Bhubaneswar, March 8: Pennyindia.com, one of the flagship entrepreneurial ventures from National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, celebrated the successful completion of one year. The venture comes under the technology, innovation, and industrial relations initiatives of the NIT Rourkela.
The one-year completion celebrations were organised at the main auditorium of the NIT Rourkela yesterday evening.
Pennyindia works in the e-commerce sector and it has been tied up with more than 200 online stores, such as Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and Oyo, providing the users a wide range of stores to choose from along with cash back, mobile recharge and gift coupon facilities.
"We give back 95 per cent of what we get as cash back to our customers. We have more than 12,000 registered users," said Abhijeet.
This is a venture of two roommates - Abhijeet and Sarada Sahu - both second year students of computer science at NIT Rourkela.
They expressed their gratitude to two professors of the institute - Rajeev Panda from the department of business administration and Bibhuti Bhusan Biswal from department of mechanical engineering. Biswal now heads the technology, innovation, and industrial relations cell of the institute.
The two students had sought the guidance of Panda and Biswal on how to turn their idea into fruition.
"We did nothing. It was their determination that worked. And as a teacher of marketing, I just gave them some insight into the working of an organisation," said Panda.
Biswal said: "They have been able to bring their baby to this level only for their hard work and willingness to work for long hours."
As part of the celebrations, they launched their T-shirt brand Ovotees and this can also be customised. "As the business grew, so grew our confidence. We were invited to the Make in Odisha Conclave. We were also part of the India affiliate summit at Gurgaon from August 28 to 30," said Sarada.
Today, the two-men company has 10 people with them. "Some are working purely for fun, such as some of our batch mates, while four have been hired for marketing, e-commerce and other activities," he added.
Their friend at the institute Abhipsa Panigrahi is taking care of the content writing part, while Biswajeet Kiro is handling graphics and Gourav Panda is handling human resources. Shiv Shankar Sahoo, a commerce graduate, is handling off-line marketing.
Gourav said: "I am enjoying my work."
Abhipsa, who looks after content, said: "It is really challenging and I love it because my creativity is getting an exposure."
"I have the knowledge of graphics and have been given the freest possible hands. What better can I expect?" is what Kiro had to say.
