Building a multi-million venture from a small town in Kerala: Corporate360 story

Business & Economy, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Corporate360 offers SaaS based Marketing Data & Analytics software for B2B marketers. Headquartered in Singapore with subsidiary offices in the US, the UK, Philippines and India, the company offers innovative marketing data & sales analytics solutions for global markets through a disruptive, low cost Data-as-a-Service model.

“The idea behind launching this was to innovate data solutions help B2B marketers identify best-fit target audience for sales & marketing campaigns,” says Varun Chandran, Founder, Corporate360.

The idea for Corporate360 was born when Varun was working for a large technology company in Singapore. He was working in a sales role where his ex-boss and a colleague initiated the idea of developing a sales intelligence and analytics data platform to help them sell better.

Corporate360KERALA25aug2014

Varun took the lead on getting the idea off the ground and startup while the other two colleagues decided to continue with their full time jobs due to security reasons. With their encouragement, Varun bootstrapped and launched Corporate360 with a couple of hundred dollars from his bed room.

Building global venture from a small town in Kerala

Corporate360 is the first international startup in India to start operations in a tier-3 town in Kerala, employing 20 engineers thereby creating jobs in rural India. The company is also a big supporter of women empowerment campaign, 75% of the present workforce of Corporate360 is women.

The company’s Founder Varun started from a humble background. Born in a small farming village in Kerala, he was a national footballer, captained Kerala University and Youth football teams. A college dropout, he went on to work for some of the world’s largest tech companies such as SAP, Oracle, and Dell in 3 countries before  founding Corporate360.

For the first three quarters, he was a one-man company and generated $250k in revenue. He re-invested the revenue back into the business to hire and build teams in Singapore, Manila and India. “At first it was challenging to attract talent especially in Kerala, when he bought his own company building and started the operations instead of renting a space in an IT park. People were hesitant because the company was a non-funded -startup and was not very famously operating out of any technology park,” adds Varun.

Differentiators and USPs

The B2B marketplace is crowded with legacy data re-sellers. There is a huge gap of BigData innovations in this space corresponding to lack of relevancy, accuracy, analytics and data maintenance in the old fashioned model. “Companies end up spending millions of dollars repeatedly to source data sets for their marketing campaigns from expensive, generic data re-sellers. B2B marketers are increasingly looking for insight driven marketing campaigns and switching from the legacy model of generic marketing blast approach,” points out Varun.

Corporate360 solutions are designed to leverage BigData to provide insight driven campaign data and sales analytics. The company is the first in Asia to offer a SaaS based B2B marketing data platform for global markets.

It offers a comprehensive, one-of-a-kind and the most complete marketing data software suite available today. The platform covers company profile, contact intelligence, organisation charts, tech install info, competitive intelligence, predictive analytics, sales triggers & social data through a low cost Data-as-a-Service model. Corporate360 DaaS model is unique and innovative delivering high value for customers, ensuring highest level of data accuracy, ongoing data maintenance and real-time updates.

How Corporate360 works for startups?

B2B marketers and agencies use Corporate360 solutions to access insight driven campaign data such as target companies, contacts, social intelligence, competitive intelligence & sales triggers. They use our platform to retrieve actionable data to design targeted campaigns with tailored messaging.

At present, the company has 900 plus clients ranging from startups to ‘Forbes’ listed corporations. A large portion of revenue comes from international markets such as the US & Europe. Corporate360 clients include HP, Dell, Oracle, and Google etc. The company offers exclusive, low-cost data subscription plans for B2B startups to get them started on their marketing campaigns.

Corporate360 is gaining good traction in global markets with their data driven & structured knowledge discovery solutions for B2B sales and marketers.

Journey from zero to multi-million dollar venture in three years

Corporate360 grew into a multi-million dollar business within three years as a bootstrapped venture. The company is profitable with operations in 5 countries with a team size of 29 executives. Profitable from inception, the company grew from revenue (first year) of $250k to a million dollar mark in just three years, presently forecasted to cross multi-million in revenue this year.

Plans for scaling up

The company is scaling up its offerings with innovative data solutions for marketers. The company is scheduled to formally launch three new cool data applications to their SaaS platform like:

PeeP: A social profiling widget of target audience to help learn more about the background of target prospects.

DataStudio – A comprehensive data service model to refresh & maintain internal data accuracy, leverage external data sets, create predictive data modelling, run accurate sales analytics, and integrate into CRM tools.

