Startups India

iAccelerator inviting Mobile + Internet Companies

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 03:16:00 +0000

iAccelerator an incubator of internet & mobile startups in India located at IIM-Ahmadabad is inviting applications from innovative, creative / problem solving individuals who have a dream to build establish their company that can successfully churn out products / services and create wealth.

What is iAccelerator all about ?
You write an application for funding saying that what your startup is all about and what it does. They read every single application that comes in. If they like your application, they'll get in touch with you via email and then meet you if the email conversation goes well. They're funding companies in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bombay, Bangalore & Mumbai.

What do they Offer ?
They offer living and working space in each of these cities if the startup needs them. Once you get selected, you spend 10 days at IIM to sort things like your business plan, get your company incorporated, etc. After that, you spend 3 months building the first version of your product.

Mentoring - weekly meetings with mentors & inspiring speakers in your cities + free dinner ! After 3 months, we help you get your first set of customers so you can see if your product is actually viable.

Current year incubation programme runs from June 1st to August 1st this year. The deadline for our 2010 edition is April 10th. You can Apply here.

Online Jobs + Property Classifieds - Review of the Leaders

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:12:00 +0000

Since the economy is beginning to lookup, we would like to review who are the leaders in the Indian online market - especially with reference to Jobs and Property Classifieds.

According to Google Data, Naukri and Magicbricks are the leaders when considering unique visitors and page views. Here is how they stack up.

Online Job Search Portals - Data for Sept-09:
Naukri - 3.5 mn unique visitors and 120 mn page views is the undisputed leader in the market
MonsterIndia - 1.8 mn unique visitors and 45 mn page views stands second
TimesJobs - Last entrant but making good progress with 1.2mn visitors and 21 mn page views

Online Property Classifieds Portals - Data for Sept-09:
99Acres - had 520,000 unique visitors and 9 mn page views.
magicbricks - fighting close to 99acres with 570k unique visitors and 9.9mn page views
indiaproperty - distant 3rd with 350k visitors and 3.2 mn page views

The following chart shows the increase in number of unique customers [companies who pay naukri.com for viewing resumes] QoQ.

JustDial Gaining at Suleha's Cost in Local Business Search ?

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:32:00 +0000

I have always been intrigued by the local online search business in the context of Indian market. Sulekha with its YellowPages is a old operator while JustDial is relatively new but has gained continuous traction both Online and through its call center service.

Data suggests that Sulekha has lost traction in the past 12 months. It recorded peak traffic in July 2008 and since then it has halved. [ From 200K unique Visitors / day to 100K Unique visitors / day] For the month of July-09, Sulekha had ~ 3.0 mn unique visitors and 19 mn page views. Data from Alexa suggests that, 42% of Sulekha's visitors are on YellowPages - pro-rated, Sulekha YellowPages had 1.26 mn unique visitors and 8 mn pagviews for the month of July-09.

Compare this to JustDial, pure play local search services provider which recorded 2 mn unique visitors and 29 m pageviews for the month of July-09. JustDial's traffic doubled between Jan-08 and Jan-09.

Its time Sulekha arrest its falling share and also focus on improving its page views [retain customers to the platform] before other specialized search service providers gain traction.

Online Advertising Startups List

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:22:00 +0000

Here is a list of Online Advertising startups operating in India. What I want to know is, how many of you as a Publisher are using these and making money ? Are they really effective ?

AdChakra - Boasts of some popular sits as clients but not suitable for small publishers
AdWinks - founded by ibibo, most likely to monetize its own inventory
AdMagnet - another fish in the sea
Axill - promoted by NorthGate. Monetizing BharatStudent and other self owned properties. Has some presence with other mid-size publishers
Guruji - Losing Top Level talent by the day including co-founder. No significant difference in the 2+ years of existence
IndiAds - In Business since 1999. Doesn't even want to update the copyright notice till 2009. AVOID this company.
Komli - Clever idea. Acting as a B2B of Advertising networks monetizing inventory from Mid to mega Publishers.
LastMinuteInventory - Operates across different media platforms. Not really a dedicated Advertising network
Ozone Media - claims to be leading in India with several corporate names.
Networkplay - Vertical Ad network once again targeted at Corporates
PayPod - Site is down at 16:10 IST. Wonder what kind of an Advertising Network they will run.
Rupizads - Operates in India and Europe
Tonictag - Another self claimed fastest growing Ad Network without showing any facts
Tyroo - Funded by Yahoo!
Vdopia - Video Ads Network

If I have left any, kindly feel free to add a comment and enlighten me.

