flip side holds
true, as well; that many of those ventures that are in the red
today may well be willing to sacrifice the bottom line in the
short term at the altar of growth. Their path to profitability
may be well chalked out, with the goal expected in three to
five years—Amazon, famously, notched up its first annual
profit nine years after it was founded. Even after turning
profitable in 2003, the etailer pumped much of the cash it
generated into new businesses like Prime and AWS.
Not all startups, however, will be as lucky to have that
opportunity. What’s clear, though, is that India needs many
more unicorns to find the road to profits and viability.
As Ashish Sharma, managing director venture debt fund
InnoVen Capital, writes on page 56: “With 100+ unicorns
and a few public companies, where millions of retail
investors have reposed their faith, it’s important that we see
the emergence of more enduring and sustainable business
models coming out of India.”
A Forbes India team led by Rajiv Singh picked a handful
of unicorns basking in the profit zone and analysed their
capability to stay in it. Our cover story is on a unique
husband-wife who have nurtured two unicorns, both
profitable. As Ruchi Kalra, co-founder of Oxyzo Financial
Services, a digital lending startup, tells Singh: “Profit has
to coexist with growth.” Husband Asish Mohapatra, who
guided OfBusiness into the unicorn club, would agree.
Cryptocurrency and online gaming are two white-
hot sectors that have attracted dollops of funding. Their
millions of users have also ensured profitability for the
unicorns. But will the going be as good as it has been so
far? Salil Panchal and Naini Thaker identify a few of the
potential roadblocks and how these businesses plan to
navigate them. You’ll find those stories on page 48 and
page 52.
From Vanity to Sanity
STORIES TO LOOK OUT FOR
(From left) Wife-husband Ruchi Kalra
and Asish Mohapatra helm Oxyzo Financial
Services and OfBusiness—both profitable
unicorns —respectively; gaming is one of the
few sectors in India with profitable unicorns
brian.carvalho@nw18.com
Brian Carvalho
Editor, Forbes India
Best,
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
3

4. FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
Contents SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
☛ VOLUME 14 ISSUE 19 ON THE COVER
4
NEHA
MITHBAWKAR
FOR
FORBES
INDIA
16 • 3Ps & UNICORNS
When promise, performance
and profit converge, you get
valuable unicorns
26 • BATTLING THE
UNICORN GAZE
A crisis almost devoured the
horsepower of Infra.Market.
Now it is trying to get back to
the racing track
32 • THE FOCUS LENS
In a decade, Peyush Bansal has
built India’s biggest eyewear
company, and a profitable
unicorn, in Lenskart
38 • PENNY WISE,
POUND FULLISH
Ghazal and Varun Alagh have
built their skincare and beauty
empire Mamaearth on the
foundation of frugality
42 • THE DARK HORSE
WHO GALLOPED AHEAD
EaseMyTrip has continued
its profitable run even as
many others in the space have
stumbled
48 • PIVOTING FOR
PROFITS
As India’s two crypto unicorns
look at other avenues, the
future of crypto intermediaries
depends on regulations
PG.
20
SINGING THE
PROFIT TUNE
Asish Mohapatra (right) and
Ruchi Kalra of OfBusiness are
wedded to the idea of building
profitable businesses
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS

5. CHAITANYA DINESH SURPUR
NISHANT RATNAKAR
NEHA MITHBAWKAR FOR FORBES INDIA AMIT VERMA
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
5
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REGULARS ● 8/LEADERBOARD ● 98/FROM THE FIELD
52 • WHO’S GAME
FOR IT?
The gaming sector has
profitable unicorns. But
with regulatory and tax
uncertainties, what does the
future hold for its players?
56 • GALLOPING
INTO PROFITABILITY
The unicorn stable needs
more startups that can strike
a balance between growth and
profitability
62 • INVESTING IN
STARTUPS: WHAT HNIS
MUST KNOW
Cash flow or growth potential:
Which startup makes for a
better investment? Sanjiv
Bikhchandani and Nikhil
Kamath discuss the perks and
pitfalls
IN FOCUS
64 • TESTING TIMES
In its introductory year, CUET
aims to standardise college
admissions, but is plagued
with teething troubles
Aaditya Sharda, co-founder of Infra.Market, has survived an income
tax raid in March and is now looking to broaden his business play
Varun and Ghazal Alagh, co-founders of Mamaearth, have built a
unicorn on the philosophy of stringent frugality
Can wearables makers take over India's smartphone market?
(From left)
Saurabh Gupta,
Manav Gupta
and Anirban
Majumdar, the
co-founders of
UrbanPiper
PG. 38
PG.26
76 • COME, FLY WITH ME
Led by Vinod Kannan, Vistara
has emerged out of Covid to
become India’s second-largest
airline
82 • THE PIED PIPER OF
RESTAURANTS
UrbanPiper has played the right
tune with a dash of pivots. But
can it now scale up?
86 • CRACKING THE
VIRAL GROCERY LOOP
Smart marketing, low customer
acquisition costs and relevant
products have played an
important role in DealShare’s
success
90 • A ZERO-PROFIT
KHAN BLOCKUSTER
Hedge fund analyst Salman
Khan quit a lucrative job to
build Khan Academy into a
massive global edtech empire
94 • SHATTERING
STEREOTYPES
The story of Romita
Mazumdar’s transformation
from an i-banker and a venture
capitalist to a ‘proud woman
founder’ of skincare brand
Foxtale
PG.68
68 • CHINESE CHECKERS
As authorities crack down on
Chinese handset makers for
alleged tax evasion, Indian
players are well-placed to
muzzle the dragon’s play in
smartphones
71 • THE BIG SMALL-
CAR COMPANY
As Maruti Suzuki turns 40,
it is investing heavily in
SUVs and EVs to maintain its
dominance of Indian roads
PG.82

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FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

8. 8
Lower Rains,
Higher Food Inflation
MONSOON
A failure of the monsoon in the East is likely to impact India’s food basket adversely
L e a d e r B o a rd
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
IN APRIL, THERE WERE FEW
indications of a deficient
monsoon. Weather
forecaster Skymet predicted rains
within 98 percent of the average.
And the arrival of the first spell in
late May pointed to a timely start of
the monsoon.
But in the first full month—June—
it became clear that the start was not
as expected. The country ended the
month with an 8 percent shortfall in
rains. Soon, it became clear that La
Nina would have a role to play.
This weather phenomenon results
in a lower-than-normal surface
temperature of 3-5 degrees in the
eastern equatorial part of the central
Pacific Ocean affecting multiple
weather patterns across the globe.
In India, it can result in more rain in
the West and South and a deficiency
in the East. So far, the monsoon has
played out according to this script.
According to GP Sharma,
president, meteorology, at Skymet
Weather, July and August were
excellent months and saw a
surplus of 17 percent and 5 percent
respectively. “Normally we don’t see
such a surplus,” he says. In the West
and South, this has meant a shift to
cotton, an important cash crop for
farmers.
The problem in 2022 has been
the spatial spread with East Uttar
RIL Unveils Plans in 5G
Company preparing for roll-out of
Jio 5G in major cities by Diwali, rest
of India by end of 2023 P/12
Having The Edge
Krishna Rangasayee of SiMa.ai is on
the cusp of emerging as a specialist in
the area of edge computing P/14
Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West
Bengal and the Northeastern states
recording a large deficit. In East
Uttar Pradesh, rains have been down
44 percent, in Bihar 39 percent and
in West Bengal 28 percent. These
areas have low irrigation coverage
and as such cannot make up for the
deficient monsoon. Already there are
signs of a lower-than-normal sowing
of sugarcane, a water intensive crop
that contributes to farmer earnings
in Uttar Pradesh and northern Bihar.
While there is an impact on
sowing, Sharma says a greater risk is
that late rains in September or early
October could damage the standing
crop, resulting in lower yields. This
could affect food inflation in the
months ahead.
SOWING DEFICIT AND INFLATION WOES
Uneven distribution of rainfall has
affected paddy cultivation in several
parts of the country. The sowing
deficit declined to 6 percent for
the week ended August 26, from
8.25 percent in the previous week.
But parched paddy fields present a
worrisome situation for hapless rain-
A dried canal in Badokhar village on the outskirts of Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. A heat wave in
May had caused drought-like conditions in vast swathes of India’s agricultural heartland
RITESH
SHUKLA
/
GETTY
IMAGES

9. dependent rice growers in states like
Bihar and Jharkhand.
As of August 26, government data
shows there is a year-on-year sowing
deficit in Jharkhand, West Bengal,
Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar
and Odisha due to deficient rains.
These states account for over 37
percent of India’s rice production. A
recent note by Nomura cautions the
price of rice will go up and add to
inflation woes. The foreign brokerage
firm expects rice output to be lower
by 10 million tonnes—a decline of 7.5
percent year-on-year—due to lower
acreage and yields.
“As of July, retail rice price
inflation rose 9.3 percent year-over-
year and we see risks of a further
rise. Together with higher wheat
prices—due to the heatwave—higher
cereal price inflation could offset
the disinflationary forces from
lower global commodity prices,” it
adds. Nomura’s economists expect
headline inflation to remain sticky
above 6 percent until February 2023.
Madan Sabnavis, chief economist
at Bank of Baroda, is wary of
the developments. In order to
address the shortage of wheat the
government had earlier announced
a higher allocation of rice under the
free food grain scheme. This could
further aggravate the situation and
put pressure on rice price, he says.
“The concern is both for rice and
pulses,” Sabnavis says. “Harvest will
be lower though, as of now, we do
not know by how much,” he adds.
Until August 26, paddy was sown
in approximately 37 million hectares
versus 39 million hectares during
the corresponding period last year.
This suggests there is a
high degree of risk of a
decline in agricultural
produce of food items
like rice and pulses
(arhar dal) because
sowing timelines have
been pushed in several
states.
To be sure, a pick-
up in rainfall will
9
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
the month of sawan [ended on August
12] is not considered favourable.
Besides, farmers’ costs also rise as
they need to use diesel pumps to
irrigate fields with groundwater.
Now, farmers are praying the
rain gods smile and make good the
deficit in September to avoid the
possibility of drought in some areas.
Meanwhile, many struggling farmers
in parts of Bihar have urged the
government to step in with relief
measures.
State governments are watching
the situation closely to firm up
strategies for crop procurement
and price stability. In fact, a likely
shortfall in crop output may lead
to export restrictions on rice. The
Public Distribution System (PDS)
can cushion the supply shock to
some extent though. There is also
good news on the procurement
front as the last two years have seen
good harvests and at 130 MT stocks
are buoyant, says Pushan Sharma,
director, CRISIL Research.
“Rice has a high weight in the CPI
so that could impact food prices to
that extent, but that said I think a
part of the deficit could be covered
by the buffer stock,” says Madhavi
Arora, lead economist, Emkay Global.
Yet, structural cracks in the PDS
have meant it has failed to absorb
supply shocks and stabilise market
prices several times in the past.
Importantly, pulses are not covered
under the system, Sabnavis points
out. He adds that farm income in
aforementioned rice and pulse
producing regions will be affected
and this could subdue the festive
demand in rural areas.
While the monsoon may yet
recover in the eastern part, the lesser
sowing would result in higher food
prices and lower farmer income
putting agricultural growth at stress.
This coming off a high base of 3.9
percent in 2021-22 would result
in a GDP hit for 41 percent of the
population that derives its income
from the farm.
● NEHA BOTHRA & SAMAR SRIVASTAVA
considerably soothe concerns, but
farm income is under pressure,
and the final situation will be clear
around the harvest season. As of
now, rice and pulse prices have
reportedly risen between 5 percent
and 10 percent since mid-July fuelled
by fears of a supply crunch.
Food inflation hurts low and
middle-income households most.
“The government may need to
step in once again, as it did when
wheat prices were going up, if the
price of rice keeps increasing too.
This will have fiscal
implications,” says Axis
Bank’s chief economist
Saugata Bhattacharya.
Farmers in most
regions depend
on monsoon to
irrigate fields for
crop cultivation.
Traditionally, planting
paddy seedlings after
INFOGRAPHIC:
MUKESH
SINGH
A BELOW PAR
MONSOON IN THE EAST
EAST UTTAR PRADESH BIHAR
WEST BENGAL
JHARKHAND
44% 39%
28%
26%
RAIN DEFICIT (As of August 30)
All India
8%
DEFICIT
JUNE
17%
JULY
5%
AUGUST
SURPLUS SURPLUS
SOURCE Skymet Weather
Farmers are
praying the
rain gods smile
and make good
the deficit in
September to
avoid drought
in some areas

