Esper, a cloud-based platform that automates application deployment and management for all Android devices, is bullish on the India market.

The Seattle-based start-up has close to 80 per cent of its team operating out of the firm’s office in Bengaluru.

Shiv Sundar, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Esper, told BusinessLine that the company is in the process of building new relationships in India. Conceding that the present has been a challenge for building personal/ strategic relationships, he said “we are growing globally; verticals and markets are up and running, deployments have been much faster. While business has been tough in general, digital adoption has actually gained momentum because of Covid.”

Esper is investing heavily in engineering and business growth in the India market.

“Our platform is vertical agnostic. Our biggest success has been in logistics and supply chain but we have seen initial momentum in education, retail, payments and BFSI sectors. India is actually adopting Android devices and gadgets across verticals”.

Reiterating the company’s commitment, Sundar said “India has the largest smartphone adoption in the whole world. Over 95 per cent of Indians use Android devices. The onset of digitisation led to an influx of enterprise device deployments, and Android emerged as the enterprise platform of choice.

“Enterprises use our platform to configure and monitor Android devices for various use cases. We are not reselling hardware; only a cloud-based solution that works on a hardware. The application is not written by us,” the COO clarified and explained that the platform is for enterprise-owned hardware and not for consumer devices.

“Our default configuration is such that end users cannot download our application; there is no access via Play store or Wi-Fi. Except for the IT admin, no one set the policy and application or do anything beyond that,” he said in reply to a question.

The company has launched a Freemium model for its customers — small businesses and start-up enthusiasts, such as those building the next generation exercise machines or payment device or tablets.

“The platform is free for up to 100 devices. Our goal is to build ground up community of enthusiasts and start-up developers, with a focus on grass-root level innovations.”

The company envisions connecting millions of devices via the cloud platform.

Esper team in Bengaluru had 30 people at the beginning of the year. It has added another 20 over the last few months and is looking to double its headcount, Sundar said.

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