Homegrown Kaagaz Scanner app eyes 15-20 mn users after ban on CamScanner

Kaagaz Scanner is confident of its user base touching about 15-20 million users over the next few months

Tech startup Ordenado Labs has seen strong growth in usage of its indigenously developed app, Kaagaz Scanner in the weeks following the ban on Chinese apps, and is confident of its user base touching about 15-20 million users over the next few months.

The company launched the document scanning app on June 14, just days before the Indian government banned 59 mobile apps with Chinese links - including Kaagaz's rival, CamScanner - on June 29, terming these apps prejudicial to sovereignty of the country.

"(The ban of) CamScanner has left a huge void for about 100 million users in India. We are of course targeting that number. It will be very difficult to achieve that number in one year but on a conservative side, we look to achieve at least 15-20 per cent of that market soon," Ordenado Labs co-founder Gaurav Shrishrimal told PTI.

Ordenado Labs - a startup founded in July 2019 by Snehanshu Gandhi, Gaurav Shrishrimal and Tamanjit Singh Bindra - is building a suite of artificial intelligence-powered utility tools to help users manage their day-to-day tasks seamlessly.

Kaagaz Scanner is the second product that has been developed by the company and it plans to bring more products in coming months.

Kaagaz Scanner, which has already crossed 1.2 million downloads on the Google Play Store, is an offline app that allows users to scan documents. The iOS version will be made available by the end of the year.

"Given that the data is stored on the user's phone itself, it is safe to use. Additionally, users can also lock on the app to secure it further against any unauthorised access," Shrishrimal said, highlighting the privacy focus of the app.

Asked about monetisation plans, Shrishrimal said the company is currently focussed on building a world-class scanning and storage app.

"We will be introducing a premium version in the future which will be around features like extra data storage capacity, AI features such as auto document categorisation and many more features. We feel that a simple cloud storage is a basic requirement that every user should have for free but we plan to offer a smart storage to our users that would be a game changer," he added.

Shrishrimal said building awareness among Indian users, including various institutions to use an Indian scanning app is very important right now.

"Having received a special mention in #AatmaNirbharBharat App Challenge and recognitions from Education Ministry and MeitY, we will definitely plan to work with such institutions to build this awareness. We are increasing the quality of the product at a fast pace to enhance product experience which is very important," he said.

The company had raised angel funding from First Cheque and was a part of the Axilor Ventures Accelerator programme in Winter 2019-20. It is looking at raising funds in the next 3-4 months as it expands its team and reaches more users.