SmartWorker – A crowdsource data platform leveraging millions of online workers to perform data tasks at any scale to deliver real-time data updates.

By 2015, the company is aiming to cover 90% of total addressable enterprise market coverage in their data platform.

Road ahead

Corporate360 is expanding with local sales offices in the US, the UK and Singapore. The company is launching new data driven products for B2B marketers and has filed for four patents. “We are also in discussions with some prominent VCs to explore capital raising to accelerate our sales and marketing expansions in global markets,” says Varun.

Acquisition on the card

Corporate360 is in final discussions with a BigData startup company from India for a potential acquisition. The total team size is expected to grow from 29 to 50 this year, primarily expanding Data Scientist teams in India and Sales team in the US.

Website : Corporate360

source: http://www.yourstory.com / Your Story / by Jai Vardhan / August 25th, 2014

Malayalam pallikoodam launched

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Education

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

The crowded registration counter at the Orthodox Student centre is a proof that old ‘aasan pallikoodam’ is still a sought after education centre.

When film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan inaugurated ‘Malayalam Pallikoodam’ on Sunday it was a different beginning for the Malayalam New Year for the city. Addressing the crowd, Adoor said that the endeavour is a privilege to the young generation at a time where the culture and traditional values are fading out. He said the project will help the kids to get know the tradition of Malayalam language through the formulated learning pattern developed by poet V Madhusoodhanan Nair.

Adoor distributed wooden slates, which were used as props for one of his films, to nine students who enrolled first as students of Malayalam Pallikoodam.

Pallikoodam offers a package of grandma stories, poems, sand writing and word puzzles to learn the language. “The registration has exceeded the calculated limit of 50 students. Now we are planning to add more batches in the project considering the demand,” said Arun Varghese, programme co- coordinator. Kids aged between 4 and 6 got enrolled at the school.

The idea of “Malayalam Pallikoodam” was put forward by prominent poet and writer Prof. V.Madhusoodhanan Nair. The poet introduced the reincarnation of “Aashan Kalari” to the audience by point outing that the kid who plays by making his own toys will develop managing ability and will start learning things by him.

The “Malayalam Pallikoodam” draws the kids in the city to experience the culture and purity of the Malayalam language through different workshops, games and poems. The kids are provided a two-hour Malayalam learning class on every Sunday which is free from home works, baggage of books, exams etc. “The young generation should know the culture of Malayalam and must be good to pronounce his or her mother tongue clearly. We are now living in a ‘Manglish’ society. Through Malayalam Pallikoodam, we wish to make our young society develop love for the mother tongue and uphold its values,” says Jessy Narayan, Convenor of the project.

Students will be taught under Kolencheri Gopalakrishnan Aasan , who used to teach students in sand writing. The classes will be on every Sunday from 10am to 12pm with fees of Rs 500 per month. It functions at Orthodox Students Centre, opposite AKG Centre.

Renowned literary scholars and poets including Perumbadavam Sreedharan, Prabha Varma, Rose Mary, artist Narayana Bhattatiri also spoke to kids on the first day of Pallikkoodam.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City / by Jisha Surya, TNN / August 18th, 2014

Manorama’s free heart surgery programme begins

Amazing Feats, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Science & Technology
Representative image
Representative image

Kottayam: 

The first medical check up camp organized by Malayala Manorama as part if its free heart surgery programme, Hridayapoorvam, for 100 needy persons began on Sunday.

The medical examination for people from districts of Thiruvananthapuram to Ernakulam is taking place at a specially arranged camp at Malayala Mnorama office premises here.

More than fifty children with heart-related ailments has already arrived for a check up organised by Malayala Manorama in association with Madras Medical Mission.

The medical camp is conducted by a team of doctors led by Dr. Ajith Mullassery, Director of cardiology department, Madras Medical Mission. Dr. K Shivakumar, head of pediatric cardiology division, Dr. V.M. Kurien, consultant, cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Sreeja Pavithran, Dr. Bharath and Dr. P. Balaji are other team members.

