Hasta La Gadget!

There was once a rumor that Apple would actually use a ring device for input to an Apple television. Neither of those gadgets exist yet, of course, but Ring is a Kickstarter project trying to fund a finger-based wearable that could enable the kind of controls envisioned in that Apple flight of fancy. The Ring is a hardware device that resembles an ordinary (if slightly chunky) ring, filled with… Read More

Welcome to the next generation of wearable fitness tracking! The first round of fitness trackers focused on introducing the idea of data to your daily activity and workout, but a new company called Moov wants to go beyond basic “step” data to tell you how to improve your form and get the most out of your workout. The band uses a combination of hardware (9-axis sensors) and software algorithms… Read More

A watch is an opportunity to show something about yourself, and San Francisco-based Modify, a three-year-old startup offering custom-designed products, wants to make it easy for anyone to upload images of their choosing to make their own custom-designed, modular watch faces. They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to help them raise cash for their Modify Watches project, which will also… Read More

A while ago, HTC came up with this silly phone called the Bliss, which had a little charm that hung out of a purse and notified women when they were getting a phone call or alert.

The idea — that purse-carrying females need something besides their phone, packed deeply in their black hole of a purse, to alert them to incoming notifications — wasn’t all that bad. The execution, however, was abysmal.

Which brings me to Memi.

Memi is a stylish bracelet created by Leslie Pearson that is meant to be worn by ladies with purse-bound phones. Through Bluetooth and an accompanying app, users can select certain people to “let through.” That way, when a child or boyfriend or boss calls, the Memi bracelet buzzes to alert the user of an incoming call or text message.

But it doesn’t buzz for every little thing, allowing users to “unplug,” as Pearson puts it. Memi also buzzes for calendar event reminders, and comes with three distinct vibration patterns to let you know if you’re getting a call, text, or reminder.

The Memi can hold a charge for up to five days, depending on use, and charges via a discrete micro USB port. It also packs an LED indicator light to let you know when it’s on, paired, and working.

“Other devices (namely smartwatches) on the market are looking to get people more plugged into their phones,” said Pearson. “They seek to repeat as much phone functionality as they can on the user’s wrist. We are looking to help people actually unplug while staying connected to the people that matter. We want to help women be able to focus more on the moment and reduce the noise and distraction in their lives.”

Memi beat its $100K Kickstarter goal and has gone on to raise $700K from friends and family. The company has received over 500 pre-orders, with shipments planned for the summer. The team is currently in the process of raising a seed round of $1 million.

There are almost 900 million active cell-phone users in India now, and from newer startups to some of the biggest companies in the world, everybody is chasing the next mobile disruption that could potentially result in a business model for all of the emerging markets.

One such startup is Ezetap, a mobile payment company backed by some of the biggest names in the VC industry, including Chamath Palihapitiya, a former Facebook executive and founder of Social+Capital Partnership, and Angelprime, an Indian seed fund run by serial entrepreneurs.

Today, Ezetap is raising $8 million in Series B funding led by Helion Advisors, Social+Capital and Berggruen Holdings. This round takes the total fund raised by Ezetap to around $11.5 million (including $3.5 million it had raised in Series A funding in November 2012). The fresh capital will be used to expand Ezetap in Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. 

Ezetap is much like Square, at least in terms of the basic model. It uses a rectangular device that can turn any mobile phone into a point-of-sales terminal when plugged in. The device including a card reader and chip, costs around $50, and Ezetap has been able to sell around 12,000 of them to date. The startup is aiming to have over 100,000 such devices installed across Asia-Pacific, Africa and Middle East in a year.

“From day one, we wanted to go global and really felt that mobile payments in general is a great opportunity for emerging markets. There’s disparity in cash versus electronic payments leading to the challenges of financial inclusion,” Abhijit Bose, CEO of Ezetap, told TechCrunch.

Ezetap was incubated in 2011 by Angelprime, a $10 million seed fund backed by Mayfield Fund, Palihapitiya and several others in the Silicon Valley. It’s run by three veteran entrepreneurs — Sanjay Swamy, Shripati Acharya and Bala Parthasarathy. With the latest round, Ashish Gupta of Helion is joining the startup’s board. Helion is an India focused, $600 million fund. 

Ezetap is the second attempt by Abhijit and Sanjay to build a mobile payment company in India. In 2006, Sanjay was the CEO of mChek which had raised around $10 million by 2009, and Abhijit worked with another venture-funded payment startup called Ngpay. 

Back then, mChek and several others fizzled out because of several challenges.

“I believe there was nothing wrong with mobile payment back then, it was just the timing,” said Bose.

Indeed, the environment has changed dramatically. Back then, there were only 10 million credit cards. Today there are around 316 million credit and debit card holders in India. More importantly, the telecom infrastructure has improved tremendously, allowing users to do much more than just voice calls and texting.

“For us, Android and iOS are the game changers, too. Moreover, consumers are much more willing to use mobile payments for ease of use,” said Bose.

After building the product for one year, Ezetap officially launched with a Citibank mobile payment pilot in January 2013. Since then, the startup has signed up several banks and newer e-commerce companies, including Flipkart and online grocery retailer BigBasket. In Kenya, Ezetap partnered with Mastercard and Equity Bank to launch its services in March last year. Later in May 2013, Ezetap’s solution received global certification from EMVCo, an organization that specifies processes and gives approval for chip-based payment cards. 

Both Ezetap and Square are using similar models to enable mobile payments, but for completely different target markets, which is perhaps why Bose doesn’t like being called “the Square of India.”  Ezetap’s merchants include India’s biggest e-commerce company Flipkart and even much smaller mom-and-pop shops.

“I always hate it when people call it that [Square of India]. Fundamentally, we are attacking underserved markets and are both similar in thinking about mobile payments. But we want to build a business that makes us number one mobile payment platform in emerging markets,” said Bose.

To be sure, Ezetap is not the only mobile payment startup that’s beginning to do well. With around 2 million customers using its mobile wallet, MobiKwik is aiming to reach the 100 million mark in two years. While MobiKwik and at least two dozen others are offering mobile wallets, startups such as Mswipe are more similar to Ezetap. Mswipe raised its Series B funding earlier this year from investors including Matrix Partners. All these startups are shaping an ecosystem of mobile payments in India that goes beyond just creating a non cash economy.