“We want to make internet access so affordable that people will pick a plan instead of a packet of chips or a chocolate bar one gets for INR 5,” says Satyam Darmora, founder of the internet startup i2e1 (Information to everyone), explaining why all and sundry will pay for the company’s Wi-Fi hotspot service, to be available even at a nukkad tea shop.
Aiming to set up a ‘digitalised’ India, the Delhi-based startup has already launched an industry-first public data office (PDO) as part of the Indian government’s Pradhan Mantri Wi-fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) initiative. When i2e1 was set up in 2015 by Darmora and five other cofounders (Nishit Aggarwal, Gaurav Bansal, Ashutosh Mishra, Maanas Dwivedi and Anugrah Adams; most of them are from IITs and IIMs), they decided to work on user analytics and advertising solutions in the retail space.
Using its services, retailers offered free Wi-Fi to customers and synced promotional offers through effective user profiling….