Promoted by Dinesh Nandwana, an associate member of the ICAI, Vakrangee Limited incorporated in May 28, 1990 as a Private Limited Company under the name 'Vakrangee Investment & Consultancy Limited'. In April 3, 1992, name of the Company was changed to 'Vakrangee Investment' and then to 'Vakrangee Ltd.' in year 1995.
The Company has emerged as one of India's largest Last Mile Distribution Platform with a Physical as well as Digital Ecosystem in place with a Pan India Presence (PAP). The Company is delivering realtime banking & financial services, ATM, insurance, e governance, e commerce (including Healthcare services) and logistics services to the unserved and underserved rural, semi-urban and urban markets and enabling Indians to benefit from financial, social and digital inclusion. The Company is engaged in providing diverse solutions, activities in E-governance, E-commerce, White Label ATM, Financial Services (Including Banking) and Logistics sector, including bullion and jewellery, through its Vakrangee Kendra (on B2B and B2C basis) with special competencies in handling massive, multi-state, and e-governance enrollment projects, data digitization, software and license.
The Company diversified into software and launched its bilingual software for voter's electoral roll. During 1999-2000, the Company setup two 100% EOU under STP in Mumbai and Jaipur. During year 2003-04, Company completed the prestigious project for creating the software that automates the counting of the preferential voting system of the Bar Councils.
During the year 2004-05, the company entered into Memorandum of Understanding with Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd for jointly executing election and related projects on national level. The company secured the Order for Digitization of Records of the Indian Patent Office for digitization of 20000 patent records covering scanning, OCR conversion and web enabling the records.
During the year 2005-06, the company made investments into Vakrangee Electronics Pvt Ltd, a company into electronics business and developing Electronic Election Machine with latest technology for effective election across the world. The company received the Digitization work of Ghaziabad Tehsil Land Revenue records from UP Electronics Corporation Ltd. Also, they received the work from Ghaziabad Development Authority for digitization of property and land records. The company received an assignment from Election Commission, Maharashtra State Unit for the preparation of Electoral Photo Identity Cards for 20 districts of Maharashtra State during the year.
During the year 2006-07, the company installed a state- of- the- art 'High Speed Variable Data Printing System' with capacity to print 2180 impressions per minute. The company invested Rs 2.10 crore in Vakrangee Electronics Ltd by subscribing 21,00,000 shares of Rs 10 each. During the year, the company was awarded contract by CMC Ltd to handle work of digitization for Registrar of Companies under Government of India e-Governance initiatives. The Company was also awarded work of Public Facilitation Office directly by TATA Consultancy Services Ltd.
During the year 2007-08, the company forayed into the private sector, which includes large companies from the BFSI, retail and telecom sector in both their DMS and PMS vertical. The company made a tie up Eastman Kodak and installed one large-scale variable colour data printers; the largest in Asia and another printer of the same capacity is under installation. Also, the company opened 32 new offices during the year. Vakrangee IT Solutions Ltd, the subsidiary company acquired Intellectual Property Rights of software products, which were under development.
The company was awarded ET-500 Best Company of the Year for 2007-08. The company also received Kodak Gold Plus accreditation, the only company in India with this award.
In October 2008, the company entered into an agreement with Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd, the Mumbai-based Smart Card Solution Provider to combine their complementary skills and expertise for execution of the Rashtriya Swathya Bima Yojana. The work involves providing software, hardware, networking & deployment of resources for delivery of Smart Card based Health Insurance Cover to the families below poverty line in India.
In March 2009, the company approved the incorporation of a 100% subsidiary company at Philippines and setting up of Software Technology Park. In April 2009, the company through their subsidiary company, Vakrangee e-Solutions Inc entered into a tripartite agreement with 1 Document Corporation, Philippines and IL&FS Technologies Ltd Philippines, for executing the Land Titling Computerization Project of Land Registration Authority (LRA), an administrative agency of the Government of the Republic of The Philippines. On 30 December 2010, Vakrangee Softwares Ltd. announced that it has crossed the milestone of Rs 500 crore revenue in the current financial year, with one full quarter left to enhance its score.
With effect from 1 October 2013, the name of the company was changed to Vakrangee Limited from Vakrangee Softwares Limited. On 24 January 2014, Vakrangee Limited announced that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has granted the company final authorization of the White Label ATM (WLA) License. Under the said license, Vakrangee is entitled to set up and run minimum 15,000 ATMs across the country in next three years.
On 30 July 2015, Vakrangee Limited announced that it has entered into a strategic tie up with Amazon India wherein it shall provide marketing, promotional and pick up services to Amazon through the 'Vakrangee Kendras'. On 24 November 2015, Vakrangee Limited announced that it has executed an agreement with Bank of Baroda in Mumbai appointing the company as its National Business Correspondent on Pan India Basis. On 14 March 2016, Vakrangee Limited announced a tie-up with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC) for setting up Vakrangee Kendra at IOC's retail outlets (distribution network). Vakrangee Kendra shall be set up in about 25000 plus IOC Retail Outlets located pan India.
