Startup Owlgrin Launches Cloud Accounting for Indian Small Business / app called Gaurilla will compete with Xero & Quickbooks

Anand Murali for NextBigWhat.com writes:  In 2009 Mohit Mamoria, 22, started his first venture called Efox SoftBytes, a services company which developed custom applications for businesses. In the 2 years time Mohit spent with Efox, he found it very difficult to manage expenses and most accounting tools he found were either expensive for small businesses or difficult to use.

He soon got in touch with other people facing similar problems and found that managing accounts in a small and medium business is actually a pain. To use them, one should go through a crash course in accounting. It is for the same reason that you see so many coaching centers which teach to use a software he says.

Since he was already into app development, he got an idea to make an app for himself. “For my personal use, I hacked a quick app. It worked well for me. I gave it to a few other people and it worked well for them too. Then, I began getting requests from the users asking for additional features according to their personal needs,” says Mohit.

Mohit soon gathered some feedback and requirements and developed another version of the app (a version which some users still use). The app started gaining traction and he soon began getting more requirements and slowly the idea of a product-based startup grew.

His next move was to shut down Efox and begin his second innings with Owlgrin, a product startup, and develop its first product – an accounting app  called Gaurilla.

“In short, Gaurilla came into existence due to a personal need,” says Mohit.

Gaurilla was launched as public beta on November 11, 2013 with around 200 users. It soon grew to more than 400 users in 2 months time.

Soon the the startup realised that they won’t be able to collect credit card details to charge users on a monthly basis. “RBI doesn’t allow any Indian payment gateway to store card details and charge it per month without bothering the users. Hence we have decided to get incorporated in US so that we can use an US payment gateway to collect cards and begin charging them,” says Mohit.

Payment gateways also told him that they couldn’t accept international payment for digital goods, as they wouldn’t have the proof of delivery to handle chargeback and fraud cases.

The startup hopes to complete the incorporation in the US by end of January 2014,  until then users can sign up for the app with their 30-day free trial plan, and the payment gateway should be up and running before the end of the trial period.

The app comes with all the basic accounting requirements for a company like invoice quotes, payment management. It also has an intuitive dashboard with access to all the important numbers in one place. The app also supports multi-currency transactions. Users can collaborate with other team member in managing the data by adding them to the account.

The service costs $4 per month per business.

The bootstrapped startup is in the process of launching a mobile app, which will be released in the coming months. An app marketplace for Gaurilla – called The Jungle, where users can customise their app by adding or removing features to their Gaurilla account, is also in the works.

For example, if you want a CRM tool, you can add that feature and your Gaurilla app becomes a CRM tool for you. Similarly if you want a Payroll app, add the feature to your account and Gaurilla will become a payroll app for you.

The team also plans to take the app to a global audience, but it will require some work as different countries require different rules, languages and accounting needs.

The company plans to raise funds to expedite the launch of the marketplace. “We are looking forward to the launch of marketplace in next 6 months. It (The Marketplace) requires a little more research and development. We can pace it faster after raising some outside fund in next couple of months,” says Mohit.

Being  in the accounting software domain, the app will be competing with others like ReachAccountant, ProfitBooks, Xero, Zoostr, Quickbooks and Waveapps.

The Owlgrin team consists of 4 members including Mohit Mamoria who is the  Founder & CEO. Mayank Thapliyal who handles programming, Sahil Sarpal, Mohit’s who works on technology and Ram C Sahoo helps with business development.