Don’t know how to code? This startup will help you build an app in 5 minutes

Rahul Singhal used to build websites for others as a part-time job in his college days. He built a website for his engineering department of his university in his freshman year.

Now he has turned the same idea into a business. He is helping online sellers to go mobile. As the founder of Applop, he enables retailers to make an app in less than five minutes and launch it within 12 hours.

Now, Gurgaon-based accelerator GHV has lapped up Applop for its 12-month acceleration program and will give the startup seed funding of US$100,000. The move is part of GHV’s plan to take in 10 startups by March 2016.

Mobile shopping boom

Applop, a bootstrapped venture, enables businesses to not only make their app themselves, but also maintain them. They can even start their own mobile commerce store via the app and integrate a payment gateway into it.

“In India, finding a good developer is a costly affair. Developing an app will cost you around INR 100,000 [US$1,600]. And updating it frequently is not an affordable option for smaller online retailers,” says Rahul.

Applop charges INR 900 (US$14) a month for developing and managing an app for its clients.

Rajiv Sodhi, managing director at Godaddy India, will mentor Applop. Rajiv carries more than 15 years of experience in the tech industry. He is also a part of the mentor panel at GHV.

“What the dotcom was to the PC era, apps will be for today’s smartphone era,” says Vikram Upadhyaya, chief mentor at GHV. “Herein lies the potential of Applop. Applop is in fact the logical next step after the internet boom, given the exponential ‘need’ of apps owing to better smartphone and internet penetration.”