Innoz started as
an engineering college project where four friends developed a Q&A search
engine that responds to queries over text message. The service targets feature
phone users who do not have access to the web. With Rs.1 crore from angel
investors, Deepak Ravindran, Abhinav Sree, Ashwin Nath and Mohammed Hisamuddin
converted the project into a business and dropped out of college. “We thought
if Mark Zuckerberg could do it, so can we,” says Ravindran.
In March 2011, the firm signed its first agreement, with Airtel,
to provide the service, now called 55444. Other telcom majors followed in the
next year. Innoz provides its services to almost 10 million users and gets more
than 3 million queries a day; each query costs Rs.1, which is shared between
Innoz and the operator. The company has also set up an app store where you can
use an app through the SMS platform. There are 200-300 app developers and 400
apps currently. A third of queries are through apps currently. With all major
telcos as its clients and increasing use of the store, Innoz is hoping to clock
revenues of ₹20 crore in FY13.
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