Will Nearyou Technology’s Bet On NFC Pay Off?
Close range technologies has been a hot topic of discussion recently and quite a few startups are trying to make inroads into the space. We’ve written about ATuch and Taggito, now the new player in this NFC market is Nearyou Technologies and Solutions (NTSPL).NTSPL is a fully owned subsidiary of NearYou Leading Technologies, a Singapore based IT company, founded by Ajay Dabaria and Gaurav Sharma, alongwith Sanjukta Ray, their investor and partner. The company launched operations and sales in India in November 2012 and entered the UAE market in March 2013.
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Ajay Dabaria[/caption]Ajay is responsible for technology at the startup and has previously worked with Samsung and Sasken in the NFC middleware space. Gaurav heads sales and operations and was earlier with Capgemini. Sanjukta is responsible for expansion and operations of NTSPL’s group company in Dubai.
Gaurav spoke to YourStory about the company and the future of their technology.
The NFC solutions suite
NTSPL provides the usual bunch of NFC enabled products such as tags, posters, smart strips and key chains, available through their online store and also distributed through their partners and sales team. However Gaurav says what makes them unique is currently, they are the only company in India and UAE to offer the entire NFC solutions suite i.e., products, consultancy and solutions. “We have a web based platform to manage the NFC tags and codes which enables people to get analytics of every deployed NFC tags in the field as well as change the content of the tag real time from any place,” says Gaurav.
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Gaurav Sharma[/caption]The company is currently in talks with construction sites and schools to provide ‘real time updates’ at those sites through their technology.
Market potential for their technology
Gaurav is optimistic about the potential of NFC and says they are looking at expanding operations to sectors such as healthcare and retail.
As developers, they are confident of their solution and its potential. But a key challenge, according to Gaurav is the market of low-end phones – which do not have the NFC technology and therefore makes it difficult for mass adoption. The company is in talks with manufacturers to launch low end NFC enabled phones to increase the reach of their technology to a larger customer base.
Gaurav explains the eco system for this technology is still not well developed in India and the lack of awareness and understanding of NFC technology and its usage is making it difficult for them to expand their operations. At the same time with their current expansion and penetration in the market, the company is optimistic that the scenario will change by end of 2013.
Potential for growth
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Sanjukta Ray[/caption]Nearyou Technology’s current clients vary from IT companies, advertising agencies, event management companies to NFC hobbyist and students working on various NFC projects. As a new player in the market, their growth strategy, Gaurav says is both focusing on product development and expanding operations in other markets such as Singapore, GCC and Africa, which they plan to do in 2014.
Another area they are tapping into is the client’s they service in Dubai, through their group company. The company is also looking to tie-up with TagStand, USA and NFC-Smartags, France to introduce each other products and solutions in their respective geographies.
Geographical expansion will no doubt add to their growth, but whether the company manages to withstand competition from newer technologies such as Transferjet and compete with other players, in what is seemingly a small market, remains to be seen.
