At the time, there were very few online options addressing this need.
While some banks, like Citibank, offered the service to its debit card
users, it was typically for a high, fixed amount and was not accessible
to everyone.
Basic research, including going through reports
released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, revealed that 90%
of all the mobile users in India
were prepaid users. Given the rising penetration of the Internet in
urban India at the time, it was logical that the convergence of Internet
and prepaid recharge would emerge as a business opportunity. So, in
June 2009, though I was still neck deep in research, I quit my job and
started working full-time on setting up MobiKwik.
The ace up my sleeve was my to-be wife, Upasana Taku. She had worked with Paypal in the US till 2008, returning to India to work with various start-ups. She helped me finetune the payment options, and eventually joined the company in 2010.
Basic research, including going through reports
released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, revealed that 90%
of all the mobile users in India
were prepaid users. Given the rising penetration of the Internet in
urban India at the time, it was logical that the convergence of Internet
and prepaid recharge would emerge as a business opportunity. So, in
June 2009, though I was still neck deep in research, I quit my job and
started working full-time on setting up MobiKwik.The ace up my sleeve was my to-be wife, Upasana Taku. She had worked with Paypal in the US till 2008, returning to India to work with various start-ups. She helped me finetune the payment options, and eventually joined the company in 2010.
o get started, I put together a seed capital of around Rs 8 lakh from my
own pocket. Most of it went into setting up the infrastructure,
including the website, payment options, and renting of the office space
at Dwarka, Delhi. Finally, in August 2009, we launched the company.
Despite a sizeable Web presence by this time, the progress in the
initial days was slow. A majority of the Indians were yet to get used to
the idea of online recharging of their phones. Moreover, I had never
handled the finance aspect of a business. From getting the website
running to finalising deals with various telecom companies for recharge
availability, I had to learn everything on the ground since I had no
managerial experience. So, in the first year of operations, I focused
more on the overall running of the business.
The learnings were many. For example, the SBIdebit cards were, and continue to be, the most popular in the country, but we found out that most of the users would go for the slightly older versions of Web browsers. So we ensured that our payment options were compatible even with the Internet Explorer 5.0 or 6.0 versions. By the beginning of the second year of operations, we were registering 500-600 recharges a day, on an average. For every recharge of Rs 100, we would get a commission of Rs 3-4, depending on the operator. The numbers may not seem impressive, but these helped us gain a foothold. As expected, things began improving in 2010, when awareness grew and more people started using the Internet for recharging. By the end of 2010, we also hired our first employee, a developer, to handle the website.
The growth has been encouraging and we managed to break even in June this year. We now have 22 employees and 15 service providers on our list, and offer much more than the recharge facility. In February 2012, we launched an e-wallet system, which enables users to deposit money online for facilities like bill payment. So customers can not only recharge their phones but also pay their bills through our website, or even via their phones. The mobile website, launched in October 2012, has got a good response. We are averaging about 15,000 recharges a day and expect a revenue of Rs 100 crore by the end of this fiscal year.
The learnings were many. For example, the SBIdebit cards were, and continue to be, the most popular in the country, but we found out that most of the users would go for the slightly older versions of Web browsers. So we ensured that our payment options were compatible even with the Internet Explorer 5.0 or 6.0 versions. By the beginning of the second year of operations, we were registering 500-600 recharges a day, on an average. For every recharge of Rs 100, we would get a commission of Rs 3-4, depending on the operator. The numbers may not seem impressive, but these helped us gain a foothold. As expected, things began improving in 2010, when awareness grew and more people started using the Internet for recharging. By the end of 2010, we also hired our first employee, a developer, to handle the website.
The growth has been encouraging and we managed to break even in June this year. We now have 22 employees and 15 service providers on our list, and offer much more than the recharge facility. In February 2012, we launched an e-wallet system, which enables users to deposit money online for facilities like bill payment. So customers can not only recharge their phones but also pay their bills through our website, or even via their phones. The mobile website, launched in October 2012, has got a good response. We are averaging about 15,000 recharges a day and expect a revenue of Rs 100 crore by the end of this fiscal year.
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