Start-up’s change of luck

There were hardly any takers when the trio of Binu Paul, Anoop Kumar A.R and Besin K. Abraham approached prospective investors for assistance for their budding company AugMob Solutions Private Limited operating out of Technolodge Piravom. But that was the case just two months ago.

Fortunes changed once the company was selected under the NASSCOM’s 10,000 start-ups programme. Now a multi-national company with presence in about 60 countries has offered to make them part of their group of 20 companies

The company’s augmented reality-based applications and solutions won it the NASSCOM selection. “Investors frowned at us when we approached them seeking assistance to the tune of even Rs. 1 crore. We are now being approached with investment offers of up to Rs. 8 crore ever since we were selected by NASSCOM,” said Mr. Paul, managing partner of AugMob Solutions Private Limited.

Getting listed in the NASSCOM website brought in multiple benefits — including credibility, which is a major challenge for any start-up. An assistance of $25,000 ensured access to costly and state-of-the-art online services of IT giants.

Most importantly, it gave them an opportunity to interact directly with angel investors, venture capitalists, and seed funders. The partners of the company had a priceless networking sessions with about 20 angel investors and venture capitalists and also with the promoters of Intel’s mobile applications at Bangalore last month.

Mr. Paul said that operating from Technolodge gave them the much-needed visibility and access to various avenues of funding. “It’s a perfect ecosystem for start-ups and without their support we would not have been selected by NASSCOM either,” he said.

The company’s top mobile application named augmented reality browser facilitates embedding of video into a printed image, is already available in Google Play, an android app store.