In recent years, there has been a heart-warming paradigm shift of demographics in the Indian corporate landscape. The country has witnessed a titanic surge in the number of women entering the economic wave. With emphatic strides, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with their male counterparts, the sheer confidence exuded by them brings about a fresh wind of change. While it has definitely been a pleasant change, it has not been one without its fair share of struggles and challenges. It is the tenacity and determination with which these women have addressed those challenges that have made them winners in their own right today. Sapna Patel, the Co-Founder of Gray Routes Technology has been working relentlessly in her efforts to transform the way the world’s leading brands use data to solve their toughest distribution problems.
“It has been one of the most fulfilling experiences for me at a professional as well as personal level. Entrepreneurship urges you to step out of your comfort zone and gives you the opportunity to test and reach your maximum potential. At Gray Routes, we have grown from a group of interns coding in a room in 2013 to a full-fledged super-efficient team working on cutting edge technology for the biggest FMCG/Retail/Pharma/Real Estate industry players today,” says Sapna Patel, the Co-Founder of Gray Routes Technology.
Gray Routes Technology is a leading provider of location analytics and field automation software. The firm provides geospatial data and affordable tools for territory and inventory planning, FOS and SFA implementation, serving businesses across sectors by organizing consumer demand, streamlining order aggregation and providing marketing analytics. “We have various products such as GrayFOS; a mobile based app which help clients optimize their sales force according to the real time data, GrayDROP; a GPS based dynamic route planning system which creates optimal routes and GoStocky; an International award-winning world’s first Retail Resource Planning (RRP) mobile app that will help clients to automate inventory management, cash flow management and track customer loyalty, making them GST ready. We are felicitated by Computer Society of India, Government of India, Canada and UK and are growing fast with a repertoire of international customers, global GTM partnerships with market leaders ESRI, SAP, IBM and experienced Channel Partners in India and abroad, and winning in the market due to the solid and trusted value proposition on offer,” Soubhagya Sahoo, CEO & Co-Founder, Gray Routes Technology.
Established in 2013 by IIT KGP, IIM Ahmadabad alumni and ex-IIT Bombay start-up leaders with experience in Fortune 500 firms such as HUL, AI-leader Nvidia and Google, Gray Routes has various clients such as one of the world’s largest and most reputed FMCG companies, Retail Giant (Germany), Nivea, Firefox, Subway, Via.com, Gsk, Safari and many more. “As a company which provides tech solutions to its clients, we are nowhere with a tech product if it is not useful and value-generating for our clients. We build our products keeping in mind our customers and their necessities. Hence the most important thing that I have learnt in my journey is that you have to be obsessed with your customer. It is extremely crucial to align your vision with theirs and take solid steps to accomplish it. There is a famous quote – “Think big, dream big, believe big and the results will be big.” This quote led us to create a path of success not just for us but especially for the clients. Your ideas should be able to incline the clients towards innovation and profitability,” Sapna elaborates.
Gray Routes Technology has received many award and recognition such as Top 4 Tech companies in India in UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering Life Awards (2015), The firm has also has been voted among Top 75 out of 14000 Innovative Business start-ups in Economic Times Power of Ideas 2012 organized by DST, CIIE-IIMA and ET, Recognized as Top 30 B2B companies in IBM Smart Camp 2014, Gray Routes has been also recognised as the Best Company for Big Data Analytics Implementation under ITES category by Computer Society of India in 2016. The same year the firm was elected as Global Emerging Partners by ESRI & SAP. The company further has been mentored by Uber Inc as 2018 UberEXCHANGE winner and supported by DST & Gov. of Canada’s Next Big Idea fellowship.
In the chase of providing the clients a better next-gen platform
An Odia by origin, Sapna Patel has completed her Master’s in English & Advertising from Bangalore University and had topped the university during her undergraduate & postgraduate examinations, scoring highest marks in the university’s history. Sapna started her career with Google and thereafter worked with the social cause, Teach for India for a couple of years in leadership roles. Later, she was involved with a Mumbai-based Ed-Tech Startup as VP, Business Development & Strategy. This experience helped Sapna Patel to become the Co-Founder of Gray Routes in 2013. As COO of Gray Routes, she led services and operations strategy, along with business development.
Work Culture
“I believe independence is the key for anyone to flourish in any field or at any stage of life. So I employed the same thing in our work environment. We give creative independence to employees, so that they can produce their best. The two strong pillars on which our work environment is based on are empathy and mutual understanding. Our flat structure ensures that everyone is heard, which in turn leaves employees empowered,” pinpoints Sapna.
The firm, with a very positive outlook, aspires to triple its revenue and clients in the coming year. The company also desires to widen its wing geographically in the years to come. “The present era is all about AI and Hyperlocal Technology. The most interesting and challenging part of this industry is its dynamics. It is ever changing. We are glad to have stellar products as well as a talented team which can adapt to this aggressive environment. In these changing times too the company has witnessed growth not only in India but also in the international market. The market size of location analytics globally is growing at a very impressive rate. And owing to the conducive environment, our business would flourish very well,” concluded Sapna.
