This 26-year-old engineering graduate employs 25 people in his two firms, which are into e-commerce.
As his engineering batchmates frown trying to figure out ways to meet project deadlines while dealing with diktats from bosses, Ravitej Yadalam sieves through investor lists to raise funds for his start-ups.
The 26-year-old electronics engineer from RV College of Engineering has managed to piece together two companies from scratch, going on to employ 25 people in his firms. All this, since passing engineering in 2009.
What started as a hobby during college has channelised itself into two companies, Pennyful.in and Medicash.in, started in 2011 and 2013 respectively. “I was fascinated with e-commerce during college, where anyone can sell anything, anywhere,” says Yadalam. He started by sourcing products and selling them online.
“My first customer was in Germany, who purchased a cellphone. That is when it hit me, that online you can trade with anyone, sitting right here in Bangalore,” says Yadalam, adding that he felt incentivising the end customer can guarantee loyalty.
Being a technology buff meant putting his plan in action alongside his graduation. Pennyful.in and Medicash.in provide cash back to customers. Pennyful has tie-ups with 150 e-commerce firms in India, and more in the US, across categories. Customers buying through Pennyful end up getting cash back on every transaction, which can be 1-50% of the sale value.
“Instead of buying directly through e-commerce firms, customers can trade through us, and get a certain amount over and above the discounts offered on every transaction as cash back,” explains Yadalam.
So for buying something on, say, Myntra for Rs500, a customer gets cash back, which can be any amount that is credited to the Pennyful account of the customer. “Customers can raise requests for transferring that money to their bank accounts, post which we note down their bank details,” he says.
Though started initially for the US customers, through tie-ups with Walmart and JC Penny, “since the market there is more mature,” Pennyful has managed to tie up with the likes of Amazon India, EBay, Flipkart, Myntra and Snapdeal.
“Though Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai are key markets, we are seeing customers from places like Mysore as well,” says Yadalam. In fact, sales in 2012-13 were $2 million from both the US and Indian businesses.
Medicash also works on a similar model, albeit in healthcare, offering cash back for medicines, diagnostics, consultancies.
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