When Google killed its business, a startup hit the jackpot and became one of India’s profitable unicorns
When Google killed its business, a startup hit the jackpot and became one of India’s profitable unicorns Back in 2009, India was still far from becoming a global startup hub. The founders of India’s (now) most-funded internet startup, Flipkart, were only selling books online, and the country was nowhere on the radar of global players like Amazon. But Piyush Shah took the plunge. Giving up his cushy job as an assistant vice-president at Deutsche Bank, he chose to join a young team in Bengaluru (then Bangalore) that was working on SMS-based search at the time. ..................................................................... This company of around 100 employees had been in business for around two years. Shah was to head its strategic initiatives, beginning with the development of a mobile phone-based payments solution that was launched in 2011. This launch was the beginning of its transformation into the more advanced sphere, advertising on mobile phones, which is its core busine...