Business Description:RouteGuru is in the business of helping people easily locate and reach places. Apart from internet, we use Mobile and Offline channels as well, to deliver our products/ services to consumers.
While the road infrastructure in developing countries like India has evolved at speed, and new localities and local businesses are constantly mushrooming, the way in which we seek/ give directions to find a place in the city - has remained as primitive as in the 16th Century B.C. Neither graphical maps, nor tech-heavy GPS navigators (both of which have existed in Indian market since over a decade), have been able to address the 'real' problems in locating places.
Our mandate is to solve this problem right. We find our purpose in diving deep into the problem, and coming out on the surface with the solution-blossom, followed by implementing it in the simplest manner possible, and finally bringing it to the market. The overwhelming feedback that follows (including critical feedback) is our biggest reward.
Successful examples of our innovation quotient:
1. India's first service providing "Auto-fare and RouteHints" on-the-go (over SMS). It has helped numerous users save between Rs. 20 to Rs. 100+ on auto-fare at various instances as reported by them.
2. The concept of "Textual Landmark-based Directions" that we pioneered and which immediately struck a cord with technology seers (Patent-pending).
3. We solved the problem of 'un-availability' of an economical yet robust map-rendering engine, by mashing up our routes with Google Maps
.
Ours is the first routing application of this kind where graphical interactive maps come from a 3rd party server. The problem is far from solved; it certainly needs more innovation. We have reasons to believe we have identified the solution. Implementation for some of that is in progress. Soon, you may not need to depend upon road-side paan-walas to locate a place you are on your way to. The need for our niche solutions is about 2 Billion requests annually. (If each person in half of mobile-connected families in India finds a problem locating one place every week.)
Industry:IT/ Internet/ Software
Founded in:2007
Source of idea:Wanted it as an individual customer
Significant Competitors:Mapmyindia.com, Yahoo! India Maps
Company Details :
Company Name:RouteGuru
HeadQuarters:New Delhi
Stage of the company:Several customers or locations
No of Employees (2006):0-5
No of Employees (2007):0-5
Office Locations(2006):0-1
Office Locations(2007):0-1
No of companies promoted:No
Profits (2006):
Profits (2007):
>Partnerships:-ACL Wireless Ltd. (SMS shortcode partner)
Eicher Goodearth Pvt. Ltd. (GIS data partner)
Incubated at Technology Business Incubator, National Small Industries Corp. (NSIC), Delhi
Initial Funding:Personal savings
Addl Funding:Personal savings
Institutitional Capital:No
Revneue Model:Current: Custom routing services to businesses enabled by RouteGuru's core engines, Mobile VAS Revenue (Premium SMS, GPRS)
Near Future: Relevant Ads alongwith Web and SMS content; Qualified customer leads to local businesses (NO SPAM); Ad Campaigns (for Retail Brands) enabled by "Nearest Outlet" concept; and many more!
Awards & honors:1)Winner of TechTribe's "connect2Develop" Award (January 2007)
2)Showcased at Proto II as one of the 20 promising Asian startups/ products (July 2007)
Promoters Details :
Promoters Name(s):Avinash Agrawal
Age:32
HomeTown:Gondia (Maharashtra)
Education:Bachelors
No of companies promoted:No
Family Background:First gen entrepreneur
Job:Product Manager at Manchitra Services (P) Ltd
Ex-Job Description:Managing
Favorite Book/Movie:Listing CEO Avinash's interests: "Books: ""High Performance Entrepreneur"" by Subroto Bagchi
