Exclusive Interview with Vinay Agrrawal, Founder of Hubbler

With advancing technology, no-code DIY platforms have been gaining momentum. These platforms allow enterprises to build powerful apps to automate their unique business processes.

Here is an exclusive interview with Vinay Agrrawal, Founder of Hubbler, who created a no-code, DIY platform that is built on iOS, Android to give software teams that fit like a glove. Let's know more about Hubbler and its no-code platform in this interview.

Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

Hubbler is a cloud platform that helps organizations build any business applications overnight without writing a single line of code. Built around AI-based generic components, the platform delivers enterprise-grade native applications on the web and mobile simultaneously.

With our revolutionary platform, we are here to change the way enterprises build and consume applications. We want it to be a DIY platform where it isn't enough if you build powerful features and capabilities you need to make them intuitive for new users who do not know of your product.

How do businesses benefit from it?

• SuperAPP concept: One application for the entire business. The enterprise team doesn't have to interact with 8-10 different applications.
• DIY Platform, Democratized development: Anyone can build applications now​
• 20X Speed – Build any application in a couple of hours
• Engineering bandwidth is no more a blocker in digital transformation
• A tremendous amount of saving in terms of cost and time​
• Cloud-based hosting managed security and scalability ​
• Inbuilt mobility strategy – Single-click deployment to iOS, Android, and Web​
• Open Platform: Integrate your ERP, CRM, Accounting, and Legacy system to our platform seamlessly.

What kind of applications can be created?

The platform can configure any kind of business application. Our customers have built over 1000+ applications on our platform. We have deployed complex solutions like procure to pay cloud, lease management, revenue operations, expense management, field force automation, and even entire billing systems, etc. Some of the start-ups have built their entire tech platform on us allowing them to hit the market in a few months.

With what mission and objectives, the company was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company

As an entrepreneur, I had to wade through many challenges that a growing company throws at. At Unicel, I spent considerable time and money to organize the chaos that I have faced and took up a challenge to solve this problem using technology and innovation. Negotiating these challenges made me realize that I had a bigger goal to achieve. I wanted to change the way enterprises build and consume applications. There the idea of a new start-up was born. Though Unicel was doing great, I started to feel the vacuum as the company innovated less, and the focus was to manage the present challenges.

In 2015, a global multi-channel mobile messaging platform, mGage India Private Limited, acquired Unicel to bolster its presence in India's enterprise mobile marketing in a deal that was reported widely. With this deal, I took an exit from Unicel Management to pursue what I loved most- building a company from scratch.

With a new purpose in mind, I brought in a new team to create a Unique platform, Hubbler, to help entrepreneurs like me. My team of youngsters, fresh out of college, have built a plug and play- a DIY platform that can digitize a business process into a mobile and web application in 15 minutes without writing a single line of code. I like to call Hubbler a one-stop enterprise growth hacking tool that can solve 3 core issues of an organization – managing productivity, enhancing collaboration, and engaging employees.

Mention some of the awards, achievements, recognitions, and clients' feedback that you feel are notable and valuable for the company.

Hubbler has been titled as one of the winners of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Award for product showcase in 2019.

Brief us about the proactive Founder/CEO of the company and his/her contributions towards the company and the industry.

"A first-generation entrepreneur and innovator with over 18+ years in business leadership."

I am an alumnus of Symbiosis, Pune, and started my career bang in the middle of the telecom boom in India. Working with a telecom operator in the early stage, I gained in-depth experience of multiple wireless space functions from technology to billing, to value-added services and customer experiences.

After a successful stint at telecom major Aircel Limited, I decided to take the entrepreneurial plunge with Unicel. I started Unicel Technologies Private Limited in a garage and turned it into a leading enterprise cloud communication company.

Driven by my foresight and the strength of identifying gaps in enterprise mobility, Unicel was quickly recognized as a technology leader. Unicel had many firsts in the industry from launching India's first VN platform to missed call alerts and mobile banking OTPs. My leadership not only brought technology innovations delivering the best SLAs and reliable services but also unprecedented growth (75% YoY).

With Unicel, I achieved my dream of making a positive impact on every life he could touch. I always wanted to delight everyone in terms of the value chain, including his peers, employees, resellers, customers, and, most importantly, over a billion end users who would receive a message when they do banking transactions like swiping a credit card or using ATMs.

Tell us how your company is contributing to the IoT/AI/big data analytics/robotics/self-driving vehicles/cloud computing industry of the nation and how the company is benefiting the clients.

While building applications for various types of workflows, Hubbler needs to integrate with big-data, IoT & AI systems. The platform makes these integrations simple with a configurable interface & objects.

Kindly mention some of the major challenges the company has faced till now.

Adoption of the SaaS model in India is still low as the Indian market still doesn't consider automation as an investment. Though India is a growing market for building SaaS products, it contributes only 20% of business to these SaaS companies. A major chunk of mid-size companies in India is new and resistant to adopting SaaS applications which makes our cost of customer acquisition higher. To solve this problem, we are now all set to enter the international market where the industry is matured enough to love the SaaS model.

What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

• Super APP Concept: Hubbler is designed to reduce the number of applications that a business user needs to interact with. Not only can one fork a new application on Hubbler as needed but also connect their legacy systems to Hubbler and interact with it using Hubbler as an interface.
• 40+ Intelligent Hubbles​: Hubbles are configurable microservice-based components that help build truly vertical/function agnostic applications and change them on the fly​.
• Connect & Engage: Create and track organization goals. Reward people and celebrate success
• Device Agnostic: Deliver applications natively to Android, iOS, and Web​.
• Platform beyond workflows: Build around accelerating business transformation strategy than capturing just the workflows.

How do you plan to revolutionize the Indian/US/Israel market and what are your plans to tap the market?

Software development without coding was a concept unheard of prior to the introduction of low code and no-code application development platforms that took the centre stage in the next big list of development inventions for the decade.

With the growth of no code adoption across the globe, at Hubbler, we plan to change the way people think about building applications. With the DIY capabilities, no coders will easily configure any application overnight with no dependencies on developers or even Hubbler. For instance, product managers will soon not only draft PRDs but also build the application on their own.

What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?

Covid allowed us to pivot from field-force specific applications to help enterprises manage their core operations. This exposed us to many new use-cases that can be easily solved by Hubbler, and that paves our path towards a 5x growth in FY22. Our partnership program and international launch will contribute greatly to our growth story.

The industry is seeing a rising importance of business and technology enablers like virtualization, convergence and cloud. How do you see these emerging technologies impact your business sector?

The fact is that Hubbler leverages these technologies. Cloud and virtualization form the core of our infrastructure and application deployment. The idea of super-app is based on technology convergence where a user can interact with multiple platforms on a single device. Our automation engine can connect to multiple systems simultaneously and present the data on a single platform. The acceptance of these technologies forms the bedrock of our success in the near future.