Say NO To Spam! New Delhi Based Octane Steps In
Octane is a marketing technology company that provides a state-of-the-art email, SMS & web-marketing platform. Octane is India's first ESP to provide a “Do It Yourself” (DIY) platform to relay and track multichannel (email+sms) campaigns. Their biggest USP is their stand against spamming; they are here to create a clean marketing channel for marketers who genuinely want to engage with their audiences. This cloud-based software is completely built based on user feedback.With a team of 35 people, Octane is headquartered in New Delhi. It also has a presence in Mumbai and Bangalore with a clientele base of 100+. Apart from industry bodies like IAMAI, Octane works closely with B-schools like IMI. This has helped them register their brand with the future marketers at a very early stage.
Octane intends to target the quality pie in the market, i.e. brands who want to engage with their user base and not spam them.
The number of internet users in India has crossed the 100 million mark and with the launch of cheaper smartphones, this is bound to increase. Based on the interest of these subscribers, Octane sees a lot of opportunity for marketers to engage with them.
Their expansion plan includes hiring relevant people who can help their business expand across the country and beyond. They plan to launch their social media tool as well, which will be added as a new offering in their current work flow.
Products and Services:
Their product is a cloud based multichannel marketing software that will help you track user behaviour. It is available in three versions: Octane live, Octane 365, and Octane Premium.Their flagship product is a cloud based email marketing software, which is capable of sending over a million emails per hour per client. At the moment, they have more than 100 registered users for the same. Their cloud based services are available on per email basis. Based on the needs/requirements of a client, they also do custom-made on-site deployment of their software.
To complement their products, they have two free services, i.e. Email Reviewer and Business Booster 2.0. They also conduct a workshop on email marketing.
Founders and Startingup:
A UK based client asked Digvijay Bhandari and Samarth Saxena, the co-founders of Octane and entrepreneurs for over a decade now, to shoot an email campaign in 2007. On searching online they did not find any tool in India to do the same. That is where they sensed the opportunity and thus, Octane was born.
Operational since 2007, it all started coming good for Octane in 2010, post the launch of the web 2.0 version of the product. In their initial years, funding came from their family and generous friends. They are now profitable and growing organically and hence not looking at raising funds, either.
The biggest challenge then, was scarcity of resources with specific domain knowledge for product development. To overcome this challenge, they went to the basics of studying all possible resources available on the internet.
Digvijay started his high velocity career at Tehelka.com as an Interface Designer & Web-site developer. Later, he moved on to work as a Project Planning & Development Manager at a leading software firm. Sam brings to Octane over twelve years of intense industry experience while being responsible for its application architecture. He has had successful stints in management and possesses a unique passion for business development.
