Our guests today are Ritesh Kumar, Sharad Sen Sharma, and Rohan Sen Sharma, co-founders of TranZact, a five-year-old Mumbai startup that has recently raised its series A funding to take its digitalisation platform to more small and medium enterprise customers in India. The next, net-savvy generation of SME entrepreneurs is more willing to try out such solutions than its forebears. Eventually, TranZact’s founders aim to build a data sciences based marketplace for millions of SMEs.

(00:40) Intro to The Daily Tech Conversation

(00:58) Our guests today — Ritesh Kumar, Sharad Sen Sharma and Rohan Sen Sharma, co-founders of TranZact

(01:41) How TranZact came about — stumbling upon the lack of tech for more than 15 million SMEs

(4:45) The first commercial version — connecting different functions with an SME to manage their workflows better

(07:06) Excel sheets and Tally for accounting and the need for better solutions with growth

(09:26) An important product challenge — making it as attractive and user friendly as a consumer app on a mobile phone

(10:28) Moving towards a data sciences driven marketplace model

(11:52) Cloud software and freemium pricing

(12:51) Product innovations — automating estimations and costing

(15:25) Examples of the kinds of customers using TranZact — a Coke bottle  wrapper maker to an elevator springs manufacturer

(17:14) SMEs going from being tech averse to experimenting with new software; multiple software startups coming up with solutions tailored to SME needs and push from the government

(18:04) The younger generation is getting into running their parents’ businesses — they are more internet savvy

(19:53) Freemium pricing

(22:00) Takeaways from building TranZact so far

(27:02) Recent funding, and plans ahead

Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds