Mobile Operating System Indus Raises $5 Mn In Series A Funding

Fully indigenous mobile operating system, Indus, has raised about $5 Mn in series A funding led by Omidyar Network.

The firm will invest the funds in technology, hiring new talent and in expansion into international markets.

Formerly known as Firstouch, Mumbai-based Indus OS was founded in September 2013 by IIT-B Alumni, Akash Dongre, Rakesh Deshmukh and Sudhir Bangarambandi.

The OS is built on Android and designed for non-English speaking smartphone users. It aims to bring a simplified smartphone experience to the users in their native language. The OS currently translates Android into 12 regional languages including Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, etc. It has also developed and patented regional language keyboards customised in 12 languages with predictions.

Badri Pillapakkam, Director of Investments at Omidyar Networks said, “We have a strong bias towards technology innovations that solve large-scale problems through local solutions, with the potential to have transformative impact. Indus OS is rare in that, it checks the box on all these counts and we like the IP that this high-quality, dedicated and passionate founding team has created. We are privileged to be a part of this exciting journey.”

The company has over 2 Mn users on board and recently tied-up with Government of India’s DeitY (Department of Electronic and Information Technology) to develop a native operating system with integrated text-to-speech technology in regional languages.

The company had raised angel round of funding in September last year. It is backed by star angel investors like Rohit Bansal & Kunal Bahl (Snapdeal co-founders), Pranay Chulet (Quikr Founder) Naveen Tewari & Amit Gupta (Inmobi) and Mayank Singhal (Temasek).

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