KIRUSA

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Kirusa is the world’s leading vendor of Voice SMS and a leading developer of mobile value added services (VAS).

Kirusa’s solutions are used by mobile subscribers millions of times daily. Kirusa has been recognized as one of top 100 technology companies by Silicon India for years 2007 and 2008, and one of top 25 emerging technology companies by Smart Techie magazine. Kirusa was also named AlwaysOn Global 250 winner in 2008 and AlwaysOn 250 winner in 2009. Kirusa also won a Silver Mobile Star Award in Mobile Consumer Messaging in December 2008.

Headquartered in New Jersey and led by an experienced team of wireless telecom executives and technologists, Kirusa has sales offices across the globe, with research and development facilities in New Delhi and Bangalore, India.

Mission and Vision
Kirusa’s mission is to be a leader in the mobile VAS industry by providing mobile VAS products that help subscribers and enterprises to communicate better.

Kirusa aims to enrich everyone’s lives by providing them newer and innovative ways to communicate.

Technology Leadership and a History of “Firsts”
Kirusa invented the concept of Voice SMS and has filed various patents to protect its technology leadership position. Kirusa has been granted several US patents on its Voice SMS technology, starting with priority dates of 2003. Kirusa has 14 patent applications covering Voice SMS and multimodal technologies and services. In addition to patents, the company has a strong installed base and the product has matured, based on the feedback received from actual usage, by millions of subscribers worldwide.

The Voice SMS patent granted to Kirusa covers several important capabilities Kirusa brings to Voice SMS, including the ability to directly access and reply to a voice message without any intervening login or clumsy navigation. Other important claims cover convergence with MMS, and the sending of prerecorded (e.g. ’standard’ birthday greetings) messages.

Kirusa has led the standardization activities for Voice SMS. Kirusa demonstrated the world’s first exchange of Voice SMS messages between diverse carriers using different Voice SMS systems. This was the first ever demonstration of Voice SMS interoperability anywhere in the world. The trials were based on the technical specification developed by the GSM Association, the worldwide trade association for the mobile phone industry.

Kirusa has been an active participant in multimodal standards from beginning and is an inventor of several multimodal technologies. It was the first to deploy multimodal services in Europe.

Voice SMS, The New Messaging Revolution

Kirusa is the world’s leading provider of the unique and hugely successful Voice SMS application.

Kirusa has introduced a new messaging paradigm to the world, providing asynchronous communication with voice. Voice SMS enables people to convey their messages easily and quickly. It is the world’s most advanced solution that has been selected by more than thirty carriers around the world.

Kirusa Voice SMS enables mobile subscribers to send messages by speaking. A subscriber dials * or a pre-defined code, followed by the recipient’s number and speaks a short message. The recipient gets an SMS notification from the sender and can dial a number in the notification to directly access the spoken message.

Voice SMS makes it safer for people to send messages while driving. Kirusa Voice SMS allows people to send messages internationally, at lower costs, and without concern for differences in time zones.

Kirusa’s solution works on all handsets and on all networks, and offers the industry’s most intuitive user interface, with features such as DirectListen™ for direct access and reply to messages, Speed Codes™ for quickly sending messages, International Voice SMS, open APIs, outcall capability etc. Kirusa Voice SMS can be deployed in a matter of weeks, and its rapid user adoption has led to explosive revenue growth for Kirusa’s customers.

Kirusa Voice SMS features Subscriber Self-Care – a Web 2.0 interface that is both intuitive and user-friendly. A subscriber can quickly customize his Voice SMS service experience, e.g. by choosing his preferred language or Voice SMS receipt method at the click of a button, setting up Groups and Speed Codes, and enabling or disabling service alerts. He can also listen to new Voice SMS messages over the web. The subscriber can choose to receive an incoming message via SMS or via a call.

Kirusa Customer Base
The customer base of Kirusa today is spread across mobile operators and other service providers spanning multiple countries. The company has over thirty mobile carriers as customers, with over 325 million subscribers, sending millions of messages every day. Leading customers include GrameenPhone, the leading mobile carrier in Bangladesh; Vodafone, the leading mobile carrier in India; Ufone in Pakistan; Etisalat in Africa and Middle East, Claro in Latin America, Vinaphone in SE Asia, Tata Indicom and Idea Cellular in India, MTN in Africa, Zain in Africa and Middle East.

Key milestones

  • Kirusa launched Video SMS in February 2009
  • Announced Voice SMS Version 5 in Feb 2009 Signed Framework agreement with Zain Group for Voice SMS solution
  • Silicon India Magazine named Kirusa to the top 100 technology companies list for the second time in a row in December 2008
  • Won Silver Mobile Star Award in Mobile Consumer Messaging in December 2008
  • Voice SMS subscribers called into Kirusa’s Voice SMS solution for the 200 millionth time in July 2008
  • Kirusa selected by AlwaysOn as an AO Global 250 Winner and AO East 100 Winner
  • Qualcomm and Kirusa entered into a Short Voice Service License Agreement in May 2008
  • Kirusa honored amongst top 25 emerging technology companies by Smart Techie Magazine in May 2008
  • Kirusa enabled world’s first exchange of Voice SMS messages across mobile networks and vendors in February 2008, based on the technical specification developed by the GSM Association
  • Kirusa named amongst the top 100 technology companies by Silicon India Magazine in January 2008

Kirusa Partners
The company has successfully forged partnerships with leading companies in ICT to provide cutting-edge solutions. Some of our key partners include Qualcomm, HP, Dialogic, Nuance etc.

Our People
The company is managed by a team of industry veterans with extensive experience in wireless telecommunications and a range of technologies such as messaging, voice platforms, speech recognition, and broadband networking. Combined, the team holds more than 30 patents issued with several more pending.

Our Investors
Kirusa is proud to have received the support and financial backing of major investors like Saints, Nexus India Capital, Helion Venture Partners, Qualcomm, Eastven and Accel India

For further information about Kirusa please contact us at info@kirusa.com