We Are in Talk for more Acquisitions

Rajdip Gupta is one of the open-ing batsmen for NationalCricket Club. Mr Gupta, who owns the cricket club, makes it a point to play the gentleman's game during weekends. Off the field and on week days, Mr Gupta is busy drawing up strategies for Route Mobile (formerly Route SMS) to deliver high-quality voice and messaging solutions to its clients across the globe.

Mr Gupta, the co-founder and group CEO of Route Mobile, has scored many victories for his messaging and voice API (application programming interface) company and transformed it into a leading global player. The 40-year-old technopreneur, who graduated in computer science from Mumbai University, worked with leading global and domestic technology companies, like IBM in the UK, AIS-Comp in the USA, MBT and Gurukul Online, before starting Route SMS in 2004.

Route Mobile, which began operation in a 300-sq ft office, is now spread across 27,000 sq ft of plush office space at its headquarters in Mumbai. Apart from its headquarters, the company operates from five other cities in India and seven more globally. The company, which closed FY16 with revenue of Rs 385 crore, employs about 325 people, who cater to over 18,000 clients, covering more than 800 networks across the world. In an engaging interview with Amit Brahmabhatt, Mr Gupta - impressed with the recent acquisition of rival Cellent Technologies - talks about his company and shares its future plans.

What prompted Route SMS to be rebranded as Route Mobile?

Apart from our core SMS business, the company had been into multiple activities, including voice solutions, firewall, operator solutions and number lookups, among others. However, we were always identified as an SMS company. With the new branding, Route Mobile can now offer many more products and services.

So, will there be a shift in focus on non-SMS verticals?