Zoom alternatives: Here are the Indian startups taking on the popular video conferencing app

by Rahul D. Rahul Dasondhi

With video conferencing being the new standard with most people working from home and the successful incumbent, Zoom, coming under a cloud due to security issues, a huge opportunity has opened up for Indian businesses to come up with a viable alternative for video conference. The central government actually launched a challenge on April 13 for Indian tech start-ups to come up with alternatives to already established video conferencing apps. Most participating teams companies are already in their application prototyping process.

Here is our look at the most interesting solutions to emerge as a result of MeitY’s

Say Namaste,

Say Namaste is a video conferencing software developed by a team of 50 developers working at the Mumbai-based company, Inscripts. Within two days of its initial launch, the online platform had garnered 500,000 users, as per the company’s spokesperson.

WeConference,

Consolidating its leadership position as an enabler of remote working ecosystems, CloudConnect Communications, India’s first fully regulatory compliant mobile-first virtual network operator, has launched WeConference. A state-of-the-art white-label solution, WeConference enables HD video conferencing and webinars for brands to ‘Connect. Collaborate. Orchestrate’.

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, several companies have transitioned to remote working models, and are increasingly relying on video conferencing solutions to connect their teams and ensure business continuity. Incepted and nurtured in India, CloudConnect Communications offers a homegrown solution that is both technologically sound and extremely secure.

Floor, by 10Times,

Floor is a video conferencing solution built by Noida-based events discovery platform 10Times. Aiming to capture the untapped market of video conferencing for carrying out seminars, summits, or even facilitating tradeshows or market selling, the application offers video conferencing of varying types, thus attempting to establish itself as a one-stop solution for both personal and professional video-based communications. “Professionals need to meet in order to unlock new opportunities and forge relationships.

KL Meet, by KnowledgeLens,

KL Meet is a Bangalore-based solution, aiming to integrate big data, AI and IoT functionalities into its video conferencing solution. Having already worked on a video conferencing project for the Central Pollution Control Board, the company decided to scale its solution to a customisable, secure, cost-effective option for hosting meetings and conferences. The application aims to stand out by getting rid of the hassle of subscription, providing full control of the video conference to the host enterprise, using locational services to implement unique features such as pinpointing nearby kirana stores and aiming to build a KL Meet community network for users to interact with each other.

Gokul Tandon, executive chairman, CloudConnect Communications said, “as India’s first licensed B2B Virtual Network Operator, CloudConnect Communications offers a collaborative platform that allows companies to overcome this threat while maintaining seamless business continuity and optimum employee productivity. We offer a secure, robust, reliable, scalable and trackable mobile-first unified communication infrastructure that aids remote teleworking so that businesses can continue operating even under any unforeseen circumstances. We are looking forward to helping your business thrive and emerge victorious from this unprecedented challenge.”