The startup’s mission is to digitize 50 million sales agents across India and bridge the gap between brands and potential buyers who may need in-person interactions and physical touchpoints before committing to a purchase
Leveraging technology to mobilize sales agents across the country, OneCode, a platform to digitize the sales ecosystem, today announced US$5 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge and Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from WaterBridge Ventures.
The funding of OneCode is also supported by angel investors Aakrit Vaish (Haptik), Amrish Rau (Pine Labs), Anand Chandrasekaran, Arjun Vaidya, Ashish Dave (Mirae Asset), Cloud Capital, Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy), Harshil Mathur (Razorpay), Jitendra Gupta (Jupiter Money), Kunal Shah, Lalit Keshre (Groww), Miten Sampat, Pravin Jadhav (Raise Financial Services), Rahul Mathur (Bimape), Sandeep Srinivas (Redcarpet), Sujeeth Kumar (Udaan), Sweta Rau, and Vivek Ananda (Bounce).
Founded by Manish Shara and Yash Desai, OneCode connects a network of trusted and accessible sales agents to a pool of potential customers who may not be as tech-savvy. The startup’s mission is to digitize 50 million sales agents across India and bridge the gap between brands and potential buyers who may need in-person interactions and physical touchpoints before committing to a purchase.
The size of India’s population and demographic distribution has often meant that up to 95% of businesses in the country rely on an agent network to raise awareness of a product, and get it in the hands of consumers. Additionally, many buyers often look for recommendations from someone close or familiar to them before making their purchase decision.
The platform works with a variety of financial institutions, such as banks, as well as discount brokers and credit cards companies, like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and RedCarpet. By using technology to mobilize this agent network, these companies are able to increase their distribution in tier-2 and 3-cities. On top of providing sales agents with access to relevant products and services, and the chance to earn money through these sales, OneCode also gives them visibility over their earnings on the app, where they can track how much they have earned, and how much is pending or owed to them.
“OneCode helps to provide brands with an outsourced sales army, which empowers people in tier-2 and tier-3 cities to become sales agents with a steady source of income. Even during these tough times, it’s heartening to see how we can still provide our sales agents with livelihood from the comfort of their own homes,” shares Manish Shara, Co-Founder of OneCode.
Pratik Poddar, Principal, Nexus Venture Partners, said, “We believe that India is a unique market where you can create a lot of value by empowering distribution partners. Manish and Yash are solving a large problem for the 50 million agents and financial services institutions and we are very excited to back the OneCode team.”
To ensure sales agents are best equipped with the relevant skills and product knowledge to work independently across the country, OneCode also provides agents with comprehensive on-the-job training. Through interactive videos, sales agents can better understand how to sell, whom to sell to, and ways in which they can maximize their earnings.
OneCode was founded in Bangalore in March 2019 by Manish Shara and Yash Desai. Manish is a computer science graduate from Rajasthan University who previously founded and sold two startups. Manish and Yash previously worked together at Dineout, a restaurant tech solutions company catering to individuals and businesses, where Manish led the product department and Yash, who has an MBA from San Francisco’s Hult International Business School, was a business head.
OneCode is part of Surge’s fifth cohort of 23 companies that have developed new digital solutions to help companies and individuals live, work and learn better in a rapidly evolving Southeast Asian landscape.
Source: Business World