10. O
rganizations require a hybrid
approach that converges
networking and security to be
able to reduce complexity, while securing
and connecting hybrid and remote users
to advanced security with superior
performance. We spoke with Satyavrat
Mishra, Vice President & Head of
Corporate IT at Godrej Industries on
why traditional network and security
architectures no longer work for today’s
digital business.
Why is Securing Networks becom-
ing critical and more important,
yet challenging?
We are witnessing an increasing
adoption and dependence on IT for
all aspects of business operations
including communication, production,
operations, supply chain and finance.
The proliferation of connected devices,
IoT, remote working and adoption of
cloud over last few years has further
accelerated digital transformation and
increased the dependence on connected
networks. While there is no organization
that is immune to cyberattacks, a secure
and protected network is essential to
protect critical assets and data.
Implementing a good security strategy
helps business reduce the risk of a
breach. Security incidents and data
breaches can have very disruptive and
devastating effects on an organization.
Recovering lost data is only part of
the equation. Extended downtime
can quickly compound costs on
an hour-by-hour basis. And more
difficult to quantify is regaining lost
consumer confidence and damage to
an organization's brand, which can take
months or years to repair.
Can you give some everyday
examples to help provide some
context?
Recently, cybercriminals known as
DarkSide gained access to the US Colonial
Pipeline network in a ransomware attack.
This shows the stakes continue to climb
and the criticalness of attacks is high.
In July 2021, a new global supply chain
ransomware attack targeted users of
the Kaseya VSA platform—software
that provides remote management of
IT operations spanning service desk
ticketing to performance monitoring
and reporting. As a central management
console, the Kaseya VSA platform is
used by numerous managed service
providers to remotely monitor and
deploy software, updates, etc. to multiple
machines simultaneously in a multi-
user environment. There are reports of
ransom demands of $50,000 for smaller
organizations and up to $5 million for
larger enterprises.
With an evolving threat landscape
with more sophisticated techniques,
how can organizations keep up?
Cyber Security is no longer an IT Issue
but has become a business one. Creating
a culture of security should be the goal
of every organization. Bearing in mind
that people are typically the weakest link
in any security link, training employees
to play an active role in the protection of
the organizations digital assets improves
an organizations security posture.
CYBERSECURITY IS NO LONGER AN IT
ISSUE BUT HAS BECOME A BUSINESS ONE
Satyavrat Mishra, Vice President &
Head of Corporate IT at Godrej Industries
Organizations need tools that can ingest
real-time threat intelligence, apply AI to
detect threat patterns and correlate massive
amounts of data to detect anomalies,
and automatically initiate a coordinated
response across networks.

11. Preparing for the worst-case scenario
helps organizations manage threats
and minimise the damage caused by
a breach. Cyber incident response
planning consists of specific actions for
specific attack scenarios, avoiding further
damages, reducing recovery time and
mitigating cybersecurity risk.
Business disruption that results from a
ransomware attack comes at a huge cost
including business downtime, mitigation
expenses, ransomware payments and
reputational costs. Even with the most
sophisticated controls, policies and
procedures in place, many organizations
still fall victim to cyberattacks. Having
adequate cyber insurance cover is an
important part of any cybersecurity
incident response and recovery plan.
What are some defensive strate-
gies that businesses should be
implementing?
The increase in the breadth and
frequency of cyberattacks translates
into more cyber risk for organizations,
which means security teams need to be
just as nimble and methodical as their
adversaries. Outdated point-product
approaches to security are insufficient,
making integrated security solutions
essential to combatting this proliferation
of advanced and sophisticated attacks.
Organizations need tools that can ingest
real-time threat intelligence, apply AI
to detect threat patterns and correlate
massive amounts of data to detect
anomalies, and automatically initiate a
coordinated response across networks.
This holistic approach to a cybersecurity
mesh architecture allows for much tighter
integration and increased automation,
making it easier for security teams
to coordinate quickly and respond
effectively to threats in real time.
As industrial systems become more
connected, they also become more
exposed to vulnerabilities. The high
cost of industrial equipment and the
negative impact to business that an
attack could generate are key factors for
organizations looking to protect their
industrial networks. By using solutions
that allow complete visibility of network
control traffic and establishing the right
security policies, one can put an effective
OT strategy in place that will protect
processes, people and significantly
reduce security vulnerabilities and
incidents.
Research suggests that human error is
involved in more than 90% of security
breaches and awareness training helps to
minimize human risk thus preventing the
loss of data. Effective awareness training
program addresses the cybersecurity
mistakes that employees may make when
using email, web, endpoint devices, social
media, physical access, and safe handling
of data.
How has Fortinet helped in reduc-
ing complexity and improving
security?
We are a large, distributed network with
users working from multiple locations.
SD-WAN makes it possible to use
available WAN services more effectively
and economically. It simplifies branch
networking, improves application
performance, and provides faster
access to cloud-based applications and
communications.
With Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN platform
in place, we now benefit from a fully
consolidated and converged network
and security stack, with one appliance
supporting all the SD-WAN, advanced
routing, and NGFW needs all managed
through a single pane of glass.
The approach has greatly simplified both
network and security management for us
as we can scale and manage security for
all locations from one place. Additionally,
thanks to flexible scripting options, our IT
teams can quickly automate configurations
and security policies to meet the diverse
needs of various locations. Beyond
security, SD-WAN application steering,
and advanced WAN remediation provide
an improved user experience.
Through the Fortinet Secure SD-WAN,
we are also significantly reducing
costs. In part, cost benefits result from
the consolidation of our network and
security systems. Further the Fortinet
Secure SD-WAN runs on the broadband
as its primary connection, we have been
able to replace expensive MPLS lines
with internet.
Cyber Security is no
longer an IT Issue
but has become a
business one. Creating
a culture of security
should be the goal of
every organization.
Bearing in mind that
people are typically
the weakest link in
any security link,
training employees to
play an active role in
the protection of the
organizations digital
assets improves an
organizations security
posture.

12. 12
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
L e a d e r B o a r d Investment commitment
made by RIL towards the
new energy business
`75,000 cr
develop an entry-level affordable
smartphone—the JioPhone Next
Android smartphone—which it
debuted in October 2021.
RIL also unveiled AirFiber, a
wireless plug-and-play 5G hotspot
that doesn’t require fibre cables and
offers a personal Wi-Fi hotspot at
home as well as offices, and launched
JioCloud PC, a virtual personal
computer that will be hosted on
the cloud using Jio’s 5G network.
RIL’s other partnerships include one
with Meta, also an investor in Jio
Platforms, for immersive technology;
Microsoft to expand the Azure
ecosystem in India; and Intel for
cloud-scale data centres, Ambani said.
Ambani said the company plans to
accelerate its commitment to invest
`75,000 crore towards the new energy
business. It will establish 20 GW of
solar energy generation capacity by
2025, and 100 GW by 2030; the new
energy business will emerge as RIL’s
newest growth engine.
In another big announcement, Isha
Ambani, director, Reliance Retail
Ventures, said that the company is
set to foray into FMCG. The move
will pit Reliance Retail—it opened
2,500 stores last year to take its store
count to 15,000—against FMCG
biggies such as Hindustan Unilever,
Nestle and Britannia. Older son Akash
and daughter Isha have assumed
leadership roles in Jio and Retail,
respectively, and are “confidently
taking over the reins,”
said Ambani. Younger
son Anant has joined
RIL’s new energy
business. That said,
Ambani isn’t retiring
yet and will “continue
to provide hands-on
leadership as before.”
Finally, Ambani
promised to share an
update on the planned
IPOs of Reliance Retail and Reliance
Jio in the company’s annual general
meeting next year.
● VARSHA MEGHANI
RIL Unveils Plans in
5G, FMCG, New Energy
Company preparing for ambitious roll-out of Jio 5G in
major cities by Diwali, rest of India by end of 2023
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED
(RIL), the oil-to-telecom
conglomerate and India’s
largest company by market
capitalisation, has earmarked `2 lakh
crore to build a pan-India 5G
network, said Chairman and
Managing Director Mukesh Ambani
in his keynote address at the
company’s 45th annual general
meeting, held virtually on August 29.
Jio 5G will be launched across
major cities, such as Delhi, Kolkata,
Mumbai and Chennai, by this
Diwali. And by the end of 2023, “we
will deliver Jio 5G to every town,
every taluka, and every tehsil of our
country,” said Ambani, vowing that
it would be “the world’s largest and
most advanced 5G network” because
Jio’s 5G service won’t rely on a 4G
network, like other telecom players.
Most operators, he said, are
deploying non-standalone 5G,
which is essentially a 5G radio
signal delivered over existing 4G
infrastructure. “This non-standalone
Ambani has
promised
to share an
update on the
planned IPOs
of Reliance
Retail and
Reliance Jio
approach is a hasty way to nominally
claim a 5G launch, but it won’t deliver
the breakthrough improvements
in performance and capability
possible with 5G,” said Ambani. In
contrast, he added, Jio will deploy
standalone 5G with super-fast, low-
latency connectivity to allow for
services such as machine-to-machine
communication, Edge computing,
network slicing and metaverse related
activities. The company
has partnered with
Qualcomm, an investor
in Jio Platforms, to
develop “cloud-native,
scalable, and flexible 5G
infrastructure, in both
mmWave and sub-6GHz,
to develop an ecosystem
that can extend beyond
India”. Furthermore,
RIL has deepened its
partnership with Google to develop
“ultra-affordable” 5G smartphones
for India. RIL had partnered with the
search giant in July 2021 to jointly
RIL Chairman
Mukesh Ambani has
earmarked `2 lakh
crore for a pan-India
5G network

