Metalbook has a  network of over 750+ global metal manufacturers, dealers, suppliers, and customers, including ArcelorMittal, Tata Steel, JSW, EU Metals, JSPL, Bygging, DLF, & BL Kashyap, among others. The platform has been designed with modern business in mind. It is easy to use and provides a one-stop solution for all your procurement needs. Whether you want to buy or sell materials, the platform makes it simple and efficient to get the job done.

The platform offers several benefits including: 

1. A secure online marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of metals from around the world
2. Real-time pricing information for all metals on the Metalbook platform
3. A transparent bidding system that allows buyers/sellers to get the best price 
4. Easy access to credit facilities from top lenders worldwide

Metalbook reached a gross merchandise value of ₹100 crore in its first year of operations and ended with ₹800 crores. In March 2022, the company raised $1.1 million (₹8.8 crores) in a seed round from Axilor Ventures and has since raised an additional $1.7 million.

Additionally, he was a key person in setting up the India advisory arm for one of these multinational consulting firm as a Founding Partner and an India Board member. As of now, he’s a part of the leadership team of Consulting Strategic Business Unit of Tech Mahindra and the global leader for Technology Advisory business unit. For all the roles he has played in the last 10 years, he has  been managing independent business units providing professional services to clients in the area of technology and digital as sole leader owning the P&L, and responsible for sustenance & growth of the same.

When Covid 19 struck us 2020, he was a part of one of these multinational Consulting firms’ India Advisory board running the technology business and office of the CIO Advisory for them. At that point in time, they had just started their advisory/consulting business journey in India and had never expected the unforeseen pandemic. It had been a huge challenge ahead of me and taught me how to sustain a professional services business in the worst possible times – sailing through those tough times indeed has grown me to a better professional who can navigate his way even in the tough-most times.

He moved to an IT Services giant in Kolkata as a part of their Consulting Leadership team (due to a personal priority) amidst the pandemic and took up the challenge of creating and running the Technology Advisory business for them. The initial days were thoroughly challenging as they were still in the era of the “new normal” – connecting with potential clients, team members and colleagues and making them believe the importance of digital and technology consulting and how it actually is rightly the topmost board agenda of the current age. There were initial times when he was ending up spending more than 16-17 hours a day purely on remote calls and video meetings to create that trust of clients and teams, training them, pitching for new work, delivering initial work packets to clients and also in managing/aligning and re-aligning the entire business portfolio based on the dynamic situations. Thanks to the relentless efforts of myself and a motivated team which He had nearly built from scratch and a good set of optimistic clients, they started clocking our numbers and in a period of close to one and half years today they are managing a substantial revenue number with an enviable top-line growth and healthy EBITDA.

As a business leader, this brings immense satisfaction to me as a professional – the joy of giving birth and rearing up a child is something he has really enjoyed, the itch for entrepreneurship which he has always been fortunate to nurture in the organizations he has worked for.

Since, he always wanted to realise his dream of becoming an Army, he tried for Technical Graduate Entry Scheme and got through Service Selection Board (SSB), Bhopal in 1986. He passed out from Indian Military Academy (IMA) as Lieutenant in 1987.

He served in the Army for around 24years in various command & staff appointments, in areas of militancy to terrorism, in climatic conditions of plus (+) 55-degree centigrade temperature to minus (-) 40-degree centigrade temperatures, in area of high altitudes to jungles, and faced many challenges.

After serving in the Army for around 24 years, he transitioned to Corporate World; which was another challenging decision for him to move from a secure job to an insecure job in 2008. He worked in the IT industry for thirteen years as Vice President & Associate Director till Oct 2021.

Parallelly, he not only transformed his own life but helped others to transform their life through his mentorship programs, webinars, videos and podcasts. His vision and mission are to help people to ‘Unhook from Their Past and Win Life Like a Warrior’.

Warrior in this case doesn’t mean everyone to fight in the battlefield. What he implies that people must fight demons within themselves, demons of Self-Limiting Beliefs, Self-Sabotaging Traits, Fear of Failures, Negative Thoughts, Ignorance etc. To simplify the process and speed up achievement of best results in time bound manner, he has designed a 7-Step Frame Work namely WOW (Wheel of Warrior). He is running his podcast ‘Win Life Like a Warrior’ wherein he has interviewed inspiring achievers from all walks of life thereby helping his audience to find their version 2.0.

