Proto startups - Where are they now ?

As Proto opened nominations for the January 2009 edition, I thought it might be a good idea to review some of the Internet startups that were shortlisted in earlier Proto events and see how they’re doing so far.

Jan 2007 event:

SaffronConnect: Service is shut down. I observed that way back in February early this year.

Ixigo: Going strong - Started offering hotel search, international searches and entered into business partnerships with TravelGuru, NDTV.

SERaja: Service shut down. My review here.

Spoteazy: Site and service is still active although no idea on how well they’re doing.

Picsquare: Acquired by InfiBeam recently

Taazza: Service is currently offline. Blog was last updated in March 2007 while the last Twitter update on Nov 13th says that they’re working on a new version. My review here.

 

July 2007 event:

Inasra: Seem to be alive and kicking and doing fine

Tyroo: Doing well. Launched several vertical channels. Yahoo bought a 35% stake in July 2007

Cricko/Cricketology: Site still online, but hardly see any activity on the site

RouteGuru: Going strong. Recently did a business partnership with Zoomtra to offer Delhi driving directions

Minekey: Secured a $3million VC funding. It seems that they have changed their strategy (correct me if I’m mistaken). They started out as a content recommendation widget for blog owners but now seem to have ventured out into offering discussion and opinion sharing services

Voiee: Site still online but last blog update was in July 24th. My review here

Tolmolbol: Service still active. Content - stories, reviews, events - is current and relevant, although blog was last updated in February. 

 

Jan 2008 Event:

Antya: Secured angel funding from Vivek Pahwa, DesiMartini founder. Website is alive, but the service has been shut down. Founders have moved on.

Atoneplace: Seem to be doing pretty well. Organizing events for NRI’s wanting to buy real estate in India. They’ve also launched a section called LegalCorner, which answers legal concerns from investors, as well as a video portal for real estate developers to showcase their properties.

Viewspaper: Service is active and the site content is current and relevant. 

Instablogs: As per recent reports, seems to be doing quite well. Word is that they were negotiating a $3 million round in March this year and were clocking 2.5 million page views a month. They’ve come a long way from the original concept of blog network. My review here.

Hover.in: Still in beta and recently opened up to add 200 users.

 

July 2008:

All the startups from the July 2008 event: 

Muziboo, LifeBlob, Lootstreet, Storrz, Apnabill, Lordsofodds, PicPorta

are still active and some of them are executing exceptionally well.

 

• 4 of the 25 Internet startups have shut down - SEraja, saffronconnect, taazza, antya
• 8 of the 25 startups have secured seed/VC funding - ixigo,picsquare, tyroo, minekey, antya,instablogs,hover.in,lifeblob

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Comments

4 Responses to “Proto startups - Where are they now ?”

1. Rizwan on December 3rd, 2008 5:20 am

   Heyyy….sutraHR and sutrajobs were also proto startups….. … guess we did not make it to the list……

2. Vijay on December 6th, 2008 1:06 am

   Rizwan,

   When did they showcase? I dont remember.

   By the way, nice post, but in every edition we showcased atleast on an average of 15 companies, and now and then we keep hearing of some interesting progress in their growth. One recent story was how thinxworks (a clay animation company), has grown to almost 130 people team, has branched off into two other verticals, and was in the Cannes film festival. Perhaps this Proto.in, we’ll do a snapshot of where all the companies are. Thanks for the thought..

   You’ll be coming this time?

3. pranav on December 6th, 2008 3:34 pm

   @vijay,

   my goal was to cover only the Internet - web startups since thats the domain i’m most comfortable with.

   i think it’d definitely be a great idea to have a brief presentation on where are they now.

   I want to come — but dont think will be able to make it this time..got a couple of personal and professional commitments around the same time..

   I think you might see a much bigger turnout for proto - probably because its iin b’lore ?

4. Vijay on December 7th, 2008 12:03 pm

   Pranav, That does make sense. Thanks for the clarification

   Yep, I think there will be a bigger turnout this time, but not sure about the bangalore bit. I so far have confirmations from people travelling as far and wide as from Kerala to Kolkatta for this event, and its probably the growth of the startup community that will take the sole credit. Ofcourse, bangalore does have its own resident community, so certainly there will be some contribution from that front as well.