Latest news with #UmaKannan
New Indian Express
15 hours ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
‘We don't have any compulsion to go for IPO tomorrow'
Bengaluru-based media technology company Amagi, which has initiated an initial public offering (IPO) process recently, is now expanding into Japan, Australia, Latin America, France and Germany. In an interaction with Uma Kannan, Baskar Subramanian, CEO & Co-Founder of Amagi, says they are seeing a tremendous opportunity in front of them for the next 10 years where they can build extremely large media tech company in the world and that they don't have any compulsion to go public tomorrow. The company's annual revenue in FY24 stood at Rs 942 crore. Edited excerpts: You are a media SaaS unicorn and have been in the business for over 15 years now. What does the market look like? Our customers are TV channels, content creators, live producers, sports news, and anybody who is creating content in the mid-tier to large enterprises. We don't work with the creator economy and influencer economy today; we don't have any product portfolio for it, but we work with the larger mid to enterprise sort of customers. Fundamentally, the world is becoming streaming, and all of us are only watching on IP, internet devices, be it on our phone or connected television, what we call smart TV in India. This has changed things for our customers. One, it's fragmentation of viewership. In the early days of cable, you could go to one channel and always watch the content. Now there are so many places where people are consuming content, be it YouTube, Netflix, Prime, social platforms, connected TV devices to everywhere else and this is becoming a big challenge for the broadcasters and TV channels. This is very similar to what happened in the retail industry. Suddenly people are buying in supermarkets, e-commerce stores and now quick commerce. TV is now connected in every home in India. How are you looking at the Indian market? In India, we have clients, and the country has obviously dramatically changed, given 5G connections. Here we work with Samsung, whose many channels are coming to Samsung TV Plus with the back-end being Amagi. We work with the likes of Republic TV, Times Now and Zee television and provide OTT content. India is a growing market and we have now started to expand but the country is only very close to about a percentage (1%) of our revenue. So, we continue to have a big focus on the international markets with 70% revenue coming from the US. However, we are seeing India as a growing market and it will start to become bigger and bigger for us as we go forward. What are the market opportunities that you are seeing, and whether you have competitors in India as well as outside? We started in the US, expanded into Europe, and then in Asia, we started in Singapore. We are now expanding into Japan, Australia, Latin America, France, and Germany. It's a global market and we are seeing a tremendous opportunity in front of us for the next 10 years where we can build an extremely large, world-class media tech company in the world. Amagi's competition is all traditional hardware players. And we are the only company in the world that talks about a glass-to-glass complete end solution. It is reported that you are looking to raise Rs 3,200 crore through a public listing. Are you planning to hit an IPO soon? If we go for an IPO, we'll go in India. Going through the process, understanding and evaluating markets are very different. We don't know when we do it because timing matters in this industry. As a company, we don't have any compulsion to go for an IPO tomorrow. We are a profitable company, we have money in the bank and we have investors who came in 2022. So, the idea is that eventually we will have to be a public company. If the market is really good, then maybe by the end of the year (we will go for the IPO), or else next year.
New Indian Express
18-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
'We are seeing quick commerce as a good opportunity'
Cycle Pure Agarbathi, the flagship brand of Mysuru-based 77-year-old NR Group, is the biggest player in the incense stick market, which is estimated to be around Rs 8,000-10,000 crore. Its annual revenue, according to Tracxn, stood at Rs 1,150 crore in FY24. In an interaction with Uma Kannan, Cycle Pure Agarbathi MD and Managing Partner NR Group, Arjun Ranga, who is the third-generation entrepreneur, said digital presence is now extremely important and that prayer as an opportunity is bigger in digital and ecommerce. Edited excerpts: Post-Covid, is there any change in the Agarbatti industry in terms of market and new players? From about 2019 onwards, there has been a huge influx of new manufacturers, and unorganised players coming to the industry. Especially during Covid, when people were talking about the benefits of using Agarbatti and keeping the fragrance at home. There has been a sudden increase in unbranded players entering the market. There is an oversupply because of that right now. However, the increase in population and consumption have helped the growth. The increase in the number of temples, rising number of pujas and rituals and the increase of religious tourism have also contributed to the growth of the industry. We have also created exotic combinations of fragrances targeting some specific geographical regions, festivals and giving the customers their taste of preference under various brands, which has further helped in boosting the growth. As an organised sector player, how do you see the proliferation of many unorganised players in the space? We are the biggest player in the market as an organised brand. In the AC Nielsen's report, the market is estimated to be Rs 8000 crore, which also includes unorganised players. It is estimated that the market is about 60-70% organised and the rest of it is unorganised. In this dynamic, our market share is about 20% of the whole organised share. The Agarabatti industry has made representation to the government about proliferation of unorganised players, and the government has suggested the best way is to go for an Indian standard. We are working with the Bureau of Indian Standards to come up with the Agarbatti standard. We are working closely with BIS to launch it. It should be done in the next three months. Do you have any plans to increase digital sales? With increase in information and accessibility for customers, we saw a shift in the consumption pattern of consumers, where unlike the older times the first access point is not the temples. Today for consumers, point of sale becomes a priority. Today, a lot of customer discovery is happening online and digitally through either social media or the portals. Digital presence today is extremely important for customers to understand your product, understand your brand, and tell your brand story. Our discovery process has increased dramatically. If we were 5% on digital 10 years ago, today we are 50% on digital in terms of communication. Do you think there is a growth opportunity in the e-commerce space? Agarbatti has typically been a purchase item, when stock is finished. Quick commerce is showing promise, because Agarbatti is an impulse purchase. And the unit packs are small -- Rs 100 a month is enough for you to light Agarbatti for the whole month. We are seeing quick commerce as a good opportunity. E-commerce is the new big thing. Agarbatti is not a category, but a discovery. Services have increased the opportunity for us, and we have got into astro services. That is leading into puja. So, prayer as an opportunity is bigger in digital and e-commerce. I see the next 5 years as a huge opportunity for us as well as the company in that space. We have a brand called and we see that as a big opportunity going forward. What is the long-term vision of the group? We are all a purpose-led brand. We believe in delivering hope. The long-term vision of the company is whenever anybody thinks of prayer or God, we need to be present either as a product or a service within an arm's reach.
