Exclusive: Former Sourcebits execs' startup Hashtaag gets seed funding

Bengaluru-based mobile app developer startup Hashtaag has received seed funding of $1 million from three investors, its founders said.

The founders didn't disclose the names of the investors.

Hashtaag, incorporated as KGJ Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd, was set up 10 months ago by Krishna Vemula and Jayavardhan, who goes by a single name. Both are former employees of Sourcebits, a Sequoia- and IDG-funded startup which was acquired by London-based Globo plc two years ago. Half of Hashtaag's 44 employees are from Sourcebits.

Jayavardhan, who is Hashtaag's CEO, said the company has developed nine apps and won 10 clients so far. The company has set up a sales office in San Francisco and is pitching to the US clients.

"We are cash-flow positive from the beginning. We already have an order book of $1 million," said Vemula, who is the chairman. "We will use the funds we received for expansion into markets such as Nigeria, Morocco and South Africa besides increasing our headcount," he added.

The company plans to have 100 employees by the end of this year as it plans to expand its tech team of 38 people.

"We currently make revenues of $200,000 a month and have the potential to increase this to $500,000 with the existing staff," said Jayavardhan.

The community of mobile app developers in India is fast expanding and is set to be the largest in the world by 2017, according to a Deloitte study in early 2015 which estimated the country to have around 300,000 mobile app developers. These companies are looking to cash in on the increasing spend on mobile app development by businesses.

"There are half a dozen serious players in the market. We compete with them as well as app developers in the US," said Vemula.

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