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Over the years, sports have had a lot of help from the evolving technology. Take the ICC Cricket World Cup for example, from hawkeye to Ultraedge, to ultra slow motion, tech has not only brought a lot of accuracy to the gameplay and decision-making but has also enhanced the viewing experience. 



But, that&#8217;s not all. Tech has been helping players to improve their performance. In the World Cup as well, we saw several cricketers like <a href="https://in.benzinga.com/content/35826080/virat-kohli-shreyas-iyer-mohammad-shami-sport-this-fitness-band-that-isnt-even-available-in-india">Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and others using various tech devices</a> to help better track their performances. 



But, till now most of these technological leaps have not been able to reach the grassroots level. However, one Indian startup is trying to change that. Footrax Is developing wearable devices And providing innovative technology solutions for aspiring young talents. 



We sat down with one of the company&#8217;s founders Kushal Rathore to learn more about the work the company is doing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Footrax &#8211; The Company</h2>



&#8220;We are a sports tech startup based out of Ahmedabad. We track player&#8217;s data and we have developed certain algorithms that analyse that data, and provide actionable feedback through which one can improve their game,&#8221; this how Rathore describe the company. 



Talking about the tech, he explained while this kind of tech has been there, it has mostly been available to elite-level sports athletes. &#8220;We are working on democratizing this tech and making it available for the masses, even for the kids of schools and academies and the amateurs who are interested in developing their game tracking their game and improving their skills,&#8221; he added. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Idea</h2>



Talking about how the idea of Footrax came to be, Rathore said that they were working with different federations and they came across the problem that several emerging players were facing. The players did not have a proper data-driven feedback system that could provide insight into their game and help them improve.



He added that most players at that stage also do not have access to personalised coaching. Rathore said that the prime reasons for that were accessibility and affordability. &#8220;So we worked on these pillars making it available accessible and most importantly affordable for everyone,&#8221; he adds. 



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">How Does It Work?</h2>



We then asked Rathore to tell us how the tech worked and how players benefitted from its applications. &#8220;So how it originally worked is that you mark the periphery of the field of whichever sport that you are playing with nodes. And that&#8217;s complex. So what we did was to try and automate the entire system. So what we did was we integrated Google Maps into the software itself. You just mark the boundary of the ground that you are in, now it tracks your performance, and it tracks whatever you do within that marked ground.



Now you just need to wear the GPS vest and the pod. There&#8217;s a QR code on the back of this, you scan it from your profile. It gets linked to your profile. whatever you do on the field, it tracks your performance to the 10th part of the second. 



Once you are done with the game, you just press end my game, and the entire data gets pushed to the cloud.&#8221;



After one has recorded a good enough sample size of 30-30 days, the app then provides you with analytical insights about your game.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Affordability </h2>



Rathore added that an Elite level team would be using it &#8220;for let&#8217;s say ₹20 lakh for 16 pods or 15 pods for one year so that comes around ₹1.2 lakh for one pod one year. So that is like ₹10,000 a month for a subscription model. Let&#8217;s say even if you want the base model, that would start around $400 or something like that. 



And on top of that comes a $100 monthly subscription. What we have done is we have made it super affordable for everyone. So let&#8217;s say anyone wants to buy it out outright we can provide it at just ₹10,000 for a lifetime including all the software updates and upgrades and the services out over there for a lifetime. If someone wants to go on an EMI model, that&#8217;s just ₹1,000/month for 12 months. That&#8217;s it.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Road Ahead</h2>



Talking about the company&#8217;s plans going forward, Rathore said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s say in the next 12 months we feel we&#8217;ll be exploring all the territorial sports which are out over there and create our presence pan India. In the leading 12 months to that, we will be covering the MENA region. 



Because we believe the MENA region is getting stronger in terms of Sports, Saudi is getting too strong in football. In the US cricket is in growing and the next T20 World Cup happening in the USA. So we believe will be exploring that part as well. So we are looking for collaborations. We are looking for partnerships out there. 



So as of now, 2,500 athletes have used our pods and there have been athletes who repeatedly used it as well. There are kids between the range of who are 10-12 years old they are buying these pods from us and they aspire to become great sportsperson.&#8221;



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But, till now most of these technological leaps have not been able to reach the grassroots level. However, one Indian startup is trying to change that. Footrax Is developing wearable devices And providing innovative technology solutions for aspiring young talents. 

