It was a sultry summer evening in 2015. The venue was JW Marriott hotel in Mumbai’s upscale suburb of Juhu. The agenda was simple—party hard and let your hair down. And for good reason. AppsDaily, a mobile phone insurance and security startup, had just raised $16 million (then Rs 100 crore) in a Series C round led by venture capital firm Zodius Capital. Existing investors ru-Net, IndoUS Venture Partners (now Kalaari Capital) and Qualcomm Ventures had bet more on the company. Individual investors, who had backed the firm under the banner of Mumbai Angels, had partially exited, garnering returns several times their investments. Confidence was oozing. Merely two years on, the company’s sixth-floor office in Mumbai’s Andheri East wears a gloomy look. The startup is mired in a web of issues ranging from delayed salaries to weakening investor confidence to a litany of customer complaints. VCCircle spoke to several current and former staffers of AppsDaily, and reviewed WhatsApp messages sent to and from the management to understand the complete reversal of fortunes. We also looked at the company’s Registrar of Companies filings over the past 16 months. Before we delve into that, however, here’s an upshot of the company’s business. Founded by siblings Arun Menon (CEO) and Ajay Menon (director) in 2008, the company started off as Onward Mobility and was later re-branded as AppsDaily. Arun holds a B.Tech from IIT Bombay while Ajay had previously founded Ambrosia Infotech Ltd, a product engineering and consulting services provider across verticals like telecom, Internet, healthcare and retail. Apart from its key offering of mobile phone insurance and security, AppsDaily Solutions Pvt. Ltd also focuses on app development and distribution. Unlike traditional players that simply launch the apps on Google Play or iTunes, it sells and distributes its own and third-party products through offline retail partners across the country. The products are sold under the brand name ‘daily’, such as ‘daily cop’, ‘daily protect’, ‘daily assure’, ‘daily complete security’, and so on. Employee issues galore
While top management’s salaries have been either withheld or delayed since last October, the crisis worsened in January, engulfing lower-level employees, the company’s staffers allege. Salary components like meal vouchers have not been given to many employees, and travel claims of many remain unpaid since July 2016. Arrears have been piling up. Employees’ contribution towards Employee Provident Fund has been remitted only till December 2016 for many. Employer contribution has not been deposited since July 2016, several people allege. Some employees claim that even their tax deducted at source (TDS) has not deposited with the Income Tax department for financial year 2016-17. As many as 300 employees have left the company over the past six months because of unpaid dues. At its peak, AppsDaily employed more than 1,200 people. Meanwhile, CEO Arun Menon has been asking employees to find jobs at other companies, VCCircle has learnt. He has been telling them that the company was “out of funds” and looking for a fresh round of investment. AppsDaily had last raised $3.75 million in Series D funding in September last year, according to VCCEdge, the data and research arm of VCCircle. Overall, the company has raised around Rs 1,500 crore so far. A WhatsApp message from Arun Menon, which VCCircle accessed, read: “I am personally f****d but am still fighting this battle with all investors because I want to make sure all of you are happy in the end…”
Investors desert the board
Kalaari Capital is the biggest stakeholder in the company with around 27% stake. Zodius owns 11%, ru-Net 13%, Qualcomm 11%, Mumbai Angels (28 individuals) owns 16% while co-founders Ajay and Arun hold 9% each. Vani Kola, managing director of Kalaari Capital, resigned from the company’s board in April last year “to reduce the number of directorships.”
Kalaari co-founder Vinod Kumar Dham, who appointed as a director following Kola’s exit, left in November 2016 citing personal reasons. The same month, Zodius managing director Gautam Patel quit the board saying he was “pre-occupied with other matters.”
On the very next day, Galina Chifina of ru-Net resigned as additional director citing “personal and unavoidable reasons.”
Rajiv Dadlani of Consort Capital, another investor, followed suit and resigned next month. It is not clear whether these investors have sold their shares. Email queries sent to founders Arun and Ajay Menon, Dadlani, Patel, Chifina, Dham and Kola did not elicit a response till the time of publishing this report. Customer complaints rise
VCCircle found as many as 1,200 complaints against AppsDaily on consumercomplaints.in, of which a minuscule 40 seem to have been resolved. The ire of customers and employees is visible on Twitter as well. @UfterYou I had dead stock of appsdaily mobile insurance company.Neither Company provide claim to customer nor lifting the material back. The company’s tepid financial performance mirrors the overall state of affairs. Total income fell to Rs 77.4 crore in FY16 from Rs 99 crore in the previous financial year. Losses more than doubled to Rs 82.3 crore from Rs 32.7 crore. The company is yet to file its financials for FY17. Clearly, a heavily-funded startup with marquee investors ought to have done something terribly wrong to be in the soup that it’s in. VCCircle has learnt that AppsDaily is trying to bring in a new investor so that it can fund its operations. However, time alone will tell if Menon brothers are able to pull the company back from the brink. Like this report? Sign up for our  daily newsletter  to get our top reports.

