Bengaluru-based OneCode, a platform to digitize the sales ecosystem, on Thursday announced $5 million in funding drove by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge and Nexus Venture Partners, with participation from WaterBridge Ventures.
The funding of OneCode is also supported by angel investors Aakrit Vaish (Haptik), Amrish Rau (Pine Labs), Anand Chandrasekaran, Arjun Vaidya, Ashish Dave (Mirae Asset), Cloud Capital, Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy), Harshil Mathur (Razorpay), Jitendra Gupta (Jupiter Money), Kunal Shah, Lalit Keshre (Groww), Miten Sampat, Pravin Jadhav (Raise Financial Services), Rahul Mathur (Bimape), Sandeep Srinivas (Redcarpet), Sujeeth Kumar (Udaan), Sweta Rau, and Vivek Ananda (Bounce).
OneCode connects an organization of sales agents to a pool of potential customers who may not be as well informed. The startup’s mission is to digitize 50 million sales agents across India, and overcome any barrier among brands and potential buyers who may require in-person interactions and physical touch points prior to committing to a purchase.
“OneCode helps to give brands an outsourced sales army, which empowers individuals in Tier-II and Tier-III cities to become sales agents with a steady source of income. In any event, during these tough times, it’s heartening to see how we can still furnish our sales agents with work from the solace of their own homes,” said Manish Shara, Co-originator of OneCode.
The platform works with a variety of financial institutions, such as banks, as well as discount brokers and Visa companies, as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and RedCarpet. By using innovation to prepare this agent organization, these companies are able to increase their distribution in Tier-II and III cities. On top of providing sales agents with access to relevant products and services, and the chance to earn cash through these sales, OneCode also claims to give them visibility over their earnings on the app, where they can track the amount they have earned, and what amount is pending or owed to them.
Pratik Poddar, Principal, Nexus Venture Partners, added,
“We accept that India is an extraordinary market where you can create a ton of value by empowering distribution partners. Manish and Yash are solving a large issue for the 50 million agents and financial services institutions, and we are exceptionally eager to back the OneCode team.”
To ensure sales agents are furnished with the relevant skills and item information to work independently across the country, OneCode also provides agents with comprehensive hands on training. Through interactive videos, sales agents can all the more likely understand how to sell, whom to sell to, and ways in which they can maximize their earnings.
OneCode was established in March 2019 by Manish Shara and Yash Desai. Manish is a software engineering graduate from Rajasthan University who previously established and sold two startups. Manish and Yash previously cooperated at Dineout, a restaurant tech solutions company catering to individuals and businesses, where Manish drove the item department and Yash, who has a MBA from San Francisco’s Hult International Business School, was a business head.
OneCode is part of Surge’s fifth associate of 23 companies that have grown new digital solutions to help companies and individuals live, work and learn better in a rapidly evolving Southeast Asian landscape.