Next time when you drive your way through busy shopping areas, get ready for pop-ups on your smartphone with mouth-watering discounts from restaurants or attractive discounts from retailers.
Mojostreet, an IT start-up, allows smartphone users to download an application that acts as a gateway to offers from retailers. All that users should do is to show the message that popped up on the phone to the retailer to redeem the discount. The company has woven a kind of social networking, allowing users to play games, acquire virtual properties, etc. It also doubles up as a city guide. Mr Srini Koppolu (former Managing Director of Microsoft Indian Development Centre) and Mr J.A. Chowdary (former MD of NVIDIA India) turned angel investors and put in $3.5 lakh in this firm.
Mr Kalyan Manyam, Chief Executive Officer of Mojostreet, said, “We have registered 18,000 downloads as we tied up with 150 brands that have a combined footprint of 1,250 outlets across the major cities.”
The app has generated interest among cellular firms and handset makers, too. Aircel is going to offer a phone model with the Mojostore app embedded in it. Blackberry, too, is showcasing this app. “We are going to have this on Windows phone, too. Our boys are working on this project,” he said.
The company gets revenues on customer footfalls and transactions in the client's place.
Second round
Mr Kalyan is in the process of finalising a second round of funding to support its growth plans. “We have targeted to reach out to one lakh users by January and become a 100-employee firm by the end of 2012. We are going to invest on promotion and marketing. We are going to use the second-round funds on this,” he said.
Even as it expands its presence in India, Mojostreet is sprucing up plans to introduce the services in South-East Asian countries, such as Malaysia and some African countries. “We will focus entirely on Indian market for a few more months before we recruit and market the app abroad,” Mr Kalyan said.