Online Advertisers - Forgot Security ? Free Tip to Improve.

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 07:46:00 +0000

Internet Advertising Rush - Me too seems to be the mantra in India. Everybody from Guruji.Com [the over hyped local search engine best known to lose top talent] to Vdopia [Videos Ads], Yahoo! wants to the the Google of Advertising in India.

Big Dreams in the Internet World will be realized only by the ability to develop complex algorithms functioning in a massively parallel supercomputing environment with extremely innovative ideas.

Now what concerns me the most is none of the following dozen plus Advertising Startups have thought about user security while designing their systems. Just a month ago it so happened to me that while browsing a website using IE 6, a malware got infected to my Laptop as soon as I clicked on an Advertisement.

Google, the Godfather of internet continues to innovate in partnership with others [WebSense] and has the StopBadware initiative. One sub-system of this initiativ if the SafeBrowsingAPI which is made available to the world to check if the URL a visitor is going to visit is safe or not.

Tip for Non-Innovative Indian Advertising Companies:
Google's AdWords system analyzes the landing page of each online advertise against the SafeBrowsing database to determine if Advertiser is genuinely advertising a product without any malicious intent. Indian Online Advertising Startups must include a check of the landing page using SafeBrowsingAPI and try to give a better consumer experience. If WebChutney had included this API, then they would not have had this problem of Malware

CleverText - Ergonomic SMS Software Gets Recognized in the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 07:26:00 +0000

In Jan-09, we had written about a lesser known Indian company - myMobile Ergonomics which has developed an innovative product - SMS Compression + Clever text Completion by Prediction.

myMobile Ergonomics technology was featured in the March issue of the proceedings of "The Ergonomics Society" in the UK. You can read the full text here.[PDF]

The company has also launched Indian Language SMS CleverTexting Software branded as Panini KeyPad available in 11 different languages - Hindi, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Punjabi and Tamil. You can try out Panini and let us know the feedback via comment which will be communicated directly to the Product Manager.

WebChutney Interactive Agency Infected by Malware

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:57:00 +0000

WebChutney which claims on its website as the India's No 1 Digital Agency has been listed by Google as suspicious site and visiting the site may harm your computer. Google has an effort for the Web to filter Badware and Malware - StopBadware. Malicious persons have gotten so smart that they just link from a Good site but Google is smarter and detects any such attempts.

While trying to visit iGovernment.in Google's super intelligent broswer Chrome immediately alerted that iGovernment is linking to WebChutney [most likely serving some stuff from WebChutney, could be an Ad] and immediately blocked it by showing this screen.

Further Advisory from Google said,

Of the 788 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 40 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-02-15, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-02-15.

You can check out the total advisory captured as a screen shot. To confirm the same I tested again from Google and did get the Warning confirming of infection - this screen shot.

Nimbuzz tie-up with StudiVZ - German Social Network

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:07:00 +0000

Nimbuzz - a VoIP, IM and Mobile Communication startup has announced that it will power StudiVZ, the faceBook of GErmany and the largest German speaking social networking site. This will enable StudiVZ users for real time web and mobile communication.

The Nimbuzz powered web and mobile clients is live today for StudiVZ members. The full mobile Nimbuzz portfolio including voice calls, chat, file sharing across popular IM communities will also be available and a link to a bespoke download page will be promoted across the StudiVZ network.

Nimbuzz has entered into a revenue sharing agreement with StudiVZ with income generated from advertisements. Nimbuzz offers a social interaction service combining presence, IM, and VoIP. The free application is available for mobile, PC and Web, enabling calling, instant messaging, file/location sharing across popular IM communities and 23 social networks including Facebook.

Subsidized Microsoft Software for Startups

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:33:00 +0000

Just last week we saw VCs most successful businessman - John Doerr asking Startups his company has funded to be careful about expenses. Today Microsoft has announced Microsoft BizSpark initiative where in Startups less than 3 years old with less than $1 mn in revenues can join the program and avail almost FREE Microsoft Software for production use.

Startups will have almost FREE access to Windows Client and Server operating system with Microsoft Visual Studio - Programing Language and Tools. They can also use SQL-Server, Exchange Server for e-mails and unified communication development. Additionally they can also avail Microsoft Office suite along with Share Point and Biz Talk Servers.