He is currently mentoring mid-career professionals with his 7 Step Program “How to Become Fearless and Super-confident to Win Life Like a Warrior” He is also helping students for public speaking & leadership qualities as a Mentor of International House of Speakers (IHS) as part International Institute of Influencers (III). His long-term vision is to see everyone in this world Unhooking Their Past and Winning Life Like a Warrior.

Vedant’s greatest accomplishment to date is the creation of “Less Boring-ify Trees”, a visionary organization that is striving to make learning about trees more interesting. With support from multiple incubators, Vedant has built a team of over 60 teenagers who are on a mission to make trees more interesting. Through innovative strategies, such as partnering with schools and colleges, putting QR codes on trees, and advocating for tree learning through social media, Vedant is making a difference in the world and inspiring others to do the same.

Vedant has also been an active and influential participant in other organizations and initiatives. As the CMO of Girlswing Foundation, a registered NGO based in Ghana, Vedant helped young women discover their career potential.

His strong presence on social media, with over 3000 followers on Instagram and LinkedIn, has helped him reach and engage with a large and diverse audience.

Vedant’s impact extends beyond his entrepreneurial and social media presence. As an advisory board member at Teenink, a platform that provides a voice for young people, Vedant is making a difference by empowering and inspiring others.

He has also won over ₹10.69,035 worth of scholarships in the past 6 months, further demonstrating his exceptional talent.

Vedant has also founded the platform Dublieu which helps School & College Students to find Opportunities such as Competitions, MUNs, Internships, Fellowships, and so on

Now at Plus (formerly PlusAI) he works on his largest robots yet, Class 8 trucks! Plus is a leader in the self-driving/ autonomous trucking space, with operations in multiple geographies worldwide.

As an early engineer at Plus and now a seasoned Engineering Manager, Ankur deeply understands autonomous robots and works on various problems. He contributes to Perception and Infrastructure systems, leading a team of engineers and research scientists, working on R&D and execution in this deep-tech space. Ankur has been involved in several high-stakes customers and OEM partnerships around the globe, defining the product and the drive experience. His work as an independent contributor and team lead has directly resulted in the success of these partnerships. He has also been awarded multiple patents for his work.

Ankur received his Bachelor’s in Electronics and Telecommunications from Univeristy of Pune and his Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, focusing on Image Processing and Computer Vision. During grad school, he was also a student researcher at USC’s ICT Lab, working on computer graphics and digital avatars.

Ankur is an ardent believer in responsible automation and hopes to continue working on products that bring the latest technologies to market and improve people’s lives. In addition, Ankur regularly mentors newcomers to the field, helping them through university applications and professional career development. He also likes to educate and inspire more people about AI and ML in Robotics.

Mr. Amey’s innovative ideas have led to the development of groundbreaking technologies that address some of the world’s most pressing issues. He filed an international patent for his Comment Moderation technology, which aims to increase user control and protect against online bullying and harassment on social media. He also made a significant impact by addressing conformity bias and systematically exploring user interests in recommender systems. Both these works were published at the prestigious ACM WebConf (WWW) conference, demonstrating the depth and specificity of his research. His expertise in AI is not only limited to tackling social problems. Amey led a team of engineers and scientists to solve the complex cold start problem in Facebook’s video recommendation system, resulting in incremental business value. His contributions to Facebook News Feed have been instrumental in revolutionizing the way billions of users discover and interact with relevant content on the platform. This has been recognized through the granting of a patent and positive media coverage. Amey holds a MS degree from Columbia University, specializing in computer vision and machine learning. Prior to that, he demonstrated his expertise in real-time image processing by developing computer vision based Advanced Driver Assistance System algorithms for the automotive industry.