The Hindu
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Heritage Art Gallery showcasing Madurai's art history inaugurated
In order to showcase Madurai's art history, Andril Heritage Art Gallery was inaugurated at V.S. Chellam Century Hall in Madurai on Friday. Thiagarajar College president Uma Kannan inaugurated the art gallery. P. Rajesh Kanna of the Andril Heritage Art Gallery said that Madurai, referred to as the heritage capital of Tamil Nadu, boasts a rich and vibrant history of art and culture. He said that in ancient times, the city even had a dedicated street for artists highlighting Madurai's deep-rooted artistic traditions. To honour and celebrate this legacy, Andril Heritage Art Gallery - a space dedicated to showcasing the artistic heritage of Madurai - was organised. Separate sections were created to highlight the various themes, he said. He said that the name Andril was inspired by the Ibis bird, a symbol of love, mentioned in Sangam literature. The gallery focused on heritage - themed arts and crafts, serving as a platform to preserve and promote the cultural richness while supporting local artists. The exhibits will highlight the natural heritage, intangible heritage, festivals, folk arts, and Sangam literature, shedding light on the unsung heroes of our artistic traditions. The gallery offers an immersive experience of the heritage through visual art, he said. There was an exclusive section for art collectors and a dedicated space for enthusiasts and connoisseurs. Andril Heritage Art Gallery was more than just an exhibition space. It was a tribute to our cultural roots, an opportunity for artists to thrive, and a celebration of Madurai's timeless artistic spirit, he said.
New Indian Express
27-04-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
We target profitability, not market share: Akasa Air CFO
The country's newest airline Akasa Air, which began its commercial operations in August 2022, recently added its 28th destination - Darbhanga, Bihar (23 domestic and 5 international cities). The airline has served over 17 million passengers since its launch. On the sidelines of the recently held SAP NOW AI Tour in Mumbai, the airline's chief financial officer Ankur Goel told Uma Kannan that they are focused on creating a good solid business and are targeting profitability. Edited excerpts: What is your expansion plan in this fiscal year FY26? It is the same plan that we had last year and the same we will have four years later, and it is to chase profitability. India as a country is underserved and it requires a lot more capacity to come in and that's what we are focused on. As we continue to add capacity, we will continue to augment some of the cities that we have. Navi Mumbai is going to open up this year and so is the Jewar Airport. We would want to fly to those cities as well and beyond that there will be other cities that we continue to evaluate. What about your plans for international expansion? We believe that international for us is here to stay and that it is just far more profitable than domestic when we look at the numbers overall. In fact, 16% of our capacity today is international and it will organically grow because we are chasing markets that are profitable and underserved. So, you will see some cities adding to our capacity. Over the next three-four years, the number could be as high as 40% for international and the rest for domestic. Your deliveries fell short of expectation in FY25. How many new planes are you expecting to deliver in FY26? We don't focus on the shell count. There are multiple ways to generate capacity. You can add capacity by flying your planes more and you can generate capacity by flying your planes longer. The focus for us is not how many planes are coming in, our focus is on how much capacity is getting added. So, in FY26 we should be one-third bigger compared to what we are today. We should roughly add 35% additional capacity in FY26 compared to FY25. How are you looking at the competition? Any plans to increase the market share which is around 4-5%? I don't know what the number is, we don't even track that number because that number is no indicator of success or profitability. People tell us that the number is around 5%. We are focused on creating a strong sustainable airline. Market share will just be an output. The last thing we would want is to have 100% of the market and 0% on the profit. So, profitability is something we are targeting. We are here to get a good solid business in which customers are happy flying with us. Market share becomes more relevant in mature markets. When India's market itself is growing at 20-25% year-on-year, the pie is expanding so much that we just don't have enough airlines and enough aircraft to take that pie. So, the question of market share just does not arise right now. Where do you want the airline to be in terms of growth in the next five years? I hope that you find things absolutely the same. We want to be an extremely boring airline, which means that the level of service that you expect from Akasa today should remain the same. The fact that we scale up should not mean that you got bad quality seats, bad quality products and food. For all of that internally we need to scale up and that means that every single thing that we are doing has to be significantly better so that as a customer you continue to get the same experience that you expect from Akasa which is where the technology comes in for us. As a customer you don't care whether we have got one aircraft or 100 aircraft. You just want to reach from point A to point B on time. So, from a customer perspective, I hope that the experience remains very similar, though one thing that is going to happen is that as the customer's expectations change, we want to be that airline that meets the customer's expectations.