Enrollmenti s FREE and once you are 3 year old or your revenues cross $1 mn , you pay a $100 exit fee. More details here. Finally the Redmond Giant has woken to competition from Open Source and Free Software Foundation :-)

John Doerr on Suriving the DownTurn

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:24:00 +0000

Johen Doerr, Valley's most successful VC and board member of Google Inc has 10 tips for startup founders on how they can survive the downturn. John's 10 commandments are,

Act now
Protect core of your business
Have 18 months or more of cash
Don't spend on PC and expensive software and use Web based Services [Maybe Open Source ?]
Negotiate with clients , terms contacts etc
Everybody in the company should be selling including receptionist - SELL the product should be the underlying tone
Stop cash bonus and salaries - reward with equities
Keep you cash in most secure instruments - US Treasury not Money Market
Revenues of 90 days in Advance
Over communicate to everybody that mater to your business

Courtesy: AllThingsDigital

Rediff + Ticketvala for Bus Ticket Booking

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:41:00 +0000

Ticketvala the online bus reservation platform has opened its interface to Rediff so that Rediff users can book bus tickets online.

Rediff Bus FareSearch - powered by AJAX lets you search through the Ticketvala database for buses and then buy the same online. We are not sure how much Rediff gets paid by Ticketvala for the arrangement :-)

I tried purchasing a Bus Ticket during for one of the long weekends and I would say that the experience of buying it exceeded my expectations. Ticketvala also has a dedicated call center to resolve any issues.

One of the best features is you can book the ticket for any of your relatives residing at any other place. All they will need after the booking is a PNR Number through which they can View and Print it for their journey.

Redbus is another competing service for online bus ticket reservations.

Investments Mobile Value Added Services

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:51:00 +0000

The India Mobile Value Added Services market is going pretty strongly. Here is how the investment is being made into the sector by Venture Capitalists and private Equity funds.

Mauj Telecom $ 10 mn by West Bridge Capital partners and Sequoia Capital
Nazara Terchnologies $ 1.5 mn by West Bridge
Bubble Motion $ 10 mn by Sequoia Capital India
Paymate $ 5 mn by Kleiner and Sherpalo
IMI Mobile $ 10 mn by Pequot Ventures
Indiagames $ 15 mn by UTV Software
mGinger $2mn by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and NEA-IndoUS Ventures
Enable M undisclosed sum by Salora Group
One97 $ 8-10 mn by SAIF Partners & Silicon Valley bank
Obopay $20 mn by Essar Communications Holdings, Promethean
India, Richmond mgmt, Others
Sai Advantium $20 mn by MPM Capital
On Mobile $ 27.8 mn by Deutsche bank, Goldman Sachs and Polygon
Investment partners. The company has also raised money in an IPO on Dalal Street.

Please feel free to add the ones we have missed.

Snapfish acquires Merasnap

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Sat, 24 May 2008 05:21:00 +0000

HP's Online Photo sharing and printing company Snapfish has acquired Indian startup Merasnap in an all cash deal. The amount was not disclosed. Merasnap had 100,000 customers and their accounts will be migrated to Snapfish very soon.

As a part of the acquisition, Merasnap customers will get FREE print for 30 snaps and thereafter Rs 2.95 / snap. Zoom.In and Picsquare are the other two leading players in this vertical in India.

Online DVD Rental Company War Hots Up

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:32:00 +0000

The Online Movie rental business kicked off in India almost 2 years ago and only now the competition seems to be hotting up. Delhi based Moviemart.in has borrowed some lessons from Pizza delivery guys. If your Pizza isn't at your doorstep in the promised time, you win a freebie. So also Moviemart is promising delivery of Movie within 10-120 minutes of order.

Mr Rahul.M, CEO of Moviemart said,

We are pitching our home delivery at anything between 10-120 minutes in Delhi. We look forward to extend the same to other regions where we operate.

Another content company, Nimbus has entered this market with presence in 69 cities and promises to deliver within 30 minutes flat. Reliance ADAG's Big Flicks and SeventyMM are unable to compete Nimbus and Moviemart and are sticking to 24 hour delivery model.

SeventyMM has 67,000 customers while Moviemart has 7,000 subscribers.

AdMagnet - One More Ad Network

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:58:00 +0000

Google set the online advertising market on fire and since then everybody wants a slice of the market. However, what many failed to realize is that Google succeeded in the online advertising market because of their bleeding edge technology and encouraging Small and Medium Businesses to advertise on their platform. Microsoft, eBay and Yahoo are trying to develop competing platforms for over 4 years now but with very little luck.

