Scholar's mobile success

Mr Anuj Khanna Sohum, at the age of 33, is running his third company, having sold the two he set up earlier. -tabla!
Patrick Jonas

Tue, Jul 26, 2011
tabla!

CONFIDENCE. He has oodles of it.

Mr Anuj Khanna Sohum came to Singapore in 1995 as an SIA scholar to do his A levels in Raffles Junior College (RJC). He was free to leave after his studies but chose to do his engineering at the National University of Singapore, again on an SIA-NOL scholarship.

He, however, wanted to be something more than an engineer - an entrepreneur. It was, in his words, a calling, not a dream.

The youngster responded to that calling even as he pursued his engineering degree and today, at the age of 33, he is running his third company, having sold the two he set up earlier.

His present firm Affle is worth about $50 million and counts among its strategic investors Microsoft, Itochu Corporation of Japan, Bennett Coleman which publishes The Times Of India and Singapore-based Centurion Private Equity fund.

Individual investors include the chairman of F&N Group Lee Hsien Yang, former chairman of SingTel Koh Boon Hwee, chairman of Madison Communication India Sam Balsara and the former CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Richard Humphreys.

He says that, as an entrepreneur, he gets the freedom to dabble in creating innovative products.

"In each company started by me I have handled a different genre of technology, the latest being mobile. I have also been inspired by the prospect of creating jobs," says the Lucknow native.

Having created a company that employs 60 people across Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, Mr Sohum asks: "If everybody is just looking for jobs, who will create them?"

And as he goes about creating jobs, he claims he is also learning to be more socially responsible. His contribution towards that is in creating certain services for the common man on the mobile phone network at affordable rates.

One of them which has become popular in India is SMS 2.0. Carriers in India charge a lot for data services which the common man cannot afford. But those using service providers with SMS 2.0 can access certain Internet services without paying anything.

How does it work?

When users type in their SMS, Affle creates a free data feed on the bottom of the screen like a rolling content. After the user sends the SMS, the banner at the bottom carrying the info becomes a full screen. If the user is interested in the topic, he can go on to the next screen where he gets more information on the subject.

The service provider gives this data free because Affle gives it a share of the revenue it makes from any content or advertisement revenue generated by the free data. Affle has even created content in local Indian languages and there are over four million users of SMS 2.0 in India with the number growing by the month.

"We are adding more than 12,000 to 15,000 subscribers per day to SMS 2.0 Live platform. Getting people who do not have Internet access to use this is a big success.

Today, we are one of the largest mobile advertising companies in India. Yes, we are making money but we are also helping people on the way," says Mr Sohum with a tinge of pride.

Affle has now re-launched SMS 2.0 Live for China, India, Indonesia and some ASEAN markets and Pinch iMessenger for smart phones in Singapore, the US, the UK and Australia.

Pinch iMessenger is the first app to allow smart phone users to interact across various mobile phone systems. Users are able to send messages, share contacts, photographs, videos, interact and otherwise engage each other, using data or Wifi networks without incurring any local or international SMS/MMS charges.

All this would not have happened if Mr Sohum had not listened to his "calling".

While in his second year at NUS, he started his first firm with two other students - one a Malaysian classmate of his at RJC who was then studying in Johns Hopkins and the other a classmate of the Malaysian in the US. The three pooled in $50,000, took up an office in Pasir Panjang and hired two software programmers from India.

Setting up the company was not without hurdles.

"I was on a student pass and was not supposed to do part-time work. So I became a director and took no salary. I roped in my class representative to become the resident director, which was necessary to get the company off the ground," says Mr Sohum of the challenges he faced as a student starting his own business.

Within a year, he and his friends sold the company - which made an information management system - to a Malaysian firm.

After working with the Malaysian company for a couple of years, Mr Sohum - he had by then completed his electrical and computer engineering degree - set up his second firm, also in software, with his brother in India. In 2007, that company was acquired by another firm.

Affle came about in 2005 and, with the wisdom garnered from three entrepreneurial ventures, he has some tips for youngsters aspiring to go the same way.

"Entrepreneurship runs on passion more than money. The money will flow in... if somebody has leadership qualities and entrepreneural spirit, the best time to start a company is while the person is in university because even if they fail their CV will reflect this and they stand a better chance of getting a job. Prospective employers will understand that this person is someone who did something different," says the man who aims to make Affle into a billion dollar company.

Given his confidence and his achievements so far, he sure is on the fast track.

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