KOGO eyes $110 mn revenue in 4 yrs, raises $350K in angel funding

KOGO, which has developed a smart device for road travellers, on Monday said it is targeting sales of about a million units and clocking USD 110 million (about Rs 788 crore) in revenue in the next four years.

The 'KogoBOT' device is a small gadget that has a dedicated GPS and multiple sensors to map out the journey of the traveller. KogoAPP takes the data captured by the device and uses artificial intelligence to write stories as the person travels.

This automated content can be viewed as blogs, maps, cards or videos and can be edited and shared across multiple platforms.

"Our aim is to change the road travel industry by creating a unified platform that would be a content and revenue generation juggernaut. We will launch in India in January 2020 and hope to expand to additional markets in Asia, North America and Western Europe within 12-18 months," KOGO co-founder Raj K Gopalakrishnan told PTI.

He added that the device will be priced at Rs 7,750 (including one-year subscription) and will be available on its website and across a network of 200 dealers across India. The subscription will be priced at about Rs 1,400 annually in India.

Gopalakrishnan explained that there are about 6.3 million road travellers in India and the community is growing.

"These people are looking at sharing their stories, but don't do so for a number of reasons. These stories can not only provide information to people looking at travelling to those destinations but also inspire more to take road trips," he said.

He said the company is looking at selling about 4 lakh devices in India in three years and about 4.5 lakh in overseas markets. "Overall, in four years, we hope to sell about 10 lakh units... clock USD 110 million in revenue," he added.

Gopalakrishnan said apart from devices and subscription, KOGO also expects to drive revenue from partnerships with brands.

KOGO is also gamifying the entire travel experience, by planting rewards along popular routes to offer special deals and incentives via partner brands including discounts on hotels, petrol, food, events and experiences.

The company has also raised an angel funding of USD 350,000 (around Rs 2.5 crore) led by Rampraveen Swaminathan (Mahindra Logistics CEO), Raja Gopalakrishnan (FIS EVP International Markets) and Vikram Bhadauria (Alok Masterbatches MD).

"The fresh in-flow of capital will help us in our go-to-market strategy," he said.

KOGO has started an explorer programme and is creating automated road travel stories covering over one million kms in India alone, within the first 10 months.

The programme is designed to hit 500 million eyeballs over a year to enable unprecedented discovery of trails, routes and road travel destinations.