However, in the context of India, the scenario is lot different. With pathetic 32 million active Internet users in India [Dec-2007] and lack of awareness amongst SMEs about online advertisement, many startups have adopted and offline marketing approach to SMEs including limited such offering from Google.

Today, Interactive Avenues Marketing Solutions has also launched their online advertising initiative - AdMagnet. Their offerings include Media (planning and buying), Campaign Management, Search (SEM and SEO), Web Design & Creatives, and Interactive Marketing.

The modus operandi of these companies is to have SME clients and market on their behalf on other networks such as Google [SEM and AdSense] and Yahoo! Here is a list of Online Advertising & Marketing companies in India.

Internet / Online Advertising Companies

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:18:00 +0000

We have compiled the list of Internet / Online Advertising companies in India. The list maybe partial, please feel free to add via comment any companies or startups you know about.

AdChakra.com
AdWinks.com
bcwebwise.com
communicate2.com
dgm-india
id8labs.com
Komli.com
PayPod.com
PinStorm.com
position2.com
Tyroo.com [In association with Yahoo]
WebChutney.com

National Entrepreneurship Network

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:24:00 +0000

Aspiring entrepreneurs of India can now connect on National Entrepreneurship Network. The goal is to develop more skills on being successful by seeking guidance and studying various case studies. You can also seek funding to nourish your idea.

The goal is to bring to light street-smart small town Entrepreneurs to connect with enterprises. techTribe is another such community specifically targeted at the IT community in India. Personally, I don't find the site so appealing because of the content on entrepreneursip being too meager and some obsolete. If you are a Tech entrepreneur, then GigaOmniMedia's FoundRead is one of the best sources of startup education. FoundRead has lot of contributors, really especially startup founders or star developers who have actually ventured on their own.

Kindly weigh before you pitch your ideas in the public domain because you can hardly think of knocking the doors of justice with IP protection.

Make Me Over Game attracting Western Girls

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:36:00 +0000

The Royal Wedding Celebrations of India turned into games is fast catching attention of European and American girls. In a surprise development, Games2Win, the developer of Make Me Over has reported millions of teenage girls from around the world are logging into gaming portals hosted in India.

Alok Kejriwal, CEO of Games2Win said,

As many as 16 lakh foreigners visit us every month, of which 10 lakh are women. I am not completely amazed considering American girls are the world’s biggest customers of online games.

It would be nice to know if these Gamers are Kids of Indian origin or are they genuinely native girls :-)

Big Private Equity + VC Deals in 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:17:00 +0000

Here is a list of Indian Satrtups that raised big money from PE or VCs in 2007. Name of the Startup + Name of the Funding Companies

Intelenet Global Services - Blackstone
Infotech Enterprises - General Atlantic
IBS Software Services - General Atlantic
ICSA India - Goldman Sachs
Telsima Communication - New Part Ventures, JAFCO Asia, CMEA, Ventures NEA
Spanco Telesystems - Chrys Capital, UTI Ventures
CSS Group - Goldman Sachs
ISGN Technologies - NEA, NEA IUV
Infrasoft Technologies IT Services - Barring India
Tejas Network Communication- Goldman Sachs
Fino IT Services - IFC,Intel Capitla, Legatum Capital, IFMR Trust
Adventity BPO - Norwest, CIBC Capital, DA Capital
Adayana BPO -Kubera Partners
Lifetree Convergence - IFC
Venture Infotek - Kubera Cross Border Fund
Just Dial Online - Tiger Capital
Make My Trip - Saif, Sierra Ventures, Tiger Capital, Helion Ventures
Air Tight Networks - Walden international, Blueprint ventures, Granite Ventures, Trident Capital, CMEA Ventures, Siemens Venture Capital
Mindworks Global - Helion Ventures
Time Broadband - Dubai Holdings

Some deals that didn't get directly reported to us maybe missing in the list. So if you are a startup and looking to be funded, you know whom to choose. Most ethical VCs don't invest in a company that is going to compete with their existing investments.

