Sonal Verma is the founder of GlowRoad, a social selling platform that allows online retailers, resellers, and SMEs to earn money by promoting selected products in their social media pages.
Education
Dr. Sonal Verma lives in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Dr. Verma attended Nazareth Academy in high school. During high school, Dr. Verma was the school captain and the all-around Best Student of the Year. In 2003, Dr. Verma earned her Bachelor’s degree in Medicine at NSCB Medical College. Dr. Verma has won First Prize for Creative Writing and Dramatics at National Inter College Festival at AIIMS. Dr. Verma also earned her M.D. at NSCB Medical College in 2006.
Early Career
Dr. Sonal Verma was a Resident Doctor at NSCB Medical College in June 2003. Dr. Verma was hands-on experience in public health research, biostatistics, health program planning, management, and evaluation. Dr. Verma left NSCB Medical College in May 2006.
Dr. Verma worked at Indegene Lifesystems Pvt. Ltd, a company specializing in medical writing and competitive intelligence for pharmaceutical companies, in June 2006. Dr. Verma was first employed as Associate Manager for Scientific Writing. Within a year, Dr. Verma was leading a team of doctors, medical writers, and analysts and creating world-class deliverables for some of the largest pharmaceutical companies globally. Dr. Verma also worked as Manager for Competitive and Business Intelligence for almost two years, before she left Indegene to pursue her venture.
In September 2009, Dr. Verma co-founded and the Head of Medical Content of HealthcareMagic, a fast-growing consumer-centric health company founded to change how people address their health, and wellness. Dr. Verma was responsible for the medical content at HealthcareMagic. The website has the traffic of approximately 200,000 visitors per day, and most of the traffic is generated through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of the medical content on the website. HealthcareMagic gets around 1500 medical questions per day, and it gets answered within hours by the global network of doctors through their mobile devices or through the web.
Dr. Verma has written and also reviewed the medical content and the newsletters that go to their enterprise customers such as large MNCs, insurance brokerage houses, banks, telecom operators, and insurance companies. Dr. Verma also has written the content for DailyHealthTips by HealthcareMagic, which is the world’s most followed health brand on Twitter. In 2014, Ebix Inc., an American public listed company acquired HealthcareMagic. Before the acquisition, HealthcareMagic was a world leader in consumer-driven telemedicine and funded by one of the leading VC firms, Accel Partners.
GlowRoad
LocalQueen.com, now GlowRoad, was first founded by Kunal Sinha, Nilesh Padariya, Nitesh Pant, and Shekhar Sahu. In June 2017, Dr. Verma acquired LocalQueen and rebranded it as GlowRoad, a social selling platform that provides earning opportunities for Indian women and small businesses in India, along with the other founders.
GlowRoad works in the customer-to-customer (C2C) section that creates a system among women, who can market products while sitting at home to their neighborhood residential communities and among their family and friends networks via online or offline modes.
The mobile app provides online retailers and SMEs to earn money by advertising selected goods and services in their online and offline social media network. GlowRoad app downloads mounted the five million mark. GlowRoad has influenced customers in across 400 cities globally.
The company has increased from around 30 transactions a day last year to 15,000 transactions per day in April 2019. GlowRoad is now aiming to enable 100,000 transactions per day.
Funding rounds
In September 2017, GlowRoad raised $2.8 million in a Series A round, led by Accel Partners with the participation from RB Investments Pte. Ltd. In this investment round, GlowRoad used the funds to scale up and enhance its technology.
In March 2019, GlowRoad secured $10 million in a Series B round, led by China-based CDH Investments with the participation from existing investor Accel Partners. GlowRoad used the funds raised to strengthen its supply chain and for business growth, according to a report from 36kr.
Less than two months after putting its last round of funds, GlowRoad has raised $11.5 million in another Series B funding round. Singapore-based Vertex Ventures and South Korea-based Korea Investment Partners (KIP) have made investments in this round. GlowRoad will use the investment fund to expand hiring across functions and building on the growth momentum.
GlowRoad has raised a total of $24.3 million in funding rounds and backed by five investors. GlowRoad has $1 million in estimated revenue annually. GlowRoad competes with Meesho, Shop101, and Shiprocket 360.
Volunteer experience
Dr. Sonal Verma was a Health Educator at CARE India in 2002, a PSBH Workshop Facilitator at Dreyfus Health Foundation in 2005, and served WHO for National Polio Surveillance Program in 2003-2006.