Applicate raises 3.5 crores from 12 top corporate honchos

Applicate, a SaaS based IT product start-up into mobile and cloud based Enterprise solutions has raised 3.5 crores from from 12 senior corporate professionals. The company was founded by senior Ex Coke executives almost a year back. Applicate is planning to raise $ 5 million later this year to scale-up its operations across Asia.

“We decided to quit our exciting careers in Coke in favour of a more exciting journey of entrepreneurship”, said, Ranjeet Kumar who was heading Rajasthan operations for Coke as Associate Vice President.

Ranjeet was joined by another colleague from Coke, Deepak Rewadi to start a venture to develop an integrated mobile and web based execution platform for consumer goods industry. Deepak was heading MP operations as General Manager in his last assignment with Coke.

According to Ranjeet, a co-founder of the company, “Much like our product platform, we have done our initial fund raising also in an innovative way from a network of senior corporate professionals working at leadership positions in different companies. More than the amount invested, their participation speaks of the confidence they have on our product and it helps us in getting cross industry insights and expertise which significantly enhances our ability to customize our solution for different segments and industries.”

The company has created a unique solution for addressing the current gaps and opportunities in Sales, Marketing and Distribution Effectiveness for consumer goods companies. According to Ranjeet, the integrated platform created by Applicate is a first of its kind ‘UNI-CHANNEL’ platform called ‘EXEED’ (Execution, Effectiveness, Engagement and Data Analytics) for a seamless execution across functions, roles and channels. Its unified platform eliminates the need for different apps for different channels, functions and roles.

According to Deepak “The ‘UNI-CHANNEL’ platform created by Applicate is a great value addition to the organizations that have to depend on different applications and vendors for different functions which by design is inefficient without a unified and integrated interface and database. With its proprietary design and architecture ‘EXEED’ allows large organizations to create a single and unified platform for seamless execution across functions.”

The platform has many innovative apps like Trade GINI for connecting the Channel Partners, REMOTE for tracking the effectiveness of promotions and below the line marketing campaigns and KIT for Knowledge, Insight and Training apart from the next generation sales force effectiveness app TEEM for retail and Store CONNECT for emerging channels.

Talking about the uniqueness of the platform, Ranjeet Kumar says, “Incisive data analytics to churn actionable insights and cutting edge technology with attractive and easy to use interface makes it the most effective product. The platform is a big leap from automation of transactions and capturing of information to impacting everyday execution and business outcomes in the most effective and measurable way.”

‘Applicate’ is already working with some of the top Indian and Multinational companies like Kelloggs, Britannia, Pidilite, Madura Garments, Hero and AppsDaily at pilot or scale-up stage and is at the final stage of closing the formal agreement with 22 more companies.

Speaking about the product platform, Pankaj Munjal, CMD, Hero Cycle, said, “It took me 5 minutes to decide, the solution appeared to be so exciting and relevant to our business needs. The diversity and scalability of the platform makes it quite unique.”
                       
Vamsi Mohan, CEO, Coca-Cola Beverages (Vietnam and Combodia), said, "They have poured in their rich experience of managing large sales teams into the design of their platform. One of the most effective solutions I have seen."

In a similar acknowledgement of its business relevance for one of the modules of the platform Kenny Abraham, Director Sales, Kelloggs India, said, "The application is well organized and focused on tracking in-store execution. The domain experience of the team shows in the comprehensiveness of the features and it’s intuitive and ready to go feel.”

“With projected revenue of Rs. 8 crores in the first year of its operation (2015-16), ‘Applicate’ is well on its way to become a successful 'Product' based IT Start-up. Our hit rate has been 100 per cent, all the companies that we have interacted with have either adopted our platform or are seriously evaluating it. The strength of our platform lies in its ability to connect technology with business needs and create solutions which can have significant impact on the business outcomes rather just automating the transactions,” said Kumar.