Bengaluru-based business ledger app Khatabook has most definitely made its mark on the Indian startup ecosystem by gaining a super high valuation of $300 Mn with nothing to show in the revenue column on the balance sheet.
Since its launch in 2018, the startup has managed to attract $173 Mn in funding across six rounds from some of the biggest investors in the startup ecosystem including Sequoia Capital’s Surge, DST Global, Falcon Edge Capital, Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, Tencent Holdings, Better Capital, Cred founder Kunal Shah, Snapdeal cofounder and CEO Rohit Bansal among others.
Former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is also an investor in Khatabook that aims to bring small and medium enterprises (SME) into the digital world. The company largely works on a model to create a loyal base of digitally-savvy sellers, who can later be lured into subscription-based monetisation or upselling. The startup claims to have close to 20 Mn (2 Cr) registered merchants using its services in nearly 11 languages.
Last week, the company’s latest catalogue maker for shop owners called ‘Dukaan by Khatabook’ made its debut on the Google Play Store and has already crossed 16K downloads in the first week. The app allows users to create an online store in 15 seconds and carry on their business online.
Dukaan by Khatabook seems to be simple to use for shopkeepers and has earned an average rating of 4.8 on the Play Store. But the big issue here is that there’s already an app called Dukaan which has been around since June 2020. Launched by GrowthPond (MyDukaan.io), the app which is also called Dukaan also promises that sellers can launch online stores in under a minute (30 seconds).
If the JioMeet-Zoom UI similarities were striking, this takes things to a whole new level.
From the colour palette of the UI to the layout, there are more than a few similarities between the two. A closer look at the photos on the Google Play Store shows that Khatabook has not even bothered to edit out MyDukaan.io’s URL from the screenshots it has updated on Google App Store.
Besides this, the description of Dukaan by Khatabook is also very similar to GrowthPond’s MyDukaan.io app. Moreover, Dukaan By Khatabook seems to have even been inspired by the MyDukaan.io’s app icon too.
KhataBook To Face Legal Action Over Plagiarism
In a conversation with Inc42, GrowthPond founder Suumit Shah revealed that he has known Khatabook’s cofounder and CEO Ravish Naresh since 2014. The two had been in touch and on friendly terms, and Shah even handled some growth marketing for Khatabook. Shah said that the two had frequent interactions.
Shah further alleged that not only was Naresh aware of GrowthPond’s app development, but he also knew about the traction it had received after launch. “Over the past 2 months, we have seen tremendous traction since publishing our app on Play Store on 9th June 2020. In this short time frame, we have signed up over 2.5 Lakh businesses, who digitised over 2 Mn products and have helped drive over INR 20 Cr in GMV,” the MyDukaan.io founder claimed.
Two months after the launch of ‘Dukaan’, Khatabook went on to launch ‘Dukaan by Khatabook’ on Google Play Store on August 11. Shah said he reached out to Khatabook personally as well but did not receive any response. The legal notice accessed by Inc42 highlighted that GrowthPond had trademarked the name Dukaan, Dukan, MyDukaan, MyDukan and its variants.
In response to Inc42, Khatabook reiterated that Dukaan is a brainchild of Khatabook. “Khatabook denies all allegations made by Growthpond as false and baseless. Khatabook reserves its right to initiate appropriate legal action, both civil and criminal in nature, against Growthpond, Risemetrics (Rankz.inc) and others associated with them.”
The statement further added Khatabook had engaged Growthpond and Risemetrics Inc, which has developed the Growthpond’s Dukaan app. The two companies were already consulting with Khatabook in the capacity of a digital marketing agency.
Sources close to the matter alleged that Khatabook had plagiarised its user interface in the past too to create its existing applications, naming Sequoia Surge-backed Inodensian business ledger app BukuKas and Bengaluru-based staff management tool Pagarbook. Khatabook did not respond to the queries raised by Inc42 on these allegations.
Khatabook is not the only company to be caught up in such allegations of data theft or plagiarism. India’s biggest SaaS unicorns Zoho Corp and Freshworks have been embroiled in a lawsuit in the US since earlier this year. This year alone, insurance tech Acko has made similar allegations against former employees who now run Onsurity Tech.
In the case of Khatabook launching a platform like Dukaan seems like a logical progression as the core focus of the startup is on small businesses and shop owners, but did it overlook the potential plagiarism risk given the need to rapidly launch the product?
The post Khatabook’s $300 Mn SMB Empire In Plagiarism & Trademark Violation Trouble? appeared first on Inc42 Media.
Author: Kritti Bhalla
Source : https://inc42.com/buzz/khatabooks-300-mn-smb-empire-in-plagiarism-trademark-violation-trouble/
Date : 2020-08-18T10:50:10.000Z