13. Sandeep Singh quite well known as, the
man who is building the future & the man
who offers quality work with competence. He
founded ‘Quampetence’ in early 2019 to provide
‘Customer Experience Management Solutions’.
In a super-saturated market like BPM industry,
Sandeep realized that the opportunities are to
provide real omni-channel solutions, hyper-
personalized experience in each service encounter
& operational excellence to reduce total cost of
ownership, to make his organization standing out
from competitors.
Sandeep’s vast experience of managing
different leadership roles over a period of 18+
years in BPM industry helped him internalise that
as industries evolved through each of the‘industrial
revolutions’, the way customers interact with brands
& organizations also evolved. Today, not only the
customers interact with the brands & organizations
through multiple channels, they also expect to
switch between the channels seamlessly & get
similar experience. In today’s super-competitive
market, customers expect hyper-personalized
services in each service encounter.
This shift in customer expectation in a super-
competitive market environment demands
progressive change in the way brands &
organizations think about their respective service
organizations. What used to be a non-core activity
fulfilled through shared services (in-house or
outsourced) has evolved to be a ‘key differentiator’
amongst competitions. However, the focus
on reducing the cost of serving the customers
continues to be a reality, especially during post
pandemic economic recovery.
Sandeep also founded ‘EduworQ’ an academy
in partnership with Telecom Sector Skill Council
(TSSC), an apex body & extended affiliation with
Government of India Ministry of Skill Development
& Entrepreneurship, Skill India & University of
Cambridge to work closely in training and developing skilled work force.
EduworQ is offering CRM (Customer Relationship Management) & GDS (Global
Distribution System’ courses for professional upskilling in the field of aviation,
travel, tourism, hospitality & IT enabled services with absorbing the candidates
within Quampetence providing 100% job assurances to learners.
Sandeep was one of the thought leaders who realised that industry is
going through the ‘fifth industrial revolution’. The developments have made
technology & human workforce as enablers to each other. Technology would
help his organization to gain‘cost leadership’while‘human touch’would ensure
super empathetic & hyper personalized services & experience. He was quick to
note the paradigm shift brought by the neo-normal:
Earlier the approach for Customer Experience was reactive with customer
choosing from pre-set offers. Today, organizations have to be proactive with
ultra-personalized offerings & delivery. Service delivery was integrated, product
driven with static workflows. Today, the service delivery has to be individualized
with dynamic service assembly & delivery.
DigitalTechnology was monolithic & highly complex IT infrastructure.Today
it has to be flexible with digital & data platforms on top of legacy track.
Organizations were pyramid shaped, large, with human factories. Today, it
has to be rocket shaped set-up with a digital corporate centre & a bionic front
end. Earlier, the digital ecosystem had limited collaboration with few strategic
partners. Today, it demands decomposition of value chain & broad inclusion
of partners.
To evolve & be‘Today-Ready’, he has made Quampetence to adopt‘Business
Transformation’ as the driving force as he is making bold, seismic shifts to
accelerate change and growth beyond typical incremental advancements.
Sandeep made‘Transformation’as the fundamental of Quampetence DNA
which evolves around:
1. Business Process Transformation: Doing things better, faster & affordable
by removing frictions in processes through redesign
2. Organizational Transformation: Becoming agile & efficient by changing
the mode of operation, structure & practices
3. Digital Transformation: Rapidly adopting & usage of technological
advancement to unlock additional value
4. Cultural Transformation: Adapting to the disruptive environment by
changing the way of thinking, organizing & behaving
Sandeep’s able leadership has made Quampetence a partner of choice to
many leading multi-billion -dollar brands. Today, Quampetence serves reputed
brands across different industries e.g., E-commerce, Gaming, Aviation, Travel,
Healthcare, Fashion & Apparels, Food Tech, Automotive, Industrial OEM etc
across geographies like Australia, New Zealand, UK, India, US, Brazil, France etc.
Quampetence plans to expand the horizon by adding 6 new delivery
locations globally & create additional jobs for 5000+ employees in next 3 years.
As a visionary, Sandeep has made us to believe “‘Future’ is no longer
tomorrow. It’s‘Today’& Quampetence is investing heavily in newer technologies
like ‘Metaverse’, ‘Blockchain & Crypto’, ‘Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality’,
‘Internet of Things’ developing capabilities to serve their customers anywhere
& everywhere, physically & digitally.
Quampetence is indeed characterised by experience, steered by technology
& electrified by people. It is changing how millions of people around the world
engage with brands.
Quampetence mission is to be an illustrious customer engagement service
company at every touch point with their passion of CX & the pledge to provide
a respectful & dignified workplace that offers opportunities to everyone.
‘FUTURE’ IS NO LONGER
TOMORROW, IT’S ‘TODAY’
Sandeep Singh,
Founder & CEO, Quampetence & Eduworq

14. approach needed to solve
it. “This is an exposure that
I see… that entrepreneurs
in India don’t have
the commensurate
background, consistently.”
The ability to execute
to solve a well-identified
problem is strong in
India, he says. But “the
ability to take an abstract
business problem, excite
an ecosystem to invest,
convert the business
problem into a technology
execution roadmap, build
a team and see it through
is not something that I’ve
consistently seen in India.”
Another facet of what’s
missing in the hi-tech
ecosystem in India, still,
is the absence of patient
money, because it takes
several years for a product
to come to market and
bring in returns.
On his own experience,
“For anybody starting
a company, it’s a hard
journey. It’s always going
to be harder than you
think, but I also submit
to you that the last three-
and-a-half years I’ve
spent building SiMa
have been the most
gratifying,” he says.
● HARICHANDAN ARAKALI
THERE WAS A TIME,
earlier on in his
career, when
Krishna Rangasayee had
built a solution that was
rated as a highly
technically superior piece
of innovation, but he never
could sell his vision to his
bosses, he recalls. The
feedback on his
presentation was that it
was a dud, even though
the solution itself was
rated highly.
It was a lesson he took
to heart. Many years later,
after a stellar career in the
semiconductor industry,
rising to be executive vice
president and general
manager of all of Xilinx’s
business lines, Rangasayee
decided to take the
plunge and be an
entrepreneur himself.
The company he started,
SiMa.ai, is on the cusp of
emerging as a specialist in
the area of edge computing,
focusing on a system-on-
a-chip that brings together
artificial intelligence,
machine learning and
computer vision.
“People have been
talking about autonomous
systems, robots, and so
on, but in the last 10 years,
there’s not really been a
meaningful deployment at
scale, and that’s at the core
of the problem we want to
address,” Rangasayee tells
Forbes India. SiMa’s first
Having the Edge
Krishna Rangasayee of SiMa.ai is on the cusp of emerging as a specialist
in the area of edge computing. He says the Indian hi-tech ecosystem
needs patient money
SCALING UP
14
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
SCAN THE QR CODE TO
WATCH THE VIDEO
L e a d e r B o a r d
product is expected to be
out later this year.
One feature that stands
out about the product is
that it uses software to
make using the system-on-
chip easy for customers,
without the need for a
lot of in-house machine
learning expertise,
Rangasayee says. That was
one important insight he
drew from his career as to
how computing worked
at the edge, versus in the
cloud, he says.
Companies such as
SiMa are contributing
to sharpening the
definition of ‘edge’ as
‘embedded edge’—meaning
semiconductors capable
of delivering sophisticated
tasks using embedded
software. Along the way,
Rangasayee has put
together a strong team of
engineers and business
leaders in India and the US.
Rangasayee is a 30-
year veteran of the
semiconductor industry,
with more than 25 patents
to his name. Today he is
among those shaping the
semiconductor ecosystem
in India, through his
fabless startup’s operations
in Bengaluru.
However, the Indian
ecosystem is still nascent,
he says. “There is an
opportunity, and, in my
mind, there is a dire need
for India to start building
product companies
that are focussed on the
solutions that India needs
them to,” he says. There
is also the experience
missing, in tying a business
problem and the right tech
What the global semiconductor
industry is expected to reach,
according to a Deloitte report
$600 bln
SHUTTERSTOCK

