In the last five years India has seen emergence a large number of innovative startups. Not all will be making profit in the long run and 60-70% might stop their operations due to various reasons. Here I have tried to list few start ups that have that X-factor in them. They are extravagantly innovative and radical. I have made the list of these start ups on certain criteria listed below:
- These start ups are not more than five years old.
- They are the first in their particular field and presently only one of their kinds
- Are Very innovative and have a very wide scope, not focusing on any particular niche.
Most promising of all the recent start ups - Instamojo Inc. is a web-based Indian startup founded in 2010 by Aditya Sengupta, Akash Gehani, Harshad Sharma and Sampad Swain. It provides customers a platform to sell digital goods like e-books, reports, comic books, music, software, templates, photos, tutorials etc by listing the item on the website and sharing the web link with others. It seems to be a really promising startup and I feel a lot more companies are going to follow the path paved by Instamojo. A lot more can be done in the field of file sharing and selling over the internet and it can take numerous forms over the next few years.
Chargebee is a recurring online billing solution for websites and online applications. In the current scenario where more and more people are getting involved in developing online portals, applications and e-commerce stores, chargebee can offer a very effective solution for other start ups. So more like its riding the wave of entrepreneurship and startup culture in India. ChargeBee was set up in May 2011 by the four software professionals – Krishnamoorthy S (CEO), Saravanan KP (CTO), Rajaraman S (Product manager) and Thiyagarajan T (Senior developer)
PhodphadPhodphad aims to bring a radical changes in the current education system from standardized college curriculum to a more personalized learning experience, thus creating conditions where a person’s natural talent can flourish. Its a Pilani-based education-oriented networking site that aims to make academics a more rounded experience. Phodphad is an online learning platform that aggregates all the video courses available online and structures them for e-learners. The idea was incepted back in May 2010 in BITS Pilani by Nikhil Daga and his team. I have full faith in the potential of the concept.
Harness Handitouch Private Limited (Harness) is an education technology start-up founded by alumni of premier educational and corporate institutions in India and internationally. Their product, Touch-on-Cloud, is a tablet and cloud based learning 'operating' system which disrupts the idea of classrooms, ICT and learning management systems as we think of them today by bridging the digital-physical divide. The solution has applicability in conventional, online as well as distance learning .Touch-on-Cloud effectively addresses problems faced in current conventional and ICT classrooms such as teacher control and lack of student engagement as it enables user generated content creation, real-time classroom collaboration, evaluation and feedback and content management on the cloud.
Babajob.com is a web and mobile start-up dedicated to bringing better job opportunities to the informal job sector (cooks, maids, security guards, office helpers, etc.) by appropriately connecting the right employers and job seekers via the web, mobile apps, SMS, the mobile web and voice services.As more and more people are getting access to internet, Babajobs has a sea of opportunities waiting to be explored in the Indian rural segment. Babajob was founded in Bangalore, India in 2007
HealthKartHealthKart sources health & wellness products from across the globe & provide them to every Indian via online shopping. Their domain covers categories like Nutrition, Sports and Fitness, Diabetes, Home Devices, Eye, Personal Care, Beauty, Parenting & Health Services. It is one of its type online health and wellness products website which was formed in March 2011. It has great scope as the bloating middle class of India is increasingly becoming health conscious.
ExotelExotel offers Cloud-based business phone systems to SMEs and enables companies to manage customers via inbound voice calls and SMS without getting into the hassles of setting up a full-fledged call centre. the company adds the intelligence of the Internet with telephony to provide all relevant data needed to run a business over voice & SMS. It was Set up in 2011 by BITS graduate Shivakumar Ganesan who teamed up with Ishwar Sridharan, Siddharth Ramesh and Vijay Sharma.
DelightCircle, a smartphone and tablet app that provides information on new arrivals and offers on existing products to the user, for nearby locations. The app is available on IOS, Android and Blackberry Platforms. Its a good way to connect technology to the real world shopping experience in a manner never seen before. The startup was founded by Baid, Raviteja Dodda, Smriti Kankariya and Yashwant Kamara in June 2011.
Akosha
Akosha is a service for Indian consumers which helps them in resolving day to day consumer complaints. Akosha provides service to disgruntled consumers by taking up their grievances with companies for a fee.Customers provide details of their complaint. If it is valid, Akosha takes the case and works out a solution. Ankur Singla created this website in August 2009.
Zomato.com is an Indian website providing information related to restaurants, bars, pubs and clubs, and events at such establishments in cities of India, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Qatar and the Philippines. The Restaurant Guide section currently lists over 98,900 restaurants and menus for restaurants listed on the website. The website Foodiebay.com was started by Deepinder Goyal in 2008 and was named as zomato.com in 2011.
