No one can forget the Paytm soundboxes right , It was the Paytm who had revolutionized the Indian money market for small businessmen by introducing the soundboxes that tell them whether they have received payment or not. But do u know it was a startup by IITians and to be more precise a startup by the students of IIT Delhi named Oakter who had made this possible for Paytm.
So, Lets meet our Startup of the Day now : Oakter ,It is an Original Device Manufacturer or in short ODM which designs and manufactures electronic devices like sound speakers etc. Oakter was founded in 2015 by Shishir Gupta , Nithin K David and Varun Gupta in 2015. Nithin k David and Shishir Gupta are pass outs from IIT Delhi while Varun Gupta is a pass out from Punjab Technical University.
Talking about the starting journey , it was founded in India and very soon after its entry in the industry that Is by 2016 it became a leading name in the Smart plugs market. If you do not know what a smart plug is then let me tell you that smart plugs are basically a plug socket adapter that can be controlled with an app, so anything plugged into it instantly becomes smart. Thus by using smart plugs one can control things remotely and, even while one is out one can set schedules and let them work as one wishes for.
Journey Of Oakter
The actual journey started in 2017 when Oakter was able to become a smart-home launch partner for Amazon Alexa in India. All the smart home gadgets that you see from Amazon Alexa is manufactured by them only in its Noida base. Year 2019 was also quite special for Oakter as it was in 2019 that it was able to partner with Sony for its Sony Bravia TV’s In India . In 2019 this startup from IITians successfully pivoted to contract manufacturing. Over the years, this startup has fulfilled multiple B2B contract manufacturing orders from the likes of Sony (for its BRAVIA TV).Apart from Sony Oakter was also able to crack the deal for manufacturing Saregama audio devices(for Carvaan), and manufacture devices for Syska.
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In 2020 Oakter partnered with Defence Research and Development organizations(DRDO) for designing and manufacturing Covid 19 safety products . It was in 2020 alone that they launched white labelled IOT product division. By entering into the white label IOT segment , they were able to generate additional revenues from selling connectivity to your users with your products and services under their own brand.
Also this startup by IITians have collaborated with ElectricPe , a well-known name in the Electric vehicle industry for establishing charging points for electric vehicles. Also Oakter was named under one of the 23 companies who were entitled to receive the benefits of PLI scheme under Indian Government.
Backers of Oakter.
Oakter is funded and backed by some well known investors . One of the most well known name among their investors include Sunny Bansal , the founder of Flipkart. Along with him Orkat is backed by IndiaQuotient, Spice Telecom , Patni (a leading name in the world of investors ) and Rahul garg ,The founder of Global Logic.
Also Oakter was named recently in the list of Top Startups In India who are shaping the India’s Startup Industry by Inc42.
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Conclusion:
Indian Startup ecosystem has been growing quite well recently. In year 2024 alone till April we have got 3 unicorns in the the first unicorn was Ola Krutrim. The Indian Startup ecosystem has a long way to go and as more and more electronic companies will come our these homegrown startups will grow a lot more thus creating more local jobs and prosperity.
