Author: Yadu Krishnan

What is a Financial Model ?

A startup financial model is the numerical representation of a startup’s goals. And the process of building a financial model for a startup is termed as startup financial modelling. It consists of several steps, from gathering the key metrics and assumptions to helping the startups fundraise. A good financial model is a prerequisite for every startup before approaching VCs and HNIs for fundraising. Further, having a good financial model will also help startups build a sustainable financial future.

Importance of startup financial modelling

• Financial modelling helps new entrepreneurs to find out whether they can turn their ideas into a sustainable operating business. 
• It also helps startups quantify and validate their business plan and business models cost-effectively.
• It helps to get an idea about fund requirement when they are in need and the rate at which the business will possibly scale.
• Financial modelling shows the actual financial state of a startup. It also provides the investors with the proper insight into its real-time financial position.

Types of financial model

Most financial models focus on valuation. Whereas some other models focus on calculating and predicting risk, the performance of the portfolio, and economic trends. Following are the common corporate financial models that are relevant for startups;

• Three Statement Model: As the name suggests, this model links three statements. They are income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. In order to integrate them into one dynamically connected financial model using formulas in excel. One of the main purposes of this model is to forecast the financial position of a company as a whole. Often this model is a base for models that are more complex like Discount Cash Flow Model, Merger Model, Budget Model etc.
• Budget Model: Budget Model focuses on the income statement. Usually, this model is prepare by considering the monthly or quarterly figures. This model mainly benefits business to compare their current performance with their future financing goals. Sales, expenses, cash flow, equity and asset replacement etc are some of the financial factors considered by this model. This also enables to perform the financial modelling in Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) to arrive at a budget for the succeeding years(usually one, three and five years). 
• Forecasting Model: As the name implies, this model is to predict the possible outcomes relating various aspects like demand and supply, sales, consumer behaviour etc. This model sometimes uses the budget model to compare. After analyzing its output, both models groups into a single work book or sometimes they may arise to be entirely different.
• Discounted Cash Flow Model: The purpose of this method is to arrive at the present value of an investment/company or cash flow. It is done by altering future cashflows to the time value of money to reach the present value of an investment in a business. For this we have to consider multiple factors like inflation, risk and cost of capital to estimate the forecast free cash flows, which are further discounts back to the present fair value. 
• Merger Model (M&A): The merger model determines whether a benefit exists from merging. It represents the analysis of two companies brought together through the M&A process. It determines the possible impact of two companies to get merge or one company taking over another. Two main steps in building a merger model include M&A model inputs, assumptions relating the model, model analysis and outputs.

Apart from the above five models, other types of the financial model include;

A)Initial Public Offering (IPO) Model: Financial professionals like investment bankers mainly use IPO Model for valuing their business before going public. Based on an assumption regarding how much investors would be willing to pay with regard to a company in contention, this model equates to the company analysis. And valuation as per this model includes an IPO discount to ensure better performance of stocks in the market. 

 B) Leveraged Buyout (LBO )Model: The LBO Model aims to evaluate leveraged buy out transactions, i.e., obtaining a company funded with significant debt. The main advantages of this model is that it helps investors assist the transaction and earn low risk internal rate of return (IRR). As an advanced form of the financial model, LBO requires debt schedules for doing the modelling. Some of the unique elements of an LBO model includes;

1. A higher degree of support
2. Multiple portions of debt financing
3. Issuing of shares that prefer
4. Management equity compensation
5. Operational improvements aiming the business

C) Sum of the Parts Model (SOPT): As the name implies, this model blends numerous DCF models by adding them together. SOPT states the process of valuing each segment of a business and adding them up to get the total Enterprise Value (EV). Further, this model can also use in parallel with other techniques like Discounted Cash Flow modelling and comparable company analysis. This mode is not fitting for all business, but it’s very useful for;

1. Companies having different business segment or divisions
2. Companies having definite assets
3. Conglomerates or holding companies with different companies 

D) Consolidation Model: This model fuse several business models into one single model. This model groups the financial statements of two or more entities to build a secured financial statement. This type of model belongs to reporting model category of the financial model. 

E) Forecasting Model: As the budget model, this model is also used in FP&A to do prediction that compares to the budget model. This type of model also belongs to reporting model category of financial modelling.

F) Option Pricing Model: The option Pricing model is part of the pricing model category of financial models. Two main types of option pricing models include binomial trees and Black-Sholes. This model is entirely based on mathematical financial modelling rather than specific standards.

KEY INPUTS TO A STARTUPS FINANCIAL MODEL

Following are the six main inputs to building a sound financial model for a startup;

