Faridabad-Based Connect2India Set to Transform Global Business for Indian SMEs

Over the years, Haryana has been one of the top contributors to the growth of Indian economy. The Automobile, Textile & Apparel and Agro-industries have been top performing industries for India, especially in respect to exports and Haryana have continued to be a strong hub for all these. Haryana stands among the top 3 states in India for the ease of doing business and it is also equally popular for the future smart city and industrial capital of India, Faridabad.

Faridabad is specifically the hub of auto, textiles, garments, cold storage, refrigerators and lot of other industries; its mobility makes it a perfect spot for large & small businesses. While Faridabad continues to make name for being an industrial business hub, there is one start-up that’s carving a niche of its own. Headquartered in Faridabad, Connect2India is making its own name as a Faridabad based start-up that’s making businesses across India bigger and better by enabling and empowering them to go global.

Headquartered in Faridabad & with presence in Mumbai & Bangalore, Connect2India also has a global presence in more than 12 countries now. Connect2India with the help of its integrated global trade platform, extensive worldwide network and trade experts, help SMEs grow beyond their borders and conduct global business, taking full advantage of the global markets and global opportunities. In an interview with SMEStreet, Pawan Gupta of Connect2India explained his experience being a Haryana based company.

1. What is your reason for choosing Faridabad as your corporate office?

SME units! We wanted to be in close proximity of the very community or rather, sector, we are looking to serve. This proximity helps us in a lot of ways. We are able to directly connect with SMEs and understand their current business, state of mind. It also helps us communicate with them better.

Haryana is currently one of the best for entrepreneurial, micro and small enterprises and for national as well as international trade, and was within the top 3 states in India for “Ease of Business” last year. With Faridabad projected as the industrial capital of India, it has been a good choice for us.

There is a special focus of the governments on the growth of SMEs & promote global exports, both, on the state level & central government level. Our close connect enables us to bring these initiatives, schemes & policies into the knowledge of these SMEs, while also being able to identify the gaps that stops these SMEs from enjoying the government initiatives. It was basically a business decision where we decided to stay close to our target segment and help them in a better way.

Additionally, Faridabad keeps us in close proximity to the capital, where all the important decisions take place, all the business opportunities brew. Faridabad is also a mobile region for the NCR and we are able to attract the best & skilled talent from Delhi, Noida & Gurgaon.

A lot of customers like to visit us as well, and is located within the National Capital Region, it just helps us & our customers to set-up these meetings faster.

1. What is Connect2India proposition?

Our proposition is that, “global trading is full of opportunities; it can be simpler and easier. SMEs have a huge potential and we can help them go global, without any technological, geographical or language limitations.”

We understand that smaller businesses have limited resources and extremely low margins for errors, a costly mistake could jeopardize their survival. However, having immense experience in the global markets we tell them that, we’ll hand-hold throughout the global trading process and we will help them take the right steps and mitigate the risks.

We want to enable SMEs to go global by making end-to-end solution available to them in the domain of global trade and we do that using our integrated trade platform, our experienced experts & our extensive network.

We are currently enabling SMEs across India for multiple industries such as Agro commodities, Apparels & Textile, Handicrafts, FMCG, Agro Equipments, Chemicals & Polymers, Metal & Alloys etc.

1. What do you think is Haryana’s & Faridabad’s strength in particular?

Haryana’s strength lies in its strong industries. Over the decades, people of Haryana have sought after to build their own living and work on much larger scales than an average employee. With so many small businesses & farmers in the region, Haryana now has an extremely strong industrial community and infrastructure. However, that’s not Haryana’s complete strength, while Haryana’s manufacturing community continues to manufacture, it is its business districts that is connecting Haryana’s manufacturers & merchants with businesses.

Faridabad specifically plays a key role in Haryana’s growth. It has been the trade hub since 1607 A.D. when Shaikh Farid, treasurer to Emperor Jahangir built the Grand Trunk Road through the city. Faridabad is a hub for many industries and its close proximity to the capital and business buyers make it a link between the state & business, which is also, Faridabad’s strength. The district has huge investment in the micro and small enterprises making it the future industrial capital of India.

Haryana and Faridabad continues to be at the centre of India’s economic ambitions. The state and its industries have been constantly performing for decades and with some private sector partnership, if someone can hand-hold them, help them take the next leap, the SMEs here can usher into becoming global businesses and increasing Haryana’s contribution even further.

1. What about the Government policies to promote industries and exports?

The state of Haryana with the aid of the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India have launched several campaigns such as National Manufacturing Competitiveness Campaign to help SMEs become globally competitive. Furthermore, the government approved Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Policy 2019. This policy works with the new national initiatives of the central government such as the Make in India, Startup India, Digital India and Skill India. It helps local SMEs participate nationally with the reach of these initiatives.

The policies and campaigns started by the government of Haryana worked their way up to improve the overall export of the state. Further, Haryana lays in the Category- I of the agrarian states with USD 1.3 Billion of Agro exports last year. The state and central government have set up a mission of doubling the income of farmers by 2021-22, which indirectly means there will only be an increase in the contribution by farmers of Haryana and other states. This mission has been put forth along with several schemes like the Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichai Yojana, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojna.

1. How are you helping SMEs in Faridabad and Delhi NCR area?

Connect2India is trying to grow SMEs into bigger businesses, global businesses. We offer integrated trade platform and end-to-end solutions in global trading & business expansions to help these companies safely grow their businesses beyond geographical borders.

With our end-to-end global trade solutions, we are hand-holding these SMEs towards the global markets while empowering them to conduct global trade on their own as well. We use our platform for gaining the market research and trade intelligence; using that intelligence we try to create a market entry strategy for our customers and from there our teams work extensively to find genuine & verified importers and then help arrange and execute export orders.

Parallely, we are also focused on making these businesses truly grow as a global brand, so our marketing team offers business expansion services where we transform small business into global brands and help them sell their products globally with their brand name.

Question: How many people are associated with your platform?

With close to 1.3 Million+ Organic Visitors per month on the platform, Connect2India already works with 2.5 Billion+ trade data stats, has 2 Million+ Global Trade counterparts, gets up to 1 Million Google Crawl requests per day, has 95,000+ Strong User Base and paying SME customers all over India within multiple industries such as Agro commodities, Apparels & Textile, Handicrafts, FMCG, Agro Equipments, Chemicals & Polymers, Metal & Alloys etc.

The Google Organic Impressions for Connect2India’s integrated global trade platform in the month of April 2019 was 22.5 Million+ from users around the world which suggests that there is a huge demand and market adoption for its global trade platform. Connect2India expects this number to reach 50 Million+ / month by next quarter.