This Y Combinator startup aims to be the Zoom alternative for all Indian startups, SMEs

Abhishek Kankani, Kushagra Vaish, and Palash Golecha would take part in a number of coding occasions and hackathons whereas at VIT Vellore, very similar to many different blue engineers and coders earlier than them. 

Whereas they landed profitable jobs after finishing their engineering — Abhishek (Accenture Analytics), Kushagra (Paypal), and Palash (CloudSek) — the trio had determined, if they’d ever construct a startup, they’d do it collectively. 

Nevertheless, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a dramatic shift to distant working, they realised most of their conferences weren’t productive and had been very tiring. 

“We mentioned it with one another and realised that it was one thing that every one three of us felt, and we determined to search for an answer. After not discovering a platform that provided what we had been searching for, we determined to construct it ourselves,” Abhishek Kankani tells YourStory. 

This led them to start out Dyte — a Made in India video calling platform — that means that you can combine plug-ins (apps) proper into your video name. The Delhi-NCR-headquartered startup was based in September 2020 and has been chosen for Y Combinator – Winter 2021 batch. 

At current, the co-founders work remotely, the place Abhishek works out of Faridabad, Kushagra out of Haridwar, and Palash relies out of Rajasthan. 

How does it work?

On Dyte, customers can select from pre-built plug-ins and even construct their very own set of plug-ins to go well with their use-cases. Practically all the web conferences find yourself non-productive as more often than not customers are watching a screen-share, and the method appears gradual and laggy. 

Abhishek explains, “We really feel that video calls should be greater than what they’re proper now. It’s best to have the ability to collaborate proper in a name quite than having to maneuver between a number of tabs and even have backwards and forwards conferences for the tiniest issues. We assist overcome this with a plug-in strategy. For instance, if it’s worthwhile to have a dash planning assembly, you may simply add a Trello occasion to the decision and everybody can add their duties to it immediately. This makes such calls extra productive. We’re additionally a purely Indian alternative to video platforms like Zoom.” 

The product 

Dyte has an in-house video calling stack constructed on high of WebRTC — among the best applied sciences for video communication — that enables the staff to customize and embrace further options as and when wanted. 

“We wished to make the method as seamless as doable, but customisable. You can begin a gathering with one click on, however also can customise settings, together with a waitlist, invite-only, password safety for a gathering, mute members on entry, and many others. However, for a lot of the fast calls, you do not want these, and we really feel, you should not should take care of them,” Abhishek says.

To make use of Dyte, customers can hop on to the web site and might get began. When on the decision, customers can add a plug-in from the Dyte plug-in retailer by merely clicking on the plug-ins button current on the underside proper of the decision. Presently, it has a Google Drive plug-in, the place everybody on the decision can view the recordsdata and make edits if they’ve entry to the file. It additionally has WhiteBoard as a plug-in. 

The subsequent set of plug-ins will embrace Chess, Trello, Figma, and Miro Whiteboard. Customers can select the required plug-in, which will get began for everybody current on the decision. 

The market 

“We’re pre-traction as such, however we now have had a easy video calling service operating since September 7, and we have had over 6.7K classes created ever since. It was a pals’ and household launch, and now, we see folks coming again to make use of the platform due to its ease of use, in addition to the standard of the decision even with decrease bandwidth,” Abhishek provides. 

Distant working has reworked the way in which groups meet and talk. Owing to this, many startups are getting into the video calling area, and US-based Zoom has seen 30X growth in users because the pandemic started. 

Different gamers like Google Meet, GoToMeeting, Bengaluru-based Airmeet, VideoMeet, Jitsi Meet, and MeetFox have additionally risen to prominence in latest months. 

In reality, Airmeet lately raised $3 million in funding to push its choices within the aftermath of the pandemic that pressured widespread occasion cancellations. 

Dyte’s staff says the startup’s choices are completely different because it has the flexibility to have a complete plug-in on the decision, so folks is not going to have to maneuver out of the decision. Nevertheless, its key differentiator lies in the truth that it permits customers to create their very own plug-ins suited to their wants. 

“We now have an SDK that is very straightforward to construct with, and you do not have to undergo the effort of managing the members or every other points. Our key purchasers are small and medium startups and companies,” says Abhishek. 

Shifting ahead

At current, Dyte is in its pre-revenue stage. It plans to launch the Beta model of the applying to an preliminary set of consumers and subsequently, work on the suggestions obtained from them. 

Abhishek says the startup plans to onboard builders on its “Dyte Developer Programme” to construct their plug-ins and make it accessible to the customers. 

“Our major focus is India and the Indian startups within the first section, and we plan to turn out to be the default app used for collaborative conferences, staff stand-ups, in addition to fast catchup with pals,” says Abhishek.