1. CROWDFUNDING
EVERYTHING
YOU NEED TO
KNOW
Page 54
The Magazine for Growing Com
e g in w g ompanies
PLUS
HOW TO
ACE SOCIAL
MEDIA...
AND HOW A
CELEBRITY
CAN HELP,
FOR A PRICE
Page 40
Harpre Grover
preet rover
who co unded
ho co-founded
CoCubes with his
C s
college buddy,
y
Vibhor
Vibho e Goyal.
Cool,
UNDER 40
Amar Goel, founde ,
maa e nder,
Komli Media has
om Me ia, ha
m
acquired fiv
cquir
c e five
com anies
compan in
15 months.
Meet the young guns behind some of INDIA’S
MOST EXCITING VENTURES PAGE 26
December 2011 | 150 | Volume 02 | Issue 10
A 9.9 Media Publication

2. AMEERA SHAH 34 METROPOLIS HEALTHCARE | NITIN GUPTA 34 AND ROHAN GUPTA 32 ATTERO RECYCLING | DEVAL SANGHAVI
SINHA 30 EKO | HARPREET GROVER 28 AND VIBHORE GOYAL 30 COCUBES | ANEESH REDDY 27 AND KRISHNA MEHRA 27 CAPIL-
VIBHORE GOYAL AND HARPREET GROVER
CoCubes
For helping students find
jobs, and companies, talent
Vibhore Goyal and Harpreet Grover understand what makes people work—money, challenges
and some wholehearted fun. It’s a considerable skill to have when your company connects col-
leges and corporates across India, to help young graduates get great jobs.
CoCubes, founded by college buddies Goyal and Grover, uses technology to make campus
recruitments more efficient and transparent. Bigger cities and established campus towns like
Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru have got their placement processes down to a fine art. But tier-II
and III cities have an abysmal information asymmetry between recruiters and job-seekers, they
say. A failed campus visit costs a company upwards of `1 lakh and many are hesitant to go to col-
leges that haven’t pitched well. “Colleges don’t know what process goes into shortlisting them for
ABHISHEK & ANUBHAV SINHA recruitment and whether they’ll be selected or not,”explains Grover. It’s this gap that CoCubes
EKO
wishes to bridge—helping corporates get young blood into their companies, while bringing down
For banking on unemployment at the same time—in an environment akin to a war-like hunt for talent.
Grover came up with the idea of CoCubes in 2007, when he was working with Inductis, a
the ‘unbanked’ financial analytics firm, after completing his engineering from IIT Bombay. A placement offi-
Understanding financial empow- cer from a remote college in Maharashtra visited him to invite the HR for recruitment. Three
erment was a deeply personal months later, he discovered that the company never visited the college because it was tough
experience for Abhishek Sinha, to reach the campus. So he called up Goyal, his
CEO of EKO: a financial inclusion geeky roommate from college, to see if they
start-up. In 2007, Sinha, who co- could do something about it.
Goyal suggested an online model to bridge
founded EKO with brother Anub-
hav, received a hefty cheque after
“Around 10 lakh the information gap. “Around 10 lakh students
selling his stake in his first ven- students gradu- graduate in India every year. About one lakh
good jobs are available,” explains Goyal. Armed
ture. He splurged on restaurants
and exponential salary hikes for
ate in India every with this insight, the two got to work and devel-
his domestic staff. “Seeing them year. About one oped cocubes.com. It’s simple to use—place-
ment officers upload student resumes and
feel empowered felt incredible,”
he says. That emotion, coupled
lakh good jobs marksheets online, ensuring firms get access
with his last project—a mobile are available.” to authentic records, and students can “follow”
companies they’re interested in. To add that fun
commerce solution—at his tele-
com firm, got the brothers think- quotient, students can upload video resumes to
ing about how the unbanked pep up their profiles.
could be brought into the financial Alerts—dates of company visits and hiring formalities—are sent via SMSes. Instead of firms
system using mobile phones. paying CoCubes per recruitment, Grover and Goyal only charge colleges `700 per final year
Thus, EKO was born to act as a student registered on their platform. Till 2010, however, they charged corporates ` 5,000 per
bank’s back-end for new account campus visit. By making it free for them, their turnover shot up from `40 lakh in FY 2009-10
holders. To open an account, all a to `2.5 crore in FY 2010-11. The founders say the brainwave to turn around the company’s
person needed was a mobile revenue model came from the sales team, which is why they are as passionate about their
number and an ID. own hiring procedure as their clients’. “The one question we always ask before recruiting
When the Sinhas went to someone is—tell us one thing you’ve done in your life that makes you proud,”says Goyal.
banks, they encountered a bias. “That hunger to do something you can be proud of, is more important than any degree you
“They had schemes for financial may hold or where you may come from,” finishes Grover. —Ira Swasti
inclusion but treated people as
beneficiaries and not customers,” Sinha says. But, things don’t change fast especially in a highly-regulated
sector. So, the brothers went ahead helping banks fulfil their CSR targets, mainly to prove their technology
worked. EKO inked a breakthrough contract with the SBI in 2009, and started a mini savings bank account
scheme with them in Delhi. Account holders could withdraw and deposit money with these “mini accounts”. In
2010, ICICI Bank also enlisted them. Today, more than one million people across 1,500 EKO centres—often run
out of existing commercial establishments like chemist or grocer shops—in the NCR, Bihar, Jharkhand and
UP, have new accounts, often their first ever. Over `1,500 crore has been transacted on these EKO accounts.
The idea has attracted investors—`6.4 core by 4B Capital and $5.5 million infusion led by Creation Investments
recently. Sinha says EKO is still struggling with proof of concept. “We’ve proved that customers are willing to be
charged for our services. We don’t need to be just cost centres.” —Shreyasi Singh
34 | INC. | DECEMBER 2011

3. 36 AND NEERA NUNDY 36 DASRA | AMAR GOEL 35 KOMLI MEDIA | NAVEEN TEWARI 32 INMOBI | ABHISHEK SINHA 34 AND ANUBHAV
LARY TECHNOLOGIES | INDERPREET S.WADHWA 39 AZURE POWER | SACHIN BANSAL 30 AND BINNY BANSAL 28 FLIPKART
Standing Tall Ameera Shah
thrives in the crucible that is
entrepreneurship.
Well Connected Vibhore Goyal and
Harpreet Grover have made finding
jobs and employees, a breeze.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SUBHOJIT PAUL DECEMBER 2011 | INC. | 35