How Kalaari-backed AppsDaily went from fabulous to flameout

Google Pinterest Reddit
Mobile app development and distribution company, AppsDaily Solutions Pvt. Ltd has raised $3.75 Mn (INR 25 Cr) from existing investors and founders of the company. Existing investors that participated in the round include Zodius Capital , Kalaari Capital , Qualcomm Ventures , Russian venture capital fund, Ru-Net, and Mumbai Angels . According to an official statement, the company has raised a total of $22 Mn (INR 150 Cr) funding in its earlier rounds. The newly raised capital will be used to scale its growth plans. Founded by Arun Menon and Ajay Menon in 2008, the Mumbai-based company came into being as Onward Mobility and was later re-branded as AppsDaily. It is a mobile protection utility app that shields the user’s mobile phone against theft, damage, virus, and data loss. Talking about the funding, Arun Menon, co-founder and CEO, AppsDaily said, “We are very excited about the overall growth in the mobile protection and security market, which is driven by the strong surge in smartphone sales in the country, along with an increasing awareness among customers on mobile protection and security products. We believe India will be a huge market for mobile protection and security in 3-4 years.”
According to its official website, AppsDaily claims to have more than 2 Mn customers and operates in 700 cities with 400+ distributors and 10,000 outlets. Last year, the company had raised $16 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in a Series C round led by Zodius Capital, with participation from existing investors. Prior to that, it had raised $5 Mn (INR 33 Cr) in Series B, $4 Mn (INR 26 Cr) in Series A and $1 Mn from angel investors and seed-stage investor Blume Ventures in 2010. In July this year, AppsDaily raised $2 Mn in a bridge round of funding from existing investors including Kalaari Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, and Zodius Capital among others. This development was reported by Mint. Advertisement

Digital App Distributor AppsDaily Secures $3.75 Mn From Kalaari Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Others

ru-Net в четвертый раз инвестировала в магазин приложений AppsDaily 
Автор / Екатерина Загорская
Постоянный автор Firrma
Компания Леонида Богуславского ru-Net в четвертый раз вложилась в онлайн-магазин приложений AppsDaily, предлагающий, в том числе, приложения для безопасности и защиты смартфонов. Об этом  сообщает  издание Livemint. В этом раунде AppsDaily привлекла $3,75 млн от основателей компании и существующих инвесторов: Zodius Capital, Kalaari Capital, Qualcomm Ventures и бизнес-ангелов из Мумбаи. Инвестиции пойдут на дальнейший рост сервиса. Вместе с предыдущими раундами стартап привлек 1,5 млрд индийских рупий. Мумбайский стартап AppsDaily разрабатывает и занимается сбытом мобильных приложений в Индии и за рубежом. Текущие приложения AppsDaily: мобильный анти-вирус, решения для резервного копирования, приложение для безопасности смартфона, мобильные игры. Все приложения выходят под брендом Daily. В совете директоров AppsDaily: Вани Кола (Vani Kola) из фонда Kalaari Capital, Гаутам Патель из Zodius Capital, Галина Шифина из Ru-net и Раджив Дадлани (Rajiv Dadlani), основатель и исполнительный директор Consort Capital Services. Впервые инвестиционная компания  инвестировала  в AppsDaily Solutions в 2014 году. Объем раунда, в котором участвовали другие инвесторы, составил $5 млн. В апреле 2015 года фонд  инвестировал  совместно с Kalaari Capital, Qualcomm Ventures и Zodius capital около $15,9 млн. В июле 2016 года общий объем раунда, в котором участвовала инвестиционная компания,  составил  $2 млн. О проекте AppsDaily Solutions
Мумбайский онлайн-магазин приложений AppsDaily запущен в 2008 году. Сооснователи Арун Менон (Arun Menon) и Аджай Менон (Ajay Menon). По собственным данным, у компании 2 млн пользователей, она работает в 700 городах, имеет 400 дистрибьюторов и 10000 точек продаж. О ru-Net
ru-Net — инвестиционная компания, осуществляющая прямые инвестиции и управляющая компаниями и активами. По собственным данным, в портфеле ru-Net более 40 инвестиционных проектов в США, Европе, России, и Юго-Восточной Азии. ru-Net ориентирован на компании в сферах IT-автоматизации, интеграции, аутсорсинга, энергетических технологий, интернета и электронной коммерции. 