On 30 March 2016, Vakrangee Limited announced that it has partnered with My Mobile Payments Limited (MMPL) for rendering bill payment collection solution (including government as well as private utility) to the unserved and under-served geographies of India, through aggregated platform and world-class payment interface. Vakrangee and MMPL have agreed in principle, to establish national alliance to offer much-needed customer centric and user-friendly payment services of wide range of billers, service providers, suppliers and utility billing companies from Vakrangee's more than 20,000 outlets. On 15 December 2016, Vakrangee Limited announced Corporate Agency tie-up with HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company for distribution of General Insurance products.
On 5 January 2017, Vakrangee Limited announced that it has achieved a long-term debt free status through early repayments of all the outstanding long-term credit facilities sanctioned to it. Achieving long-term debt free status is in line with the long-term growth strategy with respect to Vision 2020 of the company.
On 17 March 2017, Vakrangee Limited announced Corporate Agency tie-up with Aditya Birla Health Insurance Company Limited for distribution of Health Insurance products.
On 28 September 2017, Vakrangee Limited (VL) announced that promoters of the company viz, Mr. Dinesh Nandwana, Vakrangee Holdings Private Limited and NJD Capital Private Limited (erstwhile known as Vakrangee Capital Private Limited) have increased their stake in the company by acquiring additional 7,13,621 equity shares of the company of the value of Rs35.18 crore. Pursuant to the said acquisition, the total shareholding has been increased from 41.59% to 41.72%.
On 5 October 2017, Vakrangee Limited (VL) announced its tie-up with IndusInd Bank Limited for Bharat Bill Payment System platform to deliver wide range of bill payment services from Vakrangee Kendra outlets. Vakrangee shall be part of Bharat Bill Payment System's ecosystem, as national level partner, as Agent Institution (AI), to deliver nation-wide electricity, utility bill payments, DTH, post-paid, water bills, gas bills along with postpaid telecom bills from BSNL, MTNL, Vodafone, Airtel etc.
On 8 January 2018, Vakrangee Limited (VL) announced a tie-up with Netmeds Marketplace Limited to offer medicines and other health products from Vakrangee Kendra. Netmeds is an online marketplace for pharmaceutical and similar goods including OTC products. Vakrangee would act as the assisted digital platform where citizens will now be able to order, pay and collect a wide range of prescription and OTC medicines and other health products at their nearest Vakrangee Kendra.
On 25 January 2018, Vakrangee Limited (VL) announced alliance with Cinestaan Digital Private Limited to offer free and offline videos to citizens from Vakrangee Kendra. Cinestaan Digital Private Limited is an Internet media company and has introduced a service named Pocketwala App for smartphones. Pocketwala is targeted at users who have smartphones but have limited or no access to data and yet want to consume high definition video entertainment. Vakrangee would act as the distribution platform where consumers will now be able to get Pocketwala App, choose videos and keep coming back for more videos at their nearest Vakrangee Kendra. This tie-up further expands the bouquet of services available to citizens through Vakrangee Kendras.
On 3 February 2018, Vakrangee Limited (VL) clarified to the stock exchanges that the company has treasury fund of more than Rs 1500 crore. The company further stated that it had done direct equity investments in PC Jeweller. Post this investment, the company received feedback from the investor community to avoid any direct equity investment. Keeping this in mind, the company released the Treasury Investment Policy with effect from 30 January 2018, which states that the company will not do any further direct equity investments.
The Board of Directors of Vakrangee Limited at its meeting held on 12 February 2018 considered and approved the capital allocation policy of the company. As per one time capital allocation policy, a sum of Rs 1250 crore will be utilized through dividend payout and share buyback and a sum of Rs 122 crore will be re-invested in business. As per the Long Term Capital Allocation, 2/3rd of the Free Cash Flows will be made available for dividend payout and share buyback. Promoter and Promoter group of the Company will not take part in the Buyback process and would not tender any shares in the buyback process.
On 13 February 2018, Vakrangee Limited launched Travel and Visa assistance services at Vakrangee Kendras in three outlets in Mumbai through its existing partnership with One Vasco, an avant-garde travel service enterprise.
On 23 March 2018, Vakrangee Limited announced that the company has through its wholly owned subsidiary Vakrangee Logistics Private Limited (VLPL) entered into an alliance with Blue Dart Express Limited, which shall offer last mile courier and logistics services to the citizens on pan India basis. As per the arrangement with Blue Dart, VLPL through Vakrangee Kendras will offer courier pick-up and delivery services and help Blue Dart extend their reach to un-served and under-served areas. This tie-up further expands the company's bouquet of services available to citizens through Vakrangee Kendras.
On 28 April 2018, Vakrangee Limited announced that Price Waterhouse & Co Chartered Accountants LLP (PWC) has resigned from their position as the statutory auditor of the company with effect from 27 April 2018. PWC had satisfactorily done the limited review for the period till 31 December 2017. The management would like to assure that the company has provided all the information with respect to business and affairs of the company to the Auditor and the Audit committee, and the financial statements presents the true and fair view of the state of the affairs of the company. Vakrangee further stated that the company is fully compliant with the Ind-AS accounting standards. The Audit committee has also reviewed the financial statements and has been fully satisfied with all the information and explanations provided by the company.