15. Nitin Wadhwani started Card Clash in 2020. Card Clash is a popular
online game played by thousands of people available on both Android
and iOS. You can enjoy playing Rummy, Poker and many more games on
this app and you can also earn a lot from it because it's a real cash game.
An entrepreneur by passion and choice, Nitin does not sit still unless he has
achieved big things. So, giving more power to his dream he also started TMT
(rebars) manufacturing unit with the brand name Banjara TMT in 2021.
A serial entrepreneur in 2019, he also started MS Pipes & MS Strips
manufacturing unit with the brand name Banjara Pipe. Back in 2017, he
had an MS Ingots (Semi-Finished Steel product) manufacturing Unit - Shri
Bajrangbali Ingot & Steel Pvt Ltd. He is passionate and his years in business
actually hint at the passion with which he stirs the ship to sail it to newer
shores each time.
Making it big
Nitin’s passion for business led him to join the family business in 2014.
He stepped into the business arena by making his mark in the food
industry, where he began taking care of the ice cream, juices, and sweets
manufacturing under the hood of Motil Devi Organic Food Industries Pvt
Ltd. A go-getter by spirit, Nitin is always planning the path to success and
happy life, his hard work and indomitable spirit are infectious and he is
always looking for ways to rule and spread the same temperament among
people who he is working with.
Nitin’s dream project, Card Clash was established in November 2020.
Since the start, he has been actively engaged in the working of this company.
Today, they are a reputed name and are the leading developers of mobile apps.
They have diversified and gained immense growth over the years and
have roped in the right team to spread all across India with a focus to help
the customers by saving time and money through their stellar services. They
do not just offer products, but they go deep into finding what makes the
customers click and therefore offer the right products, without a hitch.
The company is extremely competitive and they offer its services and
products at unmatchable prices. Nitin believes in training his team with the
right spirit and thus, each one can witness the growth and gain immense
hand’s on experience by working with him.
NITIN WADHWANI:
DREAMING TO WIN IT
WITH A LOT OF PASSION
& BUSINESS ACUMEN
CEO and Founder of Card Clash, Nitin Wadhwani is a self-driven
individual who does not dream, but dream to achieve it. A young
entrepreneurnoteveninhis30syet,Nitinhassteppedintothespace
of blockchain and NFTs with his Card Clash launch. He wants to offer
only futuristic offering to his customers through his platform and is
ready to post newer growth stories with this platform, which has got
huge hits and a pool of joinees soon after its launch.
Future gazing
When Nitin launched Card Clash then it was not an easy
ride and it required him to cut the blocks on his path given
he was not experienced in the gaming and applications
industry. But he upped his learning curve and gave fuel
to his dreams with fervor. Today as a young entrepreneur,
he dreams of just going on without a stop and mentions
that it is just the start. He wants to offer only a class-apart
experience to his customers through the tech backbone of
his offering. Further, he is building a community for his
customers, which is a first in the industry where they can
buy and sell NFTs.
Keeping the growth and the stride alive, Nitin is also
pushing ahead with newer launches in the next year and
is planning to set up an environmental gaming platform
too. This will help him take a step toward blockchain and
he eventually wants to step into the metaverse too with
newer launches.
Empowering women and
homemakers is my dream and
I have embarked on this duty with
Card Cash. Today I want to assist
and help the women of India gain
immense knowledge regarding
NFT’s and blockchain and earn cash
by playing bunch of games. Anyone
can learn and develop a deeper
understanding and on my platform,
I will help empower women with the
right training and support.
Nitin Wadhwani
CEO and Founder, Card Clash

16. 16
3Ps&UNICORNS
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
E
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
very entrepreneurial journey
starts with hope, and a promise.
The founders put everything
at stake. They know that the
odds are heavily loaded against
them—over 90 percent of startups
fail—and yet take a leap of faith
into uncertainty. The hope is to
strike success in the long run.
And the promise made to oneself
is to build a valuable business.
To build and grow business,
you need capital. Not all need
the money, though. Many remain
SHUTTERSTOCK

17. bootstrapped, but a chunk of the
first-time founders do need
the fuel, and reach out to VCs
(venture capitalists). Now
the investor, too, is living
on hope. A VC puts the
risk money in the fledgling
ventures with a hope
that the rookies would
find the product-
market fit, perform
to the best of their
abilities and grow
the business. So the
backer stays generous
in doling out dollars,
gives enough room to the
hustlers to ‘fail fast, scale
fast’, and course correct.
Tanked up, the venture
starts rolling. At times,
there are business
pivots—while most are
methodical, there are
some where there is
more ‘madness’ and
less ‘method’. The
journey continues,
and on the way, the founders
start making frequent mistakes
(well, that’s how an entrepreneur
learns and grows), ‘growth at
all cost’ takes the front seat and
CAC (customer acquisition cost)
balloons. Loaded with venture
dollars, ‘spraying and praying’
VCs don’t mind the cash burn.
Riding pillion, all that matters
to financers is an elusive pot of
gold which they hope to get one
day either through M&A, an exit
or IPO. To be fair to them, this is
17
When promise, performance and profit converge,
you get valuable unicorns
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
OVERVIEW
Loaded with
venture dollars,
‘spraying and
praying’ venture
capitalists
don’t mind the
cash burn
By RAJIV SINGH

18. why they invest: To make money.
Meanwhile, the founder starts
performing, and the early years are
all about growth. Revenue starts
gushing, losses rack up, and the
venture turns into a cash-guzzling
machine. To be fair to a founder,
there are segments where one
must bleed to survive and grow.
Take, for instance, ecommerce.
When the name of the game is
discount, there would be high
CAC. And when there are deep-
pocketed players, the intensity of
fight and loss increases every day.
Then there are sectors that need
a change in consumer behaviour.
The first-movers and leaders
in such segments—Flipkart in
ecommerce, MakeMyTrip in online
travel, Paytm in online payments
and Ola in cab bookings—will need
much more capital to grow and
stay put for largely two reasons.
First, to create and expand the
market and the ecosystem. Second,
to induce consumers and build
new habits. VCs are aware of
the rules of the game. They keep
pumping money in ventures
that have a promising future,
high user transactions and huge
TAM (total addressable market).
This leads to high valuation, at
times insanely exaggerated, and
startups enter the billion-dollar
club. In May, India got its 100th
unicorn when neo-banking
startup Open raised $50 million.
Industry analysts were quick to
point out that one out of every 10
unicorns was being born in India.
So the unicorn stable starts
swelling. Along with valuation,
what also gets alarmingly inflated
is loss. Have a look at the FY21
numbers of these unicorns. Cred,
a credit card payment platform
which is valued at $6.4 billion,
posted a loss of `524 crore. The
operating revenue was just `88.6
crore. ShareChat, a social media
unicorn with a valuation of $5
billion, reported a loss of `1,461
crore on an operating revenue
of `80.3 crore. Online edtech
unicorn Unacademy had a loss
of `1,537 crore (revenue was less
than one-third the loss); Curefit’s
bottom line too is not eye-pleasing:
`671.2 crore loss on a revenue
of `161.4 crore, according to
numbers shared by Entrackr.
VCs talk about the flip side
of growth without profit. “The
product-market fit you are getting
in high-burn businesses is not the
right business,” reckons Niren
18
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
WHEN BOTTOMLINE IS MORE THAN TOPLINE
(Financials are for FY21) LOSS (` crore) OPERATING REVENUE (` crore)
Ola
VALUATION
$7.5 billion
Ebitda margin
-25.75%
Cred
VALUATION
$6.4 billion
Ebitda margin
-538.3%
PhonePe
VALUATION
$5.5 billion
Ebitda margin
-219.89%
ShareChat
VALUATION
$5 billion
Ebitda margin
-1,500.5%
Dailyhunt
VALUATION
$5 billion
Ebitda margin
-99.67%
524 1,728 1,461 808
1,116.6 983 88.6 690 80.3 666.2
TOP 10 PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
Numbers for FY21 ( ` crore)
Zoho
Info Edge
Zerodha
Five Star
Dream11
FirstCry
Games24X7
Nykaa
OfBusiness
1,917
1,418
1,122
359
327
216
110
61.9
55.7
SOURCE Entrackr
SOURCE Entrackr
TOP 10 BLEEDING
UNICORNS
Loss numbers for FY21 (` crore)
Oyo
Udaan
Flipkart
Eruditus
PhonePe
Paytm
Swiggy
Unacademy
Freshworks
ShareChat
3,944
2,482
2,446
1,934
1,728
1,710
1,617
1,537
1,499
1,461

19. Shah, managing director and head
of Norwest India. This probably
explains, he underlines, why
even large listed companies are
facing the issue of profitability.
“Product-market fit and unit
economics are mutually exclusive,”
he says. Many get the first without
getting unit economics. But the
real problem starts when you try
to fix the latter. “And then you
realise that your product-market
fit is gone,” he adds. “It’s easier
to make revenue without profit.”
Conceding that one can’t post
profits overnight, Shah reckons
that one should at least try to hit
the road to profitability early in
the innings. “There has to be an
intent, a serious intent,” he says.
Losses notwithstanding, there
is also a case for giving more
time to loss-making unicorns.
“If the businesses got highly
valued, then definitely there
must be something more
than vanity metrics,” says
Vikram Gupta, founder
and managing partner
of IvyCap Ventures.
There are businesses,
he underlines, which
can turn positive
the moment they
stop investing. “But
the question is would
you do that at the cost
of scale?” he asks. If a business
is posting losses, but has high
customer stickiness, accelerating
revenue and a wide addressable
market, then it’s okay to have a
bleeding report card, provided
you are not excessively bleeding.
The hope of future growth also
gives rise to another hope: Future
profit. While B2B businesses don’t
need much time to post profit, B2C
is a different game. Then there
are the nuances of scale, segment
and competition. Gupta gives the
example of Lenskart. “There is
no dogfight. It’s not a Swiggy-
Zomato or Amazon-Flipkart
kind of bleeding fight,”
he says. In spite of that,
Lenskart took a decade to
post profit. “Let’s be more
patient. They will grow
sustainably,” he adds.
Sustainable, indeed, is
the key word. Shah tells
us what went wrong with
the ecosystem so far. “The
founders hit the gym and
only built the upper
part of the body. They
became muscular,”
he says, alluding
to the growth and
scale achieved by
the startups. Now
Shah tells us what
needs to be done. “VCs
must also tell them to build leg
muscles as well. Unless you have
solid legs, your muscular torso
won’t add value,” he underlines.
When promise, performance
and profit (3 Ps) come together,
you get a valuable company.
In this special issue on profitable
unicorns, Forbes India decided
to not take a deep dive into the
storied tales of Zoho, Zerodha and
their likes. The idea was simple:
To talk about the other shades
of unicorns that are not widely
known or seen. Take, for instance,
OfBusiness and Oxyzo. It’s rare
to have two profitable unicorns
co-founded by a husband-wife
team, along with a few others.
Then there is Lenskart, which
stayed in loss for over a decade and
now has posted three consecutive
years of profit. Another interesting
story is Mamaearth. It’s not easy
for consumer brands to post
profits. This D2C beauty brand
has had two back-to-back years
of profit, plus a blistering pace
of growth: From `22.19 lakh to
over `900 crore in operating
revenue in just six years! And
not to forget the bootstrapped
outsider—EaseMyTrip—which
got the unicorn tag handed by
the public market valuation.
Turn the pages for a deep-
dive into these companies.
19
OVERVIEW
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
Unacademy
VALUATION
$3.4 billion
Ebitda margin
-320.32%
Groww
VALUATION
$3 billion
Ebitdamargin
-165.7%
Urban
Company
VALUATION
$2.8 billion
Ebitda margin
-73.82%
MPL
VALUATION
$2.3 billion
Ebitda margin
-105.06%
Spinny
VALUATION
$1.8 billion
Ebitda margin
-233.34%
Curefit
VALUATION
$1.5 billion
Ebitda margin
-244.02%
1,537 107 249 398.5 110 671.2
398 52.7 247.7 373.3 25.3 161.4
SOURCE Entrackr
One can’t post
profits overnight,
but startups
should at least
try to hit the road
to profitability
early in the
innings

