AngelPrime-backed startup Ezetap launches mobile PoS solution

Bangalore-based startup Ezetap Mobile Solutions Pvt Ltd that is focused on the mobile payments market in Asia, has launched a mobile point of sale (PoS) solution that allows gadgets like feature phones, smartphones as well as tablets to be converted into Point of Sale terminals, in-store, on the road, or at the customer's doorstep. This is done by adding an accessory, the Ezetap Card-Reader, to the headphone jack of the devices.

The company said it has been designed and manufactured in the country and will work with both feature phones such as Nokia S40, as well as smartphones running on the Android, iOS and Windows Mobile platforms. The Ezetap device is priced at Rs 1,500 (which is a lot cheaper that what point-of-sale terminals cost). The fact that it can capture signatures electronically, eradicates the need for paper receipts.

Abhijit Bose (CEO), Bhakta Kesavachar (CTO) and Satheesh Vattekkat (VP of engineering) founded the startup in 2011. Ezetap has Sanjay Swamy as its Chairman. An alumnus of Harvard Business School and Cornell University, Bose has worked for Condor SA (Switzerland), Elma Electronic Inc., Siebel Systems, Oracle Corporation, JiGrahak Mobility Solutions and Intuit. Kesavachar, an MS in Wireless Communication, Computer Architecture, from Arizona State University, has also worked with Sharp Laboratories of America, Intel and Antargata Infotech. A product of the National Institute of Technology Calicut, Vattekkat has earlier worked with CMC, Infosys, Rapidigm Inc, The Nature Conservancy and IBM.

Ezetap had recently raised undisclosed angel funding from AngelPrime, a start-up incubator launched by serial entrepreneurs Shripati Acharya, Bala Parthasarathy and Sanjay Swamy. As part of the investment, all three had joined the Ezetap board.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)