Mr. Dharwadker is a respected leader in the AI and ML industry, known for his strong leadership skills and ability to steer large teams to success. He possesses an impressive ability to inspire the new generation of researchers and academics in the field. He has presented his work at various scientific conferences and served as a speaker at ML summits. His proficiency has earned him invitations to judge international tech awards and provide detailed insights and advice in prominent technology publications. Amey’s passion for advancing the field and helping others understand its complexities has made him a sought-after voice in the industry. His success is a testament to his dedication and expertise in AI and ML, and belief in their positive impact on the world.

Mr. Kunal perused his MBA from the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra that sharpened his knowledge of Marketing and Finance. With over 15 years of experience, he wears several hats in Marketing, Sales, Business Development and Client Strategy. Over the course of his profession, he has achieved notable accomplishments like successful mobile marketing launches, India’s first super App launch, Major brand rebranding and much more!

At Merkle Sokrati, Kunal is instrumental in managing top-tier clients including leading brands in EdTech, Retail, Consumer Durables, OTT, Health Care and beyond. His contributions have led to big wins for clients, the likes of a BFSI client achieved ~ 315% increase in MoM Account Opens. He leads a team that manages client strategy and handles diverse portfolios working toward the goal of client success. Mr. Kunal has demonstrated incredible leadership through his innovative, solution-driven approach to the most challenging of business situations. His phenomenal work in transforming client marketing objectives aided brands to sustain business through the pandemic. He is best known for his Leadership and Mentorship, that have driven his team to achieve great success for clients & partners.

Mr. Kunal has been an integral part of enabling transformation across value chain, i.e, from building customer strategy to accelerating their digital transformations. On the personal front, he aims to inspire an entire generation of digital enthusiasts towards adopting advancing roles in the digital ecosystem.

As a Systems Engineer, Kiran primarily acts as an advisor, assisting his clients in the process of designing and building complex technical architectures. It focuses on using high-end enterprise storage, hybrid and multi-cloud platforms, virtualization, and hyper converged solutions that can change the landscape of their legacy system infrastructure. Many technological advances and assessment tools such as artificial intelligence, automation data, and size analysis require updated data systems to be optimized. As organizations seek better data reliability, availability, and capacity, system engineering is the first step.

Kiran has served customers that offered services in banking, energy, stock trading, retail, insurance, and even software. Sometimes, these projects take place within a single country, and other times, Kiran supports massive multinational transformation for his largest clients.

At a utility company, the priority was modernizing the data center and bringing it into the 21^st century. The company wanted IT to have a faster response while also modernizing infrastructure and lowering company costs through automation. Kiran proposed the consolidation of the organization’s 18 storage arrays with 4PB of data across multiple data centers to just two high-end, all-flash enterprise storage arrays. His efforts saved his client $2 million per year in system maintenance and reduced the need for storage space, power, and cooling by 90%, saving another $800,000 each year. Kiran proposed the customized data migration methodology, strategy, and techniques to migrate 4PB of data to the new data center without impacting the critical production environment. He also ensured customer deadlines were met, freeing up data center space and saving millions of dollars in space renewals.

When rising operational costs threatened to curtail the Private Healthcare System’s ability to serve its patients, it took a close look at its entire infrastructure, including its digital infrastructure, for opportunities to improve efficiency and capacity. He served as the senior solutions consultant to identify a more cost-effective way of delivering fuller, timelier patient data to its medical staff. His brief was to reduce TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and CAPEX (Capital Expenditure), shifting Private Healthcare’s data center and related operations to a more OPEX (Operating Expense) cantered accounting model. Kiran designed a solution that consolidated Private Healthcare’s three data centers into two, each served by all-flash storage. He also devised a new backup and disaster-recovery infrastructure, using storage-replication technology over a dedicated 10 Gbps network. The results were felt by Private Healthcare administrators and medical staff alike. Consolidating the data centers generated immediate savings of $250,000, and the additional improvements He made to Private Healthcare’s infrastructure produced another $450,000 in annual savings. Just as importantly, the consortium’s electronic health record system, Epic, benefited from massive performance improvements. Latency on the system was reduced to nearly immeasurable levels, and Epic performance, as measured by the delivery time for patient records, improved by more than 200%.

Kiran is a fellow member of the SAS Society and the Threws Society, which recently named me the winner of its award for Best Creative and Innovative Solution.