Applicate, the Bangalore based workforce management platform which helps large employers track the where and when of their employees, and which also develops mobility solutions for enterprises, has raised $1 million in a new round from a group of angel investors in order to develop a new product named Trade Gini.
The investors, who invested in this seed funding round, includes Rishi Vasudev, vice-president of Flipkart; Amit Gupta, vice-president of Urban Infra; Rajiv Nayan, director of business development, TCS Canada; Rakesh Mishra of Ravian Pharmaceuticals, and few others.
Trade Gini is basically an aggregator, which aggregates demand from offline retailers, and communicates the same to online sellers, bringing in efficiency to the complex distribution channel of retail India.
Founded in 2014 by Ranjeet Kumar and Deepak Rewadi, ex-Coke executives, Applicate started as an employee management platform which helps organisations keep a comprehensive track of their employees whereabouts. It also lets employers assign tasks to their employees and check their progress via a real-time web/mobile dashboard. As for the employees, the platform is provided in the form of a mobile app.
The startup has now diversified to offer other enterprise mobility solutions as well. Applicate claims to make it simple to act up on complex business gaps and opportunities by applying technology to diverse domain knowledge. With this ‘Combinatory Play’, the company keeps churning out ‘useful’ and ‘innovative’ solutions as it encounters business problems.
The company offers implementation service, training and 24/7 support for its products which are available in five categories – Sales Force Effectiveness, Marketing Execution and Effectiveness, Dealer/Customer Module, Knowledge, Data & Analytics, and Enterprise Communication.
Earlier, in May 2015, the company had raised $549.96K, which is around Rs. 3.5 crore, in seed funding round from Rishi Vasudev, Vishal Chaddha, Rajiv Nayan, and Rakesh Mishra. The company was reported to raise a series A of $5 million in 2015 to fuel growth. Instead though, the company has raised another $1 million in a sort of Pre-Series A round.
It has a team of more than 38 people, which is based out of Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bengaluru. Most of the company’s clients are also located in these cities.
Manish Singhai, vice-president of Madura Garments, a customer of Applicate, said,
It takes years for any company to create a strong distribution network. If a platform can reduce the go to market cycle by connecting companies directly with the retailers, it will change the face of traditional distribution system with a transformational impact on business.
