eChai Showcase: How Biziverse Got 44,000 Customers Without a Sales Army

We interviewed Ekta Shah, Co-Founder of Biziverse — a startup quietly transforming how Indian SMBs adopt ERP and CRM tools. They are building it from Gandhinagar.

Here’s the full story in her words:

What We Do

Biziverse, our startup, offers a single platform for Indian businesses to manage their operations and get new business opportunities. It covers ERP & CRM software tools, along with various B2B platforms, thus serving as a "Business Universe". Further, it simplifies ERP & CRM software and makes it very easily affordable, so that even the smallest business can be empowered to become a smart business.

How It All Began

The idle time during the Covid19 lockdown inspired us to wonder why, despite there being hundreds of ERP software options, most small businesses have been unable to apply technology beyond accounting and spreadsheets. We set ₹1000 to ₹2000 per year as the target price, and designed a business model and optimized systems to deliver easy and low-cost ERP software profitably.

What Makes Us Tick

Biziverse makes business software (ERP & CRM) more than 10X lower cost for growing businesses, while offering faster and better support. Even while thousands of businesses access it every day, our team of hardly six support executives maintains a response time of under 2 minutes, even on Sundays. Our system designs for sales automation, support optimization, and scalability make this possible.

Traction So Far

Frankly, Biziverse has exceeded our own expectations so far. In the four years since our launch in late-2020, more than 44,000 businesses have purchased a Biziverse subscription. These range from small shops to large publicly listed corporations, located across India, from Ladakh to Lakshadweep. We have raised about ₹4.5 crore, and operate on a gross-profitable basis.

Meet the Team

The culture of our startup combines traditional family principles with youthful energy for creative disruption. Each of us founders (my father, brother, and I) studied and returned from the US with the passion to participate in India's growth, and Biziverse is built with this mission as well. We work with a highly empowered team of talented engineers and managers, recruited from some of the best universities here, who share this spirit that by building smart businesses, we can make a Strong India.

Tapping Into Emerging Trends

It is wonderful to see that Indian entrepreneurs, of every size and demographic, are more aspiring than ever. They have embraced mobile and Internet technology. Governmental reforms like GST, UPI, and low-cost Internet further encourage this trend. As these businesses face competition from global suppliers and funded startups, they increasingly see the usefulness of smart tools like ERP and CRM to become efficient and customer-centric. Our low-cost pricing and easy interface inspires them to choose Biziverse first.

Challenges We’ve Overcome

Our biggest challenge has been to optimize customer acquisition. While our operating costs, second year onwards, are hardly ₹10 per customer, and our support is also very optimized, our biggest cost is sales, especially as some of our competitors have more than 100X our financial muscle. We resolved this by tweaking our business model, and offering the first year at only a token price, while assuring a fairly low renewal rate next year. This encourages businesses to give Biziverse a chance first.

Where We're Headed

Biziverse stands for and aims to be the "Business Universe". Even as we started with ERP and CRM software, we channel the attention of business users to actively participate in our platforms to find business opportunities, to promote their creations, to find better vendors, and to build synergy with other businesses. We will soon launch partnerships to offer external services to businesses, ranging from travel to recruitment to advisory services. Thus, Biziverse will be the single source for business owners for operations and opportunities and more.

How the eChai Community Can Help

eChai has been a wonderful source for us to learn from peers, as we interact with other progressive startups pursuing diverse spaces. In the coming future, we count on eChai to connect for potential B2B partnerships and VC fundraising.

Demo Video

https://youtu.be/h2BT59-MthM?si=atSercXdpTnZgR-8