1. Revenue: Revenue serves as the first input that goes into a financial plan. For a startup, revenue forecast might be tricky as there have been no sales in the past. The revenue forecast is usually a combination of top-down and bottom-up methods. Forecasting revenue also depends on the business model. But for a SAAS platform, revenue forecasts based on existing customers, new customers and churn rates are much more suitable. 
2. Cost of goods sold (COGS): COGS includes all costs incurred by a company in delivering its products or services. And this will defer based on the company’s offerings. That means if the company sells tangible goods, COGS includes the cost of materials involved in manufacturing the product. But for a service-based company, COGS consists of the personnel costs for the employees delivering the same. Further, for a SAAS company, COGS covers hosting costs, onboarding and customer support costs and online payment costs. COGS forecast might sometimes depend on the business model. Forecasting the same based on a total level like a month might sometimes give more sense. 
3. Operating expenses (OPEX): The general expenses incurred by a business to run on daily basis are termed as operating expense. It include all costs associated with sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative tasks. And preliminary expenses of a startup usually include legal fees, travel costs, costs relating to payroll, IT costs, office supplies insurance, patent cost etc. 
4. Personnel: Here, an analyst predicts the number of employees hired along with their respective salaries. It also includes the payroll taxes and perks provided, if any. To make this step easier, an analyst may split the personnel into different categories like;
   • Direct labour: Includes all employees who solely engage in producing goods sold or services delivered.
   • Sales & marketing: It includes employees who are part of the business such as sales managers, marketing managers, social media experts, copwriters etc.
   • Research and development: These employees are also part of operating expenses and include R&D managers, software engineers, technicians etc.
   • General and administration: These employees are also part of operating expenses and include back-office and C-level personnel like CEO, CMO, CFO, Secretaries etc. Further, to check whether the personnel forecast is realistic, divide projected revenues in a given year by the number of employees for that year. It will give an idea about the company’s revenue per employee. It also provide a basis for comparison with industry leaders.
5. Investments in assets/ Capital expenditures: Capital expenditures or, in other words, investments in assets account to be the fifth input to a startup’s financial model. It denotes the fund utilization by a company to acquire or improve physical assets, infrastructure, intellectual property, buildings and other equipment. And these are incurred by a company to sustain or enhance the scope of its operations. For startups, such expenses include investments in computers, office equipment, machinery etc.
6. Financing: Financing is the final input into a startup’s financial model. It includes financing streams such as equity, loans, or subsidies. This helps to know about the possible impact of the company’s funding need by adding different types of funding.

Four other supporting elements for a startup’s financial model

1. Working capital: Working capital is the essential elements as it denotes both efficiency and its short-term financial health. It has a significant effect on the cash flow of a company. If a company’s current asset does not exceed current liabilities, then it can result in bankruptcy. Working capital usually appears on the balance sheet and is calculated based on the number of days the company’s sales and payable are outstanding and the number of days the company holds its inventory before selling it. Thus financial model should essentially include a sheet for calculating the working capital based on revenues, COGS and days outstanding.
2. Depreciation: Value reduction in a company’s assets is commonly termed as depreciation. It is calculated based on an asset’s value and its useful lifetime. It appears on the P&L and has an impact on the value of assets on the balance sheet.
3. Taxes: Every company is obliged to pay yearly taxes on its financial results, commonly termed corporate income tax. To include tax carryforwards into financial models, a separate tax scheme is required for the model. 
4. Valuation: The purpose of every startup building a financial model is for fundraising. And the process mainly includes negotiations with investors regarding the company’s valuation to be invested in. Most startups are valued using Discounted Cashflow Method (DCF). And this method estimates the value of a company based on its future performance. This method best suits for startups because they have not yet realized any historical performance but expect good earnings in the future. But the main downside of this method is that valuation through this method is highly sensitive to the input variables used to calculate the valuation.

How to build a financial model for startups?

There are mainly two approaches to building an effective financial model for a startup, namely;

• Top-Down Approach: This approach estimates the company’s future performance, starting from market data and working down to revenue. Here an analyst will first determine the total market value of the product and narrow it down to a particular location. And based on the assumption that the product will capture a distinct portion of the target market and further use this estimate to arrive at a sales forecast. Thus in this approach, the forecast is done by considering the market share that the startup is planning to capture within a specific timeframe. And in this approach use mainly the TAM SAM and SOM model. TAM SAM SOM model considers market size at three different levels;-
  1. Total Available Market (TAM) defines the total market demand for the product or service.
  2. Serviceable Available Market (SAM) – Serviceable Available Market is that part of TAM that represents the niche market for the product within the geographical area.
  3. Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) – SOM is that part of the market that the business can capture. Thus SOM represents the sales target since it represents the share of the market that the company aims to capture.
     
     Once the sales target is defined using the TAM SAM SOM model, the next step is to calculate all costs associates with manufacturing and delivering the products or services . Also forecast all expenses relating to various aspects like sales, marketing, general and administrative tasks for the business to run sustainably. And all these costs should not exceed the revenue targets to arrive at a positive EBITDA. 
• Bottom-Up Approach: This approach considers business-by-business or sector-by-sector fundamentals. Thus helps an analyst identify the profitable opportunities for a startup and perform its valuation compared to the market.

What are the possible outcomes of a startup’s financial model?

The three main possible outcomes of a startup’s financial model are as follows;

1. Financial statements: A sound financial model must essentially include a forecast of three financial statements, i.e. the profit & loss statement (P&L), the balance sheet(BS) and the cash flow statement(CF). And these statements are used to communicate the financial information across various stakeholders like banks, investors, governments, and others interested in understanding the financial performance of a firm or startup. P&L gives insights into all incomes and expenses generated by a company over a specific period of time and indicates whether the business is profitable or not. Whereas the balance sheet gives details about everything that the company owns and owes at a specific time. Further, a cash flow statement shows the information on all cash inflows and outflows of a company. It consists of three different parts; Operational cash flow, investment cash flow and financing cash flow. Operational cash flow denotes cash inflow and outflow relating to core business operations. Investment cash flow shows cash flow resulting from investment activity. Whereas financing cash flow means cash changes resulting from financing activities. 
2. Operational cashflow overview: It is good to forecast the financial statements every year for fundraising. But for the financial management of a company on a daily basis, it is helpful to include operating cash flow for the coming 12 months in the financial model. To create an operational cash flow forecast, list out all categories of cash inflows and outflows, add a starting balance and check what remains at the end of every month.
3. KPI overview: Another common output of a startup’s financial model typically includes Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of some companies or KPIs relating to specific sectors. KPI is not only important for investors, but it might also be necessary for company owners. These metrics can track company performance, experiments relating to different acquisition channels, cost structures, business models etc. Further, KPIs can be of different types like KPIs showing sales and profitability, cashflows and raising investments or even KPIs that are specific to a company or industry.