20. his was the first masterclass of
the year. On a drenched Tuesday
afternoon in August, 50-odd people
cram into a dull conference room.
There is no visual relief, white
walls stare into your face, and over
two dozen black chairs are placed
around a long horseshoe-shaped
table. The unostentatious corporate
office of OFB Tech is hosting two
bright speakers for their half-
yearly motivational session for
budding entrepreneurs and the ones
slogging in the corporate world.
The first presenter completed his
mechanical engineering from IIT-
Kharagpur, finished his MBA from
the Indian School of Business (ISB),
and then spent a little over four
years with venture capital (VC) fund
Matrix Partners. In August 2015, he
left the VC world and took a leap of
faith by starting a venture that got
funded by SoftBank. The pedigree of
the 41-year-old and his inspirational
journey make him a great catch to
stimulate the young audience.
The second speaker has an
equally impressive track record. She
completed her BTech from IIT-
Delhi, went to ISB for her MBA and
worked with McKinsey in Mumbai
for close to nine years. In 2015, she
started her own venture, which grew
at a blistering pace and managed to
get the backing of marquee investors
such as Alpha Wave Global, Tiger
Global, Norwest Venture Partners
and Creation Investments. The
accomplishment of the 39-year-old
founder and chief executive officer
has fast become the talk of the town.
As the participants settle down,
Asish Mohapatra starts the session
on ‘Finding Happiness’. “Let me
start with a quick disclaimer,” the
guru underlines. “I am not going
to talk about the ‘Open Happiness’
20
SINGING THE
PROFITTUNE
Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra were wedded to
the idea of building profitable businesses. No wonder
the husband and wife keep talking about the gains
made by OfBusiness and Oxyzo
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
NEHA
MITHBAWKER
FOR
FORBES
INDIA;
LOCATION
COURTESY:
MAGIC
CAROUSEL,
IMAGICAA
THEME
PARK
T
Sector 26, MG Road, Gurugram
By RAJIV SINGH

21. 21
“The question is not
growth versus profit. The
question is profit with
growth or growth at the
cost of profit.”
RUCHI KALRA, co-founder and CEO,
Oxyzo; co-founder, OfBusiness
“In general, anybody who doesn't make
money should shut down very soon.
I strongly believe in this philosophy.”
ASISH MOHAPATRA, co-founder and CEO, OfBusiness;
co-founder, Oxyzo
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
OFBUSINESS

22. campaign of Coca-Cola,” he says.
The crowd erupts into laughter.
“Today I will talk about four forms
of happiness that entrepreneurs
must strive for,” he underlines.
“Happiness starts when your
venture posts its maiden profit.
That’s the beginning of happiness,”
he says. The second stage comes
when it keeps growing the profit.
“This is real happiness,” he
stresses. The onlookers are amused
with the nuanced definition.
Mohapatra now tries to make
the lecture engaging. “What comes
after happiness?” he throws the
question at the audience. “Is it
more happiness?” shouts a viewer
standing near the the door. “No,
my dear friend,” says Mohapatra.
What comes after happiness, he
explains, is delight. “And delight
is when people look at your P&L
and exclaim ‘Arey wah, mazaa aa
gaya (Wow! It’s great),” he says
with a smile. What every founder
must strive for is the last stage.
“It’s ‘aha’. And it comes when your
business ticks three boxes,” he says.
The first is that the venture needs
to grow continuously. Second is
profit must become meaty. And
last is nobody else can copy what
you are building. This is ‘aha’. “In
general, anybody who doesn’t make
money should shut down very
soon,” he maintains. The crowd
bursts into rapturous laughter.
Now it’s the turn of Ruchi
22
“The co-founders understand
that sustainability and
scalability come from being
profitable.”
NIREN SHAH, MANAGING DIRECTOR,
NORWEST INDIA
STARTED IN: 2015
TOTAL FUNDING: `5,369.83 cr
LAST FUNDING ROUND: `1,378.84 cr
(Series G) in January
VALUATION:
$5 billion
BACKERS: Matrix Partners, Zodius
Technology, Creation Investments,
Falcon Edge, Norwest Venture
Partners, Softbank, Tiger Global
and Marshall Wace
Operating
Revenue
(` crore)
FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22
6,363.8
1,349.2
669.8
582.9
389.6
Profit
(` crore)
EBITDA Margin (%)
Cash Outflow
from Operations
(` crore)
FY18
FY18
FY21
FY21
FY20
FY20
FY19
FY19
FY22
FY22
2.98
3.31
4.56
2.91
1.69
FY18
(loss)
1.14
FY19
13.1
FY20
13.9
FY21
19.8
FY22
125.6
798.9
27.3
153.9
25.8
47.3
NAME, GAME & FAME
OfBusiness
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
Kalra to start her tutorial. “What’s
the difference between a good
VC/PE and a not-so-good one?”
she asks. The former will start
the conversation with return
on investment, and the latter
will be upfront about growth
orientation. The billion-dollar
trap that founders need to stay
away from, she lets on, is not to
get into a profit versus growth
debate or a trade-off. “Profit has
to coexist with growth,” she says.
The former McKinsey
honcho points out three business
components that work in tandem.
First comes growth. It is followed
by profitability. And the third
crucial part is health. The health
of a business, she points out,
means that the venture meets all
compliance norms, and follows
the rules and laws of the land.
India is not an easy place to do
business. “So always keep a sharp
eye on costs,” she advises.
The students grasp lessons
in business fundamentals, the
session ends, and the speakers
now talk about their ventures,
mutual chemistry and unicorns.
“She gets restless if there is a loss,”
laughs Mohapatra, co-founder
and chief executive officer of
OfBusiness, a B2B ecommerce
platform which provides
full-stack solutions spanning
SOURCE Filings and company; FY22 numbers
are unaudited

23. raw material procurement,
working capital financing and
revenue growth opportunities
in a bunch of sectors, including
manufacturing and infrastructure.
Co-founded in 2015 by the
husband-wife duo of Mohapatra
and Kalra, along with Bhuvan
Gupta, Nitin Jain and Vasant
Sridhar, OfBusiness is valued at
$5 billion and closed FY22 with
an operating revenue of `6,363.83
crore—an around five-fold jump
from `1,349 crore posted in FY21.
The venture has posted four
consecutive years of profit. In
fact, the numbers leapfrogged
from `19.76 crore in FY21 to
`125.63 crore in FY22. “She can’t
sleep even if a single transaction
makes a loss,” adds Mohapatra.
Kalra now talks about how
the couple has managed to find
common ground. “I’m very
health-oriented. He is very
growth-oriented. But both are
very profit-oriented,” smiles the
co-founder and chief executive
officer of Oxyzo, a financial
services and lending arm
of OfBusiness. Started
in 2016, Oxyzo raised its
maiden external funding
round of `1,527.19 crore
in March at a valuation
of $1 billion. While the
company had a sedate
start—an operating
revenue of `3.7 crore
in FY18—it quickly
jumped to `311 crore
in FY22. Interestingly,
Oxyzo—the word is
a combination of oxygen
and ozone—has always been
profitable: Five consecutive years
of profitability. The startup claims
to serve over 3,000 SMEs across
India, and has `3,000 crore as
AUM (assets under management).
Mohapatra, who was once
a funder before donning the
founder’s hat, explains how the
mind of a VC works. He starts with
23
OFBUSINESS
From left: Bhuvan Gupta, Nitin Jain, Ruchi Kalra, Asish Mohapatra and Vasant Sridhar started
OfBusiness in 2015
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
a brutally candid statement. “A
VC does not come for profit. They
prefer if a venture is loss-making,”
he reckons, explaining the method
behind the apparent madness. The
promise of future profit is the key.
If the business is negative and can
turn positive in the future,
then the delta is very high.
“Hence VCs play on this
high delta,” he says, adding
that he doesn’t rate himself
as a great investor. The
reason is simple. Mohapatra
always wanted to run the
company he invested in,
which obviously doesn’t
work. “You have to bet on
the person who’s the
smartest in the room.
And it’s not you,” he
says with a laugh.
Back in 2015, when
OfBusiness started its
journey, Mohapatra
encountered too many
smart people with loads
of money and gyan. Once,
during a funding pitch, he declared
his noble intention of making a
profit on every transaction to a
‘hallowed VC’. The reaction was
unexpected. “Chhoti baatein mat
karo (Don’t talk small),” came the
sharp and unequivocal feedback.
‘Think big, raise more, burn and
grow’ was the suggestion. When,
in FY18, OfBusiness posted a loss
of `1.14 crore, Mohapatra got
loads of consolation. “Don’t worry.
Your business has potential,”
he was told. The entrepreneur
was not bemused. “If you make
profit, then only you have
potential,” he told his team.
Call it ‘middle-class’
conditioning or the values which
inadvertently get ingrained by
observing one’s parents, Mohapatra
was always influenced by his
mother. A physics professor in
Odisha, she religiously used to
save some money towards the end
of every month. “That was profit
for her. That’s how we learnt,” he
says. Kalra points towards another
learning during the formative
years of OfBusiness. “In 2016,
our funding pitch got rejected 73
times,” she says with a smile. The
co-founders didn’t lose heart. “We
just wanted one guy who would
understand our vision,” she says.
Eventually, there was one
guy who understood the vision.
But he declined to fund in 2018.
“Back then, OfBusiness was not
profitable,” recalls Niren Shah,
AMIT
VERMA
4
OfBusiness
has been
profitable for
consecutive
years
Mohapatra, who was a funder before he turned founder, doesn’t
rate himself as a great investor. The reason: He always wanted to
run the company he invested in, which obviously doesn’t work

