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The cheque's in the m@il -- iNabling picks up Rs 11 cr
Kavita Nair
Mumbai : Infinity Venture Fund along with BV Jagadeesh and ICICI Venture Fund has invested over Rs 11 crore in iNabling Technologies, an Internet infrastructure company. iNabling Technologies has developed an e-mail device that lets people communicate at a fraction of the cost that is incurred currently, with the help of iConnect, a text-based e-mail service. Mr Vikram Godse of Infinity says: "The most used application on the Internet is e-mail. The usage may be free, but there are fixed costs attached to it. such as a computer, a telephone connection, and an Internet connection. The mission behind this e-mail access device was a technology that would leverage the power of the Internet-based e-mail at a cost that is accessible to a wide cross section of society." This device supports only text and no graphical content in the mail, and is designed for non-computer users. The navigation is provided through graphical icons. The mail composition is done by the user offline on iStation. When he or she pressesthe send button, iStation calls up the server and deposits the mail. During this time, the iStation picks up the mails for the user from the server. The server is connected to the Internet over dial-up/leased lines. iStation can communicate with any Internet user and vice-versa. For the non-iStation user, iNabling has provided a downloadable software from the Net for receiving and sending mails in the India languages. iNabling Technologies will push its iConnect service by addressing five principal customers segments: individual subscribers, small & medium enterprises, large businesses, government agencies and community subscribers. These community subscribers would be in the mode of PCO and STD booth users who without incurring the device cost would be able to access their service at Public E-mail Offices (PEO's) that will be promoted by iNabling Technologies. iConnect service provides for transliteration between English and Kannada, English and Hindi. Other Indian languages are to be made available soon. iNabling Technologies plans to offer the iConnect service across India in the next 12 months and will subsequently launch in the other countries as well. The initiall roll out will be in Karnataka. The funds raised will be used for the national launch including product development, channel development and service launch. Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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