EBITA

EBITA simply means Earnings Before interest, taxes and amortisation. Investors commonly use this acronym to measure the profitability and efficiency of a company and compare it with companies of similar nature. The term includes all costs associated with the capital assets, i.e. depreciation, by excluding associated financing costs and the amortisation of any intangible assets, making it an accurate metric for measuring a company’s profitability. Further, it can also compare with EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes )and EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortisation) to get a better insight into the company’s earnings.

EBITDA

The financial metrics that measure a company’s overall financial health are commonly termed EBITDA or Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization. Often, there is an alternative to other metrics like revenue, earnings, or net income of a business. This metric excludes all expenses associated with debt and adds back interest expenses and taxes to earnings. It helps to compare the profitability of different companies and industries since it eliminates the effects of financing and capital expenditure.

Further, this metric serves in the valuation process and helps to compare the enterprise value and revenue. Currently, bankers widely use EBITDA to estimate the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR), a ratio that is explicitly use for business loans to measure the cash flow and ability to pay. Moreover, analysts and investors use EBITDA to get an idea about the company’s actual earnings, and it gives a picture of the company’s total amount in hand for reinvestment or to make payments as dividends.

Components of EBITDA

What is a good EBITDA?

An EBITDA with a 10% or more margin is generally good. This can be understood better with the help of an illustration;

While considering two different companies, namely Company A and Company B, with their EBITDA of $600,000, total revenue of $6,000,000 and an EBITDA of $ 750,000 and total revenue of $9,000,000, respectively. And this indicates that B company demonstrates a higher EBITDA than A company. (8% against 10%). And looking at this data, company B might appear more promising to a potential investor.

FORMULA AND CALCULATION

Usually, two formulas are there for the calculation i.e;

 EBITDA = Net income + Taxes + Interest expense + Depreciation & Amortization

Or

EBITDA = Operating Income + Depreciation & Amortization

It is thus estimated by straight forward method. Simply by considering the information provided in the company’s income statement and balance sheet. The first formula uses the net income to calculate EBITDA by adding back interest and tax expenses. In the second formula to obtain operating income, subtract daily operating expenses. This method helps the investors to get an idea about the exact earnings of the company by excluding interest and taxes. But it should note that the calculations via two different formulas will provide you with two different results. Since net income includes line items that doesn’t include in operating income, such as non-operating income or one time-expenses.

USE CASES :

EBITDA MARGIN AND HOW TO INTERPRET IT?

The EBITDA margin is a profitability ratio that measures a company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation as a percentage of its total revenue. And there are mainly two types of EBITDA-1. Higher margin and 2. Lower margin. Comparatively a higher margin is more favourable because companies with higher value margins produce a higher profit. 

STEPS TO CALCULATE THE EBIDTA MARGIN

Follow the steps given below to arrive at the EBITDA margin;

1. To begin with, the revenue, gather the cost of goods sold (COGS), and operating expense from the income statement.
2. Then consider the depreciation and amortisation (D&A) from the cash flow statement and any other non-cash add-backs. 
3. Determine the operating income by subtracting COGS and operating expenses and adding back D & A.
4. Finally, divide the value by the corresponding revenue figure, and the resulting figure is your EBITDA margin for each company.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO CALCULATE THE EBITDA MARGIN?

Calculating this margin helps companies to;

IS EBITDA THE SAME AS GROSS PROFIT?

Gross profit and EBITDA are not the same. Gross profit denotes the amount of profit a company makes after subtracting the cost associated with making its product or offering its services to its customers. In contrast, it shows a company’s profitability after deducting interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation. Thus EBITDA and gross profit are not the same since it measures the company’s profitability by exempting different items or cost.

What is a business plan template?

A business plan template is a standardized document that helps a business planner to write a detailed business plan. A viable business plan must cover the following topics: introduction, executive summary, company description, and marketing plan. Also a business planner can use a good business plan template to create a well-organized business plan as per the client’s requirement.

A good business plan template must have the following ten key elements;

A well-designed templates for business plan helps to articulate a strategy for starting a business and to pitch the right kind of investors. It also shows the clients that we spend considerable time thinking about the potential issues the business might face. Also ask them detailed questions surrounding economics and fundamentals of the client’s business model to provide valuable suggestions and feedbacks. Thus it’s understood that a well-written business plan is critical for any startup in the event of fundraising.

 While writing a one-pager is almost a layman’s cup of tea, but when it comes to technical writing, it requires deeper knowledge about the subject and needs to follow a specific writing format. A good content writer must essentially be a good wordsmith. Content writing is definitely not a layman thing; it demands good writing skills to achieve required goals. This serves to influence the target audience. While understanding them is essential for all types of writing, but it is different when it comes to technical writing. Influencing the target audience is never an easy task because knowing your audience determines what information you present, how you present it, and also how you structure your entire writing.

The possible audience for a business plan might be micro Venture Capitalists and HNIs (High net-worth individuals). Currently, start ups are highly in need of well organized technical wordsmiths for them to pitch the kind of investors. And Scaalex, as a team of highly driven domain experts, takes no chance to compromise on the quality of our output. Till now we have closely worked with 270+ start ups by helping them in the event of fundraising. As domain experts, we stand out for in depth market research, thereby helping the new entrepreneurs in designing a good business plan. If you think you are one among the start ups who lack enough market data, we are here to attain you with exceptional execution and fundraising results.

