Former Bharti Airtel CEO and Micromax Informatics Chairman Sanjay Kapoor has turned investor and mentor to start-ups. One such venture, SliQBits, started by a bunch of engineers from Bengaluru and Silicon Valley is readying to take on global majors such as Skype with the launch of free voice and video calling app called SliQ.

The other investors in the company include Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke, Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj, Banque Piguet, biologist Bruce Ames and Ariel Winiger, Head Equity Finance at Societe Generale, Hong Kong.

 SliQBits was founded in 2013 by a team of 35 young technologists in Bangalore and Silicon Valley. Their latest product, SliQ, enables voice chat even at 25 kbps and video call at 45 kbps. The app would be available across India, Brazil, Africa, China and other emerging countries.

 “We have developed technologies that adapt voice and video to available bandwidths more efficiently than competitors like Skype, FaceTime or Viber. Due to more efficient data management, video and voice calls cost a fraction of other call apps,” said Aloka Mitra, CEO of SliQBits.

 “In addition, to enhance the consumer experience, we have brought significant innovations such as scaling and cropping the video image at low bandwidths to provide better quality video,” he added.

 To reduce data charges, the app caps data speeds at 500 kbps on high-speed connections.

Ropes in Nestle

 The free app generates revenues by banner, audio and video advertisements at the bottom of the screen and during call rings. It has roped in Nestle as an advertiser with its Nescafe brand with banner and jingle ads.

SliQBits uses adaptive bit rate technologies (bits that are processed per unit of time) providing higher quality video calls at bitrates as low as 45 kbps and voice calls at 25 kbps.

“India will take some more years to build real video grade access networks. Bandwidth efficient video applications and solutions will always play a pivotal role in extending video to masses,” said Sanjay Kapoor.

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