Startup-Circle: VTION, A Digital Consumer Intelligence Platform

VTION, (A digital consumer intelligence platform) launched commercial operations in September 2020. Since then, there are four key product lines that VTION has introduced and are well established in the Indian market. These entail end to end services for Planning, Activation and Measurement of marketing campaigns and Advertisements.

VTION is founded by Manoj Dawane who has more than 25 years of experience in consumer internet and telecom related businesses. The core stack of VTION is built around two patents that Manoj holds in the field of measurement of events that take place on a smart device.

Speaking to CIOL,  Manoj Dawane, Co-Founder & CEO at VTION has shared his views on the growing significance of the VTION. He talked about his startup journey and also, and he speaks about the growth plans he has for VTION.

Tell us about VTION Digital Analytics and your offerings. Tell us about the team.

A digital consumer intelligence company, VTION launched commercial operations in September 2020. Since then, there are four key product lines that VTION has introduced and are well established in the Indian market. These entail end to end services for Planning, Activation and Measurement of marketing campaigns and Advertisements.

With first party Android smartphone applications usage data from 40,000 panelists in India collected passively with our patented technology, VTION’s panel is built and maintained to statistically represent nearly 200Mn Android smartphone users, which account for about 90% of the overall digital spends in the country. Data collected is on App Usage, OTT Content Usage, Ads exposed on Social Media & OTT and Ecommerce In App usage mapped to various product categories from searches to Cart.

VTION has assisted more than 15 companies distributed over different categories like CPG, Ecommerce etc. in understanding consumer behavior and improving their Marketing ROI.

VTION is founded by Manoj Dawane who has more than 25 years of experience in consumer internet and telecom related businesses. The core stack of VTION is built around two patents that Manoj holds in the field of measurement of events that take place on a smart device. Shailesh Varudkar who is the Chief Business Officer also comes in with 25 years of business and deep product management experiences. Reshma Doshi, Analytics and Research Head and Shubham Saxena, Head of Technology, are key personnel of the company who innovate and deliver customer delight in the same breath.

What do you think will fuel the growth of the SaaS based digital analytics sector in future?

In today’s VUCA world, the consumer has unlimited options and they prefer experience over products. I believe that the key driver for digital analytics in this era is the availability of unlimited competitive options and the fragmentation of consumer tastes. Therefore, it becomes imperative to understand the choices and the trends alike, which can only be derived through good analytics which in turn will reduce the cost of acquiring new customers and increase the revenue from the customer base.

The necessity for a company to get their media plan correct and apt is becoming more and more critical with digital medium becoming the preferred choice of consumers. This in turn requires a good mechanism to assess impact of the digital interventions.

Thus the three pillars of digital analytics can be summarised as:

1. Plan for maximising reach and opportunity to interact - Select the right target segments based on behavioural profiling of segments
2. Activate the optimum spread between publishers - Select the right volume, time and geographies of delivery with the right DSPs for a given target segment
3. Measure Impact - Continue checking the impact of exposed audiences and expected outcomes / actions to modify the activation parameters and deliver the most effective result in the allocated amount of budget

Tell us about the trends that have been dominating the digital analytics sector throughout the year?

Major trends dominating the digital analytics sector are:

1. Privacy of consumer data and consent mechanisms that need to be in place are the two important global trends that impact digital analytics
2. Regulators and policy makers publishing various guidelines that will demand the digital world and big tech companies to change their ways is evident from the action that Google and Apple have taken
3. Google deprecating the cookie in the next 2 years and Apple making IDFA opt in permission driven
4. Ecosystems of digital identifiers which are not based on cookies / IDFA or any such mechanism are being built. It is unlikely that such identity systems will be a single solution to the problem facing the digital world
5. Advent of ‘Panel Based’ statistically extra polatable mechanisms for consumer behaviour understanding are becoming powerful

How is VTION tapping these market trends for growth?

VTION is aggressively scaling up its advertising activation strategy, panel enhancement and targeting specific sector growth initiatives while driving global market expansion. The company now plans to expand to other countries including UAE, South Africa and Indonesia.