What is Business Plan

A business plan is a standardised written document outlining the company’s organisational, financial, and operating framework. A good business plan gives potential investors the right insights into the company’s current state. Also an idea on how it becomes an investment opportunity in the future. It is a prerequisite for any startup to begin with and to attract more investors. In short, a business plan conveys the company’s goals, both short-term and long-term. Planning helps to strategize, finding problems and the competition of an organization and ways to overcome them too. Moreover it includes overall structure, marketing and positioning strategy and fund required by the company for a long run.

For most startups it serves as a dual-purpose document used internally and externally.

Importance:

The Major Types :

Essentials of a good business plan

It is essential for attracting investors and fundraising. It also helps companies articulate their mission vision and plot their growth trajectory. As such, it cannot be just a bulleted list. Plan needs to be a serious business document with the following size elements:

How does Scaalex come into the picture?

Most startups fail to raise funds from investors. This is because of the lack of knowledge on how to execute the financial models. Further, they have to struggle without proper market research, financial plan, model and so on.

Scaalex is a team of top domain experts and financial consultants. We closely worked with 270+ startups to build the financial projections, valuation report, business plan, and funding advisory. We stand for an expert team in-depth market search and also understand the expectations of new entrepreneurs. If you are one among the startups who lack adequate financial insights; reach out to us to attain exceptional execution and fundraising results!

Intro

Online payments have become a part of our daily transactions in no time. India has Leading fintech companies who are provide payment gateway for startups. The payment gateway is a software that authorizes you to conduct an online transaction through different payment modes like debit card, credit card, UPI, net banking. It acts as a technology partner between the customer and merchant, ensuring that confidential information such as credit card numbers entered on an e-commerce website is passed securely and promptly from the customer to the acquiring bank via the merchant. However a payment gateway service can be provided by banks directly or a payment gateway for startups as a service provider authorised by a bank. Thus they manages fraud and protects merchants from insufficient funds, expired cards, exceeding credit limits. The key players involved in the payment process includes the following:

• Merchant: Merchant sells goods and services to the customers.

• Customer: A customer or cardholder accesses the product or service offered by the merchant.

• Issuing bank: Issuing bank is the customer’s bank that issues debit or credit on behalf of card schemes (visa or MasterCard).

• Acquirer(Acquiring bank): It is the financial institution that maintains the merchant’s bank account.

Following are the Leading payment gateway for startups in India

1. Instamojo:

Instamojo is one of the most significant on-demand payment gateway for startups & retailers, and user-friendly dashboards started in 2012. It is a free payment gateway in India with no maintenance cost. It is super easy to set up for startups to sell and collect payments online across mobile and web without the requirement of any physical network. Any seller with a bank account can register at Instamojo and start selling digital goods and get paid. The bank account, phone number, and PAN card remain the only requirements. It reduces the gap between buyer and seller, thereby helping startups to find the right customers. You can download the Instamojo app via the play store on your android devices.

2. CC Avenue:

CC Avenue is one of the best preffered payment gateway for startups because it supports almost all banks and payment options. The company started in 2001, allowing customers to use major credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, Diners Club, Amex. It has 200 +  payment options like Analytics, Audit, Multiple Currency Processing. It’s highly reliable, comes inbuilt with a dashboard and real-time analytics. With CC Avenue, you can get admission to services in the leading worldwide marketplace as it supports 27 major currencies. High-volume E-Commerce websites like Snapdeal, Myntra, Naukri uses it.

3. PayU:

PayU is fast to set up, allows you to upload documents directly onto their site for the verification process, and you can go live exceptionally quickly. When it comes to PayU, you will be offered different pricing packages. Each package has other characteristics such as store card features, IVR payment, Multi-currency gateway, payment analytics. PayU India rebranded both its products-PayU enterprise and PayU money to establish them as transparent independent businesses. Now, PayUbiz is used by large companies such as Snapdeal. PayUMoney is designed for small businesses and startups and comes with a wallet service, email invoice feature, a free website, and doesn’t require any technical knowledge. The platform is integrated with some of the top e-commerce players of the country, like Snapdeal and Jabong. 

4. DirecPay:

DirecPay is one of the most integrated payment gateways having simple registration and multiple payment options. It enables accepting payments through cash, cheques, demand draft, and online payments through different payment modes such as debit cards, credit cards, and internet banking. Our services offered Indian merchants access to this platform quickly and conveniently who conducted online business and contributed to a massive market for retailers desiring to sell online. Mainly, PolicyBazaar, Indiatimes, Google India, Paytm uses DirecPay.

5. Cashfree:

Cashfree is one of the cheapest payment gateways. It supports businesses to collect and distribute payments through different payment methods, including Visa, MasterCard, Rupay, UPI, IMPS, NEFT, PayTM & other wallets, Pay Later, and various EMI options. It offers the lowest TDR in India and has the fastest settlement cycle of 24 hours to 48 hours.  Cashfree is among the best free payment gateway for a website in India as it helps to analyze your website’s designation and offers pop-up, iframe, flawless sign-out methods. Moreover, it can also work as an International Payment Gateway.

6. RazorPay:

RazorPay is one of the topmost payment gateway for startups, founded in 2013 with headquarters in Bangalore. It’s super easy to set up and has a simple interface. One can easily collect domestic and international payments and access all payment modes like credit cards, debit cards, net banking, UPI, wallets. It also facilitates end-to-end money movement easier. Another attractive feature about RazorPay is sending customized emails to subscribers, reminding them about future payments or failed transactions. Further, it automates bank transfers, shares invoices, and provides working capital loans for its users.