Virat Kohli, Glen Maxwell, Other Athletes Use This Tech, Now An Indian Startup Is Bringing It To The Grassroots

RVNL&#8217;s share price has been on a tremendous bull run this year, and analysts at Chola Securities see the stock going further up. The brokerage firm in its Diwali picks note, said that the the railway infra space has been buzzing and flooded with orders, on renewed Government's focus/spending.



Talking to Benzinga India about the picks, Chola Securities&#8217; head of equity research, Dharmesh Kant, said &#8220;We have seen one part of one leg of the run-up in the stock and this was more to do with the valuation catch-up kind of a thing. If you look RVNL it&#8217;s a multifold play.&#8221;



He adds that the company has a robust order book which bodes well for future growth. &#8220;If you look at the order book, they are sitting on a pretty strong order book of 65,000 crores. So it&#8217;s already 3x book-to-bill ratio.&#8221; Kant adds that the RVNL share price could run up to ₹210-₹220 in the next one year.



The other picks from the brokerage this Diwali are Reliance, Poonawalla Fincorp and HAL. Talking about Reliance, the brokerage firm is confident that most of its business verticals will keep up their performance in the coming year. 



See Also: <a href="https://in.benzinga.com/content/35556994/hdfc-securities-top-picks-for-diwali-ashish-dhawan-backed-multibagger-small-cap-stock">HDFC Securities&#8217; Top Picks For Diwali: Ashish Dhawan-Backed Multibagger Small Cap Stock</a>



Talking about one of Reliance&#8217;s biggest segments Jio, Kant said that it continues to gain market share and has shown robust subscriber additions. He adds that it also has the opportunity to raise its annual revenue per user in the coming quarters. He expects the Jio business to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20%. 



For retail and oil and gas he expects a CAGR of 12%. But as per Kant, the Oil-to-Chemicals segment is to see a bit of a slowdown going forward. He sees Reliance&#8217;s share price going up to ₹3,100 in the next year. 



The defence segment has also seen a similar upward trajectory as the Railway stocks, but the brokerage firm thinks that HAL might have some more steam left. One of the reasons for picking HAL was its valuation. &#8220;It&#8217;s cheap compared to other players in the defence segment. If you compare it with any other meaningful player, be it Bharat Electronics, or Data Patterns, they all are trading at valuation multiples which are far higher than that of HAL. HAL is still available at 19 times PE multiple with an ROE of 26 27%. So it&#8217;s more of a bargain buy in the defence space.&#8221;



Talking about Poonawalla Fincorp, Kant said that the company for the last six quarters has been consistently maintaining an average AUM growth run rate of more than 13%-14% while improving asset quality as well. He adds that the company has been ramping up safety measures while going aggressive on growth and that is one of the reasons that the brokerage firm chose it as one of its Diwali picks. 



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RVNL&#39;s share price has been on a tremendous bull run this year, and analysts at Chola Securities see the stock going further up. The brokerage firm in its Diwali picks note, said that the the railway infra space has been buzzing and flooded with orders, on renewed Government&#39;s focus/spending.

Chola Securities&#39; Diwali Picks: Multibagger Railway Stock Still Has Steam Left

Cholamandalam Investment and Finance posted strong financial results for the September quarter. The non-banking financial company reported a 35% year-on-year increase in its net profit, which amounted to ₹762.49 crore. The total income for the same quarter saw a substantial growth of 51% compared to the previous year, reaching ₹3,038 crore, as per the company&#8217;s official release.



During the July-September quarter, the company recorded aggregate disbursements totalling ₹21,542 crore, representing a notable 47% increase compared to the same period in the previous year when it amounted to Rs 14,623 crore. 



We sat down with the company&#8217;s President and CFO Arul Selvan to gain more insights into the company&#8217;s second-quarter results and its plans for the coming quarters. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Q2 In Rearview</h2>



&#8220;A fairly good set of numbers, because we have demonstrated consistent growth and profitability and&nbsp;NIMs (net interest margins) have also improved,&#8221; said Selvan talking about the company&#8217;s performance in the September quarter. 



He added that despite Q2 typically being a slow quarter &#8220;because of rains and inauspicious months etc., it has been a fairly good quarter.&#8221; &#8220;We expect the next quarter where the festival season will bring more business to the borrowers, to be more effective for us,&#8221; Selvan said. 



