Stealth LBS Start-up Mojostreet Explains Its Service and Plans

After receiving US$350,000 of seed funding around April this year, team Mojostreet continues to work on its location-based service (LBS) idea. It remains in stealth mode, though. But we learned a little bit more about its service today after speaking to its founder.

As a Mojostreet user, you can check-in to places and share location details via social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It’s pretty much the same as Foursquare and Gowalla in this aspect. But instead of getting badges and points, users earns Mojo money – or Mojo$, as founder Kalyan M. calls it. With Mojo$, users can buy properties virtually by paying and checking-in regularly. The game is dynamic as it works like a mini property marketplace. Prices of properties change as the number of check-ins changes at a location. In other words, the higher the demand the higher the price would be. Kalyan explains:

The game will calculate and inform the user when he is eligible to own a place and how much money he needs to shell out to own a place.

The hard work and effort to be an owner won’t go wasted. As an owner, a user is eligible to collect Mojo$ through “rent” whenever someone check-ins to his location – kind of resembling the Monopoly board-game concept. But it doesn’t necessary mean that the owner will be able to milk the location by “renting the place out” forever – to maintain ownership of a location requires constant check-ins and engagement. Otherwise, other Mojostreet users can easily kick an owner out and take over ownership.

In a nutshell, users are fighting for the highest net worth in Mojostreet through property buying and leasing – like a real-life monopoly which is based on real locations and venues. The game plan sounds enticing but there’s more to it, as Mojostreet is also tied in closely with tangible benefits. Kalyan told me that there are “close to 50 premium merchants across India” who have partnered with the location-based start-up to offer these benefits in exchange for Mojo$. We also learned that Mojostreet is currently in private beta but will be launching its service in India on August 15. Kalyan also has plans to expand to Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia:

We hope to launch in all the Southeast Asian countries which are small geographically and have high mobile density. As part of the first global expansion plan for December 2011 we wish to be present in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

A Serial Entrepreneur

India is full of talent and Kalyan is just one out of the many in the country. Founded in January this year, Mojostreet is Kalyan’s third start-up. His first start-up was Innova Health systems which he and his team took through a successful exit in 2002. His second start-up was Indyarocks.com, a highly profitable social network company in India with over seven million registered users.

Kalyan is also a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and works closely with start-ups in India as mentors. This guy is seriously busy but I’m glad I had a chance to connect with him. It’s always nice to learn how successful entrepreneurs are contributing back to the ecosystem.

We look forward to Mojostreet’s launch. Meanwhile, you can sign up here if you’d like to be notified when Mojostreet goes public.