7. Paypal:

Paypal is a globally recognized and trusted payment gateway. It can undoubtedly be the first choice for startups that expect a large number of international payments. Customers can use PayPal to transfer money to and from a bank account, get the working capital loans, receive payments. It is easy to request and send payments on the platform and allows customers to generate invoices and receipts. It also enables clients to pay in whatever method they want, like debit card, credit card, PayPal, PayPal Credit. Paypal facilitates phone transactions and also helps to integrate with social media accounts.

8. Stripe:

Stripe is a comprehensive payment platform that efficiently works with subscription businesses, brick-and-mortar stores, E-commerce websites, even virtual marketplaces. It facilitates transactions in more local currencies. It also has an isolated infrastructure for storing, transmitting, and decrypting. Stripe boasts of strict security and compliance, so clients need not stress over fraudulent transactions. This gateway makes it conceivable with its AES encryption. There are no setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees for using Stripe. It accepts SEPA Debit, SOFORT, iDEAL, and AliPay. Stripe can help you to reach customers all over the world.

9. Payoneer:

Payoneer is a payment gateway that allows you to receive mass payments from marketplaces and customers all around the globe. It is a swift,  secure, and cheap gateway that gives all the solutions for startups. It gives you an option of automatic fund transfer to your bank account at competitive rates. Compared to other gateways, Payoneer charges lower transaction fees. It supports around 200 countries and 150 local currencies. Once you get your funds from Payoneer, you can channel your funds to your bank account and withdraw them in your local currency.

10. Authorize.net:

Authorize.net is the leading payment gateway that consists of the most simplified payment process, enabling you to accept electronic and credit card payments quickly and efficiently anytime and everywhere. It comes with a free setup and low monthly gateway fees. It supports recurring billing, timely services to its clients, and many payment types like Visa, MasterCard, Amex, JCB. Authorize.net’s other services include simple checkout options, account updater, advanced fraud detection, customer information manager, online invoicing.

Since e-commerce is growing speedily in India, the selection of a good payment gateway is mandatory. Almost all startups have moved over to online payment options to reach out to the global market and make online transactions quick and easy for their customers. A good payment gateway can help to protect your consumers from any safety breaches and ensure a secure transfer of funds from the payment website.  Depending on the number of transactions, security of your site, and pricing, you can choose a gateway that’s best for your startup.

Before starting a new business, you need to organize many things, and having a startup checklist during this time would be fully useful. Our startup checklist blog discusses six major checklists to consider while launching a startup.

If you have any doubts regarding how to start a new venture, Contact us. We look forward to hearing from you!

Introduction

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is one of the first tools that every startup implements to grow to the next level. CRM refers to the combination of business software, strategies, and processes that helps to build long-lasting relationships between companies and it’s customers. This software ensures that every step of the interaction with customers goes evenly and efficiently to increase overall sales, customer service, and profitability. Some of the CRM software features include customer data storage at one place, recording service issues, identifying sales opportunities, managing marketing campaigns. Good CRM software gives a better way to manage external relationships.

Here are some best CRM software for startups:-

1. Keap:

Keap, formerly known as Infusionsoft, is a web-based platform used by startups to focus on what and how to grow sales in business. Started back in 2001, the software integrates with 2500+ apps and also combines CRM, sales, and marketing in one platform without disruption. It helps track marketing pipelines and customer journeys, converts leads into customers, and automates repetitive tasks such as follow-ups, calendar booking, invoicing and payments, and more. Keap implemented its mobile app to capture every communication in one place and add details in every call and text. A 14-day free trial is available for Grow and Pro plans.

Pricing Detail: Starts from $169 per month

2. HUBSPOT:

Hubspot is an easy-to-use, scalable CRM software created to improve inbound marketing and sales, and business growth in all stages. The tool is entirely free so that you can get it without the overhead. The paid version comes with more stable features of CRM. It enables you to manage social media presence and content, track leads, company activities, and profiles, streamline sales funnels, record customer interaction across channels and other digital activities. It integrates with Zapier to share information across Slack, Google sheets, Facebook lead ads, etc. Hubspot offers a discount of up to 90% for eligible startup ventures.

Pricing Detail: Free version available

Paid version starts from $50 per month

3. STREAK:

Streak is the perfect CRM software for startups since every startup uses G-suite for sending emails, documents, etc. It directly integrates with Gmail so that users can access their work inbox and other tools at all times. Adding, editing, collaborating is as simple as a spreadsheet. It keeps track of leads, close deals, resumes, projects, and tasks to feature completion, schedule and send mass emails, and helps to maintain a business relationship with its partners. Streak offers a personal version free for individual use.

Pricing Detail: Free Version available

Paid version starts from $19 per user per month

4. SALESFORCE:

Salesforce is the most widely used CRM software by startups that aims to connect companies and customers. It allows multiple features such as quick lead searches, tracking customer details in one place, forecasting sales management, excellent customer services, etc. Over 1,50,000 companies use this software, making a shared view of every customer. Also it integrates with powerful tools such as Outlook, Zapier and third-party platforms such as Facebook and Google.

Pricing Detail: Starts from $25 per user per month

5. NUTSHELL:

Nutshell is a sneaky and affordable CRM that offers the most advanced sales automation platform to integrate dozens of popular business software applications. It is a CRM tool that is simple enough for any team and sophisticated enough for any business. It helps sales teams of all sizes optimize their efforts and focus more on building relationships. Besides with Nutshell, sales reps don’t have to worry about dropping a lead or not knowing which one to focus on. In addition to that, Nutshell also offers sales process and collaboration tools, email sync with Gmail and outlook.