See Also: <a href="https://in.benzinga.com/content/35566235/after-robust-q2-five-star-business-set-to-continue-growth-says-cfo">After Robust Q2, Five-Star Business Set To Continue Growth, Says CFO</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Outlook</h2>



Talking about the company&#8217;s outlook going forward, Selvan said that, Q3 and Q4 may not have similarly high numbers because of the higher base but for the full year he expects the growth to be anywhere between 25% to 30%.



Talking about the company&#8217;s improvement in NIM, Selvan said that it is set to improve further in the coming quarters. &#8220;NIMs will improve because the vehicle finance book, the yield levels will progressively increase because vehicle finance book is a fixed rate book.&nbsp;And when the rates moved up suddenly we couldn&#8217;t reprice all of the vehicle finance book.&nbsp;We did reprice the LAP (loan against property) and home loan book.&nbsp;We can&#8217;t do that with vehicle finance.&nbsp;So that repricing happened only on the new disbursement and the new disbursement as a percentage of the overall book continued to be slow last quarter and even part of this quarter.&nbsp;So you will see that marginal improvements will happen.&#8221;



The other factor that he mentioned could help the NIMs going forward is the stabilising of the cost of funds. He expects the cost of funds to be stable at the current levels and not increase any further.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Vehicle Finance</h2>



Vehicle finance is the company&#8217;s biggest segment. In the September quarter, Vehicle finance disbursements reached ₹11,731 crore, up from the ₹8,502 crore disbursements reported in the same quarter last year. So we asked Selvan, how he saw the sector performing in the coming quarters. 



&#8220;We are seeing good traction in the used-vehicle segment.&nbsp;The passenger car segment has also been showing good numbers.&nbsp;Because of the festival season, there will be a lot of purchases of cars and two-wheelers, so we will certainly move the needle there.&nbsp;Heavy commercial vehicles, may not scale up much because the cost of funds is still high.&nbsp;Tractors have seen a slowdown, but I think once you get into the next monsoon cycle, you should see traction there as well.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Growth In New Businesses</h2>



The company&#8217;s new business segments have been growing strongly. In the first half of the current financial year, disbursements in the segment grew close to 49% to ₹9,625 crore from ₹5,254 crore posted during the same period last year. So we asked the CFO, how the company plans to grow the segments. 



&#8220;The new business has got more steam to grow. The advantage we have is we already have vehicle finance branches in a lot of locations,&#8221; Selvan said. He also added that while the idea is to grow the businesses the company will also focus on ensuring that it has ample information about the market. &#8220;We should be able to know the market, have a feel of the customer profile, etc., and then accordingly, we can scale up.&#8221;



He adds that the company is still committed to the target for the new businesses (Secured Business and Personal&nbsp;Loans, Consumer and Small Enterprise&nbsp;Loans, and Small and Medium Enterprises) to account for up to 20% of AUM over the next two to three years.&nbsp;



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Talking about the company&#39;s outlook going forward, the company&#39;s CFO Arul Selvan said that, Q3 and Q4 may not have similarly high numbers because of the higher base but for the full year he expects the growth to be anywhere between 25% to 30%.

After Robust Growth In H1, Cholamandalam Investment Confident Of Strong Performance In H2, Says CFO

Five Star Business Finance reported a strong set of numbers for the quarter ended September. The non-banking financial company&#8217;s profit after tax (PAT) reached ₹199 crore, marking a significant 38% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase and a 9% growth in comparison to the previous quarter.



During the quarter, disbursements amounted to ₹1,204 crore, reflecting a substantial 50% Y-o-Y increase and a 6% quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) growth. The company&#8217;s assets under management (AUM) also demonstrated strong growth, with a 44% increase, reaching ₹8,264 crore as of September 30, 2023, compared to ₹5,372 crore on September 30, 2022.



We caught up with the company&#8217;s CFO&nbsp;Srikanth Gopalakrishnan&nbsp;to gain more insights on the company&#8217;s quarterly results and the outlook for the coming quarters. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Q2 In Rearview</h2>



&#8220;It&#8217;s been a very good quarter for us, across the various aspects of quality, profitability and growth, I think we have stacked up very well,&#8221; is how Gopalakrishnan described the company&#8217;s performance in the September quarter. 



