Fresh Out of 500 Startups, India’s WalletKit Wants to Make the World’s Passbook Cards

Kevin from WalletKit at the 500 Startups Demo Day.

WalletKit was one of the most recent batch of 500 Startups graduates, emerging from the incubator with some funding and renewed conviction about the path ahead. That newest batch of fledgling teams was notable for containing four Indian startups, and WalletKit also counts as one of those.

The co-founder and CEO of WalletKit, which is a platform for creating good-looking cards for Apple’s Passbook or Google Wallet – is Kevin William David (pictured above). He tells us that it was useful being among fellow entrepreneurs from India:

Being around three other Indian startups has been really beneficial. All of us are in the same boat, trying to get customers, meet investors. Some of the Indian founders have done a successful startup and raised money before. Also being a part of a batch with startups from across the globe from various industries and expertise has helped a lot. You get to learn from each one of them on their experiences with each passing day.

WalletKit is now a team of five and, like a number of 500 Startups graduates, has opted to move to San Francisco soon (from Chennai) so as to be closer to the team’s prospective clients.

The service lets businesses make customized virtual boarding passes, tickets, store cards, and coupons for various mobile wallet platforms. Moreover, it gives retailers and other companies a way to analyze the usage and redemption of these kinds of digital tokens. Kevin says that users can make the first 500 Passbook-style passes for free before the startup’s tiered pricing kicks in. With mobile wallets being so fragmented right now across dozens of emerging providers, WalletKit aims to be a constant and affordable way for businesses to serve up these passes to their customers.

Stalking into 500 Startups

WalletKit duo Kevin and Ramakanth.

Kevin and co-founder Ramakanth are both 23 years old and from Chennai, and only graduated from college last year. Getting into 500 Startups was an initial aim of theirs, and Kevin explains that it required some cunning and planning: