A19-year-old Indian student at Singapore Polytechnic, Harsh Dalal, has built a start-up based on four applications -- Team Labs' business with 120 employees. He was enrolled in a diploma in business administration. The who's who of the commercial world are the clients of the company, such as the Coca-Cola Company, Google and Hilton, Channel News Asia reported.

Harsh Dalal was featured among young entrepreneurs shaping Singapore into a smart nation and for running a USD 25 million tech startup

The company, with four applications, has raised USD 9.8 million in Series A funding in 2017 from investors including Grand Canyon Capital, Startup Capital Ventures and sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation.

Ambitious Harsh Dalal shares his plan

Dalal said he is keeping his options open, like whether to go public or exit following an acquisition. While his company was valued at USD 25 million before Covid-19, it has not been profitable, he said.

He learned coding at the age of 11 via YouTube tutorials. He got interested in iOS system and started scouring Apple Developer forums for more information and made friends with four strangers, aged between 14 and 17, from the United States, Russia, Norway and Singapore.

Joined by a common interest, the teenagers — who would eventually become business partners — exchanged tips on coding, app development and jailbreaking iPhones. Their discussions about jailbreaking, however, got them banned from the forums. “I didn’t know there was a rule that you couldn’t talk about all these kinds of things (on Apple Developer forums),” said Dalal.

“Luckily, I managed to get their emails before we got banned and we were able to collaborate.” But going forward, Dalal will be up against the big boys, like Google, Microsoft and Zoom, said the Channel report.

Source: India Today