The company is able to keep both its operational as well as fixed costs in good control while maintaining huge growth, indicating that the nature of revenue that VTION is generating is of a repeat nature and hence very high quality.

Strategic alliances for rolling out services globally are in discussion with some of the largest global players in this industry. VTION is expecting exponential growth in business with key focus on serving more clients and strengthening the offering in all the three segments (Plan, Activate, Measure)

Can you throw some light on the role of digital analytics in the e-commerce sector?

The E-commerce industry is expected to become more integral to customer experience across markets. According to an e-Marketer report, e-commerce sales are expected to account for a massive 22% of all retail sales by 2023 as compared to a 10% share in 2017. The growing popularity of the e-commerce industry is expected to require huge amounts of data, which will, in turn, propel the growth of the market.

Data is instrumental in identifying and evaluating the target audience and their preferences and demands. A powerful digital analytics solution can help e-commerce companies create a clear roadmap in increasing revenue, enhancing consumer's lifetime value, optimizing operational efficiency and improving customer satisfaction.

Parameters that lead to an effective ROI conversion should be clearly understood and a proper system should be put in place for maximising the returns. Key component for making an effective framework in this regard is the Real Time Deterministic Behavioral Data.

For instance, the advertisements in the e-commerce at the top funnel directly impact the bottom funnel additions in cart or the number of downloads and increase in engagement or walk-ins (digital connected to retail). The success metric can thus be envisaged clearly and a call to action can be taken based on the outcome vs inputs.

In this scenario, Digital Analytics companies such as VTION Digital Analytics have an edge. Such companies are the best bet for e-commerce companies struggling with making sense of the enormous amount of data generated across platforms. VTION Digital Analytics, a Saas based consumer behaviour intelligence platform provides Real Time Behavioral Data and research based insights. Providing Real Time Behavioral Data, It can help e-commerce companies in driving ROI at both the bottom and top funnel.

How can good digital analytics bring in good revenues for companies?

In this fast-paced digital era, the consumer has countless options to choose from and they always prefer experience over products. Therefore, the availability of vast number of competitive options and disintegration of customer tastes is what drives digital analytics. It thus becomes significant to deeply understand the trends and customer choices alike, which can only be derived through good analytics. It is only Good digital analytics which will ultimately reduce the cost of acquiring new customers and increase the revenue from the customer base.

The necessity for a company to get their media plan correct and apt is becoming more and more critical with digital medium becoming the preferred choice of consumers. This in turn requires a good mechanism to assess impact of the digital interventions.

How has your revenue grown with the brand evolving during pandemic?

We have grown by 3X in last 2 years and will be growing 7X in terms of revenue in this year

What has 2021 changed for you? How are things now?

Our product portfolio is accepted by companies across the board. That is our single largest take on 2021. Towards the end of 2021, we established out offering in ecommerce full funnel measurement space when one of the largest CPG companies in the country engaged with us and placed an handsome order with us, we hit our product market fit in that space.

Expanding our digital behaviour and OTT offering in 2021 to Ecommerce and Ads measurement was key.

What are your growth priorities for 2022-2023?

Post the recent funding round in 2022, VTION has aggressive plans to scale up its advertising activation strategy, panel enhancement and targeting specific sector growth initiatives while driving global market expansion. Four verticals have been identified to pursue in India and focus will be to innovate on a Connected TV measurement technology stack which will be brought to market in next 2 quarters.

The company plans to expand to other countries including UAE, South Africa and Indonesia in phase 1.Strategic alliances for rolling out services globally are in discussion with some of the largest global players in this industry. VTION is expecting exponential growth in business with key focus on serving more clients and strengthening the offering in all the three segments (Plan, Activate, Measure)

Funding

In total, VTION has raised $2 million plus of funding. Recently, the company raised $1.3 million in a Pre-Series A led by YourNest Venture Capital and two other key investors. Prior to the latest round of funding, the firm had raised $750,000 in two seed rounds which included $500,000 from leading angel investors in India anchored by Angel List and investors from Sweden, US and Dubai and $250,000 from Core 91 VC.