24. managing director at Norwest
India. The VC presented his case.
“If you are not profitable,” he told
Mohapatra, “you don’t get a better
credit rating.” What this means
is that your cost of debt does not
come down, which again means
you can’t actually grow. The
entrepreneur understood what
the VC was trying to impress upon
him. “I am very profit-focussed and
working on it,” was the assurance.
After four months, Mohapatra
went back to Shah. “Now my
venture is profitable. Let’s do a
round,” he said. “That’s Asish for
you,” smiles Shah. In 2019, Norwest
led a `250 crore Series D round
of funding in OfBusiness. “He has
a very strong understanding of
whatever he does, and a very tall
vision about what he’s going after,”
says Shah. “Asish understands that
sustainability and scalability comes
from being profitable,” he says.
Commenting on the dynamics of
Mohapatra and Kalra, he reckons
that it’s rare to have a husband-
wife combo which is so tuned
to profitable growth. “If Asish is
going for the reward, Ruchi will
look at the risk,” he says, adding
that the growth of Oxyzo under
her leadership has been amazing.
Meanwhile, in Gurugram,
what the power couple find
24
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
OfBusiness helps companies like Solarium Green Energry reduce working capital cycles and
streamline cash flows with their tech-enabled solutions
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
amazing is growth without
profit. “Nobody eventually makes
money. The work has to start
immediately,” says Mohapatra.
What the entrepreneur finds
equally astounding is a long list
of vanity metrics used to justify
walking on the road to profitability.
“There is no such road. Business
is done on ‘what is’ and not ‘what
if’,” he says. All the jargon—gross
margin profitability, contribution
margin profitability et al—just hides
the reality that the business is not
serious enough to post profit.
But is he happy with his size
of profit? After all, a company
with a revenue of over `6,000
crore should have more to show
than `125 crore as profit. Right?
Mohapatra explains the low
margin. “Our business is about thin
margins with high cycles,” he says,
adding that the company rotates
capital 14 times a year. “So you
make 14 times your PAT as return
on capital. This can be seen in the
money raised (40 percent of which
is in the bank) to make a business of
this scale,” he adds. As OfBusiness
ventures into more segments,
he contends, the numbers are
expected to significantly improve.
“We are just experiencing real
happiness. Delight and aha are
yet to come,” he signs off.
STARTED IN: 2016
TOTAL FUNDING: `1,856 cr
LAST FUNDING ROUND:
`1,527.19 cr in Series A
closed in March
VALUATION:
$1 billion
BACKERS: Alpha Wave Ventures,
Tiger Global, Norwest Venture
Partners, Matrix Partners
India, Creation Investments
India and OFB Tech
Operating
Revenue
(` crore)
FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22
311.8
196.7
134.9
42.4
3.7
Profit
(` crore)
FY18
0.17
FY19
4.1
FY20
21.1
FY21
39.9
FY22
69.3
NAME, GAME & FAME
Oxyzo Financial Services
NIM (net interest
margin) (%)
FY18 FY19
FY20
FY21 FY22
7.92
9.01
11.22
10.82
12.02
SOURCE Filings and company; FY22 numbers
are unaudited
OFBUSINESS

25. 1. How building business processes and performance
op�mi�a�oncanpropelgrowth?
Businesses can see a significant up�ck in growth when they
streamline their working processes. This is because performance
op�miza�on allows businesses to func�on more efficiently and
effec�vely and help them be�er u�lize their resources and �me,
which leads to increased produc�vity and profit. At virajpa�l.net
we acheive this through various methods such as process
redesign,processimprovementteams,andprocessmapping.
Viraj Pa�l,
Performance Improvement Specialist, Virajpa�l.net
2. What are the latest industry trends that entrepreneurs
shouldpaya en�onto?
There are a few key industry trends that entrepreneurs should
paya�en�onto.
3. What are the key common financial inves�ng mistakes that
youngstersmake?
The biggest financial investment mistake is star�ng to invest
without proper financial educa�on. It's impera�ve to understand
the space to make educated financial investment decisions.
According to me the most important investment is an investment
inupgradingfinancialskillsets.Otherthingsthatgowrongarenot
having clear financial goals and investment plans, chasing short-
term gains, not diversifying one's por�olio, and making
emo�onalinvestments.
One of the reasons why it is important to have diversified financial
products for investments is because it allows you to spread the risk
around. Having all your eggs in one basket leaves you vulnerable to a
single point of failure. If that one investment fails, then you have lost
everything. By having mul�ple investments, you can minimize the
impactofanyonefailure.Thelossfromoneinvestmentcanbeoffsetby
thegainsfromanother.
5.Canyousharesomevaluable�psonfinancialliteracy?
Being financially educated is of the utmost importance, Un�l one
doesn't know and understand this ecosystem it's impossible for
them to make choices and informed decisions. To learn and stay
abreastwithfinancialtrendsIhighlyrecommend-
● Enrollinagoodfinancialcoursewhereyoulearntrading,
risk management, compound interest to understand
yourpor�oliobe�er.
● Subscribe to financial newsle�ers, podcasts, and
readingbooks.
● Talk to a financial professional.
6. According to you, which futuris�c financial product(s) will
reapfrui�ulresultsinthelongterm?
Metaverse and Web3 space is exploding. It's already here hence
Investments in and related to these technologies are going to be
the future. I am watching and par�cipa�ng in this space closely.
Leading companies who are the first movers in metaverse should
be considered to be added in your por�olio of stocks. Companies
like Zoom, Microso� , shopify, Alibaba, Nike, Roblex, Amazon
stocks. The metaverse market size is projected to reach USD
824.53Billionby2030;asperaverifiedreport.
7. Can you share some Dos and Don'ts of 'wealth crea�on?
One of the best ways to create wealth is to become financially
literate.
DO make sure you have a solid understanding of basic financial
concepts.
Second, don't be afraid to ask for help. If you're not sure where to start,
there are plenty of resources available to help you learn more about
personalfinance.
Social commerce, which refers to the buying and selling of goods
andservicesthroughsocialmediapla�orms.
Lastly, with web3 and metaverse coming into the picture, online
tokens are ge�ng popular and hence crypto and bitcoin
acceptance is something that businesses should be aware of, as
morepeopleareusingthesetokens fortransac�ons.
One is fintech or financial technology. This industry is growing
rapidly as more and more people conduct financial transac�ons
online.Othersare-
Riseofthegigeconomyandbecomingsubscrip�on-based,where
customerspayamonthlyfeeforaccesstoproductsorservices.
8. How would you define your journey as an entrepreneur and
mentor?
I would say the journey is s�ll on, and it has been very fulfilling �ll now. I
come from a lower-middle-class family. Money wasn't in abundance
while growing up but my parents did not compromise on my educa�on.
I always had an entrepreneurial bent of mind. A�er finishing
engineering and working for about 3 years with RIL was when I got to
learn about financial markets and products and the power of this
sector. I was lucky to have a mentor at that �me who helped me
understand this sector be�er and emphasized financial educa�on and I
can'tbethankfulenoughforthatadvice.
Today I am mentoring individuals and organiza�ons with a focus to put
the right prac�ces in place right t the incep�on level. My core strength
lies in individual and organiza�onal performance measurement and
improvement and I work very closely with the teams to understand
theirprocessesandplanstocreatearobustroadmapthatwecanfollow
togetherforthegiventenure.
Investment in Real Estate for future gains should not be missed
outfrombothrentalaswellasre-saleperspec�ve
I am more than happy to be able to share my experience and wisdom as
a mentor which is more like giving it back because I understand the
importanceofhavingtherightguidanceattheright�me.
BRAND CONNECT

26. 26
BATTLING
THE UNICORN
GAZE
A sudden crisis in March almost devoured the
horsepower of Infra.Market. Now it is trying to
get back to the racing track
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
Mumbai, March 20, 2022
I
t was Sunday, a day after Holi. Hue
dregs of all kinds—orange, red,
yellow, green—were still splashed
on the floor. Aaditya Sharda,
though, could spot only one colour:
Black. The co-founder of Infra.
Market, a B2B online (business-to-
business) infra procurement
unicorn valued at $2.5 billion, was
jolted out of his sleep when the
Central Board of Direct Taxes
(CBDT) issued a media release
around noon. A large number of
incriminating evidences were
seized during a search operation
conducted by the Income Tax
(IT) department, underlined
the press document.
“Evidences revealed that
the group has booked bogus
purchases, made huge
unaccounted cash
expenditure and
obtained
accommodation
entries, aggregating to
the tune of over `400
crore,” it alleged.
For six-year-old
Infra.Market, this was
the most stressful moment
in its short-yet-spirited race
to glory. Started in July 2016, the
bootstrapped venture picked up
its first funding of $3.5 million at
a valuation of $15 million in June
2019. Six months later, a round
of $20 million resulted in an
over five-fold jump in valuation.
Sharda’s venture, co-founded
with Souvik Sengupta, started
By RAJIV SINGH
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
6
Infra.Market
has been
profitable for
consecutive
years
NEHA
MITHBAWKER
FOR
FORBES
INDIA

27. 27
“You do business to make
money, and not to lose money.”
AADITYA SHARDA, co-founder, Infra.Market
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
INFRA.MARKET

28. getting loaded with more VC
(venture capital) dollars over the
next 12 months—$20 million,
$100 million and $125 million in
December 2020, February 2021
and August 2021, respectively.
The valuation matched the pace
and soared during the same period:
$180 million, $1 billion and $2.5
billion. The co-founders managed
the stress of lofty valuation and the
load of investors’ expectations by
churning out brisk-yet-profitable
growth. While revenue from
operations leapfrogged from
`12.54 crore in FY17 to `1,242.93
crore, profit surged from `28 lakh
to `35.95 crore during the same
period. Sharda kept on taking bold
bets and the dice kept rolling in
his favour. “Risk toh Superman
bhi leta hai. Main toh sirf salesman
hoon (Even Superman takes risks.
I just happen to be a salesman),”
he told Forbes India last year.
In March this year, the Superman
felt like a layman. “We came under
intense gaze and scrutiny,” says
Sharda, adding that Infra.Market
was not the first startup or company
in India to face income tax or GST
queries. What made the situation
precarious was the unicorn tag. Call
it the flip side of being a unicorn,
if good news gets exaggerated,
funding reports get disproportionate
footage, then the bad ones are
equally blown out of proportion, he
quips. “Unicorns have to live with
extremes,” he says with a sigh.
“Since March, we have been
cooperating with the income
tax authorities,” says Sengupta,
co-founder of Infra.Market. The
company, he adds, has provided all
the necessary documents to solve
their questions and observations,
and to ensure the successful
closure of the search proceedings.
For Infra.Market, it was a near-
death experience. Suddenly, it
became a pariah. The allegations
of ‘shell companies’ and getting
foreign funding via Mauritius route
were devastating. For a company
that posted a five-fold jump in
revenue and over three times leap
in profit in FY22—`6,231.14 crore
and `341.21 crore, respectively—
suddenly the road seemed to have
hit a dead end. “Bankers panicked,
partners developed cold feet and
the backers frantically looked for
answers,” says one of the VCs
requesting anonymity. All the
stakeholders were at a loss. The
only bright light was the way the
co-founders handled the stress and
continued with the work, he adds.
Sharda, for his part, concedes
that the pressure was immense.
“But this is what entrepreneurs
28
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
VALUATION:
$2.5 billion
BACKERS: TigerGlobal, Accel,
Nexus, Evolvence, Sistema Asia
and Foundamental
Operating
Revenue
(` crore)
FY18
FY17 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22
12.5
28.5
63.2
350.8
1,242.9
6,231.1
FY18
FY17 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22
EBITDA
(` crore)
0.4 0.9 2.8
13.6
68.9
341.2
STARTED IN: July 2016
TOTAL FUNDING: `1,981.54 cr
LAST FUNDING ROUND:
`935.82 cr
Infra.Market
NAME, GAME & FAME
FY18
FY17 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22
EBITDA MARGIN (%)
3.19
3.26
4.43
3.89
5.54 5.48
Infra.Market has its own branded walling solutions, bath fittings and sanitary tiles
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