At the time of announcement of its financial results for the year ended 31 March 2018, Vakrangee Limited announced on 14 June 2018 that based on the current Capex plan for the ATM business and increased spend in marketing expenses, the company plans to change the previously announced Capital Allocation policy. The revised Capital allocation policy will be finalized based on the outcome of 5,000 operational Next gen outlets.
On 12 July 2018, Vakrangee Limited announced that it has entered an alliance with Reliance Nippon Life Asset Management Limited, which shall offer distribution of mutual fund products to the citizens on pan India basis. As per the arrangement with Reliance Mutual Fund, Vakrangee through its Nextgen Vakrangee Kendras will offer mutual fund distribution and help Reliance Mutual Fund to extend their reach to un-served and under-served areas. This tie-up further expands the company's bouquet of services available to citizens through Vakrangee Kendras.
On 13 August 2018, Vakrangee Limited announced the launch of first 50+ NextGen Vakrangee Kendras in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The company has launched these new stores or Kendras in the sub-urban and semi-rural areas of Mumbai. The Next Gen Kendras boast of a modern and standardized format with a uniform look and feel in all the Kendras aimed towards building consistent service levels and uniform consumer experience. Vakrangee Kendra offers a broad spectrum of services across different sectors to offer a 'One Stop Shop' solution for its customer.
On 6 September 2018, Vakrangee Limited informed the stock exchanges that it has entered in to a distribution agreement with Aditya Birla Finance Limited, which shall offer distribution of Personal and Business Loans through our Nextgen Vakrangee Kendras. On 24 September 2018, Vakrangee Limited informed the stock exchanges that it has entered in to a distribution agreement with Aditya Birla Housing Finance limited, which shall offer distribution of Home Loan and Other Related Products through our Nextgen Vakrangee Kendras. This tie-up further expands the company's bouquet of services available to citizens through Vakrangee Next Gen Kendras.
On 29 September 2018, Vakrangee Limited informed the stock exchanges that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has ordered inspection of Books of Accounts of the company for a period of three financial years to be conducted in terms of Section 206(5) of the Companies Act 2013. The scope shall, inter alia, include resignation of Price Water House and Co Chartered Accountants LLP as Statutory Auditors of the Company, Income Tax Assessment order and Tax Audit report for the last 5 years, number of Vakrangee Kendras located in India and deposit amount, if any, collected from franchisees, shareholding structure of the company.
In FY2019, Company established a total network of 3,504 NextGen Vakrangee Kendras across 19 States. It launched the Next Gen
Vakrangee Kendra Model with standardised look and feel and consistent service level to have a uniform consumer experience. It launched 1,107 Next-Gen Kendras.
During FY2020, Company reached 10,000+ Next-Gen Vakrangee Kendras, spread across covering 30 states. Out of these outlets, 70% outlets are in Tier V & VI cities. It introduced affordable vHealth by Aetna (A CVS Health Company) telemedicine services to its customers in underserved rural locations. Further during the year it renewed key Licenses and partner agreements such as the ATM license from the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI), Agreement with Amazon as well as some more new partnerships such as with Chhattisgarh Rajya Gramin Bank for banking BC points and Corporate Agency tie up with Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to distribute Micro Insurance products through Nextgen Vakrangee Kendra network.
The Company at its Board Meeting held on 13th February, 2020 had approved the Scheme of Amalgamation for Amalgamation of M/s. Vakrangee Logistics Private Limited (First Transferor Company) and Vakrangee Finserve Limited (Second Transferor Company) the wholly owned subsidiaries with Vakrangee Limited (the Transferee Company). The Company had filed a Company Application with the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench; Mumbai (NCLT) to seek necessary directions. However, the Board of the Company was of the opinion that, it would not be prudent to proceed with proposed Amalgamation of Vakrangee Logistics Private Limited and Vakrangee Finserve Limited with Vakrangee Limited. Hence, an application for withdrawal of Scheme was filed with NCLT and same got approved by NCLT on December 03, 2020.
As on March 31, 2021, the Company had 3 wholly owned subsidiaries viz, Vakrangee Finserve Limited, Vakrangee Logistics Private Limited and Vakrangee e-Solutions INC. Further on June 14, 2021, the Company has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary in the name of 'Vakrangee Digital Ventures Limited'.
The Company at its Board Meeting held on 19th June 2021 had approved a Scheme of Arrangement for demerger of digital division (Demerged undertaking) of Vakrangee Limited (VL) into Vakrangee Digital Ventures Limited (VDVL), which provides for transfer of Digital Division (Demerged undertaking) whereby the Company would provide digital platform to enable seamless services for the consumers at the comfort of their homes.
As on March 31, 2022, the Company has 4 wholly owned subsidiaries viz, Vakrangee Finserve Limited, VL E-Governance & IT Solutions Limited (erstwhile known as Vakrangee Logistics Private Limited), Vakrangee e-Solutions INC and Vakrangee Digital Ventures Limited.
