5 bootstrapped tech startups that do India proud

Today, India is celebrating its 68th independence day. What better day than this to celebrate India’s startup heroes, the trailblazers who are inspiring thousands of other young entrepreneurs with their global success. They triggered a mindset shift towards software products, and made a strong case for bootstrapping, which is also a form of independence. Here’s a list of five innovative tech startups which do India proud.

Zoho: online office tools for easy collaboration

Zoho has over 25 applications that power online businesses, productivity, and collaboration, serving the technology needs of more than nine million customers worldwide. From customer relationship management (CRM) to mail, invoicing, and web conferencing, companies use Zoho Applications to run their business processes and manage their information effectively. Zoho has received won awards, including TechCrunch’s Best Enterprise Startup in 2007. Founder and CEO of Zoho Sridhar Vembu stuck to bootstrapping while building the product in spite of pressure from competitor Salesforce. Vembu holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Princeton University and is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras.

Quick Heal: security tools for computers, phones, and servers

Quick Heal Technologies, founded by Kailash Katkar, offers cloud-based security and machine-learning-enabled solutions which stop threats, attacks, and malicious traffic before they strike. They have customized products to suit individual users, small businesses, government establishments, and large corporate houses. Katkar started Quick Heal from a one-room space in Pune with his brother Sanjay Katkar. Initially, the brothers reverse-engineered computing devices to understand the security issues, and then came up with solutions. They took loans from banks to build their software and grow the business. Sequoia Capital only came on board years later in 2010 with an investment of about US$10 million.

FusionCharts: interactive JavaScript charts

FusionCharts helps you create smart charts with exciting animation, snazzy designs, and rich interactive elements. Businesses can use them to create beautiful dashboards in their products and drive more sales. The startup was founded in 2002 by 17-year-old Pallav Nadhani, who was looking for ways to make more pocket money. He wrote an article on making animated charts for web applications, and FusionCharts sprang from there. It hit a US$1 million revenue mark in 2006, and crossed US$5 million in 2011. Now FusionCharts has 23,000 customers and 500,000 developers in 120 countries.

RateGain: tech solutions for hospitality and travel industry

RateGain helps hoteliers, travel websites, airlines, and corporate travel players with technology solutions in everyday tracking, updating, analyzing, and smart decision-making. This SaaS startup, founded by Bhanu Chopra, is headquartered in Noida, India, and has offices in the UK, US, Turkey, Spain, the UAE, and Thailand. He bootstrapped the company with US$100,000 in 2004, and within years built it to a multi-million dollar company.

Kayako: customer service tools for businesses

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