29. have instilled confidence in the
operations of the co-founders.
“You need the right kind of
entrepreneurs and people on board
to navigate tough times,” reckons
Prashant Prakash, founding
partner of Accel. The company
has continued to grow. In January,
it picked up a 24 percent stake
in Shalimar Paints, underlining
its intention to broaden its play
in the infrastructure market. Till
last fiscal, private labels made
up around 60 percent of the
revenue of Infra.Market, which
has its own branded concrete,
aggregates, walling solutions,
construction chemicals, bath
fittings and sanitary tiles.
Prakash reckons what has
worked for the startup is its
unrelenting focus on buyer
stickiness. Infra.Market has two
parts to its business: B2B, which
has big infrastructure and real
estate players as consumers, and
a business to retail (B2R), which
has SMEs, small contractors and
vendors. Customer stickiness,
he lets on, comes with a trust
in the brand and a presence
in several categories. “In
some sense, they are an infra
conglomerate, having multiple
private label brands,” he says.
Commenting on an unending
streak of posting profit by Infra.
Market, the VC points out the
inherent value of B2B enterprises.
In general, B2B companies
don’t require a lot of customer
acquisition cost. If they are full
stack, have their own branded
products, and are not in the trading
business, they are quite capable
of generating profits even during
the start of their journey. And
also have to do. We need to
learn to handle pressure,” he
underlines, adding two sets of
issues he faced after the tax raids.
It wasn’t a challenge to cooperate
with the tax authorities and share
all the required information, he
underlines. “The big task was how
to handle the perception which
suddenly changed,” he confesses.
From employees to investors to
financers, the news was out in the
open and everybody was free to
interpret it the way they wanted.
The backers, meanwhile,
29
PROFIT
(` crore)
0.28
0.59
1.74
8.66
35.95
FY18
FY17 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22
FY18
FY17 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22
1 1.4* 9.9
140.1
373.9
1,609
Cash Outflow
from Operations
(` crore)
SOURCE Filings and company; FY22
numbers are unaudited; *FY18 is cash inflow
142.18
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
INFRA.MARKET
unlike consumer companies, which
can take seven to eight years to get
profitable, B2B counterparts can
post profits very quickly. “That’s
what we have seen in companies
like Infra.Market,” he says. The
company has built its own product
stack, has gone deep in terms of
the back-end integration, has taken
control of the supply chain, and
has been generating nice margins.
But is net profitability the only
yardstick to value a company?
Prakash differs. Companies with
good contribution margin and
showing control over customer
acquisition costs are equally good
business models, he contends. “I
don’t think these are unsustainable
models,” he underlines, adding
that during the formative years, a
company’s focus is understandably
largely on growth. “There is a
difference between positive unit
economics and net profitability,”
he says. If the company has
positive unit economics, and is not
losing money, as they scale more
customers, it is still considered an
acceptable growth strategy. “If you
add more customers, you won’t
be losing more money,” he adds.
Sharda, for his part, underlines
that he can’t think of any business
losing money. “You do business
to make money, and not to lose,”
he says, adding that Infra.Market
has never posted losses. In June,
the company raised $50 million
in growth capital from Liquidity
Group’s Mars Unicorn Fund.
“We are still bullish on growth
and there is a lot to achieve,” he
underlines. Ask him if it’s easy
being a unicorn, and he smiles. “I
live in the real world. Unicorns
are mythical,” he signs off.
“The right kind of entrepreneur and right kind
of board can help navigate tough times.”
PRASHANT PRAKASH, FOUNDING PARTNER, ACCEL

32. 32
THEFOCUSLENS
Whenever the vision got blurred, Peyush Bansal adjusted his
focus. In a decade, he built India’s biggest eyewear company, and a
profitable unicorn, in Lenskart
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
“The problem in India is
that everybody wants to be
a unicorn. One must be very
clear about one’s vision.”
PEYUSH BANSAL, co-founder and group
CEO, Lenskart
K
By RAJIV SINGH
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
“Kitna paisa chahiye (how much
money do you want)?” was the
pointed question. IDG Ventures
(now Chiratae Ventures) saw
immense value in Valyoo
Technologies. Co-founded by
Peyush Bansal, Sumeet Kapahi,
Amit Chaudhary and Neha
Bansal in 2008, the Delhi-based
ecommerce firm rolled out
Lenskart in November 2010 and
started selling contact lenses.
Over the next few months,
Lenskart gradually dabbled into
spectacles and sunglasses, the
bootstrapped business gathered
steam, and the co-founders who
started Flyrr—an online store
to sell spectacles, sunglasses
and contact lenses in the US in
2009—were now set to get their
first VC (venture capital) cheque.
The excitement,
understandably, was palpable.
After finishing his engineering
from McGill University in Canada,
Bansal joined Microsoft in the US
and worked for close to a year.
The truncated stint was the first
turning point. “Microsoft was all
Bengaluru, 2011
AMIT
VERMA

33. about ushering in revolution and
consumer obsession,” recalls the
38-year-old co-founder and group
chief executive of Lenskart, which
has raised around $1 billion in
funding so far and is valued at $4.3
billion. “Kuch disruptive karna
tha (I wanted to do something
disruptive),” he adds. The
wannabe entrepreneur came
back to India in November
2007, invested `25 lakh and
started SearchMyCampus,
an online classified for
students scouting for
jobs, accommodation
and rentals, from
the basement of
his parents’ house
in South Delhi in
January 2008.
Over a year later
came the first learning.
There was not much
money to be made. The
rookie founder didn’t give up,
adjusted his focus and came up
with another gig. In June 2009,
Flyrr was started, and it took off.
By mid-2010, the venture catering
to the US market was making
around $100,000 a month. The
success, though, was shortlived.
The suppliers in the US were not
customer-centric, didn’t pay heed
to user issues, and complaints
started piling up. Bansal dashed
to America, spent three months
in futility, and realised that
Flyrr didn’t have any control
over operations and delivery.
“What if the model could be
replicated in India?” he asked.
The answer from his team was a
resounding yes, and Lenskart was
rolled out in November 2010.
The initial challenge was to sell
lenses and glasses online. “Would
there be buyers?’ was the big
question staring at Bansal, who
took two steps to nudge users.
First, he rolled out a 14-day ‘no
questions asked’ return policy,
which was later extended to a
year. And the second was to set up
a dedicated call centre to address
consumer grievances. The gambit
worked, the business scaled and
it caught the attention of IDG,
which had invested in
fashion ecommerce
venture Myntra in 2008.
In Bengaluru, in early
2011, IDG was quick to
spot another hidden gem.
The compelling proposition
to invest in Lenskart was
simple. Titan Eye Plus, an
eyewear company started by
the Tata group in 2007,
had scaled operations.
Lenskart, IDG argued,
could be bigger than
its rival because of
the online reach.
The VCs were ready
to cut a cheque. “I
think we need `1-2
crore,” said Bansal,
sharing his estimate of funding
requirement. The backers
proposed $4 million (around
`22 crore), the term sheet was
offered, and the deal was sealed.
The money, though, came
with a rider. “Ab aap khaali
chasme nahin bechogey… aap bags,
watches and jewellery bhi bechogey
(now you won’t be selling only
glasses. You need to add bags,
watches and jewellery),” was
the mandate from the VC. The
idea was to do what Titan was
doing. Bansal liked the idea, and
started Bagskart, JewelsKart and
WatchKart within six months.
The tactic worked. With a mix of
own labels as well as other Indian
and foreign brands, all the new
sites posted brisk sales. From
`30 lakh, revenue leapfrogged
to `10 crore by 2013. Lenskart’s
contribution, though, stayed low
at `2 crore. But there was a bright
side. While all the new ventures
posted heady sales, they were in
losses. Lenskart, interestingly,
was immensely profitable: Around
`1 crore on sales of `2 crore.
Bansal was in a fix. Though
his heart was with Lenskart,
he couldn’t think of scaling
down his other ventures. They
were growing in topline, most
of the backers liked the speedy
growth, and any thought of
putting an abrupt end would have
looked repulsive. Enter Ronnie
Screwvala. The media mogul,
who started UTV Group in the
90s and sold it to Walt Disney
Company in 2012, had invested
in Valyoo in December 2012. The
mentor now invited Bansal for a
breakfast meeting in Mumbai.
It was January 2013. The
disciple reached much before the
scheduled time. “It was Sunday
and there was negligible traffic,”
recalls Bansal, who was used to
brain-storming sessions with
Screwvala. The topics, however,
never revolved around funding
or valuation. It was always about
consumers and user insights. This
time, though, Screwvala picked
up an intriguing subject. “Tum
kya banana chahte ho (what do
33
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
3
Lenskart
has been
profitable for
consecutive
years
“If you really want to build a
very valuable enterprise, one
of the key things is focus.”
RONNIE SCREWVALA, SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR
MEXY
XAVIER
LENSKART