Pricing Detail: Starts from $19 per user per month

6. ZOHO CRM:

Zoho CRM is easy to use with a simple user interface targeted at startups, including social media features, automation, etc. With Zoho CRM, startups can attract and retain customers, distribute personal invitations and undertake Customer Relationship Management at scale. Indeed the good thing about Zoho CRM is that it is the best budget-friendly CRM software out there that integrates with Facebook, Twitter, and google+ for reaching out and engaging customers at the right time. It allows users to effectively coordinate prospect information and offers marketing features to track visitors, lead scoring, sales signals.

Pricing Detail: Starts from Rs.1300 per user per month

7. PIPEDRIVE:

Pipedrive is one of the easy-to-use CRM software for startups. It is a flexible and result-oriented CRM designed to help startups get organized. The key idea behind Pipedrive is the sales pipeline. It focuses on the sales pipeline and activities you need to do next to move your leads through it. Also pipe drive customizes data fields and workflow for distinct business processes. Moreover Pipedrive can access it 24* 7 from anywhere using any web browser or mobile apps. It provides users with excellent team collaboration and lead management. Further, pipeline CRM is well-known for being a simple, clean CRM and ideal for international business companies as it is available in a range of primary and minor currencies.

Pricing Detail: Starts from $11 per user per month

8. AGILE CRM:

Agile CRM is a full-featured sales CRM that offers its free version to up to 10 users. Startups can easily attach documents to companies, contacts, deals, and email in-app. It also allows social media integrations to publish and respond to post on social channels. Additionally, users can track website visitors to analyze customer behavior and providing them deals and offers according to their requirements. This CRM software integrates marketing automation, contact management, email, and real-time alerts, etc too. Agile CRM will automate all upcoming voice calls and follow-ups by sticking an appointment calendar online.

Pricing Detail: Free version available

Paid version starts from $15 per user per month

9. INSIGHTLY:

Insightly is a cloud-based, user-friendly CRM platform for tracking contacts, projects, documents in a single interface. Also it offers excellent categorization and filtering of data and customizable reporting, which means Insightly provides customization options for structuring and assessing customers’ data and records, including capturing customized data, display, and validation. Also it integrates easily with other leading business systems such as Gmail, Outlook, Mailchimp, Evernote. Users can access Insightly on other platforms such as IOS, Android.

Pricing Detail: Starts from $29 per user per month

10. COPPER:

Copper is formerly known as ProsperWorks CRM. It is an easy-to-use and comprehensive CRM tool for startups that need a better way to manage leads and grow customer relationships. It integrates with Gmail and other Google apps. Similarly you can see information from all your email threads, past interaction all in one place. Copper reminds you to reach out to contacts and follow up deals. It also gains absolute data protection and security control through regular user access review, data encryption, vulnerability testing, etc.

Pricing Detail: Starts from $29 per user per month

One of the biggest challenges for startups is growth. CRM for startups is considered a powerful tool that caters to the particular needs of companies in the early stages of development. Hence, the importance of maintaining CRM is not an easier thing to neglect because, without customers, the startups will not make money and cannot exist. Get in touch with us for any query regarding the best CRM for startups. We will be ready to help at the earliest.

There are few free tools to smooth out the workflow process more efficiently. Our blog about 12 major free tools for startup help you to know more about free tools that help you.

Intro

The food sector never goes out of style as everybody needs to eat multiple times a day. It has always been a booming industry for innovation. Certainly this lively space that attracts passionate entrepreneurs to discover new ideas and build successful brands. The food startups in India are trying to attract customer’s hearts literally through their bellies. However, food startups in India should build technological processes to create innovative food products and ensure delicious and nutritious food. Here are the few best food startups in India:

1. FreshMenu

Rashmi Daga (CEO) founded FreshMenu in 2014. A delivery service provider made with the finest ingredients, mainly farm fresh vegetables, fresh dairy, and meat products, and without trying to do re-heated and assembled food. It aims to deliver fresh food, including breakfast platters, burgers, sandwiches, wraps, Thalis, Continental dishes, Biriyani, dessert. The startup has raised USD 24 M in funds from investors. Currently, FreshMenu operates in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, and Gurgaon. They used to change their menu daily and deliver freshly prepared meals in just 45 mins at the customer’s doorstep. Its headquarters in Bangalore.

2. Box 8

Anshul Gupta and Amit Raj (IIT graduates) founded Box eight in 2012 as a small outlet in a corporate cafeteria. They prepare and deliver hot desi meals in wholesome boxes under 40 minutes at pocket-friendly prices. It offers desi-mixed food varieties like all-in-one meals, desi openers, biriyani, desserts, steak meals, salads, sandwiches, curries, paratha wraps, and more. They too offer meals late in the night till 1 am. Box 8 provides an online platform to browse through menus and place orders for delivery. It is Mumbai-based startup.It serves almost 22,000 meals across 100+ outlets in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Gurgaon.

3. Faasos

Founded by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee in 2004 and later incorporated in 2011. Faasos (also called food on demand) is an online food ordering industry owned by Rebel Foods. It operates in more than 15 major cities in India. The company aims to provide a wide range of food items such as wraps, rolls, Frankies, rice bowls, meals, desserts, snacks. They take online orders and gets them delivered in no time. Certainly this food startup is a perfect example food chain that went from online to offline. Food aggregators like Zomato, Swiggy, FoodPanda are the direct competitors of Faasos. Its headquarter is at Pune.

4. Dine out

Founded in 2012 by Ankit Mehrotra, Vivek Kapoor, Sahil Jain, and Nikhil Bakshi. The features include discovering safe and hygienic restaurants, get great discounts and offers, home delivery and takeaway, hassle-free reservations, pay restaurant bills to earn cashback. It has more than 2.5 M diners/month, listing over 35,000 restaurants in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore. Dineout is the largest dining platform headquartered at NewDelhi.

