ESQUBE COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS PVT LTD

Transcription

1 ESQUBE COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS PVT LTD (Sensors, Signals and Systems) Estd 5 Dec 2002 Operations started in June 2003 Co-Founders K V S Hari, T V Sreenivas, H S Jamadagni, Chandrasekhar (Chandroo) Investor: CRANES SOFTWARE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED (CSIL) 1 crore investment in two tranches

2 Focus Team s strengths in 2003 VoIP HSJ Speech and Audio Algorithms - TVS Signal Processing for Wireless Communication - KVSH

3 VoIP Research Portfolio Several published papers out of PhD work covering Voice Activity Detection Conferencing solution scalable architecture, mixing of audio streams, loudness number, Voice Mail Peer-to-peer architecture

4 Speech and Audio Research Portfolio Speech segmentation Speaker recognition Keyword spotting Surround-sound effects Speech compression

5 SP Algorithms for Wireless Communication PHY layer algorithms for Wireless

6 PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS

7 ESQUBE s First VoIP Solution Launched on 10 Oct 2003 Enhanced and renamed SoftPBX with enhancements on 8 Dec 2003 Enhacned and renamed as WiFONET On 6 Feb 2004

8 First Speech Recognition Solution Launched on 8 Dec 2003

9 We had NO idea about Skype until Jan 2004 Read about it in Fortune magazine

10 Skype revolution began on Jul

11 Skype had garnered 100,000 users by Oct 2003

12 ESQUBE DID NOT HAVE THE BUSINESS VISION of SKYPE even though we had the technology components to build the product

13 VQUBE Versatile Voice and Video P2P Solution - June 2004

14

15 Stockholm School of Economics Marketing Department Skype - Reasons for Growth Master Thesis, Author: Nils Hammar Tutor: Christopher Rosenqvist Spring 2007 According to this thesis, Skype managed to grow its user base so quickly primarily because of the quality of the product. More specifically, the company managed to develop a standardized product that was valuable to people across borders, age groups, and other demographic differences because the product quality and Skype s closed network made the product viral. Finally, Skype had an exciting story to sell to journalists and partners from all over the world, which created initial brand awareness

16 Don't Believe the VOIP hype Yes, one day Internet calls will rule. But that's still a ways off. By Julie Creswell January 12, 2004 Fortune Magazine Jan 2004

17 Skype

18 CQUBE

19

20

21

22

23

24 Esqube's primary competition is from USbased Skype, which also offers peer-to-peer connectivity. However, Esqube claims to have technology that uses much less bandwidth than Skype. Products of both companies are free at the moment, but they could charge for valueadded services later.

25 Licensed the technology to REDIFF.COM as part of their Instant Messenger REDIFF BOL (Talk and See feature of Rediff Bol)

26 One of the top 100 Fastest growing Startups in Asia

27

28 ESQUBE LAUNCHES INDIA s FIRST CLICK-TO-CALL SERVICE CUSTOMERS: Sulekha.com, ibibo.com, Indiamart.com

29 Speech and Audio Solutions (Services) Accusis Medical Transcription Service ESQUBE provided a solution for speech-to-text conversion of medical prescriptions

30 Chandrasekhar Seelamantula & T V Sreenivas Invented TARANG

31

32 Patent hearing after 11 years 9 months!

33 Wireless Solutions (Services Model) WIPRO needed 3 db improvement for a PER of 10^(-3) for a specified SNR range in their implementation of b solution Provided 5 db improvement (MATLAB code) Hyderabad Batteries Limited wanted to build a Mobile Wireless Relay system for strategic use, using OFDM techniques Designed a system but did not get paid Built PHY+MAC Teams for NAVINI Networks (which got acquired by CISCO) Good source of revenue!

34 Wireless Solutions (IP) MIMO Algorithms for n PHY Licensed it to Telekom Malaysia R&D

35

36 Key points ESQUBE was profitable in the third year of its existence Its peak revenue touched USD 1 million (at prevalent exchange rates) Its peak strength was 42 employees Met about 60 VCs and all of them wanted to double their revenue in 3 years. I call them bankers and not VCs Cranes acquired majority stake in 2008 Global meltdown affected Cranes ability to sustain Esqube Not much is happening now KVSH (15%), HSJ (6%) and IISc (3%) still hold equity in the company

37 Learnings Need Good Idea(s) Need to build World-Class Technology Need Good Business Intelligence and Vision to build a viable product/solution Need to learn about people management and money management A roller-coaster ride J

38 Thank you (Don t write us off! )

39