34. versus `179 crore. The tipping point
came after a fiscal. The numbers
flipped. While operating revenue
for FY18 had a sedate growth at
`292.35 crore, the loss drastically
came down to `118.04 crore.
Apart from a sharp focus on
business, what helped Lenskart
grow aggressively was its drive to
continuously strive for improving
34
STARTED IN: 2010
TOTAL FUNDING: $1 billion
LAST FUNDING ROUND: $100 million
in April
VALUATION:
$4.3 billion
BACKERS: TPG, Unilazer Ventures,
KKR, Temasek, Sofina, SoftBank
Vision Fund, Chiratae Ventures,
Premji Invest, Steadview Capital,
Kedaara Capitals, Falcon Edege
Capital, Avendus, xto10x, Pratithi
Investments, Ravi Modi Family
Trust and Alpha Wave GLobal
Operating
Revenue
(` crore)
FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22
1400
900.2
474.3
292.3
179
Profit
(` crore)
EBITDA Margin (%)
Cash Outflow
from Operations
(` crore)
NAME, GAME & FAME
Lenskart
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
SOURCE Filings and company; FY22 numbers are unau-
dited; EBITDA margins and cash outflow from opera-
tions for FY17, FY18, FY19 and FY22 are not available
118.04
FY18
(loss)
31.57
FY19
6.32
FY20
28.92
FY21
7.75
FY21
you intend to make)?” asked the
guru as he offered a cup of tea.
Bansal was elated with an easy
question. “I want to revolutionise
eyewear in the world,” he replied.
“Okay, if that be the case, why
don’t you sharply focus on
Lenskart and shut down all other
ventures?” questioned Screwvala.
Bansal went mute for a few
seconds. Then he opened up. “If
I do so, nobody will fund me,” he
shared his apprehension. “Don’t
worry. If you shut them down,
I will put more money in the
venture,” Screwvala said without
batting an eye. “And you won’t
have to take a haircut. It would
be at the same valuation,” he
reassured. Bansal took the offer,
IDG too joined hands, and Valyoo
got funded in February 2013.
Almost a decade later, Screwvala
talks about the incident, and the
moral. “If you really want to build
a valuable enterprise, one of the
key things is focus,” he reckons.
Back in 2011, jewellery, bags and
watches were a crowded space.
With Lenskart, he maintains,
Bansal had a bright chance of
making a massive impact because
it was an uncluttered space. “A 100
percent focus would have given
him 100x output,” he says. With
multiple projects, even a 25 percent
focus would have not given 25x
returns. “It would have been 2.5x,”
he underlines. Entrepreneurs,
he lets on, reach the glass ceiling
very easily. But then they don’t
smash it. They diversify, and get
distracted. “Had Peyush continued
with four things, he would have
nothing to count,” he says, praising
Bansal for taking a leap of faith. “I
only recommended. He did it, and
it has done wonders,” he says.
“After that, we never looked
back. We kept growing,” says
Bansal, who points towards the
rapid progress of the company
since FY17, a year when losses
eclipsed operating revenue: `262.87
conversion rate, cut costs and
ramping backward integration.
While starting home services
and free trial were lynchpin in
the strategy to drive volumes,
and consequently erase losses,
progressively cutting costs
helped it keep expenses under
control. Next the company
ventured offline, opened physical
stores, expanded franchisees
and cemented its bonding
with the consumers. From
FY19, the revenue juggernaut
gathered steam, conversion
increased and bleeding
sequentially slowed down.
In December 2019, Lenskart
entered the unicorn club when
it reportedly raised around $231
FY20
88.94
(negative)
FY21
100.47
(negative)
905.3
262.87
FY17
(loss)
3.82
FY20

35. million in a Series G funding
round led by Japanese financial
conglomerate SoftBank. In FY20,
over a decade after starting the
venture, Bansal posted the firm’s
maiden profit. The next fiscal,
the unicorn remained profitable,
and the trend continued in FY22
as well. “We are profitable. Now
the business is at 69 percent gross
margin, and we never achieved
this number by increasing the
price,” claims Bansal. Though
he declines to share profit data
for FY22, he contends that the
company posted an operating
revenue of `1,400 crore, a healthy
jump from `905.3 crore in FY21.
“Our current Ebitda run rate is
`20 crore a month,” he claims.
In spite of strong growth,
35
LENSKART
SEPTEMBER 23, 2022 • FORBES INDIA
The trend of hiring a lot of
external talent also perpetuated
another associated evil. Lenskart
inadvertently started aping big
companies from where it was
getting fresh hires. “Our strength
was not what other companies
were. We started playing their
game,” he says. The move also led
to the tampering of the DNA of
Lenskart. Promoting homegrown
employees took a back seat and
paying special attention to the
ones coming from outside was
given high priority. “That was
again a mistake,” he adds.
What, though, helped Bansal
in getting back his focus was a
priceless advice. In one of the
founders’ meet organised by
venture capital fund Sequoia, the
Indian entrepreneur bumped into
Tony Hsieh. The chief executive of
Zappos, who turned the company
into a billion-dollar internet shoe
store, shared a golden nugget with
Bansal. “Forget all the numbers.
Just focus on EPO (earnings per
order),” he said. If a company
is not making $10 on an order,
it can never post profit. “It got
imprinted in my mind,” says
Bansal, adding that he always
wanted Lenskart to become a
‘pull’ rather than a ‘push’ brand.
“If your business is based on pull,
and is 10x better than the others,
there is no reason why it should
not be profitable,” he contends.
Ask him his biggest fear
and challenge, and the gritty
entrepreneur gives a peek into
his mind. “I hate living on the
edge,” he says. The company, he
explains, must have a meaty profit
so that any major investment
doesn’t push it into the loss zone.
Whenever Lenskart goes public,
he underlines, the bottom line
won’t be slender but muscular.
“We don’t want to be a ‘just
profitable’ business,” he says.
“We want to be ‘a well-profitable
business,” he smiles.
Lenskart has had a fair share of
blurry episodes. Bansal points
out a few of them. The first
was not spending enough time
on containing costs. Call it the
curse of a high-margin business,
a strong culture of questioning
every penny spent was never built.
The result was an ever-rising
cost. “Overheads kept increasing,
and the phase lasted for a few
years,” says Bansal. The company
slipped into a trap. Small leaks
and at times overlapping expenses
at multiple points started
posing inconspicuous threat.
The co-founder points out
another mistake. “I was always
customer-obsessed but not
employee-obsessed. It was a
big mistake,” he confesses.
Lenskart has also ventured offline to cement its bond with consumers. The impact showed
since FY19 when revenue and conversion picked up

36. to Uneven etc. Every year the
event is conducted across the
major cities of India to bring
together the architect &
designer community while
indulging in
thought-provoking
conversations. The format
has been inspired from the
Japanese Pecha Kucha
format of presenting 20
slides in 20 sec each, keeping
it short and to the point.
The topic for discussion this
year was “Design- Then &
Now,” taking inspiration from
how design has evolved from
a decade of Pecha Kucha
Kohler India celebrates
Kohler started its first Pecha
Kucha in the year 2013 as an
initiative to provide a platform
to some of the top architects
to share their thoughts on
various design related topics
like Wanderlust- Creativity
inspired by Travel, Eves- Even
past to present. Design
trends are fluid and over the
years have changed, evolved
and at times circled back
from where it had started
with many nuances, revamps,
and renewals along the way.
a decade of Pecha Kucha
Kohler India celebrated its 10th
year of Pecha Kucha event on 29th
July this year in Mumbai at
Opa Kipos, Worli, attended by the top names of A&D Community.
KAVITA TALIBI
STAPL
GAURAV PREMCHANDANI
JOI Design

37. To set the context, the
evening started with Mr.
Vishal Chadha’s presentation
(MD Kohler - K&B India &
South Asia), who showcased
the change in design across
various industries from his
own journey. This was
followed by presentations
made by – Qutub Mandviwala
(from MQA), Behzad Kharas
(from The BNK Group),
Kavita Talib (STAPL), Gaurav
Premchandani (from JOI
design), Amber Dar Wagh
(from DAR & Wagh). They
expressed diverse
interpretations of how Design
has evolved and how they
look at the various aspects of
design in today’s era,
with new dimensions and a
new lens.
The concept of design has
changed over the years not
only in Architecture but in
every facet of life. Many
external factors have
impacted design changes and
some of the recent ones have
really made us rethink design
& how it needs to evolve
sustainably in the future. It’s
our fiduciary responsibility to
create impactful designs for BEHZAD KHARAS
The BNK Group
QUTUB MANDVIWALA
MQA
AMBER DAR WAGH
Interior Designer
MD Kohler - K&B India &
South Asia
VISHAL CHADHA
the “Now” along with handing
over an appreciable “Then” to
the next generation.
The event was a huge
success, attended by 110
architects based out of
Mumbai, Ahmedabad & Pune.
BRAND CONNECT

38. January 2020,
Sector 44, Gurugram
shaan Mittal was stunned. “It was
probably the smallest office I had
ever seen,” recounts the venture
capitalist. On a Monday morning,
the principal at Sequoia India
landed in Delhi from Bengaluru,
navigated smog and congested roads
to reach Honasa Consumer’s office
in Gurugram. He wanted to quickly
wrap up the last-minute formalities
before closing the series B round
of funding. Ghazal and Varun
Alagh were busy with the R&D
team cramped in the basement of a
building where the parent company
of skincare and beauty brand
Mamaearth was chaotically nestled.
Mittal was dazzled. He expected
some sort of visual relief. But there
was none. “This was the beauty
about the co-founders,” underlines
Mittal, now managing director
with Sequoia India. He explains his
‘pleasant state of surprise’. Started
in 2016 by Ghazal and Varun
Alagh, Mamaearth had raced to an
operating revenue of `17 crore in
three years—`22.19 lakh, `5 crore
and `17 crore in FY17, FY18 and
FY19, respectively. The brand,
which started with toxin-
free babycare products,
was now striking a run-rate
of `100 crore for FY20.
Mittal now talks about
another pedigree of the
startup, which gave it
enough room to flex
its elbows. The direct-
to-consumer brand
had raised over $4
million from Fireside
Ventures, Titan Captial
and a bunch of angels in
its seed and series A round till
January 2020. So a company of
this size was expected to have a
slightly spacious and more modest
corporate headquarters. Right?
“Well, this is what I presumed,”
says Mittal, who had seen a bulk of
startups graduate to a much bigger
space after getting funded. The
Mamaearth co-founders, though,
were the odd ones out. “They
were immensely frugal,” he says.
The constricted size of the
office, however, had nothing to do
with the financials of the startup.
Mamaearth has posted
three consecutive years of
losses—`30 lakh, `34 lakh
and `3.5 crore in FY17, FY18
and FY19, respectively—
and was expected to bleed
more in FY20. Queerly,
Mittal sensed an impending
tipping point. Sequoia India
led the series B round of
funding in January 2020
when Mamaearth
raised $20 million.
“Profitable businesses
don’t happen by
serendipity,” he
maintains. “There
has to be a plan.”
Back in 2018, the
husband-wife duo was busy
executing a close-fisted plan.
Mamaearth roped in actor Shilpa
Shetty Kundra to endorse the
brand. Analysts and critics reacted
strongly. “Another D2C startup
burning money,” was the noise.
There was a fitting context for the
caustic reception. The combined
38
Ghazal and Varun Alagh built their skincare and beauty empire
Mamaearth on the foundation of frugality. The result is handsome profit
PROFITABLE
UNICORNS
I
By RAJIV SINGH
FORBES INDIA • SEPTEMBER 23, 2022
PENNY WISE,
POUND FULLISH
2
Mamaearth
has been
profitable for
consecutive
years