Hottest Areas for VC Funding in 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:27:00 +0000

In a survey conducted by VentureWoods, Mobile Data Services emerged as the Hottest area for VCs looking to fund startups in India this year. Here is the break-up of Hot Favorites in percentage according to the poll,

Mobile Data Services - 13%
Online Education - 12%
E-commerce/M-Commerce - 12%
Online Financial Services - 11%
Digital Entertainment - 11%
Gaming - 8%
Local Language Web Content - 8%
Search - 7%
Advertising Networks - 6%
Enterprise Tech - 5%
Social Networking - 4%
Online Travel - 3%
BPO/KPO - 1%
Others - 1%

Social Networking startups now have no other choice but to depend on Advertising Networks to stay in business. Not quite sure why they are letting down Enterprise computing as it is supposed to make a comeback in 2008.

Arzoo's Mobile offer to US Travellers

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:36:00 +0000

Sabeer Bhatia promoted Arzoo has come up with a special offer to passengers travelling to the US and Booking tickets through Arzoo.com. You will receive a mobile phone to makes unlimited calls within the US for a daily rental of Rs 99 [Its Indian Rupees and NOT USD]. However, you have to return the phone in good condition upon your departure from the US.

Details of the offer are available here.

Internships - Finally for the deserving Indian Students

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 11:02:00 +0000

The Indian student had been long deprived of internships while he is still in college. Not any more. With a vibrant job market, companies are willing to hire pre-final and final-year graduate students as interns during summer or even during college days if they are local and can manage their class work and office work.

This is a great step in exposing the Indian youth to the competitive world while he is still in college. This will also help them understand What they want to do in Life ? What are they passionate about and hence make better careers. HelloIntern.com is platform to bring the Indian student and Companies on a common platform. The company website says,

....connecting the internship needs of the students in professional courses to the requirements for interns and apprentices by companies, both nationally and abroad.

So what are you entrepreneurs waiting for, just fill in the gaps that exist in the Indian Economy and Society. This is the best time to realize your Startup Dream. Go Start your company now. Contact feedback @ broadbandindia.com

RupeeMail - Get Paid to Read E-mails

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:00:00 +0000

Anil Lakhwara and his team have setup Rupeemail, an e-mail service, filled with advertisements. You basically get paid to read your e-mails. You earn money by opening and reading the contents of RupeeMail. Senders are known and verified who are paying you to read their e-mails.

The money will be paid after you accumulate Rs 200 or you can donate to charity. What a Joke ? In the aftermath of National Do Not Call registry going live in India, I am seeing increasing number of Advertisements in my Rediffmail Inbox. Not to forget, there are these SMS startup companies who are willing to pay users to read SMS based Advertisements.

I fail to understand that there are so many P.hds on the board of OIVMail, prmoter of RupeeMail who are re-testing the Dot Com Bust business model. Who in the world would want to read junk, spam and advertisements ?

SeventyMM Movie Downloads + Tier-II City Plans

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:05:00 +0000

NetFlix clone in India SeventyMM, plans to expand into Tier-II cities and also offer Movie Downloads. Unclear if Movie Download is for the Indian or the Overseas market to compete with Rajashri and BigFlicks.

Mr. Sarkar of SeventyMM said,

In terms of growth rates among various entertainment segments, home video shows the maximum potential with the market poised to grow to Rs 2,500 crore by 2011, from the present Rs 650 crore. Owing to this, the film industry may move towards revenue-sharing deals, and we are waiting for the industry to take trajectory towards this.

Seventymm currently has a presence in six cities - Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai. They got a footprint in Delhi NCR and Chandigarh by virtue of acquiring Madhouse media and they launched in Hyderabad today.

Other players in the DVD Rental Business in India are - CatchFlix, MovieMart and CineSprite. MoserBaer and T-series will remain as DVD movie retailers and Reliance is expected to join them instead of being into rental business.

Info Edge to Network Indian Students

noreply@blogger.com (Webmaster) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:16:00 +0000

Info Edge India, promoter company of India's famous job site Naukri is planning to setup an online social network for the Indian students. All the current sites are focused on everything apart from Education and Studies. Hopefully, this new network will complement the existing ones as they plan to launch a new website for the education space and make it a knowledge interchange platform.

We had done a survey of some parents, whose kids attend elite schools in North India. Most of them were concerned about exposing their kids to Web Junk. Parents didn't mind spending more on broadband or for the content if networks offer learning and interaction opportunity to students which will enhance their skills and help them shape their career.

If you really want to kick off with your own Social Networking site, then just have a look at KickApps which might come in handy to test this idea of networking smart and intelligent Indian kids for education.