ru-Net в четвертый раз инвестировала в магазин приложений AppsDaily

 I have read and accept the privacy policy :*
 I have read and accept the art. 2 of privacy policy :*
 I have read and accept the art. 5 of privacy policy :*
Disclaimer
News, data and statement included in FundingSMEs are intended exclusively for information purposes. No data or statement in FundingSMEs is or should be considered a recommendation for the purchase, retention, or sale of the securities referred to herein. FundingSMEs accepts no liability for the consequences of the reader's reliance on these news, data or statements and disclaims any intent to make securities or securities markets recommendations.


[ AppsDaily Solutions  raises $2 million in Venture ]

Google Pinterest Reddit
Mobile app development and distribution company, AppsDaily Solutions Pvt. Ltd. , has raised $2 Mn in a bridge round of funding. The Mumbai-based startup received funding from existing investors Kalaari Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Russian venture capital fund ru-Net and Zodius Technology. Ambrosia Infotech Ltd. also participated in the round. AppsDaily is a mobile protection utility app that shields your mobile phone against theft, damage, virus and data loss. Founded by Arun Menon and Ajay Menon in 2008, the company came into being as Onward Mobility and was later re-branded as AppsDaily. Last year, the company had raised around $16 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in a Series C round of funding led by Zodius Capital, with participation from existing investors. Prior to that, it had raised $5 Mn (INR 33 Cr) in Series B, $4 Mn (INR 26 Cr approx. ) in Series A and $1 Mn from around a dozen angel investors and seed-stage investor Blume Ventures in 2010. According to a Cisco report , smartphone user base is expected to reach 651 Mn in the next few years, making India the largest global mobile first internet market. By the end of 2017, market demand for mobile app development services will also grow at least five times faster than IT organisations’ ability to deliver them. Basically, mobile-first businesses will become a catalyst for India’s internet growth wave. <a href=”https://inc42.com/category/flash-feed/” target=”_blank”><img class=”alignleft wp-image-22759″ src=”https://inc42.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/FlashFeed-Button.jpg” alt=”” width=”250″ height=”78″ /></a><strong>Welcome to <a href=”https://inc42.com/category/flash-feed/” target=”_blank”>Flash Feed</a>, your essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web – bite-sized and updated all day.</strong>
Advertisement


AppsDaily Secures $2 Mn In Bridge Round From Kalaari, ru-Net And Others

Series A

Series B

Series C

Bridge

Series D

AppsDaily is an offline channel for mobile applications. It is the simplest and most convenient platform for all app needs. The company brings together the best relevant mobile apps and sell them at thousands of retail outlets across India.

Name	Title	Status
Bilal Abdullah	Founder	Former
Sendhil Kumar	Founder	Former
Arun Menon	Chief Executive Officer	Former
Ratanlal Ransaria	Chief Financial Officer	Former
Ajay Menon	Chief Operating Officer	Former

Name	Bilal Abdullah	Sendhil Kumar	Arun Menon	Ratanlal Ransaria	Ajay Menon
Work History
Title	Founder	Founder	Chief Executive Officer	Chief Financial Officer	Chief Operating Officer
Status	Former	Former	Former	Former	Former

Wells Fargo Success Story

3M Success Story

Platform Overview

AppsDaily Solutions

Executives

AppsDaily Solutions Management Team

6 Team Members

Discover the right solution for your team