&#8220;We have actually crossed ₹1,200 crores of disbursals in a quarter and we did more than ₹500 crores of disbursals in September.&nbsp;So all in all, we see it as a very strong quarter.&nbsp;In terms of the numbers that you&#8217;re seeing, profitability also has been extremely good.&#8221; 



He also emphasised that the company has achieved robust growth and profitability while maintaining good asset quality. &#8220;Asset quality continues to be robust. the 30-plus DPD (days past due), which has actually dropped by about 110 basis points from, I think around 9.68% to 8.59% and even on the NPS from last quarter&#8217;s number of 1.41% we have dropped by about six basis points.&#8221;



Gopalakrishnan also talked about the company&#8217;s robust expansion, opening 70 branches during the July-September period. The numbers surpassed the company&#8217;s own guidance of around 50-60 branch openings in a year.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Drivers For Growth&nbsp;</h2>



The company&#8217;s performance not only beat its own guidance but also beat consensus estimates. So we asked Gopalakrishnan what led to the robust results.



He attributed the strong results in large part to the pent-up demand in the market after the two years of COVID-19. &#8220;See FY21 and FY22 were lost to the pandemic and lockdowns, so there was a lot of pent-up demand.&nbsp;We did manage to meet some of the pent-up demand in FY23, but there was been steady growth in terms of the borrowers wanting more credit and their income becoming better, their businesses becoming a lot more vibrant and robust, that is something that we were able to see on the ground in this quarter.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Outlook</h2>



The company has been showcasing robust growth for the past few quarters, backed by the demand in the market, but are things going to slow down going forward? Gopalakrishnan does not think so. 



&#8220;We are very clear that in the next 12 to 18 months we are going to have some good amount of demand coming through, which is why we have put up 70 branches.&nbsp;Most of those branches have actually come in our existing geography, which is the south market.&nbsp;So, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka.&nbsp;These are four big states of the country, right?&nbsp;So there is a huge amount of demand.&#8221;



The company has been guiding for 35% growth and Gopalakrishnan reiterated that. &#8220;We are cautiously optimistic that we should be able to reach the numbers that we have guided the street with and maybe overachieve on some of the numbers.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Expansion</h2>



The company has a strong base in the southern market but has been trying to penetrate other geographies in the country as well. We asked Gopalakrishnan how the geographical expansion is panning out and what are the initial outcomes that the company has observed. 



&#8220;We are putting up branches in the newer geographies, be it Rajasthan, where we have put about four branches.&nbsp;We have four branches in Uttar Pradesh.&nbsp;Maharashtra has about six odd branches.&nbsp;Once we have a very clear perspective that we have understood the state across the various perspectives and across the various parameters, I think these are the states that will probably be the torchbearers for growth post-FY26&#8221;



Gopalakrishnan added that while these states have shown that there is demand, the company wants to understand all the aspects before ramping up the expansion. &#8220;Ours is a property-backed lending, right?&nbsp;So there are also legal nuances that will have to be taken into account. We probably don&#8217;t understand Uttar Pradesh as much as we understand Tamil Nadu, but the demand in Uttar Pradesh is absolutely unquestionable.&#8221; 



&#8220;So green shoots are definitely there in the newer geographies, but we will be a little gradual in the initial period rather than significantly ramping up and then having the need to sort of pull back for whatever reason.&#8221;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Risks Management</h2>



The economy in the past few years has been filled with volatility and while the recovery has been underway there are still some uncertainties. So, we asked Gopalakrishnan whether the company was worried about the macroeconomic challenges that could crop up. 



&#8220;I think the customer profile that we are operating in is largely insulated from all those macroeconomic down cycles as well as upcycles. So let us say tomorrow the economy has a great period. Will my borrowers become extremely lendable? No. For example, a tea shop guy will not have that much impact on business, let&#8217;s say in a good time, we probably be drinking tea four times, but in a bad time we are probably going to end up drinking three times tea also. So from that perspective, it is not really going to change things big time and that is where our focus has always been.&#8221;



Read Next: <a href="https://in.benzinga.com/content/35556994/hdfc-securities-top-picks-for-diwali-ashish-dhawan-backed-multibagger-small-cap-stock">HDFC Securities&#8217; Top Picks For Diwali: Ashish Dhawan-Backed Multibagger Small Cap Stock</a>

The company has been guiding for 35% growth and Gopalakrishnan reiterated that. &#34;We are cautiously optimistic that we should be able to reach the numbers that we have guided the street with and maybe overachieve on some of the numbers.&#34;

After Robust Q2, Five-Star Business Set To Continue Growth, Says CFO

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