The check up is being conducted in a mobile diagnostic clinic (MDC) with complete diagnostic facilities.

source: http://www.beta.english.manoramaonline.com / Manorama Online / Home> News> Kerala / by Manorama’s Correspondent / Sunday – August 24th, 2014

A documentary beyond the byline

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Leaders
Minister for Culture K. C. Joseph with Babu Paul, and BRP Bhaskar during screening of the documentary on him in Thiruvananthapuram. Photo: S. Mahinsha / The Hindu
Minister for Culture K. C. Joseph with Babu Paul, and BRP Bhaskar during screening of the documentary on him in Thiruvananthapuram. Photo: S. Mahinsha / The Hindu

When documentary film-maker P.Y. Anilkumar asked veteran journalist B.R.P. Bhaskar’s permission to make a documentary on him, he initially refused to give it. Later, when the film-maker continued to persist, he put forward a condition – the film should not in any way glorify him.

The documentary ‘Byline by BRP’ traces a brief history of the changes in the field of journalism over the six decades that he has been active in it. It stays clear of giving too many details of the man, and tries instead to use him as a peg to document the larger picture.

It was screened at the Nila cinema here on Tuesday.

“BRP is one of the few who has been effective across all modes of journalism – print, television, and online. He managed to switch easily with the changing times. We started the shooting when he came for the Arippa land struggle last year, and it was a perfect place to start as it embodies his activism,” says Mr. Anil Kumar.

Mr. Anil Kumar spent close to 10 months in researching and shooting the documentary, which was scripted by Venu Muttacaud.

source:  http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / Thiruvananthapuram – August 20th, 2014

Vinodkumar Selected Melsanthi

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Leaders, Records, All

Sabarimala  :

In a historical first, the selection of the melsanthi of Lord Ganapathi and Lord Hanuman temple at Pampa was done by drawing of  lots on Friday.

V K Vinodkumar, 35, of Vellakkattu Madom at Changankulangara in Kollam, was selected from among five aspirants by drawing lots.

The lots were drawn in front of the Sreekovil of Lord Ganapathi temple at 7 am.M N Narayanan Nampoothiri, 49, melsanthi of Thrikodithanam Sree Krishna temple, will be the new melsanthi of Pampa Lord Hanuman temple. Narayanan Nampoothiri was selected from among two candidates.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States > Kerala  / by Express News Service / August 23rd, 2014

13-Year-Old Eyeing Guinness Book of World Records

Uncategorized

Kochi :

Pooja Prem, a 13-year-old student, is all set to conquer the Guinness Book of World Records. She will sing famous songs in 32 languages at a music programme which will be held at the international cricket stadium, Sharjah, on September 26. Pooja who has learnt every song will continuously sing for two hours.

The languages include Malayalam, Hindi, English, Spanish, Latin, French, Russian, Spain, Belgium, Uzbek, Arabic, Dutch, Poland, Cameroonian, Tamil, German, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujrathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Swedish, Sanskrit, Italian, Portugal, Bulgaria, Sindhi, Malay, Sinhalese and Hungarian.

Gulf events has sponsored Pooja.  So far, she has performed in more than 250 elite stage shows locally and nationally. She has performed in various Malayalam channels and won Global Pravasi Malayali Athulya Prathibha award, HRF Talent 2012 Award, NP Abu Best singer award, Muziris 2013 Kerala State Television (Talent) award. Pooja is studying in eighth class in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Kadavanthra.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Kochi / by Express News Service / August 12th, 2014

Nat’l Teachers’ Awards Announced; No Candidates from HS Section

Education, Records, All

Kozhikode  : 

The list of teachers, who have won the national awards, was announced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development on Wednesday. As many as 14 teachers from the state, seven each from primary school section and secondary school section have been selected.

There are no candidates from the higher secondary section, reportedly over some confusion in the department. Higher Secondary Director K N Satheesh said that the list was cleared from the directorate four months ago.

The teachers who bagged the award are:

From Primary school

1. V Venukumaran Nair, headmaster, Govt UPS Njaraneeli Kani, Elanchiyam Peringammala, Thiruvananthapuram 2. G Sivaprasad, UP School Assistant, SN UP School, Maruthoorkulangara, Karunagappally, Kollam 3. Usha Kumari P, Headmistress, Govt LPS Ayroor, Ayroor, Pathanamthitta 4. P O Chacko, Head Master, Sr Alphonsa UPS Nedumanny, Karukachal, Kottayam 5. P V Mohanan, assistant teacher, AUP School, Mannazhi, Chengottur, Kottakkal, Malappuram 6. Narayanan Aariyamvalli, P D teacher, Govt HSS Kottila, Ezhome, Kannur 7. V Rajesh, assistant teacher, Kanad LP School, Edayannur, Kannur

