mCarbon is the leading provider of Innovative revenue uplift and customer value management products for telecom operators globally. Since inception mCarbon has successfully transitioned from network VAS roots to becoming an innovator in subscriber revenue services for CSP’s. Around nine years since inception, the company has successfully developed an innovative product suite which enables service providers to simplify and personalize customer experience by having various products that steer revenue via subscriber engagement over the network. Globally headquartered out of Noida (NCR) India, mCarbon is currently a team 250+ people, capable of supporting any geography of the world. It operates directly and with a stream of partner ecosystem.
The company was established in 2008 with initially a focus on core network VAS.
In an interaction with Sujata Sangwan of BWDisrupt, Rajesh Razdan, Founder & CEO, mCarbon, shares journey of his venture from inception to till now.
mCarbon’s flagship products & USPmCarbon’s flagship products include Airtime & data credit and interactive end of call notification. Both the products uniquely engage with the customers right at the time when they need it while one enables them to always stay connected with the network by giving them talk time or date credit if they have insufficient balances in their prepaid account and the other based on consumption patterns and behaviors, delivers the right kind of contextual message post the call.
In interactive end of call notification, we have the ability to capture and analyze customer behaviour, segmentation, and interactive campaigning ability, enable inline promotions and reach consumers when they are most likely to buy. The notification message gets generated post every call and through a unique flow it can be made very targeted depending upon the earlier usage patterns hence making it very relevant for the customer.
From our field experience across the operators in India/South Asia where some of these services are live specially airtime credit, ARPU jump of 8 to 12 % is noticed for the consumers alone who avail these services. Overall subscriber service penetration is staggering 40- 50% which is a huge value from a customer engagement KPI specially when there is a lot of churn amidst tough competition. Additionally, we have observed both recharge % and frequency increased by about 30% in the certain target group with the denomination of recharge also getting increased. Also because of additional money in the pre-paid wallet because of this service, the propensity of the customer to buy additional services also increases automatically which is an indirect benefit.
Similarly, the interactive end of call notification generates about a billion impressions a day in a 200 Million plus subscriber network thus offering great opportunity for telcos to target contextually aware messages thus providing immediate benefit to the customers.
DifferentiationmCarbon not just helps operators capture and understand the digital “body language” that consumers exhibit when using mobile services but also deliver targeted experience. Targeted customers can be profiled and segmented based on numerous behavioral attributes, including the device they use, the apps they consume, where they access services and different times. Our services stand out for being easily adaptable to the existing systems and services that Telcos provide. Through our product suite we enable telcos streamline customer experience and drive revenue growth by implementing and understanding customer requirements.
Future plansWe will continue to work with telcos with deeper intervention in analyzing and stimulating usage and drive revenues as they need a trusted partner who works alongside and understands the network operations on one side and consumer behavior on the other.
In addition to being significantly present in India, where we are currently headquartered, we are live in Bangladesh, middle East and Africa. Overall we will cement mCarbon's position as a leader in telco usage and retention space with various innovative offerings in that area specially in all the emerging economies of the world including select regions in South East Asia.
Key highlights
2008-2009• mCarbon was established in 2008 with initially a focus on core network VAS.
• Developed and specialized in building “critical layer” of CSP core infrastructure where VAS could be launched within weeks with ready interfaces towards networks.
• Bagged first large deal within three months of starting up/operations with the leading telecom operator in India.
• Developed first network application framework used by leading CSP’s
• Received series A funding from Canaan partners, the portfolio then bought and managed now by JP Morgan.
2010 -2014• Implemented TRAI “DND” policy across various telcos.
• Mooted the concept of “pull based” VAS which propogated users to pay per use at will rather than auto subscription.
• Pivoted to focus on revenue uplift and customer experience management
• Awarded for innovation by Airtel as the "Most valued partner” 2012
• Awarded by NASSCOM emerge forum in the “League of 10” 2012
• Deployed USSD on cloud first time globally on Amazon web services.
• Awarded by Red Herring as “Asia’s most promising private technology venture” 2013
• Awarded by Silicon India as “Top 5 most promising telecom solution provider 2014”
2015-2016• Awarded by Airtel as “Most Valued partner” for innovation 2015
• Awarded by Aegis Graham bell under “innovation in mMoney” category 2015
• Awarded by Frost & Sullivan with “Growth Excellence and Leadership” award 2015
• Established presence in emerging economies
• Extended reach in MENA by opening Dubai entity
• Awarded by Global HR Excellence with Best “Workplace practices award” 2016
Monetization modelFor us it has always been about a “Growth led” business model which in simple words mean that any incremental growth our products secure, we take a share in it. We strongly believe in investing in a business so that risk and reward are equally divided. Our model ensures that the consulting and other services we provide are embedded in the revenue sharing model.
Market size & opportunity As per a report by IAMAI , the size of MVAS market in India in 2015 is estimated to be at US $9.5 billion, while being expected to grow at CAGR of 22.13 percent over the period of 2013- 2018. This clearly is a VAS 2.0 for India. While the first avatar was all content aggregation using traditional methods like Voice, SMS being pushed to the consumer, now it is about contextual products, better target audience, since one the customer has become more aware (with data as a key driver, many such services are freely available over mobile internet) and there is a tremendous choice being offered by the OTT players of all type. Also, at a macro level, industry has witnessed a series of developments on the back of various factors, such as rising mobile Internet and broadband penetration, double-digit growth in terms of number of mobile phone users and further innovation in product development via apps and social media.
We are the leaders in usage and revenue uplift solutions in the region, though in flagship products like Airtime data and credit, we have more than 40% market share in India by sheer volume of the customers that we handle on the platform on a daily basis and also that makes us largest in the world by same measure.
About the FounderRajesh Razdan has spent an upwards of 16 years globally with various marquee names in telecom in variety of roles stemming from sales, biz dev, strategic consulting and product management. Founded mCarbon in early 2008, to create a compelling usage and subscriber revenue services based offerings for Telco's.In his present capacity as CEO, mCarbon he steers the company’s strategic vision, corporate development and overall operations. In the past, he has been associated with Nokia Networks as a senior member of solution sales team and has handled APAC and India region. Also held senior positions with leading Telecom Organizations including KPN International Consulting, Ericsson and Mobileum globally.
