Hyderabad-based mobile e-commerce platform MartMobi has been shortlisted to join the new batch of tech startups at one of the world’s most recognized accelerator program — TechStars. MartMobi will be joining nine other startups as part of Techstars Summer 2014 class in Chicago beginning May 27th. Of the 10 startups shortlisted, six are from Chicago and one each from Miami and Nashville, and the other two international startups represent Israel and India.
Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Satya Krishna Ganni and Pramod Nair, MartMobi creates instant mobile and tablet presence (mobile sites and native apps) for e-commerce stores, brands and retailers. They enable seamless connectivity with the customers’ existing backend systems in addition to a ‘Real time Analytics Engine’ to improve conversions and user engagement.
TechStars, founded by David Cohen and Brad Feld, is one of the most recognized accelerator programs in the US and globally along with Y-Combinator. Each participant shortlisted for the TechStars batch will receive $18,000 in seed funding and also has the option of a $100,000 convertible debt note, access to mentorship from business pros and TechStars alumni which include – Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, Tumblr CEO David Karp, HubSpot Co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah, and Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures and many more — all in exchange for 7% to 10% equity. Some of the popular graduates of the program are SendGrid, Digital Ocean, Shuttlecloud and OnSwipe.
Speaking on the occasion, Satya, CEO of MartMobi, said, “We started small; focusing on individual customers like CaratLane, India’s largest jewellery store, was one of our first customers for whom we built the first mobile site. And today when we look back, we have scaled globally and have paying customers from the US, India, Hong Kong and Australia.”
“We’re thrilled to be part of the TechStars program after making the cut from among 1300 startups who applied for the program and after 5 rounds of interview. We look forward to using the program to accelerate traction, partnerships and investor reach and establish a firm hold in the US market.”
Having built a successful business model in India and the US through partnerships with market leaders such as Shopify, Zepo, Bigcommerce, Yahoo and Amazon, MartMobi is now trying to scale to more than 15,000 customers globally in the next two years. Satya said, “Our goal is to hit 1000 paying customers by December 2014 and become a profitable company. The US, the UK and India will be our focus markets through which we plan to reach 15,000 customers in the next two years.”
MartMobi was initially infused with seed capital from IIIT Hyderabad and later angel funded by BitChemy Ventures and Srini Koppolu, ex-Managing Director, Microsoft India Development Center.
Speaking about the future outlook, CTO Pramod Nair said, “Our cutting edge technology has helped us make global inroads. We will continue to focus on technology and build on user experience to deliver the world’s best platform to our customers.
” The TechStars Chicago DEMO day is scheduled for August 27 where each of these startups will pitch to a room full of investors, mentors and entrepreneurs.