From Secondary School

1. George A V, headmaster, Mar Thoma Girls High School, Pulamon, Kottarakkara, Kollam 2. Susan Issac, HSA (English), MGD High School, Puthusserry South, Thiruvalla, Pathanamthitta 3. Joseph John, headmaster, St Joseph’s HSS Karimannoor, Thodupuzha, Idukki

4. Varghese T M, HSA, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial High School, Puthencruz  Ernakulam 5. Peethambaran M, HSA, St Sebastian’s      High School Mannamangalam, Thrissur 6. Dr Harikumar K, Teacher Educator, Gandhi Seva Sadanam Teachers Training Institute, Perur, Palakkad 7. Manoj K T, HSA, CB HSS  Vallikkunnu, Malappuram.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / August 21st, 2014

Viswadeepam Award Announced

Arts,Culture & Entertainment
Kottayam :
Dr Kurias Kumbalakkuzhi has been selected for this years Viswadeepam Award instituted by Puthencavu Mathan Tharakan Trust for the best literary works that uphold human values. According to the trust officials, Kurias will be getting the award for his work ‘Galilelinte Ethihasam’.

The award that consists of a cash prize of `10,000 and a citation, will be given away by Finance Minister K M Mani at a function which will be held at Thiruvanathapuram Press Club on August 27. Former Chief Secretary R Ramachandran Nair will deliver a commemoration speech on the occasion. Trust chairman Paul Manalil will preside over.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Kerala / by Express News Service / August 21st, 2014

Scoring music for a noble cause in Kozhikode

Arts,Culture & Entertainment, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All
Music directors (from left) Jassie Gift, Afzal Yusuf, Rahul Raj, Gopi Sundar, Bijibal, Anil Johnson, and Mejo Joseph at a press conference in Kozhikode on Wednesday. Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup / The Hindu
Music directors (from left) Jassie Gift, Afzal Yusuf, Rahul Raj, Gopi Sundar, Bijibal, Anil Johnson, and Mejo Joseph at a press conference in Kozhikode on Wednesday. Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup / The Hindu

They are performing to raise funds for the Cochin Haneefa Foundation, which helps struggling artists in films. Music directors raising funds for Cochin Haneefa Foundation.

Eight music directors of Malayalam cinema are coming together for high-voltage live shows.

Bijibal, Gopi Sundar, Alphonse, Jassie Gift, Rahul Raj, Afzal Yusuf, Mejo Joseph, and Anil Johnson will kick off the tour at Swapna Nagari here on September 27.

They are performing to raise funds for the Cochin Haneefa Foundation, which helps struggling artists in films. The show, titled Jamgrab, is being organised by the Film Employees Federation of Kerala, the Music Directors Union, and the D Cutz Film Company.

“We are glad that we are beginning the series of shows in Kozhikode,” Mr. Gopi Sundar told presspersons here on Wednesday. “This incidentally is my first ever live show.”

Mr. Rahul Raj said it was great teaming up with fellow composers. “It has been an opportunity for us to know each other,” he said. “I do not think that eight music directors have come together for a show in the country before.”

Leading playback singers will be performing at the show, which will have a sound of 3,00,000 watts.

Film director Shajoon Karyal will direct the show, while Vinod Vijayan and Seven Arts Mohan are the producers.

After Kozhikode, the show will travel to the UAE for a performance in Sharjah on December 19. The ticket sales were inaugurated earlier in the day in Thrissur by actor Mammootty.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / by Special Correspondent / Kozhikode – August 21st, 2014

Kochi defence scientist bags top honour

Records, All, Science & Technology

S. Anantha Narayanan, the Director of the city-based Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), the only institution under the Defence Research and Development Organisation in Kerala, has been selected for DRDO’s coveted ‘Technology Leadership Award’ for the year 2013.

The award, carrying Rs 2 lakh and a citation, will be presented by the Prime Minister at a function in Delhi on August 20.

Under Mr. Narayanan’s stewardship, NPOL harnessed critical technologies to develop underwater communication and surveillance systems for the Navy.  All frontline ships of the Navy are fitted with NPOL-developed sonars.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by  Special Correspondent / Kochi – August 19th, 2014