Indian Innovators (19 page)
Offline Internet on Mobile Phones
Using the internet means being online, right?
Wrong!
Deepak and his team have achieved the oxymoronic offline internet – a way to remain connected to the internet without being connected to it.
It all started in 2005 when Deepak joined a bachelor’s degree program in Computer Science and Engineering at Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Engineering in Kasaragod, Kerala. He soon became friends with Mohd. Hisamuddin, Ashwin Nath and Abhinav Sree.
The bunks and strikes in college allowed them enough time for their common passion – tinkering with technology. They started working as freelance web developers, work they found thrilling, and which also gave them independence and confidence. Together, the four backbenchers also had a lot of fun in college.
Deepak recalls, “One day, a beautiful girl passed by us in college. One of my friends remarked that he would like to know how to impress a girl like her. Another friend replied, ‘Run a Google Search’.
However, he did not have a laptop at that time. The only device available was a simple mobile phone, not even a smartphone.”
That was early 2008; smartphones and mobile internet were yet to make their mark in India.
“It struck us that many people might need important information on the go or at places where there was limited or no internet coverage. We thought a system that would enable access to information anywhere, anytime, with just a basic phone, without logging on to the internet, would be extremely useful.”
Thus were born the Google guys of the mobile world.
“We started researching on how web search algorithms work, that is, how they interpret the query and extract relevant data.
We envisioned a system where the user could send a query by SMS and the system would send an SMS in response, with the answer.
The challenge was that unlike normal Web search, we could not send URLs of relevant websites to the user, as he would be unable to access them without an internet connection. So, we had to devise a completely unique algorithm to compile the answer to the query in a meaningful text reply. This required intelligent and accurate interpretation of both the query and the search results.
It took us several months to develop the algorithm, but by mid-2008, we were ready with a fully functional system. We started telling our friends about it. They told their friends in turn and word quickly spread to almost all engineering campuses in Kerala. The users liked it a lot and the number of queries started swelling. However, as the user base grew, we started running out of resources to support the activity.
At that time, we did not have any idea about how to scale up the service or make it financially viable. We were just students who had let their imagination run wild and were basking in the glory.
Somehow, a local newspaper heard about the service and published an article on it. This was noticed by the business incubator at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram and they approached us for incubation.
At that time, we had no idea about a business plan or revenue model. Our ambitions were limited to getting a decent job. All of us came from a middle-class background and had no idea about running a company.
Technopark offered us an office space and the opportunity to connect with investors. However, we were not prepared and turned down the offer.
Luckily for us, the Technopark authorities refused to take no for an answer. They offered us the alternative of Virtual Incubation. We would get the office address and expertise, but were not required to be physically present there. The arrangement suited us, because we could continue to pursue our degree in college.
It was only then that we started thinking about it as a serious business. Innoz Technologies was incorporated in September 2008. By that time, we already had good traffic and needed money to keep the system running. So, we approached friends and family who would be willing to help us out. Whatever money we could manage, we put into perfecting the technology, based on user feedback.
While we were making good headway with product development, our attendance at college was falling short. We were just one semester short of graduating, but the college authorities started creating a big fuss about the attendance. They thought that if they were lenient with us, it would set a bad example for others and enforcing attendance rules would be tougher.”
Around the same time, IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) started the technology business incubation program, called iAccelerator.
“We received an invitation from IIM-A to be part of iAccelerator’s first batch in 2009. It was a great opportunity, but we had to spend the next few months at the IIM-A campus. This meant that we would need to skip the semester, which essentially meant dropping out of college.
When we told our parents about it, they were strictly against the idea. However, our minds were already made up. After having seen how Technopark could help us, we simply did not want to let go of this opportunity.
We lied to our parents that we would eventually be awarded a degree from IIM-A. They were not convinced, but they knew we would not budge from our decision. So, they had to give up.
We moved to IIM-A in March 2009. iAccelerator proved to be a well-planned, three-month grooming program for budding entrepreneurs. By the end of the program, we had a revenue model in mind and knew that we would need to tie up with cellular service providers in order to monetize the service.
Toward the end of the program, we secured our first angel investment from Freeman Murray, who runs a Bengaluru-based creative community called Jaaga (www.jaaga.in).
After IIM-A, we came back to Technopark and applied for a patent for the technology. Meanwhile, we started to brainstorm over the future course of action.” Ultimately, it was decided that Deepak would move to Gurgaon, in order to pitch the service to the various telecom companies headquartered there. The others would continue working on the technological aspects of the product.
In Gurgaon, Deepak faced a kind of reverse age discrimination. “A 21-year-old CEO would not be surprising in Silicon Valley, but here in India, it was not something people were used to. Whichever company I went to, senior executives would look at me suspiciously when I told them that I was the CEO of a Kerala-based technology company. Sometimes, the promised meetings wouldn’t materialize; at other times, I would be told that everything about the idea was too immature.
It seemed funny and frustrating at the same time that experienced executives failed to see the potential of the idea and were more concerned about my appearance.”
After several rejections, just when everything seemed dark, good luck finally shone on Innoz.
“After a failed meeting at Airtel, I was sulking in the cafeteria within the Airtel campus. A gentleman came over for a cup of coffee and chose to sit right next to me. By chance, I glanced at the card hanging around his neck. It read, ‘Head, New Products, Airtel’.
I knew I had to pitch to him before he was done with his coffee. I didn’t even think for a minute. I quickly introduced myself and got into a monologue about the product and its market potential.
He seemed very impressed and promised to take the case forward at Airtel.”
As they say, a lot can indeed happen over a cup of coffee.
“It did not take long after that to sign a deal with Airtel. The service, branded SMS Gyaan, went live with Airtel in late 2011.
The users could send any query via SMS to 55444. The query was received by our server and interpreted by the algorithm. Web crawlers then looked for the relevant information on the internet. Finally, the information collected was compiled into a meaningful answer less than 480 characters long and sent back to the user via SMS. The whole process took just a few milliseconds, that is, almost an instantaneous response, much like the search engines on the internet.
Users were charged
1 per SMS. They also had the option to enroll for a monthly subscription of30 which allowed them unlimited queries. Around 30% of this revenue was passed on to us.”
In 2011, Innoz was listed among the Top 100 Global Companies by
Red Herring
magazine. This is a highly respected award among technology companies across the world and is a mark of technical excellence. The awardees are decided based on several criteria, such as sophistication of technology, social impact, disruptiveness, growth rate and market size.
“I had to go to the US to attend the award ceremony but had no money, because Airtel had yet to make the payments,” Deepak remembers. “So, I started cold-calling and emailing some of the big names in the Indian IT industry for help. After reaching out to several people, I turned to Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan, who also hails from Kerala.
Not only did he reply, but also assured his full support. He was so impressed by our work that he wanted to be a part of the company as an investor. That’s how we got our second angel investment. Soon, other angel investors followed and funding crossed the1-crore mark.”
The same year, NASSCOM named Innoz among Emerge: League of 10, a list of the 10 most promising technology start-ups in the country.
“With the kind of response the service received from Airtel subscribers, other telecom operators also jumped on the bandwagon. This time, they were chasing us, rather than the other way around.
Then, venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy’s Seed Fund Advisors invested $3 million and our valuation shot through the roof.
By the end of 2012, we opened offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The annual revenue stood at6 crore, with a healthy profit margin. We generated25-30 crore of additional revenue for the telecom companies that worked with us.