5. Biriyani By Kilo

In 2015, Kaushik Roy and Vishal Jindal started Biriyani By Kilo (BBK). As the name suggests, it prepares and delivers biriyanis to the masses, and the varieties of biriyani include Hyderabadi biriyani, Lucknow biriyani, Kolkata biriyani. Biriyani is made using natural traditional dum style. Further, it provides a celebration menu, curries, kebabs, Metta, beverages, and drinks with authentic taste and flavors. It has received excellent responses from its customers since its inception. Its headquarter is at Gurugram.

6. Zomato

Pankaj Chaddah and Deepinder Goyal founded Zomato in 2008. It is a multinational restaurant discovery website and an online food ordering app available in 10 different languages. Zomato is the first food tech unicorn in India that connects customers, restaurant partners, and delivery partners to fulfill their multiple needs. Customers use this app to search and discover nearby restaurants, online ordering, table reservations. They provide industry-based marketing tools to restaurant partners to acquire more customers and also transparent job opportunities to delivery partners. It is focused on offering better food for more people before dining out. Also, the company has received funding of over USD 600 M from investors. Its headquarter is located in Gurgaon (Haryana).

7. Swiggy

Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini founded Swiggy in 2014. It is one of the best food ordering and delivery companies in India. The delivery is super fast and provides free delivery on huge orders. Still food delivered is fresh and online, which makes it stand apart. Although Customers can also track their orders in real-time – It takes around 40,000 orders per day. Additionally The company name of Swiggy is Bundle Technologies Private Limited. Zomato, TinyOwl, Foodpanda are the core competitors of this company. Its headquarter is located in Bangalore.

8. Swadhika foods

Swarnamugi R Karthik founded Swadhika Foods in the year 2015. Surely they are one of the leading suppliers and exporter of fine quality frozen cut fruits and vegetables and frozen ready-to-eat/cook foods, offering customized packing delivery according to International Standards and facilitates modern research and development. Because the products are 100% natural and free from preservatives and synthetic colors certainly they stand out. The startup also represents product innovation, quality, freshness, and commitment to excellence and focuses on building a good relationship with customers based on theirs needs. Its headquarters is located in Chennai.

9. Hunger Box

Hunger Box is founded by Sandipan Mitra and Uttam Kumar in 2016. It is a full-stack B2B and F&B (Food and Beverage) company that brings together food vendors, the company, and its employees in a single platform. It offers safe and healthy office food and cafeteria management for corporate employees. Thereafter 6,00,000 orders are processed every day among 23 cities. Also the company provides a customized platform for users to see the live food menu, order food, pay through digital modes and send feedback. Its headquarter is in Bangalore.

10. Dumdurrust

The journey began in 2012, when they got convinced about the fact that wherever an Indian goes, the taste of India follows. Building up on this food habit embedded in our DNA, they started the journey with studying the Indian food culture thoroughly. In dumdurrust, it is an honest effort to create the history with authenticity and bring the best taste to your table. The journey is never ending and research and experiments are always ongoing. Every item in the menu is backed with legacy and curated with passion.

The Chef Souvik, with 25 years of experience, is an Indian cuisine expert followed by European & Tex Mex, was associated with many National and International food chains heading the product development domain. His creativity and passion for experimentation, along with his curiosity to play with flavors has created diversified menu across different palettes. Certainly Souvik believes that cooking is an art and curiosity is the force driving it. Dumdurrust has decided to design the Biryani & Curries using the Dum Process in Clay pots to offer the authenticity, they call it the “Dum Durrust” way.

Certainly Food startups India have revolutionized the way Indians consume food. Significantly people are constantly making good food choices that are tasty, healthy, and helps them stay fit. Undoubtedly people including a better lifestyle are also a part the food startups and so they flourishing at the same time. An entrepreneur may lack critical insights and knowledge to execute business results.

Therefore book a slot with our experts to discuss your startup ideas. Scaalex has working with food startups in India and founders to validate Business Idea, Financial Modelling, Business Plan and Investment Advisory to scale up the startup. We ensure you to get insightful consultation and validations with our domain experts.

Intro

The Capital of India, Delhi, is a city of people having contented hearts and lively nature. Being one of the favorite places of new businesses in the country, Delhi has a blend of small and enormous companies.

As per the Economic Survey in 2021-22, Delhi is India’s new startup capital. The data shows over 5000 new startups registered in Delhi between 2019 and 2021. There are over 7,000 businesses in Delhi-NCR and ten unicorns with a total value of $50 billion at the end of 2020. In 2025, it will be one of the Top 5 Global Startup Hubs, with 12,000 startups, 30 unicorns, and worth of about US$ 150 billion. Delhi has more than 1,500 leading startups that grow successfully and provide satisfaction to its customers. In this article, you will get to know about the best startups in Delhi.

1. Snapdeal:

Firstly Snapdeal started as an offline coupon business and then expanded as an online marketplace in 2011. The company offers multi-category products relating to men’s and women’s fashion, mobiles, tablets, computers, books, beauty products, sports and fitness products,  daily needs, real estate, and many more.  However it has a network of 3 lakh + sellers covering 6000+ cities and towns in India. They connect millions of buyers and sellers in a single platform by providing their favorite products with amazing discounts and offers and quick product delivery at customer’s doorsteps. Eventually Ali baba, Ratan Tata, SoftBank, Venture Partners, Black Rock, Intel Capital are some of the top investors of Snapdeal. Also Snapdeal app is available for Android and Apple users.

Founder : Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal

Founded in : 2010

Industry : Ecommerce

2. ixamBee:

The Delhi startup named ixamBee was started in 2017 and later joined by Arunima Sinha and Sandeep Singh. He believed that big cities and towns have greater access to learning solutions for competitive exams (banking and insurance exams, RRB, SSC, MAT, railways.), but similarly in case of small villages . So he decided to design an ed-tech platform especially for students living in remote areas. It conducts test series and free mock tests using text messages, audio clips, and video formats. All the study materials are designed and prepared by educational experts, ensuring better results in the most optimized manner. Likewise it allows students to interact with their experts in clearing doubts and seamlessly provide exam-related tips and tricks.

Founder : Chandraprakash Joshi

Founded in : 2017

Industry : Ed-tech

3. Awfis:

Firstly Awfis is a fully tech-based platform that supplies co-working spaces to startups, corporates, freelancers based on their office space, city, location, preferences. Users can book private cabins, Wifi, desk, printing, meeting rooms and order them through web/mobile app. Likewise it offers a well-equipped business environment where people can interact and share their ideas. However the company currently operates in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Gurgaon, New Delhi.

Founder : Amit Ramani

Founded in : 2015

Industry : Tech

4. Chaayos:

The start up Chaayos is based on the online delivery of tea service. As its central theme is based on “Experiments with Chai” , Chaayos is specially meant for all “Chai freaks” . Similarly it offers almost 25 tea varieties such as Pahadi chai, Irani chai, camomile , and Moroccan mint tea(International tea). The company focuses on providing a cup of delicious tea at a reasonable price, straight to your desk. It currently operates in Mumbai, Noida, Delhi, and Gurgaon.

Founders : Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma

Founded in : 2012

Industry : Food delivery

 5. Revfin:

A finTech named Revfin aims to create the most advanced digital platform, providing two types of loans: Regular personal loans and Revloan. A regular personal loan is taken for various personal uses and repaid in installments meanwhile Revloan is applied for a considerable loan amount and can repay from anywhere or anytime according to the user’s convenience. They can select the loan that suits their need, and the best part is that they can get money in their account within minutes using the digital application process.

Founder : Sameer Agarwal

Founded in : 2018

Industry : Fin Tech

6. 3Hcare:

A Delhi-based startup named 3Hcare to provide the best healthcare startup was founded. Currently, it offers two types of services:- Diagnostics and Plan my surgery (patients can plan their surgeries with best-in-class surgeons at a feasible cost). Patients can log into the website and discover diagnostics clinics and hospitals quickly. The company has raised angel funding of INR 65, used to develop IT infrastructure and other services within 11 months of opening its company.

Founders : Ruchi Gupta, Dr. Gurdeep Singh Ratra, and Dr. Ravindra Pal Singh Malhotra

Founded in : 2016

Industry : Healthcare

7. Lenskart:

Lenskart was the leading startup eyewear company. Eventually it offers high-quality eyewear (for men, women, and kids according to their eye power), contact lenses, sunglasses, computer glasses at affordable prices. Ray-ban, Johnson & Johnson, Oakley, Tag Heuer, Bausch & Lomb are some of the eyewear brands provided by them. It also extends the services of free eye check-ups and frame trials at the customer’s home/office. The company aims to access eyewear without the need of retailers for a clearer vision of every Indian.

Founders : Peyush Bansal, Amit Chaudhary, and Sumeet Kapahi

Founded in : 2010

Industry : Healthcare

8. GoldSeat:

GoldSeat is a media-tech platform. It presents offline entertainment to long-distance bus travelers in two ways: free high-speed Wi-fi to passengers till the last mile and a vast collection of movies (200+ movies) by either downloading the GoldSeat app on their mobile phones or through GoldSeat screen installed in the bus. Also it offers a service line called GoldLiv that ensures passenger’s safety, control, and live features through cameras. The app currently operates in states like Haryana, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka.

Founders : Gaurav Kapahi and Nishchal Khetarpal

Founded in : 2015

Industry : Tech Entertainment

9. Ship Rocket:

Ship Rocket is India’s best e-commerce shipping company. It’s a platform where customers can upload orders in bulk from the best courier company, track orders, and get delivery of their products faster and at the lowest shipping rates. It connects e-retailers, logistics companies, and customers in a single panel to create a better shipping experience. It enables International shipping with best-in-class support and reduce shipping errors.  The company integrates with 17 courier partners (including Blue Dart, Ecom Express, XpressBees, FedEx, Delhivery) and delivers to 2,20 countries having 35,000 orders on a daily basis. Warehousing and packing services are the other benefits provided by them.

Founders : Saahil Goal, Gautum Kapoor, and Vishesh Khurana

Founded in : 2012

Industry : Ecommerce

10. Green Cure Wellness:

Green cure wellness produces herbal personal and healthcare products (for eye care, skincare, respiratory care, pain relief, better sleep) formulated by German Scientists and Ayurveda experts. They ensure whether the products are helpful for Indians and are of International quality. The products are safe and effective in the first use itself as it contains scientifically proven ingredients free from paraben, mineral oil, paraffin, synthetic colors, PPG, PEG, EDTA, EO.

Founder : Sanchit Garg

Founded in : 2015

Industry : Healthcare

Delhi has rapidly grown as a startup hub in India. The Delhi startups, as mentioned above, are running seamlessly and creating a market presence over the years. Are you starting a new business? Why not get the assistance of professional experts? Scaalex is an ideal startup funding and consulting platform with a full-fledged team of domain strategists, funding advisory, and